Venom had memories of Izuku's previous school life, generally, a boring affair of sitting and listening to older humans talk about whatever topic had been taught that day.
It had been exceedingly boring when they didn't understand anything beyond the names of students, or the teachers.
Yuei's theoretical classes were even more boring than those had been, and sitting around and listening to these lectures when they could understand them, didn't make them any less boring to suffer through.
Not helping was the fact they already had learned the actual interesting stuff of local history from the far wide web.
Earth was an interesting enough world, with a race that, whatever else it might be, was most certainly not boring.
Venom had most of what they needed to make certain they would thrive in this world.
Thankfully, that would change quickly enough.
The last class of the day was a class Izuku had been looking forward to more than any other, despite not knowing what it was about at all beyond it being a practical class.
Venom was also looking forward to this class, to break up the monotony of boring lectures about stuff that didn't matter.
They were also curious about the teacher.
Said teacher entered the classroom with a shout and with gusto, proclaiming how he was entering into the room like he was a normal person.
Tall, muscular, dressed in an impractical, long blue cape and with ridiculous yellow hair standing up from his head.
All Might. The greatest hero Japan had ever produced, and the man commonly regarded as the greatest warrior in the world. A man who always smiled no matter what, bringing hope to all.
Izuku nearly fainted having a fangasm over the man.
"It's him… It's actually him…" He had his face covered by his hands hiding his starstruck face, like he was actually looking at a beautiful specimen of his kind.
-Well isn't that interesting. Very interesting indeed.-
Izuku was knocked out of his fervor by Venom's tone, like he had just stumbled upon something incredibly amusing.
"What?"
-We'll tell you later, after school.-
Venom also found All Might's appearance a fascinating thing, though for very different reasons.
For one thing, they recognized who he was from the moment he walked into the door.
They had seen this man in the flesh before, last year, on the second day after bonding with Izuku.
All Might, as it turned out, was the man known as Toshinori Yagi. A man Venom recalled as looking incredibly sickly, frail, thin, and weak. He did not much resemble the man before them in any way, other than the yellow hair, and the sunken-in eyes.
At least not physically. However, you could not trick a Klyntar by just changing your look up a bit. Venom recognized him and how he felt up close immediately, a task made even easier by the other thing Venom immediately felt upon the man's entrance.
All Might, the symbol of peace, the pride of Japan, the greatest product of humanity's warrior class, was in constant pain. Horrible, horrible pain.
It would seem the man's quirk did not come with regeneration powers.
Unlucky him.
The pain was centered around All Might's gut, but beyond that, Venom could not tell what the injury was exactly.
The pain did not prevent All Might from letting out a booming laugh, as he jumped into his role as a teacher.
"Foundational Hero Studies! In this class, we will be building up your hero foundation through various trials! Today! That trial will be… The Trial Of Battle!"
Throughout his speech, All Might made dramatic motions, presumably to hype up the upcoming trial, ending with him proudly presenting a large card with the word "BATTLE" written on it.
The class, including both Izuku and Venom, took the news of actual combat training with rather great enthusiasm.
Venom was torn, on hand, the idea of having the students have an actual battle on their second day was an absolutely terrible idea… On the other hand, they really didn't care if the rest of the less powerful students got hurt. Venom and Izuku would be fine.
"And to go with your first battle…" He clicked a button on a small remote, and the wall to the side opened up and a bunch of containers all with a number popped out. "We have prepared the gear we had you send in requests for, to enhance your quirks!"
Everyone in the class exclaimed a shout of joy and enthusiasm at that proclamation.
"Now, get changed, and we'll be all ready to go! After you're done changing, everyone head to Grounds B! The garb you bring out into the battlefield is vitally important boys and girls! They will be how all who see you recognize you from now on."
As he walked towards the exit with great energy in each step stopped by the door to give one final bit of wisdom.
"And don't forget! From now on… You are all officially Heroes!"
Well, it wasn't the most profound thing Venom had heard from a teacher, but they would take it compared to the complete lack of energy Aizawa had.
I
Izuku hadn't worn Venom in the manner the symbiote had explained was the most efficient one for combat, since the day they had finalized their bond.
