God's Dancing Doll 7
Meanwhile, in the League's hideout, Tomura was digging a trench with his passing.
He knew Izuku tended to be a bit more (read, a whole lot more) independent than the young man, since he didn't have an ancient super villain breathing down his neck all the time... but it had been hours since he had left, and being a homeless young boy with no means of getting a Sim card in his precious phone, it meant that the vaishnava was effectively impossible to check up on.
It was new for Tomura—this feeling of anxiety over another's well-being and safety.
Was Izuku all right? Did he get attacked again? Did Lord Explosion Murder (dear God, he knew mass murder with nicer names) finished the job?
"Tomura-"
"Giri! Oh my God, Izuku's been gone four hours and I have no way to reach him, and it's getting dark, and we have one less day to plot how to get out of Sensei's grasp, and it's all Dabi's fault, I hate this fucking psycho."
"Izuku's not back from his walk?" Kurogiri asked as he walked to the back of the bar, warping in some boxes, including a brand new industrial blender, a new ice machine, and a reverse osmosis water purifier.
Huh, his gassy nanny was really taking Izuku's suggestion to heart, it seemed.
Tomura huffed unhappily as he stomped back to the couch, dropping his whole weight in. The poor, abused piece of furniture groaning under his featherweight, having suffered from numerous types of abuse in its long and arduous life.
"No, he's not." He spoke between his fingers, having hid his heavy heads in there. "For fuck sake, I thought Dabi was not that bad. Why the fuck did he have to come on to Izuku that hard? Kid's too pure for any form of sex life, and Dabi's like old enough to be his Dad! Eww."
"Indeed." Kurogiri solemnly nodded despite Tomura's gross overestimation of his new charge;s age... but considering how badly burned he was, it was an easy mistake to make. "Which is why I have put Dabi in a timeout; he will only be able to get out once he writes about what he did wrong and thinks about his misdeeds." The dark cloud spoke darkly, causing the decay user to shudder.
This was a reminder that, while Kurogiri was his nanny, the Nomu was also his protector and an expert judo-ka and bo user.
And he knew how to teach lessons if given the chance, the mere mention of those made the NEET shudder.
Still …
"Say, can you try to locate Izuku?" Tomura asked his Nomu. "You must have a quest tracker, right?"
"Only on you, Master Tomura, Master Shigaraki's instructions were abundantly clear on that part." The wispy Nomu admitted it with his head lowered under the weight of his shame. compulsively wiping down the bar. A nervous tic, if Tomura has ever seen one.
"Fuck! FUCK!" The young man cursed as he almost dusted the coffee table.
The only thing that had stopped him from turning the temporary altar to dust was the fact that it was still an altar. And if Tomura's thousands of hours sunk in playing RPGs had taught him that, unless you were ready to beat a super boss, you didn't fuck with any altars unless it was plot sensitive!
And thus, the powdered-blunette turned his anger and fear onto himself, attacking his neck with vengeance, screaming unintelligibly as he ripped skin and flesh with his blunt nails.
The one time he had something good.
The one time he had something other than hatred and destruction.
The one time he'd felt that, yes, there was a God, and this God was good.
It had to be ripped away from him.
"Tomura!" Kurogiri exclaimed as he warped directly in front of his charge, unwilling to grab his hand, for he knew the fate of those poor, unfortunate, yet well-meaning souls who tried to stop Shigaraki from joining his family.
This was bad. This was horrible. And for the first time in his life, Kurogiri could not bring himself to do the usual procedure when Tomura went through a meltdown.
Sedation, and warp him to Doctor Garaki to get his charge patched up. even if the patchup would take way longer than strictly necessary.
Yes, Doctor Garaki was hella Sus but Kurogiri couldn't do anything more than act upon his programming. Programming that somehow was less strict than yesterday
But before the special Nomu could ponder/freak out further about this whole event, the door to the bar was tackled open, and a black and red form pounced on Tomura! Licking his now bleeding neck.
Forgetting his quirk but not his strength, Kurogiri lunged at the figure and threw him at a far wall, not even looking as it's back made a painful contact with the gypsum, too busy to fret over his now limp charge.
"What have you done to him?" He demanded the man as he picked up the still hysterical Tomura from the floor, cradling him to his chest while still being mindful of his hands.
A sleeping snake still had venom, and a piece of metal that had once been turned red hot still held its heat even when grey and black.
The figure got up; it was Stain.
Kurogiri never thought he would feel so many emotions today. Oh, look! He felt betrayed right now!
It was nasty, to say the least.
"I just took some of his blood." The hero killer raised his hands in a show of innocence. "My quirk's a blood-based paralytic," he explained. "It should give you enough time to calm your ward down, mist man."
Kurogiri narrowed his eyes. "I've already had one of our patrons in timeout due to his vile conduct; he's now currently sobering up, and he will write an apology letter to Midori-sensei. A sincere one. I will do it again if need be."
Stain's eyes gained an approving sparkle. "Not a bad start. Anything later."
