' choices to stand by '

━━━━━

She can't believe it's been merely two weeks. In a span of seven days, she's been so exhausted. When the youth was a child, when she was but a poor rat dwelling the dirty streets, she was tired but this, this torture All For One guised under the name of 'training' was exhausting. The pinnacle of the level of tired one person could be.

She had prided herself for having a strong stamina but after days piled atop days, the youth has reached her limit. Now her actions are mirroring that of when she was but a kid. Running, hiding— pitiful.

"You can't pause this level," Tenko said— no, Tomura, she reminded herself. Shigaraki Tomura. All For One had insisted that Tenko Shimura was a name unbefitting of the man who would topple the faux peace the heroes had created. A new moniker.

"The only way to finish it is by beating the boss," he said over the intercom, crimson eyes watching the trial with fascination. As if it was his video games come go life. "Do it."

The youth directed a glare at him from behind a concrete wall, hoping that it would be enough to mow him into silence. "Isn't it obvious that 'beating the boss' is exactly what I've been trying to do for the past five days, eight hours, forty seven minutes, forty seconds and counting?"

"That's accurate," he said, vaguely impressed. "Your power is really rare."

"Shut up!" she yelled, leaving the protection of the wall and lunging at the monstrosity in front of her. It had razor sharp claws, razor sharp teeth, sensitive ears and a bulky body that would have given those steroid enhanced bodybuilders a run for their money.

She aimed for its neck this time, figuring out a day ago, twenty four hours, that there was a spot on the side of its neck that bore a different color from the rest of its skin so she hypothesized that it was probably the weak spot of the monster.

She twisted the knife, chucking it at the thing's direction. The weapon felt odd at her grasp at first but after five days, eight hours, forty seven minutes, fifty eight seconds and counting, with the knife as her only weapon, she'd warmed up to it.

The creature managed to dodge, bending it's neck a little bit to the left and reaching for her with its claws. She stepped on its arms, then jumped to evade the claws and landed behind it. After managing to breathe, she decided to hit her intended mark again.

A kick to its gut and when it doubled over, gasping for air, she grabbed the opportunity and stabbed it with the knife. Unfortunately, after days spent in fatigue and hunger and dehydration, her eyes hadn't functioned properly so the knife only hit the shoulder.

She was hit again, thrown against another concrete pillar and left a deep dent mark on the object. The creature growled, lunged at her again and she couldn't evade it this time. Its hands found its way to her jaw, hit hit hit until she could feel her jaw dislocated and her collarbones almost shattered.

When the creature tried to swing for the seventh time, the youth managed to wriggle out of its grip and crawl to a cylinder shaped block to hide. It didn't take long for the creature to spot her and raise the cylinder vertically to make her fall.
As the creature continued shaking the cylinder shaped concrete, a brazen plan entered the mind of the desperate youth. She transferred the knife to her non-dominant hand, breathing deeply and then when the creature opened its mouth to scream, she removed the resistance on her limbs, stopped her grip and let free fall do its job.

When the youth was mere millimeters from the creature's opened mouth, she let her knife wielding hand go first and before the creature could snap it's mouth closed, she hit the knife at the bare throat of the creature.

The mouth snapped with her hand still inside it but she swallowed the pain and twisted the knife inside, pushing it deeper while simultaneously trying to part its mouth open with her legs and dominant hand.

Her dominant hand moved to its three eyes and with her thumb, tried to gouge an eye out and when it shrieked from the pain, threw its head back, she managed to remove her arm and land on the rubble underneath her.

The creature continued to tremble, shrieking and the youth watched with half lidded eyes as it fell to the ground.

"Game over," she heard Tomura's voice over the intercom as the youth's shriek of pain howled throughout the entire training room.

Her arm was numb and there was a part of her that knew numb was worse than hurt. Oh God, she couldn't feel it, she couldn't feel her left arm anymore. She couldn't move her left fingers anymore. It was bleeding and when the youth turned to inspect her wounds, she saw a tooth still buried deep within her flesh.

The skin looked mangled and she was certain it would add another scar to her already tainted body. Aside from her arm which was numb, the other parts of her body throbbed with pain. The broken bones, the deep bruises, and the cuts where blood continued to trickle from.

With another shriek tearing itself from her throat, the youth's functional arm moved next to the other and grasped the surface edges of the tooth. Three two one and she pulled it.

Four five six and her consciousness started to fade. Two arms, ten fingers, one girl, a hundred versions of pain.

Waking up to the sound of Tomura Shigaraki's gaming device didn't turn out to be a very pleasant experience but for the current time, the youth was grateful she could still wake and do.

