The news of the sports festival coming up brought about a level of enthusiasm that Izuku hadn't experienced from the class before.
As the time for lunch finally came, everyone was chatting, talking, or discussing the upcoming tournament.
Several of the guys had huddled together to discuss it, Uraraka was putting on a show of kinda scary ambitious sportsmanship, and Tenya was talking about how his brother had performed.
All of it had made Izuku feel mighty… Uncomfortable? No out of place was probably more like it.
As the rest of the class chatted, he quietly made his way to a less populated part of the school to eat alone.
The place he found was by a set of stairs.
He closed his eyes and tried to calm his mind. It wasn't as easy as it had been yesterday, despite how quiet it was, but after about half a minute, he did manage to clear his kind somewhat, and he once more felt the emotions of everyone around him.
This time was a bit different than it had been then, in that, with a shock, he realized he recognized several of the flames around him.
Mina and Tenya had both headed to where he thought the cafeteria was, Iida alone, and Mina alongside a presence he was pretty sure was Tsuyu.
Mina was cheerful and happy, while Tenya was a weird mix between curious, worried, and nervous. He was far less sure of himself than he had made himself seem.
Somewhere else in the building, he felt two souls that burned brighter anyone else. Two small burning sun's, that he recognized as Uraraka and All Might. All Might was as deafening in Izuku's emotional sight as he was in person, though for different reasons.
There were two things that instantly struck Izuku as he felt the two of them.
The first was that Venom had been utterly, and completely right. All Might was in constant, awful pain. It was horrible, absolutely horrible just how strongly that pain made him burn.
It made Izuku feel sick, just how much pain he was in.
The second was that compared to all the other flames Izuku could feel in the dark void, the two flames burned in a way, unlike all the rest.
It was like… There were several fires, stacked around both of them. Like a ball, with a smaller ball inside of it, with a smaller ball inside of that one and so on.
If Izuku had had any doubts left that Uraraka wasn't All Might's child, this sight killed them. It was ASTONISHING how similar their souls burned.
There was one thing however, that shocked him about this sight the closer he observed it. And that was the difference in how bright they burned.
He initially had thought both burned equally bright.
He was wrong.
The reason he had thought that, was due to both of them burning so much brighter than all the rest.
But to his shock, he realized just how much stronger Uraraka's flame was than All Might's.
Uraraka's fire burned strong bright, like a small, eternal sun.
All Might's flame wasn't constant, it was sputtering, like a fire that had to fight against the wind blowing it out.
The shock broke his concentration, and with a start, he returned to his regular senses.
For a moment, he just stood there taking deep breaths, before finally fishing out his bag, along with his food for today.
"YEESSS…. Finally!"
Said food was a bag of chocolate nougats.
Having assured himself that he was alone here, Izuku squatted down and opened the bag.
He blushed as he took a nougat out, remembering yesterday.
He'd have to find some better, more sustainable way to enjoy chocolate. He couldn't sneak away every day during lunch to enjoy it.
For now though… The pull was too strong. He HAD to eat some. He'd already felt the cravings when he hadn't been able to buy some before heading back to school.
As he bit down, the euphoria shot through him! His brain suddenly became both foggy, yet so much more ALIVE! His whole body felt ALIVE! His tongue most of all, as it savored the glorious, glorious taste in his mouth.
He was so out of it, that he didn't even notice he had consumed all the bag until he was entirely finished with it, at which point he felt a pang of annoyance.
Then, deep and utter shame.
The cravings though had gone away. He felt completely, and utterly satisfied as he went from squatting to sitting down on the stairs.
"Ahhhh…. That's the stuff! You guys should be happy my kind doesn't know this exists. If they did, they'd launch massive armadas to conquer it's source!"
"... Good thing they don't then."
"Yesss… We'll get it all to ourselves! We love this planet!"
Izuku just sat there, perfectly content to just sit out the rest of the break. Venom, however, had other ideas.
"Now that we have filled up on food… Shall we discuss the tournament?"
"...Okay? What do you wanna know?"
"Well, for starters, we begin with the basics. What the hell are we supposed to do exactly? Aizawa's half-assed explanation only covered the political aspects of the thing. What do we actually compete in?"
"Oh, okay. Well, two-thirds of the actual exercises change each year. The tournament is divided into three parts, the first generally roots out the majority of participants, and the second removes the wast majority of those remaining. At the end, the part of the show that everyone actually comes to see happens. The fights. All the remaining contestants are set up against each other in a brackets tournament, where you either incapacitate your enemy, or you throw them out of the ring."
"So it literarily is just a Shonen tournament."
That… Was kinda a weird way to put it.
"In that case, we will have to train then."
"...I'm pretty sure that's the whole point of going to this school."
Venom snorted.
"We're talking REAL combat here. Not the kind of sanitized crap your teachers will try and hammer into you. No, what we will teach you, is what we have learned over the course of thousands, upon thousands of hosts."
Well, that… Didn't sound ominous at all.
"Anyhow Izuku… You know how in Video games and anime, the protagonist will spend the vast majority of screentime trying to figure out their ultimate technique, that will define them in battle?"
"Um… Yeah?"
"Well fuck that shit, we'll just teach you the best move we know from the get-go. It's time we really delved into the art of battle, Klyntar style."
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AN : I NEED SOME REVIEWS, OR WILL BE NO NEXT CHAPTER ... just kidding but seriously guys.
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