It would be a few more days before Uravity saw Deku again. It was like he had never been there, and the only clues he had left behind were the case files from the police department and a text letting her know he was busy chasing smaller criminals uptown. She relished in the butterflies that fluttered in her chest upon seeing his name on her screen, but realizing it, scolded herself for being so pathetic. The other night when he was here she could have asked him to dinner, could have made herself an opportunity, but, instead, missed it again. It wasn't as if he were a slippery fish, she just refused to cast the line time and time again.
"Is it someone special?" came Krow's voice crashing into her thoughts in an inquisitive tone as he looked up from the piece of paper he was writing on.
Uravity ripped her eyes off the screen as she whipped her head to the side to address her raven-like intern in a full blush. They were sitting at one of the spare desks in the main atrium with forms, files, and lunch littered in front of them. The morning patrol had been quite eventful – a number of car accidents between commuters and a petty theft had provided Uravity with a number of simple jobs she could use to teach Asuka Dakuro, hero name: Krow, the Ryukyu office's newest intern. Now, Krow was sitting at the desk filling out his very own job form all by himself while Uravity supervised. She had to focus and remain his teacher, but he caught every damning thing she did.
"Nope! It's no one!" she squeaked.
"Oh. Do you smile like that at every text you get, then?"
Over the past week, Uravity had learned much about her intern's mannerisms, namely that he was straightforward, spoke his mind, and had no filter. If he had a question, a comment, or concern, she would hear it. In that way, he was a lot like Tsuyu, but he was also quick to become comfortable around her, enough to crack jokes, jab at her playfully, and get on a last-name basis. Although she welcomed the closeness, Uravity still had a hard time differentiating between the times he was being sarcastic, humorous, or serious. They seemed to all blend together, and right now, she couldn't tell if he was just being a little snot or not.
"Oh, um, hmm! Let me see your form! How did you do?" Uravity shot back, trying to play along, but also to get him off her back. At this rate, he'd figure it out.
Krow tore the paper from the table in a frenzy and held it as far away from her as possible. "No! I'm sorry, I'm not done yet!"
"That's what I thought," Uravity said with a smirk. "Do you need help?"
"Nope, I got this!"
"Okay, then!"
A few minutes passed. It was silent in the office this afternoon. Flashlight was out on patrol with the work-studies still, Ryukyu was MIA after back-to-back night shifts, and no one was scheduled to visit today. Nejire kept her role as head supervisor in Ryukyu's absence, and sat at her desk rummaging over older files, the computer, and answering the phone. It was a slow, run-of-the-mill day, it seemed.
Uravity noticed Nejire get up from the desk and walk over to where she and Krow were sitting.
"You mind holding down the fort?" Nejire asked, her hands behind her back.
"Sure, where are you going?" Uravity answered.
"I'm taking your patrol. Deku will be returning later today and I want you two to become acquainted with the case," Nejire explained, pointing at her and Krow. "He worked on it non-stop on Monday, so I'm sure he has something to report. Plus, I think it might just be healthier for him to talk to other people."
Uravity giggled. So, she had been right – he really had muttered all day like she said he would. "I bet you also could use the air, too."
"Oh, yeah!" Nejire agreed, nodding furiously. "I didn't become a hero so that I could sit behind a desk and play secretary. I'll see you guys later!"
With that, Nejire grabbed a radio and stuffed it into her own fanny pack before disappearing behind the wall that separated the main lobby from the main atrium. Uravity heard the thick glass doors close behind her elder. She couldn't help but be a little excited to work more closely with Deku, and it showed.
"So, it was Deku," Krow teased.
"Oh, I'm sorry, are you all done with that form already?" Uravity asked sarcastically as she slipped the paper out from under her student and studied it.
Krow froze.
"This is awfully incomplete. I'm disappointed."
He whined in protest, "I wasn't done! I'm sorry!"
"Your sorrys mean nothing to me, Dakuro-kun."
It wasn't until just after two-thirty in the afternoon that Deku came through the front door. Thank goodness, because Uravity was running out of tedious things to have her intern do, and he was slouched over in the chair he had brought to Ryukyu's desk, waiting to be taught all about the telephone. Deku passed them as he walked into the atrium. His boots were dirty, and the fabric of his hero costume was dark with sweat around his neck and under his arms. Likewise, his normally fluffy hair was stuck to his forehead and the back of his neck. The oven was still turned up high outside, it seemed.
"Oh," escaped his throat as he realized Uravity and Krow were the only ones in the office, and they were sitting where he probably expected Nejire.
"Catch the bad guys?" Uravity asked, summoning Ochako's bubbly tone, welcoming him back.
Deku gave her a weak smile. He was so humble about his hero work. "We did."
"Also looks like it's still hot as hell out there, my guy," Krow commented, sitting up straight.
"Yeah, it is," Deku said as he removed his face mask from around his neck and unzipped his costume down to his chest, enough to let the air conditioning in. He followed the curve of his neck to peel the fabric from his skin. "I'm glad I left a spare costume here, because I need to get out of this right now."
Uravity did not let the idea of Deku undressing distract her into becoming Ochako right now. "Sounds good. We'll wait for you in my cubicle! Nejire wants us to talk about the case with you."
"Definitely! I'll be out in a minute!" he said and disappeared into the locker room.
Uravity got up from her seat behind the main desk and grabbed the wireless receiver from the phone dock. She then led Krow to her cubicle at the back of the main atrium, beyond the small sea of work-study desks. All of Deku's files were still stacked up in exactly the same way he had left them Monday – Uravity had avoided disturbing the arrangement all week.
Her cubicle was somewhat bare, but she had made it her home away from home over the two years she occupied it. Besides the office computer, her rolling computer chair, and two conference chairs, Uravity had purchased a few things to personalize the space, namely random office supplies in her favorite hue of pink. A calendar featuring puppies, ducklings, and other cute animals hung on the far wall so she could always reference it, right next to her UA diploma, and a small, glass bowl of candy sat right next to the keyboard of her desktop. What really made this space her own, however, were the few framed pictures she had hung up – one of her parents, one of her and Tsuyu, and an old shot of her, Iida, and Izuku still in high school. All three were even still in their UA uniforms. Of course, it was that latter picture that caught Krow's eye.
"You weren't kidding when you said you guys were close friends," he commented, looking at the picture intently. "It's kind of sweet, ya know? You get to work together on a big case, get to catch up...that's really nice, isn't it?"
