"Blood?" Mirko asked with a raised eyebrow. "For your quirk?"
A sigh left me, and I sat back up. "It isn't a quirk. I assume. I'm not from this world, I'm from one that's about..." My hand wiggled noncommittally. "Two-hundred? Years in the past, relative to this one. But I don't think my universe even has the potential for quirks, so it can't be one."
"Huh." She muttered as she mulled over the idea of a power that doesn't come from a quirk. "How'd you become a bloodsucker then, if not genetics?" Her arms fold under her chest. "Are you an actual vampire?"
"I, well, I don't know. I haven't had the time to think about it." I tilted my head as I considered how long I've had these powers for. "It's been, including the two hours I was unconscious... Two hours and thirty minutes or so since I stopped being an average Joe."
Silence dawned in the room as Rumi stared at me, her face expressionless. Seconds passed as she looked at me, each further second making me twice as uncomfortable.
"...Honeybunny?" I tentatively called.
She closed her eyes and sighed like she was dealing with a particularly daft child.
"You're an idiot." She said, her voice dry.
"So close!" I snapped my fingers. "It's Alan. That's A. L--Oh, do you know English?"
Her eyes stared blankly into mine.
"Right." I coughed awkwardly. "Listen, I came here for a mind control power. That's not that dumb, it makes it easier to steal people's capabilities."
She sighed again, eliciting a sheepish look out of me, halfway between a grin and a grimace. "Mind control is useful, but it's an auxiliary quirk. Especially since the one you took can be countered by being quiet."
I raised a finger and hastily interjected: "But it works if you don't know I have it! And I only need it to work once, and then I win. You know first hand, right?"
Before the smugness could even begin to creep onto my face, she reached forward and gave my forehead a sharp poke. It was like being punched by a three-hundred pound, professional boxer, sending me backwards and almost off the bed; if I didn't have my resistance upgraded so much, I would have been on the floor. With a hole in my skull.
"You got me, and I still sent your ass flying with a reactionary kick. If there was more intent behind it, or I aimed at your head, you'd have been roadkill."
I rubbed the painful spot on my forehead with the palm of my hand. "Ok, well, fuck you. That hurt."
Rumi took a step forward and grabbed my hand; she pulled it away from my head, and leaned forward to place a kiss on the spot she poked. I almost couldn't feel it, as blood rushed away from my head, to my other head.
"That make it better?" She asked, a smirk on her face as she watched me slowly blink, my mouth a bit agape. I gave her a nod, and her smirk morphed into a grin. "Good. That was just a love tap; barely left a mark."
I cleared my throat, rearranging my wits into a sensible structure. "You can hit me harder." She raised an eyebrow; no, that wasn't quite the right words. I shook my head. "I mean, thanks. What were we talking about? Right. I'm an idiot." I shrugged. "What's the point in making things too easy?"
"Not dying." She answered immediately.
"Right, fair point. I suppose I could have gone somewhere else. But there's so many possibilities; I went with my heart, and I don't regret that. Especially since I got you."
Her grin practically stretched from one tall bunny-ear to the other. "Good. Fuck regrets, they're a waste of time." She paused for a second. "But that doesn't mean you should be stupid."
I swung my feet over the edge of the bed, ignoring the pain that shot through my entire being like a two-foot wide lance up the ass. "You're right. I think more blood would help that." I tilted my head to the side. "I'm torn between more resistance capability, or healing. But humans heal so slowly... You're right, resistance is better."
She hadn't said anything, but I pretended she did, and I settled on stacking more resistance. It felt like more bang for my buck, compared to healing.
"I'll try getting a nurse to bring a blood bag, then." She said, as supportive as ever, but I stopped her with a question.
"Blood bag? How would that even work? I mean, I was thinking you'd just go run through the floor and come back covered in blood, and then I'd lick--"
"Hold on." She cut me off. "You think going on a killing spree would be better than a blood bag?!" She looked at me, eyes wide with incredulousness, to which I confidently nodded.
"How could I take the capability of a blood bag? A person makes sense, but a bag is a bag." I tapped the side of my head. "Think about it."
She didn't think about it.
"You're an idiot. You should at least try it first; blood is blood. It'll work."
I hummed thoughtfully. "Hmm, I guess I could try. Well, go on then." I made shooing motions at her. "Get me some blood."
She held back her sigh, this time, instead just turning around and leaving the room.
