Chapter Text
Deku saw the little boy crying, embracing the dog for comfort. He didn’t want me to see this, thought Deku. He didn’t want me to see him weak, human. The images of Mr Shimura hitting him, yelling at him, rejecting him still fresh in his mind. How little Tenko had flinched and shied away when Deku tried to shelter him from the blow. He would have to handle this delicately. The future of the world depended on it. The future of this person before him depended on it.
“I see you,” Deku said. “Your dog loves you.”
And then it happened, the start of that terrible event. Mon-chan whined, but didn’t try to move away from Tenko. Even as the little corgi started disintegrating he stayed close to the child. Now Tenko noticed what was happening. He started hyperventilating, shaking and crying.
“Tenko...um...soo…” The little girl with pigtails came out of the house, evidently to reach out to her brother. She saw the dog. She screamed.
“Tenko!” cried Deku. “You loved the dog! You didn’t want to kill the dog! It wasn’t your fault!”
Tenko hyperventilated, reaching for the girl, who was now running away. Here Deku intercepted Tenko, visualising himself as a child of the same age. Their hands clasped, Deku forming a human shield against Tenko’s continued rampage.
“Shimura Tenko!” Deku’s voice also sounded like that of a child. “It doesn’t have to be this way! Doing one thing wrong doesn’t mean that your entire life is forfeit!” The words sounded strange in such a young voice. “Doing lots of things wrong doesn’t mean your life is forfeit!” All the while Tenko was trying to decay his arms. This was a battle between wills. He had to visualise himself holding Tenko back while also not decaying.
“Why…?!” whimpered Tenko. The implication being, ‘why are you here, doing this?’
“Because you’re crying,” said Deku. “You’re a little kid crying. Your father was cruel to you, I saw it. The rest of your family stood by and didn’t protect you. Someone should have protected you, Tenko. None of what happened to you was right. Someone should have interfered, Tenko. Someone should have saved you.”
“Yes.”
The scene changed. Tenko was no longer pushing against Deku, but walked by himself down a crowded street. He was barefoot and bleeding, little hands clasped together tightly. His hair had turned white and he had a cut across his mouth and another one over his right eye. Deku surmised that there had been a struggle and this is what happened afterwards. He walked after the child and watched the reactions of the passers-by. Surely with a kid this young and in that state someone would...Oh no. They’re looking away. They’re avoiding this child who needs help. Is this why he hates hero society? Because no one helped him? Of course, that’s what he’s been saying, what the League of Villains have been saying: heroes, and hero society, ignore those they can’t help. Sweeping their pain and suffering under the carpet. In a real hero society, anyone should offer help that’s not asked for. This little kid can’t verbalise what he needs right now because he’s too traumatised. Someone should...Yes, someone. He is someone. She is someone. They are all someone. Not someone else. Deku didn’t want to be the kind of hero – or even the kind of person – who would ignore a suffering child. He reached out towards Tenko.
The image changed again. It was dark. Tenko was alone in a dirty alleyway, crying his eyes out, but there was something even more disturbing: that nauseating feeling he remembered from Jaku. He didn’t even have to look to know who’s coming.
“No one came to save you. That must’ve hurt. Right, Shimura Tenko? How scared you must’ve been. The suffering you’ve endured. You ran and ran, hoping to find help. How awful for you. Everyone just passed by, pretending not to see. Thinking that some hero would save the day. Who decided to make the world this way. You’ll be okay now. I am here.”
Deku swallowed back the nausea. He had to act, now. This was a pivotal moment.
“Tenko,” he said. Both Tenko and All for One look his way. “How did he know your name? How did he know that no one helped you?” Tenko did react to this, looking between Deku, who now looked like he did in the present day, and All for One. “How did he know that no one helped you, unless he was watching you?”
“Sensei?” said little Tenko.
“Look at that, Tomura,” said All for One. “A useless hero is trying to manipulate you.”
“Tenko,” Deku tried again. “Do you think that this man just happened to be here at this particular time? Do you think he just happened to find Shimura Nana’s grandson here, when he was at his most vulnerable?”
“Sensei,” said Tenko again. “Did you…”
“So what if I did,” said All for One. “All those people still ignored you.”
“Maybe they did,” said Deku. “And there’s no excuse for that. But maybe he engineered this course of events so that he could be the one to ‘rescue’ you? To make you trust him and no one else? To make you feel like it was you and him against the world?”
Tenko was now staring at AFO with genuine fear, still in his child-form, but with his adult mind and memory intact.
“But that doesn’t matter either,” Deku continued. “Because you know what happened next. All for One groomed you so he could take over your body, use you, and reduce your will to nothing.” Deku stayed calm. Aizawa had taught him how to deal with sensitive situations like this. It became more urgent than ever when they had to deal with Eri. If she had remained in Overhaul’s clutches she could have also turned out like this.
