#just to make dabi seem less bad...

[simplyraeblue]

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No Regrets (Hawks x reader)

!femreeader x hawks when your best friend shows up after a near death experience, claiming he couldn't leave this world with regrets; so, he fucks you stupid. WARNINGS/TAGS: swearing, NSFW, smut, p in v, creampie, hawks tops in this one, oral (f receiving) mentioned, squirting, hickies, idk man I just want hawks so bad, kind of straight into smut less plot A/N: my entire tik tok fyp has been hawks edits, so this is the result. it took me forever to decide if I wanted him to be a top or a bottom in this one, but I'm all for pillow princesses so he's a top in my mind ◦ ◡ ◠ I need to write more hawks, but maaaaybe aizawa or dabi next? word count: 1,903

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you and Keigo had been friends for quite awhile, even before you left the public safety commission, so it was no surprise when he showed up on your balcony, knocking on the window. but this time, he was banging on it urgently.

“where’s the fire?” you teased with a smirk as you slid the door open. he didn’t respond, instead stepping past you into your studio apartment in a rush. “whoa, what crawled up your pants?”

“don’t.” his voice was low, deeper than you’d ever had aimed at you, as he paced around your room, his wings fluttering restlessly.

“you’re starting to freak me out Kei. what’s going on?” you reached for his shoulder, hoping to calm him down, but he grabbed your wrist tightly.

“I need to tell you something, doll. a secret, of sorts.” finally, he met your gaze, and you shivered at the intensity in his darkened eyes. what the hell has happened?

“okay, I’m listening.”

Keigo sighed and released your wrist, resuming his pacing. “you know how we’ve been friends for years now.” you nodded. “well, there’s something that I can’t seem to get off my mind.”

“and that is?”

“you.” he looked at you again, and you would have laughed at his joke had his face not been so serious. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

your heart began to pound rapidly as you tried to decipher his meaning. “what… what are you saying?”

Keigo stepped closer to you, his wings shuddering in response when his hand came up to cup your cheek. “I’m saying… I’m saying that I had a close call today. too close. and I knew that if it was my time, I’d be leaving this world without doing the one thing I’ve been wanting to.”

before you could even attempt to respond, to ask what had happened, Keigo’s face started to lower closer to yours. his breathing felt strained as his breath warmed your cheeks and you realized you’d stopped breathing.

“I don’t want to ever leave with regrets.” he whispered, his lips now inches from yours. 

as you realized what was about to happen, your palms began to sweat. you’d thought about this happening many times before since you’d met the cocky bastard who’d worked his way into your heart. but you’d always shoved those ideas down in the name of friendship.

hero work meant the next day might not be guaranteed, everyone knew that. you’d made your peace with it when you started working for the commission – but ever since meeting Keigo, you wanted a million tomorrows.

“then, make it count.” you finally responded to him with a shaky voice. when you gave him the go-ahead, the darkness in his eyes lit up with hope.

in one fluid motion, he closed the gap, his lips meeting yours with a rough urgency. it was passionate, and as the kiss deepened it ignited a spark that sent warmth coursing through your veins. his hands cradled your face, his wings wrapping around you as he pulled you flush against him.

but it didn’t stop there. no – the both of you were desperate for more, every thought and feeling that you’d both had coming to fruition in this moment. Keigo guided you backward until your legs hit your bed, falling backward onto the blankets underneath him. 

“Kei…” you whimpered under his touch, becoming a puddle of mush as his hand explored you. 

“tell me you don’t want this.” he said under his breath, his voice straining with the amount of strength it was taking him to hold back from ripping your clothes off with his teeth.

“I want you.” you answered before rolling your hips upwards into his. he groaned at the contact against his hard-on hiding in his pants, eyes rolling back slightly at the feeling. “I need you, Keigo Takami.”

and with that, the last bit of strength holding himself back snapped under the weight of your words. his lips crashed into yours again, pulling out your bottom lip with his teeth as he started to literally rip your clothes off. 

you heard the first rip of your top, the fabric being thrown to the side by his hands. ah, you’d get another shirt. then, his hands feverishly worked to undo the buttons of your jeans, leaning back to slide them down your legs and discarding them on the floor.

“s’ pretty. been thinking ‘bout this for years, doll.” Keigo hummed into your thighs as he placed soft kisses on your skin before removing his clothing in a flash. it was like you’d taken a long blink, and then he was standing naked and proud in front of you.

you’d always imagined what his cock might look like, once teasing him by saying he probably had feathers for pubes, but whatever you’d concocted in your mind wasn’t even close. it was larger than you’d anticipated, with short, blonde hair curled at the base. 

and to drive you even crazier, his tip was already leaking with precum.

“I’m sorry I told you your dick was small.” you giggled, your cheeks flushing pink as you remembered the insult you’d thrown at him after a tough mission. 

Keigo smirked at you with a raise brow, crossing his arms over his chest as if he was proud. “yeah, I knew you’d regret that one day. now, let me prove you wrong.”

he crawled back over top of you, his fingers dipping between your legs and humming in delight when he found you already wet for him. you hissed as he circled your clit, deliciously slow and teasing, before pushing two fingers inside of you.

“fuck you’re already dripping me for, aren’t you doll.” Keigo purred as he curled his fingers, prodding at your slick walls to find your gummy g-spot. “can’t wait t’ feel it for myself.”

through your labored breathing, you panted out, “what are you waiting for then?” 

“hm, so impatient.” he grinned wickedly as he pulled his fingers from your pussy before putting them in his mouth to lick up your juices. “taste ��s good, gonna have to try it later.”

“later.” you snapped as you attempted to hook your legs behind him, only being met with his hands pushing your knees apart in a spread.

“gonna fuck you stupid first, is that alright?” you nodded as you watched his weeping tip line up with your entrance, rubbing up and down to tease your clit. “gonna fill you up s’ good.”

“please, Kei, just fuck me already.” you whined as your hips bucked to try and meet his.

“if you say so.” he wasted no time once he pushed his tip in, driving hard into you to stretch your walls around his throbbing dick and bottoming out immediately, both of you moaning out in pleasure.

“ah – fuck – I take back what I said about your dick size.” you squealed as his tip nudged your cervix, your gummy walls struggling to mold around him without pain. “you’re really fucking big.”

“and you’re really fucking tight.” Keigo groaned before dipping his head into your neck. his hands pressed into the backs of your knees, pushing them up in your chest to fold you in half while he began thrusting his hips slowly. 

“how have we not done this before?” with every thrust, you were seeing stars shooting across your vision. as he bullied your cervix you couldn’t help but dig your fingernails into his back with every nudge. 

“someone – mph – was playing hard to get.” he bit your neck lightly, sucking the skin between his teeth to mark you. “now, you’re gonna be mine. is that okay, doll?”

“abso-fucking-lutely.” you managed to respond before all words were lost on you when he delivered a mean slam of his hips into you. “ah fuck Keigo!”

“that’s it, take my cock. y’ already milking me for everything I’ve got.” 

sweat began to drip down your temple as he fucked you rougher with every drive of his cock. your poor neighbors were probably hearing every lewd wet smack of his balls against your ass and every moan the two of you shared. Keigo was driving you to the brink of insanity, and fucking you stupid just as he said.

before your orgasm got too close, he gripped your hips and flipped you over onto your stomach, pulling your back flush against his chest as he continued to thrust into you. his teeth raked over the skin of your shoulder, biting and kissing marks there to match the one he left on your neck.

you were pretty sure his cock was going to bruise your cervix in this position as you moaned with a mix of pain and white-hot pleasure. he was so much deeper this way, taking every inch that you could give to him. 

you’re so lost in the pleasure at the point that you don’t even realize his thrusts are getting sloppier as he reached down to rub circles around your clit. “Keigo, ‘m gonna – hah- I’m gonna come.” you panted breathlessly, your eyes already screwed shut at the tightness wound in your abdomen. “you’re gonna make me come.”

“that’s right, come all over my dick pretty girl. lemme – fuck you’re getting tighter - lemme feel you.” Keigo ground out into your neck, his fingers working faster on your sensitive nub. with every pinch he delivered to your apex, you were losing every thought in your mind. 

just as your orgasm began, Keigo pulled you up off of him just slightly, his tip teasing your hole as he rubbed at your clit brutally quick, sending you skyrocketing into your release. “fuck!” you yelled out as your entire body tensed up, and you could hear your fluid squirt out of you as you came. you dumbly rubbed your pussy against the tip of his cock to ride out your high, already feeling the mess dripping down your thighs.

“s’ fucking good for me, squirted all over me you wicked thing.” Keigo gasped before driving his cock into you again, this time finding his own release within your warm, wet walls milking every ounce of cum from his tip as he painted them white. “fuck I’m filling you up.”

as Keigo rode out his orgasm, his hands gripped your hips hard enough you were sure they’d bruise as he slammed into you until overstimulation began to take over. finally, when he deemed himself satisfied, he pulled out to lean back and watch his cum drip from your cunt.

“god this is fucking sexy.” he panted as he pushed two fingers inside of you to shove his cum back in, sending a warm shiver through your body as you collapsed down onto the bed. 

you’d thought you were spent, your orgasm leaving your body wracked and numb, but when his fingers continued to push in and out of you, you knew he wasn’t done yet.

“wanna taste me now?” you teased, and he grinned wickedly at you. you took that as a yes before he dipped his face between your legs.

you lost count of how many orgasms you’d had, both from him devouring you and fucking you all over again, as you lay on your back to watch his feathers floating in the air above your bed. 

no regrets, right? you’d told each other that before passing out, still drenched in sweat and naked, in each other’s arms.

no regrets.

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Link to Kirishima x reader here (word count: 902)

Link to Shoto x reader pt. 1 here (word count: 1,800)

Link to Kaminari x reader pt.1 here (word count: 2,680)

Link to Bakugo x reader here (word count: 2,328)

Link to Aizawa x reader here (word count: 1,930)

[stvllioner]

hi sweetie my head is currently empty save for a sweet and understanding reader choking on dabi‘s bad boi d3ck and he rewards them for it afterwards and I wanted to request if you feel like writing something like this but if you don’t that’s totally ok! thank you for reading this ask anyways (^–^)

      dabi/touya todoroki x [fem]pro-hero!reader

warning(s): sexual content, oral (f → m), finger sucking, choking, fucking on camera aka sex tape, dacryphilia, mentions of masturbation, petting, semi-public sex, established relationship.

key: e/c = eye color.

read more: masterpost | adult masterlist | drabble list

a/n: it's a tame... i keep falling out of writing lol. im not sure if it does a good job on the blowjob aspect but it sort of does?? yeah? yeah. thank you, anon!

(E/C) irises look so heartbreakingly iridescent under Dabi's unrelenting back camera flash.

there was not a single thought behind your eyes as it was that much evident after allowing yourself to be so indecent in such a crude place.

you should be patrolling the block, but instead you find yourself in a cramped car, slurping down a villain's cock like there was no tomorrow. safe for him, he still had his clothes in tact, but he couldn't say the same for you. you had told him your shift was almost over so it didn't matter and you'll make something up to make up for the ruined costume later. Dabi would call himself shocked, but also proud at how well he had taught you to lie so naturally and well.

lying in devotion to him as you gazed hopefully at him, mouth so perfectly around his cock, and saliva at the corners of your mouth. selfishly, he asks for you to brace yourself as he pushes your head further onto his length. with quick thrusts as he could manage in the small space, Dabi could care less on how obvious it was that maybe there were people in here doing things they shouldn't be doing. only crooked people seemed to be around this hour anyway.

his cock slides itself easily between your lips, your saliva that forms at the corner of your lips and your combined humming to avoid the gag-reflex helps with him getting closer and closer to his release. he groans in distaste when he feels the familiar feeling build in his stomach and pushes your head away from his length. your hands that wrap around the rest of him that couldn't quite reach your mouth to stroke him, your expression now confused more than anything.

the camera probably lost a bit of focus then, but you were still clearly in view; he always made sure that you were always the main focus.

you ask him what's wrong but is silenced when he seemingly cups your check, lovingly, and strokes your cheek with his thumb. your pretty eyelashes blink up at him before you move your head to the side, enough so he can slip his thumb in your mouth and you happily suck on that too. he curses under his breath and withdraws his hand from you, instructing you to fully pull off your uniform. the hero costume that was specifically tailored for, you, and you only. you comply without any questions, careful to not hit him as you undress.

"play with yourself."

and you do just that.

but instead of just using your own hands, you take two of his fingers into your mouth and lubricate them with your tongue; the wet muscle in your mouth playing with his digits. he growls as you toy with him, instead forcing hand further into your mouth causing you to gag over them. he promptly pulls them out as he lets you catch your breath and turns you over to your hands and knees. phone be damned, he needed to fuck you now.

Dabi tosses the device elsewhere in the car, the object releasing a soft 'thump' as it signifies its landing on the floor. he doesn't even warn you as he begins to pet your already sopping folds, the amount of slick never ending. he circles your opening, teasingly, before he sinks them in, two at once. you softly hiss as he works his fingers into you. you were more than ready to receive him but your tightness was delaying it. as he manages to slip in another finger your jaw drops and your hips press into his fingers. trying your hardest to not moan at loud, you cover your own mouth and take his preparation.

you whimper out his name to warn him of your climax and groan outwardly when he withdraws promptly. he tsk's at your eagerness and uses your slick to wet his tip. through with teasing, he aligns himself to your hole and rubs his tip against your opening. he promptly drops a glob of spit to help with lubrication, not that you really needed it, but you know he likes it messy. it's almost humiliating how elated you shiver once he sinks his cock into your awaiting cunny, legs spreading and hands finding anything to brace yourself.

without his usual carefulness and his on-edge mood for the night, he sets an aggressive and fast pace, hands gripping you tight and nails digging into your skin. you blissfully whimper at the pain that shoots through your body, not sure to say anything about it as the sick part of you loved it anyways. unfortunately for the limited room in the car, it didn't allow much space to work with and it was frustrating Dabi deeply.

"turn around for me, doll."

it was a command more than it was a question. which you didn't mind, either. with carefulness, you followed his directions and turned around for him, assuming the position and holding in your breath as you ready yourself for his pace. his reinsertion was gratifying to say the least. with a swift motion and his hands spreading your cheeks to observe both of your holes, the embarrassment that you would've felt in this moment died long ago. "look at this ass," he teasingly calls out as he delivers a playful smack to your bum, watching as your cheeks bounce on his dick. now he wished he hadn't tossed his phone to the front to savor this moment for later.

your pager starts buzzing with work temptations, the sound of the device nearly going unnoticed by you. in a lust-filled haze, you weakly lift your head up from within the confines of your arms and try to support yourself. you babble, something about needing to look at it—your pleas going unnoticed and Dabi's eyes narrowing at your anxiety. the male sharpens his thrusts deeper into you (how it was still possible, you weren't sure) to command your full attention once again. selfishly, the rocking of his cock graciously stroking your walls without delay in his rhythm ultimately breaks your resolve. with familiar vigor, one of his hands snake forward to play with the bundle of nerves to help further you along, his actions giving you no choice but to finish on his cock.

if only he hadn't tossed his phone elsewhere, he could have captured this moment to sit along with all his favorites with your name on it.

all rights reserved © do NOT steal, alter, translate or copy this work.

[deadhands69]

Will you be my Valentine?: Villains

How does your favorite villain act on Valentine’s day when they have a crush on you?

villain edition ▷ masc version ▷ fem version

Toga is pretty open. If she has a crush on you, you probably already know. If you somehow haven’t figured it out by now, you DEFINITELY will by the end of Valentine’s day. She brought you cute things and is being wayyy more over the top flirty than usual. On top of that, she made reservations for something cute like a cat cafe or a movie.

She’s also chasing you with a knife (it’s her love language!) Don’t worry,  you’ll get used to it. Probably.

How to handle this: Give her a little blood as a gift and she’ll calm down (again: probably.)

Shigaraki is grouchier than usual. Partially because he “didn’t ask to be subjected to this stupid holiday.” Mostly because he never saw all this “lovey dovey shit” as anything meant for him, but being around you makes him wish it was. So, Tomura is going to be in a bad mood all day but he’s also following you around like a lost puppy. Kurogiri noticed this and is trying so hard to quietly set up situations to give him a little push before leaving and watching from the other room. Playing romantic music before the two of you walk into the living room. Leaving tea for two out in the dining room. After his hints are not received, he eventually gives in and just walks into the room asking the two of you if there's anywhere you'd like him to warp you for the evening. Tomura is full deer in the headlights after that, you'll have to answer.

How to handle this: He’s complaining about how stupid it all is and he wants you to tell him how much you love and care about him agree and laugh about it. Careful what you say though, he startles easily.

Compress is the opposite. He pulled out all the stops. You left briefly to grab something from the convenience store and when you get back he has the whole entryway decorated. Roses, balloons, a giant sign asking you to be his Valentine. He has a full choreographed routine declaring his undying love for you. It doesn’t tone down from there either, fancy dinner, a sunset walk, and every romantic cliche you can imagine.

How to handle this: He put the effort in, all you need to do is be excited along with him.

Twice also put in a lot of effort. Candles and rose petals EVERYWHERE. He went back and forth on whether it was too much, but after watching Compress, he decided some decorations, chocolate, and champagne really aren't that over the top. He's pretty open to ideas on where things go from there - you being there is the important part.

How to handle this: No need to show up with a present or do anything in particular. You spending time with him is a gift in itself. 

Dabi is awwwkkkkwwarrrrddddd. He’s trying so hard but it’s all new for him. You’ve never seen him flustered like this. Stumbling over words. Taking you somewhere cute (well, cute by his standards) but forgetting to indicate that it’s a date in any way. He just insulted you (accidentally) while trying to give you a compliment. He sees it all happening and in no way knows how to make it stop. In his defense, he has no romantic experience nor has he witnessed how any happy adult couples behave. He's only going off of what he's seen in movies (not much) and the less-unhinged things he chose to take from Toga's advice.

How to handle this: Put in any effort and he’ll completely cave (once he realizes you’re not fucking with him.)

