Chapter 36: Blood Quirks
The city of Hosu stretched out in front of Kurogiri as he stood atop a water tower along with Tomura Shigaraki. The doctor's three latest nomu stood on the roof below them, silently awaiting their orders. At Shigaraki's instruction, he had already sent the eyeless nomu towards the northern edge of the city, where the primary train station and the on-ramp towards the national expressway lay.
Shigaraki had not fully explained his plan to anyone other than his sensei, but Kurogiri assumed that the goal was to prevent large-scale evacuation and relief efforts. People would still be able to enter and exit the city, that was unavoidable, but this would cutoff the way most people would originally think to use. The noun had been instructed to briefly wait before rampaging, so they had a few more moments to prepare before Hosu truly descended into chaos.
"Ok, now that we've set this level to Ironman, let's show everyone what they're dealing with." Kurogiri had always picked up on gaming terminology rather quickly, which had proven useful in dealing with Shigaraki. While he hadn't frequently encountered the term 'Ironman' before, it did back up his supposition that the goal of the first nomu was to prevent large scale escape and reinforcements.
The three additional nomu standing just below the water tower were content to wait to be unleashed upon the city. All three of the nomu had been constructed, for lack of a better term, from some of the survivors that Kurogiri had evacuated from the USJ. Part of him was upset that his act of mercy had led so directly to their demise. The rest of him had been programmed not to feel upset about it at all.
One of the nomu stood now at nearly two and a half meters tall, appearing as if he had been hewn out of pure granite, muscles rippling underneath. Two additional arms sprouted from its back, and each of its four arms were double-jointed at the elbow such that the beast had eight hands in total. The only break in the stone skin of the nomu was on its skull, revealing the brain in the same fashion as all standard nomu, including the ones on the roof tonight.
Another of the nomu was nearly the opposite, lacking skin on its entire skull. Despite that, a pair of too human eyes peered out from deep within its eye sockets. The nomu's graying skin was only remarkable for the occasional glints of light off of it, as if reflected from specks of metal. Although this nomu was shorter than the first, it was still nearly two meters tall and as heavily muscled as either of the other two.
The final nomu had chalk white skin striped with red, on full display as this creature did not even wear any clothing. Thankfully, whatever the Doctor had done to it had rendered it entirely sexless. Kurogiri also supposed that a (nearly) mindless killing machine had no need for modesty in any case. This unfortunate creature had also had most of its head and face replaced with what appeared to have at one point been a large rebreathing apparatus covering everything from its chin to above its nose, allowing only a pair of jet black eyes to stare out over the top.
"Next, send Sparks and Stripes to the city center. That's where the most heroes will be. They'll be able to really show what we can do. Finally, send Rocky to the port district. We'll hit society where it hurts: right in their bank accounts." Kurogiri could see the logic in the locations to send the nomu to. A large attack on a civilian center, focused on rousing terror and frightening the population at large coupled with a smaller attack on the essential port that Hosu housed. However, one detail felt out of place. He didn't want to ask about it, but he had no choice. He decided to help his charge , as he was programmed to do .
"Tomura Shigaraki, would it not be more advantageous to send either of the other two nomu to the ports? It seems as if there would be … a terrain-typed elemental boost to them, whereas the nomu you have decided to send there may receive certain debuffs in that area."
"I've thought about this, Kurogiri, and trust me when I say there's no debuff for Rocky there. Plus, Stripes can't control salt water and Sparks would just short out. The Doctor was very clear about both of those things." Kurogiri was concerned relieved that Shigaraki had put so much thought into this operation.
"As you wish, Tomura Shigaraki." It took just a moment for Kurogiri to warp the three nomu to their locations. They, too, had been instructed to wait for just a moment before beginning their rampage. Presumably Shigaraki had yet another part to his plan that he had yet to reveal.
"Now, our pieces are in place, we just have a few more settings to alter before the game begins." Shigaraki shot him a sadistic grin before pulling a small piece of lined paper out of his pocket. "I'll need small portals to exactly these coordinates and facings. Large enough for my hand to fit through, but not much larger."
Kurogiri took the proffered paper and stared at it in confusion. On it were scribbled a collection of numbers that held absolutely no meaning to him at all. He was about to ask Shigaraki what he meant by coordinates when he suddenly understood, as if he always had, exactly where Shigaraki wanted the portals sent. "What… what are these?" He managed to force out.
"Sensei said that you have a coordinate-based warping quirk, but that you intuit the coordinates of wherever you want to go. I said it should be possible to figure out coordinates for places you've never been to or seen and he just laughed. In a good way." Kurogiri had never seen All For One laugh in a good way.
"I… see." He decided to ruminate on what else he didn't know about his own quirk later. For the time being, he simply did as Shigaraki instructed, opening a series of ten portals two at a time. As the first two opened, Shigaraki flexed his fingers before sticking his hands through the portals. He didn't put his hands in too deep, only as far as his wrists, before he encountered resistance. A few seconds passed before he pulled them out and gestured impatiently for the next set of portals.
The first four portals did not give Kurogiri any insight into exactly what was happening. The next two, however, coincided with a tower near the city center collapsing in on itself. By the end of the ten portals, three more visible buildings had fallen as well, and a haze of dust and smoke had begun to cloud the sky.
"Your doing, I assume?" Kurogiri ignores the massive eye roll from Shigaraki, instead waiting patiently for a verbal response.
"Fine, yes." Shigaraki sighed. "Those ten portals led to the foundations of the local police precinct headquarters and their largest annex, the local firefighter headquarters and their largest annex, two of the largest apartment buildings in the city, Team Idaten's headquarters, and the three HeroNET transmission towers in the region. Now the heroes need to figure out if they're going to save civilians or fight the nomu, and they'll have to do it without coordination or police and firefighter backup. It's perfect. Sensei wanted me to dust the hospitals too, but I want to make sure some people survive to talk about how the heroes failed them tonight."
