Chapter 10: Girl on Gang Violence
"Regular speech,"
"Flashback speech,"
'Inner dialogue,'
'Phone Text Chat'
"Are you sure you have to go," Ms. Midoriya asked as Himiko opened the apartment door.
"Sorry, I've got some important stuff I need to do, but I'll be back later when Izu comes home," Himiko smiled apologetically.
"Bye, momma," Eri pouted, forlorn at Himiko leaving.
Himiko crouched down and gave the girl a big hug. "I'll be back later with Papa, so don't be too upset!"
"O-Okay," the girl nodded, sniffling and wiping at her eyes.
Himiko softly smiled, rubbed the girl's head, and walked out of the apartment. She made her way to the other side of Musutafu.
Honestly, if she didn't need to do this, she wouldn't have left the apartment, but at this point, she had no other choice.
Most people didn't know it, and even some heroes weren't aware, but every city had its own center of activity for most of its criminals. She would be headed to the western edge of Musutafu today.
It was gradual, but anyone who could see the signs would know they had entered a seedier part of the city. Pristine and clean streets gave way to cracked roads and stained sidewalks that abounded with garbage.
Where you normally saw people walking about individually on the main streets, you would now commonly see people sticking in large groups. In a few cases, these were simply for protection, but most of them were, in actuality, independent gangs.
The only out-of-place sight to the residents of Western Musutafu was the smiling blonde girl skipping down the sidewalk, humming to herself.
"Hmm~ Hmm~ Hmm~" Himiko hummed, looking at the address on her phone again.
'It should be the next apartment building on the left,' Himiko skipped a few more feet, walking slowly along the apartment's walkway.
A group of men stood outside the building, all smoking and watching her approach.
"The fuck you want, kid?" One of the men with a beard barked at her, "We ain't babysitters!"
"Nah, I think she's looking for a good time, Daisuke," one man said to the first l who had called out to her. The man approached Himiko, throwing his arm around her shoulder.
As the man's arm wrapped around her shoulder, his hand grabbed for her breast, but Himiko immediately pulled out her knife in a flourish, severing his index finger. The smile on her face grew wider as the man screamed. He tried to pull away, but Himiko grabbed his wrist and watched the blood spurt out.
"The fuck!? Hey, psycho bitch, let go of Souta," Daisuke yelled, pointing a gun at her; as he did, Himiko jerked Souta's wrist to bring his body in front of her to block the gun.
"If ya wanna shoot me, you're gonna have to shoot your friend~," Himiko laughed in a sing-song voice.
The seconds stretched on, and the gun didn't fire, so Himiko pushed Souta forward, keeping him between her and the gun. Once they were within a few feet, Himiko shoved the de-fingered thug at his friend, and she ran to the side in a tight arc.
The gun fired, but that was just because of the man bumping into his friend, who fell over with a gunshot wound to the stomach.
"Y-You bitch you made me shoot S—" Before he could finish yelling, Himiko had stabbed the man in the Achilles tendon of his right leg and then severed his left tendon as well.
Her last move was pressimg her knife to his throat; her smile wide, showing the man her fangs, "which apartment are the rest of your buddies in?"
"T-Twenty-five."
"Any keys or passwords?"
"I-In my left pocket, I got the spare key."
"Good boy," Himiko smiled, took the knife away from his throat, and fished the keys out. She turned quickly, kicking the man so hard in the face that he tumbled down the steps, unconscious, along with his friend.
"Hmm~ Hmm~ Gonna make some money~," Himiko began humming again as she opened the entrance door to the apartment complex her knife held out at her side covered in blood.
"I swear it's only been two days, and you've already been in my office both days," Recovery Girl grouched, waving her cane dangerously at the groggy Izuku.
"S-Sorry," Izuku yawned. "It wasn't exactly my fault I got this hurt; my opponent didn't really care too much about hurting me."
"Then I'll have to recommend that you not be paired with that student to your teachers. Now you should be all better. Just be careful of the stress put on your right leg; it was nearly fractured." Izuku nodded, standing up and putting his weight on the leg experimentally. It was a bit stiff, but he'd be able to walk it off, heading back to ground Beta.
Ratty, that was the only way Himiko could describe the inside of the apartment building. There were piled-up bags of trash under the stairs, litter all over the hallways, and junkies in the halls—each shooting up various drugs that made her crinkle her nose in disgust.
Apartment twenty-five was on the third floor, and it had the cleanest corridors by far. It looked like the entire floor was occupied by whoever was supplying the people downstairs with drugs.
Himiko cracked her neck and stretched a little bit; there wasn't any way she was going to be able to go through an entire floor of bad guys if she wasn't limber.
She readied herself and unlocked the door.
"Did I make you wait," Izuku frowned at Yaoyorozu worriedly, trying to figure out how to look at her without getting flashed and turning extremely red.
"Not at all," she answered back, observing the screen attentively, "we're watching the fight between teams H and J."
Izuku studied the screen for only a moment before he started feeling very bad for Kirishima and Sero. They had been put up against Tokoyami and Asui. The battle wasn't going too well, to say the least. While Sero had put up multiple lines of his tape to create traps all around the building, it didn't look like Tokoyami's quirk Dark Shadow cared as he tore them apart.
When the heroes finally found the villains and the bomb, the villains opened up strong with even more trap tape between them and the heroes. But of course, it hadn't gone well when Asui started shattering the lights and strengthening Dark Shadow.
Kirishima could take a lot of punishment, but that didn't mean anything when Dark Shadow just started pushing him away instead of trying to overwhelm him.
Sero did his best to repel Asui, but she just had too much maneuverability indoors as she sprang from wall to wall.
Eventually, Asui pushed Sero close enough to where Kirishima and Dark Shadow were fighting so that the shadow creature could grab and restrain the two villains while Asui touched the bomb.
Izuku nodded, writing entries on the four in his newest notebook he'd started so he could analyze his classmates, "so it looks like Asui's quirk is well suited to cramped spaces for maneuverability and would most likely be very compatible with aquatic hero work. While I imagine Sero's would be ideal for city traversal and villain capture. If Tokoyami's quirk is strengthened when it's darker, would that mean the opposite is true with more light? What is the upper damage limit of Kirishima's hardening quirk?"
A light tap on his shoulder snapped Izuku out of his wandering thoughts. Looking up, he saw that it was Yaoyorozu, "you were mumbling to yourself."
He blushed, putting his notebook away, "T-thank you for telling me."
Once All Might had finished giving his breakdown of the fight between the two teams, he asked if Izuku and Yaoyorozu were ready to begin.
"Yes, sir," they both answered.
"Good! Then here are your communicators, and as usual, you'll be given a head start on preparations," All Might said, giving them both a thumbs up.
"I believe our best course of action is telling one another the specifics of our quirks and their limitations. Does that sound agreeable," Yaoyorozu asked, giving Izuku a very serious stare.
"O-Of course, my quirk i-is superpower; it allows me to stockpile energy and convert i-it into strength. I can't use my full power, though. I have too much stockpiled, and if I did use full power, then it would backfire and break my body. Kind of like w-what happened when I threw the softball the other day, but imagine broken bones instead of a torn muscle. Oh, If I use the amount of power my body can handle, I can augment my overall physical ability with that."
Yaoyorozu nodded, taking in Izuku's explanation of his quirk. "If it comes down to it, you'll have to be the main frontline attacker. Is that alright with you?"
"That suits me just fine; I might need some insulation against Kaminari, though. Close quarters and electricity quirks don't exactly mix," Izuku said, tapping his chin in thought.
"Well, hopefully, it won't come to that, but if it does, I can make you a set of rubber-insulated gloves. My quirk is creation, and I can create anything I can think of, so long as I have enough lipids in my body and know the object's molecular makeup."
Izuku beamed at the girl, forgetting his bashfulness at her costume, "Really!? That's an amazing quirk; like you said, it might not even come to a fight if you create steel bars to seal each entrance. Kaminari has an electrical quirk, and Jiro's quirk is just her headphone jacks, which I don't think can be used as a destructive force. But I don't like to just assume, so we should be ready just in case."
"Alright, then, we'll begin by sealing every door with a steel bar," Yaoyorozu nodded at Izuku, seeming to ready herself to begin creating; she turned slightly and unceremoniously opened her already-revealing top. Steel bars fell from her chest, but Izuku was entirely too busy panicking. "Hmm? What's wrong, Midoriya?"
