Work, Work, Work

It was less than 48 hours since the battle against All For One and while that meant for most people things were going back to normal, at least, as normal as they could be with the buildings and infrastructure destroyed, for Sir Nighteye, it meant his paperwork was still in full swing. This part was not something he usually did, but for All For One, he'd make an exception.

The field morgue was still in use and Sir Nighteye displayed his hero license and then waited in the front tent for the appropriate coroner to come. The woman hurried up to him. She had gray skin and brilliant pink spikes for hair with slit eyes. It looked almost like a lizard mutation, albeit of odd colours but there were no other physical differences to her form. "How can I help you, Sir Nighteye?" she asked.

"I believe I can identify a body," he told her.

She simply nodded. She was professional enough not to look relieved. "Do you have a physical description?"

He recalled the photos. "White hair, gold eyes, medium-heavy build and a good suit," Mirai provided the description, aware that the most important points were the last two.

The coroner frowned and her lips pursed. "Anything else?"

"About 210cm tall," Mirai added. "I believe the body belongs to Hisashi Riji," he supplied the name, looking at the tag that was around her neck, searching for her name.

The woman shook her head. "There's no one fitting that description."

Sir Nighteye wanted to say there had to be but he held his tongue. The first responders had said the body was in very bad condition. "I believe he has extensive wounds."

The coroner shook her head again. "There is no one fitting that description," she repeated. "You are welcome to look though."

He frowned, but nodded. The woman moved to the desk and pulled out a guest pass. She handed it to him and Mirai finally got a look at her name. There was nothing suspicious about it. Anchi Shono.

"Thank you Anchi," Sir Nighteye thanked her and then moved through the plastic sheeting to where the bodies were laid out. They were all on stretchers and covered in sheets.

"The ones at the back are unidentified," Anchi told him.

He nodded and moved back. The tent was large, and cold and the stretchers were laid out in lines. Sir Nighteye began at one corner and began working through the corpses. Some had torn and bloody clothes. Some had barely a scratch. Others showed their injuries clearly and the cause of death was obvious, but all of them had heads.

The first responder had said that All For One was missing his head. The group that had given Toshinori first aid had been very clear about that.

He went through each body, one after the other, with a sense of worry growing. All For One was dead. He had to be. Why wasn't his body here?

"Has anyone claimed any of them?" Sir Nighteye asked Anchi who was talking softly at her tablet, writing up one more report on a victim.

"None of the bodies have been released to the families yet," she replied absently.

"Then has anyone taken a body?"

She knew what he meant. Had the government taken one?

"No. These are all victims," she told him. "You can check the identified bodies," Anchi added.

"Hisashi Riji hasn't been identified," Mirai replied. He didn't know all the names but he'd checked that much.

"Then he might still be out there," Anchi gestured vaguely around them. They were still cleaning up.

Sir Nighteye pursed his lips. All For One was not out there. His corpse had been at Toshinori's feet. He felt a tiny slither of worry and squashed it.

"I will check back later," he told the coroner.

Anchi nodded but let him leave.

Mirai took a deep breath as soon as he was back out into the night air. There were still people rushing around, cleaning up and there were flood lights being brought in so the work could continue. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the evidence bag that had been collected last night from where Toshinori had been found.

The small green gem thing glittered. He'd assumed it was something All For One had but couldn't think why the man would be wearing ornamentation. Mirai knew it wasn't Toshinori's. But if All For One's body was missing, then that opened up new possibilities. Whoever had taken All For One's body could have dropped it.

Sir Nighteye sighed and shook his head as he slipped it back into his pocket. It was circumstantial evidence. It proved nothing but it was something he'd remember. Just in case. Now though, he had to go find out which branch of government had taken the 'villain's' body. This was not what he needed before he was scheduled to see Toshinori.

A sidekick's work was never done.

-ted-

Kyudai took several deep breaths as he looked blearily up at the tank. He was exhausted. He'd pulled multi-day shifts before but that was when he was on the verge of a breakthrough. That was when everything he did led to him discovering something new. It was exciting and thrilling. This was just seeing how long he could keep Hisashi's body alive.

It was exciting and thrilling for all the wrong reasons. No one came back from this. The fact that Hisashi still had some function was amazing but over the day, when it became obvious All For One was not just going to die on them, Garaki had taken the time to look up other instances of catastrophic brain injury.

There were survivors. There was even a chicken who lived without its head for quite some time. There were just no records of anyone, or anything being properly functional after such injuries. Sure, some people had lived through brain injuries, very bad ones, but they still had a frontal lobe, parietal lobe, intact occipital lobe and temporal lobe.

Hisashi was still breathing. His medulla hadn't been badly damaged but the motion was so weak that the ventilator connected to the tube in his trachea was doing most of the work of pushing oxygen into his lungs. Garaki had been lucky. So far Hisashi hadn't had any other complications. Or he might have. He couldn't exactly monitor for a stroke but there didn't appear to be anything like that happening, and his heartbeat was strong and steady. The Doctor didn't know how he'd deal with a heart attack. Gigantomachia would probably kill him if he couldn't do anything. The giant man had been pacing for hours, around and around the tube.

