Chapter 64

Though he didn't spend long at Kyouka's house, Izuku felt fairly satisfied as he made his way home. Nemuri's surprise psychoanalysis had left him reeling, but after thinking about it, he realized it didn't truly matter. At the very least, there was no need to brood when he had so many good things going for him.

Breaking Izuku from his peaceful reverie, the strangely familiar voice of a girl emanated from behind him, saying, "That look on your face...you're in love with someone, aren't you?"

Turning around, Izuku's eyes widened upon seeing a petite, fair-skinned girl with golden eyes and dirty blonde hair fastened into messy buns. Her outfit consisted of an unkempt, well-worn sailor uniform, including a beige top, dark-blue skirt, a similarly dark-blue collar, and a red ribbon, but the thing that stood out more than anything else was the fresh, still-dripping blood on her face...

------------------------

Name: [Himiko Toga]

Quirk: Transform

Bond Level: 100

Current Level: 24

Effective Level: 86

[Attributes]

Strength: 35

Agility: 42

Vitality: 314

Intelligence: 83

Dexterity: 54

Luck: 340

Free Attributes: 120

[Perks]

Party Invitation Required

------------------------

("You've gotta be fucking kidding me...") thought Izuku, outwardly asking, "Did someone send you, or is this just a statistically absurd coincidence?"

Tilting her head to the side, Himiko, or perhaps it would be better to call her Toga, brought the short knife she was carrying up to her face, sliding the flat of it along her cheek as she replied, "Why would someone send me?" before getting excited as she asked, "Could it be that you're famous or something!?"

Exhaling a sigh through his nose, Izuku muttered, "Bullshit it is..." before raising his left hand and making a come-hither gesture as he added, "It was a mistake to appear before me. Now, I can't just overlook you..."

Tilting her head to the opposite side, Toga remarked, "You say that as if you already know who I am and what I've been doing? But how is that possible? I've been paying close attention to the news, and they haven't reported on me since the incident at my middle school~."

Abruptly lurching toward Izuku, Toga's somewhat deranged smile became even more so as she aimed the tip of her knife at his throat. However, long before it found purchase, Izuku's hand locked around her wrist, gripping it tightly as he said, "Now I'm going to be in a real shitty mood..."

Dropping the knife from her hand, Toga attempted to catch it with her free one but lost the chance as Izuku nabbed and threw it into a nearby street post, embedding it up to its hilt.

Seeing her weapon of choice flung well out of her reach, Toga's crazed smile gained a hint of anxiety as she smiled up at Izuku and asked, "Uh...I don't suppose you would believe me if I said this was a prank?"

Exhaling through his nose, Izuku replied, "I really didn't want to do this..." before punching Toga in the gut. The latter was one of the more popular 'waifus' in the Boku no Hero Academia community, but he didn't have the option to try and reform her. She was a mass murderer and well above the age to be tried as an adult. Her circumstances were undeniably tragic, but that wouldn't bring back all the people she had killed...

Catching Izuku by surprise, Toga didn't immediately slump over or pass out. She leaned against him, but she was still fully aware as she groaned, "This wasn't what I pictured when I imagined a cute boy punching in my guts..."

Punctuating her words, Toga produced a spare knife from inside her skirt, attempting to 'return the favor' by stabbing Izuku in the side. Instead, as the knife pierced his uniform and undershirt, a metallic sound reached her ears as the blade slid across his skin...

"Is this also a prank?" asked Izuku, his expression stern as he stared down at the stupefied serial murderer.

Hearing Izuku's voice, Toga adopted a bright smile that showed off her rather prominent canines, answering, "Yes~?" in an innocent-sounding tone, even as she continued scraping her knife along his side, trying to find a weak spot in his Bronze Skin's defenses.

Exhaling another sigh, Izuku surprised Toga by spinning her around and abruptly putting her in a chokehold, lifting her from the ground as he cut off the blood flow to her head. She tried stabbing up toward his face, but he easily caught her hand, whispering, "Even if your nature is the result of your Quirk, those people didn't deserve to die..." as her eyes slowly rolled upward.

Though he was briefly tempted to choke the life out of Toga, sparing her the fate of having to rot away in prison or spend the rest of her life in an insane asylum, Izuku pulled her into the alleyway she had emerged from, whipping out his phone to contact Nezu...

...

..

.

After hearing about Toga's circumstances in the form of an explanation surrounding her Quirk, Nezu had a serious expression on his face as he remarked, "What an unfortunate girl..." while observing said girl sleeping in the nurse's office, knocked out by Nemuri's Quirk.

Getting straight to the point, Izuku said, "I think I can help her. For one reason or another, her Bond Level is already at 100, so if I add her to my Party, I could find a Perk to 'cure' her. However, nothing I do can change the fact that she's killed people..."

Chiming into the conversation, Nemuri, with a very upset look on her face, argued, "Curing her and then turning her over to the authorities would be cruel. Prison is meant to rehabilitate people, so if the thing compelling her to kill has already been removed, sending her there would be condemning her to suffer for crimes she didn't willfully commit...."

"I believe Midoriya-kun is well aware of that," remarked Nezu. "Otherwise, he would not have contacted us before the proper authorities."

