It was Saturday morning as Izuku groggily watched the news while eating breakfast, hoping to catch a new hero debut.
"Earlier this morning in Kamino, a turf war between two rival gangs erupted leaving several dead, thankfully no civilians were harmed. The reason behind the turf war is still unknown at this time."
"Izuku, hurry up or you'll be late!" Called his Mother, Inko.
Izuku shoveled the last of his eggs into his mouth and ran out of his house and onto the outskirts of UA's campus. Today he was going to properly practice with his quirk! Deciding to use it as a warmup, he jogged the three miles to Gym Gamma.
With his green tank top that read 't-shirt' now sticking to his body with sweat, Izuku was fanning his shirt to cool off as he walked through Gym Gamma's doors. The lights were off and there was a small form on the floor a few feet away with a pool of red underneath it.
"AHHH A DEAD BOD-wait, I can sense their emotions-THEY'RE STILL ALIVE! I'LL SAVE YOU!"
As Izuku rushed forward, hands glowing with Cell Activation, the body sprang up.
"I'M ALIVE!" The body yelled.
The lights to the gym flicked on to reveal a small old man in a yellow hero suit in front of him along with a shaking Toshinori, and a cackling Nezu by the wall of the gym.
Before anyone could explain what in the world was going on Nana appeared in between the old man and Izuku.
"I'M ALIVE!" She parroted.
Silence reigned for nearly a full minute.
"Kid if this is a joke, it ain't funny." The old man grouched.
"No joke Sora. Wow you got old..and short," The ethereal Nana said, bursting into laughter.
Sora's eyes watered. "Is that really you Nana?"
Nana stopped laughing and her face softened. "It's a long story but ya. Thanks for watching out for Toshi."
Nana explained everything to Sora or 'Gran Torino' who gave a subsequent beat down to All Might for not telling him about Nana right away. That's how Izuku learned that this possibly insane old man was the one that had trained All Might, he had immediately produced a notebook and asked for an autograph.
Nezu had asked to borrow the notebook, and after reading the entire thing in less than ten seconds he declared Izuku his pupil and told him to show up tomorrow morning for personal lessons on analysis. That had been enough for everyone to look at Izuku as if he was diagnosed as terminal.
While they were finishing talking Izuku was checking out the rest of the gym which was now full of floor to ceiling concrete pillars about ten feet apart from each other.
"All right kid, fire off One for All at me," Gran Torino said all too casually.
Izuku turned to look at him like he had grown a second head. "W-what?"
The only answer he got was a yellow boot flying at his face, time slowed and a black tendril of power wrapped itself around the boot before Izuku even knew what was happening.
"Gonna be the hard way eh? Hit it, Nezu," Gran Torino says as he dons thermal goggles.
Ominous cackling could be heard coming from somewhere behind him before the lights flipped off and Danger Sense nudged in every direction at once.
Izuku switched to thermal vision and saw dozens of turrets warming up along the walls. In near panic, he let out a Smokescreen that filled the entire gym.
A staccato of gunfire erupted from every direction, time slowed to a crawl as dozens of tendrils began flailing wildly to intercept as many of the bullets as possible.
Pain, but not as much as he was expecting, they're rubber bullets. Hoping to lose the turrets in the smoke he moved position only to hear Nezu redouble his cackling, apparently the turrets had thermal vision.
Anytime he attempted to find cover from the relentless gun fire GranTorino was there to kick him back into the open before dashing off again into the maze of pillars.
'Ok, ok, ok, I need One for All, but I can't use all of it, so maybe just a little?'
He began channeling OFA into his arm, green arcs of energy running along it, preparing to throw a punch where he thought Torino might be…he recalled what Mr. Oguro had said about punching with every muscle from toe to knuckle.
That was it! He began channeling OFA over his entire body, through every muscle. He could feel his muscles and bones straining with the power of it, he turned it down to a level where he couldn't feel Cell Activation about to engage from the damage. Green energy danced along his skin as if the power itself wished for action.
'If I had to guess I would say this is about five percent of my maximum.'
"About time, Zygote!" Gran Torino said, rocketing at him.
Since the pillars were too close to each other for Float, Izuku began jumping from pillar to pillar as Blackwhip and Dangersense were handling any rubber bullets he wasn't able to dodge. He was finally able to focus on Gran Torino as they ricocheted around the gym after each other.
