Chapter 8: The Exam
It was time. The day Izuku had trained for 10 months had finally come. The day of Destiny.
Hell, he even got the luxury of being driven there by his mom, with a company car.
She had hugged him, and wished him the best of luck before he stepped out, and that she was cheering for him all the way.
The ride itself though had been awkward. Amongst the most awkward things in his life.
Just give her time, he told himself. She needed time to handle it.
He had hoped that he would get to test his powers out yesterday. It hadn't happened of course. He had spent the entirety of yesterday with his mom, first building up the courage to tell her, then doing it, and then dealing with the aftermath.
He'd also learned a lot about symbiote culture and history. There were still a lot of things he did not know though.
Right now was not the time for that however. Right now he had to pass this exam.
-You actually gonna move, or you planning on staying out here until the last possible second for dramatic effect?-
The first step, get inside.
"I'm-i'm just psyching myself up."
-You've been "psyching" yourself up for 5 minutes. Get your ass in gear already.-
He felt his clothes begin to move, trying to force him to start walking.
"OK, OK I'll go."
He took one deep breath, and, still shivering with nervousness, he took his first step through the gate.
And he immediately tripped over his own two feet.
With his reflexes having become way better he saw the ground rush up and instantly his arms shot out to catch himself so he didn't face plant into the ground.
However, that didn't happen, as suddenly he stopped falling. He blinked and realized he was floating in the air.
"You okay?" A cheerful kind voice asked.
"Eh?" Was all he got out, before a hand closed around his jacket, lifted him up and put him back on his feet.
The person who was speaking was a girl around Izuku's age, with long brown hair, two round pink spots on her checks, and scarred hands. She was dressed in a heavy coat, obviously to deal with the February frost.
"Sorry for stopping you with my quirk like that, but we'll… It's a bad omen to trip and fall."
A girl was talking to him.
Izuku's face went up like a fire, and his body just froze up.
The girl, oblivious to Izuku's discomfort, turned her head towards the main building and continued, still with a big smile on her face.
"Man, this sure is nerve-wracking isn't it."
"Ya… Uh… Um…" Was all Izuku managed to stammer out.
"Well, good luck to the both of us. See ya."
Then she walked off towards the main building whistling a tune.
Izuku just stared after her, processing what had just happened.
He… He had talked to a girl! An actual girl!
Venom was quick to pop that balloon.
-You didn't say a fucking, word to her! Goddamn, you're a loser with women. Fuck, we need to work on that.-
Izuku bit his lip. "So-sorry." He muttered.
-Don't fucking apologize to us, get your ass moving!-
Izuku winced, then finally, he did, cheeks still blushing furiously.
-So, what do you think her connections are to Toshinori Yagi?"
"Her… Her what?"
-You don't recognize her?-
"Should I…?"
-The second day of our bonding, when you were walking home with a door over your head. She was the girl trailing behind the man you called Toshinori Yagi.-
Izuku blinked. He… he did remember a girl who followed after Toshinori that day. That was her?
I
Venom developed a seething hatred for the man called Present Mic. from the moment he opened his damned mouth and started talking.
"WELCOME TO TODAY'S LIVE PERFORMANCE! EVERYBODY SAY HEY!"
The voice was loud and painful to their senses, though not actually truly damaging to them. It wasn't focused.
It easily could be though.
The room did not reply to the man's request for a "Hey", probably because he asked for it in a foreign language.
Finally, the man moved on after a silence. He did not seem bothered by his audience's lack of reply, given he continued on in that horrible, cheerful, enthusiastic voice.
"WELL, THAT'S COOL, MY EXAMINEE LISTENERS! I'M HERE TO PRESENT THE GUIDELINES OF YOUR PRACTICAL! ARE YOU READY?!"
This time, rather than gambling on them answering, he simply went and shouted "YEAHH!" himself.
Izuku, despite sharing a large part of Venom's pain, began to fawn over the man from afar, like he was a cute small animal.
"It's the voice hero Present Mic. wow…! I listen to his radio show every week! It's inspiring. I guess all the Yuei teachers are pro heroes."
Then he kept on muttering.
-Wait, is he that guy who you listen to at the end of every week?-
"Yeah, he is…!"
No wonder Venom didn't like the guy. They hated listening to that weekly recording with Izuku.
"THIS IS HOW THE TEST WILL GO MY LISTENERS! YOU'LL BE EXPERIENCING TEN-MINUTE LONG" "MOCK CITYSCAPE MANEUVERS"!"
"BRING ALONG WHATEVER YOU WANT! AFTER THIS PRESENTATION, YOU'LL EACH HEAD TO YOUR ASSIGNED TESTING LOCATION!"
"O.K!?"
More awkward silence.
"EACH SITE IS FILLED WITH THREE KINDS OF FAUX VILLAINS!
"POINTS ARE PROVIDED FOR DEFEATING EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR DIFFICULTY LEVEL! USE YOUR QUIRKS TO DISABLE THESE FAUX VILLAINS, AND EARN POINTS! THAT'S YOUR GOAL LISTENERS!"
So, the David guy was right, this was a robot test. Well, unless they had someone with the ability to conjure up enemies for them. That was fully possible too.
"OF COURSE, PLAYING THE ANTI-HERO AND ATTACKING OTHER EXAMINEES ARE PROHIBITED!"
Well duh, this was a warrior training facility. You didn't hammer out working soldiers by putting them against each other in combat at the start.
"MAY I ASK A QUESTION?"
Venom needed a moment to look around for the source of the new voice. It was a tall boy dressed in white, wearing glasses and with well-combed dark blue hair.
Present Mic. gave a thumbs up, signaling that the man could indeed ask a question.
"THERE APPEARS TO BE NO FEWER THAN FOUR FAUX VILLAINS ON THIS HANDOUT WE WERE GIVEN! SUCH AN ERROR, IF IT IS ONE, IS HIGHLY UNBECOMING OF YUEI, JAPAN'S TOP HERO ACADEMY!"
"WE ARE ALL HERE TODAY, IN THE HOPES OF BEING MOLDED INTO MODEL HEROES!"
It was all sensible stuff to ask about… Right up until he finished that questioning by turning around and calling out them and Izuku.
"AND YOU, WITH THE CURLY HAIR!"
Izuku froze in his seat upon being called out, as the tall boy glared at them.
"YOU'VE BEEN MUTTERING THIS WHOLE TIME… IT'S DISTRACTING! IF THIS IS SOME SORT OF GAME TO YOU, PLEASE LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!"
"Sorry…" Izuku said weakly as he stopped his muttering.
Venom, on the other hand, manifested from Izuku's jacket and bared his teeth towards the boy. On one hand, he didn't care for Izuku's muttering themselves. On the other hand, the asshole had insulted them and tried to bully them to quit.
After that, that accursed Present Mic. went and explained that the 4th faux villain was a non-point obstacle to avoid. Venom had assumed the 4th one was some hidden boss, but they were wrong on that account.
