chapter 21

"So Ochako, how can you become faster without taking the weight of your clothes?" Izuku asked, as he did his afternoon quiz for Ochako's quirk analysis lessons.

Ochako thought for a bit, "Are shoes considered clothes?" Izuku looked a bit disappointed with that answer.

Sighing in defeat Izuku answered for her, "You would need to take out your own weight leaving only the clothes, anchoring you to the ground, maybe only needing the shoes, testing your own quirk possibilities is also important Ochako." Ochako blushed, embarrassed that she couldn't get such an obvious question.

She has been training for 2 weeks now, although her fighting skills improved a whole lot, by actually almost mastering the fighting techniques she learned in little to no time after watching them, her analysis was improving very, very slowly.

There was only 1 week and 2 days for the entrance exam, and she really wants to learn as much as she can before the exam.

Then as if Ochako had an epiphany, she looked at Izuku, "Izu, what's your quirk? You never told me what it was."

Izuku stopped, remembering a situation that happened just one day before Ochako moved in.

Izuku was having a nice break at his living-room after rush hour, not really minding the little silver haired girl in his lap sleeping, he turned the page in the book he was reading, the green haired boy formed a smile as he read something in the book.

The smile however didn't last long, as in the corner of his eyes he noticed a faint glow from below him, taking the book away from the light, Izuku saw Eri glowing, as she activated her quirk in her sleep.

However nothing was really happening to Izuku, Izuku presumed it was his own quirk working, as he knew already what Eri's quirk was, and trained her to control it.

Izuku tapped the little girl in her cheek, making her 'eep' awake, Izuku knew that one shouldn't wake up another in the middle of a nightmare, but if it activated her quirk, it could be dangerous.

After calming the little girl down, and explaining what happened, the boy decided it was time to get back to work.

Getting up, he fell immediately down, as he couldn't really feel his legs, after a panic attack from the little girl, gaining the attention from the rest of the staff, plus Aizawa, and a bit of struggle Izuku could finally get back on his feet, without even wobbling.

"That was strange..." Izuku mumbled out, as he was being constantly bombarded with question on what happened. Eri between sobs explained what happened before and blamed herself for what happened. Izuku reassured her it wasn't it, though.

"But what happened kid?" Twice asked as he fixed his beanie so that he wouldn't feel like splitting and still had his face on view. "I was completely not worried."

Izuku smiled, as he understood a bit more of what happened to his body, turning to the man Izuku said, "There is no pain anymore."

A simple statement, nobody understood it, other than Toga and Aizawa, that one was latching to Izuku's back, while wrapping her legs around his waist, and the other sitting now relaxed on the couch.

Toga's face lit up, a big smile on her features, "Does that mean I can now drink your blood!?"2

Izuku shook his head, "I'm not sure still, I need to check it tomorrow."

Aizawa without commenting, activated his quirk, and Izuku did not drop, he waited until everyone calmed down, some leaving to do their respective shores, to talk, "Problem child." He sighed, giving a brief pause, "Your quirk is not activating."

Izuku paused his thoughts, looking now straight to Aizawa, "Maybe its not that is not activating, but that the requirements aren't being met, the lack of pain can mean that the poison in my body could have disappeared, thanks to Eri's quirk, rewinding my body, even if it didn't rewind my entire body, I still have the muscle that it built during the time of the activation of the quirk, as it tried expelling the poison, it built my body in a way to extract bad influences, correcting my body and muscle, making me have a built physique with little training, so I'm guessing that Eri re-winded my blood, more specifically, taking the poison that was cursing through my body, and thanks to the body my quirk built expelled the poison with a few more activations, that coincidentally was when I got up from the sofa, making me have to adapt to my body without poison in it, maybe this is a drawback, losing control of the body for a short amount of time after various activations of the quirk?" Izuku ranted theories after theories of what could have actually happened.

The next morning, before Ochako came, Izuku headed to the hospital and got the information he firstly speculated, as his body was now free of poisonous substances.

Izuku smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck, "I'm quirkless." he answered the brunettes question.

A guilty expression appeared on Ochako's face, as she started apologizing, but Izuku didn't mind much the question, after all, he was always quirkless in his life, and now living without pain coursing through his body is much more appreciated.

And so, after this awkward moment, Izuku continued his lesson on quirk analysis for the girl. "Since normal quizzes aren't that effective with you, lets talk about more pratical situations, where you can use the analysis skills you are learning." She nods, "Against someone with a flying quirk, what would be the best situation to use your quirk and how?"

