Hello it's me again. I can't believe this story is gonna be 2 years old in three days. I'm proud of making this story. Anyways I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

Chapter 41: Brothers.

"Today, brother, I'll teach you… how to kill Pain." Sosuke said, "It will be hard, long, and really really taxing, but… this is your first step into becoming what you always wanted to be," he held out his hand.

"A true hero, not an extraordinary being." Sosuke concluded.

"So… what do I do?" Kazume asked.

Sosuke laughed a little, "First, we gotta get to the source of him!"

"Source?" Kazume then removed the bandages on his left arm that was covered in scars from his old training with Stain. Then he looked at his hand, still having that scar from when he protected Asui and Uraraka from the villains at the USJ.

"Yeah, your scars are a great start. But not those, the very first one, the very first moment you realized this was gonna be hell,"

Kazume looked deeper, and deeper until it finally hit him.

Four years ago…

It was Kazume's last training with Chizome, both were dueling it out going blow for blow. It was the same day they got their first crippled false hero and the day the hero society shook… the day the Bloodhounds debuted their evil reign.

To summarize the final training… he failed. He was not able to defeat his older bro, and after a year of training, Stain was very disappointed and snapped.

"You're nothing but a fucking failure, Kazume! After a year of training your sorry ass, after working you to the bone… you made ZERO FUCKING PROGRESS! You're the same weakass little brother that mom and dad raised to be so feeble and pathetic! Perhaps you should've ran into that fire and better off dying with them!" Stain raised his katana, ready to strike it right through his heart "Say hi to mom and dad for me!"

And ever since, Pain was created and stopped the blade with his bare hands, of course bleeding from his thumb gripping onto the razor sharp blade. Stain smiled with an evil smirk and rest is history as the Bloodhounds made a name for themselves to the rest of Japan.

Back to Present...

Pain finally spawned from Kazume's chest and stood about six meters tall.

"Holy shit, he's huge…" Sosuke breathed, "Shitt…"

"And who the hell may you be?" Pain asked the older brother. "Should I dispose of him?"

"He is my brother, Sosuke. And you ain't gonna hurt anyone anymore!" Kazume exclaimed.

"Ahahaha! Him? Your brother? Last time I checked we only had one brother in our family and we threw his ass in jail! Now it's our turn to show the world why they should be afraid of what you can really do." Pain pulled out a katana and swung it towards Sosukethe older Akaguro watched as the katana whiffed through him.

"Ya done with your tantrum? Hey Kazume, he can't hurt me."

"Alright but how do I take it down?" Kazume picked up the sword Sosuke tossed to him earlier.

"You fight it," Sosuke responded.

Kazume nodded, Pain started to laugh.

"PFFT, Fight me?! That's hilarious. There's no way you can get rid of me, Kazume. You NEED me. Without me, you're nothing but a weakling. You're alive because of me."

"No, he's alive because he survived without you, you're just a byproduct of a broken little boy," Sosuke countered.

'Fight it, just like Sosuke said. Focus hard and empty my mind, just like my bro said,' Kazume thought as he closed his eyes, trying to empty his mind. 'Forget the past, think about Sosuke's future with Nemuri, Tenkara with Nejire, Midoriya with Uraraka. I don't need to fight to survive.' the sword started to glow blue.

"I fight… for the future of my friends and loved ones!" Kazume lunged up, pulling back his sword, aiming to swing down the throat of Pain.

However, Pain stopped the blade with his left hand and with his right, he held Kazume on a chokehold.

"Like I said, without me you're a weakling. You don't have any killer instinct deep down inside that innocent little soul of yours. Perhaps I can help with that." Pain used his free right hand and inserted two fingers in his nose, making Kazume consume the shadowy figure inside.

"AHHHHHH!" Kazume screamed before Pain used his thumb from his right hand to cover his mouth.

"Shhhhh! It'll be over in a second,"

"Hey! Kazume! Fight back, dude! Stop thinking about the future! Focus on the now!" Sosuke shouted.

Kazume listened, as he tried to focus hard and illuminate his blade once again. The blue glow returned and Kazume sliced off Pain's right hand, freeing from the chokehold, but he wasn't finished.

He ran on his right arm, then the shoulder, and cut a deep slice on the right side of his neck, and then fell behind his back, slicing down Pain's spine and finally landed safely on the ground.

