Chapter Text
Mina Ashido usually liked the weekend! Time for fun stuff! Hanging with friends! No worrying about school!
Well, that last one wasn’t applying this weekend. She’d been reticent in studying for the trigonometry test that was scheduled for the next Monday, so she had loaded herself down with snacks, her math books, and was hiding in her room trying her utmost to ignore all distractions.
It wasn’t really her fault, Mina reflected as she re-read a page in her textbook for the fourth time, still failing to grasp it. The entire class had been distracted for most of the week, as last Monday had been the six month anniversary of the end of the war. It was hard to think that schoolwork was at all necessary when you were constantly being reminded of that time you almost died. Or had killed someone. Or had lost someone. Or all of the above.
“Enough, Mina! We can’t afford to fail this test!” She slapped her cheeks with her hands in an effort to wake herself up, and was absolutely, totally going to start studying again when her phone buzzed a text. She absolutely wasn’t going to check it, but outside of the corner of her eye she saw the notification saying that it was one of her old middle-school friends.
That felt like a lifetime ago. So she had to check, right? It might be important! In fact, it would be a failure as a hero to not check the text, just in case it was an emergency!
So, with her conscience in the clear, Mina opened up the text. It turned out to be a link, and a message from her friend:
“You’d better let your classmate know about this ASAP.”
Well, that wasn’t ominous at all. She dared to click on the link, and as soon as the site opened and the video began to play, Mina felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
She’d been joking that it was an emergency.
“Ah no, this is awful…I gotta warn her!” Mina texted her friend a thanks, tossed her book aside, and dashed for the door.
“C’mon, where are you…” Mina practically dove down the stairs to the ground floor, having been completely unsuccessful on the apartment floors. She ducked her head into the common room, and was relieved to see people.
Izuku was busy showing Iida and Todoroki something on his own phone, all three of them plonked down on a couch. It probably was some nerdy Quirk business, knowing him. Bakugo was sitting on a nearby chair, clearly trying hard to look like he wasn’t paying attention when he absolutely was paying attention, because it was Bakugo and he was just like that.
Focus, Mina! This is important!
“Midoriya!” Mina announced as she approached the four. He startled at her call, and all four looked at her. “Do you know where Uraraka is? It’s really important!”
“Uraraka?” Izuku thought for a moment. “Tsuyu, Yaoyorozu and Jiro took her to the movies. You know, to get her mind off of..”
“Of course she’s in public. Of course! Ugh, I have to text her right away!” Mina began fiddling with her phone, before Ilda spoke up.
“Ashido? What is going on? If it’s important, we should all-”
“UGHH! It’s so bad!” Mina said at the first moment of encouragement, startling Ilda into silence. “An old friend just texted me a link to one of those stupid hero rumor tabloid websites where people can upload photos and videos and junk! It’s really bad!”
She outstretched her phone so they could see, and they crowded the tiny screen.
URAVITY SPOTTED CRYING OVER GRAVE OF KNOWN LEAGUE OF VILLAINS MEMBER
Is there more to the story than has been released to the public?
Mina really didn’t want to, but she started the video. The quality wasn’t the best, shaky, and clearly taken from an angle and position that suggested that whoever took the video was hiding. But the image was clear as day. Uraraka stood in front of what was clearly a grave, a bouquet of flowers in her hands. The audio was poor, but as they strained they could just hear Uraraka say “Himiko” at one point.
Uraraka laid the bouquet down, and tried to straighten. But then her arms wrapped around her sides, and even the poor audio could pick up her starting to loudly weep. Mina quickly slammed her thumb down on the screen to stop the video.
"The location of graves of the League members were supposed to be concealed by the HSPC. Hawks told us that.” Todoroki said with some alarm. His own brother had died only a month back, and the idea that his grave's location was public knowledge was alarming. “Their location was need-to-know. That’s how it was supposed to be.”
“Looks like there’s a snitch.” Bakugo muttered angrily. “Some asshole who got a payday for their location.”
“Uraraka…” Izuku fretted. “This is awful! We have to let all four of them know, so they can get back to UA as soon as possible!”
“We should tell the school as well!” Iida added. “They’ve been shielding us from reporters since the war, they’ll want to know about this breach!”
“It’s actually worse than you guys are all thinking.” Mina said gravely, knowing full well that a group of four boys wouldn’t pick up on the whole context. She pointed to the bouquet that Uraraka had laid on Himiko’s grave. “The flowers? They’re red carnations. That’s a romantic bouquet.”
“Oh no…” Izuku said, the dread that was descending upon them all evident in his voice.
“You get it now. We absolutely need to tell them ASAP!”
“Well, that movie certainly was…interesting!” Momo Yaoyourozu said diplomatically as the group exited the movie theatre. She had wanted to see the romantic movie that had been playing, but was outvoted 3-1 in favor of the frankly too-loud action film. “Now, I believe there’s an excellent bakery a block from here. Why don’t we stop and get some sweets? My treat.”
