Chapter Text
It was eight months before the entrance exam that Ochako Uraraka met Toshinori Yagi.
It was a fairly normal early summer day, while she walked along a long bridge overlooking a river in Musutafu. Ochako was lost in thought as she moved with foot traffic on the right of the sidewalk. Cars sped past, though there was a decorative stone divider between the foot traffic section and the road, so she wasn’t concerned. It was a clear, sunny day and the wind was just the slightest touch chilly against her face from the lingering spring. She had a gray polo shirt and blue jeans on, along with the pink Converse shoes that her parents had gotten special for her, for her birthday last year.
Ochako frowned at that, her previous train of thought interrupted. The shoes were expensive but her parents had insisted that she deserved nice shoes for her last year of middle school, so she was stuck with them. She’d worked hard to keep them clean and in good shape, and she took no small amount of pride in the fact that they still looked nearly new.
She shook her head. She was daydreaming again and she needed to focus. Her parents were in the city because they’d accepted a job there, so she was visiting for the weekend. That was more money spent, sadly, but she was there for a purpose, at least.
She was spending most of her free time these days exercising and studying, preparing to take the entrance exam for UA High School, the most prestigious school in the country for young Heroes. She had to train harder, longer, and better than her peers because her quirk wasn’t really that flashy or special.
She aspired to be a rescue specialist Hero. She thought fondly of the single Thirteen plush she owned, back in her room, and how it was comfortably ratty from years of play and cuddling at night, so she could sleep more soundly. Being a rescue Hero, she reasoned, was suited to her quirk: lifting rubble, keeping things from collapsing, pulling people out of danger, that sort of thing. She figured she could probably learn to fight, if she put her mind to it, but that was unlikely to be her strong suit.
Still, she needed to go to UA. It wasn’t just a dream or something that sounded nice, like it would be fun. Her parents worked themselves half to death to keep them afloat as a family and Ochako was determined - resolved, even - to change that. She wanted her parents to have a good life and to be able to retire, laying on lazy beaches or climbing gentle hills on a permanent vacation. They had worked so hard for her and she was going to work just as hard for them, so they could stop.
They kept telling her that she needed to have her own dreams, her own wants, and her own desires. They told her that giving up her life for them wasn’t right and that they had known going in what having a child would entail.
Ochako was having none of it. Her parents were going to take a permanent vacation on her dime and they were going to damn well enjoy it, even if it was the last thing she did. She just wanted to see them smile freely again and she would give almost anything to do it.
Ochako’s face had just started to fix itself into one of sheer determination when she accidentally walked right into an older woman. Ochako stumbled backwards, barely catching her own fall. Then she frantically stammered out an apology, flailing her hands defensively.
The woman was in a dark business suit and had a briefcase, with severe slate gray eyes, but she just was slightly amused.
“It’s okay, young lady. Be careful, now,” the woman said with a nice smile. Then she was off and Ochako let out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding in and mentally scolded herself for not paying enough attention.
Can’t be a Hero if you can’t even watch where you’re going, dammit.
Ochako quickly realized that she was getting in the way of the flow of the crowd, so she shuffled off to the left side where there was an unusual break at the railing overlooking the river. She wasn’t sure why everyone was avoiding that spot, until she looked up from the railing and caught sight of the most odd-looking man she had ever seen, even in their superhuman society.
He was tall and gangly, with messy blonde hair sweeping wildly in the wind. He also looked like he hadn’t eaten in years, so Ochako almost impulsively took a step forward to grab him, afraid he might just blow away before her eyes. He had a heavy button-up coat on, with his hands in the pockets, and his mouth was half-open in a toothy expression Ochako couldn’t quite place.
But it was his eyes that she focused sharply on. They were deep and crystal clear in their beautiful blue and so tiny, sunken to the point of blackness as they were on his face. He was staring at the water, heedless of her, and he looked like he might’ve just walked right out of a painting, with the way the wind swept his hair and coat. If so, it was the most surreal painting Ochako had ever seen, maybe more suited to a horror film than a hotel lobby.