The shadowy figure incinerated and disappeared. Pain was defeated.

Kazume fell on his knees, coughing.

Sosuke held onto him, "Kazume! Kazume, easy, easy… you got it…"

"My...head… it hurts." Kazume groaned.

"Okay… okay, up you get, let's go,"

*STAB* Kazume stabbed a knife to his chest, luckily no vital areas. However, Kazume's golden eye brightened and cannot turn off and even his other eye glowed red. Pain wasn't gone. He was able to get back inside his mind.

"I will not be taken down," Pain kicked Sosuke towards a wall. "As long as I remain in Kazume's mind, I can still remain in control, but only for a small bit this time. In the meantime, I'll dispose of you quickly. You shouldn't have left your family behind, Sosuke. Monsters are created and you have made the biggest one."

Pain picked up Kazume's sword, unharmed as he possessed Kazume's physical form. As he marched closer and closer to Sosuke. Suddenly a whip wrapped around his wrist, causing him to drop the sword. She yanked him down to the floor and grabbed him, holding him tightly. The boy struggled, hand crushing his neck, gas slowly filling the room as Sosuke had built up an immunity.

He sheathed the other sword, closing his eyes and sighing, going to put it back in a shrine at the very back of the training room. The older Akaguro set it down at the altar and huffed.

Once the gas cleared, Nemuri released his neck as the younger brother was soundly asleep from her quirk. Nemuri found Sosuke sitting at the shrine and just settled in by his side, head on his shoulder. Sosuke was binding his wound. She was purring and kissing his neck.

"I always wondered what was back here," she said.

"I'm trying, but FUCK! He really had to make it edgy, huh!" Sosuke snarled, "At least I made Eros look like you!" Nemuri blinked and laughed a little, hugging him gently. "Of course not everything was perfect. It was a long process and of course the other half would think they're dominant at first."

Nemuri picked up the sleeping Kazume as Sosuke continued to cover up his wounds. She gently placed him down on the bed, not wanting to wake him up in case Pain still had control. She then returned back to the shrine to assist with Sosuke.

"Come on, let's get inside," she said, helping him up and dusting him off. She led him inside their home and straight to their bedroom. It wasn't exactly fancy or traditional. More like a normal house rather than one full of tatami mats and proper doors.

Nemuri laid Sosuke down on their bed, getting in alongside him and just hugging him. He closed his eyes and just relaxed.

Next Morning…

*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!* Kazume woke up to his alarm ringing on his phone. He glanced around the room, seeing the differences from his dorm room or the one back in I-island. It was just a plain old regular room, just like it was back in his old apartment where his family lived in Hosu.

Coming in was Sosuke, "Hey! Get on up! Nemuri is gonna give ya a lift to school, I gotta go too, so…"

Kazume got up and stretched, feeling like he needed to apologize or something, but that's not what Sosuke wanted at all, all he wanted was for Kazume to handle his own demons, showing him the way out, simple and effective but still…

Sosuke wanted nothing more than to go back to those days where it was the three of them together and no infighting. Those days where Chizome wasn't all that bad, sure, he was intense, but not crazy.

The younger Akaguro watched his older brother, the man was wearing a modified version of the Stendhal suit. What was odd was the sword at his hip was joined by two serrated ones bound with cloth strips over the metal.

So not counting the knives, Sosuke had three swords. He grabbed Kazume and noogied him harshly.

"Kaha! Look at us! UA's bad boy and Japan's favorite for rank three!" He exclaimed.

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah! Yer big bro is playing with the big boys!" Sosuke exclaimed gladly. Kazume stared at his brother almost with a surprised expression.

"Overachiever much?"

"Hey, I'm not the one with a genius backing him up, stop trying to think you've had it worse than me," Sosuke said, seeing Nemuri shuffle out of their room. She yawned and looped her arms around Sosuke's neck, his mask in her hand.

"Morning…" she muttered, "Here, you almost… haaah… forgot this…" she put the mask into Sosuke's hands, and he smiled, kissing her.

"Mm! Love ya, Nemuri!" He exclaimed. Nemuri smiled and kissed him again.

"Visit me at lunchtime, Sosuke," she said, Sosuke nodded and headed out, putting on his mask and stopping near Kazume.

