Chapter 42
"Deep, deep beneath my hide"
1-A received the news that Alarice was in the hospital, and 'No, they couldn't visit her', fairly well. Aizawa, equally, wasn't surprised that by the end of the day, he was handed a get well note by Mina, to bring to her hospital room. He ignored the drawing of a dog down in the corner.
Mic had taken it worse than him. By acting as translator, he heard all of the horrible things that were wrong, and what had happened. He mentioned the infection, the mutilated ear, but he stopped after describing the leg situation. For everything else, he was remaining quiet and cryptic about what he had learned had happened to his undeniably favorite student. Really the only clue was the heavy amount of crying he had done before they fell asleep.
Aizawa's next stop was classroom 1-E, and then he headed off to the hospital.
Arriving, there was just the person he meant to see. Jonathan Stone was asleep, looking weirdly comfortable in his wheelchair, he probably had a nurse to thank for that. Alarice... well she still hadn't moved. She was bandaged and healing though, so that was good.
Just as he was about to consider waking wheelchair-man up, Jonathan stirred. Blinking, he looked-up confused, for a moment. Their eyes met for a minute, Jonathan looking puzzled, with a flare of nostrils.
"huh, you must be her teacher." he said rather blandly.
Aizawa's English was passable, on the part that he was dating a man not only fluent in English, but extremely proud of being fluent in English. "Yes, I'm Shouta Aizawa... how did you know?"
"Your smell. It's very strong." Jonathan nodded. "Ah. Now, I get it. So you... came here to visit her?"
"Alright." Aizawa nodded, pulling out the card from her classmates, and setting it on the table for her. "With a friend. Yes. This is Hisato Hirai"
There was some confusion for a moment, before Hisato's form took shape in the room. Looking as ghostly as ever. Jonathan didn't even seem startled by the sight of a teenage boy ghost. "A ghost?" was all he asked.
"No." Aizawa responded, trying not to look tired, but that was an incredibly lost cause. "It's just his quirk. He can help Alarice, with your permission."
"I can see what she's dreaming about, etc. Like when you talk to them, but far more effective, and she can respond to me." Hisato said, rather brightly for a dead kid. His smile was also surprisingly friendly, and he walked a little closer to the bed.
"You've done this before? You know what your doing?" Jonathan questioned the ghost directly this time.
Hisato nodded. "Yes. Aizawa-san takes me to hospitals, on the occasion, to help with other comatose, or severely ill patients." Hisato put his hand on the railing, looking to Aizawa and back. "My quirk's abilities are pretty wide, but this basically gives them a space, in which detailed information can be given to them, encouragement, words of love, anything else, really."
"... Alright, go for it, Hisato." Jonathan didn't move away from the side of the bed though. And it was an awkward display, Hisato, being a ghost, just avoiding the technology around them, basically just climbed into Alarice's sleeping body. The presence of a fourth person nearly vanished. "Your ghost friend has very good English."
"He reads a lot." was all Aizawa could respond with.
000
Hisato's quirk practically allowed him to sink into some unknown place, known only to him and the person. A spiritual place? Based in their energy, like an aura?
He really didn't know.
It was entirely possible that the place only became a 'place' because he interfered with his own Quirk, allowing for a temporary, non-physical place to exist. There was no place as private as where he was going, now. The ground immediately made itself known, in layers of soft thin grass and moss sprouting up, immediately. Trees and bushes were next, shooting up and expanding as they 'grew' instantaneously.
After the first few in his 'line of sight' were grown, it was as if the forest had always existed, and always been there. Some deep mysterious forest, just waiting for him to take a step into. Was this her creation or his? He didn't question it, he knew he could leave at any time, anyway. Forests were nice, too, on top of it.
The owner made themselves known with a deep howl from some where within in. So, Hisato followed that, on soft padded feet on all fours. It seemed like the natural choice.
The forest went on, as he poked his head through mist and walked around, or over fallen trees, moss-covered rocks. Finally, coming to a clearing where there was a startling sight.
A great grey-looking beast, a wolf, a proper, fantasy-style dire wolf was looking at him with their white eyes. Two others were laying down in the clearing, near their kill, blood on their muzzles. One licked its lips at him, the one on top, growled at him, though. The kill on the ground was a little too-pink, to be just another animal. He decided he didn't want to look too closely at the body. He didn't want to know who that might be on the ground.
"Hey" He offered to the three, which got a barking snarl from the big one, in the center, who stood up; hackles raising, snarling and then snapping at him. The one to the right was completely ignoring him, sniffing at the corpse. The one on the left, looked at him, then the other, and let out grumbling bark at the other.
He was back to a human body, it seemed. Which didn't calm the fury of the wolf, and the one who had been waiting was now standing up.
Another, terrible-sounding howl came from the forest beyond them. In no time at all, the trees shook, leaves fell, and increasingly the ground shook. He wasn't really prepared for this, he had never been attacked, or gotten hurt, in one of these places.
Then again, he had never done this with someone with a transformation quirk, like hers. Or even with any one with an animal mutation, yet. Not to mention her other contributing issues that had her in this state.
The rumbling shook, and perched between the trees was a creature of spindly limbs, gripping the wood of the trees, to hold itself up. Patches of shaggy fur, over pale skin. Scales lined their side, spines came out of its back, visible as they leaned down. The skull-face was recognizable as that of a hell-hound's. It lowered itself to the ground, and came closer to him. One of the over-sized, large hands gripped the skull and pulled it away, with a sound that suggested gore, but the face was clean, beneath.
The skull, as it fell, took the fur and scales with it, and became its own giant hell-hound, no eyes in its empty sockets, though somehow, he was definitely sure it was regarding him, before walking away. Nudging the growling wolf with its head, while Alarice stood there, in front of him, looking incredibly confused, and even a little concerned.
