Chapter Text
Himiko hurt everywhere, a deep-seated ache from her head to her toes. Was this how her victims felt when she drained them of all their blood?
Was she still alive? She tried out her voice, tongue moving like sludge.
“O…cha…ko…” she rasped out.
Listening for a response, she registered beeping and a loud, regular thrum nearby. She was lying down, but whatever she was lying on was moving and shifted a bit, like a rocking ship.
“Don’t worry, we know you, Ochako, we’ve got you. We’re lifting you to a hospital, alright? Hang on.”
So Ochako was with her? And she was going to a hospital? She forced her eyes open so she could take her in again, perhaps for the last time.
Their quarters were cramped. She saw some feet, some chairs, and beside her was herself. Bloody, unmoving.
She blinked slowly, worried about her own imagination. How could Himiko be lying beside herself? She wanted to ask what was going on, who had borrowed her appearance, but after one more herculean breath, she let it go, too weak to let out another word before she slipped into unconsciousness again.
“... And remember, no quirk is bad. You should never feel ashamed of or have to hide what is an essential part of you. If you’re feeling scared or nervous about your quirk, you can talk to your teacher about getting a quirk counseling appointment. This district is partnered with the Quirk Counseling Expansion Project, so you get to have at least one free appointment with a counselor per year. If you need more counseling, they can help you set up more support during your appointment.”
She looked around at the room of kids, dozens of students who probably got their quirks within the past year or two, sitting attentively in their tiny seats as a pro-hero lectured at them. She tried not to be too much of a lecturer; she could see some kids' legs bouncing and others looking out a window. They were more alert than the classes suffering under Tenya’s long drones that usually lost attention from all but the most studious students after ten minutes, but it was near the end of the school day and most wanted to go home.
The students were clearly tired of listening, so she went to the conclusion. “I’m almost done, don’t worry! But I have one more secret I want to tell you guys.”
That perked them up, the ones looking out the window turned back towards her. Kids liked being in on secrets.
“I spent years working to become a professional hero, but did you know you don’t have to do all of that to be a hero? The truth is, sometimes you’ll meet someone who is struggling, whether it’s shame about their own quirk, or other people around them saying that they’re weird for something they were born with. No matter what, you have a choice to reach your hand to them, accept them, and help them. If you do that, you can be their hero. Thank you for all of your time today.”
As they walked away, she let out a breath. “Finally, done with all our talks! What are you guys going to do now?”
Momo said, “I’m heading back to my agency—I left Kyouka with a lot of work to do and want to catch up with her.”
Tenya nodded. “I will also be returning to my agency. There are still hours left in the work day!”
Tsuyu shook her head. “I’m taking the rest of the day off. I’m going to travel to my parent’s place for dinner. It’s been months since I saw some of my siblings.” Then she turned to her. “What about you, Ochako?”
She smiled. “I’m also going to take the rest of the day off. Those talks always drain me, you know.”
Momo’s expression softened. “If you ever want one of us to take over, I can adjust my ‘how studying actually applies to the real world, even hero work’ talk to include some of your quirk counseling talking points…”
She waved her hands. “No need! I’ve got this, and like… it’s not a bad kind of draining, it’s more like it just… reminds me of her, you know? So it brings up a lot of feelings, but doing this makes me feel like I’m doing something for her, so… I want to keep doing it.”
Momo smiled. “Of course.”
They split ways soon after that, and she headed straight home.
Her path took her through a park. A playground with a swing set, seesaws, a few toddlers in the sandbox, along with benches of their adults chatting with each other, laughing. Green grass, trees flush with leaves and blossoms. Compared to eight years ago, this park had become vibrant.
This park was one of the ones the UA students helped to rebuild after the final Paranormal Liberation Front. She still remembered helping lift out debris with zero gravity, helping to make it somewhere that the reconstruction team could build on. Back then, she wondered whether all that work was worth it, if it might have been better to just leave the land to rot, considering it would inevitably be torn apart again by another next villain attack.
She breathed in the sweet scents in the air, and was glad people still decided to build it. Maybe villains would tear it down again one day, but right now? It was a beautiful spot, somewhere people could gather and pass peaceful time. Even just walking home after work was made a little more magical by this park that human hands had built.
