Kapitel 37: Stain on the Name

It's been another couple of months since I found out that everyone who I associated with, and my friend Shoko, thinks that I'm dead, and I finally decided that I do want Shoko to know I'm alive. But I also know that coming back from the dead is a special occasion. Well, metaphorically that is. Literally coming back from the dead tends to happen on a weekly to bi-weekly basis. So I can't just pop up like I'd originally been planning.

Himi's been helping me to think of something big, but there's no hurry. It's going to be a multi-step plan that will culminate in our reunion. And the first step… is learning how to sew. Though now that I think about it, having someone else sew what I plan to give her makes a lot more sense than me randomly picking up the skill. But oh well. I already started learning, so I might as well stick with it. Plus it will make it all the more special!

But for now it's time for a fast food break! For Himi, I mean. For me it's more of a murder break? I've been trying to get her to tone down on sucking my blood a bit ever since she mentioned that the taste was lingering even an hour after she'd last drunk it.

I'm not sure if she can get sick from drinking too much of a single person's blood, but I'm not going to risk it. Shiggy isn't going to offer up his own blood for her to drink either, and I'm not even sure if Kurogiri has blood for her to drink!

Anyways, that means that today we're going hunting for some tasty tasty blood for Himi! Maybe we can even bring them back so she has another consistent source of blood! Sure, we'll probably have to house-break them so that Shiggy doesn't turn them to dust because they won't stop crying about us letting them go like the last time we tried, but you know what they say! If at first they resist, stab them until they don't!

"So what flavor are you hoping to get this time?" I ask my girlfriend as we skip through the streets. It's kind of weird how nobody is saying anything about my villain costume, but then again it does look like normal clothes, and the mask could be for any number of reasons they aren't aware of.

Wait a minute… is it actually difficult to tell that I'm a villain unless I do something criminal or suspicious? It would make sense since you can't arrest someone just because of what they're wearing. There's even someone wearing the same jacket as me on the other side of the street!

"Maybe someone sour?" Himi's reply brings my attention back to the moment. "Hmm, or a coffee person would be nice to have? A morning pick-me-up after a night of you picking me up sounds like a good thing." A pink girl leaning against a store's wall spits out her own coffee after hearing that.

I blush at her teasing, Oblivious -or more likely just not caring- of what other people might overhear, she continues to muse.

"Right now I'm kind of in the mood for something sweet, but you already said that you aren't giving it to me." She glares with puffed out cheeks while a passing guy who overhears us gives me a smirk and a thumbs up.

I sigh before pulling her into a nearby alley, ignoring the whooping encouragement of the guys and blushing glares of the women. We traverse the maze that is the backstreets until the noise generated from the mass of people going about their day is nothing but a distant concern. Letting go of Himi's hand I whirl around and cross my arms, raising an eyebrow.

To which she innocently tilts her head. "What's up? I don't think that someone with a good flavor is going to be hanging out around here."

To anyone watching, I'm sure that they'd fully believe her words. At least until the mischievous smirk and blush crosses her face. "Or… are you in the mood for a taste of my flavor?"

Of course there's only one way to respond to that sort of provocation.

My lips meet hers and her eyes widen before she kisses back with a passion, trying to drive my own assault back. And that's where we stay, each of us trying to claim dominance over the other but unable to push back long enough for one of us to claim victory. I don't know how long we stay like that, taking breaths in the brief moments one of us breaks contact when the other's assault starts to overpower them.

We might have gone farther, unconcerned that somebody could stumble on us. We're pretty far from the frequented areas after all. But then it actually happens, a guy who can't be much older than the two of us stumbles around the corner.

Finally breaking contact, we both glare at the guy. He doesn't even have the decency to look apologetic! Just a mixture of terror and hope! Neither of them even lasts that long though since apparently he was running from a person who just kicked him at us!

Don't these people have any manners!? And from someone who's supposed to be a hero too!

Not even being qualified to be in the top couple thousand, the pro hero Woozy seems to be surprised that there's other people around, though less upset than we are. "Oh! Sorry for bothering the two of you." He says, completely disregarding the fact that he's the one who kicked the groaning guy to us.

"I was chasing this delinquent when he managed to distract me." He gives the guy a look that resonates with me, and not in a good way. It's only enhanced by his groaning protests.

"I… didn't… do anything!" He gasps out, clenching his stomach while curled into a ball. In response the hero's eyes flash a nauseous green color and his groaning intensifies.

"That's enough out of you, trash. You're lucky that I'm only letting you off with beating a sense of morality into you! The paperwork just isn't worth the effort for someone like you."

"Someone… like him?" I mutter, my voice low and filled with anger. Himi shoots me a look of curiosity as she sees me palm a knife from my sleeve.

