Nejire stood waiting with Yuyu and Aizawa-Sensei in the medical wing with Recovery Girl and the others.
Bruises on her arms and body aching.
She savored the sting of each of them though.
Each patch of green, black, blue and red were badges of honor.
Earned with great pride through sparring with Aizawa-Sensei, even if she ended up laying on the floor gasping for air and limbs screaming from how much she was working her body.
Nejire needed to learn how to throw more than a decent punch, someone like All For One wasn't someone she could just sock in the jaw and expect to be done with him, and Aizawa-Sensei was the only person she knew was an expert in intensive hand-to-hand.
So, for every day since Aizawa-Sensei had been read in she went with him to one of the gyms and was trained to deal with all out close quarters combat.
Fighting with Yuyu sometimes as well since she was also training with them, Yuyu thankfully had not held back during their direct fighting.
She probably would have been upset if Yuyu did, even if it meant she had to walk away with Lichtenberg scars on her, they were always gone by the next week.
Let Recovery Girl glare at her for it, she didn't care and All For One would not be so kind as to not shock her with whatever electricity quirks he had.
Deku-Sensei's disappointed glances did make her shift uncomfortably though, because he would remind her that fighting All For One was their last resort, not the main plan and she shouldn't be pushing herself as if it was.
She knew that, but she didn't want to just sit around either.
All For One wasn't the only villain out there and she refused to let herself slip when she could be training herself to be the best she could be.
Thankfully she didn't have to stew for much longer in her thoughts with Jiki walking into the wing with Inu-San.
They were the last two to get here since the forest Jiki was training at was the furthest out from the main building, and now that they were it was time to take Inheritance.
Nejire pushed off the wall and walked over to stand with Jiki in front of Deku-Sensei, Yagi-San and Recovery Girl.
Yagi-San eyes were pitying, most likely blaming himself for their change in behavior and it took everything in her not to feel insulted.
Recovery Girl had pursed lips and clearly upset.
Deku-Sensei thankfully, didn't let a single shred of pity show, and only looked at them the same way she imagined that commanders looked at their soldiers.
Like they were damned if they did and damned if they didn't.
He looked at them like he knew they understood what they were doing and respected their choice even though he didn't like it.
"Okay, now that everyone is here, we can get started on transferring the quirk to them." Deku-Sensei said then motioned towards the two hospital beds they set up.
"We aren't sure how Inheritance make affect you as it settles in aside from some dizziness, so both of you are going to be laying on the cots." Deku-Sensei instructed.
Nejire nodded and the two of them sat on the beds, ready to lay down if she got lightheaded.
"Since digestion wouldn't hit you both at the same time due to Amajiki-San's quirk, we are going to transfer Inheritance via blood transfusion." Deku-Sensei informed them, showing them two I.V. bags.
"We'll use saline bags after we inject each with three MLs of blood to mitigate any negative reactions to different blood types." Deku-Sensei further elaborated before turning to Yagi-San with two needles in hand.
Yagi-San sat down himself with his arms out and ready to give up his blood, likely trying to concentrate on his desire to pass Inheritance on.
Nejire flinched when she felt nervous fingers trace over her own hand, she glanced over to Jiki, and he was biting his lip.
Nejire didn't hesitate to interlock their fingers and squeeze Jiki's hand back, she was sure that Jiki was anxious about this no matter how much he tried to hide it.
When the bags were properly filled and Recovery Girl approved the bags were ready Deku-Sensei brought the bags over, hanging them up and he started to prepare Jiki's arm, while Recovery Girl took care of her arm.
Both Deku-Sensei and Recovery Girl worked very carefully to stay completely in step with each other, swabbing the area with disinfectant, prepping the vein and then finally putting the needle in.
Nejire bit her lip as the cold fluid entered the vein, a tingling sensation making her aware of every single vein under her skin until it was everywhere... then when she opened her eyes her vision was blurring.
The room started spinning as the tingling turned to prickling, Nejire opened her mouth to question what was happening but something else tugged at her while filling her head with cotton.
Not wanting to fall over she laid down and her heavy eyelids closed, but that didn't stop the topsy-turvy feeling and her heart leap in her chest when she felt the bed under her give away.
Pulled away from consciousness and wrapped in something else brisk and chilly.
