Meanwhile—
After leaving the scene and "accidentally" dropping the student ID that his master had prepared for him, Shigaraki Tomura wandered into a nearby shopping street.
That ID card had been created by All For One, specifically to match the identity Shigaraki would use while attending school: Tenko Shimura.
As for whether losing it had been an accident…
Well.
That depended on how one chose to interpret it.
Shigaraki himself had no particular comment on the matter.
One thing he could guarantee, however, was that the identity was completely real.
Every record connected to that student ID existed.
If someone went to the police and investigated it thoroughly, they would find a perfectly consistent life history—from birth all the way to the present.
Every detail had been fabricated flawlessly.
In fact, to make the identity even more convincing, Shigaraki had even attended a few classes at that school personally.
Though…
After only a few lessons, he lost interest and stopped going.
School simply wasn't that entertaining.
Now, standing beneath the warm glow of the shopping district's streetlights, Shigaraki stretched his shoulders slightly.
"Finally…"
After all the fighting earlier, he was starving.
His stomach gave a faint protest.
He had been running around for hours. A proper meal was long overdue.
Buying something delicious to reward himself sounded like an excellent idea.
Just as he stepped into the lively shopping street—
A voice suddenly called out behind him.
"H-hey… um… excuse me?"
The voice was soft.
Bright.
And slightly hesitant.
As if the speaker wasn't entirely certain she had the right person.
Shigaraki paused mid-step.
"…Hm?"
He scratched the back of his head.
For some reason, that voice sounded oddly familiar.
Like he had heard it somewhere recently.
Curious, he turned around.
And immediately saw a blonde girl standing a short distance away.
She looked a few years younger than him.
Her school uniform was neat and spotless, the white fabric catching the warm glow of the streetlights.
Her long golden hair flowed smoothly down her back, with two small buns styled neatly at the sides of her head.
Her eyes—
A striking shade of yellow—
Still held a trace of uncertainty.
But the moment Shigaraki turned around, that uncertainty instantly transformed into pure delight.
The girl's eyes widened.
They sparkled like tiny stars.
She looked straight at him and asked with surprising seriousness:
"Um… hello."
"Were you the one who saved me earlier?"
"…Saved you?"
Shigaraki blinked.
And then, after a brief moment, recognition dawned.
Because standing in front of him was none other than—
Himiko Toga.
In the original story, she was known as one of the most disturbingly unstable members of the League of Villains.
A high-school girl with a disturbingly cheerful personality.
Messy golden-brown hair.
Sharp canine teeth.
An innocent appearance that completely contradicted the twisted impulses lurking beneath the surface.
Her Quirk was Transform.
By drinking someone's blood, she could transform into their appearance.
The more blood she consumed, the longer she could maintain the transformation.
A single cup of blood could sustain the disguise for about a full day.
Because of this ability, she had managed to hide her identity even while committing a series of brutal crimes.
Her real name and face had remained unknown to authorities for a long time.
If everything followed the original timeline—
She would eventually be recruited into the League of Villains after the Hero Killer incident.
But clearly…
Something had gone off script.
Shigaraki had never expected to run into her here.
At this exact moment.
In this exact place.
Of course, earlier—before his fight with Steel Boy—he had heard someone screaming "Toga-chan" nearby.
At the time, he had briefly wondered whether that "Toga-chan" might actually be the Himiko Toga from the original story.
But the situation had escalated too quickly.
The moment he arrived at the scene, Steel Boy had already been trying to smash a blonde girl's skull in.
Shigaraki hadn't had time to carefully observe her face.
He had simply acted.
And by the time Steel Boy was subdued, the girl had already disappeared.
So he had assumed he was mistaken.
But now—
Looking at the girl standing right in front of him…
It seemed he had been right after all.
Shigaraki nodded calmly.
There was no reason to deny it.
Saving someone from a murderer wasn't exactly something that required secrecy.
Besides, All Might had already seen his face earlier.
Even if he tried to hide it now, the truth would come out the moment Toga compared information with the Number One Hero.
So there was no point pretending.
"If you mean saving a blonde girl from a guy who could turn his whole body into steel…"
Shigaraki shrugged slightly.
"…then yeah."
"That was probably me."
The moment those words left his mouth—
Toga's entire face lit up.
Her smile bloomed like a flower.
Her bright yellow eyes curved into happy crescents.
"Ah! I knew it!"
She clapped her hands together excitedly.
"When I saw your back just now, I had a feeling it might be you!"
"I'm so glad I was right!"
Her voice carried pure delight.
Earlier, when the attack happened, the street had been too dark for her to clearly see the face of the person who stopped Steel Boy's punch.
All she knew was that her savior had been a blue-haired boy wearing a black uniform.
And before she could even properly process what had happened, her friends had dragged her away from the center of the battlefield.
By the time things calmed down—
The mysterious boy had already vanished.
That had bothered her.
A lot.
Someone had risked their life to save her.
If she didn't even know who that person was…
Wouldn't that be terribly rude?
So after the chaos ended, she slipped away from her friends and started searching around the nearby streets.
And eventually—
She found him.
The blue-haired boy.
The same hairstyle.
The same clothes.
The same silhouette she had seen earlier.
So she gathered her courage and called out.
And now—
Her guess had been confirmed.
The person standing in front of her…
Was the boy who had saved her life.
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