Himiko woke up slowly, as if pulling herself from a swamp, hearing people talking, the smell of antiseptic, a rough feeling over her. Finally opening her eyes and sitting up, she felt a blanket slid off her as she looked around. She was in a medical room, she assumed, based off the various supplies around the room. A woman with long green hair falling over her right eye, who was in a white medical outfit of sorts, was talking with a vaguely familiar green haired boy. An amber eye flicked over to her and she said, in a gruff voice, "Finally awake?"

"Yeah," Himiko said, feeling very confused. Where was she, how had she gotten here?

That confusion only grew as the woman grabbed a bag filled with red liquid off the counter alongside a metal straw, punching a straw in as she walked over to Himiko and barked doctor's orders, "Drink that, you're still recovering from malnutrition, which isn't something that goes away overnight. Then Izuku can take you to meet the others, since you will be staying with us for a while at least."

Himiko brought the straw up to her lips, drinking from it, her eyes widened as the metallic taste hit her tongue, but she ignored it, ignored decorum, ignored all the rules she had been taught, to gulp down mouthful after mouthful of sweet, sweet blood.

She was vaguely aware of finishing the first and snatching the second from the woman's hands, transferring to straw and continuing to swallow as tears came to her eyes. Finally, after finishing that one, she looked around, blinking.

Oh, god, what had she just done. She had, had… Saito…

Immediately she started to hyperventilate, only for the woman to clasp her hand on Himiko's shoulder. She suspected it was meant to be a soft, calming gesture, but it made her buckle slightly nonetheless.

"It all coming back to you?"

"I… Did I kill him?" She asked softly.

"Not according to the news we got from the mainland. He was sent to a hospital and is expected to make a full recovery," the green haired teen said.

"So what now, do we go- go to the police?" Himiko's voice quivered.

"You'll be staying with us until I'm happy with your physical health, then, if you feel like you still have to, you can turn yourself in," the green haired woman said, "but I would advise against it. People… Aren't the best in seeing nuance in the situation and won't recognize that you being starved until you snapped makes you the victim too."

"Ok," Toga said as she stood up on shaky feet, following the boy out of the room.

"I'm Rose, by the way."

—

Izuku walked out onto the front of the superyacht, where Karasuba and Chifuyu were sparring. Karasuba went low, the grey haired woman swinging her sword for Chifuyu's legs. The black haired woman responded by jumping, turning it into a flip as Karasuba came up and landed on the edge of the deck, her suit not so much as an inch out of place. Karasuba leaned down, showing off her toned legs and letting the coat she wore around her shoulders flutter in the breeze, meanwhile Chifuyu bared her swords downwards.

The next second, both were on top of each other, swords swinging and being deflected so fast even Izuku felt like he was seeing the places the swords struck each other by the sparks they gave off. Finally, it ended with them both kicking each other in the gut and skidding backwards until they were at the edges of the boat, rocking back and forth with their feet halfway off the boat.

Their eyes darted around, no doubt registering Izuku and Toga as they did, but they didn't stop their duel, rushing at each other in twin flashes of black and grey. Chifuyu leapt over Karasuba, going for a sneak attack in the back, only to be forced to block and Karasuba as spun in place, nodachi slamming into Chifuyu's hastily thrown up guard.

"Alright, that's enough you tow," Izuku said with a clap, drawing their attention in full as he tossed Karasuba her sheath, "I wanted to introduce you to our newest member. This is Toga Himiko."

"Hmm," Chifuyu said, "I suppose it's nice to meet you."

"Don't be so cold," Karasuba said with false friendliness in her voice, the tall woman crouching down and giving a smile with no warmth towards Toga, "It's nice to meet you, little Birdy."

—

Himiko shifted as they all looked at her, the entirety of the team she had met was sitting in the pool at the back of the yacht in various swimsuits, or, in Karasuba's case, a complete state of undress.

"Are you sure about doing that, Toga?" Midoriya asked.

