The Hero & The Demon
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sora Kinzoku slept. And as she slept, she dreamt.
Sora didn't remember dreams very often when she was growing up, though she was told she was quite restless in her sleep so she assumed they had to be exciting. She often wondered about what sort of things she was seeing that she could barely recall, but she didn't spend all that much time on it. They were a passing curiosity for the most part.
If the scene in front of her was typical, she was glad she didn't remember much.
The ground beneath her feet was a rocky desert of some kind, though it was clear that it hadn't always been that way. Scattered across the rocks were shapes far too artificial to be natural. Bricks and tiles that had been smashed, and remnants of what had clearly once been homes. They didn't seem like buildings she remembered – none of this was familiar to her at all. It resembled a scene from a fantasy story more than anything from her life.
The sky was a sunset orange, and the light was fading from view slowly. Sora could faintly see stars arranged in seemingly random assortments in the air, held in positions that made no sense to her. She supposed that made sense given this was a dream. Things were probably being placed in all sorts of random orders as her brain tried to populate her unconscious thoughts.
She wished that it didn't include bodies.
She still appeared as herself, though there was a transparency to her that was unusual, like she was a ghost haunting this desolated land. Still, she could interact with it, so she ran over to one of the nearest bodies she could see. They looked human, for the most part. Their ears were pointed and they seemed perhaps a little taller than average, but there was nothing all that unusual about them.
Dried blood pooled all around the body. It was darker than she expected, almost black in colour. She was never comfortable seeing blood, and just looking at this sight made her stomach churn uneasily. They had a vacant expression on their face that might have, at one distant time long ago, been a smile.
She soon saw why. There were two other bodies near this one – what looked to be a woman and a small child. The child was clutching something close to their chest, but Sora didn't have the heart to investigate any further. The woman had one arm positioned over the child, either trying to shove them back or hold them close – at this point, it was impossible to tell. The only thing these sights made clear were that the bodies were dead.
She moved slowly through the deserted wastes, and she saw many more bodies just like those ones. One thing was clear as she witnessed them – most had been wounded, either by something approximating a gunshot or some sort of blade. The ones at the front of the area, where she had appeared, seemed to all be older. If she had to guess, it had been at least a couple of days since they had been killed.
As she got further in, however, the bodies starting getting fresher. The blood on the ground was wet and damp, not yet dried into the cragged surface below her feet. Nothing stuck to her in her ghostly state, but she could feel it as though it had. She suppressed the urge to vomit. Doing so would only make it worse.
"It's just a dream." She reminded herself. She was aware that dreams where one was cognisant of the fact they were dreaming were supposed to be lucid; dreams where the dreamer could control the events and experiences that occurred. She tried to compel one of the bodies to rise, or force the blood to be cleaned.
No luck. She had no control beyond where she moved, it seemed.
The buildings seemed to be in better states the further in she went, as well. What were once nothing but the smallest scraps and echoes of homes soon drifted over into clearer structures that she could make out. They were made of some kind of stone, and several of them had glass windows that were now mostly shattered. The ground gave way to laid out paths. Well-worn ones that were missing chunks, but the wastes weren't so featureless as they were coming in.
She was at a town. Or perhaps a village, she was never sure what the difference between those two was supposed to be. Perhaps she would have thought on that longer had she not heard footsteps.
Immediately, she threw herself behind the nearest wall she could see. The only thing she had learned about this place was that it had been attacked and massacred, after all. She had to proceed carefully. The sounds of motion were closer than she was comfortable with, but nothing was breathing down her neck.
The movements were accompanied by whirring sounds. Small, metallic noises that seemed so very out of place given the environment and surroundings she had seen so far. She peered over the wall, allowing her curiosity to guide her. This was just a dream, right? There was no way anything bad would really happen to her.
What she saw pacing around was a baffling sight. It was a mechanical humanoid, bone white and almost skeletal in proportion. It had thin, long limbs and a head that bore a single large eye that took up most of its face, as well as two sharp points just below it that resembles an insect's mandibles. At the torso, there was a large circular area that contained a swirling ball of energy that writhed with various colours.
