#& bailed tomura out

[mutable-manifestation]

Is this from a fic,, or ? Just amazing thing that you had to make bc reasons?

Anyway a scenario painted itself in my head because of this, so like. Here ya go.

---------------------

DP doesn't really give a timeline so I'm gonna say everything happened in his first year of HS, making him just 15 when Phantom Planet would have happened.

In this AU there is no Phantom Planet (as one does) but there is ghost puberty (as many do) and Danny starts having a crisis about his appearance on top of increasing issues from the year of constant property damage to Amity (bills add up, repairs create issues, him chasing out the ghosts doesn't mean there are no problems, no consequences).

Danny tries his best but he's a high schooler - sometimes he forgets he even has certain powers.

The Realms are Infinite, connected to every living dimension there is. Clockwork can see the stress getting to him, stress steadily reaching a snapping point (not another Dan scenario, but the Crown Prince of the Realms becoming a depressed recluse and refusing his crown/violently pushing everyone he loves away is also a bad outcome - and it makes Clockwork sad, he got attached).

So Clockwork sends him to the bnha-verse.

What better way to teach him to accept himself than to send him to the world with so much aesthetic diversity. Let him meet the fanged, red-eyed, moody heroes and the bubbly golden villains, let him see all the diverse appearances and realize that it is their choices that dictate their actions, that there is no such thing as 'evil puberty.'

Being around humans with more diverse appearances and abilities will do him good.

And what better way to learn how to fight and rescue more efficiently than from the people who have perfected it to a curriculum.

"Three years," he says when Danny once more appears to him, seeking advice.

"A school that will better teach you to use your powers, to minimize property damage, to work more efficiently," he offers.

"You will be sent back to the exact same time in your own dimension, to continue on as if you never left. Your town and world will remain safe, because you will never truly be away from it," he promises.

And Danny - who is spiraling over his growing fangs, his elongating ears, his hair that seems just a touch less material with each passing day, his steadily paling [blue, blue, it's turning blue] skin - accepts with all the fervor of a dying man lunging at an oasis in the desert.

He hesitantly drops his phone and wallet, leaving him with nothing but his clothing - still slightly scuffed from the latest fight with Skulker - and steps through one of Clockwork's mirrors into an alley.

He waits, just as Clockwork asked him to.

He doesn't know what he's waiting for, but he does all the same.

A black cat curls up next to him as he sits by a dumpster until Aizawa Shouta drops from a nearby roof and ends up taking him in.

A few weeks later, Danny takes the entrance exam for UA High School and is placed in class 1-A (ghost speak is like all speak, he just had to learn the alphabet. Guess who he replaced? Yeah ur right it was Mineta)

So anyway, skipping a lot of timeline to get the scene this fic inspired:

edit: Forgot to say, this is set between hosu & final exams

another training exercise 'heroes vs villains' style.

The teams are 'villains' Danny & Yaoyorozu vs 'heroes' Deku & Iida.

(it's really just team fights in an urban setting but making it themed motivates the teams shhhhh)

The hero team has to catch both villains in 10 minutes or it's an automatic loss, but the villains have to 'kill' at least one hero and play keep away, or kill both heroes to win.

Danny already made the 'rip your lungs out' joke before, so Yaoyorozu (who can probably make very realistic looking fake organs even if she can't make actual organs) made a plan based on that...which really freaks out Deku & Iida.

***

Izuku is excited for the fight, if a little nervous.

Danny's quirk, Archetypical Ghost, is one of the most diverse he's seen - up there with Yaoyorozu's and Fukidashi-san's.

His main downfall is his own underutilization of his abilities; sometimes he just forgets what he can do. He also tends to get distracted in fights - looks away from enemies too easily, falls for fake-faints, has trouble moderating his strength and often underestimates how much it takes to take someone down.

But he's improved since the beginning of the year, and with Yaomomo's own diverse skillset and tactical mind this was bound to be a tough battle.

Worst of all was the aniticipation; Danny- Phantom's invisibility and intangibility were incredible for sneak attacks. Beyond even Hagakure's ability to sneak - unless he made noise he could go completely undetected.

He and Iida go in with both ears peeled.

They hear the scream not 30 seconds in.

It's high and blood-curdling and so clearly Yaoyorozu. She's screaming like she's dying.

They bolt towards the sound as soon as it begins, wary of a trap but too concerned for their classmate to not go anyway.

Then, as abruptly as the sound began, it cuts to silence.

It chills Izuku to the core, right alongside the increasing cold of the air as they approach where the noise came from.

It turns out Danny and Yaoyorozu were only a few streets down, and he and Iida arrive just in time to see Yaoyorozu drop to her side, making a small gurgling noise as she paws at her red-stained chest with red-stained hands.

Danny leans down, grin stretched wide as he places a small red object down right in front of her face.

It squelches with the movement, more blood oozing out.

It's blood.

Izuku's mind goes back to the lesson two weeks prior.

--------Flashback---------

Kaminari whistled as Danny came back from his match with Koda.

"You weren't kidding about animals not liking you."

"Nope, walking bear-spray commercial, that's me," Danny jokes, finger-gunning as he floats closer to chat while they wait for Koda's return to discuss the match.

"Still! I thought you meant, like, cats don't want to cuddle because your cold or something! Those birds literally fled en masse! You're like, one of the chillest guys I've met, I don't get why they'd hate you."

"They don't hate me," Danny shrugs, "They just register me as a threat and react accordingly."

"Pffft, strong I can get, but threatening?"

Then Danny stuck his hand into Kaminari's chest, grinning wide and floating up to loom, eyes brightening.

"I could literally rip out your still-beating heart whenever I feel like it."

Then his hand flopped out harmlessly.

"Anyway, that was a great match! I never expected Koda to be such a dirty fighter in close combat; He really caught me off-guard with the pocket sand thing!" Danny chattered away as if nothing had happened, steamrolling Kaminari's nervous laughter and the general unease.

After a while, the mood was back to normal (if not with a few people wondering if Mirio could rip their hearts out...)

--------End Flashback---------

Danny briefly puts his right hand out of phase, letting more red, red blood splatter onto the pavement and the object, leaving his white glove just as pristine as it had been back in the observation room.

All the while, Yaoyorozu clutches at the object - 'Her heart, that's her heart oh kami-' - and shoves it towards her chest, eyes watering and mouth moving soundlessly. More red trails out from between her lips.

Izuku is moving before he can think.

He lunges at Phantom fist-first, screaming in rage. Praying to anyone that will listen that Iida can help her, the teachers, Recovery Girl, anyone-

The fist passes right through Phantom's head, and Izuku is ectoblasted across the street, through a building, and into a second one for his trouble.

He can hear Iida requesting the teachers end the fight over comms as he gets back up.

Phantom laughs loud enough to hear through the comms and the distance, and Iida cuts off mid-explanation.

Izuku makes it out of the rubble and onto the street just in time to be tackled back through the second building by Iida.

By an Iida with green, green eyes.

"Too slow!"

He aims to stomp Izuku's head in, but he's clumsy - unused to Iida's larger frame, maybe? He'd only used this power once before, after all - and Izuku is able to roll away and kick him into the wall.

He winces at the pained blue eyes that flash briefly.

The teachers have to have seen Yaoyorozu, or heard Iida, or- or they'll be on the way anyway because the cameras went down and they know something is wrong.

He has to trust them to help Yaoyorozu, he can't fight Phantom- fight Danny and save her.

He can't even move her safely in that condition.

He has to trust the others to help her while he plays keep-away.

While he...fights Danny.

Seriously.

"What do you think you're doing!?" Izuku yells, voice thick. "WHY!?"

"Why?" he tilts Iida's head owlishly. Smiles. "To test my ability."

"To- what does that even mean!"

"Haven't you noticed how far ahead we are? In terms of strength, of skill...isn't all a little too easy? Don't you want a challenge? I do. Everyone here is so...weak," Danny spits in distaste with Iida's mouth.

"These little sanctioned spars...people fight harder when their lives are really on the line. Maybe no one else can keep up with me, but you..." Iida's eyes rake over him. "If you gave it your all, you might be more than just 'entertaining.'"

Izuku lunges on his last word - unable to listen any longer - aiming to sweep Iida's legs out from under him.

'If I can just pin him, maybe he'll leave Iida alone...I don't have enough information. Dammit! What do I do!?'

Dan-ida jumps his sweep and twists into a kick aimed for his head as he does.

Izuku drops to the ground to dodge it and manages an upper-cut kick to his chin before he rolls back and away to get on his feet once more.

"Get out of Iida!"

"If you want to force me out you'll have to put this body to sleep. Do you really have it in you? To attack your own ally? Your friend?"

"Like you did!?" Izuku yells, moving for another lunge, this time a tackle.

Danny bounces off of the wall, using Iida's quirk to mimic Izuku's own moves and dodge. They end up trading places.

"Aren't you tired of being nice?" Danny asks as he lands and turns back to lock eyes with him, holding out a hand - palm facing the ceiling; in offering instead of as a threat. "Don't you just want to go apeshit?"

Before he can even think of how to respond to that, Danny uses a reciproburst.

He barely manages to get out of the way in time.

"OOooh that was fun!" He claps Iida's hands together as he comes to a stop. "More fun than norma-GKH-"

Danny's distraction costs him, as his little run stops not far from Izuku, who manages to close the distance get in a heavy strike right to the chin while Danny is busy celebrating using his own classmate like a toy.

Iida drops to the ground like a sack of bricks.

Izuku wants to pick him up and run, hoping Danny will follow and stay far away from where Yaoyorozu is no doubt receiving treatment.

'Please, please let them get here in time. Please be okay, Yaoyorozu-san.'

But Danny practically melts out of him and lands with a foot on his back.

He grabs Izuku by the elbows before he can react - forcing his hands to aim towards Iida - pulling him in close.

"Come on then, hero," he all but purrs, eyes glowing so bright they nearly look yellow and mouth curling into an unnaturally wide grin, "Challenge Me."

Before Izuku can do anything beyond glare him down, he feels a prick in the back of his neck and his world goes dark.

---------------------

Izuku wakes up in the infirmary to the sound of Yaoyorozu...

"Yaoyorozu!" He bolts up right, head spinning as he whips it around to find Yaoyorozu sitting calmly between his bed and Iidas, chest and hands still slightly red but appearing unwounded.

Iida's head is cradled in his hands.

"Easy, easy," she turns to Izuku. "I'm okay, I'm not injured, I promise."

"You- you were-"

"Here," Recovery Girl interrupts, appearing at his side with a pill and a glass of water. "Take this and drink up."

What follows is a relief, but also kind of stings.

Apparently, Yaoyorozu wanted to test her aim with some new tranq darts she'd been studying to create.

And apparently they also wanted to try out some new ideas from Midnight-sensei's workshop on the benefits of acting in the field - for villain combat and civilian calming proposes.

Which had led to them faking her own murder, separating him from Iida, using Iida as a puppet - he was originally just going to be taken out but Danny thought that would alert Izuku that something was up, since the teachers would never announce him out if Yaoyorozu was actually dead or dying - and then distracting him long enough in a relatively small area for her to line up her shot.

"Aizawa sensei thought it best that I be here when you both woke up...and that Danny wait outside until I was able to explain things to the both of you."

The reason for that went without saying.

"But we're both deeply sorry," she bowed from her chair, "We took things too far, making you both believe I was truly...grievously injured. We were too caught up in trying out new techniques and we didn't think about how seriously it might affect you. We hope you can forgive us."

Danny appeared from thin air, standing and bowing next to her just in time to echo the apology.

"I cannot say that I'm happy with the situation, but I understand the desire to broaden your heroic horizons, even if I do find the methodology of it a bit distasteful," Iida chops. "U.A. is a place for learning, it is only sensible that you try such things here. I am... hurt, but I understand. I forgive you."

"Ah," Izuku says, eyes filling with tears, "I-I'm so glad you're both okay-"

His voice cracks on the last word, tears spilling over as Yaoyorozu winces and Danny looks like a deer in headlights.

***

anyway.

I don't feel like this does the picture justice, because it is b-e-a-u-tiful, but I had to get it on paper [digital] to get it out of my brain. Anyway, enjoy!

Villain Danny? Or just Danny getting too into the role in class? The world may never know because neither do I

I think Danny would be terrifying as a villain tho, he would be unstoppable and everyone should be thanking god that that he isn’t one. When I have some more spare time I’m going to need to do an actual piece of art

[luvlyycy]

this was supposed to be short but i got carried away my apologies.. alsooooooo <3 @seneon I REMEMBERED TO TAG YEWWW . girly girl x dirtbag dabi (real.) [also no smut in this but its suggestive]

you don't know how you got into this fuckass college with these fuckass people— there's the honor students and then there's the people your friends tell you to stay away from. one of those people is dabi.

you have to stay away from dabi. you know there's rumors about him selling drugs, not that you believe them— but he has a terrible rep. not from girls but from guys— girls fucking love him.

"hi dabi!" you exclaim as you enter his dorm room, skipping over to his bed, the skirt of your dress bouncing as you do so. dabi's on his phone, laying on his back, "hi, princess." he yawns, "whatcha up to?" he asks.

"nothin', is tomu here?" you ask as you sit next to him, kicking off your shoes with ease before laying beside him. you admit, following rules wasn't your strong suit, so staying away from his kind of crowd was incredibly hard. plus, they all treated you like a princess— what girl wouldn't like that?

he puts his arm around you, clicking the power button on the side of his phone to put it to sleep, "he's out buying food with keigo. jus' you and me." he smiles lopsidedly as he looks at your breasts- face, he looks at your face.

"you look pretty today." he hums, as his hand runs down on your back, tickling you.

you giggle, finger running along the tattoo on his cheek, "tomura was supposed to take me to the mall today. i guess he forgot."

dabi just stares at you, "you coulda asked me."

"yeah, but you're always busy." you huff out, nuzzling into his side.

he's busy unless you ask him to do something. he frowns.

"whatever, princess."

he watches you curl further into his embrace, maybe you were just cold.

"dabi. i've been soooo lonely these past few days.. tomura keeps bailing on me. keigo doesn't wanna hang with me anymore.. you're the only one who cares." you whine into his side, breathing in the smokey smell of his ripped black tanktop.

he always smelled good to you.

"oh yeah? what do ya want me to do it about it?" he laughs at your antics. spoiled brat. you always know how to get what you want— from tomura, keigo, atsuhiro, and even jin. tomura was the easiest.

"want you tooo..." you trail off, fingers dipping underneath his shirt to rub against his abdomen, "show me how much you care.".

brat, he thinks.

"aww, spoiled little thing can't function without attention." he chuckles out, leaning upwards so his other hand can grab your jaw, "right?".

you nod with a soft 'mhm', dabi says a quick 'right' in response. he presses his lips to yours, he feels your lipgloss transfer to his lips— getting smudged all over yours as well.

he pulls away to look at your cute face, always so flustered after he kisses you. "come here, on top." you obey, sitting prettily atop his lap as he squeezes your side— his other hand caressing your face, "so pretty. i'm the only one who cares about you so much." he's feeding into your little delusion, you know that, but hearing it from him makes your brain stop functioning.

he sits up, still holding you on his lap arms wrapping around your waist to hold you impossibly close, "i'm the only one you can count on. to give you rides, buy you clothes, make you food— i'm the only one, yeah?" you nod, "nobody can treat you like i can, can they, baby?" you nod again.

