Chance Enounter

"What is it, Izuku? You've been distracted this whole time," Inko said, looking at her son, the urgency in her tone signaled the dam of tears that might break out if the answer Izuku gave wasn't good.

They'd been grabbing their bags after shopping. Inko had taken one look at their fridge and decided to go shopping while Izuku tagged along to grab a refresh of the workout food All Might had recommended near the start of his training.

Izuku looked at her, gave a smile, and waved her concerns off, "Nothing mom… Just thought I recognized someone, that's all. Here, I'll carry your bags."

"Recognized someone…?" She looked back while Izuku took her bags and took note of the girl with black hair and translucent skin wandering into the cleaning supplies aisle, "You don't mean that girl Koko you used to be friends with do you?"

"Yeah, her," Izuku said, now, with two bags in each hand. He noticed how the bags that Inko had held weighed a lot more than she was making it seem, 'She must have been using her Quirk on the heavier items,' he mused.

"Remind me, what happened to her? Did she move away?" They walked through the automatic doors, and towards the crosswalk to avoid the morning foot traffic.

"She got adopted from what I heard, and her new parent preferred her to be homeschooled."

"You guys didn't live that far from each other right? I figured we'd run into her at some point."

"I thought so too. But after a little bit, I went to the orphanage she stayed at and asked where she was currently living; they told me she had moved to America."

"America? That's quite a change for someone that young. Learning a new language and all."

"I'm sure she's fine. She was fluent in English."

"Ah, well I hope she's doing all right."

The light turned red, and the cars fell in line. As he crossed, Izuku quickly took glances at the drivers, and passengers if there were any, who stopped. He had to be careful not to stare if he saw someone interesting. The experience of awkwardly walking by the person who caught him happened far too many times. Eventually, someone caught his eye.

It was a boy, around his age, sitting in the passenger seat. He had a to-go bowl cupped in two hands. A thin trail of steam - that was actively getting larger - began billowing from the bowl. A heat-type Quirk. 'Is it activated from skin contact or just from the hands like Kacchan? How hot could he get? Judging by the speed in which the bowl started stea-'

"Speaking of English. How have things at school been?" Inko said with a sidelong glance, interrupting Izuku's downward descent into Quirk analysis.

"Things are good," Izuku wasn't lying. Everyone else who had been picking on him was too focused on the exams to pay any attention to him, and Bakuguo had more or less left him alone after the incident. Kind of like the time after Koko had left.

'There I go thinking about her again.'

It was hard not to, she was an interesting girl. Whatever it was she always kept the same indifferent attitude. He had his theories, of course. His running one was muted emotions. Maybe caused by her Quirk or something genetic. He couldn't be too sure. "Was that why she stuck around me?" He muttered darkly, "Because she didn't care enou-" Izuku caught himself, and took a glance at his mother. She hadn't noticed. He shook his head. He had been her friend and she his. It wouldn't do any good to think any other way.

Maybe he'd meet her at UA, she had the brains for it. Out of all the tests they did he had only outdone her a handful of times. And it wasn't rare for someone to move from their country to attend, especially those who lived here before. Orphan - ex-orphan but the headlines wouldn't care about that - girl turned successful UA student would be a cool story. He knew it would probably never happen but today marked the anniversary of their becoming friends. It was hard not to think wistful thoughts of meeting your long-lost friend.

As they walked they reached a park.

Izuku took in his surroundings. This park used to be their favorite spot. He would gush about the latest activities of All Might while Koko silently listened, idly moving back and forth on the swingset. He could have sworn she had the faintest sign of a smile during those times. Maybe it was just his imagination.

He looked to his mom beside him who had been humming some tune, "Can you take the bags the rest of the way? I want to stop at the park for a little bit." She looked at him, her eyes softened, "Sure, honey. You go do that, but be sure to come back soon."

Izuku walked up to the swing set. He noticed the peeling paint on the bars and the rusted chains. Carefully taking a seat he began slowly rocking back and forth. As he was swinging the sound of gravel crunching underfoot distracted him from his methodical movement. Realizing that other people might be looking at him Izuku blushed, 'What am I doing? I should go, I probably look weird.'

As he stood up he saw a girl.

She was around his height, her black hair was set up in a ponytail, her skin was a deathly pale and her red eyes were piercing. It was Koko. He remembered her once mentioning her appearance could be considered a sort of mutant type Quirk since it had nothing to do with her Quirk and she just inherited it from one of her mutant type parents.

She looked at him, "Ah, Izuku." Her voice rang through the silence. It was just as dull as he had remembered it. They stared at each other. Her gaze was unflinching and Izuku was having a hard time meeting her eyes. Eventually, he spoke, afraid that if he said nothing she would just leave.

"U-um! What are you… uh, doing back in Japan? I-i thought you moved to America?" Izuku cursed himself for fumbling through his words.

"Oh, that…" She murmured something Izuku couldn't quite make out, "I- we decided to come back."

"Is it because of the entrance exams?" He said, sounding a little more hopeful than he'd like. She stared at him, "UA entrance exams," He clarified. Her eyes twitched slightly and Izuku panicked, wondering if he overstepped. Just as he was about to apologize she spoke.