Something about that in particular unsettled Sora. The way the energies moved was fascinating, almost hypnotic. Under different conditions, she might have even described is as beautiful. But there was something about it that was profoundly wrong. Like it was somewhere it wasn't supposed to be.
"CHIK-CHIK, VRRR." The machine looked around and made several strange noises. Sora guessed it was communicating, though she had no idea who or what it was talking to. It hadn't seemed to have noticed her yet, though it paced around like it was looking for something. It was peering over other ruined walls, kicking bodies over.
One of the bodies twitched.
In an instant, the machine's eye burned red and it spun to the body. Two blades of glowing white energy pulsed out from its forearm and stabbed into the body. The mandibles on the machine's mouth opened and gave it the appearance of a sadistic grin.
The body let out a gasp, and Sora knew immediately that it was still alive. The poor fool must have been playing dead, hoping to avoid the search of the mechanical monsters like this one. Were there other survivors still around, too?
"It's just a dream; it's just a dream..." Sora repeated under her breath as she watched the scene. A part of her screamed that she had to move, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. This was simply too much for her, and she was scared. Besides, what could she even do? She was a ghost here, barely able to interact with what she was seeing.
She was powerless here. She often was, but it wasn't usually shown so plainly to her. She was watching someone die and she wasn't able to do anything.
"No." She said, clenching her fists. She knew what she was going to do was a terrible idea, that it was stupid and probably wouldn't be worth anything. But that didn't mean she could just watch someone die like this. "I have to try."
"HEY!" She leapt out from the wall and waved emphatically at the machine. She had been expecting it to ignore her, honestly. She assumed she would at least have to get closer before she was able to do anything.
She was wrong. It noticed her straight away. Its blades vanished and the other body fell back down to the ground. Sora didn't know if there was any way it could have survived, but she had to hope it had. She had to believe the things she was doing meant something.
"Why?" A part of her found itself asking. "What does it matter? Saving that person doesn't do anything for you." She couldn't argue with it. There really was no benefit to saving some random person she had never met, particularly if it got her killed in the process.
But she was a hero now. A hero student, at least. Didn't that mean she was supposed to act here?
No, that wasn't convincing. Since when had she started really caring about becoming a hero? Sure, she didn't want to let the people close to her die if she could help it, but she wasn't like the others in that she couldn't see herself risking her life the same way for total strangers.
And yet, here she was, doing just that.
She was sprinting away from an evil robot monster thing that was chasing her through desecrated wastes of a once thriving town, desperately trying to keep herself even a little bit ahead of its clanging feet that pounded against the ground. All for the sake of someone whose face she didn't even get a clear view at, whose voice she had never heard. Someone she had no reason to believe was anyone she could possibly have recognised.
All this in a dream, where she was sure that despite how things appeared and felt, it didn't truly matter what happened to anyone. Only here was she acting like a true hero was expected to. There was something funny about that, she thought.
She was only a proper hero in her sleep. If only UA could see her now.
She gasped as the machine managed to grab her by the hair and pull her painfully off her feet. She hissed in pain as it brought her towards its face. The mandibles were closed and it looked almost confused to see her. Its head tilted, as though it was baffled by her presence. Sora tried to kick the thing's chest, but it didn't seem to faze it in the slightest. Her leg banged uselessly against whatever metal it was made from.
It didn't hurt her like she had expected it to, though. She tried punching it, but produced similar results. No pain, but no gain. In the spirit of scientific enquiry, she continued this experiment into how much it would take to hurt the thing.
Its grip on her head loosened, but only because it briefly tossed her up to grab her by the neck. She decided that her frantic gasps for air as its mechanised hand crushed her throat meant that results were inconclusive.
She tried to summon her wings, but nothing came out. With the pain she was feeling – and wasn't that a strange thing to find in a dream, - she wasn't able to focus clearly enough to summon them. For a few seconds, she thought she heard the thing creak, as though her body was trying to absorb its metal, but it didn't work. She couldn't transmute its body to form anything in her state.
