Chapter Text
It started with a Sparrow, like it usually does for Himiko Toga.
Only four years of age, born with large fangs in a mouth that could split into a grin that might make the Cheshire Cat blush, with golden hair that cascaded down the back of her head in spiked tufts, Himiko Toga was happy and free.
Sitting in the large garden behind her family’s house, Himiko hummed happily to herself, legs kicking over the edge of the porch while she ate a pomegranate until her golden eyes narrowed into slits when they spotted something beautiful. A crimson red splattered across the brown feathers of a Sparrow. Himiko set down her fruit and carefully moved over to the injured bird where it was still breathing.
Guilt and sadness filled Himiko, it burned in her chest. It must have flown into the window and broken its fragile little bones. But something else burned in her. It whispered in the back of her skull as the young girl picked the bird up in her small hands, the crimson staining her porcelain skin. It was just so…pretty. That was the word for it. Himiko felt sad for the poor little thing but its breathing was starting to slow down and she felt so…thirsty. Like she had not known what water was until this very moment. The whispering got just a little bit louder. It wasn’t going to live much longer. Himiko still felt sad but she wanted to do what felt natural to her.
And her fangs sank into the bird’s breast and Himiko’s gray world exploded into a new vivid color. The whispering was gone and in its place was ecstasy. Even better than pomegranates, the four year old decided right then and there. Himiko laughed and she felt so happy until a fantastic idea struck her.
I need to show my parents how pretty this is! Maybe they'll want some!
Rushing through the halls she finds her parents, blankly staring back at her before their eyes erupted into rage and disgust.
Eiko Toga, with sandy blonde hair and vapid, apathetic eyes, screamed first, “Himiko! Put that filthy thing down now!”
Himiko tried to explain, “But...I just wanted to show you how pretty it was.”
Suddenly a shadow is cast over and Himiko falls to the floor, the crimson falling onto her pink dress. For a moment, she doesn’t know what happened but then the pain erupts across her cheek as tears begin to swell. Her father had slapped her?
Why?
Kaito Toga’s voice is less scared, more rageful, accusing, stressed, “Did you kill that poor thing? You killed a bird and drank its blood!?”
Her mother shrieks out, “Why are you smiling so much?!”
The four year old smiles as she tries to explain, “No, it fell-”
Himiko’s words come out broken and blubbery as she sobs out half a sentence before she tries to beg.
“I didn’t hurt it, I swear!”
Her father steps forward and casts his shadow over her, “What is wrong with you?”
“…what? Isn’t everyone like this?”
Her mother is shocked even more somehow as she blubbers out, “We…we raised a monster .”
-
Himiko is five now, as she waits in the chair before the Quirk Counselor, some fancy lady in a business suit who wears too much perfume, enough that it stings Himiko’s nostrils. Her words are honey sweet to her parents but she knows better.
I don't trust you. You say nice things but feel like a liar.
She wants to say it but she knows better than to say things that could get her hurt.
“Let’s correct this abnormal behavior and make you a nice, normal girl, okay?”
The hair on the back of her neck raises ever so slightly at the tone the counsellor uses. Himiko knows she’s definitely a liar now.
The counsellor leaves her desk to speak to her parents just outside the office door; she can hear better than most people, the conversation sounding as if it’s happening right in front of her
“Your daughter will be just fine. This kind of perversion is often seen in kids with strong quirks like hers. A common problem in our society. We’ll straighten it out of her. Suppression works far more than anyone else would care to admit.”
Himiko tries to hold her tears in. She doesn’t understand.
Eiko pleads, "Don't you wanna be a good girl for us? A normal girl?”
Kaito slurs, “You deviant.”
Eiko sobs, “Why can't you just be normal?”
Kaito screams, “You drank your friend’s blood?!”
Himiko begs, “She was bleeding and I tried to stop it!”
Kaito erupts, “Normal people don't act this way!”
-
Himiko clutches the red school bag as she walks down the street towards a local park, crying frustrated tears. She’s running away again. The first time the police officers just walked her back to her parents like she wasn’t terrified crying to go back to them. Her parents smiled sweetly as they took their poor missing daughter back into their loving arms and waved the nice police officers away. Her father locked her in the shed for nearly a week.
