Chapter Text
It took six weeks for Kyoka to recover fully, with the help of some doctors with healing quirks.
In that time, the country went a bit mad. That was to be expected, she supposed, when the devil himself went on television and killed the Prime Minister for fun but it was still inconvenient. Kyoka got to watch on television as her friends and fellow Heroes struggled against intensifying riots, between the resurgent Meta Liberation Army and coalescing organized criminal gangs.
They saw the situation as one ripe for opportunity, as the reactionary MLA riots clashed against reformist protests aimed at the government. The police forces didn’t distinguish between the two, to Kyoka’s dismay, and she was treated to scenes of police forces tear gassing and spraying water cannons at civilians regardless of their intent on national television.
It was a nightmare. The government effectively collapsed for those six weeks because the head of government and all the major ministry heads were assassinated and the American government was also trying to exploit the situation. The American Secretary of State died in All for One’s attack and the United States was trying to influence the weak transitional government of Japan for concessions.
Most of the political elements were conveyed to Kyoka through Momo, since television talk-show hosts were largely useless for discussing politics seriously. Momo, recognized for her leadership during the battle at the Landmark Tower, quickly shot up to the top of the list as far as Heroes who were taken seriously. When the pro Heroes went on to the streets to try and calm the riots and stand up to the MLA, it was Momo and Itsuka who were leading them.
The women of UA’s former Class A and B were still at the forefront, even two years out from graduation.
Ochako was out there, too, along with Hawks, Shouto and Katsuki and the other heavy-hitters, trying to stop the riots from turning into major fires or other disasters and putting down major villains. Kyoka chafed while watching her friends struggle on television while she had to sit and rest. But there was nothing to be done about it; Momo would have killed her if she went out too early.
The Hero Commission was rudderless because the President of the Hero Commission was one of the leadership figures who died in All for One’s attack. Traditional chains of command among Hero agencies fell apart and, for a moment, it looked like the entire system would fold in on itself. There would be no one to protect people, both from the MLA and from the police, it became increasingly clear.
Then Sir Nighteye stepped in. He offered his agency to Momo and Itsuka to serve as a base of operation. Shouto and Katsuki were struggling, having been thrown the Endeavor Agency on the fly. However, between the two agencies, they formed the core administrative and organizational system of the Heroes left standing.
It was good that Endeavor had retired, though. His limp was permanent and, while he could still theoretically fight, his time as the top Hero was now over. He had given that away to stop Gigantomachia; his last ‘Prominence Burn’ was the one that brought down the hulking villain.
It took six weeks for Kyoka to recover fully. But now, she was ready to go out, as she donned her new Hero costume once more.
Izuku had been nice enough to fix it for her while she waited.
“We stand for the glory of Re-Destro!”
The villain was huge, easily nine meters tall. Not only did his quirk make him giant, he also had spikes growing out of his shoulders and his back. He led about two dozen other villains, standing in the middle of the four-way intersection.
In one direction stood a line of police in riot gear, flanked by JSDF APCs mounted with water cannons. They formed a phalanx with their riot shields but it was likely that, if the villain was of the mind to, he could simply step on them.
In the opposite direction, there was a different group of villains, led by a man with purple fire rising from his right hand. They wore bizarre animal masks and they were members of an up-and-coming villain gang that was seeking to capitalize on the chaos to recruit people and expand their operations. The villain with the purple fire had an injector gun in his left hand and it glinted crimson in the midday sun.
“You won’t be able to stop us, police scum!” The giant villain roared, heedless of the fact that he was picking a fight with two different armed groups. The Meta Liberation Army’s new recruits were happy to be martyrs for their twisted cause and they were seeking to build up enough power to try and break Re-Destro out of Tartarus.
That was when Kyoka dropped down gently from her perch on one of the buildings above. She landed gracefully and silently using Float and none of the MLA villains even registered her at first.
Above, a news helicopter circled and Kyoka smiled, knowing that the nation would see this. They would see her return and know that there was a reason to have hope again.
“Hey, big guy. You’re being loud as hell,” she said, and all of the MLA villains spun around.
Then she kicked the giant villain as One for All spiked like a purple mirage of heat and he went flying like a massive cannonball into the corner of the nearest building. The building shattered under the weight and half of it crumbled on top of the man.
Kyoka was already moving. She landed, then stepped forward and twirled around in an arc with Blackwhip, gathering up all the MLA villains in a single spinning swing. Then she completed her arc and slammed them all back over her head, cracking the concrete, and none of them dared to stand back up.
