Chapter 104
.::Searching for Answers::.
Since coming to this world, Ochako had made several choices that led to minor regrets. For example, running away from home with intentions to join the League of Villains in order to find Deku. Or waiting to tell Todoroki in person about the big revelation about Dabi, which caused him to learn about it from Hawks instead.
Right now, her decision to go back to Aiko's apartment building alone to keep looking for Deku's notebook might be another one.
Still, she pushed through the anxiety as she walked over to the apartment building, slipping through a side door as Aiko had shown her. Her heart pounded at the thought of possibly running into the woman, but that was also why she'd come alone. Deku wouldn't be leaving the Alliance's base anytime soon unless absolutely necessary, and exposing Todoroki to Aiko would be too risky. So it had to be her.
After what happened yesterday, they needed to find that notebook. Not just to hopefully expose the fact Aiko had multiple Quirks, but because now Deku had multiple Quirks too. They had no idea what was going on with Deku's Quirk in this world, but with those two facts combined, it gave her a very bad feeling. One that the others couldn't understand since they didn't know about Aiko.
Either way, she had even more motivation to find that notebook, which was why she braved the apartment building and went to the stairs. "Hello?" she called, her voice echoing up the stairwell. She held her breath as she started climbing to the fourth floor, feeling highly on edge. The hallway was empty, but she still slowly made her way to the door to Aiko's apartment. "-San? Are you here?"
There was no response, and she gulped. Hopefully that meant no. Just as she was about to leave to search the third floor the door opened though, and Ochako froze as Aiko's face appeared. Clearly she'd just woken up, sporting a nasty case of bedhead and eyes squinting groggily as she yawned.
"Ura-chan?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. "Whuh're yuh..." She trailed off with another yawn. Yep, definitely just woke up.
"Sorry!" Ochako squeaked. "I didn't mean to wake you up! I just wanted you to know I was here so you wouldn't think someone snuck in or anything!" Aiko stared at her blearily, and then gestured for her to follow before retreating into the apartment. Ochako scurried inside after her, not wanting to test the woman's patience or anything.
She sat on the couch awkwardly as Aiko went to the kitchen, waiting for the woman to finish her usual morning routine. Ochako had seen it a few times when she'd stayed here. Usually Aiko would be fully awake and alert pretty fast, but there had been a few instances where it took a little longer because she'd been out late.
Today seemed to be one of the latter days, leaving her a bit groggy as she shuffled around the kitchen preparing coffee. Soon enough the coffee maker beeped and Aiko poured it in a mug, downing it in one go and slapping her cheeks. She refilled the mug before joining Ochako, already looking much more alert. "Okay, I'm awake now," she announced as she sat on the armchair. "Now what are you doing back here?"
Ochako squirmed a bit in the chair, briefly debating trying to come up with an excuse, but then decided screw it. "I'm here to look for Deku's notebook," she announced firmly. Aiko's eyebrows raised as she sipped from her coffee.
"So, he told you about his notebook?" she asked lightly, and Ochako nodded, a bit less firmly this time.
"A little bit. Mostly just that it has some really important notes he needs to double-check." She kept it as vague as possible, just to be safe.
Aiko hummed, setting down her mug. "How much do you know?" Her question and tone sounded so casual, but it had Ochako internally wincing. They hadn't told her much about their relationship so far, or what he'd told Ochako about the Alliance. The more details they gave her, the easier it would be for her to pick apart lies.
"I don't really know?" Ochako replied with a shrug, not wanting to give the villainess too much to work with. "I mean, obviously he's talked a bit about the Alliance and Shigaraki, and—"
She stopped abruptly, eyes lighting up as she registered what she'd just said. "Shigaraki—the Villain Alliance—I can say it!" Had the compulsion Quirk been lifted, or finally worn off? But wait, if it wore off now, then Aiko could just use it again! Oh no. Ochako had to get out of here before she—
"Hate to burst your bubble, but it's only because you're talking to me," Aiko said before her thoughts could spiral. Ochako froze, and the woman offered a small, almost sympathetic smile. "Your thoughts were showing pretty clearly on your face. You might want to work on that in the future. But the effects of Taboo are automatically negated when talking to me."
