day;1
Saving the last 4 was harder than he had expected.
But then again what had he expected- for 4 teenagers who fell from a few hundred feet while being unconscious to land perfectly and be patiently waiting inside a tipped-over bus for him to rescue them?
Kaminari was pinned against one of the railings and a bus seat, squirming in pain with steady tears down streaking his face. Unlodging him, even with his capture weapon handy, had proved to be a task. The boy had bruised his torso and broken his wrist- and there was no painless way to lift him. Finding Hagakure in itself was a task, but after stumbling upon an invisible raised surface that groaned in pain, Aizawa allowed him to assess the damage. Blood leaking out of supposedly thin air had made itself visible, the slight distortion of shattered glasses making it clear where the girl had been stabbed. Sero and Midoriya were both unconscious and entangled together. Midoriya's arm was bent and pinned under Sero who had a stream of blood trickling down his forehead. A dull ache slowly spread through his body through the tiresome process of slowly carrying the boys out. Torn off tapes from Sero clung to the grimy floor of the bus, the whole exit route looking more like an obstacle course. Rescuing others was a given in the field of being a hero, although under more normal circumstances the hero in question himself wouldn't have been crushed in a bus merely a few hours ago. His whole body ached, his limbs were made of lead and the previously subtle pounding in his head had slowly begun to make itself prominent.
The sun burned brightly against his pale skin, a mockery of the metaphorical rain cloud over them. What was supposed to be an efficient and beneficial on-field training had suddenly turned into a survival scenario with the bare minimum supplies in an isolated setting where help would take at least a few hours to arrive; the kids were looking forward to the whole fiasco (or what it was supposed to be)- Aizawa knew this from the many snippets of excited gushing he'd catch on occasion. Although his own enthusiasm levels had been low even as a teenager and the additional stress of existing as an adult ha only dampened it further, he couldn't deny hearing them had granted him a simmer of hope for a genuinely good time. Truly life loved to play cruel jokes on them, be it villains attacking or sudden heart attacks throwing buses off cliffs.
Speaking of heart attacks, Aizawa still had to rescue the still body of the driver which lay entrapped in the driver's seat, the seatbelt holding him firmly even as his body drooped bonelessly across the wheel and the window. Aizawa already had a foot inside the bus when a groan bought his attention to his students who he had sprawled out across the hardened ground. The students had begun to squirm slightly, groaning in pain as they attempted to regain control over their muscles, faces scrunched up in pain and concentration. Only Midoriya and Bakugo were still unconscious, both laying still as if paralyzed by some unforeseen force. They were both alive (Aizawa had checked foremost) with a stable breathing rate and steady heartbeats. Hopefully neither were in something drastic like a coma nor were would they suffer permanent injuries in the aftermath.
"Sensei, what- what happened?"
Aizawa glimpsed at the source of the voice; Jirou was pushing up her torse, her forearms supporting her body. Her face was molded into a scowl, pain evident in the slight wince which escaped when she moved her right leg.
"The bus flew off the edge of the cliff, I think the bus driver suffered some sort of an attack or a stroke. Where are you feeling pain?"
There was no point in mentioning the driver was most likely dead, the students could be spared the burden of looming death in the face of hopelessness and pain.
"My right calve feels like someone is ripping the muscle off from my bone and there's a growing pain in my ankle. Everything else feels fine although my head hurts slightly."
Aizawa had plucked out a chunk of glass from her calve so that pain was expected but all the bones were still intact when he had felt around for fractures. A sprain or a hairline fracture then, god Aizawa hoped it was the former.
"Once I get the medic kit from the bus, I'll patch you up. And the head is probably due to the fact that we fell from pretty much a few hundred feet."
That seemed to satisfy her who went back to quietly look around at her fallen classmates. Most of the class had minor injuries, Aizawa had checked. Most had broken bones at the most, although he couldn't assess Bakugo and Midoriya for they weren't conscious to tell him about the pain they felt.
