Chapter Text
In Kiri Shimá's opinion, Kacchan was the perfect balance between frightening and admirable.
Of course, when he first met him, he was hesitant to approach. After all, they were dealing with a territorial predator, a pack leader who definitely didn't want them around. But he really couldn't blame him, not with the smell he exuded; he had clearly been injured on the hunt.
Kiri watched Izuku helping him heal, and was amazed by how he only gasped a few times as he was being cleaned. They were nasty scratches, probably made by something bigger than him. The pup didn't seem worried, and when he looked inside the house, he saw the de'kiru's battle scars. All three of them had them, even the pup.
This reminded him of himself; some of his scars had also adorned him since he was just a little pup, newly left his mother's pouch. The one under his eye was from when his claws began to grow. The other males of the species are also covered in scars from battles, games, and travels.
Eiijiiou isn't a world of death, but it harbors very few mammals for good reason. The nitrogen-laden atmosphere, giant predators, and territorial disputes have led to a culture of relaxed fighting.
And how happy he was when he recognized Miana, and she barely recognized him. Puberty had rid him of his black fur, giving rise to red scales used in fighting arenas. He was glad to have landed on this planet with her and Tenki, at least.
Later, when Kacchan started cutting up the meat he had hunted, Kiri Shimá felt threatened. The intimidation tactic of staring was cute when Eri did it, but the cub didn't have fangs. The tension eased after he got into a debate with Tenki about whether or not they were mammals.
He almost yelled with joy when Izuku brought in a soup full of small, plump beetles, crunching against the mushroom broth. It looked just like the one his mother used to make to fatten him up as a child. He watched from afar as the meat continued to be torn apart, the matriarch burying pieces in a hole, probably some fertility ritual to improve the harvest.
He went to sleep at the same time as Miana, leaving Tsu-tsu on his soft belly and Tenki on his scales. The rodent had a habit of releasing energy whenever he woke up, and he woke up many times a night.
They were genuinely having fun. It was good to be on the other side of learning at least once, especially with such dedicated students. From what they could tell, de’kirus do have writing skills, but it's nothing he'd remotely recognized. It seemed complex, hard to learn. The little one learned to write his own name, although when the teacher erased the letters and asked him to repeat them, Eri made quite a few grammatical errors.
He began drawing flowers, fruits, and animals. He drew himself, other de'kirus, and a specific one, basically a larger copy of him.
"Who is that?"
"ǝlɔun and ɐdpuɐɹƃ”
"And this one?"
"It's..." He closed his mouth.
The puppy stared at the drawing, the fur above his eyes wrinkled. His lips trembled and, without warning, he opened his mouth and let out a whimper, and another. Eri didn't have a chance to let out a third before Kacchan appeared, pushing them away.
He looked like he was about to tear them apart, but the cub, speaking in their native language, calmed him down. He pointed to the drawing, his eyes brimming with water just like their skin does. Could it be for hydration, just like Tsu-tsu?
He thought about intervening and trying to explain, but Kacchan himself started doing the same, and this seemed to catch Izuku's attention. The blond yelled at the green-haired, who wasn't intimidated and guided them to the safety of the nest.
This practically confirmed Kiri Shimá's theory that the brown substance they gave Och'ako was medicine, even though it was used for opposite purposes. Instead of waking him up, the 'ɹɐƃns' calmed him down a little, enough for him to fall asleep while Izuku washed the cub's face with clean water. Eri ended up left on the farm, calmly observing the fishes.
"Who is it?" he asked, pointing to the drawing.
"Who?" Izuku approached.
“Eri drawing.” The elder de'kiru frowned, quickly dismantling the image with his own feet.
“Diana. Not here.” And she turned her attention back to the burrow that sheltered the family.
A lost family member, then? Losing a cub or a pack leader would explain Kacchan's overprotectiveness and why everything seems so quiet. He prayed softly for their souls, hoping they had found glory in the afterlife.
Although it seemed counterintuitive, after waking up, Kacchan began to draw. There was another drawing of a being similar to him, and even though Kiri was afraid it might remind him of their deads, curiosity got the better of him.
The female in the drawing was depicted as pregnant, and a male was added nearby. It appears that the adults had short fur and the juveniles had long fur, considering that Diana and Eri kept theirs long. Perhaps this helped them with camouflage.
