ANGELS FELL FROM THE DARKENED SKIES. Or at least that was a story she once heard someone express simply as a metaphor for the phenomena of shooting stars. Angels falling from the stars, having taken too many of man-kinds sins upon their alabaster shoulders, where they land, letting sin take hold of their bodies to become devils in disguise, eager to destroy the ones who had wrought their downfall, for revenge. Their wings shimmered in the moonlight like the after-image of the bright star shooting across the skies, shedding the glistening feathers like the leaves of a tree through a storm.
Perhaps that was why feathers fell from the skies even now, their fibres painting the world in glistening specks of white like snow dancing in the wind.
Zinnia watched the feathers fall, touching the ground before bursting to light, leaving naught but the fading after-glow of white dancing in her eyes. She still wandered, following coloured footprints left like paint on the bottom of feet left across the land, stumbling along in the darkened dreamscape that felt more real to her than the waking world of medicine and pain. The chiming had dulled quite a while ago, its presence nothing more than an uncomfortable pressure in the back of her head.
Out of the forests and into the grasslands, peppered with the rain rising to the heavens against the feathers that fell to the ground, and voices bounced through the dark, twirling around as if their owners were having a merry old time dancing in the distance, out of her field of vision.
The feathers continued to fall, the odd few that landed upon coloured footprints glistened in matching colour before it vanished in a flash of light. Flowers of red glowed through the grasses that reached to caress her feet, its glistening red petals splayed outwards almost like a decorative spider. Indescribable curiosity had overcome her somewhere in the midst of her wanderings, the manner in which she returned to this world evading her knowledge for the most part. She had wound up collecting quite a number of the eerily beautiful flowers, and continued to do so whenever she happened upon more.
She was compelled, as if the flowers themselves spoke to something inside of her, begging her to acquire them all, along the way.
They grew in great clusters around every print of sapphire tracks in varying shades, reminiscent of a large dog far larger than herself, if that were possible. Rimming the prints like they had grown from the very feet that made the tracks, the flowers sprouted effortlessly through the grasslands devoid of any other blooming flora.
The night breeze sung, as if uttering a symphony of promises to her, caressing the exposed skin her white dress did not cover. It was like the cool embrace of water on a mid-summers eve, engulfing, comforting, easing the discomfort of summer from her tired flesh.
Eventually, voices pierced the air, haughty, shrieking voices that were reminiscent of nails scraping down a blackboard, of steel tearing harshly against glass. Their egocentric laughter reminded her horrendously of hyena cries. And, as she reached the peak of the hill she was climbing, she realized they really were hyena, or some abomination adorned with the features of a hyena in any case.
Seven forms at least thrice Zinnia's own size took up the valley between a cluster of hills in the grasslands, ripping the ground to pieces as their forms clashed, fighting with claws slashing and teeth gnashing, missing throats by mere wisps of air. Their forms were slightly humanesque in shape, virtually hairless beyond the remaining stray wisps that grew from their scalps, clad in nothing but the remaining tatters of old, black clothes that were so viciously damaged, it barely covered anything worthy of modesty. With the faces of hyena, the ears, tail and limbs to match, the forms were as unpleasant to the eyes as their shrill, screeching cries were to the ears.
Beneath their clashing forms lay a small, curled up ball of brown fur, trembling and quivering, too terrified to move from in among the strewn mess of basketballs and hard-boiled eggs that littered the mess of sapphire paw prints which stained the barren ground. Chunks of stone had been strewn within their fighting, and as Zinnia walked closer, she saw one of the monstrosities manage to latch its fanged maw around the throat of another, and rip out its throat.
Blood as blue as the paw prints spurt from the gaping hole in the injured hyena creature's throat, splattering against the nearby grasses, corroding and corrupting the ground and grasses as if it were acid.
And as if the fallen creature were a pork roast set before a ravenous hound, the ones left standing leapt upon it and tore it to pieces, only to resume their fight once they were done.
Zinnia stood, watching the scene unfold again and again, scarcely blinking an eye as the grasslands began to rot away before her very eyes.
Until finally, one last creature was left, barely standing, barely able to keep its eyes from rolling backwards into its skull as Zinnia finally approached. Her feet burned as they touched across the decaying ground, aching when lifted from it, and her nose wrinkled at the unpleasant smell of blood on the air.
