Chapter 02: [Crimson Training Days]

One of the best aspects of his quirk was the energy that came with it as the night swallowed the daylight.

Izuku loved the rush of power that came to him in the deep of the night, when most of the city was asleep. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, the Hemomancer was out for one of his usual strolls, enjoying the thrill of it. The habit had been one that he picked up to burn the excess of energy that came when the sun went down, and it had improved his physical aspects. His frame still appeared lean and thin, but under his clothes were compact muscles that allowed him to easily move like a phantom in the night.

Besides, night time was when some of the most dangerous villains were out to commit their evil deeds, but also was the time when the lesser known - yet equally important - heroes went about to reduce the criminal activity. Hidden and out of sight, Izuku could appreciate real-time hero fieldwork. His notes in Stealth-based combat had been filled to the brim, courtesy of Pro-hero Eraserhead. He had also noted down the practical [Cat Combat] that had been developed by the group [Wild Pussy-cats].

This time the green haired teen was in search of the poorly dressed man, Eraserhead, hoping to see him in action once more.

Today had been rather quiet, meaning that Izuku had a notebook rather empty. The Vampire/Hemomancer sighed and left his perch atop an AC unit, the angle of it allowing him to hide rather well when he leaned against it. Deciding to settle in for the day, the teen took his time to stretch and work out the kinks from being in a single position for such a long amount of time. Searching his backpack for a quick drink, Izuku grabbed the mostly cooled off bloodbag inside his pack and sank his fangs into it, quickly draining the plastic of its contents.

Letting out a pleased noise after gulping down the somewhat bland tasting blood, Izuku wiped the corner of his mouth his hand.

"Guessing something isn't going to happen today after all. I was hopping even for a purse-snatcher, but well." Izuku said to himself, glancing at the screen of his phone and checking the time. Seeing as he still had quite sometime before dawn, the vampire decided to work with his quirk. Normally, training his quirk was hard, seeing as he had to bleed to have access to his most useful tool, it was quite understandable that there were no places that were willing to let Izuku use their facilities.

As such, the hemomancer mostly experimented in the deep nights, far from his home. He would definitively give his mother a heart-attack if she were to see him cutting himself to have access to his blood.

Chuckling to himself at the thought, Izuku quickly sliced at his wrist with the aid of his sharp claws. Closing his eyes to better his focus, Izuku tapped into his power. The slow flow of blood from his wrist quickly obeyed his command, settling over the cut wrist and covering the entirety of his arm up to his elbows in richly colored crimson. [Advanced Hemomancy] was quite complicated, as the vampire had to focus in the image of his armament, control the flow of blood and micro-manage the amount of blood he had outside of his body.

As much cool as it was to be able to use his blood however he wanted, there was also the fact that he was using his own life force to display battle prowess. If he were to pull too much out of his body at once, he could lose control of the life liquid and go into shock. If only that were the only problem, the teen would not complain too much. Izuku knew of his thirst for fresh blood, and he theorized that should he ever lose control of himself, [Hunter Senses] would trigger.

Izuku had no idea what would happen if he were to let such thing happen, so he put a leash on himself constantly. Everyday, the thirst was there, whispering into his ears about how he could saciate himself fully if he were to simply give in. The people in Aldera Junior would never know someone was under his control, they could never phantom the idea. Izuku knew that if delighted himself in fresh blood, he'd develope more his quirk; his instincts begged for him to nab even one single person. Yet Izuku held himself back for the sake of others. If he drank from one, he knew he would not be satisfied with a single drink or a single vessel.

Realizing he was going in a rather dark chain of thoughts, the teen sighed deeply. He craned his neck sideways, low cracking sounds emitting from his neck as he did a calming exercise.

He returned his focus to his training, the Hemomancer began shifting the shape of the blood gauntlet covering one of his arms. Adding claws and spikes, adding bulk to the bloody construct as to increase its defensive capabilities and so forth.

After forty minutes of [Advanced Hemomancy], Izuku stopped for a breather. Letting the blood flow back into his body by once more slashing at his wrist, the green haired vampire began doing inverted pushups, managing to keep his body perfectly straight with his legs up in the air. Gravity did its best to thwart his efforts, but the countless hours doing the exercise paid up.

Exercising was one of the best ways for him to keep his mind from going into dark spirals of its own. There was also the fact that he could never be sore due to lactic acid buildup, considering the fact that even if he broke down his muscle fibers intensely, his [High-Speed Regeneration] ensured that he never suffer the after effects of intense workout.

