It was only a few days after watching All Mights final punch, that Sam was discharged from the hospital.
Once he set foot outside, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to bask in the warm sunlight.
But he also wanted to bask in something that will soon be hard to find here—peace.
Sam was not happy.
He was more than aware of what All Mights retirement meant for the country.
However, the blame lies entirely on the people of this nation for making him into some divine hero who fights for their sins.
"What the hell are you doing? You look like you just attained enlightenment."
Sam was brought out of his thoughts by a familiar voice.
He sighed.
"Rumi…"
Sam opened his eyes, seeing his Rabbit girlfriend before him.
"Hehe."
She gave him a beautiful smile.
Sam lightly blushed, finding her adorable.
She walked up to him and gave him a big hug.
"I was really worried about you. Promise me you'll be careful from now on."
She stopped hugging him and held his hands as she looked into his eyes.
Sam could see the worry in them.
He smiled at her.
"I promise. I won't be dying anytime soon."
He gave her a soft smile.
She smiled back.
Then, she put her arms around his neck.
She brought her face closer to his, and Sam followed suit and brought his closer too.
Finally, their lips connected.
It was a short kiss, but it felt wonderful.
They separated and Rumi backed away a bit, realizing they were in public.
She looked away—blushing from her boldness—which made Sam chuckle.
'She is funny.'
She acts so prideful and strong, but she gets embarrassed easily.
"A-Anyways, make sure you text me back! I don't care if the service is shit! Find a McDonalds and use their WiFi to at least keep in touch! You hear me?!?"
"Yes, your highness. God, you really are so unladylike."
Sam jabbed.
Rumi felt her eye twitch.
"Oh really?!"
She cracked her knuckles.
"Wanna say that again?"
She glared at him with an ominous aura surrounding her.
Sam raised his hands.
"I'm just playing! Jeez you need to chill your temper. Rabbits are usually chill and don't go seeking fights. What went wrong with your biological coding?"
Sam wasn't backing down.
Rumi felt a vein throb in her head.
Her elbow suddenly connected with his abdomen—right where he was shot.
Sam fell to a knee.
"Ow! You bitch! What the hell was that for?!?"
"Is that how you speak to your girlfriend?!?"
"This is DV! I'll sue!"
"Do it! I dare ya!"
They both glared at each other with violence in their eyes.
After staring each other down for a minute, they both started laughing.
"Hahahahahaha!"
"Hahahaha."
Rumi broke out in large laughter and Sam had a lighter laugh.
However, they both were enjoying themselves. That was all that mattered.
———
After saying goodbye to Rumi—after laughing for a solid minute—Sam was on his way back to the school.
He wasn't looking forward to going there.
He just knew that the others were going to question him on Ra.
He knew it would only be a matter of time before the Pale Hand would find him. Especially after his mental breakdown and the dumbass Bakugo calling him out live on television.
But he was too focused on his recovery and forgot about it.
'I was too sloppy.'
He closed his eyes and rested his head on the window of the taxi that was heading to U.A.
He thought about the meeting he had with the teachers prior to his discharge from the hospital.
———
A few days prior
Sam was sitting on his bed.
Rumi was doing hero work at the moment—due to the recent hike in crime caused by All Mights retirement.
He could only focus on getting himself moving.
He walked around the room and despite the pain in his leg and abdomen, it was nothing he couldn't handle.
The doctors prescribed painkillers to help with moving, but Sam didn't want to take them.
He was taught that pain killers not only numb pain, but also instinct.
This lesson was engraved into his and the other child soldiers heads back then.
The medics at the camp never had painkillers, which didn't help as the training was hardcore and would leave them absolutely wrecked at the end of the day.
They were expected to shake off the pain.
During his rehab with Miller and Simmons, they had him on pain killers, but he felt… wrong.
Being conditioned to always be ready for anything brought discomfort to him whenever he felt his senses being impeded.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a knock at the door.
"Come in."
Sam watched the door open, revealing some people he wasn't too pleased to see.
"Hello, Suzuki-kun! How are you feeling?"
The ones who entered were none other than principal Nezu, Aizawa and Tsukauchi.
"I was fine, now I'm not too fine since I have to deal with you."
Aizawa activated his quirk, trying to intimidate Sam.
Although he understands why Sam is acting cruel to them, he needs to enforce the rules regarding etiquette.
"Careful, Suzuki. I've been lenient with your disrespect."
Sam scoffed.
"Oh yeah? Why should I respect you when you guys rummaged through my stuff and found my picture of her? Which you then used in some cruel test? I'm supposed to forget about it? I already told you two that you can burn in hell for all I care."
Aizawa gritted his teeth.
Just as he was about to speak again, he was interrupted.
"Stop it, Aizawa. It's okay."
Nezu stopped Aizawa from continuing that pointless debate. He then turned his head to Sam.
"I understand you don't wish to associate with us, and I can respect that. But this is about Ra. Only you have the possible answers to the mystery of that person."
Sam sighed.
He knew they were going to press him on that.
As angry as he was with the faculty, he brought the Pale Hand here. They came for him, and because of that the kids are in danger. This is what had been eating away at Sam's conscience.
'Whatever. Let's just get this done.'
He decided to just get through it.
"Ask your questions."
He reluctantly said.
Nezu nodded to Tsukauchi, who nodded back—indicating that his quirk was working.
Nezu took a deep breath, ready to ask the questions.
