Fog lifts to reveal potential
For generations prophesied
Our growth to be exponential
Our promise finally realized

I can see the earth below me
And I can
Feel it turn

"Katsuki! It's time to get up!"

Katsuki Bakugo groaned as his father turned on the light in his room, waking him from a deep slumber. "Daaaaaad," he whined. "Jus' five more minutes. Please?"

"No can do son," replied his father. "It's your first day of first grade! Isn't that exciting? You get to wear a uniform now!"

The boy grumbled. He didn't particularly like the uniform. The pants and cap were green. He hated green. He'd much prefer black. His older brother got to wear a black uniform to middle school.

He slid out of bed and padded to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth, the All Might jammies he got from his great-uncle hung loosely on his body—they were still a little big on him— but they were comfy and despite having an old school hero on them, he still liked them. They made him feel powerful. Like the hero he wanted to be.

Washed and dressed, Katsuki went downstairs for breakfast. His brother Daiki was already at the table dressed in his school uniform, picking at his rice and arguing with his father. "But I don't want to go visit Uncle Masaru and Aunt Mitsuki," he whined. "They're always so sad."

"Daiki," their father warned. "You know why we visit them. They're getting on in years, and love to have visits from their nephews."

"I'm not their nephew, you are," grumbled Daiki, earning a stern look from his father. He winced, and tried a different tack. "Send Katsuki! They like him better anyway."

Katsuki's head perked up at the suggestion. "I can go by myself!" He didn't know if his brother was right about his great-aunt and uncle showing favoritism, but he did always enjoy going for visits. They usually gave him presents.

Their father sighed. "All right," he said. He looked at the clock. "Daiki, you need to go now, or you'll be late."

Daiki jumped in surprise, downing the rest of his rice in a flash, grabbing his bag, and dashing out the door with a shouted "goodbye" over his shoulder.

Katsuki took a scoop of rice and put an egg on top, stirring in the protein. He had time to enjoy his breakfast, his school didn't start for another hour. After a couple of bites, he looked up, and noticed his father was staring at him. "What?" he asked around a mouthful.

His father shook his head, as if clearing a memory. "It's nothing." He took a bite of his own breakfast, before looking at his son again. "Why don't I walk you to school today? For your first day!"

Katsuki smiled. It wasn't often he got one on one time with his father, he usually had to share his attention with Daiki. "Sure, Dad! Sounds great!"

Father and Son walked hand in hand down the street to the elementary school near their home. Katsuki looked up at the cherry trees along the road as they walked. They were almost in full bloom, and he was excited for the weekend when his family would go down to the park for a picnic under the blossoms. He looked up at his father, and frowned when he saw the expression on his face. The man looked like he was far away, thinking hard about something. "Dad? What's wrong?"

The elder Bakugo shook his head, returning to the present for the second time today. "Sorry, Katsuki," he said, smiling at his son. "I've been thinking about something all morning, and I think it's time I told you all about it." He gave his son's hand a loving squeeze. "About what your brother said about your aunt and uncle looking so sad all the time."

Katsuki looked owlishly at his father. There was a big secret? Why hadn't he been told?

His father blew out a breath. "When I was a boy, I had a cousin who was a few years older than me named Katsuki. I looked up to him. He was smart, driven, always wanted to be the best. He was going to go to U.A. and be a hero, the greatest there ever was." He looked up at the cherry blossoms, his eyes getting a faraway look in them again. "I wanted to follow in his footsteps, but your old man's quirk just wasn't good enough for hero school."

Katsuki's jaw dropped. This was the first time he'd ever heard about this cousin. "Can I meet him?"

His father shook his head sadly. "No, I'm afraid not. He died when he was sixteen. He was still a student, saving people from a wicked villain, when that villain killed him. You know Deku, right?" Katsuki nodded. Everyone knew the number one hero. "The way I understand it, my cousin saved Deku's life when he was sixteen by pushing him out of the way of a villain's attack, and taking the hit himself."

