First things first. Sorry for not updating sunday, I was away for the whole weekend. I'll also be away for next weekend, so I decided to post an 'mid of the week chapter' as reconciliation. This chapter was originally seperated in two parts, but then the first part was a bit too short so I decided to just put it in one big chapter. So this is a longer chapter. Maybe that will make up for there not being another chapter this sunday. I plan to upload the next chapter only the sunday after that.
Speaking of this chapter, I really liked writing it, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it.
Dropping more than one Bombshell
"I'll tell the nurse," Fuyumi said quickly and was about to leave the room.
"Actually Fuyumi-san, could you stay for a moment. We would like to ask you about your brother."
Fuyumi halted in her movement and turned around. Damn, Enji thought, they'd ask her about Touya. He didn't even tell his children yet, and he didn't want them to find out that way.
"What is it?" asked Fuyumi obliviously. "I thought I answered all your questions already."
"Wait," demanded Enji, before the detectives could ask their question. "Please, wait. I haven't told them, yet."
"Told us what?" asked Shoto from the door. He had been about to leave for the nurse, after Fuyumi had been called back. "What is it?"
"I'll tell you later," Enji promised, as he glanced at the police officers. "Just … come back tomorrow." He knew they probably wouldn't risk him or Natsuo using the time to tell Fuyumi what kind of story she should reiterate to the police, so he almost expected it when they looked at him apologetically.
"I'm sorry, Todoroki-san. We'll be careful," said Sato seriously.
"Yes, you can tell me," Fuyumi hurried to say. "Whatever it is, we want to help." She looked at Shoto, who nodded, then back at the detectives in front of her.
"It's just a single question really. Can you tell us how well Natsuo got along with Touya?"
That was obviously a question Fuyumi hadn't been expecting. Her jaw went slack, and it was Shoto who caught himself before her. "Touya?" he asked. "What does he have to do with anything? He's been dead for … what, six years now?" He seemed utterly confused as he looked over to Fuyumi. "But I think they got along well enough … Sis?"
"Yeah," Fuyumi finally managed to say. "Yes, sure, they were pretty close. Touya was just over four years older, so they had their own circle of friends, but when they were home, they always played together. Natsu really liked Touya, admired him even, I think. They always pulled pranks on me, when they were younger," she remembered with a fond smile. "Touya died only a few weeks before Natsu's thirteenth birthday." She looked sadly down to her feet. "I think it hit him the hardest of us."
After she had finished her explanation, she looked up to the police again. There were tears in the corner of her eyes, but they didn't spill quite yet. "Why do you ask? Touya's been dead for six years, what does this have to do with anything?"
"So, that relationship was mutual? Touya liked his brother, too?" Sato asked without answering any of her questions. Enji just stared at the ground in front of his bed. At this point, there was really no scenario in which he could avoid telling them the truth. In fact, he should probably tell them right now. The police wouldn't explain it, he realized that much. They asked their questions, but they would leave him with the burden of actually having to explain it all. He didn't know if he was grateful for that, or if he hated them for it.
Fuyumi seemed even more confused at the second question. "No … No, it was mutual," she answered after a moment. "Touya was the oldest of us, he liked us all, I think. He was always there for Natsu, for all of us." She hesitated, "that was why when the police and Dad told us he had killed himself, we never believed it. I thought maybe it was an accident, but I couldn't believe that he would just leave us like that."
Sato and Ayasegawa both nodded. "Thank you. You too, Todoroki-san," they said back to Enji who just nodded silently hardly even looking at them. "We'll leave you to rest, now," Sato smiled friendlily, "Get well soon."
"Thanks," Enji muttered tiredly without really looking at them.
Only when they left did his children gang up on him. Instead of bringing the pillow, and maybe giving him a second to catch himself, they came straight to the point.
"What was that about?" asked Fuyumi with a raised eyebrow.
"What does Touya have to do with anything?" Shoto seemed more suspicious than Fuyumi.
"He's been dead for so long," added Fuyumi, "I don't get how these questions would help in catching the villains."
"He hasn't been," answered Enji after a moment.
"What?" both of them didn't quite get it yet. Of course not.
"Touya," he hesitated, then he sighed and told them straight away, "he's still alive."
