the start of chapter 15 of the battle, the war
Izuku looked at the bag of blood, and was reminded of when he bit Kacchan… how good the blood had tasted. He felt sick.
“Izuku…” Inko said, gripping both his shoulders tightly. “This changes nothing, okay? I’m still your mother, and I’ll love you no matter what.”
Izuku’s eyes teared up. “But… I don’t want to have to hurt other people to survive!” he yelled.
Inko shook her head. “I’ll give you my blood - as much of it as you need, okay?”
“But - I don’t want to hurt you. I hurt Kacchan already, without even meaning to, I bit him, and the blood tasted good, but I hurt him, and I could hurt you the same way. I’m a monster!”
Inko levelled Izuku with her stern gaze. “Izuku. You’re not a monster. The quirk doesn’t make the villain - I’ve taught you this. And a simple blood draw won’t hurt me, okay sweetie. It’ll be fine.”
Izuku hiccupped, but the knot in his chest loosened. His mother was right. The quirk didn’t make the villain - he had only bitten Kacchan in the heat of a fight, acting on pure instinct. If he used his head, he wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Izuku didn’t want to hurt anyone. He was quiet on the train back to their house, the bag of blood clinking between them. Izuku didn’t want to drink it. As Inko opened the front door, Izuku followed behind her like a ghost.
Back at home, Inko gave Izuku a vial of blood. “Drink this, sweetie.”
Izuku scrunched up his nose, ignoring the pleasant smell. “But -”
“Izuku. It’ll make you feel better,” Inko reassured.
With a sigh, Izuku followed his mother’s direction. Just like swallowing medicine, he thought to himself. Except this medicine was pumped from a human vein and was now probably congealed and - Izuku tipped his head back, downing the vial in one go and ignoring the enjoyable taste to it. Blood wasn’t meant to taste good.
“There we go,” Inko said with a sigh. “Did it - did it taste good?” she asked cautiously.
Izuku nodded, feeling a little bit sick still. “Yeah,” he said with a shaky voice, “It did.”
Izuku continued on with his day, a tingling feeling in his stomach as he went. It didn’t feel good to eat human blood, Izuku found. He felt sick - the sickness from a lack of blood was slowly subsiding, but now Izuku was left with a sick feeling in his gut, knowing that he’d drunk blood.
What was he going to tell Kacchan? Izuku felt sick at the thought. He didn’t want to tell his friend about this, didn’t want to see his reaction. There was no way it would be positive.
