I smiled slightly as Eri nodded and Midoriya replied, "Mhm!" Mr. Aizawa discreetly looked over to me, asking for what I thought. I softly nodded as he smiled, "I'm glad you three did."
~Midoriya POV~
Aizawa sensei walks up to the chair next to Kemuri's bed and sits down. He sighs as he leans back. "You know you're not supposed to use your quirk on the staff, correct?"
Kemuri looks at him and nods before grabbing her notebook. 'I know. But it's not my fault they treated me as some kind of fragile kid. Plus, they were refusing to let me see Eri.'
"I understand that, but not only are you still recovering, you also could have hurt the nurse." Aizawa sensei replies, shaking his head. Kemuri quietly sighs and looks away.
'I feel bad...I mean, she has been alone for days, and seeing how close she is with Eri; I'm not surprised she did that...' I thought as I mentally sighed. 'She looked like she was having a good time while we were talking. Well, me talking and her writing back, but never mind that! The mood kinda went down, I could try talking again. Maybe it'll bring the mood up.'
"Hey Kemuri?" I looked over to Kemuri, who was already looking at me, "Do you like- uh-" I paused for a moment. 'Crap! I didn't think of what I was going to say! What could I even ask?!' I mentally panicked before I said the first word that came to mind, "All Might?" I gave her an awkward smile before looking away slightly and scratching the back of my head.
A minute went by before I heard a small, almost inaudible, "Hm" and when I looked back at her, she shrugged and somewhat nodded. I smiled, "That's great! I love All Might! I have a couple of videos of his fights on my phone if you want to watch them?" I ask while taking out my phone.
She looked as if she was confused for a moment, thinking of what I said. "They're like replays of his fights, so people can watch them at a later time if they want to see it." Aizawa sensei announced randomly as both she and I looked over. Kemuri nodded in understanding before she looked back over to me, faintly nodding.
'Huh? Is that what she was confused about? What a video was?? I'm going to have to get used to this.' I smile as I carefully get off the bed and walk to the opposite side of Aizawa sensei. Kemuri watched me closely as I walked around the bed, moving closer to Aizawa Sensei's side when I got next to her. 'I guess she doesn't fully trust me yet...That's fine!' I sit down and move a bit back, giving her some space.
I hold out my phone and turn it on. I look next to me, seeing Kemuri looking at my phone as I smile.
My phone turns on and shows my lock screen:
I smile softly at the picture as I unlock it to my home screen, which shares the same photo. I think as to which video I should show Kemuri, debating if I should show videos I've taken or the ones online. I turn to Kemuri to ask her which she'd prefer to see her still staring at my phone.
"Is there something wrong Kemuri?" I ask her, wondering why she's so interested in my phone. 'There's nothing really on it...Maybe it's because she'd never had one?'
She continues staring for a bit before looking at me and shaking her head. I shrug it off before smiling again. "Do you want to see a video I took or one from online?" She shrugs her shoulders before looking down to her lap.
'Hmm, I think I'll show her one that I took, I just have to find a good one!' I start looking through my gallery, trying to find my favorite video.
~Y/n POV~
I furrow my brows as I look down at my lap. 'Ugh! My head hurts!' That photo. The kids in it seem so familiar to me, but I've never seen them before! It's agitating! Why does this keep happening??
I vaguely shake my head and look back at Midoriyas' phone, watching what he's doing. I hear Eri talking to Mr. Aizawa beside us, saying how excited she is to be out and how she 'can't wait to go to the school festival'. In all honesty, I forgot about that.
"Here it is!" Midoriya suddenly blurts out, making me flinch and back away from him. 'Damn, he's loud! That hurt my ear!' The sudden movement made my torso hurt as I grabbed it.
"Ah! I'm sorry Kemuri!" I shook my head and waved him off. I took a deep breath before looking back at him, moving a hand to his 'phone', signaling to him to play the 'video'.
He awkwardly smiles. "O-oh! Yeah!" He clicks the triangle at the bottom of the screen and the 'video' starts playing. I watch intently as the screen shows the bright colors. 'Woah...This is pretty cool!' All might pops onto the screen, saying a few words before he starts to fight a villain.
The video ends after around 3 minutes. Midoriya chuckles as he moves the phone back to him. "Looks like you liked the video!" He says with a smile on his face while he looks for another. I nod to him, 'I..I want to watch another one! That looked so cool!'
Midoriya finds another video and turns the phone over to me, playing the video. Halfway through the video, he subconsciously moves closer to me with neither of us noticing, trying to get a better view of the video.
