Chapter 64: It’s all on You

Todoroki is faced with a choice, and the consequences of those choices as the attack continues and more foes step into the fray.

Edits have been made in full. Sorry for the wait.

Villain attacks were common occurrences, resulting from a world where the overwhelming majority had some sort of quirk and the rise in superpowered criminals. But over the decades, as they grew in number, so did pros and their experience and training to handle them. Incidents that once could dominate hours could now be solved in less than 30 minutes. Most incidents were handled in 10 minutes or less 10 minutes and treated as delays to public life; one could hardly use a villain attack as an excuse for being late, such was their prevalence.

But there was no rulebook, no guidelines for facing against the disembodied of the dead as they rampage through your town, and Frostbyte was getting sick and tired of only being able to delay, but neutralize them.

The park around them was being evacuated, but she could still see people lying about as other pros swooped in and grabbed them. She also spotted police blocking the area off. Still, she was too focused on not getting slaughtered to communicate properly with them and just hoped they wouldn't get any closer than absolutely necessary.

The incident was limited to just the part, but that meant they had to deal with all of them. She counted seven quirk spirits of all shapes and sizes, one of which was an oversized flying rodent that seemed to be an electric quirk. At the same time, there was the literal ice giant and turtle that towered over both she and Todoroki.

Above them, 2 of the quirk spirits circled.

One was a large bird. Its feathers were mainly black, with grayish dark blue on its lower body and yellow colorations on its wings, near its eyes, and on its neck. It had zig-zag patterns on its neck. Its long, hooked beak and feet were maroon in color, with three toes on the front and a single one on the back of each foot. It had thin, lengthy tail feathers that split into two.

The second resembled a prehistoric pterosaur–dragon hybrid: small pointed ears, narrow eyes, a ridged snout, and a gaping mouth with serrated teeth in a strong lower jaw. Light-blue skin cloaked a lithe body, massive bat-like wings with clawed hands at their tips, and a spiked hump along its back. A powerful tail ended in an arrowhead tip, and taloned feet bore two forward toes and one rear.

The first's neck swelled, glowing like a light bulb about to burst, before the power spread to its massive wings. With a single flap, the quirk spirit sent down fine blades of lightning towards the hero and student. At the same time, the second roared, sending out dark pink sound waves.

Shoto handled the first, erecting an ice wall to block the lighting blades, which cut deep into his thick ice. Frostbyte handled the second, pulling on the snow around them and creating a triple-layered defense that absorbed the weird sound waves.

"These guys are persistent," Frostbyte muttered before needing to duck as the flying squirrel thing came around back and nearly took her head off, the furry fiend landing and taking off before she could trap it in the snow.

Todoroki stomped his foot, sending a blast of spiked ice towards the armored turtle, which groaned as it met his assault with a double blast of boiling hot water. “At least it’s not turning into some sort of body horror like with the USJ!” Todoroki ground as he made another wall of ice, just in time for the first assault to fail and nearly hit him, being diverted to the side.

“Do I want to know?”

“We can discuss that later,” Shoto erected a barrier as the ice giant tried to punch him. Todoroki spread his ice across its body, having learned he couldn't manipulate it like his own, and tried to restrain it, only for the quirk to reveal a new trick.

With a grunt and groan of ice rubbing against ice and cracking under the strain, it burst free, taking control of the dozens of shards and sending them towards the two, forcing Frostbyte to sweep aside with a wave of snow.

"This would be easier if you used your fire. It might not stop them, but it would slow them down more than your ice.” She yelled at Todoroki, as they needed a game changer; otherwise, they'd be crushed.

"It'll also weaken you if I reduce how much snow is around," Shoto yelled back, but she could see through his trick and oh so badly wanted to smack him upside the head for his stubbornness. She could see the stubbornness of the Flame Hero in him, but for crying out loud, could he focus it on something productive?!

"I wouldn't need as much if their numbers went down! Dammit, Shoto, stop being stubborn and fight like you mean it!" She yelled, only for the black spherical quirk spirit covered in ice to let out a screech. It shouldn’t have impacted them; they were used to the chaos around them-

But there was something different about his one. It struck deep at their bones, and despite their training and general cool under pressure mindsets, both were knocked down. Todoroki fell onto his hands and knees, feeling weak and confused, while Frostbyte fell to just one knee and felt dazed.

