This is different from the type of darkness that the night brings. Night's darkness is a way of winding down, made in a manner to make the world seem as though it is getting smaller, which is what leads a person to their bedroom for them to sleep it off. This darkness, however, is expansive.

With all the space that it takes up, it still seeps in through Hitoshi Shinso's skin, all in order to burrow into his bones. It fills the all encompassing void with itself, leaving no room for anything but black consumption. The darkness glares as vividly as a light might.

And so, the darkness seems so full of potential. With so much of it surrounding Shinso, he is certain that he can reach out and grab a handful of it from the endless abyss. He imagines shaping it into a small black ball, like a jewel that can give him magical means to do more, or using it as a lump of clay that's malleable enough to become whatever he wants.

Yes, somehow, this darkness feels more like light upon the dawn of a new day.

A cat as black as the night itself creeps along the narrow top of a brick wall, its wet fur glistening in nature's shower as rain falls in Musutafu. A powerful beam of light sweeps down from above, momentarily illuminating the feline's depthless eyes, the void's bottomless pit twinkling in the harsh glare. The light then sweeps down and past the animal as quick as it arrived, a thrum of muffled turbines accompanying the moving illumination. The searchlight came from one of several patrol dirigibles crisscrossing the wet surface of a saturated sky.

From up above, the city seems quiet. However, the officers within the blimp know better than to be deceived by a night in the realm of where shadows scurry to hide like spiders in small cracks or crevices. As one of the officers pilots the rigid aircraft, another wears earphones connected to a console that controls an array of audio surveillance equipment. The state of the art electronics are channeled into a unit attached to the blimp's undercarriage. Just coming hot off the assembly line and primed off the experimental stage, the gear can detect such occurrences as a voice raised in distress or a scream, often before visual contact.

However, just in case, a pair of military grade binoculars that are connected by a heavy cable to a control unit rests on standby. The bulky frame has several electro mechanical additions that allow the lenses to utilize a modified infrared light, specifically meant to peer into the darkness. Only the best for the magnitude of this patrol has been supplied to the officers after All Might's retirement. Pro heroes are more in demand of a supportive police force now more than ever. The HPSC took over in Tsukauchi Naomasa's abrupt absence to ensure that certain measures would be taken to compensate for all of what had been lost.

The blimp continues soaring across the night sky, just beneath a rolling layer of clouds lit from beneath by the silvery lights of the city. Down below, a curious looking 'creature' more nimble than the cat glides through the dark slick streets over which the dirigible had just passed.

The 'creature' of the night's destination is just as easy to miss. Among apartment buildings and the occasional supermarket or diner, a burned pile of rubble resides behind layers of police caution tape. The 'creature' – if it can even be called that – swells to the surface of a now soggy terrain.

This is something cold and undetectable by any heat readers. It's a silent substance capable of disguising its shushed & slushed movement with the sloshy puddles of darkened water just like it.

The symbiote survived the fire that destroyed the Midoriya Household. And so did its newly acquired host, Hitoshi Shinso.

When distance is immaterial, so is speed, and so the idea of time becomes a thing that is malleable. Here in such a vast space, at home in the infinite continuum, everything seems to move quickly as the silent surroundings stay stagnantly still with an otherwise lacking conception of time.

Is there ever a space that invites inward reflection so powerfully as the black heavens? Hitoshi Shinso has all the time in the world to do so. For this darkness has become his whole world.

He watches as his life – his entire existence – is summarized and shortened for him. His rejection from others. His hate and disdain that was made to match their own. The title 'villain' that they had given him when all he had wanted to do was to become a protector.

The symbiote sympathizes.

Their mutual treatment connects to a shared reason as to why there was no avoiding this unfair fate.

Izuku Midoriya. Spider-Man.

They both put their trust in him. A friend is meant to be supportive.

Betrayal.

A partner is meant to invest time in the relationship. Effort is only given by somebody that cares.

Rejection.

Who they were trying to make peace with was an enemy all along, and so they now must wage war.

Humiliation.

"He never meant to.." Hitoshi Shinso still wants to hold onto the belief that this falling out wasn't intentional.

But the symbiote shows him otherwise..

Spider-Man had offered Shinso a canned beverage – a trojan horse – the shaken drink sprayed & soaked him to the point of embarrassment.

Spider-Man pushed him out of the Sports Festival in the most belittling manner, knowing full well how the public would perceive it.

Spider-Man framed him to then get him out of U.A completely.

