#there are many reasons to attack tomura

[incorrect-league-of-villains]

Toga: [running towards Tomura with open arms]

Tomura: [moves out of the way]

Toga: Hey, why'd you move?!

Tomura: I thought you were going to attack me.

Toga: I was going to hug you!

Tomura: Why would you hug me?

Toga: WHY WOULD I ATTACK YOU?!

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Horikoshi giving hero tropes to the villains is probably my favorite part of bnha.

He presented us with a nervous wreck of a boy at the beginning of the manga. Look, he seemed to say, isn't he creepy? isn't he evil? He met Tomura in his most lanky form. Malnourished, neglected, real dead hands all over his body and blunt nails digging mercilessly in his skin.

Sure, the story paints him as a real villain. He is there to kill kids, after all. He wants to kill the light of the hero society, to spread violence and hatred all around. He's also very very suspicious. You get that feeling that there's more to the story. It's in the way he acts, his desperation. He looks sick. What is he making him so? What is his story?

Tomura is a loser. A failure since the beginning, if you follow the narrative. Characters like Stain, Overhaul and Redestro point it out: Tomura isn't the best strategist per se, they can't understand his reasons to do what he does, there's something wrong with him in villain terms.

That's when the brain starts to pick up the signals and plants the doubt. Many people don't notice it, but something in the story gives away that he is a very special type of villain.

We see him alone in his dark messy room, staring at a screen. We see him drinking alone in a bar as he sits on his misery. Over and over, we see that evil boy and his burdened stance. Only Kurogiri is there. His master only talks to him through some radio. He doesn't mention anyone else. No one else seems to live in that bar but Kurogiri and him.

Back then, when Tomura was all about AFO and All Might and no one else, he felt hollow. Rotten.

We first saw him approach someone for help and some company after the first LOV members were introduced. We meet Toga and Dabi, then Tomura goes to find Deku. Is he still creepy? Yes. Is he still evil? Also. We have Giran talking about Tomura with the fondness you reserve for a spoiled child. The way Kurogiri and Giran talk about it, it's more like Tomura needs to make some friends. He's not used to it, so he's being rude to them.

He's a chosen one reluctant to make friends, since he's used to doing things on his own— or at least with people he didn't care about. Next time we see him, his telling Kurogiri that he doesn't want them to die, he wouldn't sacrifice them for a goal and he actually wants them to succeed. He talks like a leader, he considers them important.

When they show us the LOV around Tomura as he talks to a kidnapped Bakugo, there's something in there already. How they worry when Bakugo hits Tomura and knocks the hand out of his face. They humanize Tomura, which is a lot to say when AFO did everything he could to dehumanize him. They make Tomura be more mature, more responsible and more capable. While AFO paints Tomura as a foolish child that cannot get things right until he's guided there, the LOV trusts Tomura to take care of himself and guide them.

That's when the hero tropes with villains started.

A quick list from the top of my head:

Twice overcame his trauma mid-battle in order to save Toga and then the LOV.

Tomura was tempted by Overhaul to betray the LOV in exchange for power. He pretended to agree, only to backstab Overhaul because Tomura would never forgive those who hurt his friends and would never betray the LOV.

Magne went to attack Overhaul for offending her and her friends, defending their ideals and their right to exist 'til death.

Mr. Compress took the leading role in many dangerous situations to assure that the LOV would get their win, but also to assure they'd make it out alive.

Tomura would forgive people not on his behalf, but for the benefit of the LOV.

Giran refused to sell any info about the LOV and laughed in his captors face because he was not so important to them. Turns out he was bluffing about it being all business, since we know from Twice's flashback that he did it also for the fondness he felt towards the LOV and the LOV went there to rescue him.

The LOV rushing through a battlefield the size of a city while desperately trying to find a way to save Tomura.

Twice and Mr. Compress refusing to leave Tomura fighting Gigantomachia alone and taking the burden of his training with him.

Dabi doing all he could to save Twice and snapping when he realized Twice was dead.

Mr. Compress worried about Toga and her solo mission.

Spinner telling Toga that she needs to come back safe and sound to them.

Tomura refusing to die or give up while the LOV still needs him (to be a hero).

Twice already dead and still moving because he needed to save Toga.

The entire LOV refusing to even consider defeat because they blindly believe that there is no way Tomura can lose.

And there's so much more...

The LOV made Tomura act heroic. They gave him a reason to want to save and protect, instead of just wanting to destroy.

The power of friendship but for evil.

Isn't it the best thing ever?

[lineli225]

Tomura Shigaraki 's abuse and neglect under All for One

I've decided to make this post due to the fact AFO's abuse towards Tomura is often ignored and even denied, so I'll be bringing a collection of scenes that prove he was being severally neglected during the 15 years he lived with AFO

1- Malnourishment and Underweight

At the beginning of the story Tomura used to be very skinny, his spine visible, very accentuated collar bones.

We can't see if his ribcages are exposed too since he's always dressed, but we can tell he is abnormally skinny and thin.

Some theorize AFO's purposefully keeps him in this state so he's more weak and frail similar to Yoichi. Or so it adds to his tiredness and numbness.

He's also been shown randomly struggling before (it could've been the aftershock of Stain attack, i don't know)

2- Lack of hygiene

He literally lives in pure filth, trash bags, old soda cans, paper, boxes, packages of food that seems ordered other than homemade, it lingers all over his floor, he is clearly a hoarder

It's completely different of the kept and clean bar, and now before you say "That's Tomura's responsibility, he's an adult he should clean it himself!" just think for a minute, if you had a son, that you see as your heir, and bets on their future so much,If you truly cared about them and saw they felt into a hoarder mindset, wouldn't you at least help?

Why not even Kurogiri cleans if Tomura was being cared by him? This clearly is intentional neglect, specially to keep his mood constantly down.

3 - His teeth

Tomura canonically has crooked teeth (compare his teeth to the other's in the jump festa art), cavities or at least what looks like plaques or dirt all over his teeth.

For someone raised by someone as filthy rich as AFO, he should've had access to dental care

4- Shaggy hair

His hair looks un-brushed, shaggy and dirty, which had no reason for before MVA when he became homeless, so why even at the start? How long has he taken a bath or a shower?

Look at the blatant difference in this scene after he showered at the PLF mansion

5- Unkept, ragged and broken nails

despite his hands also being very skinny, his nails are also all rough and broken Now, I know Tomura isn't a kid to have someone cut his nails for him, but this implies he was never teached how to take care for himself.

Besides of course his clear symptoms of depression and suicidal idealism, which, are very obvious, All for One IS neglecting Tomura by keeping him in that state /knowing/ he isn't being capable of taking care of himself.

6- His bedroom

First of all: No windows

Second, notice how empty it used to be, he had nothing but a bed and a desk, but right as he committed his first murder he started to receive toys, AFO is lovebombing and manipulating him to kill more

7- The obvious neglect to his pain

Notice how every time Tomura panics or is even wounded, he is just ignored and left on the floor bleeding out, puking or writhing.

Which uh- it isn't normal to watch your kid writhe in the floor while smiling and monologuing

8- 24/7 Surveillance and lack of privacy

There are cameras everywhere, AFO spends most of the time watching Tomura, even in his own bedroom, and even talks to him, Tomura probably hasn't had any privacy ever since he was 5

Which is a sign of abuse and control

His entire childhood from 5 to 20 is often relatable for people who grew in cult like environments, and homeschooled children who grew under controlling parents, despite the abuse not being as "obvious" since AFO never directly physically hurt him, the neglect and psychological torture is still there, that and more all the manipulation, gaslighting and grooming (think of Mother Gothel from Tangled as an example of this type of abuser)

By the way, talking about it

9- Gaslighting

"but wasn't /you/ who desired my power?"

The entire body possession plot is a clear evidence AFO never saw Tomura as anything other than a toy to play with, the same way he saw Yoichi, but so many people say the possession was a retcon because "early afo cleared saw him as his heir, he even said it's all for him!"

Well, argue with the literal "he's the next me", while he is.... weirdly caressing the screen while he watches his kid with no privacy- 100% creep behavior

10- AFO's bizzare behavior towards Tomura

The way All for One's hands are often shown caressing him or encasing him somehow, which yeah, it's part of the symbology of Tomura's character (hands that can both hurt and save)

But knowing AFO represents /hurt/ and, you know, i'ts kinda weird to caress the kid you kidnaped off the streets like that-

Cuz yes! Picking kids from the street even if they are orphan is illegal!! You should take them to a police station instead :D

Tomura was KIDNAPED by AFO, not saved.

11- Proof Tomura doesn't /feel/ saved

During his fight against Bakugou, when he sees him being helped, besides being "broken" he starts to spiral on "why no one saved me even before i was broken?"

The visual including the granny that ignored him on the streets

AFO broke him.

He recurrently thinks back to when he was on the streets, even though he was already traumatized, and had already killed his family, he still had /hope/ he ADMITS he believes he could've been different if it wasn't for AFO

If AFO had truly saved him,he wouldn't think like this

12- AFO gifting Tomura the corpses of his family to intentionally keep him nauseated, uncomfortable and traumatized, so he never heals

Besides their weird placements- On a kid. the gangster's hands being in his chest...

13-AFO's intentional desire for Tomura's discomfort

If this entire thread didn't make it obvious already, All for One benefits of Tomura's tiredness, ill feelings, nausea, depression and suicidal mindset, and over all physical and psychological discomfort

This ensures he's submissive to his manipulations and orders, keep him feeling hatred and anger due to constant overwhelming feelings and makes it harder for him to think of why AFO does all of it at all.

I could go even deeper than this about it, but i've reached thread limit and am lazy, so I hope you enjoyed this thread!

Thank you for reading

[itsnothingofinterest]

You know, for as much as I really don't like the AFO reveal of this chapter and how it looks to attack Tomura's agency; I do like how almost in the same breath it confirms just how much the things and people Tomura's been fighting for mean to him. And I need some Tomura positivity as a palate cleanser to AFO; so I think I'll join everyone in rightly gushed about his lines of being a hero for villains, because that part made me so happy.

Like, I have heard over and over until now how Tomura doesn't and never did care about the League’s causes or all this systemic stuff he yaps about, he only cares about the trauma of having killed his family with the quirk he was born with. And that's all AFO's fault probably, so once the reveal is done it'd turn out Tenko has no reason to be a villain, since as the cringelord put it, "[Tomura's] never made a single decision of [his] own".

But immediately after learning just how much he cares about being born with Decay, we also learned that his conviction is not so shallow. He truly did and does want to be a hero for the people the system doesn't support & heroes don't save; the unpopular kids, the petty crooks, the complete psychos who no one, not even Deku would give a real chance too. For as much as it messes him up to think about his past; the hatred was just drive, gas in the tank much like Bakugou's attitude or whatever anger Deku reserves for guys like Overhaul or AFO.

And it’s not even just the League either; the entirety of the PLF’s 6-figure membership came around to him, and outside of them we see this chapter a handful of other civilians rooting for him instead of Deku. Heck, even before this chapter we heard mention of people who looked to and supported the League in secret; online and such. Some will call these isolated examples, but who knows how many or how few people there are looking at him as their symbol of hope instead of Deku or Endeavor because they too are desperate for a change the heroes aren't offering.

Redestro once asked what Tomura wants to build. He responded he only wants to destroy. I believe the full truth is that he wants to clear the way to a world for them.

Despite what's claimed by AFO and readers who I feel overstate his impact on Tenko; Tomura really did care about the League, he cared about doing away with the threats to their lives & livelihoods, he wanted to be their hero and save them. Deku can reach his heart but no pretty words about holding hands could ever change that; and this core motivation never had anything to do with AFO.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(I mean, unless it was. Everything else about Tenko was caused by AFO's manipulations in service to him apparently, why not his drive to be a hero for the discarded too? God I hate the direction that reveal is going, have I mentioned that yet? Oh how I hope expectations are subverted there.)

[winters0689]

Characters who SPECIFICALLY should be the ones to kill AFO

TW: Language

Listen there are so many characters (basically almost all of the characters) deserve to kill him but these are the ones who definitely deserve to do it.

1- Yoichi Shigaraki

Poor dude ended up with an obsessive brother who gave him his name because he was his first property!!!! Genuinely I feel so bad for him it’s not his fault AFO became obsessed with him to the point of wanting to wanting One For All just so he could have Yoichi back like seriously Yoichi should absolutely demolish AFO

2- Tenko Shimura (aka Tomura Shigaraki)

I’m using Tenko’s photo because truly he should be the one to kill him. Sure Tomura should also destroy him but Tenko deserves it more (I know they are the same person but they are at different points in their life) like Tenko deserves so much better

3- Yuga Aoyama

Honestly the Quirk that AFO gave him is enough reason for him to demolish him. He has been manipulated for his entire life and was forced to be a traitor by him. I can’t wait for the anime when he attacks AFO

4- Toshinori Yagi

Honestly AFO should’ve stayed out of the story after the Kamino Arc. He killed All Might’s mentor and caused his injury which led him to using the rest of One For All to take down AFO. So having that fucker return and be essentially the final boss is so upsetting like if I was All Might I would be so angry

5- Oboro Shirakumo and Shota Aizawa

A two for one. Oboro lost his life because AFO (okay it was Garaki technically but he was doing it because of AFO) wanted to have Aizawa’s Quirk and he ended up dying so he absolutely deserves to kill him and Aizawa also deserves to destroy him because he was the target (I swear if I had a nickel for every time an evil organization wanted Aizawa’s Quirk I would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but weird that it happened twice, right?)

6- Izuku Midoriya

I mean he already did it but still it was deserved. Honestly Midoriya should’ve also demolished him with words as well as killing him. So glad he took him down.

There are honestly so many characters I could’ve included (Grand Torino, Nana Shimura, Basically all One For All users, Present Mic, all of UA, etc) but these six (technically seven) are definitely the ones who should have been (and were) the ones to destroy that fucker.

[stupid-sloot-headcanons]

Just reread your Tomura forcing darling to dress up like a magical girl (which I love btw) and wondered how post gremlin Tomura would react to darling being triggered by things that remind her of the terrible things he put her through. Like the two of them are watching tv or she’s watching Tomura playing video games and something about magical girls pops up and the costume is so similar to what darling was forced to wear (or there’s an emphasis on a magical girl wand) that darling starts hyperventilating and crying.

