Let's Leave No Words Unspoken and Save Regrets for the Broken (Will You Even Look Back When You Think of Me?)

"Still got something left to prove; it tends to keep things movin' while everyone around me says my last days are looming overhead but what the hell do they think they know? My head's above the water while they drown in the undertow…"

"All I want is a place to call my own; to mend the hearts of everyone who feels alone. You know to keep your hopes up high and your head down low…"

('All I Want' covered by 'NateWantsToBattle')

"If you're strong, I believe you protect those in need; you don't rise above the weak. And the thing you should seek isn't gold, victory. Maybe that's just me…"

"If I had to give my world to save a life, I would… but I'd never forget you…"

"So today, I will wipe away every single tear - and it's true: I would give up everything for you. So just please promise me that you won't give up just yet. On that day I swore I would keep you safe; it's a promise I have made in my heart…"

('Polaris' English cover by 'AmaLee')

Ochako Uraraka is dreaming.

The dream space of One for All is a familiar place, a place filled with ghosts and echoes of the past, phantom memories like runaway trains. Today it is an endless field of stars and she looks down and-

No, this is all off.

She is not Ochako Uraraka, Uravity, the Ninth Bearer of One for All, twenty years old and a pro Hero made for saving. She is Ochako Uraraka, five years old and willing her tiny hands to ease her parents' burdens so she can see them smile. Her power is not strong here and she stares at her hands and wonders:

Is this really my dream or is it something new, something different? Something horrible?

She drops her tiny hands and looks around again, then realizes that the world is breaking, shifting, changing. It's like she has stepped into a hall of mirrors, splitting and shattering around her to show a kaleidoscope of infinity.

Suddenly, she stands near an underpass and she blanches because this is a memory she knows well even if it isn't her memory. Even if it never happened, yet it was supposed to happen. Even if it's all wrong because it is night instead of daylight and because little Izuku is there, five years old and wearing an All Might onesie, but he's supposed to be fourteen and wearing a black middle school uniform. He turns to her and smiles and waves and he's so beautiful and perfect that she wants to cry.

She waves back and starts to run to him on little legs, desperate to reach him before things go wrong, before it all falls apart because he's coming. But the manhole nearby begins to rumble and Ochako opens her mouth and tries to call out, to yell, or to scream but she can't in the silent dream. Izuku sees her distress and drops his waving hand with a frown but he doesn't see it coming; he doesn't know what's going on.

She thinks as loud as she can:

Izuku, please, run to me. I can protect you!

And he looks at her with a childish, innocent expression of disbelief but his words thought back aren't childish or innocent when they're filled with such sorrow:

No, you can't. No one can protect me because no one ever tried.

Ochako comes to a pointed halt at his words, horrified. Because even if she is a little kid she still remembers and she knows he remembers, too. He remembers all the pain and the sadness, all the things he's been through and survived. He survived them all… and he did so alone.

You told me that nobody ever protected me like I deserved, Izuku thinks, and you're right. It's why we're here…

The monster erupts from the manhole but it's not made of sludge. Why isn't it made of sludge? Her thoughts are incoherent as she watches it and she runs forward again but it isn't sludge. Instead, it's made of darkness, All for One shaped like a giant, cruel, pitch black raven, and it darts towards little Izuku like crimson lightning.

Izuku!

But she's too slow. She was always too slow, so the monster grabs up little Izuku. And little Izuku, bless him, is a fighter; he thrashes and flails his little arms, trying to be brave just like All Might as he wears the costume. But he can't fight off All for One like this, without power - without hope - and Ochako tries to scream again as she grabs his hand and holds on for dear life.

Get away from me, Ochako! He'll take you too! Little Izuku thinks, but Ochako shakes her head. Why won't you run away?

Because you look like you need saving…

But All for One's hold is firm and Izuku is being sucked in; being taken once more. Ochako hears the awful laughter echo through true infinity and she growls silently into the dream as she pulls on Izuku with all of the might her little self can muster. It just isn't enough and All for One's mocking thoughts and cruel laughter grow louder.

