Heartsick || An Izuku and Ochako story

Ochako's Water Maze

Izuku was generally an early bird. During his intense training with All Might, he'd begun waking up early. Since sleep wasn't an option at that point, he spent his mornings going on runs or lifting weights, doing it so often that it became routine.

But this morning, he would be having a schedule change. Izuku was supposed to train to use float, Shimura's quirk. He was excited and ready for the challenges, but he was most interested in who his tutor would be. 

Of course, he had a few hunches. All Might had said that it would be a she, so he eliminated all the men from the possible options. That still left a large margin of people who could be training him.

Besides that, All Might had left an unsaid question linger- if this person was helping to train Izuku, would they know about One For All and its origins? Or would All Might find a way to keep his quirk discreet and still have the tutor know enough to train Izuku? The thought pestered the boy all while he was getting ready.

Checking with Aizawa, Izuku hopped onto on of U.A's buses, his mind clouded with thoughts the entire, long, quiet ride. Cityscapes blurred outside of his window, and he paid them no attention until the cityscapes stopped and resembled the large and beautifully domed USJ.

Izuku nodded to the driver and glanced up at the large building. He'd been able to look at the grand structure in person, but the painful memories of the villain attack that followed had erased the majesticness from his mind. Now, as he stood in front of the USJ, he smiled in appreciation before walking inside.

The inside was empty besides the constructed habitats and scenarios that were built in all corners. Izuku scanned the place from above, his eyes flitting over debris, rugged mountain terrain, and greenery from the grown forests. 

Nothing?

He scanned again, this time his eyes stopping for a second at the water zone, where he, Tsu, and Mineta had all been cornered by villains. This time, there was no villain but rather a lean figure that was looking up at a-

Maze?

Before Izuku could fully register the idea of a maze floating on water, the girl turned to him and he had yet another heart attack.

Ochako?!

She grinned casually and waved to him. Izuku, whose mind was going haywire, luckily let his body take over in main functions. Charging up One For All, he made a quick trip to the water zone and skidded to a stop in front of Uraraka.

"Five minutes early, Deku-kun!" She complimented. Izuku smiled sheepishly, hoping that he looked like he'd expected this.

To distract from the his raging thoughts, Izuku glanced at his friend and the structure that was in front of them. Uraraka was wearing a pitch-black tank top with a grey sports jacket settled over her. Pink shorts and shoes accompanied the outfit, and she finished it all off with a cap that shaded the early light of dawn from her eyes.

Izuku turned to the maze. However, unlike what he had seen, it wasn't actually floating in the water. It went from the bottom of the deep lake and had been built up. The walls looked hard and grey, most likely concrete. But why build a maze in the water when one could just build it on dry land? 

Uraraka noticed his keen observance and spoke up. "In case you were wondering, I didn't actually build that," she began, "Cementoss did. But I did design it! We'll be using it for rescue exercises."

Izuku stared at her in awe, stunned. He'd always known how capable his friend was of things, but the maze was a completely new show of her skills. She had a confident and yet stable aura that surrounded her. It made him wonder whether she had experience teaching or not, but nevertheless, Izuku knew that All Might had chosen the perfect tutor.

Urraraka acknowledged Izuku's expression and blushed. "I-it wasn't as hard as it looks. I had some help from the book we've been reading in Present Mic's class- Theseus and the Minotaur. This is a bit like a labyrinth, but instead of a Minotaur, you have three victims you have to rescue!" She announced.

Izuku firmly nodded and kept listening. Ochako turned to the maze. "You have ten minutes to complete the maze with all three victims safe," she continued. "If you fail, you'll be put on house arrest again."

"W-what?" Izuku stuttered. He certainly hadn't seen this coming.

Uraraka nodded nonchalantly. "Yep! A whole week is what Aizawa said. But I know you'll think of something."

He blushed red at the compliment but was still nervous. Izuku clearly remembered all the things he'd missed out on when he had been on house arrest for fighting with Kacchan. Falling behind again wasn't an option now.

Shaking the thought out of his head, Izuku stood ready at the beginning of the maze. He hadn't changed into swim trunks but had a spare set of clothing in his bag. Uraraka walked to the front with him and raised an arm. "One...two..."

She let her arm drop, "Go!"

Izuku sped off, water splashing all over Urarka, who just laughed to herself. Izuku soon slowed down, his body sinking in the water.

'No!' He thought, but his body kept sinking. The maze was much bigger than he had thought, and there was no way he could keep up Full Cowling enough to find all three kidnappees and get out. He slowly let himself dissolve into the water, the liquid soaking his clothes. 

"Nine minutes!" Uraraka's voice boomed overhead. Izuku jumped, not having thought that she would be watching. The countdown itself brought on more anxiety. 

"Okay," he muttered aloud. "The point of this is for me to master float, not for a long amount of time, but just for part of the journey...it would be better for me to use it on the last person I rescue." 

He looked up at the tall maze walls. "But how am I supposed to get to the other two?"

"Eight minutes!" Uraraka yelled again.

Izuku gulped, but at the moment of intense worrying, an idea popped into his head. If he couldn't use the ground, he'd use the walls. It was something he had practiced at Gran Torino's, but now he would get another chance at it.

Izuku stilled, floating in the water like a forgotten paper boat. One For All fueled his arms, but the energy went into his legs. With a burst of energy, he jumped straight out of the water and onto one of the strong, firm maze walls. Not wasting a second, he jumped off of that one, and then kept at it, jumping on the side of the walls so fast all Uraraka could see was a green streak of light.

She grinned. "I knew you could do it, Deku..." she paused and peered in more at the boy. "But how long can you keep it up?"