Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everyone had always underestimated Ochako. No matter how hard she worked or what she did, everyone just assumed that she would become some low ranked rescue hero, because that’s what girls like her with quirks like hers did (if she even made it to being a hero at all). Everyone told her to step aside and let others take the spotlight, those who were more suited for hero work. Told her to let the guys take care of the tough villains. Told her that she wasn’t good enough.

Ochako didn’t believe them.

Ochako knew what she was capable of. She conducted the power of space itself. Her fury burned like a thousand stars, hot enough to evaporate anything she touched.

If they didn’t believe in her, she would have to show them just how wrong they were.

*****
A smile crept across ochako’s face as she started her stretching routine in preparation for the UA entrance exam. She has been training for months in preparation, and she finally was able to put all the effort to use. She ignored the familiar anxiety growing in her stomach as she prepared for the physical portion of the test. She was pretty confident that she had done well on the written portion of the exam, while it had been difficult there wasn’t much on it that she wasn’t familiar with.

She is broken out of her thoughts by a voice on the loudspeakers announcing that they would be starting soon. She took a deep breath to ground herself in preparation of the test to come.

She only hesitated for a moment when present mic announced to GO, before she burst past the entrance of the fake city. Remembering what the hero had told them earlier, she quickly located two and three pointer robots, which would be the key to her success.

She touched a three pointer on its leg as it tried to stomp on her, and then once it reached a reasonable height, she dropped her quirk, causing the robot to come crashing towards the ground. It burst apart on impact, and she was able to pick up an arm that had fallen off due to the fall.

She used her quirk to make the arm easier to carry, and searched for other villains. She continued like this for a few minutes, hitting the robots with her improvised weapon or dropping them from damaging heights. She also was able to save some other test takers, who were constantly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of robots that had been released on the fake city.

It was only when the last few minutes arrived that things truly got interesting. A loud crash could be heard all over the city as a giant robot took its first step towards the students. The ground split apart with each step the robot took, and all around ochako chaos spread. She barely had time to think as students pushed around her in their hurry to escape. Some students were pushed to the ground in the confusion, others barely dodged the debris from the robot.

The boy with the blue hair, who had asked about the zero pointer earlier, fell to the ground. His leg was trapped under a piece of debris that fell from the building next to him.

There was an explosion in the distance as one of the other zero pointers tried to smash a flying green blur, and ochako snapped out of her momentary panic.

People were in trouble, and even though it was just an exam she couldn’t allow for them to be hurt.

She slapped herself on the arm, allowing herself to float over the other students, and pulled herself along a wall until she was out of the crowd. Her stomach twisted from all the use of her quirk, but she ignored it as the robot took another step. She took a deep breath before yelling at the other students to get out of there.

She ran towards the boy who had fallen, and used her quirk to move the rubble off of his leg, and crouched to get a good look at the injury “Do you think you can walk?” She asked him, but he just shook his head.

“I think my leg is broken, it hurts too bad.” He replied and ochako nodded.

“Stay here then and try to brace your leg so it doesn’t move too much,” she said, ignoring the fact that he couldn’t do anything but stay there. She stood up and took in the situation before deciding on a course of action.

Then she did something most people would call crazy.

She sprinted straight towards the gigantic robot, purely focused on making sure that the other students were able to escape.

Her eyes darted around the portion of the city she was in, looking for anything she could use as a weapon, having dropped the robot leg in the confusion.

Her eyes locked on a pipe that had fallen from one of the nearby buildings. It was a little heavy, but she hadn’t been training for nothing.

Ochako looked up at the giant robot looming above her before she burst into action.

Using her quirk, she floated pieces of rubble to create a staircase in the air. She jumped from piece to piece, floating towards the robot as it continued to advance steadily.

Once she had gotten a reasonable distance above the robot, she released her quirk.

Utilizing gravity, Ochako fell straight towards the giant robot, only at the last second she hit it with the pipe, leaving a sizable dentin the metal head of the robot, which froze in place, unable to continue moving. At this point, she had stalled the robot long enough for all the other students to get as safe distance away,

Her arms hurt. The impact of hitting a giant robot with a metal pipe wasn’t nothing, but she barely had time to think about it as she plummeted towards the ground.

