Chapter Two: Lost and Not Found
Aizawa looked at the student sitting across his desk as she finished explaining what had happened the night before. Uraraka, was trying her best not to make eye contact with her home room teacher. Her face looked red and puffy as she wiped tears out of her eyes.
"So you guys didn't date or had a relationship before?" his voice was neutral. "It's not like a big break up or anything like that, right?"
Uraraka nodded. Aizawa thought about it for a moment, then sighed, "Well, I guess I don't have to tell you that you overreacted in the worst possible way."
Again she just nodded looking down.
"I'm going to see if he's in the dorms. Just head back to class and I'll get Present Mic to teach today's class. Please let the class leader know." Uraraka nodded and left the office. Aizawa sat there rubbing his eyes in frustration. "I don't get paid enough for this shit."
After a short moment he walked to Present Mic's office and asked him to take over his class for the day. Then he went to find All Might at the teacher's lounge. After a quick explanation they both headed to the dorms with a master key in case Midoriya refused to open his door. As they arrived at Izuku's room they knocked on the door.
"Midoriya! Open up, it's Aizawa!" they waited a few seconds but got no response.
"We have a key! If you don't open this door, we will open it and drag you out!" Aizawa sounded frustrated. After a long moment he looked at All Might who gave him a quick nod. He used the master key and walked into Izuku's room, and what they found left them in shock. The room looked like a tornado had landed there. Stuff was thrown all over the place, hero posters were ripped from the walls and shredded, other personal items were scattered around the floor. Even All Might collectibles were thrown all over the place and the bed looked slightly disheveled, with one mattress out of alignment with the bottom one.
After the two heroes took a few seconds to look around the huge mess, they walked around trying not to step on Izuku's belongings. All Might looked into the closet and saw that about half his clothes were missing.
"Most of his clothes are gone." He called out to Aizawa, who was stepping out of Izuku's bathroom.
"His tooth brush and tooth paste are gone as well." Aizawa said as he stepped out of the bathroom and then looked down next to the desk. "But his school backpack is still here." He grabbed it and dumped the content on top of the bed. Going through all the stuff and didn't see anything out of the ordinary other than there seem to be less notebooks than he remember Midoriya carrying in his backpack. The kid was a copious note taker and everyone knew it.
All Might looked thorough Izuku's desk and didn't seem to find anything of importance other than the items that were topple over or broken. The desk drawers were still full of school material, and other random items. However he did noticed the big empty space in the middle of the desk, suggesting that a laptop was there before. After another glance around the room he saw that the window was open. He thought about this for a moment then he turned to the other teacher.
"It seems young Medoriya left last night and took some of his stuff with him." He then pointed to the opened window. "The window is open and nobody saw him leaving so it's possible he left that way."
"Damn it! I was hoping we didn't had to deal with a missing student." Aizawa said with some heat in his voice, getting more frustrated.
All Might sighed, "We have to inform principal Nezu and take a look at the security cameras to see if we can find anything out of the ordinary."
"Yeah, seem like this got a little more complicated." Aizawa said calming down a little. They took a quick look around making sure they didn't miss anything obvious and then headed out and back to the main building.
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The two teachers had explained everything to principal Nezu, including the conversation Aizawa had with Uraraka. He gave them permission to look over the security recordings to find more information. While reviewing the recordings, they saw Izuku entering his room but not leaving, giving more credit to All Might assumption that Izuku just jumped out the window to avoid being seen by others.
Looking at the recordings from outside the building, they finally spotted their green haired student leaping out of his window with a medium size backpack. He seem to look around to see if anyone saw him and then ran through the nearby trees and then jumped over the fence. The two heroes looked at each other. There was no doubt they were now dealing with a missing student.
After calling Izuku's mother, Inko, she told them she hadn't seen her son or heard from him. The mother started crying, worried about her son, but All Might managed to calm her down by telling her they were doing what they could to find him. Going back to the principal Nezu's office they updated him, which prompted the principal to call the police to report the missing student. After all was said and done it was almost the end of the class day, so Aizawa returned to his classroom. The students quickly quieted down when they saw him walk in.
Iida stood up. "Sir, if I may ask, were you able to locate Midoriya?"
