Ochako was exhausted or at least felt like it. She hadn't done a night patrol in a long time and her body just wasn't used to the experience. So despite getting plenty of sleep, she still felt tired. She was hunched over her kitchen table, a cup of coffee in one hand and the other holding her chopsticks. She hadn't had the energy to make something so she had just reheated food from yesterday.
She needed to wake herself up, get pumped for the day ahead! Considering she didn't have work today though, she wasn't exactly sure what she should do. As she mechanically ate her breakfast, her thoughts drifted back to her previous night. Her fight in the alley had been a bit sloppy. She had almost made a fatal mistake and could have gotten stabbed twice in the back. She had fallen into the thug's trap, and only her old instincts saved her at the last moment.
That settled it then, she was going to head over to the training facilities and do some training. If she was going to do this more in the future and help fight Zeus, she was going to need to up her game. The decision seemed to energize her some and she ate with some renewed vigor.
An hour later, she was standing in an open dirt field set aside for her use. She could let loose as much as she liked, and it would all be fixed by the groundskeeper whose quirk could manipulate dirt over a designated area.
She stood in the middle of the empty field, eyes closed, and keeping herself calm and collected. She needed to be focused, she had a great store of power within herself but ever since her awakening she had never had the time to train that power in a more precise and focused manner.
Objects she touched, had their gravity erased and as such she could manipulate her surroundings in very unique ways. This had changed however when she had nearly died trying to save her parents, a massive beam had collapsed from the ceiling and had impaled her through her right breast. She had been lucky though and it hadn't fallen far enough to punch straight through her, instead just impaling her right breast entirely, breaking multiple ribs on that side, and a small puncture in her lung. As she lay trapped, bleeding out, and the fire burning her right side just below her head, she had felt something roil inside of her, her desire to live and save her parents giving birth to a new power inside her. With the last of her strength, she had placed one hand on the beam and had just tried to remove it from her body. She didn't really remember much honestly, but from what she had been told she had actually launched the beam with enough power to fly out through the weakened ceiling, and fall to the ground below along with a massive shower of additional debris. This had been what had saved her life, as a hero had homed in on the location of the abnormal explosion and rescued her before she could die.
She breathed out, and let that memory go, forcing herself to focus on what her quirk could do. The awakening had let her touch an object and change the force of gravity affecting that object, but only on inorganic matter. For whatever reason, she could still only erase gravity on organic materials. Additionally, her quirk could spread from the initially touched object to other objects nearby. Anything and everything from rocks to pure energy, she could manipulate or affect. She also discovered that her body was actually highly resistant to G-forces if not flat-out impervious, flying at extreme speeds, and dramatic de-acceleration that would rupture a normal person's organs had little to no effect on her. Still made her stomach turn over and feel a bit sick if her de-acceleration was too dramatic though. She also had complete and perfect control over her own field of gravity, essentially allowing her to fly and move without the need of having to touch the ground. Air resistance was after all, essentially meaningless to her now that she could just repulse the air in front of her. She could create a sort of gravity armor around her body, which also allowed her to hit things really hard and really fast, without the fear of hurting herself. This newfound capacity for combat prompted her to seek out heroes with fighting styles as close to hers as possible or skills that would be beneficial, such as Mirko for her acrobatic capabilities, Hawks for his wealth of knowledge in air combat, and even Gran Torino before his death.
After going over what her quirk could now do, she secondly decided to go over what she was currently capable of with that power. She had first mastered the ability to fly with that power, she could achieve dramatic acceleration from a standstill, use her gravity to give her attacks incredible force and speed, and with a simple touch could twist the terrain to her ultimate advantage. She could make the ground explode by applying enough upward gravity in a burst and then convert the debris into a deadly field of projectiles or turn large portions of concrete into a floating shield. During the war, she would use this ability to lob giant pieces of rubble at the enemy at far distances or fire shards of concrete-like bullets.
