Things are mostly chronological, so while there may be a few skips in time, the characters will always acknowledge it in their internal soliloquies. Characters almost not immediately named are not relevant and will only ever make minor appearances. (They will likely remain nameless)
A lot of formatting became broken upon the transfer from AO3, meaning I had to reapply most of it. So sorry if something is missing it's bold or italics.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Luck.
Ochako Uraraka had considered herself a lucky person. For one to be in the heroes course at U.A., it was healthy to believe that you were blessed to some degree. For a capable quirk, for good education to apply in the first place, for parents who gave you at least some degree of independence- it was all a blessing.
Few people would consider the near-collapse of functioning society any way lucky, however. Suddenly shifted into a role of responsibility, even heroes in training were expected to be perfect. Any situation they were in must be handled flawlessly.
Class 1-A had managed to successfully take that first step into the unknown world of adulthood and stood up against the encroaching fears of society by acting as a solid force against the unknowns. Furthermore, their school and other courses were up to the task and also put their foot forth valiantly.
While their luck had held out, it was inevitable that something would go awry.
Izuku Midoriya, hero name "Deku," had removed himself from UA entirely, trying to get them out of the line of fire that was All for One. Close friends were naturally hurt by his departure, but few were disturbed like Ochako, who felt that his leaving only cemented a thought she had previously.
If heroes were there for everyone else… Who was there for them?
It echoed within her. It haunted her. It plagued her mind. Was it ever a peaceful society? Was Gratuity from society enough to keep a solo hero going? Was that really reassurance or even support? Reassurance or support that was typically provided by friends and family?
What about Deku, stuck out there in the cold, rainy months, incapable of meeting his mother or socializing with his close friends?
Ochako stared at the ceiling in her room, mind circulating these thoughts in an effort to find some sort of satisfactory solution. Vaguely she realized that she had been there for at least 20 minutes, as evident by her clock.
They haven't had class in at least a week and had heard from the upper-classmen that it would likely stay that way for a while. The frivolity of this collapse in societal trust was all too quick- and happened so fast, maybe she was just feeling the whiplash of it all.
After their draw- if you would call it that- with the League of Villains, riots and protests broke out in response to the failure of the heroes. Gigantomachia had bulldozed through hundreds, maybe thousands of people. Yet society only had criticisms against their efforts.
'How could you fail!,' or 'why didn't you inform us,' maybe 'I knew someone who was run over by that monster!'
Heroism had quickly become one of the most unpopular jobs. Even those who had already dedicated their lives to it had already collapsed within the week, physically and mentally.
But what were they supposed to do? In what form could they say, "We did our best," and expect understanding? No one blamed a construction worker when they couldn't fix a building that was over 100 years old- where was that understanding for heroes?
Their society had placed all their securities in them but had not realized up to this point that it was because of their belief in a fragile, peaceful normal that had led their lives to such complacency.
With a stinging realization, Ochako realized that a step had to be taken. It should have been obvious to everyone, but the idolization and blind trust of heroes had shrouded this from her.
Heroes are human. They deserved more than pure hate and passively taking the blame was not the answer to their problem. While they were capable of more than the average human, if they were expected to carry society's burdens, they needed support.
If society was unwilling to provide that and keep them at arm's length- they must pick up the slack themselves.
Suddenly motivated, Ochako started to pull herself from her bed and started writing down her thoughts. Anything she thought about- she placed it onto the closest notepad. A small pink one. She vaguely realized that she wanted to pass this ideology onto someone- anyone else for their input.
Deku crossed her mind. Given his inheritance from All Might, he would probably be the best person to take this to. Ochako bit the inside of her mouth. Now that she thought of it, Deku would probably be more than willing to take that burden on himself. With or without support.
More ideas came to her mind as she wrote this up- How would a society structure itself in this 'supporting the support system'? Was it realistic and manageable? Ochako hadn't the faintest idea and vaguely realized that it was naive to put this system into practice herself, but she kept writing anyway.
A knock at her door brought her back from her ideological and mental struggle. She paused as she shook away the familiar dig from the pencil. Ochako briefly checked the mirror to see if she was presentable and went to the door.
"Hi…? Mic-sensei and Vlad King-sensei?" Ochako blinked at her visitors. Something was off- it was as if their eyes carried a cold aspect she was unfamiliar with. It was as if she had come to the door to Present Mic the Hero and not her English teacher.
"Ochako Uraraka, for the safety of yourself, your parents, the students, and the evacuees, you are to come with me."
Why did she feel like a criminal?
-x-x-x-
At an unknown time, a street near UA
Oh wonderful, so wonderful! Her recently repaired suit worked so well again! She had forgotten how fun it was to collect blood using the vacuums in her villain costume. Even if it wasn't as cute as she would like it to be. She was so, so sad that she didn't have any more of Ochako-chan's blood.
She waltzed down the street, away from her victims with a bright smile. She was currently freelance- free from any weights of 'no you can't' and 'don't you dare' that once burdened her. If only Twice was here. She frowned, pausing at the thought.
Toga Himiko was at a conflicting time in her life. This world created by Shigaraki was beautiful in every sense of the imagination. No longer did people care if she walked in the streets with her knives or blood packets.
She paused at the corner of the street, checking either way for the rare chance of a car, before continuing her unusually contemplative thoughts.
She did miss her friends. Shigaraki hadn't come back to normal yet and Twice was gone. Himiko's other hero friends were even farther away. She hadn't seen much of Izuku or Ochako since the fight. According to All for One, they were to watch out for Izuku as he had some serious fighting power now.
But she couldn't help wanting to see him. It had been too long.
For Ochako, the media-expert-man said he had a special present for her when they executed the plan. She was supposed to infiltrate UA using the quirk extender… quirk that All for One gave her. How was completely up to her, but infiltration into shelters was really easy as long as she used her victim's quirk, a vulnerability only she could really take advantage of. And when she was in they would release the video, to which she would get to 'meet' Ochako's parents.
She briefly wondered if Ochako would hate her after this. Would Ochako go back on her words, the promise that she had made to Toga when they fought? The promise to save anyone...
The blond sociopath never put much consideration into people's opinions, goals, or origins at all in her life. Yet Twice's apology in his dying moments made her pause.
Why did someone like Twice die? She scowled. Mr. Compress had also died, sacrificing himself to save Shigaraki and Dabi.
Yet she was completely aware that they could all die trying to do what they wanted. They had all accepted that, yet Ochako's words to 'save everyone she could' bothered her in a way.
She shrugged, deciding it didn't really matter, focusing on her current task instead.
All her victims were criminals, which wouldn't work very well when trying to infiltrate UA. Their faces were good enough for dealing with the common rubbish she dealt with, but she needed a civilian that met a bunch of criteria.
