Chapter Text
Cale was in pain.
Something had gone wrong. His mind was a mess.
‘It hurts…’
He was falling. Cale couldn’t understand what was going on, but a shiver coursed through his veins, clothes wet from the crimson blood.
It was hard to breathe, to think, to move his body. Cale wasn’t able to open his eyes and could only focus on trying to take shallow, careful breaths in order to not anger the pain any further.
But there was no air for him. His ears were ringing.
— I’m sorry, my child. This was the best I could do.
Cale doesn’t remember when he lost consciousness.
When Cale could finally hear again, the first thing he noticed was the unbearable beeping noise right by his ear. It was loud, and his head was spinning with a pounding headache.
“Ugh…”
Every limb was heavy with exhaustion, and he felt a lingering pain in his chest, but it was subdued to a degree so he wasn’t too bothered by it.
‘What the hell…’
Cale tried to open his eyes, but was met with darkness.
‘Where am I...?’
“Where…” He spoke in a raspy voice, but his throat hurt from talking so he immediately closed his dry mouth, instead attempting to regain his vision.
There was a window to his side, moonlight lighting up the area just enough for him to make out his surroundings. The smell of medical supplies filled his mind before he could properly see anything.
‘Wait…’
The smell was familiar. A kind of familiarity that shouldn’t exist in Roan—
Dread settles deep inside his chest. Cale hastily sat up despite the fatigue overtaking his body.
“Ugh…!”
Immediately feeling dizzy by the sudden movement, he clutched his head in his hand while supporting his upper body with his other arm. Blinking away the blurriness, Cale desperately looked around.
Medical supplies.
A modern hospital.
He wasn’t home.
His breathing picked up. Why. Why was he here? Where is here?
Shouldn’t he be waking up in his comfortable bed back at the Henituse estate? Or maybe the Super Rock Villa?
Cale instantly felt around on the covers, missing the three bundles of weights that should be there. He was alone.
Cale hasn't been to a hospital since the apocalypse on Earth. Once the monsters started to invade, the only use hospitals had was the abandoned supplies and machines. Many chose to stay at the shelters, making the hospitals empty.
The beeping noise picked up speed to match his heartbeat while Cale’s breathing turned frantic. He didn’t notice.
How is he back on Earth? He didn’t want to be here. He had no purpose here.
‘Raon… On, Hong.’
Cale needed to go back. He could not leave them.
Unlike the first time Cale woke up somewhere unfamiliar, he now had things to lose. There was no way he could leave them all behind. Not when he found a family, not when every hardship would have finally been over. He had killed the White Star and sealed the God. So why? Why is he here?
His ears started to ring because of the deafening noise, and he felt his heart beating out of chest. Cale could not breathe. He needed to get out of here.
Quickly ignoring the nausea, Cale threw away the blankets and moved up.
“Mmh...!”
Pain exploded in his chest. He was still dizzy, the fast movements not helping him at all. Without thinking of his blurry eyesight, Cale stood up on shaky legs from the bed and tried to rush to the door.
Thud!
“Haa…! Ha…”
With just a few steps, his legs gave out. He had no energy to use, and his breathing would not calm down. Mind still hazy. Cale thinks he heard a crash, but it was too hard to focus. The only thing he could think of was the door right in front of him.
Getting up was challenging since his legs wouldn’t support him, but he finally reached the door and pushed down the handle with his whole body weight. Which to say, wasn’t much.
To Cale’s horror, the door wouldn’t budge.
‘Locked,’ he managed to think.
Panic seeped through him once more. The beeping noise stopped and was replaced with a single, screeching tune, never stopping. Cale attempted to settle his breathing, but it only got worse. He could not see properly, he could not hear properly.
Bumping his head against the door, he tried to prevent himself from falling. The nausea was making his body sway from side to side.
He needed to get out.
With little to no strength left, a familiar sensation flowed through his body, and the door broke with a bang, making Cale land harshly on the cold floor outside the room.
“Argh…” He groaned loudly, the headache exploding with black spots starting to form in his eyesight.
Did he hit his head too? Cale wasn’t sure anymore. He just knew it hurt.
Between his blurry vision, a silhouette appeared.
It was moving.
Moving towards him.
