Tenko jolted upright. A gasp of air entering his trembling lungs. He was greeted with darkness. Darkness all around. The clothes he had on were all torn up, but there were no injuries in sight! He was feeling fine, actually!
"Welcome..." Came a woman's voice. One which he had never heard before. Except in small fragments on televi--
"Nana!?" Tenko spun around. Behind him was a floating, broken up room full of thrones that formed an arch. In each throne sat imposing, powerful people. There were two women, the rest battle hardened men. "Woah, I can actually see you guys now!" They were no longer dark, wispy shapes. It only took a couple blinks before the boy's eyes settled on the ginger in the room, who sat upright, stiff and motionless like the dark shape of Aizawa beside her. "Wait, is that (Y/n)'s mom?!"
Nana spoke from her chair. "We aren't entirely sure. Her quirk merged with ours when Aizawa was given a regeneration quirk... She hasn't moved since. Unnatural even for us." ...No kidding. What were once beautiful, sparkling blue eyes were now dull and lifeless. Unblinking, she stared ahead at nothing in particular, stuck in a deep, traumatic haze.
Tenko pushed himself up and stepped onto the platform of theirs, since walking around on the void was creepy. His eyes switched up from the cracked stone ground to smile at Ms. Shimura. "Grandma Nana!" He excitedly bounced her way. The woman sprung to her feet, wrapping her large, toned arms around the teen.
She chuckled softly. "It is so good to see you... I am so sorry for the way things turned out with my son.. I know that...maybe if I was actually there for him.."
Squeezing her tighter, "It wasn't your fault he turned out like a b####... He did that all on his own."
Remembering her sweet little boy, Nana teared up some, nuzzling her cheek against her grandson's hair. A shuttering sigh left her, lips tugging thin. ...Still hurt to think that her own sweet little boy turned into the man he was today. But..at least her grandson bounced back from that.
The woman exhaled, squeezed Tenko a little tighter and kissed his head. Then she pulled back, smiling softly now. "We all have some things we need to discuss with you before you wake back up."
"Oh, so I really am dreaming?"
"Sort of." The white haired man who sat in the middle throne spoke, smiling warmly at the boy. "It is easier to contact you like this while you are unconscious. Something we couldn't do with past users until recently. I can also share memories."
"Heh.. dope." Tenko chuckled. He looked around at everyone, who were all staring at him. "Wait can you guys all see my memories?" Blushing a little, he suddenly felt a bit exposed.
"We don't need that to know your search history is cursed." A fairly short man with black hair and a red jacket, the collar of which covered his mouth, spoke up dryly. A couple other men snickered.
The teen really blushed now! "Is not!!"
"Thrilling as the topic is, we should really move on to the reason we're all here." A man with spiky orange hair gruffed, side eyeing the first user beside him. The long haired man, watching, smiled again and wove his fingers together.
"Of course. Tenko Shimura, was it?" Standing in the middle of them, the teen nodded briskly. "We have some.. troubling news regarding your friend, (Y/n) Shigaraki."
"Huh?" The boy tilted his head.
"You see... Shigaraki is my last name as well. Or-- at least it was the name my brother picked out for us. And the name literally means 'death grip..' because my brother was edgy like that."
Tenko's eyes widened. A slow, unexpected smile crept up onto his face. Then he burst. "Wait, so I'm friends with one of your descendants?? That's so cool!!"
"No. It really isn't."
"What, why??"
"Because she's not my descendant... She's my brother's."
"Well, still."
"Hhhhhm.." Rubbing his face. "Perhaps I should just show you." Following, a memory displaying like a stage play displayed itself before them all. Tenko spun around, the horror growing in his eyes more and more as the scene unfolded. The first user was terribly weak and helpless, trapped away in some kind of cold, dark cell. A tall man, burley and well dressed in a suit and tie, entered the door by screeching hinges. He spoke so condescendingly down on his brother, like the littler one was a mere object to him. And about his declining health of all things too! It ended with the towering man forcibly giving a quirk to the younger brother. All the struggling, the smaller one's weak legs scraping around the ground uselessly as he writhed in pain. Made the young absolutely sick. As the image faded, Tenko didn't know what to think.
"Toshinori explained it already, didn't he?.. That was how this quirk came to be. My brother, Toruichi, is perhaps the worst man ever born. And he will only continue to grow worse until we finally stop him."
"Wait, continue?! Shouldn't the old geezer be dead by now!?"
"He should be.. but, his quirk allowed him to escape death."
Tenko's eyes narrowed. "...What is his quirk..?"
Yoichi glanced down at his lap and sighed. "...All For One... It..allows him to steal other people's quirks, give quirks to other people..and...use them for himself however he wishes."