She slapped herself on the arm again, ignoring the flair of pain as she floated safely towards the ground.

A second after her feet touched the ground, she heard the booming voice of present mic announcing the end of the practical portion of UA’s entrance exam.

*****
A silence covered the judging room as all the teachers of UA processed what had just happened. None of them had expected the girl to go after the 0 pointer, it just wasn’t supposed to be fought.

Aizawa Shouta rewatched the clip of Ochako Uraraka running on pieces of debris floating mid air before using a pipe to crush the metal head of the zero pointer. He was sure that she would make it into UA, and that was without the rescue points she would get from saving those students from the zero pointer.

He tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach when he looked over and saw Nedzu in the corner, his grin a little too wide. Who knew what that rat was up to.

*****

Ochako let the breath she had been holding, fearing that the zero pointer would recover from the hit. She sat down on a piece of rubble, and examined her arms. They were red and covered in scrapes and bruises, but she didn’t think she had broken them.

A voice to her left caught her attention, and she looked up to see recovery girl.

“Now, don’t go doing that again, you could have gotten seriously hurt young lady.” The hero said. “You’re lucky youonly fractured one of your arms in the impact of that hit.”

Ochako nodded, embarrassed at the youthful heroine’s remarks. “I didn’t mean to get hurt”

“Most heroes don’t. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.” The hero said, before giving ochako kiss on her cheek.

Ochako looked in awe as her injuries suddenly disappeared, only to be hit by a wave of exhaustion. It was worth it though, as her arm suddenly stopped throbbing in pain.

“Now, eat these gummies they will help you regain your energy,” Recovery girl stated before moving on to help some of the other students who had been hurt during the test.

Ochako did what she was told, and enjoyed the snack after the stress of the exam. Once she was done, she went to check on the boy with the speed quirk she had saved earlier.

He smiled as she approached, “Thank you for your help back there. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t moved that piece of rubble from my leg.”

Ochako shook her head, “It’s what I’m here for. I want to help people and become a hero, why wouldn’t I help you.”

“That was very heroic of you. I hope we both get into UA so we can become heroes together, I have to make it up for you having to save me.” The boy stated, chopping the air with one of his arms.

Ochako just smiled and said, “Seriously, you don’t have to make anything up to me, just be careful around falling debris.”

With that the boy nodded, and the two of them exchanged names and numbers so that they could keep in touch after the exam.

They headed separate ways, and Ochako wandered a bit before realizing she couldn’t stay in the fake city, so she slowly walked out of the exam site and headed towards the exit.

Right as she was about to leave, the green haired boy who had been walking in front of her tripped, and within a second Ochako had used her quirk to save him from the pain and embarrassment of tripping on the day of the UA entrance exam.

She helped him up, and he thanked her for helping him “Thank you so much, you didn’t have to help me. Was that your quirk, it’s really cool. Does it make things float or just negate the effects of gravity…” he quickly devolved into a muttering storm, most of which ochako couldn’t understand

“Don’t worry about it,” Ochako replied to his original statement, “I’m happy to help. My name is Ochako Uraraka, what’s yours?”

The green haired boy broke out of his mumbling spell to smile at ochako and reply, “ Midoriya Izuku, nice to meet you!”

They continued to chat as they walked to the train station, exchanging numbers before they got on trains going in different directions.

Ochako smiled to herself and she found a seat, excited to have made a new friend. She ignored the anxiety in her stomach about whether or not she had gotten into UA, choosing to focus on something else.

Ochako looked out the window at the setting sun as her train took her towards her home.

*****

It was a week later when she got the letter from UA. She rushed to her room in order to open the letter in privacy, and took a deep breath. The contents inside this letter would determine her entire future.

She carefully ripped the envelope open, revealing a little metal disk. She was confused for a second until a hologram popped out of the disk. Startled, Ochako dropped the disk just as the miniature all might started to talk.

“I AM HERE! As a holograph! I am happy to announce that I will be teaching at UA in the upcoming year. I am also happy to congratulate you, Ochako Uraraka, for getting into UA’s hero course. You placed first, with 30 villain points and 65 rescue points for stopping the zero pointer from crushing some of your fellow test takers. We here at UA are happy to announce that this is your hero academia!”

