Chapter 2: Ochako

Deku's face, pale and bloodied, was the last thing Ochako could see as he was swallowed up by the dark pit beneath them. She wanted desperately to jump after him, but she would never make up the speed needed to reach him and administer her quirk to stop his fall. She waited after he had vanished, moment after moment, hoping to hear a soft and peaceful landing, but nothing ever came. The fall had been long, and the landing most likely harsh.

"Deku-kun…" Ochako trailed off in barely a whisper. "Wha–what do we do?"

The three sat and stared over the edge into the black abyss, no one answering her question, for what seemed like ages. Finally, desperate for one of them to do something, Ochako leaned away from the edge and pulled out her cell phone.

"What are you going to do, call him?" Bakugo sneered in her direction. Though his tone was rather hurtful, Ochako nodded.

"I want to know that he's safe. This will give me that reassurance."

"Or freak you out even more if he doesn't answer." Bakugo mumbled, then returned his gaze to the hole below them.

He's probably right, Ochako grimaced. Deku looked like he was about to pass out before we lost sight of him. Even if he did land safely, he could be unconscious.

But she didn't let the worry stop her. With shaking fingers, Ochako selected Deku's name from the favorites list in her phone and held it up to her ear, waiting for the dial tone. With each ring, she could feel tendrils of anxiety begin to creep around her heart like vines of ivy around a fence gate. No answer.

"Should we call a Pro-Hero?" Tsu-chan's voice offered somewhere to her left. Ochako opened her mouth to respond, but as Deku's cheery voice rang through his answering machine and as she stared deeper into the darkness below, no words came.

"No," Bakugo filled the lingering silence. "We can take care of this ourselves. We need to if we're ever going to be Pro-Heroes.

"There's probably a subway track deep down under this area of the city," Bakugo spoke quietly as he pulled away from the edge and turned to Ochako and Tsu-chan. "There's a station not far from here, but with the state of this massive rift in the ground, whatever tunnel might lead to here has probably collapsed."

Ochako's eyes widened. Of course! The subway runs under the city and it can't be that far below ground. A small sense of peace washed over her and sparked a small ember of hope that they might be able to get to Deku sooner than she thought.

"Can we get access to the subway maps, cross-referenced with the city building maps anywhere?" Ochako asked, just managing to keep her voice from trembling. Bakugo nodded as he stood and brushed dust off his pants. He proceeded across the building rooftop as Tsu-chan and Ochako followed.

"I think if we talk to someone at the school, like Aizawa-sensei or Principal Nezu, and inform them of what's going on, they can get us access to something like that. We'll need to convince them to keep us involved. They'll probably want the police and some Pro-Heroes to take charge with all the damage to public space."

Bakugo stopped as he came to another edge of the rooftop, where a metal fire escape staircase ran down the outside of the building. He began descending, feet moving quickly but hands tightly gripping the railing, fingers pale, Ochako noticed. She turned to her left to check on Tsu-chan, whose eyes looked watery and distant. Ochako intertwined her fingers with Tsu-chan's and offered the best smile she could manage.

"Thank you for trying to save Deku, Tsu-chan. You were the only one of us who thought quickly enough to do something."

Tsuyu looked back at Ochako, the tears in her eyes really beginning to well up. She squeezed Ochako's fingers, then couldn't fight back her need to hug her friend. Both girls shaking, Tsuyu let Ochako lead her down the fire escape after Bakugo.

Their walk back to U.A. was frantically paced, ranging from nervous sprinting to shock-strained, slow trudging and then back again, all in silence. The girls never stopped gripping each other's hands, while Bakugo kept his hands lodged in his pockets and his eyes on the ground in front of him. He always stayed a few paces ahead of them, refusing to look their way. Ochako suspected it was because he didn't want to show that he was just as shaken as she and Tsuyu were.

As they approached the school, Ochako could see that Todoroki, Iida, Momo, and several others were sitting on the porch of the dorm, chatting casually—waiting for them, obviously. When the three began walking by them quickly, Todoroki raised his head.

"Where are you three going? Where is Midoriya-kun?"

Bakugo, acting as if he hadn't heard, picked up his pace and kept walking. Ochako couldn't stand just ignoring Todoroki, seeing the slight concern cross his face.