Which was to say he was just wearing his underwear beneath the suit.
"Is this really the best way to wear this…?"
"Yesss… the less fabric we have to deal with, the better we can focus on acting as armor. The absolute best would be if you were wearing nothing at all, but-" "I'm not doing that."
He blushed just thinking about it. He felt incredibly exposed with just his underwear underneath his second Black/Blue skin, there was no way in hell that he'd ever be able to just go completely naked in public.
For one thing, it was just begging for incredible awkwardness if the suit was ever dissolved and had to reform. That would be bad enough with pants only, but with nothing on? Izuku shuddered at the thought.
At the moment, Izuku and Venom were alone on grounds B with All Might, and a female student named Toru Hagakure, who's quirk was being completely invisible.
Izuku felt both an incredible want to go up and talk to All Might, and incredible embarrassment standing next to both his idol and a girl, while feeling incredibly exposed.
Not helping the fact was that Izuku got a distinct impression Toru was checking him and his skin-tight suit out. Which just made him feel even more awkward and exposed.
One huge advantage of generating your own costume, as Izuku had just discovered, was being able to change incredibly quickly. As proven by the fact he and Toru, were the first here by a longshot, both having really easy to change into costumes.
Izuku had his black suit, while Toru's costume was composed of a set of shoes and gloves.
It was a sign of how self-conscious he felt, that he didn't even consider the fact that a girl was standing relatively close to him while technically being almost completely naked.
Finally, the rest of the class showed up, dressed in a wide variety of costumes, some more practical than others.
"WOW, you look really cool Izuku!" Uraraka said in a cheerful tone as she came up to him.
Izuku blushed so hard he felt like he was giving off heat, though his face was concealed behind his black mask. Then he blushed even harder at the sight of Uraraka herself.
Uraraka's costume was a tight black jumpsuit with open uncovered arms, a fur cape that was fastened to buttons in her jumpsuit, gloves, and simple boots.
It was a simple, yet perfectly functional costume, yet it also showcased something about Uraraka Izuku hadn't noticed before.
The girl had REALLY well-built musculature. She wasn't the only girl in class with noticeable muscles, as Mina also had a pretty noticeable build. However, Mina was built more like the top 5 hero Miruko, while Uraraka was more like… Well, frankly she had muscles that weren't that far from Izuku's own current build.
Not that it detracted much from her attractiveness, as she had pretty noticeable curves, which her outfit showed off perhaps too well.
Still, it was a pretty jarring contrast between how Izuku had generally thought of her as a really cute girl and her actual build like an Amazon.
That being said, he still thought she looked great.
"Man, it must be great to just have an outfit you can just throw on and off whenever. It must be practical."
"Yea-Yeah it really is."
"My costume ended up being WAY tighter than I had planned, I really should have been more specific with my drawings."
She looked over with a longing look at Iida, who wore an incredibly detailed costume, that made him look like a car that had taken human form… that still had very loose cloth parts.
Suddenly, Mineta, a dwarf with hair made up of purple balls inserted himself in front of Izuku with a thumb up sign, and proclaimed "Heroics is the greatest!" then walked off without another word.
Had… Had he even talked with Mineta before now?
Further socializing between students was cut short by All Might, who seemed incredibly eager to start this class in earnest.
"Now then, that you are all finally here… It is time to see what you are made of my little embryos! It is time for the trial of BATTLE!"
"But before that, let me just say that I'm really liking everyone's styles! VERY COOL!" He gave a thumbs-up, and Izuku felt incredible pride and joy in the black suit that was Venom, washing away his earlier embarrassment in newfound pride.
-Fucking hell man, you are way too damn easy to influence.-
Iida suddenly held up his hand.
"Sensei! Regarding the performance ground we'll be using, is it the mock city from the entrance exam?"
All Might gave a chuckle as he answered "Close Tenya-Kun, but no, we will not be using the city itself for this exercise. Instead-" He motioned with a hand to one of the massive tall buildings that littered the fake cities. "This will be an indoor battle trial!"
"Villain cleanup is usually seen out in the open, but statistically, most of our job is done inside. Most acts of villainy are done indoors after all."
