Now that Toru was off the screen and out of the sports festival she could sit back and relax.

The heroes that would be fighting the final round in the sports festival weren't her job to judge. Since they were on TV they were All for One and Shigaraki's problem. She wouldn't dare think she could think on the level of All for One, and since he could see all the same things, she saw now she knew she didn't need to turn on her brain and carefully observe. She could just sit there like a sack of potatoes and pretend to be bummed about not competing herself.

A tool doesn't need to think. I just need to continue completing my orders. It was a breath of fresh air to be mostly done with the sports festival.

Toru took a seat behind Tsuyu and Jiro in the arena. Mina and Yaoyorozu were in front of them, having a closer look at their competition.

Both Jiro and Tsuyu looked pretty bummed out about not competing themselves. Toru didn't really want to force interactions with them, she wanted to be part of the group but not as active as usual.

"I'm honestly surprised you weren't on Midoriya's team." Jiro admitted, awkwardly talking to Tsuyu. She must have caught on that Tsuyu hadn't eaten lunch with the rest of them and seemed sort of out of it.

Tsuyu just casually nodded. "Midoriya's a sweet guy and he knows the extent of my quirk, but I didn't really want that target on my back. And as I mentioned before I really wanted to work on my weaknesses."

"Your quirk is pretty well rounded though, Tsuyu. I would say you have the least weaknesses out of all of us." Jiro encouraged.

Tsuyu frowned. "Someone's weakness isn't just about their quirk. It's also about personality."

Toru could agree with that. Yaoyorozu had a great quirk, so did Bakugo, but their personalities held them both back.

"But you're always calm in the face of danger!" Jiro insisted.

Tsuyu gave a weak smile. "Thanks. But there are some things I haven't been so calm about. Mineta for example…I really wanted to work on my relationship with him."

"Why would you want to do that? He's a jerk!" Jiro huffed.

She must still be thinking about USJ. If she had to hide with Mineta again in a villain attack she probably worries she'll give their location away if she gets angry. Toru thought.

Tsuyu nodded. "It's a fact of life that if any of us want to make it in the hero industry we're going to meet many Mineta's though. Female heroes are treated a lot differently than male heroes. Just look at how many articles there are about Mount Lady's body opposed to her deeds. Because people like that aren't something we'll be able to avoid I think it's important to learn how to keep calm during those incidents."

Jiro looked horrified about what Tsuyu had said. She couldn't say it was wrong though. "The people who write those articles SUCK. But not all news sources are like that. There are more people who are good than those who are bad." She reminded.

Yaoyorozu politely nodded. "It's a fact of life though that we don't pick and choose who we save, as heroes. And we'll eventually come across people who act similar to Mineta. I think it's admirable that Asui was aware of that and was working on it." She paused. "Why are you so downhearted though? You succeeded at your goal!"

Tsuyu frowned. "I thought…If I conquered my weakness I would win. But even with that we didn't stand a chance against the other students…."

Jiro rubbed her shoulder.

"There will be other chances! Maybe next year you'll win!" Toru finally chimed in.

"Thank you, Toru. Sorry for being so moody." Tsuyu apologized again.

Some of their other classmates started sitting in their seats. Ojiro took a seat next to Jiro.

"Can I sit here?" He asked politely before taking a seat.

"Go ahead." Jiro shrugged.

Mineta however, did not ask permission. He squeezed through the other end and sat one seat away from Toru. Toru suspected the glare Yaoyorozu gave him before he sat down ensured he didn't come any closer.

"I just want to watch the sports festival too! Why are you all being so mean and looking me like that?" Mineta cried.

"Maybe it's because of how you and Kaminari humiliated us by tricking all of us to wear cheerleading outfits?" Jiro suggested.

"Honestly if you just told the truth that it might cheer up people to watch Class A cheerlead, I'm sure some of us would have done it." Mina frowned. "It's better to have honest conversation than skeevy scheming."

"But then Yaoyorozu wouldn't be in the outfit…" Mineta moaned.

"If she didn't want to it's not right to force her." Tsuyu tried to educate instead of yell. "Toru, Mina and Ochako seemed to enjoy it. If you had suggested it to us, we could have brought Iida in and maybe anyone from Class B who wanted to contribute as well. And nobody would have been uncomfortable."

Mineta frowned. The allure of Class B girls was rather interesting.