"Go on ahead with Bakugo, Tsu-chan, I'm right behind you guys," she said, then turned to face Todoroki and the others on the porch as Tsuyu scampered to match Bakugo's pace. "It's… a long story." She breathed heavily as the words came out, flinching from the pain of reliving again what had happened less than an hour before.

Todoroki shifted his weight and offered Ochako space on the porch step next to where he was sitting. Ochako sat down slowly and carefully removed her helmet, tenderly moving her injured hand to keep the wound from reopening.

"Tsu-chan and I met Deku-kun and Bakugo on the way home from the hero agency and we were all cornered by a huge group of Villains." Not wanting to make the story as long as it truly was for fear that she wouldn't be able to get through it, Ochako spat out an abbreviated version. "Basically, we all found shelter on the roof of a building, but one of the guys had a quirk that opened up a huge rift in the ground and Deku fell into it." She rested her head on her knees and brought her arms up around it, sighing heavily in her attempt to hide the tears that were now falling freely.

She could suddenly feel Todoroki, never one to be emotionally open, rest a hand on her back and begin to gently rub in small circles. She turned to the side to catch a glimpse of him without raising her head. Todoroki was staring ahead of them, his eyes distant much like Tsuyu's had been. He didn't ask her to elaborate.

"So you all were on your way to go tell Aizawa-sensei," Momo offered. Ochako lifted her head to see that she was standing directly in front of her, hands on her hips despite her concerned expression. Iida stood next to her, and Kirishima was standing not far off, slowly inching in the direction of the academic buildings. Ochako nodded. "Then let's go." Momo held out a hand, offering to hoist Ochako to her feet.

The group jogged and quickly caught up with Bakugo and Tsuyu, who were just reaching the academic building where the faculty office was located. Since it was still only early evening, Aizawa-sensei would likely be finishing up there. The students raced up the stairs, then ushered themselves into the faculty office. The others waited close to the door while Ochako, Bakugo, and Tsuyu approached Aizawa-sensei at his desk. Bakugo, seeming to Ochako to have regained the most composure out of the three witnesses, took the lead in explaining the story in far more detail than Ochako had initially shared with the other students.

There were other faculty in the room when they entered, including Midnight and All Might himself, who all perked up when the three began. When All Might heard Deku's name mentioned, he arose and came around the bank of desks to stand behind Aizawa-sensei, placing a hand lightly on his shoulder. Ochako watched the two teachers' expressions as their story continued, noting that both looked grim. All Might, however, looked as if he were in pain. His mouth contorted into a strong grimace and she could see veins of tension building up around his eyes, so often already cloudy now that he had lost the strength he once had.

Once Bakugo had concluded the story, Aizawa-sensei rolled his chair around to face All Might.

"Before we make any other plans, we should notify the police of what happened so they can issue a shut-down order to the subway operators," Aizawa-sensei said. Midnight approached the group as he finished.

"It's already taken care of," she said as she reached them. "I'm familiar with the area the kids described. Luckily, it's not a hotspot for the subway and they only have trains running through that tunnel about four times a day. The last time was at around three p.m. and it won't run again until around ten p.m. No threat of a train colliding with debris from the incident for another few hours at least, but the police are already working on shutting down that route."

"Thank you, Midnight," Aizawa-sensei flashed a fleeting grin of appreciation. She nodded in return.

"They're also working on sending over some maps of the subway lines so we can send someone out to search for Midoriya."

Just as Bakugo predicted, the teachers are handling this efficiently and leaving us no time to offer our own assistance. Ochako thought as she watched Midnight turn to All Might, who had remained silent since the end of the story.

"It should take some time to do that, however, so–"

"Midnight-sensei!" Ochako spoke for the first time since entering the room. The three teachers jumped a bit as they turned to look at her.

"Yes, Uraraka?"

"We would like to help, if we can be of any service in finding Deku-kun. Since we were there, we might be able to offer some kind of insight that Pro-Heroes might be unaware of, with all respect to them, of course."

The three teachers looked at each other, seemingly at a loss for words.

This is hopeless, Uraraka thought. There's no way they'd let three students, one of whom doesn't even have his hero license, do something so dangerous. She wrung her hands together, feeling the knife wound beginning to sting, as she waited for them to respond.

Then All Might, who still hadn't muttered a word, pushed past the other two teachers and approached her. He squatted down to Ochako's eye-level and placed a hand, surprisingly trembling slightly, on her shoulder.

