Author's Note: Hey guys! It's been a LONG time, I know. Almost two months. Things have been rather busy in my life. With my final semester at college, work, trying to figure out what I'm doing after graduation, and the designing and purchasing of a ring for the love of my life, I haven't had too much time to write, but these last few days, I've sat down and cranked through this chapter, so here it is! Needless to say, I no longer have a backlog, so chapters will no longer have an update schedule. Instead, I will be uploading them the Saturday after I finish them. I really am sorry for the wait, and I hope that a return to a full size chapter like this one is worth it for you guys!

Also, if you want to get into a place with other lovers of MHA, and specifically IzuJirou stuff, come on and join this Discord server that I'm on:

/eFtmT8cTbY

We're only kind of crazy, and not at all a cult... except, we also kind of are. Anyway, yeah, join that!

I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's cross-posted on Ao3 as well. Leave a review if you want to. I welcome the feedback! See you next week.

Toga: Heeeeeeeyyyyyy guys! When could I meet up with you guys to go over my costume?

The notification ripped Izuku from his sleep. He checked his phone and read the message before he checked the time. "5:45? Damn, what is this woman's deal?" He whispered to himself. Shortly after that, Kyouka started to stir in her sleep. Izuku cursed himself in his mind. The movement and the noise made her a light sleeper.

"Izu…? Is something going on?" She asked groggily.

"It's nothing, go back to sleep, Kyo."

"Bullshit, Izu. Tell me what it is."

Izuku sighed, showing Kyouka his phone. "Toga messaged the group chat at 5:45 in the morning."

Kyouka snatched the phone out of his hand, and after a few seconds of looking at the screen, only two words could be heard as barely a whisper. "This bitch…"

"Kyo, come on. Let's just go back to sleep." Izuku pleaded.

"Fine, fine. Goodnight, Izu." Kyouka acquiesced. The couple laid back down on the bed, letting their heavy eyes draw them back into slumber. Unfortunately for them…

Overwatch: We can totally meet up in the morning!

"Damnit…" Izuku whispered as his phone vibrated again.

"I agree…" Kyouka sighed, wrapping her head with a pillow.


"Overwatch, what were you thinking?" Kyouka asked the pink haired girl sitting at the computer in front of her.

"Sorry, it was early, and I wasn't thinking straight. I got caught up in the thoughts of more babies!" Mei responded.

"And now… Now she's here in our place and has seen our faces." Izuku said, gesturing to a smiling Toga who was sitting in front of them.

"What, would you rather wear our masks the entire time?" Mei asked, sliding past the group on her rolling chair.

"I didn't say that, but I would have preferred to have stayed anonymous for a bit longer. We don't know or trust her." He explained.

"Can I say something?" Toga asked, raising her hand with an even wider smile on her face.

"What?" Kyouka asked.

"I wouldn't go to the cops or heroes or anything about you guys. I'm… kind of not liked by them either." Toga admitted.

"Huh…" Hitoshi said as he looked at the young girl in front of him that was still smiling at them.

"Yeah, so if I went to turn you guys in, I'd be doing the same to myself."

After a few seconds of silence, Izuku looked to Kyouka, who in turn gave him a thumbs up, albeit not enthusiastically. "Well," he started, putting his hands on his knees to leverage himself up from his chair. "You're not lying. That much, we can tell. This has helped you gain our trust. Overwatch should take you now. She'll be helping you with your costume design. We do have some things that are non negotiable when it comes to our outfits, such as the masks. She'll try to accommodate the rest, though."

Toga jumped up and grabbed Izuku's hand, shaking it with vigor. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"R-Right." Izuku said in response.

Toga let go of his hand and turned to Kyouka, who was doing a poor job at hiding the scowl on her face. She walked over to the other girl and whispered in her ear. "You're together, aren't you? That makes sense now. You landed quite the catch." With a smirk, Toga turned back towards Mei and sat down in a chair next to her. The two quickly got to work, leaving a blushing Kyouka looking back and forth between Toga and Izuku.

"Let's leave them to it, okay, Kyo?" Izuku joined his girlfriend as he whispered.

"Fine." She whispered back. She turned around quickly and hugged him tightly. "But we're going somewhere fun, alright?"

