Chapter 68: Please don't Say that
The next few days passed the same way. Mornings started with Recovery Girl checking on, then healed, his injuries. Then he would head to Gym Gamma, while the class trained, he was forced to sit and finish class work. Halfway through the class Aizawa sent him out to go meet with the school psychiatrist Hound Dog.
His office was quiet, neat, and neatly ordered. It had two soft looking couches and gentle music playing in the background, meant to soothe someone.
During their first session he asked about how he had been feeling about the camp, about having lost an arm, and whether Cid was sleeping well. Cid answered what he felt like and didn't elaborate on anything else, giving him clipped responses like, he was fine, he was getting used to missing his arm, and that he had no issues sleeping due to his treatments with Recovery Girl. That got a laugh from the dog man, but the man could tell while true it was also a deflection.
The following four days were pretty much the same with the only change being Hound Dog. He had stopped pushing with the probing questions and just started talking to cid normaly now, realizing that he wasn't going to get anything from him by pushing.
On the sixth day, that routine broke.
Cid had finished the work Aizawa assigned him. So after looking it over Aizawa told him to keep himself occupied, and went back to watching over the class. With nothing left to do, Cid stayed on the sideline and opened his phone to do some reading. After a while he tuned out all the yelling and explosions from the class training.
Nearby Bakugo was practicing his new move AP shot. He had been trying to perfect it for the past few days. He hit the stone slab that Cementoss created for him with enough force to shatter it finally. The bad part was that it came apart in chunks. The largest of them flew off and skipped across the gym toward the sideline where Cid was sitting.
Cid looked up at the sound of something exploding particularly violently only to see a large piece of concrete flying at him. It was already close to him, with it being broad enough to cover his whole body. He reached for his Quirk casually without getting up, instinctively falling back on his quirk to easily protect him. The concrete shrank rapidly to about half its original size, before a sharp pain shot through his eye.
It hit him like a bolt of lightning that seared through every damaged nerve in his eye then traveled into his brain. It was so bad that he physically recoiled and his hand came up to clench at his face.
A streak of green lightning shot across gym gamma stopping in front of him. Izuku kicked the large stone and it broke into pebbles that harmlessly scattered across the floor. He landed then turned to check on Cid.
"Cid are you ok-" Izuku froze mid sentence as he saw Cid's condition.
He sat curled in on himself slightly and had one hand clamped over his eye. Blood was spilling through his fingers and running down the back of his hand pooling on the floor.
Izuku crossed the distance in a second and stopped beside him. He reached one hand out but stopped short, not quite touching him, afraid that he might cause the pain to get worse. Cid sat there with his jaw clenched tight and his other eye squinted in pain.
Aizawa rushed over, arriving only a moment after Izuku himself. He took in the blood, the pebbles, and Bakugo still standing at the far end with his arm half-raised with a look of shock etched on his face staring at them.
"Midoriya. Get him to Recovery Girl."
"His eye—"
"I see it," Aizawa looked at Cid, and the irritation in his voice dropped. "He'll be fine, it's only Quirk backlash from the strain he put it under. Go ahead and take him to Recovery Girl."
Cid sat on the edge of the bed while Recovery Girl checked the bandages one last time to make sure they were tight enough. Then she leaned back looking Cid in the eye seriously
"Boy. I know the circumstances were bad, but you need to refrain from using your Quirk. All the healing we did to it has been completely undone due to this. The biological aspect that lets it work is still strained past what it can handle. To be honest with you it should be damaged beyond repair, but you're lucky it isn't. Push it again though and the damage may not be repairable, no matter what I do. So no using it for at least three weeks after that, light use only, and even after that if it doesn't hurt. Be careful."
Cid met her gaze and nodded seriously. "Yes, ma'am. I understand."
She studied him a second longer, then nodded. "Good. Now go get some rest. I'll speak with Aizawa. Having you sit there was reckless, and a waste of your time. He can find something else for you to do."
Cid got up and pulled his blazer back on with his hand then left the room, deep in thought.
Later that day, soft orange light drifted through the curtains in Cid's room. The door slowly opened and Yui slipped in, concern written across her face. She was still in her sweat-soaked training clothes and her wet hair was stuck to her neck. Momo had caught her on the way back to the dorms and told her what happened in the Gym earlier.
The second she was fully in, her eyes locked on him, looking him over for injuries. He was asleep on his side with his one arm under the pillow. She could see the bandages covering the side of his head from where she stood.
She crossed the room and crouched beside the bed. Her hand came up under his cheek and carefully brushed his hair back far enough to see his face clearly. The bandages looked the same as when they were done in the hospital. She looked at him for a moment, then sighed sadly and leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek.
"I promise, Cid. We'll find a way to heal you." Her voice stayed low and filled with emotion. "Even if you don't care. I do."
Tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke before wiping them away with the back of her hand. She pulled the blanket back up over his shoulder, tucked him in, and straightened up and walked towards the bathroom to shower, already pulling out her hair tie letting her hair fall loose.
"Stubborn woman," he muttered tiredly. As a small tired smile spread across his face. 'But that's why I love her. She won't take good enough when it comes to me. I wonder… where she…got that.' he thought as he drifted back to sleep.
She heard him mumble something but didn't catch it, when she looked back and saw the small sleepy smile on his face, she smiled gently at him. She thought he was muttering about her in his sleep.
