Chapter 2: Mind Over Matter
The day after she received her Quirk, Ochako went to school. When a kid came by to make fun of her, she touched him with all five of her fingers, making him float above the floor.
"H-hey, what did you do to me?!"
"It's my Quirk, Zero Gravity. I just got it today," Ochako replied with a wide grin, before she quickly released him due to a sharp rise in nausea.
Everyone was awestruck by her display, but the teacher quickly regained her composure and scolded her.
"Ochako Uraraka, while it's great that your Quirk finally manifested itself, please remember to not use it in public."
"I will!"
At lunch, Ochako was the center of attention, but now, people did not taunt her. Instead, they were fascinated at her Quirk, and wanted to see it work. Ochako had to stop herself before she lost the lunch she just ate. She reassured her Quirkless friends that they would remain friends and that she didn't care if they were Quirkless.
After school ended, Ochako saw Tomura at the same place. This time, he was waiting for her, mildly annoyed because he had to be there.
"Hey, Uraraka. Sensei wants to hear from you every now and then to see if you developed that Quirk of yours." She couldn't let Sensei down, not after what he did for her. She would later meet Tomura once every couple of weeks and give him updates on how she developed her Quirk.
...
As time passed, Ochako trained her Quirk through floating objects, preferably objects that wouldn't shatter, around the house. By the time she was seven, she could float an object without having to concentrate on making it float. This had the unintended side effect of floating things when she didn't mean to. One time, she picked up a heavy textbook with her hand, and unexpectedly thrown it to the ceiling because she underestimated when her Quirk would activate. Much like Tomura, she had to be careful of what she touched, and she gained a habit of curling her fingers inward so the fingertips wouldn't be exposed. To sleep, her parents gave her mittens so she wouldn't accidentally activate her Quirk and float away from her bed.
When she was nine, she could already float a weight equal to one metric ton for a short time. However, when she saw Shigaraki, who appeared to not have slept in a solid month, she forgot what she was going to tell him. Instead, she asked, "What's the matter, Shigaraki?"
He told her, "Sensei, he's not doing so well. He was gravely injured in a recent battle."
"Really?! Take me to him now! I want to see him with my own eyes!"
"Alright, alright. You don't have to shout at me." Tomura immediately pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "Kurogiri, she wants to see Sensei. We're still in the same spot."
After Kurogiri warped them to the bar, he pointed towards a television screen. On it was Sensei, his face horrifyingly disfigured, connected to a machine that let him breath through various tubes. He lost all his hair, and his head was covered in scar tissue down to his upper lip. Ochako couldn't even tell if he still had eyes.
"Wh-what happened to you? Who did this to you?!"
Despite not having visible ears, Sensei detected her voice, and solemnly responded, " I told you that I had enemies, right? Well, what I didn't tell you was that my greatest enemy is All Might."
Ochako gasped with disbelief at the mention of the number one superhero. "N-no, All Might is the kindest pro hero out there. He would never do this to anyone!"
Sensei frowned at her reaction. "Ochako, I know that it's hard to think of him as someone who would hurt another grievously, but what I tell you is the truth. Besides, he's not much better off, not after I tore a hole in his gut."
She remembered the recent news reports questioning All Might's sudden disappearance, as well as the reports of the surge of crime that occurred afterward.
Is that why All Might's not active right now? All Might isn't the invincible hero we thought he was?
"To tell you the truth, he was not the first to directly oppose me. In fact, he is the eighth in a long line of people who wanted to end me, the first being my younger brother." Sensei's voice had snapped her out of her thoughts, and her attention was back towards the scarred man.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't be. I would've died a long time ago were it not for a Longevity Quirk that I took. Perhaps I'll tell you the full story another day. You have a phone, right?"
"Yes, I do," she answered. Kurogiri gestured to Tomura, who walked towards her.
"Here," Tomura said as he gave her a piece of paper with three phone numbers written on it. Next to them were names, Tenko, Kuro, and Sensei. She looked back to him, baffled.
"What's that face for? It's our phone numbers. Put us in as contacts under those names so we don't seem suspicious. Call Kurogiri if you want to get somewhere quickly."
"I'd rather you not tell her to abuse my Warp Gates, Shigaraki," Kurogiri stated, voicing his annoyance at Tomura's reckless usage of his Quirk. The day they met Ochako, Tomura, saying that he needed supplies, used his Warp Gate Quirk to go to an alley near to a convenience store to grab a soda. He thought, I swear, Uraraka's more mature than him sometimes.
Sensei spoke once more. "Now that we've cleared things up, how are you, Ochako? Any improvements to your Quirk?"
...
Three years later, Sensei, although bedridden from a recent operation and thus speaking from the TV screen, asked Ochako about the high school she wanted to go to.
"I want to go to U.A. High. If I go there, I'm sure to make a change in the world!" With a bittersweet smile, she stated, remembering the death of one of her Quirkless friends over the past year, "Maybe I'll finally be able to save someone."
"So you're planning to go to the top high school in the nation. Well, if you wish to go there, you'll have to devote yourself to your goal."
Tomura didn't even bother pausing his Mario game to give his opinion on the matter. "Don't bother. The school's probably filled to the brim with pompous pricks." His character fell into a bottomless pit after missing a platform. "Dammit! I died again."
Kurogiri quipped, "Mind your language, Shigaraki. A child is present."
"I'll mind my fucking language as I damn please, Kurogiri!"
"Enough." Sensei's voice was more than enough to pacify Tomura. "Now, Ochako, you are aware that Tomura, Kurogiri, and I are considered to be villains, right? Eventually, you may have to choose whether to officially join us or to fight us."
"Yes, I know. But I want to give Mom and Dad the comfortable life they never got to have! I asked Dad if I could work for his construction company, but he told me to follow my own dreams."
Tomura responded, "Just become a villain. You'd get a lot of money quickly that way."
"Tomura, that's enough." Sensei looked in his general direction before turning back to Ochako. "When you get to U.A., don't forget about us, or worse, turn us in, alright?"
"I would never, Sensei. You were kind enough to give me a Quirk, and my life's better now because of it!"
"Good. Know that I'm willing to help you fulfill your dreams."
Ochako had to go home, and after she passed through Kurogiri's black mist, Tomura questioned Sensei on his promise. "Why would you help her become a hero?! What if she turns us in? What if she fights us?"
"Be patient, Tomura. Deep down, she hates those who are born into success. Once she glimpses into the pro hero system, she'll see how flawed it is. She'll see heroes abuse their Quirks for fame, fortune, and power, and she'll want to change that system through any means necessary."
"Even though she's in it for the money as well?"
"Yes. Because she is driven by a noble cause, she'll notice the heroes who work solely for their personal benefit, and she'll become appalled. In addition, she'll provide valuable inside information about U.A. High, the staff, and the students. We could always use another villain on our side."
"So she's like a human strategy guide to beating U.A.?"
Sensei couldn't help but chuckle. "I suppose so, Tomura. I suppose so."
The next two years of Ochako's memories were blurred and cut until what remained resembled a training montage. With Sensei's advice on how to more effectively use her Quirk, she was now able to float four tons for several seconds, and she could float herself for twenty seconds before having to stop.
Ochako went to bed nervous yet hopeful, for when she would wake up, she would have to take the U.A. entrance exam. One last thought crossed her mind before she fell asleep.
This is it! If I don't do well here, I'll never have another chance!
A/N: Hello, fellows! I would've had this done much sooner, but I put a waiting period of three days on updates to account for all the stuff my family wants to do as well as any personal reasons I have such as video games (I'm still on the last trial of finish PW: Spirit of Justice). Anyway, hope you have a nice day/night!