Chapter Text
He was almost at the door.
Reaching for them, his fingertips brushing against the cold surface.
If he could just-
The collar on his neck buzzed to life, sending him crashing to the floor.
“Ah, ah, ah!” His captor approached languidly, shaking his finger teasingly, remote in hand. “It’s rather rude to just leave, don’t you think?”
Tenko didn’t bother answering; he was trained out of that by his first month here.
Instead, he scoffed, bringing his knees under his torso. With his hands balled tightly on the floor, right in front of his face, the scars were all he could see.
“Well?” His captor prompted. Tenko would never call him Sensei. “Isn’t there something you’re supposed to say?”
Gritting his teeth, Tenko pressed his forehead to the floor. A caricature of an apology, but it would buy him time to think.
“To-mu-ra~” All-For-One purred, tossing the remote up and down. He always did that; It was infuriating.
It was still a better thing to focus on than the name.
“I’m sorry,” he said, swallowing his pride.
And then, in the brief second when All-For-One thought he had won-
Tenko jumped up, his hand outstretched, pressing all five fingers to his captor’s face.
He focused hard, just as he did when it was his father’s face under his palm, pushing at his quirk with all he had.
But for the first time since it manifested, his quirk failed to activate.
“Oh, Tomura,” All-For-One tilted his head, not even trying to stop him. “I’m disappointed.”
It didn’t matter - even without the quirk, he still had his fingers.
Face scrunching with rage, he clawed at All-For-One’s face.
He wanted to make the bastard hurt just as much as he hurt Tenko.
Sadly, his captor had a different idea.
The collar buzzed again, and Tenko’s world disappeared in a sea of darkness.
***
At this point, waking up restrained to a table was normal.
“Ah, Tomura, you’re awake,” All-For-One said, not turning away from the table by the wall.
Tenko ignored him, just like he always did. The man just loved being cryptic and creepy and always knowing exactly when Tenko woke up. It was probably one of his infinite supply of quirks.
His hands were just barely restrained. It was unlikely All-For-One had overlooked that, not after the long months of practice, but Tenko was not about to let an opportunity slide.
Pressing his fingers down, he focused on Decaying the table.
Just like before in the corridor, his quirk refused to work.
“Naughty boys don’t get to play with their quirks,” All-For-One said, finally turning around. “And you’ve been very naughty recently.”
Tenko thrashed in the bonds.
He didn’t want to find out what was coming.
But All-For-One didn’t care about what Tenko wanted; He never did.
All he cared about was making Tenko into his perfect weapon: Shigaraki Tomura, heir to the League of Villains.
Tenko had never been perfect before - it was always Hana’s role - and he certainly wasn’t planning on doing it now.
“Keeping your quirk from you would not work in the long term,” All-For-One mused, circling Tenko slowly. “But allowing you unrestrained access seems to have been a mistake.”
The feeling of terror was slowly becoming unbearable. Tenko tugged at the restraints again, mentally begging for a miracle.
“How fortunate then,” his captor continued, tugging surgical gloves on. “That Decay has a built-in security measure.”
Tenko gulped. That did not sound particularly fortunate to him.
A scalpel appeared in All-For-One’s hand out of nowhere, glinting in the light.
“You need all five fingers to make contact with a surface to Decay it,” All-For-One informed him cheerfully. “And you can have them back when you prove you can behave.”
Tenko started screaming before the blade even touched his skin.
***
The first time he lost only the top digits of his pinkies.
It was not the last time.
***
All-For-One apparently had a limb-regrowing quirk in his arsenal.
It had seen an obscene amount of use in the next few months.
***
Tomura - Tenko, goddamnit, his name was Tenko - was eight when Kurogiri joined them.
“They’re so much easier to control when they’re dead,” All-For-One commented as he circled the humanoid tower of mist.
Doctor Uijiko was there too, nodding while writing on his clipboard. His eyes were studiously avoiding Tenko’s corner. He never really acknowledged Tenko, even when he was patching his wounds.
Tenko wasn’t going to complain. He was perfectly content to huddle with his handheld game.
(All-For-One seemed to think Tenko wouldn’t try to run as much if he had something else to occupy his time. Tenko didn’t try to convince him otherwise.)
“Kurogiri,” All-For-One said.
“Yes, Master?” The mist responded promptly.
“See?” His captor shot a glance at Tenko. “Being obedient isn’t that difficult.”
Tenko didn’t bother even raising his head, pretending to be too engulfed in his game to pay attention.
All-For-One just sighed.
“Kurogiri, you have been brought here for a single purpose.” he turned back to the humanoid cloud. “You are to take care of young Shigaraki Tomura… and ensure he does not run away. It’s dangerous outside, after all. That shouldn’t be a problem with your quirk… Am I correct?”
“Yes, Master.” Kurogiri said immediately.
Tenko had a suspicion this might have been the only thing he could say.
***
Suffice to say, from that point on, none of Tenko’s escape attempts came even close to working out.
Kurogiri would just warp him back to the bar whenever he tried.
