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.
...
As Mina celebrated her victory, the scores from the game flashed over the screen. Then, a short while later, the top scores of the cabinet's history replaced it.
All 10 top spots were claimed by some guy named, the SuperiorParker. Not even Mina's score had reached his.
...
3 hours later, they had finally gone through all the team games, the arcade had to offer, and wanting a break, they had headed to a nearby McDonald's.
As they walked, Izuku gently clapped Tenya on the back.
The taller boy was in quite a funk, having proved himself absolutely abysmal in every game they'd played.
As they entered the Macdonalds, it was, as one could expect absolutely full, so it took 10 minutes just to get to take their order.
Mina had declared she would pay for all of them, which was just fine with Izuku, not having all that much extra cash to spend.
In the end, he took one of the larger burgers, along with a chocolate milkshake.
Tenya also took a simple meal, but Mina and Uraraka both ordered 3 massive burgers.
Izuku had gotten used to Uraraka's massive appetite but was a bit surprised that Mina ate just as much.
"So, we assume you've frequented the Portgas Arcade for quite a while, Mina?" Venom asked as they sat down, to enjoy their milkshakes, though Izuku let his remain untouched, instead wanting to save it so he could enjoy it together with the food.
Mina, who was slurping down her milkshake looked up, then answered.
"Yeah, I've been going here with my bro, since I was 9." A grin found it's way back on her face. "Been around ever since."
"Your bro?" Izuku asked, just realizing he didn't really know much about Mina's family.
"Yeah, my big brother. We used to come here all the time to compete before he started working."
"I… I've never heard of him, what agency does he work at?"
Mina burst out laughing.
"He's not a hero Midori. He makes a living by gambling on the stock market."
"Oh."
Suddenly he felt like a complete moron. Of course, being a pro hero's son didn't mean you would necessarily follow in her footsteps.
Tenya, apparently had similar thoughts.
"So, he isn't part of the family business?"
"Nope. Not that mom would have taken him in, even if he had managed to get into a hero academy, but he got crushed at the Yuei entrance exam, and didn't try another school."
Izuku stared, and so did the other two.
"Black cat- I mean, your mom wouldn't have taken him in?"
"Nope. She's been pretty clear she has no interest in taking any of us in as sidekicks. She wants us to just forget about that stage entirely, and just go straight out from the academy as full heroes."
Following that, a silence followed, only interrupted by slurping from her table, and the indescribable chatter from the other people in the establishment.
"That's… rather unorthodox of her." Tenya said all slowly.
"What's wrong with being unorthodox? Tons of the really big heroes jumped straight out into the game without bothering spending so much as a year as sidekicks. Mom, Hawks, even All Might. All of them did amazingly well without ever being sidekicks."
"Still, there is nothing wrong being a sidekick." Tenya argued, the insinuation seemingly having woken real annoyance in him.
"My brother has 65 Sidekicks, each of them, a hero in their own right."
"Yeah, and my mom has 27. I never said there wasn't anything wrong with being a sidekick Iida, just that I'm not planning on being one."
Tenya seems to want to say something more, but Izuku interrupted.
"27? I thought she only had 25?"
Mina turned her face towards Izuku, though he didn't instantly flush over as their eyes met this time. That was a good improvement.
"Yeah, she hired on a couple more heroes after the invasion."
"Really? What's their names?" He asked eagerly."
"I… Don't really know Midori, I haven't met either of them. I know they're gonna be using our "silk" though. Dad's been working on two new sets of wrist launchers."
Izuku and Iida, both familiar with what she was talking about didn't need clarification, but Uraraka apparently had no idea what she was talking about.
"Wrist launchers? Silk?" She asked, a curious expression on her face.
"Black Cat uses a kind of white, sticky substance to travel around cities, and in fights. She launches them from these devices around her wrists, forming incredibly long and strong lines, easily capable of holding up human beings." Izuku explained enthusiastically.
"WOW. And that's not related to her quirk at all?"
"Not at all." Mina answered in a proud tone. "My dad invented the stuff a bit after my big bro was born. It's pretty much his one and only claim to fame."
She made a face.
"He pretty much devoted his entire life to the stuff. You should see the lab he's got for it, under the house. Actually, you know what, you can see for yourself, I'll show you next time you're at my place!"
As Mina kept talking, their food was finally finished, and Tenya went to go pick it all up.
Izuku, instead sat back, and just listened to Mina tell Uraraka about how her dad had tried to adapt the stuff for all kinds of things, all without any success.
He had a subdued, but still fully visible smile on his face. Yep. He was getting better at this interacting with the opposite sex stuff.
