Chapter 41: The Belly of the Whale
Summary:
Everything continues to go wrong.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
All Might took another leap.
This was the fastest way for him to get to the training camp. Other nearby Heroes were informed and in the process of being dispatched, but things could go wrong in an instant. Every second counted.
He was shocked hearing that Izuku was fighting Muscular of all people, shock that grew alongside pride when Nana told him that Izuku won against that villain! He tempered his feelings, knowing everything could go wrong in an instant.
And, of course, it did. Yoichi briefly shouted at him that Izuku was under the effects of some drug, before he lost the connection to his predecessors and his students.
Filled with determination, All Might pushed himself, straining the embers of One for All, hoping he wouldn't arrive too late.
Nejire cursed her decision-making.
She'd known that Izuku was fighting Muscular, but she thought he could handle it. And, evidently, he could, given that the Villain was broken and unconscious. Izuku could always use backup, but the problem was that he wasn't the only one in danger.
The largest concentration of students was facing a foe called Siphon, who was draining them of their stamina. Tsu and Toru were evacuating their fallen classmates, but those remaining were in great danger, and the woods were being rearranged by some guy called Mimic who was hiding in the ground, so even students trying to flee were getting further lost in the forest.
Figuring Izuku could handle himself, Nejire decided to help her less fortunate underclassmen. And once Isamu's distant voice told her that Izuku was hit by a strange bullet, only to fade away as One for All no longer touched her, she knew she made the wrong choice.
Still, the rage she felt had its outlet. The villain she intended to face was here. Nejire was flying just outside the range of his Vitality-Stealing Quirk.
And so, while it wasn't as swift or as powerful as it was mere minutes ago, Nejire flooded him with Wave Motion, reveling in his pain.
"Damnit!" Tetsutetsu shouted as he and Eijiro charged through the underbrush. "We have to keep moving!"
The good news was that Dark Shadow was able to make quick and decisive work of Moonfish when Setsuna led Fumikage over there. The bad news was that Dark Shadow was totally berserk and was ready to attack them immediately afterwards. So, Mina and Setsuna were leading them toward the flames, hoping to weaken Dark Shadow enough that Fumikage could reassert control.
Neither Eijiro or Tetsutetsu could keep up with them. They still followed that trail, knowing there was still going to be some fighting.
"Guys!" a familiar voice cried out, and the two turned to see the towering form of Akira slumped against a tree, a twig sticking out of his missile-shaped pompadour.
"Fuki-bro!" Eijiro cried out, reaching for him.
"You all right?" Tetsutetsu asked.
"Been better. Some of us managed to get away while this big guy drained our energy. I had Kendo, Tsunotori, Shiozaki, and Hitoshi-bro with me. I juiced them up with a Pep Talk and told them to get back to camp and leave me behind while I hid," Akira replied.
"So manly," Eijiro nodded.
"Well, don't expect us to leave you," Tetsutetsu replied. "Worst comes to worst, we can hold the line!"
"Sure thing!" Akira grinned, beginning to shed tears. "You guys are the coolest, the exact types of Heroes I've wanted to befriend for ages!" As he said this, both Eijiro and Tetsutetsu were engulfed in red light, which broke and left them powered up, fully energized, and much better off than they were.
"Did you just heal us?" Eijiro asked.
"Yup! Never knew it could do that 'til we got to the camp. Never tried it on someone hurting real bad before…" Akira said.
Tetsutetsu helped Akira up, "All right, let's get to the-"
He was cut off by a thrashing in the undergrowth, which revealed a massive, muscular man in a black mask. "Where the fuck did those cheap-shotting bastards go?!"
"Don't even try it!" Eijiro yelled. "We won't let you hurt any of our friends!"
"What? No!" The big man cried out in frustration, then tore off his own mask, his light brown hair obscuring his eyes. "Two other guys from the League! They interrupted my fight with Kyuseishu!"
"You were fighting Midori-bro?" Tetsutetsu said, not wanting to let this guy get away with hurting his class representative.