And this was all to Izuku Midoriya's benefit, who always had the gall to use Shinso as an excuse for his secretly underhanded methods as Spider-Man.

That's enough right there to prove they were never friends. Such a secret to be kept means Izuku Midoriya never truly trusted him. Or, rather, it was all a way to anonymously degrade Shinso – he thought it would never lead back to him to be blamed for all of these misgivings.

When Shinso sought a friend, absolutely ignorant to the fact that Izuku Midoriya was really Spider-Man all along, it's no wonder why he was met with such opposition.

Izuku Midoriya had hit him.

Izuku Midoriya had abandoned him.

Izuku Midoriya has been humiliating him this entire time.

Humiliate him in return.

The worst way to be humiliated isn't even for it to be done publicly. The worst way to be humiliated is to lose a home in the process. What's meant to be a place of comfort being stolen away leaves nowhere to turn to.

Shinso can't even return the favor there. The Midoriya residence burning down wasn't his doing. That may as well have been stolen from him too, regardless of whether that's blamable on Spider-Man or not.

As Shinso stews in his disappointment and his anguish, the symbiote reminds him that he's not alone in this.

We…

…Can have our revenge.

Together, they can be a poison to both Izuku Midoriya AND Spider-Man.

Hitoshi Shinso's whisper surrounds the symbiotic space as a shout, "Together…"

WE'RE VENOM.

No matter how quiet any number of noises, an accumulation of auditory ambience can create quite the cacophony. Firstly, there's the buzzing of the fluorescent lights in the ceiling; it's a constant droning like flies just out of focus. Then there is the sighing of the ventilator machine; it's a crude cry of air being forced into the lungs of every breath that comes from the person that it is connected to. EKGs make little to no noise but there IS a constant steady beep from the heart monitor. Furthermore, the flapping of the ceiling fan is just as persistent a sound. Trying to listen for something fainter like the dripping of an IV transfusion doesn't do much to help either. Especially not when there's the occasional disruptive noise from the hall right outside of the room.

And the room itself bounces these sounds off of relatively barren walls – the place is with little in the way of decoration – not even flowers or a get-well card can rest atop an absent bedside table. Still, the room feels stuffy. It reeks of disinfectant that's meant to cover up old paint. The lights in the room may be on, but it's still rather dim and dark due to the lack of a window. Izuku Midoriya goes back to listening to his mother's breathing; instead of lying quietly, she occasionally whimpers with pain, and he immediately stands to his feet every time like there is some way to stop her from being harmed. Except, he has learned a hard lesson. There are some things that Spider-Man cannot punch into submission.

He wishes while watching her that her sleep is somehow more peaceful than it appears. He can only hope that she's blissfully unaware and unphased by the world that is falling apart around her. Both in the literal sense of their house burning down and in the sense of him as her son being her world. He's been broken down before and been able to get back up, but now, he can hardly get out of the chair that was provided to him unless it has to do with his mom's wellbeing. It's like all of his strength has been sapped & siphoned straight out of his body.

Maybe he became addicted to the power that the symbiote provided and he's now going through withdrawal symptoms. He does on occasion find himself longing for the companionship that the two shared – he can't believe he actually misses the damned thing – but all it takes is a single glance at the state of his mother for him to snap out of it. His body feels as though it is bleeding & bruised. It took all that he had to tear the suit off and to resist its constriction of his muscles. Plus he hasn't slept a single ounce since dragging his mom out of their home's wreckage to bring her here to the hospital. The boy is running on empty by this point.

A light knock at the room's door draws Izuku's attention elsewhere momentarily, towards Sansa Tamakawa who is gently rapping his knuckles against hollow wood. Izuku gives the officer a nod of acknowledgement before returning his watchful gaze to his mom. Her state of being hasn't changed in the past .. he has no idea how many hours it has been … but he does know that he HAS to be here when her condition does eventually change. And it WILL change. It must.

Tamakawa gingerly enters the hospital room, as though he isn't a full grown man with a police badge. Then again, anyone in his position – perhaps even Katsuki Bakugo – would be at least a tad bit such a way. He can't himself imagine how he'd feel if the roles were reversed and he were Izuku Midoriya. The kid is still covered in soot from the fire of their home burning down. He hasn't left his mother's side – not even once – and Tamakawa is pretty sure there's no convincing the boy to do so now.

