Disclaimer: I do not own Boku No Hero Academia.

CHAPTER XXI – BACK TO NORMAL

Midoriya Izuku's journal – last entry

December 22nd

Although our last semester at U.A. ended by the end of March, we only got our final licenses as official pro heroes by the middle of May, a few days after the battle in Yokohama. To this day, no one really understands what happened back there – no one but the people who know of One for All and the miracles its power can create.

As usual, whenever the world of heroes stops the media from releasing too much information to the public, countless conspiracy theories hit the online word. I've read everything, from the likely connection to the Kamino incident to something as crazy as a possible insurance fraud for the destroyed tower.

Even though we won, most of us don't remember that day as a happy one; had it not been for One for All's power, all of our friends and colleagues would be dead. All Might assumes that some kind of gas had transformed the quirkless among us, mainly police women and men, into those monsters, but we will probably never fully know since every trace of it seemed to have vanished together with the first wielder, as did All Might strength once the fight was over.

It's been around eight months since then. These days I am busy fighting the crime that still lives on, even without All for One. His men, the "Union", continue to exist underground, following the image of the once dark king as if he had been a cult leader. The real All for One may be gone, but who knows how long the shadow he left behind will prevail?

Kurogiri and the doctor got away. And even though we managed to capture all the criminals from Tartarus, including Muscular and Mustard, one of the most dangerous has been slipping through are fingers again and again; Stain is still missing and currently we have no trace to follow..

With me being so busy to become the new symbol of peace, I try to use the few hours of free time I have to get together with family and friends. Whenever Kachann has some time to spare, he asks me to hang out; he's become rather quiet since my accident, but then again, he has never been one to speak with words (but with actions).

During this year, I also spent a lot of time at All Might's place. By the end of October, I even helped him move from his apartment on U.A. ground to the small house he owns downtown. Staying empty all this time it needed a lot of things fixed and All Might spent all the remaining weeks he had to make it cosy. It's still kind of cramped but I guess it's good enough for my teacher and him.

I am writing this because the day after tomorrow is a very special day: On that day, Shigaraki Tomura will be released from prison. Under a different name of course, one I don't know yet.

What do you think about your own story, Tomura? Do you see the irony? How you, once a villain that was feared by all of us, found your redemption in the most unusual connection, through someone you used to hate?

After our battle with All for One, All Might didn't bring up the topic of his master's descendant often and neither did I. What I knew was that he hadn't been allowed to visit him and that he had rarely gotten any updates on his health. But Tomura being released by the end of the same year could only mean that he had obeyed the authorities and undergone various therapies and training. I suppose his help during the battle did contribute to that decision as well.

Finally, I also want to put an end to this chapter of my life.

This is usually not a diary; this is a journal that holds all of my notes and sketches regarding heroes. Notes and sketches that have helped throughout my journey to becoming a hero myself and now that I have achieved this goal, I probably won't need them any longer.

On my way to becoming the next symbol of peace, I want to be myself. No longer will I push away that side of me that used to be quirkless and weak, instead I will embrace it, because it was through my own strength and will that I have gotten this far!

With this in my heart I decided to dedicate the last pages to people who I want to protect. First Kota, the second to Eri and this one is for you, Tomura.

As long as I hold the power of One for All, I will protect you, all of you.

I promise.

Midoriya closed the journal and leaned back in his chair. His childhood room was now crowded with cardboard boxes, ready to be moved in less than two weeks. He wouldn't have time to pack in the coming days, so he had already prepared everything early.

His mother had told him that he was still too young to move out but his heart told him that this was the right choice. And had he not listened to his heart so many times in these last years, first when attacking that slime monster that had his childhood friend in his grasp?

"Izuku! Dinner's ready!", said mother now called him.

"I'm coming!", he called back, stood up and placed his journal inside one of the boxes that was still unsealed.

Around eight months earlier

A rain of tiny lights showered them in healing power, closing his throbbing wounds and assuring him that what he was about to do was right. Impatiently, he watched as All for One seemed to gain the upper hand again. With that strange being that had appeared from nowhere now gone, the fighting heroes up there looked like they lacked that tiny bit of power to defeat the enemy. At first it seemed as if All for One and the heroes were on equal footing, but Tomura's trained eyes saw the movements of Midoriya or even Endeavor getting slower and weaker with each passing second. Yes, the rain had healed their wounds, but for every cut that closed two new ones appeared, while All for One himself didn't weaken at all.

How is this possible? How can he still be so strong with this body? Wasn't he weakened considerably during the battle at Kamino?

No, that's not it.., Tomura gulped, He was always this strong! The only reason he lost to All Might that time was because the hero was just so much stronger!

None of the people here could yet compare to the power of One for All. Maybe one day Midoriya could, but until then, they were always going to be inferior to Tomura's teacher. His former master was a monster. All Might's power was a culmination of multiple users of the same quirk, being passed onto the next generation for over a hundred years now, but All for One was just on another level.

