Winds of Destiny: Rising
Chapter Twenty-Three: Aftermath
Heavy rain steadily poured out of the sky over Central Hospital, pelting down atop the covered heads of the news reporters camped out en masse in front of the main entrance. Several police and security officers were stationed between the mob of journalists and the hospital doors to keep them from entering the building and bothering any of the patients or staff. They were all there to gather information about one man: Endeavor. He, along with many other mortally wounded heroes, had been quickly transported to Central Hospital after the conclusion of the morning's raids on the Paranormal Liberation Front's stronghold at Gunga mountain, and the decimated hospital in Jaku City. Their facilities were known to be the best in the country and would provide the best opportunity to save their lives.
The heads of many drenched reporters perked up at the sight of a cab pulling up to the front of the hospital. The police and security officers stood at attention, watching carefully as the back door flung open and a dark-haired woman in black and white sneakers and a hooded, denim vested jacket swiftly exited the vehicle. She slammed the door shut behind her and clutched her jacket closed over her chest, not bothering to cover her head as she began jogging toward the entrance to the hospital. The mob of reporters out front quickly converged on her, shoving microphones and recording devices in her face and demanding to know if she had any relation to any of the heroes being treated at the hospital, specifically Endeavor.
The police and security pushed the reporters back, clearing a path for her to at least make it up to the front entrance. She was stopped by another security officer who asked to see some ID. She reached into her back pocket with a trembling hand and produced a card, holding it out to the officer who, upon seeing her credentials, immediately turned and nodded to the others that it was okay to let her pass. He handed it back to her and she slipped it back into her pocket before rushing past him through the open doors of the hospital. They swiftly closed behind her and she heard the sound of an electronic lock click as the invasive voices of the rowdy group of reporters outside were abruptly silenced.
Misaki swiftly walked up to the reception desk in the main lobby, trailing a wet path from the front door behind her that brought out a group of small cleaning bots to mop up the mess. She completely disregarded their presence as she stepped up to the tall desk and called out to one of the nurses behind it, "Excuse me."
The nurse she'd addressed looked up and asked, "How can I help you?"
"I'm here to visit a patient," Misaki quickly replied.
The nurse's expression turned apologetic as she told her, "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid visiting hours are over for the day."
"Please, I'll only be a minute," Misaki implored.
The nurse shook her head and said, "I'm sorry. I can't help you. If you come back tomorrow during normal visiting hours—"
"Can you at least tell me if they're okay?" Misaki cut her off, her anxiety and frustration quickly reaching a boiling point and spilling over onto the poor nurse who was just trying to do her job.
"Torimodo-san?" A familiar voice suddenly addressed her from her left.
She turned her head toward the voice and blinked perplexedly at the tall, lanky hero walking down the hall toward her. "Best Jeanist?"
Jeanist held a hand up to the flustered nurse behind the reception desk and told her, "It's alright. I'll handle it."
The woman nodded to him with a look of relieved appreciation on her face and he nodded back to her before gesturing for Misaki to follow him. "Come with me."
She turned an apologetic glance toward the nurse before ducking her head and hurrying over to Jeanist, softly telling him when she reached his side, "Thank you."
"The hospital is being extra cautious with allowing visitors in, given the current situation," he explained as he led her down the hall toward the elevators.
"I understand. I just—" She cut off with a hiccupping gasp. Quickly getting ahold of her emotions after a moment, she softly trailed off, "When I heard the news…"
He nodded in understanding and stood to the side to allow her to enter the elevator ahead of him. She offered him an appreciative smile before ducking her head and stepping past him into the wide metal box. He entered after her and reached out to press the button for the ninth floor. They rode the entire way in silence, Jeanist calmly standing a few steps away from Misaki, who kept her weary eyes trained on the ground and her arms wrapped tightly around her ribs. She was keeping herself occupied by taking several deep breaths in through her nose before slowly letting them out from her mouth as she fought to calm her racing nerves.
Migi hadn't told her very much aside from a basic gist of what had happened. She had wanted to leave immediately, but she couldn't just abandon her team. As soon as the police had taken over leading the search and rescue efforts, Misaki had headed straight for the train station. Migi had given her the name of the hospital, but she hadn't been able to tell her anything about how badly the injuries were. She'd paid the cab driver a bit extra to get her from the station to the hospital as quickly as possible. There was no telling what kind of time she might have left.
