Metro-General Hospital (5th April 2012)

Mirio was escorted to the exit by a very concerned Dr. Christine Palmer. She had gone beyond the call of duty to ensure that Mirio was well-taken care of during his stay in the hospital.

It had been two days since the Agents of SHIELD left the hospital and Mirio was tired of waiting around for someone to offer him some help.

“Just remember…” Christine mention, grabbing Mirio’s hands tightly “Just come to me if you get into any trouble or need any help ok? Depression is a very mysterious condition so don’t try to get through things alone… find a support system… make me your number one contact…”

“I understand…” Mirio smiled brightly, appreciating the kind advice “I will be back to visit you very soon… by that time, I will probably be this world’s number one hero…”

To show his determination, Mirio’s voice increased a couple of octaves and his left hand’s index finger was raised to the skies in a brilliant display of the number one.

Of course, the crowd exiting and entering the hospital either laughed or showed great disdain at Mirio’s boisterous declaration.

Christine smiled happily, almost to the point of giddiness “Okay! Just keep that enthusiasm… refill your medications every two weeks and you’ll already be my hero by preserving the life I saved!”

Christine realized that she loved Mirio’s youthful naivety along with his absolute passion for righteousness. It was amazing to witness someone not tainted by the struggles of life… yet.

Hearing Christine’s genuine statement, Mirio’s act of cheerfulness almost shattered but he managed to keep it together and found a genuine statement of his own in response “If I ever manage to make it back to my old self, then you can tell the world that you know Lemillion – the hero who will save at least a million people!”

Christine paused and stared at Mirio astounded… for a brief moment just now, she actually believed that he would save a million people because he believed it so strongly himself.

Sometimes all it takes to achieve your dreams is faith in yourself and Christina saw that Mirio had that in abundance.

Mirio’s declaration was an ethereal sight because momentarily, Christine imagined Mirio standing tall above the masses, inspiring everyone to look at his heroism with a red cape and a ‘1,000,000’ emboldened on his chest in gold.

“I believe in you!” Christine whispered, squeezing Mirio’s hands tighter than she realized “We can achieve what we believe…”

Mirio’s breathing hitched as he looked Christine in the eyes and realized that someone new believed in him. Truthfully, he had been feeling a bit down since Eri didn’t believe in him up until the point he rescued her…

Of course, it was his fault for abandoning her once but it still stung at his heroism to know that he failed Eri in more ways than one.

‘Someone believes in me!’ Mirio’s thoughts raged but that raging was quickly quelled by another voice at the back of his mind.

[You’re a failure!]

‘That’s right I am a failure… I left Eri behind the first time…’

“Thank you Dr. Palmer but I must now take my leave…” Mirio shouted, removing his hands from Christine’s grip and walking away without a tell-sign of his constantly lowering self-esteem.

“Goodbye…” Christine muttered, feeling happy that another one of her patients had recovered.

After all, the most fulfilling experience as a Doctor was sending someone back into the world better than when they arrived.

----------------

Out of Christine’s sight, Mirio took a couple of random streets in hopes of getting lost enough to lose himself as well, but no matter how many times he turned, he would still see people.

Finding a secluded alleyway, Mirio fell to his knees and clutched his head “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

He made a yell of absolute anger and self-loathe followed by punching the ground with all the strength he could muster.

The ground fractured under his fist and it wasn’t until after the third punch did Mirio really started to feel stinging pain.

“Not my world… not my world… not my world… not my world…” He whispered over and over again like a crazy person.

[It’s not your world so you have no reason to protect anyone in it!]

“Shut up!” Mirio yelled, still clutching his head but also noticing that his fist had turned bloody from the constant impacts with the ground.

Obviously, there would be an increase in the number of scars on his hands.

Two days ago, after the SHIELD Agents had left, Mirio thought long and hard about what Agent May had said ‘There is no UA in Japan’.

Out of mere curiosity, he looked into the matter using the internet and it became painfully obvious that he was not in his world. As a matter of fact, Mirio deeply doubted that he was in the same Universe.

That fact almost sent him into an abyssal bout of depression but thankfully Dr. Christina stayed around him a lot over the past two days and that dampened the depression by a lot.

However, now that he was alone and forced to face the reality, Mirio wasn’t sure what to do about the current situation.

Sobbing… Mirio started sobbing to release all the pain pressed against his chest “I am sorry I abandoned you all… Eri, I am sorry I didn’t get to see you smile… maybe, I wasn’t worthy enough to be the hero you needed… Nejire and Tamaki… I am sorry that I didn’t share these feelings with you guys when I could… I wanted to be a great hero but I am such a failure… I didn’t even care about being number one, I just wanted to save at least a million people… I am not Lemillion… I am No-Million…”

[No-Million, I like that name… that’s right you’re No-Million…]

‘I can’t save anyone can I?’

[No… you can save as many as you wish after all… I am No-Million and you are Lemillion… let’s not get ourselves confused…]

‘I can save people?’

[Yes! Now stand up and venture forth… LEMILLION DOESN’T GIVE UP!]

“You’re right…” Mirio muttered unconsciously, not even sure who he was talking to.

Sometimes a voice would just appear in the back of his mind allowing him to analyze situations a lot clearer.

Often times it would rip at his remaining pride but sometimes, very rarely, the voice also stopped him from giving up on his dreams. The voice felt illusionary but also very real like that one itch you felt but could never find.

Mirio hopped to his feet and a small card slipped out of his pants pocket and onto the floor. The card glistened with luxurious golden shininess as if it held the answers to all that ails the mind.

It was as if the card was made to look like a lifesaver in the midst of adversity.

“Huh… this is the card those SHIELD guys gave me right?” Mirio muttered, his eyes regaining a bit of hope as he picked the card from the ground and started his journey to the Stark Industries mentioned on the card “This card should be important enough to get me help…”

Of course, Mirio did not base this hope on wishful thinking alone, he had indeed seen many mentions of Stark Industries online during his searches for traces of his World.

Apparently, a man with an Iron Quirk owned the company so Mirio was hopeful that someone may know something about his current predicament.

‘If one person has an Iron Quirk, then there might be more people… if there are more then it means I am not alone… I could be in the past or someone crossed worlds like me and already knows how to get back…’ Mirio thought about all the possible ways his situation was not hopeless and smiled genuinely for the first time since his battle with Overhaul.

“Excuse me!” Mirio felt a slight tap on his shoulder “Are you alright? I notice your fists are bleeding…” A young man asked, kneeling next to Mirio and looking at his fists concerned.

“Yeah, I am fine…” Mirio responded kindly, standing up with renewed hope “I almost lost myself to despair but hope always prevails in the end… never let your struggles bring you down kid! One day I will be a hero you can look up to so ignore my pitiful display okay?”

The Young man nodded, infected by Mirio’s enthusiasm “Well, have a nice day sir…”

Mirio departed the alleyway while pulling a map from his pocket that showed that he had to venture to the island of Manhattan.

“Let’s go!” Mirio shouted, running through the streets of New York to test the new limits of his physically enhanced body.

After all, his body had to become stronger to adjust to his quirk… even with his quirk gone, Mirio could still feel the strength held in his muscles.

However, had Mirio paid closer attention to his fists, he would have noticed that his fists were not bleeding from punching the ground as his memories suggested.

It was obviously the blood of someone else on his fist, and a large amount at that.