Ochaco groaned at the sound of her alarm clock going off on her side of the bed. She turned over and tapped the button to silence it with two fingers, then she sat up and turned to her green-haired significant other still sound asleep on his side.
Her chapped lips curved into a smile and she bent down to kiss his freckled cheek before climbing out of bed and hitting the shower.
Hanging in their bathroom was a fresh pile of underwear and her hero suit, hanging neatly on a hook nearby.
"Today is going to be a big day!" She thought. "While Deku is off on patrol for a dangerous escaped prisoner, I'll be assigned to assist an ambassador from the United Kingdom and his escort hero as they meet with Japanese government officials! Obviously they couldn't have picked a better candidate than me! Right?"
She brushed her teeth and grabbed a pastry from the kitchen before heading out dressed head to toe in her baby pink and navy blue costume.
The young heroine caught the right train to take her to her rendezvous point at the Tokyo International Airport.
As she stood up in the crowded car, a few school children pointed in her direction and whispered to each other smiling. Eyes big with excitement.
Ochaco couldn't help but smile back and wave. But they kept giggling and whispering. Curious, she looked around to double check that the children were talking about her, when in fact she was wrong.
Turning around, she saw a high-resolution image of Deku punching a powerful monster in a busy city area. She remembered hearing about that day and was worried about him. Thankfully he walked away from that fight without much damage and with positive attention from the media.
But she was doing an interview that day... about what it's like being a married couple and both full-time pro-heroes.
It didn't often bother her. Okay, maybe sometimes it did. However, Ochaco was supportive of Izuku from the first day they met. And they looked out for each other.
In her eyes, they made the perfect team. Especially when they were stationed together on patrols and assignments. Her favorites were assignments that paired them up that didn't have to do with the fact that they're a married hero couple.
Not many people see that though. A great hero team. They mostly just see a cute couple. And with the usual tropes too. The handsome husband with his super strength and stamina, and the beautiful wife who...
Her mind kept going back to the past times they were paired up. It was like her husband was a magnet for the terrifyingly powerful villains.
Bank robbery by a villain who could turn his whole body liquid, solid, or any viscosity in between. Ochaco used her Quirk to float up into the windows to scope out the scene from above, then Izuku would barge in through the doors with lightning speed, and kick or punch the villain down until he fell unconscious, or overused his Quirk in some way.
Another time when a villain with a kinetic energy Quirk was purposefully throwing himself into traffic to absorb enough shock and energy and redirect it on the police forces. She tried dropping heavy objects on him to knock him out but they only made him stronger, which made it more difficult for Izuku to overpower him. That time he didn't walk away unharmed.
Ochaco shook her head. "No! You're better than this. And Izuku knows it's not your fault... It's not his fault either..."
From the moment they were married, her friends, although very supportive, were afraid that Ochaco would wind up in Izuku's shadow. They both wanted to be heroes. But the media loves heroes with the biggest and brightest and flashiest Quirks. Even if hers was anymore impressive, next to him, she was honestly not much to look at.
And it wasn't his fault. She knew that. In fact, due to his nature of insecurely overthinking everything, he was aware of this throughout their time dating, and the night he proposed, and their wedding day. He gave her love and appreciation and attention that no one else could.
But it was still hard.
"It's selfish to want the attention of others." She thought. "But that's part of the gig of being a hero. The more popular you are, the better your job and your life could be."
She still had Izuku and his side of the work. He paid the bills and she got the groceries. Yet, it could be nice to get more attention too.
Ochaco felt she had to give up on becoming the best. In high school, she challenged herself above everyone else. To become the absolute best. She went head to head against one of their generation's most powerful heroes, their classmate Katsuki Bakugo, and made it far. But lost.
Her desire to be the best, realistically began to fall. She didn't let anyone know that. Not even herself.
But marrying Izuku changed her in that aspect. Almost like she let him cast a shadow over her.
Before she could think about it anymore, her stop came and she had to walk out with the crowd.