The nuance of knowing sarcasm that laced each word out of his mouth didn't escape her. Five days, and already the kid was so learned in the ways of Ochako Uraraka.
"Yup," was all she could and would say. Content, Krow moved on.
"Hey, isn't that the new Ingenium? And that's Froppy, too, isn't it?" he said, becoming more excited.
"I told you we had all been in the same class."
"Yeah, but it's just so cool that you are all such good friends, also."
"You don't have any friends in your class?" she was half-joking, expecting him to become bashful and admit that what he said didn't make sense, but he shook his head instead.
"Uh, well...it's more like having nineteen separate rivalries," he said a-matter-of-factually. He didn't seem to be bothered by it as he shrugged. "I don't expect to still hang out and see any of them after we graduate...you know, on purpose. I'm better friends with you than I am with any of them, believe it or not."
Uravity found this peculiar, but took it as an opportunity to get back at him for his teasing before. "Maybe they don't understand your humor."
Krow guffawed as he sat in one of the conference chairs. "Yeah, ha, yeah, I wish that was the reason."
He tapped his nose and Uravity immediately knew - it was his quirk they didn't appreciate. She sat in the other chair next to him with a worried look. Yes, his quirk was macabre but how could fellow heroes not see the use in it? It had only been a week, and already Uravity felt as though her call rate had jumped at least by half with Krow being able to sniff out a call before it even came in over the radio. His nose was so sensitive he had even been able to pinpoint exactly where an unconscious child had been hiding in a house fire that week, and she had survived because of it. Krow just shrugged. He clearly didn't need anyone's approval, and although he was still less inclined to introduce the quirk to anyone, he wasn't shy about using it.
Before she could say anything else, Deku came through the opening to the cubicle, in a fresh hero suit, ready to go over the files. Both Krow and Uravity smiled in greeting, itching to hear about the case.
"Okay, so, here's where I'm at right now," Deku began, taking a seat in Uravity's rolling computer chair. "Our suspect appears to be an older gentleman who began his terrorist attacks in America. Looking at the first crime in the series, he began his path of destruction much earlier than I originally thought...about fifty years ago."
"Fifty years?" Uravity exclaimed.
"What, was the guy one of the first people to have a quirk?" Krow commented sarcastically.
"I think quirks have been around way longer that that," Deku said. "But, it was strange...at first I didn't know why this first case was included."
"Why is that?" Uravity asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Because, it's very unlike all of the other crimes we can easily connect to this guy," Deku continued. Uravity could see that he was trying hard not to mutter as he explained this to them. "Well, what makes his operation so obvious is how big it is. He is able to bring down huge, multi-story buildings, but in this case, he didn't do that."
Both Krow and Uravity exchanged glances.
"This first one took place in a tiny, remote town and instead of destroying the buildings, just the people inside were found dead many months after the crime occurred."
"So...how did you connect that with our demolition guy?" Krow asked, his interest piqued. He leaned forward in his chair as if he were watching a good episode of true crime TV.
"All of the bodies were charred to the point of being unrecognizable," Deku answered grimly.
"Just like...the building we had in June. And the one in May," Uravity murmured.
Deku nodded. "Those are the ones that helped me to connect the dots, because honestly, he has changed his methods throughout the years, and it's clear to me it's based on his power level."
"How can you even guess that?" Krow was shocked and intrigued, impressed with Deku's deductive skills but still willing to challenge his elder.
"I hate to compare myself to him, but I've gone through the same kind of power increases over the years with my own training," Deku explained, giving Krow a weak smile.
That was right...Deku's progress had always seemed like he was climbing a ladder, Uravity thought, and he'd dazzle the whole class whenever he overcame another rung. More control, more power, more abilities...it was naive to think he was the only one who could grow like that. Did that mean this villain trained himself so that he could murder more people in the same way Deku trained to save more people? Uravity shuddered at the thought. She knew people like that existed, but what did he gain from darkening his soul like that?
Deku stood up and began to dismantle the stack of folders on the desk, laying out a timeline of attacks so that Uravity and Krow could follow his line of thinking. He then explained it all, holding his chin, as if he were saying this out loud for the first time and hoping it made as much sense out in the open to other human beings as it did in his head. The first crime was a single newspaper article Deku laid on the desk, stained deep yellow with age. [ENTIRE TOWN CHARRED] read the headline, in English, and a spooky black and white picture of a lonely house in the snow, wrapped in ribbons of police tape, accompanied it.
"He seems to be able to do more every time he strikes, which makes me think he's training the quirk between attacks. For instance, after his first massacre, he didn't commit another crime for five whole years."
Deku laid out the next article, the headline just as ghastly. "Then, he attacked another small town, in Alaska, and this time destroyed all of the houses. They were all burnt to the ground, and the occupants were only burned as an effect of being trapped. He then went silent for another seven years."
Deku laid out another article. "Then he reappeared in California where he began to bring down bigger buildings. The first few times he did this, lots of the people survived, and it seems like his goal is to murder everyone in the building rather than just be destructive. When he reappeared some years later, he started charring the first floor worth of apartments." Another article was laid out.
"Then the next floor and then the next floor." Another article and another.
"He would target taller and taller buildings, doing it more and more often, based around how many floors worth of people he could char before bringing it down." The timeline ended with an entire folder of recent jobs.
Krow's eyes widened and Uravity gulped, but they did this for different reasons. "Guy...you went through all these case files in the five hours Uravity and I were walkin' earlier this week?!"
Uravity gave him an exasperated side glance and Deku became flustered and put his hands up. "N-no, I'm trying to bring you guys up to speed. A lot of this timeline was put together by lots of American detectives as the crimes were committed. They were fairly certain the crimes were all committed by the same person, but his pattern is random, his motive is a mystery, no one's ever seen him, and without truly understanding his quirk, he's hard to confront or catch. My main job here is to unravel that last part."
"Oh! You were always so good at that," Uravity commented, flashing Deku a smile, causing him to go even more flush.
Uravity couldn't see Krow, but heard him let out an amused sigh before speaking. "So...how many stories is he able to cook?"
"At this point, it seems like he can char seven stories worth of apartments, leaving the upper floors to perish in the inevitable collapse. I'm guessing his fire is hot enough to weaken support beams. From some of these files, he appears to understand where such beams would be and can focus on taking them out."
Uravity thought for a moment. "But...I thought there were bombs? Is his quirk explosive like Bakugo's or is it like the Todoroki Hellfire?"
