The Gravity of the Situation
Karmahope

There was a certain electric charge in the air the morning class started again, and not just because Kaminari was fooling around. Ochako could almost taste the anticipation, the nervousness, the excitement as they waited for the results of their efforts in the Sports Festival. Which agencies would nominate them? How would this affect their careers?

What if they picked the wrong agencies?

Everyone chattered eagerly amongst themselves, but Ochako didn't feel the same excitement her classmates did. This year mattered in a way last year didn't. If she got a good internship this year and stayed with that agency until she graduated, then she was more likely to have a permanent placement right out of school. She needed that kind of stability, and yet–

And yet her performance in the Sports Festival this year had been far worse than last year. What if she didn't get any nominations? What would she do then? Last year, Aizawa said it wasn't uncommon for interest to peter out into nothingness. What if it happened to her?

She couldn't afford that.

She – quite literally – could not afford that.

"Don't worry, Uraraka."

Ochako looked up. Iida had given up on trying to reign in the class and returned to his seat. He smiled at her, and something loosened in her chest.

"I'm sure you will get several nominations," he said, reading her like a book. "You still made it to the final battle round, which is more than most of our classmates did, and you put up a good fight against Todoroki. Remember Sero last year?"

Ochako smiled. "Yeah," she said, her eyes darting over to the boy in question. Sero leaned eagerly over his desk as he talked with Kirishima, Kaminari, and Jirou. The crushing defeat hadn't crushed him, and she shouldn't let it crush her, either. It was easier said than done. "Poor Sero. He didn't even make it to the battle round this year."

"See?" Iida said. "You're doing just fine. Stop worrying so much." He punctuated his words with his hands.

Ochako sighed. "I guess you're right. You usually are."

Iida made a face, which was so out-of-place on him that Ochako nearly laughed. "Not always," he said, suddenly somber. "But when I'm wrong, I'm usually very wrong ."

Ochako didn't know what to say to that. Thankfully, she didn't have to figure it out. Aizawa picked that moment to shuffle into the classroom, yellow sleeping bag and all. The class fell silent.

"Good afternoon, class," Aizawa droned. "Now, I'm sure you're all eager to learn about nominations and placements, but please settle down."

Ochako's gaze drifted across the room. Her classmates leaned forward in their seats, hanging on Aizawa's every word in a way they didn't normally. Even Kaminari was invested, which was unusual.

Sitting at the back of the class the way she did, Ochako spent a lot of her time observing her classmates.

"Now, before we get started. Does anyone want to change their hero names? You've been working with the ones you have for a year now, but there is still time to change them. After this year, it will be a little harder."

Aizawa looked to the back corner of the room. Ochako followed his gaze to Bakugou, Todoroki, and Shinsou. Bakugou and Todoroki would pick new names for sure, right? Bakugou had never actually picked a hero name, and Todoroki couldn't use his first name forever. At least, she didn't think he could. Shinsou only transferred into their class this year, so he had yet to pick a hero name at all.

Shinsou stood. "I would like to be known as Echo," he stated without fanfare.

Aizawa nodded as Shinsou sat back down. "Short. Simple. It works. Next?"

Bakugou glared at Aizawa before crossing his arms and looking away. Todoroki seemed… unsure. He stared down at his hands as he subtly wrung them together. Tension mounted as neither of them said a word.

Ochako thought Todoroki had just opened his mouth to say something when Mina's hand shot into the air.

"Aizawa-sensei!" she called, "Is Midnight not coming in to help again this year?"

Aizawa heaved a sigh, breaking his staring contest with the two boys in the back. "You all have had a year to consider hero names. Hopefully, older means more mature, and you know what rides on the identities you choose. I trust you won't be picking ridiculous names again, so I haven't called Midnight in."

"Sir," Mina continued, "I've thought about it, and… Pinky doesn't suit me. I would really like to be Alien Queen."

Aizawa fixed his glare on her, and she shrunk back. "Midnight nixed that name last year, didn't she?"

"Yes, sir. But it's appropriate with my quirk and my appearance, and it suits the vibe I want. Pinky is too juvenile, but it was all I could think of at the time." Mina's tone was surprisingly contrite, and she presented her case with much more decorum than Ochako was used to seeing from her.

Aizawa harrumphed. "I never saw an issue with your preferred name in the first place," he said. "Fine. I'll make the change."

Mina squealed and promptly lost any and all of that aforementioned decorum.

"Don't make me regret it," Aizawa snapped. "Now. Is there anyone else? "

One could cut the tension in the room with a knife. All eyes turned to Todoroki and Bakugou, and they both shifted uneasily under the attention. Ochako hadn't anticipated this, but perhaps she should have.

