I paced the floors of the church biting my well kept nails. Tenko was sitting on a pew silently watching me as I struggled to look at him. All my clothes, everything smells like blood. Everything smells like death. I bit my nails harder. I cut my finger with my teeth and I flinched, removing my hand from my mouth.
"Are you alright?" Tenko asked and I barely glanced at him. For the hundredth time tonight, I checked to make sure he was wearing his gloves. They were there, safe on his hands, just like a minute before. But I couldn't help the fear eating away at me, behind my eyes. When I didn't respond to Tenko's question and continued on pacing, he got up. I gasped and froze in place, staring at him, wide-eyed.
Where had I gone wrong? This whole time I thought I was doing everything right. Tenko was polite, he was kind, at least he was to me. He was popular, the girls at school loved him. How had I not noticed that he could break so easily? Was I not paying enough attention to him? Should I do more?
Tenko frowned as I stepped away from him, frightened. There was a moment of silence and contemplation between us, as the cold, clean air of the church filled our breaths. His crimson red eyes, the same color as the blood stained on our school uniforms, scanned my anxious, stormy gray ones.
Finally, Tenko spoke again. "Remember a couple years ago, when Todoroki-san died?" How could I not? It was the night he threatened to kill me. Maybe that night had been more significant than I had thought. Maybe that's where everything went wrong. I gingerly touched my neck, sliding my fingers across it as I remembered the pain of his nails digging into my skin. Slowly, I nodded in response.
"I could have killed you then, but I didn't," he stated, his voice deadpan. I shuddered. "I have self control, Jikan. I'm not a monster."
Yes you are, I couldn't help but think. Then I hated myself for thinking it. "That doesn't matter now. If you chose to do what you did, that makes it even worse," I slowly raised my shaky voice. "Nezumi-kun is dead, Tenko. Do you understand that?!"
He blinked several times. "I already told you, I'm not a monster. You're acting like I am," he huffed.
"And you're acting like you're not a murderer! Tenko, you killed somebody! He's dead!" I could feel tears clouding my eyes as I screamed at him. Tenko continued to stare at me, holding eye contact almost unemotional. I bit my bottom lip, trying to suck in the tears. I was shaking, the memory of Nezumi-kun's disappearing flesh fresh in my brain.
"I killed my parents years ago, and you weren't nearly this upset," Tenko growled, his eyebrows furrowed. He waved his hands in the air as he spoke. It made me gasp, in fear his gloves might be off, just this time, and that he could shatter me into a thousand pieces, decaying from the face of this earth. When I gasped, Tenko stopped moving and glared at me. "I don't understand why you're making a big deal out of it now."
"Because you're not a kid anymore!" I cried, folding my arms, trying to keep my exposed skin away from his dangerous hands. "You get mad at me for treating you like a kid, but how can I not when you act like this?! You should know better by now than to use your quirk for bad. You're supposed to be a hero, Tenko!"
Tenko sighed, running a gloved hand through his ruffled, blue gray hair and taking a seat again on the pews. "Jikan, I think I've realized my quirk isn't cut out for being a hero. Heroes quirk's don't kill people as easily as mine does," he said solemnly. By now, it seemed the weight of his murder was hitting him. Either that or he was just upset about the prominent fear I showed him.
"You are going to U.A., I don't care what you say. I worked way too hard to have you quit now," I grumbled, biting my fingernails again as the metallic scent of blood still grimly wafted into my nostrils. "When Father Chris gets back you're transferring to a different middle school. You wear your gloves, every day, all day. We act like nothing happened, okay?" I questioned, barely glancing at him.
I would probably just drop out of school at this point. Apparently me going to school caused too many problems, and seemed to just have a negative effect on Tenko. Maybe because he ended up killing somebody.
He gazed at me for several moments and I tried to ignore it. I tried to continue pacing, keeping my eyes to the floor, but he was staring lasers into me. Eventually I stopped and turned towards him and I was caught off guard. His red, crimson, wild eyes bore into me, searching my soul. My breath shuddered as his thin, scarred lips quivered slightly, deep in thought. The dim night light of the church lit his features, just barely, causing an ominous glow over his dark gaze.
Eventually, I opened my mouth to ask why he was staring at me, but he spoke first. "Why aren't you tossing me out? After all the damage I've done, you're still trying to fix me. What for?" he asked, his voice echoing off the stone walls and colored windows.
I wasn't about to tell him that I was actually from several years in the future, and that he became a horrendous villain that murdered my sister so I was trying to stop him and save thousands of other people. So, I just gave a dejected smile.
"Because you're my best friend, Tenko," I admitted. "I can't just leave you now. You're all I have at the moment." I felt like crying. I felt like breaking down into a million pieces, shattering into dust and floating through in the wind, across Japan, and back into my sister and mother's loving arms. But I was here. I made my decision, and I was going to stick with it.
"Tenko, you are going to be a hero. Maybe you won't make it pro, or you won't even make it as a side kick, but somehow, you will be a hero. Whether that's saving the neighborhood cat from a tree, or helping an old lady cross the street, you'll be somebody or something's hero," I told him, my eyes filled with assurity as I weakly stepped towards him. "That's my one wish for you."
Slowly, he nodded. Tenko's expression was awestruck and dumbfounded, as if he was struggling to process my existence. As if, right now, he was observing every last bit of me, making sure every inch of my skin was engraved into his memory in case one day, I would decay away just like Nezumi-kun.
Tenko stood up, walking towards me and closing the space between us. "Jikan, if I keep your wish, will you keep mine?" he quietly inquired. We were barely inches away. I could feel his steady breath on the tip of my nose. If only the smell of death in the air wasn't ruining the peaceful moment. I slowly nod in response to Tenko's question.
"You can't leave me. You can't ever die on me, okay?" he asked. Tenko's voice was more desperate now, and his eyebrows were furrowed.
I couldn't promise anything. All these years I had been telling him I wouldn't die on him, but I never told him I'd never leave. I had been planning to leave Tenko and return back to my mother and Hana once he got into U.A., but I had never told him and wasn't planning to.
"I promise," I lied, letting the empty words sound genuine. A smile split across Tenko's face as his gloved hands reached out for mine.
This was the motion he made when he wanted me to hold his hand. We did it, all the time, but right now it felt like his world and mine depended on it. I kept my eyes directed at his eyes, as my fingertips gently brushed the cloth of Tenko's gloves. Slowly, I slid my hand into his, and he gripped me tightly. I gasped as he pulled me closer. Now, I could really feel his breaths.
"Don't break it," he whispered, licking his lips. "Or I might really become a monster."
YOU ARE READING
Tomura Shigaraki Rewritten (Fanfiction)
Fanfiction"See? You're scared of me." It was then I only felt four out of his five fingers on my neck. He needed all five of his fingers to be touching something for his quirk to work. The moment he put his fifth index finger down, I would disintegrate. "You...