"Yes," She said slowly, "The UA entrance exams. It would do well to have a prestigious school's name under my records. With my already high grades, there will be a lot of opportunities for my future."

'She sounds like she's trying to convince herself that.' Izuku thought.

"O-oh that's nice," He paused, "Uh, are you considering the hero course?" Izuku knew this question might not get the answer he wanted, Koko never had an interest in any heroes, but he had to know.

Her eyes narrowed, and Izuku's hopes dropped.

"Maybe."

He blinked. Now might be the only opportunity to convince her.

"A-ah, that's great! You're Quirk could be used in a number of different situations. You could overwhelm you're enemies with bubbles and take them out while they're blinded or maybe if you make enough the water could be used to put out fires. Or-"

"I wouldn't call it that exactly," She interrupted, creating a few bubbles from her palm, "The substance my body secretes to create the 'bubbles' can barely be considered water."

"What? I thought you're body secreted water and you could use low-level hydro kinesis on it." Izuku cringed at his use of 'low-level' he could have phrased that better. But Koko continued, If she had noticed she hadn't cared. Which was probably the case.

"It's what's on the inside that matters, Izuku. The exterior or 'the bubble' is something of a… necessity, a limiter. Barrier. Created as a byproduct to shield the world from what's within."

"Wha-"

"Anyways, it was good to see you again," her tone was still flat as ever and Izuku was unsure if she meant it, "Maybe we'll see each other at UA." With that, she turned around and walked away. Izuku reached out, he wanted to call after her. Yell at her for leaving him all alone without even a goodbye, and he wanted to ask more questions. She couldn't just drop a revelation on him like that with no explanation. But he knew she wouldn't respond. She had decided to leave and no amount of begging would stop her.

Izuku clenched his fist. He'd work hard, make All Might proud, reconnect with his friend, and become a hero. But first, he had to get into UA.

He ran to the beach.

—

I walked down the sidewalk, hood up and avoiding any cameras I noticed.

Meeting Izuku was a terrible roll of luck. Getting sentimental really doesn't do you any favors. I noticed I used to frequent the area I was in and decided to take a walk. Only to see Izuku on the swingset. I tried to slowly back away but he noticed me before I could leave. I was scared. Not of him but what the damage he could represent. If he said one wrong word to a certain hero and my civilian life could come tumbling down. He probably wouldn't even know it.

I cursed my past self for letting myself get involved with Bakugou and Izuku.

I could have just ignored him, like everyone else. But I was interested. He's the protagonist, who wouldn't be slightly interested in meeting him. But he was lonely, I should have expected him to latch on to me like I was an angel sent from heaven to be his friend. Though, I guess the time we spent together wasn't meaningless. It gave me some entertainment watching the two.

After talking a couple of 'discreet' passages I began to recognize my surroundings. The run-down buildings and broken windows. I was close to the base.

I turned into an alley. Heading to the dilapidated door concealed from passerby's view by a smartly placed dumpster.

I'd been caught off guard. That shouldn't be happening anymore if I can help it. Not after last time. I was forced to spin some half-baked lie about being back in the country to attend UA. I don't have many options. If I don't attend Izuku's going to look for me. And he's going to ask questions, ask heroes, he's stubborn, I don't doubt for a second he won't. And then I'll have unwanted attention.

I knocked on the door seven times waiting for four seconds between each one.

The situation isn't bad but it's not favorable either. I could probably get some much-needed information on Class 1-B. I don't know enough about them. I'll have to limit my interaction with Nezu. That rat is smart enough to figure me out. I'll have to switch up the way I use my Quirk too. I didn't really want to tell Izuku the truth of what my Quirk was but it was better to start setting a different expectation.

The door opened and a burly man with a gun in his hand greeted me. I waved him off and he stepped to the side giving me a curt nod. I made my way through my base. We'd found the place a couple of years ago, a little after breaking Gale out. One of my guys had found the place after deeming it a good spot to hide from some rival gang that was chasing him.

I entered my office. Sam wasn't here, made sense, she was probably sleeping. She was up late last doing a job with some other villains getting us good relations. Haru was here though, he'd gotten taller over the years and his feet were almost hanging off the couch he was laying on. As always he was playing some game.

"What's wrong? I can feel bad energy from you," He said, not looking up from his phone, "More than usual at least."

I took a seat at my desk and exhaled, "I screwed up."

He barked a laugh and looked up, "That's rare! The mighty Koko never screws up. What happened? Someone finally annoy you enough to kill them?"

He raised his eyebrows, "Wait really? Wh-"

"I did not kill anyone. I've trapped myself and I might have to attend UA."

"Yikes," was all Haru had to say before looking back at his phone.

"Yeah," I murmured, "Yikes."

—

I don't plan on her being in UA for that long so don't worry. I also decided to change up her Quirk. I thinks it's more interesting now.

Also probably an OOC Midoriya but… eh, it is what it is.

Anyways

Good night ಠ_ಠ