Oh well, nothing had really changed. They still had to destroy as many robots as possible. The only thing that had changed was that they knew now that there was only a very limited time. Still, there was more than enough time to rise to the top here.
I
Izuku was shivering like it he had jumped into the arctic ocean.
-Forget the web-shooters, we won't need them today. Not camouflage either. Just stick to kicks and punches. Keep it simple, and we'll triumph over the masses!-
Keep it simple. Right. Just… Just keep it simple Izuku.
All around him, all his fellow examinees were also prepping for battle.
-We'll do it Izuku, we'll crush all opposition, and rise as the undisputed masters of this arena, standing in the broken remains of our foes! Remember, you are far stronger than when you faced your first skirmish, and these robots won't even fight back!"
Right. He had actually been in battle before. Well, he had run away from a battle. He had knocked out the teleporter though. That was something.
He was pulled out of Venom's pep talk by the sight of the brown-haired girl who had prevented him from falling earlier.
Right… He hadn't actually thanked her for that.
-Wanna try a second round talking to the opposite sex? You can hardly do worse than the first time. At least if you actually say something at all.-
"I… I wanna thank her for earlier."
-Then do it now, before things start.-
Right. Izuku began to walk towards her.
An arm suddenly grasped around his shoulder.
"You there, what do you think you're doing!?"
It was the scary guy from the auditorium.
-This asshole again?! What the hell does he want now?-
"...Walking?"
The boy the glasses wasn't amused.
"That girl is clearly doing her pre-battle meditation, do you wish to interfere with that?"
It… Didn't look much to Izuku like she was meditating, more like she was trying to fan herself with her own hand. It was unusually hot here come to think of it, way hotter than the rest of the city.
"I… I…"
"Why are you even here? You are clearly not mentally prepared for this, you're shaking with fear, you stutter anytime anyone asks you a question, and-" "Fuck off asshole!"
Venom, to Izuku's shock and embarrassment, came out of the shoulder of his jacket and entered the conversation.
"Pardon?"
"WE told you to FUCK OFF. Scedadle. Mind your own damned business, and don't bother us."
Izuku had suddenly stopped shaking completely and instead he froze in shock and embarrassment as everyone turned to look at them.
Great. Perfect.
The tall guy was completely taken aback, though perhaps not for the best reasons.
"Such language! You wish to become a model hero with that attitude?"
"No, i- "How we choose to speak isn't your damned business boy. Nor is your opinion wanted here. This is a battle test, not a test about communications and public image. Now seriously, FUCK OFF."
The tall boy didn't budge.
"So you think strength is the only thing that matters to be a hero?"
"No, I also think you shouldn't bother someone out of the blue for petty reasons, but as for strength…" He grinned. "Stick around, you're gonna see something spectacular today."
At that point, Izuku put an end to the conversation by quickly walking off as fast as he could without actually running.
"What the hell was that!?" He asked Venom in an exasperated tone, the moment they were a bit off from the rest.
"We told him to Fuck off, what did it look like?"
"You can't just tell people to fuck off if they're a bit impolite!"
"Well, if you could have handled him, then we wouldn't have to step in, now would we?"
Izuku was about to reply when the words "... AND BEGIN!" was suddenly broadcast with no warning.
-Showtime!-
The black mass enveloped him from head to toe, his eyes got that strange feeling he always got when they changed, and beneath his clothes, his second skin formed over his flesh.
He blinked.
-Get going! Now or never!-
He sprang into action before Present Mic was done telling everyone to get a move on.
I
-It'll be just like the forest, just keep moving, keep the momentum, don't ever fucking stop!-
He was in full sprint when the first robot burst out of a wall.
It looked like someone had given wheels and arms to a couple of multi rocket launchers.
Somehow, he had expected to feel fear here, but he didn't. Compared to how it was nearly being killed by bullets back in the forest, these things just couldn't bring out fear in him.
After all, they wouldn't kill him.
They weren't a threat.
His foot went back for prep and he kicked the robot's head from below and sent it flying like an American football.
The robot instantly dropped.
He blinked. He had assumed he'd need to deal way more damage to these things before that happened. But no… These things weren't really meant for combat, they were meant to test the offensive capacity of the examinees.
Not just their attack power, but how fast you could take them out. Once damaged, they'd go down easily.
As he came to that realization, he could hear the sound of the rest of his block finally catching up.
Keep moving.
He began sprinting again.
As Izuku moved through the small "city" he put every single type of movement he had drilled and drilled for 10 months into practice.
He ran, he jumped, he punched, he kicked. As he moved across this battlefield, feeling, sensing, and hearing the effects of all the many, many quirks all around, Izuku could feel it.
All those limits he had only a week ago, had been lifted and raised far above what they were.
He longed to test his new strength out. To see how far he could go now. He didn't.
When he jumped, he limited himself to what he knew. This wasn't the time to accidentally break a leg jumping and landing wrong.
That would come later.
For now, just keep destroying robots.
-45- Venom helpfully kept track in his mind. -47-
As he moved, he also began to notice one fighter in particular. Someone who moved around even faster than he did, someone who shouted loudly in an energetic and frantic female voice as she moved around.
"73!" "76!".
Many did actually, as if they were terrified they wouldn't get the points unless they personally kept track and shouted it out loud.
The tall guy with the glasses was entering in his late thirties when Izuku reached 50. This… This was going well. Really well actually.
"How long do we have left?"
-7 Minutes.-
He could this. They could actually win.
-We're still way behind the girl with the pink lightning.-
Right.
Izuku kept moving and kept crushing robots.
He reached 70 when a massive Shockwave announced to everyone that the 4th faux villain type had arrived.
Obstacle.
Many of the people around him were blown away by the Shockwave the monster's leg produced as it smashed into the ground and burst the city road apart.
Izuku though was kept firmly attached to the ground thanks to the black liquid under his feet.
-Huh, now there's something else.-
Izuku stared at the thing in complete shock.
As the monster robot loomed over them, an old feeling burst back up into his chest. Fear.
Izuku had not feared the other robots, because he knew on an instinctual level that they posed no fear to him. No malice, no intent of harm.
This thing though…
Every single one of his instincts screamed DANGER at him.
It was the same feeling he had back when he was running through the forest, as bullets flew all around.
This thing would kill him. If he gave it the chance to do it.
-Keep moving Izuku, we don't have to Fight it.-
Right, they didn't need to fight this thing.
Izuku was about to jump backward when he saw something. Someone, a girl wearing a hoodie was lying on the ground, right in front of the Robots path(More like off the side of the road, but the robot was so large that didn't matter.), with a piece of rocky debris over her legs.
The girl desperately tried to lift away the rock, which probably weighed several hundred kilos.
-Izuku, C'mon time to go.-
He moved, without another word, sprinting towards the robot's path. As he ran with enormous speed, he passed the tall boy, who briefly turned to look at his face as they passed.
Izuku reached the girl under the stone and grabbed the piece of cement, and without particular difficulty, he heaved it up and threw it over his shoulder.
He was about to grab her hand and lift her up to carry her away when he heard a sound like a massive explosion went off right over their head.