From her vantage point, she watched Todoroki look to Deku, who nodded. Ochako smiled. She knew how much Todoroki's friendship meant to Deku. It was good to see them supporting one another. How far they had all come in a year!

"Ground Zero."

It wasn't Todoroki who spoke. Ochako's gaze snapped to Bakugou, who still stared petulantly out the window. His shoulders were drawn up, and his fingers tapped the surface of his desk.

"Wow," Kaminari said. "What happened to Blasty Mc'Splode?"

The class chuckled. "Shut up," Bakugou growled. "And–"

Ochako was pretty sure he was about to tell Kaminari and the rest of the class to fuck off, but he caught himself before cursing blatantly in front of Aizawa. This was Bakugou, though, and the message still came through loud and clear.

"Ground Zero," Aizawa said. "The point on the Earth's surface directly above or below an exploding nuclear bomb. How incredibly appropriate. I'll accept it."

Damn. Ochako's guess had been 'Impact.' Oh well.

The tension across Bakugou's shoulders diffused. He sunk back into his seat and turned away from the window, his gaze settling on his desk instead. Ochako stared. It was almost if… Had he been afraid of the class's reaction? Part of her said it was impossible. This was Bakugou Katsuki they were talking about. The other part of her wasn't so sure.

Motion in her peripheral vision caught her attention. Momo wiggled her fingers, a wide grin splashed across her face. It could only mean one thing: Momo won the first half of the bet. Ochako wasn't surprised. Momo would know a term like 'Ground Zero.' She wasn't first in their class for nothing.

All attention turned to Todoroki. He still played with his hands; Ochako watched as he ran his left thumb over his right palm. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking.

"Centigrade."

"Centigrade?" Aizawa asked.

Todoroki nodded, but didn't offer any further explanation. The class burst into muffled chatter, but Ochako sat in shocked silence. 'Centigrade' had been her guess! She won the second half of the bet!

"Quiet, quiet," Aizawa said. "Centigrade is a good name. I will accept that as well. Now. Does anyone else want to change their hero name?"

The rest of the class fell silent.

"Going once… going twice…" When no one spoke up, Aizawa sighed. "Alright. That's that, then."

The class held its collective breath.

"Now," Aizawa said. "What you've all been waiting for: nominations."

Last year, the class lost their shit. This year, they all knew what was riding on the nominations. The excitement was threaded with an undercurrent of anxiety as they waited for Aizawa to hand out the lists.

Aizawa called them up in desk order, which made Ochako fifth. This was good. She didn't know if she could handle the anxiety of waiting any longer. Upon receiving her envelope, the first thing she noticed was that it was heavier than the one she received last year. That was already a good sign, and it set some of her nerves at ease.

She cracked the seal as she walked back to her desk. As she passed Iida, she saw his thick envelope sitting neatly on his desk, unopened.

"You're not even going to look at your nominations?" she asked as she sat down. Aizawa had given up on trying to keep the class quiet, and conversations cropped up around them.

Iida shook his head. "I already know I will be working with Team Idaten. I will be the one inheriting the agency now, so I must familiarize myself with it in the coming years."

Ochako nodded. "That makes sense," she said, then paused. "Are you looking forward to it? Or are you just doing this out of a sense of duty?"

Iida smiled at her. "The sense of duty is there, but Team Idaten helped raise me. They're family, and I cannot think of a better group of people to whom to devote my life."

"Well, that's good," Ochako said, a smile forming on her own face. "It sounds like the perfect placement for you, then."

She stared down at her own envelope in trepidation. It was obvious she had gotten several nominations this year despite her hiccup with Todoroki, but was it enough? She had to be careful about who she picked. She couldn't choose anyone who might make her look like a threat.

"Are you going to open it?" Iida prompted.

Ochako laughed. "Yeah! Yeah, of course!"

Without further ado, she pulled the sheets of paper from the envelope. Her heart in her throat, she skimmed through the list of names. Some she had never heard of, but there were also several big names she hadn't expected to see.

Gunhead wanted her back, of course, as did Ryuukuu. To her surprise, Miruko – number five hero Miruko – wanted her, and… Thirteen wanted her again!

"Good news?" Iida asked.

Ochako became aware of the grin stretching her face. "Yeah," she said. "Good news!"

Aizawa called the class back to order, and Ochako's face fell as Iida turned away from her. Damn, she thought. This was going to be hard choice.

She itched to accept Miruko's offer. If anyone could mentor her in how to make it to the top of a male-dominated industry as a woman, Miruko could, but…

But could Ochako afford to stand out like that?

It was something she was going to have to think about.

She thought about it a lot.