Instead of wasting his time trying to convince the poor kid to wash up by taking a shower, he gets down to the nitty gritty of the situation – he's sure that's what Izuku wants more than anything right now other than his mother's recovery. Tamakawa swallows before he starts to share what might get the boy to react in any number of manners, "We figured out what caused the fire… but more importantly, we also know WHY and WHO caused the fire.."

Izuku's eyes flit from his mom to Tamakawa. It's a momentary fixation. Maybe one with a hardened resolve. But it's gone just as quickly as it flashed by. Tamakawa tests the time it takes for the boy to process what he's intending to share by saying the full story very slowly, "It was a message from the Yakuza. Silvermane is trying to take back the turf that Tombstone stole. She just happened to be home when it happened. Your house was a collateral cost of crossfire."

Izuku's body would have tensed if it had any energy left to tighten up. Then again, it's nearly impossible for him to loosen up right now either. When he heard the Yakuza was involved – specifically Silvermane's name – and then Tombstone .. he worried that this was a targeted hit on his home. As Spider-Man, the casualty of collateral damage and putting his loved ones in danger has always been a fear. He would never forgive himself if something happened to his family & friends on his watch.

If the symbiote was still an influence on his emotions, he'd have likely been consumed by rage in that moment. There would be no stopping to think. He'd have just blindly gone after Silvermane with the desire to exact some sort of revenge. Anger is but a mask though, a mask made to cover up sadness, and right now .. he's showing his true self for the first time in a long time without that mask on.

Tamakawa places a hand on Izuku's shoulder in order to give it the softest of squeezes. "I'll make sure the bastards that did this pay…", the cop conveys rage on behalf of the boy. Since, if Spider-Man isn't going to do anything about it, then somebody else obviously has to.

Izuku Midoriya is right where he needs to be – Spider-Man be damned – he stays at his mom's bedside.

Shouldering the burden of another person's secret is always harder than hiding one's own. If it's a thing that doesn't belong to oneself, then it isn't their own to give away. Toru Hagakure doesn't want to betray the trust of her friend by giving away his secret … but like doctor-patient confidentiality with psychiatrists, there has to come a point where the safety & security of the person with the secret must come before the secret itself … right?

She saw the 'symbiote' that Izuku Midoriya had told her about. He hardly heeded her warnings about it and even herself couldn't have possibly fathomed it being THIS bad of a thing to deal with. She was worried about him not being in control of himself and she saw firsthand that he wasn't when he fought her off. She can't allow him to become lost to the symbiote because of a stupid secret identity.

But she won't publicly out him either. If she's going to share this secret with somebody, it's going to have to be a person as trustworthy as her to hold it. Who she has in mind can often be a real stickler – he especially was when he was her homeroom teacher – but she has also seen his soft side to know he isn't all that bad. The newly appointed principal of U.A worked with Spider-Man as an underground hero before as well, afterall.

Hagakure hopes that the retired pro hero Eraserhead will understand better than most what must be done about Izuku Midoriya's double life as Spider-Man. Any other adult, especially as a licensed hero regardless of being faculty or staff at U.A, would only view him as an unlicensed vigilante. Whereas the symbiote seems dangerous, Izuku Midoriya himself doesn't deserve to be arrested for all of this – he needs help, not punishment.

When Toru Hagakure arrives outside the principal's office, she raises her hand to knock on the entrance to it. However, before she can request entry, the door swings open. She jumps back, slightly startled.

Hagakure finds herself face to face with Setsuna Tokage. Shota Aizawa stands behind her, ushering her out into the hallway. The invisible girl is surprised and confused as to why her classmate is there.

"Visit my office the same time next week", what Aizawa's adds only further supplies more confusion – especially since this is apparently a recurring thing – Hagakure hopes her curious glance is somehow visible despite her invisibility.

Tokage must somehow feel Hagakure's stare, at least, since she does look back. When she tenderly touches the stump where her arm was removed and explains things, Hagakure wishes that she hadn't. "I've .. been getting therapy .. please don't tell anybody else in class."

Hagakure can just chalk that up as yet another secret to keep on the behalf of another. But it makes sense now that she sees it firsthand. Aizawa experienced the loss of a limb too and would be best suited to have such private discussions with Tokage. "You can trust me. I won't tell."

It now also makes sense why Tokage was unable to join her and the others when Hagakure put in the call to all of 1-A to save Jirou. She was either too occupied with a therapy session or doubting herself in such a way that she didn't feel up to par to help. That is somewhat forgivable, all things considered.

"Hagakure", Aizawa gets her attention when she starts to zone out via overthinking, "Were you hoping to speak with me as well?"