Toga had been searching for a prime candidate for a few hours, but considering how everyone was on edge recently, it wasn't easy. Yet, as she gazed around, she spotted a target in a small alleyway. Slowly she backed up, careful not to have herself be seen.
Toga peeked around the corner, seeing this giant hiding and snacking on some food she seemingly brought with her in a small alleyway. Her clothes weren't very worn down, so she must have just left her house for shelter. Toga figured that she was likely too intimidating for a shakedown from the common rabble.
Heteromorph, lots of blood, very likely a civilian, oh and so very cute. This giant was perfect! So, cleaning up herself from any leftover blood from her equipment, she turned the corner and started walking down the alley.
The giant lady quickly stood up, letting her food drop onto the ground off of her lap. They met eyes as she stepped back, quickly putting her hands up.
"H-hello? Who are you? U-uhm, please stay b-back." Toga didn't stop. Now that she had a good look at her features, it was a giant fox-like lady who easily stood over 9 feet tall.
She was cuter closer up, Toga realized gleefully. Perfect, if she was too ugly, Toga might have changed her mind.
Toga smiled a bright wide smile.
"I'm Toga Himiko! We're going to be the best of friends, I can tell."
-x-x-x-
Nezu had always promised every student that he had accepted that they would always be allowed some special treatment and flexibility that most schools wouldn't dream of giving.
Obviously, there were limits, but if the student needed up to a year or even two to pull themselves back together, he would grant it without batting an eye. Mirio was a rather recent case.
However, lines were drawn at criminal or purely delinquent behavior. They were a hero school. Given Class 1-A's unusual treatment in general, they had excused far more for them than any other class.
But given the video that had been floating around the internet recently, he wondered if he had finally found their theorized traitor. It was rather far-fetched, considering their extensive testing through the dorm system. When the dorms were first implemented, it was for the reassurance of society, but it had the secondary effect of Nezu clearing any suspicion of traitors.
Or so he thought.
Two sharp knocks followed by a soft third knock. It was Hizashi, presumably with… the student. The last thing Nezu wanted to do was jump the gun. It was quite possible that the video was altered or fabricated in some ways, but none of the best software in the world could detect any kind of alterations- quirk or otherwise. It was edited, but the footage itself wasn't altered.
Yes, what happened in the next few hours decided a lot of things.
Nezu opened the door automatically with a button, keeping his face unusually grim. Nezu was met with a pair of very confused eyes that held a tinge of fear. Nothing telling. He began speaking to the young woman.
"Hello Uraraka-kun, I am sorry that I had to disturb you at this time, given the rather gloomy weather. No one likes a cloudy day, so I hope you don't mind me pulling you aside, hmm?" as per his routine, he swiveled his chair to his left and jumped off. Nezu put his arms behind his back, straightening it to emphasize the undertone of seriousness.
"Before I ask you anything else, I can't help but wonder if you know the reasons I've brought you here today?" Slow and methodical, he made his way around the desk.
"I-I mean, because Vlad King-sensei is here, I c-can't suppose it's about my grades or something, right?" Ochako said, with a hint of nervousness. Was it something that she was hiding? No, too soon. Maybe a bit more probing.
"Have you been on the internet lately? Something vile has reared its ugly head and I wonder if you're aware of it." Hizashi was staring right at him, knowing his game. The confusion written on the girl's face spoke volumes about her innocence. Aizawa himself said that she was a relatively honest girl in terms of body language, so unless she was leading them around by the nose, this looked good for her.
In some ways.
"I'll take the look on your face as a no, then. Have you checked your phone recently?" Nezu questioned.
"No…?" Ochako shook her head and immediately reached for her pocket before being interrupted.
"For your sake, I would not check it. Please give it to Hizashi-kun." Nezu's voice hardened as he looked at the young girl. He gestured to the two of them, before returning his hands behind his back. After the student placed the phone into Hizashi's hands, he cleared his throat for her attention.
"Recently a video has come up from unknown sources, in an unknown place, at an unknown time. It features a young girl using her quirk to kill many people, their innocence and situation undetermined. Perhaps, I am being long-winded and I should simply show you the video,
"But before I do, I would like to clarify something." He looked straight into the girl's brown eyes. "Have you ever killed anyone with your quirk by using gravity as the weapon?"
What?
Ochako was slightly terrified by that question. The principal stood unmoving before her, his beady eyes digging into hers.
"Of- Of course not! I would never intentionally do that…" Then why was she brought here… the video? "N-no… Then Toga wasn't lying then…" She said faintly, horror dawning in her voice.
"Toga Himiko?" The principal frowned. "What does she have to do with this?"
"...During the cleanup of Gigantomachia, I was trying to help an old lady- or I thought it was- but turned out to be really Toga Himiko. She wanted to ask me about the people who I was willing to save. She told me…"
Ochako swallowed. It wasn't that she had forgotten about it, but it was certainly pushed aside until now.
"Toga told me she had used my face- my quirk- to kill people. I-I didn't believe it at first, but now…" She trailed off. She had always known how dangerous her quirk was, but Ochako had assumed that she was the only one who would have a say over it.
"...Do you wish to see the video, Uraraka-kun? As I'm sure you are aware, this video is presumably you, or at least your likeness, killing people." His eyes got softer. Hizashi stood, solemn beside her, his face almost unreadable.
-x-
Ochako's face was pale and unresponsive. She hadn't realized she was hyperventilating until Present Mic put a hand on her back in support.
"It's okay little listener, please, just take a seat." Sadness with an undertone of anger burned in his voice. Hizashi placed a seat behind her, letting her sit down.
Never had she felt such a need to puke that wasn't caused by her quirk. Ironically, she supposed that wasn't exactly true.
The video had featured a blurry, brown-haired girl quickly dashing between several people in quick succession, before panning to the sky. Before the victims were dropped, the video cut to the sports festival, where it was cropped to show the rocks floating high above Bakugo.
Ochako's match against Bakugo. This video hadn't just wanted to show her killing people, it wanted to prove that it was her- her quirk that had been involved. So, in a vertical split-screen, it showed both human and rocks falling simultaneously- and cut to a black screen.
A screen that held words that were meant to be damning.
Ochako Uraraka- hero in training or villain in hiding?
Nezu had been quiet, observing her reaction. No matter what they did, unless they had proof that Toga could use other people's quirks, this wasn't going to end well. Even if they did, proof meant little to a society that was extremely paranoid.
It seemed that Ochako was aware of that.
