3

The weather is beautiful the day they all go to the summer camp. It's the bluest, Ochako thinks, the sky has looked in sometime—the shade a scorching hot blue. The air smells like leaves. And sunshine ... and anticipation. If there is anything worth waiting for, here.

A bead of sweat rolls down Ochako's neck as she climbs up the bus. It's still empty inside. Both 1-A and 1-B kids are having a fight in front of the bus because they hate each other and have nothing better to do, or something. No one seems to be dying, and thus whatever is happening is nowhere near interesting enough for Ochako to pay attention.

Aizawa-sensei is yelling at everyone to Sit down, get inside and sit down, seats are meant to be sit in, you rowdy lot, but Ochako is already seated in the seat farthest back. She looks out the window. There is a dot amidst all that blue, up there. A bird—a bulbul, maybe a bunting. It's soaring in a smooth, looping pattern, unbothered. Pretty, and unbothered. If Ochako reaches out she could perhaps feel the invisible threads of gravity entwining those wings, undulating in the spread of space, negated with each flap of feather.

Ochako doesn't. The bird flies farther and farther until she can't see it anymore, disappearing behind the clouds. Ochako imagines it out there, existing without sound—floating forever and ever in outer space. In the void.

When Mina appears in a huff to sit beside her, Ochako doesn't budge.

Mina puts her bags in the compartment overhead, fussing with the sweater tied around her waist before she makes herself comfortable next to Ochako.

Well, comfortable might be pushing it. Mina seems the farthest from comfortable at the moment. Her movement is erratic, awkward, agitated. Emotional. Ochako can smell Mina's shampoo from this distance—a familiar scent, now. It's been a constant scent accompanying Ochako in the past few months, after all.

"I'm sitting next to you," Mina announces, even though she already is sitting next to her.

"Okay," Ochako says.

Outside, some of the kids are still fighting it out—that noisy blonde from 1-B is having a mouth-off with Kirishima-kun. Deku-kun is between the two, seemingly trying to calm things down. Unnoticed by all parties is Aizawa-sensei, walking over with a dark expression, ready to heartlessly berate everyone involved and wrangle them into the bus.

"I'm sitting next to you," Mina says again. "I don't care what you say. I don't care about your. Lone wolf era. Or whatever fucking emo phase you're going through right now. I'm sitting next to you."

"Okay," Ochako says.

"Okay," Mina says.

Ochako watches as Aizawa-sensei is, indeed, coldly berating everyone involved. Everyone involved looks ashamed before slowly trudging inside their respective buses, and as they do so, Midoriya catches Ochako's eyes through the window.

Ochako turns to look at Mina.

There is a moment where Mina looks like she is about to flinch, as if she hasn't expected Ochako to make eye contact. But then something flits through Mina's face—something young and hard and maybe a little hurt. Mina doesn't look away.

Ochako does. "Okay," Ochako says again. Mina doesn't reply.

The bus ride begins. It's as rowdy as expected. Someone—Kaminari, maybe—insists on getting the aux cord and starts playing experimental techno music to the dismay of everybody present. Kyouka takes over at some point and now the bus is lulled to the contemporary rock album of a local band. Some kids at the front are playing cards (Hell no, you did not fucking say Uno, Sero signs furiously, to which Koda calmly signs back, Yes I did, bitch), while others playing co-op games on their phones ("If the bus Wi-fi goes out one more time," Tooru says, "I'm gonna be on the news.")

Ochako does nothing but look out the window, watching the scenery blurs. City sceneries have swapped out for highways and trees, the streets going empty and emptier. The earth down below swoops higher—the air grows thinner. They're going to the mountains.

Next to her, Mina can't stay still—being silent is killing her. People like Mina can't be introverts if their lives depend on it. After another fifteen minutes of Mina fidgeting, Ochako says, "You can switch seats if you want."

She can feel Mina tensing over. "Oh, so you're done ignoring me now?" Mina says. It's interesting to hear Mina try to be mean—she doesn't have the heart for it. Her words sound more hurt than offensive. "No more cold shoulder from Miss You're In My Way?"

Her sarcasm is unpracticed, but the anger in Mina's voice is sincere enough. It's funny. Ochako remembers how Mina cried at the mall when she saw the bruises around Ochako's neck (Ochako can feel them still, throbbing and greening all over) but now she's angry at her. It's even funnier how Ochako can still recognize that what made Mina cry over Ochako is also what made Mina angry at Ochako.

How layered. How effortlessly complicated. Ochako looks out at the sky—no birds.

Ochako's lack of reply seems to make Mina more upset. "Did you mean it?" Mina says eventually. Her voice has a strange, quiet quality to it. "About us not being your friends?"

"Yes."

Pause. "That's not true."

Ochako doesn't say anything.

"We are your friends," Mina says. "I am your friend."

Ochako blinks at that—at the stern way Mina said it, as if Mina believes wholeheartedly in what she's saying. As if she's saying Three times three is nine, Ochako. With that same voice, Mina says, "I've been your friend since you saved me at the Entrance Exam. Remember?"

"I didn't save you."

"Oh yeah? So you just destroyed that bot for—"

"For points," Ochako says. "You were my human shield."

"…Fucking hell, Ochako."

"It's true."

Another minute of silence. Ochako can feel Mina's anger simmering in the air, but what Mina says next surprises her. "Well, I'm here, aren't I," Mina says.

Ochako turns to look at her. Mina looks back, again with that hard expression that Ochako now identifies as determination. "Sure you were using me as a human shield or whatever the fuck—but I'm here. So you still saved me, whether you like it or not. You saved me." And then she adds, "Bitch."

"That doesn't make us friends."

"All right, convince me why it fucking doesn't, then."

"I don't have friends."

Mina throws her hands in the air. "What in the world is your problem, actually?" Mina says, and she sounds actually baffled. "Like, what is this…" she gestures vaguely at Ochako. "Shounen tough guy main character act?! I don't have friends? That's all fine and well coming from guys like, freaking, Todoroki or Bakugou, I don't know! But you? The hell, Ochako?"

Ochako is unaffected by her tirade. "I never had friends."

"Okay, whatever you say, Sasuke!" Mina snaps.

None of them says anything for a good five minutes.

On minute six, Mina does this little sigh and fidget. "All right. I'm sorry." Beat. "No, what the hell, I'm not sorry, actually, what am I even sorry for." Another sigh and fidget. Ochako can see her pulling her own hair. "Okay, shit. Look … I'm … I just. I never. Fought with a friend before. Okay?"

Ochako believes that. It's not an easy feat, but girls like Mina—they don't fight. They sass at times, sure, but they're socially adept enough to calibrate their tone, as if they were born with an in-house HR department in their brains. You need girls like Mina in every friend group; they're usually the ones keeping the mood fun—keeping everyone friends. Or at least, keeping everyone to think that they're friends.

"Fighting" with Ochako, as she put it, must be driving her crazy.

"Literally never. So this is, ugh, this is driving me crazy." Mina looks around and then back at Ochako, her voice a few volumes lower. "I just don't understand why—why you're like this, all of a sudden. I just… " she takes a deep breath. There is a look of self-apprehension on her face as if what she is about to say is something her in-house HR department doesn't approve of. "I think. There might be something…" something wrong with you, is unspoken. "… up with you and. I want to help you with it. Okay?"

Mina is wrong. There is nothing up with her. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Ochako. In fact, that's what Ochako thinks is the wrong part—that there is nothing wrong with her.

Mina watches Ochako for reaction, but there is no reaction. Mina says, carefully as if prodding a sleeping tiger, "And I don't know how to help you if you don't tell me how."

Ochako glances over. Mina's face is completely red—even worse than Deku's when he blushes, and that's saying something. "Help me."

"Yes, help you, 'cause you're so—" Mina seems at a loss for words for once. "You're not acting like yourself, Ochako. So just. What's wrong?"

Ochako knows what it means, to act like yourself. She has been doing it all her life. It means that she has to do the play-acting. She has to be boring. She has to be good.

That's what she thought. She thought she had to be good.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with her.

"...Was Bakugou right?" Mina says eventually. "Is it because you don't … want to be a Hero anymore?"

Ochako says nothing.

"Okay. I mean, that's fine," Mina says. "People change their mind about this all the time."

