Chapter 14: Break Day


"Hey, Aizawa-sensei?" Izuku said, pulling himself up from the mat. "Could we try sparring with Quirks?"

"Not yet," the gruffier man replied, "I'll let you know when you're ready to start working with your Quirk."

I'll let you know when, Izuku thought. there's that same phrase again…

It had only been a few days since his fight with Kelsier (he was relieved that he finally had something to call the man in his head other than 'the other mistborn'), and the more he thought back on that night, the more questions he had, but oddly, he felt like he'd gotten closure on a lot of things as well. It was certainly an odd limbo to be in, at least. He knew the basics of the origin of his Quirk, even if he didn't really understand it, and he got some sort of confirmation that he was connected in some way to the Mists.

After giving himself multiple headaches trying to make out what Kelsier had told him, Izuku decided to take the man's advice to heart. He wasn't going to linger too much on the specifics, instead he was just going to take things at face value and focus on himself. Sure, there was probably more to the origin of his Quirk and how it played into some bigger picture, but that didn't matter in the now. All that mattered as of that moment was taking what he was told, accepting it, and using that knowledge to help get closer to his goals.

Which, of course, brought him back to his training sessions with Aizawa and the very noticeable lack of focus on his Quirk. They were still just going strength training and hand to hand combat (which he was getting better at). It was becoming harder and harder to see the point with the knowledge that pewter just boosted him up to the same level anyways. As for the sparring, he had a feeling that hand-to-hand practice with his Quirk would be something more akin to his fight with Kelsier, and since then he had so many ideas running through his head on different ways to apply different metals in different scenarios.

"Nevermind," Izuku finally said, a little miffed.

Aizawa readied his capture bands. "We'll do a couple more and then break for the day."

Even if the physical fitness training wasn't as useful to him, considering his access to pewter, the sparring sessions actually were. In the last few days, they'd branched out from the basics to different close combat situations such as an elevation difference of uneven ground. Today, it was fighting against someone with a restrictive weapon.

The grey bands around Aizawa's neck weren't just for show, as it turns out. The man was an absolute master of manipulating the bands in the most unpredictable ways at both close and medium range. If Izuku wasn't careful and looking out very specifically for the movements of the bands during his approach, he'd just be restrained before he could even get close enough to touch his mentor, although things didn't get much better after he closed in, either. Once he got close, not only did he have to worry about thinking about his footing and attack strategies, but he also had to keep an eye on his opponent's movements, else he be wrapped up by the bands again.

Izuku shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He still hadn't had time to catch up on sleep from the night that he'd lost by going out into the mists, and it was catching up to him, both physically and mentally.

Get close quick, don't let him have time to get ready or think of a counter plan. Izuku told himself, dashing in and keeping an eye on Aizawa's hands around the capture bands. The moment they tensed, Izuku made to dive to the side, barely getting out of the way before the grey bands flung through the air. Izuku struggled to regain his footing, his movements feeling sluggish.

Before he could regain his balance, a second set of capture mands wrapped themselves around Izuku's shin and yanked, pulling his entire right leg out from under him and causing him to slam back-first onto the mat. Izuku let out a soft groan.

If I had pewter, I wouldn't have lost my balance and I could have pulled on him instead of the other way around when he grabbed me, Izuku thought sourly.

Izuku laid on the mat for a moment, staring at the lights on the ceiling above. A couple of heartbeats later, Aizawa stepped into his field of view, looking down at him.

"You look tired," he deadpanned.

"I haven't been sleeping well." It wasn't a lie, he'd struggled to get any good sleep for a few days, but that was just because he was behind on his sleep schedule. That single night of using pewter to keep him up had really taken its toll on him and he hadn't had the time to catch up on the hours he was missing, between his training, homework, and community service.

"We're going to break for today," Aizawa finally said. "And take Friday off. Spend some time at home or something, you need a break."

I do need a break, Izuku thought. What came out of his mouth wasn't quite what he was thinking. "It's okay, I don't want to miss any training sessions, the more we train the more prepared I'll be for Yuuei."

Aizawa scowled. "You're taking a break on Friday because you look like you got hit by a bus and the bags under your eyes are darker than mine. If you try to show up, I will not be here."

Izuku tried to push himself to his feet, but stopped when a wave of exhaustion washed over him. He instinctively reached for pewter, forgetting that his reserves were empty.

