The Sports Festival

The next day, school resumed as normal. Tora and Izuku headed to school together as usual. They had their morning classes then went to their homeroom class. There was no teacher in the classroom yet. Some of their classmates wondered who would be teaching since Mr. Aizawa had been badly injured during the League of Villains' attack on the U.S.J. facility. Just then, Mr. Aizawa showed up to class all bandaged up. He started off by saying their fight wasn't over yet. Everyone got worried until he revealed that the U.A. Sports Festival was coming up to which everybody was relieved and excited. But then a few students questioned if it was a good idea to have the sports festival so soon after the villains' attack on the school. Mr. Aizawa explained that the Administration thought it was a good way to show that the threat has been handled and the school's safety was better than ever, increasing security measures compared previous years. He went on to say this was a prime opportunity for the students at U.A. High and it wasn't something that could be canceled because of a few villains. However, Mineta still seemed concerned and scared.

"Uh I'm sorry, but why not? It's just a sports festival." Mineta said, voicing his opinion on the matter. Izuku turned around to face him.

"Huh? Mineta, don't you know how important this competition is?" Izuku asked him.

"Of course I do! I just don't want to get murdered." Mineta said back to Izuku. Mr. Aizawa further explained that the sports festival was one of the most watched events in the entire world. When it came to people who care about competition, there was only one tournament that mattered: the U.A. Sports Festival. A few students chimed in about how important this competition was. Mr. Aizawa then told the class that if they wanted to go pro, then the sports festival could open a path and that no aspiring hero can afford to miss this opportunity. This meant that everyone better not slack off on training. After that, class was dismissed.

~Time Skip~

It was lunch time and Tora, Izuku, Uraraka and Iida were all heading to the cafeteria when Izuku asked Uraraka why she enrolled in U.A. High. She explained she wanted to become a pro hero to make a lot of money. She was worried that her friends would think less of her, but Iida reassured her that was a fine ambition to have. She then went on to explain her family was kinda broke since the construction company they owned hadn't been getting much work. She wanted to become a hero and sign with a good agency to make money and help her parents have an easy life. Iida started to applaud her cause which was interrupted by All Might dashing onto the scene.

"Young Midoriya and Miss Hinode are here!" All Might said loudly.

"Whoa All Might, what are you doing here?" Izuku asked the #1 pro hero.

"Lunch! You two wanna eat with me? Whaddaya say?" All Might asked in a surprisingly cute manner.

"Sure thing." Izuku agreed.

"Yeah, okay!" Tora agreed as well as she and Izuku followed All Might to his office to eat lunch with him. When they got there, All Might began making some tea while he explained that he could only use his power for fifty minutes and maintain his muscle form for barely an hour and a half. Izuku then apologized to which All Might laughed and said he didn't need to. Then he went on to explain that they were here to talk about the sports festival. He was wondering what Izuku's plan was since he couldn't really control his power yet. Izuku then mentioned that he did once when he used it against the Nomu since it was the first time he used it on an actual person. All Might was happy to hear about that small amount of progress. He walked up to the window saying that he didn't have much time as the World's Symbol of Peace and that he gave his power to Izuku for him to take his place. Izuku stood up, realizing something important.

"Do you still feel the same way when we met? Do you still wanna be a hero?" All Might asked Izuku an important question as he turned to him.

"Yes!" Izuku replied with a look of strong determination on his face. With that, All Might was pleased and said he wanted Izuku to think of this sports festival as his debut as the World's New Symbol of Peace. Tora could tell these words were putting a lot of pressure on Izuku.

"Miss Hinode." All Might said, turning to Tora.

"Yes Sir?" Tora answered All Might.

"I understand this is a lot of pressure I'm putting on Young Midoriya. I want you to support him with all you've got if and whenever he may need it. But this isn't just about Young Midoriya, I want you to think of this sports festival as your debut as well." All Might gave Tora a job to do.

"Of course! I'll do my best!" Tora said, accepting the assignment. And with that the three of them finished their lunch together.