Ochako says nothing.

"And—and what with USJ, and, uh, the mall incident..." Mina says. "I mean. I get it."

Ochako says nothing.

"You're. Well, we're still young, too, so it's. Not too late. To switch gears. It's only, what, our third month?" Mina says. "The semester isn't even over yet. It's no big deal if you want to, you know … quit."

Ochako says nothing.

"Do you?" Mina says. "Wanna quit?"

"Maybe," Ochako says.

Beat. "Oh."

There is a bump on the road, and the teens clap and cheer when the bus flies a little, like kids do. Though in a way, they are kids. Mina says, "Just because you're not going to be a Hero it doesn't mean you're not our friend. You know that, right?"

"If I'm not a good person," Ochako says. "If I'm not good. Am I still your friend."

"...Again with the edgy shit. Like, what are you even talking about…" Mina grumbles, hanging her head as if this entire conversation is giving her a headache. She looks at Ochako after a second. "Ochako. Nobody is a good person." She makes a face immediately at her own words. "Ugh, that sounded so pretentious. But what the hell. It's true. Like, what even is a good person? I think everyone is at least a little terrible."

"You're not terrible."

Mina laughs at that, which surprises Ochako a little. "Oh, I'm terrible. I'm an asshole, I really am. So is everyone. Right?" Mina says. "We can't help it, you know. It's just a part of us. We were just, I don't know … made this way, I guess. We were made to be assholes."

Ochako stares at her. Mina is smiling a little as she says it, at how ridiculous the sentence sounds. Her smile fades in a second. "What you said in the classroom—what you did to Momo. That was an asshole move. I'm angry that you did that. And then you just ignored us for days, which made it all worse, and the way you just keep acting as if nobody exists, as if you don't exist, it really—"

Mina takes a deep breath. She sounds quieter. "It really makes me angry how much of an asshole you've been. It—" Mina stops. "It makes me want to say terrible things to you. Really terrible things. I've been doing that, actually, I've been—saying terrible things about you in my head, about how you're such a … about how you're so…"

Mina trails off, silent. They look at each other in a quiet tableau. Ochako waits—she waits for Mina to say terrible things to her. But Mina doesn't. "I don't want to do that," Mina says instead. "I don't have to do that."

How complex. Effortlessly so. Ochako wonders if she could ever be that, ever. Uraraka Ochako is simple—so very simple. Nothing is wrong with her. "Okay," Ochako says.

Mina isn't angry at that apathetic response—she just laughs again, but it's a laugh of hers that Ochako has never heard before; tinted with a hint of self-deprecation, along with something like relief. And she does, Ochako realizes, look relieved. The tension has gone out of her, as if saying all this has helped her somehow. "I'm not doing this right, am I," Mina says. "Fuck."

Ochako doesn't reply. Both of them are silent again, but this time there is nothing really simmering in the air—no threads pulled taut.

"You know that show," Mina says suddenly. "The show that everyone was obsessed about when we were like, I don't know, four or something—the show with the heroine, with the water powers—"

Ochako knows. "And ice powers."

"Yes. The water tribe princess, with the white hair and shit.." Mina frowns. "Kind of like Todoroki if he was cooler. Anyway. I wanted to be a Hero ever since I saw that show, because—" she does that laugh again. "Because I wanted to be pretty just like her. And, and that's why I'm here. That's why I'm in UA." Mina shakes her head at herself, as if she finds herself funny for it. "Isn't that crazy? People should want to do Heroics because some kind of, dunno, life calling and shit, but I want to be a Hero because it's—"

"Cool."

"Cool. And—well. And hot. And so that I can be … pretty, and … and fuck, I sound so stupid and shallow but it's true. That's why I'm here. I mean, of course, I'm no longer a dumb four year old who didn't know who the fuck she was … and there are other factors too, like, like how it's a well paying job and all, which is not a heroic thought at all…" There is a vulnerability there, in Mina's grin. "But I know it all started because of that show. Because I wanted to be her."

Mina looks down on her lap, staring at nothing at all. "And I still—well, I still do. I want to, you know … fight Villains. And look … beautiful doing it. Which, I know, is kind of real fucked up in all directions. But. It is what it is. So." She shrugs, looking at Ochako. "I think that makes me at least a little terrible. Don't you think?"

Ochako looks at her for a long while. Mina's knuckles are white as she grips the bottom of her shirt—a nervous tic that Ochako never noticed she had. "I think it makes you a person," says Ochako finally.

From the front, Aizawa-sensei announces that they're going to make a stop soon, and some kid complains about having to pee. Mina shrugs again. Ochako has never seen her like this before—this side of her. Mina has always been honest; but this is different—this is Mina as is.

It's almost like Ochako is seeing her for the first time.

"I guess," Mina says, with a tone of voice Ochako never heard her use before. "But it definitely doesn't make me, like … a proper. Hero Hero, you know." Mina glances back to Ochako. "You know what I mean, right?"

There's a difference between a hero and a Hero.

Mina looks away again at Ochako's silence. "What made you go to UA, in the first place?" Mina asks.

Bakugou was right, of course. It's because Ochako was bored.

That's the baseline reason for everything Ochako does: she wakes up in the morning because she's bored. Goes to school because she's bored. Hurts someone because she's bored. Hurts herself because she's bored.

She had thought that going to UA would make things more interesting. Switch things up a little. She had thought that going to UA would—

She had thought—

"I thought I could learn," Ochako says. "I thought if anyone could learn to be a Hero then I could too."

Beat. Ochako glances over. There is some kind of understanding there, in Mina's face. Like she's almost seeing Ochako for the first time, for real. Almost.

"What about now?" Mina says.

Ochako doesn't answer. She looks back out the window, looking for a lone bird.

The mountain air is cool when they get off the bus, nearly a complete ailment to the piercing heat of the summer sun. Two beautiful women step up, teeth white and eyes sweet. Perfectly made hair, pristine costumes. Picture perfect Heroes out of a billboard advertisement.

A picture flits into Ochako's mind eye: herself. In that exact same pose—a heroic pose. Formidable, but cute, and beautiful, and desirable—to little girls and men alike. Floating in the sky. Untouchable, smiling right into a camera flash. Saying, I am [insert Hero name]. Fear not, for I am here.

The picture stays in her mind's eye, for a moment, then shifts. Brown eyes bleeding into gold, perfect make-up smearing down her face. A pitifully endearing canine smile. Is that what you want, Ochako-chan?

The picture disappears. Ochako looks up at the beautiful Heroes, at their perfect lipsticked smile. "We are the Wild, Wild Pussycats," they say sweetly, right before they try to kill them all.

Well, not kill. This is all training, supposedly. Their Quirks activate. The stone beasts that rise up to greet the students as they traverse into the forests are mighty, and scary, maybe, if one is the type that gets scared by such things. Both 1-A and 1-B kids scramble as they trek across the hill to the lodgings, lest they deprive themselves of lunch.

Ochako doesn't really care about lunches. Or stone beasts. Or perfect lipsticked Heroes. Or her classmates. They're far ahead of her, splotches of colors amidst all of this green, a rowdy bunch running as if for their lives.

Ochako isn't running for her life. Instead she walks. Breathes in the fresh air. Bored again.

Always, always bored.

(Ten.)

Underneath her feet the earth hums as she takes her stroll. (Nine.) They feel different on elevated land—the strings of gravity, that is. (Eight.) They're as taut as ever, there is no give; but there is a levity to them. (Seven.) Like a balloon on a string, floating ever closer to the blue, blue sky.

It's a theory that she has—a hypothesis. A thought experiment. What Ochako thinks is this: she can rip these mountains off the earth if she'd like to.

But she wouldn't know for sure, would she? Unless she tries it?

(Six.)

Unless she reaches down—

(Five.)

—feels her fingers—

(Four.)

—dig into the earth as she—

(Three.)

—cuts the balloons—

(Two.)

—off their strings—

BANG.

From the trees, birds fly in flocks—startled by the loud, resounding noise. Ochako turns.

Jirou Kyouka steps out of the trees, staring right at Ochako. Her Quirk is activated, her earphone jacks curling above ground. "Idiot," Kyouka says. "Did you not hear it coming at fucking all? Do you want to die?"

