Tomura and I went to his room, and he explained what had happened to All For One.
"So your Quirk awakened, and the first thing you did with it was kill three kids?" All For One asked. "I'm proud of you, Mato."
I took that as a compliment at the time. I shouldn't have.
After my Quirk manifested, All For One started to treat me a bit more nicely, but there was still no room for me. He started to give me money, and I used it to buy myself some food; I didn't want to become even more malnourished than I already was.
And also, Tomura and I became friends. I didn't know his real name was Tenko.
Tomura is 5 years older than me. He was 9 at the time.
Mato had just bought himself some food. He was eating it on his way back... well, he didn't know exactly where he was going. He took a bite of his meal - a sandwich - and continued to walk.
Things had started to go a bit better in my life. Until I met her.
One day, Mato was sitting on the floor, leaning on the wall of an alley. Suddenly, he heard a voice and raised his head.
"Hey, you! Could you help me cover up something?"
That girl was Himiko-chan. At that time, I didn't know what love was, but I remember I felt something that I didn't understand when I saw her. Now that I've grown up and I still feel that feeling for Himiko-chan, I can tell it: it was love.
"Yeah, sure..." Mato replied shyly. He helped Toga to hide inside a garbage bin.
"Hey, kid!" a man said. "Have you seen a blonde girl with a knife in her hand?"
"No, sir," Mato stated. The man left.
"You can come outside," Mato said. Toga came out.
"Thank you, I'll remember it!" Toga exclaimed. "By the way, I'm Toga Himiko, and I'm 6 years old! What about you?"
"I am Mato," said Mato shyly. "And I am 4..."
Since that day, several years passed since we met, but we never forgotten each other. At a very young age, we were both criminals.
And now here I am, standing beside Tomura against Re-Destro. I don't know why I remembered my past now, but it doesn't matter. What matters now is that we're going to beat Re-Destro up!
__________
Mato's eyes snapped. Inside him, he felt something strange.
"I don't need a future," Shigaraki, who was still standing beside him, said. "The League of Villains can just do whatever they want after this."
Shigaraki shattered the hand he had on his face with his Quirk. "I don't need any of this!"
"Stress 100%!" Re-Destro lunged forward towards Shigaraki and Mato, but the 16-year-old boy created a wall of darkness and blocked Re-Destro's path.
What's that supposed to be? Re-Destro wondered.
I feel something strange... Mato looked at the sky. Is my Quirk evolving? Or am I just turning crazy?
"If I destroy it before the end of the swing, then it's nothing much," Shigaraki came out of the dust. "You're just big. I get it. Destroying something you hate with all you've got is fun, isn't it?"
"My power is a means to an end..." said Re-Destro. "To liberate people! To carry Destro's will"
"You talk way too much," Satoru said with a mix of annoyance and tiredness.
"You seem to be held back by something, Re-Destro," said Shigaraki.
"Fear, probably," Satoru added.
A sort of armor wrapped around Re-Destro. "Detnerat's patented... 'Burden-Amplifying Steel Pressure Mechanism: Claustro!"
"Maybe a shorter name next time, okay?" Mato snorted. "Tomura, please, let's just beat him up and end this."
"Oh, yeah," said Shigaraki. "We definitely will."
"Stress 150%!" Re-Destro used both his punches to punch Shigaraki and Mato.
Shigaraki just touched his armor, and it decayed. Mato just shattered it with darkness.
I can control my darkness better now, and I can even move it telepathically now... that's a thing I managed to do only when I first manifested my Quirk.
"150%, huh?" Shigaraki snorted. "So it's like 'Plus Ultra.'"
Shigaraki touched the floor, and a big hole slowly formed. Re-Destro used the jetpacks on his feet to fly in the sky.
If I can get outside his range...!
With his Quirk and by just touching the floor, Shigaraki started to destroy the entire city of Deika.
Tomura's doing his job, thought Satoru. Now it's my turn to do something.
Mato teleported away.
"Let it all be destroyed." Shigaraki's hair turned completely white, and some cuts appeared on his arms.
Mato teleported in front of Re-Destro's armor. "Take this, motherfucker!"
"DARK CONTINENT: EVOLVED VERSION!"
The whole armor of Re-Destro got destroyed by Satoru's punch. Re-Destro ran away with a piece of his destroyed armor, and when he turned, he saw something that froze the blood in his veins.
Mato and Shigaraki were both smiling. But it was not a normal smile. It was a villainous smile.
Re-Destro flew away due to the mess Shigaraki was making with his Quirk. Mato, in the air, created a dark slab to stay on to avoid being erased by Shigaraki.
Everything got destroyed. Gigantomachia stood on his feet, finally acknowledging Mato's and Shigaraki's worth of being the successors of All For One.
Re-Destro was sitting defeated on the floor, with the piece of armor in front of him.
Mato and Shigaraki slowly walked up to him. Shigaraki's body was in really bad shape, but so was Mato's. From both of the guys' foreheads, blood was descending. Mato's left forearm was covered in blood, and his right hand was too, holding his grey scarf.
"Did your feet touch the ground?" Shigaraki asked. "You cut them off before your whole body was destroyed, huh?"
"Look at you," said Mato. "You thought you were tough, but you were just a simpleton, just like everyone in your worthless army."
