Chapter Text
Class 1-Aaayyy
Nyoom: Since the new school year begins next week, I believe a chat name change is in order :)
<Nyoom has changed the chat name to Class 2-Aaayyy>
Nyoom: Let this year be as fulfilling as the last!
USB-C: YEEEAAAHHHHHHH SECOND YEARS LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO
Xenomorph: LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO
RockHard: RAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Tapegun Tourniquet: RAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Firecracker: RAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
Goddess: And that’s the Bakusquad rolecall done.
Xenomorph: I’M EXCITED. SUE ME.
Gone Girl: I just hope this year’s not as uh
Gone Girl: Eventful.
Gone Girl: As last year.
DefyingGravity: WITH TODODEKU???
Frœg: NO WAY!!!!!
Gone Girl: I CAN DREAM GUYS
Chaos 2: Nah it’s completely understandable.
Chaos 2: I’m fully expecting some shit to go down because we can’t ever have a normal day.
Armed and Dangerous: If Uraraka’s theory holds true, we may need to lock your boyfriend in a vault for the chance at a normal second year
Chaos 2: Was
Chaos 2: Was that a Yoichi reference
Armed and Dangerous: Depends. How’d he take it?
Chaos 2: I can hear him laughing.
Armed and Dangerous: Then yes. It was a reference.
Chaos 2: “TELL HIM THAT WAS FUCKING HILARIOUS.” -Yoichi
Armed and Dangerous: Awe shucks
USB-C: I LOVE the ghosts in your head laughing about their trauma, Todoroki
Chaos 2: It certainly makes it hard to keep a straight face sometimes
DefyingGravity: ANYWAY!!! Guys what terrorists do you think Deku will stop this time
Nyoom: Maybe he’ll assist in the stopping of Trigger?
Goddess: Or maybe he’ll be called away overseas to help a rising threat?
Tapegun Tourniquet: Y’all ever see Die Hard? That but it’s Midoriya.
Darkness. No parents.: Will he finally kill Endeavor?
Tapegun Tourniquet: Odds are low but I’m a GAMBLING MAN.
Chaos 2: My brother’s got the first claim to that.
Firecracker: Whatever it is, you’re helping him hide the body, Icyhot
Chaos 2: Bakugo, would you expect any fucking less of me?
Firecracker: No, I’m just making sure
Xenomorph: Is this an extension on the shovel talk?
Gone Girl: Bakugo giving Todoroki a shovel talk?? The fuck is this dynamic they have?
Goddess: Begrudging brothers-in-law
Armed and Dangerous: Love that we’ve just accepted Mido and Todo as married atp
Armed and Dangerous: The students of class 2-A: eighteen normal kids and Morticia and Gomez Addams
Chaos 2: Ooohhhh we should do that for Halloween this year,,,,
DefyingGravity: CAN I BE WEDNESDAY?
Chaos 2: Sure, why the hell not
DefyingGravity: FUCK YEAH
Frœg: I wanna be Thing :3
Chaos 2: Hang on, I’m writing this down to tell Izuku later
Armed and Dangerous: Todoroki, where is Mido?
Chaos 2: Napping on me like a car
DefyingGravity: car
Frœg: car
Xenomorph: car
Armed and Dangerous: car
Goddess: car
Firecracker: car
Nyoom: Car
USB-C: car
Dadzawa: car
Chaos 2: *cat
Chaos 2: Holy fuck, let a man BREATHE
Firecracker: Damn even Aizawa broke his lurking rule to clown on your bitch ass
Dadzawa: it’s my job
Chaos 2: He also just hates me
Dadzawa: true
Chaos 2: >:O
Dadzawa: after last year, are you really that surprised
Chaos 2: No but
Chaos 2: Shut up :(
Dadzawa: (disappears back into the shadows)
Chaos 2: Bitch
DefyingGravity: Todoroki, how’re Hawks and Touya enjoying their break?
Xenomorph: Yeah, didn’t you say they were on vacation?
Chaos 2: They’ve sent a ton of pictures of the mountain and the springs and shrines they’ve visited so I assume they’re having a good time
USB-C: Good time or “good time ;)” ?
Chaos 2: Touya’s been wearing a lot of scarves and turtlenecks in these pictures. That is my answer.
Goddess: Oh dear
Xenomorph: Oh my GOD the sluts
Armed and Dangerous: Whores
USB-C: HotWings, our weird uncles my beloveds
Firecracker: They certainly have an interesting dynamic, that’s for sure
Chaos 2: Let them have their fun, it’ll be over next week
Xenomorph: Yeah and we have to see your brother pining after Hawks’s ass again
Firecracker: How many times do you think he’ll mention him or their trip
DefyingGravity: Three times a day and he’ll try to show us pictures once daily at least
Goddess: That’s a little on-the-nose, Uraraka
Chaos 2: No no she’s got a point
USB-C: I think he’ll want to mention it but think better of it bc he knows we’ll make fun of him
Firecracker: You really think he knows better?
Xenomorph: I mean he’s grown the last few months
DefyingGravity: Not physically
Firecracker: Not physically
DefyingGravity: JINX
Firecracker: JINX
Armed and Dangerous: Great now neither of them can talk
Chaos 2: My laughing just woke up Izuku
Goddess: Say hello for me :3
Chaos 2: hi yaomomo, shoto just shoved me off of him and ran to the bathroom bc we were like that for six hours
Chaos 2: dunno why he didn’t wake me up, i coulda gotten off
Goddess: It’s relationship rules: if your partner falls asleep on you, you can’t move unless they move first
Xenomorph: You’re like a cat.