Laughing, Izuku took Kyouka's hand in his own. "Lead the way, then."


A few hours later, Izuku opened the door back to the warehouse with his girlfriend clinging tightly to his arm and with a smile on her face. Mei was still sitting by her terminal, and Toga was asleep on the couch.

"Poor thing passed out after an hour and a half. She told me everything that she wants in her design. It was a good bit. You want to see?" Mei asked, turning to look at them for the first time since they had come in. With a shrug from Kyouka, Izuku led them both to see what was on Mei's computer screen.

An image of a model of a person rotated on the screen. On it was a hooded cowl with a padded mask that covered the nose. That left the eyes uncovered. Moving down, the cowl extended into a full length cloak that was designed to cover most of the body, but for the purpose of the model, it was rigid and extended in a straight line behind the model's body. Underneath the cloak were spiked pauldrons. The model had several knives attached to its belt and holstered down on the legs. Along the back of the belt waistline, there were several vials with caps on both ends.

"I'm intrigued by the pointiness of it." Kyouka observed.

"Believe me, she wanted more points. I had to talk her down from that. This is VERY conservative on the spikes." Mei explained. She pointed to the holsters that housed the knives. "These contain pressure sensitive released numbing agents that will coat her knives and make it easier for her to both stab people and collect their blood without them knowing."

"Interesting. Yeah, surprise is going to be one of her biggest assets. Being able to get blood is going to be huge for her quirk usage." Izuku said.

"Speaking of her quirk, she said that when she transforms, she has to be naked because her clothes will clash with the transformation." Mei added.

"Um…" Izuku didn't know what to say.

"Don't worry, she's already got that covered." Hitoshi said from his room.

"That I do." Mei grinned. "See, I learned something a few years ago when I did a pre-UA support design course that was meant to prepare you for the entrance showcase. I learned about this special fiber that UA and support companies use. It's tied to a client's DNA, and with their stem cells, they're able to create clothing that will work with pretty much any function in mind that's tied to a user's quirk."

"And I take it that means that you have something like that in mind?" Izuku raised his eyebrow.

"Better. When I had my hack-bug baby do its whole thing with UA's servers, I managed to steal a LOT of their information. Including turning DNA into biosuits. So I know exactly what to do. Mei said matter-of-factly.

"All very impressive. But how are you going to get these made?" Kyouka asked.

"Uh…" Mei gestured to her giant array of machines in the corner. "The same way that I made your suits? I have everything I need to finish except for her DNA to have the bonding process start."

"So… are you gonna get it?" Kyouka asked.

"She's too exhausted right now. She's going to need to rest before I can finish working on this. It's a somewhat strenuous process." Mei explained.

"So do you think it'll happen tonight?" Izuku asked.

"Depends on when she wakes up." Mei stated bluntly.

"When who wakes up?" Toga asked, appearing behind them.

"Shit!" Kyouka said, jumping back in surprise. She took a deep breath in. "You scared me." Hitoshi started laughing. From his vantage point at the table, he would've seen Toga get up, but he had chosen not to say anything. Kyouka would remember this betrayal. At the same time, though, Toga's ability to sneak up on them was impressive… and a bit terrifying. No wonder nobody else heard her in the alleyway.

"Aha! Welcome back to the world of the living! We can get started soon if you're ready." Mei clasped her hands together excitedly.

"What exactly do I need to do?" Toga asked, looking between the three of them at the computer.

"Well, I'm going to need some of your DNA, like I was telling them. But this is a rather draining process. I know you just woke up, but you could easily fall asleep again after this." Mei explained.

"Sounds good to me!" Toga said with a large grin.

"And it may hurt."

"Okay!"

"A lot."

"Strap me in!" Toga's smile just grew wider.

Exasperated, Mei looked between Toga and her two allies. "We can strap her in now if you'd like. She seems eager."

"If she wants to, I don't see why it shouldn't happen." Izuku shrugged.

"Well, if you say so, Snake Eyes." Mei shrugged in return. "Well, Toga. You heard the boss. If you're ready, come on up here." She gestured to one of her machines.

Toga skipped over to the machine and sat down on the chair that was next to it. Mei strapped her down to the chair with some decently heavy duty leather restraints, and for the first time during the entire ordeal, Toga started to look somewhat nervous.

