The Price of Victory
The End of All For One
The sky bled red, the once-bustling city had been reduced to nothing but smoldering ruins and broken dreams. Towering skyscrapers that once reached the sky were now nothing more than twisted steel and shattered glass. To the bystanders on the ground, it looked as if the dreaded apocalypse had come right to their doorstep. The air was quiet, but the ground trembled with every explosion, with every death that marked the end of this long, bloody war.
And yet, one boy, was still standing. Despite the immense destruction that surrounded him, that should have demoralized him, the boy stance’s was strong. An attribute to all the struggles he had gone up against until this very moment.
Izuku Midoriya had stopped keeping count of how many hours they had been fighting.
His breaths were shallow, ragged, every inhale scraping like broken glass against his throat. His right eye was swollen shut, with blood and some sweat dripping from his brow, blurring his vision.
One of his arms, the same one that had thrown countless One For All Smashes to protect people now hung limp, the bones reduced to atoms as they were shattered beyond repair.
Yet, he refused to fall. Not when his foe was still standing as well. He wouldn’t fall unless his foe falls first.
Standing in front of him, the monster still stood.
All For One.
Or rather, the former shell of his once proud self.
The self-proclaimed Demon Lord, who was deem untouchable and a true monster… staggered before him. After days of hard fighting, All For One had been weakened significantly enough to the point where he was actually standing on the edge of life and death. It is the same cliff that Izuku finds himself on as well, but at least he still had three parts of his body left to hit All For One. Sure, moving one of his arms wasn’t at likely right now with it hanging limply. But he still had his remaining arm and two legs.
His form twitched and convulsed, the monster’s body failing him at last. The sheer number of quirks he had stolen were now acting as a curse, his body turning into a rotting husk that was, at last, rejecting him. Smoke and embers fell from his skin as his body started tearing itself apart from the inside out.
But even now, even as he faced death, a twisted smile remained. The monster’s snow white hair flapped in the wind, his eyes were like the endless abyss. An abyss that threatens to swallow Izuku up without any warning, but he did not once waver under the monster’s gaze.
"You call this is a victory?" His voice was raspy but had a bit of mockery of his former self.
"You think…killing me…will end the darkness? How utterly foolish.” The monster raised his single hand, aiming it Izuku as it glowed with an immense aura. A metal tube was sticking out from the bottom of his palm as his arm slowly split. The monster waited for his answer, but one he would never receive.
Izuku didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. He did not panic nor showed fear when All For One had just enough energy to use Impure Beam. There was no reason to fear the million attempt death was trying to take him.
Because Bakugo had already made his move.
A thunderous BOOM shook the battlefield as Bakugo burst, head first, through the smoke, it looked he was a living missile filled with pure rage.
His body was a wreck. Dirt and grime covered his once beautiful face, his body holding many scars and injuries that have yet to heal. His hero costume still clung to his body, torn to shreds, revealing deep burns and lacerations across his skin. His arms, his weapons, the main force behind his pride, were trembling, barely holding together.
But his eyes? His eyes still burned.
Like Izuku, Bakugo still showed resilience, and determination. His will was strong, despite the immense pain his body was in, he knew, deep in his heart, that the fight wasn’t over unless All For One was truly gone.
With an unrelenting fury. With defiance. With a willpower that refused to be snuffed out. He stood strong, looking at the husk that was the monster that he swore to defeat.
"Shut the hell up," Bakugo snarled, as small explosions roaring from the base of his palms, growing increasingly brighter, growing louder than ever before.
Was this a wounded animal’s last stand? No.
It was a king’s execution.
Bakugo didn’t slow down. He couldn’t afford it, not when Izuku had given him the perfect opportunity. He couldn’t afford to hesitate, not when it was life and death and he already steeled his nerves for what he’s about to do.
Because this bastard, this piece of shit, had stolen far too much. He had taken too many lives. He had twisted and broken so many people beyond the point of repair.
He was done letting the monster talk. It was time to end it, time to bring an end to this era, it was time for the heroes to emerge victorious.
With a simple twist of his body, he launched himself into a rapid mid-air spin, explosions twisting around him like a spiraling inferno,
“HOWITZER-”
“If only things were that simple!” All For One defiantly yelled. Even in the verge of death, All For One wasn’t done. He wouldn’t be defeated by mere children, he refuses to be beaten by these brats!
Canceling his use of Impure Beam, he flared his remaining quirks, a sense of desperation dripped from every movement the monster was making. A pathetic attempt to prolong his life. Tendrils of dark-red lashed out, seeking flesh, seeking to steal, to kill, to take one last victory.
