Chapter 110

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*

Dabi's right eye began to blink frantically, as if convulsing.

The villain screamed and ripped the television from the coffee table.

The old TV smashed against the wall in a spray of plastic. Half the screen went black, the other half continued to broadcast the conference live.

I was a kid. I was scared. I just did what I had to do to survive, that's all.

Dabi spat at the TV, his moll rolling on Shoto's face.

- Fucking liar!

Shigaraki crouched next to the TV and wiped the spit with his sleeve.

- It's our only TV, don't break it

Toga, sitting on one of the sofa's battered armrests, picked at her nails with a knife, silent, her narrow eyes slit like that of a reptile, not leaving Shoto's face until he disappeared from the screen.

Then she turned her head to Dabi, eyes narrowed, and looked at him suspiciously.

- I find you strangely involved, Dabi. Do you know him?

The young man didn't answer and began hitting the sofa, breaking furniture and making a mess of the already ruined studio.

The neighbors didn't complain - what was broken furniture when you could hear women screaming for their lives and then suddenly being silenced ?

It was at least a nice change from the usual. It would give the gossips something to talk about.

Shigaraki left the television when Dabi kicked it again. He sat back on the wobbly sofa indifferently, his console in his hands.

Dabi exhaled, his eyes bloodshot, the shadow of a flame exploding on his cheekbone before disappearing.

Himiko continued to watch him with the attention of a bird of prey.

The villain wanted to turn away but decided to lean against a wall, one hand on his face, his chest rising and falling, distracted but not too distracted, still able to defend himself if the other madwoman suddenly felt like stabbing him.

- I don't really like him either, Himiko whispered, her eyes shining with anger and something more malicious. He killed Mister Compress and Moonfish.

Neither Shigaraki nor Dabi answered.

- He killed Twice.

Himiko was pale as death.

Dabi's eyes followed the path of the drops of blood that ran from her palm, into which she had dug her own fingernails, that rolled onto the seat of the dirty sofa and stained the floor.

- I know

Himiko's muscles relaxed and her eyes lost their intensity.

Dabi was sure that if neither he nor Shigaraki had reacted, she would have stabbed one of them.

- We have to do something.

Automatically, Dabi's eyes turned to Shigaraki.

It was strange to think that they were almost the same age, yet Shigaraki acted more like a child than the leader of a terrorist organization.

- We were talking to you.

Shigaraki looked irritably at Dabi, then scratched his throat, his eyes returning to the bright screen.

- The doctor told us to stay out of sight until things calmed down.

- And then what ?

Shigaraki didn't answer.

Himiko stirred and Dabi saw something metallic and shiny under her jacket.

- Twice is dead and we're hinding-

- She's right, Dabi cut in. We have to do something.

Shigaraki looked at them in turn, obviously annoyed.

- Teach is still healing. And Giganto-

Dabi rolled his eyes.

- -machia is dead. We lost three quarters of our team. We have to keep a low profile and recruit new members.

The doctor's exact words from All for One.

- We need to strike now, while people still hate him-

- He's a murderer, Shigaraki muttered. People will always hate him.

- He's the son of a hero, Dabi corrected. He'll turn things around. Like they always do

His pity speech must have caused a stir among the population.

Besides, he had the support of the "two symbols," the country's two greatest heroes.

All he had to do was parade around in tights, rescue a few stray cats stuck in trees, and everyone would forget the whole thing.

Dabi moved his shoulder, and the bandages covering his wounds - his crucifixion - got soaked with blood again.

- We could tell them, Himiko insisted, That it was he who killed Twice and all the others. That he stabbed Dabi.

Dabi frowned.

He'd told Shoto about a video, the night of the kidnapping, in Tokyo.

- Stop imagining things, Shigaraki said. We're a bunch of criminals. No one will listen to us.

- But he's one of them, too, Himiko said indignantly.

And All for One had released a video just a few days later, as much to sow chaos among the heroes as to distract them from his pursuit.

What if Shoto thought it was Dabi who had sent it? What if he thought this was the video he was talking about ?

He'll come and kill me.

Dabi's hands began to shake.

He began to walk from one end of the small living room to the other, biting his thumbnail.

Dabi knew that Shoto was lying.

If his super strength, his lightning and the strange thing he could do with his eyes had been revealed to the world, it was because Shoto was hiding worse.

And if Shoto was hiding worse, then there would be nothing and no one to stop him from reaching Dabi and killing him.

The clever little bastard used his bullshit speech to discredit me.

Oh, it was clever, very clever indeed, to use something that would appear 'spontaneous' to cut off all momentum the way he did.

If Dabi released his 'testimonial' video about the chaos that had been his childhood, no one would listen - to everyone he'd just be the kid who had tried to kill his brother twice and had been committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Worse still, if Shoto continued to play the prudish little bitch, Dabi would simply offer him general sympathy on a platter.

- Dabi?

The young man raised his hand to silence them.

- I'm thinking.

Shoto was clever, very clever.

If he were in his place, Dabi would wait until the situation calmed down a bit.

Then he'd strike a blow and get rid of anyone who dared to blackmail him - maybe he could even use another of his strange Quirks to get Dabi to confess where the copies of the video were hidden.

Dabi stopped.

Dabi had only revealed the existence of a possible video because Shoto would have killed him if he hadn't.

But now the enemy knew his only trump card, and it was only a matter of time before he destroyed it.

Dabi's teeth began to nibble at his thumb, a few drops of blood trickling down his dry lips.

He had to do something, catch him off guard, cut him off.

- What's the one thing he wouldn't expect..., Dabi murmured. The one thing I could do that would definitely keep him from killing me...

And suddenly he had a flash of genius.

*

- Are you stoned?

Leo looked at me silently, his face slightly red, before my sentence registered in his brain and he shook my hand.

- Definitely not. I smoked, like, once today.

I exchanged a look with Natsu, who shrugged his shoulders.

- He hangs out with some freaks at school. Some kind of gang or something.

-It's not a gang, Leo replied. It's an association of nature lovers.

- The nature in question doesn't have to be a weed garden.

Natsu chuckled and tapped me on the shoulder as he walked past me, a stack of my boxes in his hands.

Leo rolled his eyes but smiled and unloaded more of my stuff from the back of his parents' pickup.

- Where's your room again?

I looked up at the huge building of Yuei's 'elite' section.

Made of marble and stone, with a huge tinted bay window overlooking what I thought was the common area, the building was larger than two normal dormitories per class.

It was in the middle of a checkerboard of dormitories, higher than the others so that everyone could see it and notice it and admire it.

Nezu really is the smartest weasel I've ever seen.

I pulled the blue envelope out of my pocket and read the few lines again.

- Floor 3, Room 7

My phone rang.

I raised an eyebrow at dad's name on the display.

He never called me during working hours - never.

Without further ado, I picked up the phone, tucked a cardboard box under my elbow, and climbed the stairs without hurrying.

- Did you call me?

- Shoto. Are you busy?

His voice sounded strange, as if he were under stress.

I stopped at the first floor.

Far above, I could still hear Natsu and Leo's giggling voices.

- Did something happen? Are you okay?

- Happened ? No,I'm fine. Everything is fine. It's just...

Dad took a deep breath and I suddenly felt scared.

- What's wrong?

- It's just-

For a second, he was silent.

- Touya is alive