Chapter Text
Pain, or really any sensation, was a thing that Izuku no longer felt, his body so battered and horrifically broken that it should have been impossible for him to move, and yet there he was limping his way the few dozen or so feet that separated him from his fallen nemesis. One leg trailing limply behind him with each awkward and supposed to be agony riddled step, blood dripping off him in rivulets from cuts and slashes, one particularly deep gash he knew was fatal leaving a macabre trail behind him. But he wasn't about to let him die alone, because no matter who they are, what they've done, nobody deserved to die alone unless it was their specific wish. Not just that, but Izuku himself didn't want to die alone, and he knew the end was close, knew that he was going to die soon. Praying that he wasn't too late Izuku looked down at the man laying sprawled just as broken on the ground in front of him and watched the shallow rise and fall of the man's shattered chest and watched as red eyes opened to glare up at him.
"How... are you... standing?" Tomura Shigaraki rasped out blood flecking his lips with each word.
"Grit... and... pettiness." Izuku gasped out and beamed at the villain before his legs finally gave out and he grunted as he slammed into the ground before somehow managing to crawl forward until he flopped over onto the ground, his head next to the villains so they were laying with the tops of their heads nearly brushing each other's shoulders. "Not... to long... now."
The man turned his head, white hair staining red in the blood that was pooling on the ground around him like a disgusting and sticky halo. "What?"
Izuku turned his head and gave a soft reassuring smile. "We... can rest... now. No more... need for... violence... just... peace."
Understanding flashed through Tomura's eyes, and he swallowed. "Yea... Izuku. Yea... we can."
Izuku swallowed. "We... won't be... alone to die..."
Tomura swallowed again and with a gasping grunt shifted slightly so he could press the side of his head against Izuku's. "Thanks... brat."
Izuku tipped his head to press back against the older man's. "Wel...come Tom-"
"Tenko." Tomura cut him off not cruelly just... forcefully. "My name... it's Tenko. He named... me Tomura."
Izuku smiled. "Tenko." He murmured and took a shuddering breath as he felt the world start to grow fuzzy and a burst of panic flitted through him. "H-hand... c-can I... h-hold your...your hand?"
Shaking almost violently and with great effort Tenko managed to lift the hand on the arm opposite Izuku over his head, several fingers missing, but it was better than the other one seeing as about three-fourths of that arm was gone, leaving behind a bleeding mangled stump. Shifting with what little strength he had left Izuku grabbed a hold of the offered hand and latched on with his trembling and no doubt cold and clammy one.
Tenko turned his head and pressed his forehead against Izuku's when the teen turned his head, seeking out what little comfort the villain could offer him. "We... we can... let go now, Izuku." Tenko rasped out and Izuku opened his slightly unfocused eyes and stared into the other's vivid crimson eyes.
"Go... go with... me?" He asked with trembling barely there words.
"Together?" Tenko gasped back.
"O-on three?" Izuku whispered, growing even weaker as the world started to fade.
"One." Tenko rasped.
"T-two." Izuku managed barely.
The two men stared at each other and smiled to each other, squeezing their hands and pressing their foreheads together, and with the last of their strength breathed out their last breath together before letting go and falling into the abyss that awaited them.
"Three."
Izuku jolted upright in his bed gasping and flailing, phantom agony ripping through him as he struggled to pull himself together as he looked wildly around. Not comprehending what the hell was going on, flashes of memories overlapping with whatever reality he was in filling his vision. But soon his heartbeat slowed, and he was able to center himself with the breathing technique that Mr. Aizawa had taught him to cope with his crippling anxiety and panic attacks. Looking around he blinked as he realized that he was currently in his room... back at his childhood home, and from the looks of it he was only four. Swallowing as memories just kept pouring in Izuku gripped his head before he took a deep breath and pushed past the pain, and if shit wasn't so dire he'd be shocked that he was able to push the pain down so freaking easily like he'd done when he was in UA due to his quirk.
Moving as quietly as possible, which again shocking on account that he was four, he grabbed the ugly and cheap yellow backpack his mother had gotten him he stuffed as many clothes, notebooks, and after sneaking out of his room and grabbed a few other necessities he felt like he might need, until the backpack was as heavy as his small body could carry before he carefully and as quietly as possible made his way from the apartment, stopping only long enough to glance back at it from where he stood on the sidewalk about a block from the building. He... wouldn't miss it. More specifically he wouldn't miss his mother's gaslighting, her constant over-dramatic and guilt-tripping babying, and her neglect. Neither would he miss her manipulation tactics that she would use to get her way in regard to damn near everything. But she was still his mother, and for as much as she hurt him and disappointed him and neglected him... he still loved her deeply. But he couldn't do it again, he couldn't go through all that... abuse, because what she had done and what she'd allowed to be done to him since his 'diagnosis' it had been abuse plain and simple, she might not have physically abused him, but she sure as hell had psychologically and verbally abused him and allowed the physical abuse she knew was happening in the Aldera school district to go on.
