Chapter 1 Why am I on Fire? by Yojimbra

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I didn't have an alarm clock.

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I know I didn't. I hadn't had one in a long time. Just hadn't needed one. So, then, why exactly was I staring at an alarm clock as it blared at me? I don't remember buying an alarm clock; I don't even remember setting an alarm clock. Why was there an alarm clock? Normally it was just waking up dead tired that woke me up.

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Also, why the hell did I actually feel well rested? That was actually new. No headache, no grogginess, just, actually being fucking awake. The fuck?

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Okay, enough of that! I brought down my hand and tapped on what I thought was the snooze button. But what I saw wasn't my arm. Not in the slightest. My muscles were never that big, even when I worked out extensively. My hand never looked that big either. Come to think of it, this wasn't even my room. The bed was too close to the ground, the style was Japanese, and where the hell was my computer?

I sat up, looking around and trying to figure out what the hell was going on and how much of this was a dream. One thing was for sure though, I was fucking huge. Like I could out-bench Gaston easily. Though, he would have more hair than me. Wait, where was my chest hair? I looked at my body, moving the red tank-top—which I didn't remember ever owning—to the side and finding a few red chest hairs.

A jolt of pain shot through me when I plucked one and brought it up to look at it. "Holy crap, I'm a ginger?"

I brought my hands to my face, trying to see if I could feel something similar, not that I knew how my face felt, but I did notice one thing that stood out. My glasses. I was seeing without my glasses. Perfectly. That was pretty cool.

"Okay," I slid my hands down my face and looked around the room trying to figure out what exactly was going on. I couldn't come up with anything. Not a damn thing. When I attempted to scratch my chin I noticed something about my hand. It was on fire.

No wonder it was so warm.

When I tried to flick it out the fire did nothing. It stayed there, clinging to my skin like a thin glove. If anything, it got larger, spreading up my arm! I tried to put it out with my other arm but it was on fire too! Why was I on fire!? Quick! Stop drop and roll!

I did that, still fire!

I rolled again! Still fire!

There was more fire!

Still more fire!

I brought my arms up and stood touching my head and hoping that there wasn't even more fire there. "Why am I on fire?"

"Dad?" I looked towards a sleepy looking red haired child looking at me. His name came to me instantly. Touya. He. He was my son. "Why are you screaming? Didn't you want to train me?"

Never had a kid before.

I glanced around the room, hoping that I wasn't the only one in here. I was. Realization hit me like a truck as memories surged forth. Anger, lots of anger, lots of drive, motivation, of desperately trying to be better, to do better, to be stronger, faster, and all those other things as I strove to surpass All Might.

"Umm," I swallowed, quickly using my quirk to put out the flames that covered my body, even the ones on the ground dwindled quickly—no burn marks!—"Do you want to train today?"

That shocked the sleep out of his eyes. There was a bit of fear in his eyes as he looked at me. "No?"

"Oh, well, you can go back to bed, then, I'll see about breakfast." Crap, did I even know how to make a Japanese breakfast? More importantly, crap! I didn't know the first thing about Japanese culture! Sure I knew a bit, but that was basic weeb stuff and no way applicable to their whole culture. I didn't even like their cuisine! I couldn't even read Japanese.

Wait. I looked at Touya's pajama shirt, which was of some cartoon, and realized I could make out the characters well enough, and could even read them. Convenient.

"I can?" Touya asked, his eyes lighting up as he all but bounced on his feet.

I nodded. "Yeah, unless you're too excited."

"Can I go get Fuyumi and watch cartoons with her and Mom?"

"Is today a school day?"

"No, it's Saturday!"

Great! One less thing to worry about! I smiled and nodded. "Then sure, go ahead. But don't wake your mom up if she's sleeping alright?"

"Okay!"

I waited for him to leave before I started to freak out again. Part of me knew exactly where everything was in this house. It had been mine for years now, a large traditional Japanese style house right in the center of Tokyo. I had bought it after I saved someone from a villain attack and they offered it to me for cheap.

Though, I really shouldn't say that I bought it. I wasn't the original owner of this body.

I stepped into the bathroom, hoping against hope that I wasn't who I thought I was.

The man that stared back at me was Enji Todoroki.

The abusive asshole that was so driven to beat All Might that he forced a woman into marrying him to produce powerful children, and just a real grade-A jackass. As far as I could tell this wasn't a dream—I could still feel everything and I even had to use the restroom—but there wasn't much of Enji's personality left in me. Sure we were both a bit on the angry side, but I wasn't him.