"N-Nothing j-j-just keep doing w-what you're d-doing," he stuttered, looking away.
She shrugged and pilled up as many bars as possible, nodding when she was finally happy with the amount. "Here, you take half, and I'll take the other half. You cover one side, and I'll cover the other. If we seal every door, we can waste their time, and while I'm going, I can set up boobytraps to hinder them further."
"G-Good idea, I'll get s-started."
"Where the fuck is she!" Yelled a very frantic man as another person next to him went down, a warm liquid spraying him in the face.
"I can't see a fucking thing; the little bitch broke all the lights," Himiko threw a knife from the apartment's kitchen, embedding itself in the shouter's shoulder, making him fall. A quick, precise kick to the head sent him into unconsciousness.
A quirk flared up for a moment, the user's fists igniting, but that only served to turn him into a target that Himiko could launch another knife into the backs of his knees. He screamed in pain as Himiko ran past him, yanking the blades out.
In the seconds after the fire quirk was used, another thug caught sight of her and sent a hail of needle-like quills at her. The only thing that managed to do was help her incapacitate another thug, whom she used as cover from the needles.
She quickly launched two more knives at the shooter, the first one missing and only cutting his arm and the other embedding in his arm's joint, causing it to fall limply to his side.
He was quickly pounced upon, her knife cut into the other joint, and she viciously slammed his head onto the ground.
For a moment, the entire apartment complex was silent, save for the very injured people, and then a frantic screaming came from downstairs.
"Ooooh, all the little mice downstairs are scattering~," Himiko sang, causing the few people in the apartment, not unconscious but severely wounded, to shiver.
She approached the fire quirk user, who was still awake, and held her knife to his throat, "Now, I'm sure you keep your money and other valuables, you bad guys, get somewhere in here. So if ya don't want to get cut, tell me where."
"Fuck you," he spat.
"Mmm, no thanks. I've got a boyfriend, and I bet he's ten times better than you," she smiled, jamming her knife into his shoulder and twisting it, "so if you don't want the other arm stabbed, I'd start talking."
He hissed through his teeth, "I'm gonna fucking kill your little pussy boyfriend."
Himiko's faux smile dropped as she yanked her knife out and held it down to his crotch, "then how about I stab here?"
That got the man to blanch and start sweating in earnest, "I-It's in the bedroom, i-in the mattress!"
Himiko's predatory scowl made him tremble. She lifted her knife and brought it down savagely into the man's leg, barely missing his tender privates. Her cheerful smile returned as she left the man to bleed in pain and relief at not having his junk stabbed.
"Too small of a target anyway," Himiko shot back as she entered the bedroom and cut into the mattress.
She rummaged around in the thing for a moment before realizing it contained no individual packages but was just full of money.
"Ugh, dumb gangsters can't even put their money away neatly." She pulled out a handful and was at least a little pleased to see it was held together with money clips.
She got up and went back to the area she had incapacitated all of the men in and looked around for a bag. Thankfully, she found a large duffel bag, and she disgustedly emptied it of all the drugs it held inside before returning to the bedroom and stealing all of their money.
"Ah, I love what I do," she sighed, taking the now full-to-bursting bag and exiting the apartment.
"Well, that was easier than I expected," Izuku sighed as they unbarred their door and made their way down to the first floor.
Kaminari and Jiro looked very annoyed at the two of them as they had just now burst through one of the doors to get inside.
"Guys, what the hell," Kaminari complained, "we didn't even get into the building, let alone fight!"
"Well, to be fair," Jiro sighed, "it's not like we had any way to get in; I mean, my amps in my shoes can rupture eardrums, but they aren't powerful enough to destroy thick metal doors like this. The point was for them to protect the bomb, and they did."
"I know," Kaminari whined, "but I wanted to fight."
"Did you really," Jiro asked, looking at Izuku, "cause you saw the fight he had with Bakugou. Did you really wanna have to fight this guy?"
"W-Well, not really; I don't wanna get kicked in the head like Bakugou did," Kaminari shuddered.
"S-Sorry guys, Yaoyorozu seems to have an excellent utility quirk, and she's really smart, so we kinda had a huge advantage," Izuku laughed, scratching the back of his head.
All Might met all of them at the exit, praising the winners and encouraging the losers that they gave it their all and that it had just been a bad matchup.
They all returned to the control room to discuss their successes and faults in their actions, but there wasn't much to say since neither team had seen the other.
The final team battle was a bit more interesting than Izuku's and Yaoyarozu's had been. Both teams started fairly evenly, but it slowly grew one-sided.
It was Ashido and Aoyama against Koda and Sato. The fight had been relatively even, but Ashido's acid eventually wore down Sato's durability, and Koda didn't have too many animals in this scenario to command.
What was interesting was the way Ashido used her acid. Not only could she use it to melt, but she could also control its acidity to turn it into a jelly that she used to skate.
Izuku quickly filled out as many pages as possible for each classmate and sketched a rough outline of them and their costumes.
"That's rather good," Yaoyarozu complimented him.
"T-Thanks, it's kind of a hobby," he said, finishing the pattern on Ashido's costume.
"If it wouldn't be too much trouble when you finish your notes about my quirk, could you let me read through them? I've put a lot of thought into how I use my quirk, but you can grow nearsighted if you think all of your own answers are correct too often."
"S-Sure, if they'll help you, then no problem," Izuku nodded as he continued to write.
Thankfully, Heroic Basic Training was their last class for the day because Izuku was completely wiped out. He had just finished pulling off his now-tattered costume. It had taken quite a beating because of Kacchan, and now he would need to send it in for the support course to repair.
His slow trudge back to the classroom had made him lag behind a good majority of the class, who had already finished changing and run back to 1-A.
When Izuku opened the large door to the classroom, a flood of loud, excited voices made him flinch.
"Dude! That first throw and kick you gave Bakugou was awesome," Ashido said excitedly as she got very close to him.
"Uh, t-thanks," Izuku said, looking anywhere but at the girl.
"That was really manly how you stood your ground," Kirishima grinned, his sharp teeth gleaming.
"Do you dance any in your spare time," Ashido asked," cause you've got some crazy footwork!"
"U-Uh, no, but I went through a lot of training with Himiko to learn how to fight with my legs," Izuku answered, fidgeting under her stare.
"Oh, and who's Himiko? A girlfriend, maybe," she teased, not realizing she'd hit the nail on the head until Izuku turned bright red. "Whoa! Really? You have a girlfriend, Midoriya?!"
A few people in the class came over to join Ashido and asked about his girlfriend.
"Dude, seriously, how the heck do you have a girlfriend? No offense, but you're pretty plain," Kaminari said incredulously.
"W-Well, I knew Himiko when we were really little, and I helped her out cause her quirk is really inconvenient for her. And like ten months before the U.A. entrance exam, I met her again, and we started hanging out," Izuku explained, looking at Kaminari and Ashido, who were very interested in the topic
"You got a picture of her? I wanna see this girlfriend," Ashido grinned, testing to see if Izuku was lying.
"S-Sure," Izuku pulled his phone out and scrolled through a few pictures he and Himiko had taken together.
A few were ones she'd taken when watching him train, and she'd sent to him saying he looked funny in them. A few others were pictures of Eri doing various things he'd found cute, like the one of her drawing Himiko as a vampire. He finally found the perfect one, a picture he'd taken where Eri and Himiko had fallen asleep on him while sitting on the couch.
"Here you go," Izuku absently said, passing his phone to Ashido.
A sly grin fell from her face when she saw the picture, "dude! Your girlfriend is super cute! But who's the little girl with her?"
"Oh, that's Eri. It's a little complicated. All M- I mean, a hero, helped me save her from some people, and she's been living with us."
"Aw, you look like a family," Ashido cooed, not realizing how close she'd come to hitting the nail right on the head because of Himiko's hijinks.
"Dude, that is so unfair," Kaminari groaned.
Izuku laughed, continuing to talk with his classmates. It was weird that he could talk with other students like it was normal, while Bakugou had been the one to leave after class and go home.
Izuku had thought about following after him and talking. Still, he knew the boy would rather be taken hostage by another sludge villain than talk to Izuku after he had technically lost to him.
