It was Tuesday.

Izuku was sitting in the teacher's lounge. He liked to hang out there instead of his Cementoss-approved apartment when he needed some company, and he got that at the lounge. He was thinking about a lot of things, but most prominent among them was Tensei Iida. He was thinking about how the man had lost so much. The use of his legs. His job as a Hero. Now, his brother. It wasn't fair. Tensei shouldn't have had so much of his life taken from him in such a short amount of time. He was still in the hospital, recovering from the attack that paralyzed him, and now his brother had been killed by the same man that took away his ability to walk. This shouldn't have happened to such a great Hero. Izuku hadn't followed Ingenium's career too closely, but he knew enough to say that he was an above average Hero, if the staggering number of sidekicks he had employed at his agency was to speak for anything. Izuku was to blame for Tenya's death, though. Due to his stupid brain, he got distracted, and Tenya died. He was murdered. That was on him, no matter how many people told him that it wasn't. He knew it. Aizawa knew it. If Izuku had anything to do with it, Tensei would know it.

That was his plan for the day. Talk to the Iidas about how he had failed to protect their youngest member. He had showered, gotten dressed and eaten a quick breakfast, but was now just sitting in his room, thinking. Thinking about what he would even say to the Iidas once he got the chance. Izuku had been thinking about it for about half an hour, and he knew that if he was to think about it any longer he'd probably end up turning on himself and deciding to not go to the hospital Tensei was at and not even talk to them. Izuku took a deep breath and stood up, filling himself with false sureness.

He walked over to the door and walked through it, getting the attention of the few staff members in the room, Kayama, Mic and … Aizawa, the only person who knew how he really felt, and what he had known and failed to do. The two locked eyes, Aizawa's lazy eyes searching Izuku's own. He saw something change in Aizawa's face, meaning he had figured out what he was trying to do. Izuku began to turn, to walk out of the teachers' lounge, but a question stopped him.

"Where are you going?"

It was Kayama who had asked. Izuku expected it to be Aizawa, or maybe Mic, but he and Kayama had a secret agreement. If Izuku wanted to leave, she'd let him without any fuss. So, what was she doing? This was antithetical to their agreement! Izuku turned back around, and looked her dead in the eyes, making sure she knew that he was not amused, as she clearly was by the look on her face, her lopsided grin and her wide eyes telling Izuku all he needed to know.

"Out," Izuku said.

"Where exactly?" Kayama asked again.

"I need some fresh air, and I'm not getting it in there," Izuku said, gesturing back to his room.

"Fair enough. Is that all?" Kayama asked.

Izuku didn't want to lie.

"Yes, that's all."

He did anyway.

"Be back before it gets dark, young man," Kayama said, grinning gleefully.

"Alright, Kayama. You're not my mom, you know," Izuku whined.

"Okay, okay! Get out of here," she said, waving him out.

Izuku stepped out of the room and, once the door was closed, let out a sigh of relief. He didn't like to think about this in terms of 'caught' and 'getting away', but he almost hadn't gotten away with that. He knew Kayama was a tease, but she had the ability to ruin his plan just by being herself. He loved her for it, but it was anxiety inducing at the same time. He began to walk toward the gates, making his way through the school while trying not to bring attention to himself.

While Izuku made his way, he wondered where on Earth he would find the location of Tensei's hospital. He knew it was in Hosu, where he was attacked, but he didn't know which hospital, or which room . Izuku paused as he came to this realization, and cursed under his breath as he stopped in his tracks. He looked around, wondering where he could get the info on where Tensei would be. Izuku sighed heavily, wondering what he was thinking. How did he think he could just go and talk to a Hero who had more news about him than All Might at the moment? It would be like trying to get an interview with Aizawa. Impossible.

He kept walking, thinking that he might as well just do what he said he was going to; go for a walk to get some fresh air. Izuku felt the world move beneath his feet as he wandered aimlessly. He couldn't believe he had been so stupid as to think that he could really just walk into Ingenium's hospital room demanding an audience with him. That wouldn't go well for a variety of reasons, all of them making Izuku feel like he was still just a dumb kid. He still was, in a lot of ways.

When Izuku got to the gates, he saw Shinso. He hadn't seen Izuku yet, but he could if he wanted to. Shinso was leaning against a tree outside the gate, clearly waiting for something by the way he tapped his foot on the ground impatiently. He had his cat headphones on, and was looking at his phone, but suddenly snapped his head up to stare right at Izuku, who took a step back out of shock. He saw Shinso mutter something under his breath and begin to walk toward him, which made Izuku more nervous than was probably warranted. Shinso wouldn't try anything here, right?

