AN: heartfanglives - you're absolutely right that AM will never call Torino. It's really a matter of when someone gets fed up with him pushing off the call and doing it themselves. Also Melissa's looking at more of a big sister role here. I made her thirsty for Green Tea elsewhere.

InfinityMask - why not both?

fencer29 - Mei, to Tenya: Today is your lucky day! You now have your very own exclusive support staffer, ready to make unlimited babies for you!

Mugen-Muse: I guess we'll see. They've managed the butterfly effect pretty well so far, but now that they're making bigger plays…

Himiko groaned as she watched the retreating forms of Toshinori and his old sidekick, David Shield, as they dragged Izuku and Ochako off towards a lab.

"I'm really sorry about that," the voice of Melissa Shield pulled Himiko back to reality as she apologized to Himiko and Inko. "I knew the meeting was important, but I didn't realize how quickly it would happen."

"It's ok dear," Inko assured the girl, "if it's that important we'll be fine until after their meeting."

Himiko grumbled, looking down at the map they were left with. She knew that All Might was here in secret and that he was supposed to meet with his old sidekick to introduce Izuku and Ochako and explain how they were sharing One For All, but this was a little much. They could have at least had the decency to help her and Inko out before they ran off!

Melissa frowned as she gently grabbed the corner of the map and began tugging at it until Himiko released her grip. "I know it's not much, but here we are," she said, pointing at a spot, "there's a small cafe just a couple blocks that way." She pointed down the thoroughfare. "Right here." And she pointed to where it should be on the map. "It's on the edge of the local shopping district, so it will give you a place to sit down before you figure out what you want to do? The island doesn't have many accommodations for tourists, but there are plenty of activities for the people living here."

"That sounds good," Inko admitted, "and you'll be sure to have Izu call us once you are done with your meeting?"

"Yes, we will!" Melissa offered Inko a reassuring smile. "I promise!"

As they entered the cafe, Himiko and Inko saw several students sitting around, most of them engrossed in school work or on their computers with a few reading books. "Must be a popular place for students," Himiko observed. It is probably the reason why Melissa liked the cafe, she reasoned.

They ordered some light snacks and drinks before they found an empty table, where the two sat down to wait for their order. Himiko spread the map out again, turning it so Inko could see as well. There was a lot to offer, but this wasn't Mustafu, and Himiko didn't even know where to begin. If Izuku was here he'd know what to do, but he was in that secret meeting, which hurt, and she felt like she was being left out.

Before she could dwell on that feeling for too long, Himiko heard a voice speaking to her in English. "Excuse me, but are you two new here?"

Himiko looked up to see a tall blonde-haired girl with the brightest blue eyes she's ever seen, dressed in a white dress shirt with a pair of tan pants. Trying to recall her English, she tried to reply as best she could, "Yes, we are visiting from Japan."

The girl seemed to light up at that and switched to speaking near-flawless Japanese. "Oooh, do you mind if I practice my Japanese then?"

Himiko was still getting used to the idea of people accommodating her, and she felt her cheeks heat up at the girl's request. "N-no! Not at all"

"Thank you," Inko said, "I can understand English well enough, but I'm afraid I'm rusty speaking it."

"Great! My parents are moving to Japan next month, so any practice helps!" The girl sounded excited by that fact. "My name's Emily Song, welcome to I-Island!"

"Inko Midoriya, and thank you."

"I'm Himiko."

"Anyways! Since I don't get to meet new people often, I actually had a reason for coming over! If you don't mind me asking, what are your quirks?"

Himiko made an almost strangled sound at the words.

Oh no.

This girl was a quirk enthusiast, just like Izuku.

Inko smiled at Himiko's reaction before turning towards the girl. "I don't mind. My son is the same way - he gets excited by new quirks. Mine isn't anything special, I can draw small objects to myself." She gave a demonstration by pulling the tablet out of Emily's hands and plucking it out of air.

"That still seems super useful!" Emily exclaimed before turning to Himiko. "What about you?"

Himiko felt nervous as she responded to the girl. Even if she was feeling better about her quirk, she still knew public perception of blood-based quirks wasn't the best. "I can transform into somebody, by drinking their blood."

Himiko felt a blush rising to her cheeks as the girl just stared at her. She knew it was a bad idea to announce her quirk like that, but her therapist had encouraged her to be more open about it. After all, the only way to normalize something was to show people that her quirk was no different than theirs, no matter what her birth parents claimed.

"That," the girl started, "is amazing! I need to know everything! How complete is your transformation? Does your voice change too? How about your clothes? How much blood do you need?"