Spinner seems like the type to do something very lowkey and specific to you. It’ll be subtle, but nice. He won’t go overboard or drag you out to crowded restaurants, but he’ll watch your favorite movie with you. Play your favorite game. Do something related to your hobbies. The little things you never thought anyone would notice, but he does. He texted you a week or two in advance to see if you were free before showing up in person. Nervously, he stood in your doorway, eyes glued to the floor while he quietly stuttered his way through asking you to hang out. As he's leaving, he realizes he may have accidentally made it sound a lot more casual than he intended for it to be.

How to handle this: He put so much more into this than it seems, please notice!

masterlist

taglist: @shigarakislaughter

[a-bottle-of-tyelenol]

little hawks & cg dabi headcanons !!

— requested by anon —

— cw: trauma and abuse mentions —

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🧸 - dabi pays a lot of attention to hawks— he takes his job as hawks’ contact very seriously and puts most of his time towards watching him. seeing as hawks is very open about his regression to his fans, it’s one of the first things dabi learns about him. though, of course, it takes a while for dabi to realize that there’s an ounce of truth to the persona, partly because he only knows what hawks wants him to know and it takes a pretty severe drop (a series of unfortunate events and stress leading to hawks impurely regressing and having a meltdown) for dabi to see the real him. afterwards, he’s checking in even more under the guise of making sure hawks is “stable enough” to join the league. really, dabi is just uncomfortable with the bits of hawks’ life he can see.

🌧️ - on the flip side, hawks is uncomfortable with how much attention he’s getting and has no idea how he’s supposed to handle it. he quietly preens under it, but it’s so overwhelming to spend your entire life under scrutiny, only to shift into something far more personal and warm— because that’s what dabi feels like to him; warm. which is incredibly scary when you’ve been alone and small for so many years, a feeling that dabi knows quite well too. hawks is so different when he’s small, genuinely small and not playing it up for the camera. he’s shy and quiet and all the things dabi would never associate with him, which only makes him want to pay even more attention and see what else is hidden behind the flurry of feathers only meant to distract from his vulnerabilities.

🧸 - dabi is physically taller than hawks and that works really well when hawks wants to feel small. he likes to hide behind dabi, shoulders curled and head ducked low, with a gentle hold on whatever jacket or shirt dabi has thrown on that day. on bad days, hawks will force himself to do his job, regardless of his mental state, and it usually ends with him cowering behind dabi while they try to subtly get hawks away from anyone they’re around, which usually means the rest of the league. they already don’t like him that much, too weary of outsiders, so it isn’t hard to shuffle him off to an isolated space.

🌧️ - hawks doesn’t run cold but he’s used to being cold— wearing raggedy clothing in his youth, having an empty apartment that can never seem to warm despite the heater, and having extra temperature sensitivities because of the feeling in his feathers which makes the cold so much worse. dabi, on the other hand, is a living space heater and hawks finds that cuddling up to him is the only time he’s ever warm. when he’s not regressed, it’s easy to play it off by pretending that all the small touches and affectionate gestures are all just jokes or some kind of teasing with his attitude. when he’s small, however, he’s far less capable of pretending like he wants anything other than cuddles, but he’s still very shy and he grew up being met with violence (his parents) or scorn (the commission) when he was even slightly childish. it’s a lot of dabi having to guess what hawks wants and offering it so the pressure of asking for things is a little less stressful. they do have to be a little careful, though, because dabi’s senses are dulled due to his burns and hawks is overly sensitive so they have to find a balance.

🧸 - little hawks loves flying and dabi is kind of a bad caregiver (in the sense that he will absolutely let a baby do dangerous things just because) so it’s very common for hawks to have little scratches and scrapes from crash landing or hitting a branch while flying. dabi covers him in bandaids and tells him that he’ll keep getting hurt if he does this, but if hawks doesn’t care then neither does he and he’ll just keep playing doctor for him. the only time it becomes a real issue is when little hawks wants dabi to come fly with him. that obviously spells trouble that dabi doesn’t want to involve himself with but he can’t actually say no to hawks, regardless of headspace. there’s something about his puppy eyes that has dabi begrudgingly agreeing to anything hawks wants.

🌧️ - hawks has a… quirk where he doesn’t enjoy having things that belong to him. all of his regression gear is gifts from fans that he can argue aren’t really his since they’re for a persona that doesn’t exist, or that they just belong to the fans and he’s being charitable by accepting their gifts. it’s why his apartment is completely empty, devoid of any decoration, because he doesn’t have an identity and is very scared to figure it out. because of this, and the fact that little hawks loves so much that he’s genuinely intrigued by everything his loved ones do, it’s not uncommon to see hawks in one of dabi’s long coats or scrappy t-shirts. so much of dabi’s stuff gets stolen— something that slightly peeves him because, unlike hawks, he doesn’t have millions of yen theoretically at his disposal (the commission tracks hawks’ finances). it’s very cute seeing little hawks bundled up in big, emo-looking clothes, though, so it doesn’t upset him that much.

[call-me-copycat]

Got some photos of the MHA x reader Doujinshi! I'm may have to reblog this because there are 24 photos and I can only post oh so many photos -⁠ᄒ⁠ᴥ⁠ᄒ⁠-

(Update - finishing this on my computer because you can upload 30 photos on the computer but only 10 on mobile >.<)

This is the cover!

The inside with more info on the authors and their work + the chapters ^⁠_⁠^

Each chapter is made by a different author, this is a big collaboration! So there are many different art styles ʕ⁠ ⁠º⁠ ⁠ᴥ⁠ ⁠º⁠ʔ

Each character on the cover gets 2 chapters, but there is also an addition of Tokoyami and Dabi, who each get 1 chapter

As you can see it starts off with Deku looking at you (the reader) and the series is seen through "your" perspective

It's implied the reader is female, and some chapters even show a partial body (most keep it vague though, mainly showing just hands)

"You" never directly speak in the book, it's sort of what Dora does where she asks a question, waits while looking at you, then answers for you. Sort of like: (Character - What do you want to eat?) They look forward, directly at you, the reader (Character - That sounds good! I'll have that as well!)

This book reminds me of those anime dating Sims ⁠(⁠๑⁠¯⁠◡⁠¯⁠๑⁠)

Glimpse of Bakugo's chapter

Todoroki's chapter (he looked really off in this book, but in the second they seemed to get a good idea of how to draw him so he looks more like he does in canon)

Iida's chapter is where you see more of "you", and the few panels across the book that do (about less than 3 so not many) hide the head in the speech bubble

Kirishima was very interactive with the reader in this entire chapter, it was very cute ⁠(⁠￣⁠︶⁠￣⁠)

Glimpse of Denki's chapter

It's out of order but moving on from Iida's chapter earlier is Shinso! My favorite guy! (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠) (Ignore the Iida panel - it looks bad out of context but this book is extremely fluffy and cheesy)

Shinso's text states that he wears plain clothing to dates in order to make the girl stand out since he knows girls put lots of effort into their outfits - however he said that he does like to wear accessories like a watch or something every now and then (´▽｀)

You see a little more of "you" in here

I just thought these pages were funny, plus you get to see more of the reader in this one (very rarely shown, only in Iida and Shinso's chapters - otherwise it's just hands from your perspective that actually interact with the characters)

This was funny too ("you" want to walk home with him, he says no because he runs to and from school to train. He says a couple times it's because 'he's not strong enough', the last panel is him roughly saying "You've got a bicycle?!)

The image under it is an event the authors did - apparently when making the book they'd have the audience comment as to what they wanted the characters to be drawn wearing, and the top comment would win. Apparently to the audience, Shinso is the type to still wear clothes with the tags on lol

Tokoyami! A very short chapter since he wasn't one of the main characters shown on the cover O.O

The lovely Aizawa! This first chapter has him sick, "you" come by to drop off some papers he needs to grade, sees that he's sick, then "you" barge in and have him rest while you take care of him (he's only stubborn because he sees being taken care of as "irrational")

My personal favorite chapter (●'◡'●)

Still on the sick chapter, here's my favorite panel lol

(The hands holding the phone is "you")

This chapter was written by the only man in the group of talented authors that collaborated by the way (oﾟvﾟ)ノ

The next Aizawa chapter has a jarringly different art style! Probably the strongest contrast in collaborators in this book (minus Todoroki's)

Essentially in this chapter "you" and him go on a date, he arrives 10 minutes early, and "you" ask him why he has that big satchel - it's his capture scarf ("you" call him a workaholic)

The date in question was just helping him pick out a pair of glasses to wear that'd prevent his eyes from straining too hard since he's always using his computer to work on papers or grade assignments

It's cute though, because he says something to the effect that if he could do whatever he could to boost his efficiency, then he'd do it because he only wants to benefit his colleagues and students

That last panel was him complaining about his bangs, so "you" pin them back, then he jokes that if his coworkers saw him like that then they'd laugh at him

After that is a Present Mic cameo! Apparently the top comment wasn't even for Aizawa (ˉ▽ˉ；)...

The top comment was for Mic to be drawn with braided hair! Off topic but I love this artist's icon at the top (^.^)

Last chapters are for All Might! I really liked this perspective in particular, it's very immersive o(^▽^)o

Whoever made this chapter is number 1 out of all the authors when it comes to reader immersion, I'm not the biggest fan of AM x Reader but as someone who hopes to draw manga one day I really appreciate the effort they put into this one (❁´◡`❁)

That's all I have for a brief introduction! I'm going to share Dabi's entire chapter for someone, so if any of you would like me to add on to that and share+translate a chapter of any of the other characters then I'd be happy to do so!

I really like this book, it's so different from all the other Doujinshis out there （。＾▽＾）The artists put a lot of love into this I can tell, so when I get the second book then I'll share that as well!

[bibibbon]

Tin foil hat moment here. I do think hori sabotage his mc, Izu, but also sabotaged LoV as well. All to make the abusers look better and what is infuriating is how...he didn't even accomplish that.

Saw a post talking how LoV are a bunch of losers bc they couldn't win, even when they had all the advantages Possum aka Shig come across as pathetic (even dabi and I agree bc like what was his goal? Ok, kill himself and Endy but what was he doing to reach said goal? Was necessary be with LoV for that?)

And like we all talk about Izu defending Endy was bs, I totally agree. And it makes Izu look bad.

But you know who else looks awful? Dabi.

Yes, he is a villain and no, not every villain needs to be "this sweet guy that if you give a hug he will be a good guy" but dabi wanting to murder his entire family for no reason ...dabi now being the bad seed all along makes Endy looks bad.

And hell, even am is ruined (rich coming from someone who does call him an idiot) bc he seems to be more fond of bk and shoto, guys who have quirk, over his heir (no, not saying am is quirkcist. I'm saying he is a horrible mentor for Izu and in the end, preferred those have easy quirks to deal with ....like the am iron suit was bad, but it does feel like he sees them as better heroes and may not be intentional but ouch)

I hope I'm making sense here.

Izu and LoV were sabotaged for the sake of their abusers. Bk in the end is the hero with an agency and Izu is a teacher who people, in the fake friend class, ignored for 8 years until he is useful again.

MHA is so grim without people realizing.

I'm kind impressed. Many webcomics who want to be edgy, who show people being viciously murder on first chapter can't reach this level of dispair MHA has...and MHA is "a happy story"

Wow

Hi @mikeellee 👋

The series has a lot of mixed messaging, and this could be summed up to a lot of reasons and various factors . Yes, I feel like you can argue that one of them is the favouritism of certain characters.

The narrative treats izuku horribly but also frames it in a way where things are supposed to not look bad for izuku and that they're actually somehow good for him?!?! @lacunammmm points this out the best in their posts and how the narrative doesn't seem to properly develop izuku or give him proper consequences.

Due to this, I won't be focusing on the narrative treatment that izuku gets because I feel like many before me have done that, and I have covered it in some other posts.

Rant

But why?!?! Why make izuku lose his arms if he is going to regain them in less than a chapter? Foreshadowing? Trying to give the chara ter actual concequences except they're not long-lasting, and izuku never learns to be incredibly self-deprecating? What was the point? Also, why didn't Izuku receive some acknowledgement or canonical consequences for the way he was using his quirk and the lasting impact it must have had on his body? Like the boy was using blackwhip and actively merging it with his body molecules and muscles just to keep moving. He was quite literally controlling his body like a puppet, and there's somehow no long-lasting consequences?

Hori, this is what happens when you use your main character as a mouthpiece and essentially forget all the previous characterisation you gave him as an individual massacring your protagonist!

Now getting onto what I mostly want to talk about, and that's the League of Villains!

Horikoshi fails the league of villains multiple times and I think the most evident time is during the peak of the MVA arc when they gave access to all the resources imaginable to truly achieve their goal of destorying the status quo.

They had a good chunk of resources. Actually, they had a lot of resources that they could have used in so many ways to beat the heroes yet didn't do any of that and still failed because the plot demanded them to do so. Don't even get me started on how bad this missed opportunity is that it makes Shigaraki look like a static character who never learns how to be a good leader and develop a goal outside of just destorying things but learning that he like Stain also despises the status quo and would do anything to change it for the better even if his methods are unethical and extreme.

All of the villains in the League of Villains' goals were tied to the status quo and how they felt trapped by it or wanted to destroy it.

This idea stands for dabi as well, who joins the league for the sole purpose of wanting to destroy the status quo and make Stain's words of a world full of true heroes a reality. The messaging also stands for toga and spinner who all admire Stain as well.

In the end, the destruction of the status quo is what brought this team together even if they might be separated in what that destruction looks like and what they want from it.

Dabi is an interesting character to me that gets done dirty by horikoshi. Hot take, but I find Dabi's hatred towards his entire family interesting because it shows so much of touya in the same breath. Dabi sought the validation of his father until it killed him. He went back thinking that there was a place for him just to see with new eyes the dysfunctionality of his household, and with that, he grew to hate everything about it, even the victims of Enji's abuse. His main goal is to prove enji wrong and kill him even if it costs his life. dabi has a complicated relationship with the rest of the family, or he should have if they were well written. Before the incident, Touya had an unfavourable relationship with fuyumi most likely tainted by his mysgonsitic views towards women, which were most likely instilled in him by enji. Natsou was the only one he truly respected and liked enough to truly confide in while he slowly grew to hate shoto due to what shoto represented. A huge part of dabi's arc should have been him growing to be the opposite of enji, to hate all that enji represents and all that enji is and through that his view of his family members changes. This isn't to say that he should love all of them as I still think that there deserves to be relationships coated with hate and guilt such as dabi and fuyumi or dabi and shoto.

Dabi is a man who would have grown to hate enji and would have been an interesting contrast to fuyumi the women who wants a normal family, who wants to and has desperately tried to fit in the status quo contrasted with the man who lost everything trying to do so and now wants enji's head on a plate.

Dabi and Natsou would be a relationship filled with grief. Natsou knows touya the most and the aspects of touya are forever intertwined in his relationship with natosu. I imagine that in a desperate attempt to erase the past Dabi may try and cut natsou off most likely during his encounter with ending until he relaises that he can't and that there will always be touya in Dabi.

Dabi and shoto is as classic as it gets. The failure and the success. Two sides of the same coin that are ever so separated until they choose to bridge the gap or don't it's up to them.

Dabi and rei may be the most complex of them all to me. Especially due to the emotions it has, the guilt that caused them to go insane, the pain, the grief, the hatred, the love that they have for one another. It's all so much, and a lot of it is bitter but with a hint of hope, hope for reconciliation for the better that can only be achieved after enji's demise in the eyes of dabi.

[class1akids]

What’s the point being made when Midoriya commented “he’s getting called Endeavor’s son less and less” if Endeavor got zero legal consequences for abusing his family? Was Endeavor still considered a “bad hero” by the end of the war? I thought the citizens were mad because they thought he let them down as a hero because he failed to defeat the villain, not that he butchered his family. Dai even spoke about Endeavor still being thought as a great hero in the future. Maybe it makes sense as a reader for that comment since we know the whole family’s trauma, but with how the story is written it doesn’t work since, again, barely anyone cared about the Todoroki family (some even became Endeavor glazers.)

I know the family association thing is bigger in eastern culture, but was the intention supposed to be similar to if Todoroki went onto the field and was still associated with Endeavor just by being his son even without their history being exposed? As much as I hate the writing wouldn’t it make more sense if Dabi/Touya replaced or was at least added onto the association since the civilians didn’t seem to care about the abuse? I mean I don’t want Todoroki to be associated with his shitty father, but with how the narrative flipped back and forth on Endeavor the point became less impactful since he’s still treated relatively great despite what he did.

It's just an example of Hori's "wants to have his cake and eat it too" kind of writing.

On the one hand, Endeavor's "consequence" is the scandal, the public fall, being responsible for the rise of Dabi and his victims. And his atonement hinges on this consequence, because he's goal is to "catch the sparks" (even though we know he can't protect the kids, because Fuyumi already lost her job and the situation is so bad Natsuo is leaving the family registry to protect his fiancee from any association with the Todorokis).

As for Shouto's own situation, he's more in the public eye than his siblings, and it's kind of implied in some scenes how he's also a subject of criticism - like him being outside of UA with Endeavor and Hawks and when he talks about how he's being seen with concern. (Dabi also brought it up btw during their fight).

So I think from the perspective of Shouto's arc, the key sequence is:

"you are not bound by his blood, you decide who you want to be" -> "I want to be a reassuring hero" -> "people look at me with concern because I'm Endeavor's son and Dabi's brother" -> "you have to stop Dabi to become who you want to be" -> "work day and night for 8 years" -> "the citizens rarely call him Endeavor's son anymore.

So basically Shouto's narrative is about freedom from blood and free self-determination. But his story is actually about how his family ties keep hindering him from his goal and how he has to fight for his "honor" in a way others don't have to because of those ties. So Shouto's freedom comes with a huge qualifies and a huge price - where it's having to fight his own brother and stop him from causing harm to others is just the first hurdle. After that, he still has to work day and night for a decade to make people finally see him on his own terms.

So the "you can become who you want to be", just like "you can be a hero" come with huge qualifiers in the story.

As for Dai mentioning Endeavor - that list was really weird puttin BJ and Endeavor up there with All Might, and Deku being mentioned only like 4th place when in fact wasn't he the ultimate hero of that war?

