"So how do you intend to go about this? Just… Walk up to her and tell her, Hey Venom is an Alien?"
Venom's voice was pretty nonchalant, in fact, if Izuku hadn't been familiar with the fact that every single drop of Venom could see as well as all the others, he might have assumed the alien wasn't even looking at him, too busy playing around on his own computer with some ancient game from before the societal collapse. Crus… Kings 2 or something. He wasn't familiar with the English word before the Kings 2 part.
He didn't sound particularly worried about the prospect of his great secret being exposed.
In fact, he had handled that prospect pretty well. What he actually had complained about(And made very clear his feelings on) was the fact he and Mina hadn't even been dating for two months yet.
By the Symbiote's own estimation, it was a stupidly early point to reveal it, with the chances of this backfiring and him and Venom having to go on the run, being pretty high.
From what he could tell, it was not the prospective outcome that bothered Venom much, as much as it was him personally acting "like an idiot".
He… Supposed he might be.
Logically this was a stupid, stupid thing to do… But being smart, and doing what was right was not always the same thing.
"I… Was kinda thinking you could help me out here… Remember how we broke the news to Mom?"
"Hmmm… So a mix between you explaining it, and us beaming images of the past into her head? Just so you know, we won't be able to beam a more complex or detailed look into the past than we did last time."
"Yeah you don't grow stronger over time, I know."
"Not without an external influence boosting our power no… Regardless, the point was that you'll have to figure out some specific events to show. You don't have the luxury of fumbling this first impression like you had with your mom, where you get to spend an entire day just ironing out lesser crap after that awkward first explanation. If you want this to work, you have to make her believe you fully on the first go."
One shot. That was all he would get at this.
It was… Strange. He should feel terrified. He did not. He was nervous but… Somehow the fear that this would backfire wasn't really there, or not to the same degree that he would have thought it would be.
Despite Venom's words, he wasn't scared this would backfire horribly.
He understood logically that it might, but… He didn't think it would.
He loved Mina. He trusted her. He had bared his soul to her, and she to him.
That… Had changed things between them.
It was such a strange feeling. Trusting someone completely and totally.
But regardless of how he felt about it, the reality remained that he needed to figure out how to make this work.
How to explain it so that Mina would understand he wasn't bullshitting her, and was telling the truth.
"Okay, so I think we should use the memories of when you first saw the earth, then were imprisoned, and how you eventually escaped and met me…"
I
"Hi, guys!"
"Oh hi Mina… Man, you're in a good mood… Guess the date went well?"
To Jirou's question, Mina's grin just went even wider.
She wasn't lying exactly… She just let the gathered girls draw their own conclusions from her smile.
The fact was that Mina was a terrible liar. No poker face at all, which was why her planned approach for today was just going to be her acting her cheerful, usual, bubbly self.
Play it cool and obvious, and hope Izuku would just take what he would learn in stride.
It wasn't the most articulated plan, but it was a plan if nothing else.
The rest of the girls in their class had various expressions, Jirou looking kinda jealous, Momo looked intrigued if a bit weathered, Tsuyu had her usual, stoic expression, with only the faintest hint of red on her cheeks suggesting her feelings were anything out of the ordinary, and Hagakure was acting just like Mina would have if the situations were reversed with her hands to her chest in obvious glee at the prospect of romance in the class.
Uraraka, unlike the rest, didn't look like she was all that into discussing the topic, and looked exceptionally tired. She was content just laying forward on the table, head resting on her arms, as she looked like she was about to fall asleep at any second.
Mina immediately sympathized. She knew what it was like to not get more than half an hour's sleep, and still have to go to school the next day.
She wasn't entirely sure why the girls had decided to gather around her table today, but she didn't really question it.
Jirou turned back towards the rest of the girls.
"So what do you guys think about the upcoming trip to Europ-"
And there she was interrupted by Hagakure.
"Hey, don't change the subject Jirou! We were just getting into the good stuff. The good stuff in this case being Kaminari!"
Mina immediately got excited as Jirou suddenly got a faint blush and an indignant expression on her face.
What followed was a conversation about Jirou probably liking the male dunce of their class, the cutie with the blonde hair.
He was nowhere near as cute as Izuku, but still.
Jirou's reactions also added to making Mina excited, as she acted like a real-life low-key tsundere when her girlfriends pressed and teased her about it.
Mina wasn't exactly surprised that the other girls were beginning to find targets of affection themselves… But while the entire thing made her very happy, as Romance amongst her classmates always did, there was the fact that she hadn't really noticed the fact that Jirou had been all that into Kaminari at all.
