Thirteen Years Ago
It was raining that day. They had originally made plans to take Nana to the park; a new jungle gym had been built in the small schoolyard that was only a few blocks away. Nana had already fallen in love with the structure, giggling with joy as she slowly climbed the horizontal bars with her tiny hands. Her black hair would shake lightly when she stood at the top, the wind blowing in all sorts of directions.
But it rained, so they had to stay inside. They ended up doing puzzles and reading, for the most part, the TV on in the background that showed the latest Hero highlights of the week. The child paid no attention to the screen, far too fascinated by the dinosaur jigsaw puzzle she was nearly complete with.
Other eyes were locked on the screen intently.
Shimura Yoshida struggled to contain his wonderment of heroes. From a young age, they were everything to him, titans of the world, gods living amongst men.
Like his mother.
Despite her high ranking, it was always difficult trying to find clips of Shimura Mai in action. To see her kick off a building and dive toward the ground at breakneck speed before driving a fist into the villain of the day, sending the figure flying away from the little girl he tried to steal. There were a few interviews that were made to the public, mostly talk shows on the HPSC network. However, all of those conversations felt short, surface-level topics while Mai would tell jokes and make the audience laugh.
He noticed Mai never would laugh during those moments though.
It was agony for Yoshida. She was always right there in front of him, a poster on the wall, a signed action figure on a bookshelf. But she was never truly present.
She was never actually in his life.
So Yoshida continued to watch the heroes that were. Figures like the up-and-coming All Might and Endeavor, both capturing the eyes of the nation. Both rose to the top 2 spots in the HPSC ranking in their early twenties. They were both prodigies.
But every hero he saw, every person they saved, every smile they made just reminded him of the single fact that defined his entire life.
None of them were Shimura Mai. And none of them would ever be like her.
So he looked elsewhere to find the single thing he needed most in his life.
He remembers meeting her at University. He was in the library absently flipping through a textbook before landing a page that discussed the founding of the HPSC and its relation to top heroes.
Meticulously he scanned every word looking for some mention of her name, some mention of her character; he'd even take a story he heard before it just had to be something in this-
He was poked on the cheek. Flinching harder than he should've he looked upward at a girl with hair like snow, giggling slightly at his ridiculous reaction.
He swallowed to keep his mouth from drying up, "C-Can I h-help you?" He manages in a croak.
She smiles widely, "It took a lot to get your attention, you know? I just wanted to know if that seat," she pointed to the chair across from him, "was free for me to sit in? This place is so full, it's so hard to find a place to study!"
She could have kept talking and he would have heard none of it. His eyes were locked on the bottom half of her face. The way her lips were curled upward.
Her smile.
It was something he had seen so many times, a look that flushed him with warmth and let him know that all would be alright in the world, that all would be safe now.
It was Mai's smile.
How this girl he had never known before managed to have it was beyond him, but in that instant as if the world all fell into place. Everything that he was looking for, was in front of him.
It was her.
"Hello?" The girl asks, leaning down slightly, "Are you going to answer me?"
"H-Huh?" Yoshida chokes out.
She laughs again, this time full of volume that causes a few to look up from their textbooks, "You're really something, huh? Should I just assume that this is your nice way of telling me to take a hike or-"
He feels his fingers curl into a fist under the table, his palm slightly sweaty, "N-No not at all, and I'm sorry," he gestures to the chair, "You c-can sit there."
"Good!" She chirps before sliding into the seat opposite of him. The girl then reaches into the bag that was dropped beside her before briefly pausing and then sitting back upright.
She then extends a hand across the table, "I'm Ayana, by the way."
Yoshida nods stiffly, before accepting her hand on his own.
"Shimura Yoshida."
Her skin is warm to the touch and soft against his own. He knew at that very moment that he would work to spend the rest of his life to ensure that she never let go.
~Revelations~
It was still raining after they had dinner that day. Nana was put to bed after triumphantly completing her jigsaw puzzle and the adults sat at the kitchen table with only a few lights illuminating the downstairs area. His eyes flick back and forth between her and the table as she continues to slowly sip on the wine that sits in front of her.
