#spinner: if it had to be a hero and not one of his friends who actually knows him... i guess im grateful it was you

[mettywiththenotes]

In another world Spinner would be thanking Izuku for saving Tomura from AFO instead of crying over his death

[dolche-tejada]

You know, I think this ending would have been slightly less of a fucking disappointment if the heroes hadn't been so unfairly favored by Horikoshi compared to the villains. I mean, seriously

Deku destroys every bone in his body multiple times throughout the story and is warned that if he continues, he'll permanently lose the use of his limbs ? Everything's fine, his body's just got used to being reduced to a bloody pulp somehow so there's no consequences for him. In fact even when he literally loses his arms to Shigaraki, he gets them back two minutes later thanks to Eri because guess what ? Her horn still works even when cut off from her body. How convenient.

Gran Torino gets his ribcage obliterated by Shigaraki ? Don't worry guys, he'll survive that despite his old age and injuries, and this to have no particular role in the plot afterwards.

Bakugo dies heroically trying to buy time before Deku arrives ? Lmao, did you really believe it ?? No of course not, Edgeshot just uses his last-minute Deus Ex Machina to save his life at the cost of his own and- Oops nope he's fine too, my bad !

Hawks murders a criminal fleeing for his life in cold-blood ? The best Hori has to offer is him completely free and in charge of the HSPC.

And no, losing his quirk isn't a real consequence for him because not only it literally played a major part in saving the world with Vestige!Hawks raising an insurrection among AFO's quirks, but also because his quirk has always been the element through which people exploited him.

Endeavor abused his family for years and completely destroyed his eldest son ? No jail time and no media backlash for that, the only blame he received was due to the heroes' failure to stop the League during the Raid Arc.

And don't even get me started on this bs about facing hell or whatever for what he's done : He's literally free and wealthy ; he has Rei, Fuyumi, Shoto, his sidekicks and Hawks on his side ; and all the difficulties he's apparently going to suffer are off-screened.

Deku had to sacrifice OFA and his future hero career to save the world ? Guess what, Bakugo invested all his time and money to make him an Iron-Man suit and now he can still be a hero with everyone else.

There are plenty more examples of this but I think you get the idea. Now let's take a look at the villains' ending :

Toya is now a piece of charcoal kept artificially alive for the few years he has left, unable to move a finger, and whose few minutes a day during which he can stay awake will be spent talking to his father who abused him as a child.

Toga, a literal teenager, killed herself to save Ochako and because she knew it's still better than rotting at Tartarus her whole life.

And not only did she die but she did by bleding to death. Let me repeat for those who have trouble grasping what I've just said : In a manga where the heroes can survive having their heart blown to bits, being impaled Kakyoin-style or smashed against buildings like a fly on a windshield, one of the main antagonists died of a fucking hemorrhage…

As for Shigaraki, after learning that his very birth and all the tragedies of his life have been orchestrated by AFO, after all this development and narrative promises about him being saved in the end... Deku just kills him.

Because despite all his speeches about saving him, it seems like the best our MC could do was beating him both physically and mentally until he crumbles to dust…

Compress on his side is apparently locked up for life and kept alive by machines too.

A begging Kurogiri tried in a desperate attempt to save Shigaraki, only to be unceremoniously blown up by Bakugo and dying off-screen without anyone giving a shit, including Aizawa and Mic.

And Spinner will now spend the rest of his life struggling with the extra quirks inside him that affect his body and mind, while having to cope with the thought that his boyfriend best friend and companions have either died alone or are locked away for life in horrifying circumstances.

Clearly not the same as with the heroes...

Now don't get me wrong, even if they suffered just as much from the consequences of their actions or the plot as the League, this ending would still be a disaster in terms of writing but AT LEAST it wouldn't reek that much of hypocrisy.

[beware-thecrow]

I fucking hate BNHA The last panel about "granma is here" in fact further proves my point on another post of how empty and nonsensical BNHA became in the last arc because AfO wanting Tomura from the very beginning made impossible for him to be saved anyway, which means all his beef with the heroes became unjustified and his speech about violence and heroes and villains held no importance in the end. Why?

Because you cannot have a character built over the premise that society was so corrupt and selfish that put a little boy in the bad bad villain's reach for 5 arcs, to then say "oh, wait. He was fucked anyway because the bad bad guy was behind everything all along"

A bad bad guy not even all might in his prime could defeat, so it doesn't matter if people would or wouldn't help others. "It's all bad bad guy's fault anyway and he's practically immortal." Perfect, now we know granma didn't stand a chance against AfO, he planned this.

The whole idea of a society that relies on heroes too much instead of everyone doing their part from kindness falls like a house of cards if you have an evil so corrupt that none of said kindness will mean a thing. The moment Horikoshi went from "Tomura was found by AfO" to "Tomura was planned by AfO" the core theme of his series crumbled down. The league as a device lost its meaning, the characters that composed it became unjustified because whatever motivation they had was in fact a manipulation from the greater evil. And this applies to everyone.

What's the point in Toga and Twice calling out the lack of help for people with mental illness and problematic quirks if the message still is "If you do bad things out of despair no one will help you and you'll get killed." And yes, Toga died loved, Toga wanted to be loved, but she didn't wanted to die?? She was literally an abandoned child who found a family and ended up dying giving blood to the same girl she stabbed. And yeah, it's kinda poetic she died giving blood instead of taking it, but what was the point if she doesn't get to know she's loved? Further more, are we really to believe Ochako loved Toga? A girl she literally didn't know. Sorry, but once I got lost in a mall and a police officer helped me find my mom, that doesn't mean the officer loved me. And yeah, Ochako tried her best to be a good hero, but it's not about what the characters do, it's what the story tells you it happens with what they do. The story just told you the ill and abandoned die in the end before anyone helps them. And they die hunted by the police. What's the point of Touya as a whole? oh, wait. I know, it must be very awful for Endeavor to be such a bad person, his child ended up incapacitated. Very hard on Endeavor. Fuck Dabi being turned into a piece of charcoal, IT'S HARD ON HIS DAD.

What's the point in Spinner pointing out discrimination and people following him if in the end we got that he should have stayed in his lane, in his room, friendless because he only went out to be seen by someone who accepted him, just to have that person tortured in front of him before he was killed. And for what? For a teen to tell him "Yo, bro. I punched your bestie to death, make a comic about it. Btw you'll be staying in jail forever. So so sorry for you guys." Proving once again, murder is okay if you are on the right side of the story. No matter how much compassion, Tomura showed Spinner, or how much he suffered through life. Heroes had the right to kill him, and there was nothing Spinner (who legit loved his friend) could do about it because AfO had taken over. Again, another good character turned pointless, with a pointless point of view, with a pointless conclusion because he can tell the story of Tomura Shigaraki all he wants FROM JAIL, but under the public eye Tomura will go down as an insane mass murderer either way since looking at him in any other light would inevitably make a target of Izuku for killing him and that won't happen. You cannot have "the best hero ever" and "he killed this dude that was kinda right" in the same sentence. It doesn't make sense. Not to mention his case against discrimination went nowhere since everyone who followed him became a villain and the only person who actually makes a point about discrimination ends up being Deku on another, totally different chapter that had nothing to do with Spinner. And...he's a hero so he can say whatever he wants, we go back to "questioning bad, unless a hero says it" and "people are really that horrible in BNHA universe".

Tomura's case it's even more fucked because even when he said he didn't want a future, every single wish he had fell flat. His hatred for not being saved as a child proved to be out of anyone's control, his desire to destroy society didn't land because nothing really changed. There are still schools for child soldiers, and people are still not questioning the violence heroes use to keep the status quo, and certainly no one is wondering how is that a couple of heroes were able to kill a couple of villains (because so far Hawks still has a job). His friends ended up dead or locked away, and the child in him that begged to be saved ended up...being not. In the end, we got a suffering festival for Tomura, from his granma being pushed to drop her kid, his dad being tricked, his parents getting killed in front of him, Mon-chan and Hana's memory squeezed dry and young Tenko asking for help while Tomura was assaulted by his creepy guardian for 200 chapters straight just to tell us that Deku at sixteen was a great hero for putting a twenty one-year-old dissociated guy out of his misery like a euthanized dog. And for what? To finish a guy who was infatuated with his dead brother AND THAT COULD HAVE BEEN EXECUTED IN JAIL LIKE...300 CHAPTERS AGO, since the manga already made the point that villains can be executed with little repercussion, and it can be justified if said villain it's a threat. Then...why was AfO alive to begin with? Oh, I guess this is something we can trust to a 16 year old instead of... the government or whatever. And yeah, these are tragic figures, they certainly are, but you can hardly claim that they achieved anything in the end because the first premise of the league, why it was formed and why they joined was

To live as we want/are. And now they are dead, or locked away, or bedridden crispy for something that was planted by someone else from the very beginning. And what they believed didn't change anything in the end because it's not like the public saw them do something meaningful but, again, they are being told what to believe, by whom? BY THE HEROES. Are we really arguing that Iguchi's comic will change society? ARE WE FOR REAL????? Have you ever read the story of Jesus Christ? he died for our sins by Marvel. And on top of that as the last nail in the coffin to prove that NOTHING changed, Hawks really said rebranding + target audience =📈🤙🏼 StOnKS✨ I wish I was joking.

[haine-kleine]

anyway. the ending was like That because it was Izuku's hero academia. it was his story told from his point of view and it concluded all the plot points he was concerned with, like his relationship with Bakugou, Allmight, the public's opinion on the heroes, what the new generation of heroes is going to be like, how Shouto is perceived by the public, Izuku's general relationship with his former classmates and Aizawa.

he never really cared about Shigaraki outside of their brief confrontation. he didn't really know Shigaraki as a person, and nor was he interested in getting to know him, even when he got the chance to peek into his past, Nana and Allmight had more reason to be interested in who Shigaraki the person was. to Izuku, Shigaraki started as a terrifying villain and ended as a crying boy he was unable to save. this is why, as he joins the rest of his classmates and becomes a pro hero, he imagines the ghost of Shigaraki looking over him, haunting him, reminding him of his failure but also inspiring him to try harder and 'keep reaching out'.

The villains were the ones concerned with their stories. Spinner wrote that book by himself, as Izuku's notes are being written at the point the book has already been published. Izuku never mentions any contents of that book nor Spinner or Mister Compress. Because they do not belong in his story, not really.

They belong with each other, in the League of Villains, as they have proven time and time again how important they are to each other and how far they are willing to go to protect their own. Shigaraki's thoughts before Izuku had killed him were all about the League. Kurogiri's last act was trying to save Shigaraki from AFO and the heroes. What kept Spinner's spirit from crumbling after losing everyone he had cared about was his burning desire to tell their story to others, to let their stories be heard. Touya finds no solace despite getting everything he had ever wanted from his family and being reunited with them - because his place was in the League of villains, the place where he was accepted just as he was, unconditionally.

the conflict of heroes versus the villains led to nothing but devastation and destruction for the villains. even those who were heard out and validated by the other party ended up becoming victims, or martyrs.

after that experience, after having a whole crowd of pro heroes, the people who made it their lives career to save others witness his destruction by the man who stole his body from him and by the boy who swore to save him, why would Shigaraki be interested in keeping in contact with these people, had he survived? why would Kurogiri go out of his way to let Shirakumo's friends know he had survived their students attempt to take his life and the life of the boy he wanted to save, all because they couldn't accept his affection for that boy outweighing their long gone friendship? why would Toga, when the reporters and the heroes saw her body after starting to transfuse all of her blood to Ochako and not even bothered to pick it up, to save her life or even to bury her?

here is how it went: Kurogiri did end up successfully saving Shigaraki, the fact going unnoticed by the heroes because both of their bodies were crumbling. he had also taken Toga, which is why her body wasn't picked up together with Ochako (and why Ochako doesn't have any memories of Toga's dead body, only of her final words to her). and then Kurogiri teleported them far away, where they healed and started planning how to get the remaining three LOV members back, while they are still alive.

they broke Spinner and Compress out of the prisons. In memory of Twice, Hawks had covered it up, as long as they don't resurface as villains.

