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When Dabi woke up and there was no sharply simmering pain throughout his body, he knew immediately that something was wrong.His eyes snapped open. He jolted upright, his senses kicking into high gear. Tatami flooring; sliding doors; Japanese-style tables and cabinets and lamps—like he was thirteen again and stuck in that hellhole.This was not his apartment.Then Dabi remembered how his skin didn’t feel like it was tearing at the seams, looked down at himself, and realized that it was because his skin wasn’t tearing at the seams.This was not his fucking body.He threw his blankets off and leapt to his feet, noting that he was barefoot. That would be a problem if he needed to make a quick escape, but at the same time, he felt stronger and more energetic than he had since… actually, he didn’t think he had ever felt this energetic before. And if this room with its ceramic vases and flowers was supposed to be a prison or trap of some kind, then Dabi’s jailor clearly had a few screws loose.As he took inventory of his surroundings and scanned for potential traps or anything suspicious—he was still having a hard time believing this was anything other than a completely normal, bland room—his gaze snagged on a small picture frame on the top of the dresser. He froze.In the photo was Todoroki Shouto, surrounded by Fuyu—by a white-haired girl, boy, and woman.Mirror. Dabi needed a mirror. His eyes zipped around the room, but it looked like this lifeless room didn’t even have a damn mirror in it.There was a phone on the table. It wasn’t Dabi’s phone, but at this point Dabi was starting to get a solid idea of what was going on. He grabbed it, turned it on, and swiped up for the camera. He tapped for the front-facing camera mode and stared.Yeah, he was Todoroki-fucking-Shouto.Heat. Heat and pain.Shouto sat up with a gasp, and the sharp movement sent a sting of pain through his forearms and upper chest. He was in some sort of ramshackle old apartment he didn’t recognize. He winced. And why did his skin feel like it was being punctured? He glanced down, mostly as a perfunctory check, and so was completely unprepared to see scarred, purplish flesh and steel staples.He stiffened. This had to be a dream. He wasn’t—this wasn’t—this was Dabi, of the League of Villains, wasn’t it? He turned his arms over, finding more of the same scarred flesh that continued from his wrists up to his neck.And the heat—it was so hot. Shouto stumbled to his feet, getting up a little too quickly and causing the stapled skin all over his body—over Dabi’s body—to stretch painfully.He staggered to the bathroom—some distant part of him registering with muted alarm how much farther away from the ground he was—and grabbed the edge of the sink.Shouto stared into the mirror, horrified, and the patchwork face of the villain Dabi stared back.
Dabi closed his eyes briefly, exhaled, and reopened them. On the phone screen, mismatched eyes in a teenage face continued to stare back at him.And shit, the memories from yesterday were coming back.He’d killed a lot of idiot thugs and brain-dead grunts over the past few weeks, all of them unrecruitable trash. Yesterday, though, he had run across someone who seemed like he might have actual potential. Some up-and-coming villain with a snake head and a couple of names under his belt. Far too cocky for his own good, though, so Dabi had killed him like the rest. But not before the bastard had flung his damn ten-foot tongue out and nicked some of the blood that had been leaking from Dabi’s staples, saying, “Let’s hope your family doesn’t get caught up in the shit you do, eh?”Dead men always spewed bullshit, and Dabi had chalked it down to the bastard being a freak, and a dodged bullet for the League. But what if he hadn’t been a mutant type? What if he had a blood quirk? Still a freak, but a considerably more dangerous one, in that case. Had it been some sort of bodyswapping quirk based on—on DNA similarities? But Dabi had toasted him to a crisp with his flames. How was the quirk still working? How in the everloving hell was Dabi supposed to undo it?He gritted his teeth and chucked Todoroki’s phone down onto the futon.Todoroki’s phone alarm went off.Fuck.Muffled sounds came from outside the door. “Hey, Todoroki, you’re still in there? Damn, I thought you’d be down already! Class is in fifteen minutes!”Fuck.