Izumi breathed in the fresh, slightly cold air of Japan's evening. The sun had nearly fully set by the time she was out of the USJ, and the sky was colored mostly violet.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" The EMT questioned, barely sparing the girl a glance as she checked over the members of the Help Us Company, who had been in the USJ as part of the rescue activities.
"I..." Izumi started, looking down at her arm. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion when she realized it didn't hurt anymore. "Uh, no. I'm fine."
The EMT nodded, still not looking towards her. "M'kay." It seemed the woman was solely focused on her duty. It was admirable.
Izumi walked in a half-dazed state towards the school bus. Dad was still working with the police, as was Hizashi. She didn't have anyone to pick her up, unlike her classmates. She'd probably have to wait until after the police were done talking to her fathers before she could go home, which meant... hours.
"Midoriya-san!" Someone called. Izumi blinked. "Midoriya-san!" The voice came again. Izumi twirled her head around. Was someone trying to talk to her? She finally caught sight of Ochaco waving towards her, her normally bubbly personality subdued, the second time Izumi had ever seen the girl doing anything other than smiling.
"Oh, Uraraka-san! I'm glad to see you're okay!" Izumi waved back. "I'm surprised you haven't gone home yet."
Ochaco walked over to Izumi, stopping just a few feet away from her. "Mhm, I'm glad you are, too. Kirishima-san said he saw you in the plaza, but then nobody saw you for a little bit. We were all so worried..." Izumi felt a little twinge of guilt for making them worry, but also a bit of warmth in knowing that maybe, just maybe... some people cared.
"Gomen ne," Izumi apologized, bowing, her hair making a small curtain around her face as she did.
Ochaco waved her off. "Nothing to apologize about! I was, uh, wondering..." The girl's voice became a bit nervous, and as Izumi raised her head, she realized the girl was twiddling her fingers. "... Uh... do you maybe... want to... walkhomewithme?"
Izumi tilted her head in confusion. "Hm?" She hadn't quite caught the other girl's question.
"Ah..." Ochaco seemed to shrink into herself. "I was wondering if you wanted to walk home with me... but you've probably got your parents coming to pick you up, and-" The girl's voice seemed to be getting more awkward as her self-doubt started to pick it up, so Izumi decided to just cut it off.
"Sure!" She smiled at the other girl, who froze.
"Eh?"
"Sure," Izumi said again. "I'd love to walk home with you. My parents are... busy, at the moment. It would probably be several hours before they could drive me home. Besides, safety in numbers, right?"
Ochaco smiled brilliantly, her face lighting up. "Thank you! And, yeah..." She giggled, scratching at her scalp. "My parents actually live in the Mie Prefecture, so... If it had been Aichi, maybe, but..."
Izumi blinked in understanding. "You live alone?" Ochaco nodded. "Geez... You're so mature, Ochaco-san. Or maybe I should call you Ochaco-senpai," Izumi teased, causing the other girl to flush and giggle as her shyness bled out of her. "Do you take the train?" Ochaco nodded. "Alright, so do I, so that works! I know the way to the station closest to here, if you don't." Izumi had frequented the trains for a few weeks, the cars a decently safe place to sleep, but the cost of getting on the cars constantly increased and soon enough it ate into too much money to be viable. Still, Izumi remembered much of the layout.
"Sounds like a plan!" The brunette agreed, and acquiesced to let the shorter girl lead the way. Izumi was glad for the chit-chat, which let her distract herself from the scene that she had witnessed as Tomura Shigaraki and the other villain were leaving. She currently had two theories, and she wasn't sure which one she wanted to be true.
True to her words, Izumi guided them quickly to the station, and they boarded in no time. "So, are you okay?" Izumi finally asked.
"Eh?" Ochaco tilted her head. "Yep, totally unharmed!"
Izumi wilted in concern. "No, I meant like..." she waved her hands. "Emotionally."
"Oh!" The brown-haired girl nodded in understanding. "Yep! A little shaken, but, really, it wasn't too crazy, y'know? The villains weren't trying to kill us, just capture us. Even if they were against us, I don't think we were in major danger. They're just people too, right?"
