"Indeed. Nepotism is a big part of these picks. They always have been." Aizawa said in his usual tone.
Kirishima looked really, really troubled by that answer, and Izuku looked over at Mina to see how she was handling the idea.
...
The pink girl, however, seemed completely non-faced by the idea, and just sat looking at Aizawa, waiting for him to continue.
"Now then, with that settled… Whether you were picked or not, you will still have the chance to work alongside pro heroes. Just not any high-ranking ones."
"Those who were not chosen by any pro will instead be given a list of lower-ranking or no-ranked heroes who have volunteered for the coming program to choose from. In any case… You lot have already experienced more than most, but… seeing the pro's in action, and more importantly, partaking part in hero work yourselves, will still be an important part of your education. That is where your hero names comes in. These ones will only be tentative, but you'll still want to pick something appropriate…"
"OR ELSE YOU'LL KNOW TRUE HELL!"
The new voice was loud, passionate, and energetic, and Izuku and all the rest of the class immediately recognized it as Midnight walked into the room, in a pose with her hands behind her head, giving everyone present a good look at her rather generous bust as she strutted into the room.
-Goody. More shouting.-
"THE NAME YOU KIDDO'S PICK NOW MIGHT VERY WELL END UP BEING THE NAME THAT THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL KNOWN YOU AS FOR THE REST OF. YOUR LIVES! THAT'S HAPPENED TO. PLENTY OF PRO'S OUT THERE!"
Aizawa, seeming rather nonplussed about the very loud fellow teacher who had walked into his classroom, continued.
"Yes, true enough. Midnight here will be assessing the sensibilities of the names you pick, as I am no good at that."
As he continued, Aizawa began folding out a sleeping bag he had seemingly been keeping in a drawer in his desk. As he spoke he turned uncharacteristically serious, as he looked up at them.
"What future do you see for yourselves? The name you choose will bring you ever closer to cementing a certain image… Because names are capable of reflecting one's true character… Like All Might."
Izuku looked up sharply at that, then glazed over at Uraraka, who took the words with a stoic calm.
"A codename huh? Well, this should be easy enough."
"Oh right, by the way, Midoriya, you are not allowed to call yourselves "Venom", nor anything related to any kind of poisons." Midnight, said cheerfully, as Aizawa promptly went over to a corner to set up his sleeping bag.
Izuku was about to reply, but Venom beat him to it.
"WHAT! WHY? VENOM IS A PERFECT NAME FOR ANY WARRIOR!"
"Mayhaps so, but poison-related names are terrible for any heroes, as the history of every single Japanese hero who called himself Venom, toxin or poison has proven. You're not allowed to use it, end of story kiddo."
As Midnight began handing out small boards that she explained would be used to present their names for the rest of the class after choosing it, Venom fumed inside Izuku's head.
-Our name doesn't even have anything to DO with POISONS! IT'S A FUCKING KLYNTAR NUMBER!-
"I know, but I don't think you're gonna be able to win her over with that argument. Especially since… You know. We can't actually explain it to her."
-Fine! We'll just go with SEVEN then.-
"There's already a Japanese pro hero who uses that name."
-Okay, just the numerical letter 7 then.-
"A hero family who uses the number 1-9 as names."
-Damnation! Okay, symbiosis!-
"It's a team name used by a married couple in Okaido."
-Okay, symbiote!-
"A hero in Okinawa."
"Black suit?
"A hero in Kochi."
Venom just gave up.
"Alien."
"Been used by 6 different guys over Japan's history, the most recent one being a 72-year-old hero in-" -Okay, fuck this, We don't care anymore. Find something yourself!-
And with that, Venom stopped talking to him, leaving Izuku to look down at his paper.
A name.
It felt so strange, trying to come up with a hero name. An actual hero name.
It was the same thing Rhino had asked him, only without the imminent threat of possible death looming over him.
And he was no closer to finding a name now than he was then.
If there was one thing Aizawa's speech had made very clear, it was that whatever he chose, the silly names he had made in his childhood as he fawned over All Might on TV would not do.
He had absolutely no idea what Uraraka would choose, but she and she alone here would be All Might's legacy. At least, that was the way Izuku saw it.
He tried thinking up something, something that wasn't related to Venom, something that would fit with HIM specifically. Something that related to anything he had done, or become since meeting Venom.
The minutes ticked away, as all around him, he heard scribbling, someone making a hmmm sound, Mina humming a cheerful tune.
After minutes of fruitless thinking, he decided to try something out. Just… write the first thing that could describe him or his powers.
Well, at least then, there was something that popped into his mind immediately, and he wrote it down.
Spider.
He nodded.
Then, beneath, he scribbled out an additional extension.
Black spider. Kurogakejigumo
It… Wasn't the best name in the world.
He tried saying it to himself, and ahead of him, Bakugou Katsuki actually turned in his seat and looked at him with complete disgust at the name.
Part of him wanted to use it just to spite Katsuki, but the more sane part of him prevailed.
It was awful.
In any case, he quickly crossed it out and tried something else.
Alien spider. Eiriansupaidā
Then he thought about it for two seconds and realized that if there was one thing he DIDN'T want, it was to suggest a connection between his "Quirk" and outer space.
Again, he crossed it out.
This time, he didn't immediately try and make something else work.
These names… They might work in the sense they conveyed what he wanted to say, but frankly, this line of naming just didn't lend itself well to good-sounding names.
He could probably have just gone with spider, Kumo, he supposed, except that that was already taken.
The various ways he could make Kumo Into something else just… didn't sound very good. Too long, too over complicated. And nothing really seemed to fit him.
Then, after quite a few minutes of thinking, the answer became obvious immediately.
He quickly crossed out Kumo.
And instead, just wrote the word Spider, in English letters.
Izuku wasn't the best English speaker in the world, but he understood one thing.
It was way easier to combine words with "Spider" to make them fit while sounding good.
He tried again the first name.
Black spider.
Well, it sounded way better in English at least, while anyone even passingly familiar with the name would probably recognize both words.
Then, making a mistake no one who was actually fluent in English would ever make, he thought that maybe "black spider" was perhaps too easy to confuse with "Black Widow" for comfort, and given his ban on anything to do with poisons, he resigned himself to drop the name.
That once again left him with just spider.
He tried a few names out.
Power spider.
Jumping spider.
Void spider.
He tried several more before he reached Mighty spider, and realized he'd actually named himself in reference to All Might, that he gave up.
Clearly putting something in front of spider wasn't working.
He tapped the surface with his pencil.
Then he thought of something. Hadn't Kirishima said something about a spider hero he resembled? Something… Spider and then…
He wrote it down.
Then he just sat there, considering the name.
Well, if this guy had been a hero from the very first generation of heroes as Kirishima had said, then assuming that no one else had used it, then… it would be a free name to use.
He… Kinda liked it. But… Was this really a name he wanted to be remembered for forever? Possibly long after his death?
It wasn't until midnight suddenly announced that time was up, and it was time to shine, that Izuku realized how much time he had spent trying to figure out a name.
He quickly thought on his feet and added a - In the middle of the name. That… That was how you spelled it right?
When Midnight asked for a volunteer to start, the task was quickly taken by Aoyama, who enthusiastically walked up to Aizawa's desk… and presented a name that Made Izuku's name feel well prepared and thought out.
"Shining Hero: I Cannot Stop Twinkling."
It was a whole goddamned sentence!
...
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