The Purpose in Blood
A My Hero Academia One Shot
Inspired by Toga's storyline from Green Tea Rescue, I wanted to make an AU of how Toga could be saved before she took her first step towards becoming a serial killer. All it would take would be a twist of fate. Before I knew it, a whole AU of possibilities was spun out from this one shot, taking inspiration from Headstart and other MHA AU fics. Read more at the bottom for information on that.
Those here for information regarding the long hiatus on my Naruto stuff: be patient. Obligations and other things have been on me and I wrote this to catch a break. I go into further detail in the author note for Seals of Fate chapter 16.
Before we begin: Extra special thanks to my compatriot and partner in fanfic crime from across the ocean, RaNK001. Couldn't have done it without you buddy.
Anyone who has read the first chapter to my other fics already know my speech I like to kick a fic off with. I'm saving it for the main event.
Disclaimer: Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia is the Intellectual Property of Kohei Horikoshi and Shonen Jump
Additional warning: mentions of Child Abuse, read at your own discretion
Hungry.
So Hungry.
Young Himiko Toga, only 13 years old, trudged along. Her skin pale as though she had been undernourished and her movements sluggish as though she hadn't eaten in days.
But that didn't make sense, everyone saw her eat her food.
She wasn't sick, was she?
No, sadly, she had been like this for months and no one else showed anything similar.
So why?
The answer was simple: her Quirk.
A term for a superhuman trait within a human or any earth born species which previously lacked them and had become common in close to 90 percent of the world's population.
Quirks had evolved into multiple broad groups that could encompass their functions and capabilities (Emitter, Transformation, Mutation) while there was another system for deriving what exactly was the quirk's aspect.
And this system showed a truth which some tried to conceal: Sadly, not all men were created equal.
Not all quirks were celebrated or treated with acceptance
And two of those classifications were feared: Dark Quirks and Blood Quirks.
And Toga possessed a Blood Quirk, denoted by the fangs in her mouth meant for piercing flesh and drawing blood.
Blood Quirks universally required their owners to feed on blood to be properly nourished.
To be sane.
To be complete.
Himiko had been so happy to discover her quirk, only for her parents to reject her over it.
"Why did you choose to have that quirk? Why were you born like this?"
All that abuse, both mental and physical, accusing her of desiring to be this way.
Toga tried desperately to pretend she was quirkless, especially after her parents had scheduled her regular sessions with a Quirk Councilor, one who helped her to keep that notion of being quirkless.
But the call of blood was so enticing. And Himiko gave in on occasion, and her lack of discipline caused her to discover her quirk's transformative nature as well as the minor healing ability it provided.
But then the abuse became worse, the abuse had worsened when Toga had slipped in front of her parents.
Toga hadn't used her Quirk in almost 10 months, the longest she had ever gone trying to pretend being normal, almost long enough to convince herself.
Her body was covered with bruises and her pallor was becoming obvious and going from natural to outright unhealthy.
She looked more like a zombie right now than a vampire like almost every other Blood Quirk user was supposed to look.
And those ten months had wreaked havoc upon her mind.
The whispers of insanity had begun seeping in, voices that sounded so much like her own telling her to do increasingly violent and depraved things.
To give into her nature and become the monster her parents had believed her to be.
The love they claimed to hold for Himiko was false and shallow. Rented for a price too high for the girl's means.
Only blood held meaning.
Only blood held life..
Only blood gave true meaning to love, blood shared was the purest form.
She needed to find someone she loved and open herself to them before making them share her love.
One of her schoolmates, a boy named Saito, had caught her eye.
Nice and friendly. The perfect one to start with.
Every energy deprived step was less torturous than the last as Toga began giving in, but she needed to be HIMIKO TOGA, not her parents' perfect little girl.
She needed to share her love and receive it from others.
The need to fill the pit in her stomach was wining out over Toga's conscious.
Normally this would be where a true monster would be born, but fate has other plans.
"Excuse me, little kitten. Could I ask you a few questions?" a voice vaguely recognizable to Toga asked and broke the girl from her daze.
Nemuri Kayama, better known as the R-Rated/17+ Heroine: Midnight, groaned at this assignment.
She enjoyed teaching kids. Making them comfortable using their quirks and teaching them to express themselves properly had always been a dream in addition to being a hero.
Midnight remembered just how much shaming she received in her teen years after she began truly experimenting with her quirk. So many telling her to be some kind of thief who got in close to well off targets and use passionate moments to gas any who could stop her.
Its outright insulting when you're told how to live your life because of how you were born.
Its insulting to be mistreated and called improper names because your quirk demanded certain conditions met in order to be used.
Though in her more recent years she did become something in line with what those names would derogatorily refer to, but nothing like what she had been accused of being.
