The Reve - Part 1

Chapter 20: Kingdom Come

Hyori spent the afternoon catering to her little sister who was still affected from the previous day. The little one barely spoke and the older one feared her cognitive functions had been affected. Megumi's vitals were stable under her haze, but her movements had been sluggish.

She had been responsive but hadn't initiated any activity during her times awake. She hadn't even asked the older one to get inside either of their headspaces. Hyori hadn't witnessed what happened in Shirakumo's mind while she had brainwashed him. She could hardly measure how much Megumi's mind had been affected by the collapse of the man's mind.

She also didn't have a precise idea of how long her little sister would need to get over the event, especially since she would be back to her academy's accommodations the following day. She contemplated asking permission to spend the nights in Tokyo, at least for a couple of days. She supposed the Principal would be fine with her request. She would remain inside the Hero Commission's accommodations.

She retrieved her phone from the bedside next to her and texted the Vice President to let him know her intentions to spend the night during the following week. After a dozen minutes, the man replied with an 'ok' without any punctuation or uppercase. Hyori couldn't call or text her homeroom teacher. She feared his reaction when she would face him again to resume her training.

More than standing him up on multiple occasions, she had witnessed one of his acquaintances being turned vegetative. She partook in erasing that man's identity and damaging his brain, probably beyond repair. They were still observing and she would have to assess his mental activities. Still, she had little hope of finding anything active beyond life support functions.

At seven in the morning the following day, Hyori rose from the shared bed and left a kiss on Megumi's forehead. She beelined for the medical area where Shirakumo's recovery was monitored by the medical teams. After greeting the nurses, one of them called a doctor to appreciate what she would sense with her quirk.

The middle-aged woman who arrived a minute later introduced herself and gave her a debrief of the scanners and what happened so far. He felt stimulation and his reflexes worked. But he didn't act on his own. The moment felt surreal because that woman was the professional, not her. Yet, she was expected to make statements despite the little medical knowledge she had.

The man was awake and laid unmoving on the medical bed. He was more active than on the previous evening with his eyes following movements. Caressing his hair, Hyori got a reaction and linked his mind. The feat seemed easier than with the average person but when she talked to him, he didn't process what she said. He reacted to the sound of her voice but seemed not to understand. She guessed he had forgotten how to process listening or speech.

She tried to tickle him but he didn't react. She assumed the doctors had already tried anything and expected her to use her quirk to make him do something he hadn't yet. Therefore, she scratched his sky-blue hair to try and get a vocal response from him. He made a sound and she brainwashed him. Yet, he didn't obey any of her commands.

There was no way for her to command him if he didn't understand what she said. They needed to implement speech in him and she suspected only Megumi could. All Hyori could do was make him practise what he would have learnt. Unless they went the long way and had him learn from scratch. Trying another route, she lifted her brainwash to daze the man and put him in a seated position.

He didn't hold and layed on her. Sensing she was onto something, she straddled him to comfortably hold him in a seated position and brainwashed him. His body went rigid again and he held the slightly bend-over seated position. She then turned him to have his legs off the bed. They were around the same height and it made it easier for her to lift him in a standing position.