Unfolding Time
Chapter Six – Painful Truths

A/N: Thanks for sticking with me so far! This chapter will connect quite a few dots and will be pulling at some heartstrings!

On a side note, I wanted to make those who follow me on aware that once I have completed this story, I will be moving exclusively over to AO3. It will be a bit easier for me to manage my stories on just one platform, but I won't abandon the fics I have currently on here, I will be certain to complete them here and on AO3. I just wanted to give people a heads-up in case anyone is interested in following any future works of mine. I do also have a twitter, you are more than welcome to follow for updates there as well.

The spring air felt unusually muggy to Ochaco as she made her way through the courtyard of her elementary school. It had been barely a day since she was released after her run-in with the villain at the bank, yet she hardly felt the ability to rest. Her anxiety had sprung to life the second she learned Himiko Toga was back in play since her disappearance and that whoever she was working with now had some kind of connection to Shingo. The reality of the boy's situation was becoming glaringly clear and sitting back asking question after question was no longer an option.

It was time to become persistent in seeking out the truth.

Ochaco paused at the front doors to the school, her phone giving off a shrill chime to alert her to a new text. She already knew who it was from. She had left the dorms early this morning to head to the agency to turn in her report of the bank incident, but rather than returning to U.A. to attend class, she made her way to her old elementary school. She pulled out the device and opened the message, her chest squeezing.

Katsuki
Where are you?

Ochaco
I left early to give my report to the agency. Making a quick stop before heading back.

She had woken up before Katsuki this morning, leaving only a note about heading to the agency. A part of her hoped that he would leave it at that, but he wasn't an idiot. There was no doubt in her mind that the explosive hero knew something else was up. Her phone chimed again, causing her heart to nearly leap from her chest.

Katsuki
Be careful.

Those words told her everything. Katsuki knew she was up to something, but he was giving her his trust to take care of things and return safely. It meant the world to her that even with the shitshow that had taken place in the past few weeks that her boyfriend hadn't turned into an overprotective shadow and had the belief that she could take care of herself.

She pocketed her phone and went inside. School didn't start for another hour for elementary students, but the faculty was already here, giving the gravity hero plenty of opportunity to learn more about Shingo from an academic perspective.

"Can I help you?"

Ochaco spun on her heels, seeing a tall woman with long brown hair, glasses, and a modest attire staring at her from the end of the hallway. The woman studied her closely, eyebrows knitting together before lifting in surprise.

"Oh! You're…" She blinked, tilting her head. "You're Uravity!"

Despite having media exposure since her first year, it never ceased to amaze Ochaco how quickly some people were able to recognize her. Laughing nervously, the gravity hero rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, I am…" she said slowly. "I actually went to elementary school here."

"I'm aware," the woman said excitedly. "The school is quite proud about a future hero having attended here. You're a role model to several of the students here." She came up, her hands reaching out to take Ochaco's in hers. "You don't remember me, do you?"

Ochaco studied the woman carefully, racking her brain for any sort of hint that would tell her what she needed to know. Suddenly realization flooded her features and she smiled. "Ms. Hanawe! I almost didn't recognize you; your hair is so long now."

"I'm surprised you remembered me, truthfully," Hanawe stated, her cheeks flushing. "You've grown into quite the young woman. I'm proud to have had you as one of my students."

The flattery was almost too much to bear. Ochaco bit her lip, glancing away as her cheeks deepened in color. She envied all the times Katsuki remained composed when someone knew who he was, unless they got directly in his face, of course. Ms. Hanawe had been her homeroom teacher and one of the few people who had believed in her dream to become a pro. It warmed her heart to know the woman still worked here and hoped that she still inspired her students.

Releasing the teacher's hands, Ochaco regained her composure, clearing her throat. She couldn't forget why she had come here in the first place. "Ms. Hanawe, can I talk to you about a student that goes here? A boy who goes by the name Shingo Einosuke?"