"come here n' kiss me."

"okay.." you sigh, placing your lips on his— his lip ring poking your lips but you don't mind. kissing him feels so good, it's like he knows everything about your body perfectly. he knows you more than he knows himself. his hands slip underneath your dress, settling on your ass.

he pulls away to look at you, "poor baby." he smiles.

you barely notice the door opening— keigo letting out an exaggerated groan, "honey, we're hooome."

tomura sighs, "i forgot to take you shopping didn't i?" he frowns as he steps over to you, tossing a bag on dabi's bed, only for you to cling onto dabi tighter.

"no! dabi's g'nna take me out now." you huff, nuzzling your face into the crook of dabi's neck, "right, dabi?".

dabi laughs when he sees tomura's upset face and keigo holding back a laugh, but he could never say no to you.

"yeah, that's right, princess."

[scary-grace]

the crying game - a shigaraki x f!reader oneshot

You gave up on love a long time ago, but you keep getting invited to weddings, and after eleven receptions spent at the single's table, you're almost at the end of your rope -- until first-time wedding guest Shigaraki Tomura asks you to show him how it's done. (5.7k words, modern AU, no quirks.)

This fic is for @arslansenkai, who saw my milestone post and requested the prompts ‘holding hands’ + ‘listening to the other’s heartbeat’ + ‘whispering in their ear, lips touching the skin’ from this list. Thank you so much for the prompt! I really enjoyed writing it and I swear all three of your prompts made it in here or there.

You hate weddings. You don’t remember when you started hating them, but you know why you started – right around the time when you realized that you’d never have another one of your own, that you’d always be attending someone else’s, and doing that all by yourself, too. Add in the cost of a new dress and new shoes (God forbid you wear the same thing twice in one year) and travel accommodations and a wedding present, and weddings become a big, expensive, depressing waste of a weekend. No matter how much you like the people who are getting married.

And you do like them, this time, even though they’re the twelfth couple from your department at Ultra, Inc. to get married in the last three years. Ochako and Himiko are the kind of couple who shouldn’t make sense, but somehow do – the kind of against-all-odds couple who’d make you believe in love if you didn’t know better. You were rooting for them, you’re glad they’re together, and getting their save-the-date still made you want to drown yourself in the toilet. You opted to drown in vodka instead. You need help.

You need help, and you’re going to get it. After this wedding. So you can figure out how to say no the next time you get an invite. Because out of all the indignities about going single to a wedding, getting stuck at the same table at the wedding reception as the other people who couldn’t snare a date is possibly the worst.

Most couples have at least a few single friends, but Himiko and Ochako are the last of their respective circles to couple up. Or almost-last. The singles table at their wedding included exactly five people at the start of the reception. You, an older woman named Magne, a guy your age whose place-card says Todoroki Touya but insisted that he goes by Dabi, another guy your age whose place-card says Takami Keigo but insisted you call him Hawks, and one more guy your age whose place-card says Shigaraki Tomura and who barely looked up when you introduced yourself.

It wasn’t the worst singles table you’d ever sat at, at the start. Then Magne bailed to sit with somebody she knew at a different table, and Dabi and Hawks hit it off and then snuck off to God knows where, and then it was just you and Shigaraki sitting at your table in the far back corner of the reception hall. That’s how it’s been for an hour, and the only interaction the two of you have had is when you’ve passed the table’s bottle of champagne back and forth, filling your glasses and then draining them out of sync. It’s depressing. After going to eleven weddings in two years, you can hang in there with the best of them, but you’re pretty sure you’re about to crack.

Your glass is empty, and when you reach for the bottle, you find that it’s empty, too. You want to get more, but you’re not going to look like a lush in front of your weird tablemate. “Hey,” you say, and Shigaraki looks up from the screen of his Switch. “This is empty. I’ll go get more if you want it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Shigaraki says. You raise your eyebrows. “This will suck just as bad whether I’m wasted or not.”

“Yeah,” you admit. “But then you’ll be able to pretend it sucks because you’re wasted, not because you’re stuck at the singles table yet again.”

“Yet again? Sounds like you’re projecting,” Shigaraki says. You shrug. It would hurt more if you hadn’t heard the same thing from at least one person at the last three weddings you went to – usually towards the end of the reception, usually when everybody’s getting weepy and ridiculous. You’re ahead of schedule this time. “Sure. I’ll take more.”

Two tables over, a group of happy couples have abandoned their champagne bucket in favor of the dance floor – or the photo booth, or something. You swap your empty bottle for their full one and come back over, hoping Shigaraki will have gone back to his game and forgotten you existed. No such luck. He’s sitting up, watching you, as you sit down, fill your glass, and slide the bottle back across the table to Shigaraki. “Yet again,” he repeats. You down half your glass in a single swallow. “I’m only halfway through the first one of these stupid things I’ve been to and I’m already done. How many times have you put yourself through it?”

“Eleven,” you say. Shigaraki’s red eyes widen. “No, that’s just people from work. If I count friends from school, it’s, uh – sixteen.”

“If you’re this miserable, stop going.”

“Is that what you do?” you challenge. “When your friends invite you to celebrate the happiest day of their lives, you just don’t go?”

“My friends know better than to invite me to shit like this.” Shigaraki copies you and drains half his glass in one go. “I wouldn’t have come to this one, except Toga critical-hit me with this guilt trip about how we’re her family and she needs her family to be here –”

You did notice a conspicuous lack of parents or relatives on Toga’s side of the aisle. “And I said I’d go if I didn’t have to go alone,” Shigaraki continues. “Dabi was supposed to be doing time with me. Figures he’d score a hookup and bolt.”

“I didn’t know you knew each other,” you say. They barely talked when Dabi was sitting here. “How do you know Himiko?”

“Juvie,” Shigaraki says, and you’re not sober enough to keep the surprise from showing all over your face. He snickers. “Not what you expected?”

You shake your head. “Is that where you know Dabi from?”

“And Spinner,” Shigaraki says, pointing out a purple-haired guy at a different table. “And Twice. Magne was a peer counselor or something. If I hadn’t met them I probably would have killed myself in there.”

You can’t stop your surprise from showing this time, either. Shigaraki grimaces. “Don’t read into that.”

“No promises,” you say. Shigaraki snorts and lifts his glass partway, then drains it. “So you’ve known each other for a while.”

“Yeah. I’m guessing you’re friends with the girlfriend. Wife.” Shigaraki refills his glass again, but leaves it alone for the time being. “How long have you known her?”

“Work,” you say, then facepalm. You’re lucky you manage to do it with the hand not holding your glass of champagne. “Two years or so. I already worked there when she was hired. I kind of watched the whole thing with Himiko from the sidelines.”

That’s how you always watch relationships play out at work, or anywhere, really. Pretending to be happy, really being happy, and still feeling like you’re pulling a tarp over the sinkhole in your chest. “So the wife invited you and you showed up even though you knew you’d hate it,” Shigaraki concludes. “You’re crazier than me. I’m never going to another one of these things again.”

“Not even your own?”

“Do I look like the kind of person somebody marries?” Shigaraki finishes his whole glass in a single swallow. You were thinking about trying to keep up with him, but if you try that, you’ll throw up all over the dress you had to buy, which is probably dry-clean only or something worse. “I don’t get why anyone goes to these things.”

“They’re supposed to be fun,” you say. You feel bad picking on Ochako’s wedding. It’s not Ochako’s fault that you’re single, bitter about it, and this close to drunk on alcohol she paid for. “But they’re usually only fun if you go with someone.”

“I went with somebody. He ditched me to hook up with a guy who named himself after a bird.”

You snicker at that. “I meant a date,” you clarify. “If your date ditches you to hook up, then you’ve got bigger problems than whether you’re having fun at a wedding.”

“He’s not my date. I’m not gay.” Shigaraki looks up. “Did you think I was gay?”

“I really didn’t – think,” you admit. You didn’t come to the wedding looking for a hookup. If you had, you’d have tried to put a move on Hawks before Dabi could. “The activities are more fun with a date.”

“Activities?” Shigaraki asks. “Like games?”

“Uh, sometimes,” you say. You know Ochako set up lawn games outside, and the sun won’t set for a while. “Sometimes there’s an art project you’re supposed to do for the couple, as a keepsake or something. I went to one last year where you were supposed to write a good wish, fold it into a paper crane, and then hang it off a branch of this tree they’d bought.”

“Too much work. What else?”

“Dancing,” you say, although you felt like that was pretty obvious. “And Himiko and Ochako have a photo booth.”

Shigaraki’s nose wrinkles. “Why?”

“As a keepsake for the guests, I guess,” you say. “Again. More of a couple thing.”

“Huh.” Shigaraki pours half a glass this time but still finishes it in one swallow. Then he stands up. “Let’s do it.”

You freeze in the act of pouring yourself another glass. “What?”

“I’m never coming to another wedding. You’re bored and drunk –”

“I’m not the one who’s been treating glasses like shots.”

“So let’s do it,” Shigaraki says, like you didn’t say a word. “If this is the last one I go to, I want to get my money’s worth. Do you have something better to do?”

You were this close to taking out your phone and opening up Tinder. You shake your head. “Finish that,” Shigaraki says, and you finish the half-glass you just poured and get to your feet. “Where’s the stupid photo booth?”

You lead the way. Even in heels, you’re faster than Shigaraki – he’s meandering a little bit, possibly due to all the champagne. You reach out and grab his hand to pull him back on course. He jumps, stumbles into an empty table, and glares at you. “What are you doing?”

“You wanted the wedding date experience. Holding hands is included.” At least you think it should be. If you had a real date you’d want to hold hands with them. Shigaraki follows you a little more closely than before as you make your way up to the photo booth. “It looks like they have props. Should we use them?”

Shigaraki hasn’t let go of your hand. He picks up a fake mustache on a stick. “Who would use this?”

“Me, maybe?” If you had a wedding date, you’d want to be spontaneous and fun. You lift it out of his hand and hold it up to your face. “What do you think?”

“No.” Shigaraki takes it away, puts it back, and picks up a flower crown. “Here.”

“No, that’s for you,” you say. Shigaraki argues, but you pluck it out of his hand and settle it on his head anyway. “See? It looks great.”

“If Dabi sees me wearing this stupid thing –”

“He’ll be jealous,” you say. The crown would look stupid on Dabi’s spiky black hair, but the pastel shades of the flowers look nice with Shigaraki’s blue-grey hair. “Okay. Now you can pick one for me. I’ll even do the mustache.”

“No,” Shigaraki says again. He sorts through the props and comes up with a headband with bunny ears. “This one.”

You two are going to look ridiculous. It’s hard not to laugh, and you haven’t even seen the full effect yet. You put on the headband, thankful that you went for a low-effort hairstyle that’s easy to fix, then pull the curtain on the photo booth and wedge yourself into it. Shigaraki follows you in.

It’s a really tight fit. You were pretty sure the photo booth was a couple activity, but now you’re sure – you love your friends, but you wouldn’t want to end up most of the way into any of their laps. You have to stop holding hands to try to get situated, and while you’re still trying to figure yourselves out, the photo booth takes the first picture. Shigaraki grimaces. “Wait. That probably looked stupid. Where –”

The booth takes the second picture while he’s talking, and you snort. There’s about a ten-second interval to get positioned correctly. You manage to face front in time, but your elbow lands on Shigaraki’s thigh as you’re trying to steady yourself, and he flinches away. You drop out of the frame as the booth snaps the third photo, and it occurs to you that the only part of you visible in the picture will be the bunny ears. Based on the location of the ears in relation to Shigaraki’s body, it’s going to look pretty compromising. You hope no one sees that picture. Ever.

Shigaraki’s snickering as you sit up. “Nice one. I want a copy of – hey!”

You’ve elbowed him on purpose this time, just in time for the fourth photo. The fifth photo’s probably going to be blurry. You’re both lightly shoving each other, trying to get each other out of your personal space without pushing either of you out of the photo booth itself. The sixth photo’s probably the only one that’s worth anything, and it won’t be very good, either – Shigaraki’s flower crown is off-kilter, and you’re pretty sure your headband’s falling off. The printer begins to whir, and the two of you sit in silence as the booth prints out two sets of photos. You pick one up. Shigaraki takes the other. A second later, you’re both laughing.

The photos look even worse than you thought, and somehow that makes them better. The photo where it’s just your ears in the frame features Shigaraki staring down into his lap, looking all kinds of startled, while the photo where you’re pushing each other is blurry enough to be a still from a found-footage horror movie. In your opinion, the first photo is the funniest. “We look like that meme with the cat,” you wheeze. “The one with the loading circle over its head.”

“The last one looks like a mug shot,” Shigaraki says, his laughter so raspy that it borders on a witch’s cackle. “After a bar fight –”

The idea of getting in a bar fight in your wedding outfit sets you off. You slump sideways at an angle and end up with your head against his chest for a few seconds, surprised that you can hear his heartbeat and surprised at how fast it’s beating. “Which of us won?”

“We both lost,” Shigaraki says, and you laugh harder. The two of you look disheveled as hell, and not from anything fun. “Number two is the worst one. You look good and I look like a dumbass.”

“You just had your mouth open,” you say, wiping your eyes. You’re probably smearing your makeup, but who gives a shit. You didn’t do that good of a job on it anyway. “Anyway, that’s the wedding photo booth experience. What do you think?”

“I want to go again,” Shigaraki says. This time, you manage to turn to stare at him without throwing any elbows. “For good ones. No way do people’s girlfriends let them leave with just the stupid ones.”

You would, but then again, there’s not a big enough difference between how you look in bad photos and how you look in good ones for it to matter. “We can do one more,” you agree. “Let’s lose the props.”

Without the flower crown and bunny ears, the silliness factor drops significantly. Now you look less like a couple of drunk clowns pretending to be a couple and more like two people who could actually be together. It weirds you out, but you promised the whole wedding date experience. In the seconds before the first flash goes off, you tilt your head onto Shigaraki’s shoulder.

Shigaraki startles, and as soon as the flash goes off, he pushes you away – but only so he can tilt sideways. He’s taller than you, enough so his cheek rests against the top of your head. Four photos left. When you glances over at Shigaraki, you see that his tie’s crooked, so you fix it for him, burning another photo in the bargain. The fourth photo is Shigaraki shifting the neckline of your dress to cover your bra strap, which is weird but plausible for a couple’s photo booth experience. He has a birthmark just below the right corner of his mouth. You aim for it when you kiss his cheek quickly for the fifth photo.

Shigaraki startles again, and you sit back – but not too far. You’re still close enough that Shigaraki only has to lean forward a few inches for his lips to meet yours.

You weren’t planning to kiss him. It’s not much of a kiss, and it doesn’t last long, but your heart is still racing as the booth spits out your second sheet of photos. You’re almost scared to look. Shigaraki’s hesitant, too, and when you both flip the sheets over to check, he says exactly what you’re thinking. “Shit.”

The first set of photos were a joke. The second set – either you and Shigaraki are really good actors or you’re both really drunk, because they look way too plausible for comfort. The ones where you’re fussing over each other’s clothes are probably the worst offenders on that front, but you’re most alarmed by the last two. You’re smiling as you kiss his cheek. You can see the corner of your mouth turned up. And you didn’t see where Shigaraki’s hand was when he kissed you, but the photo’s preserved the evidence. It’s right by the side of your face, curved like he wants to cradle your jaw in his hand.

