"It's so nice out today, isn't it, Shouto?"
"...yeah. It is."
Yaomomo smiled, dragging her wandering gaze away from the verdant treetops. She glanced left to the man walking alongside her, whose bejeweled eyes were fixed on the path before them. Above, rays of sunlight filtered through the treetops, dappling the undergrowth with fragments of amber and painting a speckled trail of gold along the path the group were hiking along.
"Tsu, slow down, s'il te plait, bon fleur!" Yuga was calling to the young woman forging ahead on the path. She turned from the outlook she was peering over and hurried back to them, saying something that Yaomomo didn't quite catch about how they were almost there.
"I'm glad~" Nejire hummed. She had a rather large, gray backpack on her shoulders. "It'd be great to set this down. Not even kneading dough at the café makes my shoulders ache like this."
"I could carry it for you the rest of the way," Hitoshi offered, walking along at her side.
"Oh, no, no! You already have your own backpack, how are you supposed to carry two? I'll manage." She immediately denied the help, instead launching into another conversation of some random topic with the indigo-haired man.
"Hehe. It's so nice to see everyone getting along, huh?" Yaomomo chuckled and turned to Shouto, her eyes gliding along the stripe of scar tissue down his temple. He tilted his head and reciprocated her gaze. There was a smile brushing his lips. "Even just two years ago, I wouldn't see Yuga talking so casually with her."
"Two years ago, I wouldn't have seen myself hiking, either," Shouto joked. "It's crazy, isn't it? How quickly everything changed since we were kids playing heroes."
"Well, I wouldn't say ten years is quick, but sure. It's changed a lot since that time." Her voice softened, and her stare drifted back to the forest around them. They continued on in silence, trailing behind the idly chatting Nejire and Hitoshi while Yuga watched Tsuyu jog ahead.
They reached a slope in the path. Their green-haired trail leader bounded ahead, and when she returned, she was wearing a grin that nearly stretched off her face. "We're here!"
The group strode past the ridge to find the path opening out onto a sandy beach. The sandy expanse ringed a lake, the water clear as crystal and shimmering like diamond in the August sun. People were scattered across the shore, and some were swimming amidst the gentle waves.
The group began to make their way along the beach. Yaomomo was just scanning her eyes over the people around the area when a girl with platinum hair and a singular horn caught her eye. She tugged at Shouto's sleeve, prompting him to look over and follow her gaze. "Is that... Eri?"
"Eri?" Nejire stopped and turned around to see what they were staring at. "Oh! It is! Eriiii~!" The bluette broke out grinning and waved, calling the younger's name. It'd admittedly been a few weeks since Yaomomo had seen her; well into her second year at the newly reopened U.A., Eri had high marks in Yaomomo's hero studies class and was already sidekicking at Nighteye Agencies, happily on the road to becoming a proper hero.
In the present, the girl looked up from the friend she was talking to, and crimson eyes met Yaomomo's silver ones. She smiled and waved back, before the group continued on, in search of a patch of empty sand in the area where swimming was allowed.
They ended up settling for a patch under a conifer, where Hitoshi and Yuga took all of their bags to dig out the towels while Nejire flopped into the sand, despite it being both hot and rough. Her shoulder-length hair splashed around her in a glossy pool of cerulean, and she loosely tugged at Tsuyu's ankle. The shorter woman was almost like an excitable child upon seeing the water, and the older was probably her only impulse control in preventing her from leaping into the water.
"There's a bathroom over there," Yuga pointed out, gesturing to the small wooden facility quite a distance to their right, nestled among a few trees. "You could go change, notre petite grenouille."
The jadette snatched her bag and ran off with a hastily uttered thanks. On the other hand, Nejire was already wearing her swimsuit under her shirt and pants. She spread the turquoise towel her violette friend handed her and stripped on the spot, throwing her clothes into her backpack and revealing her lace-edged, pastel blue bikini. She tied a white wrap around her waist, as well as a matching sling-like cloth over her shoulder and half of her chest. The translucent garments had splashes of flower embroidery on them.
"You look good in that," Hitoshi drawled, taking out a bottle of sunscreen and hefting it at her. She giggled, in the midst of also tying up her hair with a scarlet ribbon.
