Chapter 1: Chapter 1
(Heads-up, I'm very slightly aging most characters up to 18/19 so I can sleep better at night.)
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'Man, overseas flights suck.' The tall, blonde young man had to slouch a little to not bump his head on his way out of the plane. His chest-length hair whipped around his tanned face. 'Goddammit. I should've tied it up.' He hurried down the plane's ramp and into the airport proper, trying in vain to blow his hair out of his face. Once inside, he did in fact tie his hair up, his scaled face more visible than before. Around his right eye, there was a faint blue tinge to his scaly-textured skin. His whole body was, in fact, scaly. Just underneath his epidermis, is a whole layer of scales. His dermis, if you will. Subdermis? Doesn't matter. He rubbed his discolored, slitted right eye, scratched his small patch of chin stubble, and set off in search of his luggage with a translation book in hand. 'I know I wanted to get away from the bullshit, but damn, I should've actually prepared myself for the language barrier issue.'
Once he found his luggage, he began to look for his contact, but every sign he saw, anywhere, was in kanji, a script he did not, in any capacity, understand. He knew any pro hero or hero student worth their salt and pepper in Musutafu could speak and write English on top of their cultural language, but that didn't extend to civilians really. He was THOROUGHLY lost. It wasn't until he saw a tall, dark-skinned man facepalm and turn his sign around that he found his name written in relatively sloppy English. He blew a sigh of relief and weaved his way through the crowds to the sign. He glanced at the sky before looking back at his translation manual. "Kon… Konnichiwa?"
The dark-skinned man laughed and lowered his sign. "I speak English, you're okay." The blonde teen visibly relaxed.
"Oh thank god. I'm really trying here, man. But I'm so lost." The man laughed at him again.
"Understandable. Mr. Slater, correct?" The man asked, making sure the teen was who he was here for.
Venn nodded. "Yes, that's me. Where am I staying at again? I've got a serious case of jet lag, I don't remember."
The man, whose nametag said "Kishigawa", gestured to the waiting car. "I'll explain on the way. Just don't fall asleep in the car, young man." Venn snorted lightly and rolled his heterochromatic eyes, throwing his 6'4" frame into the back seat of the waiting car. Kishigawa put Venn's luggage in the trunk before sitting in the driver seat of the taxi. "From what I gather, you'll be staying at the home of a family who offered to take you in as part of a cross-pacific exchange program of sorts."
Venn nodded, massaging his temple. "Ok great. Anybody of note?"
The driver shrugged. "No, not to my knowledge. If it was the home of a pro hero, you'd probably already know."
Venn shrugged. "Alright then." He checked his phone. 'I've got a week and a half before the entrance exams. I can use the half to get adjusted and get the jet lag out of my system, and then the week left over to try to familiarize myself with the city.' He put his phone away and laid his head back to just sit in his head for a bit. He'd gone through with the exchange partly out of necessity. Getting away from his dad's despicable company, getting away from his delusionally-hurt mom, and taking his dad's blood money for his own to use for better things, it was all just… a lot. So he got away. Not that he had a whole lot of choice, considering his mom kicked him out cus he reminded her of his dad, but still. He was kicking himself for not remembering the language barrier issue. 'Fuck, I need a drink.' Not that he was physically able to get drunk, but still.
He hefted his head back up when Kishigawa stopped driving and changed gears to "park". Venn begrudgingly pulled himself out of the back seats, taking his suitcase and guitar case in his hands. Kishigawa grabbed the bigger case, holding Venn's keyboard. He wanted to leave his family and past behind, but he'd be damned if he left his music behind. He set his guitar case next to the front door they'd pulled up in front of and knocked three times, uniformly. "Coming! One second!" Venn stood for a second, his bulging suitcase on his shoulder. The door opened, and Venn was greeted by a heavyset-ish woman with long, green hair. "Oh! You're here. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh, let me get Izuku to help carry your things." She stepped back and angled her head into a hallway. "IZUKU! HELP OUR GUEST CARRY HIS THINGS IN!" She and Izuku had both taken the time to learn English: Izuku out of his obsession with All-Might, who went to America in his youth, and his mother because Venn was moving in for a while.
Venn was greeted by another greenette, this one a young teen, significantly shorter than Venn's 6'4" frame, possibly 5 inches shorter. That being said, this greenette, to any human's eyes, was clearly buff, and he looked like he spent 40 hours a week working out.
