"Has he woken up since that night?"
"No, Mr. Edgeshot. Not once, it's been a couple of days now. He must have a coma."
He clenched his fist, "Damn it... how did this happen? Weren't you supposed to watch him?" He took his eyes off Sasuke's body, and turned to Tenten with a firm look.
She tensed up a bit, "I went to his room to make sure he was sleeping, but he was already gone when I got there. I tried to move as fast as I could, and I found him... but by the time I got there, he was beaten. Thankfully, I (along with a few classmates) was able to save him... But the two villains we were hunting managed to get away." She rubbed her arm.
Edgeshot's expression eased, "Sorry... That was unfair of me. I should have been around anyway instead of out of the city. I could have got there the fastest."
"Mr—"
"It's fine, so just how bad is it?"
"There's a fracture in his right leg, internal bleeding, 6 broken ribs, and some pieces of bones stabbing his organs. The broken bones have been removed already and the bleeding has stopped. His bones are already healing. The main issue is just that he hasn't woken up. Also, he'll need his sword replaced too."
Edgeshot shook his head, "Who else knows about this?"
"As for what actually happened, only me and a couple of Sasuke's friends know what happened. Although for the cover-up, the police outside know. And I imagine Class 1A will find out soon if they don't already know."
"You made a cover-up? Why?" He tilted his head.
"One of Sasuke's friends told me that Sasuke would be expelled if the school knew that he tried to track down the villains on his own."
"Really?"
"Yeah, their teacher is pretty... cut-throat... speaking of her, there's something I gotta tell her." They both left the room.
Once out of the room, they both heard footsteps and turned to see Mina in a casual get-up. "Hey there."
"Hi, Mina."
Mina stopped, "Woah! Sasuke's teacher, Edgeshot! Wow, you're... a little shorter than I expected."
Edgeshot winced and Mina giggled, "I'm only joking. It's nice to meet you. Sasuke was training directly under you before he ended up like this right?"
Edgeshot tensed a little, "Yeah... that's right. Listen—"
Mina bowed her head and took on a serious expression, "Thank you for teaching Sasuke so much. I heard about some of his training, if you didn't do all that for him he probably wouldn't have survived at all, so thank you!"
Edgeshot blinked, "Oh... Yeah uh, you're welcome."
"I'll be right back."
Mina went into the room and Edgeshot sighed in relief, "I thought she'd start blaming me for not watching him well enough."
"No, that's more of a you thing to do, Mr. Edgeshot." She garnered a sly smile.
Edgeshot rubbed the back of his head, "I said sorry..."
"Hehehe, I know it's ok. I'm gonna talk to Ashido now," she waves as she walks off to Sasuke's room. She creaks the door open to see Ashido leaning on the side of the bed with her head down; Tenten slowly approaches, "Ashido?"
"Huh? Yeah?" She pokes her head up and Tenten hands her a phone. "Sasuke's phone? What am I supposed to do with this?"
"In that phone, there's a... Text that was sent to Sasuke that pertains to you... Tell me," Tenten leans down and stares at her, "Just how much do you want to be involved with the operation this is developing into?"
Ashido pauses then meets the stare with an equally serious face, "I don't like any of this stuff... But I don't want to keep being left in the dark about what's going on."
Tenten nods and opens the phone for her, showing the last message that was sent to Sasuke. As Ashido's eyes skimmed the text she gripped the phone harder and tensed up; she then loosened her grip and lowered the phone, taking a deep breath. "So that's how it is..."
Tenten purses her lips, "Ashido, it's not your fault for"—
"This just means I have to get stronger too!"
"Huh?"
Ashido smiles and stands, "Back in that underground base... I could hardly keep up. Only my sneak attack actually did anything, and back at USJ... Sasuke's still an idiot for jumping ahead on his own, but... I just froze up while half the class fought back. When it gets real I'm just... A burden."
Ashido looks down as she remembers running away at USJ while a lot of the other students fought their battles. Tenten put a hand on your shoulder, "You're fifteen, it's ok to"—
"That's no excuse!" Mina cringes for a moment, 'Did I really just quote that reckless idiot, Sasuke? Ugh, I'm glad none of my friends heard that.' "Ahem, if they're gonna bring the fight to us I should probably start taking training more seriously."
Tenten smiles, "There's nothing wrong with that. You know, if you come by the Edgeshot agency today, then I could help you start training."