All of it was mostly brute force though, simple directions of power. She had little finesse but all the brute strength of a rampaging rhino. In comparison to most of her friends, she had a long way to go to mastering her quirk in its new form. But that had been what was needed at the time. The war had given birth to monsters, and they had discovered that the only way to kill a monster was to become one. Monsters were without reason or complexity, they pushed with all their force and with no finesse. The war had ended though, and now their foes had evolved. The monsters had died, been hunted to extinction. Now they had been replaced with intelligence, hunters born out of the shadows of monsters. So now, she too must evolve to match them.
It had been a long time since the height of the war, and her combat strength had definitely gone down since then. She no longer had access to the QUEESS, so she needed to learn to use her powers without its help. She repeated a few breathing exercises and slowly moved through the combat forms she had been taught ages ago by Gunhead, Mirko, Hawks, and Gran Torino. After a few rounds of this, she took a step back and focused her strength on her quirk. With the strength and speed granted by her gravity armor, she went through them again, flowing into different attacks and movements at varying speeds, heights, and orientations. Fighting someone sideways in mid-air had turned out to be a very efficient means of throwing one's defenses off.
After an hour of close combat practice with her quirk, she switched to using her quirk on the terrain. She re-oriented herself, and after a couple of minutes of calming breaths, as she caught her breath, she reached down and touched the ground. She felt in that strange way, the gravity connect to her nervous system. She could feel the objects she was affecting, but not receive any sort of sensory info from it. When asked what it felt like, she found it impossible to describe. Before her awakening she never had this sort of connection, objects just floated about, but after she had discovered this and it had initially weirded her out. It was like growing a third limb, but not a human one. She had eventually come to understand it in the same way a baby came to understand how to use its limbs, it just sort of happened.
Now whenever she was asked, she would reply with "How do you describe color to someone who can't see?" It seemed an apt enough analogy.
She felt the gravity around her, and she knew she could manipulate it. It lacked focus though, it was rough and unpolished. Precision was beyond her, so she concentrated and first tried to manipulate the gravity of her surroundings and her own gravity in synchronicity. Normally she had to make conscious directions of gravitational force, once she applied a set amount of force she could maintain it without too much trouble but to alter that set force she had to end the current application and apply a new one. This was slow, and she knew that if she didn't manage to make it instinctual it could one day cost her, her life.
So try she did, and she didn't manage it at all. In fact, she got a headache trying. It was like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time but three times harder. Despite that, however, it felt like a decent place to start her training. Being able to apply and alter multiple differing forces of gravity at once to the same object and her own gravity at the same time would not only increase her performance in all areas, but the mental benefits of being capable of such a feat could yield a lot of benefits outside of hero work as well she was sure.
She kept at it with minimal results for about three hours until she decided to take a break. This was a mistake however because the moment she stopped using her quirk she felt the headache she had partitioned in her mind rush to the surface. The spike of pain was so abrupt she actually fell down. It had just become a habit during the war to separate her mind into pieces and put all the dull aches and pains into a far corner of her mind until the fighting was over. She got up slowly and gritting her teeth, was forced to head back to the indoor training facility, clutching her head and stumbling all the while. She had forgotten what it was like to practice without the QUEESS, and on-hand medication to deal with her intense headaches following the hour-long battles she had been a part of. The medic on duty looked up surprised at seeing someone coming in so early.
"Could I get some morphine... I overused my quirk and it feels like my head is going to split in half..." mumbled Ochako, clutching her head, and groaning as she collapsed on the nearest cot. Normal painkillers didn't affect her at all anymore, a side-effect of prolonged use of QUEESS she had discovered. Regular painkillers were just broken down in her bloodstream and rendered inert. Granted her pain tolerance was probably higher than any other Hero alive and most common diseases and poisons were also rendered inert, but when she did feel it she didn't have many options.
