“Sucks we only have, what, four days to 100% this game? But at least we got it before you gotta go under the knife,” Spinner said as he and Tomura Shigaraki completed their purchase and walked away from the game store counter.
“That’s plenty of time as long as we pull some all-nighters,” Shigaraki replied, “Let’s stop by the convenience store and grab a couple energy drinks before we head ba- what the fuck?”
“Everybody get down, this is a robbery,” screamed a man in a ski mask and black sweatshirt. “Hand over your belongings or else!”
“Yeah, or what?” Shigaraki asked, preparing to dust the man for daring to get in the way of his gaming session with Spinner. But the man quickly fired what looked like a beam of pointed light from his finger. The last thing Shigaraki saw before being overtaken by the bright light was Spinner trying to shield him from the blow.
~
When the robbery was called in, it just so happened that a couple of students from Class 1A were in the area, and it didn’t take long for them to arrive and apprehend the prospective thief. Unfortunately, they were too late to stop him from activating his quirk on a couple of the store’s customers.
“So, we talked to the villain,” said Izuku Midoriya as he knelt down to talk to the children, “and his quirk is that he can de-age a person back by five to fifteen years. He said he used his maximum output, and since you two admitted you’re both a little over five years old as far as you know, that would mean you were originally in your early twenties. Luckily, it should only last an hour or two. Now I know you two must be confused, but we’re here to help you reunite with your families in the meantime. Do you mind telling us your names?”
“Well my name is Tenko Shimura,” answered the black-haired boy with tiny scratches around his eyes and a mole below his right lip. “I’m Shuichi Iguchi,” said the other child, hiding his reptilian face beneath long pink bangs.
“Okay that’s a good start,” said Midoriya, flashing a warm smile, “Would you like to come back with us to UA? We’ll give you a little tour while we call your folks and have them pick you up until the quirk wears off.”
“That sounds great!” Tenko exclaimed. “Hear that Shuichi? We get to possibly meet a ton of heroes and see where the best of the best train the next generation! My sister’s gonna be so jealous.”
“That does sound exciting,” Shuichi said, smiling softly.
“You two seem close for having just met ten minutes ago,” Shouto Todoroki deadpanned, “Do you somehow remember being friends?”
“No, but we were definitely friends before the quirk! This game I’ve got is in the simulation genre, which we both like a lot. Plus, we were right next to each other when we came to, so we must’ve come to the store together. I bet one of us got attacked by the villain and the other one got in the way trying to protect them, so we both got hit.”
“Wow Tenko, you’re brilliant!” praised Shuichi. “I’m lucky to have someone so smart as my friend.” Tenko flushed red as he smiled brightly at Shuichi.
Satisfied with the answer, Todoroki and Midoriya led the way to UA.
~
When they arrived at UA, the children were greeted by Ochaco Uraraka, Tenya Iida, and a few more students from Class 1A who heard about the situation. All were more than happy to help give a tour of the campus to the kids, who were excited to meet both the students learning and the teachers who were heroes on the side.
“Oh my gosh Shuichi look,” Tenko whispered, pointing at a tall, thin blond man exiting the main building, “It’s All Might.”
“Is it? That just looks like a skinny middle-aged man. How can you tell?”
“He’s as tall as All Might is, and he’s got his front hair thingies down instead of up. I’m gonna go talk to him, I’ll be right back,” Tenko said before bolting over to the man shouting, “Excuse me, Mr. All Might?”
“Yes, oh. Are you a little fan?” All Might asked the fast-approaching child.
“Yeah! My name is Tenko Shimura. My father really hates heroes, but I don’t. In fact, you’re my favorite!”
“I… what?” All Might said, dumbfounded.
“And someday, I’m gonna be a hero too, no matter what my father says. I’ve got these friends, Tomo and Mikkun, and no one played with them so they called me a hero when I did. So that’s the kind of hero I’m gonna be: a hero that helps the people who get left behind! And maybe I’ll be number one just like you!”