"Took you long enough. I was starting to think you might actually sit still for more than a day," Shinso said as he neared Izuku.

"What do you mean?" Izuku asked.

"I know what you're trying to do, Midoriya. I'm here to make sure you don't do anything stupid," Shinso explained.

"Like what? Talk to the brother of our dead classmate?"

"Like fight the Hero Killer."

Izuku paused. Was he really that obvious? Sure, it wasn't his main plan, but he did want to fight the man that had single handedly ruined the lives of two of the Iidas. He had thought about it so much he could almost envision the fight in his head. What he would do, what he would say when confronting Stain; it was all ingrained in his mind. All he needed to do was find him. That wasn't the entire reason he was going to Tensei, but it was a side-benefit. God, he sounded like he didn't care about their family's feelings. He had feelings, too, though, a burning anger down in his stomach that wouldn't go away, even if he was asleep. He'd accidentally ripped one of his sheets with Blackwhip in his sleep last night, because Blackwhip fed on his anger and aggression.

"You don't know what it's like. I see Iida's face every time I close my eyes. It's like he's taunting me, forcing me to think about how I wasn't good enough. How I got distracted, and how he died because of it. I need this, Shinso," Izuku explained.

Shinso looked offended for a moment, before getting his face back to it's normal, tired state. He took a deep breath, and let it all out in a quick burst, before taking a smaller one to speak.

"I do know what that's like. Every time Aizawa has to put that scar cream on his face, every time he has to blink prematurely, every time he traces that scar with his fingers when he thinks I'm not looking, I'm right back at the USJ calling out to the Nomu. It never listens. It just beats him into the ground without a second thought. Listen, you don't have to go through this alone. You have friends. Talk to us. We can help you," Shinso said.

"I'm sor-" Izuku tried.

"I know you are. If you weren't, I'd be concerned about a body snatcher. I don't want an apology. I want to help you. What do you need?" Shinso interrupted.

"I need to talk to Tensei Iida."

Shinso sighed, and brought his phone back up so that he could type something in. After a few moments of Izuku standing there, wondering what Shinso was doing, he suddenly began walking toward the gate and signaling for him to follow. Izuku quickly caught up, but looked at Shinso with a curious expression.

"I thought about who would know where Ingenium's staying, and I came to one answer. Aizawa," Shinso said.

"You have Aizawa's number? Wait, why would he know?" Izuku asked, leaving the most important question he had for later.

"Yeah, he gave it to all of us to call whenever we were in danger. What, you think that just because you live on campus, you're special?"

Well, there goes the most important question.

"How'd you know?" Izuku asked.

"I had my suspicions, but I had to be sure, so I pretended to leave one day and waited. You never left. I did it a few other times to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and then I was sure. You live on campus. My question is: why?" Shinso said.

"My mother and I had a pretty bad falling out. So, I live here now. But, how could you stay late enough to know that I hadn't left? Didn't your parents get worried?"

"Ah, no. They kinda let me do what I want most days. When my Dad's not working, he's sleeping, and my Mom just asks me what I was up to later. It's not like I can lie to her, so they usually just let me do whatever. If I do something really bad, they'd know," Shinso explained.

"Huh. I've been meaning to ask, but what are your parents' Quirks? It must be a pretty weird pair to make Brainwashing," Izuku asked.

"You're telling me. Dad can stay awake as long as he wants, but as soon as he chooses to actually sleep, he's out for a proportionate amount of time afterwards. If he stays awake for his entire work week, four days, then he'll sleep the other three. He calls his Quirk 'Wake Walker', like that's supposed to be cool. Mom's Quirk makes everyone who speaks to her tell the truth. When I said I couldn't lie to her earlier, I was being serious. It's how she ended up dating my Dad. She kinda just asked him if he wanted to go out, and he said yes immediately. Twenty years strong," Shinso said.

"Huh, that's pretty cool. So your Quirk must come primarily from shifting the state of consciousness of your target, derived from your Dad's 'Wake Walker', and then once they're in that state, they're forced to follow any command, derived from your Mom's truth telling Quirk. I think it's so weird that we can get ordinarily mundane Quirks to change into such weirdly powerful combinations if we tweak them just the right amount, you know?" Izuku rambled.

