Chapter Text
What a horrible turn of events. This is what she gets for being the leagues recruiter?! An E rank villain, with a B C tier quirk, who just so happened to have something against the league, or her specifically, sending her to this place? Although she'd never seen the person in her life, so why does she have to take the rap for every stupid thing Shigaraki does? He should really learn to behave, he’s making enemies left and right.
Not even gonna think about how she’s gonna get home. Such a headache is something she’d love to keep at bay for as long as possible.
But that just begs another question: What is she supposed to do in the meantime?
There is option one: find the one, or their counterpart, who did this, and make them send her back. Which was something she’d already deemed annoyingly time consuming, so no to that for now. Second option: stay put in the hospital. Not the most appealing option with how not-dad knew she was here, and would probably come back and annoy her. She didn’t even want to think about that. But then what else? It’s not like she knows if the league is even around here, and even if it was, she would just be some random nobody. Walking around outside didn’t seem constructive if she wanted to find that quirk user quickly at some point. And as for the Bird….
She shook her head, letting out a long sigh as she threw her head back into the pillow.
What do you do now? There is so little she can do in this world that would actually matter. As in, she probably could do a lot of things. Look for weak spots in people’s quirks. Make Endeavour’s life a living hell. But it didn’t seem fruitful to do so with someone who didn’t actually know her. Plus: the constant reassuring and friendly demeanor he was showing off, was messing with her in a way she couldn’t truly explain.
“Who knew seeing him so happy would be so infuriating.”
She sighed out a frustrated groan through her teeth. Something would have to change. She couldn’t just let it be and stay in this place. Not just because it did nothing for her plans, but also just the unbelievable uncomfortable feeling it gave her. Even just imagining dad to be nice, was such a far-fetch idea, that she wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes. Could barely even believe it herself, even though she had seen it, honestly.
“Fucking.” This was stressing her the fuck out.
With a bit of difficulty, she threw the blanket off her to the side, propping herself up and pushing herself off the bed. She shuffled herself over to the window, sitting herself at the platform near it. It was easy saying she was wasting time, but it was also pretty much impossible for her to fix it herself. She didn’t have a quirk that could break open the wall between dimensions. Which pretty much just meant that she was stranded here…..
Mildly freaking her out, but she couldn’t allow that to happen. Although with how strange Not-Enji was acting, she could probably get him to figure out a way to get her home out of guilt. At least that’s what he looked like when he looked at her, or maybe, it was closer to pity. Whatever it might be, he seemed like someone who could be manipulated.
She threw her head back, resting it on the wall, as she groaned in frustration. Everything felt listless staying in a hospital, but she couldn’t leave, because she didn’t even know if the League existed in this Frankenstein universe. Hawks don't know her, or at least aren't into her, so there’s only waiting in store for her?
A knock on the door shook her out of the spiral she was currently falling down in, breaking her out of her train of thought. Before she was able to compose herself the door opened with a friendly interjection. “We’re coming in.” As the door opened slightly ajar.
The voice was a bit uncertain and careful when speaking, seemingly touching whether it was okay to step inside, or if they were allowed to do it. Feeling what the state of the room was. But more than that, there was a vague reminiscence to the voice that was scratching something in the back of her mind.
Someone she hadn’t heard for a long time.
The door opened with a sense of hesitation, as the familiar voice got a face… and she really wanted to reverse her situation back 12 seconds to when she didn’t know who the voice belonged to. Her eyes darted around the room for desperate plea that there might've manifested a way out other then door, obviously to complete failure. Surveying the window, as she contemplated how fucked up she'd be if she jumped out the window…. probably way too much.
Gods….
She breathed in a heavy breath through her nose, ignoring the lumpy feeling her throat as she breathed out. Trying hard to disregard the quiet panic in her chest, as she waited for the most imaginable uncomfortable situation possible. Damn those scammers who say breathing in through your nose is calming! The seconds it was taking for the door to open felt like minutes as her brain was raising, as her last seconds of uncertainty disappeared with the door opening….
And, it's worse. In from the door stepped someone who would always be recognisable no matter how long they would be separated. Her mom. Followed closely behind by what looked like a few other white headed individuals, that she didn't need to think too hard about who they were. For a brief moment she was looking behind her, saying something to the person behind her, that she could really take her in, and it was just…. so strange.
She looked how she would have expected her too, but she also looked so much… better? As in, she looked healthy. Like she was eating good, and in peace in someway. More in the sense that, she really didn't look her age, as in looking way younger then what you'd assume. It was nothing like what she'd have even imagined. Like looking at something that shouldn't be. Something that was wrong in some foundational way, burrowing down under your skin, as it creeped around your body.
