"Well, from what I can get out of her, our new guest thinks that she is six-years-old and that is just plain worrying," Recovery Girl said, stepping out of the infirmary and closing the door behind her so they wouldn't be overheard.
Deku tore his eyes from where he was watching Eri sleep on a hospital bed through the tinted window of the infirmary. "What?" he asked. "Why?"
"Aside from the obvious worry of the girl not being sure of her own age? Because she is significantly underweight for her age," the old woman explained grimly. "That, combined with the bruises, the marks from hypodermic needles, and the way she scarfed down seven consecutive cups of jello, tells me you pulled that poor girl out a horrible situation."
'I could have told you that,' Deku thought with uncharacteristic sarcasm, keeping his eyes on the little frame curled up under thin hospital covers. "Is she going to be okay?"
"For now, Eri needs a shower, a change of clothes, and a nice, long rest. But, aside from that? Her injuries will heal quickly enough and none of serious enough to need immediate healing. Given enough time, she'll put on the weight she needs," Recovery Girl offered with cautious optimism before her small, wrinkled face fell once more. "I'm more worried about her mind and heart though. The poor thing was petrified and jumped at every shadow. I went to give her a mild sedative so she could sleep easier and she burst into tears as soon as I pulled out the syringe. It nearly broke my old heart."
The crying had nearly caused Deku to break down the infirmary door in a panic to get to Eri.
"What's going to happen to her?" he asked, terrified she'd be locked away again. That was the long-standing rumor of what happened to little kids with out-of-control quirks -the story was that they'd be taken to special hospitals, never to be seen again.
'I'll never let that happen,' Deku decided right then and there. 'I promised to protect Eri and I will, no matter what.'
"First thing is first, we need to find out who she is," Eraser Head said. "Eri hasn't told us much so Sir Nighteye is looking into tracking down a birth certificate based on her age and we can check any possible matches against Eri's footprints but, until then, she'll be staying here."
"You're going to send Eri back to her family?!" Deku shouted, horrified by the thought. "She told me that her grandfather let people hurt her; she can't go back to them!"
His teacher's dark eyes fix him with a firm look, "We don't know the whole story yet; it is too soon to make those kinds of decisions. Besides, if not else, finding out who Eri is will help us track down this grandfather of hers and, hopefully, learn more about the villain you mentioned."
"Overhaul." A shiver went down Deku's spine as the villain's image popped into his head, his face obscured by that strange plague doctor-esc mask and his cold eyes that reminded Deku of the inky black eyes of a shark.
Eraser Head nodded, "Yes, and, speaking of him, we need to talk. Follow me."
Deku hesitated, his eyes flickering towards the infirmary door. Could he really just leave...
"She'll be asleep for at least three hours," Recovery Girl comforted, patting his hand. "You'll have plenty of time to get back, Sweetie."
"O-okay," he said uncertainly, still unhappy about leaving his new-found charge behind even as he followed his teacher.
"First off, I want to compliment you on your exceptional bravery, Mr. Midoriya," Principal Nezu praised. "I know that it can't have been easy to stand up against a villain on your own."
"I've said it before and I'll say it again, Young Midoriya here has a natural aptitude for heroism that I've rarely seen," All Might declared proudly, puffing out his chest and slapping Deku on the back. "He puts other's needs before his own and desires to protect innocents above all else!"
Deku turned bright red at the praise, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "To tell you the truth, I wasn't really thinking about-"
"That's right, you weren't thinking," Eraser Head cut him off. "You ran off into a situation you knew nothing about, leaving Togata behind, and could have easily gotten yourself killed! You should have called for back-up and-"
"You didn't see Eri," Deku shouted, surprised by his own boldness; him, snapping at a teacher? Kacchan would have a field day. "You didn't see how terrified she was! She asked me for help and I couldn't let her down! So I did what I had too and I won't apologize for that!"
The three adults in the room reeled back in shock at his outburst.
"You're not in trouble," Principal Nezu reassured adamantly. "You did a good thing, Mr. Midoryia, a very good, very heroic thing and you should take pride in that. What I think Eraser Head is trying to say is that we'd all prefer if you didn't make a habit of rushing into danger, alright?"
'A little too late for that,' he thought with a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, sure."
"Alright, that settled," Eraser Head grumbled. "Now we just need to figure out what to do about that villain and the kid who saved the two of you. What can you tell us about him?"
"Errr..." It was illegal to fight crime without a pro-hero license, everyone knew that, and Deku didn't want to see Luffy end up in prison for helping him and Eri. It just wouldn't be fair.
All Might sensed his hesitation. "Your new friend isn't in trouble; we're not interested in arrest someone for helping protect a kid and a hero trainee, after all."
"But we do want to talk to him," Eraser Head added. "Both because he might be in danger and because he might no more about the villain."
"His name is Monkey D. Luffy," Deku said, "but he didn't know anything about Overhaul either."
"Well, at least he has an easy name to track down," the older man grumbled. "Could you tell what his quirk was?"
"It was a little hard to say," Deku admitted, at little ashamed that he hadn't thought to ask. "He was strong and fast and he could strength like rubber; he also turned his skin into this dark stony stuff."
"I've never heard of that combo of abilities," Eraser Head acknowledged, "but if he was able to take on a villain like what you described than he was probably trained somewhere. Do you know anything else?"
"Yeah... he said he was pirate."