Mission Midoriya || A RuthTheNerd MHA fanfiction||

Chapter 28: Chat

Meiying had never been so happy.

Her expression gave nothing away - it was as nonchalant as ever. However, in her hands she held the key to going home. Her fingers grazed over the red, worn cover of her journal and she held in a sigh. Toshi had taken good care of it, though the last few pages had Japanese scrawl she didn't understand and a few undiscernible doodles. She found herself back in her lavish room back at her family's royal palace, giggling with the fresh excitement of discovering her quirk and completely oblivious to her soon doom. Intense nostalgia filled her veins, along with the always-lingering feeling of home-sickness. 

She gazed at it for a solid minute before retreating from the room. Izuku and Uraraka ogled her from afar, Izuku with an expression of questioning on his face that she'd grown accustomed to seeing. Without a word, she ran through the dorm gates. Her portal greeted her outside, growing smaller as her strength decreased, but the heroes and their children were nowhere in sight. 

"Pst!" a voice whispered. Meiying whipped her head around and saw Ryo, who had dipped into a space between the building and the bushes, which only cool shadows occupied. 

"Hey," Ryo whispered as she sprinted to their location. "Are you...okay?"

"I'm fine," Meiying replied, quickly scanning herself for bruises or other minor injuries. She turned to the two heroes, who were beaming with relief and hugging their children.

"I still can't believe that of all places, you ended up here," Deku mused, staring at the h-shaped building in the distance. "I feel like it's been years since my high school training."

"I know!" Ochako agreed. Meiying saw the anxiety and steely look behind her eyes fade away. The hero she saw know was sporting a look of joy. Happiness, overflowing, tear-bringing happiness was evident in her tone. She turned to Ryo. "Where do you two stay??"

Toshi pointed a thumb at the dorms. "In there. Let's just say we got special permission from your half-dead instructor."

"Half-dead, eh?" Izuku let out a laugh. "I'm surprised Aizawa allowed it. And you didn't tell anyone that you were from the past?"

Ryo's shoulders sagged, but it didn't dampen the obvious gleam in her eyes. "We tried, but your classmates eventually got suspicious and we had to tell."

Reiko snorted. "No, we didn't. We couldn't lied. You just got tongue-tied." 

"You try spinning a good lie while eighteen students are staring at you."

"I will! I fucking will-!"

"Alright girls," Ochako put a hand between them, breaking up their verbal fight. "Enough. We should get going." She faced Meiying, who nodded. The group slinked out to the portal, which had shrunk to the size of a pair of double doors. The kids were urged to go first, partly because their parents were highjacked with paranoia, and partly so they could get a final glimpse of their past before leaving. Meiying watched as Ryo fell in with less shock and more glee, spreading her arms out as if she were about to sky-dive.

Toshi followed, somehow making falling look as monotonous as his expression. Reiko grumbled as she jumped in, tossing a sideways look at Meiying as if to say, I don't forgive you but I won't yell profanities at your face.

At last, it was the parents' turn. Meiying thought the caught a glimpse of hesitation in Ochako's face, but decided not to point it out. However, just as Uravity stuck her hand into the portal, a slight gasp echoed through the air.

Everyone stiffened like ice. Meiying craned her head back and saw two shadows lurking by the windows. Curly hair and flushed, red cheeks immediately made their identities obvious. 

"I think we've been caught," Ochako whispered, knitting her brows. "Should we just go?"

Deku nodded. "It'd be for the best. We can't meddle in the past. Who knows what it might cause." 

"Alright, then." Meiying watched as their figures descended into the hole. She felt her thighs quiver and felt as though she would fall to her knees, but then stared at the journal in her hands. A smile flitted over her face, and she let the portal close without going into it. 

All at once, the exhaustion rolled over her like a massive tsunami. She collapsed onto the pavement but hardly felt the pain on her bottom when she did. She leaned into the comfortable, soothing shade of a tree that loomed over her. All her senses sharpened; she suddenly felt the stark heat of her thick cloak and wanted to peel it off, but didn't have the energy. Sweat soaked her pale skin, but she sat still. She needed to conserve her energy.

After a few moments, she decided to get up and leave the campus. With her remaining coins, she'd probably be able to get a hotel for a few nights and replenish her health. A game plan.

"Hey, you okay?" 

Her head darted up and she locked eyes with Ochako, except it was her younger version. Behind her was a very baffled Deku, who was clutching a worn notebook. She saw the hunger for information in his eyes and could already tell how dear of a possession it was to him.

Meiying smiled. "I'm fine, thank you. I just needed to rest. I'll be on my way soon."

"Y-you could stay here if you'd like!" the boy blurted out, before biting his lip. Meiying chuckled at his request. Someone like her couldn't stay in a densely-populated dorm, and she didn't want to burden them either. Besides, it was hardly safe for them to trust her like this, and she had a feeling Deku had realized this too. So why did he want her to remain on campus?

"Would you like some food before you go?" the girl asked. "I could get you some fruit, but we don't have many snacks at the moment."

Meiying thought against it, but her stomach protested with a loud growl and she blushed. "That would be nice, thank you."

Ochako chuckled and skipped off, leaving Meiying and the curious boy alone. He sat down underneath the tree, looking strangely calm.

"That was me, wasn't it?"

Meiying nodded. There was no use hiding it now.

"I looked so...different. I mean, I looked the same but-"

She laughed. "Time does a number on us, but some traits don't change."

"Was that white thing-"

"Portal."

"-portal. Was that white portal a part of your quirk?"

"It is my quirk," she said, tracing the lines of a leaf in her palms. "I can time travel."

"Wow!" he exclaimed. His hands subconsciously wrote in messy kanji in his journal as she explained how it worked. By the end of their conversation, he'd filled up two whole pages and was now working on a sketch. That analyzing skill was astonishing on its own.

"It must be neat having a quirk like that, huh?" he asked, gracefully gliding his pencil across the paper. 

She leaned against the bark. "I...no. It really isn't. It's separated me from all I've ever cared about...I hated my power for such a long time. But then I realized that my power was all I had, and I needed to use it to my advantage, no matter how much pain it caused me."

Izuku's lips parted. "I can sort of relate. My quirk is powerful, but when I first experienced its true power, I broke my limbs each try."

Meiying stared at him. "And the obvious solution would be to stop using your quirk?"

"Wrong," he said with a sort of confidence she'd only seen his future self uphold. "If I don't risk it, I won't improve. I can't hate what I've been given, even if it hurts me so much. I'm grateful, actually." 

Silence followed, except for the wind rustling the branches of the tree. He'd finished a sketch and put his hands down on his lap, staring at the azure, endless horizon. She noticed how many scars were etched into his skin, as if he had been stitched together like a freakish Frankenstein. Weirdly enough, her heart bloomed with unexpected pride for this boy, whom she didn't know at all. 

But she did know who he would turn out to be. A hero of chance.