As Izuku lined up with everyone else on the train station, he felt a new kind of nervousness set in over him. A more giddy kind than he was used to.

Frankly, it reminded him about how he had felt during the beginning of the invasion before the aforementioned villain attack had taken place and derailed the rescue training.

13 had only recently returned to full teaching duty, but they hadn't actually had another big rescue training session yet.

In fact, the only class they had had with her so far since her return had been the first of the "Extra Moderation classes" that Aizawa had promised they would have to take.

At the moment though, classes back at school were the last thing on his mind.

He was far too eager and just plain happy about the upcoming internship to focus on anything else right now.

"Dude, you are way too happy about this."

Mina said with a chuckle.

In contrast to Izuku, who seemed just bursting with energy that was hiding under his more stoic and quiet exterior, Mina seemed a bit more… Laidback than usual.

Like she was nervous or something, but was putting on a face that said she definitely wasn't.

Either way, it was very unlike her usual self.

Izuku however, just smiled at her.

"We're actually gonna train under your mom! Black Cat herself!"

"Yeah… Kinda wondering what she's gonna teach us to be honest. I guess we'll see when we get there."

The train they ended up taking was to Hosu City, where Mina's mom had decided that their internship would take place.

That ended up being the same city Iida was heading to, though Izuku didn't learn that fact, as Iida didn't announce it to anyone, and after they said goodbye to Uraraka and everyone else who would all intern all around the country, Iida boarded the train at a different spot than the two of them, and the only one who noticed him was Venom, who didn't care.

So, for the rest of the trip, it was just them, Izuku being uncharacteristically happy, and brimming with joy, and Mina hiding a nervousness with a laid-back attitude.

"Mom says she'll pick us up outside the station. Also, that we're jumping straight into it, so expect a day of heavy training.

Izuku, still looked like he was brimming with nervous, but energetic enthusiasm, like the fact he would be spending the entire day training was a perfectly happy thing.

"You sound like you weren't expecting the outcome."

"Nah, I was, I know WAY too well to think we're not gonna be training our asses off, but… Eh, it doesn't matter. Let's just go find her once we get there and get this whole internship started!"

For a moment, her usual energetic self peeked through, and her smile became her regular one.

Izuku almost questioned her about it but decided to leave it be.

Mina seemed to finally be coming out of her funk, so who was he to risk it coming back by questioning her?

As they stepped out of the train and out the station, it didn't take them long to Find Mina's mom, who was standing by a car that had been armored all over.

"Mom!" Mina ran up and hugged the older woman, who embraced her offspring in a similar, energetic hug.

"Hello Mina." her eyes were looking down at her daughter with a truly warm and motherly expression. Then her eyes went up to take in Izuku, who immediately felt his nervousness reach the skies as her eyes turned way more serious and analytical as they looked Izuku over.

Black cat disentangled herself from Mina's hug and stepped up in front of him to truly look him over, immediately making Izuku feel like he was a performance dog who was under scrutiny from a judge at a show.

"Hello, Izuku. We've met, but I don't think we have ever been properly introduced. I'm Felicia Hardy-Ashido."

Izuku swallowed, but forced himself to speak, his cheeks already turning red, from the scrutiny.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Midoriya Izuku!" He said in an incredibly awkward and stilted manner, forcing himself to not stutter as he spoke.

Black Cat merely cocked her head.

As she stood there, Izuku was also suddenly confronted with another fact, one which he had known of course, but it hadn't really been in his face before now.

Black cat was a very beautiful, and attractive woman.

At 1.80 centimeters tall, Black cat towered over the chronically short Izuku, which just highlighted all her other physical features.

Wearing the same kind of outfit Mina used for heroics(Which he noted in his head was not her current regular costume) only with a set of white fur-trimmed gloves, it was not hard to really take in how Black Cat looked.

Her face was not all that similar to Mina, being a clear example of an American woman, while Mina had completely Japanese features.

Her face was sharper than Mina, who had softer features, her lips were fuller, and her eyes were not the same shape, and were a bit smaller than Mina's. That's not to say she didn't resemble Mina at all though. The way her brows furrowed as she looked at him immediately reminded Izuku of how Mina looked when she was concentrating on something, and the body language she had as she looked him over was extremely similar to Mina's.

Like Mina, the woman was very well built, with strong musculature, though it was easy to see that her muscles were far more pronounced than Mina's, instead looking like Uraraka did. Like Uraraka however, Black Cat's musculature did not detract much from her femininity.

