Instantly, the joy of seeing the pros all around him turned to dust in his gut.
Venom was right.
...
They were here to impress these heroes, in the hope that one of them would take them on as an intern. If they couldn't… Wouldn't that make this… All a giant waste of time?
In that case though…. Was Edgeshot a hero he should be aiming for?
"... I… I don't Edgeshot would be a good hero to train under for us."
"Oh? Something wrong with him?"
"No, he's an amazing hero. It's just… His powers and fighting style isn't anything like us. In terms of our own personal powers… Well… Realistically speaking, there isn't much we can learn from him."
"We see… Sooo… Who would serve us better to learn from then?"
Izuku knew the answer. There were two heroes that would fit the bill better than any other, but as the answer was about to leave his tongue, he was interrupted by a loud voice from behind.
That, someone, turned out to be Iida, who quickly made the regular morning greetings, and began inquiring about how he felt.
After that, they were quickly swept up by the rest of the class on their way to the bus.
---
Izuku had hoped that once they finally got to the stadium the sports festival was held in, his nerves would hopefully become less dire.
Instead, the opposite happened, and as he stood near the corner, his back against the wall, all he could do was stare at the clock up on the wall, ticking, and ticking away until the moment of doom.
It was ridiculous. Insane. He had gone into life threatening situations, and he had handled them relatively well, without being paralyzed by fear.
So, why… Why did that looking at the clock up on the wall, suddenly make him feel like he was back a year ago?
Logically speaking, Mina was right. He shouldn't be feeling like this. But he was.
Somehow, now that this whole tournament was about to happen, he felt a fear of going out there for the world to see. A fear the likes of which he hadn't felt since the entrance exam when he had faced the giant zero-point robot.
He feared going out there.
He recognized this feeling. It was a feeling he had suffered many, many times in his life.
The fear of standing up, and saying something he thought because he had had it beaten into him what happened if he did.
He had hoped, no, believed so strongly, that he had left this part of him behind the day he bonded with Venom.
But he hadn't.
He just hadn't been in a position where these old feelings were put to the forefront. Back during his last year of middle school, he had kept a low profile, because he had realized that he didn't care about what the people of his class thought of him anymore. He had no good memories from his old class, and subsequently, had lost any interest in impressing them.
That was not the case here. He DID care what the rest of the class thought of him. He did care what his teachers thought of him. He did care what the pro heroes watching it all thought of him. He cared what the crowd thought of him.
He feared, irrationally, that if he made a fool out of himself now, it would cause everyone to turn on him. It was insane. Ridiculous. But at that moment, he just couldn't kill that feeling in the back of his head.
What he was afraid of, more than anything, was being judged. Judged by his friends, his teachers, his class, the public, pro heroes.
He feared the crowd. He feared being singled out. He feared being weak. He feared being Deku.
And so, as the class was talking amongst themselves, he just stood and stared at the clock, awaiting the moment of doom.
He might have stared at it all the way until the end, but a conversation suddenly cut through all the talk and silenced everyone else.
Izuku didn't catch the first part of the talk, but he did turn his head and look over at the speaker, who turned out to Todoroki Shoto. The person he was speaking to was Uraraka, who seemed to have been caught on the spot, judging by her confused expression.
"-Stronger than you, more skilled. More capable."
"Um, What?"
"All Might has got his eye on you hasn't he Uraraka?"
It was those words, more than any other that actually managed to wake Izuku's attention. It would seem he wasn't the only one who had put some pieces together.
Like at that lunch that seemed so long ago now, Uraraka's expression became both tense, surprised, and weary at that declaration of connection to All Might.
Todoroki however, seemed uninterested in pushing deeper into that mystery.
"I don't really have any interest in prying deeper into WHY that is, but… I WILL beat you today."
A declaration of challenge.
It got varied responses from the rest of the class.
Some surprise, some comments, but the only one who wanted to play peacemaker was Kirishima.
"Seriously man? Picking a fight now, when we're just about to-" "I don't really care what you think about it." Todoroki interrupted him.
"I'm not here to make friends. Nor will I pretend to be one to anyone here either."
He kept looking at Uraraka with a stoic glare.
The brown-haired girl stared at him for a moment, then fidgeted with her hands a bit, before she finally looked him in the eyes and answered.
"I… I'm not really sure why you decided to challenge me specifically. If you wanted to make a declaration to the strongest person here, that would be Izuku, not me."
A short silence followed, as once again, everyone turned to look at Izuku. This time though, he didn't care.
He just stared at the Uraraka's back, at her long, brown hair that went down over her gym uniform like a lion's mane.
"He's the strongest, and most capable fighter here, by a wide margin. I'm not blind enough to pretend otherwise. You're strong too. Not as strong as Izuku, but you're still a powerhouse. So are Mina and Bakugou."
She turned her head to look out over the class, and Izuku could see her left eye, and he saw it was glowing faintly, with a pink glow.
"This class... Is full of strong people. Not just us at the top."
She turned her head back to look Todoroki in the eyes again.
"BUT even so… I don't plan on losing to either him or you or anyone else either!"
For just a brief moment Izuku caught the glimpse of a bolt of pink energy dancing around Uraraka's fingers. Then it vanished, as she continued.
"I'm going all the way to the top. I don't plan on losing to anyone today. No matter how strong they are."
"Right…"
Izuku kept staring at her, her words echoing in his mind.
He recognized the feeling. It was the same he had felt in the forest. It was the feeling he had felt back when Stick-San had told him could become a hero. It was the feeling of knowing that somebody believed in him. That someone he respected, had an unwavering belief in him and what he could do.
It was an incredible feeling.
The fear of the crowd didn't vanish. But it did lessen substantially.
-Goddamn, you still are way too easy to influence with the smallest words.-
"That's not a bad thing." He muttered as everyone who had still been sitting got on their feet as Iida came to announce it was time to go.
As they walked out into the sunlight, Izuku finally realized something.
He didn't fear losing Uraraka's respect anymore. Instead, he wanted to prove himself worthy of it.
...
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