Love Denied

Chapter Eleven: Next Steps

Uraraka leaned against the wall, alone in the middle of a hallway at the Asaka police headquarters, looking at her phone. After receiving a text message from someone at her agency telling her that Midoriya's capture was all over the news, she, detective Daiki and Ryukyu had left the interrogation room for a few minutes. In those few minutes, her phone had blown up with text notifications and calls from her former classmates that she was still in contact with. Namely, Kirishima, Kaminari, Iida and Todoroki and all the other 1A girls minus Hagakure, who had gone to work for a nondescript intelligence agency and moved away. None of her friends had heard from the invisible girl in almost two years.

Mina was the first one to call, but she sounded more excited than concerned about Uraraka finding Midoriya. The gravity hero had ended the call fairly quickly, telling the pink girl that she was busy. The next one to call was Jiro, who, bless her heart, immediately had offered her help in whatever Uraraka needed, even floating the possibility of going to Asaka for a week or two to visit her, and provide some much-needed emotional support. Uraraka was deeply grateful for the purple haired girl's offer, thanking the universe for having such an amazing friend.

Taking her eyes off her phone for a moment, she looked to her right. At the end of the hallway, detective Daiki and Ryukyu were talking, probably discussing how to proceed with Midoriya's interrogation. She kept her eyes on them for a few seconds then she looked back to her phone. There was the same text she has been reading for the last 5 minutes. She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, trying to decide how to reply back. Uraraka opened her eyes and kept looking at the text. Her thumbs hovered about the screen, hesitating. She read it again.

Inko: "Ochaco, I saw the news about Izuku. Please tell me, is my son okay? Can I go and see him?"

She needed to say something, anything, to calm the woman that in a way had become a second mother to her. But at the same time, she knew that she couldn't let the two of them meet. Not yet anyway. The brown-haired girl knew that she needed to tell Inko to stay in Musutafu for now, or her next move would be to come to Asaka and try and see her son. Problem is, Uraraka didn't know why Deku had decided to stay away from his mother for 5 years. If they met, maybe they could reconnect, in some wholesome family moment, or Deku could implode and sink deeper into whatever dark hole he was in.

Finally, she decided that a half-truth would be better than outright telling Inko that she should be on the first train to Asaka. Finally steeling herself, her thumbs started flying over the phone's keyboard.

Uravity: "He's okay. Unfortunately, you should stay home for now as he can't have visitors until he's formally charged by the prosecutor. He can only see a lawyer for now." She received a reply immediately.

Inko: "Oh, God. I'm so happy that he was found. I was so afraid he could be really gone. Did he really do those things they said on the news?"

Reading that, the gravity hero had a mental image of Inko crying her eyes out after seeing the news about her son. Which obviously made it really hard to write her response.

Uravity: "Yes, unfortunately he's been working outside the law for a few years. I'm sorry but I can't talk right now. I'll let you know more when I can." Uraraka felt incredibly guilty writing that, but she needed to stay strong.

Inko: "Of course, you're probably very busy. I'm sorry to bother you and please call me when you can."

The guilt bubbling in Uraraka's gut doubles down seeing how Inko was so understanding while dealing with the fact that her lost son was found and then accused of being a criminal. She had at least told her the truth about Deku receiving visitors. But what she failed to mention was that as his mother, Inko could receive special permission to see him. As much as it hurt to keep Inko out, Uraraka had decided this was the best course of action for now. Obviously, it seemed like Inko wasn't aware that Izuku could spend the next 5 years in prison, or she wouldn't be taking the information so easily.