"Forced Sobriety."
"Ohh, now that's perfect." The killer of many grinned.
"I thought the likes of you would be horrified by the mere prospect of a clear mind." Kurogiri stated whit narrowed eyes, unable to get a read on the enigmatic Vigilante turned villain turned vigilante again.
"Oh now, I'm an aspiring Vaishnava, so booze and drugs are off the table indefinitely. But yeah, Dabi without his usual cocktail?" He let out a low whistle. "Hope you got a doctor on speed dial; the kid's like a walking corpse at the best of times with all of that in his blood stream. and before you freak out further, my quirk let me paralyses those I tasted the blood from. I usually use a sharp blade but this time, it was an emergency, and my Saliva's antibacterial while my blades are not." Stain informed Kurogiri as he went back tot he lending and took off his boots.
"Noted." And Kurogiri did, for he could see that the Hero Killer had no desire to take a life tonight.
"Oh, and my quirk should give you around twenty minutes of grace, just enough time to calm your kid." He reiterated, then trailed off, looking guilty? anxious?
"Do you know what happened to Midori-sama?" Kurogiri asked as he soothed his charge.
Poor Tomura had gone nonverbal with worry.
"He…" Stain stared as he heavily plopped himself down on a bar stool. "Got arrested." The near villain said under his breath, clearly affected by the event. "He apparently melted All Mights' statue of Victory despite having no quirk."
"And you didn't try to save him?" Kurogiri asked, surprised by his own intensity.
Stain made a face. "And risk Midori-sama being connected to me? Hell no! Midoriya has a mission from God to revive Krishna consciousness in Japan, and his being linked with this motherfucker." He gestured at himself. "Would net him a one-way trip for Tartarus for life. Right now, he's quirkless, and the moment this gets proven, he's out again."
"Oh dear." Kurogiri whispered in horror, for he, wanting to know the true consequences of being a villain, had managed to pop over in the eponymous prison.
No, just no.
A heavy silence descended upon the gloomy bar.
What were they supposed to say about that? Tomura was still dealing with his grief, and Kurogiri didn't have enough mental allowance to make that type of decision.
He could apparently remodel the bar but not bring Izuku back home. not that it would be possible in the first place, since the warper had no idea where the saint was held, and there was also the worst idea too, since it would put a big fat target on their back.
Once again, the depressive mood reasserted itself, and Kurogiri wished he had something stronger than pineapple juice at the moment.
Some time passed. and once again, the door opened, admitting a shadow.
Nah, it was just Eraserhead, and the man looked to be about done with his life.
He took one look at Tomura, wrapped in a weighted blanket, and felt his heartbreak for the baby adult.
In the time it had taken for the underground hero to arrive, Tomura had recovered from his paralysis, and while he was more stable, he was still mostly unresponsive, his eyes glued at the black TV screen while his hot carob cooled.
Poor kid.
"I have news. About Izuku."
This got the attention of all the men present.
"I… Was there when they made the arrest." Shouta began as he flopped on the couch, sounding as old as the world. "Tried to make them understand that the kid was quirkless. Carted him off anyway."
"For fuck sake, what did Izuku do to deserve this? it was obliviously another All Might hater whit the perfect quirk who got rid of this eyesore so... why target my Izuku?" Tomura, after his time of mutism, finally rasped. "Like… I get NPCs hate him because he's super rare and awesome, and because the hero society's filled with quirkist assholes and atheists."
"Not all atheists are bad; Agnostics are still decent enough not to offend God too much!" Stain surprisingly stated. "Of course, I'm talking about the decent ones. like, the ones who see how sacred Mother Nature, life, and anything with spirituality is, the rest will burn in hell."
"That's pretty harsh." Shouta grumbled in his capture weapon, to which Stain gave a shrug.
"Hey, that's their own damn fault for not listening to reason. We're lucky we've evolved to survive high temperatures. I heard the previous humans wouldn't be able to survive summer without a high-end AC unit."
"Alright, we get it; we are all the next step in human evolution." Tenko snapped. "bu how are we supposed to retrieve my teacher from the pigs? I don't wan to rot in Tartarus, and running away like a cowards... I don;t know how to do that!"
Shouta pressed his lips together and sighed tiredly. "Listen, Once the Police realize that izuku is medically quirkless, which could take a few day, they will have to release him."
"You don;t sound so sure here, Eraser." Stain muttered. " if I was still blind to All Might's mortal flaws and nature, I would hunt down Midori until I found him and gut him for all to see for what he allegedly did to All might's glorious effigy."
"Eww, dude, cringe." Tomura commented as he cringed himself, way too wound up to even entertain the idea of a quick nap.
He had lost his only friend, his only true well wisher... He didn't deserve his cheap and easy recovery.
The only person on the planet that had bothered citing him and indirectly explaining why he should not destroy everything to rebuild an evil empire on top.