Internships were the hot topic of discussion that week. In the days following nominations, it was the only thing anyone could talk about. Ochako smiled and nodded and listened, but for the most part didn't participate. She didn't know if she could work up the same enthusiasm the others did.

"I don't know," Deku said one evening as they hung out in the common room. "There are a lot of really good choices here, and it's kind of overwhelming. I only got one nomination last year!"

"Do you have a top pick yet?" Ochako asked, as casually as she could manage.

Deku hummed. "I'm actually thinking about going with Miruko," he said. "Our fighting styles are both leg-based, so I could probably learn a lot from her."

Ochako nodded absently. She could say she'd been thinking about Miruko too, and how cool would it be to intern together? But she didn't. Instead, she asked, "What about you, Todoroki?"

Todoroki looked up from his book. He'd only been half-paying attention to their conversation. "I haven't decided yet," he said after a moment's hesitation. "Like Midoriya said, there are many good choices."

"You're not going with Endeavour again?" Deku asked.

Todoroki leveled his gaze at him and raised an eyebrow. "No."

Ochako nearly laughed.

And that was the end of that particular conversation.

There were others. By the end of the week, Ochako knew most of her classmates' choices. Tsuyu would be working with Ryuukyuu again. Kirishima was staying with Fatgum. Momo was joining Kirishima at Fatgum's agency. Bakugou had chosen Edgeshot, of all heroes. It would be interesting to watch that one play out.

Ochako still needed to pick an agency herself.

She stared down at her blank form into the early hours of the day it was due. She still hadn't picked an agency, but she had at least narrowed it down. As much as she'd love to work with Gunhead or Ryuukyuu again, she knew she should pick someone new to better vary her experience. Of her top contenders, that left only Miruko and Thirteen.

This was one of the most important decisions she would ever make in her life, and yet… She didn't really have a choice, did she?

Interning with Miruko would be a deviation that could make her a threat.

She marveled at how things had changed. Two years ago, she couldn't imagine ever being disappointed at the prospect of interning with Thirteen. Growing up, she knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to help people who needed help. Rescue was just as important as offense, and it was a sector of heroism that was oft overlooked.

She knew rescue was just as dangerous as offense, if not more so. Offensive heroes just needed to focus on the villains, while rescue heroes needed to focus on getting civilians to safety while also being prepared to fight villains if they attacked. It was just as important. It was just as dangerous. It didn't reflect on her negatively in any way.

It was what she wanted to do.

But since the Sports Festival, she'd also wanted to be able to stand with the top students in their class. She wanted to be on equal footing, and she knew each and every one of them would likely become an offensive hero. How could they stand on the same playing field then?

It was fine, she told herself. Thirteen was a well-respected hero. Ochako would get a lot out of this internship, even if part of her yearned for Miruko's success and the opportunity to intern with her best friend.

Fulfilling a childhood dream was never a bad thing.

And thus, it was Thirteen's name on the form she gave to Aizawa the next day. She stopped by the teachers' lounge after class to hand it in.

"Thank you, Uraraka," Aizawa said as he took the form. "Is that all?"

Ochako hesitated, her "Yes, sir" silent on the tip of her tongue. She'd wanted to ask Aizawa about her quirk, right? She'd meant to ask him on their first day back, but forgot about it in all the fuss over internships. Having remembered, she was handing in her form in after school so that she might have the opportunity to ask without her classmates hanging over her shoulders.

The teachers' lounge was empty. Now would be a good time to ask, but now that the moment had come, she felt silly about it.

"Uraraka?" Aizawa asked.

Ochako startled, realizing she'd fallen silent. She couldn't brush this off and simply walk out. Taking a deep breath, she committed.

"Aizawa-sensei," she said, "I did have one question, actually. Um. Well." She hedged. "Have there ever been cases of someone's quirk… not quite being what they thought it was?"

She fell silent under Aizawa's level gaze and fought not to shrink against his dead, piercing stare. It was so much more intense one-on-one than it was when he unleashed it upon the class.

He rubbed his chin. "It's rare," he said at long last, "but it has happened. Uraraka, why do you ask?"

Ochako focused so hard on his words that she almost missed his question. It had happened. It had. It wasn't unheard of. That was something!

"O-okay," she stammered, "Cool. I was just curious, is all. Thank you, sir. That's all I had to ask."

She turned to leave, her head spinning. Had Deku been onto something? She would have to redouble her efforts in attempting to find out, knowing that there was a chance. But how?

"Uraraka."

She turned back to see Aizawa watching her. Was his gaze… softer than it usually was?

"Don't get your hopes up," he said gently. "Your quirk is more than enough as it is. You know you're one of our top students in your practical classes."

