Chapter 9 Incident Zero by Ya Boy Guzma

The Hero Killer had a point.

That thought had been a very dangerous spark to ignite the fire inside his mind, when he first heard the words of Stain and the rejection of Hero society as it had become. He had seen, through everything that he had been put through, the darkest side of Heroes, long before the world lost its superman and before those in power tried desperately to cling to it. He had fallen through the cracks and seen how the elite and the strong decided to treat those less fortunate, all on his own way down.

There was wrong in this world before Incident Zero, before All Might had gone, but as the world burned he had watched the callous commanders within the Hero Commission throw caution and compassion to the wayside. He watched the rise of Heroes who had so much to hide, and he found himself disgusted, wishing that someone would upset the balance and expose the corruption at the heart of everything, that someone would do their jobs properly for them.

Then he saw a video of a man calling himself a Hero Killer, and he took his words to heart.

It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. The entire country was wrapped in a cycle of forgiving the unforgivable when it came from a Hero, and failing to recognise the commendable when it came from someone outside of those hallowed ranks. They had tried to create a world where those who showed true courage and selflessness to charge into battle and protect innocent people were decried as reckless criminals, while the corrupt and indecent continued to draw praise no matter what they did. Collateral damage and brutality were now being touted as useful tools in their arsenals.

And yet, there was so much more that could be done if only there were more who would willingly gaze into the belly of the beast, and stand firm. No matter what the risk or the cost, they could achieve so much more if people were brave enough to stand as a vigilante and do the jobs that the Heroes should have been doing. They could right more than a few wrongs, save people who had nobody else to turn to, make the most of the gifts they had been given and make the ones who pretended to be virtuous saviours pay for their lies.

He would do his bit. He would help to cleanse the world of the fakes.

Blue flames flickered in front of him as the factory burned. It had been modern and new, a monolith of steel and glass and brick, conspicuous as the most clean and well-maintained building in the neighbourhood before he arrived. Now, it was a shell of its former self, somehow still standing but completely devastated from the wave of cyan fury that had washed over it and tore the insides apart. As it should be- everything it stood for made his blood boil.

He stood, hands in the pockets of his long blue coat, watching the remaining flames flicker in front of him. The heat emanating off of the factory wafted over him, shaking his long black hair and ruffling the tail of his coat, and for a moment there was peace as he gazed upon what he had done with a sense of satisfaction. A job well done, in a world crying out for so much more.

The fire service of this city hadn't made it in time, and even if they made it now, there wouldn't be enough of the building left to save. And yet, despite the appalling actions of the one who owned it, it wasn't the main reason he had come to this city, crawling with the poor and the downtrodden and those who had fallen through the cracks of society to collide with rock bottom as if it were their destiny. No, he had a purpose, as a fire starter; light a flame, and the moths would get drawn to it. He was here to catch a particular moth, and if the rustling of an approaching person was anything to go by, he might be in luck.

There was a crunch from under the person's boots as they came to a stop behind him. "So this was your handiwork, huh? Stayed behind to admire what you did?"

He nodded at the sound of that voice, still gazing at the flames. Exactly who he was looking for. "Figured you might come and have a look."

"Exactly what I expected from you..." The newcomer growled. "... Dabi."

Dabi smirked at the use of the name he had chosen. "I didn't think news about me travelled this fast. I'm touched."

"Spare me the sarcastic crap, you vandal. What are you doing here?"

"I thought that this might get your attention. I wanted to talk."

"And what do you think I'd want to talk to you about?"

"A few rumours I've heard, here and there. Some news I wanted to give you in person..." Dabi turned, lifting a hand out of his pocket to scratch at the burned purple skin of his neck. "Snatch."

The intended recipient of his message stood before him, a hulking combat-vested man with a long blonde ponytail and ferocious moustache. Sajin Higawara, a Pro Hero, was one of the ones who had cut deals to survive after the sweeping changes to the Agency system made by the Hero Commission. Snatch was a brute, with a fierce look in his eyes and with muscular arms which rippled due to the effects of his Sandstorm Quirk; the man was like a coiled spring, waiting to reform his body and unleash a wave of sand to attack Dabi at any moment. Possibly not a fight he could win, either.

Snatch glared at him. "News? From a crook like you? I assume this blaze is your news?"

"Crook? You really don't understand me, do you?" Dabi folded his arms and returned the look coolly. "Tell me, who did this place belong to?"

"I'm not in the mood for games-"

"I am. It's a simple question."

The Pro faltered first. "Seiji Nagamoto. Local businessman, man of honour, pharmaceutical giant who made his money manufacturing Quirk-specialist medication."