The way this hero is talking.

The way he's treating this guy.

The way he's acting like he's beneath him.

This isn't how a hero treats villains and criminals, no… I know exactly what earns people this kind of treatment. Though is it really earned when it's not their fault? No, Woozy isn't acting like this guy committed a crime. He's acting like-

"He's quirkless," he scoffs, fanning the familiar flames of injustice I'd always suppressed before I'd started living freely. "He's obviously just hoping to throw himself on the mercy of such upstanding citizens such as yourselves to avoid paying for his crime."

Woozy's quirk, which lets him make one person he looks at nauseous for a few seconds, seems to wear off of the guy, since his shout echoes throughout the urban maze. "I DIDN'T STEAL ANY FUCKING PACK OF GUM YOU FUCKING PYSCHO! I HAD SOME IN MY POCKET!"

Another scoff announces what the hero thinks of his objection. "Why would those young men lie? Obviously someone like you would-"

A splash of blood cuts him off, but surprisingly it's not from me, my knife still poised in my hand where it would have launched on a direct trajectory to his throat. And it's not from Himi, whose mouth has dropped open to mirror the surprise of me and the quirkless guy.

No, the blood splatter is caused by someone who drops down from above, a sword angled down from Woozy's collarbone and sheathing itself in his chest as he falls to the ground. It's not an instant death, as showcased by the way the hero chokes and sputters on the blood rising from his throat. He reaches out, as if asking for help. So I decide that I'll do so.

The assailant leaps off of his back as I throw my knife, helping his suffering to end by embedding into his head. Both fall to the floor with barely a sound, and the assailant flicks the blood free of his blade without taking his eyes off of us.

We stay like that for a few moments, neither of us making a move in the tense silence. A silence that's broken by Himi's squeals of excitement.

"OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH! IZU, DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT IS!?" Her shouting rings in my ears, and I just know that I'm going to have to die to avoid having them end up permanently damaged.

She continues without giving me a chance to answer, her squeals of excitement seeming to unsettle the man. "It's Hero Killer Stain! He always leaves heroes cut up all over the place! I've found some of the places he's killed before the police have cleaned them up and-" She shudders with an intense blush, squirming happily. "The blood slashed around is beautiful."

She seems to take a moment to think before nodding firmly and glomping onto me and nuzzling my face. "But yours was so much better. Oh~ just remembering~!"

Ok, I need to stop her before she gets too worked up. The hurt guy is inching away from us and the Hero Killer looks like he either wants to kill us, or kill himself for witnessing this. So I take out my own personal Himi tool on the same level of her frying pan!

I smoothly unwrap a piece of hard candy one-handed and press it between her lips. Tasting it, her face lights up and she quiets down to focus on drawing out the flavor by sucking on it. Breathing a sigh of relief, I turn back to the… villain? Vigilante? Stain… his name sounds vaguely familiar.

But anyways, "Cool kill. You have something to mark it as your own?"

He's taken aback by the question, but you can only see it by looking at his eyes since the rest of his body is saying "try anything and die". At first I think that he's just going to leave without answering -which would be pretty rude- but evidently he has enough manners to respond.

"My work is my mark. Cleansing the fake heroes that infect the nation is all the message I have for people."

I nod in appreciation. "That's awesome. You even managed to say it with your scarf blowing in the wind, which just adds to how awesome it is."

His face twists in a snarl, but before he can no doubt say something offensive I snap my fingers. "Oh yeah, that's where I've heard of you before!" His guard goes up even more somehow, but he doesn't have anything to worry about. "Shiggy said he wanted to know if you would join the League of Villains since you like killing heroes."

He bares his teeth as he points his sword at me. "I don't kill heroes, I kill fakes who corrupt the symbol with their foul beings."

Glancing down at Woozy, I nod. "I can appreciate that. The offer still stands though. Would you be interested? He doesn't like heroes either."

There's a brief moment where he looks like he's going to vanish down the alley before he sheathes his sword. "I'm willing to meet in order to discover if our convictions can co-exist. Give me a time and place."

I pull out my phone, sending our coordinates to Kurogiri. "Is now good? We can send you wherever you want afterwards?"

He stares for a moment as a misty portal opens up between us. He gives a curt nod before stepping inside, his stride full of confidence.

"Now," I say, looking at the quirkless guy who's pale face showcases perfectly just how out of his depth he is. I lean forward, something that's been in the back of my mind for a long, long time finally having the opportunity to be tested.

"You're quirkless, right?" He nods slowly, a brief flash of resigned acceptance flashing across his face that's immediately replaced by shock.

"How would you feel if I told you that might not be the case?"