Word Count: 2,316
Momo let the cricket free just outside her house. She neither sighed nor smiled, her expression painfully neutral.
"Momo! How'd it—"
Without a word, she turned away from her father, who trailed off.
She knew she disappointed him. She knew she disappointed her whole family. And while it wasn't her fault, technically, she couldn't help but feel as though it was. She'd been groomed all her life to be the perfect bride: calm, obedient, and respectful. Yet, when the situation was out of her control, all that training had fallen to pieces, and she was unable to sway the events into her favor.
She wasn't a bride. She was a fake, trained like a dog to act like one.
Sweet summer blossoms filled the air as Momo meandered through the courtyard. Eventually she ended up by the pond, and there she knelt down at its banks and stared at her reflection.
She teared up again the longer she stared.
All her life, she'd been told she would have no problem with the matchmaker. All her life, she'd been told she would bring honor to the family without even batting an eye. All her life, she'd been told she would be a perfect little girl, a perfect little wife, a perfect little mother.
She wiped her makeup away and stared at her true reflection.
Could it be that she was simply not meant to play that part?
She was torn away from her thoughts by the booming of the drum on the outskirts of town. Someone was coming? The Huns?
No, they were too far South for that, and the cadence wasn't right for an invasion. But it wasn't a travelling merchant or vampire escort; that she could say with certainty.
She darted over to the gate, tearing the pin holding her bun in place out as she did so, but she was stopped by her father.
"What is it?" she asked him.
"One of the imperial court and an escort," he replied. "I do believe this is a draft. Stay inside; it's none of your concern." He began to walk away, but Momo grabbed his sleeve.
"You're too old to go to war, Father! Besides, you've already served time in the imperial army. Why would you be summoned for the draft?" she said.
Her father gave it some thought. "You have an excellent point."
Momo breathed a sigh of relief and let go of her father. She began to walk away when whoever had arrived began to announce their business to the town.
"Greetings, citizens! We come with an important message from the emperor himself! As you all know, the Huns have invaded China, so we are now in dire need of more soldiers. By order of the emperor, one man from every family shall serve in the imperial army under General Endeavor."
Momo stopped, listening with a mix of curiosity and fear. While she did technically have an older brother by a few years, she only knew he existed because of the rare hushed whispers exchanged between the servants tending to the family tomb. Her father was the only man in the household.
"Beginning with…" There was a pause, possibly for dramatic effect, but more likely to unfurl the list of names. "Yaoyorozu!"
Momo's blood ran cold, and she found herself unable to move as her father, her ever honorable father, obediently limped out the gate to accept his conscription notice.
Slowly, slowly, Momo regained her ability to move, turning around to the still open gate. The listings continued on without missing a beat, and her father returned with a scroll.
It wasn't fair.
Though she couldn't do anything about it at the moment without further staining the family name, she resolved not to let this slide.
There was more than one way to bring honor to her family.
Late that night, the souls were stirring.
"Oh dear, oh dear," the greatest of them all sighed as he etherialized from the words engraved upon his tombstone. He drifted over to the metal dragon ornament upon the incense tray and flicked its nose. "Uraraka, it's time to wake up," he said.
The ornament trembled and smoked as it came to life, and out of the ashes rose a tiny, red-brown dragon, who smiled cheerfully at the ghost. "You called?"
The moonlight streaming into her room was what awoke Momo that night. She blinked away the sleep from her eyes and allowed them to adjust to the dark. As silently as she could, she sat up in bed. She was going to do this.
Fishing a stick of incense out from underneath her mattress, she wedged the end of it into a crack between the window frame and the wall, then struck a match to let it burn. She watched it glow for a moment as she sent a silent prayer for forgiveness before she pulled a comb out of her dresser drawer and tiptoed out of her room. She was going to do this.
Uraraka blinked slowly at the gathered spirits, confused. "So… which guardian do you want me to awaken?"
"I'm telling you, if she's going to fight in the war, so be it. She'll probably dishonor the family in the process, but as dead people, what can we do about it?" a tall, thin ghost lamented. "It's all we can do to send the swiftest after her so that we can all act like she never even left!"
