04:00 a.m.

Yawning, I looked away from the clock and to Himiko. I was up early, as planned, but that was the easy part. Wiggling out of her grip wasn’t an option, her hold on me tightening as I moved. Brushing part of her messy hair aside, I poked at her face over and over.

“Ugh, stop it.” Himiko groaned out, head turned and buried into the side of my neck.

“I need to get up.”

“And I need my body pillow.” From bloodbag to body pillow. Upgrade or downgrade? Adjacent ranks maybe? Himiko peeked up, glancing towards the clock and groaning again. “Why are you trying to get up so early?”

“All part of being a good class president.”

“Workaholic.” Despite that she released me, yet another groan slipping free as she rolled onto her front and began stretching out. Temptation reared its head, that push towards me and movement of her hips completely intentional. And I would not be resisting it. A light smack to her naked butt drew a red faced grin from her. “Now you owe me some blood before you leave. I’m still sore after everything you did.”

Like she needed to set up a trap to get blood from me. “You mean everything you asked for.” I retorted, tossing all the sheets onto her and heading towards the bathroom.

A quick shower, uniform thrown on, blood exchange, and satchel slipped around my torso later and I was mostly ready to leave. Beyond heading in early, I was also planning to stay late. On top of helping Midoriya actually be able to maintain and move with Full Cowling, not much time would be left to get stuff done around the apartment.

With a thought and some of my energy, a cool mist formed in front of me, a tall woman stepping into existence, her heels clicking softly against the wooden floors.

Whitish-blonde hair, unblinking blue eyes, and skin pale enough to be called a porcelain white. On top of her clothes, a formal more gothic era styled dress, mostly covered up by the intricate designs of her cloak, and flower decorated cap, those looks of her made her distinct. Plus, she was tall.

Like All Might tall. Okay, maybe not that tall but she wasn’t far behind him, taller than most people.

“Maria.” I said, giving her a nod. It hadn’t felt right to just call her the Doll, so I just ended up giving her the most obvious name way back when I first summoned her. “You mind helping Himiko with anything she needs and looking after the place while we’re away?”

“As you say, dear master.” She said softly, bowing to me.

From behind, back to curling up in the bed beneath the sheets like some sort of cat, Himiko giggled. “Want me to call you master too?”

“She’s the one who decided to call me that.” I said, shaking my head. I’d told Maria she didn’t need to be formal with me but that didn’t stop that title or all the bowing.

“Whatever you say, master.” Himiko teased. “I meant to ask when I first saw you but since you’re supposed to look human does that mean you have-“

“Please don’t harass her.” I said, Himiko pouting under my pointed look.

Maria silently watched the two of us for a time before moving, beginning to tidy up with little to no change in expression. She could be a little stiff and lacked real social cues, but it was hard to look in those curious eyes of hers and remotely think of her as just some doll.

Unfortunately, however sentient she might’ve been, I don’t think the word no was in her dictionary.

After watching for awhile herself, Himiko did get up, shrugging off those sheets and giving me a wink, before moving to help with the clean up.

It’d be fine. Himiko was a lot of things, but she wasn’t going to do anything that crazy.

Time for me to focus on getting to school.

XOXO

“Hey, hey, focus up. This is important.” I said. “You understand what you need to do?”

Crimson, stretching out across some of the grass in front of me, yawned before turning and walking off into the surrounding greenery, vanishing as soon as some bushes cut off line of sight. The small black bag I had made using clothes beam, went along with him. That little bastard was lazy, but he never failed to come through for me; that teleportation of his actually allowed him to get around with the things he carried. A cat was still a cat though, Crimson not able to carry much, but in this case, he wouldn’t need to.

Helping Midoriya along with his quirk was just one step in all of this. With at most a week, maybe two, the show a little unclear about when the USJ happened other than it being a few weeks before the sports festival at the end of the month, at our disposal I wasn’t expecting him to actually be able to be any sort of stand in for All Might.

Crimson and Scarlet would be taking other steps once it was time to ensure we wouldn’t need one.

There was the whole capture part to consider.

All For One had connections and depending on his current condition, even if he wasn’t at his best, it was best to assume he could slip in and out of any prison with his own teleportation quirk. However short a stay it might be, if Shigaraki was knocked out and captured, the heroes could hold him.

Kurogiri was the real problem.

All these tickets in only a few days and I didn’t have anything that could hold someone who could teleport around. Mister Aizawa would struggle because of that mist. That brace might be his weakness but that was a short term solution at best which was far from reliable if things got desperate enough for him to forgo any self-preservation he might have. One mistake and he’d ensure he and Shigaraki got out of there.