Tomuras trying his best to calm them down and comfort them. If they are too hysterical and try to push him away he won’t be upset, he knows exactly what it is that is frightening her and he hates himself for having made her do that. He might become more mindful in the future to avoid saying things or showing her things that’ll remind her of pre-gremlin Tomura (which unfortunately might be many things)

He'd try to learn their different triggers and make sure they aren't exposed to them, and whenever they start to panic he'd help them recover as best as he can. It's difficult since they ARE the reason they're panicking, so he would have to fight the urge to touch them as a form of comfort unless they initiate it first by holding onto him. Usually he has them climb into the bed and cocoon themselves into a blanket so they're figuratively and literally insulated and don't have any stimuli that can make things worse.

He still will do things sexually to them, but not during moments like this. If they ask him to stop he'd listen but instead of stopping, he would just touch himself in bed while thinking about/looking at them. But during a panic attack he wouldn't ever do that to try and comfort them with oral

[deathmetalunicorn1]

Can I ask you write the League of Villains with a Carrie White!reader? Carrie and Tomura would end up falling in love as time went by because they share several similarities.

-Your mother always kept you on a short leash, to control you, to make sure that you didn’t do anything bad, anything sinful, and if you expressed your own desires, like going out to play, she would gaslight you, making you out to be the villain for leaving your ‘poor mother’ at home all by herself.

-You grew up extremely sheltered, and your mother did her best to make you believe the world was a dangerous place and the safest place was right next to her.

-She was quirkless and she viewed quirks as the work of the devil, even if it was something good, that would help others like a healing quirk, they were evil.

-So, when your own quirk manifested… it didn’t end well for you, harsh yelling, beatings, anything she could do to drive the devil from you, saying you were a sinner for having a quirk, despite it not being your fault.

-At school it wasn’t better, you were bullied mercilessly for one reason or another, for your naivety, your lack of cell phone, fun accessories, and many other reasons.

-You felt so alone, so scared, until it reached a boiling point.

-You didn’t mean to start that fire, after pig blood had been dumped on top of you in front of the whole school at an assembly, embarrassing you.

-Your powers went wild, locking all windows and doors, trapping everyone inside as a fire started. As they tried to break out with the quirks, you would grab them and pull them back, even as they begged you for mercy, but you had none to give because they didn’t deserve it.

-And when your mother arrived, seeing what you had done, she tried to attack you, coming at you with a knife, and when the police did nothing to stop her, mainly because they were too shocked to react, you killed her too, lashing out to protect yourself.

-You then ran as the police tried to arrest you, as you had killed so many students, teachers, and your mother, but they refused to listen to you that you were the victim of their harsh treatments.

-It was Shigaraki who found you, after you were hiding out in an abandoned warehouse as you couldn’t go home, he had seen the news and was impressed with your ability and drive, not realizing that it was a stress induced accident.

-He was stunned, when he offered you a hand, willing to take you in, to give you a home, when you lunged into his arms, hugging him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. He had the first to ever show you kindness.

-Shigaraki learned that you were a lot like him, having an extremely rough childhood, from not only your mother but your peers as well, and that you felt so alone, nobody would help you.

-This made him rather possessive of you, wanting to keep you by his side, which did take some getting used to as he was a boy and you were a little hesitant getting close, the conditioning of your mother showing its ugly face.

-The others in the League of Villains were welcoming to you, which you had never had before, they became friends- teaching you to have fun, and you learned that quirks were just a normal part of life, they weren’t something evil like what your mother was teaching you.

-They helped you learn about your quirk and taught you how to use it, to control it. It wasn’t a very strong quirk, telekinesis, but Shigaraki was able to tell that you were stronger than you looked, but that strength only came out during high stress, and he didn’t feel right doing that to you, you were a lot like him, he wanted to protect you, to keep you safe from the real evil of the world.

-It was a slow burn for you and Shigaraki, as you learned that he couldn’t touch you without risk of hurting you, but the two of you make it work, carefully, learning as you went. Toga thought the two of you were adorable, playfully teasing you which would make you turn bright red, but you knew, unlike the students you had killed, her teasing was harmless and playful.

-You didn’t go out and cause mayhem like the others, you weren’t a fighter, but they didn’t make you feel any less for it, Shigaraki preferred it that way, as he didn’t want you being hurt or getting arrested as authorities were still looking for you, deeming you as a villain.

-You were his reward for coming back in one piece, he would come back and sag into your arms, hugging you close, safely of course, and bask in your shy and gentle affections, and to feel safe and loved is all you wanted.

[sapphic-agent]

A question I'd ask MHA: Is killing people bad? Nezu and everyone at UA was on board with killing Tomura, deciding to turn the school into a "Coffin In The Sky" with people like Kaminari and Momo helping to keep it running. Hawks killed Twice. Endeavor tried to kill AFO and the entire fight after AFO rewound himself was to push him so he'd be rewound out of existence. The vestiges are constantly harping to Izuku about killing Tomura. Their society has a death penalty and their torture prison exists to punish people and be a fate worse than death. Gran Torino's last words to Izuku before he fell into a coma were telling him to kill Tomura. We had Hawks see Toga clones disguised as Twice and his first action was to scream to kill him now. Hawks gave a begrudging press conference after Twice's murder where he showed no upset for what happened, and no one cared. Previously, the government was assassinating people who were against its interests and Izuku's reaction to learning this was to decide he'd be a hero. This somehow convinces the ex-government assassin to put her faith in him. He does not reflect on how the peace of the past was built on a mountain of corpses. He and the heroes then don't have to deal with this at all because Redestro proceeds to kill them, and a new government gets formed off screen. Why's this series send so many mixed messages? If we're just going to kill people, how do they decide when and where? There was a group of guys sent to go free Gigantomachia and Kurogiri, but the heroes could have just killed them both. Thus making the rescue efforts totally worthless. The PLF would have arrived to find corpses. If we're at the point where we plot to assassinate our enemies and convert schools into elaborate death traps, why not do summary executions? Mic was about to kill Kurogiri himself, after he waited in his cell to ambush Spinner. They could have just shot Dabi and Toga. Well, Dabi's a lot harder to kill than Toga, especially with bullets, but he wouldn't exactly expect Shoto to pull a gun on him. Why not just fire guns into the crowds of people outside the hospital? Real talk: if they already created a trap to kill a high ranking PLF member, why not use the hospital as another? That's exactly what it was. They had intel that the location of Kurogiri was leaked, and they didn't move him to another location or evacuate the hospital. And the story acts like the villains are the bad guys for attacking a hospital which they're using as a prison for one of their allies? Why would they keep him here if not to round up all their foes and take them out in one go? Shoji is there to lecture the mutants, but he doesn't pay any attention to why this is even happening in the first place. If they put Kurogiri on a boat and only told the crew of said ship about the mission, the PLF would have never had a chance of finding him. Are they gonna search the entire ocean around Japan?

It's odd. The hero kids designated to save their villains don't reflect on or discuss anything related to killing nor are they pressured to do so. Izuku was going to be on a strike team designed to KILL TOMURA and he didn't have any issues with this. What was he going to do had Toga not dragged him away? Beat Tomura down and go "Actually guys, I want to take him alive." He would have sat through this briefing and had everything discussed with him...and at no point did he say anything. I'm not advocating FOR them to do this, I just think that they should be consistent. If you kill once, there's no reason not to keep doing it. The public has already shown they don't care. The heroes aren't troubled at the idea of taking lives, nor do they hesitate when they feel they must.

Right, so I'm glad you asked this.

The canon explanation is, it's frowned upon to kill but heroes are allowed to if they deem it necessary. This is why Hawks received so much backlash for killing Twice even though it was his legal right to do so. But that explanation is flimsy at best.

A lot of people harp on Batman, but he's right. Or at least, he has the right mindset. There is no singular force on Earth- or even the galaxy- that can stop the Justice League should they ever turn evil or take over. So the minute they stop abiding by their morals, it's up to them to "leash" themselves so to speak. But in some instances, they can't.

Everyone will talk about Injustice, but I always felt like "A Better World" from the Justice League animated series was a better example. Basically in a parallel universe Lex Luthor becomes president and kills Flash (Wally West in this show) which leads to Superman killing him. Him and the rest of the League (they call themselves the Justice Lords) then become authoritarian dictators, squeezing every ounce of freedom out of the world in the name of "justice" and killing whenever they deem it necessary.

What makes the DCAU so great- and what DC fans who've never watched it tend to miss- is that it isn't about whether certain villains deserve to die or not. It's about the League (especially Batman and Superman) holding themselves accountable and to a standard. They hold an insurmountable amount of power and all if they let themselves snap, they're at risk of abusing that power. Their no killing rule is about self-control.

(Wonder Woman (and a few others) is a little different as some versions of her have been shown to be able to kill and not lose herself in the process. But that's not important here)

Horikoshi's never taken any of this into account. His heroes are a bizarre, toxic mix between celebrities and cops who are given too much power and publicity. Giving all heroes the legal right to kill is a horrible decision. Not everyone is All Might or Izuku, mercy and empathy don't come naturally to the majority of heroes. Bakugou is one of the primary examples, he revels in violence and doesn't know how to hold back. He'd kill a petty thief and not even blink twice.

There has to be a measure of control and accountability enforced on the heroes. They can't make arrests, but they can kill whoever they decide needs to be killed? What sense does that make? That's just more incentive for them to kill if they're facing a villain that's difficult to contain.

Honestly, it's an aspect of MHA I have to ignore or it'll drive me insane

[caaaatoad]

Shigaraki x Reader - Birthday Kiss

FLUFF to BLESS YOUR SOUL HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY CRUSTY MUSTY DUSTY LOVE 💕💕💕💕 First MHA fic on this blog!!!

“Happy birthday, Tomura!”

Shigaraki nearly froze on the spot, heart beating fast as you hugged him with no warning. His body tensed instantly, his face beat red - and his arms flung to the air only to hover over your back awkwardly as your touch lingered.

The man swallowed hard, cursing the way his fingers trembled when he moved them an inch to return the hug. Tomura couldn’t. He couldn’t do a lot of things for you, and returning your sweet touches was one of them. No matter how much he wanted to.

You pulled away abruptly, nearly giving him a heart attack when he fumbled to move his hands away, his quirk away. Tomura’s stomach sank, thinking he did something wrong just by standing there. Maybe just being here was wrong, lugging dirt and grime into your home. You insisted it was fine and that’d you clean, but it wasn’t right for you to clean up after his messes. His brows furrowed together. When did a villain ever care about what was right?

“You’re not hurt, are you?” You asked him, reaching a hand to wipe the dirt off his cheek. He’d lean into your touch if he wasn’t so filthy.

He shook his head slightly. “Just… roughed up. You wanted me over?” Shigaraki still didn’t believe it.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” you said, taking him in. He stood uncomfortably under your gaze. The man never cared what he looked like until you were looking at him. He’d never look back, gaze pinned elsewhere - anywhere to avoid meeting yours.

Your home. It was quiet, and calm, and it made him feel like he didn’t belong here. The only sounds were faint ones from the stove, something smelling delicious was cooking. Various books stacked shelves and some laid across tables, a few cups were on the counters and not all the dishes were washed in the sink. A few, fluffy blankets you wrapped around the two of you whenever he was here and gaming. You kept them after he touched them? Your home was lived in, obviously, but to the L.O.V’s leader it was surreal. A man on the run never stayed in one place long enough to have things, to live anywhere, and you gave him things as if your home was an exception.

As if your home was his.

“Don’t just stand there, baby,” you said, smiling cheekily. “And last time I checked,” you pressed a finger to your cheek. “Your quirk isn’t in your lips.”

Shigaraki would never get used to your boldness. It was stupid how you made a villian like him want to hide his face and yet kick off his shoes and forget the world on your couch with you.

The man usually ends up doing an awkward, mixture of both - but never the last one. He could never forget the world outside, trying to put him behind bars, soon kill him as he further went down this path. You could, somehow. You somehow forgot the world when you looked at him, forgot heroes and villains all together as you ran your fingers through his hair and kissed his lips.

Tomura shut his eyes, hyper focused on his hands when you gently grabbed both his wrists to place on your hips. You deepened the kiss when he tensed, butterflies erupting in his stomach - replacing the nerves, the nausea, the emptiness of not getting to eat all day. The villain swore he could live off this, your lips against his and their sweet taste. He swore because when you kissed him he was a man, a man with needs and desires. To be loved and touched when this man was the villain who’s touch decayed.

But you were right. His quirk wasn’t in his lips. He guided you to the wall, keeping his hands fists on your hips because for some reason you seemingly wanted them there. He opened his eyes for a moment, staring at you. Your hands were buried in his hair and your breaths matched his. Fast, and heavy.

It wasn’t right to be here. But things didn’t make a home. His father had many things in his home, and it all came crashing down when he accidentally dusted the people who lived there.

“Tomura… I’ll always be by your side,” you whispered softly, and he smiled. Tomura always hated his smile. It was worth smiling to see yours grow at the chapped, crooked site. Shigaraki also knew it was also because he had finally done that stupid thing in your animes… Kabedon or something, minus the wall slapping.

“You’re so slow.”

He chuckled, slamming his lips against yours instead.

[linkspooky]

Do you think that Batman could empathize with Tomura and successfully reach out? They are both orphans with a dark side. The difference being is that Bruce was able to work through his darkness to be healthy(er) while Tomura had all his pain cultivated for 15-16 years.

Yes. 100% yes. That’s not even a question for me. I’ve been dying for someone to send me a question like this, because it’s something I’ve noticed in the general fandom response to the pro-heroes and the hero kids. The thing is, the heroes in My Hero Academia don’t really act like good wholesome heroes. They certainly act like marvel movie heroes... in the fact that they have strong superheroes and fight a bad guy and have such a clear delineation between good and evil that many viewers take them to have propagandistic qualities. Like, there’s a reason that marvel movies have degraded to what they are today currently, and besides all the other factors it’s because these comic book heroes are really getting sanded down into a set of superpowers, a costume and a bad guy to beat with no ideals or themes behind their characters. My Hero Academia heroes aren’t really that heroic, they don’t really have any ideals they stand for except the extremely vague notion of defeat the bad guy. Yeah, Deku has “Save people” but Deku is noted several times to be an oddity among heroes. 

The Pro-Heroes and the Hero Kids in My Hero Academia have this weird paradox to them where the story itself, and also in world hero propaganda sells the idea that heroes are incredibly wholesome, always selfless, people who go above and beyond to save and protect. Yet, the heroes in MHA are actually extremely cynical, and pragmatic, and they also really have no guiding principals beyond “Might makes Right.”

You can put all heroes on the scale of Spiderman <---------> Punisher. 