Exactly sixty seconds ago, the two of you were screwing around in here. Now it feels like there’s static running back and forth between you, and you scramble out of the booth in a hurry, almost tripping over your feet. Shigaraki gets out, too, leaning against the booth to steady himself. Without a word, he takes both of your sets of photos and tucks them into his suit jacket along with his sets, then fills your suddenly-empty hand with his own. “Now what?”

The static shock is between your hands now. “My hand is humming,” you say, like an idiot, and Shigaraki tightens his grip. “Um, I think there are some games outside.”

“Fine.”

It’s warm outside, but getting cooler as the sun begins to set. There are a lot of games, and most of them are being ignored in favor of a bunch of the goofiest guys from your office playing cornhole while their girlfriends/boyfriends watch. You determine instantly that you’re not coordinated enough for anything that involves throwing something, which leaves you exactly one option. “How about that one?”

“Jenga?”

“Jenga XL,” you say. Shigaraki snorts. “My hand-eye coordination’s too bad right now for a throwing game. This will be safer.”

Whoever was playing the oversized Jenga last left the blocks in a heap. You and Shigaraki can’t hold hands while you stack them up, and as you do, your assumption that Jenga would be safer than something else gets tested in the most embarrassing way possible – and of course Shigaraki points it out. “You’re short. If this thing falls on you it’ll flatten you.”

“It won’t fall,” you say with more confidence than you feel. “I’m good at this.”

“Go first, then, if you’re so good at it.”

You get a block out without trouble, but you have to rely on Shigaraki to re-stack it for you, which he does, wearing a really frustrating smirk. “You should have worn taller shoes.”

“I can’t walk in taller shoes,” you say. “Or dance. Are you going to want to dance?”

“If it’s part of the wedding date experience, yeah.” Shigaraki carefully extracts his block and sets it on top of the tower. He’s not all that much taller than you. If the game goes on long enough, he’ll have trouble re-stacking. “They don’t exactly teach dance classes in juvie.”

“It’s not that kind of dancing,” you say. Shigaraki looks relieved. “If it’s going to be that kind of dancing, they warn you on the invitation. A friend of mine who got married last year only played swing music at her reception. She sent out a certificate for free lessons with her save-the-date.”

“Control issues?”

“I think she just wanted stuff her way,” you say. You ease another block out of the tower and hand it over to Shigaraki. “Hers was nice. Everything ran on time, and she sent out thank-you notes six weeks after the wedding.”

Shigaraki stacks your block, then pulls out one of his own. You realize with a jolt that he’s missing the index and middle fingers from his left hand. “What’s the worst one you’ve ever been to?”

“Um.” You don’t want to say this. You really don’t – but you drank too much, and you should be honest. “Mine.”

“You’re married?”

“Divorced,” you say. “Three months after the wedding. I didn’t have the ring on long enough to get a tan line.”

Shigaraki doesn’t say anything. The tower is getting unstable, so you’re careful as you wiggle out one of the side blocks on a row about halfway up. You keep an eye on Shigaraki’s shadow as you do it, bracing yourself for him to walk away. Would you walk away if he told you he was divorced? No, but you’re divorced, so it matters less to you. “Three months,” Shigaraki repeats. “How’d that happen?”

“You’re lucky you aren’t asking me that six years ago,” you say. “With how much I drank tonight, I’d have gone off.”

“Go off. I want to hear it.” Shigaraki actually looks interested. “Anyone who fucks this up deserves it.”

He’s gestures at you. You don’t know what to make of that, and you’ve got a block halfway out of the tower. You go back to work on it. “How do you know it wasn’t me?”

“I know,” Shigaraki says. “How’d it happen?”

“This is pathetic,” you warn. Shigaraki gestures for you to go on. You sigh. “We were together since high school. Midway through college I got a bad feeling that we were drifting apart and I couldn’t take the suspense, so I tried to end it. And he popped the question. We got married six months later and three months after that he knocked up my cousin.”

“Damn,” Shigaraki remarks.

“They’re still together,” you say. “The kid’s in primary school this year. And every year around the holidays my aunt and my cousin pick a fight with me about how I need to be nicer to him, because we’re all a family now.”

You finally manage to extract the block, and Shigaraki takes it from you before you can offer it to him. You can’t read his expression, and just like when you sensed things with your ex were falling apart, you can’t take the suspense. “Pathetic?” you prompt.

“Your ex is a loser.”

“You haven’t seen what my cousin looks like.”

“He’s still a loser,” Shigaraki says. He pulls out a block. “I get it, though.”

Your stomach clenches. “What do you mean?”

“If my girlfriend was leaving me because I was dicking around, I might do something like that, too.” Shigaraki sets his block on top of the tower. Your options for blocks to pull are getting slimmer by the turn. “Popping the question. Not knocking up your cousin.”

“I have other cousins,” you say. Shigaraki snorts. “I thought you said you weren’t getting married.”

“I said nobody was going to marry me,” Shigaraki corrects. What’s the difference? “Your turn.”

You’re out of blocks at shoulder height. And chest height. And waist height. You crouch down instead, doing your best to balance in your heels, and start trying to wiggle a block loose on the fourth level up from the ground. Shigaraki’s voice follows you down. “If you were ready to ditch him, why did you say yes?”

Now you’re at a real risk of crying. Six years of intermittent only-when-you’ve-got-the-money counseling hasn’t made a dent in this one thing. You remind yourself that Shigaraki can’t see your face and work on keeping your voice steady. “I was the one who asked him out in the first place, back in high school. I always had this weird sense that we wouldn’t be together if I hadn’t. So when he proposed I thought it meant he was choosing me, like I chose him. Which was a stupid reason to say yes.”

You wanted to believe. You wanted to believe so badly that you were worth it, and now you’re divorced at twenty-eight, barely talking to the half of your family that took your cousin’s side, going on a grand total of one real date in the entire time since then that you got up and left partway through because you couldn’t fake hope or excitement for one second longer. The kiss you planted on Shigaraki in the photo both was the most action you’ve gotten in two years, and you’ve put more effort into the fake wedding-date experience than you have into even looking for a hookup. You’re pathetic. This is pathetic. You should be embarrassed, and you are.

But you got your stupid block out. You straighten up and hold it out to Shigaraki, who stacks it for you. You can’t read his expression, and you’re a little too dysregulated to be anything but blunt. “That’s my tragic backstory. What’s your damage?”

“What, going to juvie doesn’t count?” Shigaraki crouches down to pull a block from the opposite side of the same row you just weakened. He’s doing it right-handed; he’s waving his left with its missing fingers at you. “This doesn’t count? The fact that I don’t have eyebrows doesn’t count? Your problem is being a dumb kid with a shitty family and a shitty ex. My problem is that I exist. We’re not the same.”

He straightens up and drops his block on top of the tower. You can see that he’s tenser than before, and you can’t think of anything to say that won’t sound patronizing. “I didn’t notice about the eyebrows until you said something.”

“Great.” Shigaraki won’t look at you. “Your turn.”

You crouch down again. The row below the row Shigaraki just knocked down to one block seems like the safest bet. You start pulling at it, frustrated at the way it sticks. “Careful,” Shigaraki says after a second. “If you don’t watch out –”

The tower topples. You’re crouched down, with no chance of getting out of the way in time, and all you can do is sit there, stunned, while three dozen giant Jenga blocks crash down around your head. The corner of one catches your temple, digs in, and you flinch. But the blocks are light. You’re startled, and humiliated, and possibly bleeding a little bit, but you’re fine. “Are you okay?” Shigaraki asks. You give a thumbs-up, and he crouches down next to you. “I don’t believe you. You look – shit, your face is bleeding.”

“I’m good,” you say. “It’s a good thing we took pictures already. This is not part of the wedding-date experience.”

“I’m done with that,” Shigaraki says, and your heart sinks. Even though it shouldn’t. Even though none of this mattered to begin with, even though you know better, you hoped. You weren’t hoping for anything much – just to keep having fun, just to not spend the rest of the wedding alone. “You have a purse, right? Do you have napkins in there or something?”

“Your suit comes with a pocket square.” You pluck it out of his pocket and press it to your temple. “I’ll pay for cleaning it.”

“Don’t bother. It was my dad’s. He doesn’t have much use for it in solitary.”

Shigaraki helps you up while you’re still processing that one and tugs you away from the wreckage of the Jenga tower, onto a bench. The view of the sunset is really good from here. Further down the lawn, you can see Himiko and Ochako and their photographer doing a last round of pictures, and you slide your feet out of your shoes. It’s that point in the wedding. You’ll probably stay here for the rest of the night.

“Do you need ice?” Shigaraki asks. You shake your head. It doesn’t hurt, or maybe the fact that the sinkhole in your chest is eating the tarp you put over it just hurts more. “Do you still want to dance?”

“You said you were done with the wedding date thing.”

“Yeah. I’m done with the part where it’s fake.”

Maybe you hit your head harder than you thought you did. “What do you mean?”

“Seriously?” Shigaraki sounds annoyed. “I let you put a flower crown on me.”

“Is that some kind of mating ritual in juvie?” The instant you say it, you feel bad, but Shigaraki laughs. “If you’re trying to say something, say it. I don’t do very well with ambiguity on my best night and I’m still kind of drunk.”

“Same here. Otherwise I’d sit on this, and my friends would spend the rest of their lives listening to me bitch about how I didn’t ask out the girl from Toga’s wedding.” Shigaraki’s hand lifts from his lap, rises to his neck, then falls back. “I want to dance with you. Toga and her wife are having an after-party at their place, and I want you to come to it with me. And I want your number so we can hang out again sometime when we’re not wasted. Because I like you.”

You must have hit your head really hard. “We met three hours ago.”

“So? Toga said she knew she was going to marry the wife the first time they made eye contact,” Shigaraki says. That sounds like something Himiko would say. You’ve met her a few times at work parties and she’s always struck you as a little intense and a little off-the-wall. “Do you want to dance or not? Make up your mind.”

You want to say yes. What comes out is something really stupid, so stupid that you can’t look at him while you say it. “This is the kind of thing that happens to other people.”

“What, meeting somebody who asks you out?”

It sounds stupid when he says it like that. You keep his dad’s pocket square pressed to your temple and try to explain. “The whole thing where you meet somebody when you weren’t expecting to meet anybody and things click, at least on your end, and since you know it’s just on your end you try not to get your hopes up – but the other person tells you that it clicked for them, too –”

“That’s dumb.” Shigaraki doesn’t sound like he’s being mean. You could almost call it affectionate. “Forget who it happens to. I’m asking you out. Do you –”

Screw it. If this is some kind of hallucination, you want to enjoy it. If it’s real, you don’t want to miss out. You turn back to face Shigaraki. “Yes.”

He grins, and you notice a scar over his mouth, too. “Good. Now what?”

You think about kissing him. You decide to try hugging first, which involves getting at least as close to him as you did when you were in the photo booth, on purpose this time. Shigaraki isn’t particularly tall or bulky, but when you hug him, you’re surprised to notice that he’s hiding some muscle underneath his suit jacket. Kind of a lot of muscle. Huh. Shigaraki notices that you’re investigating a little bit. “What?” he asks, his mouth against your ear. “Did you think all I do is game?”

“I don’t know what you do all day,” you say. “We didn’t get to that part yet.”

“We will.” Shigaraki draws back from you, and you loosen your grip even as his hand rises to cradle your jaw. This time you see the kiss coming from a mile away, and this time, you lean in.

Everything’s different this time, except the thing that startles the two of you apart – the bright flash of a camera going off. “Tomura-kun!” Himiko squeals from somewhere nearby. “I told you you’d have fun at my wedding. Who is that? She’s so cute!”

For a second you’re worried Shigaraki doesn’t know your name, but he must have been paying more attention than you thought he was when you introduced yourself, because he introduces you to Toga without missing a beat. “She’s one of my coworkers,” Ochako explains, smiling at you. Even through the smile you can see the incredulity on her face, and you know you’ll be getting a lot of questions about this when she gets back from her honeymoon. “I’m so sorry we had to put you at that table. I wanted to put you with everybody from work, but they all had plus-ones –”

“It’s fine,” you say faintly. Himiko’s photographer takes another picture, this time of all four of you talking. “It worked out.”

“She’s coming to your party,” Shigaraki informs Himiko. “I invited her.”

“Oh, good!” Himiko turns her attention to you. “It’s going to be so fun! We have games and movies and we’re going to stay up all night.”

“You should come inside now,” Ochako says. “There are mosquitos out here, and we’re supposed to have cake soon –”

“And we’re going to do the Time Warp. I put that on the playlist for you special, Tomura-kun,” Himiko says. She glances at you. “It’s the only dance he knows.”

Shigaraki flushes, grimaces, but you tilt your head against his shoulder again, lacing his fingers with yours for the third time tonight. You don’t know what he does all day when he’s not at weddings he doesn’t want to go to. You don’t know if what he said about his dad being in solitary confinement was a joke or not. You don’t know what happened to his hand or where he got his scars, or even where his eyebrows went. But you know he likes you. You know you like him enough to give things a shot, at least for tonight, and that’s better than you’ve felt in a long time.

And you know he can dance, even if it’s only the Time Warp. For right now, you don’t need to know any more than that.

[lesinquietes]

Years pass. Convict!Shigaraki isn't caught until video surveillance becomes more prominant in society — and your town begins to modernize. He’s on the international Most Wanted list. The cops never stopped searching for him. It’s over when he’s spotted at a gas station. Officers on site book him and search his vehicle. They discover three kids strapped into the backseat. One has his hair. The other two have yours.

The authorities show up at your farmhouse. You answer the door. One of your breasts is on display while you feed your infant. You’re too exhausted to bother covering up. A hand on your enlarged belly denotes that you’re pregnant with a fifth, as well. The men maintain eye contact with you as they enter your home.

They ask you a flurry of questions. How long have you known Tomura Shigaraki — a man who’s wanted internationally? ‘bout a decade. And married for how long? ‘bout a decade. What drew you to him as a husband? He came t’ me. Taught me how t’ be a real woman.

The officers exchange concerned glances. They inquire about a few more things, and then depart. You call out to ask them when your love will be home. They tell you they’ll send someone out to return your kids. They’ll never forget the forlorn expression on your pretty, tired face as they pull off in their squad car, leaving behind a shattered family.

They sit down with Shigaraki, too. He explains how he escaped from the transport van all those years ago. They interrogate him about his family; particularly, you. Around a decade ago, the other town folks noticed you become reclusive. Then, you suddenly had a husband. It certainly raised eyebrows, though no one had to balls to utter a word with him constantly hovering over your shoulder. They ask him why he wanted to settle down with you, of all people.

In truth, he doesn’t know. He didn’t realize how much he would love being a father. He gets to correct the mistake his own piece of shit dad made. Instead of belittling his children, he encourages them. Sure, he includes his fair share of teasing, but it’s not malicious. They’ll just have to get used to a sarcastic parent.

He was going to keep knocking you up until he was satisfied. He thinks motherhood looks beautiful on you. He fell in love with you the longer he stayed in your domain, teaching you how to be his woman, and learning what it means to be cared for. Now, everything you do is bewitching.

