Chapter 53:

After that short-lived fight, the crowd was paying much more attention to things.

The unlucky few that left to get snacks completely missed the entire fight, and were complaining non-stop about who could have possibly bought all the chocolate milk from one of the stands.

It was ridiculous!

Who could have possibly purchased all of that chocolate milk? What purpose could they have for all of it? And, why do they want that much chocolate milk?

Those were the questions plaguing those whose children wanted some of the drink in question after watching the person who gave the speech drinking some.

Setting that small minority aside, many people were excited to finally have some fast-paced action compared to the previous slog that was the Tower of Babel.

The heroes were very interested in the blonde participant, most wanting to take her under their wing due to knowing she had a bright future in the industry. Was it to help nurture that talent?

For the majority of them? No, it wasn't. It was about making an impression on a potential famous hero in the future that they can piggyback off of during their later years if they were lucky enough.

Unbeknownst to those people, All Might's mentor, Gran Torino already called him and asked to train her, clearly wanting to polish her technique even further.

He also wanted to berate his former student for letting the commentators get away with basically leaking his successor's condition to the public. Unfortunately, the damage had been done, and there was nothing they could do about it now.

They knew that All for One watches, or had a good enough inkling that he does, the sports festival in search of new quirks that he could add to his collection. They also knew that Present Mic had just delivered his successor's name right into the crime lord's hands.

Security was being arranged for the shield family as they spoke, clearly not wanting the successor to the symbol of peace to be manipulated or blackmailed due to her family being kidnapped, etc.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The class 1-B representative, Itsuka Kendo, was very excited about her upcoming match.

There was a tiny part of her that regretted not taking Sakuya up on her offer to awaken her quirk, which is something that plagues her mind whenever she sees how well her awakened friends, Yui and Reiko, are doing in class.

Hell, even her teacher Vlad King has had his quirk awakened by her silver-haired friend. It, simply, was eating at her consciousness a tiny bit with thoughts of 'what if' scenarios.

Overall, however, she was fine with her current standing enough to the point where she was confident in saying that she was ready to take on her vampiric friend, Toga.

Toga was a tricky opponent, and even more so when factoring in her friend's quirk awakening. It allowed her a form of quirk mimicry, basically giving her infinite versatility.

The only condition she needed to meet was to have drank the blood of the person whose quirk she wanted to use, and that the amount of blood consumed was related to how long she could remain transformed.

She knew that Toga couldn't bring a blood bag into the field and drink it, due to it counting as food/drink. So her timer would already be running when the buzzer goes off. She only needed to run down the clock, and then her victory would all but be guaranteed.

She tried her best to listen in on the class 1-A conversations, mainly searching for Toga's voice. Sadly, she couldn't hear her, so she didn't manage to collect any clues on whose blood she had consumed.

Information was half the battle, and she had next to none when compared to her opponent's knowledge of her quirk. Then again, what should she have expected when she's spent years with her.

She did, however, know that it wouldn't be a teacher's blood. This was due to one of the rules stating that teachers can't offer help, or assistance, outside of the school nurse in medical settings to competitors.

So, thankfully, she didn't have to worry about her teacher's Haemokinesis cropping up. That would have been a huge pain to deal with, especially due to how it granted her opponent ranged attacks, something that she sorely lacked.

The only quirks that she knew of in class 1-A were: Mina's Acid, Momo's Creation, Sakuya's Chronokinesis, Tsuyu's Frog, Melissa's strength stockpiler, Todoroki's fire/ice, an electrocution one, a belly button laser, an explosion one, a multiple arms one, a hardening one, and a sentient shadow one.

She could mark off the mutation ones such as Frog, and the multiple arms due to knowing that Toga 'hates the taste' of it. She could also mark off the belly button laser due to it harming the user.

Melissa's stockpiler was off of the table due to how it operates as well, it would be useless for Toga to copy no matter how much the blood tastes 'great'.

She could only hope that it wouldn't be Mina's Acid quirk, even though she had a way around it, as painful as it was, she didn't want to experience it. It didn't matter if Sakuya would be able to heal her hands.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how one views it, she was brought out of her contemplation due to her name being called out. Sure, she could use more time thinking, but it was time to fight, and who was she to deny a good fight?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Toga was happily waiting in her assigned room for her name to be called. She didn't care if she won or not, she had given up hope on that train of thought long ago.

There were simply some obstacles that she couldn't overcome, and they came in the form of her friends. Whether it be the time manipulator mastermind, Sakuya, or the walking intangible acid vat, Mina, she knew that her friends were extra special when it came to fighting.

Her only hopes of beating them were asking or tricking, her other friends for their blood so she had a quirk that could compete with them.

But, she didn't want to do that. It would be putting her friends against each other, instead of her actually fighting them, which she didn't like the idea of doing. It might also cause some friction due to them 'assisting' in the fight.

So, she didn't ask any of her friends for their quirks, despite them almost guaranteeing victory for her. That, however, didn't mean that she wouldn't be using her quirk mimicry on someone else's quirk.

She knew that a certain someone wanted to prove themselves, yet wasn't able to due to the matchup. So, deciding to be a great future classmate, she made her way to the infirmary in search of Shinso.

Swinging the door open, she caught Shinso, and Sakuya's attention. Noting that she had the floor, so to speak, she requested a bag of his blood in return for showing off how great his quirk was to the public.

She knew that Sakuya saw through this act of 'kindness' immediately, and was ever the more thankful that she didn't interfere. Shinso, naturally, agreed.

