Death Paradox 💥BAKUDEKU💥

Chapter 10

Strength

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Chapter 10

Turns out he had a stroke.

Technically, a "neurovascular event precipitated by acute biochemical incompatibility." But, you know. Stroke.

The machines around him beeped at regular intervals, his pulse, his oxygen, the thing monitoring the thing that monitored the other thing. He'd stopped trying to keep track after hour five.

He hadn't been allowed to sit up on his own yet because apparently, when your brain decides to spontaneously short-circuit, everyone gets very nervous about letting you do things like stand. And considering he was supposed to be looking for the Major Arcana, having a stroke wasn't exactly ideal.

It kind of threw off the whole infiltrate enemy territory, locate the card, escape with minimal trauma plan. And yeah, technically there hadn't been a trauma quota, but if there was, he'd hit it. Probably twice.

But worse than the medical disaster—which, y'know, was definitely up there—was the fact that he hadn't been able to tell anyone what he saw.

Garaki. In the hallway. With a Nomu.

Not just any Nomu, either. Small, stubby, creepily cartoonish. Almost like a pet. Or worse something like a prototype. One he wasn't even bothering to hide.

Izuku had only gotten a glimpse. Maybe three seconds, max. But it'd been enough.

Garaki had looked up. Not surprised. Not panicked. Just... calm. Like he hadn't even expected anyone to notice.

And that was bad. That was really bad.

Because if that wasn't proof that Garaki had ties to the League, then Izuku didn't know what was. A known associate of the League, maybe even the original creator of the Nomu, just casually wandering the ICU wing with a monster at his heel. If he'd been any more obvious, he would've walked through with a neon sign that said VILLAIN WORKSHOP THIS WAY.

And Izuku had the nagging suspicion that the card was somewhere behind that door because his life, their lives, were never that simple.

And the worst part?

Izuku hadn't told anyone. Not Sumiya. Not Aizawa. Not Kacchan. Not because he didn't want to but because he couldn't.

He hadn't had access to his phone since they'd wheeled him off. Said it was a "non-essential item." Which, sure, maybe to the average patient but when your entire soul was stitched to an apocalyptic death game and your best friend was a walking grenade with control issues, being out of contact for this long was... less than ideal.

Not to mention his entire nurse detail had changed, so there was no contact to Sumiya. And because of the issue of who exactly was suppose to be considered immediate family was still under discussion he was alone. Hell, even his tracker was gone.

His fingers curled slightly against the blanket. Weak. Useless. And the moment he moved too much, the heart monitor tattled on him again. Beeped louder. Sharper. Like it knew he was scheming.

He was going to lose his mind in here.

Worse still?

He was pretty sure Katsuki was somewhere in the building raising hell. The nurses weren't saying much, but there'd been whispers. Murmurs about a "green haired one" demanding ICU access. Someone who'd already been forcibly escorted out twice.

He was still trying to figure out the least suspicious way to ask for a phone without sounding like he was planning a jailbreak.

Which, to be fair, he kind of was.