"Next time don't fucking hold back a damn thing, okay?" he snarled, marching out and Nemuri sighed.

"Kazume, he cares, okay? It's just hard for him to show it all, your brothers are kinda the same in that regard,"

"Well that's some way to show it," Kazume snarled, facing away from Nemuri, "At least Stain didn't abandon me when my parents died."

"Sosuke hates that too, he doesn't show it but he knows in some way he couldn't do anything about it,"

"Well we always keep our emotions to ourselves to keep us in check, otherwise… well, you saw what happened at the festival. You didn't have any trouble in the past with Eros did ya?" Kazume curiously asked.

"Well… no, not at all. Sosuke did kill a bunch of villains who almost hurt me once,"

"Pfft, and he thinks I'm edgy. At least I never killed a hero, and the moment Stain tried to make me, I left and got this scar between my face," Kazume admitted.

Nemuri got really quiet, "Sosuke's told me… that he almost offed himself a lotta times, sometimes even when he was with me,"

"Offed? What do you mean? Like… suicide?"

Nemuri nodded, "He'd go into… into the bathroom and dig around for some pills or ask me if he breathed in enough of my quirk would he die or something. He was always nihilistic, kind of a downer, but… when I took him out of that dumb mask, I found out why he was the way he was."

"And why is that?" Kazume asked, 'I hope it's not because of the future vision from Nighteye.'

"Because he felt his life was meaningless, that every day it was hard to get out of bed and go about his day and night, he was depressed and Stendhal was an expression of his anger." she said, "Now he's treating me like glass, and I don't get it, now he's just… not himself when he doesn't let me leave or blows up my phone."

'That sounds like him…' Kazume thought, considering that Sosuke seemed a lot more protective than even he was. Hands ready to unsheathe that sparking red blade and that set of his jaw. Something not very common. An outward showing of emotion wasn't common for their family due to them being hardened warriors.

"Even the way he killed was brutal and efficient, way more efficient than my brother and I, like a machine. I definitely need to have a word with him. A number three ranked hero and killing off villains out of rage isn't healthy."

"No, it's not rage, it's what they like about him, it's what they like about you and your brother, he's a permanent solution to untouchables. Not like your friend with the metal hair dating Hado, I can tell he's a survivalist,'

Kazume shuddered a bit. "Untouchables?"

Nemuri looked over at her… brother-in-law soon to be brother-in-law, "Hey, you okay? It's almost like you've seen a ghost."

"Just to be sure… how long has Sosuke been doing his hero work?"

"Given his vigilante record was the thing that gave him his hero ranking, and add to it the fact that the crime rate is even closer to zero even with the League… I'd say he's been one for a long while. As long as I've known him, I guess."

"And he was aware of Japan's Most Wanted list three years ago, right? Same can be said for you?"

"Yeeeah, why?" Nemuri asked, scratching her head a little..

"So you're telling me that he would be hunting ME AND STAIN, HIS OWN BROTHERS, DOWN FOR HIS HERO WORK?! ME? A 12 YEAR OLD BOY AT THE TIME?!" Kazume panicked.

"He was only hunting your older brother! Not you! Sosuke had enough sense to tell who the real target was!"

At that moment, they were near the school, with Tenkara and Nejire walking down the street after getting their own place after a while. They both looked tired. Barely able to stand, too. The strangest thing about it was the fact that there was something on Tenkara's chest that wasn't there before.

A little lump in his coat, wrapped around something. He kept looking down at it and back up at Nejire and Kazume. Looking nervous. The lump wiggled, then it giggled. Which was odd but even stranger was how Nejire seemed to wilt even more at the sound. Not because of emotions, but because they just settled the little thing down.

"Hey you two, fancy seeing you here. Hope you two slept well last night. So… mind telling me whatcha hiding under before I find out the hard way?"

"You cut him, I kill you," Tenkara yawned, and a little head came out of the bundle, little arms raised high, golden eyes met red and there was soft silver fuzz on the little guy's head.

"What's this? You stole another kid? First Eri now this little one? Something ain't adding up for me."

Tenkara sighed like a long suffering parent, "Dude, who else has golden eyes?"

"Me? Other than that, your ex. So lemme get this straight, when you told me that you *made a stupid mistake* and fell for that psycho, is this what you meant? And did you tell Nejire about this?!" (from Chapter 36)

Nejire nodded, "He's cute, isn't he?" the little guy giggled, and his hair suddenly changed to periwinkle shaded.