To define them by whether they are a superhero focused on saving innocents, or a violent vigilante who is focused on punishing the guilty, the heroes in MHA are far more on the punisher scale of things than anyone either in setting or the fandom would like to admit. This is a universe where heroes like Hawks and Lady Nagant regularly commit state sponsored executions. This is a setting where Enji Todoroki is revealed to be a heinous abuser of his family and everyone in the superhero community is like... fine with it for the most part. They either don’t bring it up, or they think Enji does such a good job it justifies his position. 

I mean, here to justify my accusation that heroes in MHA are far more on the punisher side of the scale. To compare to another manga, Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia have a similiar circumstance where a villain, Mahito and Dr. Garaki respectively are able to transform unwilling victims into mindless attack dogs by twisting their bodies into unseemly and horrifying shapes. Mahito’s altered humans, and Dr. Garaki’s nomus respectively seem to retain some sense of humanity and are in a state of pain. Nanami Kento, Shoko and Yuji all come to the harsh reality that there is nothing they can really do for the humans that Mahito has twisted, except for a swift mercy killing, and yet a lot of time is still given to the fact that killing something that is a human being is wrong and a heavy task even though it’s their only option, and two that the decision to kill someone is an extremely heavy burden to bear not made lightly. Nanami straight up loses all focus in a fight, and stops to wipe the tear of a former human when he realizes what they are fighting against. 

Compare this to the way every hero responds to the Nomus in My Hero Academia. Enji without knowing whether or not they are truly sentient or even capable of being turned back into what they were, roasts one alive right away it’s his first action with them. Enji then later on meets a Nomu who is capable of intelligence and communication, and roasts it alive even harder specifically because the way the Nomu Acts, reminds Enji of a darker part of himself, and killing that enemy is perfectly satisfying to Enji because it allowed him to take out those personal frustrations. When Mirko learns that the Nomu are former human bsings she has no hesitation at all at bashing their brains in, in fact she’s almost delighted because she doesn’t have to hold back and that makes it easier than fighting regular villains. If the enemy is sufficiently dehumanized than heroes in my Hero Academia very easily resort to murderous methods, and it’s not just heroes like Enji, Mirko does it, heck Present Mic expresses the sentiment that Oboro would be better off dead then continuing his existence as Kurogiri. 

The heroes in My Hero Academia are dark, almost myopic. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy them, but they are very different from the way heroes act in western comic books and I think a lot of people don’t know this because a lot of manga fans don’t really pick up comic books, and their biggest experience with western heroes therefore comes from movies. 

So when I say BATMAN WOULD NEVER dehumanize a villain to the extent the My Hero Academia heroes do on a regular basis, I’m not saying that as a batman fan, I am saying that because Batman is probably THE MOST IDEALISTIC DC HERO. Yes, even moreso than superman. Batman is Clark’s hero. His inspiration. His good time boy. 

Bruce would have noticed there was something off about Tomura right away in the early stages, if not the very first attack he waged on UA. I’m going to use two examples to prove my argument, one the fact that heroes also noticed that Shigaraki was extremely mentally unwell and just decided not to really care about it, and two Batman was actually faced with an extremely similiar situation in BTAS and his reaction is pretty much the opposite of All Might’s. 

1. There’s Something Wrong with That Kid

To those who were paying attention to Shigaraki’s character from the beginning, even before we got to dig further into his backstory in My Villain Academia arc, or even be shown a more sympathetic and human side to his personality in the Overhaul arc, from his introduction Shigaraki shows signs of extreme mental distress. He is constantly exocriating himself, which is a form of self-harm that manifests under circustmances of extreme psychological stress. Shigaraki has a full on skin disorder that many people have because he is so poor at managing his stress he relentlessly picks and scratches at himself. 

When he starts to lose in the middle of the fight, he essentially throws a tantrum, and not only does he immediately want to give up and go home, but he also lashes out at his own ally to try to vent that anger. 

When All Might removes the hand from his face he has a momentary break from reality, and talks to the hand a physical object like it’s a person calling it “father” and apologizing to it. 

Shigaraki also shows a clear grudge against both heroes, the failure of heroes, and the violence that heroes show (no kidding he’s a victim of violent abuse and the cycle of abuse in his family has an origin in his grandmother’s complete and total failure as a mother) that he clearly states in front of All Might once, and then Deku later the idea that heroes do not save people with their violence, and the implication that there are people that All Might have not saved and both times he is essentially brushed off by both of them. 

Shigaraki’s mental distress is so obvious that even the heroes of My Hero Academia, who’s general response to villains is lock them up and throw away the key, noticed it. The heroes notice several of the symptoms I listed above about Shigaraki, but then decide to dismiss him as a man-child and then go on to say that he represents a kind of “pure evil” that villains may find attractive. The enertain the idea for like half a second that there might be more to Shigaraki that makes him different from the regular street villains heroes usually fight, and then they just dismiss the thought. Once again a common theme, the second All Might realizes he is Nana’s grandson he wants to go after Shigaraki to attempt to find him and reason with him only for once again Gran Torino to dismiss him as the kind of villain who’s beyond redemption and All Might to immediately give up on trying any other tactic than beating him down. 

Now why do I say Batman would have immediately gone after Shigaraki and tried to reason with him and get him the help he needs? Do I have proof of him acting similarly? Batman in fact, comes across a similiar enough situation in one of the most famous episodes of Batman the Animated Series. 

2. Man-Child meet Woman Child 

Baby-Doll Batman the Animated Series season 3, episode 4 is one of the most popular episodes, and it shows most clearly the way Bruce’s brand of heroics is ultimately based on saving and empathy for his villains rather than just putting them down for the greater good. I could have gone with a lot of batman villains with much more clear and tragic origins, Mr. Freeze isn’t even trying to achieve anything villainous he wants to save his wife. Two-Face started out as not only Batman’s best friend, but a good guy and an ally of justice who was driven to insanity by a horrifying and sudden tragedy. Harley Quinn is a victim of grooming and abuse similiar to Shigaraki who has her entire sense of self warped and controlled by an abusive narcissist who quite literally turns her into a crude relfection of himself, to act as a pawn in his own evil schemes. I could use a lot of batman villains, but no Baby Doll, we’re going with Baby-Doll. 

Mary Dahl is a washed up child actress with a physical condition that prevents her from growing up past a child, she’s sort of like Claudia from Interview with a Vampire, an adult mind inside a child’s body. Not only will she always be treated and regarded as a child for her physical appearance, due to her child as a former child star who’s show was cancelled and had no success in acting when she tried to do anything outside of playing the cutsey and innocent “baby-doll” on the sitcom “Love that Baby” she has ended up emotionally stunted and stuck in the past. 

Mary Dahl’s fall to villainry is a bit less tragic than Shigaraki’s, she wasn’t like kidnapped and groomed since childhood by a villainous mastermind and turned into his own pet “make your own supervillain” project. She’s not getting work, but she’s not poor or destitute, there are former child stars who lose out on their childhoods and have no money to show for it, but she seems to have enough money to at least have an extremely competent agent and money to blow on her elaborate schemes. Her backstory is not nearly as tragic as Shigaraki’s, yet she shows several symptoms in common with Shigaraki, being a former child star like many child stars she shows severe dysfunction as an adult because it ate up her entire childhood. Child labor is bad people. Children who are not given room to grow up and develop as kids, have problems late into their adulthood.

She is also someone who feels rejected and left behind by society as a whole, it’s clear her only way of connecting to other people was the attention she received as a child star and the connections she had with cast members. She also experiences severe body dysmorphia I would say on level with Shigaraki’s, Shigaraki’s body dysmporphia is so bad he constantly picks at his own skin, his quirk soemtimes even causes physical damage to him and he feels extreme nausea at a near constant basis b/c of his emotional unrest. Baby-Doll literally experiences a same incompatability with her body, she has an adult mind, she craves to be a fully grown normal body, and a lot of her mental breaks from reality seem to come from how easily people mistake her for and treat her like a child. 

Mary Dahl also shows severe dysfunction when it comes to regulating her own emotions. As tragic as Mary Dahl’s fall from fame is, and as much as it mirrors what happens to a lot of child stars in reality, Mary Dahl kind of also dug her own grave by her actions. Everyone on the cast thought she was notoriously difficult to work with, her show wasn’t cancelled on her, she left because the directors added in a new character she didn’t like and took attention away from her because of plummeting ratings. She left the show to try to take a more serious turn as an actor, once again to get attention and because she was on an ego-trip, then tried to get the show running again when it didn’t work for her but by that point it was too late. She’s also someone who just does not treat people well, she’s manipulative, she never engages people as her true self Baby-Doll is a role she is essentially playing, to both allow herself to violently lash out, but also to evade any responsibility for her own actions. It’s also ambiguous how much of the Baby-Doll persona is a genuine psychotic break (I don’t use the word psychotic lightly, I’m also not saying LOL look at her she’s so crazy, but there are genuine moments where Mary seems to mistake what happened on her TV show for reality which indicates that she’s not just trying to reclaim her former glory, that she is full on having delusions) there are also moments where “Baby-Doll” is a deliberate act she��s putting on, and Mary seems aware of what she is doing. 

Mary Dahl is at the same time, delusional enough to believe she can kidnap everyone on her former show, and force them to just pretend to be the characters they were on her show, and playing dollhouse with this pretend family will somehow fix her problems. She is also, lucid enough to carefully plot and execute the kidnapping of several people, control a minion in her agent, and then evade capture from Batman several times. She is both a victim (she’s genuinely mentally unwell) and a villain (but not unwell enough she’s not aware her actions are wrong, she’s deliberately hurting people she just thinks her tragedy makes her entitled to that revenge). Mary Dahl thinks the world has wronged her and left her behind, that her show being cancelled was some great injustice done to her, and something she deserves the chance to rectify, even though as I just explained in detail that Mary was equally as responsible for the cancellation of her show. She is a person not willing to take any responsibility for her actions or see fault in herself. 

You could even argue because of these quality Mary is way less sympathetic than Shigaraki, Shigaraki at least seems to have genuine critques about his society, and feels that he and the people around him have been rejected in an unjust fashion. Mary Dahl is upset her TV Show got cancelled and decided to make it everyone else’s problem. Mary Dahl’s problems are a lot more selfish, and smaller in comparison to Shigaraki’s, and yet the story itself does not downplay Mary’s distress because it is genuine to her. 

In one extent, Mary is a danger to others, but she’s also a danger to heserlf. Like I said, it’s ambiguous how much but she’s clearly a mentally unwell woman. When someone is experiencing delusions on that level it’s a brain chemistry problem, and it’s also not something where it’s fair to go “Well, she has no reason to be mentally ill, it’s not like she was beaten, she’s just having an emotional breakdown because she’s not famous anymore.” I mean, what does it matter the reason whether she’s having a breakdown is a good enough reason or not, she’s clearly in extreme distress. 

Number two, I think society as a whole tends to downplay the suffering of celebrities or child stars and make them seem like they are just entitled or spoiled for acting out, because they’re rich and famous and living a life most people would die for so who cares. But, HollyWood, the spotlight, and public scrutiny has a really bad psychological effect on people. Most people would not do well under such harsh public scrutiny all the time, and also when you make your entire personality around being a star and having the spotlight, also because in Baby Doll’s case there’s really no other career avaiable for her because of her condition then losing that is a pretty huge loss. Like, child stars who cannot either adapt to adulthood, cannot get work as adult actors, or just cannot even function as adults is a pretty common societal problem. 

On top of kidnapping people, holding them hostage, she’s also someone who clearly needs help, like Baby-Doll is not just doing these things because she’s a selfish, entitled brat throwing a tantrum because she’s not famous anymore, she’s experiencing clear mental breaks from reality where she confuses her tv show for reality, she’s mentally sick and in need of treatment. 

Baby-Doll is presented to us as a manipulative child star desperate for the spot light, endangering her cast because she herself cannot let go of the past for most of the episode, people around Bruce are pretty unsymapthetic to her, her attempts to get a more serious career is played off as a joke, the cast members do not like Baby-Doll and found her to be extremely high maintennance and difficult to work with even when she was on the show, Baby-Doll’s clearly not after the cast because of nostlagia, friendship or happy memories she has with her former cast members, but rather because she wants to pretend to be the the sitcom character who was surrounded by family who loved her. People constantly remark how crazy she is for thinking a tv show is reality. Even Robin says that he absolutely despised the “Baby-Doll” show, and it’s dismissed as kind of a cheesy sitcom with no real merit. 

However, the last five minutes turn all of that on its head. Bruce Wayne, my darling, is presented to us as a man of few words. We don’t actually see Bruce’s reaction to what Baby-Doll is doing for most of the episode, we see Dick’s who clearly thinks she’s just crazy, Bruce the whole time is focused on just resolving the incident first, finding the kidnapped people, rescuing them from Baby-Doll’s grip. So Bruce’s absolute first priority is just to stop the villain from doing the bad thing, he stops the bad behavior and makes Baby-Doll unable to hurt others. 

Bruce, the living embodiment of the term “Gap Moe”, because he is so closed off and not reacting to Baby Doll in any way, does not seem to be going out of his way to sympathize with her. That however, changes once the the threat Baby-Doll represents to others is neutralized. Baby-Doll then flees from Bruce with a Tommy Gun out into the middle of the night. The tables have turned and Baby-Doll has gone from a cackling villain, pretending often to be a scared little girl in order to manipulate people, to a genuinely scared and desperate person. Even the image Baby-Doll evokes fleeing from Bruce, is a sympathetic one, Baby-Doll despite being an adult woman still looks like a child, and acts several times like a woman-Child and she is fleeing from an adult man who picked his costume to terrify crimminals into submission. 

Baby-Doll flees into a carnival ground filled with children, she has a Tommy-Gun on her, she’s still pretty much a direct threat to others, but the way Bruce approaches her does a complete 180. Bruce is calling out after her to stop fleeing, when she disappears into a tunnel, he’s telling her to stop not because he wants to arrest her, but because she’s going to hurt herself at this point. Baby-Doll is no longer a danger to others, she’s a danger to herself because she’s scared desperate, and fleeing, and instead of pursuing her to put her down Bruce is trying to stop her from getting hurt as she flees. This is also behavior he has shown to repeat, in Harley’s Holiday he pursues Harley the whole episode not to stop her because she’s on a crime spree, but because she’s freaking out and he doesn’t want her to be sent to Arkham and lose all the progress she made in her recovery. 