~Time Skip~

When Tora and Izuku got home from school, they worked on homework together at Izuku's apartment. Then they trained together for little while until it was time for bed. The next day, students from other classes crowded outside of classroom 1-A. Bakugo then ended up saying something that made everyone else mad at Class 1-A which no one was very happy about. After school that day, Tora and Izuku studied at Tora's place then trained hard with each other again. They repeated this studying and training routine after school, taking turns on whose place they studied at. Two weeks later, it was finally time for the U.A. Sports Festival. While Class 1-A was in their waiting room, Ashido was really bummed out that they had to wear their gym uniform. Tora didn't really say anything, but she was extremely worried about the festival due to the same reason Ashido was disappointed about and it was showing all over her face. Izuku noticed this and approached her.

"What's wrong Tora? You look extremely nervous." Izuku asked his girlfriend.

"That's because I am. My quirk is extremely limited since I can't wear my hero costume. I won't be able to turn into nearly as many species or use all my forms. I'm gonna bomb this festival!" Tora said as she buried her face in her hands.

"Don't worry Hinode. I'm sure you'll figure something out. I mean you're one of the smartest students in our class." Yaoyorozu said to reassure her.

"Plus your quirk is super powerful! Even with the clothing handicap, it's ridiculously OP!" Uraraka said while pumping her fist in the air. Everyone agreed with her, either nodding their heads or adding a comment on the matter. Just then, Bakugo approached Tora and got in her face.

"Listen Tora, if you don't do well, I'll kill you." Bakugo said then walked away and sat down at a table.

"See? Everyone believes in you. Even Kacchan has his weird way of encouraging you. Trust me, you're gonna be fine." Izuku said as he put his hand on Tora's back, rubbing it reassuringly.

"Shut up Deku! That wasn't encouragement, that was a threat." Bakugo said turning back at Izuku as a large drop of sweat formed at the side of his head. Iida entered the room and announced that they were going to enter the arena soon. Just then Todoroki approached Izuku and made a declaration of war to which Izuku accepted. After that, it was time to enter the arena. Each class made their way to the center of the arena where the R-rated Hero Midnight was. She called up Bakugo as the representative of the first years to come up and give a speech.

"I just wanna say... I'm gonna win." Bakugo said as everyone booed him. Then Midnight got everyone's attention and revealed the first event of the U.A. Sports Festival. The first event was a 4 km obstacle course around the arena. The students waited anxiously on their marks outside a doorway to the beginning of the obstacle course until the last light above the doorway went out and Midnight told them to start. The large group of first year students rushed through and crowded in the doorway. Tora tried to transform into a giant day gecko so she could go up the walls and ceiling and avoid the chaos, but failed. She realized that she had miscalculated when the sports festival would start and had used up her species count of 35 for training the previous day. It would reset about three quarters through the sports festival, 24 hours after she had initially used her quirk. She was trying to increase her species limit, but ended up not doing so and now it had backfired. Unfortunately, most of the species she chose to transform into wouldn't be of much use because of their natural limitations or the fact that she'd ruin her gym uniform.

'Great... I totally miscalculated when the sports festival was gonna start! I can't believe how stupid that was! Let's see now. The different species I've turned into are red swamp crayfish, electric blue crayfish, Mexican dwarf crayfish, tardigrade, bull frog, California newt, spotted salamander, giant Chinese salamander, axolotl, mudskipper, corn snake, king cobra, Russian tortoise, sulcata tortoise, alligator snapping turtle, painted turtle, leopard gecko, Jackson's chameleon, giant bird-eating tarantula, horse breeds, domestic dog breeds, red fox, arctic fox, snow leopard, emperor penguin, Galápagos penguin, snowshoe hare, racoon, opossum, flying squirrel, sugar glider, red kangaroo, polar bear, elephant, and white rhino. So what could benefit me now?' Tora thought, mentally going through her options and what animal and form would help her right now and not ruin her gym clothes in the process as she tried to make her way through the crowded doorway. She decided on an anthro red kangaroo form and made a large leap just as Todoroki froze the entire hallway and made the ground after it an ice skating rink. Tora then quickly changed into an anthro sugar glider and glided over the slippery ice. She was about to land when she got hit by a giant robot, knocking her out temporarily. Izuku saw what happened and ran over to her.