The remaining creature flinched at the sight of her form approaching, recoiling away from her as if it were in fact, terrified of her. The vicious snarling it uttered and the way it slunk down to the ground defensively, with teeth gnashing and claws ready to gut her at a moments notice. The wisps of hair were raven black, and the look it cast her was eerily familiar.
Just like someone she had met. Like many people who so easily took without giving back.
'I remember you.' Zinnia spoke, staring the creature down with empty, lethargic eyes. 'You're all still as pitiful as ever. Still feeling sorry for yourselves, I bet.'
Almost as if in protest, the creature had made a move to strike her, but paused as if it had thought better on it.
'The whole lot of you really are a piece of work. All seven of you will fight against the world, and among yourselves too. You'll devour each other, use each other out of spite until one of you are left standing. You may as well be just one messed up person in there. Right now, you're all her, aren't you?' Zinnia scoffed, shifting on her aching, burning feet to step closer to the creature before her. 'What are you so afraid of? Really? The only monsters here are the ones you've built up inside your head.'
'You're only miserable because you build yourself up to it. You automatically feel like you've been robbed of happiness because you were, what? Born without a quirk? Knocked out of the race to fame and fortune the very day you were born? Don't you realize that you're not alone? Out of seven and a half billion people that live on this earth right now, there's over one million just like you. They're born with no quirk, no ability that defines them as humanities evolution. But unlike you, they're doing what they can to find their own happiness, ignoring the status quo. They are living, while you're just here, standing miserable, cursing the world for a life you haven't even tried to live yet.'
And in spite of herself, Zinnia couldn't help but cast the creature a small, sad smile.
'If we could trade places, where all of you have a quirk and I don't, I'd do it within a heartbeat. I don't want this curse, this thing that has ruined my life ever since it manifested.' A bitter laugh escaped Zinnia as her arms clutched tighter around the mass of flowers that she had acquired on the way here. 'I'm the freak in my family. I can't cure my mother's illness, but I'm the only one immune to it! My siblings hate me so much they've actually tried to kill me before, and my father works overseas because he can barely cope seeing us for a couple days . The only things in this world I can safely eat are organic vegetables! Nearly every person who's learned of my quirk treat me like a monster, yet they know I volunteer in a hospital trying to save people! You all spent three whole days trying to get me expelled! I now my heart is decaying on me, and there's no guarantee anything they do can save me!'
The creature standing before her grew silent, as if her words had surprised it.
'Do you think I want this? To exist in this Hero-centric world with this mess of a life?! I'd give anything to get rid of this quirk! To be as powerless as you! To be as safe from expectations as you are, because this, to me, is worse than hell! I want to be quirkless!'
She didn't realize she was crying, didn't feel the lines of liquid emotions trailing down her face to stain the flowers. Even as the large, monstrous creature before her remained motionless, iridescent eyes staring at her as if it were seeing her for the first time, she couldn't feel anything but the bitterness that was consuming her.
This creature which made the bitterness all the worse just stared at her as if she were something pitiful.
She hated it. She couldn't stand to even look at this creature, this twisted manifestation of a group of selfish girls she had never truly raised a hand towards. She just wanted them gone, to disappear from her life, from her subconscious.
She needed them gone.
'It's time for you to go. All of you. You can't stay here anymore.' Zinnia began, slowly as she stepped towards the creature. 'I'm tired of this. I'm tired of hurting like this, so please. Just spare me this once and take every piece of your existence away...'
There was no answer, no visible or audible response she could have received from the creature standing before her.
Zinnia had merely blinked, to find it gone.
Like a wisp of a ghost, a phantom that never existed, and yet the sapphire paw prints of seven different shades were all there, still tainting the world. And yet, where the creature stood just moments before, was a small hole in the ground where a sapphire coloured human skull lay.
It was a finite level of clarity, staring down at the remains where the creature once stood, one that had brought Zinnia to slowly crouch down just before it. And yet, the sight of some sign of it left a foul taste in her mouth.
She could still remember them. The seven girls, two blond, one with a butch face, one raven-haired and always the centre of the group, seven girls with an attitude like a bipolar bear woken up from hibernation.
But she didn't want to.
One by one she set the flowers she had collected into the hollow, slowly burying the skull from the world with every delicate, petalled stem. She hoped to cast away every glimmer of painful memories she had of the girls, each flower deposited a silent prayer that her meagre hopes would come to fruition. She prayed, hoped, and perhaps for that fact alone, those paw prints marring the grasslands began to peel and flake away into the air, just like the rising rain had. She hoped her offering would be enough.
