A/N: Endeavor's birthday was two days ago, so this is like a belated birthday gift for him! Thanks for making some beautiful kids Endeavor! You're still a scumbag though.
Artwork for this chapter is on my Instagram the_storm_unleashed. Check it out because it's pretty depressing!
Chapter 50
Present Day – Day 82
Hawks' forearms are scorched and sizzling as they unlace from their hold on Asami's head. He can no longer feel any pain as his mind is too focused on replaying her actions.
He gave her his silent goodbye. He was ready to die at Dabi's hand because there was no winning the fight against the fire wielder. There was so much he wanted to tell her in that moment and so much he wanted to apologize for, but when the time came to it, and Dabi tortured him with those final words, all he could do was turn his head back to Asami and say goodbye.
He didn't care about Dabi's identity or what this meant for Endeavor and Hero society in general. He didn't care about his vulgar retelling of sleeping with Asami, and he didn't care that the villain told him that Asami admitted to loving him. None of it mattered when he looked at her as the wall of flames came bellowing his way.
He didn't want the last thing he saw to be Dabi's manic grotesque face and he didn't want it to be the wall of blue flames that were imminently approaching to take his life. Instead, he turned his head back to Asami to take in her beauty one last time.
Only… she was running towards him, possessed by something she could not control, she ran for him. Dabi did not see her beyond the wall of flames emanating from his palm, and she launched herself in between the two men.
It was all too fast for Hawks to react in any way. All he could think of doing was cradling her head to his chest by wrapping his arms around her. Her screams filled his ears and his arms burned wildly. He shut his eyes and accepted their fate; they would die together in each other's arms.
But when Dabi realized what he was doing, his arm retracted with a force that could have dislocated his shoulder. His heart was racing and his eyes were bulging from their sockets to take in the sight to understand what had just happened.
The room was still between the three of them, regardless of the fact that the building around them was falling into disarray. Hell was caving in on them but all eyes were on her.
"Baby?" his voice cuts through the painful silence. "Baby, can you hear me?" his burned trembling hands frantically grab at her cheeks as he shakes and pats her unresponsive flesh.
Her face is hard to the touch, her eyes are closed, and her lips slightly parted. Hawks laces his fingers around her nape and props her head up as he carefully moves her body off of his and sets her down on the floor next to him. He ignores the pain of his back or how every inch of him is burned and scuffed. He ignores the fear of his back being so burned that his wings will be gone forever, because all he can focus on is her.
"Asami," his voice cracks as he calls out to her unresponsive peaceful face. She looks like she's sleeping, and in any other moment like this, he'd be admiring her beauty… but now… "Asami, please say something to me!" he demands with quivering hands all over her face.
Hawks presses two fingers to her pulse point on her throat, but his hands are shaking too badly for him to get an accurate read. He attempts to listen for her breathing, but his heart is pounding in his eardrums and he can't hear anything but his own unsteady beating.
The bridge of his nose scrunches with worry as he tries to hold back tears. He turns his head away from her and looks onto his disciple.
Hawks wishes he didn't look at Tokoyami, because the look on the boy's face says it all. He can see the shock in his widened eyes, the fear shaking his pupils in their sockets while his body remains rigid and unmoving at the sight of her.
When he saw Hawks lay her down, her head dropped slightly, while her hand fell limp to her side. Her body fell in a lifeless way that he's never seen before. It wasn't as though she was sleeping and he moved her. There was no resistance against his movement of her.
It was a simple sight, but one that he's never seen before. He's never witnessed someone's body move so loosely before and with the ramifications of seeing what just happened to her, the image is now engraved in the young hero's head, set to haunt him for the remainder of his life.
"Tokoyami," Hawks' voice brings the young boy back into reality. He looks onto his mentor's hard face as his lowering eyes and knitted brows paint the importance of his next few words.
"Take her," his low growl leaves no room for argument.
Tokoyami's resolve fails him and he looks back at the girl laying on the floor below Hawks. His arms cradle her against his body, her arms fallen at her sides with her hands lain on the floor palms upright. Her shirt is completely torched, with loose fabric clinging onto her arms and chest, while her back is totally exposed to them. He refuses to look at the horrific burns of what's left of her back. Her face is still and lifeless, covered in black soot from the flames and superficial scars, it remains mostly unscathed beyond the burn marks that lick up the back of her neck.
