Chapter Text
A man thrashed and screamed inside the tank. He no longer knew where his skin ended and the tubes and needles began. He might have been laughing or crying. Either way there were tears streaming down his cheeks, the saltiness stinging his cracked lips. His back arched. His spine cracked. Glowing blue light obscured the room. Not that he could see out of the tank anyway—there was too much blood in the water.
Dr. Garaki shouted, “One hundred percent complete!” His voice echoed around the room, filled with a mixture of madness and triumph.
The man screamed. Sparks danced down his skin. The glass cracked out. He fell out, landing on his hands and knees. Broken glass bit into his palms, but the cuts were already healing. His neck didn’t itch for the first time in years. Reaching up, he found his old scars gone.
“You have the master’s regeneration factor,” Dr. Garaki mumbled, writing notes. “What other powers do you have, Tomura Shigaraki?”
“Is that my name?” Tomura croaked. He looked down at his hand, fascinated by the red sparks dancing over the hole in his palm. Distantly he could hear the same cracking sound inside his mind. It felt like his head was splitting apart.
“Master? Is that you? Did you take over already?” Dr. Garaki asked eagerly.
“Annoying,” Tomura grumbled. “Your voice is annoying!” His legs shaking like a newborn fawn’s, he stood up. Red liquid sloshed down his wetsuit to run between his bare toes. He supposed the blood must be his own. No wonder he felt lightheaded. The whole world seemed too bright. Was he cold? Or hot? Or both? Either way, his body ached. Yet between the pain and exhaustion, a devil’s voice sang a choir of triumph between his ears.
Tomura felt like he’d awoken from a dream that slipped away from his memory. There had been a house he’d wanted to destroy. A scary shouting man. A beloved dog. A little girl with black-haired pigtails, decaying away into nothingness.
“Hana?” Tomura mumbled. “I…I can do anything…with this power…I can save h…” The girl’s image warped into a smiling little boy with white hair falling over his eyes, holding a comic book. “Yoichi? I have to find Yoichi.”
Dr. Garaki took a step backward. “Master? Are you confused? I can help you regain control, please sit down.”
Tomura was no longer listening to the doctor. The minion had served his purpose, and now he was irrelevant. Hundreds if not thousands of quirks scratched under Tomura’s skin, trying to claw their way out. Finally, he had power. (Had his power back?) He could warp the world as he desired. He could have anything he wanted. And he wanted his little brother.
One or maybe five quirks exploded out from Tomura’s back, breaking the ceiling overhead. He paid no attention to the shouting from the doctor, or the alarmed cries coming from outside the room. He shot into the air, wind whipping under his feet. In the distance, he felt his brother: a green spark, a twin or a weaker copy of his own power. Time to bring his little brother home.
One moment, Izuku was enjoying a weekend visit home, sitting around a familiar dining room table and eating his mother’s katsudon. The next moment, the roof was ripped off.
As debris flew everywhere, Izuku lunged forward and caught his mom. A stray rock dug into his cheek. He grabbed a falling chunk of metal and used it to shield them both.
Tomura Shigaraki floated overhead. It took Izuku a moment to recognize the villain. Tomura’s hair had gotten longer and even more dried-out. Energy danced around his body in a rainbow of colors. His eyes glowed red, then yellow, then back to red. Long claws poked out of his fingers, retracting then shooting out again in an irregular rhythm. Patches of feathers and scales covered his arms. Ripples moved under his flesh. Spikes sticking out from his skin had tattered his soaking wet bodysuit. He didn’t wear shoes. The part of Izuku incapable of stopping quirk analysis concluded that Tomura had many new quirks—and he didn’t seem able to control them.
This situation looked bad. Very bad. Wetting his lips, Izuku said, “Mom, call the heroes.” Then he charged out from behind his shield, ready to use every last bit of his strength to hold Tomura off for as long as it took help to arrive.
Upon sighting Izuku, the glow in Tomura’s eyes settled on blood red. His lips peeled back, speckle flying. “Yo—Ha—little brother!” he cried. “Little brother, little brother, little brother.” He rocked backward, clutching his head.
This window of distraction presented an opportunity. Izuku lifted up the table (heedless of the dishes falling off), ran up the wall, and threw it at Tomura’s head.
Tomura grabbed the table, decaying it. While those deadly hands were busy, Izuku punched at Tomura’s midsection.
The blow did not connect. Air came from nowhere, blasting Izuku backward. He cursed his lack of knowledge of his enemy’s new capabilities as he fell.
