Tomura Shigaraki Rewritten (Fanfiction)

Chapter 48

"No!" I screamed as the force acting upon my body released and a fresh breath of air filled my lungs. Never had I been so grateful for air. I had taken for granted how easy it was to breathe.

I could hear Aida-chan gasping behind me. "What was... What happened?" she asked, waning in and out of consciousness.

I pushed myself up from the ground, turning around coughing, while helping Aida-chan get up off her feet. Even with her tousled red hair and ash stained face, she was still gorgeous. I thought I was pretty, but even she could make me jealous.

"We need to get out of here before we inhale too much smoke," I wheezed. Aida-chan nodded and quietly followed me, gripping my hand tight.

Was this how Tenko felt when I left? Betrayed, abandoned, lost? Tenko leaving was karma, and it stung.

Eventually, we made it out into the field of the colosseum. The entire place was practically abandoned. Once a crowded, cheering arena, was now a place of destruction and desolation.

I tugged on Aida-chan to keep walking but she didn't budge. I turned to look back at her to find her with a quizzical expression. "I have questions and I want them answered," she said.

I cleared my throat, letting go of her hand. "Okay... Ask away."

"Why did you leave Tenko-kun? All for One mentioned his dead family and... weren't you all he had left?"

Aida-chan stating what should have been the obvious frustrated me. I bit my nails as I nodded slowly. "But, I thought once he got into U.A. he would build more relationships and wouldn't need me anymore. Besides, I had other places I needed to be."

At that, Aida-chan scoffed. "What was all that about 'saving Tenko-kun from his quirk'?" she continued.

I shook my head, pacing back and forth. "My dad was right. I'm not a hero. I never saved him. I messed up big time. I was selfish and now my sister—..." I quickly caught myself. It would be better if Aida-chan didn't know about Tenko's past.

"If only I had let him embrace it like All for One said instead of making him hide it," I finished.

The memory of Nezumi-kun's disintegrating body filled my head. I shivered. Was that because I had encouraged Tenko to forget about his quirk—to forget about his past that he didn't know what to do with himself then? Maybe his death was my fault. My breath quickened, my eyesight blurred, everything felt labored, everything felt like it was closing in on me and—

"Jikan-chan!"

Aida-chan had a hand on my shoulder, a firm, stoic look on her face. "You need to calm down. If we want to get Tenko-kun back, we can't panic," she said sternly.

Slowly, I nodded, trying to match Aida-chan's pace of breathing. Her ruby red eyes, like orbs of passion, fluttered closed as she seemingly tried to calm herself as well. I copied her, letting myself sit in a moment of darkness. The crackling of the fire, the screaming, it all seemed distant now as warm sunlight kissed my skin. I sighed with newfound relief.

"Okay. Perfect. Now. How are we going to get Tenko-kun back?" Aida-chan continued, her voice still stern. It was as confident and sure of herself as when she had demanded Recovery Girl around back in the nurse's office.

"I don't know," I murmured, opening my eyes. I bit my bottom lip back, deep in thought. Before I regressed, heroes had little idea of where All for One's hideout had been. Miraculously, when Bakugou, a U.A. student had gotten kidnapped, the heroes were able to sniff out Shigaraki's hideout, but that was about it. I imagined that All for One wouldn't take Tenko to nowhere near Shigaraki's hideout, since he might have already guessed I knew where it was.