Tomura Shigaraki: Distortion

Put on the spot by Daruma Ujiko, Tomura opens with an admission: almost nothing survives in his memory from the years before his master and the doctor entered his life.

What follows is fragmentary. A boy loses his family to his own Decay, then wanders homeless until All For One finds him. The villain greets the child by the name Tenko and tells him how much it must have stung that rescue never arrived, however long he waited for it. He gathers the sobbing boy into his arms and asks who it was that built a world this cruel. Brought back to All For One's home, Tenko is told he now has a master. Daruma arrives carrying what remains of the family, hands and nothing else, and marvels at a Quirk with no precedent on record. The memory and the helplessness together make the boy violently ill. Modification is floated as an option; All For One turns it down, preferring to teach the child how to aim his misery at something.

Back in the laboratory, Tomura admits that emptiness defined him until All For One arrived. The hands strapped to his body sicken him and settle him in the same breath, while a weight sits on his chest that keeps his fury lit. Out of that contradiction comes a hatred aimed at everything and an appetite to reduce all of it to nothing. Help him, Tomura offers, and he will show the doctor both heaven and hell.

Daruma calls the ambition juvenile, yet the sheer conviction behind it moves him, and he signs on. Mr. Compress remarks on how little persuasion that took, while Himiko Toga asks whether everything includes the things she cares about. Tomura tells the group they will get theirs as well, which puts them at ease. The doctor confesses that support was always the plan; he simply wanted to watch Tomura grow into it first. There is one catch. Nothing moves forward until Gigantomachia bends the knee.

Dabi refuses to return to that fight and mentions a promising recruit he intends to court instead. Daruma offers him an alternative, staying behind as a sparring partner for the High-End Nomu. At Tomura's word, Johnny warps the rest of the League back to the giant. Tomura announces the return of the future king. Gigantomachia, curious now, lays out his standards: a king should be feared, admired, and strong. Round two begins.

Elsewhere, at the former Shie Hassaikai base, the Meta Liberation Army leaves behind Giran's scarf and one severed finger.

Tomura Shigaraki's Quirk is revealed to have killed his entire family the moment it first surfaced.

The hands he keeps pinned to his villain outfit are confirmed to be theirs.

Daruma Ujiko commits to backing the League of Villains, but sets one precondition: they must first establish dominance over Gigantomachia.

Fifteen pages, collected in Volume 23, first published April 1, 2019 in issue 18 of 2019 and adapted as part of Episode 108. Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, Ochaco Uraraka, Tenya Ida, and Shoto Todoroki appear on the cover. Johnny and Kotaro Shimura debut.

Action moves between the doctor's secret laboratory and the League hideout; Decay appears in flashback and Warping is used in the present.

Nine, the antagonist of My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising, slips in as a cameo during the panel where Tomura declares his wish to destroy everything.