Shigaraki and Toga had considered letting Touya stay together with his family, up until the news of Endeavor's disgraced villain son being on his deathbed got out. On the very next day, Shigaraki broke the tank Touya was residing in to pieces. Enji and his sidekicks had covered his eldest going missing by holding a funeral ceremony for him (the second one, this time knowing full well it's a fake funeral). Shouto was enraged with his father's decision and Enji used Shouto's just starting pro hero career as an excuse, don't you want to have a clean start, without the weight of mine and Touya's crimes weighting you down? It's not like Shouto has a choice in the matter, just as when he was a kid. The family wonders about the missing one's fate. Sometimes, Shouto gets messages from unknown numbers. He doesn't share them with anyone, except for Natsuo, who is still devastated about not using his one last chance to reconcile with the brother he had been so sorely missing for 8 years.

The ghosts of Toga, Shigaraki and Dabi live on, haunting the heroes who failed to save them. Himiko, Tenko and Touya also live on. They are very different from these ghosts.

[isabeauwolf]

Ex Dabi x reader (x Hawks) - My World

It has been a few months since you two broke up.

You said you were done being a villain and out of Dabi's life.

You apprenticed under Giran as an information broker. The man picked you up off the street as a teenage run away and you never looked back. Well, until...

That. Nosy, goodie two-shoes, two-faced, hypocritical red winged chicken sunk his talons into you.

Stole you from him.

His doll. His woman.

Dabi's usually cool and carefree composure cracks every time he sees you with Japan's Number 2 Hero. His anger, rage and red hot jealousy burning like liquid fire in his veins as he feels his burnt, scarred and stapled jaw clenching and grinding; his free hand twitches and closes into a white knuckled fist.

Seeing you smile cutely. Blushing and giggling with earnest and genuine emotion in your doe-like eyes as the bastard's gloved knuckles brush the back of your cheek, shoving a soft lock of your hair behind your ear, gently cups your jaw and brings you into a kiss.

Dabi knows this faker was a double agent. Why couldn't you see that despite his warning? You usually have an incredible sense of reading people. How could you be so blind? Unable to see this lying heartbreaker through those rose tinted glasses.

Yes. Shigaraki and Giran had given you their permission to walk away, you no longer had a criminal record or it was deleted and destroyed by your hacker friend La Brava, who chose to support you in your career change.

Shigaraki, Giran, Toga, Twice, Mr Compress and hell, even Spinner missed you.

Dabi chose to watch from the shadows. No matter how much he hardened this heart, making himself go numb, shove the earth shattering pain and heartbreak down, masking it, locking it and burning the key with his blue hellfire flames.

Only when he was alone in his room at night did he breakdown every night, releasing silent screams into his pillow that still smelled like you. The one person who thawed his icy, horribly fragile, blackened, ash covered and twisted stitched back together heart.

Clutching the blue pillow to his chest as he cried bloody tears, shuddering and sobbing quietly and mentally remembering when you used to look at him like that. As if he was your whole world.

He should hate you with every fiber left in his soul, and yet... he couldn't... he couldn't bring himself to hate you.

Not even after you shattered his heart.

Dabi's eyes widen as more red, bloody tears covered and hazed his vision.

Seeing you look at Hawks made him second guess himself. Did you truly love him at all for this past year since he's joined the League?

Or were you only using him for information?

The more Dabi questioned himself and your relationship, the more his paranoia and mind began to unravel! No, no! You loved him. You said you did! You wouldn't have stayed by his side and nursed him back to health after he'd gotten sick and injured during a mission, if you didn't love him and didn't care. Right?

He thought about the last few weeks before you decided to break up.

"Touya?" You mumbled shyly while cuddling against his naked chest on his bed.

Touya hummed, opening an eye and glanced down at you, holding you close and the other arm underneath his head.

You opened your mouth and then closed it. You sat upright, dragging the sheet with you to cover your chest and frowned, "Do you... ever thing about the future... after the war is over? After you, Shigaraki and the rest of the gang have tore down Hero Society?"

Touya raised an eyebrow. This wasn't the first time you two had had this conversation. He reassured you that he would be all yours, whispering comforting words to try and soothe your fears. But this time felt different. "Doll, what's this really about?" He sat upright, tilting his head and cupping your cheek as tears spilled down your face and down his hand as he wiped them away. "Y/n?"

"I... I don't care... what happens to the world... I can't lose you.." You whimpered, salty droplets falling harder and faster as you sobbed and hiccuped. "I'm not... strong enough..."

Touya frowned and pulled you into his chest and into his lap. "Hey, hey, shush, I'm coming back, baby." It hurt him to see you like this. He rested his chin on top of your head as he held you tight and let you cry it out. "I can't leave my crybaby all alone in this shitty world, can I?"

You both knew it was a lie. You both held onto each other tightly as each others lifelines. Knew the clock was ticking, the closer it came to the boss' hibernation to gain more power.... it was only a matter of time before The Heroes would strike. Try to capture you both and lock you away forever.

There was no All For One or Overhaul, some other big baddies to distract the Heroes attention and escape routes, do-overs, resets, check points, it was all or nothing. The game will be going on auto pilot while the boss is sleeping and the NPC's, Allies, Enemies were all gathering their strength, training and preparing.

Sniffing once you had claimed down, you pulled away. "I love you, Touya Todoroki." You whispered, breathlessly.

Touya's eyes widened and his breath stilled, his heart thudding hard in his chest. That was the first time you ever said you loved him. There was no need to before, he knew you loved him from your actions alone. Words were cheap, actions spoke louder. You always whispered his old name so sweetly, like a secret, which it was. Only you were allowed to say it in private or during your love making and rough fucking in the sheets when everyone else was gone.

Your frown deepened. "I said, I love you... aren't you going to say it back?" You fiddling with your hands, showing how nervous you were.

Touya blinked, he couldn't voice his answer. He knew that a world without you would be hollow and empty. He felt half mad and worried when you were out gathering intel and groceries for The League in a disguise since you weren't well known, but the more paranoid part of him couldn't risk it.

Your hair covered your face and you started to crawl off his lap, bottom lip trembling. "Sorry.. sorry for bother-"

Touya cut you off, leaning forward, smashing his mismatched lips with your own and pushing your back against the mattress. You gasped and moaned into the kisses as he poured all of his love, feelings, heart and passion into it. He couldn't tell you yet, not yet. Instead, he would use his body, his hands, his fingers all of him into showing you. Using his scarred, burnt and broken body as an instrument to use to pleasure you, to protect you.... you; his too kind-hearted doll. He made love to you again, more tender and gentle, forcing orgasm after orgasm from your body, and greedy for more.

Dabi shook his head, furiously wiping away and painting his cheeks red from his tears as he scowled. He replayed the day you two broke up in his head as his hands tightening into the pillow.

Anger and fury resurfacing as you had just finished talking with Shigaraki about something. He didn't like not knowing what. You were always stupidly and annoyingly over excited to share your new assignment or information with him after telling the boss.

Your smile dropped as soon as you turned back to face him. "Hi, Dabi." Your frown deepened as you glanced at your feet.

Dabi's eyes narrowed as he tilted his head. Something was wrong. You hadn't been this nervous and shy since he first joined The League. "What's wrong, "V/n?"

You bit your lip and swallowed. "Can I... talk to you in private?"

Dabi walked towards you, his movements slow and intimidating as he towered over you. His presence usually smoothed you and comforted you, but now you were cowering before him. "We are alone right now. Talk." His voice calm, but a hint of ice in it. Backing you up against the cold, hard concrete wall behind you as he pressed his hard chest against your own, arms rising and boxing you in on either side of your head. "C'mon, my little doll. Tell your boyfriend the truth like a good little girl and maybe... maybe I'll go easy on you." He cooed darkly, lips curling into a wolfish and hungry grin, you knew he'd keep his dark promises.

He knew you loved his twisted praises.

Your breath hitched and you shivered against him, cheeks heating.

Your eyes met his own as he gently gripped your chin with his thumb and forefinger. "I-.."

His mouth ghosting over your own, this cat and mouse game never grew old between you two. "Yes?" Dabi whispered low and husky, excitement and lust heating his veins.

You closed your eyes, swallowed down your fear and pushed your courage to the surface. "I want to break up with you, Dabi!" You said that a lot louder than you meant to, but you said it, nevertheless.

Dabi paused and his heart stopped, his body froze and tensed. Did he hear you right? No. He couldn't have. You were just playing with him. A joke for scaring you. "Come again?" He bit out, he felt his body growing hotter, quaking and trembling with anger.

You didn't answer, which pissed him off even more.

Pulling away from you, his blunt nails digging into the concrete and the other slamming hard into the concrete slab beside you, a blast of blue embers igniting, leaving scorch marks. "Goddammit! Answer me, Y/n!" He hissed, turquoise eyes heated and dilated in furry.

The sound of wings flapping and something sharp pressed against his neck made Dabi peak over his shoulder. Of course, the nosy, Heroic red peacock was sticking his nose into business that didn't concern him. "What do you want, Hero?" The black haired man growled, meeting Hawks own cold hearted, amber glare.

"I believe you've been dumped my friend." Hawks answered. "Now, back away from her or things will get messy." Pressing his bladed red feather further into the other man's neck. "Go walk it off, hothead."

Everything in the villains body forced him to stay still. The hell he would leave you alone with this bastard. He knew you hated Heroes. No one had saved you when you needed them most, no one else, except for Giran. Not until The League and Dabi himself protected you, their treasure and info broker, their golden egg.

You were apart of them now. Their comrade. You've cried for them. You've risked your life for them time and time again. You've bleed for them.

"I don't like being told what to do, chicken feet." Dabi fully turned, keeping his back towards you, shielding you despite how royally irritated he was at you. He wasn't going to abandon you. He'd rather let his shitty old man have a free shot than trust this faker. "Our conversation is between us, not you. Beat it before I really get angry and burn your feathers."

Hawks lowered his weapon and sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "Talk about a flare for the dramatic arts you have, Dabi." He folded his red feathers behind his back, locking his gloved hands behind his head and spun around in a circle on his heels. "The missy clearly doesn't want you anymore and you can't let go." He clicked his tongue and frown, "That's just sad man, ya know? Happens all the time. The chemistry and romance fizzles out. You two don't click anymore." His golden gaze met the flame villains.

Dabi felt as if he had been stabbed in the heart with a knife and the stupid feathered freak was twisting it, deeper and deeper. It made his ire burn hotter and flames blaze, double fists white-knuckled as his hands ignited, bursting into azure hellfire. "Last warning, bastard." His eyes narrowed, snarling. "Back the fuck off, eyesore."

Hawks raised his crimson feathered blade and got into a battle stance, "Hard way it is then, flam-o."

Hero and Villain getting ready to charge.

