章 2024: 43
Ochako felt disgusting. She was nauseous and it wasn't even from her quirk. No, it was because she was a terrible human being and felt like she was lying to everyone around her. She wasn't trying to! It wasn't like she was working with the villains or anything but...well, she must have done something to trick All Might into thinking she was actually worthy of being his successor or he wouldn't have offered her his quirk!
The motion of the train should have been calming. Shinso was asleep next to her, slumped down in his seat as they made their way to Gunhead's agency, but Ochako just couldn't stop thinking that he would make a much better holder of One for All than she would. Anyone in their class would have been a better choice, because at least they actually had heroic motivations. She had decided to become a hero to make money, for goodness sake! Her reasons for becoming a hero were inherently selfish and for some reason she'd been an idiot and thought she'd be able to get away with that. All Might, however, deserved a successor who was actually heroic, and not just some poor girl who wanted to be rich. As flattered as she was by the offer, Ochako knew that she didn't deserve to be the symbol of peace.
And that was at the crux why she felt so terrible right now. All Might hadn't been trying to pressure her, she knew that, but he was the number one hero! She'd looked up to him her entire life and here he was, giving her the offer of a lifetime, an offer that anyone and their dog would be ecstatic about getting. An offer that she would have been ecstatic about getting if she could just stop feeling like an imposter! Receiving One for All was a once in a lifetime opportunity and anyone would count themselves lucky to get offered a quirk with unimaginable power, especially from, objectively, the best hero to ever live. How was she supposed to just turn her nose up at that? She didn't want to look ungrateful or presumptuous, like she didn't need All Might's power! And he was the number one hero, so she couldn't just tell him he'd made a mistake in choosing her because he was the symbol of peace and she was just a first year hero student with no idea what she was doing! All Might didn't make mistakes and even if he did, she hadn't earned the right to call him out on them. All Might might have phrased it as a question, but at the same time, it felt like an offer she couldn't just refuse. Ochako hadn't known how to say no.
So she hadn't.
She vaguely remembered stuttering out an appropriately polite response, but everything had been happening too fast and the only thing she could do was fall back on being polite to try to hide the way she was panicking inside. One thing led to another and before she was really able to process what was happening, All Might had given her a piece of his hair to eat, which was oddly enough one of the least weird parts of the entire experience, and then it was done. She had All Might's quirk.
Ochako had spent every day just trying to keep her head above water. She had felt the unfamiliar power welling up in her a few times so far, but she'd shoved it down in a panic every time. She didn't deserve One for All. She shouldn't have ever accepted it, but she just hadn't known what else to do and now it was too late to take it back. Last night, she'd woken up in the middle of a panic attack and had half-drafted an email to All Might trying to convince him to take the quirk back before she'd realized that she didn't even know if that was possible and even if it was, she probably shouldn't be talking about One for All over email. She didn't know what to do.
So instead, Ochako did the only thing she could do and tried to ignore the whole thing. She'd left on her planned internship and tried to put the whole symbol of peace thing out of her mind thinking that maybe if she put it off for long enough, it would stop feeling like she was a liar and a fake. It hadn't worked yet, but hey, All Might had chosen her because she refused to give up, so there was always hope for tomorrow, right?
The train started slowing down and Ochako shook Shinso awake, "Hey, Shindig, it's our stop."
"Huh?" Shinso blinked slowly and blearily sat up. "Oh, we're here?"
"Not quite." Ochako giggled. "We've still got to walk to the agency."
"Awesome." Shinso stretched and stood up, grabbing his duffle as the train came to a stop. "Well, let's get going."
Ochako grabbed her duffle, pushing down One for All again as it tried to rear its head again, "Yeah! Let's go be heroes!"
Edgeshot had said that, since he mostly operated at night, there was no point in Shouto showing up until the evening. Instead of telling his father that, however, Shouto had packed up like normal, gotten out of the house as soon as he could and put on a beanie so he could head to Epurr's murder alley. Alright, maybe it wasn't fair to call it her murder alley, considering that it was most likely Shigaraki who had done the murders, but it had a certain ring to it and Epurr hadn't scratched him when he told her the joke, so she probably thought it was funny too.
His father would probably be furious to know that he was spending most afternoons in a grimy back alley playing space-heater to an angry cat, especially since some of those days also included the company of a guy who had quite literally tried to kill All Might, but out of all the ways he could rebel against his old man, Shouto thought this was probably one of the mildest and it was the bastard's own fault for kicking him out in the first place. Plus, this way at least someone could get some good out of his fire quirk.
"Hey girl." Shouto smiled as he bent down and Epurr immediately butted into his hand. "I brought you some food today. Do you want it?"
Epurr screamed at him like the answer should be obvious, which made Shouto laugh. Honestly, part of the reason he'd chosen Edgeshot out of all his offers was because his patrol route cut fairly close to here, which meant that if he had any free time, he could drop by and, if he didn't, he was already familiar with a lot of the streets and shortcuts, so it wouldn't be as anxiety inducing as going to someplace completely new. The other major reason, of course, was that Edgeshot was the number five hero, which meant that Endeavor wouldn't be able to bully him into rescinding his offer just so that Shouto would be forced to intern with him. It was a win-win.
