Hello everybody and- wait, no... no... I'm sorry...

8 months huh? Well shit...

Hello everybody and welcome back, finally, to the next chapter of Adrenaline.

It's been a while. If you've forgotten, hello! My name is Jack and uh... yea I ain't updated in a while and I can only apologise for that mess. As I explained in the chapter I uploaded a few days ago, I have had an awful lot going on in my life - I'm now in college, I'm a year older, I have exams, I have more stress, I have drama, I have broken equipment, I have a broken spirit, I have a saddened outlook, I have... a lot of shit basically. And video games - can't forget the copious amounts of video games.

But yeah, all I can say is that I am sorry for such a long wait. Writer's block and the annoying panic and strain it caused me was one of the main reasons why I've been away, and I fucking hated every day I couldn't write. Then, as I said, I've had college and exams and problems and stuff to do with moving to into college life. And theeeen, a lot of my equipment broke and is basically unusable, meaning both Fanfiction work and college work have become pretty tough to effectively do and complete. And theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen... the copious amount of video games. As I said though, all I can do is apologise for not updating and keeping all of you hanging for so long.

Another thing... this story, just kept gaining so many followers and favourites since I've been gone - damn, we're nearing 1000 already... Just... I can't help but thank all of you, every single fucking one of yous that has stuck by me and stuck around for so damn long. Truly, just thank you...

And one more thing... I've now got a (Patr eon)... Yay I know. Before anyone asks, nothing to do with Fanfiction will be walled off in anyway what so ever - no exclusive chapters or anything, just a separate third party thing. I created a (Patr eon) not too long ago just to... help with my current situation, with college and work and just average life. I love writing and doing writing and helping people write and do anything to do with writing, however nothing in my current space gives me the time and access to do that effectively. What this service does grant me is the ability to earn money, keep doing this and do it regularly, to a high standard and then go even further beyond by helping those who need any advice or anything with writing. Of course, you wouldn't be getting nothing for donating: I do writing commissions of anything you want, and am going to be making writing tip pdfs and word documents and whatnots to just give people help and advice on whatever they need, whether it be symbolism or character development or anything, as well as 1-to-1 writing advice or in depth review and criticism of work. Of course, if any of you want to donate based on my merit as a Fanfiction writer, then all I can do is thank and praise you. Some of you may think of me as greedy or something and you're completely welcome to have that opinion. I'm just trying to get by and you're welcome to any and all opinions on that.

If you do want to donate, either follow the link in my bio description or type in Aniimeziing in the (Patr eon) search engine and I should come up. Any and all donations are welcomed and I will thank you profusely and be eternally grateful, no matter the size of the donation.

Thank you to my first AngryHenry, even if he doesn't read this story, I want to thank him for what's hes done so far. Truly, no matter how small, the fact that you donated means so much.

And now onto the reviews!

Guest: He would just owe them for being his friend I guess, considering how lonely and how abandoned Izuku must have felt in his childhood so having friends would be a massive deal. As for Iida, he'll be fine, he's got tough skin... plus, you'll see how he is this chapter. Yes, Izuku will still learn Full Cowl just... maybe not on its own - All I'm gonna say for now, just have to wait and see. Hehe, I doubt his adorableness will ever deplete.

Te Nellis: Thank you my friend!

Johny Spectre: Ah thats very good to know! You're work is actually really good so don't feel devalued, we can all grow as writers. Hehe yup, Bakugo will just be screaming and all that - "DIE BASTARD DIE! BUT REMATCH ME FIRST, THEN DIE!"

Leafeon12: Thank you so much! Here ya go!

MassEffect-TxS: Heya man, sorry I've been away for so long, been caught up with so much stuff. Really happy to see how well your stories been doing, its been such a great thing to witness and I'm really happy for you man. I'm here whenever. And awww, now you're making ME blush!

Ender The Multiverse Detective: Very thank.

R-King 93: Aw thank you so much!

Guest: Ooooh 10's pushin it man, and everyone needs a lil' borin in their life.

Guest: Hm I suppose... then again, a harem is taboo... and so is gettin with a murderous, blood sucking psycho villain so I think I have taboo covered hehe.

Guest: I agree, flawed MC's are fucking magnificent and they are such good characters that truly make you connect and empathise with them. Characters like Kirito or something for example are just annoying and piss poor when it comes to writing - Fanfic writers can create a more indepth and personal character then those seen within the original source material, which is a very good and very amazing part of Fanfiction. But yeah, unique MCs do exist.