I don't want to see them try to reason with him. I don't know why they're still playing this game of pretend friendship with all he's done. It seemed like some of the girls were uncomfortable around Mineta, but only fully expressed that when he wasn't around. They didn't report him to the teachers, they didn't petition the faculty to have him removed. It didn't make sense. Yaoyorozu and Tsuyu treated him at times just like they'd treat any classmate. Do they want him to be a hero? They know that people like him who become heroes that are perverts are dangerous to society, right?

Perhaps they didn't. Perhaps only the villains criticized the heroes let into hero ranks.

Still Toru found herself uncomfortable even being near Mineta and having to embrace this game of 'pretend' pleasantries.

Koda seemed to notice a faint shake of her shoulders and quickly went to go sit between Toru and Mineta.

Toru's brief tremble of her leg in fury stopped. Perhaps he had misinterpreted it as fear.

"Thanks." She whispered, playing along with his beliefs.

"No problem!" Koda signed. "I didn't want you to be uncomfortable. I'm not a girl and I'm not the type that likes conflict but if there's anything I can do to help like being nearby tell me? I've noticed a lot of the girls seem to be…rather uncomfortable around Mineta."

Mineta turned his head to the stadiums. He didn't speak sign language.

Why's Koda being so talkative? I suppose he just wants to help. The nice but too shy to pick a fight type. Still, it was a little appreciated.

"I will!" Toru nodded. "And don't worry, you're doing plenty, Koda!" She said cheerily.

Jiro and Tsuyu glanced at them but didn't try to eavesdrop.

"Can I ask why you're so talkative today? Oooh did we make friends in the battle?" Toru excitedly asked, wondering if she could add Koda into her ranks of allies.

Koda blushed and then continued to sign. "Well…I noticed you're one of the people here fluent in sign language. Sometimes I sign and people don't notice that I'm talking…But you've always responded! So…um…If you'll have me, I'd love to be your friend."

I'm one of the few people fluent? That didn't make any sense. Wasn't language important to know what people were saying? All for One had taught her a variety of languages so she could read documents and eavesdrop. Sign language was one of the easiest ones for people to signal things to her. Was she really the only one? Was not knowing that not normal?

"Am I really the only one?" Toru asked. She couldn't sign back because she didn't have hands.

"Oh nooo…Not at all." Koda waved his hands. "Yaoyorozu knows sign language too. And I think Jiro, Midoriya, Tsuyu, Iida, and Sato are trying to learn for me. But they aren't at your level of fluency. I appreciate everyone in my class who tries to communicate with me. It's sweet…Makes me feel a little bad…."

Toru noticed that Koda was much more talkative with his hands than his mouth.

Why does he sign anyway? Can he not speak unless using his quirk? Is it like always on ordering the animals? He's not deaf because he hears my answers…Selective mutism maybe? Shyness to the degree of not talking?

"Tokoyami and Dark Shadow know a bit too! But Dark Shadow is a little better at it." Koda continued.

That was interesting. Did they not share a brain?

The tournament began. The first fight was Shinso vs Midoriya.

"Midoriya will win for sure." Jiro clenched her fist, rooting for her classmate. Tsuyu nodded in agreement.

"What even is the general studies student's quirk?" Yaoyorozu wondered.

"Brainwashing. But I warned Midoriya against it so he should have an easy victory." Ojiro reassured.

Midoriya's the friendly type though. If Shinso's brainwashing is activated by talking to him he'll lose for sure. Toru turned away from the competition. It wasn't her job to analyze this. All for One would tell her later is Shinso interested him and she should watch him closer.

She continued to be chatty with Koda.

"So why do you sign, Koda? Does it have to do with your quirk?" It could benefit her to know Koda's weaknesses if needed in the future.

Koda look flustered.

"GO MIDORIYA! GO!" Mineta cheered. Everybody was cheering for Midoriya and not paying attention to Toru's conversation.

"I'm shy…I got bullied a lot in elementary school and middle school…People laughed a lot at my face. You've probably experienced the same thing since you're a mutant type, right?" Koda asked.

The same thing Shoji said…Mutant types experience a lot of turmoil that people who don't look different realize. Toru recalled a few people making snide comments about her being invisible in her year of middle school too. But it never got under her skin since it was just a year of training to learn social dynamics.

"Yep!" Toru agreed.

Koda looked relieved. "It got so bad, I decided I didn't want to talk anymore…It was easier to be invisible than get bullied. And eventually it got too hard for me to speak out words out loud. I just remembered everybody making fun of my voice and things. It's still hard for me to talk so if I want to express myself, I have to sign. Is…Is that okay? My Dad is Deaf so I already knew it but I feel like I'm lying to people…Like what if they assume I'm Deaf and because of that take extra steps to accommodate me when I can hear fine?"

