Tenko the Hero, chapter 3.
~0~
Back in UA... A war meeting was underway.
Yagi Toshinori was standing at the end of the conference table, leaning heavily on his raised Podium as he intensely stared at the majority of Class A-2.
"So... It's been five days since Midoriya went missing, again." he began, keeping his voice even and devoid of (much) anger and frustration. "Five days... and it has been about the same since a massive seismic activity had been recorded out in the southern coastal area... and today, the tracking team has found what was left of Izuku's mouth guard and not much else, in at the bottom of a crater." He spoke gravely.
Sobs were heard and the subdued class A-2 digested what had just happened.
"This is Fucking bullshit!" Katsuki (Of course) roared as he jumped out of his seat, slamming his hands to the surface. "Deku ain't dead!" He spat out as his palms popped, scorching the surface.
"Dynamight, sit down." Eraserhead hissed. " You are already in hot water for not voicing your concern about Deku's Health Issues."
"Nerd never complained, how bad was it be if he didn't complain?!" He petulant asked, somewhat reverting to how he had been before he decided it was time to man up.
Who said growing up would be easy?
"Bad enough that he chose to go and face Shigaraki alone on a suicide mission then following Ai-Eraserhead's plan, Kero." Tsuyu spoke up quietly.
A chill went over the class.
How badly had they messed up? They had all noticed how pale Midoriya had gotten, how he would hunch over in pain... how he would shuffle along instead of walking straight when he thought that no one was watching. How his appetite disappeared completely.
And yet... everything Tsu, Iida or Hitoshi would approach Izuku, the boy would assure them that everything was fine... or just smile and pat Shinso's shoulder...
Obliviously, he didn't want his purple comrade to let his quirk influence him.
"Now... while this will be a huge black mark on your overall 'stellar' conduct" Iida averted his eyes. " There's nothing we can do now." Yagi spoke sadly, appearing to age about a century over but a few seconds. " but... I fear we have something even worse on our plate." With that, the retired number one turned to the screen, and using the remote, brought up a video on the screen.
"Now, yesterday. Our surveillance camera managed to catch what seems to be an internal war with the villains. As you can see, Shigaraki here is seen slaughtering what remains of the PLF army."
and indeed, it seemed that All For One's champion had turned on them.
"As for why AFO has rebelled against them, none of us knows. We only know that a handful, and most nomus, are still loyal to that man… and that he is near indestructible."
"So... that's like... good? Or bad?" Kiyoka asked as she fiddled with one of her jacks.
"We don't know... and we have no way to try to contact him."
"And how about Aoyama's Parents?" Yaoyorozu raised her hand. " Aren't they in contact with the boogeyman?"
"And have them say what?" Satto snapped. "Eyo boss. We just wanted to check up on your ugliness to make sure nothing went wrong with your little pet project since we saw the guy slaughter a bunch of other Minions... by the way, UA lost Deku again, any clues where Brolly could be?" He snorted. "Yeah, now that would fly far."
"Still, we have to do something." Uraraka clenches her fist. "We can't just stand here and-"
"Oh, fuck!" Bakugou suddenly let out a quiet yet disturbingly heartfelt curse. Staring at the screen behind All Might with what could only be too much horror to be processed.
Shouta just sighed as he massaged the bridge of his nose tiredly... only to blench five shades whiter in reaction to the explosive blond next words.
"That's blackwhip... Shigaraki got... he got Blackwhip."
Yagi turned around and looked at the video...
"Just... rewind it a bit and look what that ass hole used to yeet Muscular... that's blackwhip."
The retired hero did as he was told... and then...
"No... Izuku... what have you done?"
~0~
"Oh no! Izuku! What have you done!" Tenko and Nana wheezed as Cathleen tried her damn best to pull Izuku out of the thick, sticky mud on the swamp area.
"I just thought... Oh, shoe, don't- aw crap, those were my favourite. I just thought I saw a quirked owl... Gah! Cold! And I wanted to check it closer... Please tell me you have a second pair of shoes?" Izuku begged as he and Aunty Cathy waded out of the mud and onto solid ground.
Tenko grinned as he gazed at his favourite hero, now freed from both of his shoes and socks and looking extremely nonplus and adorably embarrassed by the whole situation.
"Ah, I think we've all got enough nature for today. Let's head back home, shall we?" Nana spoke as she got her gales under control.
"Yes, Granana." Tenko happily chirped as he picked up his Izuku from the ground and onto his shoulders. "Alley oop!"
The sound of Izuku's laughter made his heart beat faster as he felt his cheeks flush. He really felt... happy when the greenette was with him.
They walked back to their Cabin, Izuku chatting about the essence of the different trees they passed by and their utility, filling nature's sound with his mumbling... and sometimes growing silent as he listened to the birds and the wind in the trees.
After having fought for an entire year, essentially sacrificing whatever shred was left of his childhood for the 'greater good. To move away from the conflict, the war and the ever-looming threat of messing up and having more people die on him... felt good.
It felt refreshing as if Izuku had entered a wonderful shower and washed away his fear and anguish.
It helped that Star... Cathleen was a trained therapist. As it turned out, America... Well, Canada Had learned their lessons and was giving all their heroes one crash course a year about mental health and how to calm down an anxious person, dealing with survivor guilt and all that jazz...
and what helped, even more, was how. Using her absolutely broken and ridiculously helpful quirk, Cathy had removed one quirk effect that made Izuku obsessed to the point of illness to be a Hero...
Not that he needed this to be one, since he was, by nature, heroic.
It was just pushed to an extremely dangerous level, one which would cause him harm and not trust others...
Or that was just something he sadly picked up from Yagi.
Oh, and he also had another quirk effect that made him infatuated with Bakugou Katsuki, his tormentor...
There was no other way to explain why Zuzu kept hanging out with the explosive bully. And while, yes. Nana had seen Katsuki's improvement, those improvements came at the price of Izuku's well-being.
Nevertheless. Tenko's friend felt much better, and he was less prone to blame himself for things in the past.
Now, the question was... would the effect stay after he woke up? Or would he forget all about them once he and Tenko were back in the waking world? Would he forget the town Tenko and Star had imagined, Green vale? Would he forget all of the ghosts that lived there, still attached to their quirk and unable to leave until Tenko's body perished? Would he forget the time they played in Trout lake up in the mountain? Or Nana's laughter as she went for her morning swim in the lake, enjoying the freezing cold water like the mad woman she was?
