Chapter Text
I went into his cell that morning. Shigaraki’s cell.
“Shigaraki?” Aizawa’s voice is heard outside of Shigaraki’s cell. It’s a big cell, with walls made out of thick glass, with only a white bed inside. Shigaraki is nowhere to be seen, but the hero catches a glimpse of his white hair sticking out from under the bed. He carefully opens the cell door and steps inside.
I couldn’t see him at first, and I wasn’t that surprised. Every guard and other pro hero said that they never saw him inside the cell, but they all knew he was still there.
Aizawa walks closer to the bed. “Shigaraki..?” He slowly sits down cross-legged in front of the bed, not taking his eyes off of it. The boy is heard moving a bit under the bed, before stopping all movement. “I’m here to talk to you.” The man’s voice is calm, almost soothing, despite the monotone and blunt tone of it. A small, almost inaudible whimper is heard from under the bed. Aizawa frowns ever so slightly. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”
He seemed scared, something I didn’t think he would be, since he has already killed multiple people, despite only being 14. He didn’t seem to want to come out. I was told that the guards would put his food on a plate inside his cell and leave it there, and it would be empty when they came back the next morning.
Aizawa wondered if the boy could possibly like sweets. He slowly takes out a small chocolate bar from his hero costume. He always keeps one just incase, since he sometimes has to save and deal with kids, and they usually don’t follow without some kind of bribery. “Here. Do you like chocolate?” He places the chocolate bar in front of the bed, slowly as to not scare him.
I wasn’t even sure if he liked sweets. But most kids do, so maybe he applies to those, despite being a villain.
Slowly, after a few minutes of silence, a pale, thin arm reaches out from under the bed to grab the chocolate bar. His hand is slim, and very thin, and just as pale as his arm. The arm and hand are shaking a bit, if it’s from fear or cause it’s cold Aizawa isn’t sure. It’s is pretty chilly in this cell, and Aizawa can see a bit of, what seems to be, a white prison shirt, that seems way to big for the boy. The hand slowly and shakily grabs the chocolate bar, keeping his pinky up, before quickly returning back under the bed. Aizawa sighs softly, taking notice of the way Shigaraki doesn’t touch it with all five fingers. “Good job, you took it.” He realizes that the villain might need some encouragement to show himself, and praise for taking the chocolate bar is a start of that.
His arm and hand were so pale and thin I almost felt sick. He’s a villain, but he’s also just a boy. A 14-year old boy who’s now in a cell, scared, and seemingly starved, despite having eaten the prison food.
The rustling of candy wrapper fills the quiet cell, then the quiet sound of chewing. Soon enough, the chocolate bar wrapper is thrown out from under the bed and up in front of Aizawa. “Finished?” He looks at the bed, then takes the wrapper. “Do you want more? I have more.” A bit of shifting is heard from under the bed. “If you want more, you’ll have to get out from under the bed.” Aizawa keeps his voice calm and fairly low. The moving stops, and Shigaraki slowly crawls out from under the bed.
I saw his hair first.
Shigaraki’s white hair covers most of his face, and it’s down to his shoulder. It’s messy, unkempt. It seems to have some tangles.
Then I saw his eyes.
His red eyes peeks out from under the strands of hair covering his face. He has eye bags under them. His red eyes constantly darts around the cell, seemingly not able to focus on only one thing at a time.
Then I saw the rest of him. And I felt sick.
He’s wearing some white prison pants and shirt. The clothes are way too big for him, and the shirt’s sleeves are hanging down way past his hands. He’s very thin, making him look sickly in the prison clothes. He looks up at Aizawa with his red eyes, slightly trembling. He slowly and hesitantly holds out his hand, wanting another chocolate bar, or just anything eatable actually. Aizawa’s eyes are slightly widened. This boy, this sick, 14-year old boy, is a villain. A dangerous villain.
Well, ‘dangerous villain’ is what he’s classified as at least. Aizawa isn’t so sure he is this horribly dangerous and bloodthirsty villain everyone makes him out to be. He might just be a scared boy, who hasn’t had much choice or love in his life. Aizawa takes out another chocolate bar out of his pocket and gently hands in to Shigaraki. He carefully and slowly takes it, keeping his eyes on the hero in front of him the whole time, almost observing him. He slowly opens the chocolate bar and takes a bite.
I saw him watching me, as if looking to see if I was a threat or not. During that moment, I made a decision; I’m gonna save him, I’m gonna give him a home and a loving family, and I’ll care for him as if he was my own son.
Aizawa takes one last glance at Shigaraki, who’s crawling back under the bed, before leaving the cell. He walks to the cops at the prison, preparing to talk to them about Shigaraki.