"It appears to be both right now, but something really sticks out about the M.O. that has to be important to how it works. Every crime he's committed has happened in the summer, between the end of May and the beginning of September...and they have all happened around noon or after and only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays."
"So, he's got a day job!" came Krow's conclusion with a smirk, and he pointed a finger gun at Deku.
Uravity shook her head while Deku stood silent.
"Krow...no..." was Uravity's plea, but Krow felt he was on to something.
"Yeah! Why else only attack on the weekends? Guy is busy during the week!" Uravity couldn't tell if her student was serious or if it was his dark humor coming out in defense of the grim story they had just been told. She figured it the latter.
"I love where your head is at, but I'm pretty sure it has more to do with the fact that those times are the hottest parts of the day, and the weekends are when more people will be home...in their apartments," Deku said shakily.
"Or shopping at the store fronts..." Uravity added.
"Yeah, he seems to have really perfected his technique," Deku said, his eyes falling on the mess of files on the desk. "From all of this information, I've been able to really make some headway figuring out his quirk. It appears to have everything to do with ambient temperature. The only one that didn't happen in the summer was the first one. That one happened in winter, but, that appears to have been a beginner's choice to ensure he'd get away with it, given the remoteness of the town, but..."
Deku trailed and Uravity could see the gears turning in his head as the hand he held up to his chin reached his lips and his brow furrowed in extreme concentration. He was gone from the room, inverted into another plane of existence that was his own mind. Uravity waited a second before feeling the urge to prompt him, that urge coming from her student's confused staring. Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough and Krow spoke.
"D-Deku, dude, you can't just stop in the middle of the story right when you get to the good parts." He threw his hands up as if someone's cell phone had rung in the movie theatre.
Uravity gave an annoyed sigh, but luckily Deku was too sweet, and perhaps too distracted, to take anything else but a grain of salt from Krow's crassness about the situation. Nevertheless, Deku returned and replied, "Sorry. I was just thinking that winter in Alaska is an endless night."
Both Uravity and Krow sat in silence waiting for the revelation. Deku stood thinking again, but one hand reached into one of his red utility belt compartments, and emerged with a small, pocket-sized notebook with a pen. He flipped open the notebook to a page that already harbored his scribbles, and wrote as he spoke aloud, albeit, in a mutter. "So, his quirk doesn't need sunlight, per say, just a heat source, although he probably prefers ambient heat...it's readily available..."
"So...he can suck out the heat from things? Or move the heat?" Uravity tried. "Like, from a stove?"
"Or a human body," Krow added darkly. Uravity stared at him.
"That's so morbid, Krow!"
"What? What? That's something to consider!"
"It really is," Deku murmured, and his consideration made them turn back to him. "I wonder how he could weaponize one hundred degrees, though? That's not nearly enough to ignite wood, let alone melt steel...or char the person..."
"Perhaps he can amplify it?" Uravity suggested.
"Maybe. This is assuming he can even do that...there aren't many quirks out there that can target living things outside of the user...
"He'd be pretty unique..."
"Yeah, and can we assume he is able to move one hundred percent of the heat he steals, if we're going to accept this theory? I just don't know..."
As Uravity discussed the specs of the villain's quirk, she noticed Krow sit up straight in his chair, his face becoming stern. She knew that look. It had only been five days, but she already recognized what it looked like when Krow's quirk activated.
"Guys...people are dying," he murmured. "A lot. All at once..."
He sat, frozen to his chair, a pang of fear visibly moving through him as he sniffed the air lightly, turning his face up. Uravity traced his gaze past Deku and up the back wall where she could see an air conditioning vent. That's where the outside air was coming in and no doubt carrying the scent of death for Krow's keen nose to notice. Deku, meanwhile, grabbed his radio and considered it. No call had come over yet for the emergency Krow was sensing, but nevertheless, he followed Uravity's lead as she shoved her own radio into her fanny pack and donned her helmet.
As the three young heroes made headway towards the door, the familiar booms began in the distance...ONE...TWO...THREE! Uravity felt her stomach rise anxiously, the dread overcoming her as they crashed through the front doors of the office and bolted down the street. People were already running in the opposite direction, screaming, and car alarms wailed. Another three explosions sounded.
Although she had never heard the explosions before, the way witnesses cried and shook as they recounted their experiences hearing them brought all her fear to the forefront. This was their guy. The one they had just been discussing had been just a block away. She could hear Deku's voice, stern, unwavering, but tense, as he reported the incoming rescue operation with possible suspect on scene, but her mind was too focused on just getting there to make out the details.
Krow disappeared into the air, flying ahead to the end of the block. Uravity wasn't sure, in that moment, if Krow, as an intern, should have been allowed to leave the office building. She remembered that it had taken a lot of convincing to get Ryukyu on board with allowing her and Tsuyu to partake in a high-stakes raid when they were interning all those years ago. This surely would be on par, but she wasn't given a lot of time to mull it over or the opportunity to call her bird-like student back. He hovered at the end of the street, his wings flapping heavily as people ran past underneath him.
Once Uravity and Deku made it onto the main avenue, they stopped and stared in horror. A twelve-story apartment building sitting perfectly at the center of the intersection looked as if it had been licked a hundred times by a giant flamethrower, black scars marring the once beautiful sand stone exterior of this building and its immediate neighbors. The fire was already roaring inside what was once the grocery store front like an angry monster and it stretched into the next seven stories of apartments, each window framing the flickering flames inside. Another loud boom rocked the pavement, blowing out more glass onto the street below, stopping the three young heroes from proceeding.
A loud crunch reverberated through the hot summer air as the building gave way, collapsing each fiery floor flat, the heavy intact top floors aiding the vertical descent. Debris rained down on the cars and sidewalk as the building released a cloudy mixture of thick black smoke and sandy dust that raced towards them like floodwaters.
Krow ducked back down the street they had come from to avoid getting hit by flying debris, and Uravity followed, the two of them stopping at the office doors. When she turned around, she saw Deku had stayed poised in the intersection, spreading his legs to brace and extending his arms in front of him, one ready with his middle finger tensely tucked against his thumb and the other to brace it. The stripes of lava snaked across his body before dissipating into the familiar bright green electricity Uravity had come to recognize as his quirk powering up. Her breath still became hitched in her throat, though. She wanted to trust Deku knew what he was doing – the block was more long than it was wide and surely he suspected the rest of the building would fall forward and crush him. Was he planning on catching the building? She knew he was strong...insanely powerful, actually, but to catch five stories of brick, stone, and mortar...she had to doubt that particular skill was in his repertoire.