Todoroki had a shard of glass jammed from his hip to his lower ribs and although wide, the cut wasn't deep enough for Aizawa to worry about too much internal breathing. He had gotten Shinso to brainwash Todoroki long enough for him to momentarily ignore his pain so he could cauterize the wound with his fire. Shinso himself had managed to get away with a few scrapes and some major bruising in his ribs and legs- but it was nothing the boy couldn't handle. Tokoyami had managed to get away with merely a single cut in his arm by a stray flying piece of glass, thankfully due to dark shadow acting on its own accord and sensing danger. Although the shock had been enough to render him unconscious for most of the time Aizawa took to get his children out. Dark shadow had been kind enough to shelter most of Asui too for the impact, albeit Aizawa suspected the poor girl had broken a finger or two. Kaminari had suffered more of emotional pain than physical pain, in the catatonic state he was in was any indication. A broken rib, a few cuts, and a lifetime of trauma, truly life had an odd way of unfolding. Kirishima thankfully had managed to snap awake a few seconds before impact, purely survival instincts hardening the more sensitive parts of his body letting only superficial injuries occur. Aizawa had managed to pop back the dislocated wrist which the redhead cradled carefully against his chest. He was one of the few students who were able to stand, looking over the other students who were in pain or were still not fully conscious. Iida, too, had gotten away with bruises and a few deep cuts on his arms. Ayoma's support belt was shattered, and the leaking trickle of laser essence was causing more distress to the boy than the cut across his thighs so Aizawa could afford to gamble on whether it was a major injury or not. Ojiro's tail had taken quite a large piece of glass in a last-ditch attempt for defense and Ashido had managed to melt away most the wooden splinters from the car seat which has made a home in her back. Momo was on her feet too, for which Aizawa could have danced in joy since simply her quirk raised the bar of rescue by a substantial amount.
It was the whole aspect of what sort of imprint the whole experience was going to leave on the children which terrified Aizawa. To be a hero would be to readily accept the fact that they would face extensive injuries yet a hero was still a human, and it was simple survival instinct to be terrified when an unexpected obstacle hurled itself at them at full speed. Aizawa couldn't help but wonder if they'd ever wanna get on a bus ride through the mountains ever again.
"When do you think help will arrive, sensei?"
Uraraka's voice startled him out of his train of thought; she sat on the ground folded onto herself. Her right arm was wrapped around his left shoulder, leaning against one of the few large boulders spread across the plain field.
"In a few hours hopefully, Uraraka. Is your shoulder hurting too much?"
"Nothing I can't take, the other's are in worse pain than me and Deku and Bakugo aren't even awake."
A look of fear and an emotion faltering between anger and sadness masked over her face. Aizawa knew what she was feeling, the impending dread of the unknown with the added stress of possible fatal injuries.
Letting out a soft sigh, Aizawa walked over to where he sat a few feet away and crouched to her eye level.
"A hero wants to help and protect those who need it, but a good hero has to make sure to protect himself and know where their own limits lie. Your pain does not become invalid just because someone else is suffering greater pain. Process it rather than shove it away, otherwise, you'll fail to save others and yourself, too."
Uraraka's eyes widened at his rather blunt words, before nodding and closing her eyes for just a second. When she opened them again, Aizawa could recognize the determination and a slight glimmer of hope in them.
"The route we took to get to the training field was different for every class heading there, with only the homeroom teacher and the principal have knowledge of the particular route in order to reduce risks of information leaking to villains. We were supposed to have reached by 10 am and it's currently 7:30 am. By the time they dispatch help, it should be 11 am. So I just need you, kids, to hold on for another 4 hours approximately."
Although the idea of almost no one knowing where they were (and help not reaching for what was surely going to be a few painful and long hours) was terrifying in on itself, the silver lining of hope it bought along, Aizawa hoped, would be enough to keep his students going for the next few hours. Whilst he had announced his approximation to everyone present, he wasn't sure how many had actually registered and processed the information over the numbing pain they were experiencing.
"Where is the driver?"
It wasn't until Momo mentioned the driver that Aizawa realized what his original task had been. But even before he could turn around and return to what remained of the bus, Iida interjected.
"Are we sure he is still alive?"
Aizawa knew he'd have to break it to the kids eventually and even though they were old enough to understand the concept of death, it didn't make the subject matter any less grim or depressing.
"I am not sure, Iida, but he seemed to suffer enough injury to be in an almost comatose state" Aizawa wasn't even sure if his chest had been moving.
"Sensei, I may be mistaken but if he was unconscious", Iida pointed to the where Aizawa had seen the bloodstained glass panes and the lifeless silhouette previously, "then where is he now?"
Never in his life had Aizawa moved so fast in his life, mind barely registering the disappearance of what he was sure was a dead body.