"...Oh," Ochako said lamely, shoulders slumping in disappointment. At least she knew the Quirk's name now. "Taboo, huh? So I guess it's not a general compulsion Quirk like Deku thought."
"No, it's more like a censoring Quirk," Aiko confirmed with a nod. "You agreed not to tell anyone about me or the Alliance, so any information relating to that gets censored. I'm obviously exempt from that though as the one who used Taboo."
Well, that matched up with Ochako's theories pretty well, but she still had a few details bothering her. "I can still say Deku's name normally, though," she pointed out. "And Seiko-chan, too."
Aiko paused, looking at her quizzically. "Seiko-chan?"
"Y-yeah, I've met her twice now."
"...Seiko-chan," Aiko repeated blandly, as if testing the phrase, and stuck out her tongue. "Bleh. That feels so wrong." Ochako blinked, not sure what to make of her reaction. Noting her look, Aiko shrugged and explained, "I... really don't like Seiko. It's really weird to hear someone call her that."
Ochako had gotten a sense of that from the fact Seiko was usually banned from the apartment, but she hadn't realized Aiko disliked her that much. "Why is that, anyway? Is it because she's creepy?"
"Among other things," Aiko muttered wryly. "Let's just say that the reason you can mention her name is so you can warn people about her." Well, that was ominous and very concerning. "But we're getting off-topic. What has Izuku told you?"
Clearly Ochako wouldn't be able to press for details on Seiko right now, quickly racking her brain for what would be safe to share. "Oh. Um, j-just basic stuff. Like, how he's not actually a part of it and just kinda... lives there, I guess. And also, um, the stuff about the hero? Eraserhead?" She shrugged, shifting uncomfortably in the chair. "Like, he was really freaked out that day when we met, you know?"
"Yeah, he definitely was," Aiko murmured with a nod, and that had Ochako relaxing a little bit.
"We didn't talk much about the Alliance's members, if you're worried about that." They didn't have to, beyond the changes to the roster from the League of Villains. She paused, a bolt of inspiration on how to divert Aiko's attention hitting her as she continued, "I only know the big names, like Shigaraki, Kurogiri, Mister Compress, Twice, and Slycer. And that's mostly from talking about the kitchen stuff."
"Kitchen stuff—" Aiko paused, a wry smirk crossing her face as she snorted. "Ah. You mean the permitted cooking list after Slycer blew it up?"
"Yeah," Ochako said with a nod. "Deku said he could still see scorch marks on the ceiling."
"I bet," Aiko snorted. "You should've seen that time he and Rappa had a cooking battle. That was a nightmare."
"Wait, someone challenged him to a cooking battle?" Ochako blurted, and Aiko snorted again.
"I honestly have no idea. Rappa's a fighting junkie and brawler, and Slycer is too to an extent. I figured they'd have a genuine death match at some point, just didn't think it would happen in a kitchen. At this point I'm half-convinced Rappa somehow got it in his head that fighting Slycer through a cooking battle would be more dangerous and exciting than a regular brawl. Which, it still turned into a brawl," she chuckled. "I'm still not sure if that caused more or less damage than if they'd just kept cooking."
Ochako stared. Rappa... The name sounded vaguely familiar, possibly from her world this time. She'd have to float it by the others to see if any of them remembered it at all. Though... with Taboo, that might be a while. "Who won?" she asked, trying to probe for more information and hints to his identity.
"Neither of them," Aiko said with a smirk. "When Giri saw the damage, he warped them both away mid-fight. Slycer slunk back pretty soon, but last I heard Rappa's in Hokkaido. He wasn't even dumped there," she added with obvious amusement. "He heard about some big underground tournament there or something and went to check it out, I guess. But that's another tangent."
She leaned forward with arms casually resting over her knees, her amused smirk fading to a more serious look. "Why are you looking for Izuku's notebook without him?"
