Izuku climbed the stairs to his apartment with his mind still chewing on everything he'd uncovered throughout the day. Ochako's Berserker Mode, Momo's warning about becoming a target, the potential of his Quirk to completely change hero operations...
Hmmmm... I've been way too careless, he thought as he fished around in his pocket for his keys. Momo's right. Plus, if I'm already on Principal Nezu's radar, what's stopping me from becoming a target for some villain looking to exploit my Quirk?
He scratched his chin thoughtfully as he slid the key into the lock.
Although if she happened to be a sexy big breasted villainess, maybe I could... Nonononono Izuku, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! Now that I've found my life philosophy, I'm supposed to touch heroines' breasts, not villainesses'.
Suddenly a vivid memory invaded his mind: his hands sliding along Himiko's pale thighs while he activated his Quirk to read her abilities. The softness of her skin, the way her legs had trembled slightly under his touch...
Well, she doesn't count, he justified quickly. She's... uh... a poor girl forced to cut people because of her Quirk. Yeah, that's it. It's not like I got lost in the softness of her surprisingly cozy pale thighs...
His mouth started watering when a familiar voice cut him off from inside the apartment.
"Izuku! Come on in, dinner's ready. You really took your sweet time getting home today."
Izuku shook his head vigorously to clear out the dangerous thoughts about an assassin's thighs and walked into the apartment. The smell of home cooking hit him immediately, making his stomach growl with an embarrassingly loud sound.
"Sorry, Mom," he said as he took off his shoes at the entrance and lined them up next to the others. "I stayed longer than I planned because I was talking with Ochako."
Inko poked her head out from the kitchen, her face lighting up with a knowing smile that Izuku knew way too well.
"Oh, with Ochako-chan? You should invite her over for dinner sometime, Izuku. It'd be nice to get to know her better."
Izuku felt the conversation heading in a dangerously formal direction as he walked toward the dining room.
"Yeah, I'll ask her and see what she says. She lives by herself since her parents are over in Mie Prefecture, so she'd probably like a home cooked meal once in a while."
Bringing Ochako over to meet my mom... he thought with rising panic. Is this how things get formalized? No! I'm not ready to officially bring a girl home yet... TOGA DOESN'T COUNT.
He walked into the dining room and stopped dead in his tracks.
Himiko was sitting at the table, looking completely transformed. She was wearing light, pretty clothes that Inko had obviously picked out for her: a white short sleeved blouse with a small bow at the collar, and denim shorts that showed off her pale legs. Her blonde hair was carefully styled and still damp, gleaming under the dining room light. She looked fresh and clean, almost... normal.
I almost forgot she tried to murder me a week ago, Izuku thought as he took a seat across from her. It's incredible what a bath and new clothes can do for a person's image.
"Izuku-kun's here!" Himiko exclaimed with a bright smile, her yellow eyes lighting up with joy. "Midoriya-san let me use her flower shampoo! Do I smell good?"
She leaned forward over the table, bringing her neck dangerously close to Izuku's nose.
She smells good enough to take a bite out of, Izuku noted before pulling back quickly. Focus, Midoriya. Don't let the cute assassin distract you.
"Yeah, you smell nice, Toga-san," he answered as Inko came in from the kitchen carrying a large pitcher. "What are we having for dinner?"
"Teriyaki chicken with rice," Inko announced as she filled the glasses with a thick, vibrant dark red liquid. "And beet juice for everyone. It's good for the blood, according to what I read online."
Himiko took her glass with both hands and stared at it, fascinated, her pupils dilating slightly as she swirled the cup to watch the crimson liquid move inside.
"It's so red...," she murmured in an almost reverent tone. "It's beautiful."
She likes it because it looks like blood, Izuku thought with resignation. Why did Mom have to pick beet of all things?
He took his own glass without saying anything. After all, beet really was good for Himiko's Quirk, high in iron and the nutrients her body needed to produce fresh blood. If he could reduce her cravings for human blood with nutritious vegetable juices, then it was worth tolerating the unsettlingly similar color.
They started eating, and to Izuku's surprise, the conversation flowed with unexpected naturalness. Himiko was telling Inko how she'd spent the day practicing the meditation Izuku had taught her, although she admitted between giggles that she'd dozed off twice during the process. Inko shared anecdotes about her own Quirk control exercises back in her younger days, and they both laughed when comparing their initial difficulties and the comical failures they'd gone through.
This is... nice, Izuku thought as he bit into a perfectly glazed piece of chicken. It almost feels like a normal family.
That's when Himiko took a long sip of her juice, leaving a small red mustache on her upper lip that made her look absurdly cute. She sighed with deep satisfaction.
"You know, this reminds me why I love blood so much," she said casually as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. "The color, the texture, the way it feels when..."
"Toga," Izuku looked at her flatly. "Who the heck talks about blood during dinner? Crazy girl!"
Himiko blinked with angelic innocence, like she genuinely didn't get the problem.
"Eeeh? What's wrong with that? It's just beet juice... but look what a pretty color! It's just like that, right? Hehe... it's normal that I can't stop thinking about blood. Besides... today I saw someone with such, such special blood! Aaah, I wonder what it would taste like..."
Inko slowly set her chopsticks down on the table, her motherly expression turning serious.
