She should just walk past. She really should.
It doesn't matter that he's been groomed into the position he's in, or that he has good reasons to hate the world. What matters is all the suffering and pain he's going to cause on his path. Or at least, that's what people would say, if they knew what she was thinking about doing.
But after seeing his past in those flashback scenes, how people just walked by… she couldn't. It was impossible. It was like jabbing a hot poker into her eye. It hurt just to think about. Really, she blamed the author. How could he lay out the Villains' motivations and then just come to the conclusion that they'd be murderers without conscience rather than an organized mafia-like group that was trying to change the world?
As she walks into the alleyway where a completely hand-less Shigaraki is slumped against a wall, panting and bleeding… she wonders why the villains weren't just anti-heroes instead of actually villainous. It would've really sent the message home a lot better, wouldn't it?
"Hang on, hang on," she kneeled by his side. "I have a healing Quirk- or well, I have a Quirk that does a lot of things, and one of them is healing." She's babbling and doesn't know why. Nerves don't make her babble. Or at least not usually. "So just stay calm and don't clench anything up, and I'll stop the bleeding."
Reaching out to him, she pressed her fingertips to the pulse-point on his throat. It's thready and weak. He lifts his head slightly to glare at her with those ruby reds and she whispers, "heal!" His shivering body was so cold, already. Even though it didn't seem like he'd lost that much blood yet.
'He's so skinny and malnourished,' she thinks. 'Blood loss is extra dangerous. Like it was for me, in the hospital when they drew after I was poisoned…'
It didn't take long after the glow faded, for her to slump and collapse into the wall next to him, her body slumped over so much that she was essentially... "Ugh… it… sorry…"
She hadn't intended to half-collapse on top of him. He might decay her just to get her off, after all. He was that kind of person. But she was also this kind of person- so even if she dies like this… at least she wasn't a bystander. The worst kind of person, to her mind.
The darkness encroaching upon her consciousness was only disrupted by a slight shifting and then… she fell into it. Completely.
When the darkness surrounding her began to pulse as if with a heartbeat, she was finally able to see something. But it wasn't with her eyes. She could tell. Everything was floating around her like gravity had been broken. She was dreaming, or hallucinating or…
Ping!
A notification springs up.
Hidden Quest completed!
When she looks, it says something, but she can't see what it is. Or what the quest rewards are.
It just says 'completed' and…
She wakes with a start, blinking her eyes hard and gripping the things he's lying on. Which is a couch. A couch with leather upholstery. As she sits up, her fingers basically suction-cup to the surface and have to be torn away.
'Ugh, if only they'd covered it with a sheet, it wouldn't be so bad,' she thinks.
"Ah, you are awake," a cultured, even voice calls out to her from behind. "If you would be so kind as to relocate to the bar, I am quite busy cleaning."
Blinking again, this time to try and make the bar around her disappear- she stands up and turns around. Looking at everything with wide eyes.
'Oh dear god, League of Villains HQ,' she thinks as she walks around the sofa and toward… the man with a head of shadows, standing just behind the counter in the bar. He seems to be scrubbing blood off of the surface.
"Did you stitch him here?" just pops out of her mouth. "Is this place sterile?"
"Fear not," he replies. "Shigaraki Tomura, lives. And his wounds have been disinfected. I keep my bar spotless."
"Spotless and sterile are different," she says and sits on one of the stools, figuring why not. In for a penny, in for a pound. "But as long as there's not any sticky gunk on the countertop, I guess it's fine. As long as he's got a strong immune system."
"Kurogiri," he introduces himself and reaches out a hand to her.
She takes it, with some hesitation. Marveling at the fact that his hands are solid, even though they're made of shadows. "Wow," she mutters before remembering that it's rude not to answer an introduction in Japanese culture. "Um… M-my name is Naomi. Naomi Lightwood. I'm American, so the name order is reversed…"
"Ahhh," he nods, glowing eyeslits narrowing slightly. "Lightwood-san, thank you for saving my ward. I was distressed when I could not pinpoint his location. You allowed him the strength to text me, that was very helpful. I brought you here so that you would not be left on the ground. And also so that no one could report the unlicensed usage of your quirk."
"...how do you know I'm unlicensed?" she asks. Wondering if they've already dug up her identity.
"Your Quirk usage knocked you unconscious," he says, as if it's obvious. "But Shigaraki Tomura was barely healed by it. That speaks of inexperience."
"Well," she says, flushing up to the roots of her hair. "That's embarrassing."
"It was strange, though," he says. "Even those who only ever use their Quirks rarely and for themselves, would have had better resistance than you did. Have you never in your life, used it before?"
"I only just got it," she replies. "I had a car crash and it… uh… activated, suddenly. Probably to protect me from death. They say that happens sometimes." And she would know, since she looked it up.
"I see," he nods slowly. Or at least she thinks he's nodding. "Ah… Shigaraki Tomura."
She jolts inwardly, but tries not to let it show on the outside. 'Ahhhh, am I about to die? I've had a really shitty life. I want to live, damn it.'
Turning slowly on her stool, she blinks when she sees him. Because he looks different than she'd thought he would. A lot like he did when she was trying to heal him. Wobbly, skinny and pale.
Like a normal person, dealing with the aftermath of a stabbing.
His eyes pierced her when he lifted his head just enough to see her through his hair. "Why'd you bring her here, Kurogiri? You could've just warped her to a hospital."
"It would've been difficult for her to explain what she'd done to get in such a state," Kurogiri explains. "It would have been poor form to allow the person who saved your life to get arrested for unlicensed quirk usage."
