The Emperor's Dragon

The Waiting Game

Doctor Garaki was conscious of his breathing as he sat in his chair. He was looking at Izuku. The boy was sitting on a stool with his head bowed. He'd spent time earlier today stitching up the wound Izuku had made on his face. He'd applied some surgical tape and some glue of his own invention, so he was fairly sure it wouldn't scar. But Kurogiri expected him to speak to the boy! He was no psychologist. He had no idea why Izuku had felt the need to cut himself.

"Izuku," Doctor Garaki started.

"It's my fault," the boy muttered.

That was something. They had been afraid that Izuku might not talk. "What's your fault?" Kyudai asked, trying not to sound tired.

"Dad."

The single word wasn't that helpful as an answer. "What do you mean?" the Doctor probed.

"It's my fault the quirk didn't heal dad."

That explanation was more helpful except it wasn't true and the Doctor couldn't follow Izuku's reasoning. "Why do you think that?"

Izuku looked up at him with wide eyes. The Doctor could tell that the boy was wondering why he was even bothering to ask. But it wasn't that simple. He had no idea why Izuku believed it was his fault Hisashi was not healed.

The boy gulped. "The quirk should have healed dad, and it didn't. That means I still have a bit of it."

The Doctor understood the problem now. "No, you don't." He made the statement with force.

Izuku's eyes went wider.

The Doctor didn't repeat anything, despite the entreaty from the boy to repeat himself.

"It healed dad everywhere, except his head! Therefore I have to have a part of it still," Izuku explained further.

"So I didn't have to stitch up that cut?" He didn't bother hold back on the sarcasm.

At that, Izuku at least had the good taste to seem confused.

"You do not have a part of the quirk, Izuku," the Doctor reassured him. "Your quirk doesn't work like that," he added. "Once you start absorbing a quirk, you can no longer pass it on. So you cannot have a part of the quirk."

"But... why didn't it work?" Izuku begged.

"It did work," Kyudai told the boy.

"It didn't!" Izuku objected.

"It worked, because your father is still alive," Doctor Garaki said mercilessly.

That was not something any child wanted to hear but it had the desired effect. Izuku stared at him, green eyes wide and shocked.

The Doctor sighed heavily. "Izuku, your father was alive before you gave him the quirk, but I will not lie, he was in a very bad way. You saw the damage." He waited for an acknowledgement and got a small nod. "The human body is not designed to deal with that much damage. Your father's brain was gone. The frontal lobe, the cerebral cortex, parietal lobe, occipital lobe and temporal lobe's were gone. The only thing keeping your father's lungs working and his heart beating was his medulla."

As he listed each brain part Izuku's shade whitened. The Doctor didn't think the boy understood what each part was but he was intelligent enough to know that they were all necessary.

"And that says nothing about the skull, his eyes, nose and ears. Essentially, it means everything that made your father, your father, his mind, was gone."

Izuku gulped. "What does that mean?" he managed to ask.

"It means that while I could keep your father alive, he wouldn't really be alive. His heart would beat, his lungs would work and eventually there would have been healing on the head wound but he would never have woken up."