"Tora! Are you okay? Wake up!" Izuku yelled frantically at Tora who was still unconscious. Everyone else had stopped in their tracks, trying to figure out what to do about the giant robots. As the machines approached and got ready to attack, Todoroki froze them. Many students took this opportunity to get past the robots, but they started to collapse because he froze them while they were off balance. Izuku knew he couldn't carry Tora through this, but he knew he could at least reduce her chances of obtaining more injuries while she was out. He acted quickly and carried her off to the side where she would less likely be noticed by the robots.

"Please... stay strong Tora. Forgive me, I can't really help you." Izuku said as he laid her down and ran away to draw any robot's attention away from her. He kept moving on, grabbing a piece of a robot that Todoroki defeated and used it as a shield and as a weapon. He advanced to the next part of the obstacle course which was the mine field. Izuku eventually came up with a plan to dig up and make a pile of them and blasted himself towards first place. But he was losing momentum and was going to fall behind Todoroki and Bakugo. But then he slammed the robot part on the ground as he fell which made him advance to first place. Meanwhile Tora had gained consciousness again there were still students dealing with the robots that hadn't been defeated yet. Tora changed into a full body red kangaroo and hopped around the giant robots at 69.2 kph (43 mph) until she got to the mine field. She transformed into a full body snow leopard so she could pin point where the mines were by smell and vision. Then she made a 15.2 meter (50 foot) long leap and landed precisely between a few mines. She kept making large leaps until she made it across. She pushed herself and dashed towards the finish line and finished at the exact same time as Class 1-B's Shiozaki Ibara, tying for 4th. Tora found Izuku and ran up to him.

"Wow Izuku! You came in first place! Congratulations!" Tora congratulated Izuku who was really happy to see her.

"Tora! I'm so glad you're okay. Congratulations on getting 4th place." Izuku said.

"I'm surprised I even made it. I think I was out for a while." Tora said scratching the back of her head. Then Midnight began to speak again.

"Only the top 42 will advance to the next round. But don't be too let down if you didn't make the cut. We've prepared other opportunities for you to shine. Mmhm" Midnight said, licking her lips. Then the next event was revealed to be the cavalry battle. Midnight explained the rules and said that they had 15 minutes to form teams. As everyone started scrambling around to form their teams, Izuku asked Tora to join his. But Tora politely declined. She didn't want to burden him by not being able to use her quirk properly. As Izuku walked away disappointed, three students from class 1-B approached her and introduced themselves as Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, Honenuki Juzo and Awase Yosetsu. They asked her for more details on her quirk and Tora explained everything about it. She also explained that her species count hadn't reset quite yet so she told them the animals she was limited to. They decided she could join their team.

"Thanks guys. I didn't think that anyone from Class 1-B would pick me since I'm from Class 1-A." Tora thanked the group.

"Well it wasn't our intention in letting a 1-A student join us, but we saw how you used your quirk and it was honestly impressive! You got knocked out and still made it in 4th with Shiozaki!" Tetsutetsu said being quite honest.

"Why didn't you pick her then? She at least didn't get knocked unconscious. And she's in your class, right?" Tora asked, pointing out some details.

"Yeah but your comeback was somethin' else. Not sure if Shiozaki could bounce back like you did if that happened to her." Tetsutetsu explained to Tora right as time was up for forming teams. And with that, the cavalry battle began!

~Time Skip~

In the end Tora's team didn't make the cut, but Izuku's team was in 4th place. Tora thought this is where it ended for her this sports festival. But an unforeseen event happened: two members of the 3rd place team withdrew. The fifth place team decided that they weren't suitable to participate since they were frozen most the time. Kendo Itsuka said that Midnight should have two members of the team Tora was on to move on to the final event. The team decided that Tetsutetsu and Tora should participate in the next event.

~Time Skip~

It was time for Izuku's match against Shinso Hitoshi. When the battle began, Shinso began taunting Izuku about Ojiro to which he responded angrily and suddenly froze in place like he was brainwashed. Then Shinso told him to leave the ring. Izuku started to do as he said with a blank stare on his face. Right as he was about to step out of bounds, Izuku moved his fingers with One For All and stopped himself just in time. Then Shinso began asking how Izuku broke his trance to which Izuku did not reply and proceeded to run towards him and began pushing him out of the ring. Shinso landed a few hits on him, but was eventually thrown out of bounds which made Izuku the winner.

