Chapter Nine: Blood, Guts, and Gore Volume 2.0
Blood, guts, gore - but in grayscale this time.
Ayumi couldn't feel the pain, but she knew it was there. Her bones buzzed, as if calling out, pleading with Ayumi to stop moving. Morphine could do wonders, a prime example being the fact that Ayumi was able to push herself up from the rubble created by her impact against the wall. The wide eyed girl's blood stained the chunks of fallen cement surrounding her, and a pool had gathered at her feet. With a numb mind and numb body, Ayumi's nerves and pain receptors couldn't communicate an extreme issue to her, as the loopy girl trudged away from the scene: her blood was exposed. Her blood was packed to the brim with stimulants and depressants that were otherwise difficult to acquire; the puddle of it she left was practically a red oasis in the middle of the chalky cement fragments. And so, the girl stumbled far, far away from her forgotten fluids.
Ayumi's head was spinning, the double threat of a morphine overdose and blood loss slowly suffocating her consciousness, an anaconda waiting for its prey to give. Her eyelids lowered partially, as if the weight of the situation was finally pressing down on her. She didn't know what she was looking for, her steps taken with no conviction or cause.
"Come back for more?" The hazy girl was snapped out of her warped thoughts by a kick to the face. Ayumi's vision blurred, the different grays she saw blending together at the edges with the lights highlighted by the darks. Despite the circumstances, Ayumi appreciated the morbid chiaroscuro her damaged mind and eyes created. A dark figure towered over her, chuckling maliciously. In one movement, Ayumi's attacker grabbed her by the neck, raising her up into the air while forcing her windpipe to close. The blood she had left was losing oxygen, the girl's green complexion cooling into a bluer tone. She would've struggled, but the morphine still had control over her nerves, Ayumi's body remaining relaxed as the life was squeezed out of her. The girl's vision flickered, and soon her eyes were involuntarily rolling to the back of her head.
What's...happening?
"AYUMI!" Who...? "WAKE UP, AYUMI!"
Ayumi reached out, arms flailing while she tried to grab onto her aggressor. The warm feeling of skin snapped her eyes forward once again; Ayumi's vision was still blurry, but she could make out that her hands were set on the attacker's face. An idea popped into her fuzzy head, her first good one in a while, the girl attempting to focus on her blood levels. Ayumi dipped into her reserves of methamphetamine, pulling as much as she possibly could gather in her condition.
When her attack was ready, Ayumi smirked, surprising her attacker, who loosened their grip a bit as a result. Releasing the stimulant into their face, Ayumi screamed, "DIE, IDIOT!" She amplified the drug enough to disorient the attacker, forcing them to drop her as the stimulant's effect overtook their senses. The attacker hit the floor, giggling to themself giddily. Ayumi laid on the ground as well, numb to all rhyme and reason beyond what her mind conjured. In a few seconds time, the hazy girl felt the shadow of another loom over her, a case of deadly deja vu setting over her. Ayumi, alarmed, sat up abruptly, her arms stretched out for whoever had the guts to strike her while she was down.
"Hey, hey, hey, Ayumi. Calm down." Kirishima... If she were capable, Ayumi would've flushed at the thought of her so easily recognizing and appreciating her red headed classmate's presence. However, she was too numb to worry about reactions.
"Kirishima, I need you to focus me so I can stay awake." Ayumi couldn't move her face easily anymore, her words blending together without her noticing.
Kirishima was terribly worried about his fallen classmate. From what he could see, Ayumi's head was bleeding out, the red staining her green toned skin. She was cut and bruised, her body colored with crayons shaded all different tones of grotesque. The shark toothed boy heard ragged breathing, which, although he lacked proper medical training, didn't seem minor. The anger he harbored for the man he saw choking her was incomparable to his fury at himself, however. Kirishima saw the strength augmented villain sneak up on Ayumi's right, but couldn't bring himself to warn her in time. Useless. He was useless to his classmates.
The boy sighed nervously, pulling Ayumi's head onto his lap and applying pressure to the gash on the back of her head. The girl's eyes were closing - Kirishima had to think of something quick. "Y'know, what you did back there was awesome. You took him out with one hit Ayumi!" It took great effort for Kirishima to put on a positive tone, but the boy knew he had to be brave for the girl who was bleeding out on top of him.
"I'm pretty cool...I guess. Now...that dude's gonna have to live...the rest...of his life addicted...to meth."
"Dang, that's harsh. Remind me never to cross you."
"I'm sure...you won't need me...to tell you twice...aha..." Ayumi wheezed out a small laugh. It was the first time he had ever seen the girl smile, let alone chuckle. Seeing Kirishima's eyes light up in concern, Ayumi reassured him monotonously, "I can't...feel any pain...right now. I...had to drug...myself up on...morphine because I...lost...my stabilizer pills."