As the wave of dust washed over them, Uravity shut her eyes and heard...no...felt the top five floors of the building slam onto the pavement and groan as it waned forward, falling like a tree that had been expertly cut. She cracked one eye open to witness Deku, in the thick mist, flick his finger at the oncoming building, sending a jet of air so powerful it stopped the building's descent for a split second, enough for him to pump energy into his legs and bounce out of the way. The rest of the building came crashing down, slamming into the asphalt, sending bits of debris, glass, and brick flying into the surrounding buildings. Despite the hard landing, the top half of the building stayed mostly together.
That's what he was trying to do, Uravity surmised. He was trying to save as much of the building as possible by cushioning its landing. Now there might be survivors!
Krow's cough jolted Uravity from her thoughts and she turned to tend to her student. He was holding his face, trying to shield from the dust as it settled. Uravity patted Krow on the back.
"C'mon, let's start rescue," she said with some energy. To think that there might be some survivors they could pull out of this...maybe this time would be different. Maybe this time, they would find someone and that person would survive, just to stick it to the awful villain who caused this. Deep down, Uravity knew it would be some time before other heroes showed up. After all, these collapses never produced survivors, so surely they would be preoccupied with the injured that had been able to run away. It was up to the three of them to start the effort, it seemed.
As Uravity and Krow approached the fallen building, she could hear the sirens already. It was incredibly quiet, as if the collapse had sucked all of the sound out from the surrounding area, and now the wailing from far off ambulances could be heard. As they approached ever closer, it was clear the building had created a new structure. Where there had been an intersection was now a dead-end. The apartments completely blocked off the streets – anyone who had survived would need to be pulled out either from the broken windows or from the underside where the seventh floor had attached to the eighth. Deku was standing there, waiting for them to return.
"I'll scout from above," Krow offered when they reunited with Deku. He spread his black wings and launched himself into the air, still holding his hand over his nose and mouth. Through the dust, Uravity watched as her student hovered, surveying the damage and then shooting them a thumbs-up that it was relatively safe for them to jump over. Uravity hugged herself, becoming weightless and gently skipped over the wall. Deku did just about the same thing as he pumped power into his legs and scaled the broken wall with a single leap.
As Krow landed between them on the other side, Uravity looked around. The dust still hadn't quite settled, but she could see that the building had also blocked off the other intersection where the building once stood, creating a sort of square colosseum with the surrounding buildings. Additional edifices, store fronts, and apartments had been damaged in the landing as well, some with their entire faces scraped off to reveal the rooms within.
"The hell?" came Krow's voice in the dust cloud. His voice was muffled as he continued to hold his nose and mouth.
"The dust has nearly settled, you can-" Uravity started but Krow cut her off.
He shook his head, his eyes clamped shut, "No. Nope. I don't feel so great...all the death...it's making me want to puke."
"His quirk is getting overwhelmed," Deku commented empathetically to Uravity, who could only watch as her student struggle.
"You can go back to the offices and wait for me there," Uravity offered, but Krow violently shook his head again.
"No, you guys...I don't know how to explain this but the smell...it's...getting closer," Krow choked out, squinting in Uravity's direction. "I have no idea how that's even possible, but it...is..."
He trailed off as he stared past Uravity, his eyes becoming like saucers. Confused, she turned to Deku, who also looked as if he were seeing ghosts behind her. Cautiously, she turned around, gulping. Could it really be that awful? Yes.
From the burned debris behind her, blackened bodies began to emerge, moaning. They became upright and started to walk towards them in a slow, stiff shamble. Uravity couldn't believe her eyes and clearly, neither could her two partners. The corpses were completely black, scorched and burned to death by their main suspect before the building collapse, with no real features to speak of besides their lip-less mouths revealing just their teeth. Some of the bodies fell as they walked, their legs too charred to hold them up. When walking didn't work, they crawled, leaving flakes of burnt black skin in their wake.
"Okay, what's the plan?" Krow shouted as he whipped around to view more bodies oozing out of the cracks of the rest of the building behind him and Deku. Bloodied and mangled, these corpses, too, descended upon their location. In under a minute, the trio was surrounded.
"Oy!" cried a voice from above as a black shadow swooped in from above. "Necro, you might want to hurry on the play time, we got frickin' heroes here already."
As he landed, his quirk was clear – brown bat wings and matching, long ears, big, black eyes, and a curled up face just like that of a bat. When he smirked at the trio, long needle-like teeth emerged from the dried out lips.
"But, but!" cried another voice somewhere. "My friends!"
"Make more friends. These aren't dead yet," the bat growled and then disappeared back into the sky.
At that notion, the corpses shambled closer, faster, until they were upon the young heroes like flies on the dead. It was time to fight, time to stop considering that these zombies were once helpless civilians. Uravity immediately switched to survival mode, grappling and dispatching the burned corpses that fell towards her with mouths open, ready to use their only weapons – their teeth.
Uravity glanced over to her partners in maternal worry. Krow summoned gusts of wind to keep the bodies at bay, still clutching his face in a desperate attempt to control the putrid stench from invading his nostrils. Uravity wasn't sure how much of his desperation was about his quirk anymore as the stink of burnt flesh threatened to make her sick as well. All the while, Deku was employing the same tactic as Krow, flicking bursts of air at the bodies to keep them away. Two large corpses bounded towards him, gurgling, and he easily dispatched them by summoning his black whips, wrapping them, and tossing them back into the building. Unfortunately, even as pieces, the deceased still tried to fight. Arms and legs came crawling back like inch worms to take him down.
It was then Uravity felt something clamp onto her boot, and then her other one. Her automatic response was to quickly turn around and dislodge herself from what she was sure was the grasp of a corpse, but they were just arms she had dealt with earlier. Uravity let out a surprised squeal as she was met with a complete body that came hurtling towards her suddenly, knocking her to the ground. With all her strength she held the body at bay as its teeth snapped at her. It seemed to know her helmet visor was protecting her face, so it tried to bite at her shoulders and chest instead. Uravity grimaced, the blackened skin de-gloving in her grasp to reveal the well done meat underneath. She needed to get out of this quickly before her arms went numb and the clapping jaws met her skin.
