The Crimson Butterfly [My Hero Academia & Tokyo Ghoul]

Flower Symbolism Time With Author-chan!

When Rei said that all Touya wants is for his father to acknowledge him, Enji replied that all he can show anyone is the world of heroes, to which Rei scathingly replied that he is just running away from his problems.

When Shoto was five years old, Enji began training him to become a Hero. However, the training was harsh and detestable. Rei tried to defend Shoto, saying that he was too young, but Enji refused to listen and ordered her to stay out of his way, hitting her for interfering. Enji also prevented Shoto from interacting with his older brothers and sister.

Meanwhile, Touya continued to train in secret until one day, during the winter season, he got his Fire quirk to grow stronger. Shortly afterward, excited to show his father how he had developed, Touya asked him to come to Sekoto Peak the next time he had a day off. Enji, however, lifted up his shirt and saw his burn scars, angry that Touya had been training again, but his son was adamant that he was destined for greatness and determined to make his father proud of him.

Frustrated, Enji ignored his eldest son's pleas and hit Rei for not stopping Touya, causing Shoto to yell at him to not bully her. Enji told his youngest son to stay out of it. Rei confessed to her husband that she couldn't stop Touya.

His worsening behavior began to affect Rei, to the point that she began to see her husband's face in her children, until one day she snapped and threw boiling water at Shoto's face.

After this incident, Enji had her admitted to a mental hospital. After learning of this, Shoto angrily blamed him for what happened to his mother. And shortly after Rei's hospitalization, Touya went back to Sekoto Peak, expecting his father to come to see his new powers, but he didn't appear.

At the time, Enji thought it would only throw fuel onto Touya's ambitions, but in truth, he didn't know what to say to him. Either way, his not showing up caused Touya to lose control of his flames, resulting in a massive wildfire.

Enji could only watch from afar the massive fire in horror, knowing Touya was there. When the fire was extinguished, Enji was among the burnt trees in the aftermath, looking for Touya but could not find him. He was believed to have been burned alive from the flames exceeding 2000 degrees Celsius since only his lower jawbone was ever found. Enji rushed to the scene in horror and attempted to search for him, believing he hadn't been killed, but couldn't find him.

Touya's 'death' affected his family, especially his mother Rei, whose mental state had already been harshly affected by her husband's past abuses, and his brother Natsuo, who still considers his father responsible for Touya's demise.

The family installed a Butsudan Buddhist altar in his former room after his passing and still sent their prayers to him. Even Enji is seen praying at it from time to time, saying that he regrets the loss of his eldest son. Enji didn't stop obsessing over Shoto after killing Touya.

Through this whole story we can see that, despite his reasons for marrying her, Enji did show some feelings for Rei when they first met, as he described her as a strong person who could melt at the slightest touch.

The fact that he also remembered her favorite flowers (Rindou) even though she mentioned it once during that time shows how much he cared about her at the beginning. Enji initially had a much healthier relationship with his wife during the first few years of their marriage, but however, the relationship between them started to sour when Touya's quirk and weakness prevented Enji from stopping training Touya and leading to Enji's decision to have more kids so he would be forced to give up.

When Enji started training Shoto when he was still very young, Rei tried to stop him, but Enji refused to listen and told her to stay out of his way, smacking her around when she interfered with the training of Shoto.