PAuthor's Note: Now we get to see what happened with Azumi's surgery! Also almost a quarter of the way to my 100 chapter goal! I have the outline done up to chapter 60. Also still going through and editing mistakes from previous chapters and we are at 3,500 views which means at 5,000 there will be a bonus fluff chapter with a short story! To all my readers, thank you and hope you all enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own MHA or the characters. Story is rated for content and potential triggering subjects like rape, assault, abuse, language and situations that warrant a high rating.
Chapter 23 -
Keigo wasn't able to sleep at Jin's. He had been picked up by Sion that evening and Azumi was in hour 6 of her surgery. Soji had called Sion later that evening and said the surgeons finished after 8 hours of surgery. An aftercare team came in to take care of her and had moved her back to her room. Her pupil and neurological responses seemed normal, but she wasn't expected to wake up before midnight. He promised to have an update in the morning so Sion passed the information to Keigo. He tossed and turned on the piles of bean bags on Jin's bedroom floor and hugged the small down filled pillow Azumi had made him.
He didn't want Azumi to still be asleep, he wanted her awake so he knew she would be ok. He had been unfocused and distracted at the Commission that day and without some good news he would be just as bad tomorrow. Jin rolled over on his bed, the top bunk had been removed and moved to Keigo's apartment and bedroom. Grumbling, Jin climbed off his bed and dumped a large plushie of Thirteen on Keigo. "Go to thleep!" He whined and flopped onto one of the bean bags. "I can hear your wingth making noithe and you keep thighing and rolling around. Jutht go to thleep already!"
Keigo threw the large plushie back at him and frowned. "I can't. I'm worried about Zumi and Soji." Jin already had his eyes closed. His ears swiveling in Keigo's direction. "Don't you mean Mom and Dad?" Keigo felt his face turning red as he hugged the small pillow and squeezed his eyes shut. "Jerk. I'm just worried." Jin huffed and sat up, his eyes almost glowed in the dark catching the tiniest bit of light like a cat. "Look, they are at the hothpital and will be under the betht care anyone can athk for. They'll be fine." Jin yawned and started cuddling up next to Keigo as he muttered. "Bethideth, grandma thaid Recovery Girl wath gonna be there tomorrow. Tho thtop worrying and go to thleep." Jin tried to throw an arm over Keigo and ended up smacking him in the face.
Annoyed, Keigo wriggled his nose and flapped both his wings smacking Jin with one. This led to both boys giggling and trying to hit each other with a pillow, which turned into a full blown pillow fight as both boys tried to land a solid hit on the other. Sion heard the giggling and ruckus over her late night tv show and opened the door before they could pretend to be asleep, flipping the lights on in the room. She had an entire lecture about sleeping on school nights, until she saw Keigo pinned to the ground by Jin who was shoving a pillow into his face as Keigo had two pillows floating over Jin held up by feathers, trying to hit Jin and get the older boy off of him. She blinked and mumbled about kids trying to kill each other before turning the lights back off and shutting the door. Both boys burst into laughter before situating themselves amidst the giant bean bags and pillows to sleep, hawks wings covering them both as he sighed feeling much better.
/
Dr. Mashido was listening to Azumi's heart and lungs. He had already checked her eyes and the pupils were unresponsive to the small pen light he had shone in them. He checked her pulse and then wrote something on the chart next to her IV drip. Soji watched with concern as he was told Azumi should have woken up by now for breakfast. There was a point after the anesthesia wore off that the human body would naturally wake up. They were using that as a baseline to see if there was any neurological damage, but now, 4 hours after she was supposed to wake up and nearing lunch, the nurses had called Dr. Mashido from his small cot in the break room to check on her.
He sighed as he wrote a few instructions for the nurse. "Well. We knew this could be a potential side effect of the anesthesia and surgery." The Doctor looked at Soji as the tall white haired gentleman sat next to Azumi, holding her limp left hand. "On the plus side we did stop the hemorrhaging in her brain, unfortunately, her pupils are not reacting to any stimulus, her reflexes are non existent on her knees and even her brain patterns seem to indicate she is in a coma of sorts. She could wake up in a few minutes or a few months. It's however long it takes her body to register that the brain is repaired and recover. I'm sorry, I can't give you an exact time or date for her to wake up." The doctor passed the clipboard to a nurse as he bowed to Soji.