She loved passion, it was the ultimate expression of youthful energy, and the passion found in intimacy was one of the finest examples.
Though certain rejections over her quirk and personality stung worse than others.
It took time to get the woman who stared at her in the mirror to lose that broken and dejected look and become the heroine Midnight, but she had to do it alone.
She wanted others to have help, and she would be privileged if it would be her who helped them.
So, Kayama sucked it up and marched forward, she couldn't be a hypocrite to her own beliefs.
Sure, the lecture would be boring but it would help so many possibly, avert so many villains from being made.
Kayama kept moving forward, only to walk past a pathetic looking and pale blonde girl.
Kayama sucked in a breath and took a good look at the girl, that kind of pallor only came with malnourishment. Even if the girl possessed a naturally pale complexion.
This girl's entire stance screamed she was a victim of child abuse. Of the parental or guardian kind.
And every fiber of Midnight's being screamed at her to help this girl, as if sensing that this child was a mere few steps away from making a decision that would be nigh impossible to undo.
Every moment lasted an eternity, and Midnight could feel the budding bloodlust forming in front of her, but she knew that any possibility of saving this child from whatever lied at the end of this dark path she was walking or even whatever sent her down it was rapidly closing.
Without another doubt Midnight took action: "Excuse me, Little Kitten, can I ask a few questions?"
The affectionate tittle feeling oddly appropriate thanks to the girl's cat like eyes.
The girl sluggishly turned to face Midnight with yellow eyes just barely focusing through a haze.
The girl mumbled out "y-yeah I guess"
Midnight tried to keep a reassuring smile even as those warning flags became confirmed with the girl's seeming fear of adults: "Where are my manners, I'm sure you already know who I am, but who are you?"
The girl tried to speak clearly through a scratchy throat: "Himiko Toga."
Midnight spoke softly: "It's a pretty name, it suits you perfectly. Almost sounds full of love that it wants to share with everyone."
Toga went wide eyed for a moment before attempting a toothy smile and Midnight had her suspicions confirmed.
Toga was abused, starved specifically, because she had a blood quirk as indicated by the slightly sharper and overall larger incisors, fangs more or less, she possessed for drawing blood.
Toga noticed the change and quickly tried to flee fearing something but Midnight caught her: "It's alright. I won't hurt you. What happened to you is a tragedy…something that could have been avoided. You aren't to blame for your caretakers' actions. They are responsible for this."
Midnight's mind was racing as Toga began crying.
'It seems I'm the first one she has really trusted in a while; I can't abandon her without risking any chance she has of recovering. Maybe I should take her home with me.'
"Your quirk is a blood quirk, isn't it? Its why you've been hurt…and why you're starving."
Toga looked at Midnight sadly before nodding: "y-yeah"
Midnight took her finger and bit just hard enough to draw blood before offering the finger to Toga, specifically offering the blood.
Midnight saw the utter confusion bloom upon the young girl's face: Why would a total stranger do this for her, when even her own parents told her to never indulge in the crimson life essence?
Toga's eyes widened comically: "b-but…"
"It's okay, I'm offering it to you."
Toga clutched the hand before she began lapping up the standing blood before she began sucking at the open breaks in the skin trying to get as much blood as she could before clotting took hold.
The little vampire eventually let go and the girl's skin had already become a much healthier hue even if it remained fairly pale.
Midnight stood up to walk only for Himiko to latch on tightly: "Please don't go! Please don't leave me!"
Midnight recognized the almost childlike behavior and why it was popping up, finally having someone she could trust enough to be herself around must have caused a regression, a desire to get rid of the horrible memories from those years that Toga had been robbed of.
And Midnight had every intention of helping this girl become free.
Midnight smiled tenderly: "Don't worry, I wasn't planning on it."
Xxx
Himiko sat calmly as she heard everything go down in the other room.
Ms. Kayama was nice, and the only person Himiko knew who had willingly offered their blood.
The heroine had saved her from herself and most of the voices
It sounded like a heated argument between her parents and Ms. Kayama.
Mostly concerning the parents' decision to starve their daughter when there were laws and systems in place to enable legal feeding for blood quirks.
A traitorous part of the girl's mind wondered why her parents were so quick to betray her and the answer came from a voice that gave her chills.
'Cause they cared more about how their precious little girl being a known blood drinker would make them look.' A voice similar to Toga's own spoke in the moment of questioning.
The young girl quickly pushed it aside and refocused onto something else in hopes of either burying the voice or at least proving it was a one-time thing.
Toga couldn't help but wonder what exactly was that paper packet that Ms. Kayama or if it was related to what she had come here to do.
Himiko heard her father raise his voice one last time before she heard the distorted sounds of Ms. Kayama speaking and the room went silent except for a few more low tones.
Himiko thought about the lecture she sat through with Ms. Kayama and she had to say it was quite the breath of fresh air.