All Might stood there absolutely stunned, then knelt down and said, “That’s an incredibly noble goal you’ve set for yourself. I’m sure if you pursue that as best you can, then you will be a great help to all those people.”
“You really think so?”
“Of course. Will you excuse me for a moment, I just need to make a phone call to an old friend of mine.”
“Okay, and thank you All Might!”
As All Might hurriedly away, keeping his tears at bay, Shuichi ran up to Tenko. “Holy smokes! You were able to recognize All Might and talk to him? You’re smart and brave! I don’t think I’d have the courage to utter a peep in front of him.”
“Huh, why not?”
“I don’t know if he’ll be okay with me, being a heteromorph and all.”
“Well maybe if he comes back, I’ll ask him to give you an autograph, and if he doesn’t then I’ll kick him in the shin as hard as I can.”
“You’d kick All Might for not liking me?”
“I’d kick anyone for not liking you. You’re my friend!”
Hearing that warmed Midoriya’s heart. After all, if this was how he was acting at age five, then Tenko must’ve grown up to be quite the compassionate man, maybe even became a hero himself.
~
About an hour had passed, and Shuichi and Tenko had met many of the teachers and had seen most of the grounds. However, it became clear to at least one of the students that the children had more of an interest in each other than the school they were touring. Mina Ashido had caught Shuichi sneaking glances at Tenko whenever he could, and Tenko in return stayed as physically close to Shuichi as possible, and kept trying to impress him with facts he knew about apparently anything he could think of.
“Wow, you sure are putting on the charm with that fun fact about aye-ayes,” Ashido told Tenko while Shuichi was being shown the entrance to Ground Beta.
“I read about it in my sister’s book about endangered animals once. Hopefully Shuichi thought it was awesome.”
“You don’t want him to just like you, huh. You want him to like like you don’t you.”
Tenko sputtered for a few seconds but conceded. “I mean, look at him,” Tenko said exasperatedly, “He’s got rosy eyes and cherry blossom hair. Also, his scales shine all rainbowy when the sun hits them right, and they’re also cool so when my face gets itchy and hot and I press my face to his it feels soothing. And he likes video games, and he listens to me, and he’s got a pretty smile, and he thinks I’m amazing. He’s the sweetest and most beautiful boy in the whole world. How do you not get a crush on someone like that?”
“You know what, when you put it that way, you’re right,” Ashido placated, “So do you want to be his boyfriend?”
“Well, I think it would be nice. I do have to tell him soon because that’s something he should know, he deserves to know he’s so great. But I’m too little to know what to do now. And what if I chicken out when the quirk wears off and I get back to my normal age?”
“Don’t worry, just let me work my magic.” She whispered deviously, before turning to the other kid and shouting, “Hey Shuichi, besides being friends before the quirk, have you considered you two may have been boyfriends?”
“Ashido!”
“What?! I mean- that can’t be right,” Shuichi cried, hiding his face in his hands with embarrassment and shame, “I’m too ugly and unkissable to have a boyfriend!”
“No you’re not, and I can prove it!” Tenko proclaimed, then he rushed over, grabbed Shuichi, and planted the biggest kiss a five-year-old could muster on his lips.
“Wow, what a first kiss!” Tenko said dazedly as he pulled back.
“Why would you do that?! You just wasted your first kiss on me!”
“I just had my first kiss with the prettiest boy I’ve ever seen! How is that a waste?”
Shuichi fell silent and his cheeks turned bright pink in spite of his green scales.
“Look this is gonna sound weird,” he bashfully admitted, “but I kinda want to bite your head and lock my jaw in place so I never get separated from you.”
“Cool,” Tenko answered, “and you make me want to throw up but without the feeling like absolute garbage part, and I also maybe wanna squeeze you until you pop.”
