The year passed by in the blink of an eye. She laid her head on the table as she dreamed about fireworks, dancing, and tensoba. Imagined the steam coming off from the piping hot broth, the soft crunch of the fried tempura...

"Gross. You're drooling."

Tenko shoved her off the table. She glared. The nostalgia was almost enough to chase away the cold, and she found herself half-hoping the food would manifest on the table if she wished hard enough.

"Why do you look constipated."

Before she could shoot back a retort, a pinging sound shattered the fantasy. She glanced over at a familiar blue screen.

𝙽𝚎𝚠 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚛!

𝙽𝚊𝚖𝚎: 𝚃𝚘𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚘𝚔𝚒 𝚃𝚘𝚢𝚊 (𝙳𝚊𝚋𝚒)

𝙰𝚐𝚎: 7

𝚀𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚔: 𝙲𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

𝚄𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠

It took a moment for the words to register. Once they did, she shot to her feet, running outside. It was freezing, but the cold didn't bother her anymore. She scanned the forest for Dabi. From what she remembered of his character, he was an energetic child — if not moody — who craved his father's acknowledgement. His father, the No. 2 Pro-Hero Endeavor. It was a lot to live up to. As Endeavor kept rejecting him, he grew mad and ultimately became a villain hell-bent on revenge against his father. He became Dabi, a sociopathic terrorist. She wanted nothing to do with him, but why was—

Oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

As if on cue, a boy ran through the trees. He had pale skin, hair white as snow, and electric blue eyes. Those eyes locked onto hers, trapping her in place. Her body stiffened under his gaze. Those eyes were unmistakably Dabi's. Even as a child, they burned with ambition, clear with intent; he would be strong. She suppressed a shiver and stepped forward, smiling.

"Hello," she greeted, nodding politely. "Can I help you?"

Dabi — no, Toya, stiffened at her words. "Who are you? What are you doing here? This is the Todoroki's training reserve. You know what that means, right? You're trespassing!"

She bit back a sigh. It was her fault, really, she should have known better. This house was occupied, the whole area was owned by the Todoroki family; they were standing on Sekoto Peak. The Todoroki name carried great weight in society, and not just because of Endeavor. They had money and influence. It only dawned on her then, whose house they crashed. She felt like a real idiot. There was never any mention of a training reserve in the manga, but it made sense. If you were training your quirk, you didn't want any interruptions.

It also explained why it was so unkept when they found it. Endeavor must have been waiting until his wife gave birth to the perfect child, which was supposed to be Toya, but...

She eyed the burn peeking out from his shirt collar.

As she stared, Toya dropped into a fighting stance. She blinked, then laughed. It was sorta cute, how serious he was. This place must've been special to him.

𝚄𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚏 𝚃𝚘𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚘𝚔𝚒 𝚃𝚘𝚢𝚊 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚍.

... Huh?

"Answer me! What's your name?"

His shout drew her attention back towards him. They were three simple words, but his voice was flush with arrogance. A charming quality he unfortunately inherited from his father.

"Ichika Endo," she answered, the words fumbling past her lips. She gestured behind her to Tenko, who shrank from the attention. He came out a while ago to meet their guest. "This is my brother, Tenko. We were just having tea. Would you like some?"

The offering was more mocking than kind, making Toya scowl. "This is my house!"

"I thought it belonged to your family."

He gritted his teeth. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to? I'm going to be the next number one hero! I'll be even better than All-Might!"

"Cool."

His glare intensified.

She stared back coolly.

Tenko tried to make himself invisible in the doorway.

Minutes ticked by.

Toya broke the silence first, gritting out, "I'll forgive you, but you need to leave. If you're a fan or journalist or whatever, our house is five miles that way." He pointed to the trees behind him. "But dad's in a bad mood. I would leave if I were you."

She frowned. "I can't do that. The tea will go to waste."

"I don't care!"

She shook her head. Technically, he was right. They were trespassing. They also had nowhere else to go. There was no way she and Tenko hadn't made the news. Their faces were known to the public and All For One was likely searching for Tenko right now. Plus, Tenko wasn't mentally prepared to be surrounded by people. He was still adjusting to her; there were times he'd flinch after making a mistake or when she was in a bad mood. Forget a whole city full of people.

Truthfully, she emphasized with Toya. In her past life, she did lots of stupid things to get her parents to come visit her, until they stopped coming altogether. She remembered watching the other patients laugh with their families, how they cried when those inmates took their last few breaths. Envy was an ugly, familiar feeling.

Which was how she knew exactly what to do next.

"Tell you what," she said, a smirk curving her lips. "Let's fight. If I win, my brother and I get to stay as long as we like. If you win, we'll leave and never come back."

He perked up. "You promise?"

She nodded. "I give my word. And you, I'm sure, won't tattle on me to your family if I win?"

"Yeah." He wore a broad grin as he raised his hands, activating his flames. They burned a beautiful, hellish blue, illuminating his face. "Prepare yourself!"

She won, of course. His flames were no match for her voice. During her time training, she learned to compress sound in single shots. Because of that, she hadn't only destroyed the trees in the area, but she could fight without worrying about Tenko getting caught in the crossfire.

Sound was a destructive force, often underestimated. It could detect and float objects, create electricity, be used in medicine, and even extinguish fire. The oscillation of sound created a vacuum separating air molecules from the sounds of the flame, thus putting out the fire. In short, by starving the fire of oxygen, she snuffed out the flames.

In this way, her quirk was a near-perfect match-up against Toya, who didn't have full control over his flames yet. She never ceased singing, clapping and stomping to a constant rhythm. The fight was over quickly, but it left her voice hoarse. She could barely speak, gasping for breath as she collapsed on the wet grass. Music had never been so exhausting before.

Toya fell across from her, equally exhausted. His eyes bulged out in shock... and anger. Steam rose from his burnt skin, smelling of charcoal. The air rippled with heat, warming her brow across the field. She eyed him warily, shifting.

Would he take advantage of her exhaustion? It seemed like something he would do.

To her surprise, when he spoke, his voice was almost a whisper. "What quirk is that?"

"It's called Bard, I use sound waves as weapons." A combination of confusion, anger, and curiosity crossed his face, before settling on curiosity. At his prompting look, she continued, "It's almost like fire, I can make small bursts of sound or giant, explosive attacks. Truth be told, I've been having trouble controlling it."

She almost asked if he was hurt, but bit her tongue. That would just rile him up again.

His face scrunched up angrily, but after a moment, he said, "I won't tell anyone you're here. And... you can stay."

She smiled. "So, how about that tea?"

The only response she got was a scowl. He climbed to his feet, stalking away. She shrugged, turning to Tenko, who stared at her with an expression of awe. Relief washed over her. They were safe, even if it was just for a little while longer. Until Shoto was brought here. She had until then to come up with a plan.

She poured tea for the two of them, her tensoba dreams far from thought. Tenko rambled on about their fight and how cool they looked, and how cool that boy was, and that they were so powerful and amazing and at some point, she tuned him out.

Tenko's persistent chatter buzzed in the background, a familiar comfort. The earthy smell of chamomile and wintry pine wafted in the room. She breathed deeply, looking out the window at the sparkle of snow. Chuckled at the circle of grass where Toya's flames melted away the snow.

A smile crossed her face. If this was a dream, she didn't mind if she never woke up.

Alas, dreams never last.