Chapter 11: The Pledge and the Glacial Shattering.
The waiting room designated for Class 1-A was a pressurized chamber of teenage anxiety. The air was thick, smelling faintly of nervous sweat, antiseptic spray, and the lingering ozone of quirk activation. Unlike the boisterous energy of a normal school day, the silence here was heavy.
After coming back to this room, Kuzan Aokiji sat in the corner, his long legs stretched out, blocking the aisle. He had his head tipped back against the wall, eyes closed, seemingly asleep. He and the other students were waiting for Class Representative to come.
"Man..." Denki Kaminari exhaled, breaking the silence. He ran a hand through his electric-blond hair. "I wanted to wear my costume. I feel naked in this gym uniform."
"It's to ensure fairness," Mashirao Ojiro replied, stretching his tail. "But yeah, the tension is insane. Are we really going out there in front of the whole country?"
"Midoriya."
The voice cut through the room like a blade of dry ice. Shoto Todoroki stood up from his table. His heterochromatic eyes were fixed on the green-haired boy who was currently trembling while tying his shoes.
The room went dead silent. Aokiji opened one eye.
"Todoroki-kun?" Midoriya stammered, standing up.
"Looking at things objectively," Todoroki said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion, "I am stronger than you."
Midoriya flinched but nodded. "Y-yeah."
"But... All Might has his eye on you, doesn't he?" Todoroki continued, taking a step forward. The left side of his face seemed to darken under the harsh fluorescent lights. "I'm not trying to pry into that. But I'm going to beat you."
"Oh?" Aokiji murmured softly, just loud enough to be heard. "That's a bold declaration of war."
"I'm not done," Todoroki said, turning his head slightly. His gaze shifted from Midoriya to the corner where Aokiji sat. "You too, Kuzan. I'm saying this for the second time. You played the hero at the USJ. My father has been talking about 'the other ice user' nonstop for days. It's annoying."
Aokiji yawned, stretching his arms above his head. "Don't loop me into your family drama, Todoroki. I'm just here for the course credits."
"I will beat you both," Todoroki finished, ignoring Aokiji's deflection. "I will show that I am the undeniable number one."
"Hey, hey, hold on!" Kirishima jumped in, putting a hand on Todoroki's shoulder. "Why are you picking a fight right before we go out? We're a team—"
"We're not a team," Todoroki shrugged the hand off coldly. "We're rivals."
As Todoroki walked away, Katsuki Bakugo, who had been brooding silently with his feet on a table, stood up. His eyes were shadowed, burning with a quiet, volcanic fury. He walked past Midoriya, bumping his shoulder intentionally, and stopped in front of Aokiji.
"Oi. Ice Scum."
Aokiji looked up, meeting the crimson eyes of the explosive boy. "That's a new nickname. Creative."
"Don't think I forgot," Bakugo growled, his voice low and vibrating with menace. "You think you're hot stuff because you got your head blown off and survived? You think you're better than me?"
"I think I'm taller than you," Aokiji noted helpfully.
"I'm going to kill you out there," Bakugo spat, turning toward the door. "I'm going to melt you into a puddle so small they'll need a pipette to clean you up. Watch your back."
"CLASS 1-A! IT'S TIME!" Iida shouted after opening the door, his voice chopping the air. "ENTER THE ARENA!"
He was confused after seeing he students faces, and said; "Is there something happened?"
Aokiji walked first; "Well, things here like an ice cream, but in a Spicy flavor.."
The Stadium
The sunlight was blinding.
Emerging from the dark tunnel into the main stadium was like stepping into a blast furnace of noise. Thousands of people—pro heroes, talent scouts, civilians—roared in unison. The sound was physical; it vibrated in the students' chests.
"WELCOME TO THE U.A. SPORTS FESTIVAL!" Present Mic's voice boomed over the speakers, amplified to ear-splitting levels. "THE FRESHMEN STAGE! FIRST UP, THE MIRACULOUS SURVIVORS OF THE VILLAIN ATTACK! CLASS 1-A!"
As they walked onto the grassy field, Aokiji shielded his eyes. "Too loud. Too bright. Why did I agree to this?"
They lined up in front of the podium. Midnight stood on the stage, cracking her whip to silence the crowd. A murmur of excitement rippled through the audience.
After all the classes had entered the arena, Midnight shifted her gaze toward the students.
"Representing the students," Midnight announced. "Katsuki Bakugo from Class 1-A!"
Bakugo slouched up the stairs. He stood at the microphone, hands in his pockets. The world watched.
"I just want to say..." Bakugo paused. He looked at the crowd, then down at his classmates. His eyes locked onto Aokiji and Todoroki. "...I'm going to be Number One."
The crowd booed. Class 1-A groaned in collective embarrassment.