“Wow, thankies,” Spinner said, as he shyly held his hand out for Tenko to take, which he gladly did with a grin.
“My work here is done,” Ashido declared as she wandered off to brag about her match-making skills to Denki Kaminari.
~
With Ground Beta explored, the tour was over and now all the kids had to do was wait for their families to come grab them.
“I don’t understand,” Iida whispered to the others, out of range of the children. “I tried calling the Iguchi family, but when I mentioned it concerned Shuichi, the hung up and wouldn’t take my calls!”
“Maybe the family just sucks,” said Katsuki Bakugou.
“Better than my results at least,” said Midoriya, “I couldn’t find a single Shimura family missing anyone named Tenko! Oh, is that Gran Torino coming this way?”
It was, in fact, Gran Torino arriving at UA. Midoriya ran out to greet him, but Torino shot past him… aiming directly for Tenko.
Torino bulldozed into Tenko at a great speed, knocking the boy off of his feet, along with Shuichi who was still holding his hand.
“Get off of me,” Tenko shouted, biting and kicking at anything within range, and both gnawing on Gran Torino’s hand and kneeing him in the balls as a consequence. Torino was having none of it, and finally got Tenko trapped underneath his boot.
“Torino what are you doing?” yelled Midoriya, “That’s a child!”
“That all you got? My father beats me harder than you,” Tenko screamed, squirming as hard as he could from under Gran Torino’s boot.
“What the- Nice try kid but I’m not letting you go,” the older hero recovered, squeezing his boot harder on Tenko’s stomach as he turned to the other child.
“I know your friend might be harder to recognize, but how in the heck did no one catch that you’re part of the League of Villains? You stay right there, lizard!”
“The League of Villains?!” Bakugou shouted, suddenly understanding what Torino meant.
“Don’t you touch him!” Tenko yelled grabbing onto Torino’s boot… which turned into dust. Gran Torino attempted to jet away, but with one of his boots lost to the wind, he over compensated and shot himself into the side of the dormitories. The confusion gave the two five-year-olds just enough time to run into Ground Beta and hide.
“What was he talking about?” Tenko hissed, “Calling us villains, we’re five-year-olds! I’m not thinking about world domination, are you?”
“Not really,” Spinner muttered, “though I’d like it if I didn’t have to worry about being sprayed by pesticides every time I left the house.”
“Don’t worry, when I grow up, I’ll make sure you never have to deal with people like that ever again. I’ll be your hero.”
“You really will?”
“Sure, we just need to get out of here first."
“Well,” Shuichi pondered, “you’ve got a quirk that turns things to dust now, so maybe we can destabilize the buildings as a cover? Wait no, they’ll fall on top of us and give away our location.”
“Wait Shuichi, that’s actually a good idea!” Tenko gleamed, “I can destroy a corner of each of the buildings around here so they fall over in random directions, but slowly enough that they don’t fall until we’re a good distance away, then when they fall down everyone will run toward them while we cross the street into further cover.”
“So smart!”
“Please it was your idea,” Tenko said as he began decaying the buildings closets to him. When he figured he had done enough, the two ran further into Ground Beta, but closer to the street, ad waited for the buildings to collapse. The plan worked, and they were able to cross over as the students and one very mad Gran Torino raced into the fray of the falling city structures.
When they stopped to catch their breath, Shuichi realized he was taller and that Tenko now had gray hair. “Hey, did we just age up?”
“Well seeing as I can recall everything up to age ten, I’d say so.”
“Are you okay? You’re not looking so good.”
“I got memories back that are… traumatizing to say the least.”
“Do you need a minute?”
“We don’t have a minute. We need a vantage point, a way to see the exit so we can plan our breakou-”
*Beep beep*
The two ten-year-olds startled as a phone went off, and Shuichi reached into his pocket to find a message displayed on his phone screen.
‘Van parked outside UA gate. Get over here.’
