Izuku sat alone in the back of a parked ambulance, his hands wrapped around a bottle of water that someone had handed him at some point. His legs were hanging over the edge of the vehicle and his feet were just shy of touching the ground.

He stared out at the scene in a state of silent shock as chaos broke out around him. His eyes fixed ahead, but barely able to register anything that was happening.

To his left was an ocean of flashing lights and a cacophony of noises as the press tried to get as close to the police tape as possible despite officers' warnings to stay back. Some reporters had taken up positions around the area with their camera crews and were slowly revealing all the information they'd been told up to that point, adding their own predictions and perspectives about the events that may have transpired.

To his right was a mansion owned by the ridiculously wealthy couple whose company his dad worked for. According to his father, they loved to collect noteworthy names to drop into conversations with the aim of either intimidating or impressing their company in order to make them easier to manipulate. When they'd discovered that Izuku was a UA student from the class that had constantly been in the news throughout their first year they were intrigued.

Then they had overheard his father bragging to his coworkers that his son was "All Might's favourite student" after Inko had told him about the promise All Might had made to her and they had insisted that he invite Izuku along to the company party. His dad, wanting to get back into his good books after leaving to work abroad for so long, had taken them up on the offer.

When Hisashi had seen the unsure expression on Izuku's face as he clambered into the passenger side of his dad's car that afternoon outside the gates of UA, he had promised his son that it would be an event to remember. As Izuku tried not to think about the slowly but steadily growing number of body bags being placed on the ground in front of him, not knowing whether or not his father was in one of them, he could definitely say that the man had been right about that. Izuku knew that he would never be able to forget what happened there any time soon.

Someone had placed a shock blanket around his shoulders some time after the paramedics had checked him for injuries, but he couldn't recall who or when. All he could process at that moment was the feeling of guilt and exhaustion that gripped his body.

He wanted to go home. Not to the dorms at UA where people would be understandably concerned and ask him questions, but to the tiny yet homey apartment that he shared with his mother. She would probably cling to him a lot, cry even more and threaten not to let him out of her sight for the foreseeable future, but at least she wouldn't put any pressure on him to talk about it if he didn't want to.

If he was being honest, he just wanted to have a shower and go to bed for maybe the next ten years, even though he knew that sleep probably wouldn't find him easily after this. He knew though that none of that would be on the table for him for at least a few more hours. Being one of the few surviving witnesses of such a horrendously tragic event, Izuku knew the police would probably want to take him in to give statements. Then he would somehow have to get past the press, who would most likely show up at the station to shove microphones in his face and yell questions at him. It was about to be an incredibly long night.

Izuku hoped that they would at least let him shower first. He was covered from head to toe in other people's blood from when he'd slipped trying to get out of the place and he was itching to get it off his skin.

The taste of some of it remained on his tongue and he hated the reminder it provided of what had happened to him. He stared down at the gauze wrapped around his right wrist where his skin had been stitched up and patched up by a highly concerned paramedic after razor sharp teeth had punctured it. He tried his hardest not to think about it. That could wait until he was showered, rested and the guilty thoughts weren't rushing into his brain like water pouring out of an open floodgate.

Scrunching his eyes closed, Izuku tried to force himself to calm down. He didn't realise how tightly he had been squeezing his water bottle with his newly found strength until it ruptured in his hands. His eyes shot open as water spilled into his lap and slowly soaked through his trousers. It seemed like such a silly, insignificant thing to cry over after the bloodbath Izuku had just experienced, but that was officially the last straw. Ice cold tears streamed down Izuku's cheeks as he looked at the broken plastic in his hands.

What would he tell his mother, who was expecting the two people she cared about the most to return to her safely? What would he tell his friends, who would be worried sick about him the second they heard the news? What would he tell his teachers and the rest of the world, who would probably question what exactly happened and why he hadn't been able to stop things from getting this bad?

What would he tell Kacchan, who he had promised to challenge for the title of number one hero?

What would he tell All Might after feeling all traces of One For All fade from his body as his heart beat had shuddered to a painful stop?

