AN: Welcome back.

In writing this chapter, I ultimately decided that I needed to rewrite the last scene in the first chapter. The scene worked well for a one-shot, but it just didn't flow right into the second chapter. This also lets me give a little more background for OFA!Ochako, so there may be some repetition at the start of this chapter.

Manga154 - As of right now, neither Izuku nor Ochako has OFA. Second's quirk sent just their minds back in time, so their bodies are physically in the same condition they were in ~7 months before the sludge villain incident. Currently the only person who has OFA is All Might, and it will be something of a plot point as to what ultimately happens with it.

The cafe that Ochako led them to was a cozy affair, set up so that students could have privacy while studying. As she pulled Izuku inside, Ochako told him that she frequently came here to study on the days where both of her parents were working.

It was the perfect place for the two of them to talk.

As they entered the cafe, Izuku discovered that his appetite had returned and ordered lunch while Ochako simply ordered a drink for herself. After collecting their items, Ochako led Izuku to a quiet booth in a corner where they sat down across from each other.

"So, where do we start?"

"Probably from the beginning." Izuku offered. "When you first met All Might."

Ochako began thinking back to how it all started. To say the last two years had been hectic would have been an understatement. So much has happened to her, that it was honestly hard to put all of it into words.

Taking a deep breath, she began. Her story started when an S-ranked villain with the ability to create high powered blasts of air was proving to be too much for the local heroes to handle, and All Might was called in to help. In the ensuing battle the villain unleashed his quirk on a building, hoping to make his escape in the chaos. Ochako just happened to be there, and she heard the cries of a child that was still trapped inside. Without thinking, she rushed in to save them. Pushing past her limits, she was able to use her quirk to keep part of the building standing just long enough for All Might to rescue both of them.

All Might was so inspired by her bravery that he asked her to be his successor and began training her. The day before the UA entrance exam, she was given One For All, which they hid by pretending she had a quirk awakening that improved her gravity manipulation.

She didn't really meet Izuku until the sports festival. There, the quirkless support student impressed everyone by making it to the top 8 with little more than his brains and support gear, before he lost his match against Shoto Todoroki. He impressed the right people, and after that he began joining her class for their heroics lessons. He then transferred into her class at the start of the second semester after Sato dropped out following the disaster at the training camp.

The Izuku she knew was timid and jumpy, but he was kind to everyone, and he was an analytical genius who always strove to find new ways for her and her classmates to use their quirks. Ochako decided to leave out the part about how quickly she fell for him during their second semester, a schoolgirl crush that had blossomed into something more meaningful. But she was too focused on her role of becoming the next symbol of peace, that she had refused to act on before it was too late.

Ochako's face fell as she told Izuku the next part. At the forest training camp, the League attacked them, and hurt many of her classmates. They also successfully kidnapped Tokoyami, who was always struggling to control the darkness within himself. The next day, several of her classmates decided to mount their own rescue operation. They explained their plans to Ochako, but she wanted to believe in All Might, and trusted him when he told her to leave it to the pros.

Nobody was expecting All For One to be alive, and the true leader of the League. When he joined the fight, the tide of battle shifted against the heroes, and the students of 1-A were caught up in it. Rather than being able to focus his full attention on All For One, All Might was forced to protect the students, until they were safely evacuated.

After that All Might was able to fight unhindered, but by then it was too late. He did eventually prevail and managed to stop All For One, killing him in the process, but he paid the ultimate price for his victory, and he died in the hospital. This devastated morale across Japan, and led to a surge in recruitment among villain groups. Ochako admits that she had taken it particularly hard, losing her mentor and feeling the full weight of One For All thrust upon her shoulders.

A few weeks later, during her Provisional License exam, Ochako met Ryukyu. Ochako told the dragon hero the truth about her quirk, and she agreed to become her mentor. With her help, Ochako would keep All Might's legacy alive. Thanks to her, Ochako had begun to accept her future role, and learned what it meant to be one of Japan's top heroes.