Judging by the old man's emotions, he was having the time of his life. The game of cat and mouse went on for what felt like hours, until after a boot to the face, Izuku in an act of desperation, activated Float as he jumped after Gran Torino. He outpaced Torino and finally caught him and deactivated Float, rolling to the ground with his prize.
After releasing his hold on him, Gran Torino jumped up, took off his goggles and began stretching. "Not bad, kid! That was the most fun I've had in years!"
Izuku was doubled over wheezing.
'He's not human.'
Training so many sides of his quirk was exhausting, even with Cell Activation!
Gran Torino began jauntily walking over to where Toshi was clapping with a proud smile and Nezu looked like had just found enlightenment. "Water break for ten, then we go again!"
Izuku was starting to understand why All Might was so scared of the man.
It was starting to get dark out by the time Gran Torino called an end to training. Izuku was pretty sure he was about one more run away from dying of exhaustion. They made their way back to Toshi and Nezu.
He figured that he could get away with one more quirk activation and stay conscious. "Before you go sir, do you want me to evolve your quirk?"
Gran Torino backed away from Izuku's outstretched hand. "Ha! No! I'm old and it took me forever to get a hold of my quirk the first time, I don't want to be slamming into the ceiling again, noo thank you."
'Is that why he's so short?' Izuku clapped his hands over his mouth as he felt his lips move.
Nana reappeared and fell to her hands and knees slapping the floor as she laughed. "I love this kid!"
Torino just gave a long drawn out sigh of exasperation.
"A-At least let me heal you a bit, it will give you some energy too." He said, hand glowing a faint green.
Torino gripped Izuku's hand. "Fine, fine, but if I start shooting my quirk out of my ass I'll kill ya."
Izuku choked back a snort."Y-yes sir."
He let go of Torino's hand. "I should be getting back home, t-thank you everyone for coming. I'll see you in the morning, Nezu." Izuku said and trudged home.
Sunday afternoon, after Nezu's lessons in analysis, or as he called them 'lightning rounds', Izuku made his way to Ogre's Gym to meet up with Rumi, Mei, and Himiko to study for school. He was wearing tan cargo shorts and a black t-shirt that read 'thinking cap' in yellow lettering. He had no idea what a study session among friends was supposed to look like but he was excited regardless, he actually had friends to study with now! On his way to the gym he grabbed some drinks and snacks for everyone at a local convenience store. You were supposed to bring snacks right?
Izuku walked into the gym to see Rumi wearing gray yoga pants and a black tank top, flexing in different poses as Himiko and Mei clapped and cheered. Himiko had her hair up in messy buns and was wearing a baggy black hoodie, and a dark red skirt with black thigh high socks. Mei was wearing navy blue mechanic's coveralls rolled down to her waist, exposing her black tank top.
Mei and Himiko were radiating the same emotion his Moms did when they looked at eachother, attraction.
'Good for them,' he thought with a small smile.
As Rumi was flexing her new muscles he wondered how she had packed on so much in just a week, even with his quirk's help. She was incredibly athletic to begin with but now however she was 'jacked' as she had put it. Her shoulders were pronounced and clearly defined, her biceps and triceps bulged as she flexed, and her six pack could be seen straining through her tight tank top, and her legs…her legs looked like she could squat a car.
She was giving him her trademark grin..she caught him staring..again. She was also giving off the same unrecognizable emotion he had sensed from Himiko earlier in the week. "See something ya like Izuku?"
If he wasn't holding two bags he would have covered his neon red face, so instead he settled for sputtering, "I-I b-brought s-snacks!"
"Oh relax, I don't mind you looking. Got to say though, when you said your quirk helped build muscle I didn't think it would help me gain fifty pounds in a week, it's weird, I should be even bigger but I think I just got more dense," she paused a moment then pointed a finger at him, "if you laugh, I'll kick you."
'Fifty pounds? Even with Cell Activation that seems like too much to be possible.' He scrunched his eyebrows together in thought.
"Do you not realize that you evolved her quirk?" Nana's distinctive voice said in his head.
Izuku almost dropped the bags of snacks in surprise. 'I did!? Wait, you can talk in my head!?'
"Duhhh," was the only response he got.
