Disclaimer! I do not own My Hero Academia or any of its characters!

"Prayer beads?"

"Yes."

Shouta stared at the object forming between his hands. Even after countless amount of time questioning the point of the exercise, there was still no answer to be given.

"But, prayer beads?"

"Yes. Now either shut up or I'll shut you up, brat."

Flinching slightly, Shouta knew his 'mentor' of sorts was more than a little irritated. Despite it being only a week after his recovery from the incident at USJ, the other vampire had deemed him more than ready for training. In truth, it felt more than a little uncomfortable and awkward for refer the smaller vampire as 'shishou,' but it's not like Shouta had much of a choice…

As he focused on the task at hand – literally – Shouta pondered why in the world he needed prayer beads of all things.

"Good. Now form prayer beads."

"What?"

"Did I stutter? I said form prayer beads."

"Okay, I understand that I 'need' to learn how to form weapons with my aura alone, but prayer beads?"

"If you can actually do it, I'll tell you. Otherwise, get to work, brat."

"… Please stop calling me brat, it feels more than a little weird."

"Hmph. I'll call you whatever I want to call you."

"…"

Izuku watched his new apprentice attempt to form prayer beads. Pondering over the situation, Izuku could only wonder why he decided to take another apprentice of all things, and a halfling to boot!

Huffing slightly in amusement as the youngling's attempt blew up in his face again, Izuku closed his eyes, using his aura to feel the comforting presence of his own prayer beads.

Strange, wasn't it? Kitsunes have hoshi no tamas, tanukis have … kintamas, ghosts have spirit chains, and werewolves have their curses. Yet, here were vampires with rosaries and prayer beads. The very thing that humans thought would hurt them, along with garlic and stakes.

Izuku snorted at the thought of the middle ages with their attempts to kill his species. Most of the attempts were humorous. Others… not so much.

Thinking about it, Izuku thought about the irony of their chosen item.

After all, how ironic is it that the same thing that humans tried to kill them with is the same thing that keeps them from losing all control?