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Abandoned: Humanity's Drift - Chapter 28 - shansome - 

Mana was a wonderful, beautiful thing that got more unique to the individual the more they possessed. With years of practice, Akari had learned to differentiate between people with just her mana sense.

Dad's mana was a beacon of pure power when he didn't consciously suppress it, a steady presence that covered the entire area like a blanket of safety. Mom's was similar- a warm, calming sensation that wrapped around Akari like a strong hug. Mom had been the one to explain the mana sense to a young Akari, happily adding that Akari's mana actually felt just as comforting as hers did. Akari hadn't stopped smiling for an entire day, after that.

In comparison, Aunt Sekhmet didn't have any sort of presence. Her mana was under constant, strict control and she almost never fought around Akari- always dragging Dad somewhere far away for their fun spars. It was a shame because Akari really wanted to watch them fight. And when she went to ask Dad what Sekhmet's mana was like afterward he'd just...shiver, for some reason. 

Uncle Kensei's mana was exactly like the swords he loved so much- sharp, direct, and powerfully focused. He was the one to convince her to master swordsmanship and show her what he knew, even with how busy he always was. Akari smiled at the thought. She should really visit sometime, show him how much better she's gotten.

Ochako and Monoma danced around each other in the arena below, both doing their best to land a hit with their touch-based abilities. They traded quick grabs and careful lunges, neither fighter getting off a definite touch. Ochako seemed to have the advantage since she only needed to tap him once to make him float, while Monoma needed a touch to copy her quirk and then another to actually use it.

Neither student gave off any presence at all, nor did any of the heroes in the audience. In fact, the only human Akari knew of with a decent amount of mana was All Might. If her classmates and teachers could actually sense mana, well, Akari would probably be outed as a goddess weeks ago. 

The longer she lived among humans, the more she couldn't help but notice the differences between them. Gods and humans were different, no matter how similar they looked. 

Ochako steadily overwhelmed her opponent in an aggressive show of martial arts and when Monoma finally slipped up, the brunette slammed him down outside the ring with a vicious throw. Tooru cheered for their friend, bright and loud.

But Akari didn't think the humans would treat her any differently if they knew she was a goddess. 

"And now, for the last fight of the first round, we have Todoroki up against Sero!" Mic announced, introductions thankfully now left out.

Sero walked into the arena first, rubbing those strange elbows of his. It seemed like he was trying to psych himself up. His usual grin currently looked so nervous that Akari almost felt bad for him.

Todoroki stiffly entered a minute later, his heterochromatic eyes nearly hidden behind his dual-colored hair. His face seemed just as cold and indifferent as usual until Akari looked a little closer and realized that something was very wrong. Todoroki was angry - his right fist tightly clenched as his side and his shoulders painfully tense.

Todoroki was the kind of person to suppress and hide his emotions as much as possible. What could've made him so mad in the mere minutes since she last saw him?

Midnight shot the scarred boy a concerned glance(that went completely ignored) before stepping back to her spot, mic in hand.

"Begin!"

Twin strips of tape immediately raced forward, wrapping tight around Todoroki's waist. Sero twisted as soon as they made contact, pulling with all of his might to yank Todoroki towards the edge of the ring.

Just before he was thrown out of bounds a wall of ice rose in his path, sturdily stopping his flight. A moment later, the tape connecting the two froze and broke apart.

Todoroki didn't blink, slowly lifting his head to see his opponent. But it didn't seem like he was looking at Sero at all. It was as if he was staring straight right through the other boy.

Sero leaped forward, and Todoroki swung his right hand.

The air temperature dropped in an instant as rows and rows of ice spikes rose out of the frozen concrete. They bloomed outward at an incredible pace, each consecutive pillar taller and wider than the last. By the time the attack hit Sero it was gigantic; a mountain of blue that encompassed him completely and kept going towards the watching crowd-

A huge, transparent wall of violet appeared just in time to stop the glacier in its tracks. Waves and waves of power crashed against the glowing barrier barely meters away from the audience to no effect, spikes shattering harmlessly on impact as screams quieted into awed silence.

