Chapter 4: Breaking Ground
Kai Chisaki stared bleakly at the plain stone floor beneath him. It was the same color and texture of the walls and the roof. The only break in that plain sea of granite was the steel door that was set into one wall, the kind of door that one would imagine would seal off a bank vault, rather than a ragged man with no arms, his form slumped against one wall.
He sat on the floor but he didn't really feel the cold stone, his mind had been elsewhere for a long time now. When Shigaraki Tomura had shown up and destroyed the police escort that had been taking him to the hospital after his battle with the Midoriya boy, Chisaki had felt nothing but shock. He had been stunned to silence...
That quiet state of paralysis had persisted when he had helplessly watched the League destroy both of his arms and remove his life's work from him, Shigaraki grinning in delight and mocking him the whole while. His whole world had been upset with his defeat by the combined hero and police forces back at the Yakuza fortress.
However, Tomura had proven that his way of life and options in it could be shattered far more than he had ever imagined. Even death would be preferable to the life he had been doomed to. He had to bend over and eat from the trays of food given to him on all fours like a dog, his ruined arms incapable of manipulating anything at all.
He couldn't even hold his own dick when he pissed, and had to sit carefully just to use the toilet. He would never again use the all-powerful quirk that he had once reviled, and while he might have once thought that such a thing wasn't so bad, there were several incredibly important things he had still needed to do with it.
The Yakuza, his boss' gang, they would never be able to rise to power again without his ability. He could now never again use his powers to reproduce the serum that had been stolen from him, even if he had managed to order his people to take it back from the League while in the hospital. He wasn't sure if they had succeeded or not.
Tartarus was an iron wall cutting him off from the world, and even if he did manage to get back to his serum, production would be beyond a shattered gang deprived of the wealth needed to do such a thing without his abilities. Worst of all, though, the thing that truly broke him, that left him sleepless as he tremored each night...
Chisaki could now never use his powers to restore his boss to health. In his pride, his arrogance, he had never considered what would happen to his mentor if he truly failed. He had kept the man on a sickbed for so long, so that he would not stop him from the production of the serum, so that he would not get between Chisaki and his granddaughter.
That girl had a very special quirk, a power that could change the sick and decaying world into something better, and Kai had been convinced that he and only he could usher a new world into existence, one made so by application of his own powers combined with hers. But now his quirk was gone, and the old man was doomed to die on that sickbed...
At first, there had been what felt like a void of feeling, where everything had just been far too much to process. That stunned feeling had continued for some time, even after the police had recovered him and drove him to the hospital. He had sat numbly through a number of attempted interrogations, but the investigators and doctors eventually stopped asking questions.
He heard them talk about his 'condition'. They said he was having a post-traumatic reaction to everything that had happened, and he supposed he was. When they had allowed him to receive a visitor in order to try to get him talking, Chisaki had at least momentarily snapped out of his nearly comatose state. Until then he had felt like he was observing his life through a window.
When he saw one of his men from the gang show up, though, even his stricken mind realized it might be his only option for leveling the playing field. He didn't know what he would do from there, but he quickly relayed to his subordinate the fact that Shigaraki Tomura had stolen his samples from him, and where the theft had occurred.
He knew that would be enough for his people to go on. They already knew where Tomura and his group had set up a safehouse nearby in that sector. Shigaraki most certainly didn't realize the level of surveillance the Yakuza maintained due to Chisaki's diligence. The man would likely return to his lair to regroup after what he had done.
The police had swept in immediately to begin interrogations anew, but Chisaki had already said everything he needed to get things in motion. It wasn't until his mind started to contemplate 'what's next' that he started falling apart again. He gave the police more of the same treatment, though more willfully this time, and eventually they gave up again.
Having been in a criminal organization for a long time now, Kai was well aware of what they could ask of him, and the fact that he was going to get the same treatment regardless of what he told them, so he ignored all of the false promises and attempts to make deals, informing them that he would be lawyering up to get them to back off.
What next? It all kept coming back to his lack of a way forward without his quirk. As much as he had reviled that hated part of himself, had he really been that reliant on it? As he sat in his cell in Tartarus, Chisaki moved his gaze to the hollow sleeves of his shirt, where arms should have been. Hollow was a great word for how he felt.
Powerlessness wasn't something he felt he could adapt to. It had been a few weeks now, and he felt like he was slipping. His people weren't going to be able to get him out of here, and even if he had access to his quirk, he knew he was stuck here; no one ever came back out of Tartarus. It was where those labeled 'Villain' went to die.
