The first thing I smelled was antiseptic. The second thing I felt was a heavy weight on my left hand.
I cracked an eye open. The ceiling was white, the lights were dim, and the rhythmic beep-beep of a heart monitor told me I was still among the living. I looked down to see a mop of brown hair resting on the side of my bed. Ochaco was fast asleep, her hand gripping mine so tightly her knuckles were white.
"Hey," I croaked, my throat feeling like I'd swallowed a handful of gravel.
Ochaco bolted upright, her eyes wide and red-rimmed. "Kanata! You're awake! Oh my god, you're awake!"
Before I could brace myself, she tackled me in a hug that definitely bypassed the 'healing' I'd done on my ribs.
"Ow, ow! Sisterly love is painful!" I wheezed.
"You idiot!" she cried into my shoulder. "We saw the crater! We saw that monster crushing you! I thought... I thought you were gone!"
"Takes more than a bird-brain to get rid of me," I said, patting her head.
The door to the infirmary slid open, and a small parade walked in: Midoriya (arm in a sling), Iida (looking intense), and Asui. They all looked like they'd been through a war zone, which, to be fair, they had.
"Uraraka-kun!" Midoriya said, his eyes shining with that terrifyingly earnest analytical light. "We heard from the teachers... you held off the Nomu alone! And the way you used your Quirk... the pressure was so high the pavement turned to dust!"
Iida nodded solemnly. "It was a display of power that far exceeds any first-year expectations. However, putting yourself in such danger was incredibly reckless!"
"Yeah, well, someone had to keep Aizawa-sensei from becoming a permanent floor decoration," I shrugged, then winced as the movement pulled at my tired muscles.
"Kanata," Asui said, her finger to her chin. "Your Quirk... it changed. You were making things float during the entrance exam, but at the Plaza, you were making them hundreds of times heavier. Is that even the same Quirk?"
I leaned back against the pillows, knowing this question was coming. I couldn't explain Cursed Energy, Reverse Techniques, or the concept of 'Lapse' and 'Reversal.' Not here.
"It's an Awakening," I said, the lie sliding off my tongue easily. "You know how it is. Extreme stress, near-death experience... something in my brain just clicked. I realized that if I can remove the gravity from an area, I can also force it back in. It's just two sides of the same coin. I think I just unlocked the 'Heavy' side when that thing tried to kill me."
"An Awakening..." Midoriya whispered, already mentally writing a three-page essay in his hero notebook. "To invert the fundamental application of a Quirk like that... it's incredibly rare."
"Whatever it is," Ochaco said, wiping her eyes and looking at me with a mix of pride and fear. "Don't ever do that again."
Once the "Deku Squad" was shooed out by a very grumpy Recovery Girl, a different set of visitors arrived.
Principal Nezu sat on the foot of my bed, while a heavily bandaged Aizawa leaned against the wall. Aizawa looked like a mummy, but his one visible eye was sharper than ever.
"Young Uraraka," Nezu began, his tone uncharacteristically serious. "The doctors say your recovery was... miraculous. They found evidence of severe internal trauma that seemed to have healed itself before you even arrived here."
"I have a good constitution," I said, keeping my face blank.
"Don't lie to me, kid," Aizawa rasped through his bandages. "I saw you. Your chest was gone. Then you stood up like nothing happened and pinned a creature that was built to kill All Might. That's not 'constitution.' That's something else."
I looked at my teacher. I respected Aizawa. He had nearly died for us. "Like I told the others, Sensei. It was an Awakening. My body just... reacted. I pushed the energy inward to survive, and then I pushed it outward to win."
Nezu and Aizawa exchanged a long, unreadable look.
"The Board of Directors is calling it a 'Secondary Quirk Manifestation,'" Nezu said, tipping his head.
"I've always been a bit of a lightning rod," I joked weakly.
"We are increasing your security," Aizawa said, his voice dropping an octave. "And once you're out of here, I'm personally overseeing your training. If you can control that 'Gravity' side of your power, you'll be the most dangerous hero in your generation. We can't afford for you to be 'lazy' anymore."
I groaned, sinking into my pillows. "Expulsion, villains, and now extra homework? This is definitely not the quiet high school life I signed up for."
But as they left the room, I looked at my hand. A faint, white spark of Positive Energy flickered at my fingertips before vanishing.
'Special Grade,' I thought. 'I'm officially a Special Grade anomaly in a world of Quirks. Things are about to get very interesting.'