~Aizawa POV~
I ruffle Eri's hair as I look back over to Midoriya and Kemuri. They seem, close? 'That took a lot less time than I thought it would for them to get along. I guess Midoriya always had a welcoming aura to him. It's annoying, but I guess it works.' I somewhat smile as I look back over to Eri. 'It's good though. As much as I want to keep Eri and Kemuri together, I know that can't happen all the time. Having someone her age talk to her, it's a step closer to her living a normal life..'
I watch as Eri climbs onto the bed and makes her way over to Kemuri. She sits next to Kemuri, watching the video with the two teenagers.
'And having Eri trust Midoriya made it a lot easier for Kemuri to open up. Hypothetically, if Eri communicates with more people like Midoriya, she'll introduce them to Kemuri. I guess the school festival will be a good opportunity for both of them.'
~TimeSkip~
~Half an Hour Later~
I look at my watch to see it already says 5:35. I sigh as I put my hands on my knees, lifting myself up. The sound of my movement catches the attention of all three kids in front of me. "It's half past 5, so it's time for dinner." Midoriya looks at me and nods, turning off his phone and standing up from the chair.
I see Kemuri looking at Eri in confusion. She grabs her notebook and starts to write. 'What does "half past 5" mean?'
"I think that means it's 5:30," Eri turns around to look at me, "right Mr. Aizawa?" I nod my head and she turns back to Kemuri, nodding her head. Kemuri smiles under her mask, her eyes slightly scrunching as she does so, the only confirmation that she's able to, as she pats Eri's head.
"If it's fine with you, Kemuri, I'm going to take Eri with us so she can pick out her food," I ask Kemuri as Eri starts to make her way out of bed. She nods at me and helps Eri safely get off the bed, allowing Eri to grab onto her arm as support.
"Is there anything you want specifically?" Kemuri looks at me and shrugs. 'I don't know any other foods other than bread.' I sigh as I nod my head, "We'll find you something."
She nods her head as we start to walk to the door. We say our goodbyes and wave as we leave the room.
Midoriya walks next to me as Eri walks in front of us both.
"Midoriya," I call out to the boy beside me, keeping my eyes straight.
"Uh- Yes, Mr. Aizawa?" The boy chirps out.
"How did things go with Kemuri? You two seemed closer."
Midoriya smiles and nods his head. "I think she's getting used to me! She didn't mind me being next to her, and she seemed to like All Might! Or she just liked my phone, considering she's never had one before, that's also a possibility as to why she was so interested. Or because she-" I rolled my eyes as he continued to mumble about the possibilities, which I paid no attention to afterwards.
"Midoriya. That's enough." I interrupted him, feeling a vein appearing on my forehead. 'This kid talks too much.'
He laughed sheepishly and nodded as we entered the hospital cafeteria.
~TimeSkip~
~3 hours later~
~3rd Person POV(Including Thoughts)~
When the three came back, Midoriya had katsudon, Aizawa had tonkatsu with rice, and Eri had Tamagoyaki, also with rice.
Meanwhile, they brought back nikuman for Kemuri. They wanted to make sure it was something simple, seeing which food she liked and which she didn't.
Kemuri thoroughly enjoyed her meal. The hot pork buns comforted her sore throat, as well as warmed her up.
The only problem was to eat, Kemuri had to take her mask off. Although the newfound trust in Midoriya existed, it was not to the point where she was comfortable enough to show her face. Even Eri only saw it a few times.
Practically in unison, both Midoriya and Aizawa turned their chairs the other way, giving her some privacy to eat in peace. The small gesture made Kemuri smile, allowing her to enjoy her meal.
Around 8:00 pm, Eri was lying on Kemuri's lap while they both watched the T.V. mounted on the wall. The two watched in awe, not being allowed to see something like this before when kept captive. The T.V. projected bright colors around the now-dark room, which the two girls missed, being too focused on the screen.
"Alright girls," Aizawa stumbled out, waking himself up as he put his hands on his knees, lifting himself up. "It's late, I have patrol and Eri needs to get to bed."
The two looked at him as Eri groaned and lifted from Kemuri's lap. "But we're still watching!" The little girl whined.
"It's alright. We'll come back tomorrow and you can continue watching, okay?" Eri sighed and nodded her head.
Kemuri smiled behind her mask, seeing how Eri's acting. 'I'm glad she's finally able to act like a child. It's reliving to see..' She thought.
