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Touya learned the importance of a nobleman knowing how to swim when he came face-to-face with death for the first time.
As the rain beat the windows, their father had once again spoiled their evening meal, reiterating for the millionth time the importance of each of their roles within the family. With their mother ill, the lady of the house was ten-year-old Fuyumi. Seven-year-old Natsuo, whose existence was largely ignored, had chosen to focus on his academic success, which their father disregarded. Shouto—despite being only three years old—had begun training to join the Sakura Knights, the most senior warriors of the royal family, just as Enji had once been. This had once been Touya’s dream, his mission. But because Touya had failed to meet his father’s expectations, he had been cast aside. His siblings were supposed to take his place, but each of them found themselves destined to fade into the shadows.
That was until Shouto arrived, but the poor boy was isolated from his siblings, struggling to survive under the bondage his father called ‘education.’
After dinner, their father had instructed them to check their suitcases before dawn, taking only the essentials with them. As the most senior member of the Todoroki family, Enji and his family were to travel a week early to the annual Feast of Blood and Flame, where the members of the Todoroki dynasty gathered. Their ship, the Endeavor, was the largest structure in the harbor. Its bow was a blood-red dragon’s head. The ship had wings carved on its port and starboard sides, and a dragon’s tail at its stern. Had he mentioned that their family symbol was a dragon?
Touya slung his small bag, containing only his sketchbook and pencils, over his shoulder and headed towards his cabin. The crew bowed their heads in greeting upon seeing his siblings, but they grinned and winked at Touya. His father, realizing Touya wouldn’t become a knight, had decided to make him a Sea Lord. If it weren’t for his mother, Touya would have spent his childhood at sea.
And now, at eleven years old, his father would introduce him for the first time as the next lord at that year’s feast.
After chatting briefly with the sailors, he paused in front of his cabin, the door slightly ajar. Touya checked his necklace; the key was still attached to the end.
He kicked the door. “Get out!”
A shriek and the rustling of papers echoed in the room.
“What the fuck, man?!”
In the middle of the room was a boy carrying several pieces of parchment in his arms. His blond hair was wavy and held back by a bandana so it wouldn’t fall across his forehead. His clothes were tattered, and his boots had holes in them.
“You scare the shit out of me,” he said with a cheeky smile. The audacity!
Touya closed the door with his foot and then walked briskly towards the stranger. He placed his bag on the table, his eyes fixed on him. From this close proximity, he noticed that his eyes had taken on a golden hue, the freckles on his cheeks resembled constellations, and that the boy was a few centimeters shorter than him.
“Who—” His voice came out way too higher pitched than he expected. Touya coughed. “Who are you?”
The golden boy stared at him with wide eyes.
“Name—Your name?” Touya tried. “You have a name, right?”
The boy tilted his head to the side.
Shit. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked that?
“Keigo,” the boy whispered, his beautiful eyes fixed on his boots. “Keigo Takami.”
Touya’s heart fluttered strangely.
“Touya.” When he reached out his hand to Keigo, he felt a strange sensation in his stomach. “Touya Todoroki.”
Keigo snapped his head so quickly he almost broke Touya’s nose.
“You—You are a Todoroki?!” Keigo shrieked, dropping everything he was holding. “Oh my God, they told me this cabin was unused. If—If I wanted an actual dinner, they told me to unlock it and—and clean it out!”
“Wait—”
“Yes, it’s only been a week since I was sold here, but—but why would they do something like that? What did I do to them? Oh my God. What if this were Lord Todoroki’s cabin? Fuck!”
“Hey—Enough!”
Keigo abruptly stopped rambling, his eyes wide as he stared at Touya. He didn’t know what Keigo saw on his face, but the boy straightened his back, clasping his fists together in front of him. Fuck, Touya hadn’t meant to do that.
“Just…” he rubbed his face with his hand, then gestured towards the chairs with his head. “Why don’t we sit down for a while and you tell me what happened from the beginning?”
Keigo glanced at the closed door.
“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, but this is my ship.” At least it will be mine when the time comes. “My crew. If anyone is bullying you, I need to know because I will never tolerate such things. Do you understand?”
Keigo nodded.
“Good.” Touya sat down in the chair and placed his boots on the table. “Now, spill the beans.”