"Did something happen to him?" Hanawe asked quickly. "Is he in trouble?"

"Well, that's what I'm here to try and determine," Ochaco said, averting her eyes. She gave the teacher the short version of what was happening with Shingo, leaving out the possible connection to the league and just how much time travelling had been involved. Hanawe led Ochaco to an empty classroom where they sat at one of the small tables. The room brought back memories for the hero, each of the decorations the same excluding the far wall where images of pro heroes were laid out. Beneath the pictures were what looked to be letters written by the students.

"Shingo is a very bright student, but he's struggled since his sister, Hikari, passed away. She was quite sick," Hanawe explained, shaking her head. "He spoke about her often until she passed. When she was gone, he became very withdrawn, except when it came to you, Miss Uraraka."

"Me?"

The woman stood and led Ochaco over towards the back of the room near the board of pro hero photos and letters. As the gravity hero looked over each image, she was shocked to see a newspaper article with her image on it posted up on the board and beneath it a letter written and signed by Shingo.

Swallowing hard, Ochaco took the letter, her eyes reading over the messy scrawl of words. The letter went into detail about why Shingo had chosen Uravity as his favorite hero, that her abilities were 'the best' and that 'her kindness was unmatched, like Hikari's'. It was the single most touching thing Ochaco had ever seen in her life and the feelings welling up in her chest caused her eyes to tear up.

"He wrote that earlier this year," Hanawe explained, placing a gentle hand on Ochaco's shoulder. "The assignment was to write about a hero that inspired them. Shingo chose you. He speaks very highly of you. If Shingo is truly in trouble, I'm not surprised he reached out to you for help."

Was that what was happening? Had each time the young boy come to see her he had really been crying out for help and she was too ignorant to have seen it?

"Is there anything you can tell me about his personal life?" Ochaco inquired, swallowing back the tremble that threatened her resolve.

Hanawe shifted uncomfortably and wrapped one of her arms around herself. "Since his sister died, Shingo has become withdrawn. There was a rumor going around that his father had walked off and he lived with his mother, who is suffering from the same illness his sister had."

"His father isn't in the picture anymore?"

"As far as I know. Each time I've phoned the Einosuke residence, I've only spoken to his mother and each time I've asked about Shingo's father, she says he's not there, but isn't very specific. And over the past month, Shingo had missed quite a bit of school. I think it's because his mother is getting worse."

Everything was starting to make sense, at least when it came to the child version of Shingo. His life had become uprooted when his sister died and he was now faced with the possibility of losing his mother to the same illness. No wonder he had begun acting out. How was a child supposed to cope with something so tragic? Not only that but there was a possibility his father had skipped out on his family, leaving everything to weigh down on the young boy's shoulders.

The biggest mystery that remained now was what the future version of Shingo was up to, but Ochaco had no doubt that his future self was what the league, or whoever Himiko was working for, was after.

"I should go," she stated suddenly, glancing at the clock. "Class will be starting soon."

"Oh, yes of course!"

"Do you mind if I hold onto Shingo's letter for a bit?" Ochaco inquired, walking with the teacher to the hallway.

"Not at all. I hope it helps you in some way. I think about Shingo and his situation quite often," Hanawe admitted. "I wish there was more I was able to do. If you need anything else from me, please don't hesitate to stop by again, Miss Uraraka!"

"Thank you, Ms. Hanawe. I appreciate that."

The second Ochaco stepped outside of the elementary school, her honeyed eyes met a familiar set of cobalt blue, yet they weren't that of a child's. The future Shingo stood leaned up against a tree, arms crossed over his chest as his unblinking stare bore into her. He didn't seem to least bit thrilled to see her, but his reaction hardly made a dent in the gravity hero's determination.

"I guess this saves me the trouble of having to find you myself," she muttered, approaching him. She was fully aware of the risks involved standing before him, knowing this version of Shingo likely had full control of both his Quirks. She held up the letter, her eyes narrowing. "I think you have some explaining to do, don't you?"