Suddenly, Izuku's thoughts turned to Todoroki. It wasn't weird at all how Endeavor had gone about his little eugenics project to achieve the most powerful Quirk possible. He still needed to talk to Todoroki about his father and how he'd been treated. Izuku had been planning on getting Todoroki to use his fire in the Sports Festival, but he'd missed his chance, and he wasn't going to wait until next year. He needed to do it as fast as possible, which meant when classes resumed or sooner. He was pulled from his thoughts by Shinso responding to his mumbling.

"Yeah, that's genetics for you. Never know what you're gonna get. What's that old movie quote?" Shinso said, staring into space

"Life's like a box of chocolates?" Izuku suggested, knowing exactly what Shinso was talking about.

"That's it! Man, that movie's so old! I'm surprised anyone else I know has even seen it."

"My Mom and I used to watch old movies together on the weekends," Izuku said, feeling a surge of melancholy flow through him.

Shinso silently flinched at the reminder. He stopped talking after that, not sure how to salvage the conversation from there. Izuku wasn't ever going to forget about his mother, as he did still love her in his heart, but he had made peace with the fact that he wasn't going to see her for a while, as a generous estimate, so he was going to have to deal with these feelings from time to time. He'd deal with it. He's dealt with worse.

Izuku and Shinso walked through the halls toward the teacher's lounge in companionable silence. As they walked, the squeaking of shoes and ticking of nearby clocks was oddly soothing. Like he could just exist here for a while as he made his way to getting busted for lying to the people he was supposed to be honest with. The more he thought about it, the more Izuku realized that his excuse was incredibly flimsy.

The two arrived at the lounge and Izuku took the initiative in opening the door, stepping into the lounge and getting curious looks from the teachers. He sighed, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Guess who I ran into?" Izuku asked, stepping aside to reveal Shinso.

Kayama brightened up, grinning at the sight of her very first intern. She gave him a wide smile and a mock salute, which he returned with a smaller, yet equally as joyful grin. Izuku had inferred that Kayama and Shinso had gotten into some trouble during their week together, but hadn't elaborated on it since mentioning their training before the raid, so he was left to wonder what they had been doing that week.

"Hey. Is Aizawa still here?" Shinso asked.

Aizawa's head rose from the other side of the couch, which had been faced away from the windows so that Aizawa could sleep there during breaks, and stared at the boys. His eyes narrowed at Izuku, which the boy caught and looked away at, but honed in on Shinso.

"Why are you here? You were given the week to do what you would in response to the news. That was yesterday, so why?" Aizawa asked, sitting up properly.

"I was certain that Midoriya would end up doing something drastic," Shinso said, shooting Izuku a look that told him he'd owe the purple haired boy after this. "But, he just wanted to talk with Iida's family, so I figured that you'd have a direct line to 'em, being Iida's teacher and all."

Aizawa stared at Shinso as he spoke, trying to determine whether or not he was telling the truth. After a moment, Aizawa caved and slipped out of his sleeping bag. That meant that he was serious about this. Aizawa stood and grabbed the phone out of his pocket. He dialed a number and let it ring for a moment, a look Izuku didn't quite recognize flashing across his face, before the person on the other end picked up and he put the phone to his ear.

"Hello. This is Shota Aizawa, teacher at UA. Is this Kyuyu Iida? Yes, I taught Tenya. No, I'm not calling about that, what I want to know is if you're available to meet with myself and another student. Izuku Midoriya, why?" Aizawa spoke into the phone.

At the last question, he turned and looked at Izuku with a concerned expression. At the mention of his name, Izuku began to wonder if they wanted to speak with him now , and thought that it'd be an actual nightmare to say what he wanted to say over the phone. Way to kill the sentiment.

"Okay, we'll be there. See you then," Aizawa said, and snapped his phone shut. It just then occurred to Izuku that Aizawa used a flip phone, which was strange, because the only other person he knew that used one was Ochako, but he supposed it made sense given the way Aizawa lived. "Midoriya, you're coming with me. Shinso, do you want to come as well?" he asked, turning to the purple haired boy.

Shinso shot a look at Izuku. "Do you want me there?" he asked.

"I think this is something I have to do with them alone. That'll mean you, too, unfortunately," Izuku said, giving Aizawa an apologetic look.

"That's fine, but you have to do it today. The Iidas are going to be swamped for the next months by all sorts of bills and reports due to the activities of their sons, so this is your only time to speak with them. We're leaving now, so get to the parking lot," Aizawa explained as he walked toward the door.