"That's what I'm about to talk about, Iida." Aizawa said with this stoic expression.
He gave it a second and then took a cleansing breath. "Listen up. Midoriya was not in his room. After reviewing the security footage, we could see that last night he jumped out his window and then left the UA campus."
Some students gasped and then looked at each other in surprise. Some of them looked at Uraraka. Her eyes were wide, tears threatening to run down her face and her mouth was open. She didn't noticed Asui next to her putting a hand on hers trying to calm her down.
Aizawa noticed how everyone had reacted and Uraraka's current state. "We have contacted his mother and she doesn't know where Midoriya is or received a call from him. All our calls to his phone have gone unanswered." He took a moment and looked at his students making sure they were paying attention. "I know this is difficult to some of you but I will tell you this. None of you will take matters into your own hands and attempt to find Midoriya. We have contacted the police and they will take care of this from here on out. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir." Most the class answered without much enthusiasm.
"Alright I know it's still early but that will be all for today. You're all free to head back to your rooms." As the students stood up and started to walk out he looked at the class leaders. "Iida, Yaoyorozu, I need to speak with you."
Both students approached the teacher. "Sir?"
"I know some of the students are taking this pretty hard, so I need you two to keep an eye on them for any signs of trouble." He started gathering his stuff. "I don't expect you to keep track of everything or everyone, but just pay attention to what's going on. Is that clear?"
Both students nodded, "Yes, sir."
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Uraraka sat on the edge of her bed crying. Yaoyorozu and Ashido on each side, trying to calm her down. Asui sat in a chair close by. They were all still in their school uniform, since they had gone straight to Uraraka's room after being dismissed from class.
"It going to be ok, Ochaco." Ashido said in a soft voice while gently rubbing the gravity girl's back. "He'll come back." This seem to calm Uraraka a little, allowing her to finally speak.
"This is my fault." she tried to wipe her tears, but more kept coming, "I'm so stupid!" Her voice sounded strained and sad.
"Don't say that. Sometimes things just happen." Yaoyorozu said from Uraraka's right, giving her a sad smile.
Uraraka shook her head, "I should've just talked with him" She sobbed, "I don't know what I'm going to do now."
"There's nothing to do, Ochaco." Asui said from her spot. "Until he comes back, all we can do is wait." After hearing that Uraraka started crying again, allowing Yaoyorozu to pull her into a hug.
"I want to talk to him." She cried into Yaoyorozu's shoulder. "Tell him how sorry I am."
Ashido gently grabbed Uraraka's shoulder, "And you will. You just have to wait for when he comes back. A day or two, maybe a week, but he'll come back, ok?" Uraraka finally gave her a small nod.
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Uraraka sat next to her friends at their normal spot during lunch. They were all having a discussion about the skills test coming up in the next couple of weeks. But the gravity girl was not paying attention to any of it, just like she had been doing for months and months. She was scrolling through her phone pictures, looking at those with Izuku on them. This had become her new routine.
Months after Izuku's disappearance, he was still nowhere to be found. The students had all been interviewed by the police, asking for all the details of that night and possible reasons that caused him to run away. After that, nothing happened for a few weeks. Then one day they learned the police found security footage of Izuku's movement's that day he left UA. He walked aimlessly for a few hours, then heading into the industrial district on the outskirts of the city, he vanished. The last piece police found was his phone on some back alley. Dozens of missed calls and text gave them the impression he lost it on the first couple of days after running away.
It was a devastating blow to Uraraka. She cried hard for days, blaming herself, barely able to make it through classes. She had made it a habit of calling Izuku just to hear his voice on his voicemail greeting. Now, she couldn't even do that, and it had filled her heart with pain. The news had also affected the other students, who wondered if there were some signs they missed. They talked about it, made theories about where he could be and worried that he could be in trouble. But eventually the demands of a hero school such as UA forced them to put less and less thought into Izuku's fate and back into their current academic progress and their own futures.
Uraraka had struggled, but her friends were there for her. Thanks to their constant support, Uraraka was able to get back into what could be called a normal routine. She still cried sometimes in her room, but as time passed, she found it more and more difficult to even summon the strength to cry. She felt her heart empty, filled with nothing but pain from what happened that night. She wondered how everything would've turned out if she just accepted Izuku's invitation to go out on a date. She wished she could go back and do everything differently.