Izuku felt his body moved on instinct. Every single moment he spent training his senses to the highest he could acted at the same time.
His battered body screamed, but he ignored it, One For All roaring through his veins. The past users of One For All screamed at him from the mindscape, their words gave him the encourage to use every last bit of power he had left in him.
”Get him Ninth!”
”Stand proud, Ninth!”
”Kill the bastard once and for all!”
”You got this, Ninth”
”Make us proud!”
”Destroy him”
”Move Kid!”
‘One For All:Full Cowl: 59%’ Emerald lightning ripped through his skin, his last vestiges lending him every ounce of strength they had left. One in particular stood out to him.
Nana’s voice in his mind: "Move, kid!"
The world slowed down. Bakugo was still airborne, spinning into his final attack. He could see that, he too, was pouring every last bit of strength he had left into that attack. All For One’s tendrils were shooting forward, aiming to snatch his quirk, intending to steal something precious to the angry Pomeranian. But Izuku would not let that happened. No, he refused to let that happened.
Izuku moved. A single step, and the ground cratered beneath him. A single motion and he was gone.
He appeared in front of Bakugo in an instant, catching the full force of All For One’s dying grasp.
Pain, searing, soul-crushing pain, as the tendrils wrapped tightly around his body. If he were to compared it to Blackwhip, he would rather much his quirk instead of the black tendrils adorned with sickly red lines.
His vision flickered, mind swam into nothingness feeling the pull, his quirk being unraveled, his strength being stolen. But he gritted his teeth.
He pushed back…pushing back against the moving force, comparing it to trying to stop an out of control bullet train.
"Not today!" Izuku roared, twisting his body and using the very force of the pull to launch his friend Bakugo forward. Just this once, he was willing to be used as a steeping stone.
The explosion user’s red eyes widened as he soared past Izuku, heading straight to All For One’s exposed heart.
"Izuku, YOU NERD—!!"
Too late.
Bakugo’s body, which had been spinning at inhuman speeds, had finally gained the right amount of momentum to ignite his final attack.
"IMPACT CLUSTER!!"
A dome of fire and pure destruction erupted, consuming All For One whole. But, in a rather remarkable show of control, the fire did not at once consumed Izuku and Bakugo, leaving them completely unharmed.
They could hear the villain’s scream as he was swallowed by the shockwave, his entire body disintegrating under the force of an explosion far greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Japan during the Pre-Quirks days.
Izuku felt the grip on his soul shatter.
And then….silence.
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…
The battlefield was eerily silent.
No more explosions. No more screams. No more monstrous, echoing laughter. It was nothing but pure quiet. The echoes of war had finally ceased and the horrors were over.
The war, the nightmare that had devoured their lives, stolen their comrades and friends alike, and had reshaped the world, was over.
But Izuku didn’t feel relief, from where he lay with the black tendrils drilled into his chest. Not yet at least. As the last of black tendrils slowly crumbled into nothingness, Izuku finally felt that weight on his chest disappear.
His chest heaved, his lungs were raw from pure exhaustion, his entire body felt like it had been ripped apart and stitched back together with barbed wire. Blood dripped from his trembling fingers, pooling beneath his kneeling form. He tried to move his right arm but felt nothing. It was just an empty, aching weight where nerves had given up.
Across from him, where the pervious demon lord once was, was nothing but an empty space. All For One was gone. He was not defeated but erased. There was nothing left, no body, no quirks, no lingering malice. There weren’t even ashes left. All that was left was just…emptiness.
And yet, as Izuku slowly turned his head, he saw one figure still standing. He wasn’t looking to good himself, and Izuku wonder how he could even stand until he realized something. The man and his body had gone through punishment during the entirety of this War and could have build up an incredible pain tolerance that made his own blush in disbelief.
The person in question was none other than,
Tomura Shigaraki.
No, not Shigaraki. Not anymore.
Tenko Shimura.
{XXXX}
For the first time since they had begun this endless cycle of battle and destruction, Tenko stood alone.
No All For One whispering in his ear. There was no monstrous power clawing at his skin, wanting to swallow him whole and dragged him under it’s endless cries of hundreds of others that All For One had taken during his reign as the Demon Lord.
Now, he was just a man, a broken man, who was barely holding himself together.
He was staring at his hands, hands that had once disintegrated flesh from bone, reduced entire cities to dust. His fingers trembled. His breath came in shaky, uneven gasps. He truly wondered if this was a dream, a dream of him escaping the reality of this dark situation.
“…Is it over?” He murmured, his voice small and hollow.
