The Price of Pain
Chapter 18: What It Takes
The week spent recuperating in an underground hospital left her with nothing but her thoughts. Overhaul had handed it to her. In retrospect, she was lucky to be alive. But it didn't feel like defeat. Defeat was hopelessness. This was almost a renewal. For the first time in this entire cursed second life, she felt like she had a real goal. She saw Overhaul and she saw in him… herself. Power, not only in physical strength, but in the way he held command of people who could kill him if they so wished.
When Yamato walked into the room, she wasn't just his subordinate anymore. She wanted to be more than that. Simply being led by others was what brought all these problems in the first place. She needed to be in control again. That title of his— she wanted it, but to claim it she needed to prove her skills. That would be doubly hard to do in this society that didn't see children as leadership material. What was common in her old life would not be afforded here. Here she would have to fight for that approval twice as hard. The challenge did not deter her.
"You're recovering well?" he asked.
"I should be out in a few days. That doctor's rejuvenation quirk is quite useful," Aki said.
However, she did have dozens of new scars littered over her chest, arms, and her temple where the glass had skewered her. Those had been superficial. It was the damage to her arms that required more time to heal.
"You're really going to train in the mountains? Is this going to be with some knock-off Mr Miyagi?" Yamato asked.
"Mr Miyagi?" Aki asked.
"Just a very old pre-quirk movie. There were lots of movies back then that had people go train in the mountains. Back when quirk training was not a thing it seemed to be the rage," he said.
"I think it might have some merit to it. I know an old man, he's strong—quirkless, and able to take out most heroes and villains. He asked me to train with him, and I didn't have the time. But he's not wrong about one thing. I'm physically lacking, and my quirk doesn't compensate for it. I was too pressed for money to buy the right food to make any dent in my physical strength either. So I focused on flexibility. I can't afford to be anything less than perfect on all accounts, not with the quirk I have," she explained.
Yamato nodded. "Though there are gyms here, you know?"
Aki snorted, allowing a moment for amusement. Gyms were good for targeted muscle building, but the kind of strength she was looking for was different. She wanted to build her core more than her muscles. Plus she'd always trained in mountains. She'd spent weeks scaling it with her bare hands and no chakra to build up her Yang chakra. It was why some no Clan child like her had managed to become a Jounin hopeful.
Yamato got comfortable just long enough for him to shoot him a pointed look.
"Yamato, I will come back. Until then don't give up, build another team. You will have your honour back," she said.
He slumped, sighing a little before slicking back his hair to gather himself. Aki saw all the emotions go through his face, but it was mostly resignation. He didn't have that spark in him anymore, though he hadn't yet given up.
"When you say it like that, I find myself believing you."
She nodded. Good. The last thing she needed was for the man to commit seppuku without her there. At least if he was going to end his shame through ritual suicide, he should have the girl who failed with him there to cut off his head and end the suffering.
She would rather him take another head.
Chisaki Kai was going to die by her hands.
"When will you be back?" was all Dabi asked.
Six on the other hand was whinging and whining about not being able to follow her. Aki simply shrugged. It didn't matter how long she trained, just that she got to the level she wanted to be at. After that, she could strike up a plan to bring Shie Hassaikai to heel. Until then, she would focus on herself. After all, if she wanted to accomplish what she'd set out to do, she needed to accommodate for being a weak 14-year-old girl. She knew she wouldn't be this forever. Thankfully she was still growing, which meant if she picked up the slack for years of bad nutrition and borderline starvation, she could make somewhat of a difference where it mattered.
"It depends how far I'll get. You're not going to burn down the house before I get back, right?" Aki asked dryly.
"Tch. I can control my flames. Your little pet on the other hand, might need to watch out," Dabi said.
"Please… just make sure he doesn't follow me. I promise you something will most definitely explode if he does."
Dabi sent her a dubious look. Aki tried not to let her unease show. Knuckleduster and Six had history, bad history. The kind that led to Six's attempt to explode a whole city block and then himself. Logically it would be safer to ignore Knuckleduster and move forward in solitary training. But this was personal. Six was not about to ruin a good thing for her because he was possessive and weird. Dabi was another matter… more uncertain.
"When I come back, will you be here?" she asked.
He leaned back on the chair, tipped his head back, and blew out his cigarette. "Waiting around isn't my style, kid. Show me you can help me with my goal, and I'll see if you can use my services."
She could appreciate that. Nodding her head, she picked up her luggage and turned around for one last word. "I don't expect you to wait for me, but if you do Dabi—you won't regret it."
He snorted as if to say 'let's see'. The results spoke for itself. Aki could respect that.