Who was even gonna believe him if he told them the truth?

All Might had warned him that most One For All users die young and a part of Izuku had accepted that as a possibility, especially with his tendency to rush into situations and disregard his own safety for the sake of others. However, being around to see what happened after dying was never a scenario he could have possibly prepared himself for.

Why would he? Unless he had somehow possessed a secret, hidden quirk that not even doctors could find, which brought him back from the dead, it would be pretty much impossible. It should have been impossible, much like everything else he had witnessed a few hours ago, but here he was.

It felt like he had been there for almost six hours at this point. He wished he could check his phone, his mother had probably left him tons of messages by now too since his father hadn't gone home. He'd lost his phone in all the chaos though and now it was most likely lying somewhere inside, smashed like the bones in his arm the first time he'd used One For All and submerged in a puddle of blood.

"Hey, kid," a voice said softly, Izuku barely heard it over the medley of his own thoughts.

A hand suddenly landed heavily on Izuku's shoulder, startling him out of his sad state with a sharp gasp. His tears were quickly forgotten about as he flinched and dropped the blood smeared plastic of his broken water bottle to the ground. With a speed he had only known when he activated full cowl, he moved his arms to guard his body and block any potential attacks. His eyes were wide as they searched around and locked onto the face of the culprit.

A highly concerned detective Tsukauchi stared back at him. He had his hands up in front of his body to show that he meant no harm as if he was approaching a dangerous animal that had been cornered. To be fair, that wasn't that far from the truth now. Izuku felt a little silly for reacting so harshly once he saw who had tapped his shoulder, he should have known that this man would be on the scene at some point.

"Hey, hey, it's ok," the detective assured him, backing away slightly to further display that he wasn't a threat. "You're safe now."

Izuku let out a loud sigh and dropped his arms. A wave of shame and defeat washed over him. It should have been him saying that to survivors as he rescued them from danger, not someone else saying it to calm him down as he sat in the back of an ambulance feeling like a failure.

"I'm sorry about this, but we're gonna have to ask you some questions."

"I thought you would," Izuku replied, his voice coming out a little croaky with how dry and scratchy his throat was. He probably should have actually taken a drink from that water bottle instead of just obliterating it.

"Yes, well. We would appreciate it if you could come with us to the station," Tsukauchi stated. "There are showers in the locker room that you can use once we've taken some samples of the blood for evidence. We can find something clean for you to wear, get a warm drink for your throat and call someone to come pick you up once we've finished asking questions. Have you contacted anyone yet?" He asked.

Izuku shook his head. "I lost my phone in there," he said, pointing towards the mansion.

"Ah, I'm afraid that's probably going to be collected as evidence now," he informed Izuku regretfully, "but you're more than welcome to use the phone at the station. Also, I'm pretty sure we'd both be more happy to talk without all of that going on in the background."

Tsukauchi tilted his head subtly in the direction of the press, who were still flashing cameras and yelling over each other to try and get someone's attention. Everyone on the scene was trying their best to ignore them apart from a few police officers, who had been given the unenviable task of trying to keep the reporters at bay.

The officers were talking to them in loud, authoritative voices, their postures very straight, making them appear taller than they actually were. Izuku was sure he had heard Iida refer to what they were doing as power posing once when he had asked the boy to explain how he led their disruptive class so well in order to distract him so that a few of the boys could sneak out to go set up a prank they had planned for Monoma from class B. Aizawa sensei had not been too happy to say the least, but as soon as he was no longer looking at the class, Izuku had seen Kirishima turn to mouth the words 'worth it' at him and Kaminari had given him a thumbs up.

Izuku turned to look at the reporters wearily wondering how they would get through that crowd. Regret set in immediately as his gaze landed on a reporter whose eyes widened in recognition the second she caught sight of the still pretty easily identifiable school crest on his uniform jacket. He'd been told to wear it to the event, but now he wished he hadn't. Not only would it be expensive to replace or at least have cleaned if the police didn't confiscate it for evidence, but it was also a highly recognisable design that came with the weight of representing his famous school.