"Okay, yeah," Izuku said, "maybe I need a break."

Aizawa just grunted and walked away, calling over his shoulder. "Don't push yourself too much, kid."


The dim light in Momo's kitchen flickered as she did the dishes. They didn't have a dishwasher, so it was all by hand, but that didn't matter to her all that much. Most of the time, doing the dishes provided a good mindless activity to focus on.

Her birthday was on Friday. She hadn't told anyone yet and she had no intention of doing so, either. Her mother was still in recovery and would be for another two months, possibly longer if her situation didn't improve. Past that, she didn't really have anyone to spend the time with, anyways.

The last time she'd properly celebrated her birthday was when she was eight, just before her parents split up. Every year after that fell into one of three categories: either she "celebrated" her birthday with her father who always made it seem like it was a chore, her mother remembered but didn't have the money to do anything, or they completely forgot and/or ignored it altogether. It was to the point that her birthday just felt like any other day.

She intended to keep it that way. What's the point? It's not really anything all that special, anyways, she thought.

The last thing she wanted was to be seen as a burden to anybody.


After her declaration that she was going to go to Yuuei, Ochako practically shut herself in her room for a few days. Her mother called for her multiple times, trying to coax her out of her self-imposed prison, but had stopped after it became clear that she wasn't going to be leaving.

Her outburst and choice of school had been almost exclusively the product of all her pent up emotions, to the point that when she calmed down, she found herself questioning whether that's actually where she wanted to go.

Do I want to become a hero? The question reverberated around her head, echoing constantly. Her (albeit minimal) interactions with the house staff didn't help to ease her mind, either. The page of her chemistry textbook that she'd opened up before being called down to dinner a few days ago still sat open on her test, completely untouched.

Still, despite her unease, the declaration hadn't come out of nowhere. Sure, part of it may have been spite and part of it may have been her desire to get out of the estate for high school, but it felt like something deep inside her had made that final choice for her.

Ochako sighed, flopping onto her bed, clutching onto her hug-pillow. Her gaze settled on the picture frame that sat on her night-stand. It was just a small picture of her when she was a kid, holding hands with her dad. She silently reached over and picked up the frame, holding the picture out in front of her.

"What should I do, papa?" she mumbled, pulling the frame up against her chest and hugging it. It wasn't long before she found herself fading into unconsciousness.


Ochako found herself in the courtroom again. She didn't quite completely understand a lot that went on, and there wasn't a lot that she really understood outside of what her parents had told her.

"Mommy and daddy are going to be splitting up," her father had told her. "I don't want to get you caught in the middle and I don't want you to have to choose, but things might go as well as I'm expecting. I need you to be strong, okay?"

"Okay, papa!" she'd said innocently. The interaction had been just before he left to go to the first day of divoce proceedings. That was five months ago. In that time, she'd watched her father go from a cheerful, happy man who always wore a smile to someone else almost entirely. He still acted the same way around her, which she was thankful for, but she saw that the divorce was really taking a toll on him. He drank alcohol more often than he used to, he always had bags under his eyes, and he didn't have as much time to hang around and play with her.

Her mother was almost completely out of the picture. After declaring that she wanted a divorce, she'd packed her things and left, and Ochako had hardly seen her since. She called every once in a while, but she never actually visited. She'd asked once or twice if Ochako could come stay with her for a weekend, but her father was firm that she needed to stay around where she was going to school.

As time went on, she grew more and more distant from her mother, which hurt. It wasn't just that she was growing further and further apart from her mother, who she'd looked up to and loved for so much of her life, but also the fact that the woman didn't even seem to be trying to keep that connection.

And, if the little information Ochako had been fed about the many times in the courthouse, her mother was also trying to get as much out of the split as possible, including custody, which was part of the reason that her father was becoming so stressed.

As time went on, she came to blame her mother more and more, just as the world became more and more sad, little by little.

"I'm sorry, honey, but today may be the last day of court, and the Judge wanted you to give your opinion. I want you to be brave, okay?" her father said as they walked into the courtroom. Ochako gulped and nodded, unfurling the front of her dress. It was the first time she'd been in the courtroom, so she wasn't quite sure what to expect.

As they walked down the main aisle towards the floor of the room, she noticed that her mother was already there, alongside her lawyer. Somehow, her mother had the money to afford a lawyer.

