"There, keep this ice pack in place until the swelling goes down. And I swear if I see you walking around without the crutches-" Natsuo said as he finished bandaging up the boy's leg.
The blonde's hands flew up and he waved them in surrender "I promise Doc! Not like I'm still in the bracket anymore either way." the blonde tried to joke and Natsuo gave the boy the stink eye.
The boy, whom was roughly the same age as he was, sheepishly smiled back at him before reaching for the crutches and stumbling out and making sure not to put any weight on his badly twisted ankle.
Natsuo took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose as he released a very exasperated sigh.
Recovery-San had somehow understated just how foolhardy the students of U.A. were, which he was still struggling to comprehend.
Natsuo had met drug addicts more reasonable than the students here, and that was saying something.
The blonde boy for instance, had twisted his ankle at some point during the obstacle course that had been chosen for the first round, and hadn't said a word about it in fear of being pulled from continuing since the boy felt it 'wasn't that bad.'
A homeless woman he knew by comparison was constantly high but didn't hesitate to call when she thought the drugs she took were laced or if she thought she was going to overdose, well her quirk gave her the clarity to do so but the point still stood.
It was no wonder why Recovery-San had taken to whacking more than a few of the regulars in the medical wing on the back of the head and yelled at them from time-to-time.
If you didn't throw those idiots a constant evil eye they just wouldn't listen, though you had to be careful not to be too scary or they'd not come to you out of fear.
Recovery-San had made sure to emphasize that point when she was training him.
But Taira-Kun had already put him through the best ways to intimidate but not scare, and found it wasn't that different from how Taira-Kun taught him.
Natsuo checked the current fight on his phone and seeing the two going at each as hard as they were caused him to groan, grumbling under his breath as he prepared some burn cream ahead of time.
As he finished getting the burn cream ready and moved over to get a pair of beds ready for both girls that would be coming Natsuo couldn't help wondering if Recovery-San was really being kind by leaving him to work on the third years.
She had insisted that the third years injuries might be more severe but were manageable compared to the first years or second years.
Her reasoning was also quite sound as well.
Third years, would have nearly three years of mentoring to be able to understand how their quirks or inventions would affect others and not hurt their opponents too badly, and most of their injuries were just from them overclocking themselves.
First years typically would not unless their quirks were on the more dangerous side, bar the recommended students who would have some formal training under their belts so their accidents could be worse since they wouldn't have experience to correct them and prevent worse injuries.
Second years were a bit of a both, with more experience but not the proper restraint to put the right safety features in place to protect themselves and others.
And so far, she had been right.
She worst of the injuries so far had been like the last boy, a small injury that hadn't been seen to right away or from overclocking their quirks, like one girl in the support course using her quirk to power one of her inventions and got a twenty-minute nosebleed for her troubles.
Though Natsuo was slowly concluding that hero students were just unable to tell what 'going too far' was in terms of their health in general, and his time in U.A's medical wing hadn't dislodged this theory from his mind.
Sure, if it was a paper cut then he wasn't going to complain if the students didn't bother to come up to see them, or for them to take care of their own muscle cramps by massaging the aching limb instead of sitting around with them.
It was when the kids chose to ignore things they thought were 'minor' that Natsuo took up an issue.
Because for some reason heroes, or hero students in this case, were under the stupid impression that they had to shoulder some pain to be a good hero, and with their building pain tolerance that meant that they would ignore more serious problems.
Like the twisted ankle of the boy just in here, or the no doubt multiple burns the two girls fighting right now and would likely have when they come after the fight was finished.
And when people ignored that kind of wounds, they ended up getting worse and would take longer to heal, or in the worst case scenario leave someone with a permanent injury.
A twisted ankle wasn't as bad as a permanent limp, and burns should be treated before they catch sepsis or something.
Recovery-San had once recounted a story from when she first started working as a nurse here, a girl with a speed quirk, Recovery-San refused to specify beyond that, had somehow hid her leg fracture and broke it further.
So, when she did find out about the break it was too late to fix it, something that would leave the girl with a permanent limp that would make her less effective in the field.
A very sad story that could have been worse which was why Recovery-San took a very long time to go over the most common injuries hidden by students that would lead to worse conditions.
Which Natsuo already knew, but he tried to be appreciative of the refresher Recovery-San gave him either way.
His thoughts though were interrupted by a call from the walkie-talkie, something Recovery-San requested just in case he got overwhelmed or a more serious injury happened at any of the sites.
"Natsuo speaking." he said answering the call.
"Time for a check in Natsuo-Kun." Recovery-San told him over the radio "I've got another pair of electrical burns from some failed wiring in a support students design, one girl with a broken hand and a poor dear whom is still calming down from a panic attack." Recovery-San informed.
That brought the second year up to an even baker's dozen worth of injured students.