Izumi looked at the other girl's smiling, unabashed demeanor. 'I wish I could be naïve like that... but at the same time, maybe she isn't wrong. I don't know. I'm just glad she's fine.' Mental trauma could definitely suck.
"How about you?" The question was thrown back easily.
Izumi blinked. She took a second to consider it. "I'm... fine, I think. A bit puzzled, I guess, but overall alright."
Ochaco nodded emphatically. "Yeah, I understand. It's really weird that they decided to attack the USJ like that, but I guess I can't be expected to understand the thoughts of villains," she giggled. Izumi shot her a smile. The train announced that Ochaco's stop was coming up, and the girl bounced up.
"Ah, Midoriya-san..." The girl was shy again. "Maybe, uh... Maybe you could spend the night, or something? We could watch movies, or... or something!" She offered. Izumi thought about it. 'Dad and Hizashi are probably going to be busy until the A.M, at least... I... I don't know...' The green-eyed girl made the mistake of looking into the other girl's big, brown doe eyes that seemed to be pleading with her.
"Sure!" She blurted out before she could even think twice. And seeing her classmate happy, Izumi knew that she had made the right choice. She also finally connected that Ochaco didn't want to be alone. Her parents lived in the Mie Prefecture, and she was new in town and didn't have any roommates... Of course she wanted someone to talk with.
Ochaco smiled and clapped with excitement. "Alright! Although, I don't have much in the way of food. We could order pizza or something..." Suddenly, the girl had the excitement drain out of her and went pale as a sheet.
"Ochaco-san?" Izumi questioned with concern coloring her voice.
"My apartment is so messy..." Ochaco bemoaned. "Please let me clean it before you step inside."
Izumi chuckled. "I'm not going to judge you based on how dirty your apartment is, Ochaco-san. If it makes you feel better, though, I can walk you there, and then go and pick up some food to bring back?"
"Please," Ochaco begged. "You'd probably get like, second-hand diabetes or something." Izumi giggled slightly.
"Now I want to see it," she joked, making the other girl laugh, too.
"Be quiet and give me all your money."
Izumi groaned inwardly. She probably should've gotten more exact directions from Ochaco, but the gravity-defying girl didn't know her way around too well, either. "You really don't want to do this, bud. Not tonight. Well, not any night, but definitely not tonight. I've had a rough day, and-"
"I said be quiet. I have a knife, and it is pointed right at you." Indeed, there was something that definitely felt like a blade poking into her back.
"That's not even going to hit anything major," Izumi complained. "Like, if you're going to threaten someone, at least do it correctly."
"I don't think you quite understand your situa-" Izumi elbowed the man in the face. She registered the knife impaling her a moment later, yelping in pain as it did. More than likely, it was done on instinct. The blade was left in her as the man stumbled backwards. "You bitch!"
"Says the one who tried to mug a teenage girl," said teenage girl pointed out. "Told you, if you're going to threaten someone..." She pulled the knife out of her back and held it facing towards the man, curled in her palm. "Do it correctly." The man stumbled away quickly, scared out of his mind. Izumi looked down at the knife. A cheapo one, with blood stained on the blade. She tossed it away. Her shirt was ruined, of course. And... 'Another scar to add to the collection, I suppose...' Izumi thought to herself, pulling a finger down to her wound.
She jerked the finger back in surprise. Her hand was dry. There was no blood. "What the fuck...?" Izumi whispered. Finally, realization set in. Just what she had taken earlier that day. "Super Regeneration..." She whispered. It made sense. It was why that Nomu didn't regenerate that arm that Yagi All Might blew off. That must've been why her arm wasn't hurting, either. Still, she tugged at her shirt. Maybe Ochaco had a sewing kit?
Something deep within her mind chuckled. Shouldn't she be more worried about just having been stabbed? Perhaps.
She made it to the pizzeria and back to Ochaco's house without any more incidents. The girl greeted her, smiling as usual. "There you are! I was worried you got lost!" The apartment seemed mostly clean now, although Izumi noted the multiple trash bags filled with minor amusement. Ochaco was dressed more casually now, with a tank top and sweats, and Izumi felt sort of overdressed.
"Ah, just a little bit! Pizza's still hot, though. Also, do you have a sewing kit by any chance?" Ochaco shook her head negatively. "Damn. I got my uniform caught on a low branch and it sliced through."
