Blood accumulated and dried under y/n's torn up nails. She had her back pressed against the concrete wall. Behind her was a small trail of blood left from her clawing at the wall.

Her tears had dried up long before she was ready to stop crying. Y/n felt an impending migraine coming along. Hours passed, and y/n stayed still with her palms pressed tightly against her temples, trying to use pressure to attack the growing pain. Every so often, she'd look towards the end of the bridge with hopeful eyes. Any minute now, Tomura is going to come for me.

She was given specific directions to stay and wait for Tomura to get her; for once, y/n had no intention to do otherwise. She had no idea what the world beyond the bridge was like. As much as she was growing to hate the sight of the little concrete bridge over the running stream, it was still safer than traversing into an unknown world.

Y/n stayed motionless, listening to the sound of the occasional car driving by overhead. She hugged her knees to her chest, and rested her head down, out of fear of being spotted as they drove by.

The sun was beginning to set, and the air around her became colder. She pulled on the hoodie's strings in a futile attempt to cocoon herself. Y/n trembled as she closed her eyes, trying to get some rest.

Although she was exhausted, y/n couldn't get herself to sleep. Every sound she heard seemed amplified, everything from a bush rustling off into the distance to the running water in front of her. It was so loud, and her nerves were on edge.

Regardless of all the sounds, the exhaustion eventually won. Y/n managed to get a few hours of sleep, waking up occasionally to scan her surroundings. However, she was not prepared for what the next day had for her. 

The first day was nothing short of mental torture. She woke up exactly how she had fallen asleep, curled up in a ball under the concrete bridge. Part of her hoped she'd wake up at home, safe in bed. The feeling of disappointment was soon replaced with fear. Her mind attacked her as she thought about what could have happened at Tartarus. Y/n spent the day thinking about every possibility. 

Y/n started with the facts. However, the more y/n thought about it, the line between reality and speculation seemed to blur. She knew she had been removed from the fight right before the heroes arrived. It was the last thing she remembered. Y/n also knew Compress used his quirk on her. She was convinced that those two details were fact.

She wondered if Compress kept her safe while The League fought against the heroes. Perhaps things went so awful that The League decided to flee from Tartarus. She began to doubt herself. Y/n began to consider that she might have been in the fight the whole time and suffered some sort of head injury, causing her to forget. She chewed on her cheek, feeling frustrated and unsure of what to believe.

By the time the first day of waiting came to an end, y/n was sure whatever went down at Tartarus had to be over. Y/n wondered how The League faired without her. Did they kill any heroes? Or did any heroes kill them? The thought made y/n feel sick.

By day two, y/n had pulled off her locket. Trying to keep her mind off her current situation, she observed the little heart. The engraved initial on the front looked dirty. She carefully cleaned out the letter and around the f/c embellishment as best she could. Taking one last look at it, y/n noticed all the fingerprints on the silver. She tried to clean it off on her sweater, only to smudge the prints and make the silver appear cloudy. Y/n told herself, once Tomura got her, she'd find herself proper polishing supplies and get her little locket shining again. Y/n assumed the thought would make her feel happy. However, it just made her worry grow.

Y/n was tired of the sounds she's been hearing. At this point, there was nothing about nature that seemed to calm to her. She held the little silver heart in her fingers, flinging the tiny door open and closed, just to hear the small heart-shaped door's little click. She told herself that the Tartarus invasion was for sure over by now. Any day now, she expected Tomura and Kurogiri to come to get her. 

Y/n's leg still hurt, but the pain wasn't as bad lately. After her confrontation with the vigilante, she knew a broken limb when she felt one. She guessed that she sprained it at Tartarus, although y/n couldn't recall a specific moment where she may have hurt her leg. Adrenaline and stress had undoubtedly kept her from feeling the pain.

Her fingertips felt numb. She could barely feel the cold metal locket in her fingers. Y/n kept her attention on the quiet click as she open and closed the door.

Three days in and y/n was still waiting in the same position. She had grown to sleep hunched forward with her head on her knees. The nights were cold. Y/n learned keeping her head down gave her face extra protection from the cool night breeze.