It was like an explosive artillery shell had just gone off, and for a brief moment, Izuku could feel a sharp pang of pain going through him. He could feel the enormous wind pressure from the explosion.
He looked up.
-Wow. Now that's something.-
Someone, who Izuku now recognized as the brown-haired girl from this morning, had jumped up, all the way to the many stories tall to robot's head, and had, if the position of her arm was to be believed, punched the robot in the face with such force, that it turned the head into scraps and sent it staggering backward in its death throes.
Izuku stood there marveling at the sight. Then he realized the girl was plummeting to the ground.
Shit, Shit, SHIT.
He began running again. This time he bent down immediately. A plan formulated in his skull, but there wasn't much room for error here.
He tensed his muscles, and he jumped. Towards the roof edge of a nearby building.
The force of the jump sent him sailing above the edge, and he barely managed to grab the edge with a hand, preventing him from just sailing over it.
The grab did slow him down, but beneath his fingers the chunk of stone he clung between his fingers broke away from the whole, leaving him to not slow down completely and instead slam into the rooftop ground, as opposed to the landing he had planned.
It hurt, but he slammed his hands down and forced himself to the feet.
A glimpse up told him the girl was still falling, and where, and he prayed to God this actually worked.
I
Uraraka was falling.
If she hit the ground like this, she'd splat and die, but thankfully, she had a way to slow down her fall.
The problem was that she was terrible using her own powers on herself, she'd only manage to do it for a second or two. And while it halted her momentum, she wouldn't be able to repeat it. Not like she was now with a broken arm.
That meant she had to do it whole she was just above the ground, not far enough up she'd crack her skull. If she fucked it up and did it before she was enough down, she'd fall down and die, if she did it one second too late, she'd hit the ground and die.
The pain in her arm and legs hurt. Idiot. She was a complete idiot. She should have run underneath and hit it with an uppercut, but no, she hadn't thought, and she'd jumped into the air to do it.
And now she was going to- she hit something, something elastic, and like jumping on a trampoline, she bounced a bit back up again from whatever she had hit before it went down again.
She had no idea what this was, and while she was grateful for it breaking her fall, at the moment, the only thing she could think about was the sheer, horrible pain in her legs as they hit this substance.
She screamed in agony as all the momentum went through them.
"Oh God! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
As she hissed through her teeth at the pain, with tears in her eyes, she could feel someone approaching her through the substance going up and down as someone moved over it.
What WAS this stuff? She finally took a look at what she was caught up into. What it was, was about a dozen of black ropes that was fastened between the roofs of two buildings.
Ropes that were sticky… And the guys walking up the ropes had a giant white spider on the front of his jacket.
Spiderwebs? That's what this was?
The spider guy walked across the ropes without any problem, up to her.
"I'm so sorry about the legs!"
"It-it's fine." She tried to say in a calm tone, and with a smile, but as he began to lift her, her legs were detached from the ropes and she bit her teeth together so hard from the pain it felt like she was going to break them.
"Sorry…" He said again apologetically.
"Venom, can I… Make a cocoon or something and lower her down in it?"
Who was he talking to?
He just nodded to himself, then, as he had suggested, he began to cocoon her up. It was… A strange feeling being strung up like she was about to be eaten by some giant spider, but the boy just attached another web from his hand to the cocoon, then began to slowly lower her to the ground.
It still hurt of course, but this time there wasn't the massive momentum from a fall as she landed softly on the ground.
The boy himself climbed down the walls like… Well. A spider.
As he climbed, the announcement that the exam was over rang through the city. That was fine though. Right now, she was satisfied with the fact she was alive. And as for passing, she was certain she had passed.
She had gotten more points than anyone else. Even the spider guy.
As he came up to her and bent down, the webs dissolved, except the parts she was lying on.
"You okay?"
"Yeah." She gave a smile. A genuine one this time.
The boy froze, then quickly looked away.
"Thanks… For earlier."
"No… problem. I had to save the girl anyway."
"NO… Not… Not that. I mean… for… For, by the entrance. You… I was about to fall and… You-You caught me."
She stared at him. Then she gave a genuine, if pained, laugh.
"Seems we're even then."
"Yea-yeah. Guess so."
His head shot up as he apparently noticed something.
"It's Recovery Girl! HEY! WE NEED HEALING FOR SOMEONE HERE!"
Then he walked over to the person in question leaving her behind.
Well, today had gone way better than she had been afraid it would go. Then she realized she hadn't asked his name.
I
-Well done. You actually managed to talk to a girl. Next, we'll just have to get you to do it while looking her in the face. Or another female, I don't care who you talk to.-
There was a strange thing to talk to Venom. His critique had a bite, and they weren't exactly gentle ribbing, but he got a distinct impression Venom genuinely wanted him to do better.
Maybe it wasn't friendship, but it was a hell of a lot better than anything he had ever had with Katsuki.
And that asshole had probably passed too, he had no doubt.
"Do you… Do You think we passed?"
"How many students does Yuei classes have?"
"About 20 usually."
"Then yes, we passed. We did second-best, only behind the lightning girl. Out of the 8th areas, even if they only took the two best from each, we'd still qualify."
Recovery girl, the famous healing hero, healed up both the girl who had her legs crushed by the stone, then the aforementioned lightning girl.
Izuku hadn't really considered how strong he'd be in the grand scheme of things but frankly, the way he and Venom had blitzed through this test kinda opened his eyes of just how strong he now was.
On the other hand, there was the lightning girl who had also proved the opposite point. He wasn't the strongest here. Not by a longshot.
I
"Been a while since anyone actually broke the Gimmick robot."
"Yeah, there's always someone who stands up to up to it each year, but man, it's been a while since someone actually broke the damned thing." The man saying it chuckled.
"Still, even ignoring the girl who did it, we got several great ones this year."
At the top of the billboard showcasing total points, the examinees had scored was the name Uraraka Ochako, with 90 Villain points, and 60 Rescue points. It was the largest number by quite a margin.
"The spider boy was great! So full of vigour and youthly energy as he rushed to rescue those girls! Mmmmhmm I Love it."
Second place was the name Midoriya Izuku, with 70 Villain points, and 50 Rescue Points.
"Yeah, I agree with Nemuri, the Midoriya kid has enormous potential. Hey Aizawa, what do you think?"
"...Who cares?" The man called Aizawa replied in a tone that was a mixture of boredom, and annoyance.
"Well, if you won't have him, mayhaps-"
"Not gonna happen Vlad." A being that looked like a mouse the size of a small child replied cheerfully.
"All classes are random, to make certain we can never be accused of nepotism or stacking the deck in the student's favor or disfavor. We aren't making any exceptions this year either."
"Speaking of exceptions, isn't it kinda weird that Black cat didn't recommend her own daughter? I mean, even Endeavor did that for his son, despite the kind of asshole that he is."
"Nah, she didn't do it for her son 4 years ago either, and if she didn't do it for one kid, she probably wasn't gonna do it for another."