Nejire's eyes shot open and saw she was surrounded by water and immediately held her breath.
She looked around and nearly jumped when she saw an equally surprised looking Jiki meeting her eyes and floating in the water with her.
She tightened her grip on his hand to reassure him.
Wherever they were and whatever was going on they at least had each other.
Looking around again she saw they were floating in open water, like an ocean she suspected and looked up and saw they were right next to the surface and pointed up to it.
They would need to breathe soon, and she tried to swim up but a jerk of Jiki's arm stopped her.
Confused she looked back to him and Jiki pointed to his mouth, then she saw he was breathing normally, Nejire looked for some gills but didn't see any.
'It's not real' Jiki tried to say but looked confused when no sound came, but she could read his lips and took a breath herself.
The water was cold as it slid down her throat, but there wasn't any of the discomfort she expected would come from drowning.
This was so weird; she wasn't sure what was going on exactly.
Jiki didn't look much better and shrugged when he caught her questioning look, then suddenly his eyes shot open, and he pulled her to him.
Nejire whipped her head around and her jaw dropped.
Some large creature that was absolutely not there before floated beside them, so massively large that both she and Jiki together were smaller than its wide pale blue eyes.
The crooning and warped echo of a whale's call echoed in their ears.
And for some reason the sound put her at ease, she looked all around to get a better look of just what the creature was, its yellow skin stretching far to either side she looked, and below was a series of glowing yellow tentacles stretching beyond where she could see.
Carefully, Nejire let go of Jiki's hand and swam forward and reached out to stroke the large creature's skin, another bellowing croon came from whatever the creature was, and a thought came to her mind.
'Go deeper.' Yagi-San's voice echoed in her ears.
Nejire blinked and turned to Jiki wondering if he heard it too, Jiki quickly nodded his head.
Carefully they looked down below, then took each other's hand, they couldn't see anything other than the yellow tentacles and with some reluctance swam down following them.
Pressure building on them as they followed the yellow tentacles down, but there wasn't anything pushing them back up like in a real body of water.
And after what felt like an hour, they made it to the end of the tentacles and found a coral reef there looking strangely empty without any fish to occupy it.
Before they could think about it though something else massive rose from the reef.
The shape though was familiar, a large pink seahorse with black eyes, well if a seahorse was the size of two whales put together and had glowing tentacles.
Hauntingly, a trill came from it, a pair of its tentacles came up and pulled them to its head, the calm and comforting feeling pulsed over their skin as soon as they touched them.
'Hold on.' a new woman's voice softly told them and they held onto the ridges of the spines coming out of the sea horse's head, the creature moving through the reef and down further into the coral as life seemed to spring up within it.
'Not ready yet.' the voice told them, the pressure of the water feeling odd and just a bit too much.
Nejire tried to ask what the woman meant but no words came from her.
'Inheritance isn't settled yet, needs more time.' the woman whispered as the creature settled down in the middle of the reef.
'Your bodies must adjust still.' the woman told them.
The creature 'laying' down and the two of them were laid down on a large anemone.
Nejire wanted to question her more about this, but haziness slid over her skin.
'All will become clear when you wake, we shall explain through Yagi, just let yourselves take the time you need.' the woman told them as the creature moved to block the light from up above.
'We won't be going anywhere.' the woman promised as Nejire's vision faded to black once again.
Nejire gripped Jiki's hand, trying to make sure that he was still with her.
His squeeze back was oddly firm and the chill of the water brushing over her skin was fading until…
"Hado? Hado, are you waking up?" Deku-Sensei called, Nejire blearily open her eyes, wincing when the light blinded her.
"Hmft." she groaned back, her hand coming up to rub at her face, then she sat up slowly.
"Wha?" Nejire hoarsely asked, someone passing a cup of juice to her.
"You're feeling the aftereffects of Inheritance transferring to you." Deku-Sensei told her "How does your head feel?" Deku-Sensei asked her.
"Fuzzy." Nejire answered, her vision calming down from how it was swimming when she woke up.
"Is Jiki okay?" Nejire asked, a grunt from Jiki replied before Deku-Sensei could.
