Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If there was one word that Izuku Midoriya would use to describe his mornings, it would be ‘consistent’.

Well, ‘absolutely amazing’ would also work, but that was two words.

Every day he would wake up at five in the morning sharp (his brain was so wired to do so that he didn’t even need an alarm to do so anymore), get out of bed, and throw on some of his workout clothes. He’d begin some preliminary stretches for his morning workout as he got the coffee brewing, before going out for an hour-long run around their neighborhood and beyond in order to get him ready for the day ahead. Once he got back to the apartment, his wife would have reliably gotten up, downed roughly half the coffee, and had a good breakfast prepared for the both of them.

So yeah, both ‘consistent’ and ‘absolutely amazing’ very much applied.

On this particular morning, however, Izuku found himself speeding through his usually thorough run and immediately heading up to their shared bathroom for an unusually extended period changing into a collared button-up rather than one of his usual novelty shirts and touching up his appearance at the sink.

‘Showered, check, face washed, check, teeth brushed, check, deodorant applied, check, hair combed, as much as it can be, everything buttoned and tucked in, check, there must be something else I can do maybeIshouldaplydeodordarentagainor-’

His spiraling thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door that definitely did not make him shriek as he desperately kept the bar of soap in his hand from slipping out and flying across the room. “Zuku.” a familiar voice came from just outside “Is it alright if I come in?”

Izuku couldn’t help but smile fondly at her unfounded concern. “you know you never have to ask right?”

“Just wanted to make sure you were fully clothed” She joked as she took that permission to saunter in, the smile she wore making it clear she absolutely heard the shriek and reveled in it. “After all, if I saw you while you were naked then I’d have no other choice but to keep you here for an all-morning romp. Of course, the things that new shirt is doing for your arms aren’t doing much to make me want to repress those urges.”

It was almost criminal how easy it was for her to make him a blushing mess.

“But this isn’t about my out-of-control feelings, this is about yours,” she continued, getting in close to adjust his collar. “And I can tell that your big brain is all over the place about this interview.”

“Was it the mutter-storm that tipped you off on that?” Izuku found himself snarking as he couldn’t help but enjoy the feeling of his wife’s fingers gliding across his collarbone.

“Nah, I could tell when you rushed up to the bathroom without giving me my morning kiss,” she tittered as Izuku bit down an apology that instinctively rose in his throat. “That nervous for the interview, huh?”

“I just don’t want to screw this up,” he sighed, “like I did the last couple of interviews”

“Their loss,” she rolled her eyes.

“Still, it’s my fault for putting us in this tough spot financially, and if I can’t get us out of it then-”

“Zuku for the last time, you did not ‘put us in a tough spot,’” his wife attempted to drill into his head in what was becoming a very familiar argument. “Trust me, I’ve been in tough spots before Zuku, and if we have a roof over our heads and yummy food waiting on the table then it’s not even close to bad.”

Izuku began fiddling with his sleeve as his brain still instinctively looked for ways to continue putting this burden on himself. “Yeah… but I still shouldn't have quit so soon. If I had made a better plan for afterward then there wouldn’t be so much riding on my abysmal public speaking skills.”

That bit of self-deprecation was met with a long and theatrical groan from his wife. Izuku had known her long enough to translate it as a ‘Are you seriously still trying to blame this all on yourself’ sigh.

“To go in order,” she began while holding up a finger. “One! You didn’t suddenly quit out of nowhere Zuku. You were in a toxic and abusive work environment and getting out of there was the only good option.”

“I mean… I probably could’ve held on for a couple more months,” Izuku sheepishly argued as he scratched his head.

“Bzzzzt!” She made a buzzer noise, complete with crossing her arms across her chest in an ‘X’ formation. “Not a chance I would’ve allowed that to happen! Which brings us to point number two!” She held out another finger with a flourish. “Don’t forget that I was the one that convinced you to leave when you had that exact same ‘I’ll be fine getting my soul sucked in a dead-end job for the rest of time’ mindset. So if you’re gonna blame somebody, blame me and my corrupting influence.”

“I don’t think that’s how it-”

“Three!” She once again interrupted. “Don’t sell your public speaking skills short Zuku, I happen to think you're great with your mouth.”

On that dirty remark, punctuated with a naughty chuckle and a wink that promised a fun night to come, a common occurrence in their household, he found that his cheeks couldn’t help but darken once again.

He couldn’t let her get two blushes in one conversation! He had to even the score a little!

“W-what can I say? My mouth tends to get away from me when I find something j-juicy to analyze,” he awkwardly flirted back, earning mostly laughter from his wife, but enough of a warm dusting across her pale cheeks for him to consider it a win.

“See? You bust out that dorky charm and you’ll have the position in no time at all!” She reassured him with his own supportive fist pump that she had started doing herself at some point in their relationship.

“I hope you’re right,” Izuku replied, feeling the tension start to leave his body for the first time since he got out of bed that morning. “I just really hope this agency is… more accepting than the last couple.”

There had been quite a few ‘never meet your heroes’ moments for Izuku during the last couple of job interviews as several agencies had dismissed him out of hand as soon as they knew he was quirkless.

It didn’t help that his less-than-amicable leave from his previous position as a junior quirk analyst for the Slidin’ Go agency, his first and currently only high-profile job, had left him with very little in the way of positive references.

And if they called the Slidin’ Go agency regardless (which most of them did), the interview practically ended before it even started.

“I’m sure they will be,” Izuku’s wife interrupted his spiraling thoughts yet again. “I mean Uravity s-seems so nice, ya’know? On TV and everything. That can’t be a lie, I can tell!”

“It’s quite a vote of confidence if you’re so sure…” Izuku agreed, glad that the job-hunting experience hadn’t completely shattered her view on heroes that he had somewhat rebuilt in their years together. “Won’t stop me from worrying though.”

“When do you ever?” She asked with a comforting squeeze.

Izuku returned the squeeze with one of his own. “Never, but I guess that’s just a part of my so-called dorky charm.”

She gave a snort that he was hoping to get out of her with that comment. “You bet it is! Just one of the many reasons why I’m glad I got to you before any other woman did, or else I’d have to fight them tooth and nail to keep them off of you.”

Izuku highly doubted that was an accurate assessment of his attractiveness, but he learned a long time ago that it was futile to argue with his wife when it came to his lovability, even though it was pretty obvious to him that he was the lucky one between the two of them.

“Well, now that you know you’ve got what it takes to ace your interview, we can put all these worries behind us for now,” she said as she began to leave their bathroom. “Why don’t you come down for some breakfast? Got a plate of eggs all ready and it’s lonely tucking into it all by myself.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I reapply,” he replied, taking a whiff to make sure that this was something he actually needed and not just an excuse (and the conclusion was as stinky as he expected). “Can’t knock the socks off of a genuine pro hero on an empty stomach after all!”

His corny comment caused her face to light up as her signature grin showcased her joy before she rushed back toward their kitchen.

Seriously, how couldn’t he be the lucky one here?

If there was one word that Ochako Uraraka would use to describe her mornings, it would be ‘hard’, though she felt it was kind of unfair for her to fully blame the mornings as her nights tended to be on the harder side as well.

When the gravity hero had moved into her new place a couple of months ago, she decided to splurge against her better judgment and get a new bed since the old one wasn’t in great condition (if you were putting it lightly). The new bed she had bought was great objectively, but after a lifetime of sleeping on well-worn beds, she found the new mattress too firm for her to get a good night’s sleep on most times.

But even though she didn’t feel particularly comfortable, Ochako still struggled to get out of bed as the shrill yell of her alarm echoed through her home.

“Come on, come on,” she mumbled into her pillow as she tried to smack her clock quietly with the back of her hand for what felt like five minutes before giving up and waiting out the blaring noise instead.

Once she finally did get up and out of bed, through sheer willpower and the persuasive efforts of her rumbling stomach, her morning fell into a pretty familiar routine. First, she scrolled through all her work emails and accounts to see if there were any messages from her fellow heroes at the Ruyuku Agency about pressing matters that needed to be attended to immediately; villains didn’t wait for you to be finished with breakfast after all.

If there was no major crime happening currently that required her to quickly suit up and fight bad guys with complete bedhead, as was the case today, her mornings became much more low-key.

“Breakfast… breakfast,” she blearily muttered to herself as she looked through her fridge for what she had an abundance of. Deciding to just heat up her leftovers from last night, she put the rice and fish in the microwave as she went to brew herself some coffee.

Her eyes landed on the case of the expensive coffee blend that her friend Momo had given her as a housewarming gift. ‘It’s been a rough morning so far,’ Ochako reminded herself as she internally debated indulging in her friend’s generous gift (one of many she received from the heiress that night). ‘There’s no harm in enjoying a slightly more costly pick-me-up every once in a while. I can afford it now.’

She reached toward the special custom brand…

…And promptly grabbed the store-brand brew that sat right next to it on the counter.

‘I’ll save them for when I really need them,’ the brunette justified to herself as the coffee began brewing.

Clearly old habits died hard for the gravity girl.

Once the food was ready and the subpar coffee was poured, Ochako began her next task of the day which was to check her calendar for what work had planned for her. From the looks of things she had no patrols that day which was probably for the best considering the coffee wasn’t helping much against the state of sluggishness she was currently in. She just had some paperwork, a brief meeting to discuss a raid that she and Tsuyu Asui (her best friend and fellow sidekick) participated in earlier that week, and…

She let out an involuntary, “Fuck,” as she was reminded that she had to conduct a job interview for a potential new quirk analyst later that morning, and then promptly responded to that profane outburst with another big and somewhat embarrassed swig of coffee.

One of the first things she and Tsu learned upon becoming full-time employees of the Ryukyu agency is that the duty of interviewing potential new employees, from financial managers to janitors, fell to the Pro Heroes who worked at the agency in question. It was done this way for several reasons, from seeing how their conduct and performance changed when working directly with Heroes to ensuring that their reasons for seeking this position weren’t so that they could steal confidential information or anything.

One of the next things Ochako learned is that she absolutely hated being the one in charge of these interviews.

Now, if the potential hires being villains was the only reason for her to reject their applications, then Ochako wouldn’t mind conducting these interviews as much. But the times she had to deny people work for other smaller reasons, becoming the kind of person she often blamed for her family’s struggles when she was younger, she always hated having to be the person to do that.

And it, unfortunately, looked like she was going to be that person again for Izuku Midoriya.

She opened up the resume that Ryuko had sent to her and took another look at it. The picture of this Midoriya fellow that adorned the top of the file stared right back at her, his pure green eyes held a familiar determination she hadn’t seen in most civilians and were easily the striking feature of an otherwise fairly plain-looking face.

She shook her head of these thoughts as she refocused herself on his work experience and employment history, they weren’t hiring based on appearance after all.

From what she could gather, it seemed that Midoriya had just left his three-year position as a quirk analyst for the newly reopened Slidin’ Go agency. What was so strange is that all Hero agencies used a five-year minimum contract for nearly all full-time positions, yet all she could find showed his leaving appeared to be voluntary. The woman at the agency that she managed to get a hold of said some vague stuff about Midoriya being ‘a hard worker’ but ‘not really a team player’ and that, although he did good work there, they wouldn’t hire him again.

Ochako grimly sighed as she put her dishes in the sink to wash later. With this kind of tumultuous work history, Midoriya’s chances of getting a position at the Ruyuku Agency weren’t looking so good right off the bat.

Of course, she immediately felt guilty for doubting this guy before she’d even met him. He seemed nice enough from his application over the word of one person. She knew he was very talented when it came to quirk analysis, even the woman she had spoken to made no attempt to deny that despite her seeming distaste for the man in all other fields. It honestly made her worried that it was a case where his abilities made him big-headed and caustic toward his fellow analysts and other employees.

‘I’ve dealt with enough people like that during my time at UA alone,’ Ochako thought with a grimace as she entered her bathroom and shucked off her night clothes, aching for something to put a spring in her step since the coffee apparently wasn’t up to that task.

With a sharp hiss, the shower head began pouring much-needed hot water that cascaded over her body and washed across every inch of her. She could feel all the crumbiness she had felt all morning seem to just wash off of her as she lingered in the soothing spray.

“Let’s just cool down on the speculation Ochako,” she said to herself, feeling her mind return to its usual positive headspace as she spread shampoo across her skin and lathered up her chestnut hair. “I don’t know the full story until I actually meet the guy after all, so let’s wait until we actually do the interview to make our decision.”

She felt a contented sigh escape from her lips as she rinsed the suds off herself and reveled in the newfound feeling of refreshed contentment that kept her from overthinking her day. The hero wanted to stay in the shower for at least another twenty minutes, but she knew if that happened then her anxiousness about how that would affect her water bill would overpower what peace of mind she had just regained.

“Just what the doctor ordered,” the hero said to her otherwise empty apartment as she toweled herself dry, feeling like a different person with her positive outlook returning and ready to take on the day.

Who knows, maybe Midoriya would surprise her.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE’S ALREADY HERE!” Ochako exclaimed in shock and, ironically, surprise at this piece of information that Tsu (also known as the Pro Hero ‘Froppy’) told her as soon as she entered the agency.

“He was here as soon as I opened up the building ribbit,” the frog woman responded in her usual deadpan tone as she suited up for a morning patrol, “and has been sitting in the visitor waiting area ever since.”

“But his interview doesn’t start for another fifteen minutes!” Ochako sputtered as hung up her coat, bemoaning the fact that even though she was five minutes early to work she still felt late. “I can’t just let him sit there for that amount of time.”

“Yes, you can,” Tsu bluntly stated with no malice towards their potential new employee, just objectiveness. “He knew the time the interview was for and decided to show up early, so it’s not as if he isn’t expecting to wait a bit. Could you hold this for a second while I refasten the back strap?”

“Oh, sure,” Ochako responded, taking Froppy’s signature goggles out of the amphibious hero’s hands as she went to work on her suit. “And I don’t know, I’d hate to leave him stewing in his nervousness for so long. I mean, I assume he’s nervous if he showed up so early.”

“Of course you think that Chako, you really are still too nice for this world sometimes,” Tsu teased as she took the goggles back and attached them around the top of her head.

“I’d be a pretty piss poor hero if I wasn’t,” Ochako fired back with a chuckle. “Anything else you noticed about him when you let him in?”

“He seemed very polite,” Tsu noted, making Ochako internally sigh in relief that her ‘egotistic prodigy’ theory was looking less likely. “Although he was fairly starstruck at getting directions from a pro-hero.”

“Don’t know why he would be, his resume says he’s worked with them for years,” Ochako remarked, to which Tsu responded with a shrug.

“Maybe he’s a fan of the heroes that work here specifically and that’s why he applied ribbit,” the frog woman posited as she grabbed her set of cuffs and headed toward the door. “Regardless, text me how things go with him after work today.”

“Awwwww, I’m not gonna see you again today,” Ochako said with an exaggerated pout (although her disappointment was genuine).

“Got work to do with the Fat Gum Agency regarding our last raid together for the rest of the day after patrol,” Tsu called back as she began to leave, “but I’ll text you as soon as I’m off so you can give me the details.”

“You got it, Tsu! See you tomorrow!” Ochako called out as the hero in question left, leaving her alone and needing to figure out what to do about the early arrival.

“Might as well rip the band-aid off and do it now,” she convinced herself aloud as she went down the hallways that she’d gotten lost in many times previously, heading towards the waiting room where she knew Midoriya would be. “Don’t want him to stew in all that nervousness after all.”

“Izuku Midoriya!” She called out into the waiting room in a bubbly voice that the public came to associate with Uravity. It was a point of pride for the mochi-loving Pro Hero that the general population found her personality endearing and that her presence inspired smiles when people saw her on patrol.

Unfortunately, her attempt to be friendly and disarming only served to startle the green-haired man who was sitting in a chair in the hallway and appeared as tightly wound as a spring coil. With a loud yelp that gave Ochako a jump of her own, Midoriya stiffly leapt from his chair with his file full of sample analysis flying out of his hands.

With a quick, “Oh shit!” that slipped out of her before she could stop herself, she threw her hands forward as she released a concentrated wave of anti-gravity toward the escaped papers. Unfortunately, she ran into problem number two as in her successful attempt to prevent the documents from spreading across the floor had also suspended Midoriya along with them.

So yeah, it seemed like she was the one who ended up surprising Midoriya twice over rather than the other way around as she had hoped.

Whatever humor she could find from that turn of events was interrupted by Midoriya’s yelps as he attempted to gain footing from where he remained floating.

“I am so sorry sir let me just…” She quickly grabbed all the papers floating around them before letting them all down with a hasty, “Release.”

“I’m sorry,” Ochako repeated as she handed the recovered papers back to him. “Both for scaring you and catching you in my quirk without asking,” she added hastily.

“N-not a problem at all, I-I-I mean it’s p-practically an honor to see your quirk in action so up close! Your control of it is amazing!” The greenette gushed, already proving Tsu correct regarding both politeness and being starstruck. “If anything, I should be apologizing, probably made one hell of a bad first impression, huh?”

“Well, you’re not the only one…” Ochako grumbled before regaining her regular pep. “So I think it’s in both of our best interests to start the interview now rather than two minutes ago.” She held out her hand. “Hi! I’m Ochako Uraraka, but most people know me as the pro-hero Uravity.”

While initially confused, Midoriya’s lightly freckled face (which looked strangely endearing in this light) broke out into a grin as he shook the offered hand. “My name is Izuku Midoriya, and I’m here to apply for a junior quirk analyst position.”

“Well Midoriya, right this way to my office,” she said, unlocking a nearby door and turning the lights on as he entered. Technically it wasn’t her office (that was two floors up), but it was the office in which these kinds of interviews were to be held, so she felt it was fine to call it her office for the time being.

“Just take a seat and we can begin!” She gestured to the chair in front of the main desk while she made her way to the one behind the same table, quickly adjusting its height so the two of them were at roughly eye level.

From there, take two of their interview began with a fairly normal set of questions in their business (What do you want to bring to this agency? What’s your background in the field? How would you address the high-stress situations inherent in the hero industry? What are your salary expectations?) and the answers Midoriya gave in kind were… good enough, but it was still pretty obvious he was holding something back.

“Why did you leave your previous position?” Ochako finally asked, broaching the question she had been the most curious about and she believed would unravel all the mysteries about her potential new hire.

“Well…” Midoriya began with a clear hesitation that made Ochako nearly back off before continuing. “I assume that you’ve already called the Slidin’ Go agency about my lack of references from them?” He sighed, earning a nod back from the woman surprised at the greenette shift in tone at this inquiry.

“Well, the truth of the matter is…” He took a moment to steel his faltering confidence. “I’m quirkless.”

Ochako could almost hear the puzzle pieces click together in her mind as everything she thought she knew about this interview and the person in front of her was flipped on its head. In the end, a distant, “o-oh…” that she immediately regretted was all she could muster in the face of an expectant Midoriya.

“Y-yeah it’s not something you hear a lot of people bring up about myself, especially nowadays,” Midoriya commented with a touch of bitterness as his eyes remained glued to the floor, not wanting to see the gravity hero’s reaction to this revelation. “If it’s an issue then…”

“No no no, it’s not at all that,” Ochako corrected as soon as her brain kicked itself back into gear. “It’s not an issue at all for the Ryukyu agency or anybody working here. And if it is, it won’t be by the time I’m done with them!” She punctuated her point by cracking her knuckles.

“Well that’s a relief,” Midoriya chuckled somewhat awkwardly. “I got worried for a second there.”

“Understandable,” Ochako conceded on yet another thing she could’ve handled better regarding Midoriya (seriously, she usually wasn’t this much of a screw-up). “It’s just you telling me that which made a lot of things about your former employment makes sense, with you not being a ‘team player’ and stuff.”

“They really said that?” Midoriya questioned in a ‘disappointed but not surprised’ way, earning an equally depressed nod back from Ochako. “Yeah, that sounds about right. They always liked to dump their other work onto me on top of the work I was hired to do, and then kept making comments and jokes about how I’m able to do so much despite my ‘condition!’” There was a brief pause as Midoriya realized how much he just vented in a job interview of all places. “I-I-I’m so sorry Miss Uravity! That was completely unprofessional of me and-”

“Midoriya, it’s okay!” Ochako reassured the man who was seemingly as much of an unraveling disaster as she was right now (the poor guy looked just about ready to go into a full dogeza if not for the desk in the way). “I asked you a question and I’m glad you answered honestly, even if it was painful to find out.”

Ochako remembered when the former pro hero Slidin’ Go was arrested during the war for being a devoted follower of the Meta Liberation Army and their bigoted ideals. Once the organization in question was defeated, one of the disgraced hero’s former sidekicks decided to take his mentor’s hero mantle and keep the agency’s name the same in order to ‘reclaim the title of Slidin’ Go as one of hope and acceptance for people of all kinds of birth.’ She had already rolled her eyes at this mission statement at the time, but from what Midoriya was telling her it was far worse than just a clumsy PR stunt.

“If it wasn’t for my wife finding a loophole in my contract, I would’ve taken had to take that for much longer,” Midoriya sighed, now fiddling with the golden wedding band on his finger that she hadn’t noticed before.

‘Well, that answers that question,’ Ochako thought, though she was curious about what she’d found to break the usually ironclad arrangement. “Is your wife some kind of a lawyer or something?”

“Not quite,” Midoriya shrugged in a way that Ochako knew was deflecting, “but she is a big fan of yours.”

“She is?”

“Yeah! She tries to hide it but she’s been a fan of you and Froppy for years! Which is a big deal considering she’s pretty put off by the hero industry as a whole,” Izuku continued, his words becoming quicker and closer together. “Himi’s dealt with a lot of quirk-based discrimination herself with the stigma around villain quirks but even she was positive that you guys wouldn’t be the kind of people to discriminate and was the main factor of me applying here despite my… less than stellar record.”

This caused Ochako’s heartbeat to quicken and her already pronounced blush to grow for a few reasons. The first was due to how much Midoriya, who has dealt with so much workplace discrimination and whose first impression of her was her causing him to spill all his papers as she snagged him with her quirk and then continued to make a fool of herself throughout this entire interview, had truly opened up to her and believed in her ability to provide a safe environment for the kind of people that society would often reject. It was praise she had never gotten before and one that dug into the very core of why she was a hero.

It didn’t help her boiling cheeks that these compliments were coming from a man who, while seeming somewhat plain at first glance, had a face that was a flattering fusion of cute and handsome features.

‘He’s also a married man,’ Ochako’s brain helpfully reminded her, bringing her to the other reason for her rapid heartbeat.

His wife was a woman nicknamed Himi who had felt the stigma of villainous quirks and was a big fan of hers despite not being very keen on the whole hero industry overall. Perhaps it was just old wounds that refused to truly heal, but all those traits brought one person to the forefront of the brunette’s mind.

‘Could it be her?’

“Um… D-did I say something wrong?” Midoriya nervously piped up, looking guilty for some reason.

“N-no, of course not!” Ochako hastily responded to both him and her own thought process, deciding that this world-shattering question/revelation would be the problem of Future Ochako as Present Ochako didn’t want to throw out unfounded accusations just yet. “Let’s just c-continue the interview, we haven’t gone over your analysis yet.”

“Oh, right.” Izuku quickly held out the file that he had been unconsciously clutching in a pale white grip. “I will warn you that these aren’t really my best since the Slidin’ Go agency kept most of the work I did with them.”

Once again Ochako felt herself share in Izuku’s frustration at his former place of employment (and her opinion of the Slidin’ Go agency was already pretty low to begin with), but this brief bout of annoyance faded as newfound awe set in.

Because holy shit! Midoriya was an incredible quirk analyst!

“Oh t-thank you,” Midoriya bashfully mumbled, making Ochako realize she had said at least some of that last sentiment aloud.

“Sorry, it’s just…” She looked back and forth between the pages and the overly humble man who had written them. “You said these were your less impressive works?”

“Yeah, I got most of the information on these from the news and message boards so I wasn’t able to go as in-depth on most of these as I would with the resources of a hero agency,” he explained as Ochako went through the files one by one.

Most of the files he had given her were focused on a variety of villains that had been on the news in the last month or so. Each one had sorted lists of attributes of their quirks that were known for sure, followed by theories to test and several potential strategies to defeat them. All of this was accompanied by a sketched-out diagram of the villain in question.

There was only one that was not about unraveling the quirk of a villain, and that was the entry on her that was tucked away in the back. It was similar in many ways, listing the unique attributes of her quirk and the strategies that could be implemented with it (some of which neither she nor any other quirk analyst had thought of before), and once again, all of this information was alongside a way too flattering sketch of her in an action pose.

‘I almost feel like I should frame this in my apartment or something, maybe I should ask him for it later…’

She caught herself from thinking about Midoriya like he was hired but also… was that a wrong assumption? Midoriya was incredibly skilled in his field but still kept a polite demeanor despite having the talent to back up an inflated ego, it would be crazy for her not to hire him at this point.

‘But there’s that one nagging thing…’

“If these are the worst ones you’ve ever done then your best ones must have the secrets of All Might’s quirk in them,” she joked as she handed his work back to him, pushing the intrusive thoughts back to keep Present Ochako from falling apart for just a little bit longer.

“Come on, that's too much praise. I don’t think anybody will figure that one out,” Midoriya frantically waved off, making her chuckle both from the pure unadulterated dorkiness from the action, as well as the unintentional irony considering she and the rest of her class were some of the only people who knew the nature of his quirk.

Granted she didn’t really understand most of it, but she knew it!

“Still, you shouldn’t sell yourself short Midoriya, these are great!” she encouraged in a way that wasn’t quite as objective as an interviewer should probably be.

From there the interview proceeded fairly uneventfully and after a few more quality-of-life questions that thankfully didn’t reveal any more earth-shattering revelations about their potential new hiree, something Ochako thanked her lucky stars for, the time had come to wrap up their meeting.

“Well thank you for coming in today!” She cheerily told Midoriya, going to the door as he gathered his folder and coat. “You should get an email in the coming days about whether you got the open position or not.”

“Thank you for having me and continuing to have me after… everything that happened,” Midoriya half-joked with a nervous half-laugh as he left. “Have a good day Uraraka!”

“Have a good day Midoriya!” Ochako waved as Midoriya turned a corner and went out of sight. Once he was gone she closed the office door and slumped down it with a massive sigh, feeling herself crumble under the weight of everything that had been revealed by the quirkless analyst candidate she’d be out of her mind not to bring on board who may or may not be married to a certain missing-presumed-dead figure from her past in the last forty-five minutes.

She jinxed this by hoping to be surprised, didn’t she?

IzuHubby: just finished the interview. coming home now <3

You: Yaaaaay!!! How did it go? :D :D

IzuHubby: I think it went well overall. There were some snags but Uraraka was very nice like you said.

You: of course she was! you should know by now to trust your wife’s advice by now Izu ;)

IzuHubby: I might have shared too much about you though…

You: OH?????

You: Izu I need the deets!!!

IzuHubby: it’ll be easier to explain in person

You: …Fine

You: But don’t think you’ll get out of telling!!!!

IzuHubby: Meep!

You: XD

IzuHubby: see you soon! <3

You: <3 <3 <3

Himiko Midoriya pocketed her phone with a sigh that perfectly balanced fondness and exasperation at her irresistible dork of a husband. Knowing Ochako, he probably aced the interview and utterly endeared himself to her but was still all panicked and flustered about it despite everything.

The vampire woman giggled to herself as she stirred the hot pot she was making for the two of them, thinking about her two favorite people in the whole world working together. Both of them stood by and believed in her despite the dark path she was traveling down during her teenage years. They put their blood and tears into saving her from herself and her warped mindset, so it made sense she loved them!

‘In different ways,’ the married woman had to remind herself.

While Himiko had told her husband about most of her villain past, her ‘relationship’ with Ochako was something she still hadn’t really divulged for several reasons at the time. A fact she had found the silver lining in now as, if he knew of their history together, he wouldn’t have even entertained the idea of working with her. It was already a struggle to convince him not to give up his dream of working in the hero industry when was ready to completely throw it away to ensure her safety.

But Ochako was somebody she trusted to treat her Izuku right after those fuckers at the Slidin’ Go agency fucked him over for too long. And as an added bonus, it would be nice to have regular updates on Ochako after all these years of only hearing about her in news bulletins.

‘Maybe I could even see her again in person if the two got comfortable enough together…’

She shook her head to rid herself of the thought, she couldn’t ruin everything she had gained by being greedy and falling back into old and awful habits. Besides, just knowing the two were being cute dorks together would be enough to satisfy the part of her brain that still wanted what she knew she couldn’t have.

She felt her tongue glide across her prominent fangs at both the smell of the dish in front of her and the possibilities for the future. With such a wonderful man by her side and a wonderful woman starting to join Izuku’s life to protect and cherish him alongside her, there was no doubt she was the lucky one in their relationship!

Chapter Text

FrogLegsForDays: You out of the office yet?

GravityQueen: Yep! Nejire and Yuyu dropped me off at my place. Just got done with dinner

FrogLegsForDays: Instant rice again?

GravityQueen: So mean to your best friend >:(

FrogLegsForDays: You know I gotta tease ;)

FrogLegsForDays: So how did the interview go?

GravityQueen: It was… rough

FrogLegsForDays: that doesn’t really tell me anything Chako

FrogLegsForDays: besides I’m sure it wasn’t that bad

GravityQueen: Well I started it by startling him so badly that he dropped all his papers

GravityQueen: Then I impulsively caught him with anti-gravity before dropping him

FrogLegsForDays: …

GravityQueen: I TOLD YOU IT WAS ROUGH!

GravityQueen: On top of that when the interview actually started it went right off the rails and got into some very personal stuff

FrogLegsForDays: personal stuff?

GravityQueen: I won’t get too into it

GravityQueen: It’s his business after all

GravityQueen: but I will say it explains a lot of unusual stuff in his application

FrogLegsForDays: Oof

GravityQueen: That’s all you have to say????

FrogLegsForDays: not much else I can say

FrogLegsForDays: If you don’t wanna share then that’s that

FrogLegsForDays: I trust your judgment on this

GravityQueen: Thanks for being a good friend Tsu

FrogLegsForDays: Yeah yeah

FrogLegsForDays: So…

FrogLegsForDays: Besides you tripping over yourself

GravityQueen: >: (

GravityQueen: I retract my text about you being a good friend!

FrogLegsForDays: Last tease I promise

FrogLegsForDays: how has Midoriya himself?

GravityQueen: Well he was very nice and polite just as you said

FrogLegsForDays: You should know by now never to doubt my froggy wisdom Chako ;)

GravityQueen: And this analysis was absolutely insane Tsu! I’ll have to share some of them with you tomorrow because holy cow!

FrogLegsForDays: he’s that good huh? Sounds like he’s the whole package

FrogLegsForDays: are you gonna tell Ruyuku you recommend he get hired?

Ochako spent about ten minutes staring at her screen as she tried to think of a good response that wasn’t ‘I would, but I think that he may be married to the same supervillain that threatened us several times in high school, without evidence of course and it might just be my imagination… again’. In the end and after much deliberation, she decided to remain vague about it.

GravityQueen: I’ll sleep on it

FrogLegsForDays: Okay

Tsu followed it with an emote of a frog giving a thumbs up, but Ochako could tell even through her phone that the Rainy Day Hero was off-put by her curt response. Whether her froggy friend thought her hesitance was due to the more embarrassing parts of the interview or if she knew she suspected something much bigger was at play she couldn’t hash out from what little response she had gotten.

If it was any other interview her mind would be abuzz with the embarrassing events of the day and her cheeks would still be burning long into the night because of it (seriously she hadn’t been that flustered since her second year at UA). But right now she had bigger fish to fry, and now that present Ochako had become the future Ochako she had pushed this matter back to, it was time to truly ask herself the questions she had been dodging for the last several hours.

She flopped down on the futon that took up most of her living room and stared at the cream-white ceiling, “Is Izuku Midoriya really married to T-Toga,” she said aloud to make the words feel less foreign in her mouth.

The entire idea of a seemingly ordinary and mild-mannered man with a passion for heroes and quirks like Midoriya being married to one of the world’s most dangerous supervillains who worked to decimate hero society and had been presumed dead for the last six years seemed completely laughable.

And yet the sinking feeling in her gut refused to go away.

“Let’s review what evidence we got,” Ochako mumbled as she rolled onto her side and grabbed the pen and notepad resting on her coffee table to write down what straws she was grasping.

One, Midoriya offhandedly referred to his wife with the nickname ‘Himi’.

This in itself was not unusual and Ochako knew of plenty of Himikos. In fact, she was pretty sure a woman with that name worked a few doors down from her office in the Ruyuku clothing brand department, but what made it stand out was the nugget of information that followed it up.

Two, he referenced that she had been a big, long-time fan of hers for being accepting toward people with so-called ‘villainous’ quirks, such as herself. Perhaps these circumstances weren’t exclusive to Toga, but she’d be surprised if the parallels were just a coincidence.

“Still… only two points of evidence isn’t great,” she murmured to herself. No self-respecting hero agency would accept the conjecture she had as good enough to begin an investigation! Even she thought it sounded like a massive stretch when you laid it all out and saw how little concrete proof she had.

Her gut was screaming at her that it was the only way it made sense… but just the idea of the two of them? Married?! From what she’d known of Midoriya and all she knew about Toga, it seemed ludicrous!

What would that kind of relationship even look like?

“So my name just slipped out?”

Izuku looked across the dinner table and upon the teasing face of his wife, whose beautiful lips twisted into a smirk that showcased her glistening fangs as her eyebrows were raised so high on her face they were nestled in her messy blonde locks. Izuku could only stumble out, “W-w-well… I-I-I just… u-um…” before he decided the best course of action would be to take another big spoonful of Himiko’s delicious hot pot to prevent himself from muttering his way into an even deeper hole.

Himiko rolled her eyes at her husband’s antics and the satisfied hum that came from his mouth instead of an answer. “You know I’m not I’m not upset about it Zuku,” she reminded him, preempting the upcoming compliments to her cooking that were Izuku’s tried and true strategy to change a conversation topic. “I just want to know how this happened. After all, you’re the one between us who's the most gung ho about keeping our relationship a secret.”

“I told you, it just happened,” Izuku defended as he stirred the bowl in front of him. “We got into pretty personal territory and it felt nice to get these things off my chest. By the time I was saying this stuff, my mouth was moving faster than my mind again. I’ll turn down any job offer if it’s too much of a risk and-”

“Nah, it’ll be fine. It’s not like I’m the only person in the world with that name,” Himiko waved off, dismissing her husband’s worries through a mouth full of pork. “Besides,” she continued with a sultry tease creeping into her voice, “it always boosts a girl’s confidence when she knows somebody blurts out her name even when he’s with another woman.”

The implication obliterated Izuku as he went into a coughing fit that was only matched by the one his wife went into as she tried laughing with a mouthful of broth.

“H-Himi,” Izuku managed to wheeze out once he got the spasms in his throat a little more in control. “You can’t just say that about a pro-hero! Especially one who might even be my boss!”

Himiko wiped the tears out of her own eyes, “Come on Zuku, lighten up!” She said as she got her laughter under control. “We’re both mature adults! We’re confident enough in our relationship that we can admit when another woman is attractive! And I think we can both agree that Uravity is a total cutie pie with her adorable face and little finger beans… not to mention her glorious T and A!”

Now it was Izuku’s turn to roll his eyes at his wife’s open lustfulness. “I think we’ve talked about my day enough,” he said with a fond chuckle at Himiko’s adorable pout from across the table. “How was your day?”

“Same old same old,” Himiko shrugged with a bit of huff that her perverse inquiries had been squashed so quickly. “I did some cleaning and sorting of the entranceway closet, as well as some streaming of that new Hero gacha game you got last week. Still zero watchers though so that was a total bust.”

Izuku felt some guilt settle in his heart at Himiko’s offhanded recap of the events of her day. It was a necessary reality of their situation that Himiko had to remain inside their apartment for the majority of the time due to the actions of her past and the HPSC just waiting for them to screw up once. Although he knew Himiko understood why this was needed and found plenty of ways to keep herself busy and entertained, he still felt that he was suffocating her.

“I’m sorry it wasn’t particularly exciting,” Izuku said, doing his best to vocalize some of that guilt without turning this dinner into a pity party.

“Don’t sweat it,” she placated him with another big spoonful. “It’s all worth it to spend my life with you and have all these little times together to treasure like this one.”

She flashed him her signature toothy smile that made Izuku’s heart melt and caused the worries that continued to plague his mind to dissipate for now. As he took his own spoonful of his wife’s wonderful cooking, he wished this moment between them would never end.

“Although…” She continued with a purr that gave Izuku a taste of what was coming before she even revealed it. “I’m even more excited for the special treat I’ve got planned for after we’ve cleaned our plates~.”

“O-oh, is that s-so?” He attempted to flirt back.

“It seems like my big strong man has had such a stressful day today,” she continued into what was practically porno dialogue without losing her stride for a second. “So naturally it falls to me to relieve him of it… in whatever way I can~.”

Naturally, every spoonful was much faster after that.

Ochako shook her head. Whatever she was picturing was too domestic and appealing for the magnitude of this issue.

“Think objectively Ochako,” she told herself with a light and thumb-less slap to her permanently pink cheeks to clear her mind of any preconceived notions that were lending credence to her theory. After all, this whole idea hinged on the notion that Toga would be willing to settle down into a standard domestic life and that, to her, was the most absurd part of this whole thing.

The last thing she wanted was to rush to a conclusion based on her hang-ups with the vampiric villain like she did that time she thought she saw Toga in the back of a Hero merch store and spent four days staking it out before she realized it was nothing.

As if Himiko Toga would ever be caught dead in a Hero merch shop of all places!

Throughout Ochako and Toga’s various… encounters during their respective teenage years, the zero gravity hero made several attempts to reach out to the girl and pull her out of the spiral of cynicism and splintered psychosis she was stuck in due to a traumatic past.

She shivered as she thought back to their final confrontation during the war. The things they said to each other as they fought for their lives, the truths that had been revealed.

The way Himiko looked down at her as she faded from consciousness…

If, and it was a big ‘If’, Toga was still alive after that encounter despite what all official reports said, she knew that she had to proceed under the belief that she was a threat no matter how much she hoped her actions affected the vampire girl.

“Let’s review what the hell her angle could be,” Ochako said as she ripped out and crumbled the previous page in her notebook and threw it behind her where it (hopefully) landed in her waste bin.

She stared at the blank page for a moment hoping it would tell her what was happening before the first and most mundane answer hit her.

“It could be that this whole marriage thing is a front and that she’s working with Midoriya as a way to mine secrets from the agency,” she narrated to herself as she wrote the theory down. Once it was fully on the page she looked at the sentence she had just brought into the world with a critical eye. “It makes sense… kinda…”

Ochako had dealt with people who sought employment within the Ruyuku agency for less than noble reasons before, and they tended to have patterns that Midoriya did not follow in the slightest. For one they mainly applied for higher positions to get access to the agency’s juicier secrets, such as dealing with the agency’s digital filing or finances. In addition, they would take pains to very well put together but in a way that doesn’t make them stand out and wouldn’t rouse the suspicion of the average person.

Midoriya, bless his heart, was the exact opposite of any villain plant she’d ever heard of. While quirk analysts were highly vital to an agency, they weren’t usually in possession of any material that they could be used to blackmail them. Add to that the state of his application which made him seem less than hireable until the interview happened, the impact he left on her during his interview that she was feeling even now, and the fact he slipped out hints to a possible villainous connection and it was clear to Ochako that Toga would’ve had to have lost nearly all her brain cells in the last six years to even consider using Midoriya as her mole.

Ochako winced at how harsh toward Midoriya that all sounded, but she was saying he was bad at being bad, so it was a compliment really!

“Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong…” She thought aloud as she used the back of her pencil to scratch her head. This whole time she had been focusing on Toga (and she didn’t blame herself for that considering how… head-turning the woman was), but perhaps it was time that she shifted her focus to the man who roused her suspicions in the first place.

“What’s the deal with you, Izuku Midoriya?” She asked herself as she wrote his name down, following it up with an absent-minded doodle of the man’s smiling freckled face and green mop. She didn’t think he was a plant for Toga to steal information on the Ruyuku agency heroes, and if it was that they were just married with no ulterior motives then he wouldn’t have dropped her name to somebody who for all he knew would arrest his wife.

Unless…

“Maybe he meant to clue me in… for a different reason.” Her brain rushed with possibilities at this breakthrough, and none of them were good. It was possible that Toga was keeping Midoriya as a captive under the guise of them being in a relationship, so his dropping hints of their ‘marriage’ was a subtitle cry for help. Or maybe Toga was the one who sent Midoriya on this interview as some sort of ransom and this was an advanced hostage situation or something.

If this really was accurate to what was going on, then she let him go back home to a monster, a monster he was now at the mercy of for another night.

She had seen what Toga was capable of, but she couldn’t even imagine what she was doing to him right now.

*SLAM*

Neither one of the couple felt any concern for the bedroom door they may have knocked off its hinges, using themselves as a battering ram to force it open while not leaving their embrace. Their only concern was the battle raging within their makeout, Himiko’s tongue pulling Izuku’s own into her mouth as the two subconsciously stumbled toward their shared bed.

“God Zuku~,” Himiko moaned as Izuku landed on their sheets, breaking their intense kiss so they could take a breath and vocalize their mounting pleasure. “I knew your day was stressful but I had no clue you were this pent up~.”

“We both know that’s not true,” Izuku huskily responded through heavy breaths. “This is exactly what you wanted.”

“Guilty as charged~,” She winked before Izuku came down for a kiss that quickly intensified just as the last one did. This time it was her tongue being brought inside Izuku’s mouth as she worked to rid themselves of Izuku’s shirt, her shaking fingers struggling with each button until they got their aim and more of her husband’s firm chest was revealed.

“A few more steps to remove than the standard T-shirt,” she commented as she shucked the shirt off him and threw it to the corner of the room, “but that makes the reward even sweeter.” She threw a wink at Izuku as she savored the fruits of her effort, running her fingers down his now-muscular chest and appreciating the scars that littered it.

“I thought the reward was for me,” her husband faux-pouted, at which Himiko giggled at the dissonance between his cute face and how well-shaped everything was below the neck.

“Oh, it still is,” she purred as she and Izuku got on the bed properly, “but there’s no harm if I have some fun at the same time.”

With that the vampiric woman took off her own top, putting in the extra effort to catch her bare breasts on the way up before letting them bounce on the way down. It was a trick she had learned to drive Izuku wild early on in their time in the bedroom together, but it never failed to focus his lustful gaze onto her the same way hers were deadlocked on the things that his heavier breathing was doing to his abs.

“No bra?” Izuku finally exhaled in a way that made it clear any blood was long gone from his brain.

“It’s not like anybody’s around the house to see my nipples,” Himiko shrugged as she inched closer to Izuku, each movement causing her chest to wobble appealingly. “Nobody who I don’t want to see them anyways~.”

From there, Himiko closed in on her husband and began to pepper kisses from his neck moving down his chest.

“Himi~,” Izuku groaned as his hands found their way to Himiko’s newly freed breasts, kneading the soft flesh and giving extra stimulation to the nipples she seemed keen to show him as they too descended down his body.

Once Himiko ran out of chest to work her way down she quickly freed Izuku's cock from the confines of his pants. “Hey big guy~,” she cooed as she rubbed her face against the hot appendage, enjoying its sensitivity and the way it pulsed at every bit of contact.

“C-come on Himi,” Izuku stammered out as he buried a hand within her golden locks while the remaining palm did double duties on her breasts. His callused fingers lightly gripped her skull, all but asking for permission to continue with Izuku’s ‘treat’.

Luckily, Himiko was happy to oblige.

She lurched forward to plant kisses across the head of Izuku’s cock before his hand could even catch up. It wasn’t long after that Himiko began to envelop Izuku’s cockhead within her warm welcoming mouth and bob her head around it.

“Fuck you’re so good Himi! So f-f-fucking good!” Izuku couldn’t but exclaim between his chorus of pleasured groans as she thoroughly groped his balls while her head moved down his shaft inch by inch. And while he could barely hear anything over the downright obscene noises Himiko was making down there, he could certainly feel the naughty giggle she gave in response from the way it vibrated his cock. Every so often he could also feel a little tip of her pronounced fangs delicately scrap against his shaft as Himiko moved up and down it.

Izuku thought it felt way more amazing than it had any right to be.

“H-Himi, I’m gonna-” Izuku never got to finish what he going to say, but judging by the way Himiko sped up her movements and tightened her mouth around his length told him she understood perfectly. Izuku matched his wife’s efforts as he began thrusting in sync with her until he released within her throat with a shuddering breath.

Himiko gave a satisfied, “Hmmmmmmm,” as she worked to swallow as much as possible as quickly as possible. Once it seemed that the tap was well and truly dry for now, she spent some extra time ensuring she had sucked his cock clean of any remaining cum before releasing it with echoing ‘Pop’.

Himiko opened her mouth with an “Aaaaah,” to present Izuku with his own cum being swirled around by her tongue. She soon after concluded the arousing display by swallowing it with a resounding gulp.

“See, it was a treat for the both of us,” Himiko chuckled hoarsely, wiping the mixture of silva and cum that ran down her chin and dripped down her breasts.

“I-It was really g-good,” Izuku agreed, having finally found his voice after having his soul sucked out. “Thank you f-”

He was cut off by a hitched breath as Himiko began to stroke his shaft, beginning to reharden already from her sultry display. “Oh, but it’s not enough for a greedy man like though, is it hun? I should really feel flattered by how quickly your excitement is coming back.”

Izuku knew that despite Himiko’s efforts, it would be a bit longer before he would be ready for ‘the main course’ of the night, so he decided to have fun with Himiko and give her a taste of her own medicine.

In the best way possible of course.

“But I want a taste of you before then,” he said with all the courage he could muster up as he lowered himself until his face was roughly level with her clit, still covered with her black underwear but obviously soaked at this point. “Think I could get one babe?”

“Well, since you’re offering,” Himiko cheered as she opened her legs further, realizing she probably should’ve expected this at some point considering how Izuku enjoyed giving pleasure just as much as receiving it. “Go on babe, bon appetite!”

With permission granted Izuku hurriedly pulled the fabric aside and began to tease her folds with his rotating tongue. He slowly pressed forward, adding fingers one at a time as the two worked in sync to find all of her sensitive spots that he had learned over the years.

