Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shigaraki Tomura felt a lot of things throughout all of his life. Anger, sadness, and other similar emotions. He never really regretted his decisions if he was being completely honest. Maybe at the time he did, but looking back at it now, he didn’t regret killing anyone, didn’t regret how he made others feel, he just wanted to destroy.

Why wouldn’t he?

A stupid society that relied solely on heroes and made excuses for themselves every time something went wrong. While everyone else depended on them and acted like so-called victims of their own actions.

Why help the bloody five year old child walking down the street? Just wait for a hero, it wasn’t their problem. Oh a hero didn’t save him? Tough luck, and now he’s a villain, why didn’t he just do the morally correct thing and die on the streets?

He sneered the more he thought about it. Shigaraki wasn’t dumb, he knew having a traumatic past didn’t justify murdering innocent people, he just didn’t care. Again, why would he? They were part of the problem, as much as they didn’t think they were, just happily following along with the society that’ll push their problems onto the heroes, who then shift the blame onto something or someone else, denying how flawed their system was.

All Might used to be the biggest issue of this, just smiling along acting like he could save everyone without foul play.

Everything rejected him, his house, his family, his father, this society, and even Sensei. Sensei, who he at first saw as his savior, did not care for Shigaraki’s feelings or desires. Well, not in the traditional way anyhow, he wanted Tomura to grow hatred so he could use that hatred to take One For All, a quirk that he had lost ages ago and wants to retrieve it.

But then… Ghost people quirk or something.

Shigaraki didn’t know the details, and to be honest he didn’t really care. Why the hell was All For One so obsessed with that quirk when you could just kill the user and end it from being passed on?

If that’s how it worked, which he didn’t know if it did. But Izuku Midoriya, the user of “One For All” seemed to be the “Chosen one” of whatever the hell that quirk was, considering the fact at how cliche and dramatic it was everytime he used that quirk, and had multiple quirks on top of that.

And even if he was wrong about that, and there would be another One For All user cause of quirk magic bullshit, he would just deal with it. He doubted the kid just magically learned all those creative moves he made from those quirks, why not just end him and kill the next user before he becomes too good. Hell, All For One had the chance to kill Izuku Midoriya when he first started to take over his body. Instead of using AFO to take One For All, he could have just used decay.

How funny. That All For One used him as a pawn for his own plan, when Shigaraki’s plan would have just ended everything.

Shigaraki sighed as he looked up at the glass window from his cell, as a door opened, revealing the mop of green hair that stuck him in this place.

Yes, Shigaraki did not regret anything… Until Izuku Midoriya started to make him question some things.

“You have ten minutes. Usually it would be five, but considering the circumstances…”

“I understand.” Deku nodded, as the door behind him closed shut.

A lot of things had happened after Deku defeated him, a lot of talks that made him think about what he’s done. Not enough to completely regret his actions, but enough for him to acknowledge that his way of destroying everything wasn’t the only way for things to change.

Shigaraki watched in silence as Deku, the hero name of Izuku Midoriya, walked towards the seat in front of the glass.

A few seconds of silence happened before Deku sighed, as he realized Shigaraki was not gonna start the conversation. “...So, how’s it been?”

Really? “You’re an idiot.”

Deku didn’t seem offended, but did scratch his cheek in slight embarrassment. “Yeah, stupid question. You’re just a tough person to talk to.”

“If I’m a tough person to talk to, that probably means I don’t want to talk.”

“True.” Deku hummed. “But it’s a hero's job to stick their nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Shigaraki scoffed, before breaking eye contact with him. “Why are you here, you already got my dramatic backstory and said you would change things, or are you here to tell me you want to understand more and be my ‘friend’?”

Deku sighed sadly. “Back then, I would’ve liked that. But I don’t think being friends is an option, even if it was, it would hurt me more cause you’re getting executed.”

Shigaraki hummed at that info. “Yeah, I was told already… Along with another option.”

“Also, dramatic backstory?”

“What else would you call it?”

Izuku’s eyes locked onto his. “A tragedy.”

“Tch.” Shigaraki rolled his eyes. “You’re only saying that because you want to be right on the whole redemption shit. I already admitted that maybe I could have done things differently, what else do you want? Besides, If anything it was a sign that I was born to be like this.”

Deku raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you say you wanted to be a hero as a kid?”

Shigaraki nodded. “And look where I am now.”

Deku’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not the point I was making, no one is born wrong.”

“I don’t want to get into this bullshit.” Shigaraki sneered. “I guess Muscular should be redeemed then, why aren’t you talking to him? Go save him.”

Deku shrugged. “Good point, but with Muscular he won’t say a thing about his past, the closest thing I got was him mentioning his bad parents. Maybe that was the cause, maybe it wasn’t, I can’t understand him.” Deku leaned forward. “But I can understand you.”

Oh, how the tables have turned. “Hm, it used to be the opposite the first time we had a proper chat.”

“Threatening me with decay on my throat isn’t something I'd consider proper.” Deku chuckled.

Shigaraki actually chuckled at that. “Funny, I don’t understand what you’re getting at though.” Now it was Shigaraki’s turn to narrow his eyes. “We already had this talk, your story, my story. How much better you are than me for picking the right side.”

Deku frowned. “I don’t think that, your situation was unavoidable, sure you’re not justified in doing the things you did, which is why you’re behind bars… or glass I guess.”

“So what’s your point?”

“Take the other option.”

Shigaraki barked a laugh. “I thought you said what I did wasn’t justifiable?”

“I did.” Deku’s expression did not change as he stared at Shigaraki with determination.

“So either get my quirks deleted, or get executed?” Shigaraki challenged.

“Yes.”

“Are you stupid!?” Shigaraki yelled. “You really expect me, Shigaraki Tomura, the most dangerous villain in the world, to get my quirks deleted, and live in the society that shunned me!? The society that shunned YOU cause you were quirkless!? Do you understand the implications you fucking moron!?”

Deku kept the same expression. “You make it sound like you’ll instantly get set free once your quirks are deleted. After we do it, you have multiple life sentences but with the chance of parole. Don’t you want to live? And atone for what you did?”