She turned and saw the purple fire man injecting his Trigger. She took one step forward as One for All burned bright, then disappeared in a thunderclap of air buckling. She met the purple fire man open palm to face and slammed him right into the ground with an explosion of asphalt.
She held that position, hunched over with her hand on the now-unconscious villain, and carefully surveyed the crime thugs as they stood in place, horrified and shocked and afraid.
“Anybody else?” Kyoka asked. The men dropped their weapons and put their hands up in surrender as the police ran over finally to begin cuffing the villains.
Kyoka straightened and surveyed the scene. Satisfied with a job well done, she brought her hand up to her earpiece and switched to broadcasting to all channels. That way she knew the news helicopter would pick her up.
“This is the professional Hero Earphone Jack. Today, this chaos ends… because I am here.”
It took another four months but, in the end, they were able to pick up the pieces.
That didn’t mean it was a painless process. Many people died and were injured in the chaos and the fighting in the streets. Most of the older generation of Heroes retired in waves. They were not up to the task of trying to put Hero society back together; to build something new and better and beautiful on the ashes of the dead thing they had left behind.
But Kyoka and her friends were up to the task. So, for four months, they defeated villains, performed disaster relief, and quelled MLA riots.
After four months, there was an emergency election and a new government took up power in Japan. They cleanly broke ranks with the former Prime Minister’s policies and rejected the overtures of the American government. Supported by the new generation of Heroes, Japan stood alone and began to build something different.
Things didn’t stop all at once. It started slowly; one day, there were fewer riots. The next week, the number of fires and car pile ups fell sharply. By the end of the month, the riots had ceased as the MLA lost momentum and people began to whisper and gush about their new truth:
They had a new Symbol of Hope and she wasn’t slowing down for anyone.
Working as a Hero full-time was strange for Kyoka, at first. She was not used to the ‘go, go, go’ attitude, to waking up at the crack of dawn every day and returning home bruised and filthy, to barely seeing Momo for days at a time. She didn’t like it but then, she had a duty to fulfill.
Izuku and Melissa and Mei made her more costumes and repaired her gear and Kyoka kept going. She refused to stop until the job was done.
After six months, when the new government took power formally and began to make changes, Kyoka was finally able to announce that she was going to go back to part-time Hero work. There was an uproar at this, as the pundits and talk shows went on about how society would go back to shit if the Symbol of Hope wasn’t a constant presence.
Kyoka made her speech - Momo was nice enough to help her write it - about how the time for Hero society to stand on the shoulders of one person was long past. How she would be there, with One for All, watching over them still. But Hero society would be safe under the watch of her friends, too, and together they would make a better world.
Her friends made good on that promise as the new government began to clean up the mess. New infrastructure was built, new buildings were raised, and old foes - like the MLA and corrupt super corporations like NAMM - were vanquished. The American government wailed and gnashed its teeth at the new Japanese government, threatening political intervention on behalf of its corporations. Kyoka, in her speech, dared them to try it.
They weren’t keen to take her up on her offer, with the video of her destroying the Landmark Tower viral on the internet.
The press was relentless, though.
Kyoka had liked living in an apartment with Momo. It was very normal and Kyoka had always hoped to remain someone normal. Not the Symbol of Hope or the Ninth Bearer of One for All but just another Hero who did her job and went home to a normal, simple apartment. But then All for One decided to ruin it for her, so she and Momo had to buy a house.
Buying a house in a gated community screamed ‘selling out’ to Kyoka. She kind of hated it. But the alternative was going out into the hallway of her apartment building and finding poorly-disguised photographers trying to take pictures of her when she just wanted to get her damn mail. They already followed her and Momo everywhere else and it was intolerable.
They were lucky she wasn’t a villain. Sometimes she considered taking Himiko’s advice and stabbing them.
Eight months after the death of All for One, Kyoka and Momo spent their time unpacking their things. Their friends had been nice enough to help them move but now they had the somewhat daunting task of putting things away, putting up pictures on new walls, and rearranging furniture. They’d only been in the house for two days and Kyoka was already exhausted.
“Oi, ladies. I was fuckin’ summoned!” Kyoka turned at the voice and snorted when she found Katsuki standing at the open door. He gave a silly little wave, his face twisted in a scowl, and Kyoka smirked at him. Wearing a Red Riot t-shirt and black jeans, he looked pretty decent today and she noticed he’d gotten his ear pierced and he had a distinctive red earring in.