“That’s it babe, f-feel free to go harder!” Himiko moaned through hitched breaths. “H-harder and d-deeper!”

She punctuated her demand by running her hands through his green locks and pushing him further into her entrance. As Izuku got bolder in his motions, Himiko felt herself slowly climbing further up Mt. Climax with every flick of his tongue until she found herself on the very edge of it.

“O-oh yes, Zuku!” Himiko practically squealed as her body began to spasm with an impending orgasm. “Oh oh on F-fuck yes!”

After her body had finally calmed down she released Izuku from the leg lock she had accidentally trapped him in, allowing his face to come up from her depths. The boyish smile on his face seemed almost at odds with her fluids smeared across it.

“T-that was good for you I take it,” Izuku asked, still unsure about his abilities after years of proving himself.

“So fucking good,” Himiko exhaled, taking a moment to catch her breath. “But you didn’t have to do that Zuku, tonight’s about you after all.”

Izuku let out a deep exhale as he let himself lay on their covers like a starfish. “Don’t think I don’t get any fun out of eating you out, it’s a treat for both of us after all.”

Himiko couldn’t help but giggle at Izuku’s giving nature. “I managed to snag myself a man who loves giving head as much as I do, aren’t I a lucky gal?”

She leaned down and gave him a long kiss on the cheek in which she made a display of sucking some of her own juices from his face. Once her lips left his cheek with an audible ‘POP’, she followed it up with a couple of gratuitous smacks and a pleased hum.

“So… you prepared for the main event Zuku?” She smirked, feeling her ego getting boosted at how Izuku’s rod continued hardening.

“Maybe after a glass of water or something,” he rasped out with all the strength of a man who had his soul sucked out twice over.

“Right away babe,” Himiko said as she got up to go to the kitchen and oblige that request (plus getting some non-cum fluids into her system as well). “But don’t you get up while I’m gone mister, I’ve got a good idea of what I wanna start with when I get back~.”

Okay… maybe she could imagine some of what Toga could be doing with Midoriya.

‘Stupid horny brain imagining stupid sexy things!’ Ochako reprimanded herself as she pulled her hand back from where it was unconsciously creeping.

If Ochako needed any confirmation that her recent dry spell was starting to affect her she didn’t have to look any closer than the images that had been buzzing around her brain. She had been brainstorming how Toga might be keeping Midoriya under her thumb and it didn’t take long for her brain to conjure up images of them… doing that.

Now she didn’t fully blame this on her own needs trumping her thought process, after all this idea did have some basis in reality. Ochako had first-hand knowledge about how flirty the villain was and how open she could be with sexual matters when they encountered each other. While Ochako knew that Toga’s feelings were genuine to a degree, she also knew that there was a lot of psychological projection from her that was manifesting in unhealthy ways.

Honestly, it was a lot for her to unpack, and considering the two were and probably still are opposite sides of the law, she didn’t feel it was necessary for her to do so.

But no matter how much of a mess she was when it came to her feelings toward Toga emotionally, her physical feelings toward Toga were much easier to decipher. Ochako dared anybody to say the woman wasn’t an attractive combination of cute and sexy, with her striking eyes, shining smile, and assets she certainly knew to be proud of.

And while she didn’t focus on Midoriya himself much in the fantasy, what was surprising to her was how much Midoriya played an active role in her imagined scenario despite today being the first time she’d met him in person. Sure, he was a nice guy with a sweet face and seemingly hidden muscles (she’d seen the hints of it beneath his sleeves) so it wasn’t too far-fetched for some surface-level attraction to be there, but still it somehow felt weirder having him in her erotic fantasies than a serial killer who had tried to murder her multiple times.

‘What the fuck even is my life anymore?’

Unfortunately, Ochako’s attempted reflection on how her normal thought process went off the rails and into a ditch of pure filth resulted in her thought process once again going off the rails and into a ditch of pure filth. She could feel a spark run up her spine as her thighs rubbed together, a spark that wasn’t nearly enough for her anymore.

‘If I’m going to be doing an investigation of them I can’t let all these urges get in the way! It’s probably best I flush all these distractions out right now and get it over with,’ she reasoned with herself. ‘Just one personal session with myself and I can get my head back in focus.’

Her hand resumed its previous journey down her body until it reached the waistband of her pants and her free fingers began to grip her breast.

‘It’s totally fine,’ her brain rationalized. ‘Once this is done I can forget all about it and get back to business.’

It was a weak justification, but the hand sliding into her panties and beginning to rub herself cast aside any lingering doubts on whether this was a smart idea, quickly silencing and replacing them with the image of two familiar faces continuing their imagined passion with gusto.

“Oooh,” Ochako’s breath fluttered as both hands worked in sync, teasing both her soaked folds and hardening nipples as she conjured up scandalous images of what the hypothetical couple would do next.

“You ready for your big reward Zuku?” Himiko asked once they both got some water into their systems. She was mounting the bed and was ready to mount Izuku as well who was still laying right where she left him, albeit sans clothes.

Just the way she liked it.

“How can I not be with that view?” Izuku responded as his eyes roamed across the equally naked body of his wife, who had lifted herself above him and was working to aim her glistening entrance at his erect cock. “No exploration that I should be ready for tonight?”

“Just a good old-fashioned riding,” Himiko confirmed, getting even wetter (which was an achievement in itself considering she was positively dripping at this point) as she remembered some of their more adventure-focused nights. Tonight was just about the two of them connecting, however, with no special gimmicks or anything.

Plus, the leash and collar she’d ordered hadn’t arrived quite yet.

Once Himiko got herself all lined up she began to sink herself onto her husband’s rod, soon bottoming out in one swift motion.

“Ffffffffuck!” Himiko moaned as she felt him retake his place inside her. A sentiment Izuku shared if his own moan in agreement was any indication.

A few seconds of stillness passed where they both simply savored the sensation that was familiar but they never grew tired of. The moment was finally shattered (in the best way possible of course) when Himiko began gyrating her hips upon Izuku’s own, letting her body sway to the sensual beat of her soul.

The two fell into a comfortable rhythm soon after, but once Izuku began to reach up in order to cup her breasts a few minutes into their passion did she begin phase two of his reward by grabbing ahold of his wrists before they could reach her chest.

It was time for her to kick this night into higher gear.

“Ah, ah, aaaaaah~,” she playfully scolded (the authority of which was undercut by the pleased yelp as Izuku hit one of her sweet spots). “You wanna do that, you gotta promise not to hold back at all! Give me everything and turn this good old-fashioned riding into a good old-fashioned pounding!”

“God Himi!” Izuku practically growled in response to Himiko egging him on. “When you’re like this you make me wanna-”

“Do it!” Himiko interrupted, her cat-like pupils dilated and staring directly into Izuku’s emerald eyes with a crazed glint he knew very well. “If you’re not doing it then you’re holding back and I can’t have that! Not tonight! So whatever it is, fucking do it Zuku!”

Whatever would’ve come out of Izuku’s mouth was replaced with a guttural moan as Himiko’s words brought him to an even higher level of pleasure. His whole body lunged upon her as two fell over, quickly repositioning themselves so that it was her lying on the bed as Izuku rapidly pistoned in her while devoting his hands and mouth to thoroughly ravish her chest.

“O-o-oh YES!” Himiko gasped in delight, once again digging her hands deep into Izuku’s green locks to push him further into her tits until there was nothing else in his vision. Her legs locked around his back to further keep them together as her whole body shook. “Keep it up Zuku! Keep! It! Up!”

It was hard to hear both due to her husband’s head being buried alive and the incessant creaking of their bed (thank god their neighbors had a white noise machine to help them sleep otherwise things would be more awkward than they already were). She heard an, “Oh fffffffuck!” from him vibrate within her valley before he gave her nipples a nibble.

“Fuck yes!” She gasped out, loosening her grip and allowing Izuku to free himself from his glorious prison and work his kisses up her neck, keeping his fingers at work on her rock-hard nipples.

“You know,” Izuku began in between his trail of pecks, “I’ve almost fulfilled my end of our bargain…”

“Almost?” Himiko panted, eager to find out how much further Izuku wanted to take this.

“W-well there’s just a few-” kiss, “more-” kiss, “things” kiss, “that I need to do to truly give you, oh god Himi, everything dear.”

“S-s-so what’s left?” She asked, managing to get her words out before an involuntary gasp cut them off.

“I-I’m, oh fuck I’m getting close!” Izuku groaned as his pounding sped up exponentially. “I hope you are too Himi~.”

Sure enough, she could feel a climax of her own coming forth as Izuku worked to apply all the knowledge he had learned about Himiko’s body through their years together.

“I t-think you know where I wanna-”

“YES! Inside Zuku!” Himiko blurted out, interrupting Izuku's attempt at dominant dirty talk with some of her own. “Come on! Come on and breed me Zuku! I know you’ve always wanted to, so come on and knock me the FUCK up!”

“Fuck Himi!” Izuku growled as the breeding kink caught him off guard in the best way possible. He dove into Himiko’s neck to resume his love bites, rougher and more intense than before. Those kinds of bites were the implicit permission Himiko needed to latch onto her husband’s neck and dig her own fangs into his skin. And at that moment, the both of them came near simultaneously; Izuku from the pleasurable feeling of his wife chomping into his neck and Himiko from the sensation of sucking the blood of the man she loved more than any other.

Once their climaxes subsided Himiko felt herself go limp beneath her husband, who slowly pulled out of her and then himself went limp next to her. The blonde woman used what little strength remained in her arms to scoot toward Izuku, enjoying the feeling of cum oozing out of her pussy with every inch she moved. She then nuzzled into the crook of his neck like the cat she was often compared to.

“Gotta say,” she broke the ice with a somewhat hoarse voice. “You certainly fulfilled your promise, with interest I’d say,” she punctuated this by giving her previous puncture spot a long lick to get the last of the blood from it.

Izuku felt himself blush under her attention like he was a stuttering schoolboy again. “If you say so. I know I’m not as adventurous as you when it comes to these things but I-”

“Relax Zuku,” Himiko comforted as she snuggled in closer, feeling them retread a very familiar conversation. “You’re not not adventurous, you wouldn’t have gone for seconds on a lot of the stuff we tried if you weren’t. Your tastes just don’t readily go to those areas like mine do. But don’t worry, I’m happy to keep leading you through the world of debauchery.”

Izuku let out a soft chuckle at that. “I look forward to it, though maybe not on days I go to work,” he said, his fingers ghosting where Himiko had bitten him.

“Don’t tell me you got a problem with my biting sweetheart?” Himiko teased, playfully baring her fangs to him.

“Not a chance dear,” Izuku joined her in laughter. After it died down, however, his face grew serious and his tone a touch grave. “But um, since we’re talking about… you know, sexual tastes and everything, I think we should talk about the breeding stuff at the end there.”

Himiko felt herself grimace as the spunk leaking from her suddenly felt a lot less pleasant. While it wasn’t as if they hadn’t done any breeding kink stuff before, this had been the first time that they had gone into it (and especially at that volume and ferocity) since the ‘couples agreement’ they’d made once marriage was on the table.

“It’s not that I didn’t like it,” Izuku reassured. “Clearly that’s not the case. I just want to make sure that you haven’t changed your mind on-”

“No, I haven’t,” Himiko cut him off, her curt response making it clear that was as far as the conversation was gonna go.

“Alright then,” Izuku said as he put his arm around Himiko, who eagerly leaned into his embrace with a hug of her own. “Just as long as we understand each other.”

The two shared an intimate kiss that served as an agreement to put a pin on any further discussion of this matter. They spent the rest of the evening basking in the afterglow, content to lay in each other’s embrace before they drifted off to sleep together.

It took roughly fifteen minutes, but now Ochako could safely say her mind was clear of any distractions. And in this so-called ‘post-nut clarity’ (Ochako didn’t want to dwell on it too much) she devised her plan.

Step one: Make sure Midoriya is hired and works directly under her.

Step two: Conduct an independent investigation of his personal life as they work to determine whether Toga was his wife or not.

Step three: …

Well, she supposed step three would change depending on if Midoriya really was married to Toga. If he wasn’t, then business would proceed as usual, but if he was, then she’d… apprehend her?

Well, she’d figure out the finer details of the plan if or when she got to it.

Right now she needed to focus on putting step one into action, which meant writing a message to Ryuko to let her know her decision on hiring Midoriya. She decided it was for the best to leave out her ulterior motives as making a claim like ‘the new hire was married to Himiko Toga’ of all people was bound to get the HPSC involved.

Ochako dreaded to think what they’d do this time, so it was in everybody’s best interest for her to just keep this all close to her chest for the moment.

As the space-themed heroine went to grab her phone to begin drafting this email, one look at her hand covered in… various fluids made her decide that a detour to the bathroom was in order first.

Plus a change of pants to go with it.

Chapter Text

It was another morning at the Midoriya household, one that followed the same schedule practically every morning prior. However, what made this morning feel different to the Midoriya couple, despite them repeating the same routine as always, was the energy that permeated through their home.

The energy of anticipation and excitement.

It had been a couple of days since the morning Izuku received an email back from Uravity confirming that he had been brought on board for the open quirk analyst position by the Ryukyu Agency. The greenette had felt the infamous Midoriya tear ducts beginning to activate when he read their message, knowing that they were willing to hire him despite how… personal his interview went. When he shared the news with his wife, Himiko was completely ecstatic with the new development and jumping for joy.

…Or at least she probably would’ve been if any feeling remained in her legs after their activities the previous night.

But that enthusiasm in the vampire girl held steadfast through the coming days until the present morning of Izuku’s first day at his new job. As she cooked a pair of omelets for the two of them (one with blood cooked into it and one without), Himiko was practically singing to herself as she skipped through their kitchenette.

“Well somebody’s in a good mood,” she heard Izuku’s voice cutting through her melodic humming as he came out of the bathroom freshly showered and fully dressed for the day. Ochako’s email stated that, while the dress code wasn’t strictly enforced, it was expected that he looked professional in their office. He wore another one of his precious few collared button-ups, solid black this time, and a tie that Izuku clearly struggled with tying.

“Is there something wrong with being excited about your first day with a new job?” Himiko asked rhetorically as she flipped the omelets. “Especially at a respected top-ten hero agency no less.”

She felt Izuku slide up behind her and plant a kiss on her cheek as she finished up with breakfast. “And I thought you didn’t buy into the hero-ranking culture,” he said with no small amount of teasing.

“I don’t, but if invoking that dumb popularity contest gets everybody to realize how amazing you are in getting this job you bet your fine ass I’m gonna be bragging about that all day every day!” Himiko retorted as she transferred the omelets from the pan to the plates on the countertop, not mentioning how the main person she wanted to convince that her husband was great was her husband himself. “Now dig in, I don’t want you to be late because of me and my wonderful cooking skills holding you up!”

“Come on, we both know I’m extremely punctual,” Izuku joked as he sat down and began to tuck into his breakfast, prompting an eye roll from Himiko as his idea of punctuality was being fifteen minutes early. For a couple of minutes they ate in pleasant silence, enjoying the food and the company immensely, until Izuku spoke up after seeing Himiko licking the blood residue from her fork with glee.

“Hey, I know that you say you’ve been fine on the frozen blood the last couple of days, but if you want a little top off on the ‘good stuff’ before I leave, well then…” He undid a couple of buttons on his shirt to expose his shoulder in lieu of finishing his sentence.

What he meant was obvious enough for Himiko.

While she had been focusing mainly on all the positives of Izuku’s new position, one of the downsides Himiko discovered from it was the restrictions it put on such as where she could suck her hubby’s blood and how frequently she could do it. While they had always been somewhat careful back when he was working with the Slidin’ Go agency, it hadn’t been too much of a security risk if they saw any of the ‘markings’ she left.

Truthfully, Himiko relished in the thought of his pencil-dicked former coworkers seeing her ‘love bites’ and knowing that the guy they all looked down on was getting more kinky action than they could ever dream of.

But now they had to be extremely careful because it would only take a glimpse of her familiar bite marks for Ochako to know it wasn’t just the result of wild sex. Himiko thought it was dreamy that she had bitten both of her favorite people in the same way but she doubted the gravity heroine would see it that way. So Himiko decided it would be in both of their best interests for her to cut down on drinking Zuku’s blood directly from the tap until he became more established at the Ryukyu Agency and there was no reason for Ochako to be suspicious of him.

The last thing Himiko wanted was for her husband to be dragged down for her crimes after everything he’d sacrificed for her sake.

“Nah I’ll be fine,” Himiko waved off, which was only partially a lie. It wasn’t as if she hated the frozen blood she had been drinking since her commitment to a period of weaning off her husband’s supply, but it was like going back to the store brand after years of farm fresh food. “Let’s wait a bit longer before we go back to that level of feeding.”

“If you say so,” Izuku skeptically conceded to his wife as he buttoned his shirt back up.

“Are you doubting your precious little wife Zuku?” Himiko gasped with mock offense. “I’ll have you know I’m not controlled by bloodlust good sir!”

“What about last St. Patrick’s Day?” Izuku shot back.

There was another silence encompassing the table as Himiko tried to think of a retort before she slumped over her plate with a defeated grumble of, “Just finish your omelet Zuku.”

Once Izuku had finished complying with his wife’s begrudging request he put his plate in the sink and reached for his briefcase that he had stuffed to the brim with note-taking and quirk studying material the day he knew he was hired. As he was about to leave he quickly spun on his heel to catch Himiko in a kiss that deepened for all but a second before their lips (quite reluctantly) parted.

“I’ll see you tonight at five Himi!” Izuku told his wife as he turned once more to leave their apartment.

“Alright dear, you have a good day!” Himiko called out as her husband left, hiding around a corner in their entrance hall on the off chance there was a passerby who could recognize her. “Don’t go breaking Uravity’s heart too badly!”

She heard a scandalized “Himi!” over her cackling before the door closed behind him. Once the vampire woman was able to get her laughter in check, she found herself faced with the same question she had to ask herself yesterday and every day before that in recent memory:

‘What the fuck am I going to do with myself for the next eight hours?’

Any possibility of going outside their apartment today was a non-starter as, with the possibility of her husband’s new employer discovering his secret, she didn’t want to risk going out un-transformed at all. Add to that the fact that her new self-imposed ‘diet’ meant she didn’t have enough Zuku juice in her system to hold his form to the corner store and back. The frozen blood bags also, while satisfying her cravings, didn’t gel with Transform due to having multiple people’s blood within so it was clear that, like most days, she was going to have to make her own fun indoors.

“Okay…” Himiko murmured to herself as she walked through their now eerily empty apartment, “I guess the first order of business is to try and tidy up a bit while I got all this time on my hands.”

So she loaded the used dishes and kitchen supplies in the dishwasher, wiped the various egg and blood stains from the stove and counter, and fixed the sheets on their bed (much easier without any blood or cum stains that needed to be scrubbed out). Once she completed those simple daily chores she moved on to…

To…

Himiko searched through her and Izuku’s living space for an answer to that statement, but wherever she looked anything that had previously needed cleaning had already been dealt with in the days prior.

‘I guess when you’re here all the time you don’t put those things off as much,’ the blonde vampire dryly noted to herself.

She looked at the clock to see how much time she had eaten up with her menial tasks, groaning when she found that only fifteen minutes had passed.

‘What the fuck am I going to do with myself for the next seven hours and forty-five minutes?’

“I guess next on the agenda after the cleaning would be some streaming,” Himiko concluded, moving toward the gaming nook behind their kitchen. Izuku referred to it as ‘her office’, but she felt that overemphasized how much ‘work’ she truly did in there.

Booting up their designated gaming PC and logging into her account, Himiko made sure her streamer set-up was all in good shape and ready for a scuff-less stream. She loaded the newest and hottest Hero gacha game: Hero Rush 3: World Impact, opened up her stream to viewers, and…

0 viewers.

Well, that wasn’t unexpected for the beginning of a stream, but after 15 minutes the viewer count hadn’t gone up at all. The same held true as the clock went to 30 minutes, 1 hour, and finally 2 hours of playtime.

“Come oooooon!” Himiko groaned in dismay as she threw in the towel and hung up her headphones, spinning around in her rolling chair “Can’t a girl get herself an audience!”

The vampire girl couldn’t help but feel like her attempts to start a streaming side hustle was dealt a losing hand from the word ‘go’. She had put in the time with the many hours she had to waste stuck alone in their apartment and she arguably had the gamer skills to make her streams an entertaining watch (she hated that she had to give credit to Shiggy for that). But the fact that she couldn’t speak lest one of the many people she hurt recognize her voice basically meant any prospects of having anything resembling a streaming ‘career’ were dead in the water, despite her attempts to make her personality evident in other places.

All she wanted was a way to connect to people despite her self-imposed house arrest! She’d be extremely pissed off about it if she didn’t know this was the least of the consequences of her actions catching up with her.

“Maybe it’s better that they can’t see or hear me,” Himiko said to herself as she ended her stream for the day to zero fanfare, “don’t want a stream full of those internet weirdos that watch just to get their microscopic rocks off.”

Himiko knew she was quite an attractive woman and while she certainly enjoyed it when other people recognized that fact, she didn’t want people to watch her streams just because she had a cute face and a nice set of tits for them to jerk off to.

‘Unless it was Izuku of course…’

‘Or Ochako…’

‘Maybe the two of them together, embracing each other as they watched her, knowing they were the only ones to enjoy the perks of her body as hundreds of people lusted through a screen for someone they could never have.’

Himiko looked at the clock and took stock of the current time. She wanted something to do with her overabundance of time on her hands and she didn’t have enough shame or willpower to resist the urge to masturbate at 10:30 AM.

‘I hope Zuku is having a good day at work, I wonder if he and Ochako are doing something cute together yet!’ Himiko thought to herself before her hand completed its journey beneath her skirt and took her mind to places not safe for the workplace where her two favorite dorks were currently.

Izuku didn’t want to jinx anything…

Really, really didn’t want to jinx anything.

But for a first day at a new job, things were going pretty well overall!

For him, the nicest part was how low-key the proceedings were. Unlike his first day at the Slidin’ Go Agency where his quirkless status was immediately and quite loudly announced to the workplace who spent the rest of the day either gawking at his mere existence or asking him to confirm insulting tidbits about ‘his kind’ from fringe news articles they read. Here, his fellow coworkers had been pleasantly conversational with him and the only questions he had been asked were about his skills and specialties in quirk analysis. Questions that he felt more than comfortable answering in length.

Hopefully, he didn’t annoy them with his rambling too badly.

Afterward, he was shown to his desk and given a rundown of the Ryukyu information database he had access to for his analysis. After a couple of trial runs with hypothetical heroes and villains for him to analyze in order to get an idea of his skill level (Izuku recognized all of them as real people with changed names and slightly altered details, but in the interest of making good first impressions decided to hold that knowledge back for now), he was let loose to work on the recent cases...

It was certainly quite a departure from having a cubicle in a corner as everybody foisted their work on him, knowing he couldn’t complain.

‘I built up more resentment towards that place than I realized,’ Izuku thought to himself, making a mental note to thank Himi once again for getting him out of there despite him saying he could power through the pain.

It hadn’t been until he was returning to his desk after their lunch break that the day went from zero to sixty miles a minute in terms of activity when he was approached at his workstation by Ryukyu, the ninth-ranked Pro Hero of Japan, who was flanked by sidekicks Uravity and Froppy!

‘She’s your boss, don’t fanboy. She’s your boss, don’t fanboy. SHE’S YOUR BOSS, DON’T FANBOY!’ His brain kept unhelpfully repeating in an attempt to keep himself from making a complete fool of himself on his first day.

“Hello Midoriya,” The Dragoon Hero greeted him. “Let me give you an official welcome to the Ryukyu Agency. I apologize that I wasn’t able to do so earlier though with the events of this morning.”

Ah yes, from all the files that had been moving around the office it had been evident that it had been a pretty busy morning on the hero side of things. “Oh, that’s no problem at all Miss Ryukyu! I know hero stuff never waits! You don’t need to worry about me or anything!” Izuku attempted to reassure her as his tone teetered on the line between ‘humble’ and ‘obviously low self-esteem’.

“I can assure you Midoriya that I’m not here right now because I worry about you or your capabilities,” Ryukyu assured him with the same professional yet gentle tone she always seemed to hold. “I’ve already heard very good things about skills as an analyst.”

The pro hero shot a look toward Uravity and, though Izuku wasn’t quite sure what it meant, whatever it was caused her to avert her eyes and her already rosy cheeks to get bigger.

“The reason I make a point of welcoming new employees such as yourself in person is so you know that we truly appreciate all the work you’ll do for us,” Ryukyu continued, undaunted by the seeming embarrassment of her sidekick. “I know that people often see Heroes as giants who stand alone but it takes everybody here working under the same pressure for much less acclaim for us to accomplish the good that we do.”

Izuku gave a nod to Ryukyu’s statement, understanding the underlying stakes she was establishing on top of her genuine gratitude. He understood what she was getting at about the individual being important and everything, but Izuku still felt like the analysis was what mattered, regardless of who was doing it.

‘But you’re the one busting your ass over these analyses so suck it up and take the praise goddamnit!’ A voice that sounded so much like his wife yelled at him from within his brain.

“I promise you, I will make sure all of these analyses are the best I can make them so I can help the heroes help others in any way I can,” Izuku declared, earning several turned heads from the analysts working around him as well as a raised eyebrow from Froppy, an awed look from Uravity, and a smile from Ryukyu.

“I’m glad to hear that Midoriya,” Ryukyu said as she stepped back and Froppy came forward. “The other reason I’ve come down is to make sure you are formally introduced to Froppy and Uravity, real names Tsuyu Asui and Ochako Uraraka, since they’re the ones you’ll be working with most directly during your tenure here. Since you likely know Uraraka well enough from your interview, I believe we should start with Tsuyu.”

“I feel like you do that on purpose sometimes,” Froppy deadpanned toward her boss, earning a giggle from Uravity.

“It’s an h-honor to meet you, Froppy!” Izuku stammered, holding his arm out for a shaky handshake and hoping she didn’t remember their embarrassing first encounter on the day of his interview where he tripped on himself about four times attempting to ask her to sign an analysis of her quirk he had made.

“Please call me Tsu, ribbit,” Froppy bluntly said as she reciprocated the handshake.

“I-I-I’m not sure I could ever be so casual as to do so…” Izuku admitted.

“You’ll get there eventually, the novelty of working with heroes will wear off and hopefully you can get less tongue-tied around us,” Tsu continued, her face completely unreadable despite confirming to Izuku that she one hundred percent remembered their first ‘meeting’.

So much for first impressions…

“Tsu, lighten up on the guy!” Uravity chastised from over the frog woman’s shoulder. “He’s just passionate! Need I remind you of our first mission with Gang Orca?”

The Rainy Day Hero swatted her coworker with her long tongue (of which Izuku resisted the urge to bombard her with questions about) before returning her relentless and somewhat intimidating gaze back to Izuku, “Chako’s right, sorry about that,” she sighed apologetically. “I do look forward to working with you, Midoriya. Chako’s shown me some of your work and you’ve got a real eye for the details.”

“I’m f-f-flattered,” Izuku blushed, “I’m glad that you’ve heard such g-good things about me a-already from U-Uravity.”

With the realization that the topic was back to her and what she told the others of their interview, Uravity quickly interjected. “Speaking of that, is it okay if I talk to Midoriya alone for a second about these… things!”

Subtly appeared not to be the Gravity Hero’s strong suit, but Ryukyu simply nodded to the woman’s floundering request.

“Very well, I’ll leave you both to it. Just one more thing for Midoriya before we leave,” she addressed Izuku in a hushed voice. “I know at present it’s not common knowledge, but if you ever find yourself treated differently due to your lack of a quirk, make sure one of us is made aware of it. Such behavior is not tolerated in this agency and will be dealt with accordingly.”

The sheer venom in her voice toward these hypothetical bigots was only matched by the righteous glares her two sidekicks had as they thought of the scenario. Izuku wondered if this was what villains felt like facing the ninth-ranked hero and the heroes under her wing. It made the greenette appreciate always staying on the straight and narrow path.

He could almost feel the wedding band around his finger burn at that untrue thought.

“I understand,” Izuku nodded back, not really knowing what else to say at such a declaration.

“Glad to hear it,” Ryukyu said, switching her tone back from ‘icy fury’ to ‘gentle’ on a dime. “I look forward to seeing the good work you’ll do with our agency.”

“See you later Midoriya,” Fro… Tsu waved back as she left with her boss. “Next time I see you have that analysis ready so I can sign it.”

“Just ignore her Midoriya,” Uravity reassured him. “Tsu’s a real sweetheart when she’s not being a big JERK!” She yelled that last word to the door where the Frog woman had left, earning a distant ‘ribbit’ in response. “Sooooo… how has your first day been so far? You think you’re gonna like it here?” She ventured with the pep that he’d come to associate with the Gravity Hero.

Normally, Izuku would hold himself back from rambling in the interests of not seeming like a weirdo, but Uravity had already seen the depths of his awkwardness and got him hired anyway, so it was probably okay to go full mutter-storm.

“I think so, I mean just being able to work at the agency of a top ten hero is already crazy! Like I feel like I should be pinched or something!” Izuku began, getting very animated. “And the technology you guys have for quirk identification is amazing, just having this kind of access to the international quirk database is crazy, but also the amount of footage you guys get during villain encounters gives me so much to work off of than when I was at the Slidin’ Go agency and I’vealreadywrittensomereportsonsomeofyouandFroppy’srecentvillainencountersandI’vemadesomenynotesthatI’vecrossreferencedwith-”

His mumbling deluge of excited info was interrupted by a snorting giggle from Uravity. “Sorry, sorry I promise I’m not laughing to make fun of you or anything,” she insisted as she got her hitched breath back in control. “It’s just nice to know that your rambling at the interview wasn’t just because you were nervous.”

Oh. Not what he was expecting, but Izuku supposed that was a natural assumption when it came to his habits.

“N-no, it’s part of the complete ‘Izuku Midoriya’ package,” he chuckled as the pressure he felt to be a model employee started to inexplicably lift around Uravity. “That makes it sound like I’m nervous all the time, which isn’t not true I guess.”

This prompted another laugh from Uravity, which started as a girlish giggle before it was interrupted by several prominent snorts. It was pretty easy for Izuku to tell that she wasn’t laughing at him, even without her clarification. It reminded him, as strange as it sounded, of Himiko and her laughter that, even if it began as playful teasing, came more from genuine joy derived from his peculiarities rather than any sort of mockery.

It felt nice to make her laugh in that way, even if he really wasn’t ‘doing’ anything special.

As soon as that thought entered his head he shook it out and refocused himself. Uravity was nice and more accepting of his strangeness than a lot of people, but she was still a pro hero that he had to be wary of lest she discover his relationship with Himiko. He couldn’t let his guard down no matter how disarming he found her.

‘Maybe she already discovered me and Himi after my horrible slip-up at the interview and she’s come to arrest me or hold me in contempt of the law until I tell her,’ Izuku thought, feeling like cold water had been dumped on him as his mind took a U-turn and conjured up the worst-case scenario. ‘Maybe she’s informed the HPSC and they’re banging on our door right now!’

“S-so what was it you wanted to tell me, Uravity?” Izuku attempted to get them back on track, hoping that the nightmare-ish possibilities in his head weren’t true. “And why did you need me a-alone to tell it to me?”

“Oh, right, sorry! Got a little sidetracked there, let me just get this…” Uravity exclaimed as she dug through the surprisingly deep pockets of her suit. “And you don’t have to keep calling me Uravity, Midoriya, just Uraraka is fine.”

“If you s-say so,” Izuku affirmed, hoping that this request was a good sign of what was to come.

“I’m not going to force you to use my f-first name like some people around here, but no need for you to keep using hero names, especially in the office,” her eyes widened to an almost comical degree as she evidently found what she was looking for and pulled it from her suit. Presented to the greenette was…

…a red button on a keychain.

“Thank you? I’m a little confused though,” Izuku said with a face that implored Urav- Uaraka to explain more.

“Oh, right! It’s a panic button!” Uraraka explained to an increasingly confused Izuku. “Well, it’s not exclusively for when you’re panicking so I guess it’s a ‘generally uncomfortable’ button for whenever you are… well generally uncomfortable!”

“And w-why do you want me to have this?” Izuku asked as he was handed the device, his big questions still unanswered.

Uaraka's expression turned more serious as she continued. “Well, I just think you should have this so that if you ever find yourself in a dangerous situation… or are already in a dangerous situation, then clicking this button will put out an alert that notifies a hero of this agency of your location so they can assist you.”

Okay, so that wasn’t the immediate and sudden arrest Izuku had been fearing, but he still needed to be sure that this ‘gift’ wasn’t rooted in anything else (well mainly one specific thing) that he should be worried about.

“So you got me this button, in case I face any… unpleasantness over me being quirkless right?” The greenette asked in a hushed tone, hoping that the reason that she gave him this button was because of the secret he knew she knew rather than the one he feared she did.

Uraraka seemed to hesitate before giving the analyst a resolute, “Y-yes. Yes, that’s exactly why. I-I told you that we at the Ruuykuu Agency are dedicated to making sure that you are safe in our workplace.”

Izuku felt himself release a heavy breath he was holding in as his heart allowed itself to start beating again. Over the years he had gotten pretty good at detecting when offers to help and support him were cloaking dishonesty; Uraraka was telling the truth about her intentions so he and Himi were safe.

‘For now,’ he reminded himself that it was up to him to keep it that way despite how surprisingly good everything was going at the moment.

“Thank you Uraraka,” Izuku said with genuine gratitude, more for the gesture rather than the button itself. “And thank you in general for being so willing to s-stick your neck out for me.”

“Of course Midoriya! But no thanks or anything is needed!” Uraraka waved off with her blush inching across her cheeks. “It’s just common courtesy.”

“I wished everybody thought that way,” Izuku mumbled to himself as he put the button in his pocket. “It’s not an issue if I keep my quirklessness on the… down-low. I-i-it’s not that I don’t trust all of the people that you hired, it’s just that-”

“Midoriya, it’s perfectly okay,” Uraraka compassionately cut off his snowballing panic. “That’s all your business to reveal to your coworkers and we’ll support you with as much or as little as you want to share with the office. I can assure you that you are surrounded by good people who won’t judge you for your quirklessness but I understand your cautiousness considering… recent events.”

Both their eyes drifted down to one of the case files from this morning on Izuku’s desk. Just the name adorning the top of the papers sent shivers down Izuku’s spine at what it meant for the future.

“Y-yeah, that uh, complicates things.” He concluded, referring to the effects this would have on both his work and home.

The two coworkers stayed in silence until Uraraka awkwardly began again. “Sooooo… I should probably leave you to get back to work. I’m sure I’m annoying you with my constant yapping. But promise me you’ll use the button whenever you feel threatened.”

“Uhhhh… yeah, I promise,” Izuku reassured his Pro Hero superior, feeling a little weirded out by her… insistence.

“You promise?”

“Yes.”

“Even if the dangerous situation is one you have already found yourself in?”

“Y-yes?” Izuku was starting to get a weird vibe from this assurance that was quickly becoming a grilling but lived experience had taught him that just agreeing was the best course of action.

Uraraka stared intently at her subordinate who was hoping he wasn’t showing any tells toward his secret, until a smile broke out on her previously focused face. “Great! I look forward to it then!”

“Me too I-” Izuku suddenly stopped as whenever anxiety he was feeling quickly dissipated and replaced with sheer bafflement as what Uraraka just cheerfully said sunk in, and one look at the gravity sidekick and her slacked jaw and bulging eyes to know it had hit her too “I’m s-sorry, what do you mean by…”

“Oh, I think I hear Ryuuko calling over there!” Uraraka yelled out as she pointed at a water cooler in the distance for some reason, “Okay Midoriya I’ll see you later keep up the good work and working goodly!”

And off Uraraka went, zooming out of the office room so quickly she bumped into multiple empty desks on the way. Several papers, a few staplers, and one coffee mug were left floating in her wake until they came down from where they levitated with a distant, “Oh fuck! Release!” from the next hallway.

‘Okay… that was a little odd,’ Izuku thought to himself as his coworkers began to flood back into the room and put back everything that had been floated out of place. ‘Of course, I shouldn’t be the one throwing stones in glass houses, I’m sure she was just embarrassed by a trip of the tongue. That’s understandable.’

Still, despite a certain amount of strangeness in his and Uraraka’s one-on-one talk and the fact that he probably never going to use the button given the fact it could call a bunch of Heroes to where he was hiding an ex-villain (not that she could’ve known that… hopefully), he was glad to have someone like the brunette in his corner.

While meeting Himi was probably the best thing that ever happened to him and he didn’t regret the life they had built together for a second, it exposed him to the darker and more corrupt side of the Hero industry that existed behind closed doors. It had shaken him deeply since being a Hero had been his pipe dream since he was three, but Pros like Uraraka who kept the principles of heroism alive even when the cameras were off, made him glad he held onto some faith through the years.

‘It’s certainly motivating too’ Izuku thought to himself as he began to unpack the files he had been provided on currently active villains in the area in order to cross-reference them with the quirk database. ‘I gotta repay the faith they’ve given me, helping them take down these villains in any way I can is the least I can do.’

‘Just so long as I don’t help them take down MY villain.’

Dammit!

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!

That, at varying levels of profanity, was roughly the sentiment that was going through Ochako’s head for the rest of the day after her attempt to get a smoking gun on the potential Toga case went up in smoke.

“Face it Ochako, you blew it,” she grumbled under her breath as she wrapped up her post-arrest paperwork for the evening, her failure still fresh on her mind even hours later. “You had a chance to end this whole thing and you wasted it! Now he might be stuck another night with-”

“You about ready to go, Chako?” Tsu interrupted the mochi woman’s bitter musings. “Hado and Yuyu are pulling their car around front, ribbit.”

“Oh, sorry Tsu. I’ll be out in a minute,” Ochako called back to her amphibious friend, hoping their former senpai and their carpool weren’t being held up on her accord. “I guess I lost track of time, it’s been a bit of an off day for me.”

“You’ve been out of sorts ever since you had that private talk with Midoriya, ribbit,” Tsu pointed out. Ochako would be more distraught about how obvious this was if not for the many years that taught her of how good the frog woman’s observational skills were. “Did he tell you something that…”

“N-no! No, it’s not on him or anything he did,” Ochako affirmed. “I just stressed about making sure nothing happens to him while he’s here. I mean it’s never been easy to be quirkless and accepted, but with what just happened this morning I’m just… worried.”

That was true Ochako supposed, but it wasn’t the whole truth. Most of her frustration was aimed at herself for completely fumbling a delicate operation right out the gate. She had hoped that she and Midoriya were on the same page and that presenting the panic button would be the obvious wink and nudge that would prompt him to reveal the foe he was harboring with the understanding that he wouldn’t be blamed for this coercion.

But then… he believed the button was her looking out for his safety and well-being because of his quirklessness and she couldn’t bring herself to correct his assumption because how could she? Here he was, believing that she was acting out of heroic selflessness and care for his well-being after everything he had spilled to her and she was using him to track what could very well be a wild goose chase for an imaginary villain.

In other words, she felt like a total phony!

“It’s a delicate situation, but you’re doing as much as you can without coddling him, and that’s just as bad for him,” Tsu responded with her trademark blunt honesty as Ochako gathered the last of her things and the two heroes began to leave the agency for the night. “The best we can do is treat him with respect and provide support when he wants it, but that’s just common courtesy.”

“I guess,” Ochako conceded as they walked onto the street, “but I still feel like I should be doing more...”

The two girls were interrupted by a car pulling up onto the curb in front of them. A loud honk sounded, followed by several rapid-fire honks as they entered the car and heard a familiar situation play out.

“Hado, baby, they heard you the first time, you can lay off the horn.”

“But Hayaaaaaa! They might not know it’s us and we’re honking for them!” The periwinkle-haired hero justified to her sarcastic red-haired wife in her typical hyperactive way. “Maybe they’d think we’re weird perverts ready to hit on two pro-heroes, or that we were a taxi trying to hail somebody else?”

“We figured out it was you Nejire,” Tsu commented to their two senpais as they got into the backseat of their car and buckled up.

“Hi Nejire! Hi Yuyu!” Ochako greeted as she struggled with her own seatbelt as the cherry on top of her rough day.

The carpool that Ochako and Tsu did with the couple had been in place ever since Nejire and Yuyu had received the car as a wedding present (which made Ochako’s gift of a pressure cooker look completely inadequate in comparison). The peace of mind that Ochako gained by saving on train tickets was matched by her discomfort bumming off her friend’s gift, but they had insisted and the years had broken her down to Nejire’s puppy-dog eyes.

“Hey girls! I was just talking about you two!” Nejire began, dominating the conversation as usual as Yuyu started their route. “About how you two were all ‘fwoosh!’ and ‘zing!’ as you caught all that rumble and did that super cool combo move! Chako what’s it like to be wrapped with Tsu’s tongue? Is it sticky, I bet it’s sticky! And then, when you calmed that scared lil’ cutie, I was all ‘awwwww’ and my heart was all ‘Bum! Bum! Bum!’ and Haya, I want three just like him!”

“Easy Hado, let them breathe a little,” Yuyu cut in before her wife’s face went as blue as her hair. “It seems like it was a busy day for you two.”

“It has been,” Tsu ribbited wearily, “but we got a new co-worker today.”

Ochako barely had time to comprehend how Tsu had casually thrown Midoriya into the conversation before an excited “Ooh!” from Nejire cut through the car and she turned around in her seat to face the two girls, getting twisted in her seatbelt in the process.

“A new employee! Is it that guy Ryuko was talking about with the green hair and freckles? Did he get hired? Why didn’t anybody tell me!”

Ochako couldn’t help but avert her eyes to the raised eyebrows Tsu was giving. Yes, she neglected to keep Nejire in the loop with anything more than the most basic information on Midoriya’s hiring, but she had a perfectly good reason! Nejire, completely by accident, had gained a reputation as one of the best interrogators in the Hero business, with nearly anybody cracking under the cheerful hummingbird-like pressure she put them under. If she wanted to keep this under wraps she needed Midoriya and Nejire to steer clear of each other for the time being.

“What’s he like? He seemed really smart from that profile we got, but it also made him seem like a grouch! And I know you wouldn’t want to hire a grouch Chako! Is he a cutie in person? You maybe want to date him, Chako?”

Since Ochako had become choked by her own blush, Tsu filled in for her by informing Nejire, “Actually, he’s already married, ribbit.”

“Oooooooh! What’s the girl’s name?” Nejire cheerfully took in stride as she was practically bouncing in her seat and thus getting herself even more tangled in the seatbelt. “Maybe I know her from somewhere, I do know a lot of people!”

“I don’t think it ever came up,” Tsu shrugged.

“Darn! Cause Haya and I have been looking for somebody to go on double dates with since you guys aren’t looking for love!” Nejire pouted. “Isn’t that right babe?”

“Yeah, it’d be nice to have a night on the town with another couple since there are so few in this business,” Yuyu agreed with her attention split between the road and the hyperactive love of her life next to her. “So if you ever find out, let us know.”

Yeah, Ochako definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent did not want that happening.

‘Although with the absolute fool I made of myself during my half-baked investigation, maybe I should let Nejire take a crack at Midoriya…’ the brunette’s brain treacherously thought, colored by Nejire’s previous insinuation that she and her new green-haired hire would make a cute couple. ‘We’d all be at a restaurant together, nice but nothing too fancy. Nejire and Yuyu on one side of the table, Midoriya and I on the other, and Toga would be-’

“Hayaaaaaaa! The seatbelt is choking my boobs! I can’t breathe!”

Ochako felt a surge of relief wash over at the timely interruption of her senpai and how it refocused her mind from those… confused thoughts. Nejire was only to be used as a last resort. She had to play the rest of her hand on Midoriya first and was confident that, unlike today, these moves would land better results.

It was foolproof!

Now if only she could chase the expanded blush off her face for good. Preferably before Tsu progressed from simply giving her a ‘look’ about it to asking questions.

When Izuku returned to his and Himiko’s apartment after a good day of work, he was immediately met with a double whammy to the senses. The smell of freshly cooking katsudon was wafting through the air and he could hear the sound of his wonderful wife singing along to the radio in the other room, presumably as she prepared it.

It was moments like these that reminded Izuku to thank whatever deity had taken pity on him to grant him such a great life.

“Himi! I’m home!” He called out as he hung up his coat and put down his briefcase. Almost instantaneously, his wife came barreling through their home and caught him in a massive bear hug that nearly knocked him off his feet.

“Zuku! Thank god you're home, I feel like I’ve been wasting away in my boredom,” Himiko groaned melodramatically as she simultaneously nuzzled and ground against him.

“Do you try to do any streaming today?” Izuku asked with some idea of what the answer would be.

“Yeaaaaaah, but it was a total bust nobody showed up,” Himiko sighed as she slid down her husband’s frame. Before Izuku could apologize, she cut him off with an eager, “But enough about me, how was your first day?”

“It was pretty good,” Izuku grinned. “Nothing crazy happened, but I prefer that to things getting... hairy. And it seems I have my work cut out for me with the amount of cases that come through the agency every day. Though I’m not complaining or anything; so many quirks to dig into!”

Himiko chuckled at the eternal dorkiness of her husband before launching into a different set of questions. “What about Uravity? How was she?” She asked with a recognizable flare of protectiveness. “She didn’t give a hard time about anything, did she?”

“Oh no, quite the opposite really,” Izuku assured his wife as he pulled the panic button out of his pocket. “She gave me this button to use to alert her of my location if anybody tries to create problems because of my quirklessness.”

“Well, that’s… nice,” Himiko concluded, clearly making the same connection as Izuku that a device that told a Pro Hero of their location probably wasn’t great for their unusual family unit.

“Yeah, I’m probably never gonna use it,” Izuku admitted as he shoved it back into his pocket, “but it’s the thought that counts. On a positive note, I don’t think she caught on to all my slip-ups about… Y-you know ‘us’, so hopefully I can keep it that way and things won’t be awkward… or w-worse.”