"Oh, he's here? Great!" Izuku slid past Venn and took the keyboard from Kishigawa, who promptly left in his taxi.
Venn followed the woman with his suitcase and guitar in tow, bending slightly at the knees to keep his suitcase from bumping the top of the doorway. He was led to a guest room, pretty normally furnished. There was a good size bed, a nightstand, a dresser, a closet, a bathroom right outside the room, a body-length mirror on the closet door, and a decent chunk of unused space. Venn spent a few minutes putting his guitar on a stand in a free corner and his keyboard against the wall. He set his suitcase against the dresser, rolling it across the hardwood flooring. He rolled his shoulders and left his room to meet his hosts.
"Ooookay, all set up. Just have to empty my suitcase tonight into the dressers and all that. What are your na-" Venn stopped himself, finding the short greenette boy, Izuku, nearly bursting at the seams in excitement. 'Oh no. He knows who I am. Shittttttttt.'
Exactly as Venn feared, the greenette boy stretched a hand out and shook Venn's. It felt like the boy was gonna rip Venn's arm off. "Oh gosh, you're Venn Slater! I saw reports about you from the U.S. Do you really have a snake form? I assume so, looking at your skin and your right eye. Do you shed your skin? Is your tongue forked?" Izuku continued with questions like this for a minute and a half.
Venn sweatdropped, finally putting up a hand. "Please, please, please stop. I am severely jetlagged right now." Izuku stopped himself short and flushed red in embarrassment. 'He knows who I am, but not for the right reasons. Even worse shittttttttt.' "I do shed my skin once a month. Twice if I push myself too hard." He sighed and opened his mouth. His tongue was indeed forked, but not in the way that people get body mods to just have two halves of a tongue. Venn had a full-on snake tongue, the two sides running along the inside of his cheeks and lower jaw. Compared to the normal human tongue, not only was the forked aspect different, but overall, his tongue was about 3 inches longer than the average tongue. But when inside his mouth, his tongue begins much further back than a normal humans, leaving better room for his tongue to recede so as not to garble his words. His tongue flicked lightly, gathering chemical signatures from the molecules in the air. 'Oh… they're cooking dinner. I'm gonna feel bad here in a minute.'
Izuku's eyes lit up. "Wow! So cool! I wonder how this affects your diet and senses. Do you taste the air? Smell the air? Whatever snake tongues do, I guess." Venn stopped his rambling with a pleading hand. "Erm… sorry. Ah, we're making dinner, if you want to join us?"
Izuku's mother, Inko, piped in here. "Yes, won't you? You must've had a long flight. You must be hungry."
Venn visibly winced. "Yeahhhh, ah, about that. Ummm, if it's any form of cooked meat, I can't." Izuku and Inko tilted their heads, not expecting a snakeman to be a vegetarian. He saw that in their eyes and was quick to squash it. "Nonono, I'm not a vegetarian. I just…" His forked tongue flicked out to wet his lips. "I can't eat cooked meat. It makes me seriously sick. Raw meat is what my protein intake consists of." Izuku and Inko gave incredulous looks. "I uh, I mainly eat sushi and raw fish, so as not to be overly strange." He scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry, I would've hoped that the government would've told you, but I suppose they left that out."
Inko retreated quickly from the conversation back to the kitchen, where he heard rustling and frantic scrambling. Izuku sighed. "That's okay, we can uh, we can make that work." He gave Venn a slightly nervous look. A few moments later, Inko came barreling into the dining room with a can of soda and a plate. Upon said plate, was a healthy serving of sushi rice, a carpet of some form of hashbrown, probably daikon or something, and a long, fresh filet of some form of fish, doused in a plentiful mix of soy sauce, Japanese mustard, and a chili oil. On the side, a small blob of wasabi sat menacingly. Venn knew exactly what was in all of this, considering all he had to do was flick his tongue a little. He sped, at nearly breakneck speeds, to the table.
Inko and Izuku joined him at the table a moment later with their bowls of udon and beef, with sushi rice and the daikon hash. Inko spoke up, seeing Venn systematically destroy the fish with his chopsticks. "So ah, is it good?"
Venn glanced to his left at Inko, his cheeks full of fish. He put a finger up, chewed, swallowed, and then responded. "Oh, it's great! You didn't have to put together a whole piece of fish just for me, but thank you for doing so." He shook his head in bewilderment. "Actual, real, authentic Japanese cooking. I don't care if I have to spend 20 years with a language barrier, keep giving me food like this, and I'll learn sign language if I have to." He shoved a hefty piece of fish into his mouth and chased it with a hunk of rice, humming in satisfaction.
