Izuku looked himself over in the mirror. He was prepping for work tonight and needed to make sure his appearance was up to snuff. Mr. Sasakura was adamant that anybody working for him had better look appropriate for what was likely one of the most prestigious bars in the city, if not the country. Only a handful in the city knew of the bar, but there were plenty of people (important people) that knew of the existence of the bar outside the city as well. Granted that number was still small, but it was enough. Of course, Mr. Sasakura being rated as one of the best bartenders in the region also helped.
Izuku gave himself one last look over, before trying to get his hair under control. It had an annoying habit of sticking every which way, and while Mr. Sasakura didn't mind it, it had always bothered Izuku. After trying to get it under control, Izuku merely sighed and gave up. He grabbed his gloves, put them on, and headed out of his apartment into the hallway. He started down the hallway and came to the staircase leading down into the bar when the door opened and Mr. Sasakura's head popped into the staircase.
"Ah, Izuku perfect timing! I have a new client in the bar today and she also happens to be a hero, she's asking for my papers that authorize me to use my quirk for my establishment. Could you do me a favor and grab them from my desk before heading down?" Asked Mr. Sasakura
"Of course sir, just give me a few minutes." Replied Izuku. Mr. Sasakura had told him he didn't have to call him sir, but it felt appropriate when Izuku was working.
Izuku turned around and headed towards Mr. Sasakura's apartment door and opened it. It had always surprised Izuku how spartan Mr. Sasakura's apartment was in comparison to the bar below. The walls were hardly adorned and the rooms didn't have much furniture, though this wasn't always the case. The apartment had been much less spartan years ago when Mr. Sasakura's wife had been alive, the few pictures on display showed that. She had died years ago, and the apartment had slowly become more and more spartan as the years had worn on. Until eventually the only furniture left had mostly been furniture selected by his wife.
Izuku wandered into Mr. Sasakura's study, the only room in the house that felt cramped. The walls were lined with bookshelves, with a desk and comfy rolling chair behind it. There was also a recliner in one corner where Mr. Sasakura liked to read. A tape deck was on a small end table next to the table, that he would occasionally use to play music or listen to the news while reading or working.
Izuku walked over to the desk and opened the bottom right drawer and took out the stack of papers and envelopes that held important financial and other related information about the bar and building itself. It took him a minute or two until he found a manila envelope labeled, "Commercial Quirk Usage Authorization" in Mr. Sasakura's handwriting. He set it aside, put the rest of the document away, picked up the folder, and headed out of the study. He walked through the apartment, heading towards the door when he lingered a moment in the hallway to look at a picture on a hallway table. It had been taken to commemorate Izuku's employment in the bar. A happily grinning Sasakura stood beside Izuku, one hand on his shoulder while Izuku (at least to Izuku's eyes) smiled awkwardly and tried not to look like a nervous wreck for the photo. It had been taken by a patron of the bar who loved to take photos as a hobby. When she had been told Izuku was a new employee she had jumped at the chance to take a picture of the two of them to commemorate the moment. The bar had never had another worker apart from Mr. Sasakura so it was a big surprise to many of the patrons whenever they came by.
Izuku went out the front door and down the stairs, he could hear Mr. Sasakura talking outside and as he opened the door he said "All right, I found the documents Mr. Sasakura I-" He cut off abruptly and his eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sight of Ochako sitting at the bar in the middle of a drink.
Ochako for her part choked on her drink, and after a small bit of coughing managed to splutter "I- Izuku!?"
Neither of them moved or spoke for a few moments, they just stared at each other mouths slightly ajar at the sheer ridiculous of the scene. As the moment wore on, Izuku could feel himself starting to redden.
It was then that Mr. Sasakura coughed and spoke up, "I assume Miss Uraraka is the girl you encountered at the cemetery?"
Izuku jumped slightly and so did Ochako, "Uh... yeah she's the one I told you about. Oh! here are the documents by the way." Said Izuku, walking over and handing the folder over to Mr. Sasakura and decidedly not looking at Ochako less he turn even redder at seeing just how pretty she was.