“Well, there’s our end goal,” Shuichi said, “and I bet I can get a better view at the top of this building. Here, get on my back and I’ll use my quirk to climb us up! Take your time resting and do some deep breaths, I’ll do the heavy-lifting”
Tomura carefully held on, not wanting to decay his friend? boyfriend? partner as he trekked up the shadowed side of the office, and took Shuichi’s advice to breathe deeply in an attempt to calm down.
Once they reached the roof, they could see the gate off to the south, and a wall that stretched outwards from that gate bordering Ground Beta.
“Okay, so what’s next?” asked Shuichi, huddled next to Tomura as he finally soothed himself back to sanity.
“Now we’ve gotta get to that wall. Once we get there, we can dust ourselves out and run along the side of it until we get to the gate and the mystery van. I’m just not sure if we can parkour effectively with these short and stubby limbs.”
Suddenly, the kids shot up like bean sprouts, becoming lanky and more agile 15-year-olds.
“Will these limbs do? Are you alright?”
“They’ll do fine and I’m fine,” replied Tomura, “Let’s do this.”
Over the roofs and walls they leaped, and with only a couple close calls they managed to reach the end of the buildings, climb back down with Shuichi’s help, and make it to the border. But as Tomura began to decay the wall, he heard a startled cry from Shuichi. Turning quickly, he found Shuichi pinned on his stomach with a pissed off Bakugou shoving his face into the dirt.
“Who’s the hostage now, huh?” he gloated, until he felt an adult hand grip his neck with only four fingers.
“Still you apparently,” said Tomura Shigaraki, returned to his current age. As he yanked Bakugou away, Spinner reverted to his regular self too.
“Spinner, you okay?”
“I’ll live. Let’s get moving, you focus on keeping the hero in your grasp, I’ll disarm him for when we get in the van.”
They moved as quickly as they could, with Bakugou trying his best to stall them. By the time they found the suspicious white van, Spinner had tossed one arm grenade into the woods and held the second in his hands. The back doors opened and Dabi popped out yelling, “Let’s go already! All this over a video game, I can’t believe you guys!”
The two villains tossed Bakugou towards the gate and hopped into the van, nearly falling back out as it peeled out of the vicinity of UA.
“Why’d you toss him?” Spinner asked.
“Because the rest of the students are gonna be more concerned with their friend being okay than with us getting away. Ah shit.”
Spinner glanced back as Bakugou had evidently wanted another round and was blasting towards the van with his quirk. And it looked like he was going to reach the back of the van…
Until Spinner slid in front of Shigaraki, aimed the remaining gauntlet, and fired at point blank range into Bakugou’s face.
“That will give the students something to check on!”
“That was quite the fucking timed event!” Shigaraki rejoiced.
“Hell yeah! And there’s only one more thing we need to 100% this level. Please tell me you have the copy we bought.”
Shigaraki stared at Spinner, then grinned maniacally as he slowly pulled out the game from his trench coat pocket.
“Whoo-hoo,” Spinner cried excitedly as he jumped into Shigaraki’s arms. Shigaraki swung him around before setting back down as they made their way to the van seats for the ride back to the mansion.
“What a weird side quest huh?” Spinner sighed.
“I guess,” Shigaraki agreed, “but we did unlock the especially rare romance route. Do you still wanna bite my head?”
Giggling, Spinner replied, “Yeah, as long as you still wanna throw up but in a good way with our proximity.”
Smiling, Shigaraki slid one of his pinky fingers around Spinner’s, who returned the gesture and gave him a peck on the cheek.
“Whoa, poggers… oh no that’s way worse than ‘wow thankies’.”
Spinner exploded into laughter alongside the rest of the league, with Toga grilling them about their newly found romance all the way home.
Got tagged by @theteapotofdoom to share six resolutions related to fandoms!
Rules: Post six (or more) fandom related New Year's resolutions for 2026 and tag at least six friends
Finish at least two fanfictions by the end of the year.
