AnarionRising27 - Thank you :D

Shahryar - I'd like to say you're wrong, but damn, I'd be lying xd

Old Herobrine - I read that fanfic, I think.

fuunu - Yes, it's fun to read about, it's not fun to live inside it xd

yomunot - just don't dig too deep

detrametal - you'll have them answered... eventually :v

(***)

In the end, Midoriya left Toga's safehouse with a knowledge on how to make things invisible to the Non-Initiated and on how to make a warding glyph. So, a basic defensive magic. Apparently putting those on a door or a window or a wall was going to keep supernatural nasties at bay.

Very weak ones. The 'merely' weak ones were only going to be delayed. Anything stronger, according to Toga, was going to just walk through them, barely impeded. But, apparently, Midoriya had too low of a profile to attract strong things to himself.

Toga also blabbered out rather freely about all the parts of Musutafu that counted as 'danger zones'. Izuku took mental notes despite, at the time, not really buying her story.

The forest by the trail going around one of the two lakes between which Musutafu lies. The park near the same lake (at night). The small isle on said lake (at any hour, it was apparently a really bad lake). Cemetery (at night). The local hospital (at night). Certain parts of the forest (with a small pond) between the other lake and the major bypass road (at night). A ruined old court and an abandoned factory on the opposite of the road, right next to the short river connecting two lakes. At any hour.

Also the UA was apparently a very big NOPE, at least alone, at night OR outside of the 'non-Initiated' zone. The whole campus was several times bigger than the non-Initiates knew, large swathes of it covered under some space distortion magic. The Black Course students had their 'combat training areas' rather close at hand.

The fact that Himiko Toga was living alone on UA, roaming through it at night and probably going to the non-Initiated zones when she fancied that was… intimidating. Almost as much as the discovery that she was a serial killer.

Generally speaking, not leaving your house at night (or at least sticking to well-lit and police patrolled areas) was a logical of not getting molested and/or murdered by something. When asked about the police bit, she explained that when something attacks a Non-Initiated, Censor' temporarily lifts the Veil in order to allow them to defend themselves.

If they survive, they forget everything and their injuries are explained otherwise. Guns were, apparently, a problem to the nasties, at least weak AND physical ones. Not a big one, but bad enough for most of them to consider hunting there to not be worth the effort.

He also got her phone number. She told him to phone and/or message her if he ran into something odd. After discovering that he got a phone number of a serial killer, Midoriya made a vow to only call her if his life was in active danger.

Somehow, he returned home, without noticing anything actually supernatural (well, except for two more Shades, none which were familiar to him). Which made perfect sense. His house was ten minutes away from the UA and, according to Toga, it was essentially an almost zero threat area. The faculty was scary enough.

He lived on the first floor of a small apartment building at the corner of the street. Those weren't very populous streets, it was the type of area where you get a car per minute during the day on average. It bordered a large undeveloped area and a small pond. Lots of untrimmed grass and some dirt tracks letting you get to a few places without having to listen to car engines.

The flat was composed of a kitchen annex, bathroom, a bedroom (that he lived in), a small mixture between a living room and a bedroom (his dad slept there on one of those couches that could be changed into a bed at will), and a balcony. Both the bedroom and the mixture room were connected by it.

Kitchen annex was adjacent to the mixture (aka living) room. Bathroom was closer to the bedroom. In all, small, but quite comfy and not very pricey.

His father wasn't there. Long hours of work. Midoriya decided against calling him. What was he supposed to tell him, either way? Even if he told him the truth, Hisashi Midoriya would forget everything due to Censor doing its magic. Same thing with Kacchan, and he didn't have an awful lot of other acquaintances.

He could only hope that his father and Kacchan weren't Shades. It would be… honestly, even thinking of it was rather terrifying.

He quickly prepared some food for himself. Then he took out the odd chalk that Toga gave him, one that could apparently draw on everything and was magical enough for non-initiates (apparently the 'proper' term for them was dreamers, mundanes or normies) to not see them.

Then he began to draw the warding glyphs on the balcony window and entrance doors. From the outside. According to Toga, Censor would make mundanes think that he was cleaning those.

Odd. Useful, but odd.

(***)

Midoriya, thoroughly exhausted by the day, decided to do what he liked doing to relax. Well, one of the few things. Even playing videogames felt like something too tiring, so instead, he sat on the chair on the balcony. With a book (until it turned too dark) and his phone, plus some snacks.