So she left the two men behind to do what she needed to. Meeting Oguro Iwao, always brightened her day. Aki liked the man more than she did most people. It was such a pity he was a Vigilante and not a Villain or a simple marital artist and fighter. The fact that he espoused hero societies bullshit was his only negative quality. Outside of that, it was refreshing to meet someone who enjoyed fighting, and someone who didn't sugarcoat their words to be polite. Oguro spoke his mind, and he backed his threats with a surprising amount of strength. Strength she wouldn't have because she wasn't a man and didn't have chakra to compensate for the difference in power now. Women just couldn't match up to men in that regard… or could they?
She had a pretty risky plan to get herself what she wanted.
"Kunckleduster," she greeted.
"Not in costume, kid. Call me by my name or whatever else," he said.
"Old man it is," she settled on.
He grunted but didn't really correct her. He helped her throw her things in the back of his car. She'd heard of camping trips with parents being a thing in this world. She would be lying if she didn't admit some part of her longed to view it like that. But Oguro was not her father. Her father didn't want her, and once Oguro realised how truly irredeemable, she was, she knew he too would give up on her. So she squashed whatever sentimental longing she had. She could have him as a friend, maybe even a sensei, but never a father.
"What songs do you listen to?" he asked.
She didn't really listen to music that often. She preferred traditional Japanese Flute music… though she was pretty sure that wasn't what he was asking for. The songs she heard were mostly random ones on the radio when she went outside or someone else was playing something on their devices.
"You choose," she settled on saying.
"Well don't blame me if you don't like it," he said.
She, in fact, did not like it. The music was loud, a genre in this world called classical rock. It wasn't to her taste really, but Oguro seemed to be enjoying it as they drove in silence. She turned her thoughts elsewhere.
"I don't know why you're spending this effort on me. Do you expect me to take on your mantle?" she asked.
"Nah kid, that would be selfish. I'm doing it because you're a dense idiot," he said.
Aki made a sound between a snort and a gasp, indignant from the blunt response. She liked that about him, but it was also something that still caught her off-guard.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
He chuckled dryly. "Rooming with a living ticking time bomb after several warnings is one major reason you're an idiot. But you've also got that dumb aimlessness about you that reminds me of someone else…"
She would be insulted if she weren't so darn curious. "That someone you mentioned—it's that man, Haimawari Koichi, right?"
He didn't reply for a moment, but the fond smile on his face was telling. Koichi was important to him. Maybe he already had a successor. Even if the man was overseas now working in America. She wondered if he let the Crawler know Six was back. As far as Aki was concerned, Six had moved on from his obsession with Knuckleduster. Over the weeks the scar that cut vertical across his face had disappeared, and his features had become a little more distinct. His appearance was tied to his mental state in some form, and the fact that he no longer wore Oguro's scar was telling. It didn't give her enough confidence to tell Six she was on a trip with his ex-hero though. She didn't want to risk Oguro's life like that, not when she knew Six was too powerful for her to defeat, let alone a quirkless man with injuries.
"You shouldn't trust me, old man," she said.
"Or maybe you should have a little more trust in yourself, kid."
They didn't speak after that.
Uraraka Ochako knew her parents kept their worries away from her, but she wasn't stupid. She knew things were bad. Their house was small, old, and had mold, but they kept it clean. She didn't have new uniforms every year, but her parents had found her the best second-hand ones they could and learned how to stitch just to alter it themselves. She didn't have her own laptop for school, but her dad had gotten her an old computer that did the trick—even if it took forever to boot up. Most importantly there was always food on the table. If nothing else, her parents made sure she never skipped a meal.
She knew they were one step away from homelessness, but it didn't matter because her parents were smiling and still giving her kisses in the morning. She loved them to the moon and back. So to see her normally smiling and positive mother break down into tears behind their bedroom door, was too much for her. The red notice to evict dropped onto the floor in front of her like a death sentence. Her father was consoling her mother, but it was pretty obvious he was near tears himself. Ochako grit her teeth feeling useless.
If she was just a little older her added income could have made a difference. Instead, she was a burden, another mouth to feed, another person to dress and pay tuition and school fees for. Ochako couldn't bring these concerns to her parents because they already had enough on their plate, and they didn't need to worry about her on top of it. Today she found it especially difficult to keep up that façade. She turned to her old phone and pulled up her middle-school friends' group chat. She briefly wondered if they could hear out her worries, but then remembered how Yuri had pointed out how ruined her shoes were with that unsettling smirk. She remembered how the other friends had laughed about it right after. The embarrassment still lingered.
