Tomura groaned as his alarm clock went off, why the hell had he set the thing for so damn early? A small whimper reminded him of why. He sat up and turned it off before turning on the little lamp on his nightstand. Directly next to him was a sleeping Izuku who was whimpering because of the loss of warmth that was Tomura's body.
Kota had told Izuku that he wanted to bring him to school with him for show and tell. So after tons of begging and crying, Tomura finally gave in and agreed to it on the condition that Toga tag along and stay with the class all day. The teenage girl hated the idea but agreed to it anyway thanks to the small boy's puppy dog eyes. She literally called them "True Evil". That night he tried to get him to go to bed early but he just wasn't having it so Tomura let him stay up for as long as he wanted knowing damn well that there would be a battle in the morning. Now he had to deal with a sleepy child who was definitely NOT a morning person.
"Midoriya, come on it's time to wake up."
"Mmmm!!"
"Don't whine, I told you to go to bed last night but you didn't listen. Now get. Up."
"No!! Wanna sleep!!"
Tomura wasn't the type to deal with disrespect of any kind, especially from the brat that he'd been destined to kill. He gave him a light swat on his rear and pulled all the covers off the bed before he turned on the main light in the room.
"Get up. Now."
Izuku whined but slowly sat up and rubbed the sleep and tears out of his eyes.
"Next time go to bed when I tell you to and we won't have this problem."
"Yes Papa..."
He tensed.
"What did you call me?"
"I-I meant Tomu. Sorry..."
"Listen to me very clearly, I. Am Not. Your Father. Understand?"
"Y-Yes sir!"
He sighed when the boy started shivering and cowering away from him, he hadn't meant to scare him like that.
"Look just go to the kitchen."
"Okay.."
Once the boy was gone he began fixing up the bed and prepared for the before heading out towards the kitchen where his three younglings were waiting to be fed. Toga was still in her pajamas with her hair sticking up in all directions, while Dabi had sloppily gotten dressed and currently had his face glued to the table. Izuku sat in between with a somber look on his face that told Tomura that the boy wasn't really there or paying attention.
He fixed a large breakfast that they all dug into and finished in minutes since they had things to do today. Dabi took Izuku to get ready for the day while Tomura instructed Toga on what and what not to do around the children.
Once he was ready Tomura walked out the door with Izuku not too far behind, in complete silence since both had a lot on their minds. Today he and Dabi would be tracking down Jikan to make him undo what he'd done to Izuku. Well that wasn't true either, they would have him stop the age regression but they would keep him exactly where he was. But the others didn't need to know about that. Izuku was stressing out because he'd never been away from his new home without Tomura before. Toga and Dabi were okay and all but when it came to taking him out and taking care of him, it was all Tomura. Now he had to spend the day without him with a bunch of people he didn't know, Kota, and Toga. Yeah, he was scared about that.
But that wasn't the only thing that was bothering him, the other thing was the mistake he'd made that morning. He hadn't meant to do it but he was tired and honestly, Tomura acted more like a father than his real dad. He wasn't an idiot, sure his mother had told him that his dad was always away on business and that he'd come back, but he knew that that was something she was just telling him to make sure he felt loved instead of abandoned. Why couldn't Tomura just be his father? He took care of him on a daily basis and saw to every one of his needs, and that's what a dad did. But he wasn't his dad, and more importantly he didn't want to be his dad. And that's what hurt.
Add on the fact that everyone thought he was a violent killer who'd taken his mother's life, and you had a child that swore that his heart was going to swell and explode in his chest, but then he thought of Tomura. That's right this man wouldn't hurt him, he'd been protecting him for so long. And that felt good, to know that there was someone that cared. Even if he wasn't his father.
Izuku noticed multiple kids holding their parent's hands and felt left out but didn't want to aggravated Tomura anymore than he already had. So he settled for grabbing onto his pant leg.
