Shoto tried not to look if Dabi was back in the stands, but ended up glancing toward where Fuyumi and Natsuo were sitting before he could help himself. He wasn't there, so either he'd gotten himself killed, arrested, or distracted and Shoto couldn't care less which one. Obviously. Why should he care about what happened to the long lost brother who never even bothered to reach out and then immediately did nothing but be annoying as soon as he was back in their lives? Still, Fuyumi and Natsuo wouldn't take it well if he died, so hopefully he'd just gotten bored and gone back to wherever he was sitting originally. Just for their sakes, not his. Obviously.

Dabi(skeptically): You're saying 'obviously' way too many times, Shoto.

Kaminari hadn't spent nearly any time with the class since the second round, so if he'd spent that whole time running around, he had to be getting tired by now. Not that Shoto thought he would need that advantage to beat him, but it couldn't hurt. Kaminari was one of the strongest students in their class, so it wouldn't be wise to underestimate him.

(Kaminari felt a weird twinge at being called one of the strongest students in the class. He was way too used to being the class idiot)

Midnight was back to overseeing the matches now, and she cracked her whip as she called the beginning of the match, "I want to see both of you showing off the potential of youth this round, is that clear? Begin!"

Right off the bat, Shoto started with an ice attack, but Kaminari quickly melted his way out with just the heat of his electricity. This needed to be a ranged fight and Shoto wasn't an idiot, so he'd made sure that he wasn't carrying any metal when he walked out onto the field, taking away any opportunity for Kaminari wouldn't be able to use his magnetism to bring him into close range. Shoto's strength was long range fighting, so this was his fight and he was going to win it without using his father's fire.

Shoto kept throwing up ice walls as Kaminari tried to get closer, but he kept melting them as fast as Shoto could make them. Thanks to the ice walls, Kaminari hadn't gotten farther than a few feet closer to him, but he didn't look rushed at all and it was throwing Shoto off. He should want to end the fight quickly, shouldn't he? The longer the fight went on, the more tired he'd get and the more likely it was that he would get frozen by Shoto's ice. So why didn't he seem concerned?

Midoriya: Because Todoroki's going to reach his limit way before Kaminari will.

"You sure you wanna keep doing this, man?" Kaminari yelled. "It doesn't take a whole lot of electricity to create heat like this, so I'm good to do this all day. You're gonna reach your quirk's limit way before I will if we keep going like this and I kinda want a fair fight, dude, if it's all the same to you."

Shoto froze. So that was why he wasn't in a rush. He was planning on going until Shoto passed out from hypothermia, which would happen long before Kaminari generated enough electricity to overload his brain, unless...Shoto shook the thought from his head and hardened his determination. He wasn't going to use his old man's quirk. It didn't matter that the bastard was dead, Shoto could do this with just his mother's power, but he'd have to kick it up a notch.

He made as big a glacier as he could without overdoing it. His breath came out in a large white cloud, but it would be worth it if he'd caught Kaminari... which he hadn't, apparently, considering that his opponent was currently waving at him from the very top of the mountain he'd just created.

Everyone(shooting a double take): Kaminari?!

Tamaki: How'd you even get up there?!

"That was really cool!" Kaminari grinned. "I wasn't sure I'd be able to stay in bounds if I used the stadium as a magnetic anchor, but I had to try, right, especially with an awesome move you just pulled. Your quirk is super powerful, dude."

Shoto felt a brief sense of pride until something occurred to him. It wasn't his quirk, it was his mother's ...unless his fire wasn't his fathers. Just like Dabi had said, the bastard was dead and he hadn't seen his mom in years. He was so far removed from his parents that neither quirk had anything to do with them anymore, and he couldn't say that his ice was his quirk without saying that his fire was as well. Why was he still letting those ghosts hold him back?

Midoriya(excitedly): Yes, do it Todoroki!

Kaminari was sliding down the side of the glacier now and Shoto found the corners of his mouth twitching upwards as he realized that by landing on top of the iceberg, Kaminari had put himself in a vulnerable position. Shoto could win this.

He just had to use his fire.

Midoriya: Do it!

He'd just been planning on melting the glacier and sending Kaminari on a knock-out drop to the ground, but instead, the stadium exploded. Shoto's eyes widened and he cut off his quirk. Was Kaminari okay? He hadn't hurt anyone, had he?

(everyone held their breath, suddenly worried)

The smoke felt like it took forever to clear, but when it did, Kaminari was unconscious and lying outside the ring. There was a long moment of loud silence before the stadium erupted into cheers.

"Denki Kaminari is out of bounds." Midnight announced. "Shoto Todoroki wins the Sports Festival!"

(everyone breathed a sigh of relief)

Kaminari: Second place, not bad!

Shouta tugged at his collar as Nezu pulled aside the curtain leading to the stage, "This is going to be a nightmare."

Aizawa(groaning): Oh great. I forgot about the vultures.

Nezu's smile was tight, "Yes, it is. You remember how to spin the events, correct?"

Shouta nodded and Nezu walked through the gap in the curtains, Shouta following close behind alongside several other heroes and teachers. The assembled reporters were already shouting questions, but they ignored them as they sat down at the long table. Nezu cleared his throat and after a minute, the reporters calmed down enough for them to begin.

"I have invited you here tonight to answer your questions about the incident that occurred this afternoon during the first year's sports festival." Nezu began, conveniently forgetting to mention that there had been at least three separate incidents, at the least. "After the attack at the USJ, we had been expecting such a move and were more than prepared with enough security and heroes to be able to withstand such an attack."

Hawks: What a mess of a Sports Festival.

