Chapter 26 Why am I on Fire? by Yojimbra

Unintelligible baby noises.

"Really? And then what?"

Bubbly babbling.

"No way!"

Excited baby noises.

"I can't believe that, and then what'd you do?"

Gurgling.

"Oh, well it's like you almost got away with it."

Excited screaming.

"True, true, you haven't gotten away with it yet."

Bubbling baby banter.

"Well, I won't stop you, if you hurry now, you might even make it before your mom gets home."

"What are you doing?"

"Oooh, too late."

I grabbed Shoko and pulled her onto my chest before I sat up with her to see Rei leaning against the doorway, arms folded and an eyebrow raised in challenge. The lopsided smile on her face was one I was familiar with; it was the smile she gave me whenever she caught me doing something strange. I loved turning that smile into a more loving one.

But, nothing came to mind so I just shrugged. "Vibin."

Rei snorted, laughing and rolling her eyes. "And why is—"

"Papa!" Fuyumi squeezed past her mother and darted into the room, nearly falling over as she all but tackled me into a hug around the neck. "I went on a date with mom today! Are you jealous?"

Totally.

"Nope."

"Aww, but mom said you would be!" Fuyumi pouted, moving to put her head right into my line of sight, Shoko reached up to grab at her sister's hair. At five years old now, Fuyumi had turned into a chatterbox, a few more months and she'd be going to school with her brother. "Why aren't you?"

"Well," I booped Shoko on her nose, drawing her blue eyes towards me. "I had a date with your sister. We took a nap, listened to some jams and ate some yams."

"What's a yam?"

"Gross baby food."

"Oh." Fuyumi climbed over my shoulder before flopping over, I caught her with my hand and placed her on my knee. She looked towards her baby sister and gave a big cheerful smile. "I wanna date Shoko. When am I old enough to babysit?"

"Can you count to one hundred yet?"

That was one of those questions that I regretted asking the moment I asked it.

"Yep! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen…" For a five year old, being able to do that without using multiple hands was impressive, and the way Fuyumi bobbed her head with each number was adorable, and Shoko even joined in mirroring her big sister's head bobbing.

Rei walked over and Shoko only had eyes for mommy with how she gurgled and smiled. Like father, like daughter. She picked up Shoko and placed her on her hip with a pro-mommy move that really just made her look hot as hell to me. Well, she always looked hot, even after her third kid.

"One hundred!" Fuyumi jumped up off my knee smiling. "Can I start babysitting now?"

"Nope," Rei booped Shoko on the nose before tapping my own nose as I was the only person sitting on the floor like a goofball. "But we can ask Kushina if you can be her super duper babysitting assistant."

That sentence might have just made Fuyumi's day.

While I had largely been focused on my own newborn daughter, there were a lot of things that I was kind of aware of that happened. First, Rikiya had campaigned well and was now a member of the National Diet, in the house of representatives, though chances are he was just using that as a means to get his foot in the door until he could get more influence. He wanted me there for his speeches, and I sent him a picture of Shoko puking down my back when I tried to burp her that Rei had found hilarious.

Rikiya also thought it was hilarious and sent a wide assortment of toys for all my kids in response, which also served as a welcome home gift.

Our new house had also been completed, and it was completely different. Rei ditched the traditional Japanese layout we had and went for something that was more modern and spacious, while still giving us plenty of places for comfort. Now we had a more proper family room, a game room, and an underutilized office that Rei was thinking about doing something with.

We also upgraded the hell out of the bathroom so that we had a large wooden tub that allowed for soaking the whole family at once, and certain activities during adult swim. Which was currently limited to five minutes of pretending we didn't have kids until Fuyumi came in and told us she was ready for bed.

Which made the idea of calling our default babysitter all the more appealing. Kushina, despite the events, had been cleared of all suspicions and had assisted the police to the best of her abilities. She was currently under house arrest.

House arrest she was serving in Might Tower.

In All Might's apartment.

Yeah.

Apparently my wife is magic and managed to hook them up somehow.

I was completely lost as to how that all happened, if I was honest.

Just, like, we went to have dinner there, I thought it was a bit weird that All Might and Kushina were living together, and I didn't put two and two together until Kushina gave All Might a kiss on the cheek.

At that point I looked at Rei with a fiery version of the shocked pikachu face.

And right now I was looking at Rei with a very puppy dog face. "Wanna go out this weekend?"

