Chapter 3: Havik
Tsukauchi was not having a good day, he was going to be promoted today, until everything went to hell. "Shit, first I get a known killer right at my door, then he escapes, and now I have to deal with this kid". "Hahaha, burn baby, burn '' he shot out geysers of flame, burning away his clothes to reveal his skin, which is just as black as his clothes. "We need backup, I repeat we need backup, over ''. Tsukauchi was having the epitome of a bad day. "Fire at will" They aimed their firearms at the black-skinned boy coming out of the flames, with a face-splitting grin. They fired but to no effect as they are just portaled away, some right back. "Dam, I thought he just had portals, how the hell does he have fire too"? As he said this he saw a jet of blue flames careening towards him, he closed his eyes and braced for impact, only for it to not hit. He cracked his eyes open and then shot them open as he saw the titan, there before him was Endeavor, the number two hero. In regards to the number of villains he has stopped, Endeavor has Almight beat, but Almight sneaks by because of the sheer amount of people he saves, and because of the hope he inspires. Endeavor doesn't inspire hope, he just gets the job done, and when it comes to beating up bad guys he's a tank. As the blue flames begin careening towards the detective, Endeavor meets it head-on with his own orange flames, they may not be as hot as the boy's flames, but they didn't name his quirk "Hellflame" for no reason. He forms his flames into a shield and pushes forward against the onslaught. Eventually, the flame gives out, the user obviously not having experience with it. "Give up now boy, or I will be forced to hurt you" "Hit me with your best shot, Mr. Todoroki'' Endeavor had a moment of shock at that, while not impossible to find out a hero's identity, the higher-up they are on the rankings, the harder the Hero safety commission tries to keep that information behind closed doors. So for a seemingly random villain to know his identity is concerning. "How do you know that name, who do you work for ''? The Question is, does your family forgive you for what you've done, Does Rei, forgive you for what you've done"? He froze up in shock before shooting at the villain in unbridled fury. "This kid knows too much, need to make sure he doesn't talk. '' He formed a spear out of fire and shot it at the black-skinned pyromaniac. He responds by doing something they didn't expect, he caught it. "Compared to this fire, yours is a breeze to control" he sent the spear rocketing towards the hulking pyromancy user, and he responded by just raising his hand, thinking it easy to intercept. But what he had not expected was for him to put a small portal in front of the spear and send it shooting behind him, luckily, years of hero work had honed his skills and he caught it and extinguished it. "Where did that portal come from, and can't have been the kid, he has pyrokinesis". The black-skinned boy seemed distracted for a second before saying "I'm sorry I have to cut this little debacle short, hope to play again". And then he vanished, not even stepping through a portal, just blink and he was gone. "Who was that, and how did he know so much? '' As he was losing himself in thought the detective stepped out from behind a car and to the side of the flaming brut. "How is he constantly keeping his facial hair flaming?" Detective Tsukauchi thot out loud. "Endeavor, Great work out there". "Scoff, hold your praise for when I actually catch him". "Soo, could help us catch a little problem that arose just earlier before all this" "can't you do it yourself, I have better things to do" '"well I mighta let a known killer escape on my watch this morning' '.
Tsukauchi is waking up, he is having a good morning, feeling happy about the possible promotion he may be getting, it's not been stated, but word gets around quickly at the station. He has his morning coffee and walks out the door, only for it to hit something, that something starting to groan. "Sigh, Aizawa, I swear to god if you fell asleep at my doorstep again" he opens the door all the way only to find, not Aizowa but a known criminal, one with multiple charges of brutal murder, most of whom met this villain got a free cremation. And he was just groggily standing there, right in front of him, at his doorstep. He didn't know what to do, he had his costume but his gun was at the station, oh he knew what to do. "Hey you, freeze" Ug, whaz goin o-'' he stares at the detective, he stares back, if he had a gun to point he would be pointing it, but he does not, so his finger will do. "WHERE AM I, WHO ARE YOU, HOW DID I GET HERE" he remembers back to the night, being groggy but still remembering it clear as day. "And where is the man in the mask"? Tsukauchi was confused at that, there were a lot of people, both heroes and villains, who wore masks. "I said, 'freeze" After saying this he expected many things, one of them not being for him to literally shoot ice, ICE out of his hands and to accidentally freeze his feet to the ground. Dabi, you are under arrest for the murder of hundreds, he didn't have his handcuffs, being notorious for not having them on him, usually borrowing someone else's. So he settles for tying his hands together until he remembers, his feet are frozen to the ground. So he quickly sprinted inside to grab a phone, and ironically called 911. They picked up but as soon as he got back out front he was gone, they arrived and asked him questions, with a side of making fun of him for losing a man frozen to the floor. And then the boy came around on the drive to the station, which they had to drive, cause of course Dabi had to pop his car tires.
