"Are you sure about this?" asked Hizashi as Nemuri unlocked the door to Aizawa's apartment, "I mean, I'm all about snooping around for fun, but this seems a bit much."

Nemuri walked in, waiting for Hizashi to get inside before shutting the door behind the both of them.

"He gave us access into the apartment, didn't he? If he didn't want us to look around, he'd find someone else to cat sit. It's not our fault if we find something he didn't want us to see. If he gets upset, it's his problem." she said as she patted Cloud's head, who approached them both with eagerness.

"I don't think that's how that works..." Hizashi mumbled as Nemuri crossed him.

"Tell you what," she said with a sigh as she turned to him, "I'll feed and play with the cat before we leave. Will that count as doing what we were supposed to do?"

"I suppose-," Hizashi began to say.

"Great!" Nemuri interrupted in delight, "And you can change the litter." she said before walking down the hall.

"Hey!" whined loudly after Nemuri, who didn't bother to stick around long enough to argue.

"Just look around!" she hollered back at him from Doe's bedroom, "Let me know if you find anything!"

After letting out a disgruntled sigh, Hizashi followed suit and began to search the apartment for any evidence of an affair between Aizawa and Doe. Even though they both witnessed the outdoor aftermath between the two of them, that was their double date trap at Kyoto Kitcho, they still wanted to solidify that nothing was going on behind closed doors. While Hizashi was somewhat convinced that they weren't fooling around, Nemuri was not. To her, the argument between the two of them was almost too convenient and staged. She knew she might just be going on a hunch, but she was never wrong about a hunch before. Nemuri wanted to know, without a doubt, that nothing was going on between the two of them. Because, as things were now, she wasn't entirely convinced they were being completely honest. Not only that, but rubbing the truth in Aizawa's face, after he denied it so many times, would feel like such poetic justice.

As the minutes turned into hours, the hunt for proof continued, and the prospect of finding anything began to dwindle. After searching the kitchen, the bathroom, and the living room, Hizashi and Nemuri were seemingly coming up empty handed. After what seemed like a continuous run of bad luck and wasted time, Hizashi walked in Aizawa's bedroom, with Cloud curled up in his arms, and saw Nemuri on her hands and knees near the bed, continuing to investigate underneath it.

"Come on, Nemuri." he said, "We've been at this for awhile. And we haven't found anything."

As she sat up from the floor, Hizashi noticed a smug smirk on her face, as she lifted a mesh g-string from under the bed. The same one she purchased for Doe when she first got here.

"You sure about that?" she asked cooly, as she wiggled them in the air. Hizashi's jaw slowly dropped, as well as Cloud as he accidentally dropped him from the shocking discovery, and his eyes widened, "Almost didn't see them at first, but I'd recognize these anywhere. And that's not all." she continued as she stood up, "I also found strands of her hair in the room and on the bed. Trust me," she said as she stopped right in front of him, "we've found everything we need here."

***

(Reader's POV)

...

"Can you please open your left hand?"

'...Who...who is that?'

"Hmm...Can you please open your left hand for me?"

'Am I...back in my coma state?'

"There doesn't seem to be a response, doctor."

"Don't be too hasty. Let's allow the algorithm to make the call rather than our eyes and ears."

'Shit! Have I not been responding this whole time? Fuck! I need to focus and show that I'm still in here.'

"Can you move your left foot for me, please?"

...

"Can you move your right foot for me?"

...

'Please, for the love of God, let that machine show that I'm here...'

"Okay. Much like last time, we're going to allow things to run while we go over results. Keep the EEG on in the meantime. Should there be no response detected, we'll try again in the evening and go from there."

'Fuck. That's it? Did I miss the whole test? Shit. Shit! What if they didn't get anything at all? What's going to happen? Goddammit! I should've slept sooner. Maybe I would've been able to be present during the test right from the beginning.'

"And what...time...should...-"

'No. No! No! Not yet! Don't take me back yet!'

I felt myself sit up with a gasp in the bed, my eyelids flying wide open and seeing almost nothing in the dark. I looked around, waiting for my eyes to adjust as my sweaty hands gripped the mattress.

As I tried to slow my breath down, I checked my phone to check and see what time it was.

3:27am.

After rubbing my eyes, I noticed a small notification from the text app.

It was from Aizawa.

My heart began to race again with a mixture of elation and newly added stress as I opened it to read the message.

Everything okay

over there?

I breathed a sigh of relief as I began to text back.

As good as it can be.

