Hybrid Heroes - Shōto Todoroki

Chapter 40.5: From a Villain's Point Of View

Dedicated Chapter Song: Heathens - Twenty One Pilots

All my friends are heathens, take it slow
Wait for them to ask you who you know
Please don't make any sudden moves
You don't know the half of the abuse
(Jinxx)

Several Days Ago

Some would call her a two-timer, a backstabber, or a double agent. Some would call her a murderer, a fiend. Many would call her crazy. Yet she would call herself Jinxx.

From a very young age, Jinxx knew that she was different. She thought differently; she could see the world differently. She never really wanted to kill, but just to be heard. If the killing was what it took to be heard then that's what she realized she was destined to do.

She found the League of Villains as they had found her and become like a family to her when she had none. Though her parents were still alive, the only sibling that she had was long gone, at her own hands.

"Thought I'd find you up here, lazy." said a voice that to others would be demeaning, but to Jinxx was charming and calm. She never had to look behind her to know who it was. The sound of crunching leather as they walked told her all she needed to know.

Jinxx lightly kicked her feet as she sat on the ledge of a tall building in the center of the city. That building just so happens to be her home, but the roof was her safe space. It had a great view of the city lights and was high up enough that Jinxx felt she could escape the world and be free some days. "You know me all too well, Dabi." Her currently purplish eyes gazed up at the stars above as he took a seat beside her.

"You've been more distant from us lately. Got some secrets you wanna share?"

"You? Wanting to talk about secrets?" She let out a playful laugh and looked him in the eyes. "Don't bother me with that crap. You have more secrets than me."

Dabi tilted his head and smirked. "And you are an open book. So spill it, Jinxxy. What's on your mind?"

Jinxx wrapped her arms around herself. "I was going to go hunting for a new set of eyes tonight. Maybe some blue or some gold. I'm getting tired of these purple ones staring back at me." she spoke, casually referring to how her quirk works. "But..."

"Buuut?" Dabi waved his hand, waiting for her to continue.

"It's his anniversary," glancing over her shoulder, she waved at him to come and sit beside her. "My brother's."

"I didn't know you had a brother." Dabi swung his legs over the ledge as he sat next to her.

Jinx snorted, her shoulders raising as a small smirk crossed her rosy lips. "I don't anymore. I haven't had one for fifteen years now."

"Oh, it's one of those anniversaries," Dabi muttered, not sure how to carry on the conversation.

"I killed him, you know." She spoke so nonchalantly that Dabi wondered if she was perhaps lying. "This quirk that I call my own... it was his first. I merely stole it from him. He was so kind of a human... filled with light. I was quirkless. I was teased and bullied because all I ever wanted was to help others. I wanted to be a hero more than anything in the world." Then her voice turned to a whisper as a teardrop fell down her cheeks. "But all those so-called heroes told me that I would never get anywhere because I was quirkless. I fell into a violent depression and even had many suicide attempts."

Jinxx threw her head back and stared up at the moon above them. "My older brother, being the kind soul he was... let me borrow his quirk for a day. I went to school and suddenly I was popular. I was bombarded by people wanting to hang out with me and I just felt... normal. Even my middle school crush told me I was pretty cool and I felt like I was on cloud nine. Then... at the end of the night, my brother asked for his quirk back. See... he couldn't just take it back without my consent, the quirk requires the quirk holder's consent, and well... I couldn't give it back."