In front of Kyouka, right behind Ochako, is the crumbled form of one of Pixie-Bob's beasts, now melting back into the earth. Kyouka walks around it, after casually inspecting it with her foot in some muted disgust. She looks back at Ochako—and then her gaze shifts to the empty spot beside Ochako. "Mina's not with you, huh?" Kyouka says, tilting her head. "That's weird. I thought you guys were besties."

There has been something missing in UA—something that Ochako has always encountered in her student life beforehand. It's this: the sneer at the corner of Kyouka's mouth, the flash in her eyes. The meanness that teenage girls have.

The 1-A girls have been sweet. It's been them against the boys.All the more reason for us to stick together, right?— someone said that, in the first few days they were in class. They have been very, very sweet. Ochako supposes she's fucked that all up.

Oh well. It couldn't be helped.

"We're not," Ochako says succinctly.

"Yeah?" Kyouka says, walking closer. The leaves crunch underneath her shoes, twigs crackling like fire. "Just like how none of us are your besties, yeah?"

She's just a little shorter than Ochako. It's the first time Ochako notices that. "I don't have friends."

"Whoah, now, don't cut yourself with all that edge, Ochako-chan," Kyouka says, with that sharp glint in her eyes—with that pointed something that the other girls have always lacked. "I didn't know you were such a fucking cliche."

Ochako has nothing to say to that.

"I like you better like this, though. Before, you were always so…" Kyouka tilts her head. "Oh, I don't know. You were always a little off, I guess. Just a little. Something about the way you smile."

Ochako blinks.

Kyouka leans back, watching her. The sneer slides off her face. And then she says, "She hasn't been eating. Do you know that?"

Ochako doesn't ask who. Ochako knows who exactly she's talking about.

Kyouka says: "What you said. In front of everybody. Telling them … all that. It fucked her up. Do you know that?"

Kyouka says: "I mean, I just need to know. Why? Why'd you do—why'd you say all that? Do you hate her?"

Kyouka asks: "Do you hate us?"

The wind blows, rustling the trees above. Somewhere there is an explosion—and the sound of laughter, excitement. Hero students training to be those picture-perfect, billboard-ready Heroes. "I don't," Ochako says, as honest as anything.

Beat. "You don't?"

"I don't."

"…You did all that," Kyouka says, her voice shaking with anger. "For no reason?"

Well, that's just not true. There has only been one reason, and one reason only. "I was bored," Ochako says—as honest as every single thing on this round, round earth.

They look at each other. Ochako sees the moment it clicks for Kyouka. For a split second there, Jirou Kyouka gets it. Understand it all. Ochako wonders if Kyouka is going to hit her, then, because Kyouka certainly looks like there is nothing else in the world she wishes to do more.

She doesn't, though. Instead, Kyouka looks far away to the horizon of trees where they can hear the other kids continue their battle training. Crickets sing in the bushes. The sound of summer is all around them, hot and sweet.

Kyouka's Quirk deactivates, her jacks retracting. "I really don't get what Mina's trying to do, sticking to your side like that," Kyouka says after a while. "I guess she's nice. Feels the obligation to reach out, or whatever. Well—I'm not nice. I'm a bitch." Kyouka turns to look up at Ochako. "And so are you. Right?"

"Sure."

"Sure. Okay. I want you to know this..." Kyouka walks closer once more, not stopping until they're inches apart, close enough that Ochako can see the lack of pupils in her eyes. Kyouka's voice is flat as she speaks.

"Whatever it is you're going through," Kyouka says, looking into Ochako's eyes. "It's not interesting. It's not new. It's not special."

Ochako says nothing. Kyouka steps back. "Oh, everything is meaningless, wah, wah. God. Like, move on." Kyouka dusts herself off, rolling her eyes. "If Mina wants to hold your hand through whatever PMS crisis this is you're having—her funeral. But leave the rest of us fucking out of it, Uraraka."

Kyouka doesn't wait for an answer. Ochako watches as she leaves, walking off to the direction of the lodgings. Ochako looks up—the sun is slowly inching down to the horizon. She's going to miss lunch, as always.

Can't be helped.

The rest of the day is a boring and painful affair. More of these "trainings" are unleashed upon them. Ochako isn't paying much attention to any of it. And then there is the onsen bath, where the girls are deathly silent as they soak in the mountain water and absolutely do not look at each other. Or something. Probably because Ochako has painfully harshed the vibe by being there and being herself. Ochako isn't paying attention to that either.

It's all so dreadfully boring, and she's just going through the motions as it all happens. Cleaning herself up, washing herself, standing when everyone's standing, sitting when everyone's sitting, doing whatever everyone's doing.

This is all boring her. To death. So boring, that it almost circles back to being interesting—because Ochako has forgotten this, a little. She's forgotten that life is like this—a cycle of nodding and smiling and eating and shitting and just generally mulling around until something tries to kill you. The past few months have had its moments, as it turns out—there have been thrills, here and there. A 60-day trial of an exciting life. But before that—it's been exactly like this.

Everything is meaningless, wah, wah.

So true.

So true. Wow.

How she has survived the past 15 years of her life without blowing her brains out along with the rest of the planet, she has no idea.

For dinner, they're all gathered at the mess hall to cook curry together in some kind of bonding activity. Something like that. The 1-B kids are cheerful and rowdy and happy in their side of the kitchen, throwing carrots at each other and taking selfies as they work in tandem. The 1-A is a little quieter. Well—the 1-A girls are all quieter. The boys seem to try to make up for it, but there is an untouched tension in the air that seems to be killing everybody's joie de vivre.

Not that Ochako cares.

Ochako is chopping vegetables when Mina sidles up to her, passing some carrots for her to cut. "Hey," Mina says.

"Hey."

"We kinda got separated back then, and I didn't get to, um, check in with you at the onsen—"

"Uhuh."

"—but are you okay? From the training, I mean? I didn't see you at the med tent afterwards."

"I'm fine."

"Okay."

"Okay."

They chop carrots for a while. Then, "Kyouka is pissed at me," Mina says. "For talking to you."

"Okay."

"What she doesn't figure is that I'm basically talking to a brick wall," Mina says under her breath. On the other side of the room Ochako can see the rest of the girls huddling together, doing their own thing—chopping the cabbages or whatever, pointedly ignoring the other group. The separation between the two camps is obvious enough that the boys seem uncomfortable with it, going from one side to the other as if walking on eggshells, like the children of divorced parents. "Whatever," Mina says blithely, glancing at Ochako as if at an inside joke. "Not as if I'm gonna be in class with her for the rest of the year, and the next, and the next."

"Uhuh," says the brick wall.

Mina sighs next to her. "Anyway. Look. I'm here to check in on you, but also Kirishima, um, kinda sent me over to talk to you about something too."

"Okay."

"We've established that you were being an asshole to us girls," Mina says. "But were you being a dick to Midoriya too? Because he keeps looking at you with that kicked puppy look and it's driving the boys crazy. Or so Kirishima said."

"Uhuh," Ochako says, dicing the carrots.

"Except for Bakugou, I guess, because he never gives a shit about anything." Untrue. "But like actually."

"Uhuh."

Mina makes a face at her. "Okay, I know you're doing this surprise reveal thing where you're actually a bitch this entire time and I respect that. And I don't care about—okay, Midoriya is nice, but I'm not close to him or anything.." beat. "Unlike you."

Ochako looks at her, but before she says anything, Mina says with a surprising rigidity: "Deny it all you want, but you and him are friends." Mina looks to the boys' station. "And. Look at him. He's like, so sad."

Ochako looks, and catches Midoriya's gaze across the room immediately. He automatically looks away, which makes it obvious that he had been looking at her this whole time, which is—well, whatever. Ochako watches as he continues setting up the plates for the class, shoulders slumped. Ochako goes back to her carrots. "Uhuh," she says.

Mina passes her another carrot. "Just talk to him, maybe. At least talk to him once before you drop out or whatever it is you're planning to do. Like, you could at least give him some catharsis or something."

"Uhuh."

"Midoriya has the saddest face in the world and now it's ten times that. The class really can't handle him projecting his sad boy energy for the rest of the semester. Or the entire year. And the year after that. And after that."

"Uhuh."

