ShuraZero
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Chapter 56: The Roar of Ice
🕑 Added 2025-10-03 14:24:10 +0000 UTCThe hallway leading to the arena was a tunnel of silence and shadows, a stark contrast to the deafening roar of the stadium. Shoto Todoroki walked through it, his face a mask of cold determination, each step marking an icy purpose. But his path was blocked.
An imposing figure, wreathed in an aura of dancing flames, cut him off: Endeavor.
"Shoto."
The Number Two Hero's voice was not that of a father. It was that of a disappointed commander.
"Stop this shameful behavior. That display in the cavalry battle was pathetic. You were tactically outmaneuvered by a team led by a boy with a useless Quirk. You've made it to the finals. End this childish rebellion and use the power I gave you. Crush your opponents and fulfill your purpose."
Todoroki didn't even look at him. His mismatched eyes remained fixed on the light of the arena at the end of the hall.
"I have nothing to say to you."
He tried to walk past, but a hand wreathed in fire grabbed his shoulder, an oppressive and painfully familiar pressure.
"You'll soon reach the limit of your mother's power," Endeavor growled, his voice a low rumble. "You can't reach the top with only half your potential. I created you to surpass All Might. Don't defy me."
With a sharp, violent movement, Shoto tore himself from the grip. An icy fury, as intense as his father's flames, burned in his eyes.
"I will win this tournament," he said, his voice frigid and sharp. "And I'll do it without using your damned power. Watch from your throne of mediocrity and choke on your disappointment."
He walked away without looking back, leaving Endeavor alone in the hallway, his face a mask of pure rage as the flames around him burned with renewed intensity.
Izuku returned to the Class 1-A stands just as the adrenaline rush from his victory began to fade. As he passed Ojiro, the other boy gave him a solemn nod.
"You were incredible, Midoriya. Thank you."
"Don't mention it, Ojiro-kun. That's what friends are for," Izuku replied with a smile.
He sat down with his team just as Present Mic announced the next match.
"AND NOW, THE SECOND MATCH OF THE FIRST ROUND!! FROM THE HERO COURSE, THE GUY WITH THE MOST VERSATILE TAPES, HANTA SERO!! VERSUS THE MAN WHO FROZE EVERYTHING IN THE ENTRANCE EXAM, SHOTO TODOROKI!!"
"Come on, Sero! You can do it!" Kirishima shouted.
Sero smiled at the crowd, full of confidence. "This'll be a piece of cake!"
The match began. Sero wasted no time.
"Let's see you handle this!" he yelled.
With a quick motion, he shot out his tapes, which wrapped around Todoroki's torso.
"Gotcha!" he exclaimed, and began to pull with all his might, trying to yank him out of the ring with a single, quick pull.
But Todoroki didn't move. His face, already grim from the conversation with his father, grew even darker. The contained anger, the frustration from years of abuse, and the humiliation of the cavalry battle all converged to a boiling point.
And he reacted.
It wasn't a wall. It wasn't a wave. It was a glacier.
A gigantic, jagged, monstrous mountain of ice erupted from the ground with explosive speed. It soared toward the sky, a roar of ice and fury that covered nearly half the stadium in an instant. Sero's tapes froze and shattered. He himself was trapped up to his chest in the heart of the glacier, his confident expression frozen into a mask of pure terror.
The temperature change was so abrupt that the entire audience exhaled a cloud of vapor in unison. A breathtaking silence fell over the stadium. This wasn't a demonstration of power. It was a declaration. A warning. It was a force so overwhelming, so disproportionate for a simple school competition, that it was terrifying.
Midnight, who had to leap back to avoid being caught in the ice, gaped for a second.
"S-Sero-kun… can you move?"
"N-No… I can't!! I'm frozen solid!!" Sero's voice trembled with cold and fear.
"Hanta Sero has been immobilized! Shoto Todoroki advances to the next round!" Midnight declared, regaining her composure.
Todoroki looked at the monster of ice he had created, as if waking from a nightmare. A look of regret crossed his face as he processed the magnitude of his outburst. He approached Sero.
"I'm sorry," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "I went too far. I was… angry."
He raised his left hand. A stream of steam and heat flowed from his palm, carefully melting the ice that imprisoned his classmate. The gesture, almost tender, was a contradiction so stark against the brutality of his attack that it was even more unsettling.
From the stands, Izuku watched it all with wide eyes. His analysis notebook lay forgotten in his lap.
That power… he thought, his analytical mind struggling to process what he had just seen. There's no analysis for that. There's no strategy that can prepare you for a force of pure nature. It's a pro-level power, top-ten level, wielded with the rage of a wounded child. How… how is anyone supposed to face something like that?
The calm he had felt after his victory evaporated. Izuku was visibly shaken. He had picked up his notebook again, but instead of his usual confident analysis, he was muttering frantically to himself, his hands trembling slightly as he scrawled nonsensical equations and diagrams.
"The freezing speed is nearly instantaneous… the area of effect covered more than two hundred square meters… the mass of ice generated in under a second is thermodynamically… illogical," he mumbled, his voice a thread of anxiety. "My analysis is useless against such absolute power. It's a variable that breaks the scale. My victory against Shinso… it was a technicality, not a show of strength… Against that, I…"
"Deku-kun."
The girls, sitting beside him, had exchanged a worried glance upon seeing him spiral.
"Deku-kun, are you okay?" Ochako's gentle voice pulled him from his trance. She placed a hand on his arm. "You're shaking."