"No, no, no, you've got it all wrong!" a grandly bearded old man said. "She needs to have the most cunning go after her, so that even if she's set in her ways, she can still be brought back home through good old-fashioned trickery!"
"Oh, please; not all of us—"
"Hush, now," the Great Ancestor said. "We shall have Uraraka awaken the most powerful of them all."
Momo's stomach twisted in her gut as she replaced her father's draft notice with her comb. She was doing it; she was really doing it.
She fled the room as fast as she could without waking her parents, running to the armory in the dark through sheer memory power. Once there, she lit a candle and allowed herself to relax, falling to her knees.
Her father's sword hung upon the door, the first thing that caught her eye once she opened the wardrobe. Tilting her head upwards to look at it, she felt the tip of her ponytail brush against her neck, and she knew what she had to do.
She shook as she stood up, pulling the string binding her hair out as she reached for the weapon.
Uraraka clambered onto the Great Stone Dragon's head, gong clenched tightly between her teeth. She glanced up at the sky, hoping that there were still a few hours of night left, but alas, the dawn was rapidly approaching. Uraraka grit her teeth. She could do this.
I can do this, she thought as she scampered over to the statue's ear. Bracing herself for the aftershock, she hit the gong as loudly as she could.
Nothing happened for a moment, so she cracked one eye open, then the other.
The Great Stone Dragon's ear was gone.
The deed done, Momo quickly brushed herself off and donned her father's armor. It was a little big, but not uncomfortably so, and for that, she thanked her lucky stars. She took a deep breath to calm herself and attach the sword to her hip. She tied her hair into a soldier's knot and blew out the candle.
With the rising sun approaching rapidly, Momo wasted no time escaping to the stables.
"Hey, Iida," she whispered to her magnificent, white horse. Iida opened an eye, and upon seeing her transformation, he began to panic. "Hey, hey! Iida, Iida, it's just me. It's just Momo. Sorry I spooked you like that, boy. We've got someplace to go."
Uraraka groaned. She'd done it now. She'd dun goof'd. The ancestors were never going to forgive her for causing the Great Stone Dragon to crumble. And then they'd never and a day forgive her for lying about awakening him, but what could she really say? She panicked!
A cricket hopped up to her and chirped. She opened an eye and looked at him curiously. "Go after her?" she asked him. "Well, why would I do that? The ancestors didn't call on me to follow Momo to war, and I'm certainly not capable enough. I'd just get her killed."
The cricket chirped again, this time hopping in excitement. Uraraka opened up her other eye and looked at him head on, hope blossoming in her chest. "You really think I could do it?" she breathed, a smile crossing her face. She laughed out loud when she heard the cricket chirp out his response. "Why, thank you! You should come, too! Crickets are lucky, you know."
The cricket stopped hopping and looked a little embarrassed instead.
"What do you mean, you're not lucky? Just believe in yourself! You can do it, uh…" The cricket chirped. "Deku! Oh, is that not your real name? Aww, I thought it was cute, but if you don't like it, I'll call you Midoriya anyway."
Midoriya the cricket contemplated both options for a moment before giving Uraraka his final answer.
She laughed again. "Deku it is, then!"
Creaky breath.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
"Somebody is watching us," Shigaraki croaked, picking at the scabs developing on his dry, dry neck. "Somebody is watching us, and I want to know who it is."
One of the Huns dragged two soldiers out of their hiding spot and threw them before Shigaraki's feet. "Scouts, sir, from the imperial army."
Huff, huff.
"Kurogiri!"
The soldiers at his feet shrank back, terrified. "The emperor will stop you!" one of them yelped.
Scratch scratch scratch.
"Kurogiri!"
The man in question practically materialized by Shigaraki's side, and he stared sternly down at the scouts. "There, there, Shigaraki. You don't have to worry. I'm here," he crooned, patting the young leader on the arm soothingly. He turned to face the trembling soldiers. "Tell the emperor we're here to play his games. Have him send his strongest armies." Kurogiri grinned and took a step towards the soldiers, laughing softly as the fear on their faces grew. "We're ready."