Chaos 2: no apparently im a car
Chaos 2: beep beep
~~~~~
The Todoroki residence had been quiet for years.
It started when Touya died. The day he burned to nothing but a single sliver of jawbone was the day a lot of strings snapped.
Then, it became even more quiet when Rei was hospitalized. The house was loud with sobbing, pained screams, violent apologies, and cursing left and right as two parents who’d never had to collaborate before suddenly had to handle a child so severely hurt, it had to be buried deep. Rei left three children and a man in that house.
After that, it only stayed quiet save for the sounds of the so-called “training” down the hall. Natsuo was quick to drown it out with his friends at school and eventually left for university, his constant arguing no longer filling the walls of the home.
The next summer, Shoto started spending the days outside of the house. His training proved unnecessary as he had apparently gained a remarkable understanding of his quirk seemingly overnight.
A year later, Fuyumi moved out and Shoto spent the rest of the year in the dorms at school.
The house once belonging to six people now only housed one, the man who owned it, and it was the quietest it had ever been. The silence that grew like mold in the walls had forced everyone out and it left Enji alone to breathe in the spores of his failure. He hated how this felt. This odd remorse he had started feeling last year, beginning with the talk with Shoto at UA, had combined with the silent plague and left him aching for a time where he had his family here. It was an odd feeling.
Then… those weeks ago at the Commission offices, when the child escaped custody, there was that young man who wielded the same fire as Enji. It was blue, hotter than his own hellfire, and seemed to not be compatible with the man’s own body. But whatever investigation they could’ve done was thwarted by the body disintegrating, turning to a grey shapeless glob on the floor before disappearing entirely.
The Commission President had called Enji a few days after it had happened and he demanded answers. She could only provide two, as well as some news.
“Yes, Touya Todoroki is alive. He is currently under UA’s protection, meaning I have no means of getting him to talk.”
“I can’t even see my own children?”
She sighed, “No. I will tell you this, Todoroki, that Nedzu has done the unthinkable and called in a favor.”
“What did he ask?”
“For me to open a formal and official investigation into you and many… alleged circumstances. The evidence is damning enough to warrant a pause on your professional hero license,” she said, voice low and like she was telling a child their favorite pet had just died, “I highly suggest you get your affairs as they pertain to the Endeavor Agency in order. It is not in your favor.”
The house felt unbearable silent in the days following that phone call, but every second, something in the air shifted. A too-cold draft crossed over his skin, a door slammed unexpectedly, the echoes of a child-like screaming filled his ears as he drifted off to sleep, and every moment of every day, Enji Todoroki fought the urge to weep.
He sat in the now-destroyed training room, fire licking the walls and floorboards and his shoulders and chest as he struggled to contain the rage and sorrow that battled in his mind. His heart demanded he go to the school, their “UA Wall” be damned, and drag his sons out to speak with him. His mind tried to think of plans to convince Nedzu to let him at least see them, even if no talking was to be done. Neither solution favored him, though. Each painted him in the light of a sad, desperate man who was begging to see the children he pushed away.
Fuyumi wasn’t giving him anything either, other than an email from a week ago stating that Rei had been discharged and is under her care, and Enji didn’t even know how to contact Natsuo. So, there in the room he sat, the ghosts of his failures slicing his skin and mind as he fought the feelings back into his own heart. He’d spent so much time in his youth and early adulthood shoving the emotions away, it’s what made him such a good hero after all, and if he let them resurface, he wouldn’t be Endeavor anymore.
He was supposed to be the top hero, the absolute best, and he couldn’t even keep a family together. He meant for it to be the most powerful bloodline in the country, part of the plan being marrying Rei to produce a group of future heroes who would dominate the top standings and eradicate villains in Japan for good. But somewhere down the line, be it his decision to purchase his wife and force her to have children after the twins’ birth nearly killed her or his own anger pushing all of his offspring away or his determination to turn Shoto into the next Endeavor, all of it went wrong.
No… that wasn’t it.
Touya nearly killed himself because he had a useless pipe dream and wanted to show off, causing the fire on the mountain.
Rei went insane because she was weak. She couldn’t handle the simple task of being a mother and housewife to Enji, so he ruined his perfect creation.
Natsuo and Fuyumi never deserved to be in the family to begin with, their lives were just years of time wasted on fruitless children. Enji believed they’d have their use, but Fuyumi’s ice wasn’t nearly as powerful as Rei’s and Natsuo might as well have been quirkless.
And Shoto, the child who was rebellious and stupid enough to throw his life away for the useless belief that having friends and connections would help him become a hero. Why did he turn to those in his class to learn Flashfire when he could have easily earned the right to learn it from Enji? Why did he feel the need to go against Enji’s every word when all the man wanted was to make the boy into the greatest and most powerful hero in the world? Shoto was nothing but an ungrateful child and Enji was just trying to guide him to the top.
All five of them had done nothing but see his efforts and throw them into the trash. His life’s goal was now unobtainable because his family, his property, refused to listen to him. He owned them, he created them, he made them what they are and this was all he had to show for it?
This empty house, these empty rooms, these silent halls, this terrible feeling he had done something wrong, all of it was their fault.
It was all their fault.
Enji’s fire returned as he glared at the wall before him. There were flecks of dried blood covering them, a brutal reminder of the years he spent (wasted) training Shoto and Touya. The room reeked of its normal soot and smoke.
He rose to his feet and left the room, immediately finding a housekeeper and demanding them to clean it. He wasn’t going to be needing it anymore. He was plenty strong.