Tokoyami looks back at his mentor, and can undoubtedly see it in his eyes. He doesn't believe that she's dead. He's holding out hope that she's alright but Tokoyami can plainly see—
'Tokoyami!" Hawks snaps him back once more. "Take her now!"
Finally, the other man and the room responds, clearly just as frozen in shock as the rest of them. His heavy boot steps forward with a loud thud. He reaches his scarred steaming hand out towards them when Hawks blocks him from touching her.
"You're not taking her," Dabi's leveled voice threatens, but both men can hear the unease in his tone.
"I'm taking her to safety and then I'm going to make sure you never hurt her again!" Hawks growls at him as he holds the girl tightly in his arms. "Tokoyami, take her!" he commands him once more.
Tokoyami looks down at the girl once more. There's nothing left to save…
"Hawks—" He tries to beseech the man into understanding the circumstances they are in. Dark Shadow does not have much power amongst these flames and the light, and would only realistically be able to carry one of them. Between Asami and Hawks, there is only one person he can take.
"Give her back to me!" Dabi roars as he grabs for the girl with a heated hand.
"Get away from her! You've done enough already!" Hawks cries as he cradles her lifeless body against his chest and this halts the villain's movements.
Hawks is shocked when he looks onto Dabi's face. He blinks to ward off the image of him that's returned, but he isn't imagining it. He can see the regret clearly painting his pained face. The down turning of his brows, the remorse in his quivering lips and chin, the single drop of blood falling to his cheeks.
Hawks' words break him down because he realizes that this was all his fault. The hero feels a sting of guilt when he sees the wide-eyed look of regret hitting the villain's face. He looks childish, like a kid being yelled at for the first time. He's scared, he's worried, and he's destroyed. Hawks inherently wants to apologize for snapping at him, but he instead drops his head down to look back at his lifeless lover, reminding himself what monster did this. It was Dabi who did this to her. The ruthless Blue Flame murderer of the League of Villains. Not this terrified remorseful man that stands before him.
"I'm sorry, Hawks." Tokoyami's voice calls out behind him. "I hope you'll forgive me." With that, Tokoyami makes his decision and pries Hawks away from Asami.
"What are you doing!" Hawks yells at him as Tokoyami holds the hero in his arms. "No! Tokoyami! Take Asami! Take Asami! You can't leave her!" He shouts wildly in his hold as Tokoyami steps from the scene.
"No! Asami!" He cries out to his lover as hot wet tears stain his dirty face. "Asami! No! Go back! Asami! Please!" his pleads fall of deaf ears as Tokoyami shuts his eyes tightly, wishing away his mentor's wails. He made his decision, and he only prays that he will not regret it for the rest of his life.
Hawks' desperate pleas echo in the distance as the young hero swoops him away from the building with Dabi giving them no further fight. As they flee from the scene, Dabi is left in a crippling silence despite the building crumbling around him and a war waging in the horizon.
His eyes are hyper fixated on the woman lain out on the floor, dumped and left by the hero that begged her to come back. His legs wobble underneath him and he fears that if he tries to move towards her, they will fail him and he will fall to the ground.
Dabi cranes his head over his shoulder to look at Twice, hoping the man will tell him he's imagining this all, but the image that returns to him is just as brutal.
Twice lays face down on the ground, a pool of blood slowly building under his body now that she's not there to hold it in. His hand is reaching out towards her, as if begging her to return to him and keep him alive. His eyes remain hauntingly open, and in his years of killing and taking the lives of others, Dabi notices that unmistakable look of death on his friend's cold features.
He frowns at the sight of his once carefree friend now deduced to nothing more than a stain on the ground.
There's no doubt in his mind that Twice is dead, but her…
He turns his head back to her, the sight still dropping his heart into the pits of his stomach. She's strewn out on the floor, arms spread out, legs tucked and bent to the side as if she had fallen back from her knees. She's laying on her back with her head turned away from him, and looks as though she's sleeping peacefully. For a moment, Dabi allows the delusion to occupy his mind.
