Dabi was ripped from unconsciousness by the sound of a car alarm and after he was one hundred percent sure neither he nor Red were in any danger he started cursing out the random idiot that woke him up and stumbled to the bathroom for a shower.
He had stopped being surprised by the small bits of the scabs from his scarred right arm coming off in the shower, none of them were bigger than coffee grounds and he would only start bleeding if he scrubbed the arm too roughly.
He had gotten much better at using the arm and could even confidently use it to grab things again despite the lack of nerves in it, the sight of it wasn't all that bad either after living with it for what, eight months now? Yeah, that sounded right in his head.
It being smaller than his left was the only thing that tripped him up nowadays, like now, staring at the two limbs made him feel some feeling that was a kind of cousin to the uncanny valley.
Not wanting to drive up the water bill Dabi quickly finished up and added a new coat of dye to his hair before drying himself off and getting redressed, placing the quirk band on last and once again was surprised at how off put he was when it quelled his fire.
He never thought he would ever see the day his quirk wouldn't feel like lava boiling him from the inside out, but if things continued the way they were the Twinkie said after next month he wouldn't need to wear the band at all anymore because his body was almost fully adjusted to the flames.
It was a bit petty of him but the fact that a random quirkless kid Shouto's age was a much better teacher than his old man gave him no endless amount of amusement, he could practically picture how Endeawhore's veins would bulge if someone said that to his face, the temper-tantrum wouldn't be that much fun, but Dabi would love to see the sheer outrage on his face.
Too bad he wouldn't be able to do that without returning from the dead, still little petty thoughts like that were his bread and butter now since he had kind of had to give up on his original master plan.
Oh, he still wanted the whole world to know how much of a bastard his sperm donor was but his willingness to kill himself over it had fizzled out, yeah it would be a big statement but that was before the Twinkie poached his ass and he got attached to people.
He still loved his siblings deep down, but he knew they would be much better off if they didn't have to be afraid of Endeawhore lurking around and manipulating their lives, and if that meant going so far as to killing himself on live T.V with the quirk that was killing him from the inside then so be it.
But now that he had Red and Zilla around it was much harder to find that nerve, hell he was even starting to warm up to the Twinkie himself because of how he defied everything his sperm donor believed in with the sheer audacity of his existence.
So yeah, he was going to have to scrap his first plan for ruining Endeawhore's life because himself dying was no longer a viable option.
He was still going to find a way to fuck his life up but it was figuring out a good way of doing it that was the problem, mainly because he had a lot more options now with the Twinkie's connections.
If he waited long enough he would have enough money to pay those rabbits to give him proof of all the shady crap Endeawhore did to buy his mom and maybe even some of the abuse to if he played his cards right, that was not to mention how easy it would be to ask around and find some kind of mind-reader or truth quirked person that could verify what he was saying.
Walking into the kitchen he was unsurprised Red was still asleep and just grabbed himself a bowl of cereal and flicked through the messages on his phone, most were spam messages from Zilla's gaming buddy, Comet-chaserXxX who was asking him to join them raiding some dungeon at 2am.
Dabi rolled his eyes, Zilla might have infected him with his nerdiness but he wasn't going to miss sleeping for that stuff, at least space case had stopped leaving the odd threat of stealing all of his left shoes when he didn't respond to him.
After he cleaned out his bowl Dabi grabbed his jacket and left the apartment to get started on his patrol work, it wasn't like he was going to get back to sleep anyways, just another reason to be pissy with his sperm donor.
A pleasant shiver shot up his spine as soon as he was hit by the brisk pre-sunrise chill and Dabi relished in it.
With how things were in Endeawhore's house he didn't get to indulge in the cold except for when his mom or Fuyumi used their quirks on him after a training session, so he had no idea how good it felt, now though he made sure to enjoy all the snow and ice freezing him.
The Twinkie would probably say it's because his body was built for it and that was why it felt so good, couldn't bring himself to disagree with how the tingling went all the way down to his fingertips.
Dabi passed a gang of three as he strolled in and traded polite nods with pointy bluenette, he was quite accepted in the South Side now and could just about go anywhere he wanted, a few gangs were paranoid but they were in the minority so he could simply walk from point a to point b now.
