He presses his hands over his ears, trying to block the noises out as best he could, but it was hard.

Enji is just yelling so loud, it's hard to just keep quiet and hide and pretend not to hear him as he beat Toya into the ground.

The pounding stops, and he uncurles a bit to see why- but his mother's sobs stop him from moving too far. So it's going to be one of those days... he thinks, maneuvering himself back into the tight ball he had been in before, re-covering his ears and pressing harder, harder, block the noise until it stopped.

Not too long after, he sees Toya's scuffed boots in front of his little hideaway, and the bandaged hand is in front of him. He takes it, and Toya brings him out, not just out of the hiding place but also the house, into the real world where not everything is just cold and heat and loud.

Toya puts his shoes on him, gives him his black hoodie and reminds him to keep the hood on at all times, and then they're off, and Toya calls him Shou and he calls Toya Dabi, and they're just normal kids, a ten year old boy with his fifteen year old brother, and they're happy.

They go to get mochi and stop at the soba place Shou loves, and they get what they want and don't pay because the bill will get settled at the end of the month, and they go to an arcade and play mindless games and not think about Enji, or Mom, or anything but being kids.

But then they go back, to icy walls and sweltering silence, and he feels alone again.

He sits and watches cartoons with his mom, pretending that she doesn't get scared every time she sees the red that he so carefully hides with white.

Then comes his 'training'- it used to be at the same time as Toya's, but Enji learned that Toya would step in front of any blows he gave Shouto.

He missed when he wasn't covered in bruises and burns, but it didn't seem like he would get that again for a long time.

After training, Fuyumi and Natsuo fuss, wrapping and spreading cream and giving pills to help with the pain so he can sleep; trying to make up for being too weak to protect him.

He doesn't blame them for his pain.

He blames the monster that plays the charade of their father.


He's hiding again, this time on the roof; the cold air the only thing keeping him here instead of inside his head and through the memories.

It takes longer for Toya to find him, but he makes up for it by getting soba first and then mochi, then the two of them play shooter games until the sun had left the sky.

'What would you say if I told you I wanted to leave, to go do something bad?' Toya asks, as they sit on someone's roof.

"What bad thing?'

'Hurt Enji in a way so he can't hurt anyone ever again.' Toya gets that far away look in his eyes again as he stares at the last fading pinks and purples of the sunset.

'You want to kill him, right?' he asks quietly. He knows Toya won't answer, he knows Shou knows the answer. 'I'd say I want to help you. But I know you don't want me to, you think I'm too innocent. That's okay. But I still want to.'

'You always were a stubborn kid. Okay, you can help, but you're not allowed to kill anyone. I want you to stay away from that horror.'

'Fine.'

And just like that, they were villains.