Years pass. He spends time in prison. No bail is offered, for fear that he’ll flee the country. They’re right to be cautious; escaping with you and the kids is precisely what he would have done. This time is spent prepping for his case and keeping in contact with his family through letters. He misses you terribly.

Eventually, he’s convicted for murdering several individuals during his drug trafficking scheme, including his own father. He’s also found guilty of assaulting various victims over the course of five years. The other numerous charges are dropped due to lack of evidence. Even still, he’s sentenced to life in prison.

The court asks him to make a statement following the sentencing. He obliges. He had something prepared in advance, positive of this outcome. He makes most of it out to you, his beloved wife.

“I’m sorry, (f/n).” He announces, facing the judge. “I manipulated you into falling in love with me."

Members of the jury gasp.

His intention is threefold. First, he wishes to absolve you of any suspicion that you committed crimes alongside him. If anything, you removed him from leading the life of a vagrant. Second, it shows the courtroom he can afford compassion and empathy to others, which will perhaps aid in lightening his sentence. In the future, he plans to provide information on additional criminals he used to run with in a potential plea deal. Being seen in a more positive light won't hurt his case. Lastly, he wants you to know the truth. It's selfish, as he knows it's too late. You might have wasted your youth, your time, your womb on a villain who got off on deceiving you. He can't bear to glance at you as he continues his monologue.

"I played with your mind like the monster I was, and still, you shaped me into a better man. I have you to thank for countless years of happiness, even when I thought happiness was a myth. I wish I could've been a better role model to our kids."

He doesn’t get a good glance at you when they take him away. He’s devastated. He isn’t sure what his admittance will do to your relationship. He wouldn’t be surprised if you had the marriage annulled and never wanted to see him again.

But lo and behold, you show up on visitation day, in that nice little dress he likes. There's a grand smile on your face when you see him round the corner. He's shocked to see you. When he was told he had a visitor, he thought it was his lawyer. There's no scaring you off, is there; or, perhaps more fittingly, there is no unbreaking your mind... is there?

You tell him how the children are doing. You go into depth about how you and them are working hard to maintain the farm for his return. He doesn't have the heart to tell you that may not be a reality for him — entering civilization again. Instead, he tells you he misses your cooking, your kisses, your hugs. He marvels at how soft he's grown over the years.

At the end of your visit, there are tears in your eyes. It's then that resolve fills his chest, and part of his old self appears. Darkness whispers from the recesses of his mind, prompting him to plot his escape. He can't keep you waiting forever, now, can he? Not now that he’s broken you solely for him.

He promises he'll hold you in his arms soon — and he fucking means it.

Previous l

𝔉𝔞𝔯𝔪𝔢𝔯 𝔞𝔲

[quirkwizard]

Oh quirk wizard. The mangas coming to an end and what a vestige is has been left a bit open ended, So what do you think they are? Do you think they’re truly alive? Also do you think a quirk based around these vestiges could exist?

So vestiges are genetic remnants of a Quirk user. Specifically, a Quirk user who has had their Quirk passed on or stolen. This is something specifically tied to the Quirk itself and them being passed on. These aren't things that come about normally and are pretty unique to "One For All" and "All For One" given their nature of Quirks that tie so heavily into other abilities and the taking of them. Before that point of power, these vestiges were barely anything. Only fleeting voices or apparitions in dreams. The only reason they appear so vividly and interact with the current user with "One For All" and "All For One" is because they have such powerful and evolved abilities that the vestiges are able to do that. And while their power is limited, they can still influence the power of their own Quirks, such as when Bruce and Kudo denied Izuku their powers and the other user's bailed Izuku out of getting brainwashed. This can even extend to fully taking someone over, but it requires a very specific process and vessel to make it work, hence why All For One conditioned Tomura.

And while I often joke about them being ghosts or spirits, that isn't really what they are. They are just a copy of the original user held within the Quirk. Think of it like uploading your brain to a computer, but instead of computer code, it's genetic code. It may look and act like the original, but it is only a copy. Now, this does raise the question of why doesn't All Might have a proper vestige? People have theorized that, since Toshinori hasn't passed on, he can't become a vestige. However, that doesn't make any sense. It can't be because he isn't dead since All For One is able to appear as a vestige with Tomura while the real one was still running around. The real answer is fairly simple: it's because he doesn't have a Quirk. Toshinori was Quirkless when he had the power, so he didn't have anything to pass on or anything to make a vestige in the first place. So while something is copied over with the Quirk being passed on, he can't fully form a vestige within "One For All".

[i-cant-sing]

Can i ask how toga tomura and dabi will react to president kai evict them when they turn 18?

Screaming, fighting, yelling, a little bit of arson, threats of kicking Kai to a nursing home, etc etc. Of course, this is all happening when you're not in the country. No, no, you'd give in too easily into them. Kai knows it, that's why he sent you on a press tour while he makes sure that every college the triplets get accepted in is far far far away from home.

And since the teletubbies are putting up a whole fight, literally start burning up Kai's stuff, Kai is now threatening them with all the stuff he's found about them. Yeah Dabi, who exactly did you think it was who bailed you out after your DUI after your mother told you how much she hates drunk drivers??? Who did you think made the charges disappear after you shived your friend who made some perverted comments about your mom???? And Tomura, who did you think helped erase your digital footprint on the dark Web?

It was all dear old dad helping yall out and he hasn't heard ONE THANK YOU! NOT ONE!

So yall pack up your shit and leave right now and maybe you get to see your mother on holidays orrrr throw up a tantrum and see me expose yalls criminal asses to her!

They all left by the time you came home :( Kai said that they absolutely needed to go because their classes were starting. It's okay though, you can go visit them soon🥰

[satancopilotsmytardis]

can't stop thinking about toxic fwb shigadabi saying I love you during sex

The most toxic way I can think of this going down is that the two of them start fucking for convenience and their chemistry in bed is off the charts. Dabi is having a great time just hopping on Tomura's dick whenever he can, and not thinking much of it because he's planning on dying at the end of this anyway.

And then Shig catches feelings. He starts to ask for different kinds of play, he starts to try and wine and dine Dabi before they fuck, tries to get him to spend the night instead of bailing once their aftercare is finished, and he gets really jealous when Dabi sleeps with other people too when they get to the PLF (he may murder a few of them which raises a brow from Dabi).

It's one night when Shig goes to him and finds Dabi getting dressed for a 'date' with one of the grunts that Shig grabs him and rails him rougher than he ever has before and Dabi is not complaining-- not until Tomura is kissing him, biting at his lips, and growling "I love you"--

And Dabi immediately safewords out. He loses his shit at Shig telling him that he's nothing to him but his boss outside of bed, and in it, he's just a fancy dildo. He doesn't love him, he never will, he never wants to be in love, and he never wants to sleep with him again. Dabi goes right back to fucking other grunts and acting like he and Duster never slept together and Tomura is left absolutely aching for him.

(And when Dabi 'dies' going up against Endeavor, Tomura drags his ruined body out of the rubble and makes Ujiko turn him into a nomu like himself and Kurogiri, and Dabi feels himself forcibly falling in love with Shigaraki because he is programmed to follow his orders, and even though the order wasn't ever given, he knows innately what Shig would want from him)

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Reasons why I think paramedic is a really valid alternative universe career for Tomura/Tenko:

His mom spent many years comforting him through healing in a house that was slowly killing him. He loved and admired her, so if they hadn't died I think that Nao would have fought Kotaro for Tenko's right to become a paramedic.

It's canon that AFO gave him only half of a quirk, the destructive half. I think the scratch comes from the unease of his body rejecting the decay, so why not give him an urge to heal and protect people that he doesn't/can't understand?

He used to care for everyone, including the ones that rejected him. That's a great trait to translate into healing because he would do so without exceptions— I mean, if he learned for the right person and not AFO.

It'd be very good for him if he was able to see his hands as something that helps him save others. They're more than just an instrument of destruction. He heals with them, no quirk required.

It follows the main theme of social rejection he has in bnha. A kid with a destructive quirk that wants to be a paramedic????

It also parallels Deku, a quirkless kid wanting to be a hero. The idea is to break social norms by making "the impossible".

I think bnha needs to highlight more the health professionals btw. I miss Recovery Girl so much. She was an amazing character and she had an amazing perspective of the hero society.

Tenko/Tomura is special, the chosen one in so many levels. I love the idea of him getting a support role and accidentally becoming a main hero/player in the current events.

Tenko is very familiar with both physical and physiological wounds. I think it helps some people relax when they realize that the one taking care of them doesn't judge them at all because he is "a freak" too.

I love the trope of the caretaker that is not beyond hurting people if necessary. Tomura decided to take the hard road, because he can kill in a matter of seconds. He could, he just decided not to.

HEALING OUT OF HATRED!!! Tomura can be also very cruel, so making sure villains, heroes and vigilantes alike stay alive to deal with the consequences of their actions is petty of him. He reaaally hates people who bail out of their responsibility by dying. Dying is kinder, living is the hard part.

I think he would look amazing in the uniform.

He was the one who trained a dog to work with him. The dog helps him find people and then helps them calm down by staying by their side as Tomura heals them.

Your honor his will was enough to keep AFO away from taking control of his body for so long, don't you think he's capable of working his way on a health care program???

The end ;)

[robotlesbianjavert]

i hope when Shigaraki comes back he'll just keep insisting on being called Tomura Shigaraki to spite everyone especially Deku. i hope when he gets adopted by All Might he makes his life a living hell every day by being as obnoxious as possible. And then when he learns about twice he decides to bail out the lov and destroy everything again

shigaraki can must should and WILL end the series by finally destroying mt fuji and all the heroes going "okay we should have seen that coming" right before getting idk exploded or melted or whatever happens with someone destroys mt fuji.

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

So something a lot of Stans claim is that apparently Katsuki constantly needs to be saved by Izuku and that hurts his development. I don’t understand this. I can only think of a single time Izuku saved Katsuki and it was when he got kidnapped by the LoV. After that, Katsuki’s been the one to come to the rescue. During the War Arc, he saves Izuku and not only survives his injuries with no complications, but he gains a power up. He loses against Tomura but Izuku doesn’t bail him out. It’s Edgeshot and Best Jeanist that do. Izuku literally arrives to be upstaged by Katsuki YET AGAIN who not only cheats death in the dumbest way possible and is completely fine (seriously, how did his broken arm heal?), but he gains yet ANOTHER power up and is allowed to fight the Big Bad of the series while Izuku still needs to wait to even properly fight someone. If anything, Katsuki’s hurting Izuku’s character.

[kitsunefyuu]

Headcanon for AFO - @psychomurderz

I also agree that he seems like someone that grew up too young likely as a result of caring for his little brother. As well as the climate during the Dawn of Quirks so there weren't any other families as even he mentioned as such in the flashback.

The comics he read with his little brother was likely an escape from reality thus why he clung to them. Until he realized his favorite character wasn't going to live. As likely he considered himself the 'badguy' before even becoming bad. Living in such an environment is likely to create someone with a more black-and-white view.

Also it one of those things where you never learn to rely on others or ask for help either. Which is likely why everyone at arm's length as never learned to be genuinely help.

However, like you I believe he wanted to do GOOD. So to speak considering the environment he likely was seeking control as a way to help. To protect himself and his only family was his first priority but his followers, while second, he did also want to protect. As it seems they genuinely adore him so I feel he does show something like genuine care.

But the reality is cruel. It isn't like the comics where 'heroes' and 'good intentions' win out. People will die, people will betray him, and the more failures the more he hardens himself. Just a bit more, just a little more and he will come out on top.

While his little brother can only see that this whole organization is TWISTING the brother he cared about. Or maybe he was always this twisted. The smiles his brother had weren't genuine but his brother was obsessed with his idea. He refused to stop but instead got paranoid of his brother's well-being.

Leading to him shutting his brother into a vault, literally! In his mind it likely because he thinks he can fix their relationship after. That everything would be ok as long as doesn't get emotional about it.

Then his brother escapes... Then he dies but not just die. It is very much his own fault and likely it is what killed most of his humanity.

Like his soul had just been scooped out just running on autopilot toward a goal that likely felt hollow. Pursuing the quirk, the only remaining piece of his little brother. Even if likely didn't fully understand about vestige it all he got.

This man feels like he basically lived as a corpse likely the doctor's research helped him keep going but might have wanted to quit. 200-years is a long time for someone who is in fact human. He wished to be dehumanized, to be seen as a monster, because then they won't attack the things he cares about. Then he become a real one when had nothing.

...Which makes the DFO theory if it is true, be something he hadn't expected to occur. In Izuku's name, he was called the long-awaited son just like Hisashi's name is a long time ago. Likely it was started with evil intentions if Inko a Shimura, he likely thought he could bail-

Only to realize no. He can't just give them up and that likely is terrifying as well as joyful. For a man who had thought he lost his humanity, that all he wanted was his brother's quirk and world domination. NOW there is a purpose beyond that.

And it's why he got Tomura and became active. And the hatred he feels for All Might only growing.

He's a lost, delusional, and unhappy man. Who is seeking his own happiness desperately but at the same time blind to it. Instead causing more harm and pain even to loved ones because is too selfish to give up anything.

And I'm excited to learn more about this man.

[that-spider-fan-over-there]

Read a Twitter thread a few days ago how Katsuki, Izuku and Tomura are meant to be the pillars of hope and change for hero society (by Kikibats, go check her out, the thread is her pinned tweet), and that got me thinking about Tomura's birth name, so I looked up the kanji for his name (志村 転弧, for those curious), and I wanted to share.

(someone probably already did make this connection and worded it better but screw it we bail let's go-)

Kikibats' thread has mentioned what "Shimura" could have originally meant In-Universe, especially "Mura", so it's about a paragraph short, because I'm writing what it could mean in the story as it is (again, In-Universe):

So from the name Shimura Tenko, we have:

Shi (志):

"Determination, ambition, intent", which Tenko does have, arguably even more than Izuku has (I mean, running around barely sleeping while facing Gigantomachia for three months? spending four months in a tube and resurrecting by sheer anger?), but ambitious is after realizing his convictions and intends to carry on the League's. It can also refer to “will” as in willpower, the one trait AFO doesn't have, and the reason he was selected as his vessel.

Mura (村):

Mentioned in her thread, but "Village", could be an ironic spin on “it takes a village to raise a child”, since after his family's death no one was willing to take him in, and the one who did only did so to groom him into a monster. It could also refer to a heroic trait he has (yes, even as he was annoyed at Toya and Himiko when he first met them): taking people in when he thinks they're lonely, have been rejected, wronged by society and wanting to carry on their convictions, which leads to:

Ten (転):

a verb; "to shift", and sure enough, he's the one who created the Vanguard Action Squad with the purpose of kidnapping Katsuki, setting off the Kamino Incident and shifting the status quo of society. You could argue he has been since the USJ but no one really feared him until Stain came along. Tomura is also one of the characters whose goals and motivations develop the most through the story.

It can also mean "to turn", from changed from the sweet kid who wanted to play heroes with his friends, to a symbol of fear. And physically, he's the willing participant in Dr. Garaki's body experimentation and his body is constantly shapeshifted depending on his (and AFO's) mental state.

Finally, “Ko” (弧):

The kanji for “arc”, which is admittedly very vague and it could mean nothing, but.

