Chapter 14.
The battlefield was completely chaotic, and Momo couldn't see Tenko. Impressive quirks were fighting each other, sometimes creating explosions in mid-air. The ice manipulator whose name she hadn't been able to learn yet was fighting the third archangel, the woman who seemed to be able to manipulate the building.
Momo had no idea what kind of quirk allowed such a feat of arms, but she didn't have the energy to think about it. Her entire body felt excruciatingly heavy, the horrible wings crushing her shoulders and ribs. She had used her quirk too much while dealing with the drug in her system, and it was obvious she was paying the consequences. She couldn't even react to the violence around her anymore, only observe it without really understanding.
She assumed that due to the number of PLF members, her brother couldn't free his quirk without destroying some of his army. Otherwise, this place would be nothing more than a ruined field covered in rotting body parts. She shuddered at the thought. She remembered all too well the pain inflicted by that quirk, and the miracle that had allowed her to survive.
A corpse fell right in front of her, but Momo didn't react as the man's blood splashed onto her. She didn't feel like she was truly present. The first time she'd seen Spinner-san disembowel a man, she'd thrown up at the sight of the stranger's guts. But now, almost half an hour later, she couldn't react. She felt like she was witnessing a scene she wasn't really a part of, as if reality was distant and distorted. If her body wasn't so heavy, she would surely feel as if she were floating above it and was just a ghost.
Suddenly, a movement to her right caught her attention, and Momo gasped. Spinner-san was engaged in a fight with a man in the quirk seemed to have a clear advantage. She saw the mutant crash to the ground next to her and narrowly dodge a blow emitted at supernatural speed. Momo's eyes widened; she had to help him. Spinner-san was Tenko's friend. Tenko would be unhappy if anything happened to her friend. She had to do something.
Properly grasping the rifle she had created earlier, Momo took aim at the man. She had to shoot, she knew, but she didn't have the energy to pull the trigger. Why? Why, why, why, why?
"You make a step and I shoot! she shouted", trembling.
"Oh, sweet mother, I can easily dodge a bullet from this distance."
That nickname again. Momo hated it, cursed it. She never wanted to hear it or be called that by anyone ever again. A furious hysteria taking possession of her, Momo pulled the trigger, reloaded, and did it again. Again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
"Shut up! Die! Don't call me that!"
But the man would not die, easily dodging the bullets Momo fired. His screams increased in intensity, and his eyes blurred. Tears cascaded down her cheeks like waterfalls, snot dripped from her nose gracelessly, and she shook, hiccupped.
Suddenly, the man collapsed, and Momo froze. A sword had just pierced him through and through. The teenager's eyes widened, and she looked up to see Spinner-san. He had just stabbed the man, he had just saved her. The heteromorph laid a knee in front of her, gently taking the gun from his hands.
"He's dead, it's over. Nobody's gonna call you that anymore, okay?"
She nodded slowly, not even realizing that she had dropped the gun without any resistance. Spinner-san gave her an encouraging smile and squeezed her shoulder with his scaly hand. Then he turned to some of his men.
"You, take Dabi and Momo to safety. If he misses a single hair, the Great Commander will make you wish you'd never been born. Is that clear? "
"At once, Lieutenant!" cried a woman with feline features.
She rushed to Momo's side and tenderly helped her up. The teen leaned into the adult's arms, enjoying the feel of the gray fur against her irritated skin. The comfort offered by the woman's arms was not worth the peace of her brother's embrace, but she would be content with that for now. She would have Tenko in her arms soon.
"My poor miss, you must have suffered at the hands of those fools. Come, we will escort you further. The Great Commander and the Lieutenants will soon be finished with those lunatics. How about a nice hot bath once we get to the mansion? After that, a good meal and a good night's sleep in a big bed will do you a world of good."
Momo nodded, following the woman across the battlefield. Her companions were busy protecting them while the medics moved Dabi-san, who was still unconscious. He was probably in some sort of coma, and would probably have to be kept that way while the extensive damage this nightmare had done to his probably already fragile body was healed.
Finally, they joined several trucks and ambulances of all kinds, probably brought here by the PLF. They really were incredibly rich. A few more nurses rushed over to Dabi-san, changing some of his IVs and sticking more needles into him. Momo shivered. She'd seen the way Tenko looked at her Lieutenant. If he died, her brother would never recover. Besides, Dabi-san had protected her, during the first confrontation with the Church of Ashuva. She couldn't let him die.
