Decay

Decay (崩壊) is a Quirk used by Tomura Shigaraki. It is the result of a rare mutation that no one was aware of before it manifested, much like Eri's Rewind.

Description
Decay allows Tomura to destroy anything his hands touch, making it crumble to dust.

Whether the target is organic or not, Decay will work without fail. As such, this Quirk is extremely lethal against living beings, having their flesh rot away if hit by it. The speed of the disintegration has varied from slow to almost immediate, eventually spreading through their whole body if a victim doesn't amputate the decaying body part.

Decay stays permanently on a target, once they have been touched everything part of it will be infected as well, even if Tomura is not touching the target anymore. Pro Hero Shota Aizawa avoided this by erasing Tomura's Quirk to prevent the decaying process from spreading even further.

Through vigorous training via several weeks of combat against Gigantomachia, Tomura has greatly improved the strength of his Quirk. Decay works almost instantaneously now rather than taking several seconds before a target crumbles to dust. It is also possible for the effect of Decay to spread beyond what the user has touched, creating a domino chain of disintegrated victims.

Tomura can even active his Quirk using his feet and continues to evolve under high-stress environments. Even with his left hand partially destroyed, Tomura was able to decay part of Re-Destro's finger using only two fingers, albeit the process was much slower and weaker compared to when he uses all 5 fingers.

Weaknesses
Decay will only occur when all five fingers touch the target, indicating that its activation isn't voluntary, or at least that Tomura's control is clumsy. Because the Quirk requires Tomura to touch a solid object in order to be activated, it is possible to counter Decay through Quirks that allows manipulation of fluids or particles, which Tomura cannot properly touch with his fingers. Since Decay uses the five digits on one’s limbs as Quirk Factors, the Quirk will be rendered useless if the user loses their digits, if not entire appendage. This was evidenced when Re-Destro destroyed 3 of the fingers on Tomura's left hand.

In addition, this Quirk is not effective if the user is wearing a pair of gloves.

Usage
Decay is Tomura's main method of combat. By nature, this Quirk forces Tomura to always engage his opponent in close quarters, though he often requires only to make contact with his enemy in order to kill or heavily injure them.

Tomura seems to have improved his Quirk ever since its first appearance at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, as Decay's disintegrating speed has become noticeably faster in subsequent usages.

Tomura is often careful with his hands when touching objects he doesn't want to destroy, letting at least one of his fingers free from use while holding things. He employs a similar method when holding people hostage, threatening to disintegrate them if they don't comply or cooperate with him. If Tomura gets angered or frustrated, he is likely to drop his carefulness.

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Decay