Ochako thinks for a bit, "Let's see, if I'm in a urban area, the best situation would be letting the enemy gain altitude and shooting him down, with pebbles or other items around, or propel myself if enemy doesn't get too high, catching the enemy and restraining them, in more industrial zone situations, it would be using the diverse amount of obstacles to my advantage, as pipes and other things would be in the way of the enemy and myself... And in cities, would be getting high up and trying to grab him, I can't really think of other ways..." Ochako awkwardly laughs rubbing the back of her head trying to think of other ways to do things.

Izuku smiles, "Most flying villains have a tendency of going to high altitudes to get away, so in rural and urban situations, it would be recommended to catch them before they have the chance to, in city and industrial situations, its the opposite, since there are more people and obstacles, its better to get the enemy high, to avoid damage to the area, or endangering civilians. In your case its nice, since you can adapt to different situations with your quirk, and can use it for many scenarios."

Ochako nods, and so the lesson continues.

Some hours later, during dinner rush hour, Ochako has her shift, with the amount of shifts she is doing she is able to get a decent amount of money, not much for a salary of a part-timer, but as she works during the week, she is also paying her rent and food for her work.

She decided in taking 4 of the weekdays long shifts, and in the remaining weekday a short shift, having the weekend to herself, her relationship with Toga is one that resembles close friends, and with Eri one that resembles sibling interactions.

Much to the happiness of Eri, Ochako is more than glad to let the little girl sleep with her and pass time in general, which became somewhat therapeutic to Eri, as she is now gaining interest in the outside world, outside of the cafe, as long as she accompanied.

Eri also got the took a liking to having her hair braided, as Ochako would do that to pass time.

Toga and Ochako during training were completely different, during training, Toga was more of a happy spartan trainer, that would relentlessly attack Ochako as she adapted to the situation, and was constantly being complimented or put-down depending on the action she was doing, if it was good or bad.

Outside of training however, they would have fun together many times, while working, in the mornings, Ochako would help Toga out on the kitchen, and actually took a liking to baking sweets, and would indulge herself in chit-chats with Toga when the day was slow.

Ochako was also getting along rather well with the other members of the staff, Twice as the one in charge of the training grounds, would make copies of her for her training, as long as she cleaned after finishing, Dabi would act as a big brother to her, he would act as a big brother to every member of the staff, excluding Twice, but to Ochako it was an unique experience.

She also kinda of found out that, Nemuri was Midnight, and would fan-girl about her when she was in the cafe, when Nemuri noticed, and approached the girl, Ochako told about her idol, Thirteen, and Nemuri had a hard time controlling herself from laughing as Thirteen was only 2 tables besides them.

As for Bakugo, as the second most regular of the cafe, and the only one with the right of taking request for items outside the menu, it was a bit more complicated, Bakugo didn't like the girl, he admits that he was surprised for the resemblance to Chako, and even call the girl 'round face', the same nickname he gave to Eri's pink toy, he found it strange the little amount of time she needed to befriend everyone from the staff members, and how she was being personally trained by some, Bakugo had also full access to the training area, and he caught her training there too.

The two of them actually fought together, more because Bakugo wanted to gauge the ability of the girl, and in a quirkless fight, Ochako would come on top, which enraged the blonde, as for studies, the blonde was much well off in terms of academics, the brunette actually needing quite the amount of beating from Izuku's newspaper to get some points across.

One thing Izuku was making sure to keep, was keeping the whole hero helper side of the cafe secret from the girl, at least for now, until she gets a license.

Some more days pass, and now there's only 4 days left for the entrance exam, Izuku got the information from La Brava, that a pretty complex organization was involved with Destro's legacy, a pretty famous villain, and came by the name of 'Meta Liberation Army'.

Information said that the Liberation Army had eyes and hears in many places, and that it was not being controlled by the government, but was being watched by some heroes, but not getting much evidence for the disbanding of the group, they couldn't act against it.

Izuku informed Chizome, and asked him to find more information about this on his end.

Izuku could feel that this year to come was not going to be easy, and that having to deal with All for One situation, and the successor of One for All, the Liberation Army will be quite the problem.

Not waiting much, that night, as the scheduled meeting with the heroes occurred, Izuku asked for more information on the matter, many, mostly U.A. staff not aware, and only Hawks could share some more information, revealing that they have people within the 'Hero Public Safety Commission', and that some could be pro-heroes too.

Later that night, Izuku stared at the ceiling while lying on his bed, sighing at the amount of burden this was being.

ℌ𝔢𝔯𝔬

𝓗𝓮𝓻𝓸

ℍ𝕖𝕣𝕠

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐨

HERO

Izuku can't believe what he was thinking, he already accepted that he couldn't be a hero, but so many things needed to be done, he felt like a hypocrite, believing and telling people that he couldn't be a hero, but still do work like one, that he would lie about the quirk that only appeared when he killed himself.

Why call me?

I am not special.

I'm just a 15 year old boy.

One that just found a place to belong.

What am I supposed to do now?