You ran around Dabi and stood between them, raising your arms and yelled. "Stop! Please stop!"

Dabi and Hawks paused, eyes widen.

"Doll, move."

"Get out of the way before you get hurt, little bird."

Dabi grit his teeth, he hated the stupid pet bird name Hawks gave you. It didn't suit you at all. You were his doll. His baby. His little mousy. "The fuck are you nicknamin' my girl for, fuckface?" He growled.

Hawks raised an eyebrow. "What? As of.." He tilted his head and hummed, gripping his chin, then glanced down at his watch. "Five minutes ago, the girls single and free game right?" He winked and gave you a cheeky grin.

Dabi was seeing red, his blood boiling in his veins and he felt every muscle in his body twitch and grow alight. "The hell she is. Dream on, playboy." Bursts and sparks of his blue flames randomly appearing over his body: the side of his head, his palms and his shoulder. He hunched his shoulders, getting ready to charge using his legs and his flames as you stepped towards him.

He remained rooted on the spot, a heated and frustrated groaning hiss leaving his already raspy vocal cords. "Move out of my way, baby or you'll get hurt! I'm warning you, dammit!"

You puffed out your cheeks and chest. He knew you did it when your more stubborn and bratty streak came out while challenging him.

He normally would tease you and call you cute, playing your bluff. You were a shitty liar and had a terrible poker face. But right now was not one of those times.

"I'm not moving, Dabi." You spat, tears prickling the corners. "You either back down or run me over. Your choice?" Your voice cracked and breaking, voice trembling, the next few words felt like acid. "Hawks... is right... its over... Dabi.." Your body quivering and you sobbed, letting your tears spill freely. You would have fallen onto your knees and onto the ground had Hawks not caught you and pulled you into his arms.

"Hey, it's okay, I'm here, birdy." Hawks whispered softly into your ear, cradling you against his chest, wrapping one of his feathered wings around you and shielding you from Dabi's view.

Dabi's flames vanished, he shook his head. No. You didn't mean it. You couldn't mean it. It's a lie.... he thought, that fake motherfucker poisoned your mind with his false chivalry and play boyish charms. God, please, please... tell me this is all a nightmare. He swallowed the hard lump in his throat. He just realized that he said those words out loud, he own voice sounded foreign to him, broken, needy and pleading.

That wasn't like the infamous, cold-hearted, Dabi at all.

Hawks glanced over to the flame user with pity and sympathy. "Hate to break it to ya buddy, but it is." He picked you up in his arms as you wrapped your arms around his neck and sobbed harder into his bombers jacket. The Hero turned, but Dabi caught the frown and sorrow behind Hawks golden viser.

No. It clicked, that flying rat was in love with you!

You were letting him touch you and comfort you, which was his job.

Dabi shook himself, "Put her down, bird bitch." Jealousy already settling into his bones and twisting in his gut. If you left with Hawks, it would truly be over and you never explained why?! So many unanswered questions swirling in his mind.

Were you cheating on him with Hawks? No.

Hawks half turned, soften golden orbs glowered. "If you attack me. You risk hurting your ex-lover pyro. Is that what you want, hot shot?" He argued, scowling. "Hurting a defenseless woman out of anger? Pathetic man." His red feathers ruffled and flapped with aggravation and irritation, growing razor sharp. "Try it and I won't be nice a second time."

Dabi grit his teeth, his fists clenched so hard, his nails dug into his palms, breaking the skin, blood spilling from the wound and dripping on the ground. He didn't feel it. Couldn't even, if he tried. His sense of pain was dulled, except for the unbearable pain in his chest, his heart, and his soul. "Get the fucking hell out of my sight before I change my mind, Hero." He spat with venom as he stormed off in the opposite direction.

Dabi wouldn't admit it, but he regretted not stealing you away from Hawks when he had the chance. The next morning, you left a letter on his pillow saying that you had quit.

Standing from the bed, wearing only his sweatpants, he began to pace back and forth. The more he walked circles round and round the room, the more frustrated and heated he became, nearly tearing his hair out of his scalp.

So many puzzle pieces were missing. He couldn't ask the boss since he was still asleep. Dabi was tempted to barge into Twice's room and demand for him to make a clone of you. He needed answers, but he also missed you so goddamn much. He missed you hogging the blanket in the middle of the night, you wearing one of his shirts to bed and nothing else, you sleep in his bed and that cute, dopey, half sleepy and half awake smile on your face as he brought you your morning coffee.

Why couldn't you see that you were his whole goddamn world? He'd do anything to make you happy. He'd burn the world and anyone you asked him too.

Were you ashamed of him? Calling him your boyfriend? That he didn't repeat those three little words back to you when he should have? Of course, he loved you! He thought you knew that. Trusted him.

Dabi dug his blunt nails into his skull harder. What the fuck was he missing?!

It's all that stupid, huffing, puffing, red feathered assholes fault!

Hawks. Damned nosy, kiss ass.

Piss ant. Poser. Traitor. Double crossing, Hero spy.

Dabi's eye widened a fraction. Spy? Spy!

He stopped his pacing and his clawing. Scarred, burnt, stapled lips quirking and twitching into a feral, twisted and chesire cat grin. A string of giggles slipping past his mouth, laughing and snickers growing in volume, he spun on his heels, round and round, faster and faster, cackling into madness and hysterics.

All of it made sense now. You weren't in love with that prick. You were a spy for The League! Who better to butter-up that pansy than you.

Dabi signed and threw his body back onto his bed, half delirious and dizzy, the room spinning, his body still shook and giggles died in his throat and trying to regain his breath. Oh, my brilliant and beautiful, crafty doll. He wished he could kiss you and smother you with cuddles, praises, love bites and bury himself into your warmth and body. My naughty girl, keeping a secret mission from me. His little mousy had truly grown into a fine villain.

----------

Fanfic inspired by the song: My World by SR-71

https://youtu.be/1MNukXXhOMA?si=1YhVOZgedAP8VlUB

I'm sorry 😭 Touya. The angst, hurt and heartbreak 💔 just hit while I was listening to this song on my music playlist

Should I make a part 2? Tell me your thoughts 😉 Should reader and Dabi get back together?

If I missed you in my tag list let me know! 💞 Or if you want me to take you off my tag list, I understand.

Tag list: @fanofflames @slayfics @angelblueflame @cherry-queens-blog @tapiocakisses @moonchild701 @selinakyles-wife @shadow-w1zard-money-gang @dabislittlemouse @nekolover93 @kkodzukens @phantomhoeass @s-k-3-l-l-y @fabled-lady-twilla @trickster-kat @myvillainacademiafan @nikki0606 @metranart @m3gumibear @staitc-rj @spectra-phantasma @kyiratodoroki @fairymama624 @touyas-wife

[fluff-n-cookies]

Randomly off the bat Dabi, Shigaraki and Spinner (separately) With a quirkless girlfriend Who has an Ex that wants to get back with her, BUT……. The ex turns that “HE BROKE UP WITH HER” because she “had no quirk” and that she was “useless to him”

(Those are the quotes she says to them while telling them the short version of the story) Dabi, Shigaraki, Spinner, deals with the situation themselves.

(I love those boys😍 and I thought it be a good idea story for you, so go crazy and have fun with it😅)

Okay, girlie, while I love the fact that you're sharing this stuff with me, I don't think you read this. the yellow paragraph. I hope you send this request to some other writers, @honeybubblebeeeeee is one of my personal favs. I do however like the idea of a reader having no quirk and being abandoned because of it, so I'll put a platonic spin on it.

AND I ALSO DON"T WRITE FOR SPINNER SORRY!!!

Reader was abandoned by their family after being born to a quirk marriage meant to provide children with strong quirks only for their first child to have no quirk. not wanting their reputation destroyed they abandoned our dear reader at 5 leaving her in an orphanage and a note to near come find them less they wanted a bounty on their head. (reader is now 16)

Dabi likes children, he likes how they have this innocent aura, he likes that they, hopefully, have not gone through the horrors he has. Hopefully. On the other hand, he hates quirk marriages, he hates hero's, in fact, I'd even say he hates fathers in general.

To tell Dabi that your relationship with your father or your mother is bad is to get them at the top of his hit list, VIP shit. Endeavor is just a couple seconds behind them.

but what hurts him more, what hurts him the most is if you actually believe them, if you push yourself through hand to hand combat, sniping, and other such practices not for the sake of improving yourself but to prove to them (not that they care) that you are not useless.

Oh how it pains him, to wake up in the dead of night to see your tear stricken face as you berate a poor punching bag to death on the roof. The wind is cool as you swing, and swing again. It's as if you dance for the stars of the night and the stars alone with not a thought for the trees or the mountains. Only ever the stars. 

The sting hurts, the impact of thinly wrapped fists against a leathery wall, but that anger that drains with it is enough to make the pain worth it, is it not?

That anger you feel, is an anger that Touya knows all too well. The type of anger that makes one want to yell of the heavens, yell that they are not a sinner despite being imprisoned in hell. He’ll watch as you swing with fury, fury of not being enough, fury of being thrown away like trash.

one man's trash is another's treasure though, right?

In that case, you're Touya's most darling treasure. Oh the urge to hold you close and tell you everything's going to be okay, as he pets your head, whispering promises of vengeance on your behalf. To give you a reason to smile.

Oh, it's strong.

Oh, the blood he's shed for you.

he won't say anything, if you see him get you water after you nearly faint from mental and physical exhaustion, no you didn't. if you saw him undo the bandages on your arms from training and replace them with new fresh ones, you're delusional. If you saw him stalking your family's socials and calling someone to leak their crimes, shhh, don't tell.

----

"I mean, yeah, you kinda are."

Was his genuine first thought.

I mean, what do you want him to say? that your quirk doesn't determine your worth, like what?

and darling, when I say correct him, I mean correct him, please correct him. Please look dead into his eyes and say "I'm not useless!". for when I say it will escalate, trust me it will Escalate.

this boy has never had a true friend, and on top of that, he was teased as a child for, well being him. So the moment he gets a friend, his heart will swell, for once he feels cherished, and my poor boy, he doesn't show it correctly.

he's just so happy to finally have someone to talk to and joke around with, but doesn't realize just yet what is a joke and what is not. so he'll keep pushing it, it supposedly is an "inside joke" so he'll keep doing it.

So please correct him! tell him that it hurts, and tell him lightly to not risk breaking his heart.

Because he wants to make you happy, he can't stand the fact that you go quiet whenever he calls you quirkless, and that you're progressively distancing yourself more and more. And believe me when I say, it's painful for the both of you.

Please be his friend, and please let him make you happy correctly, you are just so perfect, we can't have such a perfect thing so sad now can we?

---

yeah, done admist some weird shit, and did I mention that I'm a horrible writer?

[redphlox]

How long do you think Dabi survived for in the tube? I’m regards to Natsuo’s character, do you think he got the chance to reconcile with Touya despite the Ending incident? How do you think that went down?

One thing I will credit to the ending of MHA, the fact they still have Touya’s shrine (wonder if they still have kid Touya’s picture or if it’s a different one) considering Shoto prays to it. They never forgot about him, and they never seemed to blame him either saying they would always be there (Fuyumi and Rei said anyway.) Although I hope he didn’t die in the tube and was able to hug them one last time. The idea that Dabi is probably the only villain to be remembered by his family/have a grave while Toga and everyone else were abandoned is low key heartbreaking. But the whole ending for the LOV is LOL

I think maybe Toya survived a couple of weeks or months. Not too long, of course. Let the man escape this cruel world.

