Dark crimson.

It was just a drop, steadily building up to a trailing blob of blood running down Tsu’s finger. Himiko smacked her lips together, mouth suddenly dry now that it was so close. Her chest wasn’t doing much better, heart feeling as though it was moments away from beating its way out into the open.

She hadn’t felt like this in a long, long time.

And back then, just how close had she been to hurting Katsu? If it weren’t for his quirk…

Taking a deep breath, the scent of Tsu’s blood carrying a strangely sweet burn to it, she focused on the blood already running through her veins. Katsu’s. She’d taken some beforehand to calm her nerves.

She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Parting her lips, Himiko leaned forward.

Sour. The taste was so strong that she couldn’t help the scrunching of her face. That passed quickly, Tsu’s blood, like candy, carrying a rush of sweetness that offset it. Both balanced out, creating a taste so distinct from Katsu’s.

And it was good. So good.

She opened her mouth a bit wider and-

A jolt from within, like an unseen smack, snapped her out of that lapse in focus, Himiko quickly pulling back. That was close.

Too close.

“Does my blood really taste that good?” Tsu asked, tilting her head. Ah, she was probably making that face Katsu always talked about; she couldn’t help it sometimes. Luckily, while it wasn’t really the kind of place she wanted to do something like this, they’d stepped into the stall of a bathroom not far from the station.

“Amazing.” Himiko said idly, focusing on the strand sensations within her. Tsu’s blood, the small weight of it running through her and carrying the same sour burn of its taste, hit Katsu’s. That’s what it felt like anyways. And Katsu’s, just like the workaholic himself, didn’t relent to it, remaining stubbornly in its place.

It took focus on her part to wear down that persistence, Tsu’s blood overtaking the comforting presence of his.

She opened her eyes, which fallen close at some point, just in time to see Tsu’s tongue flick out and lick at the little bit of blood left from that cut on her finger.

“It must be your quirk.” Tsu decided.

Himiko stifled a laugh. Anyone would’ve figured that out without trying that.

“You really are weird, Tsu.” Himiko said, shifting the hand she’d been using to hold Tsu’s raised wrist. Now much bigger, as she spread out both of their fingers and pressed their palms together, it proved to be a perfect mirror of Tsu’s. The same must’ve went for the darkened long hair blocking part of her vision. “I guess we got that in common.”

“You and Katsu are the ones asking me to do weird things, ribbit.”

“Asking.” Himiko pointed out, smiling. She interlocked their fingers into a clasp. “You like Katsu, don’t you?”

Tsu’s relaxed hand tensed up, her cheeks turning a dark red.

“Sorry.” She croaked out, looking away. With a reaction as obvious as that there wasn’t much room to deny it.

“Sorry for what? Its just another thing we have in common.”

Her lowered eyes rose up. “You’re not mad?”

“Its not like you choose who you like. It’d be like hating you for your hair color or something stupid like that.” Himiko said grinning. “Besides, anyone who doesn’t like Katsu, doesn’t have any taste.”

“Now let’s get going before you miss your train.” Himiko tugged her along, leaving the stall and bathroom behind, Tsu quick to match her pace.

She’d done it. She could and would control this craving, not the other way around.

XOXO

“Thank you, Akaguro.” Midoriya said, catching the bottle of vendor bought soda and bowing his head to me. “Should I start coming in early, too?”

“That’s up to you.” I said, tossing another to Yaoyorozu and holding mine loosely by its cap. “The same goes for you, Yaoyorozu. I might ask you both to come early in the future if there’s actual work we need to do, but I’m just trying to make myself more available to our teachers and classmates.”

“Which reminds me.” I pulled out my phone, unlocking it and holding it out for them. “Mind if I get your numbers?”

After we exchanged contacts, we finally left the halls of the school’s main building behind, stepping out into the front courtyard. Despite being some of the last to leave, pretty much all of our class gone by now, there were still a good few students around. Mostly upperclassmen from what I could tell.

Probably those in charge of any clubs or already involved in other extracurricular activities. First years like us would get involved with that stuff a bit later.

“I’ve seen the schedules the local lines run on.” Yaoyorozu said as we reached the front gates. “I can have my driver take the both of you home if you don’t live close enough to walk.”

