The sound of the oxygen machine permeated the dark space. It was getting louder by the moment, as though it was leading him. Before he knew it, he was staring up at the ceiling with no recollection of what happened or where he was. Only the oxygen mask covering his face and the IV drop sticking into his arm.
His right eye was also covered with some kind of gauze. He tried to sit up but as he failed, he realized for the first time his right arm was missing. And then it began to come back slowly, memories of their fight. " Sora..."
Worried about his friend, he snatched the oxygen mask and struggled up only for a nurse to come in. " Wait. You shouldn't be moving yet." He rushed over to the boy and tried to coax him to lie back again.
" My friend... I need to see her..."
" You don't need to worry about her, she is alright." Yuu snapped and looked back at the door just as Yuusuke walked in, clad in a white coat in contrast to his pinkish uniform from Jaku. " It's fine. I'll deal with him," he told the man who nodded and walked away just as Yuusuke pulled a stool and sat down.
" The heck is wrong with you all... If being a hero means being reckless then I'm glad I gave up on that." He rubbed his head before looking at his worried brother.
" Sora... where is she? What happened to her?"
" Calm down. The girl is alright." He leaned forward. " As soon as both of you calmed down you passed out. The medical team took you from there and you were brought here."
" What's this place?"
" Heaven, you're already dead. Of course a hospital, what else? The Central Hospital." Yuu stared down at his white coat. " Oh, about this. With the whole hero army ending up with serious injuries, the casualties from the villains' attacks, and most patients from Jaku being transported here, they were short on staff. So most doctors from Jaku joined in the efforts of treating everyone."
" Everyone is here? How are they?"
" I will need a whole day to name each and everyone and their situation. But they're mostly fine." Yuusuke pointed.
" Then... Sora..."
" The girl had one of her wings twisted, and with the bad injuries she incurred on her back, it was but impossible to shrink her wings back, they had to cut them and stitch the wounds. She would be waking up any moment soon too." Yuusuke summed.
" As for you, aside from losing your arm, you had a pretty bad fracture on your face it reached the socket of your eye. But thankfully it will heal with time. You had six broken ribs, but with a miracle, you survived without serious damage to your lungs."
Yuu rubbed his right arm gently. He was experiencing a strange sensation of pain in his already non-existent fingers. " Thank you. It's because you were there that I survived."
" Not only heroes are tasked with saving people's lives you know. Us doctors have the duty of cleaning after your recklessness." Yuusuke pointed. " I simply did my job. I took an oath to spare no effort saving a life entrusted to me." He stood up. " Either way, you should rest for now. And I advise you not to sneak around to check on your friend. The doctors have so much on their plates already." And he was about to leave when.
" Wait..." Yuu took a look around before asking. " For how much was I out?"
" Two days."
" Then... what about-"
" If you want to ask about the ghost, he already went back. Said he needed to take care of a few things and he will be around as soon as he finishes with them."
Yuu breathed out in relief. " Thanks." And with that, Yuusuke left his room...
________________
It wasn't until afternoon that they allowed his friends to visit him.
" Seijin! You're alive!" Yuu snapped when Kirishima slapped the door open and stepped in.
" Your voice is loud. We're in a hospital." Amajiki followed right behind him.
" Krishima-san, Senpai..." Although Kirishima was wearing his school uniform, Amajika was in the hospital pajamas.
" The whole class can't visit all of you at once. So we split up, each group visiting someone." Kirishima said taking the stool while Amajiki leaned against the foot of the bed. " As of now, Uraraka and Asui are seeing Shirogane. It seems she woke up not long ago."
" Is she alright?"
" From what I heard, she can't lay back for a few days but she seemed fine," Kirishima told him.
Yuu then looked from Kirishima's plasters to Amajiki's bandages. " What happened with you both?"
" A giant villain happened," said Kirishima as he scratched at his plaster. " I was lucky, because of my Quirk I didn't suffer major injuries but..."
" The rest of us who fought against it were seriously injured... His power and speed were from another dimension." Amjiki looked down. " I'm lucky to have survived it too... many pro heroes didn't..."
Yuu's eyes widened when he saw the downcast look on their faces. " What happened?"
Amajiki and Kirishima exchanged looks before the older one spoke up. " We will tell you, so stay calm and listen."
" We've undergone so many losses during this mission. A lot of pro heroes perished and..." Seeing Kirishima's frustrated face, Amajiki decided to relieve him.