Another chill ran down Ochako's spine, picking up on the unspoken warning and suspicion in the blunt tone. She gulped and gripped the fabric of her pants tightly, forcing herself to meet Aiko's gaze. "I'm not trying to find it behind his back," she said firmly. "If I find it, I plan to give it to him without reading it."
"Why can't you wait for him to help look?" Aiko asked, propping her cheek against her palm as she continued to gaze at Ochako with that intense stare. The faux-stars in her eyes felt particularly dark in the way they gleamed right now, as if they, too, peered through her soul. It made Ochako swallow, fingers tightening their hold on the fabric as if seeking comfort.
"He doesn't want to leave the base right now," she replied thickly. She didn't want to say this and give Aiko fuel, but she felt like she had no choice. Not if she wanted to get Aiko off her back. I'm sorry Aizawa-sensei... "Yesterday, someone attacked Eraserhead while Deku was here."
Aiko sat up sharply at that, eyes widening before a shadow fell over her face. "So they waited for him to leave?" she muttered darkly, and Ochako had to restrain a wince at the harshness of her tone. It had a venom she'd never heard from the woman before, and the only thing that kept her from freezing up was the fact it wasn't directed at her.
That, and the implications of what she'd said.
"You... know about it?" Aiko's lack of reaction made it clear this wasn't her first time hearing about the attack. Given her odd obsession with Aizawa, Ochako had half-expected that the woman would go check on him the moment she learned about it.
"I know the basics," Aiko sighed, leaning back and folding her arms. "Himiko called me to let me know last night after I got home. At least someone there has some sense," she muttered under her breath.
"Himiko?" Ochako repeated, eyebrows furrowing. That.. was Toga's given name, wasn't it?
Aiko took her response as confusion, dismissively saying, "You probably wouldn't know her unless Izuku's mentioned her. She gave me an abbreviated version of what happened, so I have the basic gist. Though this is the first I've heard that they waited for him to leave, at least if I'm interpreting your words right. So how do you know that?" She looked more curious than suspicious this time, thank goodness, and Ochako felt some tension she hadn't noticed fade from her frame as she replied.
"Um, Seiko showed up yesterday while we were looking for the notebook. She'd overheard some people talking about planning to hurt Eraserhead the next time Deku was gone, so he got Kurogiri to warp him back. She left right after that, though!" she added quickly, mindful of Aiko's dislike of the girl. "She only came because she doesn't have a phone, I guess?"
She shrugged, and Aiko stared at her in surprise for a moment. "Huh," she said softly. "Guess that Eldritch spawn is good sometimes after all." Ochako just stared, taken aback by the casual insult. Aiko sighed then, uncrossing her arms to scratch her head with an annoyed look. "Damn. After that, I can't blame him for not wanting to leave the headquarters anytime soon... He's already a natural worrier without that."
Ochako deflated in relief, glad that Aiko understood. "Yeah. That's why I decided to look for the notebook for him. He's super paranoid about leaving, but he's also really desperate to find it. I... probably could have kept looking yesterday," she added sheepishly. "Since I was already here and all. But I couldn't really focus after I heard that."
That, and they'd rather not risk having Todoroki around whenever Aiko returned. In retrospect though, Ochako could have still kept looking alone while he just went back to the warehouse. The news about Aizawa really had shaken her up.
"I see," Aiko murmured, and then nodded. "Alright then. If you find it, let me know. I can take it to him." Ochako perked up at the offer, and the woman smiled cheerfully at her obvious surprise. "You said it yourself, he's not going to leave the Alliance base anytime soon unless it's absolutely necessary. I need to stop by there later tonight anyway to drop off some other stuff."
That had Ochako sitting a bit straighter. "Wait, you're going there tonight? You're not planning to...?" She trailed off awkwardly, not sure how to express her question. Did Aiko plan to visit Aizawa-sensei? The thought had her frowning and taking a deep breath, looking at Aiko resolutely. "Deku told me about what happened after you visited Eraserhead."