"Obviously, because we do not know where or when this video was recorded, we cannot get you an alibi for this murder. We could not even identify any of the victims" Nezu breathed out his little nose. "Tracking the origins of this video proved impossible as well. It was uploaded by a no-name channel that has since been deleted. This has just been simply blowing up for the last few hours."
"...yeah…" Seeing his student so despondent in front of him burdened his heart. Nezu sighed, how unfair of this world to ruin a girl's life just because some villain used her face. He was about to press a button on the underside of his desk but heard an alarm instead.
Instantly alert, the principal immediately changed the screen on his desk to the camera closest to the alerts. Years of training kept his face neutral as he stared at the scene.
Despite himself, he couldn't help but glance between his student and the screen. By that time, Present Mic had made his way behind Nezu to see what the alarm was about. Having more honest and expressive body language, Present Mic instantly locked up.
"Hey… Isn't that-" the lanky man looked shocked at Uraraka, and started to speak but was interrupted.
"Hizashi, please. A moment."
The rodent in charge quickly dialed up a number- unseen to Ochako. After a few moments of silently chatting with whoever was on the other line, he hung up and stood contemplative for a moment.
He reached for the intercom mic- something that she hadn't noticed before.
"This is an alert from the Principal of UA, Nezu. There is an intruder inside UA. Please stay put until further notice while we investigate." The young hero couldn't believe her ears. First, the video, and now they were under attack? Nezu turned off the intercom, staring into space, deep in thought.
Ochako hadn't seen the principal so indecisive before, so she said nothing.
"Let's… go to the scene to investigate. Uraraka-kun, please stay here while we go investigate. We will only be a few minutes." The principal said, his face serious. He typed something into the computer while Present Mic stared at him. Then the two left the privacy of the desk towards the door.
As he passed by his student, he said "Please do whatever you would like in here in the meantime."
At those words, his eyes flashed in a way that the young Hero had barely picked up. She was still confused by the look Present Mic had given her just a moment ago, so she just nodded absently as they left the room, Vlad being asked to follow after them. After a moment, the door clicked, indicating it was locking her in.
'Whatever'?
Wouldn't he normally just… ask her to stay put? Despite the despair from her situation, she couldn't help but be curious.
With such an invitation, then she could at least check out what they were looking at on the cameras, right? The way he phrased it, was that what he wanted?
It only took her about five minutes of internally debating whether she would check it out. If it was nothing, then she could just claim she wanted to watch the video again. Curiosity finally getting the better of her, she left the chair to walk around the laptop that had been left open.
It was still open, left on a security camera on the west hall, the first floor. It was…
Her stomach sank, unlike the sinking feeling from earlier from the accusation she knew to be false, this was entirely real. Ochako knew there was hope, but this...
There was no hope.
"Mama, Papa…"
-x-
"Nezu, this is cruel. We need- we need to turn back and turn off the laptop. We shouldn't let her find out like this!" Present Mic yelled, putting his foot down, and stopping in the hallway. Vlad King had been left behind at the door to prevent any potential attack, so it was just the two of them. The normally flamboyant man was uncharastically stern.
The cameras had the bodies of two adults, a man, and a woman. They were the parents of Ochako Uraraka, slain and left to be found in the open. Power Loader had found them right outside his studio. Upon confirming there was no immediate danger, he set off the alarm to alert Nezu, to which they had a lengthy conversation.
The area had immediately been quarantined by Power Loader and Thirteen who arrived shortly after.
Originally it was planned so that Thirteen would escort the two adults up to his office so he could speak to them all at once to help calm down the evacuees, but evidently, Thirteen could not find them in time. Why hadn't she alerted him earlier?
Disregarding that thought, Nezu was fully aware that this was intentional. For this to happen on the same day to the same person… setting aside his sympathies for the young hero, why was young Uraraka targeted?
Perhaps it was situational, that Toga Himiko had her blood and any UA student would have sufficed, but that was information they couldn't obtain. There were three problems that Nezu had to address.
An infiltration happened- meaning that they were vulnerable from the inside. He had no doubt that this was the work of the expert infiltrator- Toga Himiko. Her quirk on file specifically states that she only adopts the physical appearance of her victims, so they had been testing for quirks. Should they expand for blood testing?
The second problem is the evacuee's trust. This was partially going to be due to the infiltration, but also people's insecurities about potentially harboring a suspected traitor like Ochako Uraraka.
Finally, Uraraka herself. What do you do with an untrusted, emotionally vulnerable hero? Why was she targeted? Even if she wasn't particularly unique among her peers, what was All for One's goal with this attack?
All of these things jumped into his mind before answering Present's Mic.
"Perhaps it is cruel. Yet, it is no crueler than letting her see her parents die in front of her. We have to allow her to come to terms with it, as many others have had to recently. Adults Uraraka-kun hardly knows comforting her means will do nothing for her, and as much as I feel for Uraraka-kun, I am needed elsewhere."
When had he turned so calloused? A young girl's parents have died and he's treating it like a problem that she should just learn to deal with. At the same time, what was he supposed to do? He really needed to inspect the campus and could not afford to be negligent on the grounds of being emotional support.
"I do want you to go get Uraraka's close friends and escort them to the office. If what I suspect is true, our culprit has already escaped. After getting them there, please return to the main area."
Present Mic was taken off guard by the principal's sudden instructions. He still didn't like this, but opted to trust his employer.
-x-x-x-
"I don't trust the principal." A pink-haired man said to his brother, "It's probably a cover-up, given that there is no way someone snuck through that security. That video that was online? It was probably that Uraraka girl who killed those two adults."
They were evacuees like most everyone and the most recent incident within the 'secure' borders of UA had paranoia running high. The sibling crossed his arms and frowned.
"I don't know about that… apparently the victims were her parents." His younger sibling, who had lime green hair that brightly contrasted his brothers' hair, was unsure.
"Nah man, even if they were her parents, villains they will do anything to bring UA down a notch." The pink sibling responded. "I bet they just don't want us panicking about how they have a mole inside. You know my old classmate? He's a second year in the general course, he said they're keeping her locked up like a bird, man. If they thought she was truly innocent, then why isn't she allowed to walk around like the rest of the students?"
The lime-colored-haired man disagreed, "Yeah, but then people would complain about her walking free then because of that video. Your logic makes no sense, bro."
The pink-haired man tsked, before saying "Yeah yeah, maybe. I'm just sayin', that video comes out and someone, same day, gets murdered on campus? Her own parents, even? It's pretty suspicious how they're treating this whole thing. I'm just watching out for our backs, ya know? Maybe we should ditch this place if things get a little too hot."
He walked away, probably to continue spreading his suspicions. He really liked playing up events like this, regardless of whether or not they were helpful.
It wasn't like the younger sibling didn't think that something was up, but the chance that the young girl was framed and also had her parents killed… If she was innocent, then she probably was crushed.
