MHA : Venom

Katsuki's change in demeanor didn't change as the classes went by. Instead, he was just completely quiet and focused exclusively on whatever the teacher said.

It was… So bloody of character for him, that Izuku wondered if it was some trick to lull him into a sense of false security.

It was a ridiculous assumption of course, but he honestly couldn't fathom why Katsuki was acting this way.

He got the answer at lunch.

As it turned out, he should have read that All Might Story two days ago bit more thoroughly than he did.

Having been occupied with dealing with his powers, and fixing and replacing everything that broke on Friday, Izuku had only skimmed the article, very much unlike how he normally did with any story involving All Might.

The teenager All Might had rescued turned out to be none other than Katsuki Bakugou. He had been held hostage by a villain who had possessed his body and had been rescued by All Might, saving him and a girl that had jumped in to try help Katsuki.

It seemed the experience had really shaken him up. He wasn't sure how to feel about that. On one hand, he didn't want anything bad to happen to anyone, not even Katsuki. On the other hand, a very large part of his mind felt incredible schadenfreude at it.

It was very unlike Izuku in every way, and the fact that he didn't question it beyond acknowledging the fact that these feelings did exist within him, should have been a major warning sign for the young hopeful hero.

Instead, he focused on the moment, and how it affected him in the now.

He'd gotten to hear the story after someone asked Katsuki about it directly, and in true Katsuki form, he had exploded at them for it.

Afterward, he did not go back to how he regularly was though, instead going back to his previous sulking silence after lunch(and prying questions) was over.

That was, definitely an improvement as far as Izuku was concerned, but he felt certain Katsuki would seek him out after school was over.

He didn't. Every time Katsuki saw Izuku that day, he just ignored him. It was… Unsettling in its own way.

Still far better than a confrontation though.

Katsuki's friends didn't share Katsuki's newfound seeming indifference towards Izuku. Both had given him constant worried looks during the day like they were desperately hoping he wouldn't call them out on it.

He didn't.

He just left for home, making sure to take a different path than Katsuki did.

Well, it had been a depressing school day, but he had managed to get through it without anyone even considering he had a quirk.

Katsuki was sulking and leaving him alone for now, though God knows how long that would last.

Now he just needed to repeat that over for almost 300 times, and hope nothing terrible happened during any of them. Easy.

...

"So, have you settled on a name for it yet?"

Izuku was in the process of biting down and chewing on a fish when the question was asked. He hastily chewed and swallowed it.

"Name for what?"

"Your Quirk dear. It's been 3 days now, and we still just call him "Your Quirk"."

Said Quirk was currently sitting(or the equivalent for a mass of moving liquid) on the sofa and watching tv. How he did that without eyes, Izuku didn't know.

He several theories on the subject, some he had disproven, other he still needed to- Oh right, his mom had asked him a question.

"I… I don't know mom. It's kinda silly but…"

"Yes?"

"Well, it's like… I had this whole page with possible different names for him. And I had tried finding one he liked, but…"

"It hated them." Inko guessed.

"Well yeah, that too. But… During that I kinda… got this feeling like I KNEW he already had a name already. And… I didn't want to call him something that wasn't his own name."

A short silence followed, until Izuku continued.

"Man, that sounds so stupid when I say it out loud…"

"It's not stupid, sweetie. I mean, it's clearly sentient."

She looked to the side, where it was watching an ancient action movie called Rambo first blood. It was so old it predated the first appearance of quirks.

That it had mastered the art of streaming services would have been proof enough on its that it was indeed sentient. But there was more.

"It's not stupid to think it might have picked a name for itself, but… couldn't you get it to write it down for you? I mean, if it can't actually speak, then surely you could get it to write it down on paper right? It can hold things after all."

"Yeah, that was my first thought too." He bent down and rummaged through his bag for a moment, then fished out his black notebook.

After flipping through the book, he held it up so she could see.

"Well, that's… Clearly a language of some kind, but… I'm sorry baby, I've never seen it before."

He closed the book, then put it back in the bag.

"Yeah, I didn't recognize it either… I spent three hours just looking up alphabets on Wikipedia trying to find something that matched it, but I didn't find anything."

"I… I see."

"It probably created the language on its own. Which would make it Really, really smart."

"That's… That's a good thing though, isn't it?"

"Yeah, if I could find some way to reliably communicate with him, he could be an amazing help. The heroes with quirks like mine generally have a huge advantage if the being they've created can think for itself and do independent stuff separate from you."

Inko glanced worriedly over the Quirk for a moment, just in time to see the scene of the protagonist of the movie break down mentally and cry.

"Well… If you think it'll help I hope you can make it work sweetie."

She put on her usual smile again.

"So, are you sure you don't need any snacks for your training Izuku? I can make something for you no problem before you leave."

Izuku blushed slightly. "It's… It's fine mom. We'll only be gone 3 hours or so. And we're not really doing any strength training today, anyways. But… Thanks for the offer. I appreciate it. I really do."

She smiled at him. "Just… Be safe baby okay?"

"We will."

17 minutes later, Izuku and his black, inky companion walked down the stairs out of his apartment complex.

17.30.

He would head back home at 20.30.

Truth be told, he kinda just wanted to train all the way to midnight, but his mom would be worried sick if he stayed out that long.

He had been wondering where exactly he would do his training. He'd thought about it long and hard.

He had considered the beach. Then he had thought about it, and realized that training on shifting sands when you wanted to train balance was mayhaps not the smartest thing in the world.

His next choice had been a nearby park. Then when he had visited it yesterday, he realized that this kind of training in a park was a surefire way to get the attention of other people. The beach was a bit better, but there were still tons of people walking by it all the time. Anyone of them could decide to take issue with what he was doing and call a policeman over.

Something he most definitely didn't need.

He was technically, kinda, most definitely breaking the law here after all.

Quirks weren't meant to be used in public by anyone except licensed heroes.

So, he had to find somewhere more remote, somewhere people didn't visit as night began to set in.

He knew of one such place. It was quite a bit farther away than he'd have liked, but as he was learning, it was amazing how quickly you could get from place to place if you never got tired of running.

He didn't run at his absolute top speed all the way, of course. That would instantly give away he was using a quirk after all. But he still ran as fast as any normal human could have and he ran with no stops to catch his breath.

God, it felt amazing.

Even stopping for red signs, he made the trip in just a bit over half an hour.

All the way out of the city, and into a place of green grass and trees.

...

If you want to read ahead of the public release, or just want to support me.

You can join my p atreon :

[email protected]/Huvnn