“I know,” he snapped back, though he really didn’t know at all. And how the hell did this brat have a deeper voice than he did? And why did these kids have class in the middle of July?“…Uh, see you in class, then!”Shit, Todoroki probably didn’t snap at people like that. He was a goody-two-shoes kid, wasn’t he?Dabi sneered. Little Todoroki Shouto with his perfect quirk and perfect health, recommended into UA and second place in the sports festival. So he wanted to be a hero, did he? Well, Dabi supposed that was easy enough of a dream when everything was handed to you on a silver platter.The phone was still buzzing. Dabi picked the phone up and shut the alarm off, annoyed. He took a closer look at the phone, and realized with further annoyance that like him, Todoroki also didn’t use the fingerprint unlock method, and so Dabi might as well be phoneless.Not that Dabi remembered the phone numbers of Shigaraki or any of the other League members. Or even his own phone number, constantly changing as it was.Well, that wasn’t ideal.So he couldn’t contact anyone, then. Fuck. Dabi would just have to skip the brat’s classes and make his way to the base on foot.As he strode over to the cabinet to find something to wear—Todoroki had helpfully hung what Dabi assumed was the day’s uniform inside the cabinet door—the full reality of the situation began to sink in. Dabi was stuck in the body of a sixteen-year-old brat.So, then, logically following, a sixteen-year-old brat was stuck in his body.A sixteen-year-old brat who was a hero in training.Dabi was a villain.He grimaced. If the heroes didn’t get to him first, then Shigaraki would. Shigaraki was going to castrate him if he found out.Quickly, he constructed a short mental list of things to get done: Skip the hell out of hero-land. Find Todoroki. Do damage control. Reverse the quirk.He had no fucking clue on how to approach three out of four of those things, but hey, the first one on the list seemed straightforward enough.With another grimace, this one slightly more nauseated, he yanked some clothing out of the cabinet and started changing.
Shouto gripped the edge of the sink so hard that a dot of blood appeared underneath one of the staples on his hand. He let go, taking a deep breath.Why was he here? Was this a ploy on the part of the League of Villains, some sort of trap that Shouto wasn’t experienced to understand yet? If Shouto was in Dabi’s body, then Dabi must be in Shouto’s. But why him? Why Shouto? Shouto didn’t doubt that a seasoned villain would be able to glean plenty of intel from the position of a hero-in-training, but at the same time… wouldn’t it be so much better to go after a pro hero? And as he took in the sight of a phone charging by the sink counter and the half-empty tubes of hair dye, he couldn’t help but feel that this situation seemed to place the villains in just as vulnerable a position as it did Shouto. After all, this swap went both ways, didn’t it?A villain was currently walking around and masquerading as him. Shouto gritted his teeth. What… what would All Might do? Probably try and work the situation to his advantage, somehow. But Shouto wasn’t a licenced hero yet—he couldn’t go around doing whatever he wanted, and the events in Hosu City and Kamino Ward had hammered home that lesson loud and clear.He unplugged Dabi’s phone from its cable and turned it on, only to realize that Dabi didn’t use the fingerprint unlocking mechanism. He pursed his lips. Shouto didn’t use that mechanism either, which at least meant Dabi wouldn’t be able to use Shouto’s phone as a source of information—assuming, as Shouto’s gut instinct was telling him, that Dabi was in Shouto’s body just as Shouto was in his.There was an unread notification on Dabi’s lock screen:
Annoying Brat [7:51 AM]
hey dabiii ur coming to the meeting today, right?? havent seen u in 4everrr
Shouto’s stomach twisted. If this message was from one of the other members of the League, it seemed like they were completely unaware of Shouto and Dabi’s… situation. This was good, right? It meant the League didn’t know Shouto was Dabi. It meant—It meant this could be an opportunity.Was the smart move to inform the authorities, or try and figure out what was going on?And, Shouto couldn’t help but wonder with dread, what was going on back in his own body?
