Chapter Three: New Career

It had been two days since her talk with All Might but finally he had shown up at her classroom before the students were released for the day. He just nodded at her while giving her a sticky note with an address. She thanked him and he walked away after wishing her good luck in a low voice. The address wasn't far from the school, so after going to her room and changing, she headed straight to her destination, avoiding the students in the common room.

Now she stood in front of the apartment's door. Double checking that it was the right address, she knocked. After a few seconds she heard some sound from within the apartment. The door opened and on the other side was the short green haired woman Uraraka had seen back at the school.

The woman gave her a warm smile, "Hello, can I help you?" she had a very friendly and warm appearance.

"Hello," the gravity girl smiled, "My name is Ochaco Uraraka. I'm one of Deku's friends."

The woman's smile disappeared, replaced with confusion, "Deku?"

Uraraka facepalmed mentally, "Oh! Sorry! I mean Izuku. I'm a student at UA."

Inko smiled again. "Oh yes! All Might called and told me one of my son's classmates wanted to speak with me!" She stepped aside making room for the gravity girl to enter, "Please come in!"

"Thank you!" Uraraka stepped in and removed her shoes. Sliding on the slippers for visitors she followed the woman inside.

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Walking into the apartment, Uraraka took a look around. It was a simple but nice two bedroom apartment that didn't look to too big or too small. Cozy was probably the right word to describe the place. On the wall she saw a couple of pictures of Izuku when he was younger. Other than that there were a few tasteful decorations here and there. She found the place quite nice. As they walked, Inko looked back at the gravity girl.

"So you're Uraraka. When All Might called me to ask me if it was ok for him to give my address, I didn't' think it would for you."

Uraraka blinked in surprised, "You know who I am?"

They arrived at what looked like a small coffee table and Inko motioned for her to sit down. "Of course! I mean, I didn't know what you looked like, but Izuku talked about you all the time when we spoke on the phone."

The gravity girl felt a warm feeling invade her body, but it was quickly replace with one of shame as she now felt even guiltier of her actions. "Oh. I didn't know Izuku told you about me."

The fact that Uraraka spoke about her son in a first name basis was not lost on the green haired woman. "Oh yes. He told me quite a bit about you." While Uraraka sat down, Inko continued to stand, "Can I offer you some tea and cookies?"

Uraraka felt like rejecting her offer, but thinking that this was about to be a difficult conversation, she decided to accept. "Yes, that sounds wonderful."

Inko smiled, "Great! I'll be right back." She walked into the kitchen and was gone for a couple of minutes. Uraraka swallowed thinking about what she wanted to tell Izuku's mother. Eventually Inko returned with a tray of tea and cookies. As she set everything down and started serving Uraraka she continued.

"Thank you for coming to see me, Uraraka. I don't' get a lot of visitors." She finished serving and sat down across Uraraka. She looked at the gravity girl with a smile, "Anyway, what do you want to talk about?"

Uraraka took a sip of her tea, avoiding eye contact. Setting the cup down she took a deep breath, summoning the courage to say what she wanted to say. She looked at Inko with solemn expression. "Mrs. Midoriya. I hope you can forgive me. But I'm afraid I'm the one responsible for Izuku running away." She swallowed hard, looking at the green haired woman across the table.

Inko's smile disappeared as she frowned ever so slightly, "What do you mean?"

Uraraka looked down, "Mrs. Midoriya, Izuku and I were very close. We spend most of our school time together." She looked back at Inko. "One night, he asked me out on a date." She cleared her throat, "and I rejected him…in a harsh way."

The older woman blinked a few times, "what did you do?"

The gravity girl looked down again, "I slapped him in the face and told him I didn't want to go out with him." She looked at Inko with teary eyes. "That happened in front of a lot of other students."

Inko's eyes went wide at Uraraka's words as she covered her mouth with one hand. "Oh my." She looked down with a sad expression, "My poor Izuku."

Uraraka lowered he head while wiping a few sporadic tears threatening to fall down. "I'm really sorry." There was a long moment of silence.

"You know." Inko started, making the gravity girl look at her. But the older woman was looking down into the tea cup she was holding. "When Izuku spoke about you, I just knew he had a huge crush on you. The way he talked about you, about the things you could do and how friendly you were to him, it was just kind of hard to miss."

