Truth be told, the moment Akira realized that the identity he had transmigrated into was none other than Shigaraki Tomura—currently under the "guidance" of All For One—his face had gone completely dark.
Shigaraki Tomura.
Originally named Shimura Tenko.
Grandson of Shimura Nana, the seventh inheritor of One For All.
As a child, he had once dreamed of becoming a Hero—of protecting the weak.
Unfortunately, because his grandmother Shimura Nana had spent her life out fighting evil, she had neglected her own son—Shimura Tenko's father, Kotaro—depriving him of emotional care and affection.
As a result, Kotaro grew to resent both his mother and the profession of Hero itself. And he directed that hatred squarely at his own son, who dared to dream of becoming one.
At best, it was verbal abuse.
At worst, it was physical violence.
The rest of the family?
They chose indifference.
One could only imagine the dissatisfaction, despair, and twisted emotions festering inside Shimura Tenko as he grew up in such a suffocating environment.
Then—
On the very night when his most trusted sister shifted blame onto him to protect herself—causing him to suffer severe punishment at the hands of Kotaro—
Everything exploded.
That night, under the stimulation of emotional trauma, Shimura Tenko awakened his Quirk: Decay.
But it was his first awakening.
He had no control over that overwhelming power.
And in the end… he could only watch helplessly as his family died by his own hands.
Afterward, consumed by guilt, he wandered the streets in confusion and despair.
Yet no one reached out to help him.
It was then—
That the great villain All For One appeared before him.
Seizing the opportunity, he began to "guide" the broken child, steadily refining and nurturing his twisted personality.
He bestowed upon him his own surname—"Shigaraki"—and the character "Tomura," meaning "to mourn," renaming Shimura Tenko as Shigaraki Tomura.
His hope?
That Shigaraki would become the next him—the savior of Villains, the one who would destroy the existing society and system.
In fact, Akira seriously suspected that Shigaraki Tomura's loss of control on the very night of his Quirk awakening had been deliberately engineered by All For One.
After all, in My Hero Academia, Quirks typically manifest before the age of four.
Shimura Tenko had already passed that age without awakening any ability. Even his father believed that meant he was Quirkless.
Yet suddenly—
At age five—
He awakened Decay.
Wasn't that suspicious?
Couple that with the fact that All For One's Quirk—"All For One"—allows him to steal others' Quirks and either keep them or bestow them upon someone else…
It was hard not to suspect that All For One himself had given Shigaraki Tomura his Quirk.
If that were true, then the true sequence of events likely went like this:
Shimura Tenko was originally Quirkless.
He dreamed of becoming a Hero.
He had an abusive father.
He hated that father.
All For One infiltrated quietly and secretly granted him the Quirk "Decay."
Shimura Tenko awakened his Quirk, but because it was too powerful, he lost control and killed his family.
All For One then appeared openly as a mentor and adopted him.
If events unfolded in that order, everything made perfect sense.
At first, All For One probably intended to use Shimura Tenko—the grandson of the seventh One For All inheritor—as a contingency plan. A hostage, perhaps, to threaten the eighth One For All inheritor—Shimura Nana's disciple, All Might.
But later, upon discovering Tenko's immense potential, he decided to cultivate him as the next All For One.
Of course—
All of that was merely Akira's speculation.
He hadn't found definitive proof in Shigaraki's memories.
But one thing was certain.
As long as that great evil, All For One, remained present, this "Shigaraki Tomura" would never gain true freedom.
After all—
That man intended to mold him into the next "him."
The problem was—
He couldn't defeat him.
Not even close.
All For One was monstrously powerful—so powerful that even All Might couldn't kill him, only imprison him.
If Akira had been able to beat him—or if he had transmigrated before Shigaraki encountered him—he would have left long ago.
Why would he willingly stay here pretending to be some antisocial, mentally unstable teenager?
Act long enough, and you start becoming the role.
And he absolutely did not want to turn into that kind of person for real.
Unfortunately, his timing was terrible.
He had transmigrated into Shigaraki Tomura after the boy had already been under All For One's cultivation for several years.
Worse still—
Although he inherited Shigaraki's memories, he only received the portion related to how to use his Quirk.
As for the rest of Shigaraki Tomura's memories?
Heh.
He didn't get those.
Which meant that in order to avoid being exposed by All For One—who had spent years with Shigaraki and placed immense expectations on him to become the ultimate evil—
He had no choice but to carefully act according to the Shigaraki personality from his previous-life knowledge of the original story.
At the same time, he had to slowly reshape how those around him perceived him.
But subtly changing the impressions of both All For One and Kurogiri was a slow process.
Even after a full month of effort, he had made only slight progress.
Still—
Thankfully, this kind of life wouldn't last much longer.
Because last night—
His cheat had finally arrived.
Of course, that didn't mean he could immediately defeat All For One and seize control.
But with a cheat assisting him—
At the very least…
It would speed things up.
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