"Hey!" the reporter shouted, whacking the photographer next to her on the arm sharply with her notepad to get their attention. "Look at that kid over there! The one covered in blood. Isn't that a UA uniform he's wearing?"

"Oh yeah! It is!" another voice called out. "One of the survivors is a UA student!"

Being called a survivor really didn't sit right with Izuku when so many people had lost their lives in front of him, especially since it wasn't exactly the truth. He had gone in alive and come out undead after all.

All of a sudden all eyes were on him and numerous voices called out to him at once. Some shouting things like "Hey kid! Over here! Look at the camera!" and some hauling questions at him. The voices all blended together and Izuku began to feel a ringing in his head and a tight ball of anxiety forming in his chest.

"I want to leave," he announced.

Tsukauchi glared at the mass of reporters and photographers. "I think that would be for the best," he agreed. "I'll just call for a paramedic to come check you over again and give you the all clear to leave and then-"

"No!" Izuku snapped, grasping the man's arm before he could turn away.

Tsukauchi stared at Izuku in shock, and he let go of the man's sleeve like it had just caught fire. He winced a little at the flakes of dry blood he'd left on the otherwise clean fabric.

"I've already been checked out," Izuku explained, "I don't have any injuries aside from this one." He lifted the bandaged wrist to show the detective. "I hid when things got out of control."

Izuku made sure not to say too much in case Tsukauchi's lie detector quirk tipped him off that Izuku wasn't telling the full truth. It felt bad to say that he'd basically ran from the danger instead of staying and facing it head on to protect people like a hero should, but it was better than telling him everything. He couldn't tell Tsukauchi that he'd had to hide because his body was slowly shutting down on him and he had been in too much pain to move. Tsukauchi would never let him leave without seeing a paramedic if he revealed any of that information.

Then there was the very real threat that the paramedics might realise that he no longer had a normal pulse if they decided to do any further tests on him. The first time it was ok because the paramedic just assumed it was the stress of the situation. He was clearly in front of them alive and kicking, so they had quickly moved on to treat his injury, not wanting to waste any more time. There were only so many times that excuse could be made before it started to seem suspicious though, so Izuku did not want to push his luck.

Tsukauchi held his gaze for a few seconds, clearly searching for something. Seemingly making his mind up, he pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a loud sigh. "Ok, let's go," he said, "before I change my mind."

The detective turned to walk away and Izuku slid the shock blanket off his shoulders and leaned forward, putting his weight on his hands to push himself into a standing position. The metal suddenly creaked and shifted under his hands and he whipped around with wide eyes to see that he'd left two palm sized indents on the edge of the vehicle.

"Shit!" he whispered under his breath. He checked to see if Tsukauchi had noticed and almost jumped out of his skin when he saw that the man had stopped to look back at him, his head tilted slightly and his eyebrow raised.

"Something wrong?" Tsukauchi inquired.

Izuku stood frozen. If he said no, the detective would know that he was lying, but if he said yes, the detective would want an explanation and then he would still be at risk of being caught lying. He could have just blamed it on his quirk activating without his knowledge if it was anyone else, but he didn't have a quirk anymore, so that would probably register a lie. Already he could tell that he was in for a long visit to the police station. Everything he said over the next few hours would have to be carefully thought out so that he told the truth without revealing too much.

He let out a nervous laugh. "I guess I forgot my own strength," he said, gesturing to the dented vehicle. That should be ok, he hadn't said anything about his quirk, but Tsukauchi knew enough about how it worked to assume it was the cause.

Tsukauchi hesitated and Izuku felt his nails digging into the skin of his palms as he stood waiting for a reply.

"Don't worry about it," he eventually responded. "You've been through a lot of stress tonight. I'm sure they'll understand. It's probably not the first time someone has accidentally damaged one of their vehicles and it won't be the last." He started walking away again.

"R-right," Izuku nodded, following quickly behind him.

