A Collector

Best Served heartless

Warning - this chapter is graphic for violence. If you want to skip it, that's okay.

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"This is going to be so much fun!" Himiko chuckled happily. "But... Izu?" There was a worried note in her voice that caused him to turn to her.

"Hmm?" She actually looked concerned.

Before he could say anything more, Himiko flicked one of her hands, and a knife appeared in it. Izuku stared at it, dumbly. Where had that come from? The sleeves of her uniform were intact and... where was she keeping that?

She giggled at his dumbfounded expression. "Before we can go we have to get you the right equipment!"

"Equipment?" What did she mean?

Himiko spun her knife around one finger. "What tools do you want to use to do this? I'm happy to loan you my knives but you'll work better with your own tools!" She told him with a smile.

"Or do you want to use a sabre clip, or a spear point? A khukuri? I'm pretty sure we can get a karambit too if you want. Or... oh I like long clips but they don't fit under my uniform. You could totally use them though!" Himiko listed a variety of weapons.

Izuku frowned slightly as he thought about the list she'd given. He didn't recognise all the names but given that it was Himiko, it was pretty obvious what she was talking about. "Aren't they all knives?" He asked.

She grinned at him before her expression clouded. "You don't want to use a gun, do you?" Himiko sounded faintly disappointed at the question.

Izuku shook his head, wanting to reassure her. "Definitely not! I just thought I could use my natural gifts."

Her yellow eyes widened and she actually shivered at the thought. "It will be messier," Himiko cautioned, "and it's harder than you think to bite through skin."

Izuku shook his head and held up one hand, allowing a Crimson Knife to appear- it looked like toga's. He didn't say anything but watched as Himiko's eyes widened. He saw her focus shift from his knife to his face and then back to his knife.

Then she pouted. "That is so not fair!" Himiko complained, spinning her knife around her finger before it disappeared. He still didn't know where it was stored!

Izuku let his knife fade and Himiko's expression changed again. She grabbed his hand, holding up his fingers. "Are you sure you want to do that?" she asked seriously, as she rubbed his fingertips.

He frowned gently. "What do you mean?"

"It's very personal," Himiko told him. "I mean, really personal. For your first time... you might not want to be that close."

Izuku blinked and for a moment didn't understand what she was talking about, and then he realised. "I would have thought you'd like me being that close."

She gave him a pointed look. "I said I'd teach you," Himiko told him seriously. "So I gotta consider everything. You may not want to be that close on the first time. It's-" she sighed. "I know you can do this Izu, it's just there's no need to make it more difficult the first few times. That will just make it harder in the long run. So if that means a bit of distance at first, then that is the best way to learn."

That made a sort of sense. You didn't learn anything by taking on the hardest problems first. You worked your way through easier problems, working your way up to the hard issues. "I did kind of jump in the deep end immediately, didn't I?" he murmured, recalling all his vigilanti work. 

Himiko nodded at his statement.

"Oh who do you want to kill?" She asked before giggling.

That was a good question, Izuku had a lot of options but he already knew. "My old principal." The thought of her brought his anger back.