Mako's confusion quickly turned into a mix of relief and joy as he recognized Iris. Her face was filled with a mixture of worry and relief as she held him tightly in her embrace.
"Mako, you're awake! Thank goodness!" Iris exclaimed, her voice filled with genuine concern.
"Why... how long was I out for?" Mako asked weakly as he had yet to regain much strength.
Before Iris could answer, several more people burst into the room. Two of them were wearing light blue outfits that resembled scrubs and were the nurses operating the clinic. Another was wearing similar scrubs but was also wearing a long white coat which indicated that she was a doctor, while the last person was wearing a simple white lab coat over his regular military uniform and had glassing dangling off his lab coat's front pocket.
"Check his condition, make sure he is stable." The man in the military uniform ordered the doctors and nurses who quickly began operating several different machines that were hooked up to Mako.
Medical technology had progressed and advanced so much that there was no need for CAT scans, X-Rays, or MRIs to be of use anymore. All of those and other tests could be done by microscopic machines called nanites equipped with different tools to carry out those tests and they provided highly accurate results, much greater than what humanity had before.
The doctors and nurses were operating the controllers of the nanites who would either eject themselves after they had done their task or disintegrate into harmless particles that enter the bloodstream and get excreted by the person.
"Bloodwork has come out clear!" The first nurse announced.
"All organs seemed to be functioning properly!" the second nurse announced.
"All mana highways have been restored and there are no more blockages to be found." the doctor said.
"So everything is clear?" The man in the military uniform asked the doctor for confirmation to which she nodded yes.
"There is no physical damage left on the body and he is in perfect condition," The doctor concluded.
"Great, thank you for your good work! you may leave." The man in the military uniform said.
The medical staff quickly obeyed the man's order and exited the room leaving only Mako, Iris, and him alone in the room.
"Miss Cooper, I asked you to not approach him until he was examined by me." The man said politely with a tiny bit of annoyance, but it was mostly just concern.
"Commander Malik, I couldn't stay still, he and his friends saved me from danger many times, and when I overheard those nurses talking about his condition, and that he might die, I just could not stop myself from knowing how he was doing," Iris said very emotionally.
Commander Malik sighed as he knew what Iris was going through and he couldn't really get mad as she didn't break a major order or anything.
On the other hand, Mako was breathing heavily and was in absolute shock after he heard Iris' words.
"What!? I was going to die! How? What happened to me!?" Mako rightfully shouted out of shock as he demanded to know what happened while he was still knocked out.
"It's okay son, you weren't in any danger, those nurses were just overwhelmed by your condition when you were first brought into the clinic. We have never seen a condition like yours before, and that was why they were all so worried." Commander Malik calmly explained to Mako.
"Why... what happened to me? I was fighting the Beetle King and then... I collapsed," Mako said weakly.
"Oh, you know that beast's name?" Commander Malik said as he was surprised that a cadet would have info on the Beetle King.
Mako instantly regretted opening his mouth. The only reason, he knew the giant beetle's name was Terra Beetle King was because he had used Analyze on it, but he couldn't reveal that to the commander.
Mako trembled internally as he quickly tried to think of an excuse.
"Umm... no, I just thought that it might be a king since it was bigger than the rest, and also the smaller ones seemed to obey their command," Mako said as he crossed his fingers from under the sheets, hoping that the commander would believe his awful lie.
"You have some keen observation skills if you were able to figure that out." The Commander praised.
"As to what happened to you, I honestly don't know myself and I was hoping you could give me some answers." Commander Malik added.
"Me...?" Mako asked in surprise as he didn't expect the conversation to go this way.
"From the report that the patrolling officers gave me, you were hit pretty hard by that... Beetle King and you got lodged into a boulder on the brink of death, but before they could reach you, your body suddenly got enveloped in what looked to be flames, but not completely." Commander Malik began narrating.