I like to think that Natsuo reconciled with his brother. The story emphasized that they had a strong bond and implied that Toya was a main source of emotional support and comfort to Natsuo during a time when he felt abandoned and rejected by both parents, as Endeavor was focus on his career and abusing his family, and Rei's energy was focused on protecting Shouto from Endeavor and her own mental health was deteriorating. I'm sure Natsuo had a lot of anger and confusion about Touya's actions as a villain, but I believe they got closure.

It would be nice if the author had confirmed this in some way, seeing as he put so much emphasis on the relationship, but... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it's just another writing failure that didn't need to crash and burn but did anyway.

I also hope Touya didn't die in that tube by himself. Hopefully he was able to be held as he died or something. Especially since this second death was supposed to fix the first way he died (alone, unseen), but again, who knows! A major plotline of the story being so open-ended that readers get no closure and no satisfaction from the story... that's what we were left with.

I agree. It's truly all laughable. Shigaraki and Toga will only be remembered by Spinner and their respective hero kids, and neither party has a complete picture of the villains' stories. We're not shown that Spinner learned about his best friend's childhood abuse, and we're not shown if Ochako knew about the quirk counseling and all the childhood trauma that Toga went through. And it's not like Spinner will be let out of prison to make a grave or altar for them. Lol. Despite Deku saying he'll never forget Shigaraki, we're never shown that he's thinking about him or is moved by him in any way besides that "do your best" flashback which wasn't even in context to what Shigiraki would have wanted. Lol. And yeah, Ochako's quirk counseling program was inspired by Toga to prevent more kids from suffering her same fate, but it would be much more impactful if she actually shared this with the public and TALKED about Toga to the public. But no, let's keep Toga's dying heroic action on the down low so that people's perception of her is not challenged and she remains a heinous humanless villain in the annals of history. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's just all one giant superficial, forced ending that feels hollow and disingenuous.

Chapter 431 at least redeemed Shouto's ending for me and gave me some closure on Touya... reassurance that he's remembered and considered even in death, loved and seen unconditionally, which is exactly what Touya wanted after he died on Sekoto Peak.

[manicpixieyandere]

The League of Villains

Society and Quirks

So we just finished binging all of MHA and read the remaining chapters of the manga. And damn we did not expect the League of Villains to be some of our favorite characters to ever grace this Earth! But it's kinda unfortunate the franchise the ended up in. Let's talk about that!

First let's start by talking about the LoV and what quirks represented for them. In MHA it's quite common for quirks to be used as allegories for different kinds of marginalization.

Heteromorphs like Spinner are a representation of racism.

Toga's quirk is a representation of how she loves someone and how society deems that love "wrong". Toga is shown to love both boys and girls. People beg her to "just be normal". She is obviously queer.

Dabi's body was not made to deal with his own quirk. This reads as being born disabled. He also has the common disabled experience of being told to forget his dreams and aspirations.

Twice's double quirk and the trauma that came from it lead to him developing dissociative identity disorder.

Some in the LoV were also marginalized / had a rough start without anything to do with their quirks.

Magne is a trans woman.

Mr. Compress comes from a family lineage of criminals.

Shigaraki is a League of Legends player.

(No but seriously this poor kid was abused and manipulated his whole life).

Speaking of which a lot of the LoV were abused and / or neglected as children. Most of the shit Shigaraki went through was due to All For One, but it's not like his bio dad was stellar either. We all know Endeavor gets the worst dad of the year award for how he raised Toya, but Dabi also got the AFO manipulation to a degree as well. Toga's parents were neglectful and verbally abusive.

All of this is to say; The LoV members clearly had a rough life. But they found a family in each other! They all cared for each other in their own way! Twice and Toga were very close and would take care of each other. Dabi burns down Toga's childhood home. Spinner and Shigaraki bond over video games and were genuine friends. Compress takes care of everyone and saves them. Everyone is sad when Magne and Twice die.

All of this leads to this beautiful line from Shigaraki:

He wanted to be their hero. He wanted to destroy the world not just for his own urges, but to make the world a better place for his friends, for the LoV. But did he succeed, even a little bit?

Wellll... The hero society that doomed them all is still going well and thriving. The most change to come out of their mission was a bigger focus on quirk counseling. This is definitely important but it is not the only thing that needed to change. And it only changed because of ONE PERSON. The ONE person who showed empathy for Toga. Ochaco is the one to implement this change, but she is only one person. She cannot change the entire world on her own.

This is where we just can't get past the clear biases in the writing of MHA. The villains are not treated fairly. For example the heroes get off scott free with practically EVERYTHING. Bakugo dies? Just kidding! Oh the condition for him coming back to life was now Edgeshot has to die? Nah he's fine too. Deku had an entire arc about wanting to save Shigaraki when no one else agreed, only for him to kill him in the end. And after killing him it's not like he implemented changes to help prevent whoever the next Shigaraki is gonna be. The cycle will continue until changes are made.

So as you can see there is clear favoritism in the writing. And that is something that tends to be an issue whenever you have a plot device such as quirks that represent marginalization and you have villains who are trying to fight their oppressors. Let's look at a few examples!

For animation fans an example that leaves a bitter taste in our mouth is The Dragon Prince's dark magic. Dark magic is something that is seen as corrupt but also explained to be a way for humans to have magic to fight their oppressors as they were seen as less than since they had no magic. But dark magic is also used as an allegory for drugs and addiction, so it gets messy.

For the superhero fans let's look at The Boys. Supes are a complete mess. You have them representing conservatives and cops in an "all supes are bastards way" while also having them as a marginalized race in danger of being genocided. You can't have both.

Both of these examples show messy allegories in fantasy where rising against your oppressors is painted as wrong and the marginalized are also seen in a negative light due to some other component of their fantasy (drugs and cops respectively). MHA falls into the same trap with its villains. They're fighting their oppressors. They are oppressed due to their quirks just being who they are, but those quirks also lead to violent murderous urges (decay and transform most of all). It ends up creating a scenario where you teach the audience that it's bad to rise against your oppressors, it's bad to want change.

So what could they have done differently? Without completely redoing the quirk fantasy, the simplest answer would be to REDO THE SYSTEM! They hinted many times in the series it needed to change somehow and just never did. Normal civilians even wanted it changed, not just the villains! But it just doesn't change. They needed to put more focus on that push not just from the villains but from the innocent civilians as well to prove it's something that needed to change. But it never will. It's fiction and the book is closed.

But just because it's fictional doesn't mean it doesn't represent real world events. The story teaches negative things about marginalization and how we should never make a stand. It's like telling all the women right now in America to not be angry their anatomy and rights are being taken away from them. It's telling those women to love the man who is doing this to them. It's telling queer people to just accept they can't get married or transition anymore. It's telling us there is nothing to be done. But remember that isn't true! If you keep fighting things could change. It unfortunately may not be in your lifetime, but at least we can try to make things better for the future generations so no one has to hurt like the LoV did, like real people do today.

[codenamesazanka]

What Deku doesn't understand is that the “League of Villains” encapsulates exactly who Tenko - the Crying Child Deku was so adamant about saving - is. He thinks reaching out a hand, smashing that hatred, and saving Tenko means getting Tenko to abandon the League. He is completely wrong - and he would've realized this if he just talked to Shigaraki in all the time he fought against Shigaraki. And listened to what Tenko said in Chapter 418.

The League of Villains is the group Shigaraki Tomura created in order to wreck shit and kill All Might and bring down Hero Society. Shigaraki picked the name and picked the purpose and picked its members and he leads them towards the apocalypse—

—and this is also the group of outcasts that are his comrades and friends; that he gathered and created a place for, where they can be themselves in a society that ruthlessly denied them that. He accepted Twice without care for his insanity and inability to use his quirk, never pushed Twice to do more than he was able to. He accepted Spinner despite being a Stain fanboy and having a weak, nearly useless quirk, and promised him the destruction of the world that hurt him; for all of League. When Toga was pushed by the other members to choose a Villain name despite wanting to live as herself, as Toga Himiko, Shigaraki spoke up in indirect defense of her choice, providing himself as an example of someone who didn't use a Villain name, and who can override the boss' words? Dabi was allowed to come and go as he pleased, and although he was the most aloof member, by the end, he was declaring the world burn for "our" sake - plural; the League's. Mr. Compress believed in Shigaraki enough to entrust an ancestor's dream and family legacy to him; when surrounded by Heroes at Jaku, he was willing to die to save Shigaraki, to let him escape.

The League is a collection of people that Shigaraki cares for - that he saved. That was always the surest sign that ‘Tenko’, sweet and kind and hero-aspiring boy, was alive inside.

Without the League, without having seen the time Shigaraki spent with the League, a reader can just write off Shigaraki and say there’s nothing left in there worth saving. The League is literally the evidence for Tenko have still existed and that Shigaraki was "worth" saving, long before we ever saw ‘Inner Tenko’.

But Deku doesn't understand that.

To go further: outside of the League, Shigaraki still had his distorted but undeniable kindness and fairness. I've spoke about it before, and sorry for repeating myself, but even towards his Villain enemies, he gives them consideration: Shigaraki left Overhaul crippled, but 100 chapters later, he's still continuing Overhaul's work - the quirk erasing bullets - and even laments that Overhaul would be disappointed when Shigaraki sees some of the bullets destroyed. All For One at Jaku tries to take over his body, at the time seemingly only a phantom voice in his head, but Shigaraki still acknowledges that he's grateful AFO took him in. It's only when AFO oversteps that again and again, taking possession of his body, that Shigaraki would tear the AFO vestige from inside out and mock him when the opportunity arises.

And there's ReDestro, and the importance of the ending of MVA. RD and his army picks a fight with Shigaraki - something that Shigaraki explicitly points out; the blame for what happened to Deika is on largely them. RD challenged Shigaraki and the League; blackmailed them, kidnapped their broker, and attacked their pitiful 6-member team with a town-sized militia; insulted Shigaraki, destroyed The Hands, tried to kill him. Shigaraki had every reason to just dust RD while the man was sitting there bleeding out with his legs cut off. Just finish him off without even giving the guy last words. It was more than fair.

But Shigaraki didn't. He went and talked to RD. To mock him for picking this fight, but it was still a talk. And when RD acknowledge his defeat and kowtowed, Shigaraki let him live. Took over his army and resources, but RD was still alive and even made lieutenant.

Without this - if Shigaraki had just dusted RD after defeating him - we would have only seen Shigaraki as a conquerer and not someone who can be reasoned with. He would just be AFO with different minions. And Shigaraki wasn't.

He can be brutal, and he seems like he's destroying for evil fun; but Shigaraki has his compassion and justice. A Villainous Hero for the Villains. It's why he destroys; it's why he doesn't regret his actions, why he wishes good luck to Deku to continue it, even after Deku smashed his core of anger and hatred. Shigaraki saved his League, and he refuses to disavow doing so. Because he shouldn't.

And Deku just doesn't understand that.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Time to be delulu yet completely serious on my bnha 423 opinions.

Good points: The resolution between AFO and Yoichi was satisfactory, love as a reason for evil and evil deeds, the rooftop trio having one final moment full of emotion, the moment of Kurogiri thinking about Tomura and the LOV, Deku having a quirk of his own born out of determination and hard work, Deku as the protagonist of bnha in general, Tomura's last actions and words.