On the contrary, her body was far more… mature than either Uraraka or Mina, with all that came with that. Being dressed as she was, Izuku couldn't help but think that this was probably how Mina would look a decade or two down the line.

He immediately blushed at the thought, turning red as a lobster.

"Tell me Izuku… What exactly did you want to learn from me while you're here?"

Izuku swallowed, some of that giddy energy returning.

"To fight!"

"To fight huh? Not to soar the heavens? To fly through the sky, knowing that it is just you and it, the way the world was meant to be?"

Izuku opened his mouth to answer that yes, he was only here how to learn to fight, but as she described soaring through the sky, Izuku suddenly was struck by memories of the peace that always came with his high jumps through the sky.

The feeling of the wind on your face, and that all was right in the world…

He closed his mouth. Then swallowed before opening it again, ready to speak, but black cat cut him off.

"You know what I'm talking about, right Izuku? That feeling as you soar… It's just you and the air, the way it was all meant to be…"

"Yes. I… I do."

She nodded.

"I saw it in the tournament. The way Mei just shot you down with ease, despite your reflexes. You were completely off in your own little world as you soared."

She suddenly flashed a grin, that for the first time made her look like the animal she took her name from.

"We're gonna have to DO something about that."

Izuku swallowed, the blushing in his cheeks fading quickly.

He did not falter though. This was why he had come here after all. To learn from one of the best.

"Yes!"

In the background, Mina had stood and quietly and nervously observed the two of them during the whole conversation.

She coughed.

"Maybe… We should do this somewhere else, and NOT at the train station?"

Sure enough, all around them, people had stopped to gawk at the three of them.

Black cat just chuckled.

"Learning to talk while dressed in costume in public is part of hero training Mina, I'm pretty sure I've taught you that before. But if you want this conversation more private we can do that too. We kinda have to actually, cause the first thing we're gonna do is see if Izuku can lift a bus over his head."

Wait, what?

I

The bus, as it turned out, was from a scrapyard, which was where Black cat had taken them immediately after they had left the train station.

As Mina had gone to change in a public bathroom in a shopping center nearby he and Black cat were alone in the scrapyard, her sitting on the hood of an older car.

"The owner of this place has been kind enough to let us use this place for the week, so let's make the most of it."

Izuku hesitated. Then asked the question that was on his mind.

"Shouldn't we… Wait for Mina?"

"No. Anyhow, we're gonna start with figuring out exactly how strong you are Izuku."

She motioned to an old, large bus, right by them.

"This is an older model, but for our purposes, the important thing is to note the weight. 20 tons."

20 tons. Izuku had never truly put his weight limit to the test before. He hadn't done that before his body was remade, and he hadn't done it afterwards.

"That's roughly half of what I can lift, so let's see how you do.

"Wait, you can lift 40 tons?"

That was… Way more than he had thought she could. Of course, he had always known Black Cat was really damn strong, but he had never actually tried putting her exact brute strength to paper.

"That's about my limit, yes."

"That would make you… About as strong as MCU captain America then."

"...That's... One way to put it. Sure let's go with that analogy. As strong captain America, just with a speed that matches that strength."

Izuku nodded.

Then he swallowed and went over to the bus.

He positioned himself near the middle, bent down, and… Lifted the entire thing over his head without that much difficulty.

Frankly, it took him by complete surprise just how easy it was.

It wasn't like it took no effort, balancing the thing, in particular, wasn't that easy(Especially not as the metal bent under his fingers as he held it), and Izuku felt the ground sink under his feet as all the weight of the bus was focused through his legs.

But he was holding this thing over his head without that much difficulty.

Black cat, still sitting comfortably on the hood of a nearby car just nodded, not seeming particularly impressed.

"Good, now go to…" She looked around, then pointed at a spot maybe some 60 meters away. "Over there, carrying the things as fast as you can without dropping it."

Izuku swallowed but did as she ordered.

Like before, the hard thing was balancing the bus over his head, which was way, way harder than actually carrying it.

It took Izuku a minute before he remembered that, oh yeah, he had his black suit.

One quick thought later and the familiar black liquid coated his hands, and suddenly the bus was literally stuck to his hands, making carrying the thing while balancing so, so much easier.

As he reached the point and was heading back, Mina finally arrived, and had a really impressed look on her face, even whistling as she took in how easily Izuku carried the bus.

He immediately blushed and hurried over to put the bus down.

"Wow! I knew you were strong Midori, but… Damn that's strong."

Izuku of course, just blushed harder, then desperately tried to reign it in, as Black finally stood up to walk over to him.