Mr. Sasakura opened up the folder and picked out some specific documents then slid them over to Ochako who looked to have managed to regain her composure for the most part.
Ochako started to look over the papers but she didn't absorb even a word, meeting Izuku had driven everything else from her mind. Not only had she run into him in the least likely place imaginable, but in formal attire for his job, and he looked positively dashing. Her trained eyes could see his musculature and build through his tighter-fitting uniform. His casual clothes at the cemetery had been looser and had hidden his build. Lean but packed with condensed muscle, a build that even most heroes would be envious of. She was sure he could give even Bakugo a run for his money on raw strength. She finished "reading" the document and was about to hand it back when her eyes caught something near the end.
Previous Employment: Hero, Primarily stationed in Fukuako city. Retired 21XX
Hero Name: Edge Walker
Quirk: Condition
Ochako didn't recognize the name, though that wasn't surprising. If he had been stationed that far south then it's likely he never went to U.A. His being a prior hero though was surprising, if he had been a hero then he should have been re-activated for the war effort. Unless he had some medical or other equally compelling reason why he couldn't take part.
She looked up and handed the papers back before saying, "Well everything checks out, but I didn't expect you to be a hero! what kind of work did you do at the time?"
Mr. Sasakura took back the papers and put them back in the envelope, a wistful expression on his face as he recalled his hero years.
"I mostly did security for the docks of the city, it's a popular trading port so there was no end to smugglers and criminals on the docks. I retired roughly 20 years ago, due to some personal and medical reasons. I had this bar left to me by my father and mother, along with the artifacts you see. So I took up my original training as a bartender and re-opened the establishment. I managed to get permission to use my quirk on the establishment itself due to my service record and some careful prodding from Nezu."
"You know Nezu?" asked Ochako surprised.
"Oh yes, we were school-mates you see. Nezu to many people's surprise did not attend U.A. Instead he was shipped into the country by criminals at the behest of a now-defunct and very illegal quirk research organization. He enrolled in the local hero academy in the south, and simply flew through the courses. I was fortunate enough to be able to call him a friend at the time, and without his help, would have struggled far more in my studies."
Mr. Sasakura seemed to get lost in his thoughts and simply kept talking about his school years with Nezu. Izuku had seen this before, Mr. Sasakura liked to tell stories and sometimes they ran away with him in the middle of a conversation. He glanced over to Ochako and simply shrugged, she smiled and simply waved his unspoken apology on his behalf employers half away. Izuku busied himself by going over the bottles and glasses making sure everything was in order while he calmed down.
Fortunately, they were spared when Sasakura's phone rang. He pulled out his flip-phone and after talking for a moment, closed it.
"I'm afraid I have some business I must take care of, could you hold down the fort for a while Izuku?"
Izuku jumped and replied "Y- Yeah, no problem."
"Thank you my boy, you are a tremendous help." and with that, Mr. Sasakura headed upstairs to his apartment.
Out of excuses to avoid talking to Ochako, he eventually mustered up his courage and eventually asked her, "So uh, how did you manage to get a card? Mr. Sasakura doesn't give them out often." not quite able to meet Ochako's eyes.
Ochako looked over at him and replied "I saved him from some thugs on his way back home from visiting a friend of his over near the ruined sector. He offered me a card and felt it would be rude to refuse. Then I found myself with some free time today and thought now would be as good a time as any."
Izuku laughed a bit at that, "sound very familiar, I saved his life last year during a villain raid in the area while he was out shopping. He gave me a card, and after my first visit, I ended visiting more and more frequently. Eventually, he offered me a job and an apartment above the bar. I owe him a lot, I wasn't in the best shape at the time."
"I can imagine, up until a year or so ago I could barely function on my own. The war... when it was all over I didn't have a lot left. If it hadn't been for my friends... well I don't know where I would be right now." Said Ochako recalling those times just after the war.