Well, this was it. Time to end this dream, and with it, whatever baffling reasons she had for trying to save a total stranger. Clearly, it had been a mistake. That said, she couldn't deny that running from a metal monster had some appeal to it.
She liked a good thrill. Maybe that was enough of a reason to act. It wasn't noble, it certainly wasn't heroic. But if it got the job done, did it matter?
She didn't know, but no one was around to judge her for it.
Her eyes almost rolled back into her head and the world seemed like it was flickering away. It would all be over soon.
And then, she was dropped.
In an instant, the metallic creature dropped her down to the floor. She found herself collapsed onto the ground, gasping up lungsful of air gratefully. Her eyes were wet and damp with relief. She wiped them, looking back up to her attacker.
An armoured fist had punched its way cleanly through the robot's torso. The swirling mass of energy began shaking violently before erupting out. Sora raised an arm to cover her eyes as lights of all sorts of colours flung themselves up into the air. It was as though a renaissance painting had spontaneously combusted.
The fist pulled out of the robot's chest and the thing collapsed back, revealing her saviour. They were an armoured figure, their form resembling a knight. There were pipes that lined the suit that contrasted against its otherwise simplistic polish. Their helmet had a red visor, though the rest looked like polished steel for the most part.
They looked down at the machine in apparent disdain before looking down to Sora. They extended a three-fingered hand. Though she couldn't see their expression, she could tell the figure was looking at them with concern.
"Ik terruo nix?"
The language wasn't something Sora recognised in the slightest. It sounded like complete gibberish to her. The voice, however, was exceedingly familiar. She had been speaking to it just earlier that day about her worries for battle training.
She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that Kage Sekai's voice came from her saviour, but it still made her eyes widen.
"T-thanks." She said slowly, holding her hand out and allowing the figure to quickly pull her to her feet. She wasn't sure how, but she could tell they had understood her. Perhaps the language barrier was just some weird dream logic, as was most of what was happening. She still found it strange just how much force she could feel in this dream, though. She had felt clear pain from being attacked. As far as she knew, that wasn't supposed to happen.
"Who are you?" She asked, hoping she would be able to pick out from the figure's language what their name was versus the rest of their speech. She looked around, though she saw no other knights or armoured figures like this one. "Are you alone? A survivor from here, maybe?" She realised she was just thinking aloud, but she was compelled to find sense in what she was experiencing.
The figure tilted their head at her. Sora hesitated, wondering if perhaps she was less intelligible to the figure than she thought. She pointed to herself.
"My name is Sora." She said slowly. She then pointed to the figure. "Who are you?" They seemed to realise what she was trying to say this time, letting out a sigh of realisation and nodding. They placed a hand on their chest.
"Tero-u K-." There was a strange wind that blew away their words as they spoke, so Sora could only make out the first letter of their name. The dream itself seemed to be distorting as they said it. The ground began to shake, and the sky rippled.
"What's happening?" She looked around nervously, stepping back. The figure didn't react to her. They too were fizzling and rippling away like some sort of mirage. The entire landscape was falling apart, dissolving like a painting someone had splashed water onto. Sora tried to activate her Quirk, but nothing happened once more. The world collapsed around her, whilst she was powerless to do anything.
She struggled to remain conscious as the world continued to shake and collapse around her, but for a moment, she saw one more figure standing in the world's remains. A being of pitch black, with long limbs and a skeletal form that almost resembled smoke. The only colour on their appearance were two sharp eyes that were a pure golden colour.
"HELP!" She cried out, not knowing what else to do. Falling wasn't a fear Sora usually had, given her ability to fly, but this dream was different. Everything about it was unusually real, thus she had no idea if there would be any consequences when she awoke. "Whoever you are, help me! Please!" Much to her surprise, the pitch-black figure turned to see her.
It tilted its head, confused. In a moment, it travelled the distance between them and grabbed onto Sora's hand as the ground beneath her feet fell. Sora held on tight, though the figure's hand seemed to burn her upon contact.
