I was stirred by a steady beeping and a pressure in the back of my throat.
With my eyes still closed, I gripped the familiarly thin sheets under my hands, feeling stiff and alarmed by the plastic shoved down my windpipe.
I tore my eyes open to the luminescent white light on the ceiling at the feeling of someone else's warm hand clamping down on mine; of which now were in the midst of rising up to tear whatever was in my mouth out.
My blurry vision could only make out a distorted blob of a woman with long black hair. I figured it was a nurse, and when she spoke she sounded far off and it was nearly impossible to decipher what she was saying.
I started to breath in sharply through my nose, which only served as an indicator that there was another object obscuring that ability as well.
The woman with the black hair had neglected to fade from my side or do anything about the tube in my throat. I kept my panicked gaze on her and had managed to grip onto the long sleeved shirt she was wearing. I couldn't tell if it was dark blue or black.
Seconds that felt like years ticked by before a man adorning a white lab-looking coat appeared to the left side of my vision — which threw me for a loop.
I was blind in my left eye.
I felt instant relief as he peeled back the medical tape securing the tube. I heard his soft, yet baritone voice as he told me to slowly open my mouth, and when I did he began to carefully remove the obscuration; one that I soon realized had to be an endotracheal tube.
The one doctors use to keep a comatose patient breathing.
I coughed immediately when my airways were clear, and sniffled when the nasogastric tube — the one in my nose — was removed as well.
The doctor had then proceeded to shine a light in both of my eyes — and by then I wasn't just seeing blobs of color anymore. When he was done with that, I rubbed them with my fist and blinked rapidly, hurrying the process of regaining my normal sight.
"Miss Yuki,"I heard the man say again, yet he sounded closer this time. "Miss Yuki, can you hear me?"
I turned at the sound of his voice, now being able to make out his tan skin and blond hair. He wore glasses and had green eyes; ones that struck me as familiar.
"You must be confused," said the doctor, who smiled understandingly as he set a gloved hand on my shoulder. "Do you remember what happened?"
At his question, recollections of my fight with Dream Walker resurfaced and I nodded.
"Very good," he praised and stood up a little straighter. "This might be a little hard to hear... but you have been in a comatose state for several days."
"How many days exactly is that?" I croaked, feeling something foreign bubble in my chest.
He checked his wrist watch. "Seven and a half. It's almost midnight now."
I felt my eyes widen and the doctor was quick to coax me.
"You had lost a lot of blood by the time you got here," he went on. "But it looked as if your quirk had been hastily trying to keep up and heal your wounds. The loss of blood and the kick start of the quirk prompted unconsciousness and lack of normal brain activity. Forgive my bluntness, but you were on the very cusp of death when you arrived here, Miss Yuki. If it weren't for your mother, here, I can confirm that your life support would have been turned off much sooner..."
My eyes widened, not at the fact that I almost died, but the use of the word 'mother.' I felt gravitated toward the woman who had been beside me when I woke up, and slowly I turned my head to look at her.
I felt my breathing hitch.
The woman who I perceived as a nurse previously wasn't even a nurse at all. Her hair was straight and long and black. Her skin was tan and she had a birthmark under the left side of her bottom lip. Her eyes were a chocolate brown and looked back at me hopefully. It took me a while to notice, but when I looked down, I had realized that she had been tightly holding onto my hand.
I looked back up to her eyes and suddenly felt emotional. A tsunami of different feelings crashed into me at that moment; the fact that I could see out of both of my eyes, the throbbing sensation I felt through my whole body, the fact that Francis and I were one again, how he tried so hard to save my life after we fused... how he so obviously gave my mother back to me.
"Can you give us a moment, Doctor?" I heard her say. It was soft spoken; something I didn't remember her ever sounding like.
The doctor complied without a word and left the room, giving my mother and I the privacy she requested.
I still couldn't find the words to say and only stared. My mother was smiling knowingly at me, and as soon as the door shut, she was quick to gently wrap me up in a hug.
I took in a shaky breath and returned the gesture tightly, using all the strength from my weak limbs that I could muster.
She was so warm. She was so real.
"I knew you'd wake up," I heard her whisper. "You're just too stubborn not to."
I had managed to laugh weakly at that and nuzzled into the crook of her neck. Warm tears squeezed their way out of my closed eyes.
"I saw everything," she continued softly. "I'm so proud of you. You saved a lot of lives that night."
All I could manage was a nod and a weak, thankful sob. I was thankful toward Francis for the first time ever.
When we finally pulled away, Mom held me at arms length with a weak, teary-eyed smile.
"You should have seen your sister," she laughed. "She was shocked to see me and enraged to see your condition. It was almost funny."
I smiled in return. "Where is everyone?"
"I sent Aizawa and Iida to the cafeteria an hour ago," Mom confessed, sounding guilty. "Shizuka is at the dorms because I made her go, and Karafuru went to check on your aunt about fifteen minutes before you woke up. They're all going to be so mad at me."
She laughed again and the sound made my chest lighten.
"And Sato?"
Mother looked on at me knowingly. "He's been here everyday since we brought you in. Last time I recall, he went to go check on Karafuru."
I breathed out evenly and leaned back against the pillow behind me.
"I can see again." I confessed, bringing my fingers up to my left cheek.
"Your face is no longer scarred, either," Mom revealed, taking up my free hand in hers. "There isn't a doubt in my mind that Dream Walker's power healed it."
I nodded in agreement and smiled absently to myself. Everything I felt then was so foreign — so strange.
Having Mom here and not wanting to rip her face off was strange, not to mention having her sitting next to me. It felt like everything that's happened was a dream; I had to pinch myself to convince myself otherwise.
"How are you here?" I asked after a moment.
"Dream Walker released me after you two fused again," Mom explained. "He didn't say anything, it didn't seem necessary."