Watch a couple older anime titles.
Sort through and post all my leftover tumblr drafts.
Draw more and expand which fandoms I draw for.
Post a little more about what’s going on in real life.
Work on an animation of some kind.
I tag @trinketsandtangles @okulusul @uziarts @librarybunny13 @itsnothingofinterest and @addicted2tomura to share their resolutions if they feel like it.
I came up with this idea for a story based around the Shimura family rising from the dead and having a confrontation with both sides of Nana’s legacy about a week ago, and I’m in the process of turning it into a full-length fic. Unfortunately, there’s no way I’m gonna be able to finish it in time for spooky month. But for the sake of Halloween, I thought it would be nice to share the general idea I’ve got down for the plot. So without further ado, here’s the WIP summary for what I’m gonna call Spooky Scary Shimuras:
It’s the day of Spinner’s final book signing, just one more day of meeting and greeting the people who were touched by his work, and then he’ll have served his sentence and be considered a free man (with all his royalties to boot). But before he can start the next chapter of his life, he’ll have to reflect on what he gained and lost with his final fan.
Another fan walking up, another round of awkward yet meaningful back-and-forth about how much the book and its story means to the both of them, another autograph with a personalized note, and another “farewell and good luck”.
This had been Shuichi Iguchi’s Sisyphean routine for the past couple years. Ever since his account of the villains who he called friends was miraculously allowed to be published for the masses to read, his life had become a seemingly endless parade of book tours, seminars, speeches, and charity events all in the name of making sure no one got left behind or fell through the cracks like the League of Villains had. It was tough work for him, he didn’t think he could ever truly feel comfortable under a spotlight or on a podium, but it was worth it.
It was worth it to see just how many people whose hearts he had touched with his story, from people who were shaken out of their apathy after seeing what the villains went through to make them who they were, to people who had gone through similar circumstances themselves and got the courage to take action after reading his book. Some people were inspired to go into politics and law to fix the system, others were motivated to simply change their behavior to be more empathetic and reach out to those who looked like they needed help.
It was funny, Shuichi thought, that he out of everyone had inherited Tomura’s dream, that he had been the one who finally spun that dream into reality, and did so by putting his own spin on it. It was funny, in a bittersweet sort of way.
Today was going to bring a break in that routine though. Today was the final day of his sentence. True, he got off a bit easier compared to what he feared would happen, but three years of time in a mental health facility followed by five years of book related “community service” under the watchful eye of the rehabilitation program created in the wake of the war was still quite a lot to go through. And after this final book signing event was over, he could take his book royalties and walk out into the world without any further consequence. He could consider himself a free man.
The fans came, they were greeted, they laughed, they cried, they commiserated, they praised, they got their books signed, they left. Over and over until finally there was only one guest left.
The guest had shoulder length black hair that was half up in a bun even messier than Himiko’s had been, and Shuichi could tell it was dyed by the lighter roots. He was wearing a decent enough suit and a heavy coat on over that, with a flu mask covering his mouth. Still, the outfit did nothing to hide the vibes of anxiety this guy was exuding in spades.
“Hi, nice to meet you,” Shuichi greeted him, “Who should I make this autograph out to?”
“Hmm, oh no name don’t put a name I’m… not sure what my name is,” the guest physically winced at his own unconvincing excuse.
“Ok, I’ll address it to ‘schmoopy’. That’s your name now.”
Schmoopy looked bewildered but also a bit amused, so Shuichi gave himself an internal pat on the back for getting the guest to chill.
“I have questions.”
Shuichi looked up from the book he was signing, “What kind of questions?”
“Several.”
“…Ok, shoot.”
“The parts with Tomura Shigaraki read like a love story. Was that intentional?”
Shuichi was glad he was already finished with signing the book, because he knew he would’ve accidentally destroyed the autograph if he’d been asked this in the middle of it.
“Well, not at first.”