"Yeah, and it was perfect! A great brawl, man-to-man, the kind of fight I wanted for years, but no one's been able to provide! Getting a brawl like that's the only reason I even agreed to this horseshit! And two of my so-called teammates ruined it by cheapshotting him, knocking him out, and running the fuck away with him!" the big man said.
"So, you're trying to stop them from getting away with our buddy?" Akira said, confused.
"Hell yeah! You don't interrupt that kind of pure duel! A real man doesn't act that way!" he cried out.
The three students looked at each other, and Eijiro said, "Then I guess we're on the same side for now. We won't interrupt you from beating, but we'll follow and keep everyone else off you!"
The big man looked at them, then nodded, "All right! I'm the Rapper! See if you kids can keep up with me!" And he charged further along towards the flames.
"Fuck, I guess even Villains can be manly," Tetsutetsu said.
"Maybe it's not too late for him," Akira said. "Nothing manlier than pulling a Villain into Heroism!"
Rikiya Katsukame, aka Siphon, was in a bit of a bind. He'd reduced most of the students to complete exhaustion. A few of those left prioritized evacuation over fighting, getting more of the bodies out of the way, and Mimic and Larceny were helping to lose those fuckers in the forest. Unfortunately, he'd reached the limit of Vitality Stealing's effectiveness. Anyone who had any energy left was staying back and pelting him with ranged attacks.
Worse was that reinforcements arrived, in the form of a glowbug who was pelting him with energy beams and a goddamn helicopter with a minigun pummeling him with rubber bullets. He could survive the blows, but it ate through the reserves he'd built up.
And more reinforcements were tearing through his allies. A buff blond kid leapt out of the ground stark naked holding Mimic and proceeded to punch the former manager of the Shie Hassaikai into unconsciousness. Another kid grew various animal parts and started to make Larceny's day a thousand times worse.
That was unfair, Larceny had just played chicken with some girl pulling a rocket launcher. Took one of the Nomu to save his bacon there. Course, that led to her teaming up with some kid with a welding Quirk to deal with that.
Finally, when the assault from the aerial foes paused, Siphon realized there was another option. The gunner on the helicopter was reloading and the girl with the curly beams had to recharge, so Siphon went to the nearest prone student and grabbed him by the neck, intending to use him as a hostage.
Unfortunately, Siphon didn't realize that he grabbed Neito Monoma.
Once in contact with the villain, Monoma copied his Quirk. Monoma couldn't copy the Trigger enhancements, but given that Siphon's base Quirk required that he touch the target, and Monoma was being held in his grasp, Vitality Stealing was effective.
Within seconds, Siphon and his hostage were in an arms race to see who could drain whose stamina the fastest. A race that Siphon lost when the spiral girl flew over to him and shot him in the back of the head with a point blank energy blast.
Shouto cursed Endeavor, but for a different reason than usual. The man had trained him to use his Quirk to attack all sources of opponents, and how to control it so that it wouldn't overpower him (those techniques were, admittedly, much more useful now that Shouto was using the aspects of his Quirk that naturally compensated for each other).
However, Endeavor never taught him how to combat a fire.
That seemed like a massive oversight.
Shouto was doing his best, though, using his ice to break the flames alongside his classmates. Kamakiri slashed through trees to prevent the flames from spreading. Rin sent his scales to chop down more trees in the opposite direction. Tsuburaba sent up walls of air to keep the flames from spreading. Fukidashi used his onomatopoeia to summon the plap-plap-plap of downpour rain to attempt to smother the fire.
Noble attempts that were minimized when the arsonist showed up.
The stitched-together man who introduced himself as Dabi showed up, looking incredibly smug as he casually threw flames at the students. Attempts to attack Dabi were thwarted by his companion, Canopy, a calmly exasperated man in a birdlike mask who threw up a translucent yellow dome to stop their attacks.
"Fuck!" Kamakiri hissed, moving back as his attempt to slash through the forcefields cracked his blades, which he dropped off of his arms. "These shitheads are just toying with us! We can't hit 'em and they just keep on coming!"
"These flames are too hot!" Tsuburaba cried out. "They're disrupting my air walls!"
"Todoroki, how're your attempts to stop the flames with your ice?" Fukidashi's speech bubble head turned to face him.