"With all parties present, the court is now in session." the man at the big podium - the Judge, Ochako presumed - spoke. Even as he started listing out everything that had already been decided and what was on the agenda for today, Ochako found her eyes drifting over to the stand that her mother was standing behind.

The woman looked completely different from how she'd looked just a few months ago. Her face was caked in makeup, to the point that it was almost unrecognizable, and the dress she was wearing just screamed expensive. That second half was compounded by the fact that at her side was a designer purse, one that couldn't have cost any less than a few thousand dollars.

As Ochako looked at her mother, she saw an entirely different person from the person that she thought she knew. It was almost like looking at a complete stranger.

"The only thing left to settle is the custody of Miss Uraraka Ochako, here. As I'm sure the rest of the court is aware, the topic of custody has been anything but productive in the five months of this proceeding. Both parties are pushing for full custody, and so we have decided to take Miss Uraraka Ochako's personal opinion into consideration."

Ochako felt her father's grip on her hand tighten. Ochako shot another glance towards her mother, who was now looking in her direction. Ochako twiddled her thumbs.

"Miss Uraraka Ochako, would you please come to the front?" Ochako peeked out from behind the stand and tentatively made her way to the middle of the floor. There was a small, wooden podium right next to where the Judge was seated, which she walked up behind, using the provided stool to make her actually visible.

"We usually prefer not to get children involved in custody battles," the Judge started. "Especially when one of the parties is so opposed to it, which your father was. So, it is with a heavy heart that I must ask you to make a decision. Both your mother and father are pushing for full custody, and neither are willing to fold, so we ask you to make a choice on which parent you are most comfortable living with. How much you see both your father and mother respectively depends on your answer."

Ochako gulped, nodding, She knew the basics of what custody meant, not only had her father given her a rundown, but she also wasn't stupid. She might be young, but she was eight!

As Ochako looked around the room, she took in the scene before her. Her father stood on one side of the open space, looking at her with almost pleading eyes. The bags under them were darker than they'd been for a long time, and when she looked at him, her heart panged.

She loved this man. He was her father and her best friend, and had never turned against or betrayed her. No matter what, he stayed by her side and put on a heroic smile for her, even when she could tell that he had to force it.

When she looked at her father, she trusted him.

On the other side of the room stood her mother, or at least, someone who wore her mother's face. The woman that stood on the other side of the room right now, surrounded by a lawyer and a man Ochako didn't recognize, was not the mother she remembered. This woman wasn't the sweet, loving woman who tucked Ochako into bed every night, nor was she the person who bought Ochako her first doll.

When she looked at her mother, she felt betrayed. She'd trusted her, and her mother had taken that trust and stomped all over it.

When Ochako looked into her mother's eyes and was only met with a blank, almost empty-feeling stare, her decision was made.

"I…" Ochako stammered, clutching onto the sides of the podium and accidentally activating her quirk on it, "I want to live with papa."

The atmosphere in the courtroom seemed to freeze in place. Ochako didn't even look across at her mother and she wasn't sure what she would have seen if she had. When she met her father's eyes, he was crying.

"I see…" the Judge said, "then the verdict and finalization of custody and this divorce is the following: by virtue of the nature of the mother's reported financial income over the past five months, in combination with the father's current economic struggle, the mother is more fit to raise a child for the time being. Additionally, based on the father's reported psychological analyses from a psychologist, he is emotionally distraught, which also makes it difficult to properly raise a child. Up until today, I was planning on giving full custody to the mother."

Ochako's heart sunk.

"However," the Judge continued, "the child's opinion cannot be ignored. So, by the power bestowed upon me by this court, I hereby declare that custody shall be split. The father will have weekdays, and the mother will have weekends and long breaks. Any further inquiries will be handled by the office of divorce affairs, and this court is officially adjourned."

Ochako woke in a cold sweat. In her sleep, she'd kicked all the blankets off the bed, and the hug pillow wasn't faring much better. To her relief, the picture of her and her father hadn't been damaged in her mid-dream struggling.

She hadn't dreamed of that last day in the courtroom for a long time. It was a recurring dream she had, and every time it came up, she ended up making a mess that she didn't have the energy to clean up, as well as being unable to fall back asleep. Ochako shook her head to clear it, still a bit rattled. Sure, the actual contents of the dream were not that scary or anything like that, but it still never failed to jostle her emotionally. To her, that day was one of the turning points of her life, so to speak.

