Chapter Text
The bastard wasn’t lying.
The sun wasn’t even up when nurses and Sero barged into his room and began prepping him for his M.R.I. They set him up with a new I.V. drip and shifted him into another stretcher. Then they finally took off the damn heart monitor electrodes as they readied to move him.
Soon he was out the door, down the hall, and tucked into an elevator along with two other nurses and the tall dark-haired man. Sero was giving him his stupid wide smile while talking to the nurses and Bakugou was still too out of it to understand what was said.
The ride felt long before he finally ended up in a darker room with several machines. Several circular pieces were lined along a wall, one of which he was pushed towards and readjusted. Someone put something over his wrist, an odd heavy bag of sorts, and then someone else asked him to bite something soft.
Then suddenly his head was in a metal tube and a voice was telling him not to move. He didn’t really remember much after that, except that he was motionless long enough to fall back asleep. Someone poked his face later and almost made them regret it, but he wasn’t really awake until he was back in his room on the other bed.
“Morning, Sunshine!”
Startled by the booming voice, Bakugou jerked awake to find that indeed the sun had risen and a suspiciously Sero-shaped silhouette hovered above him. Somewhere between a groan and sneer he managed a reply.
“Fuck you.”
“Aren’t you a bright and cheery ray of light! Do you want the good news or bad news first?” When the medic turned, it was almost dazzling as his wide smile caught the sun. Bakugou gave him an unamused glare and Sero gracefully shrugged it off. “Your loss. I’ll let you figure it out.”
“Just spit it out already.” He could feel a phantom throb on the back of his skull as his eyebrow twitched in time.
The doctor deflated some but kept grinning, “Fine… So, there isn’t any lasting damage and you ‘should’ make a full recovery.”
“But?”
“But, there was damage that’s still healing right now, so you can’t be out in the field for a month or two. On top of that, there are some abnormalities that we found when you fell asleep on us this morning. It was troubling because the wrong spots were lighting up and causing irregular vitals.”
“Woah, hold the fuck up. You are telling me that my sleep is fucked up because I hit my head, and on top of that we can’t take new jobs until its better?”
“No, you can’t take new jobs, but we can. You just have to sit back until things go to normal and keep Kaminari company.” The dark-haired medic gave him a threatening smirk as he eyed him from behind a clipboard.
“No, you know I can’t fucking understand half of what he says when he starts talking about the stupid electronics.” Bakugou ran a hand through his butchered hair and winced. “You know I’m the best at retrievals. Is there any way for me to get out faster so we can move on?”
“You aren’t wiggling out of this Bakugou. Oh! Speaking of moving on, the client for the cat treasure is coming up in a week to look at the goods and I have already given them my appraisal of the trinkets.”
“What? Already? Who contacted him?”
“No one. He did a check in because, I quote, ‘something felt off.’ He wanted to come immediately, but I told him that because of your condition, he would need to wait. Got pissed for some reason and kept insisting he come as soon as possible.”
“Impatient bastard… Will I be good enough to meet him in a week?”
“You should, but first we need to run a few tests today. Ready for that catheter to come out?”
“Fuck yes.”
~~
Sweat dripped off his arms as he rose yet again for the thirtieth time to press his chin past the bar. It was the fifth ‘test’ of the day and he was too tired for this shit. Panting, he dropped back to the mat and spread out to breathe.
“What’s wrong, Bakugou? Normally you can knock out a hundred of these easy.” Chest heaving, he gave a quick non-verbal reply that Sero understood before his hand went back to the mat with a thud. “Noted, but hopefully you’ll be back in peak form before the buyer comes. I mean, you are doing great for a guy that was comatose for a week!”
Bakugou looked around at the physical therapy room, glancing between the different equipment and debated what to do next. He hated that he seemed so bent out of shape and weak. Regardless if Sero was going to run more ‘tests’ every day, he was going to be in here every chance he got.
He gave a sigh. Better than being stuck tied down to a bed all day. It also gave him a goal to work on and not go insane focusing on nothing or everything.