Would he forget Monchan?
"Tenko?" Izuku broke through to his friend. "Well fell behind."
Tenko stopped, looking at the empty road. "Huh... we are."
"Is everything alright?"
"Well yeah... we just have to wake up since... you know, we can't stay here forever." Tenko informed his friend and role model.
Seriously, All Might may have been his favourite Hero in the past, and Reimu his grandmother... but Deku was just...
Amazing.
On all accounts.
He had just remembered…(well, just, this had been a week ago in Greenvales' timeline.) His childhood hearing Granana's numerous stories of Heroes of old, like his Grandfather, Gran Torino and Deku, the
"Oh." Izuku sounded sad. "Right, this is... where in One for All and All For One."
"Yep! Had to make AFO better for all the ghosts that still live there... did you like it?"
"yeah! Not a fan of the name but... it was sweet of you." The greenette squeezed Tenko as he buried his face in his broad shoulders. "Can you put me down?"
"Sure." it was a dream plan, whatever happened there had no consequence to their bodies.
Once Izuku's muddy socks were on the ground, he went to Tenko's front.
'So short.' The white-haired man thought, his heart-melting at the sight. 'It's gonna be the last time I see him walk.' and the heart liquid broke into teeny, tiny pieces.
And those pieces were brought back together as the wonderful Hero Dekiru once again hugged the much taller man around his waist. "Thank you, Tenko... You... You're my hero too."
Feeling his affection swell in his heart, Tenko planted a spontaneous kiss on Izuku's forehead...
and woke up with a start as the greenette's forehead burned him.
This had the same effect as a glass of ice-cold water being thrown to his face, gone was the nice, fuzzy warmth one felt upon waking up from restful sleep, Tenko the Hero was already fully on and operational.
Calling upon a few other quirks (their previous owner, tied to them, happy to help their saviour.) and making sure his own quirk would stay off, Tenko began to scan Izuku's body, essentially running a troubleshooting program on his precious Hero.
And as expected, Izuku's fever had once again spiked... it was the flu, and it was ravaging his body.
"Oh no..." Tenko uttered in dread as he laid his hands all over Izuku's flushed face, letting another one of his numerous quirks draw away the deadly heat.
His Izuku moaned as his eyes fluttered open, their once brilliant green dept now dulled by his fever.
"Shit..." Sparing no time, Tenko used the Mental call Quirk to contact the doctor. 'Izuku has a high fever, come now and fix it.'
it may sound rude and imperious, but at the moment the child in the body of a God gave less than a penny about this.
Izuku rasped something that may have been something along the lines of... nothing much before he nuzzled in Tenko's hands, his eyes fluttering close.
The white-haired youth watched the display with great worry. Izuku had seemed fine yesterday, his fever was down, he was talking, lucid and eating...but now...
Suddenly, after what seemed to be an improvement, the fever had returned with a vengeance.
He sent a few more mental pokes at the doctor, every moment passing like an eternity.
Suddenly, he heard the huffing and puffing of the very old man, and the door flew open to reveal a person that had more in kind with a redead than the very much living doctor.
And one would excuse the Hero for screaming like a little girl at the sight, waking up his poor Izuku from his fever-induced sleep.
"What!" Garaki snapped. "What's so important that you had to poke me while I was shi- while I was at a business meeting!"
"Izuku has a high fever... and his breathing got worse."
Immediately, the zombie-like doctor lost all of his anger and concern shone on his face. He quickly went to check up on Izuku, Tenko hovering nearby. "oh... so it had started." he sighed as relief took the place of his once human feeling. "Everything is fine, Shimura-san. It is indeed a fever higher than normal, I made it as such."
"What!" The child in the body of a god managed to whisper-shout as he sat back down beside his ailing Hero, and, with the help of a chilly quirk, cooled himself and Izuku, by extension.
"You see, the normal human body can only withstand a fever of 39.4 degrees before they run the risk of death. Izuku, on the other hand, can withstand much higher heat, thanks to some latent quirk gene." he explained. "to make a long story short, Midoriya's father had a fire breathing quirk, and those who are born with such a quirk usually have a higher heat resistance, not all of them, mind you, just the vast majority.'' The doctor approached the ailing boy. "Now, while Midoriya gained no quirk from either parent, he still gained the... let's call them comorbid effect, of such quirk."
"Like... fire... can handle heat... and smartness..." Izuku slurred as he puffed a blazing breath.
The doctor took the boy's pulse. "Not quite... you attract trouble, tough."
This caused the boy to snort and laugh. "ha ha ha... yeah... 'm big pro'lem child..." he sighed. "wanna sleep... Tecchan cozy."
It was Tenko's turn to turn as red as Izuku.
"Smell nice... he's nice..." then he sobbed. "Too nice fo' Deku... too nice fo' Deku."
Tenko shushed the boy. "Hey, it's alright, we don't deserve the best... as I don't deserve you either, but here we are."
"you... you like me?" Izuku slurred, his nose once again clogged up.
"Of course I do, now just rest, OK? I should be right here when you wake up." Tenko assured the ailing greenette.
"Bhu... But what if you don't? Don wadda be 'lon... blease..." once again enough dears flowed from Izuku's eyes that made both the new hero and the dubious physician question whether his quirkless diagnosis was wrong.
"And you won't be alone... Granana told me that since you were the last holder, and because Aunty stars made this a new order, you will always have them looking over you."
Izuku grunted as he fought off the exhaustion brought upon by his abnormally high fever. "Bu... I don't want nightmares... always had themb... don't..."
"Then do your best not to dream about... erm... your favourite thing, alright?"
Izuku nodded, mumbling one last 'trust you.' Before he succumbs to sleep once more.
Tenko sighed as he turned to the doctor absentmindedly running his fingers in Izuku's dirty mane of hair. "Please, tell me the truth." The boy with the God-like power asked as he activated his truth quirks. "Will Izuku survive? Is this really necessary?"
The doctor's beady eyes shone as he thought, then he nodded. "Yes, Absolutely. Of course, I could've just nuked his body with antibiotics and then dealt with the aftermath, but I'd thought that since he is already fireproof and heat-proof that it would be better to cook the illness out of him. And yes, he will live. I do not have any reasons to kill him, after all."