“Hello, young lady,” he said, and his voice was pleasantly deep. Ochako was startled as he side-eyed her. She had been expecting him to sound crackly or scratchy, like the last thing he’d eaten was a bag of rocks. But his voice was… nice and familiar, in a way she couldn’t place.
Ochako made a surprised peep and covered her mouth with both hands. He turned his eyes back to the water and she wasn’t even sure if he wanted a reply. Still… saying nothing would be rude. So, after a moment, she composed herself and let her hands fall back down.
“I’m sorry for… intruding, sir,” she said, trying to keep her voice at an even volume; loud enough to hear but not so much that she was yelling at the crowd. The people just kept on moving, though, not interested in the bizarre skeletal man or the teenage girl enraptured by the state of him. The man turned his head to look at her fully upon her reply.
“'Intruding?' Young lady, this is a public place. You are as free to stand here as I am, are you not?” He said, his tone slightly bemused but mostly neutral. Ochako’s cheeks pinked in embarrassment and she realized she was just digging herself a deeper hole.
“I… You just seem like you don’t want to talk to anyone…” She said, her voice a bit lower now. He still heard her because he pursed his lips in a frown.
“Maybe no one wanted to talk to me,” he replied softly. The afternoon rush was ending around them and soon the flow of people going by slowed to a trickle. Ochako just stood there, locking eyes with the stranger.
She felt like she should be afraid or, at least, on guard but he just exuded… safety. Like they were in the eye of a storm and no matter what happened around them, he would step out and stop it like a force of nature himself. That was impossible, given the state of him, but he radiated a warmth that Ochako could not find the words for.
Ochako took an unconscious step forward. There was still about a meter between them and the man did not make any motion of acknowledgement, nor did he step backward.
“You are… Are you okay?” Ochako said, her voice lowered to a comfortable indoor volume. It was almost just the soft wind, the water, and them now with how few people were walking by. The man looked away from her and out to the water.
“Young lady, have you ever done something terrible and only realized afterwards? Such that you could not go back and possibly fix it?” He asked, looking at the river with faraway eyes.
“I… No, sir, I don’t… think I have,” Ochako said hesitantly. His question baffled her and the thought of him doing something terrible felt frankly impossible.
This skinny man looked like he was one wrong step away from being blown away into the sea. How could he do something terrible? Let alone with the… warmth he offered, the safety and comfort. The man turned his head back to her and Ochako was deeply startled when he spoke not with his own voice but what sounded like a woman’s voice, radiating impossible power.
“He was important. You needed him,” he said, then he blinked twice in confusion. “Nana…?” He added in a whisper, as Ochako promptly took a step backwards in surprise.
“Sir, you… Does your quirk change your voice?” Ochako said, alarm seeping into her tone. The man chuckled and it was a deep and kind sound that reverberated through his thin frame.
“It can, I suppose,” he said cryptically, and Ochako found herself entirely confused by his non-answer, his unusual appearance, and just the general weirdness of the situation. “Young lady, I’m sure you have something better to do than spend your afternoon humoring an old man,” he added, though his voice was entirely kind. Ochako was frozen to the spot for a moment as she processed his words, then she nodded vigorously.
“Ye-yeah, oh, sorry for taking so much of your time, sir. I’ll be going now,” she stammered, then she quickly power walked past him and resolved to keep going on her way. She snuck a look back, though, and he was looking out to the river again, like she was never even there.
Why is he so familiar, though…? Ochako thought with a frown as she returned her gaze forward. She was determined to not run into anybody else on this walk or to make a fool of herself in front of strangers, for the rest of the day, at least.
Ochako made it about nine steps away from the man. She was cursing her own silliness and inability to just act like normal around adults when she heard it first. Ochako snapped her gaze up and stared in open mouth horror.
