Work Text:
Title: Decay Leads to Rebirth
Category: My Hero Academia
Rating: T
Pairing: Shigaraki & Midoriya Midoriya & Aizawa Hisashi & Shigaraki
Summary: Shigaraki has been captured and he’s willing to confess and plead guilty on two conditions. He gets to talk to Midoriya first and during that talk, he doesn’t wear quirk-canceling handcuffs.
Disclaimer: I do not owe any rights to the My Hero Academia Franchise
Author’s Note: Hello everyone! It’s been a while and I have a question for you all. For the sequel to Nails, should I continue to keep it angst, or have a happy ending, or both. I am sorry for the long wait with stories in general. I got super sick but still had to go to work. I work full-time in retail so with the holiday season I was almost always tired as soon as I got home. My days off were the days I was used to sleeping and trying to get stuff done around the house.
Another Author’s Note: I know I should make my older brother Shigaraki and younger brother Midoriya into a series because they will always have a green bunny and blue panther to represent themselves no matter what. However, this is just a small headcanon idea that I had where if they were biological brothers and Midoriya truly did have a quirk.
~~Story Begins~~
A tinted window looks inside a room with four gray walls, a table that has seen a lot of abuse but still refuses to fold under the pressure sits in the middle with two steel foldable chairs that have been around since the pre-quirk era sit on both sides of the table. One of the chairs had an occupant sitting on it facing the steel door that led in and out of the room.
Aqua blue hair filled with grime, oils, and abuse of poor hair products laid flat against their head as it flowed past a pale neck that had a raw red spot on the front of the neck from continuous scratching, the hair stopped a little after the shoulders that were covered in a black long sleeved shirt. One hand, pale, bony, and cracked with dry skin, tapped its long index finger against the table in a repeated motion in ten second intervals, long legs stretched out under the table in black pants making the pre-quirk era style ankle cuffs stand out at the crossed ankles.
“Eraserhead, those were his only conditions,” a tired looking detective said as he removed his tan hat revealing a head of brown hair that has seen better days and in need of a haircut. He took off his tan coat which hid a wrinkle white button down shirt that was untucked from black pants.
“So, you just expect me to allow my student to walk in there with no protection? Those two have been at each other’s throats since the USJ!” another man said whose tired expression didn’t hide the anger in his voice or how angry he was at the situation. “It’s illogical!”
“He says he doesn’t want to hurt Midoriya and -”
Black hair rose in the air as black eyes turned red as he stared at the other man, white fabric that was coiled around his neck rose in the air and he stood up straight, his black hero costume being baggy on purpose to hide how much muscles he really had.
“He wants to murder Midoriya and the rest of my class!”
“EraserHead, if this was anyone else, I would say no, absolutely not,” the detective said. “But Shigaraki claims that his quirk won’t hurt Midoriya -”
“You honestly believe that Tsukauchi? This is Shigaraki we are talking about!”
“He was telling the truth!” Tsukauchi said back.
A loud knock on the window caused the two men to face the window. The pixie-glass material was still in place as the lone person in the other room was standing in front of it now. Ruby red eyes were looking down at his hand that was pressed against the window with the pinky in the ear. The direction of the red eyes moved closer to the center and gave off the feeling that he knew he was looking down at the mass of curly green hair whose owner had their forehead pressed against the window. A scarred hand with disfigured fingers was lined up with the prisoner's hand as the other hand tapped against the window.
Red eyes blink in confusion before the man started to laugh even though they couldn’t hear it from inside the room. His other hand came up against the window in a fist before it gently knocked against the window.
“Midoriya, what are you -”
“Shigaraki is telling the truth about his Decay quirk not hurting me,” Midoriya said as he turned around, emerald colored eyes staring at the grown up. He placed his hands in his Edgeshot hoodie pocket, the yellow straps of his backpack dug into his shoulders and sweatpants that were styled from U.A. her own gym pants led down to wide red shoes. “Aizawa-sensei, he is willing to compromise and have you be in the same room with us while we talk.”
“Have you been communicating with him?” Aizawa said.
“Yep. You two were taking too long,” Midoriya said with a shrug. “I mean, I could’ve just walked into the room and started to talk to him. You just so happen to be in the station and saw me.”
“True. How exactly were you talking with him?” Tsukauchi said.
“The Tapping Method. It’s a pre-quirk style of communication that was used mostly with prisoners as ways to plan their escapes. Everyone kept getting it confused with Morse Code,” Midoriya said. “So can I go?”
“True. Midoriya, did you know Shigaraki before USJ?”
“Yes, I did,” Midoriya said, “but since I’m not being charged or suspected of anything I really don’t see how that makes a difference.” Green eyes narrowed in thought at the detective. “Has my mother been contacted because if not, I suggest getting her here ASAP and having a lot of paper tissues nearby.”
“Why should we contact Mrs. Midoriya?” Tsukauchi said.
“Really? You want me to talk about that here with Aizawa-sensei present? What would All Might think? Or maybe you should look deeper into Shigaraki’s file or mine? Who knows what you’ll find in them?” Midoriya said and then he started to bounce on his feet. “Now am I going to talk to Shigaraki or did you not want all the information that he has?”