"What?" the same question they had asked before, but this time it was filled with disbelief, sudden tears and a mixture of anger and joy. "What are you talking about? That's impossible, you know it is."
"Apparently," Enji started to explain over their loud questions, "he lost control over his quirk six years ago. He got hurt and needed some time to recover. By the time he wanted to come back …," he shrugged helplessly. "Well, we all already thought he was dead and … I don't know." He really didn't. Dabi had explained himself … at least to a degree, but Enji still didn't really understand.
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Fuyumi sounded angry now. "Tell me! I told you, he couldn't be dead, he wouldn't kill himself. I told you!" She was screaming at him now, words filled with anger. He couldn't remember her ever being this angry with him before, probably never. "But you kept saying he killed himself! I told you he wouldn't! But you…!"
She quieted when Shoto put a hand around her shoulders. He seemed oddly subdued, but neither angry nor properly sad. He looked confused though. "I don't understand," said Shoto over Fuyumi's sobs. "How can he be alive? And how do you know?"
"Touya is …" How could he best tell them? Again, he decided to just do it the most direct and quick way he could. Like ripping off a bandaid. "He's a member of the League of Villains."
There was a moment of shocked silence, then Fuyumi chuckled hysterically in her sobs. "What? Don't be ridiculous. You're joking, what is this? A stupid, cruel joke! Do you think this is funny?"
To Enji's surprise, as his gaze locked with Shoto's momentarily, he saw understanding in Shoto's eyes. Sure, there was shock and denial, but also some dark and hurtful understanding. "Dabi?" he whispered and only now did Enji remember that Shoto had once met Dabi as well.
Enji nodded.
"Dabi?" repeated Fuyumi hysterically. "What do you mean? You …," she glared at Shoto, "you believe him?! That's ridiculous! Touya would never…!" she furiously rubbed at her tear-filled eyes. "He'd never be a villain. He wouldn't do that. How can you even say that?"
"I saw him," Shoto answered in a husky voice. "I saw him!" His eyes were wet with tears now too. "But I didn't … I didn't recognize him."
"Because it's not him!" Fuyumi bellowed. "It can't be him!" She stared angrily at Enji. "Stop telling these stupid lies. What is it?" She was so furious, it left Enji stunned into silence. He had expected denial, tears, shock that her brother was a villain, joy that he was still alive … not that she'd turn all that into anger and throw it back in his face. "I don't get it!" she screamed at him. "After everything, I really thought you changed. But what, you couldn't wait for Natsu and Shoto to forgive you so now you have to come up with this stupid lie where it's our brother who TRIED TO MURDER YOU?" She shook her head and angrily pushed away from Shoto. "I don't believe it. That's ridiculous!"
"Fuyumi!" Shoto shouted, before she could leave the room in her fury. "Wait! It's …"
"I can't believe you actually believe him!" Fuyumi snapped at Shoto. "You don't really think Touya would … How can you even think that!?"
"It's complicated," Shoto responded pleadingly, but before he could explain, she'd turned around and left the room. The door fell shut with a bang that made Enji flinch. As angry as she was, even Shoto didn't dare to follow after her, instead he sank down on one of the two chairs in the room.
"So, you believe me?" asked Enji, because he really had to make sure. He hadn't expected Fuyumi's reaction. Now that he thought about it, though, he could understand it. He had expected her to have trouble believing him, that her brother was alive and a villain now. If she couldn't believe that her brother would ever do any of the crimes Dabi was known for, that he would even go so far as to try and kill his own father not once, but twice … if she couldn't believe that, then the only explanation was that Enji must have lied, that he came up with some horrible story, for whatever purpose. He had no reason to lie, not about that, but perhaps from her point of view it was easier thinking her father was an asshole who made up horrible lies to gain some sympathy, than for her brother to be a villain, an arson and a killer.
"I saw him…" Shoto answered tiredly. "He … I didn't recognize him, but he seemed familiar, and he knew me. I didn't get it then…now I do." He buried his face in his hands.
"I'm sorry." It was more an expression of sympathy rather than an admission of guilt. Truthfully, he was not sure if this was his fault, or only partly on him, or maybe entirely on Touya alone.
"It's not…" Shoto started, but then he interrupted himself with a quiet sob. He didn't finish the sentence. "He'd been alive all this time?" he finally spoke up, again, after another moment. "I don't … I don't understand. Why did he not come back?"
