Carnivore

v) Conscendo

'YOU HAVE BEEN CLEARED BY SHUZENJI-SAN?' Seiya's response was swift and blunt through the morning air. 'Are you certain?'

The morning of the Sports Festival for Zinnia was met with a prompt phone call through to Hosu General Hospital at the strike of 5am, long before Zinnia could have rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and definitely long before she and Eijirou were to head to Yuuei.

In fact, Eijirou was still snoring away with a goofy grin plastered across his drooling face. And she planned to keep it that way, if she could help it.

Which is why she was tucked away in the far corner of the room, speaking as quietly as she could without resorting to whispering.

'More or less?' Zinnia answered with a small lilt in her tone, one that undoubtedly did not go unnoticed by the head-surgeon on the other end of the call. 'She said she wants to give the official okay after a checkup following the Sports Fest, but really I'm fine! Honest!'

'You really aren't convincing in the least, Kennedy-san.' Seiya quipped.

'E-eh?'

'When you plead for something like a normal teenager, there's undeniably something askew.'

Touche...

'Please, can I come back to work, Seiya-sensei? I'm honestly starting to lose my mind from the mountain of free time!'

There was an immediate and heavy sigh from Seiya's end of the line, and a few seconds later Zinnia heard the man's grudging voice mutter something unintelligible beneath his breath.

'Is this another of your attempts to avoid going home?' The man demanded, sternly, silencing Zinnia within an instance. 'Or do you legitimately miss this place so much that you'd like to extend your recovery time by a further few weeks?'

Zinnia couldn't help the wry smile that spread across her face when she thought about the question for a moment.

He was right, she wanted to stay as far away from home as she could, especially since she hadn't spoken to Kali since the disagreement in the hospital a little over two weeks ago.

But even still, it wasn't that alone...

'I want... Normal back...?' Zinnia hedged as she struggled to find the right way to explain it. 'I don't care if I'm just cleaning animal bites again or tending cuts, but I just really want something to start going back to normal again...'

She had been doing her quirk exercises just like Recovery Girl instructed her, practised different ways to use her quirk to ease up the strain on her cardiovascular system, and she'd been researching different things she could do to back herself up.

She needed some sign that things were starting to work out.

Even if it was just sitting in Hosu General Hospital waiting for child patients who'd wound up waking the wrong dog, it was still something.

'...Very well.' Seiya eventually relented. 'You can keep your pager on you and start coming in again. But you're on probation.'

'Probation?'

'Yes, probation. You have yet to be cleared by an authorised Cardiologist to return to full duties.' Seiya reaffirmed, causing the girl to pout. 'If you overstep the bounds you're given, you'll wind up back on a leave of absence, and I won't reconsider until I deem that you have recovered enough to return.'

'Right...' Zinnia mumbled in disappointment.

'We should leave the discussion as such for now. I believe you have other school-matters to put your attention to instead.' Seiya interrupted Zinnia's thoughts with a swift decision. 'I will no doubt hear from you after the matter has been resolved.'