"Very good. We still have no idea just how strong you are, but from that display, I'd say that in terms of raw, brute strength, you're probably the second strongest hero in Japan after All Might."

Izuku froze completely. Then his brain rebooted as he took in what she had just said.

"...Really?"

"Yes, you are several times stronger than me at least. But don't get too cocky with the strength in mind. There is a VAST gulf between you, and people like All Might."

Izuku swallowed, but the feeling he got from Black Cat's praise did not go away. It burned like a torch in his chest.

"Now then, it's time to get down to business. More specifically, let's see how you use that strength in a fight."

Izuku immediately jolted backwards, his suit immediately covering his entire body, as Black cat fell into a strange stance, but thankfully she did not make a sudden attack on him, instead, she waited for him to come to her.

Mina for her part took the spot on the car hood her mother had just vacated.

Izuku swallowed but fell into his makeshift combat stance, which made Black Cat take on an annoyed look.

"Yeah… We're gonna have to work on that."

The stance she herself was using seemed… Really weird to Izuku. It was obviously very deliberate, and the way she wasn't just standing there, but moving from one foot to another, constantly shifting where she was putting her weight told him that this was a boxing stance of some kind.

But if so, it was not one Izuku had ever seen. Her entire body was turned slightly sideways, and while her right hand was held in a usual stance not too dissimilar to Izuku's own, she was holding and moving her left arm in a V-like pattern kinda hanging down, while moving it from side to side.

"Oh, Hitman style! Neat. Been a while we trained that." Mina piped in from the sides.

-Really? That's the name fo-

The punch hit Izuku faster than a speeding bullet.

He saw it coming, or at least he thought he did, moving his head backwards to dodge. Instead, the punch bizarrely seemed to go further than it should and nailed him straight in the face.

He stumbled back, feeling like he'd been hit by a boulder.

Black Cat did not press, instead remaining exactly where she had been.

She looked at him with that same scrutinous look she'd been giving him since the train station, then motioned with her head.

A challenge.

"Can i-" "By all means. Go all out. There wouldn't be much point to this otherwise."

A black line shot out straight at her face as she was talking, but like a snake, Black Cat moved her head out of the way with no difficulty.

Izuku followed up the line attack by trying to move in for the kill, weary about the strange punch she had thrown at him that seemed to defy reach.

He'd brought his hands up and together to block another face shot, then charged in.

Izuku's stance did indeed protect him from the strange punches as he moved into range.

Instead, with enormous speed, Black Cat surprisingly moved towards him, and hitting from the side, she bypassed his guard completely and nailed him straight in the side of the head with a strong hook.

Izuku's mind swam from the force of the blow and his guard faltered.

In an eye blink, Felicia was back a distance, and hit him again, straight in the face with not one, but four of those strange punches from her left, one after another.

Then she backed away.

Izuku groaned as he shook his head, which was really starting to hurt from the force of the blows.

This time he did not advance in another charge, instead trying to think of another strategy.

"The punches I just hit you with Izuku, are called flicker jabs. From what you've just seen, what would you say it's strengths and weaknesses are?"

Izuku halted for a moment, expecting that maybe Black cat would make a surprise attack as he spoke.

He moved backwards as he began talking, just in case.

"It's… Not as strong as the hook, but… It was way faster, and… has a deceptive range."

"Very good~ and what do you use such an attack for?"

Izuku considered.

"You... Land an early, weaker but faster blow to follow up with a stronger one."

"Also, you can use it to keep your distance while, and keep your enemy from getting too close!" Mina piped in helpfully from the side."

"Yes, that too. But here is the big question, Izuku. How do you get past that defence to land a blow of your own?"

For a few moments afterwards they just stood there, as Izuku wrapped his brain around the question.

Black Cat obviously expected an answer, he saw that in her eyes. But what answer was she expecting?

Then he noticed that behind her, there were plenty of things he could web, and then sharply pull towards himself, hitting her in the back.

He quickly moved, trying to web an old fridge door and-Black Cat's hand shot out and closed around the web line that had just sipped straight past her, then she sharply pulled, obviously trying to wrench Izuku off his feet and into the air.

It was what Mei had done. This time, however, Venom was clearly expecting it, and just removed the part connecting it to Izuku's arm.

Problem solved.

At least until the web line still attached to Black Cat's hand suddenly snapped like a whip, hitting him straight across the chest.

It didn't do much damage but it did hit him with enough force to cleave through the suit made of the exact same stuff as the web line, and man did it STING!

He winched from the pain, then the black suit reknit itself again over it, as the line black cat was holding dissolved into the void.