The worst part of returning to his senses was definitely the guilt. At first it was terrible enough, but as time went on, he couldn't even think of anything else but how he had failed his boss, the feeling being so much worse. He was restless, pacing his cell on the day of his arrival, and the nights were sleepless affairs of tossing and turning.
But now, weeks after he had entered Tartarus, Chisaki couldn't think normally anymore. An all-consuming need to see his boss had begun blossoming in him, eradicating all other desires
systematically. Not that it would matter if he apologized, right? After all, in the coma that Chisaki had forced him into, his mentor could not even hear his apologies...
He could never undo what he had done, and that simple fact weighed on him like nothing ever had. For too long Kai Chisaki had thought that his quirk could allow him to do almost anything, and with the girl, Eri, he could do even more. Again, the broken man took stock of his pitiable condition and lamented in silence within his quiet cell.
But then a light suddenly shown upon his mournful reflection, as the huge metal door to his room opened and several guardsmen took hold of him and lifted him from his seat on the floor. As they carried him out into the hall, an older man in glasses informed him, "Kai Chisaki, as a person no longer qualified for the security of Tartarus, you are being moved..."
Kai blinked at the light, feeling a little woozy with all of the sudden movement. How long had he been sitting so very still? His muscles hurt and his baffled mind distantly analyzed that he might actually be forming some mild symptoms of atrophy. Still, he was out! Maybe this was a ray of hope? He spoke quickly, desperately, "My boss... Can I make a phone call?"
The old man initially ignored his query, instead continuing what he had been saying before Chisaki had interrupted him, "...to a new facility under a special rehabilitation program." The man reached up to adjust the spectacles that hung from the bridge of his nose, "I will remind the prisoner that under the special quirk laws, you have very few rights."
As they pushed him into a car outside of the building, ready to drive him along the single bridge that led from the island to the mainland, the wizened man gave him a final word, "Behave yourself, and if you prove yourself something akin to a reformed citizen, perhaps you can again earn the right to make a phone call."
"Don't expect such a privilege too soon, though; this city is well aware of your criminal connections and wary of allowing you outside contact until we can be certain that you aren't going to be causing us any more grief."
The car door closed and Kai was alone again barring the driver, whom was on the other side of what was most likely a bulletproof glass window that fitted between the front and back of the car. An unmarked police car, then. As they pulled away from the huge concrete building and made their way to the solitary bridge, Chisaki gazed out of the window, wondering.
Had everything changed? Suddenly there were potential options for so many things, like regaining contact with the Yakuza, or being somewhere he might actually be able to escape from. If they were putting him into some sort of rehabilitation program, did that mean he could just nod and say yes until they released him?
He should feel relief. He should be overjoyed that he was no longer sitting in the dark of his inescapable prison cell back within the bowels of Tartarus. Now that he was out, though, Chisaki realized that the stone walls that had surrounded him had not been the only prison he was in. It didn't matter where they took him, he still couldn't undo what he had done to his mentor.
Kai Chisaki could never escape the prison of his own guilt.
"Mr. Shimura, it would help greatly if you would answer our questions, but if doing so makes you uncomfortable, perhaps we could simply talk about something that interests you?"
Tomura turned his head to glare at the psychiatrist, "My name isn't fucking Shimura, how many times do I have to tell you dumbasses that?"
Despite his condescending tone and look of contempt, as usual the balding shrink didn't bat an eye at Shigaraki's ill temperament, only giving him a pleasant smile as always and gesturing to the youth, "Well, as I have informed you a few times, Mr. Shimura, that is actually your legal name, and I have been asked by the powers that be to call you such."
"I apologize if the name brings you discomfort, but many feel that returning to your previously held name might help to evoke your lost memories. Of course, talking about the past could help us in this endeavor even further..."
The gray-haired youth snorted, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away again to assume his typical 'I'm not listening to you' pose he always wore for the head doctors that came to visit him three times a week. "I don't recognize that name, I have nothing to say to you about my past, and I don't like 'endeavors' anyways."
Raising an eyebrow, the doctor chuckled, "Was that wordplay? I must say, you have been more talkative this evening than usual, so I'm going to call tonight's session a success. Our time is up for now, but I look forward to sharing more next time, Mr. Shimura."
Tomura grunted in reply, deciding that he had clearly said enough. The shrink wasn't wrong; before he had known it, he had been drawn into actual conversation, whereas before he had been able to stick to completely ignoring the bastards before. On the previous weekend Midnight had managed to get him to talk too.
