MHA: The Blue Sun Chapter 71: The Final Exam: The Battle Begins(2)

….

Shoto didn't hesitate.

Ice erupted from his right side in massive, jagged spears, shooting forward with lethal intent.

Before the frost could even settle, a torrent of fire followed from his left; it was simultaneous assault using both elents together.

Yaoyorozu, montarily startled by the sheer ferocity of his opening move, scrambled into motion. She quickly began creating a tal staff from her quirk, preparing to provide support.

But Dabi's response wasn't what either of them expected.

Instead of eting Shoto's direct assault with a counter-surge, a lance of sapphire fla shot past Todoroki, aid directly at Yaoyorozu.

His move only had one goal; to eliminate the support player before she could beco a factor.

Shoto saw it instantly.

He pivoted mid-charge, a massive glacier of ice erupting between the blue flas and his partner, while his own fire redirected to vaporize the residual heat before it could reach her.

At that mont, the realization hit Momo.

When Shoto had said he would hold Dabi's attention while she ca up with a plan to neutralize him, he hadn't been being modest.

He was fully aware that he couldn't beat Dabi alone; perhaps not even with her help in a straightforward clash.

But he was willing to throw himself into the fight with everything just to buy her the seconds she needed to think.

He was putting his complete faith in her tactical ability. Her eyes shone with determination as understanding struck.

Her eyes sharpened with a new, fierce clarity. She fell back imdiately, shielding herself and beginning to construct a series of specialized components as her mind began to tear the environnt apart, looking for the win.

Shoto, anwhile, threw himself back at the circle with a renewed aggression.

….

The fight escalated rapidly, but there was sothing different about this clash; it lacked the normal feel of a student-teacher exercise.

Todoroki was fighting with a frantic, uncharacteristic edge.

…and he is using thods that didn't suit his normally reserved personality at all.

He was digging deep, pulling at every thread of connection he had to the man in the center of that circle.

"Rember this scar on my face, Toya?" Shoto's voice carried an edge Momo had never heard before as he launched another combination attack, ice from the ground, fire from above, trying to create overlapping threat vectors. "Our mother gave this when I was five. She poured boiling water on because she couldn't stand to see Endeavor's face in mine anymore."

He created another ice barrier, using it as cover to reposition.

"You know what that's like, don't you?" Shoto shouted over the roar of the blue flas. "Being broken and scared by the very people who were supposed to be our shelter. We're the sa, aren't we?"

Even a kid could guess that Shoto's provocation was a tactic. It was sothing he had clearly gleaned from watching Bakugo, though he lacked the blonde's natural, explosive vitriol.

…guess, desperate tis called for desperate asures.

Dabi deflected the ice with a wall of blue fla, his expression never changing. "Cute. Trying to use psychology against now? Did Bakugo teach you that, or did you co up with it yourself?"

There was no way Dabi would accept that Shoto learnt that from him…

And while Bakugo used aggressive language in fights, it wasn't tactical but simply part of who he was, loud and unfiltered rather than calculated.

To prove the point, Dabi launched a needle-thin fla toward a gap in Shoto's stance, forcing the younger boy to twist into a desperate defensive block rather than pressing the advantage.

The calm dismissal had the opposite effect of what Shoto intended. Instead of throwing Dabi off balance, it riled Shoto up.

His attacks beca more aggressive, the control he'd worked so hard to gain beginning to fray at the edges.

Ice and fire poured from him in greater volus, the temperature fluctuations making the air shimr and crack with thermal stress.

But Dabi handled it all with almost casual ease, even with his movent restricted to a three-ter radius

"Your fire control is sloppy there… See how it disperses? You're wasting heat on empty air instead of concentrating it where it matters."

Shoto gritted his teeth, pulling his flas into a tighter, more tighter column.

"Better. Still not enough temperature, though." Dabi critiqued, parrying the blast with a backhand of sapphire heat. "Endeavor would eat these sparklers for a midnight snack. You need at least another three hundred degrees before you're a real threat."

Ice spears ca next, and Dabi lted them with a gesture.

Every ti Yaoyorozu attempted to flank or launch a creative opening, Dabi would snap a precision blast her way.

It was never enough to seriously harm her, just enough to force her back, to remind her he was tracking every move on the battlefield despite his focus on Shoto.

Minutes passed…

Shoto was giving everything he had, pushing both sides of his quirk to their limits in ways he had never sustained before.

Fire and ice in constant rotation, sotis simultaneous, creating massive temperature swings that would hospitalize most opponents from thermal shock alone.

But Shoto didn't let up.

He promised Yaoyorozu that he would create a distraction, and he intends to hold it.

From the sidelines, Momo watched the exchange; all her previous attempts had been distractions, probing attacks to test responses while she observed and analyzed.

Finally, Momo landed on the real win condition.

The fire circle was the key, and not Dabi himself, and the rules stated that if Dabi left the circle, he lost.

But what if there was no circle to leave? If the flas were extinguished, the boundary ceased to exist.

Technically, he would be outside his circle even while standing in the sa spot.

It was a gamble on the technicality of the rules, but it was the only path through his overwhelming defense.

The problem was execution.

Dabi's blue flas weren't ordinary fire, they could burn at temperatures approaching 2,000°C.

She doubted his flas actually reached that extre, but they were clearly hot enough that conventional suppressants would fail before making contact.

Water would flash into steam before it even crossed the periter; standard foam would simply beco more fuel.

And worse: Dabi would notice any attack on the flas imdiately.

