Chapter 1 – Prisoners of War

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the BnHA/MHA Characters. And I am not attempting to say that I do while making this fictional, and fan-made, story. They are owned by Kohei Horikoshi.

Chapter Warnings: Mild Violence/Gore

Edited By: Maxaro and Tartheyes

Uraraka Ochako ran through her small cottage. Her tall brown boots clicked across the wooden floors as she grabbed a wooden staff from the cobble stone walls. The girl's short brown hair was tucked under a raspberry colored cowl while her large brown eyes were full of determination. Both her home and her cloths were not the most luxurious, but they made do. She was happy with their simplicity for she was not one to boast about material belongings. On her way out, the girl patted her cream colored dress, freeing it of any lose dust from the previous day.

Outside, Uraraka's parents were in the front of the house, loading building materials into their large cart. The family's horses, Gina and Blue, already attached and ready for the day.

"Ochako, dear, you are not already at your lessons?" her mother called after her. Her mother's long light brown hair was tied in a pony tail and her plain sandy brown dress was about as weathered as her hands and face.

"Sorry mom, no. I accidentally slept in," Uraraka said as she ran in place next to the cart beside them.

Her father chuckled for a moment before suddenly doubling over, dropping the wood pallets he was attempting to load into the cart. He winced and clutched his back, teeth grinding together. His face was looking older nowadays and his dirty blond hair was thinning badly.

"Honey are you alright?" her mother asked worriedly, going over to her husband and lightly touching his back.

He tried to laugh it off but both Uraraka and her mother knew that he was just smiling through the pain. Uraraka then touched her staff to the wooden pallets and all the other materials her parents still had to load. The wind shifted around her and, with a sharp breath, she started to will the items to float and stack themselves neatly into place on the cart with a small thud.

Her mother and father were local builders in the village. They'd had a tough time as of late finding work due to her father's back injury a year ago. That was when she decided to start training as a mage. With her magical abilities, she would be able to not only help them build shops and homes but also to heal her father's injuries.

For Uraraka, her parents' expressions when she could help them out where thanks enough for her.

"That's so impressive Ochako dear!" her mother exclaimed, clapping her hands together.

"Yes, very impressive," Uraraka's father agreed putting, a hand on her shoulder. "It was only a few weeks ago that you could only lift fifty pounds, and now look at you! All these here were at least three-hundred."

Uraraka looked at the ground blushing at her parents' praise.

"Looks like those classes are paying off," her father said.

At the mention of class, Uraraka's eyes shot open in hurried shock. She was still late!

"Sorry, have to go!" Uraraka blurted out as she turned on her heel and took off towards town. "Good luck on the build today! And don't push yourselves too hard!" she yelled back to her parents while waving.

"We won't," her mother called after the girl, as she along with her husband both waved their daughter off.

Uraraka didn't stop running as she made her way through the village. It was a small and rural with most of the buildings looking almost identical to her own home. It was a village where everyone knew everyone, giving the inhabitants a sense of security and companionship.

Jumping over a small, waist-high fence and landing on freshly cut grass on the other side, she finally arrived at the meeting place for her class.

"I'm so sorry I'm late!" the Mage Apprentice quickly apologized as she dropped to the ground in a full formal bow.

"Well it's about damn time," her master grunted as he diverted his attention from his other students and made his way over to her. He was a tall and muscular man with icy white hair and a cream-colored mask over his face. A high fashioned leather tunic and trousers made him stand out against the other, more plainly dressed, students.

"Yes, Mr. Gunhead, sir. It won't happen again."

"Right. Get in the lineup," he told her before a chuckle escaped him and he placed his hand in front of his mask, where his mouth would be. Uraraka couldn't help but become a little worried at the sound; he only laughed like that when they were about to do something she needed extra practice on.

"We're about to do your favorite: transfiguration spells."

The girl sighed heavily and made her way into the lineup with the other students. She was right to be worried about his laugh, transfiguration was her worst subject.

