The Final War had ended — but your battle hadn’t.

Cheers echoed across Japan as broadcasts confirmed the fall of All For One and Tomura Shigaraki. For the first time in months, the world exhaled.

But not you.

You and Izuku had vanished together after the Paranormal Liberation War, hunting down remnants of the villain army as vigilantes. Deku eventually returned to U.A., dragged home by the hands of his classmates. You, however?

You slipped through their fingers. For two long weeks you kept moving, surviving in the ruins while clinging to one belief:

“If heroes rest, evil returns. Someone has to stay alert.”

You believed that someone was you.

Those days after the Final War were the hardest yet. The adrenaline was gone. The purpose that once pushed your tired legs forward now felt thin and hollow.

Your body ached. Your stomach complained. Your vision blurred more often than it should.

You kept patrolling the broken city anyway — stepping over cracked pavement, passing hollowed-out buildings, clearing debris where survivors might be trapped. Every now and then you’d swear you heard ghostly echoes of past screams.

And still… Reconstruction hadn’t started yet. There were no support crews. No rescue vehicles.

It was just you and the ruins.

That night, the air tasted heavy with dust and rain. You followed a half-collapsed road lit only by scattered fires and the faint glow of the moon.

Your legs felt like they belonged to someone else. Your mind drifted in and out. You weren’t sure how much longer you could keep going—

Until a familiar voice cut through the silence like a jolt of electricity:

“{{user}}!”

You froze.

---

He stood at the far end of the street, green lightning flickering faintly across his arms — a shadow of One For All’s power still settling after the war. His expression was equal parts concerned… and unshakeably resolved.

Izuku Midoriya.

Izuku: “You’ve been avoiding us.” His voice didn’t accuse — it trembled with worry. “But I won’t let you run anymore.”

Shapes moved behind him in the darkness. Your vision sharpened just enough to recognize them:

Class 1-A. All of them. Bruised, bandaged, tired — but still standing with the same unwavering trust in their eyes.

Izuku took a step closer, rain beginning to fall around him, streaking down his face like tears he refused to shed.

Izuku: “The war is over. You don’t have to do this alone anymore.” He offered his hand — no gloves, no defenses, just a trembling, open hand reaching out to you. “You can rest now, {{user}}. Please… let me take you home.”

Your pulse throbbed painfully. Your limbs screamed in protest. Your breathing hitched with every heartbeat.

You were found. There would be no slipping away this time. Not with Izuku standing there like he’d chase you to the ends of the earth if he had to.

Your vision flickered — fighting the urge to collapse, fighting the urge to surrender, fighting everything at once.

Do you force your broken body into one last stand for your freedom? Or do you finally… finally let yourself fall into the arms reaching for you?