The other injured students and I were sent to a nearby hospital. Almost everyone recovered within a day, even me with my broken bones. Thank the god of Quirks for my advanced healing and Recovery Girl for further expediting it. Midoriya, however, wasn't so lucky. It'd be faster for me to list what wasn't broken in his body. Recovery Girl ended up healing him, even though she said she never would heal those kinds of injuries from him ever again. I guess she figured that this time was different.
Yaoyorozu suffered some pretty bad injuries as well. A blow to the head that knocked her unconscious for over thirty hours. The first thing I did when I healed from my injuries was visit her room. She looked relieved to see me, her tense shoulders lowering the moment she saw me.
"Momo..." I said gently. "I heard what happened. Thank God, you're awake."
She smiled, part of it was covered by her long, black hair. It was the first time I'd ever seen her hair down like that. It's a shame that it was under these circumstances, because I wanted to flat-out tell her that she was beautiful that way.
"I should say the same thing about you. Jirou came to visit me earlier. She said you saved her. And that you have a broken hand, a fractured skull, and three broken ribs."
Jirou was the second person to visit me, the first being my mother. She felt guilty for leaving me behind, but I was just happy that she made it to safety after we separated.
"Oh, that. I heal fast. Plus, Recovery Girl helped out." I sat on the chair beside her bed, looking at the bandage on her head.
"Does it still hurt?" I asked her. "And what happened?"
"Yeah, a little. I'm at least thankful to be alive. One of those Nomus, like when they assailed us at the USJ, was attacking me. I took a pretty big hit to the head, but a boy from Class 1-B carried me to safety."
Hearing that made me hate myself. When I beat Sandman, the first person I searched for was Momo, but I couldn't find her.
"I'm sorry," I told her. "If I'd known where you were, I would have rushed over as quickly as I could. If I could do it all over again, I'd protect you, and then I'd save Bakugo from the villains. I would've acted faster."
I let myself cry in front of her. I didn't weep or make a sound; no, it was just a few salty tears that fell down my face. I was awake pretty much the whole time that I was recovering, even at night. All I could do was replay the moments before Bakugo was taken over and over again. I'd simulate what I'd have done differently, but it didn't matter. He was gone.
Momo showed a slight smile. "You're so silly, Miles. Don't tell me you're blaming yourself for what happened? Then again, I did the same thing when you were in a coma after our internships."
"Really?" I said. She nodded.
"Yeah. I thought that if I were there with you, I could have helped you. You sent out a message in the group chat asking for help, remember? You said that you needed heroes at your location. I contacted Aizawa, but... I felt like I could've done more."
"You did more than enough," I told her.
"About Bakugo..." she muttered. "He's going to be alright. I attached a tracking device to the Nomu that attacked me. All Might has the receiver for it. It's only a matter of time before he and the police find him."
"The police..." I muttered. I had to keep my mouth shut about the details, but I lost trust in the police after the Sinister Six incident. On top of that, my father was a police officer, so I know how they operate. They take their time. They might wait days before they act, and Bakugo might not have that kind of time.
"Momo, I need you to make a receiver for me."
"What!?" she said. "Why? All Might and the police are already on it."
"Yeah, and I bet they're sitting on their asses right now, doing nothing about it. I've learned recently how heroes and the police work in tandem. I can't blame All Might for it; if it were up to him, I'm sure he'd bust down their door right now. But the ones running the show want to ensure that everything is done by the book and will end with a squeaky-clean finish so that they can sell whatever narrative they want. I'll go down there myself if I have to. Please, Momo. Just do this one thing for me."
"You idiot!" she told me. I was shocked, really. I didn't think she had it in her to talk to someone like that. I watched as tears pooled in her eyes and fell down her cheeks before she scoled me.
"How many of us did those villains take down? Over half of us! And you think that you can go down there by yourself, waltz in, and beat them? Are you crazy? If you die because I let you chase them down on your own, I couldn't live with myself. I can't lose you, Miles."
We sat in silence for a while. She was right, but I didn't really care that she was.
"If I were the one kidnapped, I know that you'd go to hell and back to save me all on your own, wouldn't you? You'd do it for Jirou, too. If you were kidnapped, I'd tear the whole country down looking for you. That's what friends do. That's what heroes do."
"Yeah," I heard a voice say from behind me. Todoroki and Kirishima were standing at the door. Kirishima stepped forward, looking more serious than I'd ever seen him look before. "Besides, he won't be alone. Todoroki and I are gonna go with him. I'm sure we can get Midoriya on board, too. I don't know if your injuries are fully healed, but with you coming along to act as the brains of the operation, I know we can save him."
