"For the rest of you, I am a close aide of All For One," the old man continued, spinning his pneumatic chair around to face them fully. "For security purposes, you can call me... Daruma Ujiko. Yes, that's right. That name will do perfectly for now."
"I was All For One's closest scientific advisor and the architect of everything you see in this room. My life, my skills, and these beautiful little ones here..." Garaki said, gesturing broadly to the army of incubation tanks, "...are all entirely dedicated to the great All For One. Everything Shigaraki has used so far ... Kurogiri, the Hosu Nomu, his network of contacts and information such as Giran ... nothing but pieces of his vast legacy. Now that All For One is gone, that legacy is to be passed on through you, Tomura." He paused, lowering his spectacles.
"Now, let's get back to the matter at hand. It has been several days since All For One's passing. Within those few days, you have managed to gather a team of your own. Their end quality is entirely unknown, but it is something to look forward to. However, to achieve your grand goals... you will need far more help than a handful of societal outcasts."
"That is... if you are worthy of course."
Shigaraki's chest tightened, a deep surge of bitterness rising in his throat. If there was one thing he hated almost as much as Hero Society and All Might, it was being evaluated by outsiders. He hated the word 'worthy.' with every fiber of his being.
"Master left everything to me," he said, his fingers twitching inches away from his own thighs. "I don't need to prove anything to you, doctor."
"Hehehe." The old man laughed in response. "I always thought that the Master spoiled you too much. Giving you access to resources without so much as a care how you misuse them. It was a waste to leave you with Kurogiri."
Garaki's eyes flickered across them. "Though it seems you have lost even that vital piece as well."
Tomura's face behind the mask darkened. "Why so cold doctor? If I didn't know any better, I would think you hate me."
"Far from it. After all, you are master's chosen one, are you not?" Garaki kept his eyes on the monitor. "I just feel the need to enlighten you. Wake up. This is no longer the time to think you can get whatever you want, however you want it."
Shigaraki's eyes narrowed. "What exactly do you want, Doctor?"
"Was I not clear enough already? What I want," he said, "is to determine whether the man All For One selected as his successor is actually worth what was invested in him."
"To be clearer, revealing myself was a compromise I made for All For One's sake. After all, while he chose you and devoted considerable resources and years of his own attention toward your development, you are not All For One." He paused. "And given his current absence, I find myself in the position of having to evaluate whether that investment was sound. Am I wrong to do so?"
".." Silence followed Garaki's question. Shigaraki said nothing as the seconds passed. His fingers curling and uncurling as he fought to restrain himself.
"Am I wrong?" Garaki said again, his eyes drifting back to the monitor, as if the answer barely concerned him. "Tell me, Shigaraki. What exactly would you say you have that makes you worthy of my devotion? Besides being chosen by the Master?" He turned his attention away completely.
"You have no feats. Nothing that proves the potential All For One saw in you back then. He spoke of you with a kind of conviction I rarely heard from him ... and I knew him for a very long time." He tilted his head. "So I find myself wondering. Was it genuine vision? Or was it sentimentality? The old man had his weaknesses, like anyone else."
The entire group watched Shigaraki's back in silence, unable to decipher what he was feeling at the moment. Dabi looked not the least but interested while Toga was watching Shigaraki with wide, curious eyes.
"Does that really matter?" Shigaraki's voice fell into Garaki's ears. The old man chuckled in response.
"Of course it does, dear boy. The next Symbol of Evil cannot merely be a petulant child throwing a tantrum. All For One was a grand architect. He possessed unparalleled foresight, absolute charisma, charisma that bent thousands to his will, and a terrifyingly calculated intellect. He could sit still for a decade and emerge with more than he had when he went quiet." His gaze returned to Shigaraki.
"You? You are lacking compared to him in so many ways. You are impulsive. Reactive. Your hatred runs so hot it interferes with your own plans. You have an extraordinary Quirk with great potential for growth ... I will grant you that, it is genuinely remarkable, but compared to what All For One had in store, it is nothing."
"I do not see the next symbol of evil in you. Not yet anyway. It would be the greatest shame of my lifetime if I were to devote everything I have to you, only to have you ruin everything. All my life's work in vain ... I would be unable to rest well in the afterlife."
He shook his head slowly. "The potential is there. Whether it can be realized..." He trailed off. "That is the question, isn't it?"
"So let me ask you plainly." He leaned forward. "What is it that drives you, Tomura Shigaraki? Not what you want — I've heard that speech, destroy society, tear down the heroes, yes yes, the grand debacle. But why? What is underneath it. What is the thing, when you strip everything else away, that is actually there."
Silence fell over the laboratory. The light from the incubation tanks cast pale green across Shigaraki's face, and behind the disembodied hand resting over his features, his expression was unreadable.
The chamber was quiet except for the automated cycling of the aeration systems. Until finally ...
"I don't know." He muttered softly, head slightly lowered as his single red eye stared blankly at the polished steel floor. "I can't really remember the past. Anything from before I met Master... before I met you... it's just a blank space. Fog and fragments. Nothing I can hold onto long enough to make sense of."
He brought one hand up slowly and touched the edge of the palm resting over his face. "But when I put these on..." He exhaled through his nose. "It all comes to me ... The rage is still there. It's always there. I feel this immense, suffocating rage every single day, but these hands bring a sense of calm right in the middle of it."
"Even though they make me sick, I feel calm in a way I can't explain. It just is."
There was another moment of silence. "I don't know what I want," he said again. "Not in the way you're asking. I can't give you a declaration. I can't tell you I want to rule, or that I want to burn it all down and build something new, or that there's some perfect world waiting on the other side of all of it. I am not entirely sure what I want right now, or even why I want it."