The rest of the day was pretty average, he had to break up a few fights between different groups, some kids decided he was a jungle-gym at one point and crawled all over him when he sat down for a break, Zilla ripped up another coat somehow and he had to bring the dumb lizard back home, he greeted Hamster girl and Tinker toy as they went to see Charlotte's kid.
When it was time for his quirk lesson he noted it was the suit clone's turn, he was still a bit weirded out by the thought of three Twinkie's running around the island but at least he didn't have to deal with all three of them at once.
When they got down to training he was quite happy how well his pyrokinesis was coming along since he could control flames as tall as himself now without having to rely on his right hand as well.
By the end of it he was drying his hair and noticed the suit hadn't left yet and raised an eye, the clone's hands went behind his back before he spoke "Dabi, could I borrow you for a moment? There is something we- I have been meaning to ask you." the suit inquired.
Dabi had noticed the slip of we and chose not to mention it, while the Twinkie assured them that the clone's didn't share a hive mind with him Dabi wasn't quite so convinced with how in sync the three of them were, but if the Twinkie trusted the jolly idiot's clones of him weren't going to turn on him he wasn't going to openly voice his concerns just yet.
"Yeah sure, right now or later?" Dabi asked, crossing his arms.
"Now would be preferable, it's about something related to... from B.D." the suit explained, and Dabi tensed up almost immediately.
B.D. was the term the Twinkie made up so that he could tell Dabi if they had to talk about his family or anything related to before he became Dabi, it hadn't been used once since it was made so Dabi felt reasonably uncertain why the suit was bringing it up now.
Dabi swallowed thickly "Yeah." Dabi agreed, his eyes darting around, spotting one or two people puttering about their daily lives.
"Follow me." The suit whispered leading him away to Charlotte's building and texting someone on his phone, before he could ask one of the black and purple mist portals opened and the suit tugged on his jacket sleeve. "Come on, we're going somewhere we won't be overheard." the suit assured.
Dabi hesitated glancing at the suit, his stomach turning uncomfortably at the thought of blindly following the imitation of a person, because as real as this thing looked it wasn't the Twinkie and despite knowing the Twinkie used the portals regularly to move around the island Dabi just didn't know what would be on the other side.
Sensing his clear discomfort, the suit grabbed his jacket sleeve again and just holding it "You don't need to worry Dabi. Giri-Kun's quirk is very safe, and none of us would ever take advantage of your trust in us. Not me, not Riya and especially not Deku." the suit promised before he pulled him towards the portal.
Dabi despite his mind screaming at him followed the suit into the portal and he recoiled at odd spine-tingling sensation of being consumed by the mist and nearly choked on it before he was spat back out, still reeling he almost fell over as he coughed on the leftover mist but the suit was quick on his feet and held him up.
"Oh, my gosh Dabi I am so sorry! I should have told you to hold your breath before we went in, people always choke on the mist the first time." the suit rapidly apologized, his hands flailing about after he helped Dabi up to his feet.
"S-shut up Suit." he grumbled, giving the clone a light whack upside the head as he looked around wherever he was taken to.
It was a seemingly large, disheveled room. A round table covered with papers, pens, and notebooks. Two of the walls were covered fully by shelves packed with more books of various types, the remaining wall in front of them were three desks with different styles and a few different corkboards above them, and lastly a mini fridge hooked up to a small generator.
"Where, are we?" Dabi questioned, only slightly relieved when he eventually spotted a door in the wall behind them.
"This is our office, Riya, and I do most of our work here before we go off to the districts. Considering how dangerous our analysis could be in the wrong hands Deku knew that it would be better that we find someplace safe to keep our work not directly connected to us. We don't have to worry about anyone seeing the three of us together and can talk about everything we're working on without eavesdropping on us." the suit explained.
"Apologies for the mess, we didn't plan for any visitors to ever come here but I thought this would be the best place to talk about what I wanted to ask you." the suit said bashfully rubbing the back of his neck.
Dabi stiffened again "Right, what do you want to ask me Suit?" he asked crossing his arms "It has something to do with... " Dabi couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.
The suit nodded motioning to the round table and Dabi sat down across from him, once he was sat down himself the suit pulled out a large pile of papers and offered them to him, Dabi blinked and frowned once he saw the title written out on it.
"Heroic Sacrifice?" he read out confused, why would the Twinkie want him to look at this book? He was a knucklehead and the muscle, not some scholar.