You didn't really think it would be so easy, did you? You're pathetic, just like Shimura Nana. When I am finished taking what is rightfully mine from Mikumo, I will take what is mine from you, too.

You are weak, Uraraka Ochako. Weak and useless and worthless, just like little Deku was.

And Ochako tries to pull as her hands are getting sucked into the black, too, until there's nothing left to hold on to. Izuku is gone, taken again, and Ochako sobs silently, tears running down her face, as she falls backwards from the darkness.

She glares at All for One from the ground and can feel his arrogance and smugness and she hates him. She hates everything about him, everything he represents, everything he's taken from her.

She hates that he's right.

She is weak.

She is useless.

She is worthless.

Wait.

Nana's voice rings through true infinity and Ochako hears it.

"That thing is everything that is wrong, Ochako. You must destroy it - or it will destroy you. You can still save him. You can still be his Hero."

Ochako stares at All for One with wide eyes as he advances on her but she's far away in outer space, remembering phantom memories that are hers and not hers at the same time; the memories that are a weapon. She stares through All for One but she feels Nana smile from within.

Nana smiles because Ochako figured it out.

"You're wrong," she says.

She says it out loud, her voice echoing off the dream in waves like they're still in that hall of mirrors, and All for One recoils as she stands up on two feet. She marches towards him, raises her little fist, and slams it on his darkness and it doesn't do anything but she knows he feels it.

"You're wrong about him."

What?! All for One thinks, screeching in surprise and confusion and anger as she raises her hand and pounds him with her fist, again and again, echoing in the dark. And he's still retreating but she's still following and she is beautifully, metaphysically furious. She is furious and she can hear her heartbeat pulsing in her head, pounding with her conviction and her determination.

She will never let go again. She will never run away again. She will never stop being Izuku's Hero because now she knows that is what she was always meant to be.

"His name is Izuku!"

Pound.

"I was supposed to call him Deku!"

Pound.

"He was supposed to be the Ninth Bearer of One for All!"

Pound.

"He was supposed to be a Hero!"

Pound.

"But Deku doesn't mean weak!"

Pound.

"It doesn't mean useless. It doesn't mean worthless!"

Pound.

"Deku is the name of a Hero and Deku is my friend!"

POUND.

"And you. Can't. Have. Him!"

She raises her fist but, suddenly, she is not Ochako Uraraka, five years old and willing her tiny hands to ease her parents' burdens so she can see them smile. She is Ochako Uraraka, Uravity, the Ninth Bearer of One for All, twenty years old and a pro Hero made for saving.

She feels infinity at her fingertips like wildfire.

For a metaphysical instant, she hesitates and she hears Izuku's tiny voice, like he is speaking from above and beyond.

Do you really mean that?

"I've always meant it!" She screams with nine voices, and One for All flares white hot like a supernova around her fist, lighting up the dark as she prepares to face the devil in the moonlight. And she feels it:

All for One is afraid. He should be afraid.

When she hits him this time, reality shatters like glass.

And then, they stand among a ruined city. A place that never was, yet should have been: Kamino Ward, obliterated by All for One and One for All, just like Ochako has seen in her dreams. But in reality, Kamino Ward is untouched; no monument to All Might is there, no testament to his will to say 'I am here' and stand against the dark.

Because Mikumo Akatani killed All for One before it could happen, taking on that darkness by himself. The whole world watched with bated breath as he held that darkness in his soul and stood alone against the darkness on his own.

He doesn't have to be alone anymore.

Now they stand together and she knows that little Izuku stands behind her, while All for One stands in front of her in his true form. She is between him and Izuku and that's exactly where she wants to be.

All for One has his suit and his breathing apparatus, his mask covering his eyeless face. He stretches his arms out and she wonders if he sees the butterflies - or are they moths? - hovering around him like death; little phantom memories that look like light in the shape of flapping wings.

When you always smell of death, you can't notice when it comes for you too, she thinks.

You're like an angel, Izuku thinks, and the thought is quiet and reverent as One for All burns bright around Ochako. Ochako wonders if she is his guardian angel or the angel of death and if it is a distinction without a difference in the face of true infinity. She wonders if he can feel the faith she has in him, like she can feel the faith he has in her.