"You doing okay, Toga?" Izuku was the first to notice.

"I'm f-fine." She put on a fake smile and gave a somewhat shaky thumbs up.

"Are you sure? We can stop if you want." Mei asked, halting the process temporarily.

"No, no. Keep going… Please…" Toga's voice got quieter for the last word. "If… if this is what it takes to join you guys, I'll do it."

Nodding, Mei continued, and after about a minute, succeeded in strapping Toga down. The blonde girl, while looking very uncomfortable, had steeled herself to whatever was going on in her head.

When everything was finally set up, Mei stood up and moved to her nearby machine.

"I've been trying to work on this baby for a while. Ever since I realized that this was a possibility; to use a person's DNA to make suits. I just didn't know the inner workings of the process of conversion. I made the baby that will extract it, but it wasn't until my bug baby that I found out how to convert it." She grabbed a syringe and attached a tube to it. "So while you guys have been on missions or when we've had some downtime, this is one of the big projects that I've been working on. This will be the first real use of it. I finished it a few days ago." She moved with the syringe towards Toga. "Last chance, Toga. You can still back out if you want to."

"No, I'm going to do this." Toga said, steeling herself.

"Okay. You're going to feel a pinch, and then… well, I'm not sure what you're gonna feel after that." Mei said. She found a vein on Toga's shoulder and injected the needle.

Toga did not look good. She looked even paler than she normally was. She closed her eyes when the needleand her breathing picked up dramatically. But she wasn't struggling.

"Hey Izu." Kyouka whispered in Izuku's ear.

"Yeah?"

"She looks like she's freaking out. Do you think you might be able to see if you can calm her down?" Kyouka was staring at Toga with concern.

"Concern, Kyo? I thought you didn't like her." Izuku whispered with a slight smirk on his face.

"Shut up! I just… If she's freaking out, I want her to be able to be okay. I don't like watching her freak out."

With a slight chuckle, Izuku hugged her. "That's a great idea. I'll see what I can do." He turned to look at the two girls in front of him, turning his eye specifically to this new blonde girl in the chair. He activated his quirk and looked at her. He didn't see any text saying to calm her down, but he did see something that caught his eye.

"Quirk Evolution: 15%"

"Hey Overwatch?" Izuku asked, still looking at that single probability.

"A little busy here, Snake Eyes." Mei said.

"Yeah… what do you know about quirk theory?"

"A decent bit." She kept working on her machine.

"So you know that there's that theory that quirks can evolve when the user is in a stressful situation, right?"

"An Awakening? Yeah…? Where is this going?" Mei stopped and turned around to look at Izuku.

"I can increase that chance on her. Should I?"

Everyone stopped. When nobody said anything, Izuku then walked closer to Toga.

"What do you think, Toga? Do you want to have your quirk evolve?"

For the first time in quite a few minutes, Toga opened her eyes. Izuku saw that they were filled with fear. But she nodded. With that, Izuku increased the probability up to 70% before it stopped.

Stepping back, still focusing on that probability, Izuku said, "You can continue now."

Mei nodded, pressed a few more buttons, took a deep breath, and pulled a lever. Immediately, Toga's breathing started to increase in its pace again. With that, Izuku felt the cap that his quirk had set break. He further increased the probability up to a full 100%.

Toga began to shake slightly as the needle began to extract some of her blood and DNA from her body. Izuku saw a brief flash of light in her eyes before she slumped over, unconscious.

"Is she okay?" Kyouka asked somewhat worriedly.

"I told you guys that it would tire her out. I'm sure her Awakening didn't help much either. I think there might be some trauma there too from how she reacted. She's still got a bit more to extract. Once that's done, she's gonna sleep for a while."

True to her word, a few minutes later the extraction was done. Mei unstrapped Toga from the chair and took the needle out of her. Izuku and Kyouka carried her over to the couch. Hitoshi brought out a pillow and a blanket for her to rest on.

The next while was quiet as Mei started working on taking Toga's DNA and fabricating her costume from it. She had taken more than she needed so that if repairs needed to be made, she could make them. But the rest of the room remained quiet. Fumikage had come out during that time to get a granola bar before returning to his room, which he had put a black tarp over the open ceiling to block out light, in order to meditate with Dark Shadow.