"You should not be here. The connection is...strange." Sora had no idea what they were talking about, but at least she could understand their language. She felt herself struggling to maintain her grip on the figure, but she refused to let go. She did not want to find out what would happen if she did.
"I have no idea what that means." She said through frantic breaths in an attempt to calm herself down. She considered looking down, then decided against it. After which, she of course decided to do it anyway, and let out a yelp as she saw the terrifying expanse of nothing beneath her.
No, not quite nothing. There was a swirling mass of some smoke-like substance all around beneath her, with various colours flashing and dancing around it just out of view. It was like some strange, artistic rendition of a thunderstorm made only from some someone describing what one looked like to a painter who had never once been outside.
She tried to pull her legs up, instinctively wanting to curl up into a ball, but the resulting effort only caused her grip to loosen more. The figure continued to hold her, still looking confused. It looked like the figure was knelt down on something, but Sora couldn't see any ground beneath its feet.
"I-is this dream because of you?" Sora tried to distract herself from her rising panic by instead indulging her rampant curiosity. "Is that what you mean by connection?" The figure paused for a long moment before slowly nodding its head.
"The connection is there to share things. To show them." They explained. Their voice was strangely distant despite how close they were to one another, and it held an odd echo to it. It seemed like a voice that might have a rasp to it, but it was hard to make out. "But it should not be here yet. This is unexpected."
"Yeah, you're telling me." Sora agreed with perhaps an overly sarcastic tone given that this figure was her lifeline. "Who are you? Why are we connected?" The figure didn't look at Sora for a moment, turning away to stare ahead of them. Sora tried to crane her head to look, but she didn't see anything but more smoke.
"We were meant to be connected, just not so soon. It was forced open before, briefly. Perhaps that is why? He has taken an interest in you..." The figure seemed thoughtful. Sora would have loved to ask more questions about what the hell it was talking about, but her grip slipped and she found herself hanging on only by her quivering fingers. The figure did not let go of her, but it did nothing to help her up either.
"H-help me!" She tried to get their attention once more. The figure turned to face her. With only eyes present, its expression was unreadable, but Sora didn't get the sense it was entirely listening to her. It was as though the figure wasn't quite all there.
"You asked who I am." It chose to answer her question instead of helping her. "I did not expect you to know of me so early, but I suppose it would be a waste not to speak. I have not been able to communicate like this for some time. The other, he...he is not yet ready. It hurts to speak to him. You are different." Sora's grip finally failed her, and her body fell into the strange abyss beneath them. But the figure kept speaking for one more moment. Sora couldn't quite make out what it said after a certain point, but she got something.
"My name is K-"
"-age Sekai, will you please relax?!" Recovery Girl lightly tapped him on the head with her cane, causing Kage to flinch back and release his grip on Sora's bed. It was a good thing she did so, as he realised that he had been using his superhuman strength and seemed to have bent the metal sides.
"Sorry, sorry." He apologised for what must have been the twelfth time in the last hour. As soon as the battle training had ended, he had made for the nurse's office as fast as he could. He had to hold himself back a little bit just to make sure he didn't bump into All-Might and accidentally discover the man's secret.
He only just passed him as the man exited the room, and he was fortunate enough to be able to play it off as assuming the man was some kind of staff assistant or janitor. He'd met Toshinori before and knew he was an assistant to All-Might, so it was also reasonable for him to just assume the man went where All-Might did.
Neither of them mentioned how Toshinori was still wearing All-Might's costume. Kage thought it best to simply play dumb as much as he could there. Fortunately, the man was desperate to get away and thus asked no further questions.
Kage had enough of those on his mind for today.
Thanks to his body's reset ability, he didn't actually need much treatment from Recovery Girl. Falling from that building had hurt, but he was fortunate enough to not have even broke anything. Tokoyami still felt the need to apologise, but Kage was quick to dismiss it.
"Don't worry about it." He had said in the changing rooms after the battles were all done. "Honestly, I probably brought it on myself with all the nonsense I was doing there." Nonsense seemed like the best way to describe how he had all but lost control of his body to his power.
