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“Advancing to the next round, Toga Himiko!” Present Mic’s voice boomed through the stadium, amplified unnecessarily by the microphone sat in front of him. Even in the middle of the arena, surrounded by the crowd’s cries and murmurs, Himiko could hear him clearly. She stood, wiping her bloodied knife onto her leg and tucking it back into her belt.
“While unusual, her methods have certainly secured her spot in the top four! We’ll just have to hope her opponent is okay.”
Himiko jumped over her crumpled opponent, a smile on her face as she skipped off the stage. This was the Sports Festival! They were supposed to use their quirks to their full advantage, and she couldn’t use hers without a little bit of mess.
It wasn’t her fault her opponent had made it so hard for her to get them to bleed.
Behind the scenes, she didn’t have to wait long for her next match. The other semifinal flew by.
When called, she skipped out onto the stage, ignoring the way the crowd hushed when they saw her. She had a bright smile on her face, and her hand rested against her thigh, where her knives were strapped tightly.
There were already murmurs going through the crowd when the students were told to start. Himiko’s opponent stayed far away from her as she stalked slowly around the ring’s edge. Growing impatient, she dashed forward. Her opponent tried to dodge, but she grabbed hold, twisting to swing behind them. She pulled a knife off her belt, but they knocked it aside. Struggling to keep her grip on them, she reached for another knife.
But if she didn’t take their blood…
Himiko ran her tongue against her teeth, and her eyes lit up. She leaned forward, sinking her teeth directly into their skin—skin that tore when they tried to pull away. She didn’t stop until blood spilled into her mouth. She let out a soft, pleased laugh, savoring the blood before tugging herself off.
She didn’t bother to wipe away the blood that spilled from her mouth as she jumped back, transforming into their likeness before they could freak out and cover their injury.
There was shouting from the crowd, but that only spurred Himiko on as she picked her knife back up, moving forward. Her opponent had some form of super-strength, but the disorientation of her attack and seeing a second copy of themself…
Himiko smirked, tearing forward with her knife. They dodged her attacks, pushing further away from her each time. Despite the relatively small arena, she couldn't get close enough. Frustrated, she threw her knife, the blade slicing through their skin. They stumbled back, tripping out of the ring, their injury still bleeding.
She’d won.
“That can’t be allowed!” someone shouted, loud enough for the words to reach Himiko. She looked up into the crowd as more and more murmurs of dissent and disgust arose. She knelt, carefully retrieving her knife, feeling her opponent’s borrowed skin drip off as she regained her normal form.
Teachers rushed to her opponent. Most of them hid their disgust as she stepped down from the stage.
“Well, that does it!” Present Mic shouted over the chaos. “This year’s first-year champion is Toga Himiko!” He tried to go on, to describe her quirk, her opponents, the runner ups, those who lost early on...
But all Himiko could hear were the heroes in the stands, shouting, booing. The heroes. The pros that they were supposed to be working with in the upcoming weeks, getting internships, and work studies, and…
They were outraged. She couldn’t hear everything, but she caught the gist.
She was a freak. She’d gone too far. Someone who caused their classmates to bleed enough that the ground was slick couldn’t be a hero.
She was too violent.
She was untamed.
She was bad.
The blood splattered on the ground wasn’t hers, but it felt like her death sentence. The end of a career that hadn’t even started. The heroes in the stands saw a little blood and decided she was a threat.
Himiko stepped over the student, and her movement—her disregard for someone who was already being helped—caused even more horrified cries from the stands.
She looked up and was stared at by thousands of faces who had already decided that they hated her.
“Let’s get inside and clean up.” Midnight wrapped her arm around Himiko’s shoulder, casting a glance at her classmate before herding her into the back rooms. Himiko sat on the table, kicking her feet against it as Midnight fretted through the room, cleaning up what she could from Himiko.
Shortly after, she was escorted back outside. The cheers from the second and third place students were replaced by murmurs and anger again as Himiko stepped up to accept her medal.
Despite coming in first, she was the clear loser.
People on the streets didn’t look at her while they praised her classmates. Her parents gave her the same look they always did when something happened with her quirk.
She was wrong. There was something integrally wrong with Himiko in a way that no one could fix. That’s what they all said when they declared she was bad.
As Eraserhead revealed the internship offers the next day, the feeling only seemed to persist.
Not all of her classmates got offered an internship. The top few students all had quite a few offers, but…
“She got no offers,” a classmate whispered, staring at the board. “She came in first, and no one wanted her?”
“Are you surprised?” They laughed, and Himiko clenched her pencil tighter, the wood digging into her skin and leaving a mark. “They’re probably afraid she’ll kill them.”