"For my first question, can you tell me about your relationship to the infamous militia operating in Africa—the Pale Hand?"
Nezu didn't beat around the bush and just asked Sam straight up.
Sam knew the rat would figure it out.
"Obviously I was an operative of that militia."
Sam spoke with no emotion in his voice.
Nezu felt sad hearing that.
He knew Sam was a killer. He admitted it himself.
But for him to be a former member of the Pale Hand—one of the most ruthless militias in the world—made it much worse.
From trusted intelligence reports, the Pale Hand had committed war crimes since its founding.
Although, the UN failed to act on this for some reason—but Nezu knew they paid off the UN—which was why they were never charged for their wars.
"Don't look at me like that."
Sam cut him out of his thoughts.
He saw Sam glaring at him.
"You keep looking at me with pity. Stop it. I don't want to be pitied. I survived through my own strength and the strength of my friends there! So don't pity me!"
Sam yelled at Nezu who quickly nodded his head, not wanting to piss Sam off further.
"Moving on, what can you tell us about the Pale Hand?"
Tsukauchi interrupted in order to get back on track.
"What do you want to know?"
"Anything, really. The Pale Hand is a very powerful militia with many backers. If we can get enough evidence and testimony-"
"Yeah, that's not happening."
Sam interrupted Tsukauchi's attempt to get him to testify.
Tsukauchi was shocked that Sam interrupted him.
"In case you forgot, they are in Africa. What can some low-life cop like you do about it? They have the entire continent in their hands. Governments tried to control them. Their leaders were later discovered as severed heads. You think your dinky police force can take down all of Africa? Good luck."
Sam said earnestly, shutting down the cops foolishness.
Tsukauchi clenched his fist in rage—not appreciating being called a "low-life cop" so casually—and was about to respond, when Nezu raised his paw to stop him from responding.
"Enough. Let's get back to the issue. Ra is the only confirmed member of the Pale Hand to be in the country. Right?"
Nezu directed this question to Sam.
"Yeah. I doubt Ra has back up. This was a retrieval mission. Those are usually done by one skilled operative who can get in and then get out without complications. However, I wouldn't put it against them to send more to get me. After all, I don't plan on going easily."
Sam spat out with venom, declaring his resolve to fight them off.
Nezu and Aizawa looked at him with worry. They knew Sam was competent, but he was still a kid in their eyes. He should be enjoying life, not looking behind his back for some war criminals.
"Don't worry. We will do everything we can to protect you!"
Nezu declared.
Sam huffed a humorless laugh.
He knew they couldn't measure up to the overwhelming military might of the Pale Hand. Especially with All Might retired, U.A. is not equipped to handle it.
"If you say so."
Sam said sarcastically.
Nezu and Aizawa sighed.
They knew Sam wouldn't trust them.
"I have just one more question. Do you know Ra? Their quirk, their real name or even what they look like? They showed no visible body parts so we don't even know if they were male or female."
Aizawa asked this time.
Sam thought about it.
He was positive he knew most members of the Pale Hand that were as skilled as him.
The Pale Hand had lots of fodder, but they had quite a few highly skilled soldiers.
However, Ra was definitely not a part of the Pale Hand when he was with them.
He shook his head.
"No. I'm certain that Ra is a new recruit. But now that I think about it, it's only been less than 3 years since I left the group. That's not enough time to get a new operative to that skill level. They must have done that again."
Sam gritted his teeth in rage.
Aizawa gulped, not liking what Sam meant by "that."
"And what would that be?"
Sam looked him dead in the eye.
"Brainwashing."
Aizawa felt his heart stop for a moment.
He recalled the skill Ra had. For that level of skill to be reached through Brainwashing must have meant they were conducting immoral conditioning onto them.
They were evil incarnate.
Nezu sighed. He knew what it was like to be a lab rat. This was personal now. He would never allow them to take back Sam.
For that, they needed to keep him safe.
"Thank you for answering our questions, Suzuki. If I may, we would like to explain what we have planned for the students."
Sam raised an eyebrow at that.
"And that is?"
Nezu smiled at Sam.
"Dorms! We are opening student dorms and would like you to move into the dorms with them!"
Sam deadpanned at Nezu.
"…What?"
———
Sam exited the taxi.
He was right in front of U.A.
Before he could even step through the gate, someone called out to him.
"Suzuki."
He turned around and saw Aizawa walking up to him.
"Aizawa."
"You're right on time. Come on. I'm supposed to show you your new residence."
Sam huffed.
He didn't like the idea of sleeping in a dormitory. But he recalled how Nezu went through his stuff and found his photo. At least, he should be able to prevent them from tampering with his materials in a private dorm room.
He didn't trust that they wouldn't look into his stuff again, but he wanted to be as far away from the rat and Aizawa as possible. Luckily, the dorms were in another building.
They walked together in silence. Sam enjoying the cool evening air of summer.
After a short walk, they arrived outside a large building. Heights Alliance.
"Heights Alliance? What a dumb name."
Aizawa rolled his eyes.
"The others should have already set their rooms up. You were late because you were in the hospital."
Sam nodded.
"Alright. And I'm warning you. I better not find a camera or a wiretap in the room."
He said with the utmost seriousness.
Aizawa nodded. He agreed that observing someone all the time was going too far.
Sam approached the entrance, and he could already hear the rowdy kids settling in.
He rubbed his face.
"This… is going to be a trainwreck isn't it."