It was a hellish ride over. Inside the car the two climbed into was silent, and neither of the two Heroes were making an attempt to break that silence. It was oppressive, suffocating, and deserved. Izuku mulled over what he was going to say once he got face to face with the Iidas, and sometimes he would get a little too in his head about it and stop actively breathing for a few seconds before Aizawa had to tap him on the arm to bring him out of a small panic attack. Izuku greatly appreciated Aizawa's presence beside him, but wished he would go away at the same time. It was a rollercoaster of emotions, this anxiety, because it was so very much like him and making him act completely differently at the same time.

The car ride was shorter than he'd hoped, but far longer than he'd thought. It was a wonder Iida rode on public transportation every day to get to school and back from this part of the city. It was an hour in the car, so it would have been closer to two on the train and walking, and that was just one way. The patience it must have taken. Izuku snapped himself out of that train of thought as the car came to a stop and he climbed out of the back, letting the fresh air hit his face as he moved through it.

Izuku looked forward to find that he was face to face with what looked to be Iida's mother. Now that he was looking at her, this was Kyuyu Iida, also known as the woman who held the 'Ingenium' title before Tensei Iida, the current Ingenium. He paused for a moment, as she looked just the same as she did ten years ago when she'd retired. Raising a child did nothing to tarnish her beauty. Izuku was getting off track. She was a beautiful woman, but this was getting him nowhere.

"Hello. My name is—" Izuku started.

"— Midoriya. Tenya spoke about you often. He was quite perturbed by your willingness to break rules," Kyuyu said.

"Yeah," Izuku said. He had to suppress a tiny laugh. It was kind of funny, in a morbid way, that Tenya had always chastised rule breaking, but had then gone on to break some of the most important rules in their profession.

"He was also fascinated by how it always seemed to work for you," Kyuyu continued.

"Yeah," he murmured, feeling an odd throbbing under the scars on his face.

"Tenya also feared your strength, knowing how easy it could be for you to do anything you wanted."

"That's true," Izuku admitted.

"But, above all that, he admired how you used all of that to do the most amount of good you possibly could. He respected your humility, and dedication to learning. He called you a friend, and in his honor, I'll do the same. Come inside. I think we have things to discuss," Kyuyu said.

Izuku looked at her like she was crazy, because he felt like he was going a bit loopy. That tonal shift had given him whiplash, it felt like, and he was trying to get his mental bearings before responding. He looked at Kyuyu, seeing her smile at him like he knew only mothers could, like he'd missed from his own and seen on the rare occasions he spoke with Nana. Come to think of it, that was something he wanted to talk with her about. Izuku shook himself out of his small tangent and smiled back at the woman standing before him, nodding his head slightly as he followed behind the Iida matriarch.

The Iida home was, well, homely. It was kind of like Tenya himself; straightforward, to the point, but charming and warm. Izuku wasn't much for noticing how people smelled, but this was Tenya to a tee. It was a kind of a manifestation of Tenya's traits, good and bad. Or maybe it was the other way around.

He was guided to a couch in what was clearly a living room. There was already a pot of tea and three cups on the coffee table between the two couches, and Izuku remembered in a panic that Aizawa was still right behind him. Izuku realized that there was no asking him to sit this one out, now, as he was already on the couch next to him. He really didn't want to do this in front of Aizawa, though, and began thinking up excuses to get him out of the room long enough to do what he needed.

"Would you like tea, Midoriya, Aizawa?" Kyuyu asked as she sat on the armchair facing the two UA affiliates.

"No thank you," the two said at the same time, eyeing each other as they did.

"Very well then. Midoriya, what would you like to speak about?" Kyuyu asked.

"Well, I was hoping to ask how you're doing. All the Iidas, not just you. I know it can't be easy to lose someone that close to you so suddenly, so I just wanted to see if you needed help with anything. I don't know what exactly I could do, to be honest with you, but if I can do it, I can't just sit back and not . I hope that makes sense," Izuku said.

"That makes sense," she said, smiling sweetly. "Thank you for your consideration. We're still organizing the, um … the funeral. It's hard to do such a thing for your own son. But, we're managing. How are his classmates doing? He spoke of your class as something to behold! We couldn't watch the Festival, due to Tensei's accident, but from just his description you'd think he was speaking of top Heroes!" she continued.

"I'm not one to say other than myself. I've only spoken to one other classmate since it really happened, and he seems to be getting along just fine, though I know that looks can be deceiving, and … you never really know what someone's going through," Izuku said, very aware that he was talking about Tenya, not Shinso toward the end.

"That's good. Midoriya, I'm sorry for beating around the bush here, but I'd like to know. Why are you here?" Kyuyu asked.