I think that's Horikoshi's clumsy writing, where he insists glazing Endeavor because he personally thinks that he deserves brownie points for trying hard.

But I'm fairly certain that the narrative on the one hand tells us that Endeavor and the Todoroki family got a lot of public criticism for creating Dabi and Dabi's crimes (not for the domestic violence mind you, which is treated as a private matter) and Shouto had to fight against those prejudices. On the other hand, it's telling us that even if Endeavor is in hell, there are people who support him because he was a good hero.

Also, as an aside, even if Endeavor wasn't exposed by Touya, Shouto probably still would have had to fight for a long time to be seen not as a nepo-baby but as himself. Children of famous / successful people are often struggle against the public perception that all their success is due to the advantages that were given to them at birth - which is also true for Shouto who was introduced as the "boy born with everything" and the first thing he was known to the public for was being "Endeavor's son".

[multixsposts]

One Night Stand.

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Ship: Dabi x Fem Reader!!!!

this is my original story that has a second part on ‘Wattpad’ which i posted on here a couple of days ago.

enjoy

-M

Look at you. sitting in a bar on a

saturday night drinking alone. you thought it was pathetic, but you had one hell of a day and a drink is just what you needed.

You sip on your beer as you play with a piece of paper that came from a straw.

"is this seat taken?." a gruff voice asked from behind you.

You turn to look at where the voice came from and once you did your eyes roam over his features.

Black hair, ice blue eyes, but what really caught your attention was his skin.

Patched together by...staples?.

You thought it was weird but you being you, you didn't question it.

"no, go ahead" you tell him and he takes a seat next you. You take a long swig of your beer as you finish the bottle after you finished you set it aside and flag down the bartender motioning him to your empty bottle hinting you want another. Your eyes follow his movements as he sets another one in front of you, popping off the top.

you give him a nod as you take a sip from it.

"tough day?."

the man besides you asked and you nod to him "yeah it wasn't the best" you respond back a sigh leaving your mouth as you tear up the little piece of paper you've been playing with.

"mind if i buy you a shot?." he asks and you look at him

"why do you want to do that?" you ask, curious. You watch his mouth pull into a small smirk as he looks at you.

"you just..seem like you had a rough day, figured i could help by getting you a shot, on me." he tells you but in all honesty he's just looking for someone to bring home to his bed for the night.

it's been a while since he felt that type of relief and he was hoping you'd fall into it.

You look at him for a bit before responding.

"i could use a shot." you respond your own smirk dancing onto your lips. You know what he's doing, and to be honest you were looking forward to it. He was a really good looking guy and you hoped he was wasn't terrible in bed, but by the looks of it he seems to know what he's doing.

his smirk widens as he orders the two of you shots.

You watch him grab the little glass as he brings it up to his lips, throwing his head back and downing the shot his expression not changing in the slightest bit from the alcohol.

"your turn." he motions towards your glass.

you grab it and just as he did you throw your head back and take the shot a little bit off the alcohol spilling from the glass and down your chin to your neck, but the blue eyed man never took his eyes off of you. In fact watching you down that shot and not make a face at the strong liquor just so happened to turn him on.

It was a stupid thing to get turned on by but he couldn't help it.

"so..were are we doing this?" you ask him getting straight to the point.

"uh..what?" he asked, he was thinking you'd be the type to make him butter you up all night before he took you home.

"are we having sex in your car or at your place?" you ask your bluntness making his dick twitch in his pants. Most the girls he did things with took him half the night to convince them to come back home with him, but you.. you must really want it just as bad as he did.

"we're going back to my place, doll." the nickname made you shiver as you stand, pulling your dress down in the process.

"well..guess we better get going then yeah?" you tell him a smile on your face as you lay some money on the bar, he does the same before he grabs your hands and takes you to his car.

it's been a while since you've done anything intimate, but you preferred doing these things with someone you didn't know. It kept things neutral making things less complicated between you and the person, that is until they start calling you after the night you had together previously, but you solve that problem with the block button and go on about your day. and as you get into this random mans car the fact that he could kill you right now never crossed your mind. the alcohol in your veins wouldn't let you. You just kept your eyes on him as you watch his arms flex slightly whenever he turns the wheel, you didn't even notice when you arrived to his house until  the car stopped and he was opening the car door for you, and leading you inside his place.

"nice place.." you tell him and he laughs a little.

"thanks..my sister helped me with it." he tells you as he grabs your hand and leads you down the hall to his room.

You two stand infront of each other before he decided to make the first move.

note that ‘Wattpad’ gets the first updated chapter three is in the works now as we speak.

I hope you all enjoyed it just as much as i did writing it.

have a good day you deserve it.

-M

[satancopilotsmytardis]

Taking Care

Pairing: Shigadabi

Rating: Explicit, RAPE/NON-CON

Summary: Commissioned by an anonymous user. Dabi and Shigaraki didn't start their working relationship off on the best foot, and to be perfectly honest, his view of his new boss isn't exactly favorable. But Shigaraki does seem to be trying to do better by the League, and him, in his own way. It's probably not his fault that he was socialized to be a total creep too. Dabi really shouldn't have given him the benefit of the doubt.

Contents: RAPE/NON-CON, brief descriptions of violence and vomiting, suicidal thoughts/tendencies, non-consensual body modification, natural lubrication, anal sex, anal fingering, multiple orgasms, dacryphilia, creampie, brief feminization, molestation, abusive relationships, possessive behavior, obsessive behavior, yandere!Shigaraki, dead dove: do not eat

Word Count: 10871

He is never gonna say that he 'hit it off' with the boss when they first met. Though, Dabi will say that's in part to the fact he could very clearly tell that Shigaraki wasn't the boss. He was just another over-confident jackass who had a bigger villain actually calling the shots from the shadows, and Dabi can't stand working with people like that. The guy's fucking second was giving him orders and trying to coach him into making smarter choices in his villainy and stepped in and stopped their fight before they could even really get started, and Dabi was left with a bad taste in his mouth and with the constant thought that the boss was a little pathetic. But the League was offering room and board, and a chance to fuck with UA again, even targeting his father's perfect creation, and Dabi had stuck around anyway. 

And for a month, his image of who Shigaraki was did not get any more flattering. He was absolutely a puppet for AFO and a spoiled brat on top of that. He felt entitled to anything he wanted and no one had ever told him 'no' or had shown him how that wasn't how the world actually worked. Well. It's not how the world is supposed to work, but Shigaraki does get whatever he wants as long as he proves to AFO he actually put at least a tiny crumb of effort into why he wants whatever it is that he's asking after. Dabi hates that too, but he keeps his mouth shut. The rest of the League is made of people so clearly desperate for somewhere to belong, and wanting to ensure their youngest members aren't exposed to the truly heinous parts of this world, that they are softening the work for them and trying to grow into a close-knit crew. But Dabi doesn't have the time or any interest in that bullshit. If he's joining a crew backed by AFO it's all going to be in service of ensuring that he burns Endeavor alive. He doesn't bother 'bonding' with the rest of them, he just works to ensure that he gets what he wants out of this arrangement. 

He feels like that might be happening when Shigaraki ends up making him the leader for the summer camp job. He isn't sure why he chose him over Compress, but he doesn't give a shit if it means he gets to be in control of how they hit the camp and who they go after primarily. He can make sure he's the one to see Shoto. The downside of all of this is that he also has to spend long hours planning with Shigaraki. They do most of it after the others have cleared out or gone to bed for the night, assessing their skills during the day, and planning around them at night where they don't have to worry about them confusing brainstorming for their final orders. Dabi doesn't love spending hours with Duster at night, but at least when they aren't being watched by AFO or Kurogiri, Shigaraki forces himself to behave a bit better. He acts more like an adult and less like the teenager he still is. 

It's during one of those late night planning sessions Dabi stretches, cracking his back, and feels his shirt ride up a bit. When he glances back, he can see that Duster is watching him. It's automatic to flip him off as he speaks, "What are you staring at, handjob?" 

"How far do your scars go?" And Shigaraki, among many other things, is incredibly blunt, so Dabi really isn't surprised that he'd asked. 

"None of your business, weirdo." They're sitting at the bar and he's ready to get up and head to bed, the two of them having gotten to a good stopping point for the night, when Shigaraki leans over and cages Dabi against the edge. He automatically tries to twist away, his temperature spiking hotter, as four cool fingers brush his side and start to push up his shirt. "What the fuck--" 

"Hold still or I may slip." Shigaraki's voice is flat and almost bored as he slides Dabi's shirt up his chest and side, red eyes dragging over him, far too intense for the tone he'd used. Dabi goes stock still as his deadly hand moves up his body until his shirt is pressed up beneath his arm, and Shigaraki hums, the other palm moving over his skin. He doesn't know what the other wants from him but he really doesn't want to end up dead because he's careless with his quirk. "You're already so damaged--" Dabi didn't know he could bristle any further, but he feels smoke and sparks behind his tongue as he grits his teeth. "If I don't know how bad it is, then I can't help make sure it doesn't get any worse." He brushes his thumb gently over one of the lines of staples curving over his side, and Dabi's anger, his breath, catches in the back of his throat. 

That's what this is? Concern? Some deeply weird, fucked up version of it from how poorly socialized Shigaraki is, but still. Concern all the same. Duster's hand moves over his chest, flicking his thumb over his nipple with a little snort as he does, sending an uncomfortable twinge across his nerves as the piercing there makes him so sensitive the bud hardens immediately. He only has three fingers against him then, and Dabi feels safe enough to bat away the touch. 

"Hands off, freak. I don't need you to take care of me. I know what I can handle." 

"I'm going to take care of you anyway." Shigaraki tells him without a hint of irony. "So you can tell me what you need, or I can figure it out for myself." He doesn't stop Dabi as he straightens his shirt and slips from the stool, fully intending to go upstairs and get stoned before going to sleep. 

"Whatever." He doesn't want Shigaraki, AFO, or the League to know anything about him. It'll just make it harder to escape them if he decides they aren't his best option in the long run. He heads upstairs and Shigaraki doesn't stop him. 

///

After that, though, he starts to notice little things that change around the base. Only he and the vampire kid are living here for the time being, and he really doubts she's the one who put a fancy antibiotic wound cream in the medicine cabinet of their shared bathroom, sitting right next to his toothbrush. For a second, out of sheer stubbornness, Dabi considers ignoring it. He is perfectly capable of taking care of himself and he doesn't need a brat like Shigaraki thinking that he's reliant on him for anything. But the logical part of his mind knows that he should take whatever help he can get. The whole point of being here is to get strong enough to kill his father. If he wants to do that then having his skin falling off is only going to make it more difficult. 

He starts to use the wound cream and realizes over the course of a week and the wave of exhaustion and relief that comes in its wake, that keeping his body at a low fever was only keeping weak infections at bay. They were still there and fighting to really make him sick for, well, he's guessing it's been a long time. But the medicine actually kills them and starts to let him heal a bit. Which, in turn, makes him fucking exhausted and starving all the time. He's been trying to eat better here now that he has access to non-spoiled food readily all the time, but he has an appetite for the first time since he was a kid. 

And he doesn't mention that, doesn't usually eat around the others, but he starts to notice the fridge and pantry is stocked with more and more every week. Healthy things, for the most part, but tons of protein bars, fruit, and the like, some of which he recognizes as brands that his father and other heroes endorsed because they helped them to put on and maintain a healthy weight and muscle mass. Dabi is thin as a rail, a side-effect from three years in a coma and seven starving on the streets, but maybe... maybe he can put on a little more muscle if he takes advantage of this. So he uses his phone to look up how to recover from long-term malnutrition and how to safely get his body used to a calorie surplus instead of a deficit. 

And about two weeks after Shigaraki felt him up while they were alone, he tells the entire group that they have a doctor-- the one who makes nomu, but is apparently a real doctor during office hours-- who is happy to see them all for check-ups. Dabi wants to be annoyed about that, but Magne perks up immediately and asks when the soonest she can get in is. So maybe, just maybe, this isn't actually Duster taking the opportunity to show him that he absolutely meant what he said before. Maybe he just actually wants to make sure they're in better condition than the first group he took to UA was. 

It doesn't mean he isn't acutely aware of how smug Shigaraki seems when Twice is bitching a few weeks later as he re-takes Dabi's measurements, the old ones no longer sufficient because of how much healthier he's gotten since he took them before. 

///

Hitting the summer camp is exhilarating. Getting to overcome forty students and six pros with a crew of nine outshines whatever the fuck Shigaraki had been trying to do in his original debut. Being able to snatch their main target and getting to stand there and watch his brother, his father's perfect creation, desperate and failing, had put a delight under his skin he wouldn't have words for if he ever were asked to describe it. But he locks that away and acts as unaffected as he always strives for, especially with AFO breathing down their neck as they get back to base. 

They get the kid situated, debrief, prep for the next steps of their plan, and try to get some rest. Even without three of their number returning, it was a resounding success as far as their leader and his teacher are concerned. 

And when that all falls apart, Dabi is out for the majority of the fight. 

He wakes up, his head throbbing, the room spinning, and desperately needing to puke, which he does almost immediately, barely managing to roll onto his side to keep from choking on it, and definitely splashing the side of Duster's sneaks with sick. But he doesn't get decayed for that. Shig just gives him a tissue from his coat pocket and reaches over for a water bottle. He doesn't have any pain medicine, not that Dabi expected that given they're hiding out in what appears to be an abandoned warehouse, but it would have been a nice surprise. He sits up a little, and Shigaraki helps him, one hand staying at the back of his neck, palm cool, and thumb rubbing soothing circles there like that could help take away the ache in his skull. 

Dabi swishes the first sip around in his mouth and spits further away from them to clear the taste before actually drinking some of the water and wiping up his mouth. "Sorry," because he might not like the guy most of the time, but he doesn't hate him enough to think he deserves to get puked on when he clearly got him out of getting arrested while he was knocked out. "What happened?" 

Duster reaches over and sticks a hand into Dabi's coat pocket, which even through his headache, sends a mixture of amusement and annoyance through him, before he draws out his cigs. And yeah, fine, he could definitely use one of those too. He sets a spark on his finger and lights up for them both, and Shigaraki actually takes his mask off so he can smoke before he starts to speak. 

///

Which is how the kind of good thing that the League had going, turns to absolute shit. He doesn't hesitate to stress that them traveling in a big group like this is going to make it damn near impossible for them to actually move without being spotted, and since they're currently going to be on a cross-country tour to try and find someone who will actually give them an ounce of the resources that AFO promised to his supposed successor, splitting up is their best option. If he does this entirely so he can make sure he is as far away from the rest of them as possible as they get a taste of the way that he's been living for the past seven years, then that's his business. But Shigaraki only lets him go under the guise of 'recruiting', like they could get anyone that wasn't complete trash to join up with them now. 

But that's what he's off doing when Shigaraki calls him in the middle of the night. He killed a few potential recruits today, using his flames to burn their heads from their shoulders, and going through their pockets yielded him enough cash to get a motel for the night and a real meal, so he's honestly doing better than he has been for a while, and it's deeply tempted to not answer his phone and just enjoy the rest of his night in limited luxury. But when the first call goes to voicemail, it immediately starts ringing again so he huffs and snags it off the sheets, cig between his lips and taking a deep pull before he answers, 

"What, Shigaraki?"

There's a slight pause and then he hears Shigaraki let out a slow, low breath. "Magne's dead."

And Dabi is suddenly a lot less annoyed with the call. 

Shig explains what happened, Twice not communicating with him or Duster, Overhaul being more than they thought they were getting involved with, Magne and Compress rushing in to defend the group, and Magne being splattered all across the warehouse. It sounds horrifying and all, and the group is apparently using the last of their funds on a back alley medic for Compress so that he doesn't bleed out or die of an infection. 

"What about after?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"Once Compress is stable-- What are you doing after?" There's another pause and Dabi feels his temperature starting to creep a bit higher. "The fucking dregs of the Yakuza just killed and injured members of your crew-- if anyone finds out about that after the shitshow you and your teacher put on in Kamino, then we are all fucked. The League has already lost almost all of our credibility after you used us to build it up again after your first fuckup at UA." 

"Dabi--" And he can hear him scratching at his skin, can hear that venom starting to build in his voice that usually precedes one of his temper tantrums. But Dabi isn't Kurogiri or All For One, and he's not in this game to cater to anyone else's ego ever again. 

"Shut the fuck up." He snaps before the other can get going, and the hiss of his voice actually does stop the other man in his tracks. "You're the leader, no more 'second tries', no more 'do-overs', no more fucking training wheels. You either figure out how to fucking lead this group, do what you fucking said you were going to, and be worth our time-- or you cut us loose, Shigaraki. We aren't just characters in your games that you can move around however you feel like. We're your crew, you have a responsibility to take care of us and when you don't-- Your actions have consequences, and it's about fucking time you grow up and start acting like it." He doesn't even wait to see how that lands. He hangs up, turns off his phone, and goes to take a cold shower before he literally sets himself on fire again from his fury. 

///

He doesn't hear from Shigaraki or the rest of the League for nearly a month. Instead he gives up on the pretense of recruiting for the League, goes back to his old haunts and takes whatever arson jobs he can get. Unsurprisingly, after word has spread about what he did at the summer camp, he has a lot more opportunities for those kinds of jobs than he did before. Dabi doesn't like that this is what he's left doing, but he will do whatever he needs to in order to survive. He just didn't think he would be back in survival mode so soon. He thought that he was finally setting himself up to be the monster he always promised his father he would come back as. But he is making due. As fucking always. 

He probably should have ditched the phone that he was given, but he figures that if Shigaraki is so useless, then it's unlikely that he'll have gotten back any of the resources he needs in order to use it to track him. And he's not in the position to throw out a perfectly good phone when he's still squatting in abandoned buildings for at least three nights a week when he can't find or afford a shady enough motel to stay in. Dabi is in an empty apartment building, glass and worse is scattered across the first floor, and the the windows are all boarded up, but he has a pretty good idea of when a building has been in disrepair for long enough that it's likely to fall on his head, and he figures it's safe enough to go up a few levels. He almost laughs when he finds a door someone locked that whoever went through the place and cleared out, didn't bother to open, and he melts the handle right off and goes inside. The lock and whatever fear of the upper levels other people had, kept this room from being trashed, and he throws his backpack into a corner of the one room that has carpet. It's not much, but he'll be happy to have something soft under him besides his coat. 

