Ochako felt disgusting. She was nauseous and it wasn't even from her quirk. No, it was because she was a terrible human being and felt like she was lying to everyone around her. She wasn't trying to! It wasn't like she was working with the villains or anything but...well, she must have done something to trick All Might into thinking she was actually worthy of being his successor or he wouldn't have offered her his quirk!
The motion of the train should have been calming. Shinso was asleep next to her, slumped down in his seat as they made their way to Gunhead's agency, but Ochako just couldn't stop thinking that he would make a much better holder of One for All than she would. Anyone in their class would have been a better choice, because at least they actually had heroic motivations. She had decided to become a hero to make money, for goodness sake! Her reasons for becoming a hero were inherently selfish and for some reason she'd been an idiot and thought she'd be able to get away with that. All Might, however, deserved a successor who was actually heroic, and not just some poor girl who wanted to be rich. As flattered as she was by the offer, Ochako knew that she didn't deserve to be the symbol of peace.
And that was at the crux why she felt so terrible right now. All Might hadn't been trying to pressure her, she knew that, but he was the number one hero! She'd looked up to him her entire life and here he was, giving her the offer of a lifetime, an offer that anyone and their dog would be ecstatic about getting. An offer that she would have been ecstatic about getting if she could just stop feeling like an imposter! Receiving One for All was a once in a lifetime opportunity and anyone would count themselves lucky to get offered a quirk with unimaginable power, especially from, objectively, the best hero to ever live. How was she supposed to just turn her nose up at that? She didn't want to look ungrateful or presumptuous, like she didn't need All Might's power! And he was the number one hero, so she couldn't just tell him he'd made a mistake in choosing her because he was the symbol of peace and she was just a first year hero student with no idea what she was doing! All Might didn't make mistakes and even if he did, she hadn't earned the right to call him out on them. All Might might have phrased it as a question, but at the same time, it felt like an offer she couldn't just refuse. Ochako hadn't known how to say no.
So she hadn't.
She vaguely remembered stuttering out an appropriately polite response, but everything had been happening too fast and the only thing she could do was fall back on being polite to try to hide the way she was panicking inside. One thing led to another and before she was really able to process what was happening, All Might had given her a piece of his hair to eat, which was oddly enough one of the least weird parts of the entire experience, and then it was done. She had All Might's quirk.
Ochako had spent every day just trying to keep her head above water. She had felt the unfamiliar power welling up in her a few times so far, but she'd shoved it down in a panic every time. She didn't deserve One for All. She shouldn't have ever accepted it, but she just hadn't known what else to do and now it was too late to take it back. Last night, she'd woken up in the middle of a panic attack and had half-drafted an email to All Might trying to convince him to take the quirk back before she'd realized that she didn't even know if that was possible and even if it was, she probably shouldn't be talking about One for All over email. She didn't know what to do.
So instead, Ochako did the only thing she could do and tried to ignore the whole thing. She'd left on her planned internship and tried to put the whole symbol of peace thing out of her mind thinking that maybe if she put it off for long enough, it would stop feeling like she was a liar and a fake. It hadn't worked yet, but hey, All Might had chosen her because she refused to give up, so there was always hope for tomorrow, right?
The train started slowing down and Ochako shook Shinso awake, "Hey, Shindig, it's our stop."
"Huh?" Shinso blinked slowly and blearily sat up. "Oh, we're here?"
"Not quite." Ochako giggled. "We've still got to walk to the agency."
"Awesome." Shinso stretched and stood up, grabbing his duffle as the train came to a stop. "Well, let's get going."
Ochako grabbed her duffle, pushing down One for All again as it tried to rear its head again, "Yeah! Let's go be heroes!"
Edgeshot had said that, since he mostly operated at night, there was no point in Shouto showing up until the evening. Instead of telling his father that, however, Shouto had packed up like normal, gotten out of the house as soon as he could and put on a beanie so he could head to Epurr's murder alley. Alright, maybe it wasn't fair to call it her murder alley, considering that it was most likely Shigaraki who had done the murders, but it had a certain ring to it and Epurr hadn't scratched him when he told her the joke, so she probably thought it was funny too.
His father would probably be furious to know that he was spending most afternoons in a grimy back alley playing space-heater to an angry cat, especially since some of those days also included the company of a guy who had quite literally tried to kill All Might, but out of all the ways he could rebel against his old man, Shouto thought this was probably one of the mildest and it was the bastard's own fault for kicking him out in the first place. Plus, this way at least someone could get some good out of his fire quirk.
"Hey girl." Shouto smiled as he bent down and Epurr immediately butted into his hand. "I brought you some food today. Do you want it?"
Epurr screamed at him like the answer should be obvious, which made Shouto laugh. Honestly, part of the reason he'd chosen Edgeshot out of all his offers was because his patrol route cut fairly close to here, which meant that if he had any free time, he could drop by and, if he didn't, he was already familiar with a lot of the streets and shortcuts, so it wouldn't be as anxiety inducing as going to someplace completely new. The other major reason, of course, was that Edgeshot was the number five hero, which meant that Endeavor wouldn't be able to bully him into rescinding his offer just so that Shouto would be forced to intern with him. It was a win-win.
He opened one of the cans of cat food that he'd stashed in his bag and smiled when Epurr let him pet her while she was eating. Actually, a better way to put it was that she made him pet her, considering that every time he'd brought her food in the past, she wouldn't stop screaming at him until he did, but Shouto didn't mind. Honestly, it was more physical contact than he got at home, so he didn't really care if she was picky about it, and he liked to think that it was a sign that she trusted him, since he'd read that some animals didn't like to let others near them while they ate out of fear that their food would be stolen.
Shouto had probably done way too much frantic googling about cats since the first time he'd come here, which would have led to a very interesting search history if he hadn't deleted it, but he felt like he was at least a little more knowledgeable than he had been before. He at least knew that Epurr wasn't going to kill him, probably, so that was good, and he knew enough to not accidentally kill her, which was even better.
