Mission Midoriya || A RuthTheNerd MHA fanfiction||

Chapter Eight: Satashi

This woman was unnerving.

Ochako had spent less than five minutes alone with her, and all she was getting were cold stares. It had only been a few hours since she'd discovered the woman cowering from Toshi's phone, and after Deku pulled a few strings, they were both at Hatsume's shop with a man who claimed to speak many Asian languages. Hopefully, with the help of Mei, they could break the language barrier between them and finally figure out what in the world was going on.

The woman was seated right across from her, glaring unhappily. Ochako tried not to make eye contact with her and was failing. She had to admit that the woman was hard to miss, and it made her wonder how they'd never seen her before if she was supposedly a villain.

The sounds of muffled voices broke through her thoughts and she stood up, noticing how the woman perked up at the sound of voices. A gloved hand pushed the door open, letting two men inside. One was her husband, and the other was a pale-skinned man who had brown hair and black spectacles. Mei skipped in from behind them before shutting the door.

"Hey, Uraraka!" Mei chirped. "Fixed your helmet. Catch!"

Ochako grabbed it straight out of the air and tucked it underneath her arm, rubbing her hand on the smooth and intact visor. The man in glasses walked up to her and bowed. 

"O-oh!" she cried out in surprise. "No need for such formal behavior, sir!"

He stood up again, a soft smile on his face, and from behind him, she could see Izuku with a similar grin. "I'm in the presence of the great hero Uravity, why shouldn't I?"

"Well-"

The man let out a hearty laugh. "I was just joking, madame. I already know you, but let me introduce myself. I'm Kaito Satashi, resident polyglot in my household," he declared cheerfully. His eyes trailed over to the woman who was seated nearby.

"Ah, so she's the problem," he walked over cautiously and sat down in front of her. "Do you have anything that could possibly hint me to what language she may be fluent in?"

"She came with a satchel of objects," Izuku explained. "There was some paper with writing on it, but we couldn't understand." He pulled out the bag and rummaged through it until he found the rolled-up parchment paper. Satashi took it and examined it closely.

"Hm..." he mused. "For one, there are no hiragana or katakana, the syllable-based scripts we use with kanji. Which means this has to be some form of Chinese."

Mei, who hadn't left the room and was now intrigued with the current investigation, tilted her head. "Some form? Isn't it just 'Chinese?'"

"Usually it is, but the language has dealt with a lot of 'evolution,' meaning it's changed a lot to become what it is today. Though this uses kanji, the symbols are quite different." He continued to scan the paper, feeling it with his hands. "This is old Chinese we're dealing with. Studies debate on which dynasty used it, but my guesses are between the Zhou or Shang dynasties."

"Old Chinese?" Izuku repeated in awe. 

"Wait." Ochako held up a hand. "If this woman speaks old Chinese, how are we supposed to understand her? If I'm not mistaken, old Chinese was replaced by our modern version, Mandrin."

"You're right," he told her. "Old Chinese was discovered upon oracle bones, but scientists still haven't deciphered much of it yet. It's a wonder how this woman can speak it."

"I'm sure there are remote villages who speak it, right?" Izuku asked. "Maybe she's from there."

"I highly doubt that," said Satashi. "Back in Ancient China, only the educated or members of the royalty knew it. So the prospect of any villager knowing it is slim."