Sam didn't feel well.
He was hurt more than he would care to admit after fighting the bird hero.
His hands trembled as he tore his shirt off, teeth clenched against the pain.
Under the shirt, was his hideously scarred body. Most notably the diagonal claw scar.
He saw his shoulder and winced.
He wrapped the torn fabric tightly around his shoulder.
He needed to find some sutures.
'I need stitches.'
Every breath sent spikes of pain through his chest. A few ribs were definitely cracked from the crash with Hawks.
That's when he saw it.
He staggered into a convenience store.
The bored clerk was just on his phone, not giving a shit.
"Welcome to—"
The clerk froze.
He knew who Sam was. He was trending all over Japan as the crazy guy who beat Hawks. The video of him driving Hawks into the ground went viral in hours. He reached for his cell phone.
"Don't," Sam said flatly. "I'll be gone after I buy what I need."
The clerk nodded stiffly.
Sam listened intently to the TV that was playing.
Sam grabbed a first aid kit, a backpack, water bottles, bandages.
While doing this he listened.
"…Hawk's condition is still unverified at this time. In other news, we have finally received word of the identity of the crazed villain who hurt Hawks. 18 year old Samuel Suzuki. He is… he is quirkless?!?"
He could hear the pause of the anchors as they tried to process the fact that Hawks was owned by a quirkless person.
Finally, after getting what he needed, he went to the counter.
At the counter, he tossed his wallet down.
"Keep it."
Sam left.
The clerk opened it.
"The hell?"
Too much money. Way more than he took.
He looked outside, wanting to give his money back, as he is not trying to get in bad graces of a villain.
But, Sam was already gone.
Sam was pale and clammy, hurt from the stab wound the bird gave him. He sees a fire escape in another alleyway. He looks up and sees the sun setting.
'A full day… a full day of being hunted like an animal. Sam went up to the fire escape ladder and started to climb, keeping a careful grip on his supplies.
Climbing another fire escape took everything he had. The moment he reached the top, he collapsed onto the roof.
"…Fucking bird."
He took out the first aid kit. He saw that it had everything he needed for wounds like this.
He took out some disinfectant and he disinfected the wound.
Then came the sutures.
Needle in.
Out.
Again and again.
Suturing a wound was child's play for Sam. As someone who was shot and cut up like salami, he had to know how to suture himself.
When he finished doing a textbook stitch of his shoulder wound, he started to wrap it in the bandages.
He wrapped it tight.
"It'll reopen. But it'll hold."
He decided to get some rest, despite it only being sunset. He is used to sleepless nights and he had to make sure he got to the forest safely.
He found another hiding spot between AC units. He took the bag he put the items he collected and bought in and used it as a pillow. All the while keeping the receiver on, listening to any possible incoming heroes or cops.
———
Morning came too soon.
He barely slept. Another night full of nightmares. It's normal. But it seems he got some sleep, even if that is being generous. He got up and saw that it was already dawn.
"…Sam Suzuki, the eighteen-year-old villain now described as a symbol of the quirkless…"
Sam raised an eyebrow to that. He got up, shakily, and went to the edge of the roof. He looked down and saw one of the big screens in the city was playing breaking news.
'Symbol?'
"My ass," Sam muttered.
Sam wasn't a symbol of anything. He didn't see himself as one and he never would. Nor would he want to.
He looked into the horizon.
The forest was right there.
Two streets away.
He got down from the roof, careful with his shoulder wound.
He went down carefully.
When he got to the bottom, he exited the alleyway the ladder was at and was disappointed to see that he wouldn't be able to blend in again with the masses, as it seems that only the early birds are on their way to work.
He decided to carefully keep his head down. But that was harder than he thought as he was wearing a torn lumberjack shirt and had very vivid white hair and a very obvious scar.
He speed walked and tried to go into another alleyway.
His instincts screamed.
Fire slammed into his back.
"GAAAH!"
He hit the pavement, skin blistering.
People were screaming in shock. The tired eyes of the commuters turned wide in shock. Some had eyes of reverence, however, as they knew who those flames belonged to.
"Endeavor!"
"Is he going after a villain?"
"They are done for now!"
Endeavor stood right in the middle of the street that Sam tried to cross to get to the alleyway.
That blast hurt a lot.
He stood, shaking, furious.
"So… you're Endeavor."
Flames danced around the Number Two Hero.
"Samuel Suzuki," Endeavor said coldly. "You are under arrest. Any further resistance and you will be burned to ash."
He gave Sam a look of boredom. Likely because he thought of Sam as a worm beneath notice.
Sam exhaled.
'Well.'
'This isn't good.'