In the weeks that followed what came to be known as the Beach Brawl, Izuku had been forced to re-evaluate every first impression he'd ever had.

It wasn't just Uraraka. Every member of the Hell Class had gotten at least some media attention and Izuku had managed to pass judgement on every single one of them during his time at Hamada… only to discover that all of his assessments rested on one single faulty assumption: that Bakugou had been the rule and not the exception.

He was utterly ashamed to have ever thought that Uraraka was a passive-aggressive bully, that Ashido only saw heroics as a game, that Kirishima was a yes-man for Bakugou, that Yaoyorozu only made it into UA by throwing around her wealth and probably her something else, that Shinsou…

...actually he never had an issue with Shinsou.

But of those students there was one who he just couldn't seem to understand, and that was Todoroki Shouto, better known as the Frostbite Hero, Promise.

Izuku was always mystified by him, and his classmates always acted weirdly evasive whenever he broached the subject, and explained that Todoroki valued his privacy. Izuku had the day off, so he decided to use the downtime to look into the icy enigma.

First thing that puzzled Izuku was the name. It was common knowledge that he was the son of Endeavor, and it made sense to him that the two would have a similar naming scheme. Endeavor named himself that because he endeavored to become the Number One Hero.

So what promise did Shouto make?

The title of the Frostbite Hero was one that concerned him. At first he thought it was no more than a cool, intimidating way to allude to his ice Quirk, but then he did what he did best and started analyzing his Quirk. Midoriya was a little surprised and concerned to discover that the longer a fight dragged on, his movements would get more sluggish, less precise. He was never able to get a close look but he was beginning to think that the title was literal.

Of course, at the time, Izuku had merely shrugged it off. Dismissed it as "Classic UA Arrogance." If he was really going to cripple himself with his Quirk, if he wasn't going to take his responsibilities seriously, then by all means, he was more than welcome to let reality slap him in the face.

A mindset Izuku was trying really hard to break out of.

But more important than his name or his Quirk's side-effects was his Quirk itself. It was pretty simple on the face of things. He created ice with his right side and thawed it out with his left. But it couldn't be that simple. His father had one of the most powerful fire-based Quirks anyone had seen, so there had to be more to it. So he did some digging for any footage he could find of Shouto: The Sports Festivals, the Hosu Incident, his official debut as Promise, but nothing appeared out of the ordinary.

He shook his head. There's got to be something I'm missing! So he started watching them all over again, in a different order this time.

By sheer luck, he began this second round of viewing with the third year Sports Festivals, and he found the abnormality he was searching for in Todoroki's match in the semifinals against one Monoma Neito.

He knew Monoma. He was the Pro Hero Copycat, after all. Izuku had to admit, in spite of being part of the school he so deeply despised, he always deeply admired Monoma for his own analytical abilities, no doubt cultivated to facilitate his own Quirk. After all, copying a Quirk would do him no good if he didn't understand it at a glance.

The fight began as most of Shouto's other Sports Festival fights did- with an overwhelming wave of ice, but by now, most of UA's Hero students were used to it. Guess Bakugou isn't the only one who struggled with predictability, Izuku thought as Monoma reflexively dodged it.

He wasted no time in closing the gap between the two. For the first Sports Festival this was a massive challenge that no one was able to pull off. By this point, it was apparent that Todoroki was a one-trick pony (Izuku figured that the only reason Aizawa never expelled him was because he didn't want any backlash from Endeavor) and the other students more or less knew how to counteract him. They still often fell to his sheer power though.

But this time was different. Monoma used the ice to propel himself further into the air and out of Todoroki's range, coming to a landing on Todoroki's left and immediately reaching out and grabbing his arm.

This was where things began to feel strange.

There was a slight pause as Monoma made contact. It looked as though Monoma had said something, but no words could be heard. Whatever he said, it must have really hit home, since Todoroki immediately responded by unleashing a point-blank avalanche at a size that Izuku only ever saw him use in villain fights. Todoroki was declared the winner, but as he walked away, he turned to say something to Monoma which, again, wasn't picked up. The footage ended there.

Izuku frowned, rewinding to the pause right before the finishing blow. He went through it, frame-by-frame, trying to find something he missed. Then, right before Todoroki made his move, he saw it- a disturbance in the light, forming from Monoma's hand, that disappeared when the wave of ice took over.

He replayed those few frames over and over again, tried to listen to what Monoma had said, but to no avail. He was beginning to form a theory, but he had learned his lesson about jumping to conclusions. He'd need help for this one.

And so, Izuku called his fiancee.

