[ readjusting to normal life, pretending that she hasn’t just spent two months in a deadly computer simulation, is alarmingly easy to do. no one thinks anything of it that first week back when ochako walks a little slower or stares a little longer at everything around her. it’s easy to ignore when you wear a smile and brush it off with a comment on how you’ve just been kind of tired. if not for the souvenirs she’d brought home with her - the phs and insignia pin that she keeps in her bag, the butterfly that follows her around (though that one only lasts for a week before shattering, and throwing her into a panic), a sword tucked into the back of her closet where no one can find it and ask questions - could have probably fooled herself, too,
only a month has passed since leaving the realm, and everything is so utterly normal that it almost seems surreal to see only her classmates and teachers again. despite being the one to wish for a way to visit everyone from the realm, ochako knows they’re all busy, so she doesn’t expect to see anyone for a long time to come. there are the messages, still, and though studies get in the way sometimes, she tries to message her friends at least once a week. it’s enough, while they each take care of their business at home.
but of all the people she might have expected to see first… khalid is a surprise! she’s no less excited, of course, just surprised and a little flustered. her classmates did nothing to help with a barrage of questions, so maybe ochako is using the excuse of showing him around town to run away from that? they’ll still be there when she returns, and mina in particular will probably tackle her for details, but that’s a problem for future ochako. present ochako is occupying herself with handing him a cup of tea from a small cafe near the school. ]
Sorry about my classmates… We don’t usually have guests, so they got a little excited.
But you know, you have perfecting timing for visiting. If you’d shown up a few days ago, we’d still be finishing exams.
[ she hasn’t yet asked why he’s here yet, though obviously she’s curious. instead, she just takes a careful sip from her own cup of sweetened rose tea, and offers him a bright smile. ]
[ “Absent friends get further away every day,” or so they say. How well can you know someone you haven’t seen in years? Speaking through letters and messages has limitations, after all, and certainly pales in comparison to sharing joy, tragedy, and everything in between, sharing the burdens of living or dying together.
Still, perhaps a message, for lack of physical proximity, is better than not speaking to those friends at all. Maybe it means they aren’t as far away as they could be. It’s not the same as being able to reach out and touch someone who needs a reminder that they aren’t alone, of course, but if that’s all they have, then it’s best to make the most of it, right? So Ochako’s messages to her friends from the Realm are as consistent as the calls to her parents, gentle updates to remind them that she’s still there, if they want her. She doesn’t expect answers, at least not immediate ones, but while she knows that everyone is busy with their own goals, with wars or shrines or reconstructions or whole worlds to save, Ochako knows just as well that they all deserve to know that they haven’t been forgotten by a friend from a different world.
Four months after leaving the Realm, however, she goes silent. It’s months before she has a chance to pick up the PHS again, and when she does, it’s to brush her absence off with a quick apology, a “We got busy with hero work.” Only one person is offered the truth up front, and it isn’t Claude, for although she’d insisted in the Realm that he didn’t have to handle everything alone, Ochako doesn’t want him or anyone else to worry for her own sake. There’s no need to distract him more than she already does, either, so she doesn’t tell him how she’s been swept up in the aftermath of the first major battle of a war she hadn’t even seen coming, at least not to this degree. It’s easy enough to just pick up where she left off, focusing on telling Claude about the everyday things. Easy things.
It becomes a habit as months turn into years, to tell him about the little events in her life. There’s a formal dance at school that weekend - she goes with friends, and dances (badly, she assures) with each of them. Hua Cheng-san is back, have they spoken yet? They had joint hero training with the other hero class yesterday, and her team won! There’s an interview today, her first real hero interview, and she’s nervous - what if she says something dumb? That poem was really embarrassing; her classmates saw her blush! And oh, a new student joined the other class, it’s so exciting! Her hero costume was updated! She wants to know more about his wyvern - can Claude tell her what it’s like to fly with one? They have a class trip next week, maybe they’ll try some local foods while they’re there. Third year is starting, can he believe that means she’ll be graduating soon? The hero license exam just ended - and she passed. She’s really a pro hero now, and as excited as she is… if she’s honest, it’s a little scary, too.