“I’m sure you will Zuku,” Himiko nodded gravely at the equally grave implication of her husband’s tone before a sneaky smile grew on her face. “But I know I wouldn’t mind a one-on-one interrogation with Uravity, sexiest hero of the business! Gettin’ myself a hands-on investigation, and one for you too~”

“Can you not joke about that please Himi?” Izuku sighed as Himiko realized she had gone a step too far. “I can’t screw this up, the attack from this morning is already going to make things harder in the foreseeable future, and I can’t lose you because of my mistakes, so please…”

Himiko saw the fear in her husband’s emerald eyes and nodded resolutely. “I’m sorry Izuku, I shouldn’t have said that. But babe, I know that won’t happen, I won’t let them,” she affirmed, hoping to be his rock for all the times he’d been hers.

“I know you won’t,” Izuku conceded with a weary smile at his wife’s confidence finding its way onto his freckled face. “But still…”

A moment of silence settled between them, being interrupted by the sounds of the katsudon calling for attention on the stove.

“Aah! We were getting all emotional and junk and I completely forgot about the food that was cooking! I think you know what it is~” Himiko said with a wink, earning a chuckle from Izuku. “You just put your tired feet up for a bit while I get dinner ready and we can continue this after I-”

Himiko’s movement suddenly halted, including that of her mouth, as an offhand part of Izuku’s previous words came to the forefront of her mind. “I’m sorry, what did you mean by ‘the attack from this morning’ Zuku?”

Izuku sighed as he reached down to his briefcase and pulled out a slip of paper from a file. “The news h-haven’t gotten this information yet, but this was the reason the agency, and probably every other agency in town, was busy this morning,” he explained as he presented the paper to Himiko. “And also the reason I think I’m going to keep my q-quirklessness between me and my superiors for the time being.”

Now Himko had heard about the attack on the historic Bahtoo Bridge that this paper was describing briefly in the news earlier that day, but the blond vampire could only give out a soft “fuck” as her eyes kept going back to the bold letters adorning the top of the page, stating the previously unknown information that meant trouble for her and her husband.

“ATTACK BELIEVED TO BE PERPETRATED BY QUIRKLESS SUPREMACIST ORGANIZATION HUMARIZE.”

Chapter Text

‘There is nothing better than the smell of a freshly opened file.’ Izuku thought to himself with a good long whiff of the crisp paper as he cracked open a new analysis packet with excitement

“Jeez Midoriya, what is that your fourth file of the day?” One of his fellow analysts (Kimura if he remembered correctly) remarked as he passed the greenette’s desk, causing Izuku to jump at the sudden presence. “It isn’t even lunch yet, man!”

“S-sorry Kimura,” Izuku sheepishly apologized, mostly out of reflex, to the tusked man in front of him. “I just get e-excited about these things.”

“Well, don’t let me stop you.” he chuckled with, Izuku hoped, some level of amusement rather than derision as he headed to the coffee maker across the hall. 

Once the man was seemingly out of earshot, Izuku finally released the big breath he was unconsciously holding. It had been about a week since the green-haired analyst had begun his work at the Ryukyu agency, and he was thankful to report that he was really fitting in with his new position and coworkers.

He thinks….

If Izuku was being completely honest with himself, he still wasn’t familiar enough with being well-liked in a public environment to instinctively know if he was ‘in’ or not. Most of his time at the Slide ‘n’ Go Agency, or even in Aldera Middle School when he was younger, was spent being an outsider. He knew the small number of people that did like him weren’t exactly representative of the average person and their take on his peculiarities.

‘The further away from ‘normal’ they are, the more we gravitate toward each other it seems,’ Izuku thought with fondness as he looked back on some of his wife’s… antics during the early days of their relationship.

True, his coworkers here were more cordial with him than being outright friends, but with the circumstances Izuku found himself in, he was perfectly content with that. He knew that a lot of his fellow analysts often hung out around the water cooler and went to get drinks after work without him, while their interactions with him were mostly relegated to a couple of sentences as they passed his desk in the morning. But Izuku was glad to have a mostly positive relationship with his coworkers without being put into a position where everything from his personal life was at risk.

So, all in all, this was the best possible position for him to be at socially, and he would strive to keep it.

‘Just don’t let them know you’re quirkless then,’ a traitorous thought blew through his mind in what felt like a gruff and explosive yell.

It had also been one week since the other major event that was the Humarise terrorist attack on the Bahtoo bridge and it subsequently becoming public knowledge. The fallout was almost immediate as the previously dried-up debate on whether their actions reflected the feelings of the general quirkless population was reignited. While Humarise hadn’t done anything of that magnitude since, the many acts of public protest and vandalism, both for and against their ideology, had been piling on his desk for the last several days. Because the incoming cases had yet to slow down, Izuku knew it would not be leaving the public consciousness anytime soon.

The one place Izuku hadn’t heard a lot of opinions on quriklessness in the wake of Humarise’s resurgence was at the Ruukyuu agency, where any discussion was thankfully kept professional. He intended to keep his own quirklessness under wraps for the time being and stayed that way to protect Himi and himself the best way he could.

He just wished that Himi saw it that way too; their last conversation about it could’ve gone a lot better…

“So, what are you going to do?” Himiko probed as she took another bite of the beef katsudon she had cooked for her husband’s first day of work.

“About what?” Izuku asked as if he didn’t know the terrorist group elephant in the room that was going to be national news any minute now that she was referring to.

Himiko rolled her eyes, not finding Izuku’s stalling as cute as she usually did. “You know what I mean, Zuku; are you still not going to tell your coworkers that you’re quirkless?”

Izuku felt himself blink in confusion, that was not the question he thought she would ask. “Yes?” he responded with no concealment of his bafflement. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think this was a concern.”

“What did you think I was going to ask, Zuku?” Himiko asked incredulously.

“I thought we were going to talk about me leaving the Ryukyu agency,” Izuku admitted sheepishly, feeling a little stupid at the thought after seeing how Himiko dropped both her fork and her jaw dropped at that. “It’s just that, if there’s increased scrutiny of q-quirkless people after these attacks, it might draw attention to me and then to… u-us.”

“Izuku,” Himiko said in a voice that the greenette recognized as the tone his wife used when she had to get a point through his thick skull. “You are not quitting this job, a dream job one might say, right after your first day before you're scared for me!”

“But-”

“No buts! You are going to keep your job and show Uravity and everybody else your incredible brain or so help me Zuku I will march into that office and force them to see!” Himiko punctuated her rant by shoving a forkful of pork into her mouth with a ‘hmph!’

While Izuku knew that Himiko was joking about threatening his coworkers and the pros into respecting him, he still appreciated the lengths that his wife was (thankfully hypothetically) willing to go in order to make sure he kept what was important to him.

“Alright, no quitting,” Izuku agreed.

“Thank you,” Himiko said before her smile turned smug. “You know, you’re lucky to have me here to keep your fluffy green head on straight in the face of your adorably self-sacrificing ways.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Izuku chuckled before getting serious again. “But I still think it’s in our best interest if I don’t tell anybody I’m quirkless.”

“Why?”

Izuku could see his wife’s expression harden with her simple refutation as she poked at her food. When she realized that he was waiting for her to continue (he figured the curiosity in his expression was at least a little obvious) she released a hard exhalation.

“Sorry Zuku I don’t want to make this a whole ‘thing’ or anything, but I don’t understand why you’re still hiding yourself,” Himiko huffed as she poked at her meal. “Well, I understand I guess, but why do you keep insisting on it even now? When you know that there are plenty of people there who don’t give a rat’s ass!”

“It isn’t that simple, Himi,” Izuku reiterated, feeling himself get a bit frustrated as they circled back to this topic again. “The last thing I want is for,” he animatedly gestured to himself, “all this to bring politics in the workplace and create problems that-”

“Bullshit,” Himiko spat out in interruption, practically baring her fangs. “Maybe that was true and understandable for the Slide-n-Go agency, but you have Och- Uravity and other heroes that are willing to go to bat for you if some asshole does raise a stink about it!” 

“How do I know that?” Izuku shot back, feeling his own temper flare as he tried to get the conversation back to reason. “It would certainly be easier to sack the new employee then than to create a ‘liability’ with the established people.”

Of all the times to doubt the integrity of heroes, now is the time you choose to do so?” Himiko growled incredulously, her face shadowed in a way that made her resemble when Izuku first met her. “You have the opportunity to be who you are freely, with the heroes understanding and supporting you, but you are choosing to still hide it, still choosing to lie to yourself!” 

The incredulous anger on her face was only marred by the way her eyes watered. “Do you know how lucky you are? How much I would’ve given for that?”

By that final question, Himiko was left breathing heavily from the outburst that had escaped her, one that made it click to both her and Izuku on what this was all about. With a deep breath, Himiko recomposed herself, quickly wiping her eyes.

“Look Zuku,” she sighed as she tried to keep the tension she still felt out of her voice, only a waver making the exhaustion clear. “I said I wasn’t going to make this a whole thing, and I’ve learned my lesson about forcing my worldview on other people already about a dozen times now, so how about we just move on for now, okay? You can tell your coworkers what you want to.”

Izuku numbly nodded along with his wife’s request, wanting to not force this discussion any further either, despite his hope he could get her to understand his reasoning.

But marriages are about compromise.

 “So um, let’s talk about your day then,” Izuku awkwardly tried to get their conversation back on track, proving that age hadn’t improved his talking skills too much. “I know you said your stream… wasn’t great, but did you do anything else fun?”

“Well…” Himiko began with her usual mirth, much to Izuku’s relief. “I was getting a little bored around ten thirty-ish, so I decided to entertain myself…”

“Midoriya!”

Izuku snapped out of his remembrance at the sound of his pro-hero superior bounding into the office with a smile on her face and two steaming cups in her hands. A very fortunate arrival, as if he dwelled any more on the specifics of that conversation or the following two hours of activities that followed, then the nature of what he was thinking would be… noticeable to any passer-by.

It seemed to have become a daily ritual at this point for Uraraka (he still had to get used to not using her hero moniker) to stop by his desk. Usually, it was just to collect his completed analysis packets, but she often stopped to make light conversation. Izuku enjoyed this unexpected routine, even if he was still unbearably awkward around the pro hero, especially when trying to deflect any topic that got too close to what he was hiding.

“Good morning, Midoriya! I got some green tea this morning and figured I’d get one for you as I know you like them,” she said with the enthusiasm that had become synonymous with her public image as she held one of the cups out to him.

“T-thanks,” Izuku said as he gingerly took the offered beverage from her grip and took a sip of the warm treat. He wasn’t entirely sure how the brunette hero knew he enjoyed drinking a nice tea as he did his analysis, but rationalized that she had probably just heard it in one of the many mumble sessions she had been witness to. 

“No problem! I would say it seems fitting that green tea is your favorite with your hair, but I’m sure you’ve heard that comment way too much already,” Ochako pointed out as she nursed her own cup of tea, seemingly a little embarrassed at the fact that she pointed it out anyway.

Izuku was tempted to bring up that it seemed fitting that she liked green tea considering her name meant ‘tea child’ but decided against it. Sure, they had chatted at least once per workday since he had started his position, but he didn’t want to assume that meant they were close or anything.

“As much as I’d like to say I came just to deliver you a drink, I do have a special quirk profile to give you,” Ochako continued as she shifted a file from beneath her armpit to her newly free hand. “I was hoping to go over it with you and get your opinion right now, but if you’re busy, then I can come back later and-”

“No, no, right now works just fine.” Izuku hurriedly assured her as he pushed his current file aside to make room for the new packet. The greenette needed something to take his mind off his about quirklessness worries and his disagreement with Himiko, and talking with Uraraka about quirks felt like the perfect medicine for him.

“Great!” Uraraka cheered as gave him the file to dig into. “Now, we don’t have a name for this individual, but they are still at large and have had indirect links to Humarise in the past, so we want to make sure we have a good breakdown of their quirk as a pre-emptive measure, and I figured you were the man for the job!”

With a slight blush from the praise, he cracked open the file and dug into the quirk properties listed without hesitation. Already fired up and desperate for a distraction to cling onto, his single-minded thought process began running wild with questions and possibilities.

It was so single-minded though, that he was completely unaware that the obvious answer within this case completely went over his head.

As did the woman next to him, nearly going into hysterics over her plans practically flying off the rails right before her eyes.

It had been about one week since Ochako began her top-secret self-appointed mission. One week since the one villain that had gotten away landed right in the middle of her radar, and one week since she vowed that she wouldn’t rest until the blonde vampire was brought to justice and her impressive new hire was freed from her devious wiles.

But now, watching Midoriya dig deep into the contents of her newly created file, she knew there were going to be plenty more weeks to come.

“Wow, you have a lot of information on the properties of this quirk and how it functions in action!” Midoriya complimented with the last thing Ochako expected to see; an absolutely blinding smile. “So much preserved detail too! You said this subject doesn’t have a name?”

“Y-yep” Ocahko quickly confirmed, unsure if he was questioning her because he saw a contradiction in what she’d presented or if it was a genuine inquiry. “Their quirk was recognizable enough that we knew it was the same person, but it seems all records of them on the quirk database just… don’t exist.”

‘At least they don’t anymore,’ Ochako internally groaned as she thought back to the HPSC’s rash actions that made her job twice as hard.

But Midoriya seemingly accepted that explanation with a simple, “I see… perhaps there is a mutation or evolution at play that has made their quirk completely unrecognizable from what it was initially classified as,” before returning to the realm of mile-a-minute muttering.

It took all the gravity heroine’s willpower to not let herself fall apart at what was happening right in front of her.

Ochako would consider herself a pretty patient girl overall, a lifetime of saving and being frugal with her limited funds made sure of that, but she wasn’t somebody who could just sit around and twiddle her padded thumbs while people suffered at the hands of villains. Following the constant silence from the panic button she had given the junior analyst, the brunette had come to the realization that, if she wanted to prove the existence of Toga within Midoriya’s household, she was going to have to poke around for answers herself.

The problem that Ochako found though, was that despite Midoriya’s struggles in social interaction, not that she was much better these days and she had taken several classes on the subject, the man seemed so adept at changing the conversation to the point where Ochako didn’t realize she hadn’t gotten a straight answer from him until much later.

When she tried to ask about the ring around his finger, it ended with them talking about the new single from Earphone Jack.

When she questioned the lack of personal objects or family photos on his desk, the conversation quickly shifted until it was about that café a few blocks away that was running a promotion on the pro hero ‘Thirteen’ right now. 

She asked him about his evening plans, and somehow found herself telling him her incredibly mundane plans instead.

It just kept happening! She would’ve guessed this latent talent to be a quirk if she didn’t know there was an extra toe bone that made it impossible.

So Ochako had decided to take his efforts up a notch. She spent an entire evening creating a new quirk file for Toga using whatever information she could find that escaped the sealing of her previous file and drew on her own experiences to fill in the blank spaces. She omitted all personal details of the girl while making it still quite obvious who it was about to anybody who knew the bun-headed villain.

Which she assumed Midoriya did.

She could feel her conscience, in the froggy form of Tsu, giving her a disapproving stare for forging an official document, but it was for a good cause! She figured once Midoriya saw undeniable proof of what she knew, they would be able to broach the topic without the greenette feeling the need to wriggle out of it.

But what she didn’t expect was the very thing that was happening right in front of her.

“So this person can copy quirks through absorbing blood, but only if it’s somebody they are well acquainted with and are familiar with the ins and outs of their quirk,” Midoriya mused aloud as he jotted some notes down. “It wouldn’t make sense for a hero that has tangled with them before, but that puts the hero in question at a disadvantage considering the brutality of their methods and their emphasis on surprise attacks. What a dilemma to plan around!”

“Yeah… what a dilemma,” Ochako replied with a million suppressed questions on the tip of her tongue.

She thought Midoriya had run out of ways to surprise her, but lo and behold, here he was rambling about his presumed wife’s quirk without a care in the world. She expected at the very least some hesitation or an attempt to downplay the contents that she could dig into, but instead, he just dove into it like a kid after trick or treating. There wasn’t any familiarity in his analysis either, it was just… another quirk to dissect.

“Uraraka?”

“Huh?” Ochako said as she snapped back to reality to find Midoriya now looking at her questioningly. “S-sorry Midoriya, I was a little spaced out for a second. What were you saying?”

“Are you okay? You look a little flushed,” Midoriya asked carefully as Ochako hoped her sweating was more emotional than physical (because if that was so, then she’d be absolutely drenched). “If I’m giving you a headache or something, we can stop for today and we can talk again later.”

“No, no, no, I’m perfectly fine!” Ochako hastily reassured him as she recomposed herself. “What was your question again?”

“Well, I was curious if you’ve ever fought this villain?” Midoriya asked as he prepped his pencil and paper for note-taking.

“Well um… yes, I have,” Ochako answered hesitantly, wondering if this was an opportunity or a trap.

“Great!” Midoriya said before catching himself. “I mean not great considering… you know, they’re still at large and everything.”

‘Well, that stings’ Ochako thought to herself as she averted her eyes from the seemingly oblivious face of her co-worker, ‘especially if you’re part of the reason why that’s the case.’

“I was just wondering if you could elaborate on the claim that, ‘the individual’s fighting style is based around her agility and putting her opponent on the back foot psychologically, drawing the hero close with flattering banter and quick movement before overcoming them and taking their blood in a deceptively pleasant manner’,” Midoriya quoted to an increasingly red Ochako. “Is that part of the quirk? It’s not mentioned anywhere else, so am I missing something?”

It was pretty late at night when Ochako was writing the contents of this file, and it was awkward hearing her work spoken back to her in such an objective way. She could see how her wording could be seen as… complimentary toward Toga. 

She made her sound like some kind of tempestuous succubus.

‘Well, I guess that isn’t… NOPE! Moving on!’

“O-oh, well, that just means sh- they used banter to throw people off their game,” Ochako replied as she willed her blush back to her cheeks. “To get them into c-compromising positions.”

“I see,” Midoriya noted as he quickly jotted down something that Ochako could only see ended with ‘-uction’. “So then it seems like her primary advantage comes from getting the drop on her opponent and using their quirk against them. It sounds like the ideal strategy is one where the hero gets a sneak attack on them from behind and grapples them in a way that keeps them gagged.”

Ochako awkwardly nodded along to Izuku’s plan, hoping that, even if this was a dead end on where Toga was, it wouldn’t hurt to get a good strategy on how to incapacitate her. With her head in such a frazzled mess, she was starting to picture it so clearly in her mind too. Finally being the one to get the drop on Toga after all these years… restraining the vampire woman and finally being the one in control.

“That sounds like a good plan,” Ochako agreed, the images in her brain beginning to… do things to her.

“Once the hero gets them into this position, disarming them of her equipment should be quick work and leave her at their mercy even more,” Izuku continued. 

“Yeah… at my mercy…” Ochako murmured, a little more blissfully, imagining herself on top of a struggling Toga. Her hands exploring deep into the bound villain’s outfit to remove her knives as the woman slowly realized this wasn’t going to be like their previous encounters.

While Ochako was caught up in her fantasies, Izuku pressed onward, completely oblivious as to what his words were doing to the heroine next to him. “The next course of action is to gag her to remove her way of taking any blood she might already have.”

“Yeah… shut her up.” Ochako dreamily confirmed, with only the fact that Izuku’s brain was completely consumed by quirk strategy saving her from embarrassment.

“There should be another hero with a long-distance quirk nearby enough in order to provide backup but in a way that keeps them at a distance from the pair in case the hold breaks.”

“Exactly, Midoriya, show me what you do to put her in her place!” Ochako practically moaned by this point.

“ME?!” Midoriya gaped, proving that he could in fact be broken from his mutter-storm, as Ochako felt herself jump from her skin. “Well I-I don’t know if I could s-show you, but I’d be happy to explain further if you’d like.”

“N-no it’s alright,” Ochako juggled comforting her co-worker and chastising herself for letting her imagination get away from her during work hours. “Let’s put a hold on this for now, it’s g-given me a lot to think about.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Midoriya breathed in relief that he wasn’t wasting her time. “I hope I’ve at least helped you in figuring out some weak points to exploit.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet you’re good at making her fall apart,” Ochako absent-mindedly agreed, but she froze with bugled eyes as the magnitude of her slip hit her.

The office kept bustling around them, but there was silence between the two of them. An expression of horror was only met with one betraying more confusion than anything else.

“Wha-”

“Wellgottago,thanksforthehelpMidoriyaandgoodluckwithyourpackets,byeeeeee!” Ochako rushed before he could get another word in, quickly yanking the file back into her fumbling arms and speed-walking out. She could feel the stares from all the other interns as she left, stares that turned to a still-baffled Midoriya for answers once she was finally out of that office and could breathe again.

Why was it that every time she tried to make headway on this case, she fell apart like a tired Tokage? She’d graduated from the best hero high school in the country! She had been on countless missions and came back with justice served! Yet now when she tried to focus on Toga or Midoriya or, heaven forbid, both of them, it was like her tongue wanted to choke her as all the skills she learned just floated away.

‘I have to solve this, just as much for my own good,’ She mused wearily.

Although, in a way, she supposed she got her answer. Midoiya didn’t seem to connect the dots at all between Toga’s quirk profile and the woman herself. To him, it was just another ability for him to unwrap like a kid at Christmas with no fear of betraying his wife.

‘So I guess that’s it then.’

The gravity heroine felt her eye twitch.

‘Case closed.’

There it was again.

‘I guess Izuku Midoriya is absolutely, positively not married to Himi-’

Okay, that was a full-body twitch there.

Maybe it was a safe conclusion that she needed more evidence before she could agree with that statement.

Although, if she’d stayed about a minute longer, she could’ve gotten all the evidence she needed when Midoriya’s quirk-brain wore off. Able to watch as he went through the five stages of grief about what he was just blabbing about and how he almost blew his cover to his unsuspecting boss with an unfortunate knack for finding coincidental profiles for him to dig into.

‘Another day, another stream with nobody there,’ Himiko grumbled to herself as she shut off her PC and threw down her headphones in an annoyed huff.

When Izuku got this job and was now out of the house for the majority of the day, she figured one of the (very few) perks of this arrangement was that she could put more of her focus into her streaming without a certain freckled husband of hers being all adorable and distracting. But here she was, a week in and nothing to show for it but shorter and shorter streams as her patience grew thinner and thinner.

For as much as she was thankful for her current position in life was, of which she was really, really thankful, Himiko couldn’t help but feel the curl of the monkey’s paw having spread to every other part of her life besides her already achieved goal of loving who she wanted how she wanted.

‘Yep, it has been achieved,’ she reminded herself with a not-so-friendly reminder not to be a greedy bitch.

So on a completely unrelated note, she pulled up Ochako’s page on Holobook.

All the news was gloom and doom, and hit a little too close to home as of late, so ever since Izuku began his job she’d rekindled one of her oldest pastimes in ‘stalking’ the hero’s social media.

Okay, maybe back when she started, stalking was an apt word for what she was doing; trying to track the girl from her limited posts as she fantasized about drawing her blood and becoming one with her both inside and out.

Nowadays, she just liked looking at the girl purely to check in on how she grew into being a hero and see what she was up to.

Completely different!

Himiko pulled up one of Ochako’s most recent posts, depicting her getting coffee and muffins from a local shop, with her extolling her love of the place in the description. Himiko wasn’t so blind that she didn’t know that her social media was curated by some intern, like every other hero’s was, but she felt that Ochako’s authentic self still shone through. From the genuine smile she gave in each post that had nothing on the fake plastered ones she was familiar with, to the way she responded to each and every comment, sometimes striking up a friendly conversation at times.

It certainly was a tempting prospect, to reach out to her old… acquaintance, but she couldn’t risk backsliding into her old habits.

‘Besides, with our history, it would be like if I was reaching out to an ex, and I’m not doing that to Zuku,’ Himiko thought to herself, deciding that it was a good time to ignore how willing she was to push her ex ‘in spirit’ and Izuku together, otherwise as not to completely blow a hole in her logic.

Going back to the safer activity of just admiring Ochako from afar, she found herself swiping through the woman’s posts slower the longer she went, lingering more and more on each one. There were some with her in a causal T-shirt and shorts, some with her in a puffy sweater from the previous winter, and others with her in her classic hero suit that somehow seemed to flatter her more with age.

Himiko would stand by that her favorite part of Ochako was her smile, but god-damn her figure was a great bonus. The only problem was the clothes, generous as they may be, hid more than she wished they would. Maybe she could get Zuku to encourage Ochako to push her posts in a more risqué direction. Perhaps he could get involved too and-

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

With a jolt that gave her phone a good four seconds of airtime, Himiko froze up at the rapping against their apartment door, remaining stationary until more knocks proved this wasn’t a mistake. With all the stealth skills that she had picked up from her many years on the wrong side of the tracks, she silently approached the door.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

With a feeling of dread, she peeked through the peephole and saw…

“Mama Inko!”

“Hello Himiko, I hope I’m not bothering you right now.” Inko Midoriya greeted as she and her bag were quickly ushered into their home and the door was relocked behind her.

“Believe me, you’re not.” Himiko sighed as she discreetly wiped her mouth to make sure any and all drool was kept out of sight from her guest. “I just hate that I kept you at the door for that long, Zuku always offers you the spare key for a reason, you know.”

“Don’t you worry about it dear; better to be safe than sorry,” Inko waved away her daughter-in-law’s concern as she made her way to their front room table and placed her bag on its surface. Himiko went to fetch a drink for the faded greenette who made herself comfortable in their home.

Just as Izuku had filled a certain hole in her life that drove her darker pursuits, his mother also gave Himiko something she had been missing for all her life. They certainly met on good terms, but it didn’t take long for the whole ‘your son is dating a former villain’ bandage to get ripped off (never a good time for that one). It created a bit of tension to be sure, and the responding shovel talk was still burned into her brain. But once it was established how much they both would do for Izuku, they were somehow able to get along just swimmingly again, with plenty of mother-daughter-in-law bonding to boot that filled that gap where her own mother shunned who she was.

“So what brings you to our humble abode?” Himiko asked as she brought Inko her drink, speaking as though the reason wasn’t clearly in the bag beside her.

“Well, I figured that today was as good a day as any to bring you some of the leftovers from work,” Inko replied as she dug into the bag adorned with her workplace logo. “Just refrigerate them as soon as possible, I would hate for them to go bad before you got a chance to enjoy them.”

Himiko couldn’t help but lick her lips as she saw them in Mama Inko’s hand; fresh packs of blood! As a nurse at Musutafu General Hospital, her wonderful mother-in-law has been able to swipe some of the good stuff for her since she and Izuku tied the knot together. It was amazing how much donated blood gets thrown into a communal blood bank, but Mama Inko’s presents were untainted and all-natural, meaning it even meshed with Transformation.

Did she mention how lucky she was? Himiko felt like she needed to bring that up again to combat her earlier pity party.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” The blond vampire cried as she gave Inko a big ol’ bear hug. “I’ve been sooooo cooped up, you don’t know how much I’ve needed something like this!”

“I know honey,” Inko hugged back sympathetically. “Sorry it’s been a while since I got you some, things have been tough lately.”

“There is quite literally no need to apologize!” Himiko told her in a similar way to what she told her son. “A lot of people wouldn’t risk everything for an in-law like me, so you’re going above and beyond!”

Breaking the hug, Himiko scurried to place her new ‘special snacks’ within the fridge, placing them away from her normal blood bags for cravings lest she get them confused. Her mind wandered to what she could do with her freedom. There were a lot of things outside the walls of their apartment; she’d just have to choose wisely with the supplies that she now had.

Once it was all dealt with and put away, she made her way back to Inko with a skip in her step. “Thank you again, Mama Inko,” she reiterated with an added bow to show how deep her gratefulness went.

“It is not a problem at all, dear,” Inko reiterated herself, brushing the praise away, “I’m glad you like it, it seems like it’s been crazy for you and my precious baby too recently.”

“Kinda? I don’t know, it’s been… hard.” Himiko sighed, plopping her head on the table, “Zuku’s been thriving at Ryukyu’s, and I’ve been surviving here fine enough.”

“But?” Inko prompted, her mother senses tingling.

“I’m happy that Zuku is doing what he loves and is happy about it, don’t get me wrong. He absolutely deserves it after everything,” Himiko continued, “I just… I guess I just wish we both could be making an impact instead of me just languishing here.”

“Oh, honey…”

“No, don’t feel bad about me,” Himiko insisted. “I brought this all on myself. But with all this Humarise stuff in the news, I wish I could do something and do it better than my… first attempt.”

“Ah yes, Humarise,” Inko grimly noted as she took a sip of her tea. “I assume that hasn’t helped my Izuku and his worries at all?”

“No, he’s been quite shaken by this all,” Himiko confirmed, thinking back to their argument and all the ways she could’ve handled it better. She really regretted throwing her baggage on top of Izuku’s already back-breaking load, but in her husband’s reasonings, all she saw was another spirit who would lock up himself to prove to the ‘normal’ people he had a right to exist alongside them, even as it ate him alive.

One way or another she would free him from that mindset, she knew that much.

“And you’re sure that Uravity will protect him?” Inko asked with worry in her eyes, even if they hadn’t reached the infamous Midoriya tears yet. “I would hate for this to be like those Slide-n-Go bastards again.”

Himiko chuckled at the way the otherwise polite woman cursed out those fake heroes. “If there is one thing I can promise you, it’s that Uravity has Zuku’s best interests at heart. She’s always been a sucker for saving people from themselves, and if what I’ve been hearing is true, she’s working her magic slowly but surely on him.”

She decided it was best to leave out, ‘also she and your son are both hot and sometimes I dream of pushing their stupid heads together so they make out!’ There was a time and place for those bandages to be ripped off in front of his mother, and that was never.

“Well, that’s a relief to hear. She seems like such a nice girl,” Inko released her held breath. “Sounds like you have a good idea of this Uravity girl, is that from experience?”

“Ummmmm…” Himiko’s heart rate broke into a sprint as she was confronted with the patented mom stare that rivaled HPSC interrogators in their ability to make you sweat.

“Yeah, we were… familiar during the war,” Himiko confessed wearily, deciding that throwing in the towel and offering up some truth was a better option than trying to wiggle out of this. “We got into plenty of fights and stuff, but she had a knack for making me all sappy, not that your son didn’t help in that department.”

The whole, ‘also I had the hots for her in the same way I do your son,’ was still left off the table for obvious reasons

“I see,” Inko nodded, strangely unreadable as she took another long sip. “And does Izuku know about this?”

“No. I thought he’d freak out about working with her if he knew the extent of it,” Himiko sounded like a chided child as she told Inko everything.

She wanted a mother figure, but not like this!

“Can you maybe keep this between the two of us right now?” She asked sheepishly. “I know it’s not great, but Zuku is doing so well, and I’d hate for my crap to ruin it for him… again.”

“It’s safe with me, honey,” Inko reassured. “But I only hope you consider how what you said about Uravity applies to you as well.”

“Eh?” Himiko couldn’t help but be a little stunned at what Inko was implying. Izuku was a good guy who got saddled with a raw deal, herself included. He was nothing like the villain she was; parasitically clinging to things she doesn’t deserve, still waiting for it to all fall apart…

“With all due respect, ma’am, I think your son and I are not really comparable,” Himiko gently tried to let them both down. “I don’t think she wants anything to do with me after everything.”

“Maybe, all I’m asking is that you think about it,” Inko nodded back. “Perhaps things can work out for both you and my Izuku.”

That classic Midoriya optimism. Himiko couldn’t help but admire it, even when she one-hundred percent didn’t agree with it. “I’ll think about it,” she finally concluded resolutely.

“Thank you,” Inko nodded as her phone started ringing a theme Himiko could swear she recognized from somewhere. “Shoot, I have to take this, I’ll be back in a second.”

As the older woman hurried into the other room, Himiko made good on her promise to think about herself and Ochako beyond her shallow lusts. She couldn’t help but feel some allure to the idea of them burying the hatchet and starting again, but that was just a pipe dream. Right now, the best she could do is make sure Ochako treated Izuku right. It was good for him to have somebody on his side while she was still stuck in the…

Suddenly an idea popped into her brain, something devious even all these years later. An idea that made her face break out into an absolute grin.

“Sorry about that,” Inko instinctively apologized as she re-entered the room a few minutes later, “I was hoping she’d call later, but she had to… now what are you smiling about?”

“Oh, nothing,” Himiko chuckled like she was a teen again. “I just had an idea of what I want to do with your present.”

Chapter Text

“O-oh fuck, Zuku!”

Himiko felt herself repeating that and various similar involuntary phrases of hushed pleasure as she and Izuku tangled themselves within their soon-to-be stained sheets.

‘Let them get fucking dirty! I can spend my alone time tomorrow cleaning it with my tongue!’ Himiko thought to herself in a haze of molten heat, but any attempt to vocalize it just came out a deep moan.

“God Himi, if you keep making noises like that…” Izuku groaned in a warning that Himiko wanted to ignore more than anything right now. One set of his fingers found their way into her inviting folds that were absolutely soaked and dripping with need while the others were hard at work to stimulate her exposed nipples with all the roughness that she desired.

While she usually preferred her pussy to be penetrated by other appendages, Himiko couldn’t deny that Izuku’s fingers knew how to put her through her paces. She liked to joke that his talent with his hands came from his many years of rapid sketching and typing, but that was mainly her attempt to rationalize how her cinnamon bun of a man was capable of driving such a kinky woman (if she did say so herself) up the wall with his digits.

“Do it, f-fucking do it, do it, d-do it!” She babbled in response, not entirely knowing what Izuku was implying but completely down for whatever plan he had to keep her arousal rising. Himiko was doing her part to help the greenette’s quest for her orgasm by gyrating in sync with Izuku’s hand and bringing their bodies together with her own previously free hands.

Primarily with a firm grip on his ass because that was the kind of gal she was.

“Do you want me to continue with just fingers, or do you want something more?” Her husband asked with a dominance Himiko took years to coax out of him, and developed with his desire to please his vampiric wife 

“Z-Zuku, give me more!” Himiko panted as she increased the pace of her already hurried humping around his circling fingers and brought the two lovers closer within their bed cocoon until there wasn’t a gap between their thoroughly-groped bodies. Her desperation was building with every passing moment and she was ready to burst. “Give. Me. Fucking. More!”

Izuku smiled, a smile so unlike his usual grins of pure sunshine with its amorous intent that she couldn’t pretend to resist the shiver it sent through her spine. “Well then, let me give you one last thing to help you c-cum,” he remarked lustily with just a little remaining uncertainty as the arm that worked her tits was instead presented for her to feast upon.

Oh, god yes!

With her eyes shining and being too horny for hesitation, she dove into Izuku’s arm with deep relish. She was careful enough to aim her fangs at a vein that would almost never be exposed to Ochako, but once her teeth were sunk into her husband’s rough flesh all bets were off.

“Mhm! Mhm! Hmmmmmmmmgh~,” Himiko moaned while muffled, her eyes glazed and panting so heavily that there was practically steam coming out of her nose. She was feeling pleasure from both ends; her taste buds alight with bliss as she lapped her husband’s blood and his fingers still working their erotic rhythm down below. The fanged woman could feel her climax beginning to bubble over as her favorite treat slid down her throat like sweet nectar that her life depended on. But what truly brought her over the edge was when her eyes refocused and she saw the smile of adoration that Izuku was laying on her despite their current state of depravity.

Himiko could take him pounding her pussy, and she could even stave off an orgasm while drinking his blood on occasion, but the triple attack aimed right at the heart was too much for her to bear!

And with one last unintelligible “ffffffffuck!” around Izuku’s arm, Himiko got the release she was pushing toward, her teeth still embedded in her husband’s skin. Once Izuku felt his wife’s clenching release, he slowly removed his now-dripping digits from her entrance and brought them before her face. The woman’s orgasm-induced fatigue seemed to disappear as quickly as it came, snapping back to attention once she saw Izuku’s post-coital offering and bringing them into her second favorite hole to suck her juice off them.

‘His blood and my fluids intertwining inside me~’ Himiko swooned to herself as she sucked as though her life depended on it. That thought alone would’ve given her the drive for more rounds until the sun rose if not for her body telling her to pump the brakes for a moment.

“Good girl,” Izuku praised in what was meant to be sexy but came out as dorkily earnest as the greenette felt what little periods of dominance he could muster escape him. Despite that, it was able to make Himiko purr, the vibrations… doing things to his currently horned-up brain.

With a very satisfying ‘pop’, Izuku’s fingers were released fully cleaned from Himiko’s mouth, who licked her lips for any remaining substance, hers or his. 

“That was so good,” she sighed contently, her labored breathing causing her whole chest to heave.

“Yeah, it was,” Izuku agreed through his own heavy breaths and scratching the back of his head almost bashfully. Himiko was in awe at his ability to have any bashfulness left after… everything. “I, uh, kinda needed that today.”

“No offense, Zuku, but I could tell,” Himiko remarked, thinking back to how tense he seemed to be at dinner earlier the night before, her eyes trailing down to the part of his body that was still tense. “And it looks like you still do~.”

Izuku followed her line of sight to his still very erect penis with the realization of what she was getting at. 

“Oh, heh, you don’t need to worry about me.” He brushed off, shifting his legs in an attempt to take the heat off his already sweltering manhood.

It didn’t work.

“Come on Zuku, let me take care of you,” Himiko insisted before hitting him with the most deadpan of looks, “and don’t you try to tell me that ‘making you feel good is enough for me’… again.”

Izuku mentally facepalmed himself at that memory. It sounded sweet and gentlemanly in his head, but all Himiko saw was a martyr for blue balls, a fact she would not let stand as he soon discovered.

“It’s not like that,” Izuku assured her, “is it okay if we do something slow for me? I was hoping we could just relax together. But, you know, doing it as a sexy thing?”

Izuku was worried his bumbling explanation might have ruined the whole ‘vibe’ they had going until Himiko smiled at him with the pearly whites he loved so much. 

“How about some cock-warming then,” she suggested impishly to Izuku’s raised eyebrows. “Some nice, sexy spooning with your poor, hard cock inside my pussy that still aches for more of you, Zuku. It’ll be nice, you can wind down even as you use my body to help get you off”.

The greenette could already feel his ‘mini-Zuku’ give the idea a standing ovation as he moved to embrace his lavishly grinning wife. 

“God that sounds absolutely heavenly Himi.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” she coquettishly chirped in response, sliding down from her hug around Izuku’s chest until she pushed her first favorite of Izuku’s appendages into her pussy, which was certainly feeling the effects of their previous session less than ten minutes ago as it slid into her tired, yet eager, folds.

Any momentary discomfort was worth it for love!

“How you feeling Zuku?” Himiko asked once she had fully consumed his member. “All snug and cozy I hope.”

“Oh, yeah,” Izuku confirmed with contentment, enveloping Himiko in his arms as she enveloped him down below. “F-fuck Himi~”

“Glad to hear it,” his wife smirked. If there was one thing they both enjoyed more than being in the throes of pleasure themselves, it was getting the other there. “Now then, let’s just enjoy each other for a bit.”

And for the next several minutes they spooned in silence, with only the occasional gasp or groan to disrupt the tranquillity. Himiko could feel the tension Izuku had built up during the day dissipate from his arms, his shoulders, his chest, and beyond as she melted more into his body and the newfound haze of serene sexiness. 

When she heard about his close call with Ochako and a quirk analysis of hers truly, Himiko immediately thought two things. First, that her poor husband had gone through an emotional wringer that poked holes in every one of his worst fears and worries. And second, the whole thing reeked of something fishy.

‘After all, there was no way Ochako would forget about me and our many misadventures together. I’m just too goddamn lovable to be banished from her mind that quickly!’

However, she could only deal with the first bullet point for now. While she was doing good work in that regard, thanks to their relaxing sexy session together, she had something else up her sleeve to get his mind off of his floundering in front of Ochako and back on what he always came home to.

“So Zuku…” she broke the silence with a small wiggle of her hips to go with it. “I got a little visit while you were away at work today~.”

“Oh?” Izuku raised his eyebrows at her comment, not because he didn’t know who came over, (there was exactly one other person that Himiko would let into their home), but more because he was curious about what happened that led to her bringing it up right now.

Because there was no other reason for Himi to bring his mother up during sex, and that was the last he was going to dwell on that .

“Yeah, I got myself a nice little present from it too,” Himiko nodded, adding more motion to the slowly increasing grind that Izuku had to admit wasn’t exactly unwelcome. “About a dozen full bags of donated blood, straight from the tap and perfect to transform with.”

Izuku’s eyes lit up with emerald stars. 

“That’s great!” He exclaimed excitedly, shifting upward in a way that accidentally shot a jolt straight through Himiko as she fell back, (and her… clenching reaction to it sent a jolt of its own through him). “Sorry, sorry, but it’s exciting! It opens up so many options for you now! Plus, it’ll probably be nice for you to be able to use transform with anybody but me after a while.”

“I mean… I wouldn’t consider that a bad thing,” Himiko muttered, hugging herself as she thought about being one with the person she loved in more ways than she was currently. “But you’re right that it opens up plenty of options, and I think I know what I’m going to use it for: a date night!” 

Izuku couldn’t deny that the possibility excited him, especially in the face of his wife’s giddiness, but he still had his concerns. 

“I uh, I’m not saying I dislike the idea, but don’t you think it’ll be risky with-”

“One bag alone has enough juice to keep me going the whole night, and it’s not as though we’ll be doing anything to deplete it faster than normal,” Himi interrupted with reason, having seen the worry coming and prepared in advance. “Come on, Zuku, I think we deserve a night on the town together after everything we’ve gone through. When I use your blood to go outside, I can’t stand next to you and I wanna chance to show off my amazing husband!”

Himiko had moved into a merciless pout as she begged unrepentantly to her husband in question. Izuku couldn’t deny his wife was being quite tempting. ‘In more ways than one,’ he noted, taking stock of how they’d shifted to the point she was practically mounted on top of him. But the nagging of his nerves remained persistent as he muttered an, “I don’t know…”

At which point, Himiko knew it was time for her final ace.

“We can go to Lunch Rush’s new fine dining restaurant.”

“...”

“...”

“Himi?”

“Yes, Zuku?”

“ Start fucking moving .”

And Himiko did so gladly, bouncing to her heart’s delight as she got the implicit confirmation she’d hoped for. She knew her husband’s fanboyism trumped his common sense any day as had been true since they first met all those years ago. But her mind was elsewhere from her victory as she rode Izuku into the night, content to leave the date planning for future Himiko.

Once she was able to get over her soreness, of course.

As Ochako floated up to grab a pet rabbit that had somehow gotten caught in a tree during her patrol, she couldn’t help but think about all the good things about life that so often passed her by.

The shining sun in the blue sky.

The gentle breeze that swept through her brunette bob.

The fluffy fur of the rabbit that reminded her of Midoriya’s fluffy hair and the villain he was married to-

She gave herself a small slap to the cheeks to get that thought out of her head, which startled the rabbit in question. 

“Oh, sorry,” she apologized to the animal as she took it in her arms and brought it down to the ground, back into the hands of its distressed owner.

“Here you are,” Ochako told the young, pigtailed girl in boots and overalls as the bunny hopped into her grasp. “Just try to be more careful with your pets in the future, alright?” She requested, hoping to impart some good values during this moment.

“Thank you, Miss Uravity,” the girl nodded as she cuddled the rabbit up toward her ear for a couple of seconds before stating, “Mr. Floppity also thanks you, he was scared!”

“Tell Mr. Floppity it’s no problem! That’s just what heroes do!” Ochako assured the rabbit through her owner, not being able to resist cooing over the cuteness on display. She enjoyed bringing smiles to people of all ages, but moments like these reminded her of why she wanted to be a hero even before she knew about their salary and what it could do for her family. To see the reassurance that she found in heroes during her youth now reflected at her made her heart positively burst.

‘That’s not all that’s bursting,’ she couldn’t help but note as these palpitations found themselves not only in her chest but also further down…

“See ya, Miss Uravity,” the girl cheerfully departed as she rejoined her friends at a distance to tell them all about Mr. Floppity’s big adventure. Ochako gave the children one last wave that none of them paid any attention to before continuing her patrol, doing her best to ignore the newest sensation in the long line of recent distractions.

She knew that her personal mission to uncover the truth about… the person she was really not to think of right now and his wife, who she was trying to think about even less… was affecting her life in quite a few ways. For the most part, she was tentatively alright with this. After all, it was a hero’s duty to ensure the safety and comfort of the public, even at the expense of one’s own well-being.

She could feel Tsu’s exasperated side-eye over her taking the wrong lesson from their UA training all the way from here.

Now Ochako was okay with it taking over her personal life, there wasn’t much for it to take over there besides making her keep missing texts from friends, family, and co-workers; which wasn’t that unusual if she was being honest as she still hadn’t gotten the greatest handle on texting in a timely manner after being unable to with the phone she’d had for half her life. She did, however, refuse to let it affect her Hero work, and when she awoke looking like Shinsou’s cousin with the culprit being a table of incomprehensible ramblings behind her, she knew she needed to reign it in.

So here she was now, attempting to do just that.

When she was on patrols she felt that her focus entered a place it never got to in her day-to-day life, but she was hoping that, maybe this once, she could squeeze some of that cool-headed thinking into her time-off the clock too. So far, there hadn’t been anything major to deal with besides the standard pro duties with her presence just being reassuring; every day when the most pressing issue she encountered were a pet rabbit in a tree was good in her book. Plus, being able to get out and do her thing was really helping her clear her mind of her current distractions.

‘More or less,’ Ochako internally noted as she looked back on her slip-ups, including the most recent one she wasn’t entirely sure was related to everything else she was dealing with.

Future Ochako was getting a lot of baggage thrown her way these days.

Suddenly, the gravity girl felt a new alert vibrate through her phone. ‘Villain attack in progress at the Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall, requesting nearby Heroes for immediate back-up.’

“I guess that’s me,” She said to herself as she shoved her phone back into her suit pocket, having spoken too soon about the action level of her day.

As she floated through the air toward her new destination to lend her assistance, she let herself, for the shortest of moments, feel good about the improvements her mindset was making and how she was almost at the place where these lingering concerns of hers were no longer a hindrance.

When she finally arrived, Ochako was able to parse out certain details of what the situation was from the less-than-hushed whispers of the crowd alone, who had gathered in the parking lot to gawk at the imminent danger.

“It’s Humarize again, I knew we hadn’t heard the last of those madmen!”

“They’re live-streaming right now, saying it’s the reckoning for all us quirked folk!”

“All the poor people still inside, what do you think they’re going to do to them?”

