Hawks and Dabi had been keeping a close eye on Shigaraki ever since that weird period of time several months prior where they felt like he was emotionally disconnecting. Luckily, they hadn't seen anything even close to that happening again.
Shigaraki had pulled Denki aside to talk, and then it was like he emerged from that room like Denki had hit the restart button on the video game of Shigaraki's mindset or something.
Hawks and Dabi had tried to talk to Shigaraki about it a few times, both separately and together, but Shigaraki brushed them off every time, saying that Denki was handling it, whatever it was that had been bothering him so intensely. Dabi worried a lot; he had seen Shigaraki keep a cool head throughout the whole Overhaul situation, even after Chisaki had murdered their friend right in front of them, so it had to have been something big to shake Shigaraki that thoroughly. But Dabi had a lot of faith in Denki's capabilities, even more so when Shigaraki showed such blind trust toward him as well that a single conversation with the electric hero was able to cast away all of the doubt that was hanging over his head like a death sentence.
Still, they felt like they were close to losing him before, so they showered him with extra love, affection, and attention. They noticed the switch immediately when it happened.
They had been at the base, playing video games as usual. Denki had even joined them for the game as Hawks, Neito, and Hitoshi lounged around playing cards instead, joking around that they actually had a chance now that Denki was occupied with something else.
They had been surrounded by the opposite team and they were outnumbered, but that was rarely an issue with how cohesively they worked as a team and how skilled they were at the familiar game, but in the middle of the shoot-out, Shigaraki just stopped, staring straight ahead.
Neito's phone rang. He glanced at the phone, ready to ignore it, but then quickly picked it up when he saw the caller ID.
"Phantom Thief," he announced into the phone, positioning it between his ear and shoulder as he continued to rearrange the cards in his hand and watch the faces of his companions before glancing over at the trio on the couch and the screen where they were being obliterated by the opposing team.
"Understood. I'm ready to move." He hung up and threw his cards down. "Gotta go. Kurogiri, can you warp me to these coordinates, please? Toga, it's go time! You coming?"
"Wouldn't miss it!" she yelped from down the hallway, rushing to get a dose of Full Throttle and good luck wishes from Isozan before running to catch up with Neito.
Neito took a second to quickly brush hands and make meaningful eye contact with Hitoshi before running over and running his fingers over the back of Denki's neck. Neito heard a door slam as he stepped through the warp gate and knew Toga would be following right behind.
"That's my cue, too," Hitoshi said, looking down as his phone chimed. "Care to warp me, as well, Kurogiri? I'm going somewhere else, though."
"Hey, I'm heading out!" Isozan called as he rushed through the room, tugging his shoes on as he went. "Meeting up with Haze and Razor! Be back later!" And out the door he went.
"What the fuck was that, Shigs?" Denki crowed dramatically. "You have a bet going on where if you lose you get kisses or something? Spoiler alert, they'll kiss you either way!" Denki said, amping up the dramatics as he waved his controller around as he turned on the couch to face Shigaraki who sat in between himself and Dabi.
Dabi just looked a little concerned. "You good, Tomura?"
"Yes," he said, shaking his head as if to clear it and blinking his eyes a few times. "I'm fine, Dabi."
Denki rolled his eyes and mocked, "I'm fine, Dabi! If you were fine, you'd be able to shoot the other team dead! What's going on, Shigs?"
Shigaraki squinted at Denki. "Did you just roll your eyes at me?"
Denki dropped his hands into his lap as his face dropped. He nodded. "Sorry, Shigaraki. I forgot myself for a moment there. It won't happen again."
Dabi looked absolutely baffled by Shigaraki's offense at the gesture that Denki routinely threw out on a regular basis, and that confusion only increased at Denki's apology like it was a regular thing to grovel when Shigaraki felt disrespected in the slightest.
"Let me make it up to you, yeah?" Denki said then, voice dropping to a husky whisper as he dropped the controller in favor of throwing a thigh over Shigaraki, toward Dabi's side of the couch who hurriedly startled back, unsure of what the fuck was happening as he watched Denki straddle Shigaraki's lap.
Was he dreaming? He pinched himself. No, not dreaming. Was Uretori's quirk acting up again and he was somehow hallucinating?