Inko laughed at Himiko's plight, while Himiko simply sat there wide-eyed. She was dragged out of her shock when Emily grabbed Himiko's wrist. "Let's go back to my table. I need to write this all down!"

Himiko looked at her wrist and realized that she wasn't going to take no for an answer. Suddenly, she knew exactly how Izuku and Ochako probably felt around her and Aika. She shot a pleading look at Inko.

Inko didn't show her any sympathy as she put her hand on Himiko's shoulder. "Go have fun, I'll check into the hotel then walk around that way you don't have to worry about me slowing you down."

Emily took that as blanket permission and pulled Himiko up. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of your daughter for you!"

Himiko didn't even get a chance to feel embarrassed over the comment, since she barely had time to grab her travel bag before the other girl was dragging her away to her table.

Once she crashed into her chair, Emily let go of Himiko's wrist. "Sit!" she ordered.

Himiko sat down and began a simple breathing exercise to try and calm down. Looking around, she saw that everyone in the cafe was seemingly ignoring the other girl's antics. Judging from her own experience, that meant that everyone here was used to her acting this way. She wasn't sure what to think of that, honestly. She finally grabbed the chair across from Emily and sat down, seeing a metallic gauntlet sitting in the middle of the table, several wires dangling loosely off of it.

"Now then, questions!" Emily slammed her tablet onto the table. "Where do we even begin?"

Emily asked Himiko a rapid-fire series of questions about her quirk, and Himiko easily kept pace, answering them almost as fast as the other girl asked. Many of the questions were in line with what Izuku had asked, so she already knew the answers, which impressed the American. For some reason this stranger's praise made Himiko feel good about herself, and it only took a few minutes for the awkward tension she felt to dissipate as she began to feel more confident and comfortable around the other girl.

Eventually, the waitress came by and dropped off the food and drinks Himiko ordered. She quietly thanked the waitress and mouthed her thanks to Inko before she dug into her travel bag. Pulling out a metallic case, she extracted a vial of blood and unscrewed the cap to pour it into her juice.

"What's that?" Emily asked curiously.

Himiko froze up. Oh no, I made a mistake. She had grown too comfortable, too quickly, and forgot she was in the company of a stranger. "B-blood?"

"Oh."

Himiko looked down. Of course, it would creep the other girl out.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

That question was not what Himiko expected, however, as she looked at Emily. "You probably think I'm a monster now, don't you?"

Emily's eyebrows knitted together. "Why would I do that?"

"Because of this," Himiko said, swirling the vial of blood in her hands.

"Again, why? Just because I've never personally met someone with a blood-based quirk before doesn't mean I should be grossed out! I just- didn't make the connection that a blood-based quirk would obviously have a dietary requirement attached to it, is all!"

"Really?" Himiko looked hopefully at the other girl.

"Seriously, what's the big deal?" Emily frowned.

Himiko looked away. "My birth parents… didn't like my quirk."

She heard a hand slam into the table, drawing her attention back to Emily who looked angry. "That means your parents are stupid!"

Himiko stared at the other girl slack-jawed, feeling a blush creeping to her cheeks.

"Seriously, who would treat their daughter like that? That's like hating your child because you didn't like their eye color or hair color!"

"You're right!" Himiko agreed. "Which is why I'm so happy I found the best family on the planet!"

"Good, you deserve better!" She held up her tablet and waved at the notes that filled the screen. "Just- just look at this! Your quirk is wonderful. So what if you have to have something extra in your diet? Some people get stuck with quirks where they need even more accommodations. You don't see us demonizing them either. It's just basic biology!"

Seemingly encouraged by the girl, Himiko finished unscrewing the vial and poured the blood into the juice before placing the empty vial back into the container. "I need to take a small amount of blood with my meals, otherwise my quirk factor begins to devour my blood," she explained, "at which point my body acts like I'm starving and anemic. It's not pretty."

Suddenly she felt the other girl's hand on her wrist again. "Well, I'm sure you came prepared, but if something happens to your travel case, you can go to any of the medical stations on the island and explain your nutrition requirements. Your quirk should be in the island's database, and once they verify it they'll provide you everything you need."

Himiko's face warmed at the sudden concern. "T-thanks."

As she began eating, Himiko watched Emily hook the gauntlet back up to her tablet and start working on it, but she found the silence comfortable after their conversation. Rather than disturb the blonde-haired girl, she dug through her travel bag and pulled out the shoujo manga she had been reading. It was a guilty pleasure of hers, but she enjoyed reading the sappy romance stories and imagining herself having a romantic encounter like that someday.

