It felt like she'd been at the hospital for weeks, but in reality she'd been here for a little less than one. Around 48 hours. Maribel's eyes stared at the white ceiling as she was lost in thought. Her peripheral vision was dominated by the entryway to her room and a window that showed solitary night, illuminated by the streets.
Her bandaging was less encompassing currently, but they still deemed she'd require it to recover despite her odd condition. The injuries caused her a dull pain, but she didn't feel any significant impairment to her movement or many of her bodily functions. Since significant parts of her skeletal structure had been fractured after she was hit, the doctors considered it almost magical. Although they did put quite a few bandages on her simply so that the damage could be more easily healed by this unexplained process. There was no quirk to allow for such in her registry and the one she actually had, Boundary Manipulation, had received more than a couple of big changes recently. Suspicious, that's probably what they're thinking.
Apparently she'd made the news, but she wasn't interested in interviews, having turned down quite a few of them. Not long after she recovered, Renko said via text that she was going to visit her today, the only thing she really looked forward to. Initially, they were going meeting on Thursday, but with the trouble at USJ, they had to delay it.
She sat up on the bed. "Pfuh..." Maribel breathed as she purposefully tried flexing her arm. She grimaced as she did, it was hurting, but she could move it.
I think her name was Okina Matara... What kind of god is that? God of the rear door? The boundary girl pondered, she knew for sure that the experience happened, something she was delighted with. Unlike with many her dreams before she entered the dream world, they were at least something she could differentiate. She sure did like having actual dreams over treading the dream world, though. If only it wasn't so intriguing.
Lingering on these personal thoughts, she was caught unawarely when a nurse entered her room. "Ah, you have a visitor. Do you recognize anyone who calls himself Tenya Iida?"
"O-oh..." Maribel let out as her thoughts were broken, but quickly realigned her bandaged face with the nurse's and looked at her. She felt a warm feeling inside her, and it almost made her sweat. "He's my classmate. You can let him in."
The nurse nodded and walked out. Some time later, footsteps could be heard and eventually Tenya Iida strode through the doorway. Maribel waved at him a little bit eagerly, which hurt but did not stop her. "Welcome! I wasn't expecting you to come. It's real sweet of you."
"Ah-ah... Well. I came here because I wanted to see if my classmate was alright. The news said you made a miracle of a recovery, and I thought it would be appropriate to visit... Speaking of, I also brought Midoriya-san and Uraraka-san. Would you be fine with them in here?" Tenya explained. He sounded as caring as he usually did, whilst being a tiny bit more mellow than usual. His wear looked like something a gentleman would wear casually, a nice blue t-shirt and fine jeans.
Maribel thought for a few seconds. She'd honestly like preferring avoiding having everything become too uncomfortable, despite being pretty much fine, having wounds like she did still tire her out. Not to mention, she had another friend on the way. "I'd prefer if only you were here, not that I have anything against those two." She answered a bit weakly and looked into his eyes for a couple of seconds. Then abruptly turning her head away with the same warm feeling she felt earlier lingering in her body. The boundary girl took a deep breath and looked back at him, now at ease. "...You see, I have another friend that was coming here very soon."
Iida was quick to get the idea. She had been through a lot, overwhelming her with too many people would probably just be irritating. In any case, he set out to do what he came here to do. "Well, I was going telling you what's happening at school. The media has been criticizing the school over the consequences of the villain's attack and been using you as a way to support their arguments. You still seem to be recovering very quickly, but that doesn't make much of a difference in their eyes... Put differently, they've decided to massively heighten security." He explained. Maribel had a mixed expression on her face. She both understood the reasoning and hated it all the same. It could've been anyone who took that crushing blow, the only real difference is that she did many damage to them all. All except that black... thing. Maribel shook a little, before calming down.
"Secondly, the school will be proceeding with the sports festival in two weeks. Although there have been minor complications due to the villain's attack. Aizawa also informed us that it was best we use the time to prepare." Tenya further explained. Maribel nodded. "I can give you my phone number if you want to keep up with stuff happening at school." He continued, which immediately changed Maribel's mood to be flustered.
"W-wh... Well! I suppose I might as well take it." She said, a dumb smile spreading across her face. "Give me a moment." Maribel blurted out as she rolled just a little to her side and grabbed her phone off of a table that was next to her clinical bed. She moved back and looked up at Iida for a couple of seconds, who returned her dumb smile for a moment. She forced her eyes to the black screen of her phone. Clicking the button on top, the phone lit up. A quick touch of the screen was enough of a password on the smartphone variant she used, then she'd quickly navigate to her contacts. A few clicks later, she was on the contact creation window. Her eyes wandered back up to him. "What's the number, then?"