TreeOfSakuras: Hehe welcome back my friend. Adding Momo is eh for me... but its sorta growing on me. Probably not still tho. 5 is a good limit.

Guest: I like the ideas but I need to clarify a few things: its not an actual Adrenaline rush that fuels his power, it is simply named Adrenaline. Instead, it is a rush of energy and a release of collected power that is unleashed when Izuku takes any sort of pain, with the amount of pain he takes dictating the power and the time he releases energy and exudes more power for. He could have a light shock, which is what his gauntlets sort of do, but it wouldn't make him as powerful. However the music and everything are very good ideas and could work really work in specific circumstances so thank you.

MichaelTop10: Why thank you!

LeoTheSage: Hm... yeah basically. One Piece and Naruto subconsciously poking their head into my Fanfiction, huh? Hehe.

ThomasPheasant: Thank you man and here you go!

Reviewing Anon: Yea I know, sorry. I do hope I do it justice cause all of the girls have really unique things that they can each have with Izuku and I have plenty of ideas for each - just hope I execute it well enough to be serviceable.

Sonic Knight121: Hehe thank you! Eh its not too bad because I love talking and interacting with you guys, so I'm never wasting any effort at all, so I'm never tired of doing it. And aaaah thats cool, just got like 5x more weeby. I hope you enjoy this chapter my friend. Ja ne!

Guest: Yup! I will be doing that exact thing down the line, you a mind reader? How did you know my secrets?

Superior Tennyson: Eh is Mineta really that bad... like sure, he can get his ass kicked, but is he really that bad? Just my opinion is all...

Guts-R: Wow... thank you so much. That's such high praise that... wow, thank you. Really. That means so much and makes me so damn happy.

The Howling Behemoth: Push it! Uh! And thank you!

King Alpha Wolf: Its all about utility - he can heal, but not to the point of excess. Izuku is already a tactful person but with this, he needs to be ever more so: when to launch a more powerful attack, how long to heal, when to use a lighter attack, when to focus on offence and when on defence, its all a very mixed and structured series of events that he needs to use in order to utalise his Quirk to its fullest potential.

Memento Mori - The Truth: Would you believe me if I said I'd never even watched Bezerk before writing this story? Seriously, not a thing. Didn't even know that's what he did until I researched into it after so many people bought this fact up. Guess he really is sorta like him... huh. Eh oh well, a happy accident.

Undeniable Uzumaki: You're welcome to that point of view but creative freedom is a thing. Yea, its unrealistic and yea, it was pretty stupid of me to put in and yes you're completely entitled to that view - your actually correct in assuming that. However, in a world where people see Heroes get beat down all the time and Heroes get idolised and made into real life celebrities, as well as a world where people can breath fire or shoot electricity as a norm, then wouldn't the sexual interest and the views of the idealised form change? Even fetishes would adapt with the advancement of Quirks, so eyeing up a boy for being buff even in a precarious situation wouldn't be a particularly strange thing. However you are probably correct in real life - just gotta stick to this and my point of view too. Also, as I said people can breathe fire - its not too hard to believe he could stand. Also, it's explained he could heal later on, but I hadn't explained it at that point so its all good. Thank you for reviewing.

NR: Now! Only... 8 months late... Hehe... But really, thank you!

Guest: Yeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeye. Gotta add some sugar to that cinnamon roll... my analogies are weird, but eh.

FusedHalves: Hehe well thank you, I'm glad you enjoy both parts of my story.

Serthrek871: Hehe thank you, I'm happy you like the premise and the story so far

Astoon: It had to be brutal: I like writing brutal. But yeah, just sorta... step a few to left Todorki and it'll all be good.

Zy-Guy: Woah... thank you. Calling my work brilliance is a massive honour so truly, thank you so much.

Samurai Jay: Good! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Guest: Thank you!

Mr Vegerott23: Here ya go! Bein continued right now!

HeroLover27: Thank you! Here ya go my friend!

Red The Pokemon Master: Yea sorry man. Glad to see you around though!

And now... ONTO CHAPTER 7 OF ADRENALINE AFTER SO LONG!

Enjoy!

Iida's head rung.

It was a deep pounding that smashed and crashed against the walls of his mind, colliding against the fleshy walls with a fierce brutality that manifested throughout the rest of his body – his hands were coiled in on themselves, nails gripping and digging into his hardened skin while he paced and dashed around the room he was confined in, locked like a prison he entered of his own free will. If the boy was to identify and relate the sensation to anything... he'd relate it to running with his Quirk.

