Toga Himiko was a damaged individual.
She was wholly aware of this, of course. She practically revelled in it. She thought of it as her greatest virtue; she was completely and utterly different from everyone else. As far as she was concerned, normal, non-crazy people were boring. She was crazy and that was much, much more fun. Crazy meant unpredictable, unknowable, mysterious and dangerous all at once. And she liked all of those words! They were some of her favourites!
People who looked at her could tell she was damaged, of course. It was obvious, painfully so; her eyes glittered with the fractal light of someone who had maybe gone a little too far in the name of... something. Her fingers were never still, playing with the buttons on her baggy beige uniform jacket, loose strands of her hair, the hems of her puffy sleeves and, of course, the handles of all her different knives.
Himiko Toga was a knife enthusiast. She loved them all; butterfly and butcher, kitchen and combat, serrated and straight-razor. If it was made of metal and sharp on at least one edge, Himiko Toga liked it a lot. Probably too much. She didn't care if this was strange; she was strange. So too were her habits. That was just how the world worked. People had strange interests.
"First you wet the stone, then you take the blade..." she chanted softly, giggling as she skipped down the hallway, toward her apartment door. "Then you scrape it down and hear the sound it makes..."
She touched a hand to the door and opened it up, slipping inside apartment number three-zero-four. It was a nice little place, with a kitchenette and a bathroom and a futon on the floor, and a big knife block full of fun sharp things. She kicked off her sneakers before padding inside softly, looking all around the room. No surprise visitors today either... she sighed. What a bore! Although... her closet door was slightly ajar. Maybe inside she'd be able to find someone interesting. She crept closer, hand behind her back and reaching for the switchblade she kept in her back pocket. When she sat it would press into her butt and remind her of its presence and she just loved it.
"Hello~~..." she sang, voice soft. "Whose hiding~~? Is it a nasty old pervert I'm gonna have to slice and dice...?"
She pulled out the switchblade, nimbly unfolding it with one hand and grinning at the way its edge glinted. She sharpened it obsessively; its edge could cut flesh as easily as butter, with little tearing or snagging. Clean, easy, and a clean cut bled so much if she nicked the right arteries. She licked her lips, before reaching out and grabbing the closet door, wrenching it open.
There was a knife pointed square at her face. She froze, eyes wide, before darting backwards and raising her own knife in a loose grip. She had found such a cute thing in her closet too, a short, scrawny girl with a mess of black hair on her head, held back by a loose orange ribbon worn like some kind of ragged bandana. She didn't look Japanese, either, more like some kind of westerner. Maybe European?
"Uh-oh..." she giggled again, staring at the girl with a grin. "Looks like I found you... and you aren't an old pervert... you're kinda cute!"
The girl looked disturbed, glaring at Toga through narrowed blue eyes. Toga batted her lashes flirtatiously, taking a step closer. The girl had no room to back up, so she stayed where she was and kept the knife pointed square at Toga's eyes.
"So... what're you doing in my closet?" Toga asked. "Were you hoping to steal something of mine? Oh, naughty~~, I might have to tell the police..."
"No police!" the girl shouted, shaking her head rapidly. "N-no police... a-and if you try to call them I'll cut you!"
Toga giggled again. Cute, scared AND open to cutting? She almost checked to make sure it wasn't Christmas morning and this was all some kind of elaborate best-present-ever. Problem was, she wasn't sure who out there would give her a present like this. Maybe that cute guy across the hall, the one with the little girl he said definitely wasn't his daughter? Nah, he looked too normal to do something like this. This... this must have been a gift from fate itself!
"But if I don't call the police, what should I do to you instead?" Toga asked, cocking her head to one side and putting on her favourite expression of clearly faked confusion. "Maybe I should cut you up. I bet your blood tastes delicious... I've never had a westerner before."
"Stay away!" the girl shouted, jabbing the knife towards Toga. "O-or I'll use my Aerosmith and shoot you full of holes!"
Toga's grin turned into a sickeningly sweet smile, and she took a single step toward the girl, slowly lowering her knife.
"But shooting is so boring..." Toga replied, shaking her head and pitching her voice as if she were admonishing a child. "Cutting is so much more fun, right?"
The girl swallowed, before lunging forward, knife flashing. Toga ducked under the swing, lashing out with her own blade, but the girl twisted away. She had an orange coat tied around her waist, and Toga's knife got caught in the fabric for a moment before she wrenched it out. The girl dove away, fleeing toward the door.