Kiri shimá even drew his own family, even if it was just the basics to help Kacchan understand better. The Riòts maintained a complex social system, and Kiri Shimá had two fathers, three mothers, and more than five siblings within his clan. Biologically, however, there were only three of them.
Kacchan seemed to understand that he's a cub, not a baby, which is a big breakthrough. Maybe that would explain how old his cub is. He seemed to stop understanding when he tried to extend the explanation to the de'kirus.
He understands, he also struggled to learn to downplay the titles in his family. That is, his biological mother, her sister, and his pup mentor were called Fu’la, Fu’ma, and Fu’ga; his biological father and his cub mentor were Fa’lu and Fa’gu. Commun is a limiting language for explaining the complexity of relationships.
The cub even called them both "mama," which amused him. He also called both his biologist parents "mama" when he entered the commun class. This, for some reason, made the blond boy release a burst of energy, panting and clutching his stomach as if he were ill. But as quickly as it appeared, the phenomenon disappeared.
“Not Mama. ɹǝɥʇo baby.”
He exchanged a glance with the teacher who, thankfully, heard the statement. They both turned to look at Izuku, watching her remove small bits of dirt from the fur of the younger de'kiru. It looked as grown up as Kacchan.
Maybe they kept the oldest cub in the family for a long time, considering Izuku's size. This means that either there is no mother (which, for mammals, means dead) or Kacchan himself is her. But no, Kacchan is a cub too.
What followed was like a horror show. The depicted solar system was very different, with many more planets than a single star usually holds. A large structure, a fighter ship, aliens that could be Chihaks or Pseudo-Dahiuuks, enormous in comparison to the three.
The drawing of the three of them in the sea came out blurry, and he understands that. Mammals get along relatively well with water, but they have no adaptations for swimming. Heavy bodies, thin fingers, a ribcage not large enough for the lungs that holding their breath would require. It was a true miracle that the three of them made it to the beach.
The implications of the drawings were like a punch to the gut. Trafficking in intelligent beings, probably from a forbidden dead zone, and for what? The little girl's scars suddenly seemed too symmetrical. Blood, marrow, hair, keratin, bones; all of that used to be sold on the black market when it came to…
Deathwolders. The three cubs in front him are deathwolders without a doubt. How else would they survive the fall in such a battered capsule, or hunt so well? An exchange of glances with Xolto was enough to understand the scale of the problem. They weren't from a registered planet, they weren't from that planet. How many were there, half a million systems of nine planets around the known universe? That's if he didn't count the unknown area.
They are a temporarily extinct species.
Yida carefully woke him up in the middle of the night, along with Yaomomo, to warn him that something had startled Kacchan Katsuki. It was still dark outside and Yida wouldn't be able to see anything, but Yaomomo didn't rely on colors, and Kiri Shimá himself is a crepuscular person.
He was fast and they almost lost his trail, but the smell of testosterone and sodium was accentuated by a bitter odor, and they caught up with him rubbing berries on his body. Hunting tactic, definitely.
After nearly being stabbed by the young human, he surprised them by revealing that he heard something. None of them had heard it, only Girou perhaps, but not while sleeping. He doesn't know what an 'ǝuɐldɹıɐ' is, but Katsuki seems frightened.
Yaomomo approached, the two points of light from her screen illuminating the path slightly. Katsuki's pupils shrank, and when she turned to Yida, they widened again. It was incredible; he had never seen pupils do that, and it was probably related to the human walking in the dark, even without a tapetum lucidum. Kiri didn't seem to see perfectly, but it was still much better than Yida's.
Something made him stop, and Katsuki simply pushed them down, forcing them against a bush and grabbing his knife. The smell of his body water worsened, and Kiri Shimá was beginning to think it meant fear, not just exertion.
The blond boy charged toward the danger, but the Riòts were too curious, and that was a good thing. There was a large ship landed on the beach, and pointing a plasma weapon at Katsuki was a red and yellow Pseudo-Dahiuuk. Ryukyu, he recognized her as a friend of his Fa’gu.
She lowered her weapon upon recognizing the students, but Katsuki wasn't so accommodating. He stopped Yaomomo from advancing, murmuring softly that her species was feared by the three humans.
"Katsuki, she came to help."
