Chapter Two: The First Ghost.

As Enji made his way to his wife's room he could not help but feel that strange sensation again. He ignored it and continued on. As he placed his hand on the door he felt a sense of nervousness run through him. Ever since All Might's weakness had been exposed to him, Enji had looked back at all he had done. All the things he had sacrificed for the sake of strength. For the sake of knocking that smiling buffoon off of his perch. He had sacrificed what other men would have given anything for. A wife, children, wealth, and fame.
But all of that meant nothing when he looked at All Might. He saw the prestige, the power, and he wanted it all. And he had been willing to sacrifice anything to get it. And he did but the position he had longed for, that which it demanded of him, made him look at his past and question everything he had once believed was necessary.
He opened the door slowly and entered into the room. He had visited once before, to offer flowers to her once again, and just as before she couldn't seem to bring herself to face him.

"Rei," said Enji. "I...I brought you these."

He held up the flowers to where they could be seen in the reflection of the window. Whether or not she recognized them she gave no sign. Enji none the less placed the flowers in a vase by the foot of her bed. He then looked up, catching his own reflection. He still could not get used to the scar. It was as if fate had given him a way to almost resemble his youngest son Shouto, who too bore a scar on his left side.
A scar Rei had given him, because of how his left side bore fire like Enji's whole self did. The very reason why she had been placed in the hospital in the first place.

"Rei...I'd like you to come home for the holiday," said Enji. "Shouto will have time off and I...I know it would do both him and Fuyumi good to see you. I'm sure even Natsuo can find time to come if you would like it."

Rei seemed to respond to that and turned to face her husband. Enji didn't know what to make of this and remained silent.

"That's so sweet," said Rei, giving a wide grin worthy of the Chesire Cat.

"What the..."

A large and powerful explosion from the outside shook the building and cracked the glass of the window Rei had at her back. Enji soon recovered and leaped up, moving behind Rei, who had begun chuckling like a madwoman. He looked out of the cracked glass and saw the burning remains of the bridge to the mainland.
He then turned to Rei whose form began to melt away, revealing a young blonde woman. Growling furiously Enji summoned his flames and attempted to strike at the woman before she vanished in a dark portal.

"Damn it," he roared, hellfire covering his body.

All throughout the hospital staff and patients were being taken by black portals and forcibly taken to an older sanitarium built on the island before the modern hospital.
More violent patients of the psych ward were released while the doctors and patients were put into the former cells of the lunatics. Rei had been rendered unconscious by Toga and was placed in a cylindrical tube filled with a special solution meant to keep her in a state of suspended animation.
Dabi looked at the sleeping woman beneath the glass and pressed his hand over her face.

"Nice work Toga," he said, his attention still on Rei.

He then turned over to the blonde villain and their compatriot Twice.

"Nice work," said Twice, repeating Dabi. "Could have been better."

"Everything's going according to plan," said Dabi. "He's been given the toxin right?"

"Of course," said Toga.

"Good," said Dabi. "I wonder...how he'll deal with madness."

Enji had brought along his hero costume out of force of habit and changed quickly. Now as the new No. 1 Hero he set out among the grounds of the hospital. He tried to get a distress call out to the mainland but got no signal from his phone. And his personal radio was being jammed.

'Was this all a trap for me?' thought Endeavor.

He didn't have long to wonder as he re-entered the building and was set upon by lunatics. He unleashed a wave of fire to allow distance and took the allowed time to begin hand to hand combat with the madmen.
His years of experience had given him a great degree of skill in hand to hand combat. As well as an impressive degree of strength. Strength, the thing he sought for so long, wanting to be stronger than All Might.
His mind began to get foggy again as he re-entered the building. He had to search for some clue of the villain's plan and to find Rei. There was still something he needed to do with her.
Walking through the hospital Endeavor heard the sounds of gunfire and of guards shouting commands. The Flame Hero ran in the direction of the sounds, hoping that if he could coordinate with the guards he could at least get a hold of the situation.
He ran through the halls, the flickering lights giving it the foreboding feel of a horror film, but the Flame Hero pressed on undeterred. But despite his speed he arrived to where the sounds originated and only found the corpses of several guards.

"Damn," he cursed. "I'm too late."