In front of him and to his left stood Katsuki, hanging on to All Might's every word. Yeah, Izuku understood what All Might meant. Most acts of beating down the weak did happen indoors. He knew that from personal experience.
"Imprisonment… House Arrest… The Black Market… Why, any Villains with any intelligence operates in the shadows!"
"For this test, you'll be separated into "Villain groups" and "Hero groups"... FOR A TWO ON TWO. TEAM BATTLE!"
-What do you think the chances are, that we'll be getting to fight that bastard Katsuki?-
"Well, that would depend on if it's random or-" Izuku answered in a quiet voice before he was interrupted by Tsuyu.
"What about Foundational training?"
"This is Foundational training Tsuyu-Chan! Only this time there won't be any robots that it's just okay for you to destroy!"
All Might was about to continue, but was suddenly interrupted by the entire class starting to as questions at once.
"So how do we determine who wins and loses?" "Is it okay if we just blow them away?" "Is there going to a threat of expulsion for anyone like there was with Aizawa-Sensei?" "If we're separated into different groups, what method would be best to do so?" "Doesn't this cape look dazzling on me?"
All Might was not amused, though he did not react with rage. "I can't make you out if ALL OF YOU speak up at ONCE!"
Instead of answering any of their questions directly though, All Might instead pulled out a piece of paper and began to read from it.
"For this exercise, we'll have the "Villains" guard a nuclear weapon they intend on deploying! The "Heroes" job will be to stop or their nefarious scheme before it's too late!"
-Holy shit what a melodramatic scenario! If he wants this to be a plausible mission he should have used something more sensible, like a nerve gas bomb, or a bomb to knock out all electronics in the area. You know, sensible, realistic shit.-
"If the "Heroes" captures the "Villains" or touch the nuclear device before the time runs out, they win. If the "Villains" manage to keep the device uncompromised until the clock runs out, or manage to capture the "Heroes", they win!"
Then, upon finishing his crib sheet, All Might pulled out a lottery box faster than Izuku could blink.
"Your teammate and opponents will be chosen by lottery!"
Iida was shocked by the very idea of randomness.
"Truly? That is how we'll do it?"
All Might was about to answer, but this time it was Izuku who interrupted.
"Well, pros are often forced to make impromptu on the spot team-ups with heroes they don't really know, so this is probably a reference to that."
"I see! always looking at the future, eh Midoriya?" He quickly turned to All Might and gave an apologetic bow. "I apologize for my rude interruption Sensei!"
I
Izuku ended up with Iida. It was a good team in Izuku's opinion, His versatility along with Iida speed would make a good combo. Probably the only one he'd have been happier with would have been Uraraka, but frankly, he wouldn't have minded anyone in the class.
Except for Katsuki of course.
He felt rather sorry for Uraraka, who had the misfortune of ending up with said exploding asshole.
All the way up until All Might pulled out the balls to determine who would fight each other as Heroes and Villains.
For the first number, Izuku and Iida ended up as the heroes for round 1. On the opposite were Uraraka and Katsuki.
-YES! FUCKING YES! FUCK YEAH, LET'S GO CRUSH THAT ASSHOLE!-
All Might gave some more words before they started, but the only things that really mattered for him and Iida was that the Villain team got 5 minutes inside to prepare before they got to go inside and that each team got a set of earbuds that doubled as microphones to the other part of the set.
"So, Midoriya, how should we do this?" Tenya asked him, the two of them just having been left alone as All Might headed back to the "Headquarter" to monitor them.
"You could climb up the walls from the outside to the top, could you not?"
He'd considered that himself.
"That's what I would normally have done, but… Uraraka knows I can do that. And she's undoubtedly telling Katsuki about it. The thing is that I'm not experienced in climbing, much less fighting while I'm doing it. If Katsuki were to attack me while I'm outside climbing… Well, I'd be a sitting duck. Unless…"
-NO.- Venom said bluntly. Before Izuku could ask why the hell not, Venom continued. -Our cloaking is a tool that has the best capacity when no one knows about it. We aren't revealing it here for all to see. If we did, we wouldn't be able to use it to it's fullest later.-
"Anyway… So long as Katsuki is above us, trying to climb past him is a terrible idea. Not to mention that at the top we'd still have to deal with Uraraka."