Tenko sat up on the side of the bed and stared at the short, bald, troll-like man in front. And so far, none of his truth quirks were going off.
Still.
"Care to elaborate?" the snow head asked as he imperiously crossed his arms and legs.
Doctor Garaki nodded. "Yes... Gladly.
"You see, I have been serving All For One for Centuries, since he was the one who gave me, the sickly, cancer-ridden man I was, an immortality quirk that would sap me of my youth in exchange for eternal life... close to it, anyway."
So far, everything checked out.
"The only thing he asked was for me to keep doing my research on quirk and the probability of quirk singularity, or when quirks reached the limits of what the human body could handle... and the result where the Nomus, plenty of cures for various, previously thought to be incurable illness...and you, Shimura-San..."
Tenko's browns went up to his hairline and beyond. But otherwise remained quiet.
Garaki continued. "All For One took interest in the surviving family of the seventh holder of One For All and twisted her only son into a monster, and this monster made the basis for your... for Tomura's hatred."
"That's... so cliche, yet so evil." Tenko breathed out. "So dad wasn't..."
"He was not a perfect man... he had his flaws. And Shigaraki capitalized on them." Garaki spoke regretfully as he turned his attention to the EKG. "You... and a group of children rejected by their parents, their hearts filled with anger and potential anger were kept in terrible condition, Shigaraki wanted to have a vessel absolutely saturated with hatred towards the Hero society.
"And I... I assisted him. I kept working on Nomus, defying the laws of nature and making monsters out of brain-dead bodies... it's... Fun, I will admit, and many of those nomus became my friends... my only friends."
"That's... pathetic."
Garaki gave a humourless laugh. "Oh, I know Shimura-san. And yet I kept serving All For one... thinking I had grown numb to the hateful things he did to you to have the perfect vessel."
Tenko felt the floor leave his feet. "What?"
"Yes... He didn't pick you from the street out of the goodness of his heart."
"He didn't. It was my grandmother... but I guess Tomura had a whole different story from mine."
"yes... he did indeed." Garaki spoke slowly, his beady eyes shining with intelligence. " It is quite interesting, really, before you went to fight Midoriya-San, you were nearly under the complete control of All For One. But now... not only are your previous memories different from what I know is a fact, but you also have developed a brand new identity. You are now the grown-up Shimura Tenko, the Apotheosis of all Quirk holder, practically unkillable and having-"
"Yes, yes, I know. I stupidly OP, like a real-life disk one nuke." Tenko quickly dismissed what the doctor was saying, he didn't need to hear those praises to know his ability, he knew his quirks, thank you very much. "But this doesn't tell me why you don't want to Kill my Izuku." He pointedly reminded the man of this fact.
"Yes... I... got off subject." Garaki had the decency to blush. "It's been... quite some time since I spoke to somebody other than corpses, Nomus, or... Shigaraki. And whatever nurse and interns just so happen to have some files for me."
"Well, that's pretty sad." Really, Tenko's heart went to this man, even if he did horrible things in the past.
"Yes... and it is one of the reasons why I... I have no desire to hurt Midoriya-san, nor you." He spoke quietly as he wrote something on his clipboard. "Well... everything is following its course. Midoriya's Mega-fever should be burning for an hour or so before it breaks. He has enough Fluids for now and, since you've fed him so nicely, I don't have to worry about his starving to death. I'll come back in thirty to replace his fluid bag... Now come, I would like to continue this conversation on the move."
"You're not trying to get me away from Izuku to kill him, are you?" Tenko asked suspiciously.
Sure, he may be a bit Naive, but Aunty Star drilled it deep in his mind not to trust those who used to serve AFO until they prove their loyalty to him.
"No, why would I do that?" The ugly doctor stopped the powerful youth. "And no, I don't want to avenge my old master, the guy was an Ass hole. Besides, I think it time for me to do something other than playing necromancer... and... start healing a living being." The doctor sighed. "I forgot how dealing with more or less normal prole felt like, how seeing a patient come out of anesthesia and showing signs of clear improvement feels good.
"Right now... I think... I think I want to do good for a change. Yeah... Let me be good. And if this doesn't work-"
"I'll personally make sure you won't harm anybody else," Tenko warned, his eyes flashing dangerously. "and I know you have another hidden plan… so out with it." Tenko snapped.
Doctgore Ujiko startled… and slowly lowered his eyes to the ground, scuffing his sneakers there.
"Sir… you… ah, you're terrifying. like All For One may have been terrifying too but…
you… are something else, since What could a single man do to you when even an army could not stop you?"
Tenko smirked as he puffed his chest.
'Careful, Baby-blue. Never underestimate the ability of a mad scientist.' Stars and Stripes warned the powerful young man, and Tenko readily agreed to what she had said.
He had been the one who modified this body... for all he knew, Doctor Garaki must
have put plenty of failsafe and a nasty kill switch in there, just to make sure Tenko would not turn on him.
"You could aim at my Izuku… wish is why I won't let you alone in a room with him for any length of time."
"Fair enough... Now let's go, Dabi and Toga should be back," Garaki-san spoke as he led Tenko out of the room and closed the door, going as far as to lock it.
Immediately, Tenko's whole body tensed... until Garaki gave him the Keys.
"As... you will understand when you will meet them, I'd rather keep the door lock and Midoriya safe from them." The white-haired young man's eyebrows... what was left of them anyway. Reached the top of his head. "You're... previous version saw them as his friend and... well, his first follower, the OG League of Villain."
"Oh... Spinner told me a bit about them." Tenko admitted.
His lizard friend and right-hand man had explained in as few words as possible about his... Tomura's right-hand man and assassin.
And Tenko had to admit, he both dreaded and looked forward to meeting them.
The rest of the walk was in silence, Garaki due to his anxiety and Tenko because he was figuring out a few more quirks. One of which was a nifty path-finding and map-making Quirk.
And he had to say, the underground Facilities were rather impressive. And All For One's remains were still putrefying nicely.
Oh, and he had another quirk that let him locate people he knew, and another one that let him in on their health in general.
Izuku's fever would've killed a lesser man, but in his case... he was...
hot, but not in a life-threatening situation.
(And he would be hot even when not in a life-threatening situation.)