On the third place was Hardy-Ashido Mina, with 60 Villain points, and 36 Rescue points.
"Yeah, I remember that kid. Franky, I don't think he would have made it through the recommendation trial either. He had no shot against the robots, and he didn't manage a single rescue point. Quite a bit different from his sister."
"Yeah. Speaking of Rescue points, it's been a while since rescue points won all 3 top spots."
"Yeah. Hey Nedzu, how many years it been since someone scored over 70 and wasn't even in the top 3?"
"6 Years."
"Man, that Bakugou kid did amazingly well, yet he didn't even make it into the top 3."
At the fourth spot was the name Bakugou Katsuki, with 77 Villain points and 0 hero points.
Below him at fifth place was Kirishima Eijiro, with 39 Villain points and 35 Hero Points.
Number 6 showcased the name Shiosaki Ibara, with 36 Villain points and 32 Rescue points.
Under 7 place stood the name Kendo. Itsuka with 25 Villain points and 40 rescue points.
At 8 was Tenya Iida with 52 Villain points and 9 rescue points.
On the 9th place was the rather repetitive name of Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, with 49 Villain points and 10 Rescue points.
And at the final spot of the top 10 was Tokoyami Fujikage, with 47 Villain points and 10 Rescue points.
I
Inko did the food, pretending everything was fine. The fish was well prepared and salted, the way she had done it a thousand times before. Nothing out of the ordinary, exactly the way she had always done it.
They sat down to eat as they had always done. She and Izuku.
In the background, the TV was on, as the Alien was watching an old movie from the MCU from the days before all of the universe's characters went into the public domain.
She tried mightily hard to pretend he wasn't there, and it was just her and her baby in the room.
That was hard to do when Izuku wouldn't stop talking about him.
"So, unlike actual quirks, my powers aren't going to grow stronger over time the more I use them. They're set at the level I'm currently at."
"So… you can't grow stronger?"
"Well… Not in strength no. I'll… I'll have to grow stronger through mastery of what I have. I Mean… I'm so strong I don't actually Need more power."
She just nodded her head as he described how strong he was now, what he had done during the exam.
Izuku had accepted the idea of having bonded to the alien… Frighteningly fast. Almost unnaturally so.
She desperately wanted a third opinion on this. To gauge whether she was crazy being so worried about it.
That wasn't gonna happen though. The only person in her life she would ever trust with this kind of information was across the seas, and it would be a while yet before she got to see him again.
The Alien was right about that utterly and completely. She would NEVER tell other people about it. The risks to her son dwarfed anything else on the topic. The problem then, was that she wasn't sure this other road wasn't just as risky.
The Alien had been very candid and seemingly honest about what it was, where it came from, and the good and bad aspects of the bond it had with Izuku.
There was the power of course. Great power, even by the world of quirks. Even if Izuku hadn't been quirkless, the increase in strength was flat out monstrous.
On the other hand, there was the bad stuff. Oh, the bad stuff.
The Alien had made the claim that Izuku would live a long and very healthy life, probably up to late eighties early nineties. He would be in top condition for the rest of his days, free of disease, capable of healing from almost any injury if given enough time to recover.
However, there was a price. As Izuku reached his final year, he would face a massive and rapid decline as all the years of his life would all catch up to him at once.
It wasn't the worst deal in the world, but It had terrified Inko to even consider it, and it had terrified her even more that Izuku had been so accepting of it. He had accepted it as a perfectly reasonable price for the power.
It had made Inko wonder if she just wasn't capable of understanding her son's viewpoint, or worse, the Alien was affecting him mentally.
The worst part about that was that if it did, she had absolutely no way of knowing. At all. There was simply no way she could find out.
The thing though, that had absolutely clenched it for her that she could not trust this being, had been when she asked it if it cared about becoming a hero like Izuku did.
It's response had been honest.
"WE don't care if he wants to be a Hero or Villain, king or soldier, conqueror or upholder of the status quo. So long as he isn't planning on living a boring ass life, we will stand by him to the end."
There was a threat there. "So long as he isn't planning on living a boring ass life". What it meant, was that the support it offered would not be there if Izuku ever decided to retire.
It was unreasonable to ask a 15-year-old to think about his retirement, especially when the hero business was infamous for it's participants staying in work for their entire life(one way or another.) but it still scared her that her baby would probably never get to retire, even if he wanted to.
She understood what the Alien was doing of course. She knew humans far too well not to recognize the strategy. Venom was employing a "Warts and All" tactic, to seem more trustworthy than it was.
Whether or not it was honest didn't really matter for this tactic. The point was that it was impossible to present oneself as completely clean, so one brought out bad facts willingly and unprompted to make oneself seem, if not good, at least honest, and thus someone you could trust.
Which made it hard to try and figure out what was the truth, and what wasn't.
Maybe it was telling the truth all the way, maybe he was mostly lying, or just lying about one single detail. For example, what if he was flat out lying about the bond being permanent? Without knowing for certain one way or another, it was something Inko could never act upon.
Then there were all the mental images he had shown her. Was any of it real?
The fact was she didn't know, and she didn't trust Venom as an unbiased source.
And the most galling thing of all was that she couldn't do anything either way. She couldn't break the bond, she couldn't seek help from the outside, she couldn't deny Izuku becoming a hero(Which she would never have done anyway).
She was, in every way, in a no-win scenario.
Chapter 9: New Friends and Foes
The admiration their host had for the warrior called All Might was something that bordered on religious devotion. In the early days, Venom had assumed that the enormous blonde man with the ridiculous upwards hair, was actually the God-king of this society.
Why not? Their host had a private room that was in many ways a mixture between a sleeping quarter and what for all intents and purposes was a shrine dedicated to this man.
Paper tapestries on the wall, small figurines that showcased the man in his more iconic poses, even things such as the clock on the wall was themed after him.
So was a lot of Izuku's clothing as well, and his bedsheets.
Other than the contraption of vehicle tires in one corner of the room, it all seemed like the standard, regular worship of a powered individual they had seen countless times before.
And the society was no different, selling charms, tapestries, and clothing based on the man.
Of course, Venom hadn't understood at first that this society was actually so full of super-powered individuals that not having any was actually rare, regarded as a throwback to an earlier stage of evolution.
Once they had realized that, everything fell into place. The man called All Might was simply the highest-ranking member of the warrior caste of this planet, simply called Pro Hero.
One day, he would die, and he would be replaced by someone else, who would become the next number one Hero.
Adoration of the strong was simply the natural way of things for this society, and All Might was STRONG even by the measure of all the many super-powered individual's Venom had seen across space.
Still, even with that context in mind, his host's adoration was a bit insane.
"If this is how you react to a message from him personally, we don't wish to see your reaction to him in the flesh."
"I will cherish this recording until I die…!" Fuck, Izuku had actual tears of joy in his eyes.
"...Right… Not creepy at all."
They had gotten a late-night delivery, with a small holographic device that had a recording of All Might pop up, and inform them that yes, they did indeed make it into Yuei.