The heroine approached the gateway to the airport where a limousine was parked on the side of the road.
"Are you the Zero-Gravity Hero Uravity?" An elderly gentleman asked in a fancy chauffeur uniform, standing on the side of the vehicle.
"Uh. Oh, yes! Yes I am." Ochaco smiled nervously and stepped forward bowing to him.
He returned the bow with a warm smile. "Then you must be here for Ambassador O'Reilly." He nodded.
"Yes. The one from the United Kingdom, yeah?" She asked.
"Well, 'O'Reilly' isn't exactly a very eastern name now, is it?" He chuckled.
Ochaco chuckled back, feeling much more comfortable now, knowing at least that the limo driver was a nice guy.
"Aha!"
They both turned to see an older man in a simple suit with grey hair combed back, escorted by a rather muscular man in a brown hero costume, some strange plaid skirt over his pants, and very red hair and beard. On his shoulder sat a small lizard of some kind.
"For-give me. My Ja-Pan-Nese is not ve-ry good." He said a little slowly and chippy as he walked over and gave Ochaco and the limo driver a firm handshake with both hands.
The hero bumped his shoulder and whispered something in his ear.
"Oh right right!" He turned back to Ochaco and the driver and bowed.
They smiled and bowed back.
"My apologies." The ambassador said. "It's my first time in Japan."
"On behave of Japan, we welcome you!" Ochaco said happily.
"I take it the officials weren't able to welcome us either." The ambassador shrugged.
"Nope. We are simply here to escort you to your meetings." The driver smiled and gestured to the limousine door.
"Ah, perfect!" He smiled.
The hero smiled with him.
Ochaco just then noticed, apart from the slower Japanese, that the ambassador spoke with an accent, like something from the old Sherlock Holmes movies she used to watch. It made her smile. She liked it. If his Japanese was any better, she could listen to him give speeches.
But the red-haired hero escort was mysteriously quiet.
"Oh, where are my manners?! Miss, my name is Ambassador Donald O'Reilly." He said.
"Yes! They told me about you before I came here." Ochaco informed him kindly.
"Ah right. An-And here's my escort, the Scottish Density Hero Growth-Rate." Ambassador O'Reilly said turning to the hero at his side. "Forgive his quietness. His Japanese is very good, he's just trained himself to wait until being invited to speak."
The hero Growth-Rate gave her a smile and a bow. "My my, miss. It's a pleasure to be welcomed by one of the most beau'iful heroes I've ever seen."
Ochaco gave a nervous laugh. "Ah well, that's very kind of you..."
His accent sounded very different from the ambassador's. He was probably from a different part of the United Kingdom.
"And I don't mean that by looks. Real women are beau'iful by their power..." He smiled. His eyes scanned over her but stopped at her hand, noticing her wedding ring.
Ochaco was a little confused by his flattery but forced a smile anyway.
"Shall we then?" The limo driver broke the formalities and tapped on his watch.
"Yes! Let's not spend the entire trip here in the airport!" The ambassador said. "Onward!"
Ochaco smiled again listening to his accent.
Inside the limo, the ambassador kept asking Ochaco questions about life in Japan. And life as heroes in Japan. From her answers, they learned that she was indeed married and to another hero.
"Oh! That's very wonderful. And I suppose the bills are easier to pay then, eh?" O'Reilly asked.
"Well, yes." Ochaco said.
"Wait a minute. Now I recognize you, lass." Growth-Rate said. "You're married to Deku, aren't ya?"
Ochaco smiled and nodded. "Yes! I am."
"Aye... That's probably not always easy, I imagine." He sighed.
"Growth-Rate." O'Reilly scolded him.
"I'm serious. It took knowing yer husband to recognize ya. Does that happen of'en?" He asked.
"W-Well..."
"Don't ask personal questions like that, Growth-Rate. People don't do that in this country. This isn't Scotland." O'Reilly informed the hero.
