The wail of ambulance and police car sirens blared, shattering the silence of the night that was beginning to descend over the Unforeseen Simulation Joint (USJ) facility. Red and blue lights flashed, reflecting off the shattered glass of buildings and the scattered concrete debris.
The chaos had finally truly ended. The professional heroes had taken over, secured the area, and captured the remaining low-level villains who had not managed to escape. Outside the main building, the students of Class 1-A were gathered to be registered and have their conditions checked by the medical team and police detectives.
The atmosphere among the students felt heavy. Tension, fear, and the adrenaline that was slowly fading left behind an overwhelming exhaustion. Some of them had scratches and bruises, but others were in far worse condition.
Of course, the main protagonist, Midoriya Izuku, topped the list of severely injured with bones shattered by his own Quirk. Yet what shocked the entire class the most was the sight of another figure being carried on a stretcher by the medical team.
Nabiel.
The young man who usually spent his time sleeping in class and always seemed indifferent to the world around him now lay weakly with both hands wrapped in thick bandages up to his elbows. His oversized white shirt was stained with blood, ash, and soot. For his classmates who had always seen Nabiel as nothing more than a lazy background character, the sight of him in that state delivered a strangely sobering dose of reality.
"Hey… that's Nabiel, right?" Kaminari whispered, his face still pale after the effects of his Quirk's short-circuit had worn off. "He… fought that hard?"
Kirishima clenched his fists and looked at Nabiel's stretcher with respect. "He's really manly. Even though he always looks lazy, when danger came he didn't run."
On his stretcher, Nabiel, who faintly heard Kirishima's comment, could only think wearily, I didn't run because I was surrounded by fire, you idiot. If there had been an escape route, I would have been asleep on the bus ages ago.
Nabiel was moved to the emergency medical facility set up in one of the still-intact wings of the USJ building. As he was laid on a medical bed, his sharp ears caught the conversation of the detectives and professional heroes outside the curtain.
From the snippets of information flying around, Nabiel pieced together the new plot fragment that had just occurred. All Might, the Symbol of Peace, was severely injured. His time limit had been exceeded. The cause was the artificial creature called "Nomu," the large black-skinned monster with its brain exposed that Nabiel had glimpsed from afar earlier.
Ah, so that creature was the narrative device prepared to counter the strongest character in this series, Nabiel thought from his Outer perspective. An effective cliché. It forces the pillar of the world to crumble slowly so the next generation has a reason to rise. The scriptwriter of this world is pretty decent.
The stinging throb from both hands pulled Nabiel back to his physical reality. That burning sensation was proof that he was not watching from outside the dimension but was truly standing on the stage itself.
From the bed to his left came a soft groan.
Nabiel turned his heavy head. There lay Midoriya Izuku. Both legs and his right arm were encased in casts and bandages, his face covered in bruises, yet his green eyes still shone with stubborn determination. The protagonist looked just as wrecked, if not worse.
Nabiel stared at him for several seconds with his weary, half-lidded black eyes.
"Pushing yourself again as usual?" Nabiel asked in a quiet voice, breaking the silence between them.
Midoriya startled slightly, not realizing Nabiel was already awake. He turned his head and winced as his neck moved. His eyes widened at the sight of Nabiel's hands.
"You're badly injured too, Nabiel-kun," Midoriya replied, his voice trembling from a mix of pain and empathy. "Does it still hurt?"
The lazy young man let out a long sigh and stared at the white ceiling of the medical tent. "Not as bad as yours, idiot. It's manageable…."
"Your hands… they're severely blistered, the medical team said," Midoriya muttered, his habitual mumbling nearly surfacing again but held back by the pain. "You must have fought a really strong villain in the Ruin Zone. To protect yourself and maybe others… you used your Quirk to its limit, right?"
Nabiel snorted softly. Protecting? I was just experimenting with being human and happened to face a crazy guy who likes burning himself.
"I was just unlucky," Nabiel answered casually. "Next time there's a villain invasion, please let me know earlier. I'll pretend to faint in the first minute."
Midoriya smiled faintly, knowing his classmate's habits. "You say that, but you survived. That's amazing, Nabiel-kun. You… you're a great hero."
The words made Nabiel fall silent. The term "hero" felt utterly foreign to him. He was an Observer. He existed outside the concepts of good and evil, hero and villain. He was merely a cosmic entity disguised as a lazy, half-lidded teenager. Yet hearing genuine appreciation from the figure destined to be the center of this universe brought a strange, warm flicker to his chest.
Before Nabiel could reply with a sarcastic remark, the privacy curtain in front of their beds was hastily drawn aside.
Yaoyorozu Momo appeared. Her face still showed traces of panic, though she looked neater after cleaning herself of the battle dust. Her eyes immediately fixed on Nabiel.
"Nabiel," Momo called, her voice softer than usual. She stepped closer to his bed, briefly ignoring Midoriya, though she gave the class representative a polite nod.
"Momo," Nabiel replied flatly. "You didn't go home? The fireworks show is already over."
"Stop joking. The doctor said your burns are second-degree. If you don't get proper treatment at the hospital with a healing Quirk soon, you could lose nerve function in your fingers," Momo scolded, though her tone was filled with deep concern. The girl pulled up a small chair and sat beside Nabiel's bed.
"It won't happen," Nabiel murmured. He knew his body would slowly regenerate itself thanks to the lingering Outer energy in his cells, even though he suppressed the power. "I just need sleep."
Momo sighed and looked at the bandages on Nabiel's hands with a sorrowful gaze. The hands that she usually stroked when he slept on her lap, the hands that were always hidden behind the oversized shirt sleeves.
"You fell asleep on my lap earlier," Momo whispered suddenly, her face turning slightly red as she remembered the moment at the USJ entrance. "And you were heavy."
"That's because Earth's gravity isn't being friendly to me right now," Nabiel answered offhandedly, causing Midoriya in the next bed to stifle a laugh until he winced in pain from his cracked ribs.
Momo smiled faintly, her worry easing a little upon seeing Nabiel still able to reply with his signature annoying attitude. She reached out with her uninjured hand and gently touched the unburned end of Nabiel's shirt sleeve.
"Get well soon, Nabiel," Momo said sincerely. "Class will feel too quiet without someone I can scold for sleeping during Present Mic's lessons."
Nabiel closed his eyes, letting the overwhelming fatigue finally take over his consciousness. The sound of sirens outside, the smell of medicine, the pain in his hands, Midoriya's conversation with Recovery Girl who had just entered, and Momo's presence at his side.
All of it was so troublesome. So cliché. So noisy.
Yet for the first time in the eternity of his existence as an Outer Observer, Nabiel felt that being a character inside the story… was not too boring.
"Yeah, yeah…" Nabiel murmured before his consciousness fully sank into sleep. "Wake me up… only when the story reaches the relaxing part…."