~Time Skip~

Todoroki and Sero's match was over now with the winner being Todoroki. It was now Tora's turn against Kaminari. Fortunately, Tora's species count had reset since it had now been 24 hours from initially using her quirk yesterday. The two of them stepped onto the ring. When the match began, Kaminari let off a huge charge of electricity. Tora turned into an anthro electric eel which allowed her to withstand the lightning released from Kaminari's body. Now that Kaminari's brain was fried, he wasn't bright enough to think clearly. Tora then turned into a full body gray wolf and charged, growling and snarling at Kaminari who stupidly tried to run away but to no avail. Tora caught up to him, grabbed him by the collar of his gym uniform and dragged him out of bounds. This made Tora the winner.

~Time Skip~

Five fights had taken place so far: Iida vs Hatsume, Ashido vs Aoyama, Tokoyami vs Yaoyorozu, Kirishima vs Tetsutetsu, and Bakugo vs Uraraka. The students that moved on were Iida (Tora's next opponent), Ashido, Tokoyami and Bakugo. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu's first match was a draw so there was a tie breaker after Bakugo and Uraraka's fight which ended with Kirishima claiming victory. Up next was Izuku's fight with Todoroki. But first, there was a break for lunch. When lunch time ended, it was back to the games and Izuku and Todoroki stepped onto the ring. Their battle was fierce, with Izuku using One For All to destroy the ice Todoroki sent at him which broke his fingers and arms in the process. Towards the end of the match Izuku taunted Todoroki and made him use his fire. Cementoss had to intervene and when the two forces collided, it caused a huge explosion which sent Izuku out of bounds. Todoroki was declared the winner of the match. Tora wish she could visit Izuku in the infirmary, but she had to prepare for her fight with Iida. When it was time, Tora and Iida took to the ring.

"May the best one win." Iida said as he got into the position to sprint. Tora also readied herself. The match began and she immediately turned into an anthro brown hare as Iida sprinted as fast as he could without using Recipro Burst. She dashed out of the way just in time. Then they engaged in a chase, Tora running in sporadic zigzags which made it hard for Iida to land any hits or grab her to throw her out of bounds. Iida realized it was useless to keep chasing her like this and decided it was time to use his Recipro Burst to catch Tora by surprise. But with her heightened sense of smell and hearing as an anthro brown hare, she could sense he was about to use it and turned into a mountain lion. She attempted to leap up out of the way, but Iida grabbed her by the tail.

"I'm sorry about this Hinode." Iida apologized as he pulled her down by yanking her tail, but Tora used the momentum of her fall against him and pulled him down with her as she fell with her powerful forelimbs. She transformed into a red kangaroo and kicked upwards as he was in midair above her. The impact sent him backwards and knocked the wind out of him. He landed on his back on the ground. Unfortunately for him though, his engines had stalled because he used Recipro Burst. Tora then returned to her human form and pulled him out of bounds to secure her victory.

"Iida is out of bounds. Hinode wins the match!" Midnight said, raising her hand. Tora offered Iida a helping hand and he took it. She pulled him up to his feet.

"That was a good match. Can you move yet?" Tora asked Iida who shook his head no.

"Not yet. My engines are still stalled." Iida answered.

"Looks like I'll have to carry you on my back or you can be carried out on a stretcher. It's your choice." Tora said, giving Iida options.

"Wait, can you even carry me? After all, I am much bigger than you." Iida said as Tora sighed.

"Trust me, I can handle you." Tora said as she turned into a demi-human grizzly bear. To be honest, Tora probably could have carried Iida in her human form because of all her training, but this form increased her physical strength so his weight would be less strain on her body.

"Alright, if you insist. I admire your ambition to help me out even though we are rivals." Iida said as Tora smiled.

"Of course I'd help you. We're still friends, aren't we? Now hold on." Tora said as she wrapped her arms around Iida's legs and he grabbed onto her shoulders. Midnight started swooning.

