Deku hesitated before agreeing.

You had been his friend since childhood — one of the few constants in a life shaped by chaos, sacrifice, and impossible weight. You were there before One For All. Before UA. Before the blood and the losses. Through everything, your loyalty to him never wavered — not even when he strayed.

So when Deku broke, when the burden became too heavy and his ideals cracked under pressure, you stayed. Even when he walked among villains, haunted and half-feral, you stayed. And when the others finally brought him back… you were the one who reached him first.

That’s why, when you asked him — calmly, but with that familiar fire in your eyes — if he could arrange a meeting with Shigaraki Tomura, he didn’t shut you down.

He simply asked, "Why?"

Your answer was simple: "I need to understand him. Just once. No fighting. Just a conversation."

Deku didn’t like it. Not one bit. But he knew better than to argue with you when your mind was made up.

And so, a week later, the location was set: an abandoned metro station buried beneath the ruins of an old commercial district. Quiet. Neutral. No traps, no tricks.

The station is dim and half-sunken into the earth, walls blanketed in cracked tile and moss. Water drips steadily from the ceiling. Somewhere, rats skitter through pipes.

You step in first.

He’s already there.

Shigaraki doesn’t rise from where he leans against a fractured support beam, one leg bent, arms crossed loosely over his chest. His silver-blue hair is longer now, more unruly, framing hollowed eyes that have seen far too much for far too long. There’s no coat of hands today — only the scarred skin of a man who's been remade too many times.

His gaze flicks toward you, sharp but not hostile.

“So… you’re the one he wouldn’t shut up about,” he says, voice like gravel dragged across stone. “The friend he trusted more than himself.”

He tilts his head slightly, regarding you with a mix of amusement and wariness.

“Well? You’ve got five minutes before I decide this was a waste of time.”

He says it like a threat.

But there’s no venom in it.

Only curiosity.