At this point, he’d gotten good at making sure the bruises she received never appeared anywhere other people could see. As she ventures into the park, she’s certain she can stay here for a night at least. Maybe this time she can get away.
Maybe.
Tears swell in her eyes again, hot and angry. She just doesn’t understand. Why can’t she drink blood? Everyone has it and she just wanted to share. She could feel it inside her. All this love, this affection, this kindness for everything.
Everything has blood and she loves blood, so she loves everything. She’s not really hurting anything when she takes blood but the whispering in the back of her head starts to scream if she doesn’t get any. The last human blood she’d had was from her friend with the bruised knee, just a few licks to stop the bleeding because it always seemed to make the bleeding slow down, she was helping her friend and that had earned her nearly a week in the basement; she’s had to resort to picking up the random squirrel or stray cat just to slake her thirst the last few months. They all get away unharmed of course. It doesn’t quite work the same but it makes her head less fuzzy.
She’d tried sucking on her own blood, her arms already littered with little scars, pockmarks where her fangs had pierced her skin. It tasted like nothing and did nothing, but it was all she could do some nights when she couldn’t sneak out. Idly she wondered what her mother tasted like. Maybe it was sweet, like she used to be. Himiko looked around the park and saw couples holding hands, people petting their dogs, children playing and hugging and laughing; showing love.
So why can’t she? It’s not fair. She should be able to make things fair, right?
Through her angry tears, Himiko doesn’t realize until she’s almost literally fallen into someone else. Immediately sorry, she gets up to apologize and glimpse the big brown eyes of a girl close to her age, maybe younger, with brown hair with long bangs framing her face like her own golden hair, and the pinkest cheeks she’d ever seen.
Like everything else in life, Himiko immediately knew the girl before her was cute. Oh right she’s supposed to apologize, not stare like some kind of freak.
“Ah! I’m sorry. I didn't know where I was going,” Himiko nearly stammers as she helps the younger girl up. She doesn’t seem to mind anyways.
“Oh It’s okay. Ya didn’t hurt me.”
Himiko notes she sounds different, kind of like those cowboys on those cartoons she’s sometimes allowed to watch. That’s cute!
The other girl in the poofy tan sweater that's just about a size or two too big for her seems to get shy for a moment before she narrows her bushy eyebrows and says, “why are you crying?”
Himiko freezes for a moment before wiping the still hot tears from her face. Stupid Himiko. Drawing attention when you're trying to leave.
“I’m running away.”
“What?! Why would ya do a thing like that?”
“…because I'm a monster. I don't belong at my house.”
“Ya don’t look like a monster to me”
“But…my face is creepy.”
“Is it? I don’t think so! You have pretty eyes, like a cat!”
The other girl points at her own eyes, the ones nothing like the ones her parents have. Himiko notices the girl has strange little pads on her fingers and hands as she points at her.
Stammering, Himiko said, “You-you have toe beans…like a kitty.”
Girl blushes even more than she usually did it seems and said, “Oh! Uhh, i guess they are like toe beans…”
Remembering the cover story for her quirk she’s supposed to say, Himiko states a blatantly false fact about herself, “That’s…that’s my quirk…Cat.”
The other girl loses her embarrassment, “You look like one,” she happily replies.
A curve to her lips tilts upward at that statement. She looks like a kitty? She could live with that. Himiko breathes in a bit to calm down her tears.
“My name is Himiko Toga.”
“Well, I'm Ochako Uraraka!” The Brown-Eyed Girl states her last name proudly, “The park’s free and it’s a nice day out so I’m here with my family. Are you running away from your family?”
“…Yeah,” Himiko looks down as she speaks, she doesn’t want Ochako to see the look in her eyes.
“Well, that's no good.”
“No, it isn’t,” Himiko doesn't want to think about and craftily switches the subject
“Do you really think i look like a cat?”
“I do! Put your hair up into two buns and it’d be like you have ears!,” Ochako grasps the ends of her own brown hair and pushes them up to mimic cat ears.