Seeing that same beast making a beeline for Todoroki, she didn’t hesitate as she forced her body to act. She jumped to her feet and pushed Shoto out of the way, taking the hit and being sent tumbling through the air, landing with a grunt and splat in the powdered snow.

Glancing up, she saw that she had landed at the feet of the armored turtle, which glared at her, its foot already raised to crush her skull. Again, she pulled on the snow with her quirk, lifting herself just enough to roll herself and throw her body out of the way.

Before the turtle could make another play, a nice column slammed its side, knocking it on its back, cutting up its hide, and spilling its red blood across the white snow. "I am. Why can't you see that?!"

Frostbyte nearly yelled back at him. “Then fight like someone else’s life is on the line, look around you, we’re the only ones who even have a clue what’s going on!” She barely kept herself under control, even as she came under attack from the healed turtle, forcing her to dodge as her snow stood no chance against its water blasts. "You can't just be expecting to half-ass it till help arrives.”

“Go to slee-!” The bug-looking one tried again, having snuck up on her. Still, she spun and kicked it as hard as she could. It didn't harm it or send it flying as it would with someone like Mirko. Her leg was now sore from its thick exoskeleton. Still, it put distance between them and stopped whatever trick it was trying to use on her.

“I don’t sleep on the job,” she remarked, her eyes jumping across the place, keeping focus on everything. Things weren't looking good. Todoroki was already starting to freeze, all the ice he was using catching up with him, forcing her to act as his shield and buy him time.

“Frostbyte! What’s happening?” She turned to the side and saw a group of pros approaching. In the back of her mind, she imagined this must have looked foolish, as they couldn't see the threat, but with how the park around them looked, and the fact that the quirks didn't stop the attack, they at least knew something was up.

“This…isn’t what the report said.” One of the reinforcements gulped, her legs shaking, as she wondered how they would fight a threat that was invisible, on top of being strong.

To help them on that front, Frostbyte reached out with her quirk. Picking up the lightest of the snow, she tossed it towards the quirk beasts surrounding them, allowing the rest to see the outlines of five of them.

“We can’t fail. He promised, so we have to do it!” the lighting squirrel hissed.

“Kill them, kill the heroes!” The walking iceberg groaned, stomping its foot, causing the earth to shake beneath them. She didn't think as she made a platform of snow, pulled Shoto onto it, and moved up—an act that saved them as jagged, thorn-covered ice spikes shot out of the ground where they had been standing moments ago.

Seeing the smallest of the snow-covered villains melt away, only to be replaced with a crackling, spiraling sphere of lightning that shot out against those already present, made one wonder aloud even as they rushed in. “Holy shit, are these things monsters?”

They seemed a minority, as other pros didn't move, paralyzed from fear. “I didn’t sign up for this.”

“Screw it.” 3 of them turned and tried to run.

“Dammit, get back-!” Frostbyte saw them as their will broke and ordered them back. Otherwise, she would bury them in enough snow that the kids would feel the chill. But then she saw a glint in the distance, one approaching fast. “No…”

She couldn't warn them as the hero killer fell on them. Sword drawn, he carved through the first so quick that he could spin around and slice through the second before the first fell. The last of the 3 had time to scream and try to fight back, but her hands had only started to glow before a blade was thrust through her heart and back.

Stain looked the dying woman in the eye with nothing but contempt as he kicked her off his blade, leaving her to bleed out in the snow, that is, if the ruined heart didn't do her in first.

Flicking his blade to the side to rid the disgusting blood of fakes from it, he turned his attention to the fight, which paused as if neither side could believe he was here. "As I suspected, frauds who disrespect and desecrate the very name 'hero' with their filth, greed, and cowardice."

“It-it’s him?” One of the pros who had been with them stuttered, pointing at the man who just took out 3 of them like it was nothing.

“That look, it has to be.” Another called out. While no one knew what Stain looked like, that ragged look, blood-red scarf, and the assortment of blades could only mean this was the hero killer.

“Shoto,” Frostbyte glanced towards the now motionless quirk beasts. You keep up the pressure on them; I'll handle Stain." She ordered, as she had a sick feeling that Stain didn't just choose her city during an unprecedented attack to make his move. His arrival seemed to spark something in the quirks as well, as they stopped fighting. They wouldn't do that unless they had some reason, and she could think of just one.