A massive structure now covered a whole half the arena, stretching high up into the sky. 

Dad- now suddenly on the field- took the microphone from a shivering, speechless Midnight.

"Todoroki wins with his first attack, blindsiding his opponent with an amazing large-scale strike! What a great attack!" 

Dad smiled lightly at the crowd, but Akari could easily make out the heavy concern in his voice.

"Though, maybe it was too great...it looks like we'll have to break for a short intermission to get this mess cleaned up. Sorry for the wait, everyone!"

Todoroki was trembling by the time Dad walked up to him, his right arm covered up to the shoulder in white frost and his breath visible from the stands. A warm purple blanket wrapped around the frozen boy, seeming to appear out of thin air. He blinked, confused, before melting into it gratefully.

Next, Dad waved his hand and hundreds and hundreds of violet threads shredded through the ice mountain in an instant. The shards tumbled down into a wide purple bag before being flown off the arena, and an unconscious Sero was soon caught by another floating blanket.

Dad couldn't quite hide his frown as he carried both boys off the field.

Apparently, suddenly appearing in places was 'highly disruptive' and 'against quirk usage laws.' So Akari was forced to slowly trudge through the huge stadium to get anywhere, something that was really starting to get on her nerves.

She finally arrived on the field to find her opponent, a tense ball of anger with glaring red eyes, waiting for her.

"Don't hold back on me, Purple," Bakugou ordered, his loud voice easily carrying across the arena. "I'm going to destroy you at your fucking best, ya hear me?!"

Akari hummed, her hands loose at her sides. "My best, huh?"

She kinda wondered where he got all of that self-confidence from, sometimes. 

Midnight raised her whip to begin the match, teeth chattering the slightest bit. The air in the arena was still bitingly cold and her thin, skin-tight costume probably wasn't helping much. 

"Start!"

Bakugou immediately blasted off, soaring high into the sky. 

Alternating explosions and flames from his feet propelled him further up. Akari watched him fly away for a few seconds, confused. 

"Hey, Midnight-sensei, what's he-" Akari started to ask...only to see her teacher desperately sprinting away from the field, mic in hand. 

Huh.

She glanced back up at Bakugou to see him now all the way past the stadium's top, barely a speck in the blue sky. Then he finally started to fall from his huge height, plummeting down like a blur and prompting terrified screams from the audience.

Bakugou started to spin, accelerating rapidly downward as explosions trailed behind him. Black smoke and red flames curled around him faster and faster until he was completely cloaked in a mass of swirling fumes. It was a huge spiral of destruction, far bigger than the arena's ring, and bearing down on a direct course for her head.

How hard had he practiced to control that?

"DIE!" A harsh voice roared from above, the smell of smoke and flames filling Akari's lungs like a wildfire. 

Akari stared into the steadily approaching storm and raised her hand up to catch it.

The massive explosion struck her awaiting palm and the light was blinding, yellow and orange and white pressing against her eyelids. She grinned as her created white headphones just suppressed the powerful, thrilling boom that rang throughout her entire body, incredible amounts of heat washing over her arms and face. Her mana skillfully weaved over her gym uniform at that moment and held strong, reinforcing and protecting her clothes from the blast.

And then it was over barely a moment later- the world now completely silent save for her own heartbeat.

Akari took off her impromptu noise cancellers, her fingers brushing over a new crack on its top. There wasn't a single scratch on Akari herself. 

The smoke cleared to leave an absolutely devastated arena, cement completely blown away. The only part of the field still remaining was the small, circular portion below Akari's feet.

Bakugou was flat on his back several meters away, breathing harshly. The top half of his uniform had been burned off, his exposed form dusty and heavily bruised. One of his arms was twisted at an awkward angle, hanging limply at his side.

