Nomu of a Friend (EraserCloudMic)

Chapter 9

Third-Person Akame
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'Who were those people?' Akame was asking himself. They felt familiar, yet not. He wanted to go to them, yet he wanted to hurt them. He settled in leaving them instead.
When he was out, exploring and having fun, one of the subjects escaped, he had to bring him back, but for some reason he felt a hatred for that person. He couldn't quite pinpoint why he felt such distain toward that... he would say person, but from what Master and the Doctor were doing to it, was it really a person anymore?
Was he really a person anymore?
Akame often questioned what being a person meant. What being alive meant.
Akame though he felt death before, in fact, he believes he embraced death before.
So why wasn't he dead?
He remembers seeing the light, seeing someone, who? Someone important, he knew that much. He told him to fight. He felt like a father figure. He told him to not forget who he is. What does that mean? A father figure?
That can't be true though, Akame doesn't have a father.

Akame is going off on a tangent. He was meant to get the thing that escaped, but he ended up nearly killing it. Then those 'heroes' showed up. They wanted to capture him. They called out the name to him.
'Shouta.'
What about that name? Why did it play in Akame's head on repeat.
"Shouta!" He could hear it plain as day, he could hear the desperation in the heroes' voices as they called that name. He could practically hear it being called out over and over again. Something about it though, it felt... familiar.
He had used his erasure on the two heroes, that's when they started to call for him.
He created eyes on his hands and used those to activate the erasure. Of course when he activated erasure, every other quirk stopped working. The extra eyes disappeared, but he activated erasure, so it didn't matter.
That was a flaw, The Doctor wanted to fix it, so did Master. Akame was terrified they would. He can't remember why.
He can't remember a lot of things.
He held his rosary.
Akame never speaks, but he wished a prayer, he prayed he'd be safe.

He arrived back at... home. He saw master sitting at the bar, he was sitting on a barstool, with a child. Master noticed Akame.
"Akame!" He gleefully called out.
     Run!
     Who's voice did he hear? Who told him to run?
Akame look at Master.
"A man of few words," Master started. "Did you have a fun birthday?" He asked. Akame stared at him.
"A yes!" He cheered, looking down at the kid. "It's tricky, guessing his emotions, but if you look close enough, you can notice slight changes of expression." He explained, the little boy nodded.
Akame pointed at the boy.
"Oh!" Master put his hand on the boys back. "This is Shigaraki Tomura." The boy waved.
"Hello," he solemnly spoke.
"I've been raising him for the past five years, I want you to help me take care of him." Akame looked at the child.
If you looked really closely, you could see he was just a scared little boy, but upon first glance, he looked mad, angry at the world and everything in it. Akame felt bad for him, despite feeling the same.
"Well, I'll leave you two to get acquainted. Goodnight Tomura, goodnight Akame." Master left after saying that, leaving the silent man and the angry boy alone.