Kurogiri was horrified impressed. It sounded like the vast majority of this plan had been Shigaraki's, even if he had gone to All For One for the final approval. The fact that he had intentionally decided to not destroy the hospitals in the city was incrediblysomewhat reassuring, showing that All For One did not have a complete hold on his mind.
Unfortunately, he was again compelled to speak."Would you not also want to destroy the cell towers in the area? Heroes could, in principle, use those to communicate with each other." Somehow Kurogiri knew that the heroism grade cellphones all heroes carried could connect to standard cellular networks in a pinch. How and why did he know that?
"No." Shigaraki's grin stretched across his entire face, his eyes wide, as he looked down on the mounting chaos below. "I want this level to be live streamed. I want the entire country to know that their beloved heroes can't deal with a few extra difficulty modifiers. I want everyone to see exactly what the League of Villains can do."
Kurogiri didn't have anything to say to that. Instead, he simply watched the city below begin to burn. Part of him deep inside was screaming out in horror at the disaster below. He could almost hear that part of him, mixed in with the screams of the victims in the city. Almost.
---
Wash had decided to introduce Juzo to the investigatory side of the heroism business in the hunt for the Vampire of Koenji, the suspect in a number of attacks over the past months, including the convenience store attack from their first patrol. As a high ranking hero, Wash and his agency had some experience in leading investigations. However, they had never stood out as a top tier investigatory agency, unlike top ranking heroes such as Best Jeanist and Hawks, or even lower ranked heroes like Sir Nighteye.
The reason for this quickly became apparent, at least to Juzo: Wash had very little patience when it came to puzzles, and investigatory work was all about solving puzzles. Everytime that there was the slightest roadblock or inconvenience, his profanity kicked up another notch.
The first hour or so was spent collecting and looking through the evidence that the police had gathered from every known encounter with their suspect. The sum total was not an encouraging amount, but one of the sidekicks tried to allay Wash's early concerns by reminding him that they had solved older cases with less information in the past. It didn't stop the hero from starting to mutter vulgarities under his breath.
Unfortunately, in this case, the villain had been fairly adept at staying in the shadows and out of the sight of security cameras and the like, at least for the earlier attacks. Many of the early victims never saw their attacker at all. The only thing stringing some of these cases together was the presence of two small wounds on each of the victims' necks, in a manner reminiscent of a vampire's bite.
The few victims who had seen their attacker never saw them head on, but it was enough to establish that the police should be looking for a blonde woman. She appeared to prefer to wear a middle school uniform, but none of the victims had managed a reliable estimate of her age. For all they knew she could have been dressing younger than she was to throw the authorities off of her track.
Calling the suspect a vampire was simply a tongue in cheek way of referring to her until roughly one month earlier, when the villain had allowed herself to be caught on camera during an attack for the first time. There were a number of similarities between this attack and the one that Juzo and Wash had stumbled into the aftermath of: an attack from hiding, a quick stabbing followed by a bite on the neck, and then vanishing into the alleyways of the city.
There had been a few more attacks caught on grainy surveillance video since then, but the single biggest breakthrough in the case had apparently been yesterday. While Yoroi Musha had been on patrol, he had nearly found the vampire himself, only to have her slip by him and encounter his intern. The vampire had not attacked the intern, but rather stolen some food and simply run off.
Juzo was almost as surprised by the change in the vampire's behavior as he was the name of the intern on the report: Ochako Uraraka. Apparently Juzo wasn't the only U.A student who was getting slightly more than he bargained for out of his internship.
Wash's cursing turned up yet another notch by the time that they had finished sorting through all of the materials. "Dammit! How can there be so fucking little shit out there on this villain?" A few of the sidekicks nodded grimly in agreement. On first blush, for a villain that had been on the loose for so long, this was a shockingly small amount of information. There were a couple of additional unsolved cold cases that the police theorized to be connected to the vampire, but with no real evidence either way.
Despite what his supervisor believed, though, Juzo saw a trend. A throughline that might help them one way or another. The first actual sighting of the vampire was on what was now considered to be her sixth attack, with the next sighting not coming until her tenth. Her first appearance on video was her twelfth attack, and now the bit with Uraraka happened just before her twenty fourth. Additionally, while it had taken her five months to work up ten attacks, her previous ten attacks had occurred over just the past five weeks.
"Something changed." Juzo said. Surprisingly, Wash did not swear at this interjection, but rather motioned him to continue. "She's gotten sloppy, certainly. If she could keep off of cameras for months, she could have kept it up. The question is why she's gotten sloppy."
"The asshole probably thinks she's fucking untouchable." Wash opines. "So she let her planning go to shit." There's an uncomfortable knot in Juzo's stomach at the thought of disagreeing with his supervisor. He's just a high school student after all and Wash has infinitely more experience in dealing with villains.
Whatever discomfort he was showing must have shown on his face, though, as Wash instructed him to share his thoughts. "Well, uh, sir, she could be getting arrogant. I, um, think she might be getting desperate, instead."
"Explain." Did one word without any profanity count as an entire sentence? Questions for later.
"Well, it's the fact that both the amount of evidence and the number of attacks increased at the same time."
"The number of attacks could have stayed the same, but we just didn't have any evidence of them at all from earlier in her career." Water Jet, one of the several sidekicks involved in the conversation, brought up.
"Then there'd be a change in the number of unsolved cases over time, but they're basically the same over the past several months." Juzo was feeling more and more certain that he was right. "I don't know what changed, but I'd put money on something happening about a month ago."
"Fuck. Motherfucker." The knot in Juzo's stomach tightened at Wash's outburst. "That motherfucker Stain was operating just one fucking ward over before he moved to Hosu. Shit. The last fucking sighting of him was roughly one goddamn month ago, too." Juzo relaxed somewhat. It seemed like Wash was actually taking him seriously.
"So what's the connection between them, then?" Another of the sidekicks asked.
"No fucking goddamn clue, but it gives us a damn good place to start, at least. Good fucking job, Meltain."
