Rule #6d: Never underestimate your opponent
"Heh…" Toru heaved a heavy sigh as she painted her splayed toes with another coated varnish of the Forget-Me-Not blue.
"What's with you, sourpuss?" Dagger wondered aloud at the umpteenth put-upon sigh that fell from the invisible girl's lips since they'd begun.
"Nothing, I'm fine"
"Bullshit"
"Nn!" Toru maturely poked her tongue out at the canine in response.
"Can you pass the Vampire Princess?" Toga asked, reaching for the crimson bottle next to Toru's feet. The three teens had gathered together in one of the spare rooms of the sprawling Paranormal Liberation Front mansion that lay hidden in the rolling hills of Deika City. Bottles of nail polish, foam separators, old magazines and empty snack wrappers lay about the place as the triad of teens brandished little brushes against their fingers & toes. The idea to paint their nails was something born of boredom, more than anything else. It was a simple space, a set of plush couches surrounding the TV, a row of windows on the east wall and a single whiteboard which had been defaced with crude remarks about the hero society.
A month had passed since they'd come into contact with Hawks' fried counterpart, Dabi, and a month more before they were even considered trustworthy enough to introduced to the Front alongside a few other defected heroes like the Pro hero, Slidin' Go (many of the heroes inducted into the Paranormal Liberation Front were doing so under the orders of the HPSC). All heroes had to be vouched for by someone already inducted into the group, least the Front find themselves with moles on their hands. Something which had been a problem for the invisible girl at first. Hawks, who had been working with Dabi since the Kamino Ward incident, didn't have to worry, but for Toru, her status had been completely up in the air until Dagger had reappeared out of the blue. It certainly helped that all of the invisible girl's, er, 'achievements' were located in easily accessible official government files (courtesy of said commission).
"Here" Toru handed over the scarlet bottle to the blonde without much hassle, doing her best not to mess up her own paint job.
"Thanks" Toga nodded as she happily cracked the bottle and lathered the paint to her fingernails, making the appendages look like they'd been dipped in blood.
"Oooh!" Dagger cooed upon spotting the blonde's nails over the rim of their Midnight-painted claws. "That's a great colour!"
"Thanks!"
"You are the Vampire Princess!"
"Fear me!" Toga cackled manically as the two bantered back and forth like old friends. Toru watched the exchange with intrigued eyes, just trying to soak in the moment. It still boggled her—especially after everything the League of Villains & their subsequent allies had put them through—just how human they seemed to be. Because if she'd been told months ago that she'd be painting her nails with one of the League's vanguard, then she'd probably have whacked them.
"Now, Toru" Dagger turned back to Toru, making her jump at the sudden burning gaze of two gossip-hungry teenagers. "What's going on with you?"
"Yeah! Spill!" Toga agreed, baring her teeth in an anticipatory grin.
"…It's just…" Toru easily buckled under the weight of their gazes. Her shoulders slumped forward in defeat as yet another sigh hissed out from between her teeth as her thoughts turned towards the antics of the wannabe assassins of 3-E. "I was hoping to go home before Christmas and see everyone, y'know?"
After graduating from the junior high last year and pooling all of their money to purchase the mountaintop classroom-turned-memorial, they'd agreed to meet up whenever they could to celebrate holidays and anniversaries together. Of course, maintaining the memorial and the surrounding mountainside would fall to whomever was in the area at the time. This was to be the first year without either Yukimura-Sensei or Koro-sensei; a notion which made her heart swell with grief whenever she thought about it. Yes, they'd technically 'celebrated' Christmas with their tentacled teacher the year prior when they'd been recreating an entire year's worth of memories in two days, but it wasn't the same.
"But I doubt that's gonna happen now…" Toru continued, silently referring to UA's amped security measures which had come into place after the failed training camp and following incidents since. "We can barely go anywhere without checking in here or signing in there—and our class rep definitely isn't helping!"
"Izzit really that bad?" Dagger snarked, an unimpressed brow quirked in their direction as the invisible girl ranted, "All wrapped up in those swanky dormitories of yours?"
"You don't get it!" Iida's the worst!" Toru whined, "Even our teachers aren't that uptight about the whole thing! It's like he some kind of OCD dictator! I swear that kid's gonna have an aneurysm before he graduates!"
"Glasses is your class rep?" Toga mused, latching onto that little tidbit like a bloodhound. Her grin almost seemed predatory as she recalled her last interaction with the bespectacled engine-powered teen with a manic sort of glee. "Oh, I can totally see that! That's, like, the perfect job for him!"