He crouched down to his son's level. "When we found out that your mom was pregnant with you, and that you were going to be a boy, I went to Uncle Masaru and asked if we could name you after their son. After their Katsuki. It took them a while to get back to us. We almost named you 'Haruto' instead! But when you were born, and your Aunt held you for the first time, she said that you looked just like their son, and they'd be proud to let us name you after him."

Katsuki looked at his shoes as he mulled over this revelation. He looked back up at his father. "Can I see a picture of him?"

His father smiled. "Sure, kiddo." He pulled out his phone. "I know I have one here somewhere." He started to scroll through his pictures, going through his cloud folder back a couple of decades to when he was taking pictures as a boy. "Here we go," he said, showing his son the screen.

The picture had been taken when cousin Katsuki was in middle school, wearing a dark uniform and a scowl. His piercing red eyes stared directly into the camera, as if daring the photographer to request a smile

Katsuki blinked. "I thought you said I look like him?" He pointed at the screen. "He's got blonde hair and red eyes like Aunt Mitsuki! I have brown hair and eyes like you, Dad!"

His father chuckled, putting his phone back in his pocket. "Yeah, he took after his mother. We Bakugos tend to have darker colorings." He put a hand on his son's cheek. "But you have a similar jawline and cheek bones. I think the two of you look like you could have been brothers." He stood, taking his son by the hand again, and resuming their walk.

Katsuki pondered some more. "What was his quirk?" he said after a few more minutes.

"He could make explosions from his hands."

Katsuki looked down at his own palm. His quirk had come in last year, but all he seemed to be able to do was make his hands hot. He'd heard that heroes had to train with their quirks to make them stronger, and wondered what he'd be able to do if he tried a little harder…

"Good morning class!" said the teacher in a singsong voice. "My name is Miss Kasumi Tendo, and I'm going to be your teacher for the year."

"Good morning, Miss Tendo," recited the class from their desks.

The teacher smiled serenely. Katsuki felt a warm feeling spread through his body at the sight of it, and wondered briefly if that was her quirk. "Now, I know you probably know each other already because you were in kindergarten together, but why don't we go around the class and introduce yourselves to me. It will help me learn your names!" She motioned to the boy in the first seat to her right. "Please stand up, tell me your name, what your quirk can do, and what you want to be when you grow up."

Katsuki sighed, putting his chin in his hand and fiddling with his pencil with the other as his classmate stuttered through his introduction. School had barely started and it was already boring as heck. No more open classroom with plenty of room to run and play, now he had to sit at a desk and pay attention to the teacher. His gaze wandered out of the window. He smiled slightly at the sight of a cherry tree through the glass, his mind drifting once again to thoughts of the weekend.

He vaguely noticed that the brown-haired girl in front of him stood to take her turn, and figured he'd better pay a little attention so that he didn't get caught daydreaming by the teacher. The girl was wearing a white shirt similar to his, and a green pleated skirt the same shade as his pants. To Katsuki, she was pretty interchangeable with the other girls in his class. He sighed. She probably had a quirk that grew flowers or something, and wanted to be a veterinarian…

"My name is Uraraka Ochako, my quirk is… um… gra-vi-ty ma-ni-pu-la-tion, and I wanna be a hero!"

Katsuki's chin slipped off of his hand in surprise at the declaration from the girl. A hero?

"Oh my!" said Miss Tendo, covering a smile with her hand. Ochako had obviously been coached about what to say to that answer, and it would not do to laugh at her pronunciation. "That is quite a mouthful for a young student! Do you understand what it means?"

The girl nodded enthusiastically, her hands coming up in fists by her sides. "Uh huh! It means I can make things float!" To demonstrate, Ochako picked up her pencil with her fingertips, then let it go, allowing the writing implement to float slowly to the ceiling. "I can only do it with small things right now," she explained. "I'm practicing though! And some day I'll be able to lift cars and stuff!"