Inko giggled. "Well, I'm happy to hear that." She turned to Izuku. "So, nervous about the entrance exam?"
Izuku flinched a little. "Ah-ah, no, n-not really. A little?"
If Venn wore glasses, he'd be looking at Izuku over them. He didn't believe him for even a second. "Uh huh."
Dinner passed pretty normally. Generally speaking, just some small talk. Inko and Izuku weren't even done eating when Venn's head started drooping heavily. He quickly excused himself with a quick "good night" and vanished into his room. Quickly chucking things into drawers, he got dressed for bed, changing out of his black jeans, white jacket, and blue t-shirt, in exchange for blue sleep shorts and a black tank top.
He woke up late the next morning with a sigh, ripping through the dry cocoon of skin around him. Dammit, now? He balled up his shedded skin, pulling the dry and dead skin out of his clothes and into the heap. He peeked his head out the door of his room, saw nobody, and sprinted outside. He was quick to throw the skin into a dumpster and sprint back to his room. He sighed and gathered a change of clothes. As soon as he was able to, he hopped into the shower, washing away the musky, oily smell he always had on him after his monthly shed.
He left the bathroom in a pair of black jeans and a blue tank top, his black tennis shoes squeaking lightly on the hardwood flooring. His hair was brushed and combed over to his right side, covering his slitted, dark blue eye and draping onto his shoulder. A glint in his left, steel blue eye, appeared when the dining room came into his view. Inko, bless the woman, had left a plate of raw salmon with a plate of Japanese pancakes on the side, smothered in a strangely sweet miso sauce. I didn't know sweet miso was a thing. Awesome. He crammed breakfast down his throat, discretely chugged a mug of black coffee, and then left the house, a spare key in his hand that Inko handed him the night before right before he went to bed. He had a map in one pocket, his translation booklet in another, his wallet, and his phone. He stuck his key into his key pocket, staring at his map and his phone's gps to check to see what was where. He'd been wandering for about half the day, shooting a text to Izuku, whose number, along with Inko's, had been on the side of the fridge.
-I'll be back later, Izu.
-Ok.
Venn shrugged and kept walking, but he hadn't been paying attention to where he was walking. He turned a corner, his head down at his map, before a pink figure ran into him.
The pink girl had been on her evening jog, and because it was just freshly out of summer, it was still kinda hot outside, so she was running in thin, black jogging pants and a white tank top. She was swiping to a new song on her phone when she clashed with somebody.
Venn's map went flying, his hands dropping it to wrap around the figure who ran into him. He knew immediately that he was gonna fall and lose his balance, so he'd wrapped his hands in front of him so that whoever crashed into him didn't get hurt. Mina's phone ended up falling onto his chest and her earbuds popped out, laying uselessly along her arms.
When their respective flinches passed, they both took stock of where they were and what was happening. Venn's hair had flopped back behind him, both eyes on display on his scaled face. He was staring up into golden circles in a deep, inky black abyss. It was like twin black holes staring at him. His hands immediately detangled from her waist and his left hand hurriedly fumbled for his translation book.
Straddling the human wall she'd run into, the pink-haired teen stared down at the blonde teen. Her black hole eyes were drawn immediately to his slitted right eye and blue tint, and then the scaled texture to his arms, her hands gripping his toned and shaped biceps tightly for a moment.
Venn's eyes broke contact with hers, begrudgingly, and he began flipping through his translation book. "Uh, erm, I… k-konbanwa?" Just like his greeting to his taxi driver the day before, his pronunciation was tragic. Still, his broken greeting elicited a giggle from the pink girl straddling his waist.
"You don't have to do that." She laughed lightly. "I speak some English." She watched a wave of relief fall upon his face, as she finally realized how they'd fallen down. She scrambled off of his lap, snatching her phone off of his broad, clothed chest, her face flushed crimson red. "Oh god, sorry."
He was less red, but red nonetheless. "N-no, it's alright. Shit happens." He rolled to his feet and snatched his map, shoving it into its pocket and turned to her. 'Oh my god she's cute. And fucking TINY.' Compared to his 6'4" frame, he felt like he was looking directly, 90-degrees down. She must've been, what, 5'3? 5'4 if he was being generous? She only came up to his shoulder.