"Ugh! It's almost too perfect; like all the power just goes to his head all the time!" Toru was only half-kidding. "Y'know he tried to organise the condiments in the fridge by name, expiry date and colour—the condiments!"
"…Yeah, okay, that is a bit much" Dagger acquiesced with a reluctant nod. "So, what're you gonna do about the whole home-for-Christmas thing?"
"Huh?" Toru hummed absently, "I dunno"
"Could you, like, swing it as a work studies thing?" Toga suggested, making the invisible girl freeze.
"Whaddya mean…?" She hesitantly hedged, trying her best to sound nonchalant.
"Innit that how're your passing off all these trips out here?" Toga quirked a brow, picking up on the tone. "As like, Hawks' apprentice or something?"
Does she know? Does Dagger? Toru panicked as she fought not to react, What do they suspect? Have I been too liberal with my comments?
"Yeah!" Dagger readily agreed, not at all bothered by the narrow-eyed hyperaware stare focused on the invisible girl. "Just swing it as some sort of work studies thing!"
"And—and what about the Front?"
"What would the Front care about your lil' hometown?" Toga scoffed, "Less you've got some sort of dirty delicious secret that we need to know about?"
"Er…"
"Wait—!" Dagger piped up, realisation gleaming in their eyes. "Your ole teach was that crazy octo-villain, right?"
"Yeah…?" Toru hedged, drawing out the word. Where is she going with this?
"Octo-villain? Y'mean that yellow Nomu?" Toga puzzled, head titled in question.
"Yeah, that one!"
"Ugh! The Doc's been going on about him for months! Wasn't he like some medical miracle?"
"He was a Nomu"
"Not just any Nomu, I heard he was the first Nomu! Like ever!"
"You're kidding!"
"Oooh! I've just had the most brilliant idea!"
"Well, don't leave us hanging!" Dagger nudged.
"If we—" She gestured to herself and the canine next to her. "—Swing this as an information-scouting-thing, then we could totally go with you! There's no way they can say no!"
"Uh…" Toru blinked dumbly, mouth gaping slightly at the turn this conversation had taken.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Dagger grinned.
"Road trip!" Toga sang with a matching grin.
"Hell yeah!"
"Um…" Toru blinked, eyes darting back and forth between the two as they jumped to their feet and raced for the door.
"I'm gonna go ask Shiggy!" Toga called over her shoulder.
"Wait for me! This is gonna be so much fun!" Dagger added, following after, careless of their newly-painted claws leaving Toru alone to swallow what was going on.
"…What just happened…?"
With Kurogiri out of the picture (captured during the latest dawn raid and sequestered inside a Tartarus cell), instant teleportation was no longer an option. Which was why Toru found herself tucked into an old RV that the League just happened to have lying around. Tucked into one of the seats that surrounded the table shoved off to the side, the invisible girl held her hand of cards in front of her face and tried her best not to let their reflection show in the window beside her. Dagger was not above cheating. Shifting away from the leering canine at her side, Toru let her gaze wonder over the vampiric blonde and her doubling counterpart, Twice, where they sat opposite and conversing on what card to put down next in the hopes to win this round of the hilariously outdated and overdone Cards Against Humanity: Hero Edition.
Up the front, Dabi sat behind the driver's wheel with Hawks awkwardly stuffed into the passenger's seat where he had been previously chatting on ceaselessly, but was now fast asleep, curled up inside his own wings. A thin psychedelic sheet had been hung between the front of the vehicle and the 'home' which created a false sense of security for the two. The back of the RV was occupied by a couple of miscellaneous Front grunts who had been forced on them when the idea had been brought up. Toru had just wanted to visit home for a bit (not that she would be introducing these villains to her blood family), so she didn't see the need for so many people to come along.
Toga and Dagger had suggested the idea, so of course they were coming, Twice was like Toga's second shadow and never went anywhere without her, so he too was there. Dabi had this big brother complex hidden beneath that burnt facade, so he too, was coming and Hawks was essentially Toru's mentor whilst she was there, so it would be irresponsible of him to leave her unaccompanied. He would also likely receive an earful from UA if something happened while she was in his care; particularly if it had been preventable. The Front grunts were just insurance for the 'information-gathering-operation' to make sure that the League weren't going to squander or squirrel away whatever was found.
