Touya was delighted with the quirk assessment test. For him, it was the perfect chance to show off and see the students' abilities. Skipping the boring first-day stuff was a plus too.

Because of his seat number, he was against Shouto in the trials where 2 people participated at the same time, so he did his best to surpass him.

Shouto was just decimals faster than him at the 50-meter dash, but Touya was way better at the standing long jump trial.

That was when something about his youngest brother started rubbing him the wrong way.

The pitch trial was his confirmation: Shouto could have covered the ball in ice to safely propulsate it with fire. But no, the brat wouldn't bother, he just gave it some initial boost with ice.

For whatever reason, even in the trials where his fire quirk would have given him a better score, he only used ice.

"Oi, half-baked bastard," he called him when he came back from his own trial. "Why are you half-assing this? You think being Endeavor's spawn excuses you from giving your best?"

Shouto gave him the dirtiest side-eye Touya had ever gotten, to which he smirked.

Your intimidation doesn't work on me, masterpiece.

"C'mon, don't tell me you couldn't figure out how to use your fire for those," he bullied him some more.

"I know how," he answered, looking back to whoever was throwing the ball now.

"Well, why didn't you do it then?"

"I won't use my old man's power."

Touya's enjoyment went out the window. Bitterness replaced it as he too turned away.

He had no idea what to tell him.

He got it, not using the part of his quirk his father gave him was his way of rejecting him but…

It didn't sit right with him.

It pissed him off even.

Bakugou's commotion brought him back to the current trial just in time to see some green-haired boy throw the ball without using his quirk.

He had noticed that particular student was having a really hard time with the trials. It seemed like his quirk didn't give him much advantage in any of the ones they had already done.

But apparently this time it was the teacher who didn't let him use it.

The kid recognized him as Eraserhead, a hardly-known hero who could erase quirks by looking at their users. Great, Touya didn't have to worry about his quirk going crazy. This was probably the best match for a teacher he could ask for.

However, what really got him invested in their conversation was the student.

He severely hurt himself when he used his quirk.

Same as Touya did.

So it was like the teacher was talking to him as well.

What he was saying… was the same thing the old man and his daughter had told him.

He couldn't save others if he needed saving himself…

Touya didn't need saving, but he knew he had felt whatever was in the boy's eyes when he heard the hero's finishing words:

"With your power, you can't become a hero."

Midoriya Izuku…

Looking at his trajectory, it'd be a miracle if the poor kid didn't end up last. It was a pity, but all he could do was indulge him with a little goodbye gift.

"You can do it, Midori-kun!" Touya cheered.

"HAH?! Why are you—?

Bakugou interrupted his screaming at the sight of the other kid doing an impressive throw. He seemed to have a strength enhancing quirk, a very powerful one if he was able to do that with just the tip of his finger.

Looks like the underestimated ones can do amazing with only some support.

He smiled proudly when the kid turned to look at him through the tears in his eyes.

This didn't please Bakugou in the slightest, since he went to attack 'Deku', as he called him, as soon as the shock wore off.

The despective nickname slightly annoyed Touya, but whatever. It seemed like they had beef from before, same as him with Shouto, he wasn't gonna get in the middle of that.

Anyways, Eraser handled it and the rest of the trials were uneventful, except for Shouto and Bakugou's glaring.

Not like he cared.

He cared more about the fact that his fire died on him at the end of the endurance running trial, allowing Shouto to win that race as well.

When the results were shown, he accidentally looked up 'Todoroki' first, finding his brother was in second place. He was going to make a comment about him copying his father even in rankings when his eyes reached the end of the list.

"Sensei, my name isn't there," he informed, mad at how forgettable he seemed to be.

"You are expelled," the teacher announced, turning off the projector. "I'd be irrational to waste time calculating your score."

He could hear some gasps and hushed chattering among his classmates about this turn of events.

Touya hadn't been worried about the expulsion threat at all. He thought UA just wanted to get rid of the extra student they had because of his tie with some other kid at the entrance exam, but he knew he'd made it to the top 10 at least.

So then why?

Why was this happening?

Hadn't he proved himself?

Hadn't he done good enough?

Touya wanted to yell that at the teacher, but for the first time in years, he felt so breathless, so helpless, that the words wouldn't come out.

"But, Aizawa-sensei," Midoriya spoke up with a trembling voice, "I ended last, right? Why are you expelling him instead?"