Eri hugged her older sister tightly as she said goodbye. The older girl hugged her back, playing with her hair before they departed.
Aizawa, Midoriya, and Eri all made their way to the door, saying their goodbyes. "Good night, Kemuri! We'll see you tomorrow!" Midoriya blurted, waving at Kemuri as the three walked out.
She nodded as they left, an unseen smile on her face as she laid back down in bed. Looking out the window, the girl was left with her thoughts:
'I wonder when I'll be able to leave with them, it's boring in here..I want to see a sunset when I get out, I don't want to keep seeing it through a locked window..'
Her thoughts kept her occupied as she slowly drifted off to sleep.
~TimeSkip~
~A Week Later~
A week has gone by and, to Aizawa's surprise, Midoriya and Kemuri have gotten closer, to the extent that when Aizawa visits Kemuri alone, she asks about not only Eri but also Midoriya.
And today was one of those days. It was around 12:30 pm on a Tuesday when Aizawa came to visit Kemui by himself.
"Hello Kemuri," Aizawa greeted as he set down his bag on the floor and sat in the free chair next to the girl.
Kemuri nodded and somewhat waved to him. She waited for a second before pulling out her notebook and writing in it. 'Hello, Mr. Aizawa. Where's Eri and Midoriya?'
"It's a Tuesday, so Midoriya is at U.A. They're currently on lunch break and don't have me for another hour and a half, so I came to visit you." Kemuri nodded her head in understanding before pointing to Eri's name she had written in the question.
"You're aware of how Eri sees the students every once in a while after classes in the dorm building, correct?" Kemuri nodded. "Well, she wanted to see you right after classes today, meaning she wouldn't be able to see them before leaving. So, to keep her happy, I agreed to let her see them during lunchtime.." Aizawa said, now thinking that it wasn't such a good idea, seeing as how he didn't ask Kemuri what she thought about it.
The girl's brows vaguely furrowed as she started writing in her notebook again. 'So who's looking after her? You just left her in a room filled with people? Why did you leave her alone? What if something happens? What if she gets hur-'
Before Kemuri could continue writing, Aizawa, who was watching her write, stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. Kemuri flinched and looked at him with worried eyes.
"Kemuri. She's fine, trust me. I left her with Midoriya and my class. I know the class wouldn't do anything to harm her, especially since I told them if I heard Eri say someone did something to her, they would be expelled." Kemuri looked at him with uncertainty before slowly nodding.
'At least Midoriya's watching over her. He wouldn't do anything to hurt her.' She thought to herself before looking back down to her notebook and flipping the page so she wouldn't continue thinking about it when writing. 'Just wish I was told beforehand...But I guess I can't control her life, she's free to do what she wants now...'
The silence built up in the room as the two looked away from each other. Although Kemuri trusted Aizawa, it's been a while since she had been with him without others around.
The silence was then interrupted by the sound of movement from Aizawa. Looking over, Kemuri saw Aizawa pulling out a hairbrush from his bag. Aizawa looked at her before asking, "Would you like me to brush your hair again? It's been a while since I last did it." Kemuri's eyes scrunched softly, indicating that she was smiling as she nodded her head. Aizawa nodded his head as he got up, Kemuri making space and moving over so Aizawa could sit next to her. She turns around, now facing the window as Aizawa takes a section of her hair. He gently starts brushing through it, making sure not to hurt Kemuri whenever he comes across a knot in her hair.
"So, is there something you want to talk about?" Aizawa asked as he brushed the ends how her hair. Kemuri thought for a second before reaching next to her and grabbing her notebook. She quickly wrote on it and put it up, showing it to the man behind her. 'School. What's happening in it."
Aizawa nodded, "Well, there's quite a bit that's happened so far. Guess I can start from the first main event that happened?"
The older man sighed as he began explaining. "The beginning of the year, it was a mess. I had the kids partner up and fight as training, only for there to be some kind of tense atmosphere between Midoriya and another kid in my class named Bakugo. Luckily, they were fine, but that kid was brutal to Midoriya." Aizawa shook his head, remembering the events and words he had heard Katsuki say to Midoiya.
Kemuri thought for a minute about what Aizawa had told her. 'Wonder why that happened...Midoriya seems like such a nice person, why would anyone have a problem with him?'
"A little after that, I took the kids to a training ground called the U.S.J. Unfortunately, that also turned out bad, since villains somehow infiltrated the grounds, trapping everyone there. Everyone came out fine though, some of us had a few injuries, but nothing seriously life-threatening." Kemuri nodded her head, listening contently to the stories from the teacher behind her.