“As you can see, offers were scattered throughout the class fairly unevenly this year,” Eraserhead’s droning voice cut through the murmurs, his eyes staring straight through the two whispering behind her. “If you didn’t get an offer, we’ll find an agency for you to work with. If you did, you should turn your selections in as soon as you have decided who you are planning on working with.”
Without further preamble, he disappeared behind his desk, allowing the class to erupt in murmurs about who they were going to intern with. Himiko stared at the blank papers in front of her, tapping her pencil and biting her lip.
Her classmates had always said it would come to this.
She was too scary, they’d say, cowering away from her when she finally got to show off her quirk. Her teachers would call her parents with hushed voices, but she knew what they’d say. They had to come and get her immediately. She had to go to another school. She wasn’t allowed to bite people, and she certainly wasn’t allowed to draw blood.
Her teachers had always been cowards.
She didn’t want to stop making people bleed. She loved the look of the blood splattered on the ground and the metallic taste of it as she consumed the very thing that allowed her to activate her quirk. The faces people made when they bled, the blood dripping from their bodies…
Apparently, the heroes were afraid of blood, too. Himiko frowned as her pencil splintered, the wood cutting her finger and drawing blood to the surface. She pressed her finger into her mouth, licking the small drop away and closing her eyes with a sigh.
She had to have an internship. They’d probably spend the whole time berating her about using her quirk and demanding that she find “other ways” to fight. She’d already been scolded multiple times during practical training for cutting her classmates and making them bleed.
Maybe being a hero wasn’t worth it if they were going to take away what she loved.
“Toga,” Eraserhead spoke up, and she lifted her head, looking at him curiously. He had his phone in his hand, leaning against his desk tiredly. “Vlad King would like to speak to you. He’s in the teachers’ lounge.”
“I’ll go later,” Himiko answered. Vlad King was probably the one they’d chosen to scold her this time. To tell her that she’d used her quirk wrong and made a mistake. Maybe they were finally kicking her out of the hero course, like everyone except Eraserhead seemed so keen to do.
“Immediately.”
There was no room for argument. Himiko gathered her books into her bag, ignoring the whispers of her classmates as she went.
The halls were empty as she walked to the teachers’ lounge, and she hummed softly to keep the silence from ending up being loud. Vlad King had never taught her, though he had been one of the ones to come help after her victory at the Sports Festival. He was an odd choice if they were going to expel her, but if they were going to expel her for doing exactly what they asked, it didn’t seem like the heroes had any sense.
Vlad was waiting outside of the teacher’s lounge, leaning against the wall. Himiko stopped in front of him, bouncing back on her heels. Wasting no time, she spoke, “Are you going to expel me?”
“Expel you?” Vlad looked surprised for a moment, staring her down. “Why would we expel you?”
Himiko rolled her eyes. “That’s what they do!” she exclaimed. “I use my quirk, and I get expelled. It’s not the first time. Why you?”
“Toga.” Vlad looked at her, leaning down to make eye contact. “I’m not here to expel you. I’m offering you an internship—with me.”
Himiko paused, staring at him for a long moment before her eyes went wide. She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring up at him despite his intimidating size.
“Are you going to make me stop using my quirk? Is that why a teacher has to do it?”
“I know you know what my quirk is. Although they don’t work the same, our quirks have similar mediums.”
Blood.
Of course! Vlad King’s quirk allowed him to control his blood outside of his body. While Himiko relied on other people’s blood to control hers, she had been fascinated by Vlad King’s work when she had thought of being a hero.
Heroes were afraid of blood, just as much as everyone else seemed to be.
Vlad King couldn’t be afraid of blood. If he was, he’d be completely unable to use his quirk, and he’d be useless as a hero.
Himiko jumped, wrapping her arms around his neck. He startled, setting his hand against her back to keep her stable before leaning down for her to let go. Even as she let go, she shifted to cling to his hand, her eyes wide.
“You’re going to let me use my quirk!”
“I’m going to encourage you to use your quirk. A bit unfair to tell a hero they can’t.” Vlad smiled at her as though he knew exactly what she’d been hearing her whole life. Maybe he did. Without his equipment, he’d need some way to remove his blood from his body, and she doubted that was something done without some less than societally acceptable means. Her eyes lit up excitedly. “But, we’re going to learn how to use your quirk safely.”
Himiko’s excitement dropped a little.
“You don’t want me to make people bleed.”
“You can’t use your quirk if you can’t make people bleed,” Vlad said, shaking his head. “I don’t want you to make people bleed out. You got a bit too close to comfort for some people during the Sports Festival. You can have blood without going that far.”