Swallowing past the lump in his throat Izuku hefted his backpack higher onto his shoulders and turned, continuing walking, pulling the hood of his father's black hoodie he'd found stuffed in the entryway closet over his head. He'd had the insight to put the garish yellow backpack under the hoodie so it wouldn't be seen. He needed to think about where he was going to go, honestly him leaving as quickly as he had had really been impulsive and not well thought out if he was being honest. But... he just couldn't live through all that shit again.
Soon he found himself boarding a train and letting it take him to... wherever it was that he was subconsciously going.
Disembarking from the train when something pulled at him, Izuku hefted the bag higher onto his shoulders underneath the hoodie and turned in the direction that the pull urged him towards and started walking, not really paying attention to where he was going, only really paying attention to if anyone was near him because his situational awareness was still shockingly on-point. Izuku stopped suddenly and turned, he blinked when he realized that the spot that that niggling pull had led him to was a spot at the base of and overlooked Mt. Fuji, and in an utter heartbreaking moment he realized that the city he'd gotten off at and was currently standing in was particular to him.
It was the city that he and Tomura had fought their last fight.
And where he was currently standing was the exact spot that they'd... died together.
A sound behind him had him twisting on shockingly agile feet and he stared with wide and shocked eyes at the gangly older kid in front of him that was breathing hard.
"Izuku?" The boy panted
He swallowed, eyes going wide as he stared at the other boy, taking in the black hair and the greyish red eyes. Black hair that the roots of were... turning blue? "Tenko?" He asked back, his voice high pitched and filled with thick emotion.
"Oh fuck!" Tenko bit out and was sprinting forward tears pouring down his face. "I fucking found you!"
Tears beading his own eyes before dripping down his cheeks Izuku staggered forward his lower lip quivering as he held out his arms to the bigger kid who barreled into him, arms going tight around him but Izuku realized that he kept both fists curled tightly in on themselves. "Wh-what happened?" Izuku whimpered into the other boy's chest.
"I... I don't know." Tenko murmured as he pressed his face into Izuku's green curls. "But I'm sure as fuck not letting you go again."
Izuku held onto him, burrowing his face tighter into Tenko's chest. Whatever had happened, whatever was happening it felt... right. The pull that had been in his gut and driving him to this very spot was gone now, as if sated by him meeting up with Tenko. Which was weird but at the same time Izuku wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He'd failed once already, when they'd died, when he'd failed to save Tenko in time. This time, if it really was a second chance at life, he'd damned well wasn't going to squander this opportunity. He'd use all the skills that he had from his first chance as a hero student, and as a quirkless person forced to learn to survive at a young age due to the abuse at the hands of other and neglect from his own parents, and he'd carve out a life for the two of them, even if it wasn't as... pretty as it could be. He'd make sure that they were safe, and he'd make sure that Tenko would thrive, and that he'd live this time.
He'd fucking take down All Might and All for One himself if he needed to.
Because as of this fucking second Tenko Shimura had gained a younger brother, and one that was feral and ruthless when it came to protecting his big brother.
And the world would burn if it tried to hurt his brother a second time around.
~Tenko's POV~
Hours earlier...
His skin was crawling, but instead of the normal irritation that was always there in the back of his mind and sort of easy to ignore unless he got emotionally imbalanced, more so than he already had been that is, since he'd gotten a semi-grip on his quirk when he was twelve. This itching it was fucking different then the normal because it was overlaid with agony as he writhed on the ground gritting his teeth and screaming as his back arched and his arms spasmed at his sides. Fucking flashes of cut scenes from different timeline events that happened all along his fucking life flashed in front of him in rapid fire even as he heard Sensei's disappointed rumble above him. Berating him in that almost gentle gaslighting way that he had in order to force Tenko to 'get a grip' on his quirk and accept him as his Sensei, cementing the fucking brainwashing bullshit that he'd done to Tenko when he'd 'helped him' after his quirk manifestation.
A fucking quirk that he wasn't born with.
After what felt like fucking eternity Tenko finally managed to push past the agony that had gripped him, the memories that were swarming him slowly fading until he was able to coherently focus on whatever the fucking hell was going on. Blinking up at the disgustingly dirty and mold riddled ceiling of the first hideout that Sensei had spirited him away to when he'd first started him on his indoctrination, Tenko slowly rolled his head and stared at fucking All for One as the man stared back with an impassive and bored expression. Arms resting on his thighs and hands hanging limply between his legs as he just stared at the boy, familiar red eyes that he hadn't seen in years since All Might had fucked up his face and nearly killed him permanently, curly stark white hair almost... familiar in a way as was the fucking freckles across the villain's cheekbones and nose. The man was so fucking familiar that it was damned near haunting and confusing all at once.