Her hair is still as white as the day he met her, but no longer shines the same. Her skin was slowly getting closer to matching the same paleness in color. Her radiant amethyst eyes had dulled over the years, thin lines were now apparent under the lids. Her cheekbones had become more defined as well, as she lost any of the remaining baby fat she still had when they originally met. The woman was a true beauty, a figure that people from across the street would pause to look at while whispering in a hushed manner to their partner or friend.
She was ethereal.
And yet, for Shimura Yoshida, that still wasn't quite enough. There was an itch under his skin when he looked at Ayana. A feeling that came and went like the tides, that could be unbearable and non-existent. A feeling that would brush up against his ear and whisper the words that he wanted to hear least in the world.
'She's not Mai, is she?'
The father slowly flexed his hands under the table. The wife took another sip from an almost empty glass. Thunder roared overhead.
"Quit it, Yoshi."
He flinches at the words, eyes bouncing up to her as she surveys him from across the table. This time there is no smile. There is no laughter.
Just those dull eyes that might just be staring into his very soul.
He swallows, "What are you talking about, Ayana?"
She blinks, and a slow chuckle rises from her throat.
"How many times are we going to do this, hmm? How many times are you going to play the ignorance card instead of acknowledging this problem? Acknowledging this truth that seems to be the bane of your existence?"
Her fingers curl and uncurl in her palm. He knew he had to choose his next words carefully.
"Honey, I have no idea what you're tal-"
Her palm comes down on the table with a crash. He watches as the wine glass wobbles to her side, tipping but ultimately not falling over.
"I can't take this, Yoshida! I swear to god I am this close," she raises the palm she slammed to him, almost pinching two fingers together in front of his eyes, "...to just losing it! Why can't you admit it? Why can't you just see the truth in front of your eyes?!"
The rain continues to come down in sheets against the window. The itch begins to burn his skin.
He looks back down at the table. The truth was in front of him. The person that he married, the person that he loved would never be who he wanted her to be. She would never be who he needed her to be.
But on the other hand, there was no one closer to being Mai in his life than Ayana.
His lips twitch, breaking into a shaky smile, "You can be her, Ayana. I just see it, I know that she's there with you, it's like she's trying to break through you! In your smile and laugh, I know she's there, I know she's smiling down on us both. And with time, I think we can get even closer to her and-"
A crack startles him, his eyes lifting slightly to see blank eyes stare through him. He glances at her hand, still holding the now shattered wine glass, with one jagged piece wedged between her fingers. His eyes are glued to the shade of crimson that slowly snakes down her bony knuckle.
He wonders if Mai had fingers like that.
"You're insane."
Yoshida's eyes widened at the words. He glances up to see Ayana struggling to pull herself out of the chair, her face twisted into a painful expression. How many glasses of wine had she had that night?
She turns back to him, tears pooling in those amethyst orbs, "There is a good man inside of you, that's what kills me. I thought over time I could pull him out, I thought I could save you from this shadow that she casts on you, but I just-" Her eyes flick to the window. Their car sits in the driveway.
"I need to get away from you, Yoshida."
Present Day
Gray clouds hung overhead, the smell of rain still lingering in the air.
"You need to eat, Nana."
The despondent teen didn't stir at the words as she continued to stare blankly at one of the articles that had been written in a magazine that had been delivered earlier that morning. He watches as the fingers in her right-hand curl and uncurl into a fist, nails practically breaking through the skin. The scarring on her wrist from a training injury looks like a twisted watch on her pale skin that can no longer tell the time. He frowns slightly at the sight. She used to wear a wristband on that arm that he had given to her.
Yoshida glances down at the article.
'SHIMURA NANA WITHDRAWALS FROM U19 NATIONAL HPSC TOURNAMENT'.
"We can always call Mari if you want to compete, Nana. There's still time if you've changed your mind."
Her hand freezes at the words, now just curled into a tight fist. Charcoal eyes darker than a starless night sky look up at him. He swallows.
"Changed my mind?" She mumbles.
His eyes flick back to the article and then back to his daughter.
She slowly pushes the article closer to him, "How can you still think everything is just fine, dad? Why can't you see what's right in front of you?"
He raises his hands defensively, "Nana if you want to take a quick break that's completely fine-"
"Enough," the teen pleads, "I just.." she bites her lip, her curled fist now shaking at her side, "How can you still not get it? Taking a quick break, dad? Do you think that will make everything alright? That's just-" The shaking in her fist stops and her shoulders slump.
