Chapter 32

.::Catch Up Time::.

Falling into a void should be terrifying, but it only lasted a single second before Ochako hit the ground.

She had no idea what happened, just that one second she'd been inside an abandoned building and suddenly she was on her back watching as the portal closed. It had been a jarring change as the light vanished with it, leaving her alone in total silence as she scrambled to sit up.

Her first reaction had been panic, because she had no idea what happened. A black abyss surrounded her as far as the eye could see, a vast nothingness stretching in every direction. She would call it dark, but that didn't seem to fit properly because despite the blackness it didn't feel dark, just—empty. When she looked down at herself her body seemed to glow, but maybe that was a trick of her eyes.

Before she could fully freak out the air ripped, the blackness tearing apart like a hole in fabric to reveal the room she'd spent the past twenty-four hours in. Her backpack flung inside, landing next to her and making her yelp in surprise. "Just sit tight for ten minutes," the woman's voice called, sounding just slightly distorted compared to before, and then the rip closed.

Ochako kind of wanted to panic again but she couldn't really do anything. She didn't know how long passed as she awkwardly hugged her bulky backpack to her chest, wishing she had some sort of clock. Finally the air ripped open again though, this time sounding behind her. Before she could turn hands grabbed her shoulders and ripped her out of the darkness and threw her onto a couch with a startled "oof."

By the time her eyes adjusted to the sudden light the woman stood over her, arms crossed over her chest. "Please tell me you're not the girl Izuku saw last week," she said, and Ochako found herself wincing and suddenly feeling oddly sheepish. But more importantly—

"So you do know Deku then?" she asked, looking at the woman with a renewed sense of resolve, and the woman hung her head with an exasperated groan.

The woman's name, Ochako quickly learned, was Aiko. She didn't tell Ochako much about herself, but she did know Deku. And she also found Ochako's decision to run away to join the Alliance so she could find him to be one of the stupidest things she'd ever heard.

Apparently Deku agreed.

"Seriously, do you have any idea how dangerous that is!?" he asked, pacing around the apartment frantically. "This is even worse than when we went to save Kacchan! I'm literally living with the League of Villains!"

"I know, and that's why I couldn't just leave you alone!" Ochako told him, a fire lighting in her eyes as she wrung the hem of her borrowed t-shirt. "You're my Deku, the first person I've seen from our world in ages—and more than that, you're my friend. There's no way I can just leave you alone with villains!" Deku did not look particularly moved by her speech though, instead grimacing and looking away.

"Uraraka, I'm so grateful you went through all this trouble, but you don't understand. I'm safe, they won't hurt me, but this is really, really dangerous for you."

"And so I should just ignore you and keep living a life of luxury while you're in danger all alone?" Ochako challenged, hands on her hips. Deku flinched, her words clearly striking a nerve as he turned back to her with a frown.

"That's not the point at all!" he protested. "They already have Kacchan and Shinsou locked up! Kidnapping's like their number one MO! And today, they—" He cut himself short and squeezed his eyes shut as he shrunk in on himself. Ochako didn't have a response to that, her brain stuck on the first part as she stared at him in shock.

"Wait, they have Bakugou and—and that kid from Gen-Ed?" she asked in growing disbelief and horror. Deku winced, immediately losing that brief bit of fight as his whole body sagged with something close to defeat.

"Y-yeah, they were already here when I woke up," he said slowly as he scratched at the back of his neck with a grimace. "I... It's not good, they're just—they're prisoners. I mean, up until yesterday Kacchan had these handcuffs like the ones at the Sports Festival award ceremony. And Shinsou has a muzzle." Uraraka winced at that, and Deku's frown deepened as he looked back to her. "But more than that, they don't remember me. They're not our Bakugou and Shinsou. They're... this world's."

Ochako's heart sank, her eyes widening as she digested that. Suddenly so much of Deku's reaction to their meeting made sense, why he'd pushed her away so fiercely, but one thing stood out even more. "So we're still alone?" she asked quietly. She'd been afraid of that, afraid that no one else would be here, so when she saw Izuku she'd forgotten all about the possibility.

The idea of meeting other classmates but not having them remember her, just being total strangers—it made her chest clench painfully, a heavy sense of loneliness washing over her.