He didn't know if he could beat Uraraka. She was strong. Damned strong. Her full power was far stronger than the might he and Venom had to offer.
"So, what you're saying is that we need to capture Katsuki, then lure Uraraka away from the top floor."
"...That's one option."
"Excellent! Then I shall act as a lure for Uraraka, while you deal with Katsuki, given how much he seems to despise you, and how aggressive and irrationally he is, you should only need to make it clear where you are, and he should come running to confront you. On my end, once I have gotten Uraraka away from the top floor, and you have dealt with Katsuki, just get outside, then climb to the top."
It was a simple, yet logical plan.
All it would take was him being able to beat Katsuki into the ground.
"Let's do it!"
I
-Beating Katsuki is not as massive a problem as it would be to beat Shoto or the girl with the whip earlobes. Yes, his explosions will blow us away without problem, but even if we part and expose your flesh, you are still more than durable enough to tank the shock from his explosions. At least the lesser ones.-
-In comparison, the bastard doesn't possess particularly high durability. None of our 3 counters in this class does. Katsuki is probably the most durable of the 3, since he needs to be durable enough so the shock of his explosions don't destroy his own body.-
-All we need is one good blow, one solid hit on any of their body, and they go down like a turned off computer.-
"So, what, I should just tank his explosions?"
"If necessary, but what we need to do is close the gap and hit him. Again, he can't tank our blows. One good hit is all it would take, if we need to tank some blows to make it happen, so be it."
It made some sense, but Izuku still didn't like the idea of actually taking any more of Katsuki's explosions. Even if they didn't actually fully damage him, they would hurt. A lot.
Also, he didn't have Venom's confidence in his body's ability to tank the kinds of explosions Katsuki had done at the test exams.
"AND BEGIN!" All Might's voice rang in their ears.
Iida didn't waste any time and went into motion the moment the announcement came.
Izuku took it easier and went more cautiously.
Once inside, Venom had problems sensing where either Katsuki or Uraraka were, according to him, due to the thick walls.
No matter.
"HEY KATSUKI! WE'RE ON THE LOWEST FLOOR! COME FACE US IF YOU HAVE THE BALLS!"
Izuku felt… Eager was the best way to describe it. He WANTED this fight. He felt the adrenaline already beginning to flow into his mind in preparation. It was a completely alien feeling for Izuku, who had never experienced battle rage consuming him before.
To be fair on the young hero, human beings weren't build to feel this sort of rage, thrill, and lust before they actually became consumed by combat.
-He's coming.-
And he was. 13 seconds later, Katsuki sprung forth from the corridor in front of Izuku and released a large explosion that engulfed where Izuku's upper body had been seconds before, as Izuku had already jumped back and out of the way when it hit the wall.
"Damnit Deku, don't fucking dodge!"
As the dust cleared, the two old friends stared at each other with hatred in their eyes. Izuku's eyes hidden behind two white alien eyes that narrowed in a way that had been the last thing that countless misfortunate souls across the universe had seen before they died. Katsuki's eyes were more crazed, and on his lips, he was wearing a berserkers grin.
Two young kids on the final step to reaching their adulthood, both empowered with the capacity for destruction, both having a wish to HURT the other. Katsuki because his entire worldview was dependent upon his self worth and sense of superiority, and Izuku because any sympathy or admiration he once had felt for his old friend had been buried in unnatural hate, resentment, and anger.
Katsuki made the first move.
In terms of overall advantage, Katsuki had the high ground here, in these relatively cramped corridors, his way of moving by short controlled bursts from his hands were far more at home than Izuku was, the cramped space preventing Izuku and Venom from utilizing their great speed, jumping capacity and agility to their fullest.
All he had to do, was keep his distance, employ hit and run tactics and make certain to not come within Izuku's physical range.
If he did that, he had a reasonably high chance of not only winning through running out the clock, but also eventually bringing Izuku to his knees through attrition.
Katsuki, being as green as summer grass, instead charged in, planting his foot down as he prepared to blow Izuku away with a strong and powerful explosion from his right hand.