"Be far!" The blond man pointed the knife at him, and Ryukyu raised her weapon again.
"Ryukyu!" He recognizes that voice.
From inside the pressurized ship, the first to emerge was a large Yellow Riòt, wearing a suit that blended in with his yellow scales. The black markings around his eyes were fainter than those around Kiri Shimá's mouth, and he recognized him instantly.
“Fa’gu!” The older one met his gaze, immediately running to his son.
“Fa’to!” He caught up to him, immediately using his snout to sniff the glands on Kiri Shimá’s neck, the easiest way to gauge his health. “Are you alright? You look too thin! What happened to your scales?”
"I'm fine, Fa'gu, they're growing back." It wasn't a lie, just an exaggeration.
“Rrr.” He heard a low growl and turned around.
Katsuki seemed to have lost focus on Ryukyu, and was now lunging at him. Kiri Shimá, probably in a foolish act, placed himself in front of his father to prevent the blond from reaching his stomach.
“Katsuki, this is my papa!” He was only slightly embarrassed to use the child version after twenty turns(years), but the human wouldn’t recognize dad or father. “They came to help us.”
Even calmed down, Katsuki remained tense, his red eyes focused on each adult who emerged from the ship. Professional heroes he recognized and heroes he didn't, all descending from the ship with communicators, first aid kits, and other emergency items.
Tensely, his Fa’gu asked where the others were, and, still with a hand on Katsuki’s shoulder to discourage him from advancing against the heroes, he said they were in a safe place. They had food, water, shelter, and medicine; no one was seriously injured, and they were all sleeping at the moment. They only went to the beach because Katsuki heard the ship.
They really seemed interested in Katsuki, especially the green and yellow robot, and he couldn't blame them. It was as if the predatory version of a tailless Mashio had babies with a hybrid of a featherless Na'toha'dos and a malnourished Shugia. They would definitely be even more interested when they saw the other two human specimens.
He suddenly realized the mistake of sending Yida - the very person who couldn't see a thing right in front of his face. And with a sinking feeling, he realized that he himself had absolutely no idea how to get to the camp.
"Katsuki, can you guide us to your house?"
"No."
"Katsuki, please."
“Let I alone.”
It was a tremendous effort to convince the blond, especially after he said they would find the house sooner or later. Katsuki as a guide would simply be the most convenient way to do it in the middle of the night.
Katsuki snorted, raised a long finger toward him (probably a 'follow me' gesture), and walked quickly toward the trees. It was clear that this time he wouldn't slow down.
When they finally reached the campsite, mainly following Katsuki's scent and Yaomomo's good sense of direction, Yida was miraculously fine. Everyone seemed to be rushing to get settled, even though none of them had personal items to take with them. The school uniforms were replaceable, and the hero costumes were on the other ship.
A-zawa rushed over to him, greeting Tai Shiró and Ryukyu firmly. Xolto came right behind, sleepy as he helped Yida gather the water filter and the camping tarp. The other students soon approached as well, eager to finally return home.
As he drew closer, he noticed two red eyes staring at him - pupils so dilated they almost glowed. He wondered if those eyes were due to his youth or some mutation. He didn't seem to see as well as the other two.
Izuku appeared in the doorway, hiding him behind her. He would have found it cute before, but now that he knew Izuku was also a cub, it seemed sad. He really didn't want to know what they had gone through to be so paternal before even maturing.
The two humans seemed to be discussing something in their native language, and eventually, Bakugou appeared to stand guard inside the den. Izuku smoothed her clothes and approached, her eyes intensely focused on the two adults. Unlike Eri, neither of the older two liked eye contact.
“I Izuku Midoriya, I a cub.” She extended her hand, slowly recoiling as the two heroes tensed. “I human, I want help, I not home.”
"Kiri, what exactly are they?" Tai asked slowly, as Ryukyu crouched down to talk to Izuku without intimidating her.
“They are of an unknown species. They were trafficked off their planet and ended up here.” He turned his head to the two red-eyed humans, gathering a few items. “They are cubs, harmless. We need to help them.”
His Fa’gu brought his claws to his scales, gently stroking them to comfort him. He counted the heads, gathered the students, and they prepared more lanterns so they could return to the ship.
"Wait!" Izuku shouted, running towards the farm.
