Chapter 5: Unraveling
Toshinori couldn't help smiling just a little. After all, considering how much grief Aizawa Shota gave him on a nearly daily basis, it was a little rewarding to see the almost bored look that the dark-haired man usually wore become a surprised one.
Principal Nezu had simply come out and said it, as a mouse whom did not prefer to beat around the bush. "Aizawa sensei, I believe that you would make an excellent councilor for the new program, seeing as you have already invested so much into it."
Eraser grunted irritably, "I only drew up that plan because All-Might has a tendency not to think his actions through... even though I warned him earlier."
The little white mouse nodded, "And you took responsibility admirably! This is exactly why I believe that in all things a team is best for shoring up the individual weaknesses of its members! I took the liberty of looking over the file you gave to our first councilor and decided on a perfect candidate for you to spend some time with, if you'll be so gracious as to accept my request."
Toshinori leaned forward, trying to see whom it was that the principal wanted Shota to watch over. Personally, he was incredibly relieved that Nezu had bothered to search through that enormous file of inmates from Tartarus. Not only would it be a lot of work just reading all of that material, Yagi never really had the skillset for that sort of work.
Psychological profiling was actually a really intensive job, especially considering that he would have to match people up to the right councilors based on not only the potential councilor's personality and teaching style, but by their quirks. Picking an inmate with a quirk that could cause swift harm was dangerous for anyone that interacted with them, including the hero.
So, a hero with a quirk like Aizawa's was perfect; his erasure ability could nullify almost any quirk. He was just as surprised at Shota when he saw the picture on the profile page, "Huh?"
Eraser raised an eyebrow, "Kai Chisaki? As far as I recall, Shigaraki Tomura removed him of his hands and he is functionally quirkless... if you want me in your program, wouldn't you want me to be guarding a higher threat level of villain?"
Nezu shook his small head, smiling in his mousy way, "Nope. For one, we aren't going to be calling them villains while they are being rehabilitated." He pointed a tiny finger at Aizawa, "Honestly it's a bad habit we have picked up from the press; from now on let us use more constructive labels."
Shota grunted in response; his face impassive as always.
The Principal continued, "Secondly, while it might seem that this pairing wastes the use of your quirk, I ask you to trust my judgement on this. You are the perfect teacher for this young man, if you will take the job."
Aizawa sighed, "Fine."
Toshinori smiled, happy to see his program grow, and through direct action from his old friend the Principal no less! Nezu's quirk was hyper intelligence, so Yagi had no doubt whatsoever that Aizawa and Kai were a good match. Probably something to do with profiling... the retired hero frowned. He was going to have to get better at profiling...
.*.
Shigaraki Tomura sat on his bed in his room, his fingers interlaced through his gray hair as he trembled with unwanted recollections. Memories forcibly reasserted themselves within his shattered mind, like pieces of glass jaggedly scraping together as the mirror of his soul they once represented began to take shape.
He scratched, but not because he was itching. The red furrows his nails dug into the pale skin of his neck were a result of stress and habit rather than allergy now. His cloudy eyes shook as he stared out at nothing in particular, his gaze on the wall while his vision remained trained inwardly. He saw things he hadn't seen in many years.
An old swing set in his family's back yard. The gentle smile of his grandparent, the skipping song of his older sister. Mon, his dog, wagging his tail and staring happily up at him. Of course, that was before he had reduced Mon to a pile of parts. Before his grandparents had been turned to smears of blood upon the ground at his feet.
Before his sister's scream, which had been cut off by her death, as she had run from him. He had reached out to grab hold of her, afraid to see the one person whom seemed to support him most take her leave in fear of him. She had seen what he had accidentally done to Mon while hugging the dog, and her eyes had been filled with terror.
And then, she was gone. His grandparents had come, confused looks upon their faces, and then they had died when the frightened boy had collapsed upon the ground sobbing, touching the dirt and sending his deadly power coursing through to them. His young mind was still too shocked to keep his hands from dealing death. He had started to back away then, realization finally burgeoning.
It was too late, though; his mother had surged forth to hold him, not knowing what she had run outside of the house to find, only knowing that her boy looked so very frightened. The compassion if her eyes disappearing as she disintegrated into nothingness the moment she touched him. He had taken a few steps back then, awareness gripping him.
He had just slaughtered his family. He had done it unintentionally, of course, but the weight of killing everyone whom had loved him due to ignorance still remained. When his father had come out and seen what he had done, the man had lost himself in grief, turning to anger as he struck Tenko repeatedly, calling him a monster.
That was the first time Shimura Tenko had felt the grip of his own rage, ripping forth from within him, an animalistic response to his father's attack, and the only way his young mind could cope with his situation. It was his fault. That's what he had reasoned then; it was Shimura Kotaro's abuse that had caused all of it!
