Initial notes: Hiya! This story was originally posted on AO3 from February 7th to February 14th for IzuOcha Week 2021. Because this website has a less robust tagging system, I will include some warnings here.

This story contains very minor, indirect manga spoilers. This does not contain any meaningful violence nor is it as dark as the rest of this series often is. There is some discussion of canonical bad parents (All for One and Endeavor), however.

There was some absolutely beautiful fanart made of this story made by the eminently talented artist '1Alchemistart.' I am unable to post external links on FFN but the art is linked in the author's notes on AO3, if you're interested in that.

This story is an indirect sequel to 'The Gravity Thief,' 'The Emerald Ghost,' 'I Am a Heart on Fire,' and 'How Can You Stay in Control.' It's not strictly a direct sequel but it does have some direct continuity and won't make nearly as much sense if you haven't read those stories.

This story is part five.

Prologue - Home is Where the Heart is (That Doesn't Make it Pleasant, Though)

"Sometimes I start to wander; sleepwalking underwater. Sometimes I start to wonder if it all makes sense to others. All night spent thinking of you; I tried to take your point of view. You know that I just can't abide when your true colors come to light…"

('No Place Like Home' by 'Valiant Hearts')

Everyday life on a farm in Kansas was… dull.

Wash laundry, churn butter, hang laundry, feed the animals, move them from their pen to a field, fold laundry, help shuck corn, wash more laundry-

It was mind-numbingly dull but Ochako didn't strictly speaking mind. Her parents came to America for the promise of a better life but things were pretty tough in California, so when Ochako was born, they moved out east. There, land was relatively cheap and plentiful and the US Government was still trying to convince people to settle down and build homesteads in what had once been the frontier.

Her parents weren't very invested in American national myth-making or the health of the national economy and they were acutely aware that other people had been pushed off that land so they could live there. Americans generally didn't think very hard about that kind of thing, Ochako had noticed when she would go to school and learn about history, but her parents thought about it a lot.

It was something you thought about when you'd been pushed out of your own home, too.

But, survival was survival, so they made the trek out to Kansas. Kansas, once bleeding, was now whole and things were pretty alright there as far as such things went. Sure, it had been seventy years since the Americans fought their bloody civil war but the conflict loomed large over things yet.

Some of their neighbors were on the Southern side and still went on about their lost causes and the nobility of their fathers and their fathers' fathers. It was all very tedious, her parents told her. They never missed the condescension that those people showed them, either.

The people whose families had been on the Northern side weren't any better, though at least they'd been on the right team. Building a more perfect union - and ending slavery by sword point - was a fine outcome, she supposed, but they still didn't think much of the Uraraka family and they were even meaner to the one black family that lived down the road a ways. That black family strongly kept to themselves because of this, though Ochako's parents tried to be personable when they ran into each other as they understood or, at least, as much as they could.

Ochako was rewarded for her daydreaming by one of the wet sheets she was trying to wrangle on the clothesline hitting her right in the face.

"Dang it," she muttered as she stepped away and flailed at the sheet to make it go away. It was windier than normal and windy meant dusty, so with her face now wet, she promptly got covered in it. "Dang it!" She said a little louder, and she was met with a familiar female chuckle from somewhere behind her in response.

"Careful now, young lady," her mother said when Ochako turned. Ochako pouted at her mother after she wiped her face off, which just made the older woman giggle at her and cover her mouth.

They spoke Japanese at home, though her parents had picked up… enough English to get by at least. They practiced English on the weekends and Ochako was going to go to school as well, though it was hard when she had so many responsibilities at home.

She was fifteen now and each new year made her older and in turn gave her new responsibilities. That reminded her that she needed to go check the chicken coop to see if they had new eggs to collect.

"I'm going to go say hello to the hens, Momma!" Ochako called as her mother walked around the corner again. Her mother was working on a vegetable garden, so she just waved as she walked away for more tools.

Ochako skipped along to where the chicken coop was only to be joined by Sero, her little terrier dog.

"Hey, little guy!" She said happily, and he wagged his tail. Sero was a little mutt with messy black fur and, no matter how hard she tried to keep his fur short and in order, he was pretty much a ball of fluff. Still, he jumped up and down and barked a little at her, so she stopped to lean down and give him a few head pats. "Sit here. You scared the hens last time, little mister," Ochako said in a slightly faux stern tone.