And all this suspicion was making it worse.
-x-x-x-
Iida was furious but did his best to hide it for the sake of his close friend. She did not need that from him.
It had been a few days since the incident. How could such an upstanding, forthright hero be punished in such a manner? To not only have her career ruined but also to lose her closest family?
They were sitting in the common area, Tsuyu, Iida, and Ochako. Todoroki left earlier to assist with local patrolling but was due to be back soon.
Iida emphasized with Uraraka's situation. Having close family attacked and wanting to retaliate was one thing but…
"She did this on purpose. It's my fault… but is she trying to provoke me?" Ochako muttered to herself again. This is all that had been on her mind since she had gotten over her initial grief at her parent's death.
It was either this or total despondence. Uraraka wasn't shell-shocked by any means, nor completely invalid, but it had been multiple times that both Asui and Iida had reminded her to eat. She had also not been sleeping, as evident by the dark circles under her eyes.
Bringing her to Recovery Girl accomplished nothing. Time was the only thing that could heal these wounds, she said.
Nezu had managed to stop Uraraka from being thrown out. He doubted the civilians really had that kind of power anyways, but the deeply rooted untrust was still there. It did not help that his close friend did not say anything in her defense, instead just staring blankly at the crowd.
All of her classmates had given their condolences at the tragedy, which to Iida's relief she gave some consideration- if only a nod. It was moments like these that Iida truly wished he had the ability to cheer people up. It seemed that none of Ochako's closest circle had that capacity- Tsuyu, Todoroki, and himself were rather stoic in the first place.
However, there was one who could do it, but he was not here right now. Midoriya…
"Iida, how… Why did you become a hero after Stain hurt your brother?" He was interrupted from his thoughts by the deflated girl that sat on the couch adjacent to him.
Iida had no idea where this conversation could be going. Yet he found no reason to redirect her question and answered honestly.
"I… I wanted to... Even though I said I wanted to stay true to our family's legacy and continue it, I honestly just wanted to be like my brother. After he was forced to retire, I wasn't so sure."
Iida paused, collecting his thoughts and pushing back old emotions.
"I don't think I could ever forgive Stain. I did many reckless things during that time, but after Stain was captured I… wasn't sure anymore. But now I want to live up to my brother's expectations. That, and I want to make up to Midoriya and our class for my mistakes as Class president. I'm not just a hero for my family anymore."
Uraraka was quiet, which left Iida a bit unsettled. Tsuyu sat next to her, soaking in his words. The only sound was the invisible noise of war inside Uraraka's head. Conflict glazed over her eyes and after a few minutes, she whispered a question that made his spine run cold.
"If you fought Stain again, do you think you could stop yourself from killing him?" Where she had previously been holding her knees, her eyes glazed over to him, peering over the top of her legs.
Her eyes… They were so familiar, yet did not match the usually carefree face of Ochako. They held such intensity, sadness, and rage, reflecting a version of himself that also went down this road. Iida was frozen speechless, her eyes paralyzing him.
"Ribbit, I don't think that's quite an appropriate question to ask him, Ochako-chan," Tsuyu, the ever-quiet observant one, quickly intervened, releasing Iida from Uraraka's gaze.
Scrambling to quickly regain himself, Iida quickly replied. "While I appreciate your concern, Asui-san, I will answer honestly." Something foreboding inside him told Iida that if he did not reply to this, something irreversible would happen with Uraraka. "I… I feel like I used to know, but now that I have time to reflect on my actions-"
He had to remind himself that what happened at Hosu was supposed to stay quiet. "-that… I should let someone else handle him. I can't trust myself to… not pull the metaphorical trigger, so to say." He said while pushing up his glasses.
It was obvious to some level that she didn't like that answer. Frowning slightly and looking away from him. Ochako got off the couch, her movements only dragged down by her accumulated exhaustion.
"Do you want to do something? If you're just thirsty, I can-"
"I'm going to train." Tsuyu and Iida shared a look.
"Ochako-chan, I think-"
"I'm going to train." She started walking away before they could regain their bearings.
-x-
They didn't understand. Her hero career and her reason to be a hero were destroyed the same day. If there was even much of a society to be a hero in, a dark part of her mind whispered.
Ochako knew what she wanted to do was wrong. Wanting to wring that little neck of that psychopath- she shouldn't do it. She recognized that. But as per her question, she wasn't confident she could stop herself.
The brown-haired girl wasn't allowed to be near the civilians anymore. They didn't trust her after the video and even blamed the deaths of her own pa-
Her lips quivered and her eyes wanted to itch. Stop that. A deep breath and the feeling was gone. Good, it was getting easier.
Easier, easier, easier.
So she was confined to the two training grounds and the dorms for the students. The lack of freedom sucked, but she could understand the para-
Why was she training if she couldn't be a hero? She dragged her feet to a complete stop, but then continued. Don't think about that.
It'd be easier for everyone if you disappeared. She supposed that was true- they could stop worrying about what the evacuees thought.
What was she anyway? She couldn't fight or help people, which made up the two parts of being a hero. So she'll just help from within the confines of this building?
What, like a cheerleader?
Rage shot through her, before joining the stew of emotions that was brewing in the cauldron of exhaustion.
So Ochako was useless, then. Can't help, can't fight, just a drain of resources. Not like Deku, who could do anything.
NO! No, no, no! Deku needed to come back! He was so alone out there.
But he was accomplishing so much…
If he got hurt, who would support him?
What, like YOU can? Ochako scowled, no it wasn't up to her. He just needed to come back.
But she didn't want to stay here. No one wanted her here. But then she would be like Deku… who needed to go back. She ignored that thought.
She pushed through the doors of the training gym, pushing past several members of class 1-b, who looked slightly wary of her. Ochako ignored them, opting to head to the weight lifting section. If she wanted to improve and improve fast, she needed to find new applications for her quirk.
How did her quirk function? The physics portion was unknown to her, but she was aware that if it was really "Zero gravity," then anything that she touched would just float off into space, as it no longer was attracted to the earth.
If so, what did her quirk do?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice.
"You look like shit, Round-cheeks." Bakugo said, giving his usual scowl, his eyes however lacking their usual bite, "I was wondering when you'd get off your ass and start training."
"...What do you want, Bakugo?"
"I figured you wouldn't sit still for too long. You and the damn nerd are too alike." He tossed her a familiar notebook. "You're on page 12. Before you ask, if the nerd didn't want me going through his stuff he should have locked his door."
This book…
"Hero analysis for the future, volume 15." She whispered.
"I'm not dragging your ass back if you fall asleep," He said, walking away. Despite that, he kept working out at a different spot, where he could still see her.
