Melting his Icy Heart [Todoroki Shouto x Soulmate!OC]

Ch 24: Contentment

Why do I feel like the Sport Festival arc is taking forever? Haha, I'll probably summarize a bit more as I really want to go to the next arc soon and I feel the Sport Festival arc is dragging on.

During the time Akari had spent talking with Bakugo, Tsukuyomi had overpowered Yaoyorozu and defeated her. Akari had returned to Jirou and Shouto for Kirishima's battle. It had only taken Kirishima and Tetsutetsu a few short minutes to finish their arm-wrestling match, leaving the red-haired boy from class A as the winner that gets to move onto the second round. Which concluded Round 1 and it was now time for Round 2.

Shouto would go against Midoriya. During the short break before the battle, Akari went to Shouto's waiting room as she had wanted to let him know what she thought before his battle.

"Shouto." Akari called out to him, making the boy turn back to look at her. "I want to tell you something before you go."

"Yes?" The boy replied.

Akari took a deep breath before speaking as she knew this was a hard subject for the dual-haired boy. "I know I've said it before and even though I know our situations are similar yet different I really believe that you are your own person and I do believe you should make your fire your own! Don't link your quirk to your Father."

His expression became somber at the mention of his Father.

"But this quirk is his. I inherited it from him." Shouto replied, cooly.

"So what?" Akari quirked her eyebrow. "I inherited my water quirk from my Dad and my ice element from my Mom and Grandpa but I'm not them. Even when I trained with my grandpa, I saw his ice quirk as his and my water/ice quirk as mine."

"Every time I see my fire quirk, I can only see him." Shouto looks down at his left hand as he narrows his eyes, frustration clear on his face.

Akari puts her hand on his left hand and lightly squeezes it, "I understand. Although I see my parents and my grandpa's quirk as theirs, I do often compare myself to my brother Haru who had the same quirk as mine but his quirk was always much more powerful than mine."

Akari's blue eyes gloss as she continues with a sad smile, "I could never compete with him. Even at my current level, I still can't compare to him."

Shouto squeezed back as he listened intently. The action warmed her heart.

"It's easy to compare yourself to others, I do so as well. But I've been trying to just focus on what I can do. My quirk is mine, it might be weaker than my brother's but it's still mine. I'll keep training and working hard to become stronger. But it's my quirk. Just like your fire is yours."

The sadness left her gaze, instead being replaced with a determined expression. "I know you're limiting yourself to rebel against him but by doing so you are still letting him have control over you. It's your quirk. You can make it your own, combine it with your other amazing quirk." She smiled. "I know you'll have amazing moves and it will only make you stronger. You'll become a stronger hero."

He looked at her pensively before looking down at their linked hands, "Making it mine..."

"Yeah! Who cares about his plans for you! The one that will be reaping the rewards of being a top hero is you, not him! Don't limit yourself or hold back, do things for yourself."

Her light blue eyes stared deep into his dual-colored eyes. "Because I know that you don't actually want to hold back."

She remembered seeing him use his fire quirk in the cavalry battle as he fought against Midoriya. He wasn't thinking of his Father or his rebellion, he was just trying to win. At any cost.