A Hero's Dirty Work (Villain Deku / Vigilante Deku au)

Encounters

A young man stood with his hood up and head down, ignoring the tug of his hoodie's fabric against his skin. He knew that he was in a sketchy part of town, more likely to not get reported if anyone recognized him, but it was better to be careful when you were as distinctive and memorable as he was.

He glanced at the news. They were hardly covering anything but the new vigilante and the incident at UA high school, but he smirked when they included a short bit about him. They didn't show his face, but they did show what he'd done. He was distracted from his musings as a small child tugged on his pant leg, getting his attention. He turned towards the little girl in surprise; it was a rare occurrence for a kid to look at him without crying, much less actually approach him.

"Excuse me, mister, but can I try to help you?" she asked, one of her hands trembling as she gripped her skirt. He cocked his head to the side. A frightened but determined glint shone in her ruby eyes, and he found himself ruffling her white hair.

"Help me?" he asked, crouching down to her eye-level. Curiously, this didn't seem to scare her. "With what?"

"Well, your scars look like they hurt," she said, obviously trying not to hurt his feelings. "I think I could help with that."

"Do you have a pain-nullifying quirk?" the man asked. "I wouldn't mind getting a quick break. It hurts quite a lot, I'll admit."

"No. I want to try and heal you," she said firmly, her small voice wavering ever so slightly.

"These scars have been around for a while, kid," he said, chuckling. "I don't think anybody could heal them now."

"I can," she said confidently, and his eyebrows went up.

"What's your name, kid?" he asked.

She looked up at him and gave him a soft smile, taking the question as a 'yes'. "I'm Eri! What's your name?"

"Call me Dabi."

Against his better judgement, he followed her and the quiet, blue-haired man that was with her. He didn't look back at the news, which still showed one of the Endeavor agency's buildings up in blue flames.

If she offered a chance to escape the pain, he'd take it any day.

*                *                *

Michi yawned, his exhaustion catching up with him on the walk back to Kurogiri's bar. He rubbed his eyes, accidentally running into a blonde man stumbling across the street like he was drunk.

"Sorry," he offered, stabilizing the guy.

"Fuck you! It's okay," the man said. Michi raised his eyebrows.

"Are you okay, man?" he asked him.

"Mind your own business! I'll be fine, I just had a rough day."

"Me too, bro, me too. Anything I can help with? You look like you're about to split," Michi said worriedly.

The man started trembling, clutching his head and stumbling away. "No, no, I won't split. I'm me. I'm me!" he cried, and Michi quickly looked both ways before leading him into an alleyway. He put his hand on the guy's back comfortingly and activated Research.

Unstable. Duplication quirk, duplication of himself led to identity mental disorder. Uses mask to hold himself together, although he still acts as two different people. Thirty-one years old, falling into villainy after constant rejection and to support his addiction to tobacco.