Miss Tendo smiled serenely at her student. "Well I think that's just wonderful!" Ochako beamed at her teacher before taking her seat.

Katsuki sat staring at the back of Ochako's head, his jaw dropped and mouth wide open. This girl just stole his thunder! He slammed his hands on his desk, feeling the sizzle as his quirk activated and he scorched the shellack on the wood. "I wanna be a hero too!" he cried loudly.

"That's wonderful!" replied Miss Tendo. "Two little heroes in my class! I've never felt safer!" Katsuki looked up at his teacher questioningly. He didn't detect any snark or sarcasm in her expression or tone… "Now, can you please stand beside your desk and tell us your name and quirk?" she continued.

Katsuki flushed as he heard some of his classmates snicker. He stood, eyes downcast, studying his shoes. "'M Bakugo Katsuki," he mumbled. "M' hands get hot."

"How interesting! Do you know how hot? Can you make tea?"

Katsuki looked up. Again, there was no note of anything but pure interest in her face. Was his teacher really this serene? "Um… No, I can't boil water yet, it doesn't last a long time." He saw Ochako glance over her shoulder at him. "But I'm training to make it stronger too!"

"That's wonderful! Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help." Her eyes left his, and focused on the student in the front row who was next."

Katsuki sighed, taking his seat. He rubbed at the black handprints he'd left behind on his desk during his outburst, scrubbing away the soot. Thankfully, the damage was light, but he'd have to be more careful in the future if he didn't want to get into trouble.

His work finished, he looked up, and saw Ochako looking back at him again. She gasped softly at being caught, and turned to face forward again.

Katsuki stared at the back of her head, unable to concentrate on anything the teacher said for the rest of the day.

As the school day ended, Katsuki wandered out of the school, clutching at the straps on his backpack. After that interaction with the girl in front of him that morning, he'd spent most of the rest of the day trying to think of how to better train his quirk. He needed something to show the class that he wasn't just some silly kid who wanted to be a hero. That he was serious, and would be just as good as that girl, maybe better!

Unfortunately, he'd run into a dead end. He didn't really know the first thing about quirk training, and didn't really know what to do other than "try harder." It was discouraging.

"Katsuki!" called an old, cracking voice as he walked out of the school. It pulled him out of his thoughts, and made him look up. He smiled when he saw the man who was waving at him.

"Hi Uncle Masaru!"

The years had been long, but kind to his great-uncle. While his hair was completely gray, he still retained most of it. His skin was mottled with liver spots, and he walked hunched over a cane. But he still had all of his faculties, and would tell Katsuki the best stories.

The man smiled as his nephew approached, then tousled his hair "Your dad said you were going to come visit us today, so I figured I'd come pick you up!"

Katsuki giggled, moving his head out of the way of his uncle's hand. "Uh huh! Can we have Aunt Mitsuki's spicy curry for dinner?"

Masaru chuckled. "It's simmering on the stove right now. Your aunt started making it this afternoon as soon as your dad told us you were coming."

Katsuki threw his arms up. "Yay!" he cheered, then did a little dance as they started the walk to Masaru's car.

All buckled in, Katsuki kicked his legs and hummed to himself as they drove to his uncle's house in the next district over. As they stopped at a light, Masaru looked back at him in the rear view mirror. "So how was your day today?" he asked.

Katsuki shrugged. "All right, I guess. It's just school."

Masaru chuckled. "Did you make any new friends?"

Katsuki shook his head. "Nobody seemed that interesting." The light changed, and they drove in silence for a while. "There was one girl," he continued. "She was kind of annoying."

Masaru grinned to himself. Sometimes the old tricks worked on the new kids just as they always did. Just keep quiet, and they'll volunteer more information all by themselves. "Oh? How so?"

"Tch. She said she wants to be a hero."

Masaru felt a small stab of pain lance through him at the sound of derision he made. The boy really did remind him of his son. He swallowed around the lump in his throat before speaking again. "And why is that so terrible?"

Katsuki crossed his arms, grumbling. "I wanna be a hero."