... Tenko took a moment to process. Then, his eyes shot wide open. "Hold up, that sounds a lot like (Y/n)'s quirk!"
"Because it is. He's her father... I can't imagine he would create her with pure intentions. ...And perhaps it isn't just a coincidence that she came to UA either." Yoichi half glared up at the teen. "She may be your friend... but she's also your enemy. I wouldn't risk taking any chances with her. In fact I'd suggest you keep your guard up and keep at a distance from her as much as possible... I don't even want to imagine what she might do to you."
They all stared at Tenko sternly, wariness in their eyes. They all had their reasons to be afraid of her. Heck, Tenko himself had reasons to fear her! All that blood...dousing her face.
As easy as it was to imagine (Y/n) being evil. That perhaps she was now just like her father, Tenko just couldn't-! He.. he couldn't stand the thought of turning on his best friend like that.
The boy's fists clenched at his sides. "...I'll be careful.. but I will not abandon (Y/n)! What if it was just a coincidence?! Or-or what if she really does want to be a hero?! You don't know that!! You don't know anything about her!" Two of the men stood up from their thrones and walked to the distant wall, facing away from the boy.
"Then you don't have our blessing." The second user uttered. Then two more.. three more users stood and turned their backs. Not all of them reached the wall, but their backs turned to the current user said enough. Tenko felt like his heart had just been ripped out. Did nobody trust his decision?! The only ones who remained seated were Nana, Yoichi, All Might, the shape of Aizawa which could not move anyway, and the statue-like form of (Y/n)'s mom.
All Might leaned forward in his chair, clasping his hands together. "...Before I died, I saw that girl's resolve personally... Things could have changed since then..but I trust that the young Shigaraki has no intention to hurt anyone... I may not have a quirk of my own to offer you...but I can give you my strength."
"And I," Nana sitting up straight. "..I trust your heart... You can have my flight." Everyone there then looked to Yoichi, who held the lower half of his face in one hand. His one visible green eye studied the teen closely.
Voice muffled through his hand, "...I don't have much of a choice, really. My brother is still out there... So I simply cannot risk making another antagonist out of an unknown variable... You will have all of One For All's power, however, I cannot convince everyone here on my own to lend their quirks. The convincing comes down to you. To you and whether or not this friend of yours really is what you imagine her to be."
Tearing up, the boy bowed lowly. "Thank you for your support! All of you, even the ones who don't agree! I promise! (Y/n) is a good person! She just needs a chance to shine!"
Yoichi smiled faintly at the boy. "...In that case...I can't wait to see it."
----------
. . .
It was hard to walk. Yet you did so in complete darkness. You couldn't even see your own hands. Touch was your only asset.
You weren't tired, exactly. More like you struggled through a merky sand. Muddy. Grippy. Like hands holding your ankles.
With every step, you had to tear your feet free. The ground in time took your shoe. After the socked foot landed on the ground to stabilize yourself, the true horror of this earth was revealed. Flesh. Moving under your foot like writhing worms. Bones under said flesh flexing, giving structure to the wonky ground. It was constantly moving under you.
You glanced and stared down. Still, nothing. You hurried now, over the withering flesh. Human flesh. Sometimes your shoeless foot felt the shape of a hand, another foot, or an arm. They were not distinct individuals. No, this wasn't just a pile of bodies... This was one mass of sufferers.
The groans started small. At first nothing but a mere hum, growing and rising until shrill, soul crushing wails shot out from the ground. Their screams. Cries for help. Pleas for death.
Worst part was you instinctively knew exactly what this was.
The Amalgamation, or "Big Daddy" as you had jokingly called it... These were all the quirks you carelessly shoved into one useless soup of power, now in the flesh and under your feet.
Their throat tearing screams, rang angry again; louder and louder as the minutes turned into hours. After some time...your body was weak. Your legs became tired. Too tired to pull free from the fleshs' grip and longer.
So, you sank. Deeper and deeper. The sweating skin, muscle, and bone behind them together crushed your limbs. The pain became unbearable and yet you couldn't break free!
Knee deep, everything up to that point were completely crushed, the pain so bad you screamed silently. So high pitch that no one could really hear it. Doing so killed your throat. Waist deep. Same thing, only now your throat was bleeding. Gurgling and choking on your own blood as your throat tore open. The blood flew out of your mouth, dripping down your neck.
By the time you had sank in chest deep, you'd given up. Your eyes stared dully at the darkness. You couldn't breathe. Your lungs, all your organs, were completely crushed. as your head was consumed, you took these final moments to wonder why.
...What about this hell was fair?