Tokoyami had elected not to pry into whatever had happened, though the curiosity was evident on his face. Perhaps he didn't want to risk setting off another encounter with Kage's apparent more aggressive side, or perhaps he had realised that Kage had no more answers than he did.
"So, are you ready to start explaining things now?" Kage voiced his questions internally, knowing now for certain that there was another presence listening. He received no reply, which didn't help at all in keeping him calm. Recovery Girl had noticed how stressed he was, and had given him some simple tasks to help her whilst they both waited for Izuku and Sora to wake up.
Kage once again found that his body had been medically trained. Assisting with setting up the cast for Izuku's broken arm felt like second nature to him. Recovery Girl barely had to give him any direction beyond pointing him at what he was supposed to do. Oddly, she didn't seem surprised at all to see his skill in this area.
"To think a Sekai would get so worked up in a place like this." She shook her head at him whilst he did his best to fix the damage he had done to the bed. She had mentioned his last name like this once before, whilst they were working, but Kage had no idea why.
"Should my name mean something here?" He asked. He tapped his forehead and gave a small smile of amusement. "I really wouldn't know." Recovery Girl nodded to him. Before she could respond, they both jumped as Sora flung herself upright in bed. She did not scream, but she looked pale and unsettled. Clearly, she had just woken up from a nightmare.
"Sora!" Kage said, his smile bursting open. The girl in question seemed to take some breaths and calm herself down once she realised where she was. Kage waited for her to settle, watching as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She relaxed herself and looked back at the room with an easy-going smile that was much more natural on her.
"Sorry if I spooked you, I just like to make an entrance-" She didn't get the chance to finish her statement before Kage flung his arms around her and wrapped her in a hug. She didn't seem to know how to react, going stiff as he did so.
"I'm so happy you're okay." His voice came out quieter, and tears began emerging from his eyes. "I-I was worried." Sora hesitated before gently returning the hug, patting Kage on the back uncertainly.
"'Course I'm okay. You knew that." She said. Kage released her and looked at her smile. It was less than a single day, and already he had found himself missing the sight of it. "Nothing that Recovery Girl couldn't fix, remember?"
"R-right." Kage nodded. "But you're my friend. I'm still gonna worry about you anyways." He gave her a light punch on the arm, and she laughed.
"I just care, you know?" He held out his fist. Sora gleefully bumped it. In that moment, Kage felt that all was right with the world. Recovery Girl coughed, drawing the duo's attention, though her focus was very much on Sora. She wasn't exactly glaring, but her expression was stern.
"Whilst I appreciate your confidence in my skills, young lady, you shouldn't be so reckless!" She admonished, raising her cane and pointing it. Given that it resembled a needle, it was surprisingly threatening. "Just because I can fix you all up doesn't mean you get a free pass to do whatever want in your classes. You took some rather serious damage."
"Sorry, miss Recovery Girl." Sora bowed her head down. "I guess I wasn't really thinking things through. Still, at least my team one the battle!" She grinned. Recovery Girl sighed and shook her head.
"It's important to understand what a victory is worth." She said. Her tone was sombre, and it made the temperature of the room drop. This clearly wasn't the first time she had to impart this lesson. "You can't go ready to knock yourself out or fling yourself through windows in every fight. If you come out of a battle too injured, it might not be worth winning."
"That doesn't sound right." Kage interrupted. "What if wearing yourself down like that is the only way to stop the bad guy from hurting more people? Doesn't being a hero mean placing others above yourself?" That was the lesson the story had always left him with. Self-sacrifice wasn't always the way to go, but it was a valorised position.
"Kage Sekai, do not think for one second that I am unaware of what being a hero means." This was when she brought out her real glare. Kage flinched at the sight of it. Whilst Recovery Girl wasn't a hero known for battle, he felt sure that she could take down any villain in that moment.
"There are indeed situations where making sacrifice is unavoidable." She explained. "A lot is required of heroes in order to protect people, and that does sometimes include taking serious damage to yourself. But only if there is no other option! Under no circumstances should you be looking to sacrifice your body -or your mind for that matter – in order to win a fight. Just because All-Might can take on anything doesn't mean there's no honour in knowing when to retreat for your own safety."