Hah, as if that were in any doubt! Other than the girl with the powers of gravity and lightning, none there had compared to their might and power.
"Anyway, you wanted to continue documenting our powers right?"
Izuku clutched the device to his chest as if it was made of pure gold, but he did answer.
"Yesss…" He sounded like he had just gotten a present from above, not a small recording device informing him he made it into school.
As if him fawning over that sadist Present Mic. wasn't bad enough.
"Are you seriously going to react like this every time we meet a pro Hero?"
I
After making their way out of the car(Along with a final good luck and hug from Inko), Izuku and Venom walked through the corridors of Yuei, towards the room that they had been told would be class 1-A's designated classroom.
With only 36 total contestants passing, there would be two practical classes for this year's batch.
Finally after a bit of searching, they found their room.
…And Izuku stood, nervously outside, hand on the door.
-You're not seriously gonna make this a repeat of the exam day are you? Standing outside for 5 minutes, shaking all the while?-
"No, I'm just… I'm kinda hoping I don't share class with Katsuki or the tall guy with glasses. Logically my chances are that I have to share class with at least 1 of them."
-Actually, both of them are inside this room.-
Damnit!
"Of course they are…" It was the worst possible combination after all.
He steeled himself, then he opened the door… To the sight of both of them arguing.
Katsuki was eating while having one of his feet slung across the desk, while the tall guy was standing over him and berating him while motioning with his hands.
"Don't put your legs on the desk! Don't you think that's disrespectful towards your classmates and Yuei's grand history?"
Katsuki Bakugou, was pretty agitated as he answered.
"No, as a matter of fact I DON'T think so, you damn extra!"
"Not to mention your necktie! It is your duty to wear one!"
"Will you shut your mouth and leave me the FUCK alone already!"
The tall boy then bent down on one knee and picked up a breadcrumb, like he was an old school detective finding a clue.
"AND to think you would drop breadcrumbs in a place like this! You should already have had breakfast before now anyway!"
"GO AWAY, FOUR-EYES!"
-You know, this is way more entertaining when it's against someone else.-
"WHAT GODDAMNED MIDDLE SCHOOL ARE YOU FROM ANYWAY, YOU FUCKING EXTRA!?"
Not realizing that Katsuki really didn't actually care about the answer, the boy answered.
"A private schoo-Ahem. I'm from Soumei Junior Highschool. The Name's Iida Tenya."
"Soumei…! Well, aren't you elite! Seems I got a reason to end you after all!"
The boy flinched back with an exaggerated motion, and expression of pure horror.
"A reason to END ME? What nerve! You, want to be a Hero!?"
-Holy shit, this guy's an even bigger loser than you Izuku!-
"...Thanks Venom."
-Eh, it's alright. We'll make something much better out of you soon enough.-
Izuku's words though, made both the two of them notice him, and both turned to look at him.
Katsuki's eyes burned with rage at the sight, but it was the tall boy who stepped up to him first.
"Hello, I'm Iida Tenya from Soumei-"
Izuku flinched back a bit before answering.
"Yeah… I, I overheard. Umm… I'm Midoriya, nice to meet you Iida…"
The boy suddenly got a grave expression on his face.
"Midoriya, I must hand it to you…"
He turned his head away with a dramatic flourish.
"Despite your quirk's harsh words, you divined the actual purpose of the exam, while I… I remained blind to it! I… I completely misread you! I hate to admit it, but you truly were the better man!"
-Wow, he lost that stick up his ass real quick.-
Izuku couldn't do anything else than just keep his mouth shut. He hadn't realized the secondary test reason either, but it seemed a very bad idea to admit that when apparently he had won this guy's respect through it.
In the background sat Katsuki absolutely staring daggers at Izuku, but Izuku's focus instead turned backward, as a cheerful voice rang out from behind him.
"Ah, it's you! The spider guy!"
Izuku turned around, and it was the lightning girl.
"I'm glad we're in the same class together."
She reached forth her hand.
Venom, currently occupying his undershirt forced his arm upwards, to where Uraraka grabbed it. All while Izuku desperately tried to hide away his face with the other hand.
"We didn't introduce ourselves yesterday! My Name's Uraraka Ochako!"
"I-I-I'm Izuku… Mi-Midoriya!"
Holy crap he was actually shaking hands with a girl! Had he been less out of it, he might have noticed the awkward way her hand closed around his, with the tips of her fingers not touching his hand at all.
As Izuku stammered out his name, and shook her hand, to the snide remarks from Venom, the sounds of the bell rang.
"Anyway, do you think the first day is the ceremony, or is it the guidance counselor stuff today?"
Izuku, now with both hands-free, was covering his face in embarrassment with both limbs as Uraraka talked, desperately trying to say something.
She was talking about how she wondered what sort of teacher they would have when a voice came from the floor behind her.
"If you're gonna look for buddies, do it elsewhere."
Izuku, Iida, and Uraraka all turned their heads to look at the source of the voice.
The source, was yellow caterpillar with a mane of black hair and a human face.
What?
The caterpillar followed this up by putting a small juice box to his lips before continuing.
"This is the department…" Slurp. "Of heroics."
Who was this guy?
After finishing his juice box, the caterpillar jumped up, so it stood on the end of it's bottom body, before finally shedding it's skin, revealing that despite looking like he would eventually become a butterfly, the yellow "hide" was just a sleeping bag.
The actual man inside the bag was about as far from looking like either a caterpillar or a butterfly as they came. Tall, lanky, with a coal-black mane and a scraggly scruff of unkempt beard. His face was equally unkempt, with dark rings under his eyes, telling of a lack of sleep.
He was dressed in a bog-standard black shirt and equally black pants, with a bunch of what looked like a thick tape made out of cloth wrapped around his neck.
He had a somewhat unusual belt with cylinders, which reminded Izuku of the one the Batman Beyond batsuit had, but that was about as much as he stood out.
As he exited the sleeping bag, he began to walk into the room, Izuku and Uraraka backed into the room to let him enter.
"Hmmm… It took you lot 8 seconds to pipe down. Life is short kids, and you're all lacking in common sense."
His voice could basically be summed up in one word. Unenthusiastic.
"I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shouta. Pleasure meeting you."
The way he said it, he might as well have been from a dead fish, with how lifeless it was.
So this guy was their teacher Izuku mused. He could not place the name Aizawa Shouta, and he didn't really recognize his costume either. But if he was a teacher at Yuei… That meant he had to be a pro Hero right?
Aizawa rummaged through his sleeping bag and pulled out a uniform Izuku recognized as Yuei gym uniforms.
"Put on these on. Immediately. Then shove off to the P.E grounds."
Then he just turned around and walked out without another word.
Well that was… Not what he had expected.
I
After everyone had changed into their gym uniforms they all got themselves over to the P.E grounds, where Aizawa was waiting for them with the same bored, lifeless expression.
Their purpose for coming here was revealed shortly.
A quirk apprehension test.
Uraraka was the only one to actually put the question everyone had to words.
"What about the ceremony? And the guidance counselor meetings?"
Aizawa was rather blunt and unsympathetic.