She's just sleeping. I'll wake her up and—
She wasn't sleeping.
As if controlled by a power stronger than him, Dabi's legs begin moving on their own, driving him closer to her with every robotic movement. He thinks that he will never get to her, when all of a sudden his legs pick up and he runs towards her.
His knees buckle and he comes crashing down to her. He quickly scoops her up into his arms, hugging her limp body against his chest. His own body is smoldering from the inside out, and he can smell his flesh burning hers as their skin makes contact, but he can't let go of her. Now that he has her in his arms, the last thing he wants is to let her go.
He looks down at her, now closer to see just how fucked she is. Her clothes are burned and tattered, her face is covered in soot and blood, her forearms are burned and he doesn't want to even look at her back to see what's left of it. He can see the burns crawling over her shoulders and up her neck. Her chin is also burned but the hero was able to protect her face when he shielded it from the flames with his forearms.
Dabi's quivering hands reach for her as he brushes her cheek with his calloused thumb. His fingers lace in her hair as he pinches the singed strands between his fingertips. He grimaces at the sight of her once long beautiful hair that he admired so much, reduced to a disheveled charred mess.
His bright turquoise eyes scan ever miniscule detail of her face, frantically searching for any micromovement in her features. His throat is sore not only from the smoke and flames around them, but also from the panic of seeing her like this. Her face is flushed of color and she looks paler than usual. Her features are soft and lifeless and Dabi gulps down the worry that constrains his throat and tries to focus on something else.
He reaches his fingertips to her throat, trying to read her pulse but when he hears the sizzling of her skin and smells the burning flesh, he retracts his fingers with furrowed brows.
"Fuck," he exhales under his breath as he moves to try to listen for her breathing but he too can't hear a thing over the sound of his own heart pumping into his ears.
He swallows but his mouth and throat are dry and hoarse. "Butt…" his voice croaks and he clears his burning throat. "Butterfly?" he whines and he hates the sound of his pitiful voice.
Her face is unmoving and he shakes her a little in his arms. "Butterfly?" he calls out to her again in a strong tone. "He's gone now, you can get up," he says as if that were the cause for her unresponsiveness. Naturally, she doesn't move to his words and he frowns even more.
"Wake up, Butterfly!" he shakes her, "Now's not the time for a nap!" All reasoning is out the door with Dabi as he makes himself believe that she's only sleeping, because coming to the realization of any other outcome is too painful.
"Hey!" he's yelling at her now as his shaking intensifies. "Stop fucking around, Butterfly! This isn't funny!" He grabs her chin and turns her face to his. "Don't play dead, damnit!" he growls with a shout. He releases her chin and her head sinks to the side to expose more of her charred neck to him, as if acting as a blaring reminder of how badly he fucked up.
His eyes scan her to see that her facial expressions haven't changed. Dabi lets out a useless moan. "What the fuck were you thinking!" he yells at her. "It wasn't meant for you—those flames! You fucking stupid girl! Why'd you do that!"
He digs his fingers into her biceps as he grips onto her. "You just had to play the hero?" he sneers at her. "He said you chose me!" he shouts. "So why the fuck did you run to him!" His tone builds, "You're so fucking stupid! What were you even thinking!" he yells at her.
She remains unresponsive and Dabi grows angry with her. His fingers fist the loose fabric of her burned clothes. "You want to act like this?" he barks at her. "Go fucking ahead! See if I give a shit!" he snaps at her. "Maybe you're better off this way!"
His body is hot and he's so angry with her. She's so fucking stupid and stubborn and she's only doing this to be a petty bitch.
The air is becoming increasingly thick with the smoke of his flames devouring up the building around them. Soon, they will be swallowed up by the collapsing structure if they don't move.
He takes out a rag from his pocket and brushes it against her bloodstained face. "This is Twice's blood, yeah?" he asks her. "Your hero lover may have taken his life thinkin' he can stop his double Quirk, but if I give this to that little psychopath, there's no stoppin' us! So you might as well join us, damnit!" he snaps at her as he shoves the bloody rag in his pocket. "Stop fucking around, damnit!"
