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Ochako woke up before her alarm went off.
This wasn’t unusual for her on a day like today, her nightmares tend to wake her up minutes or hours before she means to wake up, but today she’s greeted by fishy breath and an uneven lump on her chest. Bright yellow-green eyes and wide pupils stared down at her as Katsudon the tortoiseshell meowed and meowed for her to wake up.
“I thought cats were supposed to have clean mouths,” she muttered to the animal, “And yet you and Soba always have the stinkiest breath…”
The cat meowed again and jumped from her chest to her lap with a faint pressure. His back leg hit the scar that sat right above her left breast and the area stung a bit, but not as much as it used to. The scar was very old, after all. In fact, today was the anniversary of the day she got it.
Not that Ochako was keeping track. Her brain normally remembered unconsciously when the anniversary came up. According to her therapist, it’d get easier on the actual day and eventually she’d begin to realize the date had passed, but ten years wasn’t enough time for things to settle. Not even the public had finished mourning.
Ochako swung her legs over her bed and went about the normal tasks of her morning routine. Shower, change, brush hair, light makeup, make sure the necklace hung right on her neck, it all was habit at this point. She gently touched the five charms on the thin golden chain and sighed.
Ten years ago, this was a dangerous reminder to her. So dangerous, she kept it locked away, never to see the light of day as long as the wounds were still fresh in her mind. She’d only begun pulling it out and wearing it semi-regularly a few years ago. The reminder was just an old memory at this point.
Katsudon’s meowing snapped her out of her thoughts and she finally left her bedroom. Ochako scooped the tortoiseshell into her arms and deposited him on his favorite spot on her shoulder. His back legs hung down her back while his front paws dug into her collarbone. Soba, a white persian cat that lost her left eye and ear in a fight when she was still a stray, a fact that totally didn’t play into Ochako adopting her, sat at the entrance to the kitchen with an expectant look on her little face. Soba and Katsudon were simply a bonded pair at the shelter and Ochako had plenty of room and love for two cats in her apartment.
As she prepared their breakfast, she listened to whatever news channel that happened to be on when she turned on the TV. It was an older channel that used to be dedicated to hero news, but was repurposed to highlight old historical events, before it all became lost to time.
“And today we honor the ten-year anniversary of the Day of Reckoning,” the anchor was saying, “Most know it as the day we almost lost Japan as we knew it, but we in the station would like to honor those who gave their lives to ensure our survival.”
Just like any other year, it was a memorial broadcast. A lot of the footage of that day remained, with the surprising amount of internet archivists out there, so the channel began playing small clips of the fallen, if there were any. It began with small, local heroes and support technicians from the Coffin, then transitioned into the more recognizable faces.
Ochako let their names and any associated memories play over in her head. She’d honor the fallen today by remembering them as she knew them: her own classmates and friends.
The anchor went to the next page of names, “Tsuyu Asui, Provisional Hero Name: Froppy.”
Tsu’s bright smile from the Sports Festival and her fierce fighting in the war were shown. Her fatal injury was a blade that sliced her tongue off, then the subsequent fall when nothing kept her in the air.
Ochako began making her own meal, the cats satiated for now.
“Tenya Iida, Provisional Hero Name: Ingenium.”
His armor pieces were scattered around the fallen building rubble and the metal bits that made up his leg engines were found in one big pile. His brother, Tensei, had been the one to identify the parts when it was all that was found. No actual body was needed to confirm the death, but the mangled head of blue hair and Ingenium logo just made it feel more real. Tenya was cremated, his ashes scattered along his favorite hiking trail.
Ochako set to watering her plants. A small orange sapling sat on her balcony and soon she’d transfer it to the gardening plot her apartment complex had behind it. It’d take a few years to bear anything, but Ochako had the time to wait.
“Shoto Todoroki, Provisional Hero Name: Shoto.”
At first, they didn’t find Todoroki’s body. He was too badly burned and the charred flesh blended in too well with the dirt of the Gunga Villa site. But when he was found by police sniffer dogs a week after the disaster, he was found with his whole family around him, minus the villain they had set out to stop. Sometimes, people report seeing fresh flowers being laid out on Rei Todoroki’s grave.
