A/N: thanks for all the favorites and follows. It is most appreciated. I hope you will all review, too. I love getting reviews and hearing from other people about what needs work and what's good. I hope you all love what's happening so far. Today, we will see the Todofam's perspective about Touya and what they did, and of course, Dabi having some more dreams/flashbacks to how he died before he got to that world. We'll see more of his past as the series progresses. There will be some interesting twists and turns, as expected. And of course, what you're all waiting for and looking forward to. Dabi becoming a badass and setting fucking fires like he's supposed to. I told you, he will be a badass and it's at the end of the next chapter. Decided to push it to the next chapter as I have some more important things to establish.

Also, what the fuck is Horikoshi doing, making him have ice powers when he was supposed to hate Shouto? What the fuck, Horikoshi? Are you even thinking when writing now or is it just random? I'm now just barely following canon, with regard to his abilities. But I'm disregarding every development after chapter 290, as I believe Dabi/Touya deserved way better than what he got. He not only destroyed the tragedy that is "Dabi", he also made it so his hatred of Shouto is fucking stupid as they're the same. WTF. I don't like the ice powers at all, so they'll only be his capacity and shit. It's not gonna be a thing.

That garbage isn't happening here. He has fire powers and fire powers only. The only resurrecting is via Satella. And that won't be happening for a long time.

You will all get to meet the mystery, the main character, and get to learn more about him. Much more work has been done on development of Aiden since I wrote the original work. Anyway, mostly adhering to canon BUT staying away from the bullshit that's been pulled with Touya. Besides the obvious "he's a villain" thing, the biggest challenge is making him as bad as canon, lmao. I'll try my best and be original, so I hope you'll all like what comes.

Anyway, this chapter should be out around the end of April/beginning of May. A lot of stuff has been happening in real life, but no worries. I should have this chapter out before you know it.

chapter 3: ignition

Fire was one of the most powerful elements in nature, unpredictable and uncontrollable. For centuries, it terrified mankind and left them fleeing wherever it would appear, leaving disasters and death in its wake. Perhaps it was the way that fire burned up everything in its sight, how it left houses blackened and charred, and destroyed the environs when it happened. Perhaps the fear of it had to do with the high death toll that happened every time a wildfire began and ended, because of how fast the flames moved when the wind picked up, because fire moved so much faster than the average human could move.

There was a reason it was considered one of the original elements. Fire was both feared and respected.

Maybe it was the sight of a human after they were caught in a fire, how charred and scorched they were, how barely anything remained of them besides a blackened, charred mess. Maybe it had to do with how much fires could erase all evidence of a house existing, having been there at one point. Now nothing was there but memories, a scorched heap of rubble and ash where a once beautiful house stood. Fire was by far the most effective element in nature at wiping out everything and everyone, bar none but the tsunami. Maybe it was because basically nothing manmade could stand in the way of a fire-clothing, furniture, technology, fabric, beds, all of it turned to ash when faced with the fierce power of flames.

The only thing humans could do in the eruption of Pompeii was flee the devastation that was thrown upon them, with no hope of fighting back. Fires, blazes, whatever they were called, all shared one thing in common: the propensity for untold destruction, chaos, and death. Fire was as natural to the Earth as the water that surrounded the continents, the earth that humans placed their feet on, and the air that they breathed. It was part of a cycle.

Fires were the closest thing to an immortal deity humankind has ever had to deal with.

Even in the age of quirks, fires still remained difficult to quench and deal with, due to their volatile nature and the different types. Having water quirks made a big difference, of course, but there was only so much you could do against a fast-moving blaze that tended to start due to a freak accident. Some asshole caused a grease fire that burned down half a block once, because they left the oven on when they went to sleep. The only thing found of the man the next morning was a pile of ashes.

There were less fatalities now than in the Pre-Quirk era, thanks to the prevalence of water-based quirks. Firefighters were still needed and highly valued, of course, but they usually weren't called in as much as they would have been in our era. Humanity was finally close to conquering the elements that mastered them.

