Chapter Text
Deku was nervous. Well, he was usually nervous. He was a nervous person by birth. If one looked up a picture of nervous in the dictionary, even he wouldn’t be shocked to see his own awkward face plastered all over it. But this time he was nervous for a specific reason.
His arm was broken beyond recognition. Now this seems like it would be enough reason for nervousness. Anyone would wonder if they would ever gain movement in their hands again. But Midoriya was nervous because he now had to face the wrath of none other than Recovery Girl herself who he had, mind you, just visited 2 days before for chest pains.
She was a wonderfully kind woman but if she opened her door to another beaten up green haired boy she would probably lose it. So yea, Midoriya had any right to be nervous.
He slowly pushed open the door to her office with his good hand and stood with an awkward smile as Recovery Girl looked him over with clear disappointment.
“Do I even need to ask this time shounen?”
“Ah well… My uh.. My arm”, he gestured to the limp purple noodle attached to him, “I kinda panicked a little when Kachaan got thrown into a gutter and wouldn’t get up so I used 100% on the villain but then I crashed into a restaurant’s structural beam and I had to hold it up until the response team arrived. And I’m really really sorry and I promise I’m getting better at handling my quirk but-”
“Midoriya please calm down. I’m not angry”, the old woman hopped out of her chair and gave the boy a healing smooooch before sighing. “Your arm will be alright but I’m actually glad you’re here. I have something I need to discuss with you.”
She gestured for the now confused boy to have a seat before continuing, “It’s about the chest pain you came to me about a few days ago.”
“Oh?” Now he was a whole new type of nervous if the grim look on the nurse’s face was an indicator of the news.
“As you may remember I gave you some Advil, but not before we did a few scans to check for broken ribs.”
She waited for him to nod before continuing.
“Well, I got the results back yesterday but I wanted to double check them so I sent them back in for a more detailed report to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.”
She opened a file that was sitting on her desk to reveal an array of X-ray scans and shuffled through a few before handing one to Midoriya. She pointed to what seemed to be a dark splotch on his right chest area.
“That, my boy, is something called a Heart Shadow. They usually show up in X-rays like this so that’s not the concern. What is concerning is it’s abnormal shape and size.”
A pause.
“An abnormal heart shadow can be caused by a number of things; however, the most common abnormality noted is cardiomegaly. This is essentially an enlarged heart. Cardiomegaly can be caused by a number of problems, such as dilation, ventricular hypertrophy, congestive heart failure, obesity, certain autoimmune disorders, hyperthyroidism, and so on.”
The nurse paused for another moment, letting the information sink in before continuing.
“A shadow on the heart could mean that a blood clot has built up inside the heart. This often happens if you have an abnormal heart rhythm, called Atrial Fibrillation. Essentially, Cardiomegaly can be caused by conditions that cause the heart to pump harder than usual or when the heart muscle is damaged but the most common cause is high blood pressure.”
Pause.
The question was unasked but Midoriya understood what she wanted to know.
“I don’t think I’ve been doing anything to make my blood pressure higher. I keep a strict diet and such so I’m not sure what could have caused this. I’m sorry…”
“Don’t apologize to my boy, it’s probably not your fault. These things can happen. But we do need to figure this out very soon. I’m afraid to be the bearer of bad news but the effect of an enlarged heart on life expectancy depends in part on the underlying cause. But even with treatment, many people have a downhill course. The treatment for an enlarged heart also depends to some extent on its cause. That’s why it is so essential that we get to the bottom of this”
Now that caused a little bit of panic in the green-haired boy.
The air suddenly felt ten times heavier as he asked, shakily, “And what happens if we don’t figure it out?”
Recovery girl sighed deeply, her wrinkles visibly deepening at the action before she answered truthfully, “Most with severe heart disease have a… short life expectancy, usually limited to a few years from when it gets critical. I don’t think it is severe as of yet but we must keep a watch on it.”
The old woman simultaneously pulled out a small bottle of medication and handed it to Midoriya, who simply nodded with a blank expression.
