desiderata || todoroki shoto x reader [republished]

1. Hanami

The cherry blossoms mark a time of renewal— the soft farewell to winter's bite and the quiet bloom of spring. Fallen branches crumble, left behind like sorrow outgrown. The cold is gone, and in its place, petals flutter like whispers of a gentler world.

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If death were salvation... would you run?

...Perhaps.

It's hard to live when you don't feel alive.

Because really— what kind of person smiles through their own suffering and calls it living?

A wry smile tugged at her pale lips, as if she were mocking herself.

No... that's not it.

She did not want to die knowing she ran away— that she folded herself into cowardice and called it peace.

And she sure as hell didn't want to keep living like this— a marionette for a society drunk on sacrifice and cruelty, masquerading as virtue.

So why is she here, now, when all she ever did was run?

A dream?

She turned her gaze toward the open window, amused, her eyes drifting over skin that bore no scars, no bruises. Unmarked and untouched.

The tea on the table had gone cold.

This was home— or a cruel facsimile of it— the kind of home where every promise once made had long since turned to ash, swept away by wind that never learned mercy.

No. I should be dead.

Fragments of her final fight clawed at the edges of her memory, jagged and distorted. But strangely... she felt nothing.

Maybe it was numbness. Maybe acceptance. Or truly... peace.

Still, it haunted her— that this surrender wasn't noble. It was hollow.

Because in the end, she had no unshakable purpose, no fire to carry past the grave.

It's pathetic— chasing greatness with expectations sky-high, only to trip over a bar planted in the dirt of one's own doing.

She stood, the weight of inertia peeling off her bones, and looked outside.

Cherry blossoms fell— quiet funerals for short, radiant lives.

My life flashing before my eyes, it seems?

But if this was truly a dream, a stagnant moment before death...

Why could she feel it all so clearly?

Her thoughts unraveled, and then— a voice.

A conversation, faint but familiar.

She frowned at her own curiosity, yet moved without hesitation, pulled toward the echo like it was calling her by name.

It felt warm. It felt free.

She heard nothing...

Except salvation.

Down the hallway, light spilled like honey, rich and golden— a quiet promise at the final door.

But every step dragged, stretched thin by time.

Each blank picture frame whispered of regrets left unnamed.

Ghosts of "what ifs" in gilded silence.

And then— she saw them.

The ones she missed most.

The ones waiting behind a door she could never reach.
It all came flooding back.

Cherry blossoms— rebirth, yes.

But also a cruel reminder: everything beautiful is also temporary.

"This was your mother's... right before I killed her."

'Wake up!'

"You will be my right hand."

'No— not yet, please... it can't be over!'

A scream with no sound. A cry with no tears. A prayer with no god.

Just a child's wish echoing through a hollow sanctuary.

Fingernails split as they scraped the floor. Knees hit wood like penance.

She raised her head toward the light. It beckoned— warm, eternal, free.

Death. Salvation. The only arms that ever promised rest.

But she couldn't go.

Not yet.

Not when they—

Another bolt of agony tore through her, dragging her from the threshold.

Darkness. Silence. Then:

"Come. We await you."

If death were salvation...

Would you run away?

586 words.

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disclaimer + first author's notes

1. my hero academia belongs to kohei horikoshi. the concept and design of the raiden shogun (genshin impact) belongs to hoyoverse.

2. no crossover, everything happens in the mha universe. main character is only inspired by the concept, design and powers of the raiden shogun (and perhaps acheron of honkai star rail)

3. SLOW BURN; it picks up by chapter 11? chapter 18? and a lot more by chapter 36

4. RAIDEN IS HER LAST NAME, her first name can be anything the reader wants

5. this was posted on wattpad [january 4, 2024] and was only republished [june 25, 2025, then december 5, 2025]

6. crossposted on quotev @ / blxxdingred & ao3 @ / blxxding_red

7. art on original cover by @ / haruno_intro on twitter, current cover from @ / Genshin Adr on pinterest

8. also inspired by desiderata by Max Ehrmann © 1927