Yoshida wasn't blind. He could see the way her eyes had clouded over the past few months. How they wouldn't shine when talking about the next super move she would build into her repertoire for the upcoming tournament. Now her focus seemed to be captured by the select media sources that had viciously turned against her, all trying to one-up each other on the stories they could find on the former golden girl of Japan. He understood that her life wasn't what it once was but he still had time to fix the situation. If he could just convince the girl that this was all just a bump in the road, everything would be okay.
Everything would still be on track.
Yoshida slowly rises from his seat and approaches as if he were a trainer not trying to startle a frightened animal. His daughter continues to stare at her feet as he gently places his hands on her shoulders. He smiles slightly, noting how tall she had gotten. How his little girl had become so big in front of his eyes.
How Nana looked more and more like her every day.
"Please." She whispers, her eyes obscured by the bangs that hung over her face, "Please give this up, dad."
He held her firm, hoping she didn't notice the flinch he made at her words. Did she still not see the future that was in front of her? The future they had both worked so hard for over the past years? He just needed her to hold on. He just needed her to trust him.
He just needed her to stay with him.
"Nana, all I want in this world is your happiness. All I want in this world is for your dreams to come true, for you to become the hero you were always meant to be!"
"Is that my dream?" she asks. He feels her shoulders now slightly shaking under his hands, "Or is that just your dream?"
In an instant, Nana pulls away with strength that causes Yoshida to stumble back into the chair he had been sitting in only moments ago. She eyes him wearily.
"Your happiness was the only thing I've ever wanted dad; everything I've done has been for you. Can you say that you have lived your life the same way? Has everything you've done been for my sake? Or has it been for someone else's?!"
His tongue feels dry in his mouth as he begins to see cracks in the life he had built so meticulously. He was practically there. She was almost perfect.
"It's always been for you, Nana. I swear it, so please don't give up on me, please don't give up on our future when we're so close to you becoming who you were destined to be."
"Destined?! Or is it actually you that just made me this way?!" She spits out, tone hovering near venomous, before gritting her teeth and turning abruptly to leave the room.
He shakes slightly at the sight of her leaving, "W-Where are you going?"
The teen makes no effort to respond as she grabs the backpack that sat by the coffee table in the living room, slinging it over her shoulder and then leaving with a slam of their front door. The father watches for a moment before his eyes turn to a photo that hangs across from him in the kitchen.
A baby Nana was swaddled in his arms, Ayana wrapped around his right arm with her head leaning against his shoulder. The look she was making toward the camera had always been one that he thought was so loving.
Now it felt mocking.
Before he could think twice, he launched a glass that was sitting beside him at the framed picture, causing both to shatter loudly.
His hands wrapped themselves around his head, a sense of frustration rising so strongly from his stomach he couldn't stop the sob that fell from his lips.
"Why does this keep happening?!"
His shoulders shook violently as the emotions he had kept under wraps for most of his life slowly rose to the surface once again. The broken man slowly slides off the chair and curls into himself on the cool tile flooring. No one is there to comfort him.
Shimura Yoshida is alone.
'If time is just a flat circle, when will you finally come back to me, Mai?'
~Revelations~
It was almost sundown when they locked the door of meeting room 3-G. The library at UA had emptied out over an hour ago, only a select group of students choosing to stay in the building at that point of the day. Most others had training to complete or friends to see. Most others weren't like those in the room this evening.
Hado Nejire glanced out the lone window for a moment, noticing that it didn't seem like any other figures were approaching the library before giving a slight nod and turning to the rest of their group.
"How are you guys?" Togata asked as he slowly slipped his books into the backpack beside himself, "Feel like we haven't had much time to chat since the whole thing went down in Nagoya."
"Fine," Amajiki mumbled while absently picking at a loose thread of his jacket, "It's just crazy seeing stuff like that happen, right?"
Sonozaki Mion turned to the quiet teen, "The downtown was destroyed, wasn't it? I remember seeing pictures on the news about that shopping center that was leveled."
