Onward!

Deku went into her fight with a fair bit of information about Mina. Not as much as someone like Bakugo, or certainly not Tsuyu, but enough.

She knew she was fairly athletic, and agile, able to slide around like she was on ice skates, but with more selective control. She was able to produce a powerful acid and throw it. And perhaps most importantly, she knew that Tsuyu, who was far more practiced than her at using Frog, had lost.

All that together told her a few things. She probably wouldn't be able to evade Mina, and trying to bind her with either Arachne's silk, or Frog's tongue, was never a likely prospect. Close combat was dangerous due to her acid, and she might be able to dodge her ranged attacks.

But surely her Acid had limits in how much it could burn. It wasn't nearly so destructive as Bakugo's explosions, or the laser she'd seen demonstrated by a student from 1B during the previous events.

She was confident she could brute **** past the other girl's offense and defense alike with _Vines, _much like her own mobility had been overwhelmed by Shiozaki.

It worked out pretty perfectly, in the end, with Mina being unable to keep up under the continued **** of vines, or get through the wall of vines Deku created to block. It took a while to wear her down, but eventually, she was caught, and instead of burning her way out like the previous times, she struggled, wincing, and was caught by increasing more vines. After a few seconds of trying to break free, she surrendered.

The next fight was by far the most even one of the tournament so far.

Ice versus Explosions, the two went back and forth for a while. It was a far cry from the previous two slaughters Todoroki has wrought.

In the end though, Bakugo had lost, worn down by overusing his quirk to break out of the endless ice that Todoroki threw his way. It was a very close fight, but in the end, It looked like it would be Todoroki and Midoriya in the finals.

Deku braced her arm and blasted the spikes of ice in front of her apart. It was the third such attack she'd deflected. Was Todoroki testing the waters, taking it slow to start? It made sense, Deku was a wild card. Todoroki didn't know how she got her powers, or what limits she had on using them, and so didn't want to risk a Shiozaki situation, or even let what happened to Bakugo happen and wear himself out. No, it made sense to win the same way as the previous match instead...by outlasting her.

What didn't make sense was that, unlike Bakugo, Todoroki was holding back.

Deku kept moving, dodging what she could, which wasn't much, and blasting away what she couldn't.

Deku wasn't sure what else to do here. Even with Frog, she couldn't evade Todoroki's massive area attacks for long. _Vines _didn't provide enough protection to block. Arachne was next to useless...Jinx was meaningless for more than maybe one interference. Invisibility...maybe if she could use it in combination, or while dressed, it would help, but she couldn't. Zero Gravity was also no help.

All she could do was deflect, and her arms were already getting sore. This was the limit of Bakugo's quirk...

Well, if she couldn't beat him...

"You're shivering, Todoroki." She shouted across the arena. It was true, he was clearly approaching his own limits, but not fast enough. The boy hesitated. "Quirks are still just physical abilities. You have to have limits on how much cold you can bear. But then...you could just thaw yourself out, couldn't you? Why won't you?"

He scowled, and launched another wave of ice. Deku shattered it with another stab of pain in her arms.

"Why are you holding back Todoroki? Everyone here is giving this their best...but you're going to try to win with only half your power? Come on...come at me with everything you've got!"

The scowl deepened. "Everything I've got? Did my bastard of a father pay you off? I won't use his quirk. Never in a fight, at least. I will be a hero with just my right side's power."

"His quirk? Who do you think you're talking to? It's your quirk, Todoroki, not his."

"You don't get it..." The boy threw another wave of ice. Deku barely managed to brace her arm and shatter it.

"I don't? Me, of all people? No, maybe I don't know your father. Not really, not like you do. But I know about this. My quirk is borrowing quirks. If anyone can claim to understand wanting to get by on your own power, it's me. So make it your own power! If you succeed with that quirk, it's because you did the work. Whatever your issues with your father, it's not justification for half-assing hero work!"

Todoroki froze, metaphorically speaking at least. "I won't play into his hands."

"Your father wants you to be like him, I assume? I won't pretend to know what he's like. Why you hate that idea...but if spiting your father is your motivation for not giving it your all, then you're never going to be the best. You want to spite him? Fine. Forget him. Be your own hero...or one day you're going to fail to save someone that you could have saved, if you'd just tried, and it won't be your father's fault. It will be yours!"

Deku lunged, rushing toward Todoroki and drew back her arm, planning to go for an explosive punch. Todoroki of all people could block the brunt of it.

But before she could reach the dual-sided hero student, his left side erupted in flames. "Why? Why are you trying so hard to inspire me? But...you're right. And...I want to be a hero."

Deku charged ahead anyway, but as she thrust her fist forward, seeing Todoroki doing the same, a wall of concrete obscured her view, and then she hit it, and the explosion she'd been building up for threw her back hard, into a piece of rubble. She felt the impact only briefly before the pain overwhelmed her, and she passed out.

A/N: I have a few reasons I changed up the dynamics of the Todoroki/Bakugo/Deku fights.

I still wanted Todoroki to get an inspiring conversation with Deku.

I still didn't want Deku to win, to show that her versatility wasn't an automatic win. For the most part, her use of each individual quirk is going to be weaker than their original owners (with the possible exceptions of Kin and Kimi, who never trained for combat use).

I also reasoned that, since they describe Todoroki as being off his game in the fight with Bakugo, if he wasn't shaken up by fighting Midoriya first, he may have won even without using the fire half of his quirk.