Disclaimer: I own nothing
Izuku was waking up. He just died again. Izuku was leading another raid on the serpent. He got shot four times after his regeneration quit on him. He stayed on his feet until the raid was over. He held his head high until they all left. He had the decency to die on Ruby's doorstep. He kinda wished he didn't die at all but it wasn't really his choice to make.
"You awake?" asks Ruby.
"Looks like it." replies Izuku.
"You okay?" asks Ruby.
"More or less. I've been better, I've been worse." says Izuku.
"What happened this time?" asks Ruby.
"I blocked a couple of bullets with my body. Regeneration was gone when I did that. I don't remember all of that fight but it was one of the harder ones." says Izuku.
"Mhm. Well you won and that's all that matters." hums Ruby.
"But how about you? How've you been?" asks Izuku.
"Oh you know. Investing in property. Renting it out. It pays well. Actually that cabin I let you use was one of the properties I used to rent out. I thought you'd like it though and I go up there sometimes." says Ruby.
"Cool and thanks again for letting me chill there from time to time." says Izuku.
"Yeah, it's pretty nice. I'm glad that you like it up there. I kinda figured you would." says Ruby, " Anyway, how's your little war going? I see it in the news a lot. They say you don't really have a chance but other people say you win battle after battle. I figure you'd know better than any news channel I can watch."
"Well. We've driven them out of Europe but now we're dealing with the Russian group. A lot of us aren't acclimated to that type of weather. Some of us take the transition pretty well. Some of us even thrive in the cold like Dabi or Victor. Some of us get hit harder by it. It's bad for Doc's lungs. I want him to stay away from fighting there but he's one of our best. I guess as a whole the war is going well. But I'm still not sure we can win. Every fight we win rests on the back of a small part of the group. A lot of the people I work with are idealists but they aren't very strong." says Izuku.
"So a select few do most of the heavy lifting?" asks Ruby.
"Yeah. Dabi has just won some battles for us. Like on his own." says Izuku, "But if Dabi got hurt and was taken out of commission for a while we'd lose a lot of our fighting power. It's that way for a couple of our stronger members. Eventually the syndicate is going to catch on to that. We'll need to change things up."
"You think you can manage?" asks Ruby.
"Mmm. Probably." replies Izuku.
"That's good." says Ruby.
"Yeah." says Izuku, "I should probably go check with Giran to see if he's got anything for me and crew."
"Good luck." says Ruby, she clearly doesn't want him to leave so soon.
"Well before I go, what was that show you were telling me about? The funny one in the hospital?" asks Izuku.
"Scrubs?" asks Ruby.
"Yeah, that sounds right." says Izuku, "If you have the time we could watch a couple of episodes."
"Yeah, I've got time." says Ruby, Izuku could tell she was happy about this.
"Cool." replies Izuku.
Yeah, Ruby was right. That show is hilarious. Izuku's favorite character is the janitor. That dude is funny. It was getting closer to sundown. Izuku had to see if he could get a team ready.
"That was fun, but I really gotta get going." says Izuku.
"Oh, alright. I'll see you around." says Ruby.
"Yeah, I'll try to stop by tomorrow and we can pick up where we left off." says Izuku.
"Oh that'll be fun." says Ruby.
"Course it will." says Izuku, "See you soon."
"Alright, bye." says Ruby.
After that Izuku went to Giran to see what he knew and what he could do with it.
"Son, you won't believe what I have for you today." says Giran.
"Ooo, it sounds like something big." says Izuku.
"It's not actually…" says Giran.
"Oh, okay, well what is it?" asks Izuku.
"It's absolutely nothing." says Giran.
"Really?" asks Izuku.
"Yeah, I looked. I asked some buddy's of mine. I even asked a couple of rivals. I got nothing for you." says Giran.
"Huh, I guess I'll ask some buddies of mine and see what they know." says Izuku.
"Before you go." says Giran.
"What's up?" asks Izuku.
"I heard you fought like a fucking tank out there. Like the shit I hear is insane." says Giran.
"I don't really remember a whole lot after my regeneration cut out." says Izuku.
"I hear you just tore through em. That was actually one of the biggest mass arrests in Russia's villain history. So good job with that." says Giran.
"Yeah thanks." says Izuku who couldn't help but wonder if those were his vampiric instincts that helped him out there.
Izuku asked pretty much every vigilante he knew, hell he even asked a couple of heroes. Nobody had a location he hadn't already hit. No private residence. No base of operations. Not even a job they were gonna pull. He just got nothing.
"That's weird aint it?" asks Izuku.
"A little but it seems like they're scared." says Dabi.
"I don't think so. Maybe it's an off day or something. I guess I'll just patrol. It's been a while since I've done that." says Izuku.