"Could be a bad idea," Rose agreed roughly in her one piece swimsuit,"All of us cut ties with the past when we came aboard. You don't have to, if you really think your parents will be understanding. I'll be honest, given as your new doctor, I'm really against it, they starved you for the better part of a decade. But it's ultimately your choice."

"I feel like… Like I have to. Even if it's just to put things to rest."

"Let her if she wants to," Chifuyu, who was steadily making her way through an eight-pack, said, "most of us watched our past burn, willingly or not. If she wants to try and make peace with it, let it be her way of burning away the past."

"Alright, then," Izuku climbed out of the pool and went into the main cabin of the yacht. Walking back out, he tossed Himiko an old brick cell phone, nodding towards the ocean, "Throw it out there when you're done. It's a burner."

Himiko walked towards the edge of the boat, to the dropoff leading directly to the sea, and sat down. She had already tried this with her old phone, only to find that it had, at best, been frozen and at worse canceled entirely. Typing in her home phone number, she raised it to her ear, it rang twice before someone picked it up.

"What?" Her father snarled, "want to send another death threat, or rant about how we should have killed her at-"

"Hi, dad," Himiko said quietly.

The rant stopped dead, and his voice came out as flat as could be, "Himiko."

"Yeah," what did you say to someone Rose called her abuser? What did you say when the last time anyone who had known the old (fake, mask) you had seen you was you drinking blood from an open wound…

That sentence felt like it had too many yous.

"Where are you?" He asked, and for a second, her heart skipped a beat. Maybe it was all fine, maybe it would be- "The police are tracking our phone line, I'm sure they'll be there to pick you up and have you locked away soon."

One, who just casually admitted their phone line was bugged by the police while talking to a wanted criminal. Two…

Himiko's heart ached as she tightened her grip on the phone, "You… Want me locked up?"

"Himiko, you seriously injured Saito, and you're sure to do it again if we don't-"

Himiko didn't let him finish, winding back and throwing the phone into the depths of the sea a good twenty meters away, burying her face in her knees and beginning to cry. So that was it. Like Chifuyu said, the past had been burned away.

"So that's how it went, huh?" Himiko looked up to see Rose staring at her dispassionately with one eye, "I told you it wasn't a good idea."

"I just… I hoped they would…"

"Yeah, I know, kiddo," Rose said, planting a hand on the top of Himiko's head, "You want a drink or something to help you feel better?"

"Can I get some blood?" Himiko asked in a quiet, almost childish, tone.

"Yeah, and I'll remind Izuku we need to land somewhere to pick out new clothes. Probably Miyazaki, if he doesn't get particularly paranoid and sail to Okinawa. It's far enough away that they won't think you'll have got that far."

—

Aizawa Shota walked into the conference room with a slouch, seeing various heroes in the Tokyo region already there. Sitting down, he waited for the meeting to begin, around the room flickered various screens, showing heroes from afar. Ryukyu, Hawks, the WWPC, Crust, Miruko.

Finally, the officer in charge of this case, a tall man with a serpentine body and limbs, walked in and sat down at the end of the table, "First off, thank you for coming."

Everyone nodded or mumbled out a greeting. It was just a formality.

"Now, if you haven't heard, a yong girl, Toga Himiko, attacked a classmate unprovoked, stabbing him six times with a box cutter before drinking his blood through a straw. The culprit had fled before heroes and police arrived on the scene. Then, a little over thirty three hours later, she was reported to be fighting the vigilante designated "Gold". For those unaware, this vigilante appears at random, dealing with cases before we can and generally making a mockery of our justice system."

"So you want us to take down this fool," Endeavor said, flames whipping from his flaming beard.

"We would like him subdued, yes," the officer said, "but more to the point, he made off with Toga before he escaped this time. Such a dangerous criminal under the guardianship of a vigilante like that is only going to end in trouble. Can we coult on you all to look for this duo and have them stopped?"