On reflex, just like how he did when the monsters were near back on Earth, Cale stopped breathing, trying to be as quiet as possible. Letting a familiar metallic taste leave his lips and drip to the floor without noticing.
His only focus was on the threatening figure coming closer. He had to get away.
*****
Aizawa had been speaking with Nedzu about 1-A’s Quirk Apprehension Tests while walking to the principal’s office. It was 3 AM, and normally, Aizawa would still be working right now, searching for villains. However, his boss needed to speak with him and called him back to the school as soon as he found an underground hero to cover for him.
It was a hassle and Aizawa still didn’t understand why this couldn’t wait until morning.
The quiet conversation had been interrupted by a sudden notification. Aizawa saw a slight twitch in Nedzu’s whiskers he looked at his phone.
“Movement has been detected in one of the medical rooms.” He spoke with a flat voice. Aizawa stilled.
Not having the time to think about why the rat had a camera installed in a private recovery section, Aizawa immediately started to rush towards Recovery Girl’s Nurse’s Office. The rat jumped onto his shoulders for a ride.
There was only one room of the infirmary being used right now. If the motion detector was telling the truth, the injured boy they had found at the back of the school had woken up, or there was an intruder. While the former option was more believable, it didn’t help the situation. Either way, Aizawa needed to hurry.
Recovery Girl should be sleeping right now. There is no one there to explain the situation to the probably confused young man.
‘Why did he need to wake up in the middle of the night?’
Nearing the infirmary, a loud explosion was heard. Both Aizawa and Nedzu stiffened up, and the hero started running.
Rounding the corner, they saw a body lying on the ground. Breathing hard and injured based on the puddle of blood beneath his head. All of a sudden, the boy froze as his head turned to them. It only took a second before he was frantically pushing himself up, sharp panic in his eyes.
Not wasting another second, Aizawa slid down to his knees and checked him over for injuries. The hero isn’t used to comfort children, usually leaving that to Hizashi. However, his experiences as a hero kicked in and he started speaking in a calm voice in order to not scare the young man any further.
But Cale, whose vision was still partially clouded, could not focus on the man’s words. His shaking body would not respond to him as he helplessly tried to get up. To get away from the stranger.
Cale was confused. He had the Vitality of the Heart, and the World Tree’s dagger was supposed to have helped him.
‘Why? Why can’t I move?’
Gentle hands grabbed his exhausted body and he was helped into a sitting position. It felt suffocating. Cale uselessly tried to pry the hands off of him. After a few moments of struggling, the man seemed to understand he would not give up, and instead brought him close to his chest, holding him tightly.
Closing his eyes shut, the exhaustion came back tenfold. Cale hopelessly fell slack in the man’s arms with a crumbling expression. Realizing he wasn’t in danger, he listened to the man’s heartbeat and breathing, trying his best to match him and calm his panicking mind.
Nedzu watched silently as the Hero held the boy in his arms, slowly getting him to stop fighting back. This young man, who looked so panicked at the sight of them… The moment he gave up on fighting Aizawa, red strands fell on his shoulders, drained of energy to even keep his head up. Nedzu couldn’t help but think he looked younger compared to the pained expression he wore while unconscious.
The principal was quite interested in this mystery man as he observed him intensely. Almost two weeks ago, Midnight and Ectoplasm found a body at the back of the school. It still baffled Nedzu how the cameras and motion detectors had not noticed him earlier. He also wondered how the boy got there in the first place.
However, at that time, Nedzu had to wait with his questions until the redhead would wake up. If he would wake up.
The worrying gash on his chest soaked his odd clothes in blood. It was a critical injury, deep enough to reach his heart, and it was a miracle the young man was still alive. Chiyo’s quirk wouldn’t work with the state he was in, so he needed immediate surgery.
Luckily, the injury had somehow stopped bleeding by the time they reached her office. They all watched with disbelief when the injury began to stitch itself back together. A regeneration quirk, Nedzu understood, and a powerful one too. The youngster survived, but had not woken up even once until now.
Once the blood disappeared and the wound healed, they saw a tattoo directly placed under the scar. It resembled a shield surrounded by wings. Since they didn’t know his age, they couldn’t tell if he was underage or not. Not that it was that big of a concern or priority.