"Because of me," Enji answered, because that much at least he had understood. Whatever decisions Touya had made after his supposed death were, maybe, partly or entirely because of him. That Touya had decided not to go back home-that had been Enji's fault. Not partly, not maybe… Entirely his fault.
Because … how had Dabi said it? Because Enji couldn't stop telling everybody and their mother about how his son had committed suicide, to the point where Touya actually thought Enji was even grateful to be rid of him. Apparently, Fuyumi, to a degree, had gotten the same impression, that he couldn't shut up about his son's suicide when her and Natsuo were certain it must have been an accident. It hadn't been his assessment that Touya had committed suicide. The police had concluded that. Apparently, something about fail-safes in the human body that prevented them from using their quirk to a degree that it would kill them by accident. Enji had understood that reasoning.
Between all of them, Enji's quirk had been the most similar to Touya's. And while Enji didn't entirely disregard the possibility that he could maybe burn himself to death with it, that wasn't anything that could just happen by accident. There was a point of overheat in his body, when his body slowly started failing him. Fiirst, his movements slowed down, then he got fever symptoms, headaches, trouble breathing, until there was a point when his body got so hot, that his organs would fail him completely. He normally would not burn his skin, that being the one organ in his entire body most resistant to his own fire, but even that was theoretically possible. In a fight, though, he had to push himself really hard to even get to the point of organ-failure. So hard even that this hadn't happen since he was twenty-two years old and not quite so reckless anymore.
Surely it wasn't something that just happened on accident.
In a moment of severe emotional turmoil … maybe, he could see that, but even then … Touya's flames were naturally hotter than Enji's own and his body always was of a weaker constitution. On the other hand, though, the police had told them that they hadn't been able to find a body, just ashes, and from what the witnesses had told them, it definitely had been his quirk that did that. This wasn't just an organ failure, but an incineration.
While Enji thought his quirk at least theoretically could kill him, he never thought he'd be able to incinerate himself to that point, even if he tried. Touya, with hotter flames and a weaker constitution … was maybe able to do it, but not by accident. Of that both he and the police investigators had been sure. So, he had accepted the explanation of suicide. And, of course, he had told his children and wife that it was suicide. And when they refused to believe it, when they kept insisting that Touya wouldn't and hadn't killed himself, he just thought Natsuo and Fuyumi were in denial and paid their stubborn comments that it must have been an accident no mind.
"I…" Shoto suddenly stood up, after silently crying for a few minutes. His eyes were still red and teary, but he stubbornly bit his lip, obviously trying to quench the tears. "Give me that pillow. I'll tell the nurse to bring a new one…" he looked around the room a bit forlornly, "then I need to … be alone for a while."
Enji understood that need. He also had to rest. But when Shoto left the room, for a moment Enji feared he might not ever come back, and that was it. He'd lost them all. His wife couldn't look at him without breaking down. His eldest child had tried to kill him. His only daughter thought him a cruel liar. His second son faked his kidnapping, because he couldn't believe his father would love him enough to care and then didn't visit him in the hospital, and his youngest son … hated him too, he knew. Shoto had offered him a chance, back after his fight with the Nomu, if Enji managed to prove himself and change. But even Shoto, if he had to choose between his siblings and his father, would surely choose his siblings. They all had their reasons, of course. He'd screwed up royally, and that was an understatement. But he had thought it could get better in time. Now, instead, everything was falling apart.
Despite his distraught state of mind, he was so exhausted after the long interview that he fell asleep only shortly after the nurse brought his new pillow. He was tired enough, he could probably sleep the rest of the day and the night, but instead he woke up again in the evening.
For a moment he thought he had awoken from a nightmare he didn't remember, then he heard voices outside.
"Yeah but is there nothing we can do?" asked a voice he knew well. "No, I mean … Yes, I'm aware." His secretary Inari was quickly coming closer to Endeavor's room. "What about … do we have a case? Can we take it down? Sue them?" He was talking over the phone, Enji realized, just before the door was pushed open and Inari entered, phone in one hand, door-handle in the other, too distracted to immediately realize that his boss was awake. "Public Relations, sure, that would be bad. But…" There was a short break. Enji only heard quiet and unintelligible muttering from the phone's speakers. "Yes, but it could be even worse if we just let them spread all these rumors." The man looked up distractedly. "You know as well as me that the League is behind it. This could spell bad…" Only now did he realize that Enji was awake and staring at him. "Oh, Nakamura-san, can I call you back later? He's awake." He nodded shortly to something said on the other end. "Yes, I'll tell him. Goodnight."