When she was done eating, Epurr spent a few minutes just kneading at his leg before hopping up onto his shoulder and starting to lick at the nape of his neck, the only place his hair wasn't completely covered by his beanie. He wasn't quite sure why she always did that when he came by, but she got angry if he interrupted her, and he didn't really mind, so he just let her do her thing. Eventually, she hopped back down into his lap and purred while he pet her until the sun was ready to set and it was time to go to Edgeshot's agency.
Izuku was fairly certain that he and Mei were the only two students, including the entire hero course, that had to take a plane to get to their internship. Mei spent the whole flight rambling about how the plane worked and about how all of the in-flight technology could be improved, much to the annoyance of their flight attendants, but Izuku just nodded along the whole time, making notes on any interesting quirks he found along the way to keep his brain and his analysis loose. Neither of them knew what to expect from I-island, but if Mei's fangirling was any indication, they were about to be put through the wringer and he wanted to be as prepared as possible.
The flight didn't feel long, but the sun was already almost setting by the time they landed. Mei was bouncing with energy as she physically pulled Izuku from the plane, barely remembering to grab their carry-ons as Izuku laughed, "Don't forget we have checked baggage too, Mei-chan."
"Oh, I could never forget that." Mei waved away his concerns. "That's where my babies are! It's a shame there's so many things they won't allow in the plane, I could have been making so many cool babies to show all the big brain inventors this week!"
"I'm fairly certain that's why they don't allow them." Izuku pointed out. "You do have a habit of blowing things up when you're making babies, Mei-chan."
He ignored the weird looks they got as they gathered their luggage and he couldn't help but feel a sense of pride as he grabbed Mei's bag off the conveyor belt and only stumbled a little. Sure, Mei immediately took it from him and hoisted it onto the floor no problem, but months ago he wouldn't have been able to lift it at all. He was getting stronger!
It was only after they had their bags that Izuku suddenly realized that he didn't know who was picking them up, "Umm, Mei-chan? Did Powerloader say who we were supposed to be looking for?"
"Nope!" Mei grinned and pointed to someone standing a little ways down. "But I think the sign is a pretty good replacement, don't you think?"
Izuku looked where she was pointing and he smiled in excitement as he saw Midoirya and Hatsume written out in big block letters. The girl holding the sign was only a few years older than them, but from the way she was holding herself, she definitely knew her way around. Mei didn't waste any time grabbing Izuku's hand and dragging him toward her.
"Come on, Izu-kun!" Mei whined. "The sooner we get out of this airport the sooner we can start making babies!"
To his surprise, the girl picking them up didn't even blush at Mei's loud outburst, she just laughed, "Oh, you must be who I'm looking for! Uncle Might mentioned you two were a bit high energy. Now, which one of you is Hatsume and which is Midoriya?"
"I'm Midoirya. And this is Hatsume." Izuku introduced, keeping a tight hold on Mei's hand to keep her from leaping at their ride, which was a distinct possibility considering how her eyes were zooming in on every piece of potential tech the girl was wearing, from her glasses to her earrings. "Thank you so much for the opportunity to intern here, we're so excited to see everything that I-island has to offer."
"Are those tracking earrings?" Mei interrupted. "They've got microchips in them, but do they just track or do they do something else and…"
The girl laughed, "They're not trackers, they're actually a prototype I'm working on for civilian support. I'm hoping to have them be an early warning sign for panic attacks, if I can tweak them just right, and maybe even help counteract them, but maybe you'll be able to help with that?"
Mei's eyes widened and Izuku could feel her practically vibrating next to him, "I will take that as a challenge! Come on, Izu-kun! We're burning daylight!"
"You work in a lab, Mei. you don't need natural light." Izuku shook his head as Mei pulled him along, their ride following along beside them. "And besides, you don't even know where the car is. We didn't even ask our ride her name!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I forgot to introduce myself." The girl smiled kindly and skipped ahead so she could stop in front of them, holding her hand out for a handshake. "I'm Melissa Shield. Welcome to I-Island!."
Interning with Gunhead was everything she hoped it would be. Ochako's whole body was sore, but she'd managed to throw Shinso just as often as he'd thrown her and even managed to hold her own against some of the other interns as well. The only downside was the One for All had been much more active now that she was in a combat situation for some reason, but she was getting pretty good at controlling it, so it wasn't a problem. Overall, she was satisfied, exhausted and ready to go to sleep.
After taking a shower, she dried her hair and went to the shared kitchen to get herself a cup of tea. She was so tired that she didn't even register Shinso sitting at the table until he spoke up, "Alright, you've been off all day. What's up?"
"Huh?" Ochako looked up and smiled. "Oh...I'm just tired, I guess."
Shinso raised an eyebrow, "I am the king of insomnia, I know that's bullshit."
Ochako sighed, "I...I guess I'm just feeling insecure? I mean, I just...are you gonna judge me if I say something kinda bad?"
"Only if it makes you a villain." Shinso deadpanned. "In which case, I will not hesitate to hand you over to the police, or worse, to Izuku and Mei."
Ochako laughed tiredly and slumped down in the chair beside him, "it doesn't make me a villain...just a bad person, i'm pretty sure."
"Alright?" Shinso looked at her oddly. "I shouldn't be recording this for posterity, right? Cinnamon roll admits to being a murderer would definitely be a viral headline."
Ochako shoved him and he laughed, "Alright, but seriously, I'm not gonna judge you. What's on your mind?"
"I…" Ochako screwed her eyes shut and just spewed the word out as fast as she could to get it over with, "I only became a hero for the money!"
When Shinso didn't respond after a long moment, Ochako slowly peaked her eyes open, just to see him staring at her, looking...neutral. Of all the times when he just had to decide to confuse her! She was so angry that she almost lost her grip on One for All, but managed to reign it at the last minute.
"Well?" She huffed. "Aren't you gonna say anything?"
"My primary motivation is spite, Uraraka." Shinso rolled his eyes. "I am literally the worst person on earth to be able to judge your heroic motivations."
"Wait..what?" Ochako looked at him in shock. "Your motivation is spite?!"
Shinso shrugged, "Pretty much. Well, that and pettiness."
"Huh…" She sat back. "Seriously?
"Yep." He said. "Turns out, after enough times of being told I'll be a villain, I wanted to prove everyone wrong."
