Work Text:
“He’s not coming back,” is the general gist of people’s thoughts on Shigaraki Tomura.
Shuuichi knows that between himself and Toga, they know better. He doesn’t know if it extends to Skeptic, or the recent re-addition of Geten, or even Stain, who Toga somehow managed to drag into the operation. He knows that Compress would be at their side, as would the likes of Twice, Magne, and Kurogiri… but they’re all gone. Dabi’s straight-up missing, so Shuuichi figures that sets the pyromancer’s opinion on the situation in stone.
The last chance to save All For One’s new body, and it lies in the hands of himself and a teenager with quite the impressive kill streak. What a fancy way to spell out a total failure. The heroes would never care to bring Shigaraki back — they’d put a bullet through his head. Hawks’ actions speak enough of how people outside of their little ragtag group care.
“You’re standing silently in the corner again,” comes a surprisingly angry comment from Geten.
“What’s your problem?” Shuuichi asks. “I’m not disturbing you.”
“It’s weird. It makes you seem like some kind of freak.”
“I’m already a heteromorph,” he says quietly.
“And I’m Re-Destro’s successor — I’m the last person who’s gonna care about how you look. As long as you’re making the best of your meta ability — which you aren’t — whatever power you possess doesn’t matter.”
“Shut up,” Shuuichi declares. “You never say anything helpful. Imagine if Re-Destro was in Tomura’s place! Wouldn’t you be taking the same actions as myself and Toga?”
“It wouldn’t have happened. He would have never taken a meta ability that wasn’t his,” states Geten. “And even if he did, or was in a similar situation, I’d pull him right out. Unlike you and that annoying brat, I’m strong enough to hold my ground to protect others.”
“Toga’s two months older than you.”
“Doesn’t make her any less of a bitch.”
“Why are you so angry at us all the time?”
“Because my life, and Re-Destro’s, and Skeptic’s, and everyone else I give a shit about’s lives wouldn’t have gone to shit if you didn’t interfere. If he’d never surrendered to your crazy boss, then we’d be happy and you’d still get to cook up a meta ability that shouldn’t exist.”
“That proves Re-Destro is capable of making mista-”
“Maybe he is. I’m not. If we’d never bothered to waste our time fighting you, then Curious would still be here.”
“And what if you had the chance to bring her back?”
“Don’t compare a dead person to the fate that Shigaraki’s brought upon himself. Don’t forget that it was you guys who killed her. And you’ve killed plenty of other innocents, just for the clout. No matter how clean your claws specifically are compared to the rest of us, you’re still a murderer.”
“You’ve killed people, too.”
“I was doing it to survive. There’s a difference. Fuck off,” Geten declares.
“I have nowhere else to go — all we have now is this shitty base made out of a warehouse for storage that lacks any insulation!”
“You can walk somewhere else!”
“Fine!” Shuuichi exclaims, heading towards the other side of the building. Fighting with Geten is a waste, because nothing short of an encounter with a god could get him to change his opinions.
He finds himself missing Compress right now. Skeptic’s a freak, Toga and Geten are kids, and Stain avoids him like the plague — because after everything he’s witnessed, after every road he’s seen Shigaraki open to their little gang, he’s still a cosplayer. Of a look that Stain doesn’t even have anymore.
Maybe if he was strong, he’d have dropped the cosplay after the Paranormal Liberation Front formed. He’d keep the scarf for certain, but everything else can go easily. Besides the swords — the swords are his whole thing. It’d be a weird brand change to switch to a spear or a gun or something.
Either way, he missed Compress. That man was always helpful to talk to — he’d always listen to Shuuichi’s woes. Even though he was barely a decade older than half of them, he felt like the group dad. Especially after Kurogiri had been captured by the heroes, not that Shuuichi ever got to know him.
He needs someone like Compress to tell him it’s gonna be okay.
It’s not okay.
The deadline’s over, and Shigaraki’s on his last legs against All For One. Shigaraki will never allow himself to die, whether in his physical or mental form. It’s just a matter of how long he can resist against his master.
Shuuichi needs to get through to him. He can’t imagine a world without Shigaraki anymore. The League is his family — now and forever.
“You have a problem, Spinner?”
He turns his head to see Toga behind him. She seems serious, which is something that never was a thing before Twice’s death. It’s only gotten worse with the loss of Compress and Shigaraki.
“Geten’s a dick,” Shuuichi explains.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s how it is,” she says. “You’re thinking about Tomura, aren’tcha?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Izuku’s gonna fail, y’know,” Toga states. “We’ve gotta be the ones to free him. A hero can’t save him — but we can.”
“Tell that to the heroes,” Shuuichi grumbles, turning away.
“They won’t listen,” continues Toga, coming up to walk alongside him. “That’s why Stain’s with us. ‘Cuz he was trying to fix those things.”