They had been engaged for a while, but Izuku and Mei hadn't yet worked out the logistics of moving in together, since Izuku wanted to stay close to the Slice-n-Dice Hero Agency where he worked, but Mei wanted to live close to Hatsume Industries, or even in the building itself if they could manage it. So it was a fairly long drive for Izuku to reach Hatsume's place, but nothing too bad.

"Nice of you to come by, Broccoli Boy," she greeted with a kiss, which Izuku happily reciprocated. "You got the footage?"

"Right here," Izuku replied, holding up a small plain dvd.

"Perfect! I've always wanted to use this baby for a big important project!" she said, excitedly leading her future husband into a room with a massive TV screen that looked like it was built from the desecrated corpses of gaming computers.

"It's not THAT big a deal…"

"Are you kidding? Anytime you analyze a Pro Hero, they're better for it," she said. "Remember when you came up with a workaround for Kaminari's Quirk? About using one-way conductive material in his costume and relying more on physical contact?"

"Anyone could've thought of that," Izuku countered bashfully.

"But they didn't. You did."

Izuku smiled and blushed in response.

"Anyway," Hatsume continued, thumbing the elaborate TV hodgepodge, "I bet you're wondering what all this is about. Well, you know how in detective TV shows the police can do that whole "zoom in and enhance" thing, where they can pick up on stupidly tiny details in photos or security camera footage or whatever?" Izuku nodded. "I decided to make a baby that would let me do that myself."

She took the disc from Izuku and inserted it into the TV. The two sat on the large couch across from the screen. Hatsume playfully curled up next to Izuku like they were getting ready to watch a movie, to which Izuku made no attempt to resist.

The fight played out on the screen, the increase in resolution easily noticeable to Izuku. Once Monoma made contact, Izuku sat up. "There. Pause the video."

Hatsume did so, pulling out a remote control that looked more like an honors math calculator.

"I want to hear what Monoma is saying there. Can you do that?" Izuku asked.

"Have a little faith in me," she replied, zooming in on the two boys. Indeed, there was very little grain thanks to Hatsume's device. She pressed a button, rewound a bit, and then let the video play again.

Once again, the Monoma on screen grabbed Todoroki. This time, Izuku noticed the expression on Monoma's face. While not the clearest, he seemed to have something dawn on him if his look of realization was anything to go by. Then, he spoke. A little muffled, but still audible.

"So you've been holding out on us all this time, eh?" he sneered.

Before Todoroki's counterattack, Izuku sat up further. "Slow down the footage," Izuku said. "Something happens here."

Mei did so, the video crawling along slowly, giving Izuku the ample time to see a small ball of fire forming in Monoma's hand before it was promptly extinguished.

Midoriya stared. So my theory was right. But there's still one thing…

He had Mei resume normal speed. As Todoroki walked away from the frozen Monoma, he simply said "You can thaw yourself out," before stepping off the stage.

Mei stopped the video and turned to see Izuku deep in thought.

Of course, it all makes sense. Todoroki's Quirk is two Quirks! Well I mean, probably not literally, but it's a Quirk that does two things, create fire and ice. The fire would easily counteract the downsides of the ice half. Also, this means that he has to use the fire half to some extent in order to melt the ice afterwards, so the ice is no longer tied to his Quirk once it's formed, otherwise Monoma wouldn't be able to thaw it and-

"Ahhh, I could watch you dissect Quirks all day," Mei sighed as Izuku jumped, realizing that he'd once again dove headfirst into the Midoriya Mutter™.

"This answers every question I had about his Quirk," he said. "But… why? Todoroki has one of the most powerful Quirks in existence, and yet, he's squandering it and only using half of it? There's… there's gotta be a reason."

"Well, you've been hanging out everyone from that class one way or another," Mei said. "You'll get to ask him yourself."

"I don't know… he seemed to react kinda violently to what Monoma said, but I'll give it a shot next time I meet up with those guys."

That chance would come sooner than he thought.

The villain sped down the street, her Quirk propelling her forward by generating earthquakes behind her. Her loose blonde hair was covered by headgear resembling a black motorcycle helmet. The rest of her armor was a dark silvery color with gold-colored shoulder pads, fingerless gauntlets, and boots.

As she literally tore up the streets, traffic began to screech to a halt, horns honking as she made her way over to Neimoidia Bridge, the cracks she made with every step threatening to send the passing cars into the water below. Just as she made it to the center of the bridge, a grappling hook suddenly shot over the side and, from below, popped a figure clad in green padded armor with metallic gauntlets and a metal mouthplate.

