Deku was plunged into a gaping hole filled with an invisible, viscous fluid that washed over his face and buoyed him. An unidentifiable force tugged him away from his friends. He reached for Uraraka first, but the young sorceress seemed to notice something beyond Deku's vision. She walked over to it without looking back, her gait relaxed and somewhat nostalgic.

Meanwhile, Ida flailed in the abyss. His visor lifted and fell back like gnashing teeth that made no sound. Deku couldn't bear to see his friend this way. But when he reached for Ida, his fingers went through the taller boy's armour like it was only a mirage.

Lastly, Shoto closed his eyes and accepted whatever fate awaited him. The strange water cast shadows over his face in such a way that his scar was covered and the white half of his hair appeared dark red.

Deku landed on his back. He recognized the ceiling of his bedroom, with its telltale cracks and spots. A face materialized – dark blue eyes, round nose, curling golden-blond hair – and Deku yelped.

The disembodied face spoke in a chirruping tone. "What do you want to do?"

Deku recalled the journal prompt, on the day everything changed. "My name is Izuku Midoriya, and I want to be a hero."

The face shifted so only the left blue eye was staring at him. It was unnerving. "So do I." Now a thumb and two fingers appeared. "And so do my friends."

"But you aren't heroes. You stole the sun and brought coldness to the world, and now everyone sees you as villains. You're the wrong kind of hero."

The boy fully materialized, dropping onto the foot of Deku's bed. Deku sat cross-legged, facing him, while the older boy gazed out the window. "I wasn't aware that there was a 'right' kind of hero to be."

This must be Mirio. Deku followed Mirio's gaze out the window, which provided a scene like the one he left behind: a bright afternoon, the sky illuminated by strings of glowing creatures. "On the day everything changed for me and my friends," Deku began, "there was a rogue who called himself Stain, because he thinks the four of you are a stain that corrupts Chusei. And... and I don't know if I agree with him, Mirio." He looked at Mirio, who appeared barely 18; he was a large boy, but his face was youthful. "I met two of the other Cardinals – Lady Hado and Amajiki, the ones you love – and they're such wonderful people. I can't believe that you're evil. But I also understand Stain's dogma."

"Dogma," Mirio repeated. "I always thought that was a funny word. You've probably never seen a dog. Well, I'm old enough to remember when those creatures were dying on the streets—their tails limp, flies buzzing around the carcasses, maggots crawling out of their ears—"

"Is there a point that you're getting at?"

"We Cardinals also have a dogma. We are four sides of one apocalypse—the one against the sun." Mirio stood up and walked toward the window. He should have blocked the bioluminescence from outside, but Deku could still see his face. "My name is Mirio Togata, and I am the Cardinal of War."

"You led the war against the sun."

"And we won. We saved Chusei from burning in an inferno by covering the kingdom in a blanket like a shroud." At that last word, Mirio threw a punch straight at Deku's face. His fist went through his eye without the freckled boy feeling anything. Deku yelped and flailed back; sometimes his hands passed right through, like with a ghost. "Does that really make us the 'wrong kind of hero'? If so, then tell me, Midoriya, what kind of hero do you want to be?"

Deku started predicting Mirio's movements. War had a pattern to it: heavy left foot pivot, an arching hook from the right, followed by an uppercut. Deku grinned as he caught Mirio's fist and landed his own punch. "I want to save the world with a smile!"

Mirio huffed. "That's the kind of hero I want to be, too."

Deku's back hit his bedframe. "Then why do we have to fight?"

"Because I saved the world—" Deku gasped when Mirio reached through him and tore apart the bedframe—"and now you want to undo my friends' work! You have no idea how awful—how goddamn awful—the world was when the sun scorched our lands and changed the essence of humankind." Mirio held up his hand. Pieces of wood slipped right through him. "Do you think this is natural? You don't know the fear I experienced when the sun marked me; I almost disappeared from this world entirely. You didn't hear Nejire cry when she used her sun mark to track down a missing village boy but we arrived too late because we waited for her wave energy to travel back to her. You didn't have to take care of Tamaki when he stayed home for days after some of the townsfolk bullied him for manifesting seafood from his fingers and matted wings from his shoulders."

Deku swallowed. He didn't like Amajiki – or even Nejire, now that he knew the truth – but that sounded horrible.

"And you weren't there when Eri told us why she cut her horn and her hair—both of which have grown back, but there was no way to reverse what she did to the borough doctors."

Deku waited, but Mirio didn't elaborate. "What did she do?"

Mirio was a messy crier. "You have to understand, Eri is a gentle girl. She's a healer. She fixes people. When Tamaki caught the plague, she saved him. When Nejire lost a limb from a carriage accident, Eri restored her. And I've lost count of how many times she's patched me up every time I hurt myself. But there is a reason she is also known as Death."

Deku recalled that the emissary called Death had driven the carriage Uraraka was on. Meanwhile, Deku and Ida had been stuck with Pestilence, who let an outbreak of stomach cramps and messy digestion run rampant in their carriage.

"The first time her sun mark activated, she rewinded almost all the borough's doctors until they no longer existed. There were no bodies to cremate. Father Nighteye said there were also no souls to be judged."

Deku reached out and placed a hand on Mirio's shoulder. "You're right—I don't know what a world under the sun is like. But I know what it's like to be cold—and deprived."

Mirio smiled sadly. "After hearing all that, you still want the sun."

Deku exhaled. "Yes."