Ochako sat up and took a look at the clock.

Five thirty, Ochako read, I'm not gonna get back to sleep, so I may as well be productive.

She got up from her bed after carefully re-placing the picture frame on her nightstand and walked over to her desk, turning on her lamp before crashing into the seat and staring at the words and pictures of her chemistry textbook.


For the first time in over a month, Izuku wasn't sure what he was going to do after school. Surprisingly, he wasn't at all behind on his homework, he had nothing to do at home, and Aizawa had "given" him the day off (if forcing him counted), so he was kinda lost on how he'd spend his afternoon.

Izuku kicked a rock to the side of the sidewalk absentmindedly.

"What did that rock ever do to you?" a female voice called. Izuku looked over his shoulder to see Yaoyorozu approaching. He let himself smile a little bit.

"It murdered my family," he said dryly, not letting a hint of emotion pass his face. Yaoyorozu paused for a moment, taken aback. Before the conversation could get awkward, Izuku continued. "I can make dead family jokes because my mom died when I was four."

Yaoyorozu stared at him for a split second, before breaking into a smile and falling into step with him. "Your sense of humor is darker than I thought."

Izuku shrugged. "I don't make jokes often, so they tend to be pretty hit or miss."

"Hmm," Yaoyorozu hummed, "We'll call that one a near miss."

They made the rest of the trek to school in relative silence, which was unusual. Typically, Yaoyorozu carried most of the conversation, since he still didn't have the best conversational skills and found it much better to be talked to, but today she was unusually quiet.

"Is there something wrong?" Izuku said, opening the school's main door, "You aren't talking much."

When Izuku spoke, it seemed to have pulled Yaoyorozu from a trance, almost like her mind had been completely elsewhere and he'd just called her back to earth. "Oh, yeah, it's nothing. Just a bit tired is all, nothing you need to worry about."

"Okay," Izuku said, taking off his shoes and putting on the school issued pair. He frequently forgot to change his shoes before leaving for the day, which was the reason that he was on his fourth pair this term. He hadn't mentioned to the school that the reason he was on his fourth pair was that he kept either destroying them on his old nightly runs into the Mists, or just forgot them on a random rooftop altogether.

I wonder if someone's ever found my shoes on the corner of a building and thought someone had jumped, Izuku wondered, tying the laces and placing his personal pair of shoes into the locker. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

By the time he'd gotten his shoes changed, Yaoyorozu was already standing by the edge of the lockers, waiting for him. He joined her as they walked to class, and Yaoyorozu seemed to be talking a little more than their walk to school, although it wasn't clear if it was because she was forcing herself to or not.

There's something bothering her, Izuku realized. Considering how close and good of a friend to him she'd been over the last few months, he felt like he owed it to her to either uncover what it was or solve the problem. If she doesn't want me to know anything's wrong, is it right to pry?

Izuku and Yaoyorozu parted ways, headed to their respective classes.


Izuku fidgeted with one of Kelsier's coins throughout the entirety of his morning. He didn't really need to pay attention in class, he hadn't needed to for months, and so distracting or entertaining himself was the best way to keep from overthinking things that didn't really need to be overthought, like why Yaoyorozu had been so distant that morning. He couldn't help but think, Was it something I did?

Shaking the worry, he absentmindedly ran his thumb over the odd characters on the carbon-scored metal, carefully burning a little bit of his small reserve of tin to feel the individual characters. For the sake of his own sanity, he decided that he would not worry himself with what the older Mistborn was up to, for the time being at least.

When the teacher released class for lunch, Izuku tried to leave the room as quickly as possible. He'd learned the hard way that sticking around was just asking for someone (primarily Bakugo) to torment him.

"Midoriya?" a male voice called. Izuku froze in the doorway and turned around, slipping Kelsier's coin into his pocket. At the front of the room, his teacher was gathering his things.

"Midoriya, could you follow me to the teacher's office? It'll be quick, I promise."

Izuku gulped but nodded, following the taller man out of the room. Izuku followed his teacher like a lost puppy throughout the hallways, weaving in between groups of passers-by. He had to stop burning tin as to avoid the loud noises from a few dozen, simultaneous conversations hurting his ears. Luckily, it wasn't that long of a walk.

