Recovery Girl- Origin: Part 3 (Finale)
[Alright, folks. This right here is the finale to my Recovery Girl Origin. After this, I'll be getting back to Deku and Uraraka. No promises on when it'll be updated, but it will. I'm afraid that real life is a jerk. But I am not done with this fic and these characters. I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think by leaving a favorite, subscribe, and a review. Thank you]
Urusuke pushed through the mall's front doors, and let himself get caught in the moving crowd. He slipped a cigarette out of his breast pocket, stuck it in his mouth, and lit it up with the lighter he kept in his trouser pocket.
Carrying the briefcase Chiyo had bought for him over his shoulder, he let the flow of other pedestrians guide his movements. He swaggered on like this for several blocks, stopping for traffic lights and using crosswalks. As far as anyone could be concerned, he was invisible.
Then, when he determined he'd gone far enough, he blitzed to the side. It was a quick, clean movement, enhanced by his One-For-All power. Something you wouldn't notice unless you were watching him specifically.
He entered an alley, a thick concrete building crowding in on either side, and waited.
1… 2… 3…
The man tailing him rushed into the dark alley, right past him. Urusuke got a good look at him before the man noticed him. He was a bit lanky, with a mole-like snout, no doubt used for tracking. A sniffer, no doubt, placed on his tail after his last little scuffle with their gang.
The tail turned just in time for his eyes to go wide, and then Urusuke tossed his cigarette in the mole-man's face. The burning end struck him right in the eye, making him yelp in pain, and then Urusuke slammed a palm against his muzzle and snapped it to the side. It bent like a broken leg, and the man let out a high-keened whimper.
Good luck sniffing anything out after that.
In the next swift movement, Urusuke dropped his briefcase and struck the man in the chest- lightly, of course- knocking the air out of him and preventing him from screaming for help. He kicked the man in the left knee, shattering it, and twisted him around to shove him against the wall.
Urusuke leaned in the mole-man's ear and whispered, "You scream, I break your damn neck."
The tail whimpered as his air returned to him, but he did not scream.
"Good," said Urusuke. "Now, your master's got you tailing me. You're going to tell me when and where you were going to give him your report, or I will break every joint in your body, starting with your other knee."
"I-I don't know nothing,"
Urusuke twisted his arm, just short of breaking it, and the mole-man took in a gasp of breath.
"Okay, okay. We're meeting at Warehouse 7, in the industrial district."
"Good, good," said Urusuke, "Now, tell me what he looks like and what his name is."
"Look, I don't know- ow, ow, ow- stop twisting my arm! I swear I don't know. He always wears a cloak and hood, like he thinks he's in some damn light novel, okay? He told me to call him Mr. Disaster, but that's all I know. I swear."
Urusuke considered the mole-man's words for a minute, then decided he believed him. "You still haven't answered one question, my unfortunate friend. When are you meeting him again?"
"Friday," said the mole-man, "At noon. That's the honest-to-goodness truth. You have to believe me."
Urusuke pushed the mole-man scraping to the ground. "You're done in this city. You hear me? Pack your shit and get out of here. If I see you again, I will not be happy."
The man looked up at him, the look of disbelief curled across his broken muzzle. "You've gotta be kidding me. How the hell am I supposed to get out of here with a busted leg?"
"Do I look like I give a damn?" said Urusuke, bending low and grabbing the mole-man by the collar of his shirt. "Leave. Now."
The mole-man's eyes went wide, and with a whimper, he pushed Urusuke off and shoved to his feet. He limped away, whining with each step, but didn't look back and disappeared further down the alley.
With a sigh, Urusuke leaned down and picked up his fallen cigarette. He stuck it between his lips and took in a big exhale.
"Sorry, Chiyo," he muttered. "Looks like I won't be making it for our date."
That Friday...
Urusuke took in a long draft of his cigarette and leaned casually against the metal wall of a warehouse- warehouse number five, to be exact.
He'd found the spot pretty easily, and found that he blended in well. The Yakuza owned half of the warehouses anyway, and he never passed up an opportunity to look like a lowlife thug.
Well, today, Urusuke looked like a more well-dressed thug. He wore one of the nice white shirts Chiyo had bought him, tucked into black trousers. The rest of his clothes were in the briefcase, tucked underneath a small bridge nearby.