Even during the day, y/n began to keep her head down. Every car that drove over the bridge made y/n feel paranoid. She was sure that one of those cars could be the police, searching for her. 

Y/n tried to think of the bright side, the feeling in her fingertips had returned. The night before, she began to worry that frostbite or infection was starting to take her fingers from her. Resting her head on her knees, y/n pressed the little button in her locket in a rhythmic pace. She wasn't sure what could have happened to her Nomu, but she hoped the monster will pick up on her signal.

Y/n pressed down on the button. She paused, refusing to lift her thumb from the small device as she felt something sharp against her skin. Y/n finally pulled herself away from the tracker, and the air was sucked from her lungs.

She felt like she couldn't breathe as the device fell apart in front of her. Getting on her hands and knees, y/n began collecting the small metallic pieces. She dug her nails into the dirt. Desperately, y/n began searching the grass. Her vision blurred, and she started hyperventilating as her fingers ran along the grass.

Y/n held the little pieces of metal in the palm of her hand. With a trembling finger, she attempted to piece together the device. After trying to fix the button for what felt like hours, y/n stopped. She held the scraps in her tightly balled hand, refusing to let a piece slip from her grasp.

Y/n stayed quiet. The cold air made her hands hurt. The sharp metal pieces in her palm made the pain worse. Weak and exhausted, y/n closed her heavy eyes to rest for a little bit. 

When she opened her eyes, y/n found her hands open. Once again, y/n made an attempt to collect the metal shards. Y/n counted the pieces, she paused and recounted them. She was missing parts of the device.

Y/n searched the grass for what felt like days before giving up. She was now missing pieces, and there was no way she would be able to fix the button. Teary eyed y/n allowed the remaining scraps to fall out of her hand. She rested her head on her arms as she reminded herself that Tomura and Kurogiri were coming for her soon enough.

For the first time in days, y/n had something on her mind other than Tomura. Her stomach had begun to turn, and her mouth was dry. Y/n had been placed right in front of running water. Feeling thirsty while staring at a stream was almost like torture. Y/n debated in her mind if she had the tools to safely drink the water. After hours of thought, y/n decided she didn't.

She caved in on day four. Y/n needed water, and it was right in front of her. Cupping her hands together, y/n began drinking from the stream.

The cold water trickled down her hands and arms, soaking into her sleeves. It wasn't until the third handful did y/n began to feel satisfied. She continued forcing water down her throat until the hunger subsided.

It was no more than a few hours after consuming the water that y/n began to feel sick. She began resting during the day, trying to ease the dizzying feeling. 

Y/n could barely find the energy to move. Most of her days were spent huddled in a ball, only getting up to drink more water in place for food. Each time she woke up, y/n found her hope slipping away.

Y/n took weak steps forward. Holding onto the cement wall for support, she looked around. This was the first time she's seen the world beyond the bridge. The sun burned her eyes as she watched a car drive over the bridge and fade off into the distance. Y/n knew that was the direction she needed to go.

Y/n approached the road and began walking alongside it. In the distance, y/n could still see the bridge, and she found herself tired and nauseous. She sat down in the grass, far away from both the road and oncoming cars. Y/n caught her breath and waited for the wave of dizziness to pass. Once again, y/n headed out.

She grew frustrated as she continued walking. Y/n had taken three steps forward before she began to feel sick again. Her strong desire to find somewhere safe motivated y/n to suffer through overwhelming nausea and keep moving forward. Bridge still visible in the distance, y/n took another break.

Y/n knew the sickness was mostly due to the river water she had been consuming for days. Also, because she felt like the hoodie was overheating her under the sun. For a moment, y/n considered removing it, she was wearing a short-sleeved shirt underneath. A car drove by, she watched it vanish on the horizon.

No, y/n decided. Both the taser gun and knife stuck out in their holsters. While she knew she could hide them with her mask, y/n felt safer keeping her weapons close. Y/n pulled at her collar, lightly giving the thick fabric a tug in a futile effort to feel the breeze under the hoodie.

Her journey nothing short of walking and stopping as soon as she felt sick while anxiously watching the cars drive by. It took hours before the bridge was no longer visible. A detail that frustrated her much.