Somehow, Stain was in league with them. She'll figure out the why later. Maybe that Midoriya scientist could cook up a theory, but that would require them all to live to testify.

Stain didn't move as well, but she would be a fool to assume that he wasn't watching then, analyzing them to spot their weak link to eliminate first, or maybe he wished to handle her and their heavy hitters first. "A noble gesture, but it won't compensate for all you've done."

"You're on my turf, villain, and you'll pay for all you've done." Frostbite declared that, although she may be tired, she was still a heroine and had plenty of snow to work with. She'll handle this guy and get back to the fight. “Looks like you’ve gotten greedy, challenging me in the open like this, in an area where I hold the advantage.” Quickly shifting her stance, he slammed her palm forward and sent a wave of snow towards Stain, who dodged it and rushed her, moving faster than most could see.

Frostbyte glanced to the ground and clenched her fist, turning the ice smooth, causing Stain to lose his traction. In the moments it took for him to regain it in those heavy snow boots, she sent a blast of snow into his chest and knocked him back, but before she could harden it to trap him, Stain was back on the move, his gaze firmly on her. "Oh, no way, I've been keeping up on the reports about you, and I'm not letting you close enough to attack."

Todoroki grit his teeth, feeling the familiar sting of ice up his right side as he watched Frostbyte fight Stain. “She can handle him,” He tried to assure himself, as he had his own issues.

"Kid, look out!" Shoto didn't need the warning, having already created a curved wall of ice the lighting-infused flying squirrel smacked into, its spin causing it to roll off to the side and into a tree, boring through it like paper.

As its trunk fell over, he heard the whine of a second build-up and moved to defend himself, but nothing happened, not to him.

“Cut-up!” One of the pros called out as one of the new arrivals was thrown into the air, his body raked by blades of lightning as the pro crashed into the new ruined fountain, no movement.

“Someone get to him, and where did that-!” Another tried to rally them, only for dinosaur to swoop down and ram their head into the hero’s gut so hard the man bent like a folding chair, spit, his dinner and blood spewing out his mouth as he was carrying into the air by the momentum of the attack, only for the quirk to growl and jerk its head, sending him back to earth where he was caught.

"What the hell was that?!" One yelled as Shoto cursed, as they couldn't see them, and Frostbyte's earlier snow curtain didn't extend high enough to catch them.

It reminded him too much of how his father would blindfold him and force him to counterattacks he could only hear and not see.

"Focus on the villains on the ground; keep kicking up snow to cover them!" Shoto yelled as he threw his right hand to the side, creating a spiral of nice and frost that flew skyward, narrowly missing the lightning bird but forcing it to cease its attack.

"Kill them, kill them heroes!" The dinosaur roared, its body shifting color, taking on a similar shade to Tetsu-

"Crap!" Shoto dived for cover as the now steel dinosaur dived on him and the rest, nearly killing them and missing by a hair. As his right hand touched the ground, Todoroki fired off another blast, catching the swooping dinosaur in the gut. The quirk let out a surprised squawk as it launched into the air, but quickly recovered.

Line break

Frostbyte hated that she had to leave so much to the rest, especially as they couldn't even see most of them. Still, someone needed to handle Stain, and unlike the quirk beasts, she could harm the villain and hopefully make him talk about how he, a regular human, was able to communicate with what she assumed were the quirks of his victims enough that they would follow his orders.

The other fighting couldn't be ignored, nor did it have any impact on the area. With that many people and threats, it was changing the landscape, kicking up plenty of snow and causing a small fog to settle around them. It wasn't ideal, as she had long lost visual track of Stain, but she could still listen to him. Ignoring the rest of it, she listened.

She picked up snow grinding against boots, Stain moving like a shadow between the barren trees and uprooted trucks, his form little more than a dark spot in the corner of her vision, and nothing. But she kept listening.

She heard snow crumpling again, but it was closer than before, much closer.

She raised her hand, the snow around her answering her call as a soft wall bloomed behind her. The soft yet thick barrier absorbed the swing of Stain's blade. Stain was powerful, though; he could carve through flesh, bone, and even rock with a single swing.

So she didn't try to stop him like that, but instead, she clenched her fist and hardened the snow around the knife as it cut through. Stain felt the resistance and wised up. A moment later, he abandoned the weapon and dashed back right as the snow where he had been standing formed into snakes that would have ensnared him.

