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“Fuck!”
It’s the third time this month. The third time that half of a Nintendo Switch controller has turned to dust in one of his fits on rage. Of course, he always has to have the right one decay. The world isn’t nice enough to let him destroy the Joy-Cons evenly.
The stash of new controllers is being circulated through at an ever-increasing rate. Kurogiri’s been very firm to enforce that once Tomura runs out, he runs out. No more theft from stores with his quirk - either Tomura is going to have to work to get an allowance, or he’s going to have to ask All For One.
Tomura is not asking his master to buy him video game controllers. That’s a waste of A.F.O.’s time in the first place. People already waste too much of their time.
“Hey, kid. You demolished another set of controllers, huh?” comments someone that Tomura hadn’t even realized had entered the room.
“Shut up.”
“Nah, that’s not my style.”
Tomura groans, looking over the couch to stare at Number 6. Getting rid of him is a near impossible task, so Tomura braces himself for another long-ass monologue about how 6 is going to get what he wants.
“Tomura. Are you okay?”
“What do you think?” growls Tomura.
“You’re fine. Just pissed off,” 6 observes. “Not in the mood to try and pointlessly get rid of me.”
That comment hits something in Tomura’s mind. Number 6 is the only person he’s ever met who can resist the effects of Decay, and he does it without the slightest bit of effort. Even without his acceleration quirk, 6 doesn’t fade away. He’s the only person Tomura doesn’t need to worry about killing outside of Kurogiri.
“How many sets are you left with?”
“Uh,” Tomura stutters, trying to do the math in his brain. “I’ve got like, four. But I also have eleven or something like that left controllers.”
“What frustrates you so much? Is it the game?”
“Yeah, dumbass. What else could it be?”
“How many times have you hit the left instead?”
“These are pointless questions.”
“Answer me, kid.”
“You’re like, a whole decade younger than me. Regardless of what the Doctor says about your mental age or whatever.”
“I’m gonna keep pestering you until you give me an answer,” 6 claims.
“Fine. It’s like, one out of seven times where I’ll decay it instead.”
“When you get mad at other things, how often do they get destroyed?”
“6.”
“I’m trying to help, you ungrateful gnat.”
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck you too. Now, when you’re holding onto something with both hands, how often does that get destroyed when you’re pissed?”
“... Like, never?” Tomura says. “I don’t see what you’re getting at.”
“If you had a singular controller, would that be easier to not decay? You’re probably destroying the right one ‘cuz it’s your dominant hand. If you balanced it between both hands, I don’t think there would be as many casualties.”
“...”
“... So?”
“I don’t use other controllers,” Tomura says. “They’re only compatible with some games.”
“... Who the fuck told you that? I know better than you, and I’m a damn science experiment!” 6 exclaims.
“... Kurogiri.”
“Kurogiri’s your dad, basically. When has a father ever known technology, kiddo?”
“You get all your facts from watching American sitcoms and shit.”
“I have a point.”
“So… the normal looking controllers don’t have game limits?”
“No. They just require being plugged in for the most part.”
“How am I gonna attain one, then?” Tomura asks, curious with 6’s proposition.
6 points at himself.
“Kurogiri didn’t say anything about other people stealing you video games, did he?”
“No. He didn’t.”
“Then there’s our answer.”
Tomura wants to ask in addition why 6 is being so nice, but Tomura’s aware he’s even lonelier than himself. So he’ll let 6 slide with his plans, because he knows what it’s like to be ignored.
“Thanks, 6.”
“You’re welcome, jerk.”
“Say one more thing like that and I’ll decay the rest of your face off!”
“You can’t!”
“You wanna bet?”
“No,” 6 admits. He leaves without saying goodbye, perhaps overwhelmed from the situation. Tomura doesn’t think that’s it - Number 6 loves to talk, more than anyone else Tomura has ever heard of. So he knows it’s out of fear of attachment. They’re villains. There’s no room for attachment when they can lose each other so quickly.
That, perhaps, might be his one problem with his master.
“Hey, Tomura. Where’s the normal Switch controllers?”
“I don’t have any.”
“Why the hell don’t you?” Toga asks, pissed off. “You expect me to crush Twice and Magne in Smash Bros. with a different button layout?”
“Spinner’s gonna demolish all of you,” Tomura says with a laugh. As much as he’s annoyed by the Stain cosplayer, Spinner probably gets him the best out of the new recruits. He wants to offer credit where it’s due to his fellow gamer.
“Right, right. You love video games. Kurogiri made that clear to Dabi and I after we metcha.”
“Toga. I don’t have Joy-Cons because I decayed them at a faster rate than Kurogiri was willing to steal new ones. But my brother helped me figure out how to destroy less controllers.”
“Brother” is a term that Tomura knows he’s never said out loud about Number 6. His master probably wouldn’t want Tomura to consider something like that as his sibling. But All For One is gone now, just like 6 has been.
So it’s a better time than ever to start making up for his regrets of how he viewed 6. And perhaps he can start that by tolerating what’s become the new line-up for the League of Villains.
“You have a sibling?” Toga asks, eyes wide. “What happened to him?”
“A hero killed him,” Tomura answers. He remembers All For One explaining that a vigilante had managed to call All Might to the scene to kill off 6. There was never a goodbye between the two of them. “All Might, of course.”
“What a loser. He got rid of your dad too,” Toga mutters. Tomura doesn’t enjoy her usage of referring to A.F.O. as his father, but he doesn’t want to start up a fight. He already has had enough of those with 6 - and now, he’s had them with Muscular and Dabi.
“Yeah, All Might sucks,” is Tomura’s statement. “That’s why we’re changing the system.”
“For all of us!” Toga exclaims.
“Yeah,” Tomura agrees. It’s what 6 would have wanted after all that had happened - it’s what he’s always wanted. Hero society is a mess that doesn’t care about anyone, be it himself or the people he’s surrounded himself with. It’s time for that to end. “For all of us.”