'No quirk is inherently villainous…our actions decide if we're good or evil…' Toga absent-mindedly recalled from Midnight's speech to the class.
'Do you honestly believe that? Try to live like its true for now, in time you'll give in and show the world your love. Show them lil' ol' me~' the voice spoke again in Toga's head. Himiko began to worry as it sounded clearer and more defined this time. Like a more childish version of herself. A more sinister version…
The door Himiko's parents and Midnight had gone into to talk swung open (which once again broke the girl's focus on the voice in her head) with Midnight holding the packet closely and a smile on her face. "Gather anything you want to take with you, Himiko."
Himiko was confused: "What's happening? What's going on?"
Midnight smiled: "Your parents have given you to me. Pack anything you want to keep. You're coming home with me."
Toga wasn't exactly sure if this was normal but at the moment she didn't care.
She ran to her old room and packed up everything she wanted to keep. Not much in all, a few pairs of clothes, a few items of personal value, her phone…
And a simple exact-o knife she had started carrying when the hunger and voices became just too much.
To Toga, the improvised weapon was like a lucky charm.
A weapon that she had started carrying on a fatalistic whim for the moment she gave in and became the monster, and she was carrying it when her savior found her.
Toga arrived at the door and made sure to leave her house key behind.
No looking back.
A simple car arrived and a window opened up: "Yamada told me you two need a lift back to our side of Tokyo."
Toga looked at the man's face and saw two of the most tired eyes she had ever seen and long unkempt hair.
Midnight smiled: "I was expecting him or Kan to show up, not you, Aizawa."
Aizawa shrugged: "I was in the neighborhood and had my car."
The trunk popped open and Toga got the message and deposited her bag before she got in the back seat.
Midnight and Toga both entered the vehicle and Midnight smirked: "Nice ride. Didn't know you had one. Did you get it to impress Emi?"
Aizawa glared at Midnight who laughed heartedly.
Toga had worn masks long enough to see some cracks in the ones worn by others.
She wasn't quite sure what the nature of the crack in Aizawa's mask was, but she was certain that it was the little bit of softness and contemplation she saw in his eyes at Ms. Nemuri's suggestion.
The radio crackled to life: "We interrupt this broadcast to issue a nationwide announcement, moments ago Musutafu Prefecture was attacked an unknown villain who caused massive amounts of damage to the prefecture. The villain was defeated by All Might and quickly turned over to Tartarus custody after a prolonged engagement. Collateral numbers are still being worked on but estimates are not looking good. We will inform you on more as the details are revealed."
Xxx
Midnight sighed in longsuffering frustration as the newscaster chattered.
"It's been four months since the calamitous incident that shook the nation, that a villain with the power to decimate a small metropolitan appeared and subdued numerous heroes before being engaged and subdued by All Might at the dear cost of much of the infrastructure of Musutafu. The devastation led to numerous ongoing search and rescues spearheaded by Cementoss, Thirteen, and the Wild Wild Pussycats due to nature of the disaster sites. The operations were bolstered by the resources of the Might Agency, which also brought in groups to aid in helping to repair the prefecture with Uraraka Construction shouldering much of the burden. The HPSC recently identified the villain responsible as Dynamo, real name unknown, who is held in the Maximum-security wing of Tartarus with no chance of freedom or parole. The commission did issue a statement indicating that they believe Dynamo is affiliated with the infamous crime syndicate that plague the nation a few years back known as the Villain Factory, headed by the never caught Kuin Hachikusa (alias: Queen Bee) and the defeated and apprehended Rokuro Nomura (Alias: Number Six), which was most infamous for massively increasing the street available supply of the Quirk enhancing drug: Trigger. At the moment, it is unknown as to why the information was suddenly released to the public but-"
Midnight lost her patience and shut off the tv.
Toga hadn't come home, which meant she was out hanging around with a gang.
The first three months had been easy enough. Toga regressed to an almost childlike state, a response to finally getting the affection she always wanted and now she wanted all of it.
But once she had finally gotten that affection? She rapidly entered her rebellious phase.
Midnight got the feeling that her near mental snap a few months ago was the result of her starting to enter that phase.
Normally teens expressed it in ways that they knew would at least annoy parents but Toga's was starting to worry Nemuri.
These groups were usually the fringe between gathering of hooligans and villains. And if any of them did anything to earn actual villain status while Toga was spending time among them, then criminality by association would likely take hold, possibly ruining her future and prospects.
Toga usually came home eventually but sometimes Midnight lost patience with this nonsense and dragged the teen home.
Midnight was scared that these gangs(gangs being used loosely to describe the delinquents at the crossroad where they had to choose between getting their lives together or becoming criminals, and some other deeply unsavory components) would eventually drag Toga into the hole she had fought to save her from.
