During dinner, Dimentio couldn't stop thinking about UA. A school for heroes-in-training. If anything could show him how to be good, it'll be that school, right? After dinner, he slammed the bathroom door shut and turned on the light. He dumped the contents of the hair dye out of the box, onto the counter. Red hair and new clothes. Dimentio thought it was about time he tried something new.
Izuku knocked on the door. There was no answer, so he pushed it open. Dimentio was leaning over the sink, pouring water onto his hair.
His red hair.
He dried off his hair and screamed when he finally saw Izuku.
"Get out!"
"Hang on! Why is your hair red?!"
"They were out of yellow..." He grabbed a razor from under the counter. "And what I do with my hair is none of your business." He turned it on and slowly pulled it closer to his head.
"Do you need help with that?"
"N-no!" The razor made a funny noise when it touched his hair. "A-My side burn! That took forever to grow out..."
Izuku raised an eyebrow.
Dimentio sighed hard. "Fine!" He shoved the razor onto Izuku's chest. "Do it, or whatever..."
Izuku began carefully giving Dimentio a half-shave haircut.
"Why are you doing this with your hair? I kind of like the way it was before."
"Really? You called me old, Izuku."
"I said people might think-"
"I know what you said, Izuku. And it hurt. I know I'm pushing forty, but I just want to live while I still have a chance. I don't know if my life was shortened because of the Chaos Heart or what, but I don't want to worry about that."
"Dimentio, why did you become evil? Your inner self was...well I wouldn't say good, but he wasn't evil either."
"I was hurt. Abandoned. I became evil because I saw people being treated as such while I was working as a mercenary. Bleck wanted to destroy the world, so I played along. But he wanted to destroy it for good. He told me we were going to reset the world. So I stole the Chaos Heart from him and created Super Dimentio in order to get what I wanted. I wanted a new world, a perfect world, where people don't get hurt or abandoned. I...wanted people to feel like me after that. When my plan failed, I knew bad guys didn't win. So I changed it. I wanted everyone to be hurt and abandoned like I was. I wanted a fair life, and I get paid back with trama, tears, and bloodshed." He clenched his hands into fists on his lap. "I wanted things to be fair. I wanted a world where I knew my parents, and Peppi didn't try to kill me, and I didn't leave Em behind." His hands begun shaking and tears streamed down his face. "But I guess it's too late for that now. It's too late for the wicked."
"Hey, don't say that. If I knew you weren't capable of change, I would have just handed you right over to the Police then and there! But I didn't, because I know you can be good. Who knows? Maybe with a Quirk like yours, you could be the best hero there was!"
"First in my mind, now this. Why do I keep telling you all my deep, dark, insecurities?"
Izuku smiled gently. "Because this is a big weight on your shoulders, and I keep convincing you to let go of it for a minute." Izuku brushed chunks of shaved hair off of Dimentio.
"Why was Piper such an awful person? Would Em be terrible too if he was still alive?"
"Sometimes...People can change. I'll bet at least half of those things she told you were lies. I feel like she really did like you, but went into a bad denial stage when she realized you weren't the person she fell in love with."
Olly entered the bathroom. "Izuku, we are out of tea." His angled eyes widened when he saw Dimentio's hair. "Mamma mia, what did you do to your wonderful hair?!"
"Duh, I'm going to go to that dumb school. I can't go there unless I look the part."
"You what?!" Izuku gasped. "You're like, thirty! You're way too old to be going to High School!"
"I only have an Elementary School education. I dropped out after I embarrassed myself in front of the whole school, the school staff, and people's parents! What were they going to do, call my parents?"
Olly looked concerned. "Are you okay, Dimentio?"
"Yeah. I could use some catching-up. Plus, if anything could make me a hero, it'll be that school, right? And Izuku, if you're never too old to go to College, you're never too old to go to High School."
Izuku wanted to argue that his point was wrong, but realized he could actually be right about that."Well, your hair is done."
Dimentio ran his fingers through the short-shaved part. "Thanks, Izuku."
"Dimentio..." Olly blocked his view of the mirror. "You need to stop hiding behind a mask. Izuku told me, and I believe so, that you can be better. You hide behind a chaos-loving mask in order to 'protect' yourself."
"Shut up." He shoved Olly off the sink and walked out of the bathroom.
Olly stood and brushed the hair off his knees. "Is he alright? He seems more upset than usual."
"I think I said something a wrong way to him, and he misunderstood me because of it. I think I accidentally shoved him into his mid-life crisis. Shoot."
"What's a mid-life crisis?"
"I guess it's when you're getting older and realize that you can never really go back to when you were young, so you try to act young because of it. Makes since for him to dye his hair red, if I think about it that way."
"Oh, poor Dimentio. He's gone through so much and now this? Is there any way I can help him?"
"I think we should do our best to not get involved. After all, these are his problems, and only he can fix them. But we can be support, I guess. Be there for him if he needs us?"
"He won't ask for help," Olly sang. "I just know he won't. Even if he needs it."
"Wait, he was a mercenary? He gives me more Gipsy vibes rather than a mercenary."
