Ochaco's morning had been more relaxed than she though it would be.
Both her parents had gotten up into time to make her breakfast and drop her off at the station, where she met up with Jiji and Awa-Kun hugging the both of them.
The three of them soothing their nerves together and by the time they arrived at U.A. Ochaco felt far more ready for the exam, which was why when she saw a pair by the stairs almost fall over, she was able to intervene before rejoining her friends.
The written test took forever, and she was very thankful that Izu-Kun had bullied all of them to keep their grades up.
She hadn't expected to sit with one of the two guys she helped but Kirishima introduced himself and seemed pretty nice. His friend was a bit awkward but that was hardly a problem.
And as she read the handout, she felt even more assured when she saw that the robots would be counted for being destroyed or immobilized, meaning that Awa-Kun would earn points just fine along with the rest of them.
But Kirishima looked like he lost all of the blood in his body and his head snapped up to where his friend was, the other seemed to be about to cry as a boy in the same uniform looked smug.
Something that made Ochaco feel something twist inside, demanding that she needed to act, and she tugged on Kirishima's sleeve.
"What's wrong?" she asked under her breath.
Kirishima looked like a deer in headlights, and he bit his lip looking away before he whispered back to her.
"Shinsou, my friend, he has a mental quirk, and it won't work on robots."
Ochaco understood immediately, and maybe if it was just that she wouldn't press but Kirishima looked so upset.
"Hey, do you... " Kirishima said, like he was about to ask her something but cut himself off.
"What?" Ochaco inquired softly.
"Please, if you are in the same place could you help him out?" Kirishima begged and Ochaco gave him a look.
"I know this is asking a lot, but being a hero means so much to Shinsou, I've seen how hard he worked for this. Even if I don't get in because of it I'd prefer for him to pass over me, being a hero means everything to him." Kirishima pleaded with her.
Ochaco felt a tug on her heart, but before she could even think about an answer a guy a few rows down loudly spoke up reminding Ochaco of where she was.
"Excuse me sir, but I have a question!"
"Hit me!" Present Mic replied as a spotlight landed on the boy who stood up.
"On the printout, you listed four types of villain, not three." the guy proclaimed as he pointed at the handout.
Ochaco had noticed that as well, but she couldn't help feeling the boy had jumped the gun, her focus had been on Kirishima admittedly but there was probably a reason the fourth robot wasn't talked about yet.
"With all respect, if this is an error on official U.A. materials, it is shameful. We are extemporary students; we expect the best from Japan's most notable school. A mistake such as this won't do." the guy ranted.
Ochaco scoffed at the boy in her head.
If he thought this was 'shameful' she doubted he would do that well in heroics proper.
But then the guy turned towards her and Kirishima and pointed at her and Kirishima, his body moving very stiffly and Ochaco could now see his glasses.
"Additionally, you two!" he exclaimed, causing Kirishima to flinch back.
"You've been whispering to each the entire time, stop that. If you can't take this seriously, then leave. You're distracting the rest of us." The guy brashly told them with a glare.
Ochaco glared right back at him with a scowl.
That up tight little prick, how dare he assume she wasn't serious just because the two of them were talking.
They weren't being nearly as loud as he was, much less disturbing anyone, and if they were then Ochaco had some bad news for whoever thought they could go into heroics if a whispered conversation was enough to mess up their consideration.
Wait a minute, that cream color uniform was for that rich kid school that Bakugou complained about wasn't?
*That idiot probably has no idea what the real world is like.* Ochaco thought huffily.
"S-sorry." Kirishima sputtered curling in on himself and before Ochaco could get a word in Present Mic redirected everyone's attention to himself.
"Alright now, examine number 711 thanks' for calling in with your request." And then the man went on to explain the fourth robot type.
Some enemy they weren't supposed to fight but Ochaco's eyes couldn't help wandering back over to Kirishima, who was worried eyes kept going back to Shinsou, his despondent looking friend.
And she wasn't quite sure if it was sympathy or spite that tugged at her more, but something rose in her as she looked on at how gutted Shinsou looked.
"Jiji." she whispered keeping her voice much lower, looking over to where Jiji was sitting with Awa-Kun, she knew he would be listening and his head turning towards her.
"Purple hair, right by Bakugou and Fumi, his name's Shinsou and if he goes to the same spot as you guys, team up with him." she instructed.