"Mion, weren't you actually supposed to be in Nagoya?" All eyes turn to Nejire who fiddles with one of the bracelets on her arm, "I remember you saying you were going to visit a friend that lived around there, right?"
Sonozaki nods slowly, "I was but something with my father's work popped up and he needed me at home, so I wasn't able to make it." The girl chuckles with no real emotion, "Guess I got kinda lucky there, didn't I?"
"Is your friend alright?" The blonde rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably, "The one that was in Nagoya?"
Mion glances to the side of the room, away from the others, "She was fine but she had a little bother…" The teen slowly crumpled and uncrumpled the material of the skirt she wore, "He's still in the hospital. They're not sure if he'll be able to walk again."
Tamaki squirms slightly in his seat, his foot bouncing under the table, "Has it ever been this bad before? It s-seems like everything's just falling in on itself and we're just-"
"Hey," Mirio interrupts, as gently as he could, "We'll all be alright, Sir says that they have a plan for the Kaiju. That Hawks and Miruko will have it taken care of in no time."
"You really think so?" Mion asks, frowning slightly. "They've been on this case for how long now? And what do they have to show for it?"
Hado continues to twist the bracelets around her wrist, "Maybe they do have information and they just don't want it leaked to the public ya' know? Like, don't want the Villain Factory to think that they're on to them."
Amajiki looks back at the girl, "Villain Factory?"
She nods in response, "That's what Shingo called them in his press conference a few days afterward."
Shion turned back to Mirio, "Has Nighteye said anything else off the record? Like things he says you shouldn't be telling to any of us?"
Togata shrugs, "Nope. He honestly doesn't talk much about the case at all. Seems like he's kinda out of the loop on it."
Amajiki frowns, "Doesn't he work at the HPSC though? Why wouldn't they include one of the better investigative heroes in a case like that?"
"Beats me!" Mirio chuckles slightly, "I don't really get it much myself but Sir doesn't seem to be bothered by it all that much; it lets him focus on Team One instead."
Nejire eyes light up slightly at the words, "Team One? That's the thing with Miruko and Hawks, right? Does he want you to be on it?"
"I don't really know, actually." The blonde looks down at his hands, layered in thin scarring, "He sometimes talks about it as if I was already going to be a member. And then there are other times when he speaks on how the HPSC is only looking for people that are attending their own academies to be on it. Kinda like he's waiting for something to happen which will decide how things turn out."
Sonozaki scrunched her face at the words, "He's waiting for something to happen? Like for Hawks and Mirko to finally catch the Villain Factory?"
"Maybe," Mirio sighs, "He's hard to read most of the time."
Tamaki pulls at some of the hair in front of his eyes, "What about that thing from two weeks ago? That was kind of weird too, right?"
A moment of confusion clouds Mirio's face before it all lights up again, "Oh the dinner thing? I guess it was kinda weird at the time but nothing ever came from it. I remember thinking I was going to get food poisoning or something..."
Nejire twirled her finger slowly through her wavy hair, "Why did you think that again, was he a bad cook or something?"
"No, he just kept asking me afterward how I was feeling or if I felt strange at all. I asked him about it and all he said was that he was trying a new recipe, but…" The teen trails off, a slight look of discomfort lingering on his face.
"Maybe it was just another one of his weird jokes?" Nejire ponders.
"We can talk about something else if you'd like, Mirio." Sonozaki turns to him with a slight smile and he returns it with a nod, "I'm guessing none of you have found anything on Tenko or Tomura, right?"
Mirio clears his throat, "Nope, I've got nothing. The best bet would be that he's at least not criminally active right now, otherwise, we'd have something on what he's up to or where to find him."
Nejire nods slowly, "Ryukyu doesn't know anything either," she looks back to Mion, "I don't think Tomura has done enough yet to warrant the heroes to give their time to him."
"I guess that's a good thing though, isn't it?" Mion glances down at the prosthetic on her right arm. Her father had given her a resized version only a few weeks ago. It still felt foreign to her body.
"S-Stain is what Fatgum seems to only be focused on right now," Tamaki voices quietly, "I think most heroes think he's the most immediate threat for people here outside of the Villain Factory."
