When I opened my eyes I was met with a white ceiling. I was in a hospital room. I wasn't hurting like before but I was definitely stiff and aching and my mouth was dry. Taking a look at my arms they were wrapped in bandages from my elbows all the way down to each individual finger was wrapped as well. I wiggled my fingers and they moved stiffly. Frowning at that I also noticed my rib cage was wrapped by bandages as well due to my broken ribs. What I most was worried for was my eye. My head was wrapped and the left side of my face as well. I wanted to take the bandage off and see the damage but figured I should leave it on.
Taking a glance around my room I seen many cards and even some flowers and a stuffed animal cat. Smiling at the cat on my side table I slowly reached over and grabbed it holding it to my body. 'How long have I been out..?' I wondered. Then my hospital room door opened. It was Mr. Aiwaza.
"Hey.." I weakly said giving a small smile.
"Moshizuki, I am glad to see you are awake" Mr. Aiwaza responded. Grabbing the chair in the room he took a seat next to my bed.
"So how long have I been out?" I asked.
"Just a day. Those dumb kids brought you to the hospital and Recovery Girl has been by once"
Nervously I mumbled out "what's the damage..?"
Sighing he took his hand and rubbed his face, obviously very tired. "Well you still have a bit of a road ahead of you. Your ribs are mostly healed, your hands need a few more rounds of Recovery Girl's healing. Your lungs are a bit inflammed so you have a steorid inhaler you need to use daily for the next few weeks. As for your face and eye.." he trailed off. I gripped the sheets of my bedding and looked down hiding my eyes. That didn't sound good.
"There will be some scarring on your face. And your eye..I'm sorry. The nerve endings in your eye were severed and could not be repaired. You will be blind in that eye" he finished.
At first I didn't say anything. Just stayed in the position I was in. Then my shoulders began to shake and I couldn't hold back my tears. Mr. Aiwaza got up from his chair and approached me. Putting a hand on my head he said "I'm sorry Moshizuki I really am"
Wiping my tears I whispered "Mr. Aiwaza I think I want to be alone right now I'm sorry..."
Nodding his head he continued "I understand. I just will say a few more things and I will let you be. Due to the situation we are going to require the students to live in dorms on the UA campus. Once you are released from the hospital we will send a car for you."
Giving a small nod indicating I understood he then left the room. Holding the stuffed kitty I curled up in my hospital bed and just let the tears fall. Could I be a strong hero with just one eye? How could I let this happen?
At the UA dorms the students had just been getting settled in. Mr. Aiwaza had just explained to them the almost-consequences of their actions of rescuing Bakugo and Emi. Then after a short and sweet tour of the place the students were released to unpack their belongings. They were all in the lounge area downstairs when they heard a car door shut out front. Mina ran to the window and took a look outside "its Emi-chan!"
Mostly everyone got up to go greet their friend outside. Outside they seen Emi, wearing a black cropped tank top and gray sweatpants. Her blonde hair just down and straight not tied up like normal. Her arms were still bandaged along with her eye and side of her head, and you could see the bandages around her chest peaking through her tank top.
She had her head down and a expressionless look on her face. The driver had been getting a couple boxes and her bag out of the trunk.
"Emi-chan!!" Kirishima ran forward. "How are you?? I see you are still pretty bandaged up"
Replying Emi said "I've been better" giving a weak and very fake smile.
"Here! Let us help you with your stuff" Kaminari said grabbing a box. Kirishima grabbed the other box and Mina grabbed Emi's dufflebag. Emi's bangs shadowed her face and she gave a subtle nod with a quiet "thank you"
Midoriya and Uraraka gave each other uneasy glances. Emi was definitely not okay. Yaoyorozu came forward and immediately gave Emi a hug "Emi! I am so sorry about the training camp! If I had been stronger maybe you wouldn't have gotten taken" Emi didn't return her hug just continued to look down. Yaoyorozu released the hug looking concerned at Emi. "Please let's not talk about the training camp" and with that Emi walked past her and into the dorms.