“You already covered for the movie, and Tsuyu and Kyokya paid for lunch!” Ochako protested, as the four cut a path through the bustling crowds, and began to reach for her purse. “Momo, really, let me…”
“No, kero.” Tsuyu said as she put her hand on Ochako’s arm. “Let us treat you, Ochako.”
“You’ve been needing a day out to be a teenager for months, Ochako.” Jiro added. “You’ve been working too hard, and we know you want to save your money. Tsuyu’s right.”
Ochako’s hand dropped from her purse, and she nodded in defeat.
“Okay, okay, lead on, Momo!” She put on her best smile. Ochako wasn’t blind to what was going on, of course. It wasn’t like she had been working particularly harder than anyone else in Class 2-A. The truth was they were worried for her. Not without merit, Ochako had to concede. The past week had been a tough one for her, the toughest since the end of the war, and it had been impossible to hide the pain from her friends. They had become too perceptive to it, once they had learned how much pain she had been carrying since that day…
Even now, she found herself wondering what she would have ordered for lunch, that maybe during the movie Ochako could have snuck in a few kisses under the cover of darkness, if maybe she’d like holding hands while they walked down the street…
Her drifting fantasies of a beautiful smile and golden hair were interrupted by all four of their phones going off simultaneously. The others went for their phones, but before Ochako could reach for hers, a voice called out to her.
“Ochako Uraraka?” Ochako looked up to see a camera pointed at her face. An adult male was on the other end of it, clearly a videographer of some sort judging from the logo on his camera, though Ochako couldn’t recognize the company he worked for. An arrow pointing directly at Ochako was hovering just within his line of sight. The man clearly had some sort of locator Quirk. “Our viewers have a question for you.”
Pushy media wasn’t unheard of in the hero business, of course. All of Class 2-A had suffered some level of intrusion in their lives from them, particularly after the end of the War, despite UA’s formidable efforts to protect them. Ochako went for the stock answer that they had been told to deliver, slightly distracted as she heard Kyoka swear under her breath.
“I’m sorry, as a student I cannot answer any questions for media, please direct any and all queries to the UA media office at-”
“Ochako, we have to go now!” Tsuyu suddenly grabbed her arm like she was in danger, but before she could pull Ochako away the man spoke again.
“Ochako Uraraka, did you have a romantic relationship with the villain Himiko Toga?”
The question poleaxed Ochako, rendering her mute and immobile. She could only just stand there, mouth agape, the words tearing at unseen wounds. A crowd was starting to gather, attracted by the videographer confronting the four known heroes of the War. Caught like a deer in the headlights, Ochako was fortunate that she had friends.
Tsuyu and Kyoka immediately put themselves between Ochako and the videographer, while she felt Momo stepping to shield her from behind.
“You snake!” Kyoka snarled. “Uraraka almost died protecting all of you, and that’s how you’re repaying her?”
“We won’t be answering any questions to you or anyone else!” Tsuyu said, her body language betraying her own fury. “Leave Ochako alone!”
“Look, the public has a right to know what happened with the new information!” The videographer protested. “The war affected everyone! So if there’s more to the story-”
“We will not allow you to harass our friend. Now, if you’ll excuse us..” Momo said behind Ochako, and she felt the movement of Momo’s hand. Something hit the ground with a clatter, and smoke exploded out around them, obscuring the area. Tsuyu and Kyoka took the opportunity, grabbing both of Ochako’s hands and practically dragging the stunned girl between the two of them, Momo pushing her from behind.
Finally Ochako’s legs remembered that they existed, and they began to run faster. The group ducked across one alleyway, Momo taking a moment to use her Quirk to set up a fence at the entry of the alley. They crossed alleyways and busy streets on their way to UA, only stopping when they were confident that they had lost any possible pursuit. They planted Ochako down on a bench in a quiet park just outside of the UA grounds, as the girl began to tremble. Tsuyu wrapped her arms around Ochako, and Momo shifted to keep a lookout.
“What’s going on? Why did he ask me that?” Ochako asked quietly, trying to control the storm of emotions that were surging through her. “What did he mean by new information?”
The trio exchanged grim looks with one another, and Kyoka knelt, taking one of Ochako’s hands.
“You know when you went to see Toga’s grave last week?” She said gently, and Ochako gave a numb nod.
How could she forget?
“Someone was watching, Ochako.” Kyoka said through gritted teeth. “Someone took a video.”
“Ochako, I’m sorry, but it’s been posted online for all to see.” Tsuyu hugged her friend tightly, Ochako’s trembling body graduating into full-on shaking. Tsuyu kept her body from shaking with rage, and hung onto Ochako as she curled into herself. “That’s why, kero.”
Someone had been watching her as she cried, someone had been filming as she laid her bouquet and laid her soul bare to the cold stone of her grave. Ochako was exposed for all to see.
Ochako’s hand went to her mouth, and she bent down, emptying her stomach on the pavement.
It was inescapable.
The video spread like wildfire, the image of a hero weeping over the grave of a villain was far too attractive to ignore. It got so intense that even the mainstream news was forced to cover it, although at the very least they refrained from showing too much of the video. There was no silencing it, the war was still etched so deeply in people's hearts and minds that anything involving it could not be ignored.
