Katsuki was afraid.
It had been a long time since he had felt fear of any kind. Not since he got his Quirk. At least, not for himself.
Katsuki had been afraid for Izuku for years now. He was scared that the stupid Nerd was going to get himself killed. He was reckless and a magnet for trouble. Honestly, with the shit that happened to Izuku, Katsuki could have sworn it was the Nerd's Quirk had he not known better. But the Nerd had to be born Quirkless. Useless in the eyes of others. Just a Deku.
Katsuki had felt guilty that the playful insult that he had made for his cousin had caught on among his bullies. He had never seriously meant it that way. It was just another way of reading Izuku's name after all. The meaning had seemed ironic since, despite not having a Quirk, Izuku was one of the most brilliant people Katsuki knew. Just taking a peek in one of the Nerd's stalker notebooks could tell anyone that.
It was funny how the Nerd had reacted the first time he had referred to them as such. Like he hadn't filled half of one on just Katsuki's Quirk alone. Honestly, the Nerd had even licked him once to test a theory he had that Katsuki's sweat tasted as sweet as it smelled. It didn't. That was the scariest day of his life up until today because he had to sit by the Nerd as he had been slowly dying and it had been all Katsuki's fault for letting him do that. His fault for not sparking before he could. That was what his medical Quirk license was for after all. To prevent shit like that.
But sparking scared people. It was better to just be careful what he touched. No one got hurt and he didn't have to scare people. Like he was now.
Katsuki was pretty sure he was dying. The Villain that had grabbed him had cut off his oxygen supply what felt like ages ago. And the Heroes weren't fucking doing anything. At least, not anymore. Death Arms was the only one that had even tried to get him free, but he hadn't been strong enough to rip him out of the sludge.
Katsuki's last clear thought before he passed out completely was that he deserved this.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
He had not been expecting to wake back up again. He could still taste sludge on his tongue but the sound of beeping to the right of his head and the sharp odor of rubbing alcohol told him he had survived to make it to the hospital. He could hear the beeping pick up pace as his heart began to race. He was alive, so why was he still so afraid?
"Katsuki, it's okay. You're in the hospital. You're safe now." Katsuki opened his eyes to meet the worried eyes of his dad standing next to the bed.
Katsuki could feel the tears beading up in his eyes but couldn't stop them from falling. He was alive. He was going to be okay. He felt his father wrap him up in a hug that he was helpless to prevent. He hadn't let his dad hug him like this in years. After all, he was strong enough that he didn't need hugs.
Or at least he had been.
He had missed this.
There was a light knocking sound and his dad pulled away. Katsuki could see through his now watery eyes that a man in a lab coat stood in the doorway. "Good to see you here with us once more Bakugou. Thankfully, all you needed when you arrived was for us to flush out your lungs and to be put on oxygen. We should be able to take you off of it once your blood oxygen level evens out more. Comparatively, you came out of a Villain attack in fairly good condition. Unfortunately we will still need to hold you for the next few days to ensure that your lungs are fully clear and you don't contract a respiratory infection. A nurse will be by in a little while to take your readings and see about getting you something to eat. Since you were not conscious at the time of the end of the indent, a police officer will stop by some time before visiting hours are over." With that, the doctor spun on the back of his heel and walked back out of the room.
Katsuki tried to speak only to trigger a coughing fit. After drinking from the glass of water his dad handed to him, he tried again. "Can the Nerd一" Right his dad might not realized who he is talking about if he just calls him Nerd. "Izuku. Can Izuku come visit while I'm stuck here?"
His father smiled gently at Katsuki, like he always did but it felt less annoying right now. "Your mother is on the phone with Inko right now. Give me a moment to see if she can ask her."
Katsuki let his head fall back on the pillow as he wiped his eyes. It was one thing to let his dad see him cry but Katsuki had no intention of letting the Hag see him like this. As much as they loved each other, Katsuki knew that their relationship wasn't what most people would consider normal. It was what they needed though. With both of their short tempers, playful insults and the odd light tap on the top of the head or in the side with a closed fist looked way more aggressive to outsiders. It was just their way of showing their love for each other.
Katsuki had mostly collected himself by the time his mother had forced open the door, phone still in hand. "Brat, was Izuku with you when you got attacked earlier?"
