My Hero Academia: Day before the Storm (IzuOcha)

Chapter 7

As Ochako arrived back in her room, emotions were still running amok inside her head.

It had been fairly liberating to let out a whole arsenal of emotions in front of All Might. Like a giant boulder had been lifted from her shoulder.

When she closed the door behind herself, she just sank against it for a second, attempting to relax for a little while.

She couldn't rest long, she still had something to do. She had to talk to Deku again, apologize for being to hard on him and reassure him, that she would stick by his side no matter what.

The words of the former number one hero were still fresh in her ears: "You are not a distraction to him, you are his inspiration. And he needs you now more than ever."

Thinking about it brought a smile to her face, which was still a bit poofy after all the tears that she had shed earlier.

It had never occurred to her, that she had such an effect on Deku. Sure she was the one who pretty much gifted him his hero name, but from what she could tell, he had been a great hero since day one. He had rescued her from that zero-pointer at the entry-exam, when they hadn't even known each other's names. Shortly after that, he had improvised their plan that had lead to their combined success against Ida and Bakugo in their first training mission.

And he had gotten stronger ever since. It was impossible for anybody to keep up with his progress and yet it usually motivated her beyond believe to at least try.

If anything; He was her inspiration! She had done barely anything.

And yet. If All Might insisted on it and would go as far as he did to convince her to stay by his side... she had to have had some kind of positive influence on him, right?

Then she remembered that All Might had also pointed out, that the outcome of the future fight might depend on her connection with Deku!

"Oh shoot!" She said to herself.

There was no time to figure everything out now. She had to find Deku and speak to him as soon as possible. Who knows what kind of stupid ideas his similarly brilliant and idiotic mind would come up with otherwise.

Could he still be outside at the cliff? She had lost track of time a little, but it must have been a couple of minutes since she had left him there, so probably not... maybe he has gone back to his room, or he had rejoined the others in the common area.

Either way she had to get going now!

She stood up and as she tried to pull herself together as best as she could, she got a quick glance at herself in the bathroom mirror, which she could see through the door, that she had left open earlier today.

The sun had already set, but the moonlight brightened her room enough to recognize everything.

She still looked a mess. Could she really step before him looking like this? Shouldn't she... like, make a better impression or something?

She blushed a bit at the thought, before lightly slapping herself with one hand.

"Focus Ochako! You have other priorities at the moment."

She gathered herself mentally one more time and then went to open her door to get out and look for Deku.

She had already reached for the doorknob, when a couple of sudden knocks made her jump a little bit.

"U- Urakaka? Are you in there? It's me again... I'm extremely sorry to annoy you once more, when you have made it abundantly clear that you don't need my help right now, but I simply cannot let things stand like this! So please, open the door if you are in there."