"If there is anything else I can do, please don't hesitate to ask or call me. I will continue to be her primary physician until this is resolved but I need to do my rounds." Soji smiled his thanks at the doctor and kissed Azumi's hand. "You've already done so much, doctor. I'm sure waiting until she wakes up won't be too much. Is there anything that we should worry about with her asleep?" Dr. Mashido shook his head. "No, just keep her calm if she panics or seems confused from the breathing tube and hit the call aid button if she wakes up so I can come." Soji nodded and watched as the doctor gave the nurse Azumi's clipboard and left. He looked at Azumi and brushed her cheek gently, blue eyes filled with worry.
Despite the warnings and the possible side effects, Soji liked to remain positive and believe there wouldn't have been any issues with the surgery or recovery. The woman laying in the bed had been so strong in the past, and that strength floored Soji time and time again. His fondness for her grew with every day he spent with her, and Keigo just seemed so well behaved and good at his quirk and training. Soji had watched him and Azumi interact together, aside from how different they looked you wouldn't know that Azumi had adopted him. Even doing that had impressed Soji and emboldened him to ask her out instead of charging them for their case. Encouraged him to spend time with Keigo, getting to know him better. His internal thoughts were interrupted by a gentle knock.
"Excuse me, is this Azumi Nakamura's room?" Soji blinked confused. He heard an older woman's voice, and they gave Azumi his last name, but that wasn't the name Azumi had been admitted with. Turning to the door, he saw Dr. Seeks in normal casual clothes with a short older woman standing next to him. She had a pink and purple visor looking contraption on her head with a hypodermic hair stick through a hair bun of gray hair. She was walking with a cane that also looked like a large needle and wore a doctor's coat with a red and yellow retro dress underneath. Soji stood and quickly bowed deeply to them both. "Recovery Girl? Dr. Seeks? I'm honored that you came to visit. Thank you."
Dr. Seeks smiled and walked over to look at Azumi, his eyes spinning as he checked her over internally, comparing it to last time. Recovery Girl walked up to Soji and held out a gloved hand with a piece of candy in it. "I'm sorry young man, Habari told me you two were recently married and I assumed the name was already changed." Soji blinked at the use of Dr. Seek's first name before smiling and taking the candy. "We haven't done that paperwork yet, but we did handle everything for Keigo and the Civil Ceremony before this. When she wakes up. I know she will be glad you came by." Recovery Girl smiled and patted his arm gently. "Let's take a look at her while I'm here."
Soji's worry seemed to fall off of his face as he looked at Dr. Seeks. "You asked her to come?" The doctor smiled with a shrug as he moved to stand next to Soji. "Azumi is a very good friend of mine. I offered to contact Recovery Girl earlier but things progressed faster than her schedule allowed." They watched as Recovery Girl gave Azumi a long sweet kiss on the forehead and smiled. "There. They fixed her up with the surgery. But this will help her wake up sooner because her body will recover faster."
Azumi's eyes fluttered as a finger on her left hand twitched, and then her hand moved as if looking for something. Soji hurried to her bedside and took her hand, eyes on her face as her eyes opened open, looking up, to the right and to the left at him, a strained smile on her face. Soji grinned and held her hand in both of his. "Hey there gorgeous, how was your sleep?" She opened her mouth to speak and seemed surprised about the tube in her mouth. He quickly hit the call button for the doctor as Recovery Girl checked her chart and then medicine in the IV bags.
Dr. Mashido came in and blinked at Azuki awake. He saw Recovery Girl and Dr. Seeks and had an unreadable expression on his own face as a nurse came in to help him remove the breathing tube. "Azumi can you hear me?" She nodded, squeezing Soji's hand as he sat next to her. Recovery Girl held her hypodermic needle cane as her doctor checked her over, asked some questions and went over the same quick tests as he did before. "Impressive quirk, Recovery Girl. She has done weeks of recovery in seconds using her own body's resources. Her reflexes seem alright, pupils are reacting normally and there doesn't appear to be any memory loss. Of course she will need to stay for a while to make sure everything went well but, Azumi, congratulations the surgery was a success."
