Chapter 67 - CH 51: PAST? (5) part 1

THREE DAYS LATER ON A CAMP NOT FAR FROM THE EXPLOSION SITE:

People in white blouses could be seen mingling and doing different kinds of work.

Some were doing calculations on a pad, others were talking on the phone with an urgent tone, while some others were observing things with a microscope.

In short, things were busy. Very busy. Well, some people weren't that busy.

"You heard…about the zombie?"

"Zombie?"

"You didn't know what happened three days ago?"

"No, I was doing some verifications so I was in my home during those last three days."

"I understand you man, anyway, about the zombie, I heard from Eric, who heard it from James, who heard it from Jack who heard it from the brother of the husband of the head nurse that three days ago the professor found a zombie on the site of the explosion and sent him to the medicinal unit."

"A zombie? seriously?"

"I swear on the head of your sister that I am saying the truth."

"Bastard!!"

A discussion like that,(Minus the swearing part) could be heard everywhere. But what were they talking about? A zombie?

Deeper in the camps, things were less hectic. Almost tranquil even.

There, in one of the tents, a thin middle-aged man with frizzled brown hair, wearing a white coat could be seen observing something on a computer.

"It's really impressive. To think that a human being could have such a strong life force. He is basically at the top of all those possessing a regeneration quirk. Sam, come and observe this."

Next to the man, stood another. This one, Sam, was a little larger than the one who called him.

After coming closer and observing the results, he was also astonished.

"Dave, you're right. It is really incredible. Too bad, the existence of the quirks is still such a mystery. If we could understand this one quirk or those like him, there would be no more disease in this world."

Dave shook his head in denial,

"Even if we could, it wouldn't change anything. We already broke some rules by doing what we did. No way I would caution human experiment."

The man named Sam had an abashed expression on his face. He hurriedly explained himself.

"That's not what I meant. You know that we are close to completing our work on a machine to boost the power of a quirk. I just thought about what we could do after that."

Just as Dave was about to answer,

"PAPA!!!"

A beautiful blonde girl entered the tent in a hurry. Dave turned to face the most precious thing in his life, his daughter.

"Yes?"

"He is waking up. Come and take a look. Hurry."

Without waiting for her father's answer, the girl hurried back.

----

Kuroha felt like he was dreaming.

In his dreams, he was surrounded by many young people of his age who smiled and played with him.

He could neither see their faces nor hear their voice but he could feel how happy they were and how happy he was.

As time passed though, their numbers slowly dwindled.

From thirty-one they became twenty. From twenty they became ten. Finally, from ten, he became the only one.

----

Pain, incredible pain, that's what Kuroha felt as his consciousness slowly came back.

He wasn't dreaming anymore.

He slowly opened his eyes, and at once, so much feedback of pain was received that he felt like he would faint.

He closed his eyes once again and he gritted his teeth as he held on.

After a while, the pain finally settled down a little.

He opened his eyes, full of confusion as he observed his surroundings.

What was happening?

Where was he?

Who was he?

Hum no, he knew who he was. He just wanted to try thinking about it.

It was only after seeing the current state of his body that his memories of what happened came back.

Right now, with all the bandages covering his face and the rest of his body, he was basically a living mummy.

The explosion!!!

(I am not dead!!! I survived!!!)

It was the first time he felt that life was so beautiful.

He took a deep breath… Then immediately regretted it.

*cough* *cough*

Pain began to wreak his lungs. Then the rest of his body.

After a while, he let out a bitter smile. His body was a mess.

His right arm was gone while his left arms missed two fingers. His left foot was also gone.

Since he could only see from his right eye, it means that his left eye was gone. What more, thanks to all those bandages, he could guess that all or at least most of his skin was burned.

His side was in so much pain and breathing was so difficult that it was clear that his lungs were partially destroyed. Same for his ribs. He should have, at least, half of them broken.

It was the first time in his memory he received so much damage.

His survival was really a miracle.

He could only impute it to different factors.

One, this recording was done more than eight years ago. This means that the explosion was created with his regeneration ability at that time.

Two the range of the explosion while wide was obviously more powerful the closer you were to ground zero. The guy who made it must have never thought that he could go so fast without his teleportation quirk.

Three, the creation of [NUEVA ESPERANZA] was really a boon from the sky.