"Get away from me!" she shouted. "You crazy cagna!"
"But we're having so much fun, right?" Toga giggled again, chasing after the girl and grabbing the collar of her black shirt, pulling her back toward her. "Come on, just one little cut... I promise I'll lick it clean too!"
Toga swung the girl around, into the wall next to the door, before raising her knife and sticking it right in the girl's face, wiggling it back and forth. The girl closed her eyes, afraid, and Toga smiled sweetly as she leaned in close, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. The girl shuddered and Toga giggled.
"Don't worry, it'll only hurt a little..." she promised with a whisper, before raising the knife. "What's your name?"
"N-N-Narancia..." the girl whimpered.
"Okay Narancia... that's a cute name..." Toga pressed the knife against the girl's fair flesh, pricking the skin. "Just a little cut, okay? Then you can cut me a little, and then we can..."
Toga gasped, feeling a savage pain in her arm. Narancia, subtle as could be, had snaked her own knife up between them and jabbed it into her shoulder! Toga staggered backward, reaching up and grasping the knife, before being slammed backward into the kitchenette counter by a kick to the gut courtesy of Narancia. The girl snarled, lunging forward and punching Toga in the face, slamming a blow across her jaw and knocking her clean out.
There was a knock at the door. Narancia, eyes still blazing, grabbed the handle and opened the door up.
His eyes met those of Okuyasu Nijimura, who was investigating the series of loud noises from the apartment where the creepy blonde girl lived. The two stared at each other for a moment, before blinking. In both their eyes, they saw a flash of pink and blue and white light.
"Holy crap!" Narancia gasped. "Y-y-you've met the guy in the pink, right?"
"And you are too!" Okuyasu replied, nodding. "You're looking for that Izuku kid, right? So am I!"
The two were stunned. Their names were Narancia Ghirga and Okuyasu Nijimura. One of them, Okuyasu, was a Japanese high-school student who had been blown to pieces and summarily resurrected, losing two years of age. The other, Narancia, was an Italian delinquent and mobster who had been impaled on a series of metal spikes while inside another person's body, similarly brought back from the afterlife by a strange man in a pink coat. Both were frozen for a long moment, before Okuyasu noticed that the smaller boy was bleeding from the cheek.
Then he saw his neighbour on the ground with a knife stuck in her shoulder.
"Dude, what the hell!" Okuyasu shouted, looking between Narancia and Toga's unconscious form. "Did you kill her?"
"She tried to drink my blood!" Narancia replied. "I was just looking around because I had this weird feeling in my gut and next thing I know she walks in and starts saying I'm cute and then she tries to stab me!"
Both boys began panicking, Okuyasu looking around the hallway, seeing Eri poking her head out from behind the door to their own apartment. He waved her back inside somewhat frantically.
"We need to, I dunno, stop the bleeding!" Okuyasu said, pushing past Narancia and into the room. "Get her on the futon while I look for bandages!"
Narancia did as he was bid, panicking almost as much as Okuyasu. The girl, Toga, she had said? She was still out, but the knife was still inside her. Creepily, she was smiling, like she was happy to have been stabbed. Yeesh. She reminded him a little of that freaky Cioccolata guy, the one with the disgusting fungus stand.
Neither of them knew just what to do, but they were working together to figure it out. Okuyasu spent a long five minutes in the bathroom before finding a small first aid kit behind the toilet, which was a curious place indeed to hide one. He brought it out and started rifling through it for some bandages or tape, while Narancia pulled the knife out of the girl with the careful touch of one who had pulled many knives out of many people. He then pulled the girl's sweater off, refusing to look at her chest while Okuyasu began pressing gauze padding on the wound.
Narancia taped it into place, and the two took a second to breathe.
"So... what do we do now?" Okuyasu asked.
Narianca shrugged.
"I dunno." he replied. "I'm not actually very smart."
Okuyasu nodded.
"Neither am I, honestly." he replied. "We should track down that Izuku guy. He probably knows what to do."
It was Narancia's turn to nod.
AN:
Narianca is the best trap and Okuyasu is the best idiot. Together, they are; the Best Boys.
Toga is… gonna be fun in the future. Her and Blackmore are going to have an interesting relationship, to put it mildly.
Ringo's somewhere around. Don't worry, he'll be back in due time.
Next chapter; back to our regularly scheduled broadcast of the obligatory tournament arc, where Izuku assembled a D-team and it's all kinds of fun.
Hope you all enjoyed!