Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Epilogue:

Five Years Later…

"See you tomorrow boss."

"Have a nice day, Creati!"

Yaoyorozu turned and lifted her left hand to acknowledge her support staff and all their farewells at once. "See you all on Monday," she replied to the other ten people still at the agency who worked later on Fridays than the pro hero did herself. Momo stepped out the door separating the main office floor from the hallway outside where she again said farewell to her secretary who snapped out of his seat to show respect to his new employer who chuckled at his enthusiasm but smiled at him to show she appreciated it.

Momo walked towards the stairwell rather than take the elevator. No one else ever took the stairs which were really only there as a fire safety necessity, as even in very rare blackouts they had their own spare generator to keep the building running. This meant she had never once run into anyone on the stairs while on her way out the building. She stopped after descending only one floor. Momo lowered her bag from her right shoulder and placed it on a step behind her. It was a large black bag looking professional and yet like an oversized purse at the same time. The heroine had already changed out of her patrol uniform into office attire upstairs, but she now took out a white sweater with a turtle-neck collar, a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, and she removed her hair-tie that kept her hair in her iconic ponytail that the public knew so well.

In under a minute, Creati made a few changes to her appearance that she had found worked remarkably well in hiding who she was. Her shoulders slouched the slightest bit as she continued down the steps. She carried herself in a way that was still self-respectful but did not hold the same stature that she presented herself in as a pro hero. The stairs were not technically for fire escape only, so the door at the back of the building and the bottom of the stairwell was not attached to any alarms that would go off when opened. Momo walked out of her building and then around the back of the next tall building next to hers which was a mix of a department store, a salon, and several karaoke studios on the higher floors.

In the bustling city of Yokohama, no one paid much attention to the woman on her way home from work. She looked so different in street clothes when compared to her hero costume that if they stared at her for too long it only suggested to Momo that they found her attractive. It would surprise her very much if someone were to call out 'Creati' and point her way, (like they occasionally did during her patrols), as this simple disguise allowed her to blend in perfectly into the civilian population.

The twenty-three year old woman was dressed in clothes a bit heavier than many others walking the streets today. The disguised hero appreciated the long pants and sweater though as a cool autumn breeze blew her way. She noticed a couple of high school girls still in their summer uniforms on the other side of the busy road shiver and rub their upper arms. Then Momo just glanced up above them at the swaying branches on the trees lining the street that had different colored leaves looking beautiful this time of year. She took in a deep breath of the fresh fall air then looked back ahead and down the street towards the stairs going up to the second-floor train station close to her office which was her current destination.

Momo slowed down when she reached the steps. She turned her right wrist and slid her sleeve up a bit to check her watch, before repositioning her right hand back under her large bag where she held it during her walk. No hero was afraid of having her bag nabbed, so even that subtle way of holding her purse not looking afraid but just in the cautious way a woman might in order to better protect it, just in case, kept anyone from noticing that this was Creati even so close to her agency where some might be looking out for her. I have a few minutes before the next train, she thought to herself. Momo knew the train schedule like the back of her hand, so she knew she did not have to climb the steps yet just so she could go stand on the platform waiting for the train to arrive.

She walked around the bottom of the stairs instead. The sidewalk jutted out and the main road widened ahead on a diagonal into a large intersection with hundreds of people walking around its sidewalks and over crosswalks already. Many were gathered in the open sidewalk area too though that protruded out into a road that had been moved after severe damage was done to it five years back. The road had to be adjusted first back then to allow for traffic to continue while the damage from a fallen plane was cleared and the sidewalk repaired as well as the building next to it. After initial repairs to the surroundings had been finished though, the road was already moved. Why close the road down for a few days to move it back to its old position? Instead, the people of this neighborhood of Yokohama did the same thing that people all over the world were doing at the time. With the full support of their local, district, provincial, national- every government body that could say that they were also part of the project put their names on it with unanimous support of their councils or executive bodies.

