Worthless Necessity [HitoZuku]

Chapter 103 - Map to a one man maze

"He's caught a cold, and he's running a rather high fever, though having a higher than normal body temperature is, oddly enough, pretty normal for him." Shuzenji sighed, "Not to mention, he's overworked himself to the point of collapsing. His body is completely drained of any energy. According to what you told me about the training exercise, Midoriya's been running on fumes for quite some time. His lapses of concentration in lessons? Being careless in tests and losing focus? His mind is trying to handle too many things at the same time, but his body doesn't have the energy to keep up."

Aizawa turned to the green haired boy, who was lying on one of the beds in the infirmary. He had a cold towel draped over his forehead, with an IV drip connected to his arm.

"If it's just that... why does he need an IV drip?" Aizawa asked, and Shuzenji sighed again, "Apparently, he's severely malnourished as well. He's still too light, and if he doesn't eat, he can't replenish the energy that he's using up."

Aizawa raised his eyebrow in confusion, "I'm fairly sure the boy has been eating. Hitoshi or Tenya would definitely come and tell me if he misses too many meals."

"Hey, Aizawa-sensei!" Uraraka called out, as she ran into the infirmary, with the others trailing behind her. They were still clad in their hero costumes, and had probably rushed here the second Kan let them out of the gym. Reiko let out a distressed rumble, reaching her paws out towards the bed, as Koda set her down gently, with Ryuto fluttering down from the boy's shoulder to nuzzle his human.

"How is he?" Shinsou asked, glancing at the unconscious boy worriedly, and Shuzenji replied, "He's sick, he's overworked himself, and he's suffering from severe malnutrition."

Iida took a few seconds to process everything she had said, before asking in confusion, "I can understand the first two points... the cold temperature in winter causes the flu virus to spread more readily, and I think some of our classmates were sneezing some time ago? Combined with Izuku's tendency to overwork... but malnutrition? I know he doesn't eat lunch... but he does join us every day for breakfast and dinner. And he does eat; some coffee and instant noodles, it's not a lot, but still... he is eating."

Upon hearing this, Shuzenji frowned; if the boy was eating, even if it was a little and unhealthy stuff like instant food, then he shouldn't be having this problem. Something else was wrong.

She asked, "What does he do after he eats?"

"Well... he washes his utensils, then he heads back to his room?" Koda offered, "But that's pretty normal for everyone else."

"He doesn't drink coffee anymore, though." Iida turned to his friends, "Izuku usually drinks coffee in the morning before eating instant noodles, but for the past two weeks, he hasn't drunk any. And oddly enough... he seems to be sleeping less..."

Shuzenji sighed heavily, "I'll have to ask him a few questions when he wakes up. Don't worry about him too much, you kids go back to the dorms and rest. I heard your training session today was rather strenuous."

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Midoriya blearily opened his eyes.

His head was still hurting, like someone had taken a hammer and had directly smashed it into his skull over and over, and he let out a small groan in pain. The room he was in felt familiar, so he wasn't too panicked about that, but there was something on his forehead, and Midoriya tried to reach up to figure out what it was, when a person came into his view.

"Midoriya. How are you feeling?" Shuzenji asked, as Midoriya winced; her voice was just making his head hurt even more. The green haired boy was just too tired to do anything, not even to filter his thoughts, and shakily muttered, "... head... hurts..."