He's settling in for the night, a protein bar shoved between his teeth as he uses his hand-crank battery pack so that his phone will be able to charge while he's sleeping, when said device begins to ring. It does that occasionally, but it's usually someone contacting him for a new arson job. This is the first time he's seen Shigaraki's name appear on his caller ID in ages. Dabi sincerely considers not bothering to answer him. It's an impulse, a whim, maybe a little bit of hubris because he's curious to see if Duster is calling to grovel for him to come back because everything's falling apart even worse since he left, but he answers anyway.

"What do you want, Shigaraki?"

"Dabi," And Shig sounds a little breathless for a second, and Dabi is about to hang up because if he is being chased down by heroes or something, Dabi is going to burn his phone and chuck it out of the nearest window. "I've been working on making sure that the League gets reparations for what happened to Magne and Compress. We're on the verge of using the heroes to destroy the Yakuza and obtaining a new weapon that is capable of destroying quirks." He takes a breath and continues, more evenly, "In two days we're going to destroy the last of the Yakuza on a public stage, we can do that without you, but I want you with me."

There's something about the intensity in his voice, something that eclipses anything that he heard from him in Kamino, and the part of his mind that has been looking out and trying to protect him since he ended up on the streets, stirs restlessly in the back of his mind. But the more immediate part of him is curious, if nothing else. "How exactly are you gonna do that, Duster?"

And Shigaraki starts to explain his plan and what the League have been up to in his absence.

///

Two days later he is warring with the exhilaration in his body from putting on such a display, seeing Shigaraki and Compress tear Overhaul's arms off, and the constant, and heavy motion sickness that keeps going through him from Spinner's awful driving. It's really a lot, and he's so glad that when they lose the cops and teleport to the base that Shigaraki and the others have been using-- an empty administration building on the edge of an abandoned warehouse district that has two shower stalls in the boys and girls' bathrooms and that they've scrounged around to find any vague cushioned furniture so they would have something better than the floor to sleep on-- Toga and Twice really do want to go shower and recenter themselves after a month undercover in a high-stress environment before the League celebrates the end of such a long plan that's finally come to fruition. Spinner goes to ditch the car and Compress goes to use his still lightning fast sticky-fingers, and his maskless face to go steal them some libations and food for the celebration. Which means he somehow ends up 'alone' with Shigaraki. 

He hasn't been alone with Shigaraki since he walked into this shitty little hideout yesterday afternoon, and that had been kind of by design. He still doesn't know what to think about the fact that the rest of the League treated him like he's been out trying to recruit and gather resources for the group this whole time, like he didn't just fully abandon them and make his own way when he realized how utterly fucked they would be under Shigaraki's leadership without AFO at least funding them in their downtime to make that worth it. He is fully planning on just going into the corner and taking a nap while Duster plays his game or something, when Shigaraki catches him with four fingers around his wrist. Dabi's temperature creeps up, ready to turn the hand into ash if he tries to close his fingers around his wrist. 

"Let go." 

"You're not going to leave again." He tells him, and Dabi is reminded again that he and the League are the first people Shigaraki has ever had to deal with who could say 'no' to him if they wanted to. He thinks this socially inept loser is actually asking him, maybe pleading, for him to stay after being down a valuable player for over a month. 

Dabi eyes him. Shigaraki isn't wearing his mask at the moment and his eyes are intense as they search his face. He pulls at his hand, and Shig's grip tightens for a second before he lets go. But his fingers follow his skin even as he pulls away, the pads of his fingers brushing down the back of his hand. "Depends on if you can make this arrangement worth my time again." 

"I'll be worth it." He promises. "I'll take care of you." 

The intensity of the words makes something in him wary, but a larger part does feel some measure of smug satisfaction that his words, of all things, were what were able to snap Shigaraki from the pampered delusion of his youth. Good. Still. Dabi scoffs and rolls his eyes, going to claim the cushiest couch for himself. "Yeah? We'll see about that, Duster." He grumbles before getting on the couch and turning away from him. He fully intends to sleep while he can. The rest of the League hasn't figured out that they need to take rest whenever they can get it because at any second they could be on the run, but that's not his responsibility to teach them. 

Duster leaves him be as he curls up, but Dabi swears he feels his eyes on him the entire time it takes for him to actually pass out.

///

He does stick with the League after that. He isn't sure he meant to, but Shigaraki always keeps him close. He never lets on to the others that Dabi is always a split second from abandoning them, and they seem to think he's part of their big happy 'family'. He's only allowed to go out recruiting when the League is getting ready to leave a location, and then he meets up with hopefuls in an assigned location that Shigaraki has picked out, close enough for the League to be nearby, just in case he needs assistance. Dabi can't say he loves being babied, but he understands why Shigaraki and the rest of the League are so worried about him going off on his own. He just hopes they get over it soon as he burns another group of eight hopefuls to death. He uses the last of his flames to light a cig and starts to head down the alley. 

"Well, if that's the rejection process, I might have my work cut out for me." He doesn't recognize the voice immediately, and that means he isn't shy about sending a blast off in that direction so hot that he knows it can cause concrete to crumble. There's a blur of red and yellow and his eyes track it to the opposite end of the building, a blur that he is not happy about seeing is the number two hero lands there. He has his hands up in surrender as he crouches on the edge of the building, a dumb, goofy smile on his lips. "Whoa there, hot stuff! I came for a chat, and you're really gonna blow both our covers if you set fire to half of the street." 

"Back off hero, or I'll turn you into fried chicken." 

"That is my favorite food, but not really what I'm going for." He resituates himself on the edge of the building, sitting on the ledge and kicking his feet like he's got nothing to worry about. Like Dabi doesn't know that birds burn. "I was hoping we could have a chat about how interested the League of Villains would be in having a hero in their ranks." 

And Dabi knows heroes better than any of the League. He knows the awful things they get up to behind closed doors, he knows how corrupt the HPSC is, and he knows that no matter how talented he is, Hawks should have never climbed the charts so quickly after his debut, and definitely didn't do it without someone's help. "You want to join the League?" He wonders if the others are close enough today to hear that. 

"Sure do, hot stuff. I--" he definitely has his whole speech ready to go and whatever, but Dabi cuts him off. 

"Then you can go through our official channels and prove you’re worth my time." He takes a few steps forward, very clearly still heading to leave. "You start proving you want a working relationship by letting me fucking leave." And the bird's wings fluff a little, twitching with his agitation as this very clearly doesn't go the way he was trained to expect it would. Dabi raises a brow at him and ashes his cig. 

"And how do I go through your 'official' channels?" 

"If you're worth the League's time, then you'll figure that out like even those ash smears did, pigeon." He says blandly and starts to walk. 

Thankfully, Hawks lets him go, and Dabi makes sure he's lost his tail before he goes back to the others. 

///

He's not expecting Shigaraki to look half-crazed when he gets back to base, but as soon as he's inside, the other man is catching his wrist and dragging him right off into the nearest mostly private area in the base. Duster has gotten worse and worse about invading his personal space, but he doesn't put up a fight this time as he cages him up against a wall, eyes wide and desperate as they look at him like he doesn't know if Dabi is real. 

"You aren't going out on any more recruitment jobs, you're staying with me." 

"If I don't go out you're gonna have to send Twice, and we all know how well that went last time." He only lets himself be that cruel because he knows that no one else is around. "Besides, having a spy-- even an untrustworthy one-- could help us get access to more--" 

"No." And he has never heard or seen Shigaraki have such vitriol in a word, not even when talking about destroying All Might at the beginning. "He's the fastest hero in Japan. He could have killed you, he could have taken you away, I am not risking losing you, Dabi. We're leaving tonight, and you're going to stay close so that I can keep you safe." 

A part of Dabi really wants to protest that. He wants to snap at Shigaraki and tell him that he doesn't need to be watched like he can't take care of himself, but there's another part that can't help feeling a little... good from how protective Duster has been since he started to get his shit together. He may have swung hard in the opposite direction of treating the League like pawns, but the fact he changed his outlook at all means that he really is listening to them when they talk. He needs to find a happy medium, but Dabi thinks he will the longer that he has to figure things out. "...Fine." It's not like he really thought Hawks was a good idea. 

Duster lets out a breath, slow and even, and hides away the desperate thing he just showed him. Dabi expects that to be it, but Shig reaches for his face. He's pretty sure he's the only one who Shigaraki touches so much, but he tries to ignore that as his cool knuckles brush over the back of his cheek. "Stay with me?" 

"You're such a freak. I'm not going anywhere." He rolls his eyes, batting away his hand before he feels how his temperature started to creep higher. 

But he keeps his word. He doesn't go out recruiting again, he ignores the calls from an unknown number that try to come through, he sticks with the League. Shigaraki always seems to be hovering around him and in his space, orbiting him like he's the center of his whole world and the new version of himself and the organization that he's starting to build. Dabi can't say he hates that. He hasn't been important to anyone for so long, so he stays, and the League grows, and Shigaraki changes. 

///

They take over the MLA, they heal from their injuries, they are able to gather resources and plan their attack. And when they do, it's with Shigaraki fully nomu, with all of AFO's quirks at his disposal. It's a year of planning and everything else, but in one year, they are ready for their war. It only takes Shigaraki one hour to kill Best Jeanist, Hawks, Eraser Head, Mirko, and half a dozen other less well-known heroes. He even harvests the ones that he can, their broken bodies being snatched from the battlefield by the doctor for future nomu. And in the middle of all of that, Shigaraki having teleported around to find his targets and get the heroes more and more on edge and scrambling, their soldiers were moving in, destroying local police and hero agencies, cutting into infrastructure and wiping out power in large sections of the country. But in all the ones that do still have power, when Endeavor is called to the HPSC building because the world is burning all around them, Dabi airs his video, he tells the world his name. 

And he and Endeavor die together just the way he'd always planned. 

///

There is a persistent, and unfamiliar, ache under his skin. The air feels like it's a little too warm, and there is a heavy exhaustion throughout him. Hands move over his skin, firm and bringing with them a soft towel that he realizes is wiping away something from his body that feels oily and is filling his nose with an unfamiliar chemical smell. But he doesn't hurt. All he remembers from the moment just after he watched his blue flames boil Enji's eyes out of his skull until the sockets were spilling cerulean fire, was a sharp satisfaction and an overwhelming pain as they both crumbled away to ash. He opens his eyes, surprised that he still has his, and finds himself looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling. The lights aren't too high, and he tries to figure out what's going on. 

Shigaraki is leaning over him, washing away a thin purple liquid from his naked skin, and Dabi's breath catches in the back of his throat. He was definitely missing limbs by the time he had his father pinned, his skin was gone in so many places. But it wasn't smooth and black like it is now. There are patches of skin, like there were before, that are still his original skin tone, but the rest of it doesn't look like the knotted scar tissue he knows to expect. There are no staples either, just faint lines of pink scars around where the different sections meet.

"You're finally awake, firefly." Duster's voice is breathless as he sees his eyes open, as he shifts to feel how this is his body, he can feel it all, can see himself. 

"What--" 

Shigaraki's hand curls around the back of his neck and Dabi is speechless as he leans down and presses a kiss to his forehead. "It doesn't matter. You're here, and I promise I'm never going to stop taking care of you." He rests their foreheads together, and Dabi is still and silent because he has no idea what he should do as he grapples with the fact he's still alive. 

///

Shigaraki, seeing as Dabi's awake, helps him into a fancy bathroom off of the side of the lavish room, making him sit on a shower stool, but letting him wash away the lingering liquid as he calls in the doctor. Dabi knows what happened to him before he speaks to Ujiko. Looking in the mirror, seeing the sections of his body that have the distinct skin of a nomu, seeing out of eyes he's certain should have been destroyed-- he knows that Shigaraki or someone must have pulled him out of the crater that was supposed to be his and Enji's gravesite, and send him to be fixed. They brought him back from the brink of death. Dabi isn't sure if he's happy about that or not. 

But he cleans himself up and submits himself to testing. He's the same kind of nomu Shigaraki is. His physical strength will be insane, he shouldn't have any worries about rejecting the other tissue that was grafted on him. He will be ageless, healthy, and stable for as long as he lives, and as long as he checks in with the doctor from time to time if he does notice anything strange. And then the doc leaves and it's just him and Shigaraki alone again. There's a strange numbness that has gone through him throughout his waking and he doesn't know where to even start with it. All he manages to do is turn to Duster and ask, 

"What happened?" 

Shigaraki threads their fingers together, no longer needing to worry about his quirk destroying anything he doesn't want it to, and smiles at him, warmer and realer than any he's ever seen on the other man's face before. "We won, firefly." 

///

He finds out over the course of the next two weeks that the League, Shigaraki, didn't just win, he devastated Japan, and every foreign military that tried to come into the country to stop him. He ensured that all of his people would have exactly what they needed and over the course of the twenty-two months that Dabi was in the tank and being treated by the doctor, Shigaraki has started rebuilding Japan with himself as its king. He is actually the king now, and the only heroes left in the country are the ones who are being systematically hunted down by his people. He took the world for himself and shattered it into pieces, but he's creating something new now. The others are all off doing their own work to those ends, and none of them know about Dabi surviving what was supposed to be his final fight. 

"I knew I would bring you back," Duster tells him. They're sitting out on the porch that wraps around Shigaraki's house. It's not a palace, though it's essentially treated as such by the rest of the world, it's just a nice house sitting on top of a mountain. On top of Sekoto Peak. Because Shigaraki wanted something here for him after finding out who he was. They don't have to stay here if he doesn't want to, they can go anywhere, he can have whatever he wants. But Dabi just feels numb. He wasn't supposed to live to see the end of the war, the rebuilding efforts, and it feels like every ounce of drive that was in him from before has been stolen away. He keeps wondering if he could burn himself again faster than this new body could regenerate. He wonders even if he did, if Shigaraki would just spend another two years fixing him. "But I didn't know how long it would take. I wanted them to go out and build their own lives now that they can without fear." 

Shigaraki is holding his hand. He holds his hand a lot. Runs his knuckles over the back of his cheek, catches him around the back of his neck and presses kisses to his forehead. Dabi keeps meaning to rebuff whatever weird familiarity Shigaraki is displaying, but he feels like all the things he notices about his surroundings are being filtered in through a fog, and he forgets about saying something because he doesn't even think to until hours after the touch happened.

"I can call them back, when you're ready to see them." 

Dabi doesn't know if he's ever going to be ready for that. He hasn't even asked what happened to the rest of his family after he killed Endeavor, and Shigaraki hasn't offered the information either. If he can't manage that, he doesn't know how he's going to even pretend to not be numb when the others see him. 

///

He's been awake for a month in this haze, so thick that he actually did ask Shigaraki to bring the doctor back again because he was kind of worried that his brain was going the way that the gray and black nomus do. But Ujiko had just looked at him with barely constrained pity and informed him he was showing symptoms of depression. Dabi had let out a bark of laughter at that, and it was the first time he'd laughed since he woke up. It felt like glass shards in his throat, and did not convince anyone that he was alright. He tries to get given work to do, something, anything to try and make this awful numbness go away. But working on how to run a country is no more or less exciting than running the PLF, especially since Shigaraki is still keeping him secret. 

He tries to train, and when Duster sees him going outside, he catches both of his hands and pulls him to a stop. 

"What?" He asks, barely registering it as he pulls him in closer, and brings his knuckles up to his lips. He needs to tell Shigaraki to stop doing that. 

"You can't train, firefly." 

"Why not?" 

"After how badly you hurt yourself, do you really think I would let you have your quirk?" Shigaraki says, pressing his cheek to his knuckles. "No, precious. You can have it back when you're all better and I know I can trust you again." 

And the first flicker of something cuts through his numbness. A sharp, hot indignation that-- that doesn't make his temperature creep higher from his quirk. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" He snaps, yanking his hands away from the other. "You don't get to choose if I deserve my quirk or not--" that anger, that spark, takes away the numbness that he has been drowning in for so long now. "You don't get to decide if I live or die! You shouldn't have brought me back! I wanted to die! I meant to die! You took everything from me!" His face doesn't hurt when the tears start to slip down his cheeks and he wipes at his cheek with horror, seeing translucent, healthy tears on the back of his hand. Duster took away every inch of him, replaced the things that were broken but were his, with something that so clearly–

Shigaraki catches his wrist again, squeezing hard enough that Dabi gasps as he feels his bones grind against each other as he does it. Red eyes burn into his as he yanks Dabi closer, his other hand clasping around the opposite bicep in the same bruising grip. "I took care of you. I took care of the League. I made certain that you would be safe. You're mine," he tells him, and there is a madness in his eyes as he says it. Something that puts a sharp spike of fear in him and-- and reminds him of how his father used to look at his mother before Shoto was born. 

Dabi only lets out a thin whimper, a sound he's never heard himself make before as he's held helpless in Shigaraki's grip. It doesn't matter if they're the same breed of nomu, Shigaraki has All For One, he's holding him. He could kill Dabi right now if he wanted. And then he could bring him back and do it again. 

The mania in his eyes dulls a bit. He pushes it away, and they go to that unbearable softness again. Duster sighs quietly and loosens his grip before shifting a hand to his chin. "I know that you're not feeling well, precious." He says, pressing a kiss to his cheek, breaking a stream of his tears. "I'm sorry for yelling. Why don't you come with me to the kitchen and I'll make you some tea?" 

Dabi tests his limits, and is allowed to pull out of his grip. He doesn't have words as he shakes his head slightly and flees back to his room, but at least Shigaraki doesn't stop him from going.

