U.A.
Head tiled back, Himiko gazed up at the distant H shaped building beyond the gates so many were passing through.
Convincing her parents to let her apply here of all places had been frustratingly easy.
They didn’t even know what her quirk did, Katsu figuring that before her own parents, but they knew it had something to do with her drinking blood.
More than enough reason for them to say she couldn’t be a hero and shouldn’t bring them any unnecessary attention trying.
All it took was a little reminder that U.A.
wasn’t exclusively for traditional heroes or required quirk use.
Toss in the fact that her graduating from this place would look good for them and they hadn’t thought twice about it, just believing everything else she had to say.
If only they were more like Aunt Nozomi.
Taking a deep breath, she dropped her gaze, glancing around.
Countless students passed by, many, like her, dressed in more comfortable sporty clothing.
All students, who also like her, were aiming for the Hero Course and prepared to take on whatever U.A.’s notoriously difficult exams had in store for them.
None of her friends were among them.
Which was for the best.
A new city.
A new school.
A new class.
After meeting Katsu, she’d thought about telling her friends about her quirk, the faint but always present craving for their blood pushing for it, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it.
One mistake or a bit too much gossip and word could go from students, to the teachers, and finally her parents.
That process could happen even faster if they weren’t like Katsu.
She liked her friends, but change was hard on people.
A little thing she learned from those stupid therapy sessions that had hopefully come to an end.
Here she wouldn’t have to worry about her old reputation or anything new from her being called out of the ordinary.
This was her chance to do things how she wanted.
She just had to make sure she passed.
Adjusting the small lunchbox strapped across her torso, she pressed her hand down on it until she found one of the cold vials within.
With Katsu’s blood that was going to be easy.
“Excited?
Ribbit.” Himiko turned her head.
“There’s a lot more people than I expected but this is U.A.”
“Tsu!” Himiko moved, froze midstep, then tossed aside her ingrained caution, hugging the familiar face that stopped beside her.
They’d only talked and worked out together a handful of times but as far as she was concerned, they were friends.
She was one of the only other people that had some idea about her quirk.
Himiko, pulled back, smiling.
“Since we ran into each other, we can team up and ace this thing together.”
Tsu, in one of those green tracksuits she used for working out, nodded, only a rare blink giving away surprise.
“Sounds good to me.” She agreed, smiling too.
And things were already off to a great start.
XOXO
“How do you think you did?”
“I should’ve studied more.”
“Mannn, it’s not like knowing the Pythagorean theorem is going help me stop a villain or pull people out of a burning building.”
Yawning, Himiko once again found herself fighting hesitation before casting it aside as she followed the chatting crowd, careless of whoever saw her teeth.
It was weird but at the same time, freeing.
Normally she could only do something like that in her room or at Katsu’s.
“You don’t look worried about the written part of the exam, ribbit.” Tsu, beside her, said.
“Did you do a lot of studying for it?”
“You have no idea.” She’d spent more and more time with Katsu, especially over break, even joining them during his birthday, but somehow it felt like she was doing more studying than she ever had instead of hanging out.
That annoying workaholic refused to learn what a proper break was no matter how hard she tried.
“What about you?
You passed right?”
“I hope so, ribbit.
I studied whenever I got the chance over break.
We’ll have to wait and see.” Tsu said, finger brought up to the corner of her mouth.
“Is your quirk good for fighting?
It sounded like we were going to be doing a lot of it once the next part of the exam starts.” You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Apparently, wherever they were being led to across U.A.’s massive campus was going to involve them hunting down a bunch of machines for points.
Her quirk technically wasn’t perfect for something like that, but it would be just fine.
Rather than answering Tsu, Himiko unzipped her lunch box a little, pulling out one of the small vials within.
Katsu’s blood.
Removing the cap, she only downed half of it.
The bottled blood itself, cold and lacking the full overwhelming taste she preferred, would never compare to getting it fresh from him, but that wasn’t the important part right now.
Cap back in place and vial put away, Himiko clenched her fist, all the chatter around them fading out as she focused on herself, a partial transformation underway.
Her heartbeat, just a little faster, beat stronger than ever.
Other changes, from her breath to her steps, were more subtle, but the strength wasn’t.
It didn’t compare to a full transformation, but she felt like she could take on anything.
“Was that blood?” Tsu asked.
Himiko’s heartbeat sped up even more, but she nodded.
“Katsu’s.
My quirk lets me transform into people using their blood.” She unclenched her fist as she explained, still testing the new strength.
“And he’s gotten pretty strong.”
“Oh.” Tsu nodded.
“It’s kind of like he’s taking the test with you, ribbit.”
“Exactly!” She’d never tried to put it into words before, just enjoying it all, but Tsu’s way of putting it was perfect.
Ever since they agreed to share blood and later on filling these vials, when she took a drink from them, quirk used or not, it was as if Katsu was with her even when he wasn’t.
“The three us have got this.”
While Tsu agreed as they continued forward, she picked up on a few of those closest to them not just pointing out what she did but Tsu’s odder features too.
The quiet exhilaration of just being able to drink blood freely was replaced, Himiko aiming a glare at those talking about Tsu.
She’d prepared herself for people having a problem with her but-
“Don’t worry about it.” Tsu said, picking up her pace just enough to step into the path of her glare.
“It happens, ribbit.
Let’s just focus on the exam.”
Himiko sucked on her teeth, but seeing Tsu smiling despite that and after seeing her drink blood, she followed along, looking ahead.
She really hated people sometimes.
XOXO
The ground cracked, loose debris shaking as a metallic armed slammed down where she’d been standing.
Single crimson eye taking on an ominous glow as it found her, the robot rolled forward on the dark wheel in the place of legs, the metal green armoring of its other arm missing her again.