"What?" Izuku asked, his throat feeling tight. She couldn't have figured him out. It was impossible. He hadn't even hinted, and she didn't know him as well as Shinso did, so she'd have to be some kind of expert detective to figure out his intentions.

"It's just that you're the only one of your class to visit, and I'm of the assumption that if they knew they could do something like this, they would've, but only you thought of it. Why is that?" Kyuyu reasoned.

Izuku was screwed. That was a very good question, one that he didn't have a full answer to. Not while Aizawa was in the room. Izuku glanced over at Aizawa, who he could see was kind of staring out the window at the cloudy sky with a distant expression on his face. He snapped his eyes back onto Kyuyu's, tilting his head the smallest bit toward Aizawa so that he wouldn't notice or feel through the vibrations in the air like some weird bat thing, because Izuku still didn't know how he did half the things he did without multiple Quirks and it was kind of starting to get to him. Putting that aside, he made it as obvious as possible to Kyuyu that Aizawa needed to go without making it obvious to Aizawa himself.

Luckily, Kyuyu seemed to have caught on. She looked like she had some kind of revelation, and turned to Aizawa with the snap of her fingers to alert the man to her idea.

"Aizawa. I just remembered that my husband wanted to speak with you. He's in the room directly above this one upstairs, so it shouldn't be too hard to find him, if you will. He just wants to confirm a few things with you that he's not sure about," Kyuyu said.

Aizawa, to his credit, didn't go for it immediately. But, after a few moments of staring at Kyuyu, he relented. He got up and began walking out into the hall, giving Izuku a look that he couldn't entirely decipher the meaning of. It most likely meant 'don't do anything stupid', knowing Aizawa.

Once Aizawa left, Kyuyu quickly pulled out her phone and typed rapidly into it. After a moment she sighed in what sounded like relief and set her phone on the table, mumbling something about 'poor Hayai'. Izuku was able to put it together that Kyuyu's husband, the Ingenium before Tensei Iida, hadn't really wanted to go over logistics with Aizawa. He almost laughed, but remembered why he was here.

"I wanted to start this off by saying that your son and I weren't especially close, but that I did value him as a classmate, ally and friend. We … disagreed a few times, but that didn't get in the way of seeing that he was an exceptional young man, and that he would've been a great hero. I truly am sorry for your loss. That being said, I don't think you should be as forgiving with me as you have been thus far," Izuku began.

"Why's that?" Kyuyu asked.

"I think I may have been the cause of Tenya's death. Before you say anything, I want to give you my reasoning. I think it started at the Sports Festival, before Tenya learned of his brother's injury. During the second event, we worked together in a cavalry battle. At the time, I had everyone gunning for me. I don't wanna brag, but I was the one to beat. Tenya knew that. I wanted to focus on the bigger threats to our team's position at the top, but Tenya thought that it would be disrespectful to our classmates, who were fighting just as hard as we were, to disregard them like that. I convinced him otherwise. I told him that some things seemed bad, but were really good in the long term," Izuku continued.

"I don't get how this has to do with the topic at hand," Kyuyu admitted.

"I was the one who said that some of the rules we operated by, the social rules he'd been so adherent to in that scenario, could be bent, or twisted, or sometimes outright broken, to achieve a good end. I planted that idea in his head, and then he learned that his brother had been crippled by a villain nobody has been able to catch. I … recently, briefly, fell out of contact with people who I consider family. It hurt to not have their voice in my ear, their hands on my back, pushing me forward. It left me feeling like I was never anything without them, and I would never be anything if they didn't come back to me. Eventually, they did, but that's not the point. The point is that Tenya had the relationship with his brother he admired and loved so much, suddenly changed forever in a way that he had never even considered, much less prepared for. Tenya was very rigid in his worldviews, and this was something that I think broke him," Izuku rambled on.

"You think your suggestions to him were somehow … what? Warped by his grief? You think you made him go overboard? Made him want to seek out that horrid villain for revenge?" Kyuyu asked, leaning forward in her chair.

"Honestly? I do. I think I'm partially to blame, here. There's also … another thing. I knew what he was thinking," Izuku confessed.

"You could tell he was hurting?" Kyuyu asked, a twinkle in her eye.