So, trauma makes it hard for him to talk. Toru had a moment of sympathy as she looked at him.

She had stopped talking when she had been homeless. So much so that knew no words when All for One had found her at five. It had been hard to break free from the mentality that people would hear her if she talked even if they couldn't see her.

"Speak for me, and me only. Then you don't have to worry about being forgotten." All for One had told her, "Because you will just be mimicking my words. You don't have to be you."

"I don't think you're lying to anyone. And hey, judging on the match we're watching now, not talking can be useful against villains, right?" Toru pointed out.

Midoriya had been brainwashed as predicted.

Koda nodded slowly, not wanting to admit Shinso scared him and had brainwashed him too.

"Where did you learn sign language?" Koda asked. "I know Yaoyorozu said her tutors taught her so she could save Deaf people during disasters. But not everyone has access to tutors. Do you have a Deaf relative? How do invisible people sign when Deaf?"

Toru frowned. She hadn't thought up a story. "I learned for hero work too!" She decided to say. "After all, if you don't know someone's in danger your hand can't reach them right? I think it's important to be able to communicate to the people we're saving." She said chipperly.

Koda gave a big wide smile. That was absolutely true.

Midoriya broke through the brainwashing by breaking two fingers and the audience went wild.

Didn't know Shinso's brainwashing was so easy to break. If willpower could break out of it perhaps All for One wouldn't be interested in it.

The rest of the matches proceed in a way easy to predict.

Sero VS Todoroki ended in an overwhelming loss for Sero.

Kaminari vs Ibara from Class B ended in Kaminari losing due to being distracted by a pretty girl.

Monoma climbed over the wall between Class B and Class A's sections to mock Class A over the loss before Kendo dragged him back.

I'm getting the feel for the dynamic in Class B…Toru thought.

The next match had her excited. It was Mei vs Iida!

Toru watched excitedly as Iida got conned by Mei to advertise her support items.

"Poor Iida…I guess that sort of straightforward and honest personality can be used against you." Mina commented as the people in the stands watched what was basically a 10-minute infomercial instead of a fight.

Nobody looked particularly excited about this turn of events, except Toru. She raised her arm and cheered. "GO MEI!"

"I'm not sure if she's competing to win anymore…I'm honestly not sure what I'm watching." Jiro admitted.

She isn't competing to win. I wanted her to win the sports festival because Mei winning to get companies attention seems way better than a hero winning to seem strong. But if what she wants is just time to advertise her wares, I support her. Toru thought.

The other fights in the sports festival had been talked up as violent and bloody battles by Present Mic. People had been excited about seeing teenagers fight and injure each other, but no more. Iida's fight was bathed in pure commercialism instead of blood. And nobody enjoyed it.

Mei had ended that tradition by holding Iida practically hostage as she advertised every single item she made in excruciating detail. There was no battle to be had as Mei pulled Iida's puppet strings with the support gear, she had tricked him into donning.

Toru excitedly waved her arms, nobody else's energy level quite on the same level as hers.

"You really care about your friends don't you, Toru?" Tsuyu asked. "Well…I'm glad she's getting what she wants…for you."

Koda also nodded, trying to keep his attention on the fight even though everyone else was yawning, very bored. Ojiro looked like he pitied Iida and kept looking away from secondhand embarrassment.

"It's not even hot….It's just boring!" Mineta complained.

Toru didn't agree. This match was the most interesting out of all the sports festival! Support class items are pretty powerful and important too. It's truly silly for people who want power like heroes to ignore this.

The infomercial lasted 10 minutes. Mei eventually walked out of the ring, giving up now that she had done all that she wanted to do. She looked proud while Iida looked betrayed and frustrated.

"You tricked me!" He growled.

Mei smiled and turned away. "I'm sorry, I used you." She said mischievously.

"I hate you!" Iida just yelled after her as she proudly walked away.

The sports festival is going to be rather boring now that Mei's out. Too bad the high moments of the tournament are earlier rather than later.

The next two fights were Mina vs Aoyama and Yaoyorozu vs Tokoyami.

Mina beat Aoyama as predicted, melting down his belt and pantsing him publicly. Many people in the crowd looked at Aoyama with pity.

Yaoyorozu was beaten in mere second by Tokoyami. His raw power did not give her a chance to think things out and create things.