She pulled each of the ground birds out of the hole, threw seeds into the septic tank, and gathered up the pieces of metal scattered around the house. She extinguished the fire, forced Kacchan to dig up the meat and abandon it. She came with the jar of 'sugar' and handed it to Och'ako.
The fifteen returned excitedly through the jungle, Katsuki in the lead carrying things and Izuku carrying Eri on her back. They seemed exhausted as they tried to follow the conversation, without much success. It was necessary to simplify things considerably for them to understand anything.
He boarded the ship and was immediately taken to the file for the infirmary. He might not have been particularly injured, but nobody gets lost in the jungle for half period(six days) in perfect health. Kiri Shimá was the most resilient of them, and even he was completely sore.
One of the spaceship's little robots went around distributing dry bath wipes, and he carefully took one, rubbing it on Miana's shell in exchange for her cleaning the scales off his tail. He looked fondly at Izuku, wiping Eri's clay-covered face.
Yes, they would be fine…
Things weren't going well at all. First, Chiyyo receives news that Chota had disappeared almost without a trace, forcing her to stay on standby and search each of the planets near the USJ, the chances of survival diminishing with each trip. And after more than six cycles(days), he appears on the verge of losing an eye, with fungus in the wound, and three savages.
Okay, maybe calling them savages is prejudiced, but that's all she can think of as she watches the yellow creature fighting the cleaning robot. The green one, still with the smaller one under its arm, began to forcibly clean the larger one, receiving growls and attempts to escape.
"What exactly did they put in your eye?"
"I have no idea."
“You let unknown natives drip a mysterious liquid into an open wound?”
“Chyyo, you have no idea of the strength behind those skinny arms.” He adjusted the feathers on his neck with his beak, clearly embarrassed. “I think they came from a planet with a high P.I.N and above-average gravity, because even the pup can immobilize us.”
"You know they dripped mold on your wound, right?"
“That was three cycles ago."
Indeed, however contradictory it might have seemed, the fungus appeared to feed more on bacteria than on multicellular cells. It was still causing damage, leaving the area acidic and far more necrotic than a simple antibacterial agent would have. But without access to that medication, she didn't think he would have survived until rescue. They were smart kids; of that, she could be certain.
"Okay, I'll make sure they're alright." Deathworlders or not, they were children, and she wasn't comfortable with their scars.
The other cubs weren't in as bad shape as she'd expected. To be honest, she'd reserved a bed just for the corpses, but thankfully Tenki and Och'ako were the most injured. Yida's paw received a proper splint, Och'ako received a keratin dressing and glucose serum to increase her weight, and Tenki was put to sleep to give his brain a chance to recover properly. The others fared well with oral medication and simple dressings.
“Could you come here, my dear?” She slid over to the green human, who seemed to be the most polite. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Chyyo, they don’t speak commun.” A-zawa murmured. “Izuku, Chyyo wants to see if you got hurt..”
"I not hurt and I not sick."
"She'll see it."
After a little more persuasion, she (according to A-zawa, even though the Erraseer seemed unsure about it) finally stood up, placed the smaller human in the other's arms, and followed. She looked around with jovial curiosity, especially at her. Chiyyo understands, Shurozos are a rare species, and she has been alive for over six hundred rings. Her armor is particularly exquisite compared to that of the young one in the class.
She guided her to the evaluation robot, gently explaining its different functions. The AI it controlled would perform an emergency scan so she could initially focus on the most serious problems, measuring glucose, bleeding, pathogens, and other factors. It only needed blood, saliva, access to skin, and a breath sample.
Just a moment after the machine began analyzing, it started triggering alarm after alarm, exposing dangerous situations. Chiyyo and A-zawa rushed around the child in alarm, barely able to read the alarming results.
Intradermal hemorrhages. A missing organ and its corresponding scar. Tumors all over her body. Signs of concentrated plasma. So much bacteria that she could be patient zero for at least two epidemics. Entire patches of skin were missing, and at least one foreign object lodged somewhere in her back.
It didn't seem possible; it was a dead person walking. And when she looked at the child on the verge of death, those large eyes were… curious?
Maybe it was a misunderstanding; there was no corresponding calibration. Her experience as an interspecies doctor assured her that they were large primates, classic four-limbed vertebrates. Mammals, even if she couldn't say which class without thorough investigation. The teeth and eye position told her they were opportunistic, eating almost anything, and the agile fingers and accounts made them creators of complex tools. Social, strong, fast, and dominant. She actually knows few species that fit that mold, and none are deathworlders.
