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When Aizawa-sensei had told them they were going on a field trip, all 19 students of Class 1-A had cheered before running off to put on their hero costumes. This would be the first time they had a Practical Heroics lesson since the disastrous one with Bakugou that had ended up with his opponent traumatized and wrapped up with third-degree burns in Recovery Girl’s infirmary.
It hadn’t come as a shock when their classmate had summarily dropped out of UA after the three days he had spent in the infirmary to be fully healed. That Bakugou was now on probation for excessive use of force and unauthorized Quirk use also hadn’t been a surprise.
What was a surprise was that he was allowed on their field trip to the USJ at all, but there he was, kitted up in his costume but without the grenades and sulking as far away from Aizawa-sensei as possible.
But that wasn’t the only surprise of the day. When the rest of Class 1-A had approached the bus, they had been met with the sight of a short, thin, muscular person with a curly shock of green hair framing his face chatting with their Homeroom teacher.
Ochako stopped abruptly, freezing in place as heat rushed to her cheeks. The person talking to Aizawa-sensei was kitted in a skintight battle suit in mottled greys, blacks, and blues, offset by vivid teal piping that accentuated his muscular frame, complete with a cowl hanging loose over his back. A dark, metal mouth-guard sat at his neck and a utility belt sat at his waist, offset by twin holsters for what appeared to be eskrima sticks, and heavy black boots capped off the outfit leaving an overwhelming impression of dangerous, mysterious competence that had Ochako’s mouth immediately going dry.
As Class 1-A settled in front of their teacher, the person turned and Ochako’s blush grew darker as she realized that she wasn’t looking at a young Pro Hero but at a student that looked maybe a year or so older than her.
“Good, you’re here,” Aizawa-sensei stated, and Ochako tore her eyes away from her cute senpai to focus back on her teacher. “Everyone, this is Midoriya Izuku of Class 2-A. He’ll be joining us today for your Heroics Training.”
Midoriya smiled brightly and waved a bit bashfully at the class, and Ochako felt her heart skip a beat.
“I’ve heard about him, kero,” Tsu leaned over to her, and Ochako looked over just as Midoriya entered the bus behind Aizawa-sensei. “He’s the only one who survived the class purge last year.”
“Ah, yes!” Yaoyorozu continued as they filed on the bus. “Aizawa-sensei was his Homeroom teacher, and instituted a Quirk Apprehension test much like the one we took on our first day. No one knows exactly what happened in that test, but it ended with every other student but Midoriya-senpai expelled. Apparently, Aizawa-sensei was quoted as saying that Midoriya-senpai was the only one with potential to become a hero, and that’s why he stayed on.”
“Ooh, I’ve heard about him too in my stealth training,” Hagakure squealed, her gloves flapping excitedly at the prospect of gossip as her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “No one knows what his Quirk is! He keeps quiet about it, but the mystery is a hot topic of debate amongst the upper years. Most people seem to think he has some sort of Intelligence or Reflex Quirk, but Midoriya-senpai just smiles and changes the subject when anyone asks. Apparently, he wants to go into Underground Heroics, so he’s trying to keep the advantage of others not knowing what his Quirk is so they can’t plan against it.”
Bakugou scoffed loudly as he filed into the bus behind Kirishima, “That damn Deku, trying to be so shitting mysterious.”
Ochako turned to face Bakugou incredulously as did practically all of the rest of the class.
“Do you know him, Baku-bro?” Kirishima asked, and Bakugou grumbled as he settled into a seat next to the redhead.
“Yeah, I know him,” Bakugou replied with a glower. “He was my neighbor; practically grew up together.”
“So you would know what his Quirk is!” Mina squealed excitedly, and Ochako’s eyes widened in shock as she sent a quick glance to their senpai. Midoriya was chattering animatedly to their sleeping bag-clad sensei.
“Hah?” Bakugou growled, a few small explosions crackling in his palms. “Quirk? That damn nerd —“
“Would appreciate if you respected my privacy and didn’t spread what you know around, eh Kacchan?” The smooth voice of their senpai rang out and the entirety of Class 1-A froze. As one, their eyes all slid to their senpai who had snuck up on them and slung an arm around Bakugou’s shoulders, a toothy smile on his face.
