Tomura Shigaraki

To Tomura, everything about the ballroom was a blur of messy faces, feigned sincerity, and the sway of expensive dresses only meant to put up a front. Watching as more nobles gathered around the center, offering their hands to suitors, he scowled and looked away towards the towering, elegant window decorated with frilled curtains. His scarred, scarlet eyes narrowed at the sight of the frivolous garden outside, and he huffed in irritation. Tomura had always hated royalty because they went hand-in-hand with knights and heroes, and their casual negligence to the problems of lower classes made no difference to him. Those with wealth and status, the nobility, fell right in line with those that ignored him in his time of need before All for One stepped up to guide his destructive tendencies. It was also exactly why he dreaded the newest mission assigned to him: he was sent to invade a ballroom.

It had been a long time since his last experience in a ballroom as a young child weak at the knees and too nervous to make eye contact with any other person besides his mother and his older sister. Most of the details had gradually withered with the passage of time, but he was still able to remember the suffocating feeling that consumed him when he watched his parents socialize with other haughty nobles. At the time, their smiles at his family's presence seemed genuine; however, when he looked back on it now, their posture was all wrong, too stiff and formal to be taken as friendly manners. All of the nobles there had produced a cheap imitation of amiability, an fabricated air of hospitality only created for the sake of propriety.

As another noble passed through his field of vision, Tomura remembered Kurogiri's warning about his disguise: he needed to play the part of an unremarkable noble, not draw attention to himself—he swiftly straightened his slumping posture against the banquet table he had been leaning against, pinkies deliberately lifted, a habit borne out of necessity. He thought it unlikely that any of the frolicking crowd noticed his strange behavior because their attention was directed to the royal family of whatever kingdom this was (he hadn't bothered to ask; he didn't simply care). Crossing his arms, he went over the plan again. Tomura was supposed to scope out the ballroom for any heroes that could possibly intercept his stealthy plan to steal some kind of quirk enhancer for All for One; he wasn't certain what or where this object was stored, but he was confident he could figure it out beforehand. All for One had only mentioned that he should investigate by himself, a sort of training, by questioning nobles—all while concealing his identity as the enemy, the villainous heir.

Tomura didn't want to do it with so many people around though. He preferred to individually look into the matter himself. Shaking his head, eyes locking onto the garden entrance just a couple steps away, he decided to inspect the premises outside first. Earlier, he had seen a few select nobles separate into groups to have private conversations between each other while others seemed to prefer the solitary environment like he did.

Making his way through the maze-like halls, he found himself in a entryway morphing into an elaborately designed courtyard. The corridor itself was regal, its stately architecture high and absolute as it demonstrated its dominance over the scenery. When Tomura hesitantly stepped onto the stone path the garden wrapped itself around, the rock's surface was smoothly polished; he could tell even through the leather of his worn boots. Those that built the garden must have favored abundance because, as he looked around, no surface was unconquered by nature.

Willow trees were growing to their best intent, their leaves bending over small parts of the stone path to provide shade to whoever was graceful enough to enter; lavender and pure white spring foliage decorated the grounds, only broken up by patches of neatly trimmed grasses that bundled themselves up near the foot of other trees; and there was even a small pond swallowed up by the scenery around it. Tomura's gaze lingered at the peaceful nature of the water that was so utterly sinless unlike his own hands, and spotted a bench sitting just a couple meters away.

His attention was soon wrenched from the vines crawling along the pillars of the corridor he had just exited, for it was now all concentrated on the noble staring at him. Tomura's first instinct was to snarl a defensive 'what are you looking at?'—but he realized it was not a good idea for his current situation. He was supposed to make himself inconspicuous, not make himself the subject of suspicion debate. It was almost impossible to come up with a good response to the unprompted stare from a stranger, so he finally forced himself to mutter something.

"Are you.. here to view the garden as well?" He spat the unnatural words out, his chapped lips pressed into a thin line he hoped seemed neutral. God, he just wanted to leave.