Oh Look! Time To Panic And Finally Turn The WIPs I Have Into Actual Stories!

Oh look! Time to panic and finally turn the WIPs I have into actual stories!

One Week To Go!

Good evening, everyone!  This post is to let you know that there is one week left to go until Spinaraki Week 2020.  Seven days left!  

…And only three days left until this week’s chapter spoilers start leaking!  We’re all anxious to find out whether Shigaraki’s going to Plus Chaos us by turning into Motharaki at the last possible second before this event, which brings us to a late note: 

If something huge lands on us with chapter 281 and you want to do something Spinaraki-related with that information, feel free!  We will be tagging for spoilers for the upcoming chapter using the bnha spoilers and bnha 281 tags.  If you’re concerned about spoilers, feel free to blacklist those tags, if you haven’t already.  Ditto for anything that shows up towards the end of the event week with spoilers for 282.  

As for the rest, we’re assuming that most people here are probably up on at least the broad strokes of the manga–Spinaraki hasn’t even properly hit its stride yet in the anime, after all–but we’ll be tagging any major/obvious manga spoilers with the bnha spoilers tag as a courtesy all the same.  

Get hype, get nervous, but either way–get ready!  We’re almost there!

Here’s my idea of what I think could happen:

Shigaraki hears the news, and at some point gets a hold of Twice’s body. He uses the AFO quirk to take Double and takes all new measurements of himself. Shigaraki then does his own homage to “Sad Man’s Parade” and creates a *%#$ ton of Shigaraki clones that spread out far and wide, all of which have both Decay and Double.

Hawks killed Twice due to the perceived threat of a clone army, using “the ends justify the means” to rationalize his actions. But that line of thinking goes out the window if the means don’t lead to the ends that are desired. Trying to prevent an army of Twices, only to give rise to an army of all-powerful Shigarakis, would mean that Hawks’s actions directly lead to even more casualties than if he just left Twice alone. His means lead to the worst possible ends.

If that isn’t “a taste of his own medicine made a million times worse”, I don’t know what is.

listen, Shigaraki's policy of revenge is clearly "give them a taste of their own medicine and then make it a million times worse".

Stain disrespects him? Shigaraki disrespects him harder, then gets him into jail. Overhaul disrespects him, kills a comrade and destroys another one's arm? Shigaraki kills one of theirs, destroys both of his arms, metaphorically spits on his quirk-less body and takes his quirk-erasing bullets (work of a lifetime), then leaves him to the heroes. Redestro chops off his broker's right fingers and threatens to disrespectfully terminate his villain organization? Shigaraki mocks him, then levels his city, makes him chop off his own legs, almost terminates his villain organization except that he is appointed leader by RD himself.

Now, I could go on, but the unexpected point of all this is: how much was Twice worth? How could you possibly repay the death of a man who could multiply himself endlessly and then make. it. worse?

Eh, dunno, you answer that.

C’mon AFO, you’re distracting him!

