What Once Was Lost, Now Is Found Once More
DISCLAIMER: Kōhei Horikoshi created Boku no Hero Academia and the wonderful world and characters of that universe. He owns them, not me.
NOTE: I never got to finish Bonus Day for IzuOcha 2021 in time. But I decided to work on it and upload it for people's enjoyment. So... have fun reading~
IzuOcha Week 2021 – Bonus Day: Lost/Found
"I want to break up."
Izuku Midoriya couldn't believe what he heard. He took a step close to her, to try and reach for her hands, but she stepped away from him. This action had made his heart ache badly, beginning to fracture.
"What? But why?"
Ochako gave him an uninterested look.
"You've become a burden to me."
Those words shattered him. His eyes started welling up with tears.
"Why? What did I do wrong? I love you, Ochako! You were the greatest thing ever in my entire life!"
"You're quirkless! And people talk about that! The fact you've managed to make it into the Hero Course is a miracle in itself. That despite all the odds you won the Sports Festival, making it to first place." She stared him down. "But no one talks to me anymore because I would rather spend my time with you during and after school, and on the weekends."
"You… you want to leave me because I don't have a quirk…?" He choked on his tears. "Please… give me another chance! I'll do whatever it takes to prove my love to you, Ochako! Please!"
"Midoriya… stop calling me by my first name. From now on, we're just classmates. Not lovers. So get it through your head."
He collapsed to his knees.
She tilts her head, as if she was looking down at him.
"Oh, and your Hero name, Deku… rather silly to keep calling yourself useless."
Ochako turned around and started walking away. His wails pierced her in the heart, but she steeled herself and kept her expressions neutral as she put further distance between herself and the quirkless boy. She had a Christmas party to return to the classroom her classmates and those from Class B were using.
As for Izuku, he eventually got up and he fled the school, running all the way back to the dorms. He didn't want to see anybody from either class; he knew that they barely tolerated him being in the Hero Course lacking a quirk. But now without Ochako Uraraka in his life, without her shining light and kindness, and the horrid nickname she changed reverting back to meaning worthless, his world had become dark once more.
Ochako was spotted by Tsuyu as the brunette went to grab a cup of soda from the serving table.
"Where's Midoriya?"
"I dumped him," she simply stated, calmly.
Tsuyu looked at her.
"I see. Well, it'll be good for you in the end, ribbit. Maybe you can find someone who is better than him," the frog girl said.
Ochako nodded, before her roaming eyes caught a flash of blond hair and his red eyes.
"Maybe… I already have…"
She remembered her match with Katsuki Bakugo in the Sports Festival. Ever since, the boy had stopped calling her an extra. Sure, her nickname he gave her was Pink Cheeks, but still…
Katsuki blinked when Ochako walked up to him.
"Huh? Where's Deku?" he asked, a bit of hate in his words.
"I left him. He's become a burden to me," she said.
Katsuki smiled slowly.
"I see. About time you saw it."
"Yeah…"
Katsuki held a hand to her.
"Want to dance?"
The party was still going strong. It's only been thirty minutes since it began. Ochako smiles happily and she takes his hand, making sure to keep her pinky finger lifted. The rest of the night, everybody noticed Ochako and Katsuki getting much closer and no Izuku in sight. No one cared about Izuku. But they did whisper sweet things about Ochako being with Katsuki. But one person did care about Izuku Midoriya.
Eri snuck away from the party and she walked all the way back to the dorms in the cold, bundled in her Dragon Knight winter coat.
=0=0=0=
"Where is Midoriya?"
Half the day went by since the party and it was lunch that Eijiro Kirishima actually brought up his quirkless classmate to attention.
"Probably in his room sulking about losing his girlfriend," bragged Katsuki.
Ochako said nothing, except curl up more against the ash blond.
"I only ask because I haven't heard from Eri."
Now THAT got everybody's attention. Eri was missing?
"We should go check. She's likely with Midoriya," said Momo.
"About the only good thing he can do is take care of kids," said Mina, nonchalant.
The Class Rep went upstairs to go and check, while everyone else remained downstairs. Five minutes later Momo returns, looking frantic.
"Eri's missing! She's not with Midoriya and he's not here either!"
Now THAT had everyone mobilized into action. While they hardly cared about Midoriya, the fact that Eri was missing was cause for great concern in their minds. They looked everywhere, but she wasn't anywhere to be found. So they went to alert the teachers of Eri's disappearance and a wide search of the campus grounds was conducted. But she wasn't seen anywhere and none of the security cameras found her or Midoriya. The only thing teachers knew Midoriya once was in the dorms was that his suitcase and personal belongings were missing.
It would be an hour later that Aizawa went to the Midoriya residence along with a police detective. Aizawa was hoping Tsukauchi would have come along, but the man was busy and unavailable so the underground hero had to settle for some guy named Otami Saito. All the knocking on the door yielded no response. The school knew that Eri desired Midoriya to be her parental guardian, trusting the boy more than the adults. And when they decided to have child services enter the picture, they finally got entry into a home… that was completely abandoned.
No one knew that early at five in the morning, Inko had gotten contact with an old friend who helped speed up the adoption process to have Eri officially become a Midoriya. And while this happened, they packed up their personal belongings and suitcases of clothing, and they left the apartment behind.
Currently, while people were searching for a missing Izuku Midoriya and Eri, they with Inko were on a one-way flight to America, leaving Japan behind for good.
=0=0=0=
Ochako heard a knock on her door and she went to open it. Standing there was Aizawa.
"Have you found Eri and Midoriya?"
Aizawa stared at her.
"Do you have any idea where he went to? You were dating him if I recall," said the man.
"I broke up with him," she casually said.
Aizawa stared at her for a few moments, which nerved Ochako a bit.
"So you have no idea, Uraraka?"
"No…"
Aizawa hums softly. "I see…"
He dug out from his pocket a small envelope with her name written on it.
"His clothes and notebooks were gone, but he left behind his school supplies. But we found this on the desk."
Class 1-A knew that Izuku had minimal personal belongings, and his room was as minimalist like hers was. Frugal.
Ochako took it as Aizawa left her doorway. She closed the door and she went to sit down on her bed. She opened the envelope and found a photo. It was a familiar one. She found a message scrawled on the back of it.
My heart is broken. My soul no longer is lit. I am now a broken wooden puppet. Just like you and everyone else believed of me. I loved you, but now I know I'm not allowed to be happy.
Good-bye, Uraraka.
May we never meet again.
Ochako stared at the message, and then turned the picture around to once again stare at her and Izuku happy in the photo. She wiped away stubborn tears that fell, walking to her desk and tossing it into the bottom drawer and burying it under old graded homework assignments, and then shutting it. She had Katsuki now. A guy with a strong quirk. She didn't need Izuku anymore. He was a liability and a burden to her.
You're lying to yourself. You made a big mistake.
She shakes her head, ignoring that guilty voice echoing in her thoughts. Katsuki was an amazing strong guy, not afraid to speak his thoughts. Not afraid to prove his worth. He was amazing.
Three days later, she's in her room sobbing uncontrollably when she found a picture circulating online of her now ex-boyfriend Katsuki Bakugo sharing a romantic kiss with that weird camouflage dream-like quirk user from Shiketsu, and both smiling for the selfie the girl snapped.
End Part One.