Creati knew there were a few more she could see on her way home, but this one was the largest statue on her route home. She stepped towards the twenty foot tall stainless steel figure on top of a marble base. The base of the statue was designed artistically too. Initially discarded chunks of rubble from the broken street and sidewalk, as well as pieces from the fallen plane, and even the steering column of a car crushed below that plane had all been incorporated around the white base. Then the silver legs began. He wore a nondescript hero costume over his imposing body. It did not have various colors, nor did it have the helmet on that Momo remembered his costume having. Momo lifted her gaze up the statue and past his broad shoulders to his face. They only etched in the one, she thought.

Under the right eye of the steel figure was a curved scar that could have just as easily have been a mistake on the sculptor's part. Some people even considered it as such. Maybe this is why I like this one more, she wondered to herself while admiring the statue. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, her lips flattening out and a more sad look forming on her face for a second. So many of the statues they erected of him have no scars at all. Gave him a perfect face. A sharp chiseled jaw-bone. Like a caricature without any blemishes. Like he was perfect. Like he was, to some of us. The right corner of her lips lifted again but only for a second. But this is better. Because he wasn't.

She stepped closer after some other people looking up at the face of the statue from just in front of it finally moved to the side. Momo lowered her gaze down past his feet and to the marble base again. More specifically, she read the plaque in the center of it and the words dedicated on this memorial statue. "Lifebringer." She read it in her head. Below his hero name, she continued scanning her eyes over the metal plaque, "In honor of the man who sacrificed himself so that we could live. For the man who gave his life for ours, we can only give back so much: A statue. A holiday. And most importantly, the promise to live our lives as good people. As heroes like he believed each of us could be. To the man who gave us a second chance. Thank you."

That's probably the closest one to really honoring who he was. Just by calling him a "man" alone they already did more than most who refer to him otherwise. Because that's who Lifebringer was. Zach was a man. Momo lifted her gaze once more to that scarred face and took in another deep breath. She turned away from it and headed back to the stairs for the station overhead. A flawed, albeit amazing, human being. Too many people forget that. Mythicizing who he was. This one gets it right because by calling him a man it reminds everyone that the rest of the plaque is possible for them. Because it was for him. She smiled again at the thought. The ability to be a hero, no matter who you are. Everyone can be a hero to someone. But no one can be a hero to everyone.

No one, except for you of course.

The train ride home was short and uneventful. She did not live too far from the office, but it was far enough that she could not walk. Traffic was a hassle in the busy cities too so the train it was. It took her a few stops north so she was into Tokyo now, not that some people did not just consider Yokohama an extension of the Tokyo metro anyway. The cities were each so large that they just sort of meshed into each other. Then again, so did another half dozen different "cities" in the area that Creati also frequented on her patrols that spanned the whole Tokyo metropolitan area on most days. It was her job to make the most people possible feel safe after all, and how better than by one of the top ten heroes in the country, (even if she was ranked tenth), showing her face in as many areas as she could?

After getting off the train she readjusted her bag back into her right arm and started towards home. Momo walked down the busy road from the station until she reached an intersection off onto a more narrow residential street. The street was straight enough to the next fork that she could instantly see the sign for the block of her own residence not a quarter mile ahead. She walked on the sidewalk to that fork in the road but then had to step off as the street became even more cramped to the left and no longer had a footpath to walk on. It was only wide enough for one car to move down at a time, yet there was no 'one-way' sign to speak of. Vehicles just had to pull over for one another in order to squeeze past, while pedestrians had to trust that the vehicles would keep alert and to the speed limit thanks to the 'kids at play' signs.

The hero in a semi-disguise with her glasses on and hair down smiled and lifted her free hand to wave at a couple of middle school boys riding her direction on their bikes. One of her young neighbors more confident on his bike took a hand off to wave at her while the other just said 'hi' and kept pedaling. Shortly after they rode past, she turned to the unassuming beige building on her right side. It was partially connected to the others on the sides of it and yet clearly separated at the same time based on the architecture. The walls were touching but had definite borders. Each apartment was snugly pressed into the others around it, and only a few had enough space for a vehicle to pull in at the front. Hers did not.

