I hum happily to myself as I bend down to open the oven and nod after giving one of the red-tinged chocolate chip cookies and one of the normal looking cookies each a quick poke to make sure their texture is good. A minute later the oven is off and the cookies are set aside to cool. I let out a content sigh, taking off my 'Drain the chef' apron and hiding it on top of the cupboards. Don't want to give Kachan the opportunity to blow it up. A fact that irritates me to no end given he destroys the possessions of the other hero students too when he's mad at them, and still nothing has been done about him! Eraserhead really doesn't care what goes on in the dorms as long as nobody brings the problems up with him, and I have to wonder yet again how he's a teacher. Also, why? He mostly sleeps through every class anyways!
I shake my head, heading up to the dorm rooms I share with Himi and Eri, though she obviously has her own bedroom so that she doesn't see anything she shouldn't. Blood, killing, etc? Perfectly fine. Anything in the category of sex? Absolutely not! She's far too young, and will continue being too young for the next two decades! Maybe even longer!
I ignore the blonde taped to the wall and screaming into the tape covering his mouth with casual experience, just taking satisfaction in the fact that the traps I laid for the prick are continuing to prevent him from harassing my family. Then again, Himi has asked me if she could stab him a few times… I asked if she was interested in drinking his blood and recording him doing embarrassing stuff, but she said that she has standards on what she puts in her body. Which is honestly the biggest insult she can give to a person considering that she's literally drunk blood that tastes like dirt before.
Ignoring him though, I walk into our dorm and smile at the sight that greets me. Himi has managed to get Eri awake enough that she could get her bathed and dressed, though she's clearly falling asleep where she is, eyes closed and head nodding. Which isn't unreasonable, considering how comfortable Himi makes people whenever she does their hair. It looks like Eri will be going to Fuyumi's class with braids today!
"Hey girls," I say to announce my presence, "breakfast cookies are ready~!" My words have the immediate effect of waking Eri up fully, and she tries to jump to her feet and rush downstairs only for Himi's arm to wrap around her waist and hold her still in her lap.
"Nope~!" My girlfriend chirps, tapping Eri's nose with her free hand before going back to braiding her hair. "You need to wait until we're done here for cookies! And you still have to eat actual breakfast food too!"
Eri pouts for a moment before perking up. "Apples?" She asks without turning her head. Himi hums for a moment, an exaggerated thinking look on her face.
"I guess that you can have apples for breakfast…" She trails off thoughtfully. "But! Only in exchange for hugs!" She pulls her hands away and nods, satisfied with her work.
"Deal!" Eri shouts before spinning on Himi's lap and giving her a tight hug. Before Himi can wrap her own arms around the girl and trap her for a group hug of indeterminate length, she's out of her lap and leaping at me with her arms outstretched. Now, I could turn this into a game where she has to chase me down to give me a hug and earn her breakfast of cookies and apples, but I'm honestly just too happy that both of them are here with me. Still, that doesn't mean that I'm going to let my little unicorn out of my hug that easily!
She squeals and wiggles in objection as I keep my arms around her and walk towards Himi, who is making grabby motions with her hands and a glint in her eye. "Nooo! The cookies and apples!"
I chuckle as I arrive at my girlfriend, and she works with me to engulf our daughter in a hug sandwich, muffling her protests. "There will still be cookies when we get down there, don't worry," I lean down to whisper conspiratorially in her ear, "And even if all the ones on the counter are eaten, I made sure to hide a few just to make sure that you'll get some."
She beams up at me the best she can, squished as she is between us; four arms and Himi's chest in the way. "Thank you, Papa!"
I chuckle before Himi and I finally let the little snowball go, starting our journey to the kitchen. "Of course, Eri. Now let's eat!"
Of course, when we do get to the kitchen (all of us casually ignoring the still hanging blonde) we're greeted by an…unexpected?…sight. Yaoyorozu is happily munching on the red-tinged cookies, alongside Jiro, Ashido, and Kaminari. Contrary to the other three whose faces show clear uncertainty in how they taste, the heiress herself clearly loves them, if the enthusiasm she shows in grabbing another is anything to go by.
Which has me blinking. I exchange a surprised glance with Himi before a pout overtakes her face and she darts forward, snatching up most of the remaining red cookies. Yaoyorozu looks like she's going to object, but I speak up before she can. "So, Yaoyorozu, enjoying those cookies? I made them myself."
