When Izuku woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he couldn't see. What? My eyes must still be closed. Izuku opened his eyes, and his sense of touch came back; he could feel cloth wrapped around his face. He brought his hand up and felt it. It was odd—he could feel every fibre, every speck of dust, every ridge that made up the texture. And it was overwhelming.
There was too much information flowing in. His breath started to quicken and become more laboured—he could feel the air pass over his lips, the slight change in temperature and every direction the air flowed.
Next came his sense of taste—chemicals, dust, concrete, metal, blood—everything that had been in his mouth for the past week, even every flavour and ingredient of everything he had eaten.
Then came his sense of smell. There was so much—the sterile scent of the hospital walls, the hospital food given to patients, the numerous medicines, the cotton of hospital gowns, the aroma of hospital flowers. The smell of daffodils and sunflowers, and various other flowers, including ones he didn't recognise. A bit further away was the smell of fresh blood and the tears of mourning families.
Finally came sound, so much sound. He could hear the beeping of heart monitors, the crying of families losing their loved ones, the squeaking of wheels as beds are moved, the stomping of footsteps as doctors and visitors moved around. Groans of patients and grunts of pain, and hundreds of conversations going on all at once.
His head was getting fuzzy. As his mind and brain tried desperately to process all these stimuli, he struggled to keep himself tethered to reality. Each beep of the heart monitor resounded like thunder in his veins, each sensation sending ripples of goosebumps across his skin. Hot and cold warred across him, two flavours combining in the worst possible way as the smells only served to enhance a disgusting concoction for his sanity to take in.
He retreated into a corner of himself, whimpering in pain and fear. He wanted it to stop, to go away. Why wouldn't it stop?
He didn't even notice someone entering the room, just the loud bang of the door being slammed open the footsteps of a person running over to him and enveloping him in a warm embrace. As they wrapped their arms around him, he heard their heartbeat and started to focus on the person's heartbeat. It was calming and the rhythmic beating helped him to start to sort his thoughts and filter out some of the stimuli.
As his breathing steadied, falling in sync with the other person, they started to speak "Izuku are you ok?"
They were only speaking softly but it felt like they were screaming into his mind, causing Izuku to flinch in pain and push his hands harder onto his hear, "P-Please stop shouting." it was barely a whisper, the person had to strain to hear it.
"But I'm not shouting, Izuku are you ok?" This time the voice was much quieter, trying to match Izuku's volume as to not cause him pain a second time.
"E-Everything's s-so loud, i-it won't stop." he started to sob again, the reality of the situation slowly beginning to set in. Why is everything so loud? Is this temporary or permanent? A-And why can't I see through the bandages on my face?
The person gently placed their hand on the back of Izuku's head and began stroking in an attempt of calming him down, one that seemed to work when paired with the reassurances she muttered under her breath though she knew he could heart it, "It's okay, mommy's here Izuku, mommy's here."
Before long Izuku had been given some noise cancelling earphones, though they merely reduced the volume and range of his hearing to a more manageable level. His mom kept him sat on her lap to keep him from going into another panic attack, he had attempted to remove the cloth from his face but he had been stopped by both his mother and the doctor.
Next to his mom sat his dad and opposite them was the doctor, going over some notes on his clipboard before finally addressing Izuku. "Now, Izuku what is the last thing you remember before waking up?"
He thought back, creasing his eyebrows in concentration but he couldn't remember what could have put him in the hospital but nothing came to mind. "U-um, all I r-remember is school finishing and I went home."
"I see. Izuku, what I am about to tell you may be hard to process. On your way home there was a blind man crossing the street, he was going to be run over by a criminal driving a van who was being pursued by a hero.
You ran in and pushed the man out of the way of the van. However, you were caught in the car crash caused by the van, during which the contents of the van spilled onto your face, specifically your eyes."
Izuku was young, but he had a feeling he knew what the doctor was building, and he hoped he was wrong.
"The Trigger that got in your eyes completely destroyed the nerves in them, I'm sorry but you will never be able to see again."
"B-B-But h-how will I-I b-be a h-hero if I c-can't s-see?"
"Unfortunately, you won't be able to be a hero. The closest you could hope for would be a position where you could support heroes."
For the second time, Izuku's world came crashing down, only a year ago had he been diagnosed as quirkless and now he was also blind. At least before there was a chance he could be a hero, now he would be lucky to even find a job. He felt the cloth wrapped around his face begin to stick to him as tears poured from his now useless eyes, his throat was dry and he had to focus on making sure he was breathing properly.
"The hero who was chasing the truck has offered to pay for Izuku to go through lessons to both read in braille and move around properly without being able to see." the doctor had let the boy grieve his sight and was now addressing the parents.
"Ok, please thank them for us but are you sure there is no hope for Izuku to be able to see again?" asked his father as his mother attempted to comfort him to limited success.
"Unfortunately, no there isn't. There are a few doctors across the globe which have quirks allowing the repair of eyes, but the nerves which take in light in his eyes are completely destroyed and that is not something they can repair. Recovery Girl did come by, upon request on the hero, and used her quirk to heal Izuku as far as his body will naturally, all it will take now is time for his mind to adapt to the new changes."
"I see, thank you. Do you know when those lessons are scheduled to start or are they yet to be decided?"
"The teacher is ready to schedule them as soon as Izuku is ready for them, I have the paperwork and the teacher's information right here." the doctor handed Hizashi a folder with several pieces of paper in it and showed the family out of the office so they could head home."
On the drive home, Hizashi had a few words to help give Izuku some strength.
"Izuku, whatever the world decides to take from you, be that your quirk or your sight, never forget that your greatest strength is your mind. You will use that mind of yours to find a way to help people, of that I am sure."