Dabi was grumbling as he left the corner store with a grocery bag in hand. Quinn, the old fart behind the counter, couldn't mind his own damn business. The fucker would always con him into taking something for lunch.
At least the geezer stopped trying to give him one of the Twinkie's coats. One of the benefits of being built for an ice quirk meant he didn't need more than a light jacket and boots to be comfortable walking around the middle of winter, another benefit was being able to enjoy popsicles whenever he wanted.
That is exactly what he was doing as he moseyed his charred ass over to Charlotte's apartments and he jammed his fourth lime popsicle in his mouth almost immediately biting down on it, something that Red would have disapproved of if she was there to see it... Not that it would stop Dabi from doing it.
Honestly, Dabi had no idea why everyone was so damn anal about his eating habits, he's gained at least nine kilos since he started playing rent-a-cop for the Twinkie. Sure, Dabi was still underweight by ten or so kilos but between his popsicle addiction and Red's cooking, he'd be back to a healthy BMI before spring.
At least it was getting easier to patrol his beat with the extra muscle he's packed onto his calves... Well, that and people were taking him more seriously as the Twinkie's hired help. Crack open a few heads and give some drunks their asses back to them and people will stop treating you like a lapdog, who knew?
Of course, that's not to say he necessarily hated being a rent-a-cop, the brats running around without a care in the world certainly put his mind at ease, and no matter what Red said he did not have a stack of drawings from said brats hidden under his bed.
Unfortunately, for his introverted self, Dabi's social circle had forcibly been expanded due to his work and he could name everyone he meets with daily.
The old fart Quinn at the corner store, the two twisted twins at the other corner store, Red's bestie Charlotte, the annoying teen at the ¥100 place that needed to learn to keep her nose out his business, the old hag running the second-hand depot was cool though, 10/10 badass old bitch that would slip him more popsicles when Red took his.
Which were five people too many, but he didn't have much choice and would have to deal with it. At least the Twinkie wasn't expecting miracles from his ass, just to keep the shit hole from getting worse than it was.
As Dabi was passing an alley and he was nearly stomped on by one of the few people in the district he did know. The walking "Geeko" Iguchi, better known as Zilla "Oh, sorry Dabi, I didn't see you there." Zilla apologized rubbing the back of his head and Dabi scoffed "Obviously." He spat shooting Zilla the evil eye, the lizard had enough awareness to look away ashamed "I was just brushing the snow off of the dish for Aki-Chan." Zilla bashfully explained and meekly pointed toward the roof.
Dabi rolled his eyes and continued to Charlotte's fully intending on leaving Zilla to his own devices. Zilla, however, had different plans and was now following him, Dabi scowled but had an idea for why Zilla was trailing after him like an ugly duckling "You ripped your coat again didn't you Geeko?" He questioned and Zilla ducked his head "I just need to stitch it up at home and it'll be fine." Zilla mumbled back messing with a ripped sleeve on his large coat.
Dabi groaned "Fine... You can follow me until I get to Charlotte's stalker." He begrudgingly told Zilla, the lizard sighed relieved, and he moved to walk right next to him with the arm in the ripped sleeve carefully tucked under his other arm "Thanks Dabi." Zilla said back and Dabi tsked "I'm only letting you stalk me because the damn Twinkie would be on my ass if I didn't. The fucker can't stand to see a big dumb animal like you suffer." Dabi spat before taking another bite of his popsicle.
"Right." Zilla snorted making Dabi's eye twitch, but he ultimately ignored the reptile's comment. Okay, maybe Dabi lost his shit that one time he found Zilla wandering the street like a zombie, but it didn't have anything to do with this moment right now, Dabi does have an 'I will fuck your shit up' vibe he needed to maintain for his job.
Dabi was almost home free but at the shrine Zilla stopped to chit chat with the old fart's bug quirked part-timer, and no matter how much Dabi wanted to ditch them he couldn't because looking after dumb kids was unfortunately in his job description.
"Hi, Ricki. Any problems with the register today?" Zilla asked and the guy chuckled making his mandibles flare out to the sides "Nah, the back room lights' have gotten fucked though. Did you get to that part of your training yet?" He asked and Zilla beamed "Yes! We did that last week when we were going over fuse boxes." Zilla excitedly told them making Dabi roll his eyes, only a Geeko like him would get so excited over electrical wiring.