Akari walked up to him, stepping across rubble and ruined ground. Unsteady red eyes tracked her approach, but Bakugou's body didn't move an inch. The fact that he was even conscious was impressive.

"That wasn't a bad attack," She told him honestly.

Bakugou coughed out a curse. He slowly lifted his unbroken arm, curling in four fingers for a familiar gesture.

"...Fuck off, Midoriya." 

Akari laughed.

To Todoroki Shouto, the five years he spent away from Earth was a blessing.

The world he was sent to(and he did mean sent- you can't just call a literal global abduction phenomena something as tame as drifting, Natsuo) was named Frigus. It was a world of snow and ice where the only season was winter year-round. The white landscape always carried a chill with its winds and Shouto, Natsuo, and Fuyumi had just enough resistance to feel it.

Frankly, it was the most wonderful place Shouto had ever been to.

Frigus was a simple land, mostly populated with small villages lit by torches. The natives were extremely welcoming to the sudden visitors, showing them how to survive in the environment and giving them a place to live. There were even a few mages among them- magic was a thing, apparently- to teach those with potential.

Natsuo, initially disgruntled at the long interruption to his medical study, was quickly fascinated with the mysteries of healing magic. The subject of mana was incredible to Shouto and everyone else from Earth- the idea of essentially being gifted a new, excellent quirk out of nowhere that operated on alien principles was incredible.

Fuyumi almost seemed guilty at how much she loved Frigus, at how easily she fell into a warm, steady life without him. She ended up making quite a few friends in the village- and not a single one of them cared who her sperm donor was. 

With no Endeavor, there was no one to constantly berate Shouto over his performance, to urge him to use that damned power and force him into brutal training sessions. Shouto could choose to train when he wanted to and was free to strive towards his goal on his own terms.

Shouto spent hours and hours a day working on his mother's beautiful ice in a snowy field outside his new village. He soon knew the feeling of frostbite intimately and exactly how to push past the crippling cold. His quirk's limit and power steadily rose.

In Frigus's brown and white woods were mostly huntable animals, resembling birds and deer. But if you looked closer you would see larger, more dangerous creatures within, collectively called monsters by the natives. During his five-year stay, Shouto saw huge wolves, sprawling white spiders that made Natsuo scream like a child, odd five-legged brown things no one could name, and ogres. 

Everyone hated the ogres. 

What set the monsters apart from other creatures(other than their often mythical appearances, of course) was that they all seemed to carry a grudge against humans and burst into golden dust upon death. Fighting them off was good for gaining combat experience, Shouto found.

He practiced against heroes who were sent to Frigus as well, and sometimes even villains- the reasonable ones were fairly peaceful after truly realizing they were in a completely new world. Shouto trained long and hard for five whole years on Frigus to become truly strong, strong enough to become the most powerful hero when he was forced back to Earth. And he wouldn't do it with Endeavor's help. 

But when he actually started on his path and got into U.A University, there was an insurmountable obstacle in the way of his goal.

Midoriya Akari. 

A girl who had an inherited and ridiculously powerful quirk comparable to All Might himself, magic control beyond anything anyone had ever seen, and training from a pro-hero father who actually cared about her. It made Shouto burn with envy.

And then immediately after came the cold chill, the terrifying realization that at this moment he was just like him. If he kept losing to Midoriya, kept falling to second place- wasn't he just an Endeavor to another All Might?

No.

Shouto was going to win the sports festival, no matter how strong Midoriya was. His mother's ice had taken him this far, it could take him the rest of the way. 

He just needed to be good enough. 

Midoriya accepted his challenge without a flinch, piercing green eyes staring back into his mismatched ones. She didn't understand, thinking that he was holding back by refusing to use his power. She couldn't get it, not without knowing why he made the vow in the first place.

Akari ended up dominating the first round with her unfathomable speed, and Bakugou's aerial capabilities earned him second. That left Shouto in pathetic third at the very start.