"Umm, I think I evolved your quirk by accident. Pleasedon'ttellanyone," he scrambled out.
All three girls let out a collective 'WHAT!?'
Confusion crossed Himiko's face. "So your quirk can let you sense people's emotions, heal, and evolve quirks?" She asked incredulously.
Mei grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "WHAT AM I FEELING RIGHT NOW!?"
It was that same unrecognizable feeling again. He just shrugged his shoulders, face red from her proximity. "I don't know either, sorry."
Rumi looked at Himiko with a raised eyebrow. "How do you know he can heal?"
Himiko's eyes widened slightly at her mistake and Izuku sensed her nerves. "I saw you guys fighting in the alley, I wanted to help but..I was scared. But Izuku, how can your quirk do so much?" Izuku could sense she was lying about being scared, but why lie about that?
Izuku extricated himself from Mei's shaking and set his bags down. "You know dual quirks? Well it's kind of like that but instead of having two sides my stockpiler manifests its energy in…eight sides."
"What the fuck!?"
"Dang Izukun.."
"I'LL MAKE ALL YOUR BABIES!"
Everyone save for Rumi looked at Mei in shock at her forwardness.
"Relax, she means support gear…I think," Rumi said with a shrug.
Himiko raised an eyebrow. "You said eight, what are the other five?"
Izuku sighed. "A strength enhancement I call Full Cowl, flight, but I like to call it Float, prehensile tendrils I call Blackwhip, a smokescreen that comes with thermal vision that I call..Smokescreen, and the ability to sense potential threats that also increases my perception of time that I call Danger Sense."
"SHOW ME EVERYTHING!" Mei yelled as she shook him by his shoulders again.
Rumi apparently saw his reluctance. "This gym is licensed as a quirk gym so don't worry about public usage."
"O-Ok, here goes," Mei backed up as he gently lifted off the floor, tendrils lazily extending from his palms, green arcs of energy running over his skin, and finally giving off a small puff of smoke that covered his body.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Came Rumi's voice, he didn't need to see her to know she was smirking.
Switching to thermal vision he could see her flipping him off. "...One." He deadpanned.
Deactivating his quirk he dropped back to the ground as the smoke cleared.
Wanting to move on from himself, he turned to Himiko. "Himiko, you have a dual quirk right? Some kind of minor cat mutation and your Transform?"
She looked a bit surprised actually. "I do? My mom had a tiger mutation quirk and I've never met my dad, Mom said he had a similar quirk as me." He could feel the anger and pain she felt when she mentioned her mom.
Izuku could tell this conversation was making her worry, most likely afraid of people finding out about her reliance on blood.
Izuku decided to try and test the waters. "What do you guys think about blood quirks? They're pretty rare and they have a certain stigma to them."
"They're just quirks like all the rest. Why?" Rumi asked, crossing her arms over her chest in challenge.
"Ooh I bet I could make some great babies for that! I've never met anyone with one though." Mei said, shoulders slumping.
Himiko smiled at him, her pupils blown wide. "Well you have now, I don't really like to advertise it but I have to drink blood to use my quirk. It makes me crave blood all the time and I tend to get a bit grumpy if I haven't had any in a while."
Izuku put his chin in his hand thinking aloud, "Reliance on blood for quirk usage combined with the traits of a cat, like hunting instinct and agility for example, would make you a perfect predator."
Mei got right up in Himiko's personal space, holding out her arm. "Ooooh, drink mine! I wanna to see!"
Himiko looked a bit shocked at the offer. "You'd give me your blood…just like that?"
Rumi threw her arms around Himiko and Izuku's shoulders. "We all would, we're your friends, right Izuku?"
Izuku blushed and smiled brighter than the sun, he had friends! "Of course! And I can help recover the lost blood with my quirk! I think.."
Himiko's eyes were shimmering with unshed tears and she had a watery smile. Rumi looked at her with a teasing smirk. "Are you purring?"
Himiko playfully swatted her arm off her shoulder, a dusting of red decorating her cheeks. "Shut up."
Izuku smiled at the scene, they were so adorable together. "Just ask us anytime you want blood ok Himiko?"
She nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. "T-Thanks"
He focused his attention on Mei. "What's your quirk Hatsume? I know it's got to be something with your eyes but I can't figure out what."