With a swift tuck and grunt, Bakugou rolled up to a sit and faced the medic taking notes on his clipboard. “You done grading me?”
Sero looked up and grinned, “For today. Besides, Kiri and Kaminari will be here pretty soon with some of your stuff so you can at least have something to look at other than the tv.” He tossed a water bottle towards the blonde who didn’t even blink as he caught it on reflex.
As he uncapped it and took a swig, Bakugou saw the medic writing again on the clipboard. “Fucking finally. I was getting bored. So, what do I need to work on, doc?”
Tapping his board, Sero played with the pen as he ticked a few things off. “Looks like you lost a little bit of muscle mass, but you can get that back pretty quick with your level of dedication. Reflexes are still good, and so is your hand-to-eye coordination. Your heartrate gets erratic at high stress and your breathing is labored more than I like. Overall, you look good, just gotta build up your strength again which is a relief.”
The blonde opened and closed his fists, testing each arm as he flexed them before stretching them out over his head. “Tch. That’s it?” He moved on to stretching his tense back muscles as he twisted, hearing the satisfying popping of his spine before he moved to the other direction. The look on Sero’s face was priceless as the medic winced at every sound.
“For now. Please stop doing that to your back.” The dark-haired man cringed as the blonde deliberately folded his hands together and cracked all his knuckles in one go. Gritting his teeth in a pained smile, the doctor stood up and pointed towards a door behind him. “I can show you where the shower facilities are if you want?” The adventurer nodded before sighing in relief, empty water bottle in hand.
The running water was heavenly and steam filled the stall as Bakugou enjoyed every minute of the hot shower. His muscles steadily felt more relaxed as he huddled under the flow, taking in all the comforting heat. Trails of grime and sand ran down him.
Remnants of his journey that landed him in this damn hospital.
He ran a hand through his stupidly short hair and silently cursed at himself more than the cut. He should have been more careful getting near that stupid boulder in the first place. Tenderly, he reached behind his head to the slick bandage Sero put over his stitches.
Don’t you dare get these stitches wet, or that bracelet!
The medic’s voice rang in his ears as he finally began washing up before the water started to chill. It was awkward with a plastic bag wrapped around his wrist, but he managed. He hoped that Kiri would have some sort of translation soon that could tell them how to get it off without damaging him or the bracelet’s integrity.
Grumbling, he turned off the blessed water, wishing it had lasted a bit longer as he started toweling himself dry. All in all, he was finally free of sand and sweat for now. Wrapping the white cloth around his hips, he walked out of the shower into the locker area where he saw the pile of his clothes Sero told him about.
He couldn’t help but smirk at the outfit Kiri obviously picked out. A full set of favorites and then some sleep wear for later. Leave it to that red-headed researcher to know which clothes would make him more comfortable in this clean-cut hospital.
Removing the plastic from his wrist, he moved over to the pile and examined the bracelet once again. He poked at it and tenderly pushed and pulled on it, but no sign on where it might open, much to his frustration. A nagging feeling started tugging at the edge of his mind, like something he was missing.
Dropping towel, he began shuffling through the clothes to find what he was looking for.
Bakugou?
Underwear in hand, he froze. He thought he was alone?
Whirling around, he saw no one. Was he hearing things again? Sero’s not going to be happy if he found out.
Quickly, he rushed to put on his clothing before someone really did walk in on him. As he was fastening his belt, he saw a flash of brown out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw it.
Gazing back at him was the regal looking fur ball that invaded his room yesterday. Her honey eyes piercing him sharply like claws as she leisurely spread out across one of the benches. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, an erratic beat like a drummer that couldn’t make up their mind on tempo.
“Ura? How the hell did you get in here?” He hissed as he instinctively clutched his chest. The cat’s ears perked towards him as she let out a chirp before picking herself up and jumping off the bench. The feline turned back towards him and meowed, then trotted over to a door cracked open and squeezed herself through.
He didn’t move, just looked at the fur ball in awe until her head popped back through the door, meowing loudly. Grunting, Bakugou got the hint and gathered his things before following the stupid cat.
