ATOMIC STRUGGLE

9「sucking blood」2

"Your business is brokering things to villains?" Izak asked Giran. He was still in a bit of shock, his intuition had never failed him before. He had thought he was a good judge of people's characters, but maybe not anymore. 

"Ah, I suppose that is one way of putting it.." Giran replied honestly, not really seeing a point to trying to lie his way out of the situation. He could have probably used his quirk to muddle with Izak's mind and make him forget the last few minutes, but Giran really couldn't see Izak just letting him do that. Still, he felt the need to add an apology, especially from the sort of betrayed and disappointed look on the maroonette's face. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"...Are you at least making good money from it?" Izak questioned, and at first, Giran sort of froze. Then he started laughing. 

"Why of course, I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't!" 

"Then I guess that's fine, money is the biggest motivator from what I hear," Izak muttered, crossing his arms contemplatively. After a second, he turned to where Twice was. "Twice, what about you? Is it true?"

"Yeah, sorry man," Twice looked away. "I really did try to live an honest life."

"So how did you turn away from that?"

"I didn't turn away!" He protested, fisting his spandex. "It turned away from me, for something that wasn't even my fault! That jackass kicked me out and fired me just because some executive couldn't see that the walking sign had gone off, and I had nowhere to go, and I... I got lonely, so I made a bunch of me's, and.. and we robbed some places, killed some people, until I got too greedy and my clones ended up fighting to kill me, only to kill each other," He admitted, putting his face in his hands. 

"I'm sorry that happened to you," Izak said, pursing his lips slightly. "That sort of thing does happen sometimes, huh?"

"Yeah, no kidding."

"And you two?" The maroonette turned his eyes to Spinner and Compress, who both shook their heads. 

"I haven't done anything illegal besides pirating some things off the internet. I was just inspired by Stain and his ideology," Spinner explained, and the entertainer agreed. 

"Alright, I believe you," Izak nodded, then without even glancing at her, said, "I already figured Toga probably did something like drain a person of their blood, which makes sense too."

"You know me so well!" Toga immediately latched onto him, giggling as she swayed them a bit. 

"Yeah, and anyway," The maroonette moved his gaze over to where Dabi was sitting, and the two stared at each other for a moment before Izak finally asked the question: "So, why have you been going around flaming people?"

"Because they weren't worthy," The villain replied simply, causing everyone in the room to deadpan at him. Shinso even had second thoughts about having stopped Bakugo. 

"Worthy of what?" 

"You," Dabi said, and now Izak's eyebrows furrowed as he sort of squinted at the guy. 

"Well obviously no one is worthy of me, but that doesn't mean you have to kill them randomly."

"I do have to," Dabi stated resolutely, so longer just lounging on the couch, but firmly looking at Izak. "I could forgive them for existing, but they breathe, they move around, they disrespect you by not worshiping you every second of every day. You control atoms, meaning you control life, and if they cannot realize that and the gravity of your existence, they shouldn't live a second more," He dictated with a finality that felt like real pressure to the people in the room with him. 

Izak blinked, then sighed with a slight tilt of his head. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?! The others gawked at him. 

"Um," Mihoko raised her hand, causing everyone to look at her. "Can we get back to the show now? This is getting kind of disturbing."

~*~

The next day, Bakugo was back right at the start of the marathon, and sat right next to Izak on the two-seater couch. Toga was leaning against Izak's other side while Giran, Spinner, Compress and Shinso sat on the three-seater couch. Dabi, for whatever reason, was lounging over at the dining room table. Mihoko was sitting on the ottoman, bouncing excitedly along to the intro with Twice, who was occupying the other ottoman they had.

As soon as the main problem of the episode was revealed and the powerpuff girls were figuring out a way to fix it, Toga sliced into Izak's arm and started drinking his blood, which immediately got Bakugo's attention. "WHAT THE HELL?!" He shot up.

"Mmm," Toga moaned, not even having registered the shouting. 

"Dude, keep it down. Yer so loud!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, ARE YOUR EYES JUST FOR DECORATION?!" Bakugo snarled as he grabbed Izak's shoulder to jerk him away from the girl, who instantly whined at the loss. "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

"Calm down," Izak gave him a look, but the blonde boy wasn't backing down. 

"SHE JUST CUT YOU AND STARTED DRINKING YOUR BLOOD! THAT'S NOT NORMAL!"

"Sure it is."

"NO IT'S NOT IZAK!"

"It might not be normal for you," he pointed out. "But it is for Toga. She likes blood, and other people out there do too. Normal is subjective, not universal, and besides, I don't mind if she drinks my blood."

"But, but what if--" Bakugo cut off, taking a shaky breath. "What if she kills you?!"

"Uh," Izak gave him a dumbfounded look. "She can't. I can't die without my own consent, unless Aizawa or some other outside force takes my ability away, so it's fine."

"Oh," Bakugo blinked, then crossed his arms with a huff and sat back down. "That's still creepy as fuck."

"You shoulda seen the house when we got back from camp," Mihoko sniggered from her place on the ottoman. "It was straight out of a chainsaw horror movie!"

"You've seen a chainsaw horror movie?"

"Uh-huh, of course I have, I'm cultured."

"...Says the eight year old currently watching a kid's show like it's the best thing she's ever seen."

"JUST BECAUSE I'M CULTURED DOESN'T MEAN I CAN'T LIKE NORMAL EIGHT YEAR OLD THINGS LIKE POWER PUFF GIRLS, NOW SHUT UP AND WATCH OR SO HELP ME I WILL SHOVE MY WAND UP YOUR BUTT AND PULL IT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!"

"That was a very creative threat that somehow didn't use any curse words, good job."

"Thanks Izzy!"