Later, as police officers subdued the assailant and his mother signed statements with still-shaking hands, the hero disappeared as quickly as he had arrived, deliberately avoiding the cameras and applause.
Reiji remained silent, with Himiko still by his side, clinging to his arm. The wound didn't hurt. Not even his neck. What really weighed on him was something new... something deep. A certainty that had been born within him.
"A hero... I can be a real hero! That... that will help me protect Himiko, won't it?"
He looked at his hands. Then at his sister. And in his chest, a spark ignited.
On purpose.
"I'm going to be a hero."
***
A month had passed since that day. Since the blood had spurted from his body like a living spear and protected him from the blow that could have dislocated his neck. Since a hero had looked him in the eye and told him he was a true hero for using that power.
Now, everything seemed to have calmed down.
The room was dimly lit by a desk lamp. The curtains were closed, the door locked. Reiji sat on his bed, with a towel spread over his legs and a small knife, the same one he used to "feed" Himiko.
He made a clean cut on his index finger. He took a deep breath as the blood slowly flowed out. A drop fell on the towel. Then another. And another.
Reiji held out his hand in front of him, closing his eyes.
"Come on... move."
The drops trembled. They floated just a few millimeters. They vibrated, then descended again.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
He tried again. This time, he applied slight pressure to his palm. More blood. More control.
Finally, he managed to form a small spinning filament, thin as fishing line. It lasted no more than five seconds before it fell apart.
But he smiled bitterly.
"To think that day was out of necessity..." he muttered. "This reacts to my instincts, and conscious control is almost nonexistent."
He had been doing this for weeks. Practicing over and over again to gain full mastery, always in private to calm the bloodlust that always accompanied the use of his power, he still couldn't control it, but at least by avoiding being with other people, he could calm it down.
His parents had taken him for a general checkup after the incident. What they discovered was strange, but not alarming.
"He has advanced regeneration of genetic origin. It is not due to a Quirk as such, but to a physiological mutation... what we consider a bodily Quirk. However, its recent manifestation, blood control, clearly comes from the Quirk factor."
Two Quirks. One bodily, the other due to his Quirk factor.
Rare. Very rare.
But exactly what he had suspected.
"Just as I thought. One comes from what I was... and the other from what I am."
He took out an old sketchbook that he had turned into his experimental journal. Rough sketches. Crooked notes. Hypotheses.
"Blood only obeys if it's alive. Fresh. Volume defines form, but control doesn't improve much, I can't find the right amount."
He ran his hand slowly over the page. There were many more notes like these, strangely similar to the ones he hated in his previous life.
"Before, my body belonged only half to me. They opened me up. They measured me. They injected me. They asked me questions I couldn't answer... I hated it."
"Now... now I'm the one asking the questions... But it's for a purpose I want, not one I was forced into."
He closed the notebook.
"I didn't choose to be an experiment. But I can choose what to do with what I learned in all those years."
He looked at the dried blood on his finger. He pressed his lips together, thoughtful.
"I still have to give it a name..."
He remembered how Himiko, with a silly smile, had called it Redhead while he was practicing.
He chuckled softly, shaking his head.
"Rojito... it'll do for now."
Normally, people who have new Quirks, or ones with characteristics never seen before like his, are allowed to name their peculiarity themselves when they grow up.
"At least with these two powers, I'll be able to match the great figures... Or not become obsolete in front of them, One For All and All For One... I won't forget you, but I have a lot of problems to deal with first..."
The book in his hands contained the entire story he remembered. He had not interacted with any other characters besides Himiko, nor was he eager to do so. For him, it was currently his ordinary, everyday world. Not a comic book.
First, he would solve the problems in his life, and then he would think about what to do. He just hoped that certain organizations wouldn't notice him. Especially now with his double Quirk, it was something that attracted a lot of attention, no matter if both were crap...
Unfortunately, this was not his case. His two powers complemented each other perfectly, even his biggest disadvantage was the same...
He still didn't know the full extent of his second Quirk, but the first one already allowed him to become quite strong with muscle reconstruction. Intense and constant training was much easier for him; his muscles would regenerate and strengthen at a better rate than anyone else's.