"I mean, our talk today was—" Mina clears her throat. "I know. Nothing's really fixed and we are all kinda fucked up still, but. I feel like. I kinda … get you better … and it. Helps."

"Uhuh."

Mina points a carrot at her like a gun. "You're really starting to piss me off, you know."

"Uhuh."

The carrot falters. "Wait, but Midoriya didn't … do anything fucked up, right?" Mina's voice pinches low. "Did he try anything weird—?"

Ochako takes the carrot from her and dices it too. "He didn't. Get another carrot."

Mina sounds relieved. "Oh, okay." Mina hands her another carrot. "So. What'd he do, like did he confess to you, or something?"

"No," Ochako says. She glances at Midoriya's slumped shoulders and the sad boy energy emanating from his entire being. "He doesn't see me that way."

She would be able to tell if he does. The way she could clock Mineta, and Taka-kun, and those other boys and men and, occasionally, girls.

Granted, it's not as if Ochako has been able to really tell what Midoriya is like anymore. But with Midoriya—

What's your favorite color?

—she doesn't think it matters.

Nothing about it matters, in fact.

"Okay.." Mina says, slowly, like she's trying to understand a physics problem. "So what'd he do to piss you off so bad, then?"

"I'm not pissed at him," Ochako says. And then she says, "He saved my life." Ochako can feel Mina's eyes on her as Ochako puts the carrot cubes inside the boiling pot. "Twice."

"...And that's why you're pissed at him."

"I'm not pissed at him," Ochako repeats, stirring the pot. "Dice the potatoes."

Mina takes Ochako's knife and begins to dice some potatoes. "All right," she says. She sounds a mix between annoyed, confused, and—oddly enough—a little sad. "You know, Ochako. When we get back, we need to get you to some kind of psychologist. Or a therapist, I don't really know the difference. Or! A therapy dog. Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Uhuh."

"I heard they've got other animal variants too nowadays, so you can get a therapy hedgehog if that's more up your alley. Doesn't that sound nice? A therapy hedgehog."

"I don't understand pets," Ochako says.

"Oh my fucking god," Mina says.

Dinner goes on without much affair.

Mina is sitting next to her once again. Ochako ignores everyone and plays with her food after managing to swallow two spoonfuls of rice. No one really talks to her after she only replies with "uhuh" and "okay", with Mina gallantly taking over the conversation every time. Ochako supposes it's sweet, what Mina is doing—all her attempts at whatever this is she's trying to do. Mina doesn't have to do all this. Not that it matters.

Momo isn't at the dinner table. Not that that matters either.

After dinner is done, Ochako helps wash the dishes in silence. It takes her approximately ten seconds to realize that someone must've arranged it so that she and Deku are the only ones left in the kitchen by the end of it.

Not that she cares.

"Uraraka-san…" Deku says, when Ochako is done wiping the dishes. "Can I talk to you?"

"Uhuh."

"Okay," Deku says quietly. "Meet you outside—by that camphor tree with the signage—in five?"

"Uhuh."

Deku skulks outside like the saddest dog in the world.

Ochako puts the last dish back on the shelf. She considers not going. She considers a lot of things. She considers how bored she is by it all.

The tree Deku is talking about is the giant tree in front of the inn, with the ancient Welcome signage on it and a bench, which Ochako sits on. The night is cold and the air is fresh—cicadas and stars both aplenty. Not long after, Deku shows up. He's carrying some things with him.

"Um.." He sits down next to her—giving considerable berth. "Here. You can. Throw it all away if you don't want it."

It's a plastic bag with tupperware inside, a thermos, and some bananas. Ochako looks at it, saying nothing. The tupperware is hot to the touch.

"It's chicken broth," Deku says. "I read that bananas and chicken soup help with nausea. I don't know the specifics … of your situation, but. I thought maybe—" he cuts himself off. "And, um. The thermos. It's ginger tea. I know you like juice, usually, but I thought—"

"Did you make these."

He blinks. "Ojirou-kun helped."

The tea smells good. So does the soup. "Okay," Ochako says.

"You can throw it away if you want to," Deku says again very quickly. "You don't have to eat it, I just thought—since today was pretty tiring, I thought you'd need some energy—"

"Okay."

"—and it could. Could be dangerous if you don't have enough food in you..." he trails. "Uraraka-san. I've upset you. And for that I'm sorry."

"Okay."

"But I'm not sorry for stopping that Villain."

Ochako looks up at him. Deku looks back. Clear-eyed. So clear. "I won't apologize for that," he says, almost apologetically. "Because I'm not sorry."

Ochako opens the lid of the thermos. Takes a sip. It tastes great. "You're not sorry."

"No, I'm not," he says. And then he says, "I'm sorry. That I'm not sorry."

"Okay." Ochako screws the lid back. She takes the banana out and starts to peel it. Deku watches her do so, saying nothing when she starts to eat it very, very slowly.

"Uraraka-san," Deku says. "Do you ever feel like … like you want to. Die?"

She chews until the banana is just sludge in her mouth. "Yes."

"Oh." He looks down. Leans back, like he's surprised. "Oh. Well, that's … um." He pauses. "You shouldn't—it's not— " his words shut down again. His shoulders seem to deflate. "I. Okay."

Ochako swallows her banana. "Do you?" she asks him back.

There is a long time where Deku doesn't answer. He just looks at his hands, blank. His eyes don't seem so clear anymore. And then finally, very very softly, he answers. "Yes."

Ochako tries the soup. It's quite good. "Okay."

Deku doesn't say anything else after that, and neither does Ochako. She looks up at the stars. There are a lot, and quite beautiful.


"Switch with me," Mina says.

Bakugou looks more annoyed than anything. "What?" Then he sneers. "Sure, I don't give a shit."

"It's okay," Ochako says.

Mina looks at her, silent. Ochako looks back, silent. Mina looks at Bakugou, silent. Bakugou looks back, far from silent. "Fucking what?" he snaps. "Weirdo."

Mina rolls her eyes, looks back at Ochako. "Fine," she says, and then goes back to Tsuyu's side. The both of them proceed to enter the forest.

The forest is silent when it's Ochako's—and Bakugou's—turn for the courage test. It's completely dark out by this point, the path only lit up by the occasional lanterns peeking through the bushes on their path. The entire time, Bakugou says nothing. Ochako says nothing. When the first 1-B kid shows up with a "BOO!" and fake blood all over him, Bakugou says, "Oh." Ochako says nothing.

"What the hell," the 1-B kid says after a pause. "That's so boring. Whatever, keep going this way."

"Okay, asshole," Bakugou says.

The second 1-B kid shows up after a while with another "BOO!" to which they say nothing back. She stares at them. They stare back. She rolls her eyes and jabs a thumb in a direction. "That way," she adds, "Stoic motherfuckers."

"Fuck you too!" Bakugou says.

They continue walking. The forest is full of life with animal sounds and the susurration of the trees. Up above—the stars. More apparent now that they're far away from the light pollution of the city. If Ochako pays attention she can map out some of the constellations; Cygnus, Lyra. Aquila. The air smells like leaves and wet earth.

"BOO!" says the third 1-B kid all dressed up as Sadako.

Ochako says nothing. "All right," Bakugou says after a beat. The 1-B kid rolls his eyes and points to a direction. They walk.

They get to the end of the test of courage in no time. Or at least they think they have. They've been walking a while, deeper to the woods following the signs, but there are no more 1-B kids in sight. It's peaceful. It's boring. "This is so fucking boring I could just kill myself," says Bakugou. But then, stopping in his tracks, he says: "Wait."

Bakugou stills. An owl hoots somewhere. "Something's off.." Bakugou says, low. He squints to the distance. "Hey. Hey, 1-B!"

Ochako looks. It's barely perceptible, but there is a person far ahead—a figure slumped by the tree. From the costume, this seems to be one of the 1-B kids who was supposed to scare them. The kid isn't responding when Bakugou shakes their body vigorously. Bakugou clicks his tongue, checks on the kid's pulse. "Alive. Hey. Hey. What's…" he stops again, and then snarls, "Gas! Don't breathe it in!"

Huh, Ochako thinks. Huh.