If everything else hadn't convinced her, she definitely knew now that this wasn't where she was supposed to be.
The seconds that she hadn't noticed her felt so long. Gave her heart a bit to settle down, but only really in the way that it felt like it had stopped beating, with her anxiety crescendoing into something much more silent and still. Which were all completely ruined as mom finally turned her head to face her.
As if rehearsed, she stopped up immediately! A shocked expression showing on her face, as the rest of the white haired almost hit her, as they struggle to stop themselves from the collision. It'd be funny of she didn't feel like throwing up. "Touya…"
Gaaarhhh, that stung more then it had any right to do. Didn't think a name could feel so bad. "That's not-"
"Mom! Look where you're stopping." She could hear the voice pipe up, drowning out her own, as she saw the stocky features of someone who couldn't be anyone but Natsu. He was definitely louder then what she remembered.
"Don't rush her like that, Natsuo." This one was undoubtedly Fuyumi talking. "You don't have to be that hectic."
"Says you. You were the most excited one of us all. Even more then nii-chan."
"Do you two always have to be so loud whenever we go out." The subdued tone cut through them both. A voice she couldn't readily identify to fit with anyone in particular.
"Yes! Thank you, Sho." Ahhh, shit, of cause it's him. "Fuyumi always~ so uppity whenever we go out."
"Natsuo!" The babbling between kind of undercut the heavy feeling she had been feeling until now. It almost felt like they were in their own world in a way, somehow completely forgetting the reason why they're there. Hell, she didn't even know why they were here! She hadn't invited them. She didn't want to meet them at all! Completely stuck in her bewilderment she shared a look with her not-mom, which she clearly picked up on, because she simply sighed and gave her a half smile. One of those as though she was apologising for her unruly kids. "Oh shut up you two."
She furrowed her brow at the apparent declaration. Did Fuyumi just swear? She was honestly just at a loss for words at what to say. It wasn't just that Fuyumi had just sworn, that was surprising but not the biggest thing in the world, it was rather how foreign the entire interaction between them were. Everything in this goddamn place made her feel more and more out of place.
"Let's not argue like this. Touya's waiting for us, and we should give him-"
She closed her eyes shut as she felt one of her veins on her forehead pop. This is all so upsettingly annoying. She groaned as bowed over and put her hand to her forehead. "My name is NOT Touya!" Her voice was loud and firm, and she tried to cut through the absolute shitshow that was going on here. She could still feel her throat wanting to clamp up, but she didn't have time for that. "Have you never learned not to upset patients in a hospital?"
"Ahh, yeah, sorry." She could hear them shuffling around, filling the room with noise as each one of them made small steps into the room.
"Making me be the responsible one outta everyone here." She mumbled with little effort to make it sound silent, as she rose her head up again, looking at everyone. "And who told you to come here? I as sure did not give anyone permission to see me!"
There was a stillness in the room that felt like it should have been because of her outburst, but as she looked around at their faces she realised that it probably wasn't entirely because of that. They had all come in to the room at this point, at while the outburst hung in the air, it was clear that they were preoccupied with… how she looked.
"Sorry." It was not-mom who broke the silence. "I guess when we heard… Well, it doesn't actually matter too much, but we just wanted to see you. To make sure you were okay."
"You're taken all of this surprisingly well, considering the entire concept of multiverses is something I can't even wrap my head around really. But getting here so quickly, is still impressive."
Not-Natsu and not-Fuyumi gave each other a glance. "We've known for about two weeks at this point. We talked a lot about what to do, or how to approach this. At it ended up that we couldn't contain ourselves anymore." Not-Natsu spoke.
"…wait a minute, how long have I been out?"
They looked between each other for second before not-Fuyumi continued. "Threeeeeeeee weeks, I think. Maybe it's been a month, I'm not sure."
She said with a sense of wanting to be helpful but her face quickly fell as Dabi apparently made a face that was distressing enough to make the small smile on her face fade. Coma's were the worst. It was the one thing she hated more then anything else in the entire world, maybe even more then her dad. It was something that reminded her of the worst period of her life, of something that had robbed her of any and every chance that could have possibly let her on a different road in life. Shaping her life how it wanted to, with no input or care for what she could have wanted. There's nothing to say that she wouldn't have done the same that she was doing right now even if she hadn't been in a coma, but at least, it would have been her CHOICE!