"Okay," I splashed myself with some water and tried to think. I remembered everything I could about myself, this world, and who everyone was.

Twenty-five years old, father of two, husband to Rei, avid workout-er, and the number two pro hero in Japan. Twenty-five years old, so Fuyumi was three? And there were talks—demands—with Rei about another child, that would be Natsuo wouldn't it? That meant I was about twenty years from canon.

In five years, Izuku and Shoto would both be born, and it would still be more than a decade before I knew what was going on. That was twenty years of butterfly effects to screw everything over. Hell, there was no way of even knowing when exactly I was supposed to have sex with Rei to make sure Natsuo or Shoto were born.

Trying to keep things the same would be impossible. "Besides,"—I rolled my neck and smiled at myself in the mirror—"I always did say canon was boring, right?"

That sounded cooler in my head.

"Still, one thing is for certain, I can't do this on my own. I need to talk to All Might." I blinked, stroking my chin. Were we even friendly at this point? I could check my phone. "And Nezu… if he's alive at this point."

What were my options? What would it take to make that happy ending? Hopefully I remember everything right.

XXXX

What kind of tea did Rei like? Was it too early for tea? What was I thinking? It was never too early for tea. Still, the question was, what kind of tea did Rei like? I searched through Enji's half of the memories and found that when it came to what his wife actually liked it was pretty much limited to that one flower, and one thing that made her―

I felt my cheeks warm and stowed that thought for later. Much later. Which tea was the most used? Or which one did we have the most of? I checked the pancake, smiling at the pancake making device that they had; it made those really fluffy looking perfect pancakes like no one's business. I already had three done, though I doubted that Fuyumi could eat a whole one at her age. Could she even eat a pancake?

Should I have trusted Touya with her? It was better than trusting me with her.

"Hmm, let's go with this one." I grabbed one of the boxes that we had four of for some reason. The open one was almost out of little tea packets and I started the process of brewing some up. I could recall Enji being a coffee drinker, and I could feel my tongue shrivel up at the thought of drinking something so bitter. Apparently, I didn't inherit his tastes.

Which was probably a curse. A big big curse. I was probably going to starve in Japan.

From what I could tell, Enji left the cooking up to Rei. How was he not poisoned? Oh, right, money. And Rei was actually a nice person.

I let out a sigh as I thought about Rei. She had a strong quirk, as powerful as my own, and she had wanted to be a hero. But her health was poor, poor enough that she'd need medical treatment to keep living. That was how I got her. Money. Money for the treatment that gave her a normal life, at the cost of being a slave to Endeavour.

I stared at the tea for a moment as I thought about what to do.

"Enji?" I looked up and found myself struck dumb by Rei standing in the doorway. Her long white hair was full, giving her a cute almost pixie-like quality, while her face was just plain beautiful, and her grey eyes struck a nerve in me. A good nerve. Endeavour was a fool. Despite her beauty, Rei looked haunted, a ghost of fear loomed behind her as she took a careful step forward. "Why are you here?"

She tilted her head, one eyebrow raised. "And why are just your eyebrows on fire?"

Because I was really bad at controlling this thing and it's a miracle half of Japan wasn't currently on fire.

"Uhh," I swiped my hand over my eyebrows and extinguished those flames before placing some tea down on the table and gesturing towards it like it was some grand prize. "Good morning Rei, I made you some tea. I'm not sure if it's the kind you like." I held up the box I pulled it out of and smiled. "I also made pancakes."

Rei's mouth dropped, but she moved closer, heading towards the tea cup as she watched me with suspicious eyes. "What happened to training Touya?"

"He said he didn't want to train."

She shook, and grabbed the cup tightly. "Oh. I'm sorry. I should have―"

"He asked if he could watch cartoons with Fuyumi and I said yes." I scratched the back of my head, turning away from her as I felt an odd combination of adoration and guilt as I looked at her. While Enji hadn't hit her―yet―there was a tension between us. And why wouldn't there be? She was effectively a breeding machine to Endeavor. "Is that okay?"

Again Rei's mouth dropped and she held the cup a bit tighter before shaking her head. "No, that's fine, I... Thank you... For giving him a break."

"Don't mention it." I placed a cooked pancake in front of her and shrugged. "I don't really know if you like pancakes but―"

"No," she blinked and shook her head. "I mean, I do, I just." She shook her head again, staring at the plate. "They're fine. Thanks."

"I'll go get Touya and Fuyumi, I'm sure they'd love to eat with their mom."

