#chiyo.

     The door clicks shut behind them, and Chiyo doesn’t waste a beat.

     “You’re blaming yourself.” 

     It’s not a question, not by any stretch of the imagination. Anyone who has known All Might for even just half as long as she has would be able to tell – it’s in the minute changes in his expression, the subtle difference in his posture to how he usually carries himself. Not that such an observation is necessary given the situation at hand. The loss of his former sidekick, too sudden by far to make much needed amends ... it’s a tragedy too dreadful to leave anyone unaffected, much less those whose lives were touched by the late hero. 

     Chiyo knows of the history between him and the former Symbol of Peace, some parts more than others, but most of all she knows what kind of person All Might is. That crazy, valiant, mind-bogglingly selfless man had stubbornly taken it upon himself to carry the world, and yet he still found a million new ways each day to further increase that crushing weight. 

     This elderly nurse is no fool – All Might is only human, no matter how much he would like to omit that fact. She’d been granted the first of several glimpses beneath his perfect facade years ago, way before the world at large had learned of the impending end of his career, but not much has changed since then beyond the loss of his heroic outward appearance. Then and now, this bullheaded man continues to refuse support when it matters most.

     Perhaps she’s a fool after all, hoping to change that.

     Chuuuuuuu~!

     As magical as a healing kiss can be, there are times when Chiyo is less than happy to give it, and one of them is becoming a recurring theme in her office as of late. Reckless children who refuse to accept their limits continue to occupy her infirmary beds – and while their determination is undoubtedly admirable, their common sense leaves much to be desired. 

     Displeased, Chiyo leans back in her chair and meets Shinsou’s gaze with a measuring stare. “I shouldn’t need to tell you that this habit of overexerting yourself will have consequences if you keep it up.”

     She knows the boy is eager to ‘catch up’ with his peers. Aizawa may not talk much about his protégés, but Chiyo has been in this business for long enough to draw her own conclusions from the little information she does have. And perhaps she will have to meddle a bit, after all – for Shinsou’s sake.

     “You can’t keep ignoring this, you know.”

     She speaks softly, but her words are no less stern for it. The room is dark; the only light source illuminating the infirmary are dim rays of afternoon sun filtering in through a small crack between the curtains. Chiyo had hurried to draw them closed the moment she’d seen his face; right after quietly ushering him to lay down on one of her infirmary beds. He had obliged with impressively few complaints – and that is something she isn’t willing to pin down on her commanding nature whenever she enters nurse mode, not when she knows him as well as she does.

     Now, lying on top of the fresh linen with his eyes mercifully closed and his forehead in worrisome creases, Aizawa looks heart-wrenchingly weary, and she knows he must hate it. She sits beside him in silence for quite some time, and when she speaks up her voice is kept in low, unobtrusive tones. The lack of substantial volume takes away none of her earnest, however.

     The boy certainly looks as if he’d rather be anywhere else but here.

     Not that Chiyo could blame him; few students ever appreciated being called to the nurse’s office, much less when they appeared to be fine. But UA does not take villain attacks lightly, no matter how much the media wants to accuse them of such a thing – and neither does Recovery Girl. The physical well-being of her patients is only a part of the whole, and a child who has been put through this much trauma at such a young age could hardly be left to his own devices without at least an evaluation of his mental state.

     It’s normal procedure for all combatants in the festival’s tournament to stop by her office after their matches. That means an endless coming and going of patients from the morning to the late afternoon, and Chiyo vastly prefers it when they don’t need a gurney for their trip. 

     The last person to leave her office had been Midoriya Izuku, followed by his unlikely mentor, and she would be lying if she claimed that the two of them weren’t on her mind for a while afterwards. Toshinori is not at all doing a good job at keeping the poor boy from being reckless, and while she can understand where that neglect is coming from, there’s no doubt it’s going to continue hurting him to a point where the effects will be longer-lasting. If this keeps up, she really will have to put her foot down. 

     A knock on the door precedes her next visitor – Midoriya’s opponent, Shinsou Hitoshi. In spite of emerging from their battle as the loser, Midoriya had sustained significantly more damage than his match-up, so the purple-haired boy had been asked to wait outside while she took care of the higher priority first. Now, though, it’s time to look him over.

“Oh, now, come on, you know what I —”

Cain freezes, makes no small show of his shock.

He’s often what it would be like to have himself — some other version, some younger and more practical version — to talk to. He doesn’t think he’d ever consider listening to anybody else as much as he would maybe consider listening to himself.

Experiencing something like this now, he is just deeply disturbed. He does not want to listen.