For there was nothing more fitting for a final farewell than an arm full of red spider lilies.
* * *
Zinnia didn't know where she was when she eventually awoke, nor did she understand at first what was going on or even what had happened. She awoke feeling so exhausted she couldn't even manage to open her eyes, so numb from everything that she actually doubted she really was awake. Thoughts came and left so slowly, so laboriously that she couldn't even follow her own thoughts for very long.
It took her quite a bit of struggle to so much as crack open her eyes, and when she did, she found she had an unpleasant amount of sleep sticking her lids together, which was sign enough that she had been asleep for quite a long time.
And when she blinked the gunky residue from her eyes, she found that she wasn't at home at all.
She was staring up at a ceiling, one that she immediately recognized to be that of a hospital room, and at first she didn't recall exactly why she was here. But even with that, she didn't doubt that she was meant to be here. It took her quite a while to recall exactly what had brought her here, why she was so weak she could barely keep her eyes open for more than a few seconds. It came in the vague recollection that there'd been a villain attack on her school at some point, and she had somehow wound up involved, somehow. Her memory was still foggy, of course, and there was a lot that felt wrong.
There was a haze of uncertainty in the back of Zinnia's mind, with nothing she could really do but lay there and try to gather her bearings
Carefully, with far more effort than she should have needed, Zinnia lifted her right arm from her side to attempt to rub the sleep from her eyes.
The world that was the hospital room was dark, illuminated by shielded, incandescent light that barely illuminated much. But right now, she felt like she didn't really want to see anything else.
However, a hand had suddenly reached out into her brief field of vision as she'd moved to lower her arm, gently grasping her by the wrist before she could have lowered her arm down to rest over her chest.
She should have jumped, flinched, or paused from the surprise, shown some form of reaction, but beyond even so much as looking at the large hand that had halted her small bout of motion, she was too exhausted to respond.
'Sorry Zim, you can't rest your arm there...' Came a voice she eventually recognized to belong to Kirishima. 'You're going to cause yourself a world of hurt if you do.'
The weary girl managed to turn her head to look up at the boy sitting in the hospital chair at her bedside, and cast him a small smile.
'Hello Kiri...' She greeted her friend as brightly as she could manage; which didn't necessarily make much of a difference, considering she could barely keep her eyes open. 'How long have you been here...?'
Her friend cast her a gentle smile as he set her arm down at her side, a sight that was evident enough through the blurry haze of her vision. As well as the worry creases that were strangely present in his brow, in fact. His presence here was a comfort, considering that she hadn't expected anyone to be here at her bedside, especially as her memory began to slowly catch up with her to fill her in on what she remembered last.
'In here? A couple hours, though I've been in the waiting room since this morning.' He admitted quietly. 'Kaminari's around, but he's camping out in the rest station we usually meet up at until things blow over.'
When things blow over?
What on earth had been happening while she was asleep?
'Why?' She forced out, struggling to voice the question she wanted to ask. 'What...?--'
'I don't know, but apparently your family's coming in. They were asked to, or something.'
And because Kaminari had taken an alarmingly strong dislike to her three siblings after just one meeting, the blond undoubtedly wanted nothing to do with whatever situation was going on. It was understandable, really.
Honestly, she was surprised Kaminari had come by to visit her again.
Zinnia had opened her mouth to question her friend further about this so called event going on that required her family's presence when the announcement of her surgery had not earned any such incident, when the door to the room slid open. A duo of nurses and a doctor Zinnia had never met before had come inside, undoubtedly alerted to her awakening by Kirishima with the call button at the side of her bed.
She paid no heed to the fussing the hospital staff made of checking her readings, made no point of saying anything as she watched Kirishima pick himself up out of the chair and shift to stand out of the way.
Zinnia was asked a great many questions, such as how was she doing, whether there were any particularly vicious pains, any discomforts or discrepancies in her memory, among other things. She was informed rather unnecessarily that she had just woken up after open heart surgery, though she was surprised to hear that it had run many hours longer than expected, even if her expression didn't show it. A seven hour operation ran close to fifteen due to complications, though the doctor was remarkably tight-lipped when she'd asked exactly what complications they were. He refused to say anything particular, even when she'd said she didn't care that her friend was standing right there to hear it.