‘Fuck.’

Moving through the crowd, she caught up with the two other heroes on the scene, one being a familiar face and the other… still being familiar but certainly less so.

“Hey Uravity!” her former classmate Mina Ashido, now known across Japan as the Acid Hero ‘Pinky’, waved her over with a bit too much enthusiasm for the seemingly dire situation they were currently in. “Just the hero we were hoping for! Isn’t that right, Shishikross?”

Seiji Shishikura, the stone-faced Shikestsu graduate who she couldn’t remember if she had interacted with since the war, looked her over and appeared to be trying to remember the extent of her abilities as much as she was for him. 

“She should work well with the plan we’ve devised, are you aware of the particulars of the current situation?”

Ochako gave a gesture of ‘eh’ to the two other heroes on the scene. 

“From the crowd alone, I know that it’s those Humarize bastards, and they have hostages, but that’s about all I’ve gotten.”

“That’s roughly the extent of our knowledge as well,” Mina conceded before Shishikura could relish in correcting her. “We know that this operation is led by a man by the name of Kentaro Tsunoda, someone who is somewhat new to the cult but believes their bull wholeheartedly. He has a history of filming public destruction with his quirk, Iron Mace, for his followers, but this is certainly an escalation for him.”

The name sounded familiar, If Ochako remembered currently he was involved in the previous attack on the Bahtoo Bridge at a lesser capacity. She was also fairly certain that Midoriya had included him in the quirk packet he had created on the incident in question.

“What about the hostages?” She probed, knowing that was their first and most prominent concern regardless.

“We have reason there are roughly eight, all held by this villain and his thugs in a Heromart superstore near the center of the structure,” Shishikura nodded gravely. “Our present plan, and likely the best we will get, is that if two of us enter the front door, with one hero dispatching the foot soldiers to ensure the other can confront their leader, then the final member of our trio can get the civilians out from beneath their nose as that is occurring.”

The gravity heroine might have been prone to less-than-smart thinking as of late, but she was still able to pick up what the purple-haired hero was putting down. 

“So, you want me to be on hostage duty for this one?” She asked rhetorically, holding her padded fingers close and ready for action.

“Well, you are the only one here with ‘rescue’ in your job description,” Mina replied just as rhetorically, cutting off Shishikura who looked like he wanted to give his own two cents on how she should approach this. Her tone was slightly teasing, but for her, it showed the bond they had built as a part of the self-titled ‘Hell Class’ of UA. “I’m assuming you don’t need any instructions on how to sneak in and get the drop on these guys?”

“Nope, I can find my way around these rafters,” Ochako confirmed, the determination Mina remembered from the many Sports Festivals past on full display as she began to float above them and clicked on her earpiece. “I’ll keep you both posted on my position, just tell me when you’re ready to make a decisive move.”

“How about you, Shishikross?” She heard Mina ask as she made her way through an open window. “You ready to kick some cultist ass?”

“I’m prepared, though I would suggest you take this a little more seriously,” Shishikura couldn’t resist adding, still a little miffed at the pink-skinned girl stepping on his toes.

If there was any more conversation after that Ochako lost it as she slipped into the rafters of the now abandoned and darkened stores. This wasn’t the first time she had snuck inside the Kiyashi Mall during a villain attack, (in fact, it seemed like she visited the complex more often for hero business than she ever did for shopping), so she had a good idea of how to make her way through the darkened building. Her efforts to move as silently as possible only magnified every other sound within the premises.

Some of them were the kinds of things she wanted to hear on a heroic mission.

“Listen, it’s not that I don’t believe that she could take away their quirks, it just all seems very… hey, did you hear someth-”

“Woah, hey! Not the face! Not the face!”

It was nice to know that Team A was doing well.

But there was plenty more that sunk her stomach in a way that reminded her of the thankfully long-gone effects that her quirk had on her. As Ochako drew closer to where the hostages would be, a shrill voice began echoing across the walls she slowly glided across, and the further in she got, the more she could make out what it was saying.

The more she could make it out, the more she didn’t like it.

“The society that we live in, this wretched hive of false gods and unnatural blasphemies, it’s doomed my brothers and sisters,” the voice theatrically declared. “We sealed our fate the moment the marks of sin became apparent and we still invited this infected population into our cities, into our homes, and into our beds. We became complacent with our new quirked overlords, let the media tell us that they were protectors, but that was our first and most fatal act of hubris.”

Ochako felt like she couldn’t listen to another second of this tirade, a desire that was thankfully granted by a buzz through her earpiece. 

“Uravity, what’s your position? Are you near hostages?” The voice of Mina blared into her ear despite the fact the pink girl was whispering.

“I’m in the room, Pinky, but negative on visual at the moment,” she whispered back, hoping it didn’t blast her former classmate’s ears like it did for her.

“Keep him in your sights, Uravity,” Shishikura cut in sternly before seemingly being cut off himself by the villain the two were currently occupying themselves with. “These miscreants are attempting to inform their leader that we are on our way. Ideally, we’ll be there shortly to assist you as we discussed but take whatever action you see fit to make sure he doesn’t attempt anything rash in the meantime.”

Certainly not willing to take that chance, Ochako got to a vantage point where she could see the situation on the superstore’s second story in all its dreadful glory. Several men and women, actually nine to her count, were left bound to three decorative columns. The only person in the room not bound up was a man with long blond hair running down his shoulders and his body wrapped in a pure white cloak adorned with the standard, medieval-inspired Humarise armor.

She knew this was Kentaro Tsunoda from the way all the hostages avoided the eyes of their captor who believed himself to be a liberator. He paced back and forth between them, animatedly ranting into his phone seemingly to thousands of people behind their screens watching his livestream.

“I, like I’m sure some of these ‘upstanding’ people do right as we speak, once looked down on the quirkless population in the arrogance of my youth,” Tsunoda admitted to his audience, looking away in apparent shame that Ochako struggled to tell if it was genuine or not. “But I saw the light, my brothers and sisters! I learned that those unburdened by the disease of quirks will inherit the Earth and the rest shall be purged in flame before they can reduce the world to rumble with their ignorance.”

The burning that grew within her ears drowned out the rest of the rhetoric that was being spewed out of this man’s mouth. Either all these people were completely deluded in their belief that the quirkless population would be helped by them committing large-scale terrorist attacks in their name, or they had ulterior motives behind all the fancy talk. Either way, Ochako couldn’t stand it.

Her mind wandered, appropriate to the situation this time, to their currently only quirkless employee in Izuku Midoriya. She didn’t like to pry into his personal life beyond the main part she was trying to pry into, (an oxymoron if she ever heard one), so she didn’t stick her nose into him being quirkless beyond assuring him that she was in her corner if anybody gave him shit for it. But she was still able to see how this looming threat weighed down on him each time she saw him working on an analysis of one of their members.

The determination to do better that didn’t reach his eyes, that was motivated by the need to atone for the burden he was linked to by proxy by being part of the solution.

Ochako recognized it anywhere.

‘Like husband, like wife,’ she thought to herself, finding focus completely off the Toga side of things for once and solely directed onto Midoriya and his struggles.

If she had noticed, she would’ve been quite pleased with herself for letting the thought of Toga pass her by without incident. Of course, it would’ve also completely invalidated her accomplishment of ignoring the vampire villain, so it was a moot point.

Wherever her thoughts might have gone afterward, they were interrupted by an interruption on Tsunoda’s front as well. Ochako’s internal rambling may have been drowning out the cultist’s own for a minute, but she instantly spotted when the boisterous showmanship, that had previously been present on his face, vanished and his focus was drawn to the whispering of an earpiece. Using this opportunity, she slunk forward under the cover of the provided shadows until she found herself watching from within a rack of Mt. Lady brand hoodies.

It was either that or crouching within a fake potted fern beside it.

“We are almost to your location, Uravity,” Mina’s tinny voice relayed from her earpiece in a thankfully lower volume. “Going as fast as we can to get to you.”

Tsunoda took a deep, seething breath and readjusted himself back into public speaking as he returned to his undoubtedly confused audience. 

“Sorry for the interruption my brothers, it seems like our rally has attracted some attention,” he declared, his contact telling him the same details that Ochako’s was.

“Pinky from the Fat Gum agency and Shishikross of the Slide-n-Go agency have invaded our stronghold, defiling our demonstration and ruining our chance to bring the beacon of truth to the ignorant, quirked swine of the world,” he melodramatically monologued. “These Heroes of sin, bearing the powers of the devil that mark their bodies with the contents of their twisted hearts represent the evils we must smite!”

With a sinister glint, he clenched his hand into a fist that morphed into a large spiked ball as it hardened into steel. He began waving the newly revealed deadly weapon in front of the hostages, relishing in the way they cowered from him as he captured it on film.

“Let’s give these false prophets a scene to remember when they arrive, shall we, my brothers? Since they have been so ruthlessly cutting down our knights in their sacred mission, I believe we should return the favor with these unenlightened slobs they so desire. We shall show these bearers of disgusting quirks that we are not a movement of words, but a movement of action!”

Ochako knew what this declaration was building up to, and knew that action was required, Team A be damned.

‘Gravity Force’

In a burst of speed, she launched from her hiding spot in a flurry of floating hero merch. It wasn’t the most ideal weapon in this situation, sure, but the large eruption of hoodies provided a great cover for her to lunge toward Tsunoda, being on him before he could even comprehend there was a third hero on his case, much less in the same room as him.

“The fuck is-,” the self-proclaimed freedom fighter gasped out before a zero gravity-propelled hoodie smacked into his face. Once he ripped the garment away, the first thing he noticed was that he was now also floating from contact with the tacky product. This distracted him from the second thing he noticed all too late; Uravity was heading right towards him and, suddenly, the deceptive might of the Gravity Hero was upon him.

While Ochako hadn’t planned to engage the villain directly, she was able to create a simple plan on how to deal with him and keep the attention off the hostages until the rest of the team arrived. Hopefully, in short order. She recalled what Midoriya had written about this man and how to best fight him with his quirk active.

‘In some ways, Iron Mace is similar to quirks like that of Red Riot and Real Steel, but there is a major difference that is crucial to getting a leg up on them. When the latter two harden parts of their body with their quirks, the rest of their body adapts to the change in density. This, combined with their well-trained strength and durability, makes the change essentially a non-issue to deal with in combat. With Tsunoda however, he can only transform his arms into large, bulky, weapons, and the rest of his body seems to struggle to catch up with it. He isn’t unskilled with his maces, but from watching footage of him after using it, it takes a lot of his focus in order to keep himself balanced when doing so. Taking advantage of that is the key to keeping him down; finding a way to throw off his footing early and keep him from recovering is your biggest advantage.’

Listening to the advice of Midoriya’s work, (helpfully narrated by the greenette himself within her mind), she grappled the terrorist by his left arm, taking advantage of his current disorientation to avoid getting crushed like a bug for her troubles. 

“For the sake of humanity, I shall-”

He didn’t get to finish his catchphrase, because once she got a firm enough hold on the guy, Ochako flipped him over her shoulder and slammed his weightless weighted body to the ground.

A new generation of aspiring heroes may have known this technique as a part of her ‘Uravity Martial Arts’, but in her mind, it would always be ‘Gunhead Martial Arts’.

“You fucking bitch! You diseased slut!” Tsunoda half spat in rage, half groaned in pain once he began floating up again after the impact. The fact that he was no longer on the ground wasn’t doing him much good though, as, not only were the large spiked balls of iron where his hands once were, causing any attempt to get back on his feet to falter, but Ochako wasn’t helping him at all by changing the speed of his floating at will.

Just one of the handy tricks she had picked up for a situation like this one. She didn’t want him to get even the chance to hurt anybody that all-out combat would’ve given him, and she couldn’t just slap cuffs on his iron arms without any fuss, so keeping him in a permanent state of turbulence until her backup arrived was the best course of action.

Despite her focus on keeping Tsunoda in the air and immobile, Ochako decided to try to multitask back to the reason she was sent ahead in the first place, stepping backward the best she could until she was roughly between the three pillars in which the hostages were tied. Releasing the Uravity cables from her currently occupied wrists, the wires extended toward the bound captives, offering their pointed ends to their almost freed hands as the Gravity heroine kept her eyes on the struggling villain.

“I can’t be precise right now, use the cable to cut yourself if you can!” Ochako stage whispered to them, with Tsusoda not listening to the girl’s instructions over his angry muttering as he flipped in place. “And stay behind me once you’re out of there.”

She felt small tugs on the cables that soon became stronger, and she was told that her directions were being followed well. She hated to tell them to essentially free themselves, but her focus was truly being all used up on Tsunoda at this point.

And speaking of the Humarise cultist in question, it seemed that he wasn’t completely helpless once swept off his feet and could adapt to the shifting gravity Ochako was throwing at him. With his stomach toward the ground, he found himself just close enough to the floor that he could slam his Iron Maces into it. With the breaking of chunks of floor scattering upon their impact, Tsunoba propelled himself, with his newly gained momentum, toward the girl in an astronaut-themed suit standing firm between him and the people he wanted to make headless examples of.

“Now, for the sake of humanity, you will be-”

“Acid Veil!”

Once again, the man never got to the end of his declaration as he was blind-sided by another hero popping from the woodwork to spoil his moment. The acidic stream that suddenly stood between him and his prey caused him to lurch back from his straight shot.

‘Maybe because the acid would weaken the iron and force his hands back to normal?’ Ochako hypothesized within her head as she released Tsunoba from his Zero Gravity and letting him tumble to the floor with several errant hoodies falling alongside him. 

“Sorry for the wait, Uravity,” Mina apologized as she entered the scene with her typical flourish. “We’ve cleared out all the mooks, now it’s just us and the ringleader.”

“Bring it you mutant dog, I’ll smite you down you until you’re but a pink stain on the floor!” Tsunoda growled as he scraped his left mace across the ground for good measure. Before he could make good on this promise, however, two of Shishikura’s suspended fingers flew out from behind Ochako to serve as a new danger that, combined with Mina acid-skating to higher ground, served to take the villain’s attention away from Ochako and the hostages.

“Take the civilians to the authorities,” the remainder of Shishikura told Ochako as he approached. “Also, give them this band of miscreants to put in their custody,” he tacked on, handing Ochako a horrifying lump of flesh that seemed to consist of the squirming miscreants in question.

Maybe the lessons on how to desensitize yourself to the more graphic parts of hero work weren’t meant for situations like this, but it certainly applied.

Half of Ochako really wanted to stay behind and join the A Team in their subduing of the Humarise villain, really making it clear that she didn’t agree with the hate he was spewing through a little more fist-to-face contact. She knew she couldn’t let her anger overtake her judgment, so Ochako nodded with tensed hands at Shishikura’s directions.

“Just get him off his feet,” she informed the stoic hero, “it’s the best way to keep his quirk out of play.”

Ochako used her quirk on several shards of rubble strewn about to serve as a floating shield of projectiles, just in case the ongoing battle got between her group and the exit. As she ushered the nine civilians out and handed the unknown amount of villains that made up the flesh lump to the authorities lined outside waiting for some good news, she could hear the battle behind her that she couldn’t help but flash a momentary smile at.

“For the sake of humani-”

“Acid Shot!”

“For the sake-”

“Meatball Rush!”

“For the… the…”

It wasn’t too long after that Mina and Shishikura returned from battle with Tsunoda captured. The ‘enlightened’ man had pure rage in his eyes aimed toward both the heroes that had stopped him with the rest of the world applauding that fact. At this point however, he couldn’t muster up the ability to do anything more about it other than seethe, only able to struggle faintly against Shishikura’s incapacitation; his hands looking like a large fleshy Chinese finger trap that had enveloped his wrists and bound them together.

“Hey Uravity,” Mina broke off from her fellow hero to greet her friend and former classmate, “I see you got everybody safe thank goodness, I hope we didn’t leave you any stragglers on the way out.”

“Nope, you and Shishikross did well on cleaning house,” Ochako truthfully assured the pink heroine. “How about you two? It doesn’t seem like he left any lasting hits on you…”

“Nothing I can’t walk off,” Mina waved away. “He looked like he could pack a punch, but he didn’t get an opening.”

Ochako couldn’t help feeling a little smug at how decisive the fight was. Sure, part of her couldn’t help but feel like something was… off about how quickly their ragtag band put down the attack, considering their past history. After all, the last time Humarize was unveiled to the world by UA’s own Big Three, it was a conspiracy reaching into the highest levels of office working in the shadows to undermine society with terrorist attacks capable of leveling entire cities.

This felt like a bit of a downgrade.

Putting that aside, the main feeling in her breast was still smugness as she glanced over at where Shishikura was undoing the ‘meatball cuffs’ so that the officers could put their official cuffs on him.

Unfortunately, her glare met with his at the halfway.

“When the age of doomsday is upon us, you shall weep for putting blind faith in these false idols of heroism!” The man declared as the police decided it was time for him to go. Though he was addressing the crowds of gawking people and hungry media, his gaze was dead set on Ochako. “You laugh in the face of the truth, but when this world is baptized in flame, the quirkless shall rise to power and spit upon your graves! We must join their crusade against our kind or perish!”

At this point, he was finally shoved into the police car before he could attempt to yell out that this was for the sake of humanity yet again.

“Sometimes I think those people just like to hear themselves talk,” Mina remarked cuttingly at the blatant bigotry on display.

“Yeah,” Ochako agreed, holding back several more expletives to what she wanted to say considering both children and the media were nearby. “The trouble is they got people to listen to them.”

“It’s best not to get caught up in their words,” Shishikura offered his two cents as he approached the steps where the two women were conversing after having de-meatballed the rest of the villains. Ochako was embarrassed to say he somehow snuck up on her despite the cap-clad man just causally approaching. “It is of fundamental importance for a hero not to let their personal feelings and biases fuel their desire to apprehend a villain.”

At that point, Ochako and Mina couldn’t help but share a look at what they both hoped was simply poor wording on Shishikura’s part.

“I think you might be missing the point of that lesson, Shishy,” Mina attempted to help the purpled-haired man backtrack his previous remark. “Nothing wrong with a hero being devoted to justice for a specific cause that is important to them.”

Mina was being diplomatic, but Ochako knew this was important to her. After all, she had devoted much of her time as Pinky towards attempting to dismantle the far-reaching roots of the Creature Rejection Clan with Shoji.

“A hero should be devoted to all justice without investing their attentions in one cause over another,” Shishikura pressed on, not taking the out he was presented. “I have great sympathy with the quickless population and the ways that this organization might be affecting them, but pushing personal politics into hero work and pandering toward specific groups is unbecoming of this esteemed position.”

“Is that what they tell you at the Slide ‘n’ Go agency?” Ochako mumbled against any good judgment she had as she recalled the tidbit that Tsunoda had dropped as she was watching him, one that she had not reconciled with after all that Midoriya had told her about the agency until he began talking about his view on how a ‘true hero’ should approach helping different groups.

Unfortunately, it seemed Shishikura did overhear what had slipped out and widened his eyes, affronted at the implication Ochako was putting down. 

“The Slide ‘n’ Go agency might’ve been involved in questionable practices under their previous namesake, but they are reshaping themselves with the principles of true heroism, of which I will keep them on that straight and narrow path.”

“So it’s those ‘principles of true heroism’ that make putting down quirkless employees like Midoriya okay?” Ochako pushed back on his pushing back as Mina tried to signal her to cool off the intensity with the wave of her hand at her neck. “I guess you weren’t showing your personal politics in order to help somebody being pushed around right under your nose.”

Ochako expected her anger to beget more anger, but this time Shishikura looked more confused than anything. “Wait, is this about that green-haired analyst? What does he have to complain about after what he did to us?”

Shishikura may have consisted entirely of cool colors from head to toe, but right now when Ochako was looking at him all she saw was red.

“Okay,” Mina cut in, literally getting between the two heroes, before it could get any further. “We can continue this friendly debate later, but Ochako and I gotta wrap up the rest of these reports with the police before they gotta rush out for the next big crime, so thank you for working with us Shishikross, and I’ll catch you later to follow up on all this.”

Shishikura seemed diplomatic in his own stone-faced way as he made his own reason to leave, while Mina was already pushing Ochako away from their stalemate. As the distance widened, Ochako felt her anger morph into a touch of shame for letting her emotions get away from her and nearly creating a scene were it not for her pink-skinned friend man-handling her out of that situation.

“Okay girl, you good now?” Mina asked her as they took the long way to the cops for this exact conversation to take place. “What was even going on back there?”

Mina’s tone was befitting of Tsu or Momo, which made Ochako feel even worse that the horned heroine was forced to go there because of her. 

“Sorry, Mina, a lot has been happening at the office, and it’s got me all… out of shape regarding this Humarize stuff.”

Ochako had gotten good over the last week in describing the batshit situation she was in ways that didn’t cause the person asking to look at her like she was crazy.

Of which she absolutely wasn’t.

“I can get that, and Shishy wasn’t doing a great job of not swallowing his whole foot,” Mina agreed, “just be careful with how you go about these things, okay? It’s not a good time to make enemies of your allies.”

Ochako nodded in agreement, that warning seemed to apply to a lot of her life right now. 

“I’ll… keep that in mind.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Mina accepted before quickly getting into Ochako’s personal space, whatever hold her serious tone had over her breaking as she adopted a wolfish grin the gravity heroine knew all too well. “I expect all the juicy details on what’s been happening at next week’s class A girl’s night! I know you aren’t reading your texts, but Momo’s booked us a great table at Lunch Rush’s new gourmet place and I need some piping hot Uravity tea to go with that food.”

“I-I read the group chat texts,” Ochako weakly defended herself, she just didn’t answer them because of how expensive the table Momo had reserved for them was. She literally had to fight her thumbs to not text back that she just wouldn’t order anything to not add to what the heiress was already paying for the seats alone, (which was a little less than her current monthly rent).

The words ‘so bougie’ still came to mind after all these years.

“Sure you are girl, just be there and be ready to tell me all about this Midoriya fellow! He must be quite the guy if he can bring the wrath of Uravity like that.”

This time, Ochako couldn’t even choke out a rebuttal, her face becoming the same shade as Mina’s in the face of the girl’s wiggling eyebrows. Part of that was because as much as she disagreed wholeheartedly with what she was insinuating, Mina did have something of a point.

Ochako wouldn’t consider herself hotheaded by any means, she had an intense streak that often came out in response to people she cared about, and, in the short time she had known him, it was rising to the surface for Midoriya. While it wasn’t enough to ignore their possible shared connection to a certain blond villain, he still was on her mind regardless. Somebody who’s lingering struggles still affected him in the same way she still felt the sting of hers, and who’s enthusiasm for doing good in the world she hoped she could match as they made each other better.

She wanted to be the one to save him from his demons…

And it felt like one demon in particular was within her sights…

“Y-yeah he’s… quite the guy alright,” she gave Mina, hoping that was enough to tide her over for now as her brain attempted to process how much further she could fuck her life at this point.

As Inko unlocked the door to her long-time home, she almost rolled her eyes at the trail of rose petals littering her dimly lit apartment, leading into her bedroom.

‘She’s really buttering me up this time,’ Inko concluded from this desperate play from her… lover? They hadn’t really put a label on anything yet but that was probably the best way to describe it.

Following the petal path of attempted romance to their destination, she came face to face with-

‘Holy woah!’

She expected the prize at the end of her ‘journey’ to be her lover ready to get sexy, but it was still hard to wrap her head around how much sexy there was until she saw it all splayed across her bed. The lingerie she was wearing hid nothing of her slender legs and curves that the fabric was ready to drop off of.

“You know, you truly are adorable when you pout like that.”

‘Oh, right, I’m annoyed,’ Inko reminded her brain to get with the program that the rest of her body seemed to be following. Even if this was a sight that would never get old, she had somehow become familiar enough with this bizarre porn-worthy situation in the last few months that she could catch up with the rest of herself.

“I told you I was busy today and not to contact me until tonight, ‘Jane Doe’.” She stood her ground in the face of such sensuality.

Her lover simply raised her eyebrows, undeniably finding the chubby mother’s stand to be amusing. “I think that’s the first time you haven’t bothered to ask me how I got in here. I’m almost hurt,” she said with mock offense.

“I’m serious, I was with my daughter-in-law today and I don’t want her to know about this,” Inko continued, having plenty of experience deflecting teases back in her day. “Knowing her, she’d want to get involved the moment she got an inkling of it.”

“With her, ‘get involved’ would be an understatement,” a statement Inko couldn’t help but agree with despite herself.

“It would be with the best of intentions, bless her heart, but she just can’t get in any more trouble.” She joined her lover on the bed. “My Izuku is doing a good job of keeping her impulses at bay but… I worry.”

She hoped that Himiko took her words to heart involving Ochako. She knew more of their history than Izuku probably knew, (she blamed that on the woman next to her turning out to be a surprisingly chatty drunk), and the girl needed to deal with that history in a positive way before either of them got hurt because of this new presence in their lives.

“Sorry, I thought you’d want to be the first to hear of my success,” her lover apologized, not really sounding sorry, but Inko was working on smoothing those rough sexy edges.

Being the dramatic woman she was, her lover reached within her cleavage and pulled out a hard drive from her bountiful valley. 

“In here is all the info that the HPSC has on Himiko Toga, a lot of it is still pretty encrypted, but I can already see some juicy stuff in here.”

Inko took the drive and held it her hands. Inside the silicon stick were the answers that would ensure her family will remain safe and off the Commission’s watchlist.

One doesn’t pull one over on such a powerful group and not expect any retaliation after all.

“T-thank you so much,” she told the woman who had risked her recovered livelihood for this piece of plastic, feeling those classic Midoriya tears welling up. “I-I don’t know how I’ll e-ever repay you.”

“I think you know how you can repay me~,” her lover purred as she showed off the flexibility that was no doubt crucial to getting this hard drive. “This has already cut into our personal time more than I hoped, so how about we get started~.”

Inko didn’t need to be told twice as she pounced upon the woman for elated love-making. She wasn’t sure how an old woman like her managed to find somebody not only willing to risk life and limb to help her protect her family but also found her very attractive to boot.

And now, armed with the knowledge that will keep her babies safe, she went down on the woman who acquired that for her. Inko didn’t think anybody would disagree that she was one lucky gal!

Chapter Text

As long as she could remember, there had always been a fine line between what Himiko knew she should do and what she was going to do regardless.

This was something that the blonde vampire knew about herself for a long time; it’s what got her on the wrong side of the tracks in the first place. There was the ‘perfect good girl’ her parents had demanded she be, and the path she went down when the mask they forced on her became too much to bear. 

From then on, ‘what she wanted to do’ dominated her decision-making process to the detriment of most of the people around her.

The first time what she should do and what she wanted to do aligned, it set off a chain of events that led to the ring on her finger. Nowadays, the gap between those two points was a lot less… dire.

In her current situation, she knew it was important to do everything she could to not stand out or attract attention while on a date with Izuku.

But…

“Hey Zuku!” She called to her husband down the hall as she gathered the options she had narrowed down to “I need your opinion on something, dear!” 

The call from his wife triggered the first pause in Izuku’s nearly half-hour-long verbal deep dive into the history of Lunch Rush and his venture into the restaurant business that hadn’t stopped even when he began brushing his teeth.

“Wha’cha need Himi?” Izuku asked as he poked his cute head through the doorway. His All Might colored toothbrush (his non-collectors edition one) was dangling from his mouth as he multitasked buttoning up his dress shirt.

“Which dress do you think I should wear tonight~,” she inquisitively purred, holding up two dresses for him to judge. “Be honest~.”

Izku’s freckled cheeks burned as he looked upon Himiko’s two tempestuous choices. On the right was a little black dress with an absolutely plunging neckline and lolita lace around its borders, while on the left was a crimson red strapless dress that displayed plenty of cleavage and left a slit for her legs.

“Himi!” Izuku choked out through his mouthful of toothpaste before quickly running back to the bathroom to spit the foam before it ended up on their nice carpet.

The vampire woman could barely wonder how Izuku could still find it in himself to be scandalized this far into their marriage before her husband re-entered the room. “Himi, you can’t wear either of those.”

“When I said ‘be honest’ that wasn’t what I had in mind,” Himiko pouted with mirth.

“Our goal is to avoid attention, and there’s…” Izuku felt his mouth get a little dry as he mentally composited his wife’s body with the dresses she held. “There’s no way. Either of those put every pair of eyes in the room on you.”

Himiko fought off some heat of her own; even when her husband was horny he was such a sweetheart.

“Come oooooooon, it’s a fancy pants restaurant, it would be weirder for me not to be dressed my best,” she pleaded, bouncing on her heels and giving Izuku a little extra incentive to go for the form-fitting outfits. “Besides, I wanna look like I deserve to hang off your arm. I wanna look so hot that the other couples will look at us together and think ‘Yeah, that makes sense’.”

“That won’t be hard,” he chuckled at his wife’s antics. “If anything, I’m not sure that I look like I should be on your arm.”

“Zuku, stop it,” Himiko reprimanded before her husband went down the slippery slope from modesty to insecurity. “Trust your wife when she says she didn’t fall for just your heart. You’re quite the good-looking guy, if I do say so myself.”

Himiko knew flattery would get her everywhere, her smile deepening as Izuku’s blush started reminding her of the stickers his boss was famous for.

“Whenever we go out together, I see the way other women look at you,” Himiko continued, dropping her voice to sultry levels. “How their eyes dart back when they know you aren’t looking so they can spread their gaze from the tip of your fluffy head to your red sneakers. I don’t mind it Zuku, for the same reason I know you don’t worry about me flaunting anything myself. Because no matter how much they look, I’m the only one who’ll truly have you, and you're the only one who’ll experience all this~.”

Izuku was breathing heavily now which she knew she was matching, and that was the only sound in the room until he gasped out, “I think you should go with the red dress,” like a man dying of thirst, who would’ve rather gone with ‘no dress’ if not for their reservation looming.

“I had a feeling you might say that,” Himiko winked as she went back to put the losing dress back into her closet. “Now you get yourself all freshened up Zuku, and I’ll slip into this~.”

Izuku feared opening his mouth again and releasing another involuntary thought that caused them to forgo the date altogether, which was the last thing he wanted. So, with a rushed nod, he returned to their bathroom to finish his own freshening up.

‘What a dork,’ Himiko thought to herself with an internal swoon, ‘and he’s all mine!’

As she began to put on her dress and feel it hug her body, Himiko felt a pang of disappointment within her gut that she couldn’t go on a date with Izuku as herself. Looking at a photo of the person whose bloody contraband Inko had graciously given her, Akane Tanaka was exactly the kind of person they needed tonight. With her shoulder-length black hair clipped upward to stay out of her face and a brow that seemed to be permanently furrowed, she was the perfect balance of cute enough but nothing out of the ordinary that anybody would bat an eye at.

It wasn’t somebody she’d usually drink the blood of, but she learned their lesson in taking chances when she transformed into a giant fox-shark woman for an outing together. In the end, they probably got just as many stares from passers-by as if she had gone out as herself.

Of course, there was plenty of other things they could do with that form to make the uncomfortable stares worthwhile. 

Before she could think back on that experimental night any further, a familiar chill ran up her spine.

‘Speaking of being watched,’ Himiko thought to herself as her recurring unease returned to nag at her, causing her to put on her dress with a little more haste.

Now Himiko would never say that she felt unsafe in her and Izuku’s apartment, they were basically under unofficial witness protection where they were, but every so often she felt… like she was being observed from just beyond her reach. She knew what bugs looked like, both those used by villains and the HPSC, and hadn’t seen any in the many times she had scoured their home each time these strange suspicions came over her.

She peeked around all the standard spots bugs would be hidden, just to be safe: behind their desk; within the lamps; in their clothes pockets; and buried within Izuku’s hero merch ‘shelf of fame’. Still nothing. Either her observational skills had gone severely downhill since she tied the knot or the frequent solitude was causing her to get paranoid.

She really hoped it was the latter.

“I don’t know if you’re actually there,” Himiko whispered under her breath as she adjusted her dress, just in case she was missing something big right under her nose. “But if you’ve taken the time to listen in on us, then you know what I’m capable of. And if you insist on trying to interrupt our life then you are inviting all of that on yourself. Because if you come for Izuku, I will bring my whole knife collection and slice you from-”

“Hey, Himi!” Izuku called from the hallway.

“Yes, Zuku~?” Himiko replied, figuring she could put all this aside for now, as any potential listeners should’ve gotten an idea of what she would do to them if they tried anything funny.

“Bathroom’s all yours, dear,” Izuku said, who was now fully dressed and had seemed to have got himself back under control.

That was until he saw Himiko all snug in the dress he picked out at least. After that he was fighting a losing battle with gravity for ownership of his jaw.

‘Glad I still got it in that department at least,’ Himiko thought to herself.

“Thank you Zuku, but first we gotta do something about that, ” she gestured to the one part of him that wasn’t fine dining ready; his tie that had somehow ended up in knots that no tie should ever find itself in.

“You’d think after all these years I’d at least have marginally improved,” Izuku lamented as Himiko worked her deft touch to correct the crime against neck-ties the greenette was wearing.

As she worked her magic, she gave her husband a once-over of her own. Izuku seemed to have a knack for getting clothes that hid the juicer parts of his figure, but with his suit and green sports jacket tonight… he looked good enough to eat in Himiko’s opinion.

“There you go,” Himiko tittered, wrapping the tie one last time. “Just one last touch~.”

And what that, she yanked the tie downward and caught Izuku in a passionate kiss, releasing him for air a few heated seconds later.

“That better tide you over dinner,” Himiko tried to flirt, but the heavy breathing undercut the tone she was going for. “Cause that’s the last you’ll get of good old Himiko Midoriya until we return here~.”

“Can’t wait,” Izuku exhaled before his irrationality (or at least as much as his hero fanboying could substitute) kicked back in. “But you should really get your ‘finishing touches’ ready if we want to make our table. I don’t know how long the train is going to take.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going. Akane will be all ready in just a couple minutes,” Himiko pouted in jest as she grabbed her disguise for the evening and prepared for a pre-dinner snack. Despite her clearly facetious eye-rolling, she was just as excited to get out of their apartment and stretch her legs at a nice restaurant for a few hours.

Okay, maybe it was impossible to get as excited as Izuku when Heroes were involved, but she was pretty damn close.

“Just finish combing your hair before we go, Zuku,” she called back with a teasing grin.

“This is combed!”

“This feels weird,” Ochako couldn't help but say, partially to the frog girl accompanying her but mainly to herself, as the duo of Heroes entered the recently opened yet already very popular ‘Lunch Rush Bistro’ restaurant.

Clearly the Cooking Hero hadn’t changed how he names his establishments

“Not sure why it would, ribbit, we ate Lunch Rush’s food for roughly three years; it shouldn’t be too different from then,” Tsu prodded her friend with a gloved and inquisitive finger to her chin as they walked. The ‘Rainy Day’ Hero was wearing an off-the-shoulder dress that followed the woman’s preference for green in various shades.

“I guess, but it was never this… classy,” Ochako settled on, gesturing to her attire for the night. It struck the woman that much of her formal attire had stayed consistent since she had to cobble something together for the I-Island gala. The budget had increased, now wearing a pale pink dress with a darker pink bow at the waist with a necklace and a pale rose in her hair to complete the image.

She supposed it was her brand at this point, but the fact that style had hardly changed since high school left her feeling a little off.

“I wouldn’t overthink it,” Tsu gave her two cents, as she approached the restaurant host. “Uraraka and Asui, we should be listed under the Yaoyorozu party reservation.”

With a nod, the host led them through the upscale restaurant to where their girl’s night group would be dining for the evening. Ochako felt like a stranger in a strange land as she walked through the dining room and beheld the lavishness before her. The floor space was huge with large ornate tables littered throughout filled with tittering diners. The walls were lined with the history of Japanese heroism told in framed and displayed objects and trinkets, many of which she recognized and others she winced at for being semi-responsible for their damaged state. Looking up, she could see the lighting displays depict famed heroic battles within their intricate design.

‘Midoriya would be so into this place,’ Ochako thought to herself as she walked through the dining room. ‘I feel like I should take some pictures and show them to him at work next week, he would know exactly what every little detail was.’

Ochako could just imagine his eyes going every which way to see as much as he could while his excited muttering didn’t miss a beat to share details on each and every one. She could do more than imagine it, she could see it quite vividly.

At the far end of the dining room in fact.

…

HUH?!

Ochako’s brain, having been temporarily dulled by the overwhelming opulence she was confronted with, snapped back into vigilance when she saw the unmistakable green tuft of hair that belonged to her junior quirk analyzer in the corner of her eye. Doing a double-take physically as well as mentally, she confirmed that it was indeed Izuku Midoriya eating at this very restaurant, talking away to his companion...

She had to admit, he looked pretty handsome in the fine suit and jacket he was wearing for the occasion. And perhaps she spent a little too long on that thought because the gravity girl promptly walked into the path of a waiter, only barely avoiding a full collision at the last moment.

As she recovered from the potential incident, Ochako felt several eyes burning to her at the interruption to their night. As a wave of sheepishness washed over her, she suddenly felt bad for her own brand of staring.

‘Never mind the embarrassment! Focus on the bigger picture, girl! Who's he with?’ Her brain ‘helpfully’ reminded her as she attempted to get the greenette and whomever he was eating with into her view. Unfortunately, she couldn’t seem to locate him again, and no blonde vampires were in sight either. Before she could redouble her search, it was cut off when she and Tsu were led into a separate dining room, detached from the previous room that contained her phantom Midoriya by frosted glass.

‘Fuck!’

All the gravity girl could do now was either curse her missed opportunity or lament that she was now seeing things as the two approached the table where they were meeting their friends at. Momo and Kyoka were the only ones there so far, the black-haired hero animatedly regaling her friend who was nursing what was hopefully her first drink of the night. It was expected to see Momo dressed to the nines in an elegant and glistening dress that complimented her oft-praised figure, with her hair draped down her shoulders in contrast to her typical ponytail. Meanwhile, Kyoka’s fashion remained true to her punk sensibilities while not sticking out like a sore thumb in the formal setting, the purple-haired woman wearing a dark angular jacket over a fuchsia dress with black accents.

Momo continued recounting her story to Kyoka until the woman’s ear jacks, one natural and one prosthetic, pointed her attention toward their newcomers.

“You made it!” Yaomomo cheerfully clasped her hands together as Ochako found her seat next to the Creation Hero and Tsu plopping down beside her. “I was a little worried there that I had created our reservation incorrectly and you would be refused entry.”

“No problem there!” Ochako assured Momo with a thumbs up, deciding that the best course of action would be to put the Midoriya who may or may not have been there to the back of her mind for now.

No need to ruin everybody else’s night on what was likely just her brain having a moment of weakness.

“This certainly is a bit more upscale than our usual girl’s night excursions,” Tsu noted, starting the conversation as Ochako stalled, still squinting at the glass to see if a speck of green appeared within the window pane.

“That’s what I said,” Kyoka commented before taking a long sip of her wine. “But Momo insisted, and who am I to argue with her judgment?”

“I just thought it would be fun!” Momo defended herself as she worked her way through the provided basket of breadsticks. “A restaurant themed around the legacy of UA seemed perfect for our meeting, a taste of home if you will. And, as I assured Kyoka, you all need not worry about the expense tonight.”

That got Ochako’s attention back onto the conversation at hand. Her eyes narrowed at the creation heroine who remained unrepentant. 

“What are you up to, Yaomomo,” Ochako questioned, Tsu and Kyoka both felt the need to avert their eyes from this weekly display of unstoppable object against unmovable force.

“I assure you I’m up to nothing at all,” Momo assured the brunette in a tone that it was only the truth by technicality. “I would just hate for the check to arrive while some of my patrons are in the restroom or the like; I’d have no choice to cover for them then.”

Ochako pouted, preparing her body not to give Momo that opening tonight.

“I’ll take a look at that drink menu, ribbit” Tsu piped up.

It wasn’t long before Tooru snuck into their little group, a blue, somewhat translucent dress adorning her sometimes translucent body. As was often the case, Mina was the last to join their girl’s night.

“I prefer to think of myself as being fashionably late!” Mina pointed out as she showcased a purple evening gown covered in frills and fluffy accents. “Also my taxi got involved in a small bank robbery so that held me up just a little bit.”

With their gang complete, it was pretty easy for their conversation to fall back into a lull that had been constant since their second year of school together. Mina and Kyoka had an argument about the new direction that the band ‘Dread Balloon’ went in with their most recent album, while Tooru regaled the non-debating side of the table with all the new features the sixth edition of her invisible hero suit had.

Shortly after the first course of their dinner arrived with each dish based on a popular hero and their favorite foods. Before them was placed Lemon-Brined Fried Chicken with a side of Carrot Curry Soup, inspired by Hawks and Miruko respectively. Both dishes were served with plenty of white rice, which all the girls recognized as a Lunch Rush signature. 

The meals were very good, as to be expected from the Chef Hero, though it was clear to Ochako that the fancy preparation was far beyond her palette.

‘If I ever get high enough on the Billboard Charts to get a dish here, it’ll just be plain old mochi,’ she promised to herself as she gnawed on a piece of chicken. ‘No bells, no whistles, just good old-fashioned mochi!’

As soon as their bowls were half empty and bone was all that remained of the chicken, came the second course. The centerpiece here was Endeavor-inspired Spicy Garlic Soba Noodles with Bok Choy. In addition, this was accompanied by All Might-inspired Deconstructed American Hot Dog Skewers that were ostensibly for the whole table but were mostly snatched up by one girl alone.

“Geez Momo, don’t forget to breath,” Kyoka snarked between blowing on her steaming soba noodles

“Forgive my indiscretion, but patrol today has left me positively famished and absolutely desperate to replenish my lipids,” Momo apologetically explained as she took another skewer and turned it into a naked stick in a couple of seconds flat.

It was quite mesmerizing and almost impressive to witness.

“Must have been a busy day to get you that hungry girl, you gotta tell us!” Toru bounced in her seat, now two drinks in and dying for a juicy tale to latch onto.

“I assure you it’s not a fun story,” Momo began, earning a pout from Toru that seemingly made her go invisible for a split second. “It’s this Humarize sect that’s been in the news as of late.” 

Ochako felt the bile rising in her throat at the mention of those extremists.

“Not only have I been dealing with them creating mayhem while I’m on patrol,” Momo continued, “but some of their members have recently begun sending threats to Yaoyorozu Corporation buildings and businesses that we must prepare for.” Kyoka put her hand on Momo’s shoulder as she went for another skewer. “I’ll admit it’s been quite taxing having pressure from both sides of my career for the last few weeks. It’s times like these where I almost understand when heroes use their interns as extra labor,” she chuckled weakly.

“Gotta relate to Momo here, on the Humarize stuff, not the intern thing,” Mina joined in. Ochako would’ve chipped into the conversation herself but figured all that she wanted to add wouldn’t be appropriate for the formal setting. “Those bastards have been creating problems everywhere recently! I’m thankful that it isn’t the massive conspiracy it was several years ago, but what they lack in quality, these jerkwads make up for in quantity.”

“You’ve been dealing with them too?” Tsu asked as she grabbed a helping of white rice with her tongue.

“Unfortunately. I just had a big mission where they took the Kiyashi Ward Mall a couple of days ago,” Mina sighed wearily. “Ochako was there with me too, and we worked with Shishikross in order tooooooooooooooooo-”

Eyebrows were raised around the table at the way Mina had trailed off, the girl staring into space as she did so. It kept going until Kyoka snaked her headphone jack toward the horned woman and gave her a small poke to snap her out of it.

“You alright, girl?” Kyoka asked carefully, hoping this was just Mina being Mina and not another bout of hero-related trauma; a pain they all shared from time to time.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, just remembered a certain something a certain somebody hoped I would’ve forgotten,” Mina explained, her naturally dark gaze turning to the certain somebody in question who was shoving soba noodles into her blushing cheeks. “Who’s Midoriya ?”

The only answer the pink-skinned woman got was a choking noise before Ochako managed to gulp down her meal.

“You’re still on this Mina?” Ochako shot back, a little more irritable than she usually would’ve responded but, between the drinks and gaslighting herself, she was a bit on edge. Regardless of her reason, it certainly wasn’t the reaction that an innocent person would’ve had to Mina’s line of questioning.

The pink woman only smirked in the face of scrutiny. 

“You bet your adorable ass I am! Now answer the question, Ochako!”

“I’m sorry, what’s going on here?” Tooru asked, looking back and forth between the two women across the table from each other.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on here, Ochako’s got certain somebody in her life and she’s holding off on the details.”

“This is libel!” Ochako protested in vain, as Mina continued her (quite biased if Ochako was honest) explanation. “Lies and libel!”

“It’s only libel if it’s written, if it’s spoken it’s slander” Momo unhelpfully provided, thankful that they had moved away from her woes but less than happy that Mina had returned to her shipping ways.

“After we wrapped up with taking down those Humarize jerks, Ochako and Seji got into a bit of a tiff about someone who used to work with him but now works with her,” Mina continued, undaunted. “His name was Midoriya and Ol’ ‘Chako was very passionate on his behalf!”

“That is strange!” Tooru added, the two women quickly falling back into their old patterns when it came to hot gossip about other people’s love lives. “So what happened next?”

“Well, I asked about it,” Mina carried on, pointedly ignoring Ochako’s increasingly weak protests, “but that got her all blushy and stammering and stuff, so I agreed to drop it until tonight.”

“How thoughtful of you,” Kyoka rolled her eyes, although she couldn’t deny she was curious as well considering how much of a disaster Ochako’s love life had been since she first met the girl.

‘Not that mine is any better,’ the punk internally grumbled with a pointed look toward the woman next to her.

“So, O-cha-ko!” Mina concluded, emphasizing each syllable in a way that made the brunette woman sink further into her chair. “I believe your time is up, and now you must face the music…”

“Who. Is. Midoirya?”

“He’s the new junior quirk analyst at Ryukyu’s agency,” Tsu simply stated as she sipped her wine, interrupting the silence in which Ochako was desperately trying to formulate a response that would end this conversation as soon as possible. “He was hired just a few weeks ago. A very nice guy and quite good at his job, though he can be a bit strange at times.”

For that to be the last word was a pipe dream to be sure, considering not even Tsu’s signature bluntness could stop Mina, who gasped dramatically. 

“Tsu, you know this guy?!”

“Yes, we work together, ribbit.”