Bad points: Rushed arc conclusions, moments that felt kinda repetitive or lacked the punch given that we've seen/lived them before, not the best compositions we've seen from Horikoshi on the panels, Tomura's arc being rushed to a martyr ending— for impact???? ( or it ending on another cliffhanger that is gonna turn to be different from what we expected ).

I'll go in depth, so please check under the cut.

GOOD POINTS:

Yoichi and AFO:

The last conversation among these brothers was everything I was expecting. The love was there and it transformed them. It made AFO a monster and Yoichi a ghost.

For me, this time the AFO ending needed to be quick because we've already said goodbye to him too many times. This was supposed to be about AFO's refusal to give up on his brother and the unresolved relationship of those two.

I really liked how Yoichi reminded AFO that he needs to face the consequences of his actions and that he's love won't be able to save them.

Villain love:

Love as a reason for pain and destruction is perhaps one of my favorite tropes. So many stories approach love as this purely morally good feeling, when in the end it is just like any other feeling, you know?

People go to war for love all the time. They kill for love. Die for love. Do unforgivable things for love. Human existence is sooooo complex, why would love be the exception?

Horikoshi has been REALLY careful with the AFO backstory and his motivations. He didn't want an antagonist that felt empty. He made AFO human without redeeming him, okay? Because our ability to sympathize with some of AFO's traits doesn't make him less evil. To put it simply, it means that evil things are also human at heart.

Even those acts that you can't forgive or forget are motivated by something.

Kurogiri and the rooftop trio:

We knew from the beginning they were not the main characters of this manga.

We've gotten their story through glimpses and moments. Their time together had always been somehow rushed. Too many things to say, not enough time and they are on opposite sides of the war after all.

We knew that Kurogiri would go back because we knew he would protect Tomura during the final fight. We knew that he'd help the heroes defeat AFO. We knew he'd have to make his choice and say his goodbyes to his old friends.

Kurogiri, Tomura and the LOV

"He's friends are waiting" along with the image of Spinner asking Kurogiri to bring Tomura back to them was the highlight of this chapter for me. (You all expected it, right?)

Something about the way it reads like a father who wants his son to live because he is being waited for. He has friends who love him and would do anything to protect him, see him safe and sound. Something about the symbolism of Spinner putting Father (aka Kotaro's hand) on Kurogiri's face as he asked for it.

This chapter acknowledged that Kurogiri and Shirakumo share the same character core. They are always the protectors, the ones who would sacrifice themselves to see their charge survive. Similar to how Mic was waiting for Shouta so Shirakumo made sure that Shouta would survive, Kurogiri wants to do the same for Spinner and Tomura.

This alone would require an entire post to elaborate.

Deku's quirk:

The debate between endgame quirkless Deku or endgame OFA user Deku is settle.

I really liked that Deku got a quirk on his own that was born out of his own determination to be a hero. It's a nice representation of all he is as a character and what he stands for. Similarly, I enjoyed a lot the fact that it was short-lived. I'm the type who likes it better when things require a sacrifice or when miracles have their own conditions.

Deku doesn't feel overpowered to me. You get that sense that he really deserves everything he has and that it hasn't been a nonsense gift from the narrative. There's also the human condition, the limitations that keep him grounded.

Bnha and Deku:

Deku defeating AFO 'cause villains and heroes help him, his friends being there for him and being there to cheer for him as he fights, his sensei being there despite the fact that Aizawa at first thought Deku wouldn't make it— all the details that make bnha what it is.

They were good.

The UA kids really keep the story consistent when it is about them. They don't give up on anyone, they fight for each other, they stay to witness things for themselves. I love them <3

Tomura's last actions and words:

Careful here. Listen to what I'm saying.

If the narrative had pointed out to this ending, this would have been a good way to execute it.

Tomura coming back along with the vestiges to pack one final punch to defeat AFO— I know many fans that would be moved to tears and would be super excited to see it. Tomura was on point in this chapter, dialoguing with Deku without the hatred in his heart, his face being clearer and almost tender.

He felt defeated, like he had accepted his death already. There's also the connection to Kurogiri and Nana (who defended him) and his words to Spinner, that are meant as a general message to depict how much Tomura values the LOV.

Even the fact that AFO kept him around 'cause a part of him loved / cared about Tomura feels fitting, but I'm not sure if I correctly read the leaks in that part...

Anyway, we got the old trope of the antagonist who used his last moments to help defeat the real villain. It serves as his redemption and the expectation is for the public to feel sorry bad for him.

BAD POINTS

Rushed conclusions:

In my opinion, this chapter was too fast paced and therefore was not as emotional as it should have been.

It doesn't give the feeling that it's fast because the battle is intense. It gives the feeling of too much information packed on one chapter, so nothing really shines on its own. It's way too informative, not enough action narration.

Like I said before, the fatal mistake of a story is to be boring. Art has to provoke you, it has to engage with you, question you, awake things in you. This chapter tho, many things happened at the same time and it grew a bit murky.

Repetitive moments

Again, personal opinion here.

I think certain bnha movies were a mistake. Not because they were bad or boring or whatever, but because Horikoshi wrote parts of bnha real ending into them to the point you'd say "we've already seen that" while reading bnha 423.

Deku and Bakugo teaming up to defeat AFO was so expected. Not as in "the narrative is making sense", but as in "we saw it on heroes rising".

I feel the same with the students all appearing to help Deku fight AFO. That's a typical shonen structure where the friends making space for the protagonist to reach the main villain. It was already happening, so why bring AFO back?? I think the story is over-explaining here, making everything way too obvious. We could have had AFO's resolution with Yoichi before and the students moment after. In truth, it feels like Horikoshi closed some character arcs before he should and left plot holes without explanation, so he needed to reopen to accommodate.

Panel composition:

I admire Horikoshi when it comes to panel composition. He has some amazing panels that make the story really flow, but bnha 423 isn't there.

There are too many elements clustered and empty spaces that don't feel with purpose (in manga, even the blanks must have a purpose). This chapter should have been at least two, so you wouldn't have to rush Bakugo appearing, Yoichi and AFO resolution, Kurogiri saying his goodbye to the rooftop trio and facing AFO for Tomura's sake, Deku remembering where he started and where he is, Tomura last words and the Tomura and Deku resolution...

Those are too many important plot points to illustrate in a hurry.

Also?? The panel of Tomura and Deku punching AFO is so unserious. Totally wrong place to be funny sjbdjdnd why does it even feel like the vestiges are punching air???

" Tomura's ending " :

I'm not the first to say it feels anticlimactic and as if it isn't the ending at all.

The major problem is that through the manga, Horikoshi has focused a lot on Tomura as a character, carefully developing him, giving him tropes that are often reserved for the hero or the main character, making sure we empathize with him, we understand him, hyping up Deku's journey to rescue him.

We got an entire arc from the LOV perspective. This is not the type of one sentence ending you give to an antagonist you spent so much ink and sweat on. The nonchalant way of Tomura accepting his death? The little reaction from Deku? What was the purpose of the manga building up the LOV friendship to the moment where Kurogiri told AFO that Tomura's friends were waiting for him, if you'd make him just disappear on thin air?

This reads absolutely like a bunny within a hat.

That's being optimistic.

If we want to be cynical, maybe this is all there is. I don't find it readable to end the story with Tomura dying. All that effort to save him and it ends in "oh well, he decayed along with AFO"?!

If you think about it, Toga status is unknown because we don't even know where she went or if she's still alive, Touya status is also unknown although we know he wanted to live and that the ice prevented him from further damage, we haven't seen Spinner, we don't know if Kurogiri vanished with that last attack on AFO and now we saw Tomura decaying into the wind.

Yo kill half the surviving LOV would be a bold move that wouldn't follow the narrative. The reward for the hero students should be being able to save their counterpart, so the world can regard them as the greatest heroes 'cause they save the unsalable and blah blah blah.

There's also the fact Tomura hasn't been saved yet. Tenko? Nana and Deku saved him from Kotaro. The crying kid? Saved from AFO by Deku and the vestiges and the others. Tomura? Nop, he's dying/dead. The one person Spinner really wanted to save was Tomura. He didn't know about the crying kid or Tenko. He wanted to save his friend, the "irredeemable" villain, the young man he played videogames with and fought alongside and vowed to follow.

If this is the end, it's incomplete.

So we might hope it is not the end.

[harukamitsuki]

man. spinner and shoji were two characters that i really enjoyed and wanted to see more of... until i did get to see more of them and horikoshi stomped on my dreams...

spinner goes from being one of the best characters to being ridiculously one-dimensional. the heroes don't do jack shit, until it's revealed at the last second that they did, meaning that everything the 'bad guys' did was ultimately useless. kurogiri being in a hospital made no sense; the guy is a high-ranking villain who is far too useful to the villains to give up, he should be in a highly secure location like tartarus. shoji goes from being someone who i really enjoyed to being someone with ignorant beliefs, despite him accusing his friends of being such people.

seriously, shoji's rant on how the 'people from the city' wouldn't understand because they 'had it easy'. NEWSFLASH: discrimination happens everywhere. yes, it's a lot more rampant outside of cities, but it still exists within a city. heck, i had someone scream racial slurs at me while i was walking home, and i live in a big city. to say that someone had it easy just because you had it worse is a horrible thing to say, especially when it's coming from someone who is supposed to be empathetic.

this is not shoji's beliefs. this is horikoshi's beliefs. he could have easily had shoji say something like 'you have had it hard. that being said, people are more willing to turn to extremes outside of the city'.

also, shoji's whole 'violence to get what you want never works out!!' is wrong. i'm not saying from a moral standpoint - that's perfectly fine. but it's historically wrong. yes, there are such a thing as peaceful protests, but they have never worked out as well as those that fight violence with violence. blm riots, for example, were the thing to force the government to take a closer look at why people were rioting and do things to prevent more property damage.

another thing i found troubling was how the mutants became enraged at a person of colour, specifically black, for trying to intervene and empathise with them, screaming that he could not understand. it's supposed to imply that racism wasn't a concern after quirks emerged, as people found other things to discriminate.

which is... very idealistic. if that were something people would really do, then racism wouldn't be a thing after sexism came to light. and neither of them would exist after the lgbt or the neurodivergent. but that's not what happened.

if someone else arises that people could discriminate upon, people would just add that to the list of things to discriminate on.

horikoshi could have drawn anyone for the mutants to yell at. he chose to use a person of colour. it comes off as very tone-deaf and it was just another sign that the mini-arc would screw up.

spinner losing his mind was bad. as in bad-bad. as in, there were so many ways to write this fight, and he chose this? instead of being a battle of ideaologies, it's shoji convincing the rest to step down, then trying to beat a mind-less spinner.

it could have been one of the best fights, with shoji's belief that using violence to solve your issues will only make it worse, and spinner arguing that using violence is the only way to do it with the state of their society.

no matter who won, in that case, it would be ultimately up to the readers to decide who truly won. who had the stronger argument, who made the more sense, all that jazz...

instead, shoji yells at a bunch of people about how 'destroying property isn't good' and 'violence is never the answer', all the while using violence to subdue him.

that could have been could, if it was commented on. if there were some sort of self-awareness.

but it's not and there is none. it went from being an arc i was really looking forward to reading, to something i can no longer stand.

shoji. spinner. you were both done so dirty

[warship005]

Deku briefly mentions in a conversation with Uraraka that Spinner wants to write a book about the LoV

Uraraka thinks about it for a while and decides to reach out and arrange a meeting with Spinner

Spinner is skeptical about meeting another hero kid for obvious reasons

However he remembers that Toga had deep feelings for Uraraka, so against his better judgement decides to accept her visit