He had sprung forward, grabbing his father's face, and committed his very first murder, vindictive aggression burning in his heart. But now he knew better... Tomura let out a howl of confused anger, not sure what he hated most anymore. It was all him... All for One. The very man whom had 'found' him after that tragedy, the one whom had constantly told him about the importance of his own hatred.
The man that had mentored him into whom he was now.
Shigaraki Tomura had been driven on by nothing but that hatred for so long now, especially since that day, the day that the man whom had given him his surname had carted a group of grisly 'mementos' into the room he had been staying in back when he was child living under the care of the man whom was known as All-for-One.
They were the severed hands of his family. He had even recognized a few of them; his sister's slender fingers and his grandfather's gnarled knuckles. That man had told him that he had preserved his family's parts so he could keep them close, acting as if what he was doing wasn't what it was. Tomura could see it for what it was now.
All-for-One had been playing games with him from the start. Tenko had lost his mind in the moment that he had seen the macabre souvenirs, and as a five-year-old boy, he had been highly impressionable to that madman's reasoning. He had not only carried the carcasses of those he felt overwhelming guilt for, but wore them upon his person.
He had become insane, his memories dispersed by a mind that could no longer suffer them, stressed so badly that he had vomited in the moment of facing what was left of them. But holding them close was what All-for-One had wanted. Wrapping himself up in hatred for everything else, blaming all of the wrong people for what happened, that was that man's influence too.
Ripping some of his hair out, Tomura threw his head back and screamed bitterly, so loudly that his voice cracked midway through. He panted, his throat sore, damaged from the strain of such a yell. He collapsed back against the wall of his room, his eyes still vacantly staring at nothing. Everything he had thought...
Everything he had planned. All that he had done. It had all been a lie, dancing on the strings of the man he had called sensei. He had become a puppet, living under the illusion that his actions were his own. Dangling on false freedom. For a moment, Shigaraki almost broke all over again, his will and his mind wavering on the outer limits of sanity.
But stress had become something of an everyday occurrence for Shigaraki Tomura, and the things he had seen and done had forged his will into the hardness of a diamond. He would not crack under the strain of even this horrendous revelation. Instead, he did what he had the first time he had been so heavily tested.
Maybe it was wrong to embrace the emotion that All-for-One wanted him to commit himself to, but it was all that Shimura Tenko knew. Starting with a smoldering feeling that slowly brought his eyes into focus, and roaring into life as a scorching flame in his chest, he clenched his fists and grit his teeth so hard that his jaw creaked.
He gathered all of his hatred and focused it on one target. In a way, it was liberating to have only one thing to despise. That man had sought to control him by making him angry with the world. Tenko laughed; a dry, raspy, humorless chuckle. It was ironic that the spear that All-for-One had forged would end up pointing right back at him.
The next day, Toshinori stood outside of Tenko's door, taking a deep breath to prepare for the argument that was likely to come. In the state that the young man had been in the previous day, the aged hero had no doubts that Shimura would give him a hard time when he summoned him to his session with his therapist.
Surprisingly, though, when Toshi opened the door Tenko walked right out without having to be asked. The gray-haired youth moved to sit in his usual place on the couch without saying a word. The retired hero scratched at his chin, wondering what was going on in Shimura's head that made him so compliant after all of the screaming the night before.
Before that lady whom had come to act as his psychiatrist for the day could speak Tenko spoke, "I'll tell you everything you want to know about All-for-One."
Startled, the lady therapist adjusted her glasses and then smiled at him, "We don't have to talk about that man if doing so is uncomfortable. We haven't really discussed much of anything in our sessions yet, so we can talk about whatever you like in the interests of establishing common grounds and relaxing into our conversation."
Yagi had told all of Tenko's assigned advisors about what had happened the night before, as they were all wary of pushing the boy too much with painful memories. The police report didn't say much, but the tragic death of his family painted a clear picture of terrible loss. Too much of that too fast and they could do more harm than good.
Tenko snarled, "Let's not beat around the bush. I know that I'm probably only here because you want information, so just accept what I'm offering already. I have no intent on ratting out the rest of the League, but I'm gonna sing about All-for-One, so just ask me about that fucker so we can get on with it."
The psychiatrist sat up in her couch, frowning, and then nodded, "I think you have a misunderstanding of our goal in these discussions, but if this is truly what you want to speak on, we can certainly talk about it. Tell me, do you remember the first time you met that man?"
It was harder than he had imagined it would be. Summoning a mental picture of that bastard's face made his skin crawl. As he told the woman in front of him about his various meetings with the mysterious man known as 'All-for-One', he found himself clenching his teeth and hands at times, unreasoning anger coiling behind his eyes.
She was very careful, and kept trying to ask questions about other topics, but Toshi could see that young Shimura only seemed interested in talking about his mentor. The retired hero watched calmly, his expression neutral, but inside he was feeling anxious. He could see the anger in Tenko's face, and hear it in his voice.
As a member of a government sanctioned civilian police force, Yagi had seen plenty of people become obsessed with revenge over crimes committed. Tenko might be talking now, and even cooperating, but if he becomes too fixated on vengeance, it might become even more difficult to help him heal from the trauma that had shaped his life.