"Thanks, Bakugo." At least one person didn't try to discourage her.
-x-x-x-
All Might grimaced at his phone at the video and lengthy message Nezu had sent him. Young Uraraka's parents were killed from the inside and also had her likeness stolen which was then used to commit murder. Young Midoriya doesn't need to worry about this right now.
He had bigger fish to fight.
Their operation was a simple but harsh task. The top three Heroes, All Might, and a small handful of other heroes were currently established in a campaign to slowly dismantle villains who popped up after the recent Tartarus breakout.
One of the heroes doing a lot of the heavy work wasn't even in the top three, working under the radar to help quell problems as they arose.
Since fighting and most hero work was out of the question for All Might, he spent the time combing through police reports, radio frequencies and emergency hotlines and forwarding them to his protegé.
Toshinori checked his surroundings, making sure he wasn't being followed as he walked down an unassuming alleyway. He wondered what All for One was doing at this moment. Probably establishing or enacting an attack to further his influence over society. Something they desperately fought against but had less and less effect as time continued.
Because All for One had an infuriating amount of patience, he would probably work as long as he needed to dismantle trust in the remaining heroes, establishing his influence in lawmaking, all while resting after their battle at the hospital.
This was why Young Midoriya and the top three were so aggressive in their patrols and enforcement- they needed to follow any lead towards All for one, trap or not.
He came to a small dead-end with a gate to his left that led back into another alleyway for what was presumed to be a private club, before pausing briefly to look at a security camera straight in the lens. Slowly the gate moved to the side quietly, allowing him passage.
It was about an hour until their bi-weekly meeting. He went to turn off his phone but happened to see that he had just gotten a message from young Midoriya. He stated he couldn't make it. Something about a convenience store robbery that was in a city over.
He sighed and put his phone away. Rather than going through the door that led to the clubhouse, he turned to a dumpster. He reached around behind it to press a button on the back, allowing a small hidden pathway to reveal itself for him.
He walked through, hearing the mechanical shutting of the door that finished with a satisfying click. He kept making his way down the silent, concrete corridor before coming to a metal wall with a keypad, eye, finger, and blood scanner.
Above the doorway had a small message that said "No villains allowed" that screamed of Hawks' influence. All Might almost wanted to scrub it off, but if someone found this door the jig was up anyway.
He put in the 16-digit code and fulfilled the rest of the necessary procedure and the safe-like door opened up and allowed him inside.
He was greeted to the sight of Best Jeanist already being seated at the table, fidgeting with his long-necked denim. It seemed like Kamui woods was resting in the small lodging they had in a separate room.
"Like an old favorite pair of denim, you are always a good sight to see, All Might." The man greeted. All Might nodded at the younger man.
"It's good to see you too, young Jeanist. Have you heard from Endeavor and the others? I can confirm that Young Midoriya won't be able to make it." Toshinori spoke as he walked over to the small refreshment table they had set up.
"Again? As strong as he is, Deku needs to take time and talk to his peers, otherwise, they may get the wrong idea. Like loose-threaded denim- unreliable." He added as if All Might could somehow relate. "As for the others, Death Arms is pursuing a promising lead off of a small-time Tartarus escapee. According to Kamui Woods, Mount Lady is confronting a vigilante center about evacuating to a proper shelter."
"So Hawks and Edgeshot will be here?" Jeanist nodded. "That's good to hear."
The former hero poured himself some water and sat two chairs to the left of the denim hero. He was about to pull out a laptop, which was heavily encrypted and almost impossible to track, and start continuing his search, but was interrupted.
"I've gotten word of a traitorous student in U.A., although the rumor seems to be quite practiced and without blemish. I expect your close relations with Nezu means you're able to elaborate on this?" Jeanist said idly. They still had some time to kill before the meeting started, so All Might figured they might as well discuss current events.
"I've only recently learned of it, actually. I knew the student involved. She's actually a classmate of young Bakugo." He frowned as he looked at the cup of the water that he had grasped with both hands. "Young Uraraka is suspected to be framed by Toga Himiko. Until this point, Himiko wasn't known to be able to emulate quirks."
"And her principal believes her? Surely Nezu is quite possibly the smartest being alive, but even he is vulnerable to betrayal." Jeanist continued.
"He is quite convinced that she has nothing to do with the video and has performed necessary tests. Either way, he's pulling in a favor for Naomasa's lie detecting quirk." All Might summarized. "She's being… guarded. The civilians aren't quite fond of it as of right now."
That was putting it lightly. The dramatic shift that happened almost overnight certainly awoke the most primal emotion that led to irrational trust issues- fear.
Jeanist looked contemplative for a moment, before giving a solemn nod. "I don't know enough about the student or the situation to make any proper judgment, but it is good to know it is under control."
The conversation wound down as they resumed their research, waiting for the rest of the heroes to arrive.
-x-
"...I've no more leads from Muscular, although Deku had tried to reason with him beforehand, so I did not expect much from him anyways." All Might concluded, giving a nod to Jeanist, who took the handle.
"Thank you. Considering how stretched our fibers are already, I believe we should keep up with our status quo." Kamui woods looked like he was about to say something, but Jeanist continued. "If we were to make the search grid larger, there is too high of a chance that something would slip through our notice."
Kamui still looked like he wanted to argue, but bowed his head in acceptance. The fact that it had almost been a month since they started their top-hero search party and had yet to produce any real results was frustrating.
Suddenly, a noise came from their monitoring system and whatever Hawks was about to say caught in his throat. A small, sluggish green figure slinked into the alleyway that held their hideout's entrance. All eyes looked at All Might, but he looked equally surprised.
"He said he wouldn't be here… I guess he found the time…?" He pondered out loud, but no one said anything. They heard the mechanisms that held them inside the bunker begin to undo themselves, as they sat in silence. The doors gave way, revealing his small figure.
"Hey, Midoriya!" The boisterous Hawks spoke suddenly, waving to the young hero. The blonde, enthusiastic man was eating a small bucket of fried chicken, which no one cared to give notice to. Deku gave a small smile in return, but his overall somber tone made the smile rather muted.
"Young Midoriya, I thought you said you wouldn't make it?" All Might asked. The young man paused before continuing into the room, taking a second to think before responding.
"I didn't expect to… I mean, the situation was resolved faster than I expected. Danger sense wasn't going off and they- and I thought it would be a good time to rest. Did I miss anything important?"
Jeanist shook his head.
"We just wrapped up some loose threads on Muscular and gave our rather uneventful reports. Do you have anything to add?" Jeanist fidgetted with his hair as he spoke
"...No, not really." The young man said, shaking his head. He was caked in mud and his hero costume was covered in cuts, some with old blood stains. Midoriya was still dripping from the harsh rain.
