"Todoroki, is something wrong?" Midoriya asked as they waited outside the Tokyo branch office of their agency. The heroes stationed there had left suddenly, leaving the building locked.
Rubbing at his eyes, Todoroki shook his head. "It's nothing. How long are they expecting us to wait for them to return? I thought they'd be more professional here in Tokyo." He didn't want to bring up the alluring scent of an omega that wafted through their airspace just now. As a beta, Midoriya wouldn't understand how distracting it could be, and he didn't want to lose focus on the reason they were called here.
"They're probably busier here than in our area. They not only have to deal with villains, but ghouls as well. Do you think everything they say about them is true? About them being mindless killers?"
"Afraid one is gonna take a bite out of you, Deku? I imagine they'd prefer something that didn't taste like shit." Bakugou wandered by, pacing around impatiently.
"Well at least you'll be safe, you'd be too bitter for them to stomach," replied Midoriya.
Todoroki drowned out their inevitable bickering, thinking about what he'd heard about the ghoul situation. He was still finding it hard to concentrate with that smell pulling at his alpha and demanding he give chase.
"You notice it too, right, IcyHot? Wonder how close it is. Smells pretty desperate, maybe even Deku would have a chance to get his beta dick wet."
Rolling his eyes, Todoroki shook his head, "How you managed to graduate a hero is beyond me, Bakugou." He did notice the change in the pheromones, distressful and muddied now. "I'm gonna take a look around." Running toward the source of the scent, he payed no attention to his teammates calling him back. Something was ruining that aroma, and he needed to know what.
His nose took him down several alleys, the omega's scent pulling him forward. He slowed to a walk, then paused as he felt the presence of the omega just around the corner. Even now, the scent urged his alpha to bare his teeth and anticipate mating and breeding.
Take a breath, Shoto, don't let yourself get overwhelmed. Remember your training.
Calm enough to continue, Todoroki peeked around the side of the brick building, seeing two figures against the adjacent wall. One was cowering before the other, an alpha from what Todoroki could tell by scent. It was obvious the omega wasn't there willingly.
"Oh come now Kaneki! You should know how valuable of a delicacy you are. It would be a culinary crime to not sample it for myself! Just at the right state of ripeness, right before the cusp of heat, that's when an omega is at its most delectable. Now stop fighting back!"
"Just stay away from me, Tsukiyama! You don't know what I'm capable of!"
"I believe he asked you to back off, alpha," Todoroki appeared suddenly with a growl. A quick kick to the side of Tsukiyama's head gave Todoroki the element of surprise, though it did little to phase the strange alpha in front of him.
"Have you no sense of decency? Interrupting someone while they're eating is incredibly rude." Tsukiyama turned back but found that Kaneki had slipped away during the distraction.
"Sorry, but where I come from, omegas aren't on the menu." Todoroki's reply was met with a swift kick at his head, which he dodged easily.
"And now he's run off," Tsukiyama said with a long sigh. "I'm not sure where you're from, but I can guarantee you won't be returning there." The back of his jacket ripped as a fleshy band spiraled around his right arm, coming to a sharpened point just past his wrist. As Tsukiyama made his approach, Todoroki noted his eyes had gone black, red veins spreading into the skin around them. Blazing red irises staring back at him as he charged the hero.
"You're a ghoul?! I just thought you were some knothead alpha trying to make a move on a weak omega. You really meant to eat him though, didn't you?" Todoroki narrowly missed getting sliced as he backed away, gauging just how much of his quirk he should expend on the strange adversary.
With a short laugh, Tsukiyama replied before thrusting his kagune at Todoroki once more, "Oh, give me more credit than that. I may be alpha, but I am a gentleman first and foremost! That exquisite omega would have been treated with the utmost respect had he not tried to fight back."
Todoroki set off a short blast of fire, which Tsukiyama blocked easily by widening the kagune into a shield.
"What an interesting ability! I bet your flesh would have a delightfully roasted flavor."
"Nah, I prefer my food cold!" Todoroki said as he switched to his ice, laying out a thick sheet and catching one of Tsukiyama's legs. He approached the ghoul, creating a pillar of ice that froze his kagune arm to his side. "You'll have to settle for whatever it is they serve to ghouls here when they're arrested."
Concern flashed across Tsukiyama's face, seeing that he truly wasn't going to get away this time. "Just who are you anyway? Some vigilante that thinks they can force their way into other people's affairs?"
"Me? I'm the one that's bringing you in for attempted omega assault and assault on a licensed hero." Todoroki was about to call for back up when a hooded figure jumped down from the nearby building, landing near Tsukiyama.
"You'll do nothing of the sort tonight! Come, Master!" said the stranger as he shattered Todoroki's ice with the whip-like tentacle that emerged from his back.
"Ah, Kanae, so good to see you! We'll have to settle this at another time, good hero. Farewell for now," Tsukiyama said as his mysterious savior used their kagune to sling them back to the rooftop and disappeared out of sight.
"What the hell did I just see? Those weapons, they were a part of their body, almost like how Shoji can create multiple body parts with his quirk. But that didn't look like any quirk." Todoroki went back the way he came when he caught the scent that had lured him there in the first place. Turning back and following another side alley, he found the white-haired omega huddled near a dumpster.
"Kaneki? I believe that's what he called you. You aren't hurt, are you? They're gone, so you don't have to worry anymo—"
"Stay back! Please, I don't want to hurt you, so just… Don't come any closer."
Raising his hands up to prove his innocent intent, Todoroki stepped back from the scared young man. "It's okay, I'm not here to hurt you. I just… I caught your scent, and I couldn't help but look for you."
"You're better off forgetting about me, I'll only bring you pain." The omega looked up at Todoroki, his eyes expressed sadness and guilt, so full of tears and emotion that Todoroki had to take another step back. He wanted to comfort and hold the omega until that face changed to something lighter, happier.
"I doubt that's true. Why don't you come with me? We can get you seen to make sure you aren't injured. Maybe get a coffee or something?"
"Todoroki? Hey, you know you can't just run off like that! What's going on?" Midoriya's voice echoed between the buildings. Todoroki felt it was the worst time for them to show up. The omega was already nervous around him. Two other large males wouldn't make him any less frightened.
Shaking his head, Kaneki looked back to Todoroki again, "I told you, just stay away!" Three blood-red tendrils shot forth from his lower back, and just as Midoriya and Bakugou appeared in the alley, Kaneki launched himself up and over them, latching onto a second-story fire escape and climbing out of view.
Mouth wide open, Todoroki couldn't believe his eyes. Another ghoul? But no, the look on his face wasn't that of a mindless killer, but a scared human. Someone that had seen far too much tragedy in their life. Todoroki was very familiar with that expression.
"Was that… a ghoul?" Midoriya asked, eyes fixed above them.
"He was something alright." Todoroki said softly as he walked away from the two heroes, his mind still fixated on the omega that got away.