“Your driver?” Confusion and amazement overrode Midoriya’s usual embarrassment as he looked further along the path leading out of school, both intensifying when he realized the slick black car waiting along the distant curb was for Yaoyorozu, passenger door attended to by the same fancily dressed driver way back during Recommendation exams.

It’s kind of surprising that most of the class didn’t realize how rich she was until that whole dorm thing.

While Midoriya came to terms with the fact that our fellow class representative was among the one percent, I scanned the surrounding trees, quickly finding Scarlet perched on a branch amongst other birds, a stare aimed at me.

I figured as much from her movements, but she hadn’t been able to find anyone suspicious during that alarm a few hours ago.

Kurogiri’s warp quirk at work I assumed. Or maybe Aoyama had actually done something risky himself during that brief outbreak of chaos.

“I’m-I’m okay walking.” Midoriya turned down the offer once he got over his surprise, pointing down the path. “I don’t really mind the wait.”

“Same here.” I said. “There’s something I want to talk to Midoriya about too.”

“Me?”

“I understand.” Yaoyorozu gave us a nod then a wave as she took off. “I’ll see the two of you tomorrow morning.”

We watched her get in her car and it pull off, Midoriya quietly fidgeting in place. I don’t feel like he had much reason to be nervous around me of all people, but he was looking like the socially anxious type when it came to everyone, not just the girls of the class. Then again, if the show was accurate about how he lived, I don’t think he really had any friends before coming to U.A.

Hard not to feel for him there but that wasn’t really the focus right now.

“I’m planning on offering everyone help with their quirks.” I said, leading our way downhill. “I’m no pro so I’m not sure I’ll be anymore helpful than a moving test dummy, but I figured you’d be a good person to start with. They’re pretty different but at the end of the day we both have strength based emitter quirks.”

“Yours work based off blood doesn’t it, Akaguro?” He asked. “Blood type matters, right? Can you only use the blood of humans? What if someone had a mutation that affected their blood? Would it-“

“Who knows, maybe you’ll end up giving me advice that helps with my quirk too.” I cut him off before he could get too deep into his rambling. “You busy?”

Midoriya shifted his hold on his book bag’s straps, eyes widened a bit. “You want to start right now?”

“No reason not to.” I said, nodding.

Time wasn’t on our side after all.

XOXO

“This place is pretty nice.”  Crystal blue waters that stretched far and wide ahead of us. The calm waves reached up across the golden sands, steadily darkening all of it. The dock that stretched out over the waters looked even better than the last time I passed by this place. “Even if it’s not the weekend, I’d expect more people to be around.”

“This place was filled with trash not too long ago.” Midoriya explained. “I think people will show up once they realize it’s been cleaned up. I’ve read on the internet that it was a really popular beach before that.”

An unnecessary explanation but I nodded along. I figured Takoba Municipal Beach would be the place he picked when I asked if he knew any place we could practice. I still thought it was too open for real quirk training, but I wasn’t really planning on either of us doing anything crazy.

Insane power was a given no matter what he did. The main thing Midoriya needed was some actual advice.

All Might was cool, no two ways about it, but the man just wasn’t the best teacher. It was a bit of a small detail but if I’m remembering things right, he never had any reason to use One For All the way Midoriya did since he started as a much better vessel for it. And with teaching not being his strength, he might’ve never realized some solid direction would be better for his successor than time.

“When I’m using my quirk-“ I said, stretching a bit. “-I like to think of my body being weighed down and pulled back by chains that break away when needed. It helps me keep my strength under control, so I don’t hurt anyone or myself.”

That was a bold faced lie. I didn’t need to imagine anything when it came to Bloodboost. Get used to the force I could output? Sure; I’d be dedicating time to getting used to what Tsu’s blood allowed me to do so I didn’t accidentally put too much force behind a blow while in that form, but its not like I generally had to struggle to handle my strength.

That imagery was how I learned to and moderated my use of Removal. It wasn’t full proof, the degree I used a fickle thing to manage, but it worked for me.

“You do anything like that when you use yours?” I asked, looking away from the waters and over to him.  We’d left our bags, school jackets, and ties over by the stairs leading down to the beach, the cool salty airs brushing past us.

Midoriya nodded. “I do something similar. All-My quirk has so much power to it that I always feel like an egg in a microwave that’s about to explode when I use it.”

He was horrible at keeping a secret.

“An egg?” More importantly, that was such a mundane comparison. Not something anyone would think to associate with one of, if not, the most powerful quirk in the world.