Ochako grabbed her tea kettle and special tea blend. It was hard to find nowadays, as the person who normally made it died in the war, but Ochako finally found a supplier.
“Izuku Midoriya, Provisional Hero Name: Deku.”
They never did find Midoriya’s body. When the Coffin in the Sky began listing over, it was suspected that he tumbled over the side and into the ocean. Witness reports stated that he had his neck snapped and all they could recover was the respirator mask he wore under the yellow scarf. Post-war searches brought up nothing, meaning he was probably lost to the circle of life as the ocean reclaimed the crash site for itself.
The other names came and went as Ochako finished up her morning, then turned off the TV. She had today off from work, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t busy. With one last kiss and head pat to her cats, she gave them a quiet goodbye and left the apartment.
The walk to Inko’s wasn’t that long. When Ochako graduated UA and started university, she moved in with the woman. After living in the area for a few years, she found herself not wanting to leave, so she got a place a few miles away that worked. The people around here were older folks, normally, who loved having a “young spirit” around all the time. Ochako waved to those she knew and didn’t (the revolving door of people who lived in these buildings was slow, but every week she found someone new) as she passed by. Her usual friends asked her how her cats were or how work was or how school was going and she answered with quick responses and a smile.
Most of these people don’t remember her as one of the heroes. They just see a young woman with a wide smile and a few scars along her face and arms that they dare not ask about. Everyone in this day and age has a scar story, most everyone here does, so why would she be any different? It’s probably why she loved living in this area so much. The people saw weirder and weirder folks everyday that an ex-hero-turned-psychologist with plenty of war scars was no different from them.
Ochako shifted her bags to one hand to open the gate into the Midoriya front yard and looked upon a familiar scene. Inko was sitting on the large white porch swing, her borzoi laying next to her with his head on her lap. The borzoi, named Scotty, was a gift from Ochako to Inko about five years ago, when Ochako finally moved into her place and didn’t want to leave Inko completely alone in the house. He was a pretty thing, with long white fur, a fluffy feather-like tail, and the long snout typical of the breed. Scotty was missing his left ear and had a small scar running down the left side of his face, a holdover from when he was a puppy in a soon-to-be-reclaimed section of Japan.
Scotty’s remaining ear rose at the sound of the gate opening and he turned his head to Ochako. Once he caught eye of her, he pushed off the porch swing, making it sway a little and getting a laugh out of Inko, and raced down the steps to greet her.
“Hey, buddy,” she knelt down and rubbed his face and neck, “Bein’ a good boy for Inko? Huh?”
He barked a response and licked the side of her face.
“Yeah, I hear ya, Scotty,” Ochako said, then reached into one of her bags and pulled out a large ham bone. He stared at it with expectant eyes, “Finally cleaned this off, you want it?”
He barked again, then sat down. His front paws twitched in anticipation and Ochako threw it to the other side of the yard, laughing as the borzoi almost hit the fence in his excitement over the bone. She rose, dusted herself off, and went to sit down next to Inko.
She was giggling while sipping at her tea, “You’re spoiling him, dear.”
“No, I’m simply being a good samaritan,” once the laughter subsided, Ochako sighed, “How’s the leg?”
Inko looked down at her prosthetic with a twinge on her lips, “As good as it can be, I suppose. Mei did a great job on it, but you can imagine how phantom pain gets in these old bones.”
“You aren’t old, Inko.”
“It certainly feels like it.”
The fight against All for One and Shigaraki was brutal and painful, with many people losing their lives or limbs had they survived the onslaught. Ochako was one of the very, very few people who made it out without much damage, the fight only taking her pinkie finger from her left hand. It made using her quirk with that hand practically impossible in her eyes, even if her old classmates said it wasn’t.
“If Aizawa can erase a quirk with one eye, you can float things with four fingers,” Sero had said.
Many of her ex-peers had to give up their dreams when the war was finally over. So few of her class survived that UA permanently disbanded their hero course after she graduated, citing a failure on their part to protect the students they were supposed to. It sort of helped that hero society in Japan crumbled after the war. Few looked upon the devastation caused by the fighting and wanted to restart what was proven to be a hopeless system. Several big-name heroes even spoke out against the people in charge of keeping that system afloat, mainly Hawks, as the Commission’s greatest success story.