Hitoshi, Izuku, and Kyouka sat around the table in somewhat comfortable silence waiting for Mei to finish.

A brief murmur caught Kyouka's attention. Her face became serious as she stood up from the table and walked to the couch. Izuku tentatively followed her.

"… no… mom…" Toga whispered in her sleep. Her face scrunched up in discomfort and another emotion that Izuku recognized. Fear. "P-Please… don't… don't take me back…"

"'Don't take me back'? What does she mean by that?" Kyouka asked.

At this point, Mei had come over from her terminal. The suit was underway. "Did she say something in her sleep?" She asked.

"Yeah, she said 'No mom please don't take me back'." Izuku explained.

"Strange. Maybe the whole freaking out due to what she had to do was bigger than we thought." Mei said.

"Hmmm…" Izuku sighed to himself and slipped into thought. She did say that she was Stain's apprentice for a while. She had to be free from anything that would keep her locked down because of that. She must not have had a home. Could she have been kicked out? Some kind of family issues? She did get defensive over her quirk when she first met us… Maybe it had to do with that. If that was the case, then her trying to come to us was a good thing. Who knows what she could have done if she kept going down the path of traditional villainy? We're at least trying to do good. Technically we are breaking the law, but there's typically a gray area when it comes to vigilantes. Some pro heroes typically work with vigilantes. But with how we're trying to do good, we'll be a better influence on her than if she had stayed with villains. This all is making me rethink her needing to wait to join a bit. Especially with the resources that we had to employ to get her a costume. She's already proven that she's willing to wrestle with some kind of trauma to be with us… That means that she's either serious or incredibly dedicated to some ulterior motive… At that point, though… I'm not sure if there's anything else we can do. Plus, she's already seen our hideout…

Once his string of thoughts came to an end, he looked up to see everyone else in the room staring at him. "Was I mumbling again?" He asked bashfully.

"Yeah, quite a bit actually." Mei stated.

"How much did you hear?"

"I'm assuming it was from the beginning." Hitoshi spoke up. Izuku sighed to himself and hung his head.

"It's not like you're wrong." Kyouka said as she put her hand on his shoulder.

"I thought you didn't like her?" Izuku asked.

"I didn't like how she looked at you. Once she realized that you're mine, I've been getting over it. Plus, like I said, what you said is true. She could have left a long time ago today to go to the cops or something to turn us in. But she didn't. Not only that, but she even fell asleep here." She explained.

"I guess you're right, Kyo."

"She trusts us, Izu. We have to do something."

"Then we can tell her when she wakes up." Izuku said. "I think that should include names."

The other three nodded to him. And so they sat in wait. Over the course of the next hour, Toga spoke a few more times in her sleep.

The things that she said ranged from statements similar to what was said earlier to something about a dog, and quite a few things in between. All things considered, the four members that stayed out there until Toga woke up learned quite a bit from her through this.

Eventually, though, the blonde girl did stir. She sat up and rubbed her eyes to get rid of her tiredness. Yawning, she turned around to see four of the five members of Societas Requiem sitting at the table and looking at her.

"Hey guys! I guess I passed out when things got more intense. Sorry about that. Did someone put me on the couch? How's my suit coming?"

Nobody really answered her deluge of questions. Izuku simply looked between the people around him. Once he had done so, he looked back at Toga. "The suit's going well. Mei has been overseeing it for a while. Kyouka and I moved you to the couch. Hitoshi watched. Fumikage has been meditating in his room for a while."

Toga looked shocked. "You're using your names…? Why…?"

"We heard some stuff when you were asleep. You were saying something about your mom." Kyouka said, sitting down on the couch next to the blonde girl. "About how you didn't want to go back."

Toga's eyes widened even further and she shook her hands in front of her face. "I'm sorry! You weren't supposed to hear any of that!"

"You don't have to apologize or even tell us what's happened right now. But that, among other things, has made us reconsider our previous deal. You could have gone to the authorities by now, but you didn't. You even know where our base of operations is, but you still didn't." Izuku said. "Because of that, your willingness to put up with things that might hurt you for the sake of joining us, and the fact that we've already pretty much designed your suit, we're willing to offer you membership in our group."

"You… you what? You're willing to let me join?" Toga's eyes started watering. "Really?"