The most she was given was that the hospital wanted to talk to her parents about it in depth when they happened to stop by later, and all she was to do was rest.
But what was the point in that? Her father probably wasn't even in the country even if he knew she'd been put in hospital, and her mother always got hyper-emotional when it came to medical news, good or bad. It was why the staff familiar with Zinnia always came to her first. Not because she was the eldest, most responsible in a legal-sense, but because she was the best recipient given how warped her familial situation was.
She could only surmise that these new doctors and nurses were new and simply decided since she appeared to be a young child, she was just as such.
Though, the next time they wandered in here and spoke to her as if she were ten again, she was going to tell them to take a proper look at her date of birth on her charts.
Seventeen seconds it took for Kirishima to step away from the wall once the hospital staff had disappeared down the corridor, and not a second before he'd settled back into the chair at the side of her bed was it before a hand had grasped the handle of the sliding door and ripped it open rather violently. No ounce of care or consideration was offered to the door or the neighbouring patients in their intensive-care rooms, or even Zinnia, who was lying there with the growing hints of a headache building up on her.
'Don't slam the door!' Came the hushed, and rather reproachful snap of a voice so familiar, Zinnia had almost flinched.
And then, Claudia's unpleasantly familiar face appeared at the door, sneering with contempt as she stomped her way into the hospital room without so much as responding to the reprimands. Following along behind her was Kali's rather haggard form, with her brow furrowing in worsening concern past a face mask and a handful of disinfectant cloths held in front of her covered mouth. And what was more disconcerting than that was the presence of Faye and Dimitri, who had both walked in with firm grips of Kali's arms each, their hold clad in rubber disposable gloves, and they as well wore face-masks.
Within an instance, Zinnia noticed Kirishima's blur at her bedside shift to straighten up almost awkwardly, and seconds later, Claudia's gaze seemed to narrow viciously upon the redhead at her bedside.
'You!' She snapped with contempt. 'Get the fuck out of this room before I throw you out, freak!'
'Excuse me?!' Kali practically shrieked in response, causing Kirishima to actually flinch this time. Kali appeared rather flabbergasted by the outright demand and immediately ripped her arms out of the twin's grip to round upon the middle-daughter, who'd jumped and quickly pressed a cloth over her face. 'How dare you speak to somebody like that?! This is a hospital!'
'He and that blond brat were the ones who got us thrown out!'
'Do you think I care?!'
'You should fucking care! We're your children!'
'U-umm, it's okay--' Kirishima had attempted to speak up, but he cut himself off at the smallest tap of his shoulder from Zinnia, even with the arguing continuing overhead. She shook her head slightly and motioned towards the call button hanging from its hook just out of her reach.
Thankfully, he handed her the call button without so much as a word, watching as she immediately pressed the button and tucked the device carefully between the covers out of sight, and hopefully out of her sister's mind.
It was, perhaps a few seconds later when the door of the ICU room had slid open once again, and a nurse Zinnia had actually met on the floor had appeared at the door looking none too impressed.
'Excuse me, miss! Please quieten down immediately!' The nurse snapped, chestnut brown eyes narrowing reproachfully upon Claudia, who had been cut off mid-screech by the newly-arrived woman. 'You're disturbing the other patient's rest!'
At that remark, Kali actually grew pale and quickly went to apologize, though she was quickly cut over by the middle-daughter.
'We're here on family business! Get rid of that brat right there, first!' Claudia snapped.
However, the nurse's expression hardened quite considerably as she straightened up in the doorway.
'I will not. He is signed in and authorised by the head of the hospital to be here, even after hours. He has all the right to stay so long as Kennedy-san wishes it.' The nurse responded seriously, before she cast a deliberate glance between each of Zinnia's siblings. 'As I am the one who called to ask for Kali Kennedy and Cassidy Kennedy to come in at Seiya-sensei's request, I know full well that the three of you aren't meant to be here, especially after the commotion you caused just the other day. Consider this a warning.'
'We are her fucking family!' Claudia spat.
If Zinnia weren't so exhausted at that moment, she knew she would have immediately scoffed at that declaration.