"Well…" Kazume takes a quick look at him, "He surely is. He even has your hair color Nejire."

Then his eyes switched to be shaped like Nejire and Tenkara's, a mix of the two. Still giggling at Kazume and looking at Tenkara and Nejire, Nejire hugged Tenkara and the little kid. He whimpered.

"Aww! Sweetie! Mommy's going to be back soon!" Nejire exclaimed, grinning.

The kid didn't like that. Tenkara suddenly distracted his son with a shiny little ball of metal.

"Go while you still can, baby, I got him," Tenkara responded.

Kazume grabbed a hold on Nejire's hand ready to guide her quickly to school before the bell, but Tenkara's eyes started to shift. The kid wiggled a little.

"Don't push it," Tenkara warned, "Kounna needs his Mommy, and I need my girl so…"

"Don't worry, I wasn't doing anything indecent, just wanted to help her get to class quick, I guess? And Kounna's a pretty name for him."

"Toga named him, not me."

"Riigghhtt," Kazume growled in slight anger from hearing her name. "Well, almost class time to let's go Nejire." He drags his upperclassmen past the gate of UA. Going through the doors, separating from each other to go to their classes.

Nejire looked a little worried for a second but shook it off. Meanwhile, before Kazume entered through the door of Class 1-A, he made a quick check to make sure he still had a bandage wrapped on his golden eye. He was still nervous to share it yet with his class. He gently slid open the door and...

"PFFTHAHAHA! I didn't know you had some style in ya Bakugo," Kirishima laughed, seeing the new hairdo on Bakugo during his internship with Best Jeanist.

"Not fucking funny! I wasn't able to change my hair back ever since the internship!" Bakugo growled, the boys continued to laugh, "I SAID STOP FUCKING LAUGHING!" His hair puffed back to normal.

"It turned back! HAHAHA!" Sero struggled to stop his laugh attack.

Meanwhile, Mina, Asui and Jiro were chatting with one another about their internships. Kazume slowly snuck quietly, trying to go stealth mode while facing away from the class, hiding his bandaged eye.

"Kazume, why're you hiding, ribbit?" Asui asked.

Kazume blinked, trying to look away, feeling oddly naked under his froggy friend's gaze. He tried explaining things, or at least attempting to.

"I… I just uh… wanted to not disturb anyone's conversations that's all," Kazume responded.

Izuku, Shoto, and Tenya all looked at him, they understood why he was all hiding. His eye was an embarrassing bit about himself that he wanted to keep under wraps literally and figuratively. Only Sosuke, Tenkara, Melissa, and Mei and Akira knew about it. His inner circle knew about it and he'd try his best to at least keep it that way.

"Hmm… why're you hiding though, ribbit?" Asui asked again.

"Just… things." Kazume replied.

"Kazume this isn't funny, Ribbit. You shouldn't be so distant with your friends," Asui stretched her tongue and wrapped around his waist.

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

Asui rotated her friend, making him face her, exposing the bandaged eye to her and the class. He flinched a little, with Tsuyu looking a little shocked but not surprised.

"See, it's not that bad! Just an eye!"

"Just an eye?" Kazume asked, "It hurt!"

"So, you lost it, but at least you came back alive,"

"It's not just me but those three as well," Kazume pointed to Izuku, Tenya, and Shoto. Tsuyu nodded,

"I'm just a bit worried, ribbit… must've been scar-"

"KAZUME! WHO'S DATING MIDNIGHT AND WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE THAT HERO KILLER YOU BASTARD! YOU HAVE TO KNOW! Mineta broke the cute little moment by screeching like a banshee.

"That would be my older brother, Sos-" Kazume smacked his mouth, spilling his secret about his relationship with not just Sosuke, but Chizome.

"What's the big deal? As long as they're happy, man!" Kirishima exclaimed, "Besides! That new number three hero is manly as all get out!"

Kazume sighed, seeing Mineta still seething and turning his attention to Tsuyu.

"Asu-"

"Remember Kazume, call me Tsu,"

"What about Tsuyu?"

"Did I stutter, Kazume, ribbit?"