“Even if I did, you are giving society way too much credit at how fast it can change.” Shigaraki’s eyes softened. “I believed you when you said you would change it after all the talks we had. Multiple life sentences and parole, acting polite and being good natured doesn’t change what I’ve done, even if you want to take that as a sign that I’ve changed, no way am I going out there being the most hated person on the planet and getting nothing done.”

“What do you mean?” Deku asked.

“Let me ask you this.” Shigaraki stated. “What purpose would I have if I did come back to society? And without my quirks? Sure, I’d still have my strength, so I’m not exactly afraid of getting mobbed or hurt, but what kind of example would the justice system show if they released me, even with public knowledge that my quirks are gone, after I decimated an entire city and killed hundreds to thousands of people?”

Deku stared at him for a while before breaking eye contact by closing his eyes and sighing. “You want to die?”

Shigaraki rolled his eyes. “No, I don't WANT to die. A part of me wants to break out and just hide for the rest of my life. And make sure you’re changing society. Not only can I not do that, these machine guns will apparently open fire if I even think of using my quirks… Don’t know how that works, but I’m assuming it ain’t a bluff. But this is how I consider atoning. Yeah, it doesn’t change jack shit, I know that, but this is kinda like those shows where the guy becomes the big bad so someone can stop him and have him be viewed as the world’s savior. Not saying I intended this, but it’s better if I die, then my dream of this society being destroyed will be fulfilled in its own way.”

Deku smiled. “To be honest, I already knew you would deny it.”

“I denied it before, why would I accept it now?”

“Hmm, I guess I wanted to see if you would jump at a second chance or not, even if it is undesirable. Plus you would be the first person we tried this new sentencing on.” Deku said.

“Hm. if you forced it on me and made me atone by force, I would just have to deal with it, but since you’re giving me an option, no. Also, a new sentence? Deleting a quirk then seeing if they act on good behavior huh?” Shigaraki hummed. “Have you asked Dabi?”

Deku looked slightly abashed. “Yeah… but… you probably can guess how that went.”

“Huh, you’d think with how much he says it’s his dad’s quirk he’d want to get rid of it, since he hates endeavor.” Shigaraki said.

“Yeah, but instead he said he would use it to burn him and everything he loves.”

“Sounds like him,” Shigaraki said. “What are their sentences? I already know the others, but I don’t know Spinner’s Dabi’s or Toga’s.”

Deku hummed. “Spinner is serving multiple life sentences, but with no parole. We decided not to offer him the quirk delete option, as it might seem a bit discriminatory considering he has a mutant quirk, and was the whole reason he became how he is now. Dabi is the same, but like I said we offered him the quirk deleter option. Toga is still being decided on, Uravity is really involved in that one. And you know the others already.”

Shigaraki just hummed at the info. Yes, Spinner’s whole reason for being a part of the league started off as him wanting to follow stain’s will, but then later stayed as he had nowhere else to go because of the way his quirk made him look. “...Thanks for not offering him it, I would’ve told you to leave if you did.” And Toga was being helped by one of Deku’s friends huh? Guess it wasn’t just solely Deku who had the mindset of helping the villains.

Still, that sucked for Spinner. His disappointment must have shown on his face, cause Deku quickly added: “I’m sorry, I heard they couldn’t allow parole for Spinner or Dabi unless they took the deleter, because they were seen as your right and left hand men.”

Before either could say anything more, the intercom cut their conversation. “That’s all for now, Deku, please leave the cell.”

Deku nodded as he got up.

Shigaraki just rolled his eyes. “For now he says, I’m dying tomorrow, idiot.”

Deku slightly frowned at that but made his way at the door, but stopped as he turned to face Shigaraki. “Nana says she hopes it’s possible that she can talk to you soon, and that she’s sorry for not being there for your father.”

Shigaraki just stared as Deku went through the doorway, as the door closed behind him. “...How the hell can a grandma I don’t know care so much?”

Will he see his family too? He kinda hoped he didn’t, he really didn’t want to see his father. Maybe he won’t though, if there is an afterlife, it is most certainly going to be hell.

But he honestly didn’t understand why the few people that cared about him did it to such a high degree. All Might cared about him. His past self would be screaming in confusion if he found out about that, but he didn’t understand why. Turned out he was the previous user of One For All, and the one before him was his grandma.

But who cares? So he was related to his master, that didn’t make him redeemable all of a sudden. Or maybe it was just an attempt for him to ‘reach out’ to him or something. Always calling him by his real name.

Shimura Tenko.

If Shigaraki was honest, he didn’t really feel anything about that name anymore, he went by the name Tomura Shigaraki for so long that he didn’t bother to think about that other name anymore. And when he was eventually called it again, he didn’t feel anger or anything.

Sure it was annoying for the past to be brought up every time his name was spoken, and the name did bring up his origin, but he didn’t care about dwelling on that anymore. He wanted to destroy society so another household like that would never be built again.

But at least society would change, so another him wouldn’t be born. That was the one assuring thing that he didn’t question about Deku. Deku listened to him, and apparently went through his own hardships growing up.

Sure it wasn’t nearly as bad as Shigaraki was growing up, but this wasn’t a dick measuring contest. Deku knew the unfairness of society and he also wanted it to change. Well, not at first according to him, he apparently was what Shigaraki criticized heroes to be at first, just looking for problems to lock up instead of trying to change anything and label the villains as pure evil.

You could imagine Deku getting straight to the point when he started to realize Shigaraki was getting more pissed by the seconds.

Apparently some guy named “Gentle” made him realize that he can’t just punch away all his problems. He saw him for a second right as Shigaraki got his body back from All For One, but obviously he didn’t really take too much notice of him.

‘This is such a weird position I’m in’ Shigaraki thought.

Deku had ‘saved’ him, in a sense, not that Shigaraki would ever admit it. But he suspected Deku already knew though. He was sure an unredeemable person wouldn’t just accept dying for a ‘better society’.

Shigaraki scowled as he thought about the whole ‘atonement’ crap. He didn’t know if Deku had the wrong idea or not when Shigaraki admitted to him accepting death was his way of atoning. Like he said, he didn’t want to die, but there was another reason he didn’t accept the quirk delete option.

He doubted he could properly atone for what he'd done.