“So you’re besties with him, now? What a wonderful thing to rub in my face. All I get is glares from him that make Geten and Skeptic crack up,” Shuuichi mutters.
“Nothing like that,~” she chimes.
“Really?” he asks.
“After everything we’ve been through, I’m understanding his message in a way I didn’t before. I want to be myself - you want a purpose in life. And hero society took all of that away from us — something which he decided to speak out about. But we can’t just go around killing the quote unquote good guys to fix things. Look at where that’s got us!”
“Alone. It’s got us left alone.”
“Exactly. Magne’s dead, Jin’s dead, we don’t know where Compress is, and Tomura’s gone. Oh, and of course Dabi was riding with us to cause national discourse about the number one hero.”
“Do you think...“ Shuuichi breaks off, musing his next words. His thoughts are something he’s not sure he can fully grasp.
“Do I think what?”
“Do you think that if we’d decided to give up with Gigantomachia, to not pursue All For One’s assets, wouldn’t things be better? Shigaraki took down the Meta Liberation Army on his own. We don’t need what he’s given us. The High-End that Dabi commanded didn’t do anything other than make the public love Endeavor even more.”
“...”
“... I know, it’s a lot,” Shuuichi says. “I’m not sure why I’m only going there in my thoughts now.”
“You’re right. Without the Doctor, and Machia, and the Nomu… we’d still have sparked up enough of a flame for the M.L.A. to go after us. We’d still have won, we’d still have formed the Liberation Front, we would still have the power to take on all those heroes. If we’d spent more time recruiting and taking down our enemies from the inside, then we would’ve won. Jin wouldn’t be dead, then.”
“And we could hopefully strike fast enough so that our opponents didn’t decide to deploy literal children against us.”
“Huh?”
“Do you ever think about it like that, Toga? Our country’s government sent every hero out for us, and they still decided to use kids still in school. That’s not how things should work. That’s wrong.”
“But what about me, then? Or Mustard? I get everything going on with Geten, but what about those of us who have to fight for our survival?”
“Stupid goddamn system,” Shuuichi growls.
“Stupid goddamn system,” Toga repeats. “Damn right.”
“Growing up, nobody cared about if I was bullied or not. Little was done when other kids straight-up mutilated me. My family had a harder time finding jobs because we were heteromorphs. I was a kid, just like you, and nobody reached out still. I didn’t go anywhere back then, but… look where the lack of help and support left Dabi.”
“A cold-hearted bastard who let Hawks infiltrate us, just for the camera…”
“Yup.”
Toga moves to sit down on one of the many boxes stashed throughout the space, and Shuuichi follows her. They sit in silence, having said all their words.
Shuuichi wants to know what Tomura’s doing right now. Is he in good condition, or are the Americans shooting missiles at him again? Does he have any form of control, or is he lost within the command of his father figure? Does he miss them…?
“You’ve got the look on your face that says you’re thinking about Tomura,~” Toga chimes.
“The what?”
“It’s super obvious, silly!” she exclaims. “You always stare out into the not-so-distant distance while going from either a smile or frown to the other one. It’s always when you’re thinking about him.”
“... He changed a lot of things, alright? I’m a different person because of him. Back at Deika… well, with him, I finally found a goal worth living for. I wanted to see where he would go— because he’s always been going towards his hopes and dreams. And I know him. Whether it’s as our leader, or as a friend.”
“Sounds like my influence meant nothing to you other than cosplay, then.”
Shuuichi turns his head abruptly to find Stain standing across from him, setting him on alert.
“I didn’t hear you, uh—”
“You can say his villain name. You aren’t Dabi,” Toga encourages.
“St-stain,” Shuuichi stumbles. “What’re you doing over here?”
“I can’t be sure that All Might will make the best use of his assets anymore. Your little group is the best I’ve got at obtaining a chance to deal with this disaster.”
“I mean like, right now.”
“The short one seemed relatively pissed, and I wanted to know what words caused that.”
“He’s in a cult,” Toga says.
“... I know that. When I was younger, I’d invested myself into Destro’s memoir. Of course, the Liberation Army turned out to be a cult. Because of course it did,” Stain mutters.
“You have an unlucky life,” Shuuichi says.
“I got my nose broken by a vigilante I looked up to, who then turned out to be a retired Pro because of our shared enemy’s fun little previous child experiments. Things only went downhill from there.”
“Right,” Shuuichi tells himself. “All For One’s done this before. But he’s never gotten this far…”
“He almost did, on his previous potential vessel.”
“And you know this because…?”
“Because that person died protecting the person who ended my vigilante career, and I’ve been keeping my eye on them. They went open about everything when this whole mess started.”
“Keeping an eye on them, just in case,” Toga says softly.
“Just in case,” Stain affirms.