The elevator dinged their arrival and the door slid open. Jeanist followed her out of the car and gestured for her to follow him with a tilt of his head. "It's this way."
She quietly followed the Fiber Hero down the long hallway to a door at the very end. It had no nameplate outside, nor any guards that she could see posted anywhere nearby. Her anxiety flared to life like a bonfire inside her gut. Jeanist's somber attitude, an unmarked room, no security… It felt like he was bringing her into a farewell viewing room. She almost didn't want to follow him inside, but she forced her feet to move her forward, immediately stopping in her tracks at the sight of the curtain drawn next to the lone hospital bed in the large room.
Jeanist walked over to one of the cabinets and pulled out a towel and a blanket before stepping in front of her and tossing the fluffy towel over her head.
Misaki blinked, startled by the sudden action, and glanced up at the tall hero in silent question.
"The air conditioning in here can get rather cold," Jeanist explained, referencing her soaked hair and clothing, and the fact that she was shivering.
She honestly hadn't even noticed.
"Thank you," she sheepishly replied, accepting the blanket he held out to her with a grateful smile and wrapping it around her shoulders before reaching up to squeeze her hair dry with the towel.
"I wondered if you might be stopping by at some point," Jeanist remarked as he moved to close the door behind her.
"You did?" She asked, somewhat bewildered.
She'd really only met the man maybe a handful of times. After he'd been injured at Kamino, they'd had little opportunity to talk over the phone either. The last time she had spoken to him was while she'd still been the President's secretary. She wasn't able to ponder his statement for very long though as his long strides quickly carried him past her toward the bed and he pulled back the curtain.
She would've gasped if she'd been able to breathe, but it almost felt like her heart had stopped.
Her eyes slowly widened, and she lifted a hand up to hover over her mouth as she whispered in shock, "Keigo…!"
The towel fell out of her other hand onto the floor as her feet slowly carried her over to his bedside in a daze. He was hooked up to a face mask ventilator with bandages covering nearly every bit of his face, neck, chest, and arms that wasn't covered by the hospital shirt he was wearing. She might not have even recognized him if it wasn't for the unruly mop of golden hair sticking out from the bandages on top of his head. She could hear the steady beeping of the heart monitor now that she was closer to the bed, the continuous sound freeing up a bit of the horrified shock that had clenched her chest at the sight of him and allowing her to draw in a shaky breath.
"What happened to him?" She asked, unable to produce anything louder than a whisper at the moment.
"According to the UA student who rescued him, he was badly burned while battling Dabi at the Liberation Villa," Jeanist calmly explained, standing next to her and glancing down at Hawks's prone form.
She was almost too afraid to ask but the question left her lips in the form of a trembling whisper before she could stop it. "His wings?"
Jeanist was silent for a moment before she heard his somber voice reply, "The damage is quite extensive."
Misaki's reflexively reached out toward Hawks's prone and injured body, intent on using her quirk to repair the damage, but the sight of her parent's bodies shrinking into infants sharply flashed through her mind and she abruptly snatched her hand back with a soft gasp. The last time she had used her quirk in an emotional state had ruined not only her life, but the lives of everyone she held dear at the time. She could not, would not allow the same to happen to Hawks. She fixed her watery stare on the steady rise and fall of his chest, the beeping of the monitors surrounding him assuring her that he was alive and stable. But his wings… She drew in a shuddering breath, tightly clamping her hand over her mouth as she suddenly remembered back to the morning after Christmas sixteen months ago…
...
Hawks stood at the bathroom sink dressed only in a pair of bright red boxers as he brushed his teeth. He leaned over to spit out the toothpaste and when he stood back up, his sharp eyes swiftly slid over to her reflection in the mirror, standing behind him in a thin, off-white robe and staring at his back.
"What?" He asked a bit uncomfortably after a moment as she just continued to silently stand there staring at him.
She slowly walked up behind him and reached out to lightly run her hands over his feathers from the base of his wings outward, commenting in a reverent tone, "These are incredible..."
He cocked a half-grin at her in the mirror and said, "Well, thanks."
She smiled back at him softly, briefly glancing up into his eyes through the reflection in the mirror before sliding her gaze back to his wings. "What do they feel like?"
"What do you mean?" He asked, shooting her a curious expression in the mirror.
She tilted her head a bit, running the backs of her fingers over a few of his feathers as she asked, "Does it hurt when they come out?"
