Chapter 2: Home Sweet Home

Hikari Igami was one of the doctors at Musutafu General Hospital. She was going through her daily tasks in the restricted wing of the hospital where all the patients affected by the SAO incident were being held. Entering a room where one of the patients lay she went through her tablet to check his status. Seeing currently there are no changes she walked over to the equipment that was strapped to the boy who was lying on the bed. The boy had long shaggy green hair with dark highlights, the kid was scrawny to the point that it looked like he was suffering from malnutrition, His cheekbones, and eyes were sunken in on themselves.

Every time Hikari Igami entered this room she could not help but feel the pain in her chest at the site of the young boy. There were many children who were affected by the SAO incident and seeing them slowly waste away like this due to that Psychopath Was heartbreaking to see. She wished she could do something besides keep them alive but sadly that's all she really could do. The devices strapped to their heads were well-designed with many fail-safes in place. It was only a little Under a year ago when they made a breakthrough in hacking the Nerve Gear, but that only resulted in getting a visual of what the patient was seeing and even that was limited. However, it did come to a great relief to many families that their loved ones were not in some type of virtual torture chamber.

Finishing her inspection of the monitoring equipment she moved to leave the room but stopped due to her spotting something out of the corner of her eye. turning around she looked at the boy again. She could have sworn that the boy's hand had twitched. Pulling out her tablet she moved through the programs to get to his live monitoring feed. But stopped at the sound of the nerve gear on the boy's head Powering down. There were only two explanations for the nerve gear to do that. The first one that the patient had died due to the nerve gear activating its kill function resulting in the patient having a fried brain. The second option was that the nerve gear release the patient and they were waking up. Speeding up her attempts to get to his live Monitoring feed, she noticed that the boy's vitals were stable and his brain activity was active and slowly Rising. She could not believe it, the boy was actually waking up. Pushing the help button on her tablet she moved to start checking his vitals.

Seeing that they were stable she went back to her tablet and started looking through all the other live Monitoring feeds of the other patients, And she could not believe her eyes. Every single one of them was showing the same Signs of waking up as this boy was. Before she could alert the rest of the hospital staff the door to the room was swung open as a shaggy-looking man with a white scarf, yellow goggles, and long black hair Entered the room, This was the Pro Hero Eraserhead. Due to an incident in the first couple months of the victims being in the hospital. There were some deaths of the patients that were not caused by the nerve gear going off. A quick investigation was conducted and the cause was quickly discovered. Apparently a doctor was going around killing patience due to their Quirk status. The doctor believed that the ones he killed were simply wasting the resources of the hospital and did not even deserve Medical Aid in the first place due to their quirk status.

The man managed to kill 40 patients before being caught. 25 of them were quirkless and the rest of them were a mixture of mutant types and people with so-called villainous quirks. And what's the worst part about this was the fact that he wasn't the only one to attempt this. Several villains outside the hospital attempted to sneak in and do the same. This was why they were moved to a secured part of the hospital and why Heroes like Eraserhead were stationed there. Eraserhead was one of the most common Heroes to patrol the hospital but she suspected that was mostly due to the fact that his wife was one of the victims of the SAO incident. And she was positive he would have been here either way because of that.

She knew from experience that the man took his job very seriously and she was not surprised in the slightest by his presence here especially since she had pressed the help button. Many of the nurses and doctors used it to call for the heroes on patrol if somebody suspicious or a villain somehow managed to break through their security to kill one of the patients. When Eraserhead saw the doctor and that there were no threats present. He quickly came to the conclusion that only had two possibilities. Either the boy was dead due to the nerve gear killing him or he was waking up. Hikari noticed that Hope and concern where present in his eyes. Deciding to relieve his concerns she gave him a genuine smile that put the man at ease. But another question went through Eraserhead's mind but before he could voice it Hikari spoke up.