And Keigo told everything. His abuser family, his difficult life, how he ended up here, the whole selling thing… How a few of the crew bullied him, how he could barely eat since he arrived, how they didn’t even give him a hammock to sleep in, how he’d been sleeping on deck for two weeks…
When Keigo finished speaking, he pinched himself. He brought his fingers to his lips, blinked, and looked around. It was as if he himself hadn’t expected to talk so much. It was as if, the moment he saw Touya, Keigo had wanted to tell him all his secrets. Just like Touya himself, who, from the moment he saw Keigo, had been burning with the desire to fall to his knees and tell Keigo every detail of his life, every dark secret, every bright moment…
This moment marked a turning point that would change their fates forever.
Because at sunset that day, the Endeavor was attacked by a pirate ship. With Keigo’s help, Touya put his siblings in a boat, entrusted them to Enji, and then rushed to help the others. They didn’t have enough boats and vessels. Most of the crew were either fatally injured or dead.
Touya and Keigo fell into the sea after the last cannonball hit the ship.
And those who rescued them were the crew of Zen Shigaraki, the pirate of the ship All For One.
Seven years later, the ocean where he had once faced death was his kingdom. Now the seven seas feared him. He was the unquenchable flame of the seas. Dabi the Fearsome. Dabi the Kraken. Dabi, the prince of Hell.
On the LoV pirate ship, Dabi was the second mate under Captain Tomura Shigaraki, and during the height of his career, he was with the love of his life, his one and only pretty bird. His beloved Hawks.
The other half of his soul.
His whole heart.
His future.
Dabi had never believed in the whole soulmate nonsense—he should stop calling it that, isn’t he? But for young Touya, it wasn’t a fairy tale, it was a nightmare.
Fuyumi’s favorite fairy tales were about princesses, fairies, mermaids, knights, and whoever else you can think of finding their soulmates. And their mother always read them stories before bedtime.
Rei… The times when she was once herself were long gone.
“Mom! Mom! Where’s your soulmate mark?” Fuyumi yawned. They were only at the beginning of the story, but she was having trouble keeping her eyes open.
Their mother’s hands trembled as she closed the book. Her eyes were wide and empty.
“Don’t be silly, Yumi,” Touya said, throwing his teddy bear at her.
“Touya!” Fuyumi shrieked.
“You shouldn’t ask such things,” he continued, preparing to throw his small pillow. “These are private!”
When the pillow hit her face, Fuyumi kicked off her blanket and sat up in bed. Her hair, which had grown past her ears, was a mess. Touya giggled.
“Mom!”
Rei flinched, blinked, and looked at them. She smiled as she watched the two siblings’ small pillow fight.
Touya knew his mother didn’t have a soulmate mark, but he wasn’t going to tell his siblings and break their hearts even more.
Soulmate marks are something no one can explain, appearing when two people whose destinies are inextricably linked kiss. The initials of their loved ones and a symbol only they can understand appear above their hearts, and thus, they find their other half.
Dabi wished his first kiss with Hawks had been more romantic, but their lives as pirates were far beyond the ordinary.
Before he could confess his feelings to Hawks, the foolish bird almost got himself killed. An anonymous group of pirates had decided to kidnap Hawks, and Dabi was mad. He had kissed Hawks when the meaning of his life opened his honey-colored eyes, filled with melted gold, after days of sleeping. Soulmate or not, he couldn’t lose Keigo.
But it was clear that the Goddesses of Fate had a different plan.
The letters K T appeared above Dabi’s heart, and a bird feather beneath them. Above Hawks’ heart, the letters T T appeared, surrounded by a flame.
When Dabi found his soulmate, he made the mistake of believing that he had a happy ending. Everything seemed to be going as smoothly as possible. Then their lives were changed forever.
He and Hawks had been separated in their early twenties by a surprise attack at night. Initially, he thought they were being held captive, but he knew they would find each other somehow. However, it seemed this attack had only one target: Dabi himself.
Enji Todoroki had learned the true identity of Dabi, the fearful pirate who struck feat to the seven seas, and, determined to reclaim his son whom he believed dead, he and his Sea Lords decided to attack the LoV. Capturing only Dabi would have been enough, but no, they set fire to the ship that was his home, right before his eyes. Dabi would never forget the screams of his lover, his family, his friends, his crew. He would avenge them. Because the past never dies.
“Goodbye, Hawks,” had said the ash-blonde diplomat woman. She was the leader of the sailors Enji had hired to bring him back, the sailors who called their ordinary ships the HPSC. Her dull eyes gleamed brightly as the LoV burned. “The perfect match that burnt too fast.”