“Why didn’t you just submit an offer like everyone else?” Himiko eyed him suspiciously. If he knew that he wanted to offer her a position with him, there was no reason to do it this way.
“You’re questioning this much with me directly in front of you, imagine if I had simply submitted an offer. You’re a clever girl, Toga, and I know people have been bad about you and your quirk lately. I can help.”
She pouted, digging her teeth into her bottom lip, the pinpricks nearly piercing through her skin. Finally, she nodded, looking up at him.
“I’ll work with you! I want to make people bleed.”
“Safely,” Vlad corrected, sounding a little faint.
Himiko looked at him with a bright, toothy grin.
On the first night of the internship, Vlad brought her out on patrol with him. He patrolled city streets, and she skipped quickly to keep pace with his long strides. Patrolling was boring with so few villains and people around. She passed the time by babbling, talking to Vlad about anything that came to her mind.
“Viper,” he hissed after a moment. At the sound of her hero name, Himiko fell silent, stepping behind him. Not out of fear, but because he’d been very adamant about letting him take the lead. “Villain up ahead. Don’t do anything until I tell you to, okay?”
Himiko frowned but nodded, pressing herself against the wall as he moved forward, trapping the villain in his quirk. She watched, her gaze flickering to her feet in frustration. Despite everything, she was still pushed off to the side and not allowed to participate. She still wasn’t enough.
“Viper!” he shouted after a moment, calling her over. Himiko ran to meet him, and Vlad raised his eyebrows. “You got your system? As we practiced, just a little.
Himiko lit up, pulling the blade off of her belt and jumping forward. She sliced at their skin, gathering the blood into the vial, staring at the red liquid pooling over the edge and onto her fingers. She watched as it started to drip onto the ground.
“A little,” Vlad repeated, eyeing her.
Himiko frowned but pulled off, the wound small enough that, without her pressure, it wouldn’t remain bleeding. She licked the blood off of her fingers, tucking the vial into her belt as Vlad interrogated the villain.
They mostly focused on her using Vlad’s body. He’d draw his blood out with his quirk and let her take it from him, gathering it into vials, which she strapped onto her costume, breaking them open when she needed them. It seemed to catch people off guard, when a strong, physically imposing pro hero took them down, only to be replaced by a small girl with blood dripping from her lips.
It was exciting. No matter what Himiko did, Vlad let her be surrounded by blood. If she took too much from someone, he didn’t yell, only told her softly how to do it better next time. He encouraged her to take blood from people that they encountered, to learn and use their quirks, to completely create herself as a hero.
Vlad encouraged her to take a vial of blood from every villain they encountered. He gathered blood from other heroes, other teachers. He worked with everyone he could to help her have a variety, allowing her to use her quirk as much as possible.
He trusted her, even as she dug her teeth into someone’s neck and ripped at their skin.
Maybe Himiko’s tactics as a hero were a little odd, but Vlad let her be her. As long as she didn’t seriously hurt someone, he encouraged her to do whatever made her work easiest.
By the end of the week, Himiko stood over a villain she’d taken down herself. Vlad’s skin was dripping down from her body, revealing her standing with a bright grin. Blood pooled around the villain’s face, and she leaned down to gather some of it, licking it off her fingers.
“What was your quirk again?” she asked, strapping the blood to her belt, eyes glimmering when it sloshed in the container.
The villain stared at her with wide eyes, clearly not expecting her over him. “I — it’s… teleportation, kind of —” Himiko stopped listening, letting go of him as Vlad and the police stepped into the alley.
“Vladdy!” she exclaimed, throwing herself onto her mentor, showing him the new vial of blood. “Do you know anything about teleportation quirks?”
“I don’t, not personally. But I know someone who can help.” He grinned, ruffling her hair.
“But, the internship is over?” They were returning to UA the next day, the end of their official work relationship.
“You’ve grown a lot this week, Viper.” Vlad brushed blood off of her face, kneeling down in front of her with a big grin, his sharp teeth mirroring hers. “I don’t want to stop here.”
“You… want to keep working with me?” Himiko’s surprise leaked into her words. She knew that Vlad hadn’t been upset with her, but —
“We can’t do official hero work together until your class is allowed work studies. But we’ll train outside of classes when you have time. We’ll keep working on this.”
“Vladdy!” Himiko wrapped her arms around his neck, using all of her strength to hold onto him, laughing loudly. “I’m going to be a hero.”
“I know you are,” Vlad said, setting her back down and setting his hand onto her head. “Villains are gonna be terrified of you, Viper.”
“Good.” Himiko brushed her hair out of her eyes, licking the last taste of blood off her teeth. “They better be.”