Anchor | Deku x Lady Nagant

"You spoke of a world full of purpose, as I choked down every single lie. Until I sunk all the way to the bottom with a heavy heart like an anchor deep inside."

Those words might as well have been her epitaph, carved into the marrow of her life long before she dared to speak them aloud. To the public, she had once been the perfect sharpshooter: graceful, poised, a figure who could bring villains to heel with a single silent shot from impossible distances. She smiled for the cameras, waved at children, and embodied the illusion that heroes kept the world safe.

But beneath the velvet veneer, she lived a life defined by orders. Every target assigned to her was framed as necessary-an unstable element, a threat to stability, someone who had to disappear before they could unravel the story of peace. She wanted to believe. She forced herself to believe. Each bullet fired was rationalized as one step closer to the dream of a just society.

And each time, the hollow inside her widened. Or it did, until she met him.