G H O S T [Shota Aizawa x OC]

T W E N T Y - F O U R

The dangerous and ominous energy that surrounded the possessed Sumire disappeared. In the silence that followed, Shota used his Erasure to stop Eri's Rewind quirk, causing the child to pass out in Deku's strong arms.

Once the glow around the little girl dissolved, Sumire fell from where she was suspended, plummeting towards the ground limply. The battered hero launched himself towards her, just barely getting to her fast enough to break her fall.

He held her in his bruised and bleeding arms. He pressed his fingers to the side of her soft neck, stained with dried blood from the tears she cried. Once he confirmed a pulse, he released a deep sigh of relief. All the energy he had mustered during the battle completely left him. He felt like passing out too, but he didn't want to until he knew she'd be okay.

"Hey!" He shouted to those gathered behind him, turning slightly to acknowledge them. "Call an ambulance! We need to get her to the hospital!" Distress was obvious in his narrow, tired eyes as he brushed the woman's wet, gray hair from her forehead.

It felt like hours before the wails of an ambulance siren were heard through the rain, but the other heroes and students made a way for it. Shota carried her to the vehicle, but just before he climbed into the metallic interior, he heard a weak meowing.

The small black cat leapt inside and greeted the man with a loud whine. The normally stoic man felt like he'd start crying as he sighed, "Echo" and pet her wet little head. He was sure that she wouldn't make it in the building's collapse and was so relieved to see her alive and practically complaining about her sopping fur.

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Eri woke up a few hours later in the hospital and had no injuries nor suffered any side-effects from using her quirk. Midoriya also seemed completely fine. A few heroes that were caught in the rubble had a few scratches and bruises, but not anything serious.

Shota basically fought the nurses as they tended to his wounds, which were far worse than any other involved in the fight, besides Sumire herself. He had lacerations all over his body and deep bruises already becoming purple on his abdomen and back. He had deep, burn-like wounds across his back and arms where he had tried to shield himself from her attacks, which trickled further out from the point of impact like veins. He was also showing signs of cracked and possibly broken ribs.

But no matter how much the nurses and the very convincing and stubborn Recovery Girl pushed for him to formally get treated in his own room, the battered man would not let go of Sumire's hand as she laid unconscious in a hospital bed.

Nurses were washing the blood and dirt from her skin. She didn't show any other exterior injuries, but her brain activity was minimal, and she was receiving a blood transfusion while liquids were being pumped into her bloodstream.

After no one could bring Shota to leave her, some nurses grumpily wheeled another hospital bed in Sumire's room so that he would at least sit down and lay back.

Echo also chased them through the hospital and hopped onto a chair in the corner of the room and watched anxiously. A nurse tried to catch her to bathe her matted and dusty fur, but the cat wouldn't allow her to touch her, so she was left alone.

"Mr. Aizawa, are you looking out for Ms. Eto while she's here?" A nurse with a clipboard asked through all of the prodding, cleaning, and bandaging.

"Did she refer anyone else previously?" He asked, drawing in a sharp breath as Recovery Girl focused on the large bruise over his ribcage.

"You're actually mentioned here as her emergency contact." The nurse showed him Sumire's sheet, where - in her handwriting - she had written out his full name and contact information. He was surprised, but in spite of all the physical pain he was experiencing, he felt warm.

"Then yes, I'll be responsible." He agreed. If he weren't incredibly worried about the silver-haired woman, he would have grinned with pride knowing that he was her emergency contact.

"Sir, I'm afraid we aren't able to get any response from her Quirk Factor." The nurse wore an expression of concern. "We're afraid that her quirk may be completely gone, but there's no way to be sure until she wakes up."

Shota's plan worked just as he thought it would. Eri had to rewind Sumire's quirk to sever the tie that it created between the living and the dead. That would cut off the link that the other-worldly entity had to possess her body. Now, he just hoped she would wake up.

The nurse continued her explanation: "Judging by her brain activity, she is in a coma. Unfortunately, we cannot determine if and when she will wake up. It could be in a few hours or it could be a few... months." She tried to sound optimistic, but there were so many unknowns that she couldn't guarantee anything.

"Thank you." The exhausted-looking man muttered.

Nurses came and went; they tested and treated both Sumire and Shota until they were entirely stitched and bandaged, assuring that their physical wounds were taken care of.

Once the nurses stopped coming through their room, Echo gently pounced onto the silver-haired woman's bed and curled up beside her. Even after what she had been through, she knew that the monster was not her owner.

Since he wasn't going to be released that night, he shut the blinds on the internal doors and windows. He stood over Sumire's bed and brushed her messy hair from the side of her face. She wore an oxygen mask to where he could see her gentle breaths cloud the translucent plastic.

He placed a small, sweet kiss on her forehead and felt relieved to feel her warm skin beneath his lips. He never thought he'd be so worried about someone else or so eased when she survived her battle.

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Sumire felt tired like she hadn't gotten any sleep at all for at least a week. But she pried her eyes open and they were filled with the crust of having been asleep for a long time. She groaned and stretched her arms, but one bumped into a hard plastic object.

She felt sunshine on her skin, but the air around her was eerily quiet. When she finally forced her eyes open, she made out the scene of a hospital room. There weren't any I.V. drips or medications or machines around her, just a white bed in a white room with a large window and a single flower sitting in a vase on the ledge beneath it.

She pushed herself upright and she knew something was off or missing. It felt like a piece of herself was just gone.

Her memory was suddenly flooded with images of the dark, plasmatic entity that had been haunting her. She recalled how it loomed over her terrifyingly and consumed her entire body, suffocating her with its atmosphere and black hand around her throat. Its blood red eyes bore into her, and everything around her had disappeared.

And then she remembered being held in very strong and muscular arms. She was too weak to move or open her eyes, but she knew she was going to be safe because she knew who was holding her close.

But waking up like this brought upon a deja vu-like experience to when they rescued Eri from Shie Hassaikai. And just as she wanted to the first time, she had the same desire this time. She grabbed her cell phone and sent a message to one of the few people she actually really cared for.

It took a mere five minutes for the door to her room to fly open dramatically and close again as Shota let himself in, panting from rushing over. "Just "hey?!"" He shouted with a bitter scowl. "You've been in a coma for two damn weeks and all you say is, "hey?!"" He held up his phone dramatically.

Sumire couldn't keep a small smile from her lips as she raised a brow at the uncharacteristically emotional man. "'Hey' in person?"

"Damnit, Sumire." He sighed and sat beside her on her hospital bed, pulling her face to his shoulder and wrapping his arms around her smaller figure. "I was so worried."

Suddenly,it hit her, as if he hadn't been nervous over it for weeks; the kiss.The sensual, and passionate, and deep, and sexy kiss.