Nedzu glanced into the room beside them. The heart monitor was laying on the ground, a never ending noise piercing his sensitive ears. Moving his gaze to the door that had been slammed open, Nedzu stopped in his tracks, tilting his head.
The handle was melted, and there were scorch marks covering one side of the door.
‘A fire quirk? Did the boy have multiple quirks?’
Nedzu frowned but was also intrigued as he looked back at the teacher and young man. The heavy breathing had gotten quiet.
He could hear quick footsteps behind him and figured it was Recovery Girl who finally arrived at the scene. She must have gotten notified because of the sudden drop in his heartbeat.
Chiyo has been sleeping over at UA to monitor the boy ever since he first appeared. Mostly because of the odd situation and that he was UA’s responsibility for now. They didn’t know yet if he was dangerous or if something else might happen to him despite his healing ability.
When the healer turned the last corner in a hurry, she took in the sight before her.
Aizawa was holding a very still boy in his arms.
Chiyo’s heart had dropped when she woke up to a loud notification from the medical room they were keeping him in. The heart monitor had first shown a concerning increase in heartbeat until it stopped reporting.
She rushed here as soon as she got the notification, and was glad her colleague and boss got here faster. Walking up to the pair, she took notice of the boy’s condition.
There was a puddle of blood beside them and, she caught sight of the red liquid staining the chin and hospital clothes he wore.
‘An internal injury perhaps? Did he agitate the wound despite it being healed?’
The young man looked like he had been in pain the whole time he was unconscious. Only a few times did his facial muscles relax.
Millions of questions took over her mind as the old healer tried to make eye contact with her patient. He was worryingly still, his eyes were empty as he stared straight ahead. Chiyo frowned at the signs of disassociation and tried to get his attention.
“Young man, can you hear me?”
She spoke slowly, getting no reaction in response. The blank stare and unmoving body made her extremely concerned. Looking into those empty, dark eyes, her whole body got chills. An illogical part of her wondered if he was actually alive.
“Young man,” she tried once more, moving her cold hand to his forearm while speaking. “Can you hear—“
She was cut off by a violent flinch from the boy. She immediately removed her hand. Without moving an inch, the reddish-brown eyes looked straight at her. An exhausted expression on his face, yet the eyes shone with something else. Confusion, perhaps.
Cale narrowed his eyes at what he saw. His senses were back to him, but he was too tired to move. However, he could make out the details of a very small woman in front of him. She looked to be even shorter than the dwarfs back in Raon.
‘Roan…’
He let out a small sigh at the thought of his home and closed his eyes. The man holding him was not letting him go, which Cale actually appreciated, stubbornly ignoring the embarrassment. He had been confused and lost. Without thinking, he desperately tried to leave without thinking things through.
After having calmed down, Cale understood his situation better. He was in another world once again… and had woken up in a hospital. These people did not try to hurt him. Cale needed to find a way back to his home as soon as possible, but he would not be able to do that without information. He needed to calm his mind.
Opening his eyes again, he saw that the old lady was still looking at him.
“Young man.” She spoke in a hushed voice. Making eye contact with him the whole time. “Can you hear me?”
Cale nodded in the darkness. She let out a sigh of relief.
“That’s good. Do you think you can speak?” She asked softly. Cale looked at her for a moment, suddenly feeling his dry throat.
“Where… am I?” He spoke in a raspy voice. The previous violent breathing had made it worse, causing Cale to wince.
“You’re at UA, young one.” An unfamiliar voice spoke from his side. That was the first time Cale noticed the… mouse? What.
Cale blinked in disbelief. The two legged rat, who wore a neat suit, just spoke to him. Cale’s mind immediately flew to Mueller, who was a half-blooded rat from the Rat Tribe. He was starting to wonder what kind of world he ended up in.
— What the XXX is that?
Cale flinched from the sudden voice in his head, ignoring the curious gaze of the rat. He suddenly felt very happy at hearing that harsh voice.
— Cale! Can you hear us now?
Super Rock had called out to him.
— Sob! Thank god! We tried to talk to you but you wouldn’t respond… sniff!