He finally looked up at Enji. "Nakamura-san wishes you a swift recovery," he greeted Enji as he put the phone away. "How are you?"
Enji decided to ignore the question. "Have we been sued again?" he asked instead. Nakamura was his agency's own layer. It wasn't like every hero agency had one but Endeavor always wondered how the bigger agencies could even function without them. "What is it this time? I haven't ruined much since that Nomu-fight, and I can't imagine…" He rubbed his chin trying to remember.
It wasn't rare that his agency – or any agency for that matter – was sued for damages caused in some battle or another. A case often didn't end with the villain's defeat and apprehension. Many civilians suffered losses, be that actual loss of life or lost and destroyed property or injuries in the battle. Not everybody could afford insurance against villain attacks and even then, the insurers themselves were often not happy to just pay but looked for somebody else to pay them back. As the villains were often poor fools with no money or wealth, there was nothing to gain from them. However, heroes often made a lot of money through their work, so many people and especially insurers tried blaming the heroes themselves, the agencies, or the Hero Association for their losses. That was especially the case when somebody lost property who wasn't also saved by the heroes' actions. Most were at least thankful enough to not sue the people who had saved their or their family's asses. But often enough somebody's property got destroyed in an attempt to save someone else entirely. The government had funds dedicated to paying these damages, but those funds were limited, and the government had certain guidelines as to who or what damages qualified for them. That often left only the heroes as possible scapegoats. Most of these lawsuits weren't successful in court, but there were certain cases when a hero acted at least negligently, causing excessive and unnecessary damages. There were some odd fifty claims each year against the Endeavor Hero Agency or Endeavor personally. Most of these claims were unfounded and for those that were, he had his lawyer, Nakamura.
"We haven't been sued," answered Inari after a moment.
The answer was surprising to Enji. Although he didn't know why they would have been sued, from what he had overheard of the phone call that had been his logical conclusion. "But that was Nakamura, wasn't it?" he asked a bit confused.
"Yes," answered Inari, then he looked at Enji quizzically. "You don't know, yet?" he asked finally.
"Know what?"
"Haven't you watched any of the news these days?" asked Inari and went to the TV in the room.
Enji shook his head. For the most part he'd been asleep for too long to even just care enough to turn on the TV. After everything that had happened it had also felt good to be away from it all for a while. He sat up in his bed as Inari went to pick up the remote control for the TV. Now, he was curious as Inari turned the TV on and then skipped some channels until he found what he was looking for.
"As our legal expert," an anchorwoman with wavy black hair asked an elderly man, "how serious are these claims?"
"From what little we have it's hard to say. We're still going through these descriptions, but they are very vague at best. It's difficult to say what exactly happened. Without any more proof, I don't think we have much here." He made a dramatic pause. "But if the police can find more proof, we are talking about serious repercussions. Losing his hero license would be the least of those."
Enji frowned curiously. What was the man talking about? On screen there were four people. The anchorwoman, the legal expert, another man he recognized as an expert for Hero Politics on this channel and a middle-aged woman he didn't know.
"Shouldn't we also talk about jail time?" asked the middle-aged woman now. "If the police can find proof – and these claims are at least enough to start an investigation in my experience – just losing his hero license … I don't think that would send the right message. We might live in a world of hero-worship, but even they can't get away with everything."
"You are as always quick to assume guilt," retorted the hero-expert. "For one, we don't even know if these claims are justified. We don't know if they are real to begin with. For all we know, this could just be a bad joke by a hater. And even if…"
He was cut off by the anchorwoman. "That is a good point, Tanaka-san. After his fight against this Nomu-creature last week, Endeavor has seen a great surge in popularity," they showed some short footage of his battle with the Nomu while she spoke. "Isn't this timing a bit odd?"
So now, he knew for a fact that they were talking about him. Of course, he had suspected it from Inari's behavior. But he still didn't know what exactly this was about.
