A Precise Note Chapter 18 - Tyranny

“Kazutsugi’s Cure All! It rids you of coughs, cold, sniffs, limps, and itches! Kazutsugi’s Cure All!”

There were parts of Hosu City where people could leave a laptop unattended on the floor, leave for a haircut, have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and sleep overnight at a local motel, return, and find it where they left it. Not only would the laptop still be in place, but it would also be spotless, as someone would have taken the time to ensure there was no dust left between the keys. Those parts of Hosu City were the parts patrolled by the Ida Family, the hero, Ingenium, and one of the sidekicks of the Endeavor Agency, the Pro-Hero, Burnin’.

That was not the part of Hosu City where Izuku was currently located. Here, he moved with a hood up, a pair of sunglasses, and a face mask. Here, there was graffiti at every corner and the acrid smell of cigarettes on every breath. Here, there were electrified fences and barbed wires and tall, concrete walls. The walls that cut off the Ward from the rest of the city acted as a natural barrier to obstruct sight. Houses made of concrete shipping containers were compressed together and layered one atop another like stacked sticks of butter.

Sets of spiralling stairs and streets connected one level to another, forming a sky-scraping, ever-ascending labyrinthian structure of cement, brick, and steel. The first time Izuku had come here, he thought of the tales of the religion before the quirk era that spoke of a tower that was built by collective human effort, a tower that ascended so high that it angered the creator. It was said the tower was destroyed by forcing those who built it to no longer be able to understand each other.

The Hei Ward or Peace Ward was nothing like it, because to begin with, it was not built by collective effort, but by one man, layer upon layer as though he were a single honeybee frantically making his hive. Its name was derived from the “Homes for Everyone Initiative” and the abbreviation of ‘HEI,’ which was a rough pronunciation of the first character in 平和 —  Heiwa, or ‘Peace.’

Izuku held his breath and scrunched his nose as the second-hand scent of nicotine wafted from a woman in the corner with a fish for a head, a neon-pink miniskirt, and a fishnet top. 

“Kazutsugi’s Cure All! It cures joint pain, backaches, and fibromyalgia! Quirk-related illnesses and troubles fade with two tablespoons! Three tablespoons a day and fat melts away, no need for diet or exercise! Four tablespoons and no need to fear memory loss! Six tablespoons and it gives quirks to the quirkless! Kazutsugi’s Cure All!”

Not too far away was a merchant, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He was a man who possessed a head that was no different from that of a grey wolf. The wolf-man merchant moved about in a large white sheepskin furred coat, pointing towards tiny bottles of liquid affixed to the coat.

“Kazutsugi’s Cure All! Your neighbor has already bought four! Your wife’s lover has bought six! It enlivens the spirit of the bedroom, gives endless stamina! Use your Quirk for longer! Stave away the endless heat of summer and cold of the winter! Kazutsugi’s Cure All!”

Due to the rainy season and high humidity experienced in Musutafu around June every year, standard housebuilding focused on the reduction of heat and humidity. Wood was the preferred building material for that reason, able to absorb humidity in humid environments where stone, brick, and typical iron would fail.

Winters were cold and dry, the opposite of summers, and the wood’s functions reversed, wherein it would discharge the accumulated moisture to adjust humidity levels.

None of those were put into consideration in the Hei Ward. The concrete panopticon existed to serve the purpose of alleviating homelessness, which it did. So long as people had a home, a roof over their heads, and the census and numbers said that homelessness was at an all-time low, the conditions in which the formerly homeless lived were topics of little interest.

Cementoss had done his part and created free homes and free houses in specific portions and areas of various cities across the Prefecture. The rest, the management and upkeep of the area was not something he handled. The man was purportedly always busy, always being pulled in a hundred different directions by both government and private construction companies alike. A man who could create nigh-infinite amounts of a resource faster than any others, and shape and mold said resource as he wished, was not a man with time on his hands to directly manage or oversee every project he made.

Izuku proceeded further upwards, reaching an area of the Hei Ward built upon the ruins of the Old City beneath it. It was in this area, where the cargo-container-esque housing gave way to old apartment complexes connected to apartment complexes and built upon apartment complexes.

This area, however, was different from what he remembered. Buildings appeared as though they had suffered sudden orbital strikes, with large, circular, burn-shaped holes ripped through them. There were portions of the concrete steel lamp posts that had melted away, as if exposed to extreme temperatures.

Himiko told him that a villain had rampaged in the area, which was why all the blood he kept in the freezer had gone bad. Izuku only now realized she had been understating the severity of the rampage.