As the sun began to set, y/n pulled her hood up over her head, expecting the impending cold. The frigid night breeze made y/n feel a bit better about the walk, as the fresh air made her nausea subside a bit. Guided by the gravel road under her feet with only the moonlight to light her way in the darkness, y/n kept moving forward.

As she took yet another break wondered what she'd do first as soon as she found civilization. Food was the first thing on her mind. The next was to get some clues about Tartarus. Those two thoughts alone motivated y/n to stand up and force herself to keep walking.

Her journey took days. Although she was cautious around cars, her impatience and exhaustion clouded her judgment. She made several attempts to hitchhike whenever she saw an opportunity. However, people seemed wary of picking up a strange girl walking all by herself in the middle of nowhere. She looked down at her hoodie and pants. Her clothes were dirty, and her hair felt greasy. Y/n hasn't looked at herself since Tartarus. Still, she was sure all the sleepiness nights, vomiting, and starvation didn't help her appearance. Looking at it that way, y/n admitted to herself that she wouldn't jump at giving herself a ride either. 

Off in the distance, y/n finally saw what looked like roofs scattered along a dirt road. Catching her second wind, y/n beelined for the small collection of buildings.

Y/n caught sight of a gas station. She and the cashier made eye contact as she walked in. Y/n wandered around the small convenience store aimlessly as she picked out random prepackaged sweets. Holding the food in her arms as if she was carrying a load of precious gems, y/n found herself in front of a newspaper stand. She reached out and opened the newspaper, skimming over the date and searching for any information about Tartarus. Y/n unwrapped one of the treats with her teeth as she read.

"Hey, hey," a voice called out from behind the counter. "You gotta pay for all that."

Y/n looked at him from behind the newspaper. She motioned to the stuff in her arms and gave him a frown. "I just did. What, do people have to pay twice here or something?"

The man growled as he pointed towards the door. "Then you can leave. We don't take to loitering here." Y/n held the goods close to her as she walked out of the little store. Off to the side, y/n spotted a wooden table. 

She spread the newspaper along the table and sat down. The prepackaged brownie in her hand tasted bland, and the chocolate tasted off. Y/n didn't notice until she had finished eating it. She also didn't realize that she had already eaten several of the stolen snacks.

Y/n tapped on the date printed on the top corner and thought about it. It's been over a week. Y/n began to feel uneasy as she skimmed through the paper, finding no information on Tartarus. "Are they not talking about it?" Y/n mumbled to herself.

She recalled Tomura's Nomu Project. The news had talked about it for months. She thought it was strange seeing the Tartarus invasion go unspoken of. In fact, it was unsettling.

Y/n wondered if she indeed was the only one to escape, and the media was acting like nothing happened. Y/n chewed on her lip and flipped through the pages, desperately praying that she had missed an article. She stopped and tried to think rationally. "No, villains had to escape," she muttered under her breath. "If they caught The League, the news would be talking about it."

Her heart stopped pounding, and her head felt like it was cleared. "Yeah," she said in a much more uplifted tone. "They're just not talking about it, so they don't alert the country. That's it. It has to be it. Please tell me I'm right." Y/n could feel tears welling up in her eyes as she tried to convince herself that her theory was correct.

She held her head in her hands as she tried to think of her next move. Next, she needed a place to stay. Y/n desperately wanted to go home. It was what she wanted more than anything. A bad feeling was clawing at the back of her mind. Is it safe? Y/n didn't know for sure. She was still too weak to defend herself. If her hone was discovered to be The League's hideout, undoubtedly it was swarmed with police officers and heroes trying to gather information.

She let her head slip from her hands. A loud thud sounded as her forehead came in contact with the wooden table. "Where can I go?" y/n asked herself.

She lifted her head, her vision slightly blocked by the hair in front of her eyes. "There is one place."

Y/n stood before the heavy wooden door. She reached out for the doorknob and turned, and the door stayed in its place. She had a feeling it was going to be locked.

She pulled out her lockpicking kit and fumbled with the lock. Y/n heard a click. Again, she tried opening the door, and it swung open on its own like the room was inviting her inside.