"Yes, but not just that. I knew that he was going to fight the Hero Killer. Right up until he got on that train to Hosu, I was oblivious to the truth, but it clicked for me before we were all sent off for our internships. The location, the Hero he chose to go with, the freshness of the incident with Tensei in his memory, the way he'd been sullen and withdrawn in class before that. It all added up to me, that Tenya was going to Hosu so that he could confront the Hero Killer. I tried to talk to him before we all split up, but he brushed me off. That was the last time I spoke to him," Izuku explained.

Kyuyu covered her mouth with her hand, but Izuku could still tell her face was twisted in a frown. Her eyes shone, and she began to cry at hearing him describe how he'd known her son would do the thing that killed him . How he let him go , despite knowing he could change things. Izuku himself was grimacing, but this was less from the grief and despair of the situation, and more disgust at himself for even saying all of this like he was. He was missing the point! He needed to say what he really wanted and make sure that the Iidas knew that Izuku would do something about it.

"I'm sorry for dragging these feelings back up. It's … only been less than a week, and this is likely a sore spot," Izuku apologized.

"It's okay. At least you tried to help," Kyuyu said, nodding her head faintly.

"It's not okay. I didn't really … I could've tried harder. Even when I had known exactly what he would do, what his intentions were and even where he'd be , I still let myself go on with my own internship, happy as can be. I didn't have a care in the world, while your son was dying in an alleyway. I could've changed things, but I didn't, because I was too focused on myself," Izuku finally got to his point, trying to keep himself from spilling the tears that burned his eyes.

He let Kyuyu sit with that for a moment. Izuku himself needed a moment. He tried his best to focus on the feeling of Danger Sense. It wasn't giving off any pings, so he supposed he was in the clear. Izuku wasn't even completely sure that the Quirk worked that way, but he'd been experimenting since he got it. He'd mostly done it in safe environments, aside from the one time that he'd tested it during the raid he'd participated in during his internship. He'd decided to test if Danger Sense warned him of harm he could cause to others, but it seemed that it only registered incoming threats to people he deemed 'worth it' on some level. He had to change his mindset, if that was the case.

"I plan to do something about it, though. I'm … trying to get information so I can start planning, at least. I—" Izuku tried.

"Midoriya. Let's go," Aizawa called out from behind him.

Izuku whipped around to see Aizawa, glaring at him from the doorway. He looked back at Kyuyu, who had a look of embarrassment on her face. Izuku internally cursed at Shinomori, and looked back at Aizawa, who was sending a disapproving grimace his way.

"Wait!" Izuku called.

"Now. We're leaving," Aizawa said, before beginning to walk toward the front door.

Izuku knew the jig was up. He stood, bowed to Kyuyu and turned to leave. He walked toward the hallway, but was stopped by the sound of Kyuyu clearing her throat. Izuku turned back around and saw her staring at him with a determined expression set on her face. It told him of things that he'd never known, and that she'd overcome. He knew he'd been wrong to feel bad for bringing all of this up, but he'd forgotten in the moment that she had been a Pro Hero for about two decades before finally settling down with her family. For her family. Kyuyu Iida was strong.

"I can't encourage you to do what I think you're saying. I can, however, ask you to get help for these feelings. If you just bottle your grief and anger up, it'll eventually just explode, and then even more people get hurt because of that. Hound Dog works at UA, doesn't he? He's helped hundreds of Heroes who've lost their way, and he can help you, too. Don't forget that there are ways to get past this," Kyuyu said, her steely gaze never breaking Izuku's.

Izuku didn't respond, following Aizawa out the door. He got outside, feeling the warmth from the sun hit his skin. It was a different kind of warmth than the Iida home. It was a less comfortable warmth, like it was watching him rather than welcoming him. Izuku shook these thoughts off and followed Aizawa to the car.

He was silent the whole way over, not responding when Aizawa asked him how his talk with the Iida matriarch had gone. Izuku had hinged his whole half-baked plan on getting information on how exactly Tenya had died out of the other Iidas. He knew it was vile, and that he should be ashamed of himself, but he was already filled with burning vitriol at himself due to his failure the first time. He needed to do what he could to get rid of this feeling, and it wasn't going to go away just sitting in his room at UA. He needed action. He needed the Hero Killer in front of him. He needed vengeance.

When Izuku climbed into the car with Aizawa, the older man sighed heavily. He looked over at Izuku with a look in his eye that the student couldn't quite decipher. It looked like Aizawa was about to speak, but he just looked straight ahead once more and fixed his face into the impassive mask Izuku knew. Aizawa took a deep breath in and signaled for their driver to go.

Izuku began thinking of other ways he could get rid of this feeling of helplessness and of shame in his heart.

He came up empty, in more ways than one.