The urge to talk to him wasn't in any sense about Izuku feeling bad, but that he didn't want to be as uncaring as Kacchan himself had been about Izuku's emotions. He'd never forgive Kacchan for how he'd treated him, that was certain, but he was also a different person from Kacchan and couldn't ignore someone if they were clearly upset.
But then again, when was Kacchan not upset? He almost always yelled like he was annoyed; when he wasn't yelling out of annoyance, it was to threaten someone.
'He can take care of himself,' Izuku thought, watching Kacchan stomp through the U.A. gates with hunched shoulders. 'I'm going to go home to see Eri and Himiko.'
"And we just sat in the building until the time ran out," Izuku laughed to Himiko and his mom as he told them about the basic training he'd gone through today.
His mom had been distraught when she heard he had to fight Kacchan, but it went away when she heard how it had gone. He'd been hurt, but at least it wasn't too bad, and he had even won.
On the other hand, Himiko was very angry, "Let me beat him up, Izu! Just a little bit, I'll only break like one of his arms!"
"I don't think that's a good idea," Izuku laughed nervously, "you'd probably get arrested."
She mumbled at that but continued to eat while holding Izuku's hand. It had been frustrating not being able to spend time with Himiko because of school. He still enjoyed going to U.A., but he liked spending time with his girlfriend a bit more.
"Hey, Izu! Do you wanna come over to my apartment this weekend," she asked, surprising him.
"R-Really? Is that fine? Your parents won't mind?"
"I don't live with my parents, silly," she laughed.
Izuku had to register that for a moment, his face slowly growing redder by the second, "Y-you m-mean i-it would j-just be you a-and me?"
"Yep! We can stay here and keep Eri company until about the evening; then, we can go out and have some fun. And end the night at my place with some movies!"
That… sounded pretty innocent to Izuku. He was sure his girlfriend had some… other activities in mind for the day, but they hadn't done anything like that since the day they had saved Eri. And if he was being honest, Izuku could rarely get what had happened in the movie theatre out of his head when his mind wandered.
He thought about her giving him complete control over their kiss, the soft gasps as he bit into her shoulder, and the way she had shuddered against him as she climaxed.
"Izuku? Honey, are you okay?" his mom asked very worriedly. "You've got a funny grin on your face."
"Ah, yeah, I'm fine," Izuku panicked, fanning his face with his hands. "I-Is it alright with you if I spend time with H-Himiko, Mom?"
"You're a high schooler now, honey; I trust you'll be safe, but just in case, you should buy protection. You're getting to that age, and Himiko is a very pretty girl. We might have Eri, but I don't want any proper grandchildren until you're both old enough," his mom smiled at them both evilly and sweetly.
Both Himiko and Izuku's faces were bright red.
"R-Right," Izuku nodded, turning his gaze to his plate.
"We'll be careful," Himiko mumbled, pushing her food around.
Eri looked between the pair, confused at their bashfulness.
Chapter 11: Loving Bites
"Regular speech,"
"Flashback speech,"
'Inner dialogue,'
'Phone Text Chat'
Izuku and Himiko walked along the street, looking in and out of shops to see if anything caught their eye. While the date had been Himiko's idea, she hadn't prepared a plan for what they should do at all, aside from walking around the shopping district.
Izuku wore a blue and yellow All Might hoodie and a simple pair of blue jeans. Himiko wore an overly large cream-colored shirt that was basically a dress. The graphic on the shirt was a chibi tiger roaring.
When Izuku asked what they would be doing, Himiko said it would be more fun to look around and find something rather than go out to do something specific all day and then return to her apartment.
Izuku found their sporadic hopping from one shop to another to be pretty fun. "Where should we go next?" he asked, looking down at Himiko, who was very attached to his left arm.
"Let's go get some snacks for later at that corner store," she suggested, pointing to a convenience store on the right side of the road.
"Alright, that sounds good to me."
The pair made their way through the aisles for snacks they both enjoyed. Izuku found the brand of hot chocolate he liked, a bag of salted chips, and a package of cookies.
"Really," Himiko asked incredulously, "that's all you're going to get?"
"W-Well, I thought we could also order a pizza," he shrugged, "and I didn't need any cold drinks because I assumed you have some back at your apartment."
"Well, just bottled water," Himiko said, grabbing a couple of packages of sour candy, spicy potato chips, a few assorted bags of Kasugai gummies, and a ten-bag box of popcorn.
Izuku looked at her like she was crazy, "That should be fine. I'm keeping to the diet All Might made for me, but I can have a few cheat days. By the way, how do you stay so thin, Himiko? Especially if you eat so much junk food!"
She put her finger on her chin as they laid all of their collective snacks on the counter. "A lot of exercise and really good genes," she said.
Izuku shook his head as he paid, taking the bags from her when they left the convenience store, "so where now? It's still pretty light out."
Himiko put a finger to her chin, swaying her head left and right, thinking, "Maybe an arcade for a little while, and then we can head to my apartment. I know this place that's right around the block from my place!"
"Sounds good," Izuku smiled, Himiko taking his hand and leading the way.
They walked along, heading towards the train station near U.A. Thankfully, the arcade was just a few blocks away.
It was hard to miss; different people ran in and out, kids shouted, and parents tried to wrangle them. The giant neon sign above read "Musutafu Galaxy Arcade" in big red and blue letters.
"Have you been here before," Izuku asked, looking down at Himiko, her wide grin making him smile too.
"Nope! I just saw it when I moved in a little while back. I thought it'd be pretty fun going with you!"
"Just a heads up, I'm not too good at most arcade games other than the fighting games," Izuku admitted bashfully.
Himiko laughed, "That's fine; I'm only good at claw games. So let's try a bunch of stuff and have fun!"
She pulled him along, pointing and grinning at various machines; her buzzing energy reminded Izuku of little kids playing on a playground. The first machine she tugged him over to was, unsurprisingly, a claw machine with multiple plushies.
"So, you're just gonna gloat when I can't win anything?" Izuku asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
"You know me so well, Izu," she grinned. She put a few coins into the machine and bowed to Izuku, motioning for him to go ahead.
Izuku shook his head, stepped forward, and moved the control so that the claw jerked to life. Rhythmic, annoying music played as he concentrated on positioning the claw over a toy cat with yellow-slitted eyes that reminded him of Himiko's.
The claw dropped, opening directly on the stuffed animal's head, and for a moment, Izuku thought he'd done it perfectly. Then the stupid thing jerked upwards while closing on the head, and the claw just scraped against it and closed around nothing.
"Ugh! See, I'm awful at these," Izuku sighed.
Himiko giggled lightly, pushing him out of the way with her hip, and inserted a few more coins, "That's fine! Like I said, I'm great at these!"
Just like she promised, her hands moved fluidly to position the claw at an odd angle, dangling over an All Might plushie. The claw dropped in the same jerky fashion it had with him, but this time, when it jerked closed, it hooked under the All Might plushie's arms, and the bulk of the free space above was filled with the doll's head.
In amazement, Izuku watched the plushie rise and jerk to a stop at the top; the claw moved along the trail and dropped the toy into the open compartment.
Himiko bounced on her feet, celebrating animatedly. When her funny hopping simmered down to an excited wiggling, she held the toy out to Izuku, "You should put this in your room! It'll go with all the other All Might stuff you've got!"
Izuku blushed, taking the plushie, 'I thought I was supposed to be the one to win her something and give her a present.'
"Let's go over there," she pointed at a couple of fighting games, most of which were hero-themed.
Himiko pulled him along, placing her hands on his shoulders. She comically placed him in front of the player one slot and took a position next to him at the player two space.
The game was a newer machine, being so up-to-date that they actually featured heroes like Kamui Woods, Mt. Lady, and Death Arms.
Izuku's face lit up. He looked at Himiko as he deposited a few coins into the player's one and two spots. "This is so cool! This is the first game I've found that has this many recent heroes!"
"I knew you'd like it," Himiko winked at him, looking through the selection of heroes, but after a while, she groaned, "You can't pick Stain!"
"W-Why would you want to pick the hero killer!? He's a maniac," Izuku asked, frowning at her.
"Cause he's cool! Everyone loves an antihero; he only kills corrupt or fake heroes, and he doesn't just kill heroes; he also takes out some of the worse villains."
Izuku didn't agree with Stain's point of view, not entirely anyway. If a person wasn't necessarily doing hero work just because they wanted to save people, that didn't mean them being a hero wasn't just as valid.