Momo contemplated for a moment, considering what I said, alongside Kirishima's words.
"Yaoyorozu, I understand that you want to be cautious, but we don't know how much longer they're planning on keeping Bakugo alive for. Please, help us save him. We won't fail, I promise."
She sighed and buried her face in her hands. "Fine," she mumbled. "I'll make another receiver, but only under one condition."
"What's that?" I asked.
"No fighting unless absolutely necessary. Priority number one is to bring him home. I'll be going with you, and if things get bad, we abort the mission when I say. Is that clear?"
"Sure, Momo. If that's what it'll take, I'll do it."
"Then we meet tonight in front of the hospital."
"Hell yeah!" Kirishima said. "Also, Midoriya is finally awake. We're about to go visit him right now. We should see if he wants to come with us."
"Alright, let's go," I said, standing up. "I'll be back, Momo."
Momo nodded, and the boys and I walked out of the room and headed toward Midoriya's. As we walked, Todoroki was looking at me suspiciously before he finally spoke. "Are you and Yaoyorozu dating?" he asked bluntly.
"What? No, we're just friends."
"You know," Kirishima chimed in. "The more you say that, the less convincing it sounds. You'd better make a move on her fast, man. Before someone else makes a move on her."
I thought it was strange of Todoroki to ask me that sort of question; I'd never known him as the type of person to pry. The way Kirishima just jested made it sound like that 'someone' was Todoroki, though I found that hard to believe. He didn't seem equipped for romance to me, but perhaps I was wrong about the guy.
Eventually, we met up with our classmates in Midoriya's room. He blamed himself the hardest for what had happened. We ended up telling the rest of our classmates our plan, but none of them wanted to come along with us. Iida was especially against it, calling us all idiots just like Momo did.
I was shocked when Iida appeared at the meeting spot that night. He brought up the fact that it was hypocritical of Todoroki and Midoriya to want to save Bakugo when they were the ones who tried to stop him from fighting Stain, who'd nearly killed his brother. This was the first I'd heard of it from this angle; I had no idea that Iida was on a mission for revenge that day.
"Don't you guys understand that what we do reflects our school?"
"I know that, but we have to-" Midoriya stepped forward, only for Iida to punch him in the face. I immediately stepped forward and caught Midoriya before he could hit the ground.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" I yelled at Iida. If my hands weren't full, I would have punched him in the face in defense of Midoriya.
"I'm frustrated, and I am the class rep! I'm worried about all of you, not just Bakugo! When I saw your injuries, all I could think about was my brother! What happens if you get hurt to such a degree that your injuries are permanent? It'll be my fault if that happens because I let you go! Do you all not care about how I feel!?"
"We're not going to just go in guns blazing. We're going to be careful." I told him.
"Yeah. Stealthy and covert ops type stuff," Kirishima added. "We'll save him without breaking the rules. Yaoyorozu already scolded us about that, isn't that right?"
Momo nodded. "I trust Morales's judgement more than anything, but things could always go wrong. That's why I'm going along with them, to make sure they don't do anything rash."
"Are you serious?" Iida said.
"If I can move at all, I can't just sit still," Midoriya added. "I have to do something. All I can think about is saving him."
"Listen, Iida," I said. "I wasn't there when you fought Stain, so I can't really talk much about the situation, but this is different. Yeah, we're breaking the rules, but we aren't doing this for revenge. We're doing this to save a life. That's the difference."
Iida stood without a word. I'd never seen him so tense before, and he was far from a relaxed guy otherwise. Finally, he swallowed his pride and softened his stance. "I'll go," he said. "If things go south, I will force you guys to retreat. I'll be your watchman."
"Yaoyorozu is already fulfilling that role, but I don't mind there being two of you," I told him.
Iida nodded, then looked at Midoriya, who was still rubbing his cheek. "I apologize for striking you, Midoriya. I lost my temper; it won't happen again."
"There's no need to apologize," Deku murmured.
"Let's go. Every second that passes is a second that could be spent saving Bakugo," I told them, leading the way forward.
As we marched, I thought about how exactly things are going to go down once we make it to our destination. Iida and Yaoyorozu were geniuses, but they were naive. I wasn't dumb enough to believe that they were coming along with the intent to actually infiltrate the enemy base. Yaoyorozu likely only came along to make sure that I didn't get myself killed and to prove to me that this mission was bigger than anything we could handle. Iida was the same, I bet.
Unfortunately for those two, four out of the five most stubborn students of Class 1-A were leading the charge. I wasn't retreating, no matter what, and I know for certain that the other three felt the same.