Above the entrance were large, red English letters spelling out two words that were innocent on their own, but taken together had a far different meaning.
Love Hotel.
...
He wanted to Die from shame.
It wasn't before Venom made some crack about it that he finally woke up, and got a move on.
This time with open eyes.
He had had enough of this kind of training at the moment.
---
As Izuku moved down the street, hearing the sounds of shops all around, he desperately tried to forget what had just happened.
Instead, he just wanted to find Uraraka, and do something fun, hang out, do whatever. Anything to take his mind off of what had just happened, and the fact that if he wanted to actually master these powers, he'd have to open himself up again to all emotions around him.
Instead, he tried to focus on everything around him.
After the whole invasion had happened, he'd spent the week at home, while helping out at home.
His mother had acted the way he would have expected her to do, with quite a lot of crying out of worry and gladness that he was okay.
It was another level of stress his mom didn't need on top of having to deal with work again.
There wasn't a day where she didn't come home with a stack of documents to review for her job.
Izuku had done what he could to help her out this week, but he could tell that what was at her mind wasn't her work, but rather him, or rather the thought of him going back to school.
There wasn't really much he could do about that. He had no idea how to make his mom feel better about this whole mess. At the very least, she had been really, really happy when he told her he was heading out to meet some friends.
OK, so that was an understatement. She'd almost cried from joy when he told her.
She was way, way too enthusiastic about the fact Izuku actually had friends.
In any case, Uraraka had invited him to hang out at an arcade, along with some other of their classmates.
Izuku, having come to the agreed-upon place 2 hours early just to be safe, had hung around awkwardly at the entrance for a while, just chatting with Venom, before the alien had suggested they spend the time they had left training their senses.
Now, there was half an hour left, so as Izuku once more saw Portgas Arcade, he had expected to have to wait a while yet, for the rest to show up.
As it was, however, he was greeted by the enthusiastic call of Mina, where the pink girl stood alongside Uraraka and Tenya, waving at him.
Uraraka was dressed in the same outfit she had worn during the entrance exam, black training pants, and a jacket with a black t-shirt under it.
Tenya, showcasing what kind of guy he was, was dressed in an outfit that looked more like an off duty salaryman than a teenager out on the town with his friends, wearing a set of perfectly pressed blue jeans, and buttoned-up white collar shirt that just seem didn't complete without a business jacket covering it.
Mina, on the other hand, wore an outfit that made Izuku immediately blush once more, something the pink girl seemed to have a talent for making him do.
Mina wore a set of jeans with legs cut so that they were effectively shorts, showcasing her very toned legs in great detail all the way down to her shoes. Over her upper body, she wore a black t-shirt with the words, Acid-Cat, written in pink English letters. Back behind her neck she had taken her enormous poofy mane, and fastened it in a ponytail, giving the rest of her hair an appearance not too dissimilar to Izuku's hair.
Izuku came to a complete halt, then, after a second of being mentally and physically frozen, he forced his body to move.
His cheeks were still quite red, as he timidly waved his hand back at the three.
Thankfully, it was Tenya who stepped forward to greet him.
"Midoriya! I am glad you are well my friend!" As he talked he motioned towards Izuku, both his hands extended towards him, and hands straight forward, like he was karate chopping the air.
"Y-You guys are a bit early…"
"Indeed! I met up with Uraraka-san half an hour or so ago, and we found Ashido-San here already! How great luck that we are all here before schedule!"
Isuku nodded, the heat in his cheeks fading out slowly.
"So, what games are we gonna play first? We ain't playing music games if that's what you've planned."
Venom asked as he popped up from Izuku's shoulder. He hadn't exactly been thrilled about it and had made it clear he'd much rather they stayed at home watching movies(Or rather he watched them, Izuku didn't usually join him at the couch.), but Izuku doubted he would mind.
Uraraka and Mina both looked puzzled, Mina tilting her head before Uraraka responded.
"Ummm… NoT really, but… Why not?"
"We… We're hypersensitive to loud sounds. It hurts like hell above a certain volume." Izuku explained.
"Whaaat?" Mina said the normally cheery girl got a comically horrified look in her face. "But we were gonna head to a karaoke bar later.".
Izuku, suddenly feeling very awkward, could simply apologize for him not being able to participate at said activity.