Schmoopy’s raised eyebrow indicated he was surprised that Shuichi didn’t deny the claim, so he began to explain.
“When I first started trying to write this story, I had actually intended it to be this grand immortalization of Tomura’s philosophy on how ‘hero society needs to be demolished in order to reject it the same way it rejects those who can’t fit into the roles it needs’. So like Destro’s Manifesto Part 2: Electric Boogaloo. Of course that’s not what came out, because that was a terrible idea and I couldn’t write that if I tried. What I found much easier to write about was just the story of our journey together. How we all met, when and how we became friends, what fights we got into and who we lost along the way, how we fought back and what we gained out of it. Writing about my friends helped me process everything, let me reminisce on the time we spent together but also grieve their passing. And well, that’s how I ended up realizing what story genre my bond with Tomura would’ve matched the best.”
“A romance?” probed Schmoopy.
“Yeah,” Shuichi replied fondly before continuing, “It wasn’t until I was able to lay it all on paper that I understood what direction our relationship was heading. Our first time playing video games, how quickly we became attached to each other within the following weeks, the emptiness I felt and how Tomura’s response was to quickly empathize with me, my promise to support him, his eagerness to show me he was worth supporting, the lengths each of us went through to make the other’s dream come true,” here Shuichi’s voice wobbled before he steadied himself, “and how he dedicated his final words to me. Each individual moment was precious on its own, but altogether it became an obvious love story. I didn’t set out to write a romance, I just happened to have found one after it had already ended.”
“I’m sorry,” Schmoopy consoled.
“It’s okay,” Shuichi placated, “With how I grew up I thought I’d never be loved at all. It’s not the best outcome, but I’m glad to know that someone loved me truly, and loved me as much as I loved them in return.”
Schmoopy paused for a moment, and Shuichi wondered if he’d said too much, but the guest pressed on with another question.
“Ok, next one. Considering everything that happened, from meeting the league, befriending and falling in love with Tomura, and knowing the tragic ending of it all… would you do it again?”
“Yes. I mean hypothetically speaking, if I got thrown back in time to the moment I first met my friends and I could use what I know now to affect the outcome, then I absolutely would. I’d bond with them sooner, take more detours for side missions that didn’t add much to our progress but were fun to do anyway. I’d make more time to just hang out with Tomura and enjoy that time together, maybe figure out my feelings for him sooner. Maybe I’d even be able to convince Tomura not to get the sketchy surgery that caused everything to go downhill, to ease himself into getting more power. Who knows how society would’ve turned out if that was the route we took. But, even if I couldn’t change anything, I’d still do it all again. After all, it’s just even more time I would get to spend with the people who mattered to me the most, and with the guy who loved me best.”
Schmoopy’s mouth quivered and his eyes got watery, quite emotionally touched by that answer. “Sorry,” he apologized as he wiped his sleeve across his face, “got stuff in my eye.”
“Is it tears?”
“Oh shut up”, he snorted while continuing to vigorously rub the mess off of his face, his mask getting pushed around from how hard he was scrubbing, “I’ve got one final question.”
“Sure, take your time…” Shuichi said, then promptly became speechless as Schmoopy dropped his arm. The coat sleeve was covered in make up and the face mask had fallen off.
Schmoopy’s face was covered in golden cracks -no wait, they were healed over scars- making him look like a kintsugi masterpiece.
Schmoopy’s scars were most prominent around his eyes, but the largest two were almost identical scratches on his right eye and left lip.
Schmoopy also had a mole below the right side of his mouth and red eyes that shined with determination.
Schmoopy was Tomura Shigaraki, the love of his life.
“Final question. Now that your sentence is over and the statute of limitations of my crimes passed, would you maybe want to run away with me?”
As they sprinted hand-in-hand out of the building and blended into the crowd to start their next chapter together, Spinner giddily started planning out how he’d write the epilogue he’d have to add to his book the next time it got republished.