After all, he'd had so many questions about his new residence in U.A., and he preferred asking her to asking All-Might for answers. When Toshinori had told him that he was going to be moved from that Alcatraz prison house to a high school, Tomura had been elated. After all, how difficult could it be to ditch school?
He'd forgotten, though, how fortified the place was. While he and the League had managed to infiltrate the school before, that had been back when he had the use of his decay quirk, which had been instrumental in destroying the huge metal doors blocking entry. The security system was still top notch, and he had neither powers nor allies this time.
Not only that, but they had been counting on the main entry, because it allowed students to enter and exit freely. Shigaraki no longer had access to that entry or any of the common grounds where the students or any visitors might be found. Instead, he was in a separate area of the school that had its own walls.
He might as well be somewhere else entirely. Midnight had smiled cheerily as she had described the nature of his new prison. With physical walls, cameras and state of the art motion sensors, his new facility was going to be harder to escape than most correctional buildings. On top of that, there was always going to be a large number of pro heroes present.
Over the next few days Tomura had told himself that he was biding his time. After all, with no quirk and so many things keeping him inside, he had no real opportunity to escape. But heroes typically always had work to do, and if he waited long enough, something would happen that would pull the pros away from the school.
That's what he needed, some crisis created by a group of villains or a natural disaster big enough to call all of the heroes away. Of course, if they all left, that would mean the remaining staff would be on high alert to any potential escapes, but it was better than trying to break through a dozen heroes with no powers.
Fortunately, the interior of his new prison home was in some ways similar to his other one. They even had a television installed, and Shigaraki was able to catch the news, which would be invaluable in knowing when an opportunity presented itself. After all, news teams were always quick to jump on major battles and accidents.
He would be able to see which heroes were where on live broadcast, and when enough of them were preoccupied elsewhere, he could finally make his move. In the meantime, he only had to go through the motions of being a model prisoner as he had been, an annoying experience for sure, but the alternative was... less desirable.
The psychiatrists kept trying to whittle away at him, but Tomura had become wary of them ever since that fat one had managed to get a few words out of him. He didn't want these people thinking he actually wanted to say anything to them, even if it sometimes seemed like a more pleasant option to talk.
After all, the sessions lasted for an hour, and maintaining complete silence while they pelted him with optimistic chatter and occasional unanswered questions was incredibly boring. Still, he held the course, and kept his mouth tightly shut. Tomura was nothing if not willful, and he had to assume that eventually they would give up.
On the morning of the next day, as he was crunching on a bowl of cereal across from All-Might, whom came to eat breakfast with him before heading to work, Toshinori suddenly spoke, breaking the traditional silence they typically maintained between them, "I have been talking to some scientists down at the quirk lab."
Tomura blinked at him, but didn't say anything. Was All-Might trying to broach conversation because the shrinks were failing at it? If that was the case, then he would need to avoid allowing the hero to bait him into replying. He stuffed his spoon in his mouth, loudly crunching his preferred coco puff cereal as he glared at Toshinori.
All-Might pointed at him, "I'm sure you noticed that your chronic rashes all completely disappeared, and they believe it had something to do with your quirk; that it had been causing your skin issues."
Shigaraki frowned; he had also come to a similar conclusion, as it was simply too coincidental that the itching that had plagued him since he was a child would vanish at the same time that he had lost his powers of decay. He was curious what more the scientists that Toshinori had spoken to had to say, but he again fought the urge to answer.
It didn't matter that he was unwilling to speak, though, since All-Might went on speaking regardless of his silence, "Then there is another theory of theirs. All for One has been trading quirks between people for a long time, and without fail each and every person he has granted a power to that previously belonged to another person has developed some form of side effect."
Tomura blinked, feeling something old and buried stirring within him. He forgot about his desire to avoid speech; suddenly something bigger loomed in front of him, an ominous feeling that was building at a frightening pace, "What are you trying to say?"
Toshinori's blue eyes locked firmly onto Tomura's grey ones, "We have reason to believe that All for One gave you the power of decay. Do you remember meeting him before your quirk first manifested? If so, your chronic itch was likely a side effect..."
"No!" Shigaraki leapt from the table, knocking several dishes clattering to the floor as he backed away from All-Might. He grabbed his head; the pressure was so great now, the pain of withholding peaking as his mind could no longer keep the memory back. There had been a quirk councilor back when he was four.