Emotion welled in the back of Ochako's throat. It was rare to hear a compliment from Aizawa, and even rarer to have it delivered in a manner that wasn't backhanded in the slightest. She admired Aizawa– her entire class did, even if they didn't show it. It was hard not to remember this man nearly gave up his life for them in their first week of class. That sort of thing left a lasting impression on people.

She knew her quirk was enough. She did! She placed third in their entrance exams, and that was before she'd had any formal training whatsoever. But despite that, part of her wasn't satisfied, and the other part of her was ashamed of that.

She bowed. "Yes, sir. I'll keep that in mind."

Her thoughts in turmoil, she left the teachers' lounge. She gazed down at her fingers as she walked. The pads on her fingertips held promise. What if her quirk was more? What then?

What would that mean for her?

She didn't know, but she wanted to find out.

The girls ambushed her as she stepped into Heights' Alliance.

"Ochako!" Mina shrieked, "You won! What kind of cake do you want? Momo chose chocolate!"

"Can't you at least let her get in the door first, ribbit?" Tsuyu asked.

"Where's the fun in that, though?" Tooru chimed in. "Sorry, Ochako. We can wait if you want."

Ochako smiled. She loved her friends. "It's all right," she said. "How about strawberry? Do we have any strawberry cake mix?"

"We can ask Satou," Kyouka suggested. "I'm sure he has some lying around."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Ochako asked as she observed the common area. Momo sat at one of the dining tables, watching them with amusement in her eyes. A handful of the boys sat on the couches, also watching them. The black sweatshirt still lay over the back of the couch where she'd placed it a few days earlier.

"What are you making cakes for?" Kaminari asked.

Mina grinned. "We made a bet! Ochako and Momo won, so we're baking cakes for them!"

"What was the bet?" Kirishima asked.

Tsuyu explained the bet as Mina, Tooru, and Kyouka ran off to find Satou. The boys on the couch 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed in astonishment.

"You actually managed to guess what they were going to choose?" Sero asked. "That's amazing."

Ochako felt heat rise in her cheeks. "It wasn't that hard," she said. "There are only so many temperature words, and only a few of them make good hero names."

"Did Yaomomo guess Todoroki's as well?" Kirishima asked.

"No, I guessed Bakugou's!" Momo called from across the room. "That one wasn't hard, either!"

"Not hard, they say," Tsuyu said, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "And yet they're the only ones who guessed them right, ribbit."

"I mean, it's Yaomomo and Uraraka," Kirishima said. "It's not that surprising."

Ochako blushed under her classmates' praise. She didn't think it was a big deal! It was such a silly little bet; she hadn't meant for it to gain this much attention.

"Momo! Ochako! Tsuyu!" Tooru cried as she and Mina returned. Satou and Ojirou trailed behind them. "We got the cake mix!"

"And a couple more spectators, it seems," Momo commented.

"Well, we are going to have enough cake for everyone, ribbit," Tsuyu said.

The girls set to baking, tasking the boys with making sure Ochako and Momo didn't try to help. They also refused to let any of the boys help them bake. Satou was the one exception.

Ochako reveled in the feeling of hanging out with her classmates. It was a far cry from the cold, empty apartment she'd lived in for the first few months of her high school career. She was a year removed from that now, but sometimes the memory washed over her like a bucket of ice water.

"You guys didn't tell us it was baking night!" Deku protested as he and Iida walked into the common area. The cakes were baking, and Ochako knew they'd come to investigate the scent.

"Well, it was originally a girls' baking night," Kyouka said, "but that seems to have gone out the window. Come join us!"

Todoroki shuffled in a few minutes later.

"Dude!" Kirishima yelled. "Uraraka guessed what you were gonna choose as your hero name!"

Todoroki blinked, first at Kirishima, then at Ochako. "Huh," he said. "Congratulations. That's pretty impressive."

Ochako wanted to dig herself a hole and bury herself in it. She settled for burying her face in her arms upon the table and mumbling, "Thanks."

Everyone laughed.

"What if," Tooru said once the cakes were cooling, "we put chocolate frosting on the strawberry cake, and strawberry frosting on the chocolate cake? Momo? Ochako?"

Momo and Ochako exchanged a glance and nodded. "Do it," Momo said.

By the time the cakes were frosted, most of the class had gathered in the common area. Even Shinsou had joined them, watching the proceedings from his chosen corner. The only exception was–

"What the fuck is going on here?"

–Bakugou.

Kirishima opened his mouth to explain to Bakugou as he did to Todoroki, but someone else beat him to it.

"Yaoyorozu and Uraraka guessed what our hero names were going to be," Todoroki said. "Uraraka guessed mine, and it seems Momo guessed yours. The others are baking cakes for them as part of some bet they made."

