Chapter 43: A Sadistic Kitty and a Quirk Screaming Eastward! Izuku’s Nighttime Run Into the Unknown!

The steam still clung to the bathroom mirror when Izuku shut the door behind him, a towel slung over his shoulders and his hair dripping water down his chest.

He pushed open his bedroom door and froze in the doorway.

His bed was occupied by a small blonde figure curled up under the comforter. Himiko had stolen the pillow he'd been using since middle school, hugged it against her chest, and looked perfectly cozy in a spot that, until very recently, had been considered his.

So this is my life now, Izuku thought as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. I bring home a vampire with a stabbing hobby, Mom feeds her dinner and hands over my bed without consulting me even once. Outstanding negotiation work, Midoriya.

He sat down on the futon and dragged a hand through his wet hair. The mattress on the floor wasn't bad, honestly. The real problem was that he'd built this whole situation himself by being too nice to a girl who had, at one point, tried to drain his blood.

I'm the founding father of my own suffering, he decided as he flopped onto his back. Someone carve that on my tombstone in nice clear letters.

"Damn soft thighs," he muttered, staring at the ceiling.

The USJ played back in his head, unprompted. The villains spilling out of the portal, All Might's punch rattling the dome. The League had walked straight into an ambush he hadn't been able to detect, and the only reason it worked was that Nezu had gotten intel just hours before.

Next time we might not get another shot, Izuku thought, lacing his fingers behind his head. And if that happens, the only thing standing between my classmates and a creature designed specifically to kill All Might is whatever we've trained up until that point.

He stared at the crack in the ceiling for a long moment.

I need to be stronger... but how do I pull that off without getting slapped?

He let out a long, defeated sigh.

Sometimes I wonder if my Quirk hates me, and sometimes I wonder if it loves me too much.

A soft creak interrupted his philosophical crisis before he could decide whether life had handed him a curse or a gift. He didn't have time to turn his head before something warm and surprisingly heavy landed right on his lap.

THUD.

"Ghk...!"

Himiko was now sitting on top of him, knees bent on either side of his hips, the full weight of her landing dumped straight onto his crotch, which had been in no way prepared for the impact.

M-my precious ones, Izuku thought through gritted teeth. Thank you for your years of loyal service... Please don't die.

"Izukun-kun, you're so warm!" Himiko said, snuggling against his chest. "I knew you'd be the best place in the whole world to lie down. I love feeling how your heart races when you make that cute suffering face."

"H-Himiko," Izuku managed. "If you're gonna drop your butt on me, at least give me a warning, you crazy woman! What if I lose the ability to have kids?"

Himiko tilted her head, cheek pressed flat against his chest.

"Mmm? But if I warned you, you'd move."

"Of course I'd move! Do I look like a masochist to you?"

"That's exactly why it's so much better this way, Izuku-kun," she concluded, wriggling in even more and letting out a mischievous little giggle as she savored his racing heartbeat. "I like you so, so much more when you're trapped."

She dropped the matter with logic so airtight, at least inside her own head, that arguing further would be a complete waste of breath.

Izuku let his head fall back onto the pillow and tried to remember how breathing worked.

Out of every weird situation my Quirk has dragged me into this week, this one's turning out to be the calmest of them all.

Himiko shifted slightly, sliding a leg over his hip until her bare thigh peeked out from under the loose shorts she was wearing. Her hand, small and surprisingly delicate, came up and wrapped around his wrist.

"Izuku-kun, do me a tiny favor!"

"Only if it's reasonable and doesn't involve blood."

"I never get those weird words you use." She moved his hand without waiting for permission and pressed it against the inside of her thigh. "Right here, rub slowly right here."

Izuku went completely still.

Th-this... life just keeps making things harder for me.

"Himiko," he said carefully, "what exactly are you doing?"

"It just feels really nice when it's you doing it," she answered quietly. "The first time you touched me there when we met, I liked it so much, and all I want is to feel that way again."

Izuku blinked up at the ceiling.

The girl whose entire personality runs on stabbing people is asking me to rub her thigh because it feels good. What a life I've got.

"Okay," Izuku said softly. "Tell me if I do anything you don't want."

"You won't," she murmured against his shirt, eyes already half closed. "It's you."

He started moving his thumb in slow, careful circles along the soft skin on the inside of her thigh. The first pass made her whole body relax against him, little by little, until she was practically melted onto his chest. By the time he kept up the motion, she was making a sound so soft and pleased that he wasn't entirely sure she knew she was doing it.

She really is the closest thing to a cat.

He let that thought settle and stretch out a little.

She runs from affection until she's the one demanding it, and her way of saying "I love you" usually involves a comment about which one of my arteries she'd most like to open.

Himiko shifted again, slower this time. Her hips moved a little, chasing the brush of his thighs.

"Mmh. Izukun, can you go a little higher? Just a little, it feels nice."

Heroic duties, yup, I'm a real gentleman thigh rubber now. At least I can add it to my résumé.

Himiko's breathing turned slower and deeper, her hand climbing up his chest until her fingers were tangled gently in the front of his shirt. She lifted her head from his chest and looked down at him with flushed cheeks and slightly damp eyes.

"Izukun-kun... you're not gonna run away, are you?"

"I wasn't planning on it, no."