Just then the body was pulled off of her and thrown back across the cement ravine into the wall of smoldering debris from whence it came. Uravity breathed a sigh of relief as she stared up at Deku, who was also running out of breath. He offered her his hand.
"You're not out yet," he breathed and she nodded, getting up off the ground.
The mysterious voice from before screeched as its owner emerged from one of the damaged store fronts that had been stripped in the collapse. He was a tiny man with disheveled black hair and a small black mustache upon his lip. He wore dark clothing and the circles under his eyes put the ones under Aizawa's to shame. This was the one the bat had referred to as "Necro" and he certainly looked as though he had a screw loose and his patience was being tried. "I want! Your! Bodies!"
The electricity of Deku's power fired up, causing the hairs at the back of Uravity's neck to stand up straight, before he launched himself towards Necro. Unfortunately, the bat wasn't about to let the party die, and he intercepted Deku, crushing the green hero into the pavement with a slap of his wing. Necro used this as an opportunity to run towards the scorched legions still emerging from the debris. Deku wasn't done, however, and launched his foot towards the bat as he balanced on his hands. The bat swooped up, causing Deku to miss and instead slam into the bricks, his iron sole boot cracking the wall.
"Kickin' to kill, eh? The doesn't seem so heroic, hero," the bat chided as he flapped away. He then addressed Necro, who cowered near the next wall. "Hey, why don't you get the big boy out? These assholes aren't going down easy!"
Necro nodded. At that moment, the bodies turned their attention towards Necro and began to shamble their way to him, as if in a trance. Uravity used this as an opportunity to regroup with Krow and Deku joined them on the opposite side of the crater. They watched helplessly in horror as Necro brought the moaning bodies and pieces together, first into a writhing, bleeding ball around him, then covered it with the charred bodies like a black skin. The corpses molded themselves to look like a torso and finally came together as limbs to lift the new giant up. One burnt corpse lay at the helm, acting as the new horror's head, and screeched together with the thirty or so other dead in a cacophonous roar.
"Okay, that's worse...so much worse," Krow complained into his hands. He shut his eyes again, and, unable to stand the stench any longer, dropped to his knees. Uravity felt the sting of fear run down her spine as she worriedly looked to Deku, who also seemed nervous. The giant stood at least twice any of their heights.
The bat giggled somewhere in the dusty mist as the horror bellowed again. "You shitheads better die quickly or you're not going to have a good time."
"We have to break it apart and knock out the quirk-user inside," Deku grit his teeth. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. It was clear the horror was well-built as it stomped towards them, rattling loose debris near each bloody footprint. "But...it's way too dangerous to get close to it..."
Shaking her head, Uravity willed herself to focus. To think like Deku, one had to ask questions. How does this quirk work? What are its limitations? To her left, she eyed a huge chunk of brick and cement as an idea formed – how does the zombie see without any eyes? She slammed her hands on the giant piece of debris making it float and then tossed it at the horror, releasing her anti-gravity just as it got close. Physics had never been her strongest subject in school, but adding some velocity to a heavy object to deliver a heavier punch was easily proven in practice.
"2 o'clock!" they heard the bat shout from somewhere, and the horror swung its arm to intercept the attack, breaking the artificial boulder into instant rubble. It howled again in anger.
Deku turned to Uravity with the biggest smile, chasing the fear from her chest and replacing it with confidence and butterflies. "Great work!" he called. "So...the bat is acting as its senses...let's test it some more, shall we?"
Uravity matched Deku's mettle and began hurling more debris at the monster as Deku kicked up a flurry of smaller pebbles with his air blasts. As expected, the bat responded first.
"Big pieces from 2 o'clock, little shit from 11."
The monster responded in kind, lifting its fat, right arm of bodies to block Uravity's debris shots and trying to swat aimlessly at Deku's smaller bullets. The pebbles hit the horror, scraping charred skin from its shoulders, revealing dark red meat underneath.
"They're right in front of you!" the bat called again, and this time, the trio had to be on the defensive. The monster held up its big meaty arm and then charged, bellowing the cacophony of dead voices as it did. The three scattered, Uravity and Deku jumping to either side, Krow rocketing up into the air. The horror didn't stop, though, and crashed into the brick wall that was behind them, shaking the bricks and loosening debris that fell on top of it. Uravity, Deku, and Krow came together in the spot the monster had been standing moments before, keeping their eyes on it.
"6 o'clock."
The command had the monster whipping around and charging them again. The hero trio bounced out of the way once more as the giant slammed into the smoldering pile of building remains. Uravity bit her lip as she ran towards a wall still erected and attached to the collapsed apartments. This wasn't going anywhere, she thought grimly. As long as the bat could trace them unabated, they wouldn't be able to break the amalgamation of human remains apart and get to the necromancer inside.
She disappeared behind the wall and leaned up against the linoleum of what was once someone's kitchen floor. She breathed heavily, becoming exhausted from a terrible combination of quirk overuse, physical exertion, and terror. Krow joined her side in this relatively safe enclosure, also out of breath from flying. Not a moment later, Deku appeared, his eyes wide in terror as he grabbed Uravity's arm and Krow's collar, pulling them down to the ground just as the giant bashed its body against the wall. It banged its arms on the ceiling over and over until it caved in, leaving the trio squished in a tiny triangle of space between the two walls.
"Not there? Where did those assholes go? Could have sworn..." they could hear the bat say.
Deku peeked past the wall, his breathing still heavy.
Uravity whispered in the quietest breath she could muster, "What's the plan?"
Deku mouthed back to her, shaking his head, "I don't know."
She could tell he was thinking hard as his eyes scanned their surroundings and their predicament. She looked to Krow and took a moment to be thankful all three of them were, for the most part, unscathed. Unfortunately, her student was still suffering, his eyelids heavy, sweating profusely, and his nose had begun to bleed as he coped with the unrelenting over-stimulation of his quirk. Movement from her other side caused her to face Deku again, empathy clear on his face as he removed his metal face mask from his suit. He then climbed over Uravity and shoved it onto Krow's face, instantly relieving the younger hero of his pain. Krow began to breath easy and shot him a thumb's up. Uravity watched as Deku settled back into his spot to think, his eyes sinking to the floor beneath them, his hand curling under his chin.