The teacher revealed that saying he would expel the last one was a 'logical ruse' to encourage them to do their best, which sounded like a lie to him. However, he couldn't fully pay attention to that or the students' reaction when his mind was still frantically trying to make sense of the situation.

"Dabi Hiro," Eraser addressed him in a stern voice. "I wanted to see if you learned your lesson and re-adjusted, but you showed no intention to prevent yourself from getting injured today. You won't last long here at UA or as a hero."

Touya's whole body went cold at the statement.

He looked down at his trembling arms. They were reddened and the would-be scar tissue extended beyond his wrists.

I bet I'd be in more pain than the green kid if I could feel it.

"That doesn't seem fair. Can't you give him a chance to correct it like you did with me?" Midoriya asked timidly.

"Do you want to be expelled too?"

The boy shook his head frantically and started explaining himself and apologizing, but he was so panicky that he couldn't form complete phrases.

"It's okay. The teach is right, I should have never tried to play hero," Touya said dryly at last, before walking off with an inherited look of rage hidden behind his dark bangs.

Rage because those burns weren't nearly as bad as the ones he got during the exam.

Rage because it hadn't been his fault he overdid it last time.

Rage because a kid was able to see this was unfair, but the hero in charge of them didn't.

He was done with this path that did nothing but reject him.

If they don't want a hero, they'll have a villain.

"You have to make me an adult again," her brother had demanded first thing as he arrived home.

So there she was, holding onto her brother's hand, focusing on making him go back to before she used her quirk on him.

But her quirk wouldn't activate.

"I'll make sure there isn't any accident this time," he had reassured her when they started.

Yet, Eri didn't feel ready for this.

She tried, because she didn't want to break her promise of helping him.

Yet, it seemed like her fear was more powerful.

"Didn't you say you had practiced?"

There was something dark in his eyes again.

They were fixed on her horn so he could match her power with his own as soon as she activated it, but it seemed like his mind was somewhere else.

In some dark place.

And he went deeper and deeper into it the more her quirk stayed off.

"I did, but… I can't use it on you yet," she expressed.

"And why is that?"

Eri bit her tongue.

It had occurred to her that maybe his body had to go through all its previous states before reaching the one they wanted, as if she was making time go backwards only for him.

She couldn't hurt him. She still believed that.

Yet, that was only true if he didn't let her hurt him.

When he was in that dark place, he stopped caring about himself and became even more reckless than he usually was.

That's why she wanted to wait.

Neither of them were ready.

Dabi clucked his tongue at her lack of answer.

"Let me put it like this, kid," he said before setting his right arm on fire up to the elbow. "I'm not gonna stop until you use it."

Eri held tighter to his left hand, looking at the flames in surprise and fear.

He had been off since he stepped through the door.

He had taken off his school uniform as if it was hurting him and, even after putting on his casual clothes, he had left them lying around on the floor of their room.

Over lunch, he had told her about the expulsion and how without that there was no reason to stay a teen, so they had to dedicate the rest of the day to this.

Eri knew it was her fault he was a teenager now in the first place.

She knew she had to repair her mistake, undo the damage she had done.

But she couldn't. Not now.

He's hurting himself, her mind told her in alarm, noticing the flames had made his burns spread to the base of his fingers.

"Niichan, please, stop. I really can't do it now," she pleaded with tears in her eyes.

"You heard me," he replied, firmly.

It felt like, if she did use her quirk, he would allow it to claim more of his years.

But if he kept this up, she'd lose him anyway.

The smell of burning meat and smoke had become so strong it was making it hard to breathe and her head was starting to hurt from the hard decision she had to take.

"Dabi, stop it!"

Before she could realize what was happening, he had been knocked out, his flames going out as he lost consciousness.

"I came here as soon as I was told he was expelled," he explained with a sad look. "I knew he'd be up to something."

"You hurt him," she pointed out in shock.

"He'd be more hurt if I let this go on."

She pressed her lips together and lowered her head.

Eri knew Duster didn't mean to hurt him, he just wanted to take care of Niichan, but…

Was there really no other way?

She kept her mouth shut while she guided the man to their room, so he could lay her brother down on his bed.

"Sorry, kiddo. I knew I shouldn't have let you two alone," he apologized.

She shook her head. "It was fine until now. He just had a bad day."