Himiko suddenly gets a funny thought.
“It’s like we’re two missing parts, put us together you get one whole cat!” She blurted out.
Ochako drops her hair from her head and says plainly, “That’s weird, Himi-chan.”
Himiko feels her little heart beaten back inside, just a little raw, “...I know."
“It’s okay, I'm weird too! We can be weird together!”
Himiko laughs with Ochako, her grin threatening to split her face like a demon’s would. She remembers before she can and shamefully covers her mouth.
“Oh im not supposed to smile. I’m sorry if you saw.,”Himiko panickily apologizes. Stupid Himiko.
Ochako confusedly asks, “Why not?”
“My…my parents said its creepy…”
“Its not creepy! Its really cute and cool! Your smile is really cute! It’s all big and wide, like All Might!”
At that remark, Himiko turns back to Ochako, her hand falling away from her mount and stares somewhat baffled.
“Like...All Might?” She questions. The big hero guy everyone likes? Himiko doesn’t really know anything about heroes, just that her parents hate them for some reason. But then again everyone knows about All Might.
“Yeah! Just like him. I hate it when people frown. I wanna make people feel all light and airy. And they do when they smile, so I won't leave until I see you smile as wide as you can!,” Ochako jumps up a little bit as she says it, hoping it’ll make Himi-chan feel all bouncy too.
Feeling just a little bit brave, Himiko tries to smile. The girl isn’t going to leave her until she does so she might as well comply, right? Her smile stretches across face again, a Cheshire grin that shows off her fangs and splits her mouth wide, even if the smile is a little unsure.
“Like…this?”
Ochako’s eyes sparkle(maybe her quirk?) as she nearly jumps and shouts, “Just like All Might! I'm jealous, i wish i could smile just like you!”
Now it’s Himiko’s turn to be really confused as she genuinely blurts out, “Really?!
“Yeah,” Ochako draws out as she smiles.
“Why do you wanna smile like me?” Himiko asks, unsure why anyone would want a smile like hers.
“Well, I wanna be a rescue hero like Thirteen and I figure having a bright smile would help the people in rescuing feel better! Make all their burdens just float away.”
She wants to be a hero? Does she have a heroic quirk?
“Do…do you have a hero’s quirk?”
“Oh! Well, I don't know about a hero’s quirk, but I can make things float! Sometimes. Some things I can't seem to float just yet. Not sure why! But I wanna make my mama and papa a lotta money as a hero so they don’t have to work as hard…and maybe they don’t have to skip meals to make sure I have some.”
They have to skip meals like Himiko is forced to, too?
“Your parents skip meals?”
“Well, yeah, we’re construction workers but not a lotta jobs out in the country so things are tight. I offered to be a worker for me cause my quirk would make all those big girders light and they’d save a ton of money but they want me to be a hero, to chase my dreams. So if I become a hero, I'll make a lotta money just for them.”
“That's…really nice of you. Your quirk would be good for business though,” Himiko notes.
“I know right!”
“Do you skip meals?”
“...sometimes. But don’t worry about it. What about you? Are you hungry?” Ochako hurriedly rushes past what she said to ask Himiko a question.
“Huh?”
“Well, what do you eat? Maybe I can get it for ya?”
“I'm not supposed to say…,” Himiko worried says and she wrings her hands and fidgets with her fingers. She wants to chew on them so badly. But good girls don’t chew on their fingers.
“Aww, come on, I got ya to smile so i want my friend to tell me what she’s hungry for!
Friend? Himiko was Occhan’s friend? Maybe she could tell her exactly what she was starving for.
“I…i like blood,” Himiko squeaks out.
“Blood?” Ochako pauses for a moment to think about it.
“That’s a little scary, but I know a couple guys who eat weird things too. They work for my parents. One of them is a lizard man with green hair, he eats bugs. Is it like that?” The brown-haired girl concludes.
“…yeah, a little.”
“Well…here.”
Ochako sticks her arm out from her poofy tan sweater, that same little look of determination setting her features. Himiko just stares confused. What was she going to do with an arm?
