"Pardon the intrusion." I said softly as I entered the hospital room.
The familiar white walls and bright lights are the same standard template seen in other medical facilities. The polite bouquet of flowers by the bedside table, the cushioned chairs available for visitors, They look the same but they felt foreign. Even the scent of medicine and sanitary chemicals felt so utterly alien.
The patient's bed, Haru's bed, is cordoned off by the curtains and hiding him from view, separated from those outside the wall of cloth.
So I sat down on the chair just right outside of it and waited. Because truthfully, I do not know what to say.
I fidgeted with my capelet and ribbon while contemplating on which words I should use. When I was having difficulty trying to think of anything of substance, I decided to just start with whatever pops into my head first.
"So uh, how's the food?" I felt my cheeks flush red as I realised what I just said. Pushing down the secondhand embarrassment, I carried on anyway. "I mean, is it healthily bland here too or something?"
Silence.
I felt the corners of my mouth twitch. "Like, I know it's for the patient's wellbeing and all but it could use a bit more flavour, right?"
No reaction.
I felt the sweat dripping on my back at the deafening silence. "I um, brought sweets? I figured that you could use a palate cleanser or something."
Still nothing.
"I'll put them right by the flowers..." The room grew quiet as the one-sided conversation died down along with my confidence to talk. So we stayed in silence like that as I continued to uncomfortably shift and fidget on my seat.
Eventually, the inevitable question bubbled out. "Hey... How are you, really?" My words released as a timid whisper.
A few minutes went on as I thought that he wouldn't answer still, but a warbled voice came from behind the curtain. "...Like a monster."
Before the joy from the response came, my brows furrowed as my mind caught his words. "Why?" Came out too fast from the quick shift in happiness to confusion as I was too late to shut my own mouth.
"I was already a freak before, and now I'm- I'm this thing." I winced from the consequences of my lown inability to control my mouth in that specific moment. "Figured I should just drop and go back to the boonies. Not like there are many reasons to stay, anyway."
"Now, now. Let's not be hasty." I tried to pacify the situation. "For starters, think of your good ol' pals like us yea? And school! Can't forget about education! And uh, the- the club! Think of the gardens!"
"Normally, students would be cursing school. Not many teenagers with impulses would use education as a reason to stay, mister Judgment Officer." He drawled. "Point still stands, dude. Not many reasons." I can almost see him shake his head at that.
I didn't know what to say.
A loner in my past life, and a passive person in this life, this situation is a first for me. Having to comfort someone or convince them isn't something I would do. Other times were just flukes and luck, the people I had talk to back then weren't in this low sort of situation. Something like this, it's something I should delegated to other people.
People like that one behind the curtain.
I couldn't help but gulp at the uncomfortable silence. My mouth opened a few times but no words came out, only a sigh. Because I am probably about to do something I would regret later on.
"Hey, Haru... Define 'Human'."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Excuse me, Recovery Girl. A word please?"
"Oh! Detective Tsukauchi! Oh course, come in."
Recovery Girl swiveled her chair to face the direction of the door as the man entered.
Naomasa is a tall man with short, black hair and somewhat rectangular black eyes. As a member of the Police Force, he is normally seen in his uniform, which consists of his signature tan overcoat and matching hat, underneath which he wears a black suit, a green tie at his neck with matching slacks, and dress shoes.
He removed the hat from his head and politely sat on the chair that Recovery Girl motioned him to. "Can I get you anything, sweetie? Coffee? Tea?"
"I appreciate the gesture but no thank you." He declined. "Well, you see..."
"Yes, I understand." The jaded nurse hero nodded in understanding.
"But I haven't said anything yet?"
"Yes. And I still understand completely." She nodded again as the detective sighed. "My grandson can be quite a handful a times."
"Right, well, he has saved a plenty of lives which is commendable, and he has done more good than harm which saved him from the proverbial chopping block." Tsukauchi stated.
"Detective..."
"Oh no, not me! I'm thankful for what he did." He corrected. "My sister was also there. Of course, I also thankful for everyone that was there, but parts of the HSPC isn't too happy about a literal child showing them up. They won't be doing anything outright, but they would definitely make things difficult later on."
Recovery Girl sighed. "Politics, again." She muttered tiredly.
"Compared to the other kid in the Allmight hoodie, your grandson did arrive later on but it was a lot more flashy to cover up." He continued. "There are recordings already up on the internet and people started to compare it to the hairball vigilante from a few years back."
"Of course, they are." Said Recovery Girl. "And I don't suppose that there are people who respect an individual's privacy?"
Tsukauchi at least had the decency to look sheepish at that. "It is the internet, so no." He shook his head. "Chances are, they already dug up enough and are raising more questions. Being your grandson, people would get curious about spouses and such."
"It's fools like those that endanger the lives of other Heroes just by snooping around and posting it wherever." Grumbled Recovery Girl. "In a sense, those busybodies are worse than the paparazzi! At least those leeches have some sort of code to work with."