They would be cruelly reminded of how little control they had over fire soon enough, when a tragic accident would result in the deaths of many in a local business.

Fire again reigned supreme and showed puny little humans how little control they could ever hope to have over it.

That was why, even if someone had a fire quirk, there would never be such a thing as total control over the flames. Fire was just too strong, too powerful to be contained. Fire obeyed no master, not even Enji Todoroki. Fire obeyed no rules, no laws, no nothing. It did as it pleased, and was entirely free.

The Todoroki family had never been the same since Todoroki Touya had disappeared.

Rather, a large scar had formed in all of their hearts.

It was like a giant cloud that settled over a mountain and kept itself there, there was always a reminder somewhere of Touya's existence.

At least, that was how it appeared to be to Rei Todoroki.

Of course, a mother would naturally have felt the way she did at losing a child, but this was her firstborn child, her eldest.

The very first one she'd given birth to, the first bond she had ever had with her child...and now it had broken into pieces.

Because he was...dead.

Her firstborn son, gone...the fact was one she had to live with every day. The first one she had ever had, was now gone. His room remained empty, still filled with the same belongings he'd always treasured, the same bed he'd always slept in...all of it remained as untouched as it had been since the day he died. Rei had prevented Enji from going into the room to take out any of his belongings, stating that she believed he would come back someday, so leave it untouched.

Enji still was strongly against keeping that room, since in his eyes, it could be used for some other purpose besides honoring a dead child. In his view, he saw dead children as being wholly unnecessary in the world of the living. Who needed to remember the dead when the living could be of more use to him? That was how Enji Todoroki saw the world, purely concerned with what was here now and what could be of use to him.

Rei had protected her son's room the same way she'd always tried to protect him from anything and everything. If Enji tried to erase all that remained of Touya, she would do what she could to preserve it and keep his memory intact and undefiled. He'd set up an altar in memory of him already, and insisted that that was enough to remember him by, so she should just "take down" his other things already. He didn't seem to understand exactly why she wanted to keep his things around, and had insisted that since he was dead, that his possessions shouldn't be kept.

Enji only placed value on other people if they were useful to him or not, because power was all that mattered to him. There was little to no room in his heart for "weak" things like feelings or emotions or sentiments for others, unless they were strong, because becoming strong enough to surpass All Might was all that he saw in his heart. The line between him and All Might was the only thing he saw these days, she thought. He no longer looked at her or at the other children like he was seeing them, but rather like he was appraising a product that should be bought and sold to the public.

He had assessed Natsuo and Fuyumi and summarily dismissed them as useless since they had only ice quirks and couldn't even control theirs, seeing only a need to train his perfect son, Shouto. Touya had been deemed a failure since he had his mother's capacity for ice, but couldn't even manifest it openly and seemed to only be capable of burning himself over and over. Endeavor had tried for a time to make Touya into his perfect tool, but it had failed since he had gotten sick of Touya's screams and him being too "weak" to control himself.

Rei had been heartbroken at seeing her son turn from a happy and optimistic young boy into an embittered teenager who hated his father. He had almost become a total stranger to her, saving his smiles only for his siblings. The times when she could even look at him had become almost impossible, too, since the older Touya became...the more he resembled Enji.

She had become terrified of Enji and set that fear in her heart, much to her shame. Her son did look different from Enji in some ways, after all his hair wasn't completely red, and in some places, had white hair. However, he bore enough of a resemblance to her husband that when she did look at him, all she saw was Enji and she couldn't even respond to him without becoming terrified or violent.

Sooner or later, her son started retreating from her gaze, and only spoke to her when he was sure she was completely rational. She hated seeing the fear in his eyes. A boy afraid of his own father, and now, afraid of his own mother.

It was a shameful combination, and Rei blamed herself for things turning out the way they did.

If only she had been able to look Touya in the eyes like a proper mother could, if only she had overcome her fears of Enji...maybe she wouldn't have lost her son. This was all her fault.