The street beneath the balcony was empty. He was about to return inside (it was not only dark out there - it was 10pm after all - but also it was getting quite cold) when he noticed it. Someone was standing on the pavement, maybe fifty meters away from him. A human, but he couldn't quite make out any details because the lamp directly above it stopped working.

He could have sworn that this lamp worked a minute ago, and shouldn't the figure be illuminated by the remaining lamps a bit more than… that? Surely, it was…

The figure began to walk towards Midoriya. The next lamp in line suddenly flickered out and died.

Oh. Oh shit. It can't be…

Something was wrong. He could feel his hair stand on end, the profound feeling of an almost existential fear overtaking him when his eyes rested on the figure, the…

It wants to hurt him, doesn't it?

So much about his neighborhood being a 'safe area'. Just his luck, isn't it?

He grabs his phone and dives through the balcony door, shutting them close behind himself. The other balcony door was certainly closed. The same with the entrance door. All three had warding glyphs on them, it should be enough, right?

He covered the balcony doors in curtains in a hurry, he didn't want to see whatever that thing was in detail (what if 'sanity damage' was a thing?). He quickly sent a message to Toga that something was trying to get inside his house (he hated relaying on her, and it was probably a suicide, but whatever was out there felt like a threat and he was basically powerless so…)

Chibi, their house cat, hisses loudly. Her head facing the covered windows. Midoriya turned his head towards whatever the cat was hissing at, and…

He could see the outline of something humanoid standing behind the curtains. A second before it threw itself against the glass with some inhuman screeching. The glyph on the balcony door glows brightly for a moment, enough to be visible through the curtain. The glow then subsides, but… when, after another horrifyingly loud wail another attack happens, it returns.

Except, a part of the glyph is no longer glowing. And after the third slam, the glyph is clearly missing another chunk of the glow. Midoriya realizes that the glyph is running out of juice, so whatever the thing is, it's about to get inside.

Plan B it is.

He grabs Chibi (ouch, stop fighting, I'm on your side dammit), shoves her into the bathroom and locks the door. He pulls out the chalk and quickly scribbles another warding glyph on the bedroom door, on the side facing whatever's trying to get in.

He quickly locks the bedroom door, looks through the visor on the entrance door (nothing there) and runs out of home.

He can only hope that the creature will not go after his cat (he didn't have enough time to draw another glyph on the bathroom door). Or after himself. The latter, admittedly, has a slightly higher priority for Midoriya at the moment. But he left the entrance door open, so there is a fair chance that the pursuer will follow him instead of getting into the bathroom.

He fled the building through the main entrance. It was a risk - it was under the balcony, but he could still hear the wails and scratches from the inside of his house, the attacker clearly trying to get through the bedroom door.

But going around would make him miss Toga, and he had no idea how fast the attacker could pursue him. They needed to join hands as soon as possible (he can only hope that she won't be the person to kill him, but it's not like he has Todoroki's phone number and it's not like there is a big chance of him coming to the rescue).

So he runs. Thankfully, whatever's at his home, doesn't try to pursue him. He ran into Toga a minute later. He was about to leave his street, when she suddenly ran out from behind the corner, wearing a slightly tattered hoodie and a crimson facemask.

It really feels like he just ran into a wall. What the hell was she made of? Yes, she almost trips, but… still a major oof moment on his side.

If he expected something serious, he was solely disappointed.

"H-hey!" She yells back at him. "At least ask me out first, sheesh." He isn't going to entertain that.

"Sorry!" He quickly replies, before turning his head back. Yeah, nothing was following him. "Uhm, are we going there now? My cat's inside, and…"

"You have a cat? Cool." Her ability to focus on the least important things is truly inspirational. "Explains the sm… errr, we aren't going anywhere until you tell me what you saw. Walking blindly into danger is a bad idea." So… an improved sense of smell? He notes it down for future reference.

He describes the thing to the best of his abilities. The screeching, the lights blinking out when it was under them, the wailing, the repeated slams into the balcony door.

"That tells me absolutely nothing, really." She replies once he finishes. "Might be some form of a ghost, might be some form of an undead. Probably nothing explicitly eldritch in nature, but... " She looks away from him a few seconds before her eyes return to him. "How much of the glyph power did it shave off with an attack?"

"It went through the one on the balcony door after… uhm… ten attacks maybe?" He replies.