Flashes of recollection assailed him, broken pieces of the history that had shattered when he'd first come across the desiccated remains of his once beloved family. In that mess of spiraling truths, he saw that man's face, once forgotten. When All-for-One had extended a hand to him after he had lost them all, he had a familiar impression at that time.
Because they had already met. Tomura's parents had called on a councilor to inspect Shigaraki for a quirk, as many parents did in the current society. That man was supposed to inform them of any sign of a power and possible strategies needed for avoiding injury upon activation of a powerful ability, but he had smiled and said everything was fine.
Tomura backed away until his back met the wall, his fingers clawing at his face in a familiar attempt to stop an itch that was no longer physical. Toshinori stood but didn't say or do anything yet, just watching the gray-headed boy with worried eyes.
Slowly more pieces of his fractured mind reassembled around this breaking truth, as his past finally caught up with him. He couldn't run from the feelings anymore, and barring them with hatred had been that man's way... the man whom had caused it all! If All-for-One had given him his quirk, then he had been responsible for what came next...
All-Might began to move a little closer, his tone calm and his hands spread in a placating gesture, "From the records we have of your early life, you used to have black hair... did activating your quirk change it to gray? Perhaps it changed your eye color too? These along with the itching are all allergic responses to a change in the body that isn't native."
"Your reaction leads me to believe that you remembered something important; could you please..."
Shigaraki cut him off with an angry shout, swiping a hand at Toshinori as he staggered back towards his bedroom, "Leave me alone! All of you; I hate you all!"
All-Might froze, letting Tomura retreat as a frown spread across his features. The doctors had warned him that he might get violent if they forced recollection like this, which was the reason Toshinori had
insisted that it be him that did it. But Shigaraki had not attacked him. Instead, as the youth had run from him, he had tried to hide it, but there had been tears in his eyes.
Toshinori followed him to the bedroom, but Tomura had slammed the door closed, and the retired hero didn't want to push further for the time being, so he spoke through the door, "I'll be back this evening to make dinner. For what it's worth, I'm sorry to dredge up your past like this, young Shimura. My number is on the fridge if you need to call me."
Pausing to make sure that Shigaraki wasn't going to reply, Toshinori sighed and made his way to the door that would lead out into the hall, hoping that he was doing this right.
Chisaki blinked. He had been surprised when the police escort had driven him into U.A. But the way he felt looking at the place they had taken him to within the campus grounds was beyond surprised. After passing a high wall and entering a building that had all the looks of a fortress, then walking down a plain hallway, everything had changed.
A dark-haired woman in a business suit and glasses smiled his way as she opened a door ahead of him, "Here you are, Kai Chisaki; this place will be your new home while you are working within the program."
Kai stared; the place looked like a studio apartment. There was a living space, kitchen area, dining room, bath and bedroom. He even saw a television. The apartment was decorated in soft whites, blues and greens, and absolutely nothing about it spoke to him of prison, "W-what is this?" His gaze swept over to one wall, where a corded phone hung.
"I can use the phone?"
The woman beamed a pretty smile his way, nodding, "Of course! For your convenience we have placed a large button on the counter here; give it a push and someone can come to assist you with any matter that might be difficult for you due to your injuries. Though I will inform you that you won't be able to call anyone outside of the allowed parameters."
Chisaki felt a little confused, "What parameters?" All his mind could focus on was the possibility that he might get one of his people on the line and find a way to reach his boss, somehow. At the very least he could find out if they had been successful in getting his serum back.
She held up a finger, "At this time you won't be able to reach anyone at all on it, but if you prove yourself during your therapy, you will gain access to numbers for staff members first and then eventually be allowed to make approved calls outside of U.A."
Kai squinted at her; she looked familiar. Finally, his sharp mind placed her face; "You are the hero Midnight."
Kayama gave him a thumbs up, "Wow, you're really perceptive! I suppose the glasses I wear for my costume don't do enough to hide my face, huh? Anyways, I've been helping All-Might get this little adventure started since shortly after he came up with it. I'm showing you your new digs, but I won't be your councilor."
"Councilor?"
Nemuri beamed another pretty smile his way, "That's right! In this rehab program, each participant gets a councilor to direct all of their questions to. They will become a close aid for you, checking in often to make sure that all of your needs are met. Additionally, you will be receiving visits several times a week from other specialists whose goal will be rehabilitation."
Chisaki frowned. How the hell had he ended up in something like this?