"Oh, geez, are you okay?" Ochaco spun her around - Izumi noticed that, despite all five of the girl's fingers connecting to her top, it didn't become weightless. Ochaco had better control over her Quirk than she did. Her eyes widened at the thought as something else popped into her mind. "Geez, that's a pretty big tear for just a tree branch!" The other girl exclaimed.
Izumi chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah... I'm fine, though."
"You've got a small scar here, too! It's pretty faint, though. I guess it's a couple years old."
"Ah, yeah... from a couple years ago," Izumi agreed faintly. She didn't have any scars there that she knew of, which probably meant it came from the knife.
Ochaco hummed in understanding. "Yeah, you've got a ton of scars, huh?" She blushed and covered her mouth in embarrassment. "Sorry! That was probably insensitive-"
Izumi waved her off. "Don't worry about it. Yeah, I have a lot. I used to train really hard - being a hero's always been my dream, you know?"
The hero student nodded emphatically. "Yup, yup! I always admired how heroes were able to make other people smile just by being there, you know? Although, and please don't laugh," she added, getting uncharacteristically serious, "a decent amount of my motivation for becoming a hero nowadays is because, well... my family isn't exactly rich, you know? And so, just, it's something I already wanted to do, and..." She laughed awkwardly.
Izumi laughed and nodded, trying to put the other girl at ease. "Yup, yup, I understand! As long as your main goal is still trying to help people, being rewarded for your work is reasonable." She flashed the other girl a smile, making her brighten.
"Mhm!"
It just shouldn't be your first thought.
Izumi woke up from sleeping on the coach, one of Ochaco's fluffy blankets on top of her, to her phone buzzing rapidly.
"Yello?" She answered blearily, trying to blink sleep out of her eyes.
"Izumi!" The voice on the other end whisper-yelled. "Jesus Christ, I've been trying to get ahold of you for nearly an hour now. Are you safe?"
The teen sat up, suddenly very much awake. "Dad! Oh, fuck! I totally forgot to text you. I walked Ochaco-san home from her place after the whole... thing... and ended up crashing here." She heard a sigh of relief on the other end.
"She's okay, 'Zashi," she heard faintly from the other end. Then, louder, "Alright. I'm glad you're alright, although I wished you had texted me. Honestly, if I hadn't seen you as you were leaving I probably would've gone on a rampage trying to find you. Can you send me a location, at least?"
"Yep, yep. Sorry again."
"It's ok, Problem Child." Her dad sounded exhausted. And considering he was always tired, that was... impressive. Izumi felt bad for worrying him. "Alright, get some more sleep. Sorry for waking you."
"No problem, it was my fault anyway. L-love you," She squeaked out, instantly hanging up after, her face feeling like it was on fire. She quickly got up and went to the bathroom, and was washing her hands when she finally looked in the mirror. She clapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming.
Her eyes... were scarlet. 'Your birthright.' A hint of a whisper floated through her mind. "No," she muttered. She blinked a few times, but the scarlet did not disappear. 'Goddess.' The phantom of a voice came again. "No," she said, louder this time. The scarlet was still present. 'Zero... zero...' "No!" She replied, splashing water into her eyes. Finally, as she blinked the water out, her eyes were lime again. "That's not me... I did it to protect myself... To protect the heroes..."
'Yes...' A thought hissed. 'Protect... Heroes...' It ripped into her mind. 'Protect... Myself...' Izumi shook her head rapidly, as if it would get rid of the thoughts. She had stolen that Quirk yesterday. It didn't matter if it was from a villainous monster. It wasn't hers. She had made the conscious decision. It hadn't been automatic, like it was before. She had consciously wanted to do it before it activated. "Never again..." She started crying, sinking to the floor. "I'll never do it again."
'Of course not...' The voice in her head sounded suspiciously like her Papa's. 'Although, you know, Izu-chan... There's only three steps to becoming a tyrant. First, draw a line and say you won't cross it. Second...'
"Cross it..." Izumi replied to the empty room, to her own conscience.
'Good girl. Third step... Repeat. You've already completed the first step. Make Papa proud.'
"... Make Papa proud."