"No Tsuyu, I mean Tsu." Kazume sighed, "Now that I think about it, Tsu sounds cuter,"

Tsuyu blinked, her finger tapping her cheek slightly, internally she was blushing and screaming and kicking around like a fangirl, but on the outside, she didn't show it. She liked Kazume, and it took her a long time to accept the fact that he already had someone.

But she could be a very patient little froggy. But it looked like Kazume was about to explode. Seemingly trying to say something.

"AND I! AM! HERE! Ready to instruct class!" All Might announced. "I hope that you all enjoyed and learned from your internships, but we have no time to waste or else Aizawa would kill me. Put on your hero costumes and meet me at Ground Gamma."

At Ground Gamma…

Everyone got on with their costumes and awaited for All Might's instructions.

"Okay class, today we're gonna be doing more rescue training," he instructed.

"But if it's rescue training, then why are we here and not the USJ?" Iida asked.

"Good point, but that area is specialized for disasters, but in this scenario, you're gonna be doing a race. You will all be competing in a small group of five starting at five different marked locations and racing towards the distress signal where I'll be waiting to be rescued. Alright, let's start with the first group, Iida, Sero, Ashido, Ojiro, and Midoriya. You have two minutes before the race starts," All Might concluded.

As the first group headed towards their marked locations, the rest of the class were gonna spectate the race by watching them on a large monitor. They chatted with one another, making predictions on who will win.

Kazume just watched silently, not much went on in his head at the moment aside from thinking about Sosuke and Tenkara and their whole family thing.

The race went off to a fast start, as the heroes used their quirks to the maximum to make haste towards All Might. Sero used tape like a web to swing from the pipes and walls, Mina used her acid to slide faster as she used the pipe like a grind rail, Iida used his Recipro burst to run fast towards the distress signal, and Ojiro used his tail to latch onto pipes or bounce off the walls.

But the biggest surprise was Midoriya. He took a different approach, for once he did not overuse his One For All and injure his bones. During his time with Torino he was able to learn to maintain control of his quirk by using a very small percentage of it at a time. Currently, he's using five percent, and yet, he was outhustling the entire group.

The students watching were shocked as they completely underestimated Midoriya. However , Kazume and Bakugo had different reactions.

Kazume was irritated with the progress Izuku was making, while Kazume had questions in his mind.

'Is he copying my wall jumping skills from me? Has he studied me in his notebook?' he thought.

Midoriya had so much confidence in his face, believing that he could actually win the race, but…

*SLIP* He lost his footing on a pipe and fell hard to the ground, luckily, he was unscathed due to his knee pads on his costume.

"Congratulations Sero, thanks for the rescue!" All Might announced as he handed him a first place ribbon.

"Alright, first place!" Sero exclaimed with excitement. The rest of the group arrived, looking defeated that they couldn't win.

"What an amazing race everyone, you all showed plenty of improvement as heroes. As Aizawa always says to you, keep on training and don't slack off." All Might picked up a microphone, "Now, let's get the next group ready, Momo, Todoroki, Bakugo, Kazume, and Asui, you're up next."

Kazume silently nodded, with Tsuyu hovering near him. Their marked starting locations were close to one another as they awaited for All Might to say go on the loudspeaker. Of course with different outcomes for everyone. Kazume seemed to have a better shot than most.

"Ready? Go!" the group jumped the gun and raced their way to the distress signal where All Might awaited. Kazume being one of the most athletic went ahead to at least have some sort of a lead. Leaping from wall to wall, pipe to pipe, getting closer to the goal, however with one eye, he doesn't have excellent hindsight of his surroundings as he leaped and tripped on a fence, hitting headfirst into a wall, and falling towards the ground.

Coming to help was Tsuyu, hopping quickly and catching him midair, landing on her back too, he was heavier due to all the gear.

"And I thought ninja were supposed to be fast…" she growled a little.

"Assassin actually," Kazume hissed in pain, feeling a bit dizzy from crashing headfirst to a wall.

"Same thing to me, ribbit," Tsuyu croaked, Kazume leaned against her, almost touching her cheek with his own. Tsuyu couldn't stop the blush coming from her cheeks. Up close, personal, just trying to save him and he looked so… sad. Like he was mulling something over deep down.

Tsuyu swore she'd never tell a single soul about her crush on the rough talking and violent ninja. She knew she'd never have him. He'd talk about his sister Melissa like they were more than just that. Poor little Froppy always felt a little squigged out about it.