Bakugou has torn a strip of fabric from his shirt and ties it over the kid's face and his own. He gives Ochako a strip without words before he starts carrying the kid on his back. That's when Mandalay's telepathic Quirk resounds in their head, clear as day: We are under attack—get to the camp—don't—

"Don't engage?" Bakugou repeats her, barking a nasty, disbelieving laugh. "Oh, sure, why don't I go fuck myself while I'm at it too?"

—just retreat. I repeat, just retreat!

"Fucking shitshow!" Bakugou curses.

Huh.

It all happens so fast. So very fast. From a distance, Ochako hears the screaming begin, and sees smoke rising up to the sky, covering up the stars. Chaos is happening at the camp. Huh. Huh.

Well.

"Well," Bakugou says, his voice muffled by the makeshift mask he's made for himself. "Aren't you happy as a fucking clam?"

The kid is secured on his back, but he only has eyes for Ochako. Just like how Ochako only has eyes for him. "You've been looking so sad and dreary for days on end but—look at you now. All fuckin' sunshine, eh?"

Bakugou can't quite threaten her—his hands are occupied, for one, and they're in the threat of this mysterious sleeping gas enshrouding them. But there is a menace in his voice, as always. And that look in his eyes, like he's assessing her. Dissecting her. "Did you do this?" Bakugou says sharply. "Is this something you're involved—"

"Wow," a sweetly familiar voice says. "I love what you've done with your hair."

Bakugou reacts instinctively—the air lighting up in explosives—but he misses as Himiko dodges his attacks with shocking ease. She's laughing, high and sweet, stark in the night, the main vocal ringing out with the background of faraway screams. Then Himiko turns to smile at Ochako, wide and toothy. "Hello, gorgeous. I've missed you." There is a glint in her fingers—a knife. It's bloody, just like her face and her clothes. "Ooh. Maybe we can switch. Maybe I should go brunette. Do you think I'll look good as a brunette?" She grins at Ochako, as her blonde hair shifts to brunette. "Be honest. Yay or nay?"

"Shitting shit, so you did do this," Bakugou says, looking between the two of them with something like fury and caution and everything in between—but mostly hate. Ochako can almost hear the gears in his head turning as he assesses the situation he's found himself in. "Fuck, Uraraka, I always knew you were gonna snap but I didn't think you were gonna befriend fucking Danganronpa over here."

He looks tense. He can't fight properly with the kid on his back, and they all know it. And from the way he's standing, putting his guards up—he looks like he's expecting to fight the two of them. But Ochako doesn't care about that—at least not in this moment, because—

"What are you doing?" Ochako asks her.

Himiko smiles at her, eyes crinkling above her gas mask. "Didn't I say?" Himiko says. "We're gonna redo the world."

Ochako looks at her. "What are you doing here?"

Himiko blinks. "Oh. I guess I forgot to mention, didn't I?" Himiko says in a whoopsie tone of voice. "We're here to pick you up, silly."

"What the fuck," Bakugou says.

"Oh, he wanted you at first, actually," Himiko says, turning to look at Bakugou after having just remembered he existed. She turns back to Ochako, looking at her dreamily. "But he changed his mind. Once he realizes you're special. Once he realizes you're just like us. Just like him."

The air is blistering with heat. Somewhere in the forests, there is a fire—the dim glow glances off Himiko's plaid skin, turning the edges of her hair into gold. Himiko reaches out, extending her hand to Ochako in a blatant invitation. "That's basically it! Soo," Himiko says, sing-song. "What're ya waiting for?"

Oh.

Oh.

(Ten.)

Of course. How had Ochako never considered it before?

(Nine.)

Or maybe she did. (Eight.) Maybe it's exactly what she has always thought about. (Seven.) It's all so obvious.

(Six.)

It's all so—as Kyouka had put it—cliche.

(Five.)

And it'd be easy. (Four.) Easy as breathing. Easy as cutting the strings off those balloons. (Five.) Easy as a touch, as five fingers cradling another five, as hands touching, as skin meeting skin. (Three.) As jumping, and falling.

(Two.)

It'd be as easy as reaching her hand out.

(On—)

"Bakugou! Ochako!"

There is a shimmer in the air, and then the ground erupts in ice. One second Toga Himiko is standing in front of her, arm stretched out, flesh and blood—and the next a blizzard swoops in and crushes into her body from left to right like an avalanche. There is a gust of cold, cold wind, and then the explosion of ice dust in the air like wood shavings. Himiko's body splashes into black mud—spraying everywhere like a sprinkler hose.

For a second the air is still, save for the chaos in the distance. And then Ochako feels it as a gas mask is pressed into her face by—

Momo. Momo and Todoroki, coming to their side. That explains the ice. "Thank goodness," Momo says, fastening the gas mask on Ochako's face. Her hair is a mess and she looks exhausted. "We've been looking for you everywhere—"

"Stay sharp," Todoroki says, cutting their conversation, as the ground breaks into a glacier. "We've got a second company."

Another Villain, at the end of the road. There is a severed hand on the ground, as bloody as his teeth, the only visible part of his body. The rest is covered and strapped in black harnesses, as if he just escaped from a high security prison. "Flesh," the Villain says. "I want to see your flesh."

"Oh, great," Bakugou says behind his now-proper gas mask. He's put the 1-B kid down, now being tended to by Momo who's creating another mask from her body. "Got another fucking sicko on our hands, I see!" His hands light up. "Just perfect!"

The atmosphere shimmers with snowflakes. "Watch it. You make a big fire, we're all fucked," Todoroki deadpans, a flat warning. "Don't go around getting everybody stupidly killed."

Bakugou sneers. "Why don't you fucking tell Uraraka that?"

Momo glances sharply at him. "What do you mean by—"

"Uraraka…?"

They all turn to look at the Villain, who twitches. The Villain says again, his voice high and hoarse. "Uraraka … Ochako?"

The Villain's teeth snaps up like a lance, but it never reaches Ochako. Todoroki's ice barrier and Bakugou's fire turns the air crisp, and the resulting sound is deafening. In front of her is Momo, something sleek and metallic forming from her skin as she shields her. "Ochako," Momo says, her voice tense. "Stay behind me. Please."

Mandalay's Quirk rings in their heads: One of the Villain's targets has been identified, the transmission says. It's the student known as Uraraka Ochako. I repeat. It's the student known as Uraraka Ochako—

The Villain doesn't seem phased by the damage. More of his teeth grow into whips, jabbing the ground like spider's legs. He looks monstrous. "Found," he says. "You."

He opens his mouth, teeth lengthening like sabers—which then explode in shards of bone.

A shell casing clinks to the ground. Momo holds the sniper rifle steady in her arms, a suppressor attached to the barrel. "Todoroki, Bakugou!" she barks, loading a new round. "Cover me!"

The boys follow her command. Bakugou doesn't go long-range, instead playing melee with Todoroki's ice shielding him up. He's quick, the Villain's Quirk chasing after him until Todoroki has got him frozen and immobilized. The maneuver was done efficiently. "Yaoyorozu!" Bakugou calls out. "Now!"

Momo aims. And then the villain's head explodes into mud.

Ochako watches Momo's hands shake as she loads another round, even though the Villain isn't moving anymore. Even though the Villain is clearly dead. She isn't really looking at Ochako or any of them. She opens her mouth and closes it again. "I. I killed him."

"You didn't. Look," Todoroki says, as the remains dissipate into dark liquid that melts into nothingness. "That wasn't corporeal—I think it's some kind of cloning Quirk. Same thing happened with that other Villain. That wasn't her real body." He checks her over. "You don't look good. Quirk overuse?"

"No, I—oh," Momo stumbles, but holds her own at the last second. Her fingers are trembling as she puts the safety of her rifle on. She looks pale, her face shining white in the dark. "Yes. I'm sorry."

Todoroki looks at her expression. "Don't break down now," he tells her. Matter-of-fact and without sympathy. "You can think about everything later." Todoroki carries the 1-B kid on his back. "But now, we need to get back to camp. Let's—"

"Nah, we're not," Bakugou says, turning to Ochako. "You have some explaining to do, Uraraka."

Everyone stops to look at him. His clothes are singed at some parts from his own fire, and there is a line of blood on his cheek and arms where the Villain's Quirk has gotten him. He is looking at Ochako with a focus so sharp it makes him look a little empty. "You and that crazy Villain bitch knew each other. Did you bring them here?"