“We will discuss this later,” Aizawa said with a sigh. “Let’s go, Problem Child. I’ll save my questions for after this.”
Midoriya nodded, turned around and tapped against the window before leaving the room.
~~
Shigaraki turned to face the door just as it opened. Aizawa entered the room first and glared at him.
“I don’t know what exactly is going on, but if you try anything funny to harm my student, I will not hesitate to drag him out and end this session,” Aizawa said. “Are we clear?”
“Yes, sir,” Shigaraki said with a nod. “I really didn’t believe Izuku when he told me that your protective dad mode was showing.”
“In what right do you have to -”
Midoriya tackled Shigraki into a hug, the blue-haired adult let out an ‘oof’ as he stumbled to keep his balance.
“I can’t believe that you were right. Eraserhead would and he totally has beaten All Might in a fight, Tenko,” Midoriya said as he moved his head to rest his chin on the villain’s chest.
Shigaraki laughed as he wrapped his arms around the hero. “That’s what you’ve been wanting to tell me? I had more faith in you,” he said.
“Excuse me for actually remembering the last conversation we had before we got separated,” Midoriya said with a tint of sass in his voice. “The Midoriya’s are nice. Dad never gave up on looking for you, you know.”
Aizawa watched as the captured villain ran four of his fingers through the green curls. A pained look in the red eyes had the homeroom teacher thinking he was watching a private moment between the two.
“I know, Izuku. Mr. Midoriya died trying to protect me from Sensei, but I was too scared, weak, and injured to run away,” Shigaraki said. “Sensei used that to keep me in line for the longest time, but Mr. Midoriya seemed like he would’ve been an amazing father. Does his wife take care of you?”
“She’s the absolute best! She cried when I told her that I saw you at the USJ. No one believed me that I had a quirk except for Mom because you weren't there and if the detective does his job right then she should be about here,” Midoriya said as he pulled away. “However, I had already messaged her so she’s already on her way, trying not to cry because she’s finally going to hug you, kiss you, smother you in love while simultaneously drowning you in her tears.”
He looked shocked and let out a choked sentence. “Why would she want to see me?”
“Why wouldn’t she? You are her son, just like I am,” Midoriya said with a tilted head.
“But they adopted you!”
Aizawa blinked because Midoriya was adopted?
“They adopted BOTH of us. Our case worker never should have separated us, especially with my bones being as weak as they were.”
“Your bones are still weak considering your quirk, you mean?” Aizawa said, reminding them of his presence and he didn’t think the villain would chuckle.
“Your bones are still weak judging from your fingers,” Shigaraki said.
“I believe you’ve been getting lucky, Midoriya,” Aizawa said.
“Lucky, how exactly?” Shigaraki said, looking at Aizawa.
“Aizawa-sensei, do you trust me?” Midoriya said as he sat his bag on the table.
“It’s debatable in this situation, why?” Aizawa said.
Midoriya’s eyes flickered over to Shigaraki before holding his hand that was scarred from his fight in the Sports Festival. Shigaraki’s own eyes flicked at the hand that Midoriya had reached out, the disfigured fingers spread out, his eyes flickered over to Midoriya’s green eyes before looking over at Aizawa. He looked back at the hand and Midoriya.
“I’ll get to keep my little bunny?” Shigaraki said. “You know, the one that resembles you?”
“The bunny is in the bag because I’m not getting rid of my panther,” Midoriya said.
“I knew I should have decayed that thing years agos,” Shigaraki said.
“And destroy the ONE thing that I had that reminded me of you? The thing that was my best friend for years because of isolation from school thanks to the bullying and teachers playing favorites,” Midoriya said with a roll of his eyes.
“Sensei never would let me attack that school, said it was a distraction,” Shigaraki said.
He reached over and grabbed Midoriya’s hand. As soon as Shigaraki placed his fifth finger down on Midoriya’s hand, Aizawa activated his quirk.
“Remove your hand from my student,” Aizawa said.
“Sensei, please,” Midoriya said. “Tenko won’t hurt me. He’s my big brother and if it wasn’t for him, my bones would’ve been a lot worse before we even met.”
If the big brother comment didn’t make Aizawa blink, the next thing out of his student’s mouth most certainly did.
“After all, it was always our dream to be heroes and our father hated anything that dealt with heroes. I could also never shut up about heroes so our father had a lot of practice with breaking my bones that were already fragile because of the conditions I needed to activate my own quirk.”
“What?” Aizawa said with a blink because there was so much to think about with that knowledge.
“Yeah. Father kept abusing Tenko and me because we both wanted to be heroes, but I always found quirks to be fascinating. I would never shut up about how each quirk was perfect for heroics. I was already born with weak bones because of my quirk conditions, so Father thought I would learn faster if he kept breaking my bones and refusing to take me to the hospital,” Midoriya said.
“EraserHead,” Tsukauici said through the intercom. “Look.”