As they neared the press and ducked under the police tape, the flashing lights and loud voices suddenly felt way more intense to Izuku as if someone had promptly cranked up the volume and exposure on everything. All at once everything had become overwhelming to Izuku's senses. Bright flashes stung his eyes and the chorus of prying questions made his head pound, causing him to wince and cry out. Unable to shield his eyes and cover both of his ears simultaneously, Izuku clutched the sides of his head, his chest rising and falling rapidly and tears sliding down his cheeks as he began to panic.

Before the situation escalated any further, Izuku felt a heavy fabric being draped over his head. The material was dark and thick enough to block out the light. The voices had not been as muffled as Izuku would have liked and he could almost swear he was able to hear them clearer now that one of his senses had been temporarily compromised, but it did make it easier to take some calming breaths now that the burning in his eyes had been soothed by the darkness.

As Izuku took a deep breath in through his nose, he could smell a familiar cologne, which he somehow knew belonged to Tsukauchi. From that scent, he deduced that the man must have thrown his jacket over the boy when he saw him struggling to cope with so much going on around him. In the next few breaths, he noticed that he was able to pick up other scents coming from outside the protective shield of fabric. If he listened closely enough he could hear people breathing and even the faint thumping of the heartbeats of those around him.

"Enhanced senses," he whispered as it dawned on him, unable to fight back a feeling of awe despite knowing it was one of the signs that he was no longer human. His fingers itched with the need to be holding a notebook and pen.

"I wonder how far they can go. Are they affected by the weather? Maybe I could train them for hero work so I would be able to hear someone calling for help or see a crime scene from miles away. I think I can work with this if I can figure out how to stop them from becoming overwhelming. I need to research quirks to do with senses when I get back to the dorms," he mumbled to himself, safe in the knowledge that no one would overhear as the crowd would drown out his voice.

"Back off! This boy has been through enough for one day! Give him some space!" Tsukauchi's voice boomed as an arm came down to rest along his shoulders, holding the material down and guiding Izuku forwards through the crowd. "You'll get your information when we make our official press release, so just stay back and let people do their jobs!"

"Are you ok, Midoriya?" he asked Izuku as he continued to lead them past the reporters, his voice considerably softer.

"Yeah," Izuku nodded, "but your jacket… it's going to have blood all over it."

"Don't sweat it," he said, "I work with pro heroes all the time, I know more ways to get blood stains out of clothes than you can possibly imagine," he joked, trying to lighten the mood a little.

They made the rest of their journey in silence. Once they came to a halt in front of his parked car, Tsukauchi removed the jacket from Izuku's head and held it up to block him from the view of any lingering cameras as he slid into the back seat.

"I just need to go grab my colleague. I sent him to question some of the neighbors before I came to talk to you, but he should be done now," Tsukauchi said, still holding the door open slightly."Will you be ok here for a few minutes?" Izuku nodded. "Good. The windows are tinted so no one should be able to look in and if you need to, you can lock the doors from inside. I'll be right back!"

Tsukauchi slammed the door shut and ran back towards the mansion. Izuku settled into his seat with a loud sigh, dropping his head back against his seat momentarily and exhaling with his eyes closed. After a few seconds passed, he began feeling impatient and started looking around the interior of the car to see if there was anything interesting. By chance his gaze briefly passed over the rear view mirror and he immediately did a double take, his heart feeling like it could stop at what he saw there.

Or, rather, what he didn't see.

He forcefully blinked a few times and waved his arms around frantically in the hopes that it was just his brain playing tricks on him, but he had no such luck. All that he could see reflected back at him was a completely empty back seat.

"This is bad," Izuku muttered. "This is so so bad! I don't have a reflection! What am I gonna do?!" He tried to push his hands through his hair, but the dried blood made it crackle so he immediately dropped them to his lap. A sudden thought occurred to him. "I wonder if this is what Hagakure sees in the mirror or if she's visible only to herself, but then Hagakure's clothes are still visible. Why aren't mine?" he wondered aloud, before slapping himself on the cheek. "Now isn't the time for that, if they check the mirror and don't see me sitting here, it's going to look extremely suspicious," he reminded himself.