Izuku shut the door to the lounge behind him and brought tin back to a low simmer. His teacher quickly put down his armful of papers and books on his desk, before sitting in the seat and turning around.

"Alright, now that I've got you alone," he said, "I wanted to ask you about your future plans. I know that you turned in the sheet earlier this term, but you and Bakugo are the only ones in the class that haven't met with me yet for career counseling."
This again, Izuku thought with a hint of exasperation. When the worksheets were first due, his teacher had pestered him for a few weeks straight, questioning his choice to only apply to Yuuei.

"What about it?" Izuku said, pulling over a chair and sitting down.

His teacher sighed. "Before we try to get started, let me be clear. I'm not going to try to dissuade you from going to Yuuei, I learned my lesson the first time around."

Izuku smiled, letting a little bit of the tension in his shoulders release. He gave him an appreciative smile before nodding. The older man continued.

"That being said, I wanted to give you some advice." He took a deep breath. "When I was your age, I wanted to be a hero too, I think everybody did at some point. I applied to a bunch of hero schools and...well, I got into none of them."

Izuku pursed his lips, but let the man continue. "I ended up getting into my safety school, and the rest of it is history. Now, as for how this relates to now: I'm not going to try to dissuade you from going to Yuuei, but I am going to ask you to have a backup plan. With your grades, you could get into a good amount of top schools around the area, even Yuuei's general education or support programs. I know you're set on the hero program but…" he paused, "Someone dear to me once told me 'An assassin always needs to wield a second blade.' Odd expression, I know, but it's a way to say that It's always good to have something to fall back on. I have faith in you to do what you want to do in life, but by the nature of your Quirklessness, well…" he trailed off.

Izuku clenched his fast, wincing at the end of the last sentence. He had to try very hard to keep himself from just bursting out with 'but I'm not Quirkless!'

"You're saying I should apply to the Yuuei general course?" he said, unsure of what the teacher's goal was. So far, it felt like a roundabout attempt to tell him to stop trying to get into the hero program, while also simultaneously saying 'I'm not trying to tell you to stop trying to get into the hero program.'

"I was getting to that," the teacher responded with a sigh. "I have to send in student counts for testing areas soon, which means I need to send a number to Yuuei of the number of exams for each subject. There's separate exams for the hero program, the general studies program, the business program, and the support program. I'd like you to choose at least one of the latter three to take in addition to the hero program exam, just as a precaution."

Izuku's fingernails dug into his palms, and he winced as tin-enhanced pain shot up his arm. When he met his teacher's eyes, he felt a sense of resignation. His teacher wasn't perfect, the man turned a blind eye to a lot of the bullying that happened in his classroom (mostly directed at Izuku himself, although that had gone down in recent times), and he wasn't the best at explaining some subjects, but now, looking into the man's eyes, Izuku sensed that he really was being genuine; he cared about Izuku's choice and future plans.

Izuku sighed, standing up. "How long do I have to choose?"

The man's face lit up, seemingly surprised Izuku hadn't pushed back at all. "Just get back to me some time in the next month. Unless you get into some sort of early admissions, test numbers are due a month and a half from now."

Izuku nodded and turned to leave. "I'll decide by then," he said, leaving without another word. He stormed through the hallways, trying to make up for any lost time.

Yaoyorozu is going to give me a hard time for being late, he thought.


"There he is!" Yaoyorozu's voice called as soon as Izuku opened the door to the roof. "I was beginning to worry that you weren't going to show up."

"My teacher pulled me aside to talk about career counseling," he said with an exaggerated sigh, pulling out his lunch and slumping up against the railing next to Yaoyorozu.

"Sounds like fun," she said, poking at her sushi roll. "How'd it go?"

Izuku rolled his eyes. "Yet another thing to stress about, as if I don't have enough of those already."

As Izuku ate, he kept glancing out of the corner of his vision to see Yaoyorou poking at her food, a slight frown on her face. Part of him wanted to reach out and ask again if anything was wrong, but another part of him held back. She'd told him that morning that there wasn't anything the matter, which either meant that he was misreading things, or she didn't want to talk to him about it, which was completely fair.

So, he decided to take a different approach. "Do you want to go do something after school?"