How many people worked together to bring this to life? The government and relief offices who decided to include it in reconstruction. The civil planners who mapped out what was required. Heroes like those from UA and construction workers who brought those plans to life. And now, probably gardeners and others who managed the park regularly and kept it such a beautiful spot.
Maybe it would be destroyed again one day, but that wouldn’t change how much joy it brought people in the meantime. And even if something was destroyed, if people worked together… they could rebuild again. The whole world could be destroyed, and it was still possible for people to work towards a new future.
She smiled. This was a world worth saving.
She wished she could have stayed in the park and enjoyed the gentle breeze instead of dealing with her paperwork at home. She flipped through the stapled stack of papers she was supposed to fill out for the Hero Public Safety Commission’s yearly report. She preferred to fill this out online, but when she complained about having to click through all the various sections on the glitchy online portal, Tokoyami had delivered this stack to her door the next day “For reference.”
It was helpful to be able to flip through it and get a sense of the paperwork she was going to need to pull together. The third year UA classes on pro-hero forms and taxes had been a drag, but she was thankful for them now so she at least knew what the dozens of forms being referenced were.
Her organizational skills, though…
She booted up her computer. Most her forms were digital. She poked through her folders, hoping that her past self had organized them neatly by year, before surrendering to the fact that half of the things she needed were in a badly-labeled mess in her Downloads folder. Assuming she had downloaded them, and they weren’t only in the various online systems that a hero like herself had to interact with to record her rescues, arrests, income, volunteer work, and more.
Being an independent hero sucks, she decided as she clicked through dozens of documents, belatedly labeling things like “asdrrheg20650403-00001F” into “Rescue Report - Jakku earthquake - April”. Though she always rejected Tokoyami’s offers to join the Hero Collective, the HPSC’s system to help standardize agencies and provide support staff to independent heroes like herself, she wished she hired an assistant of some sort to properly manage her paperwork. The cost of that, though…
Once again, she flicked through the stack of papers to find the next forms she’d need to track down. As she slid page after page past her finger, she angled incorrectly and sliced open her finger on the thin edge.
She paused, watching the blood well up from the tip of her finger.
Blood was supposed to be covered up. She got up and went to the bathroom, where her first aid kit was. All she needed was a simple bandage. Quickly, trying not to linger, she opened the cabinet behind her mirror and pulled out a bandage. After a quick rinse under the sink and a pat down with a paper towel, she placed the bandage onto the finger. There. Done. She closed the cabinet, and looked into the mirror.
Toga Himiko looked at Uraraka Ochako’s face.
Though her finger was covered up, the paper towel still had a streak of it. Slowly, she brought it up to her nose and sniffed deeply.
It smelled like her, but most importantly it also smelled like Ochako. She shuddered at the reminder. Something had happened during that attempted blood transfusion eight years ago, which had mixed and melded their blood so much that Himiko was now capable of maintaining Ochako’s form and using her quirk 24/7. From what she could gather, the same must have happened to Ochako, as she had a dim memory of seeing her own form worn by someone else.
When she was properly conscious several days later, Himiko had been understandably confused. Everyone kept calling her Ochako, and although she had been sharp enough to play along at first, learning where “Himiko” had ended up had ruined her.
Dead. Her body cremated before Himiko had even woken up, as per the wishes of the Toga family.
So “Toga Himiko” was dead, and now she lived as Uraraka Ochako.
She forced the paper towel away from her nose. Ochako wasn’t obsessed with blood. Himiko finally had a normal life. She wasn’t locked away in jail; she had friends and a job and a path forward that was warm and welcomed by so many people.
It was all thanks to Ochako, who had indeed given her blood for the rest of her life, and then her whole life too.
Himiko took a deep breath and shoved the paper towel deep into her bathroom trash bin. She returned to her desk in the corner of her tight apartment and reminded herself who she was doing all of this for.
Ochako wanted to be a hero, and now she was. Himiko could handle a little paperwork to keep things that way. She dove into the mess, invigorated.
Her phone interrupted her, buzzing long and hard to indicate an incoming call.
