As soon as the word left his mouth, Deku's room crumbled around him. He feared this was what it would be like if the sun returned—when the sun returned. Mirio Togata was right; he had no idea what that world would be like. For all the stories that Inko Midoriya shared – and she'd recounted many stories about the vigilantes who arose in the wake of the cold – not many had been about life under the sun, even though unlike Mr. Aizawa and his friends, who had been very young children, she would have been in her mid-to-late teens before the Cardinals took away the sun, like guardians taking away a burning pot to keep their children safe.

But the Cardinals weren't the world's parents. As his home crumbled to dust, Deku looked around frantically for his mother, but he couldn't find her. And instead of the woods and the river, there were large, bending twigs woven more tightly than the branches used for the birdcages. He and Mirio were in a giant birds' nest, reunited with everyone else in the fortress.

"Tamaki!" Mirio ran toward the rogue, who had discarded his cloak. Amajiki was unconscious but breathing evenly. Mirio held him and looked around, his dark blue eyes searching until he found the other half of his heart. "Nejire, are you hurt?"

Nejire stood beside Uraraka, completely silent. She shook her head.

"Oh, Eri, they cut your horn..."

Ida sliced at the air. "No one is hurt! However, you will all face a trial upon our return to the castle!"

Todoroki gave him a stern look. "You need to be tried, too. You impaled Lady Yaoyorozu—my fiancée. Don't think I forgot."

"Of course. I will accept whatever punishment you see fit, even if that means further delaying my training to be a knight."

Deku gazed at his friends and muttered to himself, practically counting on his fingers. "Uraraka's okay, Tsu is okay—though she looks even more frog-like now—Tokoyami is okay but a bird..." Then he saw him, unconscious and with displaced limbs. "Kacchan!"

"He was the first to battle Eri," Tsu informed him, "before anyone else could reach her, but I don't think Eri hurt him. Ribbit."

In a broken, hurt voice, Eri whispered, "I wouldn't hurt anyone."

Kirishima glared at her. "Tell that to all the people who suffered over the past quarter century—who retreated and self-isolated and froze to death, if they didn't die from loneliness first. You hurt a lot of people, Eri, and we'll make sure you face justice for that."

Ida looked at him in surprise. "You still care for him, even after everything you saw."

"I—"

"It is not for us to judge, Ida," Shoto said in a calm tone.

Deku tipped his head to the side. "I think I missed something. Ida, Todoroki, I'm sorry I couldn't be with you. But if you don't mind me asking, what did you see?"

Ida was the one who answered. "Bakugo tried to kill you! It was one year ago, just before he disappeared from Yuuei. You were standing on the roof of Grandview Chapel—you know, the one that the Low Court ordered us to build even though the townspeople were busy reaping the harvest and preparing for the coldest season."

"Oh!" Deku remembered that day.

The view from the top of Grandview Chapel was splendid. Fireflies and moths cast the pointed roofs of the borough in a pale yellow haze that bled into the indigo of endless night. And Deku had shared his dream. "I want to make people smile. Is that wrong?"

Bakugo's scarlet eyes seemed to be their own source of light, almost glowing in the dark. "You're weak. You can't be a hero. That's why I asked you to come here."

"I'm... sorry? I don't understand."

"Jump."

They stood in stillness for a few heartbeats. Up above, a strong wind blew. Deku broke the silence first. "You idiot. If I jumped, then neither of us could be heroes. I won't let you be an obstacle to my dream... Kacchan?"

Bakugo slid down the roof and jumped.

"Kacchan!"

Bakugo rolled upon landing, though he hissed through his teeth at the speck of dirt on his cape. "Real heroes fly; they soar. And they never die. Don't forget that."

Deku smiled, understanding. "Will I see you later?"

"That's up to you."

Back in the Cardinals' nest, Deku smiled up at Ida. "It's okay. I forgive him."

"How? How does forgiveness come so easily to you? I would never forgive—him, or them," he glanced at Mirio and Tamaki, "or myself."

Shoto placed his left hand on Ida's shoulder; the armoured boy startled. "Forgiving is hard. I don't know if it's always possible, either. But it's worth it to try. It's worth it to be the better person."

Deku nodded. "And maybe it'll get easier. People change. The world will change, too." He looked at Mirio. "Right?"

Mirio gave him a hesitant smile, but his tone was firm. "Right."

"But how?" Eri asked in a whimper. "It takes weeks for my horn to grow back, and even then, I can't just rewind Tamaki to a state before he ate the sun. We know how awful that sun was."

"It won't be the old sun," declared Mirio. "It'll be a new world, with a new sun, and lots of unknowns to look forward to. Maybe it won't be perfect, but it'll be better. We'll make it better." He looked at Deku. "Right?"

Deku's smile was confident. "Absolutely."

In Mirio's arms, Amajiki stirred. "Mirio?"

Mirio kissed his forehead. "Good morning, blackbird."

Amajiki sat up. "You and Nejire haven't used that nickname in ages."

"I know. Do you remember what you called me back then?"

"A reckless fool."

"You called me the sun."

Deku gawked. "Wait, you don't mean—"

Uraraka covered her mouth. "Oh, no."

Ida frowned. "Is that even possible?"

Shoto shrugged. "It might be."

Tsu licked her lips. "Ribbit."

Kirishima glanced back and forth. "I am so lost."

Tokoyami raised his hand. "Can I turn this into a poem?"

"No," everyone chorused—except for Nejire, who had remained silent throughout.

"Well, maybe," Mirio relented. "Write me as a kind sun in your poems, okay?"

Tokoyami nodded.

Mirio kissed Tamaki again, this time on his lips. "I love you, Tamaki."

"I wish you didn't have to do this."

Mirio got up and went over to kiss Nejire, too. "I love you, Nejire."

Nejire didn't reply. Deku looked at Uraraka with concern. She seemed just fine. What had happened between the sorceresses?

Uraraka stared back at Deku, a silent promise in her warm brown eyes.

Lastly, Mirio ruffled Eri's hair. "Smile for me, Eri. You too, Midoriya. I'll make our dream come true, and then it's up to you to keep it that way."

"Yes!"

In the blink of an eye, Mirio was gone, and a radiant light blinded them all for a few heartbeats. When Deku regained his vision, the indigo sky had turned into an unfamiliar colour: not quite white, but brighter than anything he'd ever seen.

Todoroki supplied the words for it. "Blue. The true blue sky."

Basking in this new warmth and wonderful blueness, Deku saw his friends for the first time. Firelight and bioluminescence did not do them justice: the rich auburn tones of Uraraka's shoulder-length hair, the rigid creases on Ida's forehead, the stark coloration of Todoroki's features. Nejire looked ragged; without the trickery of dim lighting, her eyebags were dark and heavy. Meanwhile, Eri was stunningly beautiful, despite the scar from her amputated horn. And Amajiki—

The rogue gave a piercing scream, louder and more raucous than any bird. Heavy black wings unfurled from his bony shoulder blades. Without his cloak, he appeared skeletal—a slip of a shadow. He flew into the sky. Next to the soft yellow sun that did not hurt anyone's eyes, he shone a blazing amber that was so painful – even in that split moment – that they all had to look away. Deku's skin bubbled and burned, blistering and itching. Ida's armour splintered and broke as something grew out of his legs. Uraraka hovered a little above the ground, her doe-eyes wide; half of Todoroki caught on fire, though he didn't seem to be in pain.

Deku crouched next to Bakugo, who was still unconscious. A sweet aroma like burning sugar permeated the air. His sweat glistened.