Sero whined but obediently sat down all the same with a little tail wag. She was extremely proud of the fact that she'd taught him that, though he was generally an agreeable dog, anyway. Her dad got Sero two years previously after finding the little dog stuck in a bramble patch and, while Ochako had no idea how old Sero was, he didn't look very old to her.

She ducked to take a look into the hen house and the hens squawked a bit and clucked at her. They didn't really mind her that much, on balance. They routinely chased her dad out, though, which was how she ended up on hen duty. Disappointingly, as she checked the hens, there weren't any eggs today, but that was fine, she supposed.

Her parents were used to making due with little. It was frustrating to Ochako, even as she did her best and worked so hard to help them. They just told her that she needed to get an education and live a better life than they did, insisting that was the reason they moved in the first place. Ochako understood that but… it didn't make it feel any easier.

She was intending to, God willing, go to university. She had taken to American living like a fish to water: she had English down for the most part, she went to church on the weekends - mostly for the company, though she didn't strictly speaking mind the priest or the religion aspect even if she didn't particularly believe - and she had successfully learned the habits and customs of haggling at the local market. She would daresay she was very good at haggling, even; it was probably her most cultivated skill that wasn't directly related to working on a farm.

She kind of had to be good at haggling when all the damn locals in the town thought they could scam the naïve Japanese family for easy money.

"Hey, Ochako!"

Ochako froze as she got out of the hen house, hearing a voice she didn't much care to hear. She turned towards the road and saw Himiko Toga, one of her neighbors. 'Neighbor' was a relative term in the American West and she lived pretty far from the Uraraka family but she was still one of the closest people there.

Himiko was the daughter of a Japanese man and a local white woman and the locals were distinctly displeased about that. Himiko had quite the striking appearance, with her lighter skin, vivid gold eyes, and ash-blonde hair done up in two messy buns.

Ochako blinked a few times, then waved. Himiko was about six months older than her and clearly wanted Ochako to be her best friend. Ochako didn't mind her but Ochako found her… off-putting.

Ochako figured she couldn't really blame Himiko; most other people shunned her, for the typical, awful reasons that Americans always had to shun people who were different. But Himiko had developed a personality that was a bit too forward and a bit too clingy for Ochako's liking in response and, thus, Ochako generally kept her distance.

"Where'd you get that bike?" Ochako called out, genuinely curious. Himiko's parents didn't have very much money, either, so it was strange to see her with the two-wheeled contraption.

"Old Man Jerry in town told me I could have it if I could fix it," Himiko said with a toothy smile. "He didn't realize it wasn't really that broken."

Ochako snorted at that. Old Man Jerry was a little bit blind, though Ochako couldn't blame Himiko for getting the better of the old man as such. It wasn't like he would be riding a broken bike any time soon.

"Looks fun!" Ochako said, more so to be nice than anything else. Himiko's face lit up in response.

"Do ya wanna learn?" Himiko called out, and Ochako was immediately embarrassed, realizing she had implied more than she intended.

"Uh… No time right now. Maybe another day?" As Ochako answered, Sero bounded up to Himiko, where she had the bike propped up on two feet.

Himiko wore a fairly normal yellow day dress with a frilly bottom and, while it was nice, it was also the nicest thing she owned and Ochako knew that. Ochako had a suspicion that Himiko just came by because she was lonely and Ochako felt bad about it. If Ochako had more free time and her parents were better off, she perhaps wouldn't mind spending more time on being friends with Himiko… but the world wasn't fair.

"Hey there, little guy," Himiko said, and she leaned over to offer her hand. Sero sniffed it and made a comical little growl, as if he wasn't tiny and utterly non-threatening, then he walked away with a little doggy huff, trotting proudly as his little tail bobbed back and forth. Ochako's mood must have been rubbing off on her dog and she wanted to frown but it was honestly kind of funny so she laughed, instead. Himiko looked entirely bemused, then she laughed, too. "It was worth a try, I guess," Himiko added frankly, and Ochako nodded once she was done laughing.

"He just thinks he's a powerful guard dog and not a fuzz ball," Ochako said with amusement as she leaned down to greet Sero. He returned to her like a little champion who had vanquished a demon and she gave him an affectionate head rub. "Be nice, little mister," she said, looking at him, and he barked happily.

Ochako stood up and brushed her rather plain skirt and blouse off. They were faded and stained in places and they had gone from white to a grayed out, used look but they were just for working outside, really. She wore dull clothing for the dull life she'd inherited and she was only a tiny bit bitter about that thought.