Tomura was brought out of his thoughts when he felt a little tug on his pants and looked down to see his little charge holding onto him. He didn't understand, why the hell was he touching him? Then he saw the other kids and instantly knew why he was doing what he was doing. He pulled the little hand off of him which made the boy whine but he shushed him by offering his pinky as a substitute. Izuku immediately grabbed it and beamed up Tomura who just kept staring ahead and walking. Like he'd ever let him know that it had made his heart skip a beat just a tad.
Finally they reached the school and saw Kota standing there waiting for them with Ochako. Tomura and Izuku stopped a few feet away from them so the former could crouch down to eye level with the child.
"I want you to listen to the teachers and Toga. Don't cause any unnecessary problems. And don't get hurt because we have no one with a healing quirk and no one can take you to a hospital."
"Yes Tomu."
"Good boy."
He watched him run up to Kota and get taken by the hand into the school, leaving only Toga, Tomura, and Ochako outside.
"Something wrong Uraraka?"
"A lot of things are wrong, but there's only one that's of grave importance. Jikan, did you find him?"
"Dabi and I should be able to find him today so we'll let you know."
"Right."
"Anything else?"
"Not at the moment other than the fact that I can't stand either of you."
"Feeling's mutual now get lost before you piss me off."
She gave them both a glare before walking off.
"You know what to do."
"You can count on me~"
Toga walked into the school after the boys, leaving Tomura by himself for the first time in two weeks.
Dabi was waiting for him when he returned and greeted him with a simple nod of his head.
"You see the squirt off?"
"Hm, Toga's got this."
"You know that if a problem arises we probably won't be able to get either of them back."
"Hopefully it won't come to that, now what do you have for me?"
"Could be nothing, but then again it could be something. There's been sightings of multiple old geezers going on about how they were in their twenties just yesterday, sound like our guy?"
"Indeed, first we'll check the victims and see what they know and then we'll pay a visit to our old friend."
Tomura prepared to head out again but stopped when he felt Dabi's eyes on him, the teen normally just did as he was asked without further command but not this time.
"Is there something on your mind?"
"When we find him, what will you do?"
"I'm not sure I follow."
"I mean, what will you do when we find this guy? Will you actually help him? Or, will you kill him and doom the brat to his fate?"
--
"K-Kota?"
"Hm?"
"Everyone's staring at me..."
"Well duh, they've never seen you before. Just ignore them and eventually you won't even notice the looks."
"...Okay."
Kota was actually a bit nervous himself, but not because of his classmates staring at his friend and idol. It was because of Toga. The villain was just happily chatting it up with all the other chaperones that had volunteered to help today. She almost seemed normal to him, but it was those moments where she'd glance at him that he could see the craziness in her eyes.
Freaked him right the hell out.
"So uh...how do you like living with them?"
"It's okay I guess, Tomu is really nice to me when no one's around, and Dabi and Toga are like the big brother and sister I never had."
"Hm...well do they ever seem...bad?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean do they ever do things that you don't think is right?"
"No, they're really good and they're helping me clear my name. They're almost like family to me..."
"Well...I want you to know that you're my family too."
Izuku blushed and looked at Kota who'd gone as red as a cherry. He was glad that he had a friend like him in his life, it made him feel just a little less alone in the world.
"Thank you, Kota..."
--
Tomura groaned while Dabi finished getting rid of every witness that'd been affected by Jikan's power. They'd been at this for hours and they still had no clue about where to find their desired party. It was almost like he was a ghost.
"Where to next, Boss?"
"Save you sarcasm for Himiko and the brat, right now we've literally exhausted all of our leads and we're no closer to stopping the accelerated regression. If things continue then Izuku is just as good as dead."
"You sound like you actually care. Don't forget that the only reason we even have the brat is because we want his power. If it wasn't for that then I would've killed him already."
"And you'd still be no closer to getting what you want."
"Touchy, don't tell me you've gone soft and embraced this whole daddy act thing?"
"Don't be ridiculous, there's no time to wallow in sentimentality like that."
"That's true. So what now, you gonna check on Toga and the squirt?"