All of this was her fault, she just knew it, and Enji told her as much.

There was no fatherly concern for his son, mainly he was angrier about the loss of his firepower and the use of his quirk, rather than her son himself.

The way he had given up on his son so easily, it had made Rei so angry that when they had gotten home, she had gotten into a violent row with him. It ended with him hitting her and her hiding, while her children cowered. Only Natsuo dared to stand up to Enji's wrath now, and as such, he'd gotten smacked by Enji in the face. Rei had consoled her children and healed Natsuo with her ice quirk.

Natsuo had cursed his father out, blaming him for everything.

She saw her husband's rage in Natsuo now, and it made her scared of how much she kept seeing him in all of them, except Fuyumi.

Fuyumi alone seemed to have escaped her father's negative traits-his anger, his controlling nature, none of that was apparent in her.

She was grateful for that much at least.

And Shouto...he looked like his father...so...she was trying to stay away from him.

She knew she was a bad mother.

She just was.

If she was a good mother, Touya wouldn't have become comatose and wouldn't have died in hospital.

If she was a good mother, she wouldn't have become afraid of her own children.

None of this should have happened at all.

It was all her fault.

Hence why she isolated herself from her children and only spoke to them when she was sure Enji wasn't around.

Except for now, when-

"Mommy?"

She turned and saw only Enji, and lost it.

"ENJI!" She cried, and hurled a boiling tea kettle of water at Enji.

It was only once she heard his screaming that she realized it was Shouto.

She had scalded her Shouto, her youngest.

All her fault.

It was truly all her fault.

She stood there for a moment, and then immediately started bawling and using her ice quirk to try to fix him.

"Mom, what the hell?" Natsuo shrieked.

"Mom?" Fuyumi asked.

They stared at their mother in fear as an enraged Endeavor appeared.

"What have you done to him, woman? You've ruined everything."

"Mom!"

She was taken to the hospital.

No.

She couldn't be taken away from them.

Not now.

They were still small, helpless children.

They couldn't survive under Enji.

She watched Enji leave and collapsed onto the bed in sobs.

Her life as she had once known it was now over.

And the only person she had to blame for it was herself.

Touya was dead, Shouto was now scarred, and now probably all of her children feared her and hated her.

Enji was right. She really was worthless.

Little did she know that her son actually was alive and out there at the time, and would only realize it by the time he had taken a dark path he could not turn back from.

He was in the darkness again.

She was there, he knew.

But there was another figure there besides the red-haired boy he had seen before.

It was a young man with his face hidden to him, with only his blue eyes visible.

His eyes looked so much like his own, that he almost assumed they were the same person.

"Hi, there. Seems like you've had a rough time of it, huh...Dabi? Is that what you go by now?" The dark-haired young man laughed, before sitting down next to him.

"Go away. Leave me alone." He muttered, wanting nothing to do with this stranger.

"Oh, come now. I'm no stranger. You know me really well, you know you do. You just don't remember, is that it?" He laughed again, as though he pitied him.

"Who the fuck are you? Why are you here?" He demanded.

"Ooh, scary face. Nice. You even got the quirk and everything, then. Wow, you never used to be this...assertive. It's actually...a relief, really." The young man's shoulders slumped as he held up his hands in an "I surrender" gesture.

"Who are you?" He repeated.

"Isn't it obvious who I am?" The young man said nervously. "I'm what you've forgotten."

"I would remember a face like yours, and I do not remember you. Now get out of here before I burn you." He said in annoyance, just wanting to be left alone.

"Sadly, I can't do that. I'm here, right alongside you as always. We've always been together, Dabi. You just don't remember. I'm part of you."

"You're...my memories?"

"Ding ding ding, he's smarter than he looks, but that's obvious! Unfortunately, you aren't ready to remember all of me just yet. That will take some time. But it's important enough that you understand the gist of things."

"You don't look like me at all." He muttered.

The boy laughed. "Of course not. But you wouldn't know that yet, since you only just got here, no? Everything is new to you."

