The Not So Villainous Villain (A Dabi is Touya Todororki Theory)

Chapter 1

I still regret the day I walked out on my siblings. Sure, I was only 15, and I wanted to see the world. No. That's not what happened. Sure, most people would assume that's what I did and died in the process, but no. I ran out on my family because I was sick and tired of my abusive father. He hit my mother just because she gave birth to another 'weak' child. Just because he didn't have a powerful combination of both my mother and that bastard's quirk. And when he finally got the son he wanted, he discarded everyone else like we weren't living things. Like we had no right to be in his presence. 

That's why I walked out on everything I ever cared about. I felt that if I spent another day in that toxic household, I wouldn't have anything except scars. I left when my younger brother and sister were ending middle school. And when my mother poured that scorching hot water on my baby brother's face. 

Now I have nothing. No more family. My mother is in a psych ward. My siblings have moved on. My sister's a preschool teacher. My younger brother is a soccer coach, and my baby brother is going to the most prestigious hero school in all of Japan. 

Yet here I am. 10 years later. An arsonist. A thief. A murderer. A villain. The only reason people would want to see me is for an assignment. I am no longer wanted in this world. 

But maybe, I could make it right. I could restart everything. I could somehow redeem myself. Perhaps I could, I don't know,  try to reconnect with my family? Yeah. That would be nice. But first things first, I have to quit the League of Villains. Tomorrow? No today. It can't be tomorrow. Today is January 17, and tomorrow is... my birthday. Happy early 25th birthday to me. 

I step out of my room from the inn and head down to the bar. Usually, Kurogiri is there cleaning glasses or making someone a Shirley Temple. My fingers linger across the old fashioned wallpaper lining the halls. My combat boots clomp on the slowly rotting wooden floor, creaking with every other step. Thoughts race through my head at the speed of sound. 'Should I do this?' 'Can you even leave the LOV alive?' 'What will my family think now that they would find out that I was a villain all this time?' 'Does my family still even remember me after 10 years of nothing?' 

I stop at the door to enter the bar. Should I do this? I made friends here. Wait no, no I didn't. Come Touya! Just grow a pair and do it. 

I slam the door open and look around. Oh crap. No one's here. Whatever I'm just going to write a note then, at least I don't have to say it to their faces. 

'I quit the League, see ya never

                                              Dabi'

As I wander along the streets packed with garbage and homeless people, I come up with a plan. It's not a very good one. Ok sneaking into the UA dorms to see my brother is a bad idea. A VERY BAD IDEA. I kick an empty beer can on the ground and attempt to contemplate another plan. But in the middle of even coming up with an idea, I hear a voice that sounds strangely familiar. Just not in a good way. I tiptoe closer to the voice and hide behind a wall. 

"Come on Endeavor-san! Why can't we change where we patrol. It's so gross over here," says a different voice, masculine but slightly childish. 

"Not now Hawks, we only just started tonights shift anyway," said... him. 

I freeze. Endeavor. My... father. 

I inch backward from the wall I was lurking behind and step on a twig. 

CRACK! Wow. How cliché. 

"What was that?" said the voice that was apparently Hawks. 

Endeavor coughs and says, "I don't know, but let's go find out."

Fuck. 

I start to run after I hear their hurried footsteps race towards my direction. Suddenly one of them stops, only to be replaced with the sound of wings flapping. I sprint to the closest alley so I can hopefully hold them off until the League comes to help. Oh wait, I quit. Then, bright red wings circle my body to prevent me from moving. 

"Gotcha!" The winged man says, giggling like a child on Christmas after his statement of the obvious. 

"No shit Sherlock," I reply snarkily, elbowing him in the ribs. If there's one thing I know about birds, that they have hollow bones so that they can fly, and they break easily. A SNAP explodes from the bird man's chest, clearly indicating that at least one rib was broken. He shrieks out in pain and seizes his chest with his arm, enabling me to free myself from his winged grip. 

"HAWKS!" Endeavor yells, igniting flames on the soles of his feet to catch up to the two of us. 

I send a right hook to Hawks' jaw, knocking him off balance while I knee him in the abdomen. He doubles over in pain, grasping his wounded torso, hacking out blood. I was about to set aflame my own quirk to burn Hawks' wings to ash before Endeavor's own blocked mine from him. 

"Son-" he starts saying before I cut him off. 

"Don't call me son," I stare threateningly. My hands glow azure, heating to the extreme of searing off more skin.  

Hamilton am I right? Ok sorry but Imma continue a little more Hamilton, don't judge meeeeee. 

His fire beard burns brighter, "Watch your tone with me, young man." Flames sprout from both his hands and mine, indicating a standoff. 

I swipe my left arm from the right back to left, sending a surge of scolding blue flames after him. He answers my fire with a bright orange blaze, not even coming close to being able to match mine with the heat intensity. 

The azure fire consumes the orange ones, doubling the original volume of my flames. I laugh maniacally, one of the little tricks I learned in the League. 

'What are you doing Touya?' a voice whispers in my head. 'Didn't you want to make amends to your family?'

I stop. All because I let down my guard, I stop everything. The flames, the laughing, my body. I don't know what happened, it's as if my body and mind hit the restart button. As if all of my energy was depleted by just one attack. My knees buckle and I have to grab onto the nearby wall to prevent from collapsing. "What is happening to me?" I speak through pants. 

My vision tunnels, obstructing my eyesight with black spots. I try to walk toward the heroes while tripping over my feet. An unexpected pain strikes in my lower stomach, sending my nerves spiraling in a course of agony. I sneak a tempted glance down to my gut, trying to make sense of the injury that was abruptly inflicted on me.  An arrow is lodged in my lower right gut, with blood seeping through the wound, turned the unscarred area green and purple. 

Of course, poison. This world really hates me, doesn't it? Hell, when did this even happen? I guess the effects started happening even before I felt the sharp object impaled in my stomach. 

I feel my legs crumble underneath me and I collapse to the still-warm pavement. I hear the footsteps of the number 1 hero come closer to my immobile body. 

"Thanks, Arrow," Endeavor says, nodding his head in an upward direction. (I know he's a DC character but work with me here, ok?) "Now what to do with you, son?" Endeavor kicks me in the gut, causing a slight movement in my limp body, providing me with the ability to cough up more blood.  

I whimper beneath the heel of his foot slamming on the fresh injury resting on my abdomen. "I'm not your son...." I mutter weakly, "... not anymore." 

Hawks limps forward, still grasping his cracked ribs from earlier. He examines my face, scanning it for any resemblance that he might recognize from his past. His bird-like eyes widen and look up to my father. 

Endeavor hesitantly steps to my paralyzed body. He leans closer to my face to brush the strands of hair away from my eyes. 

His eyes dilate as he whispers, "Touya?"

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