Not Yet

XXVI: L i m i t s

Aizawa had no idea how he had managed to endure the painfully long hours of waiting for the nurse to be available, but he did.

The shorthaired petite woman stood finally in his presence, eyes shut tightly as she was trying to focus. She was going on with her attempts for quite a while now, but seemed to struggle greatly.

Doctor Matsuda stood beside him, seemingly as anxious and restless as he was, tapping his clipboard repeatedly with the tip of the blue pen in hand.

"What seems to be the matter?" The doctor in the white coat asked.

The nurse's hands resting upon the boy's temples retreated as she began to breath heavily.

"I'm.. *huff* not quite sure..." She took a deep breath. "It feels like... something is interfering," she sucked in as much air as she could between her words.

"Do you think it's an external, long lasting quirk that has been used on the patient?" She didn't know the details of how the kid was rescued from the villains, but it seemed pointless worrying about information leakage right now.

"Could be. But it feels slightly different," her breathing has evened now.

Aizawa stared at the half-lidded eye, staring at the void hazily; I wonder if...

"Could we try something?" The two medical staff turned their heads to him.

"You said it's about brain activity, right? Then we should stimulate the amygdala to activate. With memories. Wouldn't that pave the way to access the area better?"

The nurse gave the idea a moment of thinking.

"A higher activity could help navigating my quirk to the right area..." She reasoned. "But won't it be dangerous considering we are worried about the already abnormal high activity?" She shifted her attention to the doctor in the room, who stood tapping the top of his pen to his lips, deep in thought.

"Well he's already having organ failure, what could be worse?!" Aizawa asked the doctor beside him rather impatiently. The nurse's eyebrow twitched slightly at his offensive tone. And why was he directing his question at the doctor and ignoring her, while she was obviously the one asking?!

But for Shouta, he was desperate. He couldn't care less about what other thought. This could be the only chance he has to help! He would be damned if he let it slip away!

Dr. Matsuda weighed the possibilities in his mind, sighing as there seemed to be no easy answers.

"What do you have in mind?" He decided to trust the hero.

As much as Shouta didn't want to involve the poor creature again, he had no choice.

"Eri."

****

Mirio didn't like this. Not at all. He wished he could shield her from all this pain. Forever.

But he can't.

Those last few weeks, he came to an awful realization; There are many forms of evil in this world other than villains, and he couldn't fight them. He couldn't save people -children, even!- from experiencing them.

Heros can't always save people. He came to realize. In more ways than one....

But Eri's determined eyes told another story. She was not here as a victim. She was here as a fighter. As a hero. She is his hero. And she was determined to save him!

Aizawa was crouching down beside her, his hand gently placed on her shoulder.

"We need to jog his memories. Talk to him about something..." He didn't want to phrase it that way. He didn't want to tell her to talk about a traumatizing experience, but basically, that's exactly what they needed. "...that would have a strong impact," yet he proceeded with a milder choice of words.

Little Eri looked at her hero in the eyes and nodded, her brows knot together in resolution, showing her unwavering will.

The nurse placed her hands on the boy's temples once more, the meek glow of her quirk appearing.

Eri held nii-chan's hands firmly, ignoring the feeling of emptiness in where fingers were supposed to be, before she started talking about their time together. She went on and on about how they played, drew and colored together, but the nurse didn't seem to have it easier than before, if her sweat and hitched breath were to go by with.

"It needs to be something stronger," Aizawa urged the little girlz giving a light squeeze to her shoulder.

Mirio, from his position in the corner, seemed distressed and unpleased by the pressure put on the small, helpless Eri-chan.

"Sensei..." He took a few steps forward, not liking where this was headed.

"T-then, how a-about the time when you took me a-away from.." agony started to appear on her angelic face as tears pooled at the brims of her eyes. "..O-overhaul," she spat the name out as if the mere letters that composed the name were hurtful to her tongue.

Aizawa glanced at the boy in hope for signs of recognition, but found none. The nurse was getting out of breath too.

This was not working.

"Eri! What is the worst memory you have with him?!" Aizawa raised his voice in hope of a last chance.

"Sensei!" Mirio screamed from behind them and ran to collapse on his knees beside Eri-chan.

She was not supposed to be doing that! It's not her responsibility. She should not have to shoulder what the heros failed to accomplish!!

"Why was there a chunk of meet in that room!!" Eri lost her composure and screamed at the top of her lungs, tears running down freely from her already puffy, squeezed eyes.

Suddenly, the heart monitor's beeping pace quickened.

Something changed in the boy's stance.

It was working!

Aizawa's head snapped to the side to study the monitor, then at the nurse whose scrunched up face relaxed a bit.

Just a little further..!

"Why were you on the ground bleeding?!" Eri's hysterical outburst continued.

"Hey! It's okay! You don't have to talk if yo-" Mirio's concerned consolations were cut mid-sentence. "WHY WAS YOUR WHOLE STOMACH CUT WIDE OPEN?!!" All adults in the room froze in place.

They knew about the organs from the black market, but for Eri to have witnessed that gruesome scene....

Eri continued to cry out hysterically. Mirio's face scrunched up in sorrow and despair as he pulled the thrashing girl to his chest, his own tears threatening to spill. Oh God, Oh God....

The monitor beeps seemed to continue getting louder and louder. Dr. Matsuda ran forward to the nurse to try to pull her away.

This was a bad idea! They shouldn't have tried that!

Until suddenly, all commotion stopped abruptly.

The nurse's knees buckled underneath her as she collapsed down, dr. Matsuda catching her by the arm just in time before her knees would've hit the ground painfully.

Eri's agonizing screams ceased and her teary eyes widened as she looked at the still form on the bed.

All ears could only focus on one and only voice. A voice Aizawa thought he was never going to hear, and a voice Eri thought she would be forever chasing the phantom of.

A voice that roughly uttered a simple;

"E....ri..."