Fresh Flesh (Bkdk, Dkbk)

- Chapter 59 -

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He feels a thousand emotions at once, and he wipes the tears that had surprisingly gathered at the corner of his eyes during that rush of memories. His head feels like it just split itself in half, and his ears are ringing.

He grits his teeth, the pressure keeping him focused. With heavy steps, he runs out of the room and turns down the hall, looking for Izuku. His footsteps echo in the dark, and he keeps searching.

He needs to fix this, find him and get him to understand so that they can get over this. He will be damned if he lets the same thing that happened when they were kids happen again.

—- T —-

"Ahh, we're never going to find ghost girls! That's the only reason I came here, damn it!" Mineta looks at him, his eyes intense. "The least you can do is help me out, Todoroki! You would think that a handsome rich guy like you would be a ghost girl magnet!"

Ever since Midoriya left him alone with Mineta to go with Bakugou, he has felt the slight pressure of a growing headache. It only grows more intense the more Mineta complains about the lack of panty pictures and girls in their area.

"Why didn't I just follow the girls? At least then I could stare up someone's skirt..."

The boy sulks, dragging his feet. Todoroki walks slower, keeping his hands at his sides in order to fight the urge to wrap them around the boy's neck.

He stops for a moment, confusion growing roots in his heart. Why is he actually thinking about killing one of his classmates? Mineta may be annoying and disgusting, but that doesn't give anyone, let alone him, the right to...

A cruel laugh bubbles up from his mind, not his.

'It's because you want to feed!'

The laugh dies away, and his annoyance rises. The last thing he needs is this... monster thing continuing to talk to him.

'Well, I'm the one who wants to. But not on this human! His soul won't taste as good as I-zu-ku's, not even close!"

It says Midoriya's name like a prayer whispered by the lips of a devout follower, begging for even a taste of salvation and freedom. It makes Todoroki's skin want to crawl away from his bones in disgust.

'Find him! Find him and become one! Do it!'

He tries to shut it out by focusing on something else, but the grating sound of Mineta's voice is like someone dragging their nails against a chalkboard.

"--And it's seriously frustrating! It's not like I'm asking for much! A picture a day keeps the blue balls at bay, you know!--"

His fist tightens and he digs his fingernails into the fat of his palm, their footsteps muffled. He hasn't heard anyone walking around for at least twenty minutes.

Everyone must be pretty spread out and even if they did hear Mineta scream, it's not like it will last long. They will all probably try and find a reasonable reason for hearing a sound like that and move on.

He could get away with it.

The sound of hunger that rumbles in his gut isn't a surprise, though he doesn't know if it's his own or the monsters. It's all consuming, like a separate entity.

It begs for him to fill his stomach with something other than the granola bars in his backpack. There is only one other thing around.

He gets a protest in his head, but he knows for certain it isn't him who's saying no.

'Gross gross gross! Don't do it! Don't eat him! Gross!'

Mineta looks at him, furrowing his brows in confusion. He feels his eyes lock on him, and everything else blurs into an unimportant background.

"You hungry? Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty hungry too. What do you have in that backpack?"

Mineta reaches over, his hands going right for the pouch on the backpack, and in a swift movement, Todoroki grabs his hands. He has never felt his body move so fluidly before.

With his hands in his grip, he pushes him back and watches as his head slams into the ground. Mineta lets out a gasped inhale of air as it is knocked out of him, sputtering and gasping.

It doesn't last long because, now on top of him, Todoroki grips the sides of his head and starts to slam it down. Mineta struggles, trying to wiggle and kick and scream, but he just keeps slamming and slamming.

With the addition of Minetas screams is the screaming in his head.

'Gross! His soul is going to taste gross! I don't wanna eat it! Don't you dare!'

He doesn't listen to either of them, opening his mouth and clamping down on the fat of Mineta's arm. He's not screaming anymore, and he can see brain matter peeking out from behind his head.

Fluid starts to puddle around his head and Todoroki continues eating. The feeling of warm blood, thick flesh, and bones breaking is the only thing he processes. He refuses to think about it any harder.

If he did, he would probably throw up and it would have gone to waste. But uncontrollably, he gags.

'Throw it up!! Throw it up, throw it up!!! I don't want this gross shit!! Get me Izuku! I want to eat Izuku! I want Izuku's soul!'

His hands shake but he keeps eating, fighting the way his throat constricts. Instead, he focuses on the hunger slowly going away.

'Gaaahhh!! I hate you! I hate you! I'll never forget this, human!'

The words, 'I won't either.' go unsaid.

—- I —-

He doesn't know what he is supposed to do. Is he even supposed to do something? Of course he is! Innocent people are going to get hurt if they don't get it together! But...

Izuku doesn't know where he is going, or what he is going to do, but that doesn't matter right now. His stomach is completely empty now that he's thrown everything up, leaving only a ball of emotions mixed into one complicated ball.

It weighs him down and he slows, trying to catch his breath. He needs time to think, to get his shit together and-

"Mi-bro-iya! Whatcha doing!?"