"Does that mean this young lady can't be one?"

Katsuki sighed. "No. But her quirk is so much better than mine! It's not fair!"

Masaru shook his head, but a smile returned to his face. "No, I'm afraid it isn't." He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "After dinner, why don't you join me in my study, Katsuki. I want to show you something."

Katsuki instantly was pulled out of his funk. He'd never been invited into his uncle's study before. In fact, he'd been instructed to stay out. "Okay!"

Dinner was delicious as always, but Katsuki barely tasted it. He was so excited about whatever his uncle wanted to show him, that he could hardly keep still. He still made sure to clear his plate, he wouldn't want to disappoint his aunt after all.

Finally the moment had arrived, and he followed his uncle down the hall, and through a door that had been closed to him his entire life. Inside was a large desk with a sewing machine set in the table top. A television was mounted to the wall across from the desk, and bookshelves lined the walls, filled with books and magazines about sewing and fashion. A few of the magazines were displayed prominently on stands or in frames, and Katsuki noticed his family name was printed on the covers.

Katsuki was amazed, his jaw hanging open as he took in his surroundings. "What do you do in here Uncle Masaru?"

Masaru chuckled. "Once upon a time, I used to design and sew clothing in this room. But that was a long time ago. I retired before you were born." The old man walked over to one of the bookshelves, and browsed among a shelf of leather bound sketchbooks. "Ah, here we are," he said, pulling a volume down. He shuffled over to the desk, and sitting, he patted his lap indicating that he wanted Katsuki to sit with him.

Katsuki climbed up onto his lap, and Masaru opened the book. Inside the cover, a picture had been taped. Katsuki recognized him instantly, it was the same boy his father had shown him that morning. He looked up at his uncle. "That's your Katsuki?"

Masaru blinked in surprise, then smiled sadly. "Yes," he said. "Your dad told you about him?"

Katsuki nodded. "This morning."

"Good timing!" He turned the page, showing lines of handwritten text, with sketches interspersed. Katsuki couldn't read all of the kanji, but the sketches showed a figure training in various methods: push ups, weight training, and something with large tanks of water over a campfire.

Masaru pointed to the date at the top of the page. "My Katsuki was sixteen years old when he wrote this. He was a student at U.A., and well on his way to becoming a hero. This is one of his notebooks about his training routine." The old man chuckled. "He always was very detail oriented. He took notes all the time. A habit he picked up from his friend I think." Masaru closed the book, and handed it to Katsuki. "I'd like you to have them. Maybe you can't do everything in the book right now, but as you get bigger, I think it will help you figure out what the next step in your training should be."

Katsuki's eyes lit up with excitement. "Wow, really?"

Masaru chuckled "Yes!"

The boy gave his uncle a big hug. "Thank you!" He rushed over to the shelf where the other manuals were being held, and bounced excitedly as he waited for Masaru to come and hand him the rest of the books.

That evening, as he waved goodbye to his nephew, his wife noticed the sad smile on his face. "What's the matter?" she asked.

Masaru sighed, wandering back into the living room and sitting on the couch. "I gave him Katsuki's old training manuals."

Mitsuki's eyes widened in surprise. "What the hell were you thinking? What will his parents think?"

Masaru chuckled at his wife's fiery temper, still burning after all of these years. "That boy was going to figure out how to be a hero one way or another." He smiled at her. "He's got the Bakugo fire in him. Just like our son."

Mitsuki sat on the couch next to him, sighing heavily, and laid her head on his shoulder. "Yeah," she agreed. "He's more and more like Katsuki every day."

Masaru put his arm around her shoulders. "And if we can prepare our nephew now, then maybe he won't end up like our son."

Katsuki put the picture of his father's cousin up on the bulletin board in his room, and found space for the manuals on his bookshelf. He sat at his desk, and with his kanji textbook, started to go through the manuals, filling in the furigana when he figured out what the symbols meant.