"Indeed," answered Tanaka, "the timing is odd. We shouldn't forget that Endeavor was never one of the more popular heroes out there. His recent surge in popularity after that incident shouldn't lead us to overlook that there are still many people out there who hate him with a passion. This might just be an attempt to hem this surge of popularity. Anyway, what I wanted to say earlier…"
Again, he was interrupted, this time by the middle-aged woman. "Oh, that's just great. Dismissing serious claims on…"
"I was not dismissing these claims, merely pointing out what we shouldn't forget in this debate," cut Tanaka in.
"Yes, you pointed out, Endeavor had many enemies. There is a good reason for this: He is one of the worst-tempered and ill-behaving heroes of our times. If there was a hero out there that proved Stain's ideology…"
"Now, let's not argue with the ideology of a maniac murderer," interrupted the legal-expert. "I have to say, that Tanaka-san is right, and we can't just dismiss the chance of this being a fake. However, I am with Namasu-san, that these claims should be investigated."
"There is surely reason to assume at least parts of them hold true," agreed the anchorwoman as first a picture of Shoto, then one of Rei and lastly one of a young Touya appeared on screen. "We have information that things aren't as nice as Endeavor might want us to believe in his family household. Ten years ago, his son had a ghastly accident at home, leaving him badly scarred. We haven't yet found out the truth behind this incident. Endeavor's wife Rei has been in a mental institution for years, and most strikingly, his oldest child Touya Todoroki committed suicide six years ago. Namasu-san, as our expert on domestic abuse, what possible psychological repercussions could Endeavor's behavior have had on his family members, from your experience?"
"What is this?" Enji finally asked, hot flames surging for just a moment. The question was infuriating. Even more so, that they dared to disclose private information about his family members to the public. There was a reason most heroes went by hero-names, and that was precisely not to drag them and their families out into the public more than necessary. With this day and age of social media and the internet, it wasn't hard to find the names and addresses of his children, if one actually looked for them, but to have his family names and pictures just given out to everybody on a public news channel was very uncommon.
Inari muted the TV and put the remote down on Enji's bedside table. "It's all over the news," he explained. "Apparently last night somebody sent copies of what they claim to be Natsuo's old diary to every major news-outlet in the country." Enji stared at him in shock. Of course, part of him had already had the suspicion that they somehow got some information on his private-life, but this was worse than he had feared. "Channel three brought the story first in yesterday's late-night news circle. Since this morning it's everywhere." Inari waited for a reaction, but when nothing came apart from the flickering of his flames, his secretary moved on. "They don't even know if it's authentic," he explained almost soothingly. "Natsuo hasn't made a statement yet, neither have your other children, so don't worry … I wanted to ask Nakamura…"
"It is," Enji sighed after a moment quenching his flames. "Authentic, I mean" He glanced up at Inari exchanging a silent stare-down, then Inari finally sighed.
"I feared as much. We still have to take it down." His face scrunched in worry. "You know what this could do to the agency."
"Forcefully shutting it down would be even worse," Enji answered. The idea that this was maybe only the beginning and soon everything would be out in the open made him feel more tired than he already was. He was sick of it. They should just leave him alone, all of them. Not put their noses in his private life. Yet, he knew there was nothing he could do to stop it.
"Yah," exhaled Inari tiredly, "Nakamura said something similar. Apart from that, we apparently have no legal grounds to take it down. Freedom of press and … well, you being the #1 Hero and a public figure, there's apparently a certain public interest that outweighs your own rights for privacy." He shrugged, not going further into the legal explanations. "Maybe if we could bring Natsuo to sue, that might work out. Whatever else, they can't just plaster his private diary all over the news. But…" he shrugged again, "I can't really reach him."
For a moment Enji looked up in worry.
"Don't worry," added Inari quickly. "He's there. Makes sure just about everybody knows he's alive, but then he ends the call after an initial 'hello'. Don't know if it's just me or people he doesn't know or if he's the same to his family."
Enji nodded, finally understanding. He looked back to the TV-screen. The people there were still talking. There were pictures of him in the background. It was of course muted, so he couldn't hear what they were saying, but he was almost glad for it.
"So, it's true?" Inari finally asked. "You said the diary is real?"