"Ah~! The bond of friendship! So sweet!" Midnight said as Tora and Iida both blushed out of embarrassment as she carried him out of the arena and headed to where their class was seated. She carried him until his engines had stopped stalling and they walked back to their seats where the rest of their class were watching the rest of the tournaments. Tokoyami and Ashido were next with Tokoyami winning the match. After that was Kirishima and Bakugo's fight. Izuku joined up with his class right in the middle of their match.

"Hey Izuku!" Tora said excitedly, waving to him before getting up from her seat to greet him.

"Sorry I missed your fight Tora. How'd it go? You were up against Iida weren't you?" Izuku said as Tora smiled.

"It's okay Izuku. Yeah, I almost lost actually. I didn't realize how fast Iida's Recipro Burst was." Tora said while sheepishly scratching the back of her head. Iida approached the two of them, overhearing their conversation.

"You may have underestimated me, but you still managed to react in time to correct your slip up and ended up defeating me." Iida said as Izuku's eyes widened in amazement.

"Wow, you two will have to tell me your sides of the story. Congratulations Tora! That means you'll be facing Todoroki next." Izuku said as Tora suddenly tensed. Izuku could understand her nervousness when it came to the matter. Todoroki was a strong and tough opponent. Just then, Midnight declared Bakugo the winner of the match. Next up was Tora's fight with Todoroki. She left to go enter the arena to face off against one of the most formidable students in her class. Tora and Todoroki took their stances and the fight began. As Tora predicted, Todoroki sent a huge wave of ice at her first thing. She immediately transformed into a full body African elephant and smashed the ice, completely ruining her gym uniform in the process.

"Uh oh! Looks like someone's gonna need a new gym uniform after this match!" Present Mic commented on the mishap.

"Damn, I acted too rashly and destroyed my gym outfit. Now that I don't have any clothes, I'm limited to full body and anthro forms only." Tora muttered under her breath. As she was distracted, Todoroki took this chance to attack again, freezing Tora in place. He used more ice this time so she couldn't break free... or so he thought. Tora then shifted into a full body gray squirrel which allowed her to easily escape the ice that trapped her once huge body. Tora then transformed into a snow leopard and charged at Todoroki who sent a huge wave of ice at her, but her power, agility and speed allowed her to evade it, making a huge leap to the side. She continued towards him, snarling at him viciously as he kept sending ice wave after ice wave at her. But she was quick to jump to the side to evade them or jump over them, the ice waves only slowing her advance towards him but not stopping her. As she got closer, Todoroki sent an ice wave bigger than any he used before which launched Tora high in the air. She then shifted into a anthro gyrfalcon. She prepared to dive bomb Todoroki. Tora then started her rapid descent towards Todoroki at a speed of 209.2 kph (130 mph). It was so fast Todoroki barely had time to react and she slammed into him. The impact made him break past the safety ice barrier he had formed behind himself and made him go out of bounds. Tora won the match. She approached Todoroki.

"Good match Todoroki." Tora said to her classmate, offering a helping hand. But he just sat there.

"If only I didn't underestimate you and took you seriously, I would have used my flames and won." Todoroki said as he winced in pain, holding his abdomen. The amount of force that came with that kind of momentum probably hurt him pretty bad. Todoroki was then carried away on a stretcher and Tora was given a new gym uniform to wear. After she got dressed, she returned to her seat next to Izuku. The next match started which was Bakugo vs Tokoyami. It didn't last that long though. The light from Bakugo's explosions proved to be too much for Dark Shadow. This meant that Tora and Bakugo would be facing off in the finals.

~Time Skip~

The time had come for the final round of the tournament event. Tora and Bakugo entered the ring and Present Mic made the introduction.

"Now this is the final fight we've all been waiting for folks. It's the boy that's been blasting through the competition with explosive force, Bakugo Katsuki! Versus the one I'm personally rooting for: the girl with the amazing ability to transform into animals and human/animal hybrids, Hinoda Tora!" Present Mic announced as Tora and Bakugo took their stances and the fight began. Bakugo charged at Tora, using his explosions as rocket boosters and was about to blast her. But she turned into a full body flea and he lost sight of her as her now empty gym clothes fell to the ground.