One of the soldiers managed to recover, and he immediately ran off. However, the other remained planted to the spot out of sheer terror.
"Oh, what a shame. This one isn't strong enough." Kurogiri chuckled. "What do you want to do with him, Shigaraki?"
Sniff, sniff. Sniff, sniff.
"Kill him."
With her cover of darkness gone, Momo sacrificed her stealth, but it didn't particularly matter now that she was out of the house. Plus, she needed to be able to read in order to get to the right place.
The notice gave all the information she needed. She was due at the Mu Sheng camp by tomorrow at noon, and she had to have her own uniform and quarters prepared.
The uniform she clearly had covered, but quarters…? She hadn't even thought far enough ahead to pack anything to eat for her ride to camp, let alone a bolt of canvas to make a tent out of. She didn't know if she could even feasibly carry a bolt of canvas on her own, if she was being honest. Bridal training didn't exactly involve a whole lot of working out.
Momo groaned and fell back against a tree. She was normally so good at planning. How could she have failed to think about anything that went into this idea? Nearby, Iida eyed her with what could have been concern, but was more likely to be some kind of horse lecture.
She sighed. "I should have brought a map with me."
Something dropped out of the tree and straight onto her lap, but before she could scream, the creature held a claw to its lips. Shh.
"Hi, I'm Uraraka!" the creature said with a smile. "Your ancestors sent me to protect you in the upcoming war."
Momo blinked, hurriedly trying to process the sudden turn of events. "I didn't realize dragons still existed," she said, "let alone talking ones."
Uraraka paused for a moment, seemingly contemplating something, before she continued. "Believe it, Yaomomo." The cricket jumped up and down on her head, chirruping cheerfully. "And that cricket is Izuku Midoriya, but he says I can call him Deku. He's lucky."
Momo said nothing, for she had nothing to say that would come to mind.
"Anyway, I don't suppose you want to go home and forget this whole running away to join the army in your father's stead thing, do you?" Uraraka asked, and Momo shook her head.
"It's not fair," she said. "Plus, the matchmaker hates me now. If I can't bring honor to the family by marrying a good man, then I'll just become a war hero."
"I don't really understand that leap in logic, but I'm here to support you! If you're not going to change your mind, then let's go!" The tiny dragon cheerfully hopped off of Momo's knees and skipped over to Iida. But when Momo didn't move, she turned around and gave the girl a concerned look. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know how to get to camp," Momo admitted. "I've never been outside of town."
Uraraka's expression softened. "Well, that's what you've got me here for! Lemme see that notice."
author's note ii. so i glossed over a lot in this chapter. like i said, this and the last chapter are just exposition. the pacing slows down significantly starting next chapter. i decided to do the split simulperspective thing going on with uraraka and momo when they were awakening their respective things (the dragon and their inner awesomeness, respectively) and pretty much do the writing equivalent of a bunch of quick cuts because like! i'm pretty sure you've all seen mulan. you're not here to just read mulan down to the t but w/bnha characters. gotta make aus fresh, y'know.
i hope you guys are cool with changing povs because this fic does a ton of that. i tend to do this to play up dramatic irony but also 'cause adhd and writing all from one character's perspective can get bland really fast for me. (and it's also a really cheap way to get out of situations i'm stuck on lol)
i actually have a TON written down in a tiny notebook about deku, iida, and uraraka that doesn't actually get explained here in orchid, but i have the basic outline for the sequel, which will cover a lot of things i don't want to try and cram in here. when some of those elements come up, i'll warn you guys beforehand that it won't be resolved in this fic. but yes, there is an actual logical explanation behind them being nonhumans. even if it was a joke at first.
(wow this is a long a/n i just have really long a/ns most of the time bc i talk a lot a lot) anyway WOW thank you all SO much for your support and follows/faves last chapter? i'm like floored by how many people are, like, into this. this could be the start of my very own magnet lol. well, if you're new, don't be shy! follow/fave if you're interested; reviews would be amazing if that's what you're into, and as always, have a greaaaat daaaay~~~