Sure, society sucked ass. But Japan was not the whole world, and there were still people and things that were worth it. So many places to see, so many cultures to experience, and food to eat.
Tomura had no idea why Sensei, his savior, wanted to destroy it all. It wasn't like he didn't have the money for it, and the blunette was sure their resident mad scientist could easily repair Sensei's face and body.
'So why didn't he do it?... and how do I fit in all of it?'
Suddenly the door opened again and...
The three criminals froze. It was an investigator wearing a brown coat and a fedora. and a glow that resembled the almondine surrounding Izuku at all hours, entered the renovated bar.
The rather imposing man walked in, his eyes falling on the scene, and smiled gently (he had the same smile as Izuku, what the fuck?). and hung his coat and hat on the patter, untying his tie as he hummed a jaunty tune.
Nobody moved at the sight; what were they supposed to do anyway? Neither Kurogiri nor Tomura had gone public with their misdeeds (Tomura had killed many men and women with an occasional child or two—Sensei's fault, not his), so they had theoretically no issues with the man.
On the other hand...
This was a member of the force in a villain bar with a known criminal, two terrors of the underworld, the 'dead' son of the eternal number two, and Eraserhead.
But on the other, other hand (huh, Vishnu was taking care of this, apparently). Kurogiri was here and could easily warp them all the fuck away.
They all stared at the detective, waiting to see what he would do next. He wasn't on duty at the moment, and Tomura doubted he was an old regular stubbornly wanting to get drunk and force their favorite Barkeep to return to selling debuff drinks.
And then… The detective opened his mouth.
"Hare Krishna, are you Midoriya Izuku's friend he's staying with?" He asked with a kind smile.
…
"Um…"
"Of course you are; you must be Shimura Tenko."
"What!" Stain Exclaimed. "Shimura!"
"I'm… No I'm…"
"Izuku's friend." The gumshoe nodded wisely. "Thank you for taking care of our saint after this demon destroyed his ashram. I will personally vouch for you in front of a judge if it ever comes to that." The gumshoe said with a conspiratorial wink as he made his way to where Aizawa and Stain were staying; the Hero expose was shell-shocked at hearing Tenko's dead name.
Huh.
"Now, who are we waiting for?" The crazy police officer or whatever asked as he leaned back and stretched his arms back.
Barely holding himself together, but not by much, Tomura somehow managed to articulate a few words despite his quivering voice and reddening face.
"Izuku… It's all green!" Dick Gumshoe called out towards the door, causing Tomura's slowly reviving heart to jump in his chest.
'No, it can't be!'
The door to the bar opened without much fanfare, despite Tomura knowing that the victory fanfare of some orchestral triumphant OST should be blaring right now, since there he was, walking in with the teenage eye roll, wearing a proper shirt and shorts, was Izuku.
Tomura's true Sensei. His level 99 cleric, whose faith was so busted, had God as a BFF.
Izuku, who was his true well wisher, something Tomura realized he had not in Sensei.
Sensei never taught him how awesome the world was, Sensei, who only gave destructive goals to the blue-haired boy.
Seisnei, who was all about hate.
Sensei, who only cared about his goal.
No, Tomura had no idea what could've done this paradigm shift. or perhaps he did?
Yeah, of course he did.
Tenko descended on the holy man's small body, wrapping him in the inescapable hold of his arms as he wept.
Izuku was his salvation. He knew it, in the deepest recesses of his heart.
In his favourite RPG, the one who prayed to the good God was forgiving to a fault but not naive. They could see past the false smile and call bullshit when a character was lying through their teeth, but would accept anyone who surrendered to him and had no tinge of fanaticism!
And for once, in this RPG, God was legitimately good; he just had some shitty followers who messed up his words for their own benefits.
He, Izuku, was basically this one particular party member, but in the flesh, blood, and faith.
He spoke like him, walked like him, smiled like him, and was best friends with the man.
And just like Claire the cleric, Izuku would give salvation even to the big bad.
but… Unlike Satan, who spat on the mercy and made God and his servant cry for him, Tomura decided to take the mercy and join Izuku.
Let him get cleansed of his sins; let him become clean of the blood that stained his hands. and let him start anew.
All for One woke up. a sad reminder of his human nature.
He had so many quirks stored, many of them rendered useless due to the Yankee Doodle Fool.
He loved the line of sight quirk.
Nevertheless, All For One had recharged his battery for the month and could thus rule and run his ever-growing empire by himself, day and night. and carefully monitor Tomura's progress.
He needed his future vessel to be absolutely consumed with rage and hatred for everything. It was easier to control a mindless beast than a human, even better if the human in question had horrendous personal hygiene.
Shigaraki made sure of that.
He grinned. He may have lost his sight and sense of smell and taste and many of his previous memories, but not his intelligence. Oh no, he was smarter than that.
Smart enough to leave a copy of his diary to Doctor Garaki and his instructions where something as tragic as memory loss would occur.
So Shigaraki knew exactly who he was, despite having lost well over half of his head.