Not that he couldn’t show good faith and help. It’s that he wouldn’t.

Shigaraki still didn’t regret too much of his decisions. Yes, Deku has shown him that there are people out there who will help those in need and won’t ignore your words cause you are labeled as a villain. But it was impossible to tell if things would have ever changed naturally, or if things would have just changed once Deku became a proper hero. A true hero.

Ugh, he almost sounded like Stain.

Anyways, that didn’t mean he was all of a sudden going to be cool with everyone just because they waited for a hero to solve their problem. Of course, he’s not saying he would start killing people again just cause there’s a few assholes here and there, but he’s not gonna go out of his way to become a vigilante or a hero for their sakes.

That’s most likely what Deku meant by atoning anyways. How else would he? A lifetime of community service? Like people are just going to accept him after murdering hundreds just cause he’s starting to help the community now.

There was just no point going back into society. He still didn’t like it, and he would probably just make things worse if he lived.

/

“It’s honestly for the best.” Deku sighed as he spoke to his teacher, the previous user of One For All. Yagi Toshinori, or All Might.

“So, he denied it… I can’t say I’m surprised.” Yagi said as scratched the back of his head. “You did good though, the fact that he wants to atone says a lot, young Midoriya.”

Deku gave a bashful smile. “Kinda? I honestly don’t think he has it in him to properly atone though.”

“Hmm, what do you mean?” His teacher said,

“Well.” Deku scratched his chin. “Ignoring the fact that Shigaraki was right about society not accepting him back, I doubt he would just up and help people. He said he wants society to change, which means he still blames it for not reaching a hand out after he…”

Huh, strange, he processed Shigaraki’s story multiple times, but he still couldn’t just say what Shigaraki accidentally did to his family.

Yagi frowned, as he probably knew what he meant, he was one of the first people he told about Shigaraki’s life after all.

Let’s just say he didn’t take it well.

And Nana…

“Well, anyways, he still probably blames society as a whole, and he’s not dumb enough to know that it’ll all instantly change now that he’s defeated. So I doubt he would start helping people in a proper way, and definitely not in a heroic or vigilant way.” Deku sighed. “Not saying he would go straight back to being the way he was, but I doubt he would help things legally I guess.”

Yagi just nodded. “You seem to have a good grasp on him.”

Izuku smiled. “I understand him, and I don’t want to just lock up villains and just go on with my day. They are people too. I’m a little disappointed he said no to the quirk deleter, but again, this is most likely for the best.”

Yagi nodded again. “I can’t think of any other solution. Well, any other solution that wouldn’t seem biased.”

Deku hummed and smiled. “Well, if you weren’t biased. You wouldn’t be you, always calling Shigaraki by his real name.”

Yagi chuckled a bit. “I really am a bad teacher if my student thinks I’m biased. But yes, he doesn’t react to the name Shimura Tenko anymore… at least when I say it… does he…?”

Deku shook his head. “He doesn’t seem to care. I let it ‘slip’ once and he didn’t even flinch or react. Don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but at least he somewhat accepts his name.”

Yagi let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “I don’t know if I’m going to stop thinking about him after tomorrow, it sounds absurd but…”

“It doesn’t, I won’t stop thinking about him, he’ll live on in my mind for a long time.” Deku said as he started to walk past Yagi, Yagi following suit. “Cause he’s my villain.”

/

“It’s time for your execution.” A man in a blue suit and sunglasses came in as he said it.

“Really, we’re inside, you don’t need those things.” Shigaraki drawled.

“Hm, you seem to be in a joking mood, we’ll see how long that lasts.” The man sneered as he made his way to his wheelchair that he was tied onto.

“That doesn’t seem like a very professional thing to say. You must hate me.” Shigaraki said.

The man didn’t say anything, just kept walking him to what Shigaraki assumed to be his execution room.

Usually with executions, at least from what he knew, they got free reign of at least wearing cuffs to it. But he understood why they couldn’t do that here, with full mobility of his body, it would be easy to dodge those bullets and escape.

After a few minutes of silence, they entered an empty room, in it were a group of armed people wearing the same uniform.

He was taken against the wall, and was turned towards the group.

The man who took him there stood to the side where he would quickly move out of the way if they started shooting. “Tomura Shigaraki, or Shimura Tenko if you prefer.”

“I don’t care.”

“Tch, of course you don’t.” The man quickly composed himself as he started his little speech. “You are hereby being executed for the hundreds of murders of innocent people, injuring even more than that, and a list of terrorist acts against our country. You have also conspirici-”

Shigaraki just rolled his eyes as the man gave his speech of all of his wrong doings. This was a weird way to die if he was being honest, he knew Japan had to change how to kill people in executions due to the rise of quirks. He was pretty sure it used to be just hanging at first, but now with all these different people with vast varieties of quirks, there were some quirks that probably wouldn’t let them die if they simply got hung. Whatever though, he waited a minute for it to be done and get this over with, but while he did, his nonchalant attitude must have angered someone, as a woman was gripping her rifle and glaring at him.

“Do you have any last words?”

“What are you so angry about?” Shigaraki said with a head tilt, as the woman he noticed earlier realized she was the one being asked the question, and now everyone turned their heads towards her.

She didn’t seem to falter though as she glared even harder than before. “You killed my husband.”

“I killed a lot of people, you’re not special.” Shigaraki said. He was being insensitive, but what was the point in trying to assure these people that he slightly regretted doing the things he did.

Slightly.

“You’re just a monster, wearing human skin. Do you even care about the people you hurt?” She seethed.

A flash of that old woman telling him not to worry, that a hero, a police officer, would help him. “...Not you.”

“Enough!” The man who brought him here barked. “We will take those as your final words!” He backed up out of everyone’s range and raised his hand. “READY!”

Shigaraki smiled as they raised their rifles at him. “Yeah, a second chance definitely wouldn’t have worked.”

“FIRE!”

Shigaraki saw darkness.

That’s all there was.

It felt like an eternity.

…
…
…
…
…
…

Then his eyes opened.

…His… Eyes opened.