Mina was looking directly upwards at the teen in front of her, as he fixed his hair back over his eye. 'Dear lord, who is this guy? Please please PLEASE go to U.A.' Mina shook her head. "No no, I should've been paying attention to where I was going."
Venn shook his head. "That goes double then. I wasn't paying attention either." There was a still, stagnant, awkward moment, before he laughed nervously and put a hand out. "I mean, if we're gonna stand around for years and stare at each other, might as well exchange names. I'm Venn."
Mina blushed, seeing as she was, in fact, staring at him. "Uh, yeah, sure. Um," She shook his large hand with her small one. "Mina. I was just on my evening jog."
Venn nodded as his forked tongue flicked out a little, instinctively and not on his own choice. His senses were immediately assaulted by strawberry and vanilla, probably left over on his clothes from where she'd fallen on him. His re-hidden right eye rolled up into the back of his head at the sensory stimulation before it returned to normal function. 'Holy shit she smells good.' "Understandable. I'm just trying to get familiar with the city. Never been to Japan before." He scratched the back of his neck.
Mina's pupils dilated for a moment. "Oh god, then you need a guide. Maps don't do anything for new people here. Those paper maps haven't been updated in a long while. Come on, I need to get a smoothie after my run. I can get you something too if you want. Ya know, as apology for knocking you over." 'And straddling you for 2 and a half minutes for no reason.'
Venn smiled. "Sure! Walking around here by myself is a bit of a nightmare. I can't read a single damn sign." He had to consciously keep his tongue in his mouth now to keep himself functional. Snake senses can fuck you up, ya know?
Mina giggled. "That's okay, I can. I'll be your guide for the rest of the day." She moved past him and pressed a button on the light pole at the corner to cross the street into a more plaza-like area of Musutafu. He followed next to her but slightly behind, so as to actually be following. The booth/shop they stopped at was apparently Mina's favorite. He cocked his head and brought his translation book up in front of him to cross-reference to see what he was looking at on the menu. Mina slapped his arm. "You really don't have to do that, Venn. Just ask which is which, and I'll tell you."
He flushed slightly red and pocketed his translation book again. He was lucky the menu had pictures to the options. He put a finger to his chin as he thought. "Erm, what's that one?" He pointed up at a dull purple colored drink with what looked vaguely like a strawberry on top.
Mina smiled. "That's a grape, strawberry, and kabosu smoothie." She paused. "Kabosu is kind of like a lime, but also, absolutely nothing like a lime."
Venn paused. "O...kay? I'll get that."
Mina nodded happily and moved forward away from him to order. He heard her converse in what he could only assume was Japanese. He wasn't paying much attention. As soon as she'd pulled away from him, he was staring directly forward, no eye movement, no glancing around, no nothing. He would be a good boy.
Mina sat down at one of the outside tables and waved him over. She was still relatively sweaty from her jog, so sitting down was nice. Venn sat across from her and leaned back a little in his chair, enjoying the setting sun on his face. Mina leaned forward and put her elbows on the table. "So, Venn, you a tourist?"
Venn laughed. "You wish. No, I'm an exchange student." Mina's ears perked up. He smiled. "U.A."
She began bouncing in her seat in excitement… which was bad for his male hormones, because several things bounced along with her. He had to take a deep breath to calm himself. She smiled wide. "I'm going to U.A. too! Or, at least, I'll be in the entrance exams." She drew a circle on the table in front of her with her finger. 'YESSSSSSSS. Hell yeah!'
Venn laughed, crossing his arms behind his head. "Well, maybe we'll see each other there." They both heard Mina's name called, so they both got up to get their drinks. Mina got some sort of strawberry drink. It appeared to be strictly strawberry, as opposed to his more complicated drink. He took a sip of his drink and nodded. "Yeah, that's not bad." They sat back down at their table.
Mina's feet tapped quietly on the ground. "What's your quirk? Mine's acid."
Venn rose an eyebrow. "Erm… mine's a lot more complicated than just one word. Easiest way to summarize, is that I can turn into a snakeman."
Mina didn't know what that would look like, so she just shrugged. "Well, it sounds really cool. Maybe we can end up in the same class."
He shrugged. "Yeah, maybe. Just don't be too hurt when I show everybody up." He winked.
She blew a raspberry. "Yeah, sure. Keep dreaming, buster." They enjoyed their drinks in relatively comfortable silence from there on.