-----
Light. Your head jerked up, realizing you were already sitting up. You blinked a few times, greeted by the warm evening night peering in from behind the wall of curtains to your right. It was the nurse's room. One prepared enough to house a hospital bed and everything. You groaned and rubbed your eyes.
Ugh.. that's right... You decided to stick around and wait for Tenko to wake up. Ugh...must have fallen asleep and into another one of those stupid nightmares. You draped an arm over your face and groaned.
"Bad dream?" Aizawa's all too familiar voice entered your ear. You sat up, blinking around and squinting at the dark haired man. He sat just beside the sleeping Tenko, who was presently all wrapped up in bandages.
"Ai...Eraserhead?" You weren't expecting to see him here!- Wait.. He had his hand on the boy's arm like All Might did whenever Deku-- no way.
Mr. Aizawa had One For All too?! Why didn't you ever consider that?! He was literally there when All Might died! You watched with a pang of guilt.
"...I'm guessing this kid's your friend, or..?"
Sitting up, "Listen, I-" you reached out your hand. The man's quirk instantly activated, his hair flying up and his eyes glowing red. You stared stupidly at him. You sat back, raising an eyebrow at him. "I'm sorry?"
"There's no point in lying to me. I know you're the original (Y/n)."
You scoffed. "No I'm not! What would make you think that??"
Crossing his arms. "Some things just weren't adding up."
"Uh, mind explain what things?" The man instead just stared at you silently, his quirk still active. "...Calm down. If I was going to steal his quirk, I would have before you even showed up."
"So it is you."
"Wait, what?!.. Please don't tell me you just tricked me."
...
"I hate you."
"Listen.." The man deactivated his quirk and rubbed his eyes. You watched with your own arms crossed, huffy. "I'm the only one who knows, and I'm willing to keep it that way as long as you play along."
"...Huh?" Head tilting.
Aizawa sighed as he rubbed his forehead. This was..weird. Like he was potentially making a deal with the devil here.
But she wasn't the devil. He had to remind himself of that. She was just a kid. Not to mention a good friend of Tenko. Heh, not even Iguchi stayed this long waiting for the boy to wake up.
"I'm going to need you to agree to three things."
"Hm?"
"First... You are not to steal the quirks of anyone on this campus. Second, I'm going to need some kind of clue from you. Something that will let me know without a doubt how to tell you apart from any of your brother's clones."
You sat there and thought for a minute, staring at the ground. "...I don't really know about the clones thing. Heh, guess you could stab us. The doubles break apart after reaching a certain threshold of pain. But..I guess since I don't exactly want to be stabbed...um..." It was just a hunch, but.. "Ask me what Chloe's brother's name is. Even if I forget this conversation, the real me should be able to answer that."
"Okay.. The third thing I need you to do.." The man picked up his chair and carried it around the bed, placing it against the opposite wall, now directly across from you. He sat down and placed his elbows on his lap again, staring you down. "I need you to tell me everything you know about One For All." ...How much exactly was 'everything?' Should you lie?
After some thinking, you mirrored Aizawa's posture, fingertips touched as you stared him down. "I know it's an ancient quirk that's been passed down through the generations in an attempt to destroy my father. I know it's powerful... And I know thanks to that little display earlier today that Tenko has it now." Aizawa frowned slightly. "Which is why I am going to do everything in my power to make sure my dad never gets it, because I want him beat just as bad as everyone else."
Remembering that day on the island..when you were so emotionally vulnerable. ... Your virtue was shown through trying to save All Might first... Your vice was shown through crawling back to your dad when that failed. You were in a dark place then..but still. He couldn't exactly trust that you were 100% on their side, which was why he was one of the vestiges who in the end decided not to side with Tenko here. There were just too many variables to consider.
"..That'a good to hear." Standing up. "If you get in, don't be surprised if everyone is-"
"Er..raser..?" Both of you looked at Tenko, who was just starting to open his eyes. The man turned to the teen, peering down at him.
Eraserhead leaned in a little to appear in the teen's view. "Yes?"
"All For One is.. he's after my... Where's (Y/n)?"
"Right here." The boy's entire body flinched. He swiftly sat up, groaning as he did so. You had already stood up in that time, avoiding making eye contact at all cost as you collected the bag of snacks you had brought.
Tenko smiled so big to see your face again. "(Y/n)! You actually waited!" But the smile dropped as he saw just how different you were. For starters, you were much larger, but it wasn't the physical traits that killed his grin.
Much like your mother's vestige's eyes, the light in them was gone. Long gone. Your expression was so much like that of your mother's ghost. So distant as well, you were clearly alive..but not enjoying it. You stared at the ground, a hand scratching the back of your head.
