Yoru sighed as he watched Shinso lose to the protagonist.
He thought the outcome would be different, yet it had been the same as the one already destined by the world.
---
Shinso felt frustrated at losing. A memory from a year ago flashed through his mind.
"Hey, your Quirk is amazing! It's the first time I've heard of something like that, being able to control people," said an excited student.
"I bet you could commit some crimes and get away with it using your power."
"No one would notice, right? You're not going to use that on us, are you?" asked another.
But Shinso just laughed.
'Everyone says that,'Shinso thought.
'Of course they do. If that Quirk belonged to someone else, the first thing they'd think about would be how to use it for evil. This power would be better suited for a criminal, "a villain." I'm already used to those little insults. People are like that; it doesn't matter.'
'However...'
"Hey, your power is interesting. You can control people just by getting them to answer you. It's definitely a good Quirk for being a hero."
Shinso stopped and turned, observing someone his own age, with white hair and his face partly covered, though he caught a glimpse of an amused and somewhat excited smile.
"You're lucky, you'd definitely be an amazing hero with the power you have. Unlike me, who can only lower my body temperature by five degrees," said the young man.
"Oh, sorry. My name is Yoru Shirayuki, but you can call me Yoru. And you are?"
That was the first time. The first time someone, without hesitation, spoke the words his heart had always longed to hear. Not judgment, not fear disguised as praise, but a pure and clear recognition of his heroic potential. The world seemed to stop for an instant, and in that gap in time, something cold and heavy that Shinso carried in his chest began to crack.
"I'm Hitoshi Shinso."
"Alright, Shinso. Now we're friends."
Shinso snapped out of his memories and got to his feet, starting to leave with his head down. However, he heard words of encouragement from his classmates and other pro heroes. An unexpected warmth spread across his back.
"Hey, Shinso," said Yoru, making the purple-haired boy look up.
Yoru gave him a thumbs-up.
"You did a good job. Leave the rest to me. Definitely, hold onto first place."
Shinso smiled, a genuine and light expression that rarely appeared on his face, and finally walked into the hallway, his steps now more lively.
---
Yoru watched the next matches with boredom until his turn came.
As he arrived in the arena, his face was calm, looking at All For One's spy.
Yoru felt, for the first time, the urge to kill another person. However, his rage wasn't directed at Aoyama; it was directed at All For One. He wanted revenge for his mother; he wanted to freeze him slowly and painfully.
The air around Yoru began to freeze slowly, lowering the temperature.
Aoyama felt a chill as he looked at Yoru Shirayuki.
"Alright, begin!" ordered Midnight, her voice booming through the stadium speakers.
Aoyama didn't hesitate. He lifted his torso with elegant drama… and released a point-blank laser beam, a blinding torrent that whistled through the air like a spear of pure light.
Yoru didn't move.
He didn't try to dodge.
He didn't raise a barrier.
He did absolutely nothing.
The beam struck him squarely in the abdomen, and for an instant, the world turned white.
CRACK!
The sound wasn't of burning flesh… but of shattering ice.
When the smoke cleared, a murmur ran through the thousands of throats in the stands.
Yoru had a perfect hole through his stomach… as if he were a fractured statue.
There was no blood.
There were no burns.
Only crystalline ice dripping like loose frost.
The audience was petrified.
Yoru smiled.
And before everyone's eyes, the hole began to close with a soft sound, as if millions of fragments were clicking into place. In less than a blink, his body was intact.
He didn't even seem to have felt pain.
He had done this for two reasons:
First, because he knew All For One was watching every detail of the festival, analyzing Quirks like a wolf sniffing out valuable prey. By showing that strange "ice intangibility," he sent a clear message: If you come for me… you'll have to work hard.
Second, because he wanted the entire world to understand something very simple: he was someone who couldn't be killed so easily.
Aoyama, pale and with the laser still smoldering on his chest, barely managed to stammer:
"W-what are you…?"
Yoru raised a hand, letting out an icy breath that fogged the air.
"I… am a man of ice."
With a slight gesture, the temperature dropped brutally. The platform instantly froze beneath both their feet, spreading like a white tidal wave.
Aoyama was trapped in a block of ice as pure as crystal, immobilized and defeated without even understanding what had happened.
The silence lasted a couple of seconds.
Then,the stadium erupted in screams.
Midnight, still with goosebumps and her eyes wide open, raised a trembling hand.
"The winner… and advancing to the second round is… Yoru Shirayuki."
Even as she announced the result, she was still processing the fact that she had seen a hole the size of a melon close up as if it had never existed.
Yoru simply walked toward the exit, without looking back, leaving a trail of ice that slowly faded beneath his steps.
---
When I returned to the participants' area, I let out a sigh, trying to calm down. For a moment, my emotions had controlled me.
I heard footsteps and looked; it was Shinso.
"What happened to you? You're usually not the type to get angry."
"I just remembered something that bothered me," I said, watching as they prepared the arena for the next match, the last one between Uraraka and Bakugo.
Shinso said nothing, which I appreciated. After a few minutes, I finally managed to calm down, and the next battle began: Bakugo against Uraraka. It was hard to watch.
It was a bitter feeling, seeing the girl's determination in the face of someone overwhelmingly superior.
In the end, the same result occurred, with Bakugo's victory.
After Midnight announced the fighters for the second round, I noted that I would fight Bakugo in the second match, while Iida would fight Tokoyami, and Midoriya against Todoroki.
It was the second match, so I had time to recover.