Midoriya was an anomaly, Shouto was certain.

The power, the control, the strength.

Shouto envied him.

From the Quirk apprehension test, to the battle trials, and now the USJ. Shouto was certain.

Midoriya had a backer.

No small-time chump either, quirk control that fine was hard to come by.

Of course, it was quite hard to ignore.

It was quite hard to ignore the way the No. 1 Hero would dote on him.

In fact, after the USJ; All Might checked up on Midoriya first before anyone else. He stayed with him the longest. They exchanged the most words among the class.

Then why wasn't he enlisted as a recommendation student like him?

Shouto was certain.

Such was fate.

Such was fate that led him to be his rival.

"Midoriya." Shouto called, the boy changing into their PE Uniforms in preparation for the School Sports Festival.

The white-haired boy simply tilted his head, looking oddly back at Shouto. That curious twinkle in his eye, Todoroki merely narrowed his own.

"You're strange Midoriya, truly you are." He began, their other classmates starting to gather around them in the changing room. "But that doesn't matter, consider this a declaration of war Midoriya, I'll beat you today." The class erupted in clamor, Kaminari and Sero goading them on while Iida tried to quell the class.

"The fuck, Half n' half?" Bakugo sneered, Todoroki just scoffed back, crossing his arms and looking back to Midoriya.

"Quell your guarddog before he bites someone." And with that, Todoroki turned tail. The rabble that was the male population of his class clamored their own opinions, feh. He left for the first event, not needing to hear Midoriya's response, Todoroki made his intentions clear as day.

And so the sports festival began, each of the different classes and departments were introduced, though Todoroki did notice that there was a significant bias towards Class A. Midoriya was going to have his speech, both as Class Representative and the Top Scorer for the first year entrance exams. He glanced towards the crowd tuning out whatever his rival had to say, a familiar plume of flame was hard to miss.

His eyes narrowed, teeth grit, and fists clenched.

He was being watched.

Present Mic announced that the first event was a race, simple. Todoroki looked behind himself, all the students were led to a cramped and narrow starting area.

So that's how it is?

The starting pistol fired, and on pure instinct he let out a massive glacier to block those behind him.

He shivered, using the frost to propel himself forward. He was making good time, the chasm, the mines were nothing under his frost.

"Fucking Half n' Half!!!" Bakugo launched himself, Shouto suppressed a frustrated growl.

Frost, all that greeted Bakugo was frost.

"Fuu-!!" Bakugo's voice died down, Shouto let out a long, shivering breath. He looked down for a moment, it was starting to condensate, he was using too much.

He was almost there, so close. He could see the robots blocking the finish line.

Good. Midoriya wasn't even close.

He was almost there, he could feel the invisible needles of ice prickling his right side. Shouto grit his teeth, the buildup on his right side was starting to impede his movement.

Close, he could see it. Just about 20 meters away.

An explosion knocked Shouto off track, he scrambled against the cold ground, his vision slightly muddied. He hacked, the breath off his lungs getting knocked out.

"And there we have it folks! MIDORIYA IZUKU! Last second victory with a clutch assist from our second placer, BAKUGO KATSUKI!" Present Mic's voice was like daggers to his ears.

Chills ran down Todoroki's spine, he scrambled to get up, unleashing all the frost he can behind him, launching himself towards the finish line.

Numbness.

His right side was completely numb, Todoroki forced himself to grit his teeth and move his way to recovery girl.

Third place.

What an embarrassment.

He couldn't even look at the audience stand.

He could feel the heat from mile away.

The next event was a cavalry battle, he looked down at his 10,000 point headband with contempt. With much frustrated resignation, Shouto gave in to his fate and tied the headband around his neck. He needed teammates.

He glanced towards Midoriya, the 10 Million points around his head, taunting him. It didn't help much that Bakugo was on his team, because of course Midoriya's little hound would follow. Already, without even trying, Midoriya was the most valuable piece to take in the festival, with him and Bakugo alone, they had 10, 100, 000 points between them.

Shouto's head throbbed, the next event was beginning. He didn't have many options in terms of teammates. Certain people he would've picked were already chosen by someone else. He narrowed his eyes at Midoriya's team, the frost peeking its head from under his skin.

Midoriya, strangely enough, was at the left side of his team, with Bakugo opposite of himself and Yaoyorozu at the rear. There was someone strange on top though, Shouto didn't know who it was. A class B student? Chin-length silver hair and a hunched posture, Shouto scoffed.

"You ready Wonderkid?" He ignored her jab; Hatsume Mei, a Support student that volunteered to join him as long as he'd "Promote" her support items.

"We- We should probably avoid Midoriya's team... they're all pretty rabid." Uraraka added, she was supporting the hind.

"Nonsense, our main goal is to get the 10 million, no matter what it takes." Shouto replied, his other teammates grumbled.

"Madness." Tokoyami Fuumikage muttered to himself, he was at the forefront, dark shadow babbling on about whatever was on his mind. Shouto ignored the quirk.

Shouto took a shuddering breath, he prepared himself.

The starting pistol shot. He opened his eyes, his focus sharp like a knife on the 10 million that Midoriya was carrying.

Frost.

He unleashed as much ice as he could.

His teammates were protected by Mei, the device she had brought along warmed the weaker of them nicely.