She turns for only a moment and smiles, then she feels the flicker as she becomes Nana and back again. The other Bearers don't approve but they are not willing to interrupt and they stand as one, nine voices in the dark.

And this is her fight because-

"I'm not an angel, Izuku. But I will be your Hero tonight."

And Ochako believes that; she believes it with her entire soul. Because she knows that All for One doesn't know what Izuku was meant to be, he doesn't know what he took, what he stole, and he doesn't know how heavy his sins are.

Here in the dream, Ochako will make him learn and, without the cooperation of his host - without Izuku's will to steal One for All - All for One is nothing.

So she believes, with all her soul, that she can be Izuku's Hero and she is in his head and he is in her head and he hears and sees all of it. He sees her conviction and how pure it is and he is in awe of her. But she is in awe of him, too, because she sees everything he thinks of her, in spite of it all, and it is breathtaking and beautiful. It all happens in the span of a single moment, suspended in true infinity.

All for One laughs, a twisted thought in the dream that interrupts her, and Ochako turns back to him.

You can't be anyone's Hero, Shimura Nana. Your time has passed. You will watch as I take everything from you yet again. The sun will never rise and tomorrow will never come for you.

But Ochako just smiles. All for One doesn't understand the wildfire he's playing with; he doesn't understand how here, in this space, it's all about will. His will was never enough on its own to take One for All, to dominate his brother, and to become king because he is and has always been weak. He is a parasite and a worm, hoping to piggy-back off of the purer, more intense will of people like Izuku or Tenko, and Ochako won't stand for it anymore.

She glares at him and wonders if he knows what true infinity looks like in the face of it now.

She will show him that, too.

All for One raises his arm and crimson lightning crackles along it. Then a cascade of Rivet Stab tendrils and spears of compressed air come flying at Ochako but she watches and she smiles because this moment, this single moment suspended in infinity, is what she spent her entire life waiting for.

That is what she realizes as she draws her arm back, Blackwhip curling around it, and punches, then the air pressure wave is like a bomb as it blows through All for One's attack and sends him flying.

"I want you to understand something, All for One," Ochako says with the voice of nine as she marches forward through a shattered city. "I want you to understand how little you are."

Rivet Stab spews forth again and Ochako sidesteps as her every movement creates thunderclaps as the air shatters around her. All for One is still recovering but Ochako is already on him and she picks him up by his face and launches him in a twirling arc across the city with Blackwhip, writhing pinkish-black in the dream.

She watches him crash through skyscraper after skyscraper as buildings fall like dominoes in his wake. She notes that the sky is black - there is no sky - but it doesn't matter because she will see just fine by the light of One for All.

There is a cascading purple laser then, boiling the ground as it flies towards her, and she jumps high into the air to avoid it. It chases after her, so she flies, using the boosters built into her costume to bank and dodge and weave towards All for One like a missile.

And he is so powerful but so fundamentally uncreative. He spent his whole life with the world at his fingertips, so he doesn't understand what it means to make do with nothing, to make nothing last as long as you can.

So Ochako hits him like a freight train and more buildings fall in his wake as he flies but she isn't done yet.

"It's so pathetic that you were given everything and you chose to use it for nothing good. You could have done something worthwhile with your power; you could have done something good. But no, you chose to be a monster and you are pathetic."

All for One swings at her, wild as his anger turns to panic, and she just intercepts his attack and flips him away. Because he is so strong and powerful, he has no technique. He has relied on raw power his entire life, just like All Might, approaching every problem head-on with the knowledge that he was always the brightest flame in the room.

But now Ochako is the brightest flame in the room, her fire white and brilliant in the darkness, and she is going to make All for One pay.

"You will never hurt him again. You will never touch him again. You will never see the light of day again, All for One, because you don't deserve to."

A blue dragon, fast like a shooting star, flies at her. She connects with it with her fist and it disintegrates, then there is another crack of air as she flies straight at All for One. But he gets lucky, he gets above her attack and finally hits her with a giant hand, and it pins her and takes all of the air out of her lungs.