Had there been signs? Had she just missed them? If so, that was very unusual for her… She was usually the first to spot even the faintest hint of romance in school.
Before she could ponder that, the gathering of girlfriends, enthusiastic and tired alike, was immediately dispersed by Uraraka sitting up in her seat, fear in her eyes, which signaled that Aizawa had entered the room.
Sure enough, their dour teacher walked in and found his place behind the desk, everyone else in the room having found their own seats before he did so, and the usual quiet had set in.
Mina waited until he'd turned around and was writing on the board before turning her head, and looking over at Izuku's seat.
Izuku had entered the room but for whatever reason decided not to interrupt her while she was talking with the girls… Maybe he was embarrassed by how their date had gone?
Regardless he picked up she was looking at him almost immediately.
She gave him a huge, and enthusiastic smile, then turned back towards the front of the room.
She did not need to look back to know he'd suddenly gotten one of those adorable expressions on his face, and red cheeks too.
It was a good start to the day.
Hopefully, that would continue.
I
"Heya Midori~"
Two strong, pink arms closed around his neck in a hug.
"Hi, Mina."
He felt a smile come to his face(Along with a blush) as Mina leaned her head forward over his shoulder and put her cheek against his.
-She's more bold than usual… Probably to make both of you forget that display from last time-
That was… Probably true… But it did not change the feeling of warmth he felt course through him as Mina's skin touched his.
"Whatcha doing?"
She was looking down in his book over his and Venom's powers and limitations… Where sentences regarding Venom's and the Klyntars' history had been written and in a lot of cases crossed out.
"Just… A bit of planning."
Now how to breach the subject…
"History huh? Yeah, you're a smart guy, aren't you Midori… Actually, that reminds me, I need some help with our homework… Would you mind helping me out with it after school?"
Izuku blinked.
"That's… Y-yeah sure… I actually have some things to talk about with you too… We… Can do it then."
"Sweet~ I have to go talk with the rest of the girls now, but we'll talk later after school. See Midori~"
With a loud "Muwah!" She planted a big kiss on his cheek, then disentangled her arms from around his neck, and left.
-Well that was… Easy.-
Izuku turned around and looked after her, as she headed over to a crowd of the rest of the class's girls, heading to lunch.
Well… Venom wasn't wrong. It had been easy.
No need for any drawn-out, or complicated plans for getting them alone after school.
He'd just needed to ask.
I
"Hmmm… Seems the current design is finally stabilizing into a working model."
In front of her, on Yuei's training grounds, a massive, several hundred meters tall, and much longer iceberg had appeared.
Mei ignored this rather unusual sight in favor of the one who had created it, a young, slender boy with white and red hair.
Said boy was also breathing heavily, steam coming out of his mouth, as he raised his hand and erased the ice.
It was fascinating the way he just did that, removing such an enormous amount of water with no problems whatsoever nor a trace of the frozen liquid he'd summoned into being.
The boy, face absolutely drenched in sweat, walked over to where Mei was currently sitting on a bench, and just plopped down.
The way he panted made it abundantly clear he was at the end of his rope.
"It would seem your body couldn't keep up. Not you overheating or freezing up, just total, physical exhaustion. Ever happened to you before?"
"No… hah… It's… hah… hah… a new feeling… It's like… hah… having run until one's lungs give out… hah… hah… Only the entire body…"
Mei nodded enthusiastically.
"Indeed. I suspected as much."
The boy looked surprised at her.
"...How?"
"You don't have an actual, additional organ somewhere in your body. If you did, that organ would most certainly be the source of your power. Nor is your power centered around one of your standard organs, like the heart, stomach, brain, or hand. The fact you don't fall under that means you instead fall into the other category, one where your entire body is connected with your pyrokinetic and cryokinetic powers."
Shoto stared at her… Then nodded.
"That makes sense… hah… Anything I should know about that?"
"Not anything more than what you already know by now I think. One thing to note is that you probably aren't going to train your body itself to become more frost and heat-resistant by training. If it was connected to a specific body part that you could train, it would be one thing, but it's not."
The boy nodded again.
"Right… So… It would be a fool's errand, with no chance of success…"
"Pretty much. The only way that could work out, would be if you mutated further. That happens sometimes to people regularly using their quirks, in their hours of desperate need. The body needs an "Upgrade" to survive and changes accordingly. The problem with that of course is that you can't exactly choose anything. Time, place, or even even how your body might change. For example, when I lost my eye, my remaining one changed to allow for far, far more flexibility, speed, and details as I zoom in on something. It had nothing at all to do with how I lost it, nor would it prevent what happened from happening again."