Dabi was halfway across the campus when he felt, rather than saw, the boy coming. He turned around, and was presented with the oncoming figure of a boy with glasses, dark hair, and—were those engines? Yeah, those were engines—engines in his calves that made the ground rumble. He sped towards Dabi with seemingly no intention of slowing down. In fact, Dabi could swear that the kid was accelerating.“Todoroki!” the kid yelled.Dabi tensed.The kid skidded to a halt a little too close for Dabi’s tastes. “Why are you headed in the opposite direction of Gym Gamma? Training is starting in four minutes and thirty-seven seconds!” He gesticulated at Dabi’s—well, Todoroki’s—black shirt. There had been no way in hell that Dabi was going to wear that joke of a uniform. “You’re not… skipping class, are you?”“I have more important things to do.”“What do you mean? Isn’t training our quirks for the Licencing Exams the most important thing you could be doing?” the boy exclaimed, looking greatly taken aback. “How else will you become a hero?”Dabi laughed. “Thanks for that one, Four-Eyes.” He shouldered past the boy and kept walking.“Wait! Todoroki! Is something wrong?”“Yes, the fact that you’re still here.” Dabi paused, having some stronger words in mind, but decided to settle on something more in-character. “Leave.”“Wait!” The kid started jogging alongside him. “Where are you going?”Dabi kept walking. The kid kept jogging.Finally, Dabi stopped and turned to him in irritation. “That’s none of your—”“Young Iida! Young Todoroki!”Dabi’s steps jerked to a halt. He turned around.All Might looked back. Not tall, strong, and smiling confidently as Dabi was so used to seeing, but hunched over, emaciated, and wearing an ill-fitting jogger’s tracksuit.The former hero stopped to catch his breath. “Shouldn’t the two of you be in class right now?”He looked like a civilian. He looked weak.But he was weak now, wasn’t he?An idea started to curl around Dabi’s mind. It would be so, so easy for Dabi to kill All Might right now. To kill both of them, really. Prized UA student kills fellow classmate and All Might. Wouldn’t that be a fun headline?“Good morning, sir! Todoroki wasn’t at Gym Gamma yet, so I came to find him!”Dabi’s fingers twitched. If he just—reached inwards—he could feel the fire simmering and the ice cracking under the surface, familiar yet alien at the same time.He could do it. He could do it. His thoughts raced. And this would be what Shigaraki wanted, right? The death of the Symbol of Peace.“That’s right, young Todoroki—where is your uniform?” Both All Might and Iida looked at him.But was that what Dabi wanted? No, not really. If anything, All Might was the only hero that he didn’t want to put six feet under with their name defamed to the rest of the world.Dabi would never get an opportunity like this again, though. This was one in a million. And what better way to shatter the foundations of hero society and rip their assumptions to pieces than to have a UA student kill All Might himself?The corner of his mouth curved up.All Might’s eyes pierced into him. “Young Todoroki?” he asked, something inscrutable in his voice.Could Dabi take on All Might? With the element of surprise, it was feasible. More than feasible, really. He curled the fingers on his left hand, feeling the fire rush to his command—Someone’s phone rang.Dabi blinked, and the moment ended. He realized he had been staring at All Might the entire time. Killing All Might… he blinked again, and his thoughts cleared. No, that was better left for Shigaraki. Shigaraki seemed to think All Might was his kill, anyways.Iida was looking at him with a confused, wary awkwardness. The phone continued to ring.Oh. It was his phone ringing.Dabi reached into his pocket and pulled Todoroki’s phone out. No Caller ID.Well, then. Dabi had a pretty good idea of who the caller probably was.He picked up the call, his nose wrinkling slightly. “Yes?”“What did you do?” came Dabi’s own tense voice, sounding more emotive and hero-like than Dabi had ever thought possible.Dabi felt a headache coming on.Well, at least one out of the two of them remembered his own phone number.He glanced to his side. Iida quickly turned his head away, and All Might was staring intently away at the trees. They were both incredibly obvious eavesdroppers.Dabi sighed. “One moment,” he said into the phone. He stopped walking and looked at the two heroes.“How about you two go on without me?”
Shouto stood at the payphone dressed in the most tattered, threadbare clothing he’d ever worn, his entire body on edge. His own voice had just come through to him from the other end of the phone, sounding entirely cold and indifferent. He was just about to speak up, impatient, when the other voice—his own voice—responded again.
