Worthless Necessity [HitoZuku]

Chapter 23 - Don't let me go

The elevator ride and the walk to Midoriya's room took an agonizingly long time. Nezu flicked his tail in annoyance, internally wishing for the damned lift to just move faster.

He wasn't the only one. Nishiya was tapping his foot on the floor of the elevator, Ectoplasm was fidgeting on the spot, Ishiyama was fiddling with his fingers and Tatsuma's fins were twitching. Reiko was lying limply in Nezu's grasp, while Ryuto sat in the crook of Nezu's arm and pressed himself against Reiko.

The seventh floor was reserved for underground heroes, but none of them were questioning why Midoriya was placed in the very same ward as Aizawa. After all, very few people knew that he had been involved in the USJ attack, let alone getting injured to the point where he looked like he should have bled to death on the spot. But then again, Thirteen was sharing the room with Aizawa, so they probably just wanted to keep all the UA patients together.

Yamada was standing outside a room, and the heroes could Aizawa lying on the bed in the room, wrapped from head to toe in bandages. He nodded at the incoming heroes, and the nurse led them to the next door, and carefully pushed it open.

They found Midoriya inside, lying on the bed. An oxygen mask was placed over his nose and mouth. His dark eyebags stood out even more prominently against his pale skin, and he was covered in a thick, white blanket from the chest down, but his forehead and arms were wrapped with snowy white bandages. He had an IV connected to his hand, and a multitude of other machines were beeping incessantly, creating a cacophony of sounds that made up a discordant melody, repeating over and over, reminding Nezu that this was the outcome of his failure.

Reiko let out a strangled sounding chatter when she laid her eyes on Midoriya, and would have lunged at him had Nezu not tightened his grip on her. Ryuto perked up, and gave a small squeak, but didn't make a move.

Tatsuma's fins drooped further when she saw Midoriya, and Nezu quietly walked forward, and placed Reiko and Ryuto down on the bed. Reiko poked Midoriya's cheek gently with her paw a few times, giving a pathetic sounding whine, as Ryuto waddled forward. He nudged Midoriya weakly, before giving a sad sounding trill, before huddling down and tucking himself into the crook of Midoriya's neck. Reiko curled up next to him, and just lay there, unmoving.

Yamada walked into the room behind them quietly.

"How's Aizawa and Thirteen?" Ishiyama asked.

"Shouta's probably going to be up soon. You know how much he hates the hospital." Yamada mumbled. "The second those damned painkillers and the anesthesia wears off, he's going to demand to go back to teaching even if he looks like a mummy. Thirteen, according to the doctor's just now, they're fine. They just needed a couple of doctors with healing quirks to fix them up. Just a couple of days of rest and they'll be as good as new."

"That's good." Nishiya stated, as he settled down in one of the chairs and gazed at Midoriya, "The rest of the kids are fine, right?"

Yamada nodded, "Yep. Some of the students got hypothermia, but that's like, the worst of the injuries besides Midoriya."

"We're lucky, then. Three Nomu and a huge batch of villains ambusing a school filled with teenagers, and only three serious casualties, with only one being a student." Nishiya sighed."This could have been so much worse."

"Just keep quiet, okay? I know you mean well, but it's not the time for this conversation." Tatsuma grumbled. Nishiya just slumped back into his seat, before Tatsuma's phone vibrated, and she quickly dug it out of her pocket.

"Sorry, looks like something's going on. Some of my sidekicks want me back in the office." Tatsuma apologised, as she turned towards the exit to leave, "Kamui, let's go."