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 though. 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 move.
"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 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 her 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 ANTIHERO 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 man 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 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 Hero 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.
XXXXX
Writers note*
I usually don't spoil anything for you guys from the get-go, but I feel a lot of readers will be pissed reading this chapter if I don't explain it.
Anyhow, the reason why Uraraka is so damned much stronger than canon Izuku was at this point in time, has the simple and mundane explanation that she started training at a much earlier point than Izuku did, and as such inherited one for all much earlier and has grown relatively acclimated to it.