Searching his surroundings desperately for something that he could use to cover the mirror quickly came up fruitless when he realised that there was no subtle method of doing so. Izuku found himself wishing he had a quirk like Shinsou's so he could just brainwash them not to notice that his reflection was suddenly missing, or just convince them not to look in the mirror. He could have made them think it was broken or something so that they wouldn't bother checking it.

"That's it!" He whispered. "I have to break it."

After double checking that they weren't coming back yet and he would have enough time to execute his admittedly not that well thought out, last minute plan, Izuku tore a button from his school blazer. He may not have One for All anymore, but it was clear from the incident with the ambulance and the water bottle that one of the side effects of his transformation was an unnatural amount of strength. So maybe he would be able to use that to his advantage.

"Please work," he said as he lined up his shot.

He flicked his finger with as much force as he could and quickly ducked out of the way to crouch behind the back of the seat in front of him. The small button hit the mirror with enough force to shatter it into hundreds of tiny shards of glass and then bounced off it to land on the floor in front of the back seat with a loud thunk. Izuku hurriedly picked it up and shoved it in his pocket, heaving a sigh of relief as he pulled himself back up into his seat.

Izuku stared at his hands in bewilderment, half amazed at the lack of broken bones that concentrating all of his strength into one part of his body used to result in and half in shock that he'd only intended to crack the mirror but had ended up completely demolishing it instead. Even after possessing a quirk that granted him access to super strength, just being that strong was a little bit terrifying. He counted his blessings that he had actually managed to hit his target. If he had missed, it could have been disastrous. He could have ended up having to spend the rest of the night trying to explain to the detective how his car ended up with no front window.

It seemed he'd have to learn control all over again though if he still wanted to try and become a pro hero, which he absolutely did. He had promises to keep and goals to reach. Not even something like becoming a member of the undead was going to break his resolve. He may have been turned into a vampire against his will, but that didn't have to mean his whole life was over.

He would have to become a better liar and figure out what the heck he was going to do about the whole blood drinking situation, but he wasn't going to let this turn him into a monster. He wasn't going to become like the people who had caused this tragedy to happen. He was going to prove to the world that anyone could be a hero if they worked hard enough and genuinely wanted to help people, just like he had originally wanted to when he was younger and everyone told him he couldn't because he was quirkless.

Voices and footsteps approached and Izuku tensed with anticipation, he hadn't thought through how he was going to explain the broken mirror yet. He was sure it was kind of illegal to drive without one, so he hoped Tsukauchi wouldn't insist on waiting for a different car or calling a taxi. Even worse than that, they could fine him or put it on his record and then he would forever be known as the pro hero who damaged police property in his youth.

The front door on the driver's side opened and Izuku held his breath. Tsukauchi's gaze immediately narrowed in on the broken mirror and the small shards of glass covering the front seats and floor.

"I was gone for less than fifteen minutes!" He exclaimed. "What happened?"

Izuku was speechless. The only response his brain could come up with besides blaming it on his quirk was 'It was already like that when I got in here.' and that was an excuse even someone without a lie detector quirk wouldn't believe.

"Ah, I think that might have been my fault," a familiar voice interrupted as the passenger door opened to reveal Gran Torino standing there. "I did slam the door pretty hard on the way out earlier."

Tsukauchi let out an exasperated sigh, grabbing what appeared to be a small brush from the side of his door. "That's the second time this week," he grumbled, brushing the small pieces of glass off his chair before climbing in and handing the brush to his coworker. "You need to be more careful. We can't keep replacing them."

Gran Torino got into the car. "I'll be more careful next time," he promised, though it didn't sound convincing.

"Well, it's a good thing we're not too far away. I'll just have to be a bit more cautious when I'm driving," Tsukauchi said, starting the car. He looked back to check if the coast was clear, but his eyes settled on Izuku and he frowned.

Izuku drew in a sharp breath, prepared for the worst.

