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Turquoise irises stared at the pale man with sadistic glee as their owner tightened his fingers around the stranger's neck. The blood around them had already formed a small puddle, almost a halo, that seemed to surround the two young people like a snake.
"I'm begging you, I'm begging you," the terrified man whispered, feeling the hand holding him dangerously hot, a small plume of smoke beginning to rise from underneath it. "P-please, I have a wife and a d-child..."
The attacker opened his mouth silently, almost painfully wide, and then a soft, mocking laugh escaped his throat as the black-haired head jerked back violently. Fingers tightened a little tighter on the victim's skin.
"In that case—" The morbid ecstasy on his scarred face could not have been more apparent. Dilated pupils, lips frozen in one word, and that look. It was the look of a madman who doesn't care who he kills today. He doesn't care who death takes in his arms, because he didn't mind entering. He brought his lips close to the man so that his words reached his ear. - "... I'll make sure they join you."
- N-no...
The last words of the nameless victim were drowned out by a symphony of fire that lit up the dark alley like the sun. It was accompanied only by laughter.
***
Toya Todoroki was very boisterous as a child, absolutely everyone could say that about him.
He was boisterous and energetic, and yet when he was given one goal, he could pursue it almost obsessively. He wanted good luck. He was a perfectionist to a fault. Literally and figuratively.
So when a young parent, Enji Todoroki, told his firstborn at just five years old that he, this little boy brimming with potential, would surpass All Might and become the new Symbol of Peace, no one should be surprised. Really, no one should be surprised that little Toya has focused his entire life around this thought ever since. That was his mission. That's how he will succeed.
Dad said so, so it's certainly true. Truth?
Toya could describe his purpose as a fire that his father had lit in him that would not be extinguished and that he could not ignore. Even on request.
So Toya trained, losing himself in the feeling of being recognized by his father, ignoring the wounds that grew larger over the months, and then... And then, when he turned 9, Shoto appeared.
- You won't train anymore, Shoto will replace you.
These were the words that Toya had engraved in his heart just before he got them out of his head. Dad didn't want him anymore. Dad didn't notice him anymore. Dad was furious when he was training. Dad... he didn't like him.
Because Toya didn't live up to expectations.
Because Toya was flawed.
*
Toya sat in a small clearing near the river and tearfully watched as the stars reflected off the windows of his house, dissipated only by the light from his father's room.
My father trained.
His father trained four-year-old Shoto.
My father didn't remember him.
The flames on Toya's hand turned bluish the moment the boy let his anger begin. Toya hated his brother for being born. If Shoto hadn't been born, his father would still be interested in him.
If Shoto hadn't been born, and if he had been training like Toya with dedication, his father wouldn't have hit Fuyumi. If Shoto hadn't been born, everything would have been fine.
Oh, if only he hadn't been born...
The blue caught his attention. His gaze focused on the burned hand that was still burning, and while he knew the pain radiated to the rest of his body, he couldn't feel it. His body was impervious to pain as well as ice, as he learned by accident during one incident with Natsuo's individuality.
He focused on his fire and increased its power, seeing his fingers turn red, and watched as the flames reached a meter high, nearly burning his hair. He laughed aloud and wept with happiness; His power has evolved. His fire was blue. It was warmer than ever before.
Toya returned home with renewed energy, almost joy, wanting to show off his achievement.
And as soon as he tried...
Bang.
His father's hand sent him to the floor, after meeting his pale cheek.
"I told you to stop training."
Toya cried that night, soothed by Natsuo's quiet words.
He asked his father to meet him at the training glade so that he could try to convince his father of his talent again.
... but Enji Todoroki never showed up.
The grief and despair that gripped the nine-year-old caused him to spontaneously combust.
*
And he woke up after three years, feeling new scars on his body. Dirty and wrinkled.
He didn't remember much about that period, except for his frequent visits near his family home.
He wanted to apologize to his mother for attacking her and Shoto. He wanted to make amends for his behavior. Toya wanted to see his father again.
And yet... when Toya looked out the window of his dad's room one day, he saw him training with seven-year-old Shoto, who was trying to freeze a glass of water and burn a piece of wood at the same time.
Nothing had changed in my father's behavior. His father trained Shoto with the same zeal that Toye trained with. The man didn't seem particularly bothered by the fact that Toya had disappeared altogether.
Toya seems to have broken down at that moment. In his little twelve-year-old head there were hurtful thoughts, but they were correct.
Toya to his father was nothing more than a failed and rejected attempt to achieve selfish ambitions.
It was the day of Dabi's birth. Toya Todorki has officially become dead to everyone.
*
That's when he met Stain. A Hero Killer who, in a way, gave his life purpose.
Kill all heroes. Perhaps his mentor found himself in the search for the "worthy" ones, but Dabi simply believed that heroes did not exist. And the fake ones should be knocked out. All. Every single one.
Dabi also did not follow all the "commandments," as Stain's rules were once called. It was not a problem for him to attack innocents, help the League of Villains for his own selfish ends, or his personal revenge on Endeavor.
In the end, Dabi only used Stain's ideals to conceal his motives and justify his crimes against the society of heroes.
They need to be killed. That's his credo.
He also did not hesitate to use the natural inclination of heroes to save people, taking it as his tactic at times to gain time to cool down from the effects of his gift.
And yet, before Dabi knew it, before he could really do anything about his revenge, Endeavor was the New Symbol of Peace.
Who allowed this to happen? Who appointed him? Dabi soon found out and burned down his house without even looking inside to make sure it was empty.
This woman didn't even realize who Enji Todoroki was. He didn't deserve to be called a man. And especially the hero.
And he proved it by revealing the truth about his childhood to the media. His childhood and that of his siblings, saying out loud why his mother ended up in a psychiatric hospital. Only for the duration of this recording did he become Toya Todoroki again, Endeavor's son and his worst enemy.
- You must have thought, "As long as I look to the future, I can be better!" I can tell you're at a loss for words, so here's the answer! The past never dies! Do you understand that yet!? You reap what you sow! Let's dance, you and me - Enji Todoroki! Dancing with my son, here in hell!
... And yet he was just a kid who wanted to be a hero. Just like thousands of other children. So why him?
By a stupid dream, a stupid man.
Enji Todoroki will be roasting in hell right next to him.