Chapter Text
As you dash through a practice patrol route with Aizawa in front of you, searching for Deku, you reflect upon the day’s events, and how you’d even ended up here in the first place.
~~~
“-And of COURSE it was him, who else could it have been? Not like there are any other overpowered Quirks in this school!?!?” Hawks yelled, completely ignoring the glares All-Might was giving him, seemingly oblivious to the blank stares of one Present Mic, Aizawa and every other hero in the room.
And of course it was utterly terrible luck that you, Anatawa Kokoniiru, had to choose that moment to step into the room. All the faces of every Pro Hero and every teacher turned towards you.
“Ah, Kokoniiru, thank you for coming. You were with Midoriya when the alarms went off, correct?” Hawks said, instantly switching into his professional persona.
“Y-yes?-Yes I was. I-I was there, yes.” You stammer out (Tongue reattached once mute voice finally speaking, thanking you, but you can only stutter), used to eyes on you but not this many important ones!!!
“Please tell us, what happened when the alert went off?” Endeavour says, loud and annoying.
You quietly seethe, remembering Shoto telling you about his father’s rigorous training regime that didn’t allow him to take any breaks and usually ended with him collapsing out of exhaustion. You remember him letting you heal his exhaustion, dehydration, and heat stroke. You remember telling him that it’d probably only take a day at most to heal for you, because of your accelerated self-healing.
You remember the week you had to take off school because of it.
“S-sorry, what did y-you say Hawks?” You say, not anywhere near the punishment you wish you could inflict on Endeavor (Bones snapping, blood spurting, a horrible scream), but these small punishments make you feel better about not being able to murder the Number 1 Pro Hero without consequences.
“But I didn-” Hawks starts, wings fluttering and puffing up, only to be cut off by Aizawa, who has small pinpricks of mirth dancing in his eyes.
“What Hawks said was, would you mind telling us what happened after the alarms went off? I’m sure Hawks will make an effort to be louder next time.” Aizawa says, ignoring Endeavor’s spluttering and Hawks’s huffing.
“Oh, w-well then o-of course Aizawa-sensei.” You say, inwardly smirking at Aizawa’s barely concealed hate towards Shoto’s father (He understands, he would help, would enjoy the screams of pain).
“Well, once the a-alert went off, Deku s-said that the v-v-villains were probably going to a-attack Bakugou again, s-so he asked me t-to follow him so he could p-protect Bakugou. I did, b-but we c-couldn’t find him. Then, t-the announcement of the v-v-villains attacking downtown came o-on and he l-listened to it a-and then d-dashed off, quicker t-than I could f-follow. He s-said that he wa-as going to d-defeat the v-v-villain before a-anyone got h-hurt.” You stutter out, shoulders curling inwards, ashamed that you weren’t fast enough to stop him.
“Stop stuttering. It is unbecoming.” Endeavour says shortly, unaware that he has angered every teacher in this room.
“Kokoniiru-San cannot stop stuttering. When they first used their Quirk at its limits, when they were 5, I might add, they healed someone who was mute and had had their tongue cut out. Little Listener developed a severe speaking disorder as their body was not yet used to their Quirk, and it caused them to be unable to speak without stuttering. You may shut your mouth Endeavor, and speak not of things you know nothing about.” Present Mic spoke up loudly, cold and angry.
You hold your head high, disgusted by Endeavour and grateful to Present Mic. He has always defended you and always will (Kind always kind even when you were there smart head quick words loud voice protect protect protect). He was the first you told about your voice problems, him and Aizawa, and they always helped you and never doubted you for a second.
“Let's get back to business. Here’s the plan. Kokoniiru, you will go with Eraserhead and Present Mic and try to find Midoriya. If you do, get him out of there and call for backup. The rest of the heroes will be fighting the villain.” All-Might announces.
Endeavour stands up, clearly desperate to get out of this room and away from all the judgmental stares. Nezu snaps to attention.
“Endeavour.”
It’s only his name, but it makes him freeze like he was struck over the head with a piping hot kettle, stiffening and turning around slowly. “Yes, Nezu?” He says quietly, as if afraid of the very intimidating UA Principal.
“You will be staying and reading over all the students' known problems, whether mental or physical. You will write a formal apology to Kokoniiru-San, and you will educate yourself so you do not insult someone over something they can do nothing about. You will not attend this mission. You will not talk to anyone about someone else’s problems, and you will under no circumstances leave this building until I allow you to. You are confined to the teacher’s dorms and will stay there until you are told otherwise by me. Thank you for your cooperation.” Nezu says calmly, smiling all the while.
“WHAT?! You need me for this mission, I’m the most powerful guy you’ve got!” Endeavour growls.
“No, you aren’t.” Nezu says shortly, and gestures him out of the room.
Everyone suits up, and you don your Hero outfit. You turn to look at yourself in the mirror of the change rooms.
You stare back at yourself, with shining eyes filled with life and vitality. Your mask, similar to a masquerade mask, sits neatly over your face. Your outfit is comprised of many parts. First, your pearl-white t-shirt in the style of a doctors’ scrub. Next, your utility belt of basic and extra first-aid supplies. Your pants that balloon like a circus performer are underneath, and your easily recognizable doctor logo is plastered onto the front and back of your jacket, styled after a doctors’ coat but altered to be shorter and more flexible. All of it is varying shades of white.