Were it anywhere else, such an attack would have hit the news. There would be videos, and there would be news coverage, telling who and why and what had happened. However, here, in Hosu City’s Hei Ward, the denizens would claim that they had been fifty percent blind in their right eye when the attack occurred, and seventy percent blind in their left.

From the damage, all Izuku could glean was that the villain who rampaged had a pyrokinetic quirk, one capable of burning to incredibly high temperatures. Anything else was beyond him.

Making his way into one of the old apartment buildings connected to the concrete, the air reeked of spoiled food and rotten meat. There were trash cans filled with rotted meat, vegetables, eggs, cheese, and other groceries, which, by the sight and smell, had been left too long unrefrigerated. 

Reaching towards the elevator, he pressed the button once, then twice, then sighed.

“Don’t waste your effort,” a man emerged from one of the rooms, holding a can of beer in his hand. “Power’s out. Been out for days, and it’ll be weeks before anyone does anything about it.”

The man had green, scaly skin and bright, spiky pink hair. At first glance, he looked like a gecko or lizard-like creature. The man ran his hand through his hair, cursing under his breath.

“Have you informed the Crisis Cleanup Commission?”

The lizard-man gave him a once-over before he smashed the emptied can into his head, and tossed it a fair bit away, towards the trash, as though he were shooting hoops.

“You’re not from here, are you, kid?”

“Here?” Izuku tested.

The lizard man gestured about with his web-like hands. “Here. You’re not from the Wards. Because everyone from the Wards knows the Hei Ward is a ‘low priority area’ for the CCC, and no one asks a question that stupid.”

The lizard man pointed. “And that mask and sunglasses. You might as well scream ‘outsider’ to anyone who sees you. You know no one here wears something like that, right? It’s a dead giveaway that you don’t belong here.”

Izuku had, in fact, not known that. Every time he came by to visit Himiko, he covered his face. Sighing, he took off his sunglasses, lowered his face mask, and his hood.

The lizard man froze in place. He stared at Izuku. Izuku stared back.

“Scratch that. Put it back on. You’d draw way more attention without it. I don’t think there’s anyone who’d see a face that good-looking and forget it,” he paused. “Also, fuck you.”

“Apologies.” Izuku chuckled. 

The man snorted. “Wait. Green hair, handsome… Are you Izuku?”

Izuku's brows went high. 

“You’re Himiko’s boyfriend?” The man whistled. “Here I thought she was just saying she had one as a way of rejecting all the guys who asked.”

“You know Himiko-chan?”

“Me and half the entire complex,” the man chuckled. “She draws attention, considering she’s the only smoothskin around here. We thought hell had frozen over the first time we saw her. A cute girl, no gills, no fangs, no claws, no scales, no feathers, no fur, no nuthin’, living here in the Wards? Some of us even had a betting pool going for the reason she’s here.”

He went inside his apartment, grabbed another can of beer, and returned, opening it with a hiss, before he took a long sip and smacked his lips.

“The top bets were either pregnancy or she’s a villain in hiding. Though some did mention seeing a guy come by often, so there was another betting pool that she was a professional escort. That theory went out the window after the idiot down in 304 asked her how much she charges by the hour, and she pulled a knife on him.”

“Did she—”

“She said if it weren’t for her ‘boyfriend,’ she’d have already carved him up. Kept on talking about how amazing her ‘Izuku-kun’ was. So… yeah. Guess we owe you one. I get the feeling she really would have carved him up like chicken,” Iguchi shuddered. “She’s crazy, man. I mean, she’s your girl and all, no offense, but you know she’s crazy, right?”

“Himiko-chan just… loves differently.”

“So you’re a crazy bastard as well,” the lizard-man nodded. “You don’t look it. Could have fooled me.”

Izuku smiled. “I’m Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku.”

“Name’s Shuichi. Shuichi Iguchi. Friends of mine call me Spinner. It’s an inside joke.” 

 “Iguchi-san, are most people here like you?”

“What, you mean, ugly?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You don’t need to sugarcoat it. I’ve got the face of a kaiju and the blood to match,” Iguchi shrugged. “But yeah.” 

“You’re saying everyone that lives here other than Himiko-chan has a…” 

Izuku debated the word. ‘Mutant-Quirk’ was the more commonly accepted term, but many said it was derogatory. ‘Form-deviant’ was another term, but that was even worse, and was only used by Formists. 

“Heteromorphic Quirk?”