"What...?" Momo stands up. "That's ridiculous, Ochako wouldn't—"

"You heard what Mandalay said," Bakugou says, stalking to where Ochako is standing. "These Villains are coming here to pick her up—"

Momo is quick to stand between them. "Kidnapping isn't the same as picking her up!"

They're the same height, Momo and Bakugou—glaring at each other eye to eye. Ochako doesn't remember them ever interacting before—this may be their first real interaction ever.

Bakugou looks past Momo at Ochako. "Then how did you know that crazy psychopathic bitch?" Bakugou says. His voice isn't loud, for once. In fact, they're low, quiet, dangerous. "Huh, Uraraka? Met her at the crazy psychopathic bitches convention, did you?"

"Did you really know that Villain?" Todoroki says, behind Ochako. He sounds curious, and cold. "Are you really working with them?"

"We met once," Ochako says.

"Well, that settles it," Bakugou says as he moves forward—and then stopped by Momo's rifle aimed right into his head. Bakugou freezes.

"That settles nothing," Momo says shakily. But her aim is true, and the rifle is steady in her hands. Without looking back at Ochako, she says, "Ochako. Did you know they were coming here?"

"No."

"Did you ask them to come here?"

"No."

"That settles it," says Momo to Bakugou's face. "That Shigaraki Tomura Villain looked for her. Presumably, so did this … as you put it. Crazy psychopathic bitch."It's strange to hear Momo pronounce all these vulgar words. "They were scouting her. That does not mean she is guilty."

"Yaoyorozu," Todoroki says, an aloof warning. "Put that down."

"Not until I'm sure he's not going to try and hurt Ochako."

"Gosh, look at you two best friends," Bakugou sneers. His Quirk is still activated—the sparkle dancing in his palm. "And here I thought you guys had a fucking divorce."

Todoroki seems to be losing his patience. "This is ridiculous," he says flatly. "We are in the middle of a Villain attack and you are having this absolutely nonsense argument—"

Bakugou throws his hands up, an exasperated gesture. "Fucking hell!" he says. "Fuck, can't you both see it? You said it yourself—they are scouting her. They want to recruit her. They want to turn her into a Villain!" He looks at Ochako with that same hatred. "Not as if it's hard."

"Even if that's true," Todoroki says, cold and untouchable as he always is, "That's no reason for you to attack her."

Bakugou clicks his tongue impatiently. "This is just fucking disappointing, honestly," Bakugou says, voice just as cold. "I always thought you both were the least stupid in this fucking class, but looks like I'm wrong, huh? Right, I'll spell it the fuck out for you." Bakugou points at Ochako. "She is a fucking time bomb. If they get their hands on her, it's fucking over. So we have to get rid of her or it'll be fucking over."

Silence. The air grows thicker and thicker with smoke. They can hear the crackle of fire from faraway, the forest fire starting to burn closer and closer.

"You want to kill her for something that she hasn't done yet," says Todoroki finally.

"Yes," Bakugou says, like it's idiotic to even ask. "What, you wanna wait until she kills all of us first?"

"I see," Todoroki says contemplatively. "You are insane."

Bakugou ignores Todoroki's diagnosis. He glances over to Momo. "You," he says. "You've spent a lot of time with her. You even had that little spat in class—whatever the fuck that was. Be fucking honest. You don't think that something's off? You never had the tiniest bit of suspicion. That something is wrong with her? Ever?"

Momo looks at Ochako. Ochako looks back. And for a moment they're back in that bed, in the dark of Momo's room. Back in the kitchen, rinsing mouths with soda powder and cold water in the dead of night.

They break eye contact. Momo says nothing, but the look on Momo's face says it all, and it appears Bakugou knows it too. He smiles, no humor.

"Someone like her," Bakugou says, looking at Momo. "With her Quirk … what do you think will happen if the Villains have got her on their side?"

Todoroki looks between all of them, taking all this in. "If she's as dangerous as you say—" Todoroki looks over at Ochako, passive and calculating. His gaze moves back to Bakugou. "Then what makes you think you can kill her?"

Bakugou doesn't miss a beat. "Because she's a crazy suicidal bitch."

Todoroki shakes his head. "This is fucking stupid," he deadpans. "We are getting back to camp. When we get there, you can tell Aizawa-sensei this stupid thing you are telling me and you can ask him if you can kill her or not. If he says yes, then go ahead and kill her. But now, we have to get back to camp."

Bakugou's Quirk sizzles. "Oh yeah? And what the fuck makes you think you can order me arou—"

There is a click of the gun's safety being turned off. "I'm not letting you hurt her," Momo says, barrel still aimed at Bakugou. "So step back, Bakugou. Todoroki is right. We need to get back to camp."

Bakugou doesn't flinch in the face of her threat or her bullet. He just looks at Momo with that same disappointment. "Pathetic," he spits. He turns to look at Ochako. Behind him, the forest fire rages. There is a clarity in his eyes. "Why don't we ask the star of the fucking show? Hey, Uraraka. You think we should kill you, or what?"

They all look at her. Ochako looks back. She thinks about it—the three of them, the best students in 1-A, banding together to try to kill her. It's not such a bad idea. Ochako says—

"Ochako, Momo! Todoro—all right, what the fuck kinda Battle Royale shit is going on here?"

Ochako glances at the newcomers. "Hi, Mina," Ochako says.

"O … kay.." Mina says, slowing down to approach them cautiously. She looks a little worse for wear, but nothing visibly critical. Behind her Tsuyu and Shoji appear from the trees, carrying a severely wounded Deku. For a moment Ochako thinks the latter is unconscious, but then Deku lifts his head weakly—his expression breaks into relief the moment he sees her. "Oh, thank god," Deku croaks. His voice is severely roughed up, and Ochako wonders if the person screaming from back then was him. "Uraraka-san—you're safe. You need to—" he coughs. "Get away."

"Midoriya," Todoroki says, and for the first time the ice in his expression melts away, leaving space for genuine concern in his face. "What happened?" Concern shifts to anger. "Who did this?"

"You should see the other guy," Deku starts, but it seems to be the most he can manage He coughs, wheezes. "We all need to—to get to camp…"

"Yeah. We need to do that..." Mina looks between Momo's gun, Bakugou's sparking hands, and Ochako in between. "Or. Are you guys going to kill each other first?"

"If so, do it quick," Tsuyu deadpans. "Because we need to get away."

Bakugou rolls his eyes, his Quirk dying. "Fine," Bakugou says. "If she fucks all of us over, it'll be on every single fucking one of you." He looks over to Ochako. "If you fuck us over," He says. "It'll be the on me to fuck you up. Remember what I told you, Uraraka."

"...What the hell is he talking about?" Mina says, but Bakugou is already stomping to the camp's direction. "What's that even me—Momo!"

Mina speeds forward to catch Momo as she limps over, helped by Tsuyu. "I'm sorry," Momo says. She looks alarmingly malnourished—her rifle is held weakly in her hand. "I can, I can stand, just let me—"

"We're not letting you do anything," Mina says. She bites her lips, as if feeling guilty for what she's about to say next. With a lower register she says, "Momo. You need to eat something."

Momo flinches. But she says, "I know."

"Let's get to camp and we'll look for something you can eat, okay?"

Momo nods—a roll of tear running down her cheek. Then another. And another. "Okay. God, I'm—I'm sorry, if I'd just—then I could do this b-better, I could be more of a use to everyone—"

Mina and Tsuyu look shocked by Momo's sudden burst. "Hey, hey, none of that," Tsuyu says gently, getting her bearings. "None of that. It's not your fault. If Kyouka was here, she'd scold you for saying all of this."

Momo smiles blearily. "She would. Where is she?"

"Back at camp. Last I saw, she was helping Aizawa-sensei. So let's get back, yeah? I'm sure she's waiting for us to get our shit together."

"Yeah," Momo says, wiping her eyes with the back of her gunpowder-covered hands. "Yeah. Let's go."