Eventually, they took an elevator up to the ground floor.
it... still looked like a hospital with greenish-white walls (would Izuku like mint ice cream? Did Tenko like mint ice cream? Like... not the dream one his Grandma would make?) and to a meeting room.
He could already hear a young girl speaking... and Danger sense warned him of a dangerous presence.
And when he opens the door...
"Oh God, what happened to you," Tenko exclaimed at the absolute wreck of a man smoking a blunt on the couch, there were patches of healthy-ish skin here and there... but the rest. "You look... roasted! Holy shit, how are you even alive?!"
This caused the scarred man, Dabi, oblivious, to burst into worrying Laughter.
Seriously it sounded more like someone dying from lung cancer after smoking fifty packs of menthol cigarettes a day...
"Roasted? Dude, I'm well fucking done, you're fucking swole and Himiko's fucking crazy..." He coughed. "By the way, what happened to our army of villains? And the fuck did you do to our nomus, Shigs? Don't you need them to destroy the rest of those pathetic Heroes?" He gave a wicked smirk, the lower side of his face sagging worriedly. "I know the stunt you pulled. Got us rid of that dead-weight." he chuckled as he took a long drag of his blunt. "More fun for us..."
Tenko opened his mouth to rebuke the Villain when he felt a blade plunge in his skin.
Then he felt the cold, delicate yet callous hands crawl up his chest as someone began smelling him.
"Hmmm." She moaned. (by God's grace, she sounded way too young to be part of a terrorist cell.) "You smell like Izuku, Shiggy-kun... He's here, isn't he?" She (it must be Toga Himiko.) asked as she dragged a serrated knife into Tenko's throat.
Thankfully, he did not bleed, having been upgraded to hell and back... that, and Star's last attack had messed up his blood production and he didn't want to lose a single drop of it.
"You know... I told you he was mine, Shigaraki... He's my Izuku, my boyfriend... His blood is mine, his body is mine, and he and I are destined to be one." She snarled as she dug her knife deeper in Tenko's throat.
Now, would Tenko be a mere, normal human, this would've caused some nasty irreparable damage...
but, you know... something something, designer hero something.
Unimpressed by the blond chihuahua, the hulking hero grabbed her hair and smashed her on the glass table hard enough that the glass would not cut her back... much.
She had started it, and Star had told him that, sometimes, just sometimes, Violence truly was the only and best option, and Granana had nodded too.
Sometimes, Villains are not poor people who got there because they had no choice, sometimes, they truly were irredeemable. even if they started out as poor, misunderstood people.
Very much dazed and confused, Toga Himiko stared, winded to hell and back, at what used to be her favourite enabler.
"Toga Himiko, Quirk bloody-transformation... " Tenko narrowed his eyes. "Midoriya-san does not belong to you. As I have told you before, he is mine and whoever desires to harm him will have to face me." he leered at the downed girl. " I don't know you... any of you." he revealed. "But if this is how you, Miss Toga, is going to act around me, let Alone Midoriya, then I would rather you either shape up or leave."
On the shattered remains of the glass table, Toga stared at Tenko with deep confusion. "B-But why? I'm... I'm myself, my true self... "
"Then your true self is toxic, problematic and inappropriate." Tenko snapped as he gave a quick glance at Dabi, who was watching the whole show with wide eyes. "I'm not asking you to become a perfect little girl. But stabbing people, getting in other people's personal bubbles with the intention of causing harm and claiming someone as your boyfriend while desiring to cut him in the next breath... this is wrong, Toga, oh so wrong, especially when your crush has no desire, nor knowledge of your existence, and does not feel the same way about you... and I won't let a villain such as you near Izuku."
"Your Izuku." The burned man smirked, apparently teasing the God-like man.
"Yes... like all of you." Tenko confirmed as he hoisted the shell-shocked toga off the glass. And as expected, the damage he had done was minimal. " I am Tenko Shimura, A hero-"
Dabi burst into laughter, and by whatever Deity that controlled the Cosmos, let's call him God, it didn't sound healthy.
"And as Hero, I can't have you harm an innocent, let alone Midoriya Izuku." he spoke with a voice filled with steel. "and until I can trust you and you prove that you will not be a threat to others, you are all walking on thin ice, once slip... and it's over," Tenko warned as he sat Toga down on a chair, and place his hand on her forehead, reaching for her quirk.
It was blood-based, as previously stated, but had no impact on her mind, sure she would crave human blood, but as far as Tenko knew, it was not as intense as to turn anyone into a rabid monster.
It would be the same as really wanting to eat mango ice cream mochis but not being able to buy them.
Sure, you could steal it, but if he didn't have it, he would not die or go into a frenzy for it.
"Why..." Toga whimpered. "Why can't you accept me for who I am?" tears fell from her eyes. "Shiggy, you would always let me drink the blood I want... and you let me stab people you hated."
"I told you, my Name is Shimura Tenko, a Hero. Shigaraki Tomura died," he explained again, once he was less... annoyed by those two, Tenko would have to look in her mind about what could've caused the girl to act like that. Since it was clear her quirk was not the problem. "and I'm sure you would have more acceptance if you didn't hurt people for their blood. You can like blood, you can love how it tastes and how it looks, heck, you could also paint with it... But I draw the line at this whole Yandere shit, it's old, it's tired and it makes you both dangerous to others and... jeez, you're just so boring, like... every girl who's a vampire or vampire-like has to be a Yandere! grow up, be something else, like... be more ladylike-"
Toga hissed.
"Oh, hush you, I like my Vampire to be badass Ladies who don't need to dress like generic high school 'cute' psychos. Like... you are the most generic person I've seen so far. Blond hair, red eyes, school girl and vampire yandere who like knives, so generic, something out of a writer's discount box of stereotype." He spat.
Why did all vamp types have to be blond, where was the art, the inspiration! The poise, the grace...
but maybe it was just his type, maybe he was wrong about Toga... still, she attacked him unprovoked and was a little too... What was the word?
Not protective... ah, possessive. That's it.
Yes, Tenko was aware that Izuku was his... his to care for and love.
And if Izuku had a girlfriend... boyfriend or xxyz, then as long as he was happy, the Tenko was Happy.
But Izuku would always be his, as painful as it would be.
For the God-like Youth... this was love.
Not... whatever the Hell Toga thought it was.