A harsh jet of air would shoot out, ricocheting from wall to wall in a burst of energy and aggression that tore and ripped at his head in clean and precise shots. A rough pounding and dragging urge grated and splintered the floor of his mind, kicking and sprinting all over his fragile state with careless abandon and reckless authority. A shocking blast of explosive heat shattered and caused a cataclysmic retreat within Iida, ambition and pride drying out and shrivelling up as they lay dying bathing in pride.

Guilt. Guilt and pride. That was all Iida's mind-set boiled down to; every key state, every emotion and action could be traced back to the all-consuming status of pride that ate away at his sprit, or the sickening companionship that guilt granted him, absorbing and indoctrinating the teen into a deprived cycle of shamed friendship.

Even now, the trainee Hero could feel the pulsing and breathing heart of his Quirk shudder and shake, rattling and flaring up against the fabric of his clothing like. Now that Iida heard it, the shallow palpitations and shuddering sounded like a wounded creature, like a dying animal – it sounded as if his Quirk was choking on his ambition, was being smothered by his guilt and forced to swallow his pride.

Iida was the wounded animal, a sick and disturbed individual whose brain was eating itself as his body decayed into a mess of metal and flesh.

However... deep inside, he knew he didn't have the right to feel this way, to feel hurt and injured.

Not while his brother was sat right behind him.

Stealing a breath from the air and forcing it inside himself, Iida turned from the open expanse of the hospital window and shifted back to meet the unopened gaze of his older brother. Tubes and wires prodded and branded Tensei, stabbing and draining him of the humanity he once held as a powerful and influential Hero – to see him laying here, coddled in medical equipment and cradled by the soft beeping of his heart monitor, robbed him of that humanity in a world where the definition of human no longer meant what it used to, it was no longer the straight line it once was: he was having the life and reason he built up for others snatched from him in a cruel instance of madness of followed by machinery.

Iida's rage and anger bubbled over, sinking and melting into the puddle that was his emotional state, mixing with his sadness and tragedy that overflowed his body. The boy could feel his body quake in self-destruction and terror, his teeth mash and grind together in fury and fear, his eyes narrow and sharpen in desolation and retreat... yet he knew he could not blame the machinations that shackled Tensei here – in fact, the slithering snakes of science that bit and injected his body with venom were some of the only things keeping him alive.

No... the one to blame for his brother's suffering, for his brother's pain and absolution, for his brother's imprisonment was one man... a man plagued by the artificial tyranny of a villain, shroud in the cloak of a Hero.

The Hero Killer: Stain.

Eventually his brain overloaded, sparking and breaking as it was flooded by immediate thoughts of vengeance and retribution for his role model, to claw and claim back the life that was robbed from his brother. His eyes shook, leaking and brimming with tears as his hands gripped and dug into his shirt – only the soft sound of quiet whimpering and the steady pulsing of the heart monitor echoed and shook throughout the room.

"Big brother..."

"Raise your head T-Tenya."

Iida's eyes exploded open, his lids shooting into the excess of his skull. Cautiously, he glanced up. Staring back at him, face and body obscured by masks and repulsions of medicine, was the battered and smiling form of Tensei Iida.

His eyes were lulled, his entire face looked tired and like well-worn stone: eroded, damaged and cracked by fatigue. His hair was matted by sweat and blood, staining his creed and attention with impurity. His mouth was chocked and caged in by a plastic prison that siphoned and drove air directly into his collapsed lungs. His body was restrained and regulated by foreign agents, that stabbed and tore into his flesh with reckless abandon and unrelenting force. His legs... Iida did not dare look down at his legs for it might entirely crush his spirit and damn his soul into subjugation if he even dwelled on the grievous wounds that fostered during Tensei's apocalyptic encounter.

He was a mess, a complete an utter mess of a man.

A mess of a Hero...

Shaking his head free of those insidious thoughts and breaking the branches of tears that streamed down his cheeks, Iida forced his brother a smile.

"Hello brother: I am very glad you are well."

An exasperated sigh left Tensei's mouth, tiredness and pain oozing out through his breath. It was physically painful to watch Tensei move and act. Sucking in a breath, he tried to lean up, shoving his pillows below his stagnant form, before slowly rising up to meet his brother eye-to-eye – he barely made it a few seconds before he started spluttering into the insides of his mask, blood and spit fogging up the plastic. Panic sprang up over Iida's form, the teen dashing forward to help his relation.

