Chapter Text
Chapter 1 – The Optimist
Is there a cure? Is there a savior?
Is there a sign of life underneath
I need to know how to heal this hollow
And keep the optimist alive in me - 10 Years/Conquer Divide
One Day Before The End
A scar-crossed hand grips the railing balcony of the abandoned high-rise apartment as piercing green eyes survey the nighttime cityscape of Musutafu. It was dark, very dark due to the war damage, scarce electricity, and sparse population in the once vibrant city. Fires here and there allowed him to make out the crumbling remnants of the elementary school he had attended, the grocery store where they had shopped, and the apartment building where he grew up. It made his stomach churn and his eyes burn.
Since the war began, he has seen many cities in similar or worse conditions, some even wiped off the face of the earth.
But.
Izuku Midoriya was born and raised in this city. Seeing Musatufu as it was now was heartbreaking. His life may not have been perfect in this place, but this city was his. His past, his childhood, his family, his friends, his heart.
This was not the first time he had been in Musutafu since the war began, but it was still a punch in the gut every time he came here. Mr. Tanaka should be chasing rowdy kids out of the conbini. Old Mrs. Honda should be watering her flowers and waiting for someone to stop long enough for her to tell them about her amazing grandson. The streets should be bustling with people rushing to work with nothing more to worry about than how full the trains will be or where to go for dinner after.
His emotions shift from angry, sad, defeated, and to angry again. He is angry that this even happened and sad that he knows that the city will never be the same. Even if they rebuild and everyone returns, the devastation created scars that will always be there, in the landscape and in people’s hearts. He feels defeated that he couldn’t stop it from happening, and angry again because he knows that those who created the damage do not care and even celebrate the destruction and lives lost. He cycles through these emotions every time he sees any city devastated by the war, but it hits much harder when it’s Musutafu. His town, his life.
He has spoken to enough survivors of disasters to know that his feelings are normal, but in most of those cases, it was Mother Nature at fault and not a megalomaniacal man-child set on personally destroying every little thing that makes Izuku who he is.
Izuku misses his mom. He could really use one of her warm, enveloping hugs right now. With his eyes closed, he can almost smell her perfume, hear her calling him to dinner, and feel her tears on his shoulder (because Midoriyas cry a lot, for any and every reason). With a watery sigh and a shake of his head, he pulls himself together because he knows that can never be again. Shigaraki made sure of that. Izuku will never forgive him for taking away the only person who loved him unreservedly and selflessly.
After the heroes’ confrontation with Shigaraki in Jaku City, Shigaraki disappeared along with the remnants of the League of Villains. No one knew it at the time, but that was just the opening gambit to a much larger war. Devastated by their losses, many heroes abandoned their jobs during this lull in the fighting. Villains and criminals took advantage, and crime rates began to rise.
The Hero Public Safety Commission tried to rally the remaining heroes. They offered more support and money for those on the front lines. Their attempts at retaining heroes and their own power were undercut by their obvious child soldier programs and pervasive corruption. The public and the heroes had lost faith in the commission when many of their underhanded deals were exposed during the chaos after Jaku.
More and more heroes and police officers resigned, retired, or relocated to safer areas. Not everyone ran away, but more and more people abandoned smaller towns for the safety of larger cities with their abundance of law enforcement and resources, such as Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, and their suburbs.
A few months after Jaku, Shigaraki reappeared with AFO’s quirk but no sign of the boogeyman himself, and the war began in earnest. Many people speculated that AFO, the man, must be dead since some whose quirks had been stolen reported that their quirks returned to them shortly before Shiggy’s reappearance. Even some people previously thought to be quirkless found themselves with quirks. It seemed that while Shigaraki now had AFO’s quirk, he did not inherit the stockpile of quirks held within [AFO], and those collected and held by the boogeyman were released to their previous holders at his death.
It was good news and bad news for Izuku. The good news was that since Izuku was Shigaraki’s number one target, Ragdoll’s quirk [Search] had been running Izuku ragged to stay one step ahead of Shigaraki and his nomu army. With [Search] returning to Ragdoll, Shigaraki could no longer track Izuku. The ending of the relentless chase coincided with the return of quirks stockpiled by AFO, and Izuku could finally rest and regroup. Of course, his luck did not hold for long. Eventually, Shiggy found someone else with a tracking quirk, although not as strong as [Search], and began dogging his tracks again, releasing hordes of nomu at any location where Izuku stopped for more than 24 hours.