As one, Class 1-A gulped and nodded silently. At their agreement, Midoriya’s grin softened and brightened into something less predatorial and more charming. “Thank you for your understanding! Now, Aizawa-sensei has told me some about your Quirks and they all sound amazing!! Would you all mind if I asked you a few questions?” The green-haired boy chirped, and at once the tension that had settled over the class dissipated in the face of Midoriya’s bright smile.
The rest of the ride was filled with discussion of their Quirks and impromptu analysis on Midoriya-senpai’s part, and soon enough they were entering the USJ with Aizawa-sensei and the Space Hero: Thirteen to start on their Rescue Training. But before they could, dark, smoky portals began opening up in the center of the main plaza and villains began pouring out.
“Thirteen, Specter, protect the students. Contact the school and let them know Villains have infiltrated the USJ,” Aizawa-sensei commanded, and Thirteen nodded as Midoriya-senpai tugged his mouth guard into place, green eyes staring hard at the plaza. Reaching back, Midoriya-senpai flipped his cowl over his head, throwing his face into deep shadow.
“Eraserhead,” a deep voice came from Specter and Ochako jumped at the unexpected voice modification. “You need backup in the plaza. There’s too many to take on alone.”
Aizawa-sensei, who had been unraveling his capture weapon and moving his goggles into place, sent a sharp look at the older student. Specter held his ground, facing down Aizawa-sensei until the teacher sighed in exasperation.
“Take out those on the edges, Specter. Be silent, be stealthy, and most of all —“
“Don’t be caught,” he and Specter finished together. Nodding at Aizawa-sensei, Specter pulled the eskrima from his sides and launched himself into the fray at their teacher’s side.
Ochako stared in stunned amazement as Aizawa-sensei and Specter worked in tandem, cutting swathes through the villains like tissue paper. Thirteen began ushering the class to the entrance, instructing Kaminari to try to contact the school with his Quirk as they moved as quickly as possible. Suddenly, a dark portal opened in front of them and the mist-Villain appeared just before them.
“Excuse me,” the Villain started politely and Ochako fought down a shrill giggle at his tone. “We are the League of Villains and we’re here to kill the Symbol of Peace. You wouldn’t happen to know where he is, would you?”
As the last word escaped the Villain’s mouth, Bakugou and Kirishima leapt into action. The Villain just narrowly dodged to two, and narrowed his eyes at the aggressive Hero students.
“Hmm, that’s unfortunate. It seems I will have to kill you after all,” the Villain stated matter-of-factly, and Ochako knew no more as she was sucked into the black mist.
Ochako was lucky she landed in the shipwreck zone with Tsu and Mina, was lucky that Mina was able to dump her acid into the water to hurt the villains while they escaped without a scratch. They were lucky they made it to the plaza without encountering any other villains on the way.
They weren’t lucky as they hid at the edge of the plaza and watched that… monster attack Aizawa-sensei and slam him into the concrete, weren’t lucky as they watched the hand-covered Villain manage to latch onto Specter and see their senpai’s elbow disintegrate beneath the hand-Villain’s touch.
Ochako felt the blood drain out of her face as the eskrima fell out of his hand, the jumpsuit flaking away, then skin, leaving Specter's bloody muscle exposed. Specter remained eerily silent, finally managing to wrench himself away from the Villain and send his remaining eskrima crashing into the Villain’s wrist with a loud crack as he skittered away.
The hand-Villain let out a pained shout at the contact before cackling as he cradled his limp hand to his chest.
“You think you’re so cool, little Hero?” the hand-Villain snarled. “You’re just a stupid, little NPC. You’re not even worth the EXP to fight.”
“Oh?” Specter’s deep voice asked. “And what makes you so sure? How do you know I don’t have a Quest for you, or information you might need?”
Ochako’s brow furrowed in confusion as the hand-Villain froze in place, his head tilting to the side as his uninjured hand scratched at the skin of his neck. Looking at Tsu and Mina, she saw the same confusion on their faces as well. Turning back to Specter, she watched the student shrug as he lazily spun an eskrima in his hand.
“I might know where All Might is,” Specter’s voice lilted, and Ochako shivered a bit at the unnerving sing-song tone. “I might know why he’s not here right now, but...” Specter continued, and Ochako started as Tsu grasped her shoulder firmly. Eyes sliding to her friend’s, Ochako saw the frog-girl’s gaze fixed intently on Specter's injured hand, which seemed to be twitching at his side.