Toga stared at him, looking as gutted as a fish, and moving her as such. "Ha, but... No, I'm... Just you wait, the moment I get Izu-kun blood, I'll stop being generic because I'll be him and I'll be special!" She growled with tears falling from her eyes. Unable to move due to another quirk of Tenko's collection. "My love for him is so strong... and it's pure..."
"Well, why don't you stop trying to be special and uncommon and just be your true self," Tenko spoke to Toga as one would a young child for it was clear she was not very bright.
She gave all blonds a bad reputation, something Tenko heavily disliked.
Toga huffed and grinned maniacally as she crossed her arms. "And what if this is me? I love blood, I love those cute people I take my blood from... and I love Izu-kun the most~! And you won't change that."
Tenko started with wide eyes at the mad teen, then closed his eyes with a heavy, put-upon sigh. Using a stretchy limb to grab Toga's head, causing the girl to panic as she desperately tried to rip the dead limb off from her face.
"Alright, you give me no choice then." Shimura Tenko spoke with the authority of a king, the protector of the people. "Toga Himiko, you are thereby under arrest for being a danger to yourself and to others. You quirk confiscated and not to be returned in any circumstances."
"But..." But Himiko could not protest any longer, for Tenko put her to sleep.
He didn't want to hear her protest, or how this was unfair or how she used to be his friend.
She had been Shigaraki Tomura's friend... a young boy groomed to be a psychopath... the worst version of Shimura Tenko.
As he gently and respectfully deposited the limp Toga on another couch, careful not to cut her back further, Tenko turned his attention to Dabi, who was watching the whole scene with wide eyes, his blunt hanging loosely from his half-opened lips.
"Ah... You... Aren't Dusty... ain'tcha?"
Tenko crossed his arms. "I'm Shimura Tenko." he groused. "A hero and the servant of the people. And you are Dabi, criminal... a villain."
He wanted nothing to do with this man anymore, he hated him. And his cohorts...
He would have to give him a good reason to spare him since Tenko only wanted the sane and intelligent... and kindhearted in his ranks. Not a bunch of Psychopaths aiming at the absolute destruction of everything in order to be the new God of the earth... not that the new 'God' was around anymore.
Short of Spinner, no one showed any sign of sanity.
"You... Uh..." He looked at Himiko. "You... didn't kill her, did you?"
"She gave me no reasons to... but I will probably use her as a peace offering to the other heroes, a show of goodwill." The white-haired youth spoke as he held his lips. Keeping one quirk on Dabi at all times, gauging his reactions. "I will have to investigate, though. Either she was born a psychopath, or AFO did something to her to make it worse... either way, I need to find her family to see if either they had a hand in her descent, or if it was all her." He mumbled as he made a plan of attack and returned his ruby glance back at Dabi, who made himself as small as he could, trying to get sucked into the couch cushions.
Tenko loomed above him, with eyes hard... but neutral. "Names and crimes?" he asked with all the authority he had.
And maybe a few quirks, he wasn't sure though.
"Umm... Taking drugs, selling drugs to kids, arson... mostly dead bodies?"
The God-like youth raised an eyebrow.
or... would be an eyebrow, Shigaraki Tomura had scratched them off clean.
Dabi practically inhaled the rest of his blunt and hacked out the smoke in a huge billow. "M-murdered a few... like... umm... I don't know, half a city or something... *cough* Exposed Endeavours crimes against my Family, dragged the Hero Hawks down by exposing how he's the Hero Safety Commission Murder-bot... fried his wings after he killed Twice... the guy was the fun type of crazy, not like Toga."
Tenko's mouth pulled down.
"And then I kidnapped this one explody kid at a summer camp and stole over a million yen worth of medical supplies since you know... bodies kind of on a timer now?" he ended with a pathetic whimper.
Maybe Tenko got a bit too strong on some killing intent and fear-based quirk.
"Why?"
"Umm... Because I'm a villain and... I needed to make a mark so that people would know my power?" Dabi asked, and Tenko wasn't sure if the severely burnt man was asking a rhetorical question or was questioning his entire life until this point.
"Like Endeavour's debut?" Tenko asked with a quirk of his head.
Endeavour's debut had cost a few lives, and a whole city block had gone up in smoke.
He'd gone away Scot free because the villain was... well, the fact that only three people died was seen as one of the better outcomes, and apparently, this had netted the man some brownie points.
This was something Izuku had told him, back in Green vale.
This made Dabi Bristle in anger... then he gave this loopy, Unhinged grin. "Oh yeah, you don't know, right?" he asked the taller, stronger young man. "Endeavours my Daddy, my fucking sperm donor... So yeah, I wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine."
Tenko narrowed his eyes, he remembered some details of this Hero from the Stories his Granana would tell him... just details, but enough to make him wish the man would die of a heart attack.
Meaning... Dabi May have a somewhat legit reason to be angry at the man.
Still... no matter how right he was, destroying everything, even if the modern Hero culture was noxious, would not make it better.
It was like asking to defund the police... without those funds, the police cannot train the best of the best to be even better, and instead, can only have whoever presents themselves and willing to work for peanuts while having the law at their side. And they would have no access to social workers and the training to be one.
He had to dig in further before he could pass his judgment, Damian, an old professional Juror had warned him of what a hasty decision for someone's life could lead to.
"And why is that?" Tenko asked without any judgment in his voice, just a friendly neutrality and testiness, the same Mohini had used when interrogating someone... and getting them to open up about the reasons why they did what they did.
Dabi's smile fell, looking wearily at the godlike Hero. "Why would that matter? What If I love destroying people's lives for the sake of it." he rasped as he took a more defensive position. " I hate Shoto, he's a little shit who got everything in life! A false Hero!"
"Well, you told me it was to get back at your dad... so what did your dad do to you to make you hate him so?"
and this was how, an hour and a half later, that Tenko ended up with a miserable bundle of burnt-out human, wondering what the hell went wrong and how he had no other choice but to kill his father since this was what he was committed to... even if, in his heart, he knew it would never make him happy.
After having Doctor Garaki hook the anemic young man to a blood pouch, making him promise to treat his burn the right way, and taking his unsuitable quirk away. Tenko was about ready to return to Izuku's side but the past five and a half hours passed as far away from his current thought he could.
...
Oh... right. Spinner and the rest of His Army wanted a debriefing and the next step of his grand restoration plan.