She smiled looking from her doctor to Soji and then over to Dr. Seeks and Recovery Girl. Her voice sounded scratchy from the tube. "Thank you everyone." Soji blinked as he noticed something and the doctor noticed it too, moving to bring his penlight out again. "Azumi, can you smile brightly for me?" She looked confused but did as he asked, resulting in Soji squeezing her hand. The left side of her face was not moving correctly. It didn't really slur her speech, but seeing her try to smile, the lax muscles became very noticable. He flashed the penlight into her eye and poked at her cheek. "Can you feel that?" Azumi shook her head a little, glancing over at Soji and the delay of movement in her left eye caught the doctor's attention.
Recovery Girl rubbed her chin frowning and glanced at the chart again. "That's an u usual response to my quirk. It usually cuts through side effects." Dr. Mashido nodded and made some notes, gently resting a comforting hand on her arm. "Nothing some therapy won't fix I'm sure." The nurse came back in with a new saline bag with some liquid vitamins to help for now as Recovery Girl and Dr. Mashido spoke to each other about a second visit from the famous healer. Azumi kept watching Soji, her eyes bright as he kissed her hand."I will need to leave to pick up Keigo soon. It's Friday and I know he's going to want to come see you and stay. Dr. Seeks said he would stay until we got back." She nodded and closed her eyes for a moment. "He will be so happy I'm awake."
Soji kissed her hand again. "Make no mistake, we're both happy you're awake. If you need to rest go ahead. I'll wake you before I go." She made a hm noise as she closed her eyes gripping his hand with Keigo's locket still wrapped around her wrist. Soji smiled thinking about her potential therapy, recovery, what she was going to have to do moving forward. He wanted to be supportive and help, but he was a lawyer, not a doctor. Soji swore he would be at every therapy session and do everything he could to help with Keigo. Speaking of, he pulled out his cell phone and gave Sion a call to update her and let her know he would be there to pick up Keigo.
/
Agent Bend had the report for Keigo's progress this week since they were at weekly reports nearing his annual contract review. She also had the report from Dr. Mashido that he had faxed over. She received it shortly after seeing Keigo to the car that Friday afternoon and was waiting to give it to the Vice President. He wouldn't be happy with either report, and she would know because she wasn't happy with either report. She had never met a child so resistant to her social manipulation. She was guessing because he was no good at interpersonal skills, he didn't understand what the social cues were and so they were useless.
She knocked on the door to hear him call for her to enter, and stepped in with a bow after shutting the door. Vice President Kueka was eating his dinner at his desk and motioned for a chair for her to sit. Agent Bend cautiously sat down, because he seemed much more positive than the last time she spoke with him. "Sir, I have your reports for Keigo's weekly progress and from Dr. Mashido." He cut into his steak, the plate of food probably cooked by one of the on call chefs smelled devine. When he realized she was waiting on him, he slowly chewed before motioning her to go ahead. Trying not to be unsettled by his power play of giving her little thought during his dinner, Agent Bend opened the folders and began.
"Keigo continues to show major improvements in all three fields of study. He's working on schoolwork almost two grades higher than his age category, only struggling in math. His physical training is going well and he has shown he is able to stay on a fitness routine even on the weekends when he doesn't come in. The lean muscle he is building up is improving his performance in his hero training, of which he is doing well. We would rather he be present during the week in the evenings to join other students in practise and training. I'm sure you already got the report from his Instructor but he's fast and efficient when it comes to problem solving and taking down enemies. His growth in stealth and intel, as well as growth and development of his quirk is astonishingly fast. If he continues at this pace he would be field ready at 18. Sooner if we could get him longer each day. Keigo seems emotionally attached to his family. So much so he is ignoring all my attempts for parental bonding. I have tried almost everything and he still resists."
The Vice President listened while he ate and said nothing. His silence disturved her so she went on to Dr. Mashido's report. "Dr. Mashido reported that the corrective surgery of Azumi Tayaka was successful. He tried to ensure that her recovery would be slow and that she would be in an induced coma for quite a few weeks. Unexpectedly, Recovery Girl came to visit courtesy of Dr. Habito Seeks who works with Azumi Tayaka. One use of her quirk and Azumi woke up. She still has to do therapy because parts of her nervous system and motor functions are numb and not working, a side effect of the brain surgery. Dr. Mashido recommends leaving her to recover and not being medically involved with her due to the close association with Recovery Girl."