"Call me Mei, you helped me in the alley after all. My quirk isn't very impressive, it's called Zoom. It lets me see really far away or super up close, it also makes my hand-eye coordination better to match my sight though, it helps with working on small things." Mei shrugged dismissively.
"That's really cool! You could be a great scout type hero with that, and the hand eye coordination could make you rival Snipe with guns! All three of you would make such a good hero team! Mei as scout/overwatch, Himiko as infiltration, and Rumi as the fighter that can size up an opponent in an instant. You guys would be unstoppable!" Izuku cheered.
At the sudden silence he paid attention to what they were feeling. Rumi seemed to feel proud and simultaneously hesitant. Himiko and Mei both felt happy and disbelief in equal measure.
Himiko looked at her palms, eyes unfocused. "...Me? A hero?"
Mei pulled her welding goggles over her eyes. "But my quirk's weak and I'm...weird. Besides, I like making things, I can just do the support course."
Rumi was looking down at her clenched fist with a far off look in her eyes. "I have to be strong on my own, I can't be weak again." She said as her ears slumped down.
In frustration Izuku subconsciously summoned Full Cowl and stomped the floor leaving a shoe print in the concrete. "Yes Himiko, you would make an amazing hero! Mei, your quirk isn't weak and you're not weird! You just think differently and that's my favorite thing about you. You could always just double major and become a support type hero like Power Loader! Rumi, you are already one of the strongest people I know, and if getting help makes you weak then I'm the weakest of them all! You're all the most amazing people I've ever met and my first real friends, so don't talk like that!"
Mei had pushed her goggles back up to reveal watery eyes. Everyone was staring at him now, stunned at his outburst. "S-sorry I didn't mean to yell.." Izuku said, closing his eyes, waiting for the inevitable backlash.
Izuku suddenly felt several pairs of hands pull him into a hug. He opened his eyes to see all three girls pushed up against him, his face warmed to the point he was sure they could feel the heat.
"Thanks Izukun."
"Thanks Runt."
"You're allowed to touch my goggles."
"How the fuck did you not have friends before us? Does it have something to do with your quirk coming in late?" Rumi asked as she squeezed a little harder.
Izuku looked away from her questioning gaze. "Y-ya, I was misdiagnosed as quirkless and well…have you heard of Aldera?"
"That quirkist school district that got shut down? You mean you went there?! Mutation hate is bad enough, I can't imagine what you went through." Rumi said as she pulled him in closer.
"It was that blonde asshole from ten years ago wasn't it?" Himiko asked, voice dangerously low.
Tears came unbidden to his eyes as he nodded.
"Who?" Mei asked, starting to get lost.
Himiko snarled as her eyes narrowed. "A bully. Izukun and I went to the same elementary school and the day my quirk came in, this blonde asshole called me a villain and tried to attack me but Izukun saved me. He's been bullying you all this time hasn't he?" Another nod.
"Imma cut him."
"I'll kick the shit out of him."
"I'll blow him up!"
He wasn't sure if he should be worried or thankful that Empathy registered all those as truth.
"T-Thanks." He pulled himself from the hug. "Can I evolve your Quirks?" He asked, extending two glowing hands to Mei and Himiko.
They both smiled and each took a hand. Two sets of yellow eyes glowed with power.
Mei began looking all over the room, her eyes changing from yellow to red to black to green. "OOOOH! I can see in thermal, x-ray, and night vision! I'M GOING TO MAKE SO MANY BABIES!"
She pulled him into a crushing hug, lifting him off his feet. "THANKS IZUKU!"
Rumi held out her arm to Himiko. "You need blood right? Go ahead."
Himiko's smile was full of teeth as she took the offered arm. "I can make my saliva produce an anesthetic so this shouldn't hurt, and don't worry about diseases, my quirk takes care of that." She let her chin-length tongue out of her mouth and licked a spot on Rumi's forearm before biting down. After a few seconds Himiko unattached and licked off the remaining blood before smiling up at Rumi. Izuku moved closer and brushed a glowing hand over the bite, healing it.
Himiko stepped back as gray sludge began covering her, the sludge solidified into a mirrored Rumi wearing Himiko's clothes. The new Rumi squatted down and jumped all the way up to the vaulted ceiling with little effort and brushed her fingers across it. Izuku had to look away to avoid seeing under her skirt.
