….
Dabi opened his eyes to the blue sky and the sound of water lapping against a shoreline.
He stood on a cliff overlooking a vast body of water that stretched to the horizon.
Beneath his feet, grass grew in perfect green uniformity. The air smelled clean; impossibly clean, like nothing in the real world ever did.
When he turned around, a wooden house stood behind him.
A simple construction, familiar in ways he couldn't articulate, like something from a memory that wasn't quite his.
And outside the house, three figures waited.
First: a massive rabbit with pure white fur and red eyes that somehow managed to look both adorable and slightly unnerving.
The creature was easily the size of a small car.
Second: Two little girls rode atop the rabbit, one with a horn protruding from her forehead and the other sporting small fangs, both clutching what appeared to be a miniature boy-shaped toy.
Both girls couldn't have been more than five or six years old.
Third: A boy who looked exactly as Dabi had at thirteen or fourteen, before the coma, before everything changed, standing with a quiet composure and presence that made him seem far older than his youthful appearance suggested.
Dabi's eyes locked on the boy and immediately went defensive, muscles tensing.
The young Toya laughed. "I know exactly what's running through your mind."
"And what's that?" Dabi's voice was carefully neutral.
"You're wondering whether I am actually real, and if I am, whether I am here to take your body back." He made air quotes with his fingers. "You know... 'reclaim what's mine.'"
"The answer is no. I won't be doing that."
"Oh yeah, I totally trust you." Dabi said, sarcasm thick in his voice.
While this exchange happened, the two little girls had started running circles around Dabi, examining him with curious eyes and a bright smile.
They touched his face, giggled, checked his hands, laughed some more.
The massive rabbit hopped over and sat beside him, then immediately started licking his face with a tongue that was surprisingly warm and wet.
Dabi didn't defend himself.
Just stood there and let it happen, maintaining eye contact with his younger self.
"Just as I thought, you don't trust me." young Toya confirmed. "Glad we understand each other."
Dabi continued being licked. "Okay, that's it. Now I am sure... You've grown up quite a bit."
When he said 'grown up', he wasn't referring to physical age.
The boy in front of him looked thirteen.
But the way he carried himself, the maturity in his eyes, the weight of his presence.
This was someone who had spent years thinking, processing, becoming something more than a traumatized child.
"Well, I haven't been doing anything here for the past few years." Toya said. "Time passes differently in this space, and I had a lot of time to think."
"So now I am curious." Toya continued. "What would you have done if I had tried to take over your body? Would you have fought me? Tried to kill me, if that's even possible here?"
Dabi stared at him for a long moment, then sighed.
The rabbit was still enthusiastically licking his face, while the two little girls had climbed onto each of his shoulders.
"Look, man." Dabi said honestly. "I have a life in this world now. A family was waiting for me, people who were worried, and a bunch of unruly kids who needed someone to take care of them. So I can't just hand it over. Not even to you the original."
He was hugging the rabbit now, fingers buried in impossibly soft white fur.
The little girls on his shoulders are playing with his hair.
"Yeah, I get it." Toya said quietly, looking sad. "A family…."
A pause.
"Can you take care of them?" Toya asked. "Our family? You're not heartless enough to reject me, right?"
He hesitated before continuing. "Besides... you owe me. That ice Quirk you just awakened? That's mine. The only thing in this world that's still truly mine and the only thing I still have any authority over. And I gave it to you."
It was a strange way of putting it, as though his fire Quirk and even his own body had never truly belonged to him, leaving that dormant ice gene as the only thing he still considered his own.
"You make me feel disgusting about myself." Dabi muttered.
"Anyway." he continued. "I am not really 'that' heartless. The family is ours. Both of ours."
"Ha! I know. Just wanted to make you feel like a bad person for a second."
Dabi actually laughed at that.
The rabbit made a pleased sound and licked him more enthusiastically.
"Anything else?" Dabi asked.
"Yeah, actually." Toya paused, seeming to gather courage. "Can you do it again?"
"What?"
"You know how you made the old bastard run for his money with your words? At the Sports Festival? And also at our house. That felt amazing honestly. Watching him get publicly called out, humiliated, forced to confront what he had done..."
Toya's eyes were bright. "Taunt him more if you cross paths again. Make him squirm and feel small."
Dabi gave him a thumbs up. "Consider it done."
"Oh, and one more thing."
"What?"
"Tell Mom I am sorry." Toya's voice went softer. "And Shoto. And Natsuo. And big sis too."
"Done, done, done, and double done." Dabi confirmed.
"And tell Mom that what happened to me was never her fault. I don't blame her for that day. I know she was suffering too."
"I will tell her."
"And make sure Shoto understands that he doesn't have to hate the old man for my sake or let my choices decide his relationship with our father.
"Got it."
"And Natsuo deserves to know it's okay to stay angry and that he doesn't owe anyone forgiveness before he's ready."
"Understood."
"And tell Fuyumi to stop carrying everyone else's burdens. Keeping the family together was never her responsibility, and if she needs to let go... she can and she should."
"I will make sure she knows."
The requests kept coming, from small favors to heartfelt messages Toya had kept buried for years, never expecting to have anyone deliver them.
Meanwhile, the rabbit and the two little girls had fallen asleep.
The massive creature was curled up on the grass, and Dabi found himself lying on its impossibly soft fur.
The little girls were asleep on his chest, still clutching their toy boy.
Toya sat beside them on the grass, continuing to talk.
About the family, regrets, hopes for the future and things he wished he had said when he had the chance.
Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, Dabi's eyes began to close.
Wrapped in the rabbit's warmth, surrounded by the quiet weight of the sleeping children and the steady sound of Toya's voice, Dabi gradually drifted off to sleep.
Toya was still talking when he noticed that all three of his companions had fallen asleep.
The rabbit's breathing was deep and even.
The little girls; Eri, and Toga, though Toya didn't know that name, were curled up peacefully.
And Dabi, the man who had taken over his body and his life, was finally at rest.
Toya looked at them and smiled.
'Family', he thought. 'He's part of the family too now…'
It was strange.
He should have felt angry, or jealous, or resentful that someone else was living the life that should have been his.
But instead, he just felt... grateful.
Knowing someone would look after the people he had left behind, comfort his mother, guide Shoto, and give Natsuo and Fuyumi someone they could rely on brought him a peace he had never thought possible.
That the Todoroki family had a chance to heal in ways they never would have if he had lived.
Toya lay down on the grass, looking up at the sky in this transparent world that existed somewhere between consciousness and dream.
"Goodbye, guys." he said quietly. "It was fun."
His eyes closed.
The transparent world began to fade.
The grass beneath him dissolved into drifting light as the wooden house faded into transparency before vanishing altogether, followed by the cliff, the water, and the endless blue sky.
Their time together had come to an end.
The ice Quirk had been passed on, every message had found its recipient, and the last unspoken permission had finally been given.
Young Toya Todoroki, who had died on that mountain when his flames burned too hot and his body couldn't contain them, finally let go.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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