(dunno if he would be in a hospital or prison, the series was kinda vague on Spinner's whereabouts post his talk with Deku so let's say he's still recovering in the hospital)

When they meet the mood is obviously tense

Uraraka tells Spinner she heard that he wants to write a book and offers to help him with it

When asked about it, Uraraka says that there's two main reasons why she wants to help

One, since the cameras died that day, the only person who knows how the final fight between Uraraka and Toga went is Uraraka herself

She wants Toga's story to be known

And two, she knows that Spinner is never gonna get that book published in a million years

Destro's book was the cornerstone of the creation of the Meta Liberation Army, so she doubts that a book about the LoV would see the light of day

Especially after how much the media tried to not humanize Shigaraki after the war

Uraraka couldn't do anything to save Toga, but she at least can try to do something to help the people she loved most

And as a prohero who fought on the front lines during the last war she knew her word held some power

Enough power to get that book published at least

After some thought, Spinner decides to accept the offer and the two begin working on the book

Uraraka decided to remain anonymous so she wouldn't steal Spinner's thunder for when the book releases

her main contributions to the book were the chapters about Toga anyway

During the whole book writing and publishing ordeal, Spinner and Uraraka become somewhat friends

Not really besties-besties, but they do text each other every now and then, making sure that he and Compress are doing alright

one of their fondest moments being when Uraraka tells him about her heart to heart with Toga, and Spinner tells her about Shigaraki and what brought them two and the LoV together

After the book is published, pro hero Uravity always brings it up during public appearances

saying it is the most accurate portrayal of what happened that day when she fought Toga

and perhaps the most accurate portrayal of what led the League of Villains to become the League of Villains

It's how she kick-starts her program about better quirk counseling

[vaguelyaperson]

as much as i understand shigaraki's death, narratively speaking, i'm also so goddamn tired of society needing martyrs.

what made me fall in love with shigaraki is that he's an excellent villain. all his character development built towards him becoming a more competent, driven, effective villain. he became an incredible symbol of fear just as deku became an incredible symbol of peace. this is who he was, in entirety. there is nothing else shigaraki could be.

when shigaraki told izuku, in his final moments, to pass on the message to spinner that "shigaraki fought to destroy until the very end," it really emphasized how it would have dishonored him to be vegeta'd, as it were.

shigaraki made it his mission to tear down hero society. this was his noble mission. this is what made him a hero to the league of villains. because he saw the systemic evils, he saw the evils that hurt his friends, and sought to destroy it all.

there's something to be said about trying to change someone who doesn't want to change, but for shigaraki, it was more than just trying to rehabilitate him from mass murdering. because to him, and the league of villains, what he was doing WAS the right thing. to tell shigaraki not to destroy would be akin to telling deku not to save. "you may not understand, but that's what makes me the villain."

there was a binary choice here: either he'd be left free to complete his mission and destroy everything, or he'd be stopped, permanently.

Izuku, by reaching tenko's heart, but ultimately stopping shigaraki, was choosing the only third option he had: declaring that he would not let all of society be destroyed, but not without promising that he'd do everything he can to reform it here on out.

shigaraki destroys. deku saves.

that's it. that's the bnha narrative in its most basic foundation. horikoshi did not fail to tell that story.

I think what ultimately fucking sucks about this ending is that it's too realistic. society often DOES need a martyr - or often martyrs - to realize that they fucked up, that they let an evil persist too long. they need a shocking enough tragedy to point to and swear they'll never let it happen again. society needs to be rocked to its very core before people can be motivated to get their heads out of their asses and work together towards reforms.

and that in itself is an evil, that people can't see how much harm they're causing or condoning without some horrific tragedy.

i think we're all mad at horikoshi for failing to follow through on the story because we didn't WANT the realistic ending. we wanted the hopeful one. the against all odds one. we didn't want another story about society using the image of martyrs to get its shit together. because we already know that story. and we're so so so tired of it.

especially when we know it only leads to a temporary peace.

because people forget. they put in enough reforms to feel good, and then get comfortable and ignorant again. when does that cycle end? when can we finally notice the evil in time to PREVENT it? so that everyone, 'heroes and villains,' get a happy ending?

I think our anger with the bnha ending is good. we want different - not just in fiction, but in real life. we're willing to hope for different. we should hold onto hope and fight for different.

[haine-kleine]

fix-it but make it horrible: in that brief period of time before the second war All For One sees the loyalty the League has for Shigaraki and decides to break it from the inside, so that by the time he steals Shigaraki's body none of them are too affected and remain by the new host's side.

He starts with Spinner, the one closest to Shigaraki, and the most loyal one to him. He breaks his mind with the overload of quirks, puts him down until the start of the war. By the time the war begins he has a dumb but obedient puppet, unable to think for himself, unable to even notice that Shigaraki is gone.

The second one is Dabi. He doesn't hide it anymore how his main objective is to die in a confrontation with his father. All For One likes his subordinates loyal and obedient to him, and as Touya's quirk has always been of great interest to him, he refuses to let him go on his own. He wants Dabi by his side for this war, protecting him with the power of his flames, so using one of his many quirks he alters Dabi's memory, erasing every part of Touya Todoroki. Dabi is Shigaraki's right hand man and he will stay by his side and destroy anyone who sets out to harm Shigaraki Tomura, that's all he needs to know.

Toga is left alone and she is terrified. She knows All For One is going to kill her. She was so busy thinking about the heroes killing her, like they killed Jin, she forgot that being a villain means always watching her own back. Moreover, she was so busy hurting and lashing out at the world for taking Jin away from her, she had failed to do anything to protect Shigaraki, Spinner and Dabi. With her dear friends turned mindless puppets for literal Satan, once again taken from her, like Twice, Mister Compress, Magne and Kurogiri were taken, she is breathless with terror, anguish, guilt.

She runs to the ashes of her childhood home that Dabi had burned for her, doesn't allow herself to cry or escape into the memories of the past, and pushes forward. She runs to the heroes, finds Ochako, Izuku, Tsuyu, Allmight, Eraserhead, any hero she had once been able to allow herself to trust, and begs them for their help. She will give herself up, she will go to prison, she will give them intel for the war against All For One (Shigaraki), she will put Twice's quirk to use one last time if it means honoring his memory and protecting the people she loves. She will do anything, just please, help her save her friends from that monster?

[arirovi]

“The Girl Who Loves Smiles” is an evocative and provocative chapter, which “shows” before “tells.”

I think most of the reactions I saw about the chapter reflected that.

From the first moment, the chapter was evoking memories of the plot and the characters in us and with great ease. We all wanted it to be about Ochako, because the title alluded to her and consequently, also to Toga, and it was (but not in the way i'd expected).

On a personal level, I was hoping for a more direct and concrete resolution on them. I wanted to know if Toga is still alive or not. Find out if Ochako knows anything about her current state and how she is facing the end of her own battle.

Would the chapter present a final confrontation between the two?

Looking back, I think expectations played tricks on me again, but that's because, as a human being, I look for patterns everywhere. The pace of resolution of the previous two chapters had been just what I expected from this last one: a direct and concrete resolution, both for Todoroki facing Touya with his family, and for Izuku facing Spinner.

The change of narrative pace in this chapter, I think, affected many of us quite drastically and I have the feeling that this abrupt and unexpected change was put there with the intention of provoking us, but not in the sense of making us anxious (for the idea that there is not enough time to tie up all the loose ends), nor addressing the typical revenge speech of those who like a certain ship (we all know which one).

I think it was intended to evoke Ochako's motivation as a hero and provoke a real emotional connection with her in her process to endure that weight (at this particular moment).

The first time the chapter shows us Ochako, she is literally and figuratively silent (her mouth is covered), as they talk about Shoto, Kacchan, and Izuku's central role in the war. Of course, she was also a part of it, so why isn't she also included for her merits? And so, the first hint that someone is feeling pain appears in the form of an sfx, which is evocative of his own battle with Toga. The way of showing this, in white, invites us to remember what she did almost by force (since there are no flash backs), rather than focusing on the present plot.

Then she disappears from the scene for a moment and what are we supposed to do with these seemingly inconsequential pages? While I was glad to see how things improved on a social level; how Kacchan, Edgeshot, and the rest were inching forward, I was still bothered by why now?, when there's a bigger part about Ochako to address? Then Ochako returns to being the focal point and her first words are in response to what a civilian said, reaffirming what we already know: that everything is going better. However, just as she appears falsely cheerful, we as readers are forced to place our attention on these distractions instead of the pain (like Ochako did to).

It's frustrating and it's painful that everything seems to move so fast but in slow motion at the same time, that everything feels so superficial and mundane, when there is something more important that should be happening under the surface. And why does everyone seem so optimistic so quickly? Where is the feeling of the aftermath of something so terrible? The guilt? The trauma? The emotional resolution?

The thing is, we've been provoked to feel like Ochako all along. The narrative, so far, shows us what Ochako wants to see, the day-to-day life that Ochako struggles to experience, because it's what she supposes she should do and feel about it no matter what (and us with her).

And then, Tsuyu comes to tell us other thing that we were already shown before: Ochako is not responding, but not only to the most obvious thing, the text message, but to her surroundings and not to her friends either.

Now is when the “telling” becomes the center of everything: Ochako directly explains to us why she was not included in the group of heroes, her companions, who gained admirers (there were no recordings). She tells us, like an echo while reaffirming it to herself, that everything is improving, that the city looks like before, that it is time to be optimistic and positive because the war is over. She reminds us that he has been hiding his own pain because she loves seeing people smile, since that is a sign that they are happy moving forward.

However, even though she is saying it, she does not remember any smile of her classmates in particular (the words are on a black background) and instead, the only smile she remembers is Toga's, but whose image is tinged with the pain of his battle scar (which at the same time represents special, intimate connection with her).

In a few pages, all the evocation and provocation increase in a crescendo until reaching the point of no return. Ochako can no longer suppress the truth and neither can we: that the one smile she apparently couldn't save weighs more on her than all the other smiles she can see day after day.

It is a very intimate chapter, which seeks to incite a feeling of empathy and vulnerability with the character.

I don't know about you, but I felt very vulnerable too while watching her break down.

With this slow and almost artificial, forced rhythm, I felt that she invited me to live this repressed pain with her and to hope that, somehow, there is a kinder way out that does justice to everything she is having to endure.

And yeah, i hope the next chapter goes well.

[scary-grace]

Enough to Go By (Chapter 22) - a Shigaraki x f!Reader fic

Your best friend vanished on the same night his family was murdered, and even though the world forgot about him, you never did. When a chance encounter brings you back into contact with Shimura Tenko, you'll do anything to make sure you don't lose him again. Keep his secrets? Sure. Aid the League of Villains? Of course. Sacrifice everything? You would - but as the battle between the League of Villains and hero society unfolds, it becomes clear that everything is far more than you or anyone else imagined it would be. (cross-posted to Ao3)

Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Chapter 22

“How is he?” Spinner pounces on you the second the warp sludge quits pouring from your mouth. “You were gone for two weeks this time. What happened?”

“Stop shaking me.” You have a headache, and you’re in a mood. “I’ll explain in a second. I –”

“Saintess!” Toga hugs you tightly from one side, then recoils. “Ew. You smell like –”

“Formaldehyde,” Re-Destro says. You’re never texting anyone to let them know when you’re coming back again. Next time the doctor can drop you off in a tree for all you care, and you’ll only come down when you feel like it. “You were assisting the doctor with his work?”

