chapter 67

"We bring you this announcement with a heavy heart... Nagano City is in ruins. We sit here only about three hours after the massive devastation that we have just witnessed in the Chubu Region. Thousands fled to safety, but there are still tens of people that have yet to be located. For everyone's safety, please stay inside and—"

Some news anchor was talking in the background on the single TV in the small meeting room. The sound fizzled in and out with the crappy connection that the old roll-out television had. At least a dozen heroes and doctors sat in the meeting room, talking in hushed voices with one another. It had only been a few hours after the devastating attack. Everyone was still recuperating and finding medical assistance.

Some heroes in the room sat with doctors and nurses by their sides, tending to their injuries while they talked in the meeting room. This discussion was mandatory. Deku said so himself. The hospitals were clogged up with people from all across the country who witnessed the earthquakes, but none more packed than those nearby Nagano City that hadn't been destroyed.

They got many civilians to safety, but there were still those that they lost to the Seijin. They were still lucky to stop the Seijin and the Wraith when they did, however. She was headed to other major cities to destroy and cause countless earthquakes until Japan was merely an island dissolving into the sea. Nagano City was only the start of her plans.

The destruction of Nagano City spread for miles around. But there were a few cities on the border of Nagano that still stood. They endured the earthquakes.

The green haired hero pressed an ice pack to his forehead, trying to drown the massive migraine he had from earlier. A doctor was currently trying to bandage his forearm, but Deku couldn't help but insist he was fine. He wished they would go tend to the civilians that needed their help more than he did. He'd broken hundreds of bones in the past, he'd be fine.

The announcer's voice carried over the heroes' every so often.

"Thankfully, the Wraith—the leader of the Seijin—has been stopped and we have word that she was defeated in a fight. In more news, the Emotion Hero: Sensima had taken sides with the Seijin and caused mass panic and cut down most every hero in Nagano City. However, she was brought down as well and is now in intense emergency care. We have no news on her progress but—"

Shimamura had survived Kimiko's attempted killing. Barely.

"We can't just put her in prison. She's still a pro hero," Kirishima fought with his fellow heroes.

Shoto crossed his arms across his chest. He sat in a chair with his leg bound in a cast and propped up on a stool in front of him. "No jail then. We can at least try to put her in a psychiatric facility. She needs help."

"Why don't we talk to her first? Maybe she was being mind-controlled!" Uraraka offered.

"She wasn't. We know she was a mole in the hero workforce after what Dabi told us. She was working for the Wraith and the Seijin for the past three months. We can't overlook the fact that she willingly turned on us. There has to be consequences," Deku shook his head sadly.

"Consequences?!" Shinsou butted in. He had a bandage across his cheek and a splint on his arm and shin. His purple eyes ignited with fury. "She came back to us in the end. She tried to fight against Miyazaki. That was the whole reason Miyazaki tried to kill her! We can't just imprison her for being blinded by the damn Perfect Manipulator. We all have been at some point! We can't punish her for that!"

Deku frowned at him, his eyes were saddened and dark. "They don't have to be dire consequences. But the public won't accept just letting her off the hook. We all know bits and pieces of what happened up there between Miyazaki and Shimamura, but not everything. It's not enough to convince the media that Shimamura was just being tricked. They want justice."

"Kimiko Miyazaki is dead. Is that not justice enough?!" Shinsou fought back.

"Not for those that we couldn't protect because Shimamura knocked us down," Todoroki said in his monotone voice, unflinching.

Shinsou shot Todoroki a glare. The pair locked eyes before Shinsou sighed and leaned back against the wall, keeping his mouth shut. He couldn't deny that his comrades were right. There had to be some sort of punishment to be held. He just wished it didn't have to be against Shimamura.

She'd already been through so much... did she really deserve the consequences they were discussing?

"Besides," Todoroki added, "we still have to see if Shimamura survives."

There was silence in the packed room.

As said before, Shimamura only barely survived Kimiko's fatal blow. She lost so much blood. She was already fading away by the time medics got to her. If Bakugou hadn't been there to save her, she would've been dead just from the fall into the pit. He risked his life to save her... and so here she was.

Doctors were trying everything they could to revive her and keep her conscious, but nothing seemed to be working. Kimiko knew right where to strike. They had her hanging on by a thread.

"Alright," Sero cut through the silence. "Psychiatric facility? That's what we're agreeing on?"

There were at least 5 "NO!"s that rang through the room.

"We can't just stuff her in as if she's a lunatic and leave her there! She's not insane! She was being tricked!" Miyata smacked Sero upside the head. He groaned and rubbed the sore spot.

"But the only other option is prison," Tsuyu said from the crowd. "That isn't much better—ribbit."

"Neither is good!" Uraraka complained.

"Neither isn't an option," Mirko corrected, disconcerted.

"We can talk to her. Get her to form a public apology if she's capable of it. Won't that appease the masses?" Miyata offered, fumbling with her hands. Her bandaged purple tendrils were laying on the table next to her. She didn't have the strength to carry or move them very far.