Shifting his gaze to Izuku, Nezu regained his usual business-like smile as he asked, "How would you like to handle this situation, Midoriya-kun? I'm sure you've thought of something."

Scratching the back of his head, Izuku smiled wryly and replied, "I'm of the same opinion as Nemuri-sensei, but our society doesn't accept people like Toga. Even if she's treated and acquitted of all charges, she's fated to be a pariah her entire life. If she's to have any chance at happiness, she'd need a new name, identity, and purpose..."

Leaving Izuku a little speechless, even though he expected, Nezu readily replied, "The first two are simple enough to arrange, but there's little I can do about giving such a troubled girl 'purpose.' I could send her someplace she'd be well cared for, but that wouldn't be much different from confining her to a hospital."

Crossing his arms, Izuku remarked, "Her Quirk has tremendous potential. Ideally, she could become a student here at UA. But, even if she's cured, she'd still have the memories of killing people. Allowing her to mingle with ordinary students before she's had the chance to rehabilitate wouldn't be wise..."

"Yes, I am also reluctant to let her attend classes with other students," replied Nezu. "There is also the matter of her lodgings to consider. We could easily prepare a place for her here on campus, but she would need to be monitored 24/7 until we've confirmed she isn't a threat..."

Seemingly out of nowhere, Nezu smiled and asked, "What Level is your mother, Midoriya-kun~?"

Realizing what the Principal was thinking, Izuku furrowed his brows and said, "While it's true that I pity this girl, I can't have her living in the same house as my only legitimate family member..."

"I believe I have a solution for that," replied Nezu, smiling even wider as he said, "Toga-san will be attending private classes during the day, so you won't have to worry about her then. As for the evenings, we could have an outside-only lock placed on one of the rooms in your house. For additional security, I believe Toshinori-kun would be more than willing to occupy one of your guest bedrooms once he learns of Toga-san's circumstances. With his Crisis Awareness Perk, he would know the moment Toga-san was planning to cause harm."

Blinking in surprise, Izuku found himself at a loss for words in the face of Nezu's extreme but indisputable rationale. He would have settled for Toga being placed into witness protection and shipped off to a private academy far, far away from the action. Her occupying the same house as him with a Bond Level of 100...it was basically the premise for a doujinshi...

After recovering from his shock, Izuku replied, "This isn't something I can decide. My Kaa–my mother and Toshinori-sensei would need to offer their consent, and we can't overlook Toga-san's wishes. If she wants to return to her family and is willing to accept the consequences of her actions, we should respect that..."

Surprising nearly everyone, none more than Nemuri, Toga abruptly sat up, displaying her canines as she asserted, "I'm perfectly fine with living with you, Izuku-kun. I don't know how you intend to 'cure' me, but I don't want to go to prison, much less return to those 'people' who call themselves my parents."

Providing Nemuri some explanation for Toga's inordinately fast recovery, Izuku smiled wryly as he said, "She has incredibly high Vitality, more than most Emitters at the same Level. Weak anesthesia probably wouldn't have much of an effect."

Nodding her head, Toga revealed, "Izuku-kun is right. Whenever I went to the Dentist to have my fangs pulled over and over again, they had to use an extra-strong gas to try and sedate me. I could barely even feel it when the Dentist touched my boobs and such~."

"..." x3

Recovering faster than Izuku and the visibly shaken Nemuri, Nezu's smile became somewhat scary as he asked, "Toga-san, would you mind telling me the name of the Dentist your parents took you to?"

Exhaling a throaty, blood-curdling chuckle, Toga cupped her cheeks and replied, "Oh, you don't have to worry about him. Dr. Susagawa was one of the very first people I killed. You should have seen the look on his face when I pulled out all his teeth and stuck my knife in his gut over and over and over again, asking if he could feel it properly~."

"..." x3

As even Nezu was left at a loss for words, it was up to Nemuri to ask, "Toga-san...were you..."

Understanding what Nemuri was referring to, Toga waved her hand and said, "No, no, no, it wasn't 'that' bad. My parents really cared about their public image, so they wouldn't let things go 'that' far. Papa just allowed Dr. Susagawa to touch me a bit in exchange for his silence. I'm still a pure maiden~."

With Toga's final few words directed at him, Izuku felt slightly nauseous for the first time since he had acquired Healthy Body. He wasn't upset at Toga, but the notion that her father had 'permitted' something like that to happen made his blood boil. If he knew how young Toga was at the time, he might have become a murderer alongside her...

"Oh? Are you angry on my behalf?" asked Toga. "But I already killed all the people who hurt me, and I got to ruin the image my parents fought so hard to maintain. You don't have to be upset, Izuku-kun. Even if it kind of makes me super duper happy that you are~."

Shaking his head, Izuku decided to set other matters aside, focusing on the most important one as he asked, "Himiko Toga...would you like to join my Party?"

Without hesitation, Toga threw her hands up and replied, "Sure! Joining a Party sounds like fun! Just wait until you see my sick dance moves! They'll blow your mind, preferably all over my–oh? What's this? Some kind of blue window just popped up in front of my face. How weird..."

...

..

.

(A/N: Bet nobody saw this development coming...(O ^ O)...)