A Silent Kind of Strength

Chapter 75

The inside of the space he was trapped in was the worst. He couldn't really tell where he was, just that it was small and that things were moving around outside. He couldn't move, forced into a fetal position, but his head was so fuzzy he didn't really have the motivation to try.

It was an awful duality. He existed, he was aware. But his head felt muddled and confused almost like he was drugged. A sharp contrast to the fear and adrenaline from the forest. Coming back into the real world again was more than jarring.

He wished he could say he fought back. That he stood up for himself and went down swinging. But as soon as Hitoshi was freed from his glass prison he was overtaken by a sense of vertigo. Collapsing onto the floor and puking all over the shoes of whoever was in front of him.

There were sounds of disgust before the teen was yanked to his feet. He listed dangerously to one side, his balance off. Blinking rapidly to try and bring his brain back into focus. Something came towards his face and he flinched back only to run into someone who was behind him. They grabbed his hands and yanked them up behind his back to keep him still as a thing was strapped to his face.

He hissed as the muzzle fully registered to his mind, thrashing weakly to get free and yank the cursed thing off. But freedom was not in the cards. He was wrangled backwards until the back of his knees hit something. With a shove he was forced into a chair and then his wrists were cuffed snugly behind him.

He whipped his head to the side to try and dislodge the metal contraption locked around his jaw. Ignoring how it made his vision swim sickeningly. The voices above him swelled into what sounded like a small argument before there was a prick in his neck and he was dropped into darkness.

___

Izuku was finally cleared to take a walk. When the nurse said he could stretch his legs he begged off his worried classmates in the name of getting some peace and quiet. And seeing as how the room had steadily gotten livelier as the group of teens slowly woke up, they actually let him go, understanding the need.

His arm was still in a sling, freckled fingers hanging out limply, and he still had his head wrapped, though the cut should be mostly healed. He eventually found himself sitting in a chair in a random hallway next to a vending machine. He watched solemnly as nurses and doctors bustled back and forth, his brain a hundred miles away as he reviewed the happenings over the last day and a half. From the test of courage to the fight with Muscular to the awful, soul crushing realization that Hitoshi was gone.

He turned over every decision and action he made. Plotting out what he could have done, should have done. Berating himself for failing the boy who had done so much for him.

Another reason he had wanted to escape the room was the bags of their personal items that were supposed to be delivered at any second. He knew that as soon as he had his phone he would have to talk to Mei. And he just… couldn't. He had failed her brother and he couldn't face her.

So he sat alone in the hallway instead. It couldn't last though. Eventually Kirishima found him brooding and informed him that Recovery Girl had asked to see the greenette to check how his head was healing. He sighed and levered up from his seat, following the red head back towards the room where his fellow students were 'resting'.