Ochako’s private pain had become a public spectacle.
The speculation was constant, and coming from all angles. Experts and amateurs alike grasping for the reasons why a promising young hero could possibly be weeping over an ignoble villain. Some simply believed that Ochako was grieving a life lost, that she was experiencing the necessary toll of being a hero sometimes. Others believed in the romantic, a secret forbidden affair hidden behind the scenes. Tragic romance with an even more tragic end. The more cynically minded wondered if Ochako had been a secret villain all along, and simply either switched sides at the last minute when she saw how the winds of battle were changing, or it was part of a backup plan that had yet to be revealed. All in the tone that made them sound like they had secret knowledge of Ochako’s inner workings.
The speculation had been compounded, of course, by the lack of footage of her final conflict with Himiko thanks to a dead camera battery. The video of the battle had ended at the moment there was a brilliant pink flash, when Ochako’s quirk had awakened. For most, the story ended there. The heroes who had spoken of it kept the specifics quiet for the sake of Ochako’s emotional well-being, speaking only of her bravery, and her success in stopping the living tide of Twices.
None of this was helped when the video recorded by the man who had ambushed them was released. Both her stunned reaction to the question, and the vigorous defense her friends had put up, suggested that there was something beyond common knowledge. That was probably why he had set up the ambush.
As far as the public had been concerned before this, that front of the war had ended with one girl near-dead, and another dead. The heroes had won, and the villains had lost, at a grave cost to both parties.
Just another tragedy in a time of tragedies.
No need to question it, until there was.
Now they demanded answers.
It left Ochako feeling besieged from all sides. She couldn’t leave the campus for fear of being confronted. Her email and phone had been flooded by inquiries and harassment. Even at school she heard the other students, outside of the hero course, whispering about the love affair between hero and villain. Some even speculated if Ochako should be attending UA at all. Her friends had closed ranks around her, doing their best to protect her. She knew Bakugo had gotten reprimanded for punching a first year with a snide mouth. She was thankful for them, as ever, but even their heroic efforts couldn’t stop how trapped Ochako felt.
How humiliated she felt.
How violated she felt.
It made Ochako long for a Quirk like Himiko’s, for the ability to be anyone other than Ochako Uraraka, to escape from the grief and the humiliation. Even for a few hours.
"You’re supposed to be protecting Ochako!” Ochako’s father bellowed. “Everything you've already put her through, and now this!?”
Ochako had found herself in a meeting between her and her parents on one side, and Nezu, Detective Tsukauchi, and Hawks on the other a few days later. It was the angriest she had ever seen her parents. They might not have been completely able to understand Ochako’s ties to Himiko, but they understood that their daughter was hurting, and that was enough.
Ochako sat in the uncomfortable chair and stared at her shoes. She felt so awful for her parents, she knew they were getting harassed daily because of her, but they refused to tell her about it.
“I can only offer our deepest apologies.” Hawks looked about as angry as her parents did. “I owe your daughter my life, after all. I promise you we're already undergoing an investigation to find the leak. In the HSPC, only a dozen people know of the location of the League graves. That includes the people in this room.”
“The graveyard where they are located is HSPC controlled. We've spoken with the manager and groundskeepers, they professed no knowledge and their background checks were clean. We’re inclined to believe they had nothing to do with this, but we’ll keep an eye on them.” Detective Tsukauchi added as he checked his notes. “Additionally, the graveyard isn't open to the public, and while there are visitors, the League graves are placed in a gated, out-of-the-way area that no one had reason to enter. So it's unlikely to have been an outsider.”
“In UA, we kept knowledge of the locations to myself, All Might, and your Professors Aizawa and Present Mic.” Nezu looked at Ochako, and she forced herself to match his gaze. “Of the students, we have only provided the locations to students we felt had special ties to the deceased. Yourself, Todoroki Shoto, and Midoriya Izuku.”
Ochako and Izuku had both led the charge to make sure that the League got some commemoration, supported by Aizawa, who as it turned out had a connection to Kurogiri. Graves for the fallen, for the people that they’d failed to save. A memorial to their failure.
The HSPC was in no mood to go against the trivial wishes of the Savior of Japan, and the girl who had stopped a living flood, so had honored their requests. When Toya died a few weeks past, they’d buried him in the same location.
Ochako wondered if it had dawned on Izuku just how much power he could potentially wield. Likely not, Izuku still had issues thinking too little of himself.
“Is there anyone else?” Ochako’s mother asked, one hand reaching to squeeze her daughter’s arm comfortingly.
“Only immediate family members. Tomura Shigaraki had no known living family. That leaves the Todorokis as Nezu mentioned, and the Togas. Though they did not respond to our invitation.” Hawks replied.
“They hated her.” Ochako finally spoke up, her voice scratchy and weak from crying. “They were probably happy to finally wash their hands of her.”
“Ochako. I deeply apologize.” Hawks said to her. He looked tired. “I promise you, I'll do my best to make this right.”
Ochako appreciated the thought, but personally doubted that he could.
The only person who could make this right was gone.