I'm sorry for the long wait. My birthday was earlier this week, and college has been kicking my ass lately. But I finally got through my shit and wrote this up! Thanks for sticking around for this long, I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Midoriya was never unpopular within class 1A. He had only been there for a semester, but he'd made friends with a good majority of the class. Still, he did tend to spend his time with a select few individuals. Iida and Uraraka were his main friends, and Todoroki gravitated towards them every once in a while.
On that bus, however, he seemed to be the center of gravity, and it wasn't because Uraraka was sitting next to him. The rest of his classmates were leaned over their seats or hunched forward to get closer to him. Even if his stories were depressing, they still found an acute interest in them. He decided that it was likely a fascination with a world that they'd never touched, like how someone watched a movie or played a video game. Sure, the stories were interesting, but it wasn't something that they ever wanted to experience.
Uraraka was the only one who'd even came close, and she was still shaken up about it. She hadn't distanced herself, but she didn't ask any questions. Even as the other students were talking about it, she began to fidget. Her eyes wouldn't meet with anyone. If he were being honest, Midoriya didn't know how to comfort her. He only knew guns as a comfort object, something that she probably wouldn't agree with.
"Wait, wait, wait…" Kaminari said to get everyone's attention. Most of the eyes on that bus turned to him. "So, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever seen?"
Well, that question was obvious. "That would probably be when I had my brain, spine, and heart removed by a bunch of robots and had to convince my brain to come back with me."
That response got a few laughs. They probably didn't think that he was being serious. To them, it seemed like a far-fetched fantasy.
"So, you got them back, right?" Kirishima asked. A grin was tugging at the edge of his lips. He had such a flexible personality that he was able to blend in to nearly any group. There was just something inherently likable about him.
"Well, I finally convinced my brain to come back. But, I liked the implants, so I kept them instead."
"What about people? Were there some weird people that you met?" Sero asked a different question.
"Yes…I knew a lot of people. And things. There were a few people that would follow me around, and I'd definitely be dead without them. Arcade, Boone, Cass, Raul… there were a lot of them. But weird people? Well, there was a group of Elvis impersonators that lived there, although they were more of a gang than anything. Their leader let me borrow his cyborg dog every once in a while, since I did find the dog a new brain."
There were a few more chuckles. "What's up with all the brains, Midoriya?" Kaminari asked.
Midoriya smirked. "I think that's all the brains I dealt with, really. But you asked for people, specifically. I've also met a toaster bent on world domination."
That reply got quite a few more laughs. Really, if he hadn't experienced any of that stuff first hand, then he would have also thought that it was a joke. There was nothing reasonable about what he was recounting. And yet, it was all true. He hoped that they would never completely understand.
After getting off the bus, the students were expected to make their way through the big forest by themselves. One of the Pussycat member's quirk allowed for the creation of earthy monsters in the forest. Of course, it wasn't surprising that they would create such a challenge for them. With both the heightened villain activity and the new wasteland threats, it was essential that the fledgling heroes be pushed towards graduation.
Upon their arrival at the camp, they were met with a delicious meal. The students all scarfed it down. Afterwards, they found their luggage from the bus. When Midoriya loaded the awkwardly large eyebot onto the bus, he'd gotten a few looks. Now that they could get a good look at it, they started crowding around him again. He didn't even let them ask any questions before he powered ED-E up.
The robot rose from the group. He gave a few happy beeps to Midoriya before turning around and looking at the students around him. "His name is ED-E. I found and fixed him up. He's a prototype combat model. He's been through a lot in his lifetime."
"What was wrong with him?" Tokoyami asked him.
ED-E probably would have replied if he understood what they were saying. Having been created in the wastes, he was only programmed in English. "I'm fairly sure he was shot a few times. Just some raiders wanting some target practice, and a robot traveling the entire continental United States was a good target."
"Raiders…?" a few students muttered to themselves. That was Midoriya's bad; it was hard to explain anything without explaining the backstory of ten other things.
"They're just people who would rather kill and enslave rather than work for their own money and food. They've given me more than enough scars to count." Midoriya then switched tongues before turning to ED-E. "Go ahead and scout out the perimeter. Remember: harm, but don't kill."
ED-E immediately took off, and with the robot went the interest of the students. That was, except for one. As the other students disbursed, Uraraka stepped forward. She was nervously playing with her hands. "Hey, Deku."
"Hey, Uraraka. What's up?"
"Well…I was wondering if I could talk to you. About…that day."
Midoriya looked around him, then picked the best place for them to sit down. "Yeah, let's sit."
As Uraraka sat down, she kept to herself. Her movements were tight, and she was anything but relaxed. Midoriya couldn't blame her. "So, I know that everyone else thinks that this stuff is cool, but it's not. That thing, whatever it was, wasn't something that I could ever joke about it. So why do you keep talking about it as if it's some kind of fantasy? Why lie to them?"
"This isn't the answer that you want, but I'm not. I haven't lied about anything. I know it sounds stupid, but that's just how that world worked."