...
Duty first, Zuku later then.
~0~
Izuku woke up... in markedly less pain than then last time he did.
His headache was gone, felt well rested and had regained feeling in his fingertip... the rest of his arms felt like a bunch of ants crawling up and down from the inside of his skin... it was terrible.
and gosh darn it, he wanted to scratch his nose.
He hated cast... of any kind.
His legs were still a lost cause though, despite the annoying, painful buzzing that coursed through them, and he was still quirkless.
'Still useless.'
Then he yelped as he felt something bop the inside of his head. breaking him out of his terrible spiral.
'Honey, no! You're not useless, Izuku, just hurt. You're still you... and you're enough, alright!' Nana... or the memory of Nana gently and lovingly scolded the greenette.
it was… such a different scolding from what he used to receive from Recovery girl.
Sure, he knew Recovery Girl meant well but...
she never gave him an alternative... All Might never gave him an alternative to 'clench your ass and yell smash', Aizawa never gave him anything better than 'git gud' essentially...
and Gran Torino had been just as ineffective.
They would always yell at him for being reckless...
but... what was the opposite?
But..., not Nana...
He could still remember how she would give her best to give him alternatives, how to think differently...
she would scold him gently, then she would show him how to do it right in a loving, motherly way.
Unlike his own mother who didn't seem to have any energy for him anymore… she…
She tried.
...
Then he noticed that... he could remember her doing this... in...
Green Vale?
Huh...
And subsequently notice Shiga... Tomu... Tenko uses his thighs and stomach as a body pillow, breathing deeply and peacefully.
'He's... so close.' Izuku thought as he took this opportunity to really take his benefactor's features in full.
His hair was as long as he remembered, and still blindingly white. But unlike when he was Shigaraki, his hair was free of mats and knots and all were tied at the nape of his neck with a black bow. Giving him a cleaner, less insane look.
His skin was still extremely dry, and his eyebrows were a lost cause, but between those nonexistent pieces of anatomy was a crease. whatever Shimura-san was thinking was cause enough to worry even in his sleep.
Through his chapped lips... no wait, he seemed to have smeared something on them, oil, perhaps? There was no way he could've found a chap-stick in post apocalyptic Japan, Izuku should know.
Where was he? Right, Tenkos' warm breaths were tickling Izuku's belly... and it took everything he had not to have his body react to it.
Izuku knew he was bi, and he knew he liked tall, muscular men with soft hearts and plenty of care. And apparently, Tenko fit the bill...
actually, even Shigaraki Junior fit the bill...
Maybe Izuku preferred uncommon beauty hidden in ugliness? Maybe he was into the poetry of it all?
Or perhaps, he was just a little freak of nature who got off from thinking about those sexy villains gloating evilly at the heroes... Like everybody said he was, and his attraction to girls really was just him hiding this freakishness as he tried to like the soft curves on a voluptuous woman and not the flat, rugged chest of a man, the angular features and...
Tenko sighed as he buried his face deeper on Izuku's stomach, the crease on his forehead melted as contentment replaced it, and a small smile stretched his lips as he gently murmured in his sleep. Hugging his bony hips closer with his powerful arms covered in a rumpled white shirt.
...
'That's it... this is how I really die.' since how could his heart even hold its integrity in the face of this...
this attractive sight.
"Welp. I guess I like men now.' Izuku let one of his rare, genuine smiles tug at his lips, knowing he was truly safe to... be himself.
He tried to move his right hand, Shimura's hair begging to be played with... only to be rudely reminded that his arms were immobilized.
"Aw, crap." Izuku cursed, more than a little annoyed to have his arms in a cast, again.
'But... didn't Tenko tell me all of my arm bones were changed? Hard to see under all of those bandages. so... Doctor Garaki's the one who made the Nomus, so it would make sense for him to know how to make spare parts for them, I had no idea he would be willing to work on a living being... unless I died and I got turned into a Nomu and this is just the weird dreams I have while my body's destroying UA and eating my mother-"
"Oh God, no... Izu. Just... you're not a Nomu, and damn, that was gruesome." Tenko slurred, startling the greenette out of his morbid ruminations, causing him to jump.
"Gah! Ah... you're Awake! T-Tenko.- Shimura-san." Shimura-Sans face fell and...
Oh God, that pout.
"... Ah... Tenko-kun? Tenchan?" Izuku tried as he felt a rather aggressive blush crept all the way to his ears.
Gosh, He was so handsome, and cute also...
Not that... it would be right for Izuku to fall for him but damnit! Tenko had done nothing to stop that!
At all!
'Yeah, he can't be Shigaraki, either of them. I doubt they would extend so much energy on their enemy, going as far as to partially heal them unless it's all a ploy and he's going to make me pay for it when-"
"Jeez, Zuku... calm down... why the hell would I want to make you suffer? It's like... so not heroic." Tenko mumbled as he sat back up, scrubbing his face as he yawned. "But yeah, Still Tenko, not at all Shigaraki." He smacked his lips together and he made a face. "Ughr... my mouth tastes awful." He sniffed.
The face he made told Izuku all he needed to know about his smell, when was the last time he willingly took a shower?
Right... Not since his peers...
Right...
Right...
He had to take a shower.
The cold water stung his flesh, feeling as if the water pressure was ripping him apart, finding each and every half-healed scar and bruise, getting up his nose and mouth...
He was drowning... he was choking... his flesh was flayed right off his bones by frigid water and-
"Yeah... a shower and a nice, long soak sound heavenly," Tenko mumbled with a voice still thick with sleep as he got off the bed (Izuku had slept with a man... a gorgeous man while he was covered in scars, smelled like death probably and definitely wasn't at his best. Just his luck. (and was it Nana he heard laughing?))
"Doc Ujiko wants to check your progress with your arms... told me to call him once you woke up... then, breakfast... geez, hope I can find-" The God-like man said as he gave a languorous stretch, his muscles rippling under his rumpled shirt. "Oah... that felt great... ok, what I do for breakfast... hmm..."
...
Apparently, this mere image was enough to derail Izuku's upcoming panic attack.
He watched as Tenko padded to the intercom (Izuku had no idea if he should feel relieved or disappointed by the fact that his saviour still wore his pants. A nice pair of black dress pants that hugged his rump in all the right places.) and contacted the creepy doctor.