The admission surprised Aiko, eyes briefly widening before she huffed and scratched the side of her head with a rather petulant frown. "So he vented about it, huh," she grumbled, and sighed. "I'm not planning on visiting him. He freaked out enough the first time, and that was on probably a good day. Showing up right now would probably just give him flashbacks."
Ochako stiffened at the admission, feeling a rush of anger that had her biting her lip. Flashbacks. So Aiko would give him flashbacks by being there. She had to silently count to five in her head before speaking again. "Okay then," she said, as calmly as possible as she got up. "If that's all, I'm gonna go back to looking."
"Alright, good luck," Aiko said, getting up as well. "I'd help, but I have some laundry to take care of. I'll still be in the building, just gonna be busy."
"That's okay, I can handle it on my own," Ochako said. She didn't want to work with Aiko right now. She was barely holding back the urge to blurt out a demand about what the hell she did to Aizawa-sensei. Just as she'd predicted back when she first learned about it, her initial fear and anxiety towards Aiko had been replaced by protective anger very quickly.
They parted ways after that, Ochako heading down to the third floor. To her irritation, that one door was still blocked, but she didn't feel like going back to ask Aiko about it. She just went to search the rest of the floor instead.
Two hours later, Ochako felt very tired and very annoyed. She had managed to search the third floor except for that one room, and finished off the second too. She still had the first floor to go, but she felt wary of actually finding the notebook there.
At this point, she was relatively sure Deku's notebook wasn't here. Not unless it was hidden in some secret wall or floor compartment—which if it was, she'd be very pissed because she'd basically have to redo the whole search. They hadn't been checking for those, but by the time she finished searching the second floor she was knocking on every wall to see if they were hollow.
Ochako sat on the stairs and pulled out her cell phone with a huff, figuring she should check in with everyone. What she found was a string of messages in the group chat about Ashido going on a road trip to Hosu to grab the key Hatsume and Yaoyorozu got to take to Nabu. She perked up a bit at that, glad to see someone was doing something potentially helpful and productive.
Ashido's latest string of messages reported boarding the train to Nabu, having successfully retrieved the key. Ochako decided to send a reply of her own. 'I might be able to get' Aiko 'to take it to Deku.' She 'said' she 'has to go there tonight anyway'
Ochako paused her typing, scowling at the missing words. Ugh, screw it. It should be enough to get the key gist across. She hit send, and soon enough Deku replied. 'Oh, do you mean that person you stayed with?'
Oh thank goodness. Her relief was immediately replaced with frustration when she couldn't even type an affirmative. 'Knows about what happened with Sensei,' she typed instead. 'Just a heads up. Said won't visit him though, so that's good?' She hit send and then quickly typed out another message. 'Anyways we'd probably need to disguise the key somehow.'
Three dots appeared on and off as Deku typed, probably trying to figure out a solution. Before he could, Ashido replied first. 'Oh, maybe I could buy something and hide the key in the bag! We can pass it off as a gift from Space or something like that!' That was actually a pretty good idea.
Deku stopped typing for about five seconds, and then resumed. 'Actually, I did kinda break a Switch controller and need a replacement. You could hide it in the box.'
Ashido responded in the affirmative as Ochako smiled. It sounded like the plan was coming together quite well. At least something was working out today. 'By the way, I just finished searching the second and third floor. No sign of the notebook. It might not be here'
There was a pause before Deku responded. 'Oh. I... don't know where it could be then. Other-me might have hidden them somewhere I *wouldn't* find them during episodes, just in case.' Hearing him say it just cemented it further in her mind that she wouldn't find it. Even if he wasn't this world's Deku, he was still Deku. Their minds probably worked similarly enough that he was right.
They had no idea where this world's Deku went outside of the Alliance base and Aiko's apartment. He likely had some special hiding spots no one else knew about, which meant their odds of finding it was even lower.