This is the first time you’ve seen your hero outfit and you are proud of it. It symbolizes everything you’ve worked for and achieved.
You head out the door and find Aizawa-Sensei and Present Mic-Sensei.
“Let’s go save Deku.”
~~~
As you soar through the night, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, endlessly jealous of Aizawa-sensei for his capture weapon, because you don’t have one yet and it is tiring to jump and jump and jump. You have barely thought this when Present Mic-sensei grabs you and pulls you into his arms, bridal style.
“Hey Little Listener, you save your strength. You need to find Deku, and you can’t focus if you’re trying to keep up with me and Shouta.” He says calmly.
You nod, unable to speak as you are still out of breath. You’ve trained so hard; your quirk doesn’t help you fight so you need to learn all kinds of different fighting styles and train yourself to run long and hard. It’s disheartening to see that it hasn’t paid off yet. You’re still slower than all the Pro Heroes by a large margin.
You shake your head and focus. Closing your eyes, you prepare to be blinded by the auras of everyone around you.
It doesn’t help. Immediately you are assaulted by huge swaths of light and colour.
Whether they know it or not, everyone is surrounded by an Aura of vitality. This can come in any range of colours, dependent on the person. The Aura tells you how much vitality someone has, as well as their general physical and/or mental state. Normally you can find people with this, simply by searching for the Aura, but it takes concentration, another reason why you don’t use it a lot. The first reason is- well-
Aizawa’s deep blue Aura flickers, burning dimly, a sure sign of something being wrong. Next to him, you have to squint your spectral eyes against the size of Yamada’s Aura, bright and happy, a cheerful yellow.
It’s hard sometimes, seeing others in mental distress and being unable to do anything. You make a mental note to tell Yamada-sensei about Aizawa-sensei’s deteriorating mental state and ask him to try and help his husband.
It becomes even harder looking from there. There are so many Auras it’s almost impossible to sort them out properly. You force them to organize themselves into single blobs of Aura. Instead of a gorging, swelling, abomination of mess, they are single and in order (line up no hesitation in rows ten by ten orderly and perfect), more easy to see everything.
You search for Izuku’s bright shamrock green, and panic when you can’t find it.
“Hey, Little Listener? You okay?” Present Mic says, cutting into your panic.
“I-i-i-i can’t-t F-f-find D-de-deku!!” You flounder, panic increasing as your mouth fumbles, brain speeding along quicker than your mouth can keep up, only increasing your stuttering to a deplorable degree.
“Heeeeyyyy, It’s alright Little Listener, you can do this! Just focus and try again. He’s out there somewhere.” Mic-sensei says reassuringly.
You take a deep breath and close your eyes again, opening your spectral ones and honing into something you call Haifōkasu. It means High Focus. You become less aware of what’s actually around you, but can find people easier.
Searching desperately, you find that there are more greens than you ever thought, but shove them aside. You, in your spectral body, stumble into an alleyway. There is a fading, flickering shamrock green Aura at the end. It is oozing vitality, not in a good way. The vitality is leaking out of it, slowly as you watch but then quicker and quicker as you stand in horror. Your mouth opens, and if you could make noise, you would be screaming.
You run, terror coating your spectral body and if you could move, you’d be thrashing. You run back out of the alleyway and flee into your real body.
You jolt back into your body, and realize you’re not in Mic-Sensei’s arms. You are laid out on a rooftop with Present Mic and Eraserhead kneeling over you, looking panicked. Mic-Sensei is shaking, looking absolutely terrified and Aizawa-Sensei has his arm under your head. He too looks afraid, something you’ve rarely seen in your teacher. They notice you’re awake, and start blabbering.
“Kokoniiru, are you okay-”
“Kokoniiru I need you to tell me, have you been taking any medications or doing anything strenuous recently?” Aizawa cuts in.
“Wait what happened?” You ask, confused.
“You started screaming and thrashing in Hitoshi’s Arms. We were forced to stop and lay you down so you did not injure yourself or Hitoshi. We believe you were having a seizure.” Aizawa explains.
You pause, and then realize you had been screaming in the Ōrapurēn, when you had found Deku’s Aura. You had been thrashing there too, as you ran away.
“Wait- n-no that was w-when I found Deku’s b-b-body. I was t-trying to s-scream. I r-ran away-y. “ You reply.
“Oh thank the stars!!!” Mic-Sensei says loudly, clearly glad you’re alright.
“W-WAIT NO IZUKU’S B-B-BLEEDING OUT I-IN AN A-ALLEY WE NEED T-TO F-F-IND HIM!!!!!” You remember, screaming.
That silences them. Aizawa pulls you into a bridal carry and stands up, Mic-Sensei standing beside him.
“Where.” He says, already preparing his capture weapon.
“J-just off o-of Kyūseishu-dōri” You say, holding onto Aizawa, ready to go.