"It's still hard to see you like this."
"I know. Hey...why don't you...help me stand...so we can get outta here." He didn't think it was the best idea, but Kirishima complied, lifting the girl up and allowing her to use him as support.
Through the wreckage, the pair made it out together, one with a limp in her leg and the other with a limp in his heart.
—
"Is he awake yet?"
"No, sweetie. I'll let you know when he is."
Recovery Girl plodded away, leaving Ayumi alone in the hospital lobby. She tugged at her snake bites, the anxiety she was drowning in unavoidable. After having made it outside of USJ with the help of Kirishima, Recovery Girl had rushed to bandage her head and heal the two fractured ribs she had with a smooch. The medical hero had found Ayumi's pill bottle on the floor near Thirteen, and administered two pills to the dazed girl upon seeing her condition. Recovery Girl had been shocked (to say the least) at Ayumi's ability to function so highly in her condition, that was until Kirishima explained the situation to her (along with input from Asui). The green girl received a smack to the head and a hug from her mentor once she came to, the elderly woman looking close to tears. That was the first hug Ayumi had experienced in a while.
Aizawa, however, was in critical condition when the hoard of heroes arrived at a local hospital. Not many were permitted in his room while he was being treated, so Ayumi had grudgingly agreed to wait in the lobby of the hospital, not without sending a signature melancholy glare to the nurse who ushered her away from his room's door. Without a shower or change of clothes in between, Ayumi looked just as tattered as she felt inside, yet she stayed put. She wondered what made Aizawa so special to her, what kept her in that chair waiting for his recovery rather desperately. The girl forcibly kept her eyes peeled for an hour or two, but fatigue set in heavily, and Ayumi nodded off...
—
He had come home with a dagger protruding from his forehead. "Ayumi...Mimi, help me, please!"
Ayumi hadn't heard that nickname in so long, which startled her on its own; the blade embedded in her brother's forehead startled her more. At thirteen and eighteen, the two had grown out of their childish habits, both taking responsibility for the other. At that point, their mother only would come back a couple times over several months, but neither of the two were surprised. They'd learned to care for each other, as the two had only the other to cling to. The bed and extra room was almost always open, but the stench of their mother hung over it constantly, deterring both from sleeping in the room's only bed.
Previously, Ayumi had been experiencing another one of her quirk's episodes, the clamminess of her palms still lingering as she put her hand to her brother's face. "Jin! What happened?!"
"Dunno...someone came at me when I was on my way back and took the groceries." A sorrowful look contorted the brunet's face, the thought of being unable to cook dinner putting him in a dismal mood. "Looks like no dinner for us."
"As if that matters!" Ayumi cried, grabbing Jin's hand urgently. Ayumi rushed her brother to the couch, forcing him onto his back. "Lie down." The two couldn't go to a hospital - neither had insurance, birth records, or money. The system wasn't built for people like them, the ones cast aside by those who took their privileges for granted.
"I can't - can't focus. I think the room's spinning," Jin moaned, the shock wearing off and morphing into a dull ache shaking his head.
Ayumi prodded the dagger, and examined the wound. She frowned, explaining, "It's in there deep. When I remove it you might bleed out." Sighing, she ran to the kitchen to collect supplies, bringing back a matchbox, needle, thread, and cloth over to the small table in front of the couch. "I'm going to have to cauterize the wound and stitch it up immediately after I pull the knife out."
"Sis, I'm scared."
"Hold on to my hand. I'm gonna take it out."
A look of fear crossed Jin's face, then complacent resolve. He mustered up a smile and gently kissed his sister's hand. "I love you, Mimi."
Tears threatened to spill from Ayumi's bloodshot eyes as she placed her other hand on her brother's cheek tenderly. Although her quirk was making her see three of him, Ayumi knew which one was tangible. She whispered, shakily, "Save it for after."
A minute later, screams echoed through the motel's hall.
—
Her eyes snapped open, a mixture of pain and shock strong enough to force her eyelids up. The dread and regret that memory brought her usually stayed dormant in the back of her mind, but at that moment it was alive, stinging the hands that pulled that cursed dagger out of her brother's skull. She had only watched two severe operations in her lifetime: the beginning of Aizawa's face repair, and the one she unpreparedly performed on her brother all those years ago. The idea of losing the person who saved her from the wreckage of a life her mother and brother left her with poisoned her thoughts, the negativity a potent venom she couldn't overlook. Maybe medical work isn't for me. I could've killed Aizawa earlier. Instinctively, the preoccupied girl tugged at her snake bites, wondering if she was the one with the venom, poisoning those who tried to be around her.