“You won’t escape me. Not again.” Grinning maniacally, Tomura shot through the air like a spear. His hand reached for Izuku’s forehead.
Izuku knew better than to let that deadly hand touch him. Even though he’d yet to master Black Whip, instinct let him shoot out dark tendrils and latch onto the broken wall. Izuku flipped backwards, landing on his feet. Perhaps he could draw Tomura away from Inko, if the villain would follow him.
A hand materialized out of the ground and grabbed Izuku’s ankle, ripping straight through his pants.
Izuku screamed. It felt like his body was being bisected. The part of him still capable of thought realized that he did not feel decayed. This sensation was closer to keel-hauling. The shattered fragments of Izuku’s mind tried to hold on, but he stood no real chance. All warmth was ripped from his body. He fell to his knees.
Tomura shot forward, catching Izuku. To Izuku’s great surprise, those cracked hands did not destroy him. Instead, Tomura cradled Izuku gently to his chest. “There, there,” he crooned. “Big brother has you. You’re safe now.”
Izuku formed a shaky fist and punched. One for All did not respond. His weak blow bounced off Tomura’s abs.
“W-what?” Izuku gasped. For the first time, he realized the hollowness in his body had been caused by the loss of his quirk. This felt exactly like when Aizawa used Erasure during training. “Did you steal Erasure? I’ll never forgive you if you’ve hurt Mr. Aizawa!” He tried to figure out if Tomura was using Erasure. Tomura’s eyes were glowing, but it was difficult to tell if his rat’s nest hair had lifted up.
Tomura threw back his head and howled. “Finally! I have One for All again!” His fingers fastened on Izuku’s shoulders, claws digging in not quite hard enough to break skin. Izuku dangled off the ground in the possessive grip. “It’s all because of that quirk that you left me. Because of that quirk, you died. Never again! Now you’ll never leave me again!” A wailing wind rose up. A multitude of arms grew up from the ground and wrapped around Izuku, holding him carefully but very tightly. Izuku could barely even process what was happening to him, because his gaze and mind were fixated on the green sparks dancing down Tomura’s body.
No. No, this couldn’t be possible. One for All could not be stolen, not even by All for One himself. Even if Tomura had somehow obtained his master’s quirk, Izuku hadn’t even let Tomura touch him. Only those extra hands had grabbed him. If Izuku had been foolish enough to let Tomura touch him, then he could have only cursed and blamed himself. But this simply wasn’t fair. One for All was the unstealable quirk, yet Izuku hadn’t even had the slightest chance to fight back as it had been ripped away. It was impossible. It was obscene. Somehow, Izuku had been the one to lose All Might’s legacy.
As if an air bubble under his chest had exploded, a gulping sob escaped Izuku’s lips. Tomura peered down at him, face warped into a parody of a kind smile. Shockingly, the villain patted Izuku’s head. “Everything is all right, little brother. I’ve got you. We’re going home.”
The dark certainty in those words made Izuku shudder.
“S-step away from my son!” Inko lunged out from behind the broken piece of roof and hurled a rock. It bounced off the wall of hands. Tears streamed down her pallid cheeks. Her knees were knocking together. She grabbed picked up another chunk of debris.
“Grandmother?” Tomura’s head tilted at an unnatural angle. “Nana Shimura? Oh, I get to kill you again! How lovely!” His body tensed, about to leap.
Every muscle in Izuku’s body strained, trying to fight, but the hands grasping him would not budge. He had no quirked strength. Knowing he could not break free, he fought with the only weapon he had left—his tongue. “Big brother, please stop!”
Tomura froze. Those strangely glowing eyes turned on Izuku.
Somehow, it had worked. Izuku had no idea what was going on, but at the moment he could only play along with the delusions in a desperate attempt to save his mother. “P-please take me home! I want to go home right now! I’m hurt!” He twisted his body, trying to show the line of blood on his cheek where the debris had struck him.
“Oh, my poor little brother.” Tomura cupped Izuku’s cheek. For a moment, Izuku thought he would die and nearly welcomed it. But Tomura seemed able to control the decay now. Inko’ s second rock bounced off Tomura’s back, but he didn’t even notice. When he touched the injury, his fingers glowed, and the cut healed. “Of course we’ll go home now.”
Not daring look away from Tomura’s eyes, Izuku said, “Mom, you have to run. You have to tell the heroes what happened to me. That’s the most important thing you can do for me right now. I love you.”
Stroking Izuku’s cheek, Tomura said, “I love you too, little brother.”
