One Week Ago – U.S.J. Grounds
The chaos had quieted.
What was once a battlefield of broken glass, torn steel, and scorched earth was now swarmed with pro heroes and medical teams. The League of Villains had been repelled—retreating or captured, thanks to the arrival of All Might and the backup heroes who followed close behind. The tide had finally turned.
Smoke lingered in the air like a memory that refused to fade. Sirens wailed. Shoto Aizawa, bloodied and battered, was loaded onto a stretcher. Thirteen was already unconscious, being treated for severe burns. Students stood in clumps, silent and shaken, wrapped in emergency blankets.
Some were crying. Others were numb. None of them were the same.
Todoroki stood tall, arms crossed, silent. Yaoyorozu trembled but held herself together. Iida and Uraraka hovered near Midoriya, who clutched his right arm, bones shattered. Bakugo stood back from the others, his expression unreadable, jaw tight.
They were all there.
Except one.
Yumi's head whipped around, eyes scanning the crowd with increasing desperation. Her fists clenched tight, trembling at her sides.
"Where's Kael?"
Everyone turned.
Her voice cut through the air like a snap of static. The heroes stopped moving. Cementoss froze mid-sentence. Tsuyu blinked, confused. Yumi stepped forward, her voice cracking as she repeated it louder.
"Where's Kael?!"
The realization hit like a weight dropped from the sky. The students looked among themselves. No one had seen him since they'd been scattered across the disaster zones.
"He wasn't in my area," Kirishima said, frowning.
"Same," Ochaco muttered, panic rising in her voice.
"I-I didn't see him at all," Midoriya added, glancing between Iida and Yaoyorozu.
Yumi took off running without warning.
"Wait—Yumi!" Iida called, trying to follow, but she was already gone—sprinting down the debris-littered walkway toward the collapsed mountain zone.
The pro heroes sprang into action.
"Split up!" Midnight barked. "Search every sector! Check for students, civilians—anything!"
Yaoyorozu ran with a flare gun in her hand, panting heavily, scanning the destruction. Something pulled her toward the rocky slope of the Mountain Zone's entrance. A faint sound. A pressure in the air. She followed instinct, vaulting over a ridge of shattered stone—
And froze.
The body lay half-buried in rubble, face-down in the dirt.
Blood soaked the earth.
Tendrils of deep blue shadowlight flickered faintly, barely pulsing.
Kael.
Yaoyorozu stumbled backward, hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened as she took in the rest of the scene.
Next to him—no, around him—was the crumpled, torn body of a Nomu. Its chest had been obliterated. Its limbs bent at impossible angles. Bone protruded through muscle. Its head was twisted nearly backward, jaw slack and smoking from some last brutal blow.
But Kael…
His costume was shredded. His right arm hung uselessly. One leg bent the wrong direction. His face was caked with blood and dirt. His breathing was shallow, ragged, as if every inhale cost him a mile of willpower.
Yaoyorozu turned, hand shaking as she fired the flare.
It lit the sky crimson.
Within seconds, others were arriving—Yumi first, her boots skidding on the stone as she fell to her knees beside Kael, eyes wide with horror.
"Kael," she whispered, reaching out, tear swelling in her eyes.
He didn't respond.
The paramedics rushed in, swarming him. Someone checked his pulse. Another began stabilizing his neck. Comments rang out around them.
"My god…"
"He's not much better off than the Nomu…"
"He—he fought it alone? Look at the damage…"
One pro hero shook their head. "He survived. That's a miracle on its own."
Yumi stood frozen, hands hovering but unable to touch him, afraid to cause more harm. Her heart pounded in her ears.
They'd all been fighting for their lives.
But Kael… Kael had been dying for theirs.
He was loaded onto a stretcher, shadows still flickering weakly around his body, and wheeled toward the exit as fast as they could manage. No one spoke for a moment after he was taken away.
Only the silence remained.
…
The ambulance doors slammed shut.
"Vitals dropping—heart rate erratic!"
"Internal bleeding—he's got multiple collapsed ribs, possible punctured lung!"
"Left femur's fractured in two places—prepping for stabilization now!"