There, in slow motion, she finally saw it: a truck carrying one of those trailers they use to move cars in between car dealerships. The green one on the back was coming off, making a loud metal-against-metal scraping noise as it did. The chain holding it on snapped after the wheel control slot broke underneath it, then it hit the road. The car that had been about to pass the semi-truck swerved to try and avoid it, then the driverless car that had fallen off the trailer began to roll and bounce towards the pedestrian zone.
Ochako didn’t think. She couldn’t think. All she saw was that man’s beautiful blue eyes and the sadness hiding under their pristine color. Saw him dying and she couldn’t - wouldn’t - stand for it. She spun on her heel and ran faster than she ever had in her life.
There were two other pedestrians a lot further back past the man but they were already running. But the man… He was still, his eyes closed. He heard the impending disaster coming and, at that moment, Ochako realized--
He had given up.
Her feet left the ground as she leapt towards the man. She activated her quirk on herself to make the distance. Then she hit the man in a crashing tackle and they both went right over the edge of the bridge. She smacked his face to activate her quirk on him - and, later, she realized because she was so angry at him for just giving up - and their fall towards the water slowed to a gentle float.
The green sedan that had fallen off the trailer came careening over the edge in an explosion of destroyed concrete, off to Ochako’s left, and hit the water with a resounding splash.
The river was pretty far down but the splash of water from the car just barely ghosted against Ochako and the man’s feet, so she shivered unconsciously. He was still radiating that same warmth and, now that she was hugging him, it was so intense. He was several heads taller than her and she felt him wrap his bony arms and hands around her and hold her close. It was only then that she realized she was crying, shaking uncontrollably in anger, fear, and from a spiking adrenaline high that was fading fast.
“You… you were just going to let it kill you…” She choked out, feeling a rising fury she’d never felt before. The man didn’t say anything at first but she felt him gently brush the top of her head.
“I’m sorry, young lady. But… I am grateful that you saved me,” he said cautiously after a moment. She felt him squeeze her a bit and, despite how skinny he was, she realized he was strong. “May I ask your name?”
“Uraraka. Uraraka Ochako,” she said shortly, taking a shuddering breath. She was still crying and shaking, and even his warmth and the calming presence of his hug wasn’t helping.
“Young Uraraka, you did something very Heroic today. And I… was not very Heroic. I’m sorry, truly,” he said, then he paused. “May I ask why you did it?”
She looked at him and realized that he was crying, too. The tears tracked down heavily on his sunken face and, this close, his eyes were like the ocean, despite their smallness.
“I just… moved. I don’t know. You… I needed to save you from yourself,” she replied hesitantly through tears.
“May I ask, Young Uraraka, if you’ve ever considered being a Hero?”
As such, that was how they found themselves sitting in a coffee shop, a few hours later.
A passing pro Hero with a flying quirk who responded to the emergency call saved them. It was easy enough when their mass and the pull of gravity on them was reduced to nothing. Ochako’s jeans were a bit wet as was the man’s coat and shoes but… they were fine, physically at least.
They had a small table right next to the window in the far corner of the shop and could see the crowds hustling and bustling down the sidewalks. The coffee shop wasn't that busy, though, and nobody wanted to sit near the weird skeleton man and the teenage girl accompanying him.
Ochako had a chocolate milkshake - the man offered to get her whatever she wanted and, after the stunt he pulled, she’d be damned if she didn’t take him up on it - and she sipped it warily as she eyed the man across the table.
He just got some tea and he looked… content. Nothing about him had changed physically but it was like he was an entirely different person. He was still radiating that warmth but now he looked… happy, like he changed his outlook on life in some way. Perhaps, Ochako considered as she took a long drink through her straw, that was what happened when one nearly died on purpose but lived to talk about it.