The halls were as quiet as normal, with the occasional whisper or ghostly whine filling his ears.
“You made her do it, you know.”
No, he didn’t. Rei was just damaged goods he foolishly purchased.
“Touya wanted to prove himself and you left him to die.”
The child was weak, just like his mother. He didn’t deserve such a powerful quirk if his body wasn’t able to handle even the smallest of flames.
“Your kids have disowned you and won’t keep your name.”
They didn’t deserve the prestige of such a powerful family name if they didn’t work like he was told they would when he made them. Fuyumi would have been a great manager and Natsuo’s mind for biotechnology would have made him an incredible asset in the labs at the Agency. None of that matters anymore.
“Your youngest will succeed you, but not in the way you’d like.”
Maybe Shoto will finally come to his senses. He doesn’t need that damn school to get stronger, it’ll just force him into unnecessary tasks and won’t direct him towards what he needs. He doesn’t need those damn friends of his who’ll just pull him away and distract him from getting stronger. He doesn’t need Midoriya…
Midoriya.
He was the cause of the most recent changes. He turned the rest of Enji’s assets against him. Touya worked with Nedzu to save him. Fuyumi kept bringing him up during their talks before she moved out. That green child from the Sports Festival who went toe-to-toe with a dual-using Shoto and won. That child who helped All Might defeat the Boogeyman of the Underground last summer in Kamino. That child… who was the only thing keeping Shoto from being number one.
Yes. That’s it.
Enji stopped in the middle of the hallway.
“Midoriya,” he said into the air. The name was heavy on his tongue and Enji could feel the poisonous word seep into his throat, “Izuku Midoriya. The child who ruined my life.”
“He didn’t do anything.”
“Stop.”
“Stop lying to yourself.”
“No. He took my son away from me. He turned my family against me.”
Flashes of memories crossed his eyes and suddenly Enji was no longer in his home. Instead, he stood on that mountain as it burned an unholy blue. The forest was thicker than he remembered and the smoke gave off the illusion of the trees being in full bloom, despite the flames.
“Father!” A boy’s voice cried out from the trees, “Father, help!”
Enji took off running, ignoring the fire burning his body. The trees were guiding him down an odd path, one with sharp turns and branching paths like a hedge maze.
“Father!”
The clearing he was guided towards was boxy and small but was clearly the epicenter of the fire. In the middle, a small, shivering boy wept. His hair, a mix of white and red, billowed from his own fire as he tried to use the melted snow to put it out. His lower jaw was made of solid blue flames, which didn’t seem to be burning him, and his eyes were a pure white, flickering like the hottest of hellfire.
“Father!” The boy turned to him, “Help me! Please!”
Enji blinked and suddenly a shadowy figure stood over the child version of Touya. It was made of the same strange black-and-green material as Midoriya’s whip attack, save for the red wisps that ran down its arms and the all-white lighting that made up the almond-shaped eyes that stared at Enji. The curls in the hair, the determined expression in those eyes, the solidness of the body… there was no doubt that was Midoriya.
Touya reached out to his father, “Help!”
The ghostly form cut off Touya’s scream with a lightning-fast punch to the jaw. Touya wasn’t knocked out, but there was blood pooling on the ground.
“Quiet,” the ghost of Midoriya said. Its voice was made up of what sounded like a cacophony of voices, each one different and yet melding into an understandable word each time he spoke, “You’ve only got yourself to blame.”
“Get away from my son,” Enji raised a fiery fist.
Midoriya just laughed, “Or what? You plan to fight me? You know you can’t win. All Might labelled me his successor and you couldn’t beat him for nearly thirty years!”
“We’ll see about that.”
The hero charged towards the ghost and swung his fist, but it was too fast. Midoriya side-stepped him in time to punch Enji in the side and kick Touya to the edge of the clearing. Enji’s hand flew to where the punch connected. He hadn’t felt a blow like that since he and All Might were in school and forced to spar. Even then, Enji knew it was a pulled punch. The child was going easy on him.
“It’s funny, really, how you see me as the reason your life turned to shit,” Midoriya said, now standing on a tree branch that shouldn’t hold his weight the way it was on fire, “We both know the real reason why it’s gone so wrong.”
“You took everything from me!” Enji roared, summoning his fire. He could already feel his body overheating from his own power and the forest’s inferno around him.
“How could I? I’m nothing but a child.”
Enji launched a Prominence Burn at the tree, but Midoriya was gone when the orange fire faded. He whirled around to see him somewhere else in the clearing and let loose another blast. Midoriya was gone and appeared somewhere else again.
Soon, the blue flames of the forest were overtaken by the orange ones and a piercing wail reached Enji’s ears. The ghostly cries of those that haunted him clawed at Enji’s mind and he held his head in agony.
“You reap what you sow!”
“So join me!”
“Come and dance with me!”
“Join me in Hell, Enji Todoroki!”
Enji roared against the voices, against the fire, against the punches he was receiving, and against the hands that gripped his arms and legs to drag him into the fiery inferno of the forest. He lashed out to push them away, but they wrapped around him and he couldn’t fight back.
“No!” He yelled, twisting his body to where Midoriya stood over Touya’s unmoving form, “Let me go! He’s the demon here, not me! He caused this! Touya!”
“Goodbye, Endeavor,” a white line appeared in a smile against the ghostly face as Midoriya reached down and gripped Touya’s head in his monstrous hands, “May we meet again in Hell.”