Y/n looked around the empty room and sat down in the middle of the floor, "Giran's desk used to be here," she whispered. Her eyes traveled along the floor and stopped near the back of the room. "I had my own desk over there." She twisted herself around to look behind her. "The couch was over there."

The door on the other side of the room caught her eye. She paused and stared at it. "There was a bedroom there. I wonder if he left anything I could use."

Y/n opened the back door and looked inside. The room that was once Giran's bedroom seemed utterly empty. "I didn't think so," she mumbled; "he's good at covering his tracks."

Y/n opened the closet and looked inside. Nothing. She made her way back to the main room and stared out the window. "At least I have somewhere warm to sleep tonight."

She sat down on the floor and leaned her back against the wall. Y/n was tired. She felt her eyelids grow heavy as a wave of comfort came over her. The wooden floor wasn't comfortable in any sense, but she felt safe in the office. That was enough to lull her to sleep.

Y/n woke up with a stiff neck. She looked towards the window. The sun had set, and the office was being lit up by the moonlight peering from outside the window. She closed her eyes again, almost ready to sleep more until the sun came back up. Y/n sat in the darkened room. She tried to get up, but couldn't muster the strength to stand.

She scattered the remaining prepackaged foods along the floor in front of her and ate in silence. What am I going to do now? Where do I go? echoed in y/n's mind as she ate.

She didn't know if anyone else made it out of Tartarus. Y/n wondered if it was better to try finding Giran instead. He didn't leave her any hints as to where his new office was, but she was sure she could probably find him if she asked around.

Another jolt of stress and a tinge of guilt sunk in, she knew she should be looking for The League, but y/n didn't know where to start. She tried to convince herself that she was making the right call, Giran was easier. He had plenty of connections, and he was fairly respected in his field, surely someone must know where he is, even if he is trying to lay low.

Feeling sick, y/n rested her head against the wall behind her. She looked up at the ceiling and counted each individual panel to temporarily take her mind off her present situation. Y/n tilted her head, one square appeared to be lifted.

She forced herself to stand up. Even though her bones were screaming at her to stop moving. She studied the panel above. "I can't reach that," she said. Giran had wiped the room clean. She wondered if he had been keeping things up there previously.

Y/n wasn't sure why exactly, but she felt like she needed to fix the panel. It looked out of place, not aligned with all the others. 

She left the office and retrieved a ladder from the maintenance closet. Her legs trembled as she climbed up. Y/n lightly pushed the panel up. A large white object dropped onto the floor. Y/n ignored it as she readjusted the panel and slid it back into its place. 

Y/n looked at the white object. She sat down on one of the ladder's steps as she studied it in her hands. It was clearly an envelope. She noted that it had quite a bit of weight to it. Y/n wondered if Giran had accidentally forgotten something or if he had left her a clue.

Cautiously, she opened the envelope. A folded up white piece of paper caught her attention. She placed the envelope with all of its contents on her lap as she unfolded the letter.

I think I owe you some sort of payment for the past couple of years. Here's the cash Shigaraki paid me to take you off his hands for a while.

Memories came flooding back. Y/n remembered that Tomura had been paying Giran to desensitize her to villains. She placed down the note and pulled out the money. Y/n counted it. There was enough to get by as long as she used Liar to save as much cash as possible. It won't last forever, but this gave her a start.

Y/n chewed on her lip as she felt a steady stream of tears run down her face. Even now, after everything went wrong, her family was still helping her.

She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and took a deep breath. "Now isn't the time," y/n muttered. That's something she could imagine anyone in The League saying if she had someone with her.

"I can go back to the house and take a look around. If it's safe, I'll collect my things. I can't stay there for long, an officer or hero is bound to look there eventually," Y/n looked down at the money in her hands and the note on her lap. "I should look for Giran. I can then use his resources to find The League."

Y/n thought about her plan, it seemed thought out. She got up and walked towards the front door. Y/n looked behind her, at the empty office, before closing the door.