Shigaraki blinked as he instantly noticed that the white room he was in was gone, and that he was staring at a brick wall. “Huh?” Shigaraki sounded as he realized he wasn’t in a sitting position, he was more slouched on a bunch of garbage, in fact, right next to him was a dumpster full of black bags of garbage, him just laying on the overflowing garbage that was left on the floor.

Shigaraki had his mouth agape as he took in his surroundings. A typical alley way with garbage right at the edge of the street. Most likely between two buildings.

“Wha…” Shigaraki’s mind broke for a minute, just laying there as he processed what was happening.

He was being executed just a minute ago, and after he thought he got shot to death, he thought that was it.

Shigaraki eventually stood up from laying on the garbage, as he looked at himself, and realized he was wearing the same thing he wore when he fought Deku, which was nothing but boxer’s and pants.

No traces of the bondage tape that held his whole body like a mummy on that chair. He looked back and forth between both ends of the alley way.

What the hell was going on?

Did Deku trick him and actually force the quirk eraser bullet on him?

He immediately grabbed a bag of garbage and tried to activate Decay. To his relief, the bag turned into dust in mere seconds.

But that relief quickly turned into confusion as he frowned and looked at his hand. He wasn’t dead, he still had his quirks, and he wasn’t in Tartarus anymore.

Shigaraki mindlessly walked out of the alley, glancing around the now to see busy street, with people walking around. He was alive, and in japan.

Well, he thinks he wasn’t dead anyways. But waking up from laying on a bunch of trash didn’t exactly feel comfortable. And he doubted ghosts could interact with anything, because if they could, why didn’t the One For All ghosts, or ‘vestigas’ as Deku liked to call him, help him out in the battle against him.

Shigaraki rubbed the back of his head. Contemplating on what to do. He was free, he had all his quirks…

How much time has passed? Shigaraki didn’t know if this was a similar situation from when he went into a deep slumber for his body to be modified and hold the All For One quirk, only to be woken up early without his knowledge, thinking that he slept for the full time required to fully wield it.

But why would a situation like that occur? He doubted those armed people shot him with a bunch of tranq darts and then just threw him out.

Too many things didn’t make sense.

Ugh, what was he gonna do now? Now that he was free, he didn’t particularly want to go back to Tartarus. But showing himself in public would have everyone freaking out that he escaped.

Shigaraki slightly cursed himself for just walking out to the public, but noticed he wasn’t really being looked at.

There were a few people who glanced at his direction, but never gave another one. Some with disgust, but not to the degree of absolute hatred for him just even existing. Hell he could have sworn he heard one person mutter the word “Homeless.”

Did they not recognize him? How? Shigaraki stood there for a minute or two, realizing that yes, nobody was reacting in any horrible way to his presence.

Why? The battle against him and Deku was broadcasted worldwide, everyone should know how dangerous he is, but here they were just minding their own business, as if he couldn’t just wipe them all out in a few seconds by touching the floor.

Shigaraki decided to go back into the alley to gather his thoughts, or at least he was going to until a loud man exclaimed something.

“But geez, who would have thought All Might would have saved the day by changing the weather!?” The man happily exclaimed.

Tomura froze.

He turned to the left side from when you exited the alley, he was talking to a group of what he assumed to be his friends, all wearing a business uniform of some sorts

What? “All Might?” Tomura muttered in utter confusion. All Might… as in the former symbol of peace? The same All Might that got reduced to a skeleton with skin?

The man and his group must have heard him as they turned to face his direction. And after being directly acknowledged, it just furthered Shigaraki’s confusion that they just saw him as a stranger, and not the most powerful villain that destroyed multiple cities and lives.

The man seemed to take his confusion as astonishment. “Crazy right? He swung his fist, one punch and it caused the weather to change to rain.”

Tomura couldn’t understand anything the man was saying. One punch? That wasn’t right. All Might retired for a reason. “Shouldn’t All Might be retired?”

The man raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you kidding? With all that strength he has, I don’t imagine him retiring until he’s at least double his age, maybe even triple!”

Ok, what the fuck was going on?

“...Are we… In Japan?” Tomura muttered. He blinked as he realized the question was a really dumb one, but his mind was trying to piece together where the hell he was and why All Might’s name was being mentioned.

“Uhm… Yeah?” The man said in confusion. He looked over his shoulder as he made a slightly excited sound. “OH! Speaking of All Might!”

Tomura quickly followed the man’s gaze. He was met with a glass window displaying tons of TVs, each of them showing the same broadcast. A news broadcast. The building being a simple store.

…There were immediately multiple things wrong with what he saw.

All Might saves family as villain attempts to take them hostage!!!

The image of the symbol he used to hate was on the screen, not just that, he was like he was before. All buffed up with a toothy wide smile.

This alone would have brought so many questions like; Is All Might back? Did he somehow get his powers back? Why? How?

But Tomura ignored all of that as he looked at the header title. Right next to it was the date.

Two years from what the date originally was.

Tomura couldn’t help but ask. “...Is that date right?”

There were now more people gathering around the display of TVs behind the glass, most likely due to All Might on the screen, so another man next to him answered for him. “Yeah, that’s the right date.”

All of a sudden, everything around him felt nostalgic, as Tomura looked around his whole surrounding as if this place was ancient.

He was in Japan.

With the date being two years prior.

With All Might still kicking.

Tomura couldn’t stop himself from muttering in confusion. “What?”

Chapter Text

After glancing around the street with his mouth going agape and closing, almost like he was doing an impression of a fish, he quickly did what he was going to do earlier to clear his thoughts, and that was going back into the alley way he woke up in.

After walking in, he placed a hand against the wall, making sure not to activate decay, and another hand across his face as he processed what just happened.

He was in the past. This… didn’t make any sense, whatsoever. But the facts were all there somehow. As dumb as it was to quickly embrace the idea of time travel, too much of it made sense for him not to.

Of course as much as everything was pointing to that, it was just so impossible to simply accept. Time travel? Why? HIs mind tried to come up with a plausible answer, but every one that he thought of was instantly absurd and didn’t make sense.

A quirk All For One had that let him travel through time after dying? All For One would have no need for a successor and just go back to fix his mistakes.

One of the people who shot him had a quirk that sent him through time? Why would it transfer to the bullets that shot him?

