A/N: One of these days I'll stop sabotaging myself during a finals week by writing impulse drabbles instead of studying. Not this day, though. I've also decided that there's no point in me planning what/who I'm going to write anymore, because apparently my brain is keen on hijacking my hands and fucking off to impulse-fic-land, where I write things/characters I never had any intention of writing for. What can I say? I love Shigaraki. I understand the man-child... don't ask how or why, I'm sure that too will come up in future fics.

WARNINGS: Contains spoilers for anyone who has not read the manga or seen season 3. Nothing major, though.
Also contains mentions of blood and violence.

Conviction

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

All he'd done was wait.

He'd waited for minutes.

Hours.

For days, it felt like.

He'd waited until time lost all manner of meaning, wishing someone, anyone, would take notice of him and save him. To at least be there for him.

He'd watched many people pass him by. Tall people, short people. Men, women. People with visible quirks and normal-passing people. Parents, children, friends, family. Too many people. They all blurred together and became a mass of swirling indifference. Surely someone had seen him, and they just hadn't bothered to take time out of their busy schedule to help him.

Maybe a hero had passed by, too.

Maybe one hadn't.

He doubted they would have helped either way. If a mother passing by couldn't stop to call the police, or an ambulance -anything useful- then who would?

He'd dared to hope, for the first few hours, that All Might would come and save him. His father had always assured him that in a time of great need the Symbol of Peace would be there.

He hadn't been there, though. If All Might had been there when he'd wished for it the most, things wouldn't have turned out the way they had. He'd still needed a hero, though, even after everything. In fact, in that moment, he'd probably needed one more than he'd ever need one again.

But All Might had been nowhere. Or rather, he'd been everywhere but the one place Tenko had needed him to be. The same could be said about the rest of the so-called "heroes" too. They'd all vanished into thin air. One moment the streets were supposedly teaming with help and would-be-heroes, and the next, they'd all blown away like dust in the wind.

The same couldn't have been said for the blood on his face that had long ago dried. And the images of what had happened, permanently seared into his mind… he'd wished those could've disappeared as easily as his heroes. He'd told himself there was more he could have done- that he could have tried harder, called for help sooner… but he hadn't. He didn't know how long he'd sat there, destroying himself over and over in his head as the scene replayed itself. The cycle may have never ended, had someone not halted his brain's path of cruelty and offered him a light in his darkness.

All for One. The one person who'd been there when not even the great Symbol of Peace could be bothered. His Master.

Tenko had understood, even at his young age, that if he'd not gone with the powerful man, he'd have wasted away on his own and disappeared into the dust his quirk rendered all things to. He'd wanted to go with him too. How could he not have wanted to follow the one person who wanted to save him, who wanted to silence the voices in his small mind telling him it was all his fault, who wanted him. Not All Might, not Endeavor, but him, Tenko Shimura.

He'd made him better, strengthened him and given him a new purpose in life, along with a new name. A more fitting name. Tomura Shigaraki. All for One's disciple, and the one who would eventually take down All Might and everything he stood for. It would be he, under the guidance of his master and savior, who would break the Symbol of Peace and leave him for the rats. It would be a poetic end even- a turning of the tables. All Might had never been there to help him when he'd thought he needed him, had left little Tenko to die in the dust, but in the end, he would be the one on the ground watching bystanders walk on as he waited for death to come claim him. Or maybe he would disappear without a trace, so that nobody would know what happened to the Symbol.

Either way, that hypocrite would finally get what he deserved.

All for One's teachings would bring him to the point where he could do that. As frustrating as the lessons were -as painful and humiliating as they often-times became- he would ultimately come through stronger because of them. He owed his life to his master, and a day did not go by that Shigaraki remembered that and felt grateful that the god of a man had decided to save him, train him, care for him, when nobody else could be bothered to even cast a sympathetic glance his way.

But...

… All Might had to take him away, too. It was like the hero, even though they'd never met in person until USJ, hated him personally and had done everything in life up until that point to show that, as if he'd been the one to ruin the Symbol's life and not the other way around.

It had been horrible.

What was worse though, was the terror of knowing he was on his own now, and that he would not likely see his master until society had been tipped into their favor- if he even survived his battle with All Might. But his body… he wouldn't last in a fight, and he knew it. He'd sent him away to keep him safe for that very reason. Even when he was aware of his own impending demise, his master had saved him.

