AN: Thanks for the kudos and reviews everyone!
Himiko found herself almost giddy with excitement as she grabbed her costume case from its housing. Waiting impatiently for Atsuko to retrieve hers, the two girls took off to the locker room, excited to finally try their hero costumes on.
When they arrived Himiko slammed her case into the bench and popped it open, seeing several pages containing an inventory of items as well as instructions. There was also a thick document that looked like a quirk analysis, which made Himiko sigh. Setting that aside, she made a note to give that to Izuku later. She turned her attention to the instructions and quickly read them, a smile growing on her lips.
Tucking the papers into the case, she quickly changed into her black sleeveless bodysuit. Examining herself, she smiled at how perfectly it fit before turning to her friend.
"Hey Suko, can I borrow some blood?"
Atsuko paused putting her costume on, her boot halfway on. "Oh, is that the hair suit you were telling me about?"
"Stop calling it that!" Himiko protested, feeling her blush marks deepen. "Does this look like hair to you?" She thrust her hand into her friend's face.
"I guess you're right," Atsuko said with a smirk. "So you want to test it out?"
"Yep! I'd like to know if it works now, instead of finding out in the middle of our class," Himiko explained as her face continued to brighten from embarrassment.
"That would be pretty bad," Atsuko agreed as she held out her hand. Himiko drew one of her knives and with careful precision scratched her friend, drawing out a small bead of blood. Gently capturing the crimson liquid on her finger, she drank it and activated her quirk.
Himiko felt like she was being wrapped in her friend's kindness as the gray slime of her quirk wrapped around her, and seconds later their classmates were staring at two Atsukos, both partially dressed in her hero costume.
"So that's how your quirk works? I didn't see how you used it yesterday."
"If it wasn't for Hotoko holding her boot, I couldn't tell the difference!"
Himiko's face split into a grin as she struck a pose. "Yep! This is my quirk! If I drink someone's blood, I can transform into them! Right down to their clothing. If I can copy their mannerisms, you'd never know it was me."
"That explains why you want to go underground," Tomoe said as she examined her two classmates, her enhanced vision failing to pick up even minor flaws in her transformation.
"Yep!" Himiko chirped. "As much as I'd like to show off, my quirk is perfect for stealth and information gathering. But what's the point of being able to transform if everyone knows I can do it?" She frowned at that before she quickly wiped the expression off her face. "Basically the billboard charts are the opposite of what I want!"
Himiko took a deep breath as she looked at the clothes she was wearing. "Of course, the problem with my quirk is that when I copy clothes, mine usually get destroyed by my quirk." She felt her cheeks heating up as she thought about how embarrassing that was. "But! If the support company got this right, that won't be a problem anymore!"
"Time to find out if cutting your hair was worth it," Atsuko said with a grin on her face.
"Yep!" Taking a deep breath, Himiko dropped her transformation and let the sludge slough off of her, the leftover gray sludge pooling at her feet. A quick glance was all she needed to confirm her bodysuit survived the transformation, and she jumped for joy. "It worked! It really worked!"
"But what about the rest of your costume?"
Himiko pulled a deep crimson Victorian-style long coat out of the case and dramatically threw it over her shoulders before she slid her arms into it with a flourish. "You know how Izu is, he figured out a solution! It's designed so that I can pull it off quickly, in case I need to transform on short notice." She then pulled out a pair of reinforced boots and a gas mask, making a face at its basic design. "My boots actually take longer to get off than my coat."
"Hopefully you don't need to replace your boots too often," Atsuko said as she finished pulling on her knee-high boots. Her costume consisted of a loose-fitting black jumpsuit with sky-blue accents. In addition, she was wearing a pair of navy blue fingerless gloves and boots. Finishing the ensemble was a custom mask that looked like a modified fighter pilot's helmet and a belt with dozens of small pouches to eventually fill with support gear.
"Looking good 'Suko."
"I'm glad it worked out," Atsuko said as she tried her best to look at her costume.
Himiko's eyes drifted through the room, examining the other costumes of her classmates when she finally landed on Emily. The American girl looked like should be dealing with test tubes, not villains. Her costume consisted of a white jumpsuit with a pair of tan pants overtop her legs and a lab coat. To finish the look she had a pair of thick goggles that were resting around her neck, and a fingerless gauntlet that looked right out of a science fiction anime covered her left hand and forearm.
Once she took it in, Himiko couldn't help but laugh.
"Hey!" Emily stopped flexing her gauntlet to glare at Himiko, crossing her arms in an attempt to intimidate the other girl. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect and caused the other girl to laugh more. "What's so funny?"
"You just - you look like you belong in a lab!"