And more things like that, it just didn’t make sense.

The closest possible theory he could think of was All For One did steal a quirk that could time travel the user after they died, but he just didn’t know he had it. And All For One didn’t die in a natural way, he got rewinded out of existence. But that felt like a reach.

And it looked like it wasn’t the typical mind transfer time travel thing you see in stories, as he looked at his appearance, and grabbed a strand of his hair to look at. Even if he was ignoring the fact that he was wearing the same clothes or lack thereof when he was fighting Deku, his hair was white, instead of the light blue he had before he remembered his past.

His physical self time traveled to two years in the past.

“What the fuck am I thinking… Just thinking about it is absurd.” Shigaraki muttered as he rubbed his head.

But what other answer was there? Even if he wanted to ignore the date on that headliner he saw on that news report, or that they were showing All Might, he couldn’t ignore the lack of reaction from everyone around him.

They didn’t recognize him, didn’t know who he was. And why would they? He was in the past, the past where he didn’t make his debut yet, the past where All Might still reigned as the symbol of peace. The past where he planned said symbol’s demise with the helping hand of All For One. Shigaraki knows the battle between him and Deku was broadcasted worldwide, but to them that never happened.

Shigaraki took a deep breath, and stood there, staring at nothing in particular for a few minutes.

Now what?

Shigaraki glanced back to the street as he thought about his next actions. He was back a year before he made his debut and attacked UA high school’s USJ.

He didn’t know.

Deku had convinced him that there were other ways of helping to change society besides destroying. What that meant exactly for someone like Shigaraki was up in the air. But that didn’t mean he was all of a sudden gonna be grateful for this chance and become a hero to fix everyone’s problems.

And wouldn’t this mean there’s another him walking around now?

“Tch, I got to sit and think about this.” He muttered as he glanced at the trash on the floor. “But not here.”

/

All For One sat on his chair with the medical equipment working like it should be. It had been years since he had this injury, since his clash with All Might. To be honest it was to be expected. Not because All Might himself was a dangerous adversary, but because of his brother’s quirk. One For All.

All For One wasn’t a fool, he had everything in life planned out, and he could clearly see the growth in power the users of One For All had each time a new one came to face him. By the time he fought and killed Shimura Nana, he knew it was almost to the point where One For All could and probably would surpass him in power.

So he would take notes from his brother. He would find his own ‘successor’ and use them to take One For All, since he couldn’t actually just take it due to his brother’s stubbornness in the transference. He would mold the new him to hate hero society and use that hate to take back what was his.

He had everything planned out, even his own defeat was planned to push forward his successor, he knew All Might was probably too stubborn to die, but who knew? Maybe not, he had plans if either All Might fell to him or prevailed over him.

Everything would go his way… Yes… Everything… except for one thing, apparently anyway.

All For One frowned, trying to think of a way to describe what he was feeling. Moments ago, he felt something. All For One wasn’t new to having random dreams and certain emotions; he didn't know why he felt them at the time suddenly pop up in him, that was just how transference worked, which was why he was so sure about the body take over being able to work.

But just for a second, he felt a sense of rebellation, in his own quirk. But yet, not in the literal sense. He had yet to take the copy of his own quirk that the doctor was working on, so maybe it was a slight side effect to that, but then why was it happening now? And why did that feeling go away so quickly? The copies of his other quirks that they made for the nomus didn’t do anything to him in the slightest.

For some reason, he felt the urge to check on his ‘successor’, he checked the cameras to see said successor casually looking at the tv, slightly slumped over a bar with a hand under his chin. Kurogiri was just wiping some glassware as he awaited orders from either him or Tomura.

All For One’s frown didn’t leave him, something felt wrong, he didn’t know why, but something clicked in him when he looked at his successor for just a second. But that feeling left as fast as it came.

“Hmm.” All For One tapped the armrest on his seat with his right index. He was not foolish enough to dismiss these emotions, not yet anyway. It could have been transference from a quirk that just randomly decided to try and change his emotions, he was eventually easily able to shrug those off though.

But no matter, it was just a slight feeling, and they weren’t planning to make any huge moves right now. Besides, All For One was a patient man.

/

Well… This was honestly the best he was gonna get if Shigaraki was being honest. He stared at the sun setting from the beach he was standing on. Specifically from the opposite side of the ocean, It might have even been a decently good view.

If it wasn’t for all the garbage lying around.

“Holy shit, I really am just a fucking hobo.” Shigaraki said in realization, as he was staring at the garbage that he was planning on laying on tonight.

He needed a place to sleep, and there weren't really a lot of options, was he going to hate having to sleep on a broken mattress that was just thrown on the beach? Yes, but sleeping on the roof of a building isn’t as enjoyable as it sounds. Could he endure it? Duh, but that didn’t mean he wanted to.

Shigaraki wasn’t gonna say he wasn’t used to hard conditions like this, because he was.

After he killed his family, he wandered aimlessly and wasn’t found for a couple of days, so of course he was forced to sleep outside in places that weren’t comfortable, especially for a child.

But it wasn’t like All For One tortured him everyday.

Manipulated him into hating heroes to a high degree yes, but he still had a bed and place to call home. And was given a lot of free reign over a lot of things.

The only other example of not sleeping well was when he was trying to get Gigantomachia to listen to him. Months of not being able to sleep properly, and mostly leaning against hard rocks or tree trunks from the wood.

Again he could endure it, but what was the point if he could just find something slightly comfier?

“...Can’t believe this is even happening.” He said as he leaned it against the mattress. Squishing into it, as the springs were apparently the broken part of it.

After leaning against it for a while, his nagging thoughts finally came to him.

What the hell was he going to do?

He let out a deep sigh as the situation was made clear to him again.

He was somehow in the past after getting shot at by a group of… whatever the force in Tartarus is called.

A year before he attacks UA.

Multiple things came through his mind.

His past self was probably still here. He didn’t see why being here would make his past self vanish, not that he’s claiming to know time travel, but he feels it’s safe to assume that.

Speaking of that, what kind of time travel was this? There are multiple theories on it, most that he got from popular movies more than anything, it’s not like All For One felt like teaching him those theories was really important to anything.