None of it is real, this battle in the dream, but she feels all of it and she gasps for pain and breath as he tries to pulverize her against the ground. She is desperate, suddenly flattened under an impossible weight, and she realizes that she can't do this alone. She can't do this by herself and she never could.

She can't do this without Izuku.

She can't speak as she is crushed and she is desperate for air even though there is no air in the dream because All for One is suffocating. So she thinks, as loud as she can, blindly hoping Izuku can still hear her and that he's still safe. He has to be safe; that's all that matters.

Izuku! Please, listen to me. I need… I need your help. I can't save you if you can't save yourself.

And his response is sullen and sad, like a boy trapped in the corner, afraid to be seen.

I can't save anyone… I'm not a Hero like you, Ochako.

No, you are, Izuku. You're Deku. Deku means you can do it! You can be a Hero, too: you can be my Hero!

She hears a sound and it echoes into infinity all around them. It sounds like the gears of a machine sliding back into place after maintenance and, suddenly, All for One is weaker. Ochako gets her fingers onto his enlarged hand and there is a pink glow, then he is weightless.

He is weightless and powerless and, for a single moment, Ochako smiles. Then she kicks him with a sonic boom and he goes careening into the sky where there is no sky. She is already up and moving - there are no marks on her in the dream because All for One cannot hurt her anymore - to fly after him.

"You can be my Hero, too, Deku. I just need you to believe I can save you."

And she can feel him smile and it feels like love and warmth and spreads through the dream as she catches up to All for One. Up here there is no light, no stars, no sky, just the blackness and them, but she grabs on to him. White fire is the only way she can see him as she spins in an arc with Blackwhip and throws him back at the ground like a cannonball.

She watches him fall, then she puts her hands together.

"Release."

And now she is falling, too, as gravity is quick to claim her, so she straightens out her body. She is going to hit All for One and she is going to hit him with everything, just as All Might did; as he was meant to, as he already has, and like he never did. She remembers his words, the words he never said but the words that were meant to be, and she smiles.

Farewell, One for All.

But this isn't farewell because she is with Izuku and, together, they can prevail. So she hits All for One against the ground in a tremendous, violent explosion of light and feels it. There are nine voices in the dark but now there is a tenth, too, and it feels like Izuku. She can't tell where his mind, his body, his soul ends and hers begins because, together in One for All, there is no distinction.

All for One is obliterated, his vestige destroyed.

And the dream is purified.

It is purified and Ochako feels the weight of All for One's presence, his hatred, his malice, disappear like a mist over a lake.

Suddenly, there is a sky and the sun is rising as Ochako straightens in the crater she's left behind and looks back. She sees little Izuku, wearing his All Might onesie and standing in awe of her. Then he flickers and, for a moment, he is Midoriya Izuku, Deku, the Ninth Bearer of One for All.

He waves at her, smiling and wearing a Hero costume. She smiles back, seeing the most beautiful thing she's ever seen in her life, then she points at him.

"Now it's your turn, to stand up for yourself," she says. He laughs and she hears it and she hears how happy he is.

Because he is free.

Because he has hope again.

The dream fades to white and ash and, when Ochako wakes up, she is still smiling.

Ochako woke up and she was still smiling.

But they were covered in water and filth and she realized that they must have been out for at least thirty seconds because the water was up to her knees now. She quickly stood as One for All burned bright around her, then she jumped towards the platform where it was still dry with Izuku still in her arms.

When she landed, she stopped only briefly to adjust him in her grasp, then she knelt back down and cradled him close and stared at him. He needed to wake up - he needed to - and she felt her breath catch in her throat as she stared at him.

"Izuku… Izuku? Please…" She whispered, but he didn't respond. He was breathing, she could see it and feel it as he rose and fell, but there was no response. One for All kept burning around them, heating up the air and drying them so they wouldn't freeze, but she just stared and prayed and hoped. "Deku… please wake up…"

He grunted and coughed, like his lungs had been filled with liquid even though she kept him out of the water the best she could. She watched his eyes flutter open and they were red again instead of the beautiful green they were supposed to be but she still began to giggle and sob. She was hysterical, happy and sad in equal measure, because even though they were red they were still beautiful.