Izuku swallowed hard. His throat was tight, his emotions choking him. How many times had he dreamed of this moment? Of wanting to save the boy buried beneath all the hatered and anguish? How he fought so long, never giving in to the voice that had asked for him to end his life?
And now that it was here, he didn’t know what to say. What could he say? He opened his mouth to say something but no words could escape from his throat. When his eyes meet Tenko’s dull ones, Izuku swallowed hard and finally found the strength to speak.
“…Yeah,” Izuku finally whispered. “It’s over.”
Tenko let out a breath. It was barely audible, but to Izuku, it sounded like relief. A small amount of light filled back into his eyes, which almost made Izuku smiled.
But the pain he was feeling prevented him from even doing that. It would like he really did push his body beyond the normal limits. As the two walloped in the quiet, neither one heard the footsteps of another person.
A sharp scoff broke the silence.
“Tch.”
Bakugo, his voice was hoarse from screaming, his body swaying slightly from sheer exhaustion.
He honestly should’ve collapsed by now, but sheer stubbornness alone kept him standing.
His crimson eyes narrowed at Tenko. With said man meeting his look, not at all surprised to find him glaring at him, but with a hint of unsure to them. That was the part that confused him, why hasn’t the angry teen done something yet?
“…The hell do we do with him now?” The words weren’t cruel, not really. But to Tenko, if felt as if He’ll had frozen over. Out of the all things he seen, he never expected to see the blonde with crimson eyes actually have no plan on how to deal with him. It surely had to be a dream, no? Otherwise, how could you explain this without him having a brain aneurysm?
Bakugo had never been the type to pity someone. The very idea of it made him want to barf. But right now, staring at the man who had once been their greatest enemy, the man who had killed, destroyed, and nearly ended everything, he looked…conflicted.
Izuku had expected rage. He honestly would have expected for Bakugo to demand Tenko’s immediate execution, to end it truly once and for all. But there was none of that. There was just compete uncertainty.
Because despite everything, Tenko Shimura wasn’t Shigaraki anymore.
And Bakugo has grown enough to knew that. It wasn’t the same man that had once been their greatest enemy, the man who had killed without the slightest bit of remorse, the man who had destroyed things without a second thought.
It was simply a broken man who has been released from the demons that plagued him for so long.
While Bakugo stood there with his uncertainties from behind him, a soft shuffle of movement could be heard.
Izuku turned his head, and his breath caught in his throat. Eri was walking straight towards them. Her small frame trembled, her dress stained with soot and blood, thankful not hers, but her face held resolute. Izuku, who adopted the girl and taken her in as his own, honestly never seen her so determined. Her gaze wasn’t directed at him, but the person next to him.
She was looking at Tenko, not with fear, not with hatred, but with something far more powerful.
A sense of understanding.
Izuku’s heart clenched. She knows. Eri knew what it meant to be used. To have her identity stolen, her body controlled, her very existence twisted into a horrific weapon that would have been used to bring about the end of Quirks themselves, if Izuku had not save her that is.
She knew what it felt like to be trapped in a nightmare not of her own making. She knew what it felt like to have a horrible complete control over her. Showing some unwavering confidence, she reached her hand out Tenko.
At this scene, Izuku couldn’t help smile with pride. His little snowflake was doing something he really believed would take months of therapy to accomplish. Her small, trembling fingers grasped Tenko’s wrist. Upon feeling her finger, he flinched, violently.
His body stiffened, breath caught in his throat. It was instinct, years of trauma screaming at him that he wasn’t supposed to be touched. That touch meant pain.
That it meant punishment. But Eri didn’t let go.
Her crimson eyes, so much like his, yet so different, met his gaze.
“I can help,” she whispered. With just those simple words, everything within Tenko crumbled.
Tenko sank to his knees. Not in pain, not in defeat, but in acceptance. His breath hitched as his shoulders shook uncontrollably. The dam in him broke and tears fell from his eyes. He sobbed. Not the twisted, rage-filled laughter of Shigaraki. Not the empty, mocking chuckle of a man long past sanity.
But the deep, gut-wrenching sobs of a child who had lost everything.
Izuku couldn’t move. His body literally on its last legs both literally and figuratively. He could only watch as Tenko Shimura, formerly known as Shigaraki Tomura, broke apart right in front of them.
Eri held onto his wrist the entire time, her eyes closed in concentration while her horn glowed a bright yellow, fluctuating at different intervals before Eri found the “correct” one. Slowly, the physical scars began to fade.
His skin, once cracked and ruined from decaying himself over and over, smoothed. His breath evened out as his hands stopped shaking. When he looked up again, there was no hatred left.
There was only exhaustion and peace. Like the weight of a mountain had been lifted off his shoulders.
