Running Solo

Chapter 14 - Young Midoriya

~Izuku's Perspective~

I woke up with a groan. I had no clue what was going on, but it didn't really matter to me. I was in too much pain to care. I bit my lip harshly to try and keep myself from screaming. My eyes were closed, but I heard someone shift nearby. I whimpered as I heard someone kneel beside me.

"Are you alright?" a familiar voice asked quietly.

I whimpered again as the man's voice echoed painfully in my head. It made the dull ache in my head worsen into a sharp twisting pain. I felt a slight pressure on my left arm, one of the few parts of my body that wasn't hurting, and flinched. I cried out at the movement as the pain in my torso twisted sharply. I could feel myself beginning to hyperventilate as the pain continued to increase in intensity. 

"You need to breathe." the voice said calmly, but insistently.

I tried to take a deep breath, but I couldn't get enough air into my constricting lungs. I heard the person stand up and then it almost seemed like they disappeared. What felt like hours later, but couldn't have been more than a couple minutes, I heard two pairs of footsteps on the room. I groaned in agony as the pain in my abdomen twisted sharply.

"Hold him down, Kurogiri. I won't be able to give him the injection if he's moving around so much." a new voice said.

There was no reply from Kurogiri, but I felt someone grab me. I started thrashing harshly at the pressure, which only made the pressure increase. Just a few seconds later, there was a sharp prick in my neck. I continued to struggle, even after I felt both people let go of me and back away a little. Then I felt something cold and soothing flow through me, dulling the pain and making me feel numb. I went limp as all of the pain in my body faded to a dull throb. I opened my eyes slowly, blinking a few times to clear the haze in them, and scanned the room. The walls were a faded grey stone covered in dirt and dust. The ceiling was the same. Then my eyes landed on the two people beside me.

"Who-?" I tried, the words sticking in my dry and sore throat. I coughed once, curling inward slightly. I took a shallow breath, swallowed thickly, and tried again. "Who are you?" I rasped.

The two men were silent for a few minutes as I studied them. One was kneeling a few feet away from me. He was wearing neat black dress pants, a white dress shirt, and a nice black vest. His tie was a dark grey with thin black stripes running diagonally up it. He also had a long, grey, metal plate around part of his neck. Or, at least where I assumed his neck was. It was hard to tell because his hands and face, as well as the small visible strip of his neck, were made of a black and dark-purple mist. There was no visible mouth or nose, and there were two yellow spots glowing in place of eyes.

The second man was standing a little ways behind the first. He was fairly short and a little rotund. He had a pair of odd-looking goggles or glasses over his small black eyes. He also had a bushy, tan-coloured moustache above his lip and covering his mouth slightly. Though his moustache was fairly large and thick, he had absolutely no hair on his head. He was completely bald. He was wearing a white lab coat over top of a dark grey dress shirt and black tie. He had a stethoscope hanging casually around his neck. Some kind of doctor, maybe? I felt like I had seen him before, but I didn't know where I would have seen him.

"You can call me Kurogiri." the mist-man said. His voice sounded so familiar, as did his name, but I couldn't figure out why.

"And I am Isha Kyudai Garaki." the short man said. "I gave you some medication for the pain. Now if you'll excuse me. I have lots to do. Send me back please, Kurogiri-san." Doctor Garaki said, taking a step further back.

Kurogiri simply nodded and, not a minute later, a swirling black and purple portal appeared behind the Doctor. It appeared to be made of the same mist-like substance as Kurogiri. The Doctor stepped backwards into the waiting portal and disappeared. The second the doctor was out of sight, the portal shrunk in on itself until it too disappeared. I stared at Kurogiri, completely shocked.