Toga was put into a homeschool program to enable her to properly adjust and get all the necessities filled in before she was re-entered into a physical school.
Similar to 2020 with the switch to online schooling in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Toga performed well, excellent grades that it gave her many prospects to choose from.
But these 'hangout' gave Midnight a bit of worry that all of that would be flushed down a drain.
'Though she at least takes the opportunities she gets in these episodes to learn things, vital skills often.' Midnight reminded herself, "She would be a great hero if she tried…"
Toga did come home with exceptional knife skills she claimed to have learned from someone who hung around the gang of the week. As well as an interesting yet bleak philosophy regarding heroes that had Midnight raise an eye.
Toga was so open about what she was doing most of the time that she let something slip about a noseless guy who looked like some kind of comic book antihero with a blood quirk like her was the one who taught her the knife tricks and the rather bleak view on heroics.
Though Midnight had her breath catch when Toga started playing the 'hand stabby' game. Though admittedly she was impressed with the level of skill she displayed.
More often than not nowadays, Toga often came in with her hair tied back into two messy buns rather than hanging freely in the long hime cut like Nemuri had found the vampire.
…that last one wasn't a real problem but it gave the little vampire a more 'cute and psychotic' look as opposed to a more traditionally 'cute' look.
But Nemuri couldn't shake the feeling that Toga had finally bit off more than she could chew.
Nemuri booted up the locator app she had installed on Toga's phone and got the location for where Toga was.
It didn't take long to get there and her instincts were screaming that something was wrong.
For once, Nemuri decided to pursue stealth over making a boisterous entrance.
Sneaking into the alley way, Nemuri gasped at what she saw.
A young adult wearing black street clothes, red shoes, and severed hands across his body flanked by a living black cloud in the shape of a man and a creature with an exposed brain and red skin with an athletic build.
She listened closely and heard a scatchy voice coming from the center: "This world is full of disgusting fakes, so called heroes who do nothing but push us down and make us play by their rules like they're the server admins. What we need to do is hijack their administrative privileges and turn it on them, make the makers play the games they make us play. We need to break this society down, so people like us can have our fun! I'm pulling together a League to do just that. Starting by striking at the pillars of these Heroes, UA and All Might!"
Nemuri gasped not at the man's speech but at Toga who seemed to be enthralled by the rhetoric.
'Have I really been hurting you like that Toga? Or are you so traumatized by your gene donors that you see me that way regardless? Or is something worse, that I was too late to stop you from snapping?'
Midnight made a fatal error and the black mist looked straight at her.
Soon she found herself at the center of the audience.
The young adult stared: "looks like we got someone game sniping on us…Midnight. Can't have the heroes knowing that we're coming at them. Nomu, put her through the ringer."
Midnight defended herself from the monster, but it didn't fall to her quirk's gas and any injuries she inflicted healed shut.
The creature wore her down, with strength and speed befitting its frame.
Soon the hero was covered in her own blood but refused to yield.
"People look at you heroes and think it's an excuse to ignore problems because a hero will take care of it. I think your corpse might just give a wakeup call…" the mysterious adult uttered before snapping: "Nomu…kill her, slowly."
Midnight feared her end was close so she chose to talk: "Himiko, I'm sorry…I was just trying to do what I thought was best for you…I'm sorry if I hurt you like your donors did…these last four months have been the best of my life… and… I hope whatever path you choose makes you happy when you get…to the end of it…I just want you to know…I love you. Always." And Midnight closed her eyes and awaited her end.
Toga stood stiff.
'Love me? How? After all the things I did this month? I was throwing away everything she gave me…I…dammit why is my chest hurting? Wh…what is this?'
'don't listen to her…she's trying to stop little ol' you.'
'Shut up! All Nemuri has done is try to help me and I've been treating her with mild appreciation to outright spite. But she is fighting for me. If looks could kill she would have killed Tomura. She's willing to fight and die and kill for me. And I was about to throw that away. She's amazing and I let her down…constantly…but she kept trying to reach out and save me…is this what a hero does? Keep preserving and trying to succeed when it seems like it will just fail, like Chizome said because of their convictions? Cause if so, then I know what I want to do…'
"I want…TO BE A HERO! GET AWAY FROM MY MOM YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Toga screamed as she jumped the Nomu.
Midnight looked up with shock and surprise as Toga clung around the creature's neck and started repeatedly stabbing it in the chest, slicing its throat, biting with her fangs, and the creature withstood and healed it all.
Toga got tired and just stabbed the monster in the brain and lost her death grip on the monster as it screamed and thrashed in horrible agony before it fell over dead.
Tomura, Kurogiri, and the assembled hoodlums stared in surprise.
