As Izuku had rightfully believed, his mother refused to accept that her son was nothing more than a villain. The next few weeks were a blur. She was separated from Izuku for her safety, and at U.A., she hated all the apologetic looks she got, as if they were saying;
'We're sorry that Izuku did that. You deserved better.'
She hated that look. But even more than that, she was festering a deep dislike for all of Izuku's friends.
She never got the chance to tease him and that Uraraka girl. Looking back, she's glad she didn't. She wasn't a good enough friend to her boy. Did he not have any close friends? That something like this was allowed to happen? U.A was supposed to be a fresh start, an end to him being mistreated by teachers and fellow students. It seemed that that was just a pipe dream.
The only one that didn't look at her like that was Eri, who Izuku had said in messages called him 'Papa.'
A little girl with a broken heart. Eri took the loss of her surrogate father pretty hard. She opened up to the green haired woman quickly, which Inko soon realized was because she reminded Eri of Izuku.
A few months later, when the whole hullabaloo surrounding Izuku had died down, Inko and Eri moved out of U.A. Inko thought that was for the best. Not only did being constantly around the people that betrayed her father not help Eri, if Inko stayed any longer, she would've hurt somebody. She didn't show it, but the looks of pity, and the ever-present badmouthing of her only child was getting to her, and driving her crazy.
They lived at Izuku's childhood home, and they started to settle into a comfortable routine. No-one bothered or worse, harassed her about Izuku, like she had expected, and she was happy that she didn't have to move.
It'd been about a year since Izuku was declared a villain, and Eri and Inko still missed the scruffy-haired, bright-eyed Izuku Midoriya. It was getting difficult to assure Eri that her Papa would come back, as Inko was also finding it hard to believe, bur she still held on tightly to any sliver of hope.
In an effort to cheer Eri (and herself) up, Inko took the little girl to the place Izuku had done most of his training, Dagobah beach. The kid had single handedly turned it from Musutafu's worst dumping grounds back into an attraction. She thought of it whenever the thought of Izuku being a villain invaded her mind. What villain would do that?
They went to the beach in the middle of the weekend, during the day, when most people were at school or at work, so they could have the beach to themselves. Eri had been through the wringer in her short life. She could miss a day.
***
The two walked down the steps into the sands and as Inko looked out over the beach, for a spot to relax in, she spotted someone. A man, wearing a hood, a white undershirt with a blue tunic over it, trousers and heavy-looking boots, sat on the sand, and he was just gazing out at the open sea.
''He's just sitting there? I guess the ocean is nice... But he isn't even dressed for the beach,' Inko thought, looking at the man.
She looking over to the child in her care. Eri wasn't terrified like she'd expected, but she was clearly a little uncomfortable at the chance of interacting with a complete stranger.
"Should we leave, Eri?" she asked, making sure to keep her voice soothing.
"N-No, Papa would want me to be brave," she said, looking back up at Inko, with shaky yet determined eyes. The older woman smiled, proud of the progress the girl had made. She spread out a mat on the golden sands and sat down, and she watched Eri as she began to play in the sand.
