Tamaki had many times where he felt helpless, his anxiety did not help that feeling, and on the rare occasion the two would drown him in a doom spiral.

His time at U.A. being so supported by his friends had helped him prop up his confidence.

Tamaki had even been able to give an oral report without Miyake-San standing next to him like usual.

Part of that was because he had been taught how to handle a lot of things, Master-Sensei teaching him a lot about medicine and growing in leaps and bounds with his quirk to the point he was able to keep Miyake on his toes.

The other part admittedly was hanging out with his friends, all of the interaction helping to desensitize him to other personality types, like Oswald-San's passive-aggressiveness, and Miyake-San's stoicness.

He still had his hang ups though, tripping up whenever there was a big thing that happened.

Like Oswald-San kissing his forehead, and not being able to go into malls alone ever now.

Or more recently, learning that his first and best friend had secretly been groomed right under their noses without any of them noticing.

Nothing before that moment had ever made him feel so bad before.

Because it wasn't like the grooming was being hidden from them like Mirio had hidden the bullying from them.

Mirio did his training in front of them, they had seen the training plans from Sir that Mirio was given, and sometimes they did the same exercises with him some days.

He had personally helped Togata-San in cooking the suggested dishes that Sir recommended for Mirio's 'health'.

Mirio had always told him of when he was going to see Sir at his agency and returned only a few minutes before sunset, for multiple days a week, often in a row.

And not once did he question any of this, or raise any red flags in Tamaki's mind when it should've.

Tamaki's oral report was on the signs of grooming and the commonly seen behaviors from victims of it before and after they realize their groomer's intentions, for pete's sake.

But he'd been completely blind to what Sir was doing to Mirio and Mirio's own slight discomfort from unconsciously picking up on something being off.

Because a lot of Mirio's seemingly innocent questions and off-handed comments began popping to the forefront of his mind.

'Hey, Sunny Fatgum buys you lunch too, right?'

'Yeah, Sir got this kind of funny look when he saw my hair was long again, but he said it looked good on me so.'

'Thanks for the offer Oz, but I really want Sir to be proud of me for sticking to my diet.'

And yet somehow, despite all of the warning signs being waved right in front of their faces, they hadn't noticed any of it was going on.

So, yeah once Inu-San was finally read in about the All For One and the Inheritance situation Tamaki spilled all of that to him, thankful he could finally talk about it with Inu-San.

He really needed to talk with him about these feelings that just kept growing like a lead weight in his chest.

Inu-San was as comforting about it as always, reminding him that it wasn't a common form of grooming and that he wasn't experienced enough in the field of heroics to recognize what Sir was doing wasn't normal.

Which, wasn't helping him as much as Tamaki wished it would, and that wasn't even touching on the other part of the problem.

Because he wasn't the only one that was taking the news badly.

Nejire-Chan was indescribably angry and had taken to working her body to the breaking point in rage workouts, mainly because they weren't allowed to go after Sir, and he quote 'steal his kneecaps.'

Nejire-Chan had also spent nearly every day after school sparring with Aizawa-Sensei with Haya, the both of them wanting to get more hand-to-hand experience since both felt they needed to work in that area.

Both focused more on their quirks and long-distance combat than close-combat before and all but cornered Aizawa-Sensei to teach them how to do hand-to-hand.

He wasn't sure why Aizawa-Sensei agreed, but he suspected that Aizawa-Sensei was also very upset about the whole situation since the man kept scowling recently.

Miyake, Tamaki was pretty sure he was scheming with Oswald on how to make Sir's life as horrid as they could without access to proper resources to do so.

And he wasn't sure he wanted to stop them or offer to help them, because as he told Inu-San he really wanted to bite Sir and wanted his life ruined for grooming Mirio.

Then there was Mirio...

Mirio hadn't taken the news well at all.

His friend going through the motions at the school, and for the first time since internship week Mirio went home early and just laid in his bed and did nothing for the rest of the day.

Tamaki had shut down once or twice before, he shut down very recently when Oswald-San asked him out and like always Mirio did his best to talk him around.

And he wanted so badly to return the favor and help Mirio now that he really needed someone to lean on.

But unfortunately he wasn't as good at comforting people, much less for something of this kind.

So, the same helplessness he felt before had turned from somewhat dread building to something ever so vicious.

Digging claws deeper and deeper into his heart every time he saw Mirio's dull eyes and he couldn't do much more than offer words that tasted like ash and rang hollow even in his own ears.

Claws that heated up like burning coals whenever someone outside of their circle asked them what was up with Mirio.

He knew most of them were well meaning, but something ugly coiled up inside of him when even Mirio's classmates began to ask after him.

'So now you care?' Tamaki felt those venomous words waiting to be spat back in 2-B's faces.

He never would, it would only make him feel worse and Mirio would blame himself somehow.

Instead, he took a page out of Nejire-Chan's book and released all that venom in his training to take Inheritance.