The suit took a deep breath. "Dabi, this book is a collection of ninety-nine stories of people that have had their lives destroyed by Endeavour, and I want yours to be number one hundred." the clone told him.
Dabi heads snapped up to stare at the clone his jaw dropping "W-what?" he said, because there was no way heard the imposter right, right? The Twinkie was madly protective of the people in the South Side and he remembered that the boy really wasn't happy after his sperm donor burned the district for a second time... but to write a whole ass book to vent that rage?
The suit locked eyes with him and Dabi was stuck by just how sharp the clone's eye was "Dabi, even long before Deku started his work in the South Side he didn't hold the highest view of the #2 hero, but after the South Side Inferno he... " suit cut himself off his eyes going down to his balled fists on his lap.
"He decided that if no one else was going to protect these people, then he would, and he has done his best to do just that... but as you've seen, he can't do that alone, not anymore. This book holds a list of people that have either been killed by Endeavour or had their lives completely ruined by him being a careless bastard abusing his hero license." the clone continued with a venomous hint to his tone.
"Careless?" Dabi questioned, his sperm donor was god awful but Dabi wouldn't say he was careless, Endeawhore was far too controlling of their lives to be so continuously and blatantly terrible on the job given his numbers were his pride and joy.
The clone gave him a slightly disappointed look "Dabi, you know how Endeavour's shoulders and hair are consistently on fire? He did that even at home correct?" the suit pressed.
"Yeah?" Dabi confirmed unsure if he should feel dumb about not knowing where the clone was going with that point.
"Dabi after all these years, how can he have enough control to keep his face lit with just enough fire to not set anything else on fire or set off fire alarms, but not enough to control to keep his flames from burning down multiple city blocks?" the clone pointedly questioned.
Dabi shrunk in on himself, his mouth opened then closed unable to find any words.
"In less than a year, you have shown more control over your flames than Endeavour has since his whole career after he left U.A, do I really have to spell out what that means to you Dabi?" the clone asked, and Dabi shook his head.
Shame twisting his guts in knots as the realization settled in.
The suit hung his head with a sigh "Dabi, if your... father wasn't the #2 for so long then he would have been locked away for depraved heart murder by now, we don't like writing people off as irredeemable but all three of us agree that Endeavour being free would lead to far more death and destruction than he supposedly prevents." he explained then pointed to the manuscript Dabi held.
"That book, is part of our plan to ensure that Endeavour will finally pay the price for all of his crimes, by having Endeavour be brought up on war crimes it will ensure that he can't use the "good will" he has with the commission to wiggle out of the charges." the clone further elaborated for him.
But Dabi's brain couldn't help back tracking and though he really shouldn't be surprised at this point he couldn't help dumbly repeating "War crimes?" the two words weighing down his tongue oddly making it feel like lead.
Another sigh came from the clone "Despite your less than formal education I believe you are aware of biological warfare being highly illegal according to the Geneva convention, correct?" the clone asked, and Dabi nodded his head.
"Well the first generations of quirked people were often used like dogs of war and the government used them to wage war on other countries, and much like dogs there were selective breeding programs to get people with stronger quirks, and like ever pre-quirk video game said in neon mar-key, those super soldier programs backfired hard." The clone told him.
"That and the sky rocketing numbers of Antithesis quirks like yours caused the newly reformed united nations counsel formed after the second quirk war to make arranged marriages for the purpose of making stronger quirked children classified as an act of biological warfare. As far as the world is concerned, making a targeted biological weapon and quirk marriages are the same thing." the clone said rounding it back to what prompted this question in the first place.
Dabi body slumped in the chair as he tried to wrap his mind around what the suit had just explained to him.
He and his siblings had all known that quirk marriages were illegal considering how much work their sperm donor had gone through to bury how he bought their mom, but to know it was considered a war crime? It was just... he didn't even know how to feel about that.
"That Dabi, is why we want to add your story to the book. There will be plenty of outrage if we just produced this book as it is given how many stories involve children, but the story of Touya, the eldest son who died a victim of a highly illegal quirk marriage would guarantee that the U.N. will get involved and make sure Endeavour goes to prison." the clone explained.
Dabi's eyes went down to a large stack of papers in his hands, he had the literal key to utterly destroy everything Endeawhore had worked for right under his nose and the Twinkie was happily offering it up to him.
