Rescue // Shoto Todoroki x OC Fanfiction

Chapter Fifteen

Once the paralyzation wore off, Katsumi thrashed in her hospital bed, unable to control her movements. Just like the many times before that Mind Maker had taken control, she'd been shoved to the far back corner of her own mind to watch helplessly as her conscious stream of thoughts took on a life of their own. The doctors had immediately sedated her after the first time, and she was now strapped to the hospital bed with thick leather straps that bit into the skin on her wrists and ankles. After having been bound in that warehouse for so long, she loathed that she had once again found herself living the same fate. She knew there was nothing that could be done, though.

She hated that she couldn't even tell anyone what was happening. She saw the questions in the doctor's eyes, and could see their mouths moving as if they were speaking to her, but she couldn't hear anything except the pounding of her heartbeat in her eardrums. Her body screamed and ached any time the sedatives wore off, and every time that they did, more doctors and detectives would come in to ask her questions. Katsumi thanked every god she could think of that they didn't allow in any visitors. She'd seen the look in Todoroki's eyes when they found her. While the memories of everything before the warehouse were still a jumbled mess, she saw that he had been worried, same as everyone else.

Shoto Todoroki was the only thing she couldn't force out of her head. She wished--no, she begged for silence, but her conscious stream of thought screamed on about the order that Mind Maker had given her. Where she cowered in the back of her mind, there was nothing that she could do.

Katsumi tried to think over possible solutions to this mess, but nothing seemed to present itself as a viable option. An erasure quirk wouldn't work on her, seeing as it wasn't her quirk that was at work. So someone like her old teacher, Aizawa, was out of the question. She wondered if the doctors and detectives had pieced together what happened yet. She was held captive by Mind Maker, so it would make sense, given her behavior, right? She hoped this was true and that they were looking for a solution since there was currently nothing she could do to help herself.

* * *

Shoto eventually went home later that day to take a shower and try to decompress. The doctors said they'd call if there were any breakthroughs, but so far, she was still in practically the same state they'd found her in. It frustrated him, knowing that there was currently nothing he could be doing to remedy the situation he'd put her in in the first place.

It was his fault. He knew that. He let her go inside all by herself that night, and he sorely regretted it. The guilt was eating him from the inside out--carving a hole in his chest that couldn't be filled until he saw her okay again. He leaned against the wall of the shower and let the scalding water pour across his back and drip down his face. He felt the water drop down and gather at his lashline line tears and drip down in a steady stream. He intended to remain at the hospital until he could see Katsumi, but Uraraka had managed to talk him out of it.

"There's no point staying around when you can't see her yet," she'd told him. "Go home, eat something, and wait for them to call. I know it's hard..."

Shoto shook his head and quickly turned off the tap. He stepped out into the cold bathroom and dried himself off before wrapping the towel around his midsection and heading to his bedroom. Without getting dressed, he flopped down on his mattress and stared up at the ceiling.

He was expected back at work tomorrow, which meant he shouldn't be sitting around and sulking. He knew he had to go, too. They'd have to rework the whole patrol schedule if he were to skip out, and he didn't want to create any extra work for anyone. Causing issues for anyone else was the last thing he wanted to do at this point. As he stared up at the ceiling, he cursed the quietness of his small apartment. He always felt so alone here, and there was little to distract him from the thoughts rolling around in his head.