Cale felt relieved to hear the voices of his ancient powers. He was worried they didn’t follow him here, but it seems they follow the soul even through dimensions. Just like during the Sealed God’s trail. At least he wasn’t alone anymore.
The tiny old woman broke him out of his thoughts with another question.
“Are you hurt? Do you think you can stand up?”
She once again spoke very gently to Cale. The screeching beeping noise had stopped and he was grateful for the low volume. Weakly, he mumbled; “I’m not hurt…” and answered her second question by trying to stand up.
The man who had been holding him immediately supported him as he finally stood on unstable legs. The dizziness taking over once again.
They quickly moved him to a new room and let him lay down on the bed. The old woman quickly got to work and started to examine him for any injuries.
‘Ah, a doctor.’
“You should have been more careful, young man,” She spoke softly despite her scolding words. “Moving so fast right after you woke up has already injured you further. Even the way you ripped out the IV so roughly made you bleed again. Is there really not anything that hurts?”
Cale looked at the old doctor wrapping his injured arm in a bandage. Well, his previously injured arm. The wound had healed shortly after it started bleeding, but the remaining blood had been concerning and he, therefore, got it wrapped in bandages just in case.
Cale tilted his head. Would they not ask about the quick healing? Perhaps it’s normal in this world.
His chest did hurt from time to time, but his throat was better now that he got water. Cale was still exhausted, but it was bearable, so he shook his head.
“No, ma’am.” He gave a short answer, not having the energy to explain further. Cale ignored the rat’s eyes once more as he looked towards the door. The man who had helped him earlier had gone out of the room and he could hear mumbling behind the door. Was he talking to someone?
“Alright, that’s good. You seem quite exhausted, dearie. Would you like to sleep for a couple of hours?”
The old lady asked him after noticing his tired eyes. Cale was no one to protest and gladly accepted her offer at the chance of getting some sleep. Of course, he won’t let down his guard around these people, but he desperately needed some rest. He had his ancient powers after all, so he should be fine.
“It’s still pretty late, so you can sleep until morning. However, we would like to ask some questions later, dearie. So we’ll wake you up in about two hours. Sounds good?”
Two hours were at least something. Cale doesn’t know what the time was, but figured it could wait. He needed sleep to think clearly now that the Vitality of the Heart wasn’t working properly.
*****
When Tsukauchi got a call from Aizawa telling him their unknown intruder had woken up, he immediately put on his coat and jumped into his car.
The young man who had been seriously injured had broken out of the room in a panic, gotten hurt in the process, and had a hard time calming down. It worried the detective.
The gash on his chest, deep enough to scar his heart, had healed oddly quickly when they first found him, but it proved he most likely was the victim of a crime. Unsure what the boy had gone through, Tsukauchi could understand why he started panicking as soon as he woke up. It was highly possible that he escaped from somewhere and fled to UA in seek for help.
Both him and Nedzu suspected a kidnapping and searched for him in the system, however, they found nothing. Even when they rewinded the cameras at UA, they couldn’t understand how he had gotten there. Nedzu hadn’t noticed there was an open spot away from every cameras until they found the unconscious man. Almost like he had appeared out of nowhere without a logical explanation.
The same boy had also been in a coma for almost two weeks. Tsukauchi went to visit him a few times during the first week to get updated on his condition, the pained expression he wore in his sleep always worrying since the wound had already healed. Recovery Girl was anxious too, because no matter what she did, she could not find what was wrong with him.
Now, Tsukauchi was standing in the medical section and examining the room the red-haired man had first been kept in.
The bed was a mess with small blood stains on the covers, leaving a trail all the way to the entrance. Aizawa explained to him that he had ripped out the IV in a hurry. On the floor was the heart monitor, not broken but it was obvious he had pushed it away while rushing out of the room.
His gaze moved towards the door and saw the most questionable thing in this weird situation. Where a metallic handle should be, a melted mass of metal remained with burn marks on the door.
“Does he have a fire quirk?” He asked while narrowing his eyes.
“We’re not sure. If the fire is a quirk, he would have two.” Aizawa answered with a tired but tense expression. Tsukauchi closed his eyes with a frown. “The regeneration worked quickly. They could be connected to each other,”
So much for the one night nothing happens.
“You will have to wait until he wakes up again,” A familiar voice was heard behind them.
