AN: This chapter contains direct quotes from "My Hero Academia" anime English Dub Episodes 123. This also contains spoilers for the Paranormal Liberation War Arc for MHA. I do not own the words or the characters.
There was a stillness in the air that day that should have been the first sign. That's always how they describe it in books, isn't it? Everything goes silent, the calm before the shitstorm hits the fan, or however the saying goes.
Uraraka should have known. She should have recognized the signs. She may have done things differently. Done Something. Anything.
But hindsight is 20/20.
U.A. students were not allowed to go home for their Spring Break. The school was still on lockdown, and students were only allowed to leave for internships or emergencies, even though there hadn't been more attacks from the League of Villains since Uraraka's encounter, as far as she knew at least.
After that night, the one that so clearly came with a "before" and "after" in Uraraka's life, the two teens had spent as lazy of a morning as they could, considering they still had classes to get to. It had been amazing, just the two of them, half-naked and warm in each other's embrace.
That school day had been typical. Her friends checked up on her in the morning, but she assured them she was fine. No relationship is perfect, right? They had nodded their agreement, and though they were still on alert, it was hard to argue when Uraraka and Bakugo kept looking at each other and smiling like two idiots in love. Bakugo hadn't even reacted to Kaminari and Sero's light teasing about him losing his shit the day before. By the way, he was looking at her, he was probably too busy remembering every vivid detail of the night before.
Uraraka definitely was. Every time she felt the soreness between her legs or caught sight of the bruises he had marked her with, her heart fluttered, and heat would pool in the pit of her stomach. She couldn't wait to try doing it again, and it seemed like Bakugo was of like mind.
The dust might have settled, but a night full of raw emotions left its mark. She felt a little off-balance, not entirely sure how to move forward despite a mutual understanding that forward was the direction they wanted to proceed in. They loved each other, and she had no regrets about giving him her virginity, but she still needed some time to process it all.
Deku had smiled at her over breakfast but had been avoiding both of them. The part of her that was Deku's friend was a little hurt by this, but an even bigger part was thankful. She had to tackle one relationship at a time, and although she valued her and Deku's friendship deeply, she needed to figure out what hers and Bakugo's looked like before adding Deku to the mix.
Despite the growing tension between both boys, Uraraka was aware that something must have also gone down between them the night before because things were oddly quiet between them. Still, Uraraka had already decided she would tackle one problem at a time, and Bakugo and Deku's relationship was not one she needed to get to the bottom of at this moment. All she worried about that day was ensuring she and Bakugo were good.
They had spent that evening together, talking about nothing and everything. And touching. They couldn't keep their hands off each other. At first, they had been innocent enough, hand holding, hair caressing, but slowly it built until they were once more lost in each other's embrace. Uraraka was definitely still sore, and Bakugo was still asking her if she was sure every two seconds, but it had been everything and then some. She doubted she'd ever get over the feeling of him inside her, his hard body hovering over her as he pounded into her, his dark red eyes locked on hers as they came undone.
By the time Spring Break officially rolled around, things felt better than they had ever felt before. She had even managed a full conversation with Deku that was only slightly uncomfortable in the beginning. With only her internship keeping her busy, she spent her break training and catching up on assignments, and hanging out with her friends where she could squeeze it in. She spent all her nights with Bakugo, long since giving up pretending like they weren't sleeping in each other's rooms at night, alternating between them. No one would rat them out to the teachers, so what was the point of sneaking?
Everything was going well for her. She would have even gone as far as to say things were perfect.
Looking back, there had been signs. The teachers were often missing, especially Aizawa and Present Mic. There was an uptick in Hero Patrols, and she kept running into her classmates more often than not, as if the heroes had been purposefully overlapping patrol sections, especially for the students. Bakugo had been shifty whenever the conversation would turn to her parents and, inevitably, Toga and the League of Villains. And he and Deku had been called to meetings by All-Might more often. They were there. She just hadn't wanted to see them.
For once in her short life, she wanted the only thing on her mind to be regular teenage stuff: school, friends, family, and her boyfriend. But apparently, that had been too much to ask.
That morning she had woken up alone in her bed. Bakugo, Deku, and Todoroki had been scheduled at Endeavor's extra early that morning, so it hadn't surprised her, but it still made her feel sad. She was getting way too used to waking up next to him.
What did come as a surprise was the incoming call from Mirko that had been the one to wake Uraraka up. Mirko had informed her that she would be needed to report to her internship that day, despite it being her day off.
She ran into Tsu-Chan and Koda on her way out of the dorms. Both were also in full gear and looking as confused as she had been. All three of them had been told to report to Jaku City despite it being their day off. On their way there, they had run into Iida, headed in the same direction.