"What's your name?" Tomura asked Akame, who remained silent.
"Master said you don't like to speak." Akame stayed silent. Suddenly, the boy looked a little sad.
"...can you... please... speak to me?" He asked, truly sounding and looking like how Akame knew he was, just a scared little boy.
"Akame." The boy looked up.
"What?" He asked. Akame kept his same flat expression.
     "My name... is Akame," he stated again, the boy smiled.
     "Mines Shigaraki Tomura-" he cut himself off and looked down. "Well, that's the name Master gave me."
     "He gave me Akame." The boy looked up at him.
     "What was your name before?" Tomura asked. Akame thought for a moment.
     "I cannot remember... I think it began with either a M or a S, but I am... not sure." Tomura nodded.
     "Mine was Shimura Tenko," he said. "I didn't really like it."
     "Why not?" Akame asked.
     "My dad named me."
     "Why is that bad?"
     "I hate my dad."
     "...I'm sorry."
     The boy looked up at Akame, he smiled at him.
     "I like you though," the boy started. "You're nice." Akame could feel his face slightly change. Maybe that's what master meant by being able to see his face slightly shift emotions.
     "Thank you," Akame thanked the young boy. "If you do not mind me asking; how old are you, Shigaraki Tomura?"
     "I'm ten." Akame felt a pang in his chest. This truly is just a young, scared boy. What was Master doing with a child? "Master said today is your birthday."
     "That is correct."
     "Happy birthday, Akame," the boy wished.
     "Thank you, Tomura."
     "How old are you now?" Tomura asked Akame.
"Master told me I have turned twenty-one today," he told the young boy, whom he was already fond of. He felt like he wanted to protect this boy, something about him reminded Akame of himself.
What was it though?
The fear. The wanting a friend. The desperation to have someone who won't hurt you. Wanting to have someone you can trust.
That voice again. He hadn't heard it until today. What triggered it.
     "-kame? Akame?" Akame tuned back in, not realizing he had tuned out causing Tomura to panic.
     "I apologize, Tomura," Akame squatted down to Tomura's size. Akame remembers he was small, at least compared to his height now. When he was able to remember again, only about half a year ago, he was about 5'10" (155.4 cm), but he was told when Master and The Doctor first got him, he was 5'7" (173.7 cm). He's grown a little more, now being 6'0" (182.9 cm). Tomura must have been around 4'3" (131.1 cm). He was tiny, an incredibly thin, malnourished looking. Akame wasn't any different, only being around 120 pounds.
"Master said you'll help take care of me," Tomura spoke, for some reason, Akame was wanting to take care of the little boy.
Protect him. You know what he did to us. Keep him safe.
Again, not knowing what that voice was, yet agreeing with it. Despite not being fully aware of what Master and The Doctor did to him, he feels a horrible terror whenever he thinks about them. He loves Master, The Doctor too, but he feels terrified when thinking of what they could do to him.
"What's wrong with your chest?" Tomura asked Akame.
"What do you mean?" Akame responded to the question, already knowing the answer.
"Master said you're a boy, but only girls get things on their chest. Why do you?" Tomura asked.
"I am not sure. I want to see if I can fix it." Akame looked down at his chest, he normally uses bandages to strap his chest down, but after a full day, the bandages fell off.
"I think I would like myself better without this stuff." Akame could say why, but many things about his body made him uncomfortable. Master and The Doctor used to always call him a girl, until they saw the distress it caused Akame, then they stopped.
"Then you should," Tomura replied.
"Thank you for your input."
"What does 'input' mean?" Tomura asked.

Akame spoke to Tomura for a couple more hours. He grew fond of the boy, very. He wanted to keep him safe. After all, the lord sent Tomura to him for a reason.
Tomura asked to stay with Akame for the night too, not wanting to go to his room. Tomura claims he doesn't want to be alone anymore. Akame remembers feeling lonely and wanting someone to speak to, not anymore, but maybe as a child.
Tomura was with Akame. Akame gave him his bed to sleep on.
     The writing of "Akame" over and over again scared Tomura at first, until Akame explained that he needed to remember his name. The crosses confused Tomura, but Akame explained they were for religious purposes. Tomura wanted to know about the religion, afterwards saying he doesn't believe in it, because if God was real, why did every bad thing that he experienced happen? Akame understands the feeling somehow.
Akame doesn't hate Tomura for his opinion, he knows God gave everyone free will for a reason.
Tomura asked Akame not to do religious things around him. Akame doesn't want to make Tomura uncomfortable, so he won't.
     Akame made sure that Tomura fell asleep before going to sleep himself. He was going to sleep on the floor, he felt like he was missing something, but the floor had a familiar feel to it.

     Akame created an eye on his hand and raised it in the air, he was able to see Tomura, sound asleep, with it. He brought his hand back down and removed the eye.
     As long as he could keep Tomura okay, he would be okay.
     But his mind wandered back to those two heroes from earlier that day.
     "Shouta", that name. It felt familiar, and he felt like a name he had began with a S. Maybe that's what his name was.
     Yes!
     There that voice was again, confirming that thought. Akame felt tired, would Master ask him about the thing he almost killed later?
     He's scared about the consequences of not returning it.
     His own well being isn't of his concern anymore.
     Tomura's is.

A/N
I'm a Shigaraki apologist, I feel like he was groomed by AfO to be a villain. I want to portray him as how I believe him to have been before AfO was able to groom him. I feel like he was a scared kid who clung into the first person who would help him, not knowing right from wrong. I want good things to happen to him in this story.
I'm still unsure of how this story is going to end, but I know I want some things to happen with Shigaraki, with any ending I have in mind I know I want the same thing to happen to Shigaraki.
Also, thank you to everyone who reads my fics. I get a whole ton of motivation to write when I see your comments about liking my fic. Thank you so much for it!! I feel like without your comments I would have stopped writing these at one chapter, so thank you :D it genuinely makes me so happy to see your comments!!!
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!!
Also, what would you guys think of third-person Tomura or Shouta? Just an idea.