Echo | BNHA x Deltarune/Undertale

Chapter 26: Sick

Izuku woke up on the floor of his bedroom.

He was gasping for air, trying to blink the spots out of his vision. He was covered in sweat, yet shivering. Shakily getting to his feet, he frantically searched the dark room for the piles of bodies, the chair and the noose. He found only his bed, his desk, and the rolling chair he got for five bucks at a library sale.

Had that been him in the mirror? Right at the end, he had heard his own voice - a bit more monotone than usual - saying 'Don't say I didn't warn you'. Maybe that was him in the future, warning him to... warning him to what? Not kill himself too many times? Is that what would become of him if he used his ability too much? Mountains of suicides weighing him down, keeping him awake at night?

He had a sudden and very, very strong urge to vomit.

Clamping a hand over his mouth, he dodged around his bed and into the hallway, running to the bathroom at the end of the hall. He dropped to his knees on the cold tile, the wonderful dinner his mother cooked last night coming back out of his mouth and into the bowl of the toilet.

Izuku gripped the sides of the bowl, gasping for air. He felt so weak, like he wasn't even there. The bathroom started to spin around him, and he threw up again, even though his stomach felt painfully empty.

"Izuku?"

Inko called for him from her room sleepily. He must've woken her up when he ran down the hall.

"Mom..." He croaked, his voice only half the volume he intended.

"Izuku, what is it?" He heard the floor creak as she got out of bed and started walking down the hall towards his room.

"Mom, in here..."

"In the bathroom?" Her footsteps grew louder and closer, and she opened the door he had somehow shut behind him in his hurry. Her tired eyes widened a bit when she saw her son, sweating and panting and barely holding himself up. "Oh, Izuku..."

She flushed the toilet and grabbed a wash cloth from the cupboard under the sink, running it under warm water before cleaning his face with it. Inko placed the back of her hand on his forehead and immediately flinched away, as if scalded.

"Oh, Izuku," She repeated, helping him to his feet. "I'm so sorry."

To you, this might seem somewhat normal. However, in the age of quirks, where everyone's bodies are better and stronger, normal children didn't really get sick. They might have a cough or a runny nose or a headache, but it never got much worse than that. A high fever and a stomach bug in a teenager would be a trip to the emergency room. But not for Izuku.

He had a weaker body. A weaker immune system. Whoever he caught this from probably had half a degree of fever, and maybe a bit of indigestion. People like Izuku were the only ones who had awful nightmares and woke up in the middle of the night throwing up, ever.

That's why Inko was saying sorry. Not because Izuku was sick, but because nobody else was, and he knew it.