You took a step towards the friend you've missed for so long. "Tenko," you whispered.
He didn't react at your movements, though you could see the fear in his eyes as he grew closer.
". . .My name's Tomura Shigaraki now," he mumbled, glancing away.
You froze in your steps. "Shigaraki?" you breathed aloud.
He nodded slowly. "Assuming you've heard of me already. . .?"
Speechless, the most you could do was nod once.
After a moment of silence, you checked the time on your phone. It was seven-oh-two.
"What do you say about catching up for old time's sake?" you suggested quietly. "Wanna meet me here tomorrow at seven?"
Thankfully, tonight was Friday night, which meant that tomorrow wasn't a school night, though you did have school that day. Sadly, Sunday was the only day off for UA students.
Seemingly at a loss for words, Tomura did no more than nod once.
That night, you were giggling and prancing around the room as you got ready for bed. You'd decided the night before that you'd be sleeping in Hanatsu Tsubasa's dorm. She was a student of Class3A and hated being called by her last name or full first name for some reason and insisted that everybody, no matter who they were, called her "Hana", which is part of the reason you'd been drawn to her; Hana was the same name as Tomura's younger sister.
Hana was laying on her stomach on her bed, holding her pillow to her chest as she gazed at you. "What's got you so giddy?" she queried, tilting her head and making her curly turquoise hair shift until it was in her face; she swiftly moved her long curls away and gazed at you questioningly.
You turned and gazed at her with bright (E/C) eyes. "I've got a date," you purred, then went back to happily dancing around.
"Ooh~," Hana sang, holding up her hand and making a heart-shaped blue flame appear in it. Her Quirk was a variant of Cremation, which gave the user the ability to create blue fire from their body, but Hana in particular could do things with her fire that most Cremation users couldn't, such as be naturally immune to her own fire and have the power to manipulate her flames.
"Oh, stop it," you muttered, freezing her body, which forced her to lose focus on the flame, which disappeared. When it was gone, you unfroze her, and she glared at you with fake indignance.
"Hey!" she huffed. "No need to freeze me, I was just playing!"
You stuck your tongue out at her jokingly and she pulled down her eyelid with a childish noise of mockery.
The two of you began laughing at the childish antics you two shared. This is nice, you thought to yourself. Just being with a friend instead of worrying about training, or homework, or drama. . . Once again, your head switched over to thoughts about Tenko, who was apparently now Tomura. Wonder if I'll feel this way with him tomorrow. . .
"Uh, Hel-lo? Earth to (L/N). You there?"
You were pulled out of your thoughts by Hana waving her hand in front of your face. "H-Huh?"
"I was asking a question," Hana murmured. "Who are you going out with?"
"Uh. . ."
"And were you thinking about them just now? Is that why you couldn't answer me?"
"Um. . .yeah," you admitted.
Hana grinned and leaned closer. "So? Who is it?"
You glanced at the doors and windows, honestly afraid that someone might overhear. You leaned towards Hana's ear before whispering, "Promise you won't tell anyone at all, no matter who it is?"
"Absolutely," Hana vowed.
You trusted her enough to believe that. She'd kept tons of secrets before with countless people at UA, including yourself. Hana was the type of girl who was a "friend with benefits" towards everybody, managing to befriend nearly everyone she came across and treat them all with loads of affection and attention for reasons only known to herself. You knew that if you asked her not to give you away when you were doing something wrong, she wouldn't say a word. Not without really good reason to get you in trouble at least.
"Okay." You cupped your hand around her ear to be sure only she'd be likely to hear your next words. "I'm going out with Shigaraki."
For a moment, Hana didn't reply, stunned. ". . .Wow," she breathed. ". . .(Y/N). . .I need to tell you something. Promise you won't tell anyone else?"
"My lips are sealed," you assured, making a zip motion over your mouth before leaning towards her with anticipation.
". . .I'm secretly working with the Paranormal Liberation Front while I'm training to be a Hero."
You pulled back in shock. Hana, one of the kindest people you knew, was a traitor?
"But I never hurt people who don't deserve it!" she went on quickly, as if she could read your thoughts. "I'm more of a Vigilante than a real Villain since, you know, I'm not officially a Pro Hero, either. But I promise, I only go after people who commit crimes and I do everything in my power not to cause any permanent harm otherwise."
This was a lot to take in, you had to admit, but you soon recovered from your shock. "So, you know where Shigaraki lives?"
"Oh, yes. Technically, I live with Shiggy."
You felt a prickle of resentment at the affectionate and cheerful way Hana said "Shiggy". Just how close were they?
"I was planning on sneaking out tonight to go visit them," Hana continued. "I could take you with if you wanna see him sooner than. . .well, whenever your date is."
"It's tomorrow at 7PM," you answered. More quietly, you added, "But yes, I do wanna go."
Hana was standing on the roof that was just outside her dorm window. You were on her back, her hands locked in place under your butt, which you found awkward, but neither of you said anything about it being that way. Hana summoned her fings, two long streams of blue fire that sprouted from her back and surrounded you but didn't come close enough to harm you. She called them "fings", a combination between the words "fire" and "wings", and she often used them to fly around the school and to fly on missions.