Bakugou whipped around to stare Kirishima down. "You texted me for this? You made it sound important , dipshit!"

"But this is important!" Kirishima protested. "You gotta join us for class bonding activities sometimes!"

Ochako watched them. What would Bakugou do? The Bakugou of a year ago would stalk right back out again, but this Bakugou hesitated. He glanced at her and Momo, locking eyes with her for a brief moment.

"Fucking… fine," he said. "Whatever. Budge up, Shitty Hair."

Kirishima grinned as Bakugou took a seat beside him. The tension slowly leached from the room.

"Well, now that everyone's here," Tooru said, "who wants cake?"

The cake was delicious, made even more so by the feeling of sweet victory and the joy of sharing it with friends. Ochako laughed as Sero smeared pink frosting across Kirishima's cheek, who in turn left a smudge of dark chocolate across Sero's nose.

Only quick intervention from Iida kept the incident from turning into a full-blown food fight.

Ochako returned to her room that evening happy, content, and full. To Iida's distress, the impromptu cake party had turned into dinner for most of them. He let it slide only after drawing promises from each and every one of them that they would brush their teeth well that night.

"Goodnight, Mina!" Ochako called as the other girl continued down the hall to her own room. "See you tomorrow!"

"Goodnight, Ochako!"

Ochako's high didn't last long past the moment the door clicked shut behind her.

She loved her classmates. She loved her classmates. They were the most important people in her life, second only to her parents. The idea of hurting them caused her physical pain whenever she thought about it.

She thought about it a lot.

Her smile fell as she crossed her room. Dropping down onto her bed, she stared daggers at her bottom desk drawer. It taunted her, tortured her with the secret it held behind its wooden face.

She sighed. She couldn't put this off, not if she wanted to stay at UA.

Rolling off the bed with a groan, she crawled across the room to her desk. She pulled the drawer open and lifted the old school papers she kept within. With nimble fingers, she lifted its false bottom.

What a con that had been, getting Momo to make a material that matched the desk perfectly. "I want to put a shelf in one of the drawers," Ochako had said, and Momo believed her. Just like that. Getting it cut down to size hadn't been hard, either; Mei didn't even bother asking questions.

Her classmates really needed to be more suspicious from time to time.

Ochako pulled a cell phone from the compartment. It wasn't anything special. The flip-phone model was quite a few years out of date: cheap, hard to trace, and easy to replace when her contact decided it was time. It actually didn't look too much different from her personal phone.

She couldn't decide how to feel about that fact. Was it sad? It might be, but her personal phone was also cheap, which was ultimately more important.

Sitting on the floor, she flipped the phone open and stared at its keys. She didn't have the number saved; it existed only in her memory. She deleted her call history after every call she made. The villains wanted her to be careful, yes, but the stakes were so much higher for her than they were for them should she be caught.

Maybe it was naïve of her, but Ochako still hoped to be a hero when all this was over.

She hadn't agreed to this arrangement out of any sense of malice. The truth was much simpler than that: she had been a naïve, desperate, overconfident teenager.

The fact was, tuition at UA wasn't cheap. Of course it wasn't. UA was a top-rate private high school. Even with the scholarships offered, Ochako wouldn't have been able to pay for the remainder of tuition, fees, uniforms, and the rent for the apartment she'd gotten due to it being cheaper than the train fare back and forth from Mie Prefecture every day.

UA had always been little more than a pipe dream. Back in middle school, she had planned to attend a local public high school. She needed to stay home to help her parents, and she knew they wouldn't be able to afford anything else. As the deadline to make the decision drew closer, however, she grew more and more incapable of ignoring the thing that burned inside her. Part of her yearned for more .

She applied to UA on a whim at her parents' encouragement. She wanted a chance to live her fantasies, at least for as long as the entrance exam took. She figured she'd test her quirk in a hero's setting, get a taste of what she could do, then fail the exam and return home.

She never thought she might actually pass the exam, let alone take third place.

After that taste of victory, she found it impossible to settle for a public school back home. She wanted to go to UA. She needed to go to UA. Sure, she'd wanted to be a hero since she was eight years old, but she always thought she could be a minor regional hero. Upon passing the UA entrance exam, she knew she had a chance to do something more. To be someone more.

Despite her passion, she almost let it go anyway. UA was too damn expensive. No matter how she crunched the numbers, even taking into account the scholarships she was offered, it just wasn't feasible with her family's finances.

Her parents refused to hear her decision.

"You wanna go t' UA," her da said. "This 's a huge opportunity for ya, Ochako. Ya can't not go. Yer ma n' I, we'll make 't happen."