Caught off guard, Katsuki responded without thinking. "I haven't seen the Nerd since I left him in the classroom at school."
His mother seemed to relax slightly at that before turning her attention back to his Auntie Inko on the phone. "No, he wasn't with him. He said he last saw Izuku when he left school…I'm sure he is okay, you know how easily sidetracked he can get sometimes when he sees Heroes on his way to and from school. I heard All Might is in town, maybe he ran into him and got to ask him for an autograph or something? Izu-kun is a smart kid, he knows how to stay out of trouble…Katsuki wanted me to ask if you could bring Izu-kun with you when you can stop by…Keep us posted Inko. See you tomorrow."
Katsuki could feel his heart climb up his throat as he listened into the call. 'Why isn't he home already? Surely he left not long after…' A horrifying thought crossed his mind. 'He-he didn't really think I meant- Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! He wouldn't ever do that! The Nerd is one of the most stubborn people I know! Not a single one of those shitty extras have ever scared him off when he got it in his head that he wanted to tag along with us and I know that he is more annoyed than anything when they try shit with him…Shit what if he did because it was me that said it! Shit! Shit! Shit! No, the Nerd is Okay! Just distracted! He has a terrible attention span when he isn't hyper fixated on something. Yeah! He will be home to Auntie soon!'
Katsuki didn't register that he had been pulling on his hair until he felt his father help pull his hands away. He vaguely registered his mother looking at him worried as she spoke with a nurse that had entered the room while he had been spiraling. It wasn't like he hadn't been scared by something the Nerd had done before so why was he panicking? Was it because he wasn't with him? He forced himself to focus. The Nerd was fine. He had to be. And if Izuku wasn't then Katsuki needed to be okay to make sure the Nerd was. He couldn't afford to freak out like this when he became a Hero. Especially not if the Nerd was going to be his Sidekick.
The beeping that had been annoying him at the back of his mind began to slow. The sound of blood rushing in his ears began to fade as he began to hear the words being exchanged in the room with him. "...was stupid of me. The last time we were in a hospital together was when my nephew accidentally poisoned himself. I should have finished the call outside after he answered the question."
He watched the nurse nod and give a small smile. "It is something to keep in mind for the future. You should see about setting him up with a few appointments with a therapist. Setting aside the possibility of needing to see someone about this panic attack, your son just went through what would be a traumatic experience for anyone. It is our hospital's policy to refer out patients to a therapist after they finish physically recovering from a Villain attack. Does your son see one already for his anxiety?"
Katsuki lowered his gaze to his hands still cupped in his father's. The man's well calloused fingers and palms grounding him from returning to his spiraling thoughts. "Technically no, but a referral won't be necessary. My friend Inko is a therapist herself and if she can't see him about this then she knows most of the other doctors in the area and can set up an appointment. She has been helping us with Katsuki's OCD since he was fairly young." That caught Katsuki a bit off guard. He knew what OCD was obviously, but he had never realized he had been formally diagnosed with it. He just knew that some things needed to be a certain way or he would start to get stressed out about it like the fact that he had to leave for school, wake up, and go to bed at the right time everyday, he always saved things digitally between 5 to 8 times before he consider it saved, sometimes he just needed to pace in circles to think and that Izuku had to sit behind him in class or he couldn't focus. The Nerd had pointed all that out to him when they were still pretty young after Izuku had gone to be tested for ADHD (which Katsuki wasn't surprised to find he had with how much the Nerd got distracted and hyperfixated on things). While Auntie Inko was a great therapist, she was more practiced on treatment of patients and not the original diagnoses of them so had set up an appointment with a different doctor.
"I'll make a note that a referral will not be needed then since he already is seeing someone. What is your friend's full name for future reference?"
"Ah, I am not sure which name I should give you. She technically changed her name back when she married but she still practices under her maiden name." That Katsuki had not been aware of. It made sense as to why given the large number of Hero patients his aunt saw that she might not use her legal name, but he had never really thought about it. It would be safer for her family if someone tried to go after her because of one of the patients that way.
"I understand. She is not the first doctor I have heard of who continued to practice under the same name they did before marriage for the sake of the patients. We would need the name she uses professionally."
"That would be Sasaki Inko then."