The bad news was that the loss of the quirks stockpiled in [AFO] enraged Shigaraki, and his subsequent temper tantrum culminated in Izuku’s greatest loss. No one knew how he found out where the Midoriyas lived, but before Shigaraki found his new tracking quirk, he attempted to draw Izuku out by attacking the Midoriyas’ apartment building. Unfortunately, Izuku was hours away trying to recover from weeks of pursuit and had no chance to intervene in the destruction of their home and the death of Inko. Izuku was shattered by the attack and his failure. In his grief, he refused to return to Musutafu or UA, fearing they would become Shigaraki’s next target.
At the start of the war, Shigaraki and the doctor had thousands of nomu and were making more every day. With the help of the resistance, the remaining heroes were able to locate the doctor and his factories. The resistance, a joint effort between heroes, civilians, the military, vigilantes, and even some villains, finally eliminated the doctor and his nomu factories. With nomu production ended permanently, Japan only had to deal with the last of the nomu and Shigaraki himself since the rest of the members of the League of Villains had not been seen or heard from since AFO’s death.
Shigaraki’s predictability in tracing Izuku if he stayed in place for 24 hours allowed the resistance to set traps for the nomu army. The resistance has turned to guerrilla warfare tactics to eliminate the nomu army sent by Shigaraki to force his will on Japan and smoke out Izuku. Since the war began, they have learned that directly and openly attacking the nomu resulted in far too many deaths of the nation’s defenders at the hands of the nomu. But they have learned and grown stealthy and fierce, not giving up their homeland without a fight.
The resistance engineers have developed something like thermite to bait traps to take down the nomus. The traps release bright red fires that burn for a short time and can be seen for miles. Seeing fewer and fewer red fires means Shigaraki is running out of nomu through their war of attrition. Thousands of nomu have now been reduced to a few hundred.
Izuku and the resistance know that once the nomu run out, Shigaraki will switch tactics and may already have something in the works. They must time the final battle just right so that Shigaraki is at his weakest, and before he throws something new into the mix, forcing the resistance to retreat and regroup. The time to strike the final blow is near, very near. The resistance’s plan is to critically reduce the nomu population to allow their members to assist the final showdown between Izuku and Shigaraki without unnecessary deaths and to infuriate Shiggy, hopefully into making a mistake.
He gazes once more at the city and, in a clinical manner notes the number and location of the fires. “Hm, just a few fires tonight. It’s a good sign,” Izuku whispers, inwardly cringing at the thought of more destruction being a good thing, but the end result would be worth it. He hoped the citizens would understand their tactics and not condemn them for allowing the city to fall further into ruin in order to finally defeat Shigaraki.
Izuku allows himself to grieve one last time for his city, for all the cities destroyed, for all the lives lost, and for his lost friends, teachers, and family. As his tears dry and his heart calms, he looks up to the stars shining brightly now due to the lack of light pollution and makes a promise to himself.
A promise to stop the madness, stop the destruction, and stop the despair. End Shigaraki’s reign of terror. Whatever the cost. This will be his last stand.
“Those are some deep thoughts there, greenie,” says the gravelly voice coming from behind him. Izuku briefly tenses before recognizing the voice. He turns to face the figure hidden in the shadows of the apartment and relaxes as he recognizes the dark coat and gloves of his partner.
“I was just taking one last look at the city before we meet with the resistance,” Izuku ignores the concerned look on the other’s face as he turns back to the cityscape. He hears shuffling behind him before arms wrap around him, and a chin perches on his shoulder.
“We’ll get him this time. This will be over by tomorrow,” the voice on his shoulder says softly with quiet confidence.
Mentally shaking himself out of his melancholic mood, Izuku twists and aims a bright smile at the man behind him, “Yeah, we can do this. No, we WILL do this.” His words became firmer and more resolute.
“Of course we will. How can we lose with the Symbol of Hope on our side?” the gruff voice says teasingly. Izuku rolls his eyes at the laughter he can hear in his partner’s voice.
“Ok, let’s go before you make me cry,” Izuku grasps the other’s gloved hand and pulls him close before leaping off the building in a show of green lightning.
“Absolutely not! No crying. You are not allowed,” could be heard alongside giggling as the pair disappeared into the dark city.