Indelible | BnHA/MHA {Shōto Todoroki x Reader} {Discontinued!}

5 | Stranger

     (Y/n) felt like a stranger to her own mind and body.

The darkness creeping and conforming to her crumbling psyche was an onslaught of madness she hadn't experienced in ages. Nameless, faceless, and thoughts so utterly scrambled, she couldn't place her unknown surroundings just yet. A dreaded pressure squeezed her chest tightly and painfully. The brief pain somehow unraveled a flood of information, the first inkling of consciousness zipping through (Y/n) so brutally her frazzled mind desperately fought to regain control.

(Y/n) willfully pushed aside her unconsciousness by pure, unadulterated, willpower, frightened beyond belief upon realizing she had been slumbering, but not peacefully.

Bringing a trembling palm to her numb face, (Y/n) choked back a disquieted sob, feeling cold sweat slicking her damp forehead from a restless sleep, running the same hand down to her burning neck, gripping tightly over the excruciating scar. Lovingly greeted by a throbbing headache stabbing dreadfully at her sensitive skull as she reigned in some mild panic, outright terror gnawed and nipped at her frayed nerves again moments later.

Where exactly was she?

Dazzling light pierced (Y/n)'s lingering nightmare, washing away the darkness malevolently taking hold. Hopes raising significantly, (Y/n) inhaled gently, experimentally wiggling her stiff fingers, the destroyed bones and burst blood vessels in both arms already perfectly healed. Such sudden movement caused a rabid agony to simultaneously lance throughout her bruised anatomy, clutching sinisterly at her struggling heart with harmful phantom hands and (Y/n) knew she scarcely escaped even worse injuries and rather precarious circumstances.

Seems my nerves are fine since I can somewhat feel pain, (Y/n) apathetically mused, scanning her last lucid memories for clarification. Ah, the fruit of my training. Normally, my arms would be broken, my spine shattered, and my neck snapped before getting tossed somewhere. . . Dead. I would usually be dead.

An antiseptic smell of fresh lemons – not blood, mildew, or sickness; those unpleasant things were of many yesterday's, but survived to harass her ad nauseam– barely distracted (Y/n) enough to where she could shove away any growing confusion. Needing something – anything – to anchor herself to the material world, (Y/n) focused on calmly breathing in the tangy, decontaminating scent of comforting citrus and uncommon wafts of ginger honey tea.

It was an odd combination of crisp aromas, yet acceptably homey in a nostalgic sense that caustically tugged on her worn and torn heartstrings.

Fully awakening after what seemed like a never-ending eternity, a pungent iron aftertaste burned (Y/n)'s disgusted tastebuds, a grim sign she was drastically overburdened by her carnage-happy Quirk ferociously writhing to be liberated. Another bloody cough built inside her squeezing, withering lungs, but she harshly swallowed back the instinctual impulse, grimacing harshly.

Sluggishly peeling her encumbered eyelids agape and feeling as if each fair eyelash weighed hundreds of pounds, (Y/n) immediately became cognizant of constricting, disinfectant medical gauze securely bandaging her once injured limb. (Y/n) heaved a massive sigh brimming with an absurd abundance of relief. At least all her appendages were still thankfully intact.

Blinking rapidly to dispel the persistent blurriness clouding her warbled sight, (Y/n) held in an uneven breath, scared to death she had been sleeping. Her panicking, searching gaze swiveled over the bare, hospital-esque furnishings decorating the surprisingly large room, nobody but a possibly comatose Izuku inhabiting the wide space with her. A cluttered desk was placed nearby, medical paperwork scattered everywhere while a pushed out chair sitting unoccupied and a cooling cup of heavenly smelling tea told (Y/n) she needed to ready herself fast.