Yaoyorozu turned to him, a puzzled expression on her face.

"You know, like, go be normal middle schoolers or something like that," he elaborated, only to be met with a deepening frown.

"Don't you have training after school today?"

Oh, forgot to mention...he thought. "Aizawa-sensei gave me the day off. Didn't want me to overwork myself."

Yaoyorozu stared at him for a moment, before letting out a slight giggle and a nod. "I can resonate with that sentiment. Those bags under your eyes have been arguably worse these last few weeks than when you weren't sleeping," she paused. "You are sleeping, right?"

Izuku nodded and sighed in exasperation. "Yes, I'm sleeping. If you think this is bad, you should see Aizawa-sensei. You could probably hide a body in those bags under his eyes."

"Pfft," Yaoyorozu weezed, spitting up a little of the water she'd been drinking. "That's horrible!"

"What?" Izuku responded, breaking into a smile. "It's true!"

Yaoyorozu wiped off her face with her sleeve. "The only time I've ever met him was when I walked straight by him after you were hospitalized, and I didn't even know who he was then, so I didn't really take the time to memorize his features."

"You might meet him one day," Izuku said with a shrug. "You never know."

Yaoyorozu heaved a sigh, turning back to her food, but this time she had a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips, and Izuku felt a little bit dignified. Something may be bothering her that she didn't want to talk about, but Izuku was at least happy that he could help take her mind off of it, even if just temporarily. Considering that she'd been there for him when he was having a breakdown in the middle of the night, the least he could do was help take her mind off of whatever had unsettled his friend.

His friend, the thought echoed.

"So, what do you want to do?" Izuku prompted after a moment.

Yaoyorozu hummed. "I feel like you should pick, you're the one with the day off."

"Hmm…" Izuku scratched at the back of his head. He hadn't thought this far ahead. "Maybe we could head down to a cat cafe or something? I think I saw one near downtown Tokyo."

Yaoyorozu raised an eyebrow at him. "When were you near downtown Tokyo?"

Izuku winced internally. He didn't exactly want to tell her that he'd passed by it on his way home from the night of his encounter with Kelsier. "Miss Sakura and a few of the other kids wanted to go shopping last weekend, I didn't really get a choice but to come along."

Yaoyorozu nodded slowly, as if she was unsure about his response. "I'll choose to believe you," she eventually conceded. Izuku silently let out the breath he'd been holding in. The last thing he wanted right now was for her to pry, eventually figure out that he was lying, then get another scolding from his friend. "We'll go to the cat cafe, then. Sounds like fun."

"I can meet you outside the school after class?" Izuku suggested.

Yaoyorzu turned to him, and when she smiled and nodded, he felt a little more at ease. "I'd like that."


Momo wasn't entirely sure if the fact that Izuku had invited her out to the cat cafe was a coincidence, or if it was deliberate on his part. She was sure she hadn't mentioned her birthday to him; she loathed that the day existed in the first place, so she wasn't exactly eager to bring it up in everyday conversation. So, either Izuku just so happened to get the day off and invited her because he wanted company, or he was scarily good at figuring things out about other people, considering the fact that she didn't have any social media or anything that he could've used to figure out her birthday.

Momo let out a sigh as she relaxed her shoulders and leaned up against one of the streetlamps outside the school building.

"Is something wrong?"

"Eep!" Momo squeaked, nearly jumping out of her skin. Turning around, she found a very confused looking Izuku, characteristic bags under his eyes drawing her gaze. Momo let out a breath, falling back into proper posture.

I swear, it's like he's invisible sometimes, your eyes just glaze over him, Momo thought. It wasn't like he didn't stick out in a crowd, he was most decidedly not Japanese in complexion, but even then, if you weren't specifically looking for him, it would be easy to miss him.

"Are you okay?" He asked apologetically. Momo nodded.

"You just startled me," she said, "I thought you'd take longer to get out here is all."

He fell silent at that, just nodding in response and pointing towards the exit of campus. He had a habit of doing that, just stopping talking altogether. At first, his on-and-off approach to conversation had thrown her off, but she'd grown used to it over time. Sometimes, he had a habit of taking a conversation by the reins and just driving it, not even giving her time to speak, whilst other times he just didn't speak for minutes at a time.

Momo just followed next to him as they made their way towards the train station. Musutafu was just far enough from central Tokyo that you couldn't walk there reasonably, but it would be a short train ride to get there.