In the back of his head, where the annoying voice resided. That same voice kept telling the boogeyman of the underworld how it wasn't possible for Doc Garaki to rebuild a brain.
He banished this little annoying voice once again. He was All For One, the collector of all that was the best. So, obviously, he'd collected the maddest of all mad scientists, and once again, the man had gone against God and won cackling. and rebuilt a brain. and made the nomus.
Gosh, he loved that man. This was why him being a hero would never work; they were just so boring and moral. No passion, no art. Just spouting diatribes about justice and love and being a good, upstanding citizen and paying his taxes.
Fools, of course All For One paid his taxes. He may be the greatest evil in modern history (barring the HPSC), but as a fellow felon, All For One elected to let them be and watch the bullshit they could pull off in the name of the law; it was quite entertaining, and to be honest, also deeply inspiring. But if the Joker respected the tax people, then so would he, the boogeymen of the underworld.
Where was he again?
Wait …
Wait for it.
Ah right, he had to check on his future vessel. err, Tomura.
Such an easily manipulated fool, willing to eat from the hands that struck him, going as far as to thank them for his pain. Such a dear.
And he was trying to grow as a person too, making his own decisions and dealing with the consequences. Learning about money and how he could not just keep buying games and buying... an actual camping stove and enough non-perishable rations to survive for a few months.
All for One pressed his lips together in disapproval—no, this wouldn't do. He needed his vessel to be fully pliant to his will and to hate; he would be blinded to the truth, but from the signs of it, it seemed his vessel wanted to live for himself.
activating his Skype, he addressed Kurogiri."
"Kurogiri, bring me Tomura."
"... I can't, Master." His loyal puppet informed his master. "He is currently out."
"Out? Oh, is he out shopping for a video game, perhaps?"
Kurogiri remained quiet. odd, he should have told his master everything.
"Kurogiri, speak."
"Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." The Nomu recited without any hesitation, catching the supervillain off guard.
"Excuse me?" Shigaraki asked, completely caught off guard by this development.
Instead of giving a blessedly staring answer, Kurogiri just kept reciting this...
"Kurogiri, what is this thing? What happened? Answer to me clearly, Kurogiri or Tomura will pay for it dearly." He threatened.
He loathed to damage his new body further. But sometimes, it was what it took to have the obedience he deserved.
"This is God in sound form, Master. As given by God himself in his most merciful form of Sri-Krishna Chaitania Mahaprabhu. Midoricharia taught me and my charge how to sing it, along with the actual size of the world and the people that live there. They are currently singing in the street, and I was given unbreakable orders by our Guru not to come to you, for we are doing the Lord's work at the moment. I'm sure Tomura would be more inclined to listen to you if you kindly waited-"
"Bring him back."
"No, the orders of my Guru are unbreakable. Even you don't have the ability to break it." Kurogiri snapped whit something that resembled free will and rightful anger.
no, this would not do.
All for one gritted his teeth, feeling his mental claws scrambling for purchase in Kurogiri's scrambled brain.
"Is that so?" he hissed. "Very well. I want you to bring them all here. You know I can't tolerate any type of insubordination, and it's been a long time since I've taught Tomura about the harsh realities of life."
Quivering under his eyeless gaze, Kurogiri (finally) bowed to his master.
"Yes, Sensei. It will be done."
"You may leave. I will send you to the doctor later for adjustment. I can't really blame you, Kurogiri; you are an old nomu—the prototype. Glitches and bugs are still a problem with you. Thankfully, your maker knows of various ways to make you a proper servant."
To his credit, Kurogiri didn't give any reactions at all.
Thus, with nothing else to do, All For One leaned back and waited.
He may be a bicentennial villain, but that didn't mean he liked to wait.
Back with Izuku and Tomura.
"~Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Hare.~" Izuku sang, his joy causing a sun-like glow to grow from him.
Tomura never remembered seeing his new sensei this happy, and this was monumental for the blue-haired youth.
His old Sensei, Shigaraki, would rarely be truly pleased with Tomura; his smiles were always fake, and his praise sounded not quite hollow but hiding venom, his head pats were painful, and he never hugged Tomura either, even when his old life came back to haunt him, telling his student to lock it away and use it to fuel his hatred for everything.
Izuku wasn't like that.
Oh no, Izuku was the polar opposite of Sensei in every senses of the world.
While Sensei wanted Tomura to cultivate his hatred with the desire that he'd kill All Might and everything else he hated, Izuku wanted Tomura to cultivate love of God and for every living entity that were parts and parcels of the Supreme. without having Tomura hug the blonde buffoon.
Izuku knew All Might wasn't perfect. Hell, the boy had met the man, and it had almost cost him his life. But instead of trying to kill him or, God forbid, prove him wrong by becoming a hero, Izuku had taken the spiritual path in this story.
And from what Tomura could see, his Cleric had reached a pretty damn high level in a pretty short time and exuded happiness everywhere he went.