While she was able to act more or less normal, everyone in class 1A noticed how she had changed. She talked less, smiled less and hanged around her friends less often as well. She still attacked her school work with the same effort she was known for, but with less enthusiasm. After all, the guy that was a constant source of motivation was no longer around. She had wanted to push him out of her heart and instead ended up pushing him out of her life.
That fact made it extremely difficult for her to find a reason to smile sometimes. It made her feel sad and uninterested when she wasn't working on something important. So she spent some of her downtime, looking at Izuku's pictures she had on her phone. They didn't look like a couple in those, just friends, but now she wished they were a couple. She wished she didn't tried so hard to toughen her heart and squeeze the man she loved out of there.
"Hey, Ochaco! You heard what I said?" Asui's elbowing broke the gravity girl out of her thoughts.
"Uh? Oh! Sorry!" Uraraka put her phone down. "You were saying?"
Asui blinked a couple times, "I was asking if you were worried about the skills test coming up."
Uraraka shrugged, "No, not really." She grabbed her drink, "we've done this before. It shouldn't be too bad." She took a sip and grabbed her phone again.
Ashido sat in front of her, elbow on the table, resting her head on her hand. She took a long look at the gravity girl, "You looking at your pictures of Izuku?"
Uraraka sighed sadly, but didn't stopped looking at her phone. "Yeah." She looked at her pink friend. "I wonder how he's doing."
The other girls didn't answer, knowing that this conversation was better left alone. They had it before in the common room and it ended with Uraraka having a break down when Kaminari questioned if Izuku was still alive. That caused Jiro to get angry and slap the blond student on the back of the head, demanding that he apologized, which he did. But it was too late. Uraraka was led to her room by Yaoyorozu and Asui when the gravity girl found the possibility of Izuku being dead too difficult to handle.
Back at the table were Uraraka sat with her friends, the conversation shifted to some other topic other than the missing student. And the gravity girl tried her best to be part of it, laughing at other's jokes and adding her own comments to people's conversation. But after a few minutes, she found herself thinking about her missing friend. The one that would smile at her, laugh at her jokes and complement her hair. After lunch the group of friends made it back to class, and she was glad. That was the only place Uraraka found distracting and engaging enough that forced her not to think about her lost love.
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The discussion on the classroom was loud and exciting for all the students of class 2A. They were just a month away from finishing their second year at UA. It had been a difficult year, filled with hard examinations, challenging competitions and brain crunching trials that tested their abilities to work as a team and come out with a winning strategy. Now they were all planning their end of school year party. And all of them were super excited about being just one year away from graduation.
All but one girl. She was happy to make it this far, to have successfully passed all the challenges UA had thrown at her. All but one specific challenge. The one where she would get over the disappearance of her friend. No, this would not be a challenge she would be able to get over anytime soon, or maybe ever. As the rest of the class came up with ideas for the upcoming party, Uraraka, had stopped paying attention. She couldn't really feel like celebrating, when she didn't know where Izuku was or how he was. Was she happy that they completed another year at UA? Yes, she most definitely was. And she had smiled too when Aizawa had congratulated them and told them to come up with a plan for their own party.
But as the conversation took off, with Ashido insisting there be a dance and Kaminari wondering if they could sneak in alcohol, to Iida trying to control the ever raising excitement in the classroom, Uraraka glanced at the empty chair on the back of the classroom. Suddenly she felt so sad. Izuku's name had being removed from the class roster, and his room emptied of all his belongings, which were packed and sent to his mother. Uraraka felt like Izuku's presence at UA was slowly being forgotten. And that made her almost as sad as the day he disappeared.
A loud laugh from Ashido brought her back to reality. Looking around she saw Jiro looking at her with a neutral expression. Then Jiro stood up and sat on an empty chair next to her.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" the sound quirk girl gave her a small smile. Which were rare after the incident.
Uraraka shrugged and returned the smile, "Ok, I guess." She mindlessly rubbed her left arm. "I'm excited about having only one year left. But, not having everyone here to celebrate is kind of hard."