"Hold it right there!" he said, flicking his hands so the gauntlets began to crackle with electricity. "I'm Pro Hero Sleeper Hit. You're under arrest for unauthorized Quirk use, destruction of infrastructure, reckless endangerment, and suspected involvement in staging a prison break. Who are you?" he demanded.

"You can call me Epicenter," she said, her accented voice giving her away as American. "I'm what you would call a Villain-for-Hire. And yeah, I'm the one who broke all those other villains out. My employer told me the heroes here are much more interesting than the ones back home. So please," she taunted, assuming a fighting stance, "Indulge me."

The people in the cars began to panic and flee their vehicles, as the road was too broken and unstable to drive on, but there was a dense crowd and they were having difficulty getting through. As they ran past, Izuku ran forward, formulating a plan as he did.

Okay, her Quirk can only hit me while I'm on the ground but there's nothing above me I can swing from. In addition she can't use it on me in close quarters, since we're on a bridge and she won't risk dropping herself. Chances are she knows that and she'll be able to use her Quirk to keep me away. Okay, Plan A: Use my grapple gun horizontally and pull myself towards her.

Pulling out his grapple gun, Izuku aimed to the guardrail just to her left and fired the cable, lifting off just as a shockwave passed under him, tearing up the road and taking out a chunk of bridge behind him. Izuku readied his gauntlet to punch her, but Epicenter reacted just in time to yank on the cable, sending Izuku swinging far out to the side. Izuku quickly detached the cable and brandished a second one, once again aiming at the guard rail.

Once the cable was in place, he swung on the cable under the bridge and emerged on the other side. He released the cable and let his momentum bring him closer to her, immune to her Quirk since he was completely untethered from the ground. He landed a good solid hit with his gauntlet into her helmet, cracking the visor a bit and sending her recoiling.

"Heh heh…" she laughed as Izuku's fist hung in the air where it had struck. Izuku launched a punch with his other hand, but she caught it, and his gauntlet began to shake uncontrollably.

Izuku's eyes widened.Oh crap, I did not think this through! Thinking quickly, he pulled his hand out of the metal gauntlet just as she crumpled it up like paper.

With no other option, Izuku collapsed the metal plating on his other gauntlet, folding it back up and leaving him with a black glove.

"Ah, going bare-knuckled, are we?" Epicenter grinned. "I like your style, Sleeper!"

The two began to exchange blows with the terrified civilians running past them in either direction, trying to get to safety. Izuku's smaller frame was able to easily dodge her blows, but her metal armor made it hard to do any significant damage to her. Really, her only weak spots were the joints and her neck, but she was a trained fighter and managed to block each hit aimed there.

Finally, Epicenter backed off a bit. "You know what? I'm getting bored. Let's spice things up a bit!"

She raised her fist and slammed it onto the ground, causing the bridge to give way beneath them. Epicenter was able to get back to solid ground quickly, and Izuku was quick on the draw with his grapple gun, but he was too late to stop the cars and people from falling with the bridge.

Just then, a cold wind blew through the area as a mass of ice suddenly appeared and formed a new bridge, atop which was Promise, one side of him completely covered in ice.

"Just in time, Promise," Izuku welcomed. "Together we should have no problem taking her down."

"You can leave this to me," Todoroki said, stepping forward. "I can handle this. You go help direct traffic or something."

Okay, rude. "No. I'm staying. The police already have the evacuation under control."

"Just stay out of my way then," Todoroki insisted. "You'll only get in the way if you try to help."

Izuku grit his teeth, but backed off anyway. Like it or not, he's a lot stronger than me.

"You know, you really need to be nicer to your coworkers," Epicenter pointed out. "You never know when you'll need them to have your back!" She punctuated this by smashing her fist into the bridge and creating a massive wave of spikes that shot up from the asphalt towardsTodoroki, who simply surfed on a wave of ice over the spikes.

Izuku knew what he was going to do. "Promise, wait! The villain, she's going to-"

He didn't listen. With a lethargic sweep of his hand, he threw a massive amount of ice her way, the freezing wave overwhelming her and freezing her there.

"Hmph," Todoroki glowered at the frozen villain. "You see, Sleeper Hit? You needn't have bothered-"

KACRACK!

The icy prison shattered immediately, Epicenter none the worse for wear as the broke free like it was nothing.

Izuku knew this would happen. "Promise, that villain's Quirk lets her create shockwaves and vibrations on any solid surface. She's got the perfect Quirk to counter yours! Your ice isn't going to help!"

"It's better than not having one at all," Todoroki shot back.

Izuku flinched, before his shocked expression gave way to anger. Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all.