It was one of the perks his quirk offered him in exchange for his weakness to sunlight. One he forced himself to overcome through literal blood and tears.

Once Izuku finished his pushups, he wiped the layer of sweat over his body with a towel and after checking the time, the screen of his phone a accusing just shy of 5:00 A.m, the young teen decided to head back home. He "flash-stepped" all the way, using the opportunity to also train his speed and eye-coordination.

Since it was so early in the morning, there would be few to none heroes patrolling the streets, which gave the teen the opportunity to test how well he could move in a city environment.

After a twenty-minute high-speed ran to reach his home, Izuku took his time cooling down. He sat on a stool as the living room's Tv droned about the usual spiel, the teen going over some notes about his workout.

He left the televisor on, and went with his morning routine of washing up. After he returned to the living room, his mother already up and running the kitchen.

Izuku bid her the usual morning pleasantries and headed to his section of the kitchen, where a small fridge was beside the normal refrigerator. He opened it and took a blood bag, immediately sinking his fangs into it and draining the bag of the iron-rich content.

Letting out a muffled noise of contentment, the vampire discarded the plastic and sat close to his mother as she laid his portion of breakfast, scrambled eggs and cutely shaped octopi sausages. A mug of coffee was also close by, the drink something that always suited the teen's tastes.

Izuku would always appreciate the fact that his mother would wake up so early in the morning to spend some time with him. The practice had done her wonders, as the woman was losing the slight gut she had accumulated over Izuku's younger days. Stress eating tendencies. Being the single mother of an aberration like him could be stressful, yet she shouldered the burden and never complained.

The vampire would make sure that she'd never have to worry about him anymore.

Financially, their situation was not bad. Although Inko worked in an accounting firm, the majority of their household income came from the financial investments that the green haired Hemomancer had done. Give a kid enough time, some pocket money and subtract "friends" from the equation and you would be surprised about the outcome.

After their breakfast, the duo split up to get ready for their routines. As Izuku entered his room once again, he barely gave attention to his habitation as he put on his school uniform.

Although his room as fairly spartan, there were clear signs of his usage of the room. The limited edition Allmight poster, a rather expensive computer laid on the simple desk, surrounded by a diversity of notebooks and various other books. His own smartphone and the he headphones that were atop his black bed. These details, however, could only be noticed if one were to fully open the door, spread the curtains open and turn the lights on.

The teen moved in the darkness of the room with no hesitation, doing what he came to do and leaving just as quick.

School, as always, went by like usual. The students ignored him, Katsuki went about being his brash and arrogant self and Izuku ghosted by.

The vampire had to admit that there was a certain spark to the ash-blond's confidence. Yeah, he was beyond prideful and so sure of himself, but Bakugou could back his boastful claims. Among the teens of Aldera Junior, no one could claim to have a better quirk.

Well, almost no one. Izuku was pretty sure his Quirk could match Katsuki's and dish out as much as the bomber. Besides, there were many limitations to the blonde's nitroglycerin sweat; many of which Izuku could bypass rather easily.

Bakugou could only sweat so much before he dehydrated. His body could only handle so much knockback from his explosions. His temper was as explosive as his quirk, which meant he could easily be exploited by simple provocations.

Bakugou was a force of nature for sure, and would no doubt become a powerful hero. However, there was only so much one could accomplish with only power.

Snapping out of his customary mental exercise/dissection, Izuku quickly packed his belongings, eagerly waiting for the school bell to ring.

As it did, Izuku moved. His "flash-step" was something that his classmates were still not used to, but they understood why the green haired vampire would vanish as quickly as possible. Not that they liked though, considering that now they had to deal with the suddenly ravenous, self-proclaimed, "solely worthy student" Bakugou and his angry shouts.

After he left the school grounds, Izuku took his time walking to the center of Musutafu, this time under the dim sunlight of the afternoon.

Izuku had already requested of his mother a night to spend away in another district. Appearently, Eraserhead has been sighted in the neighborhood district, where there had been recent cases of heroes being hunted down and being injured in overly brutal states. Izuku hoped he would get to see the Pro-Hero in action once more.

Of course his mother would never allow him to sleepover in another district if she knew of his plans. Hence the reason why he told her that he was going to Akihabara for a Meet-and-Greet for the recently debuted Mt. Lady.

The event there truly was going to happen, so Izuku had a solid alibi. He would later decide if having no friends was a benefit, considering that there would be no one who would rat him out, or if having them would have been better, as a friend could tell the worried mother that he was spending the night over.