Shingo pushed himself from the tree, making a swift motion to snatch the letter, failing when Ochaco abruptly stepped out of reach. He made a hissing noise under his breath, his gaze narrowing into a glare. "Why should I explain anything to you?" he challenged.

"That's some audacity," Ochaco shot back, unfolding the letter. "Especially coming from someone who wrote this. I have every right to ask for an explanation."

It wasn't the kind of interaction she expected to have with Shingo's future self, but from what she saw of him now, she knew there was a darkness in him that had been growing furiously since childhood. There were only bits and pieces that she knew, yet the larger image that made up the entirety of the situation involving the time user was still hazy.

"Please, Shingo. Talk to me, let me at least try to help," Ochaco begged, once again stepping toward him. She wondered whether she had stood before him one before, saying the same words and whether they had made any sort of impact. Maybe this was a totally new interaction, it was hard to say what was reality and what had been twisted by the time jumps.

"The only thing that puts you in my life is my younger self's admiration for you, Uravity," Shingo said softly. "If I had never reached out to you, never believed that I had the luxury of being saved, none of this would be happening now."

"That doesn't matter, Shingo. The reality is it is happening. Your younger self is sending me and Katsuki through time and I'm guessing that you've been following each instance and using the Quirk you got from your mother to alter memories. That's why I don't remember meeting Katsuki when I was a child, because the you standing before me now erased my past selves memory of that day, changing it." The gravity hero shifted, huffing out a breath of air as she crossed her arms in frustration. "What I don't understand is why you haven't tried to erase the present versions of me and Katsuki."

Shingo was quiet for a long time, his teeth gnawing at his lower lip until his mouth tasted of copper. "Apart of me wanted to see what you would actually do," he admitted. "I never thought you would actually connect so many dots about me. I never intended for you to learn as much as you have about me."

"I wish I could take more pride in that, but there's still so much I don't know about you, Shingo." Ochaco had to continuously remind herself to watch her words, to keep from unleashing the flood of questions that bounced around inside her mind that desperately needed answers. "Did you come here to alter my memory?"

"Originally, yes. But…" His voice trailed, his gaze finally averting. "I'm so tired of running."

Running? Ochaco cocked her head to the side, confusion trailing over her features.

Shingo held his hand out toward her suddenly, motioning for her to take it. "It's much easier if I just show you."

"You want to time jump?"

"To the past, where this shitshow all began."

The idea of getting answers was extremely tempting, but time jumping? It was bad enough when the younger Shingo would activate his Quirk, but how could she know that this version actually meant well? For all she knew it was just some clever wordplay to earn enough trust to get close and alter her memory.

"Give me a moment," Ochaco stated, holding up her hand. With her other hand she dug out her phone and pulled up Katsuki's number, inhaling sharply.

Ochaco
You might not hear from me for a few hours. Don't panic, just wish me some luck and trust me. I love you.

She hit send and pocketed the device, her palm meeting Shingo's. If she allowed enough time for Katsuki to respond, she knew very well that she would lose her nerve to jump into the unknown. For now, her life rested entirely in the hands of the future Shingo.

The world shifted and turned, contorting in a manner that made Ochaco's stomach lurch with familiar nausea. She squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on each breath she took until she felt as though the ground beneath her feet stopped shifting.

"You can open your eyes now," Shingo said, releasing her hand.

Ochaco lifted one lid, then both, taking in the sight of a small house painted a simple blue. They were somewhere in the backyard, hidden against a tall hedge, just out of earshot of a young woman and her child playing on the back patio. The gravity hero watched the two, finding it suddenly difficult to breathe. The young boy was standing beside the woman, cocking his head to side as he spoke, likely asking a question while the woman turned, her stare vacant. She looked worn out and depressed, like any brightness within her life withered and died.

"That's my mother, shortly after Hikari died." Shingo placed a hand on Ochaco's shoulder and moved his other hand to point out toward the child. "Everything fell apart when she died."

