Dabi had rolled his eyes at the beginning of the video, not taking it seriously. He's got better things to do then go after people on the internet creating weird theories about his backstory anyway. At the same time, it might actually be beneficial to have different ideas out there, because that prevents the truth from coming out. What that truth was, he wasn't really sure, but if he didn't know it then it was only fair that no one else got to either.
There were only a couple things that Dabi remembered from his past, but they hardly made any sense put together. He knew that a bad fire had resulted in him looking and being the way that he was, and he assumed it was a result of his own quirk. He'd woken up on the examination table of this crazy doctor, and booked it out of there as soon as he could manage it. He knew that he had known a blonde named Keigo, but he couldn't picture his face, and googling Keigo came up with too many results to be beneficial. He also knew that he hated the number one hero Endeavor, even before he became a villain, but he wasn't sure why.
He had almost already mentally checked out of the video until the Todoroki boy said something that caught his attention, snapping Dabi back to it.
"- Dabi is actually my dead brother Touya."
Clearly, he couldn't be Touya if Touya was dead, right? This probably was just some crack theory that this Todoroki kid came up with in order to try and cope.
Still, Dabi found that he couldn't click away from the video. Something in him was intrigued, triggered by the name that had been spoken. It sounded… familiar.
Pushing that from his mind for the moment, he focused back in on the video playing between his hands.
The Todoroki kid had guts posting this video, that much was for sure. Not that the number one hero had time to watch things like this, but neither did Dabi, and yet here he was.
To his credit, Midoriya didn't look too surprised by the declaration, but that was likely because they had already talked about this theory before making the video.
"Most of the information behind this theory comes from my own family, which you can't really fact check because none of them besides Natsou will talk about this publicly, so you'll just have to take my word for it."
"Todoroki-kun.."
"It's fine, Midoriya. People need to know about this. My father needs to realize that he can't keep hiding the truth."
"O- Okay, if you're really sure." The green haired boy said hesitantly, which just got a determined nod from Todoroki.
"Starting with some of the more obvious hints. One, Touya and Dabi share my father's eye color." As Shouto spoke, some images were brought onto the screen next to each other. The one of Dabi was grainy, and the one of Touya looked old, like from when he was a child, but they definitely matched. Not only that, but they also included a picture of Shouto's left eye and one of Endeavor's which matched them all as well.
"Based on this, and the fact that Dabi also has a fire quirk (which I'm going to talk about next), I'm willing to bet my father's credit card that Dabi also really has red hair instead of black."
Furrowing his brow, Dabi shifted the phone to being in one hand as the other ran through his still damp hair. He did have red hair growing out at his roots; he'd just dyed it again last week.
"Of course, we all know that Dabi has a blue fire quirk, and that it burns hotter than my father's. Right, Midoriya?"
"Right." Of course the kid knew how hot Dabi's fire was, Dabi had burned him with it during that training camp that they crashed to kidnap the blonde explosion kid. Or at least he thought he did, if his memory wasn't that bad already.
"My father said that Touya had a fire quirk as well. More powerful than mine or his. Apparently, he was going to only train Touya, but deemed him a failure when Touya's body couldn't hold up to the abuse. He said he had a 'weak constitution', whatever that's supposed to imply. How do you expect me to understand that, I was five." Todoroki said with almost a snap at the camera, before seeming to calm himself down with a slow breath as his classmate looked on in hardly veiled concern.
"Anyways, I digress. If Touya had a quirk that was not fit for his body, it would cause him physical harm and most likely scar if not taken care of properly." Well, that was true for Dabi too, so far Shouto was on a pretty solid track with this theory. "Not unlike some other heroes in training that I know- Midoriya."
"Todoroki-kun! I told you I'll stop once I learn how to use it properly!
"I'll stop bringing it up when you start taking care of yourself properly, alright?" Todoroki's voice, which for the rest of the video had been rather tense, softened when he looked over at the green haired boy sitting next to him. This action was rewarded with Midoriya blushing slightly and grabbing Todoroki's hand to squeeze before letting go again.
"Alright."
"Moving on. We've got three clips from different fights that we're going to play for you. If Touya was trained by my father, as I have been, and then became a villain, it makes sense for his fighting techniques to be similar especially since he has a similar quirk."
"I can agree with that! Lots of pro heroes and interns with similar quirks end up having similar fighting styles, especially when they have a close or one-on-one training experience. These style preferences can last way into their pro hero careers, even after they've been away from their instructor-"
While Midoriya was ranting over the video clips, Dabi wasn't even paying attention to what he was saying. He had to hold the phone closer to his face because his eyesight was shit in the growing darkness, but he needed to see this. Since there was such intense heat, the videos were all a little blurry, but that didn't matter. Carefully spliced in a row was Endeavor, Shouto, and then Dabi doing the same motion with their arm and switching their stance as they used their quirk.
"Lastly, but not least, if Touya were still alive, he would be 26. Going by the pictures and videos that we have of Dabi, despite his intense scarring and choice of clothing, most villain report records place him around the same age-"
Scrolling down to see the comments on the video after this part, Dabi quickly scanned over them, missing the outro of the video as it ended and left him in silence.
[ -Damn, he really went for it ]
[ -Yo is Todoroki okay? Some of the stuff he said about his dad do be concerning tho ]
[ -This whole video feels like a passive aggressive roast @ Endeavor, Shouto might as well have taken him out and put him on the grill ]
[ -Imagine if this was true??? ]
[ -You know it's a serious theory when Todoroki does most of the talking ]
[ -Man, Touya might really be dead and here I am feeling bad for the guy ]
[ -Look at poor Midoriya, just sitting there while Todoroki rants about his dad's questionable parenting ]
[ -He do got a point tho, y'all gotta admit ]
[ -Anyone else suddenly really concerned for Todoroki? I don't think this is a safe thing to be posting on the internet, even if it is true ]
That person did have a point. Dabi was pretty sure that Mr. Eugenics Hero was not going to be pleased that his perfect son was suggesting to quite a large audience that he had a son that was not only less than perfect but also a villain and actively attacking the heroes. Plus, if Dabi actually cared about who he was being revealed, then he might have gone after the kid. He had just been bored when he clicked on the video, but now he was starting to be curious and slightly disturbed. Todoroki's theory seemed fairly sound.
He also had a concerning amount of footage of Dabi to analyse and use in this video. Dabi knew that there were usually news crews recording their fights, and that anything posted on the internet could be a resource, but still. He didn't appreciate his face being zoomed in on so closely so often. He'd have to be more careful going out in the future.
Closing the video and letting his hand drop to his chest, Dabi stared up at the slightly yellowing ceiling of his cheap apartment.
He had been trying to fall asleep, but now there was no way that was happening now. Sure, the idea of him being the son of the number one hero had seemed funny at the start, and a bit ironic, but now it seemed a little too real. Uncomfortably plausible.
Lifting his phone back up he turned it on again, this time to copy the link of the video and send it to the League's group chat, accompanied by a simple message.
[3:02 am] sender - on a scale of one to toga, how crazy is this