"Right. Here it is..." He said as his eyes wandered around his mobile phone. Followed by reciting his personal phone number to her. "Nine-zero-five-three-eight..." Iida paused to let her catch up. "Nine-eight-seven-seven-four. You got it?"
Maribel felt inclined to make her admiration known, and was even about to express it. "Thank you, Tenya-k-...-san!" She let out, fixing her wording in a split second. Now referring to him by his first name, she more or less told him that she had definitely warmed up to him. He continued giving her a warm smile as she added him as a contact on her phone. He had no contact picture yet, but maybe that would be best fixed when she's back at school. They both paused for a bit and looked at each other, before Maribel shook her head and took another deep breath, making a new topic to talk about. "I'm sorry I got myself hurt at USJ, I just didn't think Aizawa-sensei could protect us forever."
"Well, that's fine and all. But he still told you to stay back, didn't he?"
"...Yes, he did. Should I just have let 'Noumu' crush his face, though? They would've gone after the rest of us next. I don't want to sound ignorant, but I felt it was between that and putting myself at risk." Maribel defended herself, a civil discussion.
Tenya Iida's gentle expression changed to a slightly stern one, he genuinely didn't want her to come to harm like she did. "Just promise me that you won't ignore the teachers again. I don't want you hurt, and nor does the rest of your friends."
The boundary girl decided to look away from Iida for a moment and thought back to the situation. Her face contorted to be filled with a hint of rejection. Something which was briefly replaced with some distress as she thought back to that single blow which took her out. It was honestly terrifying, in a way she really couldn't explain. She shook a little before looking back to Iida. "...I do."
The male student began to smile, which instantly lightened the mood for her. A smile found itself on her face as well.
There were some footsteps outside as the nurse came into the room again. "There's another visitor. It's that Renko Usami you talked about yesterday."
Maribel stared at the nurse as she mentioned her childhood friend. Suddenly, the aforementioned friend appeared next to the nurse. She was wearing a white shirt under it. Tied around the collar was a red tie. To go along with this, she wore a black skirt that reached down to a little before her knees. Adorning her head was one of her various different hats, this one was a black trilby with a single thick white stripe decorating it. In her hand was a brown handbag. Must've been warm out today.
The nurse slinked back into the hallway. Renko eyed the room for a second before striding up to Tenya Iida, who was about half a head taller than her. "Greetings. I'm Renko Usami. I study math and physics at Horikoshi High School." She introduced herself and held out a hand for a handshake.
Tenya looked her in the eyes as he took her hand and shook it. "Tenya Iida. I'm Maribel's classmate. It's nice to meet you."
"So, did you come here because you were concerned about her?" Renko asked Iida and pointed at Maribel. It was an innocent question.
"Yeah. Also to tell her the state of affairs at school, since she's been here for a little while." He replied simply.
The boundary girl is suddenly reminded of something and decides to inform both of them. "The nurse said that I should be free to go from the hospital in two days if my recovery keeps the same pace. Recovery Girl was also going to come by later today."
"Oh, that's the old heroine, right?" Renko asked, she was far from knowledgeable on heroes and especially compared to the other two students who had classes on hero history.
Maribel nodded. "I've taken her healing before. Though the wounds that I got were more severe than back then, even if I can't really feel them anymore."
"I hope she'll help you recover within the week. Considering how good it seems you've gotten since the trial battle, missing two weeks of school wouldn't be good. After all, you almost defeated the villains on your own." Tenya praised her with a smile on his face and then suddenly broke into his more energetic character. "Now, you'll have to excuse me. My family wants me home very soon! Bye, Maribel!" He exclaimed, uniquely speaking her name with proper pronunciation. The boundary girl waved to him with a smile on her face as he left through the doorway and then turned her head to Renko.
Renko gave Iida a searching look as he left, then another one on Maribel. Closing the door, she sighed. The physics student stepped up closer to Maribel and sat down in a chair that was located next to the bed. She provided the first word to a more personal conversation, and they kept it down a bit as they talked. "So what about that new world you found with your quirk? You've taken me into dream-like places on occasion when we were younger and also taken things with you back, but this sounds different. You say you've entered your dreams, like you were awake in them. Is that unusual?"