With her reluctant approval, Izuku needed only to rent a cheap room in the vicinities of the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo and pay the for the place. It did not matter if he was never physically present in the place, so long as he did pay the deposit fee. Which he had done already.

All the preparations had been completed, so Izuku needed only to wait until the dead of the night to be on the prowl. His heart began pumping vigorously at the mere thought of seeing Eraserhead in action, or maybe catching a fight between a hero and a villain.

The young Hemomancer decided to spend the afternoon and wait for the evening in a local coffeehouse. So excited in his endeavors, Izuku never noticed that the shop he entered was... a cat-cafe type of shop.

Barely two steps in the store, the vampire felt every pair of feline eyes focus directly upon his frame. He was almost successful in escaping the place, however, two employees had cut off his escape route. The young women were dressed in "maid" outfits that were clearly emphasizing their more womanly attributes, and the women knew this.

"E-excuse me!" Izuku's attempt at fleeing was thwarted, the ladies grabbing his arms in gentle embraces and their faces held kind smiles. The teen shivered as even his unusual appearance was not capable of stopping the two maids. Truly, the power of money was unstoppable.

The duo of women brought him to a table and sat him on the surprisingly comfortable chair. Once he was on his chair, the black haired beauty of the duo brough him a menu and silently settled it in front of him.

"Hello, dear customer. Welcome to Nekopara, our wounderful cafe. If there is anything you need, just say the word and we will promtly help you." The brunette spoke with confidence and posture. Izuku tried to explain to her that the animals in the place would most likely not like his presence here. Animals knew by instinct other animals, and invading the "territory" of another animal meant challenge their authority. Izuku did not want to flare his insticts over the cats in the shop, but the gleeming eyes of the felines were telltale signs that they did not like his presence here.

In the end, Izuku merely nodded to the attendant, eyes quicky skimming over the options of the rather cute menu.

"I-I'll have black coffee and some cake, please." He meekly asked.

The other waitress, a stunning blond, excitedly clasped her hands and ran back to the kitchen, while the black haired beauty went to check on other customers.

The vampire sighed in defeat. He checked his phone for any news or rumors about Eraserhead, but he knew it was much too soon for the Pro-Hero to be out and about. As such, Izuku merely glanced at the feed of his social media, not truly paying attention to any specific news. Soon, his order arrived by the hands of the blond girl. Now that he paid more attention to her features, he saw that there were two small and frilly ears atop her head. The appendages twitched softly, and Izuku found himself weirdly affixed by the sight.

"Here is your order, dear customer! Is there anything else that you might need?" The blonde asked, but she caught his starring. A rather devious smile settled on her lips as she began moving about with a previously unseen alure. "Dear Customer~ please, if there is any other thing I can do for you, you need only say the word, nya!~". Izuku felt a shiver run down his spine. He gulped as the girl fixed a lock of hair in place.

Before he could say anything else, the girl backed away from him with a truly cat-like smile. Izuku blushed at the teasing , conscious that she was playing with him. As she ran off to do her job, Izuku was mostly left alone.

Time passed by at a slow rate, the hemomancer iddling about the cafe, once in a while ordering a refill for his mug of coffee. The flow of customers varied, as did the waitresses. It was a nice treat for the teen, seeing the many different cat-girls that worked in the shop. It was only after his second hour in the shop that he noticed that all the waitresses here were girls with a variation on [Cat Quirk], an appearent especialty of the place. The nishe seemed to be successful, a rather tasteful combination of cute cat-girls, maid outfits, cats and good food.

On his tenth mug of coffee, Izuku decided to play a game to help pass time. As he looked around the shop, he tried to guess the quirks of the individuals and their effects. Some were easier than others; the waitresses had their various [Cat Quirks], with both the benefits and downsides. There was a guy that had wings on his back, evidently a bird type of quirk, mostly likely a [Falcon] due to the shape of the feathers.

Another guy was mostly normal, although his hair was dyed red, but Izuku could see sharp and jagged teeth in his mouth.

There was a blonde girl with an impressive set of horns. She seemed rather excited to be in the shop, her blue eyes sparkling at the uniforms of the waitresses.

Just as Izuku was about to continue his game, he heard footsteps coming his way. The vampire mostly ignored it in favor of trying to guess another quirk, but he felt the presence of someone settle by his side. Which right after, a hand settled on his right shoulder. Izuku turned his head to look at the person, surprising himself as he saw a zombie in front of him.

No, wait!