Shoto stiffened, and despite his incredible fatigue, he looked over in a mix of shock and concern.
"You… hah… lost your eye? But… hah… You have two… hah… don't you?"
Mei turned and nonchalantly tapped one of her eyes without blinking, the clear sounds of metal being tapped sounded as the finger hit the eye.
"I see…"
"Glorious isn't It? It's going to be my first patent later this year after I get my license! Hatsume Mei, young Japanese schoolgirl cures blindness! Fulfilling one of the big dreams of scientists since time immemorial."
"That's… hah… Amazing… You're… hah… hah… Way smarter than I thought…"
"What, you thought I was stupid?"
"No… I just thought you were simply a very intelligent young woman like… Yaoyorozu… That's wrong though… You are far smarter than her or me…"
The girl replied to that with a big smile
"Yes, I am. I am the smartest thing on this planet. Bar none."
"You're… You're like Miles Warren, or… Albert Einstein… Vegapunk in real life…"
"I would really, really like to think I'm a bit smarter than a guy whose big outfit was an all-green, goofy gremlin costume, with huge ears."
At that, their conversation was interrupted by Mei's phone ringing, which she fished out.
It was a message from Yuei's upper leadership.
This annoys Mei. The last time she had gotten a message directly from the principal, was a week after the tournament, when she'd gotten told that after internal deliberation, she would no longer be allowed to use Eren.
This time though, she got more cheerful news.
An invitation to join a field trip.
"Well look at that… Some recognition from the rest of the scientific community. What a nice change of pace!"
"An… Offer for the eye prosthetic?"
"No, just a request for me to join your class field trip to Europe. One of the miracle city's bigshots has requested me personally…"
"Really? Who?
"Not someone you would know, trust me… But his Phineas Mason. He's quite the famous guy…"
She considered whether to actually accept or not… It would be using several days of her life to go there, and as such that trade-off might not be worth it… But on the other hand… The island of the Future might also have an answer to her approaching end.
I
"First time I've been to your place. Not to mention meeting your parents."
Mina, as was usual, was both bubbly, warm, and without any personal doubts.
It was one of the things he admired about her.
In hindsight, he was so, so glad he met both of Mina's own parents before he and Mina hooked up. It would have been an absolutely nerve-wracking experience for him, no doubt about that.
That said…
"You're… Not going to meet them though. My parents are out today."
"Really? Aww… And here I was planning how to make a good impression. Oh well, guess we'll do that later."
Cheerful as she was, he was glad she didn't ask where they were going. Having to dance around the fact that according to Venom, they were heading to a love hotel, was not something he'd be particularly looking forward to… Much less when he had something else he needed to talk to her about.
Walking up the stairs, he suddenly became conscious about the fact that his home was way, way less impressive than Mina's own home.
It had been a long, long time since he'd thought about his old home, the big house his family had once lived in before their wealth situation had tumbled down the drain…
Thankfully though, Mina did not comment on the much more humble abode he and his family lived in.
She just looked curious as he opened the door of their apartment and walked into their painfully plain home.
"My room is over there." He pointed.
"I'll just go and get some drinks from the cooler, and I'll join you…"
"Sweet!"
She quickly made her way over to his room, and went in, leaving Izuku to go to the kitchen and fish out two fantas, and a couple of glasses.
For just a moment, he just stood there, a queasy feeling in his stomach.
"You're not gonna chicken out of this now, after setting this idiocy up are you?"
"No… Just… Psyching myself up. Remembering the plan…"
"Well get to it then, your girlfriend isn't Going to appreciate it if you leave her alone in your room to wait for her… Never mind the bombshell you're gonna drop on her now. You want the girl to be in a good mood at the very least."
I
Mina wasn't sure what to expect from Izuku's room.
She'd actually had a conversation with the rest of her girlfriends in class about the topic.
The common consensus was that it would either be painfully plain or some kind of hero shrine.
Jiro was the most outspoken in the latter camp, and as it turned out, she was closest to the reality.
Izuku had a lot of All Might memorabilia. Posters, a few figurines, and even his personal watch were an obvious piece of All Might merch.
What she also noted though, was that pretty much all of it was OLD.
She was no hero otaku, but she knew enough about All Might's history to know these costumes that were portrayed were all from at least 10 years back in time.
Her boyfriend wasn't a big fan of the big guy's current costumes.
Surprisingly, she found herself realizing she and him weren't that different though.
She herself really, really preferred her mom's older outfits over her current ones. The ones with huge, floofy patches of white fur trimmings had always looked both cool, refined, and badass to her.
There was a reason she'd modeled her own outfit on one of her mom's older ones after all.