Todoroki has gone over to help Shoji carry the 1-B kid and Deku, talking in soft words to the latter and checking his wounds. There is a moment after where he throws a glance at Ochako—that cold, calculating glance. Ochako doesn't care. She looks ahead. The stars seem to be dying in the smoke. "Look," someone says. "There's the camp. Oh, fuck…"

They all can see the camp now, lit up and wrecked, completely fallen into chaos. There are Quirks, and people, being thrown around. There's a smell of something burning, sizzling—and the flame emanating from the trees surrounding is a strange, eerie blue. Unnatural flame.

"This is worse than USJ," Mina says. She sounds shell-shocked. "How—how could this have happened? We have to go now, we have to—" something like a small sob hitches out of her throat. "We have to s-see if e-everyone's all right."

"Kyouka," Momo says. She sounds terrified. "What if she's...?"

"I'm sure she's okay," Tsuyu says, but she too sounds scared.

"We have to regroup first," Todoroki says, helping Midoriya walk. Next to him Shoji is carrying the unconscious 1-B kid. "Let's head to the lodgings. We have to contact the Heroes for help."

Ochako looks out at this chaos, and the stars above—they're harder to see now with the smoke and the flame and the screams. And then Ochako feels it, the way she has always felt it. An ant nibbling at her skin.

"Bakugou is gone," Ochako says.

Everyone stops. "What?"

She feels it—something pulling at the edges of space. A stretch in the fabric. No, this one is a loop, something looping up the fabric. A smaller layer on top of another bigger layer. Or rather, a makeshift, pretend marble, pulling at the strings around her marble.

There is someone with a spacetime Quirk nearby.

"Someone took him," Ochako says.

"That's right," says the Villain. "I've taken him with my magic."

They look up. The Villain is standing featherlight on the tree branch, his mask grinning at them all. Above his hands are two marbles circling each other. And for some reason, Ochako knows he's staring right at her. "After all, why not?" Mr Compress says. "Why only take one, when you can take two?"

The Villain moves, quicker than she expects, and then—

"What … just happened?"

In Ochako's hand is a single marble. On the ground next to her is what's left of the second marble. And nothing's left of that masked, grinning Villain.

"Did you see that? That Villain just imploded, I—Ochako, are you okay?"

"Ochako-chan," Tsuyu's voice is taut with tension. "What did you just do to that Villain?"

"I held him," Ochako says, a little distractedly as she inspects the marble between her fingers. Her pinky is raised.

"Where's—where's Bakugou?"

"He's in here."

"What..?"

Ochako ignores them. What a strange Quirk she just encountered. It's nothing like Thirteen-sensei—there is some similarity to that teleportation Villain, but not exactly the same. She rolls the marble on her palm. There is space inside. There is time, even. She feels the strings attached to it—infinitesimal.

"Uraraka-san..?" Deku. Ochako turns—they look at each other. He has his arms around Todoroki's neck, hanging off of him. He looks small, and torn, and scared, and tired. "What do you mean Kacchan is in there..?"

Why not Ochako just show him? She puts all of her fingers down on the small, smooth surface, and cut all of those strings off. There is a pop, and then they're looking down at Bakugou having a seizure on the ground.

"Fuck!" Todoroki curses, gently putting Deku down to rush over to Bakugou. "Bakugou. Hey, hey—fuck..."

"Kacchan..?" Deku says, and it's the first time he sounds so small, like he's in disbelief that this is happening. Like Bakugou being so hurt and fragile is the final piece of sanity chipping away from his mind. "Kacchan, please—"

Bakugou is frothing at the mouth, his body twitching and twitching, before he eventually stops moving. Everyone holds their breath, watching as Todoroki puts his finger on Bakugou's pulse. "Alive," says Todoroki. "But barely. We need to get him to medic—fuck." He looks at Ochako. "What the hell was that?"

"He sealed him up with his Quirk. Compressed his atoms … contained it into a pocket dimension. The marble." And Ochako simply undid it, by undoing the space of the marble. And Bakugou, too, for a millisecond. He will probably be fine.

"This is too much," Mina says, laughing helplessly. "Fuck. This is too much. It just doesn't stop."

"Spacetime Quirks interact strangely with one another," Momo says wearily. "Let's go—camp is right there. We'll get help. We'll get—the help that we all need. C'mon, Mina."

The path to the lodgings isn't a long one, but it feels as if it takes forever. They bump into other students—1-B kids, hurt, some passed out—there are a couple other 1-A kids too, like Tokoyami and Aoyama. "I don't see Kyouka," Momo says.

"She should be inside. Don't worry, she's tough. Nothing can get her."

Momo smiles, but she doesn't look sure. "You're right."

"Look," Mina says, relief coloring her voice. "There it is—the inn! There should be a landline right at the receptionist."

Mina scampers up the stairs to the porch, missing the blood trickling from inside, underneath the main door. Tsuyu sees it—her face blanches. She says, "Mina, hold on—"

Mina opens the door.

It's an old Japanese-style room, all wooden with intricate carvings and bamboo decorations. It's nice, thoroughly clean, and a little bit on the fancy side with just a warm enough touch to make it feel homey. They had all waited here on the first day, excited to go into their assigned rooms, chattering about how huge UA's budget is. Aizawa-sensei has warned them of the rules given by the innkeeper, a kindly old man with a cheerful smile—there should be no littering, no smoking, and no drinking. The innkeeper had laughed a belly laugh and said, Ah, Sensei, I was young once too. Kids their age won't listen.

Now, the innkeeper lays on the floor. Unsmiling. His belly ripped open as if someone took a knife to it and wondered what was inside. His blood is still fresh, seeping to the wooden floor, painting the roots of the decorative bamboo shoots red. Next to him, littering the floor, are the bodies of Kaminari, Sero, and Sato. All unsmiling and unseeing. Their chests are still, as if they are no longer breathing. As if they no longer need to do so.

And at the end of the room, standing right behind the receptionist desk, is Uraraka Ochako.

It looks like her, down to the same exact clothes she's currently wearing, to the slightly lighter hair. But this Uraraka Ochako is smiling a smile that Ochako has never worn on her face ever. She doesn't think she ever did, at least. It's a doll-like, endearing smile—it makes her look both pitiful and beautiful, in a broken sort of way.

"Oh, hi," says the other Uraraka Ochako with Ochako's own voice. Her voice shifts in the next word, to something higher and girlier, and much more familiar. "Welcome to the party."

There is a wet, gurgling sound. Ochako's eyes snap to the source—right underneath the Uraraka Ochako with Himiko's voice, pressed into the receptionist desk and dripping blood all over the landline telephone, is Jirou Kyouka. Her head is slightly turned, looking at them standing in the doorway. Her mouth is open, her teeth entirely scarlet. Himiko's hands are close to Kyouka's stomach, encircled around it—for a second Ochako thinks Himiko is hugging her until she sees the glint of the knife.

"Oh, shush," Himiko says, pulling the blade out of Kyouka's stomach. There is a slick, jelly-like sound as she does so, and they hear the sound once more as Himiko sinks her knife once again into Kyouka—as if cutting into tofu. Kyouka wheezes and struggles to no avail. Himiko tuts and chastises, "Can't you die prettier?"

Mina screams.

Himiko doesn't seem to be bothered by that. "I didn't mean to kill them. Just wanted to take a bit of their blood," Himiko says conversationally as she twists her knife further into Kyouka's flesh. "But they found me out. Well, she found me out. Crazy! I thought I had you down pat, but she just knew I wasn't you, somehow. So, no choice." She must've hit an artery—a spray of blood spurts all over her face. Himiko seems pleased, licking some that got on her lips. "Oh, yum. O-type negative."

And then the world bursts into blue.

A scorching hot blue. For a second Ochako thought she is in the sky, she is surrounded by the blue, blue sky, but then she realizes it's fire. Flames. Soot, and ash, blood. And Himiko's laughter coming out of Ochako's mouth.

Everything, then, is a blip.

Someone screams again—maybe Mina, or Momo, or somebody else—it all mixes up. It's getting more difficult to breathe with the air so thick with smoke it's choking—the gas mask is gone from her face, at some point, she isn't sure when or how. Distantly, Ochako finds it a little difficult, and pointless, to pay attention to anything at the moment. It's a peculiar sensation.

Another fight breaks out—another Villain, another Hero student, the night lighting up with clashing Quirks. There is Todoroki's ice, at some point, and Tokoyami's darkness, and there is a taste of metal in the air alongside power. Silhouetted by the strange blue fire, Mina is pulling the bodies of the students out of the inn, eyes glimmering with tears and hate. A lot of people are screaming, or laughing, Ochako can't really tell at this point. Not that it matters. Not that any of it matters.