The moment Touya’s head was crushed to nothing beneath the strength of Midoriya’s hands, Enji’s vision snapped back to reality. He laid on his in the courtyard of his estate and stared at the now-smoking sky above. Blurred faces and echoing voices filled his senses, but he couldn’t respond as he sat up and faced the heat that licked his body.
The house was in ruins, fire billowing from every surface and every window. Glass shattered from the heat and melted shards hit his skin, which he dared not react to. It was keeping him awake just enough for him to witness everything he worked so hard for burning down. He watched the orange flames carry into the sky and pulled away from the slightest touch from those around him.
He didn’t deserve their worry. He didn’t deserve their sympathy.
Enji Todoroki was a pathetic man who couldn’t keep one thing for himself. His belongings all left him and his life was collapsing before his eyes. This burning house was proof of that.
The Todoroki residence was the loudest it’d been in years that night. Enji wished it wasn’t.
~~~~~
We do not control the lobsters
Girl: So I uh,,,,
Girl: I just got a call from the fire marshal of the department near the estate.
Gay: What for?
Tall: Why?
Girl: Have any of you checked the news?
Gay: No, I’ve been out with Izuku and Inko all day
Girl: Go back to their place. Now.
Gay: Fuyumi, what’s going on?
Girl: [Link]
Tall: Shit
Gay: Fuck
Girl: I’m trying to call Touya and Keigo but I think they’re in a place with bad reception. I’ll have to wait for them to get back to their cabin.
Tall: Keep at it, they need to stay there
Gay: Fuyumi, do you want me at your place?
Girl: No, let me handle this. You stay with Izuku and let Nedzu know where you are.
Gay: On it.
Tall: If you need me, Yumi, you know where to find me
Girl: Thanks, Nat
~~~~~
“Are you sure you’ll be fine there?” Shoto asked for the fifth time, adjusting how he rested his arms on the banister of the apartment’s outer hallway, “I can’t imagine Mom’s taking this well. Or you, for that matter.”
“Yes, Shoto, we’ll be fine,” Fuyumi sighed, “Rumi’s on her way in and Touya just called saying he and Keigo will be taking an extra few days to collect their thoughts.”
“Did Touya say anything… specific? Anything about talking to Dad?”
“He said he’d been preparing for it but he never thought it’d be like this. Did Izuku mention the investigation?”
Shoto sighed, “Yeah, he and Nedzu had to run it by Touya and I before they asked the Commission President.”
“I was ready for the other shoe to drop, but with the fire…”
“Shit’s fucked, Yumi.”
Her laugh was tight and forced, “Indeed it is.”
“Look, I’ll call you tomorrow to talk to Mom and I’ll head to your place when Touya and Kei get back. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. I love you, Sho.”
“Love you too, Yumi.”
The tone of his sister hanging up echoed in Shoto’s mind as he dropped the hand holding his phone to the railing. His bangs fell in front of his eyes and he simply let them.
The news of his father accidentally burning the family house down was a surprise to say the least. Those walls and floors were reinforced with the best fire-proof materials money could buy. Endeavor had expected several fire users in his family, so he needed a place not easily destroyed by the heat of their quirks. He ended up only having himself, Touya, and Shoto, but the need was still there when the heat of Touya’s flames far surpassed Endeavor’s.
But for the house to suddenly spark and burn down within hours? Safe to say, Shoto was shocked at the news coverage. He wasn’t particularly saddened by the loss, all of his stuff had been divided between his dorm, his room in Fuyumi’s new house, and the Midoriya apartment, but the fact that the building where most of his traumatic memories happened was just… gone? Shoto didn’t know how to process that.
It felt like years of repressed memories and pain were crawling up his spine, desperate to be brought to light, and now he didn’t have the evidence that proved it even happened.
The police were saying the evidence pointed towards a psychotic break of some kind, that the pressure of everything in the last two years had finally caught up to Endeavor and made him have a breakdown. It was probably the fact that Touya was alive that caused it. Shoto remembered his father’s face as Dabi danced atop Gigantomachia and shouted for the world to hear that he was Endeavor’s eldest son.
“Come dance with me in Hell, Enji Todoroki!” Dabi’s voice echoed. It was a declaration, a promise to finally kill off the man who gave him so much grief, and to die alongside him so that they may forever be entangled in a ballroom of fiery torment.
“Well, Dabi… you probably got your wish. And you took the rest of us with you,” Shoto thought, rubbing his hand over a spot on his chest where there once was a scar from Dabi’s fire, “Except for me.”
Shoto wasn’t religious. In a world of quirks and all that came with them, many people gave up on believing in such things. Sure, some still clung to the old books and testaments for some semblance of pre-quirk “normal”, but when the first superpowers that granted humanity god-like strength and control over nature appeared, most gave up trying to believe in a higher power.
Really, those who did only stuck to it for a moral code to tie themselves to, rather than just listen to the law-makers. Some countries still held themselves to it, like America and Great Britain, while others had completely phased out the belief that their laws had to be tied to a church.
Many others were simply not a part of anything. Shoto and most of his friends were in that vein of people.
He never really let himself worry about an afterlife. If there was something awaiting his soul after death, he would find out when he died. Of course, Second Chance sort of fucked a lot of that thinking up, especially for Izuku, but after this life? He wasn’t too sure about what awaited him. In the last run, he resigned himself to dying in the line of duty, but he never expected it to actually happen, even when the war started. Shoto never really thought about what would happen after and instead focused on putting one tired foot in front of the other.