"Yeah. One of your clients, right?"

"He is." Snatch's chest pulsed in sand for a second. "A fine sponsor to my Agency. This was his largest factory, making half a million bottles a year of tailored Quirk side-effect medicine."

"Big numbers."

"Big numbers means a heavy fine to pay when you're brought to justice." Snatch balled a fist. "I cannot let criminal damage like this stand when he does so much good for our community."

"Does he?" Dabi paused for effect. He was going to enjoy this. "Do you know what else he did here?"

"What did you-"

"Let me teach you." Dabi waved a hand, and the blue flames he had created danced like snakes to their charmer. "There's a lot of people out there who think that with no All Might, they can do as they please. Violence, extortion, abuse... even drugs."

"Trigger is a danger to all of society. You and I can both agree on something, it seems, villain-"

"Vigilante. Not villain." It was Dabi's turn to glare. "And I wasn't talking about Trigger."

"Huh?"

"Trigger is the big one, yeah. The Yakuza have a hand in that one, and I don't know who's at the top. But everything gets blinded by the news talking about Trigger, so we forget the old names too, the ones that kill and nobody cares about." Dabi slid his hands back into his pockets. "Like the ones being produced here, at this factory."

"What a ridiculous accusation," Snatch responded, balling a fist. "Where's your proof that-"

"Proof? I sent enough of that to the Police here when I broke in a while back-"

"You were the one who spoke to the Police?"

"Yeah. Figured you'd know about that." Dabi shrugged. "Seems they didn't want to listen. Or someone leaned on them to stop."

"Careful with your words, criminal." A few thousands grains of sand begun to form snapping jaws. "Tread very carefully."

"I didn't like that nobody wanted to do anything. So I burned it to the ground." Dabi waved at his handiwork. "Enough cocaine and heroin to put hundreds on the streets or in hospital, and make someone millions. This city has more addicts to non-Quirk drugs than anyone else in the Prefecture, more homeless. More deaths. And it all comes from right here, at the source."

"You dare accuse him of-"

"Oh I dare. We both know where Nagamoto made his extra money, and so many people suffered because of it. Not any more."

"I won't stand for this, coming from someone like you. A respected businessman, and pillar of the community, making valuable medication, and you want to pretend he is a drug dealer to fuel your little spree of destruction? You are sick."

"Sick? Me?" Dabi shook his head. "I know you knew what was going on here. And yet you were happy to let it continue?"

"I'm tired of these allegations." Snatch raised both of his sizeable fists towards Dabi angrily. "Surrender now, and you'll be in one piece when you get to prison. I'd hate to do more damage to you than you've already done, patchwork man."

"Threats, really?"

"Heh, didn't you see? We don't have to hold back anymore." Snatch postured, menacingly, un-heroic. "Private Heroes with no collateral damage laws to chain us down. I can go all out against someone like you, and the Nagamoto Company just pays off any damage bill. You get to watch as the factory you worked so hard to destroy gets built ack up, and Nagamoto gets to carry on as if you never existed."

"Nah. I doubt he'll be doing that." Dabi kept his composure despite the wide grin that was threatening to break out. The Hero was so blind.

"Oh? And what makes you so sure of yourself?"

"Nagamoto was inside when I burned it down."

The Hero staggered, and Dabi enjoyed every moment of seeing the news sink in. "Wh-What?"

"Yeah. Funny how that happens, right?" Dabi ignited his Quirk in his own palm, and watched the blue light dance with a smirk. "He really tried to come for me when I set his vault on fire. Didn't go so well."

"You... you killed-"

"What can I say? He made good fuel."

"How... how dare you." Snatch's arms completely melted into two tendrils of sand. "He had... a son. He was a good man, a man who made medicine, who gave to the community. And you burned him alive in his own factory, the business he built with his own two hands! Seiji deserved better-"

"First name basis, huh?"

Snatch paused, and Dabi knew it was a reaction to the sudden knife edge in his tone. Now he was getting to the heart of why he had come to this wretched and poor city in the first place. "What?"

"I know he paid his premium to be watched over by you, but he was more than a client to you, wasn't he?" Fire flickered in Dabi's eyes, but this one wasn't a reflection of the building in front of him; this was a brief flash of his anger surfacing. "All those Gala invites and photo opportunities, the times you went to his son's birthday parties and opened his Kyushu factory for him... he was a friend, after all. You supported him."

"And so what if Seiji was my friend?"

"You knew, didn't you? You knew what he did in this place, who he hurt, what he made and sold. And you kept quiet and took the money-"

"His money helped my Agency take down a counterfeit goods smuggling ring and bring its members to justice!"