“You’re Todoroki Shouto. You’re in my body.”“I am. And you’re Dabi, of the League of Villains.” Shouto gripped the phone tighter. “What did you do?”“Calm down. You make me sound like an uptight hero, it’s unnerving.” There was a pause, and then Dabi’s lazy voice—in Shouto’s voice—spoke up again. “Now, first things first. Tell a single person about this switcheroo, leak a single word, and I’ll ensure the League picks off all your little friends, one by one. Got it?”Shouto narrowed his eyes. “And why should I believe that you wouldn’t do that regardless of what I do?”He could hear laughter from the other side of the call. “Oh, that’s rich. You think I care about a bunch of heroes in training? No, that’s Shigaraki’s deal. Not that he’s got any particular interest in you all either, right now. Though that’s something I can easily remedy.”“And what if I just turn myself in, and then have the police surround you? Why should I cooperate with a villain?”“Todoroki Shouto… You think you can threaten me? You, a kid playing at being hero? Sure, tip the police off and have them come for me. We’ll see how many civilians I’m able to take down before that happens. Fire and ice is such a fun ranged quirk, after all.”A chill went down Shouto’s spine. He gritted his teeth, having nothing to say in response. What could he say, against a villain with no moral code and nothing to lose?“Hey, I have nothing against you, kid. Let’s be civil and get this situation to resolve itself nicely.”“What did you even do to cause this in the first place? How are you going to reverse it?”“It was some asshole’s quirk against me. I’ll deal with it. Meet me in Kaetsu district, Kodaira City. The south side of block eighteen. Ten o’clock. Need to make sure we’re on the same page, I’m sure you understand.”Shouto clenched one hand into a fist, ignoring how it sent a jolt of pain up his arm. It wasn’t his own arm, anyways. “For someone in your position, you’re demanding. If you’re skipping my classes, the teachers will be suspicious.”“You’re in out of your depth here, hero. I don’t like to repeat myself. Meet me there. Got it?”Time that Dabi spent meeting up with him was also time that Dabi wouldn’t be off in Shouto’s body being an unknown wild card. If Shouto meeting up with him meant Dabi being further away from UA, further away from his friends, then… “I’ll be there,” Shouto said testily.“Good.”Dabi hung up.Shouto took the payphone handset away from his ear and stared down at it, his eyes tight. None of this was anything he could have prepared for, but he couldn’t help but feel like he was once again about to do something wrong and risky. Unlike at USJ, at Hosu City, at Kamino Ward, this time he was alone. No one knew he was here, no one knew who he was, and he couldn’t call for help.But… he shouldn’t need help, right? Dabi also wanted to resolve things quickly and quietly. This time, Shouto wasn’t actively fighting villains. He was… cooperating, but only temporarily.If no one needed to get hurt, then Shouto would ensure that things stayed that way.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was a few minutes past ten when Dabi arrived at where he had instructed Todoroki to meet him. It was a market district: busy but not too busy, seedy but not too seedy. Dabi spotted himself loitering uncomfortably just inside an alleyway, and would have snorted if the stakes weren’t currently so high.“I’m going to need my phone back,” Dabi said as he sauntered up into the shadows. The kid saw him and immediately stiffened. Dabi reached into his pocket and fished out Todoroki’s phone. “Eleven texts and three missed calls. Your hero friends are pretty worried about you,” he said sardonically.At that, Todoroki tensed. “You shouldn’t have missed my classes. We could have met up later.” But he took Dabi’s phone out of his pocket and warily handed it over.“Just tell them you were busy.” Dabi took his phone back. “And remember,” he said, dangling Todoroki’s phone just out of reach as the kid tried to grab it, “don’t try anything. Warp gates make assassinations a cakewalk, just so you know.”“I’m aware,” Todoroki said, narrowing his eyes. He snatched his phone back. “You’d better reverse this quirk sooner rather than later.”“Yeah, yeah.” Dabi’s gaze caught on Todoroki’s hands, and he frowned. Technically his hands, and they were bleeding at the seams. “The hell did you do to my hands? Were you weightlifting trucks?”Todoroki had the grace to look at least vaguely uncomfortable about it, but he didn’t seem apologetic, either. “I’m not used to such a weak body.”Dabi curled his lip. “Unlike you, not all of us are born with a perfect quirk.”Todoroki frowned heavily. “What does that have to do with anything?”