"Bad," Shouto said plainly. "They're too hot, melts the ice instantly and boils the water formed."
"Too bad we can't fight fire with fire…" Rin grumbled.
Shouto blinked, "Wait, that might actually work…" he switched to his left side, belching out flames as he kept a stream of ice running to cool himself down.
"The fuck are you doing?" Kamakiri asked. "Are you nuts?"
"His flames are too hot for my ice, but even fire users have limits to their heat resistance," Shouto replied.
"And that barrier guy may be keeping the flames out, but the temperature's still rising!" Rin finished the thought, pumping his fist in anticipation.
It seemed to be working. The stapled man was losing his composure, yelling something at Canopy, who seemed apologetic, and the two of them made to retreat.
And then, somehow, despite all hell having broken loose before, it managed to break loose a second time.
The first was when Setsuna, pieces of her at least, flew over, followed swiftly by Mina. And nipping at their heels was an enormous and powerful Dark Shadow, who recoiled from the bright flames enough for Fumikage to assert control over his Quirk, slumping to the ground.
Then came a wave of Nomu that managed to evade capture, along with three of the villains, two men in masks and one schoolgirl in an odd scarf with fangs on it. Followed by several of the students and T.A.s, charging forwards.
With Dabi focused on retreat, Shouto poured everything into his ice, nearly draining him as the resulting glacier manifested, clearing a path for him and his allies to follow the villains.
At one point he heard a loud voice cry out, "YOU RUN PRETTY FAST FOR A DRUNKARD!" followed by a crash.
Eijiro had been launched by the Rapper like a javelin, smacking two masked villains to the ground, along with the target they'd been carrying, the unconscious form of Izuku.
The one with longer hair appeared to have been knocked out, at which point the big guy ran up and started whaling on the cloaked guy.
"Izuku-nii!" Shouto cried out. Dabi did a double take at that before grabbing Izuku by the shirt collar and dragging him over.
Ochako, enraged, removed her gravity and launched herself over to smack the man, only to smack headfirst into one of Canopy's barriers.
Dabi once again gave a smug grin and said, "Well, isn't that tragic, Shouto Todoroki…" before disappearing in the black mist, which disappeared along with the barrier.
As the portal closed, Ochako slumped to her knees and howled in grief.
As if to add insult to injury, All Might landed in the clearing exactly eight seconds after the portal closed.
"This sucks," Hitoshi grumbled in the hospital waiting room.
"Understatement," Tetsutetsu said. Everyone agreed.
Five of the villains got away: Himiko Toga, Dabi, Canopy, Chronostasis, and Gluttony, along with two of the seven Nomus.
Muscular, Moonfish, Siphon, Larceny, Zirconium, Mimic, Inquisitor, Punch Drunk, and the Rapper were all taken into custody. The Rapper complied with the arrest and the testimony of some of the students meant that there was a chance for leniency in sentencing. They were talking about rehabilitation as a possibility.
Hell, Miruko came out to serve as a character witness for the guy for some reason, which was shocking.
Still, that was a cold comfort given that Ragdoll, a pro-Heroine, was abducted along with Izuku.
Setsuna scowled, "The press is raking us over the coals for this. And they're not even consistent, they're going after U.A. for failing to protect us and then in the next paragraph they're calling us out for 'excessive force' like these dickheads weren't trying to murder us!"
"So this is why Aizawa-sensei calls them vultures," Mina scowled. "And they're going on about how all of us were injured when most of us only had minor wear and tear!"
"And even those of us who got fucked up mostly had to deal with exhaustion thanks to that big fucker!" Kamakiri said.
Awase grunted, "He tagged Kaibara, Shoda, Shishida, Kuroiro, Shoji, Honenuki, Ojiro, and Bondo from our class. Monoma, too, but then he pulled that hostage move and Monoma took back what he lost. What about 1-A?"
Tetsutetsu frowned, "Kouda, Komori, Jiro, and Kaminari. No one else had anything nearly as bad. Kiri-bro got tossed around, but he went through worse in training. Tokoyami was wiped, but that was mostly his own Quirk. And Uraraka… well, she had some cuts and blood loss, but nothing that even required an overnight stay…"
The mention of Uraraka lowered the mood again.
