CH16: Waking up

The steady beep of a heart monitor and the sterile white walls of a standard hospital room greeted Takao as he blinked awake. Pale light filtered through the window, streaking across his blanket. 

He sat up slowly, the soreness in his limbs reminding him just how hard he'd pushed himself at the USJ. 'How long have I been out?' He wondered, eyes searching the room.

He noticed his phone laying on the bedside table, lighting up with unread notifications of texts.

Unlocking it, he scanned through the messages from Class 1-A.

Kirishima: Bro!! That was INSANE!! You okay???

Toru Hagakure: Hey! I hope you're okay. I was wondering… wanna grab coffee sometime after school?

Takao blinked at the last message. It wasn't what he expected, but it made him smile faintly.

He then responded to Toru: Thank you! I'm doing alright now I've had some rest. And yeah, for sure I'd like that a lot.

He set the phone down, letting the silence of the room settle again. But not for long.

A quiet knock, and the door creaked open. His mother stepped in, looking tired but relieved, her handbag slung over one shoulder.

"You're awake." she said softly, stepping to his side. "Thank goodness."

Takao nodded. "Have been for a few minutes now."

His mother reached out, brushing back his hair then froze. "Your hair…It's gotten whiter." 

 "Quirk side effect, I think. At least it looks badass. " He replied with a chuckle.

She exhaled deeply then gave him a serious look.. "I only caught glimpses on the news. Something about a villain attack at a training facility? They haven't told me much. What happened, Takao?"

He looked away for a moment before answering. "A villain group ambushed us, called themselves the league of villains, they had this thing called a Nomu, some kind of bioengineered monster that nearly killed Aizawa sensei. So I stepped in… and ended up using a new aspect as well: Fire."

"Fire? Just full of suprised aren't you." she responded with a smile ruffling his a hair a little

Once cleared to leave, Takao followed his mother out to the car. The ride home was quiet, filled only with the sounds of traffic and the occasional newscaster voice from the radio rehashing the incident at the USJ.

He was thankful for the silence. It gave him time to think.

Dinner was simple a warm stew his mother reheated from the fridge. She ate in near silence, watching her son between bites.

"Are you alright?" she finally asked.

"I'm not hurt." He replied. "But I need to get stronger, much stronger."

After dinner, he went straight to his room, still in his hospital clothes, and pulled open the notebook on his desk. He flipped past notes on lightning control and the god-aspect breakdowns until he found a blank page and began to write. 

Aspect of Hephaestus:

Current aspect used: Fire 

Potential aspects: smithing, crafting, volcanos and invention 

Takao leaned back in his chair, rubbing the back of his neck. He could still feel a faint echo of fire in his veins.

Later that night, as the moonlight filtered into his bedroom, Takao stepped into his backyard andtook a deep breath and held out his hand.

"Aspect of Hephaestus: Fire."

Flames licked into existence around his palm, casting a golden glow across his face. The fire didn't rage or surge, it instead, swirled calmly, waiting for his command.