With a choked sob, Inko turned and fled.
Tomura lifted Izuku up into a bridal carry. Izuku was still wrapped with excessive hands like a gift box. In a mighty leap, Tomura carried them into the sky.
Izuku hoped those wouldn’t be the last words he exchanged with his mother.
They flew for a long time. When they finally landed in a forested area, Izuku had no idea where he was. His eyes had been too teary to see. He ought to have at least tried to keep track of his location. His failure made him feel even more pathetic.
Still holding Izuku in his arms, Tomura walked up to a grassy hill. He pressed his hand against the greenery. The hill hummed, and then the fake grass slid upward to reveal a bank vault door. Tomura hesitated for a moment, his free hand scratched at his neck and his eyes closed in thought. Then he entered a code.
The vault door opened. The inside of the room was pitch dark, until Tomura pressed a panel on the wall. A ring of lights sprang up around the square steel walls. The room was not much bigger than Izuku’s dorm room. It contained nothing except a simple metal bed with white sheets, a ventilator, and a coffin. There was a second door in the back. That was the only way this place differed from Izuku’s vision of the past when the First One for All user had been locked up in a bank vault.
“We’re home,” Tomura said, setting Izuku down on his feet. The hands retreated. Izuku made one futile lunge for the door before it slammed shut.
The light was dim. It took Izuku’s eyes a few moments to adjust. He peered down at the black coffin with a glass lid. A young man with white hair lay inside. Although his features were obscured by the foggy glass, Izuku felt certain he must be looking at the corpse of the First One for All user. He staggered backward, feeling queasy.
Tomura stuck a hand under his back to support him. “It must have been scary to see your own corpse, Yoichi. Should I get rid of it?” His whole body shook. His fingers dug into his hair. “No, no, I can’t get rid of my treasure!”
“Where is One for All?” Izuku demanded. Heedless of survival, he whirled around and grabbed the front of Tomura’s wet shirt. “Did you use a quirk to suppress and copy my ability? That must be it, right? This will wear off. It must wear off.” Izuku tried to make himself believe his own words. He could feel nothing left of his quirk. Not even the embers All Might had possessed. Surely that meant he must be under the effects of an Erasure-like ability.
Tomura blinked, bovine-like. “I underwent an operation. The doctor gave me the power of All for One. He said that my hatred would let me finally steal One for All.”
“No.” Izuku staggered backward. “No, you’re lying. One for All can’t be stolen.”
Tomura threw back his head and laughed maniacally. “Checkmate, little brother! I did it! I took your unstealable quirk! That means I win. I told you that I can rewrite reality!” Shoulders shaking, he kept laughing until hiccups shook his body.
At first, Izuku resisted the urge to collapse to the floor. But what was the point of resistance? Izuku was the miserable, worthless failure who had lost One for All. Eight holders had passed down the legacy to defeat All for One, and Izuku had been the one to drop the torch. All Might had trusted him, and Izuku had proven that to be a mistake. Even if Izuku somehow escaped this crypt, he would be worthless in the fight against All for One. He’d always considered himself worthless without a quirk. Now he’d once more returned to being a useless Deku.
It made no sense. Izuku hadn’t even been able to fight back against his quirk being taken. There had been no battle of wills, only a severing. He hadn’t allowed Tomura to touch him yet hands had sprouted from the ground. That ability had come out of nowhere, a deus ex machina that he never would have accepted if he’d watched it on a television show. There had been no proper foreshadowing, no way for Izuku to guess the danger and at least try to avoid it. If Izuku had been given a chance and failed, then he would have hated himself, but at least he could have accepted his fate. Instead there had been nothing he could have done to protect One for All’s legacy.
Izuku curled up into a ball on the hard metal floor and sobbed.
“Hey.” Tomura knelt down and patted Izuku’s back. “Did I scare you? I should have realized the hands might remind you of how you died. I’m sorry, Hana.”
Izuku knew that he should play along with Tomura’s delusions if he wanted to survive. It had worked to save his mother. It just might keep him alive long enough for the heroes to find him. But Izuku could not bring himself to care about survival. He would rather die than face All Might and admit to losing his quirk.
Sitting up straight, tears streaming down his face, Izuku demanded, “Who the fuck is Hana?” Eyes blazing, he snarled, daring Tomura to kill him.
Gently, Tomura created a cloth from thin air and used it to wipe away Izuku’s tears. “I’m sorry, I forgot you don’t like your childhood name. It’s a girl’s name, I guess you don’t want that any longer?” His nose wrinkled in confusion. “You prefer to be called…Izuku…now, don’t you?”