"They made me bring it from the house," explained Enji, deciding it would be best to be completely honest with a few people at least. Inari had worked closely with him for eleven years, so he guessed if he couldn't trust him, he couldn't trust anybody. "I guess, the League sent it to the news after they failed to kill me."
"Figures," muttered Inari. "I assumed it had to have been the League of Villains. Maybe we could use that…" he started.
"What?" interrupted Enji. "Tell them it's a scheme by the League and thus all lies. It's not lies, though." He didn't know how to handle this situation. He knew this couldn't bode well, and he'd rather not have journalists searching his history for more dirt to use against him until everything was out, and then some. He knew how these things worked. As much as the public loved their heroes, they also loved criticizing them. And they loved a good scandal. That woman Namasu wasn't an exception. If they could just get enough dirt on him, they'd twist it in a way to make him look even worse than he was, until even he didn't know what was true anymore, and then they'd use him to discredit hero society as a whole. But just because he knew that, didn't mean he could prevent it. Was there even anything he could do? Apart from that … was there a better way to lose his family once and for all, than denying everything that happened, lying in the faces of everybody and making them hide their own suffering just for his sake? If they decided to go public, he was screwed anyway.
"So, it's true," Inari huffed again surprisingly angry. "Doesn't mean we should just accept it, that they drag the agency through the mud."
Enji scrutinized him. He had not really expected that sort of reaction. Denial maybe, anger against him … but Inari didn't seem the kind of person to be just okay with his boss abusing his family. That was the sort of truth, Enji had guessed, that could break their work relationship even after all those years.
Inari glared back at him challengingly. Finally, Enji sighed. "You want me to hide the truth? I didn't think you would ju…"
"What? You think I'm not angry," bellowed Inari. "You think I'm happy with this?" He gestured toward the screen and Enji realized the man had been holding back his anger for a while now, just waiting for the right moment to explode in his face. "I have kids of my own, you know? Makes me sick to think how you treated yours, even if only half of what they say is true!"
Enji glanced at the TV where they were currently showing some statistics from recent years regarding domestic abuse. He didn't of course know what kinds of stories the news told. He didn't doubt that soon people would come crawling from all kinds of places to tell outrageous and absurd stories about the things he might or might not have done. But at this point in time, the story was rather fresh, so he assumed most of what they told currently was probably directly from the diary, plus some educated guesses. From what Touya had read to him, Natsuo's diary wasn't very detailed in its descriptions and the time it covered was after both the incident with Rei and Touya's supposed death, so the assumptions they could draw directly from these pages would likely not even come close to the worst things he had done to his family. It would probably still get much, much worse … and right when he had been trying to be better.
It felt so unfair.
"Then why are you even here?" asked Enji a bit provokingly. "You could just quit." Most of his anger wasn't directed at Inari but it needed an outlet anyway.
"Quit?" asked Inari outraged. "I put eleven years of my life into this agency. Believe me if I could I would quit. But I'm fifty-three. How high do you think my chances are of finding a new job?" Enji evaded his glare suddenly embarrassed that he had voiced his suggestion. "Huh? Unlike you I don't have the money to just retire!"
"Sorry," muttered Enji, only semi-honestly. He did regret his angry advice, but he also felt more pity towards himself to truly be sorry.
"Stop it!" bellowed Inari. "Stop it with this disgusting self-pity! Get your ass up and tell me how you're going to save the agency!" The secretary had his fists balled in anger. "It's not just your job on the line here. If you lose your license – and believe me there are enough people out there who want to take it away from you! If you lose your license we can be shut down." Enji didn't look at him. Only stared down at his hands in his lap. "Then I can go back to my wife and my three girls and explain to them why I can't afford their education anymore because their father wasted eleven years of his life working for a…" he seemed to search for the right insult to throw at his boss, "a… you!"
Enji flinched-despite or maybe because of-the glaring lack of insult. "Get out…" he growled, but although he wanted to scream and throw him out, he hardly even managed to pronounce the words.
"What?" Inari asked, simultaneously angry and confused about his boss' untypical weakness.
"Get out!" Enji said again, this time more decisively. "Leave!"
