Or maybe that was wrong? After all, as All Might's daughter, wouldn't she have a much more detailed understanding of this than most people.
...
"You've thought about this a lot."
"Yeah, I have. Money talks. That's the truth of the world. You can either rail against it, or you can work with it. I have things I want to do. Things like All Might's charities, just much, much larger. To do that, I need cash, to get the kind of cash I need to change the world, I need to become number one."
"I'm going to become the next symbol of peace. I'm going to bring smiles to people, safety for them to live in, and I'm going to make sure they all have food on the table to eat."
For a moment, as she finished her speech, she seemed to have momentarily forgotten Izuku was there, almost more like she was talking to herself.
Then reality seemed to reassert itself, and she remembered Izuku was still there.
"Sorry that… Kinda got heavy there for a moment."
"It's alright. I… I think that sounded really great Uraraka! You sound like you've really got what you want to do figured out!"
She had definitely put more thought into her future than he had his own at least.
The brown-haired young Amazon blushed.
"T-Thanks…"
Then she became more somber again.
"I… To be honest… I didn't use to think like this. I had way more selfish goals when I started the road to become a hero. But there was a point where I…"
Her gaze suddenly became distant, and she didn't continue.
"So… Why did you bring up this topic in the first place?"
Uraraka didn't answer at first. And when she did, it was with a troubled voice.
"I… Got a reality check earlier about just how incredibly stupid and awful ambition can be. It made me wonder if… Trying to become number one is actually a good thing at all…"
An image of Katsuki burned through Izuku's mind.
"Ambition isn't good or bad Uraraka. It's… It's your motivations, and what you do with them that matter. Not your end goal."
She turned again to look at him.
"Like… your goal is to help people. It's… Not exactly the way I would have gone about it, but it's not a bad idea at all! I think you would make a great number one hero!"
Once again, Uraraka blushed. Then she smiled.
"Thank you… That's… I'm glad you think so."
...
Izuku felt nervous as he walked down to the first battle.
Maybe it was just his regular nerves once more rearing up. Maybe it was the fact that as the first bout in this final part of the tournament, it would by its very nature be focused more on than most of those that followed it. Maybe it was his enemy with a mind control power he didn't understand fully.
Or maybe it was all of these combined.
Probably that.
As he walked out from the entrance to the arena, he felt once more the eyes of the hundreds of people in the seats above them.
All watching him, judging him, evaluating him.
It was an unnerving feeling, yet right now, as he stepped up to the heightened arena, all of it seemed to fade away into the background as his opponent did the same on the opposite end.
Hitoshi Shinsou seemed rather laid back and disinterested as he stepped up into the rectangular ring. That was just his face however, as Izuku briefly closed his eyes to feel Shinsou out, he could sense how the purple-haired guy actually felt.
Nervousness, bitterness, a desperate wish, a desire for something, probably winning this match.
He… Wasn't all that different than Izuku. At least in how he was worried and nervous. He just hid it better, under a mask of indifference.
In the background, Present Mic both made introductions and explained the rules.
"THE FIRST MATCH! IN ONE CORNER WE HAVE IZUKU MIDORIYA! DON'T BE FOOLED BY HIS NERVOUS LOOKS, THIS BLACK SPIDERMAN HAS ONE OF THE BEST PERFORMANCES TODAY! A TRUE EXAMPLE OF THE HERO COURSE!"
"AND IN THE OTHER CORNER, WE HAVE HITOSHI SHINSOU FROM THE GENERAL STUDIES! SORRY TO SAY, BUT THIS GUY HASN'T REALLY STOOD OUT SO FAR, WILL HE BE DIFFERENT HERE? OR WILL HIS UNEXPECTED SUCCESS BE STOPPED IN IT'S TRACKS BY THE SPIDERMAN!?"
"THE RULES ARE PRETTY SIMPLE! YOU WIN BY KNOCKING YOUR ENEMY OUT OF THE RING, IMMOBILIZING THEM, OR MAKING THEM SURRENDER BY SAYING, I GIVE UP!"
"OH, AND DON'T BE AFRAID TO BEING THE PAIN! WE'VE GOT OUR GOOD OLD RECOVERY GIRL READY ON STANDBY! FIGHT DIRTY IF YOU MUST! ETHICS HAVE NO MEANING HERE!"
"WELL, OF COURSE, GOING FOR THE KILL IS A NO-NO! YOU'LL BE DISQUALIFIED IMMEDIATELY! A TRUE HERO'S FISTS ONLY STARTS TO FLY FOR REAL, WHEN BARED AGAINST A VILLAIN!"
He finished the speech with a resounding and piercing "YEEEEAAAHHH!" which made Izuku and Venom both Vince in pain.
-We hate that guy so much.-
Shinsou for his part just kept up the stoic act.
"I give up huh?"
Izuku almost answered by force of habit, but he remembered just in time and kept his mouth shut
"Get Izuku Midoriya? This battle is going to test your strength of will."
-Actually, it's going to test our force of arms. Which against this guy is gonna be a piece of chocolate cake.-
"If you've got any kind of vision for the future, there's no sense in worrying about how you get there."
"NOW, LET'S GET THIS THING STARTED!"
"Like that damned Monkey babbling about his sense of pride."
A jolt of anger shot through Izuku's mind. Not just from the way Shinsou described Ojiro's decision to forfeit, but also the very old, anti-quirk way he did it.
"READYYYYYYY!"
"What kind of dumbass throws away a chance like this?"
"START!!!"
Izuku moved forward. Stupidly though, anger made him shout back. He just wasn't the kind of guy who could keep his mouth shut in situations like this.
"THE HELL DID YOU SAY?"
He froze. His body completely froze up, and his consciousness seemed to stop completely.
Inside of his mind, Venom sighed loudly, and theatrically.
-Seriously man? Holy shit, you would never survive in this world if it wasn't for us.-
"It's my win." Shinsou said, calmly and stoically.
There was some other sound in the distant, distant background, but he didn't hear it. The only things he heard… Was Venom and Shinsou.
They were the only things that mattered in the world.
"You… Must be nice to have everything handed to you, Izuku Midoriya."
The voice tried to be calm, but the bitterness seeped through, before regaining its calmness with the next line.
"Now turn around, and walk out of the ring."
He turned, obediently.
Then he began to walk. He got two steps before his feet were glued to the ground. He tried to walk, he really, really did.
Then, around his entire body, a black liquid encased him, not just his gym clothes and socks(He had ditched his shoes for the moment since one of them was ruined), but his entire body from toes to fingertips, to his head.
The old feeling he got when Venom's white eyes formed over his own, permeated, for some reason, it didn't immediately fade, instead lingering. Then his sight returned.
His hand went up in front of his face, seemingly just to get a good look at it as it splayed all his fingers outwards like he was painting a stone wall with an open hand.
He tried to do something, anything else, but as the hand suddenly clenched into a fist, it was like he had just become a prisoner inside of his own skull.
-Ah, no resistance at all. It's just like you've been knocked unconscious. Just without any potential brain damage.-
Down below, he felt a rip open where his mouth should have been.
Then, no more capable of resisting this new force, than he had been the words of Shinsou, he turned around, slowly and methodically.
Shinsou's face became a mixture between anger and surprise.
"How? You shouldn't have any control at all!"
...
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