On the third anniversary of Keigo’s death, Enji had taken Dabi to a meeting of Sea Lords. At this meeting, he would be on his way to becoming the next Sea Lord, a right he had ‘lost’ years ago. After what had happened, the old man wouldn’t leave Dabi alone for a moment. He stubbornly called him Touya, but Touya had died that night with Keigo. He couldn’t even bear his siblings calling him that name. Natsuo and Shouto understood. Fuyumi at least tried. As for Rei… Dabi would always be Touya to his mother. Especially after learning that her firstborn was still alive, he couldn’t change that and hurt her even more.
Since the weather was fine outside, the great lords who should’ve returned to the earth had decided to hold this meeting in the Endeavor.
The sailors had been ordered the previous night to prepare the deck because they couldn’t accommodate everyone in the captain’s cabin. A neat, orderly, and somewhat ornate round table awaited them, more so than befitting a warlord. On it lay every kind of wine and various delicacies from different countries.
And there were multiple tasters who sampled them.
Since no one fainted, vomited, or clawed their throat, the lords and their sons sat down in their places.
“Welcome, gentlemen,” said Enji, puffing out his chest. “It is a great honor to have you on board my ship!”
“That honor belongs to us,” said one of them. Dabi had long since stopped caring who was who.
One of the old lords rose to his feet, a glass in his hand. “Let the feast—”
The man collapsed to the ground with a loud bang. A faint wisp of smoke billowed from a hole that had appeared between his eyebrows.
Everyone rose up.
Several arrows struck the tasters. You could see that some of them had skull images attached to their tips.
Screams erupted.
“Pirates!”
Dabi pulled out his pistol and shot the barrels, spilling wine and alcohol that caused some of the enemies storming the ship to fall. One of the remaining men lunged at him. Dabi shot him in the thigh, knocking him to the ground. After nudging him with his boot, he picked up the man’s sword and swung it. It was a little heavy, faded, and had a crooked hilt, but it would do.
When he took up his sword, it was impossible not to become a pirate again. His muscles remembered years of habit. His body and mind had never forgotten his past.
He laughed when a voice in his head whispered to him to stop—maybe it was one of his old crew—as he aimed his pistol at his next target. Some of the lords fleeing for their lives stared at him with wide eyes.
Perhaps he would have bothered to listen to this sound if his crew—his family—hadn’t been burned to ashes before his very eyes. But they were all dead. Every single one of them.
Because of the HPSC sailors.
Because of Enji.
Dabi gripped his sword until his knuckles turned white. His eyes searched for the red hair, a hair he never wished he knew. There he was, his massive build barking orders at his men, sending the lords on deck to the cabins, and firing his gun without looking at his target.
Dabi pointed the pistol at him. It was time for revenge. He took a deep breath, smiled, and pulled the trigger.
But nothing happened.
He frowned and fired again and again, but the result was the same. Dabi couldn’t search for bullets in this chaos. Grunting, he tucked the gun into his belt and drew his sword. He tore everyone in his path to shreds like paper, until he was close to his target—
A dazzling sword cut across his path, but the pirate didn’t attack. Dabi recoiled, his eyes moved up the enemy’s muscular arm, covered in scars to—He froze as if thrown into the cold sea in the darkness of night. For he would recognize those dirty, fluffy blond curls, those golden eyes with melted honey in them, anywhere.
“…Keigo?” Touya whispered.
When his lover smiled at him, the corners of his sparkling eyes crinkled with happiness, even though they were filled with sorrow.
“Hello, Touya.” Keigo pulled down the collar of his shirt, revealing their soulmate mark. “It’s been a long time.”
“But I thought you were—” He couldn’t even say the goddamn word.
“I know, my love.” Keigo took Touya’s hand after sheathing his sword. “Let’s get you out of this mess, then I’ll explain everything to you.” He kissed his knuckles.
Touya felt like he was rooted to the spot. “You—” His throat tightened as everything around them turned into a pool of blood. “Are you real?”
Keigo smiled slightly. He cupped Touya’s cheeks, stood on tiptoes, and placed a kiss on the corner of his lips.
“More than I’ve ever been,” he said, pressing their foreheads together. “And I have no intention of losing you again.” Keigo squeezed his hand and started walking. “So come on, let’s get out of this hell.”