He softly shook his head and replied, "No more than clipping a fingernail."
Misaki gasped in a breath, looking around in wonder as she suddenly became surrounded by Hawks's feathers floating in the air all around the bathroom. "There's so many..."
He turned around to face her, reaching up to pluck one of them out of the air as he explained, "I've been able to control each of them independently from a very young age." He lifted the feather in his hand to lightly brush against her cheek. "I can make them soft, or sharp."
She jumped, letting out a small, startled gasp when the feather caressing her face suddenly sharpened as he pulled it away, releasing it to hang in the air once more. Glancing around the room at all of the floating feathers, she reached out to run her finger over one of them and asked, "And you can just—pull them all out and put them back in again? What happens if you lose them?"
He shrugged, leaning back against the sink as he said, "If they're destroyed or fall out of range, I just replace them. They grow back within a few days."
Misaki stepped toward him and reached her arms around his back, sliding her hands up to the base of his wings. She glanced up at him and asked in a hushed tone, "And what about here? Do you feel anything here?"
He tilted his head to the side a bit and stared down at her curiously. "They're just like any other appendage."
Her eyes suddenly turned downcast. "So, if this part was to get damaged..."
"Why so serious all of a sudden?" He asked, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her up against him.
She turned her head and rested her cheek on his bare chest, letting her hands trail back down his back a bit as he drew his feathers back into place in his wings. "I'm just trying to learn more about you." She pulled back a bit to gaze up into his eyes. "You told me if I wanted to know something all I had to do was ask."
He stared down at her for a moment before letting out a small sigh. "I've only been injured to the point where the base of my wings was damaged once before. I can't really tell you much about it because I don't really remember. I was in and out for a few days after. By the time the injuries to my body had all healed, my wings had too."
"Good as new, huh..." Misaki trailed off thoughtfully.
...
Steeling her nerves, she tentatively reached out to lay her trembling hand over his bandaged one. He would heal. She had to have faith that he would. Once he pulled through the worst, if he asked it of her, she would help him however she could. But it would be his decision – not hers. Helplessness consumed her as the tears that had been pooling around the edge of her vision broke free from the surface tension and began streaming down her cheeks.
"As I suspected. You two are quite close," Jeanist quietly observed at her side.
"We started dating just before Christmas the year before last. He broke up with me two months before the last official rankings were announced," Misaki somberly replied, not bothering to try and put up any pretenses for him. It hardly mattered anymore at this point.
"I see," Jeanist remarked grimly.
She sniffled and drew in a shuddering breath before breathing it out along with the words, "I knew this would happen…"
Her greatest fear, from the moment she'd learned of his secret mission to infiltrate the League of Villains, had come to pass. They had discovered his intentions and attempted to kill him – had nearly succeeded, by the looks of it. Her thoughts and feelings were a jumbled mess. The footage she'd happened to glimpse while she'd been working to shut down Dabi's broadcast flashed through her mind. He'd been fighting for his life, all of their lives, and that mad man had the audacity to use his sacrifice as a chess piece in whatever twisted game he was playing to get back at his father and the hero society. Anger swirled with her grief, twisting, and churning in her gut, turning her streaming tears hot against her chilled face. Hawks was not a murderer. No matter how anyone may try to twist his actions to fit their narrative, she would make sure no one forgot that he was a hero – no one.
Jeanist, who had been silent at her side for a long moment, suddenly spoke up to say, "It's the risk we all take for the job we do. Oftentimes, it is our loved ones who end up bearing the brunt of the pain. Like a favorite pair of skinny jeans, we try our best to protect them from damage, but it's our love for them that often ends up wearing them down the most."
Jeanist was silent at her side for a moment before speaking up to say, "It's the risk we all take for the job we do. Oftentimes, it is our loved ones who end up bearing the brunt of the pain. Like a favorite pair of skinny jeans, we try our best to protect them from damage, but it's our love for them that often ends up wearing them down the most."
"That's…" Misaki trailed off thoughtfully before turning her tearful gaze up to the tall hero and commenting, "Actually, really poetic."
Jeanist closed his eyes and let out an affirming hum while nodding his head a couple of times.