In many ways, she was jealous of what Izuku and Ochako had going on. They may have met because of some hero forum, or All Might, or whatever the truth was. She didn't know the truth, but she did know that they had amazing chemistry and an inseparable bond. Literally, given they were sharing some ancient super quirk.

Even if they were stubborn idiots who refused to see what everyone else saw.

"Himiko, are you ok?" Emily asked, startling Himiko out of her daze.

She felt her cheeks heat up further as she realized she was blushing and tried to bury her head in her manga. "Y-yes. I just got to a particularly cute scene!"

Emily laughed as she snatched the manga away from Himiko and flipped through it. "Shoujo, huh?"

"I-it's cute!" Himiko protested. "It's fun to imagine at least, even if I know it's all a fantasy."

"I wouldn't know," Emily grumbled, "nobody ever seems to like me back."

Himiko had to do a double-take, making sure she heard the other girl clearly, but she didn't indicate having said anything as she handed the manga back to Himiko.

"S-so, why are your parents moving to Japan?" Himiko asked, suddenly desperate to change the conversation.

This seemed to do the trick, wiping the subtle frown off the other girl's face. "My parents are the head researchers at Windsong Industries, which is planning on opening a Japanese branch to expand their business overseas! So we're moving to Mustafu next month!"

Himiko almost choked on her pastry. "M-Mustafu?!"

"Yep! It's close to a port, it's not that far to Tokyo by train, and it's also home to UA!" Emily said with pride in her voice. "They had a bunch of students get expelled, so I was able to transfer into the heroics course! You're looking at a future student of class 1-A!"

"I'm going to be applying there next winter!" Himiko exclaimed.

"What?" Emily asked in disbelief. "Really?!"

"My-" Himiko hesitated, "friends are all planning on attending UA to become heroes. I'm going to try to attend UA with them."

"As a hero course student?" Emily asked, excitement creeping into her voice.

"Maybe?" Himiko asked, uncertain. "My quirk isn't exactly good for fighting, though."

"Who cares? Your quirk is unique and special! Even if it doesn't make you the next All Might or Star and Stripe. We already have them!"

"Special?" Himiko had heard Izuku and Inko refer to it in the same way, usually when she had an episode and was filled with bad thoughts about her quirk, but here was a total stranger telling her the same thing.

"Look, there are over eight billion people on the planet, and 80% of them have quirks. That's a lot of quirks, and that means a lot of redundancy. You can enter a room and throw a rock, and you're almost bound to hit someone with a super-strength quirk. Even if the mechanics vary from person to person, at the end of the day it's the same thing. Lift a lot, punch hard. Same with energy projection-"

"So you're saying I should aim for you when I throw a rock, then?" Himiko asked, her eyes narrowing playfully. She had begun to feel warm inside and wanted to see how far she could push this girl.

"Hey! That's not! Shut up!" The girl let out a flustered response before crossing her arms in a huff. "Yes I have an energy projection quirk, that's why I'm working on support gear to give me the edge!"

The girl gestured to the gauntlet that was currently connected to her tablet.

"Something like that will really help you out?" Himiko asked curiously.

"Of course!" The girl launched into an explanation of how the device is designed to work with her quirk, to effectively enhance it in multiple ways. It all went over her head - she wasn't Izuku after all. But it didn't matter to the American girl, who seemed excited to explain it to her, while she furiously worked on her tablet.

She didn't know how long she was in a trance, but Himiko was once again broken out of her thoughts when the girl said "aaaand done!"

Looking down at the glove, the row of lights along the knuckles all glowed green, and Emily disconnected the wires from the gauntlet, before putting it on her left hand.

"Alright, Himiko, now we're gonna go practice!"

"Practice?"

"Our quirks, obviously!" Emily stood up and shouldered her bag. "Since I'm transferring to UA, I need to be at the top of my game! And if you want a chance to enter the hero course, you need any edge you can get, so yes, practice time!"

Himiko groaned, somehow even on vacation she was getting dragged into training, but she still stood up, shoved her manga back into the bag, and followed the American girl.

Emily led her to one of the island's training facilities. While they were normally used by visiting heroes or to show off support gear, they provided the students who wished to pursue a career in heroics a chance to practice their quirks as well.

After Emily checked both of them in, she grabbed Himiko's bag and stored it in a locker along with her bag. She then led the other girl to an open area with a control console off to one side, spinning around to face Himiko.

"Alright, I want to see your quirk in action!"