Recovering Eri was terrible. She and Kota had made it out of the woods unharmed, after Izuku took down Muscular for them. Finding out that her beloved Papa, her savior, was taken from her by the men who hurt her in the past… she was beyond tears. She was just broken. Kota, too, was hurt by that, clinging to his aunts and uncle in shock.
None of Izuku's paramours were well. In addition to losing their boyfriend, their bonds weren't working. Yui took it the worst, crying silently as she could no longer express herself easily. Tsu, as opposed to her normal calm and collected demeanor, broke down as well, letting out ribbiting sobs now that her new family members weren't there in her head. Nejire jabbered apologies to everyone. The normally bombastic Toru became withdrawn. Melissa paced back and forth, calling people and speaking in very fast and clipped English. Mei and Momo were making plans for some sort of contraption. It wasn't entirely clear what, and if their plans would actually help or merely distracted them from the situation.
Ochako, however? Ochako was seething. She didn't explode, like the epic poem of profanity she'd unleashed upon Bakugo. No, she was silent, but intense. Her stare was intense. Only All Might came close to her determined face, and even the Number One Hero fell short.
When Inko Midoriya came into the hospital, weeping, Ochako embraced her lovingly, and said, "We're going to get him back." It was said with such finality that they almost felt sorry for the League of Villains.
Almost.
Izuku's eyes fluttered open, then screwed shut in pain. His head felt like it had been split open.
Everyone, what's happening? Izuku asked in his head. There was no response. He tried to call on One for All. Nothing.
He remembered that bullet and the consequences. It must have injected some of that anti-Quirk drug that Overhaul made from Eri's blood! He started to panic, and he shot awake.
Of course, he realized that he was strapped to a chair, bound completely, even his neck forced into position. He opened his eyes once more.
He was staring right into the amber eyes of Himiko Toga, looking at him like a hungry dog might look at a porkchop.
"He's awake!" Toga cried out. "Good morning, darling!"
After feeling the love of his girlfriends, Toga's declaration just felt wrong.
"Ah, so our guest has graced us with his presence," came the calm voice of a younger man behind Toga, the only other person in the room. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Hekiji Tengai, formerly of the Shie Hassaikai, now of the League of Villains. You may refer to me as Canopy."
"So you're one of the people who tortured Eri," Izuku growled.
"Hmm? Tortured?" Canopy tilted his head. "All I know is that Overhaul took me in when my life had been upended and I had nowhere else to go. Gave me a purpose. And now, he is dead and his dream is in shambles because of you."
"He was taking Eri apart and stitching her back together with his Quirk," Izuku snarled.
Canopy looked unfazed by that, "If you say so. Pain, however, is but a transient concept in life."
"But it's a fun one!" Toga said. "Canopy, now that he's awake, I'm gonna drink from him!"
Canopy put a hand on her shoulder, "You will not. We were under explicit orders not to touch him until given permission."
"Awww, just a quick little sip?" Toga pouted. "He's so delicious, and I didn't get enough blood from my sister-wives! Oh, Izuku-chan, I met two of our girlfriends! Ochako-chan and Yui-chan! They're so cuuuute! I love them already!"
Izuku's glare to her turned murderous.
Canopy sighed, "Come now, Toga. We need to inform Shigaraki of this turn of events."
"Darn, I guess I'll have to ask Tomura-kun to let me play later. Bye for now, Izuku-chan!" Toga waved cutesily as she skipped away, Canopy on her heels.
Once alone, Izuku tried to figure out his situation. The restraints were strong, and could easily suppress Quirks. Unfortunately, even if they weren't, Izuku currently lacked his Quirk.
This sent Izuku into an anxiety spiral. That must have been the Quirk-destroying drug that Overhaul was making from Eri's blood. The police reports said they were temporary, but was that true? Could they have made a permanent version?
And even if it was temporary, wasn't it possible for the Quirk to be reset upon its return? One for All could easily revert to its original form, just the base Quirk without the two centuries of buildup that let its wielder be so mighty. The vestiges, his extended family, could be erased, and their Quirks along with them.