“Recovery Girl-sama. It’s nice to see you again.”
“It has not been too long since you were last here, detective.”
“How is he?” Aizawa asked her, making Recovery Girl sigh heavily.
“He’s stable, and any injury he got has been healed.” She spoke slowly, the urge to sleep creeping up on her. “Healing quirks are extremely rare, and it seems like the boy’s regeneration quirk is quite powerful.”
Aizawa frowned at the thought. From the moment the intruder was found at UA’s grounds, it was obvious he had been a target for villains. Possibly a victim of an attempted murder considering the stab in his heart. Honestly, if the man didn’t have a regeneration quirk, he would’ve most likely been dead by the time they found him.
The healer continued. “He was a bit malnourished and he had no energy left, so I let him sleep.”
“I see, then I guess we’ll have to wait for the interrogation,” Tsukauchi said with only a slight irritation. He was desperate for answers after waiting almost two weeks, but he could understand the boy needed rest. He had probably gone through something traumatic, and pushing for answers would get him nowhere.
“You will not be doing any interrogation any time soon!” Recovery Girl raised her voice at him, causing both the detective and hero to wince. “If you start questioning him immediately, he might relapse and start panicking again.”
“Ah— No, I will only ask him simple questions as a start. Don’t worry, Recovery Girl.” Tsukauchi was quick to correct his mistake. None of them wanted the boy to start panicking again and would need to be careful to not make anything worse. Tsukauchi planned on monitoring his mental condition to see how much he could handle. Years of experience made the detective quite observant.
“When will he wake up?” The teacher beside him asked.
“I told him I would wake him up in about two hours.”
The other teachers would start to show up around 5:30–7:30 before the school day started. It was currently 3:43 AM so they would have time to watch the security footage and prepare. They also understood Chiyo’s decision to wake him up instead of letting him sleep. It would be preferable to get some answers before the morning meeting.
Aizawa wore a grim expression. The boy looked like he was around the 3rd years’ age. Of course, the hero has seen many cases in his career, but it never gets better. He can only imagine the worst.
“He didn’t have any other injuries than the one in his heart, did he?” Aizawa noticed the rat sneaking up from behind Recovery Girl.
“No, Aizawa-san! He was covered in blood and lacked the right nutritions, but any other injuries had already healed as they were not visible!” The rat spoke in a joyful voice, ignoring the uneasy atmosphere.
The principal glanced at the door and looked at the handle once more.
“It’s interesting.” Nedzu further mumbled to himself, but it still made Aizawa’s brow to twitch. “There is nothing in the room for him to use to cause such an explosion.”
“An explosion?” Tsukauchi perked up.
“Yes, Tsukaushi-san! The amount of heat needed to melt the metal used for the handle is approximately 3100 degrees Celsius! In addition, it would take about 30 seconds to melt the metal with such a temperature!” He spoke cheerfully, his words causing the others to stiffen up.
Using so much heat focused at a single place is hard to create. It was more likely he would have burned up the whole door than to only leave a few scorch marks.
“Definitely a heat quirk then.” The detective nodded in understanding.
“He managed to use such a hot fire to only affect the handle? Such a thing needs a lot of concentration, but he wasn’t even in the right state of mind at that time.” Aizawa huffed out, crossing his arms.
“We don’t know what his quirk is yet, Aizawa. Perhaps his quirk only allows him to gather heat in his palms before releasing it.” Recovery Girl shot back with her own remark.
“Like Bakugou..?” The teacher raised an eyebrow, recalling the explosive kid in his new class.
“Ah! The kid with the explosion quirk in your class! What we’ve seen here does remind me of him. He also uses his palms to release explosions, does he not?” Nedzu added.
Tsukauchi let out a sigh. “Are you saying your student has a connection to the boy?” He spoke with slight sarcasm. It was a stretch and he didn’t sound the least serious while saying it.
“There is no reason for them to be connected. Don’t listen to these fools, Tsukauchi-san. Having similar quirks doesn’t have to mean they’re related.” The old healer chimed in, shaking her head at the jokes.
The mood had turned slightly brighter as the heavy feeling was washed away. Nedzu opened his mouth to speak.
“Let’s wait until it’s time to wake him up.”