Chapter Text
The blinding fluorescent lights weren’t an unusual sight for Shouta to wake up to. Neither were the noises coming from just outside the room, from all the nurses working and sometimes gossiping when nothing interesting happened for a while.
What was unusual, however, was seeing himself motionless on the hospital bed.
He’s heard of people having out of body experiences during a near-death-scenario or while comatose, but never really expected to be the one living through one. It was a little unnerving to see himself like this, all beaten up and in recovery. There’s a reason why he tended to avoid mirrors during it in the past, since it always made him so uncomfortable to see himself so… vulnerable, even without the astral projecting aspect involved.
Somehow, this was worse.
It wasn’t even because of his current situation, but rather, thanks to just how messed up he was. It was probably the worst he’s been in the last seven years (there would hopefully not be any worse than that incident than that one. He still gets nauseous looking at the scars.)
On the less negative side, he could at least cross out another square on the ‘Holy Shit How Am I Still Alive’ bingo card, putting him one step closer to earning the prize of being officially recognised as Chiyo’s biggest headache. But for that he’d probably need to wake up first.
How did he end up here in the first place? All he had planned for the day was a simple trip to the USJ with Thirteen and All Might for the student’s first rescue exercise. Nothing that would warrant this.
Shouta closed his eyes, and tried to remember, swinging through his muddy memories.
They came slowly, one small, disconnected snippet at a time. Small fragments to piece together.
The noisy bus ride there, Thirteen waving at them, All Might… not showing up. He was supposed to do, but didn’t for some reason.
Then he jumped in place, floating higher than before once he recalled the likely cause.
Villains. Lots of them.
Villains came and attacked the class, the first year students, who couldn’t defend themselves because they were just children.
He remembers jumping in alone. Fighting and fighting and more fighting. Him against an army. And he was winning.
But he also rememberes the sudden pain, and the dizziness that comes from blood loss.
One of the last things he was able to recal was meeting the one who apparently orchestrated the attack. And his monster.
‘By the way, I’m not the final boss, Nomu.’ And the monster attacked him. Then he was in agony.
He remembers the blood falling on his eyes, every muscle in his body screaming as he moved, as he fought; making the pain worse but worth it once he stopped the maniac from killing his students.
Then he flew, the weightless feeling uncomfortably close to the one he was currently experiencing. He wasn’t sure he even landed at all.
The last thing he saw before everything went black was a pair of grey, cloudy eyes, like those he’d find in the week old corpses he’d encounter sometimes during his patrols.
Shouta took a deep breath (did he even need to breathe??), focused on his body, from down upwards and opened his eyes.
Nothing changed.
The lights were still too bright, the nurses were still as noisy, and his body was still lying motionless on the bed.
Figures he wouldn’t get it on his first try… Or the second. Or third. Or another.
He struggled to get near his body, since floating wasn’t one of his expertise, but managed to move closer. He glared down at it, as if that would somehow solve all his problems. It sadly didn’t.
Taking one last but probably unnecessary steadying breath, he reached for it, intending to crawl back inside.
And its eyes opened.