"No, we're going to go look into something else. There's one thing we haven't tried yet."
"What?"
"Jikan's quirk allows him to manipulate the time of those he desires right? Well what if he could apply that ability to himself?"
"Like make himself old and young?"
"Hn. It could be nothing, but I was rather curious about why he specified that our collaboration would have to be on a weekend in a park. Someone that old that's trying to be a villain wouldn't care about school or anything like that unless..."
"Unless he was a brat himself. You think he's a kid."
--
Show and tell came and went and then all the kids were allowed to go outside for recess. Toga took this opportunity to annoy Ochako with girl talk she knew the young hero wouldn't be interested in, but she didn't really care since she was being made to suffer by being around these brats. Izuku and Kota were swinging and chatting about whatever it is they had in common when a small boy with silver hair walked over to them.
"Eh? What do you want, Rei?"
"U-Um...can I play with you guys?"
"Why? You've never wanted to play with me before."
"I...uh..."
"Kota, be nice! Of course you can play with us. My name's Izuku Midoriya, what's yours?"
"Rei...Rei Jikan."
--
"But why would a kid turn to villainy? It doesn't seem likely."
Tomura smirked to himself, he couldn't blame Dabi for not knowing of his origin. In retrospect there are many things that can turn a child to life of crime. Abuse, trauma, and mental disorders are literally only the start of the list, but when it comes down to it everyone has a little bad in them. It didn't matter of they were a child.
--
"So Rei, who's your favorite hero? Mine is All Might. He's so cool, and super duper strong!"
"Hm...I don't really have a favorite hero at the moment. But there is someone that I admire like no other."
"Who?"
"Shigaraki Tomura."
Kota's face paled visibly, there was just no way that his classmate had just said what he said. Not many people even knew who Tomura was, hell the only reason he knew was because of the situation he was in. But now this kid who'd always remained quiet and never played with anyone, was sitting here bringing him up like he was his idol. The worst part, Izuku wasn't the least bit alarmed by it.
"You know my Tomu? That's awesome!"
"Your Tomu- wait, you know him personally?"
"Uh huh, he's been taking care of me for a while now."
"What?!"
"U-Uh Izuku, maybe we should go talk to Ochako and-"
"Is something wrong with that?"
"Izuku please, let's-"
"I did all of that work...and for what?! So he could play house with a brat like you?! I should be the one living with the league, not you!!"
"You're not being very nice Rei, if you want to meet him then I'll introduce you."
"NO!! I don't want you to introduce me to anyone!! You're supposed to be dead!!"
Heads were starting to turn and Ochako and Toga were immediately on alert. Kota knew this was getting really bad really fast, but there wasn't really anything he could do since Izuku was still engaging in the conversation.
"I don't think you're very nice Rei, and I don't want to play with you anymore."
"Play? PLAY?! YOU THINK I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR STUPID CHILDISH GAMES?!! WERE YOU ACTUALLY THIS STUPID AS A KID, OR IS THIS JUST A SIDE EFFECT OF MY POWERS?!!"
"Side effect?"
"Izuku, let's go!!"
But he was frozen in place. What did he mean by side effect and why was he so angry for something that was out of his control? His face had contorted into one of pure rage and his pink eyes had- Pink eyes. It was strange but he could've sworn that he'd seen them before. But he couldn't have, he hadn't met Rei before today. Right? His head began throbbing as fractured images started popping up in his mind. Pink eyes. All Might yelling at someone. A bigger Kacchan in a bed. Kota's friends. A blood stained man. And finally there was an image of Tomura just looking completely malicious. He couldn't take it and screamed as he fell to his knees.
Ochako and Toga tried to rush over to the boys but Izuku's body had started generating green bio-electricity that crackled and destroyed anything it touched. Kota was afraid and took a few steps back while Rei just stood there and smirked. He knew he'd got him.
"What's the matter, DEKU?! YOU FINALLY REMEMBERING?!!"
Deku? Only Kacchan called him that derogatory name. Why did he know it?! He gripped the sides of his head and yelped as more memories popped into his poor regressed mind.