Because he was still alive, so she could still try to make things right.

"Deku… can you hear me?" Ochako asked, and she watched his bleary eyes try to focus on her. She smiled, hoping she looked as encouraging as she felt despite how much of a mess she was, and he tried to smile, too. It was a tiny, weak thing… but it was there.

"I… Yeah, I can, Ochako," Izuku whispered. "I… I saw things while we in there."

Ochako chuckled at him and she didn't even care that she was crying on him. He was crying, too, but they were both smiling and that was what really mattered to her.

"What kind of things?" She asked, though she had a good idea.

"The things that were supposed to be," Izuku said, and Ochako sighed. Nana had a funny way of helping but Izuku deserved to know the truth, too.

"So, do you believe me now, that you wouldn't have believed me without seeing it for yourself?" Ochako asked, and he swallowed heavily. He needed water, she realized. He had been hurt and he needed water and they were still trapped in this fucking hole and she wanted to scream in frustration but she bit her tongue.

She still needed to save him because it wasn't over yet.

"Yeah… yeah, I wouldn't have believed you," Izuku admitted, and she chuckled again. "But… it was nice to see that I - we - were supposed to be happy…"

"Do you see why you're worth saving now?" Ochako asked, and he pursed his lips.

"I'm not sure I'd go that far…"

She scowled at him but, before she could find the words to scold him, the whole room shook violently again and she looked around in horror. Bits and pieces of ceiling were falling again, more than ever before.

All the hair on the back of her neck stood up straight as Danger Sense screamed, so she quickly picked Izuku up and darted away from a larger rock that almost cracked her right over the head. One for All flared brighter for a moment, washing the whole room in pink, then it died down again as she huddled with him closer to a wall.

"I… I am gonna try something really stupid," Ochako admitted with a hint of trepidation. The smug look on Izuku's face shouldn't have been allowed with how hurt he still was. "Don't start with me, Deku," she added, and it didn't make his smugness dissipate in the slightest.

The room was still shaking as she set him down and, for a moment, his eyes went wide and he gripped her costume as hard as he could. It started to tear and the look of fear on his face was wild and panicked. He whimpered out half-formed words, 'please don't put me down,' so she leaned over him.

She pressed a kiss into his hair, then rested her forehead right against his so she could stare at his eyes only centimeters away.

"I am never going anywhere," Ochako said, her gaze piercing and intent. Izuku blinked slowly, then nodded, and even if he was clearly frightened and scared and small… he let her put him down.

Then she stood and One for All flared back as hot as she had ever felt it go before, like white fire in the dark instead of the usual pink, as she stared at the wall. She wondered, was she about to make a horrible mistake? Did she do all of this for nothing because she was still going to die in this deep hole with only Izuku?

Would that have been worth it?

I still believe in you, Ochako.

Nana's voice was calming and soothing in the dark as Ochako drew back her arm. She slowly took a long breath through her nose, then exhaled through her mouth. Blackwhip curled around her gauntlet like a second layer, writhing and contracting.

Then she punched forward with all of One for All like a bomb and it ripped through rock and concrete and pipe and everything else like fire through ice. She turned her emergency beacon off on her armor, scooped up Izuku as quickly as she could, and ran. There was a hole now, as debris fell and the whole room began to collapse from the force.

And Izuku held on to her tight, burying his face in her chest as she held him, and he was exactly where he belonged.

She bobbed and weaved and darted forth like lightning and could only pray that the force had created a sufficient path. She relied on Danger Sense to guide her through the falling debris, thanking the Fourth Bearer like an internal mantra as she went. She couldn't see very well at all but she realized as she ran that she must have created a full path and she must have created an entire opening.

Because between the falling rocks threatening to crush and trap them forever, she saw stars.

So Ochako kept running. But this time, she wasn't running away. There wouldn't be anymore running away if she could help it. Because this time, she had Izuku with her, and they were running together.

Even if it cost her everything.