Mina pouted for a second, then she immediately changed into a more sad look.
"Well, then we'll just have to find something else we can all do!"
Her cheerful smile returned.
"Anyway, right now we're gonna play some games!" She motioned for them to follow, as she turned and walked inside Portgas Arcade.
"Uraraka asked me to find a team game 4 people could play, and I've got several. So, what do you guys want? Beat em ups, shooter, or tank games?" As she walked, she turned around, and as she walked backwards, motioned towards each game in question.
She was obviously well familiar with the place.
Izuku being Izuku, wanted to ask if they had any hero themed games, but he held it in, given his experience with gaming was almost exclusively with phone games, whereas he guessed the rest of the group had some more familiarity with this kinda thing.
He knew pretty much none of the genres Mina had just brought up, other than the basic concepts.
Tenya stroked his chin. "I would prefer the shooter game personally, what about you two?" He looked at Izuku and Uraraka.
"Sure we can go with that!" Uraraka said with a grin, then she turned towards Izuku, what do you think?"
"Um… Okay," Izuku said, feeling kinda awkward.
"Sweet!" Mina said with a pearly white grin, then she walked over to a console, where there were two sets of screens, one set on each side of the console.
Pulling out some coins, Mina inserted coins inside, and some green numbers appeared on what had been a blank black screen on the side.
With each coin, the number went higher, until it was 20.00.
"Alright, then we have 20 minutes. Should be plenty of time for us to have a great time!"
She flashed them a mischievous and kinda smug grin.
"Let's see if you can beat the queen of this arcade!"
Then she went over to one side. Izuku, not really knowing what he was supposed to do, felt relief when Uraraka grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him over to the other side, opposite Mina, while Tenya went to the other side joining Mina.
"Ever played this kinda game before Izuku?"
".... No."
She looked over at him, worry across her face for a moment, then her face shifted into an encouraging smile.
"Eh, it's not too hard to learn. You move with the joystick, Fire with the gun, which is kinda self-explanatory, and you reload with the red button at the side. Just don't loadout in the open, you're a sitting duck when you reload."
The gun in question was a plastic gun, connected to a small handheld joystick. It also had a wire connecting it to the machine, presumably to power both the gun and the joystick.
As he held it, feeling incredibly awkward, Izuku mentally compared the gun in his hand for the ones that his enemies had used.
No… There was no comparison. This thing was a toy, a thing of plastic, which couldn't be used to harm anyone. Nothing like the guns that had almost killed him back around the new year.
Then suddenly he was snapped awake as the screen lit up, and he was dropped off in a first-person perspective. The words "Eliminate the Red faction" flashed over the screen, then the game started.
He found himself in some Aztec like ruin, the only part of his character he actually saw was the gun that went where he pointed it.
At his side, Uraraka was playing on her own screen, having started by a waterfall, which he had absolutely no idea where it was in relation to him.
One thing he learned was that his character felt… Off. Maybe he was just growing too used to his own speed, but the game had this weird relation with how you moved in regards to the almost twitchy way you turned around.
You moved at an average pace, but you had to be careful with how you turned, cause if you moved the gun too quickly around, you'd completely lose control, due to how twitchy and sensitive the camera was.
He learned that quickly the first time Mina ambushed him from behind.
As the screen flashed red, he desperately tried to turn and fight back, only for the camera to disorient him, so out of his 4 shot, only one hit.
As he died, and the extra life counter flashed down, Mina let out a "YESS!"
As he continued playing, he very quickly learned that Mina hadn't exaggerated how good she was at this game.
Whereas both Him, Uraraka, and Tenya were affected by the disorienting camera turns, Mina instead seemed to thrive on them, having no difficulty fighting back even as she turned.
This made her very hard to handle in an all-around gunfight, but the fact her playstyle was incredibly hyper-aggressive style also meant that if Izuku saw her coming, he could position himself well enough to down her, despite her reflexes.
Still, despite that, when the 20 minutes were up, he had lost 9 of his 10 lives, while Mina had only died 2 times. Uraraka had died 6 times, while Tenya had lost all of his.
Despite losing, the game was pretty fun, especially at the end, where he had figured out the places to hide and wait for his enemies.
Tenya in particular had been incredibly easy to ambush.
...
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