He blew out a breath noisily. Only a few of the Healers had been able to do anything for Hisashi. The rest had said that it was impossible. Some had refused to try. It had been harder, every time that happened, to let them go. Gigantomachia hadn't wanted to since they would not help his Lord.

Kyudai let his eyes wander over All For One's floating form. All his minor wounds were healed but half his head was still missing. The surgical mesh was holding in the material that had been collected and the liquid would prevent any infection but there was a very real possibility that this was as good as it got for Hisashi. All his minor wounds were healed but the brain was still gone.

Garaki tapped the controls, bringing up the feed from the in tank camera. He focused on the damage. The area was clean and… it was a bit early to tell but he thought All For One's body was attempting to heal it.

Except it was going to take a long time. It would be better to use his body as the base of a prot- He couldn't think that!

"What is it?" He growled at Gigantomachia, mostly to distract himself from his treasonous thoughts.

The giant had been restless for the last few… since Hisashi had been injured. All he got was a growl in return.

Garaki went back to his workstation to run another simulation. Maybe he could transplant some cranial matter? If he could transplant some bone, Hisashi's body may start healing around it? It was worth researching as something to try. Gigantomachia kept pacing. Kyudai sighed. "Is it Izuku?" he asked.

That got a reaction from the man. Garaki hadn't been expecting one. Although… He nodded to himself making several assumptions. Gigantomachia was Hisashi's bodyguard but All For One had ordered him on occasion to look after Izuku. With Hisashi so badly wounded the bodyguard probably felt like he hadn't done his job.

"He is coming later," Garaki told Gigantomachia.

"Little Lord is?"

The Doctor nodded. "Kurogiri is bringing him in later." There was no sentimental reason to do it but he was going to use the opportunity to ask the child if he could sense any quirks in his father. If there were none then… perhaps it would be better to let Hisashi's body die. If Izuku suggested that… No, Izuku would not accept that. At least, not immediately.

But it was still worthwhile to know about the quirks.

"He stays!" Gigantomachia growled.

'Who?"

"Little Lord stays!" Gigantomachia told him.

"Izuku doesn't live here," Kyudai pointed out.

"He stays!"

Garaki was too tired to argue. Izuku could handle this. Or Kurogiri. Just so long as it wasn't him. He had enough things to do.

-ted-

After sending the message to Nasutto, Izuku had gone to bed. He had wanted to wait for a reply but he was tired and he didn't need another night of sleeping slumped over in front of the console. Besides, he didn't know how fast Nasutto would answer. The man was probably busy finding Healers for Kurogiri to bring in.

When he woke up though, the first thing he did was look at his phone. Three messages. Izuku felt a burst of happiness and swiped open the screen.

The first message was from Ochaco, from her mother's phone. The second was from Himiko and the third was from Hitoshi. Nothing from Nasutto. Izuku felt his joy fade and then he felt guilty. He should be thankful his friends were messaging him.

Except he really wanted to hear from Nasutto.

He tapped Ochaco's message. Little Dragon, are you okay? You haven't been to school and I heard the teachers say no one had called in for you. Please reply!

Izuku swallowed, feeling sick and sad again. Kurogiri had told him he had to stay at home but he didn't say he couldn't talk to his friends. I'm okay, he typed back. Now what could he say about not coming to school? Dad got caught in that attack, Izuku added, so I will be home for now. That was the truth. He wanted to talk to her about it. He wanted to tell her that his Dad getting caught in that attack was a practical example of how heroes weren't everything they should be, and why she shouldn't be one but that would have to wait.

Izuku pressed send and then went on to Himiko's message. She'd sent him a joke about blood. Whenever I'm sad, I just read my blood donor ID. It says B Positive.

He smiled at the joke. She wasn't specifically trying to cheer him up, and she wasn't worried about him. She might not know about the attack since the news tended to be pretty selective, especially in other parts of the country. He'd discovered that himself when he lived in Niigata and Saitama Prefectures. But the joke did cheer him up. Just a little.

He'd have to ask the Doctor for something to send back to her.

Izuku moved on to Shinsou's message. Dad's finally found a place in a clinic and Mum's work already approved her transfer to Mie. Now all we have to do is find a house! I'm going to miss the cats and you haven't sent me any pictures of the ones down there. How am I going to know what cat I can adopt if I don't have photos?

He blinked at it. For a moment Izuku couldn't believe he'd forgotten Hitoshi was going to move down here. He smiled, happy, before the all encompassing worry about his father settled back. That's wonderful! Izuku typed back and then noted the comments about the cats. There were a few cats around here and there was a cat cafe - kitten cafe mostly, and you could purchase your favourite one when it became an adult - but he hadn't really looked into them. He added a second part to his message. Think of the adventure you'll have finding the cats here then! It's boring if I just tell you.

That should do it. He tapped send and then went to look at the message he'd sent Nasutto. It wasn't as detailed as he'd like but Tomura had insisted that they keep it vague. Message me as soon as you can. I need your services. That was it. Nasutto would know it came from him because he had his contact details.

This message hadn't even been read. "Come on," Izuku whispered, resisting the urge to just call the phone. He really needed Nasutto's help. How else was he going to find a regeneration quirk to borrow?

He looked at the time. And the message.

If the man hadn't messaged him by the end of the day, he'd call. It was that important.

-ted-