An idea seemed to strike him, suddenly, and his eyes then met hers, intense and unwavering, and she felt the gist of the plan before he relayed it. She intimately knew how he worked, the types of plans he came up with, the information he craved to come to such conclusions. It shouldn't have shocked her so much that the strong friendship they had forged in high school hadn't rusted any in the two years they struggled to keep contact, but it did. The excitement of it made her heart flutter. She had missed this fluid collaboration she shared with him, the invasion of his infectious confidence, the feeling of closeness she didn't experience with anyone else. When he looked at her like that, she knew exactly what to do, and if Krow hadn't been there, he would not have needed to say anything at all.
"We can break the zombie" Deku waved a finger between himself and Uravity, "but we need to get rid of the bat, first." He was almost inaudible, but the plan was relayed to Krow enough to make the younger hero think.
"I got him," Krow offered silently after a moment and Uravity grabbed his arm. Her stare was intense – she couldn't just let her intern fight a villain all on his own. Krow seemed to understand this, but he gently removed her hand. "Don't worry, Mom, I got this."
He then scuttled out of the tight space and took flight. It wasn't a moment later they heard the bat screech as Krow engaged him in an aerial battle, one that would shift his focus away from guiding the monster, leaving it blind. With the bat preoccupied, it was time to bring down the giant horror that stood before them. Uravity met eyes with Deku, his dauntless smile infusing a state of courageousness in her that she hadn't felt since...well, since last time they fought together. Their classmates had learned quickly that Ochako and Izuku were a force to be reckoned with and soon this giant monster would learn it, too.
She grabbed his shoulder and made him weightless.
"They're going to attack you!" the bat shouted as he struggled with Krow.
"Hey, ugly, worry about yourself!" Krow shouted as he chased the villain through the air.
The bat's shout seemed to stun the beast and it swung haphazardly in all directions, but it would be no use. Deku powered up his quirk and lept for the monster. Uravity ran parallel to him, releasing her quirk at just the right moment like she had with the first boulder she had thrown. Deku's iron-covered foot hit the giant so hard it created a crater in its side, charred skin flaked off and blood oozed from the hole. Deku then bounced away as the zombie swung its arms, the bodies there wailing.
Uravity intercepted Deku, touching his shoulder again to steal his mass, and repeating the attack over and over again, perfectly synchronized to deliver an onslaught the monster could not keep up with. Deku hit the monster in its arm once...twice...three times before the limb fell off, battered and broken in a bloody mess. Each time Uravity ran across the battlefield to meet Deku and offer her quirk, only to release it at the precise moment he would make contact. It was like a gruesome waltz they danced to bring down the moaning, crying atrocity. Now she was fearless. Now they were getting somewhere. The exhaustion, though, was catching up to her, and Uravity willed the burning in her legs away in order to meet Deku wherever he needed her.
His quirk was incredible. From a distance, it looked like he wasn't even feeling it, wasn't getting tired, wasn't disgusted by the monstrosity he was fighting. After the second arm came down, and Uravity met with Deku to provide quasi-flight again, she realized how wrong that was. He was soaking wet from sweat and his chest heaved each tired breath. It seemed crazy to her, but he looked like he was enjoying it, still. The fact that they were succeeding was enough for him to continue, despite how his body shook under her fingertips as she extended her quirk to him yet again.
And so, they continued. Each smash seemed to make the monster more and more anxious as it spun around, trying to figure out from what direction Deku would hit it from next. It was all in vain, though, as Deku continued to kick holes in the monster's abdomen, scrap burned flesh away, and dismantle the beast. It truly had no outward senses, and only responded to being hit, stomping at the ground where it wrongly guessed Deku still was. It was still a dangerous game Deku was playing, and eventually, the monster guessed right.
As Deku came in from behind, the monster turned around in a manic rage, stomping its feet. It was too late to stop the incoming attack, and the monster's foot, essentially a few crushed bodies, swiped at Deku, knocking him back. Uravity quickly released her quirk, leaving Deku on his back, reeling from the kick to his stomach. The giant zombie seemed to know it had hit something, guessed that its attacker was still somewhere in front of it, and started to charge. Without a moment's hesitation, Uravity jumped into action.
She had absolutely no idea where this burst of energy had come from, but the visual cue that Deku was in serious mortal danger was all it took to spring her forward like a slingshot. She reached him before the monster did, made him weightless by clutching his arm with all five fingers, and yanked him out of the way. The monster came barreling through the area not a moment later, crashing down each footfall with the intent to squash Deku like a bug, leaving mini craters in its wake. A section of the asphalt suddenly caved in under the monster's heavy foot, and tripped it so violently, it smacked the ground with a bone-crunching crash. A number of burned bodies fell off the back of the creature, and it screamed with thirty dead voices in frustrated agony.
Deku took this opportunity to part from Uravity and jump up onto the monster's back. Uravity released her anti-gravity, and Deku got to work excavating Necro from the monster. The giant zombie kicked and wailed, but with no arms, it struggled to get up. Deku ripped and tore into the monster's back like a savage animal, bits and pieces of flesh flying everywhere, blood splattering onto his wet hero costume. It was clear then, to Uravity, that Deku had just about enough of this fight and was desperate to end it.
He had torn a giant hole into the back of the monster, reached in and pulled Necro out from the monster's core. The tiny man was covered in blood from head to toe, and he hissed at Deku's angry visage.
"Bastard!" Necro cried. "He was beautiful! And you destroyed him! Destroyed him! Destroyed! Him!"
Deku said nothing as he retrieved handcuffs from one of his utility belt pockets, and forcefully attached them to Necro's wrists. Ochako could see the hurt in Izuku's eyes...what he had just done was inconceivable. Tearing through dead bodies to apprehend the criminal was something she knew would stick with him for some time. Hell, it was going to stick with her for a long time, too. Never in her life could she imagine the sweet, amiable Izuku needing to make killing strikes and desecrating the dead, but here he had done just that.
At that moment, Krow came down with the bat under his foot. He slammed the other villain hard into the broken battlefield, knocking him out.
"Nevermore, bitch," Krow yelled, and then chuckled to himself.
Uravity fell backwards onto her behind, the adrenaline wearing off to reveal the intense soreness in her legs. She shook her head at Krow. He sure was awful today, and wondered if his dark humor had a limit. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Deku smirk for a split second at the slightly inaccurate reference, so perhaps there was some use to it after all.