He let his gaze casually fall down on Warehouse 7. It was one warehouse over and just across the alleyway. He'd only just gotten to his smoking spot a few moments earlier, stopping to take a few drafts with some of the industrial workers.
When they'd returned to work, that had left sticking out like a sore thumb, but as he checked his watch, he guessed it didn't matter at this point. It was noon.
Urusuke snubbed his cigarette and walked casually to the slightly open warehouse gate. He was certain that upon seeing it wasn't their expected informant, the folks he hunted would get spooked. All that meant was he'd have to be fast enough to nab one of them.
Reaching the warehouse gate, he stepped through, out of sunlight and into the darkness.
As his eyes adjusted, Urusuke saw a great, empty warehouse. It was spotless, clean from end to end, without so much as a crumb inside.
All except for the dark, cloaked figure.
If nothing else, the mole-man had been right on the money. The guy was shrouded in black, his face hidden beneath a dark cloak.
"Yo!" said Urusuke. "You must be Mr. Disaster."
Just beneath the line of shadows concealing his face, the figure smiled. "And you must be the irritant that has hounded my master's operations these past months."
Urusuke bent his leg, stretching, before switching to the other. "Then you must know what I'm capable of. I'm surprised you're still around."
"Your power is paltry compared my master's," said Mr. Disaster. "He is beyond your comprehension, and by extension, so am I."
"You say that," said Urusuke as he cracked his knuckles, "but before we're done here, you're going to be squealing everything from the time you pissed yourself in the third grade to exactly where I can find your master. So, ask yourself this: do you want to do this the easy way, or the fun way?"
Mr. Disaster unclasped his cloak and threw it to the side, revealing a gaunt face, his hairline receding. He wore black trousers and was shirtless, exposing well-sculpted abs and enormous muscles. His eyes were shadowed, but in their dark depths a crimson gleam shined.
Urusuke grinned. "The fun way it is." He activated One-For-All, channeling it into his whole body. It felt amazing, coursing through him like a rushing tide. It… wasn't as much as it used to be, but it was still plenty.
He launched forward, cracking the concrete beneath him. Like a cannonball from hell, he closed the distance between himself and Mr. Disaster in faster than a blink.
Mr. Disaster smiled, raising a palm at Urusuke.
At the last second, Urusuke snatched at the concrete, and shoved up. The force sent him flying up and over his opponent. At that exact same moment, Mr. Disaster's arm emitted a shockwave, erupting out of his palm like the boom from a jet. It ripped through the air and tore the front of the warehouse clean off, travelled across the alley, and demolished the opposite building.
Urusuke grunted, landing directly behind Mr. Disaster, and threw a mean right hook.
His blow never made contact.
That same shockwave force erupted from Mr. Disaster's flexed back, slamming into Urusuke and sending him flying. He smashed into the back of the warehouse. He ripped straight through the sheetmetal and went airborne.
He careened into the wall of a residential tower, crushing the concrete around him, and then tumbled to the street below. He caught himself and landed in a crouch.
With a great gasp, he wiped the blood from the newly formed gash above his eye.
"Well," he said. "This is going to be fun."
#
"Get that IV in him. Patlroth, get some morphine in him. Bornish, stop that bleeding, dammit. Okay, I'm going to be removing the object now. Be ready to staunch the bleeding." Chiyo shook the sweat from her brow as she gripped the the metal rebar lodged in the young man's side.
"I'm sorry, big guy," she breathed, pulling. The man screamed, blood spurting from his lips as the bar came loose. "Hang in there. Almost there. Almoooost." The bar came free with a squelch.
In the same motion, she leaned over and kissed his forehead. Normally, she didn't resort to using her quirk, but he wasn't going to make it otherwise. Worse than that-
"Recovery Girl!" called Doctor Takanaka. "We've got another."
A girl. Couldn't be older than ten. A stop sign ripped off her ear and had cut her throat. She was only moments away from death, blood spilling out over the ER floor.
She practically sprinted to the little girl, her heart clutching in her throat, as another tremor shook the hospital.
She stumbled, but made it to the girl's cot, and in one quick motion, she leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. Blood smeared across her lips- unsanitary, but at this point she couldn't take any chances.