Yaoyorozu came back to the seats, visibly distressed and depressed. Mina's excited nature at moving up in the tournament did nothing to help her mood.

She didn't even say much. She just curled up.

It's the start of her fall from grace as she realizes she's not the second most powerful student as she previously believed. Toru didn't rub salt into her wounds, not wanting to be rude.

I wonder why Yaoyorozu was a recommendation student. Did her privilege at being from a pro-hero family create the opportunity for her? But if pro's were given access to be recommendation students why weren't Kaminari and Iida recommended?

To her knowledge neither of them had even been in the running to be recommendation students. And they were both from pro-hero families too. Was it more about quirk then along with grades? Then why wasn't Shinso with a powerful brainwashing quirk recommended?

Could it be a mixture of social status, plus quirk that they look into for recommendation students? Yaoyorozu and Todoroki's quirk are both dangerous, they easily have the power to kill, and they have a huge social status. But UA clearly isn't looking at experience since Yaoyorozu has none.

It was a constant mystery how UA ran and why some students made the cut to be important to UA's programs while others did not.

Tetsutetsu vs Kirishima was next. Because of the similar nature of their quirks the battle ended in a draw with both of them being knocked out, so it was decided they'd have to compete in some other way. That ended up being an arm wrestling competition and Kirishima won.

Uraraka vs Bakugo went about as anyone could expect with Bakugo winning. Uraraka did fight to the bitter end though, and at times it looked like she MIGHT win. She was definitely better than anyone had given her credit for.

The weirdest thing about their match was the fact that everyone was actively rooting against Bakugo in the crowd.

If everyone knows Bakugo's violent and that he's not likable, why is he allowed to continue being a student in a hero school? Toru wondered. And weirder, if she looked at things from the hero's side of things, wouldn't Bakugo become worse if everyone was ALLOWED to actively spew hate at him in the crowd? For all Bakugo's faults he was a teenager. If UA wanted to make heroes, why were they allowing this?

It feels like this tournament is less about making heroes and more about making villains. If Bakugo gets mad and violent when things don't go his way won't he get even worse from this?

What was UA trying to do? Toru did not know. And it wasn't her job to figure that out. But she wondered why she was the only one who ever questioned it, like she was the only one who saw that the Emperor in new clothes was wearing nothing and everyone else was just saying 'this is fine'.

What was wrong with society?

The next match was Todoroki and Midoriya.

"So, who do you think will win?" Jiro asked. Everyone seemed to be trying to place their bets. Midoriya was an underdog after all. People kind of wanted to root for him.

"Midoriya. He's always got a plan and is super smart." Tsuyu predicted.

"Midoriya! He's really cool and even if his bones explode, he's strong too!" Mineta also agreed.

"Todoroki. He's got a lot of power. He beat Sero in seconds after all!" Mina nodded excitedly.

Yaoyorozu weakly glanced at the betting, and then glued her eyes back on the stage. Her hands were shaking, and she kept out of the conversation.

"Todoroki." Koda signed. "He doesn't have any weaknesses yet!"

"Midoriya!" Ojiro suggested.

"Hmm…I want Midoriya to win because I want to root for him, but I think Todoroki will. Either way it will be a fun match!" Toru lied.

Everyone nodded and agreed.

People cheered loudly in Todoroki's match. Midoriya said a powerful line of "it's not your father's power, it's yours!" and Todoroki's flames lit up.

I guess all my manipulation of Todoroki to keep him from becoming more powerful didn't work…He was just waiting for one person to tell him he could and that was who he was planning to listen to. Toru thought.

Todoroki had now become more powerful and a bigger threat thanks to Midoriya's meddling. She'd have to keep a closer eye on him.

As loud cheers erupted in the stadium as Midoriya and Todoroki created a powerful blast against one another and Midoriya was thrown out of the arena, Toru felt nothing. She wasn't rooting for Midoriya. She wasn't rooting for Todoroki. She was merely an observer.

After that match Iida beat Shiozaki from Class B rather easily.

Tokoyami quickly beat Mina and pushed her out of bounds. Mina's acid didn't do much against dark shadow since he could dodge it.

"Darn it! I know I was in the top ten but I kinda wanted to go for number 1!" Mina said frustratedly as she went back to her seat. "Too bad Tokoyami's so strong…"

"It was an honor to compete against you." Tokoyami agreed.

Mina pouted.

Bakugo and Kirishima fought the next battle. It appeared briefly like Bakugo was on the defensive for once.

It's surprising that he's not getting too mad about that either. Are they friends? But Bakugo can't even remember his name…Toru thought.