"I thought I was," Izuku said softly. "That's why that day when I saw you and realized you did remember me, I was really... surprised? And, happy? Like, I thought I was alone here, but then... I'm not. You were here too." He smiled faintly as he spoke, genuine relief flashing through his eyes.

Just as quickly as it appeared it vanished though, his expression growing heart-achingly somber once more as he averted his gaze. "But then I realized getting involved with me would be just... dangerous for you. And now—now..." He trailed off, his eyes slowly widening as he seemed to shrink on himself even more. Something about it made Ochako's heart sink with dread.

"Deku," she said slowly. "What happened?" He couldn't meet her eyes, but she could see tears start to form as he took a breath.

"They have Aizawa-sensei," he said, and Ochako felt like she'd just gotten punched in the gut. He took another breath, shakier than the first, and raised his head to meet her gaze with a look that could only be described as miserable. "They just brought him to the base today. I don't know if they'd just captured him or what, but—he looked really bad. They had him restrained and blindfolded and gagged, and-and then, he s-slammed his head t-to the floor, a-a-and... A-a-and...!"

He fell silent as his voice wavered and shook, tearing his gaze away just as the tears starting to spill. Ochako could only look at him in silence, overcome by horror as she processed everything. She'd already realized Izuku would have it hard, being stuck with villains, but for it to be that extreme... Her heart twisted painfully, her hands clenching at her sides as she took a breath.

"Deku," she said, keeping her voice steady and firm as she gazed at him. "That's why I can't leave you now." He looked up at her at that, his nose red and eyes shiny and wet, and she met his gaze squarely as she continued. "I can't just sit around while you're dealing with all of this on your own. You're my best friend, and I'm not going to leave you to deal with this on your own when I can help."

"B-but—"

"But nothing!" she interrupted, stamping her foot with a scowl. "Midoriya Izuku, you are my best friend and a good person. You're the most heroic person in all of Class 1-A, and you do not deserve to deal with this all alone!" She crossed the gap and threw her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug that made him stiffen. "I don't know what I can do, but we're both stuck in this stupid, awful, no-sense world! So I don't care how dangerous it is, I already made up my mind and ran away from home so we're sticking together from now on! Got it?"

Deku stood limply in her arms for a moment, but she could hear his breathing begin to pick up and then water seemed to explode onto her as he burst into tears. She hugged him tighter as he returned the embrace and cried into her shoulder, a small smile touching her lips as she felt his tears soak through her sleeve. Well, at least she was still wet from the shower anyway.

The world might feel like it's falling apart and things might be grimmer than ever, but this was the one thing that finally felt right.

Izuku and Uraraka spent a full hour just catching each other up on their respective lives. Izuku ended up having a lot more to contribute than Uraraka, just by virtue of being stuck with the League of Villains. Talking about everything with Shinsou and Bakugou left him feeling miserable, but finally being able to discuss it with someone who knew everything filled him with relief.

While her life hadn't been as eventful, Uraraka had some major news of her own.

"You think Ashido's here too?" Izuku gasped, and Uraraka bobbed her head with a face full of firm conviction.

"I'm sure of it!" she declared resolutely. "At the very least, she's an Ashido. But she only made her profile the day before I made mine—and she used the name Alien Queen Pink. That's way too much to be just a coincidence, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I do," Izuku agreed with a nod and frown.

"So, it might not just be us then," Uraraka said, and the weight of those words hit him all at once. Just knowing Uraraka was there had been shocking enough, but to hear that more of their classmates might have been pulled into it too? The realization filled him with equal parts hope and horror.

Izuku had seen firsthand just how screwed up this world could be. He and Uraraka had gotten lucky and were in relatively safe positions, but the same couldn't be said for their other classmates. If Kacchan had been brought over, who knows how he would have reacted to waking up as a prisoner of the League of Villains? It probably wouldn't even be obvious at first that he'd ended up in another dimension, and if he'd said something that let it slip that he might be from another world...

The mere thought left him chilled.

"I don't think I can contact her right now though," Uraraka continued, breaking him from his thoughts as she picked up a phone lying on the coffee table. She swiped her finger to unlock it and started tapping away as she explained, "Aiko lended me a spare phone she had so I could log into FacePage and talk to her. But when I did, I found this." She turned the phone's screen to him, showing a message on the site.