The students looked between each other and then followed inside. Mina came up to her first, "here! Let me show you where your room is." Again Emi just nodded and began to follow Mina. Emi seen Bakugo sitting on the couch and stopped and looked at him for a beat. They made eye contact and then Emi quickly turned away headed to the elevator with Mina. Bakugo watched her go to the elevator, an unreadable look on his face.
Up in Emi's dorm the three had put her stuff in her room and Emi asked if they could leave her be to unpack. She sat on her bed and just looked at floor. 'They are looking at me like a broken doll' she thought squeezing her hands into fists.
No one heard from Emi the rest of the night.
A knock came at my door late that night. At first I ignored it, not wanting company. Then they knocked again and I heard Katsuki "open this damn door before I blow it off the hinges!" Sighing, I stood and cracked the door open. "What" I simply said. Katsuki ignored me and just kicked my door open and let himself in. With wide eyes I just looked at him. "He-hey! I didn't say you could come in!" I told him exasperated.
"Don't care" was his reply while he sat on my bed. Begrudgingly shutting the door behind me I asked again "what?" He met me with his eyes and just gave me a look. Then he looked at me top to bottom taking in my injuries. "How bad is it?" He asked quietly.
I was not ready for this conversation. Squeezing my eyes shut and then opening them I looked down. "I don't want to talk about it"
"I don't care! Tell me! You're moping around like a puppy!" He barked at me.
Looking at him in disbelief I thought 'he's not going to take no for an answer is he?' Turning away from him to avoid eye contact I hugged myself. After a few moments of silence I spoke.
"I'm blind in my left eye. And there will be scars on my face. I haven't taken the bandages off yet so I don't know how bad it is" gripping my upper arms, making my hands ache, I continued "my ribs are fine. My hands aren't healed but they will be after a few more rounds from Recovery Girl. And i need to use a steroid inhaler for a bit because my lungs were irritated probably from using my support device back to back" then it was silence. I didn't turn around, I didn't want to face him. I heard him get up and walk towards me. "Hey" he said. I ignored him, squeezing my arms tighter. "Hey!" He yelled again, grabbing my shoulders and making me look at him. "You're gonna hurt yourself worse you idiot" he said, grabbing my forearms and making me let go of myself. Looking him in the eyes, I started to tear up.
"What does it matter? I can't be a hero like this!" I started to get angry. Not mad at him, just angry at my situation. "I am blind in my left eye and this only happened because I am so weak! I can't be a hero Katsuki I am pathetic! I let those villains defeat me! How can I protect people if I can't protect myself?!" I started to cry and to my surprise he hugged me. Feeling my walls fall I hugged him back and began to sob. This wasn't fair at all.
"I've-I've been wanting to look under the bandage but I can't bring myself to do it..." I trailed off. Backing up Katsuki looked at the left side of my face eyeing the wound, gently he started to remove the bandage. I was frozen, my cheeks were tinted pink. I had never been this close to his face before. But the thought quickly left me as I began to dread what was under the wrapping. After about a minute he finished taking it off and he just stared, inspecting my face.
"How bad is it...?" I asked. I seen him clench his fists and look down.
"I'm gonna kill those bastards for doing this to you" he was so angry when he spoke.
Slowly, I walked to the mirror in my room and gasped at what I seen. From the middle of my forehead to the bottom of my eye all the way to my temple was red and rough. My eye looked empty and my usual bright pink was a faded pink making my eyes two different colors. Falling to the floor sitting on my knees I started to cry again. Katsuki came to my side also kneeling, put his arm around me and pulled me close. I was leaning on him just crying. 'I look hideous..' I thought.
"I can't show my face like this" I fianlly whimpered through my crying. "I look so ugly!!"
Sighing Katsuki replied "No you don't dummy. You couldn't look ugly if you wanted to idiot" my face was still leaning on his chest so I couldn't see his face but it made me feel better. One thing about Katsuki, he was always honest and that's why I honored his word always.
Bringing my hand to the left side of my face I tested the waters. I really couldn't see out of it, I could still see in front of me well, but from my shoulder and on I couldn't see anything in my left peripheral vision without turning my head. Letting out a breath I looked up at Katsuki.