"Your injuries began to heal instantly, and you got a sudden huge boost in power that even made the officers shudder a bit. It looked like you were still in control but you were fighting more wildly than before and in the end, you overcame the power of that advanced-tier beast and landed a fatal blow that almost killed you, but you ended up collapsing a moment later." The Commander added.
"The report clearly stated that the beast was as good as dead, so your sudden collapse was a side effect of that skill you utilized, I presume which lead me to my question. What was that skill you utilized that did all that, but left you in such a terrible state afterward?" Commander Malik concluded as he asked Mako the main question.
Mako was prepared for this moment from the time he had decided to use Rage Mode again. He knew that a lot of people would point fingers and ask questions about his unique skill, and he need to make a believable lie that would still protect his secret but won't make him suspicious of anything.
"Um... I actually have no idea myself. I can't use it on will, it just activates by itself when I am in an intense losing fight and have taken a lot of damage. My mind becomes cloudy and I can't remember much except rage and anger that fuels my strength. It gives me a boost so that I can defeat my opponents and then it deactivates by itself leaving me exhausted." Mako said.
Mako's strategy was quite simple, he would explain the working of Rage Mode truthfully, but he would hide the part that it was him that activates it by will from the system and instead just show himself to be as clueless as the commander, so that it wouldn't be a cause for suspicion at all.
However, Commander Malik didn't look so convinced after Mako explained what he had used to defeat the Beatle King. It was a pretty strong skill, so having so many unknowns was also pretty suspicious for him and now Mako had to quickly think of a follow-up to salvage the situation.
"My friend's father is a very strong man, and he said that I prematurely awakened my quirk, but he didn't elaborate on it any further, so I was stuck with limited knowledge and was hoping to learn more about it in military school." Mako quickly added
This finally caught the commander's attention as his eyes opened a bit wider and his expression showed surprise as he couldn't believe a normal cadet would even know about quirks.
Awakening quirks was a pretty rare thing in the higher levels of power and it was almost impossible for beginners to awaken quirks, but there are always exceptions.
Young cadets who were able to awaken their quirks very early had super strong genes and access to many resources that allowed them to train and refine their bodies and abilities to be able to even awaken their quirks, which is a chance itself as even with all the right conditions, often times they can't awaken their quirks.
People who had successfully or partially awakened their quirks were very valuable as it was an indication that there was no limit to how high of a level they could grow into. This was why the commander was immediately hooked because Mako's display definitely did match the properties of a quirk.
It was just that nobody could have expected a normal cadet to even partially awaken their quirk which was why the thought didn't even cross their minds.
Seeing the commander's reaction, Mako knew that he had salvaged the situation and now he could rest easy because just like Paul, the commander also thought that Mako's Rage Mode was a quirk.
Mako had no idea about what quirks were actually, and neither did the system's Ask feature give him any clues so he was also curious about learning what they were and if he could actually achieve one.
Mako and the commander conversed for another 15 minutes and he told him about all the details that had happened since he was knocked out a couple of days ago.
He learned that Iris recovered fully the following day after being admitted and received a good scolding from the commander for using a forbidden technique that could have ended her life.
Mako had no clue what this forbidden technique was or how she used it, but he just made a mental note to ask Iris about it himself later.
"Erin, Leon, and Bill had survived the final horde wave and would be extracted from the island tomorrow, marking the end of the recruitment test." The Commander stated.
The commander didn't go into any detail about the test, or their results. Both Mako and Iris were pretty anxious as they didn't know what would happen to them since they were disqualified from the test prematurely.
However, even after a lot of pleading the commander didn't budge and just told them that they would get all their answers tomorrow, and with that he told Iris to leave the room with him and to let Mako get some rest and recover some energy for tomorrow.
Iris reluctantly agreed with the commander and got up from beside Mako's bed and proceeded to leave alongside the commander. She still had a lot of things to talk about but it would all have to wait until tomorrow when all five of them will be reunited again.
After all of them left the room, Mako quickly turned the system interface back on and commanded the system to open the notifications tab.
'Let's see what all has happened,' Mako thought to himself as the notification tab exploded with notifications.
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