For Izuku, it was as if the world froze to slow motion as Katsuki pulled his arm back. He had seen this many, many times before. Katsuki always started a fight with a strong right swing. Izuku had never realized just how easy that made it to read and deal with his first attack before.
In that moment, Izuku saw, clear as crystal, two different paths to victory.
In the first, he could step inside the swing, grab his arm, and swing him over his shoulder and down into the ground. So long as he didn't pause and just followed it up by punching Katsuki in the face, it was an easy victory.
There was a chance of inflicting permanent brain damage on him with that tactic though.
The other path wasn't as risky with permanent damage, but it was also very, very painful.
He chose the second path.
As Katsuki swung his arm forward, Izuku stepped inside and beyond the range of the planned attack. His left arm gripped around the grenade gauntlet Katsuki had on his arm, while his right hand grabbed the blonde boy by one of the two straps around his chest.
He then slammed him left into the wall, not hard enough to instantly break his bones, but certainly with enough force to knock the wind out of him.
He wasn't done with that though.
Still holding Katsuki up against the wall, he planted his leg into his foe's groin. Katsuki went limp instantly.
Izuku then slammed him to the ground, and quickly webbed up his hands, legs, and mouth, leaving him only able to breathe through his nose.
He finished off with snapping a capture band around his arm, signifying that Katsuki was taken out of the exercise.
As Izuku stared down Katsuki, the adrenaline fading, he felt an influx of very different emotions.
The first thing he felt was a sense of… Anticlimax. Like he had been preparing for this moment for a long time, only for it to be easier than he had ever imagined, and far less satisfying than he had thought it'd be.
The second was a sharp vindictive wish to bend down, close his hand around Katsuki's right arm and snap it between his fingers, as payback for what happened all those months ago.
He quickly shut the emotion down. He had won, hadn't he? Why would he need to hurt him even more?
"Well… That was easy."
-Of course, it was! That fucking glass cannon jumped straight into our range, leaving himself wide open to being manhandled by our vastly superior strength! Even if you hadn't read his moves so well that we didn't even take a scratch, we would still have crushed him easily!-
Venom paused for a moment before adding in a genuinely impressed tone.
-Also, that reading of his movement was great! We expected you to take at least half a hundred battles before you could read enemy movement like that!-
Izuku blushed a bit at the praise, but nowhere as much as he had earlier that day.
"It-It wasn't that hard. Katsuki almost always starts his attacks with a strong right swing. Hell, when he stands up it is usually with the right side first."
-Wow, what a predictable mo-LOOK OUT!-
Izuku's right arm, seemingly moving on it's own, snapped up into a guard position, barely fast enough to block the kick that was aimed for his head.
The blow still sent him flying down the corridor.
As he got back on his feet after crashing and rolling along the ground, he could feel the adrenaline coming back into his veins.
"Sensei, can we "Rescue" our partners if they have been captured?"
"I'm afraid, not Ochako-Chan! You and Midoriya will have to finish this exercise on your own!"
It took a split second before Izuku realized that that meant Iida had also been captured.
Down the corridor, where Izuku had just stood, was Uraraka Ochako looking far more serious and determined than Izuku had ever seen her.
"All right then…" She turned and stared him down, with fire in her eyes.
Then, with an incredible burst of speed, she launched herself down the corridor towards him.
Izuku responded by jumping up over her and landing on the ceiling.
He had hoped that would at least give him some reprieve, but Uraraka forced herself to a stop right behind where he had just stood, and snapped around to face him.
Izuku avoided her follow-up jump kick by simply letting go of the roof and dropping down to the floor.
The sound of the stone shattering above him was explosive, and he was hit by several smaller rocks that flew like shrapnel.
He hit the ground just as Uraraka turned around in midair.
Not quickly enough, however.
His webbing hit her straight in the gut, and he pulled her straight down into the ground, face first. Not gently either.
For a moment he saw the perfect opening to stomp down on her back. Not facing Bakugou however, he hesitated at the violence of it.
That was a mistake, as her hand snapped up, and grabbed around his ankle. Uraraka pulled him down as she attempted to grab him into a hold.
