Yin
one day ago
What happened after the war twenty-five years ago is difficult to explain. Deku left UA for one. He returned, but things weren't the same. Our teachers, Endeavor, All Might, even us, the students we took upon a reform that challenged our very definition of heroes and villains.
Heroes aren't glorified stars in the sky anymore. They're the fallen ones we can identify with as people rather than gods. They work together. They don't compete for a pedestal.
Villains aren't only criminals. They're people with lives and motives and proper sentencing rather than immediate imprisonment in unlawful conditions.
Tartarus was closed, turned into a rehabilitation center. Those that are unsavable. Those like All for One and his doctor who'd continue to commit crimes no matter the help they were given. They were sentenced by the courts and held in high-security centers that mimic Tartarus with the exception of complete isolation.
It's not perfect. No system ever is or ever will be. But we're doing our best.
I've walked a morally gray line my whole life. I didn't realize how much that mattered until I had my children. I live for them. My past actions don't define who I am, but at once they do. I choose to walk the side of the line where I know they'll be safest.
And it's safer that they never find out their uncle is alive.
In a hotel room with the curtains drawn over the windows, a single lit bulb at the center illuminates our conversation.
I sit across from Tenko on one of the chairs, my elbows on my knees. Katsuki stands behind me, his arms crossed, chewing on the inside of his cheek, foot tapping against the carpet. Tenko is, surprisingly, rather calm.
Him and I communicate purely through letters. Asking him here was an iffy request. Even if it's been over two decades, going out in public is always a risk for him. He wears a worn hoodie, a mask, keeps his hair dyed black and his eyes ever downcast.
Many people still condemn the name Tomura Shigaraki. To exist, to survive, he needs to be somebody else. He is somebody else now. Ever since All for One's fall, I've known.
Katsuki knows too. He just doesn't care too much.
He may be a good man, but his grudges run deep. He doesn't forget everything my brother put him through. Much less does he forget everything he put our friends and teachers through.
"Start talking," Katsuki nods his head, thinning his eyes.
Tenko sighs, removing his hood and mask, wiping his face. I sigh too. More in relief that for fifty-something, he looks healthy, not too tired, and very much alive.
"I don't know who could be after your son." He says. "There are plenty of people who might be after a famous hero's family."
All I said in my letter was that I needed his help. That Ame was in danger.
"Every single high-level villain I've ever put away was questioned since the attack. None are connected," Katsuki bites, shoving Tenko's theory right back at him.
Tenko looks up, raising his brows at my husband's hostility. He doesn't think too much of it. But if My husband would shut his trap and listen with an open mind maybe we'd get something productive done here.
"You must've had a busy week," Tenko says.
"You really want to make jokes right now?"
"Isn't that what this is?" Tenko points to all three of us meeting in his room. "I'm not running some sort of criminal organization under your nose, Dynamight. I make an honest living now. I wouldn't jeopardize our agreement to interrupt some traffic."
