The day that in hindsight would be one of the great turning points in Izuku's life started the same as any other day at Yuei. Being taught theory, math, history and all the other non-physical classes Yuei had to offer.
As was usual, it was only after lunch that their basic hero training would begin.
"Now, for today's basic hero training…" Aizawa began in his usual dull tone. "for this exercise, me, All Might and one other will supervise."
So, another special class then, Izuku mused. It had to be if three teachers would be there.
Behind him, Seto asked the obvious.
"Um, what are we doing exactly?"
Picking up a card and holding it up for all to see, Aizawa continued in his usual deadpan tone. "Today we're preparing you for disaster relief, from fires to flood. Today is rescue training." as if to punctuate what he had just said, the golden card flashed the word RESCUE in the light of the sun.
Seemingly assuming that Aizawa was done talking, the class immediately began to chatter. For about 10 seconds anyway, before Aizawa shut them down again with a glowing red glare.
"I'm not done yet." He said in a tone that promised pain for anyone who didn't keep their mouths shut.
Putting down his card, he instead picked up a small remote and with a click, the shelves with the boxes that held the rest of the class's costumes slid out of the wall.
"It's up to each of you whether you want to wear your costumes for this exercise. As some of them are ill-equipped for this kind of activity."
"Finally, the training area is a bit remote, so we'll be going by bus. That's all, now get ready."
And with that, he nonchalantly walked out of the room, hands in his pockets.
-Rescue training eh? Well, it's not glorious battle, but we'll take it over more boring ass lectures.-
For Izuku's part, he was stoked. No, more than stoked.
He knew most of the rest of the class had been looking forward to combat training more than anything else. Not him. This was what he had become a Hero for, not for the battles or victories, but to help people.
Memories of seeing the Video of All Might's debut time and again as a child flowed through his head. But there was also the memory of the night he met Stick-San, and how the man in red had helped him when he needed it.
THAT was the kind of hero he wanted to be.
...
After everyone had gotten dressed and was on their way to the buss, Izuku walked up to Uraraka, intending to start up a conversation, when he noticed something.
"Your-your cape…"
"Hmmm? Oh right." She absentmindedly fingered the hole in her outfit where the buttons attaching her cape had been. "I've sent in a request for a new outfit that's less… constraining, and since I'm not really gonna use this one in the future, I thought getting it repaired would be a waste of time."
Made sense. For one thing, Izuku had learned quickly over the last few days that it could feel really humiliating wearing a skintight outfit.
Normally he was fine, but whenever some decided checking him out was just fine, he became red as a tomato, and generally had a lot of trouble concentrating. Thankfully, none had done so while he was doing something important. Not yet anyway.
As they were reaching the buss, Iida was already there, with a whistle, and motioning.
"LINE UP ACCORDING TO YOUR ID NUMBERS! FILL THOSE SEATS IN AN ORDERLY FASHION EVERYONE!"
"WOW, Iida really into the whole class president thing!"
"Yeah, he's really going full throttle."
...
After spending two minutes lining up in according to their I'd numbers, it turned out the bus was actually completely different than regular busses with a layout that simply didn't work with the neat and orderly set up they had.
As everyone just found a seat wherever they wanted Izuku patted Iida, who had just seen his meticulous work undone and seemed kinda depressed about it, on the back.
Opposite of them, Tsuyu started up a conversation with Uraraka in a blunt, awkward manner that made Izuku seem subtle and great at conversations.
"I generally say what's on my mind Ochako-Chan."
"Um… Okay? What is it?"
Tsuyu turned to look directly with a huge, yet also somewhat relaxed grin.
"Your quirk reminds me of All Might's."
Wow. And Izuku had thought he was blunt.
Both Izuku and Ven turned their heads towards the pair as Uraraka stuttered in shock.
"Y-You think so? I mean…"
Kirishima, sitting to Tsuyu's left, butted in.
Hold up Tsuyu, All Might doesn't get hurt by his own power though. They're already way different in that.
Inside his mind, Venom snorted.
-She's young, she'll grow into it yet.-
Kirishima followed up on his blatant show of inexperience, with praise.
"But still, that sort of simple strength enhancing quirk is really cool! You can do a lot of awesome stuff with it!"
He got a somewhat sullen expression on his face, as he lifted his arm up, and with a metallic sound, his arm seemed to turn into skin-colored metal.
"Not like mine at all. "Hardening" is great in a fight, but it's really boring."
"I think it's pretty cool though! It's more than enough to fully go pro."
It was a bland compliment, that didn't actually address any of the things Kirishima didn't like about his quirk.
Surprisingly, it was Venom who gave some actual advice.
"Real battle is about efficiency, not flashiness, or pointless shows of Sound and fury, signifying nothing. Yours is a very useful power that should allow you to fuck over most kinds of enemies with ease. Also, by virtue of possessing the mundane power of being bulletproof, it's one of the most useful power sets in this group."
"Ummm… Yeah, that's kinda what I said. It's great for battle but not much else really. Being a pro means you have to worry about popularity too you know? You cant ONLY think about how good you are in a fight."
"Isn't that literarily how the second-ranking Hero of this country rose to such height? By caring only about battle, and solving as many cases as he possibly can, ignoring everything else?"
"...Touche. But that kinda illustrates my point. Endeavor has one of the flashiest quirks in Japan. Incredibly powerful, but also a surprisingly versatile."
-Fuck, this guy's dense.-
Well, it wasn't wrong, but frankly, Izuku agreed with Venom. Todoroki Enji had not risen to the second rank because he was charismatic or flashy. He had risen to the top 2 by being better than almost all the rest.
That wouldn't have changed if his quirk was less flashy.
"Speaking of Endeavor, I'd say that the guy with the best mix of flashy and strong quirk in class would be Todoroki… And maybe Bakugou."
Before either Izuku, Venom, and surprisingly enough Shoto(Who had suddenly taken an interest in their conversation) could interject, Tsuyu gave another of her blunt statements.
"Bakugou's so unhinged though, He'll never get popular."
"YOU WANNA FIGHT FROGFACE?!" Katsuki barked as he jumped up from his seat, hand on the railing as he leaned menacingly over it. Or tried to. The effect, along with his hair had him look more like a chihuahua barking over a fence.
Izuku blinked. Had… Had Katsuki always looked so non-threatening?
"See?" Tsuyu said, nonchalantly pointing at Katsuki without even looking at him.
Venom was chuckling at Katsuki's outburst, but it was what happened next that got him really cackling. Namely, Kaminari Denki decided to make some sport of the easy target that was Bakugou leaning on the railing above them.
"It's only been a brief while since our socialization was has commenced, and yet apodictically cognizant of your personality, redolent as it is of a turd, getting steamed in a sewer."
"YEAH, OK MR VOCABULARY, HOW ABOUT I FIGHT YOU INSTEAD!"
"Enough."
Aizawa, who had been napping during the trip finally bestirred himself to shut down the argument with a glare of shining crimson.
Everyone quieted down before Aizawa added "Also, we're here, everyone look sharp now okay…"
That last part could have sounded inspirational, but coming from Aizawa, it was as unenthusiastic as everything else he said.
...
The "here" He was referring to turned out to be a giant park. The whole, thing looked like an enormous theme park, or at least it would have if not for the fact one of the zones was at fire, and another two zones seemed like all the buildings in them had collapsed.
Venom's, and to a lesser extend Izuku's eyes and attention was instantly drawn to the fire zone. As everyone was standing just looking at it and marveling, their eyes were glued to the dancing flames.
-We take it back. This is going to fucking suck.-
...
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