"…What is it with the firecrackers and Endeavour?" Dagger wondered aloud, pulling Toru from her stupor just in time to see the resident fire user's fingers smoulder around the steering wheel and his eyes narrow on the vehicle which had pushed its way into their lane. The bus that cut in front of them bore some sort of Endeavour-themed ad plastered along the side; it appeared to be some sort of advertisement for Rocket Ramen Noodles (One bite will take you outta this world!),
"I dunno" Toru shrugged as those at the table all turned to unabashedly stare at driver. "Maybe it's the whole daddy issues thing?"
"A lot of them do seem to have that…" Toga hummed, glancing back down at her cards before she slapped her chosen card down onto the pile. "Then again, maybe it's just a Todoroki thing"
"Yeah…"
"Hey, d'ya think if Endeavour turned off his fire beard, he'd look like Dabi?" Dagger mused, adding her own card to the pile.
"Maybe" Toru replied as if they were talking about something as benign as the weather.
"What about that other one?" Toga asked, "That two-toned kid? Sho—something"
"Shouto?" The invisible girl hummed in thought. "Well, he did do the whole half-snowman thing way back when, so maybe there's like a frostbite version?"
"He's got that scarred eye though, right?" Dagger added.
"Yeah, says the kettle burnt him when he was younger"
"Shit, man" Twice winced. "Owie!"
"Yeah, anyway—"
"—What are you four blabbering on about?" Dabi drawled tersely, coal eyes glancing back at them in the rearview mirror as traffic came to a lull. There lay a tenseness in his shoulders and a calculating intelligence that didn't seem to come from the irritation at the bus ad and caused the invisible girl's hair to stand on end. He looked ready to roast them all.
"Your family-inherited daddy issues as a Todoroki" Dagger replied with a nonchalant shrug, having no such qualms. The RV fell deadly silent at their words and Toru was thankful that they weren't moving at the moment or she was sure they'd have found themselves in the bay with the way Dabi jerked hard on the steering wheel.
"Duh" Toga smirked, eyes glinting over the rim of her cards.
And then…
"YOU'RE A TODOROKI?!" Twice exploded, scrambling over Toga in his attempt to rush to the front of the vehicle. In the background, the two Front grunts choked on their own respective spit and Hawks miraculously remained asleep, like a bird in a nest. "You're not pretty enough. Does that make you Endeavour's kid?"
"Like I said—daddy issues" Dagger reiterated as the group lost their collective shit. Honestly, they were just lucky neither Shigaraki nor Spinner were there or they might not have had a RV left anymore, (the leader of the League had been pulled into another meeting with Re-Destro and Spinner had been mid-molt which was just about the grossest thing she'd ever walked in on; second only to Mineta's proudly displayed smut collection).
"I am not Endeavour's kid!" Dabi snarled, eyes narrowed into impossibly thin slits as he glared at the three teenagers and silently wished them to spontaneously combust. They continued to play their game, mostly unbothered with the fact that they'd just revealed the secret identity of a powerful villain.
"Endeavour" Dagger grinned, their smile was all teeth as the elder fire user grew rigid at the name, sparks flickering about him. "EndeavourEndeavourEndeavourEndeavourEndeavourEndeavourEndeavourEndeavourEndeavour—!"
"—SHUT UP!"
"Wha—!" Hawks jolted into consciousness, feathers puffed up in agitation at the immense heatwave that emanated from Dabi as he stormed passed.
"Haha~! Too easy!" Toga cackled as she slipped the winning card to Dagger (All Might got audited for SMASHING…My tiny little dick).
"Ah! Too hot! Too hot!" Twice panicked as he scrambled back over the girl next to him and hung himself half out the window in an attempt to escape the sudden heat.
"Hey—hey, what's going on back there?" Hawks called back from the driver's seat where he had slipped behind the wheel as the flow of the traffic resumed. Smouldering and sparking around the edges, Dabi stopped next to the table with his teeth audibly grounding against each other.
"Say. That. Again" Dabi gritted out, physically holding himself back.
"What? Like, it's s'posed to be a secret or something?" Toga hummed, barely glancing up from her cards as she flicked away the sparks dancing across the tabletop.
The quartet (save for Twice) had not moved, nor did they appear concerned about anything happening untoward to them. The girls spoke about Dabi's identity as if it were a universal fact; the sky was blue, the grass was green, Dabi was a Todoroki. Although, Toru did find herself inching closer and closer to the window in an effort to avoid any further implications should the encrusted villain decide he was going to explode. All eyes and ears were pricked in their direction, with a palpable tension that felt almost suffocating in the suddenly too small vehicle.
"Honestly, it's a wonder that no one else's figured it out" Dagger added, appearing unconcerned by the embers licking at their sleeves.
"I know, right?" Agreed Toga.