"Really? That would be great! Thanks! Hehe, I hope Sasuke wakes up soon. It would be funny to see his reaction to me at his agency."
Tenten snickers, "Let's hope."
A couple of days later, All Might spoke in front of the class in front of an artificial city. "Right on the heels of all your workplace experience, this time we'll mix in an element of play! It's a rescue training race!"
Midoriya raised his hand, "Um, All Might. If we're gonna do something important like this, then shouldn't Sasuke be a part of it? Is he out sick?"
All Might's smile becomes forced, "No, young Midoriya. Sasuke was... Sasuke was attacked like you, but he suffered grave injuries in his encounter and has been hospitalized ever since."
Most of the class's eyes go wide and their chatter falls silent.
Sero asked, "Did the Hero Killer get him?"
"No, he was in a completely different city. The villains that attacked him have nothing to do with the League Of Villains either, so none of you should have to worry about being attacked yourselves."
Many of the students breathed sighs of relief, but still felt bad for their fellow classmates.
Uraraka shouted, "Seriously?!"
Midoriya asked, "Do you have any idea when he'll be back?"
"No, but he will be back. Sasuke will be fine."
Kaminari stated, "It's hard to imagine someone like him getting hospitalized."
Sero added, "He's always seemed a little odd since USJ, don't you think? Maybe someone had it out for him."
Yaoyorozu thought, 'Could someone have seen his talent and wanted to stomp it out?'
Tokoyami grimaced, 'It's been more than half a week now and he's still not here... Was there a way we could have got there earlier?'
Ashido gripped her pants, 'Maybe tomorrow, right? He's gotta wake up tomorrow. Definitely!'
Iida looked down, 'Sasuke... I almost ended up just like you...'
Midoriya approached Mina, "Hey, Ashido You probably know what hospital he's being kept in, right?"
"Uh, yeah, Musutafu General Hospital. You wanted to visit?"
"Yeah."
Kirishima came by, "He won't be the only one. It's probably depressing going by yourself all the time anyway, right?"
Iida chipped in, "I'll be coming too. As Class President, it's my responsibility to see how my fellow student is doing after ending up in a similar predicament to myself."
"Guys... Thank you." Mina smiled.
All Might smiled and thought, 'Young Sasuke, if only you could see how concerned your fellow classmates are for you. I hope you don't take it for granted.'
After All Might described the rescue training, Midoriya ended up getting first place, with Sero close in second.
The next day in a high-rise building in the city, no one was aware of the evil that lurked in it. AFO sat in a chair attached to life support machines. The most stand-out feature of him is the lack of half of his face, making it a question of just how he sees. He held a phone to where his ear would normally be, "So you two failed to put him down?"
"Um... Yes... We nearly had him, but then three other people came, one being a top-fifteen hero. We did as much as we could to try and make sure he came by himself, but—"
"I saw footage of the fight. Even still I'm surprised you two managed to fail. I had put a lot of faith in you two."
AFO smiled while Sasori gripped his pants. Deidara butted in, "We can still make up for it! I have the address of one of the students, and I could just blow up—"
"Deidara. What nonsense are you going on about? Is it cause she burned your arm? Leave your personal vengeance aside, it's of no concern to my plan."
Deidara pursed his lips, "At least with the hospital I could blow it up! It would be a piece of art!"
"Heh, no need. That Hospital is heavily guarded, and even still... After seeing Sasuke's performance with that quirk, I don't want him dead anymore. At least not for now. That quirk of his is beautiful. The ability to manifest a strong construct of the mind would make an amazing addition to my collection. Having that quirk in combination with my strength quirks would make it impossible for even All Might to match me! I need it!"
"But sir, Sasuke—"
"Silence!" AFO sighed, "Should I take my quirk back from you? Don't be reckless, you're lucky that I changed my mind about wanting him dead. I want you two out of the picture for now."
Sasori pushed Deidara off the phone, "Yes sir. We understand. We won't fail you next time."
In the darkness in the background, an old doctor spoke, "I'm not quite sure how I didn't spot his innate quirk as a child. When his parents brought him to me, he appeared quirkless due to the pinkie joint."
"That's strange indeed. Maybe the method of detecting quirkless people is faulty."
The doctor shook his head, "I'm doubtful... Maybe it could have had something to do with his mother who had the same quirk. In her quirk report, she said that she has helped heal people with bone alignments, for example. It's possible she could have done something like that and made it appear as if he had the joint, especially since the skeletons In the textbooks are dated and still use the old model."