“Sir… why didn’t you run?” Ochako asked quietly, as she continued to look at the man. He was staring off at the crowd outside the window but, at her words, he snapped his gaze over to her. His mouth opened into a toothy expression, halfway between a frown and a grimace, and he considered his words very carefully.
“Well… someone I admire very much - someone who was very influential to me - told me that I had made a terrible mistake. A mistake I couldn’t hope to rectify and one that would have great consequences on my life,” he said, and Ochako wasn’t really prepared for that level of honesty. After the fact, she supposed that she should’ve been, but she was also just fourteen. Adults like him were supposed to be looking out for kids like her, not the other way around.
“What did you do?” She asked, looking down at the table. It felt like an intrusive, inappropriate question but… she also felt like he owed her an answer in some capacity. She saw him roll his shoulders in the corner of her view as he sighed deeply.
“I met a young man, probably very much close to your age, and he asked me if he could fulfill his dream even with… his disadvantages. And, despite being able to fulfill that dream for him, I… I didn’t. And I never found him again, after seeing how much he deserved it,” the man said hesitatingly, while Ochako gasped. That was… It was vague but she felt the terrible guilt his words carried for him.
“Why didn't you look for him?” She asked, trying to find an encouraging tack to take.
“I did. But… he ran away. I was unkind to him, then when I found someone related to him, they… told me he didn’t want to talk to me,” he said. Ochako looked back up at him and found he was the one now staring at the table. He had his bony hands clasped in front of him and he had a look in his eye like he was willing his hands to just disappear before his eyes, along with the rest of him. Ochako frowned at him.
“Well… when you’re unkind to someone, they won’t always forgive you. And I think you just need to live with it. You can’t make it up to him, so you just need to be better,” she said. It felt profound to her, a fourteen year old third-year middle schooler. Maybe she wasn’t an adult but she had friends. She’d seen what happened when someone slighted someone else and the offended party didn’t want to reconcile. It hurt but it just… was something you had to live with.
The man looked back at her but he had a glint in his eye now.
“You know, generally I’m the one who is supposed to be giving advice,” he said with just the hint of amusement in his voice. Ochako pouted at him.
“Well, mister, what if you’re just bad at giving advice?” She retorted, feeling a bit put off. This man was probably a great deal of trouble for his family. Ochako had half a mind to bring him back to the bridge and throw him off herself, if he didn’t stop being so cryptic. He hummed neutrally in response.
“My name is Yagi Toshinori, Young Uraraka,” he said, and he held out his right hand. Ochako eyed his hand, then looked at his face, then back to his hand, for a few moments, before reaching out to shake, holding her thumb off his hand. Mr. Yagi observed this small action but did not comment on it. “My question from before stands,” he added dryly. Ochako fixed him with a pointed stare. She previously ignored his question about being a Hero because she was mad at him.
“I would like to be a Hero, yes. I am training to apply to UA for next year,” she said matter-of-factly. He smiled at her, his grin toothy and lopsided, and it was… nice. Everything about him screamed familiarity, like he was a distant cousin she hadn’t seen in a while and now they were together at a family dinner.
“Well, your Heroics on the bridge tell me your training is paying off quite well. May I ask why you want to be a Hero and why you chose UA?” Mr. Yagi asked idly. Ochako’s pointed stare turned into an embarrassed frown and she felt her cheeks growing warmer.
“Uh… well… money,” she blurted out, and Mr. Yagi blinked twice at her, then furrowed his brows. “I just… My parents are…” She took a breath and recomposed herself. “My family has never had much of anything and my parents work so hard for what we do have. So… I want to be a Hero and be good at it, so my parents don’t have to work like that anymore. I want… to be their Hero, like they were mine, and UA is the best school, so that gives me the best chance of success.”
Ochako sighed and stared angrily at her milkshake. Her reasoning for wanting to be a Hero was so embarrassing and she’d only told one close friend in middle school about it. It felt selfish and greedy to say out loud but… Every time she thought of being a Hero, an image of her parents coming home after midnight, half-asleep and covered in calluses, bruises, and scars from working hard on their hands and arms flashed before her eyes.
