Ayami's eyes fluttered open, her vision was blurry and doubled and her head was heavy with a dull throbbing ache. Blinking a few times helped clear her sight enough to see the white tiled ceiling and grey curtain separating her from the rest of the room. She tried sitting up, but even the attempt of moving made her vision swim and intensified the pounding in her head. Her surroundings rapidly brightened as the curtain was pulled back and a rather diminutive older lady peered in at her.
Ayami quickly recognized her as the Youthful Heroine: Recovery Girl, but was in no shape to nerd out about meeting the foremost medical hero in Japan. "How are you feeling dearie? You really did a number on yourself out there," her voice was soft, but carried the edge of a professional.
"I f-feel like my head got put through a spin cycle...with a brick" Ayami tried to give a light chuckle but was cut off by a wave of nausea.
"Quirk exhaustion is serious business, especially for mental quirks. The brain is very easy to damage and incredibly slow to heal, even for me, you must be more careful in the future." Recovery Girl scolded.
Ayami gave the doctor a thumbs up, not wanting to nod her head lest it make her feel even worse.
"Now now, you've recovered enough stamina that I can finish healing you and send you on home," the healing hero's lips stretched out unnaturally and planted a small smooch onto her temple.
The quirk's effects felt incredibly odd to experience, her mind became so much more alert and full of energy but just as quickly was sapped and fatigued in an entirely different manner. Over the course of thirty seconds, Ayami felt like a brand new woman…who had just finished a marathon.
"You can try and stand up, try some light stretches, but do so carefully. I may have healed you, but it will take a few minutes before you should be walking around," Recovery Girl said as she fully pulled back the curtains and over to a computer.
On the other side of the room, Ayami saw a familiar face. The red-haired girl was sat upright on another bed, her legs dangling off the sides. Her clothes were in rather poor condition, stretched out and covered in various small tears that the girl was focused on lightly sewing shut. Ayami also noticed that the girl herself was equally covered in bandages, mostly on her lower legs and arms.
As Ayami swung her legs over the side of the bed, the girl looked up. "Hey there, glad to see you awake and moving. You gave us quite the scare when you collapsed," she gave a small smile. "Hagakure wanted to stay until you woke up, but her healing went pretty quick and Recovery Girl didn't want her hovering around," a quiet huff came from the other side of the room where the elder hero was sitting.
"My memory is a little foggy, what happened at the end?" Ayami slowly eased weight onto her legs and stood up.
"Well, I was struggling to hold off the zero-pointer and uh…my quirk had an awakening apparently. You blew it away in one shot, but your nose started bleeding and you dropped like a rock. Thanks for the save by the way, I'm Itsuka Kendo," Kendo scooted off the bed and dropped to the floor with a small wince.
"What you both did was still foolish, UA would be shut down if we didn't have safety measures on the robots. They are designed to use proportional force, and fracturing more than a dozen bones from overexertion was your own fault," Recovery Girl chimed in.
"It's not like we knew that going in…" Kendo grumbled. "Oh yeah, Hagakure wanted me to pass this along," she handed Ayami a piece of folded paper.
Unfolding the piece of paper, she found that it contained a hastily scrawled 'thank you' and a phone number. Ayami blushed lightly at the thought of getting a girl's number, but she shook it off quickly. "Thanks Kendo, I need to head home before my mom gets worried and tries breaking down the UA Barrier. I'll see you in the hero course!" Ayami said with a blindingly pure smile.
As the green-haired girl grabbed her bag and left the infirmary, Kendo was left staring blankly at the door with flushed cheeks. " Wow…she had a really pretty smile. Wait fuck, she never said what her name was. " Kendo silently facepalmed and flopped back onto the medical bed.
Unbeknownst to Kendo, Recovery Girl was watching the entire interaction, the corners of her mouth twitched into a slightly smug smile. " Ah the obliviousness of the young, it never grows old "
When Ayami returned home she was pulled into a rib-crushing hug by her mother.
"Where have you been, young lady! I've been waiting here for hours and I haven't heard a word from you." Inko relented on the hug, only so her daughter could collect the air necessary to respond.
"...I…got a bit…roughed up during the exam," Ayami said as she caught her breath. "I'm fine now though! I promise!" she spoke hurriedly before the crushing force could return. "Recovery Girl did a great job healing me, I don't feel sore or anything. OH YEAH I GOT TO SEE SO MANY HEROES, THERE WAS SNIPE, AND PRESENT MIC, AND EVEN ECTOPLASM TOO-" Ayami was pulled into yet another crushing hug, though thankfully much more briefly.
"I'm just glad you are okay Hun, but next time please remember to text me if you are going to be this late, my poor heart can't take it," her mother's voice was stern but carried a hint of sarcasm as she released Ayami.
Ayami flopped onto the couch and pulled out her phone and the paper with Hagakure's number. As she entered it into her contacts list, Inko leaned onto the couch behind her.
"Oooooo Ayamiiiii, did you ask for a girl's number? You're popular with the ladies before you even start school, when can I expect you to bring this mystery girl over?" Inko teased, poking at Ayami's cheek.
"Mooooom! She's just…a girl I met at the exams, it's not like that!" she blushed heavily and covered her face in embarrassment.
"Oh it's not like that? What is it like then?" her mother's expression was insufferably smug, as it rightfully should be. "Alright fine, I'll leave you alone…but I do want to hear about your new friend later."
When Ayami's blush faded, she finished entering Hagakure's phone number in and sent her a text.
MindingMyBusiness: Hi hi, this is Midoriya
YouCantSeeMe: Midoriya! Hey! How are you feeling?
MindingMyBusiness: Not bad tbh, waking up was super rough tho
YouCantSeeMe: Yeaaahhh, I believe it
That nose bleed looked real bad
MindingMyBusiness: I didnt know I got one until Kendo mentioned it
Hows your leg(s?) btw?
YouCantSeeMe: Oh yeah Kendo! You okay with a group chat?
It hurt a ton when everything calmed down, but RG fixed it up pretty fast.
MindingMyBusiness: Uh sure why not, did you get her number?
YouCantSeeMe: Yup yup, one sec
YouCantSeeMe added MotorbikeDyke to the chat.
A few minutes later, Kendo came online.
MotorbikeDyke: Aw fuck I forgot this was my default name.
MotorbikeDyke changed her display name to CatchTheseHands
CatchTheseHands: Thats better, sorry about that
YouCantSeeMe: Lmao ur fine
MindingMyBusiness: No problem here lol
CatchTheseHands: -Sweat Drop Emoji- Anywayyyy how do you think you two did?
MindingMyBusiness: I lost count past 40 but I feel pretty confident
YouCantSeeMe: Way better than I thought when they were explaining the robots
Midoriya helped a ton on the ride over
You were right btw, they totally did have off buttons
I got a little over 30 points I think
CatchTheseHands: Damn Midoriya, trying to steal 1st place from me?
MindingMyBusiness: I wouldn't say that…
CatchTheseHands: The last couple minutes were a blur, but I definitely got more than 40
MindingMyBusiness: Kinda sucks that it takes a whole week to get our results
It hasn't even been a day and im already anxious about it
YouCantSeeMe: ? If you're nervous what the heck does that say about me?
CatchTheseHands: Im sure we all passed, even if we didnt theres still other entrance exams
MindingMyBusiness: True, I've got Seiai's exam on tuesday.
CatchTheseHands: Thank god for Recovery Girl, I only get one day to rest before Shiketsu's
YouCantSeeMe: Aw man I didnt sign up for anything else
Hopefully somewhere has slots open still
The three girls proceeded to text each other for a few more hours, until they were all pulled away for one reason or another.