"...Only just got here?" He asked, looking confused.

"So maybe I'll have to show you around a little bit. Show you what you need to know and remember. Everything will come with time. Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you. In fact, it's the opposite. I'm here to help you." He extended his arm out to him.

"Help me...with what?" He asked.

"Help you with...well, lots of things. I can't really say them yet. But I think you at least need to know more about yourself." He said, his gaze shifting to the ground before looking back up at him again.

"I know enough already. Now leave."

"I can't leave. I'm stuck here with you. Wherever you go, I go." He let out a dramatic sigh and slid to the ground beside him. "You'll know who I am soon enough, buddy. Just know that I'm rooting for you."

"...No one does." He muttered.

"Wow, you sure got depressed. Oh, wait, that was always a thing, I think! Yeah, totally was." He said, as though the young man had solved the secrets of the universe.

"Go away, already."

"I have a name, you know!" He said cheerfully, as though he lived off of annoying others. "It's...A...d...n. Did you get that?"

Dabi tilted his head. "No. I didn't get that. You just looked idiotic."

The young man stomped on the ground in frustration. "Gahhh, guess I'm too early to really influence you much. Oh well, at least I got a good look at you. Looks like you've seen a rough time of it. Just...don't quit now. Life has a role for you to play here, and you can't quit now."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Here is all there is." Dabi muttered, in annoyance.

"Just don't give up. No matter what." He muttered, looking at him in sadness. "Ah, would you look at that. You're waking up. And now my role in this party is over. Sorry."

"Wait. Just what do you want from me?" He asked.

The fading image of the young man looked at him before grinning.

"I want to see you succeed in this new world, of course! Don't hold back. Keep going."

And then he was gone, leaving a confused Dabi to wonder about who that had been.

That was a mere shadow of who he used to be before he had come to this world.

Not that Dabi remembered it just yet, but he will with time.

For now, only I remember who he is. He will remember who he used to be.

And it remained to be seen what he would do with that knowledge once he knew.

For good or for ill, I will continue to watch over him.

Because he is like a son to me.

It was a hot day outside, spiking well into the seventies and into the eighties.

The weather forecast warned of fire weather.

"There is a great chance of potential fires tonight, so take care when burning things or using fire quirks." The newscaster said, "We haven't had a dry spell like this in a while."

It was true, he supposed.

He hadn't really seen it rain for nearly a month now, and Mustafu was in the middle of summer, in a drought season.

Usually it was a fairly rainy season, so even the civilians were a little on edge at this proclamation.

As for Dabi, he took extra caution with his quirk.

He didn't necessarily want to start a wildfire, even if he couldn't say he wasn't tempted to, once or twice.

It was just that...the heat was exhausting.

Because his own body was already hot enough, he was sweltering in the heat.

Thank goodness for air conditioning, or else he might have passed out already.

The job had air conditioning, so he was thankful for that, but somehow his quirk seemed to be particularly on edge and out of whack.

He kept having to go to the bathroom to conceal the flames that rose up suddenly.

It appeared as though if he had his memories, he could probably have figured out or even known a way to control or hold the fire back.

There just had to be a way to completely suppress the flames, but whatever it was proved elusive to Dabi.

The fire seemed to love to piss him off, whenever it could do so.

He was completely sure now that his coworkers had seen his flames, as now they were talking amongst themselves and looking at him curiously.

This was just what he needed. Another extra layer of complication to his day.

He would soon learn what it meant to lose everything.

"I hate him. I hate him so fucking much!" Natsuo Todoroki cried.

"Natsuo, it's late at night, watch how loudly you talk!" Fuyumi scolded.

The two of them were whispering in their beds to one another, something that once included three people, but now had only two people participating in.

Death had robbed them of Touya.

Yet it felt like he still lingered, all around them, somehow.

"I hate that jerk of a father! He has the nerve to lock Mom up and now he claims he cares? Where the hell was he when Touya-nii was suffering? Where the hell was he when we were suffering? Why did I have to heal Touya-nii's injuries, both mental and physical? Why did we have to play in an isolated area? Why couldn't we be normal kids, Fuyumi?" He ranted.