It could refer to the arc he goes through.

From a kid playing with those others ignored who wanted to be a hero, to being groomed into the Symbol of Evil('s puppet), which eventually unravels once he becomes powerful enough to fight Izuku, resulting in the reveal that in spite of all what he’s been through, he’s still that kid willing to extend his hand (well, in a metaphorical way) for those who want/need someone to rely on. Someone who wants to be the LoV's hero.

Not quite a full circle, but still not too far off from his beginning.

A bonus point, since we (readers and watchers who like to read the raws/watch subbed anime) use "Ko" we usually think of "子" as in komodo, the kanji for "kid", this one abandoned by a complacent village. And remember since Izuku wants to offer him a hand, a crying lonely child in need of a hero. With AFO taking control of him, while Izuku (and most of Class 1-A) trying to save him, wouldn't it be neat to see Tomura choosing to take Izuku's hand, especially someone whose identity was forcefully defined by a touch of death?

Not quite the same innocent kid, but still the kid who wanted to be a hero for those left behind.

Would be fitting for this arc to come full circle, wouldn't it?

[scary-grace]

Love Like Ghosts (Chapter 6) - a Shigaraki x f!Reader fic

You knew the empty house in a quiet neighborhood was too good to be true, but you were so desperate to get out of your tiny apartment that you didn't care, and now you find yourself sharing space with something inhuman and immensely powerful. As you struggle to coexist with a ghost whose intentions you're unsure of, you find yourself drawn unwillingly into the upside world of spirits and conjurers, and becoming part of a neighborhood whose existence depends on your house staying exactly as it is, forever. But ghosts can change, just like people can. And as your feelings and your ghost's become more complex and intertwined, everything else begins to crumble. (cross-posted to Ao3)

Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Chapter 6

There’s something wrong with your house, but you knew that when you bought it. And to your dull human senses, what’s wrong with your house barely stands out on your street. You barely stand out on y our street anymore, either. Other people avoid this neighborhood. It’s not uncommon for everybody’s mail and packages to get dumped in a pile at the top of the street, because no postal worker wants to drive down this way if they can help it. But you’ve been here long enough now. Your neighborhood feels like home. Everybody here knows your name.

Shinsou and Hizashi are trying to start a garden, so you bring over some of your plants to help get them started. Keigo is teaching Jin to drive, and neither of them can get the hang of parallel parking, so you help out by shouting instructions from the curb as Jin tries not to murder your car or Aizawa’s while backing Keigo’s in. Sometimes you take Atsuhiro with you when you go grocery shopping, at Aizawa’s request – Atsuhiro has a shoplifting problem, and everyone else is tired of bailing him out of jail. And in the most awkward incident yet, Himiko gets her first period while Jin’s mom is at work and runs shrieking up the street to your house.

It’s your day off, but you’re in the bathroom when she arrives, so Tomura goes out onto the porch instead. Tomura’s not the person you want addressing a sensitive topic. When you finally make it out there, he’s in the middle of speculating that the unexplained blood loss means Himiko is going to die.

She looks close to tears, and you decide to address the biggest problem first. “You’re not going to die,” you tell her. Then you turn to Tomura. “And you – get out of here. This is girl stuff.”

Usually the threat of girl stuff banishes Tomura pretty quickly, but he doesn’t move. “Humans die from blood loss.”

“This isn’t that kind of blood loss. Shoo.”

Himiko ghost-blinks up at you through teary eyes. “It’s not?”

You shake your head. “It’s normal. Have you been feeling okay these last few days?”

“My stomach hurts. Since Friday.” Himiko’s mouth turns down at the corners. “Ochako at school says I’ve been mean.”

PMS is bad enough when you know it’s coming, but Himiko’s a former ghost, and her favorite human is a guy. She’s probably never seen this before. “Okay,” you say. “You should probably ask Jin’s mom more about this when she gets home. This is kind of a mom thing. But you’re not dying. You just got your period. It’s normal.”

“For humans.”

“Yep.

“Do you have one?”

“Not right now,” you say. You feel a little weird talking about this in front of Tomura. “Every month, though. I’m going to give you some pads to take with you, and you can borrow my heating pad. I’d invite you in, but –”

“Tomura’s a boy and he’s gross.”

“Hey!”

“Right,” you say, ignoring him. “Just a second.”

You duck back inside, pick up an unopened package of pads, and retrieve your heating pad from the medicine cabinet. When you get back to the porch, Tomura’s still there. He and Himiko are staring at each other. Neither of them are making a sound, but you get the sense that they’re talking. Spinner said the ghosts say weird things when they talk to each other, but he must have been eavesdropping on a conversation out loud. You’ve got no idea what Himiko and Tomura are saying to each other, and you have to clear your throat twice before either of them turn their attention back to you. And when they do, their expressions are different than you’d expect. Tomura looks uncomfortable, defensive. Himiko, still a little teary-eyed, looks pleased with herself. Why?

Whatever it is, you’ll have more luck getting it out of Tomura than her. “Here are the pads,” you say, holding them out. “You probably won’t go through them too fast, and when your mom gets back she can help you pick some out. And the heating pad is good for cramps. Put it on your stomach or your lower back, whichever feels worse.”

“Okay.” Himiko wipes her eyes, then smiles at you. “You’re nice. Are you old enough to be a mom?”

“I mean, probably?” A few of your friends from college have kids now. “Not old enough to be your mom, though. Why?”

“No reason.” Himiko turns and makes her way down the porch steps, staggering a bit like you do when you get hit with a bad cramp. “Thanks.”

“If you need anything else before your mom comes back, come over,” you say. You wait until she’s out of sight, then turn your attention to Tomura. “What was that about?”

“She asked if I like you like a mom.” Tomura looks like he wants to hurl. “I said no, and then she asked if I like you like she likes Jin, or like Eri likes Shinsou.”

“And you said no?”

“I said yes,” Tomura says, and your heart sinks – but only for a second. “The little brat can still read auras. She knew I was lying.”

It’s on the tip of your tongue to ask him what he lied about, but then you realize you already know. Himiko eliminated two of the three varieties of ghost-human relationships in the neighborhood – sibling-sibling and parent-child. That leaves two options, neither of which you like. Either Tomura likes you the way Hizashi likes Aizawa and Dabi used to like Keigo, or he doesn’t like you at all.

You should leave it. You should drop the topic and back away slowly. Instead you open your mouth. “Why did you lie to her?”

“What I do with my human is none of her business. Or anyone else’s.” Tomura is dematerializing. Now he’s just a voice and a pair of hands gripping the porch railing so hard that you’re worried it’ll snap. “Go away.”

Fine. You tell yourself it’s fine, that you’ll go, but your feet stay stubbornly planted until your phone rings from somewhere inside the house and you have to go back to retrieve it. Aizawa’s calling, and when you pick up, he starts talking without greeting you first. “Your job gives you access to public records. I’m going to give you a list of names.”

“I can’t just –”

Aizawa starts reading them off, proving that the ghosts aren’t the only ones in the neighborhood who can be assholes in the bargain, and you scramble for a pen and a piece of paper. Phantom is prodding you in the ankle with her snout, looking for a treat. “Hang on a second,” you snap at Aizawa. “I need to write this down.”

A piece of paper skids across the counter towards you, followed by a pen. “Thanks,” you say to Tomura. Then, to Aizawa: “Start at the beginning. The first name was?”

There are seven names on the list. They’re all men’s names. “I want all the information you can find,” Aizawa says. “As quickly as you can find it.”

“This is public record,” you complain. “Make a records request. This is my job. I’m not going to get in trouble just so you can avoid some paperwork.”

“It’s not the paperwork,” Aizawa says flatly. “If I make that request, my name and address become public. You’re the only one in the neighborhood who can look without giving us away.”

The neighborhood. You thought this was just some project of Aizawa’s, but – “Who are these people?”

“That’s what you need to find out,” Aizawa says. “As soon as possible.”

He hangs up the phone without saying thank you, and you look down at the piece of paper and the names you scribbled. Your handwriting is bad. You need to recopy them. “So that’s it?” Tomura says from the other side of the kitchen. He’s barely an outline. “Aizawa calls and you jump to it? Pathetic.”

You ignore him. What he says, at least. “Do you know any of these names?”

“Why would I know them?”

“Just look.” You hold out the list, and Tomura drifts across the kitchen to investigate. “I don’t know why he wants me to look these up. He made it sound really important. Do any of these look familiar?”

“No.” Tomura’s hand materializes fully, plucks the list out of your grip, and sets it down on the counter. “I wasn’t done with you.”

“You told me to go away,” you say. “I listened.”

It’s like you didn’t speak at all. The rest of Tomura materializes, from the tips of his fingers upward, until he’s standing before you, closer than he’s gotten in a while. “You asked me what I want. I know now.”

You can’t remember ever putting that question to him – according to Aizawa, asking ghosts open-ended questions like that is a really bad idea. But because you’re you, and you’re stupid, you ask it again. “What do you want, Tomura?”

A pair of cold hands close on your waist. Tomura pulls you forward so hard that you stumble, falling against his chest. “You’re mine,” he says. “I want you.”

A jolt goes straight down your spine. You’ve heard that note in his voice once before and imagined it a thousand times over, but hearing it again right now feels like a disaster. “Be specific,” you say, looking anywhere but up into his face. “What specifically do you –”

One hand leaves your waist to press against your jaw, forcing you to turn your head and look up. A moment later Tomura’s lips crash down against yours.

He kisses exactly the way you’d expect him to kiss, the way of someone who’s seen it in movies but never asked anyone how it’s done. Mouth closed, all pressure, nothing else. He’s not going to let you go, so you hold still, hoping Tomura will take some kind of hint that it’s not going as plan. Tomura stops and draws back, frowning. “You aren’t doing it back.”

“I can’t when you’re doing it like that,” you say. “You’re doing it wrong.”

“I’m not doing it wrong. You’re doing it wrong.”

“Hey. I’ve kissed somebody before. You’ve just watched it on TV.” You feel Tomura’s grip on you loosen slightly. This is your chance to escape, to tell him that you’re not interested, to threaten to move out if he ever tries this again and maybe mean it. “It’s more fun if you do it right.”

Tomura looks at you suspiciously. “How do I do it right?”

Some part of your mind that’s still sane, that still exists in the real world instead of the twisted upside-down haunt of your house and your neighborhood, is screaming for you to stop, but it’s fading fast. You let it go. You free your hands from where they’re trapped at your sides and frame Tomura’s face with them. “I’ll show you.”

You start with a gentle kiss, mouth closed but soft, and because Tomura’s an asshole, he starts arguing even before you’ve pulled away. “That’s what I did.”

“No, you did it too hard.” You kiss him the same way again, trying to get the point across. “You can still talk when I do it like this, which means you can respond.”

Tomura’s scowling now, but he leans in to kiss you again, and this time the pressure is significantly less. His lips are chapped. You part your lips against his, catching on his lower lip, and he startles. You wonder if anybody else in the neighborhood had to teach their undersocialized ghost how to kiss properly. Probably not.

Tomura’s fatal flaw with kissing is overenthusiasm. As soon as he figures out that opening his mouth is a thing he can do, he overdoes it. The only reason it’s not horrendous is because his mouth tastes like nothing, and it’s almost sandpaper-dry. You let go of his face, put your hands on his shoulders, and give a few shoves until he pulls back. “No.”

“I like it,” Tomura says defiantly. He does. That patchy flush is all over his face. “I don’t care if you do.”

“You should,” you say, and you fall back on a negotiating tactic from forever ago. “If you’re good at it, I’ll want to kiss you more.”

You’ve tried this tactic on human men before. Human men usually convince themselves that you’re playing hard to get and go right back to the vacuum-cleaner technique they were using. But Tomura looks like he’s thinking about it, so you try to sweeten the deal. “I’ll show you,” you say, and he’s already leaning in.

Part of you is still aware that this is a mistake. You won’t be able to turn back the clock on this incident the way you could with the last one. You can’t pretend that this is all for Tomura, that it’s got nothing to do with you, when you’re the one who won’t settle for less than a good kiss. You’re the one who keeps trying to get a reaction out of him, trying to put him back at the mercy of his body just like he was before, and there’s something heady and intoxicating about the fact that it’s working. Tomura’s breathing comes in sharp gasps, and yours isn’t doing much better – but it’s normal for you. “Why do you do that?” you ask, pulling away. Tomura lets out a frustrated whine and leans in again, but you stay just out of reach. “Breathing like that. You don’t need to breathe.”

“I can’t – help it.” Tomura’s shoulders heave beneath your hands. He claws at your hips, trying to pull you back. “Come on. I need it. I need it. I can’t go back like this.”

You’re still out of kissing range, but your hips are locked against his, and you can feel that he’s hard. It surprises you, although it shouldn’t. You got to him before by touching his hand. This is a lot more stimulation than that. You study him, your heart racing, taking in his dilated pupils, his flushed face. The scars over his lip and eye stand out in sharp relief. His skin is shiny, sweaty. You were right in all your daydreams about how desire looks on him. It looks good.

It looks good, and he looks desperate. “Don’t stare at me. Why are you staring at me?”

“You’re pretty,” you say without thinking. You lean in and kiss him again before he can complain about it.

The plan is to keep kissing him until he comes and dematerializes, but you like the sounds he’s making too much to keep muffling them. You duck away from his kiss and start kissing his neck instead, lips moving over the same spot he usually scratches. “Hey,” Tomura complains. “What are you doing? I – ah –”

He grinds against you, groans, and you realize you have a problem. You’re at least as turned on as Tomura is, only you can’t get off from just a kiss. He gets to dematerialize as soon as he comes, and after that you’ll be stuck. You decide that���s a problem for later. You’re busy. A second after you have that thought, Tomura loses patience. He pushes you back against the counter, pinning you in place as his hips jerk in brief, unpracticed thrusts. You keep kissing his neck. If he was human, he’d be walking around with love bites. That thought shouldn’t turn you on, but it does, and it occurs to you that Tomura’s possessiveness runs the other way, too. You’re his human, sure. But he’s nobody’s ghost but yours.

“I can’t,” Tomura gasps. He’s starting to dematerialize. “I can’t. Not yet –”

If he dematerializes while he’s still turned on, the entire street’s going to be pissed off at you for however long it takes him to materialize again. You back off from kissing Tomura’s neck and kiss his mouth again, as he moans and struggles for air he doesn’t need. Suddenly his back arches, pinning you harder than before, and you hold on tight as he shudders. It doesn’t matter how tightly you hold onto him. He’s already dematerializing, slipping away, just like you knew he would. The warm air rushes in once he’s gone.

One of the perks of having a ghost in the house is that the house is never too warm. Now, with said ghost too zapped to materialize, it’s way too warm in the kitchen, and even that isn’t enough to change how ridiculously turned on you are. You could stick your head in the refrigerator and try to calm down, but the idea of doing that pisses you off. Tomura got to get off to your weird but still hot kitchen makeout. So should you.

Some sense of propriety motivates you not to just stick your hand down your pants in the kitchen. You make your way to your bedroom upstairs, and this time, you settle onto the bed instead of the floor. This time, you don’t have to go to your imagination for something to fantasize to. You’ve got the memory of the absolute mess that occurred in the kitchen to keep you focused, and honestly, you’re so shamefully hot over it that you barely need to fantasize at all.