The medic meanwhile, blinked a few times in shock that a hero had stumbled into his office, asked for morphine, and then passed out on the nearest cot. After a second or two, he recognized the hero as Uravity, and he got up and dug in his medicine cabinet and pulled out an injector. He inserted a tiny morphine vial, and attached it to the hero's arm, and pressed the button. There was a hiss, and a few seconds later the morphine in the vial drained into the hero's bloodstream. It wasn't a lot, just enough to get her through her quirk over-use. A little bit later, the hero was sleeping soundly and no longer looked to be in pain. He shook his head at the ridiculous extremes some hero's took training and mumbling to himself about 'training fanatics' he turned back to his paperwork. He was glad he had been informed ahead of time to have some morphine on hand in case Uravity ever came in to use the fields.
Ochako awoke, an hour later with a start. She looked about the room, a bit out of it, and put her head in her hands.
"Ah, you're awake. Good." said a voice suddenly from the doorway.
Ochako looked up and didn't see anyone. She frowned, was she starting to hear voices? Had she finally cracked? Then, to her surprise, Nezu hopped from the ground and onto the table beside the bed. It had been so unexpected that she jumped.
"What are you doing here?" She replied utterly confused.
"I was looking for you, and I seem to have found you at a most inopportune time," replied Nezu, standing on the table.
"Oh, well I kinda overdid it on a new technique I was working on earlier. Really hurts my head trying it but the payoff would be worth it." She said looking down sheepishly.
"Well do make sure to take care of yourself, we can't afford to have one of our best heroes out of the fight because they trained themselves to death." Said Nezu with that slightly sinister laugh of his.
Ochako felt goosebumps go down her spine in spite of herself.
"I'll be sure to be more careful in my training from now on, but what is it you wanted to see me about?" This was rather curious, Nezu usually had people meet him not the other way around.
At this, Nezu's smile faded and a more serious expression took its place.
"I'll be frank with you, I do not want you on the mission to subdue Zeus when it comes around."
Ochako's mouth dropped open slightly and merely blinked at Nezu. Then anger took its place, she knew what this was about
"Bu- But why? I'm not unstable or unreliable anymore! I'm strong! I can help fight!" The anger was starting to build.
"I understand that, and I trust you implicitly. However, we cannot send you because we cannot afford to have you fighting."
Ochako felt the anger recede somewhat, it was still there simmering quietly but now suspicion took its place.
"Why? What's all this about?"
Nezu didn't reply for a few seconds, merely stood there looking at her, as if appraising her. Finally, he sighed.
"Because I believe there is a spy within the agency, and that is also the reason why I came to you instead of meeting at my office. Hawks is observing the area outside the room for us and ensuring we cannot be overheard."
The idea that a spy had infiltrated the agency shocked Ochako to her core, had Zeus gained that much power already? Could he have turned someone on the inside against them?
"We need you here, in case the plan to subdue Zeus is leaked and he launches his own secret counter-attack. We cannot afford to have the agency or the school attacked while we move against him. We have plenty of people already in line to help with the attack, but we will also be leaving a contingent here in case things go wrong. Either here at the base, or there at the frontlines. If the attack starts to falter, and there are no signs of action here then we will send out a squad with you at the head to reinforce the vanguard should the need arise."
Ochako leaned back into the headboard. It was a smart plan, with most of the top hero's out fighting Zeus a counter-attack would be devastating. Keeping her in reserve would ensure they could deal with almost anything they could throw at them.
She sighed and nodded, "I understand, I'll be sure to keep this between us as well."
Nezu also nodded and responded, "I understand that you may be upset, taking down Zeus holds great value to you and your class. But as I have said to all before, you must not blame yourselves for what happened. That was simply the nature of war and you have all more than avenged those poor souls since."
Ochako didn't respond, simply got up from the bed and started towards the door. When she got to the door she paused. A darkness seemed to settle over her as a cloud covered the sun and darkened the room. Nezu couldn't see her face clearly as the lights were off (the medic liked working in natural light) but he could feel her anger simmering just below the surface desiring release.