She wanted to wait, but this COULDN'T WAIT. He'd go right back to his sister girlfriend and do god knows what with that tongue. Tsuyu closed her eyes, thinking, trying to say what she wanted to say, but nothing came out.

Kazume sighed, looking at his friend and seeing the turmoil in her eyes. He sat down with her just to gather his thoughts, thinking about how much he seemed to doubt himself, seeing his brother so controlled and even his childhood best friend being the super dad that had such a cute little son with a complete psycho. He hated the distance. He hated leaving Melissa, he hated it so much that he'd swim to I-island, and he could.

But just leaning against Tsuyu, he knew that there was a reason why long distance never worked out. He loved Melissa a lot, but at the same time it wasn't like he could just show himself there.

"Kazume I… I… Well… R-ribbit…" Tsuyu mumbled.

"Geez I must be so reckless, getting myself hurt and ending up right alongside ya, either wrapped up by your long tongue or currently on your smooth thighs." Kazume chuckled.

Tsuyu blushed even more, trying so hard to hide it but the sheer weight of what he was doing was felt both physically and emotionally. A feeling of sheer victory surged through her. But at the same time feeling him just laying his head in her lap almost made her want to hug him.

So she did.

"Aw come on! SO LUCKY! Those luscious thi-"

"Shut it before I show your browser history to the whole school," Jiro growled.

"Scary," Denki commented.

Tsuyu just let Kazume rest there, somewhat trilling happily with excitement.

Lunchtime…

After the class finished their rescue training and changed back into their UA uniforms, it was time for them to head to lunch. Kazume picked up some food cooked by Lunch Rush and headed towards Midnight's office, but before that, he ran into Nejire.

"Oh! Hey, Kazume! I'm just gonna go meet Tenkara and Kounna for lunch! But ah… hmm… What did Miss Midnight tell me? Oh yeah! Mister Stendhal is here too! And… well… I guess that's it," Nejire responded.

"Alright, you two have fun," Kazume replied. He was heading towards the exit door, but overheard a certain grape boy.

"Look at him, Kaminari, why does he get to woo all the ladies in this school?" Mineta growled, looking around, "Kaminari?" he asked.

"Behind ya," Kaminari pointed.

"I wouldn't try to continue that." Tenkara said flatly.

"Meeeeh!" Kounna yelled. Suddenly a small knife showed up near Mineta.

"Ah! D-dude! What's your deal?"

"My deal is you assuming my girl is with a dumbass like Kaz, if I find out about you staring at her and staying in my business… I'll open up a spot in your class for some lucky little transfer student, do we have an understanding?" Tenkara asked. Suddenly Nejire floated in and Kounna squealed like a little rocket.

"Maaaaaa!" He yelled.

Nejire landed and ran up to Tenkara, kissing him on the cheek, "Sorry for being late, sweetie! She exclaimed, "I ran into Kazume."

"Hrm… okay, ready to go?"

Nejire nodded and Tenkara grabbed her hand, "It's dangerous out there, ya know?"

"How dangerous?" Nejire asked.

"Extremely," Tenkara said with a cheeky smile and a wink. They left to go eat lunch together. Mostly just regular things they both liked, and Nejire feeding Kounna too.

Meanwhile, Kazume arrived at Midnight's office to join her for lunch. Sosuke was also there.

He looked like hell had come up, slammed him into the ground, sat on him and farted. Getting patched up by Nemuri nearby. She looked like she was mid tirade.

"Seriously, what's going on with you, Sosuke?"

"I told you I can't tell you that," he growled, making Nemuri smack him.

"Ow! Hey!"

"Just tell me, Sosuke, stop hiding whatever it is from me and Kazume,"

"It's… oh, hey, Kaz,"

"Oh don't 'hey' me. You got a lot of explaining to do. Nemuri told me what you've been doing when you're feeling, uh… down. The fuck is up with that?" Kazume questioned. Sosuke crossed his arms.

"None of yer business, punk!" he snarled.

"Oh sure. Go ahead and be distant with your only remaining member of your family, just like THREE YEARS AGO! At least my other brother knows how to nurture me when I needed it, while you were fucking busy doing your private hero work or sucking nips with Midnight. You and the rest of the hero society are a fault for what we became, and when society needed ya to do the dirty job to take down the top criminal, you were too pussy to deal with the likes of me and my brother."