It was no zombie, but a person. A sleep deprived-looking person, but a person nonetheless. Lavandar eyes and hair, the teen in front of the vampire gave a rather stand-off-ish vibe. He certainly did not seem to be here to start a friendship with Izuku.

"C-could I help you with something?" Izuku hesitantly asked the other teen. The boy looked at him with a serious expression as the hand on Izuku's shoulder tightened slightly.

"Yeah, buddy. How about you be a creep in another place? Quit with your discusting starring at the girls." The words hit Izuku like a bullet. He was not expecting such a wild response. Had he gave off the wrong vibe, or maybe the manager of the place thought that he was loitering around and decided to have staff ran him off. Many questions formed on the vampire's mind, none of them answered in the short span.

Izuku tried to formulate a response, simply stating that he wasn't looking at the people in here with those intentions.

"I-I wasn't-..." Tried being a key word, for as soon as he did try, he froze. His eyes glazed and Izuku suddenly found himself in a strange state of being. He could not move or do much for that matter. The magenta colored teen removed his hand from Izuku's shoulder and pointed his hand to the exit door of the shop.

"Pay up for what you consumed and fuck off." A harsh command, as if Izuku had been a deliquent commiting some sort of misdeed, had left the boy. As upset as he was, Izuku could only do as he was told, his body moving automatically. His mind quickly raced, a bubble of excitment surging as he had found another interesting quirk, yet his happiness was cut short as he remembered he was being booted out of the cafe as if he was some sort of deviant. His body had already left the perfect sum for what he consumed and he was about to turn and leave.

Izuku tried using [Hemomancy] to control the flux of his blood and stop his muscles, which somewhat worked. He stopped moving.

The other teen widened his eyes a bit, the bags under his lids stretching a bit. His face soon became even more serious and he rose the tone of his voice.

"I said, fuck off!" Izuku's body doubled down in its efforts to obey the command, but his control over his life-force met the strange influence with an iron will. The two forces clashed, Izuku's will demmanding his blood to take over his body. The crimson liquid inside his veins responded violently, piercing the muscles underneath his skin and forcibly stopping any other attempt at movement that wasn't born out of Izuku's own wish. Immediately, his consciousness seemed to snap back into place as Izuku once more had full control of his body.

"What the hell was that?!" Izuku exclaimed, the pain of shredded muscle not bothering him as [High-Speed Regeneration] kicked in and healed the damage. The other teen was aghast, wondering fearfully how someone could ever escape the grasp of his ability.

The other customers began murmuring as they waited for the scene to play out.

Izuku focused his eyes on the teen in front of him, the boy also staring him.

The vampire opened his mouth, the other teen already preparing to once more take control over him.

"I'm so sorry!" The hemomancer said, bowing his head in shame. His staring had probably made the people around him incomfortable; althought Izuku was overly adept at reading people, maybe there was something which he overlooked. Maybe it was the way his normally green eyes turned red whenever Izuku was excited about something...it could be an infinity of factors, none of which Izuku could read on the faces of those around him, except the lavander-colored teen. "I'm sorry if my staring has bothered you." He apologized with genuine intent, even if he felt that he was not at fault here.

It was better to take the blame and end it shortly after all. He could take it.

He had done it for 14 years.

The lavanda teen glared at him.

"Think that you are somehow better than us, huh? Just became you apologized, everything will be fine? Coming here and behaving like a creep. I have seen many like you, think they are hot-stuff and that all they say will be forgiven just because they said some half-assed apology?" The berrating words made the vampire's mood drop deeply. How had this teen come to this conclusion when all Izuku had done was apologize?

How had the situation scaled up so quickly?

Izuku tried to apologize once more, but a fist came his way. [Hunter Insticts] flared up immediately, a counter-hit move executed automaticaly as Izuku's head tilted and his right hand shot up. He dodged the blow that came and answered back, more out of practice than true intent, with a palm strike. The cartilage of the other teen's nose emitted a crunching noise as Izuku's hand much too easily broke the soft tissue and drew blood.

Silence was all too loud inside the cafe, all eyes focused on the duo.

Izuku was much too quick in fleeing the shop, leaving in his table more than double the amount of his tab.

Shinzo was having a bad day.

His morning started up as any other. Waking up, showering, eating breakfast. All the basics of your standart teen in middle school. He left for school and sat on his desk, bidding his classmates the usual fake compliments.

He did not get along with his classmates, but he could live with them. Once or twice there was the little joke about his looks.

