A Different Way

Epilogue

Disclaimer I do not own My Hero Academia

I Only own the Original Characters and Plot

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*Narrator POV*

*10 years later*

A leopard man in a suit was reading over his lines until the camera people began to motion for him to get ready making him stuff his notes in his coat as he prepared himself watching the producer count down with their fingers until signaling it was time. The man smiled towards the camera as he began his morning broadcast.

"Good morning Japan, and welcome back to Beautiful Japan. I'm your host Yu Takada. Today is a special broadcast as you all know. Not only is it Hero Day, the day we recognize the heroes who fought during the Villain War 10 years ago, but it's also the day we get to have an exclusive interview with the hero who ended the war after he defeated both of the strongest villains and handled any villain he came across. Izuku Midoriya!" Fake crowd cheers filled the studio as the man stood up in respect as the door opened letting the guest in. Yu felt his heart clench seeing the state of the hero.

Izuku shuffled in wearing a two-piece green suit but what got the attention of the reporter was Izuku himself. He wore a simple smile but his skin was slightly tan with black cracks creeping from under his collar going up to his chin, looking like charred skin, these same cracks were also across his face at several locations with one directly over one of his eyes. That eye had no light behind it as its pupil held a grey coloring to it. Izuku slowly shuffled to the stage with the help of a cane before slowly steadying himself down onto the chair with the help of Yu.

"It's such an honor to meet you, Midoriya-san. Also an honor to be your first-ever interview. Even though the whole world knows your story due to your wife, classmates, and even your books, you've never come out yourself to do an interview. So, why me?" Izuku glanced up at him and gave a small smile. 

"Because it was time people heard it from me," said Izuku in a soft voice that made Yu's nerves calm down.

"Okay let's begin."

--

"So, is One for All really gone?" "Yes. After I used it to destroy Tenko, it disappeared along with him. I have the embers still, I think that's the only thing still keeping me going. But the passing on is long dead by now, but I think that's for the best. A power like AFO and OFA were anomalies that should have never existed, they didn't belong in this world."

"Do you regret it?" Izuku hummed showing he needed clarification making the reporter shuffle as he searched for the right words. "I mean don't you ever regret destroying your quirk, or I guess wished you found another way, so you could have stayed a hero?" Izuku sat for a long minute thinking before he finally answered.

"I can't lie at first I did. After I was found in the middle of the ocean and put in the best hospitals to try and save me. For so many long days I was trapped in that bed strapped to something, alone with my thoughts. So, it played in my head a lot, what my life would have been if I never got OFA, if I still had it, and what to do with it. Yet, once I looked to what I have now I was able to put it behind me. My children, wife, Eri, mom, All Might, all of them were able to get them over that."

"I guess that leads me to my next set of questions. In your second book, you opened up about what the Safety Commission and the old Hero Association made you do. I guess we can begin with the deal you were forced into after your capture by the police. So, forced into a harem to create stronger children or the potential for stronger children." "Yeah."

"And from what we've seen both in public and the records, you had quite several women who were a part of your deal and interested in you. Yet you have a single wife with no other partners, why?" Izuku sighed as he thought of his answer.

"I had always loved only one, and that's my wife Ochaco. We were together before that deal and ever since it happened it felt like I was cheating on her. Even though she said she was okay with it, I wasn't okay with it. So, once I killed the President making the contract void, I made it clear that they didn't need to stick with me. They didn't listen but that didn't matter I had already made up my mind, and well I'm happily married with most of them moving on."

"Let's get back to the president later, you say Uravity is your only true love. Yet out of your 16 children, only 2 are from your marriage with Uravity, the rest with these women you said you don't love, why?" "I don't love them, but I do care for them. Seeing them heartbroken by my choice and their inability to move on. I gifted them a piece of me, children. All artificially inseminated even my wife since well my body can't perform anymore. Yet I love all my children the same whether they take my last name or not is up to them."

"Speaking of your body. In your same book, you stated the extent of your injuries after your final battle. And it's well pretty graphic." "90% of my body is covered in these black cracks from quirk overuse, which burns to the touch. My respiratory system is so shot that I can't do anything more than a 10-minute shuffle walk before I start coughing up blood. My entire skeletal system was basically turned to dust, to the point the only reason why I'm not attached to a bed is thanks to Hatsume. My left eye is useless and the right has a permanent contact lens in it. However, I deserve these injuries."

"Do you think that because of Kyoto?" Izuku didn't respond instead just looking to the side with a faraway look. The reporter sighed as gained a sympathetic look.

"Midoriya-san, in that same book you went into great detail on what the Safety Commission made you do, including Kyoto. Even after basically sacrificing everything for this country, after you awoke from a 1-year long coma, you immediately requested to be imprisoned for Kyoto before the statute of limitations was up. No one blames you for what happened in Kyoto."

Izuku didn't respond.

"Well let's move on to the next topic. Your current philanthropy and administration duties. A few years back All Might and Nezu left you a substantial amount of money, and you immediately created your own Hero agency, obviously focusing on the administrative duties with your wife being the lead rescue hero in the nation. You've also used that money to help develop troubled neighborhoods, research on the Quirk Singularity, stimulate the small businesses economy, villain rehab, and prevention, and so much more. Your agency also works with several of the Japan Hero schools for internships, quirk development, community service, and even a foreign exchange network. So, my question is why?"

"Japan fell to AFO and Tenko because we relied on All Might too much, and if I had never gotten like this then they would have relied on me too much. We fell because once All Might was gone no-one believed they were strong enough to fill his shoes. They had grown stagnant since they believed as long as All Might was around they didn't need to fear anything, but never thought about what would happen once he was gone. I want to make a Japan that will never fall due to incompetence."

"I see a noble goal. Well, I don't have any more questions besides this. What's next?"

Izuku smiled slightly before looking at the reporter with a little smile.

"Live. I'm going to keep on living."

*End*

A/N

Thank you for reading this story, it took a while to finish but I think this was one of my favorite ones. Hopefully, this ages well but have a good day. My next story is still up in the air at the moment. Maybe Assassin Deku or something else.

I'll release the chapter that talks about what got cut from the story later.