She turned her gaze back down to Hawks for a moment before carefully removing her hand from his and reaching up to gently run the backs of her fingers over his bandaged cheek. She sniffled as she reluctantly pulled her hand away before lifting it to her own face, brushing away the tears from her damp cheeks. Squaring her shoulders, she stepped back a pace and cleared her throat before turning to look up at Jeanist.
"Can you do me a favor?" She asked, reaching into her back pocket and pulling out her house key. It wasn't the one that she'd gifted to Hawks on Christmas, that one was sitting under the bust on her vanity where she kept the necklace he'd given her. She stared down at it for a moment before holding it out to Jeanist. "Can you give this to him when he wakes up?"
The hero glanced down at the key in her hand for a moment before casting her a quizzical look as he asked, "You won't be returning?"
Misaki briefly slid a resigned gaze over to Hawks before telling Jeanist, "It's probably safer that way. I don't think he'd want me to be here."
Aside from the fact that they were no longer romantically involved with one another, she had just spent the last three and a half months acting like his potential love interest for the sake of passing intel back and forth about the Paranormal Liberation Front. With most of the surviving League members currently in the wind, he would probably think it was safer for her if they weren't seen anywhere in public together. The last thing she wanted to do was become a potential stressor for him while he was trying to heal. No matter how much she wanted to stay by his side right now, she knew it was better to be patient and wait for him to come to her.
Jeanist reached out and took the key from her, his countenance remaining a bit perplexed as he asked, "Did you not come here to visit him?"
Misaki slowly shook her head. "I actually came here to visit the President." She glanced back over at Hawks. "I had no idea he was here, or that he was even in this kind of condition…"
Jeanist's visible eye widened a bit as he said, "I see. My mistake."
She quickly shook her head and told him in a sincere tone, "No, not at all. I'm really grateful to you for bringing me to see him, Best Jeanist. Thank you."
His visible eye slid closed and he nodded his head to her in acceptance of her gratitude.
"Please—" Misaki started, cutting off with a sharp gasp as a feeling of guilt suddenly assaulted her from what she was about to say. "Um, I know it's a lot to ask of you, especially right now, with everything that's happening, but—"
Jeanist interrupted her before she could finish her request, "He'll be safe here. I'll see to it myself."
Her shoulders slumped in relief and she smiled up at him appreciatively as she told him, "Thank you."
He nodded once before informing her, "The employees who were injured during the attack on the Safety Commission are being treated on the next floor up, I believe."
Misaki bowed shallowly in thanks, removing the blanket from her shoulders and laying it over the end of the bed before turning without a backward glance and leaving the room. After she stepped outside and shut the door, she leaned back against it and took a moment to collect herself. Of all the things she'd been dreading throughout her travels from Kyoto to Tokyo this evening, that one had not been on the list. With the President at the hospital in who knew what kind of condition, there was no one else who would have seen fit to inform her about what had happened to Hawks except maybe Shadou. Since Migi hadn't said anything, he'd likely elected not to inform her, which was just as well.
There was no telling what kind of basket case she would have turned into with the knowledge that both her former mentor and her former lover were in critical condition at the same hospital.
Quickly composing herself, Misaki pushed off from the door and headed down the hallway toward the elevators. She pressed the button to go up and impatiently waited for the car to arrive, briefly considering just taking the stairs when the doors suddenly slid open in front of her. She stepped inside and pressed the button for the tenth floor. When the doors slid open again a moment later, she exited the elevator and headed down the hall to the nurse's station.
Stepping up to the counter, she addressed the nurse seated in front of her, "Excuse me."
The woman looked up at her and pleasantly asked, "How can I help you?"
Misaki pulled her ID out of her back pocket and handed it to the nurse before asking, "Can you tell me the condition of any of the employees of the Hero Public Safety Commission who are being treated here? Specifically the President?"
The nurse handed her back her ID with a grimace and said, "I'm sorry. I'm not allowed to give out that information to anyone but immediate family."
"Can you at least tell me if they're alright?" Misaki asked as she slipped the card back into her pocket.
The nurse tightened her lips into a thin line and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't."
"Okay, thanks," Misaki replied dejectedly before nodding to the woman and turning to head back down the hall toward the elevator.
She didn't have the energy to try and argue. Exhaustion had been steadily creeping around the edges of her consciousness from the moment she walked through the hospital doors. She could feel her eyelids start to droop as she reached out and pressed the button to call the elevator.
The doors suddenly opened in front of her, and a familiar voice addressed her, "Torimodo-san?"