“I don’t like this,” said Tenko. His voice sounded so small, even though Deku knew it was the adult speaking through the image of the small child. Tenko turned to Deku, tears welling up and mouth twisted into a grimace. And now Deku saw it: Tenko’s wrist, which he had been holding out towards AFO, had merged with AFO’s suit jacket, the black bleeding into his flesh like black veins.
“Shimura Tenko,” said Deku slowly. “This is not just your memory of meeting AFO for the first time, is it?” He looked with trepidation at the image of that terrible man, then in his prime, and his sickening grin. “This represents the part of AFO that is inside you, right?”
Tenko’s bottom lip trembled and he nodded mournfully.
“Your Decay isn’t working on him,” said Deku.
“Like I would let him use that,” said All For One. “Looks like you’re confused about who is in control here, hero.” He spat out that final world as if it was a curse. This really was All For One. How could he take him on on his own here?
But he wasn’t on his own. “I’m still here, Ninth,” said Shimura Nana. “This boy is my responsibility too.”
Tenko looked at her briefly but went back to his futile attempts to tear himself free of AFO.
“You’re going to have to most of the work to break free of my brother yourself, Ten-kun,” said Yoichi, appearing as a ghostly figure next To Tenko alongside all the other vestiges. “But we are here, all of us, to support you. He is my responsibility too.”
“Shimura Tenko,” said Deku. “Shigaraki Tomura. However you think of yourself right now: I am here to save you!”
“I don’t want this!” cried Tenko. “I don’t want to become you! I want to stay as me! I want to play video games with Spinner! I want to have arguments with Dabi!” His voice cracked now, as his self-image aged up into his teens. “I want to be with the League because it’s the only thing I’ve ever had that’s just mine! For once in my life, let me have something that’s just mine!” Now he was his real age, panting and staring in rage at All For One, who still looked the same as when he met Tenko for the first time, with that aggravatingly stiff smile. The spindly black threads wove out of his suit and into Tenko’s skin, becoming fracture lines.
“No! I don’t want this!” His voice was hoarse, as ragged as his skin, his hair, his clothes. Ragged, but his.
“You never did understand consent, brother,” said Yoichi who, like the rest of the vestiges, were futilely
trying to pull the boy away. “Would you make him the new me, a toy you can dominate, inside and out?”
Consent, thought Deku. Does that mean...oh! He knew that All For One was evil incarnate but surely not...that? Oh, but he would. The man was a megalomaniac with no capacity for empathy. Everyone else were just toys to him.
“You!” roared Shimura Nana. “Tenko! Let grandma in and I will beat this cretin to death with my bare hands!”
Deku would get this boy away from this man, or die trying. He kicked AFO in the face, but he deflected it easily. They were in a kind of vestige world, so their actions weren’t exactly happening physically. What mattered was strength of will. But Deku was now compromised. Thinking about what AFO had been doing to this boy – this child who had been in his care from the age of five – had unsettled him too much. He ripped frantically at Tenko, who was trying to use Decay to sever the link with AFO, to no avail.
“Insolent fool!” cried AFO. “I’ve given you everything yet you persist in the delusion that you have free will! You are nothing but a tool for me to use, Shigaraki Tomura!”
“That’s not my name!” Tenko whimpered.
“It is if I say it is!” AFO roared. “I made you and I can unmake you!”
The scene changed once again. Ghosts of memories wandered around them. Here was Shimura Kotarou, father of one, having a meal with a colleague, from the point of view of that colleague. Here was the Shimura family out on a walk, Shimura Nao now with baby Tenko in a sling at her front, letting that same man pet her baby’s head. He took his quirk, Deku understood. He encouraged the Shimuras to have another child and he took that child’s quirk. A baby’s quirk. Then, the same man saving little Tenko and his friends from being hit by a truck. Walking him home, a spark passing between their hands, giving Tenko a new quirk, one taken from...Oh no. A child in one of AFO’s orphanages, one with a quirk that can take things apart and put them back together in a different way. Chisaki Kai. But this was a modified version, one that Doctor Garaki had tinkered with, separating out only the destructive part of it: Decay.
Tenko cried out at this realisation, his quirk going wild, the force of which ejected Deku from the bundle of fingers. He hit the ground hard, stunned and winded. Black spots swam in his vision. No. No, he was actually seeing black swirls...no, portals, out of the corner of his eye.
“Midoriya,” said a voice from behind him. It took him a moment to place it.
“Aizawa-sensei!” Deku cried. “I have to get back up there! I can’t leave Tenko alone in there, he’s in danger!” He tried to get up, to push himself up off the ground but
he
had
no
arms.