You slung the bag strap over your shoulder and headed toward the door. "M' glad you're alright... Gotta go now." Tenko didn't cry out your name like he did the night you left him years ago...but he felt the same way. Nothing had changed in his heart.
----------
Outside finally, your tired eyes pried open just enough to watch the bright, salmon colored sky. It was the UA front entrance. Heh, what an iconic place. For some reason, you never thought you'd actually make it here. So, somehow this felt fake to you. Like it was all just a dream. You were nearly at the lonesome gate when suddenly- "(Y/NNN)!" Tenko cried. You spun around, growling a little to see the boy in his poor condition running up to you. His legs and right arm were all heavily bandaged, forcing him to somewhat hobble down the pathway.
You were turned to him halfway, ready to twist and flee at any given moment. "What?" You asked the panting boy dryly after he had stopped about ten feet away.
"'What?' Did I hear that right?! You're really asking ME why I'm chasing after you!?" Tenko grimaced. He had prepared for just about every possible reunion there was. From a happy one full of hugs, and maybe even a kiss or two, to him finding out you had turned into a villain and now we're trying to kill him! This was..somehow somewhere in-between. And he hated it. "I'm worried about you, (Y/n)!! The last time I saw you, you were covered in blood, your mom's dead body on the ground!! You seriously think I'm just going to act like none of that happened!!?"
You diverted your eyes to the bushes ahead. "I mean.. I'd like you to."
Arms dangling in front of himself, the boy sighed..somehow ending up chuckling a little. "You were always a little strange, weren't you?"
"Th'heck is that supposed to mean?"
He stepped forward, boldly covering his chest with the one hand that wasn't heavily bandaged. With it, he grabbed at his shirt. "I don't know what happened while you were gone, but just know I am here for you! You are not a villain, you don't have a villain's quirk, and you are perfect just the way you are!!" Tears flew off his cheeks as the boy shouted. Your eyes widened with interest. And your whole body turned a little, now mostly facing his way. He was crying and boy was he hurting... Why didn't you expect this? Why did you automatically assume he wouldn't care?? Or worse yet that he would villainize you instantly?! Rare tears came to your eyes. And trust me, they were rare.
Your heart burnt. So bad that it made your hands sting with a fresh blue flame. Flames which you were quick to vanquish by simply tightening your fists.
Clutching his shirt tightly, the teary eyed teen stared you directly in the eyes. His own, unlike yours, were so full of emotion. "I-... I love you, (Y/n) Shigaraki! Don't ask me why, because I don't really know! But there's nothing you can do that would change it!" Seeing as your response wasn't quite as emotional as he'd hoped, his red eyes dropped to the ground, smiling awkwardly. "..That's just... how I feel." Shrugging. He glanced up again. Your lips were slightly parted, eyes a little wider than usual, and confusing thoughts drowned out by the sound of your racing heart. That was...certainly not what you expected to hear.
"...As a friend, right?"
Tenko blushed profusely, shaky hand rubbing the back of his hot neck. "U-yu-yeah! Definitely!"
You smiled faintly. "Hm... Missed ya too, Tenny." You walked up to and pat the boy on the shoulder kindly. Yeah..you had definitely grown since he'd last seen you! Standing over even Aizawa's height, you were a very big girl. Meanwhile Tenny was just barely above 5'5. The massive change was certainly something Tenko would have to get used to! After offering nothing more than a simple pat, you turned around again headed toward the gate. Waving over your shoulder, "Seeya later--" You stopped yourself, turning around and readjusting the bag's strap once more. "By the way... Does the name All For One ring a bell?" You knew he must know it by now. But this wasn't about the answer itself. It was about whether or not he truly trusted you with information this great. You wouldn't blame him for not telling, of course. You were just curious.
Where exactly did you two stand as friends...?
"O-o-whaat?" Face pale. "You mean the English saying, right??" You chuckled. Deciding to play along, you nodded. "Speaking of that, do you know what the second half of that phrase was??"
"One For All?"
"Mhm!.. Recognize that from anywhere?"
Rubbing your chin. "No...can't say that I do." Whatever this stupid memory game was, this was the beginning. The start of a war of lies and mind games. One that could last for centuries to come. "Well," Waving over your shoulder as you left. "Gotta be home before it gets dark!"
"Oh! Yeah." Maybe that's why she was in such a hurry? Tenko could only assume. You departed from him quickly. Bitter as it was to see you leave again so soon, he held hope that somehow he'd manage to get into this school. Then, maybe the two of you would be able to grow as heroes together. He smiled just thinking about it.
All-in-all, today was a great day.