But anyways, was this the kind of time travel where if you change something, the future version of yourself would change? If there’s a butterfly effect, and the Shigaraki from the past ends up dying in some way, would he cease to exist?

Or, is this just a new timeline that’s created because of time travel, so affecting things wouldn’t change anything to him or anything from his future.

The last one kinda irked him to think about, but the one where it was always meant to happen, where something was caused by your future self, and then just meant that one day in the future, you would travel through time to then fulfill that event.

He found that last one pretty unlikely. Sure, he could make a theory that he let everything run its course for the most part, as he wasn’t really here to fix anything. He was supposed to die, and now that he wasn’t dead, he was just going to let things go with the flow.

Which is how he currently feels. For the most part.

So why wouldn’t that last theory of time travel work?

One reason, All For One.

He felt a toothy smile reach his lips as he thought about his former Sensei. There was no way he was going to let that bastard live after setting up his whole life to become a new body for him.

All just to spite a man who was stronger than him that ruined his precious face.

It was honestly weird how obsessed that man was with All Might too, hell he could argue even more than One For All. As apparently that’s how he died. All For One took a rewind bullet, whatever the fuck that was, and instead of ignoring the retired All Might and make his way towards Shigaraki, he fought him only to get erased from existence.

Seriously, that was the super evil genius.

Yeah, he was definitely gonna kill him.

Shigaraki slightly frowned though, as he realized he couldn’t actually just walk up to where All For One was and just kill him with ease, mainly because he had no idea where he was.

Obviously he knew where Dr Garaki’s bases were, but not all of them, and he doubted All For One was hiding in one of the few Shigaraki knew. Even if he wanted to chance it, Garaki was too loyal to All For One and would do everything in his power to keep him safe, and if Shigaraki failed in killing him, All For One would either go into hiding longer and or put a target on him.

Which in itself wasn’t too much of a problem, he didn’t know how exactly strong he was compared to All For One’s peak, maybe they were even or either or were barely stronger. He’d like to think he was stronger, as it wouldn’t make sense for All For One to make a new body just for it to be the exact same strength as his old one and lose to One For All. But anyways, he didn’t have to worry about that, as All For One was in his injured state, he would just have to kill him before he became a threat to him.

Shigaraki had obviously seen All For One in his injured state, but the room they were in was always dark and nothing to really notice. He was never in the bar hideout unless he really needed to be there, which was close to never.

The Kamino Ward incident. Shigaraki sighed, realizing that that was a couple months after his attack on UA.

A whole year and a couple of months till he properly showed himself? Well it wasn’t like he didn’t have time, but he didn’t think he liked the whole homeless route he was going. But it wasn’t like he had a choice, he couldn’t just go up and buy a house.

Not without talking to a certain someone anyway.

“Huh, I guess I’m ignoring the first plausible theory of time travel that I was thinking of.” Shigaraki noted in realization. To be honest, he didn’t really care, like he said earlier, he wasn’t here to fix anyone’s problems or be anyone’s solution to something. And if he screws up along the way and gets erased, it didn't matter, he was supposed to be dead anyway.

Now yes, technically killing All For One would be helping the world of him, as All Might wouldn’t need to distract him, almost risking his life and All For One wouldn’t enact his plans in conquering the world, but killing him felt personal.

Still though, other than killing All For One, he wasn’t really gonna get into any one else’s problems, even his allies from the league.

Could he just destroy everything right now and try to form back his allies? Yes, but even if he wanted to do that, he wasn’t tactless enough to do that with his past self still walking around… Which was such a weird thing to think about.

He already had his league do their damage and try to accomplish their goals, they were one of the few things that Shigaraki really cared about, it just felt wrong to rob his past self from gaining allies and eventually friends like that.

So killing All For One in Kamino and his allies would already be formed too. Probably wouldn’t be changing too much then.

Could he thwart his past self’s plan and try to convince him what Deku did and rebel against All For One? Yes, but Shigaraki didn’t exactly regret what he did, and he still wanted society to change, and he still had no idea if Deku’s promise to change society was the result of what he did, or if Deku was just a natural hero.

“Hm, doesn’t matter to think about all this, I’m not getting involved for the most part, so who cares?” Shigaraki muttered as his eyes slowly started to close, finally getting into a comfortable enough position to doze off.

Yeah, he wasn’t getting involved with anybody he knew, so there was no point in thinking about it…

His mind calmly blanked as he finally dozed off.

…

…

…

“..er…”

“..h…o the…..”

“Si…. ake up”

“Sir please wake up!”

Shigaraki’s eyes snapped open, only to squint as the sun was almost glaring at him as it was rising. “Agh, shit, why the hell are you- GRK!” Shigaraki choked on his words. As the person who was standing above him in casual attire looked down on him.

That itself wasn’t what the issue was, it was the person standing over him that was the issue.

‘You gotta be fucking kidding me.’

/

All Might stared down at the obvious homeless person slouched on some dirty rags and blankets while leaning against a broken mattress. He felt a little bad about waking him up, but this was the beach that he was going to make his successor train his body.

All Might however slightly froze, as when the man made eye contact with him, he felt a slight shiver go down his spine, but even ignoring that, the man felt familiar.

After a second All Might realized he was staring at him and quickly composed himself. “Ah, I apologize for waking you, but I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave. Don’t worry! You have done nothing wrong! It’s just that this area is going to start being cleaned soon, and I wouldn’t want you to get in harm's way.”

The man made an irritated face as he stood up. “Tch, like some trash thrown my way is gonna hurt me.”

All Might’s head tilted as he observed the man in full. Weird, he was actually in great shape, of course ignoring the obvious need of chapstick and lotion, other than that he seemed perfectly healthy and had a strong physique. ‘You could never judge a book by its cover huh?’

“Whatever, I’ll go away now.” The man’s irritation seemed to fade away, as he glanced to the floor and started to walk away.

“...” All Might’s mind clicked when he focused on the man’s face. It kinda looked like…

“Wait please!” All Might said, the man freezing on the spot, but not making his way to look at him. “Ah, what’s your name?”

That did cause him to turn to his direction in confusion. “Huh? The hell do you wanna know for?”