Jiro thought for a moment, giving her a once over. "I'm sorry I've been so distant." She looked down, "but to tell you the truth, back then, I blamed you for what happened." She looked back at Uraraka, "I'm just being honest, you know?"
Uraraka raised an eyebrow, "You don't blame me anymore?"
Jiro sighed, "Not really, but I still think what you did was like super shitty." She shook her head slowly, "he didn't deserved to be treated like that."
Uraraka felt like crying at her words, but she couldn't. She had cried so much during this last year, it was now hard to make it happen. Now she just looked sad, "I know." She looked away and closed her eyes. "He was so nice to me. And I just hurt him." She opened her eyes, looking very sad. "Every day I wish I could take it all back, to be able to ask him to forgive me."
Jiro looked at the gravity and saw the pain, the regret in her eyes. "We all make mistakes." She idly played with her ear jacks, "the shitty part is that you can't apologize or try to make it up to him, because he's not around."
Uraraka thought about her words for a moment, then she looked back at her, "Do you think, if I ever see him again, that I should try to make it up to him?"
The sound quirk girl raised an eyebrow, "Of course! Even if he doesn't let you, you should try." She got closer and trying to make her point. "And if doesn't work for some reason or another, at least you know you tried." She moved away again, "then you won't feel as guilty. Because even if you did something bad, you tried your best to make it right." She then shrugged, "That got to count for something."
The gravity girl played with her fingers, thinking about Jiro's words, trying to imagine a scenario where she could make it up to Izuku, but failing to come up with one. She turned to her friend, a hopeful expression on her face, "I hope I get the opportunity to make it right. To fix my mistakes." Her expression turned remorseful, "I lied to him, Jiro. Not just hurt him, but lied to his face."
Jiro gave her a questioning look. She never really got all the details of Uraraka and Izuku's situation. She wasn't into gossiping and after what happened she had maintained some distance from Uraraka. The gravity girl had noticed, but was too absorbed into her emotional wasteland that had filled the last year of her life, to do anything about it until now.
"What do you mean?" Jiro asked with a suspicion that she wouldn't like the answer.
Uraraka swallowed hard, her eyes darting from Jiro to her own hands, "I told him I didn't want to go out with him, like it was the worst idea ever." She paused for a moment. "But it wasn't true. I actually had a huge crush on him." She shook her head, "I tried so hard to push my feelings away that they like, bounced back in a terrible way."
Jiro started to frown, "Why?" her frown deepened, her voice growing louder, "what reason can you possibly have to do something like that?!"
Uraraka closed her eyes and sighed loudly, "Jiro, please. This is very difficult for me." She looked down, "you have no idea how stupid I feel for doing what I did." She looked back at the dark purple hair girl next to her.
Jiro kept frowning at the gravity girl for a moment, "You still haven't told me the reason."
Uraraka sighed looking down, "I made a promise to myself, that I would do everything in my power to become a hero. And to me that meant no relationships." She looked back at Jiro, "I thought I needed to push everything else aside. I already had a crush on Izuku, so I felt that was conflicting with my goals."
Jiro closed her eyes then looked away. She thought about Uraraka's reasons for a long moment. She knew that Uraraka's way of handling the situation was sloppy and poorly executed. But she also had to applaud the gravity girl for having such conviction to follow through with her plans. After all, denying your own heart's desires was an extremely difficult thing to do, especially for a young high school student.
The purple hair girl looked back at Uraraka, who was still looking down in thought, "I give you credit for trying to stick to your future plans no matter what. Even if I think it was misguided." At Uraraka's questioning look she continued. "Don't you think you could've pursued both goals at the same time? Getting into a relationship doesn't mean you were giving up on your dream to become a hero."
"That's why I told you I feel so stupid." She shook her head, "I got so caught up with my plan to become a hero, that I didn't think I could have both things." She signed loudly, "We could've been a couple right now." She then closed her eyes painfully and swallowed, "Instead I pushed him out of my life, without intending to." She looked back at Jiro with moist eyes, "And now I fear I may never get the chance to talk to him."
"You don't know that." The sound quirk girl looked away as in thought, "you need to have a little faith." She waited a second then continued, "You can't be so negative all the time."