It took a moment for her to compose herself. She didn't want to spiral on the best of days, and today had already shaped out to be heart attack threatening day, so she was gonna put a lid on that. "Whatever……" She breathed a sharp air in through her nose, exhaling it out her mouth annoyed. "So, I suspect you have figured something out that I am unaware of? A way that makes me not stay here, perhaps?"
"That's not something any of us know about. Dad has being hard at work on it though, so it shouldn't take that long." Not-Fuyumi spoke.
"Ya-ha….. sure it won't." It still made her skin crawl to think about how she had to believe in that man's help, but technically wasn't the cause of her problems, so suppose she should give him a bit of grace. "No matter, so you three just decided to come by for….. fun? Curiosity? I have really hard time figuring out why the fuck you're here."
"Oh, wait. I'm here too." A hand stuck out from behind the two idiots, as the visage of split red and white came into view. Why would she have thought that she could go without seeing that brat…. and of course he looks different as well. "I couldn't get in."
You'd think she'd get used to things like this at some point, but evidently she wasn't. In front of her stood a perfect image of what that brat would have looked like, had he not being splashed with boiling hot water. It wasn't like Dabi had had that much time to see him up close, but she knew enough about what had happened, and had taken some pretty risky steps to see it for herself, but it was still strange to see a face so absent of any kind of scarring.
And if that wasn't enough, he also looked… happy? Gods, it was an annoying look on all of them. She massaged the bridge of her nose, as she breathed out heavily again. She was soon gonna be out of breath with if this shit continued. Eventually she broke her annoyance by looking up at the brat again. "…..You look….. clean……" Masterful use of your mouth and words Dabi.
"Erhm, thanks." He looked himself over, raising his arm to look at it as well patting his legs down. "I took a bath, so I guess I am pretty clean."
"That's not…………. Sure thing buddy. That's what I meant." She didn't really wanna reveal more about her own reality to these people who undoubtedly were well functioning members of society, so what good would it be if they heard more then what was necessary about their fucked up doppelgangers.
"So, but anyway. You said your name is Dabi? That's neat." Not-Shoto sounded monotone wen speaking, but she could still glean from it that he didn't mean it in a uninterested way. Not with that stupid glint in his eyes. "Oh, I'm the last one who is here. It's not like dad is standing just out of view, and Touya-nii had prior arrangement with his girlfriend, so he couldn't make it either."
Ohh great, her counterpart in this universe is straight. How predictable. But at least it seemed like Not-Shoto was way more open and straightforward about useful information. It was nicer then Not-Fuyumi and Not-Natsu dancing around everything. "And it wasn't at all because seeing yourself might rip the fabric of reality?"
"No, I don't think so." Not-Shoto said.
"What are you talking about?" Not-Natsu pushed Not-Shoto's face to the side. "That's time travel. This is alternate reality stuff, works completely different."
"How the fuck do you know how this stuff works? You don't know it wouldn't!"
And thus they returned to staring at each other for a bit. It wasn't a silence of uncomfortableness, not primarily, at least, but rather one of exasperation. Dabi didn't really have anything she wanted to ask them about, if anything she felt a quiet panic inside so she much rather wanted them to just leave, but for them… it felt more like concern. Pity.
"Hahh. It's really weird." Not-Natsu continued. "You have Nii-chan's face, but you're so polar opposite, that it's difficult not to be smacked in the face with reality of the situation."
"I thought there would be other, way more obvious, aspects about me that would set me apart from your worlds……. whoever."
"Well there's the girl thing. I guess that's pretty different."
"Natsuo!" Not-Fuyumi slapped Not-Natsuo hard over the head.
"What?!"
"We don't know if that is the case! That's not just something you say out of nowehere!"
"Why not? It breaks the ice, and it's probably true, right? So what's the big deal?"
Not-Fuyumi exsaperatedly sighed. "You need to be a bit more tactful about this kind of stuff. You can just be as bullhead as dad when it comes to this kind of stuff."
Eurghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! This was way worse then anything she wanted to experience! If this was in any way how her real family would react to her being trans, then she'd rather never reveal herself to them. Given, it's not worst reaction she could probably have expected, but gods the second hand (first hand?) embarrassment this giving her, made her want to die!
"Stop stop stop! You're making the situation way more unbearable then it needs to be, but also: how the fuck do you know any of this?!" She held her right hand to her temple, as she lightly massaged and balanced her head.