He hadn’t even felt the pain, the sensation of his arms crumbling and falling away from Tenko’s out of control Decay.
“Midoriya,” said Aizawa again, now kneeling beside him. “Sorry we’re late. How long ago was it since you lost your arms?”
“I don’t know for sure, it happened inside our minds…” The pain was starting to set in. He would be unable to fight. No, this couldn’t be happening!
Aizawa showed him something, a triangle? No, a horn! Eri’s horn? Before Deku knew what was happening, Aizawa stabbed the horn into his shoulder. He began to Rewind. As Aizawa summarised what had happened with the rest of the heroes, the ones who remained standing were pouring out of Kurogiri’s portals. His friends, classmates, teachers...They were here. He wasn’t fighting alone any more.
“I have to get back up there,” said Deku as soon as the Rewind process had restored his arms. He pointed at the ball of fingers in the sky. “Tenko is all alone up there, trying to fight AFO.”
“So there was a piece of AFO still in Shigaraki after all?”
“Yes, but I think – I hope – that Tenko will be able to fight him off.”
Aizawa gave him a stern look.
“If that thing takes over Shigaraki we’re all in big trouble. What do you need?”
Deku just pointed upwards. “I gave Tenko One for All. I mean, I transferred most of the vestiges to him.”
“And with them your quirks,” said Aizawa.
“He didn’t accept Shimura Nana, so I still have Float,” said Deku, trying to use it to get airborne. He stumbled, and Aizawa caught him.
“You got rewound a few minutes back, to the point right before you lost your arms. All the damage you’ve accumulated remains. How long have you been at it now?”
“I have to…” Deku mumbled, pointing at the ball of fingers in the sky.
Aizawa sighed. “Shirak…” But the entity once known as Shirakumo Oboro, and later as Kurogiri, looked absolutely spent.
“Kurogiri-san…” said Deku.
“Shirakumo,” Aizawa corrected him.
“Uh, Shirakumo-san,” said Deku, limping up to the warpgate user. “Tenko – Tomura – is up there fighting All for One on his own. I have to help him.” He couldn’t help but tremble being so close to the person who once made such a formidable enemy.
“I am the protector of Shigaraki Tomura,” he said. “This is my purpose.” He turned to Aizawa and Yamada. “Thank you, my friends. Goodbye.”
Kurogiri, or Shirakumo, or someone in-between, flowered into his final warpgate. As the portal blinked out of existence with Deku in it, Aizawa sank down on his haunches, fighting back the tears and swallowing the nausea, trying to stabilise his breathing. He thought he could see a light come from the mass of fingers, but maybe it was wishful thinking. Yamada hauled him up. They exchanged a silent understanding that that was the last time they would see their friend.
“Hold your positions,” said Aizawa, getting back in the game. “If anything other than Deku or Shigaraki comes out of that thing, stop it by any means necessary.”
A blink, and Deku was back in Tenko’s vestige world. It had changed now, becoming more complex and confusing. Several scenes were playing out at once, from different times in Tenko’s life, but all with the same theme: AFO manipulating Tenko, trying to take over Tenko, making him a vessel of his will. In each Tenko and AFO were merged to some degree, ranging from a single body with two wills, to two bodies with those fibrous bonds joining them. Like before the memory-shapes were a variety of sizes. So which ones were the “real” Tenko and AFO?
“They’re all real,” said Shimura Nana, appearing at his side.
“Where are the other vestiges?” said Deku.
“Inside him,” replied Nana. “Strengthening his will.” She was crying now, biting her lip.
“Ten-kun,” she said to her grandson. “Nana is here.” She sniffled. “I am so sorry my actions led my son to become an abuser. Your abuser. And that this man preyed on you in this way. You just traded one abuser for another, didn’t you?” She choked back more tears. “If you let me in now I can help you end this – end him – even if I’m much too late to spare you all this suffering.”
All the Tenkos had stopped to stare at Nana. Now one of them was making his way towards Deku and Nana. He was no more than eight, older than when he killed his family, and already firmly in AFO’s clutches. He had visible bruises and wounds from scratching his eczema.
That bastard.
“Hi there, darling,” said Nana, kneeling down to stroke Tenko’s cheek. The tendril that attached him to AFO went taut. AFO stayed back, but flashed that infuriating grin. “Are you ready to let grandma in?”
Tenko nodded tentatively.
“Alright then,” said Nana. “Goodbye, Ninth,” she said to Deku. “It has been an honour to know you.”
And then Deku let go off the last of One For All.
The clump of fingers in the sky exploded.
“What now?” barked Aizawa.
