Chapter 193: Waking Up and Scars
__________ POV Narration__________
'He sure loves to worry people...' Nezu thought to himself in regards to Beru's current state.
Nezu had visited the insectoid in person, mainly out of concern. Beru seemed to be in a deep sleep, the strange part was that Beru's arm wasn't healed completely, to be more specific, a large scar appeared on his right shoulder all the way to the middle of his torso.
It looked as if some overwhelming force had tried to forcefully pull it away from Beru's body.
The strangest part was that the scar appeared after Beru fell into a deep sleep. The people that had found him seemed to report that he wasn't outwardly injured.
It was as if his body was constantly morphing and shifting. The doctors also expressed various concerns for the Ant King's internal organs, which had supposedly suffered irreparable damage.
Had it not been for him overcharging Hyper Regeneration, Beru would've died many times over in that exchange.
The heat from the meteors, melted his organs while the sheer impact of said meteors managed to shred his organs apart repeatedly.
Nezu somewhat pondered how someone could even survive such wounds. Regeneration or not, they were the type that could kill instantly.
The full extent of Beru's medical file was kept from the public, very few people actually knew about it. The doctors that inspected him, Recovery Girl, Nezu as well as Goda Yori.
Nemuri and Beru's students were especially kept in the dark about the severity of his injuries as them knowing about such a matter would only further complicate things.
'The world is stirring. Villains don't even dare to show themselves in the public, civilians are swarming the places where you once frequented.'
'The press is painting you as some gallant hero, a beacon of hope and a protector of innocents. While I personally find this amusing, I know you will hate it the moment you wake up...'
Nezu sighed as he thought about the logistics of even trying to 'worsen' Beru's public image. At this point, it was simply untouchable.
Not even Beru himself would be able to dissuade people from idolizing him. If Nezu tried to help in that regard, he would only invite a lot of scrutiny towards himself and UA.
So Nezu had no choice but to stand by and watch the world paint some odd perfect picture of Beru.
There was also the issue of how Beru's actions had affected the heroes...
Everyone in the city started seeing Beru in the same light as some of the civilians. While those that knew Beru didn't buy the whole 'Gallant Hero' shtick, they still started idolizing him.
The students all started viewing Beru as their generation's Symbol of Peace. Izuku even went as far as to publicly state that in a live interview.
Ochako was also beyond ecstatic that she and her child had survived.
She knew that Beru was the only reason such a thing was possible, she also knew that he had protected everyone from what was essentially her and Izuku's mistake.
She along with Izuku and her child had all visited Beru on numerous occasions. Izuku also eventually managed to stop Ochako from feeling too guilty, remembering what Beru himself had told him...
There was no reason for them to feel responsible for something they simply couldn't control.
Nemuri didn't even bother to look at the news, most of her time was spent beside's Beru's bed.
Many of Beru's friends showed up to visit him. Including the former hero and villain, Lady Nagant. Nagant's appearance did spur a bit of jealousy from Nemuri, but it wasn't anything too drastic.
Eventually though, the inevitable happened. Beru woke up.
With a large yawn, he rose out of bed. Raising his left arm as he stretched it outwards. It took the Ant King a few seconds to realise that he couldn't quite feel his right arm at all. Let alone move it.
Looking down, he could see his body, his right shoulder specifically, was filled with gruesome scars. His torso also seemed a bit deformed, his usually straight exoskeleton was bent and melted in an odd way.
'I guess the second I passed out my Hyper Regeneration could no longer suppress my injuries...'
After all, some claimed that Quirks were like muscles. One could train and develop a quirk, so one could also obviously overuse a quirk.
Beru sigher a bit as he thought about using some quirks to mend his appearance back to his usual.
He scrapped that thought almost instantly though, as he raised that he somehow looked even cooler with scars.
Well, some would call them scars, but since Beru had no skin, they were mostly just his mangled exoskeleton.
The only part that could classify as an actual scar was the largest deformity within his shoulder, which showed him his dried up muscles and twitching flesh.
His Exoskeleton on that part was most likely ground to dust. And Hyper Regeneration must've mostly focused on healing his organs after a while.
'And I thought permanent damage was damn near impossible with my strength.' Beru sighed as he looked around his current room.