"Of course, Uraraka. Your experience in this situation is crucial." He smiled widely, then displayed a thumbs-up with his free hand. She watched as his eyes traveled down to her hands, continuing to wring themselves together. "Oh, you're wounded Uraraka."

He stepped back as he and the other teachers proceeded to scan the three students up and down, taking account of the scrapes, gashes and bruises they had accumulated. Uraraka and the others had been so desperate to share what happened to Deku that they didn't bother to explain the wounds they had received.

"Alright, here's what we'll do." All Might said after a moment. "You three will visit Recovery Girl's office before she finishes up for the day and then head back to your dorm for a good night's rest. You will need to rebuild your strength. We'll send out a squad of police and a local hero tonight to do a preliminary sweep from both the hole in the ground and as far as possible down the subway tunnel. In the morning, we all will join them after you're fighting fit again."

This was the best option they would have to help save Deku, Ochako supposed, and what mattered the most was that he was found, regardless of the role she played in the saving. She nodded slowly, seeing out of the corner of her eye that Tsuyu beside her did the same. Bakugo just stood stoically, offering neither agreement nor protest.

"Now, get going, all of you," Aizawa-sensei motioned for them to head towards the door, where he locked eyes with Todoroki. "You all see to it that these three actually do as told." Todoroki nodded, then opened the door and began ushering everyone out.

Ochako was the last to leave, shutting the door behind her. She stopped in her tracks as she heard the teachers resume their conversation, assuming the students were all out of earshot.

"All Might!" Midnight growled beratingly. "You can't possibly assume you'll be out in the field tomorrow. Without your strength, you're no longer fit to be responsible for those children's safety, I hate to say."

Aizawa-sensei followed up: "She's right, All Might. If we come into a situation searching underground where a portion of the tunnel collapses or there's falling debris, you might not be able to shield them. We can't just let them come along, nor you."

"These kids are more than well-equipped to handle something like this," All Might retorted. "Uraraka especially has a quirk that is highly suited to dealing with falling debris or moving pieces of a collapsed tunnel. She'll shine in this environment."

Ochako clutched her hands close to her heart, ecstatic at the level of support All Might was showing for her. She had never known All Might had observed her quirk during training and knew the ins-and-outs of it so well. His interest in particular students always seemed to be centered on Deku.

"As for myself," All Might continued, "it's true that I'm not in the best shape of my life anymore, but you know how much Midoriya means to me as a student. I have to know that he is safe."

After a long moment of silence, in which Aizawa-sensei and Midnight were probably either staring down All Might or passing looks to each other, they relented.

"We'll meet you outside the students' dorms in the morning, All Might," Aizawa-sensei sighed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to request tonight's preliminary search force and check the status on Midnight's order for the subway maps."

Ochako heard muffled footsteps, some leading into various corners of the office while others seemed to be heading towards the door. She raced down the hallway to catch up with the rest of the group on their way to Recovery Girl's office.

After their wounds had been attended to, Ochako returned to the dorms along with Bakugo and Tsuyu. There was little they cared to share in terms of small talk as they were walking, so each mostly kept to his or herself. As they walked through the door of the dorm, however, Ochako was met with the pleasant smell of curry powder, garlic, and ginger. She followed the others forward and into the dorm kitchen, where class 1-A was cooking up a storm.

"Welcome back, friends!" Iida beamed at them as they approached. "I hope your wounds are all feeling a bit better now!"

Ochako and Tsuyu sat down at the table near the kitchen counter, where Iida was separating and crushing cloves of garlic. Bakugo continued past them and plopped down on the couch near the TV, spreading his legs across it. He grabbed the remote off of the coffee table and started mindlessly flipping through channels.

Ochako turned to survey the rest of the kitchen. Behind Iida, Todoroki was getting a pot boiling on the stove, while Momo-chan was preparing chicken on a cutting board to his side. Other members of the class were cutting vegetables, measuring out cups of rice, preparing bowls and silverware, and running around the kitchen doing various other things.

"We had bought all of these ingredients for our plans tonight anyway, so we figured we'd still make the curry to cheer you guys up," Jiro said as she walked over to Ochako and Tsuyu at the kitchen table. She was holding several carrots and another cutting board. "It'll be ready in about half an hour. Feel free to go bathe and change into more comfortable clothing."

