Two weeks had passed since the incident at the USJ, and euphoria for the upcoming U.A. Sports Festival began to blanket every corner of the school. However, for Nabiel, time seemed to crawl in this sterile, white room filled with the scent of antiseptic. Long before the clamor of the tournament could begin, the routine of the Outer Observer had shifted from classroom naps to agonizing rehabilitation sessions at Musutafu General Hospital.
Inside the examination room, Nabiel sat leaning against a medical bed. The oversized white shirt he usually wore had been replaced by a short-sleeved hospital gown, exposing arms that were now free of thick bandages but covered in layers of special ointment and thin, elastic wraps. The skin from his forearms down to his palms looked horrific, appearing dark red, wrinkled, and filled with scar tissue that had yet to heal completely.
A doctor with a medical scanning Quirk had just pulled his hands away from Nabiel's arms, his face showing a deep trace of worry. In the room, it was not just Nabiel and the doctor, but also Yaoyorozu Momo, who stood in the corner with her hands clasped anxiously, and a middle-aged man with black hair graying at the temples: Nabiel's father in this world.
"I have to be honest with you," the doctor began, breaking the stifling silence. He looked at Nabiel's father and then turned to the school representative mentioned in the medical report in his hand. "Young Nabiel's condition is far more concerning than our initial estimates. Both the hospital and U.A. are very doubtful he can participate fully in the Sports Festival."
Momo caught her breath, her eyes widening. "Is it... is it that bad, Doctor?"
The doctor nodded heavily. "The blue fire from that villain didn't just burn the epidermis and dermis. The heat damaged vital parts, including muscle tissue, major blood vessels, and several fine motor nerves in both arms. The damage is at a cellular level."
The doctor then turned toward Momo, offering a thin smile of appreciation. "If Young Yaoyorozu hadn't provided such precise first aid at the time, creating a special cooling gel and applying the correct pressure bandages before the medical team arrived, his nerve tissue would surely be dead. Without that first aid, we might be talking about an amputation procedure for both his arms right now."
At the mention of the word amputation, Momo's shoulders shook slightly. The girl's face went pale as she imagined the worst-case scenario that had nearly befallen her childhood friend. Nabiel's father rubbed his face roughly, letting out a frustrated sigh filled with a parent's fear.
Meanwhile, the subject of this terrifying conversation was simply staring at his own arms with an incredibly blank expression.
Nabiel's dark eyes blinked slowly. In his mind, he processed the information like a critic reading a script draft. Amputation, huh? A limb loss trope. Usually, this is used to trigger character development or provide a reason for the character to get high-tech prosthetic arms. Aesthetically speaking, a character with a mechanical arm is actually quite cool.
Without filtering his words from his detached Outer perspective, Nabiel murmured softly, breaking the tension in the room.
"That wouldn't be too bad for me."
Silence fell instantly. The temperature in the room seemed to drop drastically.
"How is that not bad?!"
Momo's voice cracked, echoing off the walls of the examination room. The black-haired girl stepped forward, her eyes glaring at Nabiel. There was a flash of anger there, but more than that, there was deep fear and pain.
"Try caring about yourself for once, you idiot!" Momo exclaimed, her voice trembling slightly. Her hands were clenched tightly at her sides. "If both your arms were amputated, how would you become a hero? How could you live a normal life?!"
Nabiel was slightly startled, looking at his friend's now-reddened face.
Momo looked down, her black bangs covering part of her face, but Nabiel could see a single tear fall onto the hospital floor. "Don't speak as if you're worthless," Momo whispered, her voice now softening into a suppressed sob. "Maybe you don't mind losing both arms... but I would be sad to see it. Very sad, Nabiel."
Those words hit Nabiel harder than any physical blow he had ever received in this world.
The Observer fell silent. He suddenly realized the boundary between himself as a cosmic entity and himself as "Nabiel," an ordinary human in this world. To him, losing an arm might just be a matter of modifying an avatar or changing reality settings. But for Momo, for the girl who had grown up with him and who cried while bandaging his wounds at the USJ, that pain and loss were absolute. They were real. They could not be erased with the authority of [True> Nabiel realized that his apathy had just hurt someone who sincerely cared about his existence on this stage.
The messy-haired young man let out a long sigh. He lowered his head, shedding his Outer shell for a moment and allowing himself to be fully human.
"Yes, I understand," Nabiel said softly, his tone losing its usual laziness. He looked into Momo's tearful eyes. "I'm sorry, Momo. I didn't mean to ignore the effort you put into saving me."
Momo wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and nodded slowly, though she still looked upset.
At the same time, Nabiel's father, who had been standing between them near the bed, took a deep breath. He stepped forward, placing a large, warm hand on Nabiel's uninjured shoulder.
"I've already told the school, Nabiel my son," his father said with a heavy but firm tone. "Given your condition, you probably need total rehabilitation without school activities for a while. I won't let you force yourself to get involved in any festivals or training until the doctor says your nerves have fully recovered."
Nabiel's eyes widened slightly. Wait a minute. Total rehabilitation? No school activities?
His Observer instincts immediately went off. If he were pulled out of U.A. now, he would lose front-row access to one of the most crucial arcs in the story. He wouldn't be able to watch the development of Midoriya, Todoroki, or even Momo up close. He would be completely isolated from the main plot, returning to being a viewer sitting outside the screen.
And for some reason, after feeling the blood, sweat, and tears in this world, the thought of returning to being a passive spectator fe lt... incredibly boring.
"Father," Nabiel spoke up, looking at the middle-aged man seriously. "I understand your concern. But I can't stop going to school right now."
"Nabiel, your hands..."
"I won't push myself at the Sports Festival," Nabiel interrupted quickly, his brain constructing the most plausible scenario. He glanced at Momo, seeking support. "I promise only to participate as far as my body allows. If it hurts, I'll withdraw immediately. Besides..." Nabiel gave a thin, lazy smile, returning to his original persona. "...you know how lazy I am. I don't have any ambition to win or be number one like Bakugo or the others."
Momo looked at him suspiciously, crossing her arms. "You say that, but at the USJ, you suddenly stepped forward to fight that terrifying villain alone."
"That was an emergency," Nabiel argued casually. "The Sports Festival is monitored by pro heroes. There is no deadly danger. I just want to be there with my classmates. With you."
Momo's face flushed slightly at those last words, and she turned her head away while clearing her throat softly. "F-fine. If you promise not to use your arms for anything heavy, I... I will watch over you during the festival. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, Uncle."
Nabiel's father looked at his son, then at Momo, before finally letting out a long sigh of defeat. "Alright. But on one condition. You must take all these rehabilitation sessions seriously. No napping during physical therapy."
Nabiel winced slightly, feeling his freedom to be lazy being snatched away. "A cruel deal," he murmured.
However, as he looked at his bandaged arms and saw the relieved smile returning to Momo's face, Nabiel felt that perhaps, once in a while, following this mortal script wasn't so bad. Being human was indeed a hassle, but the bonds formed within it were something he would never find in the void of Terra.