Himiko stared in disbelief. "Didn't you forget the part about needing blood?"

"Of course, I remember that!" Emily held out her right arm. "Take what you need."

Himiko felt her heart race as she gently reached out and cradled the girl's hand with her own, caressing it as if it was a priceless object. The level of trust that this total stranger had in her not to abuse her quirk was something new. She could feel her heart racing as her fingers slid along the girl's wrist, seeking out a vein.

Where were people like her for the past ten years? Emily was quickly climbing the ranks of her favorite people. Not as high as Izuku and Inko, obviously, but maybe, given time…

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she bit into the other girl's wrist and took a mouthful of blood, completely missing the fact that the American girl was a blushing mess. Letting go, she stepped back and activated her quirk, being careful to only transform her body and not her clothes.

Unfortunately, that may have been a mistake as the other girl was taller than Himiko, and now her clothes felt weird and ill-fitting. Looking down at herself, she sighed. "Ugh, I could have planned this better."

"You know you could have waited and transformed in the locker room," Emily responded, a little too quickly.

"You were the one demanding to see my quirk!" Himiko retorted, pointing a finger accusingly.

"Also, this is definitely weirder than I thought it would be in my head," Emily admitted, "seeing myself standing here talking back to me is not what I had in mind."

Himiko laughed. "Yes well, you're supposed to be some quirk genius, you should have known."

"Shut up!" the other girl responded, crossing her arms and pouting. Himiko made a mental note, that if she ever spends more time with Emily after today, she needed to tease her relentlessly.

Finally getting tired of her clothes being uncomfortable, Himiko dropped the transformation, the gray sludge pooling at her feet as she returned to her normal form. "There, much better."

"Seriously though, that quirk seems so useful! I'm sure you could do so much with it."

"Useful huh." Himiko stared at her hand, opening and closing it several times before she turned her attention back to Emily.

After peppering her with more questions, Emily brought up the simulation, which was essentially a game of target practice. She showed Himiko how her quirk worked as she created spheres of light that she fired at the shapes floating around the room, blowing them to pieces.

When Emily asked Himiko if she wanted to join in, she rolled her eyes and reminded Emily that her quirk was a non-combat quirk, and she couldn't fight with that. Emily pointed out that Himiko mentioned she was training with weapons and walked her over to a cabinet where there were a variety of plastic practice weapons. After Himiko pulled out several knives, they returned to the console, and the knives lit up as they were registered as part of the simulation.

For the next hour, the two took turns dancing around the room, Emily using her quirk and Himiko using her practice weapons to evade targets and destroy them. Himiko had to admit, this was much more exciting than the practice All Might had been putting her through, where she had spent the last month learning the fundamentals of technique.

After they were done practicing, the two left the training facility and Emily guided Himiko to an open-air cafeteria to grab a late lunch.

"There are some stalls over there," Emily mentioned, pointing to one end of the market, "that cater to people with specialized diets. I'm sure if you wanted something with blood in it you could get it there."

Himiko shook her head. "I'm good, after that wonderful snack before training I should be ok until dinner."

The strangled sound Emily made in response caused Himiko to burst out laughing. Oh yes, if she kept talking to her she would have so much fun.

Once they got their meals and sat down, Emily resumed the conversation. "So Mustafu. What's it like? I mean, sure I've been there a couple of times on business, but actually living there's going to be a new experience."

"It's different than this-" Himiko waved her hand, indicating the island. "-for sure. Slower, more peaceful. Regular villain attacks, so you can join my brother when he rushes off to watch them and learn about quirks."

Emily laughed, "Oh your brother sounds great, I've got to meet him!"

Himiko didn't know why that hurt as much as it did. "He's taken though, even though he refuses to admit it."

"W-what?" That caught Emily off guard, her face heating up. "Eww! Gross! Stop reading those trashy mangas! Just because we both like quirks!"

"They're my guilty pleasures and you can't take them away from me." Himiko stuck her tongue out at the other girl.

"Anyways! It'll be fun. Seeing all the new quirks, that is."

"If you want, I can show you around sometime," Himiko offered, her eyes widening.

"Really?"

Himiko nodded vigorously. "Sure! Mo-Inko is always telling me I need to make my own friends and not just rely on Izuku's friends."

"That sounds great!"

After lunch, Emily started showing Himiko around the island. Himiko mostly let her lead and simply let herself absorb everything, trying to remember things she wanted to show Izuku, Ochako, and Inko tomorrow. There were a couple of exceptions when she took the lead, however, grabbing Emily's hand and dragging her to a store to examine the exotic goods that she couldn't get at home.