---
"See, I told you." I said, my voice muffled as I sucked the beautiful red life-juice out of a hole I tore in its vessel. "A bag is a bag."
Rumi sighed as she looked at the nurse standing beside her like a zombie, an older woman with dark blue hair and a disappointing, but still valuable, flat chest. "If it doesn't work, then why are you confident licking it off me would?"
I swallowed another mouthful and tossed the half-empty bag behind me; blood squirted out as it flew through the air, forming a line of splatters across the wall and floor until it landed with a soft thud.
"Well, I licked some blood off a gun and it worked. I figure there's a point where it stops being 'this person's blood', so I think a quit jaunt around the hospital, at least this floor, would net me a huge level of resistance. It's a big hospital right?" Rumi gave an exhausted nod. "Perfect. Just, make sure to get some on your ass. Or not, it wouldn't change anything."
"Right. This is a terrible idea, Alan."
I smiled and clapped my hands, a perfect picture of pure exuberance. "You got it right! I'm so proud!"
She tried to hide a twitch in the corner of her lips as she suppressed a smile; I'm sure she didn't want to encourage me. Too bad, that only encouraged me further.
I pointed at the nurse.
"Can you hold her? She's gonna break the spell as soon as I bite her."
Rumi raised a questioning eyebrow as she did as I asked, putting her hands on the woman's shoulders. "Why not just kill her?"
I stood up, and flame screamed up my legs; my skin burned in places like it was pressed against molten lava. "Well, I don't know exactly what a capability for resistance covers, so I figured I could get an idea of what I gain, by seeing what she loses."
"Hm, makes sense. Didn't know your pretty head was good for thinking like that. Should have done that a long time ago."
"You think my head is pretty?" I asked, hope blooming in my chest before I shook my head. "Actually, I'd prefer you don't answer that. I think I may look like Freddy Kreuger under here." At Mirko's confused look, I realized she wouldn't get that reference, nor most references I could make. I hurried to close the distance to the nurse, grabbed her hand, and bit the side of it hard enough to taste blood.
When I did, that familiar, heart-warming pleasure suffused every inch of my flesh. In an instant, it was replaced by thousands of capabilities that swarmed my mind, before I picked a specific one; Resistance. And then I was back, teeth sunk in the nurse's hand. I released it in time to watch her sag in Mirko's grip; her eyes hung open, a blue similar to her hair, but they were empty and unfocused.
"Huh." I commented, full of verbosity. "She's dead?"
Rumi held her up with one hand while the other fingered her pulse. A negative head shake confirmed her death.
"That didn't tell me shit." I complained.
"Well, it tells you it's good, right?" Ever the optimist, or at least one right now, Rumi pointed out that subtle fact. "If she died, it was important, and now its yours. Seems good to me."
I start nodding with increasing confidence. "Yeah, yeah. That sounds true. Real and true. Excellent observation."
She released the body, and we both watched it tumble to the floor. Rumi looked up at me. "So, more blood, huh? I still think this is a stupid idea. We should get you out of here, target specific quirks." A grin lights her face. "There's a lot of strong people I could make bleed, y'know?"
I sighed. "Yeah, that wouldn't be a bad idea. But... Think of all the stacks of resistance I could gain. How much damage can twenty or thirty people resist? It'd only take you, what, a minute to run around and come back? You wouldn't be going for the patients, 'cause I don't want you getting sick, so it's basically running through some halls. Then another minute or two to run my tongue all over you..."
My tongue darted out to lick my lips as I vividly imagined the scene of the two of us, bloody and covered in sweat, limbs tangled in the hospital bed as I tasted every inch of her while being assaulted by mind-numbing blood-pleasure. After a moment of concentration, I managed to chase away the fantasy and refocus on Mirko, and the look she was giving me.
"What? No way heroes get here before we leave. Plus, this could get the attention of some villains that have a pretty cute--I mean, some pretty cool, uh, capabilities for me to steal."
"Pretty cute girl? Was that what you were gonna say?" She thumped her foot on the floor. "I'm not one to share--"
"Yes you are." I interrupted. Her open mouth shut, and she ruminated on the words, before nodding her assent.
"Guess that solves it." She admits; her gaze turns to the dead nurse still slumped on the floor, before meeting my eyes. "So, another killing spree? And this time, you're making me do your dirty work?"
All I can do is nod with a smile on my face. "Yup! Got it in one. Don't worry though." I lower my voice, "You'll enjoy it."
"Go paint yourself red."