He finally looked up. "But I know something is there. Something I haven't reached yet. Something that all of this .... all the destruction, all the anger ... is pointing toward, even if I can't see it yet."
He held Garaki's gaze through the spaces between the fingers.
"So that's my purpose. My drive now ... Is to discover where all this hatred is pointed at. What exactly is the reason I seek the violence I crave." He took several steps forward. "I will tear down everything in my way until I find out what it is."
"After all, in Master's own words... a true villain is someone who has the ability to do what they want, however they want it. I may not be sure what this feeling inside me is, or where it comes from, but I can be absolutely sure that it pushes me to want to see the total destruction of hero society. I've thought about nothing else these past few days. And now, I will find out why. Either on the way, or when I get there."
He stopped right at the edge of Garaki's workstation, staring down at the old man.
"And I will do it with or without your help. It's only a matter of time either way."
The room went very still. It stayed that way for several seconds.
"Wow," Toga whispered breaking the silence, clasped her hands behind her back and tilting her head. "Handyman, that speech wasn't really helping our case, was it? Usually, when you want someone to help you, you don't say 'give me your toys or get out of my face.' It was super scary! But also a little bit romantic."
She beamed at no one in particular. "Just an observation."
The silence returned yet again. After several seconds of unbroken silence, Garaki's shoulders began to hitch. A low chuckle escaped from his mustache, quickly spiraling into a loud, echoing burst of genuine amusement.
In the end, the old man was pressing a hand lightly to his sternum as he laughed loudly. When it finally subsided, he was shaking his head with something that might, generously, have been called delight.
"Ha. Ha. Well." He settled back into his chair. "I'll admit — that was not what I expected." He tapped one finger against the armrest. "Most people, when they want something, perform certainty."
The doctor wiped a tear of laughter from his eye, gaze focused on Shigaraki with rapt attention, not at all as dismissive as he was before. "It truly is a first to see someone hand me the truth of their own ignorance and told me it was enough to keep going. An interesting answer. More interesting than a lie would have been, at any rate."
"Your ideology ... rough and unfinished as it is, does carry something worth noting. The question of what a villain truly is. Yes. All For One would have liked that line." He said thoughtfully. "It certainly wasn't the kind of answer I expected you to go for, but it does reveal your true nature all the same! I like it, and find myself curious, I'll confess, to see what it looks like when you finally remember. What shape it takes."
He folded his hands.
"Unfortunately." The warmth ... such as it was, withdrew like a tide. "Ambition is not proof. Interesting answers are not proof. You said it yourself ... you want to find out why. Well. I am similarly curious about whether. Whether you are actually capable of anything that justifies the resources All For One poured into you. As actions speak louder than words, and proof is always required to be believed"
Garaki spun his chair slightly, tapping a finger against his temple. "Think of it like the ordinary world out there. Why do you think companies demand work experience on a resume before giving someone a job? They need to know you won't ruin their investment."
He looked back at Shigaraki with a cheeky, patronizing smirk.
"Because talk is free. And looking at your current resume for your villain career... it isn't very promising, is it?"
Shigaraki said nothing. Neither did anyone else.
"Four operations of significance since your formation. Two outcomes you might charitably call successes, two you cannot." He raised a finger. "USJ ... You failed your objectives, near-total rout. The Hosu incident for which you were not even present for the meaningful part of it, and Stain's capture overshadowed everything."
"The successes were far too sketchy to be praised. If not for the Master actively stepping in to save you during the second, your recent victory wouldn't even exist. You would be rotting in a jail cell right now."
Shigaraki said nothing. It was a bitter, irritating pill to swallow, but it was the objective truth.
"In that case," Garaki continued, "a test is in order."
"A test?" Shigaraki rasped.
"Yes. A test. Don't take it personally, my boy. It is strictly for my own peace of mind. I must make absolutely sure you are truly capable of living up not just to the Master's legacy, but to your own lofty words."
"I see," Shigaraki said, his red eye narrowing. "What kind of test?"
"Why, that's entirely up to you to decide, Tomura."
"Huh?" Shigaraki stunned, blinking through the gaps of his plaster mask.
Behind him, the rest of the League exchanged bewildered glances.
"Hey, hey... what's the old man talking about?" Twice muttered, scratching the side of his fabric mask. "Is he senile? He's a literal genius!"
"No clue," Dabi drawled, crossing his arms.
Garaki chuckled at their confusion. "Yes, Tomura, you heard me correctly. The content of the test is entirely up to you. As for what the test is in general, it is simple: do something that proves your worthiness. Whatever method or objective you choose to achieve that is your choice."
He turned back to the massive panoramic display wall. "Take this as an opportunity to see if you've finally learned from your past endeavors. Your failures. Your narrow successes. What they cost you. What they taught you. Take all of it, and do something. Something that shows you are meant to be taken seriously."
Shigaraki lowered his head, his voice barely a whisper. "Anything?"
"Yes, Tomura. Anything you can think of. Recruit someone powerful, end another prominent figure, destroy a target, create chaos, or manipulate the public according to your desires. After all, didn't you just say it? The hallmark of a true villain is someone with the ability to do whatever they want. Be it through extreme strength or extreme cunning, they achieve any goal they set their minds on. Now, it is up to you to do the same."
"Whether your chosen path is raw strength, or patience, or cunning .... it makes no difference to me. All that matters is that when you are done, the result speaks for itself."
The doctor let out a wide, teasing grin. "And if you fail, simply try again. I am not going anywhere. Once you have proven you are genuinely capable, you will have my full support. Everything in this room. Every resource, every contact, every beautiful piece of the Master's legacy." He gestured broadly at the rows of tanks. "All of it waiting."