Stain didn't give her time to think or plan, and he pressed, his fluidity and mercilessness befitting the man called the Hero Killer. Sword arching low, he tried to take her arm off, to which she fell back in a roll, creating barriers of snow to keep Stain from chasing her. But he didn't try that. He came at her from the side, the man making full use of his speed.

Seeing him coming, she gritted her teeth. Feeling her fingers growing numb, she picked up a handful of snow. She threw it at Stain, using her quirk to cause it to explode and harden into several marble-sized ice marbles. Stain didn't flinch or deviate, instead batting them aside in a snap, foiling her plan.

His sword came up, glinting in the pale moonlight as he swung it for her side. She noted it was too far to be a lethal strike, but she couldn't put it past the man to have coated his weapons in something. Again, she shifted the snow beneath her, putting distance between her and the Hero killer, who quickly sheathed his knife and reached for smaller blades. Holding three in one hand, he tossed them at her, one after another, with dangerous accuracy.

Like a conductor, Frostbyte held out a single hand and shifted snow into the blades' path, catching them and throwing them aside. Still, for a brief moment, she lost sight of Stain, her hand blocking her line of sight.

"Crap," She realized her mistake and was on high alert, searching for Stain, for where he would pop out next. But now she wouldn't give him the chance. Her hands were no longer numb, she forced her body to act as she raised her hands and stretched her quirk's power over the immediate area around her, pulling on every speck of snow and creating massive walls, almost made from snow chain links, which granted her a near undisturbed view of her surroundings.

This used up a considerable amount of the snow in the area, enough to expose the park's typically brown grass. At that moment, she spotted Stain, the villain who had attempted a frontal charge in the hopes that she would have been more wary of a sneak attack from her rear.

Well, it wouldn’t matter which angle he used.

"Snowflake rush: Omnidirectional!" she called out, using her best move. It wouldn't matter if he could cut through the snow, not when he was hit with a half-ton staff wall.

She was expecting panic, or perhaps Stain to remain as expressionless as he had. She expected him to dodge, try to charge through, or even attempt to leap over the incoming attack, in which case she had enough left to counter.

"Anytime now, Dabi." She wasn't expecting Stain to speak up, but not to her. In that moment, she was dumbfounded. Who was he talking to? She had been keeping tabs on the quirks, and they weren't close or focused on her, so who was this-!

Flames, unlike anything she had ever seen, roared into life, screeching through the air, frost, and fog as they devoured her snow attack. Frostbyte, caught off guard, couldn't act as she, too, was engulfed. She was built for the cold; it was all she knew and all she loved. To her, a warm day was one where she only needed to wear a light sweater, and she had no issue with that.

But when faced with flames so hot they burned blue, and so ravenous they sought to consume all before them, she could only do one thing.

She screamed.

Line Break

Shoto was running on fumes. He had used his ice far too much, yet they weren't progressing. These damned ghosts couldn't stay back for long, and despite his best efforts, another 3 of the pros who were helping had gone down.

He just hoped they were knocked unconscious, but he didn't have time to check, and neither did the rest. He was getting slow; his right side hardly reacted anymore, and it seemed like his opponents caught on to that. Forcing him to counter repeatedly with his ice, he sought to evade instead, but the park was turning into a ruined piece of land with few spots to hide and many places to trip up.

“Kid, you need to get out of here, you’re freezing up!” One of the few heroes still up tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t turn his back, not when they could barely see what was kicking their asses.

"Not a chance, we need to keep these guys here before they spread to the rest of the district," Shoto yelled back, though he supported himself more on his left.

A left side that held the solution, but to him, it was a deal with the devil.

"And then what? We've hit them with just about everything, and all it's done is push them back. What the hell are these monsters made of?" Another called out. Their quirk wasn't anything special. She could create constructs of mental energy shaped like fish, and sadly for them, using a swordfish as a blade had done nothing against these…whatever they were.

“We’ll wait for reinforcements; we just need to hold things down until they get here!" Shoto called back as he recalled the protocol. Once the alarm sounded, it would send an alert so that someone with the skills and gear to handle this would show up.