///

It takes him hours after dark for him to be able to curl up in his bed and try to go to sleep. He kept ignoring Shigaraki's weird behaviors before because he just thought the guy was poorly socialized, but now he realizes that he's the only one he touched like that. That he never did it in front of any of the others either. He doesn't know what the others would think about this, but he wants out now. He just doesn't know how he's going to get it. Shigaraki owns Japan. He's in charge of everything, which means that unless he is willing to learn how to get by on his physical strength alone, lose his quirk forever, and be willing to kill the League and whoever else Duster sends after him, there is nowhere in all of Japan where he can go. 

He isn't asleep, not when those thoughts are rolling around in his head, but he is dazed and bleary when all of the sudden his bed dips. Dabi jolts, turning, trying to lash out with his quirk, and not finding it again as Shigaraki gets into bed with him. He catches his arm as he swings it towards him and barely blinks before he leans over him, his other hand against the mattress and caging him in. "It's just me, precious." 

A sharp fear he's never felt before starts in his gut and Dabi tries to pull his hand away, but he's held in place so that he can't sit up, "Shigaraki, get out of my room." His voice sounds thinner with that fear. He needs to break whatever delusional claim the other man thinks he has over him before this gets any more out of hand. "I don't want you in here." 

"I know you're upset, sweetheart," Dabi is far more than that when Shigaraki calls him that as he shifts closer. He tries to squirm out from under him, but the other man is so much stronger than him, and he keeps him exactly where he wants him on the bed as he forces a leg up between one of Dabi's own and pins him to the bed with his weight. Terror sears across his nerves and he tries to fight harder, tries to tap into the strength that this body is supposed to have, but he doesn't make the other flinch in the slightest as he does. "But I don't want you to go to bed angry." With him pinned from the waist down, Shigaraki reaches for his chin and holds him still. "I know this isn't what you planned, I know that taking away your quirk doesn't seem fair, but, precious, can you blame me?" 

He sounds like this is all perfectly reasonable, like Dabi is the one who is being insane. 

"When you had it before, you were going to kill yourself, baby. You were going to leave me. After you promised you weren't going anywhere." He leans closer and Dabi's breath catches in the back of his throat. "You said you would stay, firefly." There is a sharper ache in the look that he gives him now. "I need you with me, precious." He doesn't wait for Dabi to try to find his words, he just holds him still as his lips seal over his. 

Dabi keeps his lips pressed tight, he tries to turn away, but the grip on his chin holds him still as Duster kisses his mouth. He kisses him like this is something he's been waiting to do for so long, and a horrible sickness goes through him as he wonders if he did wait to do this, or if the reason he had been so unfazed by cleaning him up and helping him shower, was because he's already had his fill of his body while he was sleeping. Shigaraki doesn't care how unresponsive he is, he shifts his fingers up his jaw so he can press hard at the hinge of it, until Dabi knows his bones will break, or he'll have to open his mouth. The sharp pain is enough to have his eyes watering again, and his mouth opens with a sob. 

Shigaraki doesn't care. He licks into his mouth, holding his jaw open so that Dabi can't even try to bite him, as he licks deep inside. Duster takes like cold rain, and Dabi feels like that flavor is somehow sinking through his skin and all the way down to his bones. He wishes he were still feeling so numb as he lets go of Dabi's wrist to shift closer instead. Dabi tries to push against him, tries to pull on his hair or scratch his nails through his shirt, he tries to get away. He tries. Shigaraki doesn't even seem to notice. 

He pulls away, resting their foreheads together. "I've been waiting for you for so long, precious. I was so scared that I wouldn't get to make this new world for you."

Dabi shakes his head, weakly, tears dripping off his cheeks. "Shigaraki, let go of me, please." 

"Never again, firefly." He promises, kissing at the tracks of them again. "The whole world is mine now, and I've been waiting so long to share it with you." He strokes his thumb over his cheek and kisses the edge of his lips. "My queen." 

"I'm not yours--" Dabi yelps as pain lances through his cheek. It's not the same as burning, not the same as a bruise or broken bone. It feels different and wrong. And the pain comes with a soft crack as his skin shatters under the effects of Decay. He tries to thrash away, and Shigaraki holds him to the bed, but doesn't make his head crumble into nothing as he lets out a strangled cry. 

"Shit, I'm so sorry, precious. I'm sorry, baby, I'm so sorry." Shigaraki grabs him again, not in the same places as before, catching him in a hug and pulling him in, onto their sides so that he can hold him close, tucking Dabi's head against his chest as he strokes his hair and Dabi sobs, his own hand going to his shattered skin as he shakes. It takes about half an hour for the new healing to knit his skin back together, and he can't stop crying the whole time. He cries for his quirk, he cries for the body that hasn't been his own since the moment he was conceived, he cries for the end he was denied so someone else could use him for their twisted delusion. He cries and cries, and Shigaraki holds him and strokes his hair. He kisses the top of his head, and he tells him softly, again and again, "It's alright, precious. Nothing is ever going to hurt you again. I'm going to keep you safe, baby boy. It's all going to get better, firefly. I love you so much." 

It takes a long time for him to find words again, and when he does he only manages to say the other's name. "S-Shigaraki--" because he is terrified if he tries to protest again, if he tries to tell him this isn't love, this is something sick and twisted, that he'll be hurt again. 

Duster doesn't make him find words, he just tries to pull him into whatever soft hazy place he believes that he's living in, by kissing him again. He kisses him over and over, only parting enough for him to suck in a breath and let it back out on a fresh sob as his hands start to move over his body. He hadn't really dressed for bed, he'd just taken off his t-shirt and lounge pants and climbed in, and Shigaraki takes advantage of every inch of his naked skin. His hands move over his back, stroking around his sides and up to his chest to tease at his nipples. His piercings were all removed when he was in the tank, but his nerves, all of the new nerves all over his body that aren't broken and constantly screaming his pain, they somehow feel even more sensitive than before. 

Dabi's stomach floods with sickness as he realizes what he's angling for to put this 'argument' to bed, to prove how much he 'loves' him. "Shigaraki--" 

"Use my first name, precious. I want to hear it. I've been waiting so long to hear your pretty voice again, sweetheart." He breathes against Dabi's lips desperately as he kisses him again as he pushes him back onto his back, this time forcing Dabi's thighs wide around his hips. He can't help it when his breath hitches again as he feels Shigaraki's cock pressing against his as he's forced to this angle. He hates himself for the way that a jolt of pleasure goes through him there even as this only makes his fear sharper. 

"Tomura, please, I don't--" He pinches a little more roughly at Dabi's nipples and he whimpers but shuts up. Shigaraki wants to play this game. He wants to pretend, and he's going to make Dabi pretend too if he doesn't want this violation to be as physically painful as it already is in other ways as Shigaraki licks and nips along his jawline. 

"You don't have to be nervous, precious." He breathes against his skin. "I'm going to take such good care of you in our bed too." 

He doesn't bother to protest again. He knows it's not going to save him as his mouth settles against his throat, licking and biting like he wants to leave marks that he can't now because his skin is black there. Shigaraki starts to rock his hips into his, slow rolling movements that Dabi wants to twist away from, especially when they... start to feel good. He bites on his lip hard, trying to keep the only sounds coming out of him his soft sobs, as his cock begins to stir. But Shigaraki feels him, of course he does, and he smiles sweetly at him before his mouth moves down his chest to replace one of his hands. His other slips lower, catching the back of his thigh, pushing his boxers higher so that he can have his hand against his skin and drawing soothing circles there as he grinds against him. Dabi is pretty sure the petrichor taste of him is sinking past his skin and going all the way into his bones, settling there into a heavy, inescapable chill as his body, untouched for so long, starts to warm to his touches. 

The tears never hurt as they slip over his cheeks like they used to, and they never stop. Shigaraki's touches never hurt, and he never stops either. He pulls back for long enough to pull away his shirt and then he is kissing him again, his hands going down Dabi's hips and forcing them up so that he can pull away his boxers. Dabi tries to twist away instinctively, his body unable to suppress the urge when he doesn't want that. Shigaraki bites his lip so hard that he starts to bleed and he makes himself be still under him again. His erection doesn't even have the decency to flag as that fresher fear and pain go through him. His skin is so desperate for a touch. Even before he was supposed to have died, even before the League, it had been at least a year since anyone was willing to go to bed with him, and no matter how much his mind recoils, his body longs for pleasure. Shigaraki licks away the blood from his lip and murmurs, 

"You look so beautiful blushing like that for me, precious." His hands move over his body and he leans back to really look at him. "I wish I could have seen you before, but we were always so busy with work. I promise things will be different now. I'm going to make sure that you never have to lift a finger for anything else ever again." 

"Tomura, we don't have to," do this? Change how things were before? What? It's so sharply clear that this is all Shigaraki has wanted out of him since Overhaul. 

"I want to, precious. I want to make you feel good. I want to make every part of you mine. I want to make love to you, Dabi." He wishes so badly that he had burned hot enough to have only been ashes in the wind, and for the first time in his life, he doesn't know if he means when he was twelve or when he killed his father. 

Shigaraki kisses him again, his hands moving down his body, one wrapping around his cock and stroking him slowly from root to tip and Dabi hates himself for how loudly he moans. It feels so sickeningly good that his toes curl against the sheets and his cock starts to drool so much so quickly. He bites into his lip this time and tries not to squirm and have that pleasure turn to agony as Duster's eyes stay so pleased and adoring on him as he strokes his cock a few more times before he, thankfully, lets go of him. 

Then his hand moves over his balls and behind him. No, no, no-- His fingers, only wet with his pre, circle his hole, and Dabi grabs onto his shoulders, his nails biting into his skin. He's not even bothering to try to push him away, he's just bracing himself for the pain of being opened, or being raped by the thick cock he can see outlined in Shigaraki's pants, without proper preparation. But when Duster starts to rub around his hole, Dabi feels a surreal, unfamiliar ache in his pelvis before he feels-- he yelps as something warm and wet starts to slick his hole and Shigaraki's fingers as he rubs them over him. 

"Wh--" 

"That's it, precious. Getting so wet for me," and his voice is thicker with his lust. "I knew my baby girl would be so needy after having to wait so long to have me." 

He understands then, as Shigaraki circles him one more time before he pushes his finger deep inside, sliding along his wet walls without the discomfort he was expecting, that he didn't just have the doctor fix him. He had him made perfect for his delusions. He had his 'queen' made so that he could fuck him whenever he wanted. Dabi squeezes his eyes shut as a fresh wave of tears spill down his cheeks as he realizes that he probably tailor made his body to react to his touches. Made it impossible for him not to... like it as he's violated. 

Shigaraki rubs his finger along him, until Dabi is panting and keening softly as his cock leaks heavily against his stomach, and his hole is all but gushing slick as he puts in another. He sinks them inside and scissors them just enough to get him used to a stretch, strokes just long enough to ensure that his prostate is sensitive and making him moan with each little brush against it, before he kisses Dabi again and pulls his fingers out. 

"Tomura, please," and he wants to think that he's begging for him to stop. He knows he doesn't want this. But his body is lost in the heady, unwanted pleasure that is being forced across his nerves. He wants to die. He wants to be fucked. 

Shigaraki won't let him do the first, not when he thinks he owns him. But he takes the second for himself. He strips away the last of his clothing and Dabi shifts, twisting his torso so that he can hide his face against the pillows so he at least doesn't have to look at the other man as he wraps his hand around his thigh and holds him open and at the angle he wants, as his other hand steadies his cock so he can press inside. Dabi hates himself for how good it feels, how much wetter he gets, how loudly he moans, as Shigaraki feeds his massive cock into his body. He's breathless and soaking the pillow with his tears as the other man bottoms out.

"Fuck, precious, you're so tight." He leans in and kisses his cheek as he starts to rock his hips into him in slow, gentle, rolling thrusts that make certain every one of Dabi's nerves is stimulated and suffusing his body with pleasure. He laughs softly and Dabi wishes he could burn him alive. "First time you've had something inside since I brought you back, huh, precious? Guess that really makes you mine." He teases like they're lovers. As far as he's concerned, they are. 

And Dabi's body agrees as he starts to shift, angling his thrusts deeper, dragging their skin against each other slowly, kissing and touching wherever he can reach. He forces his pleasure to go higher and higher, and no matter how good it all feels, Dabi knows that it's wrong because his quirk isn't racing to meet him. His body gets warmer, but only the way a normal person’s would. Only reminding him with each sobbed moan and whimper as Shigaraki wraps his hand around his cock and begins to stroke, that his body isn't his. It never has been. It belonged to his father's ambitions first, then it belonged to his revenge, now it's Shigaraki's and he's never going to be able to escape. 

It's not an escape, but it is a relief when his pleasure goes so high that he can't fight it back any longer. His mind goes blissfully blank as he arches and cums, his insides tightening around Shigaraki, and pulsing just as much as his cock as he spills his release. His whole body feels consumed by the pleasure and he cries and cries as Duster keeps moving inside of him. He pushes him past the oversensitivity, telling him the entire time how beautiful he is, how much he missed him, how much he loves him, how he's never going to let him go again. He talks, and touches, and rapes him, and Dabi's body doesn't have the decency to be disgusted. He gets hard again, and this time, Shigaraki only lets him cum when he finally does, lacing their fingers together and kissing him sweetly as he fucks him full of his cum, until Dabi's mind gives him another few seconds of reprieve as his orgasm drowns him again. 

///

Shigaraki barely lets him be alone after that. He is with him in his bed-- their bed-- when he sleeps and wakes. He is with him when he eats, when he goes anywhere in the house, and if he has work to do, he brings Dabi to his office and he does his work, while holding one of Dabi's hands so that he can't go far. Dabi has to ask to even go to the bathroom when he needs to, and if he's not back in a timely enough fashion, Shigaraki comes looking for him. Now that he's shown his hand, proved to Dabi he is insane beyond anything he could have guessed, he doesn't bother to hide his obsession anymore. He keeps Dabi close, he pulls him into his lap for kisses and wandering touches that could turn deadly, or at the very least, painful, at his slightest whim. He slips his hand into his pants whenever he feels like it, either stroking him off or fingering him until he's dripping and trembling through his orgasm. He kisses away his tears and tells him how beautiful he is, how much he loves him, as he does, and Dabi lets him. 

He's not numb anymore. 

No, Shigaraki keeps him close, he dotes on him and adores him, and Dabi moves past the anguish. He moves past the regrets and wishes that he had just died when he had the chance. Wishing for those things won't save him now any more than it did when he was a child. He learns what Shigaraki wants from him, and when he wakes up in the morning a week after the first night that Duster forced his way into his bed, Dabi rolls into his chest and nuzzles his face up under his chin, pressing a kiss there, just beneath his jaw. 

"Morning, Tomu." He mumbles. 

Shigaraki's hands against him twitch, tightening just the slightest bit. "Morning, precious. Did you sleep better last night?" No secret now that they're sharing a bed that he has nightmares. Of the fire, of his father, and of Shigaraki too now. Dabi doubts he'll ever stop having any of those, but he shrugs. 

"Do you have a meeting this morning?" He asks instead. 

"Why, baby?" 

He kisses up his jaw until he reaches his ear. "Wanna see if I can take your cock without having to prep. You made me perfect for you, didn't you, Tomura?" 

"You were always perfect, firefly." Shig breathes, catching his chin and looking into his eyes. Dabi doesn't know if he'll ever learn to fake whatever he's going to need to in order to make Shigaraki believe his words are real. But he has time. He'll never get older, never be hurt again so long as he plays along. He can pretend. He wonders if Shigaraki can see those thoughts in his eyes as he looks at him, his gaze calculating. Dabi will play along. He'll do it until his mind shatters and he really does fall in love with this monster, or until Shigaraki sinks so far into his delusion that he never sees it coming when he burns him alive. 

Dabi knows how to bide his time to destroy someone. When he does it this time, he's going to make sure that no one is around to ruin the finality of that action. "I love you." He says on a breath, and Shigaraki smiles at him sweetly even though his eyes are still sharp. 

"I love you too, precious." They're both lying when they say it, but Dabi at least understands that his own words aren't just a lie, they're a promise. He will either love Shigaraki, or he'll kill him. Time will tell. 

[razorblade180]

Random MHA chapter 427 thoughts (spoilers duh)

Midoriya is a better man than me because I’m not getting called a murderer hatefully by someone who worshiped The Hero Killer. Sir, your idol tried to kill my friend’s brother who’s just a nice person.

“You should make it a comic” is unironically a really cold response. That’s crazy.

It makes complete sense society does not give a fuck about Tomura. There’s a difference between sympathy and empathy; even if they learned everything, it’s a hard sell to make people care about someone who took their sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, etc.

I do find it a little obtuse to pin society for people like Tomura and Dabi specifically when the main reason they were such a problem is literally because the personification of evil (AFO) was plotting on these for decades. Yeah Endeavor is major key for Dabi but that boy would’ve burned to death as a child or been found by his dad/firemen if AFO wasn’t being unhinged. Honestly if we’re talking about Hero Society failing anyone specifically by its structure, it’s Toga cause not having any solution for child development regarding taboo quirks like hers is insane. Spinner’s issue essentially racism and that’s a complex problem before hero society. That’s just a societal problem in general! I personally can’t pin that blame on hero society specifically.

I see so many people hating on Deku after reading this and I just don’t get it. The 15 year old boy literally did everything he could and gave up everything but his life for a person who by no means was going to turn over a new leaf and did not feel bad about his actions.

Overhaul has been nothing but a mentally broken/unstable double amputee that’s been in confinement ever since he lost. Don’t really understand why there’s a need to kick this guy more since the villain he was has been dead forever. He’s also objectively done less atrocities and yet nobody seems to feel bad for him. Dude was also an orphan taken in by organized crime too but since he abused a child we got to learn about he deserves no sympathy? Okay. Oh we’re supposed to feel absolutely devastated by Tomura though? Pfft, I’m not. “You should feel bad about Eri forever.” Okay, but can you he do that with prosthetics and a mental institution since Y’know… he doesn’t have a quirk.