"I've gotta go into town today, Himiko, so I'll talk to you later," Ochako said absently. Himiko frowned a bit but didn't argue. Instead, she just waved and adjusted the bike so she could ride away.

"Maybe I'll see you at Sunday school?" She asked hopefully, and Ochako smiled and nodded, trying to be polite but maintain her space. Then Himiko left, kicking up dust as she pedaled away, and Ochako let out a long breath.

Maybe she should make more friends. Most of the local girls in her classes didn't want anything to do with her and it wasn't like Himiko had been anything but nice to her.

Ochako just felt like she didn't belong but she didn't know how to put words to the feeling. It wasn't just the mean stares or hushed whispers of the locals or even how it felt like she lived in a totally different world from her parents because she could fit in a little better among the locals. She felt like something was missing from her life and like something was off with the world, so her satisfaction with living on the farm plummeted by the day because of that nagging feeling.

But navel-gazing was for people who had money and time to burn and she had neither. So she briskly walked back to the farmhouse, intending to put nicer clothes on so she could go and buy some things her father requested she get from town.

Everyday life as a fake magician's apprentice in Kansas was… interesting.

Izuku was only fifteen but he'd already had more than his fair share of adventures. He was ready for life to not be as interesting as it was, yet as he prepared to do another show, it wasn't getting any less interesting by the moment. Tragically, it had long since ceased to be interesting in the way he liked and that was the problem more than anything he suspected.

He left home when he was ten, along with his stepbrother, to follow Toshinori Yagi, a legendary up-and-coming magician and showman in San Francisco. Izuku's father, Hisashi, was hurt rather badly in the Great San Francisco Earthquake and never really got better. He later died when the Spanish Flu came through and Izuku's mom remarried when he was just a baby.

Izuku's stepbrother was Tomura and he was… not the nicest person in the world, though that was an understatement. Still, they shared an interest in show business and an enthusiasm for entertaining people and Izuku dreamed of being famous and putting smiles on people's faces from Los Angeles to New York and every city in between.

He didn't exactly anticipate he'd be spending so much time in between, though, and that was probably naïve of him. That was a good word to describe himself: naïve. He only ended up in this mess because he was too darn nice for his own good.

It started when they were four years into following Toshinori and learning the trade, only for the elder magician to become very ill. It turned out he had polio, which for most people was pretty survivable even if it wasn't precisely pleasant. Toshinori had become frail in his older age, though, and he died quickly and suddenly.

That left Tomura and Izuku in a bit of a pickle, since they were affiliated with a major traveling circus through Toshinori but weren't really skilled enough to swing carrying on his show on their own. Tomura tried to con the circus master into letting them take over anyway and it ended up in a fist fight, followed by both boys running off chased by men with guns.

Izuku was lucky he didn't get punched. Tomura had a pretty nasty scar on his lip from that encounter.

Still, Tomura was a master manipulator and he used his 'talents' to wrangle up a half-assed traveling circus full of bottom-rung performers and outright con artists such as Tomura himself. Izuku didn't have anything against them - some of them were nice people, even - but he knew what a good, quality magic performance looked like and what a con job looked like and their operation was firmly in that second category.

They had Twice, the 'magnificent man with two minds,' Kurogiri, a tightrope walker and contortionist, Spinner, the man who had been born with a skin condition that kind of made him look like a lizard - and who'd deliberately had surgery to enhance the effect - and Atsuhiro the Great.

Atsuhiro was actually pretty good at magic, all told, and he also had a crowd-pleasing smile, so he was the primary magician for the show and Izuku served as his assistant. Tomura and Giran handled the money aspects of the show and, if Izuku had concerns about how little money the performers were given, he was generally brushed off.

He only had to get backhanded a few times before he learned not to bring that up again.

They had two new people that day: one was 'Dabi,' a man who could eat fire, and the other refused to give his name but he was blonde, had a fake eye, and he was also the largest man Izuku had ever seen in his life. Izuku wasn't very old, so he couldn't say he'd seen a lot of men but this guy was just… a wall of muscle, pretty much. He'd demonstrated he could lift three hundred and fifty pounds and that was good enough for Tomura, at any rate.

Izuku's cue came up to go onto the stage as Atsuhiro called for a volunteer. Izuku strode onto the stage, giving a weak wave and awkward smile to the crowd as he did so. He wore his rather tacky three-piece suit that Tomura insisted fit him when it didn't. It was made of dark, slightly velvety fabric, though it had obviously been around the block and he wore that as well as a faded dress shirt and black stubby tie. Izuku kept on patching it the best he could but there was only so much he could do before it was just a suit of patches.