At the time, Juzo had had to restrain himself from preening at the praise. The idea led to a variety of suggestions and hypotheses as to where the villain might be hiding out and what their motivation might be. Juzo hadn't had any other breakthrough ideas like that, but had managed to contribute to the discussion meaningfully, at least.
As a result of their brainstorming session, Wash had mapped out a new set of patrol routes that focus entirely on the areas where they believed the vampire would have her lair: in effect, many of the same areas that Stain had been theorized to be laying low in. It didn't matter if she had been working with the man or simply taking advantage of the chaos he caused, they'd likely find her nearby.
Wash once again brought him along on the patrol, and it quickly became apparent to Juzo that the excitement of his first patrol was not the norm in the industry. Their second patrol had been far more sedate than their first one. In fact, Wash was barely swearing at all. That in and of itself was a welcome relief from the man's language earlier in the day. Juzo had resigned himself to an uninteresting evening when something caught his eye.
Or rather someone.
There was a man walking down the street in the opposite direction as Juzo and Wash who looked awfully familiar. Juzo knew that he had seen him somewhere before, and recently. He didn't look like any of Wash's sidekicks for a start. Reaching back slightly further, Juzo froze.
The man was a spitting image of the convenience store clerk from yesterday.
"Wash?" Juzo wished his voice was steadier.
"Yes, Meltain?" Apparently the man noticed some of Juzo's trepidation, as he automatically responded over the communications system.
"How long does it usually take to recover from a stab wound like yesterdays?"
The hero turned to give Juzo an unreadable look from inside his costume. "They could be up and about within a goddamn day, but likely in a fucking shit ton of pain. It would take a lot fucking longer for the wound to fully goddamn heal. Why?"
"Because the victim from yesterday just walked by while you were talking with that last fan."
"Goddammit all to hell. You're fucking sure?" Juzo nodded. He liked to think he had an eye for faces. "Shit."
"What's the matter?" While he wasn't thrilled that the victim was up and about after being stabbed, if the only issue was pain that seemed like it should be up to him.
"Because the fucking victim from fucking yesterday had a shitty goddamn reaction to the fucking numbing medication the EMTs used. He's in the goddamn ICU for fucking observation. Bastards at the hospital waited until this fucking morning to tell me. Whoever the shit you just goddamn saw is notthe fucking victim."
"I mean, I guess I could have been wrong…" A lot of people did look rather similar to each other. And he had only seen the victim once, yesterday, in the aftermath of a villain attack.
"No." Wash surprised Juzo. "We sure as shit don't have any other goddamn fucking leads right now. Which fucking way were they headed?" Juzo pointed back the way the two had come from. "We're tracking this bastard the fuck down. This might not be shit, but it might just be the shit to give us the fucking break we need."
The two of them turned back the way they had come from, a new urgency pushing them faster than before.
---
Despite Yoroi Musha's earlier admonishments about watching out for the girl that Ochako had seen the night before, the two of them were not explicitlylooking for her. Yoroi Musha had made sure to mention that several times. There was apparently red tape that they'd have to wade through to officially join the investigation if they hadn't been involved in helping with one of the documented crimes.
And no, the fact that Ochako was the only one who had actually interacted with the primary suspect in any non-violent way apparently did not help them get through that red tape. For some reason. No crime, no dice.
Yoroi Musha didn't sound frustrated by any of this, simply resigned. Apparently several decades in the hero business could lead to that sort of reaction.
Regardless, just because they hadn't officially joined the investigation didn't mean that they wouldn't go after the Vampire of Koenji if she happened to show up. After all, the two of them had had a close encounter with her on one of Yoroi Musha's normal patrol routes just the night before.
Ochako could tell a difference in the way that Yoroi Musha carried himself compared to the day before. He was still taking the time to explain his own view on heroism to Ochako and how it applied to day to day work like this, but it was clear that he was keeping at least half of his attention on the alleyways and darkened side streets.
More than once he had gone searching down an alleyway with Ochako on his heels, checking for a noise that he had claimed to hear. Ochako had never heard anything, but it didn't escape her that his explanation for these noises, stray cats, was exactly what he had expected the night before.
The fourth time they headed down an alleyway, however, Ochako had actually heard something. And this time, it wasn't a random clatter of a trash can, like it had been the night before. A man had shouted, as if in surprise, and it had echoed down the alleyway just in time for the two of them to hear it.
"You heard that one, Uravity?" She nodded. "This is again likely nothing, but worth checking out. Stay behind me, and stay quiet."
Ochako did her best to remain silent, stalking through the alley behind her supervisor. No matter how she tried, though, she couldn't manage to be quite as quiet as the hulking man, despite the armor that he wore. As they continued down the narrow alleyway, they eventually heard conversation from deeper between the buildings. It was still far enough away that Ochako couldn't make out the exact words.
Eventually, the alley opened up somewhat to form something of a courtyard, away from any of the rear and maintenance entrances to the surrounding apartment buildings. Five men stood in the darkness of the courtyard, illuminated only by the moon above and the ambient light from the buildings around them.
It was hard to make out any details about them in the dim lighting, but one appeared to be exceptionally tall and wide, while another two had mutations of some sort. One was some sort of bird mutation, or perhaps a lizard, while another had obvious dog or wolf-like features. The three non-mutants all appeared to be wearing masks of some sort, but it was hard to tell in the dark.
Ochako stopped at Yoroi Musha's signal and the two watched and listened for a moment.
"How… how much?" The one with the possible bird mutation spoke, stumbling a bit over his words. Even in silhouette, Ochako could see signs of extreme tension in his body language.
"Fifty five thousand for one vial, an even hundred thousand for two." Came the response. One of the masked men held his hand out to the side and the dog mutant opened a suitcase, handing him something small. Presumably a vial. "It's pure, too. So, what's it gonna be?"