She sighed as her thoughts went back to Aki. They hadn't known each other for too long, but Ochako knew the look of someone saving money. Aki also wore old shoes and a second-hand shirt. She bought off-brand orange juice and always compared price tags before purchasing anything. Aki would understand.
Except Aki was a Villain.
Ochako pulled up her last text message, and it made her heart break all over again. How could someone whose first reaction to a stranger being in danger be to jump in-between them and a deadly metal pipe, fall into association with someone like Rokura Nomura, an infamous serial killer and Villain? Ochako knew Aki had always been a little socially stunted, and it made her sad when her friend admitted having never done a single normal teenage girl activity such as painting nails, or going to the movies, or even shopping for clothes with a friend. Ochako had only managed to get her to do one of those things before she left her.
Wasn't it funny that the first genuine connection she made with another girl was with a Villain?
Ochako laughed before she cried, sitting out on the steps of her soon to leave home. She wiped her tears and tried not to fully break down. She couldn't sit here and be useless forever. Maybe if she tried harder she could get into a good school and get a high-paying job. The only problem was that she wasn't particularly genius at anything. She had above-average grades, and a few inconsequential hobbies such as knitting and cooking, but nothing that could get her scholarship into a prestigious school and make money quickly. Working at a typical teenager's job say at like a fast-food restaurant would still mean she'd have to wait another 2 years before she was of legal age to work. Even then doing that on top of schoolwork wouldn't give her enough time to make more than pocket change.
So she decided to search for other avenues. She went to her local library so she wouldn't use too much electricity at home and began her search online. It took her some time, but she found a few schools that supported students in bad financial situations. One of those schools was UA. Well, the hero course in particular. It offered students a fully paid ride through, including no extra fees for uniforms, meals, or school trips. This was if a student managed to get into the hero or support track. Ochako was fairly certain she wasn't smart or technical enough for the support track, so the hero course it was. She'd never really thought about being a hero before, even though her quirk was considered 'cool' by most of her classmates' standards. She'd always thought she'd go into construction with her parents.
It wasn't that she didn't like heroes, she admired them, but they were always in dangerous situations. Nearly being smashed by a falling beam was enough excitement to last her a lifetime. Would she really be okay as a hero?
Ochako shook her head. She had some backup schools she could apply to, and other careers she could try out as well. This was just one of the fastest ways to make money, and really good money too. She wanted to make sure her mother never cried again because they couldn't make ends meet. So with a newfound purpose, Ochako went home. Rather pumped by her new goal, she burst open the door and with a determined gait she walked up to her parents.
"Kaasan, tousan, I'm going to UA!"
Her excitement died quickly and turned to embarrassment when she realised her parents were sitting with a guest. The man ruffled his greyish-purple hair and laughed through his smoking cigar. Even from her initial reading of him, Ochako felt a shiver of nervousness through her mortification.
"Oh s-sorry, I didn't realise someone was visiting," she mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck and ducking her head.
"Don't apologise, I like your enthusiasm," he said.
Ochako was a little confused as to why her parents didn't have a hint of amusement on their faces. In fact, they looked almost ready to kick her out of the room. It must have been this man then—he was making them uncomfortable.
"Ochako, why don't you go into your room, and we'll talk later about UA," her father said.
Ochako was about to leave when their guest stopped her. "Why, your daughter is certainly old enough to know what will happen. After all, this is going to affect her as well."
"She's got nothing to do with this," her mother snapped.
"Kaasan, what's going on?" Ochako asked, growing worried by the minute.
The man turned to her and Ochako shivered when he held up a file and smiled widely. "65 million yen, that's how much I lent to your parents' failed business ventures. How sad it's all gone down the drain and they can't pay me back. I collect my debts."
"Giran-san, please lea—"
One sharp look from the man was enough to shut up her father. Who was this man? Why were her parents so afraid of him? The questions seemed to drown behind a score of nervous ringing in her ears.
"What do we need to do to pay it back?" Ochako asked, stepping forward into view.
"Your mother could work in one of my brothels, but it would take her at least 6 years to work off this debt there."
Ochako paled. Her mother looked down, ashamed and ill looking at the mention of it. She felt her fear turn into rage. How dare he? How dare he suggest such a thing about her mother? How dare he put that expression on her face?
"Your father—well his quirk 'Cutter' would be useful under my employee. But well—once you dip your feet in, you can never really come out."
"My parents are not Villains! You-you can't talk about them like this," Ochako seethed.
"And what are you going to do about it, little girl? It's either that or they get sent to prison for tax evasion and money laundering by proxy. I wonder how you'll ever go to UA with parents such as these," he laughed.