He knows she's being petty and refusing to speak to him for what he's done. He wants her to drop the fucking charade already and they can fight about this after the war. He'll tell her to get over it, she would try to slap him, he would catch her wrist, and she would scowl at him with that cute little wrinkle in her nose that she has when she's angry with him. But she'd eventually drop it and they'd make up. He'd kiss her from head to toe, worshiping every inch of her body and all would be forgotten.
But reality begins to sink into Dabi's consciousness that she isn't being petty, and this isn't a lesson she's trying to make him learn.
He shifts her in his arms and holds her close to his burning chest as his head leans over hers. Dabi can't deal with this right now; he is not in the right state of mind to handle this type of pain. He feels like his heart is being ripped out of his chest, or his lungs are collapsing in on themselves. His limbs are weak and shaking, his head it throbbing, his eyes are quivering and burning. He isn't sure what is going on but everything fucking hurts.
It feels like he's dying.
He looks down at her and the sting of seeing her face soft like this makes him regret speaking to her like that. "I'm sorry," he tells her with a failed attempt at a leveled tone. "I didn't mean to yell, Butterfly. Please, just talk to me."
He's plummeting into a maddening psychosis as he looks onto her dead face. "Come back," his voice cracks as a sob finally reaches his throat and the realization of his reality kicks in. "Don't leave me, Butterfly. I need you," he says burying his face in the crook of her neck as blood from his incisions seeps into the burned fabric of her shirt.
He pulls his head back, his thumb once more brushing her soot-covered face. "Talk to me," he begs her. "I can't do this without you."
He told her that he would be a better man but he never was, and now he'll do anything to show her that he can. "I'll be a better man, I promise," he tells her. "I'll do anything! Just please…" he swallows, "Fuck!" he buries his face back into the crook of her neck.
"It doesn't fucking matter. None of it fucking matters," he speaks in a delirium. "I'll end it," he begins as he pulls away from her neck and holds her face to look upon. "I'll forget all about it," he continues his promise to her. "Shouto… my old man… fuck 'em!" he growls. "I don't care anymore! None of it matters without you!"
Killing her to kill Shouto and Endeavor was not the path he was meant to be on. Vengeance against his father and his stupid masterpiece, toppling the broken hero society, it means nothing to Dabi if she's not there to enjoy in their spoils. He had a life—a way out without them and with her.
"I want you, Butterfly. I choose you!" he tells her with strong conviction in his tone. Dabi sniffs as he shifts to reach in his pants. His fingers brush against the ring—the vow—in his pocket. He pulls out the large diamond, watching it sparkle as it reflects the flames around them with small rainbows of color.
His hands shakily takes her scorched ones and he grimaces at the sight of her once perfectly manicured hands now burned and bloody.
He places the ring back on her finger and holds her hand tightly. "The babies, the countryside, I want it all," he tells her as he looks down at her face. "I'll give up on everything if it means having you," he promises her with blood obscuring his vision.
He closes his eyes and presses his lips to hers. They are hard and don't return the kiss. He pulls away to see that she isn't swooning and waking up, telling him that he made the right choice and passed some silly test. This isn't some fantasy where true love's kiss will bring her back. He's not her prince.
"Please," he pleads with her and this time he begs her as he once begged his father to look at him. "Please," he emphasizes the word and the helplessness he feels. "My heart belongs to you, Butterfly. Nothing else matters."
But her face remains still, unmoved, and dead.
"Please," he beseeches once more. "I'm begging you," he swallows, "Asami," he says her name for the first time in his life as a desperate plea to wake up and take him seriously. "I love you."
But like his pleas to his father to look at him, he is again met with cold detachment.
"FUCK!" His head lifts to the sky as he bellows out the anger and fury in his burning heart. The whole building is crumbling under them and she's left cold and catatonic in his arms. He can carry her to a first aid station, but the second he approaches the heroes he will be apprehended.
That doesn't fucking matter! She's dying!
No.
He looks down at her.
She's already fucking dead.
"Give her back…" his voice is weak from screaming and inhaling so much smoke. He's surrounded by flames in the hellscape that he's created. "Give her back!" he yells as he shoots his head up to the sky. He won't let her ascend to heaven without him. Like a demon never allowed in, he'll stand at their gates pounding on the doorway. "You won't take her from me!" he threatens an unknown power. "You give her back right fucking now!"