"Keep the change," y/n said. She handed the smallest bill in her stack to the man sitting in the front driver's seat. He smiled at y/n before she closed the door and watched the taxi drive away into the distance. Y/n felt guilty, her ride from the office to the house was practically free. She stopped herself and mentally noted that she needed to save her money.

Y/n stood in front of the house before her. Little things about the house she hadn't noticed before seemed to stick out. The outside was painted light blue, and it had a white trim that lined the windows. Flowers were growing along the front wall.

She stepped inside the room and took a deep breath. The house smelled like home, it was comforting. Y/n sat down on the couch. Before she had realized what happened, y/n fell asleep.

Y/n could have been sleeping on that couch for a week straight, and she'd believe it. She had been running on empty for days, and this was the first bit of genuine happiness she's felt in a long time.

Y/n took a warm shower after she woke up. Her first one in over a week. Y/n felt the water against her skin as she breathed in the steam that was now filling the room.

She wanted to cook a large meal and gorge herself, but y/n knew she didn't have the time. She needed to collect her things, eat, and start moving. Y/n reminded herself that her choices and decisions were much more critical now. Her survival wasn't important just for her.

She navigated the darkened hallway until she made her way to the bedroom. She flipped the switch, and light filled the room. Y/n pulled out her suitcase from under her bed. 

Y/n sat down on the floor with her suitcase in front of her. Displayed all along the room, y/n had things she had collected from her two years with The League. Some of the objects carried warm, happy memories while others made y/n's heart hurt whenever she looked at them.

She told herself that she couldn't take all of them. She had to save space for supplies. Y/n looked at everything, studying their value to her. Y/n picked up the two stuffed animals Tomura had gotten her. Her eyes drifted to the skull that sat in between them. "Sorry."

On her desk, she had some papers. Y/n looked through the papers. They were forms that mentioned prior League members y/n had never met. She wanted to show them to Tomura, but he didn't seem to care, so y/n allowed the files to sit in the corner and collect dust.

The files were small. Although she didn't have any attachment to the people mentioned, y/n decided that was something else she could keep. Y/n turned to the journal, and she thought about what to do. Part of her wanted to leave it. Just in case, Tomura finds it. On the other hand, y/n wanted to keep it to log her journey. She tucked the journal in her pocket, deciding that she should keep it with her.

As y/n promised herself, after packing her things, she made herself something to eat. Y/n found herself feeling sick as she smelled the meal's fragrance. It smelled delicious, however, her sense of smell was a bit sensitive at the moment. She hoped that would go away soon.

Y/n ate in silence. She missed having Nobuo to feed or Tomura to eat with her. "I can't wait till I'm not alone anymore," y/n mumbled under her breath. She poked at the leftovers before forcing it down her throat, refusing to let a single bite go to waste after starving herself for days.

Y/n covered her mouth and bent over, nearly gagging. She sat up and took a deep breath. Although she said she was going to leave after eating, y/n couldn't. She needed to rest.

She laid under the covers and cuddled Tomura's pillow. She picked up his scent still faintly lingering on it. Y/n silently cried to herself as she felt comforted. "How am I going to make this work?" y/n lamented. Her mind was racing. She had so much to think about. Y/n eventually fell asleep in a puddle of tears soaking into the pillow.

Sunlight shining through the bedroom window onto her face woke her up. She sat up and looked around the room one last time. Her eyes glossed over the various things she had collected over the years. She took a moment to remember everything. From the fear and sadness that consumed her days to the confusion and anxiety peppered along the way to the feeling of belonging and love. Y/n wanted to stop for a moment, take a breath, and embrace all of it before leaving it all behind her.

"I have to go," y/n said; "I can't stay here, it's not safe."

Y/n closed the door of the little ranch styled house for the last time. She felt a breeze brush up against her skin, welcoming her to the outside world. Y/n only had a plan and a few of her belongings. However, most of all, she also had her freedom, something that was once stripped away from her against her will. She could go anywhere she wanted as long as it wasn't the house she grew to call home. 

Without looking back at the house, y/n took her first steps towards the road. Underneath the fear and anxiety, y/n had hope. She knew it was time to hold her future into her own hands, and it starts with moving forward.

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Final Word Count : 224,947 words