He looked at her, his green eyes filled with a doubt he rarely showed. It wasn't panic; it was the frustration of a strategist facing a problem with no logical solution. He was slightly disheartened.
"His power… it's in another league, girls. It's like trying to plan a strategy to stop a typhoon."
"You're wrong, Izuku-kun," Momo intervened, her calm logic acting as a counterbalance. Her tone was supportive, not scolding. "Your analysis isn't useless; it's your most powerful weapon. Raw power is just one variable in the combat equation. Strategy is the multiplier. And you're the best strategist I know."
"She's right!" Toru added, giving him a playful nudge in the ribs. "You beat Shinso without using physical force. That's not a weakness, it's a different kind of strength! One that Todoroki-san, in his current state, clearly doesn't possess! He lost control! You never do!"
"Besides, you're not alone, remember?" the visible girl continued, her optimism unwavering. "We're a team! If you have to fight him, we'll be right here in the stands, coming up with a plan with you. We'll be your personal coaches!"
Their combined support, each in her own way, worked like a balm. Izuku's anxiety spiral halted. But it was Ochako who dealt the final blow to his doubt.
She squeezed his hand firmly, forcing him to meet her eyes. She leaned in, her face inches from his.
"Do you remember," she whispered, her warm breath brushing his cheek, "when I was discouraged and you gave me a kiss?"
Before Izuku's brain could process the question, she closed the distance. She kissed him.
It was a soft, tender kiss, filled with a quiet confidence. It wasn't a kiss of passion, but of reaffirmation. A gesture that said, "I believe in you, so you should too."
She pulled away, leaving Izuku completely flushed and speechless. Momo, beside him, blushed violently at her friend's boldness and looked away with a small, nervous cough. Toru touched her lips with her fingertips, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and vicarious amusement.
"You won your match," Ochako said, her voice still a whisper, but filled with an unbreakable strength. "And we'll win ours. And whoever makes it to the finals will get there on their own merit. We believe in you, Izuku. Not in your strength, but in you. Now, breathe."
Izuku looked at her, then at Momo, then at Toru. A wave of gratitude washed over him, sweeping away the last vestiges of his doubt. He wasn't alone. His strength wasn't in his fists, or even in his mind. It was in the team he had built. In the trust they shared.
He took a deep breath. And for the first time since he saw that glacier, he smiled.
"THE NEXT MATCH WILL BE BETWEEN THE ASSASSIN FROM CLASS 1-B, IBARA SHIOZAKI, AND THE SPARKING BOY FROM CLASS 1-A, DENKI KAMINARI!!"
The match served to lighten the tension left by Todoroki's fight.
"An assassin, eh?" Ibara said into the microphone, with a pious expression. "I only aspire to spread goodness in the world. It is my humble mission."
"Sorry, my mistake!" Present Mic apologized.
Kaminari, for his part, tried to use his charm. "Hey, gorgeous! Your hair is super unique. How about after I beat you, I treat you to a smoothie to make up for it?"
Ibara simply looked at him and whispered a small prayer.
The match began. Kaminari unleashed his signature move. "Indiscriminate Shock! One point three million volts!"
Electricity erupted from his body, but Ibara, with serene calm, drove her vines into the ring's floor. They created a shield of vines in front of her that absorbed and redirected the massive electrical discharge directly into the ground, without a single volt touching her.
"What?! My attack didn't work!" Kaminari yelled.
At the same time, other vines shot up from the ground and trapped the now brain-fried Kaminari, who stood there with his thumbs up and a blissfully idiotic look on his face.
"And Kaminari is immobilized! The winner is Ibara Shiozaki!"
From the Class 1-B stands, Monoma's mocking laughter rang out loudly.
"AHAHAHA! ANOTHER HUMILIATING DEFEAT FOR THE ARROGANT AND OVERRATED CLASS 1-A! IT SEEMS THEIR LUCK IS FINALLY RUNNING OUT! THEIR CAVALRY BATTLE VICTORY WAS A FLUKE!"
Beside him, Itsuka Kendo sighed. "Just shut up already."
And with a swift, expert karate chop to the back of his neck, she knocked him out, letting him slump in his seat. "Sorry for the disturbance," she said to the air, with a small bow.
Izuku, now much calmer and back in his element, had reopened his notebook and was whispering to himself, but this time his analysis was focused and tactical.
"Shiozaki's vines are conductive, but only when anchored to the ground to divert energy. If she's isolated from the floor, her electrical defense is useless. It could be used against her with an aerial attack or if the ground beneath her feet is destroyed…"
"WILL YOU SHUT THE HELL UP, NERD?!"
Bakugo's furious voice echoed from a few rows below. He turned around, a vein throbbing on his forehead.
"STOP ANALYZING MY NEXT VICTIM OUT LOUD! YOU'RE GIVING ME A HEADACHE!"
Before Izuku could apologize, Ochako leaned forward, her face filled with a new, fierce confidence.
"That's enough, Bakugo-kun," she said, her voice quiet but firm, catching the explosive boy's attention. "We're working. Your match is with me, not with his muttering. Focus on me, or you'll regret it."
Bakugo was speechless for a second, surprised by her audacity. He grumbled something unintelligible and turned back to the front.
Ochako completely ignored the interruption and turned to Izuku with a competitive smile.
"No, don't be quiet. What did you see, Deku-kun?"
She pulled out her own notebook, an almost exact replica of his, filled with notes and diagrams.
"Let's compare notes. I think I found a weakness in his mid-air explosion pattern. He tends to correct his trajectory to the right. That could be exploited."