"H…how? That Nomu was supposed to be unable to die? What hacks did she use to bypass its death invulnerability?" Tomura muttered
"Shigaraki…we need to flee and report this." Kurogiri stated.
"I know, Sensei and Doc will want to know. But I'm not leaving without a consolation prize." The hand covered man uttered darkly.
Toga helped Nemuri back up to her feet and licked blood off her face: "Love you too, mom. Thanks for coming after me. Guess I'm your sidekick now!"
Midnight chuckled: "A little young for that dear, but we can work on it later. We need to get out of this. What's the pale one's quirk?"
"Five Point contact decay." Toga muttered out as she dropped into an almost primal stance, ready to lash out at anyone who tried to rush them.
"that's trouble. Looks like he's ready to be naughty with it." Midnight uttered.
"Kurogiri, hold Midnight, I'm killing the bun head bitch!"
Midnight almost tried to stop Tomura but Kurogiri materialized in front of her. "I'm afraid I cannot allow you to interfere with Shigaraki."
Midnight growled: "You'll regret standing between me and my daughter."
The mist creature's eyes seemed to momentarily lose focus as if reminiscing before refocusing back on the moment: "You'd best say goodbye then…"
Shigaraki rushed straight towards Himiko. "You're mine! Wither away!" the man yelled as he got in close with terrifying speed.
'fast…' Himiko thought in a silent curse as she dodged the clumsy, almost palm strike like attack. There was brutal efficiency to the man's style, but no technique. Nothing that didn't rely on using his quirk to end the fight.
Toga was evenly matched with him using the things she learned from hanging around these groups, Chizome's teachings helping the most.
Toga punished the blatantly telegraphed attack with a knife swing, one that the man dodged but left himself open to a follow up with his lack of technique.
Himiko momentarily utilized that little presence erase trick and soon the man was left wondering what happened to his target for a moment until his instincts began screaming.
A knife flashed out and almost took a finger from Shigaraki but he managed to avoid it. "Nice try. Rogue with a build geared towards stealth. Almost annoying." His yammering was cut off by a foot to the side of his head, knocking the hand he wore as a mask off.
The man forgot about Himiko and yelled: "Father!" Himiko could only stare in creeped out fascination at the scene as Tomura quickly went after the hand and regrasped it to his face.
Shigaraki's eyes positively glowed with hate: "Change almost to fucking on my nerves. You'll pay for that," he whispered in a cold snarl as he rushed her again.
Himiko swung her knife at him again but was surprised and horrified that instead of dodging, Shigaraki grabbed the blade, cutting his hand but triggering his quirk.
Toga quickly threw away the blade before the decay reached her.
Tomura laughed: "Look at that, an unarmed rogue. This will be nice and easy." He uttered as he performed another blindingly fast rush.
The little vampire lacked time to presence erase again and had no room to maneuver without causing Tomura to decay the building she was against, so she activated her quirk and formed Midnight's arms to keep Shigaraki's hands away from her. A slightly lengthened arm span could help tremendously.
The two struggled, but Toga was slowly losing ground.
But the minor beating she had taken from the Nomu had weakened her.
And Tomura was finding strength in his hate.
"Dammit this can't be how it ends! I just found my way! I'm not going to die here!" Toga spoke, more to herself trying to psych herself up.
As Tomura's right hand got close to Toga's face, Toga found herself silently praying, 'If only I had something else I could use, please…' she silently begged anything that would listen.
And then it happened,
The exposed skin on Toga's disguise covered arms began secreting a visible gas like fragrance.
Midnight looked shocked: "That's…That's my quirk…"
Toga was shocked but she shrugged: "Not what I was expecting but I'll take it!" and forced it into Shigaraki's face, his eyes losing the hateful glare only to be replaced with fear and then a lack of focus before knocking him out from gas inhalation.
Toga lacked control over the newly acquired ability and thus emitted enough to knock out all the onlooking villains, but Kurogiri grabbed Shigaraki and the Nomu and warped away.
Midnight embraced the now panicking Toga, "I-I can't stop…, I've never copied a quirk before and I had to make full disguises rather than parts of one…"
"Shh…its fine. It will be fine. My quirk relies on a few things to create the gas, it's hard to cut off the production entirely as its rooted into base pheromone production, but it can be controlled on how it secretes. My overall method was to simply wear something that prevented it from escaping my skin, but I learned with time that it can be controlled mentally. I named it Somnambulist as the mental component to controlling it in instances is just trying to calm down, like trying to sleep." Midnight spoke softly while running her hands affectionately across Toga's back and hair trying to bring her little vampire some comfort from the evening's events.
Toga nodded and her arms stopped excreting the fragrant gas a moment later with considerable effort.
Midnight cheered on silently as Tiga began trying to force herself to drop her partial transformation and the sludge sloughed off, revealing torn sleeves and bared arms.