'Girl are u okay? A couple of heroes & a detective just came here asking about you! Theyre all SUPER worried and said you're in BIG danger! Message me ASAP when ur safe!'

Izuku's stomach flipped as he read it. "So they managed to track her down?" he asked worriedly. "Wait, doesn't that mean they might be able to track down you through this phone?"

"I thought that too at first, but Aiko said it'd be fine," Uraraka said, putting the phone back into sleep. "Apparently FacePage is super secure in this world so it's impossible to track people down, and this phone can't be tracked anyway?" She shrugged. "I don't know the full specifics, but she didn't seem too worried. When I told her I thought I knew who Alien Queen Pink was, she said the heroes probably used a Quirk on my phone and saw her face."

"That's... weirdly specific." Izuku frowned, and Ochako shrugged again, wringing the hem of her too-long shirt.

"Y-yeah, I thought so too... But she seemed really calm about it so I guess it's not bad. Oh, but also!" She perked up and turned to him again. "I almost forgot! I met Dabi!"

"What?" Izuku gasped, face rapidly paling. "What happened? Did he hurt you?"

"No, he's actually... really nice in this world?" Uraraka frowned slightly, shrugging her shoulders as she looked away. Izuku listened in growing shock as she then described their brief encounter, starting with leading her to an abandoned office building all the way to telling her about Nabu and giving her money to rent a motel room.

"He gave me a piece of paper with his phone number at the end," she finished. "I might call him later and let him know I'm okay, but I don't want to use Aiko's phone." Izuku frowned, falling deep into thought.

"If he knows the Alliance is in Nabu, then he must know someone there," he mumbled. "I haven't seen or heard anything about him though, so I don't think he's a member. And I've never heard about him having a brother. Is his brother alive in our world? Is that tied to why he's a villain?"

"That's what I wondered!" Uraraka chimed in, startling Izuku. Usually his friends didn't pay much attention to his mumbling anymore, let alone respond. It made sense she'd do it this time though, this was a situation where they needed to pool all the information they could. As he looked at her she added heatedly, "And the way he talked, Yuki isn't his real name. So I don't know why he'd go by that."

Izuku frowned then, this new information making his brain race. He opened his mouth but stopped short, glancing at the clock on the wall. Aiko had been gone for a while now, and it was only a matter of time until she returned. "...Let's talk more in my room," he suggested, and Uraraka frowned as she nodded in agreement.

According to Aiko, his room would be in the apartment next door. Looking back that was pretty weird, because she didn't say which apartment and this didn't seem to be a corner apartment. That also meant she owned at least two apartments, which surprised him. What did the neighbors think?

When they stepped into the hallway though he realized quickly that the neighbors wouldn't matter, because they didn't have any. The hallway was a lot more dilapidated than Aiko's apartment, the paint on the walls and doors chipped and fading and the floor covered in scuff marks. While it didn't have any dust or cobwebs, it took one look to realize the building had to be largely uninhabited. He wouldn't have guessed any of the apartments had running water or electricity based on this hallway alone.

The apartment to their right had its door hanging off its hinges, and they took one look and silently went to check on the left one instead. The door was unlocked, and after entering it seemed to be the one Aiko had indicated. It had a similar color scheme to the other one, much warmer and cozier than the empty hallway. Books had been stacked on top of the coffee table, and he could see photographs and a few hero posters lining the wall, making him smile.

"Guess this is the place," Uraraka declared, heading for a door that mirrored the bedroom door from the other apartment. "Come on, I bet this is your..." She trailed off as she opened the door and stood, and Izuku frowned as he joined her only to do a near double-take.

He'd expected his room to be a typical guest room, but this one was filled with even more hero merchandise than his room at the League. Posters covered every inch of the walls, books fought figurines for space on the shelves, and even the bedspread had a bunch of different heroes on it. It reminded him almost of his actual room—just with more variety than All Might.

And on that note, this room did have All Might merchandise. Not as much as his actual room of course, but still a fair amount of figurines.

His jaw dropped, honestly stunned. He thought he'd only visited occasionally, but clearly he spent a lot more time here than he originally thought.

