No it had to be mind games, the hand was just doing as it always had and trying to trick him.
He needs to calm down.
But the hand was right before.
It's been right before.
Natalie flashed in front of his eyes, he scoffed. He should have known something was wrong with that. The hand was probably just guessing.
How often does a pretty redhead approach you and help you for, no reason at all…
His mind snapped to Jean, why had she been so helpful. Maybe she works with SHIELD no, maybe there is a plot against him?
No!
His hands pulled at his hair in frustration, what the hell was wrong.
He looked back at his chipped nail.
"WE ARE ONE" The hand shouting flashed infront of his eyes.
Was the thing right?
How the hell can it be right, how can I be a damn hand.
He took a deep breath, his eyes closed and he clenched his fists. He stood and left his room, he brushed past the mutants in the hall.
He made his…wait why were so many people inside? He looked around, it was a nice day out and lessons were all over.
He also realised everyone was loud, everyone was talking to each other. His eyebrows furrowed and he listened in as he walked by.
"Have you seen? It's ter-"
"It's insane! I can't believe they're al-"
"Protests! I mean how could they!" That voice was particularly angry.
He quickly got the the main entrance and saw multiple adults all in a circle talking with students watching on.
Tomura looked out a nearby window and saw what must be nearly a hundred protesters.
What were they even protesting? He thought to himself as he squinted and tried to read the signs.
'SAY NO TO MUTANTS!'
"Huh" he said then snorted. What the hell did that even mean. He looked to his right and saw the teachers all talking to each other and not looking at any students.
"This could be fun" he said to himself, he needed a distraction anyway.
He left the main entrance and walked over to the large kitchen, he placed his hand on a large window and watched it decay.
He jumped through the new opening in the building and walked across the yard. Xavier's front yard was filled with basketball nets, swings, slides and quite literally everything any kid would really need.
He took a deep breath and sat down on the grass and looked over at the protestors. He came out here for some quiet and fresh air to clear his head.
Clearly some of the protesters had noticed him. He saw hands pointing at him and the shouts only increased in volume.
He watched them slowly advance further into the garden, he felt weirdly at peace. He was lounging around peacefully while dozens of people made their way towards him.
He felt like some sort of medieval army general, if only he had his cloak.
That was already red, he wouldn't have to worry about bloodstains. He shook his head and sighed, he wouldn't need to worry about blood.
He propped himself to his feet, most of the protesters were men. Nearly all were taller and heavier than him.
They were only 30 feet away now.
He looked down at his right hand and looked at his cracked finger nail. He scowled and met eyes with the man closest.
They were a dull green that screamed hatred.
He sighed.
They were shouting, waving the signs about like that was going to change something.
They're so annoying.
He thought this would be fun, laugh at the people and then lounge about and clear his head.
He looked back at his cracked finger nail and felt his face grow sour and his fist clenched.
Tomuras head raised and watched as a news crew squeezed through the protesters and approached his form.
The protestors were cursing him, his mother, his whole bloodline.
Jokes on them, he doesn't know who his mother is.
"Young man! Are you a mutant!?" The interviewer shouted over the crowds shouting.
"Yes" Tomura replied, he was sadly a mutant and not just some experiment.
"You look quite familiar! Have you-" the news reporter was cut off by a woman screeching.
"THATS HIM!" She screamed while pointing at Tomura. "THATS HIM JAMES!" She shouted at the man behind her.
Tomura winced, why so loud. But other protesters also heard and turned to ask what he was.
"HES THE ONE WHO DESTROYED OUR STREET!" She screamed with hatred in her tone. The protestors quickly got louder, now they knew he had done something wrong they felt validated to get more aggressive aswell.
She was crying now and the guy she called James had tears in his eyes.
His palms itched.
James clenched his fist "You killed my little sister!" He shouted with ice in his tone.
Destroying the street and then this? They must be talking about his first day here.
Shigaraki thought back to that day, and the collapsing buildings and the falling cars could have definitely killed some people.
The protestors started to scream! They had heard what the man James said and was just waiting on an answer from Tomura.
But did he feel any remorse for the loss, he did not.
"Maybe take that up with the brotherhood" he said, they were the ones that gutted me.
At least that's what Jean said happened.
She could be lying.
He looked down at his cracked fingernail.
Then looked back at the school behind him, they could all be lying.
James response to his question was wide eyed and quivering fists. The news agent was eating this all up with wide eyes and a big grin.
"D-Do you even care!?" James shouted, his voice hitched. He sounded heartbroken.
"No" the surroundings protestors started to surround him, instead of then just being a wall of the people now he was in a circle of the people. "Would any of you cared if I kicked the bucket" he asked the surrounding protesters.
James shouted in response "We didn't kill you!" His voice was intense "You killed my little sister! You crushed her!"
Tomura didn't react, he never really thought about it. He took a life, he killed someone, that person will never go home again, never eat again, never anything again.
