Power Quaking - Chapter 7.1

"You take an awful long time to get ready you know," Ochako pointed out as soon as he stepped out of the changing room, "Honestly, I thought for a bit you'd already left and I missed you."

"Oh, it's the infinity girl." Kirishima noted.

She grinned, "The names Ochako Uraraka, Kirishima-kun and Mineta-kun, right?" she introduced herself and noted.

"She knows my name?" Mineta blinked, excitement flashing in his eyes.

"Well you both kinda stand out hanging around Kano-kun," she shrugged, grin still in place, "You're RedRiot and that Grape guy right?"

'Eh?' Kano blinked, surprised.

"Yeah, that's me," Kirishima flashed her a thumbs up, "So does that mean you're a member of the imperial army too?"

"I mean, I guess?" Ochako shrugged, and met Kano's eyes, "You were telling me about your Wetube account before remember at the entrance exams? I got curious and checked it out and found you during that stream you did at the beach and ended up checking out some of your work out tutorials, thanks for that by the way, I think they gave me a decent bit of help for today."

Her grin turned impish as she looked at Kano, "Should I call you king too?" she asked cheekily.

Kano snorted in amusement, "I mean if you want." he shrugged.

"…Damn King, your game is too powerful." Mineta pouted.

Kano rolled his eyes, "So what were you waiting on us for?" he asked.

Ochako shrugged back, "I was hoping to talk to you about something, but if you're busy it can wait I guess." she replied, glancing at the other two boys beside him.

"Well actually, how about we all head out to a local place and hang out," Mineta grinned at her, his eyes blatantly lingering on her chest, "I'm sure we can-"

He was cut off by Kirishima lifting him by the back of his blazer, while rolling his eyes, "We can pick up where we left off tomorrow King, seems you know Uraraka better than us, so we'll leave you two to it." he said, giving Kano a knowing look.

…He was reading far too much into it. But Kano nodded nonetheless, "Sure, I'll see you both then,"

"Damn you RedRiot, why you always gotta bust my balls!?" Mineta whined as Kirishima carried him off, "You not content with just in King's chat anymore you gotta do it in real life too? You don't have mod powers here bastard!"

Both Kano and Ochako stared after them nonplussed as the small boy kicked and whined in the taller red haired boys grasp, before they disappeared around a corner and out of sight.

"…He might be even worse in person." Ochako shivered a bit, breaking the silence.

Yeah, he'd need to keep an eye on that guy. A follower of his or not, the guy was like a tiny little condensed ball of lust.

"If he bothers you or any of the other girls, just let me know and I'll sort him out." Kano nodded. If nothing else, he was pretty good at intimidating people when needed.

"I'll keep that in mind," Ochako mused, before turning back to him, "So, you doin' okay?" she asked, giving him a concerned look.

He returned it with a confused one, "Yeah….why wouldn't I be?" he asked back.

"Oh, well that's good," Ochako blinked, "You didn't look to happy with Aizawa-sensei earlier. That little kid he was talking about before, that was you wasn't it?"

He froze for a moment, embarrassment beginning to burn on his cheeks, before he sighed and looked up, running a hand through his short but thick green hair, "Ah, so you did figure that out, huh?" he noted, hiding a grimace.

"Mmm, yeah," Ochako nodded, "You told me before right? On the day of the entrance exam that when you unlocked your quirk the first time it almost killed you, and even when you were showing it off to me, with that tiny bit of it, that even it still hurt you…and well with the way Aizawa-sensei singled you out and was looking at you, I kinda figured he was talking about you."

"Yeah…" Kano admitted with a sigh, "Apparently the grouch has been using that story for a while now to give his classes a kick up the ass, because being compared to a four year old and found lacking seems to hurt their egos and make them try harder."

Ochako giggled, "Well without the context of things…I mean, can you imagine training all this time to go to hero school and the first thing your hero teacher tells you, is that he taught a four year old that makes you look pathetic in comparison?" she said, a mock grimace spreading across her face, "That would be embarrassing."

"It's pretty embarrassing for me too," Kano shrugged, "I…seriously didn't need him telling everyone I literally cried myself to sleep all the time as a kid just because I was a weakling that couldn't control or withstand my own quirk." he admitted, a frown appearing on his face as he looked away from her, his cheeks reddening for sure.

It galled him to admit such a thing aloud, but she'd already figured it out, so the least he could as a man was face his embarrassment head on. Honestly, he was a pretty talentless guy in the grand scheme of things, he wasn't as smart or intuitive as his brother for instance, and his thought process was far simpler than his own, his name in attacks was clear enough proof of that. Not to mention, most of the stress his mother had been through and resulted in her current situation, was big in part because of him.

The only things he really had going for him, was being strong and being reckless enough to chase whatever he thought he needed to.

"It's not anything to be embarrassed about y'know, you were only four." Ochako pointed out.

