* / 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 !

something’s wrong.

why.

THE QUESTION CIRCLES AROUND IN HIS HEAD as his world keeps spinning. waking up someplace new ... was pretty alarming. an unknown place --- lightheaded cognition --- DAZED for a few minutes before the world starts piecing itself back together. he even finds the strength to look around the room. huh. it’s a small ... nice place. definitely wasn’t where he was before. could someone have ... brought him here? it seems LAUGHABLE, in a sense. who’d help him? some nobody? someone who looks the way he does? really ... he doesn’t know whether or not to be pissed that his outward appearance doesn’t drive someone away.

but where was he ... before here? he remembers going on his nightly strolls. he had already been feeling bad at that point. stomach churning, getting hard to make out left from right. he hadn’t expected a FAINTING SPELL right then and there. he can usually fight it, delay it until he somewhere alone. but something sparked it. something ...

familiar ...

the voice. it makes his eyes trail to the other body in the room. he must have been blanking out after finally coming to. but who ... ?? was this ... the person who found him?

he locks eyes with the other, then. and like deja vu ... something about this situation feels like ALL THOSE YEARS AGO ... where two brothers only had each other, the younger always finding himself left with what remained of the older by the end of the day. the older brother, so weak, always trying to comfort his little brother. the older brother, so softly, calling out for his brother ---

❛ natsuo ... ❜

something’s wrong.

--------- ‘thanks’ IS THE FIRST GUTTURAL REACTION HE HAS. it’s hushed by his almost prideful march into their hideout, even if it’s accompanied by a limp. he has a few scrapes here and there, but there are no major injuries. well. maybe except for his SHOULDER. gash running along it, dried and fresh blood trailing down his arm.

he doesn’t really feel it. feel any of his injuries. there’s a more BITTER reaction, knowing he had been bested. he strides over to somewhere he can sit himself. hand comes to his shoulder, then, finally noticing the wound. he thought it would have stopped bleeding by now. just ... great.

i wanna talk about dabi’s life after the “incident”.

he fakes his death and successfully runs away. but what happens after that? dabi’s a tween, if not JUST entering his teenage years when he runs away. he’s young, he’s scared, and it’s logical that he tries to seek refuge somewhere. so let’s say he does. let’s say someone does take him in, seeing how he’s critically injured from burning himself. he starts treatment without anyone telling who he is. everyone seems nice to him until the one question occurs:

“what happened to you?”

he’s gotten this far without needing to say anything. really, he’s not sure what to say. going through something so traumatic built with years of trauma on top of that makes it hard to explain. not to mention he’s been taught to “keep quiet” and “look away” from his siblings and his mother.

so when he says that the pro hero, endeavor, did this to him, it took a lot of courage and a lot of trust. and he was laughed at for it.

perhaps not “laughed at” literally, but it might as well have been. they disregarded what he said, clearly doubtful that endeavor could do something to such a young kid. a hero couldn’t do this to a child, right?

this plays into a lot of things. firstly, his second escape. secondly, adding into his hatred for heroes and their system. thirdly, his reluctance to tell anyone who he was. it was also from then on that he thought he couldn’t do anything about what happened to him. that he was forced to stay quiet about it forever because who would even believe him? endeavor was a hero. one people loved and adored and praised. for some kid to tell them what they thought about their hero was wrong ... clearly, it couldn’t be done.

so years after, he retreated into a life of crime. he would be in groups here and there, contributed to crimes, and left burnt corpses in his wake. he went by many aliases and completely detached himself from his life before. he never really had a purpose but to survive. there would be times he wished that he could get back at endeavor and heroes in general, but he never thought it was possible.

until stain.

stain had done it. stain’s philosophy was nearly identical to the one he had developed. stain showed him that it WAS possible to show people who heroes truly were. it was possible to expose endeavor.