Chapter 3
When All Might saw his daughter return home with slumped shoulders and a look of defeat on her face, he knew something was wrong. When she immediately went to the garden, he knew that whatever was wrong was serious. She only went there when she was really upset.
"What happened?" he asked Inko.
His wife bit her lip.
"The matchmaker gave her a rather - well, unconventional answer. I think you should go talk to her."
He found Momo sitting on the bench under the cherry blossom tree.
"How did your meeting with the matchmaker go?" he asked, sitting down next to her.
"It - it didn't exactly go badly, but…" She explained what the matchmaker had said about her being able to do so many other things besides getting married. He tried to maintain the image of a calm, attentive father, but inside he was dancing for joy.
'Yes! My prayers have been answered. My little girl won't have to leave!'
His relief turned to dread at the mention of university, but if that was what she decided…
"No matter what you choose to do," he said, "I'll - I'll support you."
"That's the problem though. I don't know what to choose. There are so many things that I could do, but I… I want to choose the right one."
"Do you see that bud?" he asked, "pointing at a flower that had yet to blossom, "it's late. But I bet that when it blooms it will be the most beautiful one of all. Take your time, Momo, and you'll find out what the right thing to do is."
They were interrupted by an urgent drumbeat calling everyone to the town square.
"What is it?" she asked her father.
He frowned. "I don't know, but I want you to stay inside with your mother and grandmother."
Momo helped her father to stand and walked him to the gate, but obediently stayed inside.
"Psst!" Momo looked up to see her grandmother peering over the edge into the town square below. Momo climbed up and stood beside her.
She saw a government official with dark hair and glasses sitting on his horse in the middle of the square. The other villagers stood around, watching him with anxious eyes.
"I bring grave news," he proclaimed, "the Huns have invaded China!"
There were gasps and murmurs of disbelief among the villagers. Momo felt her blood turn cold and had the dizzying feeling that the world had been tipped upside down. She gripped the roof tiles harder.
"By order of the emperor, one man from every family must serve in the Imperial Army."
The world was upside down and shaking now. Momo didn't hear as the official called the names of different families until he called the Yaoyorozu family.
Her father stepped forward, tall and upright, doing an admiral job of hiding his limp.
The official hesitated.
"Do you not perhaps have a son who could serve in your place?"
"No."
Momo didn't know how she made it down from the roof. Her body moved of its own accord and the next thing she knew she was standing in front of her father as though that would protect him from conscription.
"Momo!"
"Please, sir," she begged the official, "my father has already served in the army-"
"I'm sorry," the official said, "there's nothing I can do. I am required by law to deliver these notices. You can refer your complaint to the military public safety commission. They should be able to review your case in about ten to twelve months - "
"He could be killed by then!"
"I'm sorry," the official repeated, "that's the law."
"Momo, go back inside," her father ordered.
It felt like walking in a dream. She felt numb. When she went back inside her grandmother put an arm around her shoulders. Her mother was sobbing.
Supper that evening was a silent, depressed affair. No one had the courage to address the elephant in the room even though its weight was crushing them. Eventually Momo couldn't stand it anymore.
"You shouldn't have to go!" she snapped. She had never shouted at the table before, but she couldn't help it.
"Momo," her father said, calmly lowering his teacup, "please sit down."
"How can you just accept this so easily? They shouldn't ask you to go back."
"But they have asked me. And it is my duty to respond."
"Is it your duty to go and die?"
"It is my duty to protect our family."
She couldn't listen to any more of this, couldn't stay in this room where the air felt as heavy and wet as fog.
Outside, the wind was blowing fiercely, chasing leaves across the yard. She tried to calm herself by taking deep breaths, but with every inhale she thought, 'He's going to die. My father is going to die.'
No matter how hard she tried she couldn't find a solution. She could solve complex mathematical equations yet she had no answer for this.
She saw her parents' silhouettes in the window. Her mother's shoulders shook as her father cupped her face. If he didn't come back… it would destroy her mother. She had already lost her son - she couldn't lose her husband as well.
If only Midoriya were here. If he was, what would he have done? It wasn't even a question. He would have gone to join the army. He would have saved their father.
Lightning flashed overhead. Her path suddenly became clear. That was exactly what she would do.