Izuku slapped Tomura’s hand away. “Just kill me! I’m useless to you now that you’ve taken One for All! I’m useless to everyone without a quirk! I’m worthless if I can’t be a hero!”
“Oh, little brother.” Tomura grabbed Izuku and forced him into a hug. Izuku thrashed and fought like a maniac, but his strength was nothing compared to that implacable grip. Tomura weathered the clawing and biting without flinching. Petting Izuku’s hair, Tomura said, “I understand. I think I might be a failure, too. I had a lot of things I was supposed to do after taking One for All, but I don’t remember any of them now. I had friends, but I can’t even remember their faces. I abandoned everything. I’m no longer following Sensei’s plan. See, we’re both broken. We have nothing in the world except for each other, little brother. I love you. I’ll never stop loving you.”
Izuku stared through teary eyes. “You don’t even know who I am.”
As if it was obvious, Tomura said, “You’re my little brother.”
“I’m not! Get away from me!” Fury gave Izuku’s limbs renewed strength. He shoved at the hard chest. Life couldn’t get any worse than this. “If you won’t kill me, then at least leave me alone.”
Tomura held tight until Izuku finally collapsed. Then he picked Izuku up and tucked him tightly under the covers, placing a cloth doll with a hero’s cape in his arms.
For hours, Tomura stood over Izuku, watching him lie in the bed. Needless to say, with a murderer’s eyes burning into him, Izuku didn’t manage to fall asleep. Nor did he have the energy left to fight. He’d like to think that Tomura was using a paralysis quirk on him, but it was probably just pure despair. Nothing mattered without One for All. Life could not possibly get worse than this. Izuku drifted in a state of half-sleep for an unknown amount of time.
When Izuku woke up and badly had to go to the bathroom, he realized that his life could in fact get a tiny bit worse if he wet the bed in front of a villain. He tried to sit up.
Tomura pushed him back into the bed. In a weirdly kind voice, he murmured, “Shhh, shhh, go to sleep.”
Face flushed, Izuku said, “I have to go.”
Tomura snarled like a feral animal. “I’ll never let you leave me again.”
Izuku twitched. “I seriously can’t hold it in much longer.”
It took a moment for Tomura to realize what Izuku meant, then he flushed too. Looking around in all directions, he said, “There’s no toilet in here. We didn’t need one when you were dead.”
Too desperate to even object to that bizarre statement, Izuku growled, “Then get me out of here to the nearest bathroom!”
“No. Nononononoono. You can’t leave, only this place is safe.” Tomura’s face contorted in horror. He reeled backward, clutching his head. “No leave, no leave, never leave! I had a solution…before…what did I do before?”
“I have no idea.” Izuku jigged. “What’s behind the second door?”
“I…don’t know.” Tomura ran to the second door, the one that led deeper into the vault rather than outside. He peered at the handle, seeming to be trying to remember how to unlock it.
“Hurry,” Izuku growled.
Tomura decayed the entire door, then ran into the darkened room. He returned seconds later. “Good news! I found the bathroom.”
Legs slightly crossed, Izuku followed Tomura into the second part of the bunker. The new room resembled an ordinary living room, although oddly out of date—the television looked like a model from a century ago. A sofa and beany bag chair rested on the purple rug. Bookshelves filled the walls, many of the comic books preserved in plastic wrap. A poster of a cartoon demon king hung on the wall.
“I think Sensei—I—used to live here,” Tomura said. “There’s a bedroom and a kitchen behind the door to the left. The bathroom is to the right.” He pointed.
Whoa, it said some weird stuff about All for One that he walked past his brother’s corpse every time he went home. Izuku ran for the bathroom. Even in his haste, he noticed the door didn’t have a lock.
The toilet flushed and the sink ran water, so this place must have plumbing. It was a stupidly fancy bathroom, with grey marble floors and a giant jacuzzi tub in the middle. An orchid sat on the counter, though on closer glance it was made of clay. Izuku poked around, looking for something to use as a weapon. The sliding closet door only had linens behind it. There were toiletries and cleaning supplies under the sink, but nothing flammable.
Tomura knocked on the door. “Are you all right?” he called, sounding anxious.
What was the point? Izuku would never be able to defeat a monster with hundreds of quirks using the toilet plunger. Nor did he have any way to make it past the front vault door. Everything was hopeless.
