No Man's Land 2

Chapter 4

Inko Midoriya only got half an hour to talk to her child. Inko Midoriya was not happy about it but the hospital's policy was clear: half an hour for Izuku's case. Take or leave. Inko obliged.

As she walked along the corridors, she tried to ignore the people bumping into her or the rushed voices of nurses and doctors. She tried to ignore the sobs too, the cries for help or the litanies some of them made repeating words she could quite not make out.

She tried to ignore that tingling sensation that run over her back up to her neck, the pictures of her son reduced to a mere surviving being.

She sighed as she had to dodge yet another patient. She heard a sorry from a nurse nearby that swiftly run behind the patient.

She was fed up with this world.

Room number 1. She chuckled: her son always wanted to be the number one hero. The number one.

And in some sort of twisted and evil way he was so.

She adjusted her pastel green coat clutching her coat collar together. It was awfully cold for a Hospital.

Exhaling a breath or two, she knocked at the door and a voice, which absolutely wasn't Izuku's, answered with a soft come in.

It was her first time inside Izuku's room and it shocked her how unadorned and minimalist it was: no figurines nor posters of his favorite idols. Nothing. The room was utterly empty for her son.

She hoped that her son was not as empty as the room was.

"Please, try to be quiet. He just fell asleep" A nurse she will later know as Jude gestured to her.

She nodded, her green hair bouncing over her head. She took off her coat and hang it to the coat rack to the right of the door.

"It's a strange time to be asleep" She commented as she sat next to her son's bed. Her purse stood on the ground between her legs. A nice camel it was.

Jude adjusted his coat. Only know she saw how disheveled he was: it seemed like he just put it on the blue uniform when she knocked. And his hair! She furrowed her brows.

"May I ask why are you in such miserable conditions? I mean, this should be one of the best hospitals and I thought that employees should always be dressed properly... did you do something to my son?" she asked in a crescendo of tension as she got up only to point an accusatory finger towards him.

Jude visibly blushed at the implication and felt his ears turn red with how much blood moved to his face.

"Madame, I- I would never do such things-" Jude stopped mid sentence when the door opened too quickly and Enric, a man she had yet to know, rushed inside with a white liquid inside a syringe.

"Jude, quickly grab his right arm!" He hurriedly said.

"W-What are you doing to my son?" Inko asked as she stood between her son and this furious man that have just walked inside.

"Enric St.Francis, Psychiatrist. I have instructed my coworker to sat him to sleep. I need to inject him with 10 mg of this" he said as he showed her the syringe.

Jude walked next to the man and gently pushed Inko aside.

"I told you to prepare him! Shit..." he said as he noticed how Izuku's arm was still covered with his shirt.

Jude apologized and moved the shirt up removing it: Izuku looked like a ragged doll.

"My son... why is he not responding?" she asked as she clutched her hands over her mouth.

"Jude, S.T.A.R.T." He muttered and Jude proceed to do the simple triage.

"Breath" Enric said.

"Check" Jude answered. "Pulse check" he said again touching just under Izuku's ear trying to feel the pulse.

"Not conscious" he said again.

Enric nodded and proceed to inject the liquid. Izuku's body convulsed under his ministration. Jude was trying his best to force him down. Enric kept his body over his legs to keep them from kicking at them.

Izuku panted as he opened his eyes. Inko stood there and swore she was going to faint.

"It's done!" Enric said more than happy as he proceed to hold her. He sat her down and removed his blue gloves.

"You son had a severe episode of hallucinations. he started to become violent and that was why Jude was in such state" He proceeded to explain.

Jude nodded as he covered Izuku's chest with a thin sheet.

"We gave him something to calm down" Jude added as he saw the terror among her features.

"Okay... I... is he going to be alright?" She asked with fear laced voice as she dried some drops of sweat falling along her cheeks.

She had been terrified seeing her son convulsing and those two men over him.

"We did our best but his disorder is not common neither quick. we need to wait and we need to work with him. He has gone through a lot and it may have caused such disorders. This would be wiser if you would talk with Doctor Theo Decker, his therapist."

Inko nodded trying to elaborate what had happened in the last ten minutes she was here.

Enric got up and gently bowed towards her.

"I am afraid to be request elsewhere, I will leave you with my coworker." he said. Inko shook his hand and thanked him for taking care of her son.

Jude stood there, looking at how tired she was.

"Madame, we will help him."

Inko nodded.

"Call me Inko, dear. Sorry for the accusation I made before but... he is fragile and anyone could take advantage of it if they wanted. I just..." She gestured vaguely hoping that the nurse in front of him would catch something she was not ready to say to himself.

"I understand. I assure you that he is so much stronger than you think" he said as he showed her the cuts Izuku gave him while trashing and shouting around in fear. Some blood stained his shirt but a chuckled formed among his lips.

"He is a genius, I admired his works" Jude added.

"I did too. I was never capable of truly understanding them but they were my son's and I was somehow happy. I am still proud of him" she said as she placed her hand in Izuku's.

Jude sat down next to the bed and felt somewhat an outsider of the world those two shared. He thought if he would be ever capable of loving someone as much as she loved her son.

"Is he getting any better?" Inko asked breaking the soft silence between them.

Jude looked down at Izuku's pale face: his hair were getting too long and he would need to shave him too.

"He keeps talking to and about a certain Shoto. We do have some information about him but he suddenly vanished from any records... we think he might be able to help him."

Inko looked at him with an even sadder expression.

"I am afraid this would not be possible..."

"How come?" Jude asked as he tilted his head to the side.

"He died. He died saving him..." Inko muttered as her body shook without her permission.

"Oh" Jude said but words were not forming in his mind as Izuku's hope of getting better shattered in front of him.