“Nice, Blasty. New accessory suits ya,” she replied sardonically. He just scoffed but she saw the ghost of a smile there. Then he stepped in, popped his shoes off, and walked towards the pile of boxes. Filing in after him came Eijiro, Izuku, and Ochako, so Kyoka jumped up to give all four of them hugs in turn.
Eijiro matched his fiancé, wearing Ground Zero merchandise and sporting a newly-pierced ear with an orange earring in it. Kyoka distantly wondered if his quirk would fuck up his piercing but decided she didn’t want to know the answer to that. Besides, Izuku probably would ask that question.
Ochako had that damn limited-edition All Might hoodie on, like it was the last piece of clothing she owned. Izuku, accordingly, wore a black and pink Uravity sweater and they were just the cutest thing together. All four of them were perfect, Kyoka decided as she directed them to which boxes were what and where she wanted them.
“Y’all are too cute,” Kyoka declared as they began. Katsuki sputtered and Izuku turned pink. Meanwhile, both Ochako and Eijiro answered her in unison.
“We know,” they declared, and they began to cackle as they gave each other a high-five. Kyoka just rolled her eyes… but she really did love her friends.
They spent that afternoon chatting and unpacking and Kyoka made some food along with Ochako and Katsuki, now the master cooks of Class A. It was good food and Momo made it home just in time to join them. They had to sit around on the floor and eat on paper plates but Kyoka decided that was fitting, in a way. It was just like when they’d moved out of the dorms and Kyoka…
Kyoka felt like her world was bending back into place, the best it could.
She felt like she was home.
It was nine months after the death of All for One that Kyoka and Momo finally had their wedding ceremony.
And what a ceremony it was. It wasn’t large but everyone that Kyoka wanted to be there came and that was what mattered to her. Momo was the planner for the wedding, naturally, assisted by Itsuka, and things went quite well, accordingly.
Itsuka, Setsuna, Mina, Shouto, and Ochako were Momo’s bridesmaid party. Izuku, Katsuki, Melissa, Toru, and Eijiro were Kyoka’s. All of them wore matching tuxedos - Momo’s wore royal red ties and flowers and Kyoka’s wore dark purple ties and flowers - and they got to take silly pictures together wearing sunglasses and pretending to be spies with finger guns, once the formal pictures were taken.
Kyoka and Momo’s picture, back-to-back with finger guns raised and stupid sideways grins on their face, became Kyoka’s new phone background after the fact.
The rest of Class A and B were there and little Eri got to be the ringbearer. Toshinori agreed to officiate and Kyoka’s dad sobbed like a dork when he walked her down the aisle. It was perfect and beautiful and they even managed to keep the gawkers and attempted picture-takers out of the ceremony, assisted by Hawks and his feathers.
He gave Kyoka a little wave as they were mingling during the reception. Fuyumi was with him, wearing a striking white dress and holding his arm, and she gave a little wave and a smile, too. Kyoka waved back with an earphone jack, glad to see that they were doing well… even if Hawks was still a bird-brained dork.
Hilariously enough, Tsuyu caught the bouquet that Momo threw and Himiko was red in the face for an hour as Kyoka chatted with Tsuyu about her now clearly impending marriage. But they smiled together the whole time and Kyoka was proud of them.
Himiko hadn’t had an easy life or path to get where she was and it made Kyoka happy to see that Himiko had made it, too.
Just because something wasn’t meant to be, doesn’t make it not worthwhile.
“Hey, Kyoka!” Kyoka turned and found Izuku, a big smile plastered on his freckled face and a cup of punch in his hand. “You and Momo did so well today, I told you that you’d be able to memorize your lines!” He sort of whispered that last part and Kyoka mock-scowled at him.
“Shush, don’t say that part out loud,” Kyoka whispered back, and he chuckled at her. “How is the party? You aren’t nervous or anything, are ya?”
“I’m having fun,” he said after shaking his head, still smiling, and Kyoka felt a welling pride in her. He always used to dislike parties, always hiding in the corner. But now he looked like really was on top of the world and she had a good idea as to why that was.
Kyoka opened her mouth, then closed it again.
Izuku knew about One for All now. Everyone did, of course, but it was different that he knew. She’d never had the courage to tell him about… about the rest of it. About what was meant to be and what would never be. Part of her so desperately wanted to tell him but part of her remembered what Nana had said.
Would that make him happy? Looking at him now, she doubted that very much. He had a happy life now, One for All or not. He mattered and he was important, regardless of having power or being a Hero or not. And, in his own way, he still was a Hero to her, even without a quirk or a costume.