Without further fight, Izuku opened the door. “Yeah.” The good boy who’d been raised by his mother nearly said thanks, but Izuku clamped down on the words and stared dully.
Putting a hand on Izuku’s back, Tomura ushered him back toward the vault. “It’s too early in the morning, you need your sleep to recover.”
“Don’t you need sleep?” Izuku asked, hoping for a moment’s reprieve from the staring.
Tomura shook his head. “I only sleep once a week. We got that quirk so we didn’t have as many nightmares.”
Ugh. Izuku dug in his heels. “Do I have to go back to the room with the corpse?”
Tomura flinched as if he’d been slapped. “I’m sorry. I never meant to kill you, it was an accident. I…I…” Tomura frowned. “Little brother, did I accidentally stab you through the chest or decay you?”
By this point Izuku had realized that Tomura seemed to be confusing him with two separate people. Weakly he answered, “I’m the one you choked at the mall.”
“I’m sorry for that, too,” Tomura said earnestly. He dug his nails into his hands. Blood dripped down but he didn’t seem to notice. “Let’s sleep together tonight, in the master bedroom.”
Izuku didn’t like the together part, but he didn’t seem to have a choice, because Tomura lifted him clean off his feet and carried him into the bedroom. This bedroom was some sort of nerd’s fantasy. The ebony bed headboard rose high to form the face of a leering demon king. The gothic end table had a skull lamp that looked worryingly real. The chair had been styled like a demon king’s throne, black spikes, red cushions, and another skull on top. The walls were covered with family pictures of a young All for One with his brother. Directly over the bed, All for One wore a demon king cosplay with his arm around his brother dressed as Captain Hero. They both smiled at the camera.
Tomura mumbled, “You must not be sleeping because those dirty clothes are uncomfortable.” He went to the closet and came back with cotton pajamas. “Luckily I still have some of your old clothes—oh, it’s too big.” Tomura stared at the clothing in his hands with confusion. “We’ll roll up the pants legs.” He advanced on Izuku.
Izuku leapt backward. His back hit the wall. “W-wait, I can change myself!”
Fortunately Tomura let Izuku put on the pajamas. Izuku tried not to think about who they’d probably belonged to. Afterward, Tomura once again tucked Izuku into bed and stared at him with red eyes.
“Can’t you at least look away from me?” Izuku asked.
“Of course not. You might vanish.” Tomura’s brow wrinkled. “I’ll help you sleep.” He reached down, too fast for Izuku to stop him, and grabbed his forehead. A glowing spark danced between them. Then Izuku’s world went black.
When Izuku first came awake, he couldn’t move. This increased his sense of terror and violation as his memories came back and he realized he was a prisoner in an unfamiliar location. For whatever the bloody reason, Tomura Shigaraki was still staring down at him with dull red eyes. Izuku fought through the paralysis left by the sleeping quirk bit by bit, finally sitting up with a groan.
Tomura sprang to attention. “You’re awake! I made breakfast. There’s loads of food in the kitchen. I have an ability that let me open a portal to the grocery store and yank fresh eggs through.” He sounded very proud of himself. He ran out of the room, then returned to set the tray down on the end table. Breakfast consisted of: orange juice, slightly burned toast, and eggs produced by someone who hadn’t been able to figure out if he was scrambling them or making an omelet but had failed at either one.
Izuku glared at the meal. “This food was stolen. I’m not eating it.”
“You and your ridiculous moral principles!” Tomura’s tone shifted, become darker and more menacing. “This had better not be another hunger strike, little brother. I’ll force-feed you again if I have to.”
Izuku knew that force-feeding was dangerous and potentially fatal…and in that moment, he didn’t care. What did he have left to live for? If he got out of here, then he’d have to face All Might and admit to losing his quirk. As long as he stayed, he was nothing but a hostage. Izuku crossed his arms. “Then do it.”
Tomura looked befuddled. The rage seemed to go out of him. He held up the toast. “Come on, I didn’t burn it that much.” His voice had shifted again, turning into a grumpy growl. “Just eat already, brat!” He shoved the food at Izuku’s mouth.
Izuku flopped backward and stared at the ceiling.
“Holy save slot fail,” Tomura swore. “Fine, then! You’ll eat when you’re hungry!” He stomped out. From the living room, the sound of a shooter game came from the TV.