Mkay, have fun." says Dabi.
"I'll try." says Izuku.
It was a pretty normal patrol. Except for the fact Izuku was being followed by a panther. He didn't really know what it's deal was. Everytime he looked at it directly it disappeared but he knew it was there. He carried on like it wasn't there, maybe it would leave him alone. So he went about his business. He changed someone's tire, bought a homeless guy like twenty sandwiches, played catch with some kids at a park. Just the fun part of his job. Oh the panther got right behind him, when did that happen?
"Get the hell outta here." says Izuku, "I don't have anything for you to eat. Actually how the hell did you even get here? Go back to the zoo."
"Excuse me?" asks the panther.
"Oh you're a dude. I thought you were just a cat." says Izuku.
"Why would I just be a cat?" asks the cat man.
"..." Izuku doesn't really know how to respond to that.
"Okay, that was a dumb question. I'll admit it. But you're still stupid." says Panther.
"Look, I've seen weirder shit. I've talked to a bat one time." says Izuku.
"Yeah, all vampires can talk to bats." says Panther.
"Are… are you a vampire?" asks Izuku.
"As a matter of fact, I'm the king of the vampires." says the vampire.
"You're the dude that killed Dracula?" asks Izuku.
"That's right." says King.
"You dumb son of a bitch. Alucard killed Dracula and you stabbed him in the back." says Izuku.
"Oh… you caught my bluff." says King.
"Sure did, dummy. Anyways you got a name?" asks Izuku.
"It's Giaguaro." says the vampire.
"That's just jaguar in italian." says Izuku.
"That's because I'm italian." says Giaguaro.
"Yeah, you're also a cunt." says Izuku.
"Scathing." replies Giaguaro.
"I'm well aware." replies Izuku.
"Anyway the point I wanted to get to, would you care to work with me?" asks Giaguaro.
"Like Alucard?" asks Izuku.
"... No not like Alucard. What I want from you is different. If I get what I want I have no reason to kill you." says Giaguaro.
"You couldn't if you tried." says Izuku.
"Couldn't I?" asks Giaguaro.
"Nope, I'd kick yer ass." replies Izuku.
"Before I get to why I want you to work with me, who are you?" asks Giaguaro.
"I'm a vigilante. Most people know me as Ketsueki." says Izuku.
"Not that." says Giaguaro.
"I'm not telling you my actual name." says Izuku.
"I meant, who do you come from?" asks Giaguaro.
"My mother." replies Izuku.
"... I've kept track of all living bloodlines. I don't know where you come from. If you came from one of my subjects they'd have told me, so who do you come from? Actually ... you've only shown up recently. You were turned weren't you?" asks Giaguaro.
So Izuku's pretty sure that Vlad never let anybody know that he turned Ruby. Maybe he should keep this guy away from her.
"Sorry but that's my secret to keep." says Izuku.
"I suppose that's fair. Everybody has their own torch to burn. Like me for example. I saw that vampires were a dying species and I did something about it." says Giaguaro.
"Alucard would've made a fine king. You'd have survived under him." says Izuku.
"I don't just want our people to survive. I want us to thrive. I want us to unify." says Giaguaro.
"That string of murders. The one where each victim had fang marks on their necks. That was you guys huh?" asks Izuku.
"Yup." replies Giaguaro.
"I kinda figured. If I had the time I'd have caught you already." says Izuku.
"Well before you arrest me allow me to explain myself. Excluding you there are nine living vampires. Nine. We are facing extinction. We either need people to join us. Or we need to be stronger. Blood is the way to strength." says Giaguaro.
"What about all those people you killed. They didn't deserve to die. You could have taken what you needed and left the rest." says Izuku.
"Really? I mean they're just humans. It's the natural order of things. The apex predator eats the prey. We spent so long competing for food we tore ourselves apart. We need to work together like a pack of wolves or a pride of lions." says Giaguaro.
"We're not better than them. We're not." says Izuku.
"For thousands of years we kept them in line. We need to restore nature to the way it should be." says Giaguaro.
"Buddy nature changes all the time. They evolved and we didn't; it's as simple as that. They're on top now." says Izuku.
"Yes but we did evolve. Just not exactly in a better way." says Giaguaro.
"So we devolved?" asks Izuku.
"You're quirkless right?" asks Giaguaro.
"See I had a quirk. A panther quirk. When I turned into a vampire my new powers were not as strong as they should have been. But you, you're like one of the old vampires. The only thing that makes me stronger than you is my kingship." says Giaguaro.
"What, like Dracula?" asks Izuku.
"No, but you could be. Come with me. Eat with me. Kill with me. I know how our instincts work. You want to join me. We know you do. Just say yes." says Giaguaro.