However, he didn't have any excuses for people who blatantly abused their status as a hero for sheer personal gain at the expense of others. But that didn't mean they needed to be killed, stripped of their hero license, or put in prison if the offense was bad enough, but certainly not killed.
"Sorry, I just don't understand killing someone. At least not for any reason I can think of," Izuku shook his head, selecting Silver Age All Might.
"Sure you can," Himiko said, her voice serious but her smile not wavering. "What if someone killed your mom or Eri?"
Izuku froze, considering that, "T-that's not fair. That's completely different."
"How," she asked, puzzled, finally deciding on picking Edgeshot. "In this world, there aren't any guarantees that people we love can't or won't die. Our lives are short, and villains make them shorter, so it's important you know what you'll do if that happens."
Izuku frowned, thinking, 'What would I do?'
He didn't know what would've made him more horrified, a delayed answer or an immediate one, but he knew with certainty what he would do if any of the people close to him were hurt. He would save them, at risk to his own life, and if that failed… he would beat the person to within an inch of their life. Maybe he would take the leap and kill them, but he wouldn't know for sure unless it happened.
"I… don't know exactly what I would do," Izuku shakily answered, his eyes focused on the game they were playing. Himiko was winning, "but I know I wouldn't just sit by as someone I love is hurt; I'd save them if I could."
Izuku could see Himiko's head tilt to the side out of the corner of his eye, clearly curious about his answer, "And if you couldn't save them?"
Izuku turned his head to stare unblinkingly at Himiko, "I don't know about killing, but I wouldn't be gentle with whoever hurt you, Mom, or Eri."
Himiko turned her gaze from the screen, locking eyes with Izuku. The sharp, intense stare she gave him made his spine tingle, and not in the usual pleasant way it usually did when she looked at him, "I wouldn't hesitate to kill someone if they killed you, Eri, or Inko, no matter how much I know me killing them might upset you."
Izuku couldn't help but avert his gaze from her steady intensity. Their arcade fight game continued in silence for a long time until Himiko finally beat Izuku, and she cheered as if an intense silence hadn't fallen between them.
Her grin she sent him was back to its normal sharp-toothed carefreeness, and she grabbed hold of his hand, "Come on, I think we both lost interest in doing anything here. Let's go back to my apartment."
"Yeah," Izuku nodded, picking up the shopping bags from beside the arcade machine.
When Himiko said her apartment was close to the U.A. train station, she wasn't kidding. Her apartment was just a few blocks away. The outside was a large, fancy building that looked much more expensive than the one Izuku and his mom lived in.
"How the heck can you afford rent here," Izuku asked.
"Like I said, I'm a criminal, but I only attack bad guys; they've got a lot of money on them, so it pays well," Himiko laughed, tugging him toward the front door to the complex.
"Y-You should stop joking about that. It kinda stopped being funny a while ago," Izuku sighed, following her inside and up an elevator to the ninth floor.
"Alright, I'll stop talkin' about it," she laughed, walking over to room nine twenty-two, swiping a keycard. The door gave a quiet click and opened.
The interior was fairly bare. To the immediate right, Izuku could see a full bathroom with a toilet, sink, shower, and even a bathtub. Further down the hall, they entered the living room, which was conjoined to the kitchen. The hardwood floors were bare, save for a burgundy "U"-shaped sofa facing a decent-sized flatscreen TV.
"This place is big," Izuku marveled, looking around with his mouth agape.
Himiko giggled while walking over to the kitchen and taking the bags from Izuku. "I got a really good deal on it. I know the apartment complex manager, and he was happy to let me stay for a little less than most of the residents."
Izuku came over and got to work putting their snacks away, leaving a few bags of chips and a pair of water bottles out.
"So, what did you want to watch," Izuku asked, a small smile on his face as he sat on the couch.
"Let's watch a horror movie," she exclaimed, plopping down into his lap.
Izuku paled; he wasn't exactly fond of horror movies, even if the last one he had watched with Himiko was now a blur, "A-are you sure? I'm r-really bad with them."
Her wide, predatory grin made Izuku very nervous, "it's fine, Izu! We won't be watching it for too long."
Izuku's innocent mind didn't catch the double meaning as he beamed at her, "O-oh, thank god. Can I pick what we watch when you get bored with it? I've got a few in mind I bet y-you'd like."
Himiko flipped through a few channels with the TV remote, and as she did, they both started to lean back further and further until they were both lying down. Himiko lay on top of Izuku, her head resting on his chest, and a pillow was under Izuku's head.
She finally settled on a channel with a very retro-looking movie playing about some camp counselors going to camp to prepare for the summer. Obviously, things don't go well for the counselors, and before long, they start dying.
The movie wasn't as bad as the last one they had seen; the gore was pretty minimal, but what Izuku saw was relatively tame for what he assumed was Himiko's taste.
While he watched, Izuku cast a few nervous glances at Himiko. He wasn't exactly an idiot, and his mom had pretty much spelled out what they would probably be getting up to tonight, alone together. After a while, Himiko had pulled a blanket over them for warmth and began nibbling on Izuku's forearm every so often. It didn't hurt, but it was making him squirm a bit beneath her.
Izuku felt very red in the face as one of Himiko's sharper teeth nipped a bit at his arm, and her breasts pushed into his stomach, 'this is so nerve-wracking!'
Izuku turned his attention to the screen and quickly regretted it when he caught sight of a very explicit sex scene that made him yelp in surprise.
"What?" Himiko laughed, looking at him from her position on his chest, "getting embarrassed, Izu?"
Himiko lightly lifted herself and let her body glide forward a bit, brushing her breasts lightly along Izuku's torso. When she finally came face to face with him, she lay down softly, her breasts pressing into his chest, making Izuku blush ten times worse.
"Calm down, Izu; it's not like this is anything we haven't done before," Himiko purred, her tongue tracing along his neck and her soft lips leaving a trail of fire along with it.
"W-Well y-y-your b-b-b-breasts are k-kind of…" Izuku trailed off, not wanting to continue lest his entire body combust from the heat.
Himiko blinked at him, confused for a moment, before she looked down and grinned, pressing herself even closer to him, "What like this?"
Izuku could feel her every curve very vividly through the large shirt she was wearing, "y-yeah!"
While wide, Himiko's smile was highlighted by a lovely blush that made Izuku's heart race even faster. If that was even possible.
"Can I bite you a little," she asked, her fangs already halfway toward his shoulder in anticipation.
Izuku wasn't an idiot. If he let her bite him, this would almost definitely escalate, and there would be nothing to stop them once it did. They had barely controlled themselves in the movie theatre, if you could even call what they had done controlled, and in Himiko's apartment, they had no real reason to hold back.
Izuku paused momentarily, his breathing heavy and his eyes locking with Himiko's, her expectant but pleading eyes making his heart hammer all the harder. "G-go ahead," Izuku panted, tilting his head to the side, trying to lessen his blush with the cool back of his hand.
A searching tongue traced circles into Izuku's shoulder, making him shudder beneath Himiko. When she had finally been satisfied with all her teasing, her sharp fangs broke his skin. Izuku's arms wrapped around Himiko, his left hand combing through her golden blonde hair, and an odd thought passed through his head.
'What if I…'
Izuku, having full sight of the right side of Himiko's neck, lowered his head to her shoulder. He slowly opened his mouth, resting his own teeth on her soft, pale flesh, and then he bit lightly into her shoulder.
The contact made Izuku's body jolt as Himiko's hands snaked under his shirt. Their shared bite felt extremely personal in an odd way, somehow more than a kiss but less than sex.
As Himiko's own hands traced up and down his body, Izuku grew uncharacteristically bold, his own hands snaking down to feel the girl's butt.
To his shocked surprise, she wasn't wearing anything underneath her shirt aside from the knee-high socks she had been wearing.
Izuku quickly released his bite, eliciting a soft moan from the girl, "H-Himiko! Y-You're not w-wearing any u-u-underwear!"
She released her bite, thankfully very gently, and grinned at him, "I thought you'd like that, but a good time to tease you never came up. By the way, you know you're still coping a feel, right?"
Izuku looked at her, confused for a moment, until he realized his hand was still lightly gripping her butt, "Aaaah! I-I'm s-sorry! I d-d-didn't…"
His very frantic stuttering was cut short when Himiko pressed her lips against his; her tongue snaked into his mouth, mixing the sweet and tangy taste of peaches and blood.