When they arrived, a large group of Pro-heroes and Policemen were already setting up for… something. Uraraka had no idea what, but everyone looked serious. When they arrived, they were all ushered toward one of Endeavor's sidekicks that Uraraka recognized as Burnin. Bakugo complained about her enough, and her long, flaming yellowish-green hair was pretty distinct, even in a post-quirk society.
Burnin gathered all the students, including Bakugo, Deku, and Todoroki. Nejire-chan was also there and one of Class 2-B's students.
Their assignment: Evacuate Jaku City.
And that's what they had started doing. The top-level heroes had long since disappeared into the hospital, but everything seemed to be going smoothly. Everyone was working well together, even Deku and Bakugo.
The civilians were understandably nervous but relatively calm. The sounds of buses leaving, light conversation, and overall movement sounded around them.
She should have known that nothing goes as planned.
They had momentarily been in the eye of the storm, but the loud explosion that rumbled through the area was swiftly followed by a rush of power - something so fast and deadly that even the pro-heroes seemed terrified. The communication devices they had been given were chaos. Yelling and crying came from the civilians that were still in the process of being evacuated. Deku and Todoroki were both fighting the power that was breathing down their necks, destroying everything in its path in a blink of an eye. It's Shigaraki! It had to be.
Burnin was shouting at the rest of them to evacuate with the heroes, but Uraraka was searching for Bakugo. She refused to leave without finding him first.
Uraraka raced toward where she had last seen him. He had been near Todoroki and Deku when the explosion happened. She landed next to Todoroki, but the half-fire, half-ice quirk user barely registered her, too busy launching his ice wall at the decay that was quickly advancing on them. Her eyes landed on Bakugo, who had been standing next to Deku but was quickly shortening the distance between them. Iida, Tsu, and Koda showed up suddenly. Uraraka heard her classmates talking in loud voices around her, Deku claiming he forgot something before racing off toward the destruction, completely ignoring Burnin's directive, but her mind was focused on the blonde boy heading toward her with purpose.
Deep in her soul, she knew Bakugo would follow Deku. There was no other reason he would stop in the middle of all this chaos to come to her. She wanted to stop him, but she couldn't form the words. Time was no longer something she could grasp. Every moment suspended around her as Bakugo finally closed the distance between them and kissed her.
The kiss was hurried, full of passion, but there was a tinge of desperation that tore a piece of her heart as he devoured her like a man starved. Like if this would be the last chance he got to do so. When he pulled back from the kiss, he took that little piece of her with him, and Uraraka was faintly aware that he would probably always keep it. He was a part of her story now. And fuck did she want to stop him from running into the thick of it, but she couldn't.
This is what it meant to be a hero.
He had his role to play, and she had hers.
Neither spoke, afraid that doing so would be enough to curse their fates. There would be time to talk after because they would both survive this. There was no other option.
She allowed herself one moment to see his retreating figure disappear after Deku before gathering herself and resuming her task of evacuating people.
Reports that Gigantomachia is on a rampage coming in, and everything around them delved further into chaos, the giant man was moving at a pace unheard of for someone that size, and she had to focus. Her job was to save people.
That's all that matters right now.
Save as many people as she could and trust that Bakugo could handle himself.
"Please, I need a hero! My poor husband's bedridden!" An older lady popped out from behind her as she and Tsu were helping to evacuate several people from a collapsed building, "I can't get him out here by myself! He's heavy, and I've got a bad back. Our place is right around the corner! Follow me!"
The old lady took off running down an alleyway, and Uraraka followed her. That was her mission. Save people—as many as she can.
"I'm coming, Takeo!" The lady might have been old, but she was moving so fast that Uraraka was having difficulty keeping up.
The old lady was sprinting down alleyways so fast she could give Iida a run for his money. In the recesses of her mind, Uraraka found this odd, but once more, she seemed incapable of picking up signs recently.
She walked right into the trap laid out for her. It was almost embarrassing how easily she had been cornered.
All that training and for what? She was back in the same position they had her in all those weeks ago.
The old lady was there one second, and the next, her body melted away to reveal the star of her recent nightmares.
"Oh, you're so nice." The sweetness in Toga's voice bordered on sinister. She sounded unhinged. More so than she had ever been before.
"Himiko?!" She couldn't keep the surprise from her voice.
"It's been forever, Ochako." Toga teased as she slipped into an empty house.
Uraraka had no choice but to follow. She couldn't run away from this fight any more than she could stop Bakugo from running headfirst into his.
This is what they were training for.
They may not be fully licensed heroes, but this was their job.
She raced into the home behind the crazy blonde but was met by a dark, empty living room with no Toga in sight. But she had to be in here somewhere. Uraraka slowly moved her way inside the home, her senses on full alert. Only the sounds of her boots on the floor and the ticking of a clock could be heard. Slowly, little by little, she inched her way deeper into the home.
"How sad," Togas's voice came out clearly, but from where? "I wanted to talk to you and Tsu together. How is my precious little froggy friend? Hm?"