"Probably dead like the other four..." she thought glumly.
"Oh, I never did ask at the cemetery but what kind of quirk do you have? You knew all about mine but I didn't learn anything about yours," she asked suddenly, remembering her thoughts in the bath the other day. She was pretty interested in what he might have, it seemed unlikely that he had a mutation-style quirk, so she guessed it was either an emitter or mental based quirk.
However, Izuku seemed to clam up at that, he cast his eyes down to the table and focused on the bottle he was dusting. He didn't say anything for a few seconds then mumbled something indistinct.
She had seen this sort of self-conscious behavior from people about their quirks before. Just after a time where the strength or tactical usefulness of a quirk was paramount, many people had confidence issues with their quirks.
"If you'd rather not say, it's more than fine. I understand some people don't like talking about their quirks." She said trying to alleviate some of Izuku's obvious discomfort.
Izuku just sighed and his shoulders slumped as if a heavyweight had just settled on them and he said much more clearly, "I don't have one. I was born quirkless."
Ochako blinked, that wasn't the answer anyone would have expected. She had of course heard of people being born without quirks but she had never met someone who didn't have one, or anyone else who had met one either. She'd eventually chalked it up to some kind of extremely rare genetic mutation or something similar in her mind like albinoism. Despite statistics saying roughly 20% of the world population was quirkless.
Eventually, her mind caught up to her and at seeing Izuku starting to become increasingly uncomfortable at her blatant surprise, she hastily replied "Oh... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I understand if you'd rather not talk about it."
A bit of tension seemed to leave Izuku at her response, he had probably been expecting a much more negative response she reasoned. She couldn't begin to imagine what his early life must have been like, to be quirkless in a society where your quirks were valued above all else... It must have been difficult at the least.
"It's fine, I understand. It's a natural question to ask, after all, it's not your fault so please don't apologize" Izuku said. "Even if I don't have a quirk, I'm confident I could be more than a match for most people. I've trained myself a lot over the years to be able to defend myself. Course if I came across someone like the Twin Element Hero: Shoto then I don't think I'd last long." he said with a small laugh.
"He's strong, one of the strongest out there. There are probably only a half dozen people who could match him in a straight fight, and that's including villains." Said Ochako leaning back in her seat, a thoughtful expression on her face.
"Well it's not like I would ever fight him anyways, I'm only good enough to be able to defend myself and run. I'll leave it to the police and heroes to fight villains and such," said Izuku, leaning on the counter.
"Don't worry, I'll be sure to protect you if you ever get into trouble," she said smiling.
A heartbeat passed before her brain caught up to her, and she started to feel herself go bright red. Izuku's brain had gone along a similar line and he had a small blush on his face as well but seemed more surprised than anything else. She hadn't meant it to sound so romantically cliche, but it had just been so natural for her to say that as a hero.
Ochako gave a small cough and switched the topic to something a bit more mundane. "So what's it like being a bartender? I imagine you've met some interesting people."
Izuku seemed to recover from the cliche line and started chatting about the variety of different people he had met as a result of working for Mr. Sasakura. While also starting on making her a second drink.
After Ochako had gotten partway through her second drink and the conversation had hit a bit of a lull, she asked, "Have you ever met Nezu before? I can only imagine he's been in here a few times over the years."
"I met him... about a year and a half or so ago I believe. It was pretty surreal seeing one of the biggest icons in-hero education sitting on a stool in here. I asked for his autograph and served him a drink or two while he and Mr. Sasakura talked." Said Izuku furrowing his brow in an effort to remember.
Ochako was about to ask another question when Izuku continued. "But... I could tell that he was here to forget something. You get a sense of when someone is visiting to talk with a friend and when there just trying to take their mind off of something. He didn't drink enough for me to be extremely concerned, but I could see the pain and anxiousness in his body language and eyes." said Izuku.
"A year and a half ago..." thought Ochako. "That would be around the time that Inasa and Takako committed suicide..."