You didn’t want to be, but you were. “I was dissecting a quirk factor to try to recreate the bullets we took from Overhaul. The doctor has to keep them preserved somehow.”

Talking about the quirk-canceling bullets always makes Re-Destro uncomfortable. Or maybe it’s the formaldehyde. Either way, he backs off, and you shake Spinner off in the bargain. “I’m going to clean up so the rest of you don’t asphyxiate, and then I’ll give the update.”

“Did anything happen?”

You ignore Spinner and head for the showers. You smell awful and you haven’t slept in three nights and it’s been longer than that since you had a change of clothes. He and everybody else can wait.

Whenever Tomura’s in stasis, the doctor sends you back to the PLF’s headquarters to provide a report, and probably to keep you out of the way. You don’t know what the doctor does when you’re not there, but you know he won’t do anything to Tomura when you’re not present – he likes the effect of your quirk too much, and he doesn’t want to lose access by tormenting Tomura when you’re too far away to avoid the cost. The doctor probably spends the time working on the Nomus. He’s been cagey about how the process works, but you’ve picked up some things, and he’s been hinting that he’ll let you design one once you’ve figured out how to dissect quirk factors on your own. You’re almost there, and almost ready to begin testing the quirk-canceling bullets.

You’ve decided it’s in your best interest not to let anybody know how many there are, or who has them. As far as the doctor knows, the only hero with the ability to directly affect others’ quirks is Eraserhead, and that’s not permanent. Overhaul’s experiments weren’t widely revealed to the public, which means there’s a chance that most heroes don’t know about the bullets. Which means that the person who has the bullets can catch them completely by surprise.

Some part of you likes that idea. Some part of you wants to see how everybody else copes once they’re pulled down to your level. And some part of you has a bad feeling that you’ll need the bullets for more than just heroes. You’ll test them, make sure they work, and make as many as possible, so that instead of just healing Tenko when he’s hurt, you’ll be able to stop him from being hurt in the first place. You’ve never been able to protect him like that before. You’re kind of looking forward to it.

The bathroom door opens, and you speak up without looking. “Whoever that is, get out of here.”

“I’m not looking.” That’s Spinner’s voice, and you’re temporarily stunned into silence. “You need your costume. Dabi’s friend is sniffing around and he’s been asking lots of questions about you. I’m gonna leave it on the floor.”

“And then you’re going to get out.”

“Yeah,” Spinner says, but we need to talk. “We have to –”

“Leave.” You switch off the water, and Spinner books it. He might come into the bathroom while you’re showering, but the idea of sneaking a look at his best friend’s naked girlfriend is apparently out of his comfort zone. As soon as he’s gone, you switch the water back on.

It was – well, not easy to forgive Compress and Twice for voting that Tomura should go through with it, but it’s not like you expected better. You didn’t expect better from Dabi, either, although you haven’t ruled out shooting him with a quirk-canceling bullet if he threatens to kill you again. But you expected a hell of a lot better from Spinner, and you haven’t forgiven him for sending Tomura off to the torture chamber. You’re not planning on forgiving him, either. They might call you Saintess, but you aren’t one, and the sooner the rest of them get used to that, the better.

Spinner brought you your costume, but unsurprisingly neglected to bring things like underwear and socks, so you exit the bathroom in a towel, to the tune of Spinner bolting for cover. You lose patience. “I told you to leave.”

“You’re avoiding me, and we need to talk.” Spinner’s crouched behind Tomura’s bed, the one you theoretically sleep in when you’re here, well-hidden from whatever glimpses of you he might get. “Our win condition is still the same.”

“No, it isn’t. I care about what happens to him between now and then, and you don’t,” you snap. “You’re fine with him being the doctor’s new favorite test subject to get power he doesn’t need –”

“He does if he wants to win! It has to be decisive and it has to be fast,” Spinner says. “That’s not me talking. Or him. That’s something you said. He told me.”

You remember that conversation, but you didn’t expect it to stick with Tomura. You definitely didn’t expect him to repeat it to Spinner. “We may have signed off on it,” Spinner continues, “but he’s working off ideas he got from you. Every idea of his that isn’t “destroy everything forever” is backed up by some conversation he’s had with you. Nobody else has that kind of pull with him. Except All For One.”

You don’t know what to say to that. You’ve always assumed that whatever influence you might have over Tomura is dwarfed by the fifteen years of influence from All For One. Then again, the world had fifteen years to try to rip your allegiance to Tenko away from you, and it didn’t stick – and there are more than a few pieces of who Tenko is that made it through. From his hiding spot behind the bed, Spinner takes a deep breath, then lets it go. “I want to know how you did it.”

“What?”

“The others think you did it just by being a girl and – you know.” Spinner sounds like he’s cringing. “But that’s not it. Toga knows something. She wouldn’t say when I asked, but there’s something, so I want to know what it is. I want to know why he listens to you the same way he listens to All For One.”

“You don’t sound like you want to know.” The way his voice sounds, it’s like he’s asking someone to peel off his scales one at a time. “Leave it alone.”

“The medics from the helicopter said you called him something else,” Spinner says, and you freeze in the act of wringing out your hair. “You called him the same thing All For One did when he was unloading on All Might. How long have you known him?”

What did you say the first time Spinner asked you that? “Less than forever, longer than a year.”

“Don’t bullshit me.” Spinner peeks up and over the edge of the bed, confirms you’re dressed, and stands up. “How long?”

You don’t have a good way to answer this. You don’t want to explain. You unclasp your locket from around your neck – you never take it off, not even to shower – and toss it to him, looking away as he pries it open. Unlike Toga and Manami, Spinner knows who he’s looking at instantly. “No,” he says at once. “That’s not – what?”

Toga was fascinated, Manami was shocked. Spinner sounds horrified. You want to say more, maybe to twist the knife and make him pay for asking, but you remember all at once that Skeptic has cameras and listening devices everywhere. Tomura ordered them taken out of his rooms, and you and Compress scanned everything a second time to make sure, but you wouldn’t put it past Skeptic to have reinstalled them. “Come on. If we’re talking about this, we’re talking outside.”

It's cold outside. Your hair is wet and you’re shivering, and Spinner’s shivering even worse than you are. As if you needed any more incentive to keep this conversation short. “What do you want to know?”

“How?” Spinner says at once. He’s still holding the locket, but he’s holding it with the same trepidation as you’d hold a live eel. “How did he go from that to – this?”

He’s gesturing around, encompassing everything – the MLA compound in the mountains, himself, you and your costume, asking how the kid in the picture turned into Shigaraki Tomura, Symbol of Fear, Grand Commander of the Paranormal Liberation Front and heir to All For One. “His quirk awakened,” you say. Spinner gives you a weird look. “Think about it.”

“I am thinking about it. Why would that –” Spinner breaks off suddenly. “Shit. That would – that could be bad. Really bad.”

“All For One took him away after that. I didn’t see him again for fifteen years.”

“So you knew him before.”

“He was my best friend,” you say, but he was more than that, even when you were children. You’d have done anything for him, just like you’d do anything now. “When I found him again, he was like this. He didn’t recognize me at first. I don’t think All For One wanted him to remember that he was anybody before this.”

“Well, yeah,” Spinner says, like it’s obvious. Maybe it is to him. “Wait, why’d he let you stick around, then? If you knew Shigaraki before –”

“We hid it,” you say. “From Kurogiri. From everyone.”

“Except Toga?”

Spinner actually sounds hurt. “She found out by accident,” you say. “The doctor guessed when he looked into my family, and my quirk. My friends from before know, and my cousin. And now you.”

Seven people. Seven people other than you know that Shimura Tenko existed, that some part of him still exists, part and parcel of Shigaraki Tomura. You might be the only one who knew him personally, but it’s a relief to know that if something happens to you, your death won’t be the end of your best friend.

That still doesn’t mean you forgive Spinner. “What else do you want to know?”

“Like – why?” Spinner realizes that you’re staring at him and elaborates. “You guys are my age, right? Twenty?”

“I’ll be twenty-one soon.”

“But you were twenty when you met him again,” Spinner says. You nod. “And you hadn’t seen him for fifteen years. And – sorry, but you aren’t like the rest of us. You don’t have a scary quirk like Toga does and you weren’t a shut-in like me. You had friends and a real job and your own apartment, and ordering pizza for all of us didn’t max your credit card. Why would you chuck all that for somebody you knew when you were five?”

The scathing sound exits your mouth before you can stop it. “Why would you throw any chance of a normal life away because you saw a video about Stain?”

“Hey,” Spinner snaps. “That was different. I was grown up –”

“So was I,” you say. “And I actually knew the person I was throwing it away for.”

“You don’t understand what it meant,” Spinner says. He’s glaring at you. You glare right back, even though he can’t see your expression under your veil. “It all made sense when I learned about Stain. Everything that had happened to me – you were just a kid. What did you know?”

“I knew I mattered.” You never talk about your family with the League of Villains. Why would you, when everyone else has a backstory more tragic than yours, when the only person who needs to know already knows everything? “At home – my first memory is my mom telling me to watch my brother. Then my brother and my sister. Then my brother and my sister and the twins. All that mattered about me was what I could do for them, and I was four. The only person who ever saw just me was him.”

The last day you and Tenko had together is crystal clear in your head. The first day is fuzzy, blurred by time. You were at school, you think. A pre-primary school program your pediatrician recommended, probably so you could go somewhere and be a kid for a few hours a day. Your pediatrician had your parents’ number for sure. No, it wasn’t at school. You were on the way to school – no, you were trying to get out the door, and you made it all the way to the sidewalk before you realized that your mom wasn’t with you.

You remember looking back at her, puzzled. “Mama?”

“We’re going to be late. I have to load up the stroller and the wagon –” Your mother said that, but she wasn’t doing it. A pit of dread yawned open in your stomach. “This neighborhood is safe. It’s not very far. You remember where we went to register?”

“No!” You tried not to panic. You could see her thinking about it, making the decision. “I don’t know where it is. Mama –”

“You’re a big girl. I know you can take care of this,” your mother said. She was smiling, but it was more relieved than proud. Relieved she wouldn’t have to deal with you. Relieved she could focus on something more important. “Hurry. You’ll be late.”

For the first time you can remember, you refused. “I can’t go alone,” you said, and your eyes welled up even as your mother rolled hers. “I don’t know where it is. I don’t want to get lost. Please – can’t you just leave them –”

“Leave my babies? Are you out of your mind?”

Weren’t you her baby too? “It wouldn’t be long. You said it wasn’t that far, so can’t you just –”

You couldn’t talk after that. You were crying too hard, and your mother rolled her eyes again, told you to stop acting like a baby when you were almost five, and you wanted to tell her that you’d only just had your birthday and you weren’t almost anything at all. She shut the door, and you sat down on the sidewalk, sobbing into your hands. You didn’t know where you were supposed to go and she wouldn’t let you back in. She always came running when the twins cried, so why wouldn’t she come for you? You knew how silly you looked, but you couldn’t stop crying. You couldn’t go to school like this. No matter what you thought to do, it was always wrong.

“Are you okay?”

You looked up at the sound of the voice, blinking back tears, and found a dark-haired boy your age staring down at you. He looked sort of familiar, and as you snuffled and tried to wipe your nose, you realized that he lived across the street. You’d seen him before, with his mom and his sister and his dog, but you’d never met. He was looking down at you, eyes wide. “Are you okay?” he asked again. “What’s wrong?”