Your mind floods with a replay of the insistent pressure of Tomura’s mouth against yours, the uneven roll of his hips, and remembering the needy sounds he made makes your muscles clench tight in response. You have both hands between your legs, one teasing your clit while the other presses two fingers inside, crooking at an angle that’s never easy to reach on your own. If somebody else, somebody with longer fingers, somebody poised above you or settled between your legs – once you let that thought into your mind, it’s all over. You come so fast you’re almost embarrassed by it. Almost.

You’re lying on your bed, catching your breath, when the temperature of your room begins to change. Tomura’s voice, barely a whisper, snakes through the air. “I saw that.”

Your face heats up, but you’re already flushed, so it doesn’t matter. “So?”

“I want that next time.”

You’re not sure how you feel about Tomura’s assumption that there’s going to be a next time. But there’s a bigger problem. “Based on what I felt this time, you don’t really have the equipment for that.”

“Don’t be stupid. I want you to do this next time when I do.” The temperature of the room settles into the low chill you’ve become familiar with, but the cold spot itself is on the bed next to you, inching closer. “Or I can do it.”

You can’t think about that. Not right now, anyway. “Nobody’s doing anything right now. I don’t even want to know what you already drained to make this happen.” A terrible thought occurs to you. “Phantom! Where –”

“Don’t be stupid,” Tomura says again. You can hear Phantom scratching at the door and whining. She knows you and Tomura are both in here and she wants to know why she’s being left out. “I wouldn’t touch her. I used some plants.”

“Not the ones –”

“Not the ones you like.” If Tomura was materialized, he’d be rolling his eyes. “They all look the same anyway.”

“They don’t all look the same.” You sit up and swing your legs off the bed. “Stupid.”

Tomura makes an indignant sound, but you ignore him as you head to the bathroom to wash your hands. You’d expect things to be weird, so it’s a surprise to you how normal things feel. Normal except for the fact that Tomura’s in your room instead of lurking somewhere else in the house. So normal, in fact, that you find yourself dealing with a problem you’ve had since you found out you had a ghost. “You’re still not allowed in the bathroom when I’m in here.”

“You’re not even doing anything!”

You know you’re going to have to deal with the fallout from the kitchen makeout later. But it’ll be a while before Tomura can materialize again, and until that happens, you’re not going to think about it at all. “I don’t care. Get out.”

You were hoping you dealt with Tomura fast enough that none of the other adult ghosts caught on, but you’re not that lucky. When you leave the house the next morning to get in your car for the drive to work, Hizashi’s right out front on the sidewalk, holding a jar of fresh bugs as far from his body as humanly possible. When he sees you, he pushes it into your hands and backs away. “You know,” he says, and winks. “For later.”

You cringe and duck into your car, but a moment later, Keigo calls out to you from across the street. “Hey, can I get a ride to work? My car’s out of commission.”

“It looks okay,” you say – and then you realize it’s noticeably sinking on one side. “The tires.”

“Yep. Do you mind?”

“Nope.” You move your work bag to the backseat to make room, and look back up front just in time for a balled-up piece of paper to hit the windshield. It could only have come from one direction, and when you look up, you spot Tomura on the porch, barely materialized. “What was that?”

“Your dumb list.”

“The one Shou gave you?” Hizashi still hasn’t left, and he watches you closely as you pull the piece of paper into the car and un-crumple it. “Good. Let him know as soon as you find anything.”

“Sorry. Gotta move.” Keigo eases past Hizashi and hops into the passenger seat. You start the car and back out into the street a little faster than necessary.

You’re driving fast, but not fast enough to get past Spinner’s house before Magne steps out the front door. She waves at you, smirking, and gives a thumbs-up. You wave back, still cringing, and Keigo notices. He reclines his seat with a yawn. “Big night, huh?”

You hit your head against the steering wheel when you reach the stop sign at the top of the street. “Does everybody know?”

“Probably. He’s too powerful. Every time his mood changes, the whole street feels it.” Keigo shrugs. “Also, your whole front lawn is dead.”

You didn’t even notice. “Great,” you mumble. “Think he’ll tone it down if I ask him to?”

“You know him better than me,” Keigo says. He yawns a second time. “He seems like he cares about what you want. He made sure you didn’t forget your list when you left. Dabi, for comparison, snuck out of the house and slashed my tires before I woke up. You definitely got the better ghost.”

“Sorry about your tires,” you say, for lack of anything better. Keigo shrugs again. “Can I ask you about the list? Aizawa was cagey about it on the phone.”

“Sure.” Keigo spends a few minutes smoothing out the wrinkles in the piece of paper. You sneak looks at him out of the corner of your eye, and you don’t miss the way his eyes widen. “I don’t know most of these names. I know this one, though – Garaki Kyudai. He’s a conjurer. Touya’s conjurer.”

“What?” You stare at Keigo once you’re safely at a stoplight. “Touya’s conjurer is alive?”

“Most of them are,” Keigo says. He looks pale. “If Aizawa and Hizashi have that name, they know something we don’t.”

“Then they should tell us,” you say. Keigo looks worried. You’re not worried, maybe because you don’t know enough to be worried, maybe because Tomura didn’t recognize any of the names on the list. “Aizawa and Hizashi don’t get to hide things from the rest of us just because they’re the oldest.”

Keigo nods. “Do the research they asked for. Today,” he says. “Don’t give it to them until they level with us.”

“Sounds good.” Us could be you and Keigo. Us could also be the entire neighborhood, which is fine. If it concerns conjurers, it concerns the entire neighborhood, and everyone should know. But this is going to involve you saying no to Aizawa, who you owe big-time, and to Hizashi, who still sort of terrifies you. “Um, so I think I’m going to wait to say no until I’m in my yard.”

“Yeah, that’s probably smart,” Keigo agrees. “Hizashi won’t get into it with Tomura. Can you imagine if Hizashi was still incorporeal, though? That would be a hell of a fight.”

“Ghosts fight?”

“Yeah, big-time. Dabi’s old house – the one I moved into, like a moron – had a bunch of ghosts in it. It got crazy in there.”

Sharing a house with one ghost is chaotic enough. You can’t imagine a house with multiple ghosts, let alone multiple ghosts who are fighting with each other. You wonder if Tomura’s ever fought another ghost, and if so, how it went. He probably hasn’t. He’s picky enough with who he lets onto the property to begin with. No way he’d let another ghost in just to fight.

You park your car in the lot at the courthouse, and you and Keigo go your separate ways – you to the public defenders’ office in the courthouse’s lower levels, Keigo to the police station. He’s a social worker, not a cop, and he usually goes out on mental health calls. The two of you plan to meet after work, go over what you found, and book it into your respective houses once you get back to the neighborhood to minimize the chances that Aizawa or Hizashi will corner you. It’s only nine am on Monday and you’re already tired.

You didn’t sleep well last night. Part of it was still being sort of turned on and not being able to do anything about – not now that you know Tomura’s watching. And Tomura was watching. He’s been leaving you alone at night for the most part, but last night he was back to hanging out in the corner of your room. At least, you think he stayed in the corner of your room. At some point you woke up shivering, and you could have sworn he was on the bed with you, draped over you in some weird position that humans definitely don’t sleep in. But that could have been a dream. You’re hoping it was a dream. You don’t know what you’ll do if it wasn’t.

You’ve got no idea what Tomura thinks is going on between the two of you. He didn’t talk to you this morning. He usually doesn’t – you’re busy, and he doesn’t like it when you multitask while talking to him, and after you explained what will happen if you can’t pay your mortgage he’s stopped interfering with you going to work. But he was there. You could feel him there, shadowing your every move, close in a way that would be impossible to work around if he was human. Something’s changed in your relationship, and he wanted it that way. You can’t pretend you didn’t want it, too. But as you make coffee and take off your coat and go through your inbox, you realize you have no idea what you’ll be walking into when you get home.

You know you’ll be walking into it with the information Aizawa asked you to gather, though. You take the list out of your pocket and think things through. Technically you could get into the records database on your own, but you’re a paralegal, not a lawyer – people will be likely to question what you’re doing in there, which means you need cover. And you know just who to go to for help. Mr. Yagi likes that you’re thorough, that you check every angle when you have the time for it. If you ask his permission to get into the database, he won’t say no. You pocket the list again, square your shoulders, throw down your coffee, and go to his office.

The door’s ajar, like usual, but you knock anyway. “Come in,” Mr. Yagi says. He’s hunched over a document on his desk, marking it up in red pen. “I hate to start your morning off with editing, but this will need to be done by noon.”

“No problem,” you say. You can type fast. “Sir, I was wondering if I could log into the records database today.”

“You don’t need my permission for that, my dear,” Mr. Yagi says without looking up. “But you have it, of course. What do you –”

He looks up at you at last and bursts into a coughing fit. It’s a bad one. You duck out into the bullpen, fill a cup from the water cooler, and race back in with it, pushing it into his hands. Mr. Yagi takes small sips, but every time he looks at you, the coughing kicks up again. Something is dawning on you, something you don’t like, something about what Mr. Yagi said and did at the housewarming party. “Sir? Is there something wrong?”

“It’s all over you,” Mr. Yagi says, and your stomach lurches. “What happened?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” you stammer. You can feel your face heating up, and it gets worse when Mr. Yagi reaches into his desk and extracts a UV light wand. “Um –”

He switches it on and pans it over you, and suddenly you understand. There are handprints. Tomura’s handprints, on your shoulders, on your waist, along your jaw, invisible without the light but in stark relief under it. You were worried that the light was going to show ghost cum splattered on your skin, even though you showered and changed clothes twice since yesterday, but this might actually be worse. This looks like you were handled. It looks like you liked it.

Could Hizashi see this, and Magne? Did Tomura do it on purpose? Now that you think about it, you’re sure he did it on purpose. He’s been possessive of you since the beginning. Of course he’d mark you as his own the first chance he got, even if the only people who can see the marks are the other ghosts. If Keigo could see them, you’re pretty sure he’d have given you a heads-up.

But Mr. Yagi could see them without the UV light. And Mr. Yagi knew Tomura was there before you did, saw Tomura before you did. You stare hard at your boss, at his eyes. His eyes are bright blue, and their pupils are round, like they should be. But there’s a faint shadow around his irises in both eyes. You realize, with another lurch in the pit of your stomach, that you’ve never seen your boss blink.

“You’re one of them,” you say. It isn’t a question.

Mr. Yagi sighs. “I’ve been human long enough that my powers have faded. The contacts are enough to hide behind. But no former spirit, no matter how distant they are from their origins, could fail to spot that.” He gestures at you and you cringe. “Were you – aware of this as it happened? Did you consent to it?”

Your eyes well up suddenly, and Mr. Yagi panics, knocking over his cup of water onto his desk. You move to mop it up while he tries to hand you tissues, and in the chaos, it takes you a while to recognize the emotion you’re feeling as shame. What happened yesterday wasn’t out of the ordinary in your neighborhood. Keigo barely blinked when he found out, and Hizashi and Magne were teasing you, not mocking you. Hooking up with a ghost is a semi-normal thing to do in the world you live in now. But it’s not normal here. The way Mr. Yagi asked the question made it clear that he thinks nobody sane would do what you did yesterday. You feel like you’re going to be sick.

Mr. Yagi gives up on the tissues and hands you a handkerchief from his pocket instead. “I will get you out of there,” he says. “You can stay with my family and I, for as long as it takes for you to find your feet. You don’t have to stay –”

“It was consensual.” You force the words out of your mouth. Somewhere in the back of your mind it occurs to you that this conversation is wildly inappropriate for work. HR-reportable levels of inappropriate for work. “I’m fine. I don’t want to leave. Can I get into the database or not?”

“If you’re fine, why are you crying?”

Because you weren’t ashamed before and now you are. “I’ll have the brief retyped by noon. The database –”

“Why do you need it?”

It crosses your mind to lie, but there’s no need. Mr. Yagi is a former ghost. If you explain, he’ll understand. You draw the list out of your pocket. “These are the names of conjurers. I think. I need to get into the database to find out everything I can about them.”

Mr. Yagi takes the list, scans it, and immediately starts coughing again. You head out to the water cooler for the second time in five minutes. By the time you get back, Mr. Yagi is back at his desk, scribbling furiously on the list. You set the water down next to him and he ignores it. “This man is dead,” he says, and draws a line through the name – Akaguro Chizome. “Chisaki Kai – also dead, and recently. Ujiko Daruma is an alias of Garaki Kyudai. Which of the names is his true one, I can’t say.”

You stare at him. He continues to write, drawing circles around the remaining three names. “Garaki is worth locating, but concentrate your efforts on these three. They may be three different people or they may all be aliases of the same man. Who gave you this list?”

Some instinct makes you hold back Aizawa’s name. “Why do you need to know?”

“If they’re planning to hunt conjurers, I have some advice that might make the endeavor less dangerous.”

“Hunt them?” you repeat. “No. They wouldn’t. That’s not what – um.”

Mr. Yagi is looking at you, waiting for an explanation, but you don’t know how much to say. Your neighborhood might be sort of friendly, but there’s at least one murderer in every house except yours, and your boss is a lawyer. A lawyer, not a cop. And if he’s embodied, he’s killed someone, too. Based on your expression, he knows what you’re thinking. “Type the brief, then conduct your research. We’ll meet for lunch to discuss it.”

“Yes, sir.” Lunch is three hours away. You’ve got exactly that long to come up with a plan.

You text Keigo in between typing paragraphs of the brief. My boss is a ghost and he knows about the list. What do I do?

For real? I’ve never met one in the wild. Keigo texts back way too fast for somebody who’s supposed to be at work. You say so and get an eyeroll in response. I’m a crisis responder. If nobody’s in crisis I don’t go out. Did he have ideas?

He knew the names. I’m supposed to meet him at lunch to talk about it. You get an idea. If you’re still around at noon, come meet us.

Keigo sends a thumbs-up and you throw yourself into typing the brief. You print it and return it to Mr. Yagi, swapping it for the list of names. Then you settle in at your computer again, considering where to start. Mr. Yagi seems like he knows what he’s talking about, but it won’t hurt to double-check.

You start with the first name he crossed out. Akaguro Chizome has been dead for a while. Twenty years, almost, and he died from blunt force trauma that crushed his skull to powder. You wonder which ghost did that, if it was even a ghost that did it. There’s not much on him. Just an autopsy report. There’s a lot more on Chisaki Kai, when you look him up. Death certificate, police report, interviews. Interviews. You dig into those, and the name at the top of the first one stuns you into stillness: Aizawa Shouta.

The next interviewee is Shinsou Hitoshi, and after him, Aizawa Eri. The only name that’s missing is Hizashi’s, and slowly the pieces start to come together in your head. Chisaki’s remains were so splattered that he wasn’t identified until long after the investigation was closed. Hizashi wouldn’t have cared what Eri’s conjurer’s name was when he killed him, and as long as he was gone, Aizawa wouldn’t have cared, either. His name is still on their list because they never found out who he really was.

Chisaki’s cause of death was internal organ rupture – all of them, all at once. How the hell did Hizashi do that when he was already human? Probably the same way Dabi still burns Keigo – the stronger they are, the more of their powers they keep when they embody themselves. However Hizashi killed humans as a ghost, it must have been nasty. Really nasty.