Seriously, if the message is “society should do better when it comes to how villains happen” then at least give Overhaul the ability to eat without help. I agree with the idea of Eri not seeing him but like… that dude could rebuild Japan quickly with his quirk. That MF could probably fix Dabi if he tried. Maybe I’m not hero material cause with Eri’s consent, I would’ve negotiated giving his arms back so he could fix grandpa; but before he gets to save grandpa he fixes the country and gravely injured heroes. Does it cheapen some events? Perhaps. Do I want Bakugo and Deku to not have medical problems at 22? Also yes. I’m typically not big on undoing lots of things but it’s not like the heroes didn’t earn a portion of their life back. You can spin it positively. If Endeavor isn’t in a wheel chair, then nobody has to aid him cause I’m pretty sure his wife and Todoroki are just nice enough to wheel him around but they could be doing better things.

[jaybird-fanfics]

Warm

You don't know exactly how you got to this point, with your boss hovering above you, leaving gentle yet messy kisses along your jaw and neck. But here you were. Maybe it had to do with something with you messing with him on while he was heavily focused in a game he was playing. But all you did was sit next to him and played with his hair. Hell, even then, you questioned yourself. 'How did I end up in this situation?' Your boss, Shigaraki Tomura, would have never let anyone so close to him, much less touch him. And yet, you were there, sitting inches away from your shoulder touching his own. With your hand running through his messy light blue locks. 

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? It starts with you, first joining the League Of Villains. You were asked to join because of your useful quirk. You had the power to create shadow versions of yourself, multiple at once. You could also travel through the shadows with ease. Made it easier to get in and out of places without being seen. You didn't get along with most of the members, and you really didn't like your new boss. He was basically a man child, a man who had a snappy attitude who threw tantrums whenever he didn't get his way. 

He pissed you off, he annoyed you. And it's not like he liked you any better. He liked your quirk more than you. He found your quirk more use to him than your actual self. If he could, he'd just use your quirk and leave you to rot. But, unfortunately he could not do that. So he was stuck with you. Yes it seems you were in quite the situation, hating everyone you worked with, including your bitch of a boss. 

However, as the weeks turned to months of missions upon missions, you found that not all of them were that bad. Toga was a good friend despite her overall creepiness. Twice always made you laugh. Spinner had surprisingly good taste in music. Mr. Compressing was actually nice to you. Kurogiri was there whenever you needed to talk about something that was on your mind.  And Dabi, well, he was just a good dude to get high with every now and then. 

But Shigaraki? He was still the same, an ass. To you and to everyone else. There was no way you could ever respect someone like him, boss or not. That is, until one mission, you two were sent out together. Great. A while mission. Just the two of you. The two members who hated each other the most. This could only go badly. 

But to your surprise the mission had gone good so far, you didn't run into too much trouble, you were still alive, and you were about to end the mission after getting what was needed. You would count this mission as a success. Or you would have, if not for the accident. 

You were injured, and nearly caught by a pro hero. You could use your quirk to escape due to their own quirk. It repressed other's quirks to near nothingness. You felt useless, you were alone. This was it, you wee done for. And then that's when your heard it, the anguished screams of the hero above you as he turned into dust. You look up from the ground to see your boss, Shigaraki holding the hero's head before it completely dusted. Shigaraki shook his hand free from the dust before turning his attention to you. You couldn't read his expression due to the hand he wore on his face. 

He said nothing as he approached you, he just, stared at you for a while before finally speaking. "Can you stand?" He asked. You blinked before attempting to bring yourself to a stand. You did, but felt so lightheaded that you began to tumble. Before you could fall, Shigaraki caught you by the waist. He was careful as he wrapped your arm around his neck for support before walking. "I don't know if you'll make it back to HQ at this speed." He muttered. "Can you still use your quirk?" 

"I'll try." You say before creating a shadow portal from beneath you. The two of you sank down into darkness, and within seconds, you were right back inside of the League's hideout. Just that alone seemed to have completely exhausted you. You fell unconscious in Shigaraki's arms.

Only to awake later in your room. You sat up in your bed, just in time to hear Shigaraki's voice again. "Slow down. You'll reopen your wound." You look to the side to see him leaning against a wall. The hands he wore were gone, you could finally see his face. Still unreadable. "Why do you care?" You ask bitterly, looking away from him. You cursed yourself as you remembered your state of weakness. And in front of him of all people. "Because I don't want someone useful to me to die." That answer only made you more upset. "Please, as if you care what happens to me. All you care about is my quirk." 

Shigaraki said nothing to this before he started to make his away to your bedroom door. You watched, noticing the limp in his stride. 'Don't ask. Just let him leave.' You thought to yourself. Halfway to your door, he nearly tripped, hissing out in pain. You sigh. "And what happened to you?" Shigaraki looked at you. "Nothing." 

"That doesn't look like nothing." You raise an eyebrow. "You got hurt too, didn't you? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Why do you care?" Shigaraki mocks your earlier question. Why do you care? You don't. He's a grown man, he can take care of himself. And yet, you found yourself getting out of bed, risking hurting yourself more just to check on him. "Sit down." You say, grabbing his wrist and leading him to your bed. He didn't make too much fuss as he did so. "It's your leg right? That's where it hurts?" You move your hand over his leg, looking up at him for a moment before going any further. Shigaraki rolled his eyes. "Go on. You're wasting my time." You shot him a look before moving his pantleg up. And there it was, a large cut on his calf. 

"Why didn't you do something about this earlier dumbass!?" You snap. "This could get infected!" Shigaraki looked a bit surprised for a brief moment. "I was too preoccupied with a half dead woman." He glared at you. "That doesn't matter, you're our boss, our leader. What if something happened to you? We'll all be directionless!" 

"It's fucking cut, I'm not going to die." Shigaraki tells you. "Infections can lead to death moron." You say firmly. "Just, go get it fixed before it actually does get infected alright?" 

"For someone who hates me, you sure are acting worried." Said Shigaraki. "It doesn't matter if I hate you or not, you're still our leader. I'd feel responsible if something happened to you while on that mission." You say. "I don't want that responsibility so, just go already." You then gave him a questionable look. "And I can say the same for you. If you hate me so much, why bother staying here in my room for who knows how long just to check if I wake up or not?" 

"Like I said, I don't want anyone useful to me dying." Said Shigaraki bluntly. You scowl. "I'm not useful, just my quirk, right?" 

"No." Shigaraki says firmly. "I need every single one of you to accomplish my goal. It's a long long ways away. I can't afford to loose anyone right now, that includes you. Your quirk helps, but it's nothing without it's host." You could have sworn his words sounded genuine. But, there was no way, right? Why would a villain care about others, even if they are on the same side? Shigaraki is nothing but a cold heartless monster. Right? 

You looked down at his wound again. "Just, go get this taken care of." 

Things were weird between you two since that day. You couldn't get Shigraki's words out of your head. There was no way he meant what he said. That's what you thought, until he actually proved it to you. You had caught the eye of a rival villain group, your quirk had proved useful to them. And so, they were willing to pay quite the penny for Shigaraki to hand you over, no questions asked. But Shigaraki wasn't having it. 

"Fuck off, she's not for sale." Shigaraki said as he swats the money out of the man's hand. "What? You think I just give my people away like that? Screw you. Now get the fuck out of my sight before I dust your asses. I should anyway, you've wasted enough of my time already." You could believe what you were hearing. And neither could the leader of the rival group. Unsatisfied with the outcome, he decided he would take you by force. But again, Shigaraki wasn't having it. 

The fight didn't last very long, and it ended with Shigaraki's foot on the chest of the leader as he stood over him. Shigaraki removed the hand from his face, he smirked as he glared down at the man. "Game over, shit stain." He said before dusting him. You just watched, surprised by his actions. 

That night, you went to look for him. Kurogiri informed you that he was in his room, and even advised you not to disturb him. But you needed to talk to him, now. You made your way to his bedroom and knocked on his door. There was no answer. After waiting for several seconds, you opened the door yourself only to be met with total darkness. The only light source coming from the TV inside. "Who the fuck is there?" Shigaraki grumbled as he paused his game. "It's me." You tell him as you took a step into the room. 

There was silence for a moment before he spoke again. "Come on then, don't just stand there." Surprised, you shut the door behind you and walked in before shutting the door behind you. Trying to follow the light to make your way to his bed. Once you reached it, you stopped and looked at him. Now you were at a sudden loss for words. "What?" Shigaraki glanced at you. "Don't tell me you interrupted my game just to stare at me all night." 

"No, that's not why I'm here." You tell him. "Then what it is it?" He asked. "I just...earlier today. Did you really mean what you said?" Shiagraki was quite for a moment. "What did I say?" He asked. "That I wasn't for sale? That you don't just give your people away?" 

"Of course I meant it." Shigaraki tells you, as if you should already know. "Did you really think I was about to give you up for a quick buck?" You went silent, really thinking it over. Did he really mean it? Did he really care for his own people? You didn't have time to question him again before he was holding a second controller towards you. "Sit down. This game is better with two people anyway." 

Wordlessly, you took the controller and sat down next to him. You watched as he played the game, not really paying much attention to your side of the screen. Maybe you were wrong. Maybe he wasn't heartless. 

"You suck at this." 

But he was still a bit of a jerk.

"I wasn't even paying attention!" You defend yourself. "And why weren't you?" Asked Shigaraki. You look away from him. "Just start it over. I'll kick your ass this time." 

Soon after, it would always be like this. With you, being in his room. Playing games with him. Your were quick to find out that he did not do this for just anyone. So why you? You didn't know, and maybe you didn't want to know. Because this, whatever this was, felt so natural. You liked it. He even let you win a few times, which was way out of character for him. He was being, nice? Yeah, nice, to you. 

And...you liked it. 

And then somehow, you ended up where you are now. 

You sigh a moan as he traveled further down your jaw to your neck. His rough lips felt surprisingly nice on your skin. He kissed and nipped at your flesh a few times, very time, would gain another pleasurable little noise from you. He liked it, he wanted more. He wanted to hear you more and more. You could feel his hand slip up your shirt, his four fingers just barely touching the base of your breasts before you stopped him. 

"W-Wait, Shigaraki...Wait." 

He stopped, looking up at you. "Something wrong?" He asked. Even that, stopping when you asked, asking what was wrong...why? You looked at him, heart pounding in your chest, your body begged him to continue but your head saying otherwise. "We can't, I don't think I can..." Shigaraki was quick to remove himself from you. "Sorry." He said quietly. You sat up and put a hand to your chest. "No it's not you. I promise it's just...What is this?" 

"What?" Shigaraki looked at you, his hair nearly covering his eyes. Something you've grown to find cute over the last few days. "This. What are we doing? We're not even...I mean. I know villains shouldn't care about this kind of thing. It's not that big of a deal but, to me, to me it is." Shigaraki took a moment before answering. "You don't want this." 

"No, it's not that I-"

"No." Shigaraki cut you off. "You don't want what I am. I'm...a lot. You shouldn't want more than...this." He waved his hand between the two of you. "Why?" You tilt your head slightly. "What?" Shigaraki asks. "Why wouldn't I want you?" 

"I told you, I'm a lot." 

"A lot of guys are." You try to joke. 

"No, I mean, why would anyone want me? Look at me, I'm surprised you even let me touch you." 

You furrow your brows. Did he really think so lowly of himself? You scoot closer to him. "I let you touch me, because I wanted you to touch me. I stopped you because, well, I..." You took a breath. "I like what we have. I don't want it to be ruined by doing something we might regret." Shigaraki leaned in a little. "I wouldn't regret it...would you?" You stared at his lips, then into his eyes. "I don't know. I'm...scared. But, I want it, I want you." 

"Even if I'm...me?" Shigaraki asks you, his lips inches away from yours. "Yes." You breathed. "Ever part of you." The two of you closed the gap, you sigh as he deepened the kiss. But pulled away just as fast. "I won't go any further, not unless you want me to." You chased after his lips. "I want you to, I don't know what might happen after but, just for tonight...let me have you." Shigaraki pulled you in close to kiss you again. 

Once more you found yourself on you back. Shigaraki pulled away to take off your shirt, leaning back down to leave a trail of kisses on your chest and breasts. He brought a careful hand up to cup one of them, causing you to whine as he moved his thumb across your perky nipple. His mouth around your other, tongue flicking it over. You squeezed your legs around his hips, grinding up against him. He groaned before he pulled away, he kissed down your stomach to the top of your shorts. He tore them off of you along with your underwear. You felt his hot breath on your entrance. 

You watched him as he spread apart your folds before licking up from the base of your pussy to the top of your clit. You threw your head back, eyes shut tight. Your hands shot down to his hair, pulling him in closer so you could grind onto his face. He hummed in delight as he ate you out, thumb rubbing at your clit at a ever quickening pace. 

"Shit! Shiggy! Just like that!" You moaned loudly. Shigaraki groaned as his hips rutted against the bed to get some sort of friction. The sounds coming from Shigaraki eating out your pussy made you squirm in the best of ways. Ever slick squelch filled the dark quiet room. Just as you were about to hit your high, he pulled away, a trail of slick following his mouth. 

"Damn it, why?" You whine. Shigaraki licked his lips clean before removing his shirt. "Don't worry, you'll get to cum...I promise." He chuckled darkly. You barely heard him as you gazed at his figure. Skinny, thin, you could practically see his ribcage. But damn, if he wasn't sexy in his own way. Every scar, mole, any imperfection, you found so beautiful. You were snapped out of your thoughts as you felt him grinding against your bare cunt. You let out a sharp gasp. "You fell that?" He asked. You looked down at his large erection in his pants. "You did that. Now you're gonna do something about it." 

Oh fuck yes. You sat up, not needing to know what to do next. You crawled towards him and palmed at his erection. He placed his hand on yours. "Beg for it." He demanded. "Please..." You begged. "I want it, I want it in my mouth. Please Shiggy." He smirked before removing his pants and boxers. Shit. You nearly came at the sight of it. He was very thick around, but he made up for it in length. You wrapped your hand around his dick, pumping it a few times before placing the tip at your lips. You kissed it before swirling your tongue around it. You heard Shigaraki groan before he placed his hand behind your head. 

He pushed your forwards, taking the almost the whole thing into your mouth. "That's it baby. Take it like a good girl." You whined before bobbing your head up and down, hand pumping what couldn't fit. You almost gagged a few times as the tip hit the back of your throat. Shigaraki threw his head back. "Fuck yes. Taking it like a good little slut." You whined again at his words, moving a hand down to rub at your clit. 

"Ah! Take that hand away before I take my cock out of that pretty little mouth. And leave you with fucking nothing." You quickly move your hand away. Shigaraki thrusted into your mouth, lids batting as tears started to roll down your cheeks. "Aw, is it too much for you? You can take it, I know you can." He said as he continued to thrust. Soon you didn't have to bob, he was doing it pretty much for you as he fucked your face. 

"Shit!" He pulled your head away just as he was getting close. You coughed a few times, before panting heavily. Again, you were given nothing. "Shiggy..." You pant. "Sorry, are you ok? That was a lot, huh?" Shigaraki cupped your face. You smile. "I'm ok." Shigaraki smiled as well. "Good, now lay back for me ok?" 

You nod before laying on your back, legs spreading open for him. Shigaraki was once again on top of you, lining up with your entrance. He looked at you, you gave him a nod telling him you were ready for him. He nods back before slowly pushing himself into you. You clutch at the sheets as you felt him fill you up to the very brim with his length. "Oh fuck. Shiggy, please, please move." You begged breathlessly. Shigaraki huffed as he gripped onto your hips, he thrusted harshly into you, quickening his pace with each time. 

You clenched down onto him as he brushed against that oh so sweet spot deep within you, causing him to groan loudly. He caught himself as he leaned down, groaning and moaning into your ear, panting heavily as his thrusts became more and more uneven and sloppy. He was close, and so were you. "Yes! Shiggy, right there! Please!" Shigaraki pounded harder, faster into your quivering cunt. Just as you were about to hit your high, he bit down onto your neck with a heavy groan. It was just enough to send you over the edge with a loud cry of his name. 

Shigaraki wasn't far behind, with a few more hard trusts he came inside of you, filling you up more. He grinds into you to ride out his orgasm before slowing to a still. He moves away from your neck and looks down at you, what he saw made his heart skip a beat. Your fucked out expression, mouth slightly parted as you panted, red faced, tears in the corners of your eyes. You looked so cute like this. He chuckled before slowly pulling out, making you whine at the loss. 

He shifted to lay next to you, bringing you in close to him. "Think you'll still regret this?" He asked. "Cause I sure as fuck don't." You look up at him. "Well, that depends...do you want this? More than just what we did?" You ask. Shigaraki moved a strand of hair from your face. "You're asking me to be your boyfriend, right?" You blush slightly as you nod. "If you don't want to then-"

"It's not something I'd normally do, you know? Be someone's partner in a romantic way." That made your heart ache. But what he said next made you hopeful. "But, you're something else you know that? You...you make me feel things I didn't know I could feel." His eyes met yours as he spoke. "If you really want me, then, I want you too." 

You smiled as you brought a hand up to his cheek. "Yes, I want you." Shigaraki smiled as well. "Then, you have me." He said before leaning down to kiss you deeply. 

For the first time, Shigaraki Tomura didn't feel cold. He didn't feel dead inside. Instead, he felt something he didn't know was possible for him to feel. And it was thanks to you, that he finally felt warm...

[bnhaobservation]

Was Rei a bad mother or not?

Maybe I’ve bad luck but I often happen to stumble into this debate. Some want to paint her like a saint, some want to paint her like a monster, some have more moderate opinions.

Credits when it’s due, Todoroki Rei is clearly the least explored Todoroki in the manga. She doesn't even have a profile yet!

While part of the reason clearly rest on how this is well, a story about Heroes aimed to male Japanese teenagers in which even the main character’s mother hardly get some digging so it’s kind of to be expected she wouldn’t get much digging as well, there are likely other reasons at play, which are important because they influence the way the facts are presented to us.

The first is that likely originally she wasn’t planned to have a big role, part of it is likely because some things about Rei are related to stereotypes well known in Japan who don’t need to be explained to Japanese readers (but the same can’t be said to westerns), part of it is because.

So, before answering to the starting question let’s dig into those two reasons.

Which was meant to be Rei’s role in the story originally?

Likely solely to be the source of Shouto’s drama.

In the prototype Shouto was meant to go so far as to hate her (and long for his father’s love)...