After another long pause, Nejire sighs lightly, "Well, maybe we've been going about this wrong." The others look curiously at her as her eyes flick to Mion, "Right now, Shigaraki could be anywhere, so instead of continuing to look for a needle in a haystack, we could focus on something more certain. We could look somewhere we know he's been."
"My house?" Mion looks at the group for a moment before she instantly straightens herself in her chair, "Of course! I mean I've looked all over the place when Tenko first disappeared but I was just a kid there, and with you three all having investigative experience, we could totally find where my dad kept any records of the adoption!"
The three heroes in training blush slightly at the compliment, Mirio recovering first with a shaky laugh, "No guarantee we find anything, but I agree with Nejire! And if we learn more about how that went down, maybe we'll get a better idea of where to look next?"
Tamaki and Hado both nod at the words.
Mion smiles brightly at the crew, "Great! I think my parents will both be away for business a couple of weeks from now; I'll have you all come over then and we'll turn the place over for information."
"S-sounds like a plan," Amajiki confirms.
Nejire slowly reaches over and places her hand on top of Mion's, "Who knows maybe we get closer to finding him than Midnight and Eraserhead!"
The green-haired girl nods at that, a bitter taste in her mouth, "That'd be nice, wouldn't it? I can't help that they're hiding something behind our back ya' know?"
Mirio shrugs, "They've got their mission and we've got ours. And I bet that they can't be that further in their search that we are right now; it's not like they got the guy on speed dial right?"
The crew laughs at the joke, with a firm plan now being set for their future.
~Revelations~
"Nomu?" The word is foreign on the tongue of Tomura Shigaraki as he studies the small black notebook that sits in his hands. His eyes curiously scan over the shoddy penmanship that walks through the original ideation of the creatures that were now destroying Japan. He frowns slightly at the words written at the bottom of the page.
With Master's quirk, the ability to add multiple quirk factors into the subject should be within our grasp!
The young man looks back up to the two who stand roughly ten meters away. The group found themselves in an abandoned train yard outside of Yokohama. They had called Tomura earlier, with him eventually agreeing to meet after a plan formed in his head on how to best handle where they currently were with the lost children. He scans one more page that details the expected functioning of the brain while under the stress of multiple quirks before closing the book.
"Don't want to read anymore?" Eraserhead asks, the bottom half of his face buried under the wrappings of his binding cloth. He stood with a slouched posture, with hands shoved into his pockets, scraggly black hair swaying slightly in the light breeze in the area. He appeared at ease but Tomura knew better than to let his guard down.
Next to Eraserhead stood a woman of matching height, with long blue hair, and a heavy gray overcoat that covered her torso and the top part of her long legs. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest, fingers on her left hand pulling slightly at the fraying edge of the same side sleeve of the coat. She wore bright red glasses that served as an interesting contrast to the mellow color tones for the rest of her outfit.
He frowns slightly at the memory of her smirk when they had first met moments ago, his eyes lingering on her for a moment longer than they should've as he tried to put together just who it was Eraserhead brought to their meeting. In reality, he really shouldn't have been surprised.
Tomura tosses the book back in the direction of the pro hero Midnight, who blinks for a moment, almost surprised that he was giving it back, before snatching it with her left hand.
"I think I got the gist," Shigaraki rasps before looking back to Eraserhead, "Multiple quirks shoved into the brain, which explains the time limits they're currently on before falling apart."
Aizawa looks back at the kid, dressed in an oversized hoodie that hid his upper body and face. His pale blue bangs fell just above his ruby eyes, with chapped lips pulled into a straight line making his face unreadable. Shota didn't miss the fresh medical tape that had been applied to the kid's neck.
"Does any of it ring a bell?" Midnight asks the teen, "Only one person in Japan has that described ability, and if what they say is true, you were the closest to him before he died."
Tomura's mouth twitches slightly at the words and he looks down at his red shoes, "I didn't know anything about this. Doesn't seem like something that fits his quest line since I started living with him."
Shigaraki then turns to the figure next to him that seems to sway slightly in the wind, "What about you Kurogiri? Does this ring any bells for you?"
The caretaker stands slightly to the right of his ward, yellow eyes flickering slightly in the purple mist, "I believe I may know who wrote this book, actually."
Eraserheads eyes widened at the confession, "And who might that be?"