"Yeah, my babies are done with your suit, you'll be able to go out on missions with us. And your suit should be done by the end of the night. So by tomorrow, technically, you should be good." Mei said with a smile.

"Th-Thank you…" A tear fell down Toga's face. "Even… Even with my quirk that makes me a monster?" Her voice was quiet.

"That's bullshit." Kyouka said. "Your quirk doesn't make you a monster."

"But I have to drink people's blood! It's like food and water for me… I need it to function…" Toga said.

"If you need any blood, I'm more than willing to donate some to keep you functioning!" Mei said emphatically.

"You're… you're so willing… Why…?" Toga said, another few tears streaming down her face.

"Why not? You're a member of the group now. We've gotta make sure that you're taken care of. Plus, if you're gonna be on our team, you have to be able to use your quirk to change into us, too. So we should probably supply you with some of our blood, right?"

"I'm willing to donate, too. And Izuku is allowed to, but only sometimes. I don't want you draining his blood all the time." Kyouka spoke up.

"You're all… you're all so kind…"

"We help our teammates. We're family." Izuku said.

When the word family left his mouth, Toga, now probably going to be addressed as Himiko by the members of the group, doubled over and let out a mournful wail.

"Did I say something wrong?" Izuku's eyes widened in fear.

A few seconds later, Himiko shakily looked at him. "No… I just… I've never had any family that's cared this much."

"Himiko…" Mei said, shocking her slightly upon the use of her first name. Mei continued. "Did your parents hurt you? It's okay if you don't want to answer, but… It is concerning with what you were saying when you slept."

Toga stayed silent for a while before speaking. "My quirk isn't much like my parents' quirks. I was different. I was… dependent on blood. My parents, as soon as they found out, started taking me to a specialist… They didn't like that I had to drink blood, and they along with the specialist started to try and… suppress… my quirk." Toga began to explain.

"That's awful…" Kyouka said, covering her mouth with her hands.

"It gets worse. When I didn't have blood for a long time… years… I snapped. I attacked the boy I had a crush on. I almost killed him… I was expelled and sent to a psych ward. They had me strapped down and experimented on me for a long time. The needles and the straps… I'm sorry, it just… I don't ever want to go back there." She stopped for a few seconds, breathing somewhat heavily. "I got out and went home… My mom threatened to send me back there any time that I did anything that she didn't like. So I ran away. I lived on the streets for about a year before Mr. Stain found me. I hadn't had blood for a long time. And with his quirk, he needed it too. So I was able to get a steady supply as long as I followed him."

"So you began to fight people." Kyouka said.

"Among other things. I survived how I could. Mr. Stain never saw me as a monster because of my quirk, but the voice in the back of my head didn't stop telling me that I was. I think if I had continued down the path I was on, I would have become one. I would have given up trying to fight the voices." Toga continued. "I'm glad you found Mr. Stain when you did. I was close. I could feel it. But I wanted to follow his ideology. I wanted to become part of who he said were real heroes."

"We're glad you found us, Himiko." Hitoshi said. "I don't think I would ever want to go up against you. Just your ability to sneak up on people would scare the shit out of me. And I understand being labeled because of your quirk. Mine isn't the most heroic and people said I would be a villain my entire life. So just know that you're not alone."

"Wow… I didn't think that would be the case." Himiko said.

"Well, we're hoping to get rid of that. We're going to try to reform society so that quirk discrimination is purged. We've all felt it one way or another." Izuku said. "So we're happy to welcome you in. Just make sure that you don't break our trust or else things will get nasty."

"Thank you all…" Himiko said before she let out a massive yawn.

"Looks like you're still tired. You want to go to sleep?" Mei asked. Himiko just nodded.

"You can sleep in my bed. I sleep in Izuku's bed, so it's no disservice to me." Kyouka said. She stood up from the couch, bringing Himiko to stand as well. The blonde girl wiped tears away from her eyes and put up a shaky smile. "Follow me, okay?"

Himiko nodded and followed Kyouka back to her new room.

As she fell asleep that night, Himiko realized that it had been several years since she had slept in a warm bed. She was happy to have found these people. She was going to do her best to make sure that they, her included, succeeded in their mission. Her new mission. And nobody was going to get in between her and her new friends.