"My apologies." Growth-Rate sighed and sat back in his seat.
Ochaco managed to change the subject more on them. "What's that lizard doing on your shoulder?"
Growth-Rate picked the animal off of himself and let it climb all over his hand as he held it forward in front of her.
"This is Zizi. She was discovered in the Himalayas years ago. Plane crash in the mountains. Everything was destroyed...except for her." Growth told. "After weeks of nursing her back to physical and mental health, I found that she has a Quirk."
"A lizard with a Quirk?" Ochaco asked.
"It was speculated... that the plane was carrying rare genetic anomalies: Animals with Quirks. One of the creatures got loose and destroyed the plane from the inside out." He said. "Back in my earlier days of international hero work, I was called in to investigate."
"What is her Quirk?" Ochaco asked.
Growth smirked at her. "This may not be the best place to show you." He winked.
Ochaco smiled and sat back against her seat.
"You can show her when I'm in the meeting, Growth. Maybe you two can give each other advice." O'Reilly suggested.
The vehicle soon pulled up to the driveway of a large glass building. One of Japan's government office buildings within one of Tokyo's finest wards.
The three stepped out and thanked the limo driver before walking inside and being greeted by the government officials and a few more foreign ambassadors. Along with a German Hero with unnaturally large feet and a Swedish Hero with long strands of hair moving around her head like tentacles.
The German Hero couldn't speak Japanese so he remained silent, but still apart of the conversations sparked up by the Swedish Hero, mostly complimenting Ochaco's outfit.
"Now would ya like me to show ya Zizi's Quirk?" Growth-Rate asked. The lizard bouncing excitedly on his shoulder, licking her eyeballs with her long tongue.
"Definitely!" Ochaco said bouncing on her heels.
Up on the rooftop, the heroes were given freedom to display their abilities as trust exercises. The Swedish Heroine Goldilocks let her hair extend out in many directions and the strands snaked around independently. The German Hero, referred to as Austanzen jumped high in the air then crashed down leaving a large crater in the roof where his feet landed.
Growth-Rate held out his hand and let the lizard jump out. But before she reached the ground, he whipped out a lighter and flashed its flame across her body her body. And what hit the ground was much larger than the lizard a second ago.
What stood before them on four legs, then two legs, was what appeared to be a Chinese Dragon. The only similarities between the lizard's original form and this one were the color patterns in the scales, and her eyes.
"Impressive!" Goldilocks cheered.
"That is amazing!" Ochaco said. "She's beautiful!"
Austanzen scoffed, apparently not impressed.
Growth-Rate frowned at him.
"Now what's your Quirk?" Ochaco asked.
"Actually I 'ave to use the ol' latrine. I'll be back real quick. But I will tell you its name first: Density Gain." He smirked.
"Oh okay! ...Latrine?" Ochaco questioned.
"He means the bathroom, sweet pea." Goldilocks informed her.
"Oh but wait! Is it safe for him to leave Zizi here like this?" She asked.
"We'll be fine. What's a dragon lizard gonna do to top notch heroes like us?" Goldilocks asked.
Zizi sniffed at them and got down on all fours. She had long limbs that ended in sharp claws.
The heroes seemed to keep their distance with the animal. Zizi was trained with Growth-Rate, and acted as his partner. But how was she on her own?
Ochaco jumped slightly as she thought she heard Zizi growl at them. Quills on her head behind a set of horns stood on end and her tail swayed back and forth behind her legs.
"That's like something an angry dog would do..." Goldilocks said.
Before Ochaco could react, Zizi already lunged forward, swinging herself around, and swiping the heroine with her tail.
Ochaco's body tumbled back until she hit her head on the concrete wall and blacked out.
~~~~~~~
She woke up and found herself alone on the rooftop. No Zizi, no Goldilocks, no Austanzen.
How embarrassing. One hit and she was knocked out. At least Zizi didn't lash out like any wild animal and finish her off.