'Even so, it is well within the hospital's right to remove you, by force if necessary. Additionally, if our patient feels she is in need of having you removed from the premises, it is well within her right to ask for your forceful removal.' The nurse then turned her attention straight upon Zinnia, who hadn't so much as uttered a word since her so called siblings had come walking inside. 'Kennedy-san, I believe you called for us. Would you like us to remove your siblings from the hospital?'
If she were to be utterly spiteful she would have simply said yes and to ask the hospital to never let these three in the building again.
But of course she wasn't; Disregarding how unpleasant life would be as soon as she was discharged, Zinnia also knew that it was better for her mother if they weren't exactly kicked out.
'Just out of the room...' She responded, and she certainly didn't miss the unpleasant sneer both Dimitri and Faye had just shot her. 'They're here in case Mother needs help, so please don't throw them out of the whole building.'
'Very well!' The nameless nurse promptly turned her attention back to Claudia, and by extension, Dimitri and Faye. 'You heard her! Out you go!'
And with no recourse but to do as they were told, Zinnia's three siblings marched themselves out of the room without a word, though the glares they'd shot her were more than enough to show how disgusted with the situation they really were.
'Right, now, was there anything else you needed, Kennedy-san?' The nurse asked, earning just the smallest shake of the girl's head in answer. 'Good, now, Kali-san, is your husband coming soon?'
'Unfortunately, no.' Kali answered with a small shake of her head. 'His flight has been delayed, so he won't be able to come in.'
Was it really?
Zinnia couldn't help but feel like that was a very common answer whenever the question of Cassidy's presence came up, and found herself honestly doubting the sincerity of the answer.
'I see... well, I'll just inform Seiya-sensei that you're here.'
'Yes... Thank you.'
In lieu of the nurse's disappearance back out into the ward, where she had purposefully shut the door and uttered a final demand that Claudia, Faye and Dimitri were to stay out of the room, the atmosphere had taken a far more awkward and uncomfortable turn. Kirishima sitting at Zinnia's bedside shuffled awkwardly, as if he were unsure of whether he should stay in the chair, or offer it to Kali. And in fact, he had made a move to do just that as the seconds ticked by, only to be quickly waved off by the woman still standing at the front of the hospital room.
'Thank you, but I'm perfectly fine to stand.' Kali had quickly told Kirishima, with a small smile and a brief chiming laugh. 'I'm in some serious need of stretching, anyway.'
Claudia must have kept Kali locked up in her room this whole time. No surprise, there.
'A-are you sure, Ma'am?' Kirishima actually looked rather taken aback by the decline.
'She is.' Zinnia decided to cut in, earning her friend's immediate attention. 'Mother doesn't get to stay on her feet for long without somebody telling her to go back to bed. Besides, it would be more comfortable for her to sit on the side of the bed instead of a chair.'
At the sight of Kali's sheepish smile as she nodded her head in agreement, Kirishima actually seemed a little more perplexed by the whole situation.
'Oh... I see.'
Zinnia made a mental note to at least elaborate just a little more on Kali's condition for her friend, since undoubtedly the many disinfectant alcohol cloths and face-masks were enough to throw him for a loop, even if he had an extremely vague understanding of her ill health.
'I'm sorry I haven't been able to come in until now, Zinnia...' Kali apologized as she approached, gently setting a slender hand over the girl's bandaged forehead briefly. 'I know it's no excuse, but--'
'I know, that's why Bakugou-san's been here instead...' Zinnia cut in, silencing Kali within an instance. 'It's okay. I don't blame you...'
It still didn't change the fact that she really could have used a visit from her mother, when this mess had been upturned in her lap. Right now, even if it were being contrary and difficult, she couldn't help the disappointment and hurt she still felt about it, regardless.
And perhaps the woman knew that as well, considering the way her lips behind her sterile-mask twitched downwards ever so slightly, as if she were struggling not to let anything more than a calm sense of normalcy appear across her face.
In spite of the way her gloved hand trembled against Zinnia's forehead, in spite of the concern and doubt that showed, even through the blurs that made up her form in Zinnia's natural vision, she struggled.
'So, have they told you how the surgery went?' Kali eventually asked as she straightened herself up on her feet, pressing more of her disinfectant cloths in place over her face mask. 'You've been out for at least a little while, right?'
'The staff that came in wouldn't tell me.' Zinnia admitted with a faint sigh, much to the woman's disbelief. 'Said they were waiting to talk to either you or father. They clearly don't want to talk to a "ten year old" about the results of a risky operation like this.'