And now that she's been reminded as to why she came here in the first place, Hagakure no longer zones out. "Yes, sir."

The two step inside of his office. He closes the door behind them for privacy. "What seems to be the matter?"

Hagakure takes a seat and opens her mouth to start, "It's about–", but she finds herself stopping before she can speak any further. It's as though her body physically won't allow her to do what her mind wants, which is to tell Aizawa everything about Izuku Midoriya being Spider-Man.

Across the way, Aizawa notices the girl's pause and raises a singular brow. "Hagakure.. ?"

The girl looks away, grateful for the invisibility that hides her horrible lack of a poker face. She can't bring herself to do it. She thought that she could have but she just can't. But that doesn't mean she doesn't still want to help Izuku somehow…

Hagakure's voice is a hoarse whisper as she tries to explain her feelings about the predicament that she's in, "I'm afraid for a friend.. He's hiding something and I worry that it's going to come out as… That he's going to turn into something.."

"Ugly", Aizawa finishes her thoughts for her in a vocalized form. When she looks up at him, she sees that he somehow has been following along with an understanding expression.

"Yes", she agrees with his word usage since it's the symbiote that is taking over her friend and it has since then had an outward show of change to him.

Aizawa grunts, "I've had friends who often hid those parts of themselves too…" Like with Tokage, he comes at this from a perspective that can somewhat relate to the girl. "Former principal Nezu was corrupted by that darkness, for example."

"But he's not like that!", Hagakure is quick to try and clear up any misunderstandings though – she has to make it clear that Izuku Midoriya is not like Nezu in this regard, "He never was!" She can't outright explain things but she tells Aizawa, "It's something else – something is influencing him."

Aizawa nods with a brief hum. He then prompts her to elaborate a little further by asking what she means by that, "Drugs?"

She shakes her head. "N- No, sir!" Again, she defends her friend's credibility.

That leaves Aizawa to question the other possibilities as to what might be 'influencing' Hagakure's friend, "Alcohol? Cigarettes?"

"No, sir!" Again, Hagakure is quick to correct him.

Aizawa places a hand on his forehead, frustrated and appearing as though that frustration is beginning to give him a headache. "Hagakure, you're being very vague about this…"

She winds up wringing her skirt between her hands; her anxiety rises higher & higher. "I thought I could tell you his secret but I can't.. I'm sorry but it isn't mine to tell.." She has an internal struggle with wanting to do the right thing, and there is so much confusion currently as to what the right thing even is.

Aizawa stares with a further creasing of his brows. "You're saying that he's hiding apart of himself", the retired underground hero puts his past experience to work while mulling over the things Hagakure has shared. What he comes up with is a deep rooted sigh.

Hagakure hangs her head, staying silent. They aren't getting anywhere with this anymore. Between the both of them, there's not much more to say. Except…

"All I can say is that it can sometimes be hard to see the masks that people wear", Aizawa gives her the best piece of knowledge that he can based off of what she has given him to work with. "Some people cover their face but sometimes, Hagakure, their face IS the mask…"

His ears flip down so that the lime green balaclava can slide on over his head more easily. With his whiskers also in the way, he's all the more keen to wear a mask in order to hide his anthropomorphic appearance. Sansa Tamakawa never truly understood the reason why the superstitious type always hid their face – now, he does. Pro heroes, vigilantes, and villains alike probably feel the same way he does currently. Like somebody entirely different.

The off duty police officer straps on a purple vest that was made long ago to be bulletproof. It may clash with the color of his mask but he's not exactly going for a dazzling costume here. Even if he's been drawn into the whole routine of wearing a getup to get involved with this sorta thing, that isn't and never will be the point of it for him. This is a necessary course of action that needs to be taken. Nothing more. Certainly nothing less.

The Yakuza making a move on an innocent neighborhood was the last straw for him. Tamakawa bore witness to his fair share of evil, but there comes a breaking point for what every person is able to take. In his line of work, that isn't uncommon. Most police officers deal with the pressure by smoking or drinking it off. Tamakawa's outlet just so happens to be … whatever this is going to be – if it even does manage to help him get out of his funk.

There's a first time for everything. And this is HIS first time. His first night out on the prowl. Maybe there's some dormant instinct that comes with his quirk inheritance of a cat's genes to hunt & sneak around because he winds up liking it. The weight of a shotgun in his hand is somehow less heavier than when he carries a pistol as his firearm. The breeze against his mask instead of his fur feels better in an odd way.