Katsuki heard the sound of a pen gliding quickly over paper. "I've heard good things about her from returning patents we have referred to her in the past. I am glad to hear that your son won't have anything to worry about when it comes time for us to release him." He heard a throat clear and made himself look back up. "Are you feeling better now Bakugou? There is a police officer waiting to take your statement about what happened to you during the attack if you are ready to talk to him. If you aren't, I can see about asking him to come back tomorrow morning."
Katsuki shook his head. "I'm fine. I just want to get this bullshit over with."
The nurse smiled at him and nodded before moving closer on the side of the beeping machine. "I am just going to quickly see about taking updated notes on your blood pressure and blood oxygen levels before I go send him in. Can I borrow an arm for a moment?" Katsuki freed his hand closest to the nurse and raised his arm. A blood pressure cuff was quickly wrapped around his upper arm, drawing Katsuki's attention to the fact that the upper part of his uniform was no longer on him.
'How long have I been fucking shirtless?'
After a few moments of discomfort, the nurse let his arm drop as she recorded the reading she had needed and removed the cuff. She briefly seemed to study the machine next to him, wrote something down and then clicked her pen closed. "Alright, I will go collect the officer and send him in. Your mother told me you don't have any food allergies or a major dietary requirement for your Quirk so there shouldn't be any issues finding you something good to eat for dinner. Tonight we have a few kinds of soup, curry and sandwiches to choose from, do you have any preferences between those options?"
"Whatever is the spiciest thing on the menu. I don't care other than that." Katsuki was not holding out much hope. Hospital food was notoriously bad.
The nurse smiled at that. "Lucky for you, we have a rather hot curry tonight." Seeing the confused look on his face she explained. "Some medications for longer term patients can affect the sense of taste. Spice level is one of the few things that aren't affected so it is not uncommon for patients to enjoy spicier foods then they normally would. I will go put your order in and see about bringing it up after you finish with your statement." With that the nurse left the room.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
The rest of the evening dragged on for Katsuki. Giving his statement to the officer hadn't been terribly exciting. If he was being honest, he wasn't really paying much attention to the man at the time. His only real thought about him until the man had left was that Izuku would have loved his Quirk. One thing Katsuki knew for sure was that the one thing Izuku loved just as much as Heroes and Quirks was cats so there was no way he wouldn't have been delighted about a police officer with a feline mutation Quirk.
His statement was basically this.
Katsuki was walking to the nearby arcade with a couple other guys from class when he had kicked an old soda bottle and was attacked by a guy with a Slime Quirk that had apparently been inside it for some dumb reason. The Villain had said something about using his body as his own before Katsuki had tried fighting back to try to keep the Villain from drowning him. Death Arms was the only Hero that appeared on the scene that had tried to pull him out and he had lost consciousness before he had been saved.
The officer clarified after he had finished recounting his side of things that when he had passed out, Death Arms had been able to tap into something known as Hysterical Strength and had rushed back in and punched the Villain hard enough to blow him apart enough to both free Katsuki and stop the Villain from running long enough to arrest him at the cost of a serious injury to his right arm and shoulder. While the Hero would recover, he would be out of action for the next week or so.
Then the officer had left and Katsuki had gotten his dinner that was nowhere near spicy enough for him but admittedly would have been spicy for someone who did not enjoy eating food with a Scoville rating above 1,000,000 on a regular basis. Katsuki knew most people didn't keep Ghost Peppers stocked in their kitchen.
After that, visiting hours ended and Katsuki shooed his parents both home. He reasoned that there was no reason for them to stay when he would just be trying to sleep for the next several hours. It wasn't like they got up as early as he did anyways so he was just going to be bored in the morning before visiting hours started regardless. And Katsuki was annoyed to discover he was right. He had been up for two hours when visiting hours started and his parents had returned. They had gotten up early and had brought him a bag with his sketchbook, pencils, and his phone charger. He had been returned his phone shortly after dinner the previous night alongside the rest of his belongings that he had had on him when he had been attacked shortly before he had been told to change into the uncomfortable set of hospital pajamas.
They had not stuck around for long since they had not been able to skip work this morning after having left early the previous day. They were in the middle of a commissioned redesigning of a new Hero team's outfits after all. They had scheduled the first trial fitting for this morning a bit before lunch and couldn't push it back without completely messing up the patrol schedule for the Heroes in the territory covered by the team for likely a month.