It had taken him a while to get used to the taste of blood when Himiko bit him and then went right into a kiss, but not as long as he thought it would.
Their tongues caressed one another, and Izuku's previous stutter was forgotten as his hand moved again to Himiko's backside.
For her part, Himiko's hand traced downward, entering his pants to wrap around his very hard member gently.
Izuku gasped as Himiko squeezed lightly, his vision blurry with a familiar haze he'd felt in the movie theatre. Not thinking, Izuku allowed his hand to wander around the side of Himiko's leg where he had let his hand rest before.
Now, his hand was between them, much like Himiko's, and he allowed his fingers to brush lightly against a soft, moist opening between her legs. This time, it was her that moaned at the contact.
Izuku pressed further, the tip of his ring finger entering the warm insides of her body, making his assault on her mouth increase in intensity. He began to nip and suck at her lower lip and the sides of her jaw, making the girl pant heavily; all the while, his ring finger gently stroked her inner walls.
"Ishu," Himiko slurred as he left a trail of hickeys along her neck and jawline, his ring finger now up to the second joint inside of her.
Himiko's own hand frantically stroked and massaged his entire length, making his breath very ragged, "H-Himi-chan!"
Her hips began to rock against his hand, clearly feeling better and better by the second as they continued their frenzied kissing. A trail of red bruises began forming on Izuku's neck, but he didn't care at this point.
Their desperate and clumsy movements finally came to an end as Himiko shuddered, her thighs tightening in a death grip around Izuku's hand, making him go still as he put his free hand on the girl's head.
When her head lowered to his neck, he could feel her sink her teeth into his shoulder, much harder than she usually did, and his own legs coiled tightly in pleasure.
Thankfully, he hadn't released like Himiko had, but he had come extremely close. If the girl had had enough clarity to keep stroking him, then Izuku was sure he would have climaxed with her, but he wanted her to feel better than he had.
As she released Izuku's shoulder, he slowly retracted his hand, bringing it out from between them. For a moment, Izuku stared at his digit, and the girl looked at him, puzzled from her panting position as her head rested on his shoulder.
An image of Himiko licking her palm ran through Izuku's head, and looking at Himiko, he deliberately, slowly, placed his finger in his mouth, making the girl's face grow redder at the sight.
It tasted a bit salty but also had an underlying sweetness, but he didn't know if that was his own imagination or just a natural flavor. As he withdrew his finger, Himiko threw the blanket off of them, and she ran into a room he could see had a bed inside.
'Did I do something wrong?" Izuku worried, sitting up slowly, uncomfortably shifting with the bulge bending in his jeans.
Himiko quickly ran back, flipping the lights off and holding a box illuminated by the TV light, which made him blush deeply.
They were condoms.
Not wasting any time, Himiko tore the box open and placed it beside the couch as she started kissing Izuku again. Her hands lifted his hoodie over his head and threw the garment into a heap on the other side of the sofa.
Her hands caressed and gently scratched at his chest, quickly bringing him back into the mood.
He hesitantly brought his hands up and under her shirt to brush against her bare breast's underneath. Izuku had no idea why he was more hesitant with her chest than he had been between her legs, but his thumbs lightly brushing against her nipples made him very aroused at the little moan they elicited.
Himiko's hands lightly unbuttoned his jeans and fluidly removed them to join his hoodie. All that separated their most intimate parts was the thin material of Izuku's briefs and the long shirt Himiko still wore.
Izuku, having lost himself in his haze again, gently lowered Himiko below him and kissed her softly as his crotch brushed against her own. Izuku gently tugged at the sides of Himiko's shirt, lifting the fabric over her head, allowing him to see her fully naked for the first time.
Her normally sharklike grin was gone, and in its place was an embarrassed frown highlighted by her blush. Izuku's eyes traced along her full, supple thighs, her thin pink lower lips, the gentle, thin curve of her waist, and her firm, perfectly shaped breasts with dainty pink nipples.
"I love you," Izuku smiled, lowering his head to nibble on Himiko's neck, knowing it would make her squirm. He could feel her heavy breath against his neck as she left more hickeys.
Izuku pulled away and hooked his thumbs into his briefs to pull them off but hesitated for a moment, finally realizing the true gravity of the situation. If he continued, they would definitely have sex, and while he wanted to, he couldn't just assume Himiko would feel the exact same way. After all, maybe she would get scared at the last moment, so he just had to make sure.
"H-Himi-chan," Izuku panted, looking down at her, "a-are you sure?"
Himiko's soft smile reassured him as she reached down, plucking a condom from the box with one hand, and helped him take his underwear off with the other.
"You're the only person I want to do this with, Izu," she smiled, handing him the condom and kissing him lightly.
For a few seconds, Izuku fidgeted with the wrapper, his nerves almost making him tear it and the condom in half. Thankfully, he managed to get it open without damaging the condom; now, he flipped the rubbery piece in his hands, trying to find the right way to put it on.
Himiko giggled, pulling it away from him, "I watched a video just in case."
She flipped the condom over a few times, clearly as nervous as Izuku, but she quickly found the right way and slid the rubbery material along his shaft, making him twitch at her touch.
Izuku sighed as Himiko fell back, her arms to either side of her breasts, clearly wanting to cover them but not moving so Izuku could see.
He gulped, looking down to position himself where his ring finger had entered Himiko earlier, and when he was sure he had found the right spot, Izuku braced himself.
"I'm going in," he warned Himiko.
"G-Go a-ahead," she stammered uncharacteristically.
Izuku took a deep breath in and slid forward, his head slightly caught against her, the opening a bit too small for him, but then his head slid inside, and they both gasped at the sensation. Even with the condom, Izuku had to stop for a moment, lest he cum as soon as he had entered Himiko.
He wasn't exactly in a hurry to be a one-pump chump.
Himiko bit her lip, clearly in pain, "Are you okay?!"
"I-I'm fine; it just hurts a little. Just give me a second," she gasped, tears in her eyes.
"H-Himiko! You're about to cry! I'll take it out! I don't want to hurt you," Izuku panicked about to draw back until Himiko's legs wrapped around him, locking him in place.
"I'm not crying in pain, dummy; I'm happy." She laughed, bringing Izuku's head down and kissing him tenderly. When she drew her head back and smiled at him, "You can move now; it doesn't hurt anymore."
Izuku smiled fondly at her, nodding slightly. As he pushed further into her, Izuku could feel her insides squeezing him with tight, loving warmth.
A soft moan escaped both of their lips as Izuku fully entered Himiko, his weight now entirely resting on her as they both panted.
"I-I'm g-gonna m-move more," Izuku gasped in pleasure at the sensation of Himiko twitching around his member.
Slowly, agonizingly. Izuku drew back his hips, and just as slowly, he thrust forward, feeling the electrical shock shoot up his spine in pleasure. Himiko moaned into his shoulder, her hands tangled in his hair and her teeth sinking into the same spot she often bit.
This made Izuku moan as well, his pace quickening and his heart beating faster than he thought it ever could.
Izuku could barely think as Himiko's warm insides gripped him in a vice that only relented as he pulled out, and even then, he could feel her insides drawing him back. Izuku had no idea how he had ever gone so long without feeling this way with Himiko; this feeling was truly like they had become one.
They both felt pleasure, they both wanted nothing more than to stay this close to the other, and they both wanted this amazing feeling never to end.
Izuku ran his right hand along the curve of Himiko's butt and allowed his left to play with her breast. His quick, steady thrusts made the girl let go of his shoulder and moan in ecstasy.
Not missing an opportunity, Izuku lowered his head to her right nipple and started sucking on the soft, smooth bud.
A loud moan tore through the apartment, making Izuku pick up his thrusts.
"Ishu! I-I'm gonna c-cum, if you keep doing that," she yelled, slurring his nickname again, her voice ringing in his ears like a clear, beautiful bell.
He let go of her nipple, coming back up to kiss her, and grunted, "M-me too, Himi-chan! I'm at my limit! Let's cum together!"
As he thrust quicker and quicker, Himiko moaned louder, her walls tightening painfully around Izuku.
One final deep thrust sent them both over the edge, and Izuku released inside of the condom, fearful that it might break with how hard Himiko was gripping him. Her legs tightly wrapped around Izuku's waist, nearly crushing him to her as rope after rope deposited itself into the condom.