Spinaraki Week 2020 Day 3: Emptiness + Harmony

Closer Than Close

All For One is a quirk with a massive arsenal, and while discussing what lies after destruction, Shigaraki and Spinner discover that one of those quirks can bring them closer than ever.

~~~

It had been a few weeks after the war’s start in Jakku, and Tomura Shigaraki was still trying to count and mentally catalog the quirks All For One had stolen for his arsenal, quirks that were now his own to wield.

While he knew how most of them worked from seeing his master use them, Doctor Ujiko had mentioned before the surgery that there were at least two dozen quirks that hadn’t been used in over a century. According to him, these quirks were from some of the first generations of quirks, and had been previously taken or given away by All For One to gain the favor of his followers. Once he got his empire, the quirks quickly became useless relics that were left to metaphorically collect dust within the storage unit of his master’s quirk.

Despite the perceived uselessness Ujiko described, as long as they remained stored within him, Shigaraki saw no harm in at least figuring out what the quirks were and how they worked.

For now however, he was taking a break from his investigation at the insistence of Spinner, who had all but dragged him outside for a walk in the field by their newest hideout instead of their usual routine of playing video games until 2:00 in the morning. To be fair, Tomura didn’t really put up much of a fight about the change of plans as he would’ve if someone else had tried to force him outside for fresh air. What as he supposed to do? Deny himself the pleasure of hanging out with his crush?

 Hell no! He was gonna let Spinner take him by the wrist and lead him to the field –where they’ll walk side-by-side and talk about everything and nothing and maybe hold hands? he could dream– and he was gonna enjoy it.  And neither Ujiko insisting that he was straying from his destined path, nor the disappointed voice of his master in his head denying that he even had the emotional capability to feel this way about others, was gonna stop him from doing otherwise.

 ~

 So there they were, walking through the tall grass, kicking at the occasional rock, and badmouthing Re-Destro’s dumbass “survival of the fittest” mentality.

 “I mean, if I remember my science class in high school correctly, natural selection mostly works depending on how suited someone is to the environment. So, what the hell are they gonna do if they end up somewhere that renders their “superior” quirks useless? How strong is Geten in a desert, or Re-Destro if he’s given mandatory therapy sessions?” Spinner sarcastically questioned. Wow, Tomura could listen to that rambling for hours, letting him fill in the empty spaces with chatter. Going outside was a great idea now that he could watch the way the sun reflected iridescently on his scales, and fully brighten his rosy eyes.

 “Absolutely nerfed, all of them,” Spinner concluded, “and honestly I don’t know how they were gonna support a future like that!”

 “Well aren’t you smart, smarter than a CEO apparently.” Tomura slightly smirked in victory at getting Spinner to blush a bit before he kept going. “Mr. Bigman was so gung-ho about his future that when I told him I didn’t need a future myself he blew up! Like he doesn’t know that people have other priorities besides his version of a paradise.”

 “Wait, you told him you didn’t need what?”

 Tomura turned his head to Spinner, and saw that he looked a little concerned. Was it something he said?

 “Well yeah,” Tomura said, deciding to elaborate was the best way to ease his loyal companion’s mind “I never really pictured anything happening after I destroyed the heroes and their messed-up society, maybe I’d die straight afterwards, maybe I’d just wander around for a while. What I do know about what I want for the future is for the league to get what they want, you included. An empty space where the only things that exist are what makes you happy, a world where everything you wish for is right at your fingertips.”

 Satisfied with his own answer, Tomura started to walk again, realizing as he kicked another rock that he could probably start preparing for that paradise now.

 “While we’re on the subject, do you have an idea of what you want? Some more swords? A costume upgrade? If you still wanna meet Stain I can probably plan a jailbreak and grab him. Just make sure you keep him away from me, yeah?”

 Tomura was not expecting to have to spin around in order to see Spinner’s reaction, nor was he expecting Spinner to be standing exactly where he last saw him, a look of apprehension on his face. When he met Tomura’s inquisitive gaze, he startled back a step before quickly blurting out, “Oh! You don’t have to worry about that, I’m fine. My wish isn’t all that important anyway.”

 “Not important? Spinner, my friends’ wishes are just as important as my goal of destruction at this point! You… know that, right?” Tomura headed back to where his loyal lizard was seemingly rooted in place, continuing to try figuring out what was wrong. “Come on, what’s the actual problem? I’ll get you whatever you want, no matter how stupid you think it is.”

 “That’s not the problem!” Spinner exclaimed, taking a second to sigh and gather his thoughts before finally explaining himself, his scales tinged pink once again.

 “It’s… my wish is… I just want to see that dream of a beautiful horizon come true. I wanna see your dream come true, a–and I wanna be there to support you along the way, ease your burden a bit. And yeah, I know you’re probably fine with that, but I’m starting to realize that my wish is… corrupting.”

 Tomura had followed along and was definitely happy that his secret, scaled sweetheart wanted to help him out however he could, but he raised his eyebrows in curiosity at the last part. “Corrupting? How so?” he asked.