"I'm going to need to train extra hard with this large of a blind spot" I stated.
With a big smirk on his face he said "That is what i like to hear. Not all that 'I can't' bullshit!!" He replied.
Smiling a genuine smile, I just closed my eyes and let out a laugh.
Everything would be okay.
Katsuki left a bit after and I unpacked my room after that. Being originally from the orphanage, and then living on my own for awhile I never required much stuff. My bedspread was a plain beige with white pillows and sheets and it had my cat stuffed animal on it as well. On my desk I had some pro hero action figures including All Might and Endeavor and a small speaker to play music off my phone. I had a few rock band posters on my walls and some horror movie ones as well. One my bed side table I just had my alarm clock and a single picture, the one I took at the Sport's Festival of our whole class. Lastly was a black and white tie dye rug in my floor and a pink bean bag chair.
My room was simple enough and I wasn't one for jewerly or makeup or nail polish. I had some throw blankets in my closet and that was the basis of my room. I checked the clock and it blinked 1:35am. Sighing to myself I knew I stayed up too late. Laying down in my bed I thought about Katsuki and how kind he was to me. He came to my room because he knew I needed a kick in the butt to stop feeling sorry to myself. I thought of our hug and his fingers grazing my face as he took the wrappings off my face. Blushing hard I cuddled my kitty stuffy tight and hid under the blanket. 'Come to think of it, who gifted me this cat?' I wondered. One of my classmates for sure but I wasn't sure which one. Forgetting about that I started wondering why Katsuki came to my room. Did he..like me? Or was he just being a friend? Thinking of Katsuki I went to sleep smiling.
When I woke up that morning I was extremely exhausted considering I didn't get much rest. I still had one more day before classes offically started up again, but I had to go meet Recovery Girl daily to finish healing. Sighing to myself I got up and got dressed. I threw on an oversized band tee and some soft shorts. You could barely tell I had pants on but I didn't care. You could clear as day see my arms were heavily bandaged and I contemplated covering my face back up to hide my eye. Thinking about it, I decided no. They would see it eventually and I needed to come to terms with it. Stepping into the hall I tried to remember who Mina had mentioned was on my floor. I was on the fourth floor, I think it was Mina, Uraraka, and I on the girls side and Shoji, Kirishima, and Katsuki on the boys side.
There was a dorm room contest but I had missed it, gladly so I hadn't been in a good headspace yesterday to be surrounded by everyone. Making my way to the elevator I went down to the lounge, basically everyone was downstairs and there had been some leftover breakfast on the counter so I made myself a plate and began to eat. Momo came and sat next to me "Hey Emi.." she started to say but I cut her off.
"Momo, I want to apologize for yesterday. I am not mad at your nor do I blame any of what happened at the training camp on you" I gave her a genuine smile "I'm sorry!"
Smiling back at me Momo gave me a hug "I knew you didn't blame me at all! But I do feel guilt over the situation." Glancing at my eye I could tell she wanted to ask.
"It's okay really. My arms will heal. And my eye" I lightly grazed my eyebrow on my left side "my eye is damaged. I won't be able to see out of it but its okay! Being a hero I knew sometimes we would be in danger and have the possibility of being injured"
I could feel all the ears in the room listening to my words. Momo looked at me and began to tear up. Almost knocking me out of my seat she gave me a big hug that I returned.
"I am so sorry Emi!!" She cried.
Patting her back I assured her "Really Momo! It is okay."
At that I continued to eat my breakfast and casually talk to Momo. After that I started towards Recovery Girl's office. On my way out of the building Katsuki followed me.
"what are you up to?" I asked casually eyeing him.
"what do you think dummy? I am coming with you." He rolled his eyes at me shoving his hands in his pockets.
Smiling to myself we walked in silence to the school.
Knocking on her door, I went in with Katsuki.
"there you are! Its nearly 10am I've been waiting for you all morning!" Recovery Girl scolded me.
Sweatdropping I put my hand up in surrender "I'm sorry! I wasn't told a specific time to be here!"