Jiji, nodded without question and whispered to Awa-Kun, her other friend agreeing without needing an explanation with his own nod.
"If you can tell Bakugou or Fumi, do it." she added before turning back to the printout and scouring it for information.
There was nothing about teaming up on the papers, only that you couldn't attack the other examinees directly and she would absolutely take full advantage of that.
Along with the knowledge about the robot's 'anatomy' sneakily squirrelled away on the other side.
Once they were told to leave for the buses, she kept a careful eye on where Shinsou was going, and part of her was relieved that he climbed on the bus for B and that they would be going to the same place.
Kirishima wasn't joining them but since he was going to A with Bakugou she didn't feel that worried for him and instead focused on Shinsou.
More specifically she thought on how she would help him.
She would be able to pin the robots just fine, the problem was that she didn't know how she would be able to help him destroy the robots.
Ochaco spent most of the ride thinking about what they could do, she couldn't teach Shinsou how to wield a knife with such little time so giving him her pocketknife was a no go, and Shinsou wasn't strong enough to do much with his own bare hands.
The buttons were on the bottom of most of the robots according to the diagram so that wasn't an option either.
She would need to go very old school then; she could free a part of a fire-escape with her pocketknife and the metal bar would probably be easy to force through a robot's eye.
Once the bus was parked, she planned to approach Shinsou, Shinsou unfortunately rushed off the bus and away from everyone to start stretching.
Ochaco smiled seeing that, glad that he knew the importance of a warmup stretch before an activity as big as the physical exam.
She made to head right over, but the large hand of the up-tight rich prick tried to hold her back.
She did not have time to entertain him so she didn't bother, it was laughable how easy it was to get out of his grip, and she sat down next to Shinsou so that she could talk with him and stretch herself.
Shinsou was shocked, but thankfully amenable to working together.
And she pulled him up to his feet ready to tell her plan when the doors started to open.
Damn, they wouldn't have time to talk.
"Sorry about this, I'll tell you the plan once we're inside." Ochaco apologized before she activated her quirk since she was still holding his hand.
Shinsou had just enough time to let out a shocked cry as she basically threw him over her shoulder and dashed forward, glad there was just enough of the doors open to get through.
Years of knowledge over her parents' career helping her race until she found a building with a fire-escape.
Ochaco returned Shinsou's weight to him and then eased him down to his feet.
"Again, sorry but we don't have much time now. I'm going to get you a weapon, give me a second." Ochaco told Shinsou, before jumping at the fire-escape and had her pocketknife out to free a bar.
The act was completed in seconds and she thanked the many South Siders for teaching her to be so handy with a just a knife.
South Siders did say 'Knives and rebar are more than subpar.'
Shinsou looked he was a touch more solid on his feet and Ochaco happily put the metal pipe in his hands.
"My quirk is gravity manipulation, I can make things heavier or weightless, including myself." She informed him before dragging him along with her out of the alley way.
"I'll use my quirk to pin the robots and then you can smash it in with that, sound good?" she asked scanning for targets.
Shinsou nodded a bit shaky.
Ochaco made a note that Shinsou might be mute and to always keep him in sight just in case.
"Great, let's aim for the 3-pointers, they'll be less flexible from what I saw of their design, less chances they'll be able to hit you even when pinned." Ochaco told him, holding up her hand to make him pause.
With some kind of luck, a 1-pointer turned a corner and locked on them.
Ochaco reacted on instinct and slapped a brick, moving her weight into it and leaping at the robot, her practice allowing her to get over to the robot in a second and she slapped the robot increasing its weight.
The robot's metal frame creaked as it fell over, the head hitting the ground first and leaving the button on the underside open and free to be pressed with a soft red glow.
*Well, that works too.* Ochaco supposed as she took back her own weight.
"One point for me, come over and press this button Shinsou." Ochaco said pointing to the button, Shinsou stared at her then the robot before looking at her again.
"We only have ten minutes, we can't afford to hesitate Shinsou." Ochaco reminded him and that spurred Shinsou to come over and press the button, the palm-sized button turning black right after.
"And that's one point for you, lets get some more." Ochaco encouragingly told him with a pat on the shoulder.
Shinsou with a determined look on his face nodded.
The two of them running off together, Ochaco grinned as they fell into a groove together.