“Oh, nothing,” Dabi said, shoving down his bitterness for another time. He turned his focus back to his phone and eyed Toga’s text message with irritation. “Fuck. I’m not going to this meeting.” He slid his gaze over to Todoroki. “Stay in my apartment. Try not to screw things up.”He glanced back down, pulled up his messages to Shigaraki, and with a faint scowl, began typing.[10:05 AM] Can’t come to the meeting, busyHe went back to Toga’s message. Ignoring her text from that morning, he sent her a question.[10:05 AM] How do you undo the effects of a blood quirk that are still ongoing even after the user’s deathToga replied immediately. That was the only good thing about the lunatic high school brat; she never had anything better to do and was glued to her phone, so at least she was prompt.[10:06 AM] oooooh why r u asking??? ;)[10:06 AM] Just fucking tell me[10:06 AM] stupid headdd[10:06 AM] …obviouslyyyyy, theyre not dead then[10:07 AM] better try again dabi, i guess ur flames werent hot enough!!! heheheDabi stared at his phone screen. But that was impossible. Though, he had done a bit of a rushed job yesterday, with the heroes showing up on the scene, and—Ah. So maybe the heroes had decided the burn victim on the verge of death deserved saving. Well, he thought bitterly, looked like not all burn victims were treated equal.…No. He wasn’t going to think about that.He tapped open his phone’s news feed and filtered by Akasuka district, keywords “fire” and “villain”.NUMBER ONE HERO ENDEAVOUR RESCUES BOTH VILLAINS AND CIVILIANS FROM WAREHOUSE FIREDabi stared at the headline, the irony of this development not lost on him.“Is this a fucking joke?” he asked flatly. He scrolled down. Details of the villains’ current statuses undisclosed. The Endeavour Hero Agency could not be reached for further comment.“Hey, kid,” Dabi said, not bothering to hide the vitriol in his tone. “Ask your dad where he stuffed a bunch of rescued villains the other day.”Todoroki paused, looking up from his own phone. “What for?” he asked, sounding guarded.“I need to… talk to a certain villain with a body-swapping blood quirk.”Todoroki frowned. “Blood quirk?”Well, that had been a dumbass thing to mention. “Don’t worry your pretty little hero head about it.” There was also something faintly amusing in saying this to someone wearing his own face.“You’re going to kill this villain, aren’t you?” Todoroki asked, curling one hand into a fist. So that was why Dabi’s hands were bleeding.Dabi raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “We’re in public. Try and keep it down.”“I won’t aid you in murder,” Todoroki said heatedly, though he did lower his voice a little. Around them, a few heads turned, but turned back just as quickly. The folks here knew how to mind their own business.“If it weren’t for mister number one fucking hero, the guy would already be dead and none of this would be happening right now,” Dabi said, his voice turning colder. “It’s not murder. It’s returning things to the way they should be.”“No one ‘should be’ dead,” Todoroki said angrily. Ever the righteous hero.Dabi let out a sharp laugh. “You’re not going to get anywhere arguing morals with a villain, so why don’t you just hurry up and text Endy so we can all get back to our own bodies?”Todoroki ground his jaw. “I’m not really on speaking or texting terms with my father.”Ah, so little Shouto wasn’t a complete and utter idiot, then. At least that was something. But even if Dabi could respect that, it still didn’t solve the problem at hand. “Do you need me to ask the bastard for you?” he asked with false, mocking patience.Todoroki suddenly straightened, bristling. “What’s your issue with my father? I may not particularly like him, either, but you keep speaking as though you have a personal grudge against him.”Dabi tilted his head back. “Oh, do I?” And something about the way Dabi said the words, sharp and deliberate, made Todoroki pause with a mistrustful glare.Maybe it was the heat of the moment, maybe it was the absurd circumstances of having a civil, face-to-face conversation with his little brother about En-fucking-deavour, maybe it was that Dabi had been holding it all in for far too long.