Handing a mask to A-zawa, she decided to give the species the benefit of the doubt, beginning a manual examination. A-zawa, as well as N1ght3y3, agreed to begin the registration for analysis of the new species.
“Day thirty-eight of the fortieth turn P.W.Ꜵƒ. Rescue ship series 0359 model 71-74. Beginning of medical documentation of new sentient specimens, with the three pillars confirmed and limited communication.” She commented, putting on her glove while N1ght3y3 typed fervently in the background. “Sex unknown, age unknown. The individual self-identifies as a cub. According to testimonies from the species, they were trafficked off their home planet. This specimen, which calls herself “IZUKU”, is the first of three specimens to be analyzed.”
Speaking slowly seemed to calm Izuku down, giving him further confirmation of how sociable the species is. She began by taking the listening device and placing it on the young woman's chest area. With a little insistence, she finally removed her clothes, revealing developed nipples, vestigial hair, and more strange markings. She moved the device around the area, finally getting the best sound in the middle of her chest.
“It seems to have a two-chambered heart, two pulses per beat, I don’t know how many there are in the body.” She connected the device, making the heart pulses appear on the computer. “Mammalian, probably placental.”
Chiyyo excused herself and ran her sensory gloves over Izuku's chest and abdomen. They possessed an internal skeleton; she could feel ribs close to the skin, and a hard plate prevented her from pressing her fingers against her heart. Her chest expanded with breathing, so she had an internal lung. There was no pouch, so she was either male or not a marsupial.
She could feel the organs working in the abdomen, possibly the digestive system, but her echolocation wasn't accurate with newly discovered bodies, so she would use the intra-locator later. For now, she focused on the face.
“Two eyes with abundant sclera, facing forward; they follow the movement of the room, including stationary objects. Green iris and round pupil.” She pointed the flashlight, startled when the green filled her implant. “Witnesses report good night vision, despite the specimen not possessing a tapetum lucidum. The pupil seems to shrink to the size of a spek(two millimeters) in reaction to light, constantly dilating and expanding. It seems to have crepuscular habits, hunting in any environment.”
She moved on to the nose. Two small openings, cartilaginous structure underneath. It seemed to have hard bones under the skin, but there was a strange deviation. She would need to check the other two to confirm, but it seemed broken. And judging by the lack of reaction to pain, it had been like that for a while. Strangely, there was more hair inside the nose than outside, probably for filtering.
Her lips were full and horizontally symmetrical in shape, but the upper and lower ones were different. A simple touch was enough to make her open her mouth as wide as possible, likely conditioned by healers from their planet.
“It has seven types of teeth, symmetrically distributed above and below, on both sides of the mouth, totaling 28. Some seem to cut and others to crush, confirming the witnesses' report about an omnivorous diet.” She used blunt tweezers to gently hold the tongue. “A particularly muscular and heavy tongue, probably aids in speech. When stretched out, it extends about two-thirds of the way out of the mouth, not reaching the nose or the tip of the chin.”
She was almost startled when a liquid squirted onto her face as soon as she pressed the base of her tongue against it. It didn't seem voluntary, and despite the resemblance, it didn't seem like poison either. The pH of saliva is more acidic than she's used to dealing with. The presence of opiorphin was what surprised her.
“The saliva is slightly acidic and has a relatively high amount of opiorphin. That amount would leave the mouth numb, but she is completely sensitive. She’s probably immune to those analgesics.” She pushed the tongue down, seeing small fleshy lumps at the back of her throat. “He has glands, perhaps? Just behind the last teeth…”
A disturbing noise was the only warning before her tongue was thrust out of her mouth, Izuku's hand trying to stop the liquid from spilling out. A little splattered onto her branch, and she watched in horror as the piece began to lose color, a wisp of smoke rising as the top layer began to crumble.
She might not feel pain, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have stupid survival instincts. She immediately shook the branch, the substance (which was dripping from both her and Izuku's hands) hitting the metal. The ship's emergency alarm sounded, identifying the metal vapor as hydrogen.