"Hey, you guys coming to lunch or what?! " Ashido called as the class started to walk out the door.
"Yeah, we're coming." Jiro started to stand up, then she smiled at Uraraka, "come on, have lunch with me."
Uraraka smiled as she stood up, "Sure, that sounds good."
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After lunch, Jiro and Uraraka walked back to their classroom behind the rest of the students. As they walked, making small conversation, they passed some of the teacher's offices. Uraraka noticed All Might from the corner of her eye. As she turned to look, she saw that he was talking with a short green haired woman that seem upset, drying her eyes with a small handkerchief as she discussed something with the former pro hero.
"Hey, is that Midoriya's mother?" Jiro asked in a low voice.
Uraraka frowned a little trying to figure out if she seen her before, "I'm not sure. The hair color matches though."
"Poor woman. I feel so bad for her, not knowing what happened to her son." The sound quirk girl, turned to her friend, "did the police ever found out anything new?"
The gravity girl looked at her friend and shook her head slowly, "No. To be honest I don't think they're even looking anymore."
"What?!" Jiro hissed in a hushed tone, "Why do you say that?"
Uraraka shrugged, "I don't know. But after all the interviews and after they found his phone, nothing has happened. Not a single update and nobody has come back to talk to us." She turned back to All Might and the woman. After a couple of seconds the woman bowed slightly to the former hero and turned to leave. All Might stayed on the hallway looking at the departing woman.
Uraraka thought about this for a second, an idea forming in her head. She turned to her friend. "Hey, Jiro, can you tell Iida I'll be back a little late."
Jiro raised an eyebrow, "why?"
"I need to speak with All Might." Uraraka gave her a serious look.
The sound quirk girl blinked a few times then nodded, "Ok." She had a slight idea of what Uraraka wanted to do.
As Jiro walked away, heading back to their classroom, Uraraka started walking towards where All Might was standing. As she approached he was walking back into the office.
"All Might!" the gravity girl called out.
The former hero turned to her, "Ah, Young Uraraka. What can I do for you?"
"Can I talk with you for a minute, sir?" Uraraka said with a serious expression.
The former pro hero nodded, "Sure, please come in."
As the two walked into the office, the former hero offered a chair to the student and then sat across from her. "What do you need help with, young Uraraka?"
Uraraka took a breath, "Sir, That woman you were just speaking with, was that Midoriya's mother?"
All Might looked down slightly then back at her and nodded, "Yes, her name in Inko Midoriya." He gave her a once over, "why do you ask?"
Uraraka looked slightly uncomfortable, "I would like to speak with her." She hesitated, "Could you, maybe, give me her address, please?"
All Might took a deep breath, "I don't if I should do that, young Uraraka." After a moment he continued, "She doesn't know where her son is if that's what you're worried about."
"I know. But I feel that I should speak to her." She looked down slightly embarrassed, "I feel responsible for what happened, so I would like to explain some stuff."
"You're not responsible for young Midoriya's disappearance, Uraraka." He shook his head, "You shouldn't be so hard on yourself."
She grew a little more determined, "Please, All Might. I feel this is something I need to do."
All Might thought about it for a moment. "I can't give you her address, as I feel it would be wrong form me to hand out such information." He saw Uraraka deflate in disappointment, but he continued, "However, I will contact her and get her permission. I'm sure she won't mind."
Uraraka smiled, "Thank so much, All Might."
The gravity girl left the office and slowly walked back to her classroom. She took Jiro's words to heart. She would try her best to fix her mistakes, to take responsibility for her actions. Everyone kept telling her that she wasn't responsible for what happened to Izuku. That the green haired student was harboring some serious issues inside. Heck, Bakugo had said as much in one of the group conversations they had in the common room.
He looked a little disturbed and some may even say guilty, as he told the group that Izuku had a very rough childhood and basically went through middle school without any friends. But he didn't elaborate or answered any questions after letting out that little piece of information. But Uraraka still felt that it was her actions that ignited the powder keg of emotions inside her friend's heart. Izuku wasn't around for her to do what she wanted to do. But at least she could do the next best thing. Speak with Izuku's mother.