"Hisato?" She asked, quietly, "Am I dead?"
"No!... although now that I think about it, I can understand why you would think that, but no! No, you're not dead. You're just in the hospital, getting better." He reassured, trying to be nice and not look at the 3 wolves, and one giant all-black hell-hound that was stalking behind them.
"I am?" Alarice asked, then nodded as if getting it. "Then why are you here?"
"Checking on you, seeing if you were dreaming, and letting you know everyone's rooting for you to get better." Hisato responded with more emotion than he had when they met. "Your Dad's here, too."
"Oh." was all the response he got. "Don't they just check your brain wave activity to see if you're still alive? I'm in like, a coma, aren't I?"
Hisato nodded again. "some of your injuries required it. And, yeah, they do that too, this is what Aizawa-san and I have been working on."
"Walking into people's brains."
"It's more boring than that, actually" Hisato said, with a shrug. Alarice looked at him concerned, then puzzled. "Alarice?"
"So... you just came in here, to tell me to stay strong, while comatose ?" Alarice responded, looking unsure if that was really worth all the effort.
"Well, I can, if that's all you want, I can't stay here for very long, but, since we're here, you're also dreaming, sooooo we can do whatever you want, if it'll make you feel better." Hisato offered with a shrug, willing to do whatever the injured wanted. Alarice was quiet for a moment, he noticed the three wolves were asleep for now, but the Hell-hound was standing nearby, silently watching him.
"Have you ever had deer?" Alarice asked suddenly.
"Er, I don't think so?" Hisato said with a shrug, "I don't.. think we can eat, here.."
"It's a dream, or, like a dream, so we could do anything, right?" Alarice was catching on, sort of. "Let me show you how to hunt, that's usually what I do in these dreams."
Hisato didn't know what to say for a second, before he realized he was already furry again. Alarice was holding the Hell-hound skull in her hands, the big beast itself, gone from sight. "You've had dreams like this before?" he asked.
"Yeah, we call them 'werewolf dreams' cuz they're like stereotypical werewolf dreams... It's not always scary, sometimes... sometimes, I'm just going hunting." She settled the skull face over her own, and in seconds she was gigantic, and different from the strange beast he had encountered, at first. A proper Hell-hound, except her skull became fur covered and looked like a proper hound face. His own size quickly matched hers. "Come on!"
They took off into the woods at a brisk pace. There was something really enjoy able about it, once he let go of the apprehension.
000
Aizawa was lightly asleep, when Hisato emerged from Alarice's body, which looked as weird as that always looked. Somehow the ghost looked winded, of all things. "Hisato."
"Aizawa san, She's fine... in her head, anyway. It seemed like she was very aware, and responsive to my being there." He said tiredly, "how long was I in there for?" The edges of his form were fading out, already.
"A few hours, it's nearly dawn. Come on." Aizawa offered his hand, over to the ghost, who took it, and disappeared from sight, again. Aizawa was still aware of Hisato's presence, of course, the ghost was essentially using his body as a ride, and probably soaking-up some energy. That was okay, it was good to know Alarice was dreaming about something.
Their conversation had awakened Jonathan, of course, and the older man was stirring awake, quickly enough.
"Did your ghost have any results?" he asked.
"She's dreaming, he said she was doing fine, very responsive. " Aizawa said simply looking at his unconscious student, and the gentle rise and fall of her chest. "He's tired, now."
"huh. Can you bring him by again, I'd like to talk to him about what they did... er, what he saw. Whichever, I guess." Jonathan asked, trying to get comfortable again, in his wheel chair. Silence crept in, and a bird outside started making a lot of noise. Aizawa started to walk out, when Jonathan started talking again. "I heard you made sure she got off the island, in time. I know it's a Hero's job to save lives, but thank you, for saving my reckless pup. I'll read the card to her, till she can see it, herself." He smiled, and there was some serious exhaustion behind his expression.
Aizawa just nodded, and headed out of the room. Out in the hospital hallway, it was somewhat quiet, and only the sound of nurses making their rounds, interrupted the silence around them. For the most part, it was just the sound of his shoes as he walked, and he was able to softly consider what had happened. He'd talk to Hisato later, about what the other had experienced.
As he was about to leave... "Eraserhead! Sir!" With a sigh the said Hero turned around. This is what he got for showing up after school, and still in uniform.
"I wanted to ask your assistance with some of the children who came in. We've been keeping them for now, most of them didn't have their shots... but they've been very uncooperative." The young doctor looked anxious about the entire matter. Wringing his hands a bit. "They keep insisting on being... dogs."
Aizawa rolled his eyes in his skull before letting out a breath of air. He was a teacher, he couldn't be here, all the time. Though he understood the concern of the doctor, especially knowing that one of them had dangerous salvia and an interest in firing lasers. Perhaps, he could turn it into a sort of practical experience for hero students, needing extra credit...
"I can watch them, while they're puppies in the evenings, after school hours." The doctor nodded energetically at that, a look of some relief on his face. "I will probably bring a student with me to help out, since they're such a handful."
"Of course! They're quite a handful, thank you again, they're just... A big handful. One of our nurses got bit, and another burned, there's just so much going on with them all at once, its hard to tell, and many of them aren't cooperative. Letting them know they can have a playtime at the end of the day, should help them relax and cooperate..." The doctor let out all of his concerns, at once. He looked like he was not looking forward to helping the kids, either.
"Just, call me, if you need me." Aizawa emphasized, before bidding the doctor good night, and headed out. Finally getting home, and collapsing onto the bed with his boyfriend, when he got there. The blond, only waking up enough, to drag Aizawa closer to him, and going back to sleep.