He also started his own notebook. If his cousin took notes on everything he did, then he would too. He'd have to ask his parents for some weights to do some of these exercises, but he could do pushups in his room, and there was a pull up bar on the playground at school.

He got to the part with the sketch of the water over a campfire he'd noticed earlier. If he was reading this correctly, his cousin would put his hands into hot water as training. By the looks of the picture it had to be nearly boiling.

Katsuki chewed on the eraser on his pencil. His dad did say he could make explosions from his hands, but he didn't say how, and neither did anything in the manuals. Of course it wouldn't, the author knew how his quirk worked. The manual was never intended to be read by anyone but him after all.

Well, Katsuki's quirk worked with his hands too. Maybe he should try it. He shut the book, and tucked it under his arm, leaving his room, and heading to the kitchen.

Katsuki grabbed a pot, filled it with water from the sink, and put it on the stove top to heat up. His mother had been teaching him how to cook simple things since he was a toddler, and he knew how to boil water to make instant ramen. He read the instructions in his manual over and over, trying to make sure he understood what he was doing, as he waited for the water to boil.

Finally the water bubbled. Katsuki turned the heat off, and let the water sit for a few minutes. He figured if ramen was cool enough to eat after three minutes, then it wouldn't hurt his hands. Finally ready, he took a deep breath, and dipped his hands in the water.

Katsuki sniffled pathetically as his father applied burn salve to his hands and wrapped gauze around them.

His father sighed. "Where did you get the idea to do this anyway?"

"The other Katsuki did it…" the boy mumbled. He pointed with his chin to the open book on the counter.

His father blinked in surprise. He quickly finished bandaging his son's hands, then grabbed the book, and started flipping through the pages. "Where did you…" he started, but then stopped when the picture of his cousin fell out of the book and onto the floor. "Uncle Masaru?"

The boy nodded.

His father sighed, bending to pick up the photo. "I'll have to have a talk with him about age appropriate gifts…" He put the picture back between the pages and closed the book. "I think maybe this needs to go on a shelf for a few years."

Katsuki's expression changed from pained to panicked. "No! Don't take it away! I did it for hero training! I need to get stronger!"

"Katsuki, you burned your hands! If you'd left them in the water any longer, you could have severely damaged them!" He knelt down, and pulled his son into a hug. "You're only six years old. You don't need to be in such a rush to get stronger."

Katsuki buried his face in his father's shoulder, crying. Through the sobs, the older man could hear his son speak. "I'm s-sorry! P-please don't take it away! I w-won't do it again!"

His father sighed, opening the book behind his son's back, and staring at the photo once more. "Okay," he said after a few moments. "Tell you what." He pulled his son away from his shoulder, and looked him right in the face. "This book is going in my office. HOWEVER—" he interrupted before Katsuki could protest more. "I'm going to read it. And you and I will go through the training regimens TOGETHER to make sure you don't get hurt like this again."

Katsuki blinked in surprise, then smiled widely. "Really?"

His father returned the smile, nodding. "Yes. But you have to promise me that until I say you're old enough to train on your own, you don't try anything out of this book without me. Understand?"

Katsuki nodded hard. "Yes! Um…" the boy's expression changed to a thoughtful one. His dad didn't say anything about the other books, but then if he was going to talk to Uncle Masaru, he'd find out about them. He'd probably not try that loophole. "Uncle Masaru gave me some other books from Katsuki as well. There are a bunch of them."

His father sighed. "Thank you for telling me, Katsuki. Where are they?"

A few days later, the gauze came off of Katsuki's hands, and he and his father started pouring through the training manuals every day after school. His father had told him they should read everything first to get a good grasp on how the training worked. Not only would it be safer for his son, but they could more easily see what progress was being made.

Katsuki found himself having a hard time paying attention in class, as he anxiously waited every day for the time with his dad reading through the manuals. But he knew that if his cousin made it into U.A., then he had to too, and he needed to keep his grades up in order to be accepted into such a prestigious school. That was all the motivation he needed to keep his attention on Ms. Tendo.