" Midnight... passed away..." The world stood still for a moment, not even the ticking of the clock could be heard anymore. " The rush of the giant villain... the decimation of one-third of Jaku city... and the Near High-End Nomu... all of them caused a lot of casualties, both for heroes and civilians."
" So far, no one in our class was seriously hurt other than you, Shirogane, Bakugo, Midoriya, and Todoroki. Hado-senpai is badly burned too, but she is doing fine."
Yuu's fist clutched tightly on the sheet. " What about Aizawa-sensei and the rest?" He didn't want to face them in case of what their faces may betray of emotions.
" Aizawa-sensei... lost a leg and an eye during the fight with Shigaraki. The other teachers are all fine though."
Amajiki looked down at the purple head, his fist still clutched tight. " They say the fight with the Near High-End Nomus didn't cause as many casualties as it was presumed to. More than two-thirds of the heroes survived. It was thanks to you."
" Not to mention the evacuation of the hospital was completed because of you. You did great, Seijin." Kirishima assured him, patting his shoulder. " Rise your head, buddy. You should be proud."
Yuu did, but the lump stuck in his throat couldn't be swallowed that easily. What was the whole mission for? They had lost dear friends without being able to accomplish anything at all.
" There's one more thing..." Kirishima looked at him. " Aizawa-sensei wants to see you as soon as they allow you to move around."
" Eh?"
" It was Eraser Head who put you at the front line during the raid on the hospital," Amajiki spoke. " What happened to you became his responsibility."
" What!? No!" Yuu snapped. " It's not his fault that I ended up like this!"
" We know. But it won't change that he must be held responsible for you being caught in the fight." Yuu's guilt grew even more at that. It was his fault. He dawdled when Thunderbird told him to head back.
" Seijin-kun..." Yuu looked up at his senior. " You're not at fault here."
" That's right, you shouldn't blame yourself." Kirishima piped in. " The circumstances being that, it couldn't have been helped."
" You did well surviving that hell of a battlefield," Amajiki muttered.
Yuu's eye narrowed slightly, recalling Kyubi's vanishing form. "... It was thanks to many people that I did..."...
________________
" I was waiting for you." The girl looked up from her phone and to the boy as he entered her room.
" How are you feeling?" Yuu asked her as he took the seat by her bed. The girl had bandages over her neck, chest, and arms and a plaster on her lower left jaw.
" Stiff. I don't like lying on one side for the whole time." She groaned as she deposited her phone by her side. " Whisper isn't with you?"
" Nope. It seems he got himself busy with something," he stated and looked down, trying to arrange his thoughts. There was a lot he wanted to tell her, but it was hard gathering the courage to look her in the face.
" What's the matter?" Yuu bit his lip, feeling burdened by all the guilt accumulating in his chest. The loss of Kyubi, the fight with her father, and the trouble he caused to their teacher. It overflew he could no longer keep them locked away.
" I'm sorry..." he finally uttered with great effort. " I'm really sorry... I promised to be the one who would bring your father back but..." His shoulders shook. I was the one who made you end him...
" You kept your promise." The boy snapped his head up as Sora reached her hand to his face. " You reunited us, regardless of the circumstances. Thanks, Yuu, for letting me see him one last time."
" Sora..."
" He isn't around anymore, right?" She looked around as though she might glimpse him that way. Sadly, Yuu shook his head. " Figured so. He said he was anchored to this world, but I'm glad I was able to set him free. The way you did to me." A distant sadness could be heard in her voice, but her look softened as she drew her hand. " Thanks... for your words back then..."
" I meant everything I said."
" I know." Sora smiled at him. " You don't know how to lie after all. Sorry for saying it back at the time though."
" Don't even mention it." He was slightly bothered for a moment. " You didn't tell me about that transformation."
" I... didn't have the courage to tell you about it." Her eyes swerved away from his. " It's not like I didn't trust you... it's just..." Her hand clenched on her pajamas. " I hated it... I hated myself in that form... and I didn't want you to see me that way at all."
With a great deal of reluctance, she looked up at him and her red eyes stared through his purple one. " Weren't you afraid?"
" No..." his eye took in hers. " Why should I be afraid of you?"
" Huh?"
" Regardless of what form or shape you take, you're always Sora, my friend and my angel. Why would I be afraid of you?"
Sora's eyes sparkled for a moment before she covered her face with her hands, trying to conceal her tears.