Endeavor chuckled at the retelling of the story, losing a man frozen to the floor. "So, I just need to catch your pyromancer allegedly turned cryomancer"? "Indeed" "seems simple enough" he then scoured the city using his fire to rocket himself through the air in search of the cryomancer. "Gatcha '' he spotted him next to an ally leading up to a run-down building. "And your hiding spot" he got close and then sprung up in front of him, unleashing a small but condensed burst of flame, Dabi never knew what hit him before he was knocked out. When he came two, he was in a specialized room, it was like a sana, not good for ice production. A doctor walks in, he is ready to see you now. Endeavor walks in with his signature scowl on his face. Dabi sees him and tries to break his restraints but can't. "Is it- is it really you, I thought you were dead" "No, you assumed I was dead because I ran away and never even attempted to look for me" "Plus, that whole family is dead to me now" the hero, Enji todoroki looks almost saddened by this "don't pretend to actually care, the moment you got your "perfect creation" you poured all your time into him and the rest of us be damned" Touya, I "I'M NOT TOUYA" he begins to sob "Touya is dead, There is only Dabi" at that the his bods broke, the entire time they had been talking, he had been slowly freezing his bonds until they would snap. "Touya, I-I, I want to do-be better" "It's too late, you've already torn our family apart, and now you must live the consequences'' and at that he blasted his way through Endeavor, him being too mentally weak at that moment to bare the will to defend, so spike through his torso is what he gets in return "is this truly what you want, to see my blood" "more than you know" "well than I'm sorry" he broke the ice spike as he moved gripping Dabi by the neck "STOP" a woman with snow white hair ran in, the two males both shocked to see her. "My boy, my baby boy" he just stood there in a stupor, his body and even words failing to obey him until. "Ma-mom" yes dear, it's me" Then Enji made himself known. "How are you out" I did not permit them to release you" "When I heard that my son was alive, I tried to force my way past the guards but for some reason, my quirk was gone, I then pleaded with them to let me see you" "my boy" Dabi then gained control over himself, as he backed away from the mothers outstretched hand towards his face. "Please Touya, I just want us to be a family again" and at that he broke "Even after everything he's done to us, done to you, you still have the will to forgive him"? "I believe people can change''.
"Hey that's no fair, you got the bigger piece" "Are you kidding Natsuo, they are obviously the same size," a younger Touya said "Here, if I give you my pieces will you stop fighting" "Sure but what will you eat Shoto" "I would rather not eat before training, dad works me pretty hard and if I vomit on his floor he'll just work me thrice as hard". "Shoto" the patriarch arrives seemingly unpleased. "What did I tell you about playing with your siblings, they are not you, and they will never be you, do not stain your specialness with their filth" "Come, we have training, today I teach you how to use your fireside" later that night, a stark white hair matriarch was boiling a teakettle "I just can't do this anymore, every time I even look at my kids I see him" Shoto was sneaking of to play with his brother and sister when he heard his mother talking distressingly. He peaked around the corner to see what was bothering her, this did not go unnoticed by the mother who panicked as instead of seeing her son, she saw her husband. "Get away from ME" She flung the kettle full of scalding water towards her son, it splashed onto the left side of his face. "AHHHH" he screamed in agony, clasping his boiling skin. "Shoto, I-I'm so sorry" he responded by backing away in fear. "Shoto, what has happened" the brawny man came running towards the scene of the crime. "Shoto was on the floor crying, though only one eye had not had its tear ducts burned out. "Shoto, what happened, who did this to you"? He just stared at his mother who was just standing there like a deer caught in headlights. Enji Todoroki followed his gaze and saw his wife, tea kettle in hand. "What did you do to our son"!? When she began to sob, this did nothing to lighten the man's hatred for burning his masterpiece, next thing Touya knew, his mother was being carted away, and his brother was being bandaged up. His brother and sister were too young to understand what was going on, but he knew that it was his old man's fault, so he ran away, away from the abuse that he knew his brother would go through, away from the neglect his other siblings would get.