But the image of a ballroom in Hell where Dabi forced his father through an eerie waltz played by devils found itself coalescing in Shoto’s mind. Were there even still souls to be put into an afterlife? Were Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Rei spared the torment? What sort of higher being would allow that sort of punishment for those who didn’t deserve it?
Shoto was probably thinking too hard about Dabi’s words.
It was a grandiose statement that harbored all of his ill will towards the man who ruined his life. That’s all.
“You’re doing it again,” Izuku’s voice wafted in and Shoto turned to see him standing in the doorway of the apartment, illuminated only by the light in the entryway. He had a large blanket around his shoulders and was probably deadset on dragging Shoto to bed.
“What, brooding?” Shoto said.
Izuku walked over and hoisted one side of the blanket over Shoto, leaning into his left side with a sigh, “No, I was gonna say thinking, but if you finally admit you’re brooding, I’ll take it.”
“I’m not brooding-“
“Then you’re thinking too hard again,” Izuku said, “Anything in particular?”
Shoto paused for a moment and looked back out on the residential squall around them, “Do you think he could’ve changed?”
“Your father?” Izuku watched Shoto nod with careful eyes, “Well… anyone’s capable of change, I think. They just have to be… willing to do so.”
“Even if they’ve hurt a bunch of people? Hurt those closest to them?”
“I like to imagine so, but I think that’s the optimist in me,” he said, “Your father is a special case. I think he’s capable of change, as he was trying in the last timeline, but that change was caused by seeing someone he raised be turned to such horrendous depths that it finally clicked that he was in the wrong. Without Dabi’s influence, your father is just… a sad man with delusions of grandeur. Besides, he hasn’t put forth any effort in this run either. He probably needs this to inflict some sort of change onto himself.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Shoto whispered, finally turning back to Izuku with tears in his eyes, "And if he never sees himself as the problem?”
“Then we move on and forget about him. You’re still healing, Shoto. Everything he’s done, in both timelines, it’s all still there in your mind. Doing this, imagining a life with him still there… it’s not helping you. It’s not healthy.”
He was right, as much as Shoto loathed to admit it.
Two years ago, when the world around them had been pulled into a cascade of light by the self-named Dark Might, Shoto encountered that woman in the large hat… that woman who made him see his heart’s greatest desire. He saw himself as a kid, laughing and playing with his whole family, Endeavor included. They were happy, they were whole.
Waking up from that dream and realizing reality was one of the worst things to ever happen to Shoto.
He stamped down the joy he’d felt in that moment and never shared it with anyone, trying to remember the laughter he heard in those few moments that he had within the dream. Young Touya’s face was already blurred in his mind.
But when he imagined that dream now, his father was never there. All he saw was his mother gently laughing at their antics and reminding them to be careful. It was a kinder dream, a happier one.
Izuku was right.
Endeavor had to be forgotten, for the sake of Shoto’s future.
Shoto’s body curled further into Izuku as his tears finally fell and his breathing hitched and for the first time in a while, the unbearable pressure of his father’s hand lessened the tiniest bit.
~~~~~
Phantom Thieves of Bakugo’s Patience
Skull: I just don’t think it’s supposed to sound like that
Mona: But it’s spelled “aioli”, meaning it sounds like “ay-oh-lee”
Panther: Ain’t it french? We all know the french pronounce shit weirdly
Skull: Yeah, it makes more sense for it to sound like “oil” if it’s french oil
Panther: It’s made of oil, sure, but it’s pronounced differently
Mona: Highkey don’t think it’s french
Skull: Mmmmmmmmmm seems like fake news to me, boss
Joker but red: Kami, it’s literally pronounced as it’s spelled.
Joker but red: Ay-oh-lee.
Skull: Nah i don’t think so, Kiri
Panther: I’m starting to think you’re trying to ragebait us
Skull: Me????? No. I would never.
Crow: Then why the fuck would you bring it up
Skull: Bc i’m bored
Mona: We go back to school in three days
Panther: We have that mall trip planned for the saturday before school starts
Skull: But that isn’t TODAY
Joker but red: Has your two week minecraft phase run its course?
Skull: yeah :pensive:
Skull: And Iida rejected my class server idea
Mona: So why bring up aioli
Skull: My mom was talking about how she and dad somehow fell in love over a shared love of the stuff and it got me thinking
Crow: That’s the stupidest way to fall in love, what the fuck
Panther: I have to agree with bakugo
Joker but red: Same
Skull: It wasn’t JUST aioli but,,, it was a huge factor somehow
Skull: So i looked it up and didnt believe the pronunciation guide
Panther: And you came crying to us about it?
Skull: Yea
Joker but red: That’s
Mona: Huh
Joker but red: You sure are one interesting man, kami
Crow: I wanna study your brain under a microscope
Crow: Just to see how the fuck you’re functioning as a human being
Skull: Hey :(
Panther: Bakugo if you wanted to explore kami’s body then just say so :eyes:
Crow: SHUT UP ASHIDO
Mona: Oh shit real name
Panther: HES GOT A BOYFRIEND I THINK THAT COUNTS AS CHEATING
Mona: It really doesn’t
Crow: SHUT UP OR I WILL COME OVER AND KICK YOUR DICK
Skull: That’s like saying Frankenstein making the monster was cheating on his sister/wife
Mona: You’ve read Frankenstein?
Panther: DO IT BITCH NO BALLS
Skull: My mom has a doctorate in classic literature
Skull: If i hadn’t, she’d be disappointed
Joker but red: When did you read it???