No, not twitching...signing. It looked like Specter was using sign language to tell them something. Tsu tugged Ochako and Mina back from the edge of the plaza, eyes stuck on Specter's hand as he seemed to repeat his pattern slowly, over and over again as he stalled the hand-Villain with video game jargon and circular logic.
“We have to get out of here, kero,” the frog-girl explained quietly as the three stumbled away from the plaza and toward the entrance. “Specter said we need to go. I don’t think the hand-Villain is going to be distracted much longer and we need to be out of the firing range.”
“Nomu!” the hand-Villain suddenly shrieked, and as one Tsu, Mina, and Ochako began sprinting toward where they could see Thirteen and some of their classmates near the entrance. The ground shook beneath them as a loud crack resounded through the building. Sparing a glance behind her, Ochako felt a scream claw up her throat as she saw the Nomu’s arm punched through the concrete, Specter’s body nowhere to be found.
Stumbling to a halt, Ochako tried to run back to the plaza to do something , anything , but Tsu’s tongue wrapped around her waist tightly and dragged her back toward the entrance. “Ochako, we can’t,” Tsu croaked. “We can’t help them, we need to go .”
Tears cut sticky tracks down her cheeks as Ochako kept her eyes locked on the plaza, willing Specter to be anywhere other than where she thought he was: flattened under Nomu's fist and broken through the concrete. As if responding to her prayers, Ochako saw the dark figure of Specter stumbling toward where Aizawa-sensei lay unconscious (he wasn’t moving, he wasn’t moving and there was blood around him, but she wasn’t going to even think about that) and felt relief flood her like a tidal wave.
“Get the NPC, Nomu!” the hand-Villain shrieked again, and this time Ochako couldn’t stop the short scream that escaped her as the Nomu seemed to appear in front of Specter, slamming a meaty fist into his side. Specter was sent flying, skidding across the ground and landing in a heap halfway across the plaza. Specter slowly began to push himself up, his injured arm shaking and going out as his other struggled to hold his entire weight. The hand-Villain casually strolled over to Specter and planted a red shoe firmly in the middle of Specter’s back, sending the boy crashing back to the ground.
“Where’s your Number One Hero now, NPC?” the Villain nearly screamed in delight, slamming a vicious series of kicks into Specter’s side before pinning him back to the ground with a foot. “Where is your precious All Might? ”
Ochako tumbled to a halt as Tsu stopped dragging her, and Ochako felt more than saw Mina come up on her other side to grab her hand. Ochako couldn’t stop crying if she wanted to as she saw the ground around Specter saturate with blood, turning red and dark like around Aizawa-sensei. She stared in mute horror as the Villain began to cackle maniacally only to be cut off by a familiar deep voice announcing, “I am here!”
Whirling around, Ochako crashed to her knees at the sight of All Might, his grin wide and blinding while his eyes were narrowed dangerously on the hand-Villain. As All Might moved to engage the Nomu, Ochako breathed slowly a few times and felt some of her earlier panic recede, leaving her with an icy calm. Shakily regaining her footing, Ochako nodded at a shaken Mina and a pale Tsu before quietly saying, “We need to get to the entrance. If All Might’s here, the rest of the teachers shouldn’t be far behind.”
“But Aizawa-sensei and Specter…” Mina trailed off, and Ochako squeezed her hand.
“They’ll be fine, Mina,” she stated quietly. “All Might is here, and they’ll be fine .”
“We need to get out of here so All Might doesn’t have to worry about us, kero,” Tsu added, and Ochako shot her a grateful look.
“R-right,” Mina murmured, and the three girls finally made it to the entrance with not a moment to spare as the battle between All Might and the Nomu grew more and more intense. Ochako flinched at the sound of each heavy blow, stumbling as the three girls exited the nightmare of the USJ and entered the bright sunlight of a Japanese day. Moving toward where she saw the rest of their classmates sans Iida, Bakugou, Kirishima, and Todoroki huddled waiting, Ochako deposited Mina and Tsu before plopping down herself, her head spinning as the adrenaline dropped.