The entire class spent the better part of the day transmogrifying one item into another, living objects into inanimate objects and vice versa and only stopped for a quick lunch in the late afternoon. After the food was eaten, all the students were divided into pairs and the hand to hand combat section of the practice started. Though it might seem strange, Mr. Gunhead's philosophy when it came to teaching was that if you are only strong with your magical power then you are nothing and do not know the actual meaning of strength.

Hours passed, and it wasn't until the early evening that they were finally done. Uraraka was sitting on the grass with her arms rested on her legs, supporting her upper body from toppling over. Sweat dripped from her eyebrows and the mage wanted nothing more than to return home and take a long bath. She looked around and haphazardly chuckled, seeing that the other students were lying flat on the grass around her.

"Ha," she wheezed out. "Last one up. I win."

"Now, now," Mr. Gunhead said sharply. "No gloating."

"Yes, Sir!" Uraraka was quick to reply, her back straightening a little.

She was about to collapse on the grass, joining her classmates, when a siren broke out in the village. It was loud and pierced her ears with its whining tune. She did not know what the siren was or even what it meant; she had never heard it before, but as soon as, Mr. Gunhead did he walked away from her and the students, going over to the road and looking out towards the village proper. Uraraka noticed that her master's back was tense and his footsteps where a little more hazardous than normal. She looked around to the other students and they all shared the same confused look on their faces as she assumed that she wore on hers.

"Everyone back inside the compound now!" The teacher yelled suddenly as he came running back from the road.

"What's going on Sir?" Uraraka asked.

"No questions! Just-!"

Mr. Gunhead was cut off by a loud explosion going off behind him. Blue flames flickered from the blast, sending her master's limp body flying over the students and landing hard on the other side of them. His back was badly burnt, and he was no longer moving, blood seeping from the scratches he had received from the fall.

The Brunette froze as the body of a young man walked towards them, slipping effortlessly past the smoke and blue flame. His face was horribly scarred and seemed to be stitched back together. Short black hair swayed in the wind atop his head and his bright blue eyes seemed to cut like a dagger into her very soul. The unknown man's clothes were expertly tailored and looked to be made with the highest quality black fabrics. A small, black flame embroidery was on his chest, symbolizing a city or country that Uraraka did not know. He looked like a high ranking official; like someone bestowed with a knighthood or even a land owner.

"What are you doing!?" one of the students yelled at the unknown man in desperation and trying to make sense of the situation "You're a knight, aren't you?! Why would you attack the people you're supposed to protect?!"

The unknown man let out a low and downright sickening chuckle before replying, "I am no knight." His voice was deep and husky. "I am a general. An… agent of death, from the country of shadow."

Without warning, he raised his hand and a blue flame began dancing atop his fingertips. Uraraka had never seen fire magic like this before, but still, she and a few other students stood ready to defend their home. More explosions could be heard all around them in the village, and she figured her classmates wanted to get back to their families as much as she did. Two of her upper-classmen charged at the general first but he easily dispatched them with a swipe of his flame covered hand. The smell of the burning skin and hair invaded her senses and she realized instantly that she had never smelt anything so horrible. The general just continued to smile at them, seemingly proud of the accomplishment and cockily gestured to the ones left to come at him.

Uraraka took his bait and charged, casting aside her classmates' protest for her to do so. She was fast and believed him to be slower than what she had just witnessed. She moved in close, attempting to blast him fully in the chest with an attack spell of her own, but with one single fluid, almost graceful movement, he had moved away from her and fired off another one of his blue flames; hitting her, point blank, in the shoulder.

It was a pain like nothing she had ever felt before. The burning was agonizing, and it made her vision start flickering between black and white. It wasn't like being burned by a normal flame or hot object; she could feel this pain down to her very soul. In a short moment of clear vision, she saw the general standing over her body, his hand outstretched, reaching for her face.

Fear.

The girl was beyond terrified of this man. The realization that death was so close to her, made her body shake and tears poured from her eyes as she yelled at the man to get away from her. He simply chuckled and easily pinned her fidgeting body down as if to taunt her; making fun of her fear and then relishing in it. She didn't know what else to do. She didn't want to die and the urge to survive began to engulf her.