The butler looks at the two heroes, surveying them for a long moment. Both Eraserhead and Midnight meet his gaze from across the trainyard, a vague sense of familiarity lingering at the moment.
"All for One regarded him as the Doctor, nothing more than that. The man was a portly thing, that looked at my master as if he were a god." Kurogiri pauses for a moment, "Or at least that's how it was at first. But over time the relationship eventually soured and All for One let the Doctor walk away without killing him under the instruction to never contact him again."
"So how did he get the All for One quirk then?" Midnight asks.
The caretaker shrugs, "I don't know. My best guess would be that the Doctor made some sort of lesser version as a copy. Seems like he still hasn't been able to perfect the original quirk."
"Original quirk?" Shigaraki mutters, turning to the butler, "You think the doctor could bring back All for One?"
Kurogiri stays rooted to the ground, eyes seemingly looking far beyond the two heroes that stood in front of them, "The All for One quirk could come back someday, yes. But even if the Doctor can finally bring that ability back to its full power, he's still missing something awfully important."
The group goes silent at the thought. Eraserhead looks back toward Tomura who sports a thin frown, eyes locked on the ground in front of him. It didn't take long for him to become certain that this was the real Shigaraki Tomura, not another clone made by Multiplier, a showing of trust that the heroes would arrest him on sight. And while Shota and Midnight had already agreed on not trying to bring him in at this time, he couldn't deny the feeling of apprehension that lingered in his stomach at the thought of letting the kid go.
When would he see him next? What kind of trouble will the kid stir up while on his own? Would the blood that ends up on Shigaraki's hands be on his own as well for not deciding to stop him when he had the chance? The teacher swallows and looks to his coworker, also deep in thought, still holding the black notebook in her hand. He nods slowly, finding the answer to the bulter's thought.
"A vessel," Aizawa murmurs, "So that's what the Nomus are for then? He's trying to perfect a body to be able to reign in the full power of All for One."
Kurogiri hums again, "That would be my theory, but the doctor was rather erratic with thoughts while working with Master, so I would take it with a grain of salt."
Midnight snorts at the words, "You don't think very highly of the Doctor do you?"
"A brilliant mind that resides in a mostly broken man. I would guess that there's someone else at the Villain Factory that's pulling his strings; he's always just been a follower."
Shigaraki sighs, "So we have nothing then, right? A portly Doctor that could literally be anywhere in Japan, and isn't the actual leader of the Villain Factory." He turns back to the heroes, skeptically, "What's your next move then?"
Eraserhead rolls his neck slowly, "We'll go to someone that most likely knows more about this than we already do." Then frowning, "I bet he knows all about this meeting as well."
Kayama scans the trainyard once more, still no sign of visitors present, before looking down at her overcoat, "You think he planted a bug on us?"
Aizawa groans at the thought.
"Am I missing something?" Tomura asks, looking at the two with suspicion, "Who the hell are you talking about?"
Kurogiri coughs beside him, "I believe they may be referencing the principal at UA, Tomura."
"The rat?" Shigaraki mumbles before turning back to the heroes, lips turning into a slight grin, "You both act like you're scared of him."
Midnight's eyes snap back to him, "You've clearly never met him before, otherwise you'd think differently."
The group falls into silence once more. Clouds hang lazily overhead, and a flicker of lightning in the distance tells them that rain is on the way. Shigaraki, after another moment turns back to the caretaker and nods slightly. Aizawa and Midnight then watch curiously as Kurogiri opens a portal about a foot in diameter which the boy then sticks his arm in. After a moment he pulls back out, now with a manilla folder in his hand.
"This is all the information we have on the missing kids," He tosses the folder lightly and watches it fall on the tracks a few feet from the heroes, "Including the full list that I found originally."
Eraserhead gazes at the folder before looking back at the kid, "What changed your mind?"
Tomura shrugged, looking back down at the tracks, "I want to know what happened to those guys, and…" he trails off face tightening, "And I don't think I'll have the time to do much anymore."
"Time?" Midnight questions, one hand resting on her hip, "What are you planning, Shigaraki?"
Shiagarki pulls his hands out of his pockets, looking down at the black material that covers his outer fingers, "I'm done with how things are."
Shota narrows his eyes. "That's a quick way to get yourself killed, kid."