“Well, that’s one way of putting it,” Iguchi muttered. “It isn’t just here. It’s the entire Hei Ward.”

Izuku froze.

“Cementoss made the homes for everyone.”

“On paper, sure. But in reality?” Iguchi scoffed. “Who do you think has the most problems finding a job, paying rent, and getting a roof over their head? People that look like you, or people that look like me?”

He did not respond. He could not. Slowly, Izuku ran his hands through his long, flowing locks and steeled his will. “Iguchi-san, do you know where the power is connected?”

“Why?”

“I can fix it.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Iguchi lifted his hands. “Hold the phone. Don’t go fixing anything. There’s people in the CCC meant to fix stuff.”

“You said—”

“I know what I said. I said it’ll take them weeks, but that’s the way it goes. We wait for them to fix it.”

“But I can—”

“Izuku, look, listen to me, you seem like a nice kid, but you don’t know how stuff here works. We fix it ourselves, and the next time the CCC comes by and sees that we fixed it, they’ll charge us for fixing it and slap us with a hefty fine for tampering with public utilities and infrastructure. They’ll say, ‘these guys tampered with stuff, and ruined other stuff’ and we’ll be scapegoats for things we had nothing to do with, and slapped with even more fines we can’t pay.”

Iguchi snarled. “Then another villain rampages and this time, it's the water that goes out, they’ll sit on their asses, because, after all, last time, we fixed it ourselves.”

A burning feeling came in Izuku’s throat. He opened his mouth, but closed it. “The Crisis Cleanup Commission usually responds within days to fix the results of infrastructural damage caused by villains. Anything longer than six weeks can be reported as a case of negligence. You can—”

“Like I said, we’re a ‘low priority area.’ That six weeks maximum for most folk is a minimum for us. It's not that they won’t show up, it's that they’ll delay, and delay, and delay. They’ll wrap it up all in red tape and bureaucratic bullshit, until they reach just the very edge of deniability before they scramble into action.”

“But…”

Why?

Could it really just be because they looked different? Izuku’s brain, primed to notice and draw connections, made one that was distant, yet familiar.

Uchi-soto.

Inside and outside.

In the pre-Quirk Era, their nation had been incredibly homogenous, owing to its isolationist past, which discriminated against foreigners. Uchi-soto was a concept of in-groups and out-groups, and the ‘Japanese’ were an in-group, whereas foreigners, the very word “gaijin” meant outsider, and thus, were the out-group. 

A nation that had been raised to always think of themselves as part of a group, and exclude a different group, would not, suddenly, and overnight, change merely due to the existence of meta-abilities and quirks. They would simply draw a different dividing line in the sand, a line that was blatant, and made it clear who was in the ‘in-group’ and who was in the ‘out-group.’

Supposedly, in the pre-Quirk era, no matter how long a foreigner stayed in the country, mastered the language, and invested themselves in the culture, they would still always be a “gaijin.” 

An outsider.

Formists viewed themselves as being the ‘in-group’ and viewed anyone who wasn’t as the ‘out-group.’ Such dividing lines made it easier to excuse discrimination against others. It made the sting of the actions impersonal, when you could justify it as merely doing your part in the unending war of  “Us vs Them.”

That begs the question…

Even if he was right, the Crisis Cleanup Commission was an organization under the Hero Public Safety Commission. Even if there were Formists buried deep within the very bureaucratic structure of the CCC,  even if there were those who rigidly maintained such archaic group-separation mentality and dynamics, the Hero Public Safety Commission itself that was responsible for overseeing Hero Society would and should root them out one after the other.

Unless they themselves were—

Izuku went ramrod stiff.

Before him, several psychosomatic illusions played out, of accusations, claims, disproven, silenced, conspiracy theories, all of it, popping up, one after the other. 

Is the Hero Public Safety Commission… corrupt?

Was the entirety of the backbone of the basis of the entire hero system, rotten from top to bottom?

Do the heroes know?

Do they know?

Had they always known they were working in a corrupt system?

Does All Might… know?

“Hey, kid, you okay?”

Izuku held his chest tightly. He forced his breathing to be precise, and began slowing down the surge of anxiety and disbelief he was experiencing by applying doses of the ‘Apathy State.’ He forced his mind to think coldly and rationally.

But even if they did know… even if All Might knows…

What could he do?

What can one Hero do?

