Consciousness slowly dawned on the sleeping beauty as her heavy set of eyes took in the surrendering environment. Everything was in a disturbing bright white, making (Y/N) squint away, adopting a vampiric sense.
The doll groaned as her arm languidly lifted to cover the dazzling world, briefly catching the needle in her hand through narrowed eyes. She raised her hand above her eyes to verify what she saw and indeed there was a intravenous line extending from her hand to a banana bag hanging above her head.
Summoning all the energy she could muster from her disengaged body, (Y/N) sat up on the hospital bed, rubbing the remains of sleep off her eyes for a clear vision.
Tsubaki was the first thing to to cross the doll's mind after what seemed like centuries of slumber, she frantically looked around for something or someone to confide in for details and that's when she spotted her cellphone beside the hospital bed.
The first thing to grab her attention was the day's date.
Two days of absence from the world and its responsibilities have passed since the USJ incident.
Then the notification from an unknown number stating their identity and claiming they had Tsubaki in their care.
Instantly, the doll dialed the number while anxiety munched on her patience.
"Hello, (L/N)-san!" a feminine voice sounded from the other line.
"Hi—" (Y/N) cleared the sleep from her throat before going off the grid with worry, "you're Tsubaki's teacher, right?"
"Yes, don't worry. She's been doing well the past two— Oh, here comes the little princess~! Come say hi to mama!"
(Y/N)'s hand fumbled with the covers as she waited for the sound of her Tsubaki.
"HI (N/N)~! YOU MISS ME!" the innocent voice of the clueless child sounded, making the doll heave a sigh of relief and giggle at her wording. The voice of her teacher correcting her was faint on the other line and soon after, Tsubaki rephrased, "I MISS YOU!"
It didn't matter since Tsubaki was right the first time around.
"Me too~!" (Y/N) replied with all the enthusiasm she can rally. Her shoulders relaxed into the headboard as she started an hour long session catching up with Tsubaki's wellbeing during the past two days.
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The toddler's teacher had informed (Y/N) of Nezu's heroic intervention when he made the personal request of caring for Tsubaki and didn't hesitate to pay for it. The teacher awed and squealed at the chivalry and the doll followed her example in a disheartened manner.
She knew the creature had not an ounce of chivalry in him and only did what he did so (Y/N) wouldn't find an excuse to quit the job or worse: complain.
Not that she was ungrateful. At least Nezu chose someone Tsubaki is familiar with.
Soon after ending the call, (Y/N) freshened up and met a nurse who informed her of what she knew regarding the incident— from the telly, the most accurate and non-exaggerated source of information. However, she did enlighten the female with two, irrefutable facts:
One, Recovery Girl visited the doll a day ago for this miraculous recovery to be possible. Two, the number of her colleagues' hospital room.
The very room (Y/N) had slid open and waltzed into before asking for permission: "excuse me."
"(L/N)-san!" Thirteen called with a start, turning to face the doll and abandoning fixing her brand new suit.
"Oops, caught you in the middle of changing there, huh?" (Y/N) teased scandalously, placing the tips of her fingers on a mischievous smirk.
The hollow hero sweat-dropped and humoured the teasing female, "no, it's fine. You haven't seen much, really."
(Y/N) cackled lowly like a fairy tale hag and dragged her IV stand to a seat overlooking Aizawa's and Thirteen's sides of the room.
"Should you be walking around? Did the doctor see you? How are you feeling now?" Thirteen asked as the doll made herself comfortable.
"It's fine, it's fine. Everything is fine. Are you fine?" (Y/N) questioned, smoothing out her hospital gown and looking up at the woman in the space suit.
"As you can see, I am," Thirteen replied in a cheerful tone.
"That's a relief," sighed the reassured doll.
"Although..." the rescue teacher trailed off turning to Aizawa's bed, "can't say the same about Eraser."
(Y/N) turned to see the mummified teacher with sympathy in her gaze, "I heard his condition is stable though?"
"It is... but he's been asleep for the majority of the day. Then again, it's Eraser."
"Can't argue with facts," (Y/N) pressed her lips and shook her head at the sloth of a man Eraser is, but then squinted her eyes and turned to Thirteen, "wait, he is asleep now, right?"
"He should be?" the teacher questioned, not so sure herself, "I've been talking to him the past 5 minutes with no response on his part."
At this point, the doll wouldn't be surprised if Aizawa took advantage of his mummified face to escape conversation and sleep, but she'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
"Ah, (L/N)-san!" the space hero began, taking a seat before (Y/N), "I know you haven't been in UA long but I'm so grateful for everything you did... considering your quirk and restrictions, that is."
The doll's investigative eyes peeled off of Eraser's bed and turned to the grateful female, "so you've heard about it all... Ugh, if only that Nomu thing wasn't there," (Y/N) shuddered at the sickening memory.
"Right! Nomu was taken in by the officers for interrogation, but it did not provide them with any information, only its cooperation. It seems to be a mindless creature, acting only on command," Thirteen relayed what she heard from Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa with a hand on her helmet.
"Did they identify what it was? It's not like any creature I've ever come by," (Y/N) confessed, shivering at the possibility running across her head and instantly shook it off. "Its energy was rotten to the core."
"Do you feel the energy you extract?"
"Feel and smell."
"Energy has scent!?"
"Ohohohohoho!" the doll displayed her infamous Santa laugh, except Thirteen thought it resembled Satan's since her hands were rubbing together, too. "Back in my heyday, I picked my cup of coffee out the energy of the fine smelling students."
Thirteen sweat-dropped, surprised at the change of tone and expression that took place in under a second. She couldn't help but voice out her concerns for the female and her students, "whether this is a joke or not, I'm still concerned about your mental health."
The doll raised her chin up and released a vixen's laugh before giggling down to a stop and replying, "no, seriously. Energy has a scent. At least to me... You see, the human body is always radiating energy even when it's still since the organs are doing their job," (Y/N) started explaining with a bright spirit, "now, the key behind every human's unique scent lies in their diet and psychological state."
"How curious," the female replied fascinated.
"Right?! I could tell if someone is an alcoholic by the energy their diseased liver releases or if someone is happy by their brain's energy. For one condition, though," (Y/N) raised a finger, "and that is, I have to had extracted energy from someone who had the same feeling."
"I see, something that requires experience," Thirteen, nodding comprehending the new concept, "then... don't mind me asking, but what did you feel from Nomu?"
(Y/N) sighed dejectedly, her spirit dimmed as what crossed her mind earlier surfaced once again, "I felt like... I was taking the energy of a corpse."
"A corpse? How so?"
"There was... nothingness,"(Y/N) made the worst confession of her life as a shiver ran down her body, making her take a trembling breath and shake away the feeling.
Before Thirteen could reach the disturbed female with a comforting hand, the door to the room slid open with the entrance of another visitor.