After his talk with Mina, and deciding to go apologies to Uraraka and Tenya for ditching them during Lunch(Along with promising he'd eat lunch with them regularly from now on) Izuku had thought that would have been the end of the day's surprises.
The sight outside their classroom as classes ended that day(10 Minutes later than usual due to some extra lectures from Aizawa.) dispelled that notion.
The corridor was packed, absolutely packed with students from other classes. Not just 1-B, which was the only other heroics class, but also from the general and the tech classes too.
The students who had come all had different looks. Some looked curious, some annoyed, some eager, and others just looked downright hostile.
There were murmurings on both sides, both from Izuku's classmates and from the students who had come to gawk.
But it was the dwarf Mineta who finally asked the big question.
"Why are these guys here crowding the exit? Who are they?"
The one who answered, surprisingly enough, was Katsuki Bakugou, with a voice that was much more calm and subdued, if no less hostile, than usual.
"They're scoping out the competition you retard. They wanna see the gang who made it through the villain ambush, so they've come to check us out before the big battle, asshole."
He walked up to right before the gathered students, before continuing.
"It's pointless to try though, so why don't you just fuck off you goddamn extras."
Izuku wasn't surprised by Katsuki's words of choice. What he was surprised by was just how burning the anger that welled up inside of him was at those words. It burned like searing coals to see him treat others like how he had once treated him. And he was about to voice his opinion on that when Iida did it for him.
"Don't go calling people you don't know extras!"
Yeah, that was how he had always been. He didn't believe that other people had feelings, lives, or anything else that mattered in the world. Sociopathic git.
"I came to see what you kids are made of, but I didn't think you'd be this arrogant. Are all the kids enrolled in the departments of heroics this way?"
The voice was a new one, a more weary one than anyone from their class.
The crowd in front of Katsuki parted to let said speaker step forward.
The speaker in question was a boy who kinda looked like a mixture between Aizawa and Izuku, with a massive, poofy unruly Mane of hair not too unlike Izuku's(Though his was purple) while his face had the same kind of completely drained bags under his eyes like Aizawa always had.
His expression was a neutral one, but… Izuku could feel… Bitterness emanating from him. Immense bitterness. Izuku also couldn't help but notice that the kids around the newcomer all seemed afraid of him, backing away to give him space.
"Gotta say, I'm a bit disillusioned. That's it huh?"
The boy let the silence hang for a moment, just broken by Katsuki's growls before he continued.
"There's lots of kids who end up in the general education departments or tech because they failed the exam for Heroics. Did you know that?"
"No." Venom suddenly popped out from Izuku's shoulder. "But so what?"
The purple-haired boy took a moment to take in the look of the alien, seemingly nonplussed by his sudden appearance before he continued.
"Based on the result of the sports festival, it's possible for students to be reviewed for a possible transfer to heroics. The reverse is also a possible outcome."
Venom snorted.
"As if. Aizawa isn't the kind who would be satisfied with just a transfer for underperforming students. If any of us underperforms in the festival, he'd just expel us."
A short pause followed that.
The purple kid scratched his neck, then continued.
"Well, I'm just here scoping out the competition. If nothing else, a general kid like me is thinking… Why don't I try pulling the rugs out from under the heroics kids, when they're on their high horses? You guys can consider this a declaration of war."
"Yeah, well that is all well and good, and fascinating and all…" Venom said in a very dry tone. "But it would have been a lot more effective if you hadn't just admitted beforehand that you weren't strong enough to make it into the department that actually matters."
It was amazing how Venom had a tendency to make himself, and by extension Izuku, into the target of attention of everyone around them. In this case, every single one of the students looked at the two of them with angry, narrowed eyes.
Of course.
Izuku swallowed, not really sure what to say.
He was spared that by another voice suddenly joining the discussion.
Namely, a guy Izuku had seen a lot before, but never really talked with before, that was literarily made of a Grey metal.
"HEY, YOU! I'M FROM CLASS 1-B!"
At the very least, his loud outburst, and upraised hand, made people stop glowering at Izuku, and turn towards him instead.
"I HEARD YOU GUYS KNOCKED AROUND A BUNCH OF VILLAINS, SO I CAME TO HEAR IT DIRECT! BUT I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT FROM SOME SNOT NOSED PUNK OR A PIECE OF GOO!"
Venom responded to that by baring his teeth at him for that comment.
"BUT WHATEVER, JUST DONT GO EMBARRASSING US DURING THE MAIN EVENT YOU HEAR?"
Then, as suddenly as he had entered the conversation he just left.
An awkward silence arose, before Bakugou decided to just begin to leave through the crowd, but was interrupted by Kirishima.
"WHY did you do that? Now we're gonna have haters all up in our grill throughout the entire festival!"
"It doesn't matter." Bakugou simply said in response.
"WHAT?"
"None of that matters once you're at the top." Then he left.
Izuku just stared after him. Around him, his classmates began debating the words Katsuki had just said. Some, like Kirishima, was impressed, while others like Kaminari was quite less so.
Him, he had finally understood .
None of that matters once you're at the top.
It was amazing how in one single sentence, Bakugou had finally made Izuku fully understand him and the way he thought.
Katsuki justified every single misdeed he had ever done, as unimportant, so long as he reached the top. Because what did hurting other people matter, compared to the idea of Bakugou standing at the top?
He glanced over at Uraraka, who stood at his side looking worriedly after Bakugou.
It was amazing. How these two had basically the same goal, but in every single way they were such opposites.
The goal of becoming number one didn't matter Izuku realized. Only the motivation for becoming so.
...
The day of the sports festival came so suddenly upon them, that for Izuku, it felt like someone had just nailed him in the back of the head with an unexpected brick.
Of course, maybe it was just the mixed results of his two weeks of training. He probably would have felt so much more confident and ready if he had been able to master most of what Venom had tried to teach him.
He had not. He had managed the Scythe just fine, and he had become pretty decent at using webbing as a whip or rope. But that was about it.
He hadn't managed to master more advanced webbing techniques like the kind Venom had used to encase Shocker during the invasion. Not without Venom providing the groundwork and aim.
Which wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it meant he needed to set it up, rather than being able to just do it on the fly. Not to mention that he needed to tell Venom to do it, which just wasn't a realistic option on a chaotic battlefield, where 5 seconds could make the difference between life and death.
Not to mention stealth, which would be broken by one of them suddenly beginning to talk to lay out a plan.
At least he'd become much better at aiming his ranged attacks, but that didn't help him when the balls of black goo he fired just splattered into harmless liquid instead of encasing his targets, or as was the case with the really advanced stuff, become hard enough to act as actual physical projectiles.
He was still trying to get a grip on that when he realized it was just one more day of training before the sports festival.
The two weeks were over and seemed to have disappeared in a flash.
And now, there was nothing to do but try and relax before the morrow, when he'd have to try and put what he could do to the test.
...
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