"If you want to be heroes, we don't have time for frilly niceties."
"I assume you all understand this school's famous reputation freedom on campus?"
"Well, that "Freedom" goes for us senseis too."
The man walked over to some markings on the ground, picking up a baseball, or something that had the shape of a baseball at least.
"Softball pitch. Long Jump. 50 meter dash. Endurance Running. Grip Strength Test. Sustained sideways jumps. Upper body exercises. Seated toe touch."
"These are exercises you all know from middle school. Physical tests where you were barred from using your quirks."
"Japan still hasn't gotten around to standardizing those kinds of records or standardizing the average result. Well, that's a problem on the part of the MEXT, not us."
As he called Katsuki over to the circle end of the markings and told him to throw it as far as he could using his quirk, Izuku realized this was basically just his regular old training regiment, with some exercises removed or added.
With a scream of "DIIIIEEEEE!", Katsuki sent it flying with an enormous explosion. Izuku and Venom both winced from a short burst of pain from the sound of said massive explosion.
"Before anything else, one must know what they are capable of. This will be the basis of your "Hero Foundation"." Aizawa held up his phone showcasing that the distance Katsuki had sent flying was 705.2 Meters.
-Only 700 meters? What a weakling. If we used our web for a sling to throw it, we could send it over ten times that.-
Izuku didn't know how to use a sling, but this honestly didn't sound too bad. It really was just his regular training regiment.
The rest of the class let out sounds of excitement, the prospect of getting to use their quirks to their fullest bringing out feelings of excitement.
Someone, somewhere said, "Looks like fun!"
"It looks… Like fun, you say?"
This time there were actual emotions in his words. Anger to be specific.
"So you were planning on spending your three years here… Planning on having a good time? What happened to becoming heroes?"
He made a motion covering his face with his hand like he was face-palming from their reaction.
"Alright then. New rule. Whoever gets the least total points will be judged hopeless, and instantly expelled."
Izuku's heart stopped a beat, panic flooding his head… until he realized there was no way in hell he'd end up on the bottom of that list.
Still, he shared the opinion of his shocked classmates. Holy shit, it was an incredibly cruel thing to drop on them, much less on the first day and the first exercise.
Aizawa pulled his hand up to push up his hair and gave a sadistic smile.
"Our "freedom" means we dispense with students as we please! Welcome to… The departments of heroics!"
Once again it was Uraraka who put the class' feelings into words.
"The kid who ranks last… Gets expelled?! This is our first day here! But even if it wasn't… That's WAY too unreasonable!"
Aizawa took being questioned in stride and as he let his hair down, he went back to his previous way of speaking.
"Natural disasters... Massive accidents… Ego-Mad Villains… All kinds of calamities can happen when we least expect them. At the moment, Japan is for all intents and purposes drenched in unreasonable."
"If you were counting on a friendly chat after school at the local McDonald's, too bad. From now on, and for the next three years… All you can expect from your life at Yuei, is one hardship after another."
"This is "Plus Ultra". I expect you to overcome these trials and rise to the top."
He gave another grin, though this time without sadism, as he motioned with his finger upwards to the sky.
"Well, that sounds easy enough." Venom said suddenly and without warning, interrupting Aizawa as he was about to say something more.
Izuku froze completely as everyone's eyes turned to him and Venom(who was currently on his left shoulder). Bakugou was positioned so he couldn't get a good look at Izuku, but he frowned at the deeper voice.
Aizawa looked at first at Venom, then Izuku, then back to Venom again.
"You're that spider guy Vlad wanted so much… So, you think rising to the top will be easy, do you?"
Izuku stammered. "No-I…"
"Alright, second and third rule. Midoriya, since you think being number one will be easy, if you don't score as the overall number one, you'll also be expelled. Also, if anyone decides to hold back to let Izuku achieve that, they'll also be expelled."
Izuku almost shut down completely, and could only gape and stare at Aizawa, as he divided them up into pairs to do the exercises.
-Well… Shit.-
I
"How did you DO THAT by just OPENING YOUR MOUTH?!"
-Well, how were we supposed to know the guy was so unstable he picks on anyone with any confidence? And anyway, this shouldn't be too hard to do. Other than Uraraka, none here is a challenge to us."
Izuku bit his lip. Holy shit this had turned into a nightmare quickly!
"It doesn't matter if it's only one who's better than us! If we don't make it to the damn top, we'll be expelled!"
-Then just beat her then. It's not too complicated. Plus Ultra or whatever that nonsense was.-
He said that as I'd it was just the easiet thing in the world.
Beating Uraraka in ball throwing proved impossible anyway, as using whatever the gravity part of her powers was, she got an infinity on the ball throw.
Izuku could just stare in numbed shock as he realized he had already lost one contest to Uraraka.
Finally as it was his turn, Iida put his hand on his shoulder. "Do not worry Midoriya! You'll do just fine, I have no doubts!"
"Thanks…" Nice to see someone else had confidence in him.
As he went up to the circle, he muttered one short question out loud.
"How do we do this?"
-Just a regular throw. You don't know how to use a sling and the circle is too short for us to teach you on the spot. So just throw it regularly.-
Right. He couldn't achieve number one in this trial, but he could damn well make sure he came second place. Easy.
As he walked, he could feel both the second skin attach spread out under his gym clothes and the sleeves of his uniform being pulled up.
Picking up the ball, he took deep breaths to steel himself. Easy, you got this Izuku.
He thought back to the beach, and how he'd once thrown a microwave from one side of the beach to the other. He was much stronger now. He could do this.
He could feel his muscles tense, as he put all his muscles to use as he pulled his arm back before the throw.
The actual throw produced a small Shockwave, though nowhere near as loud, large, or flashy as Katsuki's bigass explosion had.
More like a sniper rifle than any bomb.
He stared after it, off into the distance before it left even his capacity to see it any more against the blue sky.
A sound from Aizawa's phone finally signaled it had hit the ground.
Izuku turned anxiously to look, but he heard his classmates squee over the answer before he saw it.
"WOW! Over 4 kilometers!"
The actual distance was 4027 meters. That was good… great even! Let's see someone else top that!
Someone who wasn't impressed was Katsuki.
Izuku instinctual recognized Katsuki's scream, even if he didn't process the words at that moment.
Anger burned through his body, as every sinew of muscle, and every bone he had prepared for combat, as he snapped around, prepared for battle, Venom's black liquid encasing his body from the top of his head to the bottom of his toes.
He would crush Katsuki, he would-
As Katsuki was launching himself at Izuku with his explosions, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks as his hands suddenly stopped producing explosions, and a bunch of white bands wrapped around his body, preventing him from advancing any further.
Izuku blinked at the sight of the bands, then turned to look at the source, which was Aizawa.
"It's my special "capturing weapon", a steel wire alloy woven with carbon nanofibers. As for my quirk-"
"Oh my god!" Izuku exclaimed loudly, a light going off in his head. Under Aizawa's bands which had been wrapped around his neck, was a rather distinct set of goggles.