“Have some!”
“Have some what?” Himiko is really confused.
“Well, you got them fangs, so I figure you drink blood right? Like a vampire! So you can have some. As long as you don’t turn me into a vampire also.”
“…you're not tricking me?” Himiko hesitantly asks.
“No foolin’ and no tricks,” Ochako just smiles.
“…okay, I'm sorry if it stings a little,” Himiko whispers out. She really hopes it doesn’t hurt.
Himiko takes Ochako’s smaller arm into her mouth as she looks over to Ochako’s face to see that look of determination still there and so she hesitantly bites down.
And its even better than the sparrow or the other animals she’s had, certainly better
Since it’s being freely given and it feels exactly like how she knew it would; it feels like love, like care and concern for someone you just met because they're hurt. And a bit of…mochi? That flavor’s weird. And there’s green tea too. That’s new.
Ochako meanwhile feels…nothing? She thought it’d at least hurt but there was a pinch and then this weird numbness. She just hopes her blood’s good enough for Himi-chan. Her blush marks get just a little bit bigger when she feels a larger than average tongue lather her skin around where she assumes Himichan’s fangs are biting her. That’s an odd feeling but its for her new friend so she bravely continues to let a cat-vampire suck on her arm.
A Cat-Pire.
Ochako giggles a bit and that seems to shake Himichan out of her daze as her mouths stop latching onto her arm, plopping out while Himiko’s eyes seem a bit blown out, like Ochako’s seen in those silly cat videos her Mama shows her sometimes when there’s free wi-fi. Ochako expects to see some bleeding but there’s nothing, just four little pricks on her forearm.
Himiko has a scared look in her eyes as she apprehensively asks, “Did I hurt you?”
“Oh no, nothing hurt,” Ochako says matter-of-factly.
Ochako shakes her head and Himiko isn’t quite sure how to take that information but her quirk suddenly sings to her. She can feel it wanting to be used, this little piece that’s become a part of her thrumming in her chest, liquid and red. She gets an idea that, hopefully, won’t turn out terribly wrong like all the rest of her ideas but if Ochako just gave her blood from her own arm, maybe this will go over well too.
“Wanna…see something cool?”
“Yeah!”
And suddenly a strange clay emerges from Himiko and suddenly Ochako is looking into the mirror, if the mirror was wearing Himiko’s clothes instead of hers. The smile that beams onto her other face is brighter than her own.
“Hi, Ochako One! I'm Ochako Two! Have you met my new friend Himi-Chan?”
“Whoa! That is so cool! You look just like me! Can you use my quirk?”
“I…don’t know? Let’s try,” Ochako Two asks, unsure of herself.
And so she reaches out and touches Ochako. And nothing. No pink little glow from her doppelganger’s fingertips.
“Aww, that’s rotten luck. I'm sorry, Himi-Chan.”
But her clone just keeps smiling.
“It's okay. I'm just happy i get to be you instead of me for a little bit.
Ochako was very young, but she could still tell the way her new friend said that felt off.
Distantly, an older woman yells “Ochako! Stardust!”
“Oh shi-shoot. That’s my mama, and i don't think she knows where i am.”
“Will you…come back to this park?”
“Maybe? We come up to Musutafu for contracts sometimes and my mama and papa always take me to this park. It’s like a vacation, kinda. I hope we run into each other again,” Ochako ends her sentence in a hopeful tone as she holds onto the arm that her new friend just bit into.
“Still gonna run away?” She worriedly asks.
Himiko wasn’t sure how to answer, so she said, “Maybe.”
“Well, i don't want you to. I want you to be safe. My mama says it’s dangerous out at night.”
“I am safe, now. You made me smile.”
Those sparkles appear in Ochako’s eyes again. Himiko feels happy she could make her friend happy too. Just from smiling. How silly.
“Um, bye, Himi-Chan, it was really nice meeting you. I never met a Cat-Pire before,” Ochako says as she leaves.
“Cat-Pire?”
“Yeah, yer a cat vampire!”
Himiko smiles again and giggles sweetly. A Cat Vampire. How perfect.