Momo replaced her father's conscription notice with the letter she wrote explaining where she had gone. She took a moment to look at her parents, to memorise their faces, rendered peaceful by sleep. The weight of what she was doing suddenly pressed down on her and she realised that it could be years before she saw them again.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Before she could begin to doubt her decision, she turned and left.
Momo had never considered herself to look very boyish, but with her hair tied up in a top knot and wearing her father's armour she looked nothing like herself. So much so in fact that Shadow got spooked when she opened the door of the stable.
"Sshhh, it's okay. It's me." The horse calmed down when he heard her voice. Together they slipped out into the night.
Gran Torino yawned and stretched. Being cooped up in that memorial stone was really doing a number on his back. Maybe he should send Toshinori some kind of vision about it being time to remodel the family shrine. Perhaps later. At the moment they had a different problem to deal with.
"Ochako," he said, rapping on the dragon's pedestal with his cane.
Ochako rose from the billowing smoke like the unholy creation of a mad scientist. The dramatic effect was promptly ruined by her ensueing sneeze. Now, a dragon's sneeze - no matter the size of the dragon - is loud enough to wake the dead and Ochako's did just that. All over the shrine the blue-ish ghosts of the family's ancestors sat up straight, still blinking the sleep out of their eyes.
Gran Torino looked at Ochako.
"An unusual method, but effective nevertheless. I haven't seen them look this alive in centuries."
"Thank you," Ochako said, pleased to have done her job well despite the sneeze having been accidental.
"Now, then," Gran Torino said, calling the muttering ghosts to order. Before he could begin however, Rock Lock interrupted.
Glaring at Midnight, he said, "I knew it. I knew it was only a matter of time before your bad genes manifested."
"Don't look at me," Midnight retorted, "she gets it from your side of the family."
"She's just trying to protect her father," Tsuyu said placatingly.
"My children never caused such trouble. They all became acupuncturists," Rock Lock continued.
"Well we can't all be acupuncturists," Midnight rolled her eyes.
"What a mad banquet of darkness," Tokoyami muttered.
"Enough!" Gran Torino shouted, restoring the meeting to order, "the point is that Momo is gone and we must send a guardian to bring her back. Now, who do we send?"
"Send the swiftest," Tsuyu suggested.
"No, the most cunning," Rock Lock said.
"No," said Midnight, mainly just for the sake of disagreeing with Rock Lock, "send the wisest."
"No," said the youngest ghost present. Everyone turned to Midoriya.
"Send the best there is. Send Ochako."
The dragon's eyes widened.
"Me?!" she squeaked.
Midoriya nodded.
"You all keep saying that we have to bring Momo back, but that won't solve our family's problem. Momo left to protect our father. We should honour that by protecting her. Not by bringing her back, but by supporting her."
"But why send me then?" Ochako asked, "I'm basically just a glorified alarm clock."
"No, you're not. Do you remember when I first came here? I was so scared. I didn't know what was going on and I felt all alone. You helped me.
Momo isn't going to need a guardian out there. She's smart and capable and she can take care of herself. What she's going to need is a friend."
"Mhmm," Gran Torino said, "young Midoriya is right. Going into danger is practically a family tradition. But we should never let our relatives go into danger alone. It's decided then! Ochako will go."
Ochako had some minor disagreement with that. She'd never left the shrine before. What if she couldn't find Momo? What if she got lost?
Then Midoriya smiled at her.
"You can do it," he said. It was like he wiped all her doubts away. Ochako nodded.
"Well, here I go then."
As soon as she stepped onto the road all her doubts came flooding back. She looked left. Then right. Then left again.
"Right," she said.
To the left the road curved up the side of the nearby hills. To the right it dipped down into the valley town.
Next to her a cricket chirped. She looked at it with surprise.
"You know which way she went?"
The cricket chirped in the affirmative.
"Can you show me?"
The cricket nodded.
"You are the luckiest cricket I have ever met! Granted, you're also the first. What's your name?"
The cricket chirped.
"Jirou? That's a lovely name. I'm Ochako."
They set off on the road to the right. Dragons have a sense for destiny and Ochako felt that she and Jirou were on their way to something big. And quite possibly disasterous.