“ And you were holding out on me?! ”

“There’s nothing to hold out on,” Tsu shrugged, “Izuku’s married, so there isn’t anything going on between him and Ochako right now.”

Whatever ‘thank you’ Ochako had for her froggy friend saving her hide died in her throat as she found herself with… mixed feelings toward Tsu’s defense. Sure, the amphibious woman had made it clear that there was no romance between her and Midoriya, which was good and all… but the way Tsu had said it made it seem like, if he wasn’t married, there would absolutely be something happening between them.

Which was definitely, totally, 100% absolutely not the case in the slightest!

As for Mina, the horned woman looked positively punched in the gut by this revelation as the shipping sands slipped through her fingers. 

“I-is that a fact, Tsu?”

“Yeah, how can we know you aren’t just covering for her?” Tooru also chimed in.

“So, you’re saying ‘Chako would have an affair with a married man?” Kyoka questioned the implication, to which Tooru stammered.

“W-well no I-I-I don’t mean that , I’m j-just saying…”

“If you don’t believe me, I can get Midoriya himself over here right now to confirm,” Tsu offhandedly shrugged.

Mina and Tooru both clearly had arguments to fire back at the froggy woman, as did Kyoka with a snarky remark and Momo an attempt to get the evening’s conversation back to normalcy. However, none of them could get a word out before they were preemptively interrupted by a loud ‘SNAP’ from Ochako’s section of the table. It would’ve been easy to believe that sound came from Ochako’s neck swerving toward a nonchalant Tsu unless you looked further down to see the chopstick broken in two within her white-knuckled grip.

“What do you mean by that, Tsu?” The brunette’s voice was as flat as the smile plastered on her face at this point.

“Well, Midoriya is here in this restaurant, isn’t he?” Tsu pointed out, the unflappable frog starting to squirm herself as it dawned on her that maybe she had underestimated the extent of Ochako’s strange relationship with their junior analyst. “That’s why you tripped over yourself while muttering his name.”

Crap! She was muttering too!

“She does that and I’m the weird one for saying it’s love!” Mina loudly complained as she pre-emptively batted away another jack from Kyoka.

“I figured that if you really wanted to get this all straightened out I could send a message and ask him to drop by for a second,” Tsu suggested, her idea sounding more foolish the more it was spoken into open air. “He likes heroes so much I’m sure he would’ve jumped at the opportunity, but in hindsight, I don’t think we should drag-”

“WhyTsuthat’sagreatideagladtoknowheactuallyishereandnotjustmelosingitI’llgogethimrightnowandthenyou’llseewe’rejustperfectlynormalokayberightback!” Ochako interrupted all in one breath.  No sooner had she refilled her lungs to bring the color back into her cheeks did she dash off into the dining area to find this green haired white whale of hers before anybody else could get a word in otherwise.

“Well… at least we’ll get an answer now,” Tooru settled on after several moments of silence. After years of teasing Ochako for her questionable love life, they were now in uncharted territory.

Momo just sighed and shovelled some more noodles into her mouth, swallowing them near-instantaneously. “Mina, why do you have to set her off like that?”

“Better for her to have this all on the table rather than it eating her up inside,” the horned woman rationalized, deciding that her secondary and slightly less altruistic reason that she was still an absolute slut for drama after all these years wouldn’t do as well in the face of Momo’s chastising. “Besides, this is still better than the last people she was all weird about.”

“I don’t know, I think it’s just weird in a different way,” Kyoka sardonically commented as her earjack traced the rim of her wine glass. “But it’ll be nice to meet the man of the hour.”

As for Tsu, the frog was left pondering if it truly was any different.

Izuku had to admit, that if he were to list the best evenings of his life, this evening would probably be embarrassingly high on his list.

Probably best not to tell that to Himiko though, considering its competition was the many nights in which they both got particularly… adventurous. But being at Lunch Rush Bistro allowed him to let his own personal ‘freak flag’ fly as he regaled his wife with the history of why the Pros were represented by the foods that they were.

“Also, while American-style hot dogs were well-known as a favorite food of All Mights’ from as early as the golden age, they weren’t associated with him over hamburgers until the second decade of the silver age. It all happened when the ‘Patriotic’ villain ‘Uncle Slam’ agreed to turn himself in if All Might beat him at a hot dog-eating contest,” Izuku exposited as the couple feasted upon their themed skewers. “In the end, All Might won the bet by fourteen dogs more than Uncle Slam, and a well-timed picture of All Might as he ate two weiners at once was the most searched image online two years in a row afterward.”

“Now that’s some hero-ing I can get behind. Maybe I should try that double weiner technique for myself,” Himiko remarked as she had another skewer that left and re-entered her mouth a few more times than necessary.

It would’ve made him hotter under the collar if it was Himiko in her natural state instead of this other person but, over the years, Izuku had gotten fairly good at seeing his wife where a stranger’s face was, so there was still some excitement for him to stifle.

“Of course that’s your takeaway from that story,” Izuku fondly rolled his eyes, though he wasn’t surprised; there had been a lot of hero stories tonight, (but could she blame him when they were surrounded by history on all sides). The most Himiko took from any of his Pro Hero tangents was either reinforcing her established belief that it is a fundamentally stupid industry, which was still a step up from her thoughts when they first met, or coming up with a double entendre on the theme. 

Himiko affixed him with her ‘this is the woman you chose to marry’ look. 

“The fault is on you for expecting anything better from yours truly,” she quipped as she rotated the wine glass in her hand.

“I guess you’re right, it can’t be helped,” he conceded light-heartedly before taking a moment to take in the restaurant as a whole. “Have I thanked you for setting this all up yet?”

“Only a dozen times since we got here and then a dozen more before that,” Himiko reminded him just as fondly.

“Well, let me thank you again then,” Izuku sheepishly said, feeling a little called out.

“And let me tell you again that it was no problem,” his wife stated matter-of-factly with a chopstick full of rice. “I wanted to have a night out with you, simple as that. And while, yes, heroes aren’t exactly… my thing, you know I’m happy to be even here if it’s with you. I’m just happy there isn’t any ‘King Explosion’ merch here, I wouldn’t want to run my chopsticks through his smug face and have us escorted out,” Himiko continued in a way that was playful but made it clear that such a scenario wasn’t just a humorous exaggeration.

“That is good,” Izuku replied diplomatically. In truth, he was also pretty happy that the visage of his former friend wasn’t plastered everywhere, but he preferred not to go down that road altogether. “Still, it would be nice to know some of the current hero’s favorite foods, I still need that for my notes, and it’s not important enough for the Ryukyu databases.”

“Not exactly a vital fact for saving people, Zuku,” Himiko retorted before thinking it over and adding, “except for that hot dog story, I guess.”

“Still would be nice to know, for posterity at least,” Izuku said, trying to defend his desire for these less-than-essential factoids and make it sound just a little less creepy. “Maybe hero restaurants in the future will want to serve the favorite foods of Lemillion, or Valkyrie, or…”

Suddenly, Izuku’s thought process was stopped by a familiar brunette bob he could spot within the crowd, one that soon began barrelling toward them.

“Uraraka?”

“Well, even I know that one,” Himiko giggled, “the day Och- Uravity stops shilling mochi is the day that…”

Now it was her turn to trail off as her eyes eventually caught the approaching hero that Izuku’s worried gaze was still firmly locked on to.

“Oh, hey Midoriya,” Uraraka greeted casually upon arriving at their table as if she wasn’t catching her breath. “I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight.”

‘Alright Izuku, this is what you prepared for.’

The greenette knew that, objectively speaking, his poker face was absolutely terrible and emotions weren’t just on his sleeve but crawling over every inch of his body. He knew that keeping secrets wasn’t his strong suit, and lying to keep said secrets was an even weaker suit for him.

However…

‘I can’t show any signs of fear for Himi.’

“Well, you know me, Uraraka,” Izuku began, seeming perfectly composed without a green hair out of place and the right level of cheery with a little bashful that one would expect from him. “It shouldn’t be too surprising for me to go to a restaurant made by and about heroes.”

“Y-yeah that makes sense, I guess I don’t know why I asked,” Uraraka awkwardly chuckled. He could tell Himiko thought so too as her jaw was struggling not to drop in distress as she watched Izuku barely holding himself together.

Thankfully though, Ochako moved her attention to his wife soon afterward, (a sentiment that may seem weird considering the point was to make sure nobody connected the dots on who she was, but Himiko ran circles around Izuku when it came to lying).

“I think we- DON’T think we’ve met before,” Uraraka started to introduce herself, multitasking as she… firmly observed his wife who currently didn’t look like his wife. “I’m Ochako Uraraka! I work with your husband at the Ryukyu Agency.”

“Himiko Midoriya, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” the now black-haired vampire greeted in kind, complete with a bow and extended hand. There was a moment where Izuku was confused by his wife using her real name instead of playing into the ‘Akane Tanaka’ identity, but he quickly remembered his slip of letting Uraraka know he had a wife named Himiko, and it probably would’ve raised more questions if he was here with some other woman. “Thank you for taking care of my husband, he really enjoys working under you.”

It seemed that Uraraka was as susceptible to praise as Izuku was, because her gaze on Himiko broke for the first time as she began to wave off the complimentary words. 

“Oh, it’s nothing at all, it’s our privilege to be working with him.”

Crud! Seeing how Himiko’s eyes lit up at such a statement, Izuku pushed down his own weird fluttery, glowy feeling to the praise these two women were giving him by proxy and focused back on the actual conversation at hand. “S-so Uraraka, why are you h-here tonight?”

It was an attempt to get the conversation to a natural conclusion, mixed with genuine curiosity, but with his stutter it probably sounded extra weird and creepy. 

Uraraka didn’t seem to let it bother her though. 

“Oh, it’s just a girl’s night for my former classmates and me. We have them about bi-weekly, in theory at least, and Yao- Creati chose here as a blast from the past I guess.”

Just then, an idea seemed to hit the Hero woman as she suddenly proposed, “Hey, why don’t you two come up and meet everybody. I mean, you’ve already met Tsu, but I’m sure they’ll all be willing to answer any questions and give you all the autographs you want.”

As ashamed as Izuku was to admit it, that was a tempting offer for him.

‘Steel yourself Izuku, remember this is for Himi, this is for Himi!’

“I would love to, but I’m not sure it would-”

“We would love to join you for a bit, if you’re sure we won’t be a bother,” Himiko unexpectedly interrupted to Uraraka’s joy and Izuku’s worry, (though he admitted to himself there was some excitement there as well). “Thank you for your generosity.”

“Pffft, don’t worry about it,” Uraraka dismissed as the couple got up from their table and began following the hero; Himiko with a lot more pep in her step than Izuku’s barely functioning jelly legs could muster. “What are friends for, after all?”

With all the happiness in his chest at visiting a table of heroines, (with one of them considering him a friend no less), compounding with the nerves from doing so accompanied by his fugitive of a wife, the man felt like he was going to get heartburn or something.

Since Uraraka was leading the way, Izuku was able to shoot his wife a look that he believed clearly conveyed the ‘Why did you do that?’ question he desperately wanted to ask.

The lack of a poker face came in handy sometimes.

As for Himiko, all she could mouth back was ‘It’s an opportunity,’ and a shrug in a way he knew would be much more impish if she actually looked like herself.

Izuku really hoped the opportunity she was referring to wasn’t him getting autographs, because his fanboy-isms really weren’t worth her throwing herself into the danger zone and risking the life they had built together.

‘But still, if Himi thinks she has a handle on this situation then I should trust her, even though this is the exact situation I wanted to avoid,” Izuku thought and thankfully didn’t mumble to himself as he tried to force himself to get more comfortable with where this evening was going. ‘If this is happening, I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth though. Froppy, Creati, Earphone Jack, Pinky, and Invisible Girl all in one place? When am I ever going to get this chance again?!’

The turnaround was almost as impressive as he felt bursting with excitement, while still beng terrified.

As soon as they approached the table, a loud and peppy voice that he recognized as the ‘Acid Hero’ Pinky from her many media appearances crowed out, “There’s the man of the hour! ‘Chako has been telling us all about you and that big brain of yours all night!”

“Mina!” Ochako yelled back as Himiko tried to hide a giggle behind her hand.

“She’s exaggerating, you only entered the conversation recently,” Tsuyu stated with her trademark bluntness. “Hello Midoriya, it’s good to see you again.”

“Y-you too, Asui,” Izuku awkwardly greeted back, feeling the furrow of the frog woman’s eyebrows that he once again didn’t use her first name as requested. “It’s nice to m-meet all of you, my name is Izuku Midoriya, and this is my wife, H-Himiko Midoriya, though you already seem to know that apparently?”

It was intended as more of a question than an accusation, but from the way Uraraka’s face went from red to white the truth of the matter was clear. 

“It was all complimentary, I promise,” Uraraka swore, “but in a minor way, and I just thought if you were here anyway they’d like to meet you and… to a lesser extent… your wife.”

“Yes, we’re terribly sorry if we disturbed your evening,” Momo Yaoyorozu, otherwise known as Creati, explained, as dignified as ever. “We’d just figured from what we’d heard you’d enjoy meeting us, and we’d like to pick your brain as well since you’ve helped Uravity so much.”

Creati, one of the most intelligent heroes in the industry, wanted to pick his brain?

He had to apologize to the night where he and Himiko tried shibari, because this night was really rising in the rankings!

“See! All complimentary!” Uraraka chirped.

“We both thank you all for being so willing to bring us into your event,” Himiko filled in, reminding Izuku of what reasons he had to be nervous beyond the fact he was surrounded by successful heroines (and he didn’t think all of them were interested on what he had to say about quirk analysis). “I can assure you this is a dream come true for my Zuku!”

“Y-yeah, I know I work with heroes for a living, but it never gets old meeting the person beneath the suit, being able to look them in the eye, and thank them for all they’ve done.” 

Great, and now he was being cheesy.

“Awwwwww, he’s so sweet,” Invisible Girl cooed, whom Izuku could identify from her voice despite his unfamiliarity with her visible form, “I can see how you took a shine to him, ‘Chako.”

“Maybe we should pump the brakes on that kind of talk,” Kyoka dryly reminded them as her jacks pointed toward Himiko for some reason.

Pinky looked like she had something on her mind but for some reason held her tongue.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Himiko laughed off in a way that sounded both like the vampire beneath the mask and also decidedly not. “The fact that my Zuku got the support of such a wonderful and sexy hero like Uravity is all that I hoped for when he put his application.”

Uraraka looked like she would’ve spat out her drink if she had one and Tsu’s eyebrows went from a furrow to both being raised.

Seeing his usually possessive wife say this kind of thing about another woman was almost reassuring for Izuku, reminding him what a good actress Himiko was and that she could more than handle her own in keeping her cover without cracking from being in a room of heroes.

Or at least these heroes anyway.

Izuku felt all the anxieties melt away as it truly clicked that Himiko didn’t need him to keep her from getting caught; the best thing he could do is keep himself from getting her caught. Easier said than done, but he could act natural in his own… unique way.

“I-I-I’m not sure how much I can help, but I would be happy to answer your questions if you’d like to providing you’ll sate some of my own curiosity as well. Like Creati, with that fully automated dummy you made of yourself for that raid against the Hemlock Syndicate, how does the process of creating all that machinery differ from…”

One is never truly prepared to take a full blast of the Midoriya mutter storm of quirk questions. Perhaps because they seemed to be primed on Izuku prior to him now being the center of attention, but, at first, the bewildered or seemingly unimpressed heroines seemed to get used to it pretty quickly.

The conversation was wide-ranging with little breaks, but by the end, everybody partook in what was, in its true essence, a verbal brainstorm. Izuku jumped from topics such as how Invisible Girl’s process going into her namesake quirk affected her internal balance, to how Earphone Jack’s prosthetic jack matched the movement of her flesh one, and even how Pinky could use her horns in more acid-based attacks.

Nobody asked any questions of him, not even what his non-existent quirk was, but for some reason, Izuku had a nagging feeling that any question they wanted to ask was answered through his actions already.

It was Invisible Girl that eventually interjected, “Hey, where did… Mrs. Midoriya go?”

“Bathroom,” Izuku’s first thought had to do. “She’s been… it’s that… blood, ya’know?”

He really thought he bungled the excuse, but the phrasing seemed to save it as everybody at the table nodded in understanding.

“Poor gal, and here of all places too,” Creati lamented in sympathy.

Pinky winced and crossed her legs. 

“Somebody should go and check in on her.”

“O-oh that shouldn’t be necessary, she’s very good at dealing with blood,” Izuku told truthfully even if it didn’t feel like it. “But, actually, I do have something to h-help her with that some of you might be able to give me t-tips for.”

“Well, we’re all ears Green,” Earphone Jack reluctantly punned, seemingly here for the long haul regarding this stranger that had been inserted into their girl's night.

As Izuku took advantage of an opportunity that perhaps wasn’t the one Himiko was alluded to earlier, only a certain frog noticed a certain somebody else slip away to do as Pinky suggested.

The first thing Himiko did upon entering the women’s restroom was close the door in a way that kept it just a little jammed for the next person that opened it, followed by making sure the room was completely empty: checking all the stalls; rooting through the trash; making sure the mirrors weren’t two-way; and so on.

She might have been out of practice when it came to sneaking around, but she sure as hell wasn’t sloppy.

Once she was sure she was alone and wouldn’t be caught unawares, she finally dropped what remained of her mask and did what she had wanted to do since the unexpected arrival of an old friend on her date night…

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~”

She began hopping in place, hugging herself while being as giddy as a schoolgirl. Her face, which wasn’t her face, bore a blush that extended all the way to her eyes and a grin that stretched so far it more clearly resembled what lurked beneath it.

“Of all the people to be here! Ochako Uraraka!” Himiko practically squealed to herself, rocking back and forth as she gripped the rim of the sink. “Oh, what have I done to deserve this miracle of miracles!”

When Himiko came to this hero restaurant, all she was hoping for was a nice evening out with her husband. She never would’ve expected the woman that was once the shining light of her salvation to be here as well! If it was anybody that interrupted her quality time with Izuku the fangs would be bared, but Ochako?

Something like that doesn’t just happen, it had to be fate!

She felt another squeal bubble up in her chest.

Of course, that wasn’t the only thing bubbling. All this excitement was causing Akane’s face to get a little… gooey.

“Dammit Akane.” She muttered to herself as she wiped the rapidly greying gunk from her face and washed it off in the sink, grabbing the hair clip before it went down the drain too. She had told Izuku that she had enough blood for the night, but the excitement was getting to her and she’d have to remember to put the mask back on before returning to their table. 

Once she’d cleaned the last of the slime off her cheek, she looked back into the mirror, and it was just Himiko’s toothy maw staring back at her again.

The cutest girl in the whole world…

She shook her head, not the time.

‘Well if we’re talking cute, she certainly looks as beautiful as ever~,’ she confirmed internally this time with a steamy lick across her lips. She knew from… following her online presence that the years had been kind to her former foe in many ways, but to be in the same room as her, to breathe the same air as her, was more intoxicating than any of the exclusive Uwabami brand champagne she had downed that night.

‘I wonder if Zuku feels similar? It’s only natural to do so, but he’s probably used to being in close proximity to her loveliness at this point.’

Or, more likely, he was more concerned with her and her secret to notice the things that she did.

‘Uh oh, here comes the regret,’ Himiko felt it in her stomach, although it wasn’t as bad as she was expecting for whatever that said about her as a person.

Yes, it had been a moment of weakness to accept an invite from the person who, lingering feelings aside, was the Pro Hero who would be most likely to recognize her and lead them in the lion’s den of pros that wouldn’t hesitate to arrest her on sight for all the times she attempted to shank them, but it was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

For Izuku, not only was it a good chance for him to get the autographs of a bunch of rising Pros, (that were going to be framed for sure), but also it served as a chance for him to network with them. After all, it was important for those working at a Hero Agency to interact with other heroes, and with Ochako, he would be seeing this group fairly often. Himiko had seen these women in the field first-hand and knew that they were, more or less, true heroes who wouldn’t mistreat her Izuku like the others had.

Her only major regret that she had was the slap-dash way that she’d gotten her and Izuku VIP passes into Girl’s Night which set off all of Izuku’s fears and anxieties. If she knew Ochako was going to be there she would’ve formed a plan to ease him into it.

“Still, the way that he tried to protect lil’ old me~,” Himiko nearly moaned as she hugged herself, a shiver running up her spine. She knew her husband wasn’t the best liar in the world, (she already knew what she was getting for her birthday after all), so to see him use every inch of his willpower to lie near-flawlessly to protect her from his own boss was… extremely flattering and quite hot, if she did say herself.

Himiko was already planning to segue this date into sexy times once they got home, but now she felt more than justified ending this night with a bang.

Of course, to present this as some altruistic endeavor on her husband’s behalf would be a complete lie. There was an opportunity of her own that she could admit only to herself.

It was selfish, especially considering the nature of the feelings she… once had for Ochako, but she wanted to stay around her as much as she possibly could.

She’d take what she could get if a lifetime supply of her blood was off the table.

Once her husband began to wow the table with that big, never-resting brain of his, as much as she usually cherished the moment in which other people realized what was underneath the shyness the whole time, she’d been watching Ochako. She saw in the heroine’s adorable face a similar joy in watching this man blossom before other people, with less schadenfreude at the humble pie of course. Himiko knew that pushing Izuku toward Ochako was a good idea, if she believed in her and worked to help a wretched thing like her improve, then her taking a nice man with a heroic spirit under her wing was inevitable, but she worked quicker than she expected.

‘I wonder how often she gets to see that at work?’ Himiko wondered to herself with an inquisitive stinkeye to the mirror. Once the ball got rolling, Izuku was in his element among the heroes and, if there wasn’t a villainous ball and chain forcing him to look over his shoulder every minute, he knew he would shine even more so.

Her stomach gnawed, and she knew it wasn’t from the Lemon-Brined Fried Chicken.

“He won’t have to worry about me ever again though,” the vampire woman practically growled at the face that was currently making its way down the sink drain. The face that was now forever linked to the name “Himiko Midoriya” in the minds of Ochako and the rest of those heroes, the bland face that was currently keeping her and Izuku from being thrown into the darkest cells in Tartarus, and it was a disgusting, horrid, and unremarkable face that she would never see again after tonight when the blood supply ran dry.

‘It’s a good thing I got this ‘me’ time while I could,’ she mused to herself, glad to have a last moment with Ochako that was overall less dramatic than their last last encounter with each other.

“Unless…”

Her brain suddenly conjured a scenario to keep this whole ruse up, one just like the old days when she felt her dreams of living the way she wanted slipping from her grasp. She could coax Akane’s information and address from Mama Inko, sneak to her home after dark, and borrow some blood that Himiko was sure she wouldn’t even miss. 

In fact, why just swipe the blood when she could cut out the middle man and just take the whole person? Nobody needed to know, and she was good enough that nobody would know. This way she had a reliable way to meet back up with Ochako maybe the three of them could get brunch or all go for drinks and karaoke as she kept this face up until she could accept that-

*Jiggle, jiggle*

“Mrs. Midoriya? Izu- Midoriya told us what was going on, are you alright in there?”

Her blood, as well as Akane’s inside her, went cold as Ochako’s sweet voice rang through the door that was currently being shaken. She quickly willed her quirk to bring Akane’s boring face back

But nothing was happening

She tried again to put the mask back on, but nothing continued happening.

‘Of all the times to get performance anxiety!’

Thankful now for her earlier efforts currently buying her time, she ducked into the closest stall, which happened to be the farthest of the five available. It was a bit trickier than usual given that the dress she was wearing was not made for this kind of action, but she silently scampered her way atop the toilet to keep her feet from being seen beneath the door.

And it wasn’t a moment too soon, as she heard Ochako finally brute force her way through the door and into the bathroom.

“Mrs. Midoriya? Are you still in here?” Ochako called out to no response but the highly repressed urge to announce her presence and jump into her surely waiting arms. “I just want to ask you a few questions, I think it would help us both out.”

‘Well, shit,’ Himiko thought to herself, knowing that either Ochako had a hunch that she wasn’t what she seemed, or she was bizarrely interested in the details of her fake menstrual cycle.

She never thought the day would come when she hoped it was the latter.

Akane still wasn’t coming out of her shell, so the now blonde woman stayed put for the time being.

Since plan A yielded no results, Ochako moved to her next course of action since she didn’t believe the lack of an answer that had previously answered her. Working her way through the eerily silent restroom, (for her at least, Himiko’s somersaulting heartbeat was absolutely deafening in her ears), Ochako gently pushed open the first stall door and peered within its light blue walls.

She then moved to the next stall and repeated the process, continuing the pattern as she got closer and closer to Himiko’s hiding spot with a firmer entrance each time.

‘Shit again,’ Himiko cursed as she prepared herself, in body and mind, to make another move to avoid this woman that she had put herself on the radar of.

As Ochako pushed her way into the final stall where she was waiting, Himiko made the jump from standing on the rim of the toilet to grip the back of the stall door and pull herself atop the thin piece of plastic before it slammed into the window.

“Himiko?” Ochako questioned the toilet, having seemingly expected to find something more for her efforts.

As Himiko jumped from the top of the stalls to an off fan in the bathroom rafters, she realized getting out of the immediate danger was one part of what she needed to do. After all, she now had to deal with getting from where she was to out the door without alerting Ochako of her presence.

Her quirk was continuing to act up so still no Akane mask, but that wasn’t really as important considering having her drop from the ceiling to pleasantly greet Ochako would probably raise just as many questions.

‘Come on! I’ve done this a hundred times! Why here of all places is it all fucked up?!’ Himiko cursed internally, but within the bowels of her heart she knew exactly why.

She didn’t want to greet Ochako with the mask of Akane.

She wanted Ochako to see the vampire beneath that, see her own self and find compassion for it like she did all those years ago.

And now what she wanted was getting in the way of what she needed to do.

‘Stupid quirk!’ she snapped to herself. She didn’t care what her husband said they were all bullshit.

‘Okay focus, I gotta find a way out of here but she won’t leave until she sees something!’ Himiko quickly noted as Ochako tried to find where she hadn’t looked yet as things weren’t adding up. 

‘But maybe that could be an advantage…’

First Himiko went to check her pockets only for that to be stopped by the fact that her dress didn’t have any. However, stuck in her… secret compartment was Akane’s hairclip that would have to fit the bill.

She might regret it later, but with no other options, she chucked the hairclip from her hiding spot in the rafters. The piece of metal flew silently through the air before landing behind the trashcan in the corner with a clatter.

Bullseye!

There was a beat, each waiting for the other to make a move before making their next.

Another beat passed.

“Fuck,” Ochako swore beneath her breath as she broke first, going over to investigate the noise despite herself. As she went behind the can, Himiko made her move to grab what she needed for the next part of her darling escape.

Toilet paper, and lots of it.

Himiko lowered herself from the rafters, pushing Akane’s body to its physical limit, and began to pull ply after ply from the roll as quietly as possible while she felt what material she was working with.

‘They got the rich people paper, strong enough to pull a door open from a distance!’

Unfortunately, this is where her already convoluted plan went through something of a snag. Akane’s grip on the top of the stall gave out, and Himiko landed chest-first on the dirty floor with a clatter.

It would’ve been cushioned a little more if it hadn’t been Akane’s chest that she landed on.

“The shit?” Ochako called from the other corner of the room, as she looked up from the garbage she was digging through. “H-Himiko?”

Since her use of the high ground was thwarted, Himiko decided that she was committing to the floor and began her mad scurry toward the door, passing under each stall.

This seemed to be recognized by Ochako, however, as she, instead of following the vampire slithering across the restroom floor, made her way to the end of the stalls to head her off.

But Himiko knew that Ochako knew and made her next move accordingly as she arrived now at the stall closest to the door, she hopped onto a toilet and locked the plastic panel, bringing Ochako to the front and no longer between her and the door just as she had planned.

‘Can this even be considered a plan at this point? It’s more like winging it based on what I know about Chako… which is a lot.’

“Himiko? By my authority as a Pro-Hero sidekick, I order you to exit this stall!” Ochako banged on the locked plastic board, her voice had the power and dominance she hadn’t heard in years and sometimes missed. “I just want to know...”

She didn’t say what she wanted to know, but they both knew.

‘Sorry Chako,’ Himiko thought to herself as she stuffed the supplies that she risked her secrecy to gather into the toilet bowl. Once the preparations were ‘completed’, the vampire woman slammed herself against the stall in a way that made it sound like she was attempting to make a break for it from above.

As she predicted, Ochako took the bait and propelled herself above the stall door just in time for the toilet to react to the wad now stuck in its bowl.

For Himiko, it was a makeshift cover for her to make her final bolt to the door and escape this restroom cat and mouse.

For Ochako, she was looking down the barrel of a clogged toilet that was spewing water that, while as clean as toilet water could be, was still quite unpleasant to have spraying in your general direction.

“WHAT THE PFFPFPPFPFFPFFPPFT-”

And with those distressed yelps overshadowing the sound of her daring escape, Himiko finally left the bathroom, managing to summon back her mask of Akane now it was over and straightening out her dress to complete the look. Brushing herself didn’t remove all the gathered dust, or the collected smell, but she was presentable enough to return to her date.

Except for the hair that was now in her face with no clip to help her, but she could live with that.

It was somewhat bittersweet leaving Ochako in the bathroom, walking away from the kind of chase that defined their relationship long ago when once that was all she ever wanted.

But she had a new life now, with a husband who was waiting for her, and she had to keep it separate from all that for both of their sakes.

‘Maybe I’ll see you around, ‘Chako.’

As she returned to her partner, she saw she was right not to worry about how he would hold up without her as he still was going, possibly on the same train of thought as when she left. It made her break into a smile, a smile that the Himiko that grappled with Ochako would’ve thought was not like her at all, but was getting more familiar to her every day.

As she caught her breath, she realized that she was now at the hardest part of the whole evening.

Getting Izuku away from the Heroes.

“I think that was the most… interesting girl’s night we’ve ever had so far, ribbit,” Tsu gave her two cents as they left the restaurant together after all was said and done.

Ochako could only grunt in acknowledgment as she tried to fish the last bit of wet paper from the back of her mouth. The two heroines were walking the same streets they’d walked several hours earlier, retracing their steps to Tsu’s place before Ochako took a train to her apartment.

The night had started off so promising as she brought Midoriya and his wife to their table, in a public area too. It was two birds with one stone in getting Midoriya to spread his wings more, (she knew that they would be cool with him once they got past the notion of them being… involved, but man they took to him like a duck to water), and keep an eye on Mrs. Midoriya at the same time!

But then she got sloppy! She was too focused on Midoriya and got lost in the way that he was talking quirks that Ochako lost visual on his wife.

And what happened after that… she didn’t really want to talk about.

“At least it’s safe to say that Mina won’t be bothering you about Izuku anymore,” Tsu looked the bright side for her friend.

“Well, one part of it anyways.” Ochako wanted to put her head in her hands but as she was walking home it wasn’t a good idea. “But now I’ve got a new can of worms to deal with.”

Once she had managed to make herself look halfway decent again following the bathroom chase she was still annoyed and also weirdly wistful about, she immediately had Mina on her back once again.

“I’ll be honest, I’m still not a hundred percent on what your whole ‘deal’ with Midori is,” her pink friend had begun with a serious tone which made Ochako lose all for a cathartic admittance of her actually being wrong. “But don’t be a homewrecker about these two! You can’t let your adorableness break up their adorableness.”

“Did you see the way they kissed as they were leaving? It was so romantic!” Toru butted in, as she sighed and swooned with flourish.

“It was, until you made them all shy with your ‘squeeing’,” Kyoka took the wind out of the girl’s sails.

Ochako could barely stammer as she pushed aside the weird disappointment that she had missed their display, (and thus the opportunity to objectively assess if it was a hostage situation of course), and wheezed out a simple, “I’m not a homewrecker!”

A valiant defense if there ever was one.

“I’m not saying you are girl,” Mina held up her hands defensively, “but you’re entering the confusing minefield of the heart is all I’m saying.”

“Regardless of these possible and upcoming romantic entanglements,” Yaomomo stepped in, providing further insult to injury as she had paid for the meals while Ochako was in the bathroom. “It was lovely to meet your friend Ochako, and I’m glad we were able to help him out. I can see why you are quite fond of him.

“Mmmmm. Can of Worms, ribbit,” Tsu murmured to snap Ochako out of her memories.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask,” Ochako resumed her present conversation upon her flashback reminding her of a loose thread. “What was that thing you helped Midoriya with that Yaomomo mentioned.”

“Oh, his wife was struggling with an online career and he wanted pointers on how she could expand her brand,” Tsu explained off-handedly.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Ochako tripped over herself, figuratively and almost literally, as she caught up with this new well of information that had potentially opened up right in front of her. “Did he say what her career was?”

“Nothing specifically, ribbit,” Tsu shrugged. “He took Mina and Kyoka’s contact details for further assistance, so my best guess would be there is some level of performance involved.”

“Great,” Ochako sighed for multiple disappointments there, but the one that manifested vocally was, “more people have his number while I don’t.”

“Why don’t you have his phone number, ‘Chako?” Tsu asked her point-blank. “It’s in the agency directory and was provided the first day he was hired.”

Ochako was glad at the dark of dusk for hiding the heating up of her face. There wasn’t a good way to say that, in her attempts to keep tabs on the Midoriyas, she’d completely neglected the most obvious answer of them all. Therefore, the natural solution to that conundrum was to not say anything.

But Tsu was a smart frog, and to her, the silence from the woman next to her spoke volumes.

“I can send it to you right now if you want,” Tsu finally cut through the tension in her typical way. “As his supervisor, it’ll be good for you to have to check up on him.”

All that broke the silence on Ochako’s end was the marbles in her head rattling as she shook her head in the affirmative. With a couple of beeps and boops, the number for Midoirya was in Ochako’s hand which she followed with some beeping and booping of her own.

“Are you calling him?” Tsu asked, her tone making it sound probably more accusatory than it actually was. It was hard to tell with Tsu sometimes.

“Well, like you said, it’s good for me to check up on him,” Ochako sheepishly defended herself as the dialing tone started to ring out through the empty street, before muffling into silence as she brought the phone up to her ear. “I just want to make sure that he and h-his wife got home safely, is all.”

“Aaaaaaah,” Himiko’s voice wafted through hers and Izuku’s bedroom, punctuated by a pop of her back and her form enveloped in a haze of steam that accompanied her entrance from their bathroom. “I really needed that.”

“I hear that, it’s certainly been quite the night,” Izuku related from their bed as he tried to undo his tie, struggling until it was somehow tighter around his throat. “Nice shower?”

“Yep, took a bit to scrub the last of Akane off me,” Himiko continued drying her hair, the rest of her covered by a crimson robe that always showed just a bit more cleavage than Izuku remembered. “Still, feeling nice and refreshed now.”

Izuku was glad his wife was feeling better, she had been a little… off and jumpy when they were heading home.

Of course, he shouldn’t throw stones in glass houses when it came to be people being jumpy, especially with the situation they found themselves in on their date.

“You know you really didn’t have to do that,” Izuku ventured to the giant, heroic elephant in the room that hadn’t been touched between leaving the restaurant with several to-go boxes and this moment. “We could’ve said you were shy or something.”

Himiko suddenly looked quite thoughtful as she dropped the towel in her hair onto the floor and walked over it and her red dress to her husband’s side. “I guess that could’ve worked, but with somebody as well-liked and easily approachable as Uravity, the question of why I didn’t want to be around her or the others still makes me seem just a little shady.”

“But it doesn’t inherently mean…”

“I know , but honestly, I think this ended up being the best possible outcome,” Himiko continued, moving to hug Izuku from behind and help him with his tie at the same time. “You got to meet a bunch of Pro-Heroes and get their autographs, and I was able to make sure nobody suspected a thing as my man did some networking!”

Izuku couldn’t help but smile to himself, hoping that Himiko’s angle meant she didn’t see it and instantly tell he had something up his sleeve like she always does, (she totally knew what she was getting for her birthday). He may have been networking, but she would soon discover that not all of it was for him was for himself.

“And what about your conversation with Uraraka in the bathroom?” Izuku pressed forward, hoping he wouldn’t give his wife an inch in finding out his surprise.

“Went smooth as butter, good small talk and kept it on the ‘lady business’,”. Himiko assured him as the last knot of his messed up tie came undone. “Though next time, maybe let’s think of a different excuse for why I’m freshening up.”

“S-sorry about that,” Izuku sheepishly apologized. “Next time, though,” he said with the disbelief that there would ever be a next time. “I’m glad you were alright in the end.” 

“I was able to afford myself some dignity,” Himiko admitted with some pride. “I hope you didn’t have too much fun without me though.”

“Not at all,” Izuku reached behind him to rub her back. “I only wish you were there with me.”

And just like that, the transition to the promised steamy part of the night happened in point four seconds as Himiko readjusted so that her husband could feel all she was pushing against his back at this moment.

“Well, Zuku~” Himiko purred as she moved from his back to in front, pulling his tie off his neck with her and dragging her chest along agonizingly. “You remember what I said to you before this date?”

Izuku was being completely honest here, most of the preparations were a blur in his mind except when Himiko in red dress dominated all his senses. “Uhhhhhhhh… which specific thing?”

Himiko chuckled at his cluelessness in a way that was somehow still sultry as she fell to her knees and began to fiddle with his pants. 

“I said that it doesn’t matter who else may talk you up outside our home, because once we come back here for the night…” She freed his rapidly stiffening cock into the open air. “You’re all mine~.”

The back-to-blond vampire began to run her hand up and down his shaft with a wicked grin and lust dancing in her eyes. It was slow at first, though the pace rapidly quickened, with Himiko spitting on his tool to help her delicate grip slide up and down in a pleasurable routine.

“Fuck, Himi,” Izuku exhaled from the pits of his soul, eliciting a perverse giggle from his wife.

“Better than any dessert they could whip up, isn’t it?” She asked rhetorically, moving her other hand to fondle the sack beneath and bringing Izuku to an even greater ecstasy, just in case he could even think of arguing that point.

From there, no words filled the room, but it wasn’t as if there was any silence to be found. Obscene wet noises of Himiko’s devilish handjob echoed around the room, now into overdrive as the lewd giggles flowed from the former villain. She took great pleasure watching her husband buck his hips into his slippery grip, Izuku’s grunts and groans becoming more feral as he rose higher and higher towards his climax and…

…The Silver Age All Might theme?

Izuku and Himiko stopped once the jaunty tune finally registered to them and snapped through their lustful haze, both of them looking over to Izuku’s phone on the bedside table which was emitting the tinny ringtone as an unknown caller was trying to reach him.

“Should I…” Izuku ventured, not one to ignore calls usually but figured his hesitation could be forgiven given the circumstances.

“Go for it, Zuku,” Himiko shrugged, “could be important, and we got allllllll night~.”

“Well, alright then,” Izuku agreed, a little surprised, he reached for the phone before stopping himself and affixing Himiko with a serious gaze, “but don’t you think about continuing until this call is over!”

Himiko gasped in mock offense. 

“Izuku Midoirya! I am shocked that you’d think I’d do something so disgusting and repulsive and-”

“Your hand is still on my dick, Himi.”

Himiko removed the hand in complete silence as Izuku tried to suppress any sounds that may have resulted from that action.

“Please don’t put your hands back on it until I’m done with the phone,” he pleaded to his minx of a wife.

“Scout’s honor~,” she chirped back.

Izuku wasn’t sure how much he trusted that, but the All Might theme was reaching its grand finale so he decided it was going to have to do as he reached over and accepted the mystery call. 

“Hello?”

“Hey Midoriya!”

“O-oh, hey Uraraka,” he responded, giving a pointed look to an eavesdropping Himiko who, for some reason, seemed just as shocked as he was as her flushed cheeks returned to their natural pale. “W-what, uh, what do I owe the pleasure.”

He wanted to facepalm over his stilted greeting as Uraraka chuckled, “Jeez Midoriya, you sound so surprised.”

“W-well, I didn’t know you uh, had my number,” he continued.

“That makes sense, you never gave it to me, but it’s in the agency and I thought that, as your supervisor, I should have it on me just in case,” Ochako explained, regurgitating Tsu’s reasoning. “N-not that I’m calling you as your supervisor or anything, I j-just was walking with Tsu and got her home, and I realized that I should make sure you and your w-wife got home alright too.”

Izuku felt himself relax at that perfectly reasonable explanation as Himiko released a held breath directly onto his dick that caused him to shiver.

“T-that’s very kind of you, Urarska,” Izuku earnestly praised the Gravity Hero, feeling a warm fuzzy feeling that she cared so much.

“Oh, it’s nothing, hero work isn’t just when we’re in suits after all,” Uraraka brushed it off with Izuku almost able to hear her waving her arm. “So, is it safe to say you and H-Himiko are alright?”

“Yep,” Izuku confirmed, ready to wrap this phone call up despite enjoying hearing Uraraka’s voice. “We’re back home safe and round.”

Izuku’s eyes grew wide at that, both from the slip and what caused it. Himiko had released her chest from the confines of her robes, in all their perky and, as he said, round glory. She clearly took pride in the way she caused Izuku to fumble, given the way she emphasized their firm size with extra flourish.

“Safe and round?” Uraraka questioned as Izuku snapped back to the conversation that was unfortunately at hand.

“SOUND! Sound! Sorry, it was just a tit of the tongue.” Izuku sailed himself right out of his mistake and into a more profane one.

“Midoriya, is everything okay?” With more concern than he’d expect from just him messing up his words with.

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s okay,” Midoriya said, realizing he was lying as Himiko hefted her chest and used it to envelop his penis.

“O-okay, because, if there is something, you know you can tell me and I’ll help you, ” Ochako continued somewhat gravely though it was hard for Izuku to tell with his wife’s breasts hugging his most sensitive part right now.

But then she started to shift the mounds around, and it took all of his willpower to be semi-coherent.

“I-I-I-I know,” in his valiant attempt to steer this call towards a finish before he finished.

“I mean, if there was a problem or something, maybe at home hypothetically, and you were in pain or uncomfortable, I’m always willing to step in.”

Pain and uncomfortable were the last things Izuku felt as Himiko began to pump her tits up and down the slick pole, once again starting slow, but an increase in speed was inevitable.

“Everything is alright, U-Uraraka,” Izuku managed to muster up, a statement both correct and incorrect as Himiko’s titfucking created a chorus of ‘plap, plap, plap, plap,’ that was rising in volume with every second.

“I think you’re breaking up, Midoriya,” Uraraka noted, “I’m hearing some sort of weird, rumbling noise and I-”

She didn’t get to finish because Izuku saw his out and ran with it.

“YEP! The call is breaking up! It was good to hear your voice, but I gotta go, see you on Monday!” He yelped out in a gasp before quickly ending the call and throwing the phone between their pillows like it was a burning coal in his hands.

Breathing heavily, Izuku turned to Himiko, who squished her boobs with a sheepish smile.

“Himi,” Izuku practically grunted, either from anger, lust, or both at the same time, “what was that?”

“I seemed to recall you asking that I not lay my hands on your cock until the call was over,” She explained in a sing-song voice, raising her hands and wiggling her fingers as her chest kept its grip on his shaft. “Look, Zuku, no hands~.”

It took Izuku a moment to register what had happened. 

Yeah, it was both.

Reaching out, the greenette seized Himiko’s tits and continued her rhythm, working them on his throbbing member. His fingers dug into her flesh and tweaked her nipples as they manhandled them at an even faster pace than before, coaxing a loud, throaty moan from the vampire herself.

“Why, oh fuck, why did you think that was a good idea?” Izuku snarled, horniness winning over his actual fury at this point but keeping the energy strong regardless. “What possible reason could justify it?”

“She was cutting into, fuckfuckfuckfuck, cutting into my time,” Himiko whined like the brat she was right now. “She has you for the workdays but here you’re, oh yes, OH YES, you’re fucking MINE!”

She made good on that declaration as, thanks to Izuku handling the goods, her hands were now free to touch his cock once more. Her right found itself back to the balls below, while the left now drew tender circles around his cockhead.

“Oh shit, Himi, I-” Izuku croaked as he felt his well-earned climax begin to bubble up.

“Do it, Zuku! Fucking do it! Let everybody see who I belong to!” Himiko egged on with a lustful ferocity and deranged glee.

She gave him a kiss upon the top of his cockhead, and then the dam broke loose, Izuku spraying cum all over her face and hair in a debauched display.

“Aaaaaaah,” Izuku sighed as the eruption that had been building for so long began to subside and he felt some semblance of peace return to his body.

Himiko looked like she was in heaven, licking her lips with a contented groan before scooping the globs on her cheeks for more. Plenty had already dripped from her face to her chest that still kept Izuku’s cock within its valleys, but she didn’t let that bother her as she rubbed the residue into her skin.

“F-fuck, Himi,” Izuku released as he felt himself react to what she was doing. “T-that’s sensitive.”

“Just making sure nothing goes to waste~,” she cooed with a wink as she continued unrepentantly. “I bettcha Akane couldn’t make you cum like that with her knockers!”

“Himi, you know you’re the only one for me,” Izuku reassured his wife as he brought his hand to her cheek so she could rub against it while practically purring.

Despite her best attempts at a sexy clean-up, his hand still ended up a little sticky afterward.

“That said, can we not do something like that again?” Izuku requested as the cringe memories of his phone call with Uraraka flood back to his mind, threatening to completely kill the momentum if not for the constant stimulation.

“Yeah, yeah, I won’t,” Himiko pouted from the chastising. “It would be a pretty embarrassing way for us to be caught.”

“It would’ve been bad even if it wasn’t the person we were trying to hide from,” Izuku corrected, earning himself another cum-covered pout. “That was just the cherry on top of the horrid sundae.”

“Alright, no more voyeur stuff… for now.”

“Himi…”

“You want me to learn my lesson? You gotta make me!” Himiko declared as she removed herself from his dick and began to spread her legs. “I can’t know what’s bad if I haven’t been punished after all.”

Izuku, while still absolutely going to do it, couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the presentation. “If that’s the only way…”

Somehow, both returned home with the feeling it was a long day, but here they were making it an even longer night anyway.

However, as the bed continued to shake and creak once more, there was a phone tucked forgotten within the pillows. A phone that, couldn’t hear much of the words in conversation due to the soft pillows muffling it, but was plenty privy to the moans of pleasure and gasps of ecstasy that had permeated the sex-filled air that evening.