Mina is calling…
She picked up on the third ring. “Mina! What’s up?”
“Hey Ochako, how are you doing?”
“Great, just got home from a school visit, now I’m wrestling with the paperwork for the HPSC yearly report, you know.”
She laughed. “I don’t really know, the Collective is handling that for me, I think? But hey, good on you for dealing with all that complicated stuff.”
“Did you call me just to brag?”
“Nooo, Ochako I’m in a real pickle and need a favor. Pretty please would you hear me out?”
Eight years with Mina. Well, Mina thought it was more like nine, but nonetheless Himiko had grown fond in the time they shared. “As if you have to ask.”
“Okay, there’s this mission tonight that I could really use a hand with… We’re trying to move a bunch of stuff from one location to another, and our plan was to use Wash’s bubbles to float all the stuff along and make it an easy transfer, but we just got word he pulled his back. Your zero gravity is pretty similar though, so could you sub in?”
“What exactly are you moving?”
“Ehh who knows? A bunch of cargo.”
That lack of information was indicative. Her lip curled down. “Did Hawks ask you to do this?”
“Are you psychic, Ochako?”
She knew how he operated. The less information people had, the better. He even knew not to ask her outright to sub in, instead funneling the request through her classmate who she would struggle to reject.
He loved manipulating people.
Being Ochako meant she couldn’t murder everyone who she wanted to.
“Lucky guess,” she told her, “plus you’re part of the Collective, it makes sense they would loop you in to missions.”
“So can you help?”
She sighed. “Yeah, I can.”
Once she was off the call, she texted Izuku.
Can we reschedule? A mission came up with Mina for tonight.
His response was almost instant. Of course! How does Thursday night next week sound?
Perfect.
How many weeks had it been? Two? Maybe three since they had last gotten to see each other. Since Izuku had returned to hero work in addition to teaching, their schedules struggled to align, but she wasn’t going to abandon Mina.
Would Ochako have made the same decision? Choosing this mission over her date night? Even though she liked Izuku?
Himiko sighed. She hoped so.
Once there, Himiko gathered that they were moving some sort of lab space, based on a few people in lab coats who helped direct the heroes around the space full of dense, metal reinforced cargo boxes. Himiko tapped them each with five fingers to turn them weightless, and passed them off to the heroes waiting to carry them through the cramped first-floor offices to the trucks waiting in the parking lot outside.
Though it had taken Himiko some time to get used to Ochako’s quirk when she first became her, it was second-nature now.
As she handed a floating box to Mina, she commented, “This seems like more of a job for a moving company.”
Mina shrugged her shoulders. “I guess they think there’s a risk of a villain attack during the transfer? I heard one of the scientists mention there was some sort of breach the other day that compromised this place. They must be nervous villains will choose to attack while they transition out.”
“But why would villains attack this random lab?”
“I dunno, that’s not part of my job.”
So they carried on, Himiko keeping her ears peeled for any further information. She didn’t enjoy being a pawn, but leaving Mina to be a pawn alone would have been worse. As the hours continued, though, she found herself relaxing. The most she got was the name of the lab—Novel Heroic Advancements Laboratory. Vague. Maybe this wasn’t that big of a deal, and she was just paranoid from constantly watching her back and assuming the worst of the HPSC.
Three trucks had left already, and the last was waiting for cargo.
Himiko had suspicions.
Ochako’s quirk included some sensation of the weight that she floated. Himiko knew that all the boxes on the first three trucks were the same weight, but the boxes she was floating now for this fourth truck had actual weight variation, and all were heavier than the ones put on the first three trucks.
None of the heroes carrying around the zero-gravity boxes would have noticed, but she was feeling it as she floated them and wondering what was going on. Were those first three trucks dummies? Meant to split up any villains trying to follow them to the new location? It was a lot of effort for some obscure lab she’d never heard of.
Mina came into the current office Ochako was emptying, and said, “You bored yet?”
Himiko smirked. “Better bored than–”
A scream rang out from the parking lot. Himiko crouched automatically, bracing herself for whatever would come next. Good thing she did, as a wall beside her smashed open.