"With those goggles and that weapon, you must be Eraserhead! The erasing hero, whose quirk is Erasure! You're the famous underground hero who can shut down any quirk by just looking at them! Born on November 8, in Tokyo, you are 30 years old, 183 cm tall, your blood type's B, you are famous for picking up stray cats and you had a romantic relationship with fellow pro Hero Ms. Joke, real name-" "That's enough." Aizawa shut him down coldly. He paused for a second or two before he added. "Also the last part was wrong."
-Thanks for the exposition dump Izuku. Anything more to add?- Venom asked in a tone mixing sarcasm, praise, and genuine curiousness.
Izuku almost answered him, until he realized his sensei had told him to shut up.
"Anyway… Yeah, my quirk is Erasure. I can cancel out any quirks you guys have. Don't make me use too much though, I have dry eye."
"Anyhow…" He released Katsuki and retracted his cloth.
"We're wasting time. Get back in line Bakugou. I won't tolerate a second outburst from you today."
It wasn't before Katsuki was forced to go back in line, Izuku realized his body was still tense as hell, fully expecting a battle with Katsuki at any moment.
-Don't worry. We'll settle the score ONCE AND FOR ALL eventually.-
Yeah. They would. It felt so strange to embrace the rage openly. He clenched his fist. Back in middle school, he had pretended this rage wasn't there, he had kept quiet and hoped desperately he wouldn't have to fight him.
Hell, he'd even made sure not to arrive at his middle school to pick up his graduation papers until Katsuki had left, fully accepting the angry words he got for being late. All so he wouldn't have to actually confront Katsuki.
Now…
Now he felt actual disappointment that he DIDN'T get to fight and crush Katsuki.
He was still dealing with, and trying to make sense of those feelings, when his test partner Momo created an artillery cannon and blew his 4 Kilometers out of the water, with 28 kilometers.
Izuku just stared as he realized he suddenly was third place.
I
Izuku felt panic, sheer, horrible panic sweep into his mind.
He lost the 50 meters sprint, though thankfully not to Momo or Uraraka, but instead to Iida. The tall boy had a quirk which made it so that his legs essentially had race car engines sticking out of them.
Not too surprisingly, he was fast.
He took the 50 meters dash in 3.04 seconds, compared to Izuku's 4.03 seconds that he cleared with a jump.
Uraraka made it in 5 seconds flat, making her 5th after Mina, a girl with pink skin and long pink hair who took the 50 meters in 4.12, and Katsuki who did it in 4.13.
He was doing well, but he wasn't at number 1. Shit!
Uraraka jumped while making herself weightless. Though it lasted only for a second, her momentum, and the distance she cleared in that second, still sent her 45 meters.
Okay. He just had to do 50 then. Time to see how far he'd go.
Before he and Venom had finalized their bond, he had been able to make a 10-meter jump.
He was way stronger than just 5 times what he had been… Right?
On his side he felt, more than saw Momo preparing a jumping staff.
Ignore her, focus more only on jumping!
He tensed, his muscles ready, waiting only for the sound to go.
It came, he sprung forward, only 4 meters before the sand, not as much as he had usually used when he did these kinds of jumps. He reached the end.
He bent down his legs, and prepared them for the bound, like a catapult.
Like the log so long ago, the ground broke beneath his feet as he jumped, but it didn't prevent him from leaping into the air.
Izuku soared, for the first time since he bonded with Venom, he felt at true ease. He felt like he had back in the woods, running, so long ago now.
This was what he was born to do. Motion, energy, momentum. All in the simple act of moving at great speeds. He was free when he did this, free from the world, free from worries, free from everything that worried him.
-It's amazing isn't it?-
"Yeah." Izuku said softly, his words taken by the wind. Venom understood it, he knew how this felt. Was this how all those who bonded with symbiote felt?
Finally, after what felt like a small eternity for Izuku, the ground came up to meet him. This time, he didn't fall flat on his face or crash in the ground into a roll. Instead he landed on his feet, and instantly fastened himself to the ground.
He turned around. Then repeatedly blinked. Had he really gone that far? He had cleared the sandbox a bit back.
-78th meters.-
"Not… Not bad. That's almost twice as far as Uraraka."
He smiled. Then it faded and he melancholically added. "That's how far we're ever gonna go isn't it?"
-We might push it a few more meters with training so you become better at it, but yeah, you're not going to become stronger no.-
"And there really isn't any way to increase our powers?"
-For you? No. We do become temporarily stronger for a period, in the time leading up to when we will spawn another of our kind, but that is not going to happen in your life.-
"Right… You mentioned that when you talked with my mom."
He'd gone on about that for quite a while in fact, as Inko questioned him about the idea he might create an alien takeover since his kind reproduced asexually.
Symbiotes built up energy over the period of multiple hosts' lifetime, which would eventually be enough to allow them to spawn another of their kind.
All well and good, except the usual time span between each new spawn was about 4 hosts, and generally a time period of 2 centuries.
Needless to say, he would not be alive to see it. And even if the symbiotes did achieve a large number on earth, by the time that happened, humanity would have taken to the stars.
Or at least that was what Venom said.
As he walked back, he heard shouts from his fellow students.
"OVER 70 METERS? Wow, that's amazing!" Mina, the cheerful pink girl, exclaimed loudly! Several of the rest of the class muttered similar opinions.
Izuku, still neither familiar nor comfortable with contact with the opposite sex, nor used to compliments in general, blushed like a fire hydrant from the praise.
"Indeed! It's as I said earlier, you'll do. Fine Midoriya!"
"You… Really have that much faith in me?"
"Of course! I was there during the exam. While it is true that Uraraka Ochako's full power dwarfs everyone else here, she is also not capable of using said power at it's maximum without injuring herself. That is not the case with you however!"
"I… I guess so…"
He looked around for said girl and she was off to the side of the building where their next text was.
"Anyway…. Thank you for the support."
I
Izuku had quickly realized that while his many classmates here were capable of doing one or two of the tests really, really well, when it came down to it, the overall number one spot would be either him, Uraraka, or Momo.
The tall, black-haired beauty did not possess the sheer brute power of him or Uraraka, but her quirk was incredibly versatile.
As she proved when she conjured up a cranked winch to score 1.2 Tons in the grip strength test.
It was an incredibly high score, or so Izuku would have thought.
If not for the fact Uraraka scored 2.3 Ton before them.
Sweat began to trickle down his skin.
-Man, you worry way too fucking much. We'll beat both those no problem."
Izuku picked up the grip as it finally became his turn.
He took deep breaths, and desperately tried to calm himself. Only one try. If he screwed up, he was fucked. Don't think about that, just… Grip it. Grip it hard.
CRUNCH
Izuku blinked at the unexpected sound, and looked down. He had, unintentionally, crushed the device in his hand as he had tried to measure his grip strength.
A blonde boy with a streak of black whistled, at the sight. "Impressive."
He turned to Aizawa.
"Sensei, I… I broke the device…"
Aizawa just looked at him stoically.