Ochako was happy to just grab her high school diploma and live a normal life afterwards. Her parents were living better now, at least, with her father’s construction work carrying him around the country in the years following the Day of Reckoning. She fell back on her study habits in university and earned her masters in Childhood Psychology to help in a way that didn’t put her in the line of fire.
She loved what she ended up doing, even if her muscles ached with disuse and her mind still called back to the martial arts she learned at her very first internship. She’d called Gunhead not too long ago, maybe a year or two at this point, just to catch up. He’d started a dojo for youth in his new city and was teaching self defense. It was all lighthearted and he sounded fulfilled after hanging up the metaphorical cape.
Other heroes had a harder time moving on, but months of recovery and protests from the people had them all leaving to find other places to be heroes. Other countries existed, after all.
“How are Katsudon and Soba?” Inko asked.
“Happy kitties with too many toys and demands for food.”
“Good, good,” Inko pushed herself to her feet and grabbed her cane, “Shall we?”
Ochako nodded and retrieved her bags. Inko placed her teacup back in the house and pulled Scotty away from his precious bone to get him inside. Once she had locked her doors and the gate, they made off down the street once more.
Their tradition was sort of an accident to begin with. It took three years for anybody to even think about building memorials for those lost, as those alive took precedence over the dead. Ochako helped where she could, but being a kid who lost half her class in the fighting, she wasn’t of much use. What she did do was help maintain some air of hope among the survivors.
One such memorial, built after the dust settled, was to the so-called “Hell Class of UA”, or what the public had begun calling the twenty-one students who dedicated their childhoods to becoming soldiers on the front lines. The monument, located near the old Midoriya residence, was a recovery art piece, made of pure rubble found during clean-up. The artist used un-recycleable pieces of stone, rebar, i-beams, and glass to create the large silhouette of a flock of doves, twenty-one in total. The ones who were flying were carved with the initials of those who died, totalling thirteen in-flight and eight who remained on the ground.
The memorial was settled near UA’s campus and was a daily reminder to the still-active Principal Nedzu of his own mistakes regarding the war. Ochako had spoken with the rat on many occasions following the Day of Reckoning, but all of them ended the same: with Nedzu apologizing for his failings as a teacher and principal.
Inko and Ochako slowly walked to the memorial park and found a nice shady spot in the grass under a large willow tree. It gave them a good view of the lake in this park and of the wildlife that slowly returned to the area. They settled on the blanket Inko brought and sighed in the peace of the scene.
“Ten years…” Inko started, “Ten years ago our lives changed forever.”
“That they did, but I tend to think of that day as eleven years ago,” Ochako shrugged, “The day One for All was passed down was the day everything changed, even if we didn’t know it at the time.”
“The day you met him,” the older woman smiled and reached up to touch the locket around her neck. It was a small oval-shaped charm with a well-known image of her late son inside, “The day his dreams came true.”
“Have you spoken to Katsuki recently?”
“He called last week, but things in America have been hectic, apparently.”
Ochako hummed. Bakugo was the only one of her remaining classmates to still become a hero. He left Japan at graduation, cut all contact with his previous peers, and had been living out his dreams in America and Canada for seven years. Last Ochako heard, he was number five in America and slowly encroaching on the number four spot. But the competition over there was rough, even for an experienced fighter like Bakugo.
She pushed the thought to the back of her mind as the others slowly filed into the park. Sero arrived carrying his baby sister on his shoulders and happily passed her off to “Auntie Ocha” when she waved him over. Both of their parents died in the war, so after graduation, Sero happily adopted his sister and became her caretaker. Ochako, who was eager to help, babysat and was a place to crash for them while they figured their lives out. Sero eventually moved on to being a personal trainer and physical therapist for amputees and people with disabilities. He repaid Ochako by helping her overcome the loss of her pinkie.
Ojiro and Hagakure were next, showing up with plenty of baked goods from Hagakure’s bakery. Ojiro had kept up with his martial arts training and hosted a workshop for adults at community centers around the country. Hagakure inherited the family business after her mom passed away a few years prior and was happily curving her talents to suit the needs of the business. Last Ochako heard, they were engaged and Hagakure happily showed off the very visible ring on her finger.
