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From high up in a tree, Uraraka Ochako sighed and leaned against the tree trunk. She'd been sitting there for half an hour, at least, but no hero student had come near.
She was bored. Not for the first time, she wondered if she should have found a different way to earn money for her parents. She didn't exactly agree ideologically with her current employer.
But she pushed that thought away. She had already sent the first half of the money home. Even if she came ratted out the rest of her group, she'd face punishment. With the place UA held in society, the punishment would definitely be severe. With a villain daughter, her parents would never get another client.
She looked down at the ground with more focus than before. Better to get it done fast. If she was fast enough, no one would see her face or be able to figure out her name. The only UA student she was likely to talk with for long was Bakugou Katsuki, who Shigaraki was trying to recruit. If he joined, there wouldn't be a danger in him learning her name.
She just hoped she was the one to find him. Shigaraki had promised a bonus if she did.
She soon saw someone approaching. She hadn't gotten close to anyone she was fighting alongside, but this person definitely was not one of them. This was obviously a teen, and the only other teen was Mustard.
Must be a student.
Not Bakugou—not with those cutesy space buns—but another blonde. Ochako hadn't bothered learning names of most of the students—not one minute of the sports festival had been played in her house and she hadn't cared much about the write-ups about the students Shigaraki had handed out—but Shigaraki had pointed out this girl. Her quirk involved the ingestion of blood or something. Ochako didn't remember the exact details, but her quirk was the reason most members, Ochako included, of the Vanguard Action Squad had been instructed to wear thick clothes covering as much skin as possible.
To accommodate for her own quirk, Ochako wore fingerless gloves. The rest of her, besides her face, was covered. The clothes were hot, but undeniably practical.
Ochako waited until the girl stepped into the perfect spot before deactivating her quirk.
A large rock quickly fell to the ground. Not big enough to completely crush someone, but certainly enough for brain damage. Ochako had been suspending it hidden among the leaves even longer than she herself had been in the trees.
Unfortunately for Ochako, but fortunately for the hero student, the girl quickly dodged out of the way of the boulder.
"Who's there!" The girl shouted, back now straight.
Ochako stayed silent and still. She didn't need to draw attention to her location.
The girl's eyes glinted red as she looked around. "There," she said quietly, almost to herself. Then, louder: "I see you in the tree! Who are you? What do you want?"
"So sure I'm not just in the other class?" Ochako said, not moving from her spot but subtly activating her quirk to remove weight from everything she wore and carried.
The girl laughed. "Of course you aren't! I know all the girls."
Fair enough, Ochako accepted. She dropped to the ground. "Call me… Uravity," she said. "In your head, at least. Unfortunately, you won't be walking away today to tell it to anyone else."
"So confident!" The girl squealed.
"You don't seem nervous," Ochako observed, still not moving to approach.
"Why should I be?" The girl asked.
Ochako hated that sort of attitude. Everyone was capable of failure. The ego it took to dismiss a threat really pissed her off. Why should someone like this get the chance to be a hero? She probably just thought it seemed fun. There'd been so many people like that in Ochako's middle school class and then even more at the UA entrance exam.
But, whatever. It wasn't her fault Ochako had failed. It was the shitty robot's fault and Ochako's own fault and the fault of whoever designed the test in the first place.
Ochako had been so rattled by almost dying that she failed every other entrance exam she took, heroics or otherwise.
Ochako cursed herself for getting distracted. The girl was inching closer, movements barely noticable.
With her rock attack wasted, there wasn't much else Ochako could do in the forest. Calling to mind the map Shigaraki made her memorize, she took off towards a more open space.
The hero student giggled and took off after her.
The girl was fast, but Ochako was faster. That said, Ochako didn't allow the girl to far too much behind. She couldn't defeat her if the girl got lost.
They reached a field dotted with boulders. Ochako touched them as she ran through, skidding the dirt with her feet to form clouds in the air. She felt something brush up against her arm—painfully—and, as fast as she could, turned to the side and pulled away.
Hero student held a knife in her hand, which glinted in the moonlight. Ochako felt a stinging in her arm as her blood met the air.
"That hurt," Ochako said.
"You tried to kill me."
Fair.
Ochako kicked up another dust cloud and ran before dropping rocks again—this time dozens of them.
When the dust cleared, the hero student was nowhere to be found.
Ochako slowly turned in a circle. At the edge of the forest, she could see Twice.
Unfortunately, Ochako failed to look down. Before she knew, someone leaped up from below and tackled her to the ground. The hero student tied Ochako up with her jacket. She must have noticed Ochako activating her quirk using five fingers, because she used a few strips from the hem of her shirt to tie them up in a way that prevented her from touching anything useful.
Damn it.
"You're pretty good," Ochako said, conversationally. The girl smiled as she tied the last knot on Ochako's fingers.
"Carmellia will be a name to remember one day," the girl said.
"That your hero name?"
Carmellia nodded.
"Maybe one day," Ochako agreed. "But not for beating me. Twice!" She shouted over the rocks. "Give me a hand!"
"No," Twice shouted back from out of sight, "How about multiple?"
Several clones of Ochako came into existence, swarming Ochako and Carmellia. Carmellia tried her best, but Twice kept sending more over.
Carmellia had neglected to restrain her legs, so Ochako was able to make a get-away. Twice cut her out of the restraints and updated her on the situation.
Ochako took a moment to be grateful it was him who had been nearby and not, say, Moonfish or Muscular before they parted ways to—successfully—complete their mission.
Ochako awoke next day in Shigaraki's base. She hadn't been awake enough to switch out of the base of the gear she had worn yesterday, but figured she was presentable enough. It's not like there was anyone she cared about.
"Your decision's been made for you," Dabi said, as soon as Ochako stepped into the room.
"What?" Ochako stared blankly for a moment before crossing the room to join him.
Dabi pointed to the TV. Sure enough, her full name was there on the screen accompanied by a photo of her, cropped to remove her parents, and text denoting her as a C-ranked villain.
"The lowest rank in the league," Dabi reported. "It's only you and Spinner down there."
Ochako didn't care. This would be worse for her parents than the unemployment was. The impact on her parents was the same whether she was C-ranked or if she was in A or B with Dabi and the rest.
"I hope you didn't have another job lined up," Dabi continued. "You're stuck with us now."
"Lovely," Ochako said, itching lightly at the bandage on her arm. Kurogiri had insisted on treating it before allowing her to sleep. "How'd they…"
"You fought Toga, right?" Dabi confirmed.
Ochako stared.
He curled his hands into fists and held them behind his head, imitating Carmellia's space buns.
"Oh," Ochako said. "Her. Yeah. Kurogiri said the amount it bled probably didn't matter because I got pressure on it and wrapped it fast."
"Must have gotten just enough blood to transform into you," he said. "Shigaraki won't be happy."
Ochako scoffed. "If he cared so much, he should have come with us."
"Exactly," Dabi said. "You should go tell him that."
Ochako rolled her eyes. "I value my life, thank you very much."
Written by a human in Ellipsus.