Todoroki continued his ineffectual assault on the villain, his ice constantly failing to overwhelm the villain. He was, however, able to use it effectively to defend against her own attack when she used the bridge as a weapon.

Izuku, however, noticed a distressing trend. Todoroki's onslaughts were getting weaker and weaker, his movements slower and less precise.

It's the cold, he realized. The ice is starting to take its toll on him!

Todoroki found himself knocked back towards Izuku, pushed back after blocking a hit from Epicenter's Quirk. It was then than Izuku's mind snapped back to his discovery of the hidden side of his Quirk. He knew what needed to happen.

"Promise," Izuku tried again. "Your ice isn't going to work. You need to use your fire if you want to beat her."

Todoroki flinched, then turned to glare at him. "What did you say."

"I know your ice is only half your Quirk," Izuku pressed. "Not only is your ice not doing anything, but it's slowing you down! You need to use your fire!"

"Did my father put you up to this?!" Todoroki growled, seemingly forgetting the villain standing mere meters away.

Speaking of, Epicenter began to feel incredibly awkward. "Uh, this conversation is kinda getting personal so I'm just gonna... go." She quickly turned tail and bolted away.

The two heroes stopped their argument and turned to her. Todoroki began to ride a wave of ice after her, but he soon succumbed to the cold, losing focus and falling down to the street below him as his ice crumbled.

Izuku once again drew his grappling gun and tried to aim it at Epicenter, but she turned and smashed the ground, creating an instant wall that caused the grappling hook to harmlessly bounce off.

Izuku grunted in defeat as Epicenter took off.

"I told you to stay out of my way," Todoroki spat. "But you just had to interfere."

"How is this my fault?!" Izuku replied. "You could have easily overwhelmed her with your fire."

"How much?"

"Excuse me?"

"How much is my father paying you?"

"Is that what this is about?" Izuku asked. "You're holding back, handicapping yourself, only using half of your potential, and letting yourself get frostbite just to spite Endeavor?"

"You know nothing about me or my family problems," Todoroki growled.

"You're right. I don't know. I have my suspicions but that's all they are. But there is one thing I do know." He leveled a glare at Todoroki. "I know that you were blessed with the perfect Quirk, an insanely powerful one that can basically ignore its own downsides just by using the other half of it, and you're only using half of it just to spite your father! Do you have any idea how hard I had to work to make it as a Pro without a Quirk? I'm always at a disadvantage, I can only win by being smarter, faster, better than my opponent. I would've killed to have a Quirk like yours, and you're just… just throwing it away!" Izuku could feel himself getting angrier and angrier. "I guess Aizawa was even less competent than I gave him credit for if you're still fighting with one hand tied behind your back."

"You can prattle on all you want," Todoroki snapped, "There is nothing you can say to me that will make me use his Quirk."

"It's your Quirk, not his!" Izuku shouted, which finally seemed to get a reaction from Todoroki other than frustration and anger. The emotion on his face was shock, as though he had never considered this before. Seeing this, Izuku took a deep breath and collected himself.

"Todoroki. Like I said, I may not know the specifics, but I don't blame you for resenting him. He's the complete opposite of what a hero should be. Endeavor has no regard for property damage or civilian casualties, and lets his Quirk run wild and puts people in danger. But you… you're doing the exact same thing through inaction. You're letting people get hurt because you refuse to fight at full strength."

"For the longest time," he continued, his voice shaking, "I thought the Hero Course at UA was full of arrogant, self-important fakes. And you know what? I guess I was right about at least one of you."

Turning away from a speechless Todoroki, Izuku faced the direction Epicenter took off. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go after a villain who you could've stopped."

With that, Izuku took off after the villain, following the cracked roads, leaving Todoroki to stew in his thoughts.

It's my Quirk… not his…?

But he gave it to me, didn't he?

And besides, fire can only destroy. It can only cause pain… can't it?

As Shouto's thoughts continued like this, he realized that the ice around him was beginning to melt. Thankfully, the bridge was clear of traffic so the melting ice didn't pose an issue. But more to the point, he felt feeling return to his cold and numb body as the warmth of his Quirk flowed through him.

His eyes widened as Izuku's words finally sunk in.

It's my Quirk. Not Endeavor's. Mine. No one else's.

He clenched his fist as he readied his ice once again to pursue Izuku.

At least now I know where his hero name came from, Izuku thought bitterly.

"This is Sleeper Hit. Promise is out of commission and Epicenter got away. She's heading downtown. Requesting backup," he said into his earpiece.

