As he was trying to figure that out though, Mina continued.
"I don't think Ben would have been able to handle stuff like this. The leagues of All For One and the Caribbean I mean. Not like us."
...
Us. It was such a simple word, but he didn't miss the implications or the way Mina said it so casually.
She had full faith that he'd be able to handle it. It reminded him about how Uraraka had been so absolutely sure that he would beat Todoroki in the tournament.
And just like back then, he really wished he had her confidence in himself.
"Thank you..." He said without really thinking about it.
Mina cocked her head.
"For what?"
For a second Izuku just cursed himself for talking without thinking, but he answered truthfully enough.
"For having such faith in me."
For a second, Mina just looked confused. Then she nodded.
"Well, I wouldn't really call it faith. I know you can handle stuff like this. Like, you worry a lot about stuff, but when it's time to do something, you handle it like a real champ. It's one of the things I really like about you."
Izuku felt his cheeks go red, but his mouth became a smile, and his heart soared at the compliment.
"So, since we're talking about my family anyway... What's your thoughts on mom so far?"
"Well… She's a bit more hostile at me than I thought she would be. But that's ok. I mean… Our homeroom teacher is Aizawa."
"Huh. Yeah, that's actually a fair point."
"Yeah… Anyway, I had a talk with Venom about it Yesterday. I get why she's like that towards me now, and in any case, her training is really effective."
At that Mina stiffened, then got a humongous grin, that was a mixture between mischievous and ecstatic. Izuku didn't notice and just continued.
"All in all, I'm really happy with the internship so far. Your mom really knows her stuff, the way she dominated our fight with ease, and read every move I made before she ended it! Her technique was amazing, and the way she only moved exactly as much as she had to was… Stunning!"
"Man, you make it sound like you were even more starstruck by mom after she kicked your ass than you were at the sight of her when you introduced yourself to her."
Izuku immediately went red at the implication, though there wasn't anything resembling an accusation in Mina's tone. On the contrary, she sounded like she was having a lot of fun.
"I-I-It wasn't like that! When I saw her I just..."
He immediately slammed his mouth shut.
"Yeah? You what?"
"I… I thought that she looked like how you'd probably be in a few years…"
Silence. This statement finally brought something else than amusement from the pink girl. Namely a faint blush. She quickly recovered her sly smile, though her blush didn't quite go away.
"Well… You might get that wish. Mom was about my height when she was my age. Maybe I'll grow just as much as she did."
She scooted just a bit closer to Izuku, their hips bumping together just so slightly.
It was at that moment that Izuku realized that something about the atmosphere had changed. Though when that had been, and what this new atmosphere was, he didn't really know.
Izuku's brain suddenly went into overdrive, wanting a topic, any topic to talk about.
"Well, I hope so." He said incredibly awkwardly. Then, instinctually building on that thread, as it was the first thing that popped into his mind, he continued.
"I-I don't think I'll grow much more if at all. I haven't grown an inch from 160 cm in the last half-year."
The sentence structure might have been fine, but the inanely stilted way he said it, made it sound like the most awkward and unnatural thing he had ever said in his life.
Mina however didn't seem taken aback, nor did she laugh at the incredibly silly way he'd replied.
Instead, she grinned slyly. The grin of a cat that was just about to swallow the canary.
"Well… I don't think that would be so bad. After all…" She playfully poked him in his rather well-toned and muscular arm, his black suit treacherously giving way to let her touch his skin directly, as it went in circles in a slow, deliberate manner. "You're already pretty well built where it matters~"
She leaned her face forward near his, her slightly taller build being far more obvious at this distance.
Izuku suddenly felt like his entire head was a lobster cooking in a, particularly boiling pot.
"I certainly wouldn't mind if you stayed small, cute, and adorable forever~"
Mina was a very, very pretty girl.
That was something Izuku knew already of course, but for some reason, it was the only thing Izuku's brain could manage to think of at the moment, with her face so close that with one or two inches closer, they'd have felt each other's breath on their faces.
"Having fun are you?" An amused voice of an older woman asked from behind them.
Izuku instinctually jumped away from Black Cat(Who had sneaked up on both teenagers from behind, without either of them noticing.) And landed on his feet, facing her, his mask having snapped up and reformed over his head.
To his chagrin, Izuku realized he'd instinctually moved into hitman style, and he let it drop.
"No need Midoriya. Keep the stance, and get back to training." Black Cat said, still in the same amused tone.
He immediately did just that, walking over to where he'd been when she had left and starting flinging cannonballs like nothing had interrupted him.
On the outside, he looked the exact same.
Inside, his heart hammered with such speed that one would have thought it was desperately trying to escape his chest, while his brain was still trying to make sense of what had just happened.
---
Uraraka finally managed to figure out the point Gran Torino had tried to guide her towards, late the second day.
It had taken quite a bit of thinking on her part, but in the end, she'd figured out that spreading the energy of one for all out throughout her entire body, and then just letting the energy flow allowed her to adapt, and then just let the power remain, rather than having to constantly resummon it.
It was such a simple change that she honestly couldn't fathom why she hadn't thought of it before. Gran Torino was right. She really was too hung up on how she HAD been doing things, to consider how she COULD be doing things.
It was quite a bit different than her usual way of doing things, but she could definitely see the countless advantages to it.
Being able to consistently move at massive speeds for one.
Gran Torino had been pretty pleased with it, and after a training session(That had still ended with her flat on her back, and him standing over her though this time he'd taken two surprisingly big gashes across his cheek) he'd declared that they would spend all tomorrow mastering it, and they would be going on on patrol the day after that.
Until then, all she could do was hammer in this new "Lightning mode"(She'd considered several different names, but in the end, she'd decided to just go with the obvious, and named herself after the bolts of lightning that now danced across her body all the time as she kept the mode going) of hers.
The only thing that mattered to her at that moment, was to hammer out this new way of fighting and moving until she was able to keep it on 24/7 if need be.
Nothing else mattered, other than training her ass off as hard as she possibly could.
...
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