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Hanzo Shimada dies surrounded by fire.
It’s fitting, he muses. Not even an honourable death.
Hanzo dies, and he wakes again.
His name is Toya Todoroki and his quirk is Cremation. His father is the Pro Hero Endeavour, and his mother is afraid of her own husband.
Cremation makes blue fire sprout from his skin.
(The fire is blue, just like the two dragons he had in another life.)
-LINE BREAK-
He has multiple younger siblings.
Toya tries his best to protect them from their father, Fyumi and Natsuo.
Then Shoto was born. Half white hair. Half Red.
Their father sees Shoto, and he is delighted.
(Sojiro, Hanzo thinks, watching the event unfurl, was never like this when me or Genji were born.)
For Toya, this means an end of an era.
-LINE BREAK-
Toya runs away from home, after his father burns him
His burns cover most of his body, skin a horrible patchwork of burnt skin stapled to his normal skin.
(The scarring remind Hanzo of Genji, and there’s a wave of guilt that washes over the two of them.)
So, Toya Todoroki dyes his hair black, and discards the name.
His name is Dabi, and he will raise hell on Earth.
-LINE BREAK-
The man named Tomura Shigaraki infuriates him. The girl named Toga Himiko annoys him.
The League of Villains are just liars and fakes.
(That is what the Shimada Clan was, Hanzo thinks grimly, There is no honour is killing children)
-LINE BREAK-
They attack a summer camp full of Heroes in training.
(Hanzo watches in the dark recesses of Dabi’s mind, hiding the last dregs of Toya from him. The first victim is Toya. It was always Toya.)
Dabi presses his hand to a tree, blue fire spilling from his hands and setting the forest aflame, the blue flames consuming the forest, fire blooming like blue flowers.
(Two blue spirit dragons, spilling from a single arrow being fired, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake.)
(Hanzo thinks he can hear the chatter that belonged to a time traveller who had a chest that glowed blue.)
-LINE BREAK-
They retreat after saving Compress and kidnapping Bakugou.
Dabi excuses himself, sits in his room, and crouches to the floor, grabbing his hair in an attempt to pull his emotions back together.
Shoto didn’t recognise him. It was expected, but it still hurt.
(Hanzo did not recognise Genji when he came back 10 years after he killed him.)
(There’s a story of a dragon striking down his own brother. Dabi did not strike down his youngest brother, but he condemned him, and it’s almost the same.)
-LINE BREAK-
The heroes rescue Bakugou. He gets knocked unconscious during the fight between All for One and All Might.
When he regains conscious, he wakes up in a warehouse.
He goes and finds the high necked windbreaker jacket he’s hidden at the back of his cupboard.
There’s someone he needs to go visit.
(Hanzo urges him, tells him. Go.)
-LINE BREAK-
He stops in front of the door. He stares at it, hands in his pockets.
He reaches out a hand to open the door, and hesitates.
Will his mother even recognise him?
(Hanzo stands there to the side, and says “She will.”)
Da – no, Toya – opens the door, and says, very quietly “Hi mum.”
Todoroki Rei looks up, and sees Toya, burn scars covering his skin and small, harmless wisps of blue flame dancing in his hair.
She smiles and says “Hello Toya. Why don’t you sit and tell me about the past few years?”
(Hanzo smiles, and looks out the window, seeing the cherry blossom tree in the distance. “We are not past redemption, right brother?”
There’s a laugh, sounding metallic but alive, and a quiet “You were never beyond redemption, Hanzo.”)