"You look like you've had it rather rough, kid." Hawks spoke, "Why don't you take the first half of tomorrow off and I'll pull an all-nighter? Not a lot is going to happen considering the heavy rain anyways."
He swung around a chicken leg, wielding it as a substitute finger. Izuku looked longingly at the piece of meat, before breaking eye contact with it and shaking his head.
"I just need a short nap. And something to eat, something healthy, but thank you for offering." Deku said as Hawks offered his chicken mid-sentence.
"Suit yourself." The older man shrugged and bit into his chicken.
"...anyways, if no one has anything to offer, then we might as well just adjourn this meeting." Endeavor put in before anyone could make any other unrelated comment.
"..." the room was quiet as everyone looked at each other. They were all tired at this point, some showed it better than others, but they really couldn't afford hanging around for too long.
Endeavor sighed as he walked towards the metal door. "Meeting adjourned. See you in two weeks if you can make it."
All heroes left except for All Might, Deku, and Hawks, with Hawks deciding to finish his chicken bucket inside the compound while playing around on his phone.
"You're allowed to take a break, Young Midoriya. Even during my younger days- when crime was at its peak- I relied on others so I did not burn myself out." A small spark of life showed interest at hearing about the younger years of All Might but was dimmed by his exhaustion. A sign of a personality muted by responsibility.
All Might handed him a glass of water and ushered him to sit at the table. "I am relying on others, right? I am working with you and the other top heroes. That and combined with-" He shot a look at Hawks "them, I have plenty of help."
All Might hummed for a second while he thought of a proper reply, going to their pitiful kitchen-like corner to start the stove. Whatever bare-bones appliances they have will have to do, All Might figured.
He turned back to Midoriya as he prepped the materials. "Young Midoriya, at best we're assisting you. At worst? We're enabling this recklessness. Fried rice or curry?" He asked.
"...Curry, please."
The older man sighed as he pulled out the right equipment while shaking his head, "Even Endeavor knows better to run himself ragged like you are. If you slow down a little, I'm sure someone can fill in an hour or two every day so you can focus on resting once in a while." All Might said, deciding that making fresh rice and some curry would be more digestible than whatever pre-made stuff Hawks had shoved in the freezer. "Who knows, if I wasn't around to report the crime scenes, you might have even less of a workload."
"..." The green hero frowned, feeling himself grow comfortable in these chairs, his muscles relaxing a little. He should probably take a shower before he might accidentally fall asleep, but he couldn't help but feel his grip on consciousness loosen a little. "That would just be ignoring those who might need help… besides, it was you who said you could only help those within your reach. I should maximize my reach, then, right?
All Might opted not to reply as he kept making food, letting only the perfume of the sound of food marinate the air.
After a minute, the skeletal man broke the silence. "It'll be done in about 20 minutes or so. The food, I mean. You should go take a shower and grab a new costume. I brought a new set for you since it's been a while since you've been off the field."
Midoriya thanked him and started to push himself out of the chair, his aching muscles slowing his movements.
"Ultimately, Young Midoriya, it is up to you how you tackle this. But you must remember that you are our biggest piece against All for One and Shigaraki and you should not enter that fight in rags." All Might placed his hands on the shoulders of the young man. "I trust you to make the right decision, but remember that we're here to help."
The hero left, leaving the two older heroes alone. Without looking up from his phone, Hawks spoke. "You really like babying the poor kid, huh. I say let 'em fly high til the wax melts, but he's not my responsibility."
"You were trained to know your limits at a young age, Hawks. Young Midoriya has met his limits a few times, but… nothing this harsh." All Might returned. "He'll grow into self-care."
"He kind of has to, considering the alternative." Hawks said while chewing, impartial to his statement. A small pause, before Hawks changed the subject.
"So this Uraraka kid, she's some kind of hidden villain? There's a bunch of articles about it but I dunno if I trust these," Hawks stopped, looking for the word. "Conspiracy, websites."
They were the type to call the 'end' of the hero era, back during Stain. They were hardly credible in any sense, but they apparently had at least a little sway as they tended to bring topics into the discussion more often than not.
"No, she is not." All Might added sharply, thinking fondly of the young girl. "That young woman was framed by Toga Himiko. According to Nezu, Toga has unlocked the ability to copy quirks as well as appearance."
Hawks hummed, "Ome of these times, that rat's trust of his students will get him stabbed in the back."
"So I've heard."
And it was silent after that.
-x-x-x-
Deku should really learn to speak up more often. The many ideas he had for her quirk were not only amazing but well thought out in each of the new applications.
Some ideas obviously duds, but a few things stuck out to her.
"Unconscious control of the buoyancy of items under influence of her quirk" was a notable one, as she never considered her quirk as affecting buoyancy. She supposed that was a better explanation than zero gravity and might also explain some of the weird times it had conveniently gone up or down when she needed them to.
Ochako found that if she wanted, she could return gravity to affected items, but at a gradual rate. Meaning- she could return gravity to an item, but it wasn't instantaneous like her normal release was. If normal gravity was a 0 and actively floating upwards was a 1, it would take about 3 seconds for it to change from a 1 to a 0. This was likely something that was going to take a lot of effort to learn.
This meant that she could have her quirk applied to someone at all times and adjust it at will. Friend or foe, this was useful.
"Individual release of items affected by quirk, possible?" This was what she had tried to do when she had first gotten her quirk but hadn't experimented with nearly as much as she thought she had. Within 5 minutes, she was able to successfully turn off the gravity of an individual item by focusing on that one item and "releasing."
She had just simply assumed it was impossible. She had ignored the possibility of these two simple changes- yet their impact could have changed so much.
Another thing she had noticed- not mentioned in his books- was the sudden awareness of the items under the influence of her quirk. When she "focused" on that item, she had this sort of sixth sense- a feeling of how much it weighed, how much buoyancy she had attributed to it, and how far away it was from her.
The one thing Ochako was looking for, though, was a way to decrease the effect nausea had on her ability to influence her ability to fly. Her weight limit was hardly noticeable unless she attempted to affect more than about three cars in weight. The exception to this was affecting herself with her quirk.
The way to fix this according to Deku's notes? To float. To constantly be floating, even if that meant being constantly nauseous. Even if she wasn't floating.
Because this would normally influence her day-to-day life, he theorized combining decreasing her own gravity to being normal, she could basically operate normally, but with the stress of her quirk being on the entire time.
With a deep breath- she pressed her hands to the side of her body. Unless it got really bad- there was technically no reason she should ever really turn it off.