"Well, yeah! That's the point! My parents are both researchers and taught me everything I know about support gear. So what if I wanted to honor them with my hero costume? It's not like you're any better, little miss vampire."
Himiko gave the other girl a predatory smile, making sure to emphasize her fangs. "Of course! I've gotta keep my theme too!"
Suddenly the tension was broken by Atsuko's laughter. "Both of you are ridiculous."
"Suko!" Himiko protested.
"Himi," Atsuko responded, an amused look on her face. "Don't make me ask your brother about hero costumes."
"Her brother?" Emily asked curiously.
"That's none of your business!" Himiko snapped out hastily before glaring at her friend. "Fine, maybe her costume isn't as bad as it could be. It's still ridiculous though!"
Atsuko stuck her tongue out at Himiko. "You're ridiculous."
Himiko huffed in annoyance, not wanting to argue with her friend. "Fine, we've wasted enough time, let's get going."
When they finally made it to Training Ground Beta, they found Kan and the rest of the class was already assembled and waiting for them. Once the last few of their classmates showed up, Kan began the lesson.
"Yesterday you started thinking about new ways to use your quirk. Today we will continue that - with a mock battle! For many of you this will be your first chance to use your quirk in a fight, and will give you another chance to learn what you can really do," He smiled as he looked at his students and saw twenty eager faces staring back at him. "You will be partnered off randomly, and then teams will be drawn to determine which teams are facing each other. Today's scenario will be a simple one - one team will take the role of the villains, hiding a bomb inside a building, while the other team will be the heroes, assigned to either disarm the bomb or capture the villains before the time runs out and they pull off their nefarious scheme."
Kan drew the teams and Himiko found herself paired up with Daichi Oda. A tall man with black hair and chiseled features. His hero costume was in many ways evoking the imagery of the ancient Samurai, which combined with his facial features gave the appearance of an ancient warrior ready for battle. When their names were drawn Himiko met his eyes, the two quickly evaluated each other before he bobbed his head and she gave him a small smile.
After the teams were drawn, Kan took half of the numbered balls and re-inserted them back into the box before he drew the teams for the exercise.
"First up - team 8, you will be the heroes against team 5!"
Himiko's face lit up when she heard who she was facing off against, shooting a predatory grin at Emily. It seemed the other girl had a similar idea, already shooting her a satisfied smile.
"Time to really show you what I can do!" Emily called out.
"Don't think we're going down easily," Himiko bit back. "Besides, I've got a lot more knives now!"
Emily's expression quickly morphed into one of horror, before she recovered and glared at her opponent. "Don't think I'm scared of a few knives!" She held up her gauntleted arm, a menacing light glowing in the palm of her hand. "I'll show you what a recommendation student can do!"
Kan shot both girls an unamused look. "I don't know what quarrel you two have, but remember at the end of the day, you're both hero students," He then turned his attention to Emily and Amaya Yuki, her teammate. "Villain team, you have ten minutes to set up in the building and figure out a plan. Hero team, you will be given a set of blueprints to review, I suggest you use your time wisely to come up with a plan of attack."
As their classmates departed toward the building, Daichi walked up holding a map. "Please tell me you won't abandon me to chase Song through the building."
"Don't worry, I won't," Himiko replied as she turned toward her teammate. "But I won't say no to them splitting up! Then we can take one of them down and get the jump on the other!"
"With your quirk, right?" Daichi asked, remembering the assessment test from the day before.
"Yep!" Himiko gave him a toothy grin. "I just pretend I'm their teammate and walk right up to the bomb!"
"That would be great," Daichi replied with a lopsided grin of his own. "But what about if they're smart and stick together?"
"We fight them and hope for the best?" Himiko asked hesitantly.
Daichi laughed. "While your quirk might not work, I have a few ideas about how my stone manipulation can. C'mon, let's take a look at these blueprints."
The two knelt there, examining the map until they heard Kan's voice announcing the start of the exercise. Looking at each other, they both silently bobbed their head before they walked to the entrance of the building. Himiko took one look inside before she entered, drawing a pair of knives as Daichi followed closely behind her.
The pair moved cautiously but swiftly, clearing the first two floors without encountering their opponents. As they carefully moved across the third floor, they finally encountered resistance as Emily stood there, defiantly guarding the stairwell up to the fourth floor.
"There you are! What took you so long?" The American girl called out.
"Damn it, she saw me," Himiko hissed, her back pressed against the wall.
"Why don't you come out and play?" Emily asked, before firing her first salvo. As Himiko and Daichi watched, a brilliant orb of white light flew past the hallway they were hiding in, striking something further down.
