On the train ride towards their destinations, Izuku Midoriya was rather silent. He didn't feel very well, and it was because of his confrontation with Kaminari. He was happy to hear that Kyoka was alright, and would be able to travel with the rest of their group, but she too was sad and silent. The mood over the team, aptly named 'Gang Orca', was abysmal. Even Monoma was struck silent, his large eyes simply passing from one member of his team to the next, almost confused.
However, the sole member of the four that wasn't in some kind of negative mood was Till. He was slightly agitated, sure, but he wasn't always as gloomy as he looked. He needed to fix this cloud hanging over them. It didn't bode well for their assignment if they were sad and distracted the entire time. He'd hate to have to rely on Monoma's help when Izuku Midoriya was one of the strongest students at the school.
"What ails you, Midoriya?" he asked, the green haired boy looking to him with a puzzled expression. He wasn't confused at Till's concern, rather he was confused because he wasn't sure what was bothering him the most. Till watched his green eyes pass over Kyoka Jiro for a second, her eyes closed and her ears plugged with some kind of headphone. She was trying to rest and let her mind process everything, a visibly better effort than Midoriya.
"I… I don't know really. I'm bothered by a lot right now." he said, and Till nodded. "Forgive me for prodding, but would one of the things bothering you happen to be the negative emotion you felt after striking Kaminari?" he asked, and Midoriya blinked before looking to him. He inhaled, closing his eyes for a brief moment, as if preparing himself to answer the question. "Yeah."
Till inhaled. He knew this wasn't a confession, and it wasn't something that he should delve into around others, but he hoped that somewhere in his heart that Monoma would realize this wasn't his place to speak. Till looked to Midoriya, fully aware that this was his job as a Man of God.
"You are upset by how The Prince of Wrath, Satan, afflicted your heart, aren't you? Fearful that you'd have caused permanent bodily harm to Kaminari should you have remained."
He watched the freckled boy inhale sharply, closing his eyes again as the words washed over him. Till wasn't as good with people as his brothers, but he knew how to deal with negativity. He couldn't deal with children as well as Raphael or be as persuasive as Jebediah, but he knew how to help people deal with sadness and anger, and grief.
"I've never felt like that before. I faced All For One, Shigaraki and everyone else I've ever battled with none of that hatred in my mind. I knew all of these people were bad, horrible and irredeemable, but I was more upset at Kaminari last night." he said, a sad look across his face. Till nodded, his gaze remaining on his fellow.
"This is a matter of the heart, not the mind. If in your mind you knew that this wasn't Kaminari's fault, your heart doesn't answer to the mind. It answers to your soul." he said, and Midoriya blinked as he looked up to him. What exactly did that mean? "Can… can you explain?" he asked, realizing that another chance to delve into the views of his foreign fellow would distract him from his negativity.
"The body is split into three pieces. The Soul, which is our consciousness, our desires and inner feeling that our 'Mind' doesn't want to deal with unless driven to that point. Men of Science believe in the 'Mind', when in truth the 'Mind' is just an aspect of the 'Soul'." he explained, hoping that Midoriya and Monoma were following him.
"Then is the 'Body'. As you would assume, the 'Body' is a physical form that can act out the desires of the 'Soul', a vessel that the 'Soul' requires. And lastly is the most important part of our being, the 'Heart'."
Midoriya was interested in this viewpoint, because most of the time it was stated as 'Mind, Body and Soul'. To hear that someone believed that the 'Heart' was the most important part was interesting. "Why the Heart?" he asked, and Till glanced out the window, seeing the sun rise slowly over the horizon. The train ride was long, sure, but it wasn't something he expected to take longer than sunrise.
"Because the Heart is the epicenter, the connection between Body and Soul. The Heart is surrounded by all of the Body's structures, like the ribcage, and the Heart pumps blood through the Body, allowing it to act out the desires of the Soul." he said, and Midoriya was confused about something.
"So the Heart is the connection between Body and Soul? So when you said that my 'Heart' answers to my Soul, what did that mean?" he asked, and Till glanced to Jiro for a second before sighing.
"It means that while in your mind you knew that Kaminari was being controlled by a Villain, your Soul didn't care, and your Heart reacted thusly, allowing those feelings of Wrath into your being. That's why your body quivered after you struck him. You were afraid of the fact that somewhere in your soul you wanted to keep striking him."
Another sharp inhale followed, and Till realized that his friend needed this. A chance to hear about those repressed feelings. They were within everybody, and it was part of his job to help people deal with these negative, sinful emotions. "If the Heart is this conduit of power between the Body and Soul, where does someone's Willpower come into play?" Monoma asked, and Till rose a brow as he glanced to him, repressing a chuckle.
"Willpower is simply a term given to when the Soul pushes the Heart to push the Body. You see, your Heart's ability to push your Body in various ways according to the desires of your 'Soul' are what we call 'Power' and 'Strength'. The stronger your Heart, the stronger the Body. The Soul is supposed to regulate it's desires to increase the capacity of the Heart and Body. That's what makes warriors like Midoriya so impressive." he explained, the boy in question blinking.