 “Well, it used to be just wanting to help with your dream, but then it grew while you were having the surgery. Now it’s more along the lines of… closeness. I wannna stay by your side, even after the war is over. Forever if you’ll let me. I wanna wander with you, if–if that’s your plan after the destruction is finished. I wanna do more of what we’re doing now: just walking and talking about anything and everything. I… I wanna be the one who makes you happy! But I don’t think I can– don’t think I should have that! It’s such a selfish wish to make from you, to force you to fill the void in my hollow shell of a body! Isn’t that crazy? Isn’t that the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard?”

 Of course it was crazy, but Tomura wasn’t gonna tell him that, especially when his wish –if he somehow survived his goal of destroying hero society– was practically the same thing.

 “Come on,” Spinner continued, his breathing starting to pick up as his volume became louder,

“Shoot my wish down! Before it mutates into something even worse!”

 That rapidly shook Tomura out of his thoughts.

 “Something like what?”

 Spinner was visibly shaking now, and while a part of Tomura was starting to get excited at the very real possibility that his crush felt the same way he did, the rest of him was upset to see Spinner in emotional pain, the bleeding heart Tomura had hidden 15 years ago beating harder than ever before.

 “I don’t know but please, please just make me stop! Tomura, shut me up already!”

 Upon hearing Spinner start to hyperventilate, Tomura’s body moved without thinking, stopping only a few inches before he could crash into his crush, and grabbing Spinner by the forearms with both hands in four-fingered grips of habit. As soon as Spinner met his red eyes, Tomura took the moment of undivided attention to make absolutely sure that Spinner wouldn’t give up the dream they unknowingly shared.

 “Like hell am I gonna tell you to stop! It’s your wish, and besides, if it’s growing into what I think it is, then let it! Don’t you dare stop, not when I would grant it in a heartbeat! Not when I want to grant it!”

 He saw the fog of panic lift from Spinner’s eyes, saw how the look on his face slowly switched from dread to awe as he fully processed what Tomura had just said, saw the way the scales on his cheeks turned from green to a pink that matched his big, beautiful eyes. He barely managed to catch how quickly Spinner leaned up and swiftly leaned down himself to press their heads together, simultaneously pressing their bodies just as close as they wrapped their arms around each other.

 And suddenly, Tomura couldn’t see anything. And neither could Spinner.

   But Tenichi could.

 Tenichi could see pale hands with claws for nails and splashes of iridescent scales like symmetrical patchwork, at least up until the arms were covered by a white hoodie with a bright blue polka dot pattern. He could see red combat boots and dark colored jeans. Moving the hands upwards, Tenichi could feel sticky finger pads brush up against even more scales around eyes that, upon observing with a phone’s camera feature, were two roses of pastel pink irises and blood red pupils. With the camera, Tenichi also saw slightly wavy and messy hair, bone white with smatterings of pretty pink.

 Most importantly than the strangely harmonious appearance, Tenichi could see the memories, experiences, and emotions of both his components: Tomura and Spinner –no– Tenko and Shuichi. He could see the denial of self that made up the majority Tenko’s life, from his birth family to his master. He could see the intense bullying that left Shuichi numb to the pressure to become a productive member of a society that didn’t care about his well-being. He saw their respective forms of emptiness, and how each one unknowingly filled the other’s void.

And just like that, it was as if neither component had been hollow at all.

 ~

 Later on, when taking the time to look back, it was easy to see why the quirk “Fusion” was never used. What need did All For One have for a quirk that relied on emotional connection when he mostly worked alone to stand at the top, with even his closest associates held at an arm’s length and often left behind once they outlived their usefulness. In that same vein, it was just as easy to realize just how powerful this quirk could be now that its user had been replaced, now that it was in the hands of someone whose success was tied to the bonds he had with his allies. However, for the time Tomura and Spinner remained fused, all these musings were nonexistent.

 Tenichi took him time trying out his newly-born body, practicing two separate fighting styles. The whole time he messed around in the field, he let his thoughts run as wild as he body was, with some gems including “I have to show this to everyone but how do I even start explaining this to the league?” and “I bet I can take on all the remaining heroes like this, maybe even take care of all the personal grudges to as a side quest!”

 As Tenichi lay on the grass, outwardly quiet and inwardly tossing around several trains of thought, wrapping his arms around himself in a singular yet simultaneously all-encompassing hug, the one thought that most clearly summarized what both of his halves felt was how good it was to finally feel whole.

 How neither of them needed to worry about being hollow ever again.

I got the chance to play with watercolors and I painted a sunrise on the horizon. Here’s the final product.

Just kidding! I added Shigaraki because I had to!

Perfect!

spinner turning his quirk on and sticking to tomura in his sleep… and in the morning tomura’s dragging around his half-asleep bf bcs spinner’s not lucid enough to turn his quirk off