And a phone was still on call as the person on the other end couldn’t bring themselves to hang up in the name of… data collection.

Chapter Text

Tsu liked to consider herself a smart frog.

It wasn’t a title she gave herself lightly, but through the years she had spent as a student at UA, the simultaneous secret war with the Paranormal Liberation Front she partook in, and her subsequent moving through the ranks as a certified Pro-Hero in an industry just finding its legs again, she felt as though she had earned it.

But this self-assessment wasn’t born from getting good grades or being a genius strategist, she believed that her intelligence came from her pragmatic nature just as it did any kind of book smarts.

Sure, she believed the old All Might adage that “Meddling when you don't need to, is the essence of being a hero!” as much as anybody else.

Well, maybe not as much as some people she knew…

But she also knew that being careful about how you interfere is just as important as doing so at all. If you are not aware of their moves going into the situation, you are just as liable to step on the toes of the people involved to create an even worse problem as your helping becomes a hindrance.

Such was the case as it was today, where she was living through an example of this principle in action.

“Hey, Tsu!” A cheery Ochako greeted her as she pushed through the doors into the agency locker room with a brand-new spring in her step. “How are you doing on this fine day?”

“Good morning ‘Chako,” Tsu nodded as she continued to put her coat away. “You seem especially excited today, ribbit.”

“I just feel the blood pumping today!” Ochako declared somewhat boisterously as she whipped her coat off and threw it into her locker… and then promptly went to pick the garment up off the floor where it landed and hang it up properly.

“Any particular reason for this energy?” Tsu asked with a head tilt. She didn’t want to seem judgemental of her friend’s newfound spirit, but it seemed in contrast with what she knew was coming.

“I don’t know, I guess I’ve been on something of a hot streak recently,” Ochako shrugged somewhat excitedly as they closed their lockers and began walking their way through the winding hallways of the Ryukyu agency they knew well. “That and I finally broke into Yaomomo’s housewarming present coffee, and it has something of a punch to it.”

Ah, that explained it. Expensive rich person coffee that was at least a year old at this point given how long she hoarded it, would’ve been quite the shock to Ochako’s system that had been raised on only the cheapest of brands.

“Well, I’m glad that you’re feeling great today, ribbit,” Tsu said earnestly, though it was tapered with the knowledge of what was coming.

“Yep! Ready to seize the day!” Ochako cheered as they went to get their battle raid case files for the day. “And nothing’s going to stop me!”

“Ah, excuse me, Miss Uraraka?”

And just like that, all the energy that Ochako had been bursting with just moments before had been sapped away in an instant once she came face to face with Izuku. The brunette’s face went beyond the blush already built into her cheeks until it was sizzling like the surface of Mars. The only part that escaped the crimson takeover was the white of her eyes which grew so wide that her pupils were spinning within them. Her skeleton snapped in a straight line with a ramrod posture that somehow emphasized her chest outward.

Tsu sighed an expected sigh, this was the fourth day in a row in which Ochako had a reaction like this at the first sight of Izuku Midoriya.

“I-I whipped up the analysis papers that you requested, and I c-came up with some new strategies to work on,” Izuku continued, either undaunted or just having expected this. “I was wondering if you’d be interested in going over them?”

Ochako’s mouth began to move, even to articulate, but not a peep came out of her.

An improvement, Tsu thought, over the last time when her mouth was sealed shut.

“O-okay, well, if you want to see them l-later I’ll be at my desk working on the other profiles,” Izuku began to wrap up the fourth non-conversation and leave a door open that he knew wouldn’t be answered.

It was painful to see, and it was Tsu’s fault for meddling on their last girl’s night. 

Ochako may have thought she was sneaky in hiding it, but Tsu saw her friend’s… strange habits around their new subordinate since the day he arrived. She wasn’t about to go full Mina and assume there was some interest going on, but Ochako was way more invested in Izuku and his life than the frog woman had ever seen before. She had prodded at it during their meal at the Lunch Rush Bistro in order to try to get them to a state of normalcy but, even with the best of intentions, her actions almost certainly led to this current predicament.

Her poorly thought-out inference had brought them here, but hopefully, she could muster some of that All-Might heroic essence and make two wrongs a right.

“She’ll check it out later,” Tsu finally spoke up to assure Izuku, who was visually surprised by this change in their new routine. “Before that, I’d like to ask a favor of you as well, if you don’t mind.”

“O-oh? Oh! Y-yeah! I’ll be happy to help!” Izuku stammered out, a grin growing on his previously resigned face. “Just give me a few minutes to get everything in order and then I’ll be at your service.”

“Sounds good, I’ll see you then, ribbit.” Tsu waved off the green-haired analyst who went back to his desk. Turning her attention to Ochako, Tsu tried to pull her blushing brunette friend along with her, only for her feet to be firmly planted and unwilling to give her a single inch.

With a rueful ribbit, she used the only option still in her arsenal and wrapped her tongue around Ochako, which thankfully snapped her from her statue state before the Rainy Day Heroine was forced to pick her up and walk her out of the office herself.

“Tsu! W-w-what the hell!” Ochako yelped, but Tsu wouldn’t give her any leeway right now as the frog woman pulled her into a walk and talk she couldn’t escape.

It was time for her famous, (or infamous depending on who you asked), bluntness to do its thing.

“What happened between you and Midoriya?”

Ochako’s skin, which was rapidly lowering in hue, threatened to rise into the red again before Tsu gave her a prod with her tongue to keep her back on planet Earth.

“Ochako, you can’t avoid it, him, or me forever, so what happened?” The froggy girl sternly reiterated.

“I-I-I-I-I,” the gravity heroine stuttered out before centering herself with a deep breath, focusing in a way Tsu always saw whenever she handled the press. “T-there is nothing happening between Midoriya and I, we are perfectly fine and everything is perfectly normal.”

“Bullshit.” Tsu disliked talking to her friend like this, but she needed to cut off this rehearsed smile at it’s root. “I know something happened, and I know it was from the phone call.”

It was a risky gambit considering she only saw Ochako dialing the number and not the contents of the call itself.

But with a poker face like hers, you can make miracles happen.

“What? No!” Ochako began, almost convincingly before she kept going with, “No, nonono, nononononono! That phone was perfectly average and wholesome! You sound like Mina making accusations like that!”

“I really didn’t,” Tsu shrugged in absolute fact. “But your protesting makes me think I should…”

Ochako cracked at that, releasing a high-pitched whine as her body lost its hold on gravity and started doing somersaults in place. When her voice dried out, and she landed back on her buckling feet, she looked back and forth for any eavesdroppers and simply muttered in a hoarse whisper, “When I called Midoriya to check on him, he was… doing stuff with his wife.”

Okay… that wasn’t quite what Tsu was a little less world-shattering than Tsu was prepared for, from the way her friend was reacting she was half-expecting the Midoriyas to be secret supervillains or something.

But there were things still that didn’t line up.

“That… doesn’t sound like Midoriya,” Tsu posited, causing Ochako to shift her gaze down to the floor.

“Well… he didn’t know I was there,” she reluctantly admitted.

Tsu just tilted her head, but it asked the question for her.

Ochako just sighed, resigned to answering it. “H-he thought he hung up on me, but h-he was wrong, s-so I heard a lot more than he thought.”

“Well, he doesn’t know, and it was an accident, so it’s not that bad,” Tsu tried to reassure her friend, only for her to continue finding the floor tiles extremely interesting.

The amphibious woman had more to clear up, but now Ochako was not letting her get a word out as she broke down into her Kansai accent and resorted to begging. 

“Please Tsu, you can’t tell anybody else ‘bout this! I should’na even told you . It’s been torture already, bein’ all weird ‘round him after tryin’ so hard to make him more comfortable ‘round these parts. But if it gets out to anybody that I heard Midoriya havin’ s-s-fun with Hi- Mrs. Midoriya it would be a breach of his trust and I don’t know if I could…”

Ochako stopped as they turned a corner, her face red and spine like an arrow once again, when Tsu saw what caused such a reaction she felt like she understood.

They had run right into Hado Nejire, letting her paper cup overflow at the agency water cooler as she stared wide-eyed and grinning at the pair.

‘Oh no.’

“Ochakooooooo!” The periwinkle woman, already clad in her hero suit, rocketed outward and held Ochako by her flushed cheeks. “I was just looking for you to tell you we’re going on patrol today but then I was thirsty so I went to get some water and I like this cooler because it has a more iron-y taste but now I hear this! I took my eyes off you for five seconds and suddenly you’re becoming the center of a throuple! I’m so proud of you girl!”

Nejire was somehow about to express that all in one breath, she looked liable to pass out but not as much as the sidekick in her clutches.

“I-I-I-I WHAT?!” was all that Ochako could muster within the former Big Three member’s surprisingly firm grasp on her steaming cheeks. Tsu couldn’t blame the mochi lovin’ girl for her flabbergasted state. The idea of them being in a full three-way relationship wasn’t exactly the first thing she would’ve thought of when she heard that scenario, but Nejire’s mind works in mysterious ways.

“Is that why you won’t let me meet him? Because you’re worried ol’ Nejire-chan was going to embarrass you in front of the man you wanted to snag?” The pixie-like woman pouted as she forced Ochako’s face into a similar state.

Tsu still wasn’t entirely sure why her friend kept their former senpai away from Izuku, but she couldn’t really think of any reason for it besides what Nejire just planted in her brain.

“Thath not twue!” Ochako protested from within Nejire’s hold, before being released and rubbing to regain the feeling in her cheeks. “And there is no ‘throuple’ goin’ on between me, Midoriya, and his w-wife.”

Nejire looked confused for a second, because the realization finally clicked in her mind. 

“Oooooooooh, so you’re just fucking causally then. I get it. Your senpai has been that girl in the middle of a relationship when she was younger, often times literally in my case.”

Huh, they were learning a lot more about their coworker today than Tsu ever expected or really wanted to.

Ochako was equally lost in how to react. 

“Ehhhhhhhhhh?”

“Yep! Your adorable senpai has been around the block,” Nejire beamed proudly. “I’m sure I can give you some tips over patrol on how to keep that momentum going, though you are clearly already skilled enough to get to… what base would phone sex be considered?”

Ochako merely whimpered, “But… but…. but…” as Nejire dragged her away on what was technically work business, so Tsu couldn’t step in to save her friend from the ‘Nejire special’ as they left her alone in the hallway.

“I suppose that’s all I’m getting from her for a while,” Tsu simply said to herself once the noise had faded. It wasn’t a perfect resolution but it wasn’t a total bust either considering she got to the root of their problem.

True, she wasn’t expecting it to be from a case of accidental voyeurism, she could work with that.

“Now, let’s see if I can help on the Midoriya side of things.”

“Hey Midoriya, ribbit,” Tsu greeted their junior analyst as she approached his desk with some files in her arms.

The green-haired man seemed to be startled by the arriving frog, the pencil in his hand breaking both its lead and flying from his grip and onto the floor. “Ah! Miss T-Tsuyu!”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Tsu apologized as Izuku went for his dropped writing utensil. “And-”

“-And it’s Tsu, I know. I’ll get it right one of these days,” Izuku chuckled almost ruefully as he came up from under his desk. “And I’m s-sorry too, for being so jumpy.”

“You are a little tense,” Tsu conceded with a finger upon her chin.

“It’s better to be tense in my experience,” Izuku stated way too causally for Tsu’s liking as he began to manually resharpen the nub on his pencil. “When you’re… like I am, making sure you have one foot already out the door is an important step for survival.”

Yep, Tsu really didn’t like the way that Izuku was talking about this.

“Midoriya, I can’t imagine everything that you’ve been through,” Tsu began, making a point not to say ‘quirkless’ out loud per Izuku’s wishes to keep that subject away from the prying ears of his coworkers. “But I reiterate that the heroes here are always at your side regarding this matter and any conflict that could arise because of it.”

Tsu was a little worried that the business-like way she affirmed her intent to protect Izuku from discrimination would be off-putting to the young man, but he seemed to appreciate it as he kept sharpening his pencil.

“I-I know, and I’m very grateful, but you really don’t have to go out of your way for me,” Izuku smiled through another statement that made Tsu wince, (internally anyway, on the outside she was still an unflappable frog). “Like what you did during that night at the Lunch Rush Bistro restaurant.”

“What did we do at the restaurant?” Tsu asked confusedly.

“Well, me and my w-wife sorta… hijacked your private get-together with the rest of your class,” Izuku explained almost sheepishly.

“Midoriya, I don’t think it counts as you ‘hijacking’ when we both invited and brought you over,” Tsu reasoned with the anxious man, still turning the handle of his sharpener at an ever quicker pace.

“I understand that and was told the same when we got home too, but I still should’ve read the room better or maybe had known when to leave, or knew when it wasn’t the time to ask for autographs!” Izuku continued to push back on the Rainy Day Hero’s reassurance, increasing in both volume and speed until-

SNAP

Izuku took the pencil out of the sharpener, slumping as he pulled the remaining lead nub from his device.

“And now, because I couldn’t keep myself under control, I did something that has gotten Uararka all… in a twist.”

Tsu opened her mouth to respond but then closed it as something he had said clicked with what she already knew.

‘Izuku doesn’t know that Ochako was listening in on him and Himiko having sex that night!’

That… complicated things, but it also explained why Izuku wasn’t just as embarrassed and immobile as Ochako when they encountered each other; he genuinely didn’t know what he did to make her that way. It also made it so that outright telling the greenette the reason that Ochako was turning the hue of a tomato every time she encountered him was not going to be the solution she hoped it would be.

Fortunately, being able to improvise is part of the heroing job.

“Ochako isn’t upset with you, it’s more something about herself that she’s embarrassed about,” Tsu said, keeping it vague but basically the truth. “She feels really bad about how it’s made you uncomfortable.”

Izuku sighed, “I just hope I can get us back to how we were. It was… nice to have coffee and talk to her over files like we did.”

Tsu felt her head tilt at the way Izuku’s cheeks seemed to gain the faintest dusting of pink to them.

“She’s on patrol with Nejire-Chan at the moment, that should help her clear her head,” Tsu reassured him, leaving out the fact that there was about a fifty-fifty chance that an afternoon with their enthusiastic senpai would make the whole problem worse. “I’ll make sure she comes down once she’s back to catch up with you and your work, ribbit.”

Tsu didn’t make promises lightly, she intended to make sure it was kept.

“That would be great!” Izuku seemed to beam at the prospect of repairing this bridge. “I have quite a few papers I’ve stockpiled over the last few days to talk about with her.”

The frog woman peered over Izuku’s shoulder at said paper strewn around in both handwritten and typed forms. Of course, that wasn’t the most interesting part about these papers that Izuku had produced.

“And you’ve drawn sketches of her on them?”

Well now she definitely saw heat in his cheeks as he moved to neatly put the papers in a pile, drawing side down. Tsu didn’t think he had much to be embarrassed about, the drawings were very well done and captured the ‘can-do’ spirit ever present in Ochako’s face.

“I-I-I thought s-she might appreciate them, as a peace offering or something, she seemed to like the ones that slipped into my portfolio,” Izuku justified himself despite not Tsu needing it. Unfortunately, the analyst seemed to misinterpret her blank expression as disdain as he backtracked with, “It’s p-probably too much though, it’s j-just my wife enjoys the sketches I make of her s-s-so I guess I hoped she would be the same.”

Tsu couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t referring to his partner by name despite the fact they both knew it. That was compounding with her also noticing the lack of any photos of her on Izuku’s desk, as though he was trying to keep her out of sight and out of mind.

‘Calm yourself Tsu, you’ve spent so much time trying to dissect Ochako’s thought process it’s starting to affect you.’

The amphibious sidekick would be lying to herself if she didn’t see why Ochako made this connection in her mind between the previously elusive Himiko Midoriya and… a certain other Himiko that still gave her tongue phantom pains when she thought about her. She also understood Ochako’s desperation for closure when she felt as close as she did to a breakthrough.

Especially now with her own… relationship breakdowns in both hero and personal matters.

But Ochako wasn’t around for what happened after the dust had settled, what made Tsu so sure that Toga was gone, no matter how many coincidences Ochako could and would probably continue to find in this man and his wife.

“I-I’m sorry, I’ve been babbling for so long I haven’t even asked what you n-needed me for,” Izuku said, hastily moving past the personal discussion in a way that reminded Tsu very much of her brunette friend and bringing the conversation back around to what she had ostensively come for.

“Yes, ribbit, it’s more involving the recent surge of attacks perpetuated by Humarise,” Tsu rather grimly began as she laid down the file she had been holding onto Izuku’s desk. “We had an insider source that gave us some idea of where the Humarise attack would be and some of the major members that would be involved. Since your strategies played a vital role in the previous mission against this organization, I was wondering if you had anything that could be of service for this one.”

“Well, I-I wouldn’t exactly call what I did ‘vital’. It was really Uararka’s execution of my s-suggestions that made it a success!” Izuku insisted with the return of his warming cheeks. Tsu just raised an eyebrow at his declaration.

With a clearing of his throat, Izuku quickly began to make his way through the provided profiles and information dockets. Tsu would’ve compared the relish in which he dug into the case files to a kid in a candy store if not for the serious and determined look on his visage. She knew that Izuku was a mutterer when she came to working with quirks from Girl’s Night, but now she could practically hear the gears turning within the greenette as he moved between the provided information and the digital quirk database underlining points for further research and taking notes in the margins.

It was almost hypnotic to watch.

“Got anything so far?” Tsu asked in what probably should’ve been a rhetorical question.

“I-I-I got a few things that stuck out to me,” Izuku began almost tepidly, “but there is one thing in particular.”

Izuku handed Tsu one of the papers, specifically the one detailing what they knew about the upcoming tactics of their foe. He pointed to one specific tidbit that he had circled, the location that Humarise planned on attacking.

“If this is where they plan on going, I think I have an idea on how to get the drop on them.”

“Another day, another empty stream.”

Himiko practically chucked her headphones onto their bed and then flopped on the recently deep-cleaned sheets in a huff. 

How much more of this could she take? Realistically speaking, she was already past the point of being ready to give up. It was a ledge she had to talk herself down from every time she booted up her stream, but the hope that this was the day she wouldn’t just be sitting uselessly around their apartment is what kept her bashing her head against this wall. But now even that drive was starting to dwindle as her constant efforts continued to amount to zero.

Himiko shoved a pillow in her face. 

“At least sitting on my ass and doing nothing makes me feel only slightly bad instead of crushingly depressed,” she mumbled to herself.

Himiko figured the rest of the day would be spent wallowing in her misery until her husband got home, maybe take a moment for some masturbation or something of that nature, but a buzz that vibrated their mattress got her attention first as she limply reached over to her phone to check it.

IzuHubby: Hey baby! Thought I’d check in with you <3

‘Well, speak of the devil,’ Himiko found herself smiling at the surprise notification from her husband, feeling like her old self again as she began to type back.

You: I don’t suppose this check-in involves a visual aid too ;)

IzuHubby: I told you not at work Himi!

You: Your no fun >:(

You: But I guess I can waste away until you get home…

You: So did you scare Uravity again?

When Izuku told her about the strange reaction that Ochako was having to his presence, Himiko knew it was the consequence of her actions in the bathroom. Since she was too much of a pragmatic coward now to deal with it, (curse her husband for being a good-bad influence), Izuku was taking the brunt for her neediness.

IzuHubby: She’s still off, but Tsuyu said it was due to something personal and not me!

Himiko simultaneously winced and breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that ‘something personal’ was almost certainly herself. 

But still being able to take up so much of Ochako's brain gave her some perverse pride

IzuHubby: Also I think she agreed with you on the sketch being a bit much

You: How many times until you learn; your wife is always right Zuku ;)

IzuHubby: Can’t argue with that

IzuHubby: How did the stream go?

And she was back into the valley of despair and annoyance.

You: What do you think?

You: Because if you think it was the exact same as every other time for the last six months then you’d be correct!

It was a bitter response, but Himiko was feeling bitter so it fit goddamnit!

IzuHubby: I’m sorry Himi

IzuHubby: …but I do have something that might help that number increase.

You: Can you delete every other streamer so people watch me by default?

IzuHubby: Not quite, but I can offer you advice from experts:

And with that message came a link to a blank group text conversation which, once she clicked and joined it, had two unknown numbers in it.

It was a surprise that bordered on being intimidating in the last of information, but Izuku wouldn't have dropped this on her if he didn’t trust it, which meant she probably should too.

You: Hello???

Her introduction was sent into the void and after staring at her empty phone for a minute, a response came in.

Unknown Number: HEyA GIRL,,

Unknown Number: It’s Minaa (aka Pinky!!!)!

*Unknown Number changed its name to PinkyDinkyDoo*

Of all the things that she expected to answer her, this was not one that crossed her mind.

You: What???

PinkyDinkyDoo: A little green birdy told us that you were trying for an online carrer in streaming, and thought we could help you out!!!

You: We?

Unknown Number: Yo, It’s Kyoka Jirou here too.

PinkyDinkyDoo changed Unknown Number’s name to JackingIt

JackingIt: MINA! LET ME CHANGE IT!

PinkyDinkyDoo: That’s what you get for forcing ME to start the convo

JackingIt: Fucking Rude

JackingIt: But yeah, green thought that we, as heroes with dedicated online followings, might have some tips and tricks you’d appreciate on building your own brand

PinkyDinkyDoo: so never fear because EarPhone Jack, the rocak star hero and viral senstaion and the master of social media Pinky are here too help!

There were now two pro-heroes on her phone.

Two pro-heroes when she would be the most wanted woman in Japan if they didn’t believe her to be dead.

An overwhelming sense of dread and panic brought her back to the person who arranged all this.

You: What the Fuck Zuku

IzuHubby: Did it surprise you?

You: What even is this!??!

You: Didd you put this together while I was in the bathroom!

IzuHubby: Well yeah

IzuHubby: I know you’ve been struggling and i can’t help much there so I thought I’d get others who could.

IzuHubby: I saw the opportunity to help so I took it ;)

Fuck. It was a considerate thought and he was using her excuse against her.

“You gotta stop doing this to me Zuku,” Himiko mumbled to herself against the rapid beat of her touched heart.

Now that the wave of brutal surprise was starting to recede, the bigger surprise was her husband who worried so much about her getting caught by heroes set this whole thing up.

‘I guess we both are rubbing off on each other,’ Himiko noted with a stifled giggle at the double meaning before going to respond.

You: Sorry to keep you waiting, but if you are offering advice it would be great to hear.

PinkyDinkyDoo: Yeah girl! We’re happy to help!!!

JackingIt: ^^^ ditto

PinkyDinkyDoo: Show us what we are working with!!!

Himiko shot them a link to her channel and waited.

It was almost harmful how soon they got back to her.

JackingIt: This isn’t much to go off of.

JackingIt: I mean the gameplay is good

JackingIt: But the lack of any commentary or transformative content really hurts it

PinkyDinkyDoo: Yeeeeeeeeeah, it’s kinda a nothing burger right now

PinkyDinkyDoo: It’s hurt to build a brand without personality

Himiko sighed, just because she already knew that didn’t mean it wasn’t a punch in the gut to hear again.

You: I know, it sucks right now.

PinkyDinkyDoo: If you don’t mind me askin, why do you want to stream??

Well, time for Himiko to bite the bullet and tell the truth, (with a massive asterisk next to it).

You: I can’t go outside much and I have to be careful with my face and voice on the internet because there are people that could hurt others I care bout out there

You: But with Izuku working it gets lonely around here :(

You: I was hoping I could find some kind of connection while also maybe pulling my weight monetarily

You: Although I’ve got a long way to go on that part.

JackingIt: might not be as long as you think

PinkyDinkyDoo: Yeah from what i saw at the restaurant you got that rizz

JackingIt: Not remotely what I meant

You: But incorrect?

JackingIt: …

You: ;)

JackingIt: What I meant is if the problem isn’t from stage fright, there is a lot more to work with there.

JackingIt: Believe me, when it comes to a performing profession a personality that sticks will get you farther than any fancy microphone or camera

JackingIt: But there are ways to perform online and NOT dox your face or voice

Himiko felt her heartbeat quicken a little as her thumbs flew in search of more information.

You: How so?

JackingIt: Well you’ve heard of virtual streamers, or “VTubers” I’m sure

You: Kinda…

She was hoping Earphone Jack knew that was code for, ‘no, I’ve never heard of that in her life’.

JackingIt: It’s an online personality that uses an avatar model to represent themselves rather than appearing on camera

JackingIt: Not super knowledgeable about it or the whole ‘culture’ around it myself, but it might suit your problem.

PinkyDinkyDoo: Oh yeah I can see it!

PinkyDinkyDoo: Hangon let me get an expert up

PinkyDinkyDoo: if this is something you wanna do of course

JackingIt: Nice save.

As she lay on her and Izuku’s bed, staring at her phone raised toward the ceiling, she couldn’t help but feel curious at this new path that enthusiastic and deadpan heroine had brought up. All the things that she had told them were true, (though she hoped they assumed the people she was worried about weren’t from their own profession), and here they were giving her the solution she thought completely impossible or at the very least improbable.

“And if it’s possible do I want,” Himiko muttered to herself as she rolled onto her side, squishing her cheek into the freshly fluffy sheets that smelled of vanilla fabric softener. Despite her marrying of a goody-two-shoes hero fanboy, she still bristled at accepting the help of heroes and learn how they play the games of industry.

One specific hero notwithstanding, but that bridge had already been burned.

It was a tempting offer, but it felt like accepting blood money, (not the yummy kind), to become a cog in this system to gain success. What would her seven years think? The one who fought to make a difference in a society that made outcasts of people like her who didn’t fit the mold, only to crawl back into that mold so people would like her.

‘Let’s not over-romanticize those times Himi,’ the blonde vampire thought with a chill up her spine. The memories of what she was willing to do to what was now the love of life driving her back to the phone with thumbs aflutter to take the opportunity he made for her.

You: Yes, I’ll give it a shot!

She still had aplenty to atone for, and trusting heroes beyond the one at home and the one he worked for was the first step.

PinkyDinkyDoo: Whoo! Thats the sprit!

PinkyDinkyDoo invited Unknown Number to the chat

Unknown Number changed their name to Shroomtastic

Shroomtastic: Port-Hello! It’s the Mushroom Idol Shemage!

You: …

JackingIt: …

Shroomtastic: anyways what’s up

PinkyDinkyDoo: Kinoko, you’re a VTuber on the side right?

Shroomtastic: Mina, you appeared on my channel like three weeks ago you should know this Shroom

PinkyDinkyDoo: Bitch it was a rhetorical question and you know it!

PinkyDinkyDoo: Anyway, We got a friend of a friend here who is interested in being a VTuber to make content while protecting her identity.

PinkyDinkyDoo: You got any tips for the gal?

Shroomtastic: Do oyster mushrooms eat meat?

JackingIt: …Do they?

Shroomtastic: That was a yes

Shroomtastic: Always happy to show the ropes to a newbie.

PinkyDinkyDoo: You gotta alotta ropes to show Kinoko

PinkyDinkyDoo: She didn’t even know what a VTuber was before today.

Shroomtastic: I see~

Himiko had been involved in an actual war and that small two-word message still made her sweat. Not helping was the final message she saw from Earphone Jack before it was swept away in a torrential wave of messages from the overenthusiastic Mushroom Hero.

JackingIt: Good luck…

From there, Himiko was hit by a wave of information, directing her toward what equipment she would need to succeed in this position: the types of microphones that would work best; the most popular software to track movement and change her voice with the kinds of cameras to hook these systems up with; and the kinds of designs that were commonplace for novice streamers looking to get their foot in the door and the people to contact in order to get them. Add to that Earphone Jack occasionally chiming in to give pointers on how to keep her personally clear despite working through a digital curtain, Pinky shouting out her ‘hot tips’ on how to build a brand out of it on multiple social media platforms and create a fanbase through collaboration, and overall it was a lot for the blonde vampire to take in.

In many ways it was nerve-wracking, that success in streaming hinged on being thrust in this new subgenre she’d never heard of before. But watching this flurry of messages from people, heroes that barely knew her even, piping up to help just because someone asked them to, made her feel weird and tingley from all the support she was getting.

Part of her mind was telling her to keep all this at arm's length, knowing that all these smiling faces would turn on in an instant if they knew the monster they were excitedly chatting with. But another voice in her ear, that sounded a lot like her husband who had set this whole thing up, was embracing the hands offered to her as she typed back for more information.

‘I’ll just take what I can from the heroes beneath their noses,’ the two halves of Himiko justified in compromise with each other, framing it in what she used to do all the time. ‘It would be stupid to let this opportunity pass me by.’

You: Where would somebody go to get an existing sketch made into a model?

Maybe it wasn’t charitable to say, but when Tsu saw Ochako freshly returned from her patrol, she had to admit the girl looked like shit.

That wasn’t to say she was in perfect shape prior to going out for the day shift, but now it was a different kind of shit she looked like. Instead of the colorful hues that had previously adorned her skin, her face was now pale with her eyes glazed and her hair all out of sorts. When once her body was stiff and rigid, she now looked as though it was only her antigravity quirk keeping her on her feet and liable to collapse into a heap with every step.

In short, she looked how one usually did after some time with Nejire-Chan.

“Hey ‘Chako, how was patrol?”

“Oh, it was fine.”

And then the brunette didn’t say anything else, forcing Tsu, now with a different file in her hand, to pick up the slack and press onward.

“So did Nejire bring up the… thing she overheard us talking about?” Tsu began with perhaps less tact than she probably should have approached it with.

Ochako’s jaw clenched up, leaving Nejire to fill the silence and answer for the gravity heroine with her unblemished enthusiasm. “Yep! She sure did! It took a few tries to understand the confusion, but now I understand that ‘Chako is actually not in a steamy throuple!”

“Oh,” Tsu impassively acknowledged as Ochako’s eyes continued to avoid her own. “Well, that’s nice.”

“Yep!” Nejire chirped, oblivious to whatever was going on between the two former classmates. “I was a teeny tiny bit disappointed that I had gotten the wrong conclusion because they would’ve made a super cute couple… triple!”

Tsu was tempted to bring up that the pixie-like woman hadn’t met, or even seen, two-thirds of this throuple she was rooting for, but their former senpai was on a roll and she didn’t want to stop her.

“Not to mention I had so much good advice on three-way fucking that I wanted to share,” the periwinkle-haired hero crassly pouted as her spirals seemed to almost droop. “I had this really, really good technique for pleasuring two people at once. It involved me lying on the bed with my head dangling over the edge - it sounds weird I know - but then I could suck one person from the underside angle while my hands did this for the other guy, and then they were both close enough to my tits to-”

“Thank you, Nejire!” Tsu cut in, stopping their long-time coworker before she could cross the line into full-on pornographic recreation, (although the froggy woman was going to keep their circular hand motion in mind for a rainy day), “But I think you’re getting a little off track.”

“Oh right!” Nejire realized with a knock to the noggin. “Anyways, after she told me she was completely single and would never be in a relationship with more than one person… and then told me again… and again… and again, and again, and again and-”

This time it was Ochako who interrupted her with an involuntary sound somewhere between a squeak and a groan.

“Oh right! Back on track! Anyways, so now that I know she’s single, I set her up on a date!” Nejire cheered.

“Really?” Tsu lifted her eyebrows at Ochako.

“Yep!” The brunette chirped, much hoarser than her senpai. “If I want these rumors to stop, I’ve got to put myself out there!”

“It’s with a guy I know from the Selkie agency! I wanted to make it a double date for me and Yuyu, but she told me not to,” Nejire groused as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“So, now that you’ve… moved on from this whole ordeal, do you think you’ll be able to talk to Midoriya again without… incident?” Tsu gently inquired, feeling the file in her hand grow heavier as she hoped her meddling didn’t just make things worse.

“Uh… I think tomorrow,” Ochako decided on after some awkward deliberation. “It’s just been a long day and I need to get my head on a little more straight and all, but I feel a lot better than I did earlier.”

“You just needed to talk to Nejire-Chan about it!” the fairy woman beamed, Ochako nodded along, with Tsu unsure if it was because she agreed or if she just didn’t have the heart to correct her.

“I’m not sure you’ll want to delay it, ribbit,” Tsu said somewhat gravely, snapping Ochako’s full focus back to her with the uneasy tone. “I talked over some of the files we got on Humarise’s next move with him, and there were some things he suggested for our next move that… concerned me.”

Handing over the files to Ochako, the Rainy Day Hero watched as her hazelnut eyes skimmed through the document, widening at the parts Tsu knew they would because she did the exact same thing when Izuku first discussed it with her. Once she had gotten through the file, Ochako slammed the file closed and held it close.

“I gotta-” was all that Ochako managed to muster up before bolting from the room, leaving Nejire confused (again) and Tsu hopeful in a strange way. Not in the way that she thought she would at the beginning of the day, with Ochako going back to talk with Izuku as she hoped that her meddling would end in to make it all worth it.

But Tsu knew that Ochako was probably the only person who could talk Izuku out of what he was planning.

As Izuku wrapped things up for the day, keeping his freshly sharpened pencils in order and putting his papers back into their respective files so they were in place for when he came in tomorrow, Izuku couldn’t help but feel a sense of… approaching dread wash over him.

Living your life quirkless, it was a fairly common feeling to have, but the problem was he wasn’t sure where it was coming from.

It wasn’t from any of his coworkers, they hadn’t even talked to him today, so there wasn’t any shoe waiting to drop there.

His talk with Tsuyu had gone well he thought, though the amount of ribbiting she was doing by the end was a little concerning but hardly worth mentioning.

Ryukyu gave his recent paperwork regarding the remnants of the Hemlock Syndicate her seal of approval through email, so it wasn’t as if his job was in danger.

And it wasn’t from Himiko either, because while she started out resistant to his ‘streaming intervention surprise’ as he had predicted and feared, the texts he had gotten from Pinky and Earphone Jack seemed to indicate she got involved and excited about their suggestions once they were over that first hurdle.

Also they had invited Shemage to help! Izuku had to get her autograph through Himiko one of these days!

Try as may, he couldn’t think of any loose ends where this overwhelming dread was coming from.

“Izuku Midoriya!”

Oh crud, he forgot about Uraraka!

Part of him was happy that she was talking to him again. He didn’t even consider that was going to happen and wasn’t really expecting it considering the cold shoulder he’d been getting from her the last few days, (and he still wasn’t fully sure how that started, probably him annoying her friends at their dinner last weekend). But the sharp tone as she practically stomped toward him with a determination he saw when she was fighting villains, he wondered if he was about to find out.

“H-hello, Miss Uraraka,” he stammered out as his boss approached him with the intensity of a bull in a china shop. “It’s nice to s-see you again, I m-missed talking to y-you…”

She stopped dead in her tracks at that, though thankfully not as stiff as a board as she had been the last several days, with Izuku worried he somehow made things even worse before Uararka cleared her throat. 

“I m-missed that t-too,” She mustered up a little quietly, causing Izuku to feel a weird bubble in his chest. “But I-I need to have a private conversation about what y-you’ve put down in this document so I-I can figure out what you were thinking!”

As wrong as it sounded, Izuku felt relieved as it was just his work that was being scrutinized and not his conduct this past weekend. He was much more comfortable just ignoring that potential problem if Uraraka was, and as for debating his work, that was practically his element.

Once the brunette sidekick had ushered him into a side room, some kind of filming location for social media spots if the prominent green screen was any indication, and made sure they were away from prying ears, she slammed the file she was holding on the counter. The same one Tsu had taken with her this morning.

“So, what did you want to discuss?” Izuku asked as the pieces came together. Uraraka looked a little shocked at how blasé he seemed to be, but when it came to hero work he was just as determined as she could be.

“I’m s-sorry, Midoriya, but I have to put m-my foot down on the strategy you proposed,” Uraraka stated, being as firm as one could be when struggling to keep their heart rate at a manageable level. “As your superior, a hero, and your f-friend, I refuse to put you in any sort of harm’s way for a tactical advantage, it’s not worth it.”

“I… see,” Izuku sheepishly conceded, he wasn’t really expecting anybody to react so… passionately to his idea. He realized in hindsight that was probably what the constant croaking from Tsuyu was all about too. “But I d-disagree; there are ways to plan around Humarise here that have to happen at this location and have to involve me!”

The wording may have sounded conceited, but it was just objective in this case and that was all due to it centering on a place Izuku knew all too well.

The name ‘Aldera Middle School’ continued to follow him even when he had proven that institution wrong… in a sense.

“B-but using yourself as bait?!” Uararka exclaimed, pulling out some hair that promptly floated away. 

“Bait… isn’t the word I would use.” Izuku weakly protested, “I prefer the term person of distraction!”

“It’s bait Midoriya, plain and simple.” Uraraka fired back exasperated he was still fighting her on this. “I can’t sign off on that, and I know sure as hell that Ryukyu won’t either!”

Izuku sighed himself, “I went to Aldera when I was younger,” he began, resolute in what that fact meant.

“I know, but that doesn’t mean it has to be you!” Ochako protested. “I could get somebody else with a cover.”

“Having been there… as I am… there is no other way to hell,” Izuku continued as Uraraka’s eyes widened. “Nobody believed I’d amount to anything, not my classmates, not the teachers, I barely even felt human by the end of my time there. I-I can’t deny that if I was still attending that school and Humarise came to burn it to the ground, I would’ve probably c-cheered.” It was a more honest admission than the greenette had been with himself before that point. “So I think these… unique qualifications will make the narrative that I created on page three an easy sell and allow you to get a certain drop on them.”

Uraraka sighed, clearly affected by Izuku’s plea, thankfully not with pity but empathy for what he had to go through to get where he was. There was conflict in her eyes as she looked between the plans that could lead to a decisive blow against the reformed Humarise and the man willing to gamble himself to get to it. “Midoriya, I-I can’t let something happen to you here. I-I-I mean think of your wife and-”

“My wife trusts you to have my best interest in heart, as do I,” Izuku chuckled fondly. “I trust you with my livelihood so that I can help and make a difference in this fight. So that others l-like me won’t have to grow up in the shadows of these villains.”

Izuku wiped his eyes. He was getting more worked up over this than he thought he would, and he hoped he wasn’t embarrassing himself in front of Uraraka only to see she was arguably more shaken up than he was.

“I-” she began, before slumping with an exhale. “Alright Midoriya, consider it… considered for the time being. But trust me when I say I won’t let Humarise… or that school, lay a finger on you!”

“Thank you, Uraraka,” Izuku exhaled, feeling the stress from his body begin to dissipate, (it might not have been talking about his social skills, but it was still taxing). “You have no clue what this means to me.” 

“I think I do after that,” Uraraka weakly chuckled, prompting a similar response from Izuku.

It was a nice moment between the two of them, the kind that Izuku had been missing.

So of course he had to ruin it by suddenly hugging her.

It was… nice. It filled him with a warm and almost homey sensation that it felt wrong to resist… until he realized what he was doing and snapped back to a respectable distance.

“I’m s-sorry,” Izuku apologized, bending so quickly it gave him whiplash. “I was just so happy, but that was inappropriate and-”

“It’s a-alright,” Uraraka cut him off, looking weirdly calm herself; more calm than Izuku would’ve expected given the last few days. “I-I understand.”

They stood in some more silence, (a running trend with them at this point), before the Gravity heroine awkwardly clapped her hands together. “I-if that’s all settled, then I probably shouldn't take up any more of your time!”

As she made her way to the door, bumping into two desks and a rolling chair in the process, she waved back to Izuku. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow to iron this out further. Goodnight Midoriya!”

“Goodnight U-Uraraka!” Izuku called back as she shut the door behind her.

‘Tomorrow.’

Izuku felt himself smile at that implicit promise as he left the social media closet himself, feeling like the hug from earlier was still keeping him warm.

‘I can’t believe I did that,’ he cringed to himself at the memory of the hug. ‘Why on Earth did I think that was a good idea, and why am I still feeling it now?’

‘Usually only hugs from Himi can make me feel like-’

“Hello Midoriya, ribbit,” a croaking voice from an approaching frog heroine snapped him out of his thoughts, (and just in time too). “Heading out for the night?”

“Yep! Can’t keep the wife at home waiting!” the greenette replied, not entirely sure what compelled him to say that.

“I don’t suppose Ochako talked to you?” Tsuyu asked with a webbed finger tapping her neck.

“She sure did!” Izuku nodded back as he got his briefcase.

“And?”

“She was somewhat averse to my entrance strategy at first,” Izuku began with his back to the Rainy Day Hero, “but she came around to the idea in the end.”

All Izuku heard in response to that was the sound of a defeated croak and a frog slumping to the floor muttering, “All Might was wrong, All Might was wrong,” over and over.

Chapter Text

“So run this by me one more time?”

Himiko rolled her eyes fondly at her husband’s confusion, “You know, for the man who basically set this whole thing up, you sure can be clueless when it comes to what you’ve actually started Zuku.” She stuck her tongue out toward the greenette.

“We’re all smart in our own ways.” Izuku jokingly defended himself, “I get what VTubing is, I’m just a little lost in how it… You know, works.”

The couple was eating dinner, a dish of Gyudon that Himiko had made with extra bloody beef as a treat for herself, but their meal had moved from when they started it. It had begun from the large table within their dining area (Himiko didn’t really consider it a dining ‘room’ considering how it basically shared the space with their kitchen) but as Himiko tried to explain all the steps she had made in her streaming pursuit during the last few days alone, their meal moved into her streaming corner so that the vampire woman could provide visual aids to an Izuku that wasn’t quite keeping up with.

“So, to put it in the simplest terms possible,” It was Izuku’s turn to roll his eyes at Himiko’s playful barb. “It’s basically the same as normal streaming except for that whole virtual thing. There’s a specific program that tracks the facial motions from your webcam, which most VTubers use, and the motions are placed onto the digital 3D model that has been rigged accordingly.”

“So you’re okay with… using the webcam?” Izuku inquired as his eyes drifted toward the lenses placed above their computer, which was currently smothered in black masking tape.

“It’s just going into the program,” Himiko shrugged as she hoped to reassure both of them. “Nothing with my actual face will find its way onto the internet.”

“If you think so,” Izuku muttered back, still wary. “Just be careful, alright.”

“I always am!” Himiko preened with a hand running through her pale hair.

Her kind husband decided not to call her out on that blatant lie (though the droplet of sweat as he sighed told her all she needed to know). “So, all this face-tracking and animated model, you set this all up yourself?”

“Nope!” Himiko cheerfully chirped with a pop. “But I got the connections to get me started. Or rather, you’ve gotten me the connections to get me started. Thanks again, babe!”

“W-Well, I only put you in contact with Pinky and Earphone Jack. Shemage, and everything else is on them.” Izuku humbly deflected as he shyly sucked up a bite of his Gyudon.

Himiko chuckled as she remembered the day when her eyes were first opened to the opportunity of becoming a VTuber, specifically when Izuku came home to her afterward. All he could talk about was how she managed to get connected to the Mushroom Hero and all the questions he wanted to ask her by proxy through Himiko.

All par the course for her dork of a husband.

“Well, she, for I don’t know what reason, is helping me a lot in getting this whole thing set up for a ‘debut’ or whatever,” Himiko explained. If she was being honest, she still felt herself bristle somewhat at accepting help from heroes, but whenever she tried to, politely as she could, tried to turn down most of the support Shemage provided, she was equally as politely shot down.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re not being a bother at all!” The mushroom woman would reassure her, to her dismay. “It’s my pleasure to help somebody new to the industry! Us VTubers have to stick together, shroom!”

It was so stupidly genuine that Himiko couldn’t help but muster no more than a weak protest to the Idol Hero’s involvement in what had started as a solo career. 

 “She seems very enthusiastic,” Izuku muttered, internally noting for his notes that her on-stage cheeriness wasn’t an act by any means.

“Tell me about it.” Himiko groused, “How do you handle so much hero pep? I’m not complaining, but just seeing it through text is too much for me to fight against.”

The only time that she was able to fully stand her ground was by insisting that she be independent rather than a part of the VTuber agency that Shemage was a founder of, which the polka-dotted girl pouted at but understood (though not without promising to guide her fans over to her). 

“So… what are you going to look like?” Izuku ventured after another swallow of rice. “I-I mean, what is your character going to be?”

Himiko felt her grin grow wider at the question. “Well, Shemage has a friend that she put me in contact with who handles a lot of the art for her and her VTuber friends. He’s got a manga speech bubble for a face, so I guess it comes with the quirk.”

Ah, yes, Comicman.” Izuku nodded to Himiko, rolling her eyes in the fondest of ways.

“Of course, you know who that is,” the vampiric blonde chuckled as she opened a drawer beneath her computer desk, pulling out a sheet of paper. “Anyways, Shemage got me in contact with this artist, and I sent him a little something to see if he could whip it up into a model fit for streaming.”

From the drawer, she pulled out a slightly crinkled sheet of paper with an almost neatly torn edge. The type of paper Izuku could recognize from a glance as being the same type that comes from his notebooks, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise when it was handed to him and he was confronted with his own work.

It was something he had drawn for Himiko years ago, before they were married or even dating (though the timeframe between those two milestones wasn’t very long at all). It depicted Himiko, toothy grin bared as always, wearing a black bodysuit in the vein of heroes such as Midnight and Mt. Lady with a crimson pattern snaking down her arms and legs. The said body was partially covered by a cloak with a similarly scarlet interior that connected to a fuffed ruffle and mouthguard that had fangs of its own. Around her hands were gauntlets with a claw visage from the retractable synergies that adorned her fingertips; the gloves themselves were attached to tubes that brought what the needles collected directly to the vampire.

Izuku didn’t need the small note beside the sketch explaining how such a mechanic would work to know that, though, because he remembered the thought that he had poured into this drawing all too well.

“Y-you’re… you’re using this for your model?” Izuku asked, feeling the ol’ Midoriya waterworks welling up again.

“Of course.” Himiko bluntly stated as if it were completely obvious. “If I’m going to be a perfect computer person, why wouldn’t I want it to be the best version of myself made by the best person I know?”

Izuku realized the Midoriya generational waterworks were starting up again as he did his best to rub the tears welling in his emerald eyes away so that they didn’t stain the sheet of paper in his hands.