They can’t do an—

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

With the number of lives he had saved, the amount of influence he possessed, exposing the corruption, swaying public outcry, and rallying the people to fight back against an unfair system, was that not what a hero did? None of it was beyond All Might’s ability to do so. None of it was beyond any of the Top 10 Heroes to do so. One word from them, and the masses would holler and scream, and there would be a flood of resignation letters. The corrupt would be dragged away in chains, their heads hung low in disgrace.

So why?

Why did they remain silent?

The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.

That was a quote from a pre-Quirk Era Nobel Laureate, a man who had been imprisoned for speaking up against his cruel government. To be silent, in the face of corruption, to not do as much as one could, to combat such ills whilst being fully aware of it, was, in the eyes of Midoriya Izuku, to be complicit.

It was to be guilty.

Guilty.

Are they all guilty?

No. Think, Izuku. There must be a reason. A reason why they cannot tell the world about how corrupt the Commission is…

There has to be a reason.

Search. Search and search for the reason.

There has to be one.

Because if there isn’t…

If there really isn’t…

Izuku ground his teeth before he slowly bowed his head.  “I’m sorry, Iguchi-san.”

“What are you apologizing for?” Iguchi waved him off. “That’s just the way things are.”

That’s just the way things are.

Izuku never realized how much he could hate a string of words.

“I have a few friends. They should be able to help ensure power returns to the area.”

Iguchi gave him a doubtful look. “Right.”

“Do you know the name of the one meant to ensure things get fixed around here, Iguchi-san?”

“Of course I do,” Iguchi nodded. “Koinaka. Bastard always has a smug look on his face…” Iguchi shook his head. “Listen if your friends can actually make a difference here and get the power back on, I’ll owe you one. Screw it, I’ll even treat you to a meal on the house.”

The man returned to his room as he slowly closed the door. “Can’t be anywhere too expensive though, you don’t exactly rake in the dough washing windows for a living.”

The door behind him shut. Izuku let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He gnashed his teeth harder and harder until, for the first time in a long time, he tasted blood.

Without hesitating, he reached for his phone and typed up a message.

Izuku: CCC has been deliberately delaying the estoration of infrastructural damage in villain-affected areas of the Hei Ward in Hosu City. I would appreciate it, Saiko-chan, if you could help.

Izuku hit the send button.

The message was not sent. 

Saiko had not yet unblocked his number.

He gripped his phone tightly.

Saiko-chan isn’t the only ‘friend’ I have, is she?

Izuku turned his direction towards the stairs. He raced to it in moments, ascending the eight floors needed to reach the top wasn't even considered a workout, because his daily morning exercise routines with Kacchan were far more taxing altogether. 

He reached his destination and grabbed a key from his pocket. He pushed the key into the lock, clicking and turning it until it opened.

The first thing he smelled was copper. The apartment reeked of copper. The place was, unsurprisingly, messy. Discarded pizza boxes lay on the floor along with numerous empty polythene bags. Plates piled up in the sink, rotten fruit lay atop the overfilled trash can, and there were ripped-out sheets of paper everywhere.

There was no power. The place reeked of stale blood.

On the couch, a blonde girl in a T-shirt and underwear groggily got up.

Izuku took one glance at the messy apartment, and his hands began to itch.

“I—ZU—KU—kun~! You came! You came!”

“Himiko-chan,” Izuku extended his hand. “We need to clean.”

“Clean?”

“Clean.”

He said firmly.

“Then…”

Izuku brought out a black card, with the letters, “L.O.V.”

“There’s something I need you to do.”

XXXXX

Koinaka Ijimoto was terrified for his life. He did not understand why or how anyone would want to kidnap him. He didn’t understand why a group of thugs would suddenly pull him into a car without warning on his way back from work, then drag him to the docks, while sneering at him.

 “If — if its money you want, I swear I can give it to you!”

“We don’t want your money, idiot.”

“You… you don’t? Then what do you—”

“Look, man, we’re just following orders.”

One of the thugs grunted before he brought out what looked, like at first glance, a Valentine’s Day card, and began to read.

“Let’s see here… Er-hem. Dear Sir, it has come to our attention that you are amongst those in the Crisis Cleanup Commission who have delayed work on the restoration of infrastructural damages in certain areas of the Hei Ward.”

Koinaka’s blood went cold. That… that was the reason for this? Because he stiffed those freaks? 

“Furthermore, we have gathered evidence of unlawful acts of discrimination against Heteromorphic Quirks either vetoed by, or directly supported through your policies and your actions. Your punishment, delivered by the hands of criminals, your ilk, is thirty lashes with a belt.”

