Originally Posted by
Inversed
I wouldn't be surprised if Dabi doesn't actually show up until Shigaraki's "rebirth", just because based on what we know regarding the Villains' plans, they don't really have a reason to go out and make a scene currently. I also don't know what's more likely, a flashback that directly leads into the Dabi reveal, or the reveal immediately followed by the flashbacks.
I really hope we get to hear Dabi repeating something similar to what Shigaraki's dad said, "Heroes are people who hurt their own families, only to help complete strangers", because this is exactly something that he would feel, and would connect him back to Shigaraki, where even though they don't talk much with each other, they do have very similar backgrounds.
I do think, especially with everything we've got of his work recently, there needs to be some "cost" he has to face for it to be most effective. I feel it will be a bit disappointing if he ends up being able to dispatch Ending with no real struggle. Either he hesitates and is unable to find an opening, leading to the kids stepping in to beat him, he actually does kill him, resulting in everyone else being conflicted, or he ends up defeating Ending in a well-intentioned manner, but still making a mistake, like say inadvertently injuring Natsuo, or like you mentioned, goes too far with a beatdown. If I had to predict, I'd say the former is most likely, just because they've been doing everything they can to make him redeemable, so they may want to avoid any other questionable decisions to not muddy the waters as much, whereas the kids stepping in helps keeps his hands clean of trouble, and pays off the "beat a villain faster than me" thread that's been in these past few chapters.