"Hmm, that depends," Rei hummed, tapping on her lip and looking at Shoko. "I might need an energy boost to not want to spend the whole day soaking in a tub."

"That sounds like a good date to me." I chuckled when she swatted my shoulder.

"Dad! You're so silly!" Fuyumi bonked my other shoulder. "Why do you like baths so much?"

Because Rei was there and naked.

And it was really relaxing.

"Because I get really sweaty being a hero all day and your mom doesn't like it when I'm all sweaty."

"Yes she does!" Fuyumi jumped and pointed towards Rei. "Whenever you're working out, she's watching you and even licks her lips! I asked Miss Kushina about it and she said that it was because Mom likes to watch you sweat."

I blinked.

Then I looked towards my wife.

She was blushing and looking away.

Well that was an ego boost I didn't know I needed.

"Sooooooo, Friiiida—" I reached out and pulled on her pants slightly.

"Yes friday, I'll call Kushina and check."

Hehe, score.

I looked towards Fuyumi and rubbed her head slightly. "Wanna help me get dinner ready before your brother gets back from soccer club?"

"Yes!"

Fuyumi was so easy to win over it was almost laughable.

Touya was less so.

XXXX

I was staring at him again.

The charred skull of the only man I had ever killed.

The fire surrounding him was cackling around us.

I could still feel that fury.

That unending rage that had fueled my actions in that moment.

I could feel the scars that had been healing over ever since that day.

I had tried to act like everything was fine.

But.

It was hard.

It was hard to not freak out that I had killed someone.

"Did it feel good?"

I looked at the skull. It was speaking to me. The charred remains of a man that had thought that his resistance to fire meant that he could walk upon the surface of the sun. Somehow, without eyes, without skin, without being alive, it was looking at me, asking me a question I didn't have the answers for.

Or didn't want to answer.

"Killing me." The skull continued. "It felt good, right? It felt good to be free, to let your flames loose! To drown the world in fire! All that glorious fire! To finally be true to yourself! I set you free! I let the real Endeavour out!"

I blinked. If this was a nightmare, it was doing a shit job of scaring me. If there was one thing I was good at, it was knowing who I am. Or, what I am. Look, I knew myself well. I know what I want, what I want to do, and what I desired.

And a world on fire was the exact opposite of what I wanted.

"Ohh?" The skull spoke once more. "I see, I see, your family still lives."

A cackle echoed throughout my very soul.

"With a quirk like yours, with how readily you can let your fury go. I wonder how long that will last."

The skull crumbled to ash in a scream of flames that quickly turned to the screams of Rei, Touya, Fuyumi, and Shoko.

A cold sweat greeted me as I shot out of bed. My hands were trembling, my heart was pounding, and I could do nothing but let out long, heavy breath after long, heavy breath. What the hell was that dream? Why? Why was I thinking about that? Did I regret killing him? Pragmatically, no, he was too dangerous, too evil to let live. Nor did I object to his death morally.

The problem was that I was the one to do it. There was a difference between saying someone should die and swinging the executioner's axe.

So why was I thinking about this now?

And why was I dreaming about burning my family alive?

A cold hand ran along my back as Rei sat up in bed with me, Fuyumi passed out on top of the covers like a starfish.

"Enji?" Her voice was soft, tired, and filled with concern. "What's wrong?"

I swallowed and stared at my still shaking hands. "I… I had a dream. A dream where I burned you all."

The familiar soft sensation of Rei kissing my cheek was enough to make the shaking stop.

"Enji," she hugged me softly and hummed; there was a confidence in her voice that I sorely needed at the moment, "I know you won't ever try to hurt us. And I know that you'll stop yourself before you lose control."

"But I—"

"Enji." She kissed my neck softly, sleep still holding fast onto her. "You're too much of a giant teddy bear to ever hurt us. Do you know how many articles there are about how your peaceful ways of doing things are working? So please, don't doubt yourself. And don't let a silly dream tell you otherwise."

I kissed the top of her head and laid us both back down onto the bed. "Right, Rei, I'm—"

A cry from Shoko's baby monitor completely ruined the mood.

I groaned and stepped out of bed. "I'll take care of her."

"I love you~" Rei laughed, letting her hand slide down my arm before our fingers locked for just a moment.

By the time I got Shoko calmed down with a diaper change, Rei had fallen asleep, leaving me with three hours to stare into the void and think about that dream.