And his happiness wasn't caused by conquering others, causing pain, or succeeding in cheating death.
No.
Izuku was happy to see others happy. And he was happier still when he pleased his supreme God.
He also got happy when Dabi recovered from his impromptu cold turkey spell. Apparently, one could not quit drugs without risking their lives, and it had only been due to Granny Badass that the human ashtray was still living.
He was still struggling to walk. But today, he'd managed to keep his one weak ass meal down, and he managed to take a shower by himself, and he'd even apologized to Izuku.
It was a very gruff 'sorry 'about that... won't do it again... ever.' One that, if not how he'd precariously lumbered the sacred youth, would've looked half-assed.
But from the look of it and how Dabi's head had hung low, it was clear that Kurogiri had worked his magic and had cultured the walking piece of long pork bacon into something more human than all of them combined.
And thus, Dabi had been allowed outside in the sun. And by the look of it, Deadpool Jr. had rarely seen the light of day, since he stood mesmerized by the sight of the sun and might as well shed a few tears too.
And yes, Tomura filmed all that. Blackmail was blackmail, after all.
And while Tomura wished he could return to his dark and cool room, slaving away to beat his high score again, away from the hustle and bustle of the ignorant civilians, this was way better.
Singing out loud in the street with Izuku, Dabi, Kurogiri, and the plainest NPC ever, with the most OP quirk ever. (No shit, Decay might be OP, but Nao-san could legally carry a gun and smell people's bullshit! talk about synergy) was blissful.
It was as if he was swimming in an unending ocean of pure bliss.
He didn't have to kill. He didn't have to terrorize people. He didn't have to remember what he and Sensei hated, letting it fuel his quirk.
No. Instead, Izuku taught him the power of love.
Actually, something Tomura had realized was that demons were, like, super weak against it. And thus, those asuras slowly wormed their way to become DMs, admins and other such seats of power. And using those, began discrediting the power of love as something ridiculous and useless.
Who needed love when you could be feared and hated... or you had enough money to throw at your problem?
But this love...
Tomura learned that he had lots of love in his heart. And not just for video games.
He loves scouring the library for encyclopedias and documentaries. The world truly was an awesome place. He also loved Listening to Izuku when he spoke about his god and His numeorus Avatars and superpowered devotee's like the one titled Prabhupada, Bhaktisidhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Bhatkivinoda Thakura and the likes.
Izuku told him that the world they lived in, planet Earth, was just a single planet where God's pastimes had taken place. There existed trillions of other luminaries on top of the nine planets that circled Bhoomashri. And this had started Izuku on a rant about how those mundane astronomers didn't know shit about Pluto, the capital planet of Yamaraja, the superintendent of death, and how it didn't matter what the hell they thought; Pluto is a planet and will remain a planet until all is decayed back into Poradan, the primordial ooze or pure darkness. And that other planets also held life.
If Krishna said so, it meant so, Tomura had learned.
Izuku… Izuku was teaching Tomura to love, something the blue-haired young man thought he was incapable of.
How could he? When he was an instrument of destruction.
"~Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare! Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare!" Izuku belted out again, meaning that he and the rest of his crew had to follow. The Hari-nama pulled Tomura out of his terrible spiral and up higher, where the weight of his sins was fully lifted from his all too narrow shoulders.
He loved it here.
He loved it, sitting on the ground as he sang out loud, a huge water bottle nearby for where his throat became too dry to continue. Belting out the holy names of God, of Krishna. The All Powerful one who cared about them, who also loved them, who could've easily deleted them all for wanting to take His place, but Kept them all in a place where they could play by themselves. where they could conquer and destroy and enjoy to their heart's content without him.
Oh sure, this world was misery for those who had no powers, and then there was Karma and birth, death, old age, and diseases.
But they were still here, and God, Krishna always made the escape key available and easy to use.
Seriously, how hard was it to chant? How hard was it to chant?!
Apparently harder than expected since only a bunch of villains, a handfull of Herolings and one hero could do it while all the other clean and shiny civilians and pure and virtuous heroes could not even do it, sneering and cursing at their little merry band of thieves.
And weirdos, never forget the weirdos.
Like Twice and Himiko, who just decided to start dancing badly to the sacred song. Tomura had been on the cusp of chasing them away from Izuku's sacred communion with God when the cleric/bard jumped up from his beating bucket and joined them in their revelry.
Hell, even Eraserhead, the coolest of all heroes ever. The man who hated illogical shit was tapping his feet and nodding his head to the rhythm of Izuku's bucket.
Yes, it was a plain old soy sauce bucket once used for paint, but as his resourceful bard had said,'short of a mridanga or bongo, those will do.'
Of course, not everyone liked their Sankirtana. Plenty would block their ears like snot-nosed children, others would scream at their faces to stop sinning and surrender to Jesus (Eraserhead and Nao-san even got to arrest a dude from the MLA, whatever that was), and a bunch of other NPCs, Tomura decided, were not worth his time.