She thinks she may have just killed someone, a Villain maybe, but it doesn't really matter. She looks down. She is standing at the fire-eaten porch, and looking at her are the wide empty eyes of Kyouka as her body is pulled out by a screaming Tsuyu by the ankles, painting a river of red from point A to point B. Far ahead, she thinks she sees Himiko laughing gleefully as Momo charges at her. Or maybe it's Mina, or somebody else. It doesn't really matter.

Ochako walks off the porch, into the burnt grass. She looks up. She can't see the stars anymore—their lights are beaten shut. And Ochako thinks, oh. She thinks: This is the opposite of good.

This, Ochako understands, is evil.

"Uraraka-san."

Ochako turns. Deku—and it's really Deku, she knows, not Himiko. He looks half-beaten to death and he's barely standing, but he has his hands around Ochako's shoulders with a kind of desperation in his eyes that Ochako can't look away from. "Uraraka-san. We have to get you away."

She can feel his blood where he touches her. It's sticky, and hot. "Why?"

"Come on," Deku says, pulling her away. He's limping. "Come on. This way—"

"That's cute," a voice says. "But I don't think so, kids."

A Villain steps out from the shadows, his hands burning blue, his skin greatly disfigured. The Villain's eyes find Ochako's, crinkling with dead-eyed humor. "Hey. So. It's you, huh? The main package."

Deku stands between the both of them. "Leave her alone."

"Aw. Teenage love. How very adorable," says the Villain. "Must be nice to be young, huh?" he starts to laugh when Deku screams from his fire.

(Ten.)

At some point, the fire dies. At some point, Ochako is looking at Aizawa-sensei standing in front of her, mighty and broken all the same. "Take your hands off my student," Aizawa-sensei says, eyes shining red. "Villain."

(Nine.)

Aizawa-sensei is holding on to his sides, which bleed all over. Deku is gasping on the ground, curling in himself, writhing. At some point Todoroki appears, running over to Deku in furious desperation, blood running from the side of his temple, fire and ice going on a rampage—only to be overcome by the Nomus, coming out of the woodworks like wild animals. Clones and clones of them. Undying.

They're all surrounded.

(Eight.)

"You're all going to die here," the Villain says. "Well, some of you. Some others, we need to kidnap and all that shit. But we gotta leave a message for all of Japan, y'know?" he grins. "And you're on the kill list anyway, Eraserhead—so see you in hell, yeah?"

The Villains are winning.

The Villains are winning, and the Heroes are losing.

(Seven.)

Aizawa-sensei is going to die, and maybe Deku too, and also Mina and Momo. (Six.) Tsuyu and Tooru and Kyou—oh right, they're already dead. What about Bakugou, did he die too, at some point? Before he can make full of his promise to Ochako? What a shame.

Oh well.

It's not like he can kill her anyway.

(Five.)

Okay. So now…

So now what?

(Four.)

The answer is obvious, of course. It's obvious. It's cliche.

(Three.)

There is a clear-cut equation here. A simple physics problem. And maybe it's finally time for Ochako to put it all into practice.

(Two.)

If she can't learn to be good, why not give evil a try?

(One.)

Ochako kneels down and touches the ground.

Everything comes down to a single point, like a knife, or a needle—the threads of space, the yarn ball of topography. She grasps all of it. The world. The continent. The city. The mountains.

She takes hold of it. Wraps the strings around her fingers like a marionette. She reaches down. Feels her fingers dig into the earth, as she cuts the balloons off their strings. As she pushes.

The ground shakes and starts to splinter apart.

If there is a way to describe it, it's like an exhale. You take a deep breath and feel the constriction of every single thing that ever matters in this world. And when you breathe out, you let go. And if you keep letting go, just like that, then the world will be nothing but an empty space in the middle, nothing but a world-shaped hole—

It's over very quickly. There is a buzz in the air where space and time try to stitch themselves back together. Try to kiss back the marble of gravity twirling and twirling in their fabric.

She had activated her Quirk to the earth for only less than a second. Barely even that, really. Ochako stands up and looks around at the carnage around her.

The forest fire has died from the sudden nullification of gravity, and the trees have been uprooted for as far as she can see, clearing an eye path for the horizon to show itself. The inn is barely standing, the walls choked open from the impact where the building had landed back to the ground. The bus, previously parked at the back of the inn, is impaled on what's left from the camphor tree—like a toy that's been angrily thrown away by a toddler. There are bodies littering throughout the earth—some of their joints all wrong. Then, the choruses of human voices start: the crying. The gasping. The vomiting. The sound of physical bodies trying to recalibrate back into the geometry of shape. Somewhere, a bird sings as dawn slowly breaks over the broken mountains.

There is Deku on the ground. Ochako kneels down. He is breathing, but not conscious. His pulse is weak under her finger. Ochako takes off her wristband—the pink now ashen with soot and darkened with blood—and puts it around his wrist. Ochako moves to stand up when someone grasps her hand.

Aizawa-sensei. He's conscious, and looking at her with dazed eyes. "Stop," he gasps.

Ochako gently pries his fingers off her wrist. It's quite easy—he really has taken a beating. "Sensei," Ochako tells him calmly. "I'm dropping out of school."

"Uraraka," Aizawa-sensei chokes out through a mouthful of blood. Some kind of plea. Or warning. "Don't—don't— "

She walks over him to the blue-flame Villain.

The Villain is conscious too, though he's still busy vomiting his guts out. When he gazes at her, there is a look on his face that's somewhere between incredulous and fear and complete surrender. He wipes his mouth with his scarred forearm. "That's the craziest fucking Quirk—" he gasps, coughs a broken laugh. His voice is hoarse. "Craziest fucking Quirk I've ever seen. You fucking monster."

He shuts up when Ochako crouches down to look him in the eye. There is that fear again, flashing across his face—and with it, the black acceptance of someone knowing that his head is on the chopping board. "Make it quick, will you," he says, with a manic smile on his face. "God knows I don't deserve it."

"You're the leader of the League of Villains?" Ochako asks him.

"Fishing for intel? Come on," The Villain hacks up another broken laugh. "Just kill me already."

Not the leader then. "You're here to kidnap me."

The Villain blinks. "What?" he says. And then, "Well. We were."

"Okay. Let's go."

"...Huh?"

"Kidnap me," Ochako says, standing back up. She looks at him expectantly. "Isn't that what you're here for?"


"Package is extracted. We are leaving the scene."

"How many casualties?"

"You count. I wanna get the hell out of here."


"The Heroes are here."

"Late to the party."

"Too bad. I'd've liked to fuck Endeavor up."

"Is that Midnight? Ooh, I've always had such a huge crush on her..."

"No time, we're leaving."


"Where is the package?"

"There."

"Shouldn't we incapacitate her—?"

"Hah. You're welcome to try if you want."


"You're gonna love it here. Really, you will."

"Stop talking to the package."

"Oh, me and Ochako-chan are besties. We had a killer first date, after all."

"...Freaks."


"She'd need clothes. And a bed. Ooh, can we have a dresser?"

"God, can't you shut up."

"Why don't we make a stop at the mall first?"

"The what? Toga, we are wanted criminals. We just killed a bunch of Hero kids."

"Can't we? Can't we? Let's go shopping, come on. We can torch the place after."

"Ugh."


"We're here."

"Ooh ... can she room with me? Please please please?"

"Take it up with the boss. Hey, you—uh. He wants to see you first. This way."

"You're going to love him. Oh my God, I can't believe you're here! With me! This is going to be so so fun."

"Enough. Don't keep him waiting."

"See ya soon," Himiko says, blowing Ochako a little kiss.

Ochako walks in.

The room is dark and a little cold. There is a constant beeping of the machine and the rhythmic hum of the air conditioner. What little lighting there is shows cables snaking throughout the room like overgrown plants, crowning a hospital bed in the center of it all. A short man in his sixties is operating the machinery, and does not seem to notice Ochako's existence. But the thing lying in the bed does.

"Hello, Uraraka Ochako," All for One says. "I've been expecting you."