"Where is he now?"
"He... doesn't exist anymore," she told me softly, patting the top of my hand. "You two are one person, now — a complete fusion."
"What was the difference between us, then?" I asked another question, meeting her gaze.
Mom shone a lopsided smile. "You didn't know what you were doing, so the process was incompletely. It's complicit, to say the least."
I agreed with a nod of my head, and as if on cue, the door to my hospital room opened.
"We're back —" I heard Aizawa's voice and turned toward the source to see him and Iida standing there.
They noticed me almost immediately, and with a quick glance at each other, they quickly sprinted the five foot distance separating us.
I watched as they blurred forward and the way Aizawa shoved Iida to the side to get to me first. He quite literally dove onto the bed and tackled me in a hug, as did Iida on top of him.
I heaved at the sudden weight and cackled at their actions. Mom had stood up and was holding her hands out, frantically shouting at them to get off of me.
Aizawa had nuzzled his nose into the crook of my neck with his arms around my shoulders, and Iida was busy clinging to my waist with his face shoved into my chest. I held a hand on both of their backs, still very unable to contain the laughing that was escaping my mouth.
"If she gets hurt you'll both be sorry!" I heard Mom shout, which only managed to make me laugh harder as they detangled themselves from me.
"It's okay, I'm fine," I reassured, readjusting my sitting position as they clambered off the bed. "I don't think anyone's ever been that excited to see me."
"What were you thinking?!" Iida yelled, clamping his hands onto my shoulders.
"That was reckless," Aizawa followed, prompting me to playfully scoff. "So reckless."
"Let's not bring this up for a second," I pled, waving a hand. "How are all of you? The Living Dead? What happened?"
"Once Dream Walker was presumably dealt with, everyone who was being controlled was released," Iida filled me in. "The damages from the fighting are still being repaired, and pedestrian casualties were minimal."
"Good," I nodded. "And class A? How is everyone?"
"They're all fine," Aizawa took over. "Everyone is completely worried about you, though. Bakugou had to be dismissed from the hospital and hasn't been allowed back since."
I breathed harder out of my nose and rolled my eyes, not surprised at the news.
"And you?" I turned to Aizawa, reaching out for his hand. He gladly handed it over.
"I'm fine," he assured, giving my palm a squeeze. "A few therapy secessions for a couple of months and I'll be back to normal."
I didn't like the sound of him having to go through therapy, but smiled in relief despite that and nodded in understanding. I would have been foolish to think that everything would be fin as fiddles after he was corrupted for such a prolonged amount of time. I blamed myself because I couldn't bring myself to hurt him.
"Now back to the topic at hand," Iida declared, re-railing the conversation. "What were you thinking?"
Aizawa and Iida looked at me pointedly.
"A lot of things," I sighed, leaning back on my pillow. "Dad, 1-A, everyone in Japan... it's all that I've been thinking about since I came back. I had to protect everyone."
"By throwing your life away?" Iida snapped unintentionally. "When Sato found you, he said that you didn't have your communicator."
"I destroyed it," I replied honestly, avoiding their gazes to look down at the pale blue sheets over my legs. "After I found Dream Walker."
"That's exactly what you said you wouldn't do." Iida reminded.
"I know," I sighed. "But it was something I had to do. I don't expect you to understand or to forgive me, but I seriously believe that if I did call for backup, things would have ended differently. People would have died."
Iida didn't have a comeback for that and the room fell silent.
"In the end, all Dream Walker wanted was for someone to understand," I looked up again, willing down overwhelmed tears as I smiled again. "He wanted someone to take the pain away. I wouldn't have been able to do that with anyone else there."
Aizawa squeezed my hand and Iida did the same. Mom took hold of my right forearm, and I knew they understood.
"Well," Aizawa began again. "We should just be glad that you're alive. You did good, kid."
I grinned and nodded. "Now all I wanna do is get outta here."
"Agreed," Mom said, standing up. "I'll go hunt down your doctor."
"And I'll go tell you aunt and everyone else that you're awake." Aizawa chimed in, reluctantly letting my hand go.
I watched them leave with a phantom smile on my face, and once the door shut behind them, I turned to Iida — whom had already been look back at me.
"What are you going to do now?" He asked, seemingly afraid of the answer.
I felt my face fall and I sighed for the umpteenth time since waking up. "What I planned to all along."
"Even after everything?" His grip on me tightened.
"It's what I promised, Tenya," I reminded, staring hard at the sheets. "I'm taking all the negativity away from Musutafu."
"You took the 'negativity' away when you fused with Dream Walker again." He justified defiantly, glaring.
"I don't want to talk about this," I rejected, crossing my arms. "Not now, at least."
"When, then?" Iida pressed. "After you leave?"
I finally looked back to him with a scowl on my face, yet couldn't find the right thing to respond with. I stayed silent, and so did Iida. I could feel his disappointment; it felt as if it was radiating off of him, and as I stared out the window, he stared at me.
It wasn't a cold stare — not like the one I was expecting. It was more hopeful, like he prayed that I would say something to console him; like he wanted me to tell him that I wasn't really leaving.
If I were to be honest, I didn't know what I wanted to do anymore.
With my mom back and Aizawa's condition... I didn't know if it was the right thing to do. I didn't know if I was just being selfish, or if I was really doing some good by leaving Musutafu and never looking back. I loved Iida, and I knew it was mutual, but I don't want to keep hurting him like I have been since the beginning.
How else was I going to do that if I didn't leave?
How was I supposed to protect anyone from myself if I didn't remove myself from the picture?
It made me look selfish, but I didn't care. If I could do something that would protect all those that I cared about, then you bet your ass I'm going to, no matter the cost.
No matter how much it hurt them.
No matter how much it hurt me.