"Oh." Ochako nodded. "I guess that makes sense. I mean, it's still better than just wanting to be rich."
"Debatable." Shinso grinned. "But if you're feeling insecure, you should talk to Mei-chan. She's an inventor because she's insane, obviously, but she's also planning on owning a company and being filthy rich. I don't know, it seems to work for her, so why not for you, right?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Ochako took a sip of her tea and felt One for All welling up inside her for a split second before she instinctively pushed it down again. "I'll talk to her when we get back."
Izuku grinned at Mei's reactions to everything as Melissa gave them a tour around the island. He didn't think her eyes ever stayed still, zooming in on every detail she could find as they both nerded out and asked questions about everything. There were so many cool quirks and even more cool tech on display everywhere and by the time they reached the building Melissa's dad worked in, Mei had already filled half a notebook just with ideas for inventions. It was awesome.
The security on I-Island was especially impressive. To get to Dr. Shield's office, they had to pass through two layers of security at the building, and then there was a biometric lock and a keycard entry to get to his private lab. He was immersed in a project, but looked up when he heard them come in.
"Aw, Melissa, right on time!" Dr. Shield grinned. "And these must be Powerloader's gremlin's that I've heard so much about."
"All good things…?" Izuku began but Mei cut him off.
"Don't care, are those temperature regulators?" Her eyes were wide as she ran up to the device he had been working on. "Wait, are you just using water vapor?"
"I see that none of the stories about your eagerness to invent were exaggerated." Dr. Shield laughed, "And yes. Sometimes the best solutions are actually the simplest, it's just our job to make them usable and convenient."
Mei looked at the device from every angle and Izuku could see her quirk working overtime as she took in every angle before looking the doctor for permission. When he nodded, she picked up the device and started fiddling with it, "You might want to move the capacitor over here. It's a little too far from the water tank to be effective."
Dr. Shield smiled, "Good work. You pass."
Mei didn't even look up as she kept fiddling with the device, "Pass?"
"It's a test that Dad gives newcomers." Melissa explained. "Let them handle an old invention and see if they can point out what's wrong with it."
"Old invention?" Mei put the device back on the table. "That means there's new, improved versions of this baby! Where are they? Can I see them?"
"They're all around you." Dr. Shield gestured widely to the whole room. "I designed the entire climate control system for this building and most of the other buildings on this island. Never greenlight an invention you're not willing to use yourself, right?"
"Right!" Mei grinned. "So! What's the plan? I can't wait to start making babies with all these fun toys! Are we gonna be building robots? Networking? What are we doing?"
"A little bit of all of it, honestly." Dr. Shield said. "It's getting late, so tonight, we'll just let you get familiar with the lab where you'll be spending most of your time and then tomorrow, we'd like you each to choose a project to work on this week. We'll help you out with design and troubleshooting and basically workshop it all together. Does that sound good?"
Mei grabbed Izuku's hand and started pulling him from the room, "Let's go Izu-kun! We're wasting baby-making time."
"But Mei-chan!" Izuku yelled at her as the Shields laughed behind them. "You don't even know where we're going!"
Tenya turned down his covers and resisted the urge to beat up the pillow he'd been provided by Manuel's agency. Half a day in Hosu and he hadn't seen any sign of the hero killer. He couldn't have moved on to another city, not with only one victim here, so he had to be around and Tenya would find him. He took a deep breath. He just had to be patient. Stain was a master at laying low, so it was understandable that he was still hiding in the shadows. He had all week to find him, so he just had to be patient.
Ochako had woken up refreshed and exhilarated, ready for another day of sparring and maybe even a patrol or two if they were lucky. The worries and insecurities were still there, obviously, as was One for All, but she was able to let all of that fade into the background as she focused on everything she was here to learn.
Most of the other interns were already there when she skipped into the kitchen, "Good Morning!"
"Good morning Uraraka!" Shinso grinned. "How'd you sleep?"
"Like someone knocked me out." Ochako answered. "It was amazing!"
"Well, I'm glad you're finally here to make us breakfast." One of the other interns laughed. "I mean, the woman's place is in the kitchen, so I don't know what took you so long!"
Ochako stopped and stared at him, as did the other interns. Shinso gave the kid a long, disappointed look before sighing, "Would you care to repeat that?"
"Come on, guys, it's a joke!" The kid rolled his eyes. "You know, cause she's the only girl! It's not like I actually expect her to make breakfast for all of us, though I wouldn't complain if…"
"Yeah, that's enough." Shinso took a sip of his coffee as the kid's body went slack under his control. "MIsogyny isn't a funny joke, and Uraraka has every right to slap you for that, but let's save her the effort, yeah? Slap yourself in the face and then wake up."
There was a slap and a chorus of laughter from the rest of the watching interns as the kid woke up and started stuttering out an apology. Ochako caught Shinso smiling, even though he tried to hide it by taking another sip of coffee. She shook her head and rolled her eyes at him, but he just grinned wider and took another sip of coffee.
She still couldn't believe that he was becoming a hero out of spite, but from what she knew of him, it made sense and honestly, maybe part of the reason he was such a strong hero was because he was constantly having to stand up for himself and do things his own way. It was admirable and he made it work, despite how it might sound to someone who didn't know him. Ochako didn't know if she could do the same, she still felt really guilty about wanting to be a hero just for money, but maybe if she talked to Mei about it, she might be able to give it a chance, at least. Ochako still wasn't sure if Shinso was telling the truth about Mei being motivated by money too, but if he was, then at least maybe she'd know she wasn't alone.
She let her insecurities fade into the background as Gunhead led them through warm-ups and ordered them to spar. Ochako grinned at Shinso and he looked bored, but at this point, she was about 75% sure that meant he was actually taking her seriously. She charged first, going through the movements that Gunhead had taught them yesterday and forcing Shinso to take a step back before he was able to move to counter her.
She still felt like a fake, but the repetitive movement and action helped. The trade-off, of course, was that One for All seemed to wake up as soon as she was in any sort of combat situation, but she was confident that she could make it stay where she wanted it to. She launched a punch at Shinso and was unsurprised when he sidestepped her and grabbed her arms. She felt One for All well up in her as he followed through with the move and started forcing her to the floor, but she pushed it away. Maybe after she'd talked to Mei, she'd be able to...