Bruce pursues her into a mirror maze and this is where we get the most famous scene in the episode, Baby-Doll is still dead set on killing Bruce (this is also where Bruce shines, Baby-Doll is actively firing a gun at him and he is still calling out at her to stop because she might get hurt). 

Baby Doll fires at the mirrors over and over again, until one of the funhouse mirrors shows her what she might look like as an adult, at which point not only does Baby-Doll come to a complete stop, but she talks not in her Baby Doll voice, but as Mary-Dahl. 

Mary Dahl: Look. That’s me in there. The real me.  Mary Dahl: There I am... BUt it’s not really real, is it?  Mary Dahl: Just made up and pretend like my family, and my life and everything else.  Mary Dahl: Why couldn’t you just let me Make believe? 

She then grows angry at realizing that she is trapped on the other side of the mirror and will never exist in that adult body, she starts firing at every mirror around her trying to get batman who stalks her once again as an unspeaking shadow, until she gets impatient enough to destroy even the idealized image of herself represented in the funhouse mirror. At which point the gun itself runs out of ammo, and Mary breaks downc rying. At that point Batman could say that Mary is just throwing a tantrum, that being a washed up child star doesn’t entitle her to hurt others, he could say  that her tears aren’t even real because Mary Dahl has pretended to be a child in order to manipulate other people and merit sympathy literally this whole episode. Bruce does not do any of that. Bruce’s only action after following her this whole time, is to remove the gun from her hands so  she’s no longer capable of hurting someone, and then when she  hugs him, to return her hug and comfort her. 

Mary Dahl: I didn’t mean to... 

Because, utlimately she’s a human being who needs help. It’s not Bruce’s job to pick and choose who deserves that help, it’s his job to help people who need it. 

So yes, Bruce would have noticed right away that Shigarki wasn’t just a violent child, but a child who is clearly suffering from distress and lashing out. He wouldn’t just dismiss Shigaraki as an entitled man-child because as I’ve just demosntrated, Bruce had a situation where he frankly could have just dismissed Baby-Doll as a selfish an entitled vain womanchild and yet he didn’t do that. He saw a crying person in front of him, and he helped them, and he was even trying to help her before she started crying and asking for comfort like a more standard victim TM. Letting a child who shows clear signs of abuse like Shigaraki has go unhelped is not only out of character for Bruce, it basically is against everything he stands for as a hero. 

And if you still don’t believe me on that, here’s a quote from the director of the final installment of the popular Arkham Series, “Arkham Knight”, a game that features a character Jason Todd who was similiarly groomed over a long period of time by batman’s arch enemy into an enemy for batman to fight. 

[messagesfromthestarrs]

Stress Relief

ship: Shigaraki Tomura/Dabi

fandom: my hero academia

genre: all smut no plot

warnings: none, its pretty vanilla. slight ooc. the writing may seem a bit cringe at first but it gets better trust me okay.

word count: 3.5k

They had a close call with the heroes. Luckily, the league of villains managed to escape last second.

Tomura was fucking stressed. So, so many narrow escapes, it was a huge surprise that his fellow league members made it out of there safe.

He paced around the "common room" area of the League's new hideout. Everyone else had already retired to their rooms. Tomura was scratching his neck, thinking, planning, analysing, criticising. He didn't notice his right hand man sitting on one of the chairs, watching him. Tomura was startled out of his thoughts when Dabi sighed and called out to him from across the room. "You look like you need a drink."

Tomura's scratching only got worse at that. He refused to look into Dabi's eyes, because he knew that the second he would, he would be trapped by Dabi's icy gaze and eyes that were the same colour as his fire.

That was the other reason Tomura couldn't relax. He couldn't stop thinking about Dabi. Couldn't stop himself from staring at him. Couldn't stop himself from imaging unholy things about him. Tomura couldn't breathe normally when Dabi would shove him out of the way of an attack and end up on top of him. Tomura stoped himself from thinking about Dabi's scarred hands on him. About what Dabi could do to him. About what he could do to Dabi.

Tomura started to lose control of himself when he was around Dabi.

Little did he know that Dabi felt the same way about Tomura.

Little did he know that Dabi had a plan in mind, something that he had been wanting to put into action for an embarrassingly long time.

"Well, don't we all." Tomura replied a few seconds later than normal since he was so busy imagining what Dabi's low and gravely voice would sound like in the morning after a particularly good night.

Tomura finally decided to look into Dabi's eyes and tried to decifer what he was thinking. Dabi looked the same as always, barely a scratch on him, his fire keeping away his enemies. But there was something different in his eyes. Something similar to how he looked when he was thinking and planning. What was he thinking about? What was he planning? Tomura couldn't help but wonder.

"Tell you what," Dabi said as he stood up from his seat and walked towards Shigaraki, "since we both need to blow off some steam, how about we get some drinks and give each other some company?"

Shigaraki considered the offer for a bit, then shaked his head "No, I don't want to drink anything right now. I just... I don't know."

"Ah, well, in that case," Dabi casually stepped into Shigaraki's personal space, locking eyes with him and lowering his own voice, "I had some... other things in mind."

There was a challenging look in his eyes, as if he was daring Tomura to take this further. So he did, "What did you have in mind?"

"Well..." Dabi stepped even closer to Shigaraki, still refusing to break eye contact, his voice and eyes hypnotic "we could, uh, you know, give each other company in a different way. I know some other ways to relieve stress" Dabi finished his sentence in an... odd manner. There was something different in the air, something that Tomura had never felt before.

And that's when it hit him. "Oh. Oh " he blurted out. Huh. Wow, this was a lot for him to process. He looked deep into Dabi's eyes to verify if this was what he thought it was.

Dabi's pupils were blown wide, making those turquoise eyes (that Tomura thought about in the wee hours of the night) look darker yet brighter at the same time, with a mischievous glint in them. Tomura couldn't stop looking into those eyes. Tomura felt his heartbeat get a little faster than he'd like, the adrenaline from their narrow escape starting to creep back into his body.

They seemed to be having a silent conversation by their eyes: 'you wanna do this? you know we can never go back from this'

Tomura felt the urge to kiss Dabi, to do so many unimaginable things to him, to get so many unimaginable things done to him by the arsonist. Dabi had the same feelings.

Dabi looked him up and down, and raised an eyebrow at his boss. Tomura nodded his head, a silent command in his crimson eyes. It was hard to tell who lurched forward first, but before they knew it, their lips clashed. Tomura let out a shaky breath he didn't know he was holding.

He felt ecstatic. The person he had been obsessed with the past who knows how long, the person who haunted his dreams, was currently all over him.

Their kiss deepened, their breaths got heavier, they got needier. They both wanted more.

Breaking the kiss with a small gasp, Shigaraki grasped Dabi's shoulders, looked him in the eye and commanded "Bedroom. Now."

Dabi breathed out a "fuck yes ", then they practically ran towards Shigaraki's bedroom.

Dabi paused, and realised that there was a good chance Shigaraki might decay him. "Hey, wait do you have some sort of gloves to stop your quirk?"

They finally reached their destination, shoved open the door and stumbled inside, locking the door behind them.

"Yeah- yeah I do, give me a second" Tomura quickly made his way to his bed, Dabi following him and removing his coat. Tomura went through the bedside table and fished out and put on a special pair of gloves that covered only his pinky and ring fingers.

With that taken care of, Tomura shoved Dabi onto his bed, pushing him up against the headboard, into a sitting position, and Dabi just let him. Tomura then gathered his courage, sat on Dabi's lap and straddled him. They resumed their kissing, but this time with Tomura grinding his hips against Dabi's lap in a slow rhythm, soft moans and groans escaping both of their mouths.

To Tomura, every little touch sent small spikes of electricity through his body, his blood rushing.

Their kiss deepened as Dabi and Tomura began exploring each other's bodies more freely. Dabi's hands slid under Tomura's shirt and moved up and down his back, firm and holding him close. Tomura threaded his hands through Dabi's hair, reassured by the gloves and desperate for something to hold on to.

Because of the way they were sitting, they could feel the other's erections growing by the second. Dabi decide to try something a little more mischievous as his hands made their way to Shigaraki's thighs, stroking them. He bit down on Shigaraki's bottom lip at the same time as he jerked his hips up into Shigaraki's, relishing the lewd moan that escaped his boss's mouth.

Shigaraki broke the kiss to catch his breath, "fuck, Dabi, I want more."

"Glad we're on the same page, Tomura." Shigaraki shivered at hearing his name in that tone and voice. Dabi continued, with a tinge of desperation in his voice "so how d'you wanna do this? Fast or slow? Soft or rough? I'll do whatever you want baby, I'm all yours."

Shigaraki's face reddened at that. "I'm... not sure. Look, this is my first time okay? I don't know anything, really" he confessed, feeling rather embarrassed.

Dabi felt weirdly happy to be Shigaraki's first time. He lifted him off of his lap and shifted so that he was on top of Shigaraki, lying down. Dabi loved the way Shigaraki was blushing right then; he leaned down slightly to whisper "i could teach you a few things" and kissed the area right behind Shigaraki's ear (where the jaw starts), making him shiver again.

"Hmm, I like that. A lot." Said Shigaraki, "ya know what? I'm leaving this up to you. You can do whatever you want to me, I'm all yours." He was giving up control. He was gonna let Dabi take the reigns instead, let loose and relax. Huh, this was a good idea.

Dabi looked deep in thought for a few seconds, deciding what things to do to Shigaraki, where to start. Shigaraki started to grow impatient, imprisoned underneath Dabi. After some good consideration, Dabi finally decided on a few things.

"Hey, I want to see you. Can you strip for me?" Shigaraki did not hesitate a second to rip off his clothes, almost decaying them in the process. His skin was pale, tinted pink with his blush and marked with old scars and some beauty spots here and there. Dabi looked downward immediately and was impressed at the sight, and slightly surprised since he didn't expect Shigaraki to be that big. "Dang, gamer boy, you're impressive" Dabi purred at said gamer boy, who's face and chest were a lovely shade of reddish-pink.

Dabi then slowly scanned the rest Shigaraki's body with his eyes, clearly enjoying the view. The blue-haired man in question got even more impatient "just fuck me already, I want you, now."

Dabi chuckled lightly at the desire and desperation in his boss's voice. "Quite eager, aren't we?" He teased lightly, warming up his hands with his quirk and massaged Shigaraki's thighs. Shigaraki shivered at the touch and tried to move a bit so that Dabi's hands would be on his cock instead, but it was to no avail since Dabi held him firmly in place. So instead, Shigaraki tried to touch himself, but Dabi grabbed both his wrists and pinned them above Shigaraki's head. Shigaraki whined at the lack of friction, which provided Dabi further motivation to tease him. Dabi leant down and began kissing Shigaraki's thighs, then stomach, then chest and neck. He tried to kiss everywhere he could, everywhere except Shigaraki's dick.

"Oh for fucks sake, just do it already please Dabi please just fuck me already!"

Dabi let out a satisfied hum at that. Shigaraki's begging made him harder, and as much as Dabi wanted to suck the soul out of his boss, he still wanted to drag this thing they had going on a bit longer. The chances of something like this happening again were low, so Dabi had to make the most of it.

"Look at you, such a needy little slut" Dabi growled in a taunting tone "so hard, so desperate, and just for me?" Shigaraki grumbled and turned his head away, blushing harder, his hips jerking involuntarily. So apperantly Boss was into degradation, noted.

"Alright then Tomura, you're gonna be a good boy for me?" Shigaraki grumbled something again, and blushed harder. Dabi let his hands stray near Shigaraki's thighs and cock, barely touching. Leaning down close to Shigaraki's ear, "Now now~ I won't give you any pleasure if you're gonna be a brat. I could just leave you here, all alone." Dabi purred seductively, and bit Tomura's collarbone who whimpered in response, gripping his bedsheets tightly. "I'll ask again; are you gonna be a good boy for me? You're gonna listen to me and make pretty little noises? Do exactly as I say, understand?"

"Hnnng yeah I will- just fuck me please I'll be a good boy! I'll do everything you say! Please, just do something! "

Dabi's stomach did some funky backflips at hearing the pure lust and desire and desperation in Shigaraki's voice. "Fuck- say that again"

Shigaraki lurched forward, muttering a few colourful curses under his breath. He caught Dabi and wrapped his arms tightly around Dabi's shoulders, smashing their lips together in a brief yet heated kiss. He stopped kissing for a second to say, "Fucking- I'll be your good boy okay! I'll moan and scream for you I'll do whatever the fuck you want me to do, just- just- ugh! " and promptly brought their lips together again.

"Oh fuck yes, Tomura, I'll fuck you good and hard all night long, baby." To prove his words, Dabi gently, finally, stroked Tomura's cock, and the rewarding lewd moan Tomura let out was music to Dabi's ears.

They readjusted their position slightly, so now Shigaraki was sitting at the edge of his bed with Dabi kneeling on the floor in front of him. Finally, after what had felt like hours of torture and teasing, Dabi spread Tomura's legs wide, and leant down and put his mouth around the head of Tomura's cock. Tomura gasped at the touch, his hips jerking up in surprise. Slowly, Dabi began to sink lower, taking in as much of Tomura's huge member as he could fit in his mouth, going slowly at first, then suddenly quickening his pace.

Tomura shouted in surprise as Dabi swallowed him down, the tip of his cock bumping against the back of Dabi’s throat. Without thinking, Tomura tangled one of his hands into Dabi’s black hair, his grip tight and punishing. Dabi rumbled in pleasure, sending a vibration down Tomura’s length that had his toes curling, "Fuck- fuck, okay yeah cool"

Dabi looked up at him, a smug look in his eyes.

Slowly, Dabi brought his head back up then slammed down again, resulting in a gasp from Tomura. Dabi began to bob his head up and down in a slow and sensual rhythm, holding eye contact the entire time. He was enjoying himself.

Dabi was being torturously slow and that annoyed the hell out of Shigaraki. But their eye contact was held as a challenge, to see who would break it first. That was a thing Tomura was struggling with. Dabi seemed to have complete control over him, despite being the one looked down upon. To Tomura, just the sight of Dabi seated between his legs, mouth filled with his cock and that look in his eyes; that was more than enough to fluster Tomura, despite the lack of friction. He was the first to look away, bite his lips to poorly hide a whimper.

Immediately after the eye contact broke, Dabi rose his head up, moving to suck and bite Tomura's inner thighs instead.

All the foreplay had already put Shigaraki on the brink of collapse. He was turning into a whimpering and moaning mess, gripping onto the sheets with one hand and Dabi's hair with another.