The volunteer was a brunette girl with a bob cut and Izuku swallowed thickly. She had vivid, dark brown eyes and what seemed to be permanent blushmarks and that was… unusual, though Izuku knew better than to comment on that kind of thing and be rude. She was certainly vivid in general, though, in a way that most other people - even other girls - weren't and Izuku had to stop himself from squinting at her.

They always picked women to volunteer - because it was 'good show business,' Tomura insisted - but usually it was older women. Izuku always got nervous when it was somebody close to his age and he was already bad enough with people in normal day-to-day conversations as it was.

"Uh, hi," she whispered when he took his spot next to her. He gave what he hoped was a winning smile to cover his nervousness and she shot him a neutral sidelong glance in reply. Izuku couldn't help the blush that crawled up his neck.

She had the slightest frown, seemingly either disbelieving in what was going on, in their talent, or, perhaps, both. She didn't look pleased to be on the stage, at any rate.

Izuku had practiced this routine a lot. He'd practiced it a lot, actually, but most of his practice had been in Atsuhiro's position. Being the assistant wasn't something he had as much practice for and he was still always a little freaked out to be in front of everyone without Toshinori there.

Tragically, it wasn't his lack of practice that did him in; it was the state of disrepair of the stage. Because he was so busy being silly around the brown-haired girl that he stepped right onto the broken board he'd tried to mark the other day. Tomura blew him off on fixing it and Izuku was planning to avoid it. Instead, his foot went right through it and he promptly ruined the show when the whole floor gave out under him and he ended up halfway under the stage.

He got quite the laugh out of the crowd, though the brunette girl was suitably horrified and tried to help him up. His suit pants were all torn and he was definitely bleeding from some cuts on his leg. Worse than that, though, he was utterly humiliated, and Atsuhiro was thoroughly annoyed at his assistant screwing up big time.

Usually, Izuku just made minor mistakes and Atsuhiro was kind enough to overlook them. But Izuku could already tell that this was gonna get him yelled at, if not worse.

Izuku let the girl - who whispered her name was 'Ochako' under her breath - help him up, figuring he was already humiliated enough and letting an audience member assist him wasn't going to make it worse. Most of the audience was already leaving as it was and the only upside Izuku could think of was that at least they paid in advance.

"Are you okay?!"

Izuku whipped his head around and sputtered, realizing that Ochako was pretty much right next to him and holding his arm. She smiled kindly at him, though her smile fell when his whole face turned red, then she let go of his arm and took a tiny step back.

"Y-yeah, I'm… I'm good. Thanks and… sorry I ruined the show for you," Izuku mumbled. He looked down to his legs and winced at the blood. He was used to pain these days, so it wasn't so bad, but the anticipation of getting yelled at and maybe also smacked was worse because of the associated degradation.

"Are you gonna get in trouble?" Ochako said, and Izuku turned back to her and registered two things for the first time.

First, he didn't even realize, in his state of panicked embarrassment, that she was speaking to him in Japanese and not English.

Second, she looked rather worried and Izuku felt even worse about that.

"Uh… Yeah, yeah, I probably will," he admitted quietly. Atsuhiro already left, so it was just them on the stage. Ochako sighed and motioned over to the entrance of the tent. Izuku followed her motion and saw another girl - a blonde with her hair done up in two messy buns, who had that same vivid quality that confused Izuku for a moment - standing there with a frown, waiting for them.

"Can you walk?" Ochako asked, and Izuku nodded cautiously. "Then let's go get you cleaned up."

Ochako had a productive day of shopping and haggling, at first.

She brought about five dollars and some change and she'd spent about two dollars. Her father was expecting her to not have enough money at all, so she would count that as a win. She had her straw sun hat on and a polka dotted dress over a blouse. She also carried a basket in her right arm, and Sero trotted along happily with her on the side.

Ochako's day at the market had been quiet and she found out the reason was because there was a traveling circus in town. Ochako just rolled her eyes at that. She had no interest in the traveling shows of charlatans and liars, though she was glad that all the locals seemed to because it meant nobody was around to get in her way.

"Hey, Ochako, come here for a second!"

She stopped dead when a familiar voice called out to her. Ochako turned her head mechanically and found Himiko, standing near the sign for the magic show.