"We're s'posed ta provide for you, honey," her ma added. "Not t' other way 'round."

"But–" Ochako tried to protest.

Her da cut her off. "Nonsense," he said. "Accept yer acceptance, Ochako, an' be the hero ya wanna be."

She had cried. She teared up just thinking about it.

If only… if only she had trusted her parents.

A man caught her on her way home on the second day of school.

She had tensed as she realized someone was following her, but didn't dare to look. She would be fine, she thought. She had her quirk and all of… well, two days of hero training. Maybe she did need to be worried.

"Relax," the man said, falling into step beside her. "I'm a friend."

"What do you want?" Ochako had demanded, but her voice shook non-threateningly. "I don't have any money."

The man laughed. "I know," he said casually. "That's why I'm here."

Ochako blinked, sliding a quick glance his way. The hood of his dark sweatshirt obscured most of his face from this angle, but she caught sight of wispy grey hair. "What?"

"We've looked into your family's finances," he said, his voice raspy and unpleasant. He tutted his tongue. "What are you doing at UA, girl? You know you're going to run your family into the ground."

Ochako bristled. "What does that matter to ya?" she asked, her accent slipping in her anger. Still, she trembled. This man was a villain. He had to be.

"My boss has a proposition for you," the man said. "We need eyes inside UA for… reasons. Help us, and we'll pay your tuition fees for all three years of school, and a little more besides. For incentive, of course."

"You– you want me to–"

"To spy for us, yes. We don't need much. Just some locations, dates… that kind of thing. No need for us to know your classmates' darkest secrets, you can keep those."

"I–" I can't , is what she meant to say. She couldn't betray her classmates like that. Could she? She wanted to be a hero! How could she be a hero if she worked with villains?

… How could she be a hero if she had to drop out of UA due to money problems? She'd have to return home, go to a public high school, and earn her hero license later in life. She could do it, but those who waited to obtain their licenses didn't usually make it very far.

And she… she wanted this.

It was very rare that she wanted something for herself.

Besides, All Might was teaching at UA this year! How could some measly villains do any real damage when All Might was always there? Her classmates were also incredibly strong; she'd seen it for herself during the quirk apprehension tests. Surely…

… Surely it couldn't hurt that much?

"If the money isn't enough incentive, we do know where your parents live. One of our guys was there this morning, informing them of this new, generous scholarship you've been offered. I wonder how long their business would survive if they became known for accidents onsite."

Her mouth moved. "Okay," she found herself saying. "Okay, I'll do it."

"Excellent," the man said. "You've made the right choice. Hang tight. We'll be in touch."

And then he was gone.

And then they were in touch.

And now she was here.

Her thumbs hovered over the keys. She didn't want to do this. She really didn't want to do this. At this point, though? She had no choice.

She never had any choice to begin with, not with her parents on the line.

The phone beeped as she inputted the number from memory, each tone an electronic gunshot in the silent room. She was grateful for the fact she didn't share a wall with anyone. Mina lived two rooms away. She didn't know how she could have done this knowing someone was right on the other side of the wall.

The phone rang.

A man on the other end picked up. She didn't know who it was. It wasn't the man who recruited her– Shigaraki, she now knew. It was the same man each time, or at least it had been since All for One was arrested. That was the only time the voice had changed.

"Report."

Ochako took a deep breath. "I know where my classmates are interning," she said succinctly. She would give them what they wanted, but no more than that. "I accepted Thirteen's offer, Midoriya is interning with Miruko, Bakugou is with Edgeshot…"

And so she went, down through all of Class A and the few people from Class B she knew about. Her heart broke with every name she spoke, and yet she kept going.

She had to.

She hated herself for it.

Her report came to a close, and she stifled tears. She couldn't give the villains any reason to doubt her. She wouldn't give the villains any reason to doubt her. She wouldn't endanger her friends any more than she had to.

"Destroy this phone," the man said. "We'll send you another one. Same time, same place. Don't be followed."

He hung up without so much as a "thank you." Ochako sank boneless against her desk. These calls always took a lot out of her, and tonight was no different.

With a heavy sigh, she pushed herself to her feet and walked out onto her balcony. There was one advantage to the man telling her to get rid of the phone. It meant she got to take some of her anger out on the thing she hated so much.

She cracked the phone in two over the balcony rail. Activating her quirk on the pieces, she hurled them up into the stratosphere with all the force she could manage. She wanted to scream, but she never did. She couldn't risk attracting the attention.

It was only a matter of seconds before her quirk released itself. Ochako stared out over the grounds of Heights' Alliance, deep in contemplation. The stars twinkled in the night sky above, and she felt so small, so insignificant. Sometimes, she wished she could float up and join them.