"No. Get the fuck outta here." says Izuku.
"You cling onto your humanity too tightly. You're a monster now. I can't force you and I certainly won't kill you. There's too little of us to do something like that." says Giaguaro.
"Well what's stopping me from killing you?" asks Izuku.
"Right now nothing." says Giaguaro.
"So what's your endgame again?" asks Izuku.
"Vampires rule the world. Humans belong to us, they work for us and feed us. It's a pretty simple goal. It's not too hard to wrap your head around." says Giaguaro, "Oh and one guy who I owe a favor to rules with us. He's more monster than human anyway. He might even help us kill All Might. If anybody has the strength for it it's him."
"Well now that I know what you want I think I've made my decision." says Izuku .
"You want to work with us. If you do the humans you choose to hold onto will be treated well. I imagine you have friends." says Giaguaro.
"Actually I've decided that you're a goddamn clown. Also I'm gonna kick your ass and arrest you." says Izuku as he slugs Giaguaro.
Izuku and Giaguaro trade blows for a while. Izuku's bigger and stronger, Giaguaro is more agile and faster. Izuku fights more aggressively and corners Giaguaro and just beats on him. Izuku feels two arms wrap around his waist and he gets suplexed. When Izuku gets up there are two more vampires next to Giaguaro and he can smell another. He thinks she's invisible.
"I know you were hurt pretty bad this morning. I imagine you can't regenerate all that well. I'll be leaving you know. Don't chase us. You can't beat us all. I have to admit you're stronger than I expected. We won't kill you even though you struck out against your king. As I said earlier there really aren't enough of us to do that. But we'll be seeing you, think about what I said won't you?"
"Get the hell outta here before I change my mind." says Izuku.
"You don't need to pretend you have a fighting chance, the odds are stacked against you. It's okay." says Giaguaro.
"Bitch the hell did I just say?" asks Izuku.
Giaguaro could tell Izuku would swing at them if they didn't leave and decided it would be a pretty good time to go.
"We'll be going now." says Giaguaro.
"Damn right." says Izuku.
Authors Note
This chapter was fun to write. This is gonna be the start of the vampire hunter arc. I'm excited to write it out. I'm excited to see what you guys have to say about it. I think I'm gonna bring back Gabriella to help Izuku out. I can have speed Demon fight here because he's not busy with the war on the syndicates. I've got so much planned. Like this is kinda where stuff just starts to go off the chain. I know I've already said this but I want to dive into Vlad a little bit. Some of it I'll do through Vlad when I flashback to what Izuku saw when he died. I wanna use the vampires Izuku's going to fight to show a couple of things about Vlad. Giaguaro is gonna come back and him and Izuku are gonna have a rematch. Like I real fight though not the short thing I did this chapter.
Sometimes I can't help but think of what I'm going to do when the story ends. I've considered just writing a new story. One thing I had bouncing around in my head is a story where Izuku is the illegitimate son of Hawks and Miruko. Neither one of them is ready for a child so they put Izuku into a foster home and he's kind of a street rat type character but things pick up for him when he tries to get into U.A. Either he goes to U.A or he gets scouted by Giran and works for All For One. Something like that could be fun to write when I finish this.
So I'm currently on vacation. I brought my laptop with me so I could work on this. It's nice. I'm in northern California near the coast. It's pretty up here. I'm gonna go hiking and I'm gonna visit national parks. It's gonna be fun. Dude I'm gonna go kayaking. I don't know how to do that but I'm excited because that's cool as hell. My room is in the attic and has a window I can open and stick my head out. I can see a lot of the neighborhood. This feels like something out of Studio Ghibli. This is so cool. The change of setting is giving me mad isnpiration to write more. I'm gonna try to make some real nice chapters before I go home. I'm vibing out to pokemon lofi. This shit is relaxing.
Rando Fox: I've seen a couple of stories with this premis. They were either abandoned or finished. There were some getting worked on but that was like one or two of them. I just thought that was something I'd like to read more of so I wrote my own for people to read. I think it's going pretty good so far. We're getting close to sixty chapters. We aren't too far from two hundred thousand words.
Kahjj: I'm glad it was hard to put down. I love when I find I story that I just don't want to stop reading. Yeah, man I try to find that balance between between normality and just ape shit violence and sadness. I try not to focus on main events because that just isn't real. Like I get that the story isn't real at all but I try to sprinkle some realism in their at times. I'm glad that the story just flows all nice and easy.
For real man, thanks for writing all that. Like I was super stoked when I saw that there was in entire paragraph in the reviews. I always love to see it. It always feels good to have somebody say that the thing your doing is working out well.