She could imagine Nezu wanting to forget for a time, that tragedy. Just as things looked to be settling down from the war once and for all, the Six Angels were reduced from four to two. With herself and Yo Shindo now being the last remaining members. The deaths of Inasa and Takako had nearly broken her completely, and it was only her friends that had managed to stop her from killing herself as well. It was no wonder that Nezu had come here to drink and talk, he probably didn't have a lot of close friends left anymore by the war's end.
"We lost some people to suicide at the time, likely their deaths were weighing heavily on him and he just wanted to not worry about it, for a little while at least." Said Ochako looking at her distorted reflection in her glass.
They fell silent then, both of them reminiscing and remembering those that they themselves had lost over time. The list was a long one for both.
Ochako lost track of time then, they continued to make small talk for a while until Ochako eventually asked, "Have you done any other jobs apart from bartending? You mentioned this was more recent employment."
Izuku stopped the cleaning of a bottle he was polishing and hesitated. Something had bothered him about that question she could tell.
Izuku turned around and put the bottle back on the shelf and said, "I've done some pretty physically demanding work over the last few years, it's partially what lead me to take up self-defense and eventually an interest in CQC, among other martial arts. A suggestion from someone I respect quite a lot convinced me to do it."
Ochako could tell he didn't really want to talk about it in detail, so she didn't press him even though her curiosity had been piqued. "What kinds of martial arts? I admit I don't know a lot, my style of fighting was derived from multiple people who adapted martial arts to suit their specific quirks. So my style is derivative of derivatives, which has served me well but also means I actually know very little of actual martial arts." She instead asked.
"Well, apart from standard self-defense training, I've got a pretty firm understanding of CQC and Judo. I've also delved a bit into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but it was a bit too brutal for my liking. It did help me during the war though, with a lot of heroes and soldiers being deployed to fight off the League of Villains, it meant there were fewer people to keep a watch out for the more mundane criminal elements. I've gotten into a few scrapes over the years, but nothing bad." Said Izuku.
"Is that how you got the scars on your right hand?" she fished.
"Ah... those were from an accident, my hand got caught in a piece of fencing with barbed wire due to an industrial accident and it cut up my hand pretty bad. It's a bit stiff at a few angles, but for everyday life and bartending it's never been a hindrance." Explained Izuku.
Ochako internally winced at that, she'd once gotten lacerated really badly from a villain with a whip ringed in barbed wire. The conversation died down into some more small talk until she checked the time.
"Well, it's starting to get a bit late so I'd better get going. It was nice seeing you again, I'll probably be stopping by again at some point," she said, hopping out of her seat and doing a small stretch.
"I enjoyed talking with you a lot, and I'll look forward to your next visit. I don't work every night, but if you like, you can come by during the day. I'm usually doing something in the bar as I don't like to work in my apartment." He said, straightening up and walking around the bar to the front door.
Ochako grabbed her things that she had set on the nearby bar seat and walked towards the door, right as Izuku opened it for her.
"A handsome bartender and gentlemen, glad to see chivalry isn't quite dead," she said with a small smile.
Izuku for his part blushed and went a bit rigid, unsure how to respond but managed to stammer out his thanks.
This only made Ochako giggle as she went out the door, and turning back she said "Thanks for the drinks and conversation Izuku, I really needed a break like this. I'll be sure to come by again at some point." and with that, she left, heading back towards her apartment.
It was only after she had left and Izuku had returned to back behind the bar did realize he had failed to charge her for any of the drinks he had made her.
"Oh well, we'll call it thanks for the cemetery. Though Mr. Sasakura won't like it if I forget a second time..." Izuku thought as he closed the door and headed back round to the bar to await any other patrons that might come by.
Ochako was heading back to her apartment in good spirits when she felt her phone ring in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw she had a call coming in from Tsuyu, she promptly answered the phone and said: "Hey Tsuyu, what's up."
"Wanted to call and let you know about some details concerning the reunion, what are you up to though, you didn't answer your home phone when I called it earlier," asked Tsuyu.