They had given him the good news that Izuku and Inko would be coming by shortly after they left and spending at least the morning with him. While his mother had given him the news that Izuku had shown back up at home shortly after sunset after receiving a short text from Inko, Katsuki suspected he wouldn't feel better until the Nerd was right in front of him in the flesh.
With that in mind, Katsuki couldn't help but feel both guilty and relieved when Izuku walked in the door to his hospital room. He couldn't help but see the nervous tension in his cousin's frame. So he tried to make a joke to lighten the mood about him skipping class knowing full well that his request to see him was likely the entire reason the Nerd had missed class in the first place.
It all went downhill from there. Sure, the Nerd had relaxed back into his more normal excited energy to explain his most recent revelation of his who was a part of his extended family but he slid back into his tense state the moment All Might had been mentioned and wasn't that alarming. From there it was revealed that All Might did not practice what he preached about how he said anyone could be a Hero which had led to Sir Nighteye and a detective that the Hero trusted joining them about an hour later.
Things only got worse as it was discovered that the Villain that had attacked Katsuki had both attacked Izuku first and then had been captured by All Might before Katsuki's incident. The revelation that Katsuki might not have been attacked at all yesterday had the number one Hero done his job by the books had done nothing but lower him in the eyes of everyone in the room.
The revelation that the Hero was on a time crunch did nothing to improve matters, but then the man had abandoned his best friend on a rooftop after he had crushed his dreams. Even the detective lost his composure at that.
Then Izuku had dropped the bombshell. He had almost jumped. The confirmation of what Katsuki had been most scared of since he woke up in the hospital crashed over him sending him once more into a panic attack. The situation was only made worse when Izuku collapsed. Katsuki was vaguely aware of doctors hurrying into the room behind Sir Nighteye and the feeling of a hand on him trying to help him ground himself. As the sound of his own blood filled his ears, Katsuki felt something cold force itself into his veins by way of his IV. Then he was gone.
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Sasaki Mirai had been in a rather good mood this morning. It was his day off from patrolling so there had been no rush to get up and into the agency this morning. Additionally, he was between cases which was a rarity these days so even if he didn't turn up until midway into the afternoon, he could still leave at his normal time this evening. There wouldn't be much to do these next few weeks until the UA Sports Festival at the start of May unless he started a new case but given how long and stressful the last one had been on him and his staff, it was likely Mirai would hold off until after Mirio's second internship.
Mirai smiled lightly to himself as he thought of the boy he had decided to take under his wing after a disastrous showing at the boy's first Sports Festival. The week of his stay last year had improved the boy's skill by leaps and bounds. Privately Mirai blamed the boy's absolutely miserable Quirk control on his former Quirk counselor since the moment Mirai had helped him realize that he already could activate his Quirk on only limited parts of his body and actually had never fully activated it over his whole body before, everything seemed to click for the young Hero-to-be. Honestly, it had taken Mirai less than 5 minutes to figure out the issue and that was frankly unacceptable.
While he would likely never say it out loud, he couldn't help but feel Togata Mirio was likely as close to a son as he would ever get. Mirai had given up on love years ago when he was still just starting as a Hero after he had found himself in the hospital for the first time. The looks on his family's faces when they had entered his hospital room had honestly hurt more than the broken rib had. The realization that on day he could go out on patrol and just never come back had never sunk in for Mirai until he saw the relief from his family when it was clear that he was actually just as fine as he claimed to been when he had spoken to them on the phone to let them know what had happen.
It was bad enough what his sister's little family and his younger brother would have to go through when that happened that Mirai decided that he could never put a romantic partner through that as well. It hadn't helped that outside of a ridiculous fan-boy crush on All Might before he had actually met the man, Mirai hadn't really had feelings for anyone. That wasn't to say he hadn't found other people attractive but Mirai had never seen the point in getting emotionally invested in someone based purely on their looks. Who a person was at their core was what you build relationships on.