Six months after All Might's death, the Paranormal Liberation Front appeared. It formed when the shattered remnants of the League merged with the Meta-Liberation Army, and their ranks were bolstered by recruitment in the wake of All Might's death. The first major action taken by the PLF occurred in March, where they were converging on Jaku City, trying to take over for unknown reasons. With so many of its members in one location, Japan's top heroes decided to strike, intending to cripple them in one decisive blow.

Ochako recounted her final moments from the battle of Jaku City.

"And then I woke up, and you know the rest." Ochako said, finishing her story.

Izuku was oddly silent, a contemplative look on his face, but her attention was elsewhere. She felt a comforting warmth on her hand, and when she looked, she saw that his hand was wrapped around hers. Izuku followed her gaze, finally realizing what he had done. He didn't say anything, but rather looked at Ochako, a silent question in his eyes.

Is this ok?

Ochako's response was to merely smile as she entwined her fingers with his, carefully keeping her pinky extended so as not to activate her quirk. She knew that if something like this happened even a few days ago she probably would have made excuses and ran away in embarrassment. But now, things felt different. And judging by the smile on Izuku's face, she knew that he felt the same.

"I guess it's my turn?"

Ochako nodded and gave his hand a small squeeze, urging him to begin.

Izuku took a deep breath and began. In his timeline, he was a quirkless boy whose best friend ended up turning into his bully, verbally abusing him and trying to tear down his dreams of becoming a hero.

In the final year of middle school he met All Might purely by accident when he was attacked by a sludge villain. The first meeting was a disaster, with All Might initially rejecting Izuku's dreams, and Izuku feeling responsible for letting the villain escape. However, everything changed when the same villain tried to attack Bakugo a few minutes later. While the heroes were standing by helplessly, Izuku rushed in to help, buying All Might enough time to rescue both of them.

All Might was so inspired by Izuku's actions that he admitted he was wrong about Izuku, and he asked him to be his successor, carrying on with his quirk and legacy. After ten months of training he was given One For All on the morning of the entrance exam, hiding it by claiming he was a late bloomer, his quirk so powerful that it wouldn't manifest until his body could handle it.

He met his Ochako the morning of the entrance exam, when he tripped on a loose stone and she saved him from falling. He returned the favor and saved her during the exam, and ever since then the two have been there to support each other.

Even without One For All, Ochako was still fierce and determined, her desire to be a rescue hero eventually growing into a desire to save everyone around her. Izuku left out the part that he had a crush on Ochako ever since the sports festival. She was his first real friend, but as they spent more time together he began to feel stronger emotions towards her. Thanks to his childhood, he didn't really understand what those emotions were, until it was too late.

Izuku's class was also attacked at their forest training camp, where Bakugo was kidnapped. When his classmates told him that they were planning a rescue operation, Izuku agreed to join them. Just like in Ochako's timeline, All For One made his grand entrance during the hero's attack on the League. However, thanks to Izuku's quick thinking, the students were able to rescue Bakugo and escape. Without having to worry about protecting Bakugo, All Might was free to focus on All For One, defeating him at the cost of his ability to use One For All.

The unrest that followed was more subtle for him. There were new villains who had ambitions to fill the void left by All Might's retirement, forcing his class to begin their career as heroes early. Meanwhile, in the background the remnants of the League merged with the MLA and formed the PLF, although for Izuku, it was under the leadership of Shigaraki, All For One's chosen successor.

Several months later, in March, the heroes learned that Shigaraki was at Jaku Hospital, undergoing a special surgery. They decided to strike, hoping to catch him while he was vulnerable, and remove the PLF leadership. That proved to be a fatal mistake.

Izuku recalled his last moments from that fight, Ochako giving his hand another comforting squeeze as he recalled the details.

"And well, you know the rest."

"Yeah."

Both students looked down at their joined hands, then back at each other. Despite the heavy atmosphere, Ochako began to smile.

"But this time, we're going to get it right."

Seeing her smile, Izuku couldn't help but smile as well. "Yeah! We will."

He was not her Izuku, but he would still support her when she faltered. She was not his Ochako, but she would still catch him when he fell. The two silently promised that they would have each other's backs. Together, they would find a new future, one where everyone was saved.

