In the Shadow of Revenge

Chapter 8

Mei was so relieved that Tenya had seen her, finally after all this time. A distant part of her had feared that he might never escape the prison of his own memories, and she knew that he was far from healed. But it was a start, he was fighting back against the shadow of himself he had been made into, and hope started to bloom in Mei's chest. It had been three days since Tenya had recognized her and Mei had tried her best to be with him every step of the way. After informing Recovery Girl of her breakthrough, Mei dedicated herself to helping Tenya feel more at home at UA. He was still incredibly wary of other people, particularly Midoriya and Uraraka, as Toga had a large supply of both of their blood. But Tenya was able to visit with some of his classmates for short moments. Ever since Kaminari had found out that Tenya was awake, the rest of Class 1-A had been bombarding Mei for information, but they had kept their distance from Tenya's room, knowing all too well what trauma the League of Villains could cause.

Tenya had also, in typical fashion, become concerned about all of the schoolwork he had missed over the last two months. So in an effort to stop him from overworking himself,
Mei read to him from a different textbook every afternoon, insisting that she needed to stay caught up as well, so he wouldn't worry about troubling her. All in all, he seemed to finally be coming back to himself, albeit with far too many flashbacks for Mei's comfort.

The day before Mei had walked down the hallway with a thick book in her arms. Decisively, Mei knocked on Tenya's door, (three times so he knew it was her).

"Tenya?" she called. "I brought The History of Heroics for today, can I come in?"

No response came. At first Mei assumed Tenya was sleeping, but as she listened closely she realized she could hear panicked breathing from behind the door.

Worried, Mei grabbed the doorknob, "Tenya, I'm coming in."

Tenya was curled up into a ball in the corner of the room, bloody smears on the floor where he must have dragged himself away. His red eyes were wide and bright with fear, as he trembled, muttering to himself. He looked so impossibly small in that moment, that Mei froze for a moment before she dashed over to his side, careful to remain at least an arm's distance away.

"T-Tenya? It's Mei, what's wrong? You can tell me." she stated as calmly as she could, vivid green eyes meeting his.

"T-Toga she's here,I saw her, she's here and she's- Hatsu-Mei you have to get out of here, run, she's going to hurt you, and I-I-I can't protect you, I-I'm not strong enough. Please, M-Mei you need to go, run!" Tenya yelled frantically, face flushed with fear as he gasped for breath.

Mei's heart shattered in her chest. "Tenya, she's not here, I promise, you're safe here, remember?"

"N-no, Mei she's here, I saw her, you need to run, you need to run now, before she gets you too!"

"She's not going to get me." Mei responded firmly, "and she's not going to get you either." Mei reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the inventions she had been working on. "You see this? I'm calling it baby #315, identity detector, or ID-315 for short. When a person breathes into it, it detects whether they've ingested any blood in the past 24 hours. I'm having Principal Nezu add it to the UA security protocol. She won't get in, I promise, I won't let her."

Tenya relaxed slightly, leaning against Mei's shoulder as she continued to explain the workings of her device, until he eventually allowed Mei to lead him back to his bed, where he quickly fell asleep.

It was only then that Mei began to look around the room for what could have made Tenya think he saw Toga, and that was when she saw it. The plain, glass mirror that hung in the back corner of the room. Mei's blood boiled, that villain, that bitch had caused him to flinch away from his own reflection.