Maribel looked more at ease than before, now that she could let her true thoughts loose. "Well, firstly, when I enter my dreams, I manipulate a boundary between my dream self and me. I've hypothesized that the less clear this boundary is, the realer the dreams I have. Not sure if I could remove such a boundary, but since I've begun trying to mess with it my bad dreams have mostly ended. My dream self is actually separate from me and wrote me a note for me to read when I woke up once. I'm not really sure how separate it is, as I'm able to experience things through its eyes... According to the baku, that's what's supposed to be happening when I dream, or anybody does."
The physics student put a finger to her chin as she listened, pondering. "So it's like an alternate version of ourselves."
"...That's exactly it, simplified at least."
"Hmm... And what about that world? The baku?" Renko continued with the fascinating conversation, her brown eyes wandering to the ceiling for a second and then meeting with Hearn's golden ones.
The boundary girl held her hand up to express better body language, a technique to gain ones attention. "Well, I've been to that world. It was similar to this one, reaching into space. I could see the Moon and the Earth. Walk on the latter and fly in space without the negative effects of it. The light was all weird, making the grass all weirdly pistache green, the sky was purple in the dead of night and so on. On the topic of the sky, it's littered with endless ethereal grids for some reason." She further explained the world in question. Renko continued listening as Maribel quickly began speaking again. "As for the baku. She calls herself Doremy Sweet. She's... alright, I suppose. Her presence makes me feel weird with my quirk, and she says I'm a youkai. Considering me different from the rest. I don't know why. But I went with her interpretation and pretended I am."
The girl made another short pause. "She wears a long red and white sleeping cap-"
"Like Santa Claus?" Renko humorously cut in. Something which naturally forced Maribel to snicker a little.
"Just let me explain." Maribel urged, she really wanted share her experiences. "And she wears a strange dress colored black and white. Almost looks like it was woven out of pillows or something. It's decorated with black and white wool balls too for some reason. I suppose that's an appealing design, but it looks like something you'd see a hero wear. And she has an actual tail of some sort, looks like something you'd see on a lion, except it's blue. Nonetheless, she claimed she ruled the dream world. How much of it? I don't know. But apparently she can eat dreams and take a peek in at them. I also saw her reshape them a little when I was there, which was interesting but not much came of it. I saw her flying when I first met her in that zero-G environment. Doremy's fast, too, she completely disappeared from my sight when I looked away just once."
"Interesting fellow. So she says she's some sort of ruler of dreams and looks like some sort of humanoid lion? Almost sounds like it's from a comic book. Very quick, too."
"I once had All Might rush up to my face, this is the only other time I've experienced the same kind of speed... Well, aside from the incident at USJ." Maribel justified her observation. "Anyway, her eyes were very similar to mine when I activate my quirk. Maybe there's some sort of correlation."
"To think we live on only one side of reality... Ah wait, no. This is reality, but that's the world of dreams, as you've said. Sounds more appropriate, doesn't it?" Renko cheerfully commented and beamed. "You make her sound very powerful, though. It must be quite scary to talk to someone like that."
"Indeed. I get a similarly overwhelming feeling from All Might whenever he has a class, just less sinister." The boundary girl replied. "The dream world isn't like a dream in and of itself as far as I understand it. It houses the dreams that we have and the alternate versions of ourselves that we dream through. While it is possible to dream within that world, as I did when I left that door realm, you scarcely do it, if at all." She pointed to herself as she referred to her experience. "It looks like a version of our world, just barren from our normal activity. Serene, in a way... Anyway, I should tell you about my most fascinating experience."
"Is this about the stalking you messaged me about?" The brunette inquired and raised her eyebrow, placing one leg over the other to sit more comfortably while she put her hands on top of them.
"You're right with the guesses today, Renko." Maribel commented and then put her hands on her lap. "When I entered the dream world few nights ago, I was chased by a feeling. You know, in the 'my quirk' kind of way?"
Renko snickered. "You make it sound like it's not so serious when it's worded like that."
Maribel couldn't help but smile again. "I'll try not making it sound like that. But anyway. I believe I was being pursued, and I recognized this feeling. I'm not sure when I exactly first felt it, maybe it was when I finished the entrance exam. Now, they led me to an ancient temple found in the middle of the woods. My quirk did not work there, and when I went investigating, I was... not exactly chased out. But some girl wanted me gone. I was a bit paranoid, so I ran and went back to reality."
"You told me about this in the messages. So you say you've felt this feeling for a long time? That's a bit of a concern, stalking isn't much of a laughing matter." The physics student warned.