Grabbing hold of her staff and acting on pure instinct, Uraraka closed her eyes tightly and released a strong weightlessness spell in the center of the general's chest. With a loud grunt, he was sent flying into the air, past the road and buildings that lay on the other side of Mr. Gunhead's front lawn.

Before she even knew what was happening her legs had carried her from her helpless position and down the village's narrow pathways back to her family's home. A horrible sinking feeling began to form in the pit of her stomach. She had just run away from not only the fight but from the other students, from Mr. Gunhead… but she was so scared of the man… of death...

And she did not look back.

The streets where ablaze from the multiple explosions with the smell of burning skin and blood hanging in the air. Lifeless bodies and rubble from the destroyed buildings crowded Uraraka's path and she realized that she knew a few of them as she stepped around and over the flame scorched corpses. The tailor, who had made her raspberry cowl, was among them. She could feel more tears spilling forth from her eyes, but she forced herself not to dwell on the individuality of the bodies simply out of fear that she might find more than she wanted to.

Finally, the brunette made her way back to her home only to find the door to the cottage open and ajar. In that moment, she felt as if her heart had stopped. Panicked, she ran into the small house and called out her parent's names, desperately hoping they would answer. When they did not, her heart clenched tightly, and she felt sick as if someone had punched her stomach. Her breathing became heavy and ragged, but no matter how much she breathed in, she couldn't get enough oxygen to supply her body. She began to sway back and forth before her balance gave out and she collapsed onto the floor, weakly trying to rationalize what was happening all the while simultaneously trying to convince herself that it was all just a bad dream.

That's when she heard an unknown voice coming from outside the front door. In an instant, she stopped breathing completely and laid perfectly still.

"Did you hear that?" came a male voice through a mask. "I think there is someone else in here."

Damn it, they had heard her gasping for breath and she could hear their heavy footsteps throughout the house. They were looking for her.

Getting onto her feet again, Uraraka jumped through one of the open windows of her home and landed painfully on the ground outside of their parent's barn. Ignoring her aches, she moved to a more secure location inside and, when she believed it was safe, peered out of one of the small windows to assess the situation outside.

Although, she immediately wished that she hadn't, for that's when she finally found her parents.

They were laying in a large cage wagon with ten other villagers, chained and bloody from the head. The mage apprentice could make out their chests rising and falling in small, harsh breaths and though she was relieved to see that they were alive, the fact that they were surrounded by at least twenty guards, plus another general made her heart sink like a boulder. The general was a short girl with wild blond hair and hungry red eyes. Even from a distance, Uraraka could tell that she had unnaturally pointed teeth that shine brightly against the flashes of explosions as she spoke,

"Do you like blood and death as much as I do!" the general said to the prisoners, clearly not expecting an answer. Was this all just a game to them? Did they not realize the pain they were putting all of them through?!

Uraraka looked on helplessly at her parents. She was tired from the day's training, injured from the male general's attacks, and she was heavily outnumbered. There was no way she was going to win. She needed help, more numbers if she were to try to stop this. She was scared and ashamed as she continued to look at her parents, tears falling once more. She bit her lip so hard that she tasted iron and closed her eyes tightly.

"Please… forgive me…" she whispered to them, knowing that they'd never hear her, before ducking around the front door of the barn and running off through the grass fields and towards the thick lining of trees that symbolized the neutral zone to the neighboring country.

As she came to the entrance of the woods, Uraraka stopped. Those already tall trees were much taller and more ominous looking up close. She, nor anyone in her village, has ever entered the woods before. Stories of bandits, thugs, and murderers kept them all away. They were simple farmers and builders, not prepared for an attack nor ready to defend from one.

She looked back to the village. Smoke and flames could be seen bellowing up into the sky. Invoking the once beautiful blue into a sour brown. The inability to breathe was quickly making its way back to Uraraka as she finally gathered her courage and entered the woods. Doing what no one in her village had done before, the sounds of screaming and explosions still able to be heard behind her.

A/N: Hey guys here is the first redone chapter let me know what you all think!