“…Thank you,” He whispered. Eri smiled in return, her smile lifting the dark surroundings and providing them with warmth they haven’t in days. While Eri and Tenko stood in silence, Izuku couldn’t help but let out a shuddering breath.
This, this, was what All For One had stolen from him. From all of them. All Might, Nana, her long since dead family. The innocence of a boy who was taken from the light and bask into the darkness.
And now, at last… they had taken it back. Just like he promised he would. He could feel the vestige of Nana smile at him, thanking him for fulfilling her selfish wish. While the other former One For Users congratulated him for putting an end to the War, he missed the fact that Bakugo had walked closer to Tenko.
The long silence still lingered, until a certain someone couldn’t take it.
Bakugo clicked his tongue.
“Tch.”
Tenko turned slightly, red eyes locking onto crimson. For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Then, “You try anything stupid, I’ll blow your ass sky high,” Bakugo muttered.
It wasn’t a threat. Not really. Bakugo was to tired and just honestly wanted to go back home and rest. He more than deserves it for his efforts in this fight.
Tenko, after taking a moment to ponder on what Bakugo said, actually let out something close to a laugh, soft, tired one, but a real laugh nonetheless.
“…I’d expect nothing less,” He murmured. And for the first time, Izuku felt it. The weight lifting. The war was over. And so was Shigaraki Tomura. Tenko Shimura was finally free.
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But the price of freedom often comes at a great cost.
Izuku had barely begun to breathe, his body still screaming from the sheer exertion of their final attack, when the world lurched beneath him.
At first, he thought it was the aftermath of the battle. Maybe his senses were finally shutting down, his exhausted body collapsing under the weight of the war. Maybe he was feeling most likely what it was like to fade, to slip into the courts of unconsciousness.
But then he realized, it wasn’t just him. The air around him shifted, twisted, bent in ways that look to defied logic.
His breath hitched as the sky above them, the ruined battlefield that had seen the end of All For One, began to fracture. Not like glass, not like something breaking, but like a veil being peeled away.
A deep, suffocating force wrapped around him, coiling around his very existence. His instincts screamed at him to fight back, but he couldn’t move. The past users were suddenly silent, making Izuku ever more worried as he had been talking with them not that long ago.
‘What is this?!’ Izuku thought as felt his body become weightless yet crushingly heavy, it was like he was being pulled in every direction at once.
To his right, he heard Bakugo’s sharp intake of breath, the telltale crackle of explosions flickering to life in reflex.
“The hell is going on?!” Bakugo, snarled, but Izuku could tell that even his voice was being distorted, warped, like it was being stretched and dragged through a tunnel that shouldn’t exist.
Izuku tried to move, to reach for Bakugo, but his arms wouldn’t respond. ‘Move…I said move god dammit!!’ Izuku screamed to himself as he tried once again to move, only to find out that he had no control over his arms anymore. Just when things started to feel bleak he felt a hand grabbed his sleeve.
Small, trembling fingers latched onto his ruined costume with everything they had, gripping him desperately. He instinctively looked down and saw her.
Eri. His daughter, his little snowflake. Crimson eyes were wide, brimming with confusion and fear, her horn sparking weakly.
“Papa!!”
Her voice, high-pitched, and scared, was swallowed by the warping space around them.
Izuku’s mind screamed at him to hold onto her, to not let go, to protect her no matter what.
‘Move, damn it!’ His body wouldn’t listen. He could feel his vision blurred, the battlefield around them fading further and further away.
The ruined ground, the destroyed buildings and dozen of bodies of dead Nomu, the flames still smoldering in the distance, all of it was simply vanishing.
And in its place, a vast, golden light. It wasn’t warm. It wasn’t cold. It was overwhelming. It was like stepping into something beyond human comprehension.
Izuku had never felt the feeling before, the closest being to when he ended up in the very depths of One For All, when he connected with the past vestiges. But this wasn’t One For All it was something else entirely.
{XXXX}
Just for a brief single moment, Izuku could see something spectacular
Images flickered at the very edge of his consciousness, too quick to grasp and strange to make any sense of it.
A great city of towering grey walls, stretching toward the sky.
A labyrinth of endless stone corridors, darkness lurking beneath.
A colossal tree, its roots spreading far beyond sight, pulsing with an energy unlike anything he had ever felt. It was almost surreal, beautiful even. But then he started to see memories, his memories to be exact.
{XXXX}
A small boy, quirkless, staring at a screen with wide, hopeful eyes.
All Might was there, smiling, his presence larger than life. "It's fine now. Why? Because I am here!"