She trailed her tired eyes up to the man's familiar face. "Detective Tsukauchi? What are you doing here?"
He stepped out of the elevator and stopped in front of her as the doors slid closed behind him. "I just stopped by to visit with Gran Torino's doctor. I heard about what happened at headquarters. I'm so sorry for your loss."
She cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Loss?"
The detective's eyes slowly widened, and he softly asked, "Have you not heard?"
She suddenly felt like the room was slowly closing in around her. A sound like a high-pitched ringing rang through her ears as her body began to grow numb with fear. "Heard what?"
He averted his eyes, grimacing as he started, "I'm not sure I should—"
"Tell me!" Misaki cut him off loudly. "Please…"
He turned his gaze back to hers, his entire demeanor remorseful as he informed her, "I'm afraid the President has passed away."
Her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. She stumbled back toward the fixed row of chairs lining the hallway and abruptly collapsed down into one of them.
Dead. The President was…
She was so shocked she couldn't even cry. The detective was talking to her, but his voice sounded like he was speaking underwater. The only thing she could hear with any clarity was the sound of her own blood pumping through her veins. There was a prickling sensation around her skull and in the tips of her fingers, but she was strangely numb to everything else. She wasn't sure that she was even breathing at the moment. For better or worse, she couldn't focus enough to form a single thought in her head. It was like she had ceased all functions but for the pounding of her beating heart.
She was broken out of her stupor by the shrill sound of the detective's phone ringing, and she started, drawing in a gasping breath all of a sudden. Tears flooded her eyes, and she was bombarded all at once with everything she hadn't been feeling for however long she'd been in her shocked state.
"I'm sorry, please excuse me," she heard the detective say as he reached into his pocket to pull out the ringing device before rising from his seat next to her and walking across the room to answer it.
Misaki looked down at her hand, which was holding a white handkerchief that she didn't remember owning. She lifted it up to her face and dabbed at her tears before blowing her nose into it. She thickly swallowed past the lump in her throat and started taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself down.
"What? Are you sure?" The detective's voice suddenly exclaimed, and she turned her head to look over at him. "When? I'm on my way."
He turned to her sharply, slipping his phone back into his pocket as he told her in a rush, "I'm sorry, Torimodo-san. I have to go."
"What's going on?" She asked, concern tinging her voice.
His expression was furiously grave as he informed her, "Shigaraki and the Nomu are attacking Tartarus."
Misaki's eyes widened, and her mouth fell open in shock as she watched the detective run down the hall and throw open the door to the stairwell before quickly disappearing from view. Horror immediately cascaded through her. Everything that had gone wrong began flashing through her mind so fast she almost couldn't keep up. The doctor waking the Nomu and Shigaraki, Gigantomachia's stampede, the League's escape from Jaku; each one of those failures had resulted in a substantial loss. As if that wasn't bad enough, the small victory they'd won in detaining the majority of the Paranormal Liberation Front's members was being washed away by Shigaraki's invasion of Tartarus. With the assistance of seven High-End Nomu, he would lay waste to the prison's defenses and reinforce his ranks with the worst villains society had ever seen.
What had they done if not make everything so much worse?
They had thought they were prepared. The enemy had no idea they were onto them. They had caught them off guard, but it wasn't enough. Shigaraki's—no, All For One's will had surmounted all of their best-laid plans. Their overconfidence had been their downfall, and now all of society was paying the price for their hubris. She didn't have time to be sitting there wallowing in regret at the moment. There was still a lot of work to do. The heroes needed organization and guidance from the Commission. She had to get back to headquarters and try to get a handle on things. From the way it was looking, she was the only one left who could.
Misaki lifted herself from the chair she was sitting on and moved to take a step when her vision suddenly began to swim, and she abruptly lost all of the strength in her legs. The last thing she saw before her consciousness faded out was the swiftly approaching white tiles of the hospital floor.
~ Author's Note ~
Happy Saturday my lovely readers! I was fortunate enough to be able to see the World Hero's Mission movie in the theater last night and let me just say WOW! The fight scenes in this movie are EPIC, to say the least. Less Hawks content in this movie than the last one, but still totally worth the watch! I hope you enjoyed the chapter :) We are finally through the PLF war and onto the aftermath arc! We'll be seeing a Misaki/Hawks reunion very soon! I promise!
Thank you so much for reading 💖
L0LSAT