Chapter 32

Chapter Text

"Hey kid," Sekijiro Kan said softly as he tried not to make the young girl feel trapped in the alley where he'd found her. She giggled hysterically, her fangs on prominent display. "I just want to help."

The girl gave him a knowing look and Kan wondered if she was older than she first seemed. She was wearing what appeared to be a high school uniform, but it was torn and dirty and—according to his own quirk—covered in at least three different blood types. It was clear that the girl had been living on the streets for quite some time. Kan wasn't sure he believed Aizawa'a explanation for knowing the girl's quirk and how hunger was driving her insane, but he wasn't about to leave a child alone to work things out. Especially not one that was suffering the same sort of callous discrimination he'd experienced as a child obsessed with blood.

"I'm the Blood Hero: Vlad King."

"Oooh," she said, shivering dramatically and with far too much sexual innuendo to be innocent hero worship. "The blood king, huh? Can I cut you?" She moved a step closer, a small knife suddenly in her hand. "Can I, huh? I bet you look so pretty covered in blood."

"I do," Kan said, grinning nearly as hard as the child in front of him. "Would you like to see?"

Before the child could answer or stab him with her knife, Kan used his quirk to release most of his blood into the air, making intricate patterns and swirling the shiny red curtain around them both.

"Oooh," the girl said, this time more genuine and free of innuendo. "Can I taste? I'm so hungry."

"Of course," Vlad said, keeping in mind what Aizawa had told him about Toga's transformation quirk. "Take as much as you need."

The child gave him a strange look as if she'd never been offered enough blood to actually fill her belly.

"It's okay," he said. "I've got plenty to spare."

"Are you really a king?"

"Not a king," he admitted, "but I am a hero."

"Really?" she asked between big gulps of blood. "You don't seem mean enough. Are you going to arrest me?"

"What for?" Kan asked. "Have you done something wrong?"

"Doesn't drinking blood make me evil?"

The question was asked in such a tiny, confused voice that Kan nearly snatched the child to him and took off for the safety of UA. "No, it doesn't make you evil," he said very seriously. "Drinking blood is necessary for your quirk. It's not wrong."

"Are you sure?" the kid asked, licking the blood from her fingers, apparently finally full. "Everyone else seems to think so."

"Well I'm not everyone else then, am I?"

"Eh," the child said, "heard that before."

"Did they have a blood quirk?"

"No," the girl said, finally looking directly at Kan. "But you do."

"That I do," he said, smiling despite trying to be very serious. "I can help you, if you want." He glanced at the cardboard box that seemed to be her current home.

"What? Like a sugar daddy?"

"Whoa, absolutely not," Kan said, shocked that would be a child's first thought. "I meant I can get you into the foster system and make sure that you're given enough blood and treated with respect."

"I wouldn't be staying with you?"

"I'm not…um…father material." Nedzu had asked him this favor because he had a blood quirk, not because he was a potential parent. His homeroom class was more than enough to squash any parental urges he may have once had.

"I can look after myself. See." She pointed to the cardboard box. "I won't be any trouble. I promise."

"You don't even know me," Kan said, shocked at how quickly the child had chosen to trust him.

"Don't need to," the girl said. "You're the nicest person I ever met."

"Then you really need to meet more people," Kan muttered.

"So I can come home with you?"

He had no idea what to do now. He'd thought the child was in foster care and had only found her in the alley by accident. He'd literally followed the scent of old blood—he'd found more crime scenes that way than he cared to admit—so at this stage he was working on the assumption that this was the child Nedzu had asked him to check on. She fit the description he'd been given.

"I'm going to need to make a few calls," he said, wondering where to start. "What's your name, kid?"

"Why?" she asked, suddenly suspicious.

"I just need a name to call you."

"Oh, silly me," she said, giggling happily. "You can call me Himi."

Okay, it seemed fairly safe to assume Himi was short for Himiko and that he'd located the child Nedzu had asked him to find.

"Okay, Himi," Kan said in what he hoped was a friendly tone. "I'll make a few calls and then we'll head to the police station."

"No," Himiko said, her demeanor changing in an instant.

"No?" he asked, hoping to get an explanation.

"No police. Not now, NOT EVER!!"

"Okay, kid. It's okay. No police. We'll do this another way." He dodged the knife she stabbed in his direction, using his blood to cage—but not restrain—the kid while he tried to talk her down. "Himi, it's okay. Please calm down. There are other ways."

"The police will take me. They'll lock me up. My parents told them they could."

"Your parents sound like narrow-minded idiots," Kan said, not really filtering any of the thoughts in his head.

It was like Himiko flipped a switch and she was suddenly back to the happy, friendly girl she'd been after she'd taken her fill of blood.

"Narrow-minded idiots," she said, smiling wide enough to show her sharp fangs. "I like that. Nasty, narrow-minded, moronic, asshole idiots."

"I've never met them, obviously," Kan said, smiling wide to show his fangs, "but it seems an accurate description of any parents who'd disown their child just because they don't understand her quirk."

Himiko giggled happily. "But you understand, don't you?"

"Yeah, Himi, I do."

"So can I come home with you?"

"I need to make some phone calls—to heroes, my coworkers, not police—and then we'll figure out what to do."

"I'll grab my stuff," Himiko said, turning quickly and then disappearing into the cardboard box.

Kan grabbed his phone, silently cursed Nedzu for getting him involved in a situation the rat knew he wouldn't be able to walk away from, and made the first of several calls.

It was going to be a long night.

~*~

"You, me, and Cementoss," Shota said the moment he tracked down Mic. "That's all we really need."

Mic nodded, happy to accept the mission even though he had zero details. It was amazing how well erasing a villain's quirk and then screaming at them had worked for the two of them over the years.

Izuku waved his blackwhip in front of Shota's face.

"You're not licensed, problem child."

The blackwhip did a sort of dance before stiffening and then dropping to the floor dramatically.

"Yes," Shota said in his usual deadpan tone, "I'm aware that you're still listed as dead. It doesn't change the facts though."

Mic couldn't stop the soft laugh that escaped him. There was no doubt in his mind that Izuku would be there whether he was welcome or not.

"You're not helping, Zashi."

"Oh wow, pulling out the real name in public," he teased. "I must be in serious trouble."

"We're hardly in public," Shota said, glancing around the otherwise empty teacher's lounge.

"Zuku's here."

"He's family. That doesn't count."

"So we do have four sons then."

"Todoroki isn't ours."

"Nope, not giving him back, ours forever."

"You're ridiculous," Shota said, trying to hide his smile in his capture scarf. "Fine problem child, but you're reconnaissance only."

~*~

"You've reached All Might," Toshinori said, projecting his voice into his phone so he sounded like he was in his hero form.

"It's Sir Nighteye," Mirai said, maintaining the distance that had been between them for many years now. "We need you for an urgent mission."

"Oh?" Toshinori asked, mentally counting up how many hours he had left of his quirk for today. It should be enough.

"We're raiding a Shie Hassaikai compound suspected of manufacturing both Trigger and quirk erasing bullets."

"When?"

"As soon as the rescue team can get the child being used in their experiments out of the way. Hopefully within the next two hours."

"Okay," Toshinori said. "Where are we meeting?"