“As you have chosen to act as though you were a child, we hope that, in receiving corporal punishment, you will rectify your behavior and behave in the manner befitting a responsible adult. If, upon failing to rectify your behavior, we will have no choice but to take further action against you. Yours sincerely, Anonymous.”

“Holy shit, this is crazy stuff,” one of the thugs whistled. “You sure we can do this? Sounds like some crazy new villain is stirring things. This seems big, man…”

“Didn’t you hear? They’re not a villain. They’re doing this for fairness. We’re tools of justice!”

“He’s right. Doesn’t matter anyway. The redhead chick had a black card, and you know the rules. If we don’t obey the kids with the cards, the Void will get us.”

Two of the three thugs took off their belts, whilst the third pointed his phone, clearly intent on recording. All the blood drained from Koinaka’s face.

“So you’re a Formist, eh? Raise that ass, motherfucker!”

WHAP!

“AAAAAH!”

XXXXX

“What are you doing! Help! I’m being mugged!”

“You’re not being mugged damn it, I’m helping you cross the street!”

“What? I don’t… who would believe you! You’re clearly a thug!”

“Listen, granny, I don’t care if you believe me or not, but the light’s about to turn red.”

“You’re… really helping me cross the street?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Cause the brunette with the card said so.”

XXXXX

“You’re helping pick up trash…?”

“Yeah, yeah, you heard me— listen, I don’t want to do it anyway but—”

“Then why are you—”

“I’m just doing what the short blue-haired boy with the card said I should, okay?”

XXXXX

“I’m here to turn myself in.”

“Another one?”

“Huh, what?”

“You’re the lucky tenth one today. Let me guess, a random girl with a card said you should go to the nearest station and surrender for the crimes you committed?"

“It was a boy. And… yeah.”  

“Sigh. Right. Come on. This way to booking.”

XXXXX - A Precise Note - XXXXX

Midoriya Izuku gently stroked Himiko’s hair as the girl mumbled words in her sleep. Himiko was one person, but Himiko was a thousand people. She was nobody, and she was everybody.

With this, the police should pour more effort into investigating the League.

He was certain they were investigating the League of Villains already, but this would at least raise some eyebrows and draw more public attention towards the League and its existence. He and Himiko had gone about sending every single thug they could find within Hosu City to do good deeds, and then told them afterwards to turn themselves in for the bad deeds they’d done.

Izuku found many of them were more than willing to obey that order, because while in prison, they wouldn’t need to worry about more children using the cards to give them orders, and didn’t have to worry about the void, whom Suzume told him was called “Kurogiri.”

That Koinaka should have a change of heart…

Corporal punishment was said to be an archaic and ineffective means of enforcing the law, but that was only when used on its own. The main deterrent was not the whipping, but shame and fear. The shame of being whipped, the fear that the video evidence was out there in the hands of people he did not know, who could deploy it as a tactical bomb at a time he did not know.

If he were to rise to a position of power or have children in such positions, or move to become a highly respected government official, that video of thugs whipping him till he wept would be the sun that welted his wax wings. 

In Izuku’s opinion, the two-pronged approach of fear and shame would likely prevent Koinaka from reporting the case to the police, and it would guarantee the man would think carefully about his actions in the future and comply with the requests of the ‘Anonymous’ messenger.

Izuku did not actually have the video of the man being whipped, but he did not need it.

He had Himiko.

With Himiko, he could make the man have much bigger problems than just a video of him being whipped.

Following his actions today, Izuku discarded Suzume’s black card, tossing it into a river. On the off chance that the creator of the card could somehow know who was holding it, and who had used it, Izuku did not want it traced back to him.

“Did I do good today, Izuku-kun?”

Izuku gently patted her head.

“You did really good, Himiko-chan.”

She giggled and sat up in his lap, and held him close. 

“Izuku-kun is warm," she hummed. “Very warm. I feel… tired. Using my quirk all day long… makes me really tired, Izuku-kun. Tired and really, really sleepy."

Using her quirk made her tired? Izuku connected the dots. That never happened before.

Quirks were still biological, and no matter how much he was able to upgrade them, the biological factors were still a limit. Himiko's quirk was more powerful now, and as such, it demanded more energy than it previously did. Feeling her against him, Izuku couldn't tell that she was any thinner. Running his hand down her back, he couldn't see any major differences. No, if anything—

“Himiko-chan, when was the last time you ate?"

“Hmm… yesterday."

“You drank only blood again, didn't you?"

She nuzzled her head into his neck. “Izuku-kun is the tastiest."