The force of his voice shakes his entire body as he holds onto her limp body in his arms. "I'll trade if I have to, just let her come back! Take me instead!" he offers the heavens but is answered with nothing.
The world around him grows cold despite the flames that rage around him and he understands that they will not answer his prayer. He may not be able to have her in this life, but maybe in another one he can find her there and they can have what was taken from them.
The heaviness grows thick in the air as Dabi hugs her close to him. He lifts her body into his arms and wraps his arms around her torso.
He burrows his face into the crook of her neck once more and begins heating up his body. Flames begin to lick the charred skin of his forearms and shoulders. A crown of blue fire settles on his head, reigning him as some king of death and ash.
Everything he has ever done has always resulted in death and failure. With the heaviness of what he's done to her weighing him down, he'll make it right by joining her.
Images of his life flash before his eyes like a reel to a movie he could never stop watching. His father's beatings, his endless nights crying to Natsuo, fighting with Fuyumi for being withdrawn to it all, begging his father to look at him, his mother's coldness, his flames directed to a baby Shouto. And finally, her. Her dimpled smile, her laugh, her stupid hair with her shitty makeup, the cotton candy skies that he promises to swim in when he joins her in the afterlife.
He didn't listen to her when she begged him to stop.
He didn't listen to her when she told him they could leave.
But he's listening now.
He will find her.
And as he ignites their bodies in the flames of his accursed Quirk, he promises her that.
"I'll find you."
He shuts his eyes, allowing the flames to engulf and devour them from this world. He feels the ground crumbling below him and he figures it is the earth opening up to swallow him to the afterworld.
They begin to plummet and Dabi's eyes shoot up when he hears the roaring approaching them. His hands release and Asami falls from his grip on her. He tries to shout, but a boulder hits his chest and knocks the wind from his lungs. He can only reach out to her as she falls from him, but she is just out of reach.
He is swooped up from his fall and his eyes frantically search to find Gigantomachia holding him in his rock-hard grip.
"Dabi!" Toga calls out to him as the monster drops him onto its back with the rest of the League. "You don't look too good, are you okay?" she asks, noticing the steam lifting from his incisions and his skin melting off his body.
Dabi's eyes widen as he runs to the edge of the monster's back to look down at the destruction Gigantomachia leaves in his wake. His eyes frantically search the ground for her but her body is nowhere in sight.
"What are you doing?" he growls at them. "Go back!" he commands with a heavy tone. "We have to go back!"
"Dabi," Compress begins as he steps towards the manic man. "Twice told us about Asami before his double was destroyed," he says with a heaviness in his tone. "We know."
They know what? Dabi questions with a hatred building in his chest. That she helped Hawks and the heroes this whole time? That she was never their friend? Or that none of it fucking matters in the end.
"We need to go back," Dabi tells them in a low and threatening tone as flames begin building at his fists. He will not leave her.
"There's nothing left, Dabi," Spinner approaches him with a harsh reality that he needs to swallow. "We move forward," he tells him.
"Shigaraki is fighting Endeavor and the others," Compress informs him. "We need to aid him."
Dabi turns to them, eyes igniting with hate as he's robbed once more of the life he's dreamed up for himself. It is clear that he is not meant to have love, so if that is how it will be, he will instead opt for revenge.
Skeptic approaches him with his laptop in hand, giving Dabi a firm nod. "I have the video ready," he informs him.
Dabi looks away from him, eyes searching the debris of fallen walls, but her body is buried underneath the wreckage, and there is nothing left of her. He takes in a labored sigh and smiles until his incisions bleed. "Then I have a hero to burn."
Absolute chaos ensues as the students fight alongside the Number One Hero. Endeavor's body is beaten and broken from the battle as he's covered in scars and broken bones. His breathing is labored as one of his lungs is shot, making each breath agony, and he's sure he's broken a rib or two.
He watches as Bakugo falls to the might of Shigaraki, while Midoriya continues the fight with strength in his heart. Iida takes a reluctant Bakugo into his arms as he attempts to shuttle the aspiring hero from the battle, but the stubborn boy refuses to leave his classmates on the battlefield.