I can't waste anymore time, I've got to help them!

He clenched his fists, waiting for the right moment. How he knew when that moment was, he didn't know and one after the other, All for One drilled his forced quirk activation spikes into their bodies, taking control over them like they were mere puppets. The police on the ground had started shooting at him, but whatever could simple bullets do to one who had surpassed natural death?

Still, Tomura waited.

And the instant the lights faded away and the view to the heroes fighting with the dark lord of the underground cleared up, he pushed all of his strength into his legs and jumped.

Faster than he had ever seen Gran Torino move, he shot towards the man that hat taught how to survive.

Now however, All for One symbolized nothing more than the last connection, that last rope that had him tied to his career as villain. If he could cut this thin but strong string that was still somehow holding his heart back, he knew he was going to be able to leave that behind.

Or so he hoped.

He didn't care if they would put him back in a jail; if only now he could show All Might that he had finally made a right decision, even if it was the only one he would ever do, he liked to imagine that he could spent the remainder of his life in peace. He doubted it, but for now he held onto it.

I don't want to go to prison!

I want to be at All Might's side!

He pushed those wishes aside, telling himself that he had no right to have them: This isn't about just you anymore, Tomura.

With everything he got, he crashed his own forehead into where All for One's nose would have been, crashing his respiratory machine and hopefully his head (though he doubted the latter). But however great or small the damage he had caused really was, he had actually managed to help the heroes; All for One's spear-like fingers retracted and he backed away. But Tomura didn't see him anymore because he fell.

In a way he was sad he was not able to cause this monster of a man more pain. He wanted to return everything All for One had ever done to him twice and three times but those emotions of rage and vengeance were soon forgotten when his ability to float was gone. His body felt drained and he was sensing the biggest headaches of his life coming his way. Tomura heard his name being called somewhere.

How is it that I only realize it now? Had All Might not retired? How had he gained back his strength to fight All for One?

I have a feeling that this strength he was granted isn't going to stay with him forever.

Then he saw Midoriya, charging at a confused All for One who was suddenly struggling to fight.

I think I got more than just his mask..

Midoriya. All Might's chosen one, the inheritor of One for All. Tomura remembered that now that he had his master's power, he might also have inherited the power to give and take away quirks.

Then, someone caught him before he hit the ground. Who was it? All Might?

He wanted to know, but the world faded black first.

It was not All Might who had caught Tomura. The blonde man, who was now as buff and healthy looking as he used to be during his peak years, used the moment of distraction the youngster had gifted them to focus.

And it was young Midoriya who charged first, burying his fist into All for One's face, the same spot Tomura hit with his forehead just a moment ago. And All Might followed, his energy all concentrated inside his right hand, the last time he would ever hit someone with it.

He knew that this was the last time he would ever be able to use One for All. There would be a void without it, but he had found a new task in his life, one just as important as hero-work.

When he shot toward All for One, who was visibly struggling to use a quirk due to the lack of oxygen in his lungs, All Might's concentrated power pushed the other heroes aside. With the intent to make an end to all of this, he pushed his fists into All for One's chest, breaking his ribs and puncturing his heart.

Even in his moments of dying, All for One never looked weak.

When it was over, All Might felt the power inside him leave his body at once.

Was he falling? Was he already on the ground? Was he flying, using one of the predecessor's floating quirk?

"Toshinori."

Yes, that was his name.

"Toshinori.", the female voice called again.

"Hm?" – wait, was he asleep and dreaming? But this all felt so real!

"Toshinori, open your eyes.", the voice commanded.

"Am I dead?", he wanted to know before he wake up to see the stairway to heaven.

"No, this is not death.", the words were followed by an adorable snickering of an older woman he knew from his youth. His eyes shot open and in the vastness that was black, a form guided by warm light stepped in front of him, hands on her hips, long black hair partly in a bun. She looked just as back then, and so did he; he was as young as he used to be when Shimura Nana went off to fight All for One, giving up her own life to save him and Gran Torino.

"It is not life either. Back then, I told you that our souls would meet again in One for All, didn't I?"

"But how can this be?"

Nana shrugged und smiled again: "I guess I still don't know all of One for All's secrets, but the moment you touched Midoriya Izuku's and my Tenko's hands at the same time, something magical happened."

"I have so many questions, so many things I want to talk to you about.", a wave of melancholy hit All Might's heart as he spoke.

"I know, but there is not much time until we have to part ways again."

All Might wanted to tell her that to him, she was like a mother and that he had missed her but––

By the way she looked at him, slowing opening her arms and embracing his younger form, she already knew.

"Have you met him? Tomura, I mean.", he asked since she had brought up his childhood name before.

"I did and I did what I could to help him. But from now on, he has to continue without me."

Confused, All Might looked up at here: "What do you mean? Doesn't he wield the power of All for One and therefore One for All as well?"