“Yeah. I’m still struggling with the not exploding part though.” Midoriya didn’t care at all about the disconnect there, so focused that he let himself go off on another tangent of theory filled mutters. “Maybe it’s just a time issue. If I keep working out, it should get easy.”  He said, ending the whole incomprehensible mess with resignation. Strange how he managed to look determined despite that.

“The egg would be your body then. And when you broke your finger during Aizawa’s test then your arm against Bakugo, that’s what happens when a part of the eggs blows up?” I asked, getting a nod from him. What was the exact thing Gran Torino said to them? Whatever, it shouldn’t be that hard to go from here. “When you’re using your quirk, do you feel hot or cold?” He opened his mouth, ready to ask questions rather than answer. “Don’t worry about the details, just answer the question. Hot or cold?”

My own energy could take many forms depending on what I was doing but when I wasn’t up to anything in particular, it felt cool. I wasn’t sure if there was a better way to describe, in fact I wasn’t even sure cool was the right word, but if I had to choose between the two, cold made more sense.

“Warm, sometimes hot.” Fortunately, the concept was the same for Midoriya, his answer coming quicker than I expected.

Hopefully what I said was close enough to what Gran Torino said.

“If we’re going with your analogy, all microwaves are supposed to do the same thing.” I said dropping my stretches and pointing a thumb to the center of my chest. “Whether it on low, medium, or high, you want your food evenly heated, don’t you? Instead of focusing all that power into one spot and leaving the rest cold-“ I moved my thumb, drawing a path from my center over to my shoulder and down my arm. “-shouldn’t you be trying to make sure it’s evenly spread across your body? Or egg, I guess.”

Chin cupped, Midoriya stared at me.

“Maybe just give it a try?”

“Al-Alright.” With a nod, he spread out his arms, fist held out to his sides and eyes dropped to the sand. Eventually his eyes closed as his fists further tightened up.

Cool winds continued to blow past us, nothing happening.

“Maybe that wasn’t a good analogy.” I said, only to go completely ignored. What was it that old man said? Something about the spinning glass in the microwave, right? Or maybe we needed to just needed to get eyes on a microwave so he could learn through seeing rather than imagining. I stepped over to him, hand raised. “Hey Midori-“

I back stepped.

Before my feet could even settle into the sand below us, green electricity sparked to life where my hand had been reaching. His dark messy hair seemingly moving to its own tune, that electricity coming with, for lack of a better term, pressure or power about him.

The signs of what he would call Full Cowling was all there, but I could barely bring myself to focus on that.

My neck, arms, legs. The smallest hairs had come to complete stand, goosebumps spread across my skin. My heartbeat, like a drum brought straight up my ears, beat louder than ever. I hadn’t meant it but I’d already starting falling into a defensive stance, a half curled fist held at my side and other hand ready to intercept.

What the hell?

“Akaguro, I think it-“ Midoriya’s eyes snapped opened, voice full of excitement. All those changes vanished, my strange tension going with them. “-worked?”

Whatever the reason behind my strange reaction, it wasn’t the time to be getting lost in it.

“You looked different for a moment there.” I said, dropping my stance, Iron Mind keeping an iron clad grip on my confusion. “Safe to say that idea works for you?”

“I think so.” Midoriya tried again only for the effect to vanish the instant it took form. “It feels different. Usually, I’m trying to hold back all this pressure, but it was like I was doing that and trying to hold on to it at the same time.  Like trying to balance the egg upright while spinning it!”

“Whatever you say, Eggman.” I said, his whole analogy a little lost on me. I got the concept, so I wasn’t going to discard it completely, but I wasn't sure it’d actually help me with Removal. “Maybe you only know how use your microwave at its highest setting? Even if you’re spreading all the power out, it won’t matter if you can’t handle it to begin with.”

“That makes sense. Why didn’t I think of this? Maybe-“ Anddd he was going off on another tangent.

I let him be, running a hand along the back of my neck.

I’d never felt anything like that. The closest experience I could even begin to compare that sudden rush of adrenaline to was the one time I’d ended up face to face with that street tier extra as Bakugo would say.

Which made it weirder.

[Feat Accomplished]

[Direct Midoriya Izuku down the path of Full Cowling Early!

+2 Silver Trait Tickets]

But a little weird never hurt anybody.