"Stay put." Yoroi Musha's voice was low and soft, such that even Ochako, standing right next to him, could barely hear. As the deal in front of them continued, the hero crept forward, sticking to the shadows as much as possible. Unfortunately, the ears on the dog mutant were not just for show. As Yoroi Musha snuck forward, the man's head swung directly towards where the elderly hero was hiding.
Yoroi Musha didn't even give the man a chance to raise a cry of alarm before he shot off at the drug dealers as if he was shot out of a cannon. A spectral war hammer appeared in his hands as he struck first at the largest man present, connecting with him solidly in the ribs and sending him sprawling to the ground.
At that, the remaining four men jumped into action themselves. The two non-mutated men startled, not having noticed Yoroi Musha before now, but quickly composed themselves, reaching for weapons. The tense bird or lizard mutant immediately turned to flee, jumping on one of the walls and scrambling up the surface. Huh, probably a lizard mutant then.
Yoroi Musha's war hammer warped and shifted immediately into a staff, and he swung it at the dog mutant, first at his hands and knees, before following up with a sharp blow to his head. The suitcase clattered to the ground just an instant before the thug followed, unconscious.
As Yoroi Musha turned to the last two thugs, though, a gunshot rang out and Ochako's breath caught in her throat. One of the two had pulled a handgun and shot at Yoroi Musha at point blank range.
The bullet slammed into Yoroi Musha's quirk just inches from his body. He had reshaped his spectral staff into a tower shield nearly instantly to block the first bullet. Ochako ignored the immediate question of how a shield counted as a weapon for his quirk. Instead, she watched as Yoroi Musha rushed towards the two remaining standing men, using his shield to knock the two of them to the ground.
That answered her question about shields being used as weapons.
Yoroi Musha raised his hands, the shield forming back into a staff to incapacitate the two prone men in front of him. Before he could bring the staff down, however, the brute he had knocked down at the beginning rushed him from behind.
Despite the massive hammer blow that had laid him out earlier, the mountain of a man seemed entirely unaffected. He was able to catch Yoroi Musha's arms from underneath, lifting the hero off the ground as if he weighed nothing at all.
Yoroi Musha, to his credit, did not simply let this happen. He struck out at the man holding him up with a series of kicks to the man's knees and ribs where he had already been struck. The larger man stumbled, but kept his hold on Yoroi Musha, at least for the moment. If anything, it looked like his grip on the hero got stronger.
While the dog-headed villain remained unconscious on the ground, the other two picked themselves up off the ground, retrieving their handguns from where Yoroi Musha had knocked them to the ground. Just as Ochako was about to break from the shadows, if only for a distraction to give Yoroi Musha a chance to escape the submission hold that he was in, someone else did it for her.
A man wearing the uniform of a convenience store worker suddenly burst into the courtyard, knocking over several metal trash bins and freezing in surprise at the melee in front of him. There was a brief lull in the fight as all four of the combatants realized that they were not alone.
Yoroi Musha was the first to overcome his surprise and took advantage of the briefly looser hold of the large man behind him. The hero ripped his way out of the grapple and swung his hand around, his weapon forming once again into a hammer, this time aiming at the large man's head.
Ochako winced as the hammer connected with a dull thud. The heavyset man fell, completely insensate, and despite how violent the man had been, Ochako found herself hoping desperately that she hadn't just seen her supervisor kill a man. The two remaining villains began to back up, now both brandishing handguns, aiming at the interloper.
Without even thinking about it, Ochako sprang forward out of her hiding space, grabbing the arm of the man and pulling him away from the battleground. Gunshots rang out, only for the bullets to come to a dead halt as they encountered Yoroi Musha's shield.
As Ochako pulled the man away, she realized that the man's arm was wet where she was grabbing him. The sounds of the fight were quickly fading behind them, Yoroi Musha was dangerous in melee, after all, but Ochako was worried that the civilian had gotten hit with a bullet in the crossfire.
"Are you hurt?" Ochako asked as she turned around. She had expected to find blood on the man's arm. Instead, she found the man's arm covered in a gray sludge. In fact, if anything the man's entire body was covered in the same gray sludge, slowly sloughing down his body.
Golden eyes stared back at Ochako, glinting from the hints of light in the distance, as the rest of the man's face dissolved into that same gray sludge. Fear pooled in those eyes as the man pulled away, the sludge on his arm making it easy to evade Ochako's grasp.
As the man ran, Ochako could see the sludge falling away, revealing a much smaller, feminine frame underneath.
Once again, without thinking, Ochako ran after her. Those eyes were the same as she had seen on the girl from yesterday, and Ochako wanted to make sure that she was alright.
---
Himiko ran, her own hunger nipping at her heels.
Sometimes it felt like she had been running from her hunger for her entire life. The only time when she had felt free, when she had felt content, was the few months she had had with Mr. Stain.
Stain was not a nice man by any means, but he had shared his food and water with Himiko. More importantly he had shared blood with her. It was probably the one time in her entire life that she had truly been without hunger.
Somehow the killer (and Himiko knew he was a killer, she just didn't care) had known at a glance that her quirk required her to drink blood. And he hadn't cared. That in and of itself was a revelation to Himiko. The first time he had thrown her a blood bag and told her to drink was the first time that anyone had freely given her blood.
But now he was gone, simply having disappeared one night. Oh, sure, she knew roughly where he had gone, but it was hard enough finding him once. It was obvious that he didn't want her to follow. He had abandoned her just like everyone else in her life. She had decided long ago that she was going to kill him, so she wasn't particularly surprised at the abandonment.
Himiko continued to run, the memory of brown eyes creased in worry flooding her head.
She liked to think that she could manage a good understanding of people just by looking at them, their eyes in particular. Everyone said that eyes were the gateway to the soul, and Himiko believed it.
There was a difference between most people and the few who would offer her some money or food on the streets. Just as there was a difference between most people and those who would call the police or a hero on her just for existing. Himiko needed to be able to find the former and avoid the latter at all costs.