"Sorry bro," Red Riot responded. "We're still tied up with the villain breakout. Some of these guys were with the League and we can't spare anyone else. We'll send a message to evacuate the residential area though."

"Understood," Izuku said, cutting off the communication before whipping out his grappling hook and launching it at some overhead scaffolding, grateful he had something to swing from for once. Now that he was able to cover much more ground, he was able to catch up to her pretty quickly. Releasing the cable, he quickly unfolded his gauntlet and electrified it as he let himself fall towards her.

Epicenter looked back too late and Izuku brought down his trademark Taser Fist on her armor, sending a jolt of electricity through her as he touched down into a three-point landing.

Fighting through the electricity, Epicenter managed to slowly reach a hand for Izuku's gauntlet, forcing Izuku to pull back and avoid having his second gauntlet get destroyed. Now free, Epicenter slammed the ground again and a wave of earth pushed Izuku back.

He picked himself back up, fired his grappling hook into the air, and pulled himself up to a nearby apartment building just as another wave was sent his way. As Izuku prepared to drop down and make another attack, Epicenter ran towards the building and slammed her fist into it.

The building began to shake, and Izuku's footing became a lot less stable. Finally, the building began to split apart and collapse, sending Izuku falling-

-Only to find himself landing on a cold, slippery slide that gently brought him back down to ground level.

On exiting the slide, he rolled into a landing and saw Shouto there, looking none the worse for wear.

"Back for round two, are you?" Epicenter grinned, her helmet cracked enough to show off her pearly whites. "I don't think your ice is going to work any better than it did last time."

"I'd like to see you try and break this," Shouto fired back as he shot a wall of burning flames at the villain. He stopped it after only a couple seconds but that was enough time for the metal costume Epicenter was wearing to heat up.

"Ow! Owowow! OW!" Epicenter hissed as she quickly began freeing herself from her burning-hot armor, the chestplate and gauntlets coming off, leaving her with a black tank top.

"Here, let me help you cool off," Shouto said as he once again enveloped her in ice.

Izuku was worried she'd break out of it again, but when she didn't, Izuku's eyes widened in understanding. The armor helped resist the cold, but without it, she was starting to go numb from the frigid temperatures, slowing down her Quirk massively. She was able to free one arm, but before she could do anything else, she quickly found it wrapped up and pulled by Izuku's grappling gun. She tried to use her Quirk on it, but the cable wasn't solid enough to create a quake on, and too taut for it to be properly vibrated.

Pressing a button on the grappling gun, Izuku let the cable pull him right to her, as he pulled out a pair of Quirk-Suppressant Handcuffs mid-flight. Todoroki, seeing what he was doing, nodded, using his fire side to thaw her out right as Izuku reached her, and in one smooth motion, Izuku slapped the cuffs onto her, bringing her to her knees.

Izuku held her in place as Shouto stepped forward as well.

Epicenter looked up at the two and chuckled. "Well, I did want a good fight," she admitted. "Can't exactly blame you for delivering."

"Sleeper Hit, this is Red Riot," the familiar voice came from Izuku's earpiece. "The situation on our end is under control, we're sending backup."

"That won't be necessary," Izuku replied. "Promise got back up and Epicenter is taken care of."

"Whoa, sweet! I'll have the police swing by your location."

"I'd appreciate that."

It wasn't long after that the police arrived to take Epicenter away. The two heroes gave their report to the police, Izuku called Mei to let her know that one of his gauntlets needed replacing, and just as he hung up, he became aware of Shouto walking towards him with none of the arrogant posture he had brought to the fight earlier.

"I wanted to thank you. And… to apologize. I let my own issues get in the way of my work. I was putting civilians at risk because of my family drama, and if it hadn't been for you, I fear someone might have died because of my refusal to go all-out. And what I said, about your Quirklessness… that was uncalled for."

"Don't worry about it, I forgive you."

"Really?" Shouto raised an eyebrow. "Just like that?"

"It's more of an apology than I ever got from Bakugou."

"That's right," Todoroki realized as the two walked away from the scene together. "You knew Bakugou, didn't you? Would you mind telling me what happened between you two?"

"Only if you tell me the full story of what happened with you and your family."

"Fair enough."

I knew I'd have to tackle Todoroki in this AU eventually.

The OC villain is actually a character I created outside of MHA, but I decided to use her because she still fits into the series and I needed someone who'd be able to easily counter Todoroki's ice.

I have a few other story ideas in mind, including an alternate ending and a multi-chapter story detailing Izuku's relationship with Mei. Can't wait to start on those, but now that class has started, it might be a while.