“I wish we had Kurogiri here. He’d know more,” Shuuichi solemnly states. “Of course, he had to be the one we lost. The one who’s potentially key to saving Tomura, and the heroes snagged him.”
“Is your pity party done yet?”
Geten. Great, it’s Geten. Again. Skeptic is behind him, holding a laptop as always.
“What do you want?” Stain asks. “You do nothing but annoy your allies.”
“Shigaraki’s back on the scene, tearing through another group of international heroes. I figure it would be worth your knowledge,” Skeptic says.
“Or it’ll go straight through them, like cats do to walls,” Geten claims.
“That is absolutely incorrect,” Stain states.
“Welcome to our world,” Shuuichi mutters. “Full of idiots.”
“Is Tomura winning?” Toga asks.
“... Obviously,” Skeptic says, disgruntled.
“Okay, then it doesn’t matter,” she finishes. “As long as he doesn’t die, we’ve got a shot at bringing him back.”
“You really think you’re gonna bring him back with the power of friendship or some shit? Wake up, League of Villains. This is the real world now,” Geten declares.
“We’ve been living here our whole lives.”
“I don’t care. You guys don’t act like it! You guys pretend like you’re just a buncha friends instead of a terrorist group! You’ve turned us into a terrorist group!”
“You were a cult in the first place,” Stain states.
“Who gives a shit? I don’t care if you guys bested the Grand Commander,” Geten snaps. “You’ll never be able to get him back.”
“... I would put my doubts on that.”
“Now the Hero Killer’s been infected with your stupid virus?” Geten asks.
“You’re the stupid ones,” Toga states. Skeptic glares at her.
“What do you even see in him anyways? Why should we bother to try and save Shigaraki Tomura, when we can sit and wait for the heroes to kill him and end the problem?”
“Because Shigaraki’s far more than you ever thought he was,” Shuuichi declares. He gets up, eyes set on Geten’s.
“Go say some words, then,” the teenager prompts.
“When I first got into this, I realized I made a big mistake. We were living in and out of places like this all the time, and we made our living off of thieving and cutting off arms of Yakuza leaders. But Shigaraki… he changed things,” Shuuichi stops, holding his breath. He’s not sure how to continue.
Geten sarcastically claps. “Phenomenal statement, Spinner.”
“I’m here because I wanted a glimpse of the future Shigaraki saw for us - I’m here because I want to watch him finally tear down this stupid system that’s been affecting all of us for our entire lives! I’m alongside Toga because we’re a family now, and Shigaraki wanted each of us individually to be happy. So if he can change the world so it stops hating on people for their quirks, without a cult mentality, I’ll follow him ‘till the end of the Earth and back!” Shuuichi exclaims. He finds that he has nothing more to say than that.
“You could do wonders if you had Trumpet’s quirk,” Geten says. “But you don’t. So Skeptic and I will be taking our leave until you guys stop being saps and realize that we should be taking advantage of the chaos to further the Liberation Front’s goals. Good-freaking-bye,” he snarls, turning away. Skeptic follows, as if he’s bound to the other.
In a way, Geten and Shigaraki are alike. They’re the successors of a long lasting legacy, raised to know nothing else. Conditioned to believe there was nothing for them, that inheriting the mantle of leadership was all they existed for.
Shigaraki realized otherwise, though. He made his own path.
“You’re good with words, kid,” Stain comments once the Liberation Army members are out of sight.
“Huh?”
“People would listen to you if you spoke.”
“T-they? Would?” Shuuichi spits out, stumbling to find his vocal chords within his body.
“There is a reason All For One was using you as the promotional face of ‘our’ cause until you left,” Toga says. “You’re someone to follow. With Shigaraki gone… you’re our leader.”
“We’re two people and a man we used to fanboy over.”
“Maybe we were,” Toga muses. “But we aren’t anymore. We’re the only people left to carry out the real will of Tomura. So even if he dies, even if we can’t save him…”
“... it seems that his goals would rest in your hands,” Stain finishes.
Shuuichi is baffled. He’s not used to praise, and he’s definitely not used to being told that he could take Shigaraki’s place. He can’t believe it whatsoever.
“You really think that…?"
There’s a smile on both faces of the blood-related quirk holders, confirming a “yes”.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe this is why he’s here.
Because even if Shigaraki dies, he has the inspiration to fulfill his dreams. They’re just as much his now as they are the other man’s.
Spinner, Grand Commander of the Paranormal Liberation Front. It’s not a bad idea.
Of course, that’s only a potential card to be dealt out. They’ve gotta try and bring Shigaraki back first.
And if Stain and Toga’s words are anything to say, Shuuichi knows he can do it. This is why he’s here. To save the world in a way that doesn’t blow it up, but keeps things the same.
“... Well,” Shuuichi says aloud. “Maybe you guys are right. I’m meant for this, now.”