He'd actually managed to talk to Mina without tripping over himself for the entire day. Even at the start, he hadn't made a fool of himself, despite how close he had come.
As Tenya sat down the food and divided out each person's meal, he was in the process of handing Izuku his, when he stopped, and just stared at Izuku.
Mina and Uraraka, both of whom had been about to eagerly dive into their respective meals, noticed him, then turned to look what he was staring at.
"Midoriya… Are you… Well..?
Izuku looked like he had just gotten high, and was in complete and total bliss, the way his eyes rolled up into his skull. It was an incredibly unfitting expression for anyone who was slurping on a milkshake.
Venom, who manifested on Izuku's shoulder, just made the whole scene worse, as he flat out looked like he was having an orgasm, the way he twisted around. His voice did not help dispel that notion.
"What… what is this Wonderous, WONDEROUS substance?"
"A… A chocolate Milkshake?" Uraraka said carefully, looking down on said brown milkshake like she wondered if mayhaps it was some darker substance in the container.
"Chocolate…? This… This is ADRENALINE GIVEN PHYSICAL FORM!!! It is HEAVEN incarnate!"
Mina, Tenya, and Uraraka just stared at the two of them, along with everyone around the nearby tables, having turned their head at Venom's voice and it's volume, and all of them were now watching the two of them sitting there in complete ecstasy. At least until Izuku had sucked up all the chocolate milkshake.
Then, he seemingly instantly realized it was empty, and his eyes shot downward in an annoyed look.
Then he stiffened, as his eyes went wide as he stared at the 3 of them. Whatever spell the chocolate had had on him seemingly broke, and reality asserted itself again.
...
Mina clapped Izuku gently on his back in a consoling manner, though her face was one of someone who had so much difficulty not bursting into laughter.
"I wanna die…"
The 4 of them had hastily taken all their food with them and had left the shop to find some other place to eat.
"It's all right Midoriya!" Iida said in a strong voice, with no hint of laughter.
"We all make mistakes and thusly and completely humiliate ourselves for all the world to see sometimes! Our lives do not come to an end from such moments!"
Izuku just buried his face in his hands even more.
"Well… Look at the bright side Izuku. At least now you know never to eat chocolate in public anymore."
"Yeah." Mina barely managed not to make her voice crack. "Imagine if you'd done that in the school cafeteria. Better it happened, here amongst friends."
It was a scene that had been so, so funny, that Mina had barely managed not to roll over laughing.
She was very, very glad she hadn't though. Midori was taking the whole thing really, really hard. The last thing he needed right now was for friends to laugh at his humiliation.
"You really never had chocolate before?"
"Not since… Me and Venom bonded…"
Ah, so it was due to Venom then.
Venom for his part had completely blown off the humiliation, and just wanted to know more about chocolate.
"So, this wonderous thing is a plant? Something one can grow?"
"Yeah, Cacao tree is used for all sorts of awesome things. Like Coffee."
"We must obtain a regular source of this material! AT ONCE! How much does a Cacao tree cost? What is required for it's well being?"
"Dude, you don't buy a whole tree. Chocolate is cheap, so is coffee. Don't you guys have that stuff at home?
"No, we do not! This is a grave error that must be corrected!
Izuku for his part just ignored Venom's outburst, and just kept his head in his hands.
He kept that up, as the rest of the 4 ate, and it wasn't before they were at the arcade again, that he finally managed to bring his hands down.
His face was still blood red, but his expression had calmed down a bit, now just looking kinda aimless.
Well, that wouldn't do at all.
"Hey, Midori." He turned his head to look at her. "Why don't you take some time out here and eat your meal, then you can join us when you're done okay?"
She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.
"We'll be over at the dark souls cabinet when you're, ready okay?."
Izuku stared at her, then nodded, taking the bag she offered him.
"Are… Are you sure that's the best thing to do?" Uraraka asked as they left him by the entrance.
"Yeah, he just needs some time alone. He'll be with us when he's ready."
---
All in all, Mina thought it had been a nice day, as she prepared to get back inside her room.
She'd had fun along with friends, and despite the rather awkward hiccup at the Macdonalds, Izuku had actually come and rejoined them of his own volition after some time alone. It wasn't THE best outing she had had, but it had been fun.
And tomorrow she would finally get to go back to school. And that would bring an end to this entire experience of being cooped up at home.
Yep. It was all going great.
The finale of the day was jumping in through her window, and since she always took off her shoes before jumping into her room, she wore absolutely nothing as she sailed in through her window and landed feet first on about a dozen Lego pieces Mana had thrown in through her window from the outside.
Yep, it had been a great, great day.
And would be even better when she got her hands on Mana.
...
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