"Tensei!"

"I'm- *cough cough* I'm fine Tenya, sit back down."

Pushing his body back against the steel railing, his breathing stilled with the rapid beating and pulsing of the heart monitoring shooting throughout the room. Sighing, Tensei shot back a strained smile to his younger brother.

"So then Tenya, how's school been going for you this week – we haven't had much time to talk lately."

Sucking in a breath he didn't know he had let go, Iida pushed a hand to his chest and sighed. Rounding the side of his brother's bed, he sat down on the wooden chair that sat there.

"It is going very well my brother. Everyone is just recovering from the Sports Festival and the class seems to be in correct form."

"Ah well that's very good. I've been catching up on a few of the fights after I woke up – you did really well little brother, I'm proud of you."

Suddenly, the tainted pride that had been eating away at Iida dispersed, instead being swallowed by a positive influence of pride. A large smile beamed on his face as he nodded at his brother.

"Yea brother! Thank you very much! It is a great honour to be complimented by a Hero of your calibre brother!"

"Hehe well... ex-Hero now remember?"

Suddenly a permafrost shrouds the room in cold.

It was hard to breathe, the sudden exclamation of remembrance emerging in a horrid malformation of memory and forcing itself down each boy's throat, Tenya more than Tensei. Even after it had warmed up, even after the ice had thawed, making way for familiar conversation, Iida couldn't pull his head out of that statement.

"So, I'm not sure I've told you this yet Tenya, but I met this really cool Hero a couple of months ago – smart guy too. His Quirk was super unique, something about Gliding I believe. Anyway, I met him when we were on a jog and it was- "

Even as Iida nodded and motioned that he was listening, he wasn't. His head was numb. His mind was numb. His body was numb. Every word Tensei was spitting at him was just deflected by those words that cracked open his maw before.

"Ex-Hero... Ex-Hero..."

It just kept bouncing and shooting through his head like a rocket. His brother, the great and influential Ingenium, was no more – his empire of Heroes would be passed on, his position as an amazing and incredible Hero would be noted in the history books, his title would be... would be relinquished. To hear him say it again, that he was paralysed, meant that it was actually true and that it was a fact he had to face.

Ingenium was dead.

And he was supposed to be his successor.

That very fact shook Iida so much that he almost felt like cracking, scattering his shattered shards all over his brother's feet – a testament to the complete and utter failure he would be as the next Ingenium. It shook and disturbed him, the amount of longing and trust that was being imbued into his legacy: why was he being chosen to succeed? Compared to so many others, people like Izuku and Uraraka and Bakugo and Todoroki, his achievements were minimal and his judgement poor – he may act brash and brazen, authoritarian and smart, but in reality, he was merely the shell of his brother and everything he had come to be.

It was so maddening and so insane of an idea that Iida just couldn't comprehend it. And the entire reason all of this pressure, all of this judgement, all of this pain and suffering was being placed upon his family was all due to one sick and deranged man... Stain.

Gritting his teeth and clenching his fist around his leg, Iida's mind ignored all outward though and reason, all calling.

"-ida?"

He sacrificed his focus and logic of the current moment to dictate his reasoning and his attention on the Hero Killer completely; a mad psychopath that placed his brother in hospital and him doubting his place in society as a Hero, a psychotic murder that trampled around Japan wreaking havoc on the innocent and the worthy, an absolute crazed maniac who feels as though his ideology and reasoning will triumph above those of the Heroes!

"Iida?"

Iida's entire head swarmed and swam in the bloodlust of the Hero Killler, rivers and rivers of blood pouring and dashing throughout his skull just to cement the abominable and horrific acts of a man whose loyalties lay in the tactics of war and death. Stain reaps and commands death where he wishes and when he wishes, punishing those who would stand up to defend this country for what, they're bravery? Why did the actions of Heroes not matter to Stain? Why did his brothers actions to Stain? Why will his actions not matter to Stai-

"IIDA!"

A cool, calming force struck down on Iida's coiled fingers, the warm and comforting presence of family leaking deep into his bones. Releasing himself from his rage, Iida slowly turned his face towards his brothers, panic and shame shining deep within his eyes as he gazed towards Tensei. In response, his brother just gave a calm and collected smile.

"You haven't taken up the name, yet have you?"

Iida sighed – Tensei always had a trick to figure out what he was thinking.

"No, not yet brother."

"Any particular reason why?"