The words hit deep, filling his young heart with an unshakable dream.
He wanted to be a hero.
{XXXX}
A middle school classroom. Laughter. Mockery. Pain.
"A quirkless loser like you can’t be a hero, Deku."
Katsuki Bakugo, standing tall, looking down at him with disdain.
But that wasn't what he remembered the most.
It was the pain of knowing that no one believed in him, in his dream of wanting to be a hero.
He was seen as someone lesser than his peers, being looked as if he was the inferior and his fellow classmates were superior.
{XXXX}
A green sludge monster. A desperate struggle.
He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t move…he was going to die.
And then, in a flash of golden light, he was saved.
All Might.
{XXXX}
Tears. Freely flowing from his eyes as he lay on his knees, clutching his chest tightly as the sun cast his idol’s shadow on him.
"Young man… you too can become a hero!"
The moment everything changed.
{XXXX}
Training. Blood. Sweat. Breaking his bones over and over. One For All.
His first battle. His first scars. His first victory.
The Sports Festival, fighting for his own dreams and proving to everyone what he was capable of. That he was no longer the person his middle school classmates thought he was. He stood tall against Todoroki, screaming for him to use his flames, to be himself. Todoroki wasn’t the last great enemy he would fight, for he would fight again and again.
Stain. Muscular. Overhaul. Every fight, every loss, every lesson learned through hardships and blood. His bones were broken, but he kept to himself and promise to grow even stronger.
{XXXX}
Then...
A new memory.
A small girl with white hair, trembling in fear.
Eri.
Her tiny hand reaching for him, her eyes begging for help.
He remembered the promise he made.
"I will save you."
A promise he managed to keep as he adopted her almost immediately after the Raid. Taking on the responsibility of caring for such a young traumatized child.
{XXXX}
More memories came soaring by.
A girl with purple hair, smirking at him as she strummed her guitar. Dancing with him as they spent hours in her dorm room listening to music.
Jiro Kyoka.
He remembered falling in love with her before he even realized it. Honestly surprising himself how she could love him back, even with all his faults.
Her voice, her music, the way she teased him for being a quirk nerd. The way she held him when he broke down after the Raid. The comfort and peace she brought to him on his bad days, the small little kisses on his knuckles.
He remembered how she helped him raise Eri, how she tucked the girl in at night, how she became the family they never thought they’d have. How she sang to their little snowflake every night to help with the night terrors.
Their daughter’s laughter and Jiro’s warmth.
Jiro’s dorm room soon became home.
{XXXX}
His mother, crying as she hugged him after he came back to UA. Hitting him but hugging him immediately after. Jiro and Eri were hugging him to, their grip so tight that Izuku wondered if they didn’t, then he would disappear.
His mother had lost so much, feared for his life every single day.
And yet, she smiled.
She smiled because he was alive and he had come home.
{XXXX}
His best friend. His rival.
Katsuki Bakugo, standing beside him, not as an enemy, not as a bully,
But as a brother. Spending an entire week making it up to him by allowing himself to be his punching back to retain a form of karma. He had done more than enough to make Izuku see him in a different light.
Fighting together, side by side, like they were always meant to.
{XXXX}
And finally...
All Might.
His mentor. His idol. His second father.
Smiling at him proudly. They were in the same position when they first met, a day after All Might had fought and several damage All for One.
"You did it, my boy."
{XXXX}
Izuku felt tears running down his face as the memories slowed.
He saw himself, older, stronger, but at peace.
He saw his family, Jiro, Eri, his mom, Bakugo, and All Might, all together, smiling, happy.
It was a moment he had always dreamed of.
A moment worth fighting for.
The warmth of the vision lingered.
And then, he came face to face with something rather startling.
Eyes.
Watching.
Unblinking.
Not with malice. But with kindness.
They were watching him, their eyes holding a sense of kindness and appreciation.
A presence so Powerful. Unfathomable.
Izuku’s breath caught, his chest tightening as he felt pressure fell on him. It was hitting him far deeper than just his flesh and bones, the pressure was hitting his very soul.
"What… is this?"
Then, he felt something else. It was a pull.
It was a pull that felt stronger than anything he had ever felt before. His stomach lurched as the golden light collapsed inward, swallowing him and unknown to himself, Bakugo and Eri, whole.
He barely registered Bakugou’s panicked shouting or Eri’s frightened gasp before the sensation of falling consumed him.
{XXXX}
Back in My Hero Universe
The battlefield was silent. Unnaturally silent.
After years of war, bloodshed, and pain, All For One was truly gone. His reign of terror, years spent hiding and operating from the shadows has come to an end.
