Dominic's Dream World (Dusk)

"Ah, nice and quiet." Dominic said, floating in the vast nebula of his mindscape, which naturally took the form of a patch of land ravaged by a volcanic eruption. He had fallen asleep some time between injecting several pounds of burger meat and waiting for his classmates. He knew he was stronger than them, but for them to take this long to get through something his younger sisters and brother could easily do? He needed some time to just... be. No light, no dark, just him.

"Help me..." a child's voice pleaded weakly.

Opening his eye, the blonde looked around to find the source of the voice. He was used to hearing voices in his head, but never like this. He landed on the barren ground and walked through his dream to find the source. As the owner of this Dream World, he was able to do anything he wanted as long as he was aware he was dreaming. This let him instantly travel to any part of his mindscape he wanted to.

Pompeii, Beacon, Skylands, Atlas, the Ever-After, and every other chapter of the story that shaped his life.

After what felt like eons of searching, he finally found where the voice was coming from. It was a ruined house in what looked like Musutafu. The building was crumbling apart, and even the ground was bereft of life. In the center of it all was a boy with sky blue hair, crying into his hands. Around him were piles of flesh and bone, appearing to have died only moments before Dominic arrived.

"Hey there." the blonde said, waving a hand. The boy took notice of him and recoiled, jumping back in fear. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to know why you're crying."

"I... I killed them all." the boy said, trying to look away from the flesh piles. "My Quirk came in, and I just... They all fell apart."

"Trust me, I know the feeling." Dominic said, thinking back to the event that made him what he was. Then, something rang in his head. Not a thought, but a feeling. "They were mistreating you, weren't they." The blue-haired boy looked up at him. "They hurt you, and the ones that didn't ran away when you needed help."

"I didn't want to hurt them." the boy said.

"But you had to." Dominic said, sitting down next to the child. "If you didn't, you'd just be in more pain. This was the only way."

"But they were my family!" the boy exclaimed.

"Were they, really?" Dominic asked. He could see bruises on the child's arms. "If they did this to you, they couldn't be further from family."

"..." The boy remained silent, thinking.

"Do you have a name?" Dominic asked, hoping to find this kid in the real world.

"..Shimura Tenko." the boy said, indecisive.

"Your REAL name." Dominic clarified. He could tell that the kid was lying to him, regardless of if he meant to or not.

"...My name is Shigaraki Tomura." the boy said, calmed by the words that came out of his mouth. "I'm Shigaraki Tomura."

Camp Building (Night)

When Dominic awoke, everyone had made it through the Beast Forest. Either by dumb luck or by the universe favoring him, he had woken up just as dinnertime rolled around.

"Wow, you're really going to town on that. More so than usual." Jiro said, watching the blonde scarf down several tons of pasta and garlic bread.

"Let's just say that I had a bad dream." Dominic explained, grabbing a syringe from his pocket and injecting spaghetti sauce directly into his heart. "This is the easiest way for me to detox." Learning about Shigaraki was something that required 17 Thanksgivings worth of Italian food.

"Uh, sure." Mineta said, unnerved.

"Can someone pass the pizza?" Dominic asked, removing the syringe and refilling it with pepperoni dust. This detox session was going to take a while.

"Does this have anything to do with your Quirk?" Jiro asked. He once told her that his body required a lot of energy in order for him to execute attacks.

"You could say that." the blonde said, stabbing the syringe into the side of his head. "When I get stressed, my internal flame swells up and pushes against my body, if that makes sense. If I build up too much stress, I explode."

"You mean, you get mad?" Midoriya asked, scared of the answer.

"No, I literally blow up." Dominic clarified. "It's the only way my body knows to relieve the excess energy, other than attacking, that is. Doing stuff like this calms me down, so it's a crucial part of keeping my powers in check."

"That sounds incredibly difficult." Yaoyorozu said, impressed by her classmate's self-control. "You really have to repress yourself like that?"

"Yes and no." the blonde said. "Like I said, attacking can release some of the energy as well. And since combat is something I like, fighting is the best way for me to keep my cool." With some exceptions... "And it's not like it's a real problem. It takes a lot of stress to push me to my breaking point."

Memories of being stabbed, crushed, blasted, and ripped out of existence rose from his mind.

'I'm fine. I'm fine.' he told himself, unaware of how close he was to his limit.

AN: Dominic's explanation for his 'explosions' was a half-lie. It isn't his internal flame that pushes on his body.