Chapter Text
Five Years Ago
Sekijiro Kan
Kan was having a miserable patrol. It was cold, but not cold enough to turn the rain to snow yet it still felt like ice, and he’d basically been up for two days trying to deal with the latest nonsense his class had gotten into. He usually loved being a teacher, but the quirk accidents hero students could get into were on an entirely different level.
A scream echoed down the street from him and just like that he was leaving his mental complaining behind as he raced toward the sound. The way the street was set up and how close the sound was it had to have come from an alleyway not too far from him, but when he got there it was empty and silent. The other side was a dead end so no one could have left through there either.
Just as he looked up to check the roofs/windows/see if there were any fire escapes, someone slammed into him from behind, sending him skidding across the gritty cement before picking up and slamming him into the wall, temporarily dazing him. Whoever it was was strong, and before he could react Kan found himself pinned before his assailant bit down on his neck, hard.
Kan’s quirk, luckily, didn’t require him drinking blood, but he knew of plenty of people whose blood related quirks did. That had to be the case here, because they were drinking his. Kan had fangs despite not needing them (part of why he chose the hero name Vlad King) and between the head wound and the fact his assailant's head was right there, he didn’t immediately think of using his own ingested blood to get them off, he just bit down on instinct. In the heat of the moment, he didn’t notice that the blood that spurted into his mouth wasn’t quite right.
The hero was busy mentally upgrading the severity of the hit his head had taken against the wall, because it seemed like the second he bit down the person was half an alley away, then the next they were on him again trying to get more blood. Kan didn’t feel right, he was starting to get light-headed and colder than he should be even with the rain, but the pain of being bitten for a second time cleared his thoughts well enough to remember his quirk.
He used it to throw the person back and pin them to the ground, revealing a woman in a red dress with long brown hair hissing and thrashing against his hold now that he had the chance to actually look. At least he didn’t seem to be losing time anymore nosince he was maintaining his hold on his quirk, thank kami for small mercies. Kan pulled a pair of quirk suppressing cuffs out of his pocket and made his approach to restrain her, like normal. He wasn’t expecting her eyes to flash red.
“Release me.” Her honeyed voice had too many layers, and she spoke in a language he didn’t know yet still understood. Kan immediately dropped his hold on his quirk and she lurched to her feet, gave him one last hiss, then darted out of the alley into the night.
Kan didn’t know what to make out of any of what just happened, but he knew that he needed medical attention. He was only a few blocks from UA and his thoughts were still foggy and dazed so it didn’t even occur to him to call an ambulance, he just heaved himself to his feet and stumbled his way back to the school. The man much preferred Chiyo’s care to any hospital’s anyways.
.
Nedzu would like to state for the record that he was minding his own business (for once) in his office when something pinged on the edges of his awareness. He frowned, tail swishing, as he mentally reached to to see one of his teachers who was supposed to be in the middle of his patrol stumbling toward the school like he was drunk and dripping blood from his neck. He was moving through the vents toward the entrance and dialing Chiyo to make sure she was ready before the night guard at the front gate even knew anything was wrong.
A flavor of apprehension Nedzu hadn’t felt in… longer than he’d care to admit rolled his stomach into tight knots. Unless someone was on the brink of death, interactions with normal quirked villains didn’t ping his awareness like that unless he was specifically looking for it and to all appearances Kan was nowhere near death’s door. Except Nedzu knew Kan’s quirk let him walk off levels of blood loss that would be deadly for any other mortal man, and the principal was certainly capable of recognizing a vampire bite when he saw one.
The supernatural community was a very deeply held secret, one neither Kan nor Chiyo, who Kan was obviously heading to the school for, knew about. They were about to find out though, because Nedzu could sense Kan had already started to turn and it was too late to stop the process. This was going to be a long night, but at least Nedzu was there to support Kan through the change.
.
“I know Kan hit his head, but I didn’t realize you had too.” Chiyo scowled at her boss who was, quite frankly, being absolutely ridiculous while she was trying to work. Normally, he’d be the last being she’d expect to hear flights of fancy from, and yet here he was. “Unless you got hit by one of the student’s quirks?”
“You know as well as I no students currently have quirks that would affect one’s sense of reality.” Nedzu sighed. “I assure you I’m being quite serious.”
“You’re saying vampires are real.” Chiyo replied flatly. She’d barely gotten into checking over Kan before Nedzu started with this nonsense, but he was walking, talking, and had no major warning signs so she’d ushered him to her office, where they found themselves now. Kan sitting on one of the beds, watching the smartest creature on earth have some sort of mental break with Chiyo next to him while Nedzu stood on the corner of Chiyo’s desk.
“Perhaps I should have led with a demonstration.” Nedzu muttered before closing his eyes and taking a breath. When he opened them, his normally blue irises were glowing acid green as the lights flickered and dimmed around them and an odd pressure filled the room.
“That’s enough.” Chiyo stopped him when loose papers and lightweight equipment like scalpels started to float. “There’s no need to make a mess.” Nedzu released the energy he’d summoned and everything returned to normal.
“Kan, when you bit your assailant what was their blood like?” Nedzu asked the hero, who was staring at him with wide eyes. It was an odd look on the normal imposing man.
“I,” those eyes narrowed as he thought back to the incident, “I think it was cold and thick? Wouldn’t that just be a part of their quirk?”
“What’s Kan’s pulse rate?” Nedzu asked the doctor instead of answering. Chiyo took his wrist but couldn’t seem to find it. That wasn’t necessarily weird for Kan though, after he’d been using his quirk if he didn’t have the chance to reabsorb his blood his pulse was usually light and thready. She pulled on her stethoscope and set it against his back, she’d always been able to hear his heartbeat even if she couldn’t feel it, but heard nothing.
She glanced sharply at Nedzu, who was watching her expectantly, before quickly checking the rest of Kan’s vital signs. In the end, both humans (one now formerly) had to accept the truth. Luckily, it was early enough in Kan’s transformation to prepare him for the rest of it (a several day process), make sure he had a safe place to go through it in, and let Chiyo get an emergency delivery of blood bags for him (Nedzu might have greased those wheels a bit).
It was certainly an adjustment for both of them. Kan had relatively high spirits about it, though it meant retirement (for the moment) since they couldn’t just explain to the HPSC he was allergic to sunlight now, though he could remain teaching. Nedzu had had every building on school grounds treated the summer break after he took over to be accessible to everyone, not just whatever quirks students or staff might come in with.
The whole thing got gears in Nedzu’s head turning that he’d probably ignored for longer than he should have. He’d long since stepped away from the supernatural community for reasons of his own, but maybe it had been too long. It shouldn’t have taken something happening to one of his own, but maybe there was something Nedzu could do about it.