"Mmhm" Toru hummed in agreement, not quite brave enough to voice her thoughts just yet. Todoroki or not, Dabi was still a powerful villain.
"What about Shouto?" Toga wondered aloud, making Dabi grow rigid at the name of his younger brother. "You reckon he knows?"
"He—he might have an inkling. But that's 'cause he's about two conspiracy theories away from a tinfoil hat" Toru replied, refusing to look up from her cards, more so out of fear than confidence. "Can you believe he thought I was some sort of 'Kuza princess?"
"Well…" Dagger grinned mischeviously.
"Oi!" The invisible girl playfully launched a handful of pretzels at the canine which sent her into a fit of giggles as they tried to ward them off & retaliated in kind, easily dragging Toga into the mix.
"That still doesn't explain how you know that!" Twice called, voice muffled from where he still hung from the window. "Tell us now!"
"Their blood tastes the same" Toga replied around her tongue that reached up to her nose where a pretzel hung from the tip.
"They both have daddy issues with Endeavour" Dagger garbled around a mouthful of the salty snacks.
"Their noodle obsession" Toru ended, still not looking up from her hands.
"Excuse me?" Dabi snarked, white-knuckled fists clenched at his sides. At least the sparks had faded a little.
"You're excused" Dagger sassed. They did not bow to Dabi's glare (something that Toru silently applauded them for), but did not raise their gaze again either.
"It's really not that hard to figure out, y'know" Said Toga, "Any ole idiot could've figured it out"
"Who keeps a secret like that to themselves?!" Twice gasped in the background, "I knew the whole time!"
"Explain" Dabi growled out through gritted teeth as he ignored the clone user's comments, eyes barely grazing over the rounded ass bouncing about as the RV went over a speed hump. Up the front, in the driver's seat, Hawks too looked rather interested in the whole conversation even as he strained to divide his attention between the road and the group behind him.
"Well, there's the whole fire quirk thing for one—" Toru began.
"—So? Endeavour's got a whole agency of fire users!" One of the Front grunts barked from the bench at the back.
"And, like I said, there's your daddy issues with Endeavor as well" Dagger continued, unbothered by the interruption.
"And, like, I've drunken both of your bloods before" Toga added, "And they taste the same—"
"—How'd you get your hands on Endeavour's blood?"
"Trade secret!"
"Oh! And if you ignore the whole burnt-chicken-nugget-thing you've got going on" Dagger piped up, gesturing to the burns and staples decorating his body. "You're pretty similar looking to that two-toned kid"
"Not to mention that weird noodle obsession" Toru tacked on.
"Noodles? Really?" Twice cocked a questioning brow back over his shoulder as he tried to wiggle back inside now that the temperature had calmed down some. "Blergh! Sushi is best!"
"Yeah, well, y'know I like noodles as much as the next person, but I swear Todorokis take it way too far! Like, Roki is adamant that he only eats cold soba, nothing else. My God! You shoulda seen what happened when Bakugou bought the wrong noodles home—you'd have thought he'd bought home a dead cat instead!"
"Oh my God! Dabi does that too!" Toga's eyes gleamed, "Only he insists on drowning his in hot sauce!"
"Wait—really?"
"He even draws lil' smiley faces with the sauce!"
"D'you think he puts it on his ice cream too?" Dagger giggled before turning to Dabi who still stood over them, "Do you put it on ice cream too?"
"Does he bathe in it?"
"Do you bathe in it?"
"Eeeeee…" Dabi let out this frustrated noise that sounded like a leaky balloon.
By this point all four of them (four and a half, if you counted Twice's counterparts) were cackling madly about Dabi's so-called villainous persona. In that moment, he was no longer a ruthless villain who bathed towns in blue flames, for now he was the guy who drown everything in hot sauce and had Endeavour-flavoured daddy issues a mile long. And when Toru looked at it like that, he wasn't so different from some of her classmates.
Needless to say it was much quieter in the RV after that bombshell was dropped and Dabi had returned to the front where he sat sulking in the passenger's seat next to Hawks, who looked like he wanted nothing more than to jump out the window and fly all the way there. The Front grunts hadn't moved, but they had pulled out a phone which they furiously typing away on. God only knows who they were talking to & about what, but Toru could hazard a guess. Soon enough, the rolling hills of Deika City trickled away into the strong mountains of Okutama and then before they knew it, they had crossed the threshold into Toru's hometown.
WELCOME TO OKUTAMA! [HOME OF THE DRUM BRIDGES!]
HOME OF THE GRIM REAPER!