"Great, I'll let you in once I'm done cleaning up in here." Ricki replied motioning back to the shrine with just his head seeing as his four arms were full of random debris and a broom "Don't you get enough work at the old fart's place, why are you busting your spindly ass here on the weekend?" Dabi pointed out. Honestly, Dabi could only count on one hand the times he hadn't caught Ricki at the shrine during the weekends.
Ricki averted his eyes and his mandibles pressed closer to his lower jaw "Yeah, it's kind of pathetic but survivors' guilt is a real bitch and half sometimes." Ricki awkwardly joked "What?" Zilla asked with enough confusion and concern Dabi didn't need to voice his own. Ricki gave them a look before his eyes got wide "Fuck, right you two weren't around for that shit show." Ricki said and he cursed himself under his breath.
Ricki took a deep breath "Right, so last year near the end of January, Endeawhore was chasing some beatnik." Ricki told them and already Dabi lost his appetite having a very good idea where the bug boy was going with this "And surprise, surprise, the licensed serial arsonist has the worst aim on the damn planet and ended up setting part of the district on fire." Ricki explained his face twisting into disgust.
*Yup, that's what I thought he would say.* Dabi mentally scoffed to himself adding another skeleton to his sperm donor's closet "That's horrible, is that why the street around here is charred?" Zilla empathized with his eyes wandering to the ashy black road they were standing on.
Ricki scoffed "Got it in one, there used to be ten old apartment buildings here before the bastard came and burned it down." Ricki answered something that again didn't surprise Dabi, the sperm donor absolutely had the firepower to do it and the buildings the Twinkie didn't own were falling apart at the seams.
"Kami... That must have been terrifying to watch." Zilla said looking rather shaken from imaging it "Try being trapped in that shit." Ricki scoffed making Zilla's mouth drop "Y-you were... " Zilla couldn't bring himself to finish his question, but it wouldn't take a genius to figure out what he was asking, Ricki nodded "Aki and I used to live here, our building was right where this shrine is. Aki was at a sleepover at the time thank God, so it was just me here at the time and I tried to grab our shit and get but I got pinned by a support beam." Ricki glumly explained.
Ricki's mandibles again pulled tight against his lower jaw "Have you ever seen those scenes on tv or in movies where a room is on fire?" He asked which Zilla nodded whereas Dabi shook his head and Ricki laughed mirthlessly "Well it ain't anything like that. Other than the fire you can't see shit, the only thing I could feel was that I was being crushed and suffocated by a black void." Ricki grimly recalled much to Zilla's horror and Dabi unfortunately could empathize.
He hadn't been stuck in a burning building but training with Endeawhore wasn't that far off "Honestly, I don't know what part of that night fucked me up the most, the fact I could have died or that even if I screamed for help no one would come." Ricki breathlessly confessed and it hit Dabi in just the wrong place.
Because that was a fucked-up thought that seemed to persist in his mind since before he faked his death. When did he stop screaming for his mom to help him because he knew she wouldn't? When did he stop begging her to stop Endeawhore because she never would? Why did Fuyumi keep pushing them to be a "normal" family when she knew everything their bastard sperm donor had done to them?
(Did Shouto ever call them for help when he was forced to start training?)
A simple "Fuck." Unintentionally escaped his lips and prompted more hollow laughter from Ricki "Yeah, that day was pretty fucked up in general. I definitely wouldn't be here talking with you two chucklefucks if it wasn't for Deku-Sensei." Ricki commented, "D-Deku-Sensei was there?" Zilla said having found his voice again, Ricki huffed at that.
"Who do you think got my ass out of the building? Half this shit hole would have burned to the ground if Deku-Sensei hadn't been there to pull our heads out of our asses." Ricki stated as if it was obvious the Twinkie would be there "What about the heroes?" Zilla asked making Ricki scoff and Dabi didn't blame him, his sperm donor usually left clean-up like that to his sidekicks.
"Iguchi, when was the last you've seen a hero in the South Side?" Ricki questioned taking Zilla off guard "Umm... I... I don't-" Zilla sputtered but was cut off by Ricki's tsk "Exactly, no hero has stepped foot inside the district for thirty-nine years straight, Endeawhore didn't need to be in the South Side to fuck us over." Ricki told them, and that was something that shocked Dabi just as much as the Geeko.
