Dabi groaned, his body heavy as if it were filled with cement. The smell hit him first—warm coffee, clean laundry, something sweet baking in the distance. It didn’t make sense. The last thing he remembered was fighting—blue fire, screaming, that villain’s weird pink light flashing right before everything went black.

When he finally blinked his eyes open, the world didn’t look like the grimy backstreets he was used to. Instead, he was in a bright, sunlit room. Cream walls. Family photos on the dresser. His scars were… smaller? Barely visible? His body didn’t ache the way it usually did.

“Hey—” a soft voice gasped.

He turned his head sharply. A woman stood in the doorway, wearing an oversized sweatshirt and holding a steaming mug. She smiled in pure relief, rushing over.

“Oh my god, you’re awake.” She set the mug down and cupped his face like she’d done it a million times before. “You scared the hell out of me, you’ve been out for three days after that villain attack. The doctors said you just needed rest, but still—three days, Touya.”

Touya.

His pulse spiked. No one called him that anymore.

Before he could say anything, tiny footsteps pattered down the hall. A little girl with messy brown, red, and white hair burst into the room, clutching a crayon drawing. “Daddy! Daddy, you’re up!” she cried, climbing onto the bed like it was the most normal thing in the world. Behind her, a toddler in dinosaur pajamas waddled in, dragging a stuffed bunny.

Dabi stared at them all—at the woman, the girl, the boy—and his throat went dry.

He had no idea where he was. No idea who these people really were.

But the way they looked at him—like he was their whole world—told him one thing.

If he didn’t want to break whatever this was, he’d have to play along.

“…Yeah,” he said hoarsely, forcing a smile that felt foreign on his face. “Guess I scared you guys, huh?”