"Oh, so your vocabulary evolved alongside your Quirk, Mato," Shigaraki said. "Anyway, why were we even fighting again? Aren't we aiming for the same goal?"
He pointed at Re-Destro. "It's because you came looking for a fight, right?"
Suddenly, Re-Destro's allies rushed to the place, watching from the edge of the hole. "Re-Destro!"
Who are these pests? Satoru wondered. Doesn't mean. I'll wipe them out with my darkness.
"Keep going... is pointless death," said Re-Destro. He then looked up to face Shigaraki and Mato.
"They all agree with me--no, with Destro's dying wish and have prepared to become martyrs. As you said, I picked a fight and lost. If you're going to kill me, then do it."
He bowed down. "The Meta Liberation Army will follow both of you."
I'm not cut out for being a leader, thought Mato. But Tomura surely is.
__________
One week later
(The tragedy that struck a peaceful city--The criminal group used fake information to lure the heroes outside the city. The residents of Deika City, facing this sudden threat, came together in resistance. But now let's talk about what happened to us villains after Shigaraki and I defeated Re-Destro.)
"Man, this must be what they mean by 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger,'" said Mr. Compress. He, Spinner, and Dabi were sitting at a table.
"You didn't do anything, did you?" Dabi asked. "Satoru literally did more than you, and he arrived much later."
"Speaking of Satoru, where is he?" Spinner asked. "And by the way, are you eating that?"
"No, you know I don't like sushi, you can take it," said Dabi. "And as for Satoru, he said he's in the bathroom doing something."
"Toga, I'm sorry!" Twice was in front of a Toga picture, with both his arms broken. "If you hadn't shared your blood, then right now Toga would be..."
"Please, stop that," Toga was sitting behind him, eating sushi. Her right eye was damaged, and she was wearing an eyepatch. "I'm alive, so I don't like it."
Suddenly, someone opened the door. "Yo."
It was Mato, but he was different.
"Mato-kun!" Toga exclaimed. "You cut your hair!"
"Yeah, I did," said Mato. "I did this in sign of change."
Satoru's hair wasn't messy and spiky like before; it was straight, covering his eyes a bit, and it gave him a more serious look.
"You don't look bad at all," Mr. Compress commented.
"You're even better than before, I must say," Dabi added.
"Thanks, guys," said Mato. "Himiko-chan... sorry if I wasn't there to protect you. If you had died, I wouldn't have forgiven myself."
"Hey, calm down, Mato-kun," said Toga in a softer tone. "You're just one; if you're helping Tomura, you can't help me. Fortunately, Jin was there."
"Yeah..." Satoru sighed. "I owe you one, Jin."
__________
The villains found themselves in an alley, waiting to be called.
"Didn't Tomura destroy all of his hands?" Toga asked, seeing Tomura's hand on his face.
"It seems like one remained," Satoru responded, putting his rabbit mask on in case some impostor was there to recognize him.
"Why aren't you there too, Satoru?" Dabi asked.
"Because," Satoru replied. "I could've been deputy chief of the Liberation Army, but I didn't want to. I'm not cut out for this type of role, unlike Tomura."
"As we walk down a deeper path to liberation," said Re-Destro from the distance. "The Metahuman Liberation Army and the League of Villains will unite under a new name! Now, the name, please, Tomura Shigaraki."
Satoru and the others appeared on the stage.
"The Paranormal Liberation Front," Shigaraki announced. "Under this name, we'll change society."
__________
"Well done today!" Re-Destro exclaimed after the announcement was over. "Would you like something to drink?"
"Go away," Shigaraki said, walking away with his leg in plaster.
"With pleasure!" Re-Destro disappeared from view in less than a second.
Shigaraki fell on his knees.
"In that condition, it's a miracle you can still walk," said Satoru, removing his rabbit mask. "Anyway, I think it's time to ask Garaki about that thing."
"I already talked to him," said Shigaraki, slowly getting up. "He said he'll give us that, as promised."
Satoru smirked. Oh, yeah... my Quirk evolved, I'm back to feel like a villain, and I now have All For One practically already in my hands.
__________
Some time later, Mato and Shigaraki reached Garaki's laboratory.
"Here we are," said Shigaraki.
"I was waiting for you guys," said Garaki. "So, who's going first?"
"We're going both at once," said Satoru. "We don't have time to lose."
"Really? You're going to do this at the same time?" Garaki asked.
Mato and Tomura nodded.
"In the next four months, you'll feel hellish pain," said Garaki. "But when we're done, you'll have a power you didn't even think existed."
"Only one thing," said Mato. "Since the school year is ending, I'll be missing sometimes, but in my free time, I'll get here with Teleport and... do whatever we're going to do."
"Got it," said Garaki. "Anyway, what does your Quirk do, now that it evolved?"
"I can move darkness with my mind," said Mato. "And I think there's something more, but I'm yet to discover it."
Shigaraki and Mato sat on a chair.
"Is this going to take long?" Shigaraki asked.
"As I said before," said Garaki. "It'll take four months of torture, and in Satoru's case, even longer, since all the stuff he has to do with U.A., but it's a matter of days. Once we're done, you'll have everything in the palm of your hand. Even One For All."
Oh, yeah, Satoru thought. Hellish pain? I don't care. As long as I can get even stronger, I'll take it. My villainous nature... has finally awakened.
Chapter 55 - End