"Zeus is the last of the league's lieutenants." She said quietly. "While he still walks free, the war ISN'T over, and all those people will still lie unavenged. He'll pay, one way or another, he'll pay." And with those final words, left the room.
Nezu watched her go with a depressed air about him. He wanted his students to put the past behind them and focus on the future. They wouldn't of course and he knew it perfectly well, but it always saddened him to see his once lively and hope-filled students become as she had. Uraraka represented everything he had wanted his students to avoid becoming when that war had started. At least she had managed to recover, the same couldn't be said, however, for those five others she had worked alongside during the war. Two of them had died in the final battle versus Shigaraki, while another two had committed suicide after the end of the war. All that remained of that squad was Uraraka and Yo Shindo now. Uraraka at least had recovered for the most part and was closer to how she had been before she had joined Project Angel. Yo Shindo however was at a private and unique mental institution in the countryside that specialized in heroes.
He crossed over to the window sill by the desk and looked out into the clear warm day and prayed to whatever god might exist that the Zeus problem would be solved quickly and easily. Then again, even if it looked like it wouldn't be, he had contingencies in place. He hoped he wouldn't have to use them, but if it meant eradicating the last of the League he'd do just about anything.
Planning... it was his greatest talent, but it was about the only thing he was useful for anymore it seemed like.
Some hours later, Ochako found herself still in the training fields. She had continued with her earlier training but in a much more calm and controlled manner.
When the time came to wrap up her training and go get some food and water, the moment she powered down her quirk the exhaustion hit her all at once and she even got a bad case of vertigo. With the gravity being compressed and manipulated to such an extreme degree around her so often, her body had a tough time processing all of it. It was enough that after multiple hours of continuous practice the sudden return to normalcy hit her like a brick to the head. At least she had relaxed on what she had been doing previously, or she might have blacked out from it.
She stumbled forward and collapsed on the ground and had to close her eyes and clench her teeth to prevent herself from vomiting on the field. Eventually, after what felt like hours but was in fact just a minute or two, she slowly got up and walked back to the medic's office to get some anti-nausea pills.
When she entered the room and knocked on the door as she walked into the doorway, the medic turned around, looked at her, and immediately pointed to a table next to the door.
"The pills are there, I looked up your file after you left and figured I better have some set aside for you. You heroes are all the same, you push yourself too far once and you'll always end up doing it again..." Then the medic turned around and started muttering under his breath about training fanatics.
Ochako looked over to the table and picked the pills out of the plastic baggy and downed them on the spot. She turned to leave and called out her thanks to the medic before leaving the training facility at large.
She made her way back to her apartment, and after fumbling with her keys for a few seconds she made her way inside and collapsed on the sofa immediately. She needed to lay down and let the pills take full effect. She still felt terrible and knew she would for a while yet, so she just groaned and closed her eyes.
She awoke hours later, blessedly cured of her nausea and headache, and after eating some food she was feeling a lot better than she had been earlier. She was sitting at her dining room table and was wondering what to do for the rest of the evening when she glimpsed a reflective rectangle on the table. She reached over and recognized it as the business card Mr. Sasakura had given her when she had saved him. She had promised to go visit his establishment, and as she thought about it more the more she thought
Why not?
She toyed with the thought a little bit more before shrugging and getting up. If she was going to go visit a private bar, she had best look the part.
She rummaged through her assortment of clothes before deciding on something formally casual. She had never felt comfortable in clothes exceedingly formal or expensive and preferred a bit of a mix. She looked over herself one last time, a tad nervous about the prospect of going to a private bar. Eventually, though she stood up straight and putting on a determined face, she smiled in the mirror.
Everything is going to be fine, you're not going to look terrible and you are going to enjoy yourself!
So she turned around and headed out her door into the rapidly fading twilight.