Other than that the room was pretty sparse.
No tv, no gaming system… Wait no, that wasn't true, her eye caught a handheld, of a design that brought out genuine curiosity, so of course she went over and had a look.
A PS Vita!
Damn, that was old school!
PlayStation was an old, old brand that had not survived the societal collapse brought on by Quirks, but you found their video game consoles here and there.
Of course, unlike Nintendo, which had been resurrected from the ashes of collapse, there had been no replicas of, or new hardware made for these things for almost two centuries now.
Point was, this thing was old. She could definitely tell which buttons had been replaced, and several scratches in the plastic, with the screen having a foil over it to protect it from damage… Really the only part that seemed new at the thing.
Behind her the door opened, and Izuku entered carrying a couple of delish Fantas and two glass cups.
Izuku opened his mouth but was interrupted by Mina.
"Damn Midori, you're old school! I figured you for a more recent game kinda guy."
"What? Oh, that thing. Yeah, it's from my Mom's family. Passed down through the… Okay, that makes it sound way more epic than it is."
He put the cups and sodas down on his board as he stepped up to where his girlfriend was holding up and looking over the ancient piece of hardware.
"Hey, no sweat it, old things have their own charm. I mean, I've got one of the original Alien movie posters framed in my room, who am I to judge."
"Isn't… Isn't Alien from the 1980s?"
"1979. And yeah, even older than this. What do you play on this?"
"M-monster Hunter mostly."
"Wait… Solo?"
"Y-yeah… I mean, I used to play with Katsuki but…"
"Damn, that's impressive. Monster Hunter isn't really built for solo play."
Izuku's cheeks blushed, but he didn't reply in words.
"Sony huh? I'm more of a Nintendo Gal myself."
"Is… Isn't everyone in Japan?"
She laughed.
"Yeah, pretty much… Monster Hunter Huh… Eh, I have some games in that franchise. We can play em next time you visit my house… Well… After the Alien marathon anyway… You've been putting that one off for ages now, we really need to get it started sometime!"
At that word, Izuku immediately tensed.
"Right… Alien…"
"You're… You're not that worried about watching it are you?"
"No… It's not that."
He took a deep, deep breath, before continuing.
"Mina… I have something I need to talk to you about… Something important."
For a brief, brief second Mina felt incredible panic at a ludicrous idea that he'd somehow discovered her abysmally low grades and wanted to break up.
It flashed out as quickly as it had come.
As if. Ignoring how stupid a premise it was, he wouldn't have invited her to his home if he wanted to break up.
"Sure."
"You… Might want to sit down, this is… Rather heavy…"
She did indeed sit down on his bed, cross-legged, as Izuku sat down on the edge, feet resting on the side.
Venom popped up on his shoulder.
"Do you… Remember what I told you the first time I was over at your house…? How I used to have absolutely nobody but Venom?"
"Yeah, I do."
Her imagination immediately tried to consider where he was going with this… Maybe he did have some friend after all, but they died while he and Bakuho were young and that was the real reason for the blonde kid turning into such a shit… Or maybe he was going to tell her that Bakugo had actively gone out of his way to make sure he didn't get any new friends.
She could not have been more off.
"Well… That part is completely true, but… There was a detail I didn't really clarify… Namely, I didn't have Venom until… Last year."
Silence.
"Oh… OH… Oh shit, man… I'm sorry."
"It's… It's alright."
"Do you want to hug?"
She opened her arms to the sides invitingly.
For a second the adorable boy looked like he wanted to take her up on it, but in the end, he declined.
"No… not now."
Silence hung for a while afterwards.
"Sooo… you were were a really late bloomer."
He flinched.
"Not… Not exactly. I… I think it's better If… Well… Venom can just show you."
The black inky piece of goo extended a tentacle towards her shoulder.
"What, like a telepathic video? Can he do that?"
"Not with other people, no… But… He can show other people images."
"Damn, you really lucked out with the superpowered lottery, Midori."
She raised a hand to touch the tendril.
She wasn't sure why this mattered so much to Izuku, but she'd go along with it. No doubt there was some big, big secret he had to share.
She touched the tendril.
Images flowed into her mind, vivid, colorful images.
Images of gooey, multicolored Aliens on spaceships, studying a primordial earth filled with Dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs clad in the same kind of skin-tight suit Izuku used, only with different designs and colors… and one with black, adorned with a white, familiar spider.
Image of a battle on the spaceship between the black and white alien and his fellows.
Defeat and imprisonment.
Darkness for an eternity… then light.
A beach.