"So what do we do next?"

Izuku brightened. "I actually came up with a list."

Ochako laughed. "I should have expected that."

Izuku reluctantly pulled his hand away as he grabbed his bag. Digging through it he pulled out a notebook. From where she was sitting, Ochako could easily read the words 'plans for the future #1' that were scribbled on the front cover, and she couldn't help but giggle.

"More notebooks?"

Izuku flushed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Did Analyst keep a library of notebooks as well?"

As Ochako was explaining her personal history, the two realized how awkward it was to keep referring to the other versions of themselves as 'my Ochako' and 'my Izuku.' They came to an agreement, deciding to refer to the alternate versions of themselves by their hero names.

"Yeah, he did." She replied fondly.

"I guess it's a common trait." Izuku looked down at his notebook.

"Hey." Ochako called, and his eyes were pulled back to her. "I'm sorry. I was just teasing."

Izuku couldn't help but smile. She is just as kind and considerate as Uravity was, even though she had a steel running through her that was unique to her. "It's ok. I'm just not used to, well, you yet. If that makes sense?"

"No, I get it. This is weird!"

"You seem to be doing ok."

"I am just better at hiding it." Ochako blushed as she admitted the truth. "Anyways! What do you have so far?"

Izuku opened his notebook. "So the first thing is establishing an alibi for us, and getting our parents approval to visit each other. With the distance between Mustafu and Mie, we really only have so many excuses for why we are gone for so long."

Ochako nodded in agreement. "Yeah! I feel bad hiding this from mom and dad. And I can't let you come all the way out here every weekend!"

"So this is going to sound super nerdy." Izuku blushed as he heard Ochako giggle. "But did you used to visit hero forums? It turns out that Och- Uravity and I had one major hero forum that we both frequented. We actually discovered that we had a few conversations there before we met for real UA. I mean, it wasn't enough for us to contact each other directly, obviously! But we could act like we actually did start messaging each other?"

"And then one day we were both feeling down, so we decided to try talking on the phone?"

Izuku nodded.

Ochako hummed while she thought it over. "I think I can work with that! There is no way they are going to let me meet you unsupervised though."

Izuku blushed at that. "No, my mom wouldn't either. But it-it's not like our parents meeting is a bad thing."

Ochako blushed as she realized the implications as well. "N-no. Of course not! We'll be working together from here on out, after all! So it makes sense!"

"Y-yeah. So do you also frequent hero forums?"

"Of course! Before meeting All Might, I mostly stuck to talking about rescue heroes, but since I always wanted to be a hero myself, it made sense!"

"Hero-net?"

"Yep! I think everyone has an account there."

That caused both of them to laugh. "Ok, so we will have to check when we get home. If things here remained the same up until when we were sent back, we actually would have had an argument about six months ago, about the various classifications of heroes."

Ochako stared in disbelief. "Were you stalking Uravity?"

Izuku blushed fiercely, waving his hands in front of him. "N-no! She actually was the one who found the posts! And she rubbed them in my face when it turned out that I was the one who changed my opinion to match hers."

That does sound like something I would do. Ochako giggled to herself. "Fair enough. So if that argument happened here, that means we can say we've been talking for six months."

Izuku nodded. "Yeah! And at some point in the past month we decided to try calling each other?"

Ochako nodded vigorously. "That should be enough to convince my parents to meet up with you and your mom. Will you have any problems convincing your mom?"

Izuku's face fell. "Before UA I didn't really have any friends, besides Kacchan, and he wasn't exactly a good one. So if I have the chance to make another friend my mom would do anything to help."

Ochako was stunned. By the time she really got to know him, Analyst was friends with a number of other support students, including a third year. She had always assumed that he had just drifted apart from his friends in middle school, not that he didn't have any! Reaching out she gave his arm a gentle squeeze.

"I'm sorry."

Izuku shook his head and forced a smile on his face. "Don't be, there was no way for you to know. But it's ok now!"

"Ok. So once we get our parents to agree to it we can meet up. That does mean we will have to play dumb for an afternoon, though. It may be a few weeks before we can arrange the trip though, Mustafu is pretty far away."