Ochako, against her better judgement, had gone over… then got dragged into the most embarrassing magic show she'd been subjected to in her life. In fairness, she'd only seen one other magic show but she was fairly certain that they weren't supposed to be such disasters. It was frustrating how much of her day got eaten up by Himiko's whimsical impulsiveness… but Ochako also couldn't deny that the magic show had been funny, albeit in a depressing sort of way.

Ochako didn't really appreciate Himiko volunteering her to go on stage but she also suspected that, if Himiko hadn't, nobody would've bothered to help the poor kid who fell through the floor and that just wouldn't do at all.

That was how she and Himiko ended up sitting on top of a park bench, each holding an ice cream cone. The boy from the show sat on the bench part to the side, his ice cream cone gently melting in his hand as he stared off into space. Ochako could just barely hear him speaking quickly to himself, though she couldn't make out what he was saying.

He was somewhat plain, with dark black, impossibly curly hair - which unusually seemed to have a slight green to it, though she did not comment on that - and freckles, though he had a kind face accentuated by pretty, surprisingly vivid green eyes. He was also fairly lean and, more unfortunately than any of that, he still wore his slightly ruined suit.

He'd looked pretty decent in it before it got ruined… but falling through the floor would ruin any outfit, Ochako supposed. Somebody desperately needed to teach him how to patch a suit properly, though… and how to tie a damn tie.

"Hey, kid, what's your name? Where're you from?" Ochako asked gently. He hadn't said anything coherent in the past ten minutes since they'd gotten ice cream and Ochako was worried he was freaking out.

"My n-name is Izuku and, uh… Well, I don't live anywhere anymore, really," Izuku mumbled in an earnest, albeit embarrassed, tone, as Ochako frowned at him. He was fidgety and his eyes kept darting around, like he was looking for someone.

Ochako thought about what she said as she looked up and around but she didn't see anybody. It was still pretty quiet and Ochako settled on a response as she checked for whoever it was Izuku was waiting for.

"I see. My name is Ochako and this," Ochako gestured to Himiko, who smiled kindly, "is Himiko. We're neighbors." Ochako paused for a moment, considering. "I guess it must be rough to travel around all the time without a normal home, huh?" She said thoughtfully, and Izuku nodded.

"It was better before but, uh, ah… you two don't wanna hear about that," Izuku said sadly. Ochako couldn't really disagree with that; she didn't precisely want to spend a lot of time hearing the life story of a weird boy that fell through the floor at the drop of a hat.

However, he seemed awfully sad and Ochako was loath to just ignore somebody who needed someone, at least to help get him moving again.

"Your ice cream is melting," Himiko pointed out with mischievousness in her tone, so Izuku yelped and quickly tried to lick around the edges of the ice cream he'd forgotten about in his right hand.

Ochako and Himiko both giggled a bit at his expense as they watched him and Himiko finished her own ice cream as she did so. Izuku got comically covered in ice cream on his face and that made the girls giggle even more at him, which in turn made him get even redder. Ochako eyed him with amusement as she popped the last of her cone in her mouth.

"I'm sorry…" Izuku muttered once he'd wiped his face off the best he could, looking entirely mortified but with an underlying emotion of fear that was… odd. Ochako and Himiko both stopped giggling at that and shared a look of understanding. Something was wrong here - Izuku wasn't just shy - but they weren't really sure what to do about it.

Ochako was interrupted from considering the problem before her when an older white man walked past and gave them an irritated, disgusted face and a noise of annoyance, presumably because they hadn't been speaking in English. Ochako waited for him to be facing away, then silently stuck her tongue out at him, and Izuku looked up at her only to giggle a little bit at the sight.

Somebody yelled from down the street then and Ochako turned and saw an unusual man with his long hair tied into a ponytail marching down the road, wearing a patchy, dark suit. His hair was rather disheveled and black and he looked like he had too many scars on his face for someone who couldn't have been more than a few years older than her.

"Oh no, I'm gonna die," Izuku whispered urgently, and Ochako whipped her gaze back to him. Then she turned and looked at Himiko and she was probably thinking the same thing:

We're gonna help him.

"I biked into town and I need to be home for dinner and I live farther," Himiko said simply. "But I bet Ochako here could hide you, right? Especially if we each go in two different directions…"

"I've got a cellar at my house and my parents wouldn't mind." Ochako said, nodding firmly and feeling a great deal of determination. Izuku looked absolutely dumbfounded at the two of them. "Look, you can take your chances with tall, mean, and scarred over there or you can come with me," Ochako added, and that got him moving.