It was when they were settled down in a semi-secluded corner of the train car when Izuku finally initiated a conversation.

"Is everything alright?"

"Hmm?" Momo hummed in response.

"It's just that," Izuku continued, "I know I don't really ask how you do very often. You've helped me out a lot lately, it kinda slipped my mind to return the favor."

Momo flashed him a smile and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, there hasn't been anything new lately."

That's part of the problem, but I don't need to let him know that, she thought. Her mom wasn't supposed to be released any time soon, and the only reason she hadn't been sent back to her father's estate to live with him yet was the fact that Japan's child services infrastructure was horrifically unorganized.

"At this point, I'm mostly just gunning for Yuuei. Gotta get in, you know?" she laughed nervously, "I'm not sure if I can or not."

"I'm sure you can," Izuku muttered nonchalantly. Momo looked over to see him staring at the ground, running some sort of metal object between his fingers. "I mean, you've got a really versatile Quirk and the knowledge to back it up. Plus, you're already at the top of our grade academically."

Momo felt her face go a little warm. "I...I appreciate the words of encouragement."

Izuku looked up from the ground and met her eyes. "I mean it!" he said enthusiastically. "You can totally make it in!"

"I'm not trying to say your faith is misplaced," she said quickly. "It's just that...it's not like I've got a professional hero tutoring me three times a week, you know?"

"Well," he paused. "My teacher brought me in today to ask me if I have a backup plan, so even if you somehow don't make it through, do you have some sort of fallback?"

Momo nodded, "I'm applying to Shuiichin. Although I think I've got a better chance at getting into Yuuei, in all honesty. You've gotta either have some rich and famous parents to get in there if you don't ace the entrance exams."

"You do have a rich and famous dad."

Momo winced. "Yeah, not one that would bribe the school a million yen to get me in."

Izuku winced as well. "That much, huh?"

Momo hummed, leaning back a little in her seat. "I feel like Yuuei is a better choice for me in general. I've wanted to be a hero for a long time," she paused. "Plus, Yuuei is one of the only schools around with on-campus dorms, which would be really helpful, considering my mother's hospital situation."

Izuku frowned, going back to messing with the object in his hand, which momo now recognized as a coin, although it was blackened in spots. "Yuuei has dorms?"

"You didn't know? I thought the hero nerd would've researched his dream school a little more," she teased, in an attempt to try to lighten the mood a little bit.

Luckily, it worked. "Hey! I've been busy, you know! It's not my fault Yuuei is super secretive about everything! They won't even release information on what professional heroes teach there!"

"Yeah, it's a relatively new thing, I think. Something about it being a preemptive measure to protect students from potential villain attacks. All students starting next spring will be living in on-campus dorms."

"I'll have to let Miss Sakura know…" he mumbled.

"Getting a little cocky, eh? Just because you've got a professional hero tutoring you doesn't mean you've got a free ticket in."

"I-" Izuku's face flushed red. "That's not what I meant! I was just saying that in the case that I get in Miss Sakura should probably know ahead of time. She's my legal guardian and all, and I was just…"

Momo let out a giggle, at which point Izuku snapped his mouth shut and glared at her. "Calm down," she said. "I was just teasing."

For the rest of the ride, they made small talk about nothing particularly important, but it was better than silence. Slowly, Momo began to forget the unease she'd had at the beginning of the day altogether.


When Izuku pushed open the door to the cat cafe, an electronic "nyan nyan~!" chimed and all attention in the lobby was immediately drawn to him and Yaoyorozu.

"Welcome!" the lady behind the desk called. She was wearing casual clothing, but her shirt had a nametag and she was wearing a set of fake cat ears. Izuku must've frozen in the doorway for just long enough to make things awkward, because the corner of the lady's smile twitched and Yaoyorozu pushed the door open a little bit more and walked in.

"How can I help you?"
Yaoyorozu cleared her throat as Izuku sheepishly entered the building. Looking around, he noted that various cat-themed decorations and artworks adorned the walls. The front seemed to be a simple lobby with a small desk. The rest of the room was blocked off by a large red curtain with a white cat paw printed on it.

"Hello," Yaoyorozu said, "I'm...not sure how this works, I'm sorry."