After a brief moment of silence in respect to the sacrifices of the men, Endeavor moved on. The least he could do was ensure that justice was served for the deaths of these brave men. He carried on though the hall, coming to a door to the next hallway. As soon as Endeavor placed his hand on the door he felt himself lose balance for a brief moment.
He retained his composure and walked through the door. On the other side he saw the hallway a veritable winter wasteland. Bodies of guards and patients frozen in ice and snow.

"What is this?" asked Endeavor.

The Flame Hero continued onward, his flames bellowing around his fists.

"Enji," a woman's voiced whispered in the sudden winter breeze that came through the hall.

"Rei?" asked Endeavor.

He continued onward, the hall splitting into three parts. He turned left, if only to get away from the breeze, shielding his eyes from the snow. When he believed he was away from the sudden breeze he looked up. To his shock he saw his estranged wife Rei, hovering above the ground in a billowing white gown, an ethereal glow around her body. She seemed to project much of the winter breeze that was striking him, fitting given her power.
But this was not Rei, that much he could tell, especially given how she appeared to defy gravity, her naked toes a whole foot off the ground. But this wasn't the imposter either.

"What is this?" Endeavor growled. "Some kind of trick?"

"You dismiss me?" asked 'Rei'. "Should I be surprised by your cruelty?"

"You are not real," said Endeavor. "I must have been drugged somehow. This could have all been set up before I even got here."

"Then what am I then?" asked 'Rei'.

"You are a hallucination," said Endeavor. "A fake."

"But my pain is real," said 'Rei' tears falling from her eyes and freezing to her face. "Do you not remember what you did?"

The arctic like breeze came through the hall once again. Endeavor covered his face and used his flames to counter the frozen wind. When he lowered his arms he saw several frozen statues depicting events in his life. Specifically his training of Shoto. One particularly stood out to him, the image of himself standing angrily over a huddled and injured Shoto with Rei covering her youngest son.
Endeavor looked at his frozen self and felt his anger rise up inside him.

"Anger," said 'Rei'. "That was all there ever was in our house. Or rather your house, were it not for my children, it would be my prison."

"I...I only wanted him to be strong," said Endeavor.

"Yes, strength," said 'Rei'. "But for what? Just to say something of yours is better than All Might? Was it worth it?"

Endeavor looked at the various images, including seeing one depicting the scene in which Rei poured boiling water over Shouto's face. The day she had finally snapped under the pressure of living with him as a husband.
Endeavor felt his own scar ache over the left side of his face upon seeing the image. When Shouto saw it he had actually made something of a clever remark, noting how now his father bore a scar of his own. They practically matched each other now.

"And what of our other children?" asked 'Rei'.

Images of Fuyumi and Natsuo appeared. But when an image of Touya appeared Endeavor finally furiously blew out with his flames.

"I know what I've done," yelled Endeavor. "I do not need some drug induced hallucination to remind me. My past is what has forged my present but I will face it. I acknowledge what I did...what I did was wrong."

The Flame Hero looked down, gritting his teeth, recalling how his revelation had begun. Seeing All Might's true form, finding out he had been crippled and weakening for so long and fooling him none the less, had filled him with no small amount of fury. All Might had been working on borrowed time before his power fully gave way. He would have simply become weaker and all his work, all he had done in his ambition would be for naught.
Even if it were not for that villain All For One by the time Shouto had been ready All Might would probably have retired already, having used up the last of his power before Endeavor's youngest son could even have the chance to show his strength.
All the pain, all the suffering he had put his son, his wife, his family, and himself through would have been made meaningless. And that meaninglessness left him feeling nothing but emptiness. It was then he looked at what he had done and realized how wrong he had been.

"I...know what I did was wrong," Endeavor whispered, slumping to his knees.

He stumbled further downward catching himself before he fell completely over. When he steadied himself again he saw that the frozen hell he had been was gone, replaced with the regular hospital setting.
As he tried to make sense of what had happened howls of wild men echoed through the halls. He had heard some of the more violent patients had been those who held animal-like Quirks and had effectively lost their grip on their humanity one way or another. Losing themselves in the animal nature of their Quirks.

"Damn it," cursed Endeavor, rising to his feet. "This is going to be a long night."

Author's Note: Christmas may have passed but the point of A Christmas Carol is to hold the lessons of Christmas all year round. So even though the season has ended I shall continue to work on this story.