"ughh please Dabi- more-"

Dabi, on the other hand, was having a power trip. Shigaraki Tomura, enemy of the nation, most dangerous man alive, falling apart with barely any effort. Shigaraki kept whining and gasping and desperately tugging Dabi's hair. The boss was the one completely naked and covered in possessive marks, while Dabi simply languidly moved his tongue across that monstrosity of a cock. It fueled Dabi's obsession and also made him realise how tight his pants were getting. He was getting impatient.

"do you have any lube? and condoms?"

"uh- no?" right. of course he didn't.

"right. of course you don't. fucking virgin."

that earned Dabi a sharp pull of his hair, to which he fake moaned dramatically. "all right, let me get some from my room" he said, getting up.

"w-wait- " Tomura seemed to panic, grabbing Dabi's wrist "don't go…" he pouted.

Dabi's heart fluttered. he leaned down to peck his lips, "dont worry boss, I'll be back soon" and sprinted to complete his mission

upon returning from his room, which took less than 2 minutes mind you, Dabi came upon quite the sight: Shigaraki Tomura, wearing nothing but Dabi's coat, jerking himself off. Dabi stood transfixed for a moment, eyes unable to turn away from that veiny, weeping cock, from Shigaraki's bony hands moving at inhuman speeds, muttering Dabi's name into his coat, breathing in his scent.

Dabi might as well go insane.

Tomura's eyes fell on him at last, making eye contact. He seemed to be getting off on being watched, came with a shudder and Dabi's name on his lips.

Dabi… might as well go insane.

"Uh. boss."

"yes, my soldier?" a cat like smile, eyes still dazed

"...I thought I told you to wait for me." he crosses his arms

Tomura gets on his stomach and elbows, hair falling over most of his face, coat slipping off one shoulder. "what're you gonna do about it?" he murmured, " punish me?"

and with that, all of Dabi’s self control went down the drain.

He charged onto the bed, flipped Tomura over, pinning him to the bed. They kissed passionately, completely engrossed in the other's essence, blind to the world. Yes, Dabi did shove his tongue down Tomura’s throat and yes, Tomura did respond with a strangled moan.

Breaking away from the kiss, Tomura looked even more fuckable. Hair messy, covered in bites and hickeys, mouth slack and red, eyes lidded, panting, his own cum on his stomach and his dick already hard. What a painting. Dabi could not wait a moment longer to wreck him more.

Dabi got rid of his clothes as well, put on a condom and started to work open Tomura's hole.

Tomura lied down on his back, spreading his legs open,allowing dabi access.

dabis fingers were warm and gentle as they began teasing the rim, slick with lube. he made sure to prep tomura properly, he definitely wouldn't want to hurt him. not only because he cared for him, but also because Tomura would literally rip Dabi's dick off if something went wrong.

the fingers penetrating tomura felt cold and uncomfortable at first, but soon enough he was enjoying himself. dabi was warming up his hands with his quirk and was curling his fingers just right.

Dabi gazed at Shigaraki as he continued his ministrations, and a fleeting thought came- he wanted to ride his boss' dick some day. it would be a waste not to.

and soon enough, with all the preparations done, they were ready. Tomura's hole clenched in anticipation. He felt like he'd been waiting for this for an eternity.

"relax" dabi said.

Nodding, tomura responded "I'm ready"

dabi coated his penis with some leftover lube, and pressed the head up against the rim. slowly, he pushed inside. he didn't go all the way just yet, and waited for Shigaraki to give him the green to continue.

tomura bit his lip and scrunched his eyes in concentration, getting used to the feeling of fullness. he nodded at dabi.

fuck that went deep. very deep. Dabi slid out slowly, then slammed back in, shaking Tomura's whole world.

dabi pulled out, and pushed his dick in all the way until he bottomed out.

Tomura had half a mind to tell Dabi to slow down, but to be honest he liked it. he liked the way dabi dragged his length in Tomura's hole, he liked the way the man above moved harshly and desperately.

dabi was trying hard to keep his cool, but tomura was just so warm and tight, he made all the right noises and his back arched and his ass was so plump. dabi had one hand gripping tomuras waist and the other hand in that soft blue hair

tomura was lost in his own pleasure, chasing that dopamine high. his moans were loud and he was chanting Dabi's name as his hard dick stretched his walls.

they kept going at it, dabi pounding him progressively harder, hitting all the good spots. tomura was practically getting hammered into the bed, which creaked with every thrust. tomuras eyes rolled back, a string of moans and incoherent begging escaped his mouth. their minds were filled with buzzing and a warm feeling was gathering rapidly in their lower abdomens.

at one point, they switched positions to doggy style. this allowed dabi a better view of that ass, and he found the perfect angle to ram into Tomura's sensitive spot.

the sound of skin slapping against skin filled the room, along with lewd sounds. their bodies were sweat-slicked and hot. this was everything tomura had dreamt of, and dabi had craved. who'd have thought they'd be doing this.

soon enough, Tomura's asshole was clenching as he came a second time, Dabi's name on his tongue, eyes rolling and back arching.

dabi himself was unable to hold on any longer and burrowed deep inside Tomura's tight warmth, also coming.

.

later, after having cleaned up, the two were cuddling on the bed, spooning. yes, dabi was big spoon. Dabi's one hand was caressing Tomura's hair, and the other mischievously snaked down Tomura's abdomen and grasped the base of his cock.

Shigaraki grunted, asking sleepily "what are you doing now…"

dabi pressed closer from behind to the other's ear, talking sensually "tomura, I am going to ride your dick one day." he began pumping, feeling Tomura get a bit harder "i want this inside me so bad… you're great when you're submissive and breedable but fuck man… it would be a waste if I didn't… i wanna be filled up by you too…"

then, tomura turned around suddenly to face dabi. he stared intensly for a moment, and pulled another bullshit move that would make dabi go insane. Tomura climbed on top of dabi, stared right into Dabi's eyes, hot blue and cold red, and breathed out "What are you waiting for?"

dabi smirked to himself. this night was far from over.

[helga-grinduil]

artblock is a bitch doing little doodles of tomura (as always lol) to get used to drawing again

^post-canon tomura who decided to try out and dye his hair his original black (didn't like it much, so he's letting it grow back to white), the reason for toshinori yagi's many, many, many heart attacks

[pikahlua]

Revenge of the Power of Friendship: I’ve connected two dots...or actually a whole lot more than two, because it turns out that’s the whole fucking point

Hello.

We need to talk.

Still freaking out over chapter 362 even though the official hasn’t dropped yet?

Good. That’s good.

I’m obviously enjoying this immensely.

What? Do you find that weird? Giant Katsuki Bakugou stan relishing in the current manga events? How could this possibly be?

This ain’t my first rodeo, kids. I’m well-versed in the tropes of shounen anime. I knew shit was going down the moment Toga yanked Izuku to Octo Island.

I’m just surprised we got to this point in the story so quickly, if I’m being honest.

Anyways, I have a meta for you. It’s a good one. Probably correct, too.

We’ll be touching on many things today, including but not limited to:

The heroes’ battle strategy

The Second OFA User’s quirk

All Might’s OFA vestige

AFO’s weakness

Saving Tenko Shimura

How the fuck a certain beloved character could still survive

Consider yourself warned.

Anyways, who wants to know what the fuck is going on in this arc?

Introduction

I don’t have a lot of time, so I’m not gonna do my normal meta weave for you. Some of you are probably wondering if Switch Theory or Possession Theory will come into play, so let me just say up front: this theory is separate but NOT mutually exclusive from them. I noticed a big thing which could ultimately play out many different ways, and the ways it can play out could still include either of those theories. What I’m about to explain is meant to be taken as a general observation. It likely has holes that will need to be melded into whatever new information we get in the future.

It’s just...this is too glaringly obvious now. SOMETHING along these lines is definitely happening right now in the MHA story.

Instead of laying this out for you dramatically, I’m just gonna get to it. Here are my observations.

The heroes are in on saving Tenko

There are two important people who were involved in drafting the heroes’ battle strategy: All Might and Ragdoll.

I know there were plenty of people out there who expected Shouto to kill Dabi or whatever. Plenty more still think that the heroes are trying to kill TomurAFO.

What happened with Dabi should prove that they’re not.

Heroes save. Heroes are explicitly forbidden from killing. But you don’t need to have faith in them for that either, because we’re talking about All Might.

All Might knows who Tenko Shimura is, and it was foreshadowed a long time ago that he would do something to try to save him.

We know Izuku wants to rescue that little boy crying inside TomurAFO, and there’s no reason for him to have kept that a secret from anybody when the heroes were planning their attack. Everyone he’s working with are heroes. You can say what you will about each individual character, but it’s not even necessary that everyone wants to save Tenko. Given how strong TomurAFO is, anyone would be able to see that it could be much easier to save Tenko than kill the monster he has become. The goal is to stop Tenko from wanting to destroy everything, and there are ways other than killing him to achieve that.

The evidence is there on the stage of their battle.

The goal is to separate AFO and Tomura. They don’t mention killing Tomura in planning.

Additionally, OFA is part of the plan to fight Tomura, but no one ever says anything about how OFA would be used.

If they just needed firepower, they wouldn’t have needed to include other people in the team fighting Tomura. And they included a LOT of firepower otherwise in that team. So...it must be something else OFA is supposed to do.

Probably the Second User’s quirk.

And above all, Katsuki doesn’t smile at all during the fight, which is kind of a tell. Katsuki distinctly always fails to smile when he’s in the mindset to perform a rescue.

The Second User’s quirk creates connections

Like I said, Switch Theory is not required for this meta, but it does contain some important elements I need to mention now.

I’ve never been more certain it relates to: touching a person (holding hands?) and saying their name.

Note that I didn’t say that was an activation requirement. I mean, it probably is, but it’s really more about something else.

"This is the story of how we all became the greatest hero.” I’m making this singular on purpose.

The full potential of One For All must rely on the connections Izuku has made with other people. The more connections he makes, the stronger he becomes.

I didn’t mention the significance of Ragdoll yet. Why is she important?

Because her quirk exists inside AFO.

She could be a window into AFO. Her quirk could actually end up being his weakness. She just has to be connected to another person on the outside.

Each fight has shown a person “thinking” of their friends as “one”

What have we seen in this war so far?

We’ve seen Shouto think of his friends just before hitting Dabi with his ultimate move.

We’ve seen Jirou attack AFO out of love for her friends.

And what’s interesting about both of those moments is that...they were extremely effective.

In Jirou’s case, she even reached and empowered the stolen quirks inside AFO.

What if all of these events are actually the result of OFA? What if they’re all connected?

What if everyone is affected by the Second User’s quirk already?

All they would need to do is “think of everyone together as one.” One For All, if you will.

And this accomplishes...what?

Katsuki’s gonna live

What was Katsuki doing right before he went all-out against TomurAFO?

Mumbling like Izuku, taking note of TomurAFO’s battle habits, fighting through the pain...

He was thinking of Izuku.

...maybe even talking to Izuku.

TomurAFO freaks out about losing his cool against a non-OFA user. He thinks of the Second...which implies the Second gave him a lot of trouble before he ever had OFA either.

(That’s a yin-yang image if I ever saw one.)

Perhaps the Second’s quirk gives a compounding power boost of some kind depending on how many connections have been forged, or maybe it’s based on how “united” the connections are in heart and mind. I say power boost, but I don’t know if it’s actually something so straightforward as a strength increase. I’m just saying whatever it is, it seems to...empower people.

At this point, I’m inclined to name his quirk “Rally.”

It gave Shouto the strength to reach Touya’s heart, as represented by their childhood selves.

It allowed Jirou to reach out to the vestiges trapped inside AFO.

It allowed Katsuki to...see All Might’s vestige?

I’ll come back to this.

I just want to round this point out first by pointing out...this bit?

Maybe this is OFA, actually.

Or maybe it’s not, but...

...maybe it’ll allow a connection between Shouto and someone else despite a large distance between them. Maybe Shouto is healing Touya’s chest (whether he realizes it or not). And maybe OFA will allow Shouto to use it on someone else who needs it.

Just look at that X over Shouto’s chest in the above panel, and...

...look at Katsuki’s uniform design. Look where his heart wound is.

All For One versus All Might

Okay, let’s get back to All Might’s vestige.

As I pointed out in my literal translation of chapter 358, AFO’s stated goal here is to define the world by “things that are me” versus “things that are not me.” He’s placed a piece of himself in Tomura and taken him over. He’s kidnapped and raised kids as potential vessels for him. He’s created noumu of the dead to obediently follow his orders, and he communicates to them via radio waves like they’re all some kind of hive mind.

So what if the “not AFO” pieces of the world could do something similar?

What if they could unite via the power of OFA? What if the Second’s quirk IS Switch, or else something else that allows him to create vestiges in everyone?

What would they place in everyone that they could resonate with?

There is a lot of weirdness happening in this scene. A) They must be in the vestige plane, but whose vestige plane? It certainly doesn’t look like Tomura’s or Izuku’s. It’s a blank white space. B) Katsuki is wearing his school uniform...with a tie??? He’s only done that once before...

I genuinely cannot tell if Katsuki’s meeting with All Might’s vestige is actually happening in the moment or a flashback. Izuku as OFA’s holder doesn’t appear wearing clothes in the vestige world, so...is this not Katsuki’s vestige world either? Is this a piece of his soul as manifested by the Second’s quirk, and it takes on the form of what he looked like when it was forged--say when he united Class 1-A together to go save Izuku? a.k.a when he was able to “think of everyone as united, as one”?

Is this actually happening in the moment, and All Might’s vestige is doing something to save Katsuki? Perhaps Switching with him? Was his vestige already there and empowering him? Was it part of the plan? Is Katsuki trying to somehow inject All Might’s vestige into TomurAFO so it can save Tenko?

Remember: All Might’s vestige is not a quirk. It’s a piece of his consciousness. It’s basically a fragment of his soul.

Things that are AFO versus Things that are All Might

Talk about a brand-new Possession Theory! And a new Fusion Theory!

How can Tenko Shimura be a hero?

Thanks @class1akids​ for helping me realize Tomura’s growing an extra face.

I suppose if Katsuki’s heart or body craps out on him, we can always grow him a new one to put his soul back in.

Maybe we can grow bodies for all the other stolen quirks’ vestiges, too.

[lineli225]

Tomura's Kill count in Canon

I'm done with people calling Tomura a "sadistic genocidal mass murder who killed millions" BECAUSE HE ISN'T.

So, i finally decided to prove it my self.

So today I'll be listing EVERY person Tomura killed! With his reasons too.