A scientist with a manbun was thrown against a wall, his glasses slipping down his nose in the chaos. Someone darted out from the new opening, bulky with wide arms that jostled the already crumbling wall and sent more debris onto the scientist.
Himiko darted out and grabbed the dazed scientist, pulling him away from a chunk of debris just before it landed on him.
“The cargo!” The scientist shouted, instead of thanking her, “Don’t let them get away with it!”
Though Himiko put her hands together quickly to return weight to the cargo, another villain darted inside to help their compatriot carry the box out.
Mina intervened, obviously, creating a slippery acid that made the one in front stumble, almost dropping the crate onto themselves. They scrambled out just in time, and Himiko had a moment to take them in.
The bulky one had long hair that wrapped around his arms and pulsed as he moved. Was the hair a strength enhancer in some way? She glanced at the smaller villain who engaged with Mina immediately, her skin turning to scales as she went for Mina with a knife.
This would be easier with a knife, but that wasn’t Ochako’s style.
So instead, Himiko tried to catch the bulkier one with the capture weapon from her wristband. He dodged and drew closer, forcing Himiko to grapple. She smoothly caught his hands, shifted her balance, and sent him flying over her shoulder.
Ochako’s body was beautiful. Bulky, strong, perfectly formed with power in every muscle. She had trained it up well in her first year, and Himiko had been building it ever since. Himiko had focused on being lithe and maneuverable in her own body, but she relished Ochako’s strength.
Unfortunately, the bulky hero’s hair snaked out and grabbed her hands, sending her stumbling back towards him. She was still able to maneuver him, but she was inextricably chained to him.
She really wished she had a knife.
Especially as other villains piled in, some more going for the cargo while Mina and Himiko were both occupied with their respective villains. The other heroes in the parking lot had to be occupied as well, since backup wasn’t coming in.
“They can’t take that!” The scientist shouted, “If it gets into the villains hands, there will be devastation!”
Though Himiko tried to swing her villain into the others, it wasn’t enough. They were getting away.
That’s when Mina kicked out a foot, creating an arc of acid aimed widely enough to coat the entire crate. It sizzled as it met the metal, and the people trying to lift it backed off at a single drop. This was one of Mina’s most potent acid mixes, powerful enough to eat away the metal… and everything underneath.
There were cabinets, racks of test tubes, and even more metal casing. Though some villains tried to dart their hands inside to take the contents, they pulled back quickly as Mina’s acid dripped all over their hands.
Himiko focused on the fight in front of her, trying not to get punched by her opponent. She took a deep breath and–
That smell.
Her head snapped back towards the metal. The tubes—there was red liquid in some. Some of the tubes were disintegrating, releasing the contents into the air. She took another sniff.
That was her blood. Ochako’s blood. Their blood.
She was punched in the nose.
Himiko was sent reeling back, fresh blood filling her nostrils and drowning out that strange hint. Furious at the distraction, she flipped her opponent over again, using his hair for leverage and, along the way, twisting that hair around his neck.
He started to choke. The hair that had wrapped around her was loosening, trying to escape, but she held onto it tightly.
“Retreat!” One of the villains cried out.
That snapped Himiko out of it. Ochako’s not a murderer, she reminded herself, and let go.
The villains disappeared almost as quickly as they had appeared. Mina took chase immediately, barely pausing to let out some liquid to counteract her intensive acid, but Himiko went to check in on the scientist instead.
She preferred the rescue side of heroics over the arresting people part anyway.
The scientist sat against the wall, glasses askew, staring at the crate. Or rather, what was left of the crate. Which was a small portion of metal and some half-disintegrated tile beneath it.
“That took five years of development,” he said, aghast.
“What were you developing?”
“A way to duplicate…” he frowned. “No, I’m sorry, I’m in shock. It’s better destroyed than in the hands of villains. I still have the research notes. We can rebuild. Maybe the others are still intact.”
Himiko reached down a hand to help him up. He accepted it, but once he was standing she didn’t let go. Instead, she looked into his eyes with Ochako’s gorgeous beady brown eyes. “Do you want to talk about it? Maybe I could help.”