"What a relief... because if you tried," she murmured, her nose brushing along Izuku's jaw, "I'd follow you until you only looked at me."

She let out a warm little laugh against his skin.

"Since you're such a gentleman, you won't mind staying still for a teensy bit longer, right?"

Himiko squeezed her thighs a bit tighter, trying to trap Izuku between her legs. When she looked up again, her cheeks were even pinker and her breathing more uneven.

"Because I wanna savor this properly. The smell of my Izukun-kun being good for me. Heehee... now that's the kind of hero I like."

Her fingers tightened in his shirt, her thighs pressed gently against his hips, and everything in the room narrowed down to that small, fragile expression in her eyes that, he was pretty sure, no one else in the world had ever been given permission to see.

And then, with no warning at all, the inside of his head started to feel strange.

Izuku's whole body tensed underneath her.

A steady tugging sensation refused to let him look anywhere else. His Quirk had never, not once in his entire life, given off anything like what it was doing now.

Himiko's lips were less than a centimeter from his.

What's happening to my body right now? he demanded as his pulse spiked. Why does my Quirk have such a personal grudge against the calmest moment of my entire week!!!?

The pull grew stronger and the answer came in the form of a single instinct that overrode every other thought in his head. Someone, somewhere out in the city, was in some kind of trouble that his Quirk had decided he could do something about, and the longer he waited, the worse it was going to get.

His hands moved before his mouth had time to plan a sentence. He put one hand gently at the back of Himiko's neck and pulled her in, closing the distance between them.

The kiss was brief and completely sincere. He didn't have time for anything more elaborate, and the version of himself that wanted to lie there figuring out what those lips could do for a whole hour was being aggressively overruled by the version of himself that was going to leap out the window in the next few seconds if he didn't move.

Himiko made a soft, surprised sound, her fingers tightening in his shirt for half a second before loosening in confusion. He pulled back, slid both hands beneath her thighs, and lifted her effortlessly onto the mattress.

"Wait for me here," he said, already turning toward the closet. "I'll be back later, I promise."

Himiko sat up on the bed with her hair tousled and her cheeks still pink, the comforter pooled around her hips and her lips slightly parted from the kiss.

"I swear it's not a trick. My Quirk is doing something I've never felt before in my whole life, and if I ignore it, I think something bad's gonna happen."

She tilted her head, the predatory edge flickering back into her eyes for an instant before it turned curious and oddly pleased.

"You're gonna go play hero, aren't you, Izukun-kun?"

"Probably, yeah, although I'd love to give you a more impressive answer," he admitted. "I really don't know what's waiting for me at the end of this feeling."

"Mmm... okay." Himiko swayed a little where she sat, eyes never leaving him. "But when you come back, I want a real kiss."

"A real kiss?"

"Yeah! Silly, a real real one! Not one of those tiny ones you give when you're in a hurry."

"Kissing Himiko's lips, noted!"

"Heehee! You're so cute when you get serious."

She let out a giggle, and the sound chased him out of his own room as his Quirk dragged him forward.

Inko intercepted him in the entryway, hand on the hallway light switch and her hair tied up in a loose bun.

"Izuku, sweetheart. Where exactly are you going at this hour?"

"I don't know yet, and I realize that sounds crazy coming from me," he said honestly, jamming his feet into his sneakers. "My Quirk is telling me to move. Something's wrong out there, and I think it's wrong enough that I need to be on the scene before whoever's involved realizes it's already too late."

Her hand tightened around the strap of his hoodie before he could slip past her.

"You almost got crushed by a monster this afternoon, sweetheart, and now your own Quirk is sending you out into the dark in the middle of the night, on your first day back home after a near death experience."

"I know exactly how it sounds, Mom, and you have every right to say no," he answered, holding her gaze. "But this is the first time in my entire life it's done this, and if I sit on the couch and ignore it, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life regretting that I ignored it."

Inko looked at him for a long moment, knowing Izuku wasn't going to back down, and that whatever this was, it mattered to him.

"Then take your phone. You're going to text me every time you stop moving, do you hear me? And if anything goes wrong, you find the nearest hero and ask for help."

She stepped aside, letting him pass. He took two steps, paused, and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Be careful out there, Izuku."

"I will, Mom, I promise."

He yanked the door open, hurried down the stairs, and bolted out into the street, still zipping his hoodie up to his chin.

The tug in his mind had only grown stronger between his room and the sidewalk, and he was already at a full sprint when the black stripe of a taxi appeared at the next intersection.

He flagged it down with both arms and very few manners.

The driver, a tired looking man, slowed to a stop and rolled the window halfway down.

"Where to, kid?"

Izuku yanked the back door open and slid inside before the man had even finished the question.

"Just go straight for now," he said, eyes locked on the road ahead. "Keep going straight and floor it as much as the law allows."

*******

Author's Note:

Surprise! There's a bonus chapter today, totally off the regular schedule! And you wanna know why? Because today I'm celebrating the fresh new look I gave my ! I'm so happy with how it turned out. I'd always gone with something simple, but after this makeover I'm completely in love with it, so if you have a sec, my dear reader, would you go take a peek and let me know what you think?

Anyway, thank you all so much, and I hope you have an amazing day! I love you guys, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

You can find me at .com/shurazero

See you around!