1- His father, his first intentional kill and one of the few he felt a thrill or pleasure, justified since he abused him.

3- The two thugs, he killed them under AFO's pressure, and if you pay attention, he was wheezing during it the same way he did during his panic attacks.

Time skip to the present:

USJ had no kills (despite his attempts), Stain's arc had no kills either (except some papers and a binocular, RIP). No kills even during Kamino, as he seemed to not even want to kill Bakugou.

Tomura's first kill, chronologically, in the entire series, is ironically, only on the 4th season, and 11th story arc (Shie Hassaikai Arc)

4 kills so far, one of Overhaul's man, this kill was literally self defense (and revenge)

5- The cop driving the police car, guarding the ambulance Ovehaul was in (we don't know if he died or just lost his hand though, it might not have even been intentional considering he aimed to the steering wheel)

Then we have the Overhaul arm snatching scene, the only moment Tomura is shown as actually sadistic so far.

Totally owned though, Overhaul shouldn't have threatened him, killed and injured his friends

Then, we move to the MVA arc, where the real kill count starts

First, we have a unknown number of kills, when the league visits Creature Rejection Clan, there was around 20 visible members, assuming the kills where shared equally though the League, we can say Tomura killed around 5 or 6 of these guys.

Which he did with no Sadistic glee, actually, so far, he either kills with no emotions, or seems bothered by it (Also, racists, so owned 💅)

Anyways, around 10 kills by now.

2 kills, then i could count 32 people, so 44 kills.

Considering Deika had 110,000 Meta Liberation members, and that good part of these people had died by GigantoMachia, Twice, Dabi and others.

We don't know though, how many where killed by Tomura's decay wave.

In the end Hawks had reported around 9,946 MLA members dead

I don't know if the kill wave should be counted though- since they weren't direct intentional kills

So by far Tomura has killed around 7,000 people, but none of them where innocent people (except that cop rip) People left alive:

Now we move to the Paranormal Liberation War Arc

First kill being X-less, then once again a unknown number of both heroes and villains killed by the decay wave, let's count the visible/shown deaths.

Crust, these 2 guys, some of the list- around 15 kills by Tomura

Since the city was evacuated, no one died besides a few heroes.

Tomura didn't kill anyone else during his fight against Endeavor and Izuku, so now we move on, with a kill count of around 61 visible kills and hmm.. 8,000 off screen?

I won't count any kill during the Tartarus scape since these where clearly by All for One

So we move to Stars and Stripes! Since here Tomura and AFO's personality where already half way, i'll count thise ones too. So more 2 kills here

Then the final arc begins, but despite the absolute mess the fight against Tomura in the UA cage was- it had no deaths besides Bakugou.

FINAL COUNT:

On screen kills by Tomura: 61 kills

Kills counting ShigAFO: around 64

Kills counting off-screen deaths: around 1,000 to 9,000

Bonus: Nine lol

Ngl, owned too

Now you're probably thinking: uhh- that's still a lot of people.

But the thing is, he killed much less than it looks like, literally all kills where out of self defense or necessity, very few in the list where innocent people, the vast majority are villains, and he never killed for pleasure or in a act of sadism.

Actually, he had very good reasons to kill each one of them.

Yes yes, he did attempt to kill much more, but he didn't.. Even if he did kill "millions" because of Deika- he's still not the monster he is portrayed by some.

Like come on, if you had an entire city trying to kill you, you wouldn't try to defend your self in your way to rescue a friend? If someone threatened you and had brutally killed your friend and taken another's arm, you wouldn't feel joy in vengeance?

Anyways, Tomura is innocent

"The reason why he killed them or how he felt doesn't change the fact he killed them!"

If so same for Gran Torino's "killing is a form of saving" ass!

Like come on, look at him!

Anyways, my job here is done 😌

[itsnothingofinterest]

So if it isn’t clear, I’m not a fan of chapter 423 and how it ended this final fight with AFO or Deku's supposed save of Tomura. I know I haven't talked that much about it but it's true.

And being the arrogant little internet-er that I am, I thought I might go over how I think this fight should’ve gone down. A little self-indulgent thing about how I would've done it, to make myself feel better, which you guys can read too if for some reason you want to. Granted, the objectively correct way to end this arc would’ve of course been to not do the fight or bring back AFO, end it at 418 as I described before; but this outline is for if one were to really insist on a final battle with a returned AFO.

Starting disclaimer; length: as mentioned in the above linked post, this is going to be quite longer than what we saw in canon. Some may say this is unfair to claim Hori should have done when he’s so clearly burnt out, but that’s just what the fight needs to be properly epic or properly conclude it’s dangling plot threads. Again, this is why ending it at 418 was the correct move. If we really are including this extra climax though, then it needs enough pages for it; which is why we’re going further than the entire manga might, up to chapter 430 plus an epilogue. (Wanted that to be including Epilogue but one chapter outline went long so I split it in two. Just the way things go.)

Pre-423 changes:

Surprisingly little. A part of me wants to change the ‘it was AFO all along’ reveal to be less dog-doodoo but I can’t imagine how. The reveal is bad; ruining many of MHA’s themes, several of its characters, and helping cement Deku as an All Might clone by ending his arc as a hero who beats the big bad AFO…but it’s also necessary for the extra climax to happen. AFO’s ability to take over Tomura is almost literally directly proportional to how bad the reveal is, so we’re kind of stuck with it.

However I would like to change Deku’s dialogue with Aizawa in 240 to not mention his plans of killing Tomura along with AFO up to now. His character just becomes unsalvageablely unlikable with the reveal that he was just looking for a way to murder the crying child in a way he found most tasteful this whole time. So we’re cutting that and Deku’s still aiming for the save like a good hero should. Just have him go into more detail on what happened in Tomura's mind; it'll be useful for Kurogiri to overhear for later.

Besides that, the early chapters of the final AFO fight were mostly fixable with later additions or otherwise inoffensive, so we’re moving on to:

423: On the Offensive

Once again, we start with Deku just landing a huge hit on AFO. Immediate change; the fight is not over with this: AFO manifests a huge mouth with sharp teeth on his chest right where Deku hit to chomp down and pin him before charging up an energy explosion point blank that’ll rip his arm off at minimum.

Deku escapes using a St. Louise Smash to scrape off the bottom row of teeth, letting his arm out and chasing that energy attack to mostly just propel him back into the ground.

Some hero comments how it’s like they’re back to square one while another denies that and points out AFO’s two new major injuries. Shoto takes the opportunity to try going for a major attack too; but AFO, furious that the heroes think he’s on the back foot, uses a quirk to launch the remaining sharp teeth at Shoto as missiles. Endeavor then swoops in and takes the hit for Shoto, surprising him with the sacrifice play but demoralizing the other heroes for their No. 1 to take a hit like that.

Now needing to get back on the offensive, AFO pulls out the giant double rivot mouth move to try and chomp down on Deku while he’s reeling; but they get intercepted by Mt. Lady and Ryukyu. At this time, Aizawa notices Kurogiri has disappeared from beside him.

As Deku is helped up by Aoyama, we see Kurogiri reappear on a bit of elevated dirt behind them; and stepping out to comment on how much he’s missed is a dishevelled looking Spinner.

424: The League of Villains

We instead start with a flashback to Touya, Fuyumi, and Rei being taken away from the battle by those stretcher robots. While they’re a distance away from others, sparks appear from the droids carrying Touya as they halt in place; causing Fuyumi to panic and ask her and her mom’s droids to also stop so she can see what happened. As Rei and Fuyumi struggle to sit up, they see that Toga has thrown knives into both of Touya’s robots and is now cutting him out.

As Fuyumi panics and tells her to get away, a warp gate opens and lets out Spinner, who tells Dabi to get up because the inevitable has happened and AFO has started fighting Tomura; Kurogiri filled him in on the whole thing. Dabi responds, revealing he’s still awake, and attempts to get up with Toga’s help.

Fuyumi begins really panicking, telling them not to take her brother when he’s so injured and she just got him back. But Dabi responds, in an apologetic tone as one could expect of Dabi, that he’s got something important to do.

Rei finally takes the chance to pipe up, asking if these are the friends Touya’s been staying with. Touya introduces Spinner, Toga, and Kurogiri, and says that they are; and then introduces his mom and sister to the League.

Back at Mt. Fuji, Spinne, Toga, and Dabi arrive out of Kurogiri and take in the situation. Kurogiri, now awake for real but with some Shirakumo in his tone, comments that it seems AFO is back in control of Tomura, but that like he saw last time, AFO’s control is probably still precarious. They just need to wake up Tomura again before they think of a more permanent solution.

Aoyama panics seeing the League here, but Deku interrupts asking if they’re here to fight AFO and save Tomura. Toga answers by saying he can just sit back and watch them do his job before telling Kurogiri that he’ll need to play defence; neither the heroes or AFO have noticed them in the crowd yet, but they will not appreciate them being here once they do. As he does, she and Spinner start yelling at Tomura; asking why he left them behind to wallow in his self-pity while they’re still waiting on him to destroy this unfair world? Where’s their horizon?

(maybe call back to this^ somehow?)

This grabs the heroes attention, some wondering if they need to fight them too. But then Dabi joins in, saying that Shigaraki was the one person to truly surpass All Might in power, so to see him a pawn of AM’s favourite punching bag is just sad; what’s with this embarrassing state, leader? Reminded at this sight of his own words to All Might in Kamino, Endeavor tells the other heroes to let the villains speak, while thinking to himself that he can finally see what relationship Tomura has with these villains like his son, and that he's glad he learned this about Touya.

AFO gets annoyed at the League’s insults and moves to attack, but finds his body shaking. In the back of his mind, Tomura stops screaming and appears behind AFO from the shadows, responding to the League’s call.

425: Secret Boss Battle

A fight begins at the centre of the mind between Tomura and AFO, the arena resembling the destroyed cityscape from when he first got the AFO quirk, but shrouded in darkness. Unable to really use their quirks in this space, they basically both resort to hand-to-hand combat and psychically throwing debris at eachother.

As they fight, AFO asks how Shigaraki awakened; his will should have been crushed with his identity as Tenko Shimura torn to shreds. Tomura affirms that he finds no will in the friends or dreams of Tenko Shimura, AFO has managed to treed on those things thoroughly; so instead he'll hold onto what is his own as Shigaraki Tomura. AFO balks at that; he moulded that identity even more thoroughly, implanted every idea in his head and guided his every decision; but Tomura reminds him that's not true, he left Tomura in the care of others many times. We then get both a flashback to Kurogiri comforting Tomura when AFO first died fightign AM, and a montage of flashback panels to his time with the League. Tomura exclaims that this is more than enough will to take on a shitty secret boss like AFO.

At this point, Shinomori appears and punches AFO hard in the face. He is proceeded shortly after by Ragdoll & various other costumed folk who follow up Shinomori with their own attacks. AFO asks if Tomura has caused a quirk rebellion like what happened to the 'other him' and Tomura answers: yes & no. The quirks are active in fighting, but they're not so much rebelling as just helping him subdue a rogue quirk, like what happened against Star & Stripe (he made sure to ask them though; need to know your party for the raid boss after all, and he'd been meaning to take stoke anyway). Or did AFO forget the dynamic of person & quirk between them?

AFO responds by growing into a giant, elongated monster to fight back; furious that these pawns, husks, and nobodies think they have any right not only attacking the demon lord, but looking down on him. AFO knocks a dozen hero & villain vestiges back, but Tomura throws a whole mental building at him for his trouble. AFO emerges out the top trying to attack him, but gets intercepted by the vestiges of Kudo and Bruce; both of them look shattered and like they're missing half their pieces, but the rest are keeping shape to punch AFO as much as they can.

AFO's fury briefly flares seeing them, but he quickly realizes what their being here means, as he hated them too much to ever take their pathetic quirks. Tomura confirms by saying AFO has his own secret boss, pointing out a small light in the distance like a star that AFO immediately identifies as the last spark of Yoichi.

426: Two Fronts

The inner fight continues: AFO begins racing past everyone to try and claim that distant light, but this just allows vestiges both stolen and OFA to slam him into huge debris as he tries. AFO grows even larger to Machia-level size and swats them away, landing a good hit on Tomura, Kudo, & Bruce as he tells them to stop infringing on his story. Just he he goes for another blow though, he takes a hit from seemingly nothing.

Cut back to outside and it's clear that he just got hit by Momo & Denki's canon, now with Jirou helping too. Dazed and in disbelief, AFO is then also hit by Kamui Woods throwing many huge boulders at him. Rikido and Kirishima go for a big attack too, but AFO knocks them away as he regains himself.

Realizing that he's on a war of two fronts and losing, he implants himself with those large roots he seems to have, embedding them in the earth and spreading them out to disrupt and separate the heroes. He then uses more quirks to form a large shell around himself, and uses a more defensive All-Factor Release to launch a myriad of attacks from the shell's surface. Deku goes in to attack AFO from an opening on the shell, but he launches more attacks out of it at Deku & the League. With the roots and shell protecting AFO from most of the heroes, he left an opening on purpose so he can see the League and focus on destroying them, which will then let him subdue Tomura. Deku realizes this plan too, and changes course to deflect the attacks on the League.

More roots emerge, but other members of the class catch on; Shoto freezing some while Shoji grabs others, allowing the League to keep yelling for Tomura to fight. At this time, with assistance from Sero, Iida, Mineta, & Mina; Ruyukyu and Mt. Lady lady finally rip out those mouth stalks, leaving two great black indents in the shell. Enraged, AFO causes the shell to grow large with great teeth around it's opening and enlarge in size greatly, now resembling the imagery of ultimate evil from All Might's old description of AFO as it launches more attacks at Deku and the League.

Deku tells the League to keep it up while he protects them, and we see side-by-side panels of both him and Tomura, bolstered by the League's words calling for his help, continuing their respective assaults on AFO.

427: Trust and Worth

We briefly see the other heroes attempts to get through the now-giant shell in between AFO's still-ongoing onslaught of attacks; Nejire and Amajiki's best attacks doing nothing, and Momo's laser barely putting in a scratch. Mirio says he got in, but his punches still can't phase the guy inside. Weird thing is, he didn't even notice a hero got in; so focused on Deku & the League. The attacks from the shell's surface seem completely random and haphazard too; he's ignoring them. Shoto points out that he basically can thanks to his defences, so does this mean they have to wait for someone who can do something? But Mirio rephrases it to that they need to wait for when they can do something.