Endeavor looks over at Shouto, reminding himself what he is fighting for. He thinks back on Asami's speech—the one he never had the chance to say because of his damned pride. He hopes the young girl is safe in Hawks' custody as they planned and he can one day show her just how much her words meant to him.
I am sorry, Asami for never giving the people the promise you wrote for them. Once this is all over, I will become the Bringer of Peace as we discussed.
It's a promise he makes to himself and to her—wherever she is—he will be sure to show her. He will not leave this fight without making good on his word.
Endeavor watches as his youngest son fights with a valor that he is proud of, and he can see as the young boy works his moves in tandem with Nejire's that he will become the Number One Hero as Enji intended for him.
The ground begins to rumble at his feet and Endeavor senses something approaching on the horizon. He lifts his weary eyes when he sees the cloud of destruction approaching them.
"RUN!" he cries out with a desolate howl as a stampede rapidly approaches them.
Large pieces of debris and boulders come crashing down around them as the monstrous Gigantomachia joins the battle. In the panic of his arrival, the colossal giant takes hold of the beaten Shigaraki and cradles him in his hands.
Endeavor takes this moment to check on the students. He kneels down next to a fatigued Midoriya and a strained Shouto. "Are you two alright?" his gruff voice calls out to the two boys.
"What are we going to do with him here?" Shouto questions as he motions up at the giant villain with a nod of his head.
Endeavor looks up at the colossal rocky man standing before them. Unfortunately, Asami's dossiers on all the notable villains had nothing on this one, so he's in the dark about the limitations of his Quirk and what his weakness is. He curses himself for not dealing with this thing earlier, and now they are all being punished for it.
Endeavor moves to prepare to battle the monster but with his lungs aching and his body broken from the fight with Shigaraki, he doesn't know how he will stand in a fight against him. He wants to lie down and rest… he wants to give up.
He thinks back on his simple words at the Billboard Charts. He knows they weren't the well-spoken speech Asami gave him, but they had similar intent.
Watch me.
He reminds himself what he is fighting for.
This is for Shouto. For my family. I hope to have you all at the table once again.
Rei… this is for you.
He stands on his wobbling feet, heating up his body to prepare for an attack. He is the Number One Hero now; it is his duty to protect the ones he loves.
"Oh! There you are!" a voice calls out from the distance that draws Endeavor's bright eyes up the back of the beast in front of him. His eyes lock on the dark-haired villain who waves his patched-up hand to the heroes below.
"Oh wow! You all look like ants from way up here!" Dabi calls out cheerily with a wide manic grin pulling at his melting flesh.
"Dabi!" Endeavor growls up at the crazed villain.
"Do I spy Shouto down there too? How perfect!" his voice is joyful and light, but Endeavor can hear the clear undertone of malicious intent. This was by far the worst-case scenario for the heroes.
"Now we have the whole League to deal with," Endeavor grinds his teeth as he looks up at the patchwork villain who waves down at him. "Dabi, you will pay just like the rest of them!" he promises the villain.
Dabi tilts his head to the side with a lopsided grin on his maimed face. "That so?" his cheery tone sheds to an amused one. He chuckles at the hero's threat, pulling out a bottle and shaking it. He pours the contents of the bottle onto his head, wincing in pain as the solution burns his scalp. "Is that anyway to address me…?" he chuckles as the black hair dye drips down his face to uncover his natural white hair.
"I have a great name," he taunts the hero as he looks down on the weak man that he is. "Call me Touya."
The look on Endeavor and Shouto's face is priceless to Dabi; he wished he could've captured it in that moment, but he knows that the image will be engrained in his head because it's just so fucking sweet.
Their eyes are wide and shaking in their sockets, mouths left agape, shoulders loosening in defeat, and utterly stunned and frozen with shock. It almost angers Dabi to know that they didn't even have an inkling that he could have been Touya all along.
"You're that dumbstruck? Really?" he scoffs at them from above. "I know my face ain't exactly what it was… but I was sure my own kin would have figured it out," he chuckles at how blind they all were to his identity.