Her using her quirk to pin the robots, and Shinsou either hitting the buttons or smashing in a robot's eyes to get his own points.
Ochaco did have to act on her own once or twice, instead crushing a robot with her quirk to protect Shinsou or using her quirk to carry Shinsou away when there were too many people in their area.
If Shinsou was faster or had better defenses than she wouldn't mind the competition but risking him getting injured wasn't an option.
By the time they had nineteen and twenty-six points respectively before they had to take a break for Shinsou to catch his breath.
Ochaco kept a careful watch for robots or other examinees stray shots.
Mentally they had maybe three more minutes before the exam ended and could maybe get their number up to forty if they played their cards right.
The rumbling of the ground forced Ochaco's hand though and she had just enough time to grab Shinsou and bring them bought out of the alley before one of the buildings collapsed.
*An earthquake? Right now?* Ochaco thought slightly panicked only to hear the groaning of something massive, something made of metal.
Together she and Shinsou both saw the towering robot, a 0-pointer she remembered distantly, rise out of the ground, one of its hands knocking over a building causing a chain of buildings to fall like dominos.
For a moment Ochaco felt utterly frozen as the machine raged on, hundreds of thousands in damage made in a matter of seconds with the cries of others as they ran away from the 0-pointer.
Ash weighed heavily on her tongue and the next second Ochaco's feet were moving.
She grabbed a chunk of concrete and once she was right under the 0-pointer she slapped the side of it and her body zooming up into the air just a bit too fast and making herself light-headed.
But once the 0-pointer had tilted its head up towards her, Ochaco took her weight back before forcing it into the concrete chunk, watching the rock crash straight through the robot's head and heard it hit the ground with a lot of force.
Ochaco watched the 0-pointer waiting for it to twitch, only for it to stay still and she sighed relieved she managed to stop the metal titan so quickly.
She took her weight back expecting to grab hold of the 0-pointer as she fell so she could either crawl down it or use it like a gravity ladder.
What she did not account for was the sweat on her hands to make her grip slip.
For a second, her mind didn't understand what happened.
"Uraraka!" the scream of her name somehow reaching her ears despite the air rushing pass her, and part of a scream left her lips.
Then there was calm as cotton softly overtook her mind, her vision fading as fog covered everything.
Use your quirk to make yourself float.
Her stomach flipped as everything stopped, the weight of gravity completely disappeared as bile inched up her throat, her weight being displaced but not given anywhere to go making her body feel wrong though she was much numb-er to it.
It wasn't until a pair of hands on grabbed at her shoulders that she was pulled out of that soft and calming cotton foggy haze.
Ochaco blinked and she found herself shaky on her feet and Shinsou standing in front of her with a panic-stricken face as he kept her on her feet on the broken street below them while the waves of nausea hit her in full.
Her mind slowly catching up with what she did and what had happened next.
"Was that your quirk?" she asked, Shinsou would have been the only person that knew her name and the way Shinsou immediately froze right after she asked confirmed her suspicions.
"Cool, it's very calming and prefect for helping people with panic attacks if it's always like that." Ochaco complimented taking a few deep breaths to calm her stomach, bending forward and her hands on his knees.
Shinsou's mouth fell open and he looked shocked.
"Okay we should see if anyone needs help, the 0-pointer might have pinned someone with all of those buildings it knocked over." Ochaco told him, rolling her shoulders and standing upright again.
"Come on." she muttered walking forward to look through the wreckage.
She turned back when she didn't hear Shinsou follow her and asked "Are you okay?" she asked.
'You are crazy.' Shinsou signed with his hands.
Ochaco couldn't help snorting amused.
"Probably, wouldn't surprise me." Ochaco jokingly replied and Shinsou looked at her shocked again.
"You know J-S-L?' Shinsou asked.
She nodded "Yep! Now come on, we have some search and rescue to do." Ochaco told him, motioning for him to follow her.
And this time Shinsou did.
Canon Uraraka: *playful teases Iida for being rich*
Deku-Sensei Uraraka: You clown ass B*tch
--
Shinsou: Everyone only sees me and my quirk for the villainous things I can do
Kirishima: You are very friend-shaped and we shall be heroes together bro!
Uraraka: Your quirk is lovely and have you considered working in rescue heroics?
Shinsou: *blue screened with dial up tones*