“Himiko-chan, you can't subsist on just blood anymore."

“I want to eat… Izuku-kun."

She pushed him onto the couch, and her hands snuck up his shirt. Izuku hissed. They were cold. Really cold. No, now that he noticed it, it wasn't just her hands that were cold. She was cold. Abnormally so. 

Wait.

He took off her shirt. She squealed. “Izuku-kun!”

Izuku scanned her body. He scanned her, and more so, he did a mental cross-reference. Judging by the state of the apartment and Himiko's personality, she most likely was not the person who'd spend numerous hours exercising for the sake of it. That aside, exercise couldn't magically increase the size and find a way to perfectly provide symmetry to one's breasts, or…

Symmetry?

His eyes glossed over them again. He measured length and breadth, radius and diameter. Then, his gaze went down to her stomach. Her extremely well-toned stomach with a circumference that was less than twenty-four inches.

He grabbed her softly by the neck and brought her face until it was centimeters away from his. He ignored her rapidly reddening face in lieu of examining her facial symmetry for differences.

There were differences. 

Minute, but ultimately identifiable. The softness of her skin mimicked his, her brows were perfectly aligned, and her eyelashes were long and of the exact same number and length on both eyes.

In most women, the left breast was typically larger than the right, due to the placement of the heart on that side and the need for extra flesh for protection. Humans weren't bilaterally symmetrical. There was always a small difference from one side to the other: the heart is slightly to the left, the liver on the right side, the spleen on the left, and on and on.

It was something less obvious on the outside of the body, but his eyes could still perceive it. Most people had one eye slightly higher than the other, one arm slightly stronger than the other, a favored leg, a favored ear, even—

The one person Izuku knew of who had a completely symmetrical body structure was himself.

And Himiko was developing one as well.

My blood is… affecting her.

Himiko consumed liters of his blood day after day and only his blood.  His blood was doing more than just filling her hunger and preventing her from needing to drink from other people. Similar to how his seminal fluids could linger and affect Suzume, his blood was even more potent, and it was doing to Himiko what it did to him. It was making her 'precise.' Not just on the outside, but no doubt it would be doing the same on the inside.

Himiko's cold palms cupped his cheeks.

“You're thinking something unimportant right now, Izuku-kun," she said, annoyed. “Focus. On. Me."

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Izuku rubbed his brows. “Himiko-chan, the things we did today, do you think… were they things a hero would do?”

She pressed down on him. “Izuku-kun wants to help people. People like me. But making those bad people do good things won’t make them good people, Izuku-kun. It’ll only make them bad people who pretend to be good people because they’re afraid of you. That doesn’t make you a hero, Izuku-kun.”

Izuku closed his eyes. He had a suspicion, but hearing it from Himiko’s mouth was the confirmation he needed.

“Nor does it make Izuku-kun a villain."

Himiko kissed him. Her lips, the taste of blood, stained him, and she pulled away, softly whispering.

“It makes Izuku-kun a god.”

Izuku’s throat went dry. “What?”

Her cold hands cupped his cheeks again.

"It’s not too bad. If Izuku were a god… everyone would be like me. They would be happy.”

A chill ran down his spine. 

“I should be homeless. But Izuku-kun gave me a place to stay. I should be hungry. But Izuku-kun feeds me. I should be lonely, but Izuku-kun cares for me. I should be poor. But Izuku-kun gives me money."

Her breath tickled his neck.

“Izuku-kun, the only thing you ask from me in exchange is to be good. For me to be good. The goodest. If Izuku-kun were a god to everyone, everyone would be much happier. Everyone would be good people… and everywhere would be a good place.” 

“No, I—” Izuku denied, his heart racing. “I’m not a god. I’m not perfect.”

“But,” Himiko tilted her head. “Izuku-kun’s quirk is Perfection.”

“No, Himiko-chan. It’s Precision.”

“What’s the difference?”

Izuku’s lips opened, then closed. That which was precise to the extreme was perfect, and that which was perfect was precise to the extreme. 

“That’s not— it’s really not the same—"

Himiko's fingers pressed against his lips.

“Shh. No words, Izuku-kun. I don’t care if you’re a villain, a hero, or a god. To me, Izuku-kun will be Izuku-kun—” 

She kissed him again. Izuku, this time, drank in the softness of her lips and the taste of copper. Her tongue was gentle, her embrace soft and yearning.

Their lips disconnected, and a shudder escaped from her.

“And I will always love Izuku-kun."