Finally, their shaking orgasms subsided, and Himiko gently released Izuku from her legs, allowing him to pull back.
Izuku pulled the condom from his member, carefully inspecting it and sighing when he saw no holes. He sat up, threw the spent condom into the trash can beside the couch, and lifted Himiko so she could lay on top of him. Both were still naked, but neither of them felt strong enough to stand and put their clothes back on.
"I love you," Himiko sighed, wrapping her arms around Izuku's waist in an embrace that he returned.
"I love you too," Izuku said, kissing the top of her head.
Himiko slid up a little, kissing Izuku with a methodical slowness that showed she wanted the contact to go on forever. Unfortunately, they needed air.
Izuku looked over to the TV and could see the credits of the movie going, "Sorry, looks like we missed it."
Himiko looked over, her cheek resting on his chest, "That's fine. We had way more fun than watching a movie."
Izuku laughed, "I'll say."
Himiko shifted beneath him, her lower lips lightly brushing his penis, making it jump and stiffen in excitement. Izuku's face grew red in embarrassment at the sharp grin she sent him.
"Wanna go again," she teased, wiggling her hips and sandwiching his member between her thighs.
"Y-Yeah," Izuku blushed, looking away from the girl, embarrassed.
"All right! Let's try to work through the whole box," Himiko giggled, holding the condoms up.
Izuku looked, blanching at the twenty-count box.
"One down, nineteen more to go," Himiko laughed.
Chapter 12: My Girlfriends a Vigilante? !
"Regular speech,"
"Flashback speech,"
'Inner dialogue,'
'Phone Text Chat'
Izuku was extremely tired; his entire body ached, and his blood flowed freely into the couch beneath him.
Himiko hadn't been as gentle the first time they had made love, and he was covered in small and large bites that bled. Thankfully, a small part of her quirk allowed blood to clot faster if she licked a wound, and that had stopped a lot of his bleeding. But she'd gotten a little carried away before she realized it.
The pseudo-vampire in question was sleeping peacefully on his chest, a content, bloody smile on her face.
They'd made love another four times before he could convince her he might die from blood loss before they got to a sixth round. At the time, she had reluctantly acquiesced, setting about licking his wounds and stopping the blood flow, but obviously, she'd gotten lazy and missed a few as he was still bleeding. Thankfully, it was only a tiny bit.
Then she had the nerve to fall asleep on top of him, pinning him in place. Of course, he didn't mind at the moment because he had also fallen asleep with her, but that quickly changed when he woke up sore and in dire need of the bathroom.
Now, he contemplated the repercussions of disturbing the girl from her content sleep.
'I think it's worth the risk. I can stand staining her couch with blood, but I'm not peeing myself,' Izuku shifted, moving Himiko gently to the side, a low mumbled groan coming from her lips, but she didn't wake thankfully.
Izuku padded lightly over to his hoodie and boxers, put them on, and then headed over to the bathroom. Lifting the seat, he sighed happily as his bladder released, and a satisfied shiver ran up his spine.
Izuku washed his hands and turned the bathroom light off, turning to rejoin Himiko, but quickly stopped when the doorbell gave a jingling ring.
'Ah, crap should I answer it,' Izuku looked through the peephole seeing a disheveled man with hair that looked like dirty snow, a purple suit, and sunglasses standing on the other side, 'it might be her landlord, so I can't just ignore him.'
Izuku gulped, unlocked the door, and swung it open to greet the man. "H-hi! Are you here for Himiko-chan?"
The man seemed taken aback at first, clearly put off by Izuku's state of undress, but he seemed to move on from that quickly enough. "Hey… kid. Yeah, I'm here for the blonde nut job. She wanted updates on… work. So, I'm here to pass on a couple of jobs for her. She said I should just send job stuff to her phone, but…"
"T-This one you've g-got is too important," Izuku reasoned.
"Right! Exactly, so is she here," he asked, trying to look around Izuku to see the inside of Himiko's apartment.
Izuku rubbed the back of his head, nodding, "Y-yeah, she's here, but she's kind of… asleep."
"Asleep? Then why the hell are you still here, kid? What are you, her boyfriend?"
Izuku's face turned bright red as he rubbed his arm, "K-kind of, yeah."
The man blinked for a second, clearly taken aback by that response, "damn, well, congrats, kid. Anyway, if she ain't up, give her this and tell her it's a once-in-a-lifetime job, so she'd be insane to miss it. Well, more insane than she already is."
The man passed Izuku a white envelope with no outside markings and then took a deep breath from the cigarette he'd lit while Izuku was studying it.
"What's your deal, kid?"
"H-Huh? W-What do you mean," Izuku asked, frowning as the man blew smoke out into the hallway.
"How do you know this crazy chick? You seem like a pretty good kid; I mean, at least you look normal. What, are you secretly a nutcase too?"
Izuku was about to indignantly and emphatically tell the man he was, in fact, not a nutcase.
But then Izuku paused. Now that he thought about it, he definitely couldn't be normal; he had attempted suicide, he let his girlfriend routinely drain blood from him, and he had never even thought to ask Himiko seriously what she did with her free time to afford the money to live in a place like this.
And now, in just a hoodie and boxers, he realized how little he had ever asked his girlfriend about herself. How she knew how to fight well enough to help train him, how she had told him on multiple occasions that she was a criminal, and now the shady man in front of him here to give Himiko an envelope with details about a "job".
'Holy shit, am I dating a supervillain,' Izuku started sweating, going very stiff as the man stared at him in confusion, "Oh crap! What did he ask? Right, he asked if I'm a nutcase!'
"N-No," Izuku blurted out, his voice cracking, "I'm uh… not a n-nutcase, at least I don't think I am."
"Well, here's my contact info if you decide you're actually crazy like your girlfriend," the man said, handing Izuku a card.
Looking down at the card, Izuku noticed it just gave the man's name and a simple email address, "Giran?"
"Yep, be sure to keep that if you ever end up needing a broker's services kid. Being an up-and-comer isn't easy, so it can hurt to have connections. I'll see ya around," the man waved, walking down the hall, the smoke from his cigarette trailing after him.
Izuku locked the door behind himself as he walked stiffly toward Himiko's sleeping figure. He placed the envelope down on the opposite side of the couch and then sat beside Himiko.
Her golden hair messily fell around her small pale face, and her small hands peeked out from under the blanket that was covering her. Seeing Himiko like this made it hard for Izuku to think she could even be involved in villain activity.
But he also couldn't forget the very brutal training sessions he'd had with the girl, her obsession with blood, namely her obsession with his own blood, and now the extremely shady guy who'd all but confessed he did business with villains.
'Who are you really, Himiko,' Izuku thought, brushing a few strands of hair from the girl's face.
"You gonna stare, or are you gonna get back under the covers with me," Himiko asked, grabbing hold of Izuku's hand and bringing it closer to her face.
The suddenness of her voice nearly made Izuku jump, but he suppressed the urge and smiled nervously at the girl. "Sorry, I had to use the bathroom. Then someone rang your doorbell, so I answered it. You've got a job offer, by the way," Izuku stuttered more than he had in a while, talking to Himiko as he gestured to the envelope on the other side of the couch.
Himiko frowned for a second, and then recognition crossed her face. She shot out from under the blanket and scooped up the envelope to look it over.
Izuku stared for a few seconds, his eyes drawn to Himiko's soft shapely butt, the gentle curve of her hips, and the swell of her breasts. Then he realized what he was doing and looked away sharply.
Himiko tore the envelope open, looking at the contents inside. She apparently wasn't too concerned with her state of undress as she frowned while she read.
"W-What is it? A v-villain thing," Izuku asked, his voice holding a bit more accusation than he'd meant.
Himiko froze, her hands crumpling the paper a bit. She turned to look at Izuku with a guilty expression and a flood of tears coming to her face.
"I-I'm sorry, Izu. I wanted to tell you p-properly, b-but the time was always wrong," she sobbed, pressing the heels of her palms into her watering eyes.
Izuku had absolutely no idea how to treat the crying girl; he'd never seen her break down like this, not even when they faced the villain trying to take Eri.