And the bonds. Would there still be bonds? Would they be erased? Would he start from a blank slate there, too? Would the vestiges be gone, leaving them severed forever? Would they just not work? And, after this whole debacle, who was to say that they would stay with him? Toga already encountered Ochako and Yui, would they stay away for their own safety? Could he risk their safety by remaining bound to them?
As the anxiety hit him, he began to breathe heavily, his heart pounding in his throat. He was drowning in his own thoughts…
"... ku… Izuku… Izuku!" Yoichi's voice snapped him out of it.
"Yoichi-jii-san!" Izuku grabbed onto the voice like a lifeline.
"We're here for you, Izuku!" Nana said.
"Come on, kid, we wouldn't go down that easily!" Ryouji said. "What kind of chumps do you take us for?"
Izuku sighed in relief, collapsing into the chair he was restrained in, before he thought, "Wait, what about the others? Are the bonds still there?"
"Hold on, kid, it's like the power just came on after a blackout and everything has to boot up in response," Daigoro said.
Izuku waited for agonizing seconds before suddenly, a flood of information came in, his mental state free from the walls he set up, allowing every one of his girlfriends' thoughts pour into him, until they realized what was happening.
"Izu-kun!" Ochako cried out happily, followed by everyone else.
"Yes, Occhan, I'm here," Izuku said, relieved beyond words. Of course, the danger hadn't passed, "Unfortunately, I don't know where 'here' is…"
"We're gonna get you out of there!" Tsu said.
"No! I don't want you getting hurt trying to get me out!" Izuku said.
Before they could protest, a voice came in, deep and concerned, " My boy, my brave, wonderful boy. Hang on tight. Nezu's making plans. The Heroes are coming for you. Stay strong, Izuku.
"Soon enough, I'll be there," All Might reassured him.
"Hello there, Player Two," Tomura said, walking into the room, devoid of the severed hands that had covered him before, but carrying a large sack.
"Tenko-kun…" Izuku said, worried. Nana manifested right then, wishing she could touch the boy, to talk to him, to maybe knock some sense into him.
"You know what? You get a pass. You gave me a real gift, Kyuseishu, and for that, you can call me by my old name," Tomura said, almost cheerful. He then thought for a second, "Though, that does remind me. You're a chatty one. And I'm gonna need you quiet for this…"
He reached into a drawer and pulled out a ball gag. Holding it carefully with only four fingers, he secured it around the younger boy's mouth, tightening it a bit much, enough to cause pain, but not much damage.
"Now then, here's why I want to thank you…" He took a seat in a chair opposite to Izuku. "Now, if you just told me I used to be Quirkless and that Sensei was tricking me, who knows? I might have done what you wanted. Maybe not right then, but I may have decided to switch routes after that. But you reminded me of my old name, my old life…"
He smiled, "Sensei told me about One for All. About how Quirks leave behind a piece of themselves. I hope he's right. I hope that fucking sow Nana is able to hear me right now."
Izuku's eyes widened. Nana gasped, and tears began to form in her eyes, causing angry tears to form in Izuku's own.
"See, I totally forgot everything that'd happened before I ended up on the streets. But once you gave me my old name, once I calmed down, it all came rushing back. See, my old man? He was a real piece of work. Had a temper on him, and it didn't take much to let it out. And the thing that brought it all out, at the hardest difficulty? Heroes. Say anything about heroes, let along anything positive, and he'd turn into a berserker.
"All I remember about him is being afraid of him. Worried he'd hurt me or someone else. I can clearly remember the last time. I was talking with Hana-nee-san and Heroes came up, so she showed me a secret in Dad's den. A picture of our grandmother, a pro Hero! I was so happy! I was a stupid kid who thought Heroes were good, so I was proud that we had one in our family…"
He was derisive as he said that, then he became utterly cold, "Of course, the old man found out about it. And when he did, Hana blamed me for it. She was happy to make sure I caught the beating she earned. Mom and her parents didn't look too happy about it, but they didn't stop him either. They knew where their bread was buttered. I remembered one thing he said with perfect clarity, just before he dumped me out in the backyard for the night without supper. He said, 'Heroes are people who hurt their own families, only to help complete strangers.'"