"The media will think she's lying," Kirishima shook his head. "I hate to say it, but they won't believe her no matter what she says. She's been lying since the Fall of Kagoshima but they think she betrayed us sooner than that. They're talking about her being a mole for the Seijin since they were formed! That's years!"

"So they'll think she's a perfect liar..." Deku hummed, thinking out loud. He was trying so hard to weigh their options. Nothing seemed to be promising.

But no one was considering the obvious.

Deku's eyes flashed open as he raised his head to glance up at all the heroes looking at him. A thought had occurred to him—more of a memory, if anything.

"This all happened because of Shimamura's bipolar disorder—Miyazaki tricked her with medication and used it as a bargaining chip to further manipulate her to working for the Seijin—we can all agree on that, right?" Midoriya asked the group.

They nodded, agreeing with him.

He continued, "Why don't we just take away her bipolar disorder?"

It sounded ridiculous to everyone. But they didn't understand what he knew.

"What? Deku... you can't just take away a mental disorder. That's not how those things work," Ashido responded, almost thinking he was being insensitive.

Midoriya shook his head, realizing he'd have to explain himself. But he didn't have to.

A doctor spoke up from the corner of the room. He had just entered. "Actually, not necessarily. Not in Sensima's case, at least."

The doctor was not one from the hospital they presently stood in. No, he was a doctor from Tokyo where Shimamura lived. He was her doctor—her bipolar specialist, to be more specific. Deku had called him in on such short notice to assess her since she was his patient. He argued that he wasn't suited for such a task, but Deku convinced him otherwise. This was the real reason he was here.

The heroes turned to him and he continued his explanation as he walked further into the center of the room.

"Shimamura's bipolar disorder is drastically different from any normal case. Her mental disorder is largely due to her quirk. Because of her quirk, her symptoms and overall disorder are much more volatile and more dangerous to her and all those around her. And with the lithium carbonate medication she was prescribed as a child, it only made it worse. Like any normal human being, quirks grow and manifest as people age. It's the natural effects of time and experience. However, in Shimamura's case, as time goes on and her quirk improves and grows, her bipolar disorder worsens and grows with it. We diagnosed many years ago that without the outside effects of her quirk, her bipolar disorder would transition into that of an average case. Less manic and depressive episodes and less transitioning into different states of mind. We called this diagnosis Shimamura's 'cure.'"

There was silence for a few moments as the heroes attempted to digest everything that he had just spewed. It was like hearing one of Deku's long rants. But a few people understood.

Mirko stared at the doctor in shock, her mouth practically falling open. "You're suggesting that we take away her quirk."

The doctor nodded solemnly. "That is our solution, yes."

The heroes immediately sprang to action at this revelation.

"That's ridiculous!" Miyata shouted. "We can't just take away her quirk! She's still a hero!"

"It's completely unfair!" at least three heroes shouted out in unison.

Deku pinched the bridge of his nose, going back to thinking as the others bickered.

Kaminari shook his head. "We can't. That'd be taking away everything she's worked so hard for!"

The news anchors could be heard in the background, still discussing the events that had occurred a few hours earlier.

"We are receiving reports of at least 400,000 combined accounted deaths and critical injuries across the country—"

"But it would give the media and the public some closure..." Sero mumbled.

Miyata smacked the back of his head again.

"OW!" Sero exclaimed. "What?! I'm trying to be rational here! Shimamura's my friend too! But we can't just ignore what happened."

"Shut the hell up, Sero," Shinsou fought from where he leaned on the wall. He was uncharacteristically aggressive right now, for obvious reasons. "We can't just take her quirk away from her."

"No fighting," Miyata criticized.

"And how many of those injuries were a result of Sensima?"

"There's no count for that. But we know that she knocked down every hero in her vicinity in the center of the city. There was no estimate to how far her quirk actually extended. She could've killed hundreds—"

"We can't deny the fact that taking away her quirk is a possible option," Deku interjected. "We need to make sure the people feel safe again. Regardless if Shimamura gets up again or not, will the people still feel safe with her patrolling the streets? That's just not up to us."

"Sensima is now a threat to the Japanese public. We await news on her state—"

A hand suddenly crashed into the glass screen of the TV, permanently muting the biased news anchors. The heroes went quiet and turned to the shattered screen, seeing the male pull his fist from the broken glass. He let out a huff as he turned to face his friends.

His eyes were low and dim, and he clenched his jaw as if to restrain himself. He was bandaged from head to toe, practically, and had a cast on his wrist. Blood soaked his hero costume. Shimamura's blood. They had offered him a new set of clothes but he refused to change.

His crimson eyes glared straight at Deku and no one else. Although his anger was targeted at every hero in the room with him rather than just his rival.

"You're all missing the point," Bakugou grumbled. "Shimamura is still our friend. We need to do what's best for her. Not the goddamn public."

Deku sighed and put his head in his hands, unable to handle the current choice they had to make. The heroes continued bickering and arguing about what to do, keeping in mind Bakugou's added comment, but it meant nothing. Bakugou grunted and walked out of the room without a single eye-line on him. No one even realized he had gone.

Their words meant nothing to him. He already made up his mind.