"It's Hero-culture at its finest, nothing we can do about that." Said Tsukauchi, standing up from his seat. "My job here is done. AllMight is already informed. He was there when it happened and saw the tailend of it so I have to go back and tell him off if he tries to pull anything rash."
"Right. You do that then." She waved him off.
"Have a good one, then." The detective said as the door closed with an audible click.
Recovery Girl sat still as she pondered before saying: "I suppose I'll have to pull a few things. That boy should enjoy middle school undisturbed at the least."
~~~~~~~~~~~
"So much for laying low." Reiko deadpanned as she scrolled through her phone, her eyes catching a news article.
"Let the kid be a kid." Said another child sitting at the same table. "What's the worst that can happen?"
The others all groaned at the cursed words.
"Ugh." Mugi rolled her eyes. "Even I know not to tempt Murphy."
"Why? What's wrong with what I said?" The kid asked indignantly. "And who's Murphy?"
~~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere else. A place where certain individuals are watching a video of the Sky Egg attack.
"Red." "He's Red." "Too Red." "Crimson, even." They exclaimed as they watched the swarm of heads.
"But He isn't." "That's right." "No, he is not.""
"Blasphemy." "False shade." "Disgusting." "It's wrong."
"It must be corrected." "Let the truth shine." "Red isn't him." "His shade shall be found, we'll help him." "Show him the way." "A way that is or isn't Red." "To know what he really is."
"He shall be paint, as all distinctions should be." The crowd chorused as one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It'll be great! I just know it!" Said a woman with long, pale lilac hair, worn parted to her right side, full lips and pale blue skin. Her darting eyes were unusual, in that her sclerae was completely black whereas her eye irises were green, and her pupils were completely black. And they were framed by notably long eyelashes, wrinkles, and small eyebrows. She wore gold earrings, a navy blue, shoulderless dress with long sleeves and an X-shaped belt with a circular buckle around her waist.
The woman continued talking to the people by her side, her assistants. "But it's too bad that we can't enter Academy City." She sighed with a hand to her cheek. "We'll just have to be content with surprising him with an interview outside."
She took out a notepad and a pen and began to write. "I can already see it! The a youth suppressing his power to fit in, only to release it all in a cascade when a terrible event happened." She turned to her assistants again. "Find me anything you can about that kid. Anything at all." She ignored them scrambling to complete her order. "Oh, this is going to be so exciting!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Boring."
"But Madam!-"
"But nothing." She mercilessly cut him off. "I have other matters to attend to. You have disturbed a sacred ritual because of some flying rumors among the rabble?" She sneered. "Begone from my sight, lest I remove you myself."
The lady in monks robes left without turning back, forcefully ending the conversation and leaving behind a flabbergasted servant.
She eventually returned to her private quarters and reactivated the privacy wards and silencing charms. Her cold mask crumbling away as she faced the dark haired boy.
"Now..." She gently lifted his chin with a single finger and briefly licked her lips. "Where were we?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"...What?" He said, befuddled at the suddenness of the question.
"You said you're a monster, right? Then I was curious as to why you think that and what makes you so different from humans."
"A-are you blind?!" He angrily shoved the curtains aside. "Look at me! LOOK AT ME!"
Haru has green skin akin to healthy leaves. His roots are clearly more visible than they were before and the fingers on his hands are longer and thinner, ending with sharp-looking white tips.
In fact, Haru is taller and thinner than he was before. And there is a certain glow into his eyes that spark with life.
He's not that much different in appearance but it's still causing him great levels of distress. Heal or Restore can't fix this, probably gonna need a chrono-based spell or quirk but-
"You look cool though?" That comment seemed to snap him out of whatever funk he was in, as he is now just blinking owlishly at me. "You still haven't answered. Define Human."
"I- I-"
"Is it the way you look? There are plenty of mutants out there y'know. 'cause quirks are weird. I technically count as one."
"..."
"Is it about being eye-catching? It doesn't really matter much, right? There are plenty of troublemakers who catch the spotlight on themselves."
"Easy for you to say. You can still blend-in." He said bitterly.
"Sticking out isn't a bad thing. Being a bland Human is all boring and stuff."
"Says the guy that fakes being boring."
"Says the guy who can make his own food. C'mon Haru, I'm serious. What's so great about being a bland human?"
"You say that like you're not one."
"What if I'm not?"
"Huh?"
"I mean. The principal of U.A. is a rat/dog/bear thing so who's to say I'm human? Remember all those stuff we took care of with Uiharu and Saten?"
"Wait you don't mean-?"
"No. But close enough anyway." I said while standing up. "Give it some thought, alright? About defining what it is that make up a human and tell me the next time we meet. I'll tell ya some more interesting stuff at a later date. Have a good day."
I left his room with a speed-walk. As I walked down the hallway, I couldn't help but think to myself: 'Well, that could've gone better. Stupid mouth. Stupid crippling social skills. Stupid stomach, stop rumbling!'