Hours later and the mother and daughter were in the office of a certain white furred critter.
"Now this was an adventure, wasn't it?" Nezu teased as the story wrapped up.
Midnight nodded: "Not quite the word I would use but it is apt." Midnight said that as she playfully side eyed Toga who looked bashful knowing her part in the last few hours.
Nezu chuckled, "Indeed. Normally the law would require penalizations for such usages of a quirk…" Nezu paused and let Toga squirm a bit, "but with what we gained as a result I believe we can sweep this under the rug."
Toga let out a breath and gave a toothy grin: "Thank you sir."
Nezu smiled back: "No worries, and you have enabled us to learn of a brewing threat before it could strike. I look forward to your work in the future."
Toga smiled brightly at the bit of validation as she got up and happily walked out of the office.
Midnight got up to leave and the elevated rodent stopped her: "Kayama. If knowledge of the new aspect of Toga's quirk makes it to the wrong people, they will come for her. Just know that we will be there to help you fight for her. Legally or through more conventional means of fighting. You have my word."
Nemuri smirked and nodded: "thank you sir."
And while these heroes celebrated their victory, the forces of evil contemplated this turn of events.
"You are certain that she utilized Midnight's quirk through the disguise?" one monitor in the bar asked to Tomura and Kurogiri.
Tomura nodded: "Yeah. One moment she's struggling with my hand about to touch her and decay her, and the next she starts pumping out that perfume shit. Looked surprised about it."
"A quirk awakening, fascinating. And especially one that created a quirk mimicry aspect." The same screen uttered.
The other monitor sounded: "Quite fascinating indeed. Though most copy quirks do have a limit to be found. A shame about that Nomu, though its death was worth this information. We have plenty of its design in production, especially the one planned for All Might. It's still quite a shame that Project Chimera ended up being such a failure, though at least we managed to get something out of it by extracting the most stable Body Reactor quirk to give to Dynamo. I doubt it would be stable to put inside a Nomu, even a High End or Number Six. I'm still surprised he managed to survive that night but perhaps we can use that to recover him when the time is right."
"My thoughts exactly, Master All For One. Perhaps we could even recover Kuin, Tamao Oguro is still alive and has all the modifications we made to her and I'm in the process of cultivating a new Queen Bee from a sample that managed to be recovered from Bee Pop."
"Perhaps we can bring Kuin back to us as well. We are in no hurry. The perfect time to strike is yet to be upon us, plenty of time to bolster ourselves. This world will know true terror once more soon enough."
Xxx
7 months later…
Things in the Kayama household went back to normal, but the mother and daughter were bound tighter than ever.
Midnight supported Toga however she could.
Classes to take the talents and skills Toga had gained from her more rebellious days and cultivate them to the fullest. Or just spending a bit of time with her baby vampire to help her grow.
Toga was devoting herself to becoming a hero.
The previous month came with the therapist finally giving the okay to reintroduce Toga into a proper school attendance.
The heroine was looking over various possible choices to enroll the little vampire at for her final year of middle school.
Plenty of private and prep schools on this side of Tokyo.
But Midnight wanted a school that would be small enough to keep Toga from suffering a major incident.
Aldera was looking tempting. Decent neighborhood. Even if Musutafu was recovering from the battle between All Might and Dynamo from a year earlier.
Problem was the commute.
40 minutes by bullet train was an awfully long time.
The 17+ Heroine bit a lip in contemplation.
The best way to accommodate Toga would be to move there.
That would end up requiring that Midnight make a commute to get to her day job.
Pros and cons were weighed. The heroine didn't do much patrol nowadays. She only really got involved when specifically needed or if it caught her eye. Saving her energy to strike where it truly mattered.
Her talents were best used elsewhere.
Midnight sighed; it was ultimately what was best for Himiko's continued development.
A minute later, Midnight had registration forms pulled up on her computer and began inputting Himiko's necessary information.
-1 month later-
"Welcome to the final year of middle school, class." The teacher droned as Himiko entered the classroom.
The girl huffed in annoyance. Had to go back to in person classes again.
Needed social interaction again and all that crap.
Her amber eyes washed over the room.
The ash blonde sneering at her was as about as welcoming as that Shigaraki asshat before he had started speaking.
Didn't take a moment to make a decision on that time bomb.
The kids in the room kept a healthy amount of distance between them and two students.
A well-built boy with green hair and the kindest and most sincere smile on his face and a girl with brown hair and a permanent blush on her cheeks.
And there just so happened to be a free chair next to them.
"Mind if I sit here?" Himiko asked.
The boy smiled: "Sure. Go ahead. I'm Izuku Midoriya."
And the girl smiled just as brightly: "I'm Ochako Uraraka."
Himiko smiled, and for once, openly showed her fangs even if they exposed her quirk. "Himiko Toga."