Ochako is so happy to have made Himi-Chan smile again as she waves and turns to go running towards her mother somewhere in the park, her voice excited and free.
“See you later, Himi-Chan!”
Himiko’s smile dims a bit as she waves towards the departing brown-haired girl, faintly saying, “Bye, Occhan.”
Himiko looks around the park again. She sees all the people allowed to be happy when she isn’t. But she was happy for a little while. Maybe she could be again?
Maybe…she could be a good girl? For her parents.
She just wants to express her love. She just wants her parents to love her. But they do, don’t they? That’s why they're doing this. There’s something wrong with her. They're trying to help. Maybe she just has to try harder to be a good daughter. Himiko breathes deeply and walks back towards her house. If she tries extra hard, maybe she can become the kind of daughter they can love again.
-
Another quirk counselor's office, another dreaded day of being…poked and prodded and forced to see horrible things like videos of kittens being crushed or human impalement. Something about desensitization? Some big, cheap word like that.
But this doctor feels…different.
If the first counselor's words were honey, his are high fructose corn syrup.
Fake but not in the nice ways the other counselors are, not like her parents either. He grins at her once, staring at her through those weird goggles on his face.
He had to be a million years old, at least, Himiko thought.
“She just won’t…be normal. We just wanted a normal child. We’ve kept her away from her brother because we’re afraid he’ll think he’s doing something good for her by offering his own blood. We’re at our wit’s end,” her mother Eiko sobs again.
Himiko is sorry she’s the reason her mom’s crying all the time now. It’s not her fault, she’s just…broken.
“You have other children, don’t you?” The Doctor tiredly asks.
Eiko hesitantly speaks, “Yes…we do.”
“Well then, the problem is solved! They don’t have any issues like Himiko’s now do they?”
“No, nothing like Himiko, they're good children,” Kaito reassures the Doctor. Straight backed and perfectly poised like he always wants to be.
Himiko’s heart hurts a little. She’s trying.
“I can assure you, she’ll be much happier with one of my families than trying to be something she is never going to be,” the Doctor nearly coughs on his own spit half-way through speaking as a weird half-grin forms on his face, his wrinkly skin sagging against his skull as it stretches against the malformed smile.
Eiko seems stunned, as she calmly says, “We always wanted a perfect son and daughter.”
“Do you have a son and daughter besides little Himiko here?” the Doctor soothes out.
He receives a nod and he continues with his work.
“Then they can be perfect. I'm afraid something like,” a wrinkled, sagging bony hand points itself at Himiko, “That can never be the perfect child you want. While it’s easy for the rest of us, it doesn’t come naturally to poor little Himiko. She’d be far better off in one of my foster homes. Being raised with children like her. She just needs a different environment, that’s all. You tried your best and that's all anyone can be asked to do. Honestly, I say you tried tremendously well despite your circumstances. Quirk counseling is usually effective but it doesn’t always take, I’m afraid. I can assure you two were fine, understanding parents. It wasn’t your fault she’s like this. It’s simply her nature. But I can assure you it’s not any kind of violent impulse. She’ll be better in an environment with parents who have similar needs, don't you know.”
Her father has a scarily calm face as he replies, “Thank you so much Doctor Tsubasa.” Her mother seems almost relieved?
“My secretary already has the various documents drafted up, we can be finished up in fifteen minutes, just head on through the door and say your goodbyes, you can be home in thirty minutes, too.”
I…what? What was happening? Mommy, Daddy?
Her mother looks like she wants to say something. Himiko wants her to say anything. She can't move herself, she’s just…catatonic. Frozen. She can’t move. She doesn’t know why. Does this mean she can see Neito anymore? Or Kumiko?
Her mother looks away and simply leaves. Well, at least she seemed sad. Her father is less kind than that. His face is in a snarl, perhaps a bit of vindictive glee, when he ekes out, “Good riddance you demon.”
Himiko was screaming inside her head and for some reason she couldn’t move a muscle.
Why couldn't she just beg, plead with her parents to keep her? Why did she freeze and act so weird and be so wrong and why couldn’t anyone ever love her?