Izuku expected to feel a crushing weight as her arms closed around him, but was instead surprised by how "Light" the grip around him felt.
It should be WAY stronger than this given how hard she hit.
Izuku headbutted her in the face hard, the pain distraction allowing him to easily break free from her grip and jump back and away from Uraraka as he landed on his feet.
As Uraraka stood up and put up a fighting stance, and Izuku did the same, Izuku desperately tried to piece together how Uraraka's strength quirk operated. She hit incredibly hard, but frankly, her grip Strength had been far less than it should have been given how she sent him flying with a blocked blow.
OK, what did he know? Uraraka tended to move and attack in a burst of enormous strength and speed, so maybe…
Izuku suddenly moved his hands from his own makeshift combat stance, so they were fists pointed at Uraraka.
Shots of black webbing caught the surprised Uraraka(Who seemed to have expected Izuku to launch himself at her) in the midsection and quickly engulfed her.
For about 4 seconds, as with the crackling of pink lightning, the web was burst asunder as she broke free.
Izuku didn't try a second round of web, having both established Uraraka could break them, and also having confirmed his theory on her powers.
Uraraka's base strength wasn't anywhere near his own. The way her full powers worked was that she would unleash them in short but immensely powerful bursts of force.
Now the big question was… How did that help Izuku out here? He couldn't see any obvious way to use that to win this fight.
Unless…
Izuku launched himself against Uraraka, who brought up her right hand in a hook.
Izuku didn't meet it though and instead leaped over her and her fist.
Once again a web shot out, and this time hit Uraraka straight in the back. Izuku landed on the wall, then he used all his strength and PULLED! For a second he felt the resistance, before with a snap the cape his web had connected to snapped loose, both buttons ripped out of their sockets.
Izuku dropped the web and the cape attached to it, as Uraraka stumbled forward. Then as she whirled around, another web line hit her, this time in the gut.
For a second time, a massive pull came from Izuku's end, and Uraraka went flying off of her feet towards the wall.
Izuku's fist came up to meet her, as she brought up her own fist in a counterattack, and the two of them hit each other with blows so hard the sound echoed through the corridor.
Uraraka's counter had been in the form of a hook that had taken Izuku in his left ribs, while Izuku's punch had hit Uraraka straight in the face.
Uraraka, not held up by Izuku's strength anymore, fell to the ground, dizzy and wobbly as she got back to her feet again.
Izuku for his part, was doubled over in pain on the wall, feeling like Uraraka had broken every bone in his ribcage.
Uraraka got back on her feet, though clearly shaken by the blow to the head, she looked up at Izuku with shaking eyes, but instead of repeating the previous jump kick, large pink bolts of lightning engulfed her as she simply punched the wall with such force that it broke.
Izuku, realizing what was happening, kicked off and jumped. He tried to land on his feet, but stumbled and rolled to the ground where Katsuki lay.
He had completely forgotten about him during the battle.
As he forced himself to his feet, he took several steps backwards, as he considered his strategy.
Uraraka was beginning to recover from the head blow, she'd be back on the offensive soon. Should he repeat the strategy of jumping over her and hitting her in the back? No, no that would be way too obvious. He had a shot before and though he had taken her by surprise, it hadn't been decisive like he had hoped it would be.
Maybe, he could run away, then set up an ambush and- Only then did Izuku realized he didn't actually need to beat Uraraka to win.
He bolted to the left, and then, his ribs screaming all the way, he put his hands and one shoulder against the wall, and PUSHED!
The wall of concrete and steel broke outwards, and Izuku fell out with the pieces of the now broke wall. Not for long though.
A line of black web shot up and to the side of the building, leading to Izuku slamming into the wall, leading to a muffled scream from the pain in his ribs.
He did not stop to catch his breath, however, and instead began climbing as fast as he could, in spite of the horrible pain in his ribs with each meter.
He had to reach the top before Uraraka got back to the stairs.
I
"THE HERO TEAM, WINNNNNNS!"
The horrible sound from the microphone was loud, clear, and painful.
Uraraka was just getting up the stairs when Venom and Izuku got to the "Nuclear Bomb".
"Midoriya-Kun, could you dissolve the web around Bakugou?"
