#and it'll be much better this time and I'll actually get her armour right-- | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dynmghts · 5 months

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So. Fuck it, we ball, let's talk about the consequences of Katsuki's actions.

(Vague) manga spoilers ahead! (It'll apply post-war though, so I'll do my best to graze over unnecessary details to get to my point.)

KATSUKI'S ARM: WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?

The short answer: Katsuki got up, chose violence, and in doing so, condemned his arm to a state of irreversible repair that'll stay forever.

The longer answer: The situation called for Katsuki to immediately jump back into the fray the moment he woke up. His arm was actually splinted before he headed into the fight, thanks to Best Jeanist being the best mentor taking care of him, but it's completely disregarded when he goes charging into the fight of his life.

By the end of it, his arm is barely holding together - it appears as though he can't really use it properly.

THE DAMAGE.

Let's assume, thanks to a general progression in medical technology in the My Hero universe, that Katsuki gets access to a range of care and therefore doesn't lose the arm. You can call it a miracle.

The damage sustained to it is still severe. We can only deduce what we know based on the damage prior and then the damage by the end of his fight, but the outcome of the fight isn't good; prior to his next battle, the arm is completely shattered and splinted to try and support the bones fusing back together. That sort of healing doesn't happen immediately, though, and by the time he runs back into the fight, the splint is disregarded - and it's likely that the bones have further shifted out of place.

It also looks as though there is serious damage to his muscle, and therefore, likely some damage to his tendons and his nerves; even if there was benefit of the doubt, Katsuki will have most certainly lost a bit of definition in his right arm. If we do give him some leeway because Manga Logic, he might get lucky and not need any muscle grafts and the muscle can rebuild itself, which would likely be the safest thing, since he would need surgery to reset and secure his arm in the first place. But if not... There's the risk of multiple surgeries to fix different issues.

Nerve damage is practically irreversible. Once the nerves are fucked enough, they won't be able to recover back to the state they were originally in, and that can manifest in different ways; it could lead to sharp, sudden pains. Maybe it's a temperature difference. Maybe they will not give as many signals, and so things are more noticeably muted compared to nerves that haven't sustained any damage.

Then, tendon damage is a toss-up - usually, it's pretty damn bad. The only solace Katsuki might get in that regard is that only select tendons are torn, and thanks to his younger age, he will be able to recover from them better.

So to recap: there is definitive damage to his bones - breaks and likely hair fractures accompanying them - and muscles. His nerves are highly likely to be damaged. Some tendons may have been lucky to be intact, but in the end, at least some of them are torn.

THE HEALING PROCESS.

There is just no way this is going to be completely solved in the matter of days.

Recovery Girl is a godsend in the universe, but she even says it herself, she just hastens recovery based on the energy that a person already has. She can't use her Quirk too much because that risks putting her patients into a more dangerous situation than they were already in. We also know that because it takes her several days to administer treatment, things will not be completely healed; for instance, Izuku's arm after the Training Camp.

If this is solved in days in the manga whenever it gets there, Katsuki has some massive plot armour and as much as I'm glad he's still around, Horikoshi, I expect at least SOME consequence.

So, the main idea is this: due to the complicated nature of the damage sustained, and the fact that this affects not just his arms but his joints (wrist, elbow, shoulder), Katsuki cannot make a complete recovery from the injuries. He's probably got some really nasty scarring from it too (which I will personally save for a separate post). He will say it's worth it. He'll say he can work around it. The issue is that he needs to take a lot of different precautions to ensure a proper and fulfilling recovery, and that may frustrate him, even if he follows it to a tee.

The first few days, he's in a cast. Until his bones are fully set and secured in place, he can't remove the cast, and he is in no way permitted to use his right hand. When the cast finally comes off, he's bombarded with different things he's allowed to do and things he is not: no lifting. No training. Movement is good, but always supported by a shoulder and wrist brace. If he is still in pain, he has to take a heavy dose of pain medication as specified by a doctor for the duration of his healing. It's also a daily visit with Recovery Girl.

Even after the main healing sequence is complete, he's told that he should give his arm more time to make a recovery on its own before he uses it. He spends the time that his arm is out of commission in learning to be ambidextrous, so he can use his left hand for things while his right hand cannot. He's permitted to do light exercises and has been recommended to try writing occasionally by an occupational therapist, but his handwriting - with both hands - is pretty sad for a while there.

And you might be thinking, hey, Cam, why can't he use his arm normally at this point? My answer is this: because Recovery Girl needed so much of his energy for the major damages, aka his breaks and any tendon damage and reversing at least a little of the nerve damage, she could not spare his energy to completely heal other areas. Think of it as... An incomplete healing process, due to the limitations of her Quirk and the energy required from Katsuki. And even if she continued for days after the initial treatment, any damage there would have reached a point that it cannot be healed in a convenient way. Katsuki needs to give himself time to heal normally.

When he's as healed as can be though, it's a few months after, and he's got most of his function back. He's allowed to start doing the things he did before. The catch? Katsuki needs a lot more support for his arm.

THE AFTERMATH: WHAT SUPPORTS DOES HE NEED?

On a pretty consistent basis, Katsuki will almost always be wearing athletic tape on his shoulder, elbow, and around his wrist. Athletic tape helps with supporting the muscles in that area which becomes vital after the healing is complete.

Rarer occasions call for the use of compressions and braces. Katsuki very often wears a shoulder brace when it comes time for him to wear one, and sometimes he has a wrist band that acts as a brace and compression - the reason these are the most important for him is because of the force that his explosions have on his entire arm. While yes, his elbow feels the blow, the joints that take the biggest brunt are his wrist and his shoulder. Through support students and outsourcing, Katsuki even considers built-in support on his right arm for his hero costume.

The rarest occasions call for cold or hot compresses. While they don't necessarily solve problems in the same way a brace might, they are there to help ease pain when it flares up; cold works best when it is nerve, and hot is better when it's muscle or tendon. Typically, he only has to worry about this when he's home. If he's on the job when it happens, he'll either find a window to apply it, or take pain medication and call it a day. He tries not to fight with it unless he deems it necessary.

(And most of the time, he is of a firm belief that he could chuck assailants into jail with one hand anyway. He's not wrong.)

So to summarise: Katsuki fucked up his arm, spent months healing it to a usable state, and while he still feels the effects, he wouldn't change a single damn thing about it.

#💥 ⸍ i. out.#💥 ⸍ ii. headcanon.#💥 ⸍ ii. verse: post-wars.#/ no proofreading we die like men #/ i just kinda threw 1.4k words together but this makes sense right?#/ cool. cool cool cool. alas this is all the braincell had for yall tonight

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