"Other then the doctors having run a lot of tests on you… they also found estrofem pills in your coat. And so, they drew some conclusion from that." Not-mom interjected, calmly. "You don't need to worry. I didn't care when Natsuo came out as gay, so I definitely don't care about this either."
"…..Did those doctors steal my shit?"
"That's your biggest concern right now?" Not-Natsuo said with a raised brow.
"Hey! Those aren't easy to get by. Do you know how many pharmacy I had to break into to get that? Isn't really a thing most places have in stuck on the regular."
"You stole this?!"
Oh great, this is bound to turn into some self-serving sanctimonious drivel. "Yes, I stole it. Not many places hire people without proper documentation. And even if they did, do you really think they'd hire someone like me? Not only do I have pretty extensive scarring, I'm also a part of a highly under-employed demographic, so yes, I stole them." She had heard too many different takes and barely thought out arguments, based in peoples own limited life experience to care about proper decorum.
"Yeah, I guess." Not-Natsuo scratched his forehead in a clearly tired reaction. "But that still doesn't mean you couldn't have tried something else. What about shelters? They could've gotten what you needed."
"I don't know how shelters work in your world here, but in mine, they're either so strict about proper documentation, so they just end up sending over half the people who seek them out away. Or, they're run by such morally bankrupted people, who'd rather exercise what little power they have over the least fortunate, through the guise of helping them. Most of those places are just filled with the most self-righteous dickheads ever."
"But-"
"Not buts!" She raised the volume of her voice, putting a complete stillness in the room. Calming herself down with unsteady breathe through her teeth. "There is nothing that you can say to me that would make me believe that society actually wants to help the ones at the bottom."
An unease silence fell over the room, as no one really knew what to say. Dabi had already not been in a particular shareable mood, she'd simply being a bit too annoyed to keep her mouth shut. As for the rest of them? Maybe their reality was just sooooooooo much better, that they simply didn't have those problems she had, which felt doubtful. Eventually, it was Not-Fuyumi who broke the silence, in what Dabi could only describe as the most Fuyumi may to dispel the situation.
"Maybe we shouldn't all be huddled in front of Dabi like this? Didn't we want to take a trip down to cafeteria so we could talk a bit more comfortably?"
"Yes! That's right. Thank you for reminding me Shoto." Not-mom talking. "Can you… walk?"
"….YES! I can walk." She shook her head. Her voice had a bit too much of a sharpness to it that she didn't intend, so she needed a bit to compose herself. "But, you're really expecting me just come along?"
"I mean: do you have anything better to do?" Not-Natsu said pretty condescendingly.
"Maybe I don't need anything better to do, and I just want to sleep?"
"Come now. I'm sure it isn't as interesting to stay in this room."
"Making a lot of assumption about me right now." Not-Shoto gave her a pitiful look. Expectantly wanting her to come with them down. "I doubt the cafeteria at a hospital is particularly great, but sure, I'll bite." She got up off from where she was sitting, and step a few steps forward, gesturing for them to walk out. "Well, go along."
It took them a bit to actually go out of the room, but eventually they shuffled out into the hallway, as they stood waiting for her to follow. She sighed, as she followed after them, following along down to the cafeteria. Not-Natsu and Not-Fuyumi led the pack, with Not-mum not far behind, leaving her and Not-Shoto at the rear.
She was just going to ignore him, all of them, really, no reason to humor them more then necessary. But that runt just had to taking glances at her all the time. He might think himself clever, or just not think that she would notice, but she did! And it was really starting to annoy her. Especially considering how much more obvious he was getting at the whole staring thing. Why does ignoring people not work anymore? Toga was bad enough, she didn't need another brat where ignoring didn't work.
Before she could say or huff anything before Not-Shoto started speaking. "You're not that happy we're here, right?"
"Is it that obvious?" She said with a glib.
"Sorry about that. I didn't really think… well, it seemed like it might be a lot for you if we all came in a visited you like this. But it seems like it was way worse then what I thought."
She half-snickered to herself. "What? I looked worse then you expected? I must admit, I don't look that well, so it's understandable if that was your reaction."
He looked at her with complete befuddlement and confusion, that quickly morphed into something akin to panic. "What?! No, no no no no. I don't care about that. One of my friends has a lot of scars from the hero training his going through, so I would never consider something like your physical appearance important. It was much more that, I was scared that you found us uncomfortable being here."
"How so?"
"You find yourself in this other place, with people who look like your family, but might be completely different from what you know. And that just feels like something that would be overwhelming."