XOXO

[Kure

|Uncommon Trait|

Kengan Ashura - You are a Member of the Kure Clan, a clan of people selectively bred to be assassins and martial artists. Your genes grant you increased physical abilities, greater physical growth, and better combat instincts. You can also use the skill "Removal", which removes the natural limiters the brain has to stop you from using all 100% of your physical strength in order not to hurt yourself. You can increase your removal percentage by training.]

Combat instincts.

I’d taken a look through all my traits and this one stood out as the most likely culprit behind my persistent reaction to Midoriya’s unstable attempts at Full Cowling. Honestly it was just a shot in the dark; training with my familiars, Himiko, or anything U.A. had thrown at us so far never triggered something like that.

I always just brushed it off as flavor text or something that boosted my ability to read others in the middle of a fight but maybe there was more to it than that.

Taking out my key, I unlocked the door to my apartment and stepped in, bag set down and shoes taken off.

“Welcome home!” Himiko was the first thing to greet me, arms and legs wrapping around me as she literally jumped me, a long kiss started. She pulled back, grinning. “Don’t ask how long I was waiting to do that.”

“Sorry to make you wait.” I said returning the kiss with another. “I got caught up with Midoriya. He’s got a lot more energy than you’d think.” I explained as I walked us in, dropping onto the couch, Himiko adjusting herself with that damn dirty smirk showing itself. “Not like that, perv.”

“So, you didn’t wear him out?”

“Shut up.”

With a giggle she got off of me, heading around the counter into the kitchen.

“Weren’t we supposed to be watching this together?” I asked, glancing towards the TV, one of the many shows we watched together paused.

“You should’ve thought about that before you decided to go play on the beach with another dude.” She called back, not letting up with all that questionable phrasing. Grabbing a small, covered bowl out of the microwave, she came back, sitting down next to me. “I was just rewatching some episodes.” She explained, handing over the bowl.

“This doesn’t look like one our bowls.” I noticed as I popped it open. It wasn’t much, just some plain rice and chicken.

“Ochaco.” Himiko said. “I tried to give the food back to her, but she wouldn’t budge.” If she was going to go digging into portions she probably intended on spacing out across the week that kind of ruined the point in making her food at all. That said, I couldn’t exactly say I didn’t see where she was coming from. Taking, taking, and taking from people, even if they offered, just wouldn’t feel right. “Guess, we’ll just have to make up for it.”

Uraraka’s gesture aside, Himiko was especially cheerful right now.

“Things went good with Tsu?”

“More than good.” Himiko released a sigh, leaning back. “Why didn’t you tell me her blood tasted so good? I wish I could’ve taken some with me.” She glanced at me. “You think if I mixed some of your sweat in a drink for her, I could get away with-“ Bowl covered back up and set aside, I flicked her forehead. “It was just a joke. Obviously, I’m not going to do that.”

“Obviously.” I repeated dryly.

She stared back. Then tilted her head. “You know Tsu likes you, right?” Not a conversation I was ever looking to have. “You do, don’t you?” And I somehow gave myself away without saying a word. I told Himiko a lot but cluing her in on the fact this whole thing told me some of the private things Tsu got up to? It was bad enough, I knew.

“Better to just leave that be. She’ll get over it.” I said.

“If you say so.” Himiko shifted over, turning my lap into a pillow. “You got some of those tickets, right? Let’s get to it.”

That ended good? She was still in a really good mood despite it.

Best to just listen for now.

“Start with the best one too. Trust me I have a good feeling.”

“I think my luck has been better when I start low.”

“And it’ll be even better if you listen to your amazing girlfriend.”

Fingers crossed she was right.

[Rolling Gold Advantage Trait Gacha Ticket…]

[Greater Undead]

|Rare Trait|

Race - You are a greater Undead, once you activate this trait you transform into a Death Knight or Lich depending on your stats. As an undead, you don't have stamina and consume energy in its stead for everything and get unique bonuses and demerits depending on the undead you end up as.

OR

|Precise|

|Rare Trait|

You are very precise and controlled when using your abilities or spells, your control over your own moves and body is beyond the norm.]

“We're talking skeletons, zombies, and vampires right?” Himiko asked. “Now, I’m not trying to tell you what to pick but that’s not going to work for me.”

“Tsk, Tsk, Tsk.” I clipped my tongue, shaking my head. “Here I thought you liked me for more than my blood.”