What fault did he have if his hair was naturally like this? The jokes with his appearence were nothing that he truly worried about.

There was bound to have someone who would make that little joke. It was bound to come, like the sun was bound to rise and settle.

"Hey Shinso, my guy! How is it going?" Takeda, a rather typical japanese adolescent look-a-like, came to his desk. "Mind doing a favor for me? I kinda forgot my lunch at home and, like, totally don't have any money on me right now. But you know Ichigo of B-2, right? He owns me some money, but hasn't paid me. What do you say we poletily ask him to pay up? I can even share some of the money with you."

A request for him to brainwash someone. It wasn't even 10 in the morning!

A little joke for Takeda and his group to laugh about, display Shinso as if he was some sort of fucking villain. It truly did enfuriate him.

However, he maintained his calm and rejected the offer.

He was not petty to use his powers for some dipshit, moronic reason like that. He was not a villain.

When he was asked about his highschool option, his immediate response was U.A, to which many laughed, stating that his quirk was perfectly suited for a villain.

God, did he hate school!

After another stressful day in school, all that he wanted was to relax. He texted his father and mother to led them know that he was going to his usual cat cafe, where he could vent some stress by being surrounded by cute kittens. Having their permission, Shinso headed straight to Nekopara, his mood already improving at the mere sight of the shop.

He hoped that Vanilla would let him pat her today.

Shinso was an avid frequenter of this shop, and as such he knew the staff quite well. The cafe was full of people, but that was nothing for him.

However, there was something new in there today. A teen, someone that Shinso had never seen here. If that was all, he would have ignored the new arrival. More and new customers meant that the shop was doing good, which was always a plus. The problem was that Shinso could not spot Vanilla anywhere. He ordered his coffee and waited paciently for the sight of the white cat, but she was truly evasive today.

To distract himself, he glanced about the shop for something new. And then he found Vanilla, the cat staring firmly at the new kid, a pale and green haired dude. Shinso became somewhat annoyed at the greenette's lack of attention. When a cat stared at you that way it meant that it approved of you and would climb on your lap. Shinso was mature enough to not be truly bothered by it.

He focused his eyes on the green teen, wanting to find out why had Vanilla liked him before she liked Shinso. He had come here for six straight months, dammit!

The more time passed, more and more did his annoyance build up as he observed the other teen and his somewhat unusual behavior. He kept glancing around, eyes focusing on other people as if analysing them for something. And then it clicked inside Shinso's mind. The nerve of this guy! To come here and be a creep on the girls. Not if Shinso had a say in this.

He would scare off the guy, a single use of his power ought to do it.

Not really, considering that now Shinso had a broken nose to nurse. The greenete had broken out of his control and when Shinso decided to get physical, the guy was much too quick to him to react, even when he was the one to surprise-attack.

He may have jumped the gun on that one, considering that instead of causing a scene and harming the fame of the shop, the other guy had fled. All witnesses would proclaim that Shinso had been the overly aggressive one, and with reason. He had done exactly what he hated, jumping to conclusions way too quick about something he did not know.

And now Vanilla was actively avoiding him!

Truly, Shinso was having a bad day!

Izuku tried to get his breathing in control. His usual exercises were all, but useless.

[Hunter Instincts] were still active, much of it due to the still fresh blood that was caking his hand. The smell of the crimson liquid was too enticing to pass up. Izuku did try his hardest, but his mouth was salivating too much for him to resist.

It wasn't his fault.

He was not at wrong.

He was not a creep.

He had rushed away from the shop to avoid further conflict and harm. The first thing he did was run to the room he had rented. It was not his plan to use the room, but now he needed a place to be away from everyone.

Izuku did his best to avoid tainting the liquid with anything else. At this point it was useless to fight [Hunter Instincts], so he would do his best to supress the [Inner Beast]. Feading with moderation on packaged blood did supress most of his thirst, but there was nothing compared to the real deal. And so, like he was appreciating like wine, Izuku licked the blood off his hand, not wasting one drop.

As it traveled down his throat, Izuku could feel the awakening of his [Inner Beast]. However, it was different from usual.

He ran to the bathroom and looked at himself in front of the mirror. Blazing red and slit pupils, fangs gleaming with saliva and blood, but still mostly himself.

Yet something was different. Feeding from fresh blood had triggered something. Izuku could feel it.

Something almost hipnotical. Almost as if he could brainwash someone if he looked at them.

It seemed as if tonight, Izuku was going to be running high. His instincts begging for him to initiate a hun-