Chapter Text
Shortly after the Meta Liberation War.
[Hawks slowly wakes up in a hospital bed, wearing an oxygen mask, covered in bandages.]
[The hospital hallways echo various frantic voices and chaos.]
Hawks: (inner dialogue) I'm still alive? Made it to a hospital...
[A nurse walks into the room with treatment supplies.]
Nurse: Oh, you're finally awake!
Hawks: *raspy voice* Toko...yami...
[He tries to get up, but succumbs to the pain.]
Nurse: Careful! You have major burns all over your body and a new skin graft on your back. Your friend is okay. He was incredibly worried about you, though. You've been in critical care for almost a week... Your throat and vocal cords have also been badly burned from the blast. Here’s a device for you to communicate until your voice recovers.
[She hands him the device.]
Hawks: *robo-voice* Thank you. Were you sent by the Hero Public Safety Commission?
Nurse: No, Central Hospital is currently short-staffed so a lot of hospital workers were transferred here for now - I came over from a branch in Kyushu. This hospital seems to get a lot of heroes coming through here from special assignments. Regarding your own safety, nobody else other than the heroes should know you’re here.
Hawks: (inner dialogue) She's from Kyushu too... *robo-voice* How are the other heroes?
Nurse: A majority of them have been treated and discharged. You might be one of the last ones - along with Endeavor. I know there's a lot going on, but I hope we can put you at ease and prioritize your recovery. I meant to introduce myself earlier - I'm Haruka. I'll be your burn rehabilitation nurse for the remainder of your stay. I specialize in especially intense cases such as yours.
Hawks: *robo-voice* I'm Hawks, from the Hero Public Safety Commission.
Nurse: *chuckles* You're quite famous, you might not need an introduction...
[She sits adjacent to the hospital bed.]
Nurse: It's time to change out your bandages. This might be bit messy, now that you're awake for it... Are you ready?
[He nods. She unwraps a bandage from his forearm and we winces from the pain.]
Hawks: *robo-voice* This is gonna suck!
Nurse: This is a bit counter-intuitive, but the areas that were damaged the least may experience more pain. That's because the nerves in that region survived. Third-degree or fourth-degree burns create so much damage, your tissues just become numb.
Hawks: *robo-voice* So this is the worst part?
Nurse: Theoretically, yes. It all varies person-to-person. People often forget pain is a very psychological phenomenon as well.
Hawks: (inner dialogue) An expert in pain? Messy... but somebody's gotta do it.
Nurse: I have a quirk that will make the pain go away temporarily. Do you want me to use it?
Hawks: *raspy voice* Yes... please...
[She licks a bloodied bandage and her eyes glow blue.]
Hawks: (inner dialogue) The pain's completely gone! But it's a blood-consumption quirk... like Stain and Himiko Toga. Who is this person?
Nurse: This usually shocks people. My quirk lets me access a person’s pain receptors and turn them "off" by a taste of their blood. I can visually see pain receptor activity across the body, like a scan. I find that patients much prefer "turning off" their pain during messy treatments like this. And it keeps everyone lucid compared to other sedatives or strong pain-killers. I can stop and give you some medication instead if you prefer.
Hawks: *raspy voice* No, this is amazing.
[He relaxes as she continues changing his bandages. She hesitates before speaking]
Nurse: You know, I was actually scouted by the HPSC a long time ago, when I was 16 or so. They thought blood-consumption quirks had a predisposition for evil given the emergence of hero-killer Stain and other villains, so I don’t know whether it was recruitment as much as it was surveillance…
Hawks: *robo-voice* Huh... They never mentioned you in their files. I would’ve definitely remembered a blood-consumption quirk.
Nurse: Well... I failed the final combat test... I think they came to find that my quirk was essentially useless compared to the capabilities they were looking for...
[Flashback of Hawks training as a child.]
Nurse: Pain-muting can't kill… nor does it heal. I can’t enforce my will on any of my targets, it's pretty absurd to think I could or would want to. *chuckles* I’m actually really glad I wasn’t selected. I don’t think I want to be a hero or involved in the world of pros. A world dictated by who's wholly innocent or guilty? I could be saving a man from an accident and sending him home, only to have him beat his wife and kids, you know? Not to mention, people commit petty crimes for food, shelter, basic needs… should they be punished for it?
[Flashback of Hawks and his abusive father and his mother pressuring him to steal]
Nurse: *tenses up* But... heroes do a lot of good, of course they do...
Hawks: *robo-voice* I understand what you’re saying - you don’t need to tip-toe around me.
Nurse: (inner dialogue) That's a relief, I spoke way more candidly than I should've... (response) Okay, now I'll need you to undo your gown so I can check the rest of your bandages.
[She undoes all the bandages around his torso and inspects his back.]
Hawks: (inner dialogue) This is very up-close and personal... Then again, she was probably doing this before while I was out...
Nurse: Bear with me, I'm just checking your skin-graft. This is the phase where we check if it has "taken" or been rejected.
Hawks: *robo-voice* Rejected? I don't feel anything right now. Should I be worried?
Nurse: That's still normal. The graft takes a few days to form blood-vessel connections. It's not until a few weeks after when nerves start becoming active and you'll feel sensations again.
[She replaces his bandages and moves above his neck. Face to face, she examines his burns and applies a green salve to a scar on his left cheek.]
Nurse: My parents were both herbalists, so I apply what I learned from them in my medical practice. This salve helped a lot of my patients recover quickly from their burns.
Hawks: (inner dialogue) Finally, this part feels really nice... I can actually enjoy this-
Nurse: Just to warn you, as your skin recovers, you'll begin to feel unbearably itchy. That's completely normal. But, please resist the urge to scratch and apply a thin layer of salve instead.
Hawks: (inner dialogue) So matter-of-fact.
Nurse: Alright! We’re all done for now. Tomorrow, we’ll be doing the same thing. I’ll be stopping "pain-off" now, but the salve should still provide relief.
Hawks: (inner dialogue) So she needs to be in close contact for her quirk to work... you can see it in her eyes.
[Her blue glowing eyes fade to normal and halfway to the door, she turns around.]
Nurse: Oh, is there anything else you need?
Hawks: *robo-voice* No, thank you.
[He subtly glances at her name-tag.]
Nurse: I'll be back tomorrow, hope you get plenty of rest until then.
[She departs.]
Hawks: (inner dialogue) A receptor quirk, huh... Don't see those everyday... And a former HPSC recruit, Haruka Kobayashi.