"But," Bakugo continued, raising his voice over the boos. He pointed a finger directly at Aokiji. "Specifically, I'm going to crush that lazy Ice Scum right there. You better not melt before I get to you, Kuzan!"
The camera panned to Aokiji. He was picking his ear, looking utterly unbothered. The juxtaposition of Bakugo's rage and Aokiji's lethargy sent a wave of laughter through the stands.
"Arara," Aokiji muttered to Momo Yaoyorozu beside him. "He really has a fixation, doesn't he?"
"You are his wall," Momo whispered, her face serious. "He cannot stand that someone else has a 'stronger' reputation."
The Obstacle Race
"START!"
The green light flashed.
It was a stampede. The massive gate was too narrow for hundreds of students. Bodies collided. Elbows flew. It was a bottleneck of flesh and desperation.
"Out of my way!"
Suddenly, the floor temperature plummeted. Frost spread rapidly from the back of the pack, racing forward. Shoto Todoroki surged to the front, freezing the ground and trapping dozens of students in jagged blocks of ice.
"Apologies," Todoroki muttered, sprinting ahead alone. "But this is a competition."
"He froze us!"
"I can't move!"
Todoroki looked back, confident he had created a significant lead.
"Is that it?"
Todoroki's eyes widened. A chill wind breezed past his ear.
Aokiji was gliding. He hadn't been trapped; he had simply transformed his legs into mist and reformed them atop the ice. He moved with a lazy grace, hands in his pockets, skating along the path Todoroki had so kindly created.
"You call this a roadblock?" Aokiji asked, sliding parallel to Todoroki. Frost coated his trousers, swirling like a cape. "To me, you just paved the highway. Thanks for the lift, Todoroki."
"Tsk." Todoroki gritted his teeth and pushed harder, firing a wave of ice backward to block the others, but Aokiji was already gone, a white blur in the wind.
The First Barrier: Robots
The lead pack—Todoroki, Aokiji, Bakugo, and a few frantic others—burst out of the tunnel and into the open field.
Blocking their path were the Zero-Pointers. The massive green giants from the entrance exam. They towered over the track, casting long, terrifying shadows.
"Target acquired," the robot droned. Its mechanical fist, the size of a small house, raised into the air.
"Stupid piece of junk!" Bakugo yelled, blasting himself into the air to fly over it.
Todoroki didn't slow down. He froze the ground, preparing to trap the robot.
But the robot was faster than expected. It didn't aim for Todoroki. It swiped low, aiming for the white blur on the ground.
Aokiji stopped skating. He stood still, looking up at the descending metal fist.
"Move, Kuzan!" Kirishima screamed from behind.
Aokiji didn't move. He didn't have the energy to dodge.
WHAM.
The impact shook the stadium. The robot's fist smashed Aokiji directly into the hard earth.
The crowd screamed.
"HE KILLED HIM!"
"STOP THE RACE!"
"OH MY GOD!"
Present Mic dropped his microphone. "A STUDENT HAS BEEN FLATTENED! ERASERHEAD, IS HE OKAY?!"
Under the robot's fist, there was no blood. Only a sound like wind chimes breaking in a storm.
Todoroki stopped running. He looked back at the robot, his expression unreadable. "It's not enough," he whispered. "Physical force is useless."
The robot began to lift its fist, detecting no life signs.
As the metal knuckles rose, a pile of crushed ice lay in the crater. It looked like a snow cone spilled on the pavement.
Then, the snow swirled.
The temperature in the stadium dropped ten degrees in a second. The ice chips flew together, snapping into place with violent speed. A leg. A torso. A face.
Aokiji reformed, standing in the crater. He dusted off his shoulder, looking annoyed.
"That..." Aokiji cranked his neck, crack, "was rude."
He placed one hand on the robot's knee.
"Ice Time."
The green paint of the robot turned white. The freeze spread upward instantly—joints, gears, sensors, head. In less than two seconds, the multi-ton machine was a towering, silent statue of ice. It was frozen so thoroughly that the metal groaned under the thermal contraction.
The crowd went silent, then erupted into a roar of disbelief.
"HE FROZE IT! HE FROZE THE WHOLE THING!"
"Out of the way!"
BOOM!
Bakugo flew down from the sky, blasting the frozen robot's head. Because the metal was brittle from the extreme cold, the explosion didn't just dent it—it shattered the top half of the robot into a million glittering pieces.
Bakugo landed in front of Aokiji, grinning like a feral wolf.
"Thanks for the assist, Ice Cube!" Bakugo laughed, propelling himself forward with explosions. "But you're too slow!"
Aokiji watched him go. He sighed, resuming his skating motion. "Assist? I did all the work. These guys are so ungrateful."