Skull: Idk, when i was like nine or ten
Crow: AIGHT SQUARE UP BE THERE IN TEN
Mona: Jesus, bro, ain’t that a horror book
Skull: How on earth can a book be horror
Panther: BRING IT ON YOU POMERANIAN LOOKING ASS BITCH
Joker but red: House of Leaves
Skull: Correction: how on earth can a book be horror without being psychological horror
Skull: No book is gonna go “AHHHH!!!! JUMPSCARE!” at you
Crow: BITCH
Mona: Fair fair
Joker but red: Understandable
Panther: BITCH
Skull: Anyway, Sero, what’re you doin’ rn
Mona: Watching my little sister play that one farming sim Uraraka recommended
Joker but red: Oooohhhh i’ve been wanting to play that one, is it any good?
Mona: She’s hung up on choosing between two of the suitors, the cute fighter chick or the hot blacksmith guy
Skull: Ooohhhhhh interesting
Mona: I told her to go for the hermit author girl on the outskirts of town but she denied me
Mona: Might steal the game to do it myself
Joker but red: I looked up the suitors and HOLY the witch lady is so hot
Skull: The one on the cover art? Yeah she’s smoking hot.
Mona: The librarian guy is also hot
Joker but red: You’re saying that bc he looks like you
Mona: And what if I am?
Joker but red: Understandable have a nice day
Skull: Should we check in on Mina and Bakugo?
Mona: They’d come to us if they killed the other, I’m sure of it
Skull: Right cause we’d help hide the body
Panther: The situation’s been handled, he just barged into my room and claimed my bed for himself
Crow: Your “bed” is nothing but a mattress of plushies and blankets
Panther: Don’t you lecture me with your 8 pm bedtime
Crow: Shut up
Skull: You guys are so weird
Mona: YOU JUST MADE US SPEND AN HOUR ARGUING ABOUT GARLIC AIOLI
Joker but red: Why is it specifically garlic aioli if aioli is made of oil and garlic?
Skull: Wait
Mona: Oh god not again
~~~~~
Touya walked into Fuyumi’s house a few days after the news reached him with Keigo’s hand intertwined with his own and a giant weight implanted at the bottom of his heart.
The initial phone call with Fuyumi was a nightmare, learning about how their father had torched their childhood home and was on a suspension following the few meager weeks the investigation had already gone on for. Three weeks and they’d already found countless traces of document tampering, bribes, and license abuse, among other serious infractions that would sink any hero's career should it get out to the public.
That wasn’t even touching the domestic side of the investigation. Some detectives, including one with whom Shoto was well-acquainted, had already arrived at Fuyumi’s place to ask them questions about their childhoods. Rei, having just moved into the house, was also asked, albeit very briefly and very carefully.
According to Natsuo, she took it like a champ and spent hours detailing her life inside the now-burned-down home. It wasn’t a pretty picture, but the evidence that Endeavor had caused the incident that scarred Shoto was too great to ignore.
So, Touya spent some time in the mountains mentally preparing for this day, the day he finally returned home and gave his testimony. He knew it would only be a drop in the bucket compared to what his siblings and mother had already revealed, but he needed to do anything to get the man responsible for his pain behind bars.
Fuyumi gave him a quick hug and Natsuo offered to take his stuff to his room with Keigo. The bird hero simply squeezed Touya’s hand, “I’ll be in Nat’s room if you need me, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I love you.”
Touya could only nod as the warmth and security of Keigo’s taloned hands slipped out of reach. He turned towards the dining room where he saw two detectives talking with Shoto, who seemed to be finishing up his own testimony if the red eyes and shaking hands was anything to go by.
“Thank you for speaking with us, Shoto,” Tsukauchi said, stopping his recording device and flipping the page of his notebook. Apparently, this was a fresh one for the case. It seemed 2/3rds of the way full already and Touya suspected it’d be filled by the time he and the detective were done.
Shoto just nodded and stood up to walk out. He got a small hug from Touya, who passed him to Rei in the hallway. Touya took another deep breath and entered the dining room to greet the detective.
“I understand that this’ll be difficult for you, Touya,” he said, fiddling with the pen in his hands, “But according to what I’ve heard, your story is the most damning.”
“Are you sure you don’t want a break, Detective?” Touya asked as he sat down, “It’s been a long day for you, I imagine.”
“Unfortunately, this takes priority. Plus, I owe it to your brother to help him after he’s helped us with All for One,” he said, “Let me know when you need a moment.”
Touya nodded and the detective reached over to his recording device.
“As previously stated, this is Detective Tsukauchi on the Todoroki case. Will you please state your name, age, and quirk for the record?”
“Touya Todoroki, 25 years old, Cremation.”
“Touya, my quirk is known as Polygraph, which means I can tell if your answer to my questions is a truth or a lie. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Truth. We’ll start with your relationship to your father, Enji Todoroki. How was his treatment of you different from your siblings?”
“Fuyumi and I are twins, but she inherited our mother’s ice quirk. When my fire came in, our father ignored Fuyumi in favor of training me with my quirk. She began helping Mom around the house while I was training. Father wanted me to be a hero alongside him and determined that training from the day my quirk manifested would be a good way to start. He was wrong.”
Tsukauchi’s head tilted, “How so?”
“My quirk is incompatible with my body. While Fuyumi’s body is more built for that of a fire quirk, mine’s more for an ice one, but the emitter powers we got were swapped. When I use Cremation, it burns very hot and since my skin is so weak, it burns me within seconds of activation. Father realized after a few years that it wouldn’t work out. He tried to get me to stop.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Truth. Continue.”