More tears came to Uraraka's eyes as Inko continued with a slight chuckle, "for a while I wondered if you were even real." Uraraka painfully closed her eyes as Inko unknowingly pushed a dagger into her heart. "You see, Izuku never had any friends in middle school. They boys would bully him and sometimes even beat him, especially that Bakugo kid, he was really harsh towards Izuku. He never told me, but I could see when got home with bruises or scratches on his face."

Uraraka kept her eyes closed, wiping a fresh wave of tears as the green haired woman continued to explain Izuku's painful past. "The girls in his class would reject him when he tried to talk to them and made fun of him for trying." Inko wiped an errant tear, "It was so common that I could tell the difference between the girls and boys bullying when he got home." Uraraka couldn't take it anymore and let out a loud sob, stopping Inko's words that were hurting the gravity girl more than she already was.

"I'm sorry!" Uraraka valiantly tried to wipe the torrent of tears with both hands to no avail. "I'm so sorry…" she let out a mournful sob that made Inko rush to her side and embrace the crying girl. "I'm sorry…please forgive me." She was crying loudly now.

Inko held the girl close to her chest. Even though they just met, she could tell the high school student was in pain and being the loving mother that she was, she couldn't just sit there while this girl was apologizing in such an emotional way. She gently tried to calm the emotional teenager.

"It's ok…shh…it's ok." She gently ran her hand through Uraraka's hair. "It's not your fault..."

Uraraka returned the embraced, yearning for a motherly hug she desperately needed. She didn't get to see her parents often as they lived pretty far from UA. After all the things that had happened during the last year, Uraraka needed someone to hold her, to tell her that everything would be ok. Her friends at UA had been there for her, but they didn't hold the same emotional attachment to her situation as the women currently holding her.

As the gravity girl continued to cry, tightly holding her, Inko wondered if there was something else going on here. Maybe, the girl was actually Izuku's girlfriend that broke up with him in a rather dramatic way or maybe something else had happened that her visitor hadn't explained yet. Eventually, the gravity girl had calmed down enough to speak in complete sentences.

"I lied to him." Uraraka finally said after a long emotional moment, snapping Inko out of her mental deliberations. "I told him I didn't want to date him…but it was all a lie."

Inko blinked a few times, wondering what the girl was talking about. "I'm not sure I follow."

"I have a crush on Izuku too." Inko smiled glad that her son's feelings were returned somehow. "But I thought I couldn't handle a relationship, while studying to be a professional hero." Uraraka sniffled, "So I tried to push him away." Inko understood what the gravity girl was going through. She had tried to bury her romantic feelings in an attempt to seek a specific goal.

Inko smiled even though Uraraka couldn't see it, "I see. You had a goal and decided that nothing would come between you and that goal…even love." That simple statement came to a surprise to Uraraka. She didn't had to go into some elaborate explanation. Izuku's mother just understood what she was going through with a few words, and that brought some relief to her aching heart. After a few seconds Inko continued, "I will say that is a rather difficult thing to do. But at the end of the day, it's not really your fault. There's nothing to forgive."

Uraraka slowly broke the embrace to look at Inko in the eyes, "You really think so?"

Inko nodded her head with a sad smile, "Yes." she grew a tiny more serious, "I mean you are part of what drove Izuku to do what he did, but nobody can directly blame you for his actions."

Uraraka thought about this for a second. Jiro had told something along the same line, as had All Might. She felt a little better, glad that she had come to talk to Izuku's mother. "Thank you. You have no idea what it means to me to hear that." She detached herself completely from Inko as she said this.

"It's ok, Uraraka." The older woman put a hand on her shoulder, "I imagine this must have been a very difficult time for you."

Uraraka gave her a tight smile and nodded. "Yes. It has been really difficult. But my friends helped me through most of it."

The older woman gave her a warm smile, "You must have really good friends."

The brown haired girl smiled looking down, "Yes, they're the best." She wiped the last remaining tears as she said this.

Inko sighed, "I'm glad." She grabbed her tea, "If you don't mind, I would love to learn more about you and your friends."

Uraraka was slightly surprised but smiled almost immediately, "Sure! What would you like to know?"

So just like that, they spent the rest of their afternoon chatting away. After the long conversation, Uraraka felt a lot better than she had coming in. She talked about her life at UA, her friends and the difficulties of studying in the most prestigious hero school in the country. Inko's demeanor during the conversation had reminded Uraraka of her own mother.