Soon enough, other heroes showed up, removing wreckage, beginning recovery efforts, and rescuing survivors. As it turned out, to the trio's surprise, there had been survivors trapped in the stairwell, and as the building fell, the hard concrete of that inner wall, as well as Deku's ploy to soften the building's landing, had saved them. They were still in critical condition, and as they were loaded into the backs of ambulances on stand-by, Uravity looked to Krow to check if it was okay to have some hope. He nodded. Finally, there was some good news today.
From behind, Nejire and Ryukyu joined the trio.
"Thank goodness you are all okay," Ryukyu said, her worry unprecedented. When they finally convinced her they were okay, her demeanor changed to relief and business. "Okay. Give me the quick and dirty report. What's the total damages?"
The dragon heroine was using this as a teaching tool as she zeroed in on Krow. Uravity kept her mouth shut and allowed Krow the floor, who smirked and answered, "Downed twelve-story, many casualties, and about thirty dead twice."
He was dead serious. Uravity's head fell into her palm and she shook her head. She gave up trying to reel in Krow's crass commentary on the dead, but Ryukyu took it in stride. Somehow she understood her newest intern's need for humor in this crisis. Uravity thought a bit more as Krow tried to relay exactly what they had been up against, and it occurred to her that maybe he was beyond her when it came to accepting the laundry list of harsh truths. He had faced death his whole life no thanks to his quirk...maybe all he had to emerge from it sane was a little bit of laughter towards the darkness. Ryukyu seemed to get it, although her way of dealing with the darkness was rooted in compassion for the living and buttering up her staff when the abyss came calling, which she did now.
Despite Ryukyu's good graces, Uravity suddenly felt a pang of anxiety, a glaring lapse in her own judgment and authority she needed to address to her elder.
"Either way," she started, looking down at the pavement. "I shouldn't have allowed Krow to stay in combat. It was so dangerous and reckless...I messed up."
"I told you I could handle it. He was just a bat..." Krow tried to defend what had happened, but Uravity became even more upset.
"Even still! It was dangerous and it wasn't clear whether or not it was safe! When your quirk was getting overwhelmed, I should have immediately sent you back to the office, no questions asked!"
"And I would have said no! Who was going to get that bat bastard but me?"
"That's not the point!"
Ryukyu stared at the ensuing argument, her expression unchanged from the soft, understanding visage it had been.
Deku spoke up from behind Uravity, attempting to assuage the situation, more so for his friend's anxiety. "To be honest, we all went in thinking it would just be a rescue operation. By the time we realized what we were dealing with, it was too late. We needed that third person, otherwise, we really would have been at a greater disadvantage."
Ryukyu nodded, "It's so wonderful how you are evaluating yourself, Uraraka. You see areas for improvement, you're aware of your shortcomings and mistakes, and I really appreciate that. You know, the reason why I put Dakuro-kun under your care is because he's so gung-ho and will fight you about your decisions. You've clearly been able to work around it and use his ambitious personality to help take down villains."
"Yo, I'm standing right here," Krow mumbled.
"And not only that, but I think Krow has learned a little bit about his own limits through this, isn't that right, Dakuro-kun?" Ryukyu turned towards him knowingly, and the dark angel-like hero-in-training scratched the back of head bashfully, pink staining his cheeks.
"I...need a face mask if I'm going to tag along on recovery missions?" he tried. Then he jumped, remembering Deku's mask was still around his neck and returned the gear to its rightful owner.
Ryukyu snickered, then laughed, "Yes, something like that. See if you can get UA's support techs to fashion you one as soon as possible. In the meantime, why don't the three of you head back to the offices and take the rest of the day to rest? Flashlight should be here shortly after he's sent the work-studies home."
"That sounds good. Thank you, Ryukyu," Uravity said graciously, bowing to her. Ryukyu was all about positive reinforcement, and Uravity knew she'd never be able to count all the perks of being under the dragon lady's wing.
Ryukyu smiled and then turned to Deku, a thought crossing her mind.
"Deku, when do you think they will cross examine these two villains?" she asked.
Deku mulled the question around before answering. "Given the severity and the fact that we're trying to catch the villain responsible for the actual collapse, I'd say early tomorrow morning."
"Wonderful! Would it be okay if Krow and Uravity joined to watch the interrogation? For educational purposes?" Ryukyu asked.
Deku nodded. "Yeah, that would be fine. There will probably be a ton of personnel there to watch the interrogation."
"Great! Uravity, you're taking overtime to go to the interrogation and feel free to stay and work out the case more," Ryukyu ordered. "And Krow, as a student at UA, I can't make it mandatory that you arrive to work on a weekend, but I highly recommend that you join them."
Krow saluted. "Yes ma'am!"
Ochako could not will herself to walk the few blocks back to her apartment this way – smelly from sweat, blood, and only God knew what else - she needed to take a shower right now. Asuka Dakuro hadn't cared. He quickly changed into clean clothes, splashed some water on her face, and skipped out of the office, promising to lay into all of the gruesome details to whatever poor soul asked why he smelled so bad. She had done everything she could to convince him not to do that, and when he finally bid her goodbye, she still wasn't sure if he would keep the day's events to himself.
As Ochako turned on the shower and let the warm water wash over her filthy skin, she pondered Ryukyu's reasons for plopping such a brazen intern into her lap. Surely this one was a handful! He had started out so sweet, understanding, and willing to learn, but after their second or third run in with death that week, his true colors had emerged. He was still friendly, but everything was a joke, like he was constantly trying to remain sane in an insane world through the tenets of comedy. If that were the case, then Ochako couldn't blame him too much. She had seen the toll hero work had taken on Flashlight – every failed save weighed heavily on him, depressed him, and, she feared, convinced him to quit. On the flip side, she had become stalwart against death and the fragility of people. It didn't make the work any less grueling, and sometimes the missed saves weighed her down more than the successes lifted her up. In that sense, then maybe Krow had a reason to laugh. Maybe it was the best way to separate the dead body from who it used to be. Maybe Ryukyu gave her Krow so that she could learn to handle death in a new way...or maybe she assigned Asuka Dakuro to study under Ochako Uraraka precisely because he was a pain in the ass and she needed to learn to take charge. Whatever it was, she had to admit he made this test of her skills to become pro-partner that much more challenging.
Lost in thought, she rubbed the bar soap across her skin. It was no body scrub like she had at home, but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make if it meant ridding herself of the zombie fluids. She jumped slightly upon hearing the door to the locker room open, and she found herself a bit confused and bare, despite the fact she had closed the shower curtain.