She landed and hugged the other Rumi tightly. "I can use other people's quirks now! You're so strong Rumi!" She pulled back and ran her hands all over her new body. "And hot.." gray goop began falling off of her to reveal Himiko again. She glomped onto Izuku. "Thanks Izukun!"
He felt something sharp poking where her fingers were. "Ow ow ow."
She let go and looked at her hands to reveal pointed black nails where short unpainted nails had been. "I have claws now!"
She bent down, claws extending to two inches and dragged them along the concrete, claws cutting through it like warm butter.
"I'm glad you're happy but we should probably study."
After a collective groan they went up to Rumi's room to study. Her room was fairly large, it had a beat up leather couch, an old TV, different types of weights in a corner along with a human shaped boxing bag, a microwave, mini fridge, kettle, and a lot of Nana's merch.
"Girl's got taste." Nana said inside his head, he could hear her smirking.
"Wow, this is basically an apartment, it's so nice!" Himiko said, surprised.
It was big, but small even compared to the smaller apartments and it definitely wasn't very fancy. Something about how surprised Himiko was acting bothered him.
"Is it bigger than where you live with your mom?"
Himiko shrugged. "I don't live with my Mom anymore, I actually live with my Grandma. Our place is about the same size."
He could tell she was lying about living with her Grandma but telling the truth about not living with her Mom, which was concerning. "Himiko, I'm an empath, you can't lie to me, remember? You don't have to tell me everything if you don't want to but please answer me this, are you safe where you're living?"
Himiko's eyes widened, not expecting to be caught. "I'm safe where I'm living," she said, careful of her wording.
Rumi put a hand on her shoulder. "Come to us if that changes."
"YA!" Mei yelled, throwing a fist into the air.
Izuku gave her a megawatt smile. "Good, I don't want to lose you again."
After a few hours of studying they decided to watch a movie before everyone went home. Himiko wanted to watch a horror movie, Mei wanted sci-fi, while Rumi wanted 'anything with fighting'. Izuku didn't mind either way but found an old gory sci-fi called 'Aliens' which seemed to satisfy everyone.
Izuku was sitting on the far left of the couch next to Himiko and Rumi was sitting on the opposite end next to Mei.
Partway through the movie while they were eating the snacks that Izuku had brought, Himiko turned to him, apprehension rolling off of her.
"Can I have some blood?" She asked with a blush dusting her cheeks.
He smiled at her reticence. "Of course!"
Her pupils blew wide until they were only black rimmed with yellow. "Thanks Izukun, tap me if you get light headed."
He was about to offer her his arm like Rumi had when he felt a tongue graze his neck just above his clavicle, then he felt soft lips and heard the faint sound of sucking.
He looked down to see Himiko, eyes closed, lips connected to his neck but no pain...and he could both feel and hear her purring. He blushed so hard he could hear her suction increase. After a few minutes and still not feeling light headed she stopped sucking and with a pop, she disconnected then licked the blood away. The four fang marks healed over almost immediately, leaving a scar that would fade.
She looked up at him with ecstasy written on her features, a wide fanged smile, and blood on her lips. "My hero," she said sleepily. She closed her eyes once more and rested her head on his shoulder before resuming purring as she fell asleep.
After a minute of fighting down his blush and…something, he looked over to where Rumi and Mei were to see if they had seen the whole thing.
Rumi was giving him a knowing smirk as Mei lightly snored on her shoulder, goggles over her eyes. "She said it was too bright. We'll wake them once the movie's over," she whispered.
Later that night Himiko skipped through the door of her apartment. It was smaller than Rumi's room and completely empty save for appliances.
She swung open the fridge, inside was convenience store food and dozens of blood bags, some were labeled with names, several read 'Grandma'.
"Thanks to Izukun, these should last me a while."
She moved over to the closet and opened it, she grabbed out her rolled up futon and underneath it was a duffel bag with cash spilling out of it.
"All this should last until third year, I should send a thank you letter to those idiot gangs in Kamino." She said, laughing to herself.
She rolled out her futon and stripped before laying down. She reached for the ceiling and flexed her fingers, claws extending. She smiled wide admiring them.
"So pretty…Izukun really is the best, Rumi and Mei are pretty cute too though." She said as her other hand traveled down her body lower and lower.