Ochako looked down. She had completely forgotten that she was still dressed in her Hero costume, and so was Tsu-chan. They climbed the stairs to the fourth and fifth floors, respectively, to grab things from their rooms to freshen up. As Uraraka left her room, she saw Bakugo come up the stairs and head towards his room in the boy's wing, probably following Jiro's idea as well.

When the three returned to the kitchen area, they found piping hot bowls of curry with fluffy white rice waiting for them, and smiles on the faces of all the students who had made it. Everyone sat down with a bowl and began to chat as they ate, but Ochako noticed that many were sullen and didn't have much to say. They had all planned for this night to go much differently, and the pile of board games on the coffee table was undeniable proof.

Ochako was one of the first to finish her food, realizing that she was in desperate need of some energy after having used her quirk earlier. She stood and brought her bowl over to the sink, but before she could start washing, Aoyama was at her side.

"Leave it, Uraraka-san! I'm washing the dishes tonight." He smiled as he took the bowl out of her hand, refusing to even let her touch the sponge.

"If that's the case, I think I'll go to bed early," she replied. "Thank you, Aoyama-kun."

Ochako again began climbing the stairs, but stopped suddenly as she reached the second floor. She couldn't help it as her feet led her down the boy's wing and to the doorway of Deku's bedroom. She slowly reached out and tried the doorknob. It was unlocked.

Ochako stood in the doorway, light from the hallway behind her washing the dark room in a pale yellow glow. It looked as though Deku had been there only moments before: dresser drawers were open, papers were scattered across the desk, and the bed was hastily made. But, at the same time, it seemed that Deku had been gone for a long time. There was no warmth to anything in the room, the pale fluorescence of the hallway casting portions of the room into shadow. Ochako backed into the hallway and shut the door quickly, then slumped to the floor and placed her back against it.

It was only 7:36 p.m., according to Ochako's phone as she pulled it out of her pocket, but it seemed much later and she was exhausted. She only realized that she had started crying again when a fat tear dripped onto the phone's screen.

"I should stop moping and get some sleep," she told herself out loud, pushing off the ground and rising to her feet. As she made her way back to the staircase, she began googling city maps and subway routes, doing what she could with her spare time to prepare for tomorrow. She ascended, made it to her bedroom, and dove straight into bed.

Ochako pulled the covers up tightly around her neck, then stuck her arms out to keep browsing on her phone. Feeling fully tired after a few more minutes, she exited out of her internet browser app. Before locking her phone, however, Ochako caught sight of her messenger app.

Deku's out there in the dark, probably cold, hungry, and injured, while I'm here with warm covers and a full belly, she realized. If he's okay, maybe I can reach him now. Even if I can't, it will eat me up if I don't try.

She clicked on the app and cringed at the sight of an unread message from Deku from earlier that day. He had asked if they were going to meet up to walk home together. She almost wished they hadn't accidentally met up. Maybe things wouldn't have happened the way they did.

Deku-kun, Ochako began typing, I hope you're okay. Wherever you are, if you can hold on until tomorrow, I'm coming to find you. Don't give up hope.

She pressed the send button, then realized that she and Deku had exchanged GPS tracking information before their first mission with Nighteye and Ryukyu, to use in situations exactly like this. She clicked on his contact picture at the top of their text chain, then scrolled down to the bottom of his contact information. There, a button with the words "See Deku's Location" was labeled in blue. She tapped it, then waited.

A map of the city slowly loaded on the screen before her eyes. She noticed names of familiar buildings and streets, but she couldn't recall what the name of the street was where everything had occurred. Finally, a small blue dot appeared, indicating Deku's location.

Good, Ochako thought. Wherever he is down there, his phone gets a signal, which means it got my message. Hopefully he's conscious to see it.

She zoomed in to see exactly where the small blue dot was located, hoping to recognize some kind of landmark nearby. Sir Nighteye's old agency should be close, as they were only down the street from it when they met earlier that day. But no, it was nowhere to be seen. Neither was the street they had met on. Deku seemed far away from all of that. He was on the other side of the city entirely. How could he be that far if he was still underground? Was the signal simply distorted because of the layers of cement between the subway and the city streets? What had happened since Deku fell into the darkness earlier that day?

Ochako locked her phone and pulled her arms tightly against her chest. She stared up at the ceiling, thoughts racing. It was vital for the team to be well rested in the morning, but she knew she wouldn't be getting a wink of sleep tonight.