The final bell at the end of the day rang, and the door of the school burst open as students piled out of the school and into the playground. Some kids immediately ran for the slide or swings, knowing they had a few precious minutes before their parents arrived to pick them up. Others shuffled their feet sullenly along the sidewalk, glaring jealously at the kids playing, when their parents who had arrived on time called out to them.

Today, Katsuki had been told at breakfast that his father would be late picking him up, and that he should enjoy himself while he waited. Part of him was disappointed that he had to wait longer to start training, but the happy screams coming from the playground acted as a lure, and he figured that resting and relaxing was also an important part of training. He immediately ran over to the swing set, figuring he was fast enough that he'd beat his classmates to one of the four seats hanging from the armature. However, as he rounded the corner of the school building that led into the playground, he skidded to a halt in dismay when he saw that he wasn't fast enough. All of the seats were taken.

Katsuki sighed heavily. Well, maybe he could go down the slide while he waited for his turn? No, if anything, the lineup for the slide was longer.

He was about to trudge over to the monkey bars when one of his classmates jumped off of the swing at its peak, flying through the air, and landing hard on her feet, dropping to her hands and knees from the momentum. He smiled. If she was done, he could take her seat. He rushed over, grabbing onto one of the chains as it went past.

The girl grumbled to herself, as she pushed up from the ground, dusting off her hands and knees. It wasn't enough… She turned to go back to the swing, only to find the seat taken, and a brown haired boy pumping furiously to gain momentum. "Hey!" she called out. "That's my swing!"

Katsuki frowned at her as he swung. "You jumped off! It's my turn now!"

"I'm doing important work!" she protested, stomping a foot in anger. "Hero work!"

That got Katsuki's attention. He stopped pumping, putting his feet down to slow himself to a stop, but maintained his seat, and clutched the chains tightly. "What kind of hero work?" he asked, skeptically.

The girl walked right up to him, her brows drawn down in a furious scowl at him. "I'm training my quirk. I can't make anything big float, so I'm trying to make myself float, or at least slow down how fast I fall. The swing is helping. If I'm flying up from the swing, then it should be easier to float."

Katsuki blinked owlishly at her, which only seemed to frustrate the girl more. Her face screwed up into the meanest scowl she could possibly muster, as she waited for him to get off of the swing.

Katsuki was dumbfounded. He remembered this girl from class now, she'd said she wanted to be a hero. Sure, some of the other kids said they wanted to be heroes, but this was the first kid he ever met who was doing something about it. Other than himself of course. What was her name again? It started with O, he knew that because her face was round. Ozubarudokatsumi? No, that didn't sound right.

Then he remembered one of the pages in the training manuals, and how that other Katsuki could fly through the air using the explosions that emanated from his hands. A huge smile bloomed on his face. This wasn't in the training manual, so surely it would be ok…

Ochako squeeked in surprise when instead of getting off of the seat, he backed up and started to swing again, pumping furiously. She had to quickly step out of the way as he climbed higher and higher on every pass. Safe from getting bowled over. She balled up her fists and stomped on the ground again. "I'm telling Ms. Tendo!" she shouted at him. She turned to march back to the school, when the sound of chains rattling, and a small "pop" drew her attention. Looking back, she saw Katsuki had jumped off of the swing at its peak, and had his hands outstretched behind him, a look of concentration on his face.

He landed hard on his feet shortly afterwards, but maintained his balance. He stood up, and turned to face her, a huge smile on his face. "Did you see? I flew further than usual!"

Ochako looked at him, confused. "So?"

"I did it with my quirk!" Katsuki showed her his hands. "I used to only be able to make things hot with my hands, but now I think I can make little explosions! I pushed myself through the air like my cousin used to do!" He grabbed Ochako by the wrist, and dragged her back to the swing, which had lost its momentum and was hanging down. "Come on! If I can do it, so can you!"