The Vice President wiped his mouth with a white napkin from his lap before setting it on the desk next to his plate. He picked up a packet of papers and handed it to her without saying a word. Agent Bend slowly took it and glanced at the cover. She recognized it as Keigo's contract, resting it in her lap as she started to look through it. There were two portions highlighted as changes and she saw the date on the bottom was to show these were the revised changes requested for the new year. One was that Keigo would stay at the Commission facility Monday through Friday to improve his training and to increase his school work so he could focus more of his contracted time on hero training. The second change was the custody agreement. It still gave the Commission custody of Keigo, but only if both Soji and Azumi Nakamura were deceased and Soji Nakamura's family was unable to take him in.
Speaking in a low tone, Kueka made sure he had her attention. "The only reason you are not being terminated right now is the extra time here was his idea. He wants to finish his schooling early to focus more on hero training. And according to his lawyer, which by the way is no longer Soji Nakamura but Akashi Nakamura, the senior partner of that firm. He has never lost a case or left his clients unsatisfied. So, you are going to continue your weekly reports even after the annual changes. If you cannot sway him to trust you like a mother, I will get someone else. We need someone to make the conditioning and training work in order for hik to be obedient as a Hero."
There was something slightly disturbing in his words as she stood. Agent Bend bowed. Her hands gripping the files and the new contract.
"I won't fail sir."
/
Keigo was quiet on the car ride home that Friday. When he left for school, there was no change in Azumi and it worried him. Sion muttered about messing with the brain, and he had asked his teacher about brain surgery and the side effects and risks. He also had had a weird conversation with Agent Bend, where she had been trying to encourage him to train harder in the hero program, mentioning yet again the things he was missing out on. He didn't tell her that he had already talked with Soji about it and decided he wanted to stay there during the week, going home on the weekends. He wanted to give this his all, and he wanted to be the best hero for Azumi. Plus he knew her and Soji could use some time on their own without him. That thought made him grin and the grin widened when he saw Soji waving to the car from the building front steps.
Keigo waited for Guen to get the door for him, something they established a long time ago to be Guen's only real job as Keigo never gave him trouble, and Keigo gave his usual thank you to Guen before running to Soji and getting picked up in a big strong hug. Keigo loved being hugged by Azumi, but he also loved the strong hugs from Soji. They made him feel safe and protected, just like with Azumi. Soji watched Guen drive off and started walking towards his own Tesla that was parked nearby as Keigo bombarded him with questions.
"Is Mama awake? Is she ok? Did the surgery go well?" Soji laughed at all the questions and opened his trunk to put Keigo's backpack into it. He set Keigo down and opened the driver rear door. "Hop on, we'll go see her. Yes, she's awake. Yes, she's ok. Yes, the surgery went well. There are some side effects and she needs to stay in the hospital for a few a while until the side effects clear up." Soji climbed into the driver seat and glanced in the rear view mirror to make sure Keigo had his seat belt on. "I'm going to give you a warning, your mom has no muscle control on the left side of her face or her right hand. She'll need some therapy to relearn to use them with no issues."
Keigo listened from the back seat and nodded as he remembered one of the big fears he had. "Does she…..she didn't forget anything did she?" Soji smiled and shook his head. "Certainly not. She's been asking about you and is looking forward to when she can see you." Keigo grinned and looked around the window. As they neared the hospital, he closed his eyes and focused on the feather in her locket. It had been a long time since he put that there but he could still feel it when he was close to it. Unlike the baby feathers he had molted and got turned into a pillow, this had been one of his original primaries.
They parked in the long term visitor parking and Soji offered Keigo a hand to hold as they walked inside. They got visitor stickers and headed for an elevator, Soji seemed very confident in where they were going. Keigo could hear people who were coughing or moaning and smell disinfectant and blood around him. He pulled his wings in trying not to think of the first time he was here. Soji knocked on a door frame and Azumi looked up, a crooked smile with her bright eyes as she held out her left hand. "Keigo!" He let go of Soji's hand and ran to her. Climbing onto the bed he hugged her close, careful of the IV, tubes and sensors. He hugged her tight and buried his face in her shoulder trying not to cry, his wings shaking because he was so happy she was awake and ok. Azumi hugged him as best she could with one arm and rested her cheek on his head.
"Hello my handsome baby bird. Everything is going to be alright."