"Wrong answer, by the way, Izuku. The actual one is more… of a higher caliber."

"A… Bigger webline?"

"No, I'm talking about your balls Izuku, your cannonballs. The ones that completely destroyed Uraraka in your match. Why aren't you using those in your regular fighting style?"

"Oh, well… I haven't really managed to reach a point where I can throw those by instinct, much less aim and-" "I see. Well in that case… Your only option is to try and get past my punches physically."

She grinned in a manner that could have looked really intimidating, but Izuku couldn't help noticing that it looked just like Mina did when she was moving in for the kill at the arcade.

"Good luck with that."

She then took the offensive.

Izuku jumped back as he barely avoided being punched in the face again, as Black cat closed the distance in an eyeblink.

He landed on top of an old car, and immediately looked around for some high ground. The closest thing was the bus, and he almost jumped towards it, only to instead have to awkwardly jump backwards, and to the ground again to avoid being hit in the face.

"No walls and no buildings here Izuku. This is not your kind of environment. So, what do you do in this kinda situation?"

Izuku, still weary and on guard, stepped on something. He hastily glanced down. It was a motorcycle.

"Yes, throwing that at me is an option. It's not going to work, but you're thinking in the right direction. Think Izuku. You're stronger than me, by a WIDE margin. How do you use that to your advantage? How do you use that to overcome my speed?"

He thought. He wrecked his brain around it, and desperately tried to think of a way.

The first thing that came to mind was grappling her. Izuku was not trained in wrestling, but he understood that if he could manage to pin her in a grip, his enormous strength would win out.

The problem was that to do that, he would need to get through those punches.

Venom thought along similar lines.

-You need to get her in a grip Izuku, get your arms around her, and force her to the ground.-

That was the most obvious way forward, but something, instincts maybe, told him that wasn't what Black Cat was talking about, as she just stood there, waiting just outside either's direct range and waited for his answer, moving in that boxing bobbing motion all the while.

She… Had said he was on the right track with the lifting, hadn't she? So what did she mean? How could he use his superior strength in that way?

He realized the answer, as he looked to the side, where an old, busted-up car was resting.

"You're… Not saying that I should try and bash you over the head with one of the cars, are you? In a sparring match?"

"That would be it. Not that you'd ever hit me, but you're thinking along the right lines. If this was a real battle, that would be an option. An option many other heroes would never use… And might very well die because of not being willing to use it."

She moved forward again, like a bolt of lightning.

This time, Izuku made the decision to grit his teeth, and weather her punches in order to get her in a bear hug.

It might have worked too, if not for Black cat immediately dropping her punches and instead within the blink of an eye switching to a leg sweep and knocking his legs down from under him.

As he lay on the ground, Black Cat raised her leg high and SLAMMED it down right by his head. Izuku felt the power of the blow passing just by his skull.

As he turned his head and looked, he saw to his shock that the asphalt had gone all the way up to just below her knee, so strong had the blow been.

That… was more than enough to have crushed his skull like a Grape.

"Take this as my first real lesson to you Izuku. Strength, power, speed… They are all relative. Someone much weaker than you can kill you just as easily as someone much, much stronger than you. The weaker can dominate the strong through skill, speed, and experience. Like I did just now."

She jerked her foot out of the ground, then gave him a hand, and pulled him to his feet with no difficulty.

"Tell me Izuku… Not counting the tournament, how many real fights have you been in your life?"

Izuku blinked, then thought back in his life.

Well, there had been the forest, and during the invasion, there had been the gunmen, and his and Mina's fight with Rhino and Shocker, and… That was it.

"3."

"3 fights. Yes, that's about what I thought." She motioned for him to follow as she began walking back to where Mina was sitting, the pink girl getting up at their approach.

"Three battles are better than 0, but it does not make you an experienced veteran. I saw it in the tournament. Everything wrong with the way you fight is all due to one thing. Inexperience. You're a self-taught fighter, and like all self-taught fighters, you have a bunch of problems. Your stance is off, the way you punch leaves you wide open for anyone with experience with any kind of martial art to counter you, I managed to use a basic tactic of only using punches to make you so focused on my hands to make you forgot I could kick you instead, and when you soar… Well, I once was like that too. The high you get when you soar… It's wonderful, but also extremely dangerous because it's so easy to think of yourself as completely out of danger when you soar."

It… Wasn't like Izuku wasn't aware he had a bunch of flaws in how he fought, but to have someone with real experience lay it all out like that was… something else.