"Yes, his body is recovering faster since it's used to his genes rewriting themselves, your body isn't. So, you will take some more time." Deku-Sensei explained pushing her to take another sip of the juice in her hands.
*Oh, that would make sense.* Nejire thought sipping the tangy juice again.
Then the woman's words came back to her.
"Is that what the sea horse woman meant by us not being ready yet?" Nejire asked him.
Deku-Sensei blinked "Sea horse woman?" Deku-Sensei repeated, his face scrunched up in confusion.
"Ah, I'm afraid I know what Hado-Chan is talking about Dr. Midoriya." Yagi-San said coming over to them.
Deku-Sensei raised a brow back to the blonde man.
"Nana, explained that she was able to enter their space and that they weren't fully established in the mind space yet." Yagi-San explained softly.
"N-Nana?" Jiki questioned.
"Shimura Nana was the holder before myself, she was the one you both met after falling unconscious." Yagi-San answered, his hand softly placed on Jiki's shoulder.
"Speaking of, why did they fall unconscious? That wasn't something you said might happen." Aizawa-Sensei pointedly asked with his arms crossed.
"I can also explain that part Aizawa-San." Yagi-San admitted rubbing the back of his neck.
"According to the others, there was a... lull once it was transferred to the next person, it wasn't very strong back when Youchi passed it over to the second, but as more and more quirks were added, the stronger the lull was." Yagi-San told them.
"I was quite dazed when Nana passed it on to myself, and slept like the dead that night, I passed it off at the time but with the combined passage to two people adding to the pressure of the lull, and with the direct infusion to their blood," Yagi-San elaborated for them.
"Caused them to fall unconscious because it hit them more rapidly, along with Inheritance adjusting to having two more quirks added to its hoard." Deku-Sensei finished for the man.
"Indeed." Yagi-San said nodding his head.
"Alright, then how long will this 'lull' affect them?" Aizawa-Sensei questioned.
"Not for long, they'll be back to normal soon. At most they will have some shakiness tomorrow morning when they wake up but that shall be it, though it will take much longer before they'll be able to fully enter the Mindspace like I have." Yagi-San answered.
"The past holders will carefully watch over them and their progress." Yagi-San assured Aizawa-Sensei.
"But there won't be any more fainting spells right?" Oswald asked, his eyes shooting to look at them both with concern.
"No young Oswald, no more fainting unless they push themselves too far with using Inheritance." Yagi-San told them.
"Good." Aizawa-Sensei said back glaring at Yagi-San.
"The kids have had enough excitement, all of you out, out!" Recovery Girl exclaimed, chasing everyone out and then began to take their vitals, offering them both the little gummies that she usually gave them before using her quirk on them.
Nejire sighed, relief covering her like a blanket, having not realized that she had been over stimulated by all of the people being there, but she much preferred the quiet that over took the medical wing.
Nejire laid back down and sighed.
Closing her eyes and choosing to rest a little more while Recovery Girl focused on Jiki for now.
So, Nejire and Amajiki's mind space is probably not how most people would imagine so here's some explanation for it.
Since they both received Inheritance together and therefore both the ninth they share a space due to this, as would anyone else if they received Inheritance in this specific manner.
As for why I made their shared space an ocean and a reef, this is because it is a shared reflection of their respective quirks coming together in the most logically way.
Nejire, while having little to do with water itself physically, does view her quirk like its the ocean.
The entropy all around her and that if she does keep moving that she will drown in it, her quirk also makes her feel isolated since at times knowing that very few people would ever live as long as she was supposed to.
Amajiki's quirk on the other hand has strongly been associated with life in all shapes and forms, so that with his love of nature it would only be natural that his space would reflect that and his aversion to humans.
So combined their space would be a oceanic one that will fill with sea life over time as Inheritance continues to re-write itself into their DNA.
As for why Yagi and Nana had inhuman appearances in their mind space, the animal part from Amajiki's brain allowing him to feel more at ease with them as sea creatures instead of humans while Nejire's mind is the one that adds the more fantastical elements of their forms as a reflection of the past users shared quirks.
Hence why Yagi is a Yellow whale and Nana a pink sea horse, with the colors coming from the shots I could find of their 'auras' I guess from the anime.
Later, if I can ever draw their forms or in a place to commission someone I'll add pictures to this chapter