For a long moment neither of them spoke, just staring at the room. Uraraka recovered from her shock first. "Well, it's definitely your room," she declared with a sheepish smile, and Izuku felt a sudden urge to groan and hide his face.

Seiko was bored.

Bored might not be the right term, actually. There just wasn't anything interesting happening at the Alliance headquarters right now.

The raid had been interesting enough to watch. Shigaraki had been planning for it for some time now; that other group had been slowly building its influence, focusing more on the deeper parts of the underworld. They had no public reputation just yet, choosing to be much more discreet in its growth and activity than the Alliance, but the fact they chose to operate out of Nabu had irritated him.

Seiko did not help in the raid. She hid in the shadows as she watched the Alliance cut through the nameless grunts. The goriest takedowns came from Magne and Slycer, where Magne would magnetize people and draw them towards her where Slycer waited to tear them apart. His Quirk let him turn any part of his body into sharp, blade-like things, and he'd laughed as his hair and fingers sliced through the villains. Mr. Compress did a cleaner job, capturing people in his marbles to simply crush, while Toga took her time leeching blood from the few people she found particularly attractive.

It had been interesting for a while but the novelty soon faded, and Seiko went to find Shigaraki. Surprisingly enough, he was not confronting the rival leader like she expected, but instead standing in the door of a cell where a black-haired man was bound on the floor staring at him wide-eyed. Interesting.

"Eraserhead, how good to see you," he'd said.

Very interesting.

And that had been when Seiko left.

The others had been mostly done with their assault by that point, so they'd probably be leaving soon. She didn't really care for Kurogiri's Quirk, and she would prefer to get back before they did so she had to leave first. She had a feeling their return itself would be entertaining, so she wanted to be present for that. Her ability did not allow for instantaneous travel like Kurogiri, but it was still faster than conventional means, so it took only about ten minutes to cross the city.

Upon returning to the base she had quickly determined Izuku had taken Bakugou to Hijack's cell for the day, probably to plan something. While pondering if she should check on them or randomly pop in to spook him (Izuku had the most amusing reactions when he didn't remember her, and she thought Bakugou might too), she noticed Kurogiri open a portal near the third prison block and decided to go watch that instead.

It had been interesting, especially when Izuku stumbled upon the scene. Shigaraki had been rather annoyed when he realized his little brother had witnessed his violence against one of the heroes Izuku so dearly idolized, and had promptly called on Kurogiri to send the boy to Aiko's apartment so he could spend the rest of the day sulking in peace. After that, Seiko decided to be nice and let Toga know Bakugou was in Hijack's cell so she helpfully smuggle Bakugou back to his own room and avoid getting in trouble.

And now, Seiko had nothing interesting to watch until the fallout from Shigaraki's little tantrum arrived.

Slam.

Ah, there it was.

Aiko did not storm into the bar, nor did she skip happily or saunter or cartwheel or levitate or any other notable deviation from a standard walking pattern. She walked inside like a perfectly normal human being, radiating an aura of sunshine and happiness as she plopped onto a stool next to where Shigaraki hunched over one of his consoles. She folded her hands under her chin as she smiled at him, her head tilting to the side.

"Tomura-chan," she greeted, perfectly sweet and cheerful, "Why didn't you tell me you guys captured Izu's childhood friend?"

At those words, the nearest villains quickly scrambled out of their seats and cleared the area save for Shigaraki and Kurogiri. This was clearly Aiko on the warpath, trying to restrain the urge to tear apart everyone in a five foot radius.

Seiko just inclined her head from her spot at the table in the far corner. So she came because she found out about Bakugou then? Interesting.

"I don't need to tell you everything," Shigaraiki scoffed. He didn't bother to put down the game console or look up, clearly confident she wouldn't murder him in cold blood. "What's the big deal, anyway?"

At that point Aiko grabbed the console and yanked it out of his hands, tossing it over her shoulder with that perfectly pleasant smile never faltering. Shigaraki made an amusingly sour face as he watched it sail halfway across the room, the console only getting saved from a gruesome fate at the last second when Kurogiri opened a small portal under it. Seiko suspected he did it more to save the table it would have damaged by the impact, judging by his tired sigh.

