Tenko took Atomic with him. Even if he never realized it. Once Kurogiri's portal dragged him back to the league, all he cared to focus on was the fact that you were alive. And with his Sensei in prison, Shigaraki wouldn't be harmed for his little rebellious act. For keeping you alive despite the secret All for One desperately needed you to not find out.
You ordered Atomic to protect him too. Even before that, when he took refuge inside Tenko, Atomic didn't so much as try and irk him.
That was its own enigma. How come your quirk could prioritize a boy who used to bring you only distress? Was it because it knew what really happened? Knew about your false memories?
You understood the purpose: Of why your brain formulated an entirely different narrative from the truth. Basic science. If something is too painful to remember, you simply have to remember it another way.
Those people's eyes when they died. When they suffocated because of you. Their faces now imprinted on your recollections. It made you think long and hard as you stirred in that hospital bed.
They were innocent. And you took their lives away.
What kind of hero could you be with that on your conscience?
And your parents?
Tenko said he was the one who killed them.
But...
How...
None of it made any sense...
The hospital let you go after six days. Every morning, Fuyumi came to take care of you, took some time off work.
Aizawa did too. Asked you to speak about your experience so that you wouldn't bury any emotions. Listened to you. Comforted you.
The man took care the way he never had a chance to when you were a child. Continued to make up for lost time. Even as you fell asleep, and he stayed by your side as much as he could.
Since UA was under fire from the media, the school was off for a week, but Aizawa didn't think it was wise to let the entire class visit you so soon.
Although, if he thought he was keeping Bakugo away for six days after everything, he had another thing coming. It was hard enough to even make him leave at the end of the day.
Sometimes, Aizawa would cross him in the halls getting water or just stretching his legs. Grabbing a bag from his mother who stopped by to check on you as well. There were always some books in there he'd read with her. Some candies she liked. A shirt of his with a stretched out skull on the front that Aizawa assumed was her favorite since she started sleeping with it in her arms whenever Bakugo had to go home.
There was an evident change to Aizawa's student though. A silence that followed him like a shadow. Katsuki barely ever looked up at his teacher. Barely ever said a word to anyone. Even besides you, there was a lack of animation, spirit, grit that made Bakugo distinctly himself. As if a part of him had been lost back in that abandoned city.
Aizawa's hair was close to falling out from all the stress. UA being so heavily criticized it was hard to walk around in the street, All Might's accident and retirement, your accident, Bakugo, everything that he felt the need to take responsibility for.
It weighed him down. Not knowing how else to help the kid, Aizawa gave Katsuki a ride home every night from the hospital. The police asked him to not walk around outside for a while anyways, so-
"UA set up the dorms," He said, trying to lighten the air in the car once Bakugo took a seat and buckled his seatbelt.
The kid wore the same neutral expression he'd been wearing since you got out of surgery that night. Not a hint of anger, joy, sadness, or any identifiable emotion crossing his face even once. All he did was put his chin on his fist, look out the window.