She was tempted to stop the child from maintaining contact, but despite the discomfort, the girl seemed completely unaffected. She simply spat out acid, accidentally, and appeared more bothered by the smell than by the flesh being digested. She looked at Aizawa in exasperation.
What has she gotten herself into?
Hydrochloric acid. The child simply vomited the most corrosive hydrochloric acid known, implying that she has some kind of stockpile of it inside her.
After a short quarantine, isolating the area, and giving the child a particularly long bath, she decided to switch to intra-locator sonar. The thought of the acid stockpile wouldn't leave her mind, so the first thing she did was check the organs.
All the non-sensory organs seemed to be clustered together, likely an area that sustains little impact. There was only one heart, but she was surprised by the pair of lungs working in unison. How much air did they need to require two such massive pairs? Chyyo wondered how long they could hold their breath. In fact, this made her realize they were a species built for running; though how they managed to run with legs that made up a third of their bodies, she didn't know.
Some glands, scattered organs whose purpose she can only guess at. She's 90% sure she's located the stomach, because it was the first thing connected to the trachea. Either the acid was in the lungs, or it was part of their digestion. What kind of things do they eat to need such a dangerous mechanism to break down food? If that thing ruptured, it would be certain death. She's not even sure how the trachea remains intact after the demonstration.
They only had one stomach, but she wasn't sure if the acid was for digesting cellulose or not. Two long intestines, perhaps to get the most out of the food. Some accessory organs whose purpose she could only imagine. One of them, however, had a twin pair, and she wondered what it was for. Perhaps it was two uteruses, despite the thinness of the opening? An alternative marsupial branch, or a vestigial uterus? The sex of the child really confused her.
The only thing more difficult to deal with than the acid was asking Izuku to take off her lower clothing. Definitely a social norm, since she agreed when Chiyyo lifted the curtain between her and the assistants. It would be really difficult to get clear images with extra skin and hair confusing her.
They were… strange organs. Her species reproduces asexually, so she has no taboos about it; however, they were still surprising, just like the other areas of the body. She tried to note down as much as possible to compare with the others before moving on to the head.
"She has a large brain in comparison to her skull, symmetrical and connected to a smaller brain. A pair of eyes and several glands. Now, we will move on to the bones."
Adjusting the sonar settings, she was able to see the skeleton of 206 bones. It was complex, and the species likely possessed considerable flexibility. As she got closer, however, she began to feel uncomfortable.
Arthritis. The child's fingers had arthritis that she usually only finds in elderly mammals. Looking closely, she notices how crooked they are. It must cause terrible pain. And those aren't the only fractures.
A bone near the elbow is cracked, as are three bones in the foot. Two ribs are simply broken and appear to have healed crookedly. The nasal bone, as she suspected, is misaligned. With a shudder, she recalled the initial assessment and moved on to check the back.
Plasma, those were definitely plasma gun scars. She'd seen so many she'd lost count, but never so perfectly healed. She either found them on corpses or amputated limbs, and they were always third- and fourth-degree burns. These didn't seem to have reached beyond the second layer of skin.
There was a protrusion, almost like a parasite, right behind the left collarbone. It was a bullet. Despite respecting the child's privacy, she needed Aizawa to confirm what the small sphere lodged beneath a pinkish scar actually was.
How did that bullet not go through her? It looked like it was made of metal or rigid plastic, and was probably meant to stun shelled species. What cowardice to do that to a defenseless species, let alone a child. Aizawa seemed to agree with that opinion, looking grim as he ran his wing over the swelling.
"Take photos of everything. We need to open a criminal investigation into this case."
And so she did. It was bad enough knowing they had been trafficked, but this? With each new scar, she began to realize they had probably been victims of experiments. The skin removed from her arms had healed perfectly, likely for a biopsy. She only wondered where the missing organ had gone; there were adhesions indicative of surgery. She really wanted to be able to speak the same language as them.
She made sure to get a new hospital gown for Izuku, as well as a small pair of sandals. After that, she asked her to bring the youngest human. A-zawa told her that he was identified as "baby", and his name is Eri. He's the best of them at commun, even knowing how to write his own name.
Izuku didn't leave him alone, though. He seemed never to, and she figured out how to deal with it. Unlike her, Eri only wore one layer of clothing, so the change into a hospital gown happened much sooner.