'They do know you are a special case, right?'
'Mother, besides Bakugou-san, have you ever encountered anyone who has never disbelieved the legitimacy of my biological age?'
Kirishima let out a faint cough as he tried to stifle a faint chuckle, one that did not go unnoticed by Zinnia in the least.
'Not Bakugou-kun, Kiri, Bakugou-san.' Zinnia added.
'No, I know you meant his Mom, but still.' He responded with a grin. 'I can just imagine all the names he'd call you if he actually properly met you.'
Zinnia then turned her head towards her mother.
'See my point?' She added.
However, Kali did not appear all that amused by Zinnia's remark, and instead seemed to let out a weary breath.
Thankfully however, it wasn't too long before Seiya returned, clad in casual clothes of jeans and a roughened motorbiking jacket, and a remarkably exhausted edge to his usually stern face – Zinnia was fairly sure he hadn't had a chance to go home, yet. And within an instance, Kali had rushed over to interrogate the overworked man, much to Zinnia's bemusement.
'They haven't told her?' Seiya had eventually demanded, apparently utterly horrified by whatever it was that Kali had told him.
'No, they refused.' Kali agreed.
'I specifically gave them instructions to explain the results in detail when she awoke.' The man mused, running a hand roughly through his hair with a sigh. 'I will be having words with them.'
He then turned his attention upon Zinnia, and the girl honestly could see that the man really was quite annoyed about the whole situation at that moment.
'The procedure took longer than expected due to an additional number of holes that were found, however the stop-gaps have worked as expected.' Seiya explained as he tucked his hands roughly into his jacket pockets. 'We will need to perform several tests once any lingering necrosis has had an opportunity to develop, but if all things go as expected, you will hopefully avoid those worst-case scenarios we spoke about earlier.'
Zinnia certainly felt the sharp, worrying glance Kali shot her at that moment, though all Zinnia could do was nod her understanding.
'What worst-case scenarios?' Her mother questioned.
'Normally, I would explain, but given your exceedingly emotional nature, we'll just be keeping that between your daughter and the hospital staff.' Seiya dismissed with a small shrug. 'She will explain at her own discretion, naturally.'
Yeah, probably not.
Zinnia knew that if Mitsuki hadn't explained about the full-extent of the situation, then she herself certainly wasn't going to tell her mother anything.
'Is that why you asked my husband and myself to come in, this evening?' Kali asked.
'No. Actually, I was just fulfilling a favour.' Seiya dismissed as he glanced over his shoulder. 'Somebody else asked if I could arrange for him to speak with you.'
Him? Who was this person?
And at that moment, what looked horrifically like a mummy appeared at the door of the room once Seiya had nodded to them and shifted out of the dooway. Who looked much like a male with long scruffy black hair was wheeled in by the nurse who'd reprimanded Zinnia's siblings, and after a very brief moment of confusion, Zinnia found herself eventually realizing that she had seen this patient before.
He was the patient she'd helped treat yesterday, Eraserhead, if she recalled correctly.
Kali had very quickly backed away from the crippled man in the wheelchair, securing her mask and cloths firmly in place. And Kirishima sitting at Zinnia's side had actually turned rigid in his seat.
'A-Aizawa-sensei!' The boy gasped out, alarm flashing right across his face as the man turned his gaze upon him for just a moment.
'Kirishima-kun.' The man grunted out in recognition, though his attention quickly went back to Kali, peppered with a brief glance at Zinnia's prone form in the hospital bed.
Oddly enough, the man apparently called Aizawa didn't appear to be remotely confused or concerned about the fact that the woman was purposefully keeping a minimum of three meters distance from him, though the bandages did of course hide a lot from view.
'Thank you for coming. Kennedy-san, I assume?' Aizawa continued.
'Y-yes?' Kali hedged.
'I understand this is rather sudden, but I'd like to talk with you and your daughter for a short while.' He continued, once again casting Zinnia a brief glance. 'It won't take long.'
'Well, that's fine, but Zinnia really needs her rest right now...' Kali responded, tentatively. 'She's just woken up after surgery, after all...'
'This is about your daughter in particular, so it would be best for her to be present, as well.'
'Umm, then I should probably go--' Kirishima had begun, however he was quickly cut off as Zinnia carefully grabbed him by the sleeve and held onto him.