Tenko, freed from his master’s grip, had taken a single breath of true freedom, and then he, too, was gone. Not at all seeing how the three people that were in front of him had disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The world had been saved. Yes, it had been saved. But the heroes who delivered that salvation, Izuku, Bakugou, and Eri had simply vanished.
At first, no one realized what had happened. In one moment, they lay on the ground victorious, battered, but nonetheless alive.
Then, in the blink of an eye, gone.
Toshinori Yagi bloodied hands trembled as he staggered forward, his chest rising and falling in ragged gasps.
‘No.’ He thought, feeling his chest tightening to uncomfortable measures.
‘No…Nonononononononononono!!!’ He could feel a wave of dizziness wash over him as his right hand kept pressure on his stomach wound
He had seen it. Heck he had barely processed the golden light, the way his successor had reached out at the last second, only to be swallowed by something but that light. It went beyond their understanding, how can a golden light simply make three separate vanished!
"Midoriya...?" His voice cracked with disbelief. As his vision blurred, Toshinori could feel what little strength he had left snapped away from his legs. He dropped to his knees, head pointed to the sky.
‘This wasn't supposed to happen. Midoriya was supposed to live. He was supposed to be here, to smile at the victory he had fought so hard for. He was supposed to…to have the future he and his friends had all fought for.’ Toshinori thought, not being able to accept the fact that he’s now gone.
The man once revered as the Symbol of Peace had fell to his knees, hands pressed against the scorched earth where his successor had last stood. His successor…his son…gone.
And he…he couldn't save him.
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…
Back with Class 1-A, their reactions weren’t any better than Toshinori‘s.
"Where did they go?!" Kyoka‘s voice was shrill with panic as she scrambled forward, her fingers still shaking from the battle. Her hero costume was in tatters, her body riddle with wounds that still bled. Only one of her Earphone Jacks was left, the other one being blown off by All For One during one of the groups attacks to slow him down.
She had just seen her Broccoli Boy, just heard him, alive and breathing with her remaining Earphone Jack. But now…she couldn’t hear it, the heartbeat that she grown accustomed to and love so much…was just gone.
"Midoriya!" She dropped to her knees, frantically searching the ground as if he had just fallen beneath the rubble. "Eri! Bakugou! Where are you?!" Kyoka wasn’t in the right mindset right now, after having just gone through hell….to losing the only two people that gave her purpose in this world…
Iida, a surprising friend, was beside her in an instant, his own mind racing. "There must be an explanation, there must be!" But even with his logical mind, he couldn't find one.
Shoto Todoroki stood frozen, his bicolor eyes wide with his chest hollow. "They’re gone," he said. The words feeling completely unreal from coming out of his mouth.
Disappeared. Vanished without a trace. Not killed, just gone. And that, somehow, felt worse than every injury he had received from his father.
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Endeavor stood in stunned silence, his mind reeling. They had barely survived this war. Every breath he took was an atonement to the small miracle. All of them had endured and came out the same side, forever changed. But this new development was…horrible.
Two of their strongest heroes with one prodigy healer had vanished right before their eyes.
"Did anyone see what happened?" He barked, turning to the remaining heroes, but their shaken expressions told him everything he needed to know.
No one had an answer.
Hawks, his wings tattered and his face pale, let out a slow, shuddering breath. "It wasn’t an attack," he muttered, watching the empty space where they had once stood. "It didn’t feel like they were... taken."
"Then what?" Mirko growled, still breathing heavily, fists clenched. Her cybernetic leg and arm were near the point of breaking and she couldn’t afford to put anymore strain on them anymore. "They sure as hell didn’t leave on their own."
No one had an answer. And the uncertainty gnawed at them. The three’s fate was unknown.
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Kyoka felt something wet on her cheeks. Moving her hands from the scorched earth, she felt her hands grow wet.
Tears.
Not just for Deku, but for Eri as well…her little snowball, her little angel. The girl that she end up becoming a mother for.
Her little girl, the one who had lost everything, who had just begun to smile again, was gone.
Aizawa limped toward them, his one remaining eye filled with raw grief. His breath hitched when he saw the empty space where his two students had last stood.
He had called out for his problem children at the last moment.
He had reached for them with his capture gear that had somehow survived the entirety of the Final War.
It was nearly upon them when they vanished…
Gone, in the blink of an eye.
Aizawa didn't break easily. But when he fell to his knees, pressing his forehead against his trembling hand, the pain was too much to contain.
His problem children…Eri…his responsibility…
Gone.
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…
Kirishima’s fingers dug into the dirt, his teeth clenched so hard they might break even if he had his Unbreakable Quirk on.