“By that point, I had grown so desperate for his attention that I started training in secret. Mom and Fuyumi would have to use their quirks to get my fire to calm down. But I kept going and I kept burning myself.”
Touya dropped the coat from his shoulders and removed it. After placing it on the chair next to him and rolling up his sleeves, he placed his arms on the table for the detective to see. The skin graft locations were still that sickly purple, but the areas closest to his hands, as well as the places on his face, were so faded that they could barely be registered as healed skin.
“By the time I was eleven, my body was constantly covered in bandages and burns. My training never helped my skin’s weakness and only made the fire burn hotter, making my condition worse. Father didn’t like that I was going against a direct order and kept bothering him about training. He would hit me and yell and lock me in my room for days at a time. My desperation made me keep going.”
“Was there a breaking point for this? What made you leave?”
“Once, when I was twelve or thirteen, I begged my father to follow me up the mountain near the estate. He refused, so I decided to do something big enough to grab his attention. I started a forest fire. Father couldn’t get in to save me and I was discovered by an underground medicinal guild hours later. They performed several skin graft procedures to give me a whole body, but I was in a coma for three years afterwards, waking up at the age of seventeen with very little recollection of what happened.”
“How did you regain your memories?”
“Trial and error. I recalled my first name, my quirk, and the names of my siblings. Some research led me to my own assumed death certificate and some articles covering a “tragic accident” that killed the number two hero’s eldest son. No one knew the truth. He hid it too well.”
“I recall some people being surprised that there were four Todoroki children, instead of just the three.”
“My existence was swept under the rug, but skeletons seldom stay in the closet. Last year, before I could begin my plan of revenge against him, Shoto found me and got Nedzu to take me in.”
“Was Rei’s breakdown after you left?”
“Yes. I think my assumed death brought that about as well. When I was taken from them and Shoto’s quirk came in, Mom couldn’t handle the abuse she was going through. It caused a mental break and…” he took a shaking breath in, “The rest is history.”
The detective nodded and hummed as he wrote down his notes, “I did speak to Rei regarding her time after your departure and she mentioned how the abuse… shifted over the years. Your siblings all said the same thing: your father views you all as his property with Shoto as his prized possession. Did that happen before or after you left?”
“After, but I could see the signs through my own desperation. Father would always call Shoto his “greatest creation” and began to liken him to a product made rather than a child born.”
“Would you say the incident on the mountain was the worst it ever got?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember any incidents that took place before then? Some may match up with what your siblings have said and will corroborate each other. We want to cover all of our bases.”
“Okay.”
Years of Touya’s life could be summed up by an hour of talking and several pages of notes. His memory of back then had been unearthed from the deep recesses of his mind after the year of therapy and healthy habit-building. It was… easier than he thought to detail the abuse he endured to Detective Tsukauchi. Story after story, tale after tale, he wove his childhood like he was creating a tapestry of his anger and sorrow for the world to see.
He could feel where it connected to his family’s own tapestry, filling in the gaps or finally connecting the unknown pieces to the whole picture. Touya could practically see the colors of red and white as they merged in their own dance of yarn and thread. He imagined that the family tapestry looked like a downward spiral, with a burning red in the middle. Six figures lay on the spiral, the first five holding hands as another reached out to the outer figure, pulling them free from the curse of the family. The final, sixth figure had already reached the center and was determined to pull the other five down with him.
In the end, it was a tragic picture: a desperate man clinging onto the hope that he could turn this all around, while his family moved on without him. Touya almost felt bad but then he remembered the countless opportunities he had to change and stamped down any lingering empathy. Many years ago, he wanted his father to change, but Touya’s grown up and moved on. He has to let himself heal before entertaining the idea of letting his father back into his life.
Tsukauchi nodded with the final statement and turned off his device, “I believe we’re done here. I’ll contact Fuyumi with any updates.”
“I’ll be living on UA’s campus, in their teacher dorms,” Touya said, “If anything happens and you need me, I’ll be there.”
“Understood. I hope we can settle this quickly. From what I’ve heard, this won’t go over quietly.”
Touya stopped himself from laughing at that, “Nothing is ever quiet in regards to the Todoroki’s, Detective.”
“One can dream.”
He walked Tsukauchi out of the house and relished in the final click of the closed door. When he turned around, Fuyumi was reaching her hand out to him. He took it and let her drag him to the living room as the others settled on the couches with various sighs.
“So,” Natsuo started, turning to face Touya and Keigo, “How was your trip?”
Keigo breathed deeply through his nose to suppress a laugh and Touya just sent his brother a glare.
“I’m just making conversation,” the man shrugged.
“It was good,” Keigo said, “The mountains are beautiful this time of year and the shrines were gorgeous.”
Touya stopped glaring at Natsuo and nodded, “Yeah… I think I need another trip after today.”
“Classes start next week.”
“And?”
Rei and Shoto laughed while Fuyumi shook her head in amusement.
“Maybe we can plan a trip for the summer,” Rei said.
“I’d be down,” Shoto mumbled. His face was smushed against his mother’s arm as he lay on the couch, clearly wanting to just go to bed after such an exhausting day, “Though, I do wanna ask: what’ll happen to his Agency?”
“Whatever Endeavor decides,” Keigo shrugged, “But I doubt he spent much time dealing with it while his mental state… deteriorated. I will recommend not letting the Commission take it, though.”
“Why not?” Natsuo asked.
“They’ll just close up shop and fire everyone, which leaves easily two hundred people out of a job. It’d be a major blow to the family that’s struggling as it is,” the bird man eyed Shoto, “Unless… you wanna take it, Sho?”