Yaomomo came in later than Ochako expected her to, but as the heir of her family name and fortune, she was barely able to get the anniversary off. She arrived eager to have a moment’s reprieve and was instantly chatting with Inko about teas they’d recently tried and Yaomomo’s scholarship for universities nearby. Even if she couldn’t be a licensed hero due to her partial blindness (bullshit, but Momo wasn’t too miffed about it), she was still a massive hero to those she aided after the war.
The appearance of lilac and blonde told Ochako that Shinsou and Kaminari had arrived next. They brought their cat in a little viewport backpack and let Sero’s sister meet him right away. Kaminari had apparently gotten into game development and IT security, balancing a hobby and a full-time job. Shinsou had hung up the capture weapon to become an author. They both worked remotely and used that as an opportunity to travel a lot together, having gotten married right out of high school.
“Dad said they’d be here later,” Shinsou said to Ochako, “Traffic around here on this day is often bad.”
“I get it, he can arrive whenever he needs to,” she nodded and smiled, “How’s the novel coming along?”
“Got the last chapter sent to my editor last week and we should be able to send it to the publisher tomorrow,” he shrugged, “Already got asked for the first chapter of the next one.”
“That’s amazing! I’ve been loving the series so far,” she poked him in the side, avoiding an area of scar tissue that she knew still bothered him, “You still haven’t apologized for killing off my favorite character.”
“I told you to not get attached.”
“My therapist will know your name.”
He laughed and put a hand on her shoulder, “Ochako, your therapist already knows my name. I think they know the names of all of us.”
“Can confirm,” Sero yelled across the picnic area, “Mine keeps asking me if Denki’s game is out.”
“Tell them it’ll be ready when I fix the enemy encounters,” Kaminari said, “So far, every step you take causes one and I’m not trying to have a rogue-like.”
Ochako rolled her eyes, “In any case, are we missing anyone else?”
“Bakugo, but that’s not a surprise,” Yaomomo said, “He’s rather focused on his hero work.”
Sero sighed, “I thought he of all people would be here for the anniversary-“
“Who’s to say I’m not, Tape Face?”
Their heads snapped over to see a familiar head of blonde hair coming up the path to the tree. The scar he gained on the Day of Reckoning was faded by now and accompanied by a few more across his nose. His hair was shaved on the sides with explosion indents and he had a slit in one eyebrow where a scar ran down to his top eyelid. He looked like he stumbled out of a fashion catalogue or a stupid romcom.
“Hey, guys,” he said, “Long time, no see.”
Ochako stumbled to her feet, her heels catching in the blanket, and ran forward to envelope him in a hug, “You bastard man! I thought you weren’t coming!”
“Never said I wasn’t either,” he said, “Auntie made a compelling case last week and the head of my agency approved the day off yesterday. Took an overnight flight to make it.”
“A lot of words to say that you wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Inko looked ready to stand up from her spot, but her leg wasn’t letting her. Bakugo instead moved to sit beside her and pulled his aunt into a hug, “It’s nice to see you, dear.”
“Hey, Auntie.”
Sero was quick to jump the man, “What the hell, dude?! You tryin’ to hit your dramatic entrance quota?!”
“Yeah, man, you’ve gotta at least warn us!” Kaminari planted his hands onto Bakugo’s shoulders and leaned down into him, “The gang’s all here!”
Their chiding and snark devolved into casual catching-up, belated congratulations, life updates, and a wedding date announcement from Hagakure and Ojiro. Aizawa and Yamada came in soon after, happily joining in on the merriment. Ochako just let herself lean back against the tree in a contentment she hadn’t felt since their first year of high school.
And she knew her friends hadn’t really felt it either. Kaminari often said he had to stop himself from asking Sero if Kirishima and Ashido were coming on their monthly lunches. Hagakure would go to talk about Jirou and Tsu only to pause and “forget” what she was gonna say. The thirteen missing classmates they were honoring today hung heavy in their hearts and Ochako wasn’t sure they’d ever feel light again.
When you meet someone and they change your life forever, it’s hard to forget them. You see them in every little thing, from a mention of what used to be their favorite singer to a simple color you often associated with them. Ochako couldn’t stand lightning or snowstorms anymore. She would look away from the frogs in the creek by her house and didn’t like to drive anywhere. Her friends have been gone for ten years, but she saw them in every little thing and it caused a pang in her heart to think about them.