In short, he didn't survive thanks to his own skills. He was just lucky that the enemy didn't have a grasp of the extent of his power. He was lucky to have learned a new move under duress. He was lucky to have gone far enough to not be completely engulfed by the explosion.

He would have cried out of frustration if his lacrimal gland weren't cracked.

Luck could only take someone so far. One couldn't discard it but relying on it was asking to be killed sooner or later.

He couldn't help but berate himself. He really underestimated how dangerous they could be. He shouldn't have entered this second laboratory without ample preparation.

Just as he was about to continue to blame himself, someone entered the tent.

"OH!! You finally woke up."

A blonde girl suddenly entered the tent.

Kuroha's first impression of her was that she looked kind. The second thought was, she spoke in English?

"Hello!!...Ah! Sorry, surely you didn't understand me. *cough* Hello I don't know if you can speak but if you can hear me could you nod your head?"

He was sure of it. She first spoke English before switching to Japanese. He tried to speak but when he opened his mouth, a biting pain went past his throat.

"*COUGH* *COUGH*"

"Are you OK?"

He ignored the stupid question and looked at the palm of his hand, a little bit of blood was on it. He sighed internally, seeming like it wouldn't be easy.

He turned to face the girl once again. She was obviously of western descent.

She is a full-figured and attractive pale-skinned young woman of slightly above average height with quite a round face.

She had wavy blonde hair which reached halfway down her back, side-swept bangs that frame her face, aqua-blue eyes with notable upper eyelashes, some slightly longer ones extending on each side and pronounced lower eyelashes.

She was wearing a white short-sleeved dress shirt with plaid cuffs, a large bow of the same design at her neck, and a dark raspberry pink waistcoat.

Accompanying these are pale grey capri pants, under which was a pair of plaid pink socks as well as a pair of heeled brown boots. She also wore a wristwatch and pink, oval-framed glasses.

Being stared at by an unknown man whose full body was covered by bandages was truly a little creepy. She couldn't help but fidget a little.

Observing her reactions, Kuroha understood that he was being rude and turned his gaze.

He didn't know where he was but at least this girl didn't seem like a bad girl. Of course, he wouldn't let his guard down. As Miliena said, the most dangerous people were those who looked harmless.

Melissa, seeing the man stop looking at her let out a sigh of relief and waited for her father.

She didn't have to wait for long because he came just a few seconds later.

Kuroha's first reaction after seeing the two new arrivals was to tighten his muscles. Had it been in better shape, he would have immediately used the girl as a hostage.

Sadly, he wasn't in the best shape. So he forced himself to relax. His fear of people wearing white blouses wasn't as strong as in the past.

All those actions didn't escape the eyes of dave. He could feel the wariness in the eyes of this man.

Deciding that it would be better to not startle him too much, he stayed where he was and spoke in fluent Japanese.

"Hello, since it seems like you can hear us, let me present myself. My name is David, David Shield, the man here is my friend and colleague Samuel Abraham and finally, this beautiful girl is my daughter, Melissa Shield."

"Papa!!"

He ignored the blushing Melissa. He had decided to adopt a slightly joking tone in order to ease the tension.

Kuroha observed those two carefully as well. The man named Samuel was an old man a little heavy with short blond hair.

The man named David emanated a more imposing impression.

He was a tall man of an average build, with notable wrinkles on his forehead and defined nasolabial folds and tear troughs.

He had small sky-blue eyes and short, unruly honey brown hair with two prominent tufts curving outwards from the top of his forehead, a short goatee on his chin and wide-rimmed square glasses on his face.

He was wearing a plain dark blue shirt with a single b.r.e.a.s.t pocket, the two top buttons left casually undone and the sleeve-cuffs unbuttoned and rolled up to just below his elbows.

He also wore a pair of pale gray-blue jeans, a dark belt with a silver buckle and navy blue sneakers with white soles, decorated with a red stripe near the toe. On top of all that was a white coat.

Frankly, the only thing stopping him from using his [BLINK] and flee from here was that he was pretty sure he would die if he did it.

He also didn't feel fear about the fact that his blood quirks seemed to not work. In reality, it was working and going overdrive just to keep him alive.

He didn't need a machine to know how f.u.c.k.i.e.d up his body was right now. All Might's wounds were nothing compared to his current state.

His quirk was extremely powerful and fuel-efficient, but it couldn't create things from nothing. In short...He needed to eat... A lot.