Izuku had told him that, being Vaishnava, they were representatives of God, Sri-Krishna-Chaitania, and Nityananda. And thus, they had to put their best face forward to be at their best. For through their actions, people would be attracted to Krishna.
Not by beating them over the head with the Bhagavad Gita, screaming at them to repent from their sins, and all that.
They were better than that.
And instead, Tomura was to practice the lost art of tolerance, patience, and humility. For, in the end, who was the true doer? The tiny, insignificant speck of God, or His unlimited source?
He hated feeling small; it reminded him of this time when he wasn't with Sensei.
Actually, Tomura never stopped feeling small and vulnerable, which was why it felt good to kill those NPCs to show them that he was bigger than them. More dangerous, their lives would crumple in his hands, and they couldn't do shit.
But with Izuku, it was different.
For his singing cleric, feeling small and insignificant was something to cherish. Since being small and weak was the nature of the soul.
Compared to God, that is.
Everything that grew, reproduced, grew old, and died had a soul in them. And those souls were immortal.
Actually, the soul was the person in the body, and the body was quite literally a flesh mecha for the soul. and a prison.
Tomura had learned from Doc Garaki and Sensei how the body was built to feel pain. and only a few places could give pleasure.
And this world As far as Tomura could remember, even his nebulous childhood, he could only remember pain and anger.
And frustration—a fuck-tonne of that.
The only time he would get relief was when he got to play his games merely an hour a day, and all his memory cards would get corrupted at random times. And no, he could not keep his games running since he only had a limited time with his wall juice.
Sensei didn't want a slacker; he wanted a perfect weapon.
But with Izuku, it was different.
When he sang with him his Maha-Mantra, when he prayed to God, all of Tomura's anger and frustration seemed to melt away. Even the constant pain he was in, caused by his allergies and tic, was gone.
Never in his life had he felt so happy, so fulfilled. And he never wanted to return to how it was before.
Hell, his video games had lost their shine. Killing and mutilating NPCs got stale; not that he did recently, but Izuku had told him that, unless they were an actual threat and no option presented themselves, then Tomura would do the needful, and Tsukoshi would cover for him. as long as no other options would be present, but it was clear Izuku didn't like any options, simply on the strength that his faith in God was that strong and that he knew that whatever would happen was by Gauranga's will, and the worst that could happen for him was to return back to Sri Dham Mayapur. Meaning that Tomura would protect his cleric/bard with his very life. Instead, the Harinama Sankirtana would become Tomura's very life, and whatever Sensei wanted would be secondary only.
Maybe…
Fuck, this gave his anxiety. Sensei would not approve, but Short of killing heroes and hating everything, nothing seemed to please the Demon- King.
Well …
fuck him
"Alright. Time to wrap up, Midori-san." Aizawa Shouta, now fully in his Eraserhead persona, said. "The public's starting to get tired of your shit. Saw a few of them ring up the police." he threatened whit his glowing red eyes ominously shinning behind his useless temu goggles.
"And I just caught the radio asking for a patrol to arrest you." Naomasa said as he flashed his badge.
"Ah, that's unfortunate. Thank you, Nao-san, Shou-san." The devotee thanked. "Alright, guys. Time to go."
"Ahh crap, just when things were picking up." Dabi lamented, still weak from his recovery. "Hey, Anima… Can you give me a boost?" He asked the nicest, kindest teen and his adorable pet rabbit.
The rock-headed mutant (so cute, he would totally be a hero he would secretly cheer for, like Eraserhead) nodded as he let Dabi grab onto him, pulling him to his feet.
"Thanks, man."
The craggy teen made a hand sign Tomura assumed meant 'You're welcome'.
Inside the decay user's heart, though, bitterness brewed.
How come Sensei had told him that all heroes started as puffed-up fools with their heads inflated with false pride in their powers and dreams of fame, money, and women when Anima was such a pure sweetheart?
Seriously, Tomura just wanted to squeeze the guy hard and kill whatever villains happened to be in his path.
Oh, and decay all the bugs. But then, because Anima had such a soft heart, Tomura was sure the mutated teen would perform a whole ass funeral for those despite his phobia.
Anyway, it was time to go. He helped Izuku pack all of their instruments, zabutons, and chairs, piling everything in Naomasa's van before squishing in himself along with everybody else.
Usually, Tomura would hate this with a passion he'd usually reserved for All Might, especially with Dabi. But no, he was sharing the back seat with his singing Cleric while his AOE master was leaning on the beastmaster, petting Yuuai (his adorable pet were-rabbit). Meanwhile, Nedzu (of course he had been in the Harinam; there was no way he would stay out of this particular drama), shot-gunned with Aizawa, his snout practically pressed on his tablet as he guzzled sacred knowledge like parched man juice.
This got Tomura thinking, What was Nedzu's role in his game? Whatever the mammal was, he was fluffy, dog-like, and totally the team pet/lethal joke character. but…
Maybe it was Nao-san? Dude would just not stay still and always seemed high as fuck.