"Oh sure," Inari agreed. But instead of going, he plucked up the remote from the bedside table and unmuted the TV again. "I'm happy to leave. Next time I come to ask you how to solve this situation, you get your head out of your ass and present me with something." With those words he put the remote down on the little shelve the TV sat on and left the room with banging doors.
Enji glowered at the door after he had left. He felt angry and hot inside and he only now realized that his flames were surging again. He dowsed them forcibly before they could activate the hospital's fire alarms or ignite the furniture and bedding again. Only then did the conversation from the TV finally filter through to him.
"…statement. The staff of UA blocked our inquiry. Fifteen-year-old Shoto now lives in the dorms on the school grounds where access is denied to our reporters. Our viewer Hinamori commented: 'It's typical of UA. These heroes keep protecting each other. Endeavor was one of their own esteemed alumni. So of course, they don't want this poor kid to go to the public with his story.' Tanaka-san, is there a culture of silence in the hero society?"
"It's of course understandable, that from the outside it must look like this," relented Tanaka. He looked a bit exhausted and annoyed from what was probably a question he had answered several times already with different phrasing. It had already started, Enji realized. His transgressions were already reflecting badly on the entire hero society. "But Endeavor's actions outside of his hero work are entirely his own. Believe me, the Hero Association has as much interest as anybody in getting to the truth of these claims and bringing just consequences. We talked about that." He nodded shortly as he realized the other people in this debate got a bit impatient. "For UA, the students' well-being is their highest priority, of course. I am sure if they deny journalists passage on school-grounds or block them from contacting Shoto Todorok directly, they do so to protect their student, not Endeavor. If Shoto-kun wants to talk to the police or the news, UA is always willing to support him in his decisions and actions."
"What do you say to that?" the anchor-woman asked the other two guests.
"Well, this is without question. As a school their student's well-being should be their highest priority. And I think we all have to agree that fervent prodding by the media, with journalists, fans and onlookers camping outside the school … It's not the healthiest way to deal with a possibly traumatic past," relented Namasu with a bit of a sour expression on her face. It was clear to Endeavor that she was not the biggest fan of hero society. Some of her earlier comments had made that obvious, but even she seemed to for once agree with the representative of Japan's Hero Association.
"I have to agree as well," nodded the legal expert. "The same goes for these masses camping outside his daughter's workplace and the older son's university." Enji stared in shock as they showed a short footage of Natsuo pushing through a crowd of reporters to get out of his dormitory. He had a scarf to obscure his face. The sight itself made Enji boil with rage. How dare they… "This is surely not the best way to get to the truth of things."
It was quite clear that all three guests on screen were unhappy about how the media dealt with the situation. Maybe the anchorwoman did feel a bit guilty about just being one more media-person to make a show out of other people's family drama. Yet she tried to defend her colleagues. "Don't you agree that there is a certain interest of the public to get to the truth of the matter? What reasons could Endeavor's kids have not to go to the public, now that the public opinion is so clearly in their favor?" She glanced at her guests. "Is there, maybe, some fear involved?"
"That's certainly one possibility," answered Namasu darkly, but then she had to relent. "No, while this is possible, there can be all kinds of reasons why victims of domestic abuse don't want to go to the public. Fear is certainly one of them, but surely not the only one. Apart from the more personal reasons like shame or personal dependence on the abuser … or even guilt, it could also be politically motivated in this case. Their father is a well-known hero. Outing him publicly could have repercussions on our society as a whole."
"As it already has," Tanaka pointed out darkly, though he didn't elaborate.
"Whatever reasons there may be, we, the public, should not try to pressure them to make their statement if they don't want to. They have surely suffered enough," declared the legal-expert. "Instead I would implore Endeavor himself to step forward and tell us the truth about these claims."
The anchorwoman nodded her agreement. "The hunt for a statement by Endeavor himself has already begun, of course," she explained. "However, as you surely know, he has been hospitalized after the incident this weekend and his current location is undisclosed."
"It is preposterous that somebody who abuses his wife and children can then hide behind protocols of the Hero Association while his children are terrorized by the public," grunted Namasu.
"Please, Namasu-san," retorted Tanaka. "You know as well as I do, that the secretiveness around Endeavor's current location is not to hide him away from the media, but to protect him from attacks by villains for as long as he is still in recovery. Not giving the place of recovery of our heroes to the public is standard protocol in the Hero Association. In this debate we should not forget that he is a hero and…"
"Does him being a hero put him above the law, now?" asked Namasu venomously. "How many people do I have to save before I can abuse my family without consequences?"