Kyoka couldn’t help the nagging, needling guilt in the back of her mind, though, as Izuku gave her a confused expression of curiosity. She wondered if he had a right to know, regardless. But she wanted him to be happy.
“Nothing, it’s nothing. Hey, let’s go find 'Chako, I wanted to ask her something,” Kyoka said, and Izuku nodded and led her away.
The rest of Kyoka and Momo’s wedding was delightful and, when they eventually returned home from their honeymoon, they were greeted as legends on talk shows. Kyoka never liked getting interviewed but Momo had insisted.
Kyoka managed to only trip over her words a few times, which was an achievement as far as she cared.
Kyoka is dreaming again.
She looks around and finds herself standing at the school festival again but her real memory of it now. Her friends are there, frozen in celebration in the dream, and Kyoka smiles at the sight. This was such a wonderful time - the first time she’d been brave enough to perform for a meaningful audience - and it fills Kyoka with pride to see again.
She was terrified at the time, though. It’s funny how things change.
The memory begins moving and Kyoka’s ghostly form is teleported. One moment, she is standing among the crowd; the next, she is on the stage, looking at herself singing. The dream is silent but little Kyoka is so enthusiastic as the music plays, and Kyoka’s adult self smiles wistfully.
But her attention is directed then to little Momo and Kyoka’s breath hitches as she sees little Momo watching little Kyoka. Her expression is a gradient, awe and wonder and love and beauty, with a subtle glint in her eyes and a big smile on her face. Kyoka looks at little Momo and sees that she loves little Kyoka already, with all of her being, and it takes Kyoka’s breath away entirely.
“You’re doing just fine, Kyoka. I won’t talk to you again for a long time, I think… but I still believe in you.”
Kyoka turns and sees Nana, standing on the stage as her cape billows in a silent, non-existent wind. Nana smiles at her and gives a little wave with her yellow-gloved hand, so Kyoka grins. She grins and she cries and Nana cries, too, but they are tears of joy because Kyoka has never felt more loved in her entire life than she feels right now.
And like that, Kyoka wakes up. She wakes up… and she feels Nana’s smile still, as she goes to work on new music.
Kyoka threw herself into her music as the one year anniversary of the defeat of All for One came up.
Her hope had always been to succeed in the music world on the basis of her music being actually good. She never really wanted to succeed because she was a popular Hero. But now she had been named the number one Hero and she was mad as hell about it. Her music was insanely popular and she always had that needling self-consciousness of: was it because of her work as a Hero or because her music was actually good?
But this was something new. She tried her hand at making political punk rock music, resolving to try and influence the public. Using her position as a Hero to mess with things was something she didn’t really like. She didn’t want to stand above people as a pro Hero or use the power and prestige that came with that to make her voice the loudest.
But she thought making music was fair. It was art and the words came from her soul. So she wrote music and thought about the little boy who couldn’t afford to go to art school, of Izuku, of Himiko, and about everyone else who had been abandoned and left behind in their Hero society.
The government pitched a fit, with political reactionaries accusing her of trying to buy influence using her Hero name. But the album sold well digitally and Kyoka felt more than a little pride when she was invited onto talk shows and, for once, they wanted to talk about music and not One for All.
New elections were scheduled soon and Kyoka officially endorsed the coalition of reformist parties that opposed the MLA and quirk supremacy. It was kind of weird to be endorsing a political party but she came to that decision after a lot of chatting with Momo. She didn’t actively campaign for them or appear in commercials but she made her stance clear when asked.
She wanted to see change. She wanted to see things get better. And change, she would say if asked, didn’t come from people in costumes punching villains in the street; it came from society itself working to do better.
Kyoka felt pride from Nana but she wondered if this was what Nana actually intended for her to do. Then again, maybe ‘intended’ didn’t matter much.
Kyoka had a fate - or, at least, she assumed so - but she didn’t worry much about that. She never asked Sir Nighteye again to look at her future and he never offered. Kyoka decided that the future would proceed however it was written and all she could hope to do was keep moving forward.
She would be more than a Symbol. She would be a leader, just like Momo always was.
It was a bit over a year and a half over the death of All for One that Kyoka found herself standing at the mall with a rather confused-looking Izuku.
“I swear, the internet said this store was right over… there!” He said, and he abruptly picked up his pace. He was a bit taller than her, so Kyoka dropped her hands from the top of her head, where they’d be lounging, to hurry and catch up.