The boy's eyes went to her fangs and he started muttering excitedly.
Himiko was a little nervous and started playing with a strand of her untied-up hair, hanging freely in the Hime cut her hair was styled in.
Uraraka playfully swatted her friend's arm which brought Izuku out of his rant: "Oh, I started one of my mutter-rants again, didn't I?"
Uraraka nodded: "yep. Don't let it bother you, Toga. He gets like that at the slightest hint of a quirk. Bet those pearly whites of yours got him going." She whispered that last part.
Izuku nodded excitedly: "Fangs are a hall mark of blood quirks and its one of the most fascinating divisions of Quirks. So many of them overlap and yet can be so different. It's so cool!"
Himiko's nerves melted and she smiled: "Thanks for the compliment. Keep this up and I might just tell you all the details."
Izuku's eyes shone like diamonds while Ochako rolled her eyes and smiled in a 'what am I going to do with you' sort of way.
Himiko settled in, looking forward to what the year might hold.
After class, that ash blonde stalked up to them: "You kidding me? An extra that didn't get the fucking memo about Deku and Round Face?"
Toga put the small cues together, the kanji similarity between Izuku and Deku and physical appearances, to work out who this motherfucker was referring to.
Toga's mind went to work trying to figure out how to get a message across and while this happened Ochako and Izuku both got between her and the asshat.
Izuku emitted a darker aura as green lightning cloaked him and veins turned molten red. "Watch it, Kacchan. I can handle you insulting me. Leave my friends out of it."
This Kacchan seemed stunned for a moment and looked at Ochako who had her finger pads visibly contacting a chair.
Kacchan tsked at them: "Whatever. Watch your backs or end up getting blown the fuck up." As he pulled his hands out and small explosions started bursting around his palms
Toga growled: "Watch it asshole. Last person who insulted and hurt someone I liked ended up getting stabbed by me."
The tension broke as everyone stared at Toga, grinning sinisterly and proudly baring her fangs.
The bomber was stunned. "Wh-what?"
Toga smirked: "You heard me Kacchan, I stabbed them."
Kacchan kept staring before his sneer returned: "Great going Deku. Got another extra calling me that goddamn nickname. Alright, Vamp, get it through your head, THE NAME IS KATSUKI BAKUGO!"
Toga rubbed her ears, "Fine, Bakago, or Bakugo, or whatever. Just take the shouting and the explosions and go fuck off."
Bakugo sneered but complied.
Ochako and Izuku remained tense for a few moments before relaxing, Izuku's lightning disappearing and his veins returning to normal and Ochako clasping her hands together with the pads of each finger contacting its counterpart and mumbling 'Release.' A flash of pink encompassed the chair she had been gripping.
Ochako looked at Toga with a beaming smile: "I like rivalries as much as everyone else, but sometimes Bakugo takes it too far. Glad to see someone else who won't take his crap is here."
Himiko laughed: "Let's just say I have a bit of experience with people like him. And I'm not afraid to throw down." She finished with a grin.
Izuku started interrogating: "Does it have something to do with your quirk? Or is your quirk a passive effect that you use sparingly? No, it would have to be active use, that's how Blood Quirks tend to function with only a few varying, usually when heteromorphic traits caused by mutations manifest or an ability provided by a parent quirk carries over."
Toga chuckled happily as she took a sip from a bottle of water with a bit of flavoring added to give it a more blood like taste.
'This year is going to be just fine.'
-1 week later-
Toga adjusted her air pods as she took her run.
The perfect day for a good workout and she wasn't about to let it go to waste.
'Wonder if Ochako and Izuku would like to join me, three heroes working together to accomplish their dreams…' Himiko wondered as she came upon Dagobah beach. A beach infamous for being an illegal landfill.
She stopped to take a rest, sipping a sport drink filled with flavoring to come close to blood.
She looked around noticed how little trash there seemed to be on the unofficial landfill. Almost like someone had been cleaning.
'Looks like a great place for a date, or at least it's starting to look that way.'
Toga took a moment to stretch before she started going again when a couple of things on the beach caught her eye.
Two tufts of hair that looked like antennae attached to a mountain of muscle, floating junk being pushed around by a brown head, and green lightning rushing around a boy as he practiced on the practice targets made out of larger pieces of junk.
Toga went wide eyed as she recognized two of the figures. Izuku and Ochako.
But then her might ground to halt as she recognized the titan with them, 'no way, ALL MIGHT?! HOW?! WHY?!'
Toga instinctively began sneaking close and hiding her presence, she NEEDED to know what was going on.
Ochako and Izuku were being praised by All Might, and the speech made it clear that they were his students. 'My best friends are the students of the Number 1 hero…is this a dream?'
A puff of smoke came from All Might, and he went from titan of muscle and sinew to a lanky skeleton of a man.
