Ochaco's lip trembled as she held a small bouquet unable to stop the few tears from falling from her face and wondering how things could have come to this.
Last week Ochaco had come to the South Side to train with Jiji, Izu-Kun, and Awa-Kun like normal, and as she had met up with Awa-Kun on the train, and he showed her some of his hero feed since he caught a glimpse of Thirteen in it earlier.
He paused though when he saw Endeavour was spotted in Niigata "Hey Uki, ain't that place near the edge of the South Side?" Awa-Kun pointed out, and she did recognize the building in the video having seen the few times she looked at the window.
"Um, I think so Awa-Kun." she replied and she remembered naively being confused why Awa-Kun turned a touch pale "Is there something wrong Awa-Kun?" she asked and Awa-Kun just stared at her.
"Uki you know how destructive Endo is, and he's right next to the South Side, don't you understand what could happen?" Awa-Kun questioned and all at once she understood her friend's concern and immediately tried to call up Jiji while Awa-Kun tried to get a hold of Izu-Kun.
But neither of them managed to get through to their friends which was a massive big red flag since Izuku always answered with an "Sorry I'm busy." text if he couldn't answer right away, and not getting even that made Ochaco very concerned despite Awa-Kun's best attempts to calm her down.
And she was rightfully scared for her friends, because when they reached the edge of the South Side they saw a fire raging in part of the district and in that moment Ochaco's heart dropped as her thoughts were consumed by her friends suddenly being in definite danger.
Then she was dashing through the streets with Awa-Kun hot on her tail as she searched for any hint of multiple limbs or green desperately hoping for even a single glance.
It had taken what felt like forever until she heard Izu-Kun barking orders and she rushed towards the sound despite knowing that she was actively running to the flames.
There she found everyone rushing around to fight the fire with their quirks or helping others get away from the heart of the fire and in the middle of it all was Izu-Kun covered in soot and ordering everyone around with an authority she had only seen in heroes before.
"Hamster move!" Dabi yelled at her suddenly and she yanked back by Awa-Kun before a building collapsed and would have crushed her.
Ochaco remembered staring at the burning rubble that had almost crushed her blankly, her brain unable to process what had nearly happened to her in that moment, Izu-Kun when she mentioned it later to him said such a reaction was common when one was in shock.
She was only brought out of it when she heard Jiji's voice and numbly realized he was in front of her with his hands on her shoulders "J-Jiji... " she muttered tears building in her eyes as she took in his panicked face.
"We don't have time for your soap opera Hamster! Either you and the tinker toy make yourselves useful or help people get the fuck out of here!" Dabi snapped them as he held up his damaged arm and put some of the flames out.
Before she or Awa-Kun could manage to respond Izu-Kun, having heard Dabi's shout snapped his head towards them, his eyes widening before they got a gleam in them "Mezo, Ochaco, Awase over here now!" he demanded and Jiji dragged them over to him.
Izu-Kun wasted no time launching into telling them the plan "Ochaco we're going to need you to use your quirk to quickly evac civilians and fight the fire. Mezo now that Ochaco is here you can collect others far faster under her quirk. Awase I'm going to need you to make larger containers for Ochaco to make float and we'll need- Dabi!" Izu-Kun instructed then turned towards the burnt pyro.
Dabi's head snapped up in response "Find Screw-Ball, he's a Night Crawler." Izu-Kun ordered and Dabi scowled glancing at the raging fire before he gritted his teeth and snappishly said "Right away boss." then ran off.
"Wait Zuri shouldn't we call for the heroes or something?" Awa-Kun questioned and Ochaco mirrored that thought at the time.
Izu-Kun however scoffed "Don't bother, it would be a waste of time. They won't come." Izu-Kun coldly told them as his gaze went to one of the three burning buildings in front of them.
"Wha- Izu-Kun why wouldn't they- Izu-Kun!" She sputtered overwhelmed by the situation but cut herself off when suddenly dashed forward into a burning building, she and Awa-Kun would've followed him inside if Jiji didn't immediately grab them by their shoulders.
"Jiji we have to get Zuri- " Awa-Kun yelled but almost as fast as Izu-Kun disappeared into the flames he had returned carrying a woman missing a leg out of the building and went straight back into ordering the hundreds of people around them without a second of hesitation.
"Mido-Kun can handle himself, we just need to follow his lead." Jiji firmly told them, hints of panic shaking his voice.
"But what about the heroes?" She asked and Jiji ducked his head.
"We tried calling them already... no one is coming, it's just us and whoever can help, don't worry about anyone telling the police about us using our quirks in public, Mido-Kun will deal with it." Jiji responded.
Ochaco couldn't believe her ears but as the hours rolled on it only became even more obvious that Jiji and Izu-Kun were right...
As she, Awa-Kun, and Jiji worked doing whatever Izu-Kun asked of them no heroes showed up, nor did any firefighters or anyone else.
It was just them until the fires were finally put out two hours after they arrived, the plumes of smoke and ash dancing in the air over blackened rubble from that day would be an image permanently burned into her mind, and how hollow she felt staring at the destruction would haunt her heart.
When it was all over she could barely think straight and neither Awa-Kun or Jiji were much better as they looked upon the aftermath.
Izu-Kun had told Iguchi-San to take them home since they all went through something traumatic and he promised to call them each later to make sure they were okay after he finished dealing with the clean up.
Iguchi-San had tried his best to comfort them as she and Awa-Kun rode the train home but it all fell on deaf ears, she couldn't even remember half of what he even told her that day.
Her parents had a very long day so Ochaco was left to stew in her own thoughts until Izu-Kun called them all in a video chat.