He was poising a question but from the tone of his voice, the brief sprinkles and dips of serenity that littered his tongue, it was as if he could assume what Iida's answer was going to be - that his brother would not able to take on the mantle just yet. Hanging his head, Iida just sighed.

"I just do not know if I'm ready yet. I'm still in school and it's so soon after your attack that I just don't think it'd be appropriate at this time. And then there's also th- "

Midway through his rant, he heard another coarse sigh emerge out of Tensei. Then, in a swift movement, the same hand that had been used to calm and relax Iida's turbulent spirit, jolted up to meet his head in a soft pat.

"It's okay little brother, you still have plenty of time to become Ingenium."

Ruffling his hair, he offered his brother another kind and heart-warming smile, one which showcased the pure radiance and passion that Tensei housed for his brother and his future career as a Hero. He understood the burden that Heroic actions bought, the torturous acts and recluses that the mind would wander to in tomes of pain and times where they were supposed to be strong – sometimes Tensei even thought that maybe people forgot that Heroes weren't just idols or advertisement or figureheads, that maybe they forgot that Heroes were people too and that people were allowed moments of weakness and strife as well as those they may protect. He knew that burden... and he understood that this is what awaited Tenya in the future.

So, he needed to shelter his fall, even ever so slightly.

Pulling his hand off of his brother's head, he continued speaking.

"Living up to the name of a pre-established Hero can be tough, let me tell you. It's a uphill battle that throws rock after rock after rock at you, never ceasing not even when you reach the top. However, there is always an advantage to being a successor – you get the equipment and the tips and the tools from the predecessor to help you with the tough bits, yea? So, in time, when you're ready, I will teach you how to climb and give you the tools needed to become Ingenium, Tenya. I promise."

A moment of silence passed the two. Then, an emergent look of awe and joy overcame Iida's eyes, glazing over in the sheer relief and the sheer amount of pride that Tensei's words has imbued him with. The growth of corrupted pride that had earlier sat upon his heart had been cut away, its roots and branches torn from their sockets and left to burn. Now, he felt renewed, he felt empowered and he felt enlightened by this new discovery and the lights of his very soul were set ablaze. Shooting his hands up to his face, Iida began to gesture and command the air like a conductor.

"Yes brother! Thank you for your kind words and guidance! I will surely grow and become a far greater Hero with your words and wisdom!"

Tensei let out a hoarse laugh.

"Whatever you say Tenya, just don't forget to follow your own words now and again. Plus, if you aren't going to become Ingenium anytime soon, maybe I can pick it back up – Ingenium: The Wheelchair Hero!"

Striking a dynamic and fluid pose as he moved, Tensei managed to elicit a few automated chuckles from his brother before his throat ceased up and a riot of coughs and splutters shot up out of his mouth and all over his face mask – the harsh pings and clicks of the heart monitor bounced with disturbed excitement around the room to follow the tune of Tensei's suffering. Once again, panic broke through the flames within Iida, but a quick wave of his brother's arm paused his onslaught. The moment paused, the shuffling of cables and the creasing of plastic followed the agonising smothering of Tensei's breath.

Glancing downward at the floor, Iida's guilt began to eat away at him once more, being able to do nothing while his brother sat suffering – there was nothing he could do, no great plan to eradicate the damage inflicted to him, no victorious charge to lead a revolution against the perpetrator, no anything!

Then... sin galloped into Iida's mind.

Although he couldn't relieve Tensei's agony, take away his suffering, he could still find the man who committed this pain.

He could find and take down Stain himself.

Fury and vengeance ran over the teens body, digging their stained claws into his feeble flesh and shattered mind to puppeteer his body like a marionette. Turning towards Tensei, Iida spoke up once more.

"I have to go now brother, I have school work I must complete for the due date."

Tensei quirked an eyebrow, the finale of his coughing fit finally subsiding.

"Hm? Well okay then little brother. Knowing you the due date probably isn't for a few weeks is it Tenya?"

"Yes... yes you're right."

Straining his head to look directly at his confused brother, Iida gave him a wide smile reminiscent of Tensei's own.

"But do not worry brother, I will sort it out in time."

However, to the man who so regularly gave out such smiles, something was... off about his brothers; it was as if it had been warped, twisted and conjoined to some sickening part of fate that twirled and morphed the happiness on his face to rage, his teeth were grinding and mashing against one another in a way that seemed like a battle of cartilage, one set hammering down and bringing catastrophe to the ones below it and his eyes were pulling against his skin, poking and dragging heavily along Iida's flesh in an uncontrollable and almost feral way. Something was off... Tensei just wasn't sure what.