Ochako didn't know what possessed her, but she flew into a rage. Her parents had always held their heads high and proud. This evil man had made them bow their heads in shame in front of her. Ochako understood bloodlust in that moment. She threw a punch, but it was easily dodged. It was followed by a blow to her stomach. She threw up her stomach's contents as she fell to the ground. In a split second her parents were in front of her, throwing Giran away.
"You can do whatever you want to us but touch a hair on my daughter's head and I'll kill you," her father hissed.
Ochako coughed as she tried to recover from that punch and looked up to see Giran smiling down at them. He was not phased at all as he pulled out a gun. Her mother held her in an embrace, shielding her as her father stepped in front of them both, despite the trembling of his arms.
"Tousan…" she whispered in fear.
"Now, now I don't take too kindly to threats. And I was just defending myself from an unprovoked attack. Though I have a better offer for you now that your daughter is here. How opportune it is that she's the right age we were looking for."
"Leave our daughter out of this. She won't take on our burdens, we won't allow it," her father said firmly.
"Oh, but it's a rather good deal. How about it girl, how would you like to go to UA?"
"UA?" she asked in confusion, because why would her choice of high school matter to this man.
"Of course, you'll be a plant—a spy for a grander scheme. I'll even help your parents keep this shitty house instead of kicking you out onto the streets," he said.
"Don't speak to him Ochako," her mother whispered to her.
"Our daughter is not getting involved," her father agreed.
Giran stepped forward and clicked his finger twice. Ochako paled as her mother and father went glassy eyed and limp, and the man pulled her out from her mother's arms harshly. She tried to fight back but he was much stronger than her, and in her panic, she didn't think to use her quirk. She expected a lot of horrible things to happen to her then, but nothing came as he closed the door behind her to door outside.
"What did you do to them?!" she shouted in terror.
"Relax kid, it's just my quirk. I can make people forget things that happened to them in recent memory. They won't even remember that I came for a visit, but they'll be fine. More than fine in fact, if you agree to my deal."
"You shamed them! Why would I agree to anything you say?" Ochako hissed angrily.
"Such a little spitfire," he cooed fondly, making her gag. "You will agree because the alternative is what I warned earlier. Your mother a prostitute and your father a villain. I'll have you thrown into the foster system or the streets. I don't particularly care where, since you'll be of no use if you don't agree."
"I-I'll take you to the heroes and police. They'll help," she said.
"Oh yeah? They'll help your criminal borderline poverty family? Grow up kid, heroes only save those in direct villain attack, or if they'll get something out of it. Your quaint little family of inconsequential losers won't even be in a hero student's pay grade."
"Y-you're lying. They care," she said.
"Do they?"
Ochako found herself second-guessing herself at his words. The man sighed for a moment.
"Anyway, want to hear the deal or not? If not, I can start carting them away for their new jobs and wash my hands off this stinking place—seriously there's a mould issue here."
The situation was sinking in. Ochako didn't want the man to hurt her family, but there was no denying that he wasn't bluffing. He had paperwork with him, detailing just how much they'd borrowed. She saw how defeated her parents looked. In a way, she was glad he erased the memory of what had just happened out of their minds. They didn't need to remember being shamed in front of her like that or having to come to her protection when she let her rage get the better of her.
"What is it?" she asked finally.
"Not here. Come meet me tomorrow at this location."
"So you can kidnap and kill me?" she asked scoffing.
"No, if I wanted to do that, I could just do it now. Look here kid, you've got a good deal going on. Remember, I could break apart this little loving family of yours at any time I want. But I'm nice so I'll sweeten the deal. I'll even make it look like they've got a little extra money so you can move out of this shithole. Seriously the mould is—"
"Stop mentioning the mold!" she shouted angrily.
"Fine, fine I won't mention the very obviously bad for your lungs mould in this place. You want to give them a cozy nice life, right?"
Ochako hesitantly nodded. Giran smiled and then handed her a burner phone.
"Then come to the place I'll text tomorrow night. Oh and—"
"Yes?" she sighed.
"—Speak a word of this to any authority or hero and the last thing you'll have to worry about is your parents changing their professions. I have contacts that can easily dispatch a few no-name civilians."
Ochako paled and nodded. Giran pat her cheek in a mock paternal gesture. When he left, Ochako fell to the ground and sobbed.
"Ochako, is that you? When did you get home?" her mother asked from the living room.
"J-just now m-mom," she said.
She heard her mother coming to her door and tried desperately to wipe her tears away. It was too late because the door opened, and her mother was on the ground hugging her.
"Oh, Chako what happened?" her mother asked.
As if she didn't even remember the Villain that had just invaded her home and threatened their family. Ochako cried into her mother's chest. She hated this so much, but she knew deep down in her heart that she didn't want them to cry again.