For a long time, Ochako ran, like a pink shooting star in the night.

She was sure that she had created enough distance when the destroyed city gave way to suburbs and hills and highways but she just kept going. There were no helicopters, no real way for them to track her. Without her suit emergency beacon on, her suit wasn't transmitting any data to Melissa and Mei like it usually would. She had disabled that feature, too, so it was just her and Izuku.

As she went, she eventually reached more city and that was when she stopped. She stopped using One for All, she stopped jumping and flying and leaping, and she just… stopped. And there, standing in an alleyway with Izuku in her arms, she looked down at him and realized she didn't have any kind of goddamn plan to save her life.

That was when the weight of what she had done - what she was doing - hit her in its entirety. Here she was, a professional Hero - in the Top Ten, no less - and the Ninth Bearer of One for All, carrying All for One in her arms and running away from the police and other Heroes. He was small and weak and vulnerable, broken and shattered and unable to protect himself.

It was her duty, her solemn vow as the Ninth Bearer, to defeat and apprehend or, if necessary - if possible - kill Izuku, yet she was protecting him now. The Bearers had an open dialogue about this in her mind, with the older Bearers - the Second, Third, and Fourth - arguing with the newer Bearers - the Fifth and the Sixth - about things. One for All and Nana were curiously silent and Toshinori never participated verbally in these talks.

He couldn't yet, not when he was still there to talk to in reality.

She contemplated going to him. Taking Izuku's bruised and battered form to the former Symbol of Peace himself and begging for help because he would help her. Toshinori would help her without hesitation and she knew it but she couldn't force that on him. She couldn't drag him into her mess and her mistakes. They weren't his to fix.

So she walked through moonlit back alleys and side streets with Izuku in her arms, considering her options in the darkest night. Izuku was silent, passed out since they left the subway system, and she hoped he was having a nice dream. She wondered if he would have dreams from Nana - that would explain her curious silence - or normal dreams.

She wondered if he dreamed about her and the thought was confusing.

She had said that she loved him, in that moment when it mattered, and she had meant it. But she wasn't sure if she loved him or the idea of him. She wasn't sure if she was enamored more with the idea of saving him or with the him that should have been. But she had seen glimpses of that version of him - the kind, thoughtful boy who had been smothered and taken by All for One - and she wondered:

Could she ever hope to bend or break that back into place, the best she could? Or was he too far gone?

She wasn't sure what she wanted. She wasn't sure what 'saving' meant, what 'responsibility' or 'forgiveness' or 'atonement' meant. The weight of Izuku's sins in this life were immense but then, didn't everyone deserve a second chance? Could he be blamed, truly, for what had been forced on him? She knew that the answer was yes but it was too sad of an answer to really accept.

Their superhuman society had always said that there were Heroes and there were villains and the line between them was sharp and bright and true. Izuku fell on the wrong side of that line but not because he ever wanted to be. Now she had a chance to bring him to the other side, to show him that there was another way to live, but she wondered about things. She wondered, indeed, if the problem was that line the whole time.

Not that she condoned what Izuku had done. He'd never had a good motivation, a good reason for what he was doing other than the reality that he wasn't given a choice. He was fulfilling his father's will because it was the role he believed he had been thrown into and he didn't know anything else. He was marching to someone else's drumbeat, a drumbeat he didn't think he could ever escape alone. But she wanted, so desperately, to believe that, if given the chance, Izuku would do better now.

Would Tenko do better if given the chance? She wondered about that. Nana always spoke of Tenko and Izuku together, two metaphysical halves of her whole heart and soul, and she had always said-

Izuku, my little love, my second child, the one I hope to do better by. I save him… because I can't save little Tenko or his family.

Nana spoke for the first time in what felt like hours and Ochako came to a dead stop and considered her words. She wasn't sure what to think or what to say but, whenever Nana spoke, it was always something important, so Ochako went back to walking, slower now, and kept thinking, hoping she might find the words soon.

It was cold, so cold, but Ochako wasn't worried about that. Izuku wasn't that warm and she wasn't that warm but what warmth they had was shared as she carried him.