The humble abode was a polar opposite to the summer home of her parents that she had visited just the previous weekend. That mansion on an orchard in Nabbu only ninety minutes away had been an enjoyable visit for Yaoyorozu Momo, but she looked on her own place and felt happy that she would be spending this weekend at home. She felt more eager to get inside right now after a day of work than she was the whole trip to see her mother and father. She adjusted the strap of her bag that she kept one hand underneath through her trip home, then she walked towards the porch and the short flight of steps up to the front door.

The front entrance had a fingerprint scanner rather than a keyhole in the knob. She pressed her thumb to it and the lock clicked, a soft high-pitched dinging noise rang twice inside, then she reached over and twisted the doorknob. Momo pushed the door in-

"Mom!"

"Mommy!"

"Haha-" Yaoyorozu got the door only halfway open before the patter of footsteps filled her ears as loud as the calls from the pair of children sprinting her way. She finished opening the door and got down on one knee while taking her bag off to make it easier to catch them both using one arm each. "Why hello there. What's the rush-"

"We saw you on tv!" The little red-haired girl exclaimed. The girl stood half a foot shorter than the boy who reached their mom a second earlier thanks to his small size and age advantage.

"Yeah! Yeah! There was this show and you were- you were on the commercial, and Aunt Mei was there! And and and- and you looked so cool!"

Guess they started airing the new line today, Momo wondered while nodding to her children and smiling along with their excitement. She noticed a smell while getting back up to her feet that made her eyebrows lift up in intrigue. As she turned and closed the door behind her she wondered, "What is Daddy cooking back there? It smells, interesting."

"Macaroni and hot dogs!" The little black-haired boy shouted out with glee.

"Dad said we could pick and we went to the grocery store. And- and Mom, and we saw Mister and Misses Kamu. And, and they were…" Momo just nodded along with her daughter while showing as much interest as possible despite the rather mundane story about going to the corner store.

"It sounds like quite the adventure," Momo replied just as emphatically to her daughter as the girl was telling the story. She lifted her gaze back up and down the hall to the person who poked his head out of the kitchen and looked her way holding a frying pan in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other. "I'm home," she called to him.

"Welcome back," her husband replied while still smiling back at her. "I had planned on getting steaks, but I got outvoted."

"Democracy!" The two kids called out at once, clearly having learned a lesson about it from their father today which made Momo giggle into the back of her hand at how excited the children seemed to be about it.

The brown-haired man in the kitchen put down the pan and lowered the heat onto low for a minute. He tapped the spoon again on the rim of the pot of boiling macaroni not yet finished then placed it on the counter to the side of the stove. Then he walked out and down the hall to the woman stepping towards him who he leaned down to while she tilted her head back to kiss him on the lips. "Let's hope they don't start thinking they have a vote on everything around here," Momo mentioned after leaning back from the greeting kiss with her husband. She mentioned it lightheartedly but also bringing up that they might have a potential problem in the future if they let their kids think they could vote on anything to get what they want.

He just grinned back at her though and added, "I decided not to use my executive veto."

Momo laughed again and smacked him playfully on the shoulder. She shook her head while walking by and over to a low cabinet resting against the wall of the living room that she placed her bag on top of. Momo tapped on the tablet in its charging stand next to where she placed her bag, but she just smiled to see no notifications for her to deal with. She glanced back and into the kitchen where the man was stirring the pot again while the kids in the hall speaking about the dog they saw on their daily adventure started running back over. "Looks like my evening is clear," Momo said.

"Well that's great, because I have yet to start on a side dish."

"I'll whip up some vegetables then."

"Noo! Let's have french fries!"

"I also vote french fries-"

"Veto!"

"Boo! This is a dictatorship!"

"You're absolutely right. And your mother is the dictator."

"You two need your vegetables." Momo said firmly while sighing as her partner passed the ball to her as he went to strain the pasta. She just saw him dart his brown eyes over giving her a hopeful glance that she would take care of this and pick a carrot or stick to use. She decided to do both, "I'm going to make that broccoli plate like I made on Tuesday that you two scarfed down. And if you two eat it all, we'll watch Super Savers tonight-"

"Super Savers go!"

