Chapter Text
Uraraka Ochako knows that not everyone is created equal. It has been proven to her time and time again.
The first time is when her father’s construction company goes under. It’s one of her first vivid memories, of her father standing stoically as her mother cries and tries to explain to her that things will be a little tighter from then on. Four-year-old Ochako doesn’t completely understand then, but it becomes clear enough when they start having more rice and less meat, when mochi is a treat for special occasions, and when she notices her mother not eating at all. It’s clear enough when they lose their house less than a year later and move into the city. Her mother assures her that the move will be good for them. She’ll have fun at her new school, and make lots of friends.
That might have been true if she wasn’t quirkless. Her parents don’t act like it’s a problem, assure her that she’s still their beautiful, precious daughter, so she doesn’t even realize it’s a bad thing until she goes to school.
She fights back, but it’s hard for one little girl to fight against three boys with powers like flight and exploding palms. She comes home with a torn skirt that her mother dutifully repairs after cleaning her cuts and burns.
The fights continue. Ochako fights back, but is overwhelmed every time. She bites and scratches and comes home with more tears in her clothes, more injuries. Her mother still fixes them, but she can only repair something so many times before it starts to show. And they can’t afford to buy her new things.
It’s just one more thing they pick on her for.
It’s not long after she moves that Ochako starts to take an interest in heroes. She sees them more in the city than she ever had before, swooping in to stop villains and save people. It isn’t long before she finds herself racing to villain attacks to watch, wide-eyed, as heroes save the day again. It starts a hope in her, like it does in every child: maybe someday she can be a hero too. No one could ever bully a hero, right? Even if they tried, she’d be strong enough to kick their butts then!
She tries to tell her parents as much during dinner one night, only for them both to give each other a troubled look.
“Ochako,” her mother says, softly. “It’s... it’s very hard to be a hero without a quirk, isn’t it?”
Ochako can feel her excitement dissipate immediately. Her mother is right. She’s never heard of a hero without a quirk.
“It can’t be impossible,” she says finally. “I just have to get stronger.”
“You’re right,” her father says, making her instantly look up from her plate. He’s smiling at her. “Getting stronger is a good place to start. Do you want to join me in my exercises?”
Ochako’s heart overflows with joy. Even her mother is smiling now. Maybe she can become a hero.
Her father’s exercises involve morning runs, stretches, and lifting weights (he gives her the smallest ones, which look the cutest anyway). It’s hard at first, but she keeps it up with his encouragement, and she starts to feel stronger.
It’s still not enough to beat Bakugou and his cronies, especially when she lets her dream slip.
“One day,” she says defiantly, not long after starting middle school, “I’m going to become a hero. Then you’ll be sorry you ever messed with me!”
Bakugou and his friends stare at her for a moment, dumbstruck. It’s Bakugou himself who responds first, and her heart sinks as he lets out a deep, hearty laugh.
“You, Urabaka, a hero?” he says. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. What kind of idiot let you believe you could be a hero?” He slams his fist against his open palm, the crack of a small explosion making her wince. “You need a quirk to be a hero, dumbass. And no one has a better quirk than me.”
She doesn’t fight as hard that day, but still gets beat up.
Bakugou’s ridicule doesn’t make her give up her dream. She starts visiting the library and using school computers to research heroes and how they fight. She tries to research quirkless heroes, but none exist. Even so, she keeps trying.
By middle school, she’s realized something else: being a hero is lucrative. Her family isn’t much better off than it was before, and she knows that whatever she does, she needs to make money. She never tells her parents this (they’d cry if they knew she was thinking it), but it’s true.
Uraraka Ochako is aware of her own faults. She’s not smart or pretty enough to find a good job that way. But she’s nothing if not tenacious, and she’ll keep getting stronger. She will become a hero.
That’s why she needs to get into U.A.
—-
It’s not surprising when everyone in Ochako’s third year middle school class want to be a hero. Even as the rest of her classmates display their quirks around her, Ochako keeps her head held high and raises her hand as well. She doesn’t grimace until the unfortunate moment when Bakugou’s voice cuts through the cheers.
“Don’t act like you losers are in the same category as me,” he says. “Only one of us is going to succeed. That’s why I’m applying to U.A.”
There’s a chorus of enraged “Bakugou-kun!”s and “Katsuki-kun!”s, but Bakugou is completely unperturbed. As if in an attempt to prove himself better than the rest of the class, he jumps up onto his desk.
The teacher, of course, doesn’t say a word.
“Shut up, you bunch of two-bit side characters!” he shouts. “I’ve already aced the practice entrance exam. I’m a shoo-in to be the first student from this shitty school to enter U.A.!”