"Quiet! I hear him!" Fuyumi cried.

Sure enough, footsteps passed by their door, stopped, and then continued on.

Endeavor seemed to be more interested in checking on Shouto, since his "masterpiece" was all he focused on these days.

"Natsuo, you need to watch your voice. What if he finds out we're talking this late at night?"

"Let him find out. It's his fault everything fell apart anyway. If it wasn't for him, Touya-nii wouldn't have burned himself to death." Natsuo scoffed, his eyes drifting over to the area where Touya's room was, next to theirs.

It was now vacant, but the possessions he still had were there.

Although Endeavor kept trying to coerce their mother into getting rid of them, she had refused, and refused again and again.

Now he could do whatever he wanted with that stuff.

Natsuo made it his goal to keep his father out of that stuff, no matter how much he got hit.

He was going to keep Touya alive to the world.

"How is Shouto?" He asked.

"Apparently, he's not blind, so that's good." Fuyumi said, looking uncertain.

"I'm never going to become a hero because of him. Besides, he doesn't think I can do it anyway. My ice quirk doesn't work right, according to him. All he can do is look at Shouto and see him as this...as this...object! It makes me sick! How can he do this to all of us?"

"Father loves us-"

"No, he doesn't, Fuyumi. He only loves himself. He loves the idea of us, not who we really are. We're being abused. Touya-nii was right when he told us we were being abused. I only wish I'd understood it sooner. Maybe...maybe I could have saved him!"

Fuyumi wiped his tears away as they came.

"It's okay. There was nothing you could have done about it. None of us knew he was going to die. If we had, we would have been able to do something about it. Sometimes things happen for a reason."

"Oh, so Touya-nii's murder was a mere accident, Fuyumi? If he controlled his quirk, he wouldn't have gotten so many burns that he died from them? Is that what you're suggesting?"

"No, not at all, Natsuo. Look, you don't know what you're saying. You're just grieving over the loss of him and now Mom."

"Mom's still alive, Fuyumi. Touya is dead and he's never coming back." Natsuo said in finality, flipping over in bed.

"Natsuo-"

"Good night, Fuyumi." He said icily, going to sleep.

Fuyumi sighed as she watched her impulsive younger brother sleep.

He didn't even realize how much danger he put himself in all the time.

Why couldn't he understand how dangerous he was being with his actions?

"Oh, Touya, if you were here, you would know what to do." She said wistfully.

Somehow, she knew Touya wasn't dead. He was out there somewhere.

He just had to be.

Maybe she was just idealistic or wishing too much.

But part of her wished he would just come walking through that door and act like it was all a bad dream.

Of course, that didn't happen.

She sighed as she settled into a troubled sleep, wondering how they would ever get past all of this.

The dark-haired figure in his dreams looked at him. "You sure you can do this? What about the consequences?"

"Shut up. I can do it if I try. I know I can get them to stay quiet about it."

"One of them was nice to you today. Maybe just maybe, they're nice people." The boy said, smiling at him. "Why not give them a chance?"

Dabi was silent as he pondered it. "Perhaps."

Little did he know that their friendly gesture was an attempt to get him to lower his guard down.

"Heh, I knew that freak had a quirk! We're just gonna get rid of him when the time is right." The octopus man said, rubbing his tentacled arms together gleefully. The look of malice on his face sent a shiver down the spine of anyone who might be passing by by that moment.

They were unfortunately, about to open the gates to hell.

And the world would never be the same again.

He opened his cell phone and sent a message.

'I know you're not really quirkless. Unless you want me to spill it to everyone and get you fired for being a liar, you'll come to this area.'

He smirked. Everything was going to go just as planned.

But of course, idle hands were the devil's playthings.

The fire was beginning to grow, idly consuming more and more of his sanity.

And soon, the dormant volcano of his rage would explode.