Izuku did not eat breakfast, or lunch. He didn’t drink a single drop either. He lay on his back, marinating in his misery. Several times, he tried to summon up at least an ember of One for All. Every time he failed, he became even more depressed. Based on previous cases, it shouldn’t be possible for his whole quirk to have been ripped away all at once. Not unless he was the greatest failure in the entire succession of holders. All Might should have picked Mirio, who would have slipped away from the hands. Izuku loathed himself and loathed Tomura almost as much.
By evening, Tomura had worked himself up into a frenzy. His rage was evident in his eyes as he hovered over Izuku, trying to handfeed him. “Just one bite, little brother? I got your favorite chocolate chip cookies. These aren’t stolen, they were already in the kitchen.” That smug, coaxing tone belonged to All for One.
Izuku remained unresponsive. With a snarl of rage, Tomura pinned him down with his wrists over his head. “Fine, then, if you’re going to be like this, I’ll get the feeding tube—” Abruptly Tomura reeled backward, clutching his head. “Stop that! She’s just a kid! We’re not going to hurt her again!”
Izuku’s eyes widened, his greatest emotional reaction since he’d fallen into his stupor. He hadn’t expected Tomura to be gentler than All for One. In their past encounters, Tomura had constantly given off the impression of being one temper-tantrum away from murder.
With a groan, Tomura fell backward and landed on the floor. Spittle flew from his mouth. His limbs thrashed as if he was having a seizure, rainbow sparks dancing down his body.
Izuku leapt up, having the optimistic notion that he might be able to subdue the villain while he fought with himself. But as soon as Izuku reached for Tomura, the electricity arcing off his body slammed into him. Izuku was knocked backward against the bed.
A shadow loomed over him. Tomura had stood up. Izuku’s vision was blurred, but he could barely make out tear tracts under Tomura’s eyes. Looking down at his own hands, Tomura whispered, “I did it again…I hurt you again…” Then he fled the room.
It took a few moments for Izuku’s twitching to stop, during which he had time to think.
Apparently Tomura was very reluctant to harm Izuku. Whereas Izuku didn’t care what happened to himself. Didn’t that mean Izuku could do whatever he wanted? Izuku was a mess of emotional pain and in the mood to share his suffering with his captor.
Izuku threw the plate of cookies to the floor. It shattered with a satisfying smash. Grunting, he ripped the sheets off the bed and smooshed them into the food. Standing on his tiptoes, he ripped down the photograph of All for One cosplaying as the demon king. Then he used a broken shard of glass to stab All for One’s face.
“Hey! That’s my inventory!” Tomura shrieked from the doorway. “You brat, I don’t even know how to do laundry!” His nose wrinkled. “Huh, so I have a quirk for that now? Interesting.”
Izuku threw a cup of chocolate milk at Tomura’s head. The milk bounced off a shielding quirk, falling backward and splattering on Izuku’s face.
“Ew!” Tomura wailed. “Ugh, now I’m going to have to give you a bath.” He dragged Izuku toward the door. Izuku went limp out of spite. It did him little good.
Dropping Izuku on the bathmat, Tomura started the bathtub running. Izuku crossed his arms. “Are you going to watch me bathe? Are you some kind of pervert? You look like a child molester.”
“You little—!” Tomura whirled on Izuku. “Ugh, why would I want to clean your scrawny ass for you? (Shut up, Sensei.) Here’s the soap, there are towels in the closet.” Tomura stomped out of the room.
Because his throat was burning with thirst too great to resist, Izuku took a long sip from the sink. He washed off his face. Then he left both the sink and the bathtub running. While Izuku waited patiently, the water overflowed. Tomura first noticed when the water crept under the door. His shriek could be heard from the other side of the living room.
Knowing Tomura’s decay abilities, Izuku didn’t bother to barricade the door. He entertained himself tossing every towel he could find on the floor while Tomura stormed in and turned off the water.
“That does it, you brat!” Tomura growled, grabbing Izuku with bruising force and dragging him across the wet tiles. “I shouldn’t have been so easy on you. Some time in the vault will teach you a lesson. You’re grounded!” With a grunt, Tomura tossed Izuku on the metal bed in the vault, then stormed off.
In the living room, the sounds of video games began again. Tomura was in a temper, swearing and cursing at the screen.
Izuku stood up and walked into the living room. With a sweet smile, he said, “You decayed the vault door when you couldn’t figure out how to open it.” Then he ripped the game controller from Tomura’s hands and jumped up and down on it.
Tomura’s wail of despair echoed around the underground.
Using his teeth, Izuku worked at the rope tying his wrist to the bedpost. There was barely any give. Tomura had used a sealant quirk so that Izuku couldn’t simply untie the knot. But given enough time Izuku felt confident he could bite his way through this rope. Then round two would begin.
