Phenomenon

Chapter 9: Welcome Home, Izuku!

My week in the hospital passed by rather quickly. Kyoka left the day after she moved into the same room as me, I was sad to see her go since I wouldn't have someone to distract me after visiting hours were up, but it wasn't too bad. I had multiple visitors every day. By then end of the week, my entire class and a few 1B students had come in to see how I was doing. Every time someone visited for the first time they would always express their surprise at the news that I was Shota's son. The Bakusquad (bar Kacchan) had been a little too excited at this news. They had asked multiple questions about how it was having Aizawa as my dad and how long I had been living with him. Aside from the multiple questions about my relation to Aizawa, I enjoyed the visits from my fellow students.

One aspect of staying in the hospital I wasn't so fond of, was the nightmares. Every night I would get awful nightmares which embedded fear and hopelessness into my heart. I wanted to cry out for my family or at least someone familiar to support me through the horrific images of my family burning around me whilst Hisashi cackled manically. I craved a distraction from the phantom pain of Hisashi's boot being driven into my ribs and his knuckles being imbedded into my face. There was no way to escape the horrific images which my brain conjured up. I was torn up and panicky on the inside, but I didn't let people see. All they saw was the smiling and positive Izuku they had always known. They didn't need to be bothered by my feelings. I could deal with them on my own.

"Thank you for being so kind, Shuri-san." I thanked the nurse who had been caring for me throughout my week in the hospital. After a week, most of my injuries had been healed to the extent that I could go home. My hands still twitched slightly because of the electric currents which had been run through my body. Plus my left arm was in a sling and I had to be in a wheelchair for the next three days. But other than those things, I was good. The doctor had given me express orders not to use my quirk for another week. If I did I could mess up my bone structure. "It's no problem, Izuku. The only way you need to thank me is by looking after yourself." Shuri-san chuckled before leaning down and wrapping me in a soothing hug. Her ebony hair tickled my cheek as she pulled away. I memorised every bit of her face. Her very pale, practically white skin. Her elfen ears. Her wide lilac eyes. She had told me once, when we were playing a game of go fish, that she was an empath. She could read and control emotions. I found it extremely cool that she could do that and immediately started geeking out about her quirk. I wanted to remember her face so that she could help other people through me. Her quirk was sure to come in handy in my future.

"Be safe, Izuku." Shuri-san called to me as she waved me goodbye. I twisted around in my wheelchair and waved back at her. Papa smiled down at me and waved to Shuri-san before turning back around and pushing me towards the car park.

"Ok. Yep, just like that. Who knew this could be so hard." Papa muttered to himself whilst he was trying to fold up my wheelchair and put it in the back of the car. "Papa, you need to pull that lever." I pointed out from my seat in the front of the car. Papa looked to where I was pointing and smiled at me. "Thanks, Little Listener!" Papa exclaimed happily, pulling the lever which caused the wheelchair to collapse in on itself. With the wheelchair collapsed, Papa finally managed to put it in the back of the car. He hopped into the driver seat beside me and started the engine.

"The doctor's and nurses told us that you've been having nightmares, Izu." Papa said after we'd been driving for roughly 30 minutes. I looked down at my lap and held my tongue, I didn't want to bother anybody with my feelings and nightmares. It was bad enough that Shuri-san knew how I was feeling, I didn't want anyone else to be burdened with my emotional baggage. "Izuku. Please don't hide your emotions from us. I know you don't like it when we bring it up... But you know what happened when you hid your emotions from us last time. We only want to help you." Papa said sadly. I could hear the raw emotion in his voice as he spoke. Even though he didn't directly mention it, I knew what event he was referencing, my hand brushed over my arm at the memory. "I...I'll try." I whispered. I looked up and saw Papa smiling at me before he concentrated on the road again, "That's all I can ask for." Papa said in return.