Still, it was nice to have another child besides his nephew that he had an emotional investment in, even if the relationship with Mirio would be that of mentor and mentee. Mirai could humor himself in the comfort of his own head and play off gifts to the boy if he asked about them. Mirai had to admit to himself thought that it was a bit silly that he would be buying birthday presents for two different boys to receive on July 15th this year. He had sort of done it the previous year when he had sent a package with a card and a joke book that Mirio had found in his collection during his internship that he had clearly enjoyed but had refused keeping when Mirai had offered it to him at the end of the week. Mirio had sent him a message thanking him for it and had offered to return it once he had finished reading it before Mirai had clarified that he had just bought another copy.
He was lost in such thoughts as he ate breakfast when he found his phone was ringing with an incoming call from Inko. That was strange and a bit worrying given that normally she would be with her first patient of the day but it was possible that they had canceled and Inko wanted to kill time since she knew that unless he was deep in a case, Thursday mornings he often wasn't too busy.
"Are you aware that All Might considers the Quirkless as lesser than the Quirked?" When Mirai had picked up the incoming call from his sister, that was not how he had expected her to start.
"No I was not."
"So that is not why you are not currently speaking with him?"
Up until now, it had been All Might ignoring his calls, not the other way around. Well, maybe that would have to change. "Well I can't say that it won't be now. We weren't speaking due to an unrelated difference of opinions. I assume something happened between him and Izuku?"
"Izuku ran into him yesterday and while I don't have all the details yet I suspect that when Izuku asked his previous number one Hero if he thought he could be one, the man shot him down because he doesn't have a Quirk as if he had forgotten that you are in the same boat for the vast majority of the day."
Or as if the man had forgotten that he himself had originally been Quirkless. "...That is honestly a frightening thought. Is there a way I could speak to Izuku about this? I think we should make sure there is a record of this in case this is not a one off occurrence with All Might." Because if it was not, Mirai was not sure what to feel.
"I told Izuku about your Hero identity last night before I knew all the details to cheer him up."
Mirai gave a hum in response as he checked the time again. "I assume that since you are calling now that the two of you took the day off?"
"Katsuki was caught up in a Villain attack yesterday. I thought it would be good for the both of them to spend the day together while he recovers." That was another frightening thought. What were the chances that his nephew and his sister's honorary nephew would both be caught up in separate incidents during the same day? Poor Izuku probably needed the time off from class for his mental health more than Katsuki would for his physical. Given the proximity to UA, the General Hospital in Musutafu was one of the best in the country.
"Ah. Should I wait until tomorrow to visit then?"
"Hold on…" Mirai could faintly hear that Inko was speaking to someone but with the phone pulled away, but he failed to make out any clear words. "…Izuku said he would rather not have to explain it more than once."
"Are you at the Bakugou's or did they hold Katsuki at a Hospital?"
"We are at Musutafu General Hospital. They are holding Katsuki for observation for the next few days." Ah. As he had suspected. It was concerning that they were holding him there for more than a day, but from the sound of it, Inko at least didn't seem too concerned. Given that of the two of them, she was the one with a doctorate, he thought she would likely be the better judge as to what was going on.
Suddenly a thought struck him. "Given that Izuku doesn't want to explain more than once, would he mind if I brought a detective along with me? Tsukauchi's assistance would be helpful if I end up having to build a case against All Might." It would be better if the man was on their side and not All Might's like he would have likely defaulted too otherwise. Unless Mirai dragged Shouta into this too though he didn't know the detective well enough to know which of those two Heroes he would have favored over the other.
"...Izuku wanted to know how much you trust the detective."
"Admittedly I have only worked one case with the man but I know Shouta trusts him. He was the one who introduced me to him after all. He is one of Shouta's primary points of contact with the Musutafu police, apparently." Which said a lot about the man. Shouta had suffered from trust issues since their parents had kicked the two of them out shortly after Inko had moved out on her own when he had only been six. They had been afraid of his Quirk even more than they had feared Mirai's own but had waited to kick the two boys out because they had wanted their perfect daughter to succeed. The thing that angered Shouta the most about it had been that, even though they refused to help pay for Inko to take care of the two of them, they had given her a full ride through college. Mirai had never been happier than when Inko had started dating her now husband Hisashi. While Mirai had been an independent adult for a few years at that point, Shouta had just been 10 and in desperate need of a father figure in his life. Earning Shouta's trust must have felt like pulling teeth but the man had never complained and adored them as his family as much as they eventually felt in return.
Inko's voice brought Mirai back to the present. "...Izuku said it is fine. When do you expect to get here?"