"How is he?" she asked.
His voice was completely blank, and it would have terrified her if she had the energy to be.
"To be honest, it will be a miracle if he makes it," the doctor confessed.
"What?" She cried out, this time in panic.
"His lungs and liver are failing. The liver, I can do something about, I have time before it fails completely. The lungs on the other hand... Even if we left now, I'm not sure I'd have anything compatible with him. His body is in terrible shape."
Momo was silent for a moment, looking for a solution. Then one occurred to her. She closed her eyes, examined her body and its fat reserves, calculated how to save her energy to create the most important part. It would undoubtedly be horribly painful, and it would probably take her a long week to recover from this creation. Nevertheless, she had no choice. She opened her eyes again and looked into the doctor's.
"Are you able to do this graft?"
"Well, yes, I am an emergency surgeon. But I don't have my equipment. "
"Would the ambulance be enough of a room?"
"In extreme circumstances, yes."
"Then get me Dabi-san's blood type and the molecular composition of a lung. I'll do the rest."
"What?! Miss, no, your quirk –!"
"I'll take care of it, I said! I won't let Dabi-san die."
Momo couldn't normally create living objects, but the organs were no more alive than a cotton shirt. Nevertheless, the molecular structure would surely be incredibly complex. There was a good chance she would pass out when it was over, especially considering the extreme fatigue she was feeling. Nevertheless, she had to try. She could only do one lung this time, but she could do a second one later. It was possible to survive with one lung.
The doctor nodded and immediately began shouting orders to his aides. Momo admired the professionalism of the paramedics, who all remained calm as they set up the ambulance and disinfected everything. The doctor ordered a security perimeter, and the soldiers obeyed immediately. Then it was time for Momo to create what was needed. A phone was quickly brought to her, with the necessary information precisely written down. The teenager took a deep breath and concentrated.
She couldn't fail. Not yet.
She had to succeed. For Tenko.
For Tenko, for Tenko, for Tenko.
A howl of rage escaped her as her body tore away the last remaining molecules of fat to do with as she pleased. She was Creati. The one who could create anything. And she wouldn't let Dabi-san die. The Church of Ashuva was right about one thing; her quirk was incredibly powerful. And if she was a goddess incarnate on this earth, then she could well save the life of the unconscious young man before her.
000
When the battle ended, Tenko approached the cult leader and cocked his head to the side. The Prophet, or some such bullshit. He didn't have the patience to listen to the bullshit his prisoner spouted, but Hana had a right to see this piece of garbage die. She had suffered tremendously at the hands of this man. After all, because of this poor guy, she had been raised by crazies when she could have been by his side. He sighed and waved his hand at Re-Destro, who tackled the Prophet under his foot.
Another flunky brought him a chair, and Tomura dropped heavily into it. He was exhausted. His vision was almost blurry, and some of the sounds were completely out of tune. The sound of a damaged television crushed his skull, but the young man forced himself to put all his exhaustion aside. He would rest later.
"Well, what a shit face," he said, leaning his elbow on the back of the chair with his legs crossed. "I can't wait to see how Hana wants you to die. Dabi and Himiko too. Especially Himiko. After what your men did to her, you deserve to be thrown into a brothel and let all the local freaks take a turn with you," he sneered.
He glanced around, noticing that his sister was surprisingly absent. From what little he understood of her personality, she should have been rushing towards him. He turned to Spinner, who he had left her with at the beginning of the fight.
"Hana and Dabi, where are they?"
"I gave them to the doctors and my men to evacuate. Dabi was in a coma, and your sister was on the verge of a complete breakdown. She was in no condition to handle the fight anymore. She's going to need a lot of rest, I think."
Fuck. With all of that, he'd forgotten that Hana wasn't as used to death and destruction as he was. She was only sixteen and had been hidden from the reality of the world by the cultists who had manipulated her all her life. She may have killed earlier in the day, but she was not yet a ruthless killer. It would come, but it wasn't yet. What a dumbass he was to have forgotten that!
"Hm, you did good. Go get her, let her give me her opinion on that trash."
Before Spinner could respond, a feline heteromorph approached them.
"Hm, Great Commander, this is going to be impossible," she said, staring at the ground.
"And why is that?"
- Lieutenant Dabi's lungs were failing him completely. So, the missus has... has created the tools necessary for an operation... as well as a replacement lung. She's unconscious, and the surgery is underway.