"Then, the school sports festival happened. It's where the kids can show off their quirks and abilities to Pro Heroes watching them. If a hero likes how the kids are, they can send them an internship application, so they can work with a real hero for a week or so. My class did somewhat well, although Bakugo made us quite the first impression on other classes." Aizawa sighed while shaking his head for the second time while mentioning Bakugo. Kemuri wrote once more and showed it to Aizawa. 'He seems troublesome.'
Aizawa nods his head in agreement, "Yeah, he is, but he's determined."
"Well, after the kids came back from their internships, I held their final exams. The teachers went up against the students in pairs, who had to either escape or capture the hero in the allotted time given to them. Everyone did pretty well on that. The students I went up against took a while to work together and voice plans, but they eventually got it." Kemuri nodded before writing again. 'What about Midoriya? Who was he up against?'
"Midoriya's went...okay." Aizawa hesitated to call the fight 'okay', remembering how messed up it was. "He was paired with Bakugo. I know it was a bad pair, but they need to learn to cooperate. You never pick who you work with when you're a Pro Hero. Although they didn't work together at all, it just was a mess of petty fights and yelling with those two." Aizawa grunted recalling the scene he watched those two in. Kemuri slightly frowned, thinking to herself, 'What is this guy's problem with Midoriya?? I know for a fact that Midoriya isn't someone to have such bad blood with someone.'
The man then split Kemuri's hair into two, half of it brushed while the other half was still tangled. "Then...There was the forest training camp..." Aizawa's voice changed from his usual calm attitude to a tense one. Kemuri's face changed to one of worry, listening closely to Aizawa.
Aizawa cleared his throat before continuing to talk, "It was initially a camp where the students could improve their abilities with the three 'Wild, Wild Pussycats', who are a group of Pro Heroes who work together. Things were fine until we were attacked by the same group of villains from the U.S.J." Aizawa continued brushing her hair as he took a breath.
"We let the kids fight the villains, we thought they could hold their ground until the villains retreated, which they did for the most part. But at the end of the day, they're still just children, so of course, after fighting constantly with high-powered villains and the two prior non-stop training days, they lost a lot of stamina. It eventually ended but...they kidnapped Bakugo before escaping." Silence engulfed the room as Kemuri's eyes widened. 'As mean as he seems, no one deserves that, especially someone not used to it...'
'But you guys saved him, right?' Kemuri wrote back to Aizawa. He nodded his head as he finished untangling all of her hair. "We did. With the help of my students, whom I specifically told not to intervene, we saved him." Aizawa continued to brush Kemuri's hair, not because it was tangled, but because he weirdly wanted to keep brushing it, seeing how comfortable the girl was with him. The girl nodded her head, slightly relieved they were able to save him, knowing how shitty it felt to be held captive.
"And assuming you don't know the news of All Might. He retired. He revealed an injury he was given a few years ago which slowly drained him of his power, making him weaker as time went by." Kemuri's eyes widened, hearing that the hero she looked up to, the number one hero retired. Before she could wrap her head around it, Aizawa continued talking, "He lost his power fully while fighting-" Aizawa stopped his sentence before he could continue.
He had remembered what Kemuri had told him, who she had been first taken by. He subconsciously stopped brushing the girl's hair, which made her turn to look at him, her eyebrow raised, confused as to why he stopped in the middle of his sentence. Aizawa could still see the look of disappointment on her face, upon hearing of All Might's retirement. He looked at her before taking a deep breath and continuing his sentence, although he knew she'd react to it.
He cleared his throat as he continued, "All Might lost his power completely after fighting All For One." Kemuri's eyes widened upon not only hearing his name but also that he put All Might out of commission. Kemuri's eyebrows furrowed as her eyes were full of hatred, looking down at the bed.
Her mind scrambled all over the place, thinking of the man who started it all. 'All For One...He ended All Might. This man caused so much hell for so many people, and now he's taken down the symbol of peace. How long ago did this happen? Did All Might beat him before he was downed? Is All MIght okay? Where is All For One? Did they capture him? Did he get away? Did he-' Her thoughts were interrupted by Aizawa putting his hands on her shoulders.
"Kemuri. Kid, hey, it's okay. He's gone now, he's locked away in the most secure prison available. We wouldn't let him roam free even if it was the last thing we did. He won't be free anytime soon." Kemuri simply stared at the man, her breathing unsteady and her brows knitted together.