"Here, let me take that." He took her empty drink and his own and stood to throw them away. The trash can was a little far and behind his chair, but that was fine.
As he walked away, Mina bit her lip a little. 'Damn, his muscles have muscles. And that ASS.' She muffled a whistle after her quick glance and then pretended to pick at her nails. She was a good girl. Totally.
He came back with a slight smile on his face. "Okay, I'm probably gonna head back home. If I was familiar with the route, I'd walk you home, but I'm not, so uh… yeah." He scratched his cheek, feeling slightly awkward.
Mina laughed. "No no, it's fine. If anything, I better walk you home. I can take care of myself fine enough to walk home by myself."
Venn nodded. "Ok great, thanks. Not quite ready to cut my fun short just yet."
The walk back to Izuku's house was comfortable, if a little quiet. Venn didn't have a whole lot to say, so he generally just preferred comfortable silence. He answered some questions she asked, gave his opinion on things she asked for it on, and such, but nothing much beyond that. Until they were about half-way home.
"Hey, Mina?" She nodded. "What kind of music do you listen to?" His fingers fiddled with the hem of his tank top. He was wishing he'd snagged a thin jacket or something before he'd left in the morning.
She shrugged. "Meh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. If I can dance to it, it's a plus. Dancing is kinda my thing. But I generally listen to most genres."
Venn tilted his head back and forth in thought. "What about rock? Or hard rock?"
She shrugged again. "A little here and there. In rock music, I don't listen to any of the Japanese sung stuff. It just doesn't flow as well as the stuff sung in English. Even then, there's really only one band I listen to."
Venn hummed. "Really? Who? Rock is kinda my genre."
She smiled. "Really? I wouldn't have guessed." She snarked, sarcastically. "They haven't put new stuff out for a year or two since they disbanded, but their stuff is still like hard rock gospel to me. System Sapphire. I'm actually kinda sad they broke up."
Venn's breath hitched. We reached all the way to Japan? Damn. "Ah, Mina?"
She turned to look at him. "Yeah?"
"Do you know the name of the singer for System Sapphire?"
"Uhhh, something-something Slater. Why?"
He laughed, and put his hands on his knees, bending over for a second before he stood. "Wow this day would've been way different if you'd remembered it."
"Huh?" They'd just reached his door.
He put his key into the door and turned to her. "Hey, Mina, can I have your number? Ya know, cus I need to have somebody besides just Izuku to ask about signs and stuff." Still curious, she nodded and handed him her phone. He put in his number and typed his full name into the contact name and saved the contact before he actually turned off her screen "on accident". He faked a wince and handed it back. "Ah, whoops. I don't know your password, so here." He handed it back. "I'll text you if I need anything, Mina. See ya later!" He winked and shut the door after ruffling her silky-smooth mess of pink hair.
She'd walked maybe 30 feet away from his house before he realized she needed to text him so he had her number too. She was .3 seconds from doing so when she saw his full contact name.
~Venn Slater~
Her brain broke for a minute before both her brain, and her fingers on her keyboard said:
-NO FUCKING WAY-
Venn's text back was full of smugness, that she could somehow hear even from behind a keyboard.
~Way
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Drax152
Drax152 Hotdamn that was a fun chapter to write. Hope this was enjoyable! I'm writing the characters as actual, legitimate teenage college students. Cus ya know, hormones exist in reality. The idea for this fanfic has been in my brain for goddamn years, so I’m just finally pulling the trigger. Venn has been a character of my creation since 2015 or so. Somewhere there. His original story is in the Writer’s Block stage currently, but I know his full origin like the back of my hand to throw it in here and make it make some semblance of sense, though I’ll need to do some tweaks to fit it into MHA. I’ll answer reviews and questions and such freely. I’m releasing this on all platforms that I write on, and I’m deeply invested in making this a story that will pull and yank and utterly destroy your heartstrings from wholesome overload. But also the smut. But that won’t be happening for a very VERY long time. Probably after the camp arc. Mayyyyyybe during the festival arc, in which case it’ll be extremely tame, and very brief. This’ll also be only my second fic thus far that has VERY strictly a single love interest. Mina is waifu, and I will meet anyone behind the dumpster at midnight to “discuss”.
This chappie will only be about 4.5k words, but the norm (hopefully) is gonna be about 5k. Maybe more if I really get into what I’m writing.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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