The doors slid open, and a middle-aged man in a white coat stepped out, mask already lowered. His expression wasn't grave—but it wasn't relaxed either.
"Her body is messed up," the doctor said, eyes settling on Haru. "Tell me something first."
Haru straightened slightly. "Yes."
"Did you remove her body's natural limiters?"
Haru didn't answer immediately.
"…Yes," he said.
The doctor exhaled through his nose and nodded, as if that confirmed something he already suspected.
"You know about hysterical strength?" the doctor asked.
Haru nodded. Of course, he knew about it.
The doctor continued anyway.
"In extreme situations, the brain suppresses its own safety protocols. Muscles pull harder than joints are designed for. Tendons exceed tolerance. The body trades safety for immediate survival." He paused. "You forced that state, for both her body and her quirk. Seeing your expression, you probably know what that implies."
Haru's jaw tightened.
"Fortunately, she wasn't in that state long enough for permanent danger," the doctor said next. "Mostly."
That single word stuck.
"Her organs are stable. No spinal damage. Internal bleeding has stopped." He glanced at the chart. "However, her quirk complicates things."
Haru looked up sharply.
"Her body has begun adapting to it," the doctor explained. "Light refraction is no longer limited to conscious activation. With time, her skin may naturally refract light around her."
"…Meaning?" Haru asked.
"She may become partially visible by default," the doctor said plainly. "Not always. With training and focus, she can suppress it. But for stealth work, it could be… troublesome."
Haru frowned—but nodded.
He had expected worse.
"And her awakening?" Haru asked. "Will it destabilise the chances of her naturally awakening her quirk?"
The doctor shook his head. "Not really. But a natural awakening would have taken her decades. Two or three, a minimum of continuous training. You accelerated something that wasn't ready. Of course, it was fortunate that things turned out like this."
Haru absorbed that in silence.
"She'll live," the doctor concluded. "Rehabilitation won't take too long. Less than a week for full recovery, becoming back to normal."
The doors slid open again.
They moved unconscious Toru out shortly after to a different city, where others' first wears had been kept previously.
On reaching there, almost all of his classmates were already present.
"Did the villains do something to you?"
"Are you alright?"
Haru answered questions automatically. Minor injuries. Nothing broken. Exhaustion. Toru stable. Quick recovery.
Nods followed.
However, Haru felt that something was wrong.
Stares.
The looks his classmates gave were different from what the looks Haru should have received after going through a life-and-death scenario.
Mina leaned forward slightly. "So… we heard—"
"Heard what?" Haru asked.
"…About the confession."
Haru blinked once.
"…What."
He scanned their faces.
Wide eyes. Suppressed grins. Poorly hidden curiosity.
Understanding hit him like a delayed punch.
"Who," he asked slowly, "told you?"
He glanced at Izuku and Tenya. Katsuki was with him entire time and he didn't had lose mouth.
Mina pointed. "Iida."
Haru turned.
Iida froze.
"I—It wasn't intentional!" Tenya blurted. "I was recounting the incident in proper chronological order and—"
Haru grabbed him by the collar.
"Oh, this," Haru said rapidly, shaking him, "is this payback for the Sports Festival, right? How could you ruin my entire high school social life, just because I had threatened you a bit in the first round? We even patched up in the second round."
"I-I assure you—!"
"Do you have any idea," Haru continued, not stopping, "how many times I'm going to hear about this? Every corridor. Every lunch break. Every 'so, how's Hagakure doing?' conversation—"
"I didn't mean to!"
Haru snapped. "Path to Hell is paved with good intentions."
Iida flailed helplessly.
Then Haru stopped.
His grip loosened.
His vision darkened, as everything started blurring.
"…Ah."
He fell back.
"Watch it, dumbass," Bakugo, who was near him, snapped, shoving him upright by the shoulder.
Haru steadied himself, head throbbing. "…Thanks."
"Tch."
"I need—" Haru swallowed. "Rest. We will continue this later. We definitely would."
Tenya didn't argue.
Haru lay down on the guest bed in Toru's hospital room.
The room was quiet now.
Too quiet.
"…You're loud," Toru said weakly.
Haru froze.
Then turned his head.
She was awake.
"…You heard that?" Haru asked.
