"If you don't control your mind,

someone else will."

-John Allston

Present Day- 9 minutes from Present Time

"Will he be okay then?"

The old lady ignored him and simply continued to check on his vital signs while measuring things like his blood pressure. The old lady continued her work for a minute or so, before sighing and moving away from her patient.

"The worst has passed. All that's left is some fatigue and soreness, but that's normal considering what he was doing beforehand," Recovery Girl looked up at Allen, with her wrinkles parting way for a smile. "You did some good work out there, kid. Although, I wish you kids would have waited for the medical professionals... Nemuri-chan should know better than that, the stupid girl."

'Nemuri-chan? Could that be Midnight's real name?'

The little old lady waddled her way over to her desk, before opening her desk drawer with a horrendous screeching sound.

"Oh dear, I need to get it greased again. Let's see, where is it..? Aha, here it is!"

The old lady popped out with... Pez Candy? In the shape of Kamui Woods too.

"W-What happened to me?"

The little lady left the candy on the counter, forgotten, as she moved at lightspeed towards her patient. She was no longer a smiley, grandma figure, but a doctor. She checked once more on his condition, before responding to his question.

"Todoroki, you experienced a panic attack while you were fighting Allen. He managed to calm you down, and you fell asleep on the stretcher afterward. I'm sorry for asking this so soon, but what do you believe the trigger was?"

The terminology only seemed to confuse him, and he stepped forward, intent on figuring out what had triggered him as well.

If anything, he had a weird sense of burning scientific curiosity.

Throughout this whole charade, he had found that he enjoyed this style of fighting, and the more he could learn about the mind of his victim, the better. Sometimes sheer overwhelming power was what was necessary, but sometimes things required... a more delicate touch. He needed all the data that he could get.

"A trigger is what causes you to fall into a panic attack in the first place. Recovery Girl is most likely asking you this to prevent you from relapsing. If it's possible to fully isolate you from that variable, all the better. You seem to be a more physical panic-er, so it's even more dangerous for you than just the mental aspect. Your heartbeat was racing abnormally fast."

He slumped back into the makeshift bed and seemed to be thinking carefully about something. Recovery Girl was also focusing intently on him. Taking the opportunity, he subtlely shifted his weight off of his right foot, considering that it had taken more damage than the other one. It was fairly stupid of him, considering there were medical professionals in front of him, but his instincts were screaming at him-

Don't show weakness.

It was a state of mind that had sprouted during his time as a villain, and it had saved his life on multiple occasions. He wasn't exactly a genius fighter, after all. It was essential to have experience, more than anything else. It didn't mean squat if you were smart, or if you had insane reaction time if your body couldn't move with it. Each and every move, strategy, and special attack were learned through pain. And lots of trial and error. Sometimes he was incapacitated for weeks at a time, only to be saved by the grace of his acting skills.

But in this case, the eyes of a medic proved superior.

"Allen, did you injure your feet? You were limping over here just now. If you have a sprain, you have to seek medical attention, dear."

'She's more observant than she looks! Her eyes were closed the whole time, so how did she know?'

It was at that moment that Shouto went upright with the intention to talk, and he felt like his savior had come.

"... I believe it was when I... when I used my fire. My head was very hazy at the time. If that makes any sense. My thoughts were slow, and my emotions felt more active than usual. Everything melted away and I was just so irritated. That's when my arm raised up, and I..."

He had to take an audible breath to calm himself down.

"I-I thought I killed him. It doesn't make sense, but it just hadn't occurred to me that he could have dodged..."

Recovery Girl and Allen looked at each other for a split second, and she nodded.

"Would you like for me to leave for now? If it's-"

He shook his head side to side roughly.

"...I think that I would convince myself it was a lie. I apologize, but I need... proof right now. That I didn't kill someone."

Almost like telepathy, Recovery Girl pulled up a chair near the bedside, and Allen sunk down into it, silently relieved to put the pressure off his feet. He was sure that she was doing it primarily for Shouto's mental state, but it was appreciated all the same. As the throbbing settled down to a white haze in the back of his mind, he was finally able to think without hindrance.

And with it, he realized one crucial detail.

"...I think I may have been the cause of that," They both looked at him in surprise, with an added faint swirl of anger in Recovery Girl's case. "Don't misunderstand, I didn't purposefully make him get a panic attack. But I could be the cause of him accidentally using his fire."

'...I probably should have let them come to their own conclusions, but this kid reminds me of myself a bit too much. I most likely would be unable to live with myself if he spiraled downward because of this... Ugh, I'm getting soft. I'll end up dying in a ditch at this rate.'

Regardless, he continued to talk.

"I'm sure you have at least some idea as to what my... quirk can do, right? Well, it's not just a one and done deal. It can change as long as I'm close enough and still have enough concentration left to manipulate it. How can I explain this... I don't tell my quirk what to do and how to do it, with what intensity to do it at. That's impossible to do. I give it the 'code' and 'data' for lack of better terms. It's semi-aware, so it's possible for it to repeat what it's already done. I'm the primary test subject that it experiments on."

They sat there in silence, not quite understanding what he was getting at. Then Shouto's face morphed in a way that he could tell he was getting an idea. He would have to give this kid more credit if he was already started to comprehend what he was saying. He was smart-

"So, when you were talking about triggering all of my pain receptors, and the pain I would endure... You were speaking from experience..?"

'...That wasn't the answer I anticipated, but he's still perceptive. Just not in the way I expected. This could be bad...'

The room went silent for a few moments. Like the calm before a storm.

And then that storm was unleashed in the form of Recovery Girl. For such a tiny body, she had a tremendous presence to call her own. Her posture had grown rigid, and her smile had dropped from her face. But the thing he found most frightening was her eyes. They were a faded teal, a color he would have almost described as periwinkle were it not for their steel core.

They were also the thing he found most uncomfortable, for while there was a mix of anger and displeasure...

Her primary emotion was worry.

"...You triggered all of your pain receptors?! You moronic, idiotic, fool of a child!" She clobbered him on the head several times with her cane. "Do you have any idea what could have happened to you?! You could have gotten a heart attack, or got a circulatory shock, or-"

She huffed and heaved in place, her intense surge in emotions leaving her aged body out of breath. Both Shouto and Deku were stunned, stock-still in place at the elderly woman's outburst. Deku was still reeling from the feeling of someone having genuine worry for him, (she didn't have an agenda, or a desire to manipulate him..?) when she suddenly cradled him in her short arms.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that you had to experience that. It must have been hard..."

Before he knew what was happening, her hand waded through his (dyed) ashe gray locks to lightly pat his head.

"I'm sorry..."