"His heart has an obscene capacity and reserve of energy, enough for his Soul but too much for his Body. This is why his fighting style seems self destructive. His Soul has burning passion and ambitions, and his Heart is ready and willing to realize them, but because his Heart inherited such burning passion, his body in unable to keep up."
"This isn't as exciting as I was hoping." Jebediah groaned, rather agitated by the current situation. They were on their way to Ketsubutsu, but that wasn't the issue. Raphael chuckled, the two Ritter glancing across the train at their sleeping companions. "You were looking forward to fighting alongside Todoroki, weren't you?" he asked, and Jebediah shrugged.
"I like fighting too, Raph. You know that our powers are better served backing up someone as strong as Todoroki, not this nonce." he grumbled, jabbing his thumb in the direction of Kaminari. With the fact that the Ritter were aware of who was manipulating Kaminari's emotions, it was decided that they'd take him along with them, and that Todoroki would join Midnight's group. That was something that made the Heroine rather happy, but Jebediah knew that without a strong partner, he'd be doing a lot more work than he wanted to.
His eyes passed to Bakugo, and then back to Raphael, finding their friendship something that was incredibly unusual. "What's the deal with bombs for brains? Did the Lord make him a project for you or something?" he asked, and Raphael shook his head. He glanced to the aggressive student, who was currently fast asleep.
"Have you ever heard the Captain talk about people he calls 'Judas'?" he asked, and Jebediah hummed. He had heard something about it, but it might not be in the same context as Raphael. "Yeah, people that are our opposites. Our 'Judas' is either the one friend we have that opposes us in everything or the one person most likely to turn their backs on us. Mine was some American Pro that ended up jailed for statutory." he mused, and Raphael chuckled at that.
Jebediah was always the hardest Ritter to really get to know or get a read on, because of his status and outward attitude. Raphael knew that when the person in question, a Hero called 'Slade Williams', was charged, convicted and incarcerated that Jebediah was bothered. The two had worked together often in Jebediah's fledgling days, and Slade was one of Jebediah's primary mentors and inspirations. Infact, his hero name of 'Saint Gabriel' comes from Slade Williams' real name, Gabriel Montenegro.
"Well, I think mine is Katsuki. We're complete opposites, but we get along really well. He's loud, aggressive and damn near a delinquent. And I'm reserved, formal and all smiles. We'd make a good pair of buddy cops, huh?" he mused, more whimsically to himself. Jebediah rolled his eyes. This made his situation worse. With the friendship between his junior Ritter and the stronger UA student they were paired with, he'd be stuck wallowing in boredom with Kaminari.
"So what's your big plan? You gonna just walk into Shiketsu and waste that bitch?" Dabi asked, and Eros glanced to him. He chuckled, realizing that Dabi's idea was more along the lines of what he wanted to do. However, he had to maintain his cover as a weakened, manipulated villain under Shigaraki's control until Psylocke was dead. He shook his head with a smile.
"I'm going to hope that she gets injured and flees. I'll just end her suffering." he said, and Dabi whistled, a sound that was accompanied by an airy chuckle. "You sure you're not a Villain? That sounds pretty nasty to me." he said, Eros glancing to the night sky. Was he still a warrior of the Lord God Almighty? Or did he just cling to his past because it's all he's had keeping him sane for the last five years?
He took a second to think about it, realizing that he'd taken constant aggressive action and had lied on many occasions all to further an agenda that he might not be able to see the end of. What's to say that with Psylocke dead he'd be able to run through the rest of the X-Force or whoever was back in Germany? He was like this because of his lack of control. He lost it, slipped into some abnormal transformation he'd never seen before, and committed almost continental levels of damage. He took innocent lives, ruined many more by laying waste to billions, if not trillions in property.
His single loss of control in Toronto had caused far more damage than Shigaraki. The Devil that he was trying to fool was, for all intents and purposes, far less 'Devilish' than he was. It made him frown, and he sighed. "I'm not sure." he said absentmindedly, his partner rolling his eyes and slapping him on the back, breaking him out of his thoughts.
"Well figure it out. I'm not going on some wild goose chase with a dumbass that's half cocked. Either kill the bitch or go back to Shigaraki." he grumbled, and Eros sighed.
He opened his palms, seeing dull light form in his hands as he shook his head. His powers were still almost inept. He'd be lucky enough to create a cloak to enhance his physical abilities, much less summon one of his swords or use one of his transformations. He hated having such a complicated, elaborate Quirk that was so vastly and easily hindered by Psylocke's powers. He wished his Quirk was simple like Captain Ezekiel's, or like his friend Dabi's.
Another sigh escaped his lips as he looked over the horizon. He stood on a hill, noticing that Shiketsu high was a day's walk away, the first thing on his mind being getting some new clothes. He hoped that he learned a little bit about persuasion from watching Jebediah.