Then again, I had those blades. Kurogiri might be able to talk and seemed to have a personality but was putting down a nomu of all things really…

I held back a sigh. This week wasn’t over yet, so I didn’t need to gun it down that line of thought.

Brushing any dirt off my uniform and making my way back to the lamp lit roads, I picked back up my trek to the school. This early in the morning, the air still crisp and sun a ways away from rising over the horizon, there weren’t many others compared to what I was used to, but it wasn’t completely empty.

“Hey, Tsu.” I called out, picking up my pace. Stopping and turning, Tsu, in her uniform and prepped for the day ahead, blinked.

“Morning, ribbit.” She said.

“Morning.” I fell in step beside her, our paces matched. “I guess you would have to come early to avoid being late.”

“Yep. Crowds would be a problem if I took any of the later trains.” She said, looking over at me. “Are you coming in early because you’re the class president?” I nodded, throwing in that I’d be staying late too. “Makes sense. I’m glad I voted for you instead of myself, ribbit. I’d be too busy to be class president now that I think about it.”

That did make me a little curious about her home situation. She’d ended up in the dorms according to those other memories and this was Tsu; I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole commuting situation of hers was more her choice than something her parents wouldn’t be willing to plan around if she wanted to be away for school.

But that was just me sticking my nose where it didn’t belong and making assumptions.

“Himi didn’t come with you?” Tsu asked.

“She isn’t much of a morning person.” I said shrugging, deciding to stop the explanation there. Our relationship was in no way a secret but telling people we lived together? I mean, I wasn’t going to stop Himiko if she did but telling Tsu of all people right now? That felt too mean.

But I found myself questioning whether or not she already knew.

“You alright?” I asked. The look she was giving me was a bit more intense than usual, which was saying something when her rare blinks made it feel like she was always staring to some degree. The strange thing was that she wasn’t actually staring at me. She was blinking, probably no more than any other person, as she looked me over, but coming from her, it stood out as odd.

She looked forward. “I’m fine.”  I might’ve pressed a bit if it were for faintest bit of red beginning to dust the corner of her cheek. “You reminded me of a dream I had the other night, ribbit.”

Kama Sutra helped with the things Himiko and I were getting up to now, but it had a few uses beyond that. Even the densest bag of bricks wouldn’t be able to miss someone showing any kind of interest or reaction to them. Tsu really should’ve left it at fine, just about every relevant piece of information in my head pointing to the fact that there was no way she was taking about a whimsical adventure kind of dream.

Man, this was awkward.

On one hand I wanted to treat how I normally did but that felt kind of insensitive? On the other, treating her differently didn’t sound much better. Not like I wanted to avoid her either.

I might’ve complained way back when I first started but I preferred the hard labor of training to this kind of situation.

Luckily, a familiar slick black car pulled up to the curb beside us, its tinted back window rolling down.

“You decided to come early, Yaoyorozu?” I asked, Tsu stopping beside me as Yaoyorozu, school bag in hand, stepped out of the car, a few parting words said to her driver who took off.

“Of course.” She said a hand brought up between us and clenched into a fist, dark eyes lit up. “I wouldn’t be able to say I’m competing with you if I couldn’t do that much.” How open she was about her determination and apparent goal was amusingly cute. Completely different from her usual vibe of focused composure. “Ahem.“ She seemed to realize that herself, clearing her throat as she straightened up. “Good morning, Akaguro, Asui.”

“Morning, ribbit.” Tsu said. “And like I said, call me Tsu.”

“If you’re sure.” Yaoyorozu nodded, her eyes taking on that eager shine again. Which jumped right back to me. “Speaking of nicknames, we are friends, aren’t we, Akaguro?” I nodded. “Then going forward you can call me that nickname you’ve been using.”

“Nickname?”

“Yaoyo. You called me by that name during the battle trials and in the cafeteria just the other day.”

Did I? I guess it must’ve slipped out.

“That wasn’t really meant to be a nickname though. Your name’s just a little long for situations like that.” I explained. What was it they ended up calling her in the show? Some weird combination of her first and last name I’m pretty sure.

…honestly, Yaoyo sounded better.

“That’s usually how nicknames work.” Tsu pointed out. Yeah, couldn’t really argue there.

“Alright.” I relented. Not like a nickname of all things was something to be worried about changing. “Feel free to call me Katsu then.”

“I will.” Yaoyorozu said with far more cheer than I’d ever felt over something as simple as a nickname. For someone so smart and serious in class, she could come off as surprisingly innocent.