"It will take at least an hour even if I catch the next train. Tsukauchi will probably beat me there since he works and lives in your district."
"Alright. We will see you in an hour then." A quick goodbye and Mirai lowered his phone to dial his brother's favorite detective as he got ready to leave.
"Tsukauchi." The man's voice filtered through the call rougher than Mirai had been expecting. Oh, right. The detective had likely still been asleep.
"Detective, are you free this morning?" He could always ask Izuku to wait until this afternoon when the detective was properly up.
"I can be. What is going on Sir? I heard you aren't on any active cases yesterday."
"I still technically am not. I was hoping for your help in a more personal matter. One that involves All Might."
"Shit. Well there is no chance of me going back to bed now. Where do you need me?"
"Musutafu General Hospital. Ask for the room of a boy named Bakugou Katsuki. He isn't the reason for the call but the one I want us to talk to together is there visiting him."
"That was the victim in the Sludge Villain Incident yesterday right?"
"I assume so. I didn't ask."
"I would have thought you would have. You aren't exactly known for letting details slip past you." Mirai could hear the surprise in the Detective's voice.
"Like I said, he wasn't the reason for the call. Midoriya Izuku is there with his mother, Inko, visiting the boy but I have no reason to think he is directly involved in what is going on. Both boys are stressed out right now from what I understand and given that I was asked to meet them at the hospital, I assume that the two would be uncomfortable being separated right now."
"That makes sense I suppose. I guess I'll meet you there?"
"I will see you there." Mirai disconnected the call and leaned back in his seat on the train. The call had taken a little over the time it had to walk to the station but part of him wished it had taken longer. In his rush out the door, Mirai had failed to grab anything to keep himself entertained on the train ride outside of his phone. He had a puzzle game downloaded to it but that would hardly keep him distracted from the eyes he could feel on him. The biggest downside to his Hero outfit blending in with normal civilian wear was that when he was seen by someone who recognized him as Sir Nighteye, it didn't matter if he was in his more casual clothes. Thankfully, outside of the area of Tokyo that he patrolled regularly, in the years since he had gone independent of All Might, the public at large had seemed to forget about him.
Looking around the train car subtly, he spotted a man he recognized from one of the restaurants that he often ordered food from for himself and his team during lunch. The man was obviously on his day off and clearly trying to debate if he should come over and greet the Hero who seemed to be bored. Mirai decided to make it easy for him and waved at the man.
The man moved to the seat across from him. "Good morning, Sir. I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't expecting to see you on my day off."
"I was just as surprised to see you here, Sero. How is your family doing?"
The man lights up much the way Mirai had been expecting him too. "I'm actually heading to meet them now. Hanta's school got closed for a week due to a Villain attack in the area around it damaging the building so we decided to take advantage of it and have a little vacation. I still had to go in for work last night since I couldn't just ask for the rest of the week off, but a couple extra train rides isn't that bad."
"Did you decide on Musutafu because he is hoping to enroll in UA next year?"
The chef nodded. "That's right. Hanta wanted to familiarize himself with the area so when he gets in, he knows a few good places to spend time with his classmates…"
The two continued to chat about several similarly light topics and the few odd jokes for the remainder of the train ride, parting at the exit of the station. Mirai enjoyed the man's company whenever they got a chance to chat. There were not many people outside the Hero industry itself that were able to see past the supposed glitz and glamour that the media portrayed the industry to have. Sometimes, it was clear that the public at large had forgotten that ultimately, Heroes were just people too.
Mirai was still riding the high of his renewed good mood, when he entered the hospital. Walking up to the front desk to check in to visit Mirai experienced a sinking feeling as he realized he recognized the women behind the desk from when he had last been at the hospital back at the he had been visiting Yagi Toshinori recovering from surgery. A woman with a perfect memory recall Quirk. Shit. So much for visiting as a civilian. Hopefully he wouldn't draw too much attention towards the Bakugou's.
The woman looked up as he reached the desk and he could see the recognition dawn on her face with a hint of confusion. "Sir Nighteye, what brings you here today?"
"I am here on a case related matter. Has detective Tsukauchi arrived yet?"
She nodded. "He went up about 5 minutes ago. Does this have something to do with the incident that the poor boy involved that he is with right now?"