Sosuke loomed over Kazume, his eyes burning holes into him, scowling and his hand rested on his hilt of his sword, "Why the fuck do you think I never did? As far as I knew you two were dead and I was the sole survivor going to college and doing all I could to forget you guys, drowning in guilt and realizing I fucked up, you're out for a goddamn pipedream! True heroes aren't extraordinary beings! They're human, they bleed, and they die! I'm trying everything I can to stop you from dying out there! From her dying out there! Do you have any idea what it's like to want to die every damn day?"

"Yes, I get fucking death threats from society when me and Stain were out on the loose three years ago. Every crippled hero that gets reported on the news gets people to chant for heroes to cut our heads off."

Sosuke growled intensely, "Wow… give the man a medal! Good fucking job! You have no idea how hard it was to wake up, roll over, and remember that 'hey, you have a life, how hard it is to smile for the cameras!' Chizome fucked you over, I fucked up! I get it! The minute I leave, something goes wrong!" he grabbed Nemuri's hand, squeezing it tight.

"For once it feels like I'm doing something right… then you turn up, then the League… then all the fucking sudden I'm rank three when I never wanted it," Sosuke admitted, "Why can't I have the family I loved… why can't I be happy?!"

"Sosuke let go of Nemuri's hand and slammed his hands on her desk, eyes closing, eyes burning out tears, "I'm… I'm being forced… forced to… lie. I wanted to act! I wanted to sing! I wanted… I wanted to live a simple life that makes me happy, but the minute you guys started running around I had to fucking clean everything up!"

He looked down at the sword at his hip, looked down at the mask cruelly, he tossed it at Kazume. Unbolting his sword and handing it over.

"No matter what I do, Nemuri is gonna die…" he mumbled, "I can't… I can't save anyone. I couldn't be the brother you needed, Kazume. I couldn't be the man you wanted, Nemuri. So yeah… basically… I'm stuck. That's why I'm trying to get rid of Stendhal, That's why I'm training you, because you're better than me, you… you've always been better,"

Sosuke grabbed the sword and the mask, "You better wear these with pride, Kaz. I can't do this anymore, I can't be Stendhal, I… I'll pass the torch to you, I don't give a fuck if you accept it or not, its yours now whether you like it or not, I'm twenty nine years old, I don't have time for this."

He put the sword and mask into his brother's hands, tapping his shoulders as if knighting him, "You're Stendhal now," He walked away with Nemuri coming after him. Sosuke felt numb. Everything seemed to turn gray. Sosuke was turning his back on everything he wanted. Turning his back on his heroic self.

Just to be a man. Just to grow up and shed the skin of the hero so he could be what his family needed instead.

"Sosuke! Sosuke, wait!" Nemuri called, grabbing his hand. Sosuke dragged her along a little.

"What? Yer just gonna try to convince me to go back and take my sword," Sosuke snarled. Nemuri shook her head, her eyes watering with tears.

"No! That's not it at all! If you wanna leave and live as a civilian… then… then I'm coming with you! That's what family means, right?" she asked, Sosuke turned and looked at her, her glasses were off and she pulled him into her arms.

"I know you failed him… but I won't give up on you!" she said, hugging her boyfriend tightly, he hesitated but hugged her back. Kazume caught up to them.

"You're… you're wrong to say that you failed me. You never did, if anything, I failed to stand up against Chizome and let Pain consume all my hatred and rage. If you want me to be the next Stendhal, then you have to continue to train me as a brother of the Akaguro family. I mean… how can I live up to the expectations if I continue to get my ass kicked by my other brother? And also… kinda embarrassing to say but… I never did my internship," Kazume stated.

Sosuke smiled, yanking Kazume into the hug.

"Easy there, big bro. One minute, you're all depressed and shit, and now you're all so happy and emotional?" Kazume giggled, "Sorry, but you know I am… I am your edgy little brother after all, right?"

"Shut up and take it, dumbass,"

"I will, drama queen!" Kazume jokingly exclaimed. Sosuke smiled and for the first time in a long time it felt real.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thank you all for reading. Make sure you comment down your thoughts of the chapter. If you enjoy this story, be sure to favorite/follow to stay up to date. I'll see you next time.