He wasn't very different from his older counterpart, but he lacked the blemishes that the computer had identified as tumors. In fact, the skin appeared almost immaculate, with few hairs and blemishes (apart from the scars).
Same stomach rumbling, same heartbeat. The chest area seemed slightly larger, but she wasn't sure if that was just a normal species variation or indicative of something. The face, however, was what changed the most.
His nose was smaller, with the hairs above his eyes as light as the rest. She moved closer to his eyes, noticing that his red pupils seemed to tremble slightly. It was strange; Izuku's pupils seemed to move completely voluntarily. She only understood the problem when she turned on the flashlight.
"No!" Eri screamed, closing his eyes tightly.
Izuku jumped to her feet, reaching him and running her fingers through his hair. Eri's eyes seemed to tremble even more, his pupils tiny as small tears welled up in them. Izuku turned to him, silent as she thought about what to say.
"Light hurts Eri." Izuku said once the shock had passed.
"How?"
“Sun hurts my skin. Light hurts my eyes. I came sick from mother.” Eri commented, clearly struggling to find the right word. “ɯsıuıqlɐ.”
So it really is a mutation. Albinism, probably? She's never encountered oculocutaneous albinism in deathwolders; it's rare for them to be able to adapt so well to such a challenging world.
“No light, sorry.” She took his hand, something Izuku did to comfort him. “Can we continue?” They probably have no idea what most of the words mean, but she doesn’t think oversimplifying is beneficial.
She proceeded to check his mouth, but Eri has different teeth. Perhaps a sexual dimorphism, but they look very different. Smaller, more angular, the type of teeth you see in older mammals, not younger ones. One in particular looked strange, as if it had a double structure. You could see a second tooth growing underneath, horizontally.
She preferred to pretend she hadn't seen it, still traumatized by the idea that the acid mechanism was there. The last thing different on her face was a triangular scar above his eyes, but that too had healed. Chyyo preferred to use the sonar on the bones before the organs, wanting to check for more signs of abuse or accidents.
There was a partially healed fracture in one of his arm bones. It wasn't perfectly aligned, but it looked well treated. The other bones looked fine, though, too loose. There were almost fifty more bones than Izuku had, and she began to hope that this was a growth process, not that Izuku had some of her bones stolen.
The skull was truly terrifying. There were teeth embedded in the skull, right above the teeth that had already come out. They were from the same species, so it didn't make sense for him to have extra teeth and her not.
The organs were practically identical, except for two. To begin with, she had the one that had been removed from Izuku. And secondly, she had an extra organ in the center of her abdomen, connected to a tube. She suddenly realized that this was indeed a uterus, which meant that the sexes of both were reversed, as far as she knew. There was a small chance the males carried the young, but it was better to leave that discussion for later.
Strangely, the noisy human who was fighting was the only one who didn't frighten her. Katsuki was the largest of them, and he refused to change his fur outfit for a hospital gown like the other two. He was the least knowledgeable about communication and didn't bother to speak to her.
He had light hair and skin, but he didn't react to light like Eri did. Maybe it was leucism? He also had sharp upper canines, with no other differences between him and Izuku.
The organs were also almost identical to Izuku's, except for the missing organ. The skeleton was also similar, with 206 bones occasionally cracked. Apparently, all three shared the broken arm, although Katsuki's was the worst. The bone was so crooked that it was incredible he could still use that arm, and a scar right on the fracture line told a story that made her very uncomfortable. She didn't know how he would survive an open fracture, so she hoped it was a surgical scar.
There was a fracture in the skull, above the eyes, and it probably affected the vision for quite some time. The chest was the worst. Right above where the heart is, there were flaps of skin as if someone had tried to rip the organ out. The worst scar was above the left nipple, and there was a corresponding (and slightly more irregular) scar on the back. It was thin and rounded.
It looked like it was made by… by a round stun bullet. The same bullet that got stuck in Izuku's shoulder blade. The perfect size to graze, leaving the triangular scar on Eri's forehead.
The idea that they weren't aiming for stunning, but rather execution, was something that left her speechless. They really needed to remove the bullet from Izuku as soon as they had access to other doctors; tracking down the gun would be essential.
With sadness at her core, she dismissed him, watching him join the other three. They conversed loudly in their native tongue, occasionally pointing at something in order to find the word in commun.
She had already become attached, hadn't she?