“I’m coming. I don’t even know why the fuck I’m following you.” He didn’t even look up from the cat, just kept her in sight as he got lost in his thoughts. The nagging feeling was back, but not as painful as he remembered when series of hieroglyphs ran through his mind.
He talked to Sero about it during one of their tests, but all they could come up with is that the trauma from the fall. Bakugou’s exceptional memory and his immediate exploration of the area must have cemented some of the constant phrases into his subconscious. When the cat was mentioned, the medic could only conclude that it was a trigger for the phrases to come to consciousness.
It was interesting to see what he saw though, so the medic gave him a journal to write down anything that came to mind. Who knew it would happen this soon? Keeping an eye on the cat, he wrote everything flitting by down on the pages.
Before he knew it, they had both made it to the front lobby. Several people were walking about if they weren’t sitting in one of the chairs littered around. A flash of red and blonde caught his attention before he heard their voices.
“Bakuboss!” Kirishima was waving at him from the reception counter. “Sero let you go so early? Oh, and Ura’s here too!” Next to him, Kaminari immediately clutched his satchel to his chest while the red head bent down to pet the chestnut feline.
Giving the cat a distrustful glare, Kaminari piped up. “Bakugou I’m surprised you are even here with the cat after yesterday.”
“I’m not afraid of a stupid cat, Bolt-brain. Anyway, did you bring the videos for me to watch?” The other blonde gave him a quick nod and tapped his bag. “Then let’s head back up to my room. We need the privacy.”
“Roger!” Kiri gave him a bright smile before taking the lead to the elevators. Annoyingly, the cat was on Bakugou’s heels, even hopping onto the metal lift a step behind while sniffing everything. Unfortunately, she gave off a horrible yowl when it started rising up to the third floor, obviously not used to the movement.
Amused, the blonde watched as the feline paced the door, bolting out as soon as it opened. As the trio of guys stepped off, the doors closed and the cat pranced around the metal, hissing and spitting towards it. You would have thought it offended her pristine fur with how ferocious she was growling at the harmless sliding door.
“Guess she didn’t like it?” Kaminari shrugged as the group kept marching towards Bakugou’s room. After a few seconds, the cat’s tirade ended and she rushed back on the blonde’s heels, much to his displeasure. It didn’t last long as they went through his door, and the cat immediately rushed towards the window sill baking in the afternoon light.
Waiting for them was Sero in more casual clothes rather than his white lab coat. “You get lost?”
“No, just sidetracked. Thanks for the clothes. Now I don’t feel like a lab rat.” The medic grinned at him while the other blonde started pulling things out of his bag and setting them up on an unused table. Ura watched with interest from her perch as the technician fiddled with wires and knobs on a box looking thing and occasionally gave out a mew as the others talked.
“Oh, Mina talked to your mom. She’s pissed we didn’t tell her about you sooner. Said after this next runway collection you are required to go to Venice so she can see you.” Kiri ran a hand through his hair and grinned apologetically.
“Shit… That old hag is going to skin me alive. At least tell me I have some time left…” His mother tended to go overboard when something serious happens. Usually the routine was her smacking him a few times, squeezing him to death in some sort of hug and then berating him for several more hours. This would be no exception.
“Oh no, you don’t understand. She wants to see all of us, and the event is over in a couple weeks.” The resigned look on Kiri’s face said it all. Her ‘motherly’ tendencies had reflected onto the squad several times before and everyone knew to be terrified of her. On the flip side, she was also the most supportive of them and often helped when she could. One time, she dropped several grand on Kaminari when his computer fried during a big expedition and didn’t bat one eyelash. She even got it insured!
Bakugou had a pretty good idea why she wanted to see all of them and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Correction, she’s going to fucking murder the whole crew. We have fourteen days to get paid and sort out our fucking funerals. For now, I wanna sort through that footage.”
Kaminari planted himself in front of his set up and beckoned the blonde over, “It’s almost up, just finishing the last update. I had three people try to hack me in the last week and it’s really starting to piss me off, but I think I perfected this last firewall.” The tech plugged in a goofy-looking duck thumb drive and suddenly several files popped up along the screen.