"Alright, he'll be there in five minutes." The god like Tenko informed Izuku. "While we wait for him, I'll start filling the tub... might as well clean the bathroom while I'm at it... yeah, Let's clean the bathroom, don't wanna have that guy's dead skill cells all over me again." He comically shuddered. And Izuku could not help but feel the corner of his mouth quirk.
"Midoriya! When was the last time you smiled?" He could still hear Uraraka prod...
as if he had any reason to smile during this goddamned war. As if he had a reason to smile after Eri started?
And to be honest, Izuku knew she was really asking this question to herself, since the greenette could not conceive a reason why anybody would smile when an apocalypse was going on.
Nobody was smiling anymore, so to call Deku out like that was such a low blow.
Of course, he was not smiling! How could he when he had a fucking block-bog target painted on his back! The mere fact that he was in Musutafu meant that the place was more affected by the villains than others, he should know.
Everywhere he went, any ally he gained, they would die...
Heck, Lady Nagant had wanted to help him, she had faith in him...
The sound of her body blowing was the one thing he saw closing his eyes. He could still feel her blood and viscera sliding off his body and the metallic, acrid smell of the atomized blood never left his nose...
and each time he saw his friends... he death replied, but instead of being Lady Nagant...
it was Ochako, Iida, Shotou...
Yagi-san...
Eri.
He could still feel the filth on his body... he desperately wanted an unending shower, a ball of steel wool and unlimited scalding water to scrape the feeling off of his skin.
But... his schoolmates... his insensitive, violent, insane 'friends' had removed this one pleasure away.
He could not even bear to look at a shower stall anymore without feeling pain and suffocating under the high-powered water jet, his bones grinding against one another as his well-meaning friends wrestled with him, not caring about any potential broken bones and internal wounds he had...
they had almost killed him.
It was only his quirk that had saved him... temporarily.
"Izuku?" Tenko gently shook his shoulders, and Izuku nodded absentmindedly that he felt no pain. "What's going on? Something happened to you, right?"
"I'm fin-'' But Izuku could not finish his words.
His eyes light up.
"Is it an anti-lie quirk?" He gushed.
"Yeah..." Tenko confirmed as he sat beside the greenette. "I'm sorry Izuku, but right now, I don't want you to lie about what you feel. It's super intrusive, I know... but I don't want you to break again." The last part was spoken barely a whisper.
This...
Took Izuku's breath away... he was using a quirk so that he would... get better.
...
Well, Recovery Girl's quirk kinda worked the same but...
this felt different...
it hit differently.
"But... saying 'I'm fine will make it fine... right?" Izuku asked. "That's what my mama and my old therapist told me. That as Long as I see everything is fine, it's fine... right?" Crap, he felt tears well in his eyes again.
'Please... please don't tell me I've been lied to again.'
Tenko pressed his lips together... and Izuku could not stop the sobs bubbling from his viscera.
The next thing he knew, He was in Tenko's arms again, the much taller man had tucked the shorter one's head under his cheek, rubbing circles on his heaving back. His other hand was buried in his filthy hair.
And thus Izuku let himself cry, he let himself feel for the first time in a decade.
He was not fine.
He was not happy.
He was hurt, tired, and alone in a crowd. He wanted to be loved, he wanted to be cared for, he wanted to be left alone with Tenko and not to worry about what would happen.
He wanted his Mama... he wanted his mama who was not on the cups of tears after a simple phone call.
He wanted to be a normal teenager doing normal teenager things, trying weird shit and experimenting for fun, not because he had no idea how to cope with his freight-train load of trauma.
He felt ashamed of himself for being a fucking weakling, unable to do anything right. If Tenko would have left him alone, Izuku knew he would've wished to die...
to disappear.
But...
Tenko's warm body thrumming whit power, his steady heartbeat and the waves of affection he felt from the man dispelled it away.
He felt loved... and despite feeling weak and useless... He felt protected despite being in the arms of the symbol of fear, now turned into the true symbol of hope,
the tenth User, one who would not die from this damn quirk.
He was alone in his head, he yet... he wasn't.
He could still feel the vestiges... but more like a warm presence than a voice.
But most importantly... he had Tenko now.
Maybe it wasn't healthy, but just for once, let Midoriya trust someone, let him take shelter from one much bigger than him, one who would truly protect him and who had already protected him.
And thus, feeling safer than he had in a whole decade, Izuku let go, and let himself cry out his grief. Opening up about the hellish Decade he'd managed to survive by the skin of his teeth.
~0~
Outside the room, Doctor Ujiko listened as Midoriya spilled out the suffering one without a quirk would have to face.
For Ujikjo (if this was even his name.) he would simply give the diagnosis and let those snot-nosed brats go one whit their life, some would be happy, some wouldn't.
And as time went on, fewer children were without quirks, and those who lacked it...
Well, what did he have to care about? Those were made differently and were of no use for his Master, since nomufiying them led to some rather disturbing and underwhelming results.
But now? With Izuku Midoriya bawling his heart out and his numerous scars... scars that ranged from the time he had been five to now, scars of tiny, burning hands on his skin to stab wounds and broken bones.
How had the world treated the quirkless?
'Thankfully' hero tube, the internet and youtube had the answer...
and he now understood why there had been less quirkless when it made no sense.
It was true that the quirked birthrate had skyrocketed over the last century or so, but the quirkless population remained the same...
Oh, it was easy to see who was quirked or not at birth, you just had to see the back of their throat and the second pinkie toe joint.
The Q-less birthrate was actually over 37% of all births in Japan alone, fluctuating all over the world but always remaining within a certain margin of error.
And Garaki knew why.
It was genetic self-regulation.
He had observed, over the past centuries, how quirks would grow stronger and more complex with each generation of quirk-to-quirk marriage, and this caused those children to be more at risk for early death, abandonment, kidnapping by the commission, killing their family accidentally and All For One's greedy hand.
(Yes, he knew what he did to his last grandson, he knew it was twisted and shit. But the Kid was dying from a rather aggressive lymphoma, causing his body to bloat. His last wish had been to fly and beat bad guys...
twisted, yes. But Garaki didn't expect to have the Hero Killer kill him... he had been planning a movie night with his Tsubasa too...)
Still, those quirks were getting too chaotic, out of control and approaching singularity...
meaning, they would be so powerful, that the organism hosting them would not be able to survive its awakening.