"Wait a second..." She thought. "If she was just a wild animal, she would have probably killed me! If Growth-Rate spent years training her then that means anything she does, she was trained to do..."
What was she thinking? She stood back up, feeling a small cut in her scalp which made blood trickle down the side of her face.
"I can't just accuse Growth-Rate of this attack. Zizi is an animal, with a Quirk. That makes her even more unpredictable even with years of training. She probably didn't respond to the situation well being separated from her trainer. Either way, it's something to approach Growth-Rate about regardless! He needs to take better care of that lizard!"
Then again, she was left here all alone. No matter where the situation went, one of the other heroes should have been there to protect her and bring her someplace safer. Seemed like an easy task. Yet they abandoned her. At least it looked that way.
No time to make assumptions now. Now it was time to catch up and see what really happened while she was knocked out.
The heroine made her way back down cautiously. Her nervous thoughts made her tap herself with her Quirk, allowing her to float through the halls of the building without making a sound, then tapping her fingers together every corner to regain gravity.
It was quieter in the halls than it was before. The building is always full of meetings and quiet businesses being done, but this was a whole new kind of quiet. A still quiet. Even with the carpeted floors, no noises were heard.
Ochaco passed by a window to the outside and had to double check what she glanced over.
Sure enough, down at the bottom were rows of police and SWAT vehicles, men with megaphones, and a helicopter circling overhead.
"Attention all terrorists! Release the hostages and surrender yourselves now or we will use lethal force!" One commanding officer said through a megaphone.
Ochaco couldn't believe it. While she was knocked unconscious, terrorists captured everyone in the building and were holding them hostage!
She gasped, feeling an overwhelming sense of failure and powerlessness.
If only Deku were here... He would...
"No..." She thought.
The words of her husband rang in her mind. He gave it to her the night he proposed.
"I want you to stop and think, Ochako... Not what All Might would do or Yaoyorozu or even me. What would YOU do? Please do that... Not for me, for yourself... The world needs to know who Uravity is."
He has such a way with words.
Ochaco stood tall and grew a look of determination in her face. The same look she gave when she fiercely and bravely faced off against some of the strongest enemies anyone had faced before. But most impact-fully from the sports festival her first year of high school against Katsuki Bakugo.
And to add to it, her lips curved into a smile.
"This is Uravity to Growth-Rate. Come in, Growth-Rate." She said, tapping on an earpiece in her helmet added on when she clocked in for the mission.
"U-Uravity? Aye, am I glad to hear a friendly voice again. What happened to ya? The whole place went to shite when you disappeared!" He said through the radio into her earpiece.
"Don't worry. I'm not captured. I'm making my way to the main level now. I'm scoping out the scene. Tell me what you see." She said.
"Well... Where are you currently?" He asked.
"Tenth floor, north side I think. Anyone nearby? Where are the terrorists?" She asked.
Growth-Rate suddenly swung around the corner nearby "Right here." He said swinging his fist at her face.
Ochaco gasped and couldn't react fast enough. His fist grazed her jaw and pushed her off balance.
"Ah!" She yelped.
He lunged forward swinging at her with another punch. But despite the previous hit sending her in a daze, she was able to dodge.
She tapped her body and kicked back in his face, sending herself flying down the hall.
"You're goin' ta regret that, wee lass!" He shouted and rubbed his jaw from the kick.
"Why are you doing this?!" She shouted.
He simply chuckled and chased after her.
She tapped her fingers and flipped back, landing on her feet and skidding on the carpet some distance.
He closed in on her fast but she tackled him, estimating his method of attack and countering it with martial arts she picked up in her various internships during the course of her high school years.
With a quick reversal of combined body weight, she flipped him off his feet and pinned him down.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked. "Answer me!"
He laughed. "Ya think I'm intimidated by ya? Ya look like a pink marshy-mallow."
"It's not about intimidation, Growth-Rate. It's about getting you to talk." She hissed.