He quickly clicked on the one time-stamped for the day of the discovery. The media player opened and the screen turned black for a second until the boot-up screen they see in the helmets appeared. A second screened opened in the corner, a fraction of the size, but it looked like the H.U.D. camera that the operators see inside the helmet. The main screen was the outer camera fitted on the crest of the helmet.
A clear, “Testing, one, two, fuck” was captured on the audio and the fun began. Both blondes went through the first bit fast until they hit the part where communications started getting weird.
“Right here is where I lost you. Just before you get to the giant rock.” Kaminari marked the feed with a note as Bakugou nodded in affirmation. Fast forwarding some, they got to the part where he fell, “Here is where you cracked your skull open. The camera picked up a lot of floating dust when we switched to night vision, but not much else.”
“What about when I woke up and was looking around?” Bakugou crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair.
“That’s the weird part,” Kaminari fast-forwarded to him exploring the main room until he stoped and looked at an empty pedestal. “Here, you are obviously studying something but there is legit nothing there. And here’s the part where you get spooked the first time, but there isn’t any odd audio at all.”
Bakugou gritted his teeth, “I don’t understand. I saw statues of green-looking cats with amber eyes. I mean, I’m not fucking sure how I hallucinated all of that.”
“Brains are weird, dude. I mean once your flashlight went up there was a shit-ton of dust, so maybe the light was playing tricks on you? Either that or you were seeing ghosts.” The tech shrugged as the explorer fixed his eyes onto the screen. He knew what he saw. He remembered in vivid detail. So, why wasn’t there proof?
They kept going through the feed until finally the golden statue was in view, just how he remembered it. Kiri peeked in and pointed, “I’m actually really proud of you for figuring out that riddle, Bakubro. I was stumped until I watched you solve it.”
“Guess you nearly had a heart attack when I did too?” The adventurer grimaced at the memory. He had close calls in the past, but this one would have been by far the worst. Injured and trapped in a lost memory of a temple with no way to get out or call for help.
“Hell, yes! As soon as I realized the stupid riddle you were this close to setting it off! I had to pause and breathe for a few minutes before I could keep watching, looked like you did too.” The red-head clutched his chest in mock pain as he sighed.
The video kept going, speeding up at times and slowing when something caught their eye until finally they reached the part where he finds the bracelet encircled by a mummified cat. Ura had forgone her sun-drenched window in favor for pets in Kiri’s lap. From his perch on the bed, Sero finally spoke up. “This is the part where you became really delirious and it gets weirder afterwards.”
Bakugou’s eyebrow twitched upwards as he intently watched. This part of his memory was fuzzy and he definitely would like the clarity. On the feed, he could hear himself panting and yelling profanities until he finally tripped. His helmet had a clear view of the statue and its compartment as he remembered blacking out, surrounded by several pairs of eyes. Something on the video made his heart nearly stop as a sudden realization hit him.
“Stop and rewind.” His heart pounded in his ears as Kaminari followed his instruction. “Slow down as I fall.” Following the video, he pointed to the statue. “What do you see in the compartment?”
The other blonde squinted at the statue as did the others and zoomed in for a closer look. “I don’t see anything, Bakugou.”
“Same here,” responded Kiri and Sero in unison.
“Exactly.” His voice was shaky, but the others looked at him in confusion. “Where the fuck is the mummy cat?” All eyes grew wide.
The tech fetched the image of the compartment from several minutes before and compared it to the one in the current frame and repeatedly watched in slow motion.
“Oh holy shit. It’s not there. Maybe it fell out?” Hurriedly, he scoured the next few frames for any sign of it on the ground and finding none, turned back towards Bakugou with a look of terror. “Are you cursed by the mummy cat?”
“You’re idiots.”
Sero threw a couple tongue pressers at the two blondes and red-head. Bakugou flicked his back at the medic, “Excuse me? The fuck you say?”
