The Shadows I Hide

Chapter 3: Introduction

After searching most of the common places that students spend their time with no success Ochaco eventually found herself walking into the library. If he wasn't here then she had no idea where he might have gone. She navigated the well organized and well supplied UA library doing her best to remain quiet. As she traversed through the neat rows of shelves she eventually came across a small space with tables at the back of the room, and seated at the one nearest the corner with her back to her was a boy with green hair.

Ochaco smiled at finally having found him before walking over to where he was seated. "Hi," she said cheerily to the new boy. Izuku let out a startled "Gah!" and wheeled around to face her wide-eyed. "Whoops sorry, didn't mean to scare you." She took the seat next to the boy and smiled at him. Izuku looked to his left and right before asking "You are talking to me right?"

"Yeah, of course, I am. Who else would I be talking to?" the freckled boy looked down. "I don't know. Anyone other than me? People don't normally talk to me." She gave him a puzzled expression. "Why not?"

The boy simply shrugged. "Well, I'm talking to you. My name is Ochaco Uraraka, you're Midoriya right?"

"Yeah," he replied shyly. "I'm Izuku Midoriya"

"Oh, I thought your first name was Deku because of Bakugo and all."

Izuku winced a bit when she used his nickname. "No, Deku is just what he calls me as an insult."

"Oh, I'm sorry. You know what though, I think Deku sounds kinda cute as a nickname plus it sounds like "you can do it" to me."

"You can call me that if you want, I don't really care anymore,"

"Well Deku, I just wanted to say that you're a really good fighter. Even though you lost that match you were really good out there,"

"Thanks, you were really good out there yourself,"

"Thanks,"

The fact that a newcomer had complimented her fighting left her with an unfamiliar but pleasant feeling.

"Who taught you how to fight the way you do?" she asked him.

"Oh, I learned from my old hero course and being self-taught."

"Oh cool!" she exclaimed. "You seem really smart, especially with those notebooks you had earlier."

She realized what she was saying too late to stop the words from coming out.

"How did you know about those? Are you some kind of stalker?"

"No no no, I'm sorry. I may have been curious about you a bit and noticed when you started writing in a notebook during the fights."

Izuku seemed to relax a bit. "Okay, I believe you."

Ochaco exhaled in relief, "Phew. Well, I thought it looked cool from what I could see. Do you mind if I take a closer look?"

Izuku seemed to hesitate a bit before relenting,

"Alright. Sure," He opened his backpack and took out a notebook which he then handed to her.

As she looked at the pages one by one she got more and more impressed.

"Wow, this is all super detailed. You even have information on pro heroes. This is incredible!"

"It's not that good," he said. The boy seemed a bit unused to praise

"Well, I think it is, all of this is making me a bit scared of you, to be honest,"

He looked at her confused, "Why would you be afraid of me?"

"Oh, not in a bad way," she said hastily.

"You just seem like you're incredibly capable. These notebooks show you have a very calculating mind. Plus everyone in the class was impressed by your combat abilities. On top of that, you didn't even use your quirk and I think all of us are a bit scared to see you fight using it."

The boy suddenly got very silent. He looked down at the ground while grabbed his notebook off the table and putting it back in his bag. He then slung the bag over his shoulder and stood up.

"Is something wrong?" the brown-haired girl asked getting up from her seat

"You guys won't have to worry about seeing me use a quirk," he said before beginning to walk away.

She went and grabbed his arm, "I don't understand, why not?"

The boy didn't look up from the ground.

"Because I don't have one."

He then walked out of the library with Ochaco staring after him in shock.