The whole time you travel here, there’s no talking. The only sounds made are Aizawa-Sensei and Mic-Sensei’s breathing and occasional curses from both, when they stumble after a jump.
When you three arrive at the alleyway, you stifle a scream.
It’s worse than you thought. Deku is lying down with his school uniform covered in blood. It seems to be coming from his ribs (blood soaking into the floor Shiggy telling you to hurry up and heal him already shaking hands placed on a burnt man with white hair stained black, like a fading dye job pain pain pain pain all you know is the burns covering your body and the pain builds and builds and builds), likely a bullet wound. You drop from Aizawa’s grasp and run to Deku’s side. Instantly you switch into Nurse Mode, and when Aizawa-Sensei and Mic-Sensei try to approach, you bark “S-stay AWAY.”
They back up, and your attention returns to Deku. He is bleeding from his left side, and your level of panic rises. Quickly you check, removing his shirt and tie, making sure to lean him flat on his back on top of his school shirt and your doctor's jacket. You check for an entrance wound, and baulk at the sheer amount of blood.
It covers his chest, oozing out of a spot just under where his heart was, maybe three inches below, and you can see some ribs. You grab a pair of tweezers and a light, shine it into the gaping wound and find the fractures of the bullet. Then, you pull out an anesthetic needle and stick it into Deku’s arm, right into the vein.
He murmurs, and you stab your tweezers into the wound gently, rooting around for the pieces of the bullet. He flinches, but soon relaxes as the anesthetic takes over. You carefully take all the pieces of the bullet out. You can’t heal the wound if the pieces are still in it, it’ll just stab into everything and cause internal bleeding.
After removing all the bullet fragments, you press your hands to the wound and hold it closed, activating your power. For a moment, there is no pain. Deku’s wound closes and you feel an intense wave of relief. You turn to Aizawa-sensei and Mic-Sensei, grin on your face, and then-
PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN HURTS HURTS HURTS HURTS
An implosion of pain erupts from your chest, and you look down to see red blooming out from your shirt in a weird imitation of a poppy. You tear it off and pull the undershirt up, just to uncover the wound, ignoring the sharp, stabbing pain from the wound and the gasp of Aizawa and Mic-Sensei.
Your skin is ripping itself open, and you can see and feel the muscles tearing, the bones cracking as your body takes Deku’s pain and makes it your own. Blood spurts out from the hole and coats your chest.
Your body decides that now is the time to be reminded of the pain, and a torturous feeling takes your body and squeezes it, puncturing your ribs and settling in your ribcage.
You can’t think through the pain, and all you know is flee-
And you open your spectral eyes and it doesn’t hurt anymore, and you sob, great heaving gasps of air, tearing the Ōrapurēn apart with howls of relief. You know that you won’t die, just hurt. But you can’t help thinking Until then I’ll be stuck in here. I can’t leave or it’ll hurt so much worse. You are furious, knowing that Deku suffered like this for perhaps hours before you arrived (Slow oozing, blood drip-drip-dripping onto a bar floor cold hands lying there so many hands grey hands dead hands severed hands you touch you heal but it kills you turn to dust it whispers and you say no and it leaves).
You look around, and see that you haven’t fled far. You can see Aizawa-Sensei’s Navy Blue, curled in on something. You realize it’s you. You can’t see your own Aura, but there’s no one else he’d do that to. Yamada-Sensei’s cheerful yellow Aura has dimmed and he appears to be checking on Deku. Deku’s own Aura has stabilized, shamrock green leaping weakly, but you know that that is now only from the anesthetic, and not from any injuries.
It hurts to see all of their Auras in so much pain, and you are overcome with a feeling you have never properly felt before: Pure Rage. It consumes your vision, making all you see black and white. Whoever did this must pay. You extend your senses, and find a sickly pea soup green Aura flickering with mirth.
This is the shooter.
You grab his Aura with your spectral body but realize you can’t do anything. A roaring, screaming, howling wave of anger washes over you and you take it and focus it into something usable. You try to awaken, but shy away when you just feel agony ripping through your chest.
Your mind catches on it, snags it like a net, and you drag it into this place. You shove it into where the Aura’s chest would be, and it immediately is doused. The Aura starts oozing, dipping vitality. You see it suffering, and flee back to your body.
When you wake, it is to a bellow of pain. Aizawa–Sensei straightens from where he is curled around you. You pretend not to notice the tears crawling down his face. He may keep his dignity.
Mic-Sensei is carrying Deku over to you, and he too startles at the pained voice. Then, he notices your open eyes and dashes over quicker than he should. Deku bounces in his arms and murmurs. Mic-Sensei slows down but still hurries over to your side.
“LITTLE LISTENER! Oh thank goodness you’re okay!!”
Aizawa-Sensei starts, only just realizing you’re awake. He quickly sits you up and checks you over.
“What happened, your wound just healed.” Aizawa-Sensei says, sounding confused.
“Also what the hell was that scream? Do you think that it’s one of the other heroes?” Mic-Sensei asks.
You tell them, for once without any stuttering, voice flat and dead, completely devoid of emotion:
“That was the man who shot Izuku.”