“Maybe I do have a personal grudge,” Dabi drawled, spreading his hands out. “I mean, hey, what’s not to hate about Todoroki Enji?” As he spoke, he raised his right hand, and relishing the look of shock on Todoroki’s face, very deliberately tapped the scar over his eye—Shouto’s eye. “You would know, wouldn’t you, Shouto?” he asked with a sardonic smile.“How do you know about that?” Shouto demanded, his voice sharp but shaky. “Asides from… from Midoriya, no one outside of the family—”He froze. His eyes widened fractionally. He stared at Dabi, then down at himself—at Dabi’s scarred, marred body. As his expression began to morph, Dabi could almost physically see the gears in his head spinning.Fuck, maybe Dabi had gone too far. This definitely seemed like something he would regret in the future.Too late now.His smile twisted. “Cat got your tongue?”Shouto stared at Dabi like he was a ghost. “Your hair is red,” he said slowly. Still reeling. “I noticed in the bathroom.” He flushed. “And… your eyes. Your fire. They’re all…” He lifted one hand, and a small, blue flame danced inside his palm, illuminating his torn expression with flickering light. He winced at the heat, but stared at it, spellbound.Dabi watched him with lidded eyes and a knowing smirk. “Careful, it’s hot.” He lifted a hand and let the red and orange flames of Shouto’s quirk temporarily burst to life. “Yours are much nicer,” he said languidly.Shouto stared at him, and let the flames in his hand flicker out. “…Touya?” he breathed, hushed and incredulous, each syllable spoken like it was something long-lost and precarious, as though it hid some horrifying secret.“Who?” Dabi asked, cocking his head to the side with a condescending smile.Shouto furrowed his brows. “I… you…”“Look, kid,” Dabi said, twirling his phone in his hand. “If you’re not going to ask your hero dad about the villain I’m looking for, that’s fine. In fact…” He paused, and his lips widened into a smile. “I think I have a much better plan.”Tomorrow was Saturday. Saturday, the day UA kids went home to visit family. Saturday, the day when busy heroes that were normally on 24/7 alert would be at home, resting after a long and busy week. Tired. Off-guard.After all, what kind of father would be on guard around their precious little hero-in-training son?And sure, sure, Dabi wanted to get back to his own body. But he wanted other things, too, and in comparison, killing some no-name villain was an errand that could wait. In the wake of this whole bodyswapping debacle, Dabi had almost forgotten his purpose, one of the core reasons why he was lowering himself to consort with lunatic villains and low-life criminals.Killing the Number Two—oh, whoops—Number One Hero.Had Dabi really almost forgotten all that? He was disappointed in himself. He would’ve thanked Shouto, too, for reminding him of his hatred for that bastard, but the kid was on edge as it was. Better not to rouse any more suspicions; he’d already had his fun with little Shouto.Said kid then blinked hard, as though he was shaking himself out of a stupor. “Answer me,” he demanded, his eyes flashing. “Are you—” his voice broke, “—are you Touya or not?”Dabi let out a slow sigh. “Kids these days. I guess you don’t want to hear about the plan that’ll get us both back to our own bodies.”“What’s the plan?” Shouto ground out, in a way that made it clear that he still had a thousand more questions he wanted to ask.Dabi waved a hand in dismissal. “Offer’s expired.”Shouto glowered. “They why—”“Everything will be back to its regularly scheduled programming tomorrow,” Dabi said smoothly. He held his hand out for his phone back. “You’ll be wanting your phone on the right body.” After a brief, reluctant pause, Shouto dropped it into Dabi’s hand. Dabi gave him his own phone in exchange.“Keep this under wraps,” Dabi said. Now that he knew Shouto wasn’t going to fuck things up for him on his end, it was time to leave. He took a few steps backwards out of the alleyway, hands in his pockets. “I’d say ‘see you later’, but I hope I don’t.”“Wait,” Shouto blurted, stepping out from under the shadows.Dabi gave him a lazy smile. “What happened here, stays here. You want your friends and family safe, don’t you?” He turned around and started heading back towards the street.“You’re Todoroki Touya,” Shouto said fiercely. Desperately? Yeah, there was a tinge of that as well. “You’re family, too.”Dabi stopped, and his smile turned a little sharper. No, he wasn’t. Not anymore.He didn’t bother to turn back around. “You’re not ready for the real world of heroes and villains, Shouto,” he said with mock sincerity.He left, feeling Shouto’s eyes on him the entire time.