From there, Sakuya had to take out the blood drawing equipment, due to her wanting it to be done 'by the book'. Toga saw through that instantly, she just wanted to stab a needle into Shinso. But, just like Sakuya didn't interfere earlier, she didn't do so then.

It took a solid minute or two, but she had an entire blood bag filled with a wonderful brainwashing quirk.

As soon as her name was called out by Mic, she pierced the blood bag with her teeth before drinking it down in one. It would grant her a few minutes with the quirk, which would be more than enough as long as the match didn't get delayed by unforeseen consequences.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Both competitors made their way to the ring, in full view of the crowd, with their heads held high. Evidently, both of them were very confident in their abilities, something people liked in their heroes to an extent.

The smiles on each competitor's face were zoomed in on during their journey to the miniature concrete arena, showing their confidence on the full screen.

[[It's time for the second match!! This time it's the class 1-B representative, Itsuka Kendo!! She's a martial arts master, and packs a real mean punch!!

Versus!!

The class 1-A's very own, Himiko Toga!! You can never know when this shape-shifting vampiress will strike, and when she does it's probably too late!!]]

"Are both of you ready?"

"One hundred percent~!" Toga's cheerful reply came.

"Ready, and waiting, Midnight-sensei." Kendo's much more formal reply came soon after.

[[You heard them, folks!! 3,2,1, MATCH START!!]]

Kendo immediately began rushing Toga, in hopes that the smaller gap between them would help her overcome any ranged attacks Toga may have. But, surprisingly for the red-head, Toga dashed right towards her too.

Being caught off guard by this action, Toga managed to slide under the first of Kendo's enlarged fists, while hand springing herself off of the concrete over the second one that soon followed.

[[What wonderful maneuvers from Toga!! She completely dodged the first big fist, before elegantly hopping over the next!!]]

Taking advantage of her newfound position, she twisted her hips in mid-air, spun with all the force she could, and landed a perfect kick to Kendo's head, just below her ear on the mastoid.

Kendo, being staggered by the blow to her head, chose to retreat back a bit to gather her bearings. Being hit on the mastoid with such force would typically result in an immediate blackout, she was lucky that she was still operational and didn't wish to risk it.

(A/N: It's the part people hit in anime where they knock people out with a single chop.)

[[What a devastating blow dealt to Kendo!! Just HOW will she ever recover from that?!]]

Seeing the perfect opportunity given to her, Toga transformed into Shinso, in hopes that Kendo wouldn't have noticed the change due to her current state.

"Did you like that? I learned it from all the times you used it on- the blonde howler monkey- Monoma. Just thought that I would add a little spice~ by turning it into a kick." She bragged, in as feminine of a voice that Shinso's form could muster.

She really put her voice acting classes to work, perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing after all. She only originally did them to help with her infiltration abilities, but now it has helped in such a great way.

Kendo put her guard up as she heard Toga approaching closer, before answering the question presented to her, in hopes of gaining a little more control over Toga in a battle of words while she recovered,

"I can certainly see why Monoma complains about my chops a lot more now. It was expected such a technique would do well, though. After all, I was the one who you learned it from."

Finally regaining her feet, and vision, she let down her guard and swung at the now transformed Toga. A sense of dread filled her body as she saw just who she transformed into.

She was there when Sakuya had basically exposed the purple-haired student's quirk as brainwashing, and had been careful to avoid him since then. Unfortunately, she was played by Toga perfectly.

"Be a great friend Kendo, and walk out of the ring for me, please~." The vampiress said with a smug smile on her face.

Kendo felt her body lock up as soon as the reply to her came through, and her body walked out of the ring against her will. Nothing she did worked, no amount of screaming mentally broke her free, there was simply no plot armor.

[[It looks as if Toga, in her new transformation, had managed to control her opponent!! Kendo is mindlessly walking out of the ring!! What sorcery is this, Eraserhead?!]]

As Kendo was busy cussing out Present Mic, and her current situation, Aizawa decided to follow up on his co-host's comment and question,

[[What we have here is Toga transformed into Shinso, the previous competitor in the ring, and managed to use his quirk. That is the reason behind Kendo's current state, and why she is currently following Toga's commands.]]

Toga made sure to keep her focus during the entire time that Kendo was under her control; along with following behind her to make sure that if she did break out she would be able to attack, and hopefully push her out of bounds.

Thankfully, any further intervention on Toga's behalf wasn't needed as Kendo successfully followed through with her task before breaking out.

[[Kendo Itsuka has walked out of bounds, meaning that Himiko Toga is the winner of this match!!]]

Toga, feeling bad, jumped in to hug her friend, who she just defeated.

"Sorry for brainwashing you, Kendo-chan!"

Raising her own arms to reciprocate then hug, Kendo replied to her worried friend,

"It's fine~, Toga. I would have preferred to have an actual showing of my martial arts skill, rather than you completely outclassing me. But, you won fair and square. At least I lost to one of my friends rather than a stranger, right?"

"Sorry~! I didn't realize where I was kicking when it happened, are you okay? Do you need to go to the doctor's office?"

Kendo let out a chuckle at her friend's antics, before ultimately agreeing to get herself checked out. One could never be careful enough when it came to blows to the head.

"Alright, I'll go and visit the doctor's office for a quick check-up. You go upstairs to your friends and make sure to enjoy yourself, okay?"

They broke off their hug, before blushing heavily upon realizing that they did that in full view of the crowd and cameras.

"How youthful!"

Hearing Midnight's declaration was enough of a prompt for them to run out of the field, fearing what would happen if the R-18 hero began making more comments on the hug.