It took her a bit of time to trek over to the part of town that the establishment was located, but eventually, she found herself walking down the street looking for any hint of the bar. She scanned both sides of the street as she walked, and avoided groups of other people walking about without paying much attention to the crowds.
She checked the card again and frowned. The address indicated that it should be nearby, but she couldn't see anything to indicate a bar even existed. She eventually came to the rough area where it should be and performed a careful sweep of the area. She was just starting to get a bit aggravated when she saw it. Her irritation shifted to relief, and then into a creeping sensation going down her spine.
"This shouldn't be possible..." she thought to herself.
The bar wasn't in some recessed alcove or some very small and undecorated front. Instead, in fading letters, the words The Invisible Glass were positioned over a dark oaken door positioned between two other shops. It was quite obvious; actually, the letters may have been fading with age and wear, but there is no way she would have missed something so absurdly obvious. Especially considering that it was positioned between a cafe and bakery that she had been into on more than one occasion.
A tad creeped out and starting to question her own memory she walked forward through the door and into a small downward sloping corridor. The moment she went all the way through the doorway and into the corridor, all sounds from behind her suddenly became muffled. As if a very thick blanket had been thrown over the whole street. Far more muffled than a mere wooden door should allow.
She spun around and looked back at the door. The very normal door, with nothing odd about it. She frowned, something very wrong was happening, but she felt no desire to go back, instead, she wanted to head into the bar proper. So she did exactly that and slowly made her way to another large oaken door at the end of the corridor.
She walked up to the door, realized it was a push-open, and after pushing it open and letting it swing shut behind her. she was stunned at what she saw inside. It was as if she had just walked into a cross between an antique store and a bar. There were positively ancient pieces of decorations on the wall, from all over the world as well. She saw some pottery on shelves that looked to be roman in nature, small statues from all over the world, and a smattering of other relics. The one thing out of place was the ornate katana overhanging the bar right in the middle of the hundreds of bottles lining the shelves behind the bar. Out of place, because it was definitely newer in nature than the rest of the relics adorning the bar, but it still fit with the aesthetic well enough.
The furniture wasn't so ancient of course but it was made to bear the styles of both antique Western and Eastern style chairs and tables that were arranged in such a perfect manner to blend seamlessly from one into the other. She just stood there dumbstruck. The collective wealth of the bar was so immense that she was sure, if everything in the bar was sold at auction, the owner could probably buy the entire net worth of the street outside and still have money enough money to retire for an entire lifetime.
She didn't even realize she had taken a few steps into the bar or that her mouth was hanging open until she heard a distinctive thunk, as a thick glass was placed on the bar that was now directly to her right. She jumped and flushed with slight embarrassment as she saw old Sasakura standing behind the bar and smiling a knowing smile at her over his antique spectacles.
"Enjoying the lifetimes of work from my family?" He asked in a slightly amused tone of voice.
"Yeah, it's just absolutely incredible. It's like being in a one-room museum!" She replied in obvious awe.
Sasakura merely laughed and gestured for her to sit. "Please, sit down and allow me to get you something! The first drink I insist is to be on the house!" He said in good cheer.
As she sat down, she got her first good look at him in adequate lighting. He was an aging man, probably somewhere between 55-65. Which was roughly the same age as Nezu if she recalled correctly. Nezu however, being part animal definitely aged more gracefully than any human did. Mr. Sasakura had pepper gray hair that was slicked back and rather plain antique glasses that appeared to be for reading more than anything else. While his age was apparent, his build was anything but normal for a civilian his age. Apart from his face which had started to wrinkle, the rest of him was well kept. He was lean but adequately well-muscled, his hands bore extensive callouses and she could even see a couple of scars. His bearing and posture gave off a sense of confidence and pride, but the lines of his face told of a man who loved to smile and laugh.