Her eyes widened as she felt One for All push back. She tried to stamp down on the power like she had been doing for days now, but this time, the power was like a tsunami and whatever control she'd assumed she had over it was washed away as she felt gravity shift.
David Shield tinkered away in his private lab, working on an actual project this time. He had been impressed that the Hastume girl didn't even need prompting to tell him what was wrong with the invention, and he was excited to see what she would choose for her project this week. Nedzu had warned him that Midoriya would seem quiet in comparison, but that he was just as smart and observant as Hatsume was, if not even moreso, so they should give him a quirk or a computer program to work on rather than discounting him. David was sure the boy would get along well with their analysts, so he wasn't too concerned. If Nedzu said the boy was smart, David wasn't stupid enough to think he was anything less than a genius.
Suddenly, there was a crash and David jumped to his feet to see a young girl in what looked to be a hero costume steadying herself against the table. She looked up at him with wide eyes for a moment, and he only briefly noticed that she looked both green and absolutely exhausted before she stumbled quickly toward the nearest trashcan and started puking her guts out.
He was torn about whether he should comfort her or call security and he ended up just staring at her in shock as she hunched over and grabbed her stomach. How had she gotten in?! She felt vaguely familiar, but then again, she was also a teenage girl that looked like every other teenage girl he'd ever seen, so he didn't trust that enough for it to do any good, especially since she had somehow gotten into his private office! There were two layers of security just outside the door, and then she would have had to bypass even more security to enter the building and that's not even counting getting onto the island and yet he was fairly certain that the only teenagers authorized to get on the island this week were his interns, which considering that he didn't even know who this girl was, meant that there was something really wrong with their security.
After a minute, the girl finally stopped puking and she looked up at him, her voice scratchy and barely there from exhaustion, "That...that wasn't supposed to happen."
He lunged forward just in time to keep the poor girl from slamming her head against the floor as she passed out. Questions whirled in his brain as he pulled out his phone. Who was she? How had she gotten here? What was supposed to happen?
The line only rang twice before someone picked up and David finally managed to pull his gaze away from her and look around the room, "Yes, Island security? We have a level seven security risk. Put the island on lockdown."
The search for Uraraka begins!
Notes: Art!
HurricaneFox
D4rkCh13f73n
Phoenix Ablaze X
claire;P X Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X More Memes at the end!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text"What do you mean she disappeared?!" Shouta was about to tear his hair out. "Shinso, she doesn't have an invisibility quirk or anything! She can't just disappear!"
"Well, I don't know what to tell you, because one minute, I had her in a capture hold and the next thing I know, I was holding air!" Shinso sounded like he was freaking out, which was perfectly understandable, considering the circumstances. "She just popped out of existence with zero warning! We've torn the entire agency apart and we still can't find her!"
"O-ok." Shouta took a deep breath. "Ok. Uraraka's missing. We can deal with this. Gunhead's already on the phone with Nedzu, correct?"
"Yeah." Shinso almost sounded like he was about to cry. "You-you'll find her, right?"
Shouta swallowed, "We'll certainly try."
He hung up and rubbed his temples. Of all the things he'd expected to deal with on internships, a missing student wasn't one of them. Noise complaints, behavior recommendations, maybe even a villain attack, that was all within the realm of possibility, but a student going missing? It was every teacher's worst nightmare and to make it even worse, they had zero leads because she'd gone missing from a secure hero agency in full view of a pro-hero and a half-dozen other interns and no one had seen anything. He didn't even know where to start.
His phone rang again and he picked it up without looking, "Shinso, if this is about Uraraka, it hasn't been long enough for us to find anything yet."
"Well, this is about Uraraka." Nedzu's voice sounded grim. "But I believe there is one lead you need to be informed of."
Izuku hopped up on the desk next to Mei, who was currently welding something or another, "Wasn't Dr. Shield supposed to be here already?"
"Who cares?" Mei shrugged. "If he needed to unlock the lab, that'd be a different story, but if we're just picking a project to work with anyway, then it doesn't really matter when he shows up."
"I guess…" Izuku said slowly, going back to his laptop. "I've been thinking about what I want to do and I'm not sure whether I want to do some sort of mapping software or maybe something to help with those earrings Melissa was wearing. Having an early warning sign for panic attacks sounds like a really useful technology. What are you working on?"
"Right now?" Mei tightened one last screw and pushed her newest baby to the side. "Nothing. But that was basically a portable artificial sun. I got the idea from that bird boy in Shinso's new class. There might be all sorts of other quirks sensitive to light!"
"Cool!" Izuku grinned and got out his notebook, "That would be really useful for a lot of heroes! Do you think there's an advantage to having it spherical or would it work better as a flashlight? What about…?'
He was cut off by his phone ringing. He looked at Mei to see if she knew who was calling, but she just shrugged and started taking her new invention apart, so Izuku just picked it up, "Hello?"
"Um, Izuku?" Hitoshi sounded panicked on the other end of the phone and Izuku immediately put down his notebook and waved Mei over. "Uh, you've got that whole man in chair thing going on, so you know how to keep secrets, right?"
"Uh, yeah?" Izuku put the phone on speaker as Mei came to stand beside him. "You're on speaker with Mei, by the way. What's wrong?"
"Well, uh…" Hitoshi's voice became a little softer. "I, uh, I probably shouldn't be telling you this, because it would be really bad if the media found out right now, so...but, uh, I know that you know a lot about quirks and thought maybe you'd have come across this one or something like it, I just don't know what to…"
"Take a deep breath, Extra-Credit-Kun." Mei instructed. "We're right here and the media are boring, so we're not gonna tell them and you know we can keep a secret, otherwise Izu-kun would probably be dead, so let's see if we can help."
Izuku nodded in agreement, "Take your time."
"Well, um…" Hitoshi groaned. "You know how I'm interning at the same place as Uraraka, right?"
Izuku and Mei exchanged a confused glance, "Yeah, why?"
"We can't find her."
Instantly, Izuku and Mei both sat up ram-rod straight,"What?!"