She had been a good listener, laughed at the funny stories, asked pertinent questions without coming out as intrusive and added her own stories to their conversation. All in all, she had enjoyed her visit to Izuku's mother. But it was time to go back to the dorms and back to her UA life. So now Uraraka was at the door, getting ready to leave.

"Thank you for having me, Mrs. Midoriya. It was really nice talking to you." The gravity girl said with a warm smile.

"Oh no, the pleasure is all mine. I wanted to meet you since Izuku first started telling me about you." The older woman said in a friendly way. Then she put a hand on Uraraka's shoulder, talking in a more somber tone, "Please, Uraraka. Feel free to come back anytime, ok?" She gave her a tight smile, "I would love to know how things are going for you back in school."

The message was no lost on the gravity girl. Inko wanted her to stay in contact. She didn't want this visit to be the last one and frankly neither did Uraraka. The brown haired girl gave the older woman a wide smile, "Yeah, I think that's a great idea, Mrs. Midoriya." Inko went in for a hug that the gravity girls happily returned. "I'll love it if we can do this more often."

Inko teared up a little, "Thank you, Uraraka."

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The second year of hero school have come and gone, along with the summer and UA second year summer camp, which thankfully was devoid of any villain attack or kidnapped students. They had become Class 2A in their second year and then Class 3A in the third and last year. All students had made huge progress, both academically and in the practical portions of UA's curriculum. As their third and final year progressed at an alarming rate, Uraraka felt better and performed better in all parts of her academic progress.

Unfortunately, the only aspect she didn't made any meaningful progress was that of Izuku's disappearance. The police still had no answers or leads to the green haired student's whereabouts. But that unfortunate fact also allowed Uraraka to make progress in her friendship with Inko Midoriya. The gravity girl had continued her visits to Izuku's mother, sharing her third year successes as well as her difficult times with the green haired woman. Inko had become like a second mother to her. Offering caring words of encouragement as well as an additional source of support when things didn't go as planned.

Sometimes Uraraka wondered if the older woman was just trying to fill a massive void in her heart. One created by the disappearance of Izuku. But Inko's loving demeanor and caring attitude were more than enough to dispel any doubts Uraraka could ever have. The older woman had followed the gravity girl's progress through her last year of hero training with great interest. She had kindly provided Uraraka with constant support, even though the gravity girl knew this must have been an extremely difficult time for the older woman. While Uraraka was missing a friend, Inko was missing her only son.

Eventually the long awaited time had arrived, the time were all students of class 3A would finally call themselves UA graduates. With classes finished, internships concluded and future hero employment secured, all of the hero students were more than ready to be done with graduation. Uraraka was among those in the group sitting at the ceremony, waiting for their name to be called on stage to receive their hard earned UA diploma.

As UA cadre finished their graduation speeches, students were eventually called up the stage to finally receive their diplomas. As they lined up to go up the stage, friends and family sitting on the crowd took pictures and smiled, eagerly waiting for their sons or daughters to be called. Eventually it was Uraraka's turn to go up stage. As she walked across the stage, big smile on her face, she took a quick glance at the crowd. She saw her parents, and next to her mother, Inko Midoriya was there, with a warm smile on her face.

She walked up to principal Nezu, and grabbed her diploma. They then posed for a quick picture and after shaking the hands of her teachers lining up the stage, she moved out and back to her seat. The whole process continued as class 3A and 3B finished receiving their diplomas. Principal Nezu took the microphone and after a few last words, he enthusiastically declared all the students present UA graduates. The crowd cheered loudly and that marked the end of their graduation.

As the ceremony concluded, students smiled, made jokes about how fast the whole thing had gone through and felt a nice sense of accomplishment. Some people mingled around, engaging in conversation or taking pictures. Uraraka ran to her parents, who were extremely proud and happy that their daughter had graduated from the most prestigious hero school in the country. They hugged, took pictures and talked about the whole thing.

Inko, who had been introduced to Uraraka's parents prior to the ceremony, stood a small distance from the happy family, not wanting to intrude in their celebratory reunion. After a short moment, Uraraka walked to her with a big smile.

"Mrs. Midoriya, thank you so much for being here." She gave her a warm hug.