"Bakugou, you dumbass..." His voice cracked, a broken whisper. They had won. They were supposed to go home together.
And now Bakugou, his best friend, his rival, his brother, was just gone.
Denki’s shoulders shook, his usual carefree energy drained completely. He refused to believe it. "He’s too stubborn to die," he muttered, voice uneven. "This is some mistake. He…he’s coming back. Right? He has to."
No one could answer. Because no one had the answer for it.
…
…
…
…
As the survivors gathered, no one could ignore the weight of what had been lost.
They had won the war. The world was saved.
But at what cost?
Toshinori stared at the sky, his heart heavier than it had ever been.
Was this fate's cruel joke? To take away the two boys who had saved everyone, without letting anyone save them?
He had dreamed of Midoriya’s future, a future filled with hope, with happiness. While with his brother, Bakugo, going on to become such a great Pro Hero.
But now…there was only silence, emptiness.
And for the first time in a long, long time, the man known as Toshinori Yagi let out a shaking, broken sob.
Because their greatest students, his successor and brother, his son in all but blood, were gone.
And he had no idea if he would ever come back.
…
…
…
…
It wasn’t like free-falling through the air. It was endless void that, with its name, had no end in sight.
There was no wind rushing past him, there was no up or down, no sense of gravity at all. Just momentum, pulling them somewhere unknown.
Izuku’s heart pounded in his chest. He had to get to Eri, he had to reach Bakugou. They were falling together, but they felt so far apart.
"Move!"
With every ounce of willpower he had left, he forced his body to respond, even when it felt like trying to a mountain with one arm tie behind his back.
His fingers were trembling, his muscles were burning as he reached out with his hand.
His right hand barely brushed against Eri’s before,
Everything stopped.
The world looked to snap back into existence, too suddenly and too violently.
A blinding light accompanied by a final jolt.
{XXXX}
The scent of fresh grass.
A soft breeze sailed across the rolling fields, carrying with it the scent of morning dew and earth untouched by war. The warmth of sunlight bathed the land in gold, casting long shadows across the endless green. Birds chirped in the distance, their songs delicate and unburdened, as if the world had never known bloodshed.
For the first time in what felt like eternity, the air was not thick with ash and death. Izuku gasped awake, his lungs desperate for breath.
His body ached, not in the way it had after being battered in battle, but in a way that felt… off.
Not broken, or burnt, or ruined, but whole. He felt so whole.
His fingers dug into soft earth, trembling as he tried to push himself up. The sensation was almost foreign after spending so long on a battlefield where every touch meant pain, where every movement meant agony, where he had to keep moving despite feeling utterly exhausted and just wanted to fall asleep forever.
‘Where am I?’ His mind clawed for answers, but all he found were fragments in his memories. The Final War, Bakugo’s and his final battle with All For One, Eri’s desperate hands glowing with the use of her Rewind Quirk. A golden light, a voice, distant yet omnipresent.
And then,
Nothing.
Izuku swallowed hard, his breathing uneven.
A groan to his right snapped him from his daze.
Bakugou.
The blonde sat up sluggishly, eyes squinting against the sunlight. His hero costume look to be repaired and had changed completely, there wasn’t burns nor stained, and just like Izuku, his wounds were gone. He had no broken bones, no seared flesh or blood-soaked bandages that were struggling to hold him together.
Bakugou blinked, his face shifting from dazed confusion to simmering frustration.
"The hell…" His voice was hoarse, rough from battles and exhaustion. His hands clenched instinctively, small pops of explosions flickering at his fingertips, but even those felt different. His small pops looked to be lighter and even weaker.
His gaze snapped to Izuku. "Izuku, what the actual fuck happened?"
Izuku opened his mouth, but no answer came. He didn’t know how to even respond to that question. Izuku was just as lost as Bakugo.
But then, a small, warm weight pressed against his side.
He froze. His heart lurched.
Slowly, he turned, and found someone that made his heart beat uncontrollable.
Eri.
She was curled against him, her tiny hands still clutching his hero costume dark sleeve. Her breathing was steady but shallow, her white hair slightly dirtied from the fall. The faint glow of Rewind had long since faded, leaving behind only exhaustion.
Izuku’s throat tightened.
She was safe. His snowflake was alive. To him, that is all that mattered in the end.
His entire body sagged in relief, the tension threatening to crush him moments prior had dissipated.
Bakugou’s eyes flickered toward her, then back to Izuku. His scowl softened, not much, but it was enough. "She okay?"
"Yeah," Izuku breathed, brushing strands of silver hair from her forehead as he pulled her into his embrace. "Just… tired is all.”