You tell yourself not to think about that. The important thing is that Mr. Yagi is a credible source. You can take his advice on this. You borrow the computer at the desk next to yours – your coworker’s on maternity leave, leaving you with triple the workload in the bargain – and pull up a second database window. Then you set two searches to run simultaneously. One for Garaki Kyudai, since you want to have some information to give Keigo when you see him. And one for the first of the three circled names: Shigaraki Akira.

The Garaki search finishes fastest, and you print what you’ve got, then rerun the search for Ujiko Daruma. The search for Shigaraki is much more difficult. It’s not a common name, so while there will be fewer documents, they should be easier to find. They aren’t. You turn up some documents for a Shigaraki Yoichi, all of which mention an older brother, but the older brother’s name never comes up. You rerun the search, this time for Shigaraki Yoichi, wondering all the while if it’s futile. These documents are two hundred years old or more. These people, whoever they are, are long dead.

There’s more on Shigaraki Yoichi than Shigaraki Akira. Shigaraki Yoichi had a really shitty life. He was chronically ill at a time when regular illness was still too hard for most doctors to handle, and his mind wasn’t doing too great, either. He died when he was your age, in a mental hospital. Suicide.

At least, it was thought to be a suicide. The medical examiner’s report inserts some doubt into the equation, but it’s noted specifically that the family of Shigaraki Yoichi chose not to press charges against the asylum for his death. There’s a note about the family members – the ones who came to visit, and the one who identified the body. Mother: in a fragile state. Father: deceased. Sister: absent. Body was identified by deceased’s elder brother Akira.

“Got you,” you mumble, and hit print. Now you’ve got proof that there was somebody out there named Shigaraki Akira – and when you scan the list again, you spot the first name of the next name on the list. Kiriyama Yoichi. It could be a coincidence, but you’re pretty sure the asshole jacked his dead brother’s name. “Nice try. I’ve got you now.”

There’s more on Kiriyama Yoichi, but while that search is running, you look up the asylum Shigaraki Yoichi died in. Sure enough, it’s been shut down, but it wasn’t knocked down – it was turned into a museum. Maybe some of the documents were preserved. If they were, you’d love to read whatever Shigaraki Yoichi had to say about his brother.

You’re in the middle of writing an email to the curator when your phone rings. It’s Spinner’s contact number, which is weird. You can’t figure out why Spinner would be calling you, unless something’s gone wrong in the neighborhood. You pick up the call. “Hello?”

You hear Spinner’s voice, but it’s in the background. “Dude, give it back! Don’t go inside –”

There’s the sound of the door opening and shutting. “Phantom missed you,” Tomura says without preamble. Your jaw drops. “Say hi.”

“Hi, sweetie,” you say helplessly. You can hear her snuffling the phone. “Are you being good? Did you get in trouble?”

Phantom barks. “Good girl,” you say, and she barks again. If you were at home, you’d sit down on the floor to cuddle with her, but you’re at work – and Tomura called you. “You really should give Spinner his phone back.”

“He can have it when I’m done. If I feel like giving it back.” Tomura, you remind yourself, is still an asshole. “When are you coming back?”

“The same time I always get back,” you say. “Why did you take Spinner’s phone? Don’t lie.”

“Wanted to talk to you.” Tomura’s voice takes on an almost laughably sulky note. “What? You don’t want to talk to me?”

“I do. I just can’t believe you called me. I thought you hated phones.”

“I hate other things more than phones,” Tomura says. “Where are you, anyway?”

“I’m at my computer at work. I’m looking up things for the list.” You cast around for something else to say. “I’ll tell you about it when I get back. And I’m going to need help when I get back. Hizashi’s going to try to get it out of me, and I’m not telling anyone until they tell us what’s going on.”

“If he comes near us he’s dead,” Tomura says at once. You can hear knocking on the door in the background, and when Tomura speaks again, he’s not talking to you. “You can have it back when I’m done! Go away!”

“We’re done now. I have work to do, and if I don’t get it done, I have to stay late,” you say. Tomura makes an annoyed sound. “I don’t want to stay late and you don’t want me to, either. I –”

You slap your hand down over your mouth just in time. “What?” Tomura asks.

“I’ll talk to you later,” you say. You’re still reeling from whatever the hell almost came out of your mouth. The sooner you get off the phone, the better. “Give Spinner his phone.”

“Fine,” Tomura complains. “Say goodbye to Phantom.”

You tell her goodbye and listen to the appalling sound of her licking the microphone before Tomura hangs up. You’re going to have to apologize to Spinner when you get back. And you might have to get Tomura a phone.

You have time to finish your email to the curator and print the documents for Kiriyama Yoichi before Mr. Yagi ventures out of his office for lunch. “We’ll be going to the usual place,” he says. He nods at the folder you’re carrying. “It seems your search was fruitful.”

You nod. “One of my neighbors works nearby. Can he come with us?”

“Does he – know?”

You laugh. “He has one. A former one. Half a former one.” Mr. Yagi looks baffled, and you sigh. “I’ll let him explain.”

The lunch place is just up the street. You text Keigo to let him know you’re headed there and start the walk with Mr. Yagi. He insists on carrying your files along with his own briefcase, and all you can do is hover, waiting for him to drop one of the two. “The friend who will be joining us,” Mr. Yagi says, “is that who you were speaking with on the phone?”

“No,” you say. Mr. Yagi looks quizzically at you, but there’s no way you’re getting into it. The less you say about Tomura, the better.

When you get to the restaurant, Keigo’s there already, and he waves you and Mr. Yagi over. There’s a mischievous look on his face, and you watch it anxiously as you introduce the two of them. “Mr. Yagi, this is my neighbor across the street, Takami Keigo. And Keigo, this is my boss, Mr. Yagi.”

“Nice to meet you! And nice contacts,” Keigo says. Then he looks at you. His expression’s gone from a smile to a full-blown smirk. “So.”

“What?”

“The strangest thing happened this morning,” Keigo says. “I got a text from Dabi.”

“Dabi?”

“My – roommate,” Keigo says, modifying the sentence after you kick him under the table. “Usually Dabi’s communication style leaves something to be desired. Blighting crops and hexing people is more his speed. But today he texted me. Quite a bit. Take a look at this.”

He shows you the screen of his phone. You read, with Mr. Yagi reading over your shoulder, cringing on every line.

Dabi: do you believe this shit

Dabi: that asshole from across the street lured Spinner over to the fence like a pedo

Dabi: so then they’re talking about fuck knows what

Dabi: Spinner’s showing him his Switch

Dabi: then Spinner shows him his phone

Dabi: and that asshole fucking materializes one hand, grabs it, and hauls ass back inside

Dabi: it’s been thirty minutes and he still hasn’t given it back

Dabi: crazy shit

Mr. Yagi coughs. Keigo gives you a significant look. “Any speculations as to why Tomura stole Spinner’s phone?”

“Tomura is –”

“Her ghost.” Keigo nods at you.

“Ah,” Mr. Yagi says. “I imagine that Tomura stole the phone in order to place a call to her.”

Keigo wheezes. “He said Phantom missed me,” you say lamely.

“More like he missed you! You’re going to have to get him a phone.” Keigo misinterprets the look you’re giving him and keeps talking. “Don’t teach him how the camera works, though. I taught Touya and now I get photos.”

The last thing you want to do is teach Tomura about dick pics. If you get him a phone, it’s going to be a flip phone. Or one of the ancient ones with the keyboard that slides out. Mr. Yagi is studying Keigo carefully. “Is it true that you have a ghost? I was led to believe that there was something – odd about him.”

“Dabi? Yeah. He’s a scar wraith,” Keigo says. Mr. Yagi nods. “Do you know something about those?”

“Nothing, other than that it’s an uncomfortable state to exist in. How long has he been that way?”

“A while. Before we moved here.” Keigo focuses in on the file folder in a way that tells you he’s done talking about this. “What’s in there? Did you find anything on Garaki?”

“Here.” You pass him the relevant documents, then extract the files on Shigaraki to show to Mr. Yagi. “You were right. At least one of these is an alias. But this person – the first one on the list – was born two hundred and fifty years ago. He can’t still be alive.”

“Conjurers draw power from the world between,” Mr. Yagi says. “It allows them to exceed a natural human lifespan. But in order to draw that power, they require a conduit of some kind. Some are lucky enough to find a location that’s been consumed, in whole or in part, by the world between. Others must create their own.”

“What do you mean?” Keigo asks. “Like – well, shit. No wonder they keep coming back.”

Mr. Yagi nods. You feel like you missed something. “What?”

“The ghosts summoned by conjurers act as their conduits to the world between,” Mr. Yagi says. “When a ghost embodies itself permanently, the conduit is closed. A powerful enough conjurer will have summoned and bound many ghosts, and the loss of one or two will not trouble them. But weaker conjurers don’t have the ghosts to spare. When they lose a conduit, they come to investigate. And to punish.”

“Eri’s conjurer was weaker than the others,” you realize. “If Spinner’s right, and he was Magne’s and Atsuhiro’s too, then he lost three ghosts. He would have had to do something –”

“And he probably thought it was going to be easy until Hizashi murked him,” Keigo says. “I don’t think they even found out his name.”

“It was Chisaki Kai,” you say. “He was on the list. And he’s not the only one. Akaguro Chizome is dead, too. Do you know who killed him?”

“It is possible to kill conjurers,” Mr. Yagi says, noticeably avoiding your question. “However, it’s highly dangerous, as the conjurers are capable of harnessing ghostly power through their conduits to the world between. Humans who try to kill them often fail. I assume this Hizashi is a former ghost?”

“Probably the ghostliest former ghost, other than my idiot,” Keigo says. “If I was ranking power levels on the street, he and Dabi would be the strongest. If we’re counting former ghosts. We’ve only got one real ghost left.”

“You’ve been to my house,” you say to Mr. Yagi. “Is he really that strong?”

“Almost incalculably strong,” Mr. Yagi says. You’re weirdly proud of Tomura. “Given his presence, I’m not surprised your neighborhood has such a high concentration of ghosts. Unfortunately, such a high concentration poses a risk.”

“No, he blocks us,” Keigo says, frowning. “He blocks all of us.”

“I’m sure he does,” Mr. Yagi says. “What I mean is simply that if a conjurer discovers one of you, all of you will be compromised.”

He’s right. You hadn’t thought of that, and based on Keigo’s expression, neither had he – but Mr. Yagi is right. If a conjurer makes it past Tomura’s aura to investigate, they’ll find out that the neighborhood contains half a dozen former ghosts. “Do they talk to each other? Conjurers?”

“Some do,” Mr. Yagi says. “But all of them are able to sense the presence of ghostly power, just as ghosts are. If one finds your neighborhood –”

“We’ll just kill him,” Keigo says. “Problem solved.”

“Problem not solved. If we just kill some guy, our neighborhood will be his last known location,” you say. You’re not a lawyer, but after three years as Mr. Yagi’s paralegal, you know your way around a murder case. “We’d look guilty. And not everybody in the neighborhood can stand up to direct questioning. If the police show up we’d be in a lot of trouble.”

“We can get out of that,” Keigo says, waving his hand and accidentally attracting the attention of a server. “Now that I’ve met your boss, I know a good lawyer. Hi! We’re definitely ready to order.”

Keigo can put away food like there’s no tomorrow, but Mr. Yagi’s a slow eater, and your appetite’s taken a hit. Mr. Yagi notices. “Are you all right, my dear?”

“I’m worried,” you say. “Aizawa gave me those names yesterday, and Hizashi asked about them again this morning. Neither of them were taking no for an answer. It seems urgent. I think there’s a chance we’ve already been caught.”

“We’ve been caught. You haven’t been caught.” Keigo waves a piece of fried chicken at you. “You’ve got a live ghost. If a conjurer shows up, you’re the only person on the street who doesn’t have to worry.”

“That depends on the conjurer,” Mr. Yagi says quietly. “Conjurers lose ghosts for one reason and one reason only – permanent embodiment. Ghosts don’t embody themselves permanently without reason, and if Tomura’s conjurer were to suspect that Tomura might consider it, their wisest move would be to remove the reason why he would.”

“You’re saying Tomura’s conjurer might try to kill me,” you say. Mr. Yagi nods. “That would be stupid of them. He’d never embody himself. He likes being a ghost.”

“You sure about that?” Keigo eyes you over the rim of his soda. “I wouldn’t be. Since you two hooked up –”

“We didn’t hook up,” you say. There’s no world in which kissing constitutes hooking up. You’re not even all that sure Tomura knows what sex is, and you really don’t want to talk about it in front of your boss. You turn to your boss, pretending Keigo isn’t there. “I’m guessing a conjurer wouldn’t stop to ask. He’d just kill me. Right?”

“Yes.” Mr. Yagi sighs. “By that token, you’re perhaps the unsafest of all.”

“It’s a waste of time to decide who’s safest and unsafest,” you say. “If a conjurer shows up we’re all in trouble. Either Hizashi and Aizawa think somebody’s found us already, or – I don’t know. Maybe they’re trying to track where the other conjurers are?”

“That sounds right,” Keigo says. “If we monitor them, then we can figure out if they’re getting close, and kill them away from the neighborhood so nobody gets suspicious.”

“Let’s speak a little more quietly about this,” Mr. Yagi implores. People are starting to stare at the three of you. “Engaging with the conjurers this way should be your last resort. Stay hidden at all costs.”

“What if we have to kill someone in order to stay hidden?”

Mr. Yagi gives Keigo a look. “I’ve stayed hidden for fifteen years. Do you mean to tell me that you can’t hide better than an old man like me?”

The challenge is enough to silence Keigo on the issue – that issue, and only that issue, for the rest of lunch, until his work phone chimes. He drops his credit card on the table and bolts, and you and Mr. Yagi both stare at it for a moment. “Is he buying lunch?”

You think about some of Keigo’s bullshit today. “Yes.”

With Keigo gone, you seize the opportunity to go into a little more depth with your research. “With Kiriyama Yoichi, I need to do some more reading. Since Akira stole his brother’s name for his new identity, I’m guessing he stole a name from somebody he knew in the Kiriyama identity to generate the next alias. I’m not sure who it is, but it’ll help to find them. They almost certainly left a bigger paper trail than he has.”

You contemplate the stack of papers, then think about what your work inbox looks like. “There’s no way I can get this done before the end of the day.”

“Take it home,” Mr. Yagi says. You nod. “May I make a suggestion?”

“Please.”

“My son, Izuku, is very good at projects such as this one,” Mr. Yagi says. You’ve met Izuku. He’s simultaneously the friendliest and the most intense kid on the planet. “You won’t need to give him much background information, and he’s on summer break. Both of you can read over the information and share conclusions. Two heads are better than one.”

You nod. “In addition,” Mr. Yagi continues, “there are conjurers who do not engage in the practice of binding spirits. I’ll reach out to my contacts there and see what they know.”

“Thank you,” you say. Mr. Yagi nods, taking the last sips of his tea. “Sir, um – why are you helping me? I know I’ve been difficult the last few months. I’ve been slow. And this morning, I –”

“I’ve had no concerns with your work. And I knew all about your office demeanor when I hired you.” Mr. Yagi cracks a small, skeletal grin. Then his expression softens. “As for why I would help you, there are three reasons. First, because it’s the right thing to do. Second, because I care for you. And third, because it would have helped my wife immensely to have met someone who could explain the nature of these things, rather than having to find out on her own.”