Dabi shook his head at the outburst from Snatch. Everything he thought was true about this so-called Hero had been confirmed the moment he didn't deny knowledge of where the money had come from. "So that's how you justified it. Turning a blind eye to a man becoming a kingpin. Was the money that good?"

"You burned my friend alive-"

"And you're ignoring everything I say. You don't even try to argue with it." Dabi clenched a fist as he felt the heat rise within him. "You watched as your friend cornered the city market for non-Quirk related drugs, and turned a blind eye to the money he made exploiting the poor and desperate. Your Agency benefited from taking down any violent drug users and claiming the bounty from the Police, and took bribes from Nagamoto to keep quiet about his role in creating villains for you all. Both of you profited from the pain of others and stepped on less fortunate people-"

"And you think people will believe you?" The fake Hero had foregone any sense of presence of nobility and righteous fury now, and was sneering at him, moustache turned up. "You're a villain so infamous the Number One Hero put a bounty out for his capture, who's burned people alive and destroyed property for fun."

"Fun?" Dabi shook his head at the display in front of him. It was pathetic, he thought, how the Hero still wished to act as if the only person in the wrong was him. "Yeah, I enjoyed the fact that he burned. One more corrupt businessman turned to ash, getting justice he never would. One more city where people can break free of their habits and make a better life. But I don't do this for fun. I do what I have to."

"Don't give me that crap-"

"I take action against scum, which is what Heroes should be doing. What they used to do before All Might fell, before the Agency Act, before earning money and cutting deals meant more than standing for justice."

"An idealist, huh?"

Dabi paused, looking the man up and down in his fighting stance. "You know the stats for Endeavor, right? The damage he's caused, the lives who have been lost on the sidelines of his battles-"

"Endeavor is our Number One Hero-"

"And so we forgive him? An old bully who views collateral as a necessity of a working day, rather than the worst case scenario?" Dabi's fire flared up on his right palm, blue light flickering in the eyes of the sandman opposite him. "I cleanse criminals and abusers in fire, but am called a villain for standing up for what's right. Endeavor doesn't care when he wipes out innocents in the crossfire, and he's the best we have to offer. Why is that the society we live in?"

"You're unbearably naive." The arrogance was back on the Sand Hero's face. "Heroes can't save everyone. Not after All Might died. While kids like you had all their ideas about what they want the world to be, we saw who came climbing out of their holes after we lost the Symbol of Peace. We had to make the hard choices on which battles to pick and what we could do. So if you don't like the fact we let some of the scum slip by, and want to focus our efforts elsewhere, then wake up. If you don't like us taking money from the rich, then you're deluded to hope for anything better. And if you don't like us being willing to sacrifice those beyond help, the filth we could never truly rescue from their miserable lives, then you're as without hope as they are."

"Tch. You even monologue like a villain."

"Bold words from a criminal like you." Snatch balled his hands into fists, and his arms began to dissolve into sand as part of his Quirk. "I'm done talking. You're coming with me and I'm stopping you today, because there's not a damn thing you can do to win this fight against me."

"I know."

Dabi would have been lying if he said he didn't enjoy the look on Snatch's face after he said that. "Huh?"

"My fire doesn't work well against your sand, and you can just reform your arms, so I won't fight. But I won't be coming with you."

"You're not doing a very good job of running, then," Snatch retorted, and Dabi rolled his eyes at the disgusting laugh of the Pro Hero. "Why the hell did you come here alone?"

Dabi saw the shadows behind Snatch flicker, and resisted the urge to smirk. "Did I say that?"

"Wait-"

Cold.

In an instant, Snatch hadn't known what had hit him. The world turned white in a blast of sheer cold, and the Pro Hero was completely neutralised.

Dabi was impressed. He knew the kid had talent, and one of the most powerful Quirks the world had ever seen, but the technique was refined and he hadn't given his position away at all as Dabi stalled for time talking to Snatch. His ice had completely encased the Sand Hero in a half-metre thick wall around his whole body, freezing him completely in place; even if he had been able to activate Sandstorm within his ice prison, Snatch's arms would have been stuck to the walls of the ice block in an instant.

Even better, while their opponent was completely immobilised, not a single bit of the ice block had touched any of the buildings around the alleyway. Dabi himself had been completely untouched, despite not being far from the Pro at the time of the ice wall. He had only been with his partner for a few weeks, since the press conference on that fateful day tipped the scales and turned years of anger and despair into a desire to strike back and do things a better way. In that short time, he'd realised just how dangerous the kid could be.

He smiled now, a patchwork grin. "Good instincts, Juhyo."

The now-named Juhyo emerged from the shadows, tugging at the hood he was wearing over his face. "I'm still not sure about the name."