The locker room of the Ryukyu offices was a single, unisex area where everyone could store their belongings in personal lockers as well as change and shower in separated stalls. The bathrooms were thankfully still separate, the boys room to the right, the girls to the left. It even had a washer, dryer, and sink to clean hero gear. Ryukyu had withheld no expense to ensure a hero or sidekick could live here if standbys were necessary, and it was just another thing that helped Ochako feel so at home here.
The plop of a bag and more rustling jolted her from her thoughts again and she inquired into the space, "D-Dakuro-kun?"
"No, it's me," came Izuku's voice. Now she was really feeling bare. It wasn't as if she hadn't changed or showered with Flashlight in the next stall, or any other male work-study for that matter, but there was clearly something different about this arrangement. When the other shower head turned on, Ochako felt her cheeks heat up.
Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think about it!
"I'm really glad this office has showers...sorry I couldn't wait, I couldn't go on the train covered in zombie...juices," Izuku said over the separator, as if he felt the need to explain himself.
Had he thought about it?
Ochako giggled nervously, "Yeah, tell me about it!" She then winced as she realized what had escaped her mouth and her mind took it as an invitation to fill in the blanks.
A moment of silence crept by and Ochako felt the awkwardness build as the weight of knowing they were occupying the same space completely naked and wet grew heavier. She needed to escape these thoughts, at least for right now.
"Yeah, I couldn't even bring myself to walk home the few blocks," she added quickly. "It was..." she sighed, apparently see-sawing with the idea of discussing it, "a pretty gruesome fight."
Izuku hummed in agreement, his mind seemingly elsewhere at the reminder of the day's events. Scenes from the fight and the sheer terror raced through her mind. Real people, perhaps one hundred of them, perished today in a single attack. Men, women, and children had been roasted alive to the point of blackening and then reanimated to do the bidding of a psychotic madman. It was clear the bat and the necromancer weren't the ones that had set the blaze. No, that had to be their mystery villain. Had he been at the scene or had he escaped immediately before the building even came down? Why did these villains stay? Where did they come from?
Izuku was silent. She could hear him go about washing the sins he had had to commit today away, and the thought of it dug into her. Being a hero was so easy in the eyes of the public. Do good. Save people. But it really wasn't so simple at the end of the day, was it? People got hurt, people died, and villains didn't have to care who got hurt or who died in the crossfires of their desires and the means to get them. Heroes had to care, but in this instance, Deku didn't have a choice but to disregard them like a villain would. The necromancer had blanketed himself in the dead bodies of another villain's actions, and the only way to stop the fight and save their skins was to break those bodies again. There was no telling what story the police department would have to construe to defend Deku's actions, or maybe they would simply sweep them under the rug and fully blame the villains for it. Law enforcement wasn't pretty. Ochako knew no matter what happened, no matter what had to be done, Izuku was not okay with it.
The faucet squeaked as she shut the water off, the once hot water betraying her as the steam dissipated and the cold air sapped the heat away. She grabbed the towel she had hanging just outside her shower stall and began to dry herself. She felt terrible and angry. It wasn't fair or right. Such a wonderfully bright hero was forced to walk into the darkness today and he had been swallowed up by the impenetrable shadows there. She shook her head and willed those useless feelings away. Right now, she had someone to save.
She put on her street clothes and took a deep breath as his faucet squeaked and the water stopped. She was her own hero, but with the sudden reunion with Izuku, she felt a higher calling. He was so strong and capable of really anything, except being his own support. He was always like that, in constant need of grounding and reassurance, and if that's where he needed her, then she would be there. She could take that role.
"It's not your fault," she said into the echo of the locker room.
There was a pause. Somewhere in their past, the connection of their thoughts had become second nature. They could finish each other's sentences, come up with similar strategies, trust each other unconditionally, and it was the same now. Despite the awkward silence, he didn't need her to clarify what she meant.
"I know..." came his voice, a little shaky. She could hear him pulling on street clothes.
"You did what had to be done."
She didn't feel it necessary to elaborate that sometimes heroes had to step into the darkness to snuff it out. That heroes were expected to use force against villains, and this time was no different. He knew all these things already.
"It was horrible, what I had to do..."
"It was heroic."
Ochako had put herself directly in front of his shower stall so that when he pushed the curtain away, she'd be the first thing he saw. His hair was still pretty wet, and it added to his dejectedness. She put on her best bubbly smile as she looked into his glassy eyes, emanating positivity to counteract his mournfulness.
"We do what has to be done, no matter how awful, because we're heroes. We do it so they don't have to," she reminded him. "I don't know anyone else who does that as effortlessly without question, as you do, Deku."
She was sure her buttering game had become even stronger while under Ryukyu's wing, and it showed. His frown became a squiggle of bashful gratitude.
"Thanks Uraraka...you always know how to make me feel better," he murmured, his tiny grin becoming a sweeter smile that extended to his eyes, his cheeks stained pink.
Her heart was on fire.
"Anytime!" she squeaked, her cheeks becoming more rosy as well.
Ochako grabbed her gym bag and hero suit from her shower stall and moved over to the far wall where the washer was set up. "You...um...you can wash your suit here, too."
"Oh, that would be great!" Izuku said relieved, and snatched his own suit to drop into the machine. As he put it in, Ochako could see it was incredibly filthy. Blood, sweat, dust, dirt, charcoal...what wasn't absorbed into the fabric?
"So...what time should Krow and I be at the station tomorrow morning?" Ochako asked as the machine hummed on.
Izuku stared at her for a moment and then grimaced. "I almost forgot...I'm not going home, I still need to write up the report for this."
"Don't tell me you have more to do!" Ochako whined as Izuku nodded.
He began walking away, grabbed his gym bag from the shower stall, and stopped at the door as he answered. "Yeah, I have to do the write up, make notes about their quirks, they need to be checked in, booked, and the proper restraints need to be ordered. Then the detective needs to get called in...I'll probably end up sleeping at the station for a few hours before the interrogations."
Ochako sighed, feeling sorry for him. "Maybe...can I help you with any of that? I'm not doing anything tonight."
Izuku flashed her a smile. "Nah, go get some rest. I'd say come in about 8 AM tomorrow. That's usually when the detective will come in."
"All right," she said uneasily as they left the locker room. "I'll text Dakuro-kun about it. Just don't forget to eat something and actually get some sleep."
Izuku chuckled. "I'll be okay. Don't worry about me so much."
But how could she not?