The hologram flickers out, leaving ochako to process in the dark of her bedroom.

She got first place in the UA entrance exam!

She was going to be a hero.

Chapter Text

Ochako smiles to herself, and even humming a bit, as she puts on her UA uniform. Not only had she gotten into the best hero school in the country, she had gotten first place on the entrance exam!

Readjusting her tie, ochako turned towards the door to get ready to leave. She is stopped by a tap on her shoulder, and she turns around to see her parents smiling at her, holding a bowl of rice for her.

“You need to eat before your big first day, Ochako.” Her mom says. Ochako blushes, embarrassed that she had almost forgotten to eat in her rush to get to school.

“Thanks mom, dad. I can’t believe I almost forgot!”

“It’s no problem, sweetie,” her dad replies kindly, “we know you’re excited.”

Her mom smiles at ochako, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We are so proud of you Ochako. You have such a kind heart, and one day you are going to be an amazing hero. ” Ochako’s eyes start to water as she embraces her parents.

“I learned it from you guys.” She replies, and they all laugh for a moment before ochako finishes getting ready for school. She scarfs down the rice before grabbing her bag and walking out the door.

Ochako hums to herself as she walks towards the train station to go to UA. She made sure that she got up early enough to be able to wander for a bit before having to be at class, so she takes her time walking towards the train station.

Ochako finds a nice seat towards the middle of the train, and looks out the window as the train speeds off towards UA. She feels the now all too familiar anxiety begin to pool in her stomach, but pushes it down. She got first place in the UA entrance exam, she could deal with whatever the school throws her way.

*****
She puts that theory to the test almost immediately as gets lost on her way to the classroom. Thank goodness she got here with plenty of time to spare, because otherwise she would be screwed. What would she do if she was late on the first day? Would her teachers be mad? Would she get expelled? No, that’s a bit dramatic, not even UA would expel a student on the first day. Right?

Ochako is broken out of her panic when she accidentally bumps into the girl in front of her. She’s a tall girl, with long black hair, and on her UA uniform she has the single button of a hero course student. Ochako can’t help but stare at the girl in front of her.

It’s only when she realizes that she’d been staring for a second too long that she snaps out of it.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you!” Ochako says, apologizing to the girl.

The girl smiles and says, “ No worries, I’m okay. Are you alright, you seem a little upset about something.”

“Yeah, I’m okay, I just got a little lost is all. Do you know where class 1-A is?”

“I’m actually headed there myself! My name is yaoyorozu momo, by the way. What’s yours?”

“I’m uraraka ochako!”

“ well, It’s lovely to meet you uraraka!” Momo says, and the two of them chat a bit as they walk towards the classroom.

*****

The sound of screaming amplifies with every step as the pair of girls walks towards their classroom. It takes a second for them to actually be able to make out any words, but when they do, it’s just something about taking feet off of a table.

The girls look at each other for a moment, before ochako shrugs and pulls open the giant door that leads into class 1-A.

There’s a boy with spiky blonde hair sitting in a chair with his feet up on the desk, and the boy uraraka saved at the entrance exam yelling at him that it’s disrespectful to put his feet on the desk. There’s a few other people in the room, notably Midoriya in front of the door trying to avoid being seen by the spiky haired boy.

“Hey midoriya!” Ochako says, quietly so as to not gain the attention of the blond haired boy. Midoriya turns around, and his nervous expression turns to one of relief at seeing a friendly face.

“Hi Uraraka! I didn’t know you were in 1-A.” Uraraka nods quickly, excited to be in the same class as the green haired boy.

“I know, it’s really exciting!” She smiles at him before remembering the girl at her side.

“This is Yaoyorozu momo,”ochako says, gesturing to the taller girl. “Yaoyorozu, this is midoriya Izuku. We met at the entrance exam.”

Momo smiles, and bows slightly, “nice to meet you. Feel free to call me momo, both of you!”

Their pleasantries are quickly cut off by the appearance of a yellow caterpillar… thing.