Practicing something that Mirio had suggested to him long ago and had finally worked himself up to trying it out in earnest.

Chimerism.

True chimerism.

He'd only done minor changes before now, things like how he used the reinforced strength of an ant along with Miyake-San's quirk during the sports festival.

Now though, perhaps the act coming with such unnatural ease to him with the aid of his volatile emotions, chimerism felt almost like second nature.

Like today, Tamaki had finished with his session with Inu-San for the day and Inu-San had taken him to the small, forested area to practice.

Tamaki took out his lunch box and was quick to devour its contents.

The few shards of crystal, a fang of some canine, some of Miyake-San's scales, and a small lock of Oswald-San's hair were all gone in seconds.

The now empty box was set on the jeep that Inu-San used to bring him here and he rolled his shoulders.

Tamaki took a deep breath and once he could feel each of the things he ate buzz under his skin, he drew upon them and pulled them up and over his skin.

As his bones began to shift and violet-colored scales pushed out of the pores of his skin Tamaki's thoughts went back to the night Oswald-San had come so suddenly and placed his heart in his hands.

'Does... the stuff you grow ever feel... like there's more of it in you than you in your hands after you use your quirk?'

His words were shocking and concerning in equal measure in ways he hadn't been able to understand before.

Now though... Tamaki thought he was finally grasping what Oswald-San had meant.

Looking at his fully transformed hand.

It looked nothing like a human hand now, shimmering violet scales covered all of the skin, large black talons made of crystal as well on all five fingers that would bend back and reliably tear straight through everything he sunk them in so far.

For all it had changed it was still his hand, but it wasn't hard either to dissociate from it since so much of it wasn't him anymore.

Shaking the thoughts away he moved to stand on all fours instead, drawing even more upon Oswald-San's quirk and his body shifted until a second set of arms formed.

Testing the new limbs briefly, flexing the fingers before planting his new palms firmly on the ground.

Then he ran.

Bolting through the trees with his claws ripping through the ground as easily as his human ones would run through sand until he finally found his target.

A metal deer that only had the time to raise its head in alarm before he lunged.

An animatronic shriek rang in the air before Tamaki bit down on the deer's neck and it was silenced, black oil and whatever fluid was used to fuel the machine filled his mouth, in a manner Tamaki was sure blood would have if it were a real animal.

Only when the deer stopped moving did Tamaki release the now dead machine's neck, making sure to flick his tongue out to take in the metal deer's scent.

Oil, the burning taste and scent of fuel, and peppermint this time.

Raising his head he tasted the air for more hints of peppermint since that was the chosen scent Nezu gave the herd of metal deer this time around.

Had he been offered to train this way when he first started, Tamaki would not have entertained the idea of 'hunting' even metal animals like this, but things were different now.

There were monsters of men that walked the earth, and he could not afford to hold back in fear of acting like the yokai from his aunts stories.

His friends could not afford him to hesitate if the time came and he needed to fight with Nejire-Chan against All For One.

That was why Tamaki agreed to training like this, so that he could become not only desensitized to biting into 'living flesh' but tracking in a scent rich area, one where animals and machines alike would travel through.

He was quick and perhaps a bit cruel as he tracked the rest of the metal herd down, either 'killing' them like the first metal deer, or grabbing them by the head and slamming the metal deer's head into the ground or a nearby tree.

It was only after he killed the last of them did the low howl of Inu-San call him back to the edge of the woods.

Tamaki rushed back before releasing what he had eaten and the buzzing sliding back under his skin, ready to be pulled back to the surface at a moment's notice should he need it.

Inu-San offered him a water bottle and a towel with a sad smile.

Tamaki took both, and cleaned off the large stains of oil all over him, then once Inu-San had turned around Tamaki changed out of the gym clothes he didn't care much for and into part of his uniform.

Getting into the jeep and sipping on the water as Inu-San drove them back.

Anxiety pooled in his stomach because today was the day.

The last day of term, and the day when he was supposed to finally take inheritance along with Nejire-Chan.

The jeep suddenly stopped, and Tamaki turned to Inu-San, wondering why he had chosen to stop, in all of the trips Tamaki had taken to the woods Inu-San had never stopped mid-way back though.

"Inu-San?" Tamaki hesitantly called and Inu-San placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Amajiki-Kun, you're about to make a very big choice, one a lot of people would never be able to make, I just want you to know that I am so proud of how strong you've become all these years." Inu-San told him, his hand squeezing Tamaki's shoulder, staring at him in a meaningful way that made a lump form in Tamaki's throat.

"You don't need to say anything, I just needed you to know that I'm proud of you regardless of what happens next kiddo." Inu-San said a few seconds later then turned the jeep back on and then they were back on their way to the main building.

Tamaki stared at Inu-San for another second then let his eyes move to look outside the window.

The dread that wanted to form before, lightning somewhat.

Still there, but it wouldn't have drowned him like it would have if Inu-San remained silent.

Tamaki could only hope that the vote of confidence was not misplaced.