Did anything she do actually matter, or was life just one big cosmic joke?

Only time would tell.

With a shake of her head, she turned and headed back inside. She still had some time before bed. She'd use it in yet another attempt to explore her quirk.

The man stared down at him, his crusty face obscured by that weird-ass hand of his. Katsuki watched him intently. A crowd of villains he couldn't put names to stood behind him, staring back at Katsuki.

"Everyone here has different circumstances," the man said, "but people… rules… heroes… we're all shackled by them. You too, you should understand."

Katsuki's anger faded. No! No, he wanted to be angry! He wanted to be indignant, and righteous, and unshakeable! He should be… he should be… but he saw the truth in the man's words. Hadn't he been literally shacked by the heroes in front of all of Japan?

He was a force that couldn't be contained, but the heroes would continue to try.

His mouth moved, and the words that fell from his lips were not the ones he wanted to speak.

"Yeah, actually," he found himself saying. "I do."

Katsuki woke with a start, jolting upright as maniacal laughter echoed in his head. His palms crackled as he gasped for breath. He clenched his fists and punched the mattress, his fingernails digging into his palms. It was a dream. It was just a dream.

It was always just a dream.

That never made it any better.

In the dark stillness of his room, Katsuki breathed as he tried to settle his both his racing heart and his racing thoughts. Over the sound of his breath, he strained to hear any signs of wakefulness from next door. He was met only with silence. Good. He hadn't woken Kirishima.

This time.

Fuck .

Katsuki clutched his sheets. It wasn't always the same dream. How could it be, when he had so much to dream about? The sludge monster, the USJ incident, getting kidnapped by the villains… The list went on. Sometimes, it was a miracle he got any sleep at all.

The dreams never played out in quite the same way. They weren't exact memories. If they were, they might be easier to deal with. Sometimes the scenario played out better than it had in life. Other times, it played out worse.

Katsuki knew one thing for certain: he would die before joining with the villains. If he took a few of them down with him, then he would die happy.

He held a hand out before him. His palm no longer crackled, his quirk no longer threatened to overwhelm him, but it trembled in the dim moonlight. Clenching his fist again, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood.

He knew from experience there was no way he was falling asleep again any time soon. Glancing at his alarm clock, he saw it was just past midnight. If he was lucky, the common area would be empty by now, and he could get his glass of water in peace.

Sometimes, on nights like these, standing out on his balcony in the crisp evening air was enough. The quiet emptiness of the night was soothing, and he didn't feel alone with the stars to keep him company. Unfortunately, he was too shaken up at the moment to stand in one place for long.

He reached the ground floor to find the lights on. His heart sank. The common area's lights were motion-sensitive; there was someone else here. He considered turning right back around, but he really was thirsty. He supposed he could put up with one of his dumbass classmates for a couple minutes.

He might even appreciate the distraction.

Not that he'd ever fuckin' tell anyone that.

There was no one in the kitchenette, so Katsuki grabbed a glass out of the cabinets and filled it. The noise caught his classmate's attention.

"Hello?" a feminine voice asked. "Who's there?"

A head of brown hair popped up over the back of the couch, and something in Katsuki relaxed when he realized it was Uraraka down here with him. Of all the classmates he could have encountered this night, Uraraka was not one of the worst.

No, that privilege would go to like, Half n' Half, or fuckin' Deku.

"Oh," Uraraka said. "It's you, Bakugou. Couldn't sleep?"

Katsuki shrugged. He didn't say anything, but it seemed to be enough of an answer for Uraraka. She flashed a small, understanding smile at him before turning back around.

His glass of water in a still-trembling hand, Katsuki considered his options. He could go back up to bed, hide out in the solitude of his darkened room, and inevitably watch the afterimages of his dream play through his head. That was what he usually did on the nights his nightmares failed to waken Kirishima. On the nights they did, the other boy insisted on sitting with him, distracting him until he calmed down.

Katsuki returned the favor when Kirishima's nightmares woke him. It seemed like the right thing to do.

So, he could go back up to bed, or he could sit here in the company of Uraraka for a while. He knew she wouldn't ask questions. She might constantly be on his ass about making nicer with Deku and the rest of their class, but that was the only thing she ever got on him about.

"The fuck are you doing up?" he asked, making his decision.

Uraraka blinked at him as he took a seat on the other couch, but she recovered quickly. She shrugged. "Couldn't sleep," she said simply, adjusting so she sat cross-legged, "and I didn't want to be in my room. I felt kinda" – she scrunched her nose – "trapped."

Katsuki didn't ask. It was a sentiment he understood well enough. He was a little surprised, though. Uraraka always seemed so well-adjusted. Sometimes, he was a little jealous.