“These are just some painkillers for the arm. I can’t give you a proper diagnosis for the heart shadow right now but I would like to track your symptoms. I would prefer to run a few more tests but we will save that for when your arm is healed. As for the chest pain, how bad is it?”
Midoriya blinked a few times as if shaking himself from thought before looking up to the woman from his seat.
“It’s not that bad right now. It doesn’t interfere with my daily activities that much and when I train I just use muscle relaxing patches if it hurts. Oh Todoroki-kun sometimes acts as a heat or ice pack when I need him too”, he let out an empty chuckle, “And yea, I can try to keep track of how many times it hurts or if it gets more painful or whatever.”
“That’s good. You can also take the Advil for any other pain but if it gets worse please come to me right away. As of now I want you to take your training a little lighter so I will be informing Aizawa of my decision to sit you out of your hero internship for this week.”
That made the teenager’s head snap and eyes go wide, “B-But Recovery Girl! I feel fine I just-”
“No buts young man. This can get very serious very quickly. You’re lucky I’m letting you keep training but I understand that would spur even you to disobey me.”
Embarrassed at the truth of that last statement, Midoriya reluctantly nodded his head.
“Good, now off you go.”
He tried not to make his disappointment too obvious but it was still evident in the way he trudged towards the door.
“Hmm.. I think they are serving katsudon for dinner today”
He turned back to recovery girl with a slight smile. She had already started busying herself with more work but he knew that statement was directed towards him.
“Thank you” he called before finally leaving the office and walking towards the common area where many of his peers were already inhabiting. Before he could even go to grab himself a bowl of the promised katsudon however, he was met with Ochako and Todoroki bombarding him with questions, the former more than the latter.
“Deku-kun! How’s your arm? It’s still wrapped up! Do you want me to grab you a bowl of the katsudon? What did Recovery Girl say? Are you still going to be doing training with us tomorrow?”
“Uraraka I think you need to let Midoriya actually answer your questions” Todoroki mused before looking expectantly at the aforementioned.
“Oh I uh, my arm is doing fine, just needs time to heal” he used his uninjured arm to scratch at the back of his neck. “And thank you for your concern guys but I’m fine! Let’s go sit down.”
“Hey Mido! How’s the arm? I heard you held up a building today thats so manly!” Kirishima had a dopey grin on his face as he approached the table with Kaminari and a scowling bakugo behind him.
“Oh uh, it was nothing really.” Midoriya replied, smiling. That’s the thing with Kirishima, you couldn’t help but smile when you were around him. He had even seen Kachaan grin at some of the stupid things Kaminari and Kirishima did. Speaking of which…
“You don’t give yourself enough credit dude! Plus Bakugo here wouldn’t shut up about how ‘the damn fucking nerd keeps hurting his goddamn fucking fuckity fuck arms’ it was hilarious!” Kaminari broke into a fit of laughter as the person of discussion came up behind him angrily.
“Haah? When? Shut the fuck up!”, the loud blonde yelled before setting off a small explosion.
“Whoops! Later bro!” Kaminari didn’t waste time sprinting out of the common area, Bakugo hot on his tail.
That was Kachaan for you, always so lively. Midoriya smiled to himself giddily before listening in on the conversation Tsuyu, Mina and Ochako were having about an ice cream shop that had recently opened up.
The rest of the evening was spent like normal: eating, studying, and laughing with his friends. But Midoriya knew in the back of his mind what he needed to do. That night when he got back to his dorm he pulled out a blank notepad and his old Smart Watch.
Deku’s Hero Heart Investigation!
He smiled to himself as he drew out a chart which he would fill with information about his heart rate and blood pressure throughout the day along with any events happening during the time. He also programmed the watch to vibrate any time his heart rate was above or below a certain threshold so he wouldn’t accidentally miss abnormalities.
He knew that Recovery Girl was probably going to run tests on him but doing a little research himself would be for the better right? She told him to record symptoms so this was basically a more detailed version of that. After all, more information means a better chance of figuring out what’s wrong!
He felt excitement bubbling up inside him. If he just treated this like an experiment it would be fun. Then it was settled, he would begin bright and early tomorrow.