"Yeah?…." He wasn't entirely wrong in that, and if it had been her last year, it probably would have being close to how she would have reacted, but it wasn't like that anymore. She more then anything wanted to see Hawks again. She couldn't even begin to imagine what she was going through with her disappearance. They had both finally begun to accept their latent feelings for one another, and after so much effort, she had also being able to make her see that she didn't have to live in denial anymore.
That is what, more then anything, was concerning her. Her own sanity and well-being could go to hell, it was Hawks she wanted to be there for. And her being stuck in this reality… was just undue distress for her.
She breathed out. "A friend who is a hero in training, huh? Guess you're also training hard to achieve old pops ambition?"
"What do you mean?"
"The old man's ambition, you know." Not-Shoto just gave her a confused looked, as he tried to think of what she could be meaning. "The whole: 'I want you to surpass All Might' shtick….. The reason he had us? The reason he married a woman with an ice quirk, so he could produce an heir that wouldn't have his weakness, thereby being able to surpass All Might!!! Ringing any bells?!"
That made Not-Shoto freeze. Not just his facial expression, but he completely stopped moving as he just stared with a terrified look on his face, that morphed in and out of complete surprise and brief moments of what looked like anger. Completely lost in a stupor of disbelief, before every emotion eventually dissipated, transforming into something more akin to distressed compassion. "Is that wha….. Did he do that to you?"
She stopped in her own daze. Lost for words with how it had so clearly shaken Not-Shoto to this degree. She was used to people not listening to her, so seeing such a strong reaction from him, was something new entirely. "Yeah. He did….. To all of us."
Not-Shoto was at loss for words, as he stood staring dumbfounded. Normally, she would have a sense of self-satisfaction seeing this kind of reaction, but why was she then feeling so discontent? This was way more dissatisfying then she would have thought, even feeling bitter and distressing. She didn't like this. Way too many uncountable feelings to pressing at the outer parts of her brain. Trying desperately to claw her attention away.
She was too absorbed by all these external and internal pressures to notice that it was not only them who had stopped up. Ahead of them, she noticed in the corner of her eyes, the other three had stopped moving as well. She only glanced a slight glimpse of them, but she knew it was enough to understand what their expressions looked like, or well, enough that she didn't wanna look at it.
"You really don't need to react like that."
Not-Natsuo was the first to step forward. "Excuse me, but, how else do you want use to react?! Like fucking- Just." He dragged his hand through his hair exasperated. "Fuck. Are you alright? Like obviously not, but just- Fuck man!"
"It's just so distressing to find out that dad, of all people, would be capable of doing something like that." Not-Fuyumi took the lead and spoke. "He's always being the most caring and supportive that I've ever known. So it's just so…"
Not-mom had a stern expression on her face. One that spoke all too much that she was gonna break something. She broke her expression only as she walked forward, and dragged Dabi into a tight embrace. She froze up, as shiver went down her spine, with her body screaming a desperate plea of danger. Logically, this was probably what well-adjusted people did, but Dabi was not a well-adjusted people. She could barely even handle Hawks' touch without knowing it's coming. It's something that makes her feel a great amount of pain on her behalf, but this was completely different. Being embraced like this by her mom was something she had thought about before, but never thought possible. And now it was just happening.
But it wasn't right. Because this wasn't actually her mom.
She was held in place by the embrace for gods know how long. It didn't seem worth it to break the hug, as that would just saddened Not-mom more then she cared to do, and she didn't have the will to return the embrace either, as this was not the person she wanted to embrace her. For now, she just existed, for however long this would last. She felt Not-mom breath in, and breathing out, as. "It's not your fault."
For a moment she felt the world stand still. A weird feeling of trepidation and hope filled her mind. For a fleeting moment her mind was somewhere else, a place where she might've been better. Not that it last for long, as her heart felt stinging and sinking pain. Not-mom whipped away her tears. "Hah, look at you. You're so thin. Are you eating alright? What a stupid question, of course you aren't." She looked up at her, showing a painfully pained expression on her face. "You don't have to hold back like that." As she reached up to whip away something from her face, a splatter of blood smearing on sleeve.
It was first now she noticed herself straining her the muscles around her eyes, as blood slid down her cheeks. She wouldn't have even noticed if Not-mom hadn't pointed it out. "You need to get something to eat. Something proper, to eat." There wasn't much fight in her voice, as she just spoke as a way to break the silence. It wasn't an entirely bad feeling, being concerned for. Hawks did that a lot to her already. She just didn't really think if it was something she could take in right now.