And he'd done nothing. He hadn't even managed to get that Bakugou brat, because All Might's damn disciple had to show up and ruin everything! It seemed everything that ever went wrong in his life could somehow be traced back to All Might. And now, one of those slights would be the downfall of the only person who cared for him.

It sent him into a rage. Kurogiri's attempts to calm him were futile. No amount of soothing speech could quell the hatred that squeezed his heart in a vice and made him feel like he needed to tear the flesh from his body in order to make it stop.

It all needed to stop. His world was falling apart around him! He could feel the walls closing in and the weight of his master's plans being placed on his shoulders. All that expectation… he wasn't ready for it! There was still so much he needed to learn, but now he had no time to learn it! It was all too much, and he needed it all to stop! To stop moving- talking, breathingexisting! It all needed to stop! It was too much to handle. All at once his life was tipped off balance again, and this time there was no savior to come and pick him up. It was only him. It was only-

Tomura
Shigaraki
Shigaraki-

and his ears wouldn't stop ringing with sound of his own screams from before and the room wouldn't stop spinning and-

He was faintly aware of sticky warmth beginning to coat his fingers as he scratched his neck, but none of the pain registered with him and he didn't stop. He couldn't stop until he could calm himself enough that he didn't immediately try to use his quirk on the nearest Stain Groupie- Crazy Girl would likely be the first victim, being closest in vicinity. That would do no good. He needed her. He needed all of them. His master had practically given them to him, after all. He'd given Shigaraki the ability to think ahead of others, to manipulate people to get what he wanted, and in doing so, he'd unintentionally given him his vanguard squad.

That thought at least helped him to slow down the picking of his skin. After that his attention slowly drifted from what had happened and moved over to the root of the problem. The more he thought about how All Might had taken the only person who would ever care for him away, killed him or locked him in a prison he couldn't hope to escape, the more angry he got. However, the more he considered where his master would want him to go from there, having given him the tools to do so, the easier he found himself able to calm down.

This wasn't like before. He wasn't helpless. Someone had given him the skillset to live his life without training wheels. All he had to do was utilize those teachings and create something for himself from the rubble of current events. Yes, he needed to pick himself up, no matter how much it hurt, and step off All for One's coattails. It was time to lead on his own- time to be his own master.

After another moment, he dropped his hands by his sides, ignoring the blood under his nails and the faint sting he could feel now that his neck was exposed to the air. He had more important things to think about than something so trivial. Like where he was supposed to go from there. The League hadn't so far tried to speak to him -he didn't count Kurogiri, who he supposed was now his only faithful companion, unwilling though that position may have been- because apparently even they understood the magnitude of what had gone down. Perhaps they were even starting to think it was game over?

When they did speak, perhaps it would be to ask for guidance. Perhaps he would become their All for One, their source of payment, protection, and care. Or perhaps they would ridicule him for showing such weakness in front of them. Perhaps some of them would want to quit, now that they knew the man who'd been pulling the strings up until that point was no longer in the picture. It didn't matter to him what anyone else said or did. He wouldn't allow them to leave, nor would his heart be swayed. Not only would he continue from where his master had left off, but he would go even farther than he'd asked him to go.

Not only would he completely destroy All Might and take down the system of security he'd built, but he would get vengeance for himself and people like him- people who'd needed help once upon a time and had instead been ostracized and abandoned by the very system that claimed to want to help everyone. He would create a new world. A better world, where everyone got a say in how things ran, not just the ones who were deemed "heroic."

And he'd crush the spirits of any future heroes who got in his way.

He got the feeling Izuku Midoriya would be the first person on that long list. Maybe Katsuki Bakugou, too.

The thought of having to face one, if not both of them in the future was interesting to him. He hadn't exactly been planning to harm the latter teen, and while it hadn't been his idea to kill Midoriya, he now saw the merit in the plan more than he ever had. He was a nuisance at best, and the longer he trained under All Might, the more powerful and dangerous he became. And Bakugou? He was already dangerous enough on his own.

Those two would most definitely need to be some of the very first people he destroyed. He wasn't sure how he'd do that yet, and he wasn't sure when, but...

Well, he'd burn those bridges when he got to them.