Transforming often gave her a bit of extra leeway, but she was still wary of most people. This girl had seen her in her true form twice now, and the look deep in her eyes hadn't shifted once.
Himiko was in love!
Ruthlessly Himiko pushed that emotion down. It wasn't love! It was a mistake!
The only other person that had made her feel like that was Saito. Pure, heroic Saito.
Saito had had kind eyes, once, but that wasn't what Himiko remembered. All she remembered were his dull, lifeless eyes once she had sucked all of his blood out.
His blood had been delicious. Being Saito, feeling every succulent inch of his body as her own had been even more delicious.
But Himiko couldn't do that any more. She'd run out of blood, after all. And there was no way to get more, not with Saito dead. She couldn't let herself do that to herself again: fall in love and lose her means of becoming her lover.
Himiko arrived at the makeshift shelter she'd been sleeping in for the past several weeks and took stock of her limited belongings: her old middle school uniform, a pair of box cutters, and a pile of rags that she used as a blanket when things got too cold, all stored inside a large cardboard box.
Even with how fast she had run, she likely didn't have time to get dressed before the hero with the kind brown eyes caught up to her. Himiko didn't mind being naked, she loved her body, but she would stand out more that way. In addition to her clothes, there was absolutely no way she was going to leave her box cutters behind. Rags and boxes, though, were easy enough to track down if you knew what you were doing.
Before she could do more than pick up one of her knives, though, Himiko heard footsteps and heavy breathing from behind her. Her heart rate spiked and she whirled around, holding one of her precious knives up in front of her to fend off the hero. Himiko unconsciously bore her teeth and backed away as the familiar bob of brown hair entered the dead end where her lair was located.
To their credit, the hero didn't even look at the knife, keeping her eyes locked on Himiko's own. And Himiko was drowning in those eyes. There was so much warmth, care, understanding floating in those eyes. The desire to help was painted all across the hero's face, and Himiko found herself sinking deeper in love. The girl was talking, but Himiko wasn't listening, torn between exulting in the tones of her voice and escaping as quickly as she could.
Eventually, Himiko was able to tear herself away from the hero's brown eyes to try and assess the situation. She was immediately distracted, however, by the girl's costume and body. The first time the two had encountered each other, Himiko had noted the skin tight costume that the girl wore; it would be impossible not to.
This time, though, Himiko was able to take in exactly how toned and perfectly proportioned the girl was. Beyond that, the desire to help, to protect Himiko was etched in every detail of the girl's stance. More and more Himiko could not deny that she loved this girl. And if what she was seeing was any indication, Himiko would love being this girl.
Himiko restrained herself from leaping forward and trying to drink this girl's blood right then and there. No! No killing! If the girl dies, then Himiko would run out of blood again one day! That was unacceptable!
Unfortunately for her chances at escape, Himiko allowed herself to be distracted long enough for additional heroes to show up: two that she recognized and one that she didn't. It was uncommon for anyone not to recognize Yoroi Musha and Wash, two of the most widely advertised heroes in the country.
"Uravity. Step away from the villain." Yoroi Musha's voice was like gravel, but Himiko rejoiced in his voice. Uravity! She had a name! A hero name, but better than nothing.
Himiko was in love with Uravity!
It was only then that Himiko noticed the ghostly sword in Yoroi Musha's hand, the hard glint in his eyes beneath his mask. The other two heroes wore costumes that obscured their faces, but what Himiko saw in Yoroi Musha's face was bad enough. Harsh judgment was all that Himiko saw in his eyes, and she knew that deep down, he found her wanting.
She blinked, and Uravity was suddenly between her and the elderly hero, arms thrown wide. Irritation flared in Yoroi Musha's eyes and even from the back, Himiko could see Uravity set her jaw in determination. They were arguing about something, but Himiko couldn't find it in herself to pay attention to their words. She knew that was a sign of her exhaustion and starvation catching up with her, but all she could focus on was Uravity.
Her muscular back.
Her principled stand to protect Himiko.
Her succulent neck, jugular pulsing with fresh, delicious, beautiful blood.
Rivers of red blood, all the more delectable by the fact that it belonged to this warrior angel of a woman. This valkyrie descended from on high to protect her.
It was a widening of Yoroi Musha's eyes that let Himiko know she had moved, creeping towards Uravity, preparing to bite.
No! Bad Himiko! She needed something to salvage the situation.
"You see, she was about to attack you as well!" Yoroi Musha's words finally broke through Himiko's fog, and she looked at where she was. Uravity was looking at her once again, confusion mixed with concern, but oddly enough, no fear. "You two interns should leave. Wash and I will deal with this."
No. That was the worst case scenario! Then she would never see Uravity again! Himiko took another half step towards her, trying to hide from Yoroi Musha's merciless glare. Of the two other heroes, the other apparent intern had the good grace to at least look uncomfortable in his body language.
"Look at her, she's naked and terrified!" Uravity protested. "She deserves at least the chance to get dressed for crying out loud!" Himiko had honestly forgotten that she was naked. Still, though, Uravity's concern was just endearing her more and more to Himiko.
"I…" Himiko barely spoke these days, and her vocal cords protested their sudden use. "I'll stay. And come quietly. As long as Uravity stays."
There was an awkward silence. It was made more awkward by Yoroi Musha and Wash having a short conversation entirely in sign language. Eventually, though, the elderly hero sighed and agreed.
Himiko couldn't be happier. She had been afraid of heroes for so long, but if she had to be taken in by them, at least it would be by Uravity. Her heroine, dressed in pink and black. If only she had gotten a chance to see her bloodied.
In all of her obsession with Uravity, Himiko did not once again look in the eyes of Yoroi Musha. If she had, she would have seen that they had never changed from harsh judgment, not even once he had agreed to let Uravity help.
---
The first sign that Yosetsu noticed to tell him that something was going wrong was Rock Lock suddenly halting in the middle of a block, his hand to his ear. Glancing about, nothing immediately seemed wrong. People still milled about, although not too many given the hour and location. Rock Lock had aimed their patrol route away from the city center, towards the outskirts of the ward, after their run in with Endeavor.