Hana had done what? Tomura jumped to his feet, trembling. How... Dabi... Hana... He immediately began scratching his neck furiously. Dozens of conflicting emotions were running through him, and he didn't know how to react. What was he supposed to do?
"The operation will last another four hours," the soldier added.
Four hours. It was eternity.
000
When Dabi opened his eyes, he was in a hospital room. So he was not dead. Miraculous. Still, he was sure he should have died. He wasn't the lucky type, and he had already survived a deadly event. What had happened? He blinked a few times, and turned his eyes, his head too heavy to move. He saw that he was hooked up to several machines of all kinds, the purpose of which he didn't know.
He heard footsteps approaching at high speed from his room and the door swung open sharply, revealing a few of his comrades. Crazy, Compress, and Twice. Those three were often stuffed together, probably because they were all horribly loud.
Still, he was glad to see Toga standing. The cultists hadn't missed her, especially when they had tried to force themselves on her. Dabi wasn't one to save others, but he couldn't stand to see a teenage girl being assaulted like that by a bunch of perverts who couldn't find anyone who would want them in their beds.
"You're awake!" she cried, tears welling up in her eyes.
The trio sat down beside him, and while Twice and Toga rambled on about how happy they were to see him awake, Dabi glanced at Compress, hoping for some explanation of the current situation. The magician sat up slightly in his chair, then spoke.
"First things first, the cult is destroyed, all the members are dead. Their leader is still in our dungeons, though. Shigaraki wants each of us to have our chance at revenge."
Perfect. He'd burn some fanatical cultists after that shit show.
"As for you, you gave us quite a scare. Your lungs and your liver failed, you had to receive transplants. You can thank Hana-chan for saving you. Without her, you wouldn't be here. She used her quirk to create an entire lung, which is an incredible feat. Her quirk seems limitless, to be honest. I can see why a cult would be interested in it. You also have a brand-new liver and another lung. We took the opportunity to do all the surgery you could possibly need, except for your skin. I didn't know your lower jaw was a prosthetic, by the way.
Dabi nodded, unable to speak. He tended to forget as well, since he hadn't changed it since he was sixteen, when he'd stopped growing altogether. Before that, he had to change it regularly, and threatening doctors wasn't ideal for keeping a low profile. Had the PLF implanted him with a new one? He had no idea of the condition of the prosthesis. It didn't hurt, but that didn't mean anything. He rarely felt pain.
"But Hana-chan still hasn't regained consciousness," Toga interjected. "It's been eight days now."
Dabi turned his head with difficulty, his eyebrows furrowed. The kid had been unconscious for eight days? Damn it, she better not have clamped down on them or Shigaraki would go officially insane, and no one would be safe anymore. Besides, he owed her one.
"Doctors said her quirk is completely exhausted. Since it runs on her lipids, her whole body has kind of... melted. She has lost an enormous amount of weight. The doctors are giving her transfusions to bring the reserves back up, but she's not going to wake up anytime soon. She's in bad shape. Even if we forget about her body, the psychological damage she's suffered is considerable," Compress added.
Dabi could imagine. Empathy hadn't been his forte since Natsuo was born, but he was able to recognize that life didn't have this girl right. For one thing, she was Shigaraki's sister, which wasn't necessarily an advantage. He almost felt sorry for her.
"Tomura-kun is always with her," Toga purred. "He only leaves her to take a shower, and he always asks someone to watch her. He cares about her a lot," she added with a hum.
Dabi couldn't imagine holding on to either of his brothers or sister. They were just screwed up replacements, except in the case of dear little Shōtō. Urgh. Thinking about that perfect creation made him rage, and he suddenly had the urge to burn someone or something down. Unfortunately, he was stuck in bed.
"You'll see when you can get out of bed. The doctors say you must stay in bed for another week. Then no exercise for easily a month. Basically, you're on forced rest."
Dabi nodded. He couldn't see himself doing any acrobatics for a while. Besides, he'd never been particularly active. He kept himself in shape, but that was all. While he did pretty well in hand-to-hand combat for someone with a quirk like that, it was far from his specialty. In quirkless fight, Toga would slaughter him in ten seconds. Maybe he should carry a gun or a knife around in the future. Just in case.
He closed his eyes for a moment; he would think about it later. For now, he wanted to rest.