Shouto did well in the swordfight. Hand-to-hand combat was drilled into him since he was young by Endeavor(you won't always be able to rely on your quirk, Shouto! Don't be a fool!) and he wasn't swarmed like Midoriya was. Not that being attacked by an entire crowd even fazed her.

His team went unbothered in the third round, Iida, Uraraka, and Tokoyami greatly assisting his collection of points. They did talk a little too much, but he couldn't argue with results that could easily beat out almost everyone. Yet somehow, Midoriya still beat him once again by an incredible figure.

The tournament began, and just before Shouto's first fight, he ran into him. Because naturally, someone let the bastard into the competitor area just because he was the Number Two Hero. 

It was incredibly tiring to fall back into an argument with that man, pushing up a shield of cold indifference and adamantly refusing to use his flames until they both grew heated. The past five years seemed to only have made Endeavor even more driven towards his goal and despite his own time away, Shouto's scar still itched whenever he saw him. 

Shouto stumbled into his battle with Sero right after and he just...snapped on the boy, putting every bit of his power into that single blow and creating an entire glacier.

It was a very, very good thing Atlas-sensei was there. 

Now, only 8 of the originally 220 competitors remained in the sports festival. That quickly ticked down to six as Hagakure effortlessly eliminated Tokoyami.

Midoriya's second fight was against Bakugou and to Shouto's dismay, it wasn't nearly as close as he thought it would be. Bakugou, heavily disadvantaged in speed and stamina, made the right choice in immediately pulling out his strongest attack since its long windup and spinning maneuver were inescapable in such a small ring. That said, there were over a dozen different ways she could have countered it.

But Midoriya didn't choose any of them. Instead, she just stood there and took the massive explosion without a scratch, defeating one of the strongest hero students without even taking a single step. Bakugou was the one with heat resistance there! His heterochromatic eyes couldn't help but follow after her as she walked back to her seat.

How could someone be so absolutely powerful at twenty?

Shouto's mind drifted through the possibilities for a minute, completely missing Yaoyorozu's match against Uraraka. Perhaps Midoriya and Atlas-sensei were monsters who betrayed their superiors, casting aside their monster forms and living on Earth with their power. Or, they could be aliens from another planet, one where everyone was far stronger than humans. 

Maybe Atlas-sensei was just All Might's secret, younger brother and Midoriya was his niece. Or, Midoriya was only pretending to be a student while really, she was an immortalized agent from the future tasked with saving humanity? Such an agent would need to be quite strong, after all. Now that he thought about it, that one made a lot of sense. Ah, if only he brought his conspiracy board-

Mic's voice returned. "Next, we have Todoroki up against Shinsou!"

Shouto abruptly snapped back to himself and stood, theories discarded as he focused on his next obstacle towards victory. A familiar chill ran through his right side as he stepped down to his waiting room, careful not to run into any flaming heroes.

He would take down this 'Shinsou'- this time without losing control of his mother's ice.

Notes:

Howitzer Impact is significantly more powerful than any of Bakugou's other explosions, to an almost ridiculous level. But at the same time, using that attack must be absolute hell on his body.

Akari's far younger and more prideful than Izuku is. If she recognizes she can tank something, it's a lot more fun to do that than be careful. I haven't actually been in an explosion before(thankfully) but if it's not hurting you or overloading your eyes/ears I'd imagine it'd be pretty cool. Don't quote me on that.

Shouto's drift is relatively simple but ultimately helps him go further down the terrible mentality he has in canon. Five extra years to subdue half of himself, and he only has Natsuo and Fuyumi with him. Besides the occasional comment from Fuyumi, there's nobody there who'd try to convince him. Of course, it's great that he gets time away from Endeavor, but...yeah.

I'm honestly surprised Sero's okay in canon, like Heaven Piercing Ice Wall is no fucking joke.

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