Izuku worried about his mother and wondered how everyone at U.A. had reacted to his abduction. But he shoved all those thoughts into a dark box and sealed the lid tightly shut. He couldn’t think about his friends and family without feeling more self-blame.
With one last grunt, Izuku ripped loose a chunk of rope. His nails severed the rest. His empty stomach hissed and growled at him. Acid sloshed around against his stomach walls. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so stubborn about not eating. He needed his energy in order to mess with the enemy. Using the bedpost to steady himself, he crept past the corpse in the vault and into the living room.
The television was still on, flashing the screen saying that Tomura’s character had died while he’d been tussling with Izuku for the controller. But the living room was empty. Izuku was about to put his foot through the television. Then he heard sobbing.
The whimpers sounded too high-pitched to be Tomura. But who else would be in this underground prison? Izuku crept closer. Peeking through the cracked bedroom door, he saw Tomura kneeling down in front of the spilled chocolate milk and trying to mop it up with a towel. Tomura paused to wipe off his tears and hiccup.
Damn, had Izuku truly broken the villain this soon? It felt much too easy. Izuku did not know why this scene gave him more a feeling of unease than triumph.
Tomura looked up. “Dad?” he squealed in terror. His face collapsed with relief upon seeing Izuku instead.
The wide eyes looking up did not seem to belong to All for One or Tomura Shigaraki. Following a hunch, Izuku asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m Tenko Shimura.” Tomura’s nose wrinkled. “You know that. Are you playing games? You’re my big sister—I mean, my big brother. Hurry up and help me! We have to clean this up before Dad gets home or he’ll be very angry.” Tomura shuddered in obvious terror.
The sick feeling in Izuku’s stomach doubled. “Is your dad scary when he gets angry?”
Tomura nodded. “Dad has to have everything neat and tidy in his house. Every object and every person has to be in their places and perfect.” Tomura’s cheeks paled as he looked around at the food-stained sheets and fallen picture. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to clean this all up in time. We’re both going to be in for such a paddling.” Tomura’s hand went protectively to his backside.
Izuku swallowed. “Is your father All for One?”
“All for what? Who’s that?” Tomura cocked his head. “Are you confused?”
Apparently Tomura had bad parents even before All for One. It wasn’t exactly surprising. He didn’t seem like the product of a stable home.
Izuku ought to walk away. He could take advantage of his enemy’s confused state to cause more destruction or look for escape routes. Maybe this would even be the perfect moment to attack Tomura. But that idea made Izuku feel sick. He despised Tomura, the villain who had hurt so many people and kidnapped him. However, at his core Izuku couldn’t bring himself to cause more suffering to the crying child in front of him.
Maybe Izuku was too soft and naïve. Maybe that was another way he’d been unfit to wield One for All. Yet he still found himself kneeling down and slowly picking up glass shards. “It’s okay, Tenko. We’ll get this cleaned up. Don’t worry about your father. I don’t think he’s coming here—and if he did, I wouldn’t let him hurt you.”
Resentfully, Tomura muttered, “You said that last time, but then when Dad got scary you turned around and let me take the blame.”
“Did I? I’m sorry,” Izuku said.
“It’s okay.” Tomura bit his lip. “I know you were scared. I was scared, too. When Dad gets really angry my head goes blank and I’ll say or do anything to appease him. Even Mom can’t do anything to stop him, so what could you do? I forgive you.” Reaching over, Tomura hugged Izuku.
Izuku’s heart broke a little more with each word. He could not bring himself to push away the hug. His eyes tearing up, he gently patted Tomura’s back. Gripping the front of Izuku’s shirt, Tomura sniffled.
Together, they cleaned up the floor. In the closet, Izuku found fresh sheets for the bed. There did not appear to be a laundry room, so he bundled up the dirty sheets in a bag. Then he mopped up all the water on the floor.
As Izuku stood up and stretched, his stomach growled loudly.
“I’m hungry too,” Tomura said. “There are no grownups! We can have as many cookies as we want.” He ran for the kitchen.
There did not seem to be any further point in pulling a hunger strike with Tomura in this mental state. In the kitchen, Izuku cut some apple slices and made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to go with the cookies. The cold food tasted delicious when spiced with hunger. Izuku had to stop himself from eating too fast.
“Dad still isn’t home,” Tomura said rapturously. “This is the best day ever! Let’s play games!” But in the living room, he stared down with a tragic expression at the broken game controller. Tiny tears formed in the corners of his eyes.