But she can’t find it in herself to let go of them. She only knew them for a year and it was the most influential year of her life. They were her best friends, her trauma bonding buddies, her fellow hero students, and the reason she looked at hero work differently every day. They laughed and cried together, they lived and played together, they learned and grew together… It's hard to forget that experience.
The eight survivors of the Hell Class of UA gathered under the afternoon sun to celebrate and honor their fallen friends. With glasses held high, they gave the thirteen ghosts a moment of silence. Ochako could’ve sworn she heard a small echoey “thank you” fly past her ears. Tears were shed, unspoken words forgotten, and a small group of people celebrated another year since the tragedy that shook the world.
Ochako found herself alone with Inko and Bakugo after everyone else had left early into the evening. They all had their own lives to get back to and individually filed out of the memorial park. The three had an additional plan to go to some graves and another memorial today, just them, so while Inko stretched her legs around the park, Ochako and Bakugo got to work cleaning up and putting things into his rental car.
“Do you think…” she suddenly said, her voice low, “Do you think they appreciate that we do this?”
Bakugo just shrugged, “Dunno. But it’s what makes us feel better about them being gone, so… what’s the harm?”
“I don’t know… a part of me thinks they’d yell at us for not moving on, but…” she rubbed her arms in an attempt to clear away the faint goosebumps she had, “They deserve to be remembered for what they did. When does that honor stop being something worth gathering for?”
“It doesn’t,” he said firmly, “And if you feel like you’re forgetting them, then just know that they’re in everything you do now. Izuku won’t hold a grudge against you for not mourning him every day, trust me. He couldn’t hold a grudge to save his life.”
She nodded and wiped away the tears forming in her eyes, “You’re right. Sorry… it’s just been so long.”
“I know, Ocha, I know,” he leaned over and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, “I miss them too.”
There was a strange sense of company Ochako found in Bakugo that she couldn’t find with anyone else. They both lost people in the war, even people they loved, but Bakugo lost someone he’d known for years. Even if they weren’t friends for a lot of it, he was coming up on the milestone where he’d lived more time alone than knowing Midoriya. They had just become friends again, too. It pained Ochako to think about what he was going through after Midoriya’s death.
She only ever had a small crush on the boy. Bakugo saw him as his brother.
Their drive to the cemetery was quiet, nearly unbearably so, and Ochako let Bakugo and Inko see him first.
Midoriya’s gravestone was among the many “honored losses”, including All Might and some other heavy-hitters. His body was never found, so they couldn’t bury anything, but the plot was paid for by UA, just as a way for people to show their thanks to the kid after his passing. Many people had already been here today, as evident by the candles, flowers, candies, and food placed around the carved rock.
It was shaped like a star surrounded by eight others of various shapes. Each one had an opening in the middle and a piece of colored glass implanted inside. Midoriya’s was a bright green and in the setting sun, it cast a beautiful array of color in front of it.
On the stone, it read “Beloved son, friend, and hero.”
Bakugo and Inko shared their words with him and stepped away for Ochako to kneel down and offer her own silent prayer. She looked past her praying hands at the stone and traced the carvings bearing his name with her eyes.
“Hey, friend…” she whispered, not daring to go any louder, “It’s been a while, huh? Ten years, in fact. I just… wanted to say that I miss you and I love you. I hope you’re doing good, wherever you are. Things have finally calmed down and I feel like I don’t come here enough. It’s… hard to. You’re gone and you’re never coming back.”
Her breathing hitched and Ochako dug the heel of one of her palms into her left eye, trying to at least stop the flow of tears from there. She sniffled and sobbed unceremoniously, “I’m so sorry we weren’t there. I know you’re not really here, we… couldn’t find you. Gang Orca searched for weeks. Izuku, I- I miss you so much. You were my best friend, my rock, my hero and… your light went out before we knew it.”
“There was a lot I wanted to say to you before you died, but I’ll never, ever get that chance, so I guess your empty grave is as good of a place as any. You taught me a lot of things. Courage, faith, how to reach a hand out no matter how hard they try to slap it away. You always did say that the essence of a hero is meddling where you don’t belong and I guess… I took that to heart. Meddling is all I do in my job.”