Kano shook his head, "Started when I was four maybe," he pointed out with a sigh, "But it was a good few years before I fully got tough enough to withstand my quirk and not cry like a little baby over it."

"That's not really…" Ochako trailed off before she cupped her chin, eyes lighting up, "Oh! This is a macho thing isn't it?"

"Eh…uh…?" Kano wasn't sure how to reply to that. Mostly because, she wasn't really wrong, but at the same time it kind of undermined it.

He had his pride after all.

"Mmm, I don't really get it," Ochako mused shaking her head and laughing, "Well, I only really wanted to check on you and see if you were doing alright."

"Yeah…I'm fine." Kano nodded, that was about all he could really say about it. It was embarrassing to have others know, but he'd deal with it. That was the only thing he could do.

"Well, that's good," she beamed, "So, we should get going then right? You wanna walk together?"

"I would, but I have my bike remember?" he reminded her.

"Oh, right so you do I totally forgot about that!" Ochako clapped her hands, "Man, wish I could afford one of those. It would be so convenient."

"You want a ride? If I remember right that store we met at is on my way," Kano asked, "If you live around there I could drop you off pretty easily."

"Oh, really?" Ochako's eyes lit up, "Then yeah totally! It'll save me using up a spot on my rail card!"

__________________

"Wait you live alone?" Kano's voice floated back to her.

Currently for the second time in her life Ochako found herself hanging on the boy from behind as she rode behind him on his motorcycle.

Bessie he'd called it for some reason, and fondly. Though he'd clammed up when she asked why he called it that.

"Yeah, I'm from Kansai," Ochako nodded, "My parents run a construction company out there, and well it's too far to get from there to U.A everyday? So I had to come over here."

"Yeah, that's quite the trek to make every day and would cost quite a bit on train fare that's for sure," Kano's head clad in his helmet bounced up and down as he nodded, "Still living by yourself already huh?" he mused, sounding impressed.

He really shouldn't have been.

"What about you? I know you have Deku-kun your little brother, and I think you mentioned your mom too before?" she changed the subject.

"Deku-kun?" he asked, sounding…surprised? "Why are you calling him that?"

Oh…right. He said the angry blond Bakugou used it to insult him, right? "He told me to call him it after I said it sounded like the Japanese word for 'you can do it', I didn't know it was an insult at first until he told me."

She'd met him and Iida when they were leaving the changing rooms while she was waiting for Kano.

"…Is that so…?" Kano trailed off for a moment, before sighing and shaking his head, "Well, whatever floats his boat I guess. It's just us three really, well we have our dad but we haven't seen him god knows how long, he works overseas."

Ah…awkward. It seemed she wasn't the only one with family issues, even if Kano's was different from monetary wise.

There was a bit of an awkward silence between them then, before Ochako coughed to break it and blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

"So, why'd you wanna become a hero?" she asked. That was a pretty standard question to ask now they were both in the hero course, right?

"Eh…nothing all that grand to be honest," Kano replied as he slowed down the motorcycle to turn a corner, "I felt guilty because of all the stress my mom went through because of me and my brother. And the one thing I really have going for me is being strong, fighting is all my useless quirk is good for, not like yours. So I decided to become a strong and popular hero and get rich so I could spoil her and let her live the best possible life."

Ochako's eyes widened in shock. She wasn't expecting that answer like that all. Her lips curved into a smile, a feeling of kinship warming her stomach.

His reason for being a hero, wasn't all that different from her own after all. She'd been embarrassed about her own reason for becoming a hero…but if someone like Kano was doing it too, someone a shoe in to go really high as a hero with his drive and power

Then, it wasn't bad for her to be doing it as well right?

"What about you?" he asked, looking at her over his shoulder, his eyes meeting hers through the gold visor of his helmet.

"Same as yours actually," she smiled at him, "I told you my family owns a construction company right? But, thing is, we've not been getting many jobs, and my family is flat broke. The only reason I can even be here right now is cuz my dad built the building my apartment is friends with owner, who is letting me rent it for free."

"For as long as I can remember, my folks have looked exhausted yet they do everything they can for me," she continued, "So I'm definitely going to become a great hero and make a lot of money so I can let them take it easy."

Kano slowed the bike down there as she finished and an approving smile appeared on his face, "That's an amazing reason to be a hero," he said, "What's the point of even being a hero after all, if you can't even do something good for the people closest to you? If you can't even do that, there's no point in you being a hero I think."

"Mmm!" Ochako nodded, feeling her cheeks heat up a bit at the smile he was giving her.

He opened his mouth to continued, but before he could a small cute yip sound cut him off.

On instinct, Ochako's head turned to the sound, and noticed Kano had slowed down right in front of a small tight alley junction about three feet wide between two office buildings.

And there sitting in a box in the tiny cramped alley, was a small cute little puppy with its head peaking up over the rim of the box.