Like Asami, the idea that Touya survived all those years was just not a reality they believed was possible. They came to terms with his passing over the years so this warped idea that Touya managed to survive those flames and become the villain known as Dabi completely cripples the two.
"We live?" Dabi asks Skeptic with a look over his shoulder.
Skeptic wildly types away at his laptop with a wide smile on his face. "Live and streaming your video across all broadcasts and entertainment platforms!"
"Good," Dabi turns his head back to Endeavor and Shouto, plastering the frenzied smile once more on his face. He can't feel his face anymore with the amount of adrenaline pumping through him as the moment he's always been waiting for has finally come.
"Yeah, old man, can you believe it? Your failed creation back from the dead to haunt you for your misdeeds!" he laughs, "We have an audience here, so why don't we tell 'em, Dad? Tell the world how you, Endeavor—driven mad by the realization that you would never surpass All Might to ascend to the Number One position—sought out a Quirk Marriage to elevate your offspring to that mantle. Only, it took ya a few tries to get it right, didn't it? A few failures."
Endeavor is left utterly speechless as the young villain continues to speak of his past growing up in the Todoroki household, sparing no detail of Endeavor's abuse towards the children and his wife. He cannot respond to the horrific accusations that are being brought to life, and he cannot look at Shouto as his turquoise eyes remain fixated on the villain who shares the same bright eyes.
"And guess what? Right now, my prerecorded life story is being broadcasted nationwide and on the net!" he happily announces to the flabbergasted hero. "Soon the whole world will see who Endeavor, the man who told the world to watch him, really is! A man who brought forth the death of his own son!"
"You told the world to watch you that day, and Dad, oh how I've been watching you!" he excitedly announces to him as he begins skipping down Gigantomachia's back with glee in his stride. "Every night I would crawl to Natsu, crying my eyes out wondering why I even existed if not to use my Quirk as you manufactured me for. Did'ya ever know about that?" he laughs. "Instead, so focused on your Masterpiece and his rise to Number One, you allowed the rest of us to be swept under the rug as if we never existed!"
Dabi begins skipping on his feet, feeling a manic glee ignite his body like wildfire. He can't help but dance and celebrate as everything has finally come to this moment. Asami be damned… this is what it was all leading to, he supposes.
"Then the day came when you finally became Number One. You finally got everything you fought for, and it killed me to ask was it all worth it? Those endless day of beating your routines into me, with nothing changing when the Masterpiece was born. Was it worth it in the end when you were bumped up to the Number One spot?" Dabi devalues his gaining the Number One Hero role by implying he only received it due to All Might's retirement.
"All those trainings, beatings day by day and none of it mattered when it was finally handed to you. It was then, I started cheering you on! You had finally achieved what you had been so desperately fighting for and how comedic that it was the retirement of Number One that got you there!" he shrugs as he brushes it away. "But hey, it's all about the journey there not the destination, they say!"
"But you seem to forget about your journey as you actually tried to look your failures in their eyes and create a future with them," Dabi shakes his head with a scoff. "Little dinner parties reminiscing about the good ol' days. I sent Ending and Starservant to nip those ties in the bud, but you always came back on top, didn'tchya Number One?"
He lifts his hands in the air dancing as if he was dancing with a partner, twirling and waltzing to the music of Endeavor's downfall.
"Bet all those words of affirmation finally felt great! All those stories your precious little PR Director wrote about you were getting to your head, making you feel those warm family bonds once again. You did it! You restored Japan's faith in heroes once more! You were the Bringer of Peace and now you could have your family back!"
Endeavor gasps as Dabi stops dancing and looks at him with the most bone chilling smile he's ever seen. "I can tell you're at a loss for words so why don't I remind you…" He places his hands on his chest, showing Endeavor in all his monstrous glory what he has become because of his father's actions.
"THE PAST NEVER DIES!" he roars with a triumphant laugh. "Get it yet? Y'reap what you sow! So let's tango, you and me, Enji Todoroki! A dance with your son here in hell!"
A/N: I was going to have this chapter be longer and end with the villains getting away, but wanted to get this chapter out to you all earlier! I hope to get the next chapter out to you all soon! Until then, let me know what you think of this one!
Again, artwork for this chapter can be found on my Instagram the_storm_unleashed so check it out!