“You’ve forgotten something,” Ochako says from the back of the class. Bakugou’s burning red eyes dart to her, and she continues before he can stop her. “The morally bankrupt can’t become a hero. You might get accepted, but they’ll kick you out in—“
Too late. The force of his explosive punch snaps her desk in two, and he’s glowering at her with a fiery gaze that she returns.
“You think you, quirkless and worth less than nothing, have a better chance of getting into U.A. than me?” he snarls.
“Naturally,” she replies. She doesn’t wince until his fist pulls back, but he’s stopped by the teacher for once.
“Enough, enough, everyone settle down,” he says. “You haven’t graduated yet. Back to your seats.”
Bakugou glares daggers at her for the rest of the day, but it’s hardly any different than normal.
Ochako is expecting Bakugou when he corners her on the school grounds.
“We’re not done,” he says. Ochako eyes him coldly as he approaches. Sometimes she runs, but she’s too pissed off today, outnumbered or not.
“With what?” she asks. “Talking about how unfit you are to be a hero?”
That makes him snarl. “I know what an idiot like you is probably thinking, Urabaka,” he says. “You think you’re going to apply to U.A. Don’t. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.”
“And why not?” she says.
“Every top string hero has stories about them from when they were a kid,” Bakugou says. “I’m going to be the only one from this shitstain of a middle school to get into U.A. You’re not gonna mess it up for me.”
Ochako shoves her face closer to his, resisting the urge to crack her skull against his. “I hate to break it to you, but most of those stories involve the hero saving someone. All you do is pick on people weaker than you.”
She expects a punch, and isn’t disappointed, even when she hits the ground. At least it’s grass.
“Shut the hell up, Urabaka,” he says. “You don’t know shit!”
She lifts her head slowly. “I know that one day I’m gonna be stronger than you,” she replies.
Bakugou’s palms explode.
It’s over an hour later before Ochako leaves the school grounds. She’s not that much worse for wear this time—just some grass stains and a few bruises. Even so, she can hear her mother’s words for her when she gets home.
“Ochako, sometimes you have to learn when not to open your mouth.”
She humphs at that thought. Sometimes she can, but today Bakugou got on her last nerve. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, either.
As she’s walking beneath the overpass, absorbed in her own thoughts, she doesn’t hear the clank of a manhole cover being pushed up until it’s too late. She turns, only to be engulfed in some kind of horrible green goop. She can’t even scream, because when she tries, it fills her mouth and throat, cutting off her air supply.
“A girl, huh?” a slimy voice says, seeming to reverberate all around her. “You’ll do as a vessel to hide out in. He’ll never expect that. Now, just quit struggling.”
That only makes her fight harder, but the slime pins her limbs. She can’t see, can’t breathe, can barely move. Is this really how she’s going to die?
Just as that thought echoes in her mind, she’s hit with a blast of wind that drops her to her knees. The slime villain, on the other hand, loses its grip on her to splatter to the ground. She coughs and gasps, trying to bring air back in to her aching lungs.
“Don’t worry, young lady,” a very familiar voice says behind her. “I am here!” She turns, and her eyes widen as she sees the speaker. Even out of his costume, he’s unmistakeable.
All Might.
He’s bigger than she could have expected, taller and more muscular than her father. Then again, that makes sense, given the blast of wind that could only have come from a punch.
“A-all Might,” she just manages to say, still barely believing her eyes.
“Just a moment there, young lady.” She watches with astonishment as he gathers two empty soda bottles from the trash littering the overpass. “I must apprehend this villain.”
And he does, collecting the slime into the bottles and capping them right before putting them in the pockets of his cargo pants. By this time, Ochako has climbed to her feet and gathered herself a bit. He may not be her favorite hero (that would be Thirteen) but it’s hard not to like the Number One Hero, and meeting him seems even more incredible.
It strikes her suddenly that if anyone can tell her about being a hero, it’s him.
“All Might, sir,” she finally manages to say.
He turns to her, smile still bright and shining. “I’m glad you’re doing well, but I need to go. Heroes don’t get a chance to rest, as you know.” He turns and crouches down, obviously getting ready to leap, just like she’d seen him do in videos.
“Wait—“ she tries.
“No time!” he replies.
She moves without thinking, grabbing hold of his cargo pants before he rockets up into the sky. He nearly wrenches out of her hands, but sheer force of will keeps her clinging to him.
“Ah—wait! Let go!” She just manages to look up against the air pressure on her face. He’s looking down at her in shock and alarm, and the clouds seem… a lot closer now. Ochako tries to ignore her head spinning.