The three of us started headed towards school again but it wasn’t long until we were joined by another. Or rather stalked by an anxious ball of nerves.

“Midoriya.” I called out, looking behind us. Jolting, that comparison of him to a deer in headlights came back in force as he his wide eyes focused on me. He’d been back there muttering to himself, struggling to build up the confidence to join us. “Come on.”

That did the job, he stumbling a bit over himself as he picked up his pace to properly join us.

This was a bit of an odd grouping and far from the quiet morning walk I expected but I wasn’t complaining. More time to talk with Midoriya about his quirk while saving Tsu and I from that awkward air that’d been taking shape.

XOXO

Himiko yawned as she stepped outside, door locked with the spare key Katsu had given her back during one of their tours of the city. She could feel his blood now, the comforting warmth racing through every inch of her body and chasing away what little remained of the satisfying, nearly painful, soreness from last night.

His blood always had the same indescribable taste to it that could send her on highs if she wasn’t careful. After so long, drinking it to the point it might as well, no, was a part of her daily diet, she’d thought that would’ve worn off.

She’d enjoyed Tsu’s blood, already wanting more of it, but nothing was going to compare to his.

“M-Morning Himiko.” Ochaco, finishing up locking her apartment, tried to greet her with a casual smile but that deeper red to her cheeks, not far off from leaping over to her ears, always gave away her embarrassment.

She looked a little tired too.

“I’ll try and be quieter for now on.” Himiko reluctantly, begrudgingly, completely disliking the entire prospect, decided. She liked the idea of her and Katsu just being able to go wild, no concern for others getting in their way. And while it was fun to tease Ochaco here about it after the fact, she shouldn’t keep on like that.

Ochaco was already dealing with her own situation.

“That’s not- you don’t” Ochaco spluttered, the red finally making the leap to her ears while Himiko giggled. She made it too easy. “That wasn’t a problem for me. I mean it was. No wait, what I meant to say was ya’ll ain’t-“ Ochaco stopped short her face, somehow managing to darkened.

Himiko leaned over to her raising a brow. “Was that an accent I heard?”

“No!” Ochaco denied quickly. “Maybe a little one.” She caved just as quickly, hanging her head.

“Hey, you sounded cute to me.” Himiko assured her. Getting on people’s case about the way they spoke; it was yet another thing that seemed so stupid to her but was so common. Was she really the weird one for not seeing any reason to force people to change the way they spoke just to fit in?

Ochaco calmed down a bit, the two of them taking off towards the nearby stairwell.

“Katsu didn’t get sick from the food I made, did he?” She asked.

“No way, he said it was good.” Himiko said. “Since he’s class president now, he decided he should be getting to school earlier.”

“Really? He must take school super seriously.” Ochaco’s smile turned sheepish, a finger scratching her cheek. “I don’t mean it to be mean, but he doesn’t look like the kind of student that’d lead a class. He looks a bit more…nevermind.”

“No, come on, I want to hear it. I promise I definitely won’t tell him if its bad. Probably.”

“I don’t think I believe you?” Ochaco sighed, the red to her face growing a bit. “I kind of thought he was the type to get into trouble or fights when I first saw him.”

Get into fights? Katsu?

“You know what, I think I see it. He kind of looks more like the bad boy type after all that working out he’s done.” Himiko admitted. At first, she thought it was ridiculous but back when she met him, even if his looks always steered on the more rugged side of things, he’d been cute but unimpressionable. Now that he bulked up, the rugged aspects to his looks stood out far more, turning him handsome rather than cute. “That guy’s a big old teddy bear of a nerd though. I’ve never even seen him argue with anyone.”

“Yeah, I’ve figured that out. Now I kind of feel bad for ever thinking it. I even heard he stood up for Deku on our first day against that Bakugo guy.”

Himiko waved a hand as they headed down the steps. “Don’t worry about it. He’ll probably find it funny.”

“I thought you said you weren’t going to tell him.”

“I said probably.”

“Himikooo.” She smiled, ignoring Ochaco’s protest.

Bad boy her ass. The closest he ever got to being one was when he was wearing her ass out.

“That face you’re making is a little weird.” Ochaco said.

“Not any weirder than your accent.”

“H-Hey, what happened to it being cute?”

“Weird things can be cute.”

XOXO

(A/N: A more character focused piece. with some minor set up pieces for things Katsu is planning for. USJ isn't that far off after all. We got some strong personalities making appearances soon though along with a unique P.O.V unless some crazy roll in that short time derails my plans so look forward to that.

Oh and the Doll has finally made her appearance! I guess I was wrong about her never actually be shown.

See you all around!)