(which was why All For One had tasked Garaki to genetically re-engineer Tomura to make him invulnerable and able to withstand the full All for One quirk, including its singularity level... something that was slowly killing the previous holder.
He wanted another body... well, the body fought back it seems.
It was a tragic loss, the man used to be a visionary but... well...
He had his flaws, many of them... Garaki was still mourning him, he had been his only friend for over a hundred years.)
And thus, this was when he realized what the quirkless would give to the population; a means to dilute this ultra-potent genetic cocktail and reset the singularity counter to zero, in some cases.
They were oh so vital, that Garaki had begun stealing semen samples from the best of them the moment they had reached puberty, and began to inseminate given eggs and sneak them in the Japanese fertilization clinic bank... and some others around the world too, with the help of his dear johnny, his pet cat. hoping it would boost the blessed population by quite a bit... but the increase never came.
And now he knew why.
There was the systematic culling of the normal population, belittling them, calling them fragile and unneeded. A genetic flaw...
Useless and only good for prostitution, trafficking and murdering.
It was preposterous... and oh-so dangerous.
Ujiko had once read about he horrors the Nazis had performed in the name of ushering forth the master race, the Aryans through selective breeding and systematic culling of anything that was not deemed perfect. Like the Jews, gays and anything that wasn't German nor blond.
And he was seeing the same thing now.
His plastic wastebasket had been an unfortunate participant of his visceral reaction. And the thing would be summarily incinerated.
Those fools had no idea what they were doing in the name of powers and money, they had no idea that by genetically grooming japan as a quirk powerhouse industry, they were slowly dooming the population to die like the Tudors. stewing in their hate of what was normal and with a higher intelligence, since their brain didn't have to deal with another component.
But what had really cemented his heel face turn... was Midoriya Izuku.
That child... this once quirkless child holding what his master, All for One, had killed for...
Was a mess of scars and broken bones and looming medical problems... what to say of his mind.
They had shattered the boy like he had shattered his own arms... and yet, being the warrior and the hero he was at heart. Midoriya never gave up, he kept fighting until now...
Yes, he had given One for All to Tomura. And yes, it was him basically surrendering... but a weaker man would've caved way earlier.
He truly was the perfect candidate for this quirk, for only the strongest will could survive the sheer strain it burdens the user with every iteration.
But... as with everything, there was a breaking point, an event horizon... a threshold of failure.
And Izuku went beyond that...
Doctor Garaki could hear the greenette's heaving sobs at the other side of the door as he opened his heart to... Shi-Shimura-san.
Oh, how he wished he would not have been so blind, how he wished he could have seen All For One for what he truly was and not gotten blinded by his scientific breakthrough, he would've seen the walk over the precipice they were all heading to.
But no, he had been blinded by his loyalty to Shigaraki...
an... unnatural loyalty to a man who did nothing but makes him suffer.
'Why am I not surprised? All For... Shigaraki is... was a cunning, greedy man. There was no way he would've left me and my clear genius alone." And wasn't that a bitter pill to swallow for the man who cracked the genetic codes open?
It was just as he had manipulated Tenko and Dabi's rage into madness... and Garaki would readily put his life on the line to say that, while being extremely unlikely, Toga could very well be part of his 'new body' program.
Of course, knowing Shigaraki's opinion on women, Ujiko wasn't as sure.
Nevertheless, He could start his walk out of the shadow of villainy and into the light of... well, not heroism, per se (Heroes needed villains, and HPSC knew that fact very well.) but...
Let's just say he would work for the good of others without caring too much about the legal logistics of it all. It sounded more challenging than keeping that arshole alive and messing up with brain dead bodies for another century.
With his will resolved, Doctor... oh, he was so confused about his name. Was he Ujiko Daruma? Or was he Garaki Giyudai?
Kiyudai?
'Daruma... I'll call myself Daruma from now on.
Anyway, he went into the door, pulling behind him his medical wagon.
What met his eyes was a sight that both melted and broke his heart.
Shimura-san was sitting in Midoriya's bed, gently cradling the smaller youth to his heart as he whispered sweet, comforting nothing.
Midoriya, on the other hand, looked exhausted both physically, mentally and emotionally. He was sitting in Tenko's lap, limp as a rag doll.
Still, his physician eyes could see that his colours were healthier then before, he was still rather thin and lacked any healthy fat.
He just needed to see what hid under the bandages and see the state of his stitches.
"Oh, Doctor Garaki." Shimura-san greeted, so different from the belligerent and hateful Shigaraki second or patronizing and suffocating like the first.
It was honestly a breath of fresh air for Daruma.
"You may call me Daruma-san, Shimura-san... can Midoriya-san handle a small check-up?" he asked, hoping not to sound so rude.
It had been decades since he had to deal with something other than brain dead nomus and All For One, so he may be out of Practice.
"Sure." Izuku rasped as he made to shuffle out of Shimura's arms.
"You can stay there if you are comfortable. I just want to check how your arms are healing. Do you have any pain? Sore spots? And how about your lungs, any discomforts when you breathe? How about your back?"
Izuku stared owlishly at the creepy man, mumbling under his breath so quickly that most of what he said was lost to the wind.
"Izuku's surprised at how nice you are," Tenko said as he maneuvered for the recovering teen to sit between his spread-out legs. "Apparently a certain Recovery Girl would berate him and scold him for getting hurt. Despite the Fact that Izuku would always do his best not to."
Daruma skewered his mouth. "... M'well... If you were hurting yourself for the sake of getting hurt or just out of ignorant recklessness, then I would scold you a bit too... and probably send you to the psychological ward to have your mind checked out. But... from what I've seen, One For All was the true culprit."
"And... I'm too reckless." Izuku admitted shamefully as he moved his arms for the doctor to peruse.
The very old man smiled at the sight. He had seen the extensive damage to his shoulders, so to see them move freely and whit...
"When you moved your arms, did you feel pain? Like... one to ten."
Izuku once again looked at him... "Recovery Girl never checked for that... so, all the doctors have to ask that, right? They don't just heal you o-or s-end you away to be he-healed later o-or not at all because they want you to l-learn not t-o rely on o-others?"
and suddenly, doctor Garaki wanted to commit murder again.
Well, nobody said recovery had to be a linear path, did they?