Nana had broken down crying at that, and Izuku had joined her. The gag was keeping the sobs in, but the tears were flowing like rivers.
Tomura leaned back, "And, as if the irony of that wasn't enough, when Decay first activated, his first action was to try and kill me. I was crying and puking because I was so scared that my Quirk had hurt people I loved, and he tried to bash my head in with a weed clipper. So I killed him first. It was him or me."
His bitter frown then turned into a grotesque smile, "Honestly? That was the best thing that could've happened to me. If I didn't have a Quirk? He might have thrown me out on the street anyway, and that's the best case scenario. More likely I'd still be under his goddamn thumb, a useless little wretch who couldn't speak out for fear of getting beaten. I have the Internet, I've learned how much it sucks to be Quirkless. But Sensei gave me the chance to avenge myself on that piece of shit."
Tomura got up, "And you know, that got me thinking… You said that Nana trained All Might. So my old man was left behind, and All Might got his mom instead. And when I was on the street after losing my home, no one would help me. Everyone expected a Hero to do the job for them. All those NPCs were happy and content to do nothing because All Might's there with a big dopey smile telling them that they can just do whatever they want because he's there to save them!"
Izuku wanted to argue that, but an image flashed in his head, of Bakugou being drowned by the sludge villain, of the entire crowd and several pro Heroes just standing around doing nothing because they were waiting for someone with a better Quirk, specifically waiting for All Might , to rush in and save the day. All Might who, unbeknownst to them, could hardly stand at the time. Who then scolded him for acting when no one else would, because they didn't realize that if he hadn't run in there, All Might might not have gone past his own limits to save the day.
Was Tomura right, about that at least? Was All Might making people too complacent?
"That's what made me realize what my goal is, Player Two. To wreck this world that loves Heroes so much to the point that they'll abandon children over it. To get my full revenge, not just the first taste that Sensei gave me all those years ago…"
Tomura then picked up the sack he'd brought in. He dumped the contents onto the floor, revealing the severed hands that had covered him at the USJ.
"These are my family's hands. Sensei recovered them from the wreckage of my old house, preserved them for me. Back when I first came here, I was a mess. The only thing that kept me calm was to have my family's hands embracing me… but now, I remember what they did to me… Hana…" he picked up the smallest set of hands, and disintegrated them. "Mother…" he did the same to another set. "My grandparents…" more hands disintegrated. "And, finally, that bastard I once called father."
The last hand, the hand that had adorned his face, crumbled into dust.
"So thank you, Player Two. Thanks to you, I managed to get rid of what was holding me back," Tomura said as he dropped the dust unceremoniously on the floor.
There was silence, save for Izuku's muffled sobs, and the wails of Nana that only he could hear. After a few minutes, it seemed Tomura had enough, and removed the gag from Izuku's face.
Izuku didn't trust his voice at first, but finally worked up the nerve to choke out, "So… I know what All for One wants… But what do you want with me?"
"I had wanted to kill you, but honestly? Now I owe you," Tomura said with a sadistic grin. "So instead, here's what I'm gonna do… After we're done torturing you until you give up your OP Quirk or weaken to the point Sensei can steal it, we'll cut off your arms and legs and mangle your vocal cords. Then, once we cauterize your wounds, Sensei will give you a copy of Super Regeneration. He likes to have extras of that Quirk, it's great for Nomus. He's got a few more Quirks that might help you survive your new life, because we're gonna give you to Toga once we're through with you. You'll be her combination blood bank and body pillow. You'll have the tools so you won't die from her ministrations, so don't worry, Player Two. You're going to be loved, for a long, long time."
After Tomura left, there was a brief time where he was left alone. All for One's apprentice had dropped several bombshells and everyone in his mental network was forced to pick up the pieces. It was almost overwhelming.
And that feeling was soon broken when he was given a new guard, the horrifically burnt Dabi. Dabi seemed distracted, and was muttering like Izuku was. Desperate for something to take his mind off of the… everything… Izuku listened to the extra crispy Villain's words.