Immediately, the healing began to take effect, but in just that amount of time, three more patients came in, two carried by paramedics, and the other carried in by their friends.
Missing legs, missing arms, cut open and bleeding.
She couldn't keep up with this.
She had no choice. She would not let them die.
The television buzzed over the in the corner of the ER, the reporters flying in over the wreckage of a terrible fight between two superhuman fighters.
"We are just now getting a look- buzz- at the two combatants," said the reporter from a helicopter cam. "It is carnage here. The battle has ravaged the city, crashing through buildings and destroying trillions of yen in property."
Chiyo leaned over one of the dying men and kissed him on the forehead. Then, she cast her eyes up at the television.
Her stomach plummeted. The camera focused in on two figures. One of them a dark, terrifying monster that she didn't recognize. And the other…
No.
Through the dust and smoke and flame, Chiyo couldn't mistake him. That was Urusuke, no doubt about it.
No. He promised me.
"Chiyo!" called another doctor. "We need your help Chiyo."
"I…" she stumbled, eyes transfixed on the carnage on the TV. The battle was brutal, the two figures fighting like titans and gods themselves. Earth-shattering punches, splintered bones.
It was horrible to watch.
"Chiyo!"
And Urusuke was losing.
He PROMISED me!
She turned away from the tv and marched to the ER entrance. They were fighting only a couple blocks from the hospital. If she could just reach Urusuke…
"Chiyo!" cried the doctor behind her.
She glanced back, and she saw what she was leaving behind: a bloodbath, people dying. Doctors at wit's end.
But she couldn't abandon Urusuke.
"I'm sorry," she said. Then she turned and ran out the door.
She ripped off her heels as she ran, flinging them behind her. Her filthy hair came undone behind her as she ran, sprinting ever closer to the epicenter of all the madness. She ran by corpses lining the ground, wounded people screaming in pain, shattered cars and shattered buildings. Other heroes fighting to bring people to the hospital, fighting the flames, getting people out safely.
Coughing on smoke, she rounded a corner and found the center of the madness. A great crater of flame and ash, where Urusuke and the madman fought. They were both bloody, but Urusuke sagged in place, while the monster, this horrifying, deformed semblance of a man yet stood tall.
Urusuke threw a punch, and the monster blocked it handily, the impact sending out a whirlwind of energy. Up above, the news helicopter swerved, almost spinning out of control.
Then, in the next moment, the monster placed a palm against Urusuke's gut, and let looks shockwave the likes of which Chiyo had never seen. It tore through Urusuke's flesh, ripping out bone and blood in a great spray.
"Urusuke!" Chiyo screamed. "No!"
Urusuke fell to a knee, half of his abdomen missing and pouring blood.
Then the monster noticed her. Its eyes fixed on her, and it smiled.
Through his pain, Urusuke glanced back and saw Chiyo for the first time. His eyes went wide as he mouthed, "Chiyo?"
The monster raised its palm at Chiyo, and she felt the wind warp around her.
"No!" Urusuke screamed. He pulled himself up and slammed a fist into the monster's gut. It flinched, and the blast ripped off just to Chiyo's left, incinerating the ground beside her.
Chiyo stumbled back, falling to the ground. Dust clung to the blood on her forehead and lips, dirt covered her doctor's outfit.
"What is this?" snarled the monster. "You haven't hit me that hard all day?"
"Shut the hell up!" Urusuke screamed, slamming another fist into the monster's face. His knees buckled, but he staggered forward and slammed another fist into him.
"You cannot beat me!" the monster roared. "You cannot beat him!"
"I told you. Shut. The. Hell. Up!" Another punch.
Chiyo stumbled to her feet and pressed toward Urusuke, shockwaves of wind whipping around her.
"Do you think you can save this city? Do you think you can save this world?!" the monster screamed. It pulled back its fist and slammed it into Urusuke's side.
Urusuke screamed, pain wracking his voice, but he remained standing. "You've got it all wrong, you son of a bitch!" He grabbed hold of the monster's arm, and threw it into a nearby building. The monster came catapulting out of the wreckage, and threw a mighty punch.
Urusuke met the blow with his own fist. A thunderclap ripped through the battlefield, whipping Chiyo's hair. She pressed onward. She needed to get close to Urusuke. He wouldn't last much longer with that wound.