You still weren't sure how exactly it worked, but somehow, her fire could allow her to fly. She did that now as she held you tightly on her back and soared over the city until she reached what looked like an abandoned warehouse. Outside, it looked rather disheveled, but once she put you down and guided you in, you saw that they'd fixed it up to where it looked much like a regular house with boarded-up windows that you could only assume had been made that way to hide the fact that the warehouse was inhabited with Villains.
"Himi-chaaaan~, Dabi-kuuun~, I'm baaaack~!" Hana chirped. "I brought a friend with me too."
A girl with cat-like yellow eyes and blonde hair stepped out of a room down a near hallway and bounded over. Meanwhile, a man with icy blue eyes, countless purple scars and piercings, and black spikey hair stepped out of the shadows.
"Hi there!" the girl cooed, her voice sounding almost crazily enthused.
"Hey," the man greeted in a much lower, almost ominous tone.
"(Y/N)," Hana began, turning to you, "This is Himiko Toga and Toya Todoroki, though you'll know them more so as Toga and Dabi. That hallway that Toga just came out of is where all the bedrooms are, and that's usually where Tomura and Kai hang out."
At the confused look on your face as Hana mentioned the name Kai, she added, "Oh, and Kai Chisaki is more commonly known as Overhaul. They're all Tomura's recruits. There's one more guy I haven't mentioned. He goes by the name Kurogiri, but he's probably sleeping by now. The rest of us tend to stay up for no particular reason. Anywho, let's go see if Shiggy and Kai are awake."
Once again, there was a tightness in your stomach that irked you as Hana called Tomura 'Shiggy', though you tried your best to ignore it.
She led you down the hallway and stopped at the third door to the left.
"Shiiiiiiggyyyyy! You up? I have someone who wants to seeeee youuuu!"
Why does she keep calling his nickname like that? you wondered. She's pretty cheerful at UA, but not exactly like this. What's up with her?
There was a small groan, followed by a raspy but quiet, "I am now." A moment later, Tomura opened the door to a smiling Hana and a shy (Y/N), who waved with uncertainty when he noticed the presence of another person.
"H-Hi, Ten–Tomura." You quickly corrected yourself before you could fully say his old name. "I-I asked Hana to bring me here after finding out she was. . .associated with you."
For a lack of better words. . .
"Er. . .Hi," Tomura muttered, unsure of how else to respond. "Come in, I guess."
Hana fled the scene, leaving you with Tomura and a brown-haired man you didn't recognize. He had a pale gray tank top on right now and gray sweatpants as he sat on the floor with a chapter book open and was staring at you with glowing yellow eyes.
"(Y/N), this is Kai," Tomura introduced. "Kai, this is (Y/N), a childhood friend of mine."
You weren't sure you liked Kai. You knew that if he was Overhaul, not only was he dangerous, he was also a hypocritic child abuser.
"Ah, well aren't you pretty," Kai murmured.
You flushed at the compliment.
"Pretty indeed~," Tomura purred, leaning towards you until he was uncomfortably close, then abruptly slunk away and plopped down beside Kai.
"Well, um. . ." You glanced around as you decided to sit across from them. ". . .We were planning on. . .catching up?"
"Well, there's not much to catch up on from you," Tomura murmured. "I've been keeping a close eye on you since I remembered you'd be starting high school. I made sure I went out of my way to have updates on you once I knew you were in UA. You'd told me yourself that's where you planned on going."
That was true. When you were kids, that's exactly what'd happened. But that didn't make you any less disturbed that Tomura was stalking you. At least now I know why I always feel watched. Aloud, you mumbled, "Well, since you apparently know everything about me, what is there that I don't yet know about you, Tomura?"
It felt strange calling him that instead of Tenko, but you still felt it was so easy to talk to him.
"Well, as I'm sure you can recall," Tomura began with a bow of his head and his voice lowering, "I had a Quirk that lets me turn anything I touch to dust. I've gotten better control over it though. The day I ran away from you, I met All for One, who took care of me from then on. Then I met Kai."
As he spoke, he nuzzled Kai affectionately, much to your annoyance.
"At first," Tomura went on, "we were almost pure enemies. I honestly had disintegrated his arms at some point, and the only reason he has them now is because Hana has a half-sister with a healing Quirk and she fixed him."
"Don't say it like that," Kai grumbled. "It sounds like I was broken."
"You were broken," Tomura retorted. To you, he finished, "Kai became my lover after that."
You were shocked. Lover? Your gaze traveled over to Kai. You're gay? If that was the case, it was official. After all these years, Tomura had finally moved on. It was true.
The Tenko you knew. . .was dead.
130Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgDbs490YtN
Author's note:
No, I didn't mention Spinner, that's because he died offscreen in this series. How he died though doesn't really apply to the reader so I just didn't even mention his name. If there are other members of the Paranormal Liberation Front I neglected to mention, it's because I'm stupid and don't know/don't remember their names.
Also, you and your classmates are currently third years in high school. You're about to be eighteen years old, and Shiggy's like seventeen-and-a-half, but mostly everything else is still just about the same.
So, interesting chapter, eh? You finally reunite with Tenko to find he's the leader of a Villain allegiance and also gay. But he's still got room in his heart for you. All you have to do is pick up the mess that your separation over the years has left behind, and there'll be plenty of room for you to add your own things and make him feel whole again.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