Kael lay on the stretcher in a tangle of dried blood and torn cloth. His face was pale, lips split and bleeding. His body jolted with every bump of the ambulance. An oxygen mask covered his mouth, but even with the forced air, his breathing came in ragged, shallow bursts.
The inside of the vehicle was bathed in red light.
Yumi had ridden in the first few seconds—until the paramedics forced her out to make room. She'd watched the doors close with her hands balled into fists and a scream locked in her throat. The vehicle had sped away into the sunset, leaving only the fading sound of sirens and the copper scent of blood behind.
Inside, Kael's vision flickered. He couldn't tell what was real.
Hands moved over his body, voices blurring in and out. Pressure pressed against his ribs. Cold metal met raw skin.
"He's crashing—dammit, we need to intubate now!"
Someone stabbed an IV into his arm. Another voice barked out a blood type request. His left arm twitched—more out of reflex than awareness. The pain had stopped being sharp. It was dull now. Distant. Like he was slipping under thick ice.
The ceiling lights above him became streaks.
"Hold him steady! Prep for emergency thoracotomy!"
The doors burst open as they reached the trauma wing of Musutafu General. A team of six was already waiting. Two doctors and four trauma nurses immediately took over.
They rushed him down a sterile hallway, the fluorescent lights flickering overhead like fading stars.
Operating Room 3. 10:57 PM.
His costume was cut away. The blood-soaked fibers of what remained were dropped into a bin, leaving deep bruises and torn muscle exposed. A nurse hesitated as she saw the scars already forming—like his body had tried to stitch itself back together mid-fight.
"God…" one of them whispered. "He's just a kid."
The lead surgeon, a woman with a tight ponytail and calm eyes, barked orders without pause. "We're opening him up. Prep thoracic entry, I want clamps and suction ready. Stat."
The ECG monitor beeped unevenly. His pressure was dropping again.
Outside the operating room, a second set of doctors stood ready to assist in case of cardiac arrest. Pro Hero Recovery Girl was en route—but she could only do so much with damage this extensive. They had to keep him alive long enough for her to get there.
11:08 PM.
Bone saw.
Clamp.
Cut.
Blood.
The fight for Kael's life was not won in the arena. It was now being waged beneath cold lights, with steel and skill. Every vein stitched, every broken joint stabilized was a battle in itself.
The damage from the Nomu wasn't ordinary.
Some of the muscle tissue was necrotic. The pattern of trauma suggested not just brute force, but kinetic vibrations—deep internal damage from strikes that carried more than just mass. His organs were bruised, displaced. Several quirk-induced fractures glowed faintly with residual energy.
They'd never seen anything like it.
But none of them stopped.
12:45 AM.
The final sutures were sewn.
The breathing tube was adjusted.
Kael's heart rate stabilized—barely. It still danced on the edge of irregularity, but it held.
The lead surgeon exhaled, stepping back from the table. "He's stable. For now."
They transferred him to recovery. Machines tracked his vitals. Tubes ran into his arms, chest, and sides. A nurse carefully wiped blood from his face.
He looked like a ghost.
One that had refused to leave.
Elsewhere in the hospital…
Yumi sat with her knees drawn up in a waiting room chair, fingers still clenched in the fabric of her pants. Her eyes stared blankly at the floor, hair sticking to her face from dried sweat and tears.
The heroes hadn't said much after they arrived.
They told her he was in surgery. That it would take hours. That they were doing everything they could.
But none of that made the silence hurt less.
Yaoyorozu sat beside her, pale and silent. Todoroki stood near the wall, arms crossed, watching the hallway.
Izuku, in an arm sling, was trying his best to smile even in the dire situation.
A doctor passed.
Yumi sat up. "Is he—?"
"No updates yet," the woman said softly, pausing only a moment before disappearing through the swinging doors.
She sat back.
Her breath trembled.
And in her mind, she kept seeing Kael face down in the dirt, his blood soaking into the ground beneath him… and the body of the monster he killed lying beside him like a warning to the world.
…
The hallway was too quiet.
Every second dragged on like an hour. The cold lighting above flickered slightly, and the wall clock near the reception desk ticked with cruel indifference.