He shook his head. “No, no, it’s classified, I… where is everyone else? Dr. Sen, he needs to be alright.”
She tried not to let her disappointment show. Instead, she focused on checking in on everyone else who had experienced the villain attack. It seemed some of the other heroes had fared better—none of the other crates had been successfully stolen. There were a few injuries, but nothing life-threatening.
Some heroes like Mina were already on the chase. Himiko stayed and completed her mission, filling the rest of the last truck, thankfully with no further incidents.
The entire time though, her head was spinning. What had that scent been? She knew herself and her own nose; her blood scenting was impeccable. And the delicious, bittersweet but tender mixture of her and Ochako’s blood was unmistakable.
Her blood had been in this lab’s classified materials.
Her mind raced trying to figure out the method. Was it her bloodwork during her annual physical a few months ago? Or someone who scraped up and collected the blood during her messy battle with that glass villain the other week? Or when she fell unconscious during that gas attack the other month, and woke up in the hospital?
She hadn’t signed any sort of consent, for sure. No wonder everything was “classified”, if it might not even be legal. For a lab like this to have her blood, she had to assume someone high up was giving some sort of clearance.
But just how far up the chain of command did this go?
Before they closed up the truck, Ochako hopped in. “I’ll guard this while you travel.”
Though it wasn’t part of the original mission plan, the scientists were too rattled by the recent villain attack to object. The central comms hero had his hands full with the heroes who had gone for the chase, and thankfully just gave a frazzled “affirmative” rather than trying to sort out who might be the best choices of guard among the few heroes remaining.
A handful shuffled in with her, along with a few of the scientists, apparently loathing to part with the cargo too long.
She stayed in an alert pose, as though ready to dive into action the moment another villain attacked.
On board, Manbun-scientist sat with his shoulders slumped beside a mustached old man. “Dr. Sen, we lost some samples, and some of the developed prototypes.”
Dr. Sen grumbled. “We’ll have to get more samples. We can recreate from those.”
She kept her ears peeled, but neither of them went into more detail. Most the scientists seemed stunned, probably more accustomed to lab accidents than villain attacks. If only they were chattier, Himiko could focus on that instead of the thoughts racing through her head.
As far as she knew, there shouldn’t be a reason for an obscure HPSC lab like the NHAL to be experimenting with her blood.
Obtaining her blood wasn’t impossible, but why would this lab want the sample? As she rode alongside the scientists, none smelled particularly anxious on her account. Most seemed more frantic about the lost samples or harrowed by their close brush with villains than anything else. So perhaps the scientists didn’t know exactly who that sample had come from. Who would?
Hawks.
She crossed her arms and leaned against the walls of the truck as it turned a corner. Hawks was personally invested enough in this lab to be detailing its security himself. And he chose Uravity. Did he assume that the cargo would stay secure throughout the transfer, and so was completely unconcerned with the thought of her realizing? She was only even able to identify it thanks to her sensitive nose for blood. That was a Himiko secret, way too specific and creepy to ever express as Uravity. So Hawks couldn’t have known she would realize.
Unless…
The truck turned the opposite direction abruptly, and she had to take a step forward to brace herself. Was there some sort of investigation going on? She thought her performance as Uravity was going well, but there were unfortunate slip-ups. Tiny clues, if someone knew where to look.
Himiko knew what her blood smelled like now, but she’d never tried to do analysis on it. She wasn’t a geneticist, and asking one to investigate what was going on with her mixed blood was begging for evidence that could be used against her. There was so much about herself, her quirk, and the effect Ochako had on her that she surrendered to ignorance—the price she paid for this peaceful and normal life that Ochako had given her. Asking questions, finding answers, learning more could spiral into the awful truth spilling everywhere and destroying her new life.
Were these scientists learning about it?
Finally, the truck stopped and the doors opened. The scientists stood up.
“I”ll help you bring them in,” Himiko said, going into work-mode before her stewing in the corner got suspicious.
Their new location was a white, nondescript building. In the city, still, but clearly not downtown. There was enough space for a garage on the first floor.
She made a note of this location, and paid close attention as to to where the boxes went and the arrangement of the building.
Hawks might be paying close attention to her, too