“I’m not a hero, a pro anyway, but I like to think I’m a hero to the kids I help. There are a lot of kids who were born after the war that don’t understand. Their parents are in pain and the kids don’t get why Mommy and Daddy would hurt them, too. It sickens me to say that the most villainous deeds right now are done in the home. I’m trying my best to stop it, to be a hero, but it’s so hard sometimes. I don’t know how I expected myself to become a pro hero. I guess the glamor of punching people all day got to me.”
She sighed, “But there’s more to being a hero than physical strength and you believed in that. You believed in reaching a hand out. You believed in saving the crying child hidden within the villain. You believed… that there’s more for everyone after the smoke clears. And there is. I just hope, Izuku, that you found your “more”. I hope that wherever you and Todoroki and Tsu and Iida ended up… you’re happy.”
“I love you so much, Izuku,” she felt her tears return and lowered into a deeper bow before the gravestone, her forehead nearly touching the ground as her hands folded into her chest, “I’ll see you eventually, my best friend. And when that day comes, I hope you’re proud of me. Even if I gave up our dream.”
“I just hope that you forgive me… for not coming to visit that often.”
Ochako gave herself a moment to compose herself, then straightened up and placed the flowers she’d bought onto the gravestone.
Lillies. Hyacinths. Daffodils. Chrysanthemums.
The trip back home was as quiet as the cemetery. Ochako let herself fall asleep against the window and only woke up when Bakugo was lightly shaking her and calling her name. She wiped the sleep out of her eyes and thanked him for the ride, accepting his offer of coffee whenever he was back in town. Ochako knew it would probably be months before she saw him again, as the work of an American top-ten hero was never finished.
She struggled to get her key into the apartment door and when she finally locked it behind her and kicked off her shoes, she leaned back against it and slid down to the floor. Soba and Katsudon were at her side within seconds, most likely to beg her for their dinner, but surprisingly nuzzled into her hands and lap in comfort.
She cuddled Katsudon close to her chest and ran her hand down the cat’s back, whispering, “Momma needs a minute, hon.”
Katsudon just mewed softly and buried his face into the crook of her neck.
Ochako needed more than a minute. Her cats understood.
She has the same dream every year.
Ochako wouldn’t call it a nightmare, but to imagine it made her heart tug in a way that she normally associated with her trauma-induced fears. The way this dream made her wake up in a cold sweat reminded her of how she hated large cuts on her skin, the sight of too much blood, using her quirk on people, and extreme temperatures changes.
The sight she beholds is the same five figures, sitting together on a familiar rooftop, smiling and laughing like they hadn’t a single care in the world. After graduation, they were at UA. After a few years, they sat atop random high-rises in various states of hero costume. They always discussed random topics, like Ochako had walked in on them in the middle of a normal, albeit rare hang-out when their schedules all aligned. She never got any closer, dreading what she’d hear, but once, two years ago, she stepped closer.
It was never enough to fully hear their conversation, but it was enough to their smiling faces to make her stop.
This year, she braved the pain and sat down on the roof beside them.
“Your wedding’s in a week, guys, shouldn’t you be doing final prep?” Her other-self was asking two older versions of Todoroki and Midoriya, both of whom had abandoned suit jackets behind them and their dress shirt sleeves rolled up to their elbows.
“Oh, my god, don’t remind me,” Midoriya groaned, pressing his hand to his forehead. Ochako caught sight of the shiny ring on his finger as it reflected the lights of the city below. She also noted the unique lack of scars on his hand and arm, like the trauma of his quirk never happened in this strange dream, “Momo’s been on my ass about making sure I have the right suit, as if we didn’t do final measurements two weeks ago and my diet hasn’t changed in seven years.”
“Mina and Yamada are also begging me to let them MC the reception,” Todoroki said, rolling his eyes through a sip of his drink, “I literally told them Kyoka and the band would be more than enough.”
“Have you confirmed Keigo’s attendance? I hear he’s busy with his new position,” Iida asked.
“Touya will drag that bird to my wedding like a kid drags their parents to the tree at 5 am on Christmas morning,” Todoroki retorted, making other-Ochako laugh.
