Chapter Text
Ochako coughed in the dusty air, trying to figure out where she was and what had happened.
She’d gone to her parent’s worksite that day, just to see if she could help out because she was trying to get super strong so she could get into UA. It had gone well for the first while, helping pass wooden beams up to the other workers, sometimes helping with really heavy things with her quirk to lighten it.
But something had happened, something had gone wrong and here Ochako was now, coughing on the dust and blindly trying to work out where she was.
Okay, there was a wall, that was good to know. It was a start.
Ochako pulled up her shirt to try and cover her nose and mouth to filter out a bit of the dust, but it didn’t really help, which wasn’t great. She knew the dangers of getting too much stuff in your lungs.
Where was her phone? It would be able to help light up the area.
Ochako patted down her pockets, finding her phone, or at least what would be her phone if it wasn’t snapped in half. She tapped at it futility, but it was well and truly dead. Looked like she’d be going without a phone the rest of the school year, they couldn't afford to replace her phone yet. And she'd been doing so well with being careful with this one too. Before this, it hadn’t gotten even a single crack.
Putting her phone back in her pocket and abandoning the hope of light, Ochako used her free hand to feel around the area. Her wall led to something that felt like rocks, possibly fallen. Was she trapped?
Panic started setting in a little bit before Ochako consciously bit it back and sat down. She was relatively safe right now, even if she had limited air, and she couldn’t waste the air she had by panicking. She also couldn’t move too much or she’d use up even more air. She just had to wait and hope someone found her before anything else happened.
She wasn’t hurt beyond some scrapes, which was really good, and the wall she was leaning against felt sturdy and was probably one of the walls of the stairwell. She had been on the ground floor helping pass beams up last she remembered, although she didn’t remember being near the stairwell.
Maybe she’d run towards it when things started collapsing?
She couldn’t remember, so she wasn’t sure where she was or what exactly had happened. Maybe it had been a villain? She’d heard tales of villains attacking construction sites to delay heroes once or twice. That was definitely possible.
If it had been a villain, she really did just have to sit tight and hope the heroes were able to dig her out soon, since they were probably already on site, so it would hopefully be okay.
She really hoped it had been a villain. She didn’t want to think about the alternative, that she may be trapped in here for potentially days, unaware of time moving along. Was there even airflow in here? Maybe she’d suffocate before she was rescued.
It was a long time before she started hearing something, coming from her left side. She wasn’t sure how long it had been since she couldn’t tell time in any way, and honestly she wasn’t great at keeping track of time in general. It sounded like someone was trying to dig her out though, which was good. Maybe it was caused by a villain, so the heroes were here really fast.
Ochako really really wanted to hug her mom and dad and just never let go. She missed them. She’d seen them right before this, but she just really really wanted her parents.
It was another really long time, alone in the dark with just the steadily getting louder noises coming from the left, before any light started getting through.
Ochako immediately went over to it, trying to see out to where the light was coming through, but when it had been so dark before, the light was blinding. “Hello?”
“Hello?” Whoever it was on the other side asked, sounding quite surprised. “Wait, wrong response. Hey, it’s alright, we’re here to get you out. Are you injured anywhere?”
“Um, I don’t think so,” Ochako said after trying to decide if she was hurt anywhere. “Just kind of sore. And it’s really dusty.”
“I bet, it’s dusty out here too. Your head doesn’t hurt any? No bumps?”
“No, I’m okay I think. What happened?”
“A villain destabilized the foundations while trying to escape, and the structure collapsed without warning. Is there anyone else in there with you?”
“I don’t think so,” Ochako replied, now actually looking around the little space she’d been trapped in. Nope, no one else. “It’s just me.”
“Well, you were incredibly lucky, to have gotten out unharmed. And that we found you so fast. Can you tell us your name?”
“Uraraka Ochako, I was here hanging out with my parents,” Ochako explained, sniffling. Tears were starting to run a bit now that she didn’t have to try so hard to remain calm for fear of running out of oxygen or dying from dehydration. “I just wanted to help out a little.”
“It was just bad luck that this was the day this all happened,” the hero agreed. “My name’s Muddy, it’s nice to meet you.”
Ochako couldn’t stop the quiet snort that left her. “Muddy?”