“I-I’ll die!” she just manages to get out.
“Ah, true,” he replies. “Hold on, then.” He grabs her backpack, thankfully still strapped on her, to steady her while they descend at a terrifying speed.
Once they have safely landed on a roof, Ochako sits down heavily, her knees feeling shaky from how high up they were. She’d never been afraid of heights, but that changes when you’re suddenly hundreds of feet up with nothing below you.
“You really are quite tenacious,” All Might says, though not unkindly. “I’m sure you’re regretting that decision, but it’s no harm done now. If you ask the staff, I’m sure you’ll be able to get back to the ground through this building. I need to go.”
Ochako looks up to see All Might walking towards the edge of roof, about to leap again. She scrambles to her feet, question burning in her chest. Even if he ignores it—she has to ask.
“Can you be a hero even if you’re quirkless?”
Her voice sounds thin in her own ears as the wind rushes past. For a moment, she thinks All Might didn’t hear her, or that he really is ignoring, until he stops. He turns slowly to look at her, something in his eyes a little different than before.
“Quirkless?” he says, and then coughs. It’s a deep, chest rattling cough that makes her hurt in sympathy. “Sh-shit,” he gasps suddenly, bending over, and steam suddenly starts pouring out of him. In less than a moment, he’s disappeared in a cloud of it, leaving Ochako dumbfounded.
“S-sir? All Might, are you okay?” She takes a hesitant step forward, but stops as the steam starts to dissipate, and a figure appears.
The figure is still tall, but gaunt, losing instantly All Might’s impressive form. If she hadn’t just seen All Might, she never would have guessed that this nearly skeletal man could be the same person. His eyes, though, are the same.
All Might heaves a deep sigh. “Listen… don’t go talking on forums about this.”
Ochako blinks. “Is… is this normal? You look awful.”
All Might chuckles. It doesn’t have nearly the presence that his laugh does. “Telling it like it is, huh? Well, you’ve seen this much, so I’m going to be honest with you.” He lifts his shirt.
Ochako gasps in horror. There’s a chunk out of his side, and under the indent is a scar like an impact mark on concrete.
“It’s a wound I received in a fight five years ago,” he says, sounding incredibly tired. “Took out a portion of my lungs, and my entire stomach.” He lets the shirt fall again with a sigh. “I want to tell you it doesn’t matter, but it does. Even someone like me can get an injury like this. The way the world is, the way villains are, you need power to fight them. Without power, it’s impossible.”
A hot aching sensation starts in her throat, and Ochako knows she’s going to cry. The combination of his words and even the end result of that horrible wound are enough to make her feel shaky all over, to climb in bed and hide from the world. She doesn’t fight the tears that stream down her face.
“I know it’s hard to hear,” All Might says, though he hardly sounds like All Might anymore. He starts walking towards the door down to the rest of the building. “But there are other, safer professions that still need people. You could become a police officer. I know people say that they just receive the villains caught by heroes, but it’s still a job we need.”
Bakugou’s words burn in her mind, sowing doubt like they never have before. How can she keep trying to do this, when even the Number One Hero says she can’t?
When Bakugou’s smug face appears in her mind, though, her determination reignites hotter than before.
“I will be a hero,” she says, her voice still wavering as tears continue to pour down her face. “I won’t stop until I’m strong enough.” He turns back to her with a look of solemn surprise, and she glares in return.
All Might blinks, and his expression softens a little. He shrugs. “I can’t stop you. I’ve warned you, that’s all.” He opens the door and disappears through it, letting it shut behind him with a clunk.
Ochako scrubs roughly at the tears on her face with a sleeve. She can hardly believe she cried in front of All Might, of all people! She grits her teeth and stomps, trying to relieve some of her frustration. She’d been hoping for a direction, a tip, anything, but all he’d been was another voice saying she couldn’t do it.
She’d show him.
Her anger softens a little at the memory of his wound, but he should know what it’s like to feel weak.
Her train of thought is cut off by an explosion in the distance. Ochako rushes to the edge of the roof for a better look, and she isn’t disappointed. A billow is smoke goes up, large enough to be easily seen even past several tall buildings.
It’s a villain attack, and not even that far away. She grips the edge of the roof until her knuckles turn white, thinking. She should try focusing on heroes with less combat-oriented quirks, study how they work, and the best place to start is watching battles real time. This one isn’t even that far away. She should be able to make it before the heroes finish up.
She forces a smile. This is the start of the rest of her life. The life where she becomes a hero.
Turning away from the smoke, she heads down into the building.