To be fair, that was honestly a good question… Too good. “Ah- well- you see… I just- you looked slightly familiar!”

“...Maybe I just have one of those faces. I ain’t tellin you shit.” the man sneered.

All Might slightly flinched at the sudden hostility. And put his hands up in surrender. “Ah, I didn’t mean to offend you, it’s just…” ‘ARGH! Come on All Might! You’re the symbol of peace, you can talk to a stranger properly.’ “Let me introduce myself first, how about that!?”

“You’re All Might, now fuck off.” The man nonchalantly said as he turned to walk away.

Normally All Might would have let that be it, just a bad encounter with a stranger… But he couldn’t ignore the feeling of familiarity, he looked just like his master for a second there. “Ah wait!” All Might said as he dramatically rushed in front of him.

As expected from the way the conversation was going, the man didn’t seem pleased in the slightest.

Damn, he was seeming really pushy wasn’t he? “Look- I, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to waste your time, it’s just that you seemed familiar to me in a way and I just wanted to confirm if we’ve met or not!” All Might bowed. “I apologize, if you really don’t want to answer that’s fine, but I just wanted to know your name.”

A few seconds of silence passed by until an annoyed sigh left the man’s lips. “If I give you my first name, will you leave me the hell alone?”

“Of course!”

“Tenko.”

“Hm?” All Might sounded. As he looked at him in confusion because of the way he said his name, he had a face filled with irritation and regret. As if he didn’t want to say his name.

“That’s my name, that’s all you're gonna get.” The now named Tenko said in clear distaste.

Tenko… The more he stared, the more he really did look like his master, ignoring all the crusty scars of course.

“I’m going now.” The man snarled, as he apparently realized he was being scrutinized

“Ah yes! I’m sorry. Uhm…” All Might quickly reached into his pockets to get his wallet and quickly took out a handful of cash. “Here, for the trouble.”

Tenko’s mouth went agape, probably not used to being handed a lot of money like that. “Huh?” Was his response however.

“Well… it’s a hero's duty to help those in need! Please take it!”

Tenko, irritably took the cash and counted it. “Fifty thousand yen? Not bad I guess…” Tenko seemed to snap out of something and glared at All MIght then shifted his gaze to the money. “...What the hell am I doing?”

Geez, he could have sounded a little bit more grateful, but he supposed he was wasting the man’s time.

Tenko turned and quickly walked away without saying anything.

After he left All Might’s sight, he let out a deep sigh. “What has gotten into you All Might? Sure the similarities were fascinating but learn to be more tactful! At least that’s what Torino would probably say.”

/

‘IDIOT!’ Shigaraki mentally scolded himself. He felt so stupid right now, as he angrily stuffed the money that he got from the symbol of peace into his pocket.

Why did he give his first name out like that? All he had to do was walk away, All Might even said he didn’t have to answer him. And yet he gave him his birth name anyway.

Was it that he felt like that was just a favor for All Might’s future self always coming to visit him, despite how annoying it was?

Shigaraki took a deep breath and breathed out. At the very least that could have gone way worse, there was no way he was going to give him his full name, he didn’t want to start getting bombarded with questions, more than he already was.

His grandmother from his father’s side was All Might’s master, and she was obviously dead. So Shigaraki didn’t really need to think what would happen if All Might found a relative of hers.

Well, again, things could’ve gone worse. Ironically enough, he was glad he didn’t give the name All For One gave him. All Might obviously wouldn’t know the name Shigaraki Tomura, but if or when his other self made an appearance, it would just raise too much suspicion. More than he was pretty sure it was already going to.

He had longer hair that had turned white, and he could confidently say his physique from now and two years ago would be night and day, but he doubted people are going to ignore the similarities that they have. The same face and eye color. For now the few differences would help, along with his past self having a raspier voice.

But still, he should have given him a name that wasn’t Tenko. Not that he had time to come up with a fake name anyhow.

Well, he was sure Tenko wasn’t too uncommon of a name, he would just have to make sure no one knew his last name.

Shigaraki sighed, for some reason thinking up a fake name didn’t sit right with him, was it because he already had two sets of names already? That shouldn’t really bother him.

So why did it?

Shigaraki shook his head and decided to focus on what exactly he was going to spend his money on. He quickly looked over himself.

“Probably some clothes.”

It was by no means mandatory, but if he was going to sleep on the streets, at least he should be prepared for the weather and whatnot.

Well he would just have to…

‘Ah shit.’

Shigaraki gave an irritated look as he stopped and stared at the empty street

…He would actually have to talk to people wouldn’t he? It wasn’t like it was impossible for him to do, he obviously had to come out and buy stuff for himself in the past without his hands, similarly when he encountered Deku in the mall. Obviously Kurogiri couldn’t do it, since after their debut, multiple people could have just said they saw a misty person enter their store or what not.

But still, he only got what he needed and quickly left. And it was simple stuff like games and food.

This was still a society filled with heroes and those who would ignore problems and shove them onto said heroes. He really didn’t want to interact with anyone.

But he would have to wouldn’t he?

This wasn’t a situation where he could send a lackey to fetch him something with the money the MLA had. And it’s not like he was going to risk his face being shown doing crime when there was another him walking around. Well, if worse came to worst and he had to do something illegal, he would probably just do it at night like most villains do. He doubted All Might would be on patrol in the night, and there wasn’t anyone other than All Might or All For One that could pose a somewhat threat to him, but he wasn’t that desperate yet.

God damn it, he really didn’t plan this out. Being a villain was much more simpler than trying to blend in a society he hated until potentially killing All For One.

The rest of the day was the most awkward day of his life.

Honestly it was his fault, Shigaraki was trying to figure out where exactly he was, and of course since he didn’t want to talk to anybody, trying to stall from inevitably having to when he has to buy some stuff, he just wandered around aimlessly trying to see if he could find any familiar spots.

Surprisingly he did, he felt like that beach was familiar. It was because it was in Musutafu, where UA stood atop of a forested hill that overlooks it.

It was weird if he was being honest, obviously Shigaraki didn’t go out a lot, but he could have sworn that the beach wasn’t filled with piles of garbage on garbage.

Maybe he was just misremembering, or maybe someone cleaned it when he actually saw the beach.