Aizawa took his focus off of his student and looked at Shigaraki. The patch of raw skin on Shigaraki’s neck had glowing green specks coming out of it, a brighter green light caught his attention. He looked down at the two hands to see that bigger green orbs were circling around Midoriya’s hand and arm.
“I think,” Shigaraki said, “the Detective NPC is referring to the floor.”
Black eyes looked down at the floor and by their feet, working towards the walls of the room was grass. A part of the grass had already reached the wall and started to climb up on the walls, the table and chairs already had vines wrapping around their legs. By Shigaraki and Midoriya’s feet, Spider Lilies were growing.
“Tenko wanted to talk to me alone,” Midoriya said, getting Aizawa’s attention, “so he could heal my arms, well, mostly my bones so if I have to use my arms again, they won’t be paralyzed. My quirk, which I call Regrowth, only works if Decay has been stored in my body or if Decay is healing my bones and muscles.”
“It’s because of that, our father separated us, and kept Izuku locked up in a room. Our mother and sister also kept neglecting Izuku even when Father was gone, they never fed him, never let him out, and whenever I destroyed the lock to feed him or to help get him cleaned, they would tell Father,” Tenko said. “So, when I came home from school one day and I heard Izuku crying from the cupboard under the sink where mother kept the chemicals which I knew were open, and everyone was ignoring him, I snapped. They wouldn’t get out of my way so I pushed them.”
“With all five fingers?” Aizawa said as he felt the grass grow underneath his feet and that it was a weird sensation of standing on concrete to soft grass.
“Tenko was eight, I had just turned four,” Izuku said as he removed his hand. His fingers were back to normal and the patch of dry skin on Shigaraki’s neck was gone. “The Midoriya’s saw us once and instantly fell in love with us. However, the case worker separated us when we were supposed to stay together due to my health.”
Izuku walked over to the table and opened his bag. He pulled out a green bunny stuffed animal that had one of its ears missing and the color had faded with time.
“What happened to his ear?” Shigaraki said as Midoriya gave him the bunny which the villain held close to his chest with his arms wrapped around it in a hug.
“Kacchan.”
“I never did like that explosive brat,” Shigaraki said. “Sensei wanted him to join the League. I wanted Izuku to join because of his analysis and the fact that he’s my little brother, but I knew he never would have given up on his dream of being a hero. Sensei also would’ve used Izuku as a hostage and leverage against me.
Midoriya had given Shigaraki another hug, the bunny off to the side as Midoriya pressed his face in Shigaraki’s chest as his eyes watered. “I’ll miss you, big brother,” Midoriya said in a whisper.
“I’ll miss you too, little brother,” Shigaraki said as he wrapped one arm around Midoriya. He moved his other hand to the back of Midoriya and kissed the top of his head. “Be an amazing hero, okay?”
~~
Shigaraki was being escorted to another holding cell when a commotion started to happen. He squeezed the bunny closer to him as he looked over to see what was going on.
“Ma’am, please, wait,” an officer said.
“Don’t you ever tell me to wait again,” a female voice yelled. “I’ve been waiting to meet him for twelve years and I’m not waiting another minute!”
“Ma’am, ouch!”
Shigaraki was stopped as a short middle-aged woman ran up to him. Her long dark green hair was in a half-bun, but her portly body had run into his, her short arms had pulled him tight to her. Tears were flowing out of her eyes like waterfalls as Shigaraki looked at her with confusion. The two police officers escorting him had moved away in fear as Shigaraki looked over at the other officer.
Shigaraki was confused as to why the officer was getting hit by a floating stapler on his head. He looked back down at the woman who was giving him the most amazing hug he’s ever felt.
“My baby, I’m so glad you’re okay,” the woman said. She looked up at him with watery eyes. Her hands moved up to grab his face as she smiled. “Izuku told me so much about you and I’m so happy to finally meet you. I’m so happy that you are alive, baby.”
“Mrs. Midoriya?” Shigaraki said.
“Yes, that’s me. I’ll wait patiently until you are ready to call me Mom, but my husband and I adopted you and Izuku,” Mrs. Midoriya said. “You’ve grown so much and I’ve missed you baby. Every second felt like torture when I didn’t know if you was okay or not.”
“Mrs. Midoriya, your husband -”
“I know. I know, sweetie, but he did it because he loved you. You are our child and if I was there, I would’ve done the same,” Mrs. Midoriya said. “That’s why I’m so nervous and scared of Izuku being in the hero course. I can’t be there to protect him and keep him safe.”
She patted his cheeks before pulling his head down to her level. She stood up on her tip toes and kissed his forehead.
“Don’t worry, Tenko,” Mrs. Midoriya said in a soft whisper. “You’ll be coming home with me soon.”
“But-”
“People in high places owe me a lot of favors and I will cash in every single one if I have too. You’ll be coming home with me soon.”
Shigaraki started to blink back tears. “I don’t deserve your love or Izuku’s love,” he said in a whisper.
“Oh, baby. You and Izuku deserve the world,” Mrs. Midoriya said. “You’re my children, my babies, I’ll do everything that I can to give you whatever you desire.”
~~The end~~