Izuku almost felt guilty. But he saw an opportunity. As if inspired, he said, “We should buy a new game controller.”
Tomura looked up. “Do you have money?”
“Uh-huh! I have loads of money outside.” Izuku’s lips strained as he forced them into a smile. “Can you open the front door?” His palms felt clammy. His pulse skyrocketed.
Tomura went to the vault door leading outside. He stood before the keypad with a puzzled expression. Izuku’s heart was galloping under his chest. In a deliberately casual tone, he asked, “Do you remember how to open the door?”
“Uh-uh.” Tomura shook his head. “This door looks weird, big brother.”
“That’s okay.” Izuku swallowed painfully due to the dryness in his throat. “Can you decay the door? That’s your quirk.”
“The doctor says that I’m quirkless,” Tomura said.
An ugly suspicion formed inside Izuku’s mind. Tomura had been quirkless, and All for One could give quirks. There was no way of knowing if he was right, so he filed that thought away for later. “You have a decay ability. Could you please try? So that we can play games together? Put your hands on the door and wish for it to be gone.”
Tomura flinched. He took a step away from the door. “Bad stuff happens when I start destroying.”
“I thought you didn’t remember?” Izuku’s forehead wrinkled. “I’ll be right here with you, I promise. Just try.”
“No! I don’t want you to die again!” Tomura fell to his knees, clutching his head. “Please, run away…”
Instead Izuku ran forward, reaching for Tomura on the ground.
Tomura straightened. His eyes had become dead and cold. “Ugh, what the hell?” He rolled his neck, getting out a crick. “Still can’t believe you fucking made me die before I could save, you brat…”
So close. Dammit. Hastily, Izuku said, “Um, served you right for sticking me in a vault with a corpse.” He strove to sound peppy and casual. If Tomura didn’t remember his escape attempt, then Izuku would like to keep it that way.
“Eh. I guess we’ll call it even and never speak of this again.” Tomura looked away, flushing crimson. Izuku realized that Tomura actually remembered everything, but was even more eager to pretend it had never happened for understandable reasons.
Nodding along like a bobblehead, Izuku said, “Never speak of what?”
“There are spare controllers in the closet.” Tomura headed for the living room. “Want to play together?”
Izuku hesitated, thinking. He could go back to his rebellion. Or he could play along. He’d nearly gotten Tomura to open the door while he’d been in his childish state. With Tomura’s moods changing so quickly, Izuku might be able to get him into the right mental state to open the door. Realistically, it was Izuku’s only chance of breaking out of a giant bank vault. Having come so close to freedom, he no longer wanted to give up. His mother was counting on him to come home.
“You’re the better player, so I want to pick the game,” Izuku said, following Tomura.
OMAKE TIME!
Omake: Incorrect Quotes, the Memes Edition
The Hippocratic Oath: Where I can do no good, I will do no harm.
Garaki: This sign won’t stop me because I can’t read!
#
Omake: Our Unreliable Narrator
Tomura: I was turned into a weapon to obtain One for All. There’s no saving throw you could have made that would have prevented me from stealing your quirk.
Izuku: Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of my own self-loathing.
#
Omake: The Bright Spot of this AU
Garaki: Aargh! A building fell on me.
All for One: Why is no one rescuing me from Tartarus?
#
Omake: The Vestiges React
Yoichi: Help someone hide me from the All for One vestige in here with us.
Second: It’s the Vault 2: Electric Boogaloo. Time to get drunk.
Third: It’s ironic that we’re basically vaulted too, but not in a funny way. More a sad way.
Hikage: Whelp, I hid in a forest for decades for nothing.
Banjo: Someone tell the poor kid it wasn’t his fault. We didn’t even get a chance to resist.
En: Everyone, we’re not stuck with All for One, he’s stuck in here with us! Time to get out my kazoo.
Nana: I never should have said that my grandson’s condition couldn’t get any worse. If All for One and Tomura merge then does that mean I’m related to All for One now? I’d better not be related to All for One. I need to get drunk. Where’s Misty Might?
Yoichi: He’s currently trying to rip All for One apart with his flaming hands. Misty Might has the right idea. Let’s make All for One regret every stealing us! Charge!
#
Omake: The Last Hope Lost
Izuku: I know how to fix this. Tomura, I’m going to get you a dog.
Tomura: The Sensei in my head doesn’t like dogs and now neither do I.
Izuku: I’m doomed!