On the other end of the phone, Hitoshi sighed, "She just disappeared in the middle of a spar. One minute I had her in a hold and the next, she's just...nowhere."
Izuku ran to the nearest computer, "And there wasn't any purple mist, right? That's what happened at the USJ, so try to remember."
"Um, no?" Hitoshi took a deep breath. "She was just gone... wait, um, I might have seen a little bit of some sort of greenish glow? Or maybe it was pink? That might have been a trick of the light though, and there definitely wasn't a purple mist or anything. Does that sound like any quirk you've come across?"
"No." Izuku frowned and typed a few things into his search. "And from what I can see, it's not on the quirk registry either. Most warp quirks have some visual indication that they're being activated and if she were attacked by a villain, you would have seen that."
"We hadn't even left the agency!" Hitoshi insisted. "There were no villains!"
Izuku sighed, "I'm sorry we couldn't help more. We'll keep thinking and get back to you if we come up with anything."
"Thanks." Hitoshi sighed. "I mean, Aizawa and Nedzu are already working on it too, so hopefully we'll find her soon."
"Let us know." Mei said. "Gravity-chan is way too nice to just disappear off the face of the earth."
"Will do." Hitoshi said. "Thanks, guys."
"Yeah." Izuku hung up and looked at Mei. "I wish there was something more we could do."
"What can we do, Izu-kun?" Mei whined. "We're on a floating island hours away from Japan!"
"I guess…" Izuku bit his lip. "Well, back to work?"
Mei nodded and picked up her screwdriver grimly, "Back to work."
Shouta figured he should be getting used to getting angry on behalf of his students by this point, "So you're telling me that you not only gave my student an extra quirk without informing me, but that this impossible miracle quirk has painted a target on her back a mile wide because it comes with a nemesis that runs the goddamn league of villains! Oh, and considering that she disappeared into thin air, they're probably the ones who took her, especially since you didn't even give her any extra security after handing her a giant I Am Here sign. Am I missing anything, All Might?"
All Might cleared his throat awkwardly, "Um...well, I had not anticipated them finding her this soon."
Shouta glared at him, "Well, they did, so what now?"
"Now, we do everything in our power to find her." Nedzu said calmly, a cup of long cold tea on the desk beside him. "What's done is done, Aizawa. Uraraka is gone and dwelling on the past and what should or should not have been done will not help us get her back."
"My only issue is that no one present saw any signs of Kurogiri." Tsukauchi said. "Even when we asked specifically about purple mist, everyone present said that they didn't see anything like that and none of them were lying."
"So do we think the league got their hands on another warp quirk?" All Might asked. "With All for One at the helm, it is a possibility."
"There's also the possibility that she wasn't taken by the league at all." Tsukauchi pointed out.
"We can't afford to get our hopes up for that." Shouta said. "Out of all the possibilities we've considered, the most likely is that Uraraka was kidnapped by the league because this blond oaf decided to give them an incentive to do so."
All Might sighed, "I know."
Shouta noticed that Nedzu had been suspiciously silent and found him staring grimmly at his screen. He wasn't sure how this situation could get worse, but he had the sinking suspicion that he was about to find out, "Nedzu. What's wrong?"
"I just received an email from I-Island's security team, where Midoriya and Hatsume are interning." Nedzu turned to stare at them. "There was a security breach. The entire island is now in lockdown."
After two hours of waiting in the lab and working on various projects, Izuku decided it was high time to go find out what was going on, if only because he was getting restless just sitting at a computer screen when he knew one of his friends had gone missing, so he left Mei working in the lab and started trying to find Dr. Shield. So far, he'd just been wandering the halls but the few people he'd seen had looked worried for some reason and had been too busy to talk to him. Eventually, he'd found someone who was able to point him toward Melissa's room, so right now, he was hoping she'd be able to either take him to her dad or at least tell him why no one had even peaked their head in on them all morning.
He was just a few halls down from where he'd been told to go when he caught sight of Melissa and to make it better, her dad was walking beside her. Izuku waved wildly and started running toward them, "Hey! Melissa! Dr. Shield!"
"Oh, Midoriya!" Dr. Shield's shoulders were slumped and he looked much more tired than he had when Izuku had seen him last night. "Sorry I never showed up this morning. I should have sent one of the other inventors in my place, but we've all been working overtime with...well, everything. The current situation has thrown all of us for a loop."
"But what is the current situation?" Izuku asked. "Because if there is one, no one's told us anything about it."
"The island is currently in lockdown." Melissa explained. "I was just on my way to let you know. We had an intruder come into Dad's lab a few hours ago and until we're sure how she got in, no one's allowed on or off the island and communication is limited as well. It's...well, it's kinda a mess right now, but if it helps keep everyone here safe, then it's worth it, right?"
Izuku nodded, "Right. Did they get through by hacking or was it some kind of quirk? I know you probably have a lot better analysts and programmers and everyone here, but if there's anything I can do to help…"
Dr. Shield shared a look with Melissa before he turned to Izuku, "Honestly, we have no idea. It could be a quirk or it could be some tech we've never seen before. She just popped into existence right in front of me, no warning, no indication that anything or anyone would be arriving. Honestly, our scientists would be absolutely ecstatic about having a mystery to solve if it weren't such a threat to the safety of the island."
Izuku nodded, "Yeah I can see why that...wait, did you say just just popped into existence?"
Melissa nodded, "Dad was the only one there, but when we played it back on the cameras, one minute the room was empty, the next she was stumbling into the table and puking her guts out into the nearest trash can before she passed out. We've given her medical attention, but so far, nobody knows who she is or how she got into his lab."
Dr. Shield groaned, "Our only lead is that she was wearing what looked to be a hero uniform at the time. We're waiting to hear back from the company that produced it, but it doesn't match any licensed heroes."
"Because she doesn't have a hero license yet." Izuku muttered.
Dr. Shield stopped, "What?"
Izuku's mind was racing. If his suspicions were correct then how in the world had Uraraka gotten all the way to I-island in just a couple of hours? It had taken him and Mei over three hours to fly here and he didn't even know exactly where here was! Still, as impossible as it sounded, Shinso had described her disappearance in the same way that Dr. Shield had described the intruder's entrance: here one moment, gone the next. And the after effects of Uraraka's quirk would explain the extreme nausea and vomiting when she'd arrived.