Any semblance of composure was lost and Toga lost it. "WHAT THE FUCK!?"
All three turned to Toga and she froze like a deer in headlights. Toga awkwardly chuckled "H-hi guys, lovely day for a workout."
The students nodded nervously.
Toga continued: "Quick question, YOU GUYS ARE ALL MIGHT'S STUDENTS?! HOW?! WHEN?! WHY?! Also, WHY THE FUCK IS HE LOOKING LIKE A SKELETON?!"
All Might cut in: "I know very few come near the garbage filled side, but perhaps we should move this to a more secluded side of the beach."
All present, including Toga, were thankful this side of the beach was mostly abandoned. But they moved into the most secluded and junk filled areas possible.
All Might took the opportunity to answer the last question, Toga responding with complete silence at seeing the spiderwebbed scar.
All Might laughed bitterly, "Doesn't look good, does it? It's from 5 years ago, a parting gift from one of the worst monsters this world has ever known. He took most of my digestive system and one of my lungs, I obliterated his torso and smashed his skull like an egg."
Himiko went wide eyed as the hero admitted to what amounted to killing this villain he was referring to.
A hero who as famous for his strength and mercy, the strength to always avoid killing and give mercy when possible.
And to have that conception altered with the reveal that at one time, a villain powerful enough and cruel enough walked the earth and battled the Symbol of Peace to where the man was force to kill.
"So that's going to be haunting my nightmares…" Himiko drawled out, half sincerely. "So, when and how did this all start?" gesturing to the junkyard surrounding them.
Izuku scratched his head nervously: "A while. I got All Might's attention during the Dynamo attack. Someone I knew got pinned by debris that the maniac scattered, broke both his wrists and could get free as the wrist breaks disabled his quirk. All Might was just about down and trying to get a second wind as Dynamo marched towards me and I refused to abandon someone just because my life was in danger. All Might got his wind back and beat the villain up and offered to train me as his successor. Started cleaning the beach and then Ochako showed up with her family a month later and she found us out not too long after and joined in."
Ochako grumbled, "Spent ten months cleaning the place only for it to get trashed while we were off celebrating Christmas and getting you where you wouldn't break yourself with One Fo- I mean, your Quirk."
Himiko definitely picked up on that awkward attempt at correction: 'One for-, as in One For All like the catchphrase for the Three Musketeers? Odd name for a quirk. But I did rename mine as Blood Transformation once my quirk awakened.'
Izuku chuckled awkwardly: "Yeah, I'm a little sore to see about half the work we put in go down the drain in a few weeks. But we got a lot more done in a month than we did last year."
Himiko's cat like pupils drilled into them: "You were going to say One For All, weren't you? But then backtracked to say Izuku's quirk. Why is a distinction like that necessary?"
Ochako nervously rubbed her index finger pads together, "We haven't been entirely honest." Izuku nodded sadly.
Toga stared for a moment before she looked off to the side: "I wasn't entirely honest either about some things either…It's okay if you don't want to tell me everything immediately. I'm still trying to decide if I want to share all my skeletons. No offense All Might."
All Might chuckled: "None taken. Though it looks like we need to be more careful. I'm sure you understand the need for secrecy Young…"
Himiko bowed: "Himiko Toga."
All Might's eyes widened. "Ahh, so your Nemuri's daughter."
Ochako's eyes narrowed in confusion while Izuku started nerding: "Wait. YOU'RE MIDNIGHT'S DAUGHTER!?"
Toga nodded: "Not blood, adopted. Kept my donors' last name to spite them, especially after I decided to become a hero."
Izuku and Ochako both stared but wisely didn't prod. "So, what will it take to keep you quiet?" Ochako asked, dreading the thought of a bribe.
Toga smiled mischievously: "I was going to suggest we start training together but this works out. My price, sign me up for boot camp with the two of you."
All Might briefly returned to his heroic appearance and laughed boisterously: "AHAHAHAHAHHA! THAT CAN BE ARRANGED, YOUNG TOGA!"
Toga smiled like a cat as her eyes narrowed: "Perfect." Just barely resisting the urge to drawl it in a way to sound like an actual purr.
'She has no idea about the ten months of hell she's signing up for.' Izuku and Ochako wordlessly agreed on.
But even so, a trio of heroes was born that day.
Fin.
To be continued in My Hero Academia: Flames of Peace
And there you have it. That's where I'll leave it for now.
I've got nothing concrete yet but I am working on particular scenes for the main show. No completed chapters but completed scenes and proof of concept scenes for events like the prologue, USJ Nomu, first internship, Training Camp, and more.
Anyways, leave a review and give feedback.
Thank you for your support.
Until Next Time:
Stay Safe and Stay Healthy!
SEE YA LATER!