"Yes, but he can't give up on everything and run away everytime he has a bad day. That's what he was planning to do, wasn't he?"

She nodded.

He said they would leave as soon as they were done, that was why he was so impatient.

He probably knew Duster would come over and check on them too.

"I don't want to leave here, but I don't want to leave Niichan either. I said I'd help him. I want to help him."

"Me too, but the help he needs isn't the help he wants and he won't accept it if he doesn't want it."

The vigilante covered his face with his hand, letting out a heavy sigh.

"I let Tamao go and she's taken away, I let Dabi go and he loses it. They are not the same, but they need the same. I have to keep them around to keep them safe, even if they hate me for a while."

He then reached out to ruff Eri's hair.

"I know you said you didn't want to leave this place, but you two need to come back home," he stated.

"I want to, I don't like being alone when Niichan has to go out," she admitted, "but I'll only go if he goes too."

The man smiled, pulling her into a sideways hug.

"Of course, that's the idea. You are both my unofficial children," he joked.

And only to herself she would confess… she liked the idea of Duster being her unofficial dad.

Touya was not pleased to find that the old man had broken into their new house to knock him out.

But hey, maybe it was karma for thinking about doing that same thing to Eri, back when he talked about her training to Tamao.

Anyways, he hadn't actually passed out. The vigilante must have overcorrected trying not to use too much strength, resulting in him being wide awake but pretending he wasn't.

All to not confront Duster about the expulsion.

It filled him with shame.

It made him feel like a failure.

And even if the old man didn't say it aloud, Touya knew he'd see him as a failure.

He was expelled on the first day, for crying out loud!

It's all that brat's fault, he reminded himself. And if UA is too blind to see that, they are at fault too .

The projector had enlightened him about what happened at the entrance exam. The brainwasher had made him use blue fire, temporarily inhibiting whatever self-protection mechanism had locked it up after his body became unable to withstand it again.

He expected UA to provide him with the support he needed to avoid excess burning, so he'd be able to use his blue flames more safely by the time he recovered that ability.

Yet, UA didn't even give him a chance.

And, as if that wasn't enough, now Duster wanted to take them back to his house.

It was the logical choice, since he wasn't planning on going back to his job.

However, staying away wasn't a logical choice, it was an emotional one.

And with stuff like this, Touya couldn't help but let the emotions win.

"I am not your son!"

He jumped out of the bed so fast his head started spinning.

Eri rushed to hold him in place, wrapping her arms around his legs.

He could have pushed her away, but he let her be in favor of continuing his yelling at the vigilante.

"I don't need you! Being around you will only make me lose it quicker! So, get lost, you expired hero!"

"Dabi!" he addressed him as he stood up.

Touya braced himself for a punch that never came. Instead, Duster held him by the shoulders and forced him to sit on the bed. The kid kept her grip on his legs to assist the man against his struggle.

"Dabi, I may not be your father, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna let you hurt yourself and your sister."

"She isn't my sister!" he claimed, causing Eri to let go in surprise.

It had escaped him, but he was too angry to care.

That was the purpose of that lie after all: punishing her with the truth.

"Half-sister, whatever. She worries for you, so when you hurt yourself, you hurt her too."

"If that was true she'd use her quirk, but she refuses to!"

"I want to heal you! But it's not safe yet!" the little girl spoke up, crying. "You said training was to do it safely and we haven't trained until today. It's too soon. I don't want to make Niichan disappear."

Touya stopped moving to look down at her.

The kid…

She cared?

She really cared?

It wasn't just because she needed him?

Come to think of it, she hasn't needed me since she became one of Duster's guards.

Yet, she still wanted to have him around.

She followed him to this house even when she preferred to stay with the people that were actually good for her.

Good to her…

"Guess it's my bad, then. I'm sorry, Eri," he muttered as he tried to reach out to her.

Duster allowed it, seeing as the storm had passed.

"Good job telling me. From now on, you'll set the pace, okay?"

The kid hummed, letting him clean her tears.

However, as he locked looks with the vigilante, he knew it'd be hard to stay true to his word.

Duster and Niichan had reached an agreement.

The man would stay with them until her brother proved he was apt to take care of Eri on his own.

They also agreed that if one more incident happened in that time, she would go back to live with Tamao.

That was what didn't let the little kid sleep.

As she had said, she only wanted to go if it was with her brother.

Besides, she really liked this place.

