Dreams stretched long in Eri's sleep.
Too long.
Hours felt like lifetimes.
Because in this dream… she wasn't just seeing time anymore.
She was walking through it.
First, a hallway.
Old wood. Flickering lanterns. The scent of ink and sorrow.
Every door she passed opened by itself.
Each one showed… a version of her.
A version that never escaped.
Still in the cage.
Still wearing the inhibitor.
Eyes blank. Teeth missing. Bones too small from lack of food.
Eri stopped.
Watched that version of herself press her forehead to cold steel.
Whisper one word.
"Help."
She stepped forward to reach through—
But the hallway kept pulling her.
Another door opened.
This one showed her standing over Overhaul's broken body.
Covered in blood.
Older. Cold. Ruthless.
She'd rewound him to nothing.
Made sure he never breathed again.
And in this future?
She was the villain.
The people cheered when heroes died.
Because Eri, the Time Warden, kept the city "clean."
She stepped away quickly. Heart racing.
More doors opened.
One showed her attending U.A. as a first-year.
Smiling. Blushing. Holding hands with someone.
Was that… Shinso?
Another door—she was blind.
Quirk gone.
But free.
Peaceful.
Reading Braille books in a garden that never wilted.
So many selves.
So many choices.
Too many.
The hallway blurred.
And then…
Stopped.
The last door was already open.
Inside—
A child.
No horn. No quirk.
Just a girl playing in a backyard, laughter in the wind.
Parents alive. A dog barking. A birthday cake waiting on the table.
The version of her who never suffered.
Eri stepped closer.
Tears welled.
"I wish you were real," she whispered.
The girl looked up from her toy blocks.
She smiled.
"I am real," she said. "Just not yours."
That shattered something.
Not sadness.
Acceptance.
Eri turned.
And walked away.
The hallway collapsed behind her.
Because she'd finally stopped running from who she was.
Morning at U.A.
The sky had never looked so clear.
Birds. Distant traffic. Students moving like survivors after a war.
No one brought up the Spiral.
No one needed to.
But everyone felt… changed.
Mina dyed her hair white.
Jirou picked up a violin again.
Iida stopped checking his watch every ten minutes.
Todoroki smiled without freezing over.
Midoriya stood at the gate, waiting.
Eri walked out in uniform.
No horn. No glow. Just a girl.
He blinked.
"You're enrolling?"
She nodded. "Aizawa made a deal with the board."
"Is it safe?"
"I don't know," she said. "But I want to learn how to be normal. Even if I'm not."
He grinned.
"You're more normal than half the people here."
She laughed.
First real laugh in weeks.
Maybe months.
In the crowd, Bakugo watched silently.
Then walked off.
Didn't say a word.
Later that night.
In the sky above Musutafu…
A flicker.
A ripple.
Like something trying to peek in.
One second only.
Then it was gone.
But somewhere in the forest…
The Red Lady smiled.
And whispered into the roots of the earth:
"You can't keep all the doors closed forever, little Eri."
"Some echoes… don't fade."
To be continued.