Nut, you know, not that Tomura could judge him, since he also felt—what was the word?—blissed out!
Oh yeah, there was also Twice and Himiko, but those two felt like chaotic neutral recurring characters, but maybe Himiko would be their token evil estrogene teammate? Well, he knew nobody liked the way she would simp after Midoriyacharya; even Midoriya looked this close to ditching the team.
Thankfully, Kurogiri, Erasehead, and Naomasa were around, and while Tomura had internally vowed to keep his path as paragone as he could if Himiko wanted to fuck around and find out, she was welcome to it.
"Alright, everybody. Dabi, you got your gravols?" Izuku asked, prompting Anima.
(Wait! No! His name was Koda Kouji, so Kouji-kun.) to fish in his drawstring bag for the elixir.
Did he mention how much he loved this guy? Really, that was a good hero, right there.
Dabi took the proffered pills and took it dry like the fucking psycho he was.
and, after waiting the required twenty minutes for the pills to work, listening to Izuku reading from his Bhagavad-Gita As It Is (the best edition), they were off to Aizawa's biggest safehouse.
He was an underground hero who was publicly known as an instructor to some other herolings. and a whole bunch of failed heroes.
But, with how low the actual card reader was, Tomura suspected the whole place to belong to none other than Nedzu.
"He Neemai, he Nitai, we're back!" Izuku called out as he stepped in the threshold, removing his zori and placing them by the shoe rack and forgoing the inside slippers all together.
They had to, since the living room was Krishna's temple.
It was still a medium flat made for workers and salarymen and not scions from ancient lines, and thus, they had no dedicated temple room.
It was downgrade from the bar. But at the same time, they had to leave unless Tomura's charisma hit ninety nine and he hit a nat 20 on his hidden dice roll to even remotely have a chance to have his...
To have his friend and mentor leaving alive.
And even then, it wasn't likely. Quirkless, for all the 'useless' talk about them, were viewed as the world's most prized resources since all their organs were compatible with all, and they tended to be more fertile also.
And made for the most stable Nomu base.
No way he would let his holy man fall prey to the black market, not as long as he had HP.
So, moving it was, and Aizawa gave them a whole place.
It was alright, but they had to share bedrooms; not that Tomura cared much. Not if it was Izuku.
The servant of Bhagavan slept like a log, and his sleep was a deep one too. Perfect for Tomura's insomniac ass.
So yeah, things worked out, and Kurogiri had Dabi's sick ass to take care of.
Since, you know...
Drugs are easy to get on, less to get off. The blue-haired Villain (was he even that now?) was now so thankful to Kurogiri for his anti-drug crusade.
He must've been on his new-game plus file. Having already made the bad decision, he now wanted to get his golden ending.
Relatable, Tomura also liked happy endings.
Or whatever ending required the most work, really.
"Oh! Who cooked?" Izuku asked as he went to give his dandavat to his deity, Yaoyorozu made a handsome set of brass Gaura-Nitai.
The heiress felt bad about what Trashkugo had done to Izuku, destroying hundreds—perhaps a thousand dollars worth of food and materials—only for existing.
She had replaced everything after shamelessly cooing over the divine quirkless boy.
Apparently, Izuku did not only have a high intellect and high wisdom, but a high charisma as well.
The Heiress was practically eating out of his hands, nodding along as he glorified his Lord and those who came before him, revealing that he'd found his ever-so-precious Bhagavad-gita at the top of a building.
Tomura didn't want to think about how Izuku ended up there, let alone the reason why.
What was important was that Izuku was alive, he was happy, and he was with friends.
It was later revealed that the mutant kid,..Doc Oct, you know...Right, Shouji Meizou had dropped by after school to hang out, but since they were out singing in the street, pleasing Izuku's gods (because why the fuck not, at this point), he was all alone, so instead of, you know, taking a nap, raiding the fridge, and stealing their bandwidth, Shouji had prepared them (well, to Bhagavan, then them) a nice vegetarian supper.
No onions, no eggs, and no mushrooms either.
Unlike last time.
Right … It was quite the tale about how Shouji, Anima, Yaoyorozu, and Nedzu joined their little group. As it turned out, Aizawa had walked out of school after expelling his entire class in disgust at their reaction to the video.
But apparently, Nedzu was a rather attached thing and thus followed his favourite student, and thus had followed his fuming pro-hero to the bar hideout.
Shouji, Kouji, and Momo followed too, after a few days and a 'mysterious' text calling them to other options at UA, which was not actually the best Hero school in the country. No, but Nedzu knew how to work the market and destroy things internally like the little parasite he truly was.
Nedzu hated humans. His ultimate goal had been to topple the Hero system by chewing its roots—the children. And he had enough online presence and blackmail to make it happen.
This was then that Tomura realized that the shrew was a whole lot smarter than Sensei, who's destructive goal was all about having unlimited power.
Nedzu started with nothing but spite and a brain.
