Hosu City was an absolute mess.
The city had been hit by a series of very heavy-hitting Nomu, who had wreaked heavy and massive chaos wherever they had gone.
Uraraka had expected to see horrible destruction in her career. Hell, she'd expected it. But… She'd always thought that her first taste of large-scale destruction on a city scale would be a battle she participated in.
Not one where she acted as the cleanup crew.
By the time she and Gran Torino had gotten news of what had been going on, and her current teacher had redirected their patrols to helping out here, the massive battles that had left huge parts of the city in ruins were long, long over.
"You didn't imagine you'd spend much time cleaning up after everyone else's messes, did you?"
Gran Torino looked her over with an annoyed look, as he'd caught Uraraka staring out the window of the building they were in, out over the small skyscraper across the street that had completely collapsed.
"No it's…It's not like that… I just…" She struggled trying to explain it.
"Like… I signed up to this thinking I'd use All For One to try and prevent stuff like this you know? I mean… What good is this power if I'm not there when I'm needed."
Gran Torino did not soften up his tone, still being exasperated, but his tone did lose some of his mocking critical tones.
"God… You really are just like Toshinori aren't you? He always used to worry about stuff like this as well."
He snorted.
"He wasn't a God, kid. And neither are you. No matter how much you train, and sharpen yourself… There's gonna be plenty of times when you aren't gonna be able to do a damn thing… Because you're not there. Because you're off in another country, or on the other side of the land. If you start beating yourself up for every time you wish you were somewhere to help in time, you're never gonna get anything productive done. Focus on what you CAN do. Now stop philosophizing. We've got a job to do here."
And with that, he smashed the look on a nearby door and went inside to check the contents of the apartments.
Uraraka nodded and did the exact same thing herself with another one.
Door after door, apartment after apartment.
The thing that had done the biggest damage, by far, had been some beam attack that had punched straight through building after building after building.
It had gone for well over 6 Kilometers before it had finally dissipated into thin air.
It was one of the most devastating quirks Uraraka had ever heard of, and apparently, it was tied to the Caribbean Royal family as that… News article had made clear for all the world to see.
Many of the buildings it had blown through had just completely collapsed.
Those had total death tolls, with no survivors.
The ones still standing though were a more complicated matter.
Most inhabitants had long ago left of their own free accord, either on that very night or the following morning.
But there were plenty of people who couldn't, hadn't, or didn't want to leave.
People trapped by rubble as sections broke in on themselves from the floor beneath vanishing, people who were so stubborn they didn't want to go, or people who were so scared they hadn't left the room at all, waiting for it all to blow over.
They all had to be evacuated, and in the case of the dead, located and identified, before the next stages could be done, whether that be to begin rebuilding, or ripping the entire building down if it was beyond repair.
She'd gone through several of those, only held up by the power of quirk users. The assurances it would not cave in on themselves did not make her feel particularly safe.
This building wasn't one of those though.
Just a building that due to the unfortunate layout position relative to the beam had ended with the entire reception and everyone and everything in it, GONE.
That had made figuring out which of these apartments were actually lived in, an absolute nightmare.
And so, teams of heroes had to go door to door and break in to try and find out if there were anyone inside.
The first room she went through on the floor had no one in it, though she noticed there were plenty of valuables laying around the room.
Jewelry, stacks of cash on the table, and even a pretty fancy painting.
If a thief snuck in here after they were done, he might make a small fortune.
She'd run into two different looters while doing this in fact.
Both times the thieves had surrendered immediately and without a fight.
It had angered her to no end that people would actually be taking advantage of situations like this. And it had genuinely surprised her, never really having considered how something as simple as an evacuation could immediately lead to lowkey criminals trying to make a buck.
It shouldn't have though.
This was a basic, simple level of event and consequences she was honestly surprised she hadn't encountered before.
On that note, she also uncomfortably knew her parents would benefit from all of this.
It wasn't the same of course, but she'd never really thought that construction companies like her parents were in their own way, technically reaping benefits from tragedies like this.
Earning cash by specializing in rebuilding what criminals tore down.
It wasn't wrong of them to do so of course. Society was completely dependent on the fact that there were people to rebuild it after things were destroyed by villains, but… It was an angle she hadn't really considered before seeing this kind of destruction firsthand.
It was easy to say that it all came back to money.
But money was only a means to an end.
The true thing that mattered… Was human lives.
As Uraraka moved from room to room, not finding anyone, she finally broke open a door, where she immediately heard sounds from inside.
She froze… Then stepped inside, both wary, and with a concerned look, as she scanned the room.
It didn't take her long to find the source of the sounds.
Beneath a table, hidden under a blanket, was a kid, who was now staring at her with a terrified expression.
That was the first thing that struck her.
The second thing was the smell. It was some of the worst Uraraka had ever had the misfortune of smelling… Though unfortunately she also knew exactly what it was. She had grown very familiar with it over this day after all.
The dead man was lying by the open window.
A long, red, metallic spike had lodged itself straight through his head.
He had had some incredibly bad luck this one. Judging by how he was positioned, he seems to have opened the window to get a better look at what was going on… Only for a random stray projectile from the large battles far, far beneath to hit him straight on.
It was… Strange how calm she felt when seeing a dead body.
She hadn't been that first time. At all.
It wasn't like she wasn't affected by the dead man. Not at all. But… She was able to ignore him, despite the close proximity and the horrible stench.
She had to ignore him.
Ignore him, so she could focus on the kid under the table.
It took a bit of prodding and gentle words to get him to respond to her.
She could have forced him out by force but… Well, there were so many reasons it would be better for him if she didn't.
What struck Uraraka the most, was how the boy reacted when she said she was a hero.
It was… Well, it immediately marked a change in the kid, and it wasn't too long after that, that she found herself carrying him out of the room, and down to the ground floor where she'd pass him on to rescue workers.
It was such a simple thing. A confirmation of what she was, and a smile.
And yet… It held such power in this society of theirs. Enough to bring about the change, the belief that things could get better, even in those traumatized.
People were raised to believe that Heroes would be able to handle everything and solve any situation.
They brought hope wherever they went.
This was the world that Toshinori had built.
A world where words could bring hope to all around them.
As Uraraka walked out, carrying the boy(Probably somewhere about 7 years old), downstairs, leaving behind the kid's father, she passed other heroes going both up and down the stairs, alongside rescue workers.
One of those happened to be Black Cat, Mina's mom who gave her an approving nod.
...
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