He didn't have a means to call, and certainly not in the moment, but he had to trust Inko, Izuku, and Aoyama, who've been handling stuff like this for years. Yes, his flames weren't needed; they wouldn't help. He'll handle this and leave his internship early.

‘I can do this, just a little more. I can handle the cold a little longer, and Frostbyte can handle Stain.’

A blast of heat blossomed out of nowhere, and immediately, the area warmed up. It was followed by a pillar of flames ploughing through the park close to him. It was so hot that he felt the ice on his right side melting and feeling return along with some mobility.

“Wha-” He didn’t have time to question who did that, as he and the rest heard Frostbyte screaming.

“Frost!” he called out, turning to where she had been fighting Stain. He saw her rolling on the ground, which lacked any snow, as she furiously tried to put out the flames eating away at her.

“Shit, was that Stain? Since when did he have a flam quirk-!” Someone yelled as they rushed to Frostbyte's side, already removing their cape to try and help her put out the flames. Still, with a glint of frosted steel, a throwing knife found itself buried in the man's forehead.

“Heavy M! Dammit, Stain’s here!” Someone else yelled, but Shoto couldn't hear who; he didn't know who.

His gaze lingered on Frostbyte as she cried, screamed, and begged for it to end. For the flames to stop. Before she fell silent, her body smoking and covered with what he knew had to be horrible burns.

His scar ached, but more than that, he felt a pit in his gut. She…she was fine…right? Was this because he…no….but…

NO!

“Take him down.”

“Dammit, stop!”

Shoto didn't move; he didn't respond as the others kept up the fight, trying to rack a ghost in the wind. He didn't even notice that the many quirks that had given them trouble had pulled back.

He just…couldn’t stop looking at it. At Frostbyte’s unmoving body, charred and left on the ground like trash.

Then he looked around at the other fallen pros who had no means to know what this was, but still fought, still gave it all they had. Met with such, Shoto couldn’t help but remember her words:

“…And did you know sometimes we fail? That sometimes we get there too late, or we're not strong enough, or some other factor is at fault? The end result is the same: Valued personal treasures lost, people hurt, people dead, their blood running through the cold, uncaring streets..."

"..It never gets easier, and all heroes, even All Might, must contend that we're still mortal for all our power, training, and reach. But as painful as that can be, we can hold onto the belief that we gave it our all, that we pushed with 110% to save who we could, to protect what we could..."

"…When you fail to save someone? Can you say you'll be able to say the same? Would your ice comfort you when you're forced to watch as friends and family cry over bodies and coffins?..."

"It's not…it's not." He gasped, only to feel a blade come to rest on his shoulder. He should have been scared, shocked that it was there, but he just numbly looked towards the man who could end his life.

"A child? Wait, I finally recognize you, you're from U.A., right?" Stain asked, but there was something off about this kid; he didn't have the same fire he had during U.A's little showing in him. "You hardly seem like you can stand."

"Now, that's not right. I was expecting more from Endeavor's masterpiece." Dabi chuckled as she walked into view, a smirk on her burnt face as she appraised the situation.

“Stain, change of plans. This one is mine.” Dabi declared, lighting her right hand and holding it for Shoto to see. Upon seeing her quirk in action, Shoto didn't even notice Stain pull back to fight the other pros.

Something sparked in him, angry and violent, as Shoto forced himself up, the flames warming his body, and the sight started a flame in his heart. “It was you; you killed Frostbtye!”

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. You should worry about yourself, little man. After all, it's all on you, but that's nothing new, right?" Dabi mocked him before she laughed as she pulled her arms back and sent out a giant explosion of flames.

"Now show me what Endeavor's masterpiece can do!" She challenged him, with Shoto gritting his teeth and slamming his right foot into the ground. As he'll bury this villain in so much ice, she couldn't do so much as light a candle!

Line Break

And we're back, and with a new week, we have better weather. I much prefer it when it's cool and raining over the damned heat. Cold just means leaving the windows open for a cool breeze, grabbing a sweater, working, and writing with some hot drink—easy as pie.

In a way, it helped put me in a good mood and mindset for this chapter. If the last one didn't make it clear, this would be a Shoto-heavy one as he's fighting without back-up from the rest of the main characters. To make things worse, the interrupted Sports Festival meant he never had the lesson about his flames, which… he will struggle with, both here and long term, as Dabi's plan unfolds around him and Frostbyte.