Shigaraki hides under the bed in his cell, like usual. He hates being seen, so being in a cell with glass walls isn’t the most comfortable environment to be in for him, which is why he hides under the bed. He watches as the hero leaves. He took notice of Aizawa’s capture scarf, and remembered that Aizawa was one of the heroes who captured him. Though Aizawa mostly stood by, but he did catch Shigaraki with his capture scarf.
“Aizawa, now!” A police officer yells as Shigaraki tries to run out of the alley after failing climbing up to a balcony. It’s night, and some heroes found him when he was outside. The boy feels himself being stopped and grabbed by a scarf, and he immediately tries to use Decay on it, but it doesn’t work. His breath hitches and he snaps his eyes to Aizawa, who’s hair is now standing up and his eyes red, looking at him, not blinking. Shigaraki struggles in the scarf, trying to get away. His squirming and struggling becomes more apparent and desperate when Midnight starts walking towards him. Aizawa can’t help but feel a little bad for the boy. Midnight uses her Quirk on him, and Shigaraki quickly feels himself losing consciousness, a big wave of panic washing over him right before he passes out.
Shigaraki presses himself against the floor when he hears the cell door open again. The person comes closer to him and the bed, then crouches down. “Hi, Shigaraki.” Aizawa’s monotone voice calms the boy, and he relaxes a bit. He hesitantly peeks out from under the bed, glancing up at Aizawa, who has a kind, subtle smile on his face. “I’m going to take you out of here, alright? You’re going somewhere else, somewhere other than a prison.” He speaks slowly and calmly as to not stress or scare Shigaraki. The villain slowly nods. “Can you come out?” Aizawa backs away a bit from the bed incase Shigaraki crawls out. He slowly crawls out from under the bed, keeping his eyes trained on Aizawa. “Good job.” The man says calmly. He’s more calm than most people would be when face to face with a ‘dangerous villain’. Most would freak out, especially since Shigaraki’s Quirk is very destructive, and he can’t even control it himself.
Once out from under the bed, Shigaraki carefully stands up, still keeping his gaze on Aizawa. Aizawa subtly smiles at him and walks over to open the cell door. After Shigaraki has stepped out of the cell, a guard walks up to them, holding the clothes Shigaraki wore when he was captured. The boy flinches when he sees the guard walking towards him, and Aizawa puts himself between the guard and Shigaraki. “I’ll take them.” He holds his hands out for the guard to hand him the clothes. The guard looks at Shigaraki, glaring, before handing the hero the clothes.
Aizawa gives a quick glare at the guard before taking Shigaraki to a bathroom. “You can change in there.” He says and hands the boy the clothes. Shigaraki, however, doesn’t take them. “Shigaraki?” Aizawa tries to hand him the clothes again, but the villain just takes a step back. “Tomura?” Aizawa tries, and this time the boy looks up at him. “Why don’t you take them?” He asks, his voice calm and patient, still monotone. Shigaraki doesn’t answer. It seems like he doesn’t feel very comfortable talking yet. “Is it ‘cause of your Quirk?” Shigaraki nods shortly. “Okay..” Aizawa nods in understanding. “…do you.. want me to help you change then?” It would be a bit weird seeing a 14-year old boy half-naked, but it’s either that or Shigaraki will most likely end up decaying his clothes.
Seeing Shigaraki’s bare upper body for the first time made Aizawa’s heart drop to his stomach. The boy is so sickly skinny Aizawa wonders how he’s even able to stand. His ribs are visible and poking out from under his skin, his arms are way too thin to be healthy, and his body is as pale as a ghost. “Okay..” the underground hero says after composing himself. He holds up Shigaraki’s black hoodie. “Put you arms through when I tell you to, okay?” Shigaraki nods. Aizawa waits a few seconds, before activating his Quirk. “Now.” The young villain quickly puts his arms through the sleeves of the hoodie, then Aizawa helps him on with the rest of the hoodie after deactivating his Quirk. “Think you can out on your pants by yourself?” He asks. Aizawa isn’t going to use his Quirk this time, unless it looks like Shigaraki is about to decay his pants, since the teen has to be able to dress himself alone eventually.
The boy shrugs. “Can you try?” Aizawa’s voice is kind and patient, despite its monotone tone. Shigaraki nods. “Okay, good.” The hero turns around, giving the boy some privacy. Shigaraki takes off the prison pants, only using two fingers, just to be extra safe. He carefully pulls them down, then pulls them off. He hesitantly and carefully picks up his own black pants. He, still using two finger on each hand, slowly pulls the pants on and up. “…done..” his voice is quiet, almost inaudible. Aizawa had to strain his ears to be able to hear him. He turns around. “Good job.” He says with a kind, subtle smile.
“Lets get you to your new home then..”