Slowly Ochaco inhaled, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene before her. "She looks so…sad, so heartbroken." The understanding of losing a child eluded her. She couldn't fathom what kind of pain a parent endured when the tiny human being they loved and cared for suddenly got ripped away. It left an uneasy feeling in her gut as her mind flashed back to her future self. Was she a mother in the future? Would her and Katsuki ever share in parenthood ever?

Shingo sighed, shaking his head. "Every single time I return to this particular moment, I always wonder what would have happened if Hikari hadn't died," he murmured. "This particular day is what cemented everything."

"What do you mean?"

"My father left this particular morning and never returned. He said he had to go into the office, that some kind of emergency occurred. He wasn't a good man, but at some point in his life he was a good parent."

"Then why did he leave if he was supposedly a good parent?" Ochaco inquired. "How could you call someone good when they skip out on their own family, especially after losing a child?"

Shingo gave Ochaco's shoulder a squeeze. "He left in order to protect us."

Without warning, the ground began to shift, and the gravity hero knew what was coming next: another time jump. Once again, she inhaled sharply and shut her eyes, waiting patiently until she felt as though she were on solid ground once more. When her eyes opened, she was surprised to see they were in a small, cramped ally, trash coating nearly every inch of the ground, the sickening smell permeating the air. She cupped her hands over her mouth, gagging.

"Where are we?"

Shingo motioned behind Ochaco to where a tall man with black hair and blue eyes stood before none other than Tomura Shigaraki. Ochaco felt her heartbeat skip before violently hitting against her ribcage as a wave of panic flew through her. "What is he doing here?"

"I found out about everything much later in life. I grew up hating my father, thinking he left his family behind, but then I began controlling the time jumps. If I knew a particular place I wanted to go, I could. Eventually I pinpointed where my father had gone that day," Shingo explained. "Tomura had repeatedly come to my father asking him to join the League of Villains."

Ochaco quirked an eyebrow up, staring at him speculatively. "Was your father a villain?"

"Before he met my mother, he was. He was just a thug who used his Quirk in robberies, altering bits of time in order to escape. He eventually met my mother and he gave up crime, but his past wouldn't exactly let him go." Anger seeped into his expression as he glared daggers at Shigaraki. "Tomura had claimed he needed my father's Quirk. At first, he just said no, which didn't exactly set well with someone who's out to make an army of villains."

The scene before them was simply enough. Neither man seemed particularly angry or violent, at least not until Shingo's father raised his voice loud enough for the two to hear from their hiding spot in the ally.

"My son has nothing to do with this, Tomura!" the man shouted, his fists clenched so hard they turned bone white. "He has nothing to do with this!"

Ochaco swallowed hard, fighting her urge to run out and place herself between the two. This wasn't just a memory, this was a real moment that had happened and could easily be changed, she had to remember that despite her hero instincts screaming at her. "Shingo…this moment, your father, did he…?" Her words trailed, falling into emptiness as she watched Tomura's hand reach out and grab onto the man's face, his pinky slightly raised. At that moment she felt her heart break, despite the firm grasp Shingo had on her shoulder. "Have you ever tried to change the past?"

"At one point, I wanted to change how everything turned out. I wanted to save Hikari so my mother wouldn't turn into a shell of herself, to avoid my father running off and getting caught up with the league, to see just how my life would actually turn out, but I didn't."

"Why? What stopped you? I don't imagine there's a lot that could keep a time traveling kid from altering things the way they wanted to," Ochaco argued, focusing on Shingo's touch. It was the only thing rooting her in place, from altering a past event she shouldn't alter.

Shingo closed his eyes, activating his Quirk. His body tingled all over, like tiny pin pricks as he shifted them into another pocket of time. He knew that trying to keep Ochaco in one place for long while Tomura Shigaraki was up to something was like asking a severely dehydrated person from drinking a glass of water placed before them.