"Put your seatbelt on, Midoriya," he scolded. Izuku immediately complied.

Tsukauchi nodded, seemingly satisfied, and began to slowly reverse out of the parking space.

"Who's that?" Gran Torino questioned, peering out from behind the passenger seat.

Izuku rolled his eyes. "I'm really not in the mood to do that today," he replied bluntly.

Gran Torino sighed. "I can see you beating yourself up over this, kid. Don't. This is not like those times when a hero gets called out to a crime scene or a villain decides to try their luck in a public area. This was something that happened out of nowhere at a private party in a gated community. A place that was supposed to be safe and secure. Yes, heroes have to be able to think on their feet, but sometimes things just happen and it's out of your control. You can't live life expecting something to go wrong every second of every day. You can't be expected to save everyone every single time. Greater heroes than you have had worse days than this and lost more people too. It just comes with the job sometimes unfortunately."

Izuku looked down at the bandage on his wrist, brushing his fingers over the material and trying his best not to cry. "I should have acted quicker. I should have been more careful. If I had just done something sooner, I could have at least saved someone."

"Feeling guilty isn't going to help anyone, the best thing you can do is learn from it and keep moving forward," Gran Torino advised.

"Ok," Izuku replied. "I'll try."

"Good," Gran Torino replied. "Now, who are you?" he questioned, Izuku groaned. "No seriously, I can barely tell who you are. You look like you've been dunked in a pool of tomato juice," he stated. "Here's a tip: get yourself some hydrogen peroxide. That stuff works a treat on dried blood."

"Are you encouraging a sixteen year old to buy dangerous chemicals?" Tsukauchi questioned incredulously as they drove past the crime scene.

"You're gonna lecture me about child safety when you're driving one around in a car with no rear view mirror?"

"Whose fault is that?"

Izuku glanced out of the window at it as Gran Torino and the detective bickered back and forth, their voices fading into background noise. Earlier on in the evening, the mansion had been brightly lit and buzzing with excitement and the sounds of people socialising. It looked luxurious, classy and expensive in a way that was a little intimidating, but still welcoming, as if setting foot inside it was enough to make someone feel important.

Now, it was intimidating in the way it loomed over everything in the darkness. It had a sinister, imposing presence like the lone house at the end of a street that kids would make up horror stories about. Just looking at it and knowing what had happened there was enough to send a shiver up Izuku's spine.

A sharp stab of pain shot through Izuku's gums all of a sudden, pulling his attention away from the window as he hissed through gritted teeth. He covered his mouth with his hand in a failed attempt to hold back a pained squeak as the ache in his gums intensified and he felt a stinging sensation as his teeth nicked his bottom lip. The conversation in the front of the car died down.

"You ok back there?" Tsukauchi questioned vigilantly.

"I'm fine," Izuku replied, his voice slightly strained with the effort he was exerting to hide his discomfort. "Just accidentally bit my lip."

As the ache started to become duller, Izuku removed his hand from his mouth and ducked his head to try and discreetly feel for the teeth that seemed to be the source of the pain with his fingers. He froze when he happened upon his canine teeth, which were much longer and sharper than he remembered them being.

Fangs. He had fangs. This night just kept getting better.

Moving his fingers out of the way, he attempted to close his mouth, relieved to find that the fangs were still small enough that his close lips hid them. They felt awkward for his mouth as he wasn't used to the shape of them and he would have to be careful not to catch the sharp ends on the inside of his lip or his tongue, but at least they wouldn't be too noticeable, unless someone had been paying particularly close attention to his mouth. He doubted that was the case though.

Gran Torino spoke up, causing him to immediately drop his hand back into his lap and sit up straight. "Jeez, kid. Tonight really isn't your night."

Izuku hummed in affirmation.

The chaos of the crime scene finally began to fade into the distance as they passed the security point. Izuku sank into his seat, feeling a little bit guilty that the police officer had taken the fall for his actions, but overall relieved that he'd avoided that potential problem. He could do this, one step at a time.

Now he just had to get through the rest of the night.