"He did, but he took it away from. No longer will we allow All for One to rule."

All Might stepped back, out of her embrace: "So he will never be able to meet you again? Nana, Tomura needs a family! Please, if there's a way, at least talk to him once more!"

His master closed her grey eyes and sighed: "I'm afraid we've reached the end of our reunion, Toshinori."

Her form was slowly starting to fade, but All Might still needed to know.

"How will he ever be able to heal from everything the world has done to him?"

"Time heals all wounds, Toshinori. You'll see, trust me."

Three weeks after the battle of Yokohama

"What is your name?", the man asked him after accommodating himself on the chair standing at the other side of the glass. A notebook was sitting on his crossed legs, the pen in his right hand ready to note whatever the prisoner was about to say, whenever Tomura decided to answer. The room they were in was small and empty, bulletproof glass separating them, nothing that could have stopped the young man, had he placed his hands onto it; decay was his quirk after all. But he didn't have to possibility to try it, since his hands were tied behind his back. Not that he wanted to, but the handcuffs were still annoying. Security measures, which reminded him all too much of Tartarus. He was so tired of this, but he knew he had not given them any other choice with the way he used to act back then.

There were at least six cameras in this interrogation room, monitoring him from every angle, just like back then. But this wasn't the famous prison standing on an island surrounded by the aggressive waves of the sea somewhere around Chiba prefecture. In its current state, that prison wasn't able to hold criminals anymore. Surely they were going to rebuild it, but until then, Tomura had to stay here and by God he hoped that he would stay here because he didn't want to see a single brick of that high security prison ever again.

Wherever 'here' was, he had not been informed of.

After the battle with All for One, he had been brought to the villain hospital, where he had awoken for the first time with that horrid headache he had sensed coming. For the first two nights, all he could do was to turn his head left and right, trying to shake of that earthquake that was going on inside of him. He had also had a high fever that had kept him bedridden this long.

With no access to the news, the internet or even a phone, he didn't know of how the battle had ended, about the possible casualties or about All for One as well as All Might.

Spending a week at the hospital, the man did not visit him and at this point Tomura doubted that it had anything to do with All Might not wanting to. Still, he hoped to see the blonde marching through his hospital room's door, and now this prison's doors, greeting him with that trademark smile, bringing him chocolate or some shit and telling him that everything was going to be alright, that they had won and that Tomura's sins were all forgotten and forgiven. Something that could never be but would still make him happy to hear.

He had calculated that around three weeks must have passed since the battle and Tomura didn't allow himself to lose hope. Somehow, he was going to get out of here. Without violence, without turning back into a criminal. He was going to show the world that he really meant it this time.

"Shigaraki T-", he cut himself of when he heard himself speak that name that was given to him by the king of evil and that he was so used of hearing him people call.

The other man sat himself upright in his chair, leaned forward and Tomura knew that he must have noticed the struggle the prisoner was facing.

What is my name?

"Would you mind repeating that?", the man asked him again and Tomura cursed him for forcing him to go through this when he had not had the time to process it. After his arrival at this new prison, they had placed him on a treadmill and had forced him to build toothbrushes made out of bamboo for more than thirteen hours a day. The rest of the time he had either spent eating or sleeping, always feeling so tired. Not necessarily because of the work, but because his body had decided to go on a strike: He was constantly feeling dizzy and nauseous and his soul was only half there, as if the other half of it had been ripped out of him, he didn't know any better way to describe it.

"I'm.. that is..Shim–", why did he have much struggle just saying these two words? Yes, it was strange when others called him that but it had never really felt foreign, more like they were something he had buried a long time ago.

But now that he was forcing himself to say them, he felt more alienated than ever before, like they had never been a part of him, not even when he was a born.

"My name is.. Shimura Tenko.", he finally pushed through his teeth. It was a lie – the first lie he had told in this new chapter of life, already tainting that clean white page with dark purple ink.

Don't kid yourself, Tomura. No matter how many times you restart, the pages of your life are never going to be clean of that ink that are your sins.

There it was again, that voice, reminding him of every mistake that he had made.

Do you remember that day at Kurogiri's bar? When you put your hands around your neck?

He remembered.

You should have just killed yourself back then.

He shut the voice out, at least for a while.

End note: I'm sorry if you waited for an epic-end-battle that was not delivered to you. I wrote myself into a corner there and tried and tried to get out but to make the story progress, I needed to leave it open. Forgive me.

The next chapter is where the story "officially" end. The last three chapters will be much shorter than usual and will tell about Tomura still struggling with his new life while living with All Might, the promised 'what-happens-next'.

always, thank you for reading and being a part of this. I genuinely couldn't have done this without your feedback! Have fun with the rest of it and until we meet again (but not in a BNHA fic)!

Answer to Bailey pokemon: aww yes here it is! Thank you so much for reading!~

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