Tomura matches his glare, "I'm not an idiot, I know what I'm doing is right."
"Right?" Eraserhead scoffs, "Becoming a terrorist because it feels right? Give me a break."
A crack is heard overhead. Rain begins to fall.
Shigaraki takes a shaky breath, fingers curling on the cuffs of his sweatshirt, "All you heroes talk about what's right, but fail to ever take the action needed to make the world a better place. Do you think things are fine the way they are?"
"We're not blind," Nemuri cuts in, her eyes blazing in Shigaraki's direction, "But there are ways that we can go about this that don't incite violence that could lead to the innocent being killed."
"But the innocent are already being killed!" Tomura seethes, eyes glancing down at the manilla folder that still sits between them, "Innocents get killed every single day here; it's time these deaths start meaning something!"
"We can't save everyone," Aizawa's cold eyes are enough to make Shigaraki still, the rain now plummeting down on the group, "But we'll try our best to save as many as we can while trying to make to world a better place because that's what being a hero is."
By now Shigaraki's sweater clings to his frame, soaked from the storm that roars on top of them. Lighting crackles from above.
"Can't save everyone, huh?" Tomura's hands shake by his sides, curled into fists, "What a bullshit way of justifying your failures."
The heroes recoil at the statement as if struck. Tomura continues to fidget in a quiet rage, eyes now obscured by soaked pale blue hair.
"I hate that." He hisses, "People like All Might would put on a show to make the impossible seem possible, but when one life slips through the cracks, when one measly child wanders the street and can't find a soul to help him, you all just shrug your shoulders and say we can't save everyone. It's hypocrisy!"
Another crack echoes overhead, light flashing enough to illuminate the gritting teeth of the younger man, his entire body coiled as if it were a tight spring waiting to jump at a moment's notice.
"What would you want us to do instead, then?" Nemuri asks softly, taking a slight step forward.
Tomura startles at the question, taking a shaky step backward, "Huh?"
Seeing the reaction, Midnight chooses to halt her advance, her blue hair sticking to her face in uneven clumps, "Would you rather us not try at all? To let Darwinism run its course and let the weak die and the strong prevail? What do you want from heroes and this world, Shigaraki?"
"I…" Tomura pauses, mouth dry at the thought, "I w-want…" His brain buzzed from the question and the world spun.
What do I want? What am I chasing? If I rejected this world, what do I want to replace it with?
People and places begin to flash in his mind with no clear direction or message. Static rises in his ears and he can taste bile at the back of his throat.
Shakily, Shigaraki takes out his left hand and begins to scratch again at his neck, his fingernails clawing at the medical tape before finally reaching his scabbed skin, grounding him back to where he stood. His mouth twists into an uncomfortable frown as he realizes he can't answer Midnight's question.
"It's okay to be angry, kid." Eraserhead calls out, eyes far softer now watching the boy fold in on himself, "But you'll need more than anger to ever change anything in this world."
"I-I just…" Shigaraki's voice trails off again as the wind picks back up. His eyes slowly lift back up to the heroes, revealing far more pain and confusion than should've been there for a person of his age.
Aizawa takes a step forward, "You can come with-"
"I believe it would be best to retreat, Tomura" Kurogiri cuts in, a wispy hand slowly prying Shigaraki's twitching fingers from his neck, "You need to rest. You've had a busy past few days."
"H-Huh?" The man suddenly snaps out of his fog, looking to the butler and down to his hand and the dried blood that resided on his fingernails. Hadn't he cleaned his hands this morning?
Shota can't help but frown at the sight as Shigaraki offers the two one last glance before being guided through the inky mist that had expanded before him. It only took a moment for him to vanish entirely, leaving only the manilla folder that lay soaked on the tracks in front of the two heroes.
For a moment the two teachers stood in silence, trying to understand the event that took place. Deep in thought, they both missed a mist slowly forming where the Shigaraki once stood.
"You would save Tomura if it came to it, correct?"
Aizawa nearly choked on his spit as he glanced back up from the folder, revealing that the caretaker still stood before them. The rain and dark clouds made it impossible to see any of his body outside of the piercing yellow eyes that flicked between Nemuri and himself.
"W-What?" Kayama stutters.