Ochako squeeked again as she was roughly put in the seat of the swing. Then she cried out in surprise as Katsuki pushed her back to get her moving. "Hey! I can do it myself!"

"Just go!" he said excitedly. "We'll take turns and help each other! I dunno, measure how far we go." He reached up as she approached him, and gave her a big push. "It was your idea for training, and I did it! Now I want to help you do it too!"

Ochako couldn't help herself. Her anger had disappeared at his enthusiasm for her idea. She laughed loudly as she built momentum, until finally she jumped off, pressing her hand to her chest. As she landed, she looked back over her shoulder to see Katsuki looking down at his feet as he paced out the distance.

"Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three!" he declared as he reached her. "Ok, Round Face! My turn! And you can push me and count how far I go."

The scowl reappeared on the girl's face. "It's not 'Round Face' you meanie! My name is Ochako!"

"And I'm Katsuki!" he replied as he lept off of the swing.

Ochako had to admit, his enthusiasm was rather intoxicating. She quickly ran over to the swing, and started to count out paces.

The kids continued to take turns on the swing, both encouraging each other to do better, and competing to see who could go further. An observer wouldn't be able to tell if they were actually affecting their distance with their quirks, but the kids certainly thought it was, and their excitement helped to quickly forge a friendship.

In fact there was an observer nearby. A man all dressed in green stood just out of sight behind the trunk of a large ginkgo tree. He leaned against it heavily, having been stunned by what he overheard, and pulled the hood of his costume off of his head, trying to catch his breath. His hair might have matched his costume in color in his youth, but these days it was largely faded, and streaked with silver.

Deku had been on patrol in the neighborhood when he heard the children rush out of the school and start to play. He always liked listening to kids play, it helped calm him, ease his mind. It reminded him why he was a hero: so that the world was safe enough to hear their laughter.

He'd just landed behind the tree, and was leaning against it resting for a minute, when he heard the pair introduce themselves. The sound of their names hit him like a truck, and he'd nearly collapsed to his knees. He'd only known Uraraka when she was a teenager, so he couldn't be sure that the voice was the same, but he knew Ka-chan's voice. He still heard it in his dreams from time to time.

Midoriya put his other hand over his mouth, as he struggled to keep from crying; to keep from making a sound. Had he heard them right? Their names were Katsuki and Ochako? That couldn't be a coincidence.

He dared a peek around the tree, watching as the boy took his turn on the swing. He certainly looked familiar, but he wasn't an exact match for the boy he knew a long time ago. His coloring was slightly different, but the features were the same.

As for the girl, he felt hot, wet tears stream down his cheeks as he got a good look at her face as she discussed strategy with her companion. Her hair was longer, but those cheeks. He'd recognize them anywhere. And when she held up her hand, gesturing something to the boy, he saw the pads on her fingers.

Midoriya turned back behind the tree, clutching at his heart. Thirty-five years. He'd carried their memories for thirty-five years, more than double the amount of time they had lived. He thought of them every day. Every villain he brought down was for them. Every lost child recovered was in their memory. Every civilian rescued was in their honor. And now, here they were again. And they'd already found each other.

Midoriya didn't really believe in reincarnation. Not really. He wasn't sure what happened after you died, but now he was convinced that at least some people got a second chance. He clenched a fist. And he was going to make sure these two made it this time.

He turned back to the kids, grinning as Katsuki asked if Ochako wanted to come over to talk about training. He even asked what kind of tea she liked, and smiled wider when once again her taste for hibiscus tea matched that of his departed friend.

He could have stayed there all day watching the kids, when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, fumbling and nearly dropping the device in his haste. "Hey, Sho-chan," he greeted his husband, sniffing. "Yeah… Yeah, I've been crying. It's okay though, they're happy tears." He turned back to watch as Ochako launched herself from the swing, a huge smile on her face, which was matched by her friend on the ground. "Oh, I just ran into some old friends." He listened for a second, then chuckled. "Yeah, you do know them. But you'll never guess who they are."