As for 'Rojito', although he didn't know all of its functions, he knew perfectly well that it wasn't a weak ability. He saw what it could do as soon as it manifested itself against the assailant, and it is assumed that Quirks only evolve with their bearer, a mixture of physical, mental, and emotional states. That is precisely why certain characters' Quirks in the series evolved, including Himiko's.
If he could master it, he had the confidence to become a great force like recognized heroes, but it all depended on him.
"A prodigy will be just another face in the crowd if he doesn't put in the same effort as a stubborn fool..."
He smiled. Because he wasn't a prodigy. And he wasn't a fool either.
He was Reiji. Formerly Ethan.
And he was willing to be both... if that would take him to the top.
***
"No... I can't go on..."
The whisper escaped his lips. A lonely confession in the darkness.
He had been tossing and turning in bed for hours, the constant tingling in his jaw keeping him awake all night. The sharp tingling, like electricity behind his teeth, was asking him for something.
It was asking him to satisfy his thirst for blood...
It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was no longer an occasional sensation, nor a nuisance that could be calmed with breathing or isolation. It was constant. Pulsating. As if his Quirk had fused with his nervous system.
"Himiko is fine thanks to me... I'm not going to ask her... Not her."
She slept peacefully in the bed next to him, hugging her favorite stuffed animal. He could feel her breathing slow and calm. The urge had been there too, whispering to him: "Just one drop. Just a little." But he ignored it. He ignored her. He couldn't do that to her.
Reiji got up. Looking at the dark sky peeking through the window, he knew what he had to do.
He opened the window, and the cool air hit him with a slight chill. He turned to look at Himiko, who just curled up even more in her bed, completely unaware of what was happening.
He stood at the edge of the window and looked down. His bed was on the second floor, and even with his recovery, jumping was not a viable option. Abusing it could be detrimental to his growth; he was quite clear about that.
"Tsk, react by instinct... Out of necessity," he thought, somewhat annoyed. Blood had unconsciously come out of his fingertips, ready to make a path for him.
He could feel a slight fatigue, but nothing that would prevent him from continuing. Trusting that the red stain floating below him would support his weight, he began to slowly make his way to the courtyard of his house.
The night air surrounded him as soon as he touched the ground. The blood under his feet dissolved into a reddish mist upon contact with the grass, returning to Reiji's body. The tingling in his jaw did not go away, but his breathing became faster... expectant.
His backyard was small, with an old tree in one corner. It was there, years ago, that Himiko had stained the ground with the blood of a dead bird.
Now, the scene was similar.
A small squirrel moved clumsily along one of the branches. It had climbed down the trunk until it was almost touching the ground, sniffing to see what was happening.
Reiji saw it. And the squirrel looked back at him, somewhat curious about the boy's presence.
His pupils dilated. His fingers began to vibrate slightly. A crimson drop sprang from the tip of his index finger.
He approached slowly, without breathing. Without thinking. The squirrel did not flee until it was too late.
He reached out his hand. A red needle shot out of Reiji's finger, almost unconsciously.
The animal squeaked weakly, pierced by the small filament, directly in its chest, pinning it firmly to the tree. Reiji approached the creature. The animal had stopped moving and its breathing had stopped completely. It was dead.
The tingling spread throughout his jaw, teeth, and even part of his nose, which perfectly received the metallic smell of the blood of the animal in front of him.
He took it in his hands, and like his sister, he stuck both fangs directly into it.
The blood flowed in a thin stream, being completely absorbed by the two sharp teeth.
The warm blood slid down his tongue, slowly flowing down his throat. He felt every muscle relax. The pressure in his temples disappeared. The burning in his jaw faded as if it had never been there.
Peace. Silence. Control.
It was a delicious sensation, not only that, but also the damn taste of the animal's blood.
His fangs kept the flow under control, extracting every last drop from the animal.
When he was done, Reiji let it fall. Knowing full well what he had done, he knew he had to leave no evidence behind and grabbed the lifeless body, devoid of warmth and life, to throw it into the trash container in the courtyard, hidden among so many other things.
...And then he tried to return. He looked up at the window connecting to his room, trying to reactivate his Quirk, but unfortunately, it did not respond in the slightest.
He raised his hand.
"Come on... bring me back..." he whispered, but nothing in particular happened.
He knew perfectly well that once his need was satisfied, his Quirk would stop responding to his desires.
"Shit..." he said with a sigh. The sky was still dark. The window was high. Too high.