Annoying Brat [8:42 PM]
dabi omg where r u???? skipping againnn? tomura’s not very happy right now loool
Hand Fucker [9:19 PM] Missed Call (2)
Hand Fucker [9:21 PM] You better have a good explanation for thisShouto grimaced down at Dabi’s phone. This would all be over tomorrow. That was what Dabi had so confidently promised.Dabi. Touya? His mind was a whirlwind of questions and theories. Every little memory or snippet of conversation he had ever had surrounding Todoroki Touya, Shouto was now recontextualizing and reanalyzing under the lens of this new possibility. He had tested Dabi’s quirk again and again until the heat had finally become unbearable; it seemed to match up with what little Shouto knew of the circumstances surrounding his eldest brother. Age, appearance… it was all in line. It explained the much-too-personal grudge against Endeavour, and why Dabi had called the bodyswapping quirk a blood quirk. Shouto didn’t want to believe that this was what had become of a sibling, but the evidence was in front of his eyes. He was the evidence, trapped in Dabi’s body as he was.Shouto had spent the majority of the evening overturning every nook and cranny of Dabi’s apartment for whatever information he could possibly find. There had been nothing. The apartment was so impersonal that Shouto could hardly believe that it was inhabited.And after all his quirk usage and apartment investigation… Somehow, Shouto felt incredibly drained—as drained as if he had run a marathon. Why was Dabi’s body so weak?He took a deep breath, set the phone down, and laid down onto Dabi’s bed.Whatever Dabi’s plan was, it would all be over tomorrow.
Dabi had returned to UA to face a swarm of concerned faces, then had proceeded to dodge all of them as he sat through a mind-numbingly boring set of afternoon classes. All he had learnt that entire afternoon was that Eraserhead was a joke of a teacher and all the students were idiots. This only served to double down on his sour mood, because a) the Vanguard Action Squad hadn’t even been able to keep down a bunch of idiot first-years, and b) none of this information was anything that might prove even conceivably useful to the League.Shouto’s room was also barren and bland. The most interesting thing in it was his phone, which was currently sporting two new messages:Endeavour [10:51 PM] Shouto, your teachers told me you skipped class today. This behaviour is unacceptable, and unbecoming of a future hero. I want you to explain yourself.
Endeavour [10:53 PM]
Come home tomorrow. It’s been too long since we’ve last had a talk.
It was with a complete and utter lack of surprise that Dabi noted that the asshole hadn’t changed a single bit. Too bad he couldn’t reply to the texts right now. But tomorrow… oh, tomorrow would be fun. That would be the kind of dramatic irony that Dabi could appreciate.He would end everything tomorrow.
Shouto woke up to the sound of his phone alarm ringing. He sat up with a yawn, rubbing his eyes groggily. Mind still clouded from sleep, he stretched one hand out, fumbled for his phone, and turned off the alarm.He stared down at the notifications on his phone screen, and stiffened.The memories from yesterday came flooding back like water from a broken dam: Dabi. The swap. Touya. And the assurance that everything would be over by today.But the fact that this was his own phone and his own room—and his own arm that he was looking down on—meant…Shouto was back in his own body.Was everything already over, just like that? Somehow, it seemed… too easy. His instincts had been certain that this was going to end in some sort of disaster—that when dealing with villains, something was bound to go horribly wrong.Should he… should he inform the authorities, now? Dabi wasn’t in his body anymore, and couldn’t compromise UA, or Shouto’s friends or family.But—but was it possible that Dabi was family? Shouto didn’t want to believe it, but all signs seemed to point to one inevitable conclusion. In hindsight… in hindsight, it all seemed almost obvious, now. His quirk should have been the giveaway.And if it was all true, then… would Dabi really kill family, even through an indirect means?Shouto grimaced. No. Dabi was still a villain; nothing had changed. Shouto didn’t know anything with certainty yet, and it was dangerous to jump to conclusions. Today was Saturday. Shouto would head home. Head home and ask Fuyumi about everything.It was high time Shouto learnt the full truth behind the mystery of his eldest brother.
Dabi woke up, and it was cold.That was the first clue.He frowned, eyes closed, still half asleep. But his body felt… off. Off in a way that was different from how it had been yesterday—different from Shouto’s body, but not his own, either.That was the second clue.His eyes flew open. He stared at a plain desk and drawer backed against the wall of a sterile, white room. Almost like—a hospital room.That was the third clue.On the desk was a photo, its cast of characters now all too familiar to Dabi. In the centre of the photo was a woman with white hair, tired gray eyes, and a soft smile.Dabi looked down at himself in a sheer disbelief that instantly gave way to anger.“What the fuck,” he hissed, his voice high and lilting and female.
In the midst of her body feeling like it was combusting from the inside out, Todoroki Rei slowly sat up and stared down at her scarred hands. Unbidden, her eyes began to moisten.“Touya,” she whispered, fear and confusion and disbelief and pain mixed into a single trembling word.