The dark-haired one gave him a droll stare. “You know that once old corpses hit air they can disintegrate, right? That’s probably what happened to the cat, so don’t go on some witch hunt yet. It’s grave-robbing 101, not some superstition.”
Snarling, Bakugou conceded, “Fine, we’re jumping to conclusions. Just keep going.” He motioned towards the screen and the tech obliged, still somewhat jumpy. “I want to see what happened after I blacked out.”
“Blacked out?” Sero jumped from the bed towards the group huddled near the screen. “That doesn’t explain the next part of the video. Kaminari pull up vitals.” Bakugou gave him a wary look as a set of displays popped up along the bottom. “Here it does read as unconscious… but…”
The blonde could only watch in shock as the video continued. He couldn’t hear the others anymore as his focus honed into the screen.
The camera tilted up as it rose off the ground, then in front of it, he could see his own hands. They were clenching and unclenching repeatedly and then splaying out, like he was observing them.
Then the camera spun around until it faced the wall opposite of the statue. Funny, he never actually took a decent look at it until now. On the screen, he could make out another cat motif. Then he spoke.
The words coming through the screen were in his voice… but not his language.
They were a mixture of guttural and fluid, soft and harsh. Kiri made several notes of his own as the words kept coming over the speakers.
It was mesmerizing, but even more so as the team watched Bakugou’s gloved hand with the bracelet hover over the cat motif. Gently, he pressed its fangs and watched as a hole opened where its mouth was. Reaching in much to the group’s horror, something clicked as his arm disappeared to his elbow.
Then the wall began to open seamlessly.
With some unknown confidence, Bakugou strode into the newly-revealed room. It was decently sized from the camera’s point of view with two pillars in the center, forming a gate of sorts. No hesitation was shown in his steps as he made his way through the arch onto a circular tile shape with the same cat motif etched into it.
This one had an ankh on its forehead, which he watched himself kneel down and press firmly. They heard the clicking sound and then grating as stone grinded against stone. Then suddenly the camera started vibrating as dust from the ceiling began falling. Or was it sand?
The answer came quickly enough as it became evident that Bakugou rose and sand fell all around him as a hole opened in the ceiling. The camera pointed up. The group could see the stars glinting above as sand cascaded around him in a grainy waterfall.
Then as quickly as it happened, it stopped.
Surrounded by sand, he stood in the open night air. He was free of the temple.
But had no memory of actually doing it. There was no way he could have even known what to do, much less navigate through it that quickly in his state.
At least not until he tripped once again and helmet met the sand. The rest of the night was a blur, but he recalls at least getting on the hoverboard like in the feed. He watched as his concerned friends rushed towards him and Mina shouting to get the helmet off.
Finally, the video ended.
The only sound Bakugou could hear was white noise as he took in the new information. He attempted to control his rapid breathing as the room suddenly didn’t have enough air. “H-how?” Colors blurred as his heartbeat pounded in his head, an echo of pain lashing from his skull.
“BAKUGOU!”
He didn’t know who shouted, or even how he ended up on the floor. The first thing to register was the dumb cat face to face with him when he opened his eyes. Next were a couple pairs of hands lifting him and then a cushion below him as someone prodded his wrist.
Groaning, he waited until the room stopped spinning while someone, most likely Sero, called out, “His pulse is just really high, we probably over did it in therapy and then the sensory overload of the video didn’t help.” Then the voice moved closer, “Bakugou, just take steady breaths and when you’re ready, you can talk to us.”
He did his best to do what he was told and the thrum of chatter in the background waned as he focused on his breathing. He felt someone shift on his bed as he strained to take deep breaths. Then something touched his face.
He growled with clamped teeth while his eyes snapped open to find the cat in his face once again. One of its paws was raised while the other guys were talking around the foot of his bed. The fur ball meowed loudly in his face before bapping him once more on the forehead.
It was like an electric shock went through his body, then a comfortable warmth, before finally resting on a calming cool feeling traveling from his head to his toes. He felt all his muscles relax and a giant pressure on his chest lifted. The world finally stilled and his body felt weightless as he could finally breathe.