He sighed, releasing her shoulder. "Tomura killed my father," he said simply. "When I got older and found out what actually happened, that he didn't abandon, I honed my Quirk so I could go back to certain places in time. What stopped me from changing anything…well, you're responsible for that."

Ochaco's eyes widen as she spun to face him. They had made their way back to the present time outside of the elementary school. Her phone buzzed uncontrollably in her pocket, likely a sign that Katsuki was trying desperately to reach her.

"I eventually reached out to you, asked for your help. Unfortunately, I dragged you into a fight you couldn't win, so I made your memory of me hazy, made you forget you ever really met me," Shingo stated, shaking his head. He was aware of the buzzing coming from Ochaco's phone as his cobalt eyes settled on the pocket her phones resided in. "My involvement in your life nearly destroyed the happiness you had with Katsuki Bakugou."

"These are things involving the you that's standing before me now and my future self," Ochaco said softly. "What if the me that's standing here now can actually help you, Shingo? You don't have to face things alone."

Shingo offered her a small smile, his eyes laced with a sadness that made her heart wretch against her chest. "I wish that were true, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I wound up destroying the world of the hero I've looked up to since I was a kid, Uravity. You were the sole reason I didn't become a villain, why I held onto some kind of hope." He laughed, the sounds gargled by the tears beginning to form in his eyes. "Hikari wanted to grow up to become a hero, you know… I imagine she would have been a kind and gentle hero, just like you." He wiped at his eyes, facing away from Ochaco. "I thought I could solve getting you involved by going back to see my younger self. I thought maybe if I made myself forget about having you as a hero, that I would never have reached out to you. Turns out, going back is what caused this whole mess."

"What do you mean?"

"The Quirk I got from my mother doesn't work on me. I tried to use it on myself, but nothing happened. And like an idiot I told myself about you, thinking 'hey, I'll just forget anyway' but you see how well that turned out."

"Is that why your younger self went from simply admiring me as a hero to actually coming to U.A. to see me?"

"Now you're understanding," Shingo said, nodding his head. "If I had never gone back in time to see myself, you and Katsuki would never have to deal with these time skips. I would have just gone through life, but I…"

"I will save you, Shingo."

The words rippled around them both, hovering in the air like a thick cloud. Shingo wanted desperately to cling to the belief that he was still within reach of saving.

"Uravity, that's not poss—"

"My future self may have not been successful, but that doesn't mean I won't be. The past can't be changed, Shingo and there's a lot riding on how the future may change, but I'm not going to turn my back on someone that has reached out to me for help. Do you think I can go through life as a strong hero knowing I walked away from someone in need?" Ochaco raised the letter, still gripped firmly in her hand as she smoothed it out, clearing her throat.

'Dear Miss Uravity,

I chose Uravity as my hero, because of what kind of person she is. I want to be strong like her someday so that maybe I can be the kind of hero my sister Hikari wanted to be. I want to be someone that can make others feel safe, to be someone that is kind and caring to anyone they meet. I want to be like Uravity. Her kindness is unmatched and she's the best hero I've ever seen that I look up to. I want to be strong like her and Hikari.

Sincerely, Shingo Einosuke'

As the last of the words fell from Ochaco's lips, she couldn't stop the tears from flowing from her own eyes. The letter had touched her, despite its simplicity and she knew with every fiber of her being that she had an important job to do, one that couldn't be done alone.

"Uravity, I'm placing my trust in you," Shingo said, wiping his eyes and sniffling. "I don't know if the outcome will change, whether the future will remain the same or change, but…I trust you, okay?"

Ochaco's mouth opened to respond, but when she looked up, she saw that Shingo had disappeared entirely and she was left standing in front of the school, alone. Now wasn't the time to cry. She pulled out her phone, not bothering to read through the missed calls and texts from Katsuki and pulled up his number and hit call.

"Ochaco, where the hell are you?"

He picked up on the first ring, much to be expected.

"Katsuki, just listen," she said, hushing him. "I know how to save Shingo."