He had dreamed of finally getting revenge on his old man and freeing his siblings in the process, normally he was always thought he'd be watching on from beyond the grave as his siblings became happy and free to become whatever they wanted once he brought the bastard down, but now he could do that without the dying part.
"How, long would it take? To get him in jail this way?" Dabi asked his right-hand trembling as it traced the title.
"Since we're producing the book in six different languages it will six months to make enough copies, another six to get them cleared to be put on shelves in all the countries we plan to ship it to, so it will be on shelves either by January or February next year, after that however it's anyone's guess. If I could I would just send a copy straight to the U.N's headquarters but in order for them to investigate we can't risk "influencing" them, the public outrage will help though." the suit answered.
Part of Dabi wanted to say to hell with the politics of it but deep down he understood where the clone was coming from, his former plan would have taken many years to come to fruition the way he wanted it to, however just rolling over and letting the Twinkie handle everything left a sour taste in his mouth.
"What would happen to Natsuo and Shouto if your plan works Suit?" Dabi questioned, knowing that the two of them would be the most vulnerable by Endeawhore being imprisoned.
"Deku has a good friend that is working with Natsuo as an E.M.T. and Natsuo has been going to his current college under scholarship long enough that can't legally be taken away at this point, and if you yourself don't want to come forward as Touya then we have already found someone else in your family unconnected to your immediate family that can provide for Shouto." the clone assured easily enough, likely anticipating he would ask that.
Dabi scowled at that "Who?" he questioned.
"Your mother has a younger half-brother that has never had any direct contact with your family because he was the product of an affair your maternal grandfather had. We've run him through a background check via the Vespas, but he seems like a good choice for guardian." the suit answered.
Dabi bit his lip and stared at the papers again, conflicting thoughts and feelings swirling around inside of him as he carefully weighed the pros and cons of agreeing to do this.
After what felt like an eternity just thinking Dabi took a breath and steeled himself before he told the clone his decision.
"I'll be the hundredth person in this book of misery you're making on two conditions." Dabi said, his stomach feeling as heavy as lead.
The suit nodded, a hand motioning for him to continue with a wave.
"Firstly, I get to pick which of my memories of that bastard goes in this book, and secondly I get to write it and you guys just add it in as it is, got it?" Dabi laid out.
The clone didn't hesitate to nod his head again "All of that will be fine," he said then bowed as far as he could in his chair "Thank you for helping us Dabi, you have no idea what this means to us." the clone heartfully added.
Dabi huffed, tossing the papers back at the suit and crossed his arms "Yeah, yeah." Dabi replied swiftly standing up and shoving his hands into his jacket's pockets "Can you send me back so I can get back to work?" Dabi gruffly asked, hoping it would cover up how his right arm trembled.
"Of course, Dabi, just text us once you've finished the story so we can add it." The suit agreed pulling out his phone to text the teleporter, a misty portal appearing seconds later "This will take you back to the apartments, Riya will be around in a couple of days like usual." the suit added.
Dabi nodded and took a deep breath before stepping through the portal, the feeling of the mist wasn't any less odd and he was grateful to be out of it just as quickly, he had no idea how the Twinkie dealt with that feeling multiple times every day.
Once he got his bearings Dabi immediately jumped right back into his patrol, mainly to distract himself from what he had just agreed to.
Because Dabi knew exactly which story he was going to add, the thought of writing it out made his guts twist themselves into even tighter knots but it would show the world just how far his sperm donor was willing to go, it might also bring his siblings some closure about what happened that night all those years ago.
The true death of Todoroki Touya was hardly a story most knew of, he just needed to find a way to keep his hands from trembling as he wrote it.
For a touch more more claired for why I decided to make Enji a war criminal, I have read through what classifieds as a war crime and considering how they could've changed to include changes from the quirk era.
And I chose Quirk marriages to be a part of biological warfare because they are usually small scale (one or two people would be affected pair case typically) so couldn't meet the standards most war crimes categories but since it's whole purpose was to gain powerful children with stronger quirks it could be argued as genetically creating super soldiers.
Which would've been used in mass and therefore turned into a war crime to out law the practice and protect the quirked back when they were a minority.
Would've loved to get Endeavour on genocide but it only works for if the people were killed because of their religion or nationality in the real world, could add for quirk types but since it wasn't targeted attacks on certain groups I can't get him for that :(