"It's not about defeating you!" roared Urusuke, pulling his fist back. It had shattered in the impact. "It's not about defeating your master, about defeating All-For-One." He threw another punch, shattering the monster's jaw. "It's about taking another step. One more punch. One more fist. I may not continue, but-" The monster caught another fist and crumpled it in its hand.
Urusuke screamed, but his eyes shone.
"Stop your blabbering!" screamed the monster. "And die!"
"Not before you do!" Urusuke screamed back. He kicked in the monster's knee, sending it stumbling. Immediately after, he twisted behind the monster and wrapped his arms around its abdomen.
"What are you doing?"
"Kicking your ass!" Then, Urusuke leaped upward, flying high into the sky. Like a meteor, ripping through the air, up past the helicopter, up past the ruins of battle. Twisting through smoke it clouds, they rose, until they were just a pinprick in the sky.
Then they came roaring back down like a missile. They smashed into the ground together, rocking the entire city, quaking it like a great, horrific bomb.
The shockwave sent Chiyo flying backward, stumbling and tumbling in a cloud of dust and debris. A rock smashed into her arm, crushing it, and another one clipped her head, sending a splitting pain throughout her skull.
She came to a stop, dust and rocks settling on her.
All was quiet. The chop-chop-chop of the helicopter blades had disappeared. The click-clack of rocks punctuated the silence as Chiyo took in a gasp of life.
With her good arm, she pushed herself to her feet. Every single inch of her body hurt. But she needed to get to Urusuke. She needed to save him.
She stumbled forward into a run. The center of impact was veiled in a great cloud of dust. She plunged into it, uncaring of monster or fire or danger. Urusuke was all she cared about. Urusuke was all she could think about.
She came to a stop over his broken and mangled body. He was still breathing, but he was torn to shreds. His gut had split in half, separating his hips from his torso. His arms were broken, and his chest caved in.
But his heart still beats.
Urusuke's eyes shot open, and he flicked up to see her. "Chiyo," he said weakly. "You're here."
"Yes, I'm here, you idiot," she said, falling to her knees. "You ridiculous, ridiculous fool."
"I'm… I'm sorry," he gasped, "that we won't make our date."
"Don't talk," she said. "I'm going to get you well, okay. I'm going to get you better."
"You and I both know you won't," he coughed. "Your powers work for people who still have energy, right? I'm spent."
"Shut up!" she snapped. "Dammit, Urusuke, why!" Tears began to leak down her face. "You promised me!"
"I guess I'm a liar," he said. "A filthy liar."
"No! No!"
"I… need to tell you something. I… I gave away One-For-All."
Chiyo reeled back. "What?! What do you mean?!"
"I… I passed it on already. To a girl named Shimura Nana."
"I don't understand. Why would you do that?!"
He grimaced. "I… I didn't want this responsibility. I never did. You need to find her. And… teach her what it means to be a hero. She must… stop… All-For-One..."
"Urusuke," Chiyo sobbed. "You can't pawn this off on me. This is your job."
"I'm… I'm sorry."
"Damn you!" Chiyo screamed, and she leaned down and she pressed her lips against his, sobbing as she did so. "Damn you!" she screamed between his lips. "You can't die! I love you, Urusuke! I love you, you dumb bastard."
She pulled away. His arms began to heal, his bleeding began to slow, but his face grew pale. "Thank you, Chiyo," he whispered. "You really are a hero."
Chiyo embraced him, tears streaming down her face. "And so are you, you idiot."
He breathed his last breath, and Chiyo felt him leave.
Urusuke was dead.
The moments passed like the world had shattered, slowly careening away to nothing. Chiyo held her only love's body in her arms, weeping for far longer than she'd ever cried in her life. Pain clung to her in ways she couldn't process, in ways that her time in the ER could have never prepared her for.
She clung to him when the others came, when the others came to find the hero who had died fighting for them.
She clung to him when they tried to take him from her.
And she clung to him even after he was gone, cremated and ashes flung on the wind.
She clung to him, and to his words.
Shimura Nana… Find her… Teach her what it means to be a hero… She must stop All-For-One...
She would do it. She would find his successor. She would teach her to be a hero. And the only way she could do that is by becoming a hero herself. By completely taking up the mantle of Recovery Girl.