"Hold on. I've got much more to this story. It happened after I was knocked unconscious. Instead of waking up at a later date, I think I was watching through the eyes of my dream self that time, as our boundary is supposedly faint. This is where one of those girls appeared. I could see her now. Not much older or younger than us, wore oldfashioned clothing. She had a friend too who wore green. They held plants in their hands for some reason, too. But this is only the beginning, they drew me back to the door realm, where I met someone far beyond anyone else I've ever met." The boundary girl shared her experiences. She was eager to tell Renko about this.
"Mhm." Renko nodded and urged her to continue on.
"It was a god of many things, like a god of stars. She told me to call her the god of the rear door. Her name was Okina Matara... And she just completely surpassed everything else my quirk has ever felt. Even All Might hadn't made me feel like that. It may just be because of the state I was in at the time, everything felt very vague and I was near-death, but her power was clear." Maribel made clear, she raised her hand towards Renko as she explained to gain more of her attention. The boundary girl took a deep breath and Renko understood that she was probably going to get to the most important part of this.
"This goddess offered me a solution to my current problem and proclaimed we will meet again because of it. Being stuck in the dream world with my dream self and real self being linked like that gave a way to a sort of double experience. My body was fine one second, ruined the other. It was unbearable, but this goddess stopped it with a thought. I felt something opening inside of me. It's a lot like the feeling of your back not hurting anymore... Well, I suppose that's a poor comparison. But something opened up inside of me and I felt a burst of energy. I could move, even with my broken bones. Then, I was sent back to reality. I woke up in this hospital." She finished and lowered her hand. "That youkai, baku, or Doremy Sweet as she calls herself. She said that gods need faith to exist and would therefore need to be of interest in the real world. According to her, humans today place their faith in the mundane and heroes, which isn't ideal for creating a god."
"All this sounds very fantastical, but your recovery was just that. We've dealt with a lot together and explored your dreams, but it's still hard to imagine that things like gods would indeed exist. Still, Merry, I believe you. You wouldn't have any reason to lie to me about this." Renko offered her opinion, while the student would like proof for most things, Maribel's quirk was the most curious thing she'd ever come across. And truly, her friend did not have much of a motive to lie to her, even if her story sounded almost insane. She adjusted her hat a little and pulled out a notebook and a pen from her handbag. "Now, I've got a few questions. Have you tried using your quirk since you woke up?"
"The doctors told me to rest and not use my quirk, as it could give me nausea. I suppose that's reasonable." Maribel answered plainly.
The brunette noted it down. "What can you tell me about your quirk in the dream world? How was it when you woke up?"
"Well, when I'm in the dream world, I ordinarily have my quirk focused to cross into it. Though when I was watching through the eyes of my dream self, I'm not sure if that happens. But when I woke up, my quirk was still focused, it took about an hour for it to return to normal despite not thinking about using it." The blonde recollected. Her eyes had most recently been a bit troublesome. After she had woken up, her eyes were active even when she tried sleeping again, all the way until she ate breakfast. Noticing it when she completely lost focus and spaced out enough that she couldn't even hear her dad.
"I think you should try your quirk out very soon, then. It may just be a baseless hypothesis coming from me, but I have the sneaking suspicion that whatever happened probably had an effect on your quirk as well." Her friend advised and noted the answers down very quickly. "Also, do you also agree with the nurse that you should be free to go soon?"
"Well..." Maribel muttered and threw off the sheet that she had on. Currently, she wore a light blue medical gown, that looked like it was styled a bit after traditional Japanese wear. Her side looked a bit bumpy as it was heavily bandaged, while her left arm was mostly enveloped in the stuff. Her head had a bit of bandaging on it, but it was not as encompassing as it was just after she woke up. Still, she swung herself over the bed and stood up as if nothing had happened. Feeling a bit humorous, she put her right arm to her hip while she moved her bandaged arm over to her forehead. She curled most of her fingers up while her middle and index finger extended and spread out a bit. Finally, she cheekily stuck out her tongue.
"Ah... Well! I guess you're fine!" Renko let out happily and almost laughing at the same time. It was just to jarring.
Maribel suddenly jerked a bit and yelped out. "Ow ow ow!" She let out and heaved herself back onto the bed and laid down, gripping her arm in pain for a bit.
"...Or not." Her friend said. Maribel quickly calmed down and took on a dumb smile as she grabbed the sheet and pulled it over herself again.