“Slow down, Greenie, jeez. I’m short over here, cut me some slack,” Kyoka said, and Izuku slowed down just a bit to throw a sheepish smile back at her. Kyoka looked up from him and snorted when she saw the store he’d brought her to.
It was a ring shop.
“Y’know, if you had asked, I could’ve recommended you a ring shop,” Kyoka pointed out. Izuku just shrugged as he fell into step next to her.
“Eijiro recommended it to me!” Izuku chirped, and Kyoka giggled. Eijiro’s ring for Katsuki was, frankly, gaudy as all hell. It suited them but Kyoka didn’t think that was really Izuku and Ochako’s style.
“Well, I guess it’s good you brought me here to supervise, isn’t it?” Kyoka said, and Izuku quickly and unironically nodded like a bobblehead. God, he was hopeless; Ochako was in for it now.
He pushed open the door to the store and Kyoka was greeted with display after display of glittering jewelry. Izuku was lucky she wasn’t like Mina and Toru; those two would’ve immediately been lost for hours in all the pretty possibilities before them.
Speaking of which, Kyoka made a mental note to have Momo check her dress size one more time. Toru and Mashirao’s wedding was in a few weeks. About a month after that, Katsuki and Eijiro’s wedding would follow. Kyoka was going to be in both weddings as a bridesmaid and she had a different dress for each one. It was a bit of a nightmare and, looking at Izuku, Kyoka realized that was another wedding she would have to go to and maybe, if she got lucky, be in.
But then, that wasn’t the worst thing in the world. At least there would be cake.
“This one is pretty,” Kyoka pointed out. It was a ring made of black metal with little pink gemstones in it. Izuku grabbed his chin as he looked at it, leaning over the display, and Kyoka smiled at him.
He wore a Uravity t-shirt today and Kyoka kind of wondered if he had bought more of her merchandise now that he could get away with it or if he already had it and was just hiding it away. She didn’t plan to tease him about it but the thought was sufficient to make her smirk to herself.
She was glad to see that the pair of them were so happy and she knew, too, because Mina never stopped pestering Ochako about it at gatherings.
Gatherings that Ochako now made it to regularly. She had started seeing a therapist and was feeling markedly better than she used to. It was wonderful to see and Kyoka’s smile softened as she watched Izuku without really seeing him.
“--Kyoka? Kyoka! Are you okay?”
“Huh? Yeah, yeah, sorry, I was spacing out there…” Kyoka said with a sheepish shrug. Izuku nodded, unperturbed; he was a person who spaced out plenty, too, so he was never offended when others did.
They began to walk down the displays, looking at other options. None of them were really speaking to Izuku, though, and Kyoka was slowly getting more annoyed. Not at him but more so at the store; she really wanted him to get this right.
After about twenty minutes, Kyoka stopped dead in front of one of the displays as she felt a metaphysical pull like Nana herself had grabbed her arm. She almost fell over from the feeling and Izuku turned with a hand out in case she needed help.
“You okay?” He asked again, concern deep in his voice. Kyoka blinked slowly, recovering, then turned and looked at the display she stopped next to.
There, glittering in the display lights, was a black ring shaped like an infinity symbol, with pink and white gemstones up and down it. Kyoka felt a purity of focus wash over her, like this was one of the most right moments she had experienced in her entire life, as she looked at the ring. Then she pointed it at it with one index finger and turned her gaze back to Izuku with absolute determination.
“This one. Buy this one,” she said flatly. Izuku leaned over and inspected it, his hand on his chin, and she watched his face slowly light up as he understood its appeal.
“I like it! Thank you, Kyoka, good find!” He chirped, and she nodded, then turned away to hide her smirk. She would never be able to tell him how not responsible she was for that one but, in a way, she supposed that didn’t matter.
For a fleeting moment, she was granted a vision of a phantom memory: Izuku, wearing a UA PE uniform, watching in awe as Ochako sent a little ball into the stratosphere, never to be seen again. A memory that happened but it meant so much more to Kyoka to see him there, too, like he should have been.
She watched Izuku buy the ring, then they proceeded to walk aimlessly around the mall for another hour, window shopping and chatting. But Kyoka’s mind was faraway in outer space and she turned to Izuku with a blank expression when they reached the exit to the mall, prepared to go their separate ways.
“Izuku?” She asked, and he turned to her and nodded for her to continue. “Do you… feel like you’re home?”
A strange look crossed his face, something like confusion, then horror, then awe, then recognition… then he smiled kindly at her.
“Yeah. Yeah I do.”
She smiled back because that was what she wanted to hear.