He opened one of the cans of cat food that he'd stashed in his bag and smiled when Epurr let him pet her while she was eating. Actually, a better way to put it was that she made him pet her, considering that every time he'd brought her food in the past, she wouldn't stop screaming at him until he did, but Shouto didn't mind. Honestly, it was more physical contact than he got at home, so he didn't really care if she was picky about it, and he liked to think that it was a sign that she trusted him, since he'd read that some animals didn't like to let others near them while they ate out of fear that their food would be stolen.
Shouto had probably done way too much frantic googling about cats since the first time he'd come here, which would have led to a very interesting search history if he hadn't deleted it, but he felt like he was at least a little more knowledgeable than he had been before. He at least knew that Epurr wasn't going to kill him, probably, so that was good, and he knew enough to not accidentally kill her, which was even better.
When she was done eating, Epurr spent a few minutes just kneading at his leg before hopping up onto his shoulder and starting to lick at the nape of his neck, the only place his hair wasn't completely covered by his beanie. He wasn't quite sure why she always did that when he came by, but she got angry if he interrupted her, and he didn't really mind, so he just let her do her thing. Eventually, she hopped back down into his lap and purred while he pet her until the sun was ready to set and it was time to go to Edgeshot's agency.
Izuku was fairly certain that he and Mei were the only two students, including the entire hero course, that had to take a plane to get to their internship. Mei spent the whole flight rambling about how the plane worked and about how all of the in-flight technology could be improved, much to the annoyance of their flight attendants, but Izuku just nodded along the whole time, making notes on any interesting quirks he found along the way to keep his brain and his analysis loose. Neither of them knew what to expect from I-island, but if Mei's fangirling was any indication, they were about to be put through the wringer and he wanted to be as prepared as possible.
The flight didn't feel long, but the sun was already almost setting by the time they landed. Mei was bouncing with energy as she physically pulled Izuku from the plane, barely remembering to grab their carry-ons as Izuku laughed, "Don't forget we have checked baggage too, Mei-chan."
"Oh, I could never forget that." Mei waved away his concerns. "That's where my babies are! It's a shame there's so many things they won't allow in the plane, I could have been making so many cool babies to show all the big brain inventors this week!"
"I'm fairly certain that's why they don't allow them." Izuku pointed out. "You do have a habit of blowing things up when you're making babies, Mei-chan."
He ignored the weird looks they got as they gathered their luggage and he couldn't help but feel a sense of pride as he grabbed Mei's bag off the conveyor belt and only stumbled a little. Sure, Mei immediately took it from him and hoisted it onto the floor no problem, but months ago he wouldn't have been able to lift it at all. He was getting stronger!
It was only after they had their bags that Izuku suddenly realized that he didn't know who was picking them up, "Umm, Mei-chan? Did Powerloader say who we were supposed to be looking for?"
"Nope!" Mei grinned and pointed to someone standing a little ways down. "But I think the sign is a pretty good replacement, don't you think?"
Izuku looked where she was pointing and he smiled in excitement as he saw Midoirya and Hatsume written out in big block letters. The girl holding the sign was only a few years older than them, but from the way she was holding herself, she definitely knew her way around. Mei didn't waste any time grabbing Izuku's hand and dragging him toward her.
"Come on, Izu-kun!" Mei whined. "The sooner we get out of this airport the sooner we can start making babies!"
To his surprise, the girl picking them up didn't even blush at Mei's loud outburst, she just laughed, "Oh, you must be who I'm looking for! Uncle Might mentioned you two were a bit high energy. Now, which one of you is Hatsume and which is Midoriya?"
"I'm Midoirya. And this is Hatsume." Izuku introduced, keeping a tight hold on Mei's hand to keep her from leaping at their ride, which was a distinct possibility considering how her eyes were zooming in on every piece of potential tech the girl was wearing, from her glasses to her earrings. "Thank you so much for the opportunity to intern here, we're so excited to see everything that I-island has to offer."
"Are those tracking earrings?" Mei interrupted. "They've got microchips in them, but do they just track or do they do something else and…"
The girl laughed, "They're not trackers, they're actually a prototype I'm working on for civilian support. I'm hoping to have them be an early warning sign for panic attacks, if I can tweak them just right, and maybe even help counteract them, but maybe you'll be able to help with that?"
Mei's eyes widened and Izuku could feel her practically vibrating next to him, "I will take that as a challenge! Come on, Izu-kun! We're burning daylight!"
"You work in a lab, Mei. you don't need natural light." Izuku shook his head as Mei pulled him along, their ride following along beside them. "And besides, you don't even know where the car is. We didn't even ask our ride her name!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I forgot to introduce myself." The girl smiled kindly and skipped ahead so she could stop in front of them, holding her hand out for a handshake. "I'm Melissa Shield. Welcome to I-Island!."
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