***
By the time he was twelve, Sensei no longer had to trim his fingers.
***
Not long after that, Sensei disappeared off to America.
His fight with All Might was televised - Tenko managed to catch one of the reruns.
Finally, Sensei’s insistence to have him learn English came in handy. As he listened to the reporters, listing the damage blow-by-blow...
For the first time in nearly a decade, he allowed himself to hope.
Surely even All-For-One couldn’t have survived that?
***
His hope was crushed thoroughly, just like All-For-One’s body.
Sensei lost his sight, and he had to stay on life-support, but he was still alive.
If Tenko had any tears left, he would have cried for hours.
***
Shigaraki was eighteen - maybe? Perhaps seventeen, or maybe nineteen… He lost count at some point, having forgotten his birthday years ago.
It didn’t matter.
He was apparently ready to take over.
All-For-One trusted him enough to make his own plans, while not trusting him to ever leave the house without supervision.
It was for his own protection, Sensei always insisted. Kurogiri was the ideal escape gateway.
Shigaraki frankly didn’t care.
He spent his days playing whatever games he had at hand, ignoring as much of Sensei’s words as he could and Decaying anyone and anything that annoyed him.
The whole League of Villains was a joke to him.
He hadn’t even bothered remembering anyone’s names. They were useless NPCs, why should he care?
It’s not like any of them were going to help him.
No one ever did, not even the heroes.
All-For-One thought he did, the idiot.
But he also gave Shigaraki full control over the planning process.
Which meant an opportunity.
Shigaraki wasn’t one to let an opportunity slip between his fingers.
***
Sensei gave him a gift along with that opportunity.
Shigaraki wasn’t sure how he felt about thirteen disembodied hands attached to his body, but he couldn’t complain.
(There were fourteen, at first. The consequences of Decaying one had not been something Shigaraki cared to repeat.)
At least Father would cover his face enough to allow him some range of emotions.
Like the absolute rage and disbelief at the poor lie.
He knew his Father’s hands; He knew his mother’s, he knew Hana’s hands.
Those weren’t theirs.
***
All Might was a Symbol of Peace. He had saved over a hundred people within the first five minutes of his debut. Millions of people saved over the course of his career.
Shigaraki - Tenko - would never forgive him for not saving five more.
***
Once the news about All Might’s teaching position broke, reporters swarmed UA’s gates.
It was so easy to slip in-between them, so easy to Decay the gates and follow the group.
Sensei wanted him to target All Might.
Shigaraki had a different idea, but Sensei didn’t have to know about it.
Flipping through the records, he couldn’t believe his luck.
USJ training exercise was perfect.
***
Sensei ordered over fifty villains to join them at the USJ. That Kurogiri was coming wasn’t even a question.
Eh, the brats would deal. There were bigger fish waiting to be fried.
***
There was only one reason why Shigaraki chose the USJ over any other class.
Eraserhead.
The one hero he believed he could trust.
The only person who could help him.
With Kurogiri on the other end of the dome, occupied with the brats, just like the other villains were, he was alone against Eraserhead.
And his awaited opportunity reared its ugly head.
He jumped forwards, throwing the first punch.
“Please help me,” he said, pitching his voice low, his mouth hidden behind Father. “Please, I’ve been trying to escape for so long.”
Eraserhead faltered in his steps, his capture weapon retreating.
“No, you’ve got to catch me,” Shigaraki tried his hardest to keep his body language from betraying what he was saying. “Please, just arrest me.”
“Is this a trick?” Eraserhead asked, his eyes narrowed, but he was still fighting.
Shigaraki shook his head, “It has to look real.”
He grabbed at the Hero’s elbow. It was a perfectly awkward angle, allowing him to disintegrate nothing more than the jumpsuit before losing the contact.
Eraserhead swirled around, his capture weapon binding Shigaraki’s hands together.
“Thank you,” Shigaraki whispered, his head hung low.
And then All Might smashed through the wall.
“No,” it was barely more than an exhale, as he stared straight at the newcomer, his eyes wide. “Noumu!”
It was too late; The Noumu had its own orders, too.
“It has shock absorption,” Shigaraki said quickly to the hero at his side, “It’s a perfect match for All Might, even when he was in his prime.”
Eraserhead just looked at him. If he had any comments regarding the wording, he did not voice them.
Thankfully, the green-haired brat seemed to have realized the same thing about the Noumu, shouting tips at All Might.
There was still a chance.
As he traced the Noumu’s trajectory, his hopes soared just as high as it did.
And then Kurogiri warped him away.
***
No one commented on his full-blown tantrum, complete with screaming, punching the walls and Decaying everything within reach.
“Do not despair, Tomura,” All-For-One’s voice sounded through the television set he was so fond of using nowadays. “There’ll be another chance. As many chances as you need.”
Shigaraki’s laugh had a slight note of hysteria to it.
Sensei didn’t seem to notice the irony of that statement.
Tenko didn’t want to know what would have happened to him if he did.