"You only get one try Midoriya."
Then he walked off to the next students, leaving Izuku to gape after him in panic.
-That would either make us number 1 in this, or we just became last place.-
Shit, Shit, SHIT!
I
The following exercises ended up going all over the place. He beat Uraraka in endurance running, lost to her in upper body strength, he and her both performed only relatively well in sustained sideways jumping(Frankly the only members of the class who did that well was a dwarf kid named Mineta, Iida and Mina in that order.) and he had beaten her in seated toe touch in, losing only to a girl named Tsuyu.
Now he shook in terror, waiting for Aizawa to read up the results, and either doom him or praise him.
He had no idea how he'd rank in this. Was it the best overall? Or was all sums just added up, so if you did exceedingly well in one it could elevate your score completely above your other ones? If it was that latter, he was fucked, given Uraraka had gotten an infinity.
"Time to present the result."
"The total score is just the aggregate sum of each of your scores. Since it'd take forever to go ever each score individually I'll just disclose all of them at once."
He raised his phone, preparing to make it show a hologram of all the tests.
The moment of truth.
"Oh, and by the way, that whole expulsion thing was all a lie."
Silence.
Aizawa grinned, but unlike his previous attempt at a sadistic smile, which had been completely natural, this one could best be described as the smile of a lazy man who had only ever been heard of sadistic smiles in stories.
"It was a logical ruse to pull out your best performances."
"WHAAAAAAAT!?"
Izuku was not the only one screaming that, but he and Venom were the loudest.
The only one not shocked was the raven-haired Momo. "C'mon guys, use your brains. That was obvious from the start."
Venom disagreed.
-BULLSHIT! He WAS planning to expel someone when he gave the threat earlier, we could FEEL IT! That fickle asshole just changed his mind on the spot!-
Izuku didn't know how true that was, but at the moment he just stood there, breathing in relief.
Aizawa let things quiet down a bit before he continued.
"Anyway… With that first day's over. Your curriculum sheets are in the classroom. Make sure you give them a thrice over before you go home."
Holy shit that was an abrupt end of the first day. It was only 11.36.
"Oh, and Midoriya…"
-Ah, here it comes.-
What? What was coming? The hell was Venom talking about?"
"According your sheet, your quirk is an emitter type. That's wrong. Go get it's classification changed to a mutant type quirk."
Izuku just stared. After a moment he was about to ask, why? Only for Aizawa to turn and leave before he could do so.
-What a fucking asshole.-
"Why, what'd he do now?"
Was Venom really so pissed about him leaving before he could question him?
-Nothing.- Venom said in an annoyed tone, then he pushed down Izuku's sleeves almost as an afterthought. -Anyway, let's just go home already.-
I
Despite the short runtime of day 1, Izuku felt drained in a way he hadn't felt since that final training day, though this time there was less pain involved.
Also, this time he had another presence at his side talking.
"I had never thought before that a teacher could encourage his students to excel through deception before now, but I must say that Aizawa sensei opened my eyes on the subject!"
Izuku had thought Iida was scary during the exam. Venom had thought him an annoying loser. The truth though, as Izuku now saw, was simply that Iida was just an honest, diligent, and passionate guy.
"You have a rather positive image of that guy, more than he deserves we'd say."
Iida did not flinch away from Venom just popping up into the conversation.
"Indeed. As he said, it was a logical ruse to pull out our best efforts today. Logically speaking, this is the best time to do it. We were not familiar with Aizawa-sensei yet, and thus this bluff seemed fully believable. It's kind of thing you can't really pull twice, so one should make sure that one time reaches it's maximum potential."
"... We weren't really talking about his damned training methods, more the fact that he is a-" "Hey, wait up you two!"
All three of them turned their heads to the person who spoke, which was Uraraka Ochako, running up to them.
"You two heading for the station?"
"Indeed," Iida answered. "Or, I am at least, I don't know about Midoriya."
"Yeah… I am, too."
"Splendid! Then the three of us may go together!" Iida exclaimed. He then turned to Uraraka and held out a hand.
"We have not been formally introduced, so far. My name is Iida Tenya."
"Uraraka Ochako!" Uraraka replied with a smile, though she didn't take his hand.
"I don't really do handshakes all that much, I'm sorry to say… I kinda turn everything I touch with my hands weightless."
"Ah." Iida retracted his hand. "The pink bumps I assume?"
Izuku blinked, then looked at her hands. Each of her fingers had a pink bump near the tip, something Izuku had completely missed amongst the many scars her hands had.
"Yeah."
Something struck Izuku and he just asked it, without considering the person he asked.
"Your gravitation quirk doesn't seem to have any relation to your strength quirk, is that right?"
Uraraka froze, her face turning pale.
Izuku, realizing he had just asked a question to a pretty girl, suddenly got flushed cheeks.
"...Yeah… It's… A fused quirk from my parents."
"Like Todoroki Shouto's quirk?" Iida asked.
"Who?"
"The son of the number 2 Hero Endeavour, he is in our class."
"EEEHHHH! HE IS?" Uraraka and Izuku both exclaimed.
Izuku kicked himself mentally. Now that he thought about it, it seemed obvious. Of course he was, with that name. He had been so damned afraid of getting expelled today, he'd completely failed to really analyze most of his classmates, completely opposite of his usual self.
He'd have to do something about that tomorrow.
"Anyway, yeah my… My parents have two different quirks, and I inherited both of them."
"WOW… That's really cool!"
Uraraka blushed and scratched the back of her head in bashfulness from the praise.
"It's… A pretty good quirk yeah."
"Indeed! Strong as Midoriya's quirk is, in terms of brute strength potential, it doesn't compare! You truly were lucky to inherit such a powerful quirk!"
Uraraka's smile and nervousness faded, as a more melancholic expression came to her face.
"Yeah… Lucky…"
"Not that this isn't fun to watch, but mayhaps we should get a move on, rather than just standing around and talking. I say we should go to the local McDonald's. We have more than enough time today, given the circumstances."
Uraraka jumped back in shock, and just stared as Venom talked.
Then, she had a face of realization.
"He was the guy you were talking to back there, right? Back during the Exam?"
"Indeed, that was us."
"Wow, he looks cool. Anyway… Thanks for the offer, but I don't really have that much cash on me right now so-"
"That is not a problem! I can easily pay for all 3… 4 of us! Or do you not eat Mr…" He looked at Venom.
"Venom. And no, we feast upon the glory that is Adrenaline, not the flesh of pasture animals."
"Alright, the 3 of us then. I can pay no problem."
And just like that, it was settled. They went to McDonald's.
It wasn't before they were heading to the fast food shop that Izuku really realized what was going on.
He was hanging out with a couple of friends. Friends. Actual real friends.
Holy shit, he hadn't realized how much he had missed this feeling. How long had it been since the last time he hung out with someone who wasn't an adult with a family connection, or an alien from outer space?
A literal decade.
For a brief moment, anger at Katsuki welled up inside him, but it was quickly forgotten as Izuku embraced this feeling.
God he had missed this.