"I think I'll be out soon, even if I might still have to deal with the arm for a bit." Hearn said as she properly sat up again. "Anyway, I'd also like telling you that my quirk's been having some strange effects on me since the entrance exam. I've been feeling delirious and manic at times, though only when my quirk is active. The sun also irritates me a bit, though, only really after I've come out of a dark place."
"Hmm... Well, I'm not a psychologist. It's not so good to ask me. But you really should look into stopping those things from happening, regulate the use of your quirk or get some medicine for the occasion." Renko held out her hand as she offered her opinion.
Maribel shrugged. "I can't say you're wrong. I'll ask Recovery Girl about it."
"It's for the best." Renko tilted her head to the side with a smile on her face. She quickly looked back to the notebook and made some more notes before stuffing it all back into her handbag. Hearn was knowledgeable to understand this was body language to indicate friendliness, but didn't really detract from her falling for it. They both paused for a moment, trying to think of something to talk about, Maribel was the first to come up with something.
The boundary girl sighed and messed a bit with her blonde hair using her right arm. "Since the incident at USJ is all over the news, I guess I'll just have to become involved eventually one way or the other. I'm going to have to try hard not to make things worse."
"I'm going to guess the school will also want you to act some way to help them steer away from the fire. If you need any help with that, just ask them. They're a top school, after all." Renko commented.
"That's a good idea. It'll help with the anxiety of addressing the situation." The blonde replied, her eyes drifted to the darkness of night outside her window. She was feeling something out there. A quirk? No, it didn't feel like it. Different creatures felt different, that's what she had learned. A human felt real, like a stone of sorts. Youkai, like Doremy, had the same vibe as a cold night breeze. Gods or those servants, felt radiant, like the sun or a warm breeze. But whatever she felt now was like... swimming in or drinking pure water, or the light of the moon. Of course, these were all metaphorical comparisons, but she felt that they fit nicely. Maribel grimaced and looked out the window suspiciously. Nothing was done, however, as she gave up on her feeling for now. Whether it was something special or not, she wasn't in condition to do anything about it. "Nevermind."
"What was it?" Her friend asked.
Maribel responded pretty bluntly as she turned her head back to Renko. "Nothing important. I merely felt something."
A couple of footsteps resounded outside the hall as the nurse came back. "It's time to make some regular checks, to see you're doing alright."
"Well, I think now would be a good time to go home for the day." Renko said and stood up, grasping her handbag as she did.
"Bye, Renko!" Maribel raised her hand in front of her and rapidly waved a gesture of goodbyes. Renko did the same and then left through the doorway.
Just like that, the presence disappeared into the night. Maribel sat with her mouth agape as she felt for the presence, the person. She found nothing.
Two days went by, and Maribel finally had the okay to go home. Recovery Girl had come by and offered her some healing. Initially, it almost put her to sleep, but she rapidly recovered from almost all her injuries. What remained was only minor and would heal with time more than likely.
As everyone had told her, she was all over the news, along with the incident. When she got to school, she was directly faced with a crowd of reporters and had to carefully think of what to say.
"Someone would've gotten hurt." Was all she had to say about the situation and went through the rest of the crowd into the school. Knowing the security systems from before, they didn't follow after her.
When Hearn actually entered the school, her mere sight made people talk. They talked about her in particular. It felt almost like a callback to junior high where her quirk attracted many 'friends' and orbiters. She just hoped this wouldn't escalate to that. Eventually, she got to the classroom. The gigantic door was open, so she entered. Her tired eyes laid across the rest of class.
She had hoped to keep most of this private, and truly most of it were. But she was unspared of the most irritating effects of it all, the care and the popularity. Maribel never had a truly big problem with being the center of attention, but she hated being overwhelmed with people she didn't even know all that well.
Maybe it was just she woke up on the wrong side of bed today, or her irritation over the sudden burden she felt she had to carry now. Even if it was Iida, Ochaco, Momo, Kirishima or even someone unlikely like Bakugo, she wasn't in the mood for lots of attention right now.
"Merry! You're back!" Every other person called out, either in the aforementioned way or a variation.
She hated that.
Sorry if I'm not quick to update my longest fic, but I've also gotta find the motivation to do it. Anyway, the sports festival will be coming up, and Maribel is slowly getting sick of trying to play too nice with people. This doesn't mean that she's gonna abandon anybody, but she might be a bit more closed. Oh, and she likes Iida a lot, but I'm not going to let the fic veer into some shipping shit, I'd call it a side story at best and a supplement to her character's depth at worst depending on where I decide to take it. By the way, could you guess what she felt?
I hope you enjoy.