You didn’t know how to answer, and a moment later, you heard running footsteps. You hoped it was your mom, but it wasn’t. “Tenko!” the woman called out, panicked. “Tenko, don’t scare me like that again. How many times have I told you –”

“She’s sad.” Tenko pointed at you. “We have to help.”

“Um, all right.” The woman studied you, puzzled, while Tenko crouched down at your side. “Did you fall down?”

You shook your head. “Is that your house?” Tenko’s mom asked, pointing at your front door, and you nodded. “All right. Tenko, stay here. I’m going to –”

The front door opened before the woman could knock, and you heard your mother’s voice, already frustrated – but Tenko was right in front of you now, taking up all your vision. “What’s your name?” he asked, and you managed to mumble it. “I’m Tenko. I live over there. You have a backpack. Are you going to school?”

You nodded. “I have one. I’m going, too,” Tenko said proudly. “My sister said school is fun. Why are you sad?”

You didn’t answer, but your mom did it for you, in response to Tenko’s mom asking the same question. “She’s throwing a fit because she doesn’t want to walk to school alone.”

“She’s four,” Tenko’s mom said, shocked, and somehow that made you feel better. She was right, and that meant you were right. You were right, and your mom was wrong. “I’ve seen you with your children. You have a lot on your mind, and my son and I are headed there already. If you’d like, she can walk with us.”

Looking back, you can see where you started to learn to de-escalate tense moments – Tenko’s mom, backing down her initial reaction, showing that she understood your mom’s position, offering to help in a way that wouldn’t make your mom madder than she already was. It worked. “If you’re headed there already,” your mom said doubtfully. Then one of the twins wailed from inside the house, and she made up her mind. “Thank you. I apologize for her. She’s not usually so dramatic.”

“It’s no trouble,” Tenko’s mom said smoothly. She turned to go, and Tenko held out his hand to help you to your feet. You took it, and even once you were standing, he didn’t let go. His hand was warm and sort of sweaty. “Tenko, help your friend up – oh, you did that already.”

Friend. You were Tenko’s friend? “We can walk now,” Tenko told his mom. She took his other hand, and the three of you crossed the street together, then turned the corner. When Tenko spoke up again, he was talking to you. “You can walk with us every morning if you want.”

“I don’t have to,” you mumbled. “My mom is right. I should do it myself.”

“No,” Tenko’s mom said firmly. She was smiling, but her eyes were hard. “Four is a little young. You’ll walk with us.”

“I want you to,” Tenko said. He swung your clasped hands back and forth between the two of you, practically skipping. “Hana said I’d make friends and you’re my first one!”

Being Tenko’s friend sounded like the best thing in the world to you. “You’re my first friend, too.”

You were his first friend, and he was yours. He and his mom were waiting for you on the sidewalk the next morning, all ready to walk with you to school.

You never understood why he did that, why he pulled away from his mom and ran across the street to help a crying girl he’d never met. You just accepted that it was part of who he was, just one more reason why he’d be the best hero the world had ever seen – and you still see that in him, in the way he avenged Magne and comforted Twice and took out the CRC for Spinner and promised Toga he wouldn’t destroy the things she likes and stole Re-Destro’s money so the League can have all the expensive food they want. You see it in the new world he’s promised to all of you, in his promise to live in it with you.

You know who Tenko is. You’ve always known, and it’s that knowledge that keeps your head up, holding Spinner’s gaze. “I don’t you or anyone else to understand why I’m with him. But I’m loyal to him. Not All For One’s visions or his plans or what anyone else wants for him. Just him. Do you understand?”

“I get it,” Spinner says. “You’re against whatever could hurt him even if it’s part of the plan.”

“Yes,” you say. “And you’ll let him get hurt if it means the plan succeeds.”

“I don’t want –” Spinner breaks off, frustrated. “Look, I know something fucked-up is going on over there. You look like hell every time you come back, and you wouldn’t be so mad at me still if it wasn’t as bad or worse than you said it was going to be. But if it’s your job to be loyal to him, it’s my job to be loyal to his vision and make his dream a reality. And neither of us want him to die.”

It sort of makes sense when he puts it like that. Or maybe you just haven’t slept in a while. “So?”

“So we shouldn’t fight,” Spinner says. He holds the locket out to you, and you take it back, fastening it around your neck and tucking it out of sight. “We should work together.”

Before you can say anything else, like asking Spinner just what he thinks the two of you should work together on, a voice rings out from somewhere behind you. “Hey, what are you two doing out here? It’s freezing!”

Spinner doesn’t jump, but your startle response never bounced back, and your heart rate spikes so fast you almost faint. “Nice to see you, Spinner,” Hawks says, stepping out of the light cast by the windows of the villa and into the shadows where you and Spinner stand. “And you – you must be the Saintess I’ve heard so much about.”

Dabi’s friend. It must be. The Number Two hero is smiling at you, hand outstretched to shake, and you shake in response, wondering how the hell Dabi could have gotten snowed so badly. Kazuo warned you about a spy in the PLF. You’re pretty sure you’re looking at him.

“You’re a hard girl to track down,” Hawks continues, once you’ve both let go. “Seems like everybody knows you, but nobody knows where you are. The Grand Commander must keep you really busy.”

“We’re all busy,” Spinner says. “Shigaraki’s vision won’t come true on its own.”

Spinner doesn’t trust him, either. You can tell by his tone of voice. Hawks laughs, bright and easy. “Of course not! But let’s be honest here – you two work at it way harder than the rest of the League, don’t you? To hear Re-Destro tell it, you two are the true believers. I could learn a lot from you.”

Sure he could. So he could hand it all to the heroes and fuck the two of you over. How the hell did Dabi fall for this? “Based on your last report, you’re doing pretty well on your own,” Spinner says. “All those books on Liberation ideology aren’t selling themselves.”

“I mean, they could,” Hawks says. “You’ve read them. You know. The only people who’d protest the ideology are the quirkless, and they’re a dying breed anyway.”

Is he trying to trick you into outing yourself? It wouldn’t be the worst move – if you overreact to a slight against the quirkless, it’ll drastically narrow the range of possibilities for your true identity. You shrug. “There aren’t many ideologies that can appeal to eighty-plus percent of the population. Maybe you’re right – the books don’t need you passing them around.”

Hawks laughs at that. “I’ll have to find some other way to be useful, then. I’ve got all kinds of insider info from the HPSC. They don’t suspect a thing.”

Of course they don’t – he’s spying for them. Someone calls for Hawks from inside and he grins. “Gotta blast. Good to finally meet you, Saintess. We’ll have to chat later.”

“Nice to meet you, too.” Once he’s gone, you turn to Spinner. “Okay, so he’s –”

“Shh.” Spinner shakes his head. “Feather check.”

Hawks’s feathers? You scan Spinner, looking for any flecks of red, while he does the same to you. You’re both clear, but Spinner doesn’t look relieved. “He could have left other ones,” he says. “Let’s go.”

You follow him further out from the villa, teeth chattering. Spinner’s teeth are chattering, too, and the two of you stand close together, trying to conserve heat. You speak up first. “So Hawks is the spy, right?”

“You think so, too. I knew it wasn’t just me.” Spinner looks relieved. “It’s him for sure.”

“Is Dabi insane? Does he really think the Number Two hero would just –”

“I don’t know how much thinking he’s doing,” Spinner says. He grimaces. “There’s something weird going on with them. I went to wake Dabi up one time when he slept through a strategy meeting, and Hawks was in there, too.”

“Oh.” You need a second to process that. “I thought we were supposed to be making the heroes unfuckable, not fucking them ourselves.”

Spinner snorts, but he sobers up fast. “Nobody else is suspicious. Re-Destro loves that he’s here – the Number Two hero is on our team. Twice gets along with him. Compress and Toga are Compress and Toga. And Dabi –”

“Don’t say it. I don’t want to picture it.”

“I don’t know for sure that they’re – that. All I know is, they’re too close for how suspicious Hawks is.” Spinner looks worried. “He already knows way too much. How many of us there are. Where the other major cells are. Who the lieutenants are. Stuff everybody in the PLF knows, but that’s too much. The heroes could fuck us up on that alone.”

They could. Kazuo couldn’t ask questions that broad without giving himself a seizure, but Hawks can gather the details in-person. And if you and Spinner are the only ones who suspect him – “Is there anything he doesn’t know?”

“Yeah. Feather check.” Spinner turns in a slow circle so you can check him, and you do the same a moment later. “Your costume’s great for this. It would be easy to spot one.”

“It’s about the only thing my costume is good for.” You’ve had more than one thought about how terrible it would be to get your period unexpectedly in this outfit. “What doesn’t he know?”

“He doesn’t know where Shigaraki is. He knows Shigaraki is getting new quirks, but he doesn’t know which ones,” Spinner says. You breathe a sigh of relief. “He doesn’t know when the war’s going to start, but that’s because we don’t yet. He doesn’t know that Toga’s quirk leveled up. And he doesn’t know about you.”

“What do you mean, about me?”

“You run around in white like a ghost. Most of the PLF has never seen your face. They know you have a quirk, but next to nobody knows what it is,” Spinner says. “The one decent thing Re-Destro’s done is lock that info down. They don’t know your real name like they know some of ours. Your code name is really weird for a villain –”

“You gave it to me!”

“And you’re closer to Shigaraki than anybody else,” Spinner continues. “You’re important. No shit he wants to know about you, and he can’t find out. If he knows you’re propping up Shigaraki’s healing factor, he’ll take you down.”

“Heroes don’t kill people.”

“Heroes don’t spy, either,” Spinner points out. “This guy is bad news. I’ve been laying false trails so he doesn’t find out where Shigaraki is. You can help with that. If you act like you’re coming from different places every time, it’ll confuse him. And the formaldehyde thing has to stop. All the hospital smells have to.”

You know there are locker rooms at the hospital for the residents. You can shower off before you leave. “And you have to make sure there aren’t any feathers on you, anywhere. Every time,” Spinner says. “Or he’ll find out where Shigaraki is, and then –”

“I know.” You haven’t felt anything but anxious in months, but your stomach is clenched in a tighter knot than usual. “Does he know about the bullets?”

“The deleter rounds? I don’t think so.”

“Let’s keep it that way.” You’ve never thought about what would happen to a heteromorph if you hit them with something that targets their quirk factor. Hawks would be the perfect person to try it on.

It’s quiet for a second. “Sorry about the code name,” Spinner says. “It was just for us. I didn’t know it was gonna stick.”

“It’s fine,” you say. “Based on some of the code names in the PLF, it could have been a lot worse.”

Spinner nods, and it’s quiet for another few moments. “We’ve got work to do together. Truce?”

“Yeah. Truce.” You don’t have to forgive Spinner, but the two of you are still allies, still in agreement on the most important thing: The new world Tomura will make possible won’t matter if Tomura isn’t in it. “It’s freezing out here. Let’s get back inside.”

The two of you set off. It’s starting to snow, fat flakes falling lazily from the sky. “How is he?” Spinner asks you. “Shigaraki, I mean.”

“We’re about halfway through. The doctor’s happy with how it’s going.”

“What about you?”

Your mind echoes with the alarms that clang as Tomura’s heart rate plummets, with the sounds of his screams, or worse, the sound of him begging for it to stop. Worse than all of that is the silence, when he’s lost consciousness or fallen into a seizure or his vocal cords have ruptured completely. “I’ll be happy when it’s over.”

<- Chapter 21