An unsuspecting young, skinny boy with poofy hair, and an adorable face.
Bonding, and finally… A Rebirth on top of a skyscraper with the boy discovering exactly what the being was.
Venom detracted his tendril and looked her over with a curious expression.
Izuku though… Her boyfriend both looked nervous, afraid, and yet… Weirdly calm.
Mina for her part had her jaw dropped.
"So… There you have it. The truth. Venom is…"
"Holy shit he's an alien!"
"Y-yeah. He is."
I
Venom had been wrong.
Not really doing anything to stop Izuku from telling the Pink girl was a TERRIBLE idea.
"So faster than lightspeed travel doesn't work?"
"What like Star Wars hyperdrives? Hell no! Interstellar travel is done by teleportation, usually by gates."
"Damn… So everyone in space uses portals to travel through the universe that's sooo coool!"
Promising Izuku that he'd answer any question Mina would have in the aftermath of this revelation was equally a terrible idea.
Speaking of the green-haired boy, he was currently shamelessly sipping away at his Fanta as Mina bombarded Venom with questions.
"You're… Taking this really, really well."
"Next time you're at my house, I'll show you a bit of real, genuine magic mom got interwoven into our house when it was built."
"Wait… Magic? That's a thing?"
"No, this entire planet just had people develop paranormal powers out of the blue… Of course, Magic exists. What, do you think Quirks are a natural development?"
Mina chuckled.
"Mom thinks the same thing. No idea what it was that did it, but she was sure that magic had to be involved… Do you know what could have made it happen Venom?"
"No fucking clue no."
"Ah… I suppose I can't ask for too many miracle answers at once."
She grinned.
"You know, Mom met Aliens once too."
"Wait really?/Wait really?"
"Yep! They worked with some scientist guy called the Tinkerer."
That actually genuinely surprised Venom.
"What race?"
"No clue… But they weren't like you. More… Green Bug Men."
Damn… If only they'd been around for that.
"Anyway, more questions. So Izuku refers to you as Male… How does female Symbiotes differ?"
"We're not male. Nor do our kind have genders. Genders are for things of flesh and blood, who reproduce by sexual intercourse. We reproduce asexually."
"Oh, neat!"
Venom groaned internally. This was going to be an annoying day.
I
Izuku spent the following question session in silence for the most part, just watching and listening in on Mina bombarding Venom with questions about the existential, and the banal about alien life.
Finally, though she was done, and Venom, retracted immediately into him, seemingly dead tired of questions.
"Man! That was interesting stuff!"
"You… Like alien stuff then?"
"Of course I do! I love sci-fi! The Aliens franchise is my favorite one after all!"
She took a drought of her Fanta before continuing with an absolutely huge grin on her face.
"Hearing it from an actual alien was something else though… Not to mention learning which alien sightings and stuff that's credible and which isn't… Man, the more I hear about how this all works, the more I think all those stories Skinwalker ranch moms told me sound otherworldly, rather than Paranormal."
Izuku immediately found his own curiosity peaked by that statement?"
"Skinwalker ranch? What's that?"
"Oh it's this place in America. Shit ton of WEIRD stuff happens there, and has happened for a long, long time… I wouldn't give it any credence though, If Mom hadn't spent time there, and she saw a LOT of weird stuff… She's dead sure it was all magical in nature, but I'm not so sure…"
"Really? Could you tell me about it?"
"Ehhh… Maybeee later… We kinda should get started on the homework?"
Oh right.
In the sense of relief that Mina just… Really rolled with it, he'd kinda forgotten his girlfriend actually had come here for her own reason.
"Sure. What do you need help with?"
"Eh, just some… Help with my homework. I've got some from the previous batch. Aizawa told me to redo… You know how much of a hardass he is. Not the only one either, just… The most notable one."
He… Didn't actually know. He'd never been told to redo his homework… But he could imagine rather easily.
"Sure, just show me and we'll go from there."
Mina went over and fished out her papers, which she brought over, in a bunch.
"I arranged them with best grades first on top."
On top was her English homework.
"This… This is really, really good!"
"Yeah… I always score top in english. Easily my best academic scores."
The joys of a bilingual household he'd imagine.
He flipped the pages over.
Then went over the page… Stopped… Went over it again… Repeated it several times.
"This…. This was your… Second best?"
"Yep!"
He slowly turned the page over to look at the next bit…
It was downhill from here.
"Don't… Don't we have a big, big test before the trip?"
"Sure do!"
Izuku wasn't one of the students in class who treasured his free time above anything else… But he was suddenly slapped with the reality that whatever free time he'd thought he'd have going forward just vanished into thin air.