"Whoa, where did Hinode go? It seems as if she's turned into an animal so small that we can't see her. It's like she turned invisible! What a quirk!" Present Mic said as Bakugo just started setting off giant explosions everywhere to try and get Tora wherever she was. But it was unknown to him that Tora had hitched a ride on Bakugo himself. The arena was covered in smoke from his explosions and Tora took advantage of it. She jumped off of Bakugo and landed right behind him and transformed into a leopard. Right as the smoke began to clear, Tora lunged at Bakugo immediately and swiped at his back which sliced his U.A. gym shirt and created cuts in his flesh. He yelled out in both pain and frustration as he created a monster blast right behind him where Tora was, but she had turned into a flea again and landed on the nape of his neck. She repeated this routine a few times. He was getting mad now.

"Tor-aho! Stop being a coward and face me in a form that I can see!" Bakugo shouted angrily, calling Tora his derogatory nickname for her which was a huge mistake on his part. This made Tora angry. One thing you shouldn't do when facing Tora is make her angry. She crept onto his shoulder right next to his ear, which fortunately for her, he couldn't detect. Then she spoke which made Bakugo pause.

"Okay. But just so you know, you literally asked for this. So don't blame me for what happens next." Tora said as she wasted no time and transformed into a full body saltwater crocodile before Bakugo had the chance to smack his shoulder to squish her. Bakugo was crushed under the weight of her body as she shifted into a 149.7 kg (330 lb) reptilian apex predator. She quickly crawled off of him, bellowed and growled. He tried to get up, propping himself up by his arms. He was severely weakened by injuries due to being crushed a moment ago. Tora sprung into action, clamping her large jaws on his arms but not using the full 2,551 newtons/square centimeter (3,700 psi) of force. She still broke his arms though, but that wasn't her goal. She didn't mean to, it was a total accident. All she wanted was to secure his arms so he couldn't explode her as easily. But it was a little hard to estimate and control just how much bite force she needed to use.

"Ouch! That had to have hurt! Looks like Hinode is giving Bakugo a run for his money." Present Mic said as he witnessed Tora's crushing jaws clamp down on Bakugo's arms. Meanwhile, Bakugo was in too much agony to focus on his quirk as she dragged him and flung him out of bounds against the edge of the arena which knocked him out cold. She honestly didn't mean to fling him like that, but she underestimated her own strength as a saltwater crocodile.

"Bakugo is out of bounds! Hinode is the winner!" Midnight announced and Bakugo was soon carried away on a stretcher to the infirmary. And with that, the games were over with Tora coming first in the U.A. Sports Festival. Tora's classmates talked amongst each other about her match with Bakugo.

"That was a cheap move that Hinode pulled, turning into an animal so small it's barely detectable by the naked eye." Kaminari said.

"Yeah and she was pretty brutal with him towards the end. Crushing him then breaking his arms. Don't you think that's going a little too far?" Ashido mentioned.

"Actually no, Tora was acknowledging Bakugo's strength and skill. She did what needed to be done in order to secure her victory." Izuku said, defending Tora.

"I suppose you're right Deku. That does make sense." Uraraka followed up, agreeing with what Izuku said. At the awards ceremony, Tora was on the 1st place pedestal, Bakugo was chained up on the 2nd place pedestal and Todoroki was on the 3rd place pedestal. Bakugo had been going nuts since he regained consciousness because he was mad that Tora hid from him most of the fight by being a flea. But to be frank, that was just her doing what she needed to do to win. All Might presented the medals to the top 3 winners, concluding the U.A. Sports Festival. Everyone met in their homeroom class before the day ended. Mr. Aizawa praised the students on their performances during the sports festival. He then told the class that they would have two days off to recover after the intense games. After that, class was dismissed and Tora, Izuku and Uraraka headed to the train station together. Iida wasn't with them this time because of a family emergency. After Tora and Izuku said goodbye to Uraraka, they got on their separate trains home. The two of them talked all about the sports festival on their way home.

"Congratulations on getting 1st place Tora! That really is something! I'm so happy for you." Izuku said as Tora smiled at him.

"You did pretty well yourself. Even though you didn't win the festival, you got 1st place in the first event and made it to the second round of the final event." Tora complimented Izuku who chuckled lightly.

"Yeah I guess you're right. I did do pretty good." Izuku said as the train reached their stop. The two of them got off and talked some more as they walked home together. Then they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways for the night.