A sharp pain flared through his mind, and he winced where he lay on the floor a sweaty mess. A memory of a familiar curly green haired, striking emerald eyes, and sun kissed skin and a million constellation of freckles the face of a certain boy flashed across his mind, and he suddenly realized why this bastard look so fucking familiar. As much as he wanted it to be a damned lie he knew that this motherfucker was the hero brats bio-father, having sat through so many of Sensei's rambles about a quirckless son that he was trying to carve the world into the perfect thing for, only to suddenly change about two years before the War, suddenly bitching about how the boy had betrayed him and taken the sides of the heroes. Utter fucking bullshit, it was just the motherfucker realizing and not wanting to admit that he'd fucked things up so horrifically that the hero brat had taken the side of the heroes instead of following in his footsteps. As if that goody-two-shoes brat would ever turn villain, he had too much of a good heart to turn to the proverbial dark side.
Several manipulating filled minutes later, in which Sensei tried to berate him, Tenko watched the man leave his room (holding cell), closing the door behind him but not locking it. After all, at this age Tomura realized that he'd already been three years into the indoctrination stage of Sensei's plan. It had only taken three months for Tenko to be brainwashed enough to not try and leave the room unless he was invited or asked out by either Garaki or Sensei and they'd long since stopped locking the door, sometimes even forgetting to close the door when they left. Which was fucking perfect for him now as he waited, giving Sensei at least half an hour to leave this side of the underground compound. After all Sensei had made sure that Tenko's room (cell) was on the other side of the underground compound from his so that way he wouldn't 'be disturbed' by any of Tenko's screams or sobs, or childish nonsense. Yea because a five-year-old having fucking nightmares about killing his entire family over and over again is fucking nonsense.
Knowing that he only had about three-ish hours until Kurogiri brought him his evening 'meal' which was laced with meds that fucked with his mind and left him even more open to Sensei's manipulation and brainwashing. Taking a deep breath and pushing himself up and edging his way to the door Tenko tested it, pulling it open and sliding out, looking up and down the hallway before he slipped out, quietly closing the door behind him and started to hurry as quietly as he could int he direction he knew that Garaki's labs for this side was located. If he could make it there, he could make it out of this compound. After all that section of the compound was much closer to the surface on account of Garaki needing quick access to whatever test subjects he was bringing in as quickly as possible. That or needing to purge whatever failed experiment he'd been tampering with and getting fresh air faster. It was perfect because the vents in that labs were larger than the rest on account of needing larger quantities of fresh air periodically, which meant the air vents needed to be larger. Typically, an eight-year-old wouldn't be able to fit through the vents, but on account of Tenko already being small for his age, and the fact that with Sensei's and Garaki's neglect and malnutrition, Tenko was far smaller for his age then he should have been. His size leading more towards that of a gangly six-year-old instead of a malnourished eight-year-old that he was.
Pausing outside the swinging doors to the labs Tenko very slowly pushed one side open enough for him to listen in, and when he didn't hear anything, he peeked through, looking around the whitewashed and heavy disinfectant smelling room before he slipped in and ensured that the door wasn't moving before creeping his way towards the vents in the room. Hesitating when he reached the one on the floor before holding his hand on it smirking triumphantly when he realized he'd gotten the correct vent. Glancing over at the two buttons next to the vent he studied them. One was an emergency seal button, which would seal off this vent in multiple places to ensure no airflow made it's way to the surface, while the other was just a button that would stop airflow, not seal the vents just stop the fans that moved the air flow. Glancing around he stretched as far as he could and pressed the button that would stop the air flow before he turned to the vent and pulled off the cover after decaying the bolts with careful precision.
Slipping into the vent Tenko pulled the cover back on and prayed that it would stay before he turned and started to carefully climb his way through the vents, being as quiet as he possibly could. It took a fucking long time, and a few close calls of him nearly tumbling back down the vent he was carefully climbing with his back in a corner, hands braced on the metal wall under him, and feet braced on the opposite walls and carefully climbing his way up. But soon he reached the top and paused, listening intently for anything that could either give him away or anyone that spotted him. Not that he remembered anyone else being at the compound when he was aside from Sensei, Garaki, and Kurogiri, but that didn't really mean anything because he was pretty doped up and in the midst of intense indoctrination/brainwashing to be really coherent, and by the time he left the compound he was so far under Sensei's control that he... didn't really care about the underlings.