Her voice was coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. How?!
"And of course, I wanna see Izuku real bad. He's so cool when he gets all bloodied and beat up. I love him like that. Don't you?"
Uraraka scanned the room thoroughly, but there was no sign of the transformation quirk user. Toga had to be in this house, Uraraka just hoped she was alone this time.
"Don't worry. I love my super-cute floaty friend too. In fact, I think I want to be like you. So be honest, Ochako…"
The crash came from behind her, and Uraraka barely had enough time to protect herself from the debris falling around her before Toga fell down toward her, knife in hand, pinning Uraraka to the floor.
"Hero. What do you want to do to me?" Toga asked, and Uraraka could see the cold-blooded villain within the girl for the first time. "Do you want to kill me like Jin was killed? Will you murder me too?..."
While Toga asked her questions, Uraraka focused on keeping Toga from stabbing her with the knife she held. But she was getting angry. Toga just took people's blood. Their identity. And for what? What was her goal? Love? What was the reason for causing all this pain? Destruction?!
"You pulled this whole stunt just to ask me that?" Uraraka could feel her anger rise despite being on the defensive at the moment.
"Well, it's important." The sad part was Toga seemed to genuinely believe it.
"You think so?! Why don't you tell that to the old lady whose blood you took? You kill her to ask a stupid question?" Uraraka was livid.
"Did you say "stupid'?" Toga's voice turned to ice, "You're the stupid one for wasting your time with that ugly boy instead of loving Izuku how we promised we would." In her anger, Toga let up on some of her strength, and Uraraka used that to her advantage, maneuvering her legs to a useable position.
"What are you talking about?!" Uraraka used her lower body strength to kick Toga off her, quickly jumping into an attack position in time to see Toga land on both her feet.
"You smell like him. He's all over you." Toga's face twisted in disgust as she lunged at Uraraka. Uraraka dodged and managed to touch some of the laying debris before having to retreat to a corner.
"Of course he is. He's my boyfriend." Maybe she shouldn't be taunting the crazy lady, but she was banking on keeping Toga distracted enough to allow Uraraka to touch as many heavy objects as she could get to.
"Stop calling him that!" Toga shrieked, "You love Izuku."
"No. I love Bakugo." Urarka lunged to the side as Toga flashed toward her. "To answer your other question, I want to save people, Himiko. As many as I can." Uraraka pushed toward Toga, trying to get her on the run - she needed more stuff to touch.
"But right now, you are standing in my way, and I will remove you if necessary." Uraraka aimed a punch at her, but it never connected.
Her surroundings began to distort, and she was sent flying into a wall, eerily reminiscent of that day in the alleyway.
Toga hadn't come alone.
Uraraka regained her stance but was now facing two villains instead of one. Toga was psychotic and unstable, but there was predictability in her actions. Uraraka had dealt with her enough times to understand some of her motivations and, more importantly, how to stall her. Mr. Blue Hair was an unknown. What were the parameters of his quirk? Why had he joined the League of Villains? She didn't even know his name!
"Why did you follow me, Kurai?" Toga hissed at her fellow League of Villains member. Well, that was one mystery solved. But it begot more questions - Toga was surprised to see him. Why?
"I never said I wouldn't." Mr. Blue Hair responded, sounding almost bored, but his eyes bore into Uraraka. They were as piercing blue as his hair and raged with a fire Uraraka hadn't thought him capable of producing. Nothing about Mr. Blue Hair, Kurai, made sense. Who was he? What did he want? He looked at Uraraka like she held all the answers, and it both confused and angered her. She had enough shit to deal with, and creepy new villains that kept popping up whenever she stepped outside U.A.'s parameters was not something she wanted to add to her list.
Toga seemed over Mr. Blue Hair as well, lunging at him in a fury, but he must have used his quirk on her because, in less time than it took to blink, Toga was barrelling in the opposite direction than she had lunged and he was grabbing her from the throat and slamming her into the floor hard enough to knock her out.
Every alarm bell was ringing inside Uraraka, she could talk to Toga, but Kurai didn't seem to be the talking type. Before he could refocus his attention on her, Uraraka activated her quirk, and all the debris she had touched floated around her.
Uraraka lunged them all at him seconds before he could activate his quirk, the multiple collisions allowing her just enough time to escape the house before it collapsed on them.
Once outside, Uraraka ran like hell toward where she had left Tsu and the civilians. At least this whole sidequest wasn't a complete failure, as she left with important information about Mr. Blue Hair and his quirk.
He could distort time and space around a certain individual. Based on what happened back at the amusement park, he could potentially activate his quirk on more than one person at the same time, but it appeared that they had to be close together. There was a refraction period between uses, and there was definitely a range, or else he would have used it on her by now.
His name was Kurai.
And from the look he had given her, he seemed to want her.