"Nothing much just had a few good drinks and some conversation with Izuku," she said, not realizing she had said Izuku's name until it was too late.
"I thought you said you didn't get his number, how'd he take you out to get a drink? ribbit." Asked Tsuyu confused and just a tad worried.
Ochako froze for a second upon realizing she had said Izuku's name but resigned herself. She knew she wouldn't be able to get anything past Tsuyu at this point. "Oh, I didn't, he was the employee at a private bar I was invited to by the manager. I saved him from getting mugged during a patrol I went on with Momo and Todoroki, I ended up taking his business card. Figured I might as well stop by since I had a free afternoon and all." Replied Ochako, clearing up the confusion and easing Tsuyu's worries.
"I'm happy to hear you enjoyed yourself, are you going to be going back again?" asked Tsuyu.
"I plan on it at some point, Izuku's very courteous, but..." Ochako trailed off as she remembered the more somber note their discussion had taken eventually.
"But...?" prompted Tsuyu.
"He... The things he's been through remind me too much of myself. I can tell he's suffered a lot and it scares me how it keeps reminding me of things I'd rather forget. He didn't say anything specific, but with what he told me at the cemetery and his body language at the bar I know he's lost far more than just his mother." Said Ochako with a small shiver that she convinced herself was due in part to the cool wind that had just blown over her at the moment.
"If you want to talk feel free too, my schedule is pretty flexible, ribbit." Said Tsuyu.
"No, I'm fine Tsuyu but thanks for the offer. It might make me a bit uncomfortable to remember the past with a relative stranger but it's also kind of a relief to know there are other people out there besides me who have gone through similar things as I have." She said with a small sigh.
"Oh yeah! You mentioned you had news regarding the reunion, what's the latest on that," said Ochako with a bit of false cheer as she dispelled the gloom that started to hang over her, as well as change the subject.
"I wanted to let you know that I just got word back from everyone else about the reunion. Everyone is good to have the reunion later this week, probably this Friday. I've already talked it over with the higher-ups and they've agreed to give everyone Friday and the weekend off. They're not happy of course, but better that than burning ourselves out." said Tsuyu.
"That's fantastic! I can't wait to see everyone again! It feels like it's been forever since we all last saw each other in one place. Where are we going to be meeting up at?" Said Ochako, ecstatic.
"We were planning on meeting up at Momo's house since she has plenty of space for a party, not to mention all the other benefits. All the details are finalized, so all that's left is to prep for it, though Momo and Todoroki said they would handle that part themselves, ribbit," said Tsuyu.
"Glad to hear most everything is already taken care of, can't wait for it! Meet-up time is going to be around 1 o'clock I assume?"
"Yup, we plan to have lunch as the opening and go into the night. Momo said she would have guest rooms available for everyone. After the reunion, people will be splitting up to go lay claim to rooms at the same complex Todoroki and Momo are staying at for the time being." Said Tsuyu.
"Sounds like a plan, thanks for the heads up, Tsu!" Said Ochako
"No problem, have a good night Ochako."
"You too." Said Ochako, hanging up.
Ochako skipped for a second at the thought of seeing everyone again. It had been far far too long, and they were all run ragged these days. Even if three days didn't sound like a lot, it was going to be wonderful to not have to worry about anything.
Still smiling, Ochako walked up to her front door and after unlocking it, headed inside.
She put down her stuff, stretched, picked out some pajamas, and put them aside while she drew a bath. She soaked in the bath almost every night, it was one of the only things that helped alleviate the dull aches and rapidly built tension in the legion of scars on her back. She had tried counting them in her bathroom mirror reflection once, but they twisted and merged together so frequently that she couldn't tell where one began and the other ended.
Later as she went to bed, she couldn't help but have a goofy smile on her face as she drifted off. She hadn't had a day this relaxing in a long time not to mention the excitement and joy of knowing she would be seeing everyone later that week, and with that thought drifted off to sleep. She didn't even have a nightmare that night either.