She looked back up and found that Mr. Yagi was giving her a bizarre expression she couldn’t place.
“You know, I’m a Hero,” he said after a moment, his voice very low. Ochako tilted her head disbelievingly at him but did not interrupt. “When I… was training to be a Hero I dreamed of being someone that everyone could look up to. That my presence would calm people and they could sleep at night knowing I was there.”
“Like All Might!” Ochako said with a giggle. He chuckled nervously along.
“Yes, like All Might. But… as I get older, I’ve started to question that. I’ve started to wonder if I became so enamored with being a symbol that I forgot how to be a person. I pushed everyone in my life away for my dream and now… I have no one,” Mr. Yagi said. Ochako frowned again and felt like all the oxygen got sucked out of the room. Her previous thoughts about his family felt hollow and ashy in her mind now.
“Why are you telling me this, Mr. Yagi? I know I saved you, kind of, but… you barely know me. And I’m just a kid,” she said, being perhaps more blunt than necessary because she wasn't sure how else to react. Mr. Yagi smiled at her, genuinely, and Ochako was taken aback by the pure joy and beauty in the expression.
“I wanted to ask you if maybe… I could help train you to be a Hero? I did go to UA, after all.”
“Really?” She blurted out, and he blinked in confusion at her. Recognition flicked across his face, like he’d remembered something odd, then he adjusted his expression into a neutral one.
“Really. And I may be teaching there soon. I… You remind me a lot of that boy I told you about. I wish… I should have trained him to help him reach that dream of his. But I didn’t.” He leaned forward, and his eyes took on that glint from before. “However, I see potential in you and you seem to already have the most important parts of being a Hero down for yourself. So, I would like to help you, if you’d let me.”
Ochako raised an eyebrow at him.
“I feel like my parents would have objections to a strange man who almost let himself die offering to train me to be a Hero,” Ochako said frankly, so Mr. Yagi snorted at her.
“I would be happy to meet your parents, if you’d like,” he countered with a touch of mirth. She considered it for a moment. It felt harmless and he didn’t look like he could hurt her or anyone else, even if he really wanted to.
“Okay… How about you and I exchange phone numbers and I’ll ask them if they’ll have time this week?” She said, slightly noncommittally. Mr. Yagi shrugged and reached out to hand her his phone.
It was the next day that Ochako found herself, with her parents behind her, in front of an imposing twelve story building.
It was a Hero agency and she swallowed heavily when she read the sign that said it was for All Might. She'd told them that she helped a man who works there and he wanted to meet them but she was not feeling very confident at that moment. Honestly, she was a bit afraid that Mr. Yagi was playing some kind of elaborate prank on her.
“‘Chako, are you sure we’re at the right place?” Her dad asked incredulously, as he looked at the sign outside. The building was very clean and modern, like a miniature skyscraper, and the sign was made of fancy rock with carved black lettering. All Might Hero Agency, it said. Ochako turned with a frown and held up her phone to show her father the text message chain with the associated maps app link.
“Yes, Daddy, I’m sure,” she said matter-of-factly. Her father snorted at the phone, amused at Ochako's pout, but her mom looked very concerned. Both of her parents huddled close behind her to look over her shoulder at the phone. Suddenly, the large automatic sliding doors in the front of the building opened. All three Urarakas turned and dropped their jaws in unison as they looked over.
“It’s… All Might!” Her mother breathed from somewhere above and behind her. All Might himself, the Symbol of Peace, walked right out of the building and he was heading straight for them. He had his trademark smile and business attire on, and he came right to Ochako’s father and extended a hand.
“Ah, you must be the Uraraka family! Thank you so much for coming; Young Uraraka here told me a bit about you already!” He boomed, and Ochako had half a mind to cover her ears. On TV, his voice was always awesome and it just oozed Heroism but in person, he was… He was very loud.
