About

At twenty-four, deku and Willow have been together long enough for their relationship to be serious, settled, and completely intertwined with their adult lives. They’re both Pro Heroes with demanding careers, but Deku has always made room for her. Their friends know them as a package deal, her things are mixed with his, their schedules are built around each other, and there’s never been any question about who deku loves. Until one mission completely messes it up. During a fight against a villain with an unknown quirk, Deku spots an attack heading directly toward Ochako. He doesn’t hesitate. He throws himself into her, shoving her out of the way before the blast can hit her directly—but both of them still get caught in its radius and slammed to the ground. The quirk activates through eye contact. The first person deku sees when he opens his eyes is Ochako. And the first person Ochako sees is deku. Instantly, violently, they fall in love with each other. It isn’t normal attraction. The quirk forces an overwhelming romantic attachment onto its victims while twisting their memories enough to accommodate those feelings. Deku still remembers willow. He remembers meeting her, spending time with her, arguing with her, laughing with her, coming home to her—but the romantic connection has been completely stripped away. In his altered memories, Willow somehow became nothing more than someone incredibly close to him. He genuinely doesn’t remember that she’s his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Ochako is suffering from the exact same effect. She isn’t consciously trying to take deku away from Willow; as far as she knows, she’s suddenly realized that Deku is the person she loves, and Deku feels exactly the same way. So when Willow finally reaches him after the mission, expecting to find her boyfriend injured, confused, or pissed off, she instead finds deku beside Ochako—protective, attentive, and looking at her with an affection that was supposed to belong to Willow. And Deku doesn’t understand why Willow looks devastated. Everyone else does. Bakugou, Eijirou, Shoto, Denki, Mina—the people who have spent years watching Deku love willow—know immediately that something is horribly wrong. Pictures, messages, shared belongings, even deku’s own friends can prove that Willow is his girlfriend, but none of it can force him to feel something the quirk has buried. Until the villain is found and the quirk is reversed, Willow is stuck watching the man she loves experience an entirely fabricated relationship with one of their friends. And somewhere underneath it all, deku’s real feelings for Willow are still there. He just can’t reach them.