"Tokoyami!" he commanded, his avian classmate grunted, his shadow quirk reaching into what remains of the glacier.

Rubble, ice shards, and various scraps of metal launched their way towards their team, Shouto snarled.

"I got it!" Mei took out a device, pulled the trigger, and with a loud "BOOM" the projectiles going towards them disappeared.

"Pretty cool right? This baby can-..." Shouto grunted, he ignored her unnecessary babbling in favor of sending frost down other team's throats for even thinking that they can attempt at capturing his points.

Midoriya's team was unphased. Bakugo, and Midoriya acting as the main means of transportation meant that they were incredibly hard to pin down. Yaoyorozu, and that silver-haired girl were a headache. The class B student had some sort of telekinesis and did wonders to whatever Yaoyorozu could produce for her.

Were grenades of that magnitude allowed?

Nevermind that, the timer was running out, and all of Todoroki's team were running on fumes at this point. He felt chills, his right side starting to numb once more.

Unacceptable.

"Uraraka..." the girl looked queasy, quirk overuse? She scrambled to get a hold of the make-shift capture nets that Hatsume had made. She used her quirk to levitate them, Tokoyami used Dark Shadow to launch them towards Midoriya's team.

But to no avail.

Shouto grit his teeth.

"Eat shit dumbass!" Bakugo yelled, using his explosions to jettison his team to the side. Midoriya grinned.

He was getting tired of that smile.

He could feel it rear its ugly head.

Heat.

He felt heat on his left side.

No.

Not now, not ever.

With a frustrated yell, Shouto and company ran towards Midoriya's team. They fumbled, the others barely holding on to Todoroki as he reached his arm out for that 10 Million point band.

Too bad.

Midoriya smiled. Him and Bakugo simply used their quirks to launch themselves away, Bakugo with his explosions, and Midoriya using controlled flicks of his finger.

"Not a chance!" Yaoyorozu interfered, her Matryoshka Dolls laced with explosives were launched by that 1-B student using her quirk, stopping any advancement on their team whatsoever.

"AAAAND TIME!" Shouto wanted to scream.

"Once again folks Midoriya is going for Gold today! Midoriya Izuku, Bakugo Katsuki, Yaoyorozu Momo, and Yanagi Reiko move on to the finals!!!" Present Mic's voice ripped through the cheering crowd.

Failure after failure.

Disappointment after disappointment.

Shouto clenched his fists white.

He won't fail again.

He wanted to talk to Midoriya.

Curse at him, was a more accurate term.

But he held back.

His head was throbbing, like being put between a vice.

Time didn't flow like it did before.

He didn't even remember if he had eaten lunch or not, his right side throbbed in dull aches.

Shouto grumbled on, moving towards the stands and observing.

The one on one battles started.

His turn came.

His fury was unleashed upon a poor general education student, his purple hair laden with crystals of ice. Shouto never gave him even the faintest chance of victory. The walls of ice getting torn down by U.A staff for the next round.

Feh. He didn't even matter in the slightest.

Todoroki took a deep breath.

He couldn't think properly, he was starting to feel faint.

He was next.

Midoriya was next.

He won't fail this time.

He could see his father converse with the white haired boy from across the arena, his blood boiled.

Despite the cacophony of the crowd cheering, Shouto heard none of it.

All he saw was Midoriya. The smile from before never leaving his face.

"How much did he pay you?" the starting pistol shot, Shouto and Midoriya were circling around each other, not a single hostile move was made.

"That's not what I'm here for, Todoroki." Midoriya shook his head, Shouto scoffed.

"Is that so? Don't get me wrong Midoriya..." Todoroki trailed off, the crowd was confused on why no one was attacking, after the explosive fights that preceded them. "I know what you are..." the white haired boy tilted his head curiously.

"All Might. It's All Might isn't it? I know who your backer is Midoriya, you might've pulled the wool over everyone's eyes but not me. Not me." Shouto snarled, his figure hunched, Shouto prepared his right side to unleash frost. "I know what you are Midoriya!" he howled.

Ice erupted.

The entire arena was covered in frost.

Shouto grit his teeth, numbness on his left soon turned to pain, needles underneath his skin.

The glacier burst.

Shouto screamed, sending more ice down Midoriya's path, he ignored the pain. He ignored the millions of needles stabbing into his right side.

"You're nothing without All Might Midoriya!" Shouto's right side screamed at him with pain. "You're nothing! You won't make me use it, not you, no one!"

Midoriya was now face to face with the bi-colored teen, a wicked punch reached its way onto Shouto's stomach. The white-haired teens' eyes were cold.

Midoriya wasn't holding back, he had to send a wall of ice behind him to prevent a knock out.

Shouto didn't have time to think, Midoriya was on him not a second later.

Fists met frost, the walls of ice merely appearing like cardboard to the white haired boy.

Heat.

Shouto was starting to feel heat on his left side again.

"A word of advice, Todoroki." Midoriya whispered, his voice cut like a knife through the sounds of battle.

"Learn how to use your gifts wisely, lest you be consumed by your own arrogance." Sadism, Todoroki could see what Uraraka was spouting on about.

"Stand down."

Midoriya was a psychopath, Todoroki was certain.

That smile promised nothing but pain.

Midoriya's quirked fist met Shouto's face.

Then all went blank.