She felt the normal pit in the stomach- not helped by the fact that she hadn't eaten for a while- grow and gurgle silently, burning.
After a bit of effort- she hadn't gotten used to decreasing or increasing buoyancy yet- she returned her gravity back to normal. As Deku's notes predicted, the nausea was still there, but she could walk around normally.
Or so she hoped.
Having realized that it was extremely late, Ochako decided it was time to go back to the dorms. She had realized that both Tsuyu and Iida had decided to respect her wish of training.
She cringed as she went down the steps of the building, the shaking of her head releasing small waves of nausea.
She entered the dorms- only a five-minute walk now that they've rearranged the entire campus- and felt like the whole world was spinning. It was very tempting to-
An image of her parents' gruesome deaths flashed in her mind, grounding her. She grit her teeth. She refused the temptation, the thought many times fouler than any vomiting she wanted to do.
She opened the door to the dorms. This was many times longer than her previous best, having given in a lot earlier. Perhaps it was because she was actually on the ground that helped, but she liked to think it was because of the improvements she made.
Ochako thought about the notes in the book. "Because the anatomy of the person changes and accommodates their quirk, it is likely that Uraraka can force change on her body to adapt and maybe even remove the nausea that is caused when using her quirk. It is possible that the nausea she feels when she uses her quirk on herself isn't because she isn't used to it, but rather that it has gone so long without using it that it has 'atrophied' in some sort."
She liked the sound of that. The brown-haired heroine vaguely realized she should get something to eat, but that was likely not an option for right now.
This was going to be a long week.
-x-x-x-
It was very concerning, Tsuyu considered. After Iida and her had left Ochako to train, they had been keeping close tabs on her. After she had returned for the night, she had hardly eaten and looked sickly.
She somehow looked worse in the morning, exhaustion on her features but still pale and unfocused. When she was finally cornered about it- she had somehow managed to escape them more than once- she admitted to having her quirk active at all times. Normally Tsuyu would have been ecstatic for her friend to find a new use for her quirk- but it was actively killing her.
It was very fortunate that Recovery Girl was temporarily back- her services in high demand- long enough to give her a scolding and threaten her with feeding tubes.
As Aizawa was not here to disable Ochako's quirk, they had no way of convincing her to turn it off, at least long enough to eat. Whenever she looked remotely tempted, a steely resolve covered her face, strong enough to seemingly wipe away all other exhaustion.
By the second morning, Tsuyu noticed that her condition hadn't really changed, which was a good thing. The brown-haired girl managed to eat a little at that time and sleep.
On the third day, she looked much better with color finally returning to her face. She still looked terrible, but it was a vast improvement. This was also the day she returned to training her quirk, on herself and her environment. With and without her equipment leading to Tsuyu's eventual realization.
Ochako was terrifying. This became apparent when she sparred with Ojiro. Using her quirk to evade a low sweep and quickly retaliating with projectiles from the room, she lurched forward, disabling Ojiro's gravity and tying him up with the grapple hook on her suit. If she had overcome most of her nausea, then there really was nothing stopping her…
As they bowed to each other, Tsuyu noticed that her friend walked right back over to a bench, where she immediately turned to a notebook- a familiar one. After excusing herself from a conversation Mina and Toru were having, one she wasn't at all paying attention to, she walked over to her best friend.
"Where did you get that, ribbit? I thought…" Tsuyu started to say.
"Bakugo gave it to me. I thought he might have taken it too but I guess not…" A sad look passed over Ochako's face.
"I wouldn't expect Bakugo to care, ribbit." About Ochako or even Deku.
"I think Bakugo pays more attention and cares more than we give him credit for, Tsu-chan," Came Ochako's rather sharp response.
A moment of time lapsed between the two as Ochako returned to the notebook, pulling out a second, smaller, pink notepad of her own and writing a few notes on there.
"Why?" Tsuyu asked, "Why are you suddenly trying so hard, ribbit?"
Ochako looked up, frowning, "Are you asking me why I'm working so hard to improve when society is collapsing all around us?"
"Ribbit, I'm asking why you waited until now to do all these things." Tsuyu said evenly, suddenly wary of her friend's harsh replies.
"Because Deku is out there, making things better and we're just sitting here wrapped in a nice bow for the villains to get us. Because before that…" a saddened look crossed her face, "... happened, I thought everything would turn out okay. And now they're not."
A fire rekindled.
"They'll never be," she whispered so quietly that Tsuyu almost didn't pick it up.
A fire sobered.
"I thought you said we should bring Midoriya back from out there."
Ochako looked conflicted for a second, before settling on an answer.
"Just for a little bit. To rest, like I did yesterday. But, now that I'm all better I should be working."
Had Tsuyu not seen what Ochako looked like yesterday, she would not have called Ochako "all better," but she opted to ignore that.
"Still, ribbit, I think you should keep resting. It's not normal to be so active after-" your parents die "-something happens."
The brown girl's eyes lit in a bitter rage, catching her hitch and understood what she was saying.
"Why don't you support me, like Bakugo does? He hates being straightforward yet he at least was willing to help me when neither you nor Iida were willing to. Just leave me be, I don't need you to watch after me. Tell that to Iida too." She all but growled, conveniently ignoring Tsuyu's hand to help her up from the bench. She grabbed the two notebooks.
"I- I just don't want you to hurt yourself, Ochako-chan!" Tsuyu called out behind her, catching the gym's attention, Mina and Toru looking from their conversation, while Shoji and Ojiro paused their match.
"There's nothing that doesn't already hurt, Tsuyu."
Tsuyu fought not to break her stoic face as Ochako walked away.
-x-x-x-
It was times like these that Nezu really considered just entirely ignoring the civilians entirely. Just lock them away until the problems could be fixed and then slowly integrate them back into society.
He knew better, yet as he had to pour over the fifth message about how someone else could handle the current issues, he felt like he could snap. It had been two weeks since Toga's invasion. They had cleared out all potential bugs she may have placed as well as triple-checked every evacuee, student, and even staff.
When it was all clear, it was obvious that Uraraka had indeed been their target with this attack. Was it simply to undermine UA's ability to defend its walls and sow doubt in the evacuees? All for One is never one to shy away from an opportunity- but was causing a disturbance the worst thing that Toga could have done inside the walls?
There was a piece of a puzzle that he was missing, he figured. Put that aside then.
Uraraka had been making… a recovery of sorts. As her personality reflected, she bounced back pretty well from what could send people into months of dejection.
The principal had no doubt that this was fueled by revenge, as he was keenly aware that there was no easy way to safely stifle that fire.
But enough daydreaming, half a minute had passed. He was about to open another message from All Might when-
A loud notification hit his desktop as well as a notification from Thirteen.