She lost track of time until her phone went off, and Himiko pulled it out, seeing a message from Izuku.

"Finally!" She sighed. "Looks like that meeting is done, and I need to meet everyone at Shield Industries."

"Shield? That's where they were?" Emily exclaimed.

Himiko looked confused. "Yes? They were meeting with David Shield?"

"W-who are these people?"

Himiko just laughed. "Oh, I'm sure you'll meet them soon enough."

"Y-yeah, that sounds nice," Emily replied, grabbing Himiko's hand, "well, follow me!"

At this point Himiko felt herself flush red as she was dragged along, but for entirely different reasons than she did at the beginning of the day.

"Here we are! Shield Industries!" Emily proudly announced as they stood in front of a large building, second only to the Island's central tower in size.

"T-thanks," Himiko replied as she looked at the building. She wasn't sure what to do at this point. It was a nice day, but when trying to think about how to end it, her mind went blank before it became filled with terrible ideas that she would surely regret later. Unsure what to do, she simply stood there awkwardly until Emily held out her hand.

"Phone."

"What?"

"Gimme your phone! I almost forgot to put my number in it! That would have been a tragedy!"

Silently agreeing, Himiko unlocked her cell phone and handed it to the other girl, who appeared to be taking a selfie before she began typing on it. Finally, she handed the phone back, and Himiko looked down. In her contacts was a new entry for 'Emily Song (future hero Polaris)' and a custom photo of her winking at the camera staring back at her. Himiko's face turned red as she saw it.

"Say cheese!"

Himiko looked up in surprise as she heard a camera go off, and Emily laughed at the photo before typing on her phone and showing an entry for 'Himiko Midoriya (Mustafu, awesome quirk)' with her startled face looking back at her.

"T-that photo sucks! At least give me a good one!"

"If you're offering," Emily slyly said.

Sighing, Himiko took a moment to compose herself, before giving a bright smile, making sure to show all her fangs, and flashing a peace sign. She heard the camera go off again and stepped over to grab the phone, examining the replacement photo. It was much cuter.

"Great! Thanks for letting me drag you around today, it's been fun!"

"Y-yeah." Himiko couldn't help but agree. Despite the frustrating start, she had to agree it was a pretty amazing day. She would definitely be showing her around Mustafu once she settled in.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Emily sadly declared, hands behind her back as she looked awkwardly at Himiko.

"Y-yeah. Call me when you get to Japan?"

"You bet!"

Emily suddenly sprang, pulling Himiko into a hug and Himiko felt her face heating up from the sudden contact. She wrapped her arms around the other girl and they stood there for what felt like an eternity before the other girl finally pulled back, refusing to look at Himiko as she quickly walked away.

Himiko couldn't help but notice that the other girl's face was also bright red.

As she stood there waiting for Inko, she let her thoughts wander to the events of the day. In many ways, it felt almost like one of her mangas, where two people happened to run into each other and by the end of the chapter you were cheering them on. The way Emily was so quick to defend her, bluntly pointing out things that have taken Himiko months to accept about herself.

It made her feel special.

"You're smiling," Inko said happily, startling Himiko.

"H-Hi mom," Himiko said, as her face heated up from embarrassment.

"So you had a good day with that girl?"

"Y-yeah." Himiko nodded her head fervently. "Things are so weird here compared to back home! But- it was nice."

"I'm glad you were able to have fun today."

"Me too," Himiko agreed, "but I'm still not letting Izuku and Ochako out of my sight after this!"

After dropping her bag off at home, Emily collapsed on her bed. Opening her contacts, she scrolled down to the new girl on her list and pulled her profile up. Staring at the photo, she sighed heavily before closing her phone.

"Of course she likes guys," she groaned and turned to her side as she remembered the manga the other girl was reading. "Silly Emmy, thinking you were forming some connection at the end there. Life's not like a manga, after all."

AN: Well, if you follow my other story you know where this is going. If you've just been following BttB, I'd like to introduce you to Emily Song, daughter of 2 scientists who wants to become a hero, quirk enthusiast, and future friend of Himiko's.

As for this chapter, this is sort of an experiment. I have a few ideas in the works for side stories such as this, which fill out additional details, but aren't part of the main plot, per se. I've posted this one as part of the main story because Himiko has gained a much more prominent role than I originally planned for her, but for future side stories - would you prefer if I posted them up in a separate work, or would you prefer if I posted them up as part of the main story, just labeled appropriately?