"Was there a sort of weird greenish-pink glow?" Izuku asked finally. "It would have been really faint, almost to the point where you'd think it was a trick of the light?"
"I…" Dr. Shield looked at Melissa, who nodded.
"When I was watching the video, I thought it was just a lens flare." She explained. "It faded pretty much as soon as she appeared though, so it only lasted a second or two."
"Why?" Dr. Shield asked. "Do you know what's going on?"
"Oh, I don't have a clue." Izuku answered. "But I'd like to see her, if possible. I think I might know who she is."
Ochako was exhausted. She didn't think she'd ever felt this tired and gross in her entire life, but even with all that, there was still too much energy vibrating inside her and she kept her eyes screwed shut, hoping that if she could just keep it all in, then maybe it would go away and she'd be able to fall asleep again. She really hoped that the last thing she remembered was actually a weird dream, because if it wasn't then she didn't know where she was on top of everything else, but if she just kept her eyes shut and pretended to be asleep, then she could just pretend she was safe in Gunhead's agency and wouldn't ever have to know the difference.
A door opened and she heard a few people walk into the room before an unfamiliar voice started speaking, "She seems to be suffering from quirk exhaustion, but since we're not sure what her quirk is, then there's no way of knowing whether that's from coming here or if it's from whatever she was doing before."
"Hmm. Well, this is interesting." This voice was familiar and Ochako's eyes shot open. The room spun as she sat up too quickly, but she was too relieved to care. Midoriya smiled at her, "Hey there, Uraraka. You're not supposed to be here."
Uraraka can't stay still.
Notes: Sorry for all the weirdness lately! Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextOchako looked at Midoriya for a long moment, then promptly burst into tears, "Oh thank goodness. I...please tell you know what's going on!"
"Umm…" Midoriya gave her a sheepish smile as he sat down on the bed beside her. "Not yet, but we're gonna figure it out together, ok! We can do this!"
Ochako took a deep breath and wiped her eyes, "Yeah! We can do this! What do you need to know?"
Midoriya grabbed a notebook out of his pocket and opened it to a fresh page, "Alright, so first of all, do you know where you are?"
"Well, you're interning on I-Island, so…" Ochako thought for a moment, "well, either I'm on I-Island somehow, or you came back early."
Midoriya laughed, "It's the first one. Do you know how you got here? Was there a villain involved?"
"No. I was at Gunhead's agency, so there wasn't a villain." Ochako wracked her brain. "One minute I was sparring with Shinso and…"
She felt gravity shift again, but not as intensely as it had last time and she was still in the hospital when it righted itself just in time for her to throw up again. Thankfully, the nurses had had the foresight to put a tub beside the bed and Midoriya just tossed his notebook out of the splash zone and rubbed her back until she was finished.
"Ugh." Ochako wiped her mouth. "I'm sorry, that's gross."
"Well, you are suffering from quirk exhaustion." Midoriya reminded her. "Which...well, what else do you remember?"
"Um...well, it was kinda like what happened just now." Ochako grimaced. "I was completely fine this morning, but then I got really dizzy and all of a sudden I was someplace else."
"Hmm." Izuku made a note of something. "Any other details? What you were trying to do during the spar, what you were thinking about, ect?"
Ochako thought for a moment, "I mean, in the spar, I was just trying to keep Shinso from pinning me, but I was also thinking about how once internships were over, I needed to talk to Mei about…"
Izuku jerked back in surprise as Uraraka just...disappeared into thin air. Sure, there were slight traces of some sort of light, but mostly, she simply blinked out of existence, exactly like Shinso had described. It was a weird sight and he almost didn't believe his eyes, but at least now he could form some theories.
"Dr. Shield." He looked up from his notebook. "You wouldn't happen to have any equipment for measuring gravitational fields on this island, would you?"
The moment Ochacko felt gravity shift again, she tensed. Even though she'd half been expecting it this time, the bed disappearing out from under her was still a shock and she didn't have nearly enough time to get her feet under her before she was falling hard on the floor.
"Seriously? Which of you beautiful babies decided to fall off the…" Mei circled the table and she stopped and blinked when she saw Ochako on the floor, the gesture looking even more strange with the way her eyes were magnified underneath her goggles. "Oh, hi gravity girl! I didn't see you come in! You're supposed to be missing, so how did you get all the way out here?"
Ochako groaned and flopped down on the floor, "Yeah, that's what I'd like to know."
Mei hummed, "Well, as long as you're here, you may as well earn your keep! I need an extra set of hands."
Ochako nodded and groaned as she stood up. She still felt unbearably nauseous, but she didn't feel like she was going to lose what was left of her breakfast at any moment, so that was a positive. Maybe it was because she didn't go as far this time? But, of course, that brought up the question of why she'd gone at all and Ochako wasn't sure she really wanted the answer to that.
Mei handed her what looked like the handle of a lightsaber, "Just hold that part steady, alright?"
Ochako nodded again and let Mei do her thing, but her thoughts started to spiral again and she bit her lip nervously as she remembered the reason why she'd been thinking about Mei in the first place, "Um, Hatsume? Do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Sure, but Hatsume's too formal!" Mei tightened another screw. "I thought I told you to call me Mei!"
Ochako half-smiled, "Heh, yeah. Um...why did you choose to go into support?"
Mei grinned, "It's fun! I get to make so many wonderful babies!"
Ochako frowned, "And, uh, is that why you want to have your own company too?"
"Eh, I could work for somebody else and still make cool stuff." Mei stuck out her tongue in disgust. "But if I'm gonna make these babies, I want everybody to know who made them! It's branding! One day, I'm gonna be famous for all these beautiful babies, just you wait and see!"
"But…" Ochako struggled to figure out a polite way to phrase it before realizing that Mei probably didn't care. "Um, isn't that kinda selfish."
"Yeah." Mei tightened something else on her device. "So?"
Ochako stared at her, "So?"
Mei cackled, "A lot of people have this really stupid idea that being selfish is bad, just like they think failure is bad, but failure is how you make wonderful babies! If being selfish helps motivate me to be a better inventor, then why in the world wouldn't I do that?!"