His control over his quirk was absolute, he would know the instant his fire was threatened and could simply reignite it faster than any suppression could take effect.

Unless…

Unless the suppression happened so fast he couldn't react. All at once, across the entire circle simultaneously, with enough force and the right chemical composition to overwhelm even his temperature advantage.

Momo's mind raced through chemical formulas, material compositions, and deploynt chanisms.

I need sothing that can withstand the initial heat long enough to deliver its payload… sothing that activates on contact with the fla instead of relying on gradual application, and triggers an endothermic reaction strong enough to drop the temperature below the combustion threshold in an instant.

From her body, she began creating components, not a single device, which would be too obvious and easy for Dabi to counter.

Instead, she began producing small, palm-sized canisters disguised as defensive items. She placed them carefully around the battlefield as she moved through his warning shots.

Each canister contained a two-stage compound: an aerosol delivery system wrapped in heat-resistant ceramic casing. Its insides are filled with a modified halon-replacent agent combined with liquid nitrogen under pressure.

When triggered, the casing would shatter from internal pressure, releasing the suppressant in an instantaneous expanding cloud that would simultaneously displace oxygen and create a flash-freeze effect.

One canister wouldn't be enough and Dabi would just reignite.

But twelve canisters, positioned in a ring around his fla circle, all triggered simultaneously?

That might work, for exactly the two seconds needed before he recovered and re-established the boundary.

….

"Todoroki!" Momo shouted. "It's about ti I proved you right when you decided to put your trust in ! So when I give the signal, create the largest ice wall you can directly in front of him! Block his view of completely!"

Shoto, breathing hard from continuous assault, didn't question.

Just nodded once.

Momo continued her movents, as she placed the final canisters while Shoto kept Dabi's attention focused forward.

The components were small enough and nurous enough that they blended with the general debris of combat, chunks of ice, scorch marks, discarded creation attempts.

Dabi was saying sothing, probably another harsh criticism of Shoto's technique, but Momo wasn't listening anymore.

Instead was counting and calculating the timing.

Almost there. Just need the right mont when he's fully committed to blocking Todoroki's attack…

Shoto launched his most overwhelming assault yet. He unleashed a gargantuan, dual-elent spiral; a towering vortex of frost and fla that roared toward the circle.

It was a technique that had nearly broken him during training, requiring every scrap of his remaining stamina to keep the elents from collapsing into a chaotic ss.

Dabi's response was imdiate: blue flas erupting to et the attack head-on, his full attention on the massive threat bearing down on him.

"NOW!" Momo scread.

Trusting blindly, Shoto slamd his right hand down, creating a massive ice wall directly between himself and Dabi; blocking the fire user's line of sight for one critical second.

Yaoyorozu triggered all twelve canisters simultaneously via a remote detonator she had created.

The effect was instantaneous and terrifyingly silent.

The heat-resistant casings shattered in perfect synchronization. The pressurized liquid nitrogen and modified halon agent erupted in an expanding, supersonic ring.

The reaction was violently endothermic as the chemicals tore the thermal energy out of the air with such force that the surrounding temperature plumted hundreds of degrees in a blink.

Dabi's blue flas didn't sputter or fight.

They just went out at once.

The sudden absence of heat was shocking after minutes of oppressive temperature and the ground where the flas had burned was flash-frozen, covered in a thin layer of frost from the liquid nitrogen.

Momo was already moving, sprinting for the gate the millisecond the suppressant cleared. Shoto, catching the rhythm instantly, followed on her heels without a second of hesitation.

For exactly 1.3 seconds, Dabi stood in the center of the void, his eyes wide with a rare, genuine spark of surprise.

Chemical suppression with endothermic flash-freeze? he recognized instantly. Deployed simultaneously across the entire periter to prevent gradual reignition. Actually really fucking smart.

"Nice try." Dabi said. Even through the grit of his voice, there was an unmistakable note of approval.

Blue flas erupted beneath his feet again, spreading outward in a new circle.

"Rules say I lose if I leave my circle." Dabi clarified, voice carrying across the frozen ground. "Never said I couldn't make a new circle once the old one was gone, and I never left the original position, so technically I never broke the boundary condition."

Dabi was literally spouting nonsense at this point.

Momo skidded to a halt, her boots sparking against the ice. Her heart sank as her mind raced to process the logic.

"That's–"

"Legal?" Dabi finished. "Yeah. Welco to hero work where villains don't fight fair either. Now, you have got fifteen minutes left and you just used your best trick. What's plan B?"

Behind Momo, Shoto was already in motion, fire and ice building again for another push.

Dabi watched them, sothing sharp and unspoken settling behind his eyes; pride he had never voiced, never would.

Momo steadied herself, the hesitation gone as she recalibrated.

Then Dabi exhaled a quiet laugh. "Nah… I am kidding. I lost."

The blue flas vanished instantly.

"Well played, Yaoyorozu." he added, brushing ash from his jacket. "The circle's gone… I am out of bounds, so this one's yours."

His gaze shifted briefly to Shoto.

"You both win."

He stepped aside, motioning toward the exit. "Go on before I change my mind and call a technical on you for taking too long after winning."

As they moved past, Momo caught his voice, low enough that it barely carried.

"You did well too, Shoto."

Dabi already had his phone out again, posture looser now, like sothing had settled.

Shoto kept walking, shoulders tight, hands still faintly trembling, whether from exertion or sothing unresolved, even he wasn't sure.

Behind them, Dabi's voice drifted on the wind.

"Yeah, bunny, I am back... they passed. Yeah... I am proud too."

.

….

[To be continued…]

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