He makes a discontented noise, but he doesn't say anything else.
"Uh… I can try using heal again," she says. "If you've got something for me to eat, I can avoid passing out. I just didn't have any food on me when I found you."
"Eating fuels your Quirk, then," Kurogiri instantly dips below the bar and pops up with nuts, pretzels and even some chips.
"It's uh…" she realizes she can endear Shigaraki to her rather easily, if she tells the truth. "It's more like a 'mana potion' of sorts? My Quirk is like a game system. I have a mana bar, and food fills it up."
She was correct. His head tilts and raises some more, but she tries not to look. Paying attention to the food on the countertop.
"How interesting," Kurogiri says with what looks like a smile in his glowing eye-slits. "How long ago did you discover your Quirk?"
"Oh, it's been six months, but I was laid up in the hospital the whole time," she replies with a smile as she cracks open a bag of… well, it's a lot like those chex mixes from back home, but all pretzel sticks and… those little rods of some kind of bread. She picked the mustard dusted ones because they're the flavor she likes most on these things. "So I guess you could say I've been practicing for two weeks?"
"And you already know how to replenish your Quirk," Kurogiri says.
"I didn't know that was illegal," she says, honestly. "I thought they punished you for using it to hurt people, even if it was self-defense- which is dumb, but… I didn't know healing was also off-limits."
"Heh," Shigaraki huffs and walks over to the bar, gingerly sitting upon one of the stools as far from her as he can get without being up against the wall. "Like the law should make sense?"
"I mean, it should," she says. "But somehow it never does. Do all the people who make the laws, just have no sense of what should and shouldn't be illegal? Do they base everything on popularity polls?"
"Probably," he says. He sounds tired. Slumping over the counter, I can see his legs… he's itching. His foot is rubbing against his opposite shin, like Naomi used to do when she was dealing with intense anxiety. Except she did it barefoot against bare skin. To really feel the scrape of her toenails against her skin. It was soothing.
'Never really connected his skin disorder to my old habits before, but now that I see it… I can't unsee it.'
"Why did you help me?" he asks, catching her off-guard.
She pauses in eating and glances up at her mana bar. It's full again, but she'll need to eat a handful of pretzels just before casting, to try and avoid passing out.
It's probably the kind of probing question he asks everyone because he has no sense of social… anything. Ordinarily a person would just assume they did it out of the kindness of their heart or because they wanted something from them, depending upon circumstance. But since he can't 'read' the situation, or so she assumes…
'Probably also his first instinct to make an enemy of other people before they can turn away from him,' she thinks. 'Because then, you never had hope they would help you at all.'
"I don't want to be a bystander," she replies. Reaching for the pretzel basket and pulling it over. "I don't know how many times I was treated badly in broad daylight and nobody did anything about it. We're supposed to look out for each other. It sucks that nobody actually behaves the way they should. You shouldn't have to be a 'hero' to help someone. I mean, in games you're not usually a 'destined hero' anyways, right?"
She chews on pretzel after pretzel, waiting for some kind of response. She figured referencing games would get him to respond.
It takes a minute, but he eventually does. "No, I guess not. That trope went out of style a while ago."
Naomi is not a particularly brave person. Sitting here having a conversation with him is only possible because she knows a few things. One: He needs her to heal him. Two: He might just be thinking about recruiting her for her healing Quirk- which is not going to happen, but he doesn't need to know that… and Three: Kurogiri seems to respect certain rules and exchanges. Which means he'll try to talk Shigaraki out of doing anything 'dishonorable' by villain standards.
"Nowadays it's all 'ordinary' people endowed with a sudden rush of power, or people who train until they have god-like abilities," she says. "Or someone belonging to a royal or noble lineage who was outcast from the family."
She actually knows that for certain, because she games basically incessantly so… she looked up all the titles she could and bought like three games that were supposedly part of the social zeitgeist of their time. The really big ones that everyone has played, essentially. It helped her to learn Japanese in those last few weeks in the hospital.
Though she thinks this world has wayyy different trends than back home, considering the amount of 'Healer becomes a killer' stories they had in there… that was a thing, but not really a trend so far as she can recall.
"I prefer the anti-hero protagonists," he replies, perking up at the discussion topic. "Especially when they're right, and it's not just a game about what a terrible person they are."
"I love those," she says, honestly a bit flummoxed. Shouldn't he hate anything 'hero' even if it was a violent anti-hero? Anti-heroes are just heroes who don't adhere to the moral rules of heroism. Like 'never kill anyone no matter what'. Their motivations are heroic just the same, though. "I can always agree with the stance that 'society needs to change'. Whether or not I agree with their methods usually has to do with how much of a dumbass they are."
He rests his head on his fist, blinking heavily. "What?"
"I really hate dumb heroes and villains in games, I mean," she replies. "Hang on, let me try this spell now."
Getting up, she walks over and presses her fingers to his pulse point again, like before. Trying to avoid staring into the eyes that are staring at her again. "Heal!"
As soon as the spell is cast, she turns and grabs a handful of pretzels, quickly eating one after the other as her mana bar falls. It slows, and slows… until eventually it starts to fill again. Swallowing, she sighs and pauses in her eating. "It worked!"
"Mm," Shigaraki mumbles, face down on the counter.
"Oh, damn," she frowns. "He's uh… gonna be tired. Healing always tires you out. Even using my energy, apparently. I need to train this more. Maybe I could get more charges out of it if I did…"
"If you ever have need of assistance," Kurogiri says. "Please, return here."
"Thanks," she says and slowly stands. "I gotta get home now. See you!"
'I am never~ coming back~'