Her father took the number one Hero’s hand and shook it dimly, then looked at his hand vaguely like it was now covered in gold. All Might moved on to her mom and shook her hand, too, and when he finished, she looked like her arm was made of taffy now.
“Oh, but where are my manners! I have food waiting for you inside, if you’d come with me!” He boomed once more, spinning on his heel. Then he was already off and the Urarakas were roused from their frozen standstill, as they hurried to catch up. It turned out when a man was north of 210cm tall, he was quick, regardless of having super powers.
That was how the Uraraka family ended up getting a guided tour of the All Might Hero Agency by All Might himself. They got to see the training areas, the common areas; the building had a ton of offices, it had two different staffed kitchens, eating areas, and it even had sleeping areas. It was, in a word, awesome.
By the end, Ochako was bouncing up and down on her feet in excitement at how cool - and busy, for that matter - everything was. She’d never been terribly interested in the mundane aspects of pro Heroes but this was All Might, and he was one of the few pros she ever paid much attention to.
Soon, the tour was over, so All Might brought them to his office. He wore a dark gray business suit and red tie as he gave them the tour, and they walked into the office to find that it was fittingly massive. That made sense to Ochako: All Might was a big man so he needed a big room. It was all fancy red velvet, nice carpet and a black hardwood desk, along with a Japanese and American flag on either side of the desk. Behind the desk, up on the wall, was a giant painting of All Might shaking hands with a past Prime Minister and accepting an award.
It was so All Might and Ochako giggled a little bit as All Might sat down at his desk.
“Please, sit down! We’ll have food in a moment,” he said in his usual loud, deep voice. He had four black leather chairs with wooden legs in front of his desk, so Ochako’s dad carefully moved one to the side before the family took their seats. Once Ochako sat down - she was practically drowning in the chair, it was so comically oversized for her tiny frame - she promptly realized that she didn’t actually have any idea what was going on.
“Uh, All Might, sir? Does Mr. Y--” She started to say but her mom quickly cut her off.
“Let him explain, dear,” she whispered, and Ochako pouted. She wanted to know where Mr. Yagi worked in All Might’s Hero Agency, god dammit.
“Ah, yes, Young Uraraka. Shall we tell them about how you saved my life yesterday?” All Might boomed out. Three heads snapped towards him and Ochako felt all the color drain from her entire body, straight to her toes. She saw that glint in his eye, the same glint from Mr. Yagi. She saw those same eyes and his blonde hair and…
I did what?!
“She did what?!” Her parents said in unison, as Ochako was struck into a stupor by her own thought. All Might had an expression that, while he was smiling, distinctly gave her a vibe of ‘let me do the talking,’ so she decided it may be best to keep her mouth shut. She wasn’t sure her voice would even work at that moment.
“She did! I was on a day off yesterday and she pushed me out of the way of a car accident! I didn’t even hear it coming and I’m very proud that Young Uraraka is already so Heroic at such a young age!” All Might declared. Ochako turned and saw that both her parents had expressions on their faces that she might charitably describe as ‘horrified pride.’ Both of their mouths were hanging open and they were entirely at a loss for words to process the information All Might, the Symbol of Peace, had just given them about their daughter.
“I… Er, yeah!” Ochako said nervously as she found her voice again. Both her parents turned to look at her and she felt very small. “I was walking down on the bridge across the river when a car fell off a trailer and was gonna hit him. So I, uh, pushed him out of the way, using my quirk,” she mumbled, and she looked down at her knees as she said it. It was… close enough to the truth but it felt bad to lie to them, in spite of the necessity of it.
“She sure did! It was really quite impressive!” All Might chipped in, and she saw her parents turn their bodies back to him from the corner of her eye as she continued to look down.
“Well, that’s really… I’m very proud of you, Ochako but, wow, I’m not… sure what to say,” her father said, and he was being very honest about that last part.