"Aizawa, go see your wife. I'm positive she's going to want to see you after 2 years of being separated. Don't worry I'm already notifying the rest of the staff and I got everything here under control." Hikari Igami said with one of the warmest smiles on her face. Aizawa did not need to be told twice as he quickly exited the room and headed straight to the room that held his wife.

As the man left the room Hikari heard movement from behind her. Looking back at the bed she noticed that the boy was attempting to get out of it. Acting quickly she moved toward the boy and placed a hand on his chest attempting to push him back into the bed.

"Yo kid you need to relax, you're not well enough to get out of bed quite yet." Hikari said as she attempted to Prevent the boy from leaving the bed that he was laying in. But it seemed that the boy was determined to do so.

"Need, to, find, Rumi, and, mom." The boy had managed to rasp out, his voice scratchy and rough from lack of use.

Hikari was confused, she knew who Rumi was since she was one of the patients that she regularly checked up on. But his mom, she remembered reading the boy's file and she clearly knew that the boy was an orphan and his mom died from cancer 4 years ago. Perhaps he was adopted while he was in that virtual world that that psychopath made. Shaking her head she decided to attempt to alleviate his fears.

"Kid do not worry, according to what my tablet says Rumi Usagiyama is waking up and is currently being attended to by a nurse. I do not know who your mom is, but if you give me a name I can look her up if you want." Hikari said as she attempted to comfort the boy. which, appeared to work as he physically relaxed in his bed.

"Emi, Fuku, Fukukado." Izuku rasped out. Hikari was surprised at who the boy's mother was. But her surprise quickly formed into a happy but gentle smile.

"Don't worry kid she's fine and waking up too. I'll make sure to-" Hikari said before being cut off by the crackling of her earpiece. And the distress noise of the doctor on the other end.

"Doctor Igami Rumi Usagiyama is awake and attempting to leave her bed. We are trying to hold her back but she is determined to find somebody named izuku. What are your orders." The nurse on the other end asked frantically. It seems like the boy heard what the nurse said over her earpiece since he was moving again. Pushing him back down onto the bed, Hikari Started speaking over the coms again.

"Nurse, start a video call with me, I got someone on the other end who might be able to calm her down." Hikari Said Causing Izuku to relax back into the bed again. In seconds the video call was established between the two tablets and on the other end was An exhausted Rumi that was all skin and bones.

"Rumi, I'm, fine." Izuku rasped out, Hikari Noticed that the boy was quickly able to calm the rabbit heroin.

"Thank, fuck, where's, Emi." Rumi rasped Between her sobs. But it was Hikari who answered this time.

"Mrs, Fukukado is stable and showing signs of waking up, but is not yet awake, and her Husband is currently with her. I will make sure you're both notified the second she is awake but you must allow the nurses and myself to run tests on you guys. When that's all done I promise I'll make sure to arrange a meeting between you three." Hikari said and when they got a nod from the two she ended the video call and left the room as two nurses entered. She had a lot of work to get done and The ones in her care had a lot of recovery to do. But she is glad that this nightmare is finally over.

One Week Later

It's been a week since Izuku got out of SAO and during that time he's been pretty much bedridden, as well as gone through tests to make sure he was all there. He was also not able to see Rumi his unofficial wife and Emi his unofficial mom the whole time that he was in bed. They were able to talk over video call once in a while but they never talked in person. Hell, he didn't even get to talk to his unofficial dad either. Emi said that he was one of the heroes who was Leading the SAO investigation. Because of that, he had a lot of people to interview As well as go through a lot of eyewitness testimonies in the hope of getting a full picture of what happened in SAO.

But izuku knew the real reason why The man wasn't around. It was because he was too close to the case now, and as such he did not have access to them anymore. And with the increasing amount of security that he has been seeing can only mean one thing, containment. The authorities are probably worried about some person in the hospital being a murderer or serial killer. And since none of their asses could move out of bed. All they really had to do was increase security and then you have an unofficial prison / Holding cell. His thoughts were cut off though, by the door opening to his hospital room.

"Hello Izuku, how are you today? I am Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, I'm head of the SAO task force. Are you well enough to be interviewed?" Detective Tsukauchi said with a smile.