"Himiko-chan... what did you do?"
"Nothing, nothing!" Himiko waved her hands defensively, shaking them so fast she almost knocked over her glass. "I didn't hurt anyone, I promise! I just saw someone really interesting near Izuku-kun's school this morning. A creepy pervert who was staring at the U.A. gates with weird intentions."
Izuku frowned as he processed the information.
A pervert? Wait, this morning there was that whole reporter situation at the entrance. Could the guy have just been another reporter?
"Toga-san, there were like twenty reporters outside U.A. this morning. He was probably just one of them trying to get a story."
Himiko shook her head vigorously, her expression turning strangely excited.
"Mmm-mpp! Nope, nope, Izuku-kun!" Himiko puffed out her cheeks for a moment before letting out a giggle. "That man was... special. Those reporters were like scared little bugs, you know? All bunched up, shoving each other and making ugly, annoying noises... yuck, gross!
But him... aaah, he was all alone, hiding in the shadows. And his look... Izuku-kun, you had to see it! It was such a, such a piercing look... it gave me the good kind of shivers!" She brought her hands to her cheeks, blushing. "He had so much intensity that... aah! I almost, I almost couldn't help wondering if his blood would be that deep too. I bet it'd come out a gorgeous red! Don't you think?"
She paused dramatically, biting her lower lip while her eyes drifted off into the memory.
"It was the way I used to look at my prey before hunting them down, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce."
A chill ran down Izuku's spine from the base of his neck to his waist.
Wait. A guy acting suspicious near U.A.? And Momo literally warned me today that my Quirk makes me a target...
"Toga-san," Izuku said seriously, setting his chopsticks aside, "describe the guy. Everything you remember."
Himiko perked up immediately at Izuku's serious attention, straightening up in her chair like an enthusiastic student.
"He was skinny, super skinny! He had on a black hoodie, but I saw a lock of light blue hair sticking out from one side. And his hands... mmm... he kept them tucked away in his pockets, but they were moving and moving nonstop... scratch, scratch, scratch... like he wanted to peel his own skin off! Don't you think that's... fascinating, Izuku-kun? I wonder what color his blood is!"
A guy with blue hair, suspicious behavior, posted up watching U.A.
Izuku felt his stomach clench painfully.
"And what did you do?" he asked, keeping his voice calm.
"I watched him right back," Himiko answered with obvious pride. "I pulled out my knife and kept it ready in case he tried anything against my Izuku-kun. But after a while, he just disappeared into the crowd of reporters like he'd never been there. Poof! Like a ghost."
Either I'm overthinking this or it's some damn coincidence, and Momo was right.
His classmate's warning echoed in his mind again with terrifying clarity: "If villains find out you can multiply heroes' power, they'll want to eliminate you or capture you."
And then, like a lightning bolt striking his brain directly, an atrocious thought invaded his mind.
Wait. If they want me to use my Quirk on them, they'd make me touch their balls!!!!
The blood drained from his face so fast he felt dizzy.
No. No, no, no, no, NO. That can't be. There has to be another way. There HAS to be another way.
He pictured himself in a desperate combat situation, with a male hero urgently needing a boost to save lives, and the only way to activate his Quirk would be to grab...
I'd rather die than do that.
"Izuku? You went really pale," Inko's voice was full of motherly concern. "Are you okay? Did the food not sit right?"
"I'm fine," Izuku lied automatically, even though he felt like his soul had abandoned his body and was floating somewhere near the ceiling. "Just... processing information."
Think, Midoriya. If you set aside the existential horror of potentially having to touch male genitals if you get captured, there's a more immediate problem: there's a suspicious guy watching U.A.
He looked over at Toga, who was watching him curiously while nibbling on a piece of glazed carrot.
If it were anyone else telling me this, I'd probably write it off as paranoia. But Toga has actual experience being a predator. She knows how to recognize when someone's hunting because she used to be a hunter herself. If her instincts are telling her this guy is dangerous...
"Toga-san," Izuku said slowly, weighing every word, "how sure are you that the guy had bad intentions?"
Himiko stopped chewing completely and looked him directly in the eyes with an intensity she rarely showed.
"Completely sure, Izuku-kun. That man... mmm... he was drenched in blood!"
Izuku blinked, confused.
"You saw him hurt?"
"Nooo, silly!" Himiko shook her head vigorously, making her blonde hair sway. "Not the kind of blood you can see or lick... not yet. But, you know? When you've made so many people turn red and beautiful... you can just feel it. It's like a smell, you get it? A sweet, sticky scent that doesn't go away no matter how hard you scrub with lots and lots of soap. That guy has cut up tons of people, Izuku-kun. He's made tons of 'friends'!"
Inko had stopped eating completely, looking at Himiko with concern. Izuku felt his mind working at full speed, connecting dots he didn't want to connect.
"Izuku," Inko finally spoke, her voice trembling slightly, "what's going on? Why would somebody be watching your school?"
Izuku looked at his mother, seeing the worry in her green eyes that were so similar to his own.
Great, just great. Now Mom's worried too.
"I don't know why someone like that would be watching my school, but I need to tell someone at U.A. about this," Izuku said as he went back to eating. "Maybe Aizawa-sensei, Midnight-sensei, or Principal Nezu directly."
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