...then things were turned over and he ended up hating his father and loving his mother but Rei’s role didn’t change much, Shouto suffers for her condition and mainly feels anger toward his father DUE TO WHAT HE DID TO HIS MOTHER, which means Rei is still the source of Shouto’s drama (along with Enji, of course). Even as the story will go on, Shouto will claim his main reason for having troubles to forgive him is what Rei suffered… and he feels confuse on what to do when he discovers his mother instead wants to forgive his father, leaving him at loss on what to do.

At the time of the U.A. sport festival, when Shouto’s past was shown, the Touya/Dabi plot either wasn’t planned at all or it was just an embryo.

That’s why there seems to be a clash in how in chap. 39 she claims she can’t take care of the children and single out Shouto’s specifically for how his left side reminds her of Enji...

...when in chap. 302 it was Touya’s gaze what freaked her out...

...while Shouto was the only one in the family trying to protect her.

The whole chap 302 didn’t exist yet in Horikoshi’s mind when chap 39 was planned, possibly the whole Touya/Dabi plotline wasn’t planned yet, so everything ends up on circling around Shouto.

Later on, when the Touya/Dabi plotline was more or less set, it was still likely that Horikoshi didn’t plan to involve Rei much in it, as in chap 250 Fuyumi said her mother was hospitalized BEFORE Touya burned himself.

This would have made possible a plotline in which Rei supported both Shouto and Touya and her being hospitalized and therefore being absent could have contributed to the Touya tragedy.

However, when creating chap 301/302 for the magazine, Horikoshi decided that Rei would still be around when Touya died, so that Enji’s escalation toward her and Shouto could be blamed to the loss of his son…

...only to go back to the first plan when someone pointed the retcon out, so that in the volume version Rei gets hospitalized BEFORE Touya’s assumed death.

All those changes ends up conflicting with previously established facts, making them confusing if we try to look at them all at the same time, which can make harder for some readers to understand Rei’s role.

To understand which kind of mother Horikoshi wanted to portray we’ve to look at her story in blocks, not as a single, streamlined narration.

We can, of course, try to connect each fact and work out a Watsonian explanation for what doesn’t work, but this might lead us astray on understanding which kind of characterization Horikoshi was aiming to give her in each sector and add to them some info about Japanese culture which might help us to get a better picture of how he meant for us to read Rei.

So how I’m going to tackle Rei?

I’ll try to list and analyze each single accusation I saw being moved at her, looking at what the narrative says but also looking at the cultural contest in which her actions are meant to be read. While it’s likely not going to be a perfect analysis for the reasons mentioned above, I still hope people will get a better picture of Rei.

I’ll also make a premise about the ‘timeline’ in this, aka more or less when facts happens. Yeah, the info I’ll give you are canon (according to the manga volume version, anime and magazine version follow different timelines), I won’t quote the sources so as not to make the post unnecessarily loaded.

Enji married after he turned 20 and prior to turning 22.

Touya was conceived around April in the year in which Enji would turn 22 and had birth in January in the following year. Fuyumi was conceived in the same year in which Touya had birth, around March and was born always in that same year in December.

Touya’s Quirk started to burn him when he was 3, likely in summer, meaning he started training at 3 or younger. That’s because Natsuo is conceived AFTER Touya started to burn himself, when Touya  still 3, around October, and has birth the following year, in July when Tōya is 4, Fuyumi would turn 4 and Enji would turn 27.

Shouto is conceived April, in the year in which Tōya has turned 7, Fuyumi would turn 7, Natsuo would turn 3 and Enji would turn 30 and has birth the following year in January, some days before Touya would turn 8. Short after Shouto is born, his siblings are forbidden to interact with him.

Rei snaps in winter, when Touya is 13, Shouto is 5, Natsuo has turned 9 and Fuyumi has just turned 13 and Enji is 36. By the volume version canon, Touya dies short after, while he’s still 13 (though he should have been close to turn 14).

Shouto will visit his mother in May when he’s 15. By then Touya is 23, Natsuo is 18 but about to turn 19 and Fuyumi is 22 but about to turn 23. Enji is 45 about to turn 46.

So let’s start with the list.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE ACCEPTED TO MARRY ENJI DESPITE KNOWING HE WANTED TO USE HER CHILDREN TO FULFILL HIS GOALS GOING SO FAR AS CHOSING HER TO TRY TO CREATE THE PERFECT MIX OF QUIRKS.

So, let’s start with something important culturally.

Before deciding if Rei is or not a good mother, let’s accept Rei was a ‘good daughter’.

Why good daughter is between quotation marks? I’ll get at it.

Even though her father and family head didn’t force her, she sacrificed herself for the well being of her birth family. As it was expected of her being the daughter of a traditional Japanese family. No one likely found what she did admirable or exceptionally good. Doing that was part of the standard expectations traditional Japanese families like the Himuras had for their children.

Let me introduce you to ‘Oyakoko’ (親孝行 “filial piety”), an important Buddhist virtue of respecting and caring for one’s parents and that therefore requires the children ‘to be good’ to their parents, often through acts of great respect, kindness and support. It might sound nice but, although things are changing currently, in the past this meant doing what the parents wanted, including marrying who they were to pick up for you, continuing the family business or fulfilling their dreams.

Also let me talk to you about ‘Sanjū Shitoku’ (三従四徳 “The three obediences and four virtues”), a set of moral principles and social code of behavior for maidens and married women in East Asian Confucianism. In specific the three obediences instruct that a woman is obligated not to act on her own initiative and, at home, she must submissively obey or follow her father’s orders before getting married, her husband’s after getting married, and her sons’ after her husband’s death.

When Touya, in chap 302, says Rei had no choices, he’s likely not referring to the fact someone pointed a gun to her head or that she was dragged to the altar kicking and screaming. He’s referring to the fact that even if Rei, as she’ll say, was given ‘options’, the only option socially acceptable for her was to marry the guy who would fix her family’s economical troubles. As a good daughter she HAD to pick up the option that was best not for herself but for her birth family.

The result of Rei being educated into this being what a ‘good daughter’ would do, is that she likely expected her children to also be ‘good children’.

In short, she wasn’t educated to think that Enji wanting them for a specific purpose should have been a sign that should have caused warning bells to ring in her head but something totally socially acceptable, and that she was expected to raise ‘good kids’ who would want to do this for Enji the same way she had done this for her parents.

Things are changing in Japan too, but still, to Rei to hear a man claiming he wanted her to sire kids for his own goal wasn’t meant to sound creepy. It was a normal part of an Omiai marriage, a marriage that’s not based on love (in the past in Japan it was believed marriages based on love were meant to fail) but on how beneficial the marriage would be to the families of the two spouses, a marriage that still exists in Japan (even if it’s slowly disappearing). And yes, Omiai marriages include checking the genetic pool of the wanna be spouse, even if normally one looks for genetic illness (physical and psychological), for lack of blood purity (the person isn’t purely Japanese) or for relations with people that are considered outcasts in Japan (like the burakumin).

So Horikoshi doesn’t mean to portray her as a bad mother because she merely followed social conventions, he just points out the downsides of said social conventions.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE KEPT ON SIRING CHILDREN WHEN TOUYA TURNED OUT NOT BEING ABLE TO FULFILL ENJI’S DREAM

Back to the ‘Sanjū Shitoku’ (三従四徳 “The three obediences and four virtues”) we go.

Rei was meant to follow Enji’s wishes, to keep the harmony in the house, the fact she actually argues against them, saying it would be “too cruel” and tries to change his mind speaks volumes for how she actually cared about Touya.

In reply Enji says they’re doing this for Touya, claiming this will make him stop training himself. This corners Rei as, not only she shouldn’t question her husband’s decisions and yet she’s questioning them but she’s also called to choose between her son’s psychological well being and her son’s physical well being. If this work Touya will stop burning himself. This is a good thing.

At the same time though, Rei was likely also put pressure by how she seems to realize Enji too, like Touya, won’t stop wishing for someone to beat All Might. Enji’s words aren’t completely selfless, he thinks by having another child he’ll kill two birds with one stone, he’ll have a heir who’ll surpass All Might, and this will put him to rest, and Touya will also be forced to quit. Now a friendly reminder this is not a post about Enji, it’s about Rei, so I won’t discuss Enji’s actions more than necessary as they’ll deserve their own post.

We see at this point Rei doesn’t question him anymore. She likely slips into the role of the ‘obedient wife’ and does what her husband asks of her even if she’s not fully persuaded it’s a good choice.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T LOOK AT TOUYA, WHO KEEPS ON BURNING HIMSELF

Yes and no.

In Japan is believed looking after the children is solely a mother’s job, so yes, she wasn’t looking after Touya well enough.

However she had another child to look at who’s smaller than Touya and Japan doesn’t believe in the need to supervise small children (they had recently rejected a law which proposed to make mandatory for parents not to leave unsupervised kids of 8 and younger).

Look at the opening of the manga/anime.

Midoriya, Bakugou and their friends are alone at the park. There’s no adult supervising them, which allows Bakugou and his friends to beat up Midoriya without anyone stopping them. The playground isn’t far from Midoriya’s home but not close to it either (we can see Midoriya’s home in the distance). Inko is a housewife so it’s not like she’s at work yet, same as all the mothers of all those kids, she’s not under any obligation to look at her 4-year-old child.

In my country it would be a crime, we can’t leave 4 years old unattended. In Japan it’s okay.

This translates in 3-year-old Touya saying he’ll go play at some park in the neighborhood and Rei not feeling compelled to go with him to make sure he won’t instead go somewhere else to train himself and remaining at home to look after Fuyumi, who’s 11 months younger.

Rei getting pregnant again and then having to take care to a newborn only makes things more complicate. Natsuo has birth when Touya is 4

For general knowledge I’ll tell you it’s a terrible choice to have another child when you’ve troubles looking after the ones you have, because adding another child to the family means diverting a lot of energies and attentions on the new child, who’s a newborn with plenty of needs, depleting the resources you previously had to use solely for the children you previous had.

Pregnancy is already energy consuming and the more you advance in it, the less you’ll be comfortable moving around, never mentioning the appointments to the doctors that take time.

Childbirth can put a mother out of commission for some days, as many deliver in hospital and spend there the first days and, once they’re back home, not only they often aren’t back in full strength but they’ve an extremely needy infant to look after, an infant who needs to be feed, changed, lulled to sleep often and regularly and that can decide to keep you up at night.

If Rei had troubles looking after Touya when she only had to split her attentions between Touya and Fuyumi, who are young and would need plenty of attentions even if Touya weren’t having troubles copying with the situation, try to picture how things become messy when Natsuo is thrown in the mix.

And then, 3 years and a half later, Shouto is also thrown in the mix. Rinse and repeat what I’ve said above only now with more kids to look after and with Touya’s psychological health in an even worse place.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Enji decides Shouto should be kept apart from his other siblings. Meaning Rei can’t anymore gather all her children in a single room and look at them there, but she has to keep them in two different rooms and since she doesn’t have the gift of ubiquity and Shouto is smaller and more needy she’ll have to spend more time with him than with her other children… which is exactly what Natsuo in “School Briefs” reports.

All of sudden his mother had no time for him anymore as she’s busy taking care of Shouto. If she had no time for 3-year-old Natsuo, it’s hard she could find the time for 8-year-old Touya, even though Enji insisted on how she should look at Touya.

The situation worsen further when Enji starts training Shouto and the training turns out to be too much for a child of 5.

In an attempt to protect Shouto she argues with Enji, gets hit, her psychological health start to deteriorate, things start becoming too much for her.

Her situation is one in which she’s constantly asked to choose which child she should prioritize as she can’t keep them together and she can’t be in different places at the same time.

She prioritizes Shouto, who’s younger. It doesn’t mean she didn’t care anymore for all her other children. In Touya’s case she’s specifically shown trying to persuade Touya not to go training, so it’s not like she had completely given up on looking after him. We also learn Touya now trained with body parts he could easily cover with his clothes, so that his parents couldn’t realize he was training so while she could guess the situation still wasn’t good, she had not a clear grasp of how bad it was.

Touya needed more, Fuyumi needed more, Natsuo needed more, even Shouto needed more, that’s true but the real question is ‘could she give more?’

What’s more she had chosen to prioritize Shouto’s well being over Touya when Enji basically told her to do the opposite (get out of his way when he was training Shouto and keep her eyes on Touya) so she ultimately disobeyed her husband, failing her duties as a wife.

Ultimately Rei snaps because she couldn’t bear giving any longer. The pressure, combined with the physical abuse, had turned too much for her. Society won’t be kind with her if it were to know as in Japan people are expected to endure and if they snap they’re only weak and have themselves to blame, an idea which likely added to the pressure she was already feeling.

So yes, by Japanese society’s standards she didn’t do enough.

Her children though, all view her as a loving mother. Even Touya regrets snapping at her.

Her failing to handle the situation correctly it’s more because the situation is for her too big to handle than due to a lack of will.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T ASK FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP FOR HERSELF OR FOR TOUYA

In Japan there’s a strong stigma on therapy and psychological help which carries along a connotation of shame as it’s generally seen as something only ‘crazy people go’. Remember when we were talking about the Omiai? Having a family member who had/had had psychological problems is one of the reasons that can make you unsuitable as a spouse in an Omiai.

Long story short, even if it’s possible to get psychological help, people don’t want it.

Parents are lead to think it’s up to them care for their children and, if they’re in troubles they ask for counseling from school or their elders or read self-help books (啓発本 ‘Keihatsu hon’ or, for full 自己啓発書 ‘jiko keihatsu-sho’)… like Touya said Rei was doing.

This was the acceptable way to get psychological help, Rei reading self-help books and trying to put them into practice to help herself and her children.

When things become too much she’s also shown asking her own mother for help and advices… though by then it was too late.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T DIVORCE FROM ENJI AND TAKE HER CHILDREN AWAY FROM HIM

In Japan divorcing from the other party is rather hard if your spouse doesn’t give you permission, and it’s extremely shameful for the woman, regardless of who’s at fault, and even for the children. Plus, in case your spouse agree to it, only one parent can be the children’s guardian.

If divorcing from Rei meant to give up on the custody of the children, especially Shouto, so that Enji wouldn’t be able to train him anymore, well, you can easily guess he wouldn’t agree to it.

At the very best the most Rei would accomplish would be take Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo with herself, toss on herself and her children shame and leave behind Shouto.

Yes, if the woman is abused by the husband it can help her get a divorce even if he doesn’t agree with it. However from when BNHA has started things have improved in Japan (both in terms of divorce and support in case of abuse) and Japanese women still lament how hard it is for them to prove they were abused and to get help to leave their husband (a protection order is generally issued solely if they can prove they fear for their own life).

It’s not because Enji is a rich Hero who knows people in the police that Rei doesn’t divorce from him. It’s because he’s a Japanese male and she’s a Japanese female and this makes her chances to get a divorce extremely slim.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T REPORT THE ABUSE HER CHILDREN RECEIVED

Remember when I said for a woman is hard to prove she was abused?

To prove the children were abused is HARDER.

First of all, in Japan there’s the general belief a father doesn’t have to get involved in raising his children, so if Enji says he has no time to look after Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo… well, he’s not to blame, it’s up to the mother to take care of them. Enji is doing his part by working and paying for what they need. Things are changing but you get the drill. No one will scold him for working till late and not having time to look after his kids when that should be Rei’s job in the first place.

Okay but what about Shouto?

The law that forbids parents from hitting children is recent, when BNHA started it wasn’t yet in place and, while back then too you couldn’t abuse your kid, exactly because you could hit him it was hard to prove when you’ve crossed the line or when you were just administering educative punishment. That’s why a law now ban physical punishment, because kids died due to it.

But that’s not the core of the problem.

While abuse of children is prohibited in Japan, there are no laws that explicitly extend this prohibition to training.

Human Rights Watch interviewed and surveyed more than 800 former child athletes from Japan for a 2020 report. Athletes from 50 sports described sexual violence, and being beaten, deprived of water, choked, and whipped with whistles or racquets. Athletes spoke of the “normalization” of these abuses, the lack of systems to report or seek remedies, and the absence of accountability throughout Japanese schools, federations, and elite sports. By the way, plenty of kids had been driven to suicide due to it.

While Enji’s training isn’t related to sport, we see that BNHA compares Hero training to sport training, right from Shouto’s first day at U.A. high. Very likely they’re meant to be viewed as equivalent.

Long story short, it doesn’t matter what Enji does to Shouto during training. It will be likely waved off as training.

In the end there’s little Rei could report that would have helped her to protect her children.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T CARE ABOUT TOUYA

It’s true we don’t get cute scenes between Touya and Rei like we get for her and Shouto. She’s not shown soothing him as he cries, she’s not shown watching TV with him behind Enji’s back, she’s not shown telling him he can be a hero.

She’s however shown caring about him.

Enji wanted to have Fuyumi because he wanted a child with a dual Quirk, but she was in favor of having her because she thought she would support Touya (and he would support her).

As mentioned before she was against having other children after it turned out Touya’s Quirk hurt him, because she thought it would be cruel toward Touya and argued with Enji about it (remember? She’s supposed to obey, not argue).

When Touya argues with Enji, she’s worried Touya is overheating and would want to cool him down.

After Touya attacked Shouto, to Enji’s solution to just keep the children parted, she insists Touya just wants for him to look at him, basically defending her son’s side. As he refuses she basically accuses him of cowardice (and here she’s taking her son’s side over her husband’s side).

Much later she tried to stop Touya from going to Sekoto Peak and tried to encourage him to play with his classmates.

She likely reads ‘self-help books’ also to try and find a way to help him.

She tries to talk with him and encourage him to become something different that’s not a Hero, fundamentally telling him it’s okay if he doesn’t fulfill his social role as Enji’s firstborn.

When, at the hospital, she hears he died she gets even worse.

When Touya tried to nuke Japan she apologized to him, tried to cool him down so as to save him or else die with him and later, went to visit him and told him she wanted to talk with him.

I’ll say all of the above are pretty good signs she cared for him and loved him.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND TOUYA

Yeah, she didn’t understand him.