"K-kasaan, I-I wanna go to UA. I want to be a h-hero," she sobbed.
"Oh, is that it? Ochako you know we'll always support your dreams."
I want to be your hero.
Because Ochako couldn't be a hero to everyone, not in her situation. But if she could save at least her parents, this had to be worth the price.
"You'll be the best hero ever," her mother said brightly.
She really wouldn't be a good hero. Not when she was doing it for money. But especially not when she was doing it for a Villain. All she could do was cry harder and nod into her mother's chest. She wished this was just a bad nightmare.
But she never woke up.
The next day was spent worrying and fretting over the text. She barely listened in class, going through the motions until the bell rang and her burner phone pinged. She snuck out of her house after her parents went to sleep, throwing on a dark hoodie. After jumping out her window, Ochako took her bicycle out and began her journey to meet Giran. The street he'd suggested was rather empty, and she pulled into a corner, making sure no one else was around. Then she waited, feeling her nerves set alight by all the unknowns of her situation.
When a dark blue portal opened up beneath her feet, Ochako couldn't help but scream in sheer terror. She fell down into someone's arms, still screaming in shock as she looked up at misty yellow eyes.
"What the hell?!"
"Calm down Uraraka-san. Giran referred you to us," the man said in a surprisingly gentle voice.
"Put me down!"
He did, much to her relief. She heard a familiar grating chuckle and turned to see Giran. They were in some kind of underground bar with no windows. She couldn't make out where they were, not when she'd been warped. So they didn't trust her. Of course that wasn't her main concern, not currently when she was unsure of what they even wanted or who they were. A new figure approached, wearing dismembered hands all over his body. Ochako took a step back as he tilted his head at her in a disconcerting manner.
"So this is the one, huh? She looks like a no-name NPC."
His voice sent chills down her spine. Everything about his countenance screamed madness. He scratched his neck, cracking dry and bleeding skin. There was a pause as if he was judging her worth before his expressions said she'd come short. Ochako really badly wanted to cry, to run, to fight—but she stood very still as the moments dragged on.
"Let's find another one and kill her," he said.
"What?" she whispered in horror.
"Now, now Shigaraki let's let Sensei divine her worth."
"Tch, you're going to live for now NPC. But I think even Sensei will reject you. You're as plain looking as they come, so unflashy," he said.
Ochako was a little too busy hearing the echoes of a death threat to be offended by being called an NPC of all things. It barely even registered in her head when the man who introduced himself as Kurogiri gestured for her to follow to meet someone. She wasn't sure if she was going to come out of this alive, and that was an unusually out-of-body feeling.
The room she was taken into was dark, with no windows as she'd expected, but the whirring of machines caught her off guard. The sound of somewhat laboured breathing came to the forefront as she stopped in front of someone—no something frightening. A large toothy smile bled from the shadows, revealing a masked face. Ochako wouldn't be surprised if the man in front of her was revealed to be the Shinigami himself. Her tongue had gone dry, and her body locked in place in front of him. She couldn't move.
"Welcome Uraraka-chan, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."
His dark voice was enough to send her to her knees.
"You may call me Sensei."
A/N
Poor Ochako. She's going to jump on the shitshow bandwagon from here on out. Also who's Ayoyama? Idk anyone by that name XD
In all seriousness, his reveal as the traitor was one of the worst writing decisions I've ever seen, outside of Compress yelling about his irrelevant grandfather, and Kurogiri's reveal not even being foreshadowed in the main story (vigilantes notwithstanding). My rants make it seem like I don't like MHA… I swear I do. I just have a lot of issues with the writing choices. Obviously my writing isn't any better. It's easier to be a critic than a writer to be fair. I can point out all the flaws in Naruto and MHA forever, but I still love these shows regardless of plot holes or lack of proper payoffs.
But yes I am changing Ayoyama to Ochako as the traitor. I find his plotline to be very underdeveloped and therefore not interesting. There are also going to be a few changes to Izuku's character in his later stages- minor as they are, to address some of his self-worth issues the manga kept putting off and never did. But hopefully, these changes will make the current story more interesting. It will also give me more time to flesh out spotlight characters, rather than somehow writing Ayoyama to be relevant to Aki's plot.
Comments:
DOA570047- Thanks! I intend to use her powers more creatively in the future too. Yeah, despite Aki's moral compass being skewed by her experiences she is still a disciplined solider. She has a structure to her morals that make her fun to write. I do intend to have her do some pretty evil things in the future, but it would make sense within her moral framework. So far she's been pretty neutral all around. Thanks as always for your lovely reviews!