Honestly, right now the person here who was most comforting for her right at that moment was Kirishima, and she would rather he stay through whatever this was about. Because in truth, he'd been here for her more than anyone else, even if her mother had reasons for not being here, even if she should have been okay on her own.
Seeming to note the smallest glint of panic that had appeared in Zinnia's gaze, Kirishima set himself back down in the chair without a word and rest his arm onto the bed at her side so she could keep her hold on his sleeve.
'--He can stay.' Came Aizawa's seemingly sudden remark, snatching up both teen's attention within an instance. 'It may be a surprise, but coincidentally Kirishima-kun happens to be one of my students at the moment. There isn't much point in asking him to leave now.'
It was at that moment that Zinnia noticed that the mummified man was now at the foot of her bed, and his attention was upon her, and nobody else.
'Kennedy-san, if you don't mind, I have a few questions about your quirk.' Aizawa began, with his eerily piercing gaze trained upon her as if he were calculating, planning what exact words he was going to use next. 'The surgeon has informed me of the basics.'
Wordlessly, Zinnia tipped her head in the slightest nod.
The basics undoubtedly was what her quirk technically was, and that she was a walking blood-bank.
'Does your quirk possess healing properties when used as a treatment?' The man asked right off the bad.
'...Healing? No, my quirk doesn't technically heal...' Zinnia answered honestly.
'What exactly do you use your quirk for here?'
'Umm... basically what I was asked to do for you, before?'
'I'd like an overall summary, Kennedy-san.' He instructed.
'Oh... Umm--' Zinnia cast a hesitant glance at Kirishima, who had simply cast her a wry, understanding smile when he'd noticed her confusion. 'Okay...'
She hoped there was actually a reason for this, and not just some query he had simply because he remembered she had helped with his surgery.
'Supplement blood that I clone from somebody to match...' She began carefully, slowly as she tried to make sure she hadn't missed anything. 'Locate damage, manipulate the transfusion to stem bleeds, manipulate the recipients hormones to trigger pain relief... adrenaline if needed... break down loose, damaging clots that are found... syphon venoms and injected poisons out from the body, if need be... Seiya-sensei wants me to... get the hang of cultivating antibodies to help with quirk-caused illnesses and long-term poisoning soon...'
Oddly enough, it felt like that gaze sharpened all the more upon her, and Zinnia felt horribly like she was being scrutinized at that moment.
'Outside of that, how medically trained are you?' Aizawa questioned.
That... was something she hadn't necessarily been asked; Honestly, it was unimportant considering how her quirk was more important to the doctors and nurses in the emergency ward than anything else, but...
'If need be, I can sew large wounds shut to medical standard and provide basic pain relief through cultivated blood supplement.' Zinnia admitted.
'Have you any experience with other types of injuries? Broken bones, and the like.'
That threw Zinnia off more than the last question, and she found herself rather uncomfortable with the specifics he was asking for.
Maybe there was actually point to this?
'Not particularly... but that is moreso because there has never been a necessity for me to learn.' She explained tentatively. 'I am more than capable to expand and learn to treat more if I need to.'
It appeared her answer had appeased whatever it was Aizawa had on his mind, and he seemed to actually lean back in his wheelchair as he observed her.
'And are you able to use your quirk for combat?' He threw at her, next.
Umm... what?
'Actually, Aizawa-sensei... Zim was at the entrance exam with me.' Kirishima actually decided to speak up, earning the mummified man's attention within an instance. 'She probably would have made it into the Hero Course if she didn't bail me out of a bind back there...'
'...I see.' He eventually answered, before turning his gaze back to Zinnia's tiny form. He seemed to take in her injuries, both obvious and subtle, and most in particular, he seemed to eye her neck for a brief moment. 'Then I have a proposition for you, Kennedy-san.'
'...And that would be?' Kali spoke up for the first time since Aizawa had approached Zinnia.
Though he kept his attention upon Zinnia, he did in fact choose to elaborate.
Even if it were sudden, out of the blue.
'I would like for you to transfer to Yuuei Academy's Hero Course.' He announced.
And in spite of the chorus of startled exclamations erupting from outside the room, of the sudden surprise that had overcome Kirishima at that moment, Zinnia did not react in kind.
She swallowed the lump that had risen in her throat, and braced for the mess that the declaration was about to throw at her.
--=[Submitted 20th March 2019, 6301 words total]=--
Sorry about the wait, guys.