"It's fine. Now take a seat so we can get started" I sat on the bed and Katsuki silently took thr chair next to me. Recovery Girl paid him no mind and began to work on me.
Unravelling the bandages on my arms, I got a good look at the damage on my hands. There were large ugly lightening-bolt looking scars on the middle of both my palms. Thinking back to the gapping holes that were there previously I was thankful it wasn't worse.
"Have you tried to use your quirk any?" Recovery Girl questioned me while inspecting each of my arms.
"Uhh no. I didn't think I was supposed to" I replied sheepishly smiling.
"No that's good. I want you to try to use it now" she stated.
Looking down at my hands for a minutes I tried to let out a small breeze of wind. Nothing happened. I could feel Katsuki watching me. Furrowing my brows I tried again, harder. Nothing.
Panic set in me "it-it isn't working!!" I was trying not to freak out.
"Calm down, let me see" she began prodding at my forearms. I waited in silence nervous for what she was going to say. Then giving a quick kiss intiating her quirk I felt my arms sooth.
"try again" she instructed.
I tried to let out a small breeze and a large gust of wind erupted causing papers to fly. With wide eyes I started to apologize.
"I'm sorry! I really just tried to do a small breeze!"
"No its okay. I think your quirk was effected by your injuries more than I thought. I'll finish healing you and I want you to take it easy the rest of the day while your stamina recovers"
Nodding my head I let her continue. She gave a quick smooch to the side of my head and the tenderness of my face lessened and my rib cage felt better too. Katsuki just say quietly in the corner brooding like normal.
Bowing to thank her, we exited her office.
"Katsuki, I think I'm going to go on a walk in the forest. You can go ahead and walk back without me" I said, not trying to be suspicious. I planned on practicing using my quirk regardless of Recovery Girl telling me to rest. I needed to know how this was going to affect me, my chances of being a hero.
Eyeing me and staying quiet still he shrugged his shoulders and kept walking. I felt there wasn't a need to question his quietness. With us the silence was never awkward, it was comforting.
As we split off I went to a clearing in the woods to practice.
Bakugo walked enough for Emi to think that he had walked back to class, but really he was following her. He had a sneaking suspicion she was going to not rest like Recovery Girl told her. He knew her too well.
Stealthily going into the woods behind her, he crouched down and watched. She had walked to a semi-open area and faced a tree. Putting her hands out infront of her she let out a huge blast of air that made her fall back on her butt.
"Shit! What the heck is going on? I have like no control..." she trailed off talking to herself. Getting up she walked closer to the tree and reared back. She punched the tree accompanied by a gust of wind. The bark of the tree had a crater left in it. Bakugo's eyebrows raised in shock, she hadn't even put that much into her punch.
Shaking the hand she punched with, it still being sore, she reared back with her other fist and started pummeling the tree, blow after blow it cracked more and more. Stepping back from the tree she picked a new target. A large boulder sat in the dirt. Aiming both hands at it she let out a "gah!" and shot wind towards it causing the giant rock to roll forward quite a bit. Pumping her hands open and closed trying to ignore the aching in it she kept training.
Katsuki quietly watched her, wondering why he was really there. 'To make sure this idiot doesn't hurt herself..right?' It went on for a little while until Emi ended up sprawled out on the dirt huffing and puffing.
'Ugh I went too far. My lungs are on fire and my hands are numb' Emi thought to herself, completely beat. She laid there with her forearm across her eyes as the sun beat in her face. Then a shadow stood over her. Uncovering her arms she looked tonsee what was blocking the light.
Bakugo stood at her head glaring down at Emi.
"I thought you were supposed to be resting?" He questioned sarcastically.
Scoffing at him, Emi just covered her eyes again and ignored him.
"You are an idiot" he stated plainly and proceeded to bring her to her feet.
"you stalker" she mumbled playfully bumping him with her shoulder.
"Hey you little shit!! I shoulda left you in the dirt!!" He shouted fuming.
Giggling to myself I began to run back to the UA dorms.
"I bet you can't catch me slowpoke!" I teased.
"In your dreams idiot!!!" And he bursted out an explosion flying past her.
The two of them raced, Emi smiling the whole way.