Her blood red eyes move to the lovely nasturtiums spilling from the transparent glass vase next to the bed where she lied and her eyebrows furrowed when she realized that she couldn't move either of her arms.

"Tomura," she called and coughed when she heard how raspy and splintered her voice sounded.

"What?" he asked, never looking up from the game he was playing.

"Who gave those flowers?" she asked and her eyebrows furrowed again when she noticed the vague outlines of a card hidden by some petals.

Tomura didn't reply and she swore under her breath. "Tomura!" she called again and her temper flared up again when his attention continued to be drawn to the stupid game.

"Shigaraki Tomura, you son of a bitch!"

He pressed something in the PSP— she asked him what it was called a couple of days ago— and looked at her with those uncaring eyes again.

"You're awake," he said as if just realizing it. "What do you want?"

The youth groaned, breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out, one two three four, breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out, one two three four, breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out, one two three four, breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out, one two three four.

The youth had to calm down. She was to serve this man child in the coming years so she had to endure.

"Nothing," she said, face morphing to that of its original placid expression. "Just continue what you were doing."

The older man seemed to be irritated but he didn't do anything about it and just reverted his attention to the PSP in his hand. And with that, the youth had shrunk into unconsciousness again.

Darkness churned on her dreams, snow-blanketed roads and grey-bark trees with thorn-covered brambles. A path in the forest twisting into more labyrinthine paths lit by starlight against vivid blue twilight skies. The youth continued to dream, undaunted by the dangers of letting her guard down as she slept.

The youth snored heavily, heart thumping against the soft fabric of her clean clothes as her mind wandered to corridors, castles and mazes. For the first time after being abandoned in forsaken lands and left to fend for herself in tattered rags and an empty stomach, she felt... safe.

On the fourth day, she woke and found new clusters of flowers on the glass vase next to her bed. Shigaraki Tomura was there too, still clad in his black hoodie and dark pants, uncaring of the world around him and the girl who had just risen.

With great care, the youth struggled to sit and to her delight, found herself able to sit straight and move her fingers from both arms. As the norm, Tomura didn't bother acknowledging her presence and went on, devoid of emotion.

As if on cue, the wooden door opened and in came All For One, still clad in his impeccable suits and leather cased book in his hand. Azure Eyes— Kohaku stood next to him, no traces of the wounds she had inflicted upon him days past.

"I'm glad to see you rested," All For One said. "The wounds have healed thanks to a healing quirk of one of our allies, but your energy is still drained. We'll start training in a day or so."

He turned to Tomura. "Come, Shigaraki Tomura," he said. "We'll start your training now."

The blue haired boy gladly obliged, standing from the monoblock chair where he sat and strode to flank All For One, his PSP still flashing with a myriad of colors and pixelated characters.

"You know he's not really the best company," the youth informed All For One, referring to an order he made earlier on. That since Tomoe was very sure of the fact that he had other things to do than bond with a prepubescent ingenue, Tomura was left of the task of monitoring her.

All For One smiled. "But dear."

The youth scoffed, averting her gaze to the stained glass windows where the sun had just began to dip into the horizon and bleed different colors. "I understand that I am not yet trustworthy, but hearing Shigaraki Tomura fidgeting with the buttons of his video games and that awful background music is the worst sort of torture."

"Would you prefer Tomoe then?" All For One asked.

The youth's eyebrows gathered at the middle, blood red eyes narrowed, "If that's the case then Shigaraki Tomura's company is heaven. Forget I asked."

All For One made his way out, starting his disappearance with an, "Of course."

It was Kohaku who spoke next. "There are days when Tomura Shigaraki will not be around to guard you, like this day for instance so I will be in his stead. I will tell you all the details about our plans. During your initiation, the plan I spoke of was simply something I lifted from a book. Creating the perfect world, that is our goal. I will also teach you other basic knowledge since it seems that you lack inklings on the current happenings of the world and basic technology."

He walked towards her, decreasing the distance. From three meters to one.

"Do you understand?"

The youth merely averted her gaze from him and bobbed her as a sign of acknowledgement.

They gave her purpose. No longer the guileless monster but a villain with her own set of values and vices.

And from that moment onwards, she becomes a villain in training— calculated smiles, faux feelings and facades— when he accepted his hand, and it is a choice she will never regret.

--

E N D  O F  C H A P T E R
— s a l v a t i o n

□ we're in chap. 15, can you believe it???? thank you for all the support guys, you people deserve the world. also, what do you think about the fight scenes? any theories as to how yuko and the youth will relate? also, who's your favorite oc for now? the youth? yuko? tomoe? kohaku? others? let me know in the comments ♡