STRINGS // KATSUKI BAKUGO [2]

Chapter 42 // Conscious

You had trouble sleeping that night. You had too many things on your mind to allow yourself to properly relax.

When you finally did fall asleep, it was closer to morning than night. However, it only felt like minutes before you woke up, this time in an environment you didn't recognize.

It looked like a void, illuminated darkness all around you, yet there was so much pressure on your body that you felt like you were contained to the minimal space of a closet.

Looking down at your body, you found a sort of gray-ish black mist covering patches of your skin, specially around your upper chest and lower half.

"Good, it worked. She's here."

At the sound of a voice, you glanced over your shoulder to find a group of people congregated within a half-circle of thrones, a familiar, green haired boy standing across from them.

Midoriya turned to face you, mouth hidden by tinted green mist, but eyes wide in  concentration. He held out his hand, beckoning you to approach.

You hesitated after first, wondering if you should obey or try and snap yourself out of this dream world.

Your curiosity soon got the better of you, and you eventually found yourself walking forward, taking Midoriya's hand once it was within reach.

"You're probably wondering what you're doing here," the man in the center of the half-circle stated, pure white hair falling in front of his face like curtains in the wind. "It appears One For All is having a bit of trouble leaving your body."

You stilled, eyes widening.

You thought One For All already left you. Then again, you haven't tried to use it, so how would you know for sure?

You tried to speak, but you found your lips glued to together by the phantom mask created by the mist surrounding your body.

"We are the previous users of One For All," he continued. "We reside in Midoriya's conscious. However, being as One For All is still stuck inside you, we were able to call you here as well."

'So...I'm in Midoriya's mind?' you thought.

"It seems One For All is having trouble leaving your body due to your condition before it entered," the man stated, only confusing you further.

"Here, think of your body like a cup," he proposed, sensing your confusion. "Toshinori Yagi, All Might, the eighth user, is the only user other than Midoriya who didn't already have a quirk before inheriting One For All, so his cup was empty when given the power. It never overflowed. The same applies for Midoriya. You, however, hold four quirks in addition to One For All, meaning your cup was surely already half way if not two-thirds of the way full before gaining One For All. Your cup is teetering, trying not to spill as One For All makes is exit. In other words, One For All is trying to leave you without damaging your body any further, but it's having trouble."

In other words, One For All was unintentionally killing you, and between it and your brain failure, your death was growing much closer than you would like.

"You're probably wondering what this means from here," he said. "You're probably thinking "how do we stop it?" It's simple. That's why we summoned you here. In order to ensure that One For All has a smooth exit from your body, we need to keep you tethered to Midoriya's conscious, to us. With your conscious, your soul, here, One For All shouldn't deteriorate your body as it's leaving, and, with us in such close range, it will, hopefully, leave sooner and smoother."

That did not sound simple, not at all.

You were going to be stuck in Midoriya's mind, trapped in his conscious or else, what, your body would fail? Would One For All destroy you from the inside out if you didn't allow your soul to stay in this realm?

"You're going to be here for a while," the man stated, waving his hand across the void, resulting in a ninth throne appearing, adding to the half-circle of seats. "Get comfortable."

[EDITED]