Izuku rushed to put a hand on the girl's shoulder but paused with his hand outstretched, 'what if that was just an act? What if Himiko knew that guy and set the whole thing up as a way to get closer to me? Has all of this really been a big coincidence? I met Himiko right after I tried to kill myself, and on the exact same day, All Might decided to give me his power. Was it really all a coincidence?'
"I only ever want babies with you, Izu. I've thought about having some before we started dating, but I could only ever imagine you being my baby's papa." The memory of Himiko telling Izuku she'd only ever considered being with him, even so, many years after they'd met, was sweet in a way, but now it seemed distorted by his recent discoveries.
Izuku was seconds away from bolting out of the apartment, but then Himiko's tear-stained face and pleading opened arms made him freeze.
'Is it really that cut and dry? Even I didn't know I would meet All Might when I left for school that morning, let alone that I would be able to inherit One for All. And Himiko has been nothing but loving with Eri since we rescued her. And it's not exactly like she didn't say what she was doing; I'm the idiot who didn't believe her.'
Swallowing nervously, Izuku approached Himiko and embraced the girl as she wept into his shoulder. He reached over to the couch, wrapping the blanket around them so that she didn't shiver out of coldness.
"How bad is it," Izuku whispered, letting Himiko's wracking sobs add to his own scared shuddering. He loved Himiko a great deal, but he couldn't help feeling that, for the first time, she could be very dangerous.
"I-It's bad," she sobbed, digging her fingers into Izuku's hoodie.
He licked his lips, searching for the right way to ask his next question, "H-have you… k-killed a-anyone?"
Himiko's quick, jerky head shake made Izuku let out a very relieved breath, but Himiko's answer afterward wasn't very great either. "I have stabbed a lot of people. They were only bad guys and other villains, but I never hurt anyone who wasn't a bad person."
"So you were more like a vigilante? Why did you have to do it at all," Izuku asked, rubbing circles into Himiko's bare back under the blanket.
"I-I know that you understand m-my quirk makes me obsessed w-with blood, b-but you don't u-understand," Himiko frantically rubbed her face against Izuku's chest, "I-I went m-more than ten years without a-any blood at all! M-My parents called me a f-freak when I finally h-had enough and cut myself to t-taste my own blood. They kicked me out a-after graduation, a-and I just started a-attacking people I saw t-trying to hurt other people. B-But none of their blood was a-anywhere as good a-as I remembered yours b-being, so I just got a-angrier and angrier."
Izuku shushed the girl as her frantic explanations dissolved into more uncontrolled sobbing. Izuku didn't know how to feel about any of this new knowledge; on the one hand, he was horrified Himiko had been put in such an awful position in the first place, but on the other, he was a hero in training holding a sobbing vigilante who had most likely severely wounded multiple people.
Izuku paused, thinking about something else, "now that I think about it, what is your quirk? I never really asked because I thought it might be touchy, but I'm curious."
Himiko shyly rubbed her eyes, looking up at Izuku. " I can transform into a person, and depending on the amount of blood, I can stay in that form for a while."
"But you said you've only been drinking my blood, so how long would you be able to transform into me," Izuku asked, intrigued by her quirk.
"W-Well, a cup would give me maybe more than half the day, b-but with how much I take from you most of the time, it would be enough for about three m-maybe four days," Himiko sniffled, her arms circling around Izuku in a worried hug, "p-please don't hate me."
"Dummy," Izuku chastised Himiko, pinching her side, "I don't hate you! I'm worried about you! Sure, I'm hurt you didn't tell me, but I can understand why you didn't. You were scared and didn't want to risk your relationship with me, Mom, or Eri, but you must know you can't continue like this, right?"
"I-I know, b-but I can't l-lose you again, Izu!" Himiko's shoulders shook with barely restrained sobs.
"Hey, hey, I know. I don't want to lose you either, but we have to do the right thing, even if it hurts. B-Besides, maybe All Might can help! He knows Detective Tsukauchi, so maybe they can get a reduced sentence, or you could even get just community service. Heck, maybe giving the police that envelope that Giran guy gave you could reduce even that!"
Himiko sniffled a few more times, nodding, letting her chest fully press into Izuku, "O-okay. If you w-want me to, I'll turn e-everything over to the p-police."
"Thank you," Izuku sighed, his own eyes finally tearing up along with Himiko, who looked up at Izuku, placing her small hand on his cheek and bringing him down for a soft kiss.
They just sat on the floor for a while, Himiko in Izuku's lap and their lips moving in a gentle rhythm that neither wanted to end. But they had to break apart for air.
"W-When should we g-go," Himiko asked, leaning her head against Izuku's chest. He was sure she could hear the wild beat of his heart.
"I think a few minutes would be best. We can eat here, and that should give All Might time to make it over and not have to rush through his morning routine," Izuku sighed, hooking his arm under Himiko's shaking legs, putting an arm around her shoulders, and lifting her in one fluid motion. "Until then, I think you should put some clothes on."
Himiko blushed, looking down at her barely covered body under the blanket they had both slept under. "R-right."
She felt sad, extremely sad now that Izu knew what she had been doing the past year, but at least he hadn't rejected her the same way her parents had.
Himiko had no idea what would've happened if he had. Maybe she would've fully lost her mind.
But now that Izu had said it, the information she'd been given would be extremely valuable to the police and the heroes. Like he had mentioned, she could most likely get a reduced sentence due to the nonlethal nature of her attacks, and then there was this new job Giran had passed her.
We have noticed your recent activity in Musutafu City, and we believe our goals could align with your own. We have made plans for an assault on U.A. In the coming week, and while we do not wish to employ you for this raid, we do hope you will join us in future ventures.
Our leader is currently in the process of receiving the cooperation of The Hero Killer Stain, and we believe he is of much interest to you because of your well-known reputation with other criminals and villains.
We hope to hear from you very soon.
,The League of Villains
This letter hadn't exactly come from nowhere; she'd heard about a group calling themselves The League of Villains, but all of the chatter had been about recruitment.
The group hadn't given any of their recruits any news about their activities beyond wanting to kill All Might. And that mere fact had been enough to turn Himiko's nose up at the recruiters, but the news they were reaching out to Stain was very surprising.
Himiko searched through her drawers, picking out a yellow bra and panties, a large black All Might hoodie she had "borrowed" from Izu, and a pair of black stockings.
Himiko walked back into the living room, where Izu sat worriedly, fidgeting on the couch, "I'm sorry I'm causing so much trouble for you, Izu."
Izu jumped slightly at her voice. Looking at her quickly, his soft features were set into a worried but determined line. "Y-You don't have to apologize, Himiko! I want to help you!"
Himiko smiled as she walked over to Izu, pushing him back onto the couch before sitting on his lap with her head resting on his shoulder. Izu's warm hands wrapped around her. The gentle tremble going through his body put her a bit on edge, but the steady beat of his heart slowly lulled her into a trance.
"How long did All Might say it would take him," Himiko asked.
"He said he needed to bring Detective Tsukauchi along so you could tell him everything," Izu chuckled lightly, making Himiko look up at him. "He's been investigating all of your uh… activities, and you're really slippery, apparently."
Himiko smiled, bobbing her head side to side, "Yeah, my quirk affects my senses, and I'm really physically fit, too. I think it's so I can perfectly mimic any person I turn into; my reflexes are super sharp, too, so I'm not walking around super clumsily in another person's body. I've got a really good memory, too; I can even mimic a person's mannerisms if I study them for just a few minutes."
"Whoa, that's really amazing, Himiko! So not only does your quirk let you take another person's shape, but you even have improved reflexes and mild echopraxia," Izuku enthused, pulling his small quirk analysis notebook out of his hoodie's front pocket and writing a few things down.
"Echo, huh?" Himiko asked, looking at Izu's notes he was taking.
"Echopraxia means mimicking the movements of a person you observe. I'm guessing since you said you can learn their mannerisms, it's mainly just limited to mild characteristics in how they act, and it's not like you're able to mimic something like a person's fighting style. But I have to ask: would you get their characteristics if you take the blood from a person with a mutant-type quirk? Like, there's a boy in my class with a tail, and I was wondering if you took his blood, would you have a tail, too? And would you be able to move it?"