“Oh, I do.” Himiko turned her head in my lap, and in a show of teasing that outclassed anything I ever did, managed to find the fly to pants, pulling at it a bit with her teeth. “I kind of need this too.” I was not ashamed to say she now had a boner poking at her cheek through the fabric.

Ignoring her laugh, I went with the obvious choice; that whole no stamina thing was vainly interesting, but she was right. Death Knight or Lich, both equaled being a walking bag of bones. I’d much rather keep the bone I did have and Precise sounded like it could help me not just with using two skills at the same time but Karate too.

I chose Precise and moved on to the silvers.

It was a little troubling to know this gacha could change my race on a whim though.

[Rolling Silver Item Gacha Ticket…]

[Gene Seed Ticket

|Elite Item|

Warhammer 40k - A ticket that when ripped transports you to a room full of robotic surgeons that allow you to undergo the creation procedure of a Transhuman Astartes. This procedure is perfected and you will end up with the augments of an Astartes regardless without the downsides. This procedure will not affect your looks or the general shape of your body due to being perfected.]

Warhammer stuff was in here too? That fact aside, while I wasn’t the biggest lorehead around when it came to that stuff, most of my experiences being a few of their more popular games, I knew enough to understand what I was reading.

Now no Space Marine was going toe to toe with All Might, but this was fucking crazy, wasn’t it? Strength aside, they had crazy augments and biology. Two hearts, insane vision, ultra efficient lungs to the point of being able to breath under water, and a real basic healing factor compared to some others.

If that was all stacked on to what I already had?

“I was right, right? Come on tell me what you got.” Himiko said, poking at my stomach. A quick relay and she looked more bothered than anything. “You aren’t worried about the whole surgery part?”

“No pain, no gain?”

She poked me harder. “Just, I don’t know, be super careful if you use that thing, alright? The risk doesn’t sound worth it to me.”

Yeah, maybe there would’ve been a point where I felt that way, but this Chaos Gacha system was something else. Sure, the roll was a bit different than everything I got so far but it was hard to imagine the creations of this thing messing up a so called perfected procedure. Still, I should at least account for it somewhat.

No telling if was an instant process after all.

Sunday would have a lot of stuffed into it.

Now for those silver trait tickets.

[Rolling 2x Silver Trait Gacha Ticket…]

[The Santa Clause

|Common Trait|

You are under the same Clause as Santa himself, meaning that people do not mind you entering places you shouldn't be, or lingering in places you are not meant to. But they can still get offended and angry if you cause a disturbance or do something that would offend them.]

A common trait off a silver ticket was truly the luck of all time. I guess Himiko couldn’t counter my luck completely. This was pretty useful though.

It gave me some incredibly high risk high reward ideas.

[Ceaseless Discharge

|Trash Trait|

"Not the one you are thinking of" Your cum refills almost instantly, and the volume of your ejaculations is substantially increased.]

I took a deep breath.

And released it.

Life was all about give and take. I got some good luck for a while but it was time to return to my origins.

Himiko raised a brow.

You know what-

“This is your fault.” I decided. Out of all the trash ranked things that could possibly exist and I rolled something like this? “Your dirty mind caused this.”

“Sounds like you got something good to me.” Himiko said. One embarrassed explanation later and her red faced grin was as wide as could be. “See, I told you I had a good feeling.” She said rising up and dropping one hand on my shoulder while the other dropped between us. “And we’re testing it out. Right now.”

Suffice to say, Himiko provided a very convincing argument about why it was such a good roll.

XOXO

(A/N: Sorry if this has more mistakes than usual. Editing it was like editing two chapters. No idea how it got so big but I refused to cut anything or break it up. Chapter just flowed well like this.

Also I might have to add the overpowered tag now. That space marine ticket is a fucking insane pull to be in the silver pool. Just look up the biology of space marine if you don't know much about it; even if no strength feat is going to contend with All Might's, everything else is still crazy for Katsu to have. Plus the healing from his healing fluids scales with his physicals right? Its effectiveness is looking to maybe double bro. A great thing for Himiko for sure.

Got to change up some plans I had in mind. Hell even that santa pull has changed plans even beyond the USJ. Katsu can really do something funny that has an insanely high chance of working.

Interesting things are on the horizon. Hopefully I can keep up with what I'm getting thrown here. This first week of school is way too stacked.)