The second sign that something was going wrong was much more obvious: the sudden collapse of the Team Idaten agency tower roughly five blocks away. On the northern side of the ward, the tower could be seen from nearly anywhere, and Rock Lock had been using the silvery crescent moon atop the Idaten tower as a landmark for their patrol.
The roar of the collapsing building momentarily drowned out any other sounds, echoing and bouncing between buildings, before dying out, leaving the streets eerily silent. All of the pedestrians that had been out and about stared at the suddenly empty spot in the skyline that used to belong to the hero agency's logo. In the distance, past the dust kicked up by the collapse, Yosetsu could see the tell-tale glow of fires starting up in the distance.
After a moment, Yosetsu tore his gaze from the disaster unfolding in front of him to steal a glance at Rock Lock. His supervisor had made it very clear that if he had had his way, Yosetsu would not be present at all at anything more involved than a purse snatching. However, this was a massive emergency, and urban rescue was what Yosetsu wanted to specialize in. Rock Lock had his hand back to his ear, face severe as he played with his communications device, which did not fill Yosetsu with confidence.
"HeroNET is down. Before it went down, there were at least three reported sightings of nomu." Rock Lock announced, and Yosetsu's stomach dropped. He had only had a short interaction with a nomu before passing out at the USJ, but based on what his classmates' experiences, he wasn't eager to encounter them again. "This is a coordinated attack, and I will not bring a first year into such a dangerous villain attack."
"But…" Yosetsu prepared to argue that he wanted to help, but Rock Lock cut him off.
"No, no arguments. There is a police station three blocks away. I will leave you there before going to help with rescue efforts. Follow me, quickly now!"
Without waiting for a response, Rock Lock began sprinting away, directly away from the collapsed building. After a moment of hesitation, heart pulling him to ignore his supervisor and rush to the fallen Idaten tower to help rescue any survivors, Yosetsu reluctantly followed Rock Lock.
In the interest of time, presumably, Rock Lock ducked down an alleyway, dodging trash bins and assorted refuse. Yosetsu was somewhat less agile, and Rock Lock slowed down to allow him to catch up, turning to encourage him to move faster.
It was lucky that he did, because only the slight turn of his body prevented Stain from killing him on the spot. Instead, as Stain fell blade first onto Rock Lock, his katana took the hero in the shoulder, puncturing a lung, but nothing that was immediately fatal.
Rock Lock, despite being caught by surprise, reacted instantaneously, dropping to the ground with the blow to dampen its impact. As Stain withdrew the katana, Rock Lock rolled towards a wall, using his quirk to staunch the blood flow from his shoulder the best he could. He may have been caught by surprise, but he was still a veteran pro hero that had fought hard to get to where he was.
"What a shame. I had been planning to Cull Native tonight, but I cannot overlook Fakery of the magnitude you just displayed. Coward! Running from those in need! You have been Judged and found dearly wanting, Rock Lock!" Stain preached as Rock Lock slowly pushed himself to his feet. Just as the hero took his feet, Stain licked the blood off of his blade and Rock Lock fell back to the ground, unable to move, blood leaking from his mouth.
"Run. Run now." Rock Lock croaked out towards Yosetsu.
"Rock Lock!" Yosetsu couldn't help himself but yell out at the sight of his mentor's unmoving body. With a contemptuous, almost casual backhand, Stain threw a knife directly at Yosetsu, hitting him in the left knee. The pain that bloomed in Yosetsu's leg was spectacular, almost causing him to fall, narrowly catching himself on the alley wall.
"You are young enough that your Spark of Heroism has not yet been smothered. It would be a pity if I had to Cull you as well. Stay there. You will be fine with medical treatment. If you decide to interfere, I can't be held responsible for my actions." Stain stalked towards Rock Lock, katana held at the ready.
For a moment, all Yosetsu could see was the fear in Rock Lock's eyes. It wasn't just the terror of a man facing his iminent demise. It was deeper than that, mixed with sadness. The sorrow of a man who knew that his child would be growing up without a father. Yosetsu couldn't take it.
He reached down and reached out with his quirk, welding Stain's boots to the pavement beneath them. "He has a family, you fucking monster! Would you take a father away from a child, you goddamned madman?"
After a moment of pulling on his boots and looking down at them curiously, Stain focused his gaze on Yosetsu. The sheer hatred in the man's eyes was enough to freeze him where he stood.
"All the more reason that he should die!" Stain spoke with a sneer. "A family is a Distraction, a Luxury that True Heroes should never indulge in. All Might is the standard against which all Heroes must be Measured."
"You're fucking insane!"
"Perhaps!" Stain snapped his wrist and another throwing knife embedded itself in Yosetsu, this time in his right hand. This time, the pain dropped Yosetsu to his good knee, still slouched against the wall. "But you have shown the Seed of True Heroism, protecting without care for your own well being. It's a shame that you have decided to place yourself between me and a Fake. For that, you will die, but you will die more honorable than most."
"He's a child!" Rock Lock managed to speak out, voice weak and blood running down his chin. "Kill me if you must, but let him go!"
Stain steadfastly ignored the paralyzed hero, instead bending down to unstrap his boots and pull his bare feet from them. Fighting through the pain, Yosetsu prepared to once again weld the serial killer to the ground, this time by his bare feet.
He never got the chance, as Stain leapt from his perch atop his boots to a trash can, off a wall, to a fire escape. The pain in his right hand was so much that he couldn't track the serial killer fast enough to use his quirk on any of the surfaces that he touched on before Stain had already moved on to the next one.
"Goddammit, stay still for just one fucking second!" Yosetsu cried out, more out of frustration and pain than anything else.
A moment later, Stain landed directly in front of him, eyes blazing. On instinct, Yosetsu pushed himself backwards with his one good leg and fell inelegantly to the ground. He counted himself lucky, though, as it meant that he escaped Stain's attack with just a slash on the chest, just deep enough to cut through his padded chest piece and draw a little bit of blood.