"That is not what I meant to say," Tanaka defended himself exasperatedly. "If you would let me finish, Namasu-san…" He glared at her.
"Well, go on then."
"Thanks. As a hero," he pronounced the word as he looked at the middle-aged woman, "disclosing his location to the public could put him in harm's way … not because of this situation with his family, but because there are villains out there who would gladly take this chance to off a strong hero. This secrecy is for his personal protection and highly necessary."
"But it's without question, that this secrecy now also protects him from these accusations, does it not?" asked the anchorwoman.
"Of course, that's just how it is," relented Tanaka. "We have to wait until his recovery progresses before we can demand a statement of Endeavor personally in this situation. However, the police do know his whereabouts. So, if they are investigating, they can always ask him about these claims."
Suddenly Endeavor realized why the detectives had been as wary of him earlier. He wondered, however, why his children hadn't told him about the situation.
He wanted to turn the TV off, as they started talking about the actual claims from the diary, but the remote was at the other end of the room now, where he couldn't easily reach. Standing up hurt like a bitch, especially in his hip that hadn't completely healed from the bullet wound there. He almost collapsed to the ground the moment he put his weight on his feet, so he sank back onto the mattress.
Instead of switching off the TV, he lay back down and turned his back to the screen, trying to ignore the conversation that filtered over his head into his ears.
"… neglecting his elder two children. He did not seem to care what they were doing in their private time, was hardly there for them, never mind cared about them. It seems they learned to take care of themselves from an early age, because of the absence of both their parents. He restricted contact to their mother which …"
He fell asleep to Namasu's words.
So, how did you like it?
I decided not to beat around the bush and just put it all in the open right now. One thing, that hasn't come up yet is Natsuo's involvement, because Fuyumi ran out on Enji before he even could mention it. Do you think Fuyumi's reaction is believable?
This was really the point where I started regretting a bit that I chose Enji's PoV for this story. I think it's good for the drama, that he just sits there and has to fret over what his children would think or do and you as reader (and me as writer^^) don't really know what they ACTUALLY do and think. So, I don't REALLY regret it. But I'm kinda sad I know can't write how Fuyumi and Shoto handle the situation. Then again, I get always very nervous and unsecure just thinking about writing Shoto. So... I even thought about writing a Shoto-perspective OneShot, but probably not? Tell me if you're interested in it. If there's some demand for it, I would try, I guess :D.
The Abuse being at least semi-public now (as they still don't know what happened exactly, but they know it's bad) was ultimately unavoidable in this story, but it also put me in the situation that I had to think about stuff, I really didn't even consider when I first started writing his. Like legal repercussions, what kinds of protocolls does the Association have for similar cases? Popularity and changes in public opinion and how that would affect not just Endeavor but all of japan. How does journalistic investigation even work? Or how would japan handle first losing All Might and then having this happen with Endeavor. I mean, I knew some of these issues would be important, but I really feel I opend a can of worms here. I hope I can tie most of these thing up by the end of the story as neat as possible, but it's a lot. I'm also just guessing a lot about investigative journalism, paparazzi and legal stuff. I mean I know a bit about law in germany and could probably inform myself about law in the US, but I have no clue about Japan. So I hope you forgive me if I'm just improvising here.
Also. i just wanted to use this opportunity to thank some of my reviewers. When I first started writing this story and uploaded my first chapter I didn't know how it would do. Really, I was quite nervous. It's an Endeavor story, and while I love the character and I know there are many who think the same, going through other Fanfic's on the internet I got the feeling that at least unter Fanfic-writers Endeavor is still more seen as just the abusive dickhead, with only few 'endeavor redemption' stories coming through. The lack of it was actually one of the reasons I started writing this in the first place (though there are more and more of them recently). I just feared that people would hate it... I'm insecure like that. So, now I've uploaded my 11th Chapter and not only have I not received a single negative Review, it's I think my best-received story yet, not just here but also on A03 where I cross-upload (is that what it's called?). I'm not really used to getting more than one or two reviews on a story. So that's awesome.
Here on FFNet I want to especially think patrickthