Chapter 51: Saved
He was in that tunnel again. That blasted tunnel, stretching infinitely away in either direction, into a darkness like the very depths of evil.
Before him stood his enemy, white gloves discarded, splatters of blood across his hooked mask. Behind him was the little horned girl. "No, don't…" she whispered. "You'll die…"
"I won't," Doko promised, continuing to stare ahead at Overhaul. He had help after all. Where was Lemillion? Where had he gone?
"I'm here…" Mirio said, to his right. Doko looked at him, and then looked down, realizing the blonde was on the ground. The third year was clutching his arm in pain, his normally pointed hair fallen over the front of his face, casting a shadow over that once-heroic expression.
"What happened?" Doko gasped, but he knew instantly. They'd failed somehow. He'd failed. Mirio had lost his Quirk.
Overhaul sent spikes toward them. Doko teleported his two allies back and away, protecting them, at the cost of himself. The spikes stabbed through his feet, causing him to roar in pain.
Overhaul sent them again. Doko warped them out of the way somewhat messily, still dazed from the wounds, and some of them got through, stabbing and slashing him around his hips. He staggered, feeling a strange heat pervade his body. When he brought his fingers away from his chest, they were sticky with warm red blood.
Chisaki cackled. "You can't defeat me! My Quirk is far beyond yours!"
It isn't, said a voice inside Doko's head.
"My Quirk is far beyond yours!"
It isn't.
"My Quirk is far beyond yours/it isn't.
Somehow the two repeating voices became one in the same, mixing in his head, until Chisaki looked straight at him and, with a voice that was not his own, said, "You'll have to rip my arms off to stop me."
"Huh?" Doko raised his eyebrows, appalled. "I wouldn't do that."
Overhaul shrugged, and then sent spikes towards them again. Doko brought his hands up to counter them, but he was confused, set off course. The spikes passed by effortlessly. They reached Eri first.
The little girl screamed, punctured in a thousand ways, suddenly being carried backward on waves of overhauled concrete, back toward her captor and abuser. Overhaul snarled. "And now, for the hero failure behind you."
The spikes continued on, stabbing Mirio deep in the chest. Doko opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
"Why didn't you…" Mirio coughed out. He seemed so sad, confused, bitter. "Why didn't you help me? I don't understand…"
I tried, Doko wanted to say, but it was like his mouth was sewn shut, and he could not get the words out. I tried, I tried to help!
"No you didn't!" Chisaki tittered, as Mirio sank to the floor of the tunnel, dead. "You didn't help at all! Maybe if you had ripped my arms off…"
Ripped my arms off…
Ripped my arms off…
Rip his arms off.
Doko's feet glowed purple, without him doing anything. Too late, he realized that he'd let his guard down, and accidentally released his Quirk. He tried to regain control, tried to rein it back in…but nothing happened. The violet glow was spreading over his entire body, up through his chest and arms and neck and finally his face…
Foul little whispers snapped at him, whispering the command separately until they all became one voice. Do it. Do it. DO IT!
His arms reached up. No, Doko thought slowly, confused. This isn't me…
The glow reached Chisaki's arms, and suddenly the man looked confused, as if he hadn't just been taunting Doko to do this. "Stop," he muttered. "Hey, what are you doing, you crazy kid?! Stop! STOP IT! St-st…"
Doko's hands closed into fists, and pulled back toward his chest. Chisaki's arms warped out of their sockets, and blood flew everywhere, splattering against the sides of the tunnel.
Overhaul cried out in such agony that Doko, stunned, snapped out of it, and the purple glow around him died. The man was collapsing before him to his knees, far too much blood leaking out of him…until his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his face began to fall to the floor, slowly.
What…what did I do?!
What you had to do, they said.
The second Chisaki's head made contact with the tunnel floor, it shattered. The whole tunnel shattered, disappearing and dissipating into an infinite darkness, that Doko now floated in. All around him was pitch black.
Nothing but him, and the voices…
Who are you?! Doko thought angrily. Why couldn't he SPEAK anymore? Get out of my head! This isn't me!
They laughed. Oh, yes it is, they said. This IS you. It is more you than anything else in existence or nonexistence. It is what you were born with from the very beginning.
NO! Doko thought back. He realized it now, like cold hard iron falling onto his brain. For the first time ever, after years and years of ebb and flow, of power imbalance, of intuitive communication…he was talking directly to his Quirk.
And his Quirk was not friendly.
This isn't like you, he said, trying to reason with it. We've…we've always worked together to strike a balance. You can't suddenly break that balance now!
And what are you going to do about it? they asked, in an almost childish, playful tone. Mocking.
Suddenly, Doko saw something beneath his feet. An even deeper darkness opening up beneath the already existing one, being unsewn or unzipped like some foul canyon opening. Beneath was the void, the very end of sanity, the border of the outlands. Unimaginable horrors stared back up at him, thousands of limbs standing on a coin's edge, millions of eyes concentrated into a single point.
Doko realized what had been inside him this whole time, and his brain nearly left him. He HOWLED in terror, his heart racing so fiercely that he spasmed, convulsing in deadair, turning over and over in that floating position.
The tendrils of the infinite nothing were reaching up at him, whispering. The same voices. They were down there, and they were in him at the same time.
An image flashed before him. A baby in a crib, illuminated with a strange yellow light.
You are our choice, they said. You are our choice!
Doko caught his breath, regained control of himself. He pulled himself over, to look straight down at them, face them head-on. He forced himself to look without seeing. To show no fear.
WELL, TOO BAD! he roared. YOU'RE not MY choice!
The voices howled back in fury and agony, louder and louder and louder…
Doko's eyes opened.
…
All was peaceful. He was in a white room on a white bed in a white cloth. Gentle sunlight streamed in through the windows to the right. He heard the soft rhythmic sounds of hospital instruments.
The horrific dream was fleeing his mind, as quickly as it had come. Already Doko was forgetting it. What had he seen, exactly? Surely it wasn't important. What he needed to know was what had happened after he had been knocked out.
After Eri had hit him with her Quirk…
He shifted in the bed, and someone gasped.
Doko looked to his left. Sitting at his bedside was Tsuyu Asui, still dressed in her hero costume, looking a bit battered and dirty, but nothing worse than that.
"How long have I…?"
Her hand rested on top of his. "No more than a few hours, ribbit. It's late afternoon. Still the same day as the raid."
Doko sighed, and sank back into the bed. "I'm sorry for…for swearing at you." Get your fucking tongue off me, he'd said, to shock her into letting him go, so he could save Eri. Of course, that hadn't exactly worked. Oh joy.
"Just as long as you don't make a habit of it." Her lips pressed together flatly. "Do you want to know what happened?"
"Is there bad news?" his voice had never come out so small, so uncertain. While he couldn't remember the details, he knew that he'd seen something horrible in his dream…like an alternate outcome. Surely that hadn't actually been what happened, right?
Tsuyu blinked.
"Tell me the truth, Tsu. Seriously." He closed his hand around hers, and held it up. Before there had always been a mutual respect between them, but now he saw something in her eyes that suggested…that respect might have been fractured. Oh no. What did I do? Did I do something?
"Eri is saved," Tsuyu muttered. "She is safely in our hands. Chisaki was taken into custody, along with the rest of the Eight Precepts of Death."
Doko closed his eyes and relaxed. "All…all right. That's…good to hear."
"You were knocked out when Eri's Quirk started going haywire. Ryukyu and I tried to get clear and save you, but there was too much light coming off of her…luckily, Togata-senpai was down there in the rubble. He caught you. Ryukyu and I wanted to keep fighting, but Chisaki…fused with the guy that we'd been fighting. He used his Quirk to fuse their bodies together…and he got really big."
Doko's eyes popped back open. "He…fused with another person?"
"Yeah. Right as Eri's Quirk activated, Midoriya burst through the wall on the opposite side. A few seconds later, he'd reached her and grabbed her, bringing all her Quirk's energy on himself. Chisaki fused with that other guy and chased him out of the pit. They had a battle in mid-air above the neighborhood. Midoriya, umm…won."
Something about her tone confused him. "But…how? How did Midoriya…"
"Survive Eri's Quirk? Apparently he pushed his Quirk way too far like he used to do. Eri's power is to rewind things to previous states, according to the doctors. He kept breaking his bones with his own Quirk, and Eri would heal them. That allowed him to keep using his Quirk at full power without dying and beat Chisaki. Or something like that, I dunno. I didn't even see the fight. I suppose you can ask Nejire if you really care that much."
"You don't seem very happy," Doko said, plainly. What had he told her, before the battle? Be who you are. Tsuyu was not a naturally expressive person, and yet…
"Ochaco was stabbed," the frog girl finally mumbled. "By Himiko Toga. The League of Villains was there."
Doko's eyes widened. "They…is she okay?!"
"Alive. In fact, everyone's alive. There were no casualties at all. But…that's not everything." Tsuyu's eyes suddenly brimmed with tears. "Kaminari was with the League of Villains, Dokkun. He was with them. He electrocuted Midoriya and Mr. Aizawa, and would have done the same for Ochaco if Nejire hadn't showed up…"
Doko's heart sank. He'd completely forgotten about Kaminari. "He…" Doko coughed. He'd already known about the boy's betrayal, but Tsuyu didn't know that he knew. "Did…did this get out? To the public, I mean…"
"The public? No." Tsuyu shook her head. "The only thing they know is that there was a huge fight over the house, and that the Hassaikai is no more. Midoriya and Chisaki. But…it's on the Hero Network. Kaminari is marked as a villain now. So everyone in the Hero Network knows. That includes…"
"The government," Doko said miserably. "The financiers of UA."
And now they knew the school's final failure. The straw to break the camel's back, formed by the Kamino incident, had finally fallen.
…
A little while after, as the sun's rays turned deeper orange through the window, a doctor came to visit.
"Feeling alright?" he asked. "Anything strange?"
Doko thought about it for a moment. "No," he said, finally. His Quirk felt…quiet. His body was at peace. "I'm doing well, I think."
"As you should be," the doctor said. "We feared the worst after the young girl's Quirk hit you. We had no way of knowing what might have happened, so we ran some tests. We cross-referenced the results with some of the ones conducted by Recovery Girl at UA."
His heart skipped a beat. "Was something different?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact." The doctor shuffled his papers. "The portion of your Quirk Factor that affected your aging process has been removed entirely. You will age at a normal speed from this point forward, Doko Katayama."
His eyes widened. A sort of tired, aching relief seemed to fill his bones, and an exhale escaped his lungs like a fading song. "I'm…going to grow up normally?"
"That's right. The girl's Quirk has been described as rewinding things. In the case of living things that are touched by her, it seems that the effect varies, but in your case she seems to have literally rewound the spiral of your DNA structures. Unscrewed it, as it were."
Doko made a face. "That sounds impossible."
"It is one of those Quirks that borders on what we might call magic, growing more and more common in young children as the generations of Quirked people form more and more mutations." The doctor frowned. "Our research simply cannot keep up, but we are learning more every day. And indeed, about your own Quirk as well."
"...Right…" Doko found that, subconsciously, he really didn't want to know more about his own Quirk. He supposed he fell under the category that the doctor had mentioned…younger people who held fourth or fifth-generation Quirks, mutated to the point of becoming so complex that the way they worked was impossible to understand with current science, effectively becoming, as the past generations might have called it, magic…
But my Quirk does work somehow, he thought. Something unknowable flashed through his brain, making him feel sick. Why had his Quirk caused him to age faster anyway? Why had that aspect of it…been placed there?
Placed. Placed by something.
Another image he didn't understand flashed through his brain, and then an image of a glowing baby in a crib.
Doko coughed, cold sweat pouring down his face. The doctor's voice snapped him back into reality. "Are you sure you're alright?" the man was looking down at him with a concerned expression.
"...Fine. Just…sorry, was just thinking about the battle. Made me feel a little unsettled."
"Ah. I see. Well, take heart, Katayama. You may yet get to live a full, long life."
He smiled, banishing the troublesome thoughts away. The man was right; this was a happy moment. Thanks to Eri, he would be with Mina for much, much longer. "Yeah," he said. "Living a life…"
…
Shota sat in a chair in the center of the room, slouched, his elbows resting on his knees.
Around him, in three different beds, were three of his students. Kirishima, Uraraka, and Midoriya. Kirishima was the most bandaged, having one arm in a sling and gauze wrapped around his head. Uraraka had a great deal of bandaging around her torso, and was the palest of the three. Midoriya was actually more fine than usual after these sorts of battles, but nonetheless confined to the hospital bed since he, like Doko, had been subjected to Eri's Quirk, and the doctors had wanted to run tests on him.
And they were all staring at him.
Shota had dealt with many, many students. He'd dealt with students who thought he was boring, unfair, frightening…even villainous.
But the resentment coming off of these stares was greater and more valid than any he'd felt before.
This is the price we pay, Shota thought wearily, sitting up in the chair. And it won't be paid in full for a long time.
"So," he began, "now that Uraraka-san is awake, I believe I need to be transparent with all of you."
"Is Eri alright?" Midoriya blurted. "No one will tell me anything…"
"She's fine," Aizawa said. "Her Quirk has stopped, and the horn on her head has shrunken quite a bit. She will likely remain here at the hospital until further notice. Her only surviving relative, the boss of the Hassaikai, is comatose. She has no viable legal guardians."
"What about Togata-senpai? Katayama? Sir Nighteye? Are they okay?"
"And Fat Gum, too!" Kirishima tossed in. "I almost let him die…"
"All fine," Aizawa interrupted, with a wave of his hand. "Everyone survived. You three and Amajiki suffered the worst injuries. Katayama, Togata, and Rock Lock were slightly better off, but not by much. The rest of us are relatively unscathed. All of the Precepts have been taken into custody. Chisaki is currently being escorted to Tartarus."
"What about," Uraraka said, very slowly, "the League. What about them."
"Ah…yes…" Shota coughed. Midoriya was watching him with an expression unlike Shota had ever seen from the normally gentle boy. And do I not deserve it?
He had handled the situation down in the tunnels very poorly, but to his credit, he hadn't exactly expected to run into…
"Kaminari," Aizawa said aloud. "His parents never pulled him out of school. He left of his own accord, the night of the battle at Kamino Ward. He joined the League of Villains."
Kirishima sank down into his bed. "I just can't believe it…"
They'd clearly already talked about it before Aizawa had arrived, since Kirishima was not acting shocked. He still seemed very despondent, though.
"So, Yaoyorozu's electrocution…" said Midoriya. "That was him."
Aizawa nodded.
"She knew the whole time?"
"Yes. It was I and the small group of heroes that knew the truth who told her to keep it a secret. She had a terrible burden to bear."
Uraraka growled. "Did they get away?"
Aizawa blinked. "Do you mea…"
"Did. They. Get. Away?"
"...The League escaped us, yes. Kaminari went with them."
"I don't understand," said Kirishima. "How long was he with them? Did he let them into USJ? Did he tip them off that we would be at the Kiyashi Mall that day?"
Ochaco's eyes widened, and she massaged her neck, remembering the memory.
"Most likely…yes. It is our conclusion from the investigations that Denki Kaminari never intended to be a hero. He passed the entrance exams and entered Class A with the goal of subverting All Might and returning All For One to power. He was a traitor from the start. I should have seen it. I should have realized."
"That whole time," Kirishima said softly. "I thought he was my friend…"
"Why didn't you tell us?" Midoriya asked, and the thickness of his voice broke Shota's heart. "Why weren't we told from the beginning? Why did you lie?" Behind him, Uraraka's venomous eyes spoke the same questions.
"I…" Aizawa sighed, and he bowed his head. "They were not my secrets to give away. I was one of several who mutually agreed to tell no one. Post-Kamino, public opinion of UA was in a state of flux, on the delicate edge of a knife. The release of such news would have pushed it even further in an unfavorable direction. As such, we thought it best to not tell the students."
"Do Tsu and Katayama know?" asked Uraraka.
"Asui knows. She was the only one of you to escape the raid unscathed, so I told her first. She visited Katayama earlier today. I assume she told him then." Aizawa frowned. He'd had a sneaking feeling about Katayama and Bakugo ever since Kamino…
Did they run into Kaminari at the time? If so, they have kept it a secret all on their own…
No, it seemed more likely that Kaminari had stayed entirely hidden after his attack on Yaoyorozu. Aizawa doubted that both of them would have agreed to keep quiet about it.
But he kept his head bowed. "The pain and betrayal you are feeling right now is my fault. I never expected him to show up during this mission, and if he had not, I fear I would still be keeping the secret right now. I am truly, deeply sorry."
Kirishima shifted uncomfortably in his bed. Midoriya and Uraraka exchanged a glance.
"I forgive you," Midoriya said, quickly. "And…I'm sorry for losing my temper in the tunnels. If I'd kept it cool, Kaminari might not have gotten away."
"If you'd kept it cool, Eri may not have been saved," Aizawa told him. "Looking back on all of it…I don't know if we could have tested our luck for a better outcome."
"Yes…" Uraraka muttered. "No one died, I suppose…"
"What about the bullets?!" Kirishima demanded suddenly. "Those Quirk-erasing bullets…we grabbed those, right? We found them? They're safely in our hands?!"
"Yes," Aizawa assured him. "The bullets are being transported to Tartarus as well, where they might be of use."
"We should destroy them," Midoriya muttered. "Those bullets are made of Eri. She wouldn't want them used on anyone, villain or hero."
Aizawa blinked. "Wasn't my decision to make, but I do agree with you to an extent."
He bid goodbye to his three students, leaving them alone in the room. Now, where had they put Katayama? His condition had been much more up in the air than the other students, so they'd given him a separate room…but where was it? Shota wanted to talk to him.
"Eraser Head!"
He turned. It was the chief of police that they'd worked with, and he looked to be in quite a hurry.
"What is it?" Shota asked.
"It's Tsukauchi and Gran Torino. They've requested you at once. They…they captured Kurogiri."
Aizawa's normally sleepy eyes went wide.
Kurogiri.
Shirakumo.
…
It was the next day after the raid, and Recovery Girl had showed up to heal everyone's injuries. Doko was now accompanying Tsu to the room where the other students were. The Big Three, and their three classmates. With UA's future potentially up in the air, we've got to stick together, right?
"They're all in there," Tsuyu told him flatly.
Doko opened the door with some trepidation, wondering what he'd find.
The first person in the room to notice him was Nejire, who immediately bounded over, arms folded behind her back, blinking her pretty eyes at him. "Oh! Katayama's awake! What happened to you? Something weird? Did you lose an old scar or something? Oh, or maybe some memories! All that happened to Midoriya was that he healed his broken bones, but you got hit with it straight-on! But man, you should have seen Midoriya fight! I was the only one who saw! He went like, zooooom! And Chisaki was like, raaaaaawwr! But then, Midoriya went…"
"Stop speaking words at me," Doko interrupted her, somewhat wearily. Tsuyu followed him behind him. "Give him some space, senpai, ribbit."
"Right, sorry." Nejire backed off, revealing the rest of the room before him.
"Hey, Katayama." Kirishima waved at him with an arm wrapped in gauze. Sitting by his bed was Amajiki, who murmured a practically inaudible greeting. Amajiki himself was fairly wrapped up too.
On the other side of the room were Midoriya and Uraraka, both looking a little worse for wear.
"Hello, Katayama," they both said.
"Hi," he greeted, waving weakly. "You guys, uhhh, feelin' alright?"
"We could ask you that question," Uraraka said. "You got knocked out by Eri's Quirk. Did it actually do anything?"
"Ummm, no. The doctor said I'm fine." It did something good, actually, but none of you even know about the bad thing it undid to start with, so it doesn't matter.
Doko's eyes widened when he saw Uraraka's lower torso, which was still wrapped up a bit. "I heard Toga stabbed you…"
"Yeah." Uraraka groaned and laid back in her bed. "They keep doing these things to me and getting away. I don't know if I can take much more of it."
"Hey!" Nejire admonished. "You did just jump into battle all willy-nilly without waiting on me for backup! If I hadn't saved you, they would have done much worse!"
"Tsu told me that the League showed up," Doko said. "And, uhh…"
Silence over the room. Kaminari was on all their minds, but Doko didn't want to say it.
"Hey, Katayama." It was the last person in the room, standing behind Midoriya's bed. Mirio.
He was limping slightly, and his leg was wrapped in gauze, but overall, he seemed fine. A little bit bruised, but…
"Uhh…" Doko almost averted his eyes. For some reason, he felt weird looking at Mirio.
It's like I saw him die, and the fact that he's still standing there is unnerving me.
But that glint in the third year's blue eyes remained, and he walked toward Doko, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You saved me, you know?"
"Huh? How'd I do that?"
"The bullet. You warped it. If that had hit me, I would have lost my Quirk forever. You saved me from turning Quirkless."
"Oh," Doko mumbled, a strangely positive feeling flowing through him. "I guess I did."
"And we delayed Chisaki long enough for the others to arrive. Once Midoriya showed up, it was a cinch!" Mirio punched the air. "And we got Eri without a single casualty. Seems simple, but with Chisaki's Quirk, anything was possible…we were real worried about you for a bit there."
"I heard you caught me after I got knocked out," said Doko. "I guess we're even, then."
"That's not important!" Mirio told him. "What's important is that Eri is fine."
Doko frowned. "Where is she, by the way? They told me she was quarantined."
"In the south wing, behind some glass. She's still sleeping and feverish, but…"
He made up his mind in that moment. "I have to go do something." He turned back toward the door.
"Hey, what?" Mirio reached out his hand. "Katayama, wait! You can't actually talk to her! There's no point in…"
"I have to do it," he called back, almost breaking his voice. "I need to see."
…
Mirio hadn't lied. Behind the thick glass, Eri was sleeping fitfully, her cheeks red with heat. Her white hair splayed across the pillow. Her horn had shrunken quite a bit. It was now around the size of Mina's horns.
Mina…
Doko put his hand on the glass.
"Hey, kid," he said softly. "I know you can't hear me, but…"
Eri turned over in her sleep. She was breathing through her mouth, almost frantically.
"I let you go when I shouldn't have. You dealt with pain even worse than my own, and I still let you go. I'll always regret that. I don't think I'll ever be able to make it up to you, especially now that…now that I owe you something else…"
His voice caught in his throat. He bowed his head, letting the tears fall to the floor beneath the window.
"You saved my life, Eri," he muttered. "You're my hero."
It seemed like her breaths grew more calm for a moment, but it was probably just his imagination.
"Your own life is going to be worth living, from this point forward," he breathed, "Just like mine. That's a promise."
He turned from the window, and walked away.
…
After a lengthy series of questions with the police, it was time for the UA students to leave the hospital.
He found the others in the lobby. They were all dressed in their school uniforms again, having been discharged. Recovery Girl and Aizawa were there as well.
To Doko's surprise, they were all looking at the television screen.
"...head of the Hassaikai, Kai Chisaki, was left in the burning street. The van utilized by the League of Villains in the attack was found crashed beneath an expressway bridge, although none of the League members have been found. The sand hero Snatch was killed in the fighting, and Chisaki lost both his arms. It is speculated that this was due to Tomura Shigaraki's unregistered "Decay" Quirk…"
Lost both his arms.
Horrific images flashed through Doko's head, and he staggered, nearly falling over.
He remembered the dream now. He remembered everything.
The void.
He looked down at his own body, sweating. His hands were shaking slightly, but his Quirk was…behaving.
Was it really just a dream? Since my Quirk isn't doing anything now?
It was just a scary coincidence, that's all. After all, it made sense from a villain's perspective to defeat Chisaki by taking his arms off. Of course that's how Shigaraki would have done it.
Nothing to worry about.
Aizawa saw him first. "Katayama," he said. "There you are."
"What's happened?" Doko asked, nodding at the screen. The other students' eyes were all still glued to it in horror.
"The League attacked the transport escorting Chisaki to Tartarus. They…" Aizawa stopped himself.
"They took the bullets," Kirishima finished for him, his voice at a mutter. "Right? The news isn't mentioning it, because it was never public knowledge, but…those bullets are in League hands now."
Uraraka's fist was closed. "It doesn't matter," said Mirio, although he sounded less than certain. "There were only a few of them fully manufactured, right? And the League doesn't really have anyone that's smart enough to reverse engineer them or something…"
"I can't believe this," Midoriya muttered.