He still didn't feel anything.
He met eyes with James and only shrugged.
James only response were tears spilling down his cheeks "Yo-Your a monster!" He said with realisation falling upon him.
Tomuras eyes drifted back down to his hand and the cracked finger nail.
"Yeah, maybe"
The whole protest was ready to blow up into a riot, all it needed was a spark.
His palm itched.
He heard the front doors of the school open with a crash and turned his head, he couldn't see past the hundreds of protesters but by the sound of it the X-Men had arrived.
That was the spark.
Tomura felt a fist crash across his face and he stumbled to his right, then another and another and then he fell to the floor.
His fingertips burned.
The floor beneath them decayed, the grass destroyed revealed the wet mud underneath. His attackers quickly slipped and had to either get back up or regain their balance.
By the time they had done that, he was already in their midst, he had punched one, an older man in his 50s.
Then another, and another and soon he felt like he was fighting dozens of men at once and whenever he was punched hard enough to fall he would simply use the time to decay another layer of the ground leaving the ground more slippery everytime.
But he enjoyed it, it was simple. The whole group was just letting their frustrations out on each other.
However he had trained in these conditions but these men hadn't. So it was easier than he expected.
It felt like he had been fighting for hours by the time he was suddenly lifted into the air.
He thought at first it might have been a telekinetic that was dragging him out and cursed them in his head.
But his heart almost sank as he looked down and saw metal wrapping around his chest.
"Oh, it's you." A regal voice spoke and Tomura raised his eyes and met the burning eyes of Magneto.
The man was dressed in all red with purple highlights and cape, his iconic helmet was on his head and the look in his eyes wasn't exactly welcoming.
"I'm surprised you lived." He said casually as the metal tightened around Tomuras chest.
"I don't usually do this…but I'll give you a chance." Magneto said as the protestors below quickly backed off. "Join the brotherhood?"
"That Anti-Mutant Rhetoric you were spewing when we first met will be forgiven" Magneto said casually "Of course if I ever hear such a thing again, you will be disposed off."
Tomura snorted, he placed his hand on the metal holding him and decayed it. He dropped to the floor below with a thud.
Tomura looked back up at the man, the man who asked for his allegiance. "Yeah, fuck you"
He was not loyal to the X-Men, in fact he was hoping to leave soon. His training was getting repetitive, he had his eyes on a certain scientist who could help him bring his body to the next level.
But if the X-Men ever acted so pretentious, that it would be an honour for him should he join the team, ever demanded that he changed his ideas on life, ever demanded anything.
He would bring the whole school down.
Magneto only sighed "A pity, I thought a mutant with power such as yourself would have a bit of backbone to resist Charles whims."
Clearly Magneto could not read minds.
By this point the protestors had all fled, the X-Men were all surrounding Magneto, and Charles was just now coming towards the group.
"If the X-Men ever acted as pretentious as you just did, I would bring this whole school down on their students heads."
"Charles, you would accept this?" Magneto asked the bald man.
Tomura realised the man was just creating conflict between them and snarled.
Charles didn't respond to that but did speak "Magnus, you brought friends" he said calmly.
The group of X-Men and Tomura watched as the Brotherhood made their way across the yard.
The X-Men made their routine formation, Cyclops surprisingly looked eager to fight, Jean floated into the air behind the group. He heard a shink and watched as Wolverines claws came out his hands, then Beast, Colussus and Rogue all came out the school and got into a formation behind Professor Xavier.
Tomura looked across the soon to be battlefield and spotted some mutants he recognised from his research and some he didn't.
Sabretooth, the man who gutted him, Juggernaut, a man who was bigger than the hulk and nearly as strong. A teenage girl his age floating and wearing red and a boy his age with silver hair stood next to her.
A man with severe obesity, a famously resilient mutant named the blob and a teenager with fire abilities.
His head was clear as he watched the man, The Blob. The man was just stood still, the rest of the Brotherhood was fighting the X-Men.
Tomura started to walk over to the large man while stretching his arms.
"Guess this is my job" he said to himself as he closed in on the mutant slowly.
He had read about the Blob, the brotherhood are infamous and whenever they're in a fight people will note down what happened. It's all over the internet about how blob is apparently immovable with skin that not even wolverine can cut through.
Tomura felt his palms itch.
Tomura was close, so close he could hear The Blobs heavy breathing. The Blob smiled to himself as he suddenly lunged towards the surprised grey haired teenager.
Tomura rolled backwards and watched as the blobs fist came down where he was just standing.
The damage his fist left looked as if a bomb had just hit the earth. Tomura knew if he was hit with that he would die, his body is not like wolverines.
It's just a normal human body, no metal bones, no insane healing factor, just human.
He needs to be patient.
He dodged another punch from the far taller man and then ducked under a sudden kick he didn't expect.