"I don't care if I get kicked out of UA permanently for this, or if All Might never speaks to me again!! I'll stop you both, here and now!!"
"Make it s-stop..."
"Aw, you tryna save your little boyfriend or somethin? Well I can't say I'm shocked because that outfit of yours does make you look kinda queer."
Kota stepped into the field of energy that was now creating high speed winds, and reached out to grab his friend. The electricity burned his skin and brought tears to his eyes, but Izuku had went through far worse when he'd saved him from the monster that'd killed his parents. This time he would be the one to save a friend. He would save his hero.
"IZUKU!!"
--
"Hey, what's that over there?"
Tomura looked up from his screen and followed Dabi's gaze. In the city there was a dark cloud forming above...wait, wasn't the school in that area? And was that green electricity?! Shit!! He knew it was a bad idea to send Izuku to school but of course he just had to fall prey to those damned eyes of his.
"We have to go."
"What?!"
"Now!!"
--
"Is it sinking in...the reality of your situation? You've been playing house with those who seek to destroy everything you love."
"Stop it!!"
"They've been playing you this entire time!!"
"They wouldn't do that!! They're not-"
"What?! Bad?! Newsflash, they're the League of Villains!!"
"Oh and Izuku?"
"Hm?"
"Welcome to the League of Villains."
"AAAAAAAAGH!!!!"
Kota grabbed onto his arm and tried pulling him with all his might, but his friend just wouldn't budge.
"You have to calm down!! You'll kill yourself and everyone here!!"
"I'm sorry!! But I don't know what's going on!!!"
Toga pulled out her phone and dialed Dabi's number. It was clear that whatever was happening could not be handled by the two of them or Kota. She needed the big guns.
"Dabi, you and the boss need to get here right now!!"
--
"We're working on it, but we don't exactly have super speed ya know?!"
Tomura could see that the cloud was getting bigger and that the energy was going out of control, but they were still a distance away and probably wouldn't make it in time if something happened. He just had to have faith in Deku's forgotten abilities.
--
"Kota...help me..."
"It's gonna be alright, you and I are going to make it out of here!!"
"I'm scared..."
"S-So am I but someone once taught me how to keep going, even if I am a little scared!! Now let's get out of here!! Together!!"
Izuku sniffed and nodded his head as he reached to grab Kota's hand. He was right, they'd get out of this together and then everything would be fine. Rei scowled at this, how dare they actually sit in his face and pull this mushy bullshit while Izuku's power alone was creating a cataclysm. He'd wasted his time for nothing.
"All Might would be so disappointed in you."
Izuku stopped as he felt a switch go off in his head. He remembered now, the overwhelming painful emotions that came from that night. The night he disappointed the one person in this world that he never wished to. All Might.
"You're not my dad!!"
"You're right, I'm not. But I'm pretty sure he'd be just as disappointed as I am."
And with that he walked away, leaving Izuku standing there crying in the middle of his room.
Izuku took a slow inhale of breath as time seemed to slow, and let out a shrill scream along with all the power his little body had conjured. Rei and Kota screamed as they were swallowed up by the blast first along with Izuku. Toga, Ochako, and all the other bystanders were blown away while the shockwave rocked the entirety of the city before disappearing like nothing had happened.
--
Tomura picked himself up off the ground and watched as everyone else did the same. That shockwave was the result of pure unbridled power and it could have only come from one person. Dabi shook his head as he picked up his now cracked phone and held it to his ear. Hopefully Toga was have at least a little good news.
"Toga? Hey, Toga?! Shit, she's not responding!!"
"Get up, we really have to hurry now!!"
--
Toga groaned as the world came back with a bit of tinnitus. The entirety of the playground was now a crater and the school had a large portion missing from it. People of all ages moaned and cried because of their injuries and the potential loss of others, but she didn't really care about that. She was only worried about one person and one person only, but when she located him she couldn't help but place a hand over her mouth in shock.
"Oh my god..."