She didn’t encourage his dream to become a Hero, thinking only it would be bad for his health.

She wants him to socialize when instead he only wants to train.

She also made it look as if it would be easy for him to give up on social conventions when she herself ended up where she was due to social conventions.

She knows he’s suffering due to Enji’s neglect but doesn’t admit it to his face, as if this wasn’t part of the problem, as if he could just ignore this.

Ironically part of this comes from her wish to help him.

Protecting his physical health is important, but prioritizing it over his psychological health ends up equally damning.

She wants him to socialize, which is important for a child’s growth, not understanding what Touya had told Enji when he was 8, all the children in his class want to be Heroes, while it can be Touya isn’t as bullied as Midoriya was because he’s not Quirkless, he likely feels like an outcast just the same. Differently from what his parents hope, other children won’t distract him from his dream of being a Hero when they too want to become Heroes, they likely expect Endeavor’s firstborn to become one, accidentally pressuring him more, and if he were to reveal he can he likely feels they would shun him out as defective the same way his father did so he shun them out first. Probably when Enji and Rei were young there wasn’t all this wish to become Heroes but now it exists and Touya has to deal with it and they don’t understand it.

She likely though she was being supportive in encouraging him to give up on social conventions the way she couldn’t do, not realizing (or better not wanting to realize) instead not only how hard it would be for him to do it but how that’s not his only motivator.

She blames his dream on Enji, on social conventions, hoping to make easier for him to drop it, basically denying him agency in what he wants.

So, while she tells to both Touya and Shouto they shouldn’t feel tied by Enji’s blood, her speech to Touya is a big fail because although it’s moved by the same wish to help him same as Shouto, her goal here wasn’t to encourage Touya to do what he truly wanted but what she thought it would be better for him.

She doesn’t want to believe he wants to be a Hero despite Touya spending years saying he wants to be one, because she doesn’t believe he can become one. Hence she wants him to find for himself another way. When she talks with Shouto instead, she encouraged him to become a Hero on his terms, which was exactly what Shouto wanted to do. She didn’t question his wish to become a Hero, even if Shouto is 5.

In a way Rei is like Inko before Midoriya got One for All.

They both gave up on their children’s dream and didn’t support them. Inko will get the chance to change her mind. Rei won’t be given such opportunity. Both mothers though weren’t moved by ill will toward their children but by genuine belief their dream couldn’t be fulfilled so they wanted their children to just move on instead than keep on focusing on such dreams.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO LEAVE HER KIDS

Yes, she wants to leave them because she has started to realize she’s becoming unstable and could become dangerous for them. As said before in Japan there’s a stigma on getting psychological help so she’s trying to get help from a more acceptable source, her mother.

Still she wants to leave her children to protect them, not to hurt them, even though Shouto is clearly hurt when he hears her saying so.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE HURT SHOUTO

Yes, Rei threw boiling water at Shouto but the point is… she didn’t know she was throwing boiling water at Shouto. She was getting paranoid and seeing Enji in her children, Enji who physically abused of her. From her absolutely panicked face we can tell she thinks she’s throwing the water at Enji in self defense because he might have heard her conversation with her mother and might be angry.

The moment she realize the one she burned was Shouto she broke down in sobs, apologized multiple times and tried to soothe the burn.

She never meant to attack her child, in a way it was an accident she ended up scarring Shouto.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T TAKE THE BLAME FOR HURTING SHOUTO

Hum… actually she did.

As said above the moment she realized she hurt him she started crying and apologizing (yes the anime doesn’t show the scene but it allows you to hear the audio of it).

Much later, when Shouto went to visit her to the hospital planning to apologize to her, she apologized to him again, crying.

She also acknowledges having been the one who hurt Shouto when Hawks asked about the scar.

Shouto blames Enji for the scar he has because he understands if Enji didn’t corner and abuse Rei she wouldn’t have snapped, panicked and hurt him by mistake, because he understands in normal conditions Rei wouldn’t have hurt him. It’s not like he does so because his mother told him to.

And, with this, we’re at the end.

So was Rei a saint or a monster?

In media stat virtus.

She clearly wasn’t a perfect mother, she made mistakes, some of them pretty big, partly because social conventions taught her the wrong way to react to something, partly because the situation was too big and difficult for her to handle and she just failed to do so.

However she loved her children, she wanted the best for them and she tried to prioritize them over herself even if sometimes she didn’t know what was the best for them.

She was a single woman forced to bear too much, so in the end she broke and made matters worse. Way before Midoriya went through the Dark Hero arc, Rei tried at it but since no Class A came to support her she broke and failed.

It’s part of the BNHA message, there are things we can’t handle alone, we need a helping hand or we’ll break.

It’s absolutely fair to say she made mistakes, that she took bad choices, that she failed to understand some important things, that in deciding Shouto was the one who needed more protection, she ended up on neglecting her other children. But I also think it’s important to acknowledge that said mistakes weren’t done because she was evil or selfish or didn’t love her kids. In the end she was just a lone woman in a situation too difficult for her to handle, so difficult she ultimately failed handling it and the consequences she had to face for her failure were horrible and ended up affecting her children as well.

Horikoshi didn’t want to portray an evil woman or a saint, just a woman making mistakes and cracking in a difficult situation.

If you still think it would have been easy for her to get psychological help, divorce or protect her children, I encourage you to research on Japanese laws, especially the ones around the time in which her story was being written (as said before some laws have been improved recently). It might help you get a better perspective of how hard things were for her and how much she still tried.

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

So while browsing Reddit, I can across a very interesting post that was posted on the Writing Tips subreddit. An aspiring author wanted to write an antagonist turning heel and was curious about what crimes a character would have to commit to be considered irredeemable. One of the answers stuck out to me:

“Reformation isn’t redemption”.

In a previous post of mine, I outlined how anyone can dislike a character for whatever reasons they want. One of the points I’ve made is that if a character has done awful things that a reader can’t stomach, they aren’t required to “get over it” when the character tries to fix their behavior and become a better person.

I feel the quote I listed above helps detail this argument when it comes to not only Katsuki, but Endeavor as well. No matter how good their character arc is, no one is obligated to forgive them for their past actions. Sure, Endeavor’s trying to better himself, but that’ll never take away from the fact he abused his family to the point where Shoto was traumatized to the point where he didn’t want to use his flames, Touya nearly burnt himself alive after suffering a mental breakdown, and Rei had to be sent to a mental institution after being pushed to the point where she couldn’t even function properly. Katsuki may be less of a dick now, but that still doesn’t take away from the fact he physically and emotionally abused someone just because he didn’t like him.

Dabi said it best, the past never dies. While Endeavor and Katsuki (ok, maybe not Katsuki, but let’s pretend for a sec that Hori actually tried with Katsuki) are trying to be better people, no one is obligated to forgive them. Is it good that they’re trying to be better? Yes. However, no one is obligated to give them a second chance. They made their decisions in the past and now they must suffer the consequences of those decisions for the rest of their lives. People are allowed to be hesitant and outright resilient in liking Katsuki and Endeavor despite their changes BECAUSE reformation is not redemption.

This goes for real life too. If someone who made you miserable and inflicted trauma on you is trying to be a better person, you’re not obligated to forgive them for their past actions.

Ultimately, I think that’s one thing that Hori gets wrong when writing the “redemption” stories in MHA (I put it in quotes because people use the term redemption story when talking about a character reforming themselves): a “redemption” story is about a character trying to be a better person, not to get the audience/universe to forgive them for their crimes. Hori desperately wants us to forgive Katsuki and Endeavor rather than have them seek atonement. Well, he does have Endeavor admit that he doesn’t deserve forgiveness, but Hori does this thing where he constantly retcons things and has the narrative paint him in a positive light. He doesn’t have it anywhere near as bad as Katsuki does, where the narrative will go out of its way to make Katsuki seem like the most amazing person alive, but it’s still an issue with his arc.

[ghostbeam]

1.5k, charcoal artist!dabi (again I’m so sorry), mentions of alcohol, dabi and reader are awkward, idk what this is but I kept it under 2k and that is a win for me

It’s been two weeks.

You haven’t seen him by your tree since then, but you haven’t taken him up on his offer and showed up at his place. You transferred the address from the pen on your skin to a scrap piece of paper and hung in on your fridge before you could lose it forever after washing your hands.

It would be weird to show up without calling, only you can’t call him because you don’t have his number. You don’t have classes in the same building, and you think it would be even weirder to walk around the art department to find him instead of just knocking on his door, like he asked you to. 

So, you do end up at his front door, double checking the address with the numbers outside, because Dabi seems to live in some kind of warehouse, and you would assume he wrote down the wrong address if it didn’t make complete sense in your mind that he lived here. You decided on a Friday night, because you assumed a guy like him would be out, and the thought of him answering his door right now is mortifying. 

But he does answer it, and his hair is sticking out in different directions even worse than before, and he’s yawning into his fist, and you’re realizing you’ve just woke him up. 

It stuns him a little, to see you. You’re cute all bundled up from the chilly night out, chin tucked into your scarf as you let your eyes fall over his form. 

“I didn’t think you’d come.” He tells you, leaning against his door frame, voice heavy with sleep. “Figured you thought it was weird that I gave you my address.”

“It was weird.” You nodded, shivering a bit from the cold. “Can I come in?”

He opens the door wider and lets you through. It’s mostly dark inside, one lamp in a far corner illuminating just a little bit of the room. He mutters a sorry as he passes by you, turning on lights overhead, half of the lightbulbs needing to be changed and not helping to illuminate the place much at all. 

“It’s usually brighter during the day.” He shrugs, turning back towards you. “The windows.”

He gestures behind him and you notice the large panels of glass against both walls. It must be nice in the day, all of the natural light, especially for an artist. 

You continue to look around. It’s mostly one giant room with ceilings as tall as the sky. There’s a small kitchen on the right side of the place, art that you assume isn’t his hung on the refrigerator, handmade mugs hanging on a rack by the sink, boxes of sugary cereal on the wooden island you think maybe he or someone else built.

There’s a bathtub to the left, just out in the middle of everything. It’s strange, and completely out of place, but looking at it gives you some sort of weird vision of the future in your mind. Reading in it, leaning back against Dabi and falling asleep, him peering over the edge and kissing you goodbye. A fond smile crosses your face.

Easels, and standing desks, and giant canvases full of abstract paint fill the rest of the room. A tarp on the floor in the middle of everything is covered with charcoal and red paint, pages and pages of unfinished sketches. Paperbacks lay on tables, stacked up against walls, three on his bedside table, all with bookmarks inside, unfinished.

“It’s a mess, I know.” He shrugs. “I kept it nice for a while, you know, in case you came, but then I kind of figured you never would. But you did.”

There’s something guarded about him this time, less open than he was when you met him on the grass. You can understand it. After all, you’re intruding. He was asleep. You should go home. 

“Maybe I should go home. It’s probably a bad time. It’s late, and—” You feel his hand wrap around your wrist, stoping your nervous ramble.

“Stay. Please, I want you to stay.” He tells you, and you can see that bit of vulnerability shine through, a little bit in his eyes. You nod, unable to look away from him. “You want something to drink?”

You don’t trust your voice, so all you do is nod, and when Dabi disappears into his tiny kitchen, you walk further into the room, entranced by his art. You wish you knew more about it, then, that you had something to compare it to, though you think maybe there’s nothing like what he does. 

He brings back a bottle of beer, and you take a long gulp because you suddenly feel hot alone with Dabi in his space. He chuckles under his breath and tugs on your arm.

“You wanna take this off?” He asks you, tugging on your scarf. You hand him your beer and take your scarf and coat off, letting him take them from you and laying them across his bed. He walks to one of the desks in the room, pulling the spiral sketchbook from the day before and a portfolio with handles from behind the desk. He hands you the book and drops the portfolio heavy on the floor. 

“Here.” He tells you, rubbing his palms on the sides of his pants out of what you think is nerves. “It’s obviously not everything, but you can start here, I guess. Or stop there, too. If you get sick of it.”

You say nothing, but you move to sit on the floor, opening the spiral sketchbook. It’s not all pretty or refined or finished. It’s a hand and an eye and the face of a friend and a tree and a body of water. It’s all scribbled and jagged, and there’s bits that are smooth, smudged over and shaded in a way that makes you feel like if you touched it, it would feel like skin. There’s splotches of red and yellow, blues and greens, a random water color on one page, ink on the next. 

And when you get close to the end, it’s all you. 

It’s not much, but it’s more than you expected. There’s no more mistakes here, nothing unfinished or crossed out or scribbled over. He’s careful about it. You’re speechless. 

You pull the portfolio into your lap and open the flap. Pages of all varying sizes and textures are stuffed inside. These pieces are much more refined. He’s worked on them for longer, maybe for a class. He has an unbelievable eye for the human body, how it bends and folds. You hate to think about how these are hidden away behind his desk. You’d put them up around the city, and on bulletin boards in cafe’s, and over every inch of your walls in your own apartment.

It makes you feel a little bit emotional, here on his floor with his soul in your hands. There’s this urge you have, to hug him, to push his hair from his eyes, to kiss his hands. You hold one page in between your fingers, the torso of a man and his arms around a woman, her head lying back against his chest. You stand up, and you look at him with your watery eyes, and you turn to walk away. 

You swing a leg over the weird, out in the open bath tub, and settle down inside, looking down at the piece you took. Dabi’s footsteps are slow as he approaches you, crouches down next to the tub and rests his forearms on it.

“You can have that one.” He says, resting his chin against his arm. “Or any of them. Tell me, and it’s yours.”

You don’t know how to tell him you want it all. Selfishly, you’d take every single piece if he gave them to you. 

You look at him, thumbing the corner of the page, yours now. You keep opening and closing your mouth like you want to speak. You want to tell him thank you, and you probably should if he’s really letting you keep it, but it’s more than that. Thank you for letting me see you. I have nothing like this that can show you the inside of my soul, but you can reach through my ribs if you want to.

His hand comes up to rest behind your head, the brush of his thumb against your neck, tender. You lean into it and close your eyes. When you open them, he’s much closer now, so close that leaning forward makes you bump noses. He smiles. 

“Will you stay?” It’s not a question of just to night, but forever, you think. Or at least that’s how it feels to you. You nod. 

“God, yes.” You answer, like you’ve been waiting for him to ask, like you’re whole life has led up to this moment in this empty bathtub. He brushes his lips against yours like he’s asking permission. You give him the slightest nod. 

He kisses you. 

[bibibbon]

I find it funny that Dabi unlearned his sexist perspective of "man pain" while living on the streets. It either because he had to for survival or just not being around wife-beating Endeavor gave a better impression of women.

Or young Toya was depicted as sexist to give the impression he was born evil with these "bad ideas from nowhere" to make Endeavor seem less responsible for him.

Even if horikoshi made touya sexist to somehow show that touya shouldn't get any of our sympathy since he was born evil with his sexist ideologies. This just ends up totally backfiring on horikoshi and makes enji look worse (in my opinion) and this is because no child comes out of the womb evil (except AFO I guess but thats something iam gonna ignore because AFO's backstory is an anomaly and it was horribly written)

The point still stands that no child is born evil and that from what we see of young touya he didn't come out of the womb evil like AFO.

So by that point touya must of learnt this women are inferior to men ideology from somewhere right?!?! And my best guess is that it's definitely enji todoroki especially because during touya's childhood he clings to that ideology pretty strongly even after he goes to school and is surrounded by other people touya at the age of 13 still held those sexist beliefs.

Those same sexist beliefs are what cause him to be so distant to his sister fuyumi and his mother.

I think even though we don't ever actually receive a fully detailed chapter going on what touya went through during his time of homelessness I do like seeing how he has changed. However, I do very much wish we saw more of Dabis pov maybe him feeling a lot guilty about being distant towards fuyumi and viewing her as inferior (never actually seeing the strength she had to live in that household) or maybe we see touya develop a better understanding of his mother and what she went through (I think that might of happend since in the end touya ends up exactly in the same position Rei starts in alone, vulnerable and trapped).

Maybe the way Dabi treats toga is influenced a bit due to the guilt he felt for being distant towards fuyumi?

Maybe or maybe not 🤷‍♀️

I do like the idea of Dabi at 16 learning to treat women with respect and ultimately them being equal to men and not inferior simply because of the various experiences he had in the streets both good and bad (I think it also shows just how bad of a person enji is like how the hell is your son learning how to treat women with basic respect in the most dangerous parts of the street while you're filling your sons head with sexist ideologies?!?)

However, Iam still mad that we didn't get more from Dabis perspective as there's so much left to answer and that the narrative tires to paint Dabi in the worst of lights while doing the exact opposite for enji

[azure-arsonist]

Ok so here's the thing about dabi dying bc I have thoughts I've had thoughts for a while

1 it's just a poor narrative choice, and better blogs have discussed that at length so I won't get into that.

2 dabi doesn't want to die. I mean, he does, but it's more complicated than that.

He has a lot of big, overwhelming, literally all consuming feelings, and he'd like to not feel them, and dying is... a way to do that, sure, but wanting to die is like a secondary want. It's a (BAD VERY BAD I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH) solution to problems that otherwise don't seem to have one. Dabis's problems, his real problems, is that he felt unimportant, unloved, and unwanted and he felt like he had no purpose because he was a "failure," and even his horrific death didn't matter.

He's doing this because he thinks murder suicide achieves what he actually wants which is attention and validation and to be important to his family for once. Hes an emotionally neglected kid who wants to finally matter to people and he thinks the only way he can do that is by being a problem. He's also very hurt, and wanting to hurt somebody that hurt you is a very normal human reaction. It's not the BEST reaction, but it makes total sense for dabi.

3 Dabi isn't the most reliable narrator when it comes to his wants and needs because he's not emotionally mature or intelligent enough to really know what he wants/feels, much less articulate it. It's kind of like being passive-aggressive in that you can't just take what's said at face value. You kind of need to read into the subtext of his words/actions and take what he says with a grain of salt.

4 idk man I don't think having the suicidal character get their happy ending via suicide is like....good like it sort of misses the point. It doesn't seem like horikoshi will do that, but if he does that, he'd kind of undermine himself, lmao.