A reporter's hand shot up, "So it was the same villains that attacked the USJ?"

"It was the group that announced themselves at the USJ as the league of villains, yes." Shouta answered. "However their numbers were decimated during the previous attack and they only sent two members, planning on using their powerful quirks to cause as much destruction as possible before fleeing. As said previously, we were prepared for such a move and were able to capture both villains quickly before they became a threat to the stadium as a whole."

"But you still chose not to evacuate." Another reporter accused. "Why?"

Snipe: Again, standard procedure.

"The logistics of so many people meant that the attack would have already ended by the time the evacuation even began." Midnight said calmly. "And evacuation comes with risks of its own, including an increased chance of someone being trampled in the inevitable panic. It is standard protocol in large events like these to only evacuate the affected areas to prevent unnecessary worry and injury, which we did as soon as they were in danger."

"And what about the rumors that you allowed a vigilante into the Sports Festival?" A voice called from the back. "Can you really say you did everything you could to protect those kids when you invited one of the criminals?"

(everyone glared at the reporter)

Uraraka: Deku's not a criminal, he's a hero!

And this was where some creative truths came into play. For both their PR and to keep Viridian from being even more of a target than he already was, it was best to minimize his role in the attacks at worst and completely eliminate him from the narrative at best. Shouta took a calming breath, "While it is true that a vigilante was allowed to attend, we did not know he was a vigilante at the time."

Confused mutterings erupted until Nezu raised his voice above the crowd, "The vigilante in question goes by the name of Dabi, was simply a petty informant before today, when he assisted heroes and was integral in the takedown of the villain called Tomura Shigaraki."

Dabi(mouth agape): Excuse me what?! I am not a vigilante!

"And is Dabi in custody as well?" one of the reporters asked.

"Yes. He was apprehended at the same time as Shigaraki." Rock Lock answered. "However, due to the fact that Shigaraki was not brutally injured and as gratitude for his assistance, as well as his status and training as the son of a former pro hero, he will be enrolled in the Vigilante Rehabilitation Program and train to receive his license at the next round of licensing exams."

The crowd went crazy, just as they'd planned. Making Dabi's identity known was a risk, but the scandal of it would take at least some of the heat off UA and let them weather the storm more effectively. Shouta didn't wait for the roar to die down before he started talking, "when he arrived at the sports festival, Dabi, or as you may have heard of him, Touya Todoroki, was simply attending to support his little brother, Shoto Todoroki. This was why he did not set off any red flags as a vigilante: quite simply, he had not committed any acts of vigilantism prior to today."

Dabi: Hold on a second you are not making me a hero!

Todoroki: What just happened?

Endeavor: What...

They were immediately barraged with a million questions about Endeavor and his family and no one thought to ask about the other vigilante that had snuck onto campus, so no one mentioned him. Shouta just hoped the kid was safe. He was good at disappearing and had gone radio silent the minute he left, but Kaminari assured him that his problem child was fine, so he just had to keep protecting him as best he could, just like he always did.

He could find the kid, hopefully. Kacchan obviously knew more than he let on, and Kaminari could probably be persuaded to slip up and give them some more hints if necessary, but the biggest hint was the Shouta was 90% sure that the kid had called him from his personal phone, so if they could track the number.

Tsukauchi: Maybe they can finally arrest him now...

Thirteen: Why are you saying 'maybe'?

Tsukauchi: Because I have this weird feeling that something either bad or ridiculous or both is going to happen again before they can do so and Viridian's going to run away again.

Another question pulled him from his thoughts. After this media (*^$#-storm was over and All for One had had some time to pull himself out of whatever blind rage Queen Bee's destruction had caused him, the first thing he'd do was track that phone and find his kid. If he did it at the beginnings of internships, he could even wrangel the kid into training alongside Shinso before he had to officially attend classes and enroll in the rehabilitation program. The plan was solid and logical, just like Shouta liked it.

He was finally going to catch his kid.

Tamaki: Does anyone else get an ominous feeling that something bad's going to happen...?

Mirio: I think that's just you, Tamaki.

There was not a word to describe the sheer rage that All for One felt at this moment. Decades of picking the perfect players to make an impact, years of training and brainwashing them until they were broken puppets that would play exactly the tune he gave them, buckets of money experimenting to perfect the ideal instruments to fit his symphony, all of it was gone, the magic shattered in a single moment by a goddamn solitary kazoo.

(everyone stiffened)

Nejire: Okay, it's not just you, Tamaki!

Perhaps he wasn't thinking the most rationally at the moment. Perhaps he'd been hasty in sending Kurogiri and Shigaraki to take revenge on that meddlesome vigilante. And perhaps he'd been throwing somewhat of what lesser men would call a tantrum when he'd annihilated the doctor and the rest of the nomu, but he had lived long enough that he had watched the world burn and rebuild itself from the ashes even stronger, so there was no reason he could not do the same. But first, he had to eliminate the stupid, idiotic, headstrong, interrupting hooligan that he should have killed when he'd first started even hinting at causing problems. It was not a mistake he would make again.

Toga: He killed the doctor...?

Viridian might have taken away everything else, but All for One still had his reputation and his resources. All for one picked up his phone and dialed the broker. That boy would regret ever making an enemy of the Symbol of Evil.

Giran picked up on the second ring, "Sensei! To what do I owe the honor?"

"How much to arrange a kidnapping?" All for One let his rage seep into his voice and he could almost feel Giran's terror on the other end of the phone. "I want to hear Viridian scream when I kill him."

Inko: No no no no no no...!

Jana: Hey, calm down! He'll be fine! Now let's just go to the next chapter and you can see it for yourself.