Izuku put a checkmark down in his notebook. "Well, at least we can talk to each other on the phone in the evenings. The next big step is trying to write down everything you remember."

Ochako frowned. "I am sure my notes won't be as good as yours."

Izuku looked at her and gave her a reassuring smile. "It doesn't matter. What we need to establish is commonalities."

Izuku flipped the notebook to a blank page and drew three parallel lines in it. He circled the top of two of the lines. "So these two lines represent where we came from. And here, this point is different because well, in one timeline you were chosen and in another I was."

He went about halfway down the page and drew a line connecting the two lines. "But Kamino - the event happened in both timelines, at approximately the same time. So we can reasonably say that, barring us changing anything, it will happen again."

Izuku labeled the line 'Kamino' and then drew an arrow connecting the event to the third line.

"Also, we can compare what was similar and what was different in each version of events."

"That way we know if one approach was better?"

Izuku nodded. "Exactly! Even if your notes are less detailed, the more you can write down the better."

"Ok. I'll pick up a notebook of my own on the way home."

"Thanks."

Ochako lowered her voice. "And we have to contact All Might, don't we?"

"Yeah." Izuku flipped to a blank page and pulled out a pen. "Who knew, before you got it? We should compare notes."

"Let's see. At UA there was Nezu and Recovery Girl. There was Detective Tsukauchi, his old sidekick Sir Nighteye, but I didn't really like him the one time I met him, and Gran Torino." A pained expression crossed Ochako's face. "After the events at Kamino Ward, there was also Ryukyu, but I don't think she counts."

Izuku paused, and almost unconsciously extended his left hand, which Ochako took. The simple act was enough to reassure her as he wrote another list down in his notebook.

"So it looks like other than Ryukyu, the other five names line up. In my timeline, there was also David Shield, an American scientist who was his sidekick for a short time. I guess he never mentioned him to you?"

"No. At UA there was a third year named Melissa Shield? She may have been related, but I never heard of David Shield."

"Ok, of the list the two most likely people I can actually arrange to meet are Recovery Girl and Detective Tsukauchi."

Ochako looked at Izuku in disbelief. "Don't tell me you are just going to walk up to them?"

Izuku looked guilty as he responded. "Do you have a better idea?"

Ochako sat there, trying to come up with a better solution, but there was nothing. It's not like they could simply contact Might Tower and ask for a meeting.

"But it feels like you're the one taking all of the risk by contacting UA."

"Well, if you want to just skip school tomorrow and take a train out to Mustafu, we can do it together." Izuku offered.

Ochako sighed. "You're right. That sounds like a terrible idea. I could do it, but then we'd have to tell our parents."

Izuku looked down at his notebook. "They would be in danger. I don't want to take that risk if we can help it."

"Neither do I." Ochako agreed. "Fine, so you're doing this on your own. That doesn't mean I have to like it!"

"It's UA, I should be ok!" Izuku reassured her. "Unless we are in some strange mirror universe, at which point we're in serious trouble."

That got a giggle out of Ochako. "Fair enough! Ok, so you talk to someone, convince them you are actually what you claim to be and not crazy, and they help you get in touch with All Might. Then what?"

"Once we talk to All Might, we save the future!" Izuku looked at her with a goofy grin on his face.

Ochako couldn't help but laugh. "You make it sound so easy."

Izuku began blushing. "When I was with Uravity, I felt like I could do anything. I probably sounds strange to say, but I can't help but feel the same way sitting here with you."

Ochako let out a startled squeak and buried her face in her hands. It was an image Izuku was familiar with, but he noticed one massive difference between this time. The Ochako sitting in front of him had enough self control to not float off. He couldn't help but wonder if that meant she was more frequently flustered than Uravity was, or if it had to do with her additional training.

"You can't just say stuff like that!"

"I'm sorry."

Without removing her hands, she shook her head. "Don't be. I feel the same way."

It was Izuku's turn to blush. "R-Really?"

"Yes!"

Trying to change the subject, Izuku looked down at his checklist, and his expression darkened.