"Oooh, feisty. You'd make a good Scottish dame." He winked.
"Shut up and take this seriously!" She snapped.
"Or what? What are ya goin' ta do, Uravity? Make me float?" He snickered.
Ochaco grimaced at him and threw his body up on his feet before shoving him back with all ten of her fingers.
He floated up for a moment before dropping back down. He smirked as his feet remained stuck to the carpet.
"What kind of Quirk do you have?..." She asked.
"I already told ya, lass. Density Gain." He laughed. He then launched his foot up and straight at her chest.
She tried to jump back but caught the tail end of the kick, still feeling immense pressure cave in on her ribcage and knock the breath out of her lungs.
Growth-Rate smiled and picked her body up as she struggled to breathe again.
Before long, he carried her to the open conference room near the bottom level and tossed her inside along with the ambassadors and government officials.
Alongside Growth-Rate were Austanzen, Goldilocks, and Zizi blocking the exits.
"O'Reilly. Get yer ass over here. You're one of us!" Growth shouted.
The ambassador O'Reilly remained seated with the others. "I-I can't do this, Growth. I never liked the idea and I changed my mind!"
"But ya agreed to do it in the first place, so keep yer promise!" Growth-Rate demanded.
Zizi stepped forward at the ambassadors while Ochaco slowly regained control of her breathing again on the floor before them.
She growled and jumped up, tapping the dragon with her hand and running by.
The animal roared and yelped as it lost control of its ability to stay on the ground and float toward the ceiling.
Goldilocks quickly unleashed her hair toward Ochaco.
She ducked, missing the strands that reached out to her above, and slid forward tackling the Swedish villainess.
Ochaco simply slapped her across the face then jumped off, kicking her away and not looking back, but knowing full well from the yelling that she too was airborne.
Austanzen and Growth-Rate rushed at her with great speeds.
Ochaco tapped herself and leapt up into the air above them, but Austanzen leapt up using his large feet and held one leg out to kick her.
But she reacted and twisted herself around to avoid the hit, yet still slap a part of his body.
She watched as he continued to go up in a permanent incline of his jump, smacking into the ceiling.
"Yeah!" The ambassadors cheered.
"Uravity, watch out!" O'Reilly shouted.
Growth-Rate used his Quirk as he picked up an office chair, swung around, and hurled it in her direction.
Assuming he made the chair's density much greater, she knew that tapping on it to prevent it from falling or hitting her would use up a lot of her energy and her Quirk, but there was hardly any time to avoid it.
Instead, she tapped her fingers together, regaining gravity, and falling out of sight of the now-heavy chair, which crashed through the wall and to the open public lobby below.
Quickly, Zizi and Goldilocks regained their balance and charged Ochaco again, who was also back on solid ground.
"No more tricks!" Goldilocks shouted as she ran, unleashing a wave of her tendril hair.
Ochaco evaded the attack off to the side and began to tap on empty wooden chairs. "Give me stuff to make weightless!" She called.
The ambassadors began to roll office chairs and desk supplies in her direction as she ran from Goldilocks and her hair. As she passed by, she tapped more and more.
Meanwhile, Ochaco caught Zizi in her peripheral vision growling and snapping at the ambassadors behind them.
Growth-Rate tapped at Austanzen to wake him up, but he hit his head too hard to recover just yet.
Ochaco stopped to catch her breath. She was beginning to feel the limit of her Quirk approaching quickly with all the objects in the room she touched.
One more thing to get.
"No more running. No more games." Goldilocks hissed.
"I agree..." Ochaco gulped. She lunged behind the Swedish villain, dodging her hair which instead began to wrap up the ambassadors, and tapping the long conference table.
With a kick from her legs, the table lifted up into the air above the scene.
As everyone looked up to see it, Ochaco released everything.
Goldilocks gasped as an office chair landed right beside her, narrowly missing her, only for another one to hit her completely.