There were so many questions from her and Awa-Kun about what had happened and Izu-Kun had patiently explained everything to them, even going as far as to tell them why he expected no heroes to come to and how he was so calm when she snapped about the heroes not coming to help the disaster they created.
Izu-Kun told them of the South Side Inferno that would've burnt over half the district if he hadn't stepped up to organize a fire brigade and how that was what lead him to first contracting her parents to build the very apartment building that Jiji's mom was running.
It was an utterly horrible story and had only made her even more upset and she had cried herself to sleep that night from the injustice of it all, how could such an awful man get away with hurting so many people Scott free?
It wasn't fair.
The next morning she couldn't keep her awful mood from her parents and after she told them what had happened they forced her to stay home and took off a day to try and comfort her.
She wished it helped but the ache in her chest just sat where it was firmly planted in her chest, she insisted on going back to school on the third day but it didn't help, as she looked around at the other girls going on with their lives as if there wasn't some big tragedy less than a week ago.
Really how was she supposed to care about learning the differences in 'there, their, and they're' when she knew Endeavour was out there walking around freely and could burn everything she had been working so hard to build to the ground and he wouldn't face any consequences.
The #2 hero was never her favorite and she had always thought he was intimidating but now? Now she knew why Izu-Kun spoke so coldly of him and she was stricken with fear of the man returning to cause even more damage to people she cared about.
Honestly she hardly knew what to do with herself until Izu-Kun called her yesterday and asked if she wanted to attend the funeral he prepared for the people who had passed away from the fire, she had agreed without thinking and dressed appropriately for the occasion.
Awa-Kun had come as well even though he didn't know the people there much and frankly she needed the comfort of a friend who had been with her in the thick of it after the past few days.
The funeral had been a much larger affair then she expected and there were well over sixty people there to offer their condolences for the twenty people who had passed from the fire, she had ended up silently crying more than once during the whole thing and had leaned on both Awa-Kun and Jiji to keep herself grounded as Izu-Kun lead them through the event.
Something that had surprised her, while Izu-Kun had set up the funeral she expected one of the family members of the deceased to take charge of the actual event.
But Izu-Kun was very firmly the only person leading them when the monk wasn't and honestly she wished she was composed as Izu-Kun managed to be, it was so much harder to hold her head high when Izu-Kun lead them to the crematorium with all of the people looking at them and she couldn't believe some of the things she heard people saying when they walked pass.
Returning to the shrine after waiting for the urns was far less daunting as she had been expecting the comments and looks this time around and couldn't help feeling a seed of disgust for the people who could dare to judge when they were mourning those they had lost in such a violent manner.
The funeral had finished about an hour ago which led Ochaco to where she stood now, tearfully staring at a drawing Izu-Kun had made of a little girl with rainbow colored arms, she did not know the girl personally having only seen her in the distance playing with other kids at the community center when she was training.
But Ochaco remembered Jiji pulling the girl out of a building and briefly holding her to use her quirk on the girl so she could get to medics as soon as possible, from what Izu-Kun said she had passed away from smoke damage to her lungs two days after the fire and the fact twisted a knife into her heart because one week ago she was holding this girl's hand and now she was dead.
A hand on her shoulder gently brought her out of her head and the memories of the past week, looking up she saw Jiji with a similar miserable expression on his face and Awa-Kun stood at her other side arms crossed as he stared at the drawing dis-heartened.
"This is such bullshit, twenty people are dead and how many people have had their lives ruined and that sick son of a bitch just gets to walk free without doing squat? It's fucking bullshit." Awa-Kun hissed his hands clenching as his gaze fell to his feet.
"And what do you think we could do about it?" Izu-Kun calmly asked shocking them, she thought he was still busy with the monk and his disciples.
"Sue his reckless ass for being a bastard and getting civilians killed." Awa-Kun replied.
Izu-Kun raised a single eyebrow "With what time, people, and money? Even if you were able to find someone willing to be our lawyer and they agreed to sue Endeavour, his legal team will counter sue us for defamation of character into enough debt we'd need two lifetimes to pay it all off." Izu-Kun countered.
"But we have evidence that he killed these people we can't just let him get away with it!" Awa-Kun protested stomping his foot.
Izu-Kun shook his head "What evidence? Endeavour never stepped foot in the South Side and the sites online have already pulled the articles saying he was nearby. And the only people who could testify are fourteen-year-olds with no strong background or people nobody in "civil" society would ever consider a credible witness." Izu-Kun pointed out.
Awa-Kun lowered his head tears trailing down his cheeks clearly wanting to argue but couldn't think of what else to say.
"Then what are we supposed to do?" she asked because she couldn't live like this, with this crushing weight in her chest and almost crippling fear.
"You do what you've always done Ochaco-Chan, you train to become heroes." Izu-Kun replied walking over to her.
"I have no doubt that the three of you can dominate the world of heroics and once you've got yourself a voice they'll listen, and more importantly you're going to show them what it means to be a hero that saves everyone." Izu-Kun confidently told them.
Ochaco stared at Izu-Kun, she was used to him being excitable or an anxious rambling mess but now she had seen another side of him she'd never caught before, one that was confident and self-assured even as the world was falling apart around him and held his head high even with dozens of people criticizing him.
And she wanted to be a hero like that, one who could take charge and lead people to a better future without ever bowing to the world's pressure.
She was going to become someone the world couldn't ignore and give back a voice to all the people left to rot by pompous heroes like Endeavour who abused their power.
Ochaco's chest finally felt like it was getting lighter as she found herself a new direction, she would still be a hero for her parents but now she had an arguably less selfish reason to become one.
Awa-Kun seemed to be thinking the same thing and flashed her and Jiji a sharp grin "And when we do let's give them hell." Awa-Kun said.
Ochaco's lips traitorously mirrored his and she nodded.