For her part, the therapist guided the conversation to cover a number of Tenko's encounters with All-for-One, calling the session a little early once Shimura had divested all he knew about the man and every memory he had of him. Toshinori thought on what was said, thinking that very little would actually help the police better understand the man.
Despite having set himself up as a mentor for Tenko, All-for-One had spent very little time in direct contact with the boy, and when conversing, had almost never volunteered anything about himself past his hatred for All-Might. They did have one small lead on the man's mysterious past; Tenko recalled All-for-One mentioning that Shigaraki had actually been his own name.
Renaming Shimura Tenko with his own surname in order to further spite his old enemies All-Might and Shimura Nana sounded very much like something that All-for-One would do, which meant that Shigaraki might actually be his real name. The people trying to research the history of one of the most dangerous men in Japan would be elated to learn that.
Shimura's councilor left for the day, and Yagi tried to engage Tenko in conversation, lifting a hand and giving him a smile, but the gray-headed youth ignored him entirely and quickly retreated to his room, slamming his door. Toshi sighed, looking at the door dejectedly; he wished he had Kayama's way with people.
.*.
An explosion of blue fire burst through the bank, hot enough to melt marble countertops and flash-burn the rug in the safe deposit waiting area. Anything made of wood quickly caught fire and the few people that had been nearby screamed and ran, with the exception of the security officer that Dabi had directed the flame towards.
That man screamed and hit the floor, quickly reduced to charred cinders as the hellish fires that the dark-haired youth sent his way consumed him.
Confused shouting erupted, and Shuichi cursed, waving a hand through the smoke caused by the reckless blast, "Great! Now I can't see the lockers!" The reptilian man frowned at the sight of the corpse, "I need to see the lockers to cut them open!"
Standing next to him, Jin waved both hands frantically trying to be of help though his efforts had little effect on the roiling growing cloud of smoke, "Maybe we should have let Toga try to talk her way through that one a bit, or at least not resorted to fire in close quarters? That's right; burn it all!"
Nearby Toga opened the vault door wide, allowing the smoke to get out into the rest of the building and making it possible for them to see the target lockers again. Her eyes widened as she glanced out into the bank reception area, "Okay this takes care of the smoke, but with the door open, we've been made and there are heroes incoming!"
Shuichi frantically slammed his sword into one locker after another, Jin madly scrambling to fill his loot bag with the valuables within as Dabi ran to the doorway and sent an enormous indiscriminate wave of deadly fire arcing out of the safe deposit area into the main area of the bank. A huge hexagonal shield of stone suddenly sprang into being, blocking his attack before it reached the tellers and fleeing patrons.
Dabi hissed, recognizing the trademark quirk of the pro hero 'Crust' as he glanced around taking in the fact that he was facing more than one powerful opponent. Flames wreathed the powerfully built man that circled the stone shield to face him, his dark eyes full of stoic determination. The scarred youth chuckled as he watched Todoroki Enji, known by his hero moniker as 'Endeavor', approach.
Fire actually exuded from Enji's body, a telltale sign of the fact that the pro hero had raised his temperature to levels that would be intolerable to a normal person. Of course, a lot of it was cosmetic too, something Dabi was intimately aware of, since their quirks were more similar than the older Todoroki knew.
Dabi smirked, thinking it funny how hard Endeavor worked to intimidate his opponents with his flames. He had wanted to wait to do so, but cornered as they suddenly were, the youth wasn't sure if he was going to get another chance to execute his final plan. He glanced back to see that Jin and Shuichi had ceased their efforts to gather more loot.
Instead, they were peering out from the vault door with Toga, the expressions on all three faces showing that they realized how badly things were going. Both Himiko and the lizard-faced youth weren't going to be able to offer much in the way of combat with their quirks, so Dabi considered quickly the best way he could use his allies.
"Twice!" he shouted, "Make more of me!"
Jin nodded, "Right away! What's that gonna do?!" His body rippled for a moment before he seemed to split into three, except that his new forms became copies of Dabi, both of which immediately sneered and began to launch fire at Endeavor and Crust respectively.
Crust ducked back behind the large shield of stone that he had already made, while Enji dodged the blast of heat, moving back and giving Dabi a moment to dig into his pocket and pull out the solution he had brought with him, just in case. He would have rather gone for the big reveal with a larger audience, but he did see a news crew scrambling to see what was happening inside through the large windows out front.
Reaching over his own head, Dabi dumped the solution down upon his shaggy black hair, shaking his head as he laughed, seeing the dark colors he had dyed his locks with pour down when the agent in the water he'd poured on himself caused that dye to let go of its purchase within his hair, allowing his mane to return to its natural white color.
"Look father!" he boasted dramatically, beginning a speech he had long rehearsed as he glared at the evading Endeavor, "Don't you recognize your own son...?!"