After graduation, the messages turn toward hero work, as she tells Claude about her first real mission as a pro, villains she faces, reports she has to file, interviews, Uravity fans (????), but most of all - the people she saves, and those she fails, their faces burned into her memory. Messages from Ochako remain as frequent as ever, lapsing into the occasional months-long silence as battles in her world’s war grow ever fiercer and leave her with rescue and recovery efforts or, sometimes, in the hospital. Every time, her return heralds another round of vague apologies that are no less enthusiastic than the rest of her messages, not once offering any explanation that isn’t asked for outright. Even when the war ends late into the fourth year, Ochako says nothing of it. Better to focus on the positive side and the future ahead of them, so instead she talks about how Deku has been named the number one hero, and how proud she is of her friend.
She never asks about the status of the war Claude fights, either, certain that he or Hilda will tell her themselves when the day comes. And when it finally arrives and they say that they’ve won, she is ecstatic for them both, and relieved as the weight of worrying about friends is finally lifted from her shoulders. As much as she’d love to visit right away to congratulate them in person - to reduce the number of absent friends for them all - Ochako has learned what the price of war can be, and the patience required in its wake. So instead, she settles for one more message, and though he won’t be able to see the smile the news of winning the war brings to her face, maybe he can imagine it when she replies with a simple, “I knew you would.”
Only when Claude gives the word will she dare to visit, so life continues as usual in the meantime, though perhaps with a few more late nights spent chatting after work now that there isn’t a war to weigh on either of their minds. It still takes a week or two once he does say she can come to finally open the transport app - just long enough to to gather some things, and arrange for her absence at home. Hilda tasks herself with ensuring that she doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb with her modern, casual clothes, and maybe she does a great job on the surface, but the rich fabrics don’t put Ochako’s mind at ease. And even as a hero with her own degree of fame, it’s a little nerve-wracking to be surrounded by nobility and war heroes. Talking is simple enough, though, so she makes easy friends, even if it turns into rambling here and there. What is she supposed to say when they ask where she’s from, anyway? It’s honestly a relief when she finally sees Claude, her face lighting up with a bright grin that’s a far cry from the uncertain smiles that answer questions that she doesn’t know how to reply to. ]
Khalid-san!
[ Despite all that’s changed, there’s a moment where Ochako feels like the young girl she was when they first met, as she abandons whoever she was speaking with to go and throw her arms around him in greeting. What need does she have for propriety when the Claude she knows isn’t a duke or a prince, but just another friend she hasn’t seen in far too long? ]
Or am I supposed to call you “Duke Riegan” now? Or “my lord,” maybe?
[ ...Still, it isn’t often that she gets to tease him. Of course she’s going to take the chance, even if he will undoubtedly turn it back around on her soon. Maybe, after so many years, after working so hard to box up her feelings and set them aside, it won’t even bother her when he does. ]
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only a month has passed since leaving the realm, and everything is so utterly normal that it almost seems surreal to see only her classmates and teachers again. despite being the one to wish for a way to visit everyone from the realm, ochako knows they’re all busy, so she doesn’t expect to see anyone for a long time to come. there are the messages, still, and though studies get in the way sometimes, she tries to message her friends at least once a week. it’s enough, while they each take care of their business at home.
but of all the people she might have expected to see first… khalid is a surprise! she’s no less excited, of course, just surprised and a little flustered. her classmates did nothing to help with a barrage of questions, so maybe ochako is using the excuse of showing him around town to run away from that? they’ll still be there when she returns, and mina in particular will probably tackle her for details, but that’s a problem for future ochako. present ochako is occupying herself with handing him a cup of tea from a small cafe near the school. ]
Sorry about my classmates… We don’t usually have guests, so they got a little excited.
But you know, you have perfecting timing for visiting. If you’d shown up a few days ago, we’d still be finishing exams.
[ she hasn’t yet asked why he’s here yet, though obviously she’s curious. instead, she just takes a careful sip from her own cup of sweetened rose tea, and offers him a bright smile. ]
It’s good to see you again, Khalid-san.
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Still, perhaps a message, for lack of physical proximity, is better than not speaking to those friends at all. Maybe it means they aren’t as far away as they could be. It’s not the same as being able to reach out and touch someone who needs a reminder that they aren’t alone, of course, but if that’s all they have, then it’s best to make the most of it, right? So Ochako’s messages to her friends from the Realm are as consistent as the calls to her parents, gentle updates to remind them that she’s still there, if they want her. She doesn’t expect answers, at least not immediate ones, but while she knows that everyone is busy with their own goals, with wars or shrines or reconstructions or whole worlds to save, Ochako knows just as well that they all deserve to know that they haven’t been forgotten by a friend from a different world.
