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' Iida Tensei '
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"How long have I-"
The door of the hospital room slid open, startling the both of them. For a moment, Tensei thought it might be the nurse, but then he heard a choked gasp, a clatter of metal on tile, and a cry of, "Tensei!"
"Tenya, keep your voice down!"
...
Tensei smiled weakly and reached out his right hand (since his left was in significantly more pain). His mother excused herself briefly, stepping towards the still-open doorway as Tenya rushed forward, seizing it in both of his own, tears gleaming behind his glasses. "Oh thank God, you haven't woken up in hours!"
"I woke up before?" Tensei blinked, glancing towards their mother for confirmation.
"Not for very long, but yes, right after you were taken out of the ICU. You… weren't exactly lucid," she explained, reclaiming her seat once she'd closed the door and grabbed what appeared to be a can of coffee.
Ah, that's probably what Tenya dropped when he entered the room.
"Oh dear. I didn't say anything embarrassing, did I?" the elder Iida chuckled nervously (and biting back a wince when even that caused his wound to twinge), glancing back towards his brother as he took a seat in the chair on his other side.
The grim look in Tenya's eyes had Tensei hesitating, the amusement wiped clean off his face. "Tenya? What did I say?"
Still, his little brother hesitated, glancing away from him, his grip tightening around Tensei's hand. The tears in his dark eyes seemed to grow a little bit more pronounced, his jaw clenching. "You said…" he began finally, his voice breaking slightly, "You asked me… to become Ingenium. You said to… to take the name, because… because you didn't know if… if you could carry it any longer."
Tensei's eyes widened. "I said that?"
"You… You did."
"Oh."
The three of them fell silent, Tenya and his mother gently gripping Tensei's hands, while Tensei himself was simply… contemplative. "If…" he began slowly, and his little brother's head snapped back around to face him, "If it comes to that, I do want you to take the name, Tenya."
"But Onii-san-!"
"I won't force it on you," Tensei smiled gently, "and who knows? Maybe I'll make a full recovery and it'll be a moot point. But if I have to give up being Ingenium, then honestly I can't imagine anyone who would deserve the name more than you."
Tenya's eyes widened, the tears beginning to slide down his cheeks. "I… I understand, Onii-san. Just… Just promise me… Promise me that you won't give up."
"I promise," Tensei chuckled again, only for the sound to devolve into another round of dry coughing.
The nurse entered the room as Tenya was helping him to drink some more water, her eyes widening when she saw Tensei awake, although exhausted by his coughing fit.
His family reluctantly stepped away from his bedside while the nurse checked the various instruments displaying information about his heart, his blood, and so on, her expression slowly shifting from calm professionalism to a small smile.
"It looks like you're recovering remarkably well, all things considered," she said finally, stepping back from the bed and notating something on a clipboard.
"They had to perform a rather intensive surgery to insert a catheter into your arm in order to connect the severed halves of your artery and sew up the wound properly. You're lucky that we had a surgical doctor on staff today with a quirk that let him fuse the catheter to the tissue itself, rather than be forced to sew it together.
However, your attacker did a lot of internal damage to your arm regardless; the musculature, tendons, and ligaments were all badly torn. I'm not sure of the doctor's opinion, but I'm willing to guess that you won't be able to return to hero work for a few months at least, Iida-san, and it's possible that you'll have to limit your activity after the fact as well. You'll certainly have to engage in physical therapy."
"I understand," Tensei nodded. He had expected as much. He wasn't terribly happy about it of course, but using his quirk right after his arm had sustained this level of damage would not be wise. And besides, he trusted his team to pick up the slack in his absence.
"You're very fortunate that someone thought to cauterize the wound," the nurse murmured, her voice taking a grim tone as she set the clipboard back on the end of his bed.
"These notes would indicate that you had lost nearly thirty percent of your blood to exsanguination by the time the ambulance managed to reach you. You were beginning to enter the early stages of hypoxia by the time they were able to give you an emergency blood transfusion."