But again, that's not what this is about. He isn't thrill seeking here. What he seeks is vengeance. He seeks the scum that decides not to confess their sins so that he can devour them. And he does so as … perhaps he's a lot like what Shuichi Iguchi was … a Punisher. Maybe he's some sort of anti-hero more than a vigilante with this approach. Nevertheless, this is who he has become.

The disguised – liberated – version of Sansa Tamakawa, enters the Yakuza turf to find what he's looking for. Which is a penance paid by blood and death. Utilizing police connections & resources, he was able to pinpoint the next drug drop by the criminal organization – rather than setting up a bust, he took things into his own hands. He aims the shotgun that he brought with him and he pulls the trigger on it.

The Yakuza shipping yard becomes a grounds for panic. Low paid street scum scurry to save their skin. They don't make it very far. Tamakawa shoots them all in the back, even if that's not the most honorary thing to do. Ammunition is hard to come by in Japan with their gun laws though; it only makes sense that he not waste the costed caliber. Empty shells clatter onto the ground as he keeps shooting.

Amongst the low level vermin, there's the head honcho who leads the operation. Silvermane himself. He must have dyed his hair to appear younger since there's a lack of grays in it. Not that it matters. As far as Tamakawa is concerned, Silvermane lived a life too long for him to be deserving of. He shoots at the suited Yakuza leader just like he would open fire on any other criminal.

Silvermane ducks down and takes cover. The chase begins. The hunt is on. Tamakawa cocks the shotgun so that it is primed and ready.

They navigate through the shipping yard as though it is a maze. With all of the large containers, cargo crates, and boxes … it may as well be exactly that.

Silvermane slides behind a metallic casing that has graffiti scribbled along the side of it. There, he believes that he is hidden. He's not aware that his pursuer has a nose with the capability of catching his scent.

Tamakawa raises up the bottom of his balaclava. His exposed snout allows for his rhinarium to seek the smell of Silvermane. The anti-hero's whiskers wobble as he purses his lips.

He can't quite pinpoint the exact location of his quarry just yet, but he knows the Yakuza leader is somewhere in that vicinity. Knowing this, he begins to speak, utilizing the close proximity as an intimidation tactic. "You have feasted on Japan's wealth.. It's prosperity.."

"Your feast is now over", Tamakawa turns a corner with his finger on the trigger of his shotgun, "You have run out of sins to eat."

Silvermane shoves a hand inside the jacket of his suit, where there is a secret pocket space. His fingers wrap around the handle of a hidden knife.

Tamakawa takes slow steps forward. His eyes narrow as they scan his surroundings. He's coming up upon Silvermane's hiding spot now.

Silvermane pulls out the knife that he carries … and then drags the blade along the line of his neck.

He slits his own throat. Blood seeps out from the open wound as he stifles a dying cough.

When Silvermane slides down the side of the cargo crate and slumps over, Tamakawa finds the Yakuza leader's lifeless body upon turning that last corner.

"Cowardly low life bastard…" Tamakawa grits his fanged teeth when he discovers that he himself couldn't be the one to do Silvermane in. The Yakuza leader was too prideful to be killed at the hands of anybody else apparently.

But that is only the way that it seems. As soon as Tamakawa leaves the scene, Eri's Rewind quirk factor starts to take an effect on Silvermane's body.

A yellow glow envelopes the adult until that light diminishes and a teenager by that same DNA is there in a puddle of blood. Silvermane's youth returns to him even more as he rewinds yet again through death.

The young man stands up while massaging his neckline – though wet, there is zero trace of a scar there. He grins. He managed to fool his pursuer.

From this moment forward, he plans to have a security squad surrounding him at all times in order to prevent another situation such as this. But more importantly, he also plans on finding out who this other masked interloper is.

Silvermane in his now rekindled youth wishes to take action against anyone that gets in his way – causes for interference such as Spider-Man and this new anti-hero are going to be dealt with by his own hands now.

AUTHOR NOTES

A bit of a shorter & slower chapter all things considered, but I felt things needed to slow down for a second between the previous chapter and the next one with what's about to go down.

Nevertheless, I'm shocked that some of you were shocked about Shinso getting the symbiote and becoming Venom - I was worried that it'd be too obvious - but I'm glad that it came as a surprise for the most part!

Here's to more surprises! (None of them including anymore implied romance between Nagant/Deadpool and Izuku/Spidey, theMAX360, not to worry!)

Till next time!

-Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood author!