Cut back to Deku and he's in a similar mental state. He's almost literally running on OFA's fumes and he's stuck on the defence protecting the League because he can't get into the shell through all the attacks, especially now that it's grown much larger and AFO is hiding deeper inside. It's anxiety inducing, he knows Bakugou would hate it. A part of him wants to try and think of a way to blast past the attacks, but he's not sure he could beat AFO in one hit so it might be too risky (if not for him, then for those behind him). Better to do some entrusting himself and leave this to Tomura until he leaves an opening or needs one himself, which Deku will know because he can see the fight in his mind through their connection.

But back at the mental battle; Shigaraki's confidence only enrages AFO, who grabs him in his giant hand and start squeezing. He taunts Tomura, asks if he really thinks someone who AFO built from the ground up can deny him? 'No, his pathetic friends will have their cries left unanswered forevermore, as punishment for entrusting their hopes to a pawn.'

Just then, another new player swoops in, busting right through the palm of AFO's hand to pull Tomura out. It's Hana Shimura! Who promptly tells AFO to shut up about her brother. The rest of the Shimuras also appear, with Kotaro denying the scope AFO's influence, apologizing to Tenko, and saying his abusive behaviour was his fault alone. Tomura pauses at seeing them, and says while he's in no mood to forgive his father, he promises to get them all out alive so he can grovel for forgiveness properly later.

Nana also appears and asks how the Shimuras are here, which Nao answers saying AFO pilfered their quirks from their remains after their tragedy. Nana is horrified, but AFO can only say that he's beginning to regret letting his whims draw him to any worthless trash he found along his path. Shigaraki remarks back that he's finding plenty of worth in this so called 'trash'.

428: A New Strategy

As more vestiges go back on the offensive; the Shimura family take a moment for strategy, wondering how they can beat this giant monster. Nana wonders why AFO can even grow like this, but Tomura figures he must've done it by letting long-suppressed emotions run wild. He's fraying himself for a chance to reach Yoichi, but stronger emotions like from Tomura or his sister can tear right through him. It also means if they beat him, he'll either be gone for good, or unveil his own core like what happened with Tenko. Concluding this is enough strategy, Tomura leaps into the fray and deals a massive wound to AFO.

AFO is beginning to realize his situation in this two-front battle is not improving, but being so close to Yoichi, he reconsiders his priorities and his strategy to shut up the League. Luckily the reappearance of Nana reminds him of just the way to do it. Outside, Deku, Aoyama, and a few other students continue to protect the League as they call for Tomura and mock AFO, when something changes. The onslaught of random attacks stops, and instead the shell begins to glow, and then a massive force begins emanating from the shell causing gale force winds to blast everyone away. AFO has combined the energy explosion he used to kill Nana with Air Cannon & Shokewave and is using them continuously to create these winds. Using his explosion quirk like this might burn up all his stamina, maybe even kill him and Tomura, but he decides it's worth it to see Yoichi.

The winds drown out the League, internally causing Shigaraki to think they might've just died, which in turn lets AFO pin him under his hand and start crushing him once more.

Deku, being blasted into a wall of dirt, realizes they can't keep up a passive strategy anymore, these winds will tear & burn everyone up. This is when a Warp Gate opens in front of his face, blocking the winds and letting him talk though it with the League, who are protected by a much larger Warp Gate. Spinner says they need a new strategy, but Deku gets distracted observing how Kurogiri's Warp Gates seem to be very effective against these winds by just warping the wind somewhere else. Before Dabi can properly express annoyance, Deku says he's got a plan; but he'll need the League's full cooperation, so are the willing to work with him? Dabi & Toga look to Spinner, who tells Deku...fat chance. He wants their help, he's the one who has to work with them. Deku agrees, so Spinner welcomes him to the League of Villains and asks for his plan.

429: All For One; One For All; All Or Nothing; One Last Smash

Deku and the League begin their operation. Kurogiri opens various Warp Gates around the area that a) give heroes places to take cover from the gusts of wind, and b) let him create his own jets of wind. He points all of them at Deku's back, launching the boy at the shell's opening. The force of each jet matches the force of AFO's wind, meaning multiple will overcome it. Granted, applying that much force to someone from both ends this way would crush most people, but Deku's got a body that can withstand OFA so this is nothing.

As he's launched at the opening, AFO notices his approach and creates giant sharp teeth to impale him; but Deku, being carried by the wind, is free to use another St. Louise Smash to destroy them and make his way in. AFO then tries a variety of other attacks inside the chamber of the shell, but a Warp Gate opens and a blast of ice freezes all of them, and we see Dabi commenting how there's nothing like a life or death situation to see how strong you really are (his mom's quirk packs quite the punch).

AFO then closes the shell to stop the League's interference, air jets or otherwise, and prepares another All-Factor laser pointed right at Deku. But just then, we see Shoto outside preparing a ramp, which Bakugou takes off from (that's right we see their team-up this time), using explosions to overpower the wind, break through the shell where team Momo scratched it, and blast away the charged up laser before it could fire. Now with line of sight inside back, another Gate opens with one of Toga's syringes shot through. Deku grabs it's cord, and uses it to launch himself back at AFO, finally landing the hit to knock off his gag.

Back inside the mental battlefield; AFO is so close to Yoichi and is dragging himself through the vestiges' attacks. Deku suddenly arrives across their mental link, and slams into the giant AFO. Truly desperate, AFO seems to almost puke up something from the hit that gets launched at Yoichi; it's trashbag baby AFO! Who's suddenly feeling a lot more honest, yelling for Yoichi about how much he needs him, how he only cares about him, just let him see his brother's face one last time.

Shigaraki hears this and realizes what kind of person his sensei was all along, and decides what to do with a pity-ing look on his face and a nod from his parents. AFO's path is interrupted one last time by Tenko Shimura, who grabs him in a hug and tells him he understands his pain, but it's over, he needs to let go of this. The star-like light he'd been chasing turns into Yoichi's face, causing AFO to being to cry and relax into the hug, and the two boys fade into another tiny light that rests in Tomura's hand as he shows Deku & the vestiges. It's over.

430: What Makes Heroes and Villains

Deku asks what what Tomura will do with that last shred of AFO, and Tomura says he doesn't know. Part of him still wants to crush it, both out of anger & just to be safe, but that seems distasteful after what just happened. Just then, one vestige steps forth and asks for it, who Tomura identifies as Spearlike Bones; the Shigaraki twins' mother. She doesn't introduce herself as such, but says she knew AFO before he went evil, so give it to her and she'll keep it safe and out of trouble this time. Both Deku and Tomura agree, and then sit down to talk.

The scene shifts to a beach at night, they're alone, and they shift to their four and five-year-old selves. Tenko and Izuku talk for a bit like that, about...a lot of stuff. Mostly about heroes, about Dekuku, and what Tenko thinks of Deku. If Tenko feels saved (a bit yeah, but also a bit not), how Deku's a good hero, how he's a mediocre hero. How Tenko thinks all heroes suck and are failures, especially All Might, which riles 4-year old Izuku up good...but also how, as the first hero that Tenko doesn't think is a failure who sucks, Deku is the greatest hero ever.

Izuku asks what Tenko will do now, and he says he'll do what he said before; be a hero for the villains, as only a villain can. That said, Tomura doesn't really want to fight Deku anymore if he can avoid it; so he's prepared a peace offering, and a message. The peace offering appear to Izuku as a meteor shower in the night sky, accompanied with a shot outside the mental world to show Shigaraki standing over an unconscious Deku with Tomura's hand pressed agianst him. The message gets blacked out a la Dabi. Izuku, suddenly a teenager is shocked and turns to ask what he means, but finds instead Shinomori asking what what means? Deku has been given the quirks from OFA back, although they are all in pieces aside from Danger Sense, hence them appearing to him as a meteor shower.

We cut to various scenes with villains; Skeptic in a police carrier, Spinner's advisors and a couple other rioters being held in custody, Compress in prison, Redestro in another prison, and even Gigantomachia, once more being tied down even as he holds his hand to the wound AFO gave him. They all see above them a tiny blotch of blackness like Kurogiri's mist.

Back at Mt. Fuji, Tomura finally emerges from the shell of ultimate evil carrying Deku. Lemillion is first on the scene and tells Tomura to hand him over; and is quite shocked when Tomura does just that without issue. Says the two of them made friends and sorted it out in there so don't worry. Toga also tells Mirio to relay a message to Deku that she'll be keeping an eye on both him and Uraraka from here, so keep up their progress together. Other heroes arrive and surround them slowly, not sure what move to make. Iida is the one who finally tells them to come quietly and let this end.

Tomura agrees to let this all end, and Spinner & Toga both ask what they're doing now? Going out in a peaceful way, or a villainous way? Tomura says both; that they'll be performing what may be their final act of villainy, before asking if Kurogiri has a big enough place picked out. Kurogiri confirms he does, and opens a Warp Gate for the League.

At this time, those other villains we saw earlier start getting Gloop Warped away from custody. As the League step through Kurogiri, a number of heroes suddenly move to stop them. Deku barely regains a bit of consciousness and tells them not to attack, causing a few of his classmates to pause. No one is fast enough to stop the League anyway, and Kurogiri disappears behind them. The League are gone.

The chapter ends with police, prison managers, and heroes all reporting in. Besides Dr. Garaki and Overhaul who got left behind, every villain bigger than a small time crook they had in any form of custody throughout the entire country has disappeared.

431: Class 1A Rising

The obligatory Epilogue chapter. As I expect canon, this would probably be extra long and cover a lot of different plot threads. It'll also be very different based on how Hori wants to take things; but I'll go the simple route.

First things first is catching up with all the hero kids in the hospital. Friendship moments, decompression, comments on character arcs, that sort of stuff. We also learn Tomura's final message to Deku, which he relays to everyone else, student and pro: The heroes have attacked the League three times now. If they attack a fourth time, the villains will return to destroy Japan. But if they don't, the villains will never return.

We then get narration of the immediate aftermath of this announcement; heroes throughout the country search high and low for any signs of Shigaraki & the disappeared villains for months. In a similar case to when they hunted for Stain, this results in heroes finding a lot of injustices they'd normally overlook to catch bigger villains; lost children, domestic abuse, prejudice, that sort of thing. Still, for those entire months, no villains more dangerous than some corner store robbers are found.

Speaking of the heroes, an emergency ranking is conducted; naming Kamui Woods as the new number one, with the rest of the Lurkers as No. 2 & 3. The previous top 3 have all retied (maybe Endeavor dies from that tooth attack he took for Shoto, idk.) Additionally, Mirio, Nejire, & Tamaki have taken the no. 8, 9, and 10 slots, and vow to catch up and rise even higher. Still, there's not a lot of interest by anyone involved; seems everyone has their eyes on the next generation.

There's a few more scenes of loose ends getting tied up like Overhaul waking up Pops or Gentle & Nagant getting status as heroes before we finally return to UA The kids' 2nd year finally begins for real. it's jarring to be sure, but time must go on and so too must education. Besides, a lot of them have started thinking after that war that they need to consider what kinds of heroes they want to be. Deku's falling behind with his shattered OFA not yet showing signs of healing, if that's even possible, but he's confident he'll catch up once again. Perhaps this is where we'd see out final moments with the core cast, checking in with everyone here as they all get ready for their next lesson/mission as heroes. If Hori wanted a more overtly 'to be continued' ending (though I imagine he would not), perhaps we might see where the villains ended up in some sense, building up a future conflict. Or perhaps we might skip forward years into the future, see the kid as pros and end on that kind of uncompromising 'Happily ever after'. Depends on how much open-endedness is preferred.

Either way, there's my conclusion. I won't say it's perfect or anything; I'll even admit I may have gotten the League more involved than would ever be realistic (or maybe it's more like I may not have involved the Deku's class enough). But I like to think I got some cool plot beats in, some cool reveals, I'm more proud of the call back to All Might's ultimate evil imagery than it may deserve; but most importantly, the villains end this war alive and saved. Tomura got to be the hero for villains; and I'd say Deku, between getting his save off and not being the focal point of the win, came out looking a lot less like an All Might clone or the next pillar, and just looking a lot like a better hero than in canon in general. That's what I feel anyway.

Regardless, writing this whole 'what-if' out did in fact make me feel better about 423. So my self-indulgent ramblings were worth that much at least.

[scary-grace]

Opposites Attract - a Shigaraki x f!Reader fic

Your quirk lets you capture almost anyone with ease, and you can't believe you let Shigaraki Tomura escape. Shigaraki can't believe it, either, and according to the League, there's only one possible explanation -- you let him go because you've fallen in love with him. He decides to find out if it's true. You decide you won't fail to capture him again. You both get a lot more than you bargained for. (cross-posted to Ao3)

Chapter 1

This was supposed to be your day off. It’s all you can think about, which isn’t a good thing, because you’re in the middle of a villain attack and using your quirk at all requires a significant amount of your focus – but it was supposed to be your day off, dammit. You’re supposed to be doing something fun. Going shopping. Getting a haircut, or mani-pedis, and going out for drinks with your friends at a place crawling with photographers. All the stuff young, single, female pro heroes are supposed to do. So what if you hate that stuff, and you were probably going to sleep all day, wake up at 5pm, make dinner, and marathon the Alien franchise until you fell asleep again? You could have gone out.

But instead you’re here, because Eraserhead caught himself another spinal fracture, and when the doctors threatened to tie him to the bed if he tried to leave before they were done fusing it, he called in a favor you owe him and made you supervise his first-year-class from hell on a field trip to the brand-new Kamino Memorial Park. Go to Kamino Park, they said. It’ll be safe, they said. There’s no way in hell the League of Villains will hit the place a second time.

Well, they’re hitting it, and they’re hitting it hard – and it was supposed to be your goddamn day off. You throw out your arm to stop the trio of students you’re shepherding to safety as three knives thud into the grass in front of you, and make yourself a promise: The next time Eraserhead asks you to do anything, you’re telling him to go to hell.

“Hey, um –” One of the students taps your shoulder, and you know without even asking that they’ve forgotten your name again. “We got our provisional licenses. We can fight now.”

“You can, but you won’t. Create a perimeter and protect the civilians,” you order. You’re not sure why the League of Villains is here, but there’s no way you’re feeding a bunch of kids back into the same meat grinder they escaped from a month ago. “Other pros are on their way, and so are the police. In the mean time –”

You flick your fingers, calling up a magnetic field, and the knives lift out of the grass, hovering in midair. “I’ll keep them busy.”