She reached out, and it was only then that Katsuki registered the small white ball floating before her. It drifted idly, and she corrected its course.

"What's with the ping pong ball?" he asked.

Uraraka sighed. "I'm trying to work on the control I have over my quirk," she said. "Deku said I might be able to adjust the amount of gravity I take away from an object, or maybe even increase it, so I'm… trying to figure that out."

Katsuki raised his eyebrows. That sounded like she was trying to have a completely different quirk! "How's that going for ya?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "What does it look like?" she snapped. "Right now I'm just trying to figure out where the power comes from so that I can maybe change it."

Now, Katsuki didn't really care about what his classmates did. Unless it affected him, he had no reason to care. Caring was just extra effort, and it was an effort he could put toward improving himself instead. But–

"Why?"

Uraraka released her quirk, the ball falling neatly into her outstretched palm. "I want to be stronger," she said simply. "Surely you understand that?"

Katsuki bristled at the challenge in her voice. It was something he understood far too well, and she knew that. "We all want to be stronger," he said. "What makes you so fuckin' special?"

"God, do you have to be so ornery all the time?" she asked. "When did I ever imply I was special? My fight with Todoroki at the Sports Festival just pissed me off, is all."

Katsuki snorted. "Welcome to the club."

"Yeah, well," she said, her eyes fixed on the ping pong ball. "I thought I was gonna do better this year than I did last year – when I nearly kicked your ass – and then I didn't. And that was frustrating. I really needed to impress the scouts."

"You landed an internship with fuckin'... Thirteen, right?" Katsuki was beginning to regret sitting down for this conversation. What was he supposed to do, commiserate? Comfort her? He shuddered at the thought.

"I mean… yeah, I did," Uraraka said. She looked like she was going to say more, but she paused. "You picked Edgeshot. Why?"

God, Katsuki did not want to talk about himself. "He's different," he said. "I need a range of experiences." He didn't mention that Aizawa had pulled him aside before lunch one day.

"He'll correct some of your shortcomings, kid," he had said. "If you want to make it as a top hero, you'll accept his offer."

If anyone else aside from maybe All Might had said that, Katsuki would have told them to go fuck themselves. It was a close thing as it was.

Uraraka nodded. "He'll be good for you."

"Fuck off."

She laughed, and Katsuki just got angrier. "Sorry," she said. "Sorry. I really wasn't trying to make fun of you or anything. I'm happy for you!"

Katsuki sighed. "Fine," he said. "Whatever."

They fell into silence. Uraraka activated her quirk on the ping pong ball once more and left it to drift before them once again. She kept her eyes trained upon it, and Katsuki watched her, inexplicably fascinated.

His nightmare was all but forgotten.

"You know, I thought I wanted to become a hero just to help others, especially my parents," Uraraka said after several minutes. "I always figured I'd just go into rescue, since that was what my quirk was suited for. I never cared about the hero rankings, not really. But–"

She glanced over at him then. There was a steely glint in her eyes he remembered all too well from last year's Sports Festival and the few times he'd fought her in class since then.

"–But being beaten by Todoroki like that was infuriating," she continued. "I want more. I can do more, and I want to be able to compete with you and Deku and Todoroki and Iida right there at the top!"

Katsuki regarded her lazily. Now that the adrenaline from his nightmare had left his system, he was starting to feel the late hour. Taking a sip from his glass, he reached out and plucked the ping pong ball from the air.

Uraraka released her quirk, and the ball settled into his fingers.

"Then do so," he said, flicking it back at her. "Plus fuckin' ultra and all that, right?"

She barely caught it before it hit her face. She blinked as she stared back at him, clearly thrown off-balance. He watched as the slack expression on her face tightened into a grin.

A thrill ran down his spine.

"Right!"

She lifted the ball into the air once more, careful not to give it too much external force in any one direction. Breathing deeply, her fingers twitched as she focused on her connection with it.

"Oh!"

Her soft gasp startled him. Katsuki watched in amazement as the ball, which had been drifting with a downwards trajectory, changed course to float upward. It hit the ceiling and stopped.

"I– I did it!" Uraraka cried. "I actually did it!"

Katsuki gaped, but pulled himself together. "Congratulations," he said gruffly. "I'm going back to bed."

Uraraka laughed. "You do that. I'll probably do the same soon. Goodnight!"

It was a long while before Katsuki actually fell asleep again.

A/N:

Thank you for reading! Just a reminder that you can find me on tumblr (karmahope. tumblr. com), on the Camp Kacchako Discord (discord. gg/ EwBFYQX), and on Twitter (twitter karmahope2713)!

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