Canary

Chapter 48: The End of the Beginning

There was a ringing in his ears, like what came after Kacchan's explosions. It took Midoriya back for a moment. He half expected to wake up with his head down on the desk of his old school, with Kacchan glaring down at him with a sinister smile on his face, whilst the teacher scolded Midoriya for sleeping during class – which had happened more than once. He used to stay up too late studying. All in all, it was a recipe for disaster.

But that was then.

Midoriya woke up in a hospital, which honestly, made him feel better than the thought of waking up back in middle school. He didn't acknowledge it was a hospital for a few minutes though, as he just lay there, staring at the white-washed ceiling, blinking slowly as his senses came into focus.

"–And welcome back to Put Your Hands Up Radio! It is six thirty, so welcome to Canary's hour!" came the high-pitched sound of a vaguely familiar, female voice.

Midoriya turned his head for his tired eyes to rest on an old radio, propped up on his bedside table. It was eerily similar to the one he had when he was with the League of Villains.

"Our wonderful star isn't here today – so instead, everyone give a warm welcome to Owl!" said Minim, one of Present Mic's sidekicks. She did a lot of the radio shows when Present Mic was out patrolling or working at UA. So, where was he?

"Hey – it's great to be back again," Jiro replied.

Midoriya zoned out from the radio. It became background noise to him as he groggily pulled himself upright. Glancing at the window, the curtains blowing softly in the cool breeze that drifted through, the sun was already setting.

He turned away from it, frowning. They had started the raid of the Shie Hassaikai at around eight o'clock in the morning... It was already six thirty at night? Wow – he slept through the entire day...

He started to stretch out his arms, which were aching and sore – which was when he hesitated, eyes wide.

Wait, if Jiro's on the radio – it had to be either Tuesday or Thursday...

And the raid had been on Monday.

Oh no.

The door creaked open slowly. Midoriya let his arms drop as he waited for whoever was behind it to reveal themselves. It turned out to be a nurse, who walked in on the tips of her toes, sliding her clipboard in onto an empty chair as quietly as she could. She still hadn't looked in Midoriya's direction.

"Err..." Midoriya ended up letting out of his mouth.

The sound made her do a double take, "Oh, you're awake!" she exclaimed. "Sorry, did I wake you up?"

"U-Um, no I –"

"I was trying so hard to be quiet – sorry!" she added in a mock whisper. "You've been sleeping for quite a while!"

"H-How long?" Midoriya questioned insistently, leaning forwards a little.

"Oh, about a day and a half?" she estimated, retrieving her clipboard as she kicked the door closed. "How are you feeling?"

He just blinked at her whilst she waited for an answer, "I've been asleep for a-a day and a half?!"

She cocked her head to one side, "Your teachers said that was a normal backlash for your Quirk after using it to this extent. Moreover, you had a pretty heavy concussion after passing out so quickly and bashing your head... You did wake up briefly this morning, and Recovery Girl came in to heal you up. You fell back to sleep right after."

"I-It..." Midoriya stammered, "It's usually not that bad..."

He had been practising his powers so much after school... Yeah, he did feel pretty bad afterwards, especially if he had been using the entirety of the songs, going all the way through them, and then moving straight onto another power... But really, he hadn't experienced hard core usage of his power, in life or death scenarios, other than that time with Stain – which had left him unconscious for almost an entire day. Right – that was a similar amount of time to when Midoriya must have woken up for Recovery Girl... And the other... twelve-ish hours? Maybe that was because of the hero's stamina sucking downside... Or what about Eri's –