"I'm flattered, really, but you helped me pick it out," she reminded jokingly. "Thanks, though."
Yaomomo chuckled and glanced at Shouto instead. He was still reclining in the sand next to Yuga, who was laying on his towel. "You're not swimming, right?"
"Probably not. I'll see." He opened one eye and met her gaze. "I sure know you are, though. What're you wearing?"
"Similar to hers." She shrugged. "We went shopping together."
The group waited for Tsuyu to return, with Hitoshi lathering sunscreen onto Nejire's back while Shouto tried to guess what kind of swimwear Yaomomo would wear and Yuga . The conversation was pretty much just Yaomomo saying "no" to every ridiculous thing he suggested. If she had to be honest, she was surprised he kept an impassive, straight face the entire time. Finally, Tsuyu -who was wearing a dark green bodysuit with lighter stripes up her sides- returned and beckoned Nejire to join her in the lake.
The two hurried off and Yaomomo moved to get up. "I suppose I'll have to follow them." She was also wearing her swimsuit under her clothes, so she quickly stripped and adjusted her hair.
"...that's a new look on you." Shouto idly eyed her white bikini top with wavy, translucent black lace on it. The bottom piece had a skirt, as well. "You've learned to enjoy the arts of modest swimwear since your days as a college girl."
"Oh, shush." She tightened her ponytail and left to join the other two ladies testing the sun-polished water.
"Today was fun, wasn't it?" Yaomomo sighed, tucking her rolled-up towel into her bag. It had been a few hours; the three women had gone swimming before relaxing on the beach with the rest of the group until about sunset. Yaomomo had since changed into a shirt and a pair of pants, as did Tsuyu and Nejire. Her damp, black hair was tied up with a small white bow.
"Mmh." Shouto hummed in reply and picked up his backpack, and the group began to make their way back up the beach to head for the train station.
Yaomomo spared a glance back over the lake, to the drowning, buttercup sun and the crimson rays saturating the water with golden glitter. The clouds pooled against the horizon, foggy and silver in the approaching twilight.
This... this was the same sunset that shone over my head the day Shouto woke up.
"Yaomomo? Are you coming?" She turned to see that he had halted and was gazing back at her. His image seemed fuzzy in the warm embrace of the amber dusk; she couldn't help but smile slightly.
"Yeah."
It's been a long time, really.
So much has happened since we were rescued from hell. Look at how we're all doing, now. I'm sure we never could've imagined doing this back then, leading normal, happy lives, all of us getting along without guilt or sorrow.
She took Shouto's hand and allowed him to lead her away, chasing after their friends.
...Tamaki...
You would've liked this.
You wanted this, didn't you? A happy day like this one, one where everyone could smile and you could be content.
...you wanted to help me...
I wish I could've repaid the favor.
For a split second, she wondered what it would be like, if it were the raven-haired boy walking hand-in-hand with her, violet eyes and a gentle gaze melting into hers, in place of-
No. No, she couldn't imagine not having Shouto at her side, no matter how hard she tried, and the moment abruptly passed.
And yet, her lips still tugged upwards.
This is how things played out, right?
There's nothing left to do but accept it and enjoy it, cherish those who lived.
That didn't mean she thought about Tamaki and Kyouka and Cynthia any less, but it was a string to grasp at nonetheless.
And Shouto's fingers were warm against hers, pulse intertwining with hers and tying together a perfect red bow.
It may have been a long, rough road getting to days like this one, but... still.
Yuga, Tsuyu, Nejire, Hitoshi, Shouto- I'm glad I got to become friends with all of you, even if we lost everything else.
Flames danced across the darkening air above, red and welcoming and warm, their soothing touch brushing against Yaomomo's skin and lighting up her hair with gleaming, magenta glitter.
She wouldn't give anything for this moment, walking along a beach with a real sky over her head and her friends, alive and well, at her side.
Thank you, Tamaki.
Thank you so much.
Epilogue : Sakura Blossoms at Dawn and Dusk : The End | Surviving Students : 6 | The End
Item Obtained : Taxidermy Butterfly