(Sneaking towards the Boku no Hero Academia Fandom)

Brick - FREEZE!

Crap baskets.

Brick - And just where have you been?

Oh, uhhhhhh...you know...around...

Brick - rEALLY?

Yes.

Brick - Does around include updating this story?!

...maybe...

Brick - BULL-(beep)

...Okay, I was planning on making a Boku no Hero Academia story.

Brick - No the (beep) you won't!

But-

Brick - NO!

Okay...

The Blood of the Village

The frosty toothed winds of winter bit at her skin like the rats that scurried beneath her palace home. She hurried along the snowy paths as she walked, mind swirling with even darker and colder thoughts. It had been nearly a month since she had returned home from visiting that beast of a man, Lord Jinnoya. Ever since, her father had been a man obsessed, heart frozen in place by fear of the warlord's wrath. The glamorous life Himeko had enjoyed now had a copper aftertaste, the ever present threat of death loomed above her. Shirogane had used his many connections, stretching far and wide to request that his clientele and friends come to his aide, under the guise of paying back a life debt to Jinnoya.

"Help me save the love of the man who saved my own life, help me restore my own honor."

What a load of ox crap.

The man was a demon, it seemed, who sucked the joy out of all who knew him. He instilled fear in his underlings and hatred in those of his station. Himeko had become his own personal toy, always ordering her to please him with the underlying threat of her life if she didn't. Himeko wondered, "is this what Buttercup felt while living here in the village? This suffocating helplessness? Is this what Rose feels when she sees me?" Now Himeko knew she deserved that punch, which seemed so long ago. As she turned the corner, returning from her walk through the market, her heart stopped.

There, atop a podium, stood one of her father's vassals. "That's right, my people! Tennoji Buttercup is alive! My lord's own daughter, Lady Himeko, spotted her not long ago, amongst the people of Humanago while they celebrated their harvest!" A mutter rippled through the crowd.

Tennoji Buttercup?

Alive?

Already, she could see the guilt that had been plaguing everyone's faces begin to ease. Himeko gulped. This was not good.

"My lord has felt the pain of the Tennoji family, even more so because he had instituted the cause of it. And now, now he has made a plan, to restore peace and atone for her supposed death. My people, join Lord Shirogane and come together with his household to defeat the dragon!"

Almost immediately, people began to shout.

"It is lunacy to say such things," a man cried out. "The dragon has nearly wiped out this village before! If we rise against him again, he will kill us all!" Himeko agreed. She had no doubt in her mind. Her father may think Buttercup escaped, Lord Jinnoya too, but Himeko knew the truth.

The man she saw Buttercup with that night was the dragon.

She had seen the dragon while many here had only spotted glimpses or clues of his presence. She had seen the acid green eyes and powerful maw. She had felt the fear instilled by nature from seeing him as his true form and when she saw him as a human.

Buttercup had never escaped the dragon.

The dragon had just turned into a man.

And if the village rose up and attempted to fight him, that same man who crush them like ants. He would obliterate the village and, this time, there would be no more sacrifices to appease his rage. She could feel the potential flames licking at her skin, demanding her soul. She could feel the ghost cracks of her bones as she is dragged into his mouth by her own mind.

She could taste the blood of her village on her own lips.

I have to stop this, Himeko thought as her father's vassal began to encourage and convince the village. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Rose staring up with a blank expression at the vassal before stalking off. Suddenly, Himeko had an idea.

As she walked up the stone pathway to the Tennoji residence, Himeko had a feeling of dread and hope mixing together in the most disgusting of ways. The village was fueled by their guilt over Buttercup's fate, maybe her family can convince them to let her go. She knew it was a long shot. The family obviously wanted nothing more than to have their daughter back, but surely they would understand. Buttercup was alive and healthy from what Himeko saw.

That should be enough.

Let her live the life she dreamt of, away from the village and it's troubles. She reached the door and began knocking, calling out, "Shirogane Himeko has come! Please, if someone is there, open up!"

Time moves excruciatingly slow when one is desperate. Finally, the door slid open to reveal Lilly, the youngest Tennoji and, in Himeko's view, the only one that doesn't totally hate her. Lilly cocked her head to the side, suspicious.