"What do we do?" Daichi asked, slightly unnerved by the prospect of getting hit by the other girl's quirk.
"What? You two can't take a little heat?" Emily called out, taunting the pair.
Himiko scowled as she thought. "Charging her would be a bad idea. There's gotta be some way to…" Looking around, her face lit up with an idea. "Why don't you go outside?"
Daichi followed her eyes and broke into a smile as he picked up her idea. Flashing Himiko a quick thumb's up, he silently hurried back down the hallway and opened up the window. Himiko watched him lean out the window to use his quirk before he hopped out of it, standing on a freshly created platform. He gave her another thumbs up before she saw him disappear from view.
"What are you two planning?" Emily asked suspiciously.
Frowning, Himiko swapped to one of her throwing knives. She hated having to be bait, but if she could get under the other girl's skin, she'd buy her teammate the time he needed.
Steadying her breath and clearing her mind, Himiko slipped around the corner, throwing a knife at Emily. She was annoyed and impressed that the girl didn't panic, instead casually hitting it with a bolt, knocking it out of the air. Throwing her second knife, Himiko dashed toward another nearby hallway. This time she allowed herself a tiny moment of satisfaction as the girl yelped in surprise, unprepared for the second blade and barely dodging out of the way.
The distraction did its job as Himiko crashed into the safety of a wall, now several meters closer to the stairwell - and her target. "What, you can't take a little knife?"
"That's my line!" Emily protested, and Himiko was forced to cover her eyes as she saw a bright flash of light strike the corner of the hallway.
"Sorry not sorry!" Himiko called as she drew her knives. This early in the year they had been dulled to prevent an accident, but they'd still hurt if she managed to land a hit with them.
"Why don't you come out and fight?" Emily called, a hint of exasperation creeping into her voice.
"I'd love to, but unlike you, I don't have a fancy ranged quirk," Himiko spat. "Why don't you come a little closer and I'll show you what I can do?"
Emily burst out laughing, and Himiko grimaced. "I'd rather not, thanks. Besides! I don't need to defeat you, I just need to stop you here until time runs out."
"Thanks for the reminder," Himiko said sarcastically.
"By the way," Emily asked before Himiko was forced to cover her face from the next bright flash. "Where's your teammate? He's been a little too quiet lately."
Shit
Silently cursing in her head, Himiko grabbed the vial of blood she took from Daichi and drank it. Tearing off her coat, she activated her quirk and felt the unfamiliar transformation wash over her. "Oh, I'm still here. Don't let me interrupt the moment you two are having."
Himiko wanted to gag, but sacrifices had to be made.
"Moment?" Emily laughed. "I don't think so. We're just having so much fun. Unless…"
Himiko didn't hear her response as her earpiece crackled to life, Daichi's voice finally responding. "Sorry it took so long. Most of the windows on this floor were locked, so I had to improvise."
"She's onto us," Himiko hissed.
"She hasn't seen me, but she's pretty far away. Are you sure about this?"
"We don't have a choice," Himiko dropped her transformation as she held her knives close to her chest. "Besides, I work better up close."
"Your funeral. On the count of three? One-"
"Two-" Himiko lowered herself into a crouch, ready to spring out.
"Three!"
Emily turned as Daichi slammed a door open to her left, his hand slamming into the ground as he used his quirk to send a growing wave of rocks at her. Her training kicked in as she dodged out of the way, firing off several arrows of light down the corridor at her assailant.
And pulling her attention away from Himiko. Rolling around the corner, Himiko launched another pair of knives at the girl. Emily somehow managed to evade both of them, but it gave her the opening she needed. Lowering her shoulder, Himiko crashed into the other girl, hoping to send her to the ground. Unfortunately, the blonde girl was stronger than she looked as she took the blow and staggered back, but managed to remain standing.
Emily countered with a wild punch back, but Himiko was too quick, evading her sloppy attack with ease as she elbowed the other girl in the stomach, causing her to double over. Grabbing the other girl's wrist, Himiko twisted around, locking it behind Emily's back before she grabbed her other hand.
"Get the capture tape!" Himiko called triumphantly.
"Good job Midoriya!" Daichi called as he approached, the tape already in hand to bind their opponent's wrists. Once he secured their foe, he turned toward Himiko. "Now we just need to get the bomb!"
"Song made that part easy!" Himiko said happily. Giving the other girl a predatory grin, she plucked her earpiece out, before pulling up the other girl's sleeve. She carefully bit down, ignoring Emily's protests as she drank a mouthful of blood and reactivated her quirk. She felt the gray slime wash over her, and seconds later a second copy of Emily stood there. With an unnatural-looking grin, Himiko replaced her earpiece with her opponent's.