"How after everything, could you forgive him"? "He has done things, things that are not all that forgivable, but hasn't he suffered enuff, his kids won't even talk to him anymore" "YA, THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ABUSE ONE OF THEM AND NEGLECT THE REST" and then he spoke up, the police are already looking into all this, and likely, I'm not going to even have visitation rights". "Serves you right, now can I be gone now" that's when the detective made his presence known. "sorry but, that aint gonna happen, and don't even try and escape, this place is surrounded by police". At that Dabi ran at Tsukauchi, he raised his gun but not fast enough as dabi slid on his ice, and got behind him with an ice blade. "Well then I'll just have to walk out with a hostage". Endeavor got up to do something but he pressed the blade harder against his neck, a subtle threat that he understood. "Please son, you don't have to do this, you can put your past behind you and end up helping a lot more people than you've hurt" "Is that what you tell yourself every time you go out, no amount of good deeds can undo the harm you've done" back out of the doorway with Tsukauchi in toe. "Freeze" "Sure" he froze the guns of the officers, rendering them unusable "Oh, you meant me, you should have been more specific". The officer just ran for the hill "I'm going to fire those two when I get out of this" Tsukauchi thot out loud. "You mean if you get out of this, I may need you longer than you realize" he got out of the building and the police didn't shoot as they could not guarantee Tsukauchi's safety, all they could do was hope a capable hero could arrive, and arrive one did "NEVER FEAR, why, CAUSE I AM HEAR" everyone let their guard down as they knew everything was going to be okay now. "YOU, RELEASE THE DETECTIVE OR I WILL HAVE TO HURT YOU" Dabi couldn't lie, the number one could make an entrance, but he still had to kill that man in the mask. "Try it and off with his head" At that the Almight raced into action. In the blink of an eye, Dabi had a fist implanted in his face. "TEXAS SMASH" he called out boisterously as Dabi was knocked out cold "Thanks Yagi, what would I do without you" "THINK NOTHING OF IT, OLD FRIEND" "and please don't use my real name in public" he whispered. Dabi wakes up once again, with his family, this time including his two brothers Shoto and Natsuo, and his sister Fuyumi. "Touya"! Fuyumi goes to hug him as he wakes but Shoto grabs her shoulder. "That's not our Touya" Dabi tries to freeze the bonds again, but this fails. "They cold-proofed it," Shoto says monotony. "Touya, what happened to your fire, is your quirk somehow like Shoto's where he can use both ice and fire" "Dabi just shook his head "No, this new development is courtesy of a man, a man in a large mechanical mask". They look at each other confusedly. "He somehow stole my quirk, and gave another because of a deal we apparently made". Tsukauchi in the doorway, went wide-eyed at this. 'It can't be him, can it? '' Do you know him? '' It's classified, but let's just say if he's back, the entirety of Japan is in trouble". "He's that bad"? Shoto asks "Worse" he responds. "Well Touya, if you need help using your ice, I can help, and so can Shoto, he's quit the beast with his ice" "Touya was about to pass them on the offer but was curious to see how Shoto has improved. They sat there in silence until "What happens now" "We will be taking you to try and reform you, if this fails, You go to Tartarus, Enji will not be with us, for obvious reasons". He didn't like either idea but going to Tartarus seemed slightly worse. Staying with them did not seem too bad as long as he can eventually get the chance to kill the man in the mask, he can't do that behind bars, Endeavor not being there is just a bonus.