Inko returned the hug with a wide smile, then released the student, "Of course! I told you I would be here!" she pointed to Uraraka's diploma, "can I see it?" after the student handed her the piece of paper, she took a quick glance at it, "Very nice! People weren't joking when they said UA diplomas looked fancy" she handed the diploma back to the girl.

"I know! It's so like…royal looking!" Uraraka joked with a happy chuckle.

Inko's smile lost some of its luster as she got a little serious digging into her purse, "Uraraka, I hope you don't' mind but I have a present for you."

Uraraka blinked, surprised at her friend's sudden remark, "Mrs. Midoriya! You didn't have to!"

The green haired woman pulled a small, rectangular blue suede box. "Here, I want you to have this." The gravity girl looked at it with wide eyes and a slightly opened mouth, then glanced back at the older woman, who just nodded, "Please, take it."

Uraraka sighed, as she took the box. Opening it, she saw a gold bracelet with the UA logo and the class year engraved under it. "Wow, this is really nice, Mrs. Midoriya." She breathed out in surprise.

"Yes, I like it a lot." She then looked sadder, "It was supposed to be Izuku's graduation present."

The gravity girl gasped covering her mouth, "What?!" she shook her head and closed the box. "No, I'm sorry, I can't accept this." She tried to hand the box back but Inko didn't take it. The older woman gently pushed it back.

"Uraraka, please. I want you to have it."

"Mrs. Midoriya…This is too much." Uraraka shook her head with a sad expression.

Inko smiled at her, "Nonsense, its perfect for you. Izuku did not graduate, but you did." She her hand on top of the student's hand, her eyes moist, "If he was here, I know he would want you to have it."

Uraraka looked down at the box with a sad expression. She then looked up at Inko, who continued to smile at her, "I don't know what to say…"

"You don't have to say anything, Uraraka" Inko's smile got wider. "Just take it."

The gravity girl exhaled, then gave the woman a tight embrace, "Thank you so much. This means a lot to me."

"I'm so happy for you, Uraraka. And Congratulations." Inko said as they continue to embrace.

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The music during the graduation party was loud, but perfect for the occasion. The UA gym had been nicely decorated with all kinds of lights, banners congratulating the graduating students, and UA themed balloons and stars hanged from the ceiling. They even had a disco ball in the center of the dance floor. Students danced, laughed with each other and generally had a great time together.

As the party was on full swing, a well-known group of girls were having a lively conversation at their table after the boys decided to go out on their own for a bit. The girls had to raise their voices a little due to the nonstop music.

"So we were at the carnival when the power went out. And Kaminari had another of his 'great' ideas, and decided to use his quirk to power the whole thing to allow people that were stuck to get out of the rides." Jiro told her story in a lively voice, "but off course he used too much power and ended up frying his brain, again!" She giggled.

"Oh god!" Ashido asked in an amused tone, "what do you do after that?!"

"What do you think I did? I spent the rest of the date with a drooling idiot!" The whole group laughed hard at Jiro's story.

"Why didn't you come back to the dorms?!" Uraraka asked in the middle of her laughing.

"Because, I got to do whatever I wanted, and he wasn't in any condition to disagree." The sound quirk girl laughed a little.

"That makes it sound like you took advantage of him." Asui said in her usual, matter of fact, tone. Making the group laugh again.

"Hey!" Jiro acted offended. "I wouldn't do something like that!" she shook her head, "seriously."

"Man, what an idiot." Ashido shook her head.

Jiro frowned, "Oh yeah?! What about when Kirishima took you to that fancy restaurant and ended up accidentally activating his quirk and ripping the shirt and jacket he was wearing?!" the group laughed again, including Ashido.

"Yeah, that was classic. We had to leave, since he ended up almost bare chested." The pink girl said with much amusement. "We got so many stares from the people that were there."

"At least it happened before you actually ordered." Asui said with a smile.

"Thank god for small miracles!" Ashido giggled. "His clothes were ruined though."

"How the heck you guys find yourself in such situations" Yaoyorozu smiled, shaking her head slightly.

Ashido leaned towards her a little, "Well you just started dating Todoroki." She then grinned, "We'll see what kind of embarrassing situations you'll be telling us in the future."