"Let me rephrase that," Aiko said cheerfully, and then her smile vanished. Her eyes turned almost perfectly blank as she scowled at him, the air itself growing heavy and oppressive. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me you captured Bakugou Katsuki?"

To his credit Shigaraki actually flinched at the change in atmosphere, his lips pulling into a scowl as he met her gaze. "Why the hell would that matter? Do you actually know the kid!?"

Aiko just gave him a noticeably sour look, clearly at the limits of her patience. "Do me a favor and stop kidnapping kids," she said instead. "I know you guys like recruiting through kidnapping, and I totally get why you captured Hijack. The kid's a vigilante who stuck his nose where he shouldn't have. But no more recruiting random civilian kids through kidnapping. Got it?"

Shigaraki scoffed, scratching at his neck. "You still care about that?" Aiko's hand shot out to grab his wrist, yanking it away from his neck.

"Tomura. I really don't care what the Alliance does most of the time. As long as you guys don't go into full-blown human trafficking or mass-murder children, I really don't care. I gave up the right to claim any moral higher ground years ago. But this?"

Crack.

"This is the one line I will not let you cross."

Shigaraki hissed as she released his wrist, clutching at it with his other hand as it flopped. Aiko got off the stool with a scowl, shoving her hands in her pockets as she headed for the door. "I am going to leave and go for a walk before I try to murder you. Do not follow me."

Dead silence hung in the air as she stalked out, her eyes pointedly flicking Seiko's way at the last sentence. When the door closed Seiko let herself fall into the shadows, heading deeper into the base for now.

There was no point listening to Shigaraki gripe about Aiko's anger while Kurogiri tended to his wrist. She contemplated following Aiko but the woman would probably lash out at her. She most likely intended to go release some of her pent-up frustration in some abandoned building. Not interesting.

Seiko briefly contemplated going to Aiko's apartment instead to check on Izuku, but promptly dismissed the thought. Aiko had requested Seiko never visit her apartment unless invited, a request Seiko respected. Driving people to mental breakdowns could be entertaining, but afterwards they tended to lose all motivation and energy and become empty shells. Much less interesting in the long run.

What a shame, she was curious to see how he felt about Eraserhead. He had looked so distressed before Kurogiri teleported him away, and Aiko was hardly good at calming people down. It was always so funny, how the woman could blend into nearly any crowd and charm people without ever raising suspicion, yet utterly failed in basic social graces.

Seiko emerged from the shadows outside the hero's cell, simply staring at the door with a speculative look. She could easily go inside, but she'd rather not. There wouldn't be much to see anyway, the villains had left the man alone for the time being and he was probably just trying to rest in anticipation of whatever they had planned for him. No, the true entertainment would come from everyone else's reactions to his presence.

A shame Izuku hadn't mentioned Eraserhead's presence to Aiko. The thought of how the woman would react when she inevitably found out made a small smile twitch on Seiko's lips, a brief flicker of anticipation that quickly vanished as she retreated into the shadows once more.

The next few days would certainly be interesting.

This is the first time I've ever written Seiko's POV. She is very... other. This should clear up some stuff about how Aizawa got into this mess. (And yes, I gave one of the villain OCs a knife hand-esque Quirk. I usually hate that Quirk because that's just so weirdly specific and common, but I defend myself by making it closer to a Hardening-type Quirk that sharpens stuff instead of just converting his hands into knives. Slycer probably won't be mentioned again anyway though.)

Also, I'm amused that almost everyone last time predicted Aiko would be talking to Shigaraki about Izuku or something else bad for Izuku. I don't think anyone guessed she'd be mad at HIM.

Another glimpse into my writing process: originally this chapter only had Uraraka's POV, the part with Aiko and one other scene that got cut. The conversation from Izuku's end happened the next time, but I decided to add in the first part of it here for the sake of better pacing. These next few chapters are just full of me rearranging segments to accomplish what I need to. I think I finally got a handle on it though, so I might post the next chapter later this week. We'll see!

Question for next time: What do you think Mic is doing right now? (Guy's been worried sick about Aizawa and still has no idea what's up with him. We won't see him again for a while yet, but it's fun to ask.)