"So nothing really strong." She concludes, and he stares at her with a bit of a horror in his eyes. That thing doesn't count as strong? What the hell counts as strong… no, he doesn't want to know. "Come then. Let's rescue your cat."

(***)

His cat didn't need a rescue. She was still locked in the bathroom, meowing loudly to be let out. No screeching, no wailing, just some… hard to describe stillness in the air. Unnatural is the closest adjective that his mind comes up with.

"I think that it's no longer here." Toga announces. She has the knife in her hands. And while she took off the hood, the mask was still there. Dark red/crimson was an odd choice of color for that, in Midoriya's opinion.

"Are you sure?" Midoriya asks. The bedroom door wasn't broken through, and… he really doesn't want to open it just to see that 'thing' standing there.

"Yeah, feel that stillness in the air?" Toga asks him. He nods. "It's the reality's equivalent of a relieved sigh. Magic was used, now the laws of physics are taking the neighborhood back and that atmosphere is kind of a result. I'm ready though in case I am wrong." She says, as she raises her knife."

"Uhm, knives work on ghosts?" Midoriya decides to make his critical lack of experience known.

"Nah, it's in case it was something physical." She replies, sounding almost cheerful. "Then it's the stabbing time. If it's a ghost or something immaterial in general, we're running away. It should leave if we stay away for a few hours at worst. I'll shout to you what to do, but now, we're checking out your bedroom."

… why the hell did she make the last few words sound almost kinky? Ugh. Midoriya suddenly suspects that his life isn't the only part of him that is in serious danger from Toga. Damn it.

Also, ghosts are a thing? Great.

There is nothing in the bedroom. It's mostly intact, too. The door to the balcony, in the meantime, was completely destroyed. The broken glass was scattered everywhere, together with what was left from the curtains.

Toga doesn't comment on the variety of horror movies and games posters dotting the walls of his room.

"Something physical, then." Himiko Toga, instead, remains surprisingly level-headed. Probably the potential dangers involved make her behave. "Ghosts don't have to break a window to enter."

"Shit." He says (probably to himself), looking at the mess of the balcony door. "How do I explain that to my dad?"

"Tell him that someone threw a rock at it from the outside or something, I don't know." She is clearly disinterested in that idea. "For now, it's time to investigate the balcony. You can get there through the other room too, yes?"

Oh. Makes sense. If it's waiting for them there, it's probably by those doors. He nods at her, and she quickly leaves. Ten seconds later he can hear her shouting at him to come from the balcony.

He enters the balcony. She is standing in front of him, pointing to something…

Well. Shit.

There are writings on the wall surrounding the door to his bedroom. LET ME IN, COME BACK and WHY, each written multiple times with something distinctly red. Is that… blood?

Now it really looks like something from a horror movie. A bit of a cliche, if not almost cringe, but… the aesthetic certainly fits the genre. And it's probably less problematic than the attacker scratching the letters into the wall.

"Well, how do I explain THAT?!" He groans. Toga shrugs.

"Just wash it off before it soaks into the wall." She replies. Once again, she sounds utterly disinterested in his woes. "Well, this tells me quite a lot actually."

"About the 'thing'?" He asks and she nods.

"First of all, it can write human language." She replies. "So it probably used to be a human." Well, that's both freaky as hell and interesting to know.

"Like, an undead?" Midoriya asks. The concept is hard to wrap his head around, but…

"Maybe." She replies. "It's very easy to lose your humanity when you dabble in the occult. And it's hard to get it back. Impossible in most cases." Is she speaking from experience? Todoroki mentioned something about her no longer being human and… "Might be an undead, might be some sort of demihuman, hard to say. But… I think that it's after you.

Demi… yeah, not the talk for the present moment. Infodumping on him would just leave him confused more than enlightened. He lacks the context required to understand the exposition without getting more questions than answers.

"Why?" He replies. "Besides the obvious fact that it attacked me?"

"Because unless you've done something incredibly stupid on the way home, you simply didn't have time to gather attention of something like that after your Initiation." Toga replies, completely ignoring the sarcasm dripping from his tongue. "So it either was a random attack, which is kinda unlikely in this area, or it was after you. As in, Midoriya Izuku, the sleeper. If not for the random initiation and running into me, it would probably still attack you, but…"

She stops talking and looks at him. He gets the message.

"...but I would have no idea how to defend myself." He replies. "And I couldn't call you as backup. Great."