A wave of silence slowly falls over the classroom as all the students notice the thing that had appeared in the door frame. The students all rush to their seats as they noticed it, desperate to be out of the way of whatever that thing was.

“It took you almost two minutes to stop talking.” The caterpillar(?) Says, and like some kind of messed up butterfly a man steps out of the sleeping bag.

“In case you haven’t been able to guess by now,” the thing says,” I am going to be your home room teacher for this year, Aizawa Shouta. Now, change into your gym uniforms and meet me out on the grounds. You have 10 minutes, don’t be late.”

And with that he disappeared out the door.

The classroom burst into chatter as they all walked towards the dressing rooms, no one wanting to be late after that little speech.

*****
“Now that you’re all here, we can get started. You all took physical assessment tests in middle school, but you weren’t allowed to use your quirks. Today we will be doing a similar test to get a basic idea of where you are at now, and what you’re currently capable of, so we will be redoing those tests except you will be encouraged to go all out.” Aizawa says,before looking over at Ochako.

“Uraraka, since you got the highest score on the entrance exam, would you please come up here and demonstrate the ball toss. Do what you need to, but don’t leave this circle.Give it your all.”

Ochako nods, quickly moving to take the baseball from her teacher before taking her place in the center of the circle.

She takes a deep breath to brace herself, before activating her quirk on the ball in her hand, and moves to throw it.

It soars through the air, like a shooting star, and it keeps going until it is now more than a sparkle in the distance. It takes the machine next to her a minute to process it, before a little infinity sign lights up on the screen.

Ochako smiles at her score before looking up a her shocked classmates, most of whom look amazed other than the bakugo who looks like he’s about to blow something up.

The class quickly breaks into murmurs about how awesome that was, and how fun this is going to be, which causes Aizawa to activate his quirk to get their attention back.

“You think this is going to be fun? If that’s the case, you can leave right now and not come back. Being a hero is not all fun and games, so whoever gets the lowest score is expelled.”

“So bring do your best and go beyond, Plus ultra!”

*****
The tests go by fast. They get through most of them without incident, except for the ball toss where midoriya breaks two of his fingers to beat bakugo’s score. Otherwise though, the tests went by really smoothly.

Ochako does pretty well, using her quirk to her advantage to make the tests as easy on herself as possible, and it works. She is able to get close to first on a majority of the tests, other than the grip test which she accidentally floats the machine for a few times. But tests like the side to side steps or the long jump, which may not have been perfect for her quirk, were easy to figure out strategies for.

She ends up getting fourth place overall, but is perfectly happy to accept any score that isn’t last. Momo gets first, and uraraka is the first to congratulate her on the job well done, blushing a little as the taller girl congratulates her on breaking the bot on the ball toss.

The person in last place is a creepy little purple kid who looks like he should be in elementary school, and he cries all the way out the door as Aizawa kicks him out of UA. Uraraka would have felt bad if it were anyone else, but that kid had been a creep the entire day, and she felt her shoulders relax a bit as he walked out of sight.

The rest of the class celebrates a good job at surviving their first home room as they walk back towards the main school building to prepare for the rest of their classes. Some of them go back to change into their normal uniform, others go to get a snack from lunch rush, but ochako decides to escort midoriya to recovery girl’s office.

The rest of the day goes by pretty normally, if you consider being taught classes by pro heroes normal, and as quickly as Ochako can blink, her first day at UA is over.

*****
The next day is more of what Ochako would expect from a first day at the top hero school in the country. They have all the normal classes, as well as classes made specifically for hero course students, all of which are taught by pro heroes. At lunch Ochako sits with Momo, Midoriya, and Iida and they chat until the bell rings, and Ochako has to eat her food while she walks so that she’s able to eat it all.

But that is to say, their day was normal until they got back to class from lunch.

The purple boy who had been expelled the other day was replaced with a taller, less creepy purple boy who introduces himself to the class as Shinso Hitoshi. He sits behind midoriya, and almost immediately Ochako can tell that this guy is going to join their little friend group sometime soon.

But ochako’s thoughts are interrupted as the back door of the classroom is slammed open. She whirls around in her seat like the rest of her class to see the figure towering over the classroom.

“I AM HERE!!!!!”