Pushing himself off the chair, the UA teen began to collect himself and compose his things. Every now and again, Tensei would catch him when his facade dropped, making way for an icy cold face of malice and torment that thawed and froze anything it looked at simultaneously, stranding everyone Iida looked upon in a blaze of burning cold. To what he was having such a heavy reaction to, to why he had to trap himself between a shell of ignorance and the true scale of his plummeting emotions, that fact was unfortunately lost on his brother. Finally, Iida had reapplied his blazer and collected his bags, making his way towards the door. Swiftly spinning on his heel, Iida put on another manufactured smile for Tensei.

"Goodbye Tensei. I'll be back to see you soon."

As he went to open the door, he was halted.

"You have that Hero experience thing soon right, Tenya?"

A pause. A shuffle.

"I do, yes."

"Okay. Well good luck on it and thanks for coming, little brother. Just... just don't do anything stupid."

Bending his neck to look back at his idol, at his role-model and the person who influenced his entire life and desire to become a strong and great Hero, Iida told him the first lie he had ever uttered.

"I won't Tensei. I hope you rest better tonight. Goodbye brother."

"Goodbye Tenya."

Throwing open the door and storming out with renewed vigour, Iida collapsed as soon as he was out of sight; he deflated, his cogs and machinery slowing to a halt as he supported his malfunctioning body with the concrete walls off seclusion. His head was spinning, pounding even more then it was inside of Tensei's room. It was full of thoughts that stretched and breached the surface of his skull and brokered a fierce treaty of pain across his entire being. So many things swirled and swarmed his soft mind with poison and charms, so many things grew and imbedded their glossy roots and tainted branches into his veins and arteries in the hope to drain his entire being of life and of reason, so many things pulled his body around he was a puppet on the strings of his ideals. He felt unclean in his own skin yet at the same time, Iida felt... liberated. He felt free and unshackled by the same biology which once bound him.

Lifting a fist to meet his eye line, Iida felt a surge of action and a rush of adrenaline rocket throughout his frame. Whatever convictions and whatever doubts he had were nullified and disintegrate by the sheer effect and divination of his exaltation. Iida's prize was concrete, it was finalised and cemented to the foundation of his bones and mixed eternally into his blood where it could imbue and grant a fullness to his condition.

Tenya Iida felt absolute and total clarity in his mental track – he was going to take down the Hero Killer, punish him for his neurotic and damnable actions and then claim back a piece of his life, of Tensei's life.

This was his design.

Picking himself up off of his supports, the inner working of Iida's gadgetry began to spring back to life and the automated metal man began to trail off into uncertainty, a haze of vengeance and wrath leaking from his twitching and breaking body of steel. Iida vowed to destroy the ideology of the Hero Killer, to wipe clean Stain from society... yet the branches had grown deep, and his pride had become corrupt once more, pumping heartlessness through his bloodstream alongside victory.

Iida had been poisoned by pride.

On the other side of the solitary cage, Tensei sat bathed in silence.

In the Ex-Hero's mind, something swarmed. He had witnessed something before Iida had left, he had seen something he had never wished to bear witness to – his little brother, the only person he ever wanted to look up to him and follow in his footsteps, was drenched in bloodlust and fury. Iida's face, contorted and bent into a snarl, pitted tooth against tooth in a grotesque and deadly machination of injury while his fists were clenched so tight they looked like snowfall on his knuckles.

Yet it was the maelstrom that brewed in his eyes which concerned Tensei most of all.

A whirlwind of hate and animosity grew and festered in the whites of Iida's eyes, decaying and devouring them until it left nothing but a husk of his younger brothers shining light, one which had been snatched and stolen to make way for his rage. Buried deep below all of that hatred sat sympathy and empathy... which was what Tensei feared the most.

It meant that Iida wasn't fighting and rebelling for his own fate – instead, he was fighting for Tenei's robbed life.

A sudden chilling fear overcame Tensei as he thought about the implications and consequences of this revelation. Looking over to the window side, he let out a shaky sigh into the frosty air.

"Be safe Iida... please be safe."

Izuku understood pain.

