~O~

"...F-Fine.... I-I'm.... F-Fine..."

Where that might be the biggest lie Iida had ever heard, it was also the last thing he heard from his green haired friend before the boy felt limp in his arms.

"Midoriya! Hey!" Iida cried out his name as he elevated the boy a little more while applying pressure to his wound as the green head's hands had fallen to his sides. As Iida elevated his position a bit, Midoriya's head tilted to the left, now showing his closed eyes.

He lost consciousness... Hopefully, that was just it. But what if it wasn't?

"Midoriya!!"

The students started panicking now.

Their green haired friend was barely even breathing now. Actually, they could hardly tell if he was even breathing or not. His skin was as cold as ice. The wound wouldn't stop bleeding despite how much pressure Iida was applying on it. Midoriya looked so lifeless and pale. They didn't know what to do. The state of the boy terrified them. It looked as if he wouldn't make it to the hospital—!

No. No. No. No. No. No.

They couldn't think like that, now could they? They have to stay positive, remain calm and take all the necessary precautionary measures till the ambulance arrives. Everything would be fine as long as they did that, right? Midoriya would make it if they acted properly in this case.

'Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine.' They kept telling themselves.

Almost subconsciously, Uraraka went ahead to check the boy's pulse again.

...

There was no pulse.

The brunette's eyes widened as she slowly looked up to the others around her, they were all looking at her as if expecting an answer.

Unshed tears started to blur Uraraka's vision as she tried to form words to reply but she couldn't... She couldn't... She just... She just couldn't bring herself to say that Midoriya might never open his eyes again. Taking a deep shaky breathe, she just slightly shook her head sideways which gave away everything.

And with that the reality of the situation begun to sink in. Everything just seemed to come to a stop.

Asui hugged the brunette from the side as she broke down into tears. Yaoyorozu turned away while a choked sob escaped Iida's throat. Gradually, the others started to gather there and sit next to them.

Nobody said a word.

The silence gave it all away.

Suddenly, Iida felt something really cold. He lifted his hand from Midoriya's chest and glanced at his palm.

— The blood was turning a deep shade of blue.

"Wh-What...?" Iida stared at his palm before checking the wound. The blood was altogether turning dark blue... And was excessively cold. "It's turning b-blue..."

In that moment, when everyone the boy's blood change color and temperature, they knew that either there really was something in the bullet... Or it was the effect of an unknown quirk.

Either way, it didn't look like a good thing.

"The ambulance is here!!" Kirishima informed, running next to the group hurdled on the floor with the injured boy. "Make way for the medics!"

And just as they were told, they moved back and stood up as they watched the medics professionally carry Midoriya to the ambulance, making sure they don't move him in an angle that could make the injury worse.

As they carefully loaded the boy into the vehicle, the students came up outside the mall following them.

"Um... H-His blood is..." Ashido began.

"Yes, we saw. It's most likely the effect of a quirk." One of the medics turned to them, "What's the boy's quirk?"

"O-Oh, it's a strength enhancer." Kaminari replied.

"Strange." The medic murmured then said, "Don't worry the doctor's will try their best to save him. Was anyone else injured?"

"No, everyone else is fine." Kirishima said, looking at his classmates.

The medic nodded, "We'll take care of the rest. Thank you." With that he headed in the ambulance and closed the doors before the vehicle drove off to the nearest hospital, sending off the sirens as they disappeared in the distance.

The commotion dissolved. People started going back to their previous activities. The two boys who ran off after the villains earlier came back too. Apparently, they ended up running into some cops so the villains were arrested on sight. The little girl Midoriya protected was reunited with her mother as well — must've been a hard experience for someone her age. Class-1-A met up outside the mall, well except Midoriya.

Now, they just needed to inform the school about what happened.

"Iida, can you call Mr. Aizawa?"

"Y-Yeah, sure..."

~O~

After a quick call to their homeroom teacher — in which they horribly failed in explaining the situation — Class-1-A made their way to the hospital Midoriya was taken to.

While some of them stood waiting, a few went ahead to explain the whole scenario to a few cops who arrested those villains.

In enough time, Aizawa showed up there as well. And now here we are.

After about ten minutes, a doctor came up to them.

Aizawa signalled the students to calm down and went ahead to talk with the doctor, "How is he?"

"Well, I can't exactly say he's fine. The bullet did pass his heart." The doctor said, "Under normal circumstances, anyone would've died within the first five to seven minutes. But the boy seems to have a lot of luck on his side. He will survive..."

Aizawa sighed in relief.

"... But there's no guarantee for how long he will survive." The doctor added on.

"What does that mean?" Aizawa asked, confused. Earlier, Yaoyorozu had told him that Midoriya didn't have a pulse and had stopped breathing. Now after somehow, by some miracle the boy has hope for survival and the doctor says there's no guarantee of how long.

"We assume he was either hit by a quirk or manifested a new one that is keeping him alive. If it wasn't for the quirk, he would've been a hopeless case." The doctor explained. "Though, we have no idea on what the quirk is and what it is capable of. The only information we have regarding it is that it turns the blood extremely cold and deep blue. It's probably a way of symbolizing the quirk is active. Perhaps, he didn't manifest it but had it since birth and it's activation requires death. But that's just our assumption."

Aizawa took a moment to take in everything before asking, "Let's say if what you said is true, then why is there any danger? Didn't you say the quirk's keeping him alive?"

"The cold and the blue blood," The doctor replied, "His temperature is only going down. There's not even a 10 percent chance that it'll rise even if we provided him enough heat. We're afraid in the next two days or so, his body will become too cold for him to survive. He will freeze to death. Moreover, his blood is turning blue because the quirk is killing the red blood cells. Majority of the blood inside his body is still red as it should be. But it's slowly changing. And once it's completed, there will be no chance of him living."

Aizawa stayed silent. Thinking of what could save his student's life.

"He'll die within two days." The doctor finished.

"... Is there seriously no way we could save him? Anything that might help? I can't just let him die!" Aizawa said rather frustrated.

"As I said, we have no idea what the quirk is." The doctor said.

"I'm sorry but.... This is all we could do." With those words said, the doctor left for his other duties, not even glancing back.

Aizawa stood there silently for a moment, repeating everything the doctor told him in his mind before walking back to the teenagers waiting on the other side of the area.

~O~

When the students saw their homeroom teacher walking towards them, they all turned to him. Some worried, some confused.

Aizawa, on the other hand, still managed to keep a stoic face.

He was about to tell his students what Midoriya's doctor told him but couldn't as the students had to say something first.

They looked like they were separated in two groups. One small, one big.

"Mr. Aizawa, I'm so glad you're back! They've been saying strange things and we don't understand what's going on! Can you please explain it to us? I'm so very confused." Sero said, standing in front of the smaller group of about five to six students.

"Mr. Aizawa, something just suddenly happened to these guys after the cops left! They've been asking strange questions that don't make any sense! I tried to explain but they won't accept it!" Iida exclaimed, standing in front of the bigger but more worried group.

"Okay. Okay. Calm down. Both of you." Aizawa lifted up his hands before he said, "What happened when I was gone? Sero?"

"I don't exactly remember why we got here in the first place. I mean, we were just at the mall. Everything was fine. We had loads of fun. It was nearing curfew and Iida said we should head back. Just then some robbers showed up and threatened a child. They ran away for some odd reason and then we're just here! I asked Iida what happened and he told the exact same story but he added things that didn't happen and some complete stranger!"

"Sero—!"

"Just who is Midoriya?!"

The quirk's side effects were showing.