Shigaraki's gloved hands hovered in the air over Denki's thighs, then came to rest on his waist. Were they deliberately fucking with him? Because that was some messed up shit. He dared a glance in Hawks's direction only to see that Hawks looked just as wide-eyed and confused as he did, frozen at his spot where he gathered up the abandoned card game at the empty game table now that Hitoshi and Neito had made a quick exit.
"How do you plan to do that?" Shigaraki asked, tilting his head as he watched Denki with guarded eyes.
Denki placed his hands gingerly on either side of Shigaraki's head, fingers delicately lacing between strands of light blue hair. Denki leaned in close, lips centimeters from Shigaraki's own, and he smiled.
"I'd say it's nice to finally meet you in person, but then I'd be lying, All For One," he whispered.
Dabi watched Shigaraki's eyes widen and his hands jerk up, aiming for Denki's. It wouldn't have helped, Dabi knew. Denki can send electricity through his whole body. Even if Shigaraki had been able to rip his hands away from his head in time, Denki would have sent the electricity through another way.
One second, Shigaraki was slumped there, unconscious below Denki's lap. Denki's teasing, lighthearted smile was gone, and in its place was a determined expression. In the next second, with no warning, not so much as a twitch from Denki, the air crackled and lit up around the two, and with a flash and a crack of thunder, they were both gone.
-.-.-
"Is Denki with him?" Aizawa asked as the warp gate closed behind Neito and Toga, and they sped walked down the brightly lit corridor.
"Yes. It couldn't have been better timing," Neito said.
He glanced back at Toga who stayed a half-step behind, twisting her hands in front of her. It didn't go unnoticed that she kept her eyes downcast as they practically jogged past the endless doorways toward their target. He reached back and tugged a hand free from her endless wringing and squeezed it reassuringly.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you," he said. "I'm not leaving here without you."
"Hell," Aizawa said. "If this all goes according to plan, there can be three Eraserheads that leave here at the end of this. I'd like to see them try to stop us."
Toga beamed at that, shoulders finally losing some of their tension. "Let's do this." She pulled out a vial of blood, uncapped it, and tossed it back, relying on Neito's guidance while they walked to keep her moving at a steady pace in a straight line.
One moment, bottom-level Tartarus staff saw Eraserhead, Phantom Thief, and Toga Himiko rushing down the hallway toward their most secure room. The next moment, they saw Eraserhead, Phantom Thief, and another Eraserhead. Trippy.
They were met with no resistance as they were buzzed through the multiple security clearances to get into the room where the villain of the hour had just become nonresponsive a few minutes prior.
All For One was making his move, and they were going to make him regret it. They were going to make him wish he had just stayed in that cell for the rest of his life, like a good little captured villain.
At least, that was the plan.
And no one was willing to jinx it by wondering aloud what would happen if something went wrong.
Because they would all die and wouldn't have to worry about it anyway.
Neito breathed in and out forcefully through clenched teeth as he took his turn using Erasure on the unresponsive villain, waiting for something to change and hoping that nothing would, and everything would go off without a hitch. Hoping that if something did happen, their back-up plans would be enough.
This better fucking work, Neito thought, because climbing the whole way out of Hell to get to Heaven to drag Denki and Hitoshi back down with him would be a treacherous thing on his newly dead to-do list right after all this shit went down when he was still alive.
He wondered if a strongly worded email would suffice or if he'd have to clamber up to Heaven in-person to file a grievance about being separated from his soulmates.
"Chill," Toga commanded, elbowing him in the side, causing him to blink and interrupt his Erasure on All For One. It was no matter. Aizawa had taken over once again; he just hadn't noticed. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to develop a quirk through pure will-power alone. Some kind of eye-laser to drill a hole right through his head."
Neito snorted at that. Some of the tension left his shoulders. "If only it were that simple."
"Oh, but that wouldn't be very heroic of you, would it?" Toga teased. She took over Erasure duty and giggled a few seconds in. "Easy to win a staring contest against a guy with no eyes, huh?"
Neito cackled, and Aizawa looked at his companions next to him, wondering just how long they were going to be sharing his quirk in this little room, making idle, off-the-wall conversation. It was weird hearing Toga's remarks and giggling in his own voice, that was for sure. If Phantasm were in the room, he would have wondered if he was hallucinating. Trippy, indeed.