She looks at me, back to the cookies that Himi is currently stuffing in her mouth, then back to me, and her eyes light up. Meanwhile, Eri has sidled past all of us to grab a normal cookie off of a plate and is happily munching on it while Ashido coos at her. "Good morning, Usagi, and yes, they are rather tasty. Surprisingly so, actually. May you be so kind as to share the recipe with me?"
I hum, nodding thoughtfully. "Right, right…" I tilt my head side-to-side, considering what to do about this before shrugging. "Quick question, could you make a staff for me? Just the one you'd usually make for yourself whenever you need one is fine."
She's taken aback by my sudden request, blinking confusedly, but does so all the same before staring at the weapon with furrowed brows. "That… did not take as much of my reserves as it usually does," the ponytailed girl says slowly, making me nod.
"Right…" I clap my hands, drawing both her and the audience's attention. "So! Good news, bad news, and neutral news. Which would you like first?"
"Um," She hesitates, her gaze shifting to the cookies Himi has almost finished off, peering at the last two on the plate intensely. "I suppose… the bad news?"
There's really no other way to say this, so I'm just going to be blunt. "You've been incredibly inefficient with your quirk." I say straight away. "Which means that either the quirk counselor you went to when you were little was an idiot, or your parents purposefully lied to you about what powers it."
The confusion in her eyes immediately shifts into a glare of anger and indignation. "My parents would not lie to me about my quirk." Her cold voice is that of someone having to stop themselves from attacking another person, though she visibly relaxes when I nod along with her.
"Oh, I agree. They didn't seem to be the types to care all that much about what a person's quirk is so long as they could do whatever job needed to be done. But I also doubt that whatever quirk counselor they took you to as a child would have been an idiot considering how rich your family is. So it's more likely that your quirk counselor let their own prejudices influence their assessment of your quirk and they made an active effort to hide certain details of it."
The girl frowns, but before she can get too deep into thought on what her quirk counselor was like I continue. "The good news is that I know what your quirk actually powers itself off of!"
She doesn't lose her frown, but she does raise an eyebrow. "So, you say that, not only have I been operating my quirk using a sub-par fuel source, but you also know what it is I actually use?" She shakes her head. "You'll have to forgive me if I have my doubts about such a claim."
I nod and wave a hand dismissively. "Oh, absolutely. This is completely ridiculous. But, well…" I raise a hand and point at the cookie Himi is reluctantly holding out towards the heiress, who snatches it and takes a bite almost before she even realizes she's done so. "The fact that you're so eager to eat the cookies I made specifically for Himi is kind of a big clue as to what your quirk actually wants to use for its fuel source."
She blinks at me, her eyes darting between me, the half-devoured cookie in her hand, and Himi before coming to rest on me once again. "Usagi…" She says slowly, dread seeping into her voice. "What did you put in the cookies?"
Kaminari just looks confused - maybe with a little concern mixed in, but he probably figures that whatever I put in the cookies can't be too bad since I was planning to give them to Himi - but Jiro is starting to get distinctly green, which makes me tut and wag a disapproving finger at the girl. "Don't you know that it's rude to eavesdrop, Jiro?" She just deadpans at me and flicks her jacks, causing me to nod. "Understandable."
I turn back to Yaoyorozu and press the palms of my hands together. "I'm just going to come out and say the neutral news: I put my blood in those cookies, and since you could use your quirk more efficiently after eating them, Creation most likely only pulls its energy from your fat reserves because you haven't ever really given it what it wants in order to work." I shake my head, a bit bemused, honestly.
"If I'm correct - and I'm fairly certain that I am - then your quirk has basically been operating as if it were being starved of nutrients, which would also explain how you manage to get away with eating so little compared to other people who actively utilize their body's resources to create things, such as when Shoji chooses to grow extra limbs."
She stares at me, silent, her mouth hanging open at the possible revelation. "I… have a blood quirk?" She asks, dazed. I shrug.
"I mean, it kind of makes sense when you think about it. You use resources from your body to create permanent structures, and blood is very much a hodgepodge of different molecular materials."
Before she can react anymore, two very different, very distinct things occur. One: Himi leaps at the raven-haired heiress and wraps her arms around her while squealing about them being 'blood buddies', startling Ashido who was so busy with Eri's cuteness that she completely zoned out of the conversation. Two: Kaminari runs over to the trash can and throws up, most likely from the realization that the cookies he ate contained human blood. Jiro is honestly handling it surprisingly well, what with managing not to throw up despite turning an interesting shade of green. Impressive.