Izuku, still holding his fractured ribs, let out a pained "Venom, can you…?".
-Sure!-
The bonds around Katsuki dissolved turned to nothing, a supposedly impossible thing according to all the laws of physics humanity knew about.
The last thing Venom felt from Katsuki, was the boy having what seemed to be a panic attack. Served the brat right!
Well, it hadn't quite been what Venom had hoped this would be. The Uraraka battle was great, and the rush had been so, sooo sweet! At least until Izuku had realized he could win by just going up and had ended the whole bout in a lame as fuck way.
On the other end of the spectrum had been the battle Katsuki. That had been incredibly disappointing. And the sad part was that it could have been great! If Izuku had just put real force into the attack, they could easily have burst Katsuki's balls, dooming him to never reproduce, and eternal ridicule by his peers.
There were fewer ways to crush someone that was more humiliatingly than to end their family line.
And Izuku hadn't even broken his arm as payback either!
All in all, it had been horribly disappointing. That said… The rage was still there.
The hatred still burned bright. This little skirmish had not given him any resolution.
That was good. In due time, he would embrace the rage and anger at Katsuki Bakugou.
It was inevitable. It was their Destiny.
I
After the match was over, they had all gone back to the monitor room, where the class and All Might had been watching the match play out.
Other than Iida, who Uraraka had subdued without hurting him, all three had one specific injury. Uraraka might have a concussion and definitely had a massive black eye, Katsuki was still in pain from Izuku's blow, and Izuku still cradled his ribs, where(As Venom had informed him) he had 3 fractured bones.
"Well then, Ochako, Katsuki and Midoriya, once we have gone over the exercise, I want you three to head over to the Nurse's office."
"It's fine." Venom interjected. "We possess regenerative powers. We'll have the ribs healed up on our own in 3 hours."
All Might stared at the dark blue creature, then seemingly took it in stride.
"Very well! I shall trust your experience on the matter on the matter!"
"As for the match itself, the hero team won the battle thanks to Izuku, but the V. I. P of this battle was Tenya-Kun! Can anyone tell me why?"
The entire class stared dumbfounded at Iida, who was as surprised as everyone else.
So was Izuku for that matter. Had he really been that great after they separated?
It was Momo, the raven-haired girl, who answered. She had an outfit so revealing that Venom had questioned if she was an exhibitionist.
"It isn't so much that Iida did amazingly well, as much as the fact that he was the only one who didn't commit any major mistakes that could easily have been avoided."
"The worst of the lot was Bakugou, who abandoned any semblance of strategy from the start, choosing instead to run off and try and act out a grudge against Midoriya. This led him to charge into an obvious trap and to engage Midoriya in close quarters combat, a truly imbecilic idea, that was instantly punished as Midoriya crushed him with no problems whatsoever."
Izuku had expected Katsuki to rage against any criticism, but instead, the blonde boy was unusually quiet. Other than the tears in the corners of his eyes, he had an expression that could best be described as dead inside.
"Second to worst was Uraraka, who performed admirably initially, capturing Tenya after a relatively short chase. However, after that, rather than going back to guard the bomb, the item which her entire mission revolved around, she instead ran off to try and help her comrade. Though her battle with Izuku showed that she was capable in combat, in the end, her mission objective was preventing Midoriya and Tenya from reaching the bomb, not to beat Midoriya in battle. Thus, the moment Midoriya realized this, he quickly changed strategy and won."
Uraraka winced at the words but didn't say anything in response.
"Then there is Midoriya, who undoubtedly proved himself the best combatant of the 4, yet also made 2 massive blunders. The first one at the start, when he and Tenya made their plan for the mission. While their plan wasn't a bad one, the fact is that Midoriya could easily have just climbed up from the start and probably caught Uraraka enough by surprise to secure the device from the start. I assume that the reason he did not was due to a fear of being caught by Bakugou while climbing, but as we saw with how Bakugou acted through the battle, that was a rather minimal risk. In other words, he severely overcomplicated this mission far more than he needed to."
