Chapter Text
Tenko didn’t really know what was happening.
One minute, he decides to go out to grab some things from the mall and taunts hero brats, and the next he’s…bonding?
He’s not actually sure about that part. Tenko had managed to unlock Izuku’s backstory (and the boy had seemingly unlocked Tenko’s backstory with a glance) and he doesn’t really think of the boy as a hero in training anymore. Not at all.
Izuku is just someone who wants to actually help Tenko and be more than an NPC.
It was a foreign concept.
The first and only time Tenko had gotten help, it was from a man who wanted nothing more than a valuable pawn at his disposal. That much had been obvious with everything that he’d figured out so far.
After Tenko’s talk with Izuku (the other boy insisted with the given names) more and more of his memories started rolling in.
How he had forgotten about his previous family? He’s not really sure about that part. He’s not even sure why the memories came back. Maybe Izuku had something to do with it?
Either way. Tenko has spent his days trying to gather more information. Especially since the Doctor had given Tenko a side quest to help Sensei’s goals in the long run.
The prospect of the experiments were terrifying, to say the least. He knew without question that Sensei would expect Tenko to go through with it and let Sensei try and use Tenko’s own body just to continue to try and wreak havoc on Japan.
They said the experiments were designed to give Tenko more physical power-ups but he can’t help but doubt it.
If Sensei is going to use the experiments to place his imprint inside Tenko, wouldn’t that just make him a living puppet for his own mentor? Even more so than he already is?
The idea of only being a body for someone else freaked him out.
He wanted hero society to hurt as much as they had hurt him as a child, which is why he continued with his rage-induced attacks. Sensei encouraged this and even praised him for it.
But sometimes he felt so wrung out afterwards, as if Sensei had been using an emotional manipulation quirk or two on Tenko just so he could continue to feel angry, even when all he really wanted to do was curl up into a ball and cry out his pain and hurt.
Which is why he doesn’t think he can trust Sensei anymore. He thought that they had the same goals in mind but it became painfully clear that they never had seen eye to eye.
Especially after his talk with Izuku.
The boy had put their mentor-mentee relationship in an entirely new light, forcing Tenko’s rose-tinted glasses off so he could see the whole picture.
It was like watching the world around him become just a bit sharper, like he had only been seeing life in 50 DPI and suddenly, someone switched his lens and he was finally seeing the entire image clearly.
Which also just served to make Tenko so much more scared and hurt and angry than he already was. Because he is now acutely aware of everything that Sensei was hiding from Tenko from the start.
Obviously, it wasn’t the brightest idea for Tenko to place all of his trust in a man that was nearing 200 years of age but (in all fairness) Tenko didn’t really know about that until he had gotten attacked and placed on life support because of his fight with All Might a few years ago.
And even after that happened, Tenko was just told to use his rage to destroy whatever he didn’t like.
In fact, Sensei only ever encouraged him when he was angry. And Tenko didn’t like a lot of things but then again, what teenage kid actually likes stuff in a society not built for them? So Sensei essentially told him he could destroy everything that stood in his path, which included All Might.
Actually, All Might might be the biggest thing Sensei emphasized Tenko to reduce to nothing.
With all of that in mind, Sensei never really prepared him to do much.
Yes, he’s causing unease within society because of the League and what they’ve done so far. And yes, he usually follows Sensei’s orders exactly how they were given to him.
But Sensei never gave Tenko lessons on how to analyze an opponent's weakness, he never taught Tenko how to fight, he never instructed and guided Tenko towards the better society they were talking about after all of the destruction happened.
In fact, if Izuku was right and Sensei had given him a decay quirk for the sole purpose of using Tenko’s body when he got older, then Sensei doesn’t really care about society or the heroes.
He just wants to destroy everything.
And Tenko is figuring out that that isn’t what he wanted to make happen.
Tenko had really only ever known what pain and anger felt like. He was never given an opportunity to break out from that cycle. And now, he just feels lost and frustrated and maybe a little hurt. Like he was a little kid once again, angry at his father for all the pain he used to cause them.
He just wanted everyone to feel that same kind of hurt before he showed them what he could do to help change that.
But now he feels…different.
He feels different enough to want to change society without destroying it first. Because…he was given a chance.
Izuku Midoriya gave him a chance to be more than just his rage and a puppet to mold and use during their talk. He even smiled when Tenko gave him his number! And he helped Tenko with his neck when he scratched at his dry skin and it bled, even while knowing that Tenko was a villain who deserved to feel the pain that came with the itch.
The boy was the furthest thing from a hero and yet, he also never touched that line of villainy.
Now that he thought about it, he’s not completely sure what Izuku was. Maybe a rogue of some sort? That would be the only way to explain why exactly he was offering all of these nice things for Tenko.
No one else had bothered to try and listen to him, let alone tell him he deserves more.
Tenko also needed to tell the newest members of the League before they got any stupid ideas about taking out Sensei without Izuku’s help and careful planning. It made him a bit excited thinking about how the rest of the members might react.
He knew everyone had a blatant hate for the man but were willing to follow Tenko as he tried to destroy and recreate society. They all had their own plans for how they wanted society to change and he wouldn’t stop that.
But he’ll need to explain that before anything is implanted into his mind, which may need to be soon now that he thinks about it.
Tenko decided to think back to Izuku as he texted the group chat for the League, instructing them to meet him up in his room and be subtle about it.
He didn’t know what he felt for the other boy but it was a warm feeling in his chest.
That warmth never burnt him like it does when he’s angry and itchy. It wasn’t the same warmth that turned so hot it felt like ice had been injected into his veins. If he had to put a name to the feeling, he would call it respect and admiration.
He used to think he felt those things for Sensei but it became painfully clear that he had only ever been scared of his mentor. And that…well, that might be the whole reason he’s doing this.
Because he doesn’t really want to feel this scared ever again.
“Tomura,” Kurogiri called out, breaking Tenko out of his thoughts. “Make sure to get adequate rest tonight. The Doctor would like to see you in the morning.”
Tenko nodded tightly, not wanting to deal with the Doctor in the morning but most certainly not willing to go against anything the Doctor and Sensei wanted from him.
He made his way up the stairs and into his bedroom as he sighed to himself and texted Izuku goodnight.
He really didn’t want to speak with the Doctor tomorrow.