Judging by the accommodations, he was in a hospital, a private room even. Beru could sense that there were people guarding the hospital all over.
He could also somewhat feel Nemuri's scent nearby, signalling to him that she had been next to him not too long ago.
"Oi! Anyone here?~" Beru shouted a bit, he snickered internally when he felt the guards at his door stumble in shock.
Beru got up, only to realise that his left leg was also scarred. His calve more specifically, it affected the way he moved his clawed foot.
He couldn't quite feel it, but he could move his knee, so he was still technically able to walk on it like a peg leg.
Beru walked out of his door without much issue, completely shocking his guards once more as their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
"S-SIR!" "You're not supposed to move so soon!!" "Hang on! I'll call the doctors!" They reacted rather slowly, but they couldn't really be blamed since protecting Beru wasn't the most eventful job.
The only exciting part of their job was meeting plenty of powerful heroes and prominent figures, all coming to visit Beru.
"Don't bother, will ya?~ Not like there's much else to check up on~" Beru waved his hand. The men nodded in admiration, Beru didn't think much of it though, since some people still looked at him like that occasionally.
'I wonder what everyone else is up to...~ I guess visiting them would be a good idea.' Beru thought to himself as purple mist seeped out of the cracks in his exoskeleton, completely covering him as he left the guards with the following words.
"I'm off now~ Have a good one will ya?~ Put the medical bills on my tab!~"
The guards didn't even get to respond as the Symbol of Peace was already gone...
They only looked at each other in confusion... 'Who would dare to charge the Symbol of Peace for medical bills?!' Was written all over their faces. Also, 'What tab?! Is this a bar or something?!'
Their questions would go unanswered, but they still reported the event to the doctors. They were quite mad at the bodyguards for not stopping Beru for the last check-up.
But the guards could only shrug at that. 'Why don't you try stopping him next time?' Was their formal answer as they returned to their positions within the police force.
_________ POV Beru_________
Damn those meteors really broke into my room and shit on my chest...
Well, fuck them anyway, I stop them in the end so I win.
Now that my hospital stay is over, it's time to head over to UA, Nemuri doesn't seem to be anywhere near her apartment, so Nezu likely called her over to work.
I decided to do something rather unusual, walked through the city for a bit.
I know, I know, 'But, uh, teleportation!'. But I really don't feel like warping around everywhere right now.
I'm also kinda curious about the state of the city.
It seems rather strange how some parts are completely intact while others are actually beyond totalled.
"Oh my GOD! It's BERU!" "NO WAY!" "HE WOKE UP!"
What the fuck is this??
I didn't even get to walk around for a full minute and I'm already swarmed by civilians. They're crowding around me like a group of ants to a bread crumb.
"Thank you for saving us!" "Yeah! THANK YOU!" "Please give me an autograph!" "Me too! Me too! Sign on my chest!"
Actually, scratch that, this ain't so bad... Really boosting my fragile ego.
Too bad the one that wanted a chest signature is a dude. Also, I don't feel like struggling to write with my left arm right now.
"Maybe another time~ Would you all mind?~ I'm kinda in the middle of something right now~ Contemplating shit and all that~"
__________ POV Narration__________
The people around Beru completely ignored his weirdness, completely infatuated with meeting their idol in person.
Some did try to move out of the way, but as more and more people gathered, Beru realised that the only way to get out was either stepping on the heads of a few people or simply teleporting away.
And now, he wasn't completely against trampling civilians, but he also didn't really want to catch any lawsuit while out on a stroll.
He didn't realise that if he stepped on their heads they would actually thank him. But he was really weirded out by the way they were acting already.
In the end, he warped away directly into the UA campus, not wanting to deal with civilians anymore...
That was his biggest mistake... Why?
Well, what exactly were the type of students that were attracted by UA? What was their main demographic?
Well... My friend, that would be Hero Nerds. Much like Izuku was in his early teenage years.
Beru clutched his ears as countless fanboys/fangirls on campus all started screeching in his direction.
It almost made him think that he had somehow triggered the villain alarm meant to deafen the intruders.
Needless to say... Beru was going to demand quite a few explanations from Nezu...
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Hope you liked the chapter! Was kind of a long day (in a good way), I just got home actually (it's midnight).
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