“Well, I would like to say thank you. And Young Uraraka here expressed to me that she would like to be a Hero and go to UA!” All Might said, and Ochako looked up to see that he had his right hand in the air, pointing straight at the ceiling to accentuate his words. “So, as thanks, I wanted to ask you, Mr. and Mrs. Uraraka, for permission to help train Young Uraraka for the UA Entrance Exam!”
That was when Ochako fainted in her chair.
Ochako ended up in the main training room of the All Might Hero Agency a week later, feeling more than a little bit of trepidation about the whole thing.
Her parents had pretty much taken All Might’s word for it, whatever he said, and they were extremely excited for their daughter to be trained by the greatest Hero of all time. She was going to be transferring schools to Musutafu for the rest of the school year, living in an apartment paid for by All Might’s agency.
That part, the Urarakas had tried to protest. But All Might pointed out that he had more money than he had sense, given how long he’d been at the top, and that such a thing was minor for him to get to train her. Ochako had turned scarlet then, and probably even more embarrassing colors when All Might later told her that he was going to help support her parents, too.
She wore a black tank top and some gray sweatpants because All Might - Mr. Yagi, she preferred to think of him as - had told her to expect a workout. The gym was fancy, with lots of gym equipment and a large open space at the center for jogging. It took up the entirety of the eighth floor of the building and Mr. Yagi had let her know that it would just be them today for training, so it would be quite empty and imposing.
Ochako was snapped out of her daydreaming by the aforementioned Mr. Yagi coming into the gym. He wore a different business suit today - this one was a lighter gray, though he still had a red tie, albeit with a different pattern today - and he looked… Now that she knew, it was strange to realize that he just looked like All Might but deflated like a balloon. She giggled at the thought, so Mr. Yagi stopped a meter away and gave her a puzzled expression.
“You look funny, now that I know,” Ochako said by way of explanation, smiling mischievously at him as she gestured towards him up and down. He grumbled something indistinct under his breath, then handed her a plastic water bottle.
“I’m too old for you to be mocking me, Young Uraraka,” he said sternly. Ochako responded by putting her hands on her hips.
“Well, when you save my life you can give me grief,” she replied sarcastically, feeling proud of herself. Mr. Yagi paled a bit but didn’t retort.
Seeing that All Might was really just a man - a shrunken, gaunt skeleton of a man, at that - combined with his words of introspection the other day, had thrown the Symbol of Peace into sharp relief for Ochako. She had resolved to treat him like a man, then, and not a symbol because maybe he needed it.
“You know I may very well do that, one day,” he said pensively. Ochako just smiled at him.
“Only if I get an autograph afterwards,” she replied simply. She looked him up and down once more and smirked. “So, care to explain the whole,” she motioned vaguely at him, “deflating thing?”
“‘Deflating thing?’” He said, then he made a little pop sound with his lips so they were an ‘O.’ “I was injured very badly a few years ago. I can maintain my… public form for a few hours a day but that’s about it. The rest of the time, this is what you get.”
Ochako frowned at that.
“Are you telling me you were gonna let yourself get hit by a car and die because you were out of time for the day?” She asked incredulously. Mr. Yagi just sighed heavily in response.
“Remember that boy I told you about? He showed me that I needed to go beyond my limits, in his own way. But I felt like such a failure, there on the bridge, that I didn’t… I was worried I didn’t deserve it,” Mr. Yagi said, and Ochako was just baffled. She blinked a few times in confusion at him.
“Didn’t deserve what? Mr. Yagi, don’t tell me you went to the bridge to… jump.” Ochako felt tears coming on and Mr. Yagi looked thoroughly panicked at the sight.
