Age: 13
It's been two weeks since "Dynamite Diplomacy."
In that time, my house has gone from being a two-sided battlefield (my parents vs. me) to a three-ring circus.
Toga Himiko has integrated into the Bakugou residence with the ease of a highly contagious virus. She comes over almost every day after school. At first, I thought Mitsuki would get tired of having another loud teenager in the house, but the opposite happened. My mother always wanted a daughter she could style and buy clothes for, and Toga, starved for maternal affection, lets her do anything.
It's surreal to watch the future serial killer sitting on the sofa while the Old Hag tests lipstick shades on her or criticizes the hem of her skirt. Masaru, for his part, has simply started cooking double portions without asking.
The Bakugou family has adapted to the vampire. And the vampire, surprisingly, has stopped looking like a ticking time bomb. Her eyes are clear. There have been no stabbing attempts.
Except now. Right now, I want to stab her myself.
"IT'S A LINEAR EQUATION, DAMMIT!" I yelled, slamming the pen on the table. "If you move X to the other side, the sign changes! It's basic logic!"
We were in my room. Toga was lying face down on my bed, kicking her legs in the air, looking at her math book as if it were written in ancient Aramaic.
"But Katsuki-kun..." she whined, rolling onto her back. "Numbers are boring. They have no color. They have no smell. Why does X want to change sides? Is it a traitor?"
I wiped a hand down my face, feeling my blood pressure rising dangerously.
"It's not a traitor, it's an unknown variable." I sighed, defeated. "Toga, if you don't pass this exam, your parents will have the perfect excuse to lock you up all summer. And if they lock you up, no chicken livers and no training."
That grabbed her attention. She sat up abruptly, pouting.
"I don't want that! I want to be with you and Izuku-kun! But my brain turns off when I see numbers. It's like they melt!"
I closed my eyes. I am a genius. I have the mind of a college-educated adult. I understand quantum physics and biochemistry. But I am absolutely incapable of teaching math to someone who thinks with the instinct of a wild cat.
I needed a specialist in lost causes.
I pulled out my phone and dialed speed dial 1.
"Deku. Get to my house. Now."
"Eh? Kacchan? I'm just finishing..."
"Bring your infinite patience. The vampire is going to fail math and I'm about to blow up the house."
I hung up.
Ten minutes later, Izuku walked into my room. He already knew Toga (I introduced them a week ago at the park). To my surprise, Toga didn't try to kill him; she simply decided that Izuku smelled like "cut grass and cheap soap" and accepted him as part of the pack.
"Hello, Toga-chan," Izuku greeted with his usual shyness, dropping his backpack on the floor.
"Izuku-kun!" Toga jumped off the bed and hugged him, rubbing her cheek against the green-haired boy's shoulder. "Save me! Katsuki is an evil teacher! He just yells and says hard words!"
Izuku laughed nervously, patting her back carefully (he still wasn't quite used to her lack of personal space).
"Kacchan isn't very patient..." Izuku said, glancing at me sideways.
"I don't get paid to be a babysitter," I grumbled, throwing myself into my swivel chair. "All yours, nerd. Make her understand algebra or I swear I'm throwing her out the window."
Izuku sat on the floor, in front of the low table, and gestured for Toga to come closer.
"Let's see..." Izuku looked at the book. "First-degree equations. Okay. Toga-chan, forget the numbers for a moment. Imagine something you like."
Toga tapped a finger on her chin, thoughtful.
"Blood. And knives. And grenades."
"Right." Izuku didn't flinch. He pulled out a clean notebook and sketched quickly. "Let's say X is a person. A person full of... uh... 'red liquid.'"
Toga's eyes lit up.
"Red liquid!"
"Yes. You have a room with 10 liters in total." Izuku drew a square. "We know that on one side there are 3 fixed liters. X is what's missing to reach 10. How much blood does person X have so the room is full?"
Toga looked at the drawing. Her brain, which rejected cold abstraction, latched immediately onto the visceral narrative.
"Seven!" she shouted. "If I take 3 away from 10, 7 are left! The person has 7 liters! That's a very big person!"
"Exactly!" Izuku smiled brightly. "That's solving for X. You're simply looking for what's missing to complete the scene."
I watched from my chair, equal parts fascinated and horrified.
"Now, let's make it harder," Izuku continued, animated. "If you have 2 knives 2X) and you add 4 old knives, and that equals having 14 knives in total... how many new knives are in each group?"
"Hmm..." Toga frowned, biting the tip of her pen. But it wasn't frustration, it was concentration. "If I take away the 4 old ones from the 14... I have 10 left. And if I have two groups... Five! Five new knives in each hand!"
"Awesome! You got it!" Izuku high-fived her.
Toga let out a delighted giggle and looked at the textbook with new eyes.
"It's easy! Math is about sharing things and cutting things!"
"Basically, yes," Izuku said, laughing.
I leaned back in the chair, crossing my arms behind my head.
It was incredible. I tried to hammer logic into her skull, but Izuku had simply changed the language. He had taken Toga's obsession and turned it into a pedagogical tool.
Toga looked at Izuku with absolute adoration.
"Izuku-kun is very smart," she said, leaning in and poking his cheek with her finger. "And you explain very softly. I like your voice. It's like a purr."
Izuku turned red as a tomato.
"T-thank you... just trying to help."
"Katsuki-kun is smart, but he's a brute," she added, sticking her tongue out at me. "You are the kind brain. He is the angry brain."
I snorted.
"Shut up and keep solving, vampire. Or I'll tell Izuku to stop using blood metaphors and go back to using apples."
"No! Not apples!" Toga went back to the notebook quickly.
I watched the two of them. The green-haired boy explaining patiently and the blonde nodding with bloodthirsty enthusiasm.
The team was complete.
I provided the strength, the direction, and the shelter. Izuku provided the strategy, the empathy, and the teaching. And Toga... Toga provided the controlled chaos and, if my predictions were correct, she would be our infiltration specialist.
"Hey, Deku," I said, interrupting his lesson on artery fractions.
"Yes, Kacchan?"
"Good job."
Izuku smiled. Toga smiled.
Yeah. We were ready for whatever came next. Even if what came next was middle school and negligent parents. We had our own pack now.
Author's note: I've always thought the trope of Toga being saved but literally adopted into Izuku's house is strange and illogical.
I think the unofficial adoption theme is more accurate.
What do you think of the story's development? Is the pacing too slow or fast? Any ideas for additions to the story?