Himiko shrugged, "I have no idea. When I got kicked out of my parent's house, I started looking around for ways to make money. I got a job at a convenience store one time, but when I was walking to my shoddy little apartment at the time, some guy tried mugging me. I ended up beating the crap out of him, I've always been really active, and I was in a few clubs in high school, so I'm way fitter than most girls around my age. When I beat the guy up, he begged me not to hurt him anymore and gave me all of his money. It wasn't a small amount either, so I looked around for more people like him to make money. I guess it got out of hand because, after a while, I was using my quirk to get away from the police when they chased me, and that's where most of my practical experience with my quirk came from. So, to answer your question, I haven't really thought to use it on people with mutant-type quirks."
Izu blinked for a second and paused his writing, "So, you've never used your quirk for infiltration before? It's perfect for information gathering and sneak attacks!"
"Yeah," Himiko nodded, thinking about that, "the problem is I kinda can't keep other people's blood down for longer than a few minutes. It doesn't really matter because the portion of blood I take in determines how long I can take that form, not whether or not it stays down…"
"But?"
"But because the blood doesn't stay down, I usually end up just vomiting, so that wouldn't help me fool people I'm trying to deceive with my quirk. Plus, I prefer it when the blood stays down, and the only blood I don't have a problem keeping down is yours, Izu."
Izu frowned at that, "why's that?"
"I don't know. I was surprised when you first let me try your blood, and I never threw it back up."
Before they could discuss the topic further, they both froze when Himiko's doorbell rang through the apartment, and All Might's voice came after it, "Hello!? Young Midoriya? Young Toga? Are you both in there? I'm here with Detective Tsukauchi."
Izu jerked, startling Himiko a bit. Thankfully, he realized what he'd done and quickly gave her a small, apologetic smile.
"You ready," he asked, standing up and helping Himiko to her feet as well.
"I-I guess," she sighed, taking in a deep, shaky breath.
Izu walked over to the door, pulling Himiko along by the hand. He swung the door open, greeting a grinning All Might and straight-faced Tsukauchi.
"H-Hi, All Might, Mr. Tsukauchi," Izu said, nodding at the pair in turn.
"What was the message about young Toga being in trouble and doing some illegal activities?" All Might asked, his shadowed eyes gazing at the pair.
"W-Well, Himiko told me she's had a really rough time the past year or so," Izu paused, looking at Himiko. "But I think she should be the one to explain. I just want to be here for her."
Himiko fidgeted under everyone's stares, "I, um, think I'm the person you've been looking for who's been assaulting criminals."
The look Tsukauchi gave Himiko almost made her laugh. He gave the small girl a once-over in disbelief, "Do you have any way to back that claim up, young lady?"
"Um, I have most of the knives I used to cut bad guys, and I can probably give details about that girl who killed her parents a while back," Himiko absently twirled a strand of hair around her finger, "oh, and I have this letter I got from a broker that Izu said would be really useful."
All Might took the letter from her, reading over its contents, a very alarmed look crossing his face as he read, "Tsukauchi, I think you should read this!"
Once the detective had finished perusing the letter himself, he looked at the two teens very intently. "If this is real, then we've only heard whispers about this League of Villains, and this news about an assault on U.A. is even more troubling. But we should really handle one problem at a time. For now, you two should come down to the station so we can take your statements and decide how to handle your situation, Ms. Toga."
"Oh, okay," Himiko nodded, following along with Izu, who was holding her hand.
"This is one big mess after another," Tsukauchi sighed, leaning back into his chair as All Might sat across from him.
The pair gazed out Tsukauchi's office window, seeing the two teens sticking very close together.
"I have no idea what to do about her; she's obviously got a variety of mental issues and unhealthy fixations that Midoriya hasn't exactly helped with. If anything, she's more dependent on him than she was months ago when they saved that girl from that villain," Tsukauchi leaned back into his chair, pressing fingers into his aching eyes, "we can't just ignore all of the people she's put in the hospital, the numerous instances of evading arrest, illegal quirk use, and extortion of other criminals. She's got a bank account, but we have no idea how to tell how much of the money is illegally gained, that's if even a single yen of it was legally gained."
"Out of curiosity, how much money did young Toga have in her account," All Might asked, his hand resting on his chin.
Tsukauchi looked over his desk momentarily and then picked up a few documents, "two million thirteen thousand eight hundred and two yen, that would equal about fifteen thousand US dollars."
"H-Holy crap," All Might sighed, now rubbing his own eyes, "that isn't exactly a small amount; I'm assuming you've put a suspension on her account."
"Yes, but it's not exactly like we can take that money; we don't have any way to prove it was definitively gained illegally. It's a lot of red tape, but for now, we should focus on her testimonies; they've helped put the Tanaka case to rest. Of course, that brought entirely new problems up with how long she stayed in the girl's house with her tied up and the parents dead. Honestly, this girl is filled with so many contradictions and mental issues that I have no idea how to handle her."
All Might looked over at the pair of teenagers as they conversed with one another; the girl was poking at Midoriya's red flushed cheeks, "I don't know if you'd be averse to the idea, but maybe we could consult Nezu. Young Toga is close enough to their age, and a spot opened up in 1-A; if we were to convince Nezu, we would be able to have her monitored by pro heroes. Not to mention, the school's extensive guidance counseling would greatly help her mentally speaking, and as you said, her dependence on young Midoriya is troubling. Still, I have a feeling completely separating them would be a bad idea."
Tsukauchi sighed, "I have a feeling you're right, but I can't imagine Nezu being all right with that."
"He'll be averse to the idea at first, I'm sure, but I think he may change his mind once he sees the girl in action. After all, as you said, she managed to evade the police fairly successfully with no formal training, and she's defeated several criminals. Thankfully, there were no fatalities. Otherwise, Nezu would have definitely turned the proposal down."
"You understand we'll need to file her current criminal record, take fingerprints, and even then, we'll only be allowing her to leave because of your recommendation. Of course, we may be able to expunge a few of the lesser crimes, like the assaults, if she becomes a hero because then we'd be able to add them as activities she carried out with a license. Of course, that may only apply so long as none of the people she assaulted file complaints against her, but so far, none of them have come forward because of their own sordid pasts, so I don't see that becoming a problem."
All Might nodded, gazing at Toga's file and looking through her various listed crimes, "assault and battery with and without a deadly weapon, breaking and entering, trespassing, extortion, evading arrest, and illegal quirk use. The list isn't exactly small, but most of the listed crimes are minor aside from the assaults, but even most heroes I work with use weapons considered deadly. Heck, even most quirks could be considered deadly weapons. But of course, like you said, none of this is really relevant until we consult Nezu, although I think the fact she has that letter from the broker Giran will sway her in Nezu's favor."
Tsukauchi nodded, standing from his chair to speak with the two teens who were currently flirting quite openly in the bullpen, "Alright, you two cut the honeymoon, and let's get down to business. Ms. Toga, I'm sure you understand the gravity of your situation; I mean, you evaded capture for so long because you knew how severe some of your… activities had gotten. But, for now, the first thing we'll have to do is take your fingerprints and finish filing them into the system. After that's done, we can release you."
"R-Really," Toga shouted, clearly not believing what she was hearing, "just like that?"
"Just like that," Tsukauchi nodded, "but you won't be allowed to return to your apartment alone; you'll have a police escort and be supervised around the clock. At least until we get a resolution to your situation, I can't exactly tell you what All Might has in mind, but you'll learn fairly soon. With that being said, we've unsealed your bank account, and you can make purchases normally. However, we'll suspend the account indefinitely if we see any alarming cash inflow or outflow."
"So, what should we do, sir? Should we do anything to help resolve this?" Midoriya asked, looking very relieved but still worried.
Tsukauchi smiled at the boy, patting his shoulder, "That won't be necessary, young man. Just go about your days as usual, and I'm sure everything will work itself out. Just be sure to keep your girlfriend out of trouble."
"T-That's easier said than done, sir. To be honest, she's kind of a handful," Midoriya sighed, seeming already tired.
Toga puffed her cheeks out, giving a lighthearted glare at the boy, "That's not fair, Izu! Just a few months ago, who was the dummy that ran head first into a villain with no plan swinging his school bag around like an old lady?!"
The poor boy got red in the face as Toga continued teasing him, 'This girl is a dangerous vigilante? I've worked with multiple in my day, and they can be eccentric, but she's basically a normal girl from all appearances. I'd even question if we had the right person if my quirk didn't confirm everything she's told us was true.'
The small smile on Tsukauchi's face slowly dropped as he again thought about the letter Toga had brought in, 'the League of Villains, huh?'