"There was nothing any of you could have done," Aizawa told them. "It was not your responsibility. Now, let us all get back to the school."
Mirio, Nejire, and Tamaki led the way, followed by Tsu and Uraraka, then Midoriya and Kirishima. Doko brought up the rear as they went out onto the sidewalk, headed for the train station.
Then, he realized that the two adults were flanking him. Aizawa and Recovery Girl. They were walking slowly, putting distance between them and the rest of the students.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be there with you and Togata when it counted," Aizawa began. But more importantly, are you feeling alright? I haven't gotten a chance to talk to you since…"
"I'm fine," Doko said quickly. "Thank you for your concern."
"I spoke with the doctor," said Recovery Girl. "It's good to hear that your aging process has been put back to normal. It seems that little girl's Quirk may yet have some positive use. Even still, I would like to continue regular checkups with you. Your Quirk, like hers, is one that the medical community has a vested interest in studying."
"There has been another development with that," said Aizawa, nodding to the old woman. "I think it is important for you to know. We have captured Kurogiri."
Doko's skin crawled. The vision of a seam opening to infinite darkness passed through his brain again. "Who's we?"
"Gran Torino and Tsukauchi. They were forced to let another villain go to arrest him, a bad one, but that's beside the point. The point is that we have Shigaraki's right hand, and one that has a deal of history with you."
"Kurogiri isn't my mother," Doko muttered.
"No, but he has your mother's Quirk," said Recovery Girl. "His Quirk and yours are genetically related. And this thing you told Aizawa, about what happened at Kamino. Where you were able to speak to someone long thought to be dead, inside the portal…"
"I don't know if digging into how all of this works is the best idea," said Doko, feeling sick at his stomach, "but I suppose that is your job. If you need me to help, then I'll help. I just won't be very happy about it."
But…one small part of him did want to speak to Kurogiri again. Some of the things he'd said to him, over their several encounters…
Things about warpers always fighting for evil…
About harnessing the power of the void…
"Well, that's all from me," said Recovery Girl, hobbling away in a different direction with her cane, leaving Doko with Aizawa.
The rest of the students were getting further and further away. "Shall we catch up?" Doko suggested to his teacher.
"Katayama," Aizawa said. "Have you heard about…"
"About Kaminari?" Doko finished, a little too quickly. "Erm…Tsu told me, yes."
There was an awkward beat of silence between them.
Then, Doko sighed.
"...But before that, I already knew. Bakugo and I encountered him while we were captured by the League."
Aizawa groaned and rubbed his eye. "I assumed as much. Did you two really keep it to yourselves? Tell me the truth. If you lie to me, I will not hesitate to…"
"Expel me? I'm basically a ward of UA at this point. I don't think I can be expelled. But no, we didn't tell anyone. I talked to Yaoyorozu about it a little bit, but she already knew, so…"
"I suppose it all doesn't matter now," Eraser Head grumbled. "The entire class is going to know soon. It's all over the Hero Network. Only a matter of time before it gets leaked to the public as well."
Another moment of silence.
"Is…" Doko swallowed. "Is UA going to be…alright? I know I just joked about being a ward of it, but I mean, I really don't have anywhere else to go…"
"All of that remains to be seen," said Aizawa. "I'm sure Nezu has things handled to the best of his ability. Just know that…whatever happens, you are all still my students. I will continue to teach you whatever I can for as long as I can."
Doko felt warmer on the inside. "Thank you, sir. Also, do you know when Eri is going to wake up? I know Midoriya wants to visit her…"
"Once again, up in the air. The doctors are still worried about exposing her to things that would remind her of the battle. Those things include all of us. If any of you wanted to visit her, I would need to be there as well, to erase her Quirk in the event of it going south."
"Ah…right. Well…I guess we'll just have to wait. Time is the best healer of all."
"You're lucky you didn't say that while Recovery Girl was still here. She might have gotten offended that you're putting her in second."
"Was that a joke, sir?"
"Don't expect me to make a habit of it."
…
Been struggling with motivation recently. Just want to get out of this arc and move on, honestly.
Thanks for your continued support.