More office chairs hit Zizi before she could attack the government officials. And one wooden chair landed on Austanzen, who was just barely waking up.
Growth-Rate roared out in anger when a chair hit him in the head, but then hit the ground like it had no affect on him.
Then the table crashed down on top of Goldilocks, Austanzen, and Zizi's tail which ripped off completely.
"It's...over...Growth-Rate." Ochaco said, feeling even more lightheaded. It felt like a flock of birds trying to fight their way out of her stomach.
"Is it? Ya look like ya can't even stand fer much longer, lassie." Growth smirked.
Zizi pulled herself from the table and watched as her tail began to grow back.
"See, now imagine if a hero such as Deku were in yer place. I would've been arrest long before any of this." He taunted.
Ochaco glared at him.
"He's comparable to All Might himself! And yet you thought you could make a living being a hero...when yer husband will always cast his shadow on ya." He continued.
She walked forward weakly and slowly.
"Ya can't even use yer Quirk too much or ye'll get sick. And it's the smallest limits I've ever seen." Growth said. "Ya know, me an Goldilocks an Austanzen set this all up with our countries' ambassadors because we wanted to make names fer ourselves. So the nations with the world's greatest heroes know that we deserve a chance too... You can be a part of that if ya want." He offered her his hand.
Ochaco thought for a moment.
Then the words of Izuku rang through her head again. "If the greatest hero in the world...my hero...supports me... I don't need anyone else." She said.
Just then, Zizi appeared from behind her and tackled Ochaco to the ground. Her claws began to tear through her costume like scissors on wrapping paper. She winced and grabbed on to the animal's head as she was about to bite the heroine's neck.
Zizi was then kicked up into the air again. Ochaco jumped up, mustering up energy with an adrenaline boost, performed a near perfect swinging kick, sending the dragon flying back. She tapped her fingers and watched as gravity did the rest, implanting it into the wall hard and fast.
Then she turned around and slapped Growth-Rate's hand away.
"Ya gonna try and lift me up again with yer silly balloon Quirk?" He laughed.
"Yep." She said.
Growth-Rate began to increase his density again, but something was happening. No matter how dense he was growing, he still felt his feet leave the ground.
"NO! Wha- How?!"
"Don't you understand how gravity works? No matter how heavy an object is... in zero gravity, it floats... I just didn't push you hard enough the first time." Ochaco announced.
Growth-Rate roared in anger as he slowly ascended up.
Ochaco then grabbed an office chair and tapped it, then performed the same move he did earlier, swinging the object and releasing it in his direction, tapping her fingers together and watching as the chair smacked him back, through the wall, down the few flights of stairs and crashing into the lobby just as the police burst through the doors.
The adrenaline began to wear off. The rest of her energy was depleted. She stumbled back only to be caught by Ambassador O'Reilly and the others.
What followed were all good things, thankfully. Ochaco had done her part. The villains were all out of commission, so their arrests went smoothly. People were shocked at the lack of preparation for this sudden attack, and trusting in rookie heroes who turned villains from three countries with ambassadors and government officials. But most of the attention was on the brave young heroine Uravity.
That she, a bubbly, adorable, gentle young lady could take on some strong attackers and at the same time.
After some checkups by emergency medical personnel, and some quick interviews with reporters, she was honorably dismissed for the day and escorted to her train.
That evening, she came home to find Izuku desperately trying to save dinner from burning in their oven.
"Ochaco! Oh no!" He scrambled around, pulling the chicken curry out and the rice. A little overdone, but nothing burned.
"What's this, Izu?" She asked with a warm smile.
"J-Just thought I'd make you dinner for when you came home. Y-You're earlier than I thought. I haven't even had time to check the news." He stammered.
Her smile grew bigger and she ran up and hugged him. "Thanks, sweetie... For everything you do."
Izuku returned the smile and the hug back to her. "So, before I let the news tell me, how was work for you?"
"It was amazing." She giggled. "I can't wait to tell you all about it."