"Now you've just got to fool Yuki long enough to get to the bomb."
"Yep!" Himiko chirped, grinning at her teammate. "Just chase me, and I'll do the rest!"
"Song, come in," Amaya Yuki asked into the earpiece for the third time.
"...sorry, I'm a little busy right now!" Emily's voice finally came in.
"What's going on?"
"I'm on my way to you. I took down the vampire, but her partner's following me!"
Amaya frowned. Something felt off. "Got it."
The short pale girl was happy to have discovered that the building had a functioning water supply, and with a little prep work, the entire floor was covered in a thin layer of water, ready for her to use. Amaya turned her legs into water and stepped out of her shoes as she began to absorb the water. She let her transformation fully wash over her as she fully transformed into a water elemental, ready to battle whoever came through the door.
She didn't have to wait long until she felt rumbling beneath her, warning her that Daichi was using his quirk. And it was getting closer.
She began to charge the door the moment she saw her teammate enter the room, barely dodging a stone pillar that tried to smash into her side. Amaya didn't want to get hit by one of the pillars either - even with her now liquid body, the force of impact would hurt and, more importantly, destabilize her form. But in this form she was fast. Dashing forward, she picked up her teammate and ran away from their opponent, giving them some breathing room.
"Thanks for the save!" Emily said in a too-cheery voice as Amaya set her down. "Now let's deal with this guy!"
Amaya turned her attention back to her opponent as he entered the room, Daichi's stone creations retracting around him to let him pass. As he prepared another attack, she knew something was wrong - the real Emily would have already launched her own counterattack.
A quick glance confirmed that her teammate wasn't at her side, and already running toward the bomb. Growling she turned and charged at the shapeshifting girl.
Realizing that she wouldn't make it in time, Himiko discarded her transformation, preferring to rely on her own strength to carry her the rest of the way. "Oda!"
"On it!" Her teammate slammed his hand into the ground, and suddenly a wall was raised in front of Himiko.
Amaya pushed herself harder, trying to make it as she saw her opponent leap over the rising wall, but was forced to stop short, not wanting to risk being bisected by the wall.
Moments later they heard Kan's voice coming through the loudspeaker. "Hero team wins!"
Crossing her arms in a huff, Amaya released the excess water from her body, returning to her normal size before she solidified again. "Of course you'd pull something like that."
"Sorry not sorry!" Himiko said as she came around the wall, unable to keep the smile off her face. "You shouldn't have split up."
"Apparently we underestimated you," Amaya admitted, her frustration slowly bleeding off. "I won't let it happen again."
Himiko flashed her a predatory grin. "I'm looking forward to it."
Himiko groaned as they left the school for the day. "Suko, can I come live with you? Izu's gonna ask me so many questions about everyone's quirks tonight."
Atsuko laughed and patted her friend on the shoulder. "I thought he would have done that yesterday."
"He would've," Himiko admitted. "Except for getting caught in that villain attack. That kept us busy all night."
In truth, Himiko still didn't fully understand everything that had happened between Izuku and All Might. All she knows is that he almost died on television in an attempt to save Bakugo, getting the attention of Japan's number one hero. And because of that someone from the Might Agency will be starting to train Izuku later this week, taking up where Kan-sensei had left off.
Something felt off, but Izuku was so happy she didn't have it in her heart to investigate further.
"Oh right," Atsuko recalled. "So that just delayed the inevitable, huh?"
Himiko glared at her friend, the subtle smirk on Atsuko's face telling her how much her friend was enjoying her suffering. As she was about to retort, their conversation was interrupted by another voice calling out to them - the voice of someone Himiko really didn't want to deal with right now.
"Midoriya, Hotoko, wait up!"
Himiko rolled her eyes until Atsuko gave her a subtle shove. "Try being nice."
"Easy for you to say," Himiko grumbled as the pair turned around to face Emily. "What do you want?"
Emily caught up with them and then looked over Himiko with a critical eye. "Midoriya, I was wrong about you," Himiko snorted and rolled her eyes. "I thought you had something to prove. It- you were a lot stronger than I was expecting in our battle trial today."
Himiko folded her arms in front of her as her eyes narrowed. "Of course you did. You're just like everyone else - you've got the perfect quirk. A heroic quirk. And everyone treated you differently. Like you were destined for greatness. That you're better than everyone else. That you're better than some girl who may as well be quirkless and has to use knives to even the score."
"That's not–" Emily protested.
"Then what made you think you could take both of us?" Himiko demanded. "It certainly wasn't because of Oda - he could have brought the whole damned building down around you if he wanted to!"
Emily looked like she was punched in the gut, her face darkening. "You're right."