“Oh,” you say. You weren’t sure what you were expecting him to say. Probably not that he cares about you, but it’s true, isn’t it? He’s the nicest boss you’ve ever had, and his first reaction to seeing Tomura’s marks on you was to offer to help. Even if you felt judged. Maybe the feeling of being judged was just you. “Thank you, sir. It means a lot.”

Mr. Yagi nods. “Be careful,” he tells you. “This world is more dangerous than you realize.”

You could take that as paternalistic, patronizing, if you wanted to. You’ve never doubted that the world of ghosts and conjurers was a dangerous one. The first time you learned of Tomura’s existence, it was because you saw him kill something, and even if everyone else on the street is incredibly blasé about it, you never let yourself forget the kind of neighborhood you live in. It’s almost a relief to hear Mr. Yagi’s reminder. “Don’t worry, sir,” you say. You aren’t scared of Tomura these days, but careful of the rest? Careful you can do. “I will.”

[thebnha-auhoard]

Au where for one reason or another, Class 1-A + Eraserhead and the League all end up in the past before the Overhaul Arc happens. Specifically during the Early Quirk Era.

You know. The Era when All For One was slowly gaining power.

The Era when discrimination against Metahumans was rampant.

The Era when the government was in shambles trying to deal with this new “threat.”

So that’s a great time to be in when at least half the cast has visible non-normal human traits and also have non traditional appearances. And they’re all wearing their support gear and costumes!

they’re going to get mobbed the first 4 seconds they’re spotted.

Lucky thing is that they get promptly bailed out of being beaten by a guy named Shigaraki Yoichi. Yeah his family name is the exact same name as Tomura’s but I’m sure that’s a coincidence. I’m sure it is just a coincidence. Wonder why everyone is so afraid of crossing him.

Izuku and Yoichi are going to immediately have a kinship between them but they won’t know why. They just get along well and they feel at ease with each other. Honestly helps with everyone trying to come in terms with everything.

Yoichi would be the best person to stick with if it weren’t for the fact that it turned out that Shigaraki Muzen, AKA All For One.

And so the group does what any reasonable person would do if a man is trying to reach into your soul and steal what makes you you.

They ran.

And just like that, the timeline bends. It bends as the time travelers push everything off course.

Yoichi wasn’t supposed to be vaulted early. Third wasn’t supposed to be broken out of jail at this time. Muzen wasn’t supposed to know about the future of Meta Abilities. Shinomori shouldn’t be able to learn who All For One actually was at such a young age. The Peerless Thief shouldn’t be involved with any of this. Gigantomachia shouldn’t have been created so soon.

Second shouldn’t still be by All For One’s side.

[thequietmanno1]

Thelreads, MHA 283, Replies Part 2

1) “… Welp I take that back, I don’t think that what I said will apply come the next 10 or so seconds.”- Too be fair, it’s not like it’d do any good either. Tomura has GPS lock on Izuku and can move faster than him, on top of being compelled to hunt the boy wherever he goes. Even if Izuku was in any state of mind to flee and fight another day, He Can’t Run.

2) “SHITSHITSHIT UHHHH- SOME DEUS EX MACHINA TO SAVE THE DAY PLEASE? BECAUSE I THINK WE JUST MET WITH QUITE THE DIFFICULT SITUATION IN HERE”-Actually, one thing I appreciate about Horikoshi’s writing is that he generally doesn’t do this. There’s always some kind of logical explanation or setup behind Heroes arriving on the scene or events starting to turn in their favour, even if said context isn’t obvious to those being saved or protected. Izuku realised Iida was facing Stain from all the context clues he knew about his friend, their location, and overhearing his mentor calling for him in the chaos, and had read up enough about the Hero Killer’s M.O to search the most likely locations to find him. Shoto managed to step in to help Izuku against Stain because he sent out his location data to his friends as a cry for help. Izuku stepped in to help Kota because Mandalay told him about his secret hiding spot and Izuku had visited it prior. The Kids jumped in to help Bakugo escape at Kamino because of their desire to rescue their friend made them take action that happened to be in parallel with the official heroes’ efforts, and it was Momo’s tracker that the heroes were following to the warehouse. Tokoyami stepped in to save Hawks because of his awareness of Hawks’ weakness and seeing a burned Hawks escaping the room from outside to cut off Twice’s escape, and here, the heroes’ effort in striking early before Tomura’s procedure was finished – and specifically breaking his container before he’d passed 75% - is why his body starts to fail on him after all the damage they’ve inflicted on him. It all makes logical sense and has a large amount of buildup why these events happen in hindsight.

If anything, it’s the Villains who benefit from Deus Ex Machina events falling in their favour. From the League getting bailed out by AFO right when they’re dead to rights, to going up agaisnt Overhaul and the Hasaaki right at the same time he becomes targeted by Izuku and the others, giving them “allies” whom they know how to manipulate against their common foe, gaining the otherwise-unobtainable Erasure bullets in the process, to being targeted by the MLA right when they’re looking for a means to try and beat Gigantomachia, to Tomura, Toga and Jin’s trauma buttons getting broken in exactly the right manner to give them massive powerups, to gaining the MLA’s support and resources right when they need them to put their revolution into play – so many things just go right for the Villains out of nowhere. Hell, Tomura’s revival and Machia’s rampage right as the heroes are on the verge of winning shows this better than anything.

3) “OH THANK GOD SOMETHING HAPPENED Seems like Shigaraki is coming undone, was this because of the previous fight, or was it because he’s not finished? Is the strain of all those quirks finally getting to him? Because holy shit he absolutely will die if this keeps going”-

Tomura may die, but here’s the thing.

He Doesn’t Care.

As long as a single piece of him is intact, he’s gonna keep attacking the heroes, and nothing less than maximum overkill will slow him down, let alone stand a chance at killing him. His lack of actual reaction to his body falling apart says it all really, he’s not giving any normal response like screaming in agony or panicking over his body suddenly opening up like a door hinge, he’s just giving a surprised “huh?”, and then calmly analysing why this would be happening. The fact his body is sudsy showing injuries that would put a normal man on death’s door isn’t a concern to him, it’s that said wounds are interfering with is ability to kill the heroes. I honestly can’t tell if his sense of pain has been nullified by the procedure, or if this is the natural result of somebody with Tomura’s screwed-up mentality being given a body that can endure his self-destructive mindset. Either way, just like Izuku using 100%, he’ll be a mangled bloody mess by the end of this fight, but the difference is, he can go further than Izuku because he doesn’t give a crap for the long-term consequences, and his healing ability lets him ‘cheat’ with the repercussions of going that far anyway… so long as the Quirk can work properly with the mess he’s twisting himself into anyway.

(MHA ch 255) 4) “Oh boy, that cant be good… Last page was talking about how Shigaraki retained his sense of self intact during the procedure, so this means that they are making good progress… Im starting to think it will be less than four months until the ultimate nomu is walking the earth.”- Whilst that turned out to be true, it’s actually a really good thing for the heroes, because it doesn’t matter how many shortcuts you take to get ultimate power, a deadline is a deadline, and you can’t rush it.

And cause the heroes forced Tomura out of the oven before he was done baking, he’s not yet ready to handle all his power and bring the full force of his abilities to bear. He’s still kicking their asses with only 75% of his strength, but he can’t keep doing that without going beyond the point of recovery right now.

(MHA ch 268) 5) “OKAY, I THINK IT MIGHT BE A BIT TOO LATE TO STOP HIM I DONT THINK BREAKING THE GLASS IS GOING TO STOP THE PROCESS. THE FUTURE HAS ALREADY TAKEN ROOTS, IT CANT BE STOPPED ANYMORE”-Stop? No. But delay? Leaving him unprepared to fully handle the heroes despite everything he’s doing to them right now? Yes, It can do that. And if so, then the efforts of everybody’s hard work have not gone to waste yet.

6) “QUICK MIDORIYA, WHILE HE’S CONFUSED, PUNCH HIM INTO THE STRATOSPHERE”- Izuku: Excellent plan! And then, I’ll keep him there and kill him before touchdown!

7) “Yeah, there wouldn’t be limits, if he was finished. Isn’t Shigaraki aware that the process got interrupted halfway through? I thought he already had realized that he wasn’t 100% complete”- Tomura woke up, and chose violence immediately upon realising that there were heroes nearby. It worked out for his allies, but it’s kinda hilarious to think that if the situation hadn’t been as dire, his instantly-unleashed AOE Decay move would have been detrimental to everybody in the immediate area, just dusting everything around the hospital before anybody can get a word in edgeways.

8) “oh it seems he hasn’t realized it yet That’s weird, he knew he would be completely unstoppable when the process was done, even erasing his quirk wouldn’t be able to stop him, didn’t it dawn to him throughout this fight that he wasn’t as OP as they promised?”- Tomura’s still adjusting to his new levels of strength, and hasn’t quite processed everything that’s going on. He was on cloud nine beating up everybody even with a handicap, but now that the handicap’s gone, he’s finally starting to realise that it wasn’t just his lack of Quirks that was hampering his performance, but his body not quite being ready for the damage he’s unleashing with it and against it. It’s also a much-needed moment of hilarity in this dire situation, reminding us that Tomura’s still a teenager with all the poor time-keeping that comes with it.

9) “Yeah midoriya, it’s like looking into a mirror, innit? My, the parallels keep coming and they don’t stop coming”- For the longest time, there didn’t seem to be as many narrative parallels between Izuku and Tomura as there were between All Might and All For One. But now that they’re both unlocking their true power, using their heroic/villainous Origins as motivations to fight regardless of the self-cost, they’re starting to become more and more similar to each other, both growing into the destined roles in tandem.

10) “Ah right, so it was 75% where it stopped, I wasn’t so sure about the exact numbering, I was wondering if that was what the title was referring to.”- I think the process somewhat froze when Mirko cracked the glass tank, unable to really finish with the environment around Tomura de-pressed incorrectly, with Mic’s voice-blast just finishing the job as much as stopping Garaki from reviving him. So in a way, we all owe our lives to the bunny of Carnage.

11) “OH GOD MIDORIYA QUICK DO SOMETHING BECAUSE SHIT’S ABOUT TO GET FUCKY AGAIN”- Case in point about Tomura’s absolutely unstoppable will, it doesn’t matter to him how badly his body’s broken, if he can still move a part of it – specifically the hand that he needs to unleash the AOE wave- then he will do it, even if he can to puppet the parts manually, damn his uncooperative flesh!

12) “MIDORIYA FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO SOMETHING IN THE NEXT 10 NANOSECONDS OR GOD HELP ME”- The manga’s had a bit of a theme about certain Villains being self-defeating, such as Mustard during the Training Lodge giving him his position all the time through his smoke cover, or Overhaul making himself too many enemies to realistically defeat on multiple fronts. In that regard, Re-Destro accidentally screwed his own side over when he fought Tomura, as tearing off the fingers on his left hand weakened it, rendering it incapable of withstanding the strain of unleashing the AOE wave through that hand, and meaning Tomura can only use his right one to pull the move off. When said hand is incapacitated like here, even if Tomura’s able to use his left hand to pull a workaround with it, the seconds he spent getting it into potion were enough time for Izuku to react and yank him away from Terra Firma, to settle things in a terrain where Izuku has the advantage.

13) “OH GOD DID IT FINALLY HAPPEN? IS MIDORIYA FINALLY FLYING?!”- Take note of Izuku’s whips here. He’s lifting all his allies with the whips sprouting from his left arm whilst keeping Tomura teared with a separate one from his right. This allows him to lift his allies out of the way if Tomura’s Decay had started, whislt also keeping his nemesis off the ground as well and avoid him getting too close to them ones he has to protect. Even pushed past his mental limits and boiling with bloodlust, Izuku’s keeping a cool head on how to save lives whilst ending Tomura’s

14) “WE FINALLY GOT IT Y`ALL LET’S FUCKING GO, THIRD QUIRK FINALLY UNLOCKED!”- Three down, but, with the final battle basically occurring Now, Izuku better hope for a miracle to be able to unlock his remaining powers asap, cause he needs every advantage to counter Tomura’s arsenal of powers.

(Mha ch 258) 15) “But at least they wont be caught off-guard, the heroes are marching towards their target, they intend to strike first and make sure they remove the biggest threat before anything else. And thank god for that, because if Shigaraki does step in the field… Well, we know he will manage to fight, its inevitable, but something will happen to tip the scales and make things balanced, thats for sure.”- There’s balanced, and then there’s the only thing keeping him from killing everybody on the battlefield. If Izuku doesn’t press his advantage now, Tomura will end everybody, even with his body falling apart on him from the strain, so he has to pile on the damage as quickly as he can before he can recover. Do or Die, up here in the sky.

16) “Holy shit! It finally happened! We knew this was coming for quite sometime now, and the fact that the only thing that could counter decay was the ability to fly, but even so I’m quite excited to see another power awakening Hell fucking my boy takes to the skies! and Hopefully that means he won’t be reaching heaven anytime soon. Now Shigaraki was unleashed once again, with Aizawa out of the game, it will be a battle of titans, full power against full power. Well, as much full power as either than can muster, considering that both of them can’t use it all without destroying their own bodies quite the fun situation, where both of them are self-destructing every time they try to go plus ultra, and yet, neither of them will step down, neither of them will stop doing it The End is here and at the same time, The New Start has risen to oppose him”- The End, the Beginning, and the bloody brawl between them. It’s gonna be raining blood next chapter when they fully go at it. @thelreads

[s-c-g-s-c-g]

Trivia Tuesday

Hello! I’ve been writing fanfiction again for a little over a year and in that time I’ve published almost 60 works! So, I thought it would be fun this Trivia Tuesday to look back on the ones that faced at least one complete rewrite before publishing!

The List:

Midnight: Accidental Unofficial Queer Counselor (BNHA) - This one was technically reworked twice, I got a few paragraphs in before I realized the original idea (Yaoyorozu dealing with her feelings about her costume and being sexualized) was quickly turning into a consideration of religious trauma that Yaoyorozu literally does not have. I made a full switch to 1-A centric and was close to scrapping the entire concept but I really liked the Todoroki bit. I rewrote the entire thing to be an expansion of that bit and I’m genuinely happy with how it turned out.

Tomura Terrorizes Japan and Ruins his Reputation (BNHA) - The bare bones of the plot stayed the same from the first draft but I rewrote the entire thing to change the POV and heavily dramatize.

Chapter 5 of Failed Hunts and Little Stowaways (Star Wars) - This one technically had 3 versions which I like to lovingly call... Version 1: Basic Idea on Paper, version 2: Wow, This Jango is Mean and Unrealistically Dense, and version 3: Alright, Actively Cruel Jango Has Been Contained.

Rumi Plans a Double Date, the Todorokis Get Distracted (BNHA) - The Dabi reveal (also known as most of it) went through multiple complete rewrites.

Shereshoy. (Star Wars) - Rewritten completely for mood consistency, more romance, tense change and a pov switch.

a great shattering (Star Wars) - The only thing remaining from the original draft is most of the dialogue. The original vibes were very different and it contained, of all things, adorable teenage romance. It was also originally from Bail Organa’s pov.