He would probably die tonight. Without the glyphs to slow it down. What Initiated him, really? And why? Was it just a coincidence?

"So, did you piss off someone dealing with an occult?" Toga asks. "Enough for him to summon something and send it after you? Any unexpected deaths of someone close to you? The 'come back' bit sounds like you have some personal history."

"I didn't." He replies. "Then again, considering the Censor, I probably wouldn't know if I did, right? It would just make me forget it. It could as well attack me already, and if I managed to avoid dying, I'd just… forget about it."

"Yeah, it sucks to be a normie." She agrees with him. "Initiates are low on the foodchain, but still far above those poor fucks." … Midoriya is almost certain that he felt a faint inflection on the words 'sucks' and 'fucks'. Dammit, Toga. He had a serial killer in his bedroom and she was clearly horny as hell.

This WASN'T how he planned to spend this evening.

Of course, he also wasn't planning to be assaulted by some eldritch abomination in said bedroom, only to be subsequently saved by said serial killer. He's going to have to get used to moments like this, at least unless Toga ends up killing him tonight, won't he?

"So, what reward do I get for saving you?" Toga replies. When Midoriya gives her a weird look, she giggles. "C'mon, there has to be a reward for that! So, any used underwear I can borrow?"

"Uhm, I'm not sure if…"

"Hmm, a teenager receiving such an offer from a pretty girl and freaking out?" She cuts in before he can conclude his answer. "Todoroki told you about me, didn't he?" In Midoriya's opinion, a lot of teenagers would have freaked out over such an offer, but… yeah, she actually hit the nail on that.

She suddenly sounds quite… cold. Okay, this is bad. Midoriya quickly calculates options, then goes with the 'screw Todoroki' choice. He doesn't even know the first name of that guy! It's only logical.

"Yes, he did, and… I'm super grateful for your help, but I can't help but be… uhm… a bit wary around you?" By 'a bit wary' he means 'absolutely freaking the fuck out and ready to meet her only when the alternative is his own bloody murder'. Hopefully, she fails to catch that part.

"That dummy!" Toga groans. "How much did he tell you?"

"That you murdered and eaten every Candidate that you lured into your safe room." He replies. "And that the faculty is apparently alright with that." Seriously, 'what the fuck' is putting it lightly.

"Did he also mention that I'm no longer human and my new species literally has to eat human meat or they starve to death?" Toga then asks. Midoriya blinks at her a few times.

"Uhm, no, he didn't mention that…. wait, are you something like a ghoul?" He DID, naturally, watch the Tokyo Ghoul anime.

"Actually, I AM a ghoul." She replies. "Not exactly like those from that anime, but… relatively close, actually?." She then adds. Oh, right, he has a Tokyo Ghoul poster on the wall. She figured out what made him think about ghouls. "You don't blame a wolf for eating a sheep or two, right?"

… is this somehow connected to her keeping her face hidden under the face mask? And still keeping her hoodie on, despite being in his bedroom?

"... debatable." He mumbles to himself. She picks it up, of course. "And I'm pretty sure that the remaining sheeps would have a reason to be wary of the wolf." Wait, wasn't he supposed to be telling her things to placate her instead? Change the course, change the…

"Ehhh, fair I guess." Toga replies, surprising Midoriya. "Look, I only go after Initiates, if you're one and you can't defend yourself, I'm literally doing you a favor by ending you before something worse does." That's NOT reassuring at all. "Besides, I'm not going to hurt you. Pinky promise!"

She actually raises her hand towards him.

"Uhm…" He really isn't sure if he is supposed to trust that. "... why?"

"I have absolutely no idea." She replies, taking him completely off-guard. "Look, humans are my prey. I have an awesome sense of smell. I can tell if people are healthy or not, I can sometimes smell specific diseases off people. You? You smell weird." … what? "I have no idea what's the reason, but I'm super curious about it. You smell delicious, but I'm also… kind of NOT hungry for it?" She tilts her head a bit. "At least not in the way you are afraid of." She says before winking at him.

Ugh. Is it somehow connected to his still unexplained Initiation? Do you sometimes develop unexplainable superpowers while at it and his was 'psycho girls attraction'? Please no, Toga is literally giving him a yandere in development vibes.

Against himself, he raises his own hand. The pinky promise is on.

