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Several hero students happened to be sitting in the dorm common room, watching the news, when the TV screen suddenly became covered in static. After a moment, the image resumed. This time, the villain Dabi appeared on the screen, standing on the announcer’s desk. Everyone else had abandoned the studio. He leaned down, leering at the camera. “This broadcast has been officially hijacked. I’m here to reveal a shocking secret that will rip apart hero society—I, the villain Dabi, am actually Touya Todoroki!”
Everyone in the room gasped. Chocked sounds of surprise could be heard off-screen on the television. Dabi declared, “I’ve returned from the dead to reveal Endeavor’s darkest secrets.” He spun around, raising his arms high, cackling manically with flames surrounding him…then slipped on a piece of paper and fell off the desk.
The TV screen abruptly went black.
The students were stunned. Fumikage was the first to recover himself enough to speak: “That was the single most dramatic thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’ve seen myself.”
Uncertainly, Denki said, “I think it was a prank.”
Moments later, the usual news announcer appeared on the screen. “Japan, this was not a prank. The villain Dabi took over our TV studio, then tripped and broke his own neck. He appears to be dead.”
A new wave of silence washed over the room. Izuku said, “We need to tell Todoroki. If that villain really was his brother, then we can’t let him find out by him seeing his death on live television.”
Shouto was not currently present. He’d been last spotted heading up to his room to do homework.
Everyone started to rise. Momo said, “What if we all overwhelm him going at once?”
“You’re right.” Izuku bit his lip. “I’ll go.” Izuku was Shouto’s closest friend, and the only member of the Dekusquad currently present, so he was the logical pick.
With a heavy heart, Izuku headed upstairs. He knocked on the door. “Todoroki?”
“You can come in,” Shouto called. “I need help picking out my villain costume.”
Was that a joke? Shouto didn’t usually joke around. Maybe Izuku had misheard, and his friend had said hero costume. Izuku opened the door.
Shouto’s entire wardrobe had been spread across the room, from the bed to the chair to the floor. He muttered, “Not enough black…”
Izuku cleared his throat, “Err…there was a news broadcast…”
“I saw,” Shouto said grimly. On closer look, his eyes were red-rimmed. “I also received an email with my older brother’s last request for me. It appears it was scheduled to send automatically in event of a public announcement of his death. That’s why I’m becoming a villain.”
“I’m not sure I’m hearing you right.” Izuku checked his ears for earwax. “Did you say you were becoming a hero to make your brother’s death count?”
“Read this.” Shouto held up his phone, the print too small to make out. “This is Touya’s last will and testament. I haven’t had time to email my resignation to Principal Nezu yet. I thought I might get thrown out of the dorms right away, so I need to pick out my villain costume first.” Shouto held up a black T-shirt with the word ICE on front. “It just doesn’t look very intimidating. What if I burn the sleeves? Do you think then it will look cooler? Or would I be copying my big brother’s villain look too much?”
Izuku snatched the phone and took a closer look. The full note said:
In the unlikely event that any of my siblings might actually care about my death, here is my dying request:
- Become a villain.
- Get all my clothes before Tomura. I don’t care what you do with them, you can burn them if you want, but he can’t have any of my clothes and especially not my coat.
- Tell the League that it was fun while it lasted and I love them. (Make super sure I am dead before you admit this.) Also that Hawks is obviously a spy.
- I promised Himiko to burn down her family house, that needs to be done if I haven’t already.
- Log into my conspiracy theory blog and tell my online friends about my death. My passwords are in the attached file.
- Expose Endeavor’s crimes to the world.
- Kill Endeavor.
- Kill Endeavor.
- Definitely make sure that Endeavor is dead.
- Dance on Endeavor’s corpse.
Izuku looked up. “Wait, Todoroki, you can’t seriously plan to murder your father just because your villainous brother who you haven’t seen in years told you too!”
“Killing my dad is the easy part, but it will really hurt to quit U.A. I wanted to become heroes with all of you. And I finally have a reason to become a hero besides my father.” Shouto blew on his smoking shirt. “But I have to. It’s Touya’s deathbed wish. We take deathbed wishes very seriously in my family. Pretty sure my father ruined our entire family over his father having the deathbed wish to be number one hero or something.”
“Didn’t that tell you it’s a bad idea?” Izuku took deep breaths and tried to remain calm. “Listen, your older brother clearly cared about you in his own unstable way. That must be why he reached out at the end. This list is the reflection of an ill mind. Deep down, I know that Touya Todoroki wouldn’t have wanted you to ruin your life.”
“No, he totally would. He said so.”
Izuku looked down. The rest of the note read: P.S. Shouto, please completely ruin your life and then die because I don’t want you to be happy if I can’t be. Love, Touya.
Gripping his hair, Izuku barely restrained himself from ripping it out. “Why would you listen to your brother then if your relationship is so bad?!”
Shouto tilted his head, a look of confusion in his eyes. “We don’t have a bad relationship, just a normal one. I guess only children can’t understand.”
Izuku shrieked, “It’s not normal to want your siblings dead!”
Shouto laughed. “Of course it is. You ever heard of Cain and Abel?”
“Not normal! Humanity would never have survived if every family member tried to kill each other!”
“It’s really more a brother thing.” Shouto pulled the singed black T-shirt over his head. “Hmm. I think this look needs sunglasses. I’ll buy some on my way to commit arson.” He started for the door. “What’s a good villain name? I like Ice Burn but I’m also considering calling myself Puppet to honor what Touya used to call me.”
Izuku grabbed his friend’s waist. “Wait! We still need to talk about this.” He went limp to slow Shouto down. “I’ll call Hound Dog. You’re clearly going through a crisis of grief. We can help you.”
Shouto made it to the bedroom and opened the door. “You can’t stop me, I’ve made up my mind—” Natsuo and Fuyumi stood on the other side. “Oh, did you two receive Touya’s last request too?”
Natsuo rolled his eyes. “Yes, we got the ridiculous list, and we came to stop you from doing anything stupid, you overly literal kid. Touya’s not dead.”
Fuyumi said, “Or at least, he’s not any deader. It turns out was already turned into an advanced Nomu, so snapping his neck didn’t kill him. He woke up in a few minutes, then got arrested. We’re going to visit him in the holding cell, do you want to come along?”
“That’s wonderful!” Shouto threw himself into the embrace of his older siblings.
Izuku collapsed into a sobbing heap of relieved tears on the floor. This would be the start of his new resolve to save and redeem villains, because it turned out letting them die was too dangerous.
OMAKE TIME!
Dabi: What, Shouto was the only one who even tried to fulfil my deathbed request? You’re my new favorite, Shouto.
Shouto: Yay!
Dabi: Don’t get excited, it’s not as if you succeeded. That only makes you a two-star brother compared to no stars for Fuyumi and Natsuo.
Fuyumi: Your last requests were dumb.
Natsuo: Yeah, you had ‘kill Dad’ on there twice. It only takes once—except for you, apparently. How many times have you died trying now?
Fuyumi: Too soon!
Shouto: I don’t think I would have made a very good villain anyway. And I wouldn’t have been able to attack Dad in the hospital with all the security measures.
Dabi: Endeavor is in the hospital?
Fuyumi: He had a heart attack after he saw your video.
Dabi: Sweet! I just need to die one more time to finish him off.
Fuyumi: NO!
#
Izuku: Do you have a deathbed wish list?
Tomura: I have some video games I wish I’d played.
Izuku: Yikes, I’m terrible at video games, I’d better not let you die.
#
Dabi: How did I rank in this big brother fic?
Author: Better than most of the stories where you actually appear!