Requiem of the Broken

Chapter 25: Debrief

She lurched out of her seat and ran to the door, grabbing her coat as she went. Then wrenched the door open and dashed out of the room, using a small trickle of her power to energize her muscles and move faster. She blitzed through the halls until she came to the room and pushed the doors open. Nurses and surgeons were milling about, preparing for emergency surgery by the looks of it.

Okimi pushed past a surgeon who was putting on a mask and gloves to the center, to see the white-haired child on the table, her clothes cut away and marks for an incision made all over her chest. As Okimi started putting on her operating gear she flushed her body with a ripple of energy, sanitizing her body instantly. It always stung all over when she did that, but she didn't have time to do things the slow way.

"What am I dealing with?" she called out.

"Multiple organ failure, so far the heart and lungs are managing but those could fail at any moment. Brain activity is almost nonexistent as well. We've done what we can so far, but we need your quirk for the rest." called out another surgeon.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath, and after pushing everyone out of the way she started cutting, pushing her quirk into the girl and using it to support the body's functions while she worked. As she did so, she started calling out instructions to everyone, it was going to be a long night.

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She could see it, deep in that darkness there was a light glowing. There should be no light though, this place was meant to be dark. She drifted through the darkness towards it, and before long the large wrought iron gates came into view. She felt fear at the sight, they were horribly warped, bent, and some of the bars had been snapped and blown outward. The large chains that bound them shut were rusted and shrunken in size. Yet they still held IT back, horribly weak though they might be.

As she stared, she saw a figure sitting cross-legged in front of a campfire, her short-cropped brown hair, glowing in the firelight. The figure looked up, right at her, and she could see the rosy cheeks and brown eyes clearly. She saw IT smile, get up, and walk up to the bars, leaning on them.

"I was wondering if I'd see you or not. As you can see, the seal has been pretty badly damaged... and you know what that means. It won't be long now. I'll be free before long and then we'll be together again, as we once were, and always have been." IT said in a happy voice, a wistful expression on its face.

Ochako couldn't help but feel repulsed, this THING should never be allowed to be free, she'd make sure of it. As the thought flashed through her mind, the figure's face fell, and a look of pain passed over it. Apparently, the seal had weakened enough for IT to read her thoughts as well, she shivered in disgust.

"Why? Why do you hate me? I've never harmed you, never harmed your friends, never done anything you didn't really want. So why must you fight me so much?" She asked, the pain clear in her voice as IT took a step away from the gate.

"You're a monster, you can't be let free, not again, you'll do horrible things again. I can't let that happen, so you're staying here forever, I'll get Dr. Minoru to repair the seal." She spat at the THING in front of her, her anger growing by the moment.

She stood seething for a moment longer before turning and leaving the creature to the darkness. She ignored the creatures pleading for her to come back, she wouldn't be manipulated by it again.

"Never again..." she whispered to herself, the anger burning hot inside her even as she felt a solitary tear escape her.

Slowly she felt the tug of wakefulness on her and she was swept away.