At first, she hadn’t understood it and honestly, she still wasn’t sure she did, not completely, but she knew in a way no one else could why it was so difficult to fight Katsu.
Easily following the machine’s movements, as it began to roll forward, Himiko stepped forward herself, jumping over yet another swing and pulling back the stop sign she’d been using as a weapon, taking aim.
The moment she lined her mark up, she sent it forward, stabbing the sign straight through the robot’s eye, throwing herself into a roll away from it as it sparked and blew up.
All without hesitation.
She wasn’t sure if this was exactly how Katsu saw things, but she knew that there was no way she’d be able to think so clearly while making split second decisions.
Nothing could catch her off guard when she had his blood running through her.
A tongue shot forward, wrapping around the metal bar of the sign post she’d been using, yanking it free, and with a spin, sending it piercing clean through another one of the one pointers on the street.
Tsu landed on the empty car beside her in that frog like crouch she’d taken to since they entered the city shaped testing zone.
“You don’t think we’re being scored on property damage, do you?” Himiko asked while reaching for another sign on the sidewalk.
Teeth gritted and far more effort than Katsu would’ve needed to do the same thing, she managed to break off some of the bolted screws and concrete, leveling the unbalanced thing in front of her.
“I didn’t think of that, ribbit.
Heroes would have to be careful about that.” Tsu said, leaping off the car and landing beside her.
The only reason she brought up was because Katsu mentioned stuff like it while studying for U.A.
“But they do use their environment to fight too.
Maybe it’ll be okay as long as we don’t cause too much of it?”
That sounded like good middle ground.
It’s not like everyone here could fight all these machines with their bare hands or quirks alone.
Further along the street, some guy, loudly yelling about extras, flipped above a pair of machines another student was fighting, blowing them up with smokey explosions before blasting off with those same self created explosions.
He’d destroyed those one pointers but blew up a good portion of the street too, other students forced to block the debris to avoid getting hurt.
“If that guy’s getting away with all that, we’re fine.”
“Agreed, ribbit.” Get faster updates on g.com.
Turning away from that direction, they took off down the city streets.
When it came to one pointers, they took turns letting the other take them down, the rolling machines easy to deal with, but worked together when it came to the higher point machines.
Tsu’s ability to stick to things let her get up high to call things out and her tongue made fights easier, the thing strong and long enough to slow or redirect attacks from the machines.
They had to get a good score after all this.
XOXO
Phone held up at an angle, a quick flash filled their eyes.
“Perfect.” Himiko said, lowering her phone and looking over the picture they took.
“You don’t mind if I send this to Katsu, do you?”
“That’s fine.” Tsu said with a nod, peeking over her shoulder to get a look at the picture too.
That sat side by side in a quiet train car, country speeding by outside the windows.
With the both of them headed to the same prefecture and city, they’d stuck together after the exam, a long few hours ahead of them.
More time to talk and hang out.
“Can you send it to me, too?” Tsu asked, pulling out her green cased phone.
“I’ll give you my number.”
“Definitely.” Himiko said, text to Katsu put on hold so they could exchange numbers.
“When you get your acceptance letter, you should call me.
We could all celebrate together.”
“That sounds fun but I’m not sure I’d be able to.
Ribbit.” Tsu said, looking up from her phone.
“I usually have to watch my brother and sister during the day.” That was disappointing.
“But I’ll ask my parents and let you know.”
But there was always hope.
And she hoped she got plenty of time to hang out with someone else who she didn’t have to push herself to hide so much from and wasn’t bothered by her drinking blood.
U.A.
She’d never thought about going away from Aichi for school, but she was glad she was.
Hopefully they were all classmates.
Even if they weren’t, that wouldn’t stop her from taking full advantage of her new freedom.
Especially with Katsu.
She wanted more than just a kiss on the cheek.
XOXO
A harsh sneeze snapped me out of my concentration, my straightened out hand still digging deep into the bark of the tree before me.
Hand pulled free, I shook it before rubbing and cracking my neck, Scarlet dipping and soaring past, barely avoiding a swipe from a chasing Crimson.
That was a random sneeze.
Hopefully it wasn’t a sign of a cold or anything.
With one last crack of my neck, I swapped my ability, a trio of hands, made from darkish purple shadows forming above the pond at the center of my little training area.
I took a deep breath, my chest swelling and heart drumming as my skin darkened to a purplish shade, veins growing more pronounced.
Some last minute training wasn’t going to make much of a difference when it came to Removal, the skill that came with the Kure trait a bitch to get a handle on, but getting some experience with my latest ability, Shadow Hands, wouldn’t hurt.
The hands shot forward, two curling into fists and coming in high while the last one dipped low attempting to grab one of my legs, all shaky in their approach.
Getting used to controlling them was going to take some work.
XOXO
(A/N: What little restraint Toga maintains around Katsu is definitely on its way out.
What does this mean for the plot?
I’ll let you guys be the judge of that.
On a side note, I can’t wait to get more into detail on Removal.
It actually might’ve one of the coolest rolls he could’ve gotten in relation to Midoriya since it gives them a common struggle when it comes to controlling something.
Oh yea, and if it wasn’t obvious, due to Toga’s quirk copying Katsu biology/genetics she benefits from physical based traits, plus all his training.
She won’t get everything.
More magical based things like the Comfortable trait, Hygenic trait, Scenic wind, and just about anything that defies logic and is more magical is beyond the scope of her quirk.
Lucky for her, Kaysu’s more important stuff actually works in her favor.
Flexibility, reaction time, some of the Kure stuff.
One thing’s for sure, Katsu’s doctor visits are certainly going to be interesting if they ever have any reason to look at him more closely.
Lets see if he finds himself in Recovery Girl’s domain.
You can definitely trust me this time:
See you all around!)