To him, pain was no longer the sinister monarch that ruled and reigned over the biology of his condition, it had no throne nor crown to build its standing upon or to command his actions from. After only having One For All for a few months, Izuku had managed to unshackle himself from the tyranny of pain, unbolt and free of his confines through sheer force of will and utter agony – he had the scars, the trophies and the mistakes, from previous escape attempts and breaches of torment to showcase his devotion to the empire but now he had to carry those burdens past him. He had outgrown agony.

Now, the physical strain of cracking a bone or splitting skin, the vast outpour of dripping blood or tearing sinew, was dwarfed to him – he had kissed agony and been bit by suffering so much that it was a trivial experience now, one Izuku felt more flustered by then one he dreaded.

Despite this, the Quirk Inheritor didn't revel in pain, he didn't wish it on others or wish to dive headlong into such a feeling. To Izuku Midoriya, the anatomy of pain was like being thrown into cold water – icy, freezing, burning and suspenseful all at the same time, drowning in surprise and tension yet in a burst of relief, the strain begins to swim and float in a bed of contentment. All for the greater outcome, and if he needed to trade blows with injury and suffering in order to break free of more restraints and to be greater than he ever could be on his own, then Izuku would take every hit head on.

However, the cruelty about pain is that it's branches don't just imbed themselves into one person – they're nature is to suck the triumph from multiple hosts.

And it was this fact why Izuku despised pain.

Breaking out from his head, Izuku was bought back to reality by the wailing in the air and the wetness on his shirt. Glancing down at his chest, a mop of familiar green hair sat thumping itself against Izuku's body in rapid succession.

Inko Midoriya, crying her eyes out into her son's chest.

"IZUKUUUUUUUUUU! I-I WAS S-SO WORRIED, I THOUGHT Y-YOU MIGHT HAVE D-D-DIED! WAAAAH!"

"I-It's Okay Mom, I'm fine see?"

"WAAAAAH! MY BABY BOY!"

Giving his mother a light smile as she still cried and sobbed into his chest, he watched on as her tears dropped and branched down his body, dripped and grew like leaves all over his pale flesh, crystalline roots and flowers springing up everywhere from the cracks and fissures in his skin- Izuku's eyes specifically followed the twisting roots that trailed over his scars and laceration. These were his rewarding for indulging in pain. The grooves and curves in his hands were an eternal reminder of his partaking in agony, the constant act reminding Izuku of all the damage he's caused himself... and the pain that was then inflicted onto other people because of him.

More specifically, to people like the crying woman in this arm.

Wrapping his arms around her, Izuku felt a few of his own tears pool at his eyes and drop onto Inko's head. Why did his pain have to screw with the lives of other people? Why what he did with his body or his ambitions hurt those who cared about him? Why did the selfishness that lay in his heart, his desperate desire to become a Hero, his fulfilled love and want to help people, have to in turn mess up things up for a bunch of other people who are just on the side-lines?

Sucking in his held breath, Izuku sighed and sniffled.

"Hey mo- "

Before he could utter another word, Izuku felt a fierce stinging hit strike his face. Wide eyed he recoiled slightly, gasping with an open maw and crimson skinned cheek – before him, the shaken, whimpering form of Inko stood with columns of streaking tears the dripped and sprayed the floor, her eyes full of a flood of shame and embarrassment, waterlogged freedom caging her eyes while a blazing fire of fury and maternal protection coated her entire being in the fires of motherhood.

She stuttered and swayed as she spoke, drunk on her emotions and tears.

"I'm so sorry Izuku, but... I HAD TO WATCH YOU! I h-had to sit in our living room, in o-our house, watching you on our T-TV as you beat yourself silly! I had to watch my son, my darling baby boy, break his body an-and beat himself up not only once, but twice! I had to watch you Izuku, stand up and destroy your body twice! And what was it for, huh? Tell me, what was worth you breaking yourself Izuku?"

Stumbling forward into the setting sunlight, Inko leaned forward, took the streaming and tearful mess that was her sons face, and began to thumb his cheeks and his eyes and any piece of skin she could come across. She imbued her entire body and her entire soul into those touches, all the care and warmth she was able to exude from her being into those few precious moments.

"Please Izuku... tell me."

To that question, the UA student truly had trouble conjuring the words. Why had he done what he did? How did he summon up so much courage and energy to not only force Todoroki to accept his hatred and self-loathing the way he managed, but also to push past his own feelings of hatred and agonising dystopia to continue fighting? What had helped him summon the strength and the reasoning to follow through with his preconceived goals which, by all means, should have crashed and burned into cinders – only instead, resulting in cracked cartilage and an empowered spirit.