Stain did not, however, advance towards Yosetsu, but rather raised his sword to his lips and once again licked it. Immediately, Yosetsu's body seized up, only his mouth still able to move. That must be his quirk, some type of blood-based paralysis. It didn't matter, though, because Yosetsu had missed his chance. Stain could still move. Any moment now, he was sure to step forward and finish the job.
Oddly, though, Stain remained where he was. "Interesting. You have the instincts of a True Hero, at least." Yosetsu stared defiantly at Stain, unwilling to look away from his coming doom. "You have earned yourself one last chance. Do not waste it."
With that, Stain turned again, stalking back towards Rock Lock, his face set. "This Fake, however, will not receive the same courtesy. He dies now."
No matter how Yosetsu strained and struggled, he couldn't manage to free himself from the man's quirk. He could barely feel his right hand at this point, and his left hand wasn't in any position to touch the ground and stop Stain.
Instead, he tried what he had not managed in his earlier training with Rock Lock. With all of his remaining strength he tried to weld Stain to the air. Yosetsu took everything he had left and pushed it into his left hand, willing with all of his might to stop Stain in his tracks.
For a moment he felt something catch, the typical sign that he had succeeded. Stain even stopped mid-stride, suddenly unable to move.
For two seconds Yosetsu managed to keep a hold on the serial killer.
Then his head exploded in pain, and blood began to pour from his nose, eyes, and ears. Through blood blurred vision, Yosetsu could just make out Stain once again continue his march towards Rock Lock as his control over his quirk faded.
---
Standing in front of Izuku was something that he thought he'd never see again: the eyeless nomu from the USJ. There were some differences, true, in the length of its arms and the slender metal protrusions from the back of its elbows, but there was no mistaking the sheer aura of otherness that the thing gave off. For a moment, Izuku could only remember the USJ, the smell of blood in the air, the feeling of that same nomu's bones breaking beneath his fist. Thankfully, for the time being, it was simply standing stock still, apparently waiting for an order.
Gran Torino, at least, had no such compunctions, using his quirk to kick the door of the car out of his way and blast out as quickly as he could.
"Out of the car. Now." Sir Nighteye spoke calmly from the front seat, unbuckling his belt and exiting in a composed manner. That was enough to shake Izuku from his shock and return him to the moment. This wasn't the USJ, there was room to evacuate if necessary, and plenty of opportunities to call for help if and when needed.
Taking that to heart and ignoring the pounding of his head, Izuku copied Sir Nighteye and exited the car in a composed manner, taking a simple fighting stance next to him. Their training session that morning had gone only mildly better for Izuku than his training against Gran Torino. He'd had no more success in actually landing a solid hit on the tall, lanky man than he had against the elderly pro, but he'd been kicked far fewer times. For the time being, Izuku was counting that as a win.
"Nuh uh, kid." Gran Torino spoke up from his perch on top of the car. "This is serious right here. You're on civilian duty. Make sure everyone is a safe distance away. We don't know what this guy is planning on doing. Use your quirk to get them to safety, if you need to."
"I've fought him before! I can help!" Izuku tried to argue back.
"You will be of more assistance making sure civilians don't get too close to us." Sir Nighteye added, a hint of tension lurking underneath the steady tones of his voice. "We…"
Whatever the hero had been about to say was interrupted by the sudden movement of the nomu in front of them. It raised its right arm and the spike from the back of its elbow raced forward, ultimately erupting from the center of its palm. The nomu speared a nearby empty car with the spike, easily hefting it and hurling it towards the highway off ramp nearby.
The spike had presumably pierced the gas tank of the car, as it landed in an explosive fireball, immediately causing chaos on the highway beyond them. It was as if a spell had been lifted, and the civilians inside the nearby McDonald's began to panic, streaming out of the building and away from the nomu.
"Make sure they stay safe!" With that, Gran Torino was off, delivering a kick to the nomu's head faster than Izuku could track. The beast's head snapped back and rotated nearly one eighty degrees with an audible crack, but it simply turned the rest of its body back into alignment with its head, muscles and bones visibly rearranging themselves under its skin.
Ignoring Gran Torino, the beast reached out towards a second car, but Sir Nighteye was there, flinging several of his weighted seals at the nomu's arm with enough force to snap it in several locations. The eyeless monstrosity seemed briefly confused about why its arm was not working correctly before sweeping it towards Sir Nighteye and Gran Torino, forcing the two heroes away.
Izuku, meanwhile, focused on doing the best job he could in herding the panicking civilians away from the fight taking place right in front of them. Gran Torino was attacking the nomu with impunity, but none of his attacks seemed like they were doing any permanent damage. Sir Nighteye was faring even worse, with only his weighted seals able to even momentarily slow the creature down. Thankfully the two of them were quite adept at dodging, as even a single blow from the nomu would likely be enough to cripple or kill either of them.
And it wasn't just punches that the two were dodging. The nomu was perfectly happy to use the spikes in its arms to extend its range, or to throw cars at the two heroes around it. Several of those cars had exploded as they impacted the buildings surrounding them, which made Izuku wonder if the nomu was purposefully piercing gas tanks, or if it was just a coincidence. As Izuku herded the workers and customers away from the rapidly growing battleground, he saw more than one of them wince at the growing destruction behind them.
While most of the civilians had followed his shouted instructions and evacuated the area on foot, as Izuku looked back, he found that one of them had decided to make a break for their car. It was on the opposite side of the McDonald's from where the nomu was rampaging, and so hadn't yet been used as ammunition in the melee. Izuku supposed he could understand getting to the car and trying to get away more quickly.
What he couldn't understand was why the driver decided to try and escape the chaos by driving towards the nomu. Izuku pushed his quirk to twelve percent to rush towards the car and try to convince the driver to evacuate away from the rampaging monster.