Their father, on the other hand. I couldn't remember ever even holding Fuyumi. Endeavour judged her too quick; she was a female, and that made her weak. Damn, I really ended up in an asshole, didn't I?

"I'm still thinking about having another kid," Rei whispered, still looking at her cup of tea. "I'm sorry, but please, give me more time."

"Oh," I blinked, scratching the side of my cheek as I glanced at her. Such a haunted beauty. Sure, Rei had smiled before, but it was never because of Endeavour. "Don't worry about that, we don't have to if you don't want to."

Rei gasped, "I, what? Are you sure? Didn't we―"

"Yeah," I paused before she brought up much of the past. I already felt guilty for everything. "You might find this hard to believe, but I'm not going to force anything on you. Besides, I'm not sure if I want another kid either."

I didn't even want the first two.

"Oh," Rei blinked, she took a sip of her drink. "I see."

I saw it then. For the first time as Enji, I saw her do something wonderful. She smiled. It was small, confident, charming, and made my heart beat faster. She was way out of my league. "Well, I'll go get them."

"Your hair's on fire." She called as I left the room.

I needed to fix that ASAP!

I found Touya and Fuyumi in the living room, Fuyumi laying on the floor staring up at her big brother while the little redhead sat way too close to the T.V. He wasn't watching anime. He was watching the news. All Might had saved a bunch of people.

Again.

"Hey―" I started softly.

Touya jumped and quickly changed the channel. "Uhh, sorry dad I, Fuyumi just―"

"You like All Might, right?" I asked walking over to scoop Fuyumi up. This was another first for Enji. Was I supposed to carry three year olds? She wasn't a baby, just like a big toddler right? I should have paid more attention to my child development classes in college. Still, she could talk. Right?

"Dad?" Fuyumi asked, looking at me confused. I knew so little about her. But she wasn't struggling. That was good.

Now to try and pretend I didn't write several stories of my now daughter in romantic relationships with some punk that wasn't even born yet.

Touya on the other hand looked scared. "No, I mean, well yeah, everyone likes him, he's the best hero, but I think that―"

"You don't have to lie to me, Touya, you can say you like all Might. I won't get mad."

"Really?" He asked with wide eyes. "I don't know what happened to you, Dad but you're awesome today! After breakfast, can we train? I wanna be a hero like All Might one day!"

I laughed and nodded. "Sounds good! Now hurry up and get to the kitchen, there's pancakes."

Kids were easy. I watched as Touya bolted out the door and headed towards the kitchen.

Fuyumi followed him with her eyes.

"Do you want me to put you down?" I asked her.

Her head spun and she looked at me with wide blue eyes before nodding.

I unleashed the Fuyumi and watched as she did that awkward toddler waddle-run.

They would probably appreciate some alone time with their mom. It wasn't something that I should pollute at the moment. Besides, I could eat my pancake in a minute. But right now I needed to make a call.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and scrolled through it looking for All Might's number. I didn't have to look far. There was at least one missed call each week from All Might. It was almost like he was my ex-girlfriend.

Quick memory check proved that was a no. Thank god.

I hit redial, and listened to the phone ring for a few moments. Would he even pick up? Should I wait for him to call me? How did that work with All Might? He seemed goofy enough that he'd be really excited that I'd be calling him. He might even—

I turned the news on again and watched as All Might fought a villain, I could see him scrambling to pick up his phone.

I hung up. He'd call me back after he was done.

Before I could even take a step away, my phone started ringing. It was All Might. I sighed, watching him fight the villain with his phone pressed to his ear. Sure he was the best hero, but wasn't this showing off?

I answered.

"Endeavour!" All Might shouted into the phone. "Sorry I missed your call earlier! I was fighting a villain and was a bit distracted!"

"You're still fighting a villain."

"What? No I'm not, what makes you―"

"I'm watching you on the news right now."

"Oh that? This is just some fun! But what can I do for you?" I watched as All Might all but obliterated the villain on the T.V. and even pausing to flash the camera the peace sign all on the phone with me.

"Do you think we can meet in person soon? There's a lot we need to talk about." I tried not to laugh as I thought about All Might acting like this. It was somehow both out of character and in character for him to just be so lax about actually fighting crime.

"Certainly! I know just the place! We can even do lunch if you prefer. How about at—"

"Do you know a Nezu?" I asked before he could get to set on a place. "And is there a place we can meet with him as well?"

A semi awkward silence followed. "How do you know about him?"

"It's why I want to talk."

"Right. Meet me at U.A. at 3."

"Okay."

I glanced towards the clock. That gave me five hours. Five hours to figure out exactly what I wanted to say.