“Oh, no, nothing like that! It’s… complicated." She swore she heard him mumble 'I don't think that would even work' under his breath before he continued, "That’s what I wanted to talk to you about today, before we begin, actually,” he added, waving his hands defensively in front of him for a moment and tussling his hair this way and that. Ochako tilted her head at him, expecting him to continue but not feeling any happier with him about the issue. “Have you ever wondered… what my quirk is?” He asked cautiously, and Ochako was entirely unprepared for that to be his question.
“No? Not really. I just assumed you’re really strong and that’s why you always do the ‘smash!’ and stuff,” she said as if it were the simplest thing in the world, pumping her fist into the air as she did her best impression of the Symbol of Peace. Mr. Yagi looked completely defeated, like he’d expected her to be genuinely curious, but Ochako honestly didn’t care. Whatever it was, it worked, and that was all that mattered to her.
“I see,” he said after a moment. “Well, Young Uraraka, you already know one of my secrets. I would like to share one more, if you don’t mind. If you let me, I will let you make a choice afterwards and, no matter what choice you make, I will train you as I said.” Ochako eyed Mr. Yagi warily, very concerned at his choice of words.
“Okay…” She said cautiously. “Do I need to sit down for this?”
Mr. Yagi chuckled at her and gestured to the floor, so Ochako shrugged and plopped down, crossing her legs as she sat. Mr. Yagi lowered himself to the ground near her with a groan and took a sitting position, with one leg crossed under himself and the other with his knee up so he could rest his hands on it. They both drank from their water bottles for a moment before he continued.
“What if I told you there was a quirk that could be passed on to another? And that, when it was, as it was passed on, it grew in power?” He asked softly as he capped his water bottle and looked towards the gym around them. Ochako tilted her head and thought about it.
“Well, that doesn’t sound like any quirk I’ve ever heard of,” she admitted frankly. “But I don’t see why such a thing shouldn’t be possible, I guess.”
Ochako didn’t find such a concept that bizarre. Their superhuman society was filled with so many strange things and she didn’t claim to understand them all. Mr. Yagi turned and gave her a meaningful stare.
“What if I told you that was my quirk? And… that I want to offer it to you?” Mr. Yagi asked. Ochako felt all the color drain from her face.
“Me?! Why me?!” A comical mental image of herself flying through the air with Zero Gravity and punching a big bad guy in the face with a sonic boom went through her mind and, while she couldn't say such an idea was unpleasant, it seemed entirely unfitting. Mr. Yagi smiled, his usual toothy and lopsided grin, as if it was a perfectly normal question he'd asked her.
“My time at the top is coming to its long-awaited end. You displayed enormous bravery when you saved me and… I see that you feel bad about your motivations for wanting to be a Hero. But what is more pure and worthwhile than the desire to ease the burdens of those you love?” Mr. Yagi said kindly. Ochako remembered what Mr. Yagi said about pushing away all his friends and family and felt the tears coming again.
“Mr. Yagi, I don’t… Are you sure I’m worthy of such a thing?” She asked, and she was fighting down the overwhelming urge to move forward and attack him in a bear hug.
“I think you quite are, Young Uraraka. I am not so convinced that I am still worthy, so I don’t see why you couldn’t be,” he said matter-of-factly, as if he wasn’t the greatest Hero who ever lived and she wasn’t just a plain girl from the country with a silly quirk only good for rescue work. Ochako made her mind up at that moment and jumped forward to hug him. He caught her with an ‘oof’ of surprise but barely moved as she tackled him.
“You deserve it,” she said through tears. “But… if you say I deserve it, too, then I will try,” she continued as she closed her blurry eyes. “For my parents. And for you.”
Toshinori Yagi, All Might, the Symbol of Peace and the Eighth Bearer of One for All, held Ochako Uraraka as she cried that day, doing his best to try and comfort her, rubbing her upper back gently. Ochako just hugged him back, hoping to express all of her admiration and hope for the Hero that had watched over the nation for so long and to try and convince him that he needed to continue living for all of them, if not for himself.
In the end, Ochako Uraraka would become the Ninth Bearer of One for All.