Four months after leaving the Realm, however, she goes silent. It’s months before she has a chance to pick up the PHS again, and when she does, it’s to brush her absence off with a quick apology, a “We got busy with hero work.” Only one person is offered the truth up front, and it isn’t Claude, for although she’d insisted in the Realm that he didn’t have to handle everything alone, Ochako doesn’t want him or anyone else to worry for her own sake. There’s no need to distract him more than she already does, either, so she doesn’t tell him how she’s been swept up in the aftermath of the first major battle of a war she hadn’t even seen coming, at least not to this degree. It’s easy enough to just pick up where she left off, focusing on telling Claude about the everyday things. Easy things.
It becomes a habit as months turn into years, to tell him about the little events in her life. There’s a formal dance at school that weekend - she goes with friends, and dances (badly, she assures) with each of them. Hua Cheng-san is back, have they spoken yet? They had joint hero training with the other hero class yesterday, and her team won! There’s an interview today, her first real hero interview, and she’s nervous - what if she says something dumb? That poem was really embarrassing; her classmates saw her blush! And oh, a new student joined the other class, it’s so exciting! Her hero costume was updated! She wants to know more about his wyvern - can Claude tell her what it’s like to fly with one? They have a class trip next week, maybe they’ll try some local foods while they’re there. Third year is starting, can he believe that means she’ll be graduating soon? The hero license exam just ended - and she passed. She’s really a pro hero now, and as excited as she is… if she’s honest, it’s a little scary, too.
After graduation, the messages turn toward hero work, as she tells Claude about her first real mission as a pro, villains she faces, reports she has to file, interviews, Uravity fans (????), but most of all - the people she saves, and those she fails, their faces burned into her memory. Messages from Ochako remain as frequent as ever, lapsing into the occasional months-long silence as battles in her world’s war grow ever fiercer and leave her with rescue and recovery efforts or, sometimes, in the hospital. Every time, her return heralds another round of vague apologies that are no less enthusiastic than the rest of her messages, not once offering any explanation that isn’t asked for outright. Even when the war ends late into the fourth year, Ochako says nothing of it. Better to focus on the positive side and the future ahead of them, so instead she talks about how Deku has been named the number one hero, and how proud she is of her friend.
She never asks about the status of the war Claude fights, either, certain that he or Hilda will tell her themselves when the day comes. And when it finally arrives and they say that they’ve won, she is ecstatic for them both, and relieved as the weight of worrying about friends is finally lifted from her shoulders. As much as she’d love to visit right away to congratulate them in person - to reduce the number of absent friends for them all - Ochako has learned what the price of war can be, and the patience required in its wake. So instead, she settles for one more message, and though he won’t be able to see the smile the news of winning the war brings to her face, maybe he can imagine it when she replies with a simple, “I knew you would.”
Only when Claude gives the word will she dare to visit, so life continues as usual in the meantime, though perhaps with a few more late nights spent chatting after work now that there isn’t a war to weigh on either of their minds. It still takes a week or two once he does say she can come to finally open the transport app - just long enough to to gather some things, and arrange for her absence at home. Hilda tasks herself with ensuring that she doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb with her modern, casual clothes, and maybe she does a great job on the surface, but the rich fabrics don’t put Ochako’s mind at ease. And even as a hero with her own degree of fame, it’s a little nerve-wracking to be surrounded by nobility and war heroes. Talking is simple enough, though, so she makes easy friends, even if it turns into rambling here and there. What is she supposed to say when they ask where she’s from, anyway? It’s honestly a relief when she finally sees Claude, her face lighting up with a bright grin that’s a far cry from the uncertain smiles that answer questions that she doesn’t know how to reply to. ]
Khalid-san!
[ Despite all that’s changed, there’s a moment where Ochako feels like the young girl she was when they first met, as she abandons whoever she was speaking with to go and throw her arms around him in greeting. What need does she have for propriety when the Claude she knows isn’t a duke or a prince, but just another friend she hasn’t seen in far too long? ]
Or am I supposed to call you “Duke Riegan” now? Or “my lord,” maybe?
[ ...Still, it isn’t often that she gets to tease him. Of course she’s going to take the chance, even if he will undoubtedly turn it back around on her soon. Maybe, after so many years, after working so hard to box up her feelings and set them aside, it won’t even bother her when he does. ]