He wasn't fast enough.
The nomu shot a spike at the car, spearing it and flinging both it and its screaming driver towards Gran Torino. The elderly hero was easily able to dodge out of the way, but neither he nor Sir Nighteye had any way of stopping the car and saving its driver.
So Izuku moved. Kicking off with a sizable fraction of his stockpiled energy from Fa Jin, Izuku was able to easily out pace the flying car and land in front of it near where it was about to land. Izuku braced himself and reached out with One For All flared as high as he dared, up to fifteen percent.
The car crumpled as it hit his hands as much of the impact was dampened by the design of the car. Izuku was pushed back slightly from the impact, but managed to bring the car to a stop before it crashed into the ground and went rolling. It quickly became clear that the gas tank had once again been pierced, as gasoline began accumulating on the ground under the car.
Izuku put the car down and tore off the driver's side door. The gas tank was punctured and most of the front of the car had been ruined when Izuku caught it; removing the door wasn't going to meaningfully add to the damage of the car. The airbag had deployed and the driver was resting on it, apparently still in psychological shock but physically healthy.
A sudden break in the background noise of Gran Torino's and Sir Nighteye's fight with the nomu stole Izuku's attention away from the civilian for just a moment. At least, he intended it to be for just a moment.
When he found the nomu facing him, head cocked to the side as if it were inspecting him with its non-existent eyes, Izuku froze. There was something uncannily eerie about a monster with no eyes apparently inspecting him with all the body language of a large dog.
Izuku planned to go back to helping the civilian out of the car when the nomu roared, a deep, guttural, cacophonous sound, several different voices mixing together in discord. It was enough to chill his blood.
A moment later, the nomu shot towards Izuku, one hand outstretched. Gran Torino, thankfully, was there to momentarily distract the nomu with a flurry of kicks. Izuku tore the seatbelt from the car so he could extract the driver, but before he could remove the man, Sir Nighteye was at his side.
"You need to leave, Bastion, now." Sir Nighteye kept his eyes on the fight between Gran Torino and the nomu. His voice was hard and brooked no argument. "That nomu is after you, for some reason. Gran Torino and I can keep it occupied if you leave. You have full permission to use your quirk as you see fit to escape, just promise me that you will not let anything distract you."
"I…"
"Promise me, Bastion." Sir Nighteye continued, ignoring Izuku's interjection. "That you will evacuate yourself as quickly as possible. If we are correct about the creator of these nomu, then you will understand why it is imperative for you to not make yourself a target."
"I… I promise." Izuku nodded firmly to show that he understood. He hadn't thought about why one of the nomu might be particularly interested in him but as soon as Sir Nighteye prompted him to think about what All For One might be planning, all manner of unpleasant scenarios came to mind.
"Good. Now go!" The nomu pulled away from Gran Torino for a moment and lunged in Izuku's direction. One of Sir Nighteye's weighted seals took the beast in its kneecap, making it stumble and fall to the ground briefly. "Go!"
Izuku didn't need any more prompting. He didn't know the city particularly well and with no better option, simply ran in the exact opposite direction of the nomu, ignoring major streets and keeping to the alleyways where he could. He kept One For All to a solid ten percent so he could get away as quickly as he could.
As the sounds of the fight with the eyeless nomu faded behind him, Izuku allowed himself a moment of hope that he had escaped. As he ducked into the fourth alleyway of his escape, though, his hopes fell through the floor.
On the ground in front of him in the middle of the alleyway lay Awase, face covered in blood. In front of him was Stain, standing over Rock Lock, katana raised high above his head ready to stab the hero. Neither Rock Lock nor Awase were moving, although both still seemed to be alive.
Without even a thought to his promise to Sir Nighteye, Izuku flung himself towards the serial killer, a kick aimed to disarm him. Unfortunately, in his haste, Izuku made enough noise kicking off that Stain was able to lean away from the kick and keep a hold of his sword.
The kick still did connect though, sending Stain sliding down the alleyway, past Rock Lock. "What do we have here?" The serial killer rasped. "Another child sticking their nose where it doesn't belong."
"Rock Lock, Synthesis, are you alright?" Izuku decided to ignore Stain's goading for the time being. He wouldn't be able to evacuate the two of them while Stain was still in the alleyway, and he needed information and a moment to plan.
"We're alive, Bastion, but can't move." Awase grunted. "Watch the blades. It happened after he cut me. Probably a quirk based on blood." Good to know, but not necessarily correct. The paralysis could still be from poisoned weapons. No one was entirely sure what Stain's quirk was, after all. Either way, Izuku had even more of a reason than normal to avoid the man's blades.
"Are you here to defend this Fake?" Stain demanded, gesturing to Rock Lock.
"I'm here to stop you from killing anyone, fake or not." Izuku replied. He was more than willing to take the moment of distraction to plan further. Despite One For All coursing through his veins, Izuku was rather pessimistic of his odds in facing Stain by himself. "A hero protects everyone, no matter the circumstances!"
"Ah ha! Well spoken! You have Promise, boy! Step aside and I will let you live this night. Otherwise you will be Culled alongside both of these Fakes!" There was a sheen of madness in Stain's eyes as he spoke, as though he thought he was preaching to a much larger crowd. It did mean that he wasn't paying total attention to Izuku though.
He took advantage of this, reaching into the pouch that his phone sat in. Using muscle memory, he swapped over to his classes group chat and blindly sent out his gps location. He wasn't confident in being able to legibly type out a longer message and hoped that someone nearby would understand what he was saying.
Shortly thereafter, Awase's phone buzzed with a new message and Izuku let out a breath. Hopefully he would have reinforcements soon.
"If I stepped aside, I wouldn't be a hero at all, now would I? What would stop you from killing me as a fake then?"
Stain broke out laughing at Izuku's question, the laugh of a madman. "Absolutely nothing! But now, you're standing between me and my Prey!" He hefted his katana, pointing it at Izuku. "So now, you will die."