Please notice that she’s crying, please just notice. But they either don’t notice or simply don’t care.
The door closes and Himiko falls out of that trance and scrambles over her chair towards the door sobbing, begging for them to come back. But the door won’t open and they don't want to come back, not for her.
Why would they ever want something as wrong as her?
Doctor Tsubasa, the children’s doctor, placidly looks down at the sobbing child as she claws at the automatically locked door to his office, closed to her with just a button press. Now that it’s just the two of them left in the office, the big bushy mustache perched upon his lip curls upwards as he wildly shows his stained teeth in some mad attempt at a smile.
This smile is…not friendly.
“Sorry, kid, them’s the breaks,” the Doctor apathetically remarked.
Himiko doesn’t remember much after that.
-
There were many heroes in the world, many of them were great heroes, but few could compare to the Greatest Hero; All Might.
A 7’3 giant clad in blue, yellow, red and white neo-omniweave ballistic spandex, always primed to save the day with two tufts of golden hair and that iconic charming smile.
Everyone knows who All Might is, he’s the All-American Hero from Japan.
And he is exhausted.
He’s been at this job for nearly thirty-five years. He’s still got a lot of steam left in him and he suspects he’ll end his career dying in some glorious battle to save the lives of civilians. It’s the least he could do, if it means it’ll help others. That’s pretty much all his life is. Helping others. And the man behind the smile, Toshinori Yagi, is well and truly bone deep exhausted.
For the last two hours, he has been trying to find a damn warehouse filled with inventory from his nemesis’ vast criminal empire, which he has been covertly dismantling for nearly 20 years.
Because as seemingly impenetrable as All Might was, Toshinori was decidedly not and he hated the Demon Lord’s smug face with a vengeance. Things bugged Toshinori. Like that monster in an expensive suit allowed to walk in broad daylight and his condescending little games he liked to play and sometimes he really just did not like that smirk he had that Toshi just felt the need to wipe off his dumb arrogant face.
But mostly the Demon Lord bothered him.
But nothing could be allowed to bother All Might. All Might was some quirkless kid’s dream from a lifetime ago, a promise to make the world a better place. All Might was as much a costume as the spandex and light armor plating was. All Might was not allowed to hate villains. He was there to bring a smile to people and make them feel safe again when there weren't any feelings of safety to begin with. Oh sure he met a villain here and there that ruffled his feathers but he always laughed at it afterwards. But he was the Symbol of Peace, the man who singlehandedly brought about an era of stability and prosperity for all of Japan by putting a stop to crime, being a beacon to the innocent and a deterrent to criminals, who thought twice about at least operating in broad daylight.
He was not supposed to hate .
He was supposed to be more.
If people saw him well and truly hate a person, no matter how evil, well they would certainly look at the Symbol of Peace differently.
But that is the secret purpose of the power he had been entrusted with. The purpose that began during the dawn of quirks, during the dark ages where children were hunted for the crime of being born different and entire bloodlines wiped from the earth. The age from whence the first super-villain emerged and conquered society as it began to fall and he ruled comfortably from his little edgelord throne in the shadows. A single errant hope that the Demon Lord might one day fall had passed down a line of noble vigilantes and burgeoning heroes who each picked a successor, and then used that sacred torch to fight back against the dark that they fell to all the same.
But there was one hero who got closer than any of the others had to killing the Demon Lord.
All Might’s master, his sensei… surrogate mother; Nana Shimura, known to all as the Smiling Hero: Maverick.
Sure she never reached the top of the early hero rankings, barely cracked the top 100, but that didn’t matter to her and it certainly didn't matter to her successor. Toshinori would have done everything the same way in his hero career if it meant he still got to be the symbol of peace. He was number one by accident in his mind. He’s fairly certain the only reason Endeavor has never taken his place is more due to Enji’s hero persona of a brooding and no-nonsense hardass. Maybe if he softened up a little, he’d finally get that number one spot he cared so much about. No skin off All Might’s back, as far as he was concerned, he didn’t need that ranking to keep helping people. After all, the hero rankings are just some popularity contest. Tabloid fluff for people to talk about once every year. Toshinori has better things to do than pay any mind to that.