She stared down at her feet, not at all convinced. "No, it's not the answer I want. There's no way that you could have had your whole brain removed, or even communicate with it. And how about the toaster? Why would that exist? And the dog?"
It was no wonder that him talking about those things bothered her. It wasn't that they just seemed improbable, it was that he wasn't focusing on the dismal existence of the wastes. He only briefly mentioned the deadly and horrific elements of the Mojave. "Look," he said as he parted some of his hair. "I don't know if you can see it, but it's a faint scar from my lobotomy." He turned around, then pulled down the neck of his shirt, just enough to get a glimpse of the long surgical scar spanning his back. "And this is where my spine was removed." He turned back around to look at her face. She stared back at him with her large eyes, but they were tired. "It doesn't seem real, believe me, I know. But the technology they had was so far beyond our own. The doctors who I was working with to get my brain back were robots with only brains in them. When I talk about this kind of stuff, it's not because it was funny. In fact, that was hell. In that particular place, the Big MT, there were quite a few lobotomites. Except they weren't like me, they couldn't retain consciousness. There was a suit that they had, called the trauma override harness. Even though these people had gone through such an extreme trauma, the suit would move them anyway. It turns out that when they died, the suit continued to work. That's what was trying to kill me the entire time I was there. I'm not making anything up, I'm just choosing to ignore the things that weren't so pleasant."
Uraraka was silent for a moment. Part of his words had gotten through to her. "But if you've been through that stuff, like that…thing, why would you continue to talk about it? Why do you keep answering their questions?"
"I wasn't really planning on it. I didn't think anybody would ever need to know. Uraraka, I'm sorry that you had to see that deathclaw. But that's not the end of it, not anywhere close. Shigaraki's been there, and he has access to anything from there. I can't afford to keep anything to myself."
She still seemed frustrated. "How can you do it, though?"
There were a few answers that he could give. "Well, one is because I have to. Two, it doesn't bother me as much as it would you, mainly because of my amnesia. Three, because I learned an important lesson about old world blues."
"Old world blues?"
"It's the idea of holding on to the past, and yearning for a world that doesn't belong to us." Midoriya chuckled. "I suppose our classmates could learn a thing or two about it. After being there for so long, I had given up hope of ever getting home. So, I learned to adapt and live in that world. While it's strange for you to see or hear about these things, it's strange for me to be away from them."
Uraraka slowly nodded. "Thanks. That explains a lot. You aren't the Deku that everyone knew, are you?"
He knew she was right. Still, her words still stung. More so, Uraraka usually wore a bright smile on her face, but in that moment, she seemed tired. She'd probably been lying awake at night trying to make sense of everything, and today only made it worse. He might have felt the same way when he first arrived in the Mojave, except that he couldn't afford to dwell on those thoughts. Instead, he shoved his emotions aside in favor of survival. "No, I'm not the same. I'd like to say that I've improved since returning; I've smiled here far more often than I used to."
"Was it the old world blues that changed you? Or…what specifically?" Although far more serious than their classmate counterparts, she was starting to show more interest in his whereabouts. Her interest was different, though. She wasn't interested in entertainment, she wanted to know as much about that world because she knew she would have to fight someday.
"It was everything all at once. When I was warped there, I woke up in a place called Primm. The old man that ran the Mojave Outpost there took me in after he saw me wandering in to town. He was more than happy to give me a job. First, he had me clean up. Then, he taught me how to fire a gun. Finally, after a month or so, he entrusted me with a few jobs. I don't remember too much about it. About a year in, when I'd been given a package to deliver, I was intervened by a man named Benny. To get what I wanted, he tried to kill me. I took a bullet in the head for that one, but he didn't kill me, obviously. I had some memory problems-still do-but I'm working through them."
Uraraka nodded. "Yeah, that would change somebody. That bullet probably disrupted some of your normal brain patterns. It probably wouldn't be noticeable to you, but brain damage can seriously alter someone's personality."
Finally, someone who understood. "I'm very much aware of it. It's not something I can fix, though."
Uraraka stood up. She stared out into the campground, not making eye contact anymore. "Thank you, Deku. I appreciate the honesty."
Midoirya sighed as she walked away. The friendship that they had was obviously tainted. Iida and Todoroki knew something far worse about him, but they weren't as affected as her. He supposed there was a big difference in seeing something like that, and just hearing about a man dying in the wastes. Iida and Todoroki never stopped talking to him, and they still seemed friendly. It was likely that they didn't put as much value on someone's life from the Mojave after he described what it was like.
He pulled his bag closer to him and dug out his plasma rifle. After detailing the creatures and people from the wasteland, they'd allowed him to take his belongings with him that they'd confiscated. Of course, a good number of that stuff was counterfeited, but it meant that he could use his rifle any time he wanted. Well, only against wasteland creatures. They gave him a piece of paper-quite official looking-that explained the predicament. Had they not been able to see the deathclaw, he doubted that they would have done such a thing.
After depositing a majority of his stuff off, he took off to meet up with ED-E.