She grabbed his hand with hers, ignoring how he turned red again, then they took off running.

Sero had been dozing under a tree nearby. Ochako yelled the dog's name at him as they ran, so he scrambled to his feet and started chasing along as fast as his little legs would carry him, barking all the way. Unfortunately, that attracted the attention of the mean-looking guy, who yelled indistinctly after them as he gave chase.

"How dangerous is he?" Ochako asked breathlessly as they ran. Izuku looked thoroughly freaked out, though not embarrassed anymore.

Small blessings, Ochako thought distantly as they ran.

"He, uh, he'll definitely hit me. I don't know about you but…" Izuku trailed off and Ochako resolved that she wasn't going to let Izuku get taken by that guy as if her life depended on it. Izuku seemed like a nice kid and he deserved better than that. It would've been even more nice if she could've thought up a plan but the world still wasn't fair.

They kept on running down the road, kicking up dust as they went, and Ochako didn't pay attention to how the wind was getting stronger or the sky was quickly turning angry and black. She figured it was gonna rain, so it didn't mean much to her. Izuku kept looking up to the sky in horror but he didn't seem to be able to handle words and she assumed he was just scared of lightning.

They didn't stop until they reached her house and by then, both of them were about ready to die.

"That… was… a bit of a… mistake," Ochako stammered out as she doubled over to catch her breath. Sero caught up to them and promptly fell over on his tummy, with his four legs splayed out like a dork and his tongue sticking out as he panted.

Izuku also doubled over with his hands on his knees and, when Ochako raised her head, she found herself immediately face-to-face with huge, vivid green eyes.

"Sorry… I, uh… didn't mean to be… a burden," he said, just as out of breath, and Ochako just rolled her eyes and shook her head. His eyes were distracting in their unusual, vibrant appearance but she was too out of breath to think about that just yet.

"Wasn't just… gonna let you… get beat up," she said, and Izuku blushed and looked away. Ochako straightened and turned to call out to her parents. "Momma? Daddy?" She didn't get an answer and found that worrying. She quickly strode over to her front door only to find it locked. Then she walked around to the cellar entrance and found that locked, too. "That's not good…" She murmured to herself, then she walked back around the house to find Izuku. "Izuku? My parents might've left-"

She stopped dead when she found the scarred man in the process of gripping Izuku by the lapels of his suit and shaking the life out of him.

"What did I tell you about practicing, you useless brat?"

"Hey, leave him alone!" Ochako cried out. She started marching forward, halfway intent on picking up a rock and braining this weird guy right in his stupid face. But she stopped when she saw the sky behind him, as her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open.

"What, now you're scared?" The angry man said challengingly, but Izuku let out a horrified squeak and that was when the man finally turned and was also stunned into silence.

Because there was a tornado about to hit them like a freight train and it tore up the ground and fields around it like the unquenchable anger of the Earth itself at the sight of the three young people.

"Holy mother of God," the angry man said, then he dropped Izuku like a sack of potatoes and started running. Izuku scrambled to his feet as well and, to Ochako's profound irritation and frustration, started chasing after the angry man instead of coming to her so she could drag him out of the danger zone.

"Tomura, wait!" He cried out - then the tornado was on them, and swallowed the two of them first.

Ochako dropped her basket and moved down to scoop up Sero into it, who was barking and whimpering in fear. To his credit, the little dog stayed with her as she picked the basket back up, then they were also sucked into the tornado.

The wind ripped and roared and Ochako hung onto Sero like her life depended on it, praying to any God or gods or goddesses or anything that somehow, she might live and that her parents would be okay.

She looked over as she flew and saw, to her surreal horror, Himiko riding her bike through the tornado. Himiko gave her a little wave and a maniacal smile and disappeared into the clouds, then the sky began to get brighter as Ochako was sucked up towards the top of the funnel cloud.

Her vision went white… then she hit the ground with a hard thud.

Closing notes: There won't be a lot of author's notes for this story because it is complete and I don't intend to transcribe the notes I have on AO3 here since they have to go in the body text here.

I will offer some clarification here as to our premise: this is a Wizard of Oz AU, meant to be comedic and light-hearted. As this story was originally written from December to February of 2021, it uses canon from the manga up to about chapter 299 or so, give or take.

Thank you for reading.