"I was wondering if I would see you soon or not. I didn't know how interested you would be in this kind of establishment." Sasakura said while he turned around and looked over his many bottles with one hand on his chin. Then he reached up and pulled a few bottles down and set them on the table.
"I'm not normally one for bars, but I figured I should at least stop by." Then a thought came to her and she asked Sasakura a question. "How come I never noticed this place before? I can't remember this place at all, despite being in both of the adjacent shops on more than one occasion."
Sasakura chuckled softly as he mixed her a drink. "That would be my quirk you see, via my quirk I have ensured that only those who have the business card I gave you could find this place. let alone notice it while walking along the street. When you run a private bar, it saves a lot of money to not have to hire a bouncer or invest in some sort of device that does something similar."
Now things started to make sense, but then she frowned.
"I'm sorry, but how is that even legal? Outside of heroes and a select few other professions, people aren't allowed to use their quirks outside of the privacy of their homes." It upset her to have to ask, but if this were an illegal operation, then this would create some serious problems as she was a hero.
Sasakura didn't even look up from his work on making her drink, instead, he didn't respond until he was done with the drink a minute or two later. He slid the now complete drink over to her. The drink he passed to her was fascinating looking, it had a dark reddish almost brown layer on top and as she looked down the dark red/brown color gave way to an immediate color change of something that looked like lemonade near the bottom with a bit of both mixing in the middle. The top of the glass was also garnished with a lemon wedge.
She picked it up and took a sip was surprised, the first taste that hit her was a bittersweet thick liquor with hints of various herbs, fruits, and spices, but then the bottom of the drink hit her and the taste melded from bittersweet to something she would have trouble describing but she had never had a drink like it and enjoyed it immensely.
She put the drink down and looked up to Sasakura who was merely watching her and smiling.
"That was incredible! I've never had anything like it before, normally I just drink things like light beers and such when I do drink, but this was amazing!" She said in wonder and delight.
Sasakura merely laughed and started to put the bottles up. "I thought you might enjoy it, the name also pairs well with your hero aesthetic and quirk. It's called Vertigo, and it is an Italian drink that dates back to a book written in 2015 by a bartender who was fascinated with both the history of cocktails on the western coast of the United States and with his forefather's history of drinks in Italy. I always found the great juxtaposition of the appearance of the drink very fascinating to observe as it always seemed to me to reflect us, humans, in many ways."
Ochako felt a little uncomfortable at that, it hit a tad too close to home for comfort and instead sidestepped thinking about it by repeating her previous question. "While the drink Is good and I thank you for it, I'm afraid I must insist on an answer to my earlier question. I may not be on duty, but I still take my responsibilities as a hero seriously."
Sasakura merely sighed and walked over to a door at the end of the bar and opened it, she couldn't see into the door from her perspective but she assumed it led to a staircase heading up into what she assumed was his home. He was a bit too far away and muffled for her to hear what he said up the stairs and assumed that the doors and walls of the building were soundproofed so as not to disturb patrons from normal outside noise or from noise upstairs. After apparently getting an answer from someone she couldn't hear upstairs, he walked back and went back behind the bar.
"My employee will be fetching the proper documentation from my apartment for me. He was about to come down to help for the night when I caught him on the stairs." Said Sasakura.
They continued to talk while they waited, with Ochako mainly asking about how Sasakura came to be in possession of some of his relics on display when eventually the door to the upstairs opened.
"All right, I found the documents Mr. Sasakura I-" The voice cut-off and Ochako who was in the middle of another sip of her drink, looked over and choked.
She coughed a couple of times before finally getting enough air to splutter "I- Izuku!?" She felt herself reddening rapidly in embarrassment and shock. She just stared at the young man she had met at the Cemetary, who for all the world looked like a deer caught in headlights. One hand had a grip on a small manila folder and the other clutching the door handle of the door he had just opened.
She was definitely starting to feel the Vertigo because her head just wouldn't stop spinning.