Not a few minutes later, the rest of the teachers and Iida arrived on the scene, some splitting up to check on the 1-A students waiting outside while others with more combat-oriented Quirks immediately made their way into the USJ. As Midnight and Ectoplasm made their way through each student present, asking questions about what had happened and if they were alright, Ochako kept her eyes fixed on the doors to the USJ, praying that All Might and Aizawa-sensei and Specter would be alright. As such, she was the first person to see Kirishima exiting the door, lugging a large black form on his back. Ochako scrambled to her feet, sprinting over to Kirishima and pressing her fingers to the person on his back.
“Thanks, Uraraka!” he chirped a bit breathlessly, repositioning the slumped form of Aizawa-sensei as he jogged carefully over to the rest of 1-A. Heart hammering in her throat, Ochako contemplated how much trouble she would get into if she reentered the USJ when two things happened simultaneously. First, the Nomu was sent flying through the roof of the USJ and off into the distance, and second, Todoroki exited the USJ with Specter draped over his back.
With a squeak of surprise, Ochako made her way to Todoroki. Immediately tapping away most of Specter’s gravity, she was surprised to see the older student’s head tilt and a foggy green eye catch the light under his cowl.
“Tha’s so cool ,” the green-haired boy slurred. “Zero grav’ty ‘s such a heroic Quirk.”
Ochako stared at her senpai, dumbfounded, as he managed to ramble about her Quirk and its possible applications in heroism even in his barely conscious state. Todoroki sighed heavily as he sent a mildly irritated look at Ochako.
“And I had just gotten him to stop talking about my Quirk,” Todoroki grumbled, and Midoriya-senpai (his cowl had slipped off completely and the voice changer was long gone) patted Todoroki’s cheek firmly a few times.
“Don’ worry, Tod’roki-san,” Midoriya-senpai mumbled. “Yer Quirk’s awesome too. Y’ just nee’ to use bot’ sides o’ it. It’s yours, no’ y’ Dad’s...” And with that, Midoriya-senpai slumped over Todoroki’s shoulder, breathing deep and slightly wet-sounding as he lapsed into unconsciousness.
Todoroki sighed heavily and set Midoriya-senpai down gently. Taking in the weeping wound that was his exposed elbow as he rolled up Midoriya-senpai’s top to assess the deep blue, black, and sickly green bruising along his side and ribs, Ochako winced in sympathy at the sight as Todoroki hummed. “Ouch, that’s going to hurt in the morning.”
Ochako couldn’t help the hysterical giggle that escaped her, punch-drunk and tired from the adrenaline drop and from the relief at seeing Midoriya-senpai seemingly okay even if in rough shape. “It looks like it hurts now, actually, Todoroki-san.” The quiet boy just shrugged, eyes on Midoriya-senpai as Midnight bustled over with Ectoplasm to assess the damage.
As they bundled Midoriya-senpai up and whisked him and Aizawa-sensei away to Recovery Girl, Ochako dropped to the ground and stared up at the cloudless blue sky. It seemed so peaceful compared to the nightmare they had just undergone.
“They’ll be okay, won’t they, Todoroki-san?” Ochako asked quietly. The two-tone boy sighed a bit before awkwardly sitting next to her.
“I don’t know, Uraraka,” he replied flatly. “But Aizawa-sensei and Midoriya are strong. If anyone could get through it, it would be them.”
Ochako hummed tiredly in reply before shutting her eyes against the brightness of the sky. “And us?” she continued. “Will we be okay?”
Todoroki remained silent for so long, Ochako thought he had left. But eventually, the boy quietly stated, “We’ll be fine. UA will train us to be heroes so things like this won’t happen again. Next time, we’ll be able to save ourselves.”
Ochako slit her eyes open and looked at the Half-Cold-Half-Hot user, who was staring intently at his hands. She breathed deeply once, twice, before opening her eyes all the way. Turning toward her classmate, Ochako felt determination fill her as she nodded solemnly, which the boy returned just as solemnly.
Ochako was a Hero-in-training, and while she attends the best Hero School in the country she has only just begun her journey. Today, she couldn’t save herself, couldn’t save Mina and Tsu and Midoriya-senpai and Aizawa-sensei, but that was just today. Ochako would become a Hero, so the next time Villains tried something she would be ready .