It was painstakingly easy to decay the top of the vent and climb out before he slunk away from the vent and melt into the surrounding trees a good distance away. After that though was the really hard part, running. He ran for a long as his malnourished body allowed him, and then he walked for as long as he could before he had to sit down and rest, but by then hours had passed and no doubt they already knew that he'd left. Thankfully though Garaki hadn't put the tracker in him at this time. That had come when Sensei had gotten confident enough in his brainwashing to take Tenko out and about on 'errands' to 'help' Tenko get better control of his quirk when he was eleven. Now however he was 'untraceable' to those fuckers, which meant he just needed to ensure that they didn't catch him because he wasn't sure he'd be able to get away again if they caught him. After that it had been hours until he'd reached a train station. But shockingly enough it had been insanely easy for him to sneak past the ticket booths and onto a train.
But as he sat on the seat and stared down at the floor beneath him Tenko realized that he didn't know where he was going, only that something was pulling him in the direction that he felt like he needed to go. Deciding to just see where this took him, after all anywhere was fucking better than being anywhere that Sensei was. It wasn't until he got off the train and stared up at the sight of Mr. Fuji in front of him that he realized that whatever the fuck had pulled him to get on the train and then off at this stop had fucking led him here. It had led him to the city where he'd made his last stand, where he'd finally pushed Sensei out of his head with the annoying help of that fucking hero brat, and where they had ultimately died together.
His breathing hitched and his steps faltered where he'd been unconsciously walking when he realized something. He had memories of his past life, of what had... happened. But does that mean that... he also had the same memories? But how the hell would he even go about finding out?! He didn't even know where to fucking find the brat! The only means of finding that out was back with Sensei but going back mean either being discarded for his escape, or being imprisoned and forcefully indoctrinated which very well could turn him into another Kurogiri if his mind broke from the strain. He'd... he'd just have to wait until he was old enough to track down the brat himself.
But a flash of red drew his attention and Tenko's head snapped over and he blinked at the small oddly shaped bundle that was currently jogging away from him with hauntingly familiar red shoes. Something tugged at his chest painfully hard and Tenko sprinted after the smaller... thing before he could second guess himself. It was only after the bundle had stopped and whipped around when Tenko had nearly tripped did utter relief course through him as those emerald eyes locked onto his.
"Izuku?" He breathed on a ragged pant.
The small boy, and really why the fuck was he so tiny? He was four for fucks sake why does he look like he's two?!
"Tenko?" Izuku's voice was soft and high pitched and filled with such hope that Tenko's heart squeezed. He was sprinting before he knew what he was doing, unaware of the tears that were running down his cheeks. "Oh fuck!" He gasped out raggedly. "I fucking found you!" He slammed into the boy, crushing the smaller kid in a tight hold, utterly careful to keep his hands fisted so he didn't accidentally decay him, Izuku's own arms going as tightly around him as he could possibly wrap them and gripped on tight to his thin black shirt.
"Wh-what happened?" Izuku whimpered into his chest.
Tenko pressed his face into Izuku's green curls before he lifted his eyes and stared up at Mt. Fuji. "I... I don't know. But I'm sure as fuck not letting you go again."
And he wouldn't.
In those last few minutes of his life Tenko realized something. Something that Sensei had attempted to break in him.
Hope.
Not everyone was like the people that day, the day that he'd killed his family, not everyone was like the heroes that didn't help him. The heroes that didn't have time to help him before Sensei swept in and 'saved him' from the scenario that he himself fabricated in order to break Tenko and mold him into Tomura.
This green haired kid, this fucking quirkless kid that accepted a quirk that constantly broke him, had helped when everyone else turned their backs and just tried to kill him he hadn't. He'd tried to help the moment that he realized what had happened to Tenko even before Tenko knew himself. And he'd never stopped trying to help him. Refusing to even let him die alone even though Tenko had caused their deaths, that if Tenko had only listened to the green haired teen and let him help... neither of them would have died. But he'd been too far gone at that point, broken past the point of saving. That hadn't stopped Izuku though, instead it had done the opposite, he'd pushed harder to help Tenko, he'd tried harder to help him. But it had led to both of them dying on that battlefield. Even then, with death nipping at his heels he'd looked over to see that annoying goody-two-shoes hero brat dragging himself to him, collapsing across from him and telling him that he wasn't going to die alone. That they were going to go together, and that they could finally have peace.
In this life, if this really was a second chance, Tenko would make fucking sure that Izuku Midoriya didn't have to face All for One by himself, because he'd have the most fucking protective and feral big brother looking over his shoulder and ready to fucking throw hands at a moment's notice. He'd do what nobody had done for him when he was bullied, he'd step up for Izuku and keep him safe.
And that was a mother fucking promise.