Aizawa sighed as he carefully pulled the smaller girl into a hug. She tensed up to unusual touch. She didn't hug back yet she didn't move away. She let the man hug her as her mind continued to run wild.
The two stayed like this for the next 5 minutes, when Kemuri's breathing finally went back to normal. The male pulled away from her, pulling one hand away but leaving one on her shoulder. Kemuri took a deep breath before looking back at him and nodding her head. He pulled his hand away before he sighed, "Would you like me to continue? Maybe get your mind off it?" Kemuri slowly nodded her head before grabbing a pillow from behind her, hugging it for comfort as she backed up and leaned against the headboard of the bed.
"Alright, well, we gave them a few days to all recover from that experience, but after that, everything went back to normal for the most part. They did their Professional Hero License exam, which means they were allowed to use their quirk freely in the feat of danger." Aizawa explained, turning to face Kemuri while still sitting on the bed with her.
"Almost all of my kids passed it, except for two of them. One didn't have enough points when assessing injured citizens, while the other failed to cooperate during a 'villain' attack." Aizawa says, putting air quotation marks while saying "villain." Kemuri nodded her head but looked at Aizawa in wonder at who the two students were.
"The two were Bakugo and Todoroki, which didn't surprise me considering their personalities. Not that they act like each other, but Bakugo's more aggressive, and he failed by yelling at a citizen, also refusing to help them. Todoroki was caught by a 'villain' with another student from a different school, who had a problem with his father, so he let it out on Todoroki. Both of them failed since they caused copious amounts of collateral damage." Aizawa sighed while shaking his head.
'What's with this kid? Why is he mentioned in every story Mr. Aizawa has? Guess he's hard to miss with that attitude of his..' Kemuri thought to herself while listening to Aizawa talk.
"Thankfully enough, they're currently taking the retest this week to gain their licenses, so they'll still be able to fight like the rest of the students." Kemuri nodded as she stared out the window.
"And that's about it. Just after the Exam, they were able to go on their internships again, which is how Midoriya and Mirio found you two." Kemuri let her head fall onto the pillow she was holding as she continued to look out the window.
The room went quiet as Aizawa finished his stories. Looking down at his watch, Aizawa noticed he had around 30 minutes before he had to be back at U.A. The man sighed as he looked back at Kemuri, who was now writing in her notebook. He waited for her to finish writing as she turned the page to him. 'When will the school festival happen?'
"It's happening next Friday when the retake kids arrive back and everyone has time to prepare everything. Why, is there something wrong?"
Kemuri shook her head in response and began to write again. Aizawa looked over at the paper, this time watching her write. She began to write down, 'No, there's no problem, but', before stopping, debating if she should write what she was thinking.
After around a minute, she continued to write, 'Do you think I'd be able to go?'
Aizawa sighed before answering truthfully, "I'm not entirely sure, kid. I'm sure you know your injuries are still severe, and, even if you don't show it, we know you're still in pain. I don't know if you'll have to get any more operations."
Kemuri simply nodded her head and looked down at her hands. Aizawa stared at her with sympathy, knowing the girl just wanted to leave the hospital and be with her sister.
"Listen, if you aren't able to go, I'll make sure to record Eri and the students while we're there, so you can still be able to see it." Kemuri nodded her head, 'It's not as good as being there and seeing it in real-time, but I guess it works..'
Aizawa sighed as he got up, grabbing his bag with him, " I have to go now. I know you want to be there, but we also want you to heal up. Eri doesn't want to see her sister in pain anymore." The man said as he walked to the door and opened it gently.
"I'll come back later with Eri and Mioriya when school ends. Get some rest in the meantime. I'll see you later, kid." He left, shutting the door behind him as he swiftly made his way around the hospital, not wanting to be reprimanded by Nezu for being late again.
Kemuri was left with her thoughts as she stayed in her previous position. 'That was a lot of information...Some kid named Bakugo got kidnapped even though he was surrounded by heroes, All For One is in prison, All Might isn't the number one hero anymore, and I won't be leaving the hospital as quickly as Eri did...God, why are there so many things happening...What other things have happened since I've been gone?? Were the villains with All For One also captured? Have any other heroes retired?' Her mind raced with questions that would all be left unanswered.
She put the pillow back in its respective spot as she lay on it, wrapping herself in the warmth of her blanket. 'I wonder...If anything changed with my family? Do they miss me? Do they still look for me? Do they think I'm dead? Have they forgotten about me while I'm still hanging onto them?'
The young girl closed her eyes as she let her mind roam for a dream. 'Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like if I was never taken...'