"But that means letting villains get away-!"
"It also means staying alive!" Kage's words died as soon as Recovery Girl raised her voice. "This nation has countless heroes who can fight. No villain is ever going to escape justice forever. You cannot treat every battle like it's going to be a life-or-death situation. Being a hero means being willing and able to act for the benefit of others at all times, yes, but you can only do that if you're able to act at all!"
Kage looked down at the ground, unable to meet her eyes. He knew she was right, but he felt she was wrong. What did his ability to act matter? What did his life matter compared to everyone else around him? His was stolen and had already ended. The very act of him holding onto his life and treating it as precious was perverse.
He was hardly suicidal, but if it came between his life and another's, he would never choose himself. He had no right to. Recovery Girl sighed.
"As much as I love All-Might, I worry about the lessons you kids will take from him." She said. "You can't all be the Symbol of Peace, but you should know that isn't a bad thing. I'm not saying this to make either of you feel guilty. I'm just a concerned old lady, that's all." Kage supposed he could understand that. All-Might could fight just about anything, or so the image of him seemed to say. Most other people had limits to account for. There wasn't anything wrong with advocating for more self-preservation.
At least as far as other people were concerned. His eyes drifted over to Sora. She had been looking between the two of them a little awkwardly, clearly unsure of if she had anything to contribute to their little debate.
"Message received, ma'am." She said, giving an exaggerated salute in an attempt to bring some much-needed levity into the conversation. "I'll try not to get electrocuted or crash through more windows than I can help. How many is the medically safe number, do you think?" She jokingly asked. Kage snorted and pretended to be thoughtful.
"I'd say two." He argued. "One for a dramatic entrance, one for a dramatic exit. Any more is just overkill." Recovery Girl looked to be equal amounts amused and frustrated by their banter, which only made him laugh more.
"Then I'm still under the limit!" Sora said. She held up a hand for a high-five, which Kage gave her readily. Recovery Girl sighed and frowned at the two of them.
"Joke all you want, so long as they remain only jokes." She said. "Be more careful in the future, that's all I ask. I won't always be around to patch you kids up, you know. Don't go getting messed up on my vacation!" She added with a laugh. The image of her relaxing at some beach somewhere during a major crisis was a surprisingly funny one to Kage.
"Got it, don't get injured until you're in." Sora said. She pulled herself from a seated position on her bed, putting her legs on the ground. She seemed to struggle a little to get up, so Kage helped by taking her arm on his shoulder.
"Thanks." She said. "I'm feeling a bit wobbly right now. And tired..."
"That'll be my Quirk, dearie." Recovery Girl explained. "It accelerates your body's natural healing time, but it uses up your physical energy to do so. If you get hurt too much, I won't be able to heal you with this power, and it'll kill you. Remember that the next time you think about slamming people through building windows, hmm?" Sora gulped, becoming noticeably pale as Recovery Girl described the possibility. Kage knew she didn't always have much energy to begin with, so the panic made sense.
"Don't worry, all that means is that healing you will take longer whilst we wait for your body to naturally build up enough energy." Kage reassured her. "You're in good hands; she's an excellent doctor. And I have some apparent skill in this area myself, which proved pretty useful." He preened as he added that in. Sora looked at him sceptically.
"I thought you had amnesia."
"I do." Kage said. "I have amnesia and a surprising amount of medical knowledge. Don't ask me how I got it, maybe it was my dream to be a doctor or maybe I'm secretly a mad scientist bent on world domination. Both equally possible."
"Yeah, I could see you being a lab accident."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"That you, Kage, are a truly very strange person." Sora patted him on the head as she spoke. He frowned, though the gesture was performative. He wasn't offended in the slightest – hell, for all he knew, he could have actually been a lab accident. That would explain his powers being so weird.
"Well, you kids seem to be doing just fine now." Recovery Girl said. "You can stick around and wait for your friend to wake up if you want, or you can head back to your class. I believe most of the other students are likely staying behind to talk about their results.