"What?" Dabi dumbly said and Ricki gave them a smirk that didn't reach his eyes "This might come as a shock to you, but every South Sider damn well knows we are the people the rest of Japan desperately tries to forget exists because they don't want to deal with our insane bullshit. Expect for when some cop comes to yank one of us to jail, no one of any authority has come to "help" us since the thirties." Ricki explained it to them as if it was an objective fact.
"Th- That can't be legal." Zilla said lost in his disbelief "The heroes, much less the cops could ignore such a massive disaster without charges against them." Zilla added completely horrified... Not that Dabi was much better in that regard, his sperm donor was a fucking trash fire incarnate but to think that he could get away with something like this.
Terrorizing his "family" was something that could be missed but burning a district to the ground? There's no way the vultures working in journalism would pass on that kind of story.
Ricki scoffed at them "And with what money or people could we use to sue the bastards? If anyone here actually took the number two to court, we would get charged out of our asses with slander long before anyone would give us the time of day." He venomously elaborated for them and no matter how much it enraged Dabi, he knew Ricki was right because he had seen Endeawhore's legal team, counter-sue people, to ruin.
"Until two years back no one living outside of the South Side has cared whether or not we all killed ourselves for a near thirty-seven damned years." Ricki bitterly spat and Dabi found himself struggling to understand what he thought about that.
On one hand, he knew society was utterly fucked up in ways most people couldn't comprehend. Hell, he and his siblings were a direct result of one of those fucked up parts of society... But to think it would be such a clusterfuck that an entire district could be under martial law without anyone caring just felt surreal to him.
Zilla, the big hero nerd he was seemed to be taking this news even worse than he was "Wh-what changed two years ago?" Zilla hesitantly asked having caught on to the time difference and this time Ricki genuinely smiled at them "That's when Deku-Sensei first came to the district. He started coming around to tutor the kids but then he began giving out food, clothes, and medical shit for us without being asked." Ricki answered his tone lightening significantly.
"Then when the crap hit the fan during the inferno, Deku-Sensei helped us till the fires were put out and he dumped a shit ton of money to build the apartments over there." Ricki continued motioning over to Charlotte's building next door to the shrine "And if that wasn't enough, he bled even more money putting together this massive funeral for everyone that died because of Endeawhore. He's why this shrine for them exists." Ricki said with a huff as if he couldn't believe it himself.
That... Wasn't what Dabi expected to hear, sure he knew the Twinkie was well respected for some godforsaken reason, but would the kid go that far? Though looking back on all his interactions with the brat, he couldn't stop a part of himself from thinking that sounds exactly like something the Twinkie would do without hesitation simply because he could.
"Deku-Sensei did all of this?" Zilla questioned awestruck by this reveal, Ricki chuckled "Yeah, and the only thing he wants from us is a little respect, and I don't think that's a bad price for knowing there is someone out there who honestly gives a fuck about you. Deku-Sensei truly is one of a kind." Ricki confirmed a bit wistful before shaking his head.
"Fuck, sorry about the tangent guys. I'm sure you both got shit to do, I'll meet you at Miyake's later Iguchi." Ricki apologized and then he quickly got back to work, Zilla's hand reached out to stop Ricki but ultimately decided not to and the two continued walking to Charlotte's building. After a few seconds, the tense silence was too much and Zilla quietly asked "Did... Did you know any of that Dabi?"
Dabi's mind raced for any hint of the things Ricki had told them. Sure, there were the rumors of Deku-Sensei's influence and sway over the powers that be, he even knew the ones about helping to refine any quirk had some damning truth to them if that guy on the news was the bum he used to see on the streets once a while.
But not once could Dabi recall anyone talking about what his sperm donor had done to the South Side, Red certainly hadn't told him anything about this but he couldn't be so sure Red knew about this because she had only been around a month longer than he had, he'd be asking Red when he got to the bakery just to be sure though.
Dabi couldn't help thinking what Red's reaction might be if she didn't know and he scoffed "Nope." Dabi replied and Zilla's gaze fell to the blackened cracked sidewalk thinking very hard about all of this "Deku-Sensei is so cool." Zilla commented smiling making Dabi huff. "Even if he did half of that crap bug boy said he's done, the brat is still a damn twinkie." Dabi shot back.
Zilla just chuckled at him grinning as he said "Sure, Dabi."