"That's quite alright!" the woman cheered. Glancing at her nametag, Izuku saw her name was Yukimura. "So, we are a non-profit cat cafe, which means all proceeds go to keeping the place open. All you need to do is pay for however much time you want to spend with the kitties. As for the cafe part, we have complimentary tea and light snacks inside!"

"How much is it?" Izuku asked, pulling out his wallet.

"780 yen per hour per person."

That's not that expensive, he thought. I should have that.

Opening his wallet, he pulled out a 1,000 yen bill and a 500 yen coin.

"I'm a little short," he mumbled, reaching into his pockets to see if he had any loose change. The only other money he had on him was Kelsier's coin, and he doubted that would pass as payment.

"I'll cover the rest," Yaoyorozu said calmly, retrieving her coin purse.

Izuku flinched, "No it's fine, I can - "

Yaoyorozu shot him a look. "It's sixty yen," she said flatly.

"Yeah, but…"

Yaoyorozu just turned away and handed a few coins to Yukimura. "Don't let him pay the rest."

Yukimura just raised an eyebrow, but nodded and turned to Izuku. With a sigh, he walked forward and gave her the 1,500 yen.

"Thank you!" Yukimura said. "Just walk through the curtain and enjoy your stay!"

"I owe you sixty yen," Izuku grumbled, following the taller teenager towards the drapes.

"You don't owe me sixty yen, you can let me pay for…" she paused. "Just under four percent of the total cost."

"Yeah, but it was my idea! I shouldn't be making you pay!" he protested.

Their conversation was interrupted when they stepped through the curtain and were introduced to a room of what had to be twenty cats. The inside of the room was half cafe, half living room, as one side of the area had seats and tables with people drinking and talking (whilst petting cats of varying shapes and sizes, of course) while the other was just a couch and television.

Yaoyorozu gasped. "There's so many kitties!" she immediately walked over to the nearest one, an orange cat with off-white stripes (calico, was it?) and started petting it. The cat barely acknowledged her existence outside of a soft purr.

"Yaoyorozu, do you want to…" Izuku trailed off in the middle of his question when he saw a figure in the middle of the living room-like area, with what had to be fifteen cats strewn about them. There were cats in their lap, on the ground next to them, on their shoulders, and even one sitting atop their head.

"Izuku," Yaoyorozu said, trotting over, "Want to go get something to drink? There's plenty of cats over there as well."

Izuku barely heard her because he was too entranced by his confusion at what he was witnessing. He'd recognize that baggy clothing and scraggly, unkempt hair anywhere.

"Aizawa-sensei?" he asked, incredulous. The man turned, and the moment Izuku saw the bags under his eyes, he knew his suspicions were confirmed.

Aizawa sat there, gaze boring into Izuku's very soul for what felt like an eternity. While the older man was engaged in a staring match with Izuku, one of the cats from his lap crawled up the man's body and attempted to shove one of the others off of the man's shoulder.

Aizawa finally broke the gaze when he grabbed the offending cat by the scruff of its neck and put it on the ground next to him. "Fluffykins-kun, don't try to push Flooffybottom-san off like that."

Izuku lost his composure. He burst out into laughter so intense that he found it difficult to breathe. He tried to stop himself, but every time he thought about Aizawa-sensei, the man who had thrown him into a mat more times than he could count, calling some cats Fluffykins-kun and Flooffybottom-san, he lost his cool all over again. Before he knew it, he was on the ground, barely able to control his laughter.

He had tears in his eyes by the time Aizawa stood up, causing the army of cats that surrounded him to scatter. Izuku was just able to pull himself together enough to look his mentor in the eyes.

"I'm glad to see you're enjoying your day off," he deadpanned. "Not a word of this on Monday."

Izuku gupled, putting on a serious face. "Yes, sir."

This time, as Aizawa walked out of the room, it was Yaoyorozu's turn to break into laughter.


Yes, I know this chapter took forever to get out. I've been swamped with my school work like you wouldn't even believe. My university is trying to rush all the content out as fast as possible because we'll be shutting down for the semester if COVID-19 has an outbreak near us. Problem is that all the professors are dropping homework bomb after homework bomb and it's difficult to keep up AND write.

Hopefully the next chapter shouldn't take too long, I've got it all planned out and the plot should be picking up steam here.

Anyways, that's enough from me. See you in the next one!