"Is this truly an interview or an interrogation? Because where I'm sitting I'm being unlawfully detained. What, You didn't think that I wouldn't notice the increased presence of Heroes patrolling, the added checkpoints, and my door being only capable of unlocking from the outside." Izuku said a little annoyed. But when he sees the detective flinch at his words, Izuku takes a deep breath before responding again.

"Sorry detective, I understand why you're doing this, I get it, I really do. I'm just really frustrated since I have not seen my loved ones who are also in this hospital for a couple of days now because no one will let me see them." Izuku says which makes the detective let out a long sigh before sagging into one of the chairs in the room. There was silence between the two for a minute but eventually, it was broken.

"How about this if you give me your full cooperation I will arrange a daily face-to-face meet-up for around 2 hours. All you have to do is give me their names and I'll get it done Right after this. Does that sound fair?" Detective Tsukauchi said.

"Yeah yeah, I can agree with that, their names are Rumi Usagiyama and Emi Fukukado. " Izuku says which makes the detective go wide-eyed at the last name.

'That's why Aizawa was trying to get access to this boy. That's fine I'll just add him to the list of people for the daily meet-up.' Detective Tsukauchi thought to himself before responding

"All right, I have their names written down and I will arrange something for tomorrow." Detective Tsukauchi said. Which izuku nodded in agreement seeing the nod the detective Continued.

"Okay, do you mind starting from when you entered SAO, please leave nothing out. Also if you don't think I will believe you on certain parts you should know that I have a lie-detector quirk and can tell if you're telling the truth." Detective Tsukauchi said.

This made Izuku's eyes go wide in excitement at the Mention of his quirk. He wanted to ask a million questions about his quirk but squashed it down. He did not need to make the detective uncomfortable and possibly ruin his chances to see his family again. So after letting out a sigh, he began his tail.

5 Minutes Later

The detective was quite impressed with Izuku. His insight on Akihiko Kayaba Was quite impressive Especially after a small one-way interaction in that Plaza. The kid broke down his mannerisms and his way of speaking and figured out that he was hiding something but did not know what at the time. The detective decided to move on and ask him later if he ever figured out what he was Planning.

"So what happened after the Plaza." Detective Tsukauchi Asked causing Izuku to have a distant look.

Flashback

When Akihiko Kayaba left, it took a good minute for everybody to digest everything he said. Before everybody erupted in panic, as people started running for the exits. It was only thanks to Rumi's quick reaction that Izuku was not trampled. Once Izuku and Rumi were clear of the Stampede they made their way out of the plaza together.

"Okay Dekiru, what is our next move? you know this game better than I do. And I know I won't survive a minute here without your help." Rumi said panting. Izuku hearing her words started formulating a plan.

"Okay, the first thing we need to do is level up. I know a couple of good places and quests to do that. On the way and during my breaks I'll start writing a guidebook. So by the time we get back, I should have enough written down about this floor. I know an NPC on this floor that will allow you to produce handwritten books that players make for free. I will then take them to some vendors and place them on sale for free." Izuku says but this puts a concerned look on Rumi's face.

"Why do we need to leave so quickly, shouldn't you write the guidebook first, then leave? we can also bring some other players with us as well." Rumi said. Which causes Izuku to Grimace at her words.

"Look Miruko, I hate this idea as much as you do. But the spots I'm talking about are limited and could take days or weeks for them to respond. If we had more time I would gladly wait. But the fact is the higher the level we are the more likely we're going to survive in this world. You must understand we're not just going to be fighting monsters but other players might come at us as well And if their higher level than us were screwed. Once we're strong enough we can come back grab the weaker players and take them to those spots. But right now we need to worry about ourselves. Now we need to head West, I know a couple of Quest we can take while we're farming for XP." Izuku says As he let out a long sigh. Rumi hated it but he was right. So with a reluctant nod, the two went West to get the much-needed XP.

Notes:

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