An easy answer to his quandary would be the power fuelled by One for All: he had seen the eyes and been resurrected to enact more, to push himself even further then he had gone before, to be Plus Ultra. Izuku couldn't refute this fact. However… it wasn't just that. Perhaps it was some sort of lust for combat that drove him, an underlying euphoria which set off his senses and caused him to lose himself in his Quirk and the powers vested in him by his predecessors, perhaps it was an 'in the moment' kind of experience where he felt ethereal for a few fleeting moments, where each shot of pain was like a bullet of enlightenment and understanding to his fragile soul, perhaps…

There was an even simpler answer to his question.

"I-I think… I think it may have just been pride, Mom."

Glancing up through his bleeding eyes, Izuku peered at the shaken form of his mother, her head quirked, and her eyes squinted.

"P-Pride? But you've never been a prideful person…"

"I know, I know… It was just that in that moment, surrounded by the crowds and all the Heroes and all my class mates and after witnessing what Todoroki could actually do and how powerful he was, I guess I just needed to prove myself. He really is just so strong, and I knew how strong he would be if he used the full extent of his Quirk – I suppose I just wasn't really prepared for how strong he could be. A-And if he was going to use the full power of his Quirk, then I was going to use the full power of mine… even if that meant I have to hurt myself."

Peering down even further, a drop of liquid drifted from his eyes and splattered against the uneven, fleshy pavement of his scared hands, once again reminding him of the pain and agony he put himself through and the outcome of it.

"I'm really sorry to make you or anyone else worry, I-I never ever want to do that… but if I'm going to be a great Hero like All Might then I need to always fight at full power and go above 100% effort, no matter what. I need to learn how my Quirk works and control it, and that is going to take time and effort and maybe even blood and sweat and tears, but Mom I need to do this – I just need to. I've been given this powe- I-I mean… it's a blessing I even got this power so late that now I have to catch up to everyone else. I am going to make you and everyone else proud, I'll do it."

A moment of silence passed between the two.

Then, the chubby hands of Inko shot up to wrap her sons head in her arms, shrinking to the floor with his head cradled in her arms. She began to stroke his unruly curls, massaging and going over his scalp as tears dropped and wetted his hair.

"Oh Izuku… I'm already so proud of you… I just want you to be safe and happy okay? I don't like seeing you get hurt but I-I'll try and push through it: but I need you to promise me that you'll try your hardest to get stronger without resorting to hurting yourself all the time."

A sniffle and a dry chuckle lit up the air.

"I-I promise Mom… I promise I'll try my hardest."

Squeezing her son into a tight body lock, the pair openly wept at each other. A certain aura washed over them as they conveyed their care and emotional ties to one another, the shackles and confines of pain and torment that had been crushing and carrying the pair over the last several ties were suddenly shattered into dust below the might of a mother's love.

Although, Izuku understood why this happened. His pain. His suffering. That was the catalyst for this intervention, this cry for help and worry from the person he could consider himself closest to, for it was the scars that littered his body and the scars that littered his soul that forced Inko to go through this torment.

This is what Izuku hated about pain.

Pulling his face out of the crook of his mother's neck, Izuku spoke up.

"So… Mom?

Inko pushed her watery face away from her son.

"W-What is it Izuku?"

"You know how I'm going on that Hero experience course in a few weeks... well I need a new costume for it since I ruined my old one, so I thought that maybe y-you could help me design it?"

A light, airy laugh danced through the skies.

"Of course, Izuku, however I don't know if you really need my advice anymore."

"W-Well you did really well designing the last one, s-so I thought if we worked on it together then maybe we could come to a middle ground maybe…"

"Hehe yes son. Now come inside before you catch cold."

This was what Izuku hated about pain – and he was going to make sure, he minimised the pain he dealt to others.

One way or another.

Aaaaaaand done! I hope you all enjoyed that chapter, I know it was sorta short and slow but it's more of a set up chapter then anything else. Next time, we should be getting deep into the Stain Arc and because I'm doin shorter chapters and I'm finally out of writer's block, we should be getting more chapters way quicker! So yay!

So thank you all for reading, if you wanna follow me on tumblr or whatever its the exact same username as on here, or if you want to donate to my (Patr eon) then go to my bio and click the link - if you were to donate, it would mean so much to me and I would constantly and eternally grateful and you would be thanked profusely.

Thank you to AngryHenry once again too.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, I hope you all enjoyed, and I will see you all next time.

Bye bye!

-Jack