“That’s such a specific image in my mind and I highly doubt you even know what that looks like,” Tsu said, cocking an eyebrow at her friend, “Your dad doesn’t exactly entice the Christmas spirit.”
“No, but I think watching enough movies during the holidays makes up for the lack of a happy childhood, right?”
All four of them gave Todoroki strange looks and uncertain noises that all devolved into them laughing with him.
Midoriya rested his head on Todoroki’s shoulder, “Love, I wouldn’t even call it a childhood. Had Rei not taken pictures, I would’ve believed Natsuo’s story about you being born with a stick up your ass.”
“That hurts, Mr Midoriya.”
“I thought you had gotten used to it, Future Mr Midoriya.”
Tsu and Other-Ochako made dual gagging sounds when the boys shared a quick kiss.
“God, you guys really are soulmates,” Other-Ochako said, “If you keep being gay in front of me, I may turn homophobic.”
“But what would that make of our love?” Tsu fake-gasped, throwing a hand up to her head in a dramatic shock.
“Homophobic gay lovers. It exists.”
Another fake gasp from Tsu, “Scandalous, Miss Uravity!”
“Elizabeth and Mr Darcy who? I only know Heroes Froppy and Uravity,” Todoroki laughed and the rest of them soon followed. After a bit longer, they all excused themselves for the night, carting off to either finish their patrols or return home. Ochako let herself live in the remnant echoes of their laughter, ignoring the deep pain it caused her.
Just as she was about to will herself to wake up, she heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Midoriya, looking directly at her. She had never had one of the subjects of these dreams do such a thing, much less look into her eyes with such profound sadness.
“Ocha, You asked me earlier if I was proud of you,” he said, “And I just wanted to tell you that yes, I’m very proud.”
“Deku, I-“ she pushed herself to her feet and rushed him, taking his shorter frame into a hug that she wished could last forever, “I’m so sorry.”
He just returned her hug, patting and rubbing her back, “Don’t be, Ocha. You’re alive and well, and that’s all I could ever ask of you after everything.”
“I miss you.”
“I miss you, too,” she heard him swallow hard and felt tears hit her shoulder, “I miss you so much. But I don’t want you to mourn me anymore.”
Midoriya pulled away and took her face in his hands, wiping away her tears with his thumbs. A futile effort as more just followed as she looked at his older form again. He looked to be about 23 or 24 years old, with much less scarring than she was used to seeing on him. He had new scars, like the one down his eyebrow or right across the side of his neck. His form was somewhat shimmery, like the golden light that wove him into the fabric of her dream was rippling across her subconscious.
“I am not there, after all,” he tried to smile.
“I wish I was taken with you guys, sometimes,” she whispered, seeing his eyes widen and his smile falter and fall, “I wanna join you, but… I can’t let them bury another friend. I couldn’t bring myself to when it became too much a few years ago.”
“Ocha, you’re still alive and that’s all I can ask of you. You’re living and you’re saving people,” Midoriya was crying too, barely keeping his sobs from interrupting his words, “I’m so proud of you for that alone.”
Ochako fell back into his embrace and bunched the back of his shirt in her hands as she tried so desperately to hold onto him, “I have so much to say-“
“Save it for when we actually meet again. When everyone’s here and we can be a family again. Just focus on living, Ochako. For me. For Shoto. For Tsu and Tenya. You are our legacy.”
Time seemed so slow down as she sobbed into him and the light pressure of more arms surrounding her filled her mind. While they weren’t all here, the hug of her thirteen lost classmates lingered around her. She opened her eyes to just Midoriya, but even his form was fleeting, not long for this dream world she’d been gifted. Slowly, one by one, the warmth went away and Midoriya’s body began unweaving itself from her thoughts.
“No, please, stay. Just a bit longer,” she begged, “Please, Izuku.”
He only shook his head, “I’ll see you when I see you, Ochako. Take care of my mom for me?”
Then, like the others, he was gone.
Ochako woke up the next morning with dry tear tracks running down her cheeks and a renewed sense of purpose weighing in her heart.
“Okay…” she whispered, hoping and praying he could still hear her, “I’ll take care of her.”
“I promise.”