"Student Uraraka has left her confinement."
Nezu frowned.
-x-
It had been 40 hours since Nedzu had last left his office, but right now he most regretted not looking after his fur. Appearances before the public were important, after all.
It was midday and the sky was deeply overcast, the sun hardly getting to shine out on UA's entrance courtyard. Standing in the center of all attention, before a crowd of stray morbidly curious evacuees, the odd student and defense robots, stood Ochako Uraraka, geared up in her Hero equipment.
15 evacuees, 2 students, and 5 defense robots. The students were two students from class 1-b, Neito Monoma, and Pony Tsunotori. Had she waited until her fellow students weren't here?
Her body language pointed towards the gated exit. Probably attempting to leave, but that had obviously put her outside of her restricted area. Oddly generous that his student had waited until he had arrived, given that she could just fly over the wall. Was she capable of being convinced otherwise?
"..." Nezu held his arms behind his back as he met the eyes of his wary student. The principal cleared the walkway between her and himself, leaving the pathway from the gate to the entrance of the school barren except for the student and the teacher.
If she wanted to put on a show, Nezu wasn't going to be afraid to meet her at her level.
"I'm leaving." The girl curtly said, "Are you going to stop me?"
With such wording, it was less that she questioned whether or not he could stop her, but rather if he was willing to admit to it. So she knew her position. Uraraka wanted to leverage the evacuees, a level of cleverness he hadn't expected from the student, given her history.
"Do you want me to? Perhaps this is something best discussed over tea, child." Puns were great at bringing levity to such a situation. It didn't seem that she appreciated it, but it did not cloud her judgment.
"I'll pass." Ochako Uraraka stood against the offer of tea.
"If this is about your parents, I'm sorry for leaving the cameras open for you to see that." Nezu struck at the problem. This attempt to flee most likely came about from that, or from the video. Nezu suddenly realized that it might have been a combination of the both, mixed with the civilians' rather strong distrust of her.
More people were gathering to see the commotion, but still no more class 1-a students. If he could bring them here, perhaps he wouldn't have to be the one to convince her.
For a brief moment, it looked like there was a little girl in front of him. Scared of what happened, wanting to be reassured, and scared about her future.
But then the hero returned.
"I… yeah."
He quickly racked his brain for names. "I'm sure Asui-kun and Iida-kun would hate to see you leave, you know. Do you at least want to say goodbye to them?"
"I already have."
There was no way someone as discipline oriented and diligent as someone from the Iida family would just allow this to just happen. Is that why class 1-a isn't here?
He shot the class 1-b students a look. The young man looked vaguely disinterested, par for the course with his personality apparently, while the horned student looked nervous.
"I see. If I cannot convince you of staying," if these evacuees didn't think you were a criminal and a trouble magnet, "then can I at least offer a parting gift?"
Ochako faltered.
It took all her will to keep her composure against the steely, analytical look of the principal. He was keenly aware of the trap that she had set the moment he had set foot out in the yard.
Her tongue stung after she bit it to refrain from retaliating at the president.
But a farewell gift was the last thing she had expected, let alone to be let go so easily. Before she noticed her face giving way, the principal pounced at her vulnerability.
"Yes, as I care about my students, I would like to remind you that if you would ever like to come back, as a principal, I would welcome you back into open arms. This is the same offer I extended to our mutual green friend."
Nezu had immediately given the battle to her in favor of winning the war, it seems. Ochako internally scowled. Why bring Deku into this?
I could still become a hero…?
The thought came unannounced and she quickly suppressed it.
"Is that all?" She asked. Those binds she had trapped in the 1-a dorm weren't going to last longer. If she had to confront any of her friends about this…
"No. I wanted to give you something that may help you for while you're outside. Thirteen! Please come here."
Thirteen, who up to this point had been waiting for orders patiently, walked up to the president. After muttering between themselves for a moment, Thirteen handed over what looked to be a burner phone and after a second of playing with it, Nezu slowly walked over to her.
Tensing at the anticipation of contact, she stared at the short, white creature.
A little quieter, he said, "This has a bigger present inside, described on the notepad within."
Ochako frowned at him, "This has a tracking chip in it." she said, a bit louder so that others could hear her.
The crowd murmurs to the side of them and the look that Nezu gives her is temporarily stern as if to say, 'you shouldn't have said that.'
He sighed, releasing a breath. "Yes, it does. It's also a security line in case something were to happen to you."
He gestured for her to lean close, which she obliged.
"This is a mistake." Shooting ice down her spine, her face giving away her surprise. "If you go through with this, the password is 0-5-1-8. The phone wipes all memory on a third consecutive failed attempt."
Abruptly turning with his hands now behind his back, he gives her a final, undistinguishable look.
"Good luck."
-x-x-x-x-x-
Cross-posted to AO3 for the first time, so sorry if you saw this on both websites and was thinking it was something different.
I genuinely don't like a lot of the content on that website, but it's hard to argue that they have a lot better system. The only thing I really prefer about Fanfiction over AO3 is that the tag system functions only some of the time. They also tend to have a lot better grammar than on FF.
They are also really obsessed with M/M fanfics. I don't know why. Perhaps they don't see dudes being friends very often? Here is the note I left them:
Apologies to those who saw the 'minor character death' and did not immediately think that Ochako's parents were going to die.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I made this because I felt as though the IzuOcha-to-all fics were astonishingly low. One of the things I want you to be aware of is that I don't ascribe to many of the 'internal tropes' of this category. These characters are all based on my impressions of the CANONICAL characters. I do feel as though Ochako occasionally acts the most out of character, but for the sake of a good story, a little bit of bending is okay. Plus, considering what Iida did during Hosu, I don't really think it's that crazy of an idea.
I used to think that Hori wrote female characters very well and that they were well represented, but that was also before five seasons and 300+ chapters. So, I killed Ochako's parents to put her into the story, sue me. The fact that Ochako is likely the female character with the most screentime is unbelievable to me as it feels that she is hardly there when it matters.
Romance is secondary and probably won't be relevant for at least a few chapters. I've almost finished the second chapter but likely won't post it until the third chapter is ready to go. I also have no experience with writing romance, so play nice, please. I would also like to say that because I relish in details, the pacing may get a bit weird. I really had to push myself along the story instead of nerding out over Zero-gravity's new applications, but you'll definitely see that later. I also borrowed a few ideas from other fics for her quirk but modified them so that they wouldn't be broken. Sort of. Zero-gravity was already busted, but I wanted to make it less inconvenient and less intrusive to the flow of combat.
Also considering having Ochako write the hero version of the communist manifesto (joking, obviously). I've also placed a few fun jokes inside this fic for careful and observant readers.