Training with wolverine has its advantages, he rushed towards the man's off balance body while his foot was still in the air and placed his hand against the man's stomach.
He watched as the hand sunk into the blobs stomach but also watched as the man's body started to fall apart at the seams.
The Blob screamed in pain and tried to punch the teenager, who quickly jumped back and then ran his hand across blobs extended arm.
Blob screamed again as his arms skin was decayed into dust. The Blob clearly had some sort of healing factor, as his stomach was already healing from the severe damage.
It wasn't as good as wolverines but it meant that he couldn't wear the man down, he had to go for the kill.
Tomura dodged a sweeping punch and used the move to run to the blobs back in a burst of speed, he used that momentum to jump and grab onto the blobs shoulders.
As the Blobs shoulder melted away Tomura used them to pull himself up and then placed his hands on the Blobs skull.
The man's screams echoed around the battlefield, in a few seconds his skull had turned to a mush and the man fell to the floor dead.
His blood covered the grinning teenager, who used his bloody hands to slick back his bluish grey hair.
The teenager laughed to himself, now fighting with the protesters was fun, he looked back at the body of the mutant.
But that was exhilarating.
He looked over to the battlefield in wonder, A new guy made of ice was battling with the giant Juggernaut, Professor X had his eyes closed as he used his telepathy for something Tomura couldn't see.
But that fight that really caught his eye was Wolverine and Sabretooth. It seemed even, but Tomura had a bone to pick with the beastial man.
So Tomura ran to the fight, he approached from behind Sabretooth but the man must have heard his footsteps.
The 7 foot tall man turned with a beastial grin and swiped at Tomura with his shining claws. Tomura slid underneath the claws as Wolverine used the distraction to plant his own claws deep inside the beasts back.
Tomura however grabbed onto the man's foot and watched as the flesh burned away faster that it could heal and revealed the Sabretooths shining bones.
Damn.
But the lack of muscle and tissue led the Sabretooth to drop to a knee with a growl. Tomura had to roll away from a sudden swipe and watched as Wolverine gained the advantage in the fight.
He ran back into the mix as Wolverine had planted his claws into the beasts chest and Sabretooth had buried his claws into wolverines ribs.
They were in a stalemate until Tomura grabbed Sabretooths face from behind and relished in the screams of pain as the man's face decayed away.
Soon even the man's tongue was decayed and the healing wasn't fast enough, not for decay.
Tomura would have held on if he could, but a sudden blast sent him flying almost a hundred feet away. He rolled and quickly regained balance, the grinning teenager was panting while his red eyes were bouncing around the battlefield looking for the perpetrator.
A blur appeared and passed by fast and he turned his head but was sent flying by a punch.
What
He was suddenly kicked from behind and fell to a knee, he stood unsteadily and was sent flying by another kick.
He stood and was about to decay the floor but was interrupted by a flash of red.
His eyes suddenly clouded over as red filled his vision, he stumbled forward and fell onto his knees as he looked down at the suddenly red grass.
He mumbled something before awakening elsewhere.
His eyes widened, he was in the church.
"How?"
"The Witch" was said by the withered Hand.
"What witch? Tomura asked.
"The red one, surprised she hasn't done worse. You did kill her teammate" the hand said as it twitched, it's voice as raspy and deep as always.
The hand seemed to spasm and then laughed "Well, she probably hasn't found the body yet…but when she does…" the hand broke into laughter.
Tomura broke into a sweat. His body was vulnerable right now.
"Send me back!" He shouted as he ran to the doors of the church only to find them locked.
"You can't go back, she's locked you in and your too weak to break the spell yourself" the hand informed the panicked teenager who tried to decay the door but nothing worked.
Seconds passed with no sound being made other than Tomuras deep breathing.
"Damn…" Tomura said as he pressed his head against the cold wood. "So what! I just wait here?" He turned and asked the hand.
"Well…no, not exactly" said the hand mysteriously.
"Well what?" Tomura asked.
"You need to get strong enough to break the spell" the hand spasmed again "and to do that, you must accept the truth."
Tomura waited in anticipation "What truth?"
The hand twitched "and you must take down the wall" the hand seemed excited…
"What wall and what truth" Tomura practically growled.
"We are One"
Tomura shook his head "How? How are we one, make it make sense!"
The hand twitched "I am part of you, just as you are part of me" the glass behind the hand reminded Tomura of what the hand said last time. "We just need to embrace one another and accept we are one, that will then take the wall down"
Tomura doesn't know what damn wall he's talking about but it's eithe-
"AHHHH!" Tomura screamed as he fell to his knees, he held his now bleeding face. He looked towards the spasming hand.
"Quick! Quick! We are one!" The hand said, Tomura started to walk towards the hand "That beast is ready to kill you, the beast!"
Sabretooth
Tomura ran to the hand and without a second of hesitation embraced the rotting body part.
"We are one"
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