Yaoyorozu blushed a little, "Yeah, we'll see what happens." She sighed, "I'm just happy he finally asked me out on a date." She said, turning to the group with a smile, but her smile lost some of its shine when she looked at Uraraka. The others noticed Yaoyorozu's change in demeanor and so they turned to the gravity girl as well.

Uraraka's smile had disappeared and she turned to look away with a serious face. The other girls looked at each other. Yaoyorozu put a hand on Uraraka's shoulder.

"Hey, you ok?" she asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Obviously not fine, Uraraka gave her a tight smile.

Jiro decided to change the topic since it was obvious all the talk about dating had gotten to the gravity girl.

"So, Ochaco, you said Ryukyu offered you a contract with her hero agency." She winked at the gravity girl, "you got really lucky to get signed up with such a good agency."

The other girls went along immediately. "Yeah no kidding. I only got offered a couple of contracts with some less known agencies." Ashido said with a little bit of frustration.

"Me too. But, it's not that bad though. We just graduated after all." Yaoyorozu added.

"Yeah, we shouldn't be expecting the big agencies to be begging us to sign up with them." Asui said while taking a sip of her drink.

"Easy for you to say. You signed up with the Oki Mariner Crew!" Jiro added with a raised eyebrow. Asui just gave her a wide smile and took another sip of her drink.

Uraraka finally smiled a little, "Yeah, we had a good working relationship after that big fight against the Yakuza and Overhaul." She shrugged, "after that, she told me she wanted me to work for her."

Yaoyorozu smiled, "That's nice. I'm happy for you Ochaco." Then she looked around, "where the hell are the guys? They been gone for like forever."

Ashido turned back and pointed, "They're over there by the punch table, joking with the guys from class 3B."

Jiro looked, narrowing her eyes, then she looked annoyed, "Oh my god! Are they arm wrestling?" The girls looked at each other and started laughing.

Uraraka just smiled sadly, wishing a guy with green hair would suddenly show up and give her a surprise visit.

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Uraraka typed away on her work computer trying to finish the report. She added new information, specific details like times, locations, people involved and a summary of the incident. She stopped frequently to double check her work. She nodded and continued typing, adding her own observations and recommendations. She's been at this for almost an hour now, and when she finally filled the last block of information, she breathed out and stretched slightly.

She looked out the window, towards the city landscape while taking a sip of her coffee. In a couple of days it would be her third year at Ryukyu's agency. Nothing to celebrate really, but she liked it here. She had a nice cubicle close to the window, and next to Ryukyu's office, instead of a cubicle surrounded by other cubicles and printers. Of course the reason for such a nice location was that she was now the top hero at this agency, excluding Ryukyu, who was the boss. Her hard work and commitment had paid off greatly, and she was happy.

She heard steps and turning she saw Ryukyu with a mock annoyed expression, hands on her hips, "I don't pay you to stare out the window." She smiled giving away her mock tone. "I need that report."

Uraraka smiled, "It's finished. I just have to save it and…" she clicked on her mouse, "…done!"

The dragon hero smiled leaning against the wall next to Uraraka's chair. "Great! Since you're there go ahead and send it to headquarters."

"Jeez, now I have to do your job?" The gravity girl smiled wide as she opened another window to connect to the hero headquarters report network.

Ryukyu chuckled, "It's one of the good things about being in charge."

"I bet!" Uraraka say while clicking around the screen with her mouse.

"So I have good news and…good news." The dragon hero said with a toothy grin.

So what's the good news?" Uraraka turned to her boss with her own toothy grin, going along with Ryuku's funny demeanor. She loved working with her boss. They had developed a very nice working relationship that slowly grew into a friendship were the dragon hero treated Uraraka like a younger sister.

Ryukyu handed her a piece of paper, "I just signed up two recently graduated hero students. One from UA and the other from Shiketsu."

Uraraka looked slightly surprised, scanning through the document, "Two more?" she turned to her boss, "I thought you said we weren't hiring for a while because we couldn't afford it?"

"Well, they weren't the top in their class, so I was able to offer them a fair contract without spending too much." Ryukyu then smiled, "But also because the other good news." She handed Uraraka another piece of paper, "we're expanding to Asaka City."

"Wow, another office?!" Uraraka sounded really surprised now.

"Yeah" she made a pause and then continued, "And you and I are moving there!"

"What?!"