I wanted to say more, and tell him about what was happening in my world, but I didn't want to worry him. Not to mention, typing a novel of a response wasn't exactly appropriate. He was still watching out for the students, after all.

Once I sent the message, I set the phone down and flopped back down on the bed with a bit of a huff. I could vaguely make out the ceiling as I stared at it as my mind went racing.

A part of me wanted to go back to sleep, in order to hopefully go back to my world and find out if I showed up in the algorithm. But with as much anxiety and adrenaline pumping through my veins, I wasn't exactly in a position to do so. I wanted to know if the doctors could tell that I was still in there. I also wasn't sure if I wanted to know if they didn't see any change. I didn't know if I was ready to hear what was in store for me if things went even further south than they already have. All of this was already so terrifying and uncertain.

'I wish Shota was here.' I thought as I hugged the covers.

Vzzzzzzzzt

Vzzzzzzzzt

I jumped as I looked back down at my phone, and immediately saw it was Aizawa calling me.

"Hello?" I answered, trying to keep my voice down and as quiet as possible.

"You alright?" I heard him say on the other end. His voice sounded tired as usual, but still concerned.

I paused.

"W-what?" I stuttered slightly, "I mean, I-I'm fine. Why?"

"You sure about that? You don't sound fine." said Aizawa, his voice calm but somewhat concerned, "Besides, you're up later than usual." I rubbed my eyes, as he continued, "What's going on?"

"Shouldn't you be patrolling the grounds?" I asked, trying to dodge the question, not wanting to get into it right now. I knew some of the League was already there. The last thing I wanted to do was distract him.

"Shouldn't you be answering my original question?" he asked, "You should know me well enough by now to know that I wouldn't allow you to simply change the subject."

I paused.

"I...," I began to say, "I don't want to distract you."

"I called you, remember?" he said, "If the situation were different, I wouldn't have taken the time to check up on you."

I paused again, wondering where to even start. There was so much going through my mind, and I wasn't even sure if explaining things would help or not.

Guess I'll find out.

"The doctors in my world are testing to see if I'm still showing signs of hidden consciousness." I finally said. There was silence on the other end for just a second or two, giving me the hint to continue, "I had done the test before, when I was out at the infirmary. But while I was asleep tonight, I realized I had missed a majority of that test to show them or indicate I was aware or still there. And I woke up shortly afterwards."

"How have you been indicating that you're present, even though you're in a coma?" he asked.

"They ask me to move certain parts of my body. Namely, my fingers, arms, or feet." I answered, "I don't think I'm actually doing anything, physically, but I guess...my brain activity acknowledges the commands, even though I can't move." I said, hoping anything I just uttered made sense.

"Heh," he chuckled, "That makes sense." I couldn't help but be confused by that statement, but he continued, "Sounds like a test of the will, though not entirely the same thing. That being said, what happens if the results of these tests are inconclusive?"

I gulped.

"I...I don't know." I said, my voice quivering slightly.

There was a moment of silence. I think the potential consequences had us both uneasy.

"I know it's easier said than done, but you should try and get some sleep." he said, "If anything arises, don't hesitate to alert me."

I didn't speak. There was so much more that I wanted to say. Not just about the situation in my world, but also about the League. It seemed like everything was about to start falling apart. Not just for me, but also him and his students. And All Might.

Oh god, All Might.

He wasn't even remotely aware of what was to come.

"(Y/N)?" I heard Aizawa's voice say, immediately snapping me back into the present moment, "You still there?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm still here." I said, clearing my throat. "You'll be the first one to know."

I heard him hum on the other line. It sounded like he wasn't entirely convinced that that was the only thing on my mind.

"Anything else I need to be made aware of?" he asked.

I had a feeling he was trying to get me to talk about what I knew, and it killed me not to say anything. I wanted so badly to warn him, and help keep him, the students, and All Might safe.

But...

I knew it wasn't the right thing to do.

"No." I said as convincingly as I could, "That's all there is."

Another pause.

"Okay," he said, "Get some sleep. I'll check in again soon." There was another brief moment of silence, "Goodnight, (Y/N)."

"Goodnight, Shota." I said back, my heart sinking as I pulled the phone away from my ear and setting it down to my lap before I tapped the screen to hang up.

I hated this.

All of this.

Only a couple more days until all Hell broke loose.

And only I knew it was coming.

------

Author's Note: For those of you who were confused about my abrupt absence, I left a small explanation on my profile under the conversations tab. I'm so terribly sorry for keeping you waiting.