Izuku felt like a complete moron. Saying it out loud like that brought the reality of it all home. Iida had just trusted him, accepted that Izuku knew best, and had made a plan based on that. Momo was wrong regarding who had made the plan, but she was right in saying he had overcomplicated things.
"His second massive blunder was when he was attacked by Uraraka. While the way he ended it was sensible and won his team the match, the fact is that he should have done that from the very moment he realized Uraraka wasn't guarding the device. Instead, he gambled his victory on a battle he did not need to actually fight. Had he been less capable in combat, it is entirely plausible that Uraraka would have defeated him, and he would have lost in a battle he did not need to fight."
-Everyones a critic.-
"Finally we have Tenya, who, while he proved incapable of avoiding Uraraka, at the very least stuck to the actual plan, and at one point he could easily have ambushed Bakugou, but instead, he wisely trusted his partner to handle it. As I said, he was the only one who didn't make obvious mistakes."
The room was silent before All Might gave a thumbs up.
"Yes, that is pretty much it!"
As the next couple of Heroes and Villains, teams went to get set up, and Uraraka and Katsuki both went to the Recovery Lady, Izuku got something he wasn't used to.
Praise.
"That was amazing!" The girl named Mina exclaimed, with a grin.
Like Uraraka, the pink girl was dressed in a full tight black suit, with white fur trimmings along the opening in the neck, on her feet she wore white boots with fur trimmings at the top, and on her face, she wore a stylized black domino mask.
The outfit also had an open neckline, giving a rather generous view of her cleavage, though frankly, compared to Momo's outfit it came off as flat out restrained.
Izuku recognized it as pretty much being an exact copy of an older costume used by the top Hero Black Cat, only minus any gloves.
Izuku, still not used to any contact between himself and the opposite sex, instantly became flustered, as Mina continued.
"The way you dodged Uraraka's attacks, the immediately counterattacked was awesome!"
"Yeah! Just seeing you two cut loose was awesome! It really got us Pumped, you know!?" Another student jumped in, a guy in a yellow full-body costume whose most notable feature was a rather large and full set of lips. Izuku vaguely recalled his name being Sato.
The next student who entered the conversation was a guy who had spiky red-hair, who Izuku did not recall the name of.
"The way you beat Bakugou wasn't MA ly at all, but man, that bout with Uraraka was kickass! Hard to believe it only lasted 2 minutes."
-Didn't this guy have black hair?-
Izuku had no idea what Venom was referring to, and instead just focused on the boy as he introduced himself. "I'm Ejirou Kirishima by the way!"
"I-I'm Izuku Midoriya.."
"Mina Hardy-Ashido!" The pink girl introduced herself, as she grabbed Izuku's hand and enthusiastically shook it up and down.
"And yes, before you ask, I'm related to Black Cat. She's my mom."
After that, there were several other students who introduced themselves, Sato, Tsuyu; the girl with the long tongue,
Toru; the Invisible girl, and Kaminari; The guy with yellow hair with a black bolt going through it.
Izuku stammered his way through the conversation(Very grateful the mask covered his face completely), where he got a lot of questions, like; How did he know Bakugou? Was he related to the old Hero Takuya Yamashiro? Doesn't this cape look real dapper on me?
Some he avoided or just gave noncommittal answers to, like saying he and Katsuki had once been childhood friends and left it at that.
Others he had been honest about and said he hadn't even heard of Takuya Yamashiro, a long dead hero from the very start of the Hero age, who had gone by the name of Spider-man, The emissary from Hell.
The early age heroes had really not cared much how their names and nicknames sounded. According to his Kirishima, the abilities of this Spider-man had resembled Izuku quite a lot.
What the entire question section(Up until All Might returned and put an end to further discussion so they could focus on the next round) ended with, was a relatively friendly introduction to the rest of the class.
It felt surreal to Izuku. Like, the other shoe was about to drop at any second.
Making a few friends was one thing, but this…?
It was as if the class actually Liked him! It was a feeling Izuku hadn't felt in… Actually, he had never felt like this before. No school class Izuku had ever been in had just flat out liked him.
In his previous schools, there had been students who didn't pick in him, but never anyone who actually liked him. No friends, no one who had actually just been glad to see him on principle.
Dear God it was a wonderful feeling.