'I guess I'll finish searching here and hope I find it?' Her hesitance carried over into her text, able to pick up on the tentative and doubtful tone even in writing. She sighed as she pressed send anyway, and soon Ashido replied.
'I'll pick you up a treat on the way! Maybe that one mochi candy you like?' The offer had Ochako smiling. It was a small thing, but the kindness really warmed her right now.
'Thanks. Any flavor but the cola one!'
Ashido replied with a thumbs-up and Ochako sighed, tipping her head back in near exhaustion.
And then froze when she saw a dark figure standing right behind her.
She screamed as she jumped up, nearly falling down the steps as she did. At the last second she slapped her own wrist to float, quickly trying to right herself midair so she wouldn't fall at an angle that would break her neck. As she did she twisted to see golden eyes on a misty face watching her.
Kurogiri. Kurogiri was watching her. He'd been standing behind her for who knew how long, staring as she texted. Even now he didn't make a sound, standing still as he watched her float. He only moved when a door slammed above them, turning as Aiko dropped into view. Literally dropped; she'd apparently vaulted over the rails above to fall down the central gap in the stairwell.
"Uraraka—" She cut herself off as she dropped past them, wide eyes locking on Kurogiri. Her hands shot out to grab the railing and she neatly flipped herself over it, landing a few steps below Ochako. Ochako pressed her own hands together to release her Quirk, dropping to the steps with a gasp, and then a groan as her stomach protested the fact she'd used Zero Gravity on herself.
She pushed down the nausea as she leaned against the wall, still staring at Kurogiri. Aiko walked up the steps past her, also staring at him. "What's going on? What are you doing here?"
"There is a teenager in your building," Kurogiri informed her blandly in lieu of answering her questions.
"Yeah, I know," Aiko muttered, glancing at Ochako. She paused then, gaze lingering with a slightly startled look. "Uh, you okay? You look a little, uh..." Ochako offered a weak shrug, not trusting herself to speak without vomiting. She knew she probably looked as queasy as she felt, judging by the wide-eyed look Aiko gave her. "...Please don't vomit, that's really gross to clean up."
Ochako grimaced and gave another feeble shrug, glancing back at Kurogiri. That seemed to get Aiko's attention to refocus on him, turning back to him. "Well, again, I know she's here," she reiterated, while slightly inching away from Ochako. "But what are you doing here? You usually text before you show up."
Kurogiri stared at her blankly for a moment before shrugging. Something about that felt very weird and out of character even to Ochako. Deku had mentioned Kurogiri had "off days" in this world, so it looked like he was having another one. Or maybe the latest one just hadn't ended like they'd thought.
Aiko just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, grumbling something under her breath before turning back to Ochako. "I think you should probably go for today," she said.
Ochako swallowed back the taste of bile as she gave a tiny nod. "Yeah, me too," she said quietly, and then her hands flew to her mouth as the bile rose again. Aiko winced and leaned back, looking very alarmed.
"Do you want to stop by a bathroom first, maybe?" she said, voice very high-pitched and strained.
And that was how Ochako spent an extra five minutes in Aiko's apartment building vomiting in a toilet. As she left with a water bottle, she reflected at least she learned one potential weakness: Aiko did not like vomit.
Somehow, she didn't think that would be too useful.
Rappa is officially part of the Alliance! Just off-screen. He WILL appear at some point, you have my word.
Also, now that the art contest is over, I've decided on the winner. Kinda. I actually couldn't decide on a single winner, so the result is a tie! The winners are RuneLore's gorgeous drawing of the statue and MooseMuse's drawing of Seiko's masterpiece! As a reminder, the prizes were an omake, and also to give me a single sentence to somehow slip into Ignite.
Honestly, all of the art I got is amazing, and I want to thank everyone so much. I've gotten a few other pieces of fan art over the course of Ignite's existence, and I just can't thank everyone enough for it. I really can't emphasize how amazing it feels to get *any* fan art, and my gratitude is endless. So thank you again!
Question for next time: Let's repeat an old question. Who would cause the most chaos if they suddenly swap NOW?