"And then there is one last topic to discuss… Who should get it?" Izuku asked, unable to look at Ochako anymore.

There was an awkward pause, before both spoke simultaneously. "You should have it."

Neither of them would admit it out loud, but the truth was that neither of them wanted to give up One For All. They both felt the weight of failure on their shoulders, and wanted a chance to redeem themselves. At the same time, it was that same weight which made them feel like the other deserved it more than they did.

"Ochako, you should have it. I couldn't control it, and I kept breaking my body to save people. I prioritized everyone else over my own safety. Because of that, I was one bad fight away from having to retire and pass it on after three months! If- If I was better able to control it, or if my body wasn't so messed up, then maybe the tragedy at Jaku wouldn't have happened."

"Izuku, listen to yourself. You're still doing the same thing! Prioritizing my happiness over your own! You fought as hard as you could, even knowing the consequences! I stayed away from the most important fight. I- I should have been there in Kamino. Maybe if I was there, All Might would have lived, and maybe Jaku wouldn't have happened."

"Ochako-"

"Izuku, listen to me!"

Ochako slammed her hand on the table, and immediately froze. For the first time since he asked the question, they were finally looking at each other. Izuku had a determined look on his face, and she knew she had a similar expression. As the absurdity of it sank in, she began laughing.

A moment later, Izuku also broke out in laughter.

"We're hopeless, aren't we?"

"Yeah…"

Ochako smiled as she looked at Izuku, and once again reached across the table, making a grabbing motion, and he complied by holding her hand again.

"How about this, we let All Might decide? After all, it is only right for him to choose a successor. After we explain what happened, we can let him decide what to do."

"Yeah, it's not fair for us to make the decision for him."

Ochako noticed Izuku trying to keep the sadness off of his face, but she had spent enough time studying Analyst that she could read him more than she would ever admit.

"You're worried about being quirkless, aren't you?"

Izuku simply nodded in response. Ochako had to admit, she did not like seeing him this way.

"You don't need a stupid quirk to pass the entrance exam! We know what to expect, right? We're going to be training anyways, we'll just add some extra practice, and you can show them all!"

"Really?" Izuku's face seemed to light up.

Ochako nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Remember, I've seen what you can do quirkless! I know you can do it!"

After they left the cafe, Izuku checked the time on his phone. He had another hour before his train to return home departed.

"Is there anything you want to do? I still have some time left."

Ochako's face lit up. "I know where we can go!"

Once again grabbing Izuku's hand, she began walking towards a nearby park. Feeling his hand in hers, she wished she had been brave enough to talk to Analyst. To let him know how she really felt, and to see if he felt the same way in return.

Given what happened to them, perhaps it was for the best that she didn't. Besides, the Izuku beside her now was more than willing to take her hand, and she wasn't going to let go this time.

When they reached the park she guided Izuku to the tallest hill and collapsed onto it, staring into the sky.

Izuku was more careful as he lay down next to her. For a few minutes, they just sat there in comfortable silence. Not two people with the weight of the world thrust upon them, but just a pair of teenage kids, enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Eventually, Ochako turned and for a moment she saw Analyst laying there, her heart fluttering. Closing her eyes, she shook her head to clear the image, before finally breaking the silence.

"Izuku."

Izuku turned his head to look at her. "Hm? What is it?"

"I'm glad you were sent back with me. I don't know what I would have done if I was all alone."

"Me either. I was worried it was all a crazy dream until you picked up your phone. And, I'm glad that it was you who came back with me."

"Imagine if one of us got sent back with Bakugo?"

"Or Todoroki."

The two laughed at the idea of having to be thrust into this situation with some of their more difficult classmates.

"Izuku, we'll do it this time, right?"

Izuku smiled and nodded. "Yeah! We'll stop the villains, for sure."

Izuku lifted one of his arms and made a fist, offering it to Ochako. Smiling in return, she raised her own fist and returned the lazy fistbump.

"They won't know what hit them!"

AN: Whelp, this is officially a multi-chapter story now.

My current plan is to release about one chapter a week. However I only have a few chapters written to act as a buffer, so there may be some hiccups along the way, but that's the current plan.