Kage thought carefully about what to do. He needed to discuss some things with Sora, most of which he couldn't get into unless they were in a more private area. Recovery Girl would no doubt be concerned if he started talking about the USJ incident or his reincarnated status, after all. He wanted to give Sora more details and make sure she was fully prepared for what they would be getting into, especially given that electricity was a weakness of hers.
At the same time, however, he was still greatly concerned about Izuku. Sure, the boy was usually just fine after his battle, but whilst it was one thig to understand that as an outside observer, it was quite another to have been involved in helping treat them and still believe there would be no permanent damage. Besides, whilst he wasn't involved in the reincarnation business, he was still a good friend. It felt like it would be wrong to simply leave him. He hadn't left Sora's side for even a moment, after all.
"That was different." He thought to himself. "You didn't know what would happen to her. How could you?"
Kage didn't like how this felt. He could never escape the feeling that his friendship with Izuku was more conditional than it was natural. He truly did care about him, but a part of him still saw him as a character and not quite a person. He would be fine because he was the protagonist of the story. Kage tried to help him with his Quirk because it would be more useful to him for the future. Sure, he did also care about him and wanted to help because it was the right thing to do, but there were always these other selfish reasons attached to his actions.
He supposed that was inevitable. He had taken on the responsibility of being the saviour of the world, in whatever extent he could manage. His knowledge and power meant it was a necessity, as far as he was concerned. That inherently meant making choices based on the practical needs of the situation, even above his personal needs. Besides, was Sora really all that different?
He told her the truth because, in part, he knew it would be useful to have someone to talk to about it. Someone to help him when things got challenging enough that he needed backup. He had brought her into the fold for the same selfish reasons as keeping Izuku out of it – it was convenient to him.
If he chose to stay with Izuku, it would mean wasting time he could be spending updating Sora on necessary information, but it would also mean showing his care for a loyal friend he was worried about. If he and Sora left now, it was a sign of him prioritising his mission over the people he was doing it for. Was that the right move?
Sora took a deep breath and sighed, almost startling Kage as he remembered that he was not the only one in the room. She looked over at Izuku. He had a cast on one arm and bandages on another, and was connected to an IV drip. He did however look to be much better than he was at the end of the battle.
"Nothing Recovery Girl can't fix." Sora muttered under her breath. It seemed to relax her. She gently moved from under Kage's arm and stepped closer to him. She placed a hand on the foot of his bed and looked at him carefully. "Hey, Deku. You better be okay, you got that? If you're even a little sore by tomorrow, I've got to kick someone's ass." She gave a pointed look to Kage. He joined her over by Izuku's bed.
"Trust me, buddy." He said to the sleeping boy. "You're gonna be just fine. I know it." He looked over to Sora, who watched him with uncertain eyes. Kage couldn't quite identify the emotion in her expression, though he was sure it wasn't a kind one. It wasn't exactly a glare, but it wasn't quite not a glare.
"Oh, there's no need to be so dramatic!" Recovery Girl said, admonishing both of them. "Have a little faith, hm? By tomorrow, this will all be forgotten about and you can carry on your merry lives. Now, if you're not staying, shoo. I've got just a little more work to do myself."
"Sounds good. If you need any help-"
"Young man, I appreciate it, but I can manage." Recovery Girl rolled her eyes at him, which he figured was deserved. "Rest assured, the next time I need an assistant, you will be the first on my list. But for now, you can leave." Kage nodded. He turned to Sora.
"You ready to hit the road?"
"Yeah." She said absently. Kage raised an eyebrow, wondering if she really had the energy to get out okay. She walked out of the room, and Kage joined her quickly. As soon as they were out of the room, Sora turned to face him. Her expression was serious.
"Kage, we need to talk."
AN: Writing for Recovery Girl was a lot of fun this chapter! I imagine her as something of a veteran hero, someone who's lived through even days before All-Might was around and has seen some shit. Originally, I had a few more interactions planned for this chapter, but I suppose they'll have to wait. See you all next time!