"Can't fucking believe it. Planning this for years. Years! And he just up and says it. Says it like it's nothing. And there's idiots praising him for it, like telling the truth for once in his goddamn life makes up for every single shitty thing he did. Fucking asshole," Dabi swore, then finally realized he had an audience. "The fuck are you staring at?"
"The only other thing in the room?" Izuku asked.
Dabi let out a humorless laugh, "All right, touche. Guess I forgot you're not just a piece of furniture. So, Shouto Todoroki called you his nii-san, huh?"
"Only after I convinced him to stop calling me Dad," Izuku said.
Dabi spat, "A comedian, are you?"
"I'm dead serious," Izuku said. "He told me he was shopping for a new dad and when I told him how I met my stepdad, he said I met the same criteria for him."
"So I guess he's the comedian," Dabi scoffed.
Izuku shrugged, "Maybe. Shouto-kun's got the ultimate poker face. I can't tell if he's serious or just messing with me. Especially in this case, given that Endeavor's a flaming pile of medical waste and he'd definitely be happy not seeing him ever again…"
Dabi just stared at him, "What, did Endeavor not give him something on his list for Christmas or something?"
Izuku stared at him, nonplussed, "Well, there was the torturous training, the fact that he never had anything resembling a childhood, he was isolated from his siblings, and essentially turned into a living weapon. Not to mention that Endeavor drove his eldest brother to suicide and forced his mother into a mental breakdown that led Endeavor to throw her in a mental hospital…"
Dabi had the look of someone who was not hearing what he expected, and was thus cutting the new information to fit the preconceived boxes he'd so lovingly prepared, "Like it was anything that bad. It could've been so much worse. And that gold-digging bitch could've done so much worse than a looney bin."
Izuku was about to question Dabi, but Isamu seemed to place his hand over his mouth, "Don't interrupt him. You may anger him."
Dabi scowled, realizing once again he had an audience, and just turned off to the side, watching Izuku and silently fuming, taking out a cigarette and lighting it with his own fire.
Izuku called out, "All Might?"
"Yes, young Izuku?" All Might responded, his own depression at the fate of Nana's family evaporating at his son's concern.
"Did something happen with Endeavor?" Izuku asked.
"Nezu concluded his investigation. Between him, myself, and Sir Nighteye, we were able to convince Enji to reveal his sordid past. He has released his wife from her hospital, promised to remove himself from his family, take care of them financially, and continue Hero work for as long as the Commission will allow," All Might said.
"That's… wow…" Izuku said.
"He apparently was given advice on how to handle the situation by speaking to your biological father," All Might said.
Izuku blinked, "Wait, what?"
"It turns out that Enji Todoroki and Hisashi Midoriya are third cousins," All Might said.
"I thought I was done with shocking revelations today, guess I have room for more," Izuku said, shocked. Then he realized, "Wait, if we're distant cousins… oh, this means there's no chance that Shouto-kun will stop calling me 'Izuku-nii'..."
"A heavy burden to bear," All Might said, grabbing onto that little bit of levity that he could. "Why are you asking?"
"This Villain named Dabi was complaining about Endeavor. I think Endeavor revealing everything ruined some of his plans… He sounds like he has a personal vendetta against the man…" Izuku said.
"Wait, is this the villain that burned the forest?" All Might asked.
"Yeah… Why?" Izuku said.
"All for One was beaten into a bloody pulp of ruined organs and an entirely shattered skull, so we thought he was dead. He survived. Tenko Shimura was presumed to be one of the piles of blood and dust in the wreckage of the Shimura household. He survived," All Might began. "Endeavor's eldest son, Touya Todoroki, was caught in a conflagration that burned down a mountainside. The temperature of the flames was more than enough to cook human flesh, and young Touya had poor resistance to heat. The only piece of him that was found was a melted-white piece of his jawbone. By all accounts, there's no way that he could have survived…"
Izuku almost gulped, "But here we have a horribly burnt man, using extremely hot fire, whose entire face looks like it was patched together by an amateur, who hates Endeavor, and seems to have specific knowledge of the man's family life…"
"We're three for three," All Might concluded. "[Fuck.]