"Huh," Ochako blinked a few times, feeling like the world had shifted underneath her in a way that wasn't literal. "I guess I'd never thought of it like that."
"That's because too many people limit themselves and don't give into the best ideas!" Mei declared, tightening one final screw and taking the device from Ochako. "If something isn't helping, throw it out! And if something is helping, then make it a part of the design!"
Ochako smiled as Mei turned on her device, only to frown when nothing happened. Mei, however, just shrugged and threw the device over her shoulder, "The original design was better. Back to the drawing board!"
Ochako laughed, "If at first you don't succeed…"
"Then use that failure to fuel your next success!" Mei returned with a wide grin. "Hand me that wrench. Oh, and I'm glad you're alright, by the way. Sorry I forgot to mention that. Shinso said you just went poof! "
Ochako groaned, "I'm dunno. Before I came to talk to you, I was hoping that Midoriya could…"
The gravity shifted again and Ochako had to resist the urge to scream in frustration as she found herself on a random street, somewhere. She was just so done with the whole thing. She felt emotionally and physically exhausted and she just wanted to stay still for a little while! Was that really too much to ask?!
At least she was finally getting used to the sensation. Ochako still didn't know what was going on, but she was almost certain at this point that it was One for All's fault, even if she couldn't pinpoint how. Alright, so maybe trying to push all that power down until it blew up hadn't been the best idea, because her new quirk obviously wasn't letting her repress it anymore, considering she could potentially end up halfway across the world with just a stray thought.
"Alright, how did I do this last time?" Ochako grumbled. "I was just thinking about Midoriya and…"
Gravity shifted and Ochako felt a brief sense of pride until she looked around at her new location and Midoirya was nowhere to be seen. "You've got to be kidding me!"
Izuku popped his head into the lab, "Hey, uh, kind of a weird question, but have you seen Uraraka?"
Mei looked up from her current project, "She just popped out."
"Of course." Izuku groaned, "Did she give any clue of where she was going?"
"Nope!" Mei shrugged, then thought for a minute. "But I think she was talking about you when she disappeared."
"That...alright that makes sense." Izuku scribbled a few things down in his notebook. "Her quirk must be using people to anchor her when she warps, but the only question is which people...and of course where she ended up this time."
"If you were her anchor point, Izu-kun," Mei pointed out, "then shouldn't she be with you?"
"You'd think so, but no." Izuku jumped up to sit on the table. "Her quirk uses gravity, but that's such a widespread force that she's probably only able to approximate her target, at least right now."
Mei hummed, "I didn't even know she could teleport."
"Neither did she." Izuku shook his head in amusement. "I'm still trying to figure out why, but it's like her quirk got more powerful overnight and now she's dealing with a new manifestation of it. It's really cool, but she hasn't had time to develop the ability, so she doesn't have any way to stop herself from warping."
"Or any way to predict where she'll end up." Mei finished. She pushed her project to the side and started grabbing more materials. "Well, I can help with one of those."
Dr. Shield smiled and lifted the tarp, "It's been a while since I had an excuse to dust off this old baby."
Melissa rolled her eyes, "You realize you could take it out for a spin at any time, right? You're just old and boring."
"Is that the car you and All Might used during his study abroad?!" Izuku's eyes were wide as he dissolved into a muttering storm of facts. "The technology was state of the art at the time and still holds up under today's standards. The engine alone is…"
"Come on, Izu-kun, you can nerd out in the car." Mei grabbed him by the collar and hauled him into the back seat. The device in her hand was only mostly finished, but Dr. Shield had been tracking the gravitational fields around the island and Uraraka's warps were becoming more frequent, so they needed to find her before she accidentally ended up in the water or something.
"Alright, Midoriya! Your turn to navigate!" Melissa said, strapping herself into the passenger seat as Dr. Shield started the car. "You connected your laptop to the gravity sensors, right?"
"Yep!" Izuku said. "I'm probably going to have to write a program to really track her, but for now these readings will at least tell us when she moves and get us in the general ballpark of where she is...oh, she moved again. Head west!"
Ochako sighed and tried not to think of anything at all as she made her way down the streets, too tired to pay attention to the weird looks she was getting for wearing a full hospital gown in the middle of the city. At least it wasn't one of the ones that was open in the back, but honestly, at this point she didn't care. Maybe if she just didn't think she wouldn't find herself suddenly halfway across the city with no way of knowing where she'd end up.
She passed a fast food place and only hesitated for a moment before muttering, "Screw it."
An electronic bell chimed as she pushed open the door and the look on the poor cashier's face when he saw her was way more funny than it had the right to be, but Ochako was too tired to laugh or even really care as she walked up to the counter, "Hey, do you guys sell ginger ale?"
"Um…yes?" He looked her up and down, and Ochako knew she should be embarrassed, but she just found herself half wondering whether they'd turn her away for violating a no shoes, no shirt, no service policy or whether they'd just roll with it. The cashier hesitated for another moment before meeting her eyes again. "I, uh, I'm assuming you don't have any money with you?"
"She warped again!" Izuku yelled. "Ooh, she's closer this time!"
"Where to next, then?" Dr. Shield stopped the car, ready to double back if they needed to. "Where is she?"
"She's…" Izuku looked at the screen and his eyes widened. "She's two streets over!"
"Great! We can cut through that alley!" Mei grabbed his hand and Izuku had just enough presence of mind to set down his laptop before she was pulling him from the car and running toward the alley.
"Wait!" Melissa called. "Shouldn't we…"
"Sorry, we'll meet you there!" Izuku yelled back. It was only a few seconds before they were running out onto the next street, which was more crowded than the one they'd just come from, "Excuse me! Has anyone seen a girl in a hospital gown?"
Ochako sipped on her soda and took a few deep breaths as she ignored the stares of the other patrons. She'd wasn't nearly as nauseous as she'd been when she'd first gotten to I-Island, and she could feel herself steadily regaining energy especially with the way that One for All was buzzing just underneath her skin, but she still wasn't used to it. It would have been nice if One for All came with an off switch because the way things were going, she would be having to shower in a bathing suit for the foreseeable future.