But more telling was how his plan was working without anyone being the wisest and would do so until it would be too late to stop him.
Kinda like Sensei's but with less resources used.
Thankfully, he had a change of heart after talking to Izuku for a whole day. Well, one hour, really. After that, Tomura's cleric had educated the false educator about Bhakti-Yoga, Karma, the nature of the soul, and how to stop reincarnation and befriend God.
Izuku had then shrugged before slipping in his futon on the floor (he hated American-style mattresses) and telling his soon-to-be disciple about how only the intelligent ones would take up the process of Bhakti.
And indeed, the next morning (no, Tomura hadn't slept, and he was fine; Sensei had given him a quirk for that). Maybe, probably… (Or perhaps it was his E-tank refill?) Izuku woke up to the doorbell.
This almost caused Tomura to decay his controller, but he refrained, thankfully.
"It's Momo, Nedzu, and Kouji, oh, and Shouji-kun also." Kurogiri called out.
"Oh, Krishna!" Izuku exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. (Who the fuck was that energetic at 3 in the fucking morning?) "They're here! For Mangal-Arati! Oh no, I'm not showered yet!" Izuku then shouted his greeting to their three visitors as he ran in the bathroom, did his ablutions in less than ten minutes, jumped out, and dressed in even less time.
Huh, now that's what Tomura called a speedrun.
And with that, he was out of the room, loudly greeting the good herolings (0x0F), and from the sound of it, hitting the floor and bowing down to Momo.
He called her Mother Sachi.
Screwing his lips, Tomura neglectfully threw his controller on his bed and got up to hang out with Izuku's other friends.
There was lore to be had, and Tomura was hungry for divine knowledge.
—-
"Sachi-mata!" Izuku exclaimed as he threw himself down at Yaoyorozu Momo feet, who had recently birthed God in two features.
Who was she in her previous life, and what had she done to gain the same glories as Prishni, Aditi, Devaki, Yashoda, Rohini, Padmavati, and Sachi-Mata?
Whomever she was, Izuku now had to take care of her, even if it meant giving up his vows of Brahmacharia and marrying her.
Well, maybe not; Izuku still had plenty of time yet (God willing), and it would certainly be better to choose a member of the Kshatriya caste to protect the walking goddess. No way a Brahman would be suited for the manifestation of Bhu-devi walking the earth.
Behind her and the rest of Izuku's friend group (Izuku had friends, Krishna does provide what his surrendered devotees lack), Gaurnaga shook his head fondly at Izuku's fanaticism and borderline materialistic thought process while Nitai was rolling on the floor, laughing—or was he crying?
Nitai-Chandra was in ecstasy, as always.
"Hey, Hare Krishna! Good morning, everyone." Izuku bowed again to those fortunate souls, the next waves of devotees ready and willing to risk everything to spread Gauranga's causeless mercy to all. "Have you all slept well?"
"Yes, Hare Krishna to you too. We did, Izu-kun, all three hours of them." Nedzu joyfully said as he popped a few nicotine-laden gums in his mouth. "Well, for me, at least. I know my new students have slept as long as they needed. How about you, Izu-kun? Have you slept well?" The Chimera asked the youth.
Izuku nodded. "Yes, I've slept like a log. I dreamt I was in Sri-Dham Mayapur, serving my spiritual master." Tears filled his eyes. "Guru-deva's so far. and I'm just a beggar; how am I supposed to reach him?"
"Don't worry, Ijuku. I will arrange for the both of you to meet eventually." Neemai assured his devotee, knowing the pain of not having a spiritual master for a time, remembering his own, Sriman-Ishvara-Puri Goswami.
"Just ask, Izu-kun, and I shall arrange for you your visa, ticket, and passport." Nedzu piped up.
"And I will fund whatever travel expenses you may have."
"See, Priya-ji."
"Oh God, why do I keep doubting you? You are in the heart of all living entities, controlling all of their movement as you arrange for all their desires and karma to come to pass. Nothing is impossible for you, and yet, you still let us have our free will despite our gross misuse of it."
"Iju-ji, Bhagavan already has everything and is self-satisfied. He has no need, and yet he longs after you. and after everyone stuck in this miserable world of matter. And He, being greedy for loving exchange with his errant parts and parcels, will do everything in his power to attract you all to him. All save, take away your free will." Nitiyananda explained as he recovered from his love-born madness. He was, after all, the source of all spiritual teachers.
Izuku smiled as he felt tears well up in his eyes.
How one's heart would not melt and tears would not fall at this declaration.
"Midori-san… Is everything all right? Have we done something wrong?" Sachi-dasi asked,
Izuku gave a happy wriggle. "Yes…No… I'm just… JAY HO! Vndavan-Dhama ki JAY HO! He cheered and jumped for joy as the reality of his trip and his subsequent meeting with his Guru would happen sooner than later.
He truly was blessed; they all were.
Meanwhile, Kurogiri gestured to Tomura to follow him.
He had a message to give.