"Heard what?" She asked in an innocent tone. However, Haru knew that she was too good at playing dumb.
Haru exhaled slowly. "Nothing."
The room settled into something almost normal.
Monitors hummed. The IV dripped with soft patience. Outside, muffled footsteps passed and faded. Inside, it was just the two of them again—like it had been a thousand times before, minus the bandages.
They talked about small things.
All Might's fight. His retired old hag suddenly came out of retirement. Bakugo's hero name. How Midoriya cried again. How Mineta got punished by Aizawa-sensei again.
Toru complained about the hospital food she would have to eat. Haru complained about the hospital smell. She asked if he had won the argument with Bakugo earlier in the camp. He said no one ever wins with Bakugo.
Minutes passed.
Then Toru exhaled slowly.
"…Okay," she said.
Haru glanced at her.
"That tone means you're about to finally talk about the elephant in the room," he said.
She tilted her head toward the ceiling. "You're annoying."
"Not more than you."
There was a pause.
Then she sighed again, longer this time.
"I have a crush on you," Toru said directly.
Haru didn't flinch—but his shoulders tightened.
She turned her head toward him. "And before you overthink it—yes, I know the timing is bad. Yes, I know we almost died. That's why I'm saying it."
Silence followed.
Then Toru continued, calmer now. "I like you. Have had for a while. I don't want to pretend otherwise and make things weird later. Talking to you now, the entire time, made me just remember my confession."
She looked at him. "So. I'm asking you out."
Haru stared at the ceiling.
"…I need time," he said.
She nodded immediately. "Okay."
Then, without missing a beat, she added, "Five minutes."
Haru turned his head sharply. "That's not the time. That's a microwave. Heck, a microwave even takes longer than that."
She smiled faintly.
"I need at least thirty," he said flatly.
"Wow," Toru said. "Generous."
They shared a quiet laugh.
The humour faded—but not awkwardly.
They both understood the reason they were doing this now.
Neither of them wanted the friendship to rot under unspoken tension. The best way to remove tension would be to uproot it from the source.
Haru closed his eyes.
Internally, he was already sorting.
Compatibility? High. Trust? Proven under fire. Emotional resilience? Questionable—but honest. Shared history? Deep enough to hurt if mishandled.
Then another variable surfaced.
Knowledge.
'To be honest, I feel like I am getting biased due to the meta-knowledge about her, especially her appearance.'
In his childhood, Haru used to tease her a lot about her appearance, how she could have a butthead or something like that.
To be honest, due to not knowing her appearance, Haru's relationship with Toru was similar to a relationship one has with online friends, where appearance was generally unknown.
You could find a young girl's PFP, belonging to a 40-year-old man.
However, unlike online friends, whose actual personality is mostly hidden, Haru knew Toru quite intimately.
Even if he later found out that she actually had a pig-like head for a face, their friendship wouldn't change.
'Though kissing a pig is a different thing.'
Haru shook his head out of unnecessary thoughts before coming to a decision. He chose to seal his own memories regarding Toru's appearance.
'Moreover, it's kind of spoiling the future. Didn't the doctor say that she might randomly get visible? It would be more fun that way.'
With that in mind, Haru didn't just seal all the information related to Toru's actual face, but rather, he decided to seal the entire meta-knowledge related to Toru Hagakure.
In just a few seconds, a quiet internal lock appeared in his mind, sealing away all meta-information about Toru's appearance, buried and restricted.
Haru blinked.
'Wait, what was I thinking about?' He appeared confused. He had just said to Toru that he needed 30 minutes, and then, he—remembers nothing.
'My memories!' He focused internally, and as expected, a lock was present. He traced the lock and noticed that some memory pathways related to Toru were blocked.
If Haru wanted to, he would break the lock anytime, but he didn't. He instead started recalling different information about Toru.
Favourite food. Favourite anime. When she cried last time. How she acts. He recalled all those things until he stumbled on one major category.
'I can't access anything related to Toru in Canon. I can remember that she had X role in this arc and info, but it's in text form. Most of the information is regarding the story, rather than her character.
Did I seal this to decide without having any bias?' Haru soon concluded.
Haru ran the process again, thinking about whether he wanted to date Toru or not.
This time, cleaner.
He opened his eyes, coming to a decision.