Years ago, he had wanted to thank Himiko for being in his life, but wasn’t quite sure how. In the end, he decided to make a sketch of her as a hero.

In his defense, this was before he knew that she was a villain. Although her reaction should’ve tipped him off, as it was his first exposure to what he’d come to find out was her ‘normal girl’ mask and all its cracks.

“I-I’m honestly surprised you kept this,” Izuku mustered out despite himself, regretting it the instant he saw Himiko wincing at it. “Not that I thought that-”

“It’s alright, Zuku, I did react less than… great.” Himiko rubbed her arm, fighting the temptation to dig her nails into it. “But that was the old Himiko, while the Himiko who you ended up marrying treasures it dearly as the first time somebody saw her as more than just a gutter freak who could only think with her teeth.”

Izuku tried to put into words how much that meant to him, but what came out was a sniffle because he moved to embrace his wife in a tender hug.

But then he stopped, and Himiko could see from the furrow in his brow that he had realized something.

“Himi?”The tears wavering in his throat seemingly vanished.

“Yes, Izuku? The love of my life that was just about to give me a hug and tell me what a wonderful wife and a hot piece of ass I was?”

“Why, if the point of virtual streaming is to hide your identity,” he began, “why is your avatar based on yourself?”

“Eeeeeeeeeh…” Himiko’s gaze slowly shifted to the floor before her grin turned sheepish. “It’s the perfect disguise?”

Izuku’s eyebrows furrowed further, prompting the blonde to keep going. “The model itself has some adjustments, more succubus elements than vampire, which isn’t exactly uncommon in the realm of VTubers, but it’s not as if my appearance was public knowledge when I was doing my… shit, especially with the HPSC sealing up all the files.”

“And the HPSC themselves?”

“That’s why it’s the perfect disguise?” Himiko grinned. “After all, what kind of idiot on the run from the law would start streaming with a model that looks like herself?”

Izuku didn’t know if he was supposed to answer that one.

But he was an idiot in this marriage as well, and Himiko was aware of that as much as he was.

“Okay, I trust you, Himiko,” Izuku began.

“Great! I’m glad to hear-”

“IF… you also can trust me with my Humarize counter plan.”

That stopped Himiko right in her tracks, because when Izuku brought up the plan that he had devised to save his miserable hellhole of a middle school by putting himself in harm's way for their sake…

Well, let’s just say that it made Izuku’s current indignance look understated in comparison.

She was angry at Izuku for being the one to come up with this plan in spite of his own self-preservation and the fact that she knew that this school would throw him under the bus at the first chance they got. At the same time, she was angry at Ochako for being so willing to sign off on this whole convoluted scheme before Izuku pacified her, as he had talked the Gravity heroine into it despite her initial objections.

The whole thing just proved to Himiko that, after all these years, Izuku was still the same high schooler she first met, running headfirst into danger for people who didn’t deserve his compassion just to prove to them he was worth living.

She was so ticked off about it that she was able to ignore the nagging voice in her mind saying she was one of those undeserving people he’d risked everything to save.

‘How am I supposed to improve when the person I look to as a shining example of how to be a better person still fucks up his own life!’ Himiko internally grumbled to herself at this mental impasse.

Of course, the fact that she still wasn’t a fully changed person could be what helps her in this situation…

“Alright, Zuku, fair is fair,” Himiko acquiesced, with the crossing of her fingers laced within her honey-sweet voice. She put her hand out while declaring, “I promise to be careful and trust you on this wildly dangerous and absolutely batshit plan you’ve set up if you do likewise.”

“Of course, Himi,” Izuku responded and went to grab the outstretched hand. There was so much relief in his voice that Himiko could barely hear the fact that he still wasn’t fully on board with her model, but wasn’t going to say it further than he already did (just one of those things that made their marriage work). “You’ve gotten yourself out of worse situations before, after all.”

“Well, I had to live long enough to meet you after all.” The vampire grinned back as the two shook.

…And then just stood there holding hands, not knowing how to go further.

“Sooooo…” Izuku ventured, their fingers still embraced. “If your avatar is going to be there for everyone on the internet to see. Considering what the internet does, do you think-”

“Yes, Izuku, there will probably be porn of my model if I become popular enough.” Himiko rolled her eyes at that being the first thing his mind went to. “Shemage already warned me about that and, to be honest, it’s something I expected.”

Her grin turned wolfish as his grip tightened. “Are you excited for it? For your wife to be a part of the Internet Hall of Fame for lewdness? Maybe you’d like to get a head start on everybody else~”

Izuku pulled their clasped hand into a passionate embrace, one that only stopped momentarily so that their lovemaking would knock over the dishes that Inko had gotten them for their wedding, and continued for the rest of the night.

The first thing Ochako noticed when she and Tsu entered the Aldera school building was the hum of the fluorescent lights overhead.

It seemed positively unbearable as the droning seemed to grow in volume as the duo of Heroes ventured further into the middle school halls. The constant buzz was making the atmosphere feel more and more oppressive with each second that the overpowering drone reached her ears.

And judging by the way that the thin line that Tsu’s mouth usually was had twisted ever-so-slightly into a grimace, it meant she wasn’t the only one feeling this way.

Of course, that wasn’t the only red flag that was popping up all through these hallways. The walls were lined with lockers that looked one hard tug away from being ripped off their hinges. There were so few places where natural light could sneak into these dreary halls, and there seemed to be strange black marks littering the walls, floors, and somehow the ceiling. Even the general air felt like it was about to suffocate you, and the need was always there to look over your shoulder. 

She had attended low-income schools prior to her time at UA, but none of them set off the alarm bells in her head like this place did.

Their silent trudge, marred in both dread and anticipation, ended as they arrived at the front office of the worn-down school, where they were ‘greeted’ by a disinterested-looking secretary. The woman’s eyes barely left her computer as they entered before they returned to being glued to her screen, and her head sank deeper into her propped-up elbows. She was unthinkingly puffing out clouds of pink mist that smelled almost like cotton candy.

But not quite, which made it smell more off than if it had no scent at all.

Eventually, Tsu cleared her throat in a croaking manner that brought the bored woman’s attention back to the heroes. “Excuse me, ma’am, we’re Froppy and Uravity, and we have a meeting to discuss with Mr. Uchiyama to discuss the ‘event plans’ for this month.” Tsu diplomatically stated, trying to get the importance of their meeting across without simply outright saying the danger they were trying to stop to this woman who clearly didn’t care.

“Yeah, one second.” The woman murmured as she tapped a microphone button. “Hey, Mr. Uchiyama, there are two girls here who claim they have a meeting.” She gave them a once-over before adding, “I think they might be heroes or something.”

There was a sudden sound of somebody getting up with a clutter coming from the closed door behind the secretary, before it opened a few seconds later. The man who greeted him was similar to the school itself in that he was, by all technical measures, well put-together with his nice suit and composed posture, but each facet felt like it was hiding something rather than being a demonstration of virtue.

“Ah, right when I was expecting you.” The principal began to address them as he fiddled with his sleeve cuff. “I’m so glad that you two exceptional heroes were able to take some time out of your busy schedules to meet at our humble school for a chat.”

“It’s quite the place.” Ochako tentatively agreed in verbal reflex only. “And we are glad that you were willing to accept our plan in the first place. We know it’s a little unorthodox.”

“Anything to keep the lights on here, my dear.” Mr. Uchiyama waved off Ochako, dismissing her like she were one of his pupils. “Not to mention, this is the perfect opportunity for us to dispel those nasty rumors and blatant falsehoods that have plagued us for years. Two birds with one stone, as they say.”

“There’s a lot at stake here, Mr. Uchiyama,” Tsu stated in a passive voice that betrayed nothing but professionalism in the frog woman’s tone. “We hope that this plan will stop many of the active Humarize threats that have become more active in these last couple of weeks, if you are willing to work with us.”

“Of course, of course, it’s important to our community that we work together with local heroes to fight against this band of violent scum dedicated to overthrowing our way of life and what our society holds dear.” Uchiyama prattled on with a pumped fist, sounding like he was running for office or something. To Ochako, it felt like talking to a brick wall, the way nothing sincere could come from it.

The man’s face turned solemn, though, as he began to rub the other arm’s cuff concurrently. “Unfortunately, we do have concerns about this plan of yours, which is one of the reasons having you here today is so vital.”

“Well… hopefully we can resolve them.” Ochako tried to project optimism for this meeting as more alarm bells rang in her head.

“Yes, indeed.” Uchiyama nodded as he gestured for them to enter his office, before calling out to the woman who had all but completely checked out at this point. “Saki, would you get us all some water for the meeting? We wouldn’t want to get dehydrated, would we?”

He gave a light but somehow still overwrought laugh as he gestured for the two women to enter his office. The room itself had no windows, with light instead being reflected across various awards and plaques, alongside newspapers and photos encased in polished glass. The noticeable part of the room, however, was the fact that they were not alone in the room. Sitting in a chair just beyond the frame of the door was a woman about twenty years older than them, an annoyed look in her droopy eyes as she curled a lock of her long brown hair in an elongated finger.

“Oh, uh… Hello!” Ochako awkwardly greeted the unexpected fourth member of their meeting. “I-I hope we’re not interrupting your meeting with the principal, but we’re here on official hero business that we’re trying to keep under wraps and with as few people as-”

“Quit the excuses, cheeks!” the woman drawled with a roll of her eyes. “I’ll have you know that I’m very much a part of this ‘business’ of yours.”

“Miss Kaede Yubi is the head of our PTA board, and is here in order to help provide general concerns for this… operation you’ve got planned,” Uchiyama stated as he found his way back behind his desk. “I apologize if I neglected to mention that there would be another member at our meeting.”

“It’s… alright,” Tsu stated as Ochako could practically hear the frog biting her long tongue as she addressed the woman pointedly. “Let’s just try to keep the discussion today constructive.”

“Of course,” Uchiyama nodded with a raised eyebrow to Yubi, who simply extended more fingers to run through her hair. “Now, why don’t we begin with just laying just what exactly this plan that your agency has created is. Just to make sure we are all on the same page with no misconceptions or anything of the sort.”

“Of course,” Ochako replied, bringing out the file that Midoriya had put together and handing out some papers describing the greenette’s plan that had been refined and narrowed over the last couple of days. “Our intel tells us that Humarize does intend to attack this school building in roughly a week, although we’re struggling to get specific details on the plan of attack itself.” 

She continued her rehearsed spiel as the two others barely looked at the sheets she had given them, “We have already infiltrated their ranks to ensure their weaponry has been sabotaged, there is still an unknown in the quirk factor, which brings us to the meat of this operation in limiting their mobility and leading them to where a majority of them can be captured at once.”

“So this hypothetical plan that we are proposing, Aldera will hold a ceremony in honor of their one quirkless graduate, Izuku Midoriya, where we can covertly up security and ward off their more devastating actions as their cultish fanaticism to quirkless supremacy makes them adverse to directly harming quirkless citizens. Froppy would be stationed at–”

“You can’t possibly believe this would actually work? Right?” Yubi suddenly interrupted with an incredulous glance, moving between the two heroes. “You can’t be serious.”

Ochako felt herself stumble at the interruption, but tried to get back on track regardless, “Well, if you would let me continue, I would have highlighted how we can-”

“You’re not focusing on the root of the root of the problem.” Yubi snapped again before releasing a heavy sigh as her extended fingers held her head. “Listen, you both seem like good and, mostly, smart heroines, but this little scheme that you all have cooked up is downright irresponsible, and I will not let it stand.”

“If you are worried about putting Midoriya in danger,” Tsu began evenly as the sinking feeling in Ochako’s chest told her that Tsu absolutely was off the mark on this one. “I can assure you that he is completely on board with this, even beyond our initial judgment for the situation, and we have taken steps to ensure his safety both in terms of how we can defend him were the tactical risk go sideways, and he has been educated on ways to keep himself out of trouble if it comes down to it.”

Ochako felt her gaze fall to the floor with that, as she had been the one who volunteered to give Midoriya some self-defense training because of her experience with Gunhead Martial Arts. The process had its ups and downs because, as it turned out, Izuku clearly had some experience in combat, though it was pretty unrefined, and was a quick learner when it came to formal technique. 

The problems arose when it came to matters such as correcting the greenette’s form or being hands-on in showing him a specific move. Every time she moved in close to the junior analyst who was now throwing himself as bait on his violation, she promised herself that she wouldn’t make it weird or awkward. But then the moment their skin made contact, she would feel his arm break out with goosebumps or flush with a scarlet heat, and that would get her all weird as well because how else was she supposed to react?

So really it was his fault! And it wasn’t like he was the one who listened in on her having unhinged sex with a hypothetical hot vampire girl, so he had no excuse to be awkward when she had earned the right! goddammit

‘Okay, Ochako, time to stop thinking about this in a populated high school office,’ her brain helpfully reminded her with deep breaths.

“That’s not at all what I’m worried about.” Yubi snapped with a roll of her eyes as though Tsu was stupid. “In fact, I think your little quirkless martyr will be more than safe from these freaks.”

“What are you implying…” Ochako darkly muttered as Tsu’s eyes narrowed. Both of the heroes hoped Yubi still had common sense not to say what they knew was coming.

“It’s just--” She began at her standard volume and intensity before stopping, taking a breath, and continuing in a lower register. “Listen, I’m sure this guy seems harmless and such, but you know as well as I do how these kinds of people operate. How they love to play the victim card, but then, when you give them an inch, they trample over you. All I’m saying is that the chances of this little quirkless freedom fighter that you’ve found turning heel for his quirkless brothers is a major concern you have to understand!”

Ochako’s mouth was left gaping at the mask being ripped completely off, but it could hardly close before Uchiyama cleared his throat and spoke up as well. “Mrs. Yubi has a point, Uravity.” 

“We had hoped that in calling on heroes to help our proud institution not be assailed by these renegades, that we would be helped by the heroes,” he emphasized with a raised eyebrow and his free hand gesturing toward the two suited-up women standing before him. “But this… elaborate idea of yours seems to put a lot of the legwork on a quirkless individual who is likely not ready to be ‘deputized’ in this delicate operation.”

Ochako was about to rebut, but a low croak that emanated from Tsu’s throat told the blushing Hero that her froggy friend wanted to take the lead on this.

“I can understand some of your hesitation.” It didn’t escape any of the room’s occupants the sharpness with which her seemingly flat tone had taken. “Perhaps if you… explained your points, and make sure you think them out before sharing, we could help to assuage your fears and find a solution.”

Ochako was always in awe at Tsu’s ability to handle a room like this; it made her feel all the worse that she was liable to fly off the handle in this kind of situation.

First Seji and now this, she had always been an emotional person in all senses of the word, but when it came to Izuku Midoriya, it seemed to kick it into overdrive.

But as much as that thought kept coming back to her, she didn’t have the time or the non-combustible brain power to dwell on why that was.

“Well, first I think it’s-” Yubi began, but Uchiyama raised his hand to stop her, beginning his reasons at a much lower volume.

“The first matter of business is that you are putting this poor boy in the middle of a complex and violence-filled situation, and it is very clear, he has the odds stacked against him. I mean, even if these violent hooligans are quirkless enthusiasts, but they have quirks and will use them, it would be a shame if De… Midoriya gets hurt or even killed for overestimating how much these barbarians lust for violence.”

“Or worse,” Uchiyama continued, undeterred with Yubi nodding along, “That in a desperation not to get hurt by his assailants, he uses his quirkless status to cut a deal with them and cause irreparable hurt to us instead.”

“I… can assure you,” Tsu carefully chose her words as Ochako started to feel the pain from biting her tongue. “That Izuku has been taught and drilled on several scenarios related to potential actions from Humarize with the two of us, as well as Neijire-Chan, there to step in once Izuku leads them into a cornered position.”

“Yes, however-”

“Uravity, would you list off the steps that we have prepared with each contingency?”

“O-oh, right!” Ochako let her brain catch up and then read from the documents that had gotten crinkled in her ever-tightening grip. It was admittedly a daunting plan with a lot of steps and contingency plans for several actions, which were tailored to Midoriya’s abilities and the support tools they were providing him with.

Every couple of minutes, as she listed each point and directive, she would look up from her papers to see if she had done anything to sway their audience one way or another. But Yubi seemed completely out of it; the only time her eyes weren’t threatening to close in on themselves was when they were running, and while Uchiyama was doing a much better job at looking interested, his nodding along never actually lined up with what she was saying.

The first actual interruption came about when Yubi interjected with an irate “Really? We’re still on this?”

Ochako was really starting to match her in irritation. “Ma’am, if you would just listen, you’ll see that Midoriya-”

“Enough about Deku! You don’t need to try and sell Deku to me,” Yubi interjected, much to Uchiyama’s distress, if the non-verbal gestures to shut up were any indication. “I already know exactly what he’s is capable of!”

Ochako’s face froze as she repeated back, “Deku?” looking for answers. To her, it sounded like a cute nickname, like ‘Dekiru’ or ‘You can do it’, but she really didn’t like the tone.

“Yeah, or did he never tell you about ‘Defenseless Izuku’?” Yubi sneered to confirm Ochako’s worst fears. “You don’t get a nickname like that for nothing, even my kid knew he was a quirkless crybaby.”

“You may think you know this guy after seeing him on his best behavior, but we know he’s been a bad seed since the start.” Yubi continued undaunted (or at least unaware of the growing aura of rage surrounding Ochako). “Sure, he may seem nice and polite, but he could never stand that everybody had something he didn’t, so he would whine and do his whole ‘woe is me’ act while trying to get other kids in trouble because they didn’t want to coddle him. And then he kept stalking them and obsessing over their quirks, which made my son and his friends so uncomfortable! All I’m saying is bringing him back to his old ‘stomping ground’ is a tremendously stupid idea for a Dek-”

“Miss Yubi, enough!” Uchiyama exclaimed to cut her off. He took a deep breath, something Ochako refused to do, before addressing the two heroes once again with his own brazen confidence of a man attempting to sit on an electric fence. “I’m sorry that you heroes had to see that… outburst. Mrs. Yubi promised me she could keep her temper under control.” 

“But, while I disagree with the tone and the volume,” He continued, his eyes no longer meeting the rest of the meeting, “the point that she is attempting to make is something that we must address. I’m not sure the picture you have of Midoriya’s time at this school, but he was always an… agitator while he was a student here, and the concern that he would bring those personal troubles to a situation where life and death are on the line.”

Tsu was the first to pick up the slack in responding while Ochako continued clenching her jaw, her grinding teeth the only thing keeping a torrent of profanity from flowing from the depths of her soul. “I wish you had brought up these concerns sooner instead of waiting until right before the raid details are finalised, ribbit; you seemed fine with this premise during all that time when you delayed this meeting for multiple weeks.”

Uchiyama held his hands up in irritated self-defense “I’ll have you know there’s been a lot for me to take care with this potential attack,” the prinicipal fired back with a reactive bite “Keeping our institution running with the threat of a terrorist raid looming over our heads, there isn’t exactly time to fine-comb each name involved for potential troublemakers with vendettas against us.”

“I was the one who brought it to his attention.” Yubi preened smugly with all the survival instinct of a dog running into traffic.

“Yes, yes, thank you, Yubi,” Uchiyama placated the unhelpful contribution before returning his gaze to the heroes (specifically Tsu, because any attempt to look Ochako in her currently unblinking eyes caused him to start sweating for some reason), “But I’m sure heroes like yourselves understand having priorities and knowing when it’s-”

“Stop.”

Ochako thought she was doing a good job controlling herself, but it was evidently for naught as the single blunt word was released into the room with everybody there following her order to her dismay. The widening eyes and creeping paleness of Uchiyama and Yubi’s faces also told her she wasn’t doing as good a job in controlling her expressions either.

“You know, Izuku has been more devoted to helping put this strategy together, more than I’ve ever seen from a junior agency worker who had barely put his desk together before throwing himself into this mess.” Ochako began, speaking from the heart with deadly aim as she could almost see shame creep into the features of those standing before her.

Just ‘Almost’ though, keeping her dressing down fueled and going before anybody, herself included, could stop her.

“And through all the long days, digging for any scraps of information regarding the quirks of any Humarise member might be involved in their attack, the skipped lunch breaks, trying to figure out how to best protect as much of this building as possible, and the training sessions we’ve done where he works so hard with the knowledge he is putting himself on the line.” Ochako felt herself warm at the memories of watching the man get better and more determined each day, and that warmth was only heating up the blazing inferno she was unleashing on these bigoted educators. “And not once in all that time did he ever complain that he was doing it all for a school that hated him!”

“Uravity, I understand, but we have bigger problems than hurt feelin-” 

Uchiyama’s protest was cut short with a step forward from Ochako that sent a full body through the cowed principal, which locked his jaw.

“You seem to be very insistent on having heroes save you, Mr. Uchiyama,” Ochako pointed an accusing finger right at the man’s chest, continuing to approach as he shrank back. “So for us to be able to do our duties, I ask that you not reject one of the most important heroes in this operation because even in the shadow of being targeted for anti-quirkless beliefs, you can’t self-reflect for one goddamnsecond and look past that for the man working himself for the fucking bone for you!”

“Am. I. Clear?”

Uchiyama, overwhelmed by the infrequently seen but unforgettable Uravity rage, could only nod for a few seconds because he cleared his throat with a squeak. “Y-yes ma’am, we won’t have any problems going forward.”

“WHAT!” Yubi snapped into frustration, although the trembling in her elongated fingers that she was forcing herself through, undercut the venom on display previously. “You’re actually letting this happen? After everything Deku has done to this school?”

“Miss Yubi, please!” Uchiyama practically pleaded to the irate, “I think we are done here.”

It was at this point that whatever fire was fueling Ochako died out, and the weight of her outburst settled in until she was paling as much as Uchiyama was. The sounds of Tsu attempting to pick up the pieces of this meeting and wrap it up became increasingly muddled as the gravity heroine grappled with what she had said and done.

‘Great job, Ochako, you just threw a temper tantrum in the office of the school you came to help, you fucking dumbass.’ Her brain chided her.

‘I had to speak up when they were getting bigoted.’ The last embers of the fire in her heart defended themselves. ‘Midoriya doesn’t deserve that!’

‘Yeah, because everything you’ve done for Midoriya has been the actions of a stable woman.’ Her brain metaphorically rolled its eyes in response.

She snapped out of her internal argument when Tsu put a webbed hand on her shoulder, which prompted her to squeak out a “Thankyouforyourtimewewillbeintouchsorryaboutmyangerbye!” as she quickly left with Tsu in tow and the files crinkled in her arms.

The look of awe that the secretary was now giving her, complete with a whisper of “badass” as she passed, wasn’t helping her.

“What did I do?” Ochako retorically asked with her head in the files. “I practically threatened them!”

“There’s a difference between threatening them and forcing them to realize their prejudice can’t get in the way of our jobs, ribbit.” Her heteromorph friend assured her, clearly speaking from her own experience. “What I’m more surprised by is how passionate your defense of putting Izuku in the field was. I still worry if it’s the right choice.”

“I’m… not completely sold on it either,” Ochako admitted as she tried to verbally parse out her tangled emotions, “But when they were cutting down Midoriya as too weak and helpless to be… I don’t know, it’s stupid.”

“Well, regardless of whether it was stupid or not, it got us the results we were hoping for.” Tsu nodded, pulling out her phone. “I’ll tell Valkyrie that we can proceed to the next step of the operation.”

As her froggy friend tapped out a message to their fellow hero, Ochako wondered to herself how Midoriya could’ve survived several years of school here.

Barely an hour at Aldera, and she already felt at the end of her rope.

Froppy: The potential problems with Aldera's leadership have been resolved

Froppy: Uravity managed to “convince” them to drop their objections

Valkyrie: The quotation marks aren’t reassuring

Froppy: The point is, you are free to continue with infiltration and disarmament without delay

Froppy: Your cover still holding up, ribbit?

Valkyrie: Have you always typed out ribbit?

Froppy: :)

Valkyrie: I can feel the smug frog face from here

“Is everything alright, ma’am?” A waitress unknowingly interrupted the texting banter with more water for the table of one.

“Yes, thank you.” Melissa Sheild nodded as she took the refill. It was always the ordinary interactions like these that made her wonder how it would’ve changed if this woman had known she was offering this water to the Sixteen-ranked Pro Hero of Japan. Once the waitress left, satisfied with her answer, Melissa moved to wrap up her business talk before the business arrived.

Valkyrie: Regardless, yes, it’s going smoothly

Valkyrie: Lucky that I’m pretty unremarkable without a giant hunk of armor on.

The bespeckled blonde put her phone away and slumped into her chair with a deep exhale as the small cafe she found herself in bustled around her. She certainly wasn’t out of the woods in the slightest, but with all the effort she was putting in to further Humarize’s swift and hopefully end, as whatever time not spent in the Valkyrie Suit 4.0, directly arresting them, being used to worm her way into their ranks, she was happy that their greatest roadblock was the people they were saving from them.

“I need a break after this,” Melissa muttered to herself as she adjusted her glasses. “Maybe Mei would like a romantic getaway.”

But any plans for the future were interrupted by the arrival of her present, as an unmarked truck, recognizable to her in how much it didn’t stand out by design, drove around the establishment. This was quickly followed by a message she had been prepared for.

Toxxic: we are in the alley around back. make sure you arent tailed.

Flagging down that waitress again, she quickly paid for her meal (if one could call two muffins a ‘meal’. The fact that she was gaining her girlfriend’s dietary habits filled her with shame.) And began to wheel herself out with the briefcase in tow.

After so long with her new and home-improved, mechanical marvel of a wheelchair that transformed directly into her armor when she needed it, going back to her basic models felt clunky. But it was better not to risk any suspicion that was anything more than a poor quirkless girl beaten down by society.

They ate that shit up.

Once the wheelchair-bound woman and her package had rolled their way back to where the truck was stopped, the marks she was here to meet quickly hopped out. The first came from the driver's seat with a loud slam of the door and an even louder slam to the ground. He was a burly man in a Hawaiian shirt, notable for the bull horns framing and the mask around his mouth. The second was a lithe young woman wearing a bright yellow sundress, sliding from the shotgun side with an expressive mask of her own around her whole head with two tendril-like pigtails sticking out that seemed to be moving on their own accord.

The actual truck doors opened directly in front of her to reveal the final member, who was the one to contact her, standing among many crates inside. He was a young man her own age, a lanky fellow wearing a hoodie that shadowed much of his face, or at least the parts not covered by a mask. She could see his skin was sickly pale, and his wide eyes, which were the size of dinner plates, had pronounced bags under them. His pale pink hair was straddling the line from scruffy to an absolute mess, and the man seemed to be twitching constantly.

“So you are Miss Sheild, huh?” This waif of a man, Takeshi Bushijima, according to the quirk profile that an analyst at the Ryuukyuu agency made for her, spoke in a harsh whisper. “I am honored to find myself in your presence. Such a brilliant mind, and you chose to use it to help us humble revolutionaries in saving your kind. I feel your aura, untainted by the poison of quirks, blessing us with each moment we stand here with you.”

Very creepy, not to mention very incorrect at this point. But for the sake of the mission, she put on a similarly enraptured face. “And I am honored to be in the company of our freedom fighters. I only hope to help you as you have helped my kind.”

“You flatter me,” Bushijima bowed his head at the praise with a blush, bringing a minuscule amount of color back to his face. “I only hope we don’t disappoint you.”

“My deepest sorrys to keep you waiting, ma’am.” The horned man, Kaito Nara, as the file told her, groveled to the blond inventor before fixing a hard glare at his coworker. “Hiyoko couldn’t make up her mind on her outfit and delayed us twenty minutes.”

“It’s not every day you meet an untouched beauty. I need to look my best.” The final girl, named Hiyoko Matsuda by her dossier, defended herself as her hair tendril gave her partner in crime a smack on the arm. Despite the mask attempting to disguise it, Melissa had been feeling this woman eye-fucking her since she had gotten there, and it wasn’t stopping now.

But if they knew what she was, they’d likely try to kill her on sight for ‘tainting’ herself

“Enough bickering, we’re wasting daylight!” Bushijima snapped at his fellow cult members before returning his attention to Melissa with a smile that looked too long for his face. “Now, I hope you don’t mind if we proceed to our business?”

“Certainly.” Melissa nodded and presented the briefcase, happy they weren’t dwelling too long on her quirkless status, as most meetings she had with Humarize members involved them ‘appreciating her purity’ for most of it. “I have the specially constructed chemical guns and bombs as requested. Each one is my own design with a compound to be lethal to those with quirks, while remaining harmless to the quirkless population.”

Duds. She was giving them a briefcase full of duds. They were certainly her own design, though, as they were made so not only were they practically harmless in Humarize’s hands, but she and Mei could remotely track, tamper with, and control them against their users, hopefully giving the heroes a major leg-up for their next move.

But all Bushijima saw as he opened the case and laid his eyes on the dummy devices was that they were beautiful tools created by quirkless hands for a quirkless reckoning. 

“What an ingenious creation, you truly have it all, Miss Shield.” The sickly man praised as he looked upon their new acquisition. “An unrivaled mind, a fighting spirit, untainted genes. It’s a shame what happened to the rest of you.”

Melissa felt herself squirm in her seat.

“How DARE they touch such a perfect girl!” Nara raged as his knuckles clenched in white-hot fury. “Scum like that is why we FIGHT until the quirk disease is EXTINCT!”

Melissa held her tongue that the ‘scum’ in question was her father, Uncle Might, and mostly herself with a freak accident when she was trying to train herself for her new reality. But still, she needed to partake in this ‘freedom-fighting’ jerk-off to not rouse suspicion, so she went with the half-truth.

“The injury I could take, it was the looks of my peers that I couldn’t take. Regarding me as then useless and less than nothing.” She grimly monologued, tapping into a long-gone bitterness she would still be stuck in if not for her family and Mei helping through it and creating the armour to channel it. “A quirkless burden that ruined a great scientific mind by forcing him to try and fix her. That if he had a normal daughter, he would still be here instead of leaving the future of I-Island with a double-cripple.”

“That’s so tragic,” Matsuda sniffled as she wiped tears from her mask… somehow.

“It is,” Bushijima nodded solemnly, reaching out to put a comforting hand on Melissa’s shoulder before stopping himself and withdrawing. “But with the help of your inventions, we can purge this world of its sinful quirks! Starting with a school here in Musutafu, known for shunning lost souls like you once were.”

“We’ll blow them OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH!” Tara added, quite enthusiastically.

“Aldera Middle School, right?” Melissa asked, hoping it didn’t seem like she knew too much. “Aren’t they doing a ceremony to honor their only quirkless graduate?”

“They may think that can appease us, but we strike one way or another!” Bushijima scoffed, “And with your tools, we’ll bring our justice while leaving the boy unharmed. We’ll even bring him to one of our compounds to keep him safe.”

Melissa felt herself shiver at that. Humarize had these bases and compounds where they hid their members and watched over quirkless folk they’d ‘saved’, but no hero had been able to locate them yet. She hoped these new Trojan weapons could help with that.

“I saw a picture of the guy these pigs are wheeling out, and he’s quite the cutie.” Matsuda chuckled with a flirtatious growl. “Have you ever slept with a quirkless boy, Miss Sheild?”

The blonde found herself thrown off by the question, “I can’t say I have, Miss Matsuda.” She answered lamely.

“Poop, because I heard quirkless boys have looooong dicks and know how to use them~” Matsuda continued, to the discomfort of everyone around her. “I bet with how all those shallow girls avoid them like freaks, my poor baby hasn’t gotten any action… I’ll be happy to break him in~”

“NOBODY is touching him!” Tara interjected, “Not when we are all still tainted with our DISGUSTING quirks!”

“But if all goes according to plan, perhaps we will be chosen to see The Oracle.” Bushijima whispered in reverence as his twitches seemed to grow more pronounced, “And for our devotion to the cause, she will free us from our curses permanently.”

The Oracle. Melissa had heard of this woman before; she was a guiding figure in this new Humarize sector who would apparently remove your quirk if you pleased her enough. Yet, despite how big a deal she was, Melissa never found anybody who had actually seen her. Some people knew friends or coworkers who went to see her, but even those were all dead ends in finding that person for more information, as everybody in the cult was cluelessly positive that they went on to live a better, quirkless life.

The implication was clear to Melissa, and she didn’t like it.

“You really think she’ll do that for you?” She asked, the smallest dot of pity formed for these people blissfully marching themselves to their deaths.

“If we do well, she’ll have no choice,” Bushijima claimed, his inky eyes sparkling with devotion. “She will finally free us from our curses, and we shall no longer be villains for these diseases we were born with, stuck with!”

Melissa thought she saw a black gas with a choking smell softly starting to emanate from Bushijima’s skin as he grew more passionate, but with a few deep breaths, he seemingly had it back under control.

“And once I’m pure, I’ll let him take it for himself~” Matsuda sighed with glee, hugging herself with her own hair.

Tara merely grunted at his partner’s prevention as he took the case from Bushijima to pack it in the truck, and the two of them hopped to their seats, while Bushijima lingered with Melissa.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” The scarecrow-looking man softly questioned. “We can keep you safe from the wickedness outside.”

‘I’d rather fucking die’ was the response that came to mind, but for the sake of the mission, Melissa settled for “I can’t right now, I’m more useful to you all out here.”

Bushijima smiled; it looked pained. “A genius mind and it’s selflessly devoted to helping your kind, what a diamond you are.” He remarked as he returned to the truck. “If only more of your kind shared that drive.”

Melissa smiled, and though to the Humarize members it looked like she was touched by those words, the smile was all for her.

Because as the pieces were falling into place, they had no idea how true that statement would be.

And as the embers of One For All burned within her skin, she couldn’t wait for them to find out.

Chapter Text

Ochako’s time as a UA hero student had taught her a lot that readied her to enter the fray of the professional world. In the three years of learning both within the academy walls and out on the field, getting experience, she went from a country bumpkin with barely anything but a quirk that made her vomit if she wasn’t careful and a dream, to somebody who was able to fully navigate the world of being a hero and inspire the smiles she had always dreamed of.

One of the skills she learned that she would attribute a lot of her growth as a competent and kickass hero to was her taking up Gunhead Martial Arts. Where once she was running around like a headless chicken, slapping her opponents with zero gravity in a desperate attempt to float them off her back, now she had the technique to truly grapple with her foes and throw them off their feet without using her quirk as a crutch, but as another tool in her arsenal.

Ever since she graduated, the far-flung idea of teaching her brand of “Uravity Martial Arts” to an up-and-comer, passing it to the next generation, always puts a smile on her face.

But now that she was actually training someone with her brand of combat, why was it so… salacious?

Whenever she and Midoriya got onto the mat and began to spar, she was thankfully able to keep her head in the game, with her competitiveness seemingly overriding her stupid hormones. But when it came to walking through the concept or, god forbid, correcting his form in a hands-on manner, then suddenly, the only correction she had on his form was “lose the shirt”.

And as soon as she found out who dubbed it the ‘submission hold’, she was going to strangle them.

Right now, she was watching him demonstrate what she had taught him on a training dummy with a crudely drawn over-the-top villain face courtesy of Neijire. It certainly made it clear that Midoriya, even if he was a fast learner, didn’t start from nothing when it came to self-defense. Obviously, he was in good enough shape to pull off a lot of the technique (her eyes nearly popped from her skull when she saw his workout routine that contained pushing cars up a hill), but the way he moved showcased a degree of prior talent as he made her skills his own.

‘Well, not quite his own,’ the treacherous and paranoid side of her brain, which was the only part powerful enough to defeat the horniness, whispered to her. ‘It seems to resemble how a certain vampire you used to know would attack, doesn’t it?’

 “Your footing has improved greatly,” the gravity heroine remarked, shaking herself of both the devil and the other devil on her shoulder as she approached her apprentice with his well-loved All Might-branded water bottle. “And your ability to adapt to opponents of different weights and points of balance is also doing well.”

“Thank you,” Midoriya huffed as he took a long drink from the bottle, sweat pouring down his neck and to his-

‘Stop it, you horny toad,’ her brain chastized as Tsu sneezed somewhere in the distance.

But without the thirsty voice whispering in her ear, Ochako noticed something about his neck she hadn’t before; a strange bruise she knew for a fact he didn’t get from her training.

She hoped that didn’t come from trouble at his home; she would have to follow up on that when this was all over.

“The stuff you taught me about shifting my feet and focusing on taking the weight from the opponent’s strikes has been really helping me. I guess I was too brute force focused before,” Midoriya admitted with a little bit of a blush that was unseen in his already red face, snapping Ochako from her thoughts. “You’re a really great teacher, Uraraka!”

Now Ochako’s face was starting to match Midoriya’s in hue, with a burning of pride in her breast from the praise. She would’ve called up Gunhead to brag about the compliment, but she knew as soon as he got wind of the situation, he would go full Mina and want all the juicy details.

“A good teacher is nothing without a good student willing to learn,” Ochako channeled some of her more inspiring teachers as she gave a thumbs-up. “You already knew a lot of the basics, so fine-tuning it with my knowledge was easy!”

“Yeah, Himi insisted I got at least some way to defend myself,” Midoriya threw out with a swig, casually, as if it didn’t cause Ochako to start hacking on her own spittle.

“O-oh?” Ochako weezed out, “and what k-kinds of things did she t-teach you?”

Ever since their interrupted date, Midoriya had been much more open to mentioning his wife to her. It still gave her whiplash each time, though, and prying more information out of each passing reference was still the goal.

She knew never to trust just her senses when it came to a potential Himiko Toga.

“Just some basics, like you said,” Midoriya waved off. “She doesn’t have any formal training herself, but with me being… quirkless, she insisted that she give me some pointers in case something bad happened.”

That sucked the air out of the room, as the weight of what they were preparing for settled upon them once again.

Especially since it was tomorrow when they would see if it was enough.

“Do you think this will…” Midoriya started, before trailing off as he clenched a scared fist. “I worry that the training won’t be enough…”

Ochako sighed. “Believe me, Midoriya, I know that feeling well, and we won’t know for sure until it’s all over. But we’ve trained you well in case it gets grizzly, set up reinforcements around the location, and have somebody on the inside helping us sabotage them even further. While we can’t guarantee an outcome, I don’t think you could say we are flying into this blind.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s just weird being on the other side of the desk for this,” Midoirya admitted with a winded sigh. “I’d given up on the idea that somebody like me could be a hero a long time ago. I guess I just expected my little childhood fantasy to come true like… this.”

“I can’t think of anybody who is better suited to be a Hero at this moment,” Ochako responded honestly. Perhaps a bit too honest if the heat currently radiating off Midoriya, suddenly getting more intense, meant anything.

And of course, if Midoriya was blushing, then she was blushing.

“How about, if you’re still feeling unsure that you’re ready, we have one last training match,” Ochako suggested. Anything to get them out of this weird moment. “But be warned, Izuku Midoriya, I don’t hold back.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to,” Midoriya challenged right back, entering his fighting stance as Ochako stripped to her athletic gear.

It would be a long and hard fight, but Ochako knew she would prevail.

It was a long and hard dick, but Himiko knew she could prevail over it.

“Glurk, glurk, glurk, glurk, glurk glurk-”

“F-fuck Himi, you really don’t have to d-do this,” Izuku stammered with his suit on but his pants off. Despite his words, his hands were buried in his wife’s blonde locks and moving her up and down his length.

Himiko shook her head, mouth still full, before slipping herself off and affixing her husband with a drooling smile. “Nonsense, Zuku, you have a busy day ahead of you. The least I can do is suck some of your stress away before you go.”

Today was the day, her adorable man walking straight into the lion’s den, then preparing for it to be attacked by sharks. Himiko couldn’t say she was happy with this development (except for the fact that her husband was finally being recognized as the Hero he was), but she trusted Izuku and Ochako…

…Mostly…

…Definitely…

…Trusted them a decent amount…

“You also have a busy day today with the debut, so I should help you with the stress for that.” Izuku countered, as Himi released a breath through her nose at the thought that caused Izuku’s cock to shiver as she continued to jerk him off with her hand.

Because yes, tonight was the night that she had scheduled her VTuber debut, and with the hype that Shemage and her associated VTuber friends had generated for her, she couldn’t change the date. Her noble idiot of a husband helped her set it up before telling her that it was the same date as his much more dangerous event.

The big jerk did it on purpose so she wouldn’t have any time to interfere with his business! How dare he know exactly what she wanted to do! She shouldn’t even be giving him this blowjob!

‘But this may be the last time you can…’

No, stop it.

“First of all, Zuku, you already did give me some ‘stress relief’ today,” Himiko pointed out, with a wiggle of her bottomless rear to show off exhibit A. “And secondly, you being the cheese in a burning mouse trap is a much bigger deal than my silly little streaming debut.”

“I suppose, in a mortality sense, that’s kinda true,” Izuku began, prompting Himiko to go back to sucking in order to hold off any comments before he finished. “But this is a really important step for you, and I know those can be scary despite the lower stakes. I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of all the work you’ve done to achieve this, and am so excited for all sorts of people to see the woman I love and why I fell in love with her.”

You’d think after being married to Izuku for as long as she had been that she’d be used to the greenette’s sincerity, but the swell of emotions in her breast caused her to react the only way that felt right: Doubling her sloppy efforts on his cock.

“H-h-holy f-f-fuck,” Izuku managed to choke out of the groan taking up most of his throat. “H-Himi, I’m g-g-going to-”

Himiko felt the climax coming and decided to pull a fast one, going all the way down to the base and then quickly retracting as her prize began to find it’s way into the now open air. Ropes and ropes of her husband’s cum shot outward, covering her face with the pearly substance.

“Aaaaah, a perfect way to start any day,” Himiko remarked with a toothy grin as the cum dripped down her face. “And, because nobody on the stream will see anything, I don’t need to wash it off~”

“Himi…”

“Fine, I’ll make sure I’m cleaned.” The blonde rolled her eyes before getting serious as Izuku pulled up his pants and un-rumpled his clothes, signifying that he was going to leave soon. “I love you, Zuku.”

He smiled as he picked up his briefcase. “I love you too, Himi.”

“Of course you do, you big sap!” Himiko grinned stickily. “Now get out there and show the world what my man can do!”

She punctuated that with a slap on the ass to send him out the door, with him laughing at the flirtatious attack before looking back at her, almost wistfully.

“I’ll see you tonight,” he said, with a confidence that betrayed no confidence, as he closed the door to their home.

As soon as she heard the door click behind him, the smile (and some drips of jizz with it) immediately fell off. She absolutely detested the uncertainty of letting the best thing that happened in her life walk into danger, led by the second-best thing that happened in her life.

But she agreed to trust them, so the best thing she could do was to make sure all her daily chores were in order, set up for her stream debut in the evening, and…

…

Ah, who was she kidding? She was absolutely going to make sure her piece of ass was okay. She just had to be sneaky so nobody saw her… again, and quick about so she could make it back and start her VTubing debut with nobody the wiser.

And, of course, she would probably have to clean her face first.

‘When little girls grow up, we learn not to be afraid of the dark, because whatever’s in there grows to fear us.’

A very smart woman told her that once, said it with a smile that, against all odds, brought a sputtering light of hope into her heart. While she never saw her again after that brief moment, those words certainly made an impact.

As she gave herself her morning dose, wincing less and less each time she felt the twisted horn on her forehead grow more branches, the pale-haired girl wondered what had happened to that unusual hero. She certainly seemed like the kind of person who made those things that go bump in the night quake in fear, so it was likely she made it out okay after the reason she was there… went south.

There was an energy around that woman that she was currently trying to envelop herself with as she waited in her room for the summons she knew was coming.

There was a time when she was so horrified by the darkness that she spent her life within, the hands that reached out at her from where she couldn’t see, and the pain that struck to her bones, that the idea of running away and finally seeing the sun was the only thing keeping her going. But now she knew that just as many monsters hid in the light, and preferred her current cage to being lost in the streets with any of them.

She preferred this dark, her dark, willing herself to become one of those monsters with another dose to help her get stronger. Her fingers twitched like they were strumming an invisible guitar as she breathed deep, working her way through the sharp pain in her head.

Her… morning ritual in the dark was interrupted by a creeping beam of light, heralded in by one of her attendants at the door, the older woman keeping her head bowed low as she addressed her. “Pardon me, but The Oracle is needed for a rebirthing ritual in the cleansing chamber.”

She really hated how ridiculously overwrought her role was in this racket.

“Thank you, Takako,” she nodded back, preparing herself to face whatever cretins had been dragged before her as the attendant scampered off, as if afraid to be in her presence too long.

With the rolling back of her shoulder, adjusting her ‘scared garments’ (she really wished such a show wasn’t necessary as the hood was quite itchy), and sculpted her face into a hard stare of judgment.

The Oracle was ready, and she was prepared to be the monster she needed to be.

As she strode out into the ‘cleansing chamber’ that clearly used to be the laundry room of her estate, she tried to keep her gaze away from the people before, who all broke into hushed whispers as she approached. Great pains were taken so that any information about her beyond the myths and legends of her abilities made it out of this room, so it was probably a rapturous experience for them.

She couldn’t let herself look them in the eyes; it made it easier when she knew what was going to happen.

“Your audience with The Oracle has been granted,” she called out loudly to the trio that had been brought in, sparking another round of joy to the gathered converts. “Make your case for what you desire in your heart, and with my great power, I will grant your wish as a gift for your service to the cause.”

It was entirely unnecessary; everybody came here for the same reason, but it added to the atmosphere that was essential to making the whole picture work.

A man with his eyes on stalks stepped forward, getting on one knee. “Oh, dearest Oracle of Genesis, light in the darkness of this diseased world, manipulator of the poison that runs within our veins. My friends and I have but one request for your godly power.”

His three companions also fell to their knees, as the orator of the group continued his long-winded request. “We have worked hard in enacting the will of this holy order, diligently saving this tainted world from itself. For the last year and a half, we have been using our day jobs as door-to-door salesmen of quirk relief pills to scope out the poor souls without quirks in the greater Shizuoka area who have been forced to live in this world of this horrible sickness and vile curses.”

The Oracle felt her eye twitch, but the men before her seemingly didn’t notice.

“We have assisted in securing over a dozen of these poor souls and bringing them to our Garden facility, in which we can preserve their innocence away from the quirked scourge until the day of reckoning arrives and the wretched blight upon our society is snuffed out!”

More twitches at the way this man was talking, not to mention a familiar tingling off the side of her forehead that was growing stronger with each pulse.