"Awesome!" She sounds genuinely happy about it. "I'm getting a reward kiss from you tomorrow at school, though." Ugh, wonderful. If he's going to end up getting pervy dreams about a literal cannibalistic serial killer, he's taking a swan dive off the roof.

Midoriya almost asks 'why not now'. Almost. Then he realizes that she's going to use that as an invitation. And if he's supposed to do anything with her, let it at least be in publ… wait, this came out wrong.

Why is she keeping her mask on?

"Well, so now that we've established that someone out there wants you dead, we're going to step up some self-defense training!" She announces as she finally sits down. On the edge of his bed. "Damn, it's comfy. Can I sleep here tonight?"

"Toga, focus please." He decides to not entertain her thirst anymore.

"It's Himichan for you." She announces. Midoriya, against himself, nods. "So, wanna learn magic?"

"How much will I have to pay for it?" He asks. She clasps her hands loudly.

"Right answer!" She announces. "You're learning fast. Magic can screw you in several ways, even learning it tends to be dangerous. Mental disorders, aka sanity damage. Mutations, aka corporeal stability damage. Potential loss of humanity in general if you draw attention of something bad. Not to mention injuries. Simple stuff isn't THAT bad, but let me put it this way." She leans forward. "Using magic is a LAST resort. If you learn how to conjure ice, you DON'T use it to cool down your drinks. You only use it when you're under attack by something that you can't shoot in the face or hit in the kneecaps with a baseball bat AND you can't just run away. Got it?"

Sounds like something akin to Goblin Slayer' magic. You don't spam the enemies with fireballs, instead when you DO use your magic, it tends to make a big impact. Not to mention there's probably a limit to using, although less a hard cap per time period and more 'one more cast will turn you into a squid' type of cap.

"Alright, how does magic work in practice?" He decides to ask. He is, after all, a bit of a nerd. Magic being out there is a bit…

"It's all theurgy, basically." She shrugs. "With a hint of channeling. You channel a part of the power of some spooky alien thing. The whole 'dangers' are mostly because the more you channel it, the more you start to resemble the spooky alien thing. In mind and body."

… great.

"As for actually learning it… give me a moment." Toga announces while standing up from her chair. "You have a lot of books and mangas in your house, hmm?"

"Errrr… yeah?" He kind of agrees, kind of asks. "732 books in the whole apartment. Plus… well, a lot of manga chapters. Why do you ask?"

"Give me a moment." She then starts looking through his shelves. Which, honestly, is probably better than having her look through his wardrobe.

Less than two minutes later, she found something.

"Bingo!" She announces. She stands up from her seat and approaches one of the shelves. It's a science-fiction one. "Are those books all in order?"

"Yes, by the series." He replies. "Alphabetical order based on author surnames." He wonders if some of those authors are Shades. Or Initiates. But only briefly. Then she points towards one segment of the bookshelf. There, within a series of almost identical books (from some rather successful grimdark space opera series) lies a completely different book.

It's small. Leatherbound. It certainly wasn't there the last time he looked. What the…

"Censor, Izucchan." She comments when she sees how lost he is.

"You're kidding me." He replies after a few seconds. "I bought a book about magic while thinking that it was the fifth episode of a sci-fi series?" AND HE READ IT GODDAMN IT. All three hundred pages of fast-paced space opera action.

Censor was absolutely ridiculous. There was simply no word to describe something this crazy.

She pulls it out from the shelf and starts to leaf through it.

"It happens sometimes." She says, her eyes still on the book. "Some Initiates drop their old and not-so-valuable stuff by turning them in some book fairs. Minor things, typically written in your local language. If you want to get ambitious, you should probably start learning old languages.. And there are some completely unique magical languages, but to learn them is… a complicated endeavor."

She finishes her brief skim through the booklet.

"Any problem with fire?" She then asks him. When he shakes his head, she decides to add. "It's about fire magic. Read through it, it'll help you start your journey. I wonder where it'll bring you, hmmm?"

Yeah. He wonders about it himself.

(***)

Fun fact: 'danger zones' of Musutafu are based on my old town. I spent a while playing paranormal investigators with a few weirdoes I got to know in the school and... well, let's just say that I saw some f_ked up things. No, I'm not going to elaborate (especially as I still do not believe in the paranormal, just have a few hard to explain things happen in front of me that were probably childish imagination and sheet).

If I based Midoriya's apartment on my parents' apartment, well, sue me about it.