What if Dabi was All For One's successor (my fanfiction guide)
Hey! Do you what ifs? Me too! Do you like fanfiction? Same! Do you like making alternate universes? Who doesn't!?
In its 10 plus year history, My Hero Academia has quite the repertoire of fanfics and what ifs. The most popular ones would be giving Deku a quirk, literally any quirk or superpower you can imagine. Stories like shipping him with any of the femal cast, male cast too, and the ever popular Villains what ifs or ships. But there's one what if I don't see a lot of people talk about, and that is what if Dabi was All For One's successor instead of Tomura. Now just to be clear, this is more or less a guide for how i would write it. I'm fully aware there are people who wrote fanfics based on other people's stuff, and if this post somehow inspires you to write it that's awesome. If you like certain parts and want to keep them but change others, then by all means.
Just credit the OP from time to time when you get famous lol.
So what's the story?
This begins right around when Dabi wakes up from his coma and finds himself in one of All For One's orphanages. For those of you not in the know-how, All For One had planned years in advance to find someone who could be not only his successor but (spoilers) a new body for his vestige. The dude planned smart, so smart he specifically looked for those who had true hatred in their hearts and unstoppable rage. Not only that but someone compatible with his quirk, he couldn't just hop from body to body, as All Might once explained when he was training Deku if he gave One For All to him pre-workout his arms would explode and he'd die. Same situation here.
In the main timeline young Touya Todoroki burned down the orphanage and struck out in his own, finding out that his family believed he was dead and subsequently moved on without him. Here, its still the same situation where he finds out his family has mourned him and moved on, but he doesn't kill everyone in the orphanage. Here, All For One finds a sort of kinship with the young Todoroki. While in his case it was his brother, he too had family who he viewed betrayed him and discarded him. And as Touya comes to stay with the other kids there, they start to look up to him, viewing him as a big brother.
I love the found family trope. If I wrote this, I'd focus on this. Touya's blood family neglected, ignored and all but forgot about him in his eyes. Here, the orphanage kids who had similar stories to his are welcoming him with open arms. He even gets a new father figure in All For One, who praises him and offers fatherly guidance and listens to him. We coukd see the orphanage kids become the founding members of the League of Villains, similar about how Tomura would later galvanized the Paranormal Liberation Front. What about Tomura? We'll say in this version Tomura just didn't work out for one reason or another, and ultimately Touya is given the name Dabi Shigaraki by All For One, if you even want to go so far as to do something darker like turning Tomura into a Nomu that would probably be in All For One's MO. Just think about: you turned the grandson of your most hated enemy's mentor into a mindless super soldier zombie just to mess with him.
That's pretty messed up.
On that same note, maybe for fun, the newly appointed Dabi Shigi could have Decay as a secondary quirk. Maybe it fuses with the flames must like the stockpiling ability merging with Yoichi's original quirk to pass on other quirks. He could have a combo of long range flames and decaying touch, not only decaying but burning up so hot their reduced to ash. Hence Dabi's name meaning: cremation.
As for the story, it wouldn't be all too different than Tomura's, learning from his father figure and the mistakes he makes along the way. But he would be more protective of his "siblings", the league members who came from the same orphanage and who call him "big brother", because to them he is their brother. He views all league members as his family, so if one of them were to die, his personality would change. Using the death of Big Sis Mag, Dabi would be furious, enraged by grief of not only losing a member of his team but someone who he views as family. If it was still Overhaul who did it, may whatever god is watching have mercy in the poor fool who spills a drop of blood from Dabi's family.
Eventually the time would come for Dabi to receive the original All For One quirk, just like how Tomura did. I see him as a powerhouse with this upgrade. Not only would he be devastatingly powerful with the burning decay, the stealing of superpowers, but he has an eidetic member, able to copy moves with ease and can use some of All For One's most devastating combos. While he does still need to steal One For All, I can see him going after Endeavor and the other Todoroki family more as a form of revenge. Not only that but with Super Regeneration, he can go all out without burning up, all though Regeneration takes longer to heal cauterized cells it still works well. I have no doubt that Dabi's vestige and All For One's would merge to become something new and devastating, engulfing the world in blue hellfire if he could.
But what do you think?
I've purposefully left out who One For All's successor would be because i want to leave it up for interpretation. Like I said if you like this story and want to give it a shot, I've left it open enough so that you could fill it with your interpretation. Also if there's is a fanfiction about Dabi being All For One's successor, I'd love to read it so send it my way if you can find one.
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading your one of the real ones!
Go beyond! Plus ultra!