"Super Savers save!" The kids interrupted their mother with excited shouts to see the show they were all going to watch anyway but now sounded like a reward to them too rather than something to be taken away.

"But before that! John, go set the table. Katy, pour some waters. Behind you, Jack," Momo warned while stepping around the man she brushed her hand along the back of to let him know she was there. She warned him since he was moving back the hot empty pot to the stove behind the pan of hot dogs he got back to turning. The kids ran around them carefully too as the boy pulled out silverware, and Katy went under the sink to grab the step-stool she brought over to under the cabinet of plastic cups and glasses.

Out in the hallway along the wall back to the door, several pictures hung in frames along the wall. The cheerful family getting ready for dinner lived in a small three-bedroom place but it had enough space for some decorations to give the house a more homey feel. A wedding portrait photo of Momo and Jack on a beach hung above two others looking to be on that same beach. She wore a white dress and him a black tuxedo in their wedding photo of just the two of them. In the horizontal landscape photos below though were the rest of their classmates, as well as All Might's skinny form who stood at the right side of both pictures.

On the photo to the right each of the students held a piece of paper in their hands. They were all wearing their graduation gowns and holding their certificates in front of their chests, two of which were framed on the wall of this house as well but closer to the kitchen. There was the serious photo with all of them in their gowns with their hats still on. Jack stood right in the middle of the second line between Tenya and Mezo. His dark brown hair looked a bit lighter that day in the sunlight that shone on that beach. His fair skin had no scars on it and he wore nothing on his right hand that he held on the side of his own diploma.

That same diploma was down the wall past the silly picture the students took after throwing their hats high in the air. It was past Yaoyorozu Momo's diploma, closer to the kitchen than the heroine's. Another diploma claiming graduation from U.A.'s Hero Course was pinned to the wall beside hers. The name 'Jack Skera' was written across it in big letters meant to stand out the most on these certificates.

The kids finished setting the table and played around for only a short time before their dad called them to dinner. He came out carrying two plates that he put down on their placemats first before heading back for the kitchen. Jack's eyes shifted over for a second to the wall past the kitchen entry. He moved aside for a moment so Momo could walk out with her serving bowl of still-steaming broccoli that were not put on the plates beforehand in the kitchen like the mac and chopped-up hot dogs were. His eyes lingered on his diploma that he looked on fondly. Then he glanced down the wall to the funny beach picture he smirked at as he had put Minoru into a surprise headlock the boy in front of him looked shocked and frustrated to be put in… and maybe like he actually could not breathe too based on how hard Katsuki was laughing about it. Jack stared nostalgically to the graduation photo and above it to the wedding one with his heart racing for a moment as he remembered how she looked right then to him. Stunned I managed to look away even for a second to the camera.

He started back for the kitchen to grab the last two plates and go join his family at the table. His eyes passed by that picture last. The one above the portraits most recently taken of their kids. He looked at the family photo they sent to only their close friends as a Christmas card last year. John sat on his right knee, while Katy sat on her mom's. How'd I get to be so lucky? Jack asked himself. He laughed at the thought while grabbing the plates he made for him and Momo and heading back to the dinner table with them. The family sitting there had not started eating yet, and he just smiled brighter seeing them waiting for him to come back before digging in. As funny as it would sound saying that aloud to anyone who actually knows me, I mean it.

I must be the luckiest guy in the world. "Alright," he took his seat and clapped his hands together. His kids and wife did the same. They all smiled back at him, then all four called out at the same time, "Let's eat!"

A/N I think Zach said it best. You should know by now not to trust me. XD I'm sorry. Had to get one last troll in to mess with y'all, (not really the reason but it is in character for me, right?). Reading the final chapter and then going straight into the Epilogue and seeing Zach's alive makes a lot of sense. But for an episodic upload schedule such as I have, it makes that cliffhanger feel so shitty because it shouldn't be a cliffhanger. Last chapter's ending should be something you read, feel a certain way about, and then go to the epilogue and realize right away that he survived! And you feel relief. And you wonder how he did that. But you don't linger too long thinking that he was dead. That's on me. It's not a long Epilogue but it's taken me long enough to post, so I am sorry if you've come to accept what you thought was Zach's death and the true ending of Death. In regards to all your sad feelings, I hope you feel better with the happy ending.