" Ah! Sorry! Did I say something wrong!" Yuu panicked as she started to cry and Sorra shook her head. Her eyes flicked back to his right arm as she wiped away her tears.
" They really.... Can't do anything about it?"
" Nope." Yuu rubbed it uneasily. " Because I was slow... this happened... although I thought I could handle it already, using multiple channels and in both directions made my body lag the longer I used them." His eye narrowed. " I've still got a long way before I could truly master it."
" What about your eye?"
" Nii-san says it will get better eventually, though it may leave a scar, yet it won't affect my vision. By this point, I don't really mind a scar on my face." He shrugged.
She stared at him, her look softening even further. "... Whisper told me... about Kyubi... I'm sorry, had I been faster to reach there..."
" Don't say that," Yuu spoke calmly, his eye flicking away as though trying to hide his deep sorrow. " It was all my fault..."
" It wasn't, Yuu..." she spoke gently, placing her hand on his left. " You couldn't have known that would have happened. You did what you needed to do there, and so did Kyubi. I was the one who was slow to reach you. That's all..."
Yuu held onto her hand and his lips quivered as droplets of water fell down. " It's alright... You're not alone Yuu. Kyubi knew that too."
" ...You've surrounded yourself with precious friends, so keep them close, all of them."
Recalling her last words, Yuu broke into muffled sobs while clinging to his friend's hand tightly as though it was the only sliver of light he had in a world of darkness...
________________
The boy knocked twice on the door before he was told to enter. " Aizawa-sensei..." He slid the open.
" Seijin, good timing." The man was sitting on his bed and looking through his tablet when Yuu entered. The boy walked up to him, rubbing his right arm and looking down.
" I'm sorry..."
Aizawa fixed him with his look, even with one eye it was as intense as ever. " For what?"
" Because I got caught in the middle of the fight, I ended up causing more trouble for you."
Aizawa heaved a breath and laid his tablet down on the nightstand." It's not your fault. Finding yourself in that situation, you wouldn't have any choice but to retaliate. Although we were prepared for the raid, it ended up quite out of our hands."
" I... was slow... I should have left the area soon."
" Even if you did. You would end up cornered either way. It was thanks to both Kyubi and Thunderbird that most Nomus didn't get past the battlefield. Had you fallen back then, they would have followed you into the city, and casualties could have been worse." There was a shadow of a small smile on his face. " Your decisions, every one of them were right. The fact that you stood your ground and prevented further harm reaching the civilians and when you annihilated half of the Nomus upon realizing you could no longer fight, it all made it easier for the heroes to continue fighting and rescuing. Your actions were those of a pro hero."
" If so... then why should you take responsibility for what happened to me?"
" Because even though your help was appreciated, you shouldn't have been there in the first place. All first-year students should have stayed at the rear and helped from afar. But we heroes took a risk in bringing some of you to the front despite that. That's why we should be held responsible for our decision." He looked down at Yuu. " You weren't the reckless one this time, it was me. I was the one who put you in danger and I must take responsibility for that."
Yuu was still bothered by that. It was his injuries, it was his actions that landed him there. Aizawa made sure Kyubi and Thunderbird were to get Yuu away if anything happened, but Yuu failed to follow his orders.
Aizawa spared one glance at the dying light within the purple eye before speaking again." With the situation outside, you'll be all asked to go back to UA, your families are being evacuated there too."
Yuu looked up at him." Nii-san told me about it, our parents already moved but he said he is going to help around the hospital for a little longer." Considering his Quirk, it's only right for the staff to ask for his help.
" Things are changing, and many people are angry with the way we handled the whole situation." Aizawa scratched his right jaw. " And now that I lost my eye, Erasure is all but useless."
" Sensei..."
" But hope isn't lost yet. So many heroes are standing up again. And we still have all of you, students, who will grow to be the future heroes of this country." He stated confidentially. " During this fight, each and every one of you managed to show us that you've grown to be worthy of the title hero. You're all the hope we've got for a tomorrow. Face forward, Seijin. This is no time to regret what had happened. It's time you thought of what you have to do from here on."
Yuu narrowed his eye and nodded his head. He knew he shouldn't be brooding over the past then and there.
" That's better. Now listen, I will be away from UA for a while until I get better, but there is something I need to confirm with you." His eye narrowed. " It's about what you said after the Shie Hassaikai's incident..."...