And neither did Maverick. She charted her own course and made her fair share of mistakes but she simply wished to help people. Very few people remember her, except those in the underground side of heroics and her few surviving diehard fans. Toshinori included. And he remembers how she would have wanted to be remembered. Because she came closer to beating the Demon Lord than anyone before her. She might have even won, but she was a maverick and she fought him alone. She sacrificed herself to make sure her successor and surrogate son survived.
And right now, for no other reason, that was why Toshinori seethed with a quiet hatred towards the Demon Lord. His goals were not noble or pure, some grand quest born from a sacred torch to smite some great evil for the good of everyone. No, he simply wanted revenge for what that monster did to his master that cloudy day on Okinawa. Even still, All Might could not be seen killing a villain in cold blood. After all, he was the symbol of peace. If it was okay for All Might, it was okay for everyone else.
But tonight, he was not All Might, he was Toshinori Yagi, a boy still grieving for his fallen mentor. And it was for that reason that Toshinori found himself hopping around the vacant lots and abandoned warehouses of Kamino Ward trying to find the stupid place supposedly holding some valuable inventory that connected to the Demon Lord's empire of crime. A reliable tip finally came through. If Toshinori wanted to get any closer to his vengeance, he just needed to find the warehouse filled with likely pricey equipment for whatever evil machinations the Demon Lord had in store and quickly dismantle it all, now if only all these warehouses didn’t look the damn same, he wouldn’t be hopping across an entire prefecture in great leaps and bounds that made him feel like an idiot.
Oh wait, he already passed the warehouse. Sighing wearily, feeling the bone dead ache yet again, Toshi stomped his heels into the weed-ridden asphalt of some vacant lot, turned and catapulted back towards the direction he came from. They couldn't have at least painted numbers on the rooftops, could they?
Landing beside a warehouse like any other, Toshi ripped the doors open to the supposedly abandoned space, once housing, he noticed that the doors were suspiciously reinforced. Definitely a good sign he wasn’t just breaking and entering. And inside lay a lot of expensive-looking medical equipment; it would simply be a shame if a 7’3 hero broke all the equipment that the Demon Lord almost certainly paid a pretty penny for. Eyeing the various machines for anything that might be useful in his hunt, Toshi came across the center of the warehouse’s operations, as all the tubes fed towards it.
And there in the center lay…a vat of strange viscous liquid? Bubbles continually aerated the mixture. It was hooked up to a countless amount of the machines here. And Toshinori felt his heart grow still. Inside was a little girl with blonde hair swirling around her like a halo. He had never seen anything quite like this before and he had also never dialed for backup quite quickly before either. This required medical assistance and expertise he simply did not possess. He would not risk the life of a child for anything. Especially his ignorance when it came to whatever this machinery was.
And he was going to smash it like an ape.
Toshi sighed inside and knew his other mentor’s opinions of him, of him being nothing more than a big blonde oaf, were…moderately accurate, to a degree. But why was there a child in this vat in the middle of an abandoned warehouse? What sick game was the Demon Lord playing now?
Medical workers and police officers lined the warehouse as All Might anxiously waited. A go-ahead was given and the vat was drained. All Might came to help them load her from the vat. The little girl was pulled from it, cradled in All Might’s arms and immediately placed on a stretcher and given oxygen, her vitals being taken. She was breathing fine, it seemed. Toshinori approached to see how she was doing. The young girl’s eyes fluttered open. Her eyes were golden. And slitted. Like a cat. How cute. Under her right eye, placed high on her cheek, was a beauty mark, one that reminded Toshi of his master's own.
The girl's eyes suddenly flashed with fear. Less cute.
The girl through the oxygen mask croaked out a strained, “Please…don’t hurt me.”
Toshi felt his stomach churn at that. Who had hurt this little girl that they were now afraid of All Might ? He…he needed to know and he needed to reassure her that everything was fine now. He had to.
“Don’t worry, little one. You’re safe now. Because i am here,” Toshi reassured her.
The girl fell back unconsciously as she was carried towards an ambulance.