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Chapter 62: Dreams, suspicions, & Reports
Cid went over the dream one more time with Yui intentionally slowing down so he could get details as correct as possible. He kept his voice low and as steady as possible, pausing every so often when a piece was particularly emotional. Yui sat on the edge of the bed and listened, with her hand running across his back to comfort him. She didn't interrupt, she only watched and listened, letting him go over it again.
"The part I can't leave," Cid said, "is Claire." Yui's brow scrunched up a little.
"She felt… different from the others." He stared at the sheet, searching for a better word and not finding one. "Not just because she was the last one to fade away. She was different, felt different. And right as it came apart, she tried to say something. I couldn't hear it. No." His mouth tightened. "It was more like I couldn't understand it."
He took a deep breath to calm himself slightly.
"I had a dream just now about it. That's when I woke up earlier." He looked unnerved in a way he usually hid better. "Same ending, but this time I caught the first letter of what she said, at least I think I did."
His voice caught. Yui moved her hand and slid her fingers through his interlocking them.
"It was an L." Cid's remaining hand flexed once around hers. "I don't know why that matters. I thought maybe she was saying, 'I love you.', or something like that."
He had to stop for a second. Yui reached over and lifted the cup from the table, set it against his mouth, and helped him drink. He took two large gulps, then nodded.
"The more I sit with it," he said, looking down at his lap, "the less I think that's what it was."
Yui opened her mouth, but Cid kept going before she could say a word.
"That brings me to something All For One said that connects to it."
He didn't look at her when he repeated it. He said it the way it had been said to him, flat, like he was trying to imitate All For One himself.
"I have been meaning to ask. That night your parents died. Do you actually remember it, or did they only leave you with a version they wanted you to keep and scrub the rest?"
Cid's jaw clenched and released a few times.
"I'm pretty sure he was goading me. Trying to throw me off or something." His thumb dragged once over Yui's knuckles. "But it stuck and the more I think about it… the more it seems possible the HSPC messed with my memories."
Cid's gaze went slightly distant.
"If they did do that…" His voice thinned. "How much of me is even really me. Are the memories I have actually real, or just—"
Before he could spiral any further Yui's hands came up and pinched both of his cheeks hard.
"Ow—ow, ow, ow, ow. What was that for."
She let go, but she didn't move back.
"Do you really think," she said, "that if they still had that kind of control over you, you would even be here?"
Cid froze.
Yui kept going, a little quieter, but not softly. "I'm not saying they didn't mess with anything. Maybe they did. Maybe it was only certain things. But if they had that much control over you, you wouldn't have been able to threaten the Commission into letting you leave. You wouldn't have made it into U.A. You wouldn't have made friends." Her thumb brushed the edge of his jaw. "You wouldn't have met me. None of that happens if they still own you."
Cid sat there stumped at how right she was.
The panic he was feeling lost its grip almost instantly. She was right. If they had the ability to change that much of him like that, he wouldn't be in this bed with her hand on his face.
"…Yeah." He let out a thin breath. "You're right. I was being a little dumb."
Yui made a small hmph.
"As long as you know it, that's fine."
The next second a knock sounded at the door.
The knock came again, shorter this time.
"Come in," Cid said.
The doctor stepped through and shut the door behind him. He was a Middle-aged man with tired, dark circles around his eyes. He had a clipboard already in hand with a stack of papers on it. He glanced at Yui first, then at Cid, and gave a short nod.
"Mr. Kageno. Miss." He stopped at the foot of the bed. "I'm here to go over what happened to you. And how extremely lucky you are to still be alive."
Yui's hand tightened around Cid's.
The doctor continued and didn't dress it up or make things less gruesome.
"As you know your right arm is gone at the shoulder. There wasn't enough left to salvage, it was completely erased. Your right eye is much the same. The socket and the tissue around it took heavy damage while the area directly affected was erased as well." He flipped a page. "There's a puncture through the left side of your torso, just under the ribs. It barely missed your heart, It did not miss the lung however. Luckily it only hit the bottom of it and not higher or you would have drowned in your own blood. Several ribs are broken, some of them displaced. You had internal bleeding that we had to stop more than once. There is so much bruising to your organs we couldn't fully map it."
He looked up only long enough to make sure Cid was still with him.
"On top of that, there's widespread damage to your skin across the following areas, torso, shoulder, neck, face, thighs, and lastly your foot, all from a source we haven't identified. The damage resembles burn lines consistent with Quirk backlash. Severe blood loss. And extreme exhaustion layered over all of it."
The room stayed quiet.
"You came close to dying more than once on the operation table," the doctor said. "If you had a normal constitution, we wouldn't be talking. Your enhanced durability is the only reason you're still with us."
When he finished, Yui had gone pale. Cid looked grim, jaw set, eye on the empty sleeve like he was matching each word to what he could feel.
The doctor exhaled and lowered the clipboard a little.
"As for your Quirk, we have no idea how any of this affected it. No one here ever got a full picture of your abilities, or how they function at max capacity. The hospital would like to run some tests to see—"
"No. I appreciate it, doctor. But it's unnecessary. I have a personal physician who already has my details and my baseline. They can handle it later."
The doctor studied him for a second, then accepted it without a fight.
"Alright." He tucked the clipboard under his arm. "Then I'll get out of your way. Just understand that you need to be careful. Your Quirk isn't going to handle the way it used to so do not use it until your physician clears you."
"Yes sir, thank you for your help. I'll make sure he doesn't." Yui said as she stood and bowed
He nodded once more and left.
The door clicked shut.
Neither of them spoke for a few seconds.
Then Yui turned and reached for the bed controls. She lowered it without looking at him. Her hair had fallen forward over her face.
The mattress eased down until he was no longer sitting up. She climbed in on his good side, careful of the bandages, and laid against him. Cid opened his mouth to ask what she was doing then he heard something.
He heard a small hiccuping sob come from her that she tried to contain and failed. Then another one followed it, and her shoulders started to shake against his chest.
Cid froze there stunned. Then he gently looped his remaining arm around her and pulled her in as much as the injuries would let him and tucked her head under his chin.
He didn't say anything, he just shifted his hand to the back of her head. A heavy sadness filled his chest as Yui continued crying softly into him.