She only hoped that she was keeping him warm enough because he was in so much worse shape than her. The worst of his injuries had been healed - overhauled - but he was still hurt and not all of it was physical, either.

Fighting in the dream of All for One and One for All left scars, deep and black and painful, and she knew they wouldn't heal so easily.

Ochako stopped again in another alley and leaned her back against the wall, willing herself to stay vertical. Izuku wasn't that heavy - and she was strong - but she was exhausted, bruised, and battered. She wasn't in good enough shape to keep going for much longer but she was going to try and push herself forward anyway.

For Izuku and for Nana, too.

"Ochako…?" Izuku whispered, and she looked down at him and smiled. It was forced, she was so tired, and only the wall kept her knees from buckling and sliding down to the ground with him in a crumpled heap. Her eyelids were so heavy but she willed herself to focus on him and the sound of his breathing. "Where… where are we?"

"Uh… I think we're… near Esuha City? I haven't seen a sign recently…" Ochako admitted, her breathing heavy, and she realized how winded she really was. She'd been so lost in her head, but as soon as she stopped it all caught up to her so fast.

"Do you… Do you know what street we're on?" Izuku asked, his voice barely audible but for the silence of the night.

"No but…" She looked up to the sky and tried to get her bearings from the position of the moon, to figure out her directions. "Esuha Market should be to our… left, I think, about four blocks. Why?"

"There's… there's a safehouse for the League of Villains here. We took it away from Overhaul, back in the day. It should be… that way," he held his hand up above his head, just barely, and pointed down the alleyway behind him, "probably… six blocks? It will look like an abandoned apartment building."

"Does it have electricity and water?" Ochako asked with a frown.

"I don't believe so. The safehouse is in the basement, though… The apartment is just the façade on top."

She nodded; that made sense. She made herself walk forward again and she ignored the way that her leg throbbed and her whole body felt like it was on fire, which wasn't from One for All. She couldn't use the quirk right now, both because she was too tired and because she was wary of attracting the attention of patrolling Heroes or police officers. She had already had to hide a few times in doorways and behind garbage bins to keep them safe.

Izuku didn't say anything as they went but she saw from the corner of her eye that he was still awake, albeit barely. His breathing was shallow and wheezy and he looked at her with half-lidded, cloudy eyes. He needed food, water, and rest badly and she tried to walk a bit faster as her body screamed in protest.

"I'm sorry, Ochako," Izuku whispered, and she paused at the exit to an alleyway to check her corners.

"Don't be sorry, Deku. Just… stay with me, please?" Ochako whispered back, and she saw the ghost of a smile on his lips.

She saw the building she was looking for - it had to be it, it was the only abandoned-looking apartment among others that clearly were occupied - and she quickly crossed the street and walked towards the door. It was late now - after one in the morning, last time she had seen a clock in a store window - and there weren't really any people around anymore.

"Is there a specific entrance I should be using?" Ochako asked. Izuku hummed negatively, so she walked around to the side and found a door near the back. "Brace yourself," she added as she stepped up to the second door.

Izuku clung tightly to her, hiding his face away as she brought her leg up. One for All flared pink for just a moment as she shattered the door forward. It had been boarded up but that didn't matter in the face of her strength and splinters flew as the door hit the wall with a crash. When it fell, it fell in pieces but Ochako was already moving, walking down tiled hallways and looking for the appropriate door.

"It should be… the third one on the left," Izuku said absently, and she picked up her pace until she found a door labeled 'Emergency Exit.'

It was a push door, thankfully, and she braced her side against it to get it open. There were no alarms or lights as she might have expected and it led downwards against all logic instead of out. Izuku must have had it right, so she carefully got his body through the door before she hurried down the stairs.

By the time she reached the bottom - four flights of stairs - she was panting for breath and Izuku had passed out again. The shaking up and down must not have agreed with him and he was so pale that she felt a stab of fear and guilt in her heart.

Please hold on. Please.

She opened the door to his safe house and had to resist the urge to cheer when the light switch worked and the room was clean.

This wasn't home. But… they were safe, at least for now.