"That's possible, but either way it doesn't matter. That student of ours in their class warned us about an upcoming trip they have. I'll have to have Shigaraki's league pay them a visit and capture a few students for me."
In the hospital, more and more time passed as the sun and moon rose and fell over and over. Most of the students visited Sasuke at one point or another. Mina is the most consistent, with Midoriya coming in second. Followed by Uraraka, Iida, Kirishima, and Tokoyami. The rest only visited once. Tenten and Edgeshot would be in the middle if counted. Sasuke's body was fully healed, although lost some muscle mass. Eventually, an entire month passed by since he entered the Hospital.
Mina laid back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling with tired eyes, 'Jeez training is hard. Tenten helps a lot though... But I probably won't make it to the camp at this rate.' Her eyes trailed back down to Sasuke, 'Wake up already.'
Sasuke's unconscious mind was back in Chiba. Years ago before he awakened his innate quirk. He leaned against a fence looking up at the sky. "Ew! The xenomorph girl with Demon Eyes is here! Go away!"
"Huh?" Sasuke side-eyed the source of the voice and saw three boys messing around with someone he couldn't see.
"Huh? Jealous your eyes are plain and boring?"
"Ha! What is this goat talking about?"
"Ew, like we'd ever want to have deer eyes!"
The girl grunted, "You better watch it before i show you what one can do!"
Sasuke approached them and peered his eyes, seeing they were messing around with a pink-skinned girl. "What are you three idiots doing? She didn't do anything to you."
All of them turned to Sasuke; the girl blinked and the three boys snarled. "Ugh, it's Sasuke. Hiding your weird purple ring eyes?"
"Well, I'm not using my quirk right now."
One of the boys walked behind Sasuke and got on his hands and knees behind his legs. He bore an ugly smile and one of his friends spoke, "How about you never use it again? It's creepy!"
He and the other boy pushed Sasuke and he tripped over the kid right behind him. Although, instead of falling on his back, he caught himself with his hands and spun around, kicking them away.
The girl's eyes sparkled and Sasuke looked down at them and put his hands in his pockets, "It's just a quirk, stop creating things to complain about and get out of here."
"This isn't over freaks! You two bug-eyes are made for each other!"
The boys left and the girl said, "That dance move was so cool! You gotta teach me it!"
Sasuke turned to her with a furrowed brow, "Huh? Dance move? What are you talking about?"
"That thing you just did! Where your legs were spinning around and stuff! That was some pro-break dancing!"
"Uh... That's not dancing, that's martial arts."
She shook her head, "No it's not! It was break dancing! Now teach me!"
Sasuke deadpanned, "Huh?! That's not up to you if it's dancing or... Nevermind." He sighed, "Sure, I'll teach you it. First, what's your name?"
"Mina Ashido! Just call me Mina."
Sasuke got in a handstand, "First let's see if you can—"
Mina was already in a handstand. "Oh, well that speeds things up, then you want to..."
After a few minutes of practice, Mina got the hang of it and was spinning around non-stop.
Sasuke observed her, "You're pretty talented at that, but you shouldn't spin too much or—"
Mina spun out and flopped flat while her eyes spun. "—You'll get really dizzy." He shook his head, smiled, and offered her a hand.
"Hehe, thanks. Wanna be friends?"
"Friends? Didn't we just meet five minutes ago?"
"Yeah so? You got those dummies to leave and you taught me a dance move! That's more than enough!"
"Oh..." He blushed and put his hands in his pockets, "Sure."
"Yay!" She pulled him in a hug and shook him back and forth.
Mina saw the back of his shirt and her face glowed, "Wait... Shut up! Do you like the Alien movies too?!"
Sasuke's reserved expression disappeared, "Of Course! They're the best suspense movies ever! I liked the third one too!"
Mina gasped and went wide-eyed as horror spread across her face. Sasuke stuttered, "The Assembly cut!"
Mina sighed and her expression eased, "Oh, alright that's not bad. Hehe. We should watch them together sometime! I have the whole box set."
"That would be fun. Speaking of Aliens though, why did they call you a xenomorph?"
Mina's smile flipped, "It's... Because of my quirk. I can shoot acid and emit it from anywhere, like how they have acid blood in the movie. It's creepy, I know..."
"No, it's not. That's the coolest quirk ever!"