The boy sighed, “I dunno. I was planning on joining yours after graduation and then Izuku and I were gonna make our own after getting our names out there. We wanted to start as fresh as possible, but that’s another two years away. Burnin’ could handle the logistics, she practically runs that ship like the navy, but she can only do so much as a pro hero in all but title.”
“And they couldn’t keep the name since the hero in charge is out,” Keigo muttered, “Maybe I can put in a request to merge it with mine?”
“HotWings Agency,” Natsuo snorted.
Touya rolled his eyes, “Shut up, Natsuo.”
“We can discuss it more when we’ve actually rested,” Fuyumi declared with finality, standing up and starting to walk towards the kitchen, “Let’s have something to eat, then rest. We can leave other topics for tomorrow.”
“Look at you being emotionally responsible,” Natsuo smirked.
“I’d make a trauma joke, but Shoto started a jar here, too. Touya’s not the only one he’s nickel-and-dime’ing.”
“I doubt Shoto would mind on account of…” Touya pointed at the youngest, who had fallen asleep in the minute since his last spoken words. Rei was carding her fingers through his long hair, which was nearly identical to hers at this point, and smiling down at him.
“Mama’s boy- hey.” Natsuo rubbed where Fuyumi had elbowed him for his comment, “It wasn’t an insult, we are all our mother’s children.”
“Speak for yourself, motherfucker.”
“Nobody asked you, chicken.”
“Boys.”
“Sorry, Mom.”
“Sorry, Rei.”
~~~~~
Waiter! More Advil Please!
Hearing Damage: I’m getting a serious sense of deja vu today.
Hearing Damage: [vultures.png]
[Photo ID: A screencap from the cameras at the UA gates where a bunch of reporters and camerapeople eagerly await the new-year buzz from the school.]
Wine Aunt: Usually they wait at least a week before descending on us…
Pencil: i am so glad we moved in last week,,,,
Flammenwerfer: Same
God.: I will draw straws for who gets to go dispel them!
Pencil: crossing every bone in my body rn
Got that dawg in him: If I am pulled, I will bite someone.
God.: You were not :)
Got that dawg in him: GOD IS REAL
God.: @Hearing Damage and @Ace Hardware
Hearing Damage: FUCK
Ace Hardware: DAMMIT
Ace Hardware: HATSUME IS CURRENTLY TRYING TO BLOW UP HALF THE BUILDING I CANNOT DEAL WITH ANY REPORTERS RIGHT NOW
Road Work Ahead?: I will go.
Ace Hardware: GOD IS REAL AND HE HAS A CONCRETE TOP KNOT
Road Work Ahead: You owe me.
Ace Hardware: YEAH YEHAJKDXKNEJXISJXN
Wine Aunt: Higari?
Buzz Lightyear: Higari???
HES A PHANTOM: Maijima?
Hearing Damage: Oh my fuckin’ god he fuckin’ dead
Pencil: rest in pieces powerloader
Small Might: Two types of people ಠ_ಠ
Consequences: I am not helping.
Wine Aunt: Recovery Girl has: given up.
Consequences: I gave up before you were born, Nemuri.
Wine Aunt: FUN!!
Road Work Ahead: Reporters have been handled.
Pencil: that was fast
Hearing Damage: He can be very scary when he wants to be,,,,
God.: Excellent!
Small Might: Ishiyama, what did you do? (o_o)
Road Work Ahead: Gave em the ol razzle dazzle
Hearing Damage: He threatened them with cement up their asses
Pencil: A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART
Wine Aunt: JANXJJDHSJHSJSJJD
Consequences: Good.
Got that dawg in him: SHOULD’VE ACTUALLY DONE IT
Small Might: I,,,, see,,,, (・・;)
Ace Hardware: Update
Ace Hardware: Ow
Pencil: you good higari
Ace Hardware: No
Pencil: alright good talk
Flammenwerfer: @Road Work Ahead Were they there for what I think they were there for?
Road Work Ahead: Unfortunately, yes.
Flammenwerfer: Sigh. I’ll let Shoto know to avoid the gate.
Road Work Ahead: Tell your siblings I have plenty of concrete and a clear shot if need be
Flammenwerfer: LMAO thanks man
Road Work Ahead: Anytime, Touya.
Wine Aunt: OH THEY WERE THERE FOR THAT??
Wine Aunt: THEY CAN KINDLY FUCK OFF???
Pencil: the media never does, nemuri
Wine Aunt: It’s none of their fucking business????
Hearing Damage: Try telling them that. Some people are just after a story for attention.
Pencil: which is why i’m still for a news purge
Flammenwerfer: Aizawa we can’t kill every reporter
Pencil: that’s what you say
HES A PHANTOM: I’m on Aizawa’s side, some just need to be stopped
Pencil: ectoplasm and i are gonna purge the weak
HES A PHANTOM: You. Me. Gas station.
Pencil: what’re we gettin for dinner
HES A PHANTOM: Sushi, of course!
Pencil: uh oh there was a roofie in our gas station sushi
HES A PHANTOM: We black out and wake up in a sewer. We’re surrounded by fish.
Pencil: HORNY FISH.
HES A PHANTOM: You know what that means???
HES A PHANTOM: FISH.
Pencil: FISH.
Wine Aunt: . . .
Hearing Damage: Are you done
Pencil: fish
HES A PHANTOM: Fish
God.: Feesh!!
Wine Aunt: I feel insulted somehow.
Hearing Damage: Same