“We are all humbled that our efforts to better humanity have caught the eye of the Oracle. Your guiding hand has been vital in ushering in our new future after those UA brats nearly ruined everything,” he continued to wax poetically, as said Oracle tried not to look away from his posturing. “Our one desire is for you to rid us of our sickness, to use your own curse and strip these rotten quirks from our body so that we should be able to live among our soon-to-be peers and enter the new world free of our original sin!”

“A wise choice,” she stated with gritted teeth. “Through our hardships, we have all been taught the value of the quirkless being. These noble deeds you all have done deserve the highest reward we can grant you. Now, be cleansed of your sins.”

Channeling all of her power wasn’t that hard; it had already been bubbling under the surface like a boiling pot since the man before her started talking. As her horn began throbbing, their words burrowed beneath the skin and dug up similar words from her past as well.

‘Forced to live in this world of this horrible sickness and vile curses.’

‘You were born to break people…’

‘We can preserve their innocence away from the quirked scourge until the day of reckoning arrives and the wretched blight upon our society is snuffed out!’

‘Every move you make gets people killed!’

‘Use your own curse and strip these rotten quirks from our body’

‘Your very existence is cursed!’

Her horn burned brighter and brighter, bringing more excitement from each of the eager converts awaiting her ‘blessing’. And, with a scream from their Oracle as the mental and physical anguish overcame her, waves and waves of energy burst from her gnarled horn and flooded the chamber.

At first, the three Humarize members marveled at the feeling of their bodies being ‘purified’. The leader felt his eyes slowly return to his skull while his companions sensed the feelings of their quirk factors diminish until they were nothing but phantom sensations.

But the sensation continued, enveloping their bodies further beyond and continuing to warp them. Their bodies begin to collapse in on themselves as their vital internal systems devolved to the point they could barely sustain what remained of their rapidly depleting lives.

Their brains, going down year by year, could barely keep up, and the three could barely scream out in terror before nothing remained, and it was as if nobody was ever there at all.

Because in the temporal scheme of things, they never were.

She couldn’t bear to look at the spots at which they once stood, and with her horn much smaller now than when it started, she could hide her face in her hood as it would do anything.

“Well, I see the ‘ritual’ is over already.” A new voice, dripping with a passionate professionalism she had come to associate with her only lifeline. “I suppose it’s good to get it wrapped up before the main headline, though. I just wish I could’ve seen the way your meta-ability triumphed over their weak wills up close and personal.”

“But still, I’m very proud of you, Eri. You’re getting so strong.”

If she had looked up, the horned girl would’ve seen Chitose Kizuki striding into the room with both purpose and a casual amusement. The blue-skinned woman was spending a seemingly lazy morning in a crimson robe, with an early glass of wine she was nursing.

But Eri remained rooted to the spot, her eyes still on where nothing remained, as two darkened eyes with poorly concealed mirth assessed the distraught state. The stare into the void was broken when a gentle touch, the cool feeling of the carbon fiber appendage of a slightly different shade rustling in her hair, brought a familiar comfort to the girl.

“There, there, sweetheart,” Chitose soothed in a motherly tone as Eri leaned into the anchoring touch. “You’ve got such a big heart for a girl who’s gone through so much.”

“These people just thought they were doing the right thing,” Eri muttered with a hitch in her throat.

Chitose couldn’t help but roll her black eyes at that. “What they wanted to do was punish people like us for existing, for daring to be unafraid of our meta-abilities, like your father wanted.”

That caused Eri to harden in an instant, Chitose’s words curling around her vulnerable heart.

“If it wasn’t for them trusting my word because of…” the blue-skinned woman trailed off as she flexed her prosthetic arms bitterly. “They would’ve kept you locked up like a weapon just as he did, forcing you to use your wonderful meta-ability to make their ‘better world’ that hates us for existing.”

“But we’re making a better world for us, aren’t we?” Eri asked, her moment of uncertainty fading as Chitose smiled sweetly.

“That’s right, dear, and people like that don’t deserve to exist in it.” Eri nodded to her maternal figure’s statement. “But enough with the hard-hitters, I hope you’re feeling proud of your progress!”

“Yes mo-... ma’am, I can feel the extra doses making my meta-ability even stronger! There is a little pain, though.” Eri rubbed her brittle and much smaller horn.

“All a part of the process, dear,” Chitose waved off with a sip. “Perhaps we should focus on control soon, though, once we’re done making headlines here, I’ll finally…”

Eri felt herself blush at the reminder that, for all the ways she has improved his meta-ability, she still used it to lash out like a child.

“But that can wait for another day,” Chitose shrugged as she held Eri’s hand and the two left the ‘chamber’ and went into the former news mogul’s suite. It was less than what the villain was used to, but to Eri, it was a palace, and she loved to be invited in. Chitose sat her on a velvet couch facing a large TV, hooked up to a laptop.

“Right now, we focus on the next important step for us and what will surely be tomorrow’s top story,” Chitose remarked as she turned on the TV. When it flashed on, the footage was from body cameras secretly connected to each of the cult members. Eri wasn’t sure she wanted to watch this, but she knew it was important as Chitose held her hands out to picture the headline she envisioned.

“Quirkless man slain in Humarize attack as he tries to betray heroes for quirkless supremacy cult!”

Well…

Izuku never thought he would be back here again,

‘All these years and they still haven’t fixed the air conditioning in here,’ he thought to himself as he awkwardly stood at the buffet table in Aldera’s gym, eating the provided mochi bites as he looked out on the rest of the ‘event’.

Last time he was in this gym, it was high school graduation, and the teacher who handed him his diploma gave a long sigh before calling his name. Now there was an ‘ALDERA MIDDLE SCHOOL PROUDLY HONORS QUIRKLESS GRADUATES’ banner hanging across that stage.

With the ‘S’ hastily crossed out.

They were doing a really bad job of not making themselves targets.

‘Midoriya, you should probably interact with some of the people here,’ Tsu’s tinny and croaky voice echoed through the earpiece. ‘It’ll keep you moving in a natural way, so they’ll have less opening to attack for now, ribbit.’

‘We all have our eyes out, Midoriya,’ Uraraka’s voice intoned next. ‘With you staying in the action, it’ll keep their movement options limited. And we’ll be ready to jump in the moment they try and stir some shit. Oh! And grab some mochi bites for me while you’re over there!’

With a nod he hoped they saw, Izuku shoved a handful of mochi into his pocket and ventured into the gaggle of people they had supposed gathered in his honor. He felt bad as he looked between them all, as much as he tried to keep this small, Aldera made it mandatory that all employees be here to “make it more convincing”.

Most people were already caught in conversations, while others seemed keen to avoid him and avoid the ‘uncomfortable subject’ as much as they could. But there was one person who seemingly ‘wanted’ to talk to him.

“Midoriya, my boy,” a man who Izuku often saw staring at him sternly behind a desk, now called to him jovially, “how is the man of the hour doing?”

“Vice Principal Uchiyama,” Izuku greeted with a nod.

“Just, Principal Uchiyama now,” the broad-shoulder man preened. “It seems the years have been kind to the both of us.”

“Uh… yeah,” the greenette managed to muster as he popped another mochi bite into his mouth. “Kind” was not the word he would use to describe his last couple of years.

But he did get his wonderful wife out of it, so he shouldn’t really complain.

“But I just wanted to… thank you for stepping in and… helping us in our hour of need,” Uchiyama told him as he looked back and forth, worried.

He must’ve been nervous about Humarize.

“It’s what heroes do, sir,” Izuku responded in kind.

“I tried to invite Bakugou so you’d have at least one friend, but he won’t even respond,” the man whispered as he shook his head, and Izuku kept himself from gaping. “After everything we sacrificed to help that boy reach his true potential.”

Izuku wanted to mention that he was one of those sacrifices, but decided it wasn’t the best time. “W-well, he’s very busy…”

“Still, you’d think that the fate of his former middle school would matter to him.” Uchiyama sighed.

But after that, the whispering was over, and the loud talking in hopes that people overheard began as he crowed. “I won’t keep you too long, Midoriya. I’ll see you on stage soon after all! But we are so happy to have a quirkless fellow of good character graduate from our progressive school, and we are so proud that you have gone so far since!”

“Uh… y-yeah. Thank you,” the analyst graciously conceded as he began to shuffle away.

Uchiyama’s eyes trailed the room again before he mumbled, “Please make sure your Hero friends know that,” before he hastened an exit himself.

Izuku thought that was weird, but didn’t have time to question it when a bubbly yet surprisingly sharp voice in his ear piped up. ‘He didn’t try anything, did he?’

‘Stand down, Uravity,’ a froggy voice interrupted on the same channel. ‘Let’s not get off track just yet.’

‘I just don’t like the way they talk about him,’ the first voice retorted, as Izuku could just imagine Uraraka’s cheeks puffing up in the process. ‘All this ‘Deku’ stuff? It’s a load of horseshit!’

Izuku was of two minds about this information that had just landed on his lap. The first bristled at Uraraka, knowing this much about his past and his time at school here. Despite everything he had done since he left this place, to have somebody he deeply respected know all the ugly details made him feel… stripped bare.

But other the other hand, the fact that she so vigorously defended him to the point where his former principal was scared of her wrath…

He had only one other beautiful woman who went to bat for him like that.

‘Wait? Where did beautiful come from-’

“Um, excuse me? Midoriya?” A woman’s voice piped up behind him, which he was grateful for, as if left to his own devices, he would’ve likely started muttering about Uraraka’s beauty (after spending weeks working out… he understood his wife better now). When he turned around, his gratitude became muted as he recognized the woman who matched him in age, not by name but by the fact that her hair was floating above her head as if it were in water.

Behind her, Izuku noticed Yubi’s mother staring daggers at the two as she nursed a wine glass, so he kept his eyes on the woman in front of him.

“Oh, hello uhhhhhhhhhh…” Izuku began as Izuku struggled to remember her name.

“Misato Sakura,” his former classmate reminded him.

“R-right! Sorry for not-”

“It’s alright,” Sakura interrupted his struggling apology. “Not like there is any reason you should remember, we didn’t really… talk.”

“I’m sure that was a good thing for you,” Izuku mumbled out before deciding to bite his tongue and stop it there.

Sakura just sighed, “Yeah…” before steeling herself with a deep breath. “Look, Midoriya, I-I just wanted to say… I’m s-sorry.”

The air between them was silent for too long before Izuku squeaked out a “H-huh?”

“I-I know that I never f-fully participated in Bakugou’s… crap, but I still laughed along with it, and d-didn’t do anything to stop it, s-so I’m sorry,” the blue-haired woman confessed.

There was more silence between them before Izuku dared to ask, “W-what brought this on?”

“My nephew, he was… recently diagnosed,” Sakura admitted, with a twinge of regret that she likely wouldn’t have changed her perspective without this. “He’s such a sweet and happy child, and when I imagine what you went through happening to him… it made me realize what a piece of shit I was.”

Izuku knew that train of thought all too well; it had been one of the reasons he and Himiko made their ‘couples agreement’ after all.

But Sakura seemed to realize she had hit an uncomfortable lull and quickly kept going. “O-obviously I don’t expect you to forgive me but-”

“Thank you,” Izuku cut her off, to her wide-eyed surprise. “I-I appreciate it, and I’m sure that your n-nephew appreciates the effort as well.” The fact that somebody was trying to help others the way he never received made him smile.

At least somebody was trying to get into the spirit of the festivities.

Sakura smiled at his smile. “Y-yeah, I’ve joined the PTA board to try to make things better, but… It’s not easy.” Her eyes trailed to where Yubi was still sulking. The woman got up and stomped away when she noticed the two looking at her.

At that point, the lights dimmed, and Uchiyama’s voice echoed over a screechy microphone, “Would our honoree, Izuku Midoriya, please make his way up to the stage?”

“Well, break a leg, Midoriya,” Sakura remarked as the green-haired analyst made his way to the stage in question. The stage was notably at four of the five entrances (including one vent), so having him there served as a deterrent for them to go guns blazing, where everybody in the building was currently, while the Heroes cut them off at he remaining paths.

It may have been a poorly designed gym, but it was great for the plan.

‘Sorry to drag you away from your conversation… unless she was being rude to you, in which case I ain't,’ the voice of Uraraka came through the earpiece, ‘But it seems like Humarize has begun their infiltration, so it’s time for you to serve as their deterrent.’

"We've instructed Uchiyama to stall the award as much as possible to give us time.’ Tsu ribbited on the same channel. ‘Us two, alongside Neijire-Chan, Pinky, Shishikross, and Valkyrie, are cutting them off as best we can.’

‘Hopefully you won’t need to get involved at all!’ Uraraka optimistically chirped before a loud sound cut her off.

Usually, when Izuku was in the middle of a villain attack, he felt positively giddy, since he was often there of his own volition to see all the heroes (even now, he was hoping to get autographs from Neijire-Chan and Valkyrie if he made it out of here alright).

And while this was technically still of his own volition, being the centerpiece still made him nervous as he stepped onto the stage to mostly muted applause.

“It is my privilege to give the first Aldera Excellence For A Quirkless Graduate Award to Izuku Midoriya!” Uchiyama stated both briskly and placidly. “We are so proud that our esteemed institution helped you go so far in life!”

All his years of watching All Might prepared him to smile like nothing was wrong.

“Now, a speech from Midoriya!”

Okay, smile gone.

Uchiyama stepped aside as Izuku stepped forward. He had something prepared, but he had more time to fill than he thought. 

“U-uh, thank you, everybody,” he began as planned, even though none of the people looking at him from the darkness had any part in his getting this superfluous award (he basically just gave it himself by proxy). “I-I just want to begin by saying this is a great honor that I never expected to receive.”

There was a shrill laugh from a woman with long fingers in the audience, but he persisted.

“I would like to thank Aldera Middle School for helping to make me the person I am today. My time here taught me so much about the world and what my place in it could be.”

He couldn’t tell if it was the earpiece or the blood rushing to his head, but he could feel a buzz growing in his eyes as Uchiyama looked ready to bolt from the stage as soon as possible.

“It was all the people at this school, students and teachers alike, whose outlook is what gave me the courage to be better, work harder, and find the person I am today.”

They weren’t lies technically, being married to Himiko made those come easy to him, but it was hard to focus on that as Uchiyama was beginning to leave the stage, and the buzzing became a faint clatter that was getting louder… or closer.

“I dedicate this award to all the quirkless people, children and adults, who are out there and feel like they don’t have anybody in their corner. I promise that there are always people who will have your back when you don’t expect it.”

It was more than buzzing now; it was a constant rumble from all around them, injected with clearer sounds of a clash. Izuku was feeling the hairs raise on the back of his neck, but as the anchor that keeps all the people in this room from getting mowed down, he remained in place.

 Uchiyama did not; he was working his way off the stage and creeping through the crowd.

“I would like to thank my mother for being my first supporter, Uravity, and the rest of the Ryuukyuu Agency for the opportunities they have given me, and my wife for-”

Izuku didn’t know what he was going to say there, but he would never find out, because as Uchiyama tried to hightail it from an awkward speech as soon as possible, he opened a door to a faceful of Humarize grunts.

And with an entrance now available that mowed down a bigot rather than some quirkless guy, they took it.

“Ah, we finally get to the juicest part of our big story now,” Chitose remarked with a satisfied smirk as one of the cult members they were watching from his body cam breached a door that was once being blocked by a Frog Hero, but was opened by somebody on the inside.

“Why… did it take so long?” Eri asked the blue woman sitting next to her. The horned teen always hated clashes like these, whether on the screen or in person, but she just couldn’t look away.

“You have to work with the tools you are given, dear,” Chitose lectured the girl, enjoying the teaching moment she was able to provide her little pet. “When I first found the remains of this sorry group in the aftermath of their humiliating loss, they were lacking leadership and resources, but were still overflowing with passion toward the… quirkless plight. If I ever hoped for them to accept my guiding hand, I needed to channel that fire in the direction we wanted without tipping them off that our goals aren’t entirely in sync.”

She took a sip from her sparkling glass. “Either they fail here, and more loyalists are off the board before you need to deal with them. Or they succeed in finding their little ‘human interest’ and it’s he who pushes us forward.”

Eri felt herself squirm at the implication as she looked at the screen, the green-haired man on the stage looking afraid as people began running frantically beneath him.

It reminded her…

“I really didn’t think they would get this far,” Chitose chuckled as she watched the remaining foot soldiers be hindered by their shoddy weaponry, “I should’ve known their bleeding hearts would be attracted to sub-par materials.” 

“Uh, ma’am,” Eri spoke up, earning a dry gaze from the woman that the hooded girl pressed through, “Are we going to… hurt him, I-I-I mean I just don’t know if he’s done anyth-”

“He was born the way they prefer; that’s enough.” Chitose cut her off, no longer amused, “Eri dear, if we want to create a world for us, then we must make sure those we try and drag us down have no means to do so.”

“Y-yes, but-”

“You think it’s enough for their defenders to be discredited? No, the entire population must be seen as the rightful enemy they are. If I still had my company, I could give this whole thing some nudges from the sidelines, but the circumstances force our hands to get dirty.”

Chitose clenched an artificial hand, creating a silicone crunch in her fist as Eri averted her eyes and nodded.

Suddenly, she found a hand with no warmth delicately rubbing her horn. “It’s sweet of you to be concerned, dear, but trust me, this man here? He’s no innocent.”

“Barricade the door! Take anybody you can!” a hooded man about his age yelled out to his two companions as they broke into where everybody in the building was located. “Come on! We only have a few seconds!”

His fellow cult member with horns coming from his head grabbed the buffet table and slammed it to barricade the door with, while the masked woman with them used strands of her strong hair to bind it to the entryway.

“Nobody move, or we can apply that little display to your skulls.” She giggled with a whip of her hair as everybody trapped in the room, including Uchiyama, who was crawling on the floor, were forced backward.

Izuku was knocked to the floor of the stage when they first burst in, and it knocked his earpiece out as it slid to who knows where. He had prepared for something like this to happen, but now that it was actually here, there were dozens of new sensations that he hadn’t counted on. He had to will his heart to slow and his jelly arms to follow his commands before he could even think about fighting back.

“Broken weapons, tons of heroes, no backup, this was doomed from the start!” The man, Takeshi Bushijima, if he recalled his research correctly, practically hyperventilated as he gripped his hood with gaseous hands,

“Kid, your quirk is acting up,” The bull-like villain hissed at him as he used his full body to block the door.

“What’s the point anyway? We fucked up so badly that the Oracle will never rid us of our curses!” Bushijima snapped with tears pricking his eyes. “We failed our divine mission!”

“Then why don’t we go out in a blaze of glory?” The woman asked as her hair snaked across the room and picked up a few terrified party-goers, including Misato Sakura, “show them that nothing will stop us from bringing about the new world order! Not even our own sacrifice!”

Bushijima took a moment and looked at his hand, simmering with toxic fumes, before releasing a wheezing laugh that sounded like his soul crying. “Y-yes… yes! Let us show them our faith is strong! Let the heroes in, too!. We can take them all down with us!”

This was moving too fast; the remaining Humarize members worked to undo their makeshift blockade as Bushijima started emanating more and more toxic gas, as the closest bystanders, wrapped in a vice grip of hair, were widening their eyes in horror as the end seemed to approach.

Bushijima was readying the gas… he kept readying it…

“What’s the hold up?” The masked woman huffed.

“Patience, I haven’t had to invoke my curse before…” Bushijima defended himself, a bead of sweat running down his gaunt face.

Izuku had an opening here.

“S-stop!” Izuku yelled out, the word scratchily escaping his throat as everybody’s eyes landed on him. “Y-you want to make a difference, t-there is still one q-quirkless person you can save here.”

He managed to wobble to his feet and hold himself out in offering for the trio. The horned one seemed suspicious, the masked girl seemed interested, but Bushijima seemed to be caught in rapturous joy.

“S-so you’re the one they are using as bait,” he hissed as the gas around his arms began to dial back.

“Oooh, they were right! You are a cutie,” the woman squealed, hopping up and down as Sakura and the others seemed to be getting motion sickness in her grasp.

“What angle are you playing?” The bulky man questioned as he continued bracing the blocked door.

“I j-just heard you struggling and t-thought…” Izuku swallowed the lump in his throat, “T-that you shouldn’t leave empty-handed.”

“Y-you would do that for us?” The young man practically whispered with a shaky smile starting to grace his face as he accepted Izuku’s words with no strings attached. “Thank you so much. Truly, the kindness of the quirkless knows no bounds.”

Izuku felt a breath be released at this. He was lucky they believed in him wholeheartedly.

“I-I’ll even show you a way out of here.” Izuku agreed with a stiff nod. “But you h-have to not hurt anybody else here. T-they aren’t worth it.”

The bullish man spoke up, “I knew there was an angle, I think this is a-”

“Quiet!” Bushijima snapped with a small puff of smog from his mouth. “Our goal is the betterment of humanity, and here is one offering us to our cause with but a small price to pay in exchange.”

Bushijima approached Izuku and began inspecting him like one would look at a priceless antique, “And a wonderful and healthy specimen he is, perfect for our ranch.”

“Yeah, he’s a real dreamboat, but still!” the masked girl stamped her foot. “If he was working with-”

“Don’t ruin this for us! If you don’t trust him, then flank us in the back until the heroes arrive, but I’m bringing him out of here for the Oracle!” Bushijima wrapped his arm around Izuku. “Now, you said there was an exit around here?”

“Y-yeah, there’s a staff-only staircase that puts you in an alley,” Izuku muttered out, peppering in truths to make the falsehoods more believable. “I doubt the Heroes will be waiting there.”

Well then, lead the way to our freedom!”

“And nobody-”

“Nobody here will be hurt. One quirkless life recovered is worth more than acknowledging these worthless plaguebearers.” He assured the greenette, and with a sigh, all the guests trapped in a pigtail coil were dropped to the floor.

“Now, lead the way, pure one.” Bushijima pushed Izuku forward with the quirkless analyst continuing to lead onward, with the other two following at a distance in case it was an ambush.

Izuku was thankful for the distance; he was barely able to convince himself he could take on one person, let alone three.

The analyst could only briefly see the crowd of Aldera staff, donors, and parents as he left; their faces ranged from happy that they were no longer in the crossfire to wondering if he was stupid for serving himself on a silver platter like this.

But that didn’t matter; they were safe now, and if he played his cards right, he could be soon, too.

And as he went down the hallway of his former school, he swore that he heard a burst of energy behind him and a familiar voice call out his name.

“Midoriya!”

Ochako yelled that out despite herself once she and the rest of their hero squad had breached where all of the civilians were, after making sure there was no immediate threat. They were all shaken but unharmed, thankfully, with Tsu, Nejire, and Mina helping them currently. But there were still four people missing, and the combination of who was in that quartet made her anxious.

“Midoriya went with the villains!” claimed a woman with blue hair that moved as if it were underwater (Neijire would’ve loved that quirk if the situation weren’t serious right now).

“He did what?” the gravity heroine exclaimed, attracting everybody’s attention more than she already had.

“You mean they escaped together?” Shishikross unhelpfully asked from over her shoulder.

“I think that is exactly what happened!” Uchiyama decided now to pipe up as he dusted himself off the now debris-covered floor. “He and those thugs must’ve been in kahoots this whole time and-”

A sharp glare from Ochako’s normally rosy cheeks was enough to stop that train of thought cold.

“No, he only agreed to go with them to make sure they didn’t hurt any of us,” the woman who first approached her continued. “They were going to gas this whole gym, but Midoriya made them agree to leave with him.”

“He convinced them?” Shishikross raised his eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Just like that?”

“Now, now, it’s not as far-fetched as it seems,” Nejire butted into the discussion by literally floating into the middle of it. “Humarize members, at least the true believers in their mumbo jumbo, often act to prioritize any quirkless civilians and hate to risk hurting them. Mainly because those meanies think they’ll have to repopulate the world with them, so they want as many as possible!”

Considering that Nejire was instrumental in defeating Humarize the first time around, nobody questioned her explanation even as she was absentmindedly running her arm through the woman’s floating hair.

“It’s going to be hard to track him,” Tsu croaked with his earpiece in her froggy fingers, “It must have fallen out during the first break-in.”

Suddenly, Ochako felt something vibrate in her pocket. Pulling her buzzing phone out, she was quickly able to see what it was.

The panic button that she had given Midoriya months ago was going nuts as the analyst kept pressing it and updating their location with it.

“I’m going after him,” Ochako resolutely decided as she showed them the tracking signal on her phone. “I got him into this mess, but I now have a way to get him out of it.”

Her periwinkle-haired senpai bounced on her heels and clapped her hands (taking some of the hair with her). “Alrighty then, you go with Froppy and Valkyrie to follow them. You and Froppy catch up with them and try to get Midoriya out of their grasp before our robot hero nabs them. The rest of us will get everybody else the heck out of here just in case they call back-up, and if we have to, we’ll find your location and cut them off. Everybody clear?”

Nods came from all around before Nejire continued, “Well, let’s not stand around like a bunch of silly noodles then! Go, go, go go!”

Nejire was quite the character, but when she gave marching orders, everybody knew to follow them. Ochako and Tsu ran to the hallway that they had been pointed toward to follow Midoriya, before almost being cut off by a giant mech suit, gold and regal as its armoured plates reflected to glow of the lance in her hand.

Who then awkwardly stepped out of the way.

“Uhh, you go on ahead, I’ll take up the rear.” Her booming and automated voice echoed as the plates of her golden suit shifted, and she delicately let them pass.

You think that after… everything that she had been through in both high school and beyond, would make her unfazed by anything, but some things still made her pause. Only briefly, though, as she and Tsu took the courtesy and ran ahead through the halls of Aldera.

“You know it’s not your fault, ribbit,” Tsu whispered after some silence, though it came loud and clear over their earpieces.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ochako brushed off her friend’s reassurance in a harsh whisper.

“You didn’t ‘get him into this’, or at least you weren’t the only one to get him into it,” Tsu explained further as they peeked through classroom after classroom to make sure no extra villains were lying in wait. “Lots of people signed off on this, with himself being the first.”

“I-” Ochako started and hesitated as they turned another corner in this dimly lit labyrinth of a school. “I know, but he’s still my analyst, and I feel… like I let him down. I thought I was helping him be a hero like he had dreamed of, but instead I fucked it up and threw him to the wolves because-”

“I promise you, you will not regret giving yourself to Humarize’s welcoming arms.”

The hoarse voice of Bushijima rang out, stopping Ochako verbally and physically as they realized how close they were to them. The brunette shared some hand signals with Tsu to get them to their normal stealth strategy, where Froppy went high and Uravity went higher.

Floating to the ceiling and dashing between hanging fluorescent lights for cover, while Tsu crawled on the wall, they were able to hear more and more of the deranged ramblings from this hooded man.

But the surprising thing was that Midoriya was engaging with him.

“O-okay, you said something about a ranch e-earlier?” The greenette questioned as he was quickly led through the middle school halls, while also leading Bushijima further from the exit they were allegedly marching toward.

“Oh yes, we have top-notch facilities where all of our quirkless recuses are well cared for,” the pale-pink-haired man gushed. “We want to make sure you all can live enriched lives away from the scornful society of quirks.”

That last statement was spat with such venom that Ochako could see fumes rising on his skin. Clearly, Midoriya took notice of that as he followed up with, “It does seem like we put a lot of focus on quirks, especially the most powerful ones.”

Bushijima scoffed, “That’s an understatement. We have all these laws for quirks usage, but all you need is something flashy, and all those rules go out the window. Be like us and don’t be one of their ‘peaks of evolution’, and then you’re a freak and villain by default.”

“So you feel a kinship with quirkless people… like me?” Midoriya continued to push him as Ochako tailed the duo.

“You are the superior beings who rejected the false evolution!” Bushijima assured his captive as they took another wrong turn. “I would never dream of comparing myself to you!”

His expression turned morose. “But sometimes… I envy your ability to be free from the rotten game of quirks.” He admitted, like saying such a thing was sacrilege, “To be free of this curse and not let it hang over every moment. I wish other people saw it that way… but when the Quirk Singularity happens and only the pure escape the hell we’ve made for ourselves.” 

The two trailing heroes heard the two trailing villains beginning to approach. Tsu nodded to Ochako in a way that signaled to Gravity Heroine that she would make sure they were kept at bay with Valkyrie while she stayed with Midoriya.

The analyst had something this small talk was leading up to, and she would ensure it went smoothly.

“What is your quirk, if you don’t mind me asking?” The greenette probed further.

“My curse is known as ‘Poison Gas’, it means I constantly create a fog of toxic gas beneath my skin that makes people sick when they breathe it in,” Bushijima practically hissed as he looked at his arm, which was practically rippling with gathered toxic fumes.  “I can keep it stored in my body, but I can’t stop it. And as it builds up inside of me, I feel it in my chest, in my lungs, in my head. I feel it burn and burn and BURN!”

The sickly pale man screamed and threw Midoriya to the ground as gas began to leak from his body. Bushijima was breathing heavily as he worked to bring his quirk back under control, jerking around as it receded back into his skin. Ochako almost went down from her spot on the ceiling tiles to run interference, but Midoriya was almost back on his feet.

As he rose up, he saw his boss on the ceiling and gave her a nod.

She nodded back, letting him take the lead.

“Bushijima, take deep breaths, and follow me,” Midoriya said as he held his own breath to lead him into a classroom with Ochako following unseen above them. It was a dark chemistry lab with barely any light peeking from the drawn blinds. As soon as they entered, he turned on the ventilation system, which rattled to life. “Now, you’re going to make yourself sick trying to absorb it back in, so try and steady yourself. This room is ventilating, so if you release smaller doses on the exhale, we should both be fine.”

Slowly but surely, Bushijima began to follow Midoriya’s advice. Instead of erratic toxic bursts, the gas was released ever so slightly at a consistent rate that was quickly dealt with by the rapidly moving air in the space. Ochako didn’t know if she was seeing things, but she swore she saw some color return to his face as the process went on.

“Thank you, pure one,” Bushijima exhaled as he rubbed his head. “Your kindness is truly something.”

“A-are you feeling better?” Midoriya checked, his heroic heart in full force despite the fact that he was technically the hostage.

Bushijima nodded, “For somebody without a quirk, you seem knowledgeable in how to handle them.”

Ochako was a little thrown by his conversational tone, which was very different from the grandiose inflection from earlier, but Midoriya seemed to adapt to it without issue. “I always thought it made sense, the grass is always greener and all. But I really got that technique for my wife; she also has a quirk that causes her pain if she holds it back, so it was important to develop healthier outlets.”

Ochako hardly noticed the mention of the elusive wife, entirely focused on Bushijima as he scoffed at Midoriya’s words, ready to jump into action at a moment’s notice.

“For this blight, there is no healthy way to handle it.” The pink-haired cult member remarked back. “Only to cut this tumor out entirely. And once I bring you to the collective, that is exactly what the Oracle will do. So come on!”

Midoriya blocked the door as Bushijima asked to leave, causing Ochako to tense as things began to escalate. “Bushijima… is that what you really want?”

“Of course it is! I’ll finally be washed clean of my sins!” Bushijima insisted, “Now come, we must move quickly before the heroes come here and-”

“I’m with the heroes, I’m a quirk analyst at the Ryuukuu Agency.” Midoriya cut him off to both Bushijima and Ochako’s shock, though it was different types of shock between the two of them.

“You… that’s why you… how you knew my…” the Humarize member stumbled as his mind put all the facts together, and his face seemed to return to its sickly state.

But then the confusion morphed to anger and betrayal, “So, all that we do to save you from the clutches of this uncaring world, and you’re helping your oppressors! You… you set us up!”

To Ochako’s horror, Midoriya only nodded, “I did. I found out that Humarize was planning to attack my old school and… I couldn’t stand for it.”

“Why? You want to let them win?” Bushijima snarled, though he still kept his breath steady. “You want to see other quirkless kids be stomped underfoot? If we didn’t take this place out, then it would’ve all gone down during the Quirk Singularity anyway.”

“I want the world to get better for quirkless people and people with weak or evil quirks, but blowing up a whole building only eliminates that possibility, and for what?”

“For the good of humanity!” Bushijima parroted, “Now move it! We had an agreement!”

Midoriya was a stone wall, though, and his alleged captor couldn’t move past him. “You need to decide, Bushijima, which is more important: hurting others or helping quirkless people?”

“I don’t… We need to make sure people know the cost of their inaction!” The increasingly confused villain protested.

“Your actions are the ones hurting the quirkless community right now, tying us to violence we want nothing to do with,” Midoriya firmly refuted.

Ochako was a fly on the wall at the moment, utterly gobsmacked at how well this was going. She knew that Midoriya could move hearts and minds when passionate about a subject, but she saw him standing his ground and chipping away at this cult member’s mental walls.

She didn’t know if it was bullshit luck or pure skill that he wasn’t blasted with toxic gas, but she was proud of her pupil regardless.

“We just want to make a better future for-”

“To hell with the future, think of right now,” Midoriya cut off the argument in a snap. “About how you’re tying quirkless people to these acts of violence in the present.”

Bushijima hesitated and struggled to answer the question before pivoting with a growl, “Why… why are you defending them?”

“As long as I can remember, there was nothing I wanted more in life than to be a hero. When they found an extra toe joint in my feet, I thought that it would never come true,” Midoriya recounted, standing forward as Bushijima stepped back in response. “But there are people in my life now who believe that it’s more than that. So I stand here as a hero to make sure that people like me don’t get hurt by people like you.”

“I don’t want to hurt you!” Bushijima barked through a hitch in his throat as Ochako silently moved to be closer. “I want to hurt them!”

“I don’t want anybody to get hurt,” Midoriya asserted with another step. “And from what I’ve seen, you don’t want to either.”

Ochako didn’t know what Midoriya saw, but it seemed to get to the assailant, who was currently not assailing.

“I don’t know what-”

“You didn’t want to hurt all the people in the gym; you hesitated until I stepped in,” Midoriya stated matter-of-factly. “I know you’re in pain, Bushijima, but this isn’t the only way that you think it is.”

“I have to hurt people,” the pale man grumbled out, almost resigned, as his form tensed, “it’s in me, the only way I can feel normal. Unless the Oracle can free me from this… Which means you’re coming with me!”

He lunged at Midoriya with a scream that sounded like the choked cry of hell. Ochako moved quickly to run interference, but Midoriya got there first (although that was by virtue of the target moving directly toward him) and was already in action. 

Bushijima was quickly put into a submission hold that Ochako had taught Midoriya. There was no struggle as the villain fell limply in his arms, silently crying as nothing but bursts of dissipating gas came out.

“I just… want to be done with it all,” the man pathetically whimpered in Midoriya’s arms as Ochako floated down.

Midoriya looked down at his once captor with compassion, “I know, it can sometimes feel like the world has no place for you, and all you can do is… drastic actions. But I promise you, there are people out there who want to help. I know this Hero in front of us did for me.”

Ochako was a little surprised to be brought into this confrontation, as well as flattered by Midoriya’s final comment, but she wouldn’t let that stop her from doing her job. “If you come with us and turn your back on Humarize, I can ensure you are given the best help you need. We can’t remove your quirk but we can find ways for you to live with it and no longer be a danger to yourself and others.”

Midoriya smiled, “What do you say, you can really help the world like this, and nobody needs to get hurt.”

As a soft utterance of “Okay… okay,” came from Bushijima, the repeated words embodying a defeated tone as well as a small intonation of hope, Ochako smiled to Midoriya. As Midoriya smiled back, it was easy to see how a villain’s resolve could be broken with such an attack.

It seemed to her this couldn’t have gone better for them.

Well, this could not have gone worse.

It was strange to say that about what she was seeing on the screen, broadcasting to them live through Bushijima’s body cam, because it was less of a bloodbath than Eri was expecting based on Chitose’s predictions. Her hopes that this green-haired guy would get caught in the crossfire and begin the next part of their world betterment went unfulfilled as he somehow managed to talk down somebody she knew was a fervent believer in what Humarize was peddling, her role in the charade included.

And the things he was saying to get through to him, it was… something alright. She must’ve been too focused on what she was watching on because at times it felt like he was talking…

…directly to her.

She had to shake her head to remove those thoughts from her head, letting them get lost in the pounding headache. She didn’t know this man, and he certainly didn’t know her circumstances.

The part that filled her stomach with dread was sitting on the couch next to her. The blue woman was usually the picture of composed professionalism, and while she wasn’t foaming at the mouth, her teeth were gritted as she stared daggers at the screen and gripping the now indented armrest with a mechanical hand.

Make no mistake, she was pissed.

Chitose released a deep breath through her teeth before turning to Eri with a grin that barely met her eyes. “Do you see what I see, dear?”

Eri was a little unnerved by the question, “I-it seems like we… failed today?”

“Failed? We’re not even close to print yet, my child,” Chitose reassured her pupil with a chuckle bordering on the manic. “True, this turn of events was… unexpected, but the best way to deal with a story not developing the way you hoped is to eliminate all traces of a plan altogether, oftentimes that becomes the story you wanted in the end.”

Eri felt the pit in her stomach grow.

“While I’m currently… unable to handle these sensitive matters in the delicate way I used to.” The former news mogul recalled as she flipped open a panel on her arm. “The new Humarize gear I’ve outsourced for our motley band of bleeding hearts has a mechanism for me to inject a dose of Trigger into him from the press of a button, and that can do the trick almost as well.”

And on that note, she slammed her other fist onto the exposed keypad on her arm with all the force she wished to crush these two like bugs with, as Eri watched (what she hoped was) the final part of the day’s events.

“Hrrgh!”

Whatever relief Ochako was feeling evaporated like all the gas in the room as Bushijima fell to the ground with a pained gasp. Crumbling in on himself as plumes of toxic fumes were bellowing right beneath his skin. His eyes were clenched shut as he was desperately trying to keep himself under control.

“What’s… what’s going…”

“Bushijima? What’s happening?” Midoriya leaned down to the pained man before a burst of gas forced him back.

“It feels like… everything is on fire!” He groaned as his skin seemed to practically bubble, “I’m trying… but…”

Another puff expelled from his writhing body with a scream. Ochako kept Midoriya away from the poisonous clouds rising from the pained man, with her visor helping her dispel the worst of the noxious spray. “Stand back, Midoriya!”

“But he needs help. What can we do?” Midoriya coughed out; the ventilation was struggling to keep up with the increasing spewage, and it was clear the greenette was reaching his limit.

Ochako didn’t have an answer for him, though, despite her brain working overtime to find one. She recognized that he was being affected by Trigger from back when it was more common on the market, but the common procedure was to restrain the afflicted and let it work their system, something that wasn’t applicable in this situation, considering the damages that would result.

But then some new faces entered the lab.

“What seems to be the problem in here, ribbit?” Tsu croaked out with Valkyrie behind her, bending at an awkward angle to get through the archway.

“Tsu!” Ochako yelled out threw her increasingly burning eyes, before coughing cut her off. “Bushijima stood down, but he’s been dosed with Trigger to release poisonous gas everywhere!”

Tsu seemed to digest what she was saying before nodding. “I think I have a plan, do you trust me?”

Ochako tried to get her wheezing under control, “Of course I do.”

Tsu nodded in response, “Good. Bushijima, hold your quirk back as much as you can for the next three minutes. Uraraka is going to fly you into the air, once you get high enough, release it, and I will bring you two down so Valkyrie can ignite the gas and rid it of the toxins.”

It was a sound plan, but Ochako still had a question. “How are we getting him into the open air?”

Tsu grabbed a microscope with her tongue and threw it to shatter the locked windows. 

“Solved, now hurry.”

Ochako didn’t think twice now, and with Bushijima holding back his quirk’s leakage for dear life, she grabbed him with all of her fingers and launched the two of them high into the sky.

As they rose, Bushijima barely opened his eyes, and in them she saw pain, frustration, and fear. But above all else, there was confusion. “You do… so much… why?”

“Heroes are here to save the day and bring smiles to everybody,” Ochako grunted out as the air got colder around them. “And while finding those smiles can be hard work… It’s worth it every time.”

The sickly man in her arms didn’t say anything else, but he could see a small nod in response.

“Already, we’re almost as far as we’re going to go,” Ochako yelled over the roar of the wind. “Give it ten more seconds and then release everything you got!”

Bushijima had a much firmer nod this time, but as they reached their apex, a new sound buzzed (or croaked) in her ear.

‘Uravity, I just subdued the two villains pursuing Bushijima and Midoriya. Where are you? I’m hearing a lot of noise, is something happening?’

Wait, wha-

But before any other thoughts could come out of her brain, a huge blast of toxic gas surged all around them. And shortly thereafter after a long tongue broke through the surrounding cloud and wrapped the two of them up. As they were yanked down, Ochako saw Valkyrie fly past the duo and launch a blast of energy to ignite the poisonous burst, ridding the air of the dangerous chemicals. It was at that point that everything in her system, from the substances in her lungs to the questions in her brain, overwhelmed her, and she drifted out of consciousness.

…

Her eyes slowly started to flutter open, and her hands began to grip the blanket covering her. Once her brain started booting up again and she realized that she was in a stretcher, her eyes snapped open.

“WHERE ARE THEY?!”

She was answered by a yelp from Midoriya, who was right next to her and whom she had just yelled into the ear of. “Oh! Sorry, Midoriya.”

“I-it’s alright, it’s been a long day,” Midoriya assured her. He seemed to be talking to one of the women from the event before her rude awakening, the one with the flowing hair. “Uaraka, this is Misato Sakura, one of my former classmates.”

Ochako felt her eyes narrow, although they were doing that regardless. “Classmate, huh?”

Sakura’s hair went ramrod straight at the threatening aura as Midoriya worked to smooth it over. “She, uh, wasn’t really that bad, and she’s working to me A-Aldera better.”

Ochako quickly lit up, which gave her a little bit of a headache. “Oh! Well, in that case, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” 

“And an h-honor to meet you as well, Uravity,” a seemingly starstruck Sakura said as she shook Ochako’s outstretched hand. “T-thank you for working so hard to keep us out of danger.”

“You should really thank Midoriya,” Ochako stated. “He was the brains of the operation.”

“Believe me, that’s what I was doing right before you woke up,” Sakura brushed some hair behind her ear (which instantly floated back upward), before pulling out a Uravity-branded keychain. “W-would you sign this for me?”

Ochako signed the product, which had already been signed by Midoriya before she woke up, and handed it back to the woman, who awkwardly thanked them before returning to the rest of the civilians. As she dashed back with her hair whipping behind her, Ochako took more stock of her surroundings. Bushijima was in a stretcher next to her, still unconscious but now with healthy colors in his face, which was adorned with a sleeping smile. Further out, Neijire and Mina were helping out the evacuated citizens, while a dozen police cars were being loaded by Humarize grunts by Valkyrie, Shishikross, and…

Tsu.

Just one Tsu, not two as there seemed to be, considering the radio broadcast she got from the Tsu that questioned where they were and what plan… that Tsu had come up with, mind you, was going on.

Just one Tsu.

Who may or may not be an imposter.

An imposter who may or may not be married to the man standing next to her.

Yep!

“Sorry for passing out there,” Ochako muttered as she rubbed her head. “Anything happen afterward that I should know about?”

It was a pointed question, but it didn’t seem like Midoriya picked up on it. “Uh, not a whole lot happened, I think. We’re not sure what caused Bushijima’s Trigger-induced breakdown, but it seemed to be their last move. Once you both came down, we quickly rushed you and him to the medics, where we caught up with the rest of the Heroes. I had an examination of my own, so I can’t tell you much after that.”

That was easy for Ochako to believe, though it didn’t give her much information. “How are you doing then?”

She needed to pursue this possible imposter, but the well-being of her employee and friend was more pressing right now.

“I guess I’m okay, I need to take some vitamins and might have headaches, but I didn’t inhale too much of the-”

“Not just with that, although I am happy to hear that,” Ochako gently interrupted. “I mean, with everything that happened today. You were quite the hero, and it isn’t always easy to do that.”

Midoriya looked bashful. “Well, I had training.”

“Izuku, what I saw went above and beyond what we trained for.”

Midoriya seemed really awestruck for some reason; she didn’t say anything that crazy, just the truth.

“Buuuuuuuut, I also saw a lot of direct confrontation that was very dangerous and maybe a little stupid,” she continued with more truth, because even if it saved the day, she did not want Midoriya to take the wrong lesson from this.

“Yeah, I kinda got caught up in the moment. I wasn’t really thinking." Midoriya awkwardly played with his thumbs.

“Has anybody ever told you can be a noble idiot at times?” the brunette teased with a small wheeze.

“Uh, at least one person has,” Midoriya chuckled fondly before his face turned serious. “I know it was… inadvisable to try and talk him down and I’m sure it only worked out because of luck, but…”

The greenette sighed. “I saw a lot in him that was familiar to me, things that felt like I could reach out to. Somebody who was hurting because of a quirk that made them others in turn, and fell into a bad crowd when they felt they had no other options. It’s hard for them to find a light when they feel like they’re drowning and I thought… I could help them reach it.”

Yeah, that was very familiar to Ochako as well; she just hoped it was familiar to Midoriya for a different reason.

“But you’re right that I broke a lot of protocol and Iacceptwhateverpunishmenttoyoufeelisapproperateformy-”

“Midoriya, Midoriya, relax.” Ochako quickly butt into the muttering. “I’m not mad or anything, I just want to make sure that you’re safe.”

“Well, you already did with the button you gave me,” Midoriya smiled as he pulled it out of his pocket.

Ochako felt some heat move to her cheeks at the realization that her paranoid Toga Tracker played a part in saving the day. “I-I suppose it did.”

‘Wish it did its actual job too, though, would’ve been useful today.’

“Oh! And that reminds me, I got you what you asked for!” Midoriya dug through his pocket some more, and when his hand came out, it was a napkin full of mochi bites. “They’ve been through better days, though… so we should probably throw them-”

He never got to finish that sentence.

Now, Ochako didn’t much care for hand-outs, and Midoriya wasn’t lying that the squished candies weren’t of counter quality anymore. But between all of the fighting today, the emotional whiplash of her analyst throwing himself into danger, getting blasted with toxic gas ad nauseum, and the new matter of the possible froggy imposter who might have been her old nemesis in disguise, she was taking the fucking mochi. 

It was gone before Midoriya could even blink.