Vigilant: Part 2 - An MHA AU Story

Chapter 13: Ochako's Confrontation

"Wh-..." Izuku couldn't speak. Being asked to kill someone, even someone guilty of murder...

"We both know the things I've done." Maeko added. "And our only options to stopping Atlas are either to destroy the AI or leave it, where I may be tempted to...reconnect."

"Then I'll destroy it myself." Izuku insisted.

Maeko shook his head. "There's no guarantee that you could do that simply by smashing the computer it's plugged in to. It... he is an actual artificial intelligence. If there is an internet connection, he'll slip through there. If there's Bluetooth, he'll use that. Wi-fi, ethernet, if there is an electronic, he can fit in it. He's like a liquid. If you strike him, he'll break apart then reassemble."

The whole time, he clutched his cranium. Izuku could see where the AI used to plug in. A small scar by his ear where it would probably hold externally.

"When he said my name it felt like... I needed to be with him again. Do you know what that's like, Izuku Midoriya? To have your own Quirk call you by name?"

Izuku shifted his feet. "I'd imagine it's pretty strong..."

"It's like, my own mother calling me home... Or me? He is my Quirk, after all. I fear that I won't be able to resist him once we're there." Maeko admitted. "That's why I want you to finish me off with it."

Before Izuku could protest, Maeko stopped him. "You are the last person to break your hero code. I understand. But you need to learn, if you haven't already, that in order to save as many people as you can, some people need to die."

"If there is any chance you can resist the AI and be your own man without it, I won't do that, Hatsume!" Izuku blurted.

Maeko sighed. "I feel pointless. Like, either I shouldn't exist, or find the other half of me. Obviously, the latter is a terrible idea..." He put his hand on Izuku's shoulder. "I've killed people, Midoriya... Justice must come to everyone guilty tomorrow."

Without letting them continue to argue, Maeko excused himself back down inside the building. But on the stairs, he bumped into Mei.

She said nothing. Her cross-haired eyes watered as she bit her lip, then grabbed her brother and held him tightly.

"I j-just wanted my brother back..." She sobbed silently.

Maeko tentatively hugged back. "I'm not sure who I am now..."

Mei cleared her throat. "Quirk or no Quirk, you're still my brother. My intelligent, witty, dorky brother who inspired me to be an inventor."

As they embraced, Izuku remained on the roof, overlooking the city where Maeko had left off, when he heard a feminine sound, and looked over the balcony to find Ochako floating just out of sight at first.

"Uraraka?!" He gasped and reached out for her hand.

She took it and let him pull her up on solid ground, where she tapped her fingers and let gravity take control again.

"I heard what you two were talking about." She said.

"Oh..." So much for a proper reunion. "Uraraka?"

From her perspective, while it was appropriate to hear him refer to her by her last name, she felt disappointed.

"I just wanted to tell you that I am so sorry for what I did to you and to Eri." He said. He then rubbed the back of his neck when she didn't give a response right away.

First, she sighed. "Deku, please don't feel sorry. You did what you felt would fix things."

Fix things?

"But it's fine. This mess has been bigger than all of us from the start." She added.

"It all started with me. I feel that I have to finish it. People died because of me. Being in prison didn't fix anything, Uraraka. But how much of our conversation did you hear?"

"I heard the part where he wants you to kill him..."

Izuku shrugged. "I don't know what to do. What do you think?" He never let go of his habit of relying on her whenever she was around.

Ochako shrugged. "I can't imagine ever killing anyone, even villains. But over the years, some of the villains we've faced... Maybe he has a point. Sometimes justice can only be served if some aren't spared."

"But this is all based on whether or not he can control himself tomorrow around the AI. Does he really not have faith in himself?"

"Izuku, you of all people should understand what it's like to live without a Quirk. And he was born with one. It was taken from him and even though he used it to do... terrible things, he feels hollow. It's like talking to a robot." Ochako explained.

"You know me enough to know what I told him." Izuku stated.

"I heard that part too." She bit her lip and exhaled. "After you were taken to prison, Eri kept having nightmares."

"Again? I thought we got her through that." The green-haired man questioned.

"We did. And then, you had to go."

"...Part of me feels like you're not talking about my time in prison."

Ochako snapped at him. "I don't care that the Accords passed and we lost our jobs! At that point, I had a new calling. I decided I would take care of Eri full time, but you never let go of being a hero!"

Izuku's eyes flashed green. "I thought you wanted to be a hero too!"

"Not at the expense of my freedoms! Ever since you got involved with Hatsume, you've dragged so many of us into it and now we're all wanted fugitives! Midoriya, being a hero was everything I ever wanted, but when they told us we couldn't anymore, I had something to fall back on. I had Eri. And I wanted you there too but you left us!"

"All this time, I thought you still wanted this..."

"Again, Midoriya, I don't care about what you did. I don't care how this happened. I just want you and me and Eri together again settling down and living far away from the world!" She shouted. Tears began to fill her eyes.

Izuku lowered his head. "I can't let go of being a hero. Not now. Not when the world needs us again."

"If Mei and Maeko and those people can handle it, they didn't need us to come out here."

"But I didn't force you to fly to New York. You did that!" Izuku bounced back.

"I don't know why I came! Maybe to convince you to come home but now there is no home to go back to. I don't know!" She yelled. "I'm torn between my duties to Eri and my duties to you!"

Izuku felt tears in his own eyes fall down his freckled cheeks. "I wish I told you sooner not to care for me! Why didn't you move on after I left?!"

"Because you were the only one I saw my future with! Now I have no hero career, no home, I don't have you, and I don't have Eri! I don't know why I came along other than maybe the fact that I have nothing left!" Ochako cried out.

"Then we understand each other! We're here because it's the only thing left to do!" Izuku roared.

"When this is over, I never want to see you again!" She screamed and stormed down the stairs.

Izuku turned his burning sadness into frustration as One For All coursed through his veins and he leapt up into the sky, carrying green lightning with him that arched over the city.