It didn't take long for Bakugo to turn things around and just start blasting at Kirishima. Even with Kirishima's hardening it seemed to have a limit and the explosions eventually got through and Bakugo won.

The final four were Tokoyami, Iida, Bakugo and Todoroki. And it was easy to guess that either Bakugo or Todoroki would win since they were the most powerful and blasty out of that group.

Iida vs Todoroki went about as anyone could have expected. Todoroki won but Iida got a few kicks into his ice. Todoroki managed to put ice in Iida's engines halting him before the end.

Tokoyami lost in his match against Bakugo. Apparently, he had a weakness to light and Bakugo's explosions exposed that. He gave up after Dark Shadow seemed to not stand a chance.

Bad luck for Tokoyami for his weakness to be publicized on television. It's super easy to make light and exploit it.

I should work on befriending him since I know I can easily use his quirk to my advantage if need be. She could generate light after all.

The final match ended up being Todoroki vs Bakugo just as most people had predicted. Toru wasn't particularly interested in the results so her attention focused on her classmates. Most of them were talking about Tokoyami's weakness.

"We'll have to work hard and get our revenge next year, right?" Iida said to Midoriya as he walked back to his seat.

"Iida!" Midoriya greeted.

Iida smiled and started vibrating. He got his phone out of his pocket and went behind the doorway to talk.

I wonder what he's talking about….Toru thought. She got up to go to the bathroom, and coincidentally pass by the door. Nobody was paying much attention to her; they were paying attention to Bakugo and Todoroki's match.

"Hello? I regret to inform you that I lost, Mother. I was weak." Iida apologized.

Toru picked up her pace. Just his pro-hero, Mom. Nothing important or interesting.

"Excuse me!" She squeaked by Iida to get to the restroom. He didn't respond to her as she walked by.

Iida had gotten off the phone and sheer horror and despair was on his face. He hadn't said anything more.

Toru left him, pretending she hadn't seen his expression. I suppose some bad news happened on the phone. His look…Looked like one of loss? Perhaps a family member passed away…

If something happened to Iida's family she didn't have to dig deep at school. All she needed to do was google it because his family was famous. She was interested to know what had happened to the fame speedy family during the sports festival.

As Toru returned from her trip, Bakugo was just winning. Midnight had to knock Bakugo out from maiming Todoroki's body because he hadn't fought with everything against him or something.

By the time the awards ceremony came on by Bakugo was fully muzzled and restrained so that he wouldn't injure anyone. Everyone seemed to just think this was fine and gave no mention of the muzzle and chains.

Wow…Um…Why…The heck is everyone treating this as normal and funny? So, they want someone violent to be the most powerful hero at UA? Not to mention but this was probably humiliating to Bakugo. Toru didn't care anything about his feelings, but this felt more like a villain origin story than anything. Publicly humiliated teenagers were more likely than anything else to turn into villains. It was interesting how UA seemed to be creating this atmosphere.

UA seems to have 0 moral code. They upped the publicity of the brutality and violence of this sports festival. They didn't have any rules preventing their heroes from being violent. Being too violent doesn't disqualify you from the events it just gets you publicly chained and muzzled so you can't speak. This is more of a villain breeding ground than system that creates heroes. Toru couldn't understand what UA was thinking. Was this just normal in society? Would people mention this and pity Bakugo later or be afraid of him or would they never mention it again?

Besides that, the Awards ceremony proceeded smoothly. Iida was not there even though he had gotten third place. He had left because of something happening back home, confirming something big had happened to his pro hero family. All Might presented the awards, placing Bakugo's medal in his mouth because his hands were weighed down by concrete.

Everyone cheered and yelled Plus Ultra, as Toru just sat there wondering what she had watched.

I hope Master and Shigaraki had some useful takeaways from the festival because I just feel like it's a bunch of nothing. She had gained nothing of value, but she had managed to not stand out much either.

She yelled with the rest of the crowd wondering what she had witnessed.

My original edit of this chapter was a lot more recapping and analyzing a lot of Mic's lines while he announced things and how much of a focus on violence this tournament had in announcing. Instead of recapping I decided to have some development between Koda and Toru who she was seen sitting next to.

How do you all feel about the fact that UA chained and muzzled Bakugo at the end of the sports festival? I know it was very important to later arcs and the villains getting interested in him but I'm always baffled that all the teachers were like 'yeah that's fine.' I'm sure many Bakugo angst fics focus on that.