Deku fell out of the sky, but was immediately caught by several of his compatriots. All else was hard to see due to the dense rain of viscera. There was a whooshing sound, followed by a booming voice.
“At last I have One For All!” AFO hollered. “The idiot just gave it to me! Now I am...am the...deeeeeee…” His voice terminated as a strangled squeal. The vestiges got him, breaking him apart from the inside, aided by the rebellion of stolen quirks. As the fleshy debris cleared, Deku could see Tenko’s body convulsing in mid-air.
“No!” cried Deku. “Save him! Somebody save him!”
But it was too late. Tenko’s body ripped apart, in big chunks first, then into finer fragments. He was gone.
Deku howled. Like after they took Kacchan, but worse. Like after All Might lost One For All, but worse. This was a life lost, and it was his fault.
He was on his knees on the ground. His classmates and teachers crowded around him, but he registered nothing but the profound loss of the life he was supposed to save. What was a hero if not one who saves? What kind of hero kills and calls it winning? Not the kind of hero he would be. Yes, OFA had beaten AFO, but the cost had been too great. This was not a win. This was a loss, and he would never been the same again.
He gradually became aware of a susurration behind the clamour of his peers. A few shouts went up.
“Midoriya,” said Aizawa. “Something’s happening.” He pulled him upright with no help from Deku himself, who was limp with exhaustion and grief. When he lifted his head to the sky it was without hope. Something was swirling in the air, like a small tornado. There were pieces in it, pieces of...Oh no. Now he knew where he had seen this before: it was the fight with Overhaul. But...Overhaul was supposed to be in prison, and without being able to use his quirk. Nevertheless, chunks of – Deku didn’t want to think about what – were now clumping together to form...what? The heroes were on high alert, ready to strike at whatever was forming. But...Something quite small fell onto the ground. Deku couldn’t quite see, but he had an inkling. Suddenly he was running.
“Stay back!” he called to the heroes, while in full pelt towards the figure on the ground.
It unfolded itself. It was just a human, just a human being with a troublesome quirk. Shigaraki Tomura. Shimura Tenko. As he had looked at the beginning of the fight. No, not quite. There were no holes in the palms of his hands and none of those lines marking his body.
“Tenko?” asked Deku.
He looked up with confused recognition. “It’s just me left,” he said.
“Is AFO…?”
“Gone.”
“But how…”
Tenko opened his hand. Something small and sharp, like a shard, rested there: Eri’s horn. Deku felt his shoulder for where Aizawa had stabbed him with it. It was gone.
“Be careful, problem child,” said Aizawa, now at his side. Yamada was not far behind.
“How...Did Rewind do this?” asked Deku.
Yamada pointed at the thing in Tenko’s hand, and now Deku noticed that it was not Eri’s severed horn but something that looked like it that grew out of Tenko’s hand. It grew longer, and then receded again, disappearing into his flesh.
“This is a strange power,” said Tenko. “But it feels like...mine.”
Deku’s mind was now racing. He had seen AFO give Tenko half of Overhaul’s quirk, just the destructive part: Decay. What if he gave the other half to someone else? Someone who also had white-grey hair and red eyes. Someone whose quirk was considered a dangerous mutation. Someone who also killed her father, and was then put in the care of an abuser. Decay, and Rewind: two parts of a whole quirk, one that now may have found a more worthy wielder. Is that what happened here? As if he had been reading his mind, Tenko spoke.
“My grandmother,” he said. “Something else came to me when you transferred her quirk. From the child the Shie Hassaikai had?”
“Y-yes,” said Deku.
“She wanted to help,” said Aizawa.
“She did,” said Tenko, who was now practicing this new power that let him pop horns like Eri’s out of any part of his body. “It was in you, and it settled in me. In my quirk factor. It belongs with my other quirk. But they’re also separate.” He picked up a rock, Decayed it, and the Rewound it. Aizawa activated his power. Tenko failed to Decay anything, and the horn-formations failed to manifest.
“You can stand down, Eraser,” he said calmly. “All For One is gone, both the man and the quirk. These are the only two I have now.”
“So, um, now what?” said Yamada. “I mean, he’s still a villain. He’s done a lot of damage.”
“Oh, you’ll have to arrest me, I guess,” said Tenko dispassionately. “Relax, Present Mic. I’m not going to Decay anything now. And I’m not going to Rewind anything either. This new quirk combination is for changing things. Maybe we don’t need to wipe the slate entirely clean and start again to do that.”
“Yeah, I suppose,” said Yamada.
“But you’re alive,” said Deku, and took a step towards Tenko. He was immediately caught by Aizawa’s scarf.
“Midoriya, problem child,” he groaned. “Do not hug the supervillain.”