"What?" Himiko found herself shocked into silence by the other girl's admission.
"You said it yourself - your quirk is best suited for underground work. For stealth and infiltration. It wasn't going to do anything in a fight, so if I forced you to engage me quickly, I thought I could take you out and then focus on Oda."
Himiko saw red. "I knew it! You just completely ignored that I might have additional training. That I was able to pass UA's entrance exam, even though my quirk was useless in it!" She jabbed a finger accusingly at the school building behind Emily. "That I spent months training under our homeroom teacher! It doesn't matter what my quirk is, because it doesn't define me!"
Emily grimaced, crossing her arms and breaking eye contact with the other girl as she looked at the ground. "When I grew up on I-Island, I was surrounded by the children of heroes and researchers. Half the class didn't care about their quirks, because they were going to become scientists just like their parents. The other half - the children of heroes - often had quirks even stronger than their parents, and wanted to become heroes themselves."
"You didn't fit either group," Atsuko said, earning a glare from Himiko.
Emily lifted her head and looked at Atsuko, grateful for the lifeline even if she would never show it. "My parents are the lead researchers of their support company, and I inherited their minds. Of course everyone was expecting me to follow in their footsteps. But their quirks - both utility quirks at best - I got the best of both, and my quirk was strong. The quirk of a future hero."
"Everyone told you how great your quirk was, didn't they?" Himiko asked, wanting .
"It's different on I-Island!" Emily protested. "When you're surrounded by strong quirks every day! Hearing that yours stands out-"
"Must be nice," Himiko said. "You want to know what happens here? Do you know how many kids are allowed to get away with whatever they want because of their quirk? Because their teachers want to say they taught a future hero?"
"No, I don't." She admitted.
Himiko narrowed her eyes. "Meanwhile I was forced to hide who I was for a decade because of my quirk."
Once again, Emily surprised Himiko with her response. "I'm sorry," she responded softly. "Your quirk - everyone's quirk - is so cool! Nobody should be judged by their quirk - they should be allowed to do what they want!"
"At least you've got that right," Himiko said. "That's why I'm here - to make sure the next person with cute little fangs and a blood-based quirk knows that they don't have to hide. That they can be a hero if they want to. That their quirk isn't a curse!"
"I guess I really did underestimate you," Emily said, her voice barely a whisper.
"Yes, you did."
Himiko spun on her heel and began to walk away. Seconds later, she felt Atsuko catch up to her, her friend's eyes already on her. "I know what you're going to say, and I don't want to hear it."
"This isn't like you. What's gotten into you?"
"Her," Himiko said as if that explained everything. "Just - she acts like she's better than everyone in the class! Just because she's a recommendation student! Someone needed to tell her that!"
"Himi, I'm surprised you haven't noticed."
"What's there to notice?" Himiko grumbled.
"You know more about masks than I do," Atsuko pointed out. "And I saw it yesterday."
Taking her friend's advice, Himiko glanced back at Emily. She was surprised to see the blonde girl standing there, but sure enough, now that Atsuko had pointed it out it was clear as day.
Emily was wearing a mask, just like she used to do.
Izuku sat at his desk, the sound of his pen against paper the only noise as he focused on his new notebook - his personal one.
Next to him, two notebooks lay open - his notes on All Might, as well as his own personal notebook, labeled 'My Hero Career #1." Started after Himiko settled in, it was filled with pages upon pages of potential support items and ideas to compensate for his quirklessness. It even had a section about different martial arts styles he could learn after he had grown comfortable with Bajiquan.
While most of this was still useful, meeting All Might changed everything.
Izuku was furiously copying all of his notes on All Might's quirk into his new notebook, updating it with new information that he had learned yesterday - while being very careful to omit the truth about One For All and All Might's condition. Instead, he started a section about late blooming quirks, a rare condition where someone's body is unable to handle their quirk, and so their body subconsciously suppresses it until later in life.
He's still got a lot of holes in his story, but he's got ten months to figure those out at least.
His concentration was interrupted when he heard someone come in, followed by Himiko announcing herself with all of the joy of someone awaiting execution.
"Izu, I'm home!"
Izuku couldn't help but smile. As much as Himiko teased him about his hobby, she still supported him. In turn, he promised her he'd only ask her questions in small doses, knowing how much it bores her. Shoving the three notebooks into the back of his drawer, Izuku grabbed the second of his new notebooks "Hero Analysis for the Future: UA Edition #1."
"Coming, Himi!"
AN: Hope you are all enjoying Himiko's classmates! Over time there will be a 'core' 5-6 members of Himiko's class that will be recurring members of the story, but the rest of class 2 will be making cameos and appearances moving forward.