Izuku spent the entire rest of the day just kinda wandering or sitting in a daze, trying to figure out what the hell he was actually feeling, and probably what the hell he was gonna do now.
Truth be told, Venom was torn. On one hand, this was really annoying to have to witness, and they kinda wanted to get this to the next stage as quickly as possible… On the other hand, seeing his reactions to Mina flirting with him had been absolutely hilarious.
Then again, Venom really doubted Izuku would instantly flip a switch if he actually managed to hook up with her.
This kinda reaction would probably be a mainstay for the foreseeable future.
Either way, Venom was glad he hadn't told Izuku about any of this beforehand. They very much doubted the boy would have had the guts to go with Mina on this trip if he'd know what she was really planning.
It wasn't the only thing Venom was keeping from him of course.
For one thing, they had not told him that Uraraka was also developing a crush on him. Best he and Mina hook up first before he learned of that fact. Love triangles were tedious, drawn-out affairs that had a nasty tendency to trip up the highs of a relationship by muddying it with guilt.
And given that Venom feed on those kinds of emotions above almost all else, it was their highest priority to make sure it was snipped in the bud now before it could become a problem.
Then there was some of the more serious stuff, like the fact that Izuku's complete lack of any further growth was very much Venom's doing.
Usually, the bond between a klyntar and it's host did not lead to a stunted growth cycle. Unless of course that bond had been used to bring a completely empty Klyntar back from the brink. Which was exactly the case with Venom and Izuku.
That little factoid, however, was something he would not learn about ever if it was up to Venom. And given they were the only one who knew, that wasn't too hard to keep secret.
Mina would get her wish, that Izuku stayed short and no one would ever know there was something more sinister at work that caused it.
Then of course there was Iida Tenya.
As Izuku went out to buy some 9 hamburgers at a Mcdonald's (Though infuriatingly, he just got two sodas to wash it down with, instead of a glorious Chocolate milkshake) for lunch, Venom noticed Iida walking outside the walls of the fine, fine establishment.
The usual feelings of disgust washed over them until they noticed another presence.
A presence they hadn't felt in a long, long time.
A presence that Venom was rather certain was stalking Iida. Fascinating. As it happened, given who it was that was stalking the wretched traitor, Venom doubted some great harm would befall him, but even so, Venom would probably not have alerted Izuku to the fact that the self-righteous ass was being stalked.
As far as they were concerned, Iida could bloody well deal with that situation himself.
...
Izuku felt incredibly awkward as the morning came. He still hadn't really come to terms with anything of what he'd been fretting over yet. Still, time did not wait for him.
He was here as an intern after all. Black Cat was not going to wait for him to work out his feelings, even if he had asked her. Which he sure as hell was not going to do.
He felt awkward enough about all of it, without adding the complication of talking about it with Mina's mom.
He felt even more awkward, sitting in the back seat of Black Cat's car, where Mina had also chosen to sit when there was a perfectly good front seat open.
He was not in any doubt as to the reason, but thankfully Mina hadn't opened up the day by flirting. Instead, she seemed really sleepy still, sitting and sipping some coffee she'd gotten from the hotel.
If her expression was anything to go by, it was not particularly good.
"B-bad coffee?" He asked, desperately wishing he had a better icebreaker.
"Yeah… For being a luxury hotel, it's coffee is just the worst ."
Black Cat snorted.
"It's perfectly fine caffeine. It's just that Mina has been spoiled by the stuff I import from Ethiopia."
Mina scowled, but Izuku piped up.
"You're talking about Solomon's Black Gold right? That you import 43 kilos of each year?"
Silence followed.
"Yes… That's right. I do import exactly that amount. And you know that… how?"
You mentioned it in an interview 6 years ago, on the 17th of September. It was the one where they interviewed you about your first encounters with Miruko!"
More silence.
"And you just… Remembered that tiny little trivia detail?"
Mina chuckled, then flashed Izuku a grin that was a bit less perky than usual but still made his heart flutter.
"Yeah, he's got a good memory. You should have seen how he went on when he realized Aizawa was our homeroom teacher. He knew the most obscure trivia and stuff about Eraserhead imaginable."
"Is that so? Well… Keep on to that quality. You never know when you can get some mileage out of stuff like this."
Izuku blushed, though nowhere near as much as he had all through yesterday.
"In any case, we're here."
The "Here" in question was on the outskirts of the city, where an old factory had been abandoned long ago.
"Wait, THIS is it? We thought you wanted to showcase how to soar through city skylines. There aren't any other buildings of equal size to this one here."
Venom was right. As he stepped out of the car, he saw that the factory, though it had some houses nearby, none of them were more than two stories tall.
The factory on the other hand was massive, with 4 massive pipes to the sky that reached a good 30 meters tall.
The factory had obviously seen better days if the decay of the building was anything to go by.
"This is just the first step. I want you to be able to swing from one pipe to the other without any problems, before we head back to the city, to jump from real urban buildings. In any case, your first task is to get to the top of the smokestack."
She nodded at the large nearby pipe.
She then fished out a case that once she opened up, revealed two sets of… Well, it looked like the masks Mina and Black Cat wore, just there was glass over the eyes.
Then, after equipping this mask/glasses combo, and with speed, Izuku could only dream of, she moved forward, and like a bolt of lightning, she was up about 10 meters before she jumped out from the pipe, let loose a thread of silk much higher up, then, gracefully swung both sideways and upwards like a pendulum, the momentum carrying her forward, only to repeat it about 4 more times in rapid succession before finally, she reached the top.
Where she promptly positioned herself on the ledge looking down on them, with her hands on her hips.
"She really makes it look easy, doesn't she?" Mina noted both pride and resignation in her voice.
"Ye-yeah…"
"Well, you can climb up if you want. I'm gonna have to use the web though. My acid isn't compatible with the silk at all. It's why I rarely use these things."
Then she grinned at him with that adorable smile.
"Ever tried swinging with lines before Midori?"
"No… Well… Does the time we ran away from Rhino and Shocker count?"
Mina furrowed her brows, then shrugged.
"I guess…? Well, in any case, it's gonna be fun. Trust me. Swinging like this is awesome!"
Then, she moved forward like her mom had done, and went up the wall, until gravity set in, then jumped, outwards and up, before a line slammed into the enormous pipe.
Her movements were graceful, and her speed was massive, but both fell far, far short of how her mother had done it.
She still had a lot of work ahead of her. Just like he did.
However, in this case, he wasn't planning on trying to replicate what his two companions had been doing. Nor was he planning on climbing up like Mina had suggested.
Instead, he just waited until Mina had reached the top.
Then he jumped.
He felt the concrete crack from the force as he left it, but this was solid ground, not a wooden log. He'd learned his lesson, and he was not likely to try and do this anywhere without hard ground beneath.
He reached the top of the giant smokestack with no problem, and he'd angled himself so that he'd grab the ledge as he came up, then moved in an arc so that he'd flip around and land on his feet in a crouching position.
He need not have bothered. As it turned out, someone(Probably someone Black Cat knew Izuku suspected) had closed up the roof of the pipe with a giant, thick sheet of metal.
...
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