Different But Not Bad

Chapter 8 {Pain}

The bottom half of my body felt numb while the other half screamed in agony. The sharp, burning sensation of my chest was all I could focus on. My entire body told me to stop what I was doing, stop, and find relief from this hellish feeling. For a moment I thought about everything I might lose if I give in to the pain and everything that would come of it. I squeezed my eyes shut tight and my face turned to a grimace. Swallowing the pain and ignoring it the best I could would have to be my only option. I tried my best to control the ringing in my head by squirming around but it only made me feel worse and Daichi simply held me close to her from the spot where she sat with the others crowding around her. I forced the little, open vial that Daichi had moved to my mouth away from my head with a flick of my hand. I didn't dare open my eyes, the sun hurt even if I couldn't see it, I heard her groan from above me.

"Just a sip of this shit and we don't have to do this"

She murmured but I still didn't let her come near my mouth with the vial of crystal blue fluid. I could tell she was getting impatient and that made me laugh softly, "You can make fun of me but you can't drink?" It hurt to speak, "'If there is no struggle then there is no progress'" My voice was gravely and you could hear the agony in it without even trying. This time Daichi forced me to open my mouth and poured the sour liquid in it without me struggling. I pulled a face and opened one eye, it was back to its normal red but the other was still dull red, and looked up at Daichi's lime ones.

"That's fucking sour, is it supposed to taste like that?"

She chuckled and sat me up against her side and she looked to the side at Midnight and Snipe. Midnight was scolding him and he was looking down with shame, I felt Daichi grind her teeth together and she gripped my arms. "Okino, can you hold her?" Keiko came and moved me to lean against her as Daichi stood up and went over to the two pro heroes. Because of her height, she was scarcely towering over Snipe with her arms crossed over her chest. She suddenly grabbed the front of his clothes and brought her fist up and over her head, Keiko looked at Inko and sat me down. Inko came rushing over to make sure I didn't fall and walked up to the two. She grabbed Daichi's arm and brought it down to her side, "There is no need to fight, I believe we have already caused enough damage as it is." Daichi sneered and looked down at her, "He fucking shot her, I have every right to beat his ass!" Keiko sighed but didn't let go of Daichi's arm "I know you're angry-" Daichi cut in "I'm not angry, I'm pissed off!" It didn't seem like she would calm down even if Izuku tried it. So, I tried.

"Daichi, please, I'm fine."

I said as loud as I could without damaging my voice or my lungs. She turned to me and her eyes were polished over, "You're not fine, that's the thing!" She yelled and let go of Snipe and he fell to the floor with a thud. "You got shot! You're bleeding! You can't stand! You could have-could've-" she trailed off and wept. It was so unlike her normal anger. I couldn't help but try to stand and step towards her but after a depressing attempt of trying to hoist myself up, she came back down to my height and hugged me tightly without hurting me. I hugged her back but as soon as we heard Rio clear her throat we pulled apart and Daichi glared at her through her clouded and shining lime eyes while I simply looked at her. My eyes were back to their light red and my hair was back to its neon orange color but my clothes were still black and grey which meant that Izuku and Miyu were trying to fix what was left of my ring but they were still missing the last thing to fix it.

They came up to us and Miyu crouched down and held out the last piece of my ring, the emerald didn't fit. I brought my hand up to where my heart would be and waited. The same white-ish orb came out of it and it flew into Miyu's hand, "Does it look like that for all of us?" Rio questioned as Miyu drove it into the emerald of the ring, Daichi shook her head, "They serve as our corruption and they all do something different for each of us. Some, change our images and others change our stats, sometimes even our personalities, not all of us have had our own corruption take over but it's usually a very painful switch." Rio nodded and went back to watching Miyu as she went back to working on the ring. I saw something that made me 'aww' out loud and I pointed it out to Daichi.