But, he eventually did stop stalling, and went to go buy clothes.

And thus started the awkwardness.

He had no idea where to go. Again, someone would usually buy the things he needed, and when he did go out, it was just for minor things.

Which is why he had no idea a store called “Clothes” was apparently a super expensive clothes shop as everyone gave him a disgusted look because of his appearance and he immediately left.

The mall could be a decent choice, but he eventually went back to the street he woke up in, and eventually did buy some clothes from a plain looking shop.

But, of course it was still a bit awkward.

The few employees gave him looks due to his appearance, and one of them asked if he even had any money.

Of course after he showed them the money it wasn’t an issue anymore.

The symbol of evil, reduced to a homeless man trying to buy clothes for the small future.

His Nomu body was a weird topic to think about. It was strange, he didn’t need to eat, just like the other Nomus, but he was still able to get tired and get cold or hot. He didn’t know if it was because unlike the Nomus he was technically the one with a conscious.

But then the high end ones had consciousnesses and thoughts too…

He supposed there was no point in thinking about it.

Eventually after all that, he finished shopping for clothes, now being in a plain black shirt and pants with plain white shoes.

Shigaraki sighed as he looked at the soon to be sunset.

‘I wasted so much time… Whatever, it’s not like I have anything planned till like a year or so.’ Shigaraki thought. As he hefted his plastic bags filled with clothes.

Despite the awkwardness he felt through the day, it wasn’t that bad, for a moment he couldn’t even remember why he was so reluctant.

But of course, the world has to remind him why.

Shigaraki still had the change of money on his left hand, and as soon as he was going to put it in his pocket a yell interrupted him. “S-stop let go!” Shigaraki along with multiple other peoples heads turned to the sound, right in the middle of the sidewalk across the road, a mugging seemed to be happening.

In an honestly really cliche manner, the presumed to be man had a ski mask while tugging on the woman’s purse, eventually overpowering her and running off shoving anyone who came his way.

Shoving anyone who came his way.

Shigaraki looked on in bafflement as people just stared at the back of the mugger who shoved them out of his way.

Looking back at the middle aged lady, she was sobbing. “I just pulled out my savings. I need to pay for my son’s medical bill!”

“Ah man, that poor woman.” A voice of a man said right next to him, he didn’t turn to him and he was glad he didn’t.

“If only a hero was here to help…”

‘I’m sure a hero or a police officer will help.’

‘A hero will help…’

‘Certainly a hero will…’

‘No one came to save you huh? You must have had a hard life, Shimura Tenko.’

Shigaraki stared at the ground for what felt like an eternity, but eventually started walking away with no destination in mind, he just needed to get out of here before he decided to do something rash.

‘A hero? A fucking hero!?’ Shigaraki thought in annoyance. Gripping the money he had in his left hand along with holding a bag of clothes in pure anger.

He had to get away. He had to-

“Oof!” Shigaraki dropped his money but was able to grab hold of his bag, as he bumped into somebody, the action alone wasn’t the cause of it, it was his mind being snapped out of it. Shigaraki looked in slight annoyance with the money on the ground as he looked at the person who-

He saw green.

Nope.

Shigaraki quickly turned and walked away.

/

Izuku Midoriya huffed in absolute exhaustion, he just went through tough physical exercise in the form of hauling loads of trash from the beach. And from said trash, his plain white shirt was now covered with brown marks, along with some smears and dirt marks on his face.

According to All Might, the place where all the trash was used to be a beautiful beach. Which he kinda knew already.

People took advantage of the fact that they could just throw their litter or trash into the ocean, and the currents led it to the beach.

So now it was his job to train his body and ready it for All Might’s quirk, One For All. A quirk that could apparently be passed down from user to user, it was hard to believe.

But no one in the world could figure out what All Might’s quirk was, and he obviously didn’t seem like the type to lie about it.

“Hopefully mom doesn’t get worried about all the trashy smell on me… Heh heh, I wonder how I’m gonna play off getting a quirk out of seemingly nowhere.” Izuku slightly chuckled to himself.

He supposed he was getting ahead of himself though. He can worry about all that when the time comes.

Izuku let out another sigh as he started to turn on the corner of the street, which was surprisingly slightly busy at this time of the day. He supposed maybe people were getting off work around this time or some-

“Oof!” The sound came from him, as he wasn’t paying full attention when turning the corner of the street, he felt like he walked into a brick wall, as he stumbled and fell on his rear. Wincing slightly from the pain of falling, he realized he walked into somebody, as he suddenly saw Yen bills on the floor.

Izuku looked up to see a white haired man giving him quite an intense look. Izuku couldn’t exactly tell what kind of look it was, but that wasn’t exactly on his mind.

“O-OH! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to bump into you, I was just spacing out a bit… here, let me-” Izuku cut himself off as he started picking the money that he caused the stranger to drop.

Geez, this was slightly embarrassing. The man didn’t even say anything, and Izuku’s face grew red in embarrassment as he just imagined the stranger he bumped into giving him the most judgmental look.

Izuku eventually picked up all the money “Her-” As Izuku put his hand out, trying to offer the money, he realized the person in front of him was replaced with empty air.

“...Uhh.” Izuku sounded as he stood up, looking ahead over a few people that were on the street, and he saw a glimpse of white hair. After focusing on it, he realized it was the same person quickly walking away from him. “S-SIR!”

Izuku started running towards the direction of the man, ignoring the few looks he got from shouting. He had no idea why the man was walking away after dropping quite a bit of money. He must have seen himself drop it didn’t he? He was looking straight at him when Izuku bumped into the man.

Izuku huffed, as his exhaustion from earlier in the day was catching up to him, but he couldn’t just leave and take a stranger's money from him. But for some strange reason, it didn’t look like he was gonna catch up to the man.

He knew he was exhausted, but the man who dropped the money and was now walking away, was still doing just that, walking, but even as he ran, his white hair that he stayed focused on was getting farther and farther away.

He wasn’t that slow was he?

Eventually Izuku bent and put his hands on his knees in exhaustion. Looking up, seeing that mop of white hair gone.

Just his luck.

Izuku could only stare at the money the man dropped as he sighed in defeat. “What just happened?”