"Tennoji Himeko? What are you doing here?" Himeko ignored the lack of her title. There were bigger things to worry about.

"Lilly! I need to speak with your father, is he here?"

"He wouldn't be too pleased to see you."

"I know, it's just...it's urgent. Can you get him for me?"

"Well-"

"Lilly!" Rose's voice cut off the young girl as she appeared from the shadowy house. Rose hadn't changed much from when Himeko last saw her. She made it a point to avoid her now. The girl was still surly, but now she was also depressed and forlorn. "Lilly, you have lessons. Go back to them."

"I was just answering the door," Lilly grumbled.

"I'll take care of this. Now go." Lilly huffed and left, leaving the two women alone. Himeko gulped.

Things had just become harder.

Rose stared at her, "you have some nerve, coming here."

"Rose, listen to me. I know you hate me and you deserve to, but I need to see your father."

"Why?"

"Because-"

"Your father wants to rally forces to go after the dragon right? He wants to slay it, in honor of my sister and all who died by it?" The sarcasm was not lost on Himeko in the least. Rose toyed with her hair. "Why would I worry about that?" Himeko felt like she was doused with cold water. "Why should I care if the village gets massacred? I'd probably laugh, to be honest."

"You...you don't mean that..."

"I do. I think this is the perfect karma. After all, you all had no problem throwing her to that dragon and now she's off living a life I cannot even imagine and you all get killed." A sharp, dagger like smile graced Rose's face and now Himeko wondered if the dragon was really the most monstrous being that she had seen. Rage, bitter, and grief had turned Rose into something she didn't recognize.

"And it's all my fault," she thought. "Rose, listen, don't let your hate make your heart bitter. I deserve your anger, my father deserves your anger, but the people...the village was scared. They didn't know what to think or do. The dragon had never demanded a sacrifice so soon." Himeko grabbed Rose's hand and held it. Rose stiffened. "If I could, I would switch places with Buttercup so that you could have her back. But I can't...please don't make the village suffer because of me again."

"...Switch...you..." Rose muttered before a light seemed to shine in her eyes before promptly dimming again. Rose ripped her hand out of Himeko's grasp and hissed, "my father will not be back for a few hours...you can wait in the dining hall until he returns." Himeko smiled, grateful.

"Thank you, Rose." As Rose led the way, with Himeko walking behind, a grim smile etched onto her face.

Rose directed her to a table to wait while she went to go and get some tea for her. Himeko sat on one of the cushions and waited, facing the open doorway to the garden, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man she hoped would stop the village from charging to her death.

The next thing she felt was a searing pain before passing out while Rose stood behind her, holding one of her father's stone mallets.

Lilly finally came out of her room when evening began to fall, only to see Rose outside, dragging a cloth sack behind her towards the shed. "Big Sister?" Rose froze and turned, looking at Lilly. Lilly never feared Rose before now...but the wild look in her eyes was unsettling. "...What are you doing?"

Rose smiled, "just moving some trash to our shed. I'll take it with me tomorrow morning before I head out."

"Oh yeah, you were going to visit Auntie, right?" Their father had decide that Rose needed to get out of the village for some time to clear her head.

"Right. Papa is going to be staying out tonight, so go ahead and eat dinner. It's waiting in the dining hall."

"Okay...oh, um...what happened with Lady Himeko earlier?" Rose scoffed.

"Just her usual ridiculousness, nothing more. No need to worry about it." Some feeling crept down Lilly's spine, making her think she should ask more about it...but she kept her mouth shut. And watched as Rose put the sack in the shed before she headed to the dining hall.

Black - There was no Big Brother playing in the snow!

I wanted to write this first!

Butch - HA!

I'll write that next.

Butch - Crap.

BC - So announcements?

Oh right. So, I'm gonna try and update again before new years and possibly in the beginning of January, but I'm going on a trip in January, so I'll be MIA until February at most. After that though...I will find a way to update at least once a month!

Blossom - (glares)

Really.

Blossom - (glares)

I'm not saying it.

Blossom - NOW.

(sigh) I promise.