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Kai jolted as he squinted through the haze clinging to his vision. What… Happened? The void pressed in from all sides, swallowing everything. His mind scrambled to piece together the last thing he remembered — but what exactly… was that?
A blank hole gaped where his memories should've been. He lifted his hand to his temple, rubbing gently. His entire body ached—
Kai's breath caught in his throat as he thrust his hands forward, eyes widening. My... arms? They're here again?
That didn't make sense. How could... Wait. His shoulders sagged, a soft exhale escaping his lips. I'm dead. The how was a mystery to him, but deep down he knew — he'd been too weak, too pathetic to save himself. Just another failure to add to his growing list. Like that disaster with the kid, the mess with his boss, and those self-righteous heroes who'd looked at him like he was nothing.
But he couldn't blame them, really. They were just defending the world they knew. Kai let out a sigh full of exhaustion, his thoughts feeling scrambled, disjointed. Those principles he once clung to had evaporated into nothingness. Just like everything else that had defined him.
“Fancy seeing you here.”
Kai flinched, spinning to face someone he didn't immediately recognise— Wait. He knew those eyes. The man stood before him, features familiar but... softer somehow. Younger.
“Dabi—”
"Ah… You can call me Touya here." Touya, not Dabi. Something's different here.
He remembered Dabi. A villain not much younger than him, working with the League. There’d been… something between them, a pull neither of them could name. It sparked between them the moment their eyes locked that first night they met, something unspoken hanging in the air whenever they shared the same space.
Which was strange, considering they'd barely exchanged more than a few words with each other.
Touya stood across from him, a half-smile playing on his lips. But different to the mocking expressions Kai had grown accustomed to seeing on Dabi's face, this one held something quieter. The scarring was gone too, replaced by smooth pale skin that looked like it had never known his flames.
"Are you dead as well?" Touya asked, his words cutting through the silence.
"Yes..." Kai answered, a strange self-consciousness washing over him.
Looking down at himself for the first time, Kai realised he was wearing a plain yukata, familiar jacket nowhere to be seen. He raised a hand to his face, finding bare skin where his mask would have been. In this place — whatever it was, limbo or Hell — he stood fully exposed.
Touya’s gaze lingered on him, flickering with something unreadable. The silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating.
"You want to go for a walk?" The invitation tumbled from Kai's lips before he could stop it, catching him off guard. Something in his chest fluttered — a sensation he hadn’t felt before.
Touya hesitated, eyes meeting Kai's. After another long moment of silence, his lips curved into a genuine smile, and he closed the distance between them. "I'd like that," he said softly.
Kai froze mid-reach, his hand hovering in the space between them. Touch had been his adversary for so long — something that twisted his insides, sent pain shooting through his nerves. Yet… When Touya's fingers finally slipped into his, there was... nothing. No revulsion. No agony. Just an unexpected heat that spread through his chest, intense enough that for a brief moment, he wondered if Touya's flames had somehow followed him even here.
"You alright?" Touya's voice was barely above a whisper. Concerned.
Kai paused, then dipped his head in affirmation. "Yeah," he murmured, “Let's go."
And so they walked together in comfortable silence.