Tensei nodded again, this time a little more absently, his exhaustion beginning to take its toll on his mind, "I'll have to remember to thank them, if I ever get the chance."
"You should try to get some rest; that will be more healing than anything at this point. Iida-san, if your son wakes up again or there appear to be any changes in his condition, call again and we'll have the doctor come take a look at him."
"Of course. Thank you."
"What did you mean by that, Onii-san?" Tenya asked curiously as the nurse left.
"Mm?"
"You said you'd thank them 'if' you get the chance. Was it not someone from your agency that cauterized the wound?"
"Mm," Tensei shook his head, letting his eyes close, his words beginning to slur here and there. "Was a vigilante duo that saved me."
"A what?"
A smile twitched Tensei's mouth, although he was too tired to laugh anymore. "No need to be so 'larmed, Tenya," he yawned. "They were pretty good, hones'ly. One of 'em had a blue fire quirk. Phoenix, he called himself. I think the other… was tel'inetic. Phoenix called 'im Wraith."
"I… I suppose I will have to thank them as well, if I get the chance."
"Just don' scold 'em too much for usin' their quirks withou' a license," Tensei mumbled.
If Tenya responded, Tensei didn't hear him.
...
Outtake:
Phoenix stood quietly under the awning of the corner cafe nearby Hosu General Hospital, slowly sipping on a mug of coffee, his piercing blue eyes constantly roving the rooftops nearby. He knew that he was being overly-cautious, coming back the day after Ingenium was attacked, but he didn't want to take any risks here. Akaguro hadn't exactly pulled punches back when he lived as the vigilante Stendhal. Phoenix couldn't count on Stain just backing off because his target was surrounded with higher security than normal. And anyway, heroes often made the mistake of relaxing just because they weren't on duty.
He would know, having taken advantage of that tendency several times himself.
Still, nothing happened as he finished his drink and dropped it in the trash, pulling his phone out of his pocket and checking the time. He had about an hour before he had to get back; that was enough time to walk around the perimeter, right?
Phoenix kept his head down and checked to make sure his medical mask was firmly in place before beginning to make his way around the edge of the hospital, occasionally glancing skyward in case of dark shapes jumping over the rooftops. He got around to the front of the building about the same time a bus was pulling up to the stop just outside of the main entrance, the doors opening to permit the exit of several passengers, one of whom was a young man with dark hair, sharp eyebrows and square-shaped glasses.
Just for a moment, Phoenix startled, ducking back into the shadow of the alley, convinced that Ingenium would recognize him. Then he realized that the boy before him wasn't the pro hero. He was far too young, far too stiff.
Not to mention he'd never seen Ingenium wear an expression quite like that before.
As Phoenix watched the younger Iida brother head into the hospital, he quietly pulled out his phone to write a quick message to Wraith, frowning briefly at the sight of a few messages his old friend had sent him earlier. They didn't quite make sense, so he asked for clarification as well before locking the device and tucking it back into his pocket.
When he had almost made it back to the compound, a TV in a nearby window gave him pause. Specifically, the vaguely-familiar house with a bizarrely charred backyard. Curious, he read the headline scrolling across the bottom of the screen: Deku Attacks UA Hero Student.
His eyes widened as the earlier message clicked.
"I am gonna kill him!"
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The events alluded to in the outtake will be explained in a couple of chapters, but I wanted to slip this in. :) Also, yes, Phoenix is Dabi. I wasn't really trying to be subtle.
Also, MEET WRAITH, EVERYBODY! He might just be my favorite character in this little AU. And actually, he's not just thrown in there. I've been trying to allude to his presence in the story for several chapters now. I'd be interested to hear what you think of him, as well as what you've noticed for how I've been slipping him in. :)
So, what'd y'all think?! I realize that Tensei was probably way too lucid during that fight, but it was an important scene and he's a pro hero; he probably knows a thing or two about dealing with pain. Also I figure the adrenaline helped.