Yumi hadn't moved in a while. Her legs were numb, her fingers clenched so tightly that the knuckles were white. Her phone sat in her lap, untouched. She hadn't checked the time in over an hour. It didn't matter anymore.
She only looked up when a soft voice whispered beside her.
"…Yumi?"
It was Iida. His glasses had been wiped clean three times now, but his eyes remained red behind them. He knelt beside her chair, not sure if he should speak louder.
She blinked slowly. "Hm?"
"You should drink some water." He motioned to a small plastic bottle on the table. "You haven't moved at all."
Yumi looked at it for a second, but said nothing. Instead, her eyes wandered to the doors again—the ones labeled TRAUMA WARD in thick, blue letters.
They hadn't opened in hours.
Todoroki stood near them, his shoulder pressed to the wall, arms folded. He hadn't spoken since they arrived. Yaoyorozu sat nearby, her hands trembling despite the brave face she tried to wear. Kaminari and Jirou were asleep on each other's shoulders, and Tsuyu sat beside them, silent, hugging her knees.
They were just kids.
And Kael was one of them.
And yet…
No one else could have done what he did.
"I found him," Yaoyorozu had whispered earlier, her voice shaking. "I almost didn't… but I saw smoke. And when I got closer—he was just lying there. The Nomu was… already dead. But Kael looked like…"
She didn't finish.
Yumi's fingers flexed weakly at the memory.
That monster—its blood dried black in the dirt. Its body was caved in, twisted like scrap metal. And beside it, Kael. His arms twisted unnaturally. One leg bent at a wrong angle. His chest barely rising. The kind of damage no one should survive.
And yet… he did.
He survived.
But for how long?
The doors finally hissed open.
Everyone stood up at once.
The doctor who stepped through wore a white coat stained with faint splashes of pink. Her eyes were tired, the corners lined with creases of stress. Her hair had once been tied back, but now strands fell across her forehead.
She gave a small smile. Not a triumphant one—but one of cautious relief.
"He made it through surgery."
Half the room let out a breath. Yaoyorozu covered her mouth. Kaminari slumped forward, head in his hands. Tsuyu reached over and squeezed Jirou's hand without saying anything.
Yumi's legs nearly buckled when she stood.
"Can we see him?" she asked, voice dry, but steady.
The doctor hesitated. "He's heavily sedated. Still critical, but stable. We're watching him closely."
"Please," Yumi repeated. "Just for a second."
The woman studied her—then nodded.
Room 217. 3:41 AM.
Machines hummed softly. A monitor beeped in a steady rhythm beside the bed. An IV stand held two bags of fluid, and a narrow tube ran under the sheets to a drain near Kael's side.
He lay there, unmoving.
His face was pale, with a long, faint line of dried blood running from his temple to his jaw. His arms were wrapped and braced, with gauze along his biceps and shoulders. His left leg was raised slightly in a suspension sling, casted tightly. Beneath the sheet, his chest rose with the shallow rhythm of assisted breathing.
Yumi stood in the doorway, unmoving.
She didn't speak. Didn't cry. She just watched him.
Her hands trembled, fingers clenching into fists again. But not from fear. Not anymore.
"I'll come back later," the nurse said softly behind her, giving her the room.
Yumi stepped in.
She walked slowly—each step measured, deliberate. The weight of everything they'd gone through pressed into her like gravity. The quiet beep of the heart monitor was the only sound.
She reached the edge of the bed and sat down in the nearby chair.
Her fingers reached for Kael's hand—bandaged but warm.
"You're here," she whispered.
The mask covered most of his face. But she didn't need to see his eyes to know he was still fighting. Even unconscious, his body refused to quit.
"You idiot…"
A soft laugh escaped her lips, but it cracked with emotion.
"You didn't have to face that thing alone."
She wiped her eyes before they could blur her vision. "We're all okay. You made sure of that. I hate how you did it… but you did."
Yumi leaned forward slightly, her forehead brushing against the edge of his hand.
"I'll stay right here."
Outside the window, the horizon was beginning to pale—gray light breaking the edge of night. The first signs of morning.
But inside, the air held its breath.
And Kael, broken but alive, remained still at the center of it all.
…