It was part of the old part of the city's renovation as her brother's new boss had told them when he showed it to them.

The house itself was pretty big, with a lot of space and high ceilings, it reminded her of the warehouse they lived in before going with Duster, but with separate spaces for the bedroom, bathroom and toilet. The boss, a man that looked like a giant insect, explained it was so people with quirks like his could use it until they got their own.

Her routine was nice too.

Up until today, she had spent the mornings playing with Niichan and the afternoons at his job, where Tamao and him would watch over her while they worked.

And it wasn't like she had to be alone in the mornings, either.

Even if he still had school, the boss said she could hang out at the other coffee shop he owned. So, being alone was more a choice than an obligation. She worried someone would recognize her and Niichan wouldn't be around to save her.

"Eri, you can't sleep, right?" her brother asked tiredly.

This was the third sleepless night in a row for him. He'd said it was because of school starting, but now must be for the same reason as her.

She hummed. "Can I go to your bed?"

"Only if you let me tell you a story. It's not really a bedtime story, but…"

Eri was in the move before he could finish his line of thought.

"What's it about?" she asked as she cuddled up to him.

"Just something I wrote for school. It's called 'The Sun and the Moon's marriage'."

She frowned in confusion.

"I thought only people married."

He chuckled. Were all children so literal?

"This is fiction, don't think too much about it," he answered.

Though it wasn't completely true.

"The Sun and the Moon married and had four children.

"The first was a star more brilliant than its father, the Sun. It was so brilliant that he—it collapsed soon, turning into a black hole: a dying star that can no longer shine, so it was no longer seen.

"The second was a frozen planet, always revolving around the Sun but too far away from it to fully receive its heat, no matter what it did to get closer or gain its favor.

"The third was an ice giant, an enormous planet made of gelid gasses but with a solid heart. However, the instability of its family dragged it out of orbit and now its core soars through space without a purpose.

"The fourth was a rocky planet full of life, the precious child of the Sun and the Moon. One day, a meteor fell on it destroying all the life it held and leaving a nasty mark on its surface.

"The Sun blamed the Moon and casted it away from their children, but neither that nor the death of the oldest child managed to change anything. The center of this astral family just kept refusing to acknowledge it had been its own gravity that brought harm to what it created."

Yes, it was the story of his family as space stuff.

It was all he could think about back then.

Or ever…

"That's very sad," the kid commented, seeing he had paused. "What happened next?"

"Nothing," he replied plainly. "You see, Eri, some stories don't have a happy ending. All you can hope for is that they'll go on for so long you won't have to see the end."

"I don't like this story," she pouted, sad eyes begging him for a rewrite.

But no one could change the past.

That was the wound that would keep bleeding until the day he died.

"You can imagine what comes next, but that won't make it a reality."

The girl hid her face on his chest.

"This is Niichan's story isn't it? He's the star that became a black hole."

"Smart kid."

He had nothing more to say, he didn't expect her to realize it. None of his classmates or teachers did.

"Niichan," she pulled away from him and sat on her knees. "If I heal you, would you be a star again?"

Her horn started sparkling, letting him see the decisive look in her eyes, as well as the fear always looming over her.

Touya wasn't one to give fake hope.

But, if he was going to fight her fear for him, he wasn't going to lose his chance.

"I can try one more time."

He offered his hand, still laying down.

Eri's mouth curled so slightly that he wasn't sure if it was a smile or just her face of concentration.

Anyways, she grabbed his hand between hers and let her power flow.

He hoped they wouldn't regret this.

This is the first chapter of the new saga. From the start to the previous chapter it was the "Not Another Hero" saga and this is the "Anguish of the Quirkbred" saga. The titles are parodies of songs of the OST ("Just another hero" and "Anguish of the quirkless").

A little aclaration of the previous chapter's author note: Touya was legally 16 at the end of the chapter, since that day All Might says to Aizawa "April Fools' was a week ago" and Touya's fake birthday it's the 4th.

Now, something interesting that I found out because I've been seeing a lot of posts about Batman and the Robins. In an interview, the creator of the spin-off said that if All Might was the Superman of BnHA, then Duster was Batman. Following that train of thought, Koichi would be the first Robin (Dick) and Touya the second (Jason)... It kinda fits...

Disclaimer: My Hero Academia and its characters are property of Kōhei Horikoshi and Studio Bones.