Mina looked at him with wide eyes and he smiled, "What's wrong with being like a Xenomorph anyway? They're strong, fast, and really cool. My quirk is pretty boring compared to yours."
Mina smiled, "Thanks... What is your quirk anyway?"
"Sasuke, it's time to come home for training."
Sasuke turned to see his father waiting for him. "Do I have to?"
"Of course you do, you know how important your training is."
He frowned and looked back at Mina, "Sorry, I gotta go now."
"Aww, well it's cool, I'll see you tomorrow anyway."
Sasuke ran over to his father and they walked home together. "New friend?"
"Yeah! Can I go to her house sometime? She has all of the alien movies!"
"Hm... We'll see, as long as you've made progress on training."
Sasuke turned back one last time to see Mina waving and he returned the gesture with a smile.
Back in the hospital, Sasuke's eyes slowly opened. He squinted his eyes as they struggled to adjust to the light. He slowly tried to sit up, but his body was too heavy and he collapsed back onto the bed. He saw that his arms seemed smaller.
"Sasuke!" Sasuke's head turned to see Mina smiling with tears in her eyes. "You're finally awake!"
"Mina... What happened?" He croaked.
Mina wiped the tears from her eyes, "Well... Your genius plan to fight them didn't go so well, I found you and brought a couple of others with me. Together we managed to save you and beat them; they got away, but still."
The last image he saw of three people standing over him flooded back into Sasuke's mind and he looked at the ceiling, "I... Was saved."
"Yeah... Mmm man I wanna hug and punch you at the same time."
"I... I need to get up and running again. They gotta be injured at least! I have to—"
"Oh no no no," Mina placed her hand on his chest and glared, you don't have to do anything but lay here and get better! They've healed by now anyway! Do you know how long you've been here?!"
"... A day?"
Mina scoffed, "Try a whole month."
Sasuke froze as his eyes became wide as saucers.
"Yeah," Mina remembered the conversation she had with Tenten and took a deep breath. 'I have to do this now; I'm glad he's finally awake, but I don't ever wanna have this conversation again.'
She straightened up and looked down at him, "I don't know if maybe you don't remember everything that happened that night, but you failed big time. You were on the ground on the verge of death, and the worst damage you did was a cut on Deidara's cheek. Let that sink in."
Sasuke looked down as more memories came back to him. "I... I wasn't strong enough."
"No, you weren't. Just like the rest of us who just joined UA. Did you really think being stronger than the rest of Class 1-A would prove anything? You're stronger than a bunch of people just getting into heroics, wow what a big accomplishment. As if that carries over to beating hardened villains!"
Sasuke gritted his teeth, "I didn't have a choice... They were going to–"
"You always have a choice! You could have warned some pro heroes and I'd be under protection! Anything would have been better than going off on your own! The only reason you're alive right now is cause people who care about you came to save you! This is the last time this is going to happen!" She puts her hands on her hips.
"I can't just let them get away with everything they've done..."
"You don't have to, I'm not saying that, but what I am saying is that you can't keep going off on your own like that! The only time you've ever achieved anything against the villains was with teamwork! Remember USJ?! Remember how me, Tokoyami, and Tenten had to save you? You think you could have done that on your own?!"
Sasuke fell silent and looked down, "No..."
Her voice lowered, "That's right! And that's not going to change for a long time! So just please, please let us help you. I don't wanna keep doing this, if you... If you keep trying to push me away and ignore me... Then we should stop being friends..."
Mina looked down and Sasuke's heart skipped a beat. He stared up at the ceiling for a while in thought, "I would… I wouldn't want that… I lost... I've felt like if I fully dedicated myself to strength in isolation, and not focusing on bonds that I could win, but... I was wrong. I can't do it on my own... I'm only alive because of you… Thank you."
Mina took a deep breath, "You're welcome, and that isolation stuff is pretty stupid. Isn't the reason you train so hard in the first place because of the connections you lost?"
Sasuke's eyes widened and he smiled, "Since when did you become so insightful?"
She rolled her eyes, "Oh I don't know, it's not like I've had a whole month to think about all this stuff or anything."
"Hmph, yeah... I'm sorry, about all of this."
"It's ok now... Just in the future, stop treating me like a delicate porcelain doll. I've been doing some training recently."
"I'll try to be more open. You've been training?"
"Yeah, although something even more important we should be worrying about right now is the upcoming final exam! We only have one week to study! You get to be my study partner as punishment for all the stress you've caused."
"... Huh?"