"Just had one of the heroes come in with a twisted ankle he ignored since the first round and I'm expecting at least two more to come in with burns any minute." Natsuo responded in kind and he could barely hear Recovery-San grumbling about third years, the radio didn't relay it perfectly.
He'd probably agree with whatever she said though, the three students would bring the number of students he'd seen up to the thirties now.
"How about you Master-Kun?" Recovery-San pressed startling Natsuo for a second because he forgot that Master-Mind had volunteered to take care of the first years.
"Hm, got the first fighters in. Mainly bruised and the winner has some split knuckles, the loser of the second match has some rope burn but that's all for now." Master-Mind answered.
"And you're certain that there aren't any students that are not avoiding being treated?" Recovery-San questioned.
"Yes, I asked the last student that came in and apparently the first years have sworn off their quirks in protest." Master-Mind told her in reply.
"In protest of what?" Natsuo couldn't help asking, because in all of his years he's never heard of a student protest during the festival, Enji would have absolutely complained about that if it had happened.
"The crowd didn't seem to approve of Midoriya-San as the umpire, the students with enhanced hearing apparently also heard more than one quirkest up in the stands and weren't shy in telling the other students between the rounds." Master-Mind explained it to them.
Natsuo stopped to suck in a breath.
"And they just… decided to not use their quirks? Unanimously?" Natsuo pressed unsure what he was hearing was correct.
"A show of solidarity if what Yokino-Kun explained is to be believed. I haven't had anyone come in with any quirk related injuries so far, almost entirely hand-to-hand, typical round related, or support course tech related injuries." Master-Mind replied.
Natsuo's mouth opened and closed.
He was sheltered for a Two-toes, working with Taira-Kun had taught him that much, but he'd have to be brain-dead to not understand the ripples this would have, especially in the Two-toes community.
Having an entire year of the most elite school in the country publicly take the side of the Two-toes and actively defend them towards everyone that was watching... that was something that would have the whole world talking for weeks.
He knew that the festival was watched on an international level so there was no way this protest of the students would not reach the rest of the world, and then people on the news would start talking about it and probably voice their opinions of the matter.
But more importantly, how many Two-toes out there would hear of this and start crying?
Natsuo hadn't been that tormented for being a Two-toes since he only had to deal with Enji and he stopped caring about what that man thought of him years ago, but that didn't stop a lump from forming in his throat at the thought of it.
Because as much as he tried to pretend it didn't string when he was younger, he couldn't help being envious of Fuyumi and Touya because Enji and his mom treated them differently because they had quirks and he didn't.
Since they learned that he was a Two-toes the only time Enji looked his way was to scold him if that, Mom and Fuyumi started to treat him like glass, well mom more or less pitied him and Fuyumi insisted on helping him with things like tying his shoes.
Shouto had no clue he was a Two-Toes, the fact he didn't have a quirk hadn't come up and Enji never could outright say that any of his kids could be 'hollow' like he was.
But Touya? He never changed how he treated him.
Natsuo's hands clenched, and he hung his head at the sudden thought.
It was one of the reasons he used to cling so tightly to Touya's side back then, to his older brother he'd always been Natsuo, quirk or not he was just another one of Touya's bratty siblings.
Touya only changed how he treated Natsuo after he...
Natsuo bit his lip, he didn't like thinking about that day.
But he'd be a liar if he said that it hadn't brought him and Touya closer as siblings or that he didn't adore the change it made in his formerly distant brother that used to look annoyed whenever he begged Touya to play with him.
People were allowed to snap sometimes, Touya was just eight and with how much pressure and abuse Enji had laid on him for years it wasn't fully his brother's fault for what he did.
And maybe that made him sound like Fuyumi but Enji and Touya weren't the same.
Enji used the whole lot of them as a bunch of tools and treated them like shit because of his stupid grudge against All Might and his self-given goal to overcome his one-sided rival.
Touya on the other hand lost his cool for a moment and never acted like that ever again, he never apologized yes, but Touya did make up for it by being a much better brother to him and Shouto and went out of his way to protect them from Enji.
Touya probably would have been nicer to Fuyumi too if she wasn't constantly trying to butt in and defending Enji's actions.
And having taken on his fair share of arguments with Fuyumi about Enji in Touya's place after his brother passed, he couldn't say he blamed Touya for the attitude he had towards Fuyumi, he wanted to rip his hair some days after 'talking' with her some days.
The sound of the door opening and two sheepish girls entering the room, one limping and held up by the other girl, forcibly brought Natsuo out of his train of thought and back to where he was.
The third-year medical wing, supposed to be treating the injured students and not lost in mentally rambling over his shitty family situation.
"Got to go, students have arrived." Natsuo quickly told the two on the radio, the pair apparently still talking with each other while he was lost in his own head.
Natsuo put the radio back and went to work, scolding both girls for being so reckless as he got on a pair of gloves so he could examine the burns on the two girls, shooing them over the beds to get off their feet.