Bakugou exhaled sharply, raking a hand through his ash-blond hair. "Where the hell are we?"
Izuku finally took a proper look around.
Wide, open fields stretched as far as the eye could see, the grass swaying lazily in the wind. In the distance, a small cottage nestled itself against the base of a hill, smoke curling lazily from its chimney. A few trees dotted the landscape, their branches rustling with the soft whispers of the wind.
Everything about this place looked entirely peaceful but to Izuku it felt wrong.
Not in a threatening way, no, if anything, it was peaceful. But that in itself was unnatural.
They had been in a war zone. A ruined city, a battlefield choked in nothing but infernos and death. There had been no sky for it was block by black clouds, no grass for it had withered away, and there was no wind that wasn’t thick with ash and screams.
But now…
Now, it was as if that world had never existed.
Bakugou stood, his movements were stiff as Izuku could sense a bit wary coming from him.
"This… ain't Japan." His eyes looked to Izuku, as if betting him to deny that statement.
"No," Izuku murmured, eyes scanning the horizon. "It’s not."
Eri shifted slightly, letting out a soft whimper.
Izuku immediately focused on her, his voice gentle. "Eri? Can you hear me?"
Her crimson eyes fluttered open, hazy and tired. When she saw him, something in her face relaxed. "Papa…" A lump formed in Izuku’s throat. He wanted to tell her everything was okay. That they had won. That they were finally safe.
But he didn’t know where they were. Didn’t even know if they were safe.
So instead, he squeezed her hand gently. "I’m here. We’re here."
She nodded weakly before resting her head against his chest again. A sudden rustling snapped both Izuku and Bakugou’s attention toward the nearby trees.
Footsteps.
Izuku tensed, his muscles instinctively shifting into a defensive stance despite the exhaustion weighing him down. Beside him, Bakugou raised his hands, his palms crackling faintly with unsteady explosions.
A figure emerged.
An old man.
Izuku immediately analyzed him, white hair, weathered skin, but his presence…
It was strong. Not in a physically imposing way, but something deeper.
Something that felt…otherworldly…divine even.
The old man studied them, his gray eyes twinkling with amusement. "Well now," he said, his voice smooth yet powerful. "Didn’t expect visitors to fall out of the sky today."
Izuku’s breath hitched. That voice…had he heard it before? But from where?
Bakugou, ever the one to cut through confusion with blunt force, scowled. "Who the hell are you?"
The old man chuckled. "Me?" He placed a hand on his hip.
"You can call me Gramps." Silence. Utterly complete silence. Izuku blinked while Bakugo stared.
Eri made a soft noise of confusion, lifting her head slightly. "Gramps…?"
The name meant nothing to them.
And yet, The way he said it, the sheer weight of his presence… Izuku knew, in his gut, that this man was not ordinary. Not at all ordinary in the slightest.
The old man tilted his head, observing them with a smile. "You three… you’re not from around here, are you?"
Izuku swallowed, his mind racing. "No, sir. I don’t… I don’t think we are."
Gramps hummed. "Interesting."
Bakugou narrowed his eyes. "What the hell is this place?"
The old man’s smile widened slightly. "A long way from where you came from, I’d wager."
He glanced at Eri, then back at Izuku and Bakugou. "You three look like you’ve been through quite the storm."
Izuku exhaled shakily. "That’s… one way to put it."
Gramps studied them for a moment longer before turning toward the cottage in the distance. "Well, standing around won’t get you answers. Come along, then."
Izuku hesitated.
Bakugou stiffened. "Why the hell should we go with you, old man?"
Gramps simply smiled. "Because you’ve landed in a world you don’t look to understand. And I imagine you have quite a few questions."
Izuku and Bakugou exchanged glances.
They had no reason to trust him and no proof he wasn’t a threat. But they had even less reason to stay here, clueless and exposed to the elements while they were still feeling weak.
Also…
Izuku glanced down at Eri, who still clung to his sleeve, her tiny body showered with exhaustion.
She needed rest. Safety must of all, otherwise Kyoka would reached from the beyond and kill him for putting their snowflake in the slightest amount of danger.
Even if it was temporary. He had to make the next best decision for his snowflake, and Bakugo as he doubt he will be likely to find them a good shelter for the foreseeable future.
Izuku exhaled, then nodded. "Alright."
Bakugou clicked his tongue in irritation but didn’t dare argue with Izuku, not when they both too need look out for Eri.
Gramps, who merely watched them, chuckled. "Good. Let’s get moving, then."
And so, with no other choice, they followed the old man toward the cottage not too far away.
A new world awaited them…
A journey they never expected.