-As to how Zach survived, well, at the end of the Apocalypse his body was too thin above the Lodge for him to pull back together a human body… but that makes sense. He finished reviving everyone at the Lodge so much earlier and didn't need to keep a thick mass of Death around. That's why all that remained there which was condensed was the contingency measure for AFO, but he trusted Deku, and even after Deku finished he still had more revivals to complete elsewhere. The last human revival was actually some field in Kansas where he revived a boy and his dog. The extra Death he still had after that was the thickest anywhere on Earth, and so when he knew he was done reviving and pulled his body together, it was that one which returned to a human form as the version in Japan failed to do. Apocalypse, remember, killed 6 of the 8 test subjects, and 7 if you include Dandy. That means 2 still survived. And yes, one was "half insane," according to Zach, but that suggests the other was not, and maybe even the one who was "half" just had some manageable issues afterwards. If anyone could survive a 1 in 10,000 chance though, it would be Zach. Apocalypse kills most of its users, but we know how strong Zach is. So I never really led you into thinking that Apocalypse was definitely a death sentence. Even his friends at the end of the last chapter were shouting at Zach to pull together, because they knew he could survive it too. If anyone could.

-To be honest, there is a ton of explanation I could give. I could write a second epilogue with Zach's emotional funeral and the U.A. graduation. The tearful speech Deku makes about Zach being a brother to him. Family to all of Class A. Then the bus ride to a beach that Principal Nezu doesn't explain to them afterwards. A post-graduation event, or something, that none of them are in the mood for. Where Zach's at a private beach waiting. Explaining to his stunned friends in Class A what happened, how because he has no Quirk anymore and since he's made enemies throughout his life, he needed to fake his own death. That their genuine reactions at the funeral and graduation would convince the world that he was dead. Only Momo and Principal Nezu knew... I honestly have another 50,000 word chapter I could write of that day at the beach where they find out Zach's alive. Their anger at him doing that to them, but their forgiveness about it because Zach asks Midoriya emotionally if he meant what he said about being "brothers?" Because you have to forgive your brother, your family... I know you guys would love reading that. I would love writing it. I would also like to write the stories of Zach, Momo, and their kids: John, Kaitlyn, eventually Denku, and Jennifer. :) The advancement of technology with Quirks so rapidly that space travel and warp speed are so rapidly invented that meeting aliens happens when John and Katy are going to U.A. Space pirates, and the Galactic Federation, and Zach's kids finding out who he is slowly and all the things he did... If you think I haven't planned out an entire Boruto/DBZ to my Naruto/DB, you're wrong. Of course I've thought about it. I've got to stop though. The 'What-if' chapters I've written where Zach picks different decisions. The endless epilogues. The story threads with John and Katy. Trusting Class A to keep his secret that would put his family in danger. Severe PTSD over Lifebringer Day which hurts him to think about in any way. Whether Zach retained any of his strength despite losing his Quirk. So much cool stuff for a sequel, that I have firmly decided not to write. All the summaries and ideas I have for that continuation are going to remain just that: ideas. Unwritten.

-I do want to thank you all again. I hope you liked the Epilogue. Really, it's more like just the continued ending. I'm not too sure on how to end stories. I don't know if anyone really does. Is it at the climax? Is it when you see the characters back home with a happily ever after? Ambiguous or fixed? I've abandoned too many stories that are too hard to finish, but this is the ending I've long had in mind. Zach making his family dinner five years later after seemingly dying to the rest of the world. A happy ending for our hero who deserves one more than anyone. A sacrifice for the rest of the world to hold close and learn from. A way for him to retire peacefully without feeling guilty about not reviving anyone else. A reason for him to fake his death... ;) I'm going to miss writing about Zach. This story will always be very close to my heart. I believe I will read it over and over again throughout the years. I appreciate you all. I hope you enjoyed this final ending of Death. Thank you for reading.

-Tmb1112/Matt