Muddy sighed theatrically, sounding closer than he had been before. The light was also starting to get brighter. “I wanted it to not sound very intimidating, since I really just do rescue work, but every day I wish I’d thought about it more. If you’re a kid that wants to be a hero, here’s my warning to think about your hero name for a while before you get to the point where you need one, you’ll thank yourself later.”
“I’m applying for UA next summer,” Ochako admitted. The almost normal conversation was reassuring, a balm on the panic.
“Oh you are? Nice, hope you get in. Already got a hero name in mind?”
“I was thinking Uravity?”
“Definitely better than mine, but I guess that isn’t too hard, huh?” Muddy grunted suddenly, and Ochako pressed against the side where the light was coming from. “This stuff is heavy, glad they’re setting up pillars to support it while I get in here.”
“Do you have a strength quirk?” Ochako asked, desperate for the conversation to continue, she didn’t want to be left alone again, even if there was light.
“Huh? Oh, nah, I’d be named something cooler if I had a strength quirk. I can control mud, and right now I’m moving stuff out of the way and making sure this whole thing doesn’t shift with the mud, and, well, this building may not have been built yet, but it is very heavy. I can handle it though. And like I said, they’re starting to set up pillars to support it. I’m just looking for survivors. We’ve got someone with a hearing quirk outside, and they’re why I’m in here looking for you.”
“Just me?” Ochako asked, panic setting in again. There had been dozens of workers in and on the building, had none of them survived?
“You’re the only one this deep. Everyone else we’ve already pulled out or is dead. We got quite a lot of people though. We almost didn’t believe them when they said there was breathing coming from the middle of the building, you’re really lucky.”
“What about my parents?” Ochako asked desperately, breathing speeding up even as she tried to hold back a fresh wave of tears.
There was a long moment of almost silence, then she finally saw Muddy as they moved a large piece of concrete aside, mud sliding into the space and forming pillars to hold up the walls and stuff. It coated the path out too, holding it all out.
Muddy didn’t look that old, maybe recently graduated, and he had a sad look on his face. Ochako’s breath caught in her throat, caught behind the lump that had suddenly formed, caught behind the terror suddenly present.
“My parents?” she asked again, pleadingly, just barely forcing it past the lump and the terror and the breathlessness and the panic.
“We’re not sure. We’ll need you to help identify who you can among the bodies we’ve recovered.” Muddy reached out, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Come on, let’s get out from under all this rubble. All Might’s outside, you want to meet him? He’s pretty cool, he’s been working for the last couple hours to help move the heavy rubble. I think he’s about to leave though, he keeps coughing.”
Ochako just sobbed, unable to do much else. Muddy wrapped an arm around her shoulders and carefully guided her back through the tunnel, whispering reassurances that fell on deaf ears the whole way.
All Might was indeed outside, still moving pieces of rubble, slowly stacking them in another area in neat piles, alongside several other heroes, while several more were huddled together, discussing quietly.
All Might noticed Muddy and Ochako first, and his face fell a bit, although he visibly tried to keep up the smile for her sake. “Hello there young one! I am relieved to see you unharmed.”
Ochako sniffled, trying to use her sleeve to wipe away some of the tears and snot, but it mostly just smeared her face with dust. “H-hi.” Normally she’d be over the moon to meet All Might, but-
She just wanted her parents. Even if she didn’t know if they were alive.
“There’s a couple unconscious individuals over here,” Muddy said quietly, directing her towards where there were a couple bodies lying down, another hero keeping a close eye on them. None of them were her parents, but she identified them anyway, she did her best to remember all the names of everyone working on sites when she could, it was practice for when she was a hero and would probably need to be able to remember lots of names.
The awake workers from the site had mostly been taken away for treatment, but the couple that remained had huddled together, supporting each other.
When her parents weren’t among any of the living individuals that had been pulled out of the rubble, there was only one option left.
Only one option left, and it was that Ochako was alone. She was alone, and she would never get to hug her parents again. She would never get to make lunch with her mom, or cook dinner for her parents so they didn’t have to when they got home late, she’d never get to help her dad try and make breakfast for her mom, they would never go on the vacation her parents had always promised they’d do when she graduated highschool.
She was alone.