You consider taking the knives and sending them back the way they came, but unless you want to fatally wound Toga, you’ll just be handing her weapons back to her. You curl your hand into a fist, compacting them into useless wads of metal. You’ve already used your quirk to tear up the park, creating uneven, unsteady terrain that’s dangerous for anybody who doesn’t have a way to take the fight airborne. Now it’s time for you to do what you do best. You narrow your focus, sensing out the concentrations of suspended iron that represent the League of Villains, and once you’ve got them, you lock them down.

Most of them, anyway. One proves a little more difficult to grasp than the others, and you get moving, using one hand to pull rebar and wiring out of the ground. You need it to ensnare the three you’ve already captured while you chase the villain who slipped away from you. You secure Toga and Twice, but Dabi burns his way free, and Twice sends a clone after you. Since it’s a clone, you don’t feel bad about yanking every molecule of trace metals out of its body and turning it to sludge.

Dabi’s on his feet, but you’re a bad matchup for Dabi for a lot of reasons. He’s got a ton of extra metal in his body. He throws his hands out towards you, blue flames already flickering. You fix your quirk on the staples holding him together and start pulling them out.

“What the fuck?” Dabi snarls, recoiling. Blood is already beginning to ooze from the holes on his wrists. “If you think you can just take me apart –”

You yank out another two – one from each wrist. “Stand down. You’ll run out of those before I run out of power.”

It’s true. Your quirk is Magnetism, and using it is easy for you. Using it safely is something else, but you can yank out every staple in Dabi’s body without breaking a sweat or destroying any property. Not that you want to do that. “I don’t want to hurt you, so just –”

There’s a shift in metallic concentration just behind you, and you dive to one side, just in time to avoid Shigaraki Tomura’s hand as it tries to close over your shoulder. A Twice clone is after you, too. You take the staples you pulled out of Dabi and fire them through its eye and throat as you roll out of Shigaraki’s reach. The leader of the League of Villains laughs, low and raspy. “Killing somebody? That’s not very heroic.”

You hate it when villains banter, but you’re not letting that one stand. “That’s not the real Twice.”

You’ve got the real one, and now you’ve got Dabi, too – at least for a few seconds. Maintaining a hold on Dabi, Twice, and Toga at once is within your abilities, but doing that and trying to capture Shigaraki at the same time – and maintain the barriers you’ve set up – and stay sharp enough to bounce Shigaraki into midair if he tries to touch the ground and vaporize Kamino Memorial Park out from under your feet – all of that is testing your concentration. When you lose concentration while using your quirk, bad things happen.

Shigaraki reaches for you again. A hero like Eraserhead would retaliate physically, kick or hit back, but you don’t want to be anywhere near Shigaraki’s quirk. You draw back out of reach, taking a step back every time Shigaraki steps forward. “You’re an underground hero,” he says. “Didn’t you learn what we do to underground heroes from what happened to Eraserhead?”

“Yeah. He shook that off, and sent me to take care of his light work.” The longer you can drag this out, the better – you can hear sirens approaching, and you know that Yokohama’s other pros are on their way. “Isn’t this a little high-risk for you? Returning to the scene of the crime so you can – what?”

Shigaraki sneers at you from behind the hand. “What do you think?”

You really couldn’t care less. Someone shouts for you, and your concentration slips for a second too long. You have to decide who to let go of, and between the three you’ve restrained, Toga’s the least dangerous. You let your control over the iron concentration in her blood relax and focus on trying to restrain Shigaraki instead. He’s hard to get ahold of. His body’s iron concentration is less than it should be. You lock him down for a second, but you can’t get a grip, and he slips free, smirking. “I know who you are,” he says. “The Capture Hero – Skynet. Not much of a capture hero, huh? You can’t even hang on to me. Are you sure the villains you’ve bagged didn’t let you get them?”

“No, they just didn’t have anemia,” you snap. Shigaraki blinks. “You don’t have enough iron in your blood for me to manipulate.”

Anemia’s not uncommon, but you’ve never come across a case this severe in someone you’re trying to capture. His iron concentration is so low that you can’t hold him for more than a split second. That level of anemia is crippling, and the words fly awkwardly out of your mouth before you can stop them. “Are you, like – okay?”

“What?”

He’s stopped trying to grab you. You should capitalize on it, pull up more rebar and wire to hold him down, but your mind’s off on its own track. “Do you get headaches?” you ask. “What about dizziness? Do you get tired a lot?”

Shigaraki looks disconcerted. He nods – then shakes his head, snarls, and sinks back into a fighting stance. “Why do you care?”

“What about a rapid heart rate even when you’re not doing anything?” When he’s doing something, like he is right now, it’s got to be even worse. You two have been trading barbs for thirty seconds at most and he’s out of breath. “You need to take care of yourself. This isn’t healthy.”

“Shut up!” Shigaraki lunges for you, and you twist aside. You get a good look at his fingernails as his hand goes by. They’re pale instead of pink. “Why do you care? So you can capture me and keep your precious reputation?”

You’re actually a little insulted. “So you don’t die!”

Shigaraki stares at you. The hand reaching out for you drops, and you close the distance between the two of you to shove him hard, knocking him backwards. Once he hits the concrete, you’ll figure something else out. You can hold him until someone else gets here.

But someone else is here, and they’re not here to help you. Shigaraki tumbles directly into a warp gate, staring at you like you’ve lost your mind the entire way.

Damn it. You can’t grasp the warp villain – wherever his real body is, it’s a long way from here, and you’re at risk of losing Dabi and Twice now, too. You tighten your grip on them, but even as you do, you see another portal opening out of the corner of your eye. This one is in midair, threatening to swallow a group of civilians who decided that hiding behind the All Might statue was a better choice than evacuating like the students ordered them to. “The civilians, or my associates,” the warp villain rumbles, from everywhere and nowhere. “Your choice.”

It's not a choice. You release your grip on Dabi and Twice, both the iron in their blood and the metal and wire holding them down, and warp gates devour them both. The warp gate above the civilians shuts, decapitating the All Might statue in the bargain, and as quickly as everything began, it grinds to a halt.

“Skynet!” someone snaps from behind you, and you freeze. “You let them go?”

Miruko is Number Six on the charts, and she outranks you by a lot, but you still bristle at her tone. “The civilians –”

“If you’re not stopping villains, you’re not doing your job.” She looks pissed. You have a feeling that she’s only holding off on kicking you because it’ll look bad in front of everybody. “If you’d held onto them a second longer, I’d have been here, and –”

“We could have helped!” That’s one of Eraserhead’s students – the one with the spiky red hair. “If you’d let us help –”

“You’re just kids. Do you have any idea what Eraser would do to me if I had –” You trail off when you realize that whatever it is, Eraser’s going to do it to you anyway for even letting the kids near the League of Villains. “I was the senior hero at the scene. It was my call. If you did what I told you – which you did – you did the right thing.”

“You did the right thing,” Miruko says to the student. The police are here. The cars skid to a stop, and you feel the iron concentration in what’s left of the park shift. There’s a helicopter in the air, too. More people, more cameras. Miruko is glaring at you. “You’re the one who screwed up.”

Yeah, you did. You stare dispiritedly at the headless statue of All Might as Eraser’s class regroups around you, as somebody starts questioning Miruko – the new senior hero at the scene – about what went wrong here. A few thoughts spin through your head, mainly of the hell you’re about to catch from the press, the heroic establishment, and the HPSC. Shigaraki Tomura’s case of life-endangering anemia makes it in there, and so does a hit of frustration at the fact that you’re in trouble for choosing to save a bunch of civilians from getting bisected by a warp gate. But the main thing that’s on your mind is the same thing that’s been there since the first spurt of blue flames erupted over the park: This was supposed to be your day off.

“Well, that blew,” Dabi says as he picks himself up off the floor of the League’s new hideout. “Whose idea was this, again?”

He’s glaring at Shigaraki. Shigaraki glares back. “I didn’t hear you say we shouldn’t do it.”

“I said we shouldn’t,” Twice pipes up. He’s still got a piece of rebar wrapped around his ankle. “No, it was a great idea!”

It seemed like a great idea when Shigaraki thought of it last night – go to Kamino Park, rattle the heroes’ cages, show everybody that the League of Villains isn’t scared of anything and isn’t even close to down for the count without Sensei to guide them. Then again, Shigaraki was three cans deep into a twelve-pack Compress had lifted last night, so his judgment might have been off. Twice is still talking. “I mean, we scared the piss out of those civilians. Those hero brats were running scared, too! And did you see what Kurogiri did to that All Might statue?”

“No,” Shigaraki says. He looks at Kurogiri. “What did you do?”

“Over there.” Kurogiri points, and Shigaraki looks. The head of the All Might statue is sitting on the warehouse floor. “It would have been a shame to leave without a trophy of some kind.”

“It’s on the news,” Magne sings out. She opted out of mission, and now she’s watching it on the League’s TV, lifted last week by Compress, which is hooked up to their generator, which was also lifted by Compress. “And it’s not looking too good for the heroes. That little one’s in big trouble.”

“Good. She’s a bitch,” Dabi mutters. His hands are bleeding. “What was that quirk, anyway?”

“Magnetism,” Shigaraki says. He feels weird. Maybe it’s the quirk. “She can manipulate magnetic fields. Any metal, on any of us –”

“I didn’t have any!” Twice protests.

“Then she used the iron content in your blood,” Shigaraki says. You told him how you were restraining the others. Amateur mistake. Or it would be, if there was any way to not have iron in his blood – but that’s a problem, too. “She couldn’t grab me. She said I didn’t have enough.”

“Is that so?” Kurogiri studies Shigaraki. “Did she say anything else?”

“Anemic.” It’s a weird word. Shigaraki scratches his neck. “She was weird about it. She wanted to know if I get headaches, or dizzy – or tired –”

The answer’s yes, which is why it was weird. It was weird that you knew. But the weirdest thing is what you said at the end. “She asked me if I was okay, and when I asked her why she gave a shit –”

“She answered you?” Magne mutes the TV, looking surprised. “What did she say?”

“What did I miss?” Toga skids into the warehouse before Shigaraki can answer. “I got away, but none of you came with me, so I went to the meeting spot alone. What happened?”

“The hero let us go,” Dabi grunts. “Shigaraki was just telling us about a little chat they had.”

“Ooh, you talked to her?” Toga sits down next to Twice on the ground, peering at Shigaraki. “What did she say?”

“She doesn’t want me to die.” Shigaraki feels his face contort behind Father’s hand as he says it. “Weird.”

“Weird,” Twice agrees. “Since when do heroes play mind games like that?”

It’s quiet for a second. “So she asked if you were okay and she doesn’t want you to die,” Dabi says slowly. “I don’t know, Shigaraki. It sounds kind of like she likes you.”

Shigaraki’s mind goes totally blank. “What?”

“You must have won her over,” Magne chimes in. “All that charisma you’ve got – how was a poor underground hero supposed to resist the leader of the League of Villains?”

You seemed like you were resisting just fine, until you couldn’t grab him. But it’s weird that you weren’t angry. You actually sounded like you were worried. Like you really cared whether Shigaraki has anemia, or whatever the fuck. Like you care if he’s okay. “Don’t be stupid. That’s not –”

“Come on, boss, don’t sell yourself short,” Twice says. “If you can seduce any hero you want, how come you didn’t seduce Miruko?”

“Ooh, Miruko’s so pretty!” Toga grins. “The other one’s okay, too. What was her name again?”

Shigaraki coughs, trying to make his throat feel less weird, but it’s not just his throat. It’s his face, too. “Skynet.”

“You said she was getting in trouble. I bet that’s why,” Dabi says to Magne. “They must have all figured out that she’s in love.”

“Shut up,” Shigaraki says. Nobody listens. He raises his voice. “Shut up! The mission was a success. Why aren’t we talking about that?”

“We are,” Toga says. Her grin’s devolved into a goofy, dazed smile. “You have to teach me how, Tomura-kun. If we make the heroes fall in love with us, it’ll be even easier to win! I want Ochako. No, Tsu. No, Izuku –”

Shigaraki stops listening. He picks himself up off the floor, hating the way his head spins, and makes his way over to Kurogiri. Kurogiri studies him. “Anemic,” he repeats. “The hero listed the symptoms of iron-deficiency anemia. Do you experience any of them?”

Shigaraki doesn’t answer. Kurogiri waits, just like he always waits, and Shigaraki figured out a while ago that the fastest way to make the itching stop is to answer the question. “Some of them,” he says. Kurogiri’s eyes tilt in the way that means he thinks Shigaraki’s full of shit. “Fine. All of them. So what?”

“Did she say anything else?”

Are you okay? “No,” Shigaraki says, pushing away the memory of how fast your expression shifted, how you went from focused on keeping Shigaraki’s comrades trapped and trapping him the exact same way to looking – worried. “That was it. Kurogiri, do you –”

“Yes, Shigaraki Tomura?”

“I mean, they’re just – they’re joking, right?” Shigaraki keeps his voice quiet. If any of the others hear this, he’s going to have to kill them. And maybe also himself, so he won’t have to remember that he thought about this at all. “There’s no way anybody – I mean, a hero – would like me. They’re kidding. Aren’t they?”

He wants Kurogiri to say yes. He wants him to say yes fast, and then to not pick on him for even considering it, and then to forget this ever happened. Instead Kurogiri thinks about it. “It is not impossible that they are correct,” he says. “Her behavior was unusual for a hero in her position. And it is likely that she knows more about you than you do about her. Perhaps she does have a certain – perception of you.”

“Great.”

“It could be,” Kurogiri muses. “She drew your attention to an issue that impacts your health, and therefore your effectiveness as All For One’s successor. And she chose to let you go. If the hero known as Skynet does have a soft spot for you, it has worked undeniably in your favor. It might behoove you to allow her to continue to nurse it.”

“Yeah, no.” Shigaraki shoots that idea down immediately. Any idea that makes him feel that weird is obviously a bad one. “I’m not going to track her down and say I’m not interested, but the next time I run into her, I’m saying it and you can’t stop me. None of you can stop me.”

He raises his voice, making sure everyone hears, and everyone looks up from whatever they’re doing. “Of course we can’t,” Magne says. “But you’re naïve if you think you can stop her. Nothing can stop a hero on a mission.”

“And nothing can stop true love!” Toga smiles at Shigaraki. “I believe in us, Tomura-kun! We can win their hearts together!”

The weird feeling multiplies. Shigaraki scratches hopelessly at the side of his neck and thinks about the remains of last night’s twelve-pack. Getting drunk again isn’t going to help, but it’s hard to imagine it making things worse.