"Miss Bubaigawara?" A petite woman in blue scrubs called her name from the front. Ayumi hastily scrambled to the threshold the lady stood at, heart rate quickening as anticipation took control.
She demanded, "Yes?"
"Recovery Girl sent me to tell you that Aizawa Shota is awake." The nurse continued to speak, but Ayumi was long gone, running down to see her teacher. Emotions she no longer was capable of explaining powered her run, Ayumi's adrenaline levels spiking alongside the surge. Slowing to a stop, her red eyes (the blood's appearance more saturated than usual due to fatigue) set their sights on the door to Aizawa's room. In that moment, Ayumi's state of emotional confusion was forcing up her throat, not as word vomit, but as her breakfast she ingested what seemed like ages ago. Unable to contain the acidic mush climbing her esophagus, the green skinned girl (who managed to somehow look even greener) flung the door to Aizawa's room open and booked it to the trash can in the opposite corner of the room. Ayumi's body shook as she emptied her stomach, the sludge she produced smelling strongly of morphine.
"Brat, don't stink up the room." Aizawa's groggy voice startled Ayumi, the girl shifting her head in his direction. Wrapped from head to toe, her once darkly vibrant mentor now seemed blanched, his vigor chained up within the confines of standard hospital bandaging. Although she couldn't see it, Ayumi was almost certain Aizawa's famous death stare was set on his features as he remarked, "Sloppy as usual. You got something on your mouth. Clean it before I puke too."
The wide eyed girls eyes bulged as she flushed in embarrassment, grabbing a tissue and wiping her mouth off. After taking a second to compose herself, she questioned, "How ya feeling, boss?"
"Could be better. You're looking rough."
"I know. Got slammed against a wall, but I ruined that loser's life."
"At least I know the training's working." A smalll silence, and then, "Hey, kid. I want to thank you for saving my life. I don't go soft often, so when I do, it's nice to know I choose the right people." He lifted his arm slightly, grabbing Ayumi's arm lightly; she didn't need a strong grip to understand the weight this action carried for the both of them.
And Ayumi smiled. "Yeah, I know boss."
—
The air inside Ayumi's room held more tension than usual, her card flipping noticeably less aggressive than usual.
"Heard your class got attacked today." The indigo kid flipped a queen of clubs over, Ayumi blindly playing a seven of spades from the top of her deck in response.
"Yeah." Ayumi had taken to biting her lips, frustration crossing her features. Slowly, her stoic mask was being torn off, the girl unable to vent it out with a simple card game.
"Cool. Did you get to show your power off?"
"Something like that."
"So what's wrong then?" A line had been crossed, it was clear to him, Ayumi's hands clenching her cards, the girl bending the kings, queens, and jacks she held at the tips of her fingers. She had taken out a royal family in a matter of seconds, her natural response to flashes of the blood, guts, and gore she experience earlier obscuring her vision.
Ayumi trained her scowl on the aloof boy across from her, as she seethed, "Nothing. If you're here to ask questions, you can leave."
"It's okay to speak your mind once in a while."
"Shut up!"
"You need to let your emotions out."
"I DON'T WANT TO!" Cards were slammed on the table violently, the female half of the duo knocking her chair over as she stood angrily. "GO! Just go if all you want to hear about is how awful the scene was, or that I had to keep my dying teacher from bleeding out, or about how I was thrown against a damn wall like I was some rag doll. I was POWERLESS against the villains, and it hurts me to know that. So now that you do, you can leave." The indigo boy didn't make a move. "LEAVE!"
"..."
Tears of humiliation poured down Ayumi's face, the girl even more humiliated to be crying in front of some kid she barely knew. Ayumi's self guard was exhausted from a long day of keeping it up, otherwise the boy would've been out of her room in a flash. Her blood shot eyes didn't leave his indigo ones, the type that could balance out any color they were matched with. "Bet you wanted to see me cry, huh?" The wet eyed girl averted her gaze from the silent boy, furiously wiping at her eyes as if she were wiping away her pain.
"Hey, look at me."
"I have been," Ayumi sniffed, "...dimwit."
The boy put an arm on her shoulder, a rare smile gracing his features. "You can cry, it's okay." He guided the girl to her couch, sitting her down as he left to go put hot water for tea on the stove. Over the flame he was working with, the indigo boy could hear sobs erupting from the pained girl, her screams blending in with the screaming kettle of water.
He brought the tea over to her, and sat across from the bloody eyed girl for as long as she cried, the sun's absence meaning nothing to either of them. Shinso didn't know her name, and Ayumi didn't know his, but the connection they clung to between them was much stronger than any words they could've said in that night. Instead, they drank tea to fill their mouths where pointless words would've taken space.