She slumped further down in the hard plastic seat and took another sip, only partially sitting up when she heard the bell on the door chime.
"Hey Gravity Girl!" Mei grinned as she bounced up to her table. "Happy Birthday!"
"But...but it's not my birthday." She stared at Mei in shocked confusion as she grabbed Ochako's arm and fastened something around her wrist.
"Nope!" Mei confirmed. "But I got you something! That's a tracking bracelet! I'll make you a better one when we get back, but this little baby will keep us from having to chase you down again! We'll be able to see where you are even if you accidentally warp yourself to America!"
Ochako shuddered, "Oh god, I hope that doesn't happen."
"Unfortunately, it's a possibility." Izuku ran up to them, hands on his knees as he caught his breath. "But this way, even if it does, we'll be able to find you!"
"Ok, yeah...that'll be nice." Ochako nodded gratefully. "Thanks, Mei."
"Now come on! We gotta get back to the labs so I can get back to work on my babies!" Mei said. "And not that the hospital gown isn't a statement piece, but we should get you some actual clothes, come on, let's get going!"
Ochako stood and stretched, "Yes, please and thank you."
The two gremlins led her outside, where a red sports car was waiting to pick her up. She recognized the driver from her unfortunate arrival and he smiled when she slid into the backseat, "You must be Ochako Uraraka. It's nice to officially meet you, I'm Dr. David Shield and this is my daughter Melissa."
Ochako grimaced, "Sorry about...you know."
"No, don't worry about it." Dr. Shield laughed. "Honestly, now that we know you're not a security threat and we figured out how you got in, it's more entertaining than anything else. Freaked us out a bit at first, but we're good."
"Well, I'm glad someone found it entertaining." Ochako grumbled. "I honestly wasn't expecting to learn how to teleport when I woke up this morning."
"I know! Everyone back in Japan was really…" Izuku's eyes widened. "Wait, Mei, did you ever tell anyone we found her?"
Mei frowned, "No, I think I assumed you told them and then I was too focused on the tracking bracelet to think about anything else."
"I believe that our people were focused on making sure our security was up to date and incorporating a warning for gravitational shifts." Dr. Shield scowled. "How did we forget that?"
"Didn't you ever call them, Midoriya?" Melissa asked.
Izuku groaned and put his head in his hands, "No, I was busy trying to figure out the quirk science of how she was even warping! Everyone's probably still freaking out!"
Mei shrugged and grabbed her phone, "Well, better late than never!"
Shouta wasn't doing well. All the teachers had been called in and some of the more adept reporters were starting to realize that something was wrong. Uraraka's parents had been contacted and were with a police escort, but there wasn't a whole lot they could tell them. Their daughter had been missing for over four hours now and they still hadn't found a single lead. He, All Might and Tsukauchi were all gathered in Nedzu's office, grimly combing through what meager evidence they could find as they came to terms with the fact that they had failed as teachers and as heroes.
His phone rang and he took one look at teh caller ID before picking up, "Hatsume, please tell me your safe. I really don't have the time or energy to deal with two…"
"Oh, I know!" Mei interrupted. "I thought you might want to know that we found your missing student!"
Shouta immediately sat up straight, "You found Uraraka?! How did you even... Nevermind, I'm putting you on speaker. Where is she?"
Mei cackled, "She's sitting right next to me! Say hi Gravity Girl!"
Uraraka's voice sounded tired, but she was there, "Hi Sensei. Sorry for worrying you."
Nedzu came closer to teh phone, "Nevermind that, young lady. Are you alright?"
"I'm tired and overused my quirk, but I'm already getting my energy back!" Uraraka's voice echoed with a kind of forced cheerfulness. "Don't worry, I'm gonna be fine!"
"I'm glad to hear it." Nedzu said. "Although, if you are with young Midoirya and Hatsume, then…"
"Yeah, that means she's here on I-Island." Midoriya said. "It's complicated. It took us a few hours to even realize she was here, but we're working on it!"
"I'm assuming that Shinso was the one that told you she was missing?" Shouta asked tiredly. "I would probably lecture him about confidentiality, but I guess it's a good thing you were aware she was missing."
"Oh, I'd almost forgotten about Shinso!" Uraraka fretted. "He's probably so…"
Shouta looked at the receiver in confusion as there was a brief shout and then he heard the phone drop and the audio became slightly muffled as Midoirya started speaking, "Uraraka, focus on me, ok? Don't think about Shinso or anyone else, just focus on me and Mei and where we are right...and she's gone. Mei?"
"Already on it."
There was the sound of shuffling as the phone was picked up and Shouta looked at the others in confusion and worry. What did Midoriya mean she's gone?!
"Ugh. Sorry, I really didn't think she had enough energy for that already." Midoriya said finally. "But, uh, good news, Uraraka's back in Japan and we'll send Shinso her location so he can pick her up!"
"She…she's back in Japan?" All Might stuttered. "Young Midoriya, that's at least a five hour journey!"
Midoriya sighed, "Not really. Do you want the short explanation or the long one?"
Nedzu took the phone, "I believe any explanation will do at the moment, Midoirya, thank you."
That made Midioriya chuckle, "I guess that's true. Well, basically, I guess I should start by saying that Uraraka does not have a gravity cancellation quirk like we thought. Her quirk, which I think got a lot stronger recently for some reason, is actually some sort of gravity manipulation and, since according to the theory of relativity gravity is basically just bends in spacetime, then, well…"
"Uraraka can use gravity manipulation to warp." Mei finished. "She uses people as her anchors…"
"Most likely people that she's already used her quirk on." Midoirya interrupted. "Otherwise she would have teleported to you, Eraserhead."
"Yeah, that." Mei agreed. "But she can't control it yet, which is why we fitted her with a tracker! She's across town from Gunhead's agency, and I'm sending her location to Shinso...now!"
"She'll probably be a little worse for wear when he finds her." Midoriya added. "The warp here knocked her out for over two hours. Let us know if you have any questions."
"Good luck!" Mei hung up, leaving a room full of shocked adults to process whatever that had been.
"Well…" All Might cleared his throat awkwardly. "At least it wasn't villains?"