Three weeks later, at the provisional license exam.
Class 1-A had already spilled onto the sidewalk in front of the stadium, dressed in their gym uniforms and were excitedly chatting about the upcoming exams amongst each other. Cid got off the bus last, wearing just plain casual clothes and stopped beside Aizawa, entirely uninterested in getting involved with their over-excitedness.
Kirishima pumped both fists up into the air trying to hype the class up.
"Alright! This is it! Let 'em hear it guys!"
"Plus Ultra!" Most of the class yell
"Plus Ultra!"
The random shout did not come from the group. It came from a tall student in a Shiketsu uniform and had yell the chant with them. His voice was bigger than the rest of the class combined and filled with overflowing energy.
"Plus Ultra! That passion! That fire! U.A. really is something else!"
He was grinning so wide that it looked like it hurt. Then his eyes landed on Cid, and the grin shifted into being even brighter, if that was possible. He bounded over to him eagerly and dropped into a bow so deep that his cap almost came off.
"Cid Kageno! I have followed your work! I must say that I am a huge fan! The conviction it takes to keep standing as a hero after everything you have gone through is truly inspiring! The dedication, the commitment to protecting the innocent, you are an example I fully intend to chase and strive to be like!"
Cid looked at the top of the larger teens head and sweat dropped at his over the top attitude. A few of his classmates had gone quiet as well just staring at the bizarre scene.
"…Thank you." He said awkwardly.
Inasa came up beaming, already nodding like that was exactly the answer he had wanted. "A man of few words! I can respect that! Would you-"
"Inasa!" Another Shiketsu student had caught up, and he did not look impressed. "Do not barge into another school's group like this and harass them. It is unbecoming."
Inasa spun, horrified at himself, and slammed his forehead into the pavement.
"Ahh, I am so sorry! Please accept my apologies!"
Aizawa watched with a tired, thoroughly done look. "That is Inasa Yoarashi. First year at Shiketsu. He had the top score among the recommended applicants for U.A. this year, but declined acceptance."
Midoriya made a strangled noise. "He turned U.A. down? A first year?"
Inasa was still apologizing to the asphalt. Shishikura told him to get up and rejoin the others. He did, still glowing, and waved at Cid on the way past. Cid did not wave back.
"Eraser!"
Ms. Joke crossed the lot like she had been waiting for him the whole time, as a lare smile spread across her face. She stopped in front of Aizawa, then noticed the student standing at his shoulder who had a almost i identical expression on his face as Aizawa's.
"Wow. They really did make two of you." She said turning her attention back to Aizawa. "Shota. You never call. You never write. I'm starting to think you don't love me."
"I don't."
"Acch, so cold! That's why I can't quit you." She threw an arm back at her students. "Class 1-A, meet Ketsubutsu's second year students. Try not to be too hard on them. They're delicate."
One of them stepped out ahead of the rest, hand already out, smile polished.
"Yo im Shindo, We've all been watching U.A. this year. You all have been through a lot, huh"
He went around shaking Midoriya's hand, then Kaminari's, then Jiro's, being extremely friendly. When he reached Cid he was still talkinig and his hand went for cid right one, cloesing on empty air.
Shindo stopped and looked awkwardly at Cid who was just starting at him coldly.
"Ah. My mistake, sorry for bothering you." he said nervously then quickly moving on offereing his hand to Bakugo instead. Bakugo looked at the hand like it had offended him. "Get lost. I'm not here to play friends with some wannabe."
Kirishima winced. "Sorry about him. He doesn't mean it like that."
"No, no." Shindo's smile came back, easy again. "It's fine he just has a strong heart like the rest of you."
Aizawa had already mentally checked out of introductions. "Enough. Go change. The exam starts whether you're ready or not, so don't be late."
The class hurried towards the changing rooms while Cid stayed put next to Aizawa and Mrs.Joke.
"Follow us you'll sit with the pros up in the stands and watch the participants." Aizawa said in his usual tired voice. As he started walking with Cid following at his side.
Mrs.Joke quickly fell into step with Aizawa at his other side as they headed for the entrance.
"By the way Eraser I didn't know you had a kid, you two act so much alike i can see the resemblance." She said holding her chin nodding to her self.
That managed to get a reaction from Cid as he blandly said "Please don't say that around Todoroki, he already has a conspiracy theory problem. I don't need him trying to draw diagrams connecting me to sensei as well."
That actually made Mrs.joke burst out laughing, just imagining the scene of him doing that, made her keel over holding her sides. "Now see Shota that's how you tell a good joke, I didn't think you had it in you kid, whew." She said while wiping tears from her eyes.
'I wish he was joking.' Aizawa thought annoyed.
After that she spent the walk flirting with Aizawa. He would only answer in single clipped one word responses, but she treated every one of them like they were progress.
When they arrived the stands were already starting to fill with pro heroes and staff members alike. The three of them walked over to a more secluded secluded section and Aizawa took a seat where he could see the field fully with Mrs.Joke dropped into the seat right beside him. Cid decided to leave a few seats between himself and them and sat, hand still in his pocket, the empty sleeve resting against his leg.
Mrs.Joke leaned toward Aizawa and kept talking nonstop, while Cid watched the two of them. Then he subtly gave Aizawa a thumbs-up and mouthed good luck.
Aizawa groaned and slid lower in the seat, like he would have taken anything else over this.