The voice is soft yet carries over the rain as if it wasn't even there, "There may be a day in the future when you'll need to help them. Will you stand by their side?"
"Them?" Aizawa retorts, "What are you talking about? You can't expect me to answer something so vague." He finished the thought by taking a slow breath to steady himself.
However, any calming effort is lost from what hears next.
A gentle laugh echoes out from the cloud, and Aizawa can't even hide the shock on his face.
"That is something you would say, Shota! Maybe if I speak up like this, you'll listen to me more closely."
He vaguely hears Nemuri suppress a teary gasp as he abruptly collapses to his knees at the statement. The words bounce around in his brain; tone and accent almost identical to a ghost he hadn't seen in over ten years. Aizawa opens his mouth but no words come out.
"W-What the hell are you!?" Kayama sounds shrill and empty, recognizing the voice as easily as he can. The rain collapses on top of the trio, the roar of mother nature becoming almost unbearable.
"Tomura and Izuku must live. Promise me that, okay?"
It feels as if there is a rag in his throat, so dry he can't even gag out a response. His fingers claw at the mud in front of him and his shoulder begins to shake at the words.
I saw you die, Oboro. Why are you back now?
He swallows his breath, finally emitting a shaky cough as he struggles to pull himself to his knees. Slowly he blinks the rainwater out of his eyes, revealing an empty train yard. The manilla folder was now by his side.
"Was that S-Shirakumo?!" He hears his partner choke out from a few feet away.
"I…" He trails off, gagging again as memories from that day flood his mind. The smell of blood was so strong, he thought it would never leave his nose. Crushed pieces of bone scattered across the floor. His own screaming that left him feeling as if his lungs had been torn apart.
With a shaky hand, his fingers reached out and slowly pulled out the folder that had been wedged into the mud underneath them.
Shota Aizawa grits his teeth and slowly climbs to his feet, taking a glance at Midnight, who stood with her hands still on her knees.
"Let's get going." He turns back toward the car that was parked at the edge of the yard, slowly placing one foot in front of the other.
"We've got work to do."
~Revelations~
"It didn't take."
Arakawa Shingo snorts at the defeated tone of the speaker as he leans back in his chair, cell phone placed to his ear.
"Are you done with your games now, Mirai? How many times have I told you to quit believing there will be a different result?"
He hears a drawn-out sigh on the other end of the call, "Togata was different. I really thought the kid would-"
"The kid would do what, Sasaki?" Shingo interrupts, his words absolute, "Bring back a ghost from the grave? Give you what you've been missing all these years? I don't care what that buffoon told you all those years ago, there is no way that it'll come back again."
The line goes quiet again. Shingo looks out the window of his office to see the clouds beginning to part. It looked like the storm was finally clearing up.
"What if I find someone else?"
"Someone else?" The President of the HPSC questions, "Who else is there, Nighteye? You've tried it on Hawks, Miruko, your apprentice; who else is left? Who else would be, how do you say it, again? Worthy?"
"I…" The hero trails off again in thought, no obvious answers coming to mind.
"Do whatever you want, Mirai. Nothing will change."
Arakawa Shingo cuts the line and drops his cell phone back on his desk. His eyes glide over to the paper that the hero he had just talked to sent over earlier. Information on the test he had recently run on the Togata boy.
He rereads some of the scratch wording, written in scribbled red ink.
The subject failed to show any sign of abnormal development after DNA of [REDACTED] was ingested into the body.
He'd let Nighteye continue with his games for now as long as it kept him from sticking his nose into any of the real moves that were being carried out behind closed doors. The moves that would make his dreams a reality.
Arakawa Shingo's lips curl into a vicious smirk as he glances over the final note on the page. It was another truth that made him all the more confident that there would be no person or power in the country that would be able to stop the world he would create.
The subject is declared incompatible with the quirk known as ONE FOR ALL.
Author Notes
- Not the most action packed chapter, but hopefully I included enough teasers to keep you all on your toes!
- We'll hopefully revisit that last section soon to learn more about how these tests Nighteye is running came about.
- I've got a plan for the Big 3, so you'll have to bear with me as I keep pulling them back into the story.
- One more chapter left of this intro arc - I'll see you guys soon, and thanks for reading!