"Your work with the web lines are pretty good though, I'll give you that, but we will have to work on everything else. Also, figuring out what kind of style would best suit you with your strength and limitations."

As Mina walked up to them, Black Cat continued.

"The best kind of fighting style that would suit you, would be a mix between boxing and kickboxing. You're really damn agile and monstrously strong, but you're not nearly as fast as the fastest fighters in the world. And from what Mina has told me, you can't get any stronger either, so We'll have to work with what you got. Which is fine. You don't really need more strength or speed. You just need how to make full use of what you have."

He nodded.

"Which is why I'm gonna have to make your training a long-term project. Cause one single week is not enough time to make a decent boxer out of you, much less a kickboxer."

"Wait, does that mean you'll take me on as an intern later too?"

Black cat looked him up and down, then at Mina.

"That will depend largely on how you and Mina interact from now on I think. In any case that is for another day. In the now… I have a pretty good idea of what we'll be training on."

She pointed at the bus.

"I want you to hit that with a cannonball."

Izuku nodded, then said "Venom can you-" -Yeah, I heard her.-

Izuku felt the black on his hand become something more, readying itself for what was about to happen.

He punched. Not nearly as hard as he could have, but It hit the car with enough force to make the whole thing shake as he left a massive dent in the metal.

"Good. Now do it again, without Venom helping you out."

Izuku swallowed.

He knew what was about to come next.

He tried to make the black goo form into what he wanted just from his own thoughts. Then he punched.

The entire thing hit the car, but nowhere near where he had aimed, and rather than hit like a solid projectile, it instead just harmlessly exploded into a million black pieces, like it was a water balloon filled with ink.

For a moment, he just stood there, feeling rather embarrassed, Mina and black at looking rather unimpressed by the display.

"... You really need to work on that Midori."

"Yes. We'll begin with that."

She turned to look at him.

"Or rather, the first thing I teach you, you will use to master that."

She walked out in front of him and took the same stance as the one she had used against him earlier during the sparring match.

"Can you copy this stance Izuku?"

He did so, feeling pretty awkward as he stood in a slightly sideways manner, with his left arm sorta just… Hanging down.

"No, don't just let the arm swing like that, you have to actually be the one moving it, not just let gravity control It."

He quickly tried to do as she said, trying to get the pendulum movement she had in her arm without just swinging it harshly from side to side.

He felt absolutely idiotic as he did so.

"Good, that's better. Could be less forced and stressful, but we'll work on it. For now, just keep doing that. Next, we have your feet, you're standing a bit wrong, keep them more like this."

He tried to copy the way she stood, but it took him several tries before Black Cat was finally happy with it, then there was the bobbing motion, constantly shifting on his feet.

Finally, Black Cat was happy with his stance.

"Good… Now I want you to try and jab the air."

He did so. Jabs weren't exactly hard to do.

Immediately he felt an awkwardness trying to jab with his left arm being as it was.

"Not so easy is it? Hitman style was invented long ago in America, before the rise of quirks. It's a style that was made for the boxing ring, not real life. In a real fight, using a simple straight jab instead of something more complex like a flicker jab while in this stance is far, far more useful. And less likely to end with you getting stabbed."

She did a quick jab in the air, just to showcase, then immediately switched and did a flicker version of the same attack.

Seeing it from the side, Izuku saw the difference clearly. The flicker jab was a strange punch where you essentially threw a whiplike jab from your elbow instead of using the entire arm.

"After the rise of superhumans, however, It became way more useful, for the simple reason of the increase in speed and power. When a normal person uses a flicker jab, it's just a quick, not too damaging move. In the ring, it's there to keep distance between you and your opponent, while also being great for a follow-up blow, but it's not a knockout blow by itself."

She jabbed the air again to demonstrate her point.

"When we superhumans use it…"

The next jab was so quick and snappy that it produced a small sonic boom, like a bullcrack whip.

"Well, you can guess. The point is that it's a very viable move to use for us. Also…"

She did the jab at full power again, but rather than stopping, she instead turned the jab at it's peak into a massive power hook.

"Even if they dodge, you can often just nail them with a hook instead. It's a very useful technique. But the important thing for you is that it's an incredibly fast punch, and with the hitman style, it's very, very easy to repeat it time and time again."

She nodded towards the bus.

"It is perfect as a training technique for you to learn to throw punches rapidly and quickly, while also trying to master throwing the black cannonballs with every punch you make."

Izuku stiffened.

"So, you want me to learn the flicker jab… Just to train throwing cannonballs?"

"Yes. Now, let me see how well you can copy the move. We're gonna be working on this ALL day long."