Between Two Worlds (Aizawa x Reader)

Chapter Twenty-Four: Single-Blind Test

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

I woke up with a jolt, my heart pounding like crazy, as well as my poor ears.

I looked around, and sure enough, Hizashi was standing next to me, a giant grin on his face.

I tried to get my heart rate back down to a steady pace.

"How long was I out for?" I asked.

"About 90 minutes." said Nezu through an intercom, "which is about the normal rate of a sleep cycle."

"Did you find anything?" I asked, still groggy.

"We'll be going over the results as we go. Just hold tight!" he said, as Midnight re-entered the room.

I laid my head back down with a huff.

"Yeah, not like I can go anywhere." I mumbled to myself, already frustrated.

***

(Aizawa's POV)

"We'll be going over the results as we go. Just hold tight!" said Nezu, as he turned off the intercom.

"Why didn't you tell her what you noticed?" I asked.

"We need this to be a single-blind test. If she were to know anything, I'm afraid it would create a bias reaction and it might muddy the results. In order to keep the data accurate, I need her to be unaware of anything we find." he said, looking at the charts.

My eyes gazed at the data with him.

"Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm looking at." I said, scratching my head as I tried to make out what all the graphs meant.

"According to this, Miss Doe isn't reaching the REM stage, despite having ample amount of time to do so with no interference. With Nemuri's quirk, she would've instantly been at the 2nd stage of sleep, leaving only stages 3, 4, and 5. But according to these charts, Miss Doe is only staying in the NREM stages of 3 and 4." said Nezu, as he continued to scroll through the results.

"Which means...?" I asked, still not understanding.

"It means she's not dreaming. See this?" as he pointed to the chart, "That there is a perfect example of slow wave sleep. The waves are much bigger than the previous ones. During the NREM stages, there's no rapid eye movement. It's when the body bolsters the immune system, builds muscle and bone, and mends and regenerates tissues."

"So her body is trying to heal?" I asked.

"Correct." said Nezu, "Now, when a person enters REM, the brain waves mimic those of someone who's awake." he said, pointing to the line that indicated when Doe was awake, "But as you can see here, there's no such data to show she even entered REM after the fact."

"Could it possibly have to do with Nemuri's quirk?" I asked, becoming worried.

"Unlikely. I've studied Nemuri's quirk over the years, and the other test subjects all reflected normal sleep cycles." he said as he then lifted his head from the data and looked at Doe with me through the glass, "If the next set of tests show similar findings, I'm afraid we have a serious problem on our hands."

I watched as Nemuri put Doe back to sleep, feeling awful that she has to go through this again.

"What happens if she doesn't dream?" I asked, trying to remain nonchalant.

"Quite a few things. Depression, unstable metabolism, pain, and it would create havoc on her cardiovascular health." he said, almost unmoved by what he said, as though this information didn't phase him.

"Could it have something to do with her being in a coma in her world?" I asked, turning to him.

Nezu hummed, thinking to himself for a moment, before looking at him.

"Quite possibly. Coma patients don't often dream due to lack of activity in the brain, which might explain why Miss Doe isn't doing so here either. However, there are some who've claimed they did, despite data showing otherwise." he said, looking a little puzzled, "I am curious as to what that means for us."

I looked back to Doe and watched as she slept, hoping anything new would show up on the charts. If she was actually in a coma, how exactly do we even wake her? Can she wake from this? What about her current health? What are the consequences if it's not promptly taken care of? There had to be something I can do. There must be.

But...I had nothing to go off of. I couldn't help but feel like I wasn't cut out for this sort of problem. It's one thing to take care of criminals and students. But a woman who's in a coma, and yet conscious in our world? That was something I didn't exactly sign up for.

"You seem worried, Aizawa." said Nezu, interrupting my thoughts.

I hummed, trying to refocus my energy to the current task.

"Can you blame me?" I asked.

"No. No, not at all." he said, as we both waited.

***

(Reader's POV)

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Goddammit!

"Jesus Christ, Present Mic!" I shouted angrily.

"Sorry, kid. You know how it goes." he said with the same smile, with a smidge of regret written on his face.

"How long was I out? 90 minutes?" I asked, thinking Nezu could hear me.

"120." he answered back over the intercom.

Jesus.

"Find anything?" I asked.

"Only one more round, my dear. We thank you for your patience and cooperation." he said, as Midnight came right back in like clockwork.

I couldn't help but feel even more frustrated. How much longer do I need to go through with this? I already had a feeling I wasn't making any progress. I hadn't had any experience of being in my coma state these last few times. I would've remembered.

Just then, Midnight put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry. You're doing fine." she said, as she then put her hand on her sleeve, "Ready?"

I sighed and nodded.

"Ready."

As expected, came the purple mist, before my vision became blurry and things went dark.

...

...

...

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

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Author's note: Okay, so I'm not entirely sure how accurate this information is regarding sleep cycles, and it's stages, but this is what I came up with after researching it for a few hours. Again, I apologise if anything is really off or if any of this bored you. I find a lot of this fascinating and really enjoyed researching this for this chapter.