Mirai let out a sigh as he handed over his Hero ID. "I can't say anything more than the boy himself is involved in an ongoing case. Can you give me the room number?"
After taking it for a moment to scan in, she handed back the ID and listed off a set of directions. As he parted from the desk, he walked as quickly as he could toward the room without drawing attention to himself. It didn't work. By the time he had reached the pediatric wing, he had caught a few of the nurses he had met previously pointing and whispering to some of the other staff. When he reached the door in question, he only stopped long enough to give a warning knock before just entering.
When he saw that all eyes were on himself he thought it best to explain. "I didn't think that I would be recognized by the staff that quickly. Sorry for letting myself in but I thought it would be best if I avoided drawing a possible crowd."
Mirai was a bit annoyed to see Inko and Tsukauchi exchange amused looks but did not comment on it due to quickly becoming distracted by the sight of his nephew. Mirai had seen many photos of him over the years but this was the first time since he had seen him as an infant in person. Mirai quickly decided that cameras did not do the boy justice. The grin he wore as he carefully wrestled his hand over his injured best friend's face was brighter than any he had seen before. In that moment, he felt a pang of sadness over all the years he had missed and silently promised to himself that he would not allow life to prevent him from keeping this living embodiment of sunshine in his.
It took a moment for Mirai to realize he had just been staring at Izuku and not saying anything for a few minutes. He thought it would be best to just start. "Izuku would you like me to explain to detective Tsukauchi why he is here or would you like to yourself?"
Looking back on everything later, he would regret being the one to start the conversation. The information uncovered did nothing but destroy the image of the man who had once taken him under his wing. But there was little he could think about as the doctors rushed Izuku from the room following his collapse and Katsuki's pulse dropped thanks to his sedation. His nephew had been abandoned on a rooftop and gone into shock. He was lucky he didn't die up there where who knows how long it would have taken to find him. He was lucky that the heightened emotions he was feeling as a result hadn't led to him jumping from the roof in his despair.
Sasaki Mirai was no longer in a rather good mood this morning but there were now things he knew about Yagi Toshinori that he wouldn't wish to be kept in the dark of. The man that had once been his closest friend was clearly long dead. Likely lost in the same conflict that had lost the man his lung and stomach. Or was that really true? Maybe this was who the man had always been. Self destructive to the point that people around him got hurt and never seemed to care.
A thought absently crossed his mind as he fell into the waiting room chair beside Inko who was lost in her own thoughts as they stared together at the doors that her son had been carried away behind. How would the Shields react if he told them what the man had done? Desperate for the distraction, Mirai gave Inko's hand a small squeeze. "I'll be right back. I need to make a phone call."
"Shouta?"
"He is in class right now I think. I was thinking David. Melissa is Quirkless too."
The same realization seemed to dawn on her that he had himself. She returned a gentle squeeze before releasing his hand. "Let me know how it goes."
Mirai moved back into the relative privacy that was Bakugou Katsuki's hospital room. He was greeted with the sight of Tsukauchi glaring down at his phone, only looking up when Mirai closed the door. "I just called the station to check if I had remembered correctly or not. Your nephew was not listed in any part of the incident as being involved despite Yagi filing a report stating he was involved chasing the Villain into the sewers. He apparently claimed in his report that he had gotten turned round in the sewers and lost track of the Villain completely. The fact that he actually filed the report himself would have been enough to have told me he was lying when I had gone into work later today as well as the fact the Villain himself could have and likely still will tell a different story so I am not sure what he thought he was doing even trying…"
"I am beginning to suspect we might not know the man as well as we thought we did. I was going to call Shield. While I admit I don't know the man that well personally, I do know that he will not be happy to hear about what happened to Izuku because of his actions and lack thereof."
Tsukauchi nodded before turning his attention to the young teen sedated in the bed. "I'm going to go check to see if his parents have been contacted about his panic attack and sedation."
Mirai grabbed his arm as he moved past him to stop him momentarily. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it. If something like this was happening to my sister, I would hope that had I asked you would have done the same."
"I would hope I would have done it for anyone had I found them in a similar position otherwise I don't think I would deserve to carry my Hero license."
"Nor would I with my badge." The detective shook his head and left, the door pulled closed behind him.
Sighing to himself, Mirai pulled out his own phone. This was not going to be a fun phone call