Dabi cocked his head, teasingly. "I don't see you coming up with anything better. Your name choices were terrible. And besides, I need to use a codename in case Sandman over here brought any friends."

His companion ran a hand over the ice block, unflinching at the cold. "I doubt it, the perimeter was clear when I looked." He paused, and turned to Dabi. "Did I do the right thing? To attack a Pro Hero like that... he may die if he remains frozen like this."

"Perhaps." Dabi looked up and down at Juhyo. "How do you feel about it?"

"I... I don't want to kill a Pro. If they could be exposed and brought to justice, I'd feel happier to spare a life. But I just... I don't trust that the system wouldn't protect them." Juhyo huffed, ice on his breath. "I heard everything he said. He only wanted you to get the bounty money from Endeavor, and he took advantage of drug addicts and a friend in high places to profit for his own Agency. He corrupted everything a Hero should be."

"I know."

"We can't even trust the Police since they didn't investigate him. There's nobody to give him and the businessman justice but us."

Dabi looked the kid up and down, and he knew what he had to do. He was used to what he could do, and accepted a long time ago that his mission would lead him to violence that would throw scorn on any notion that he was a true Hero. He burned people, buildings, homes, all in the pursuit of a better society, but the black marks against his name would bar anyone from viewing him as the bright hope for the new age. Villain was a moniker he expected, vigilante was the best he could hope for.

The kid wasn't there yet, and turning him into a copy of Dabi could be avoided. He could still be true enough, pure enough for this corrupted society to be a proper Hero in time, and still be involved in the mission to cleanse it, one way or another. This was a better way.

Dabi turned to look at the ice block next to him. "Can you unfreeze his face?"

"Huh?"

"My fire would melt too much of the ice. Can you?"

"Yes, but-"

"Do you mind?"

"Sure..." Dabi's companion touched the block of ice with his other hand, and slowly the water sluiced away like the trickle of a stream to uncover the face of the Sand Hero, before walking away to stand behind Dabi.

Snatch spluttered, coughing water out of his lungs as it cascaded down his cheeks and dripped from his moustache. "Tch-! It's you too! The kid, the prodigy! You've partnered up with this scum?!"

"He's not the scum I see around here," Juhyo said, voice even, and Dabi noted how his companion refused to look at the Pro Hero. "You disgust me."

"Why you lit-urk!"

Dabi had reacted before the Hero could properly come to, and had reached forward to stab a knife through the forehead of the Pro as he was encased in ice, watching the life fade immediately from those hardened eyes. "Figures. His Quirk extended to his limbs and upper body but not his head. An easy target when you work it out."

Juhyo had started from behind him, and Dabi realised he had made the right call. The kid wasn't used to death, and he needed to be kept away from that. "You... You did that for me?"

"It's best if you keep your hands clean." Dabi wiped blood from the knife as a force of habit, and dropped it on the floor. He activated his Quirk in an instant and concentrated it on the knife, cremating the handle and melting the metal of the blade into a puddle. "I've done this before, but you haven't. Best we keep it that way."

"I..." Juhyo nodded, and met his gaze, his face stoic. "Thank you."

Dabi didn't usually smile, but that had changed since his partner had arrived, and he felt nothing but pride in this moment; he allowed himself the warm smile to creep in. "Hey, I know you ran away a few months ago, but we've only been together a few weeks. We still have a lot for you to get used to, and there will be things I'm comfortable doing which you won't be. I get it." He placed a hand on his companion's shoulder. "Leave the worst to me."

"I will..." Juhyo shivered. "This place is awful."

"Do you see what we're up against?" Dabi waved a hand lazily, and watched his companion take in the burning factory, and the body of the Hero they had cornered, blood running down the ice. "Corrupt Heroes willing to turn a blind eye provided they're paid enough. Hypocrites who are happy to let the world burn, but on their terms, not ours. And poor people trampled below them in the dust, with no hope of being free of their suffering. It's all wrong."

"Anybody who does what they do doesn't deserve to be called a Hero." The determination in Juhyo's voice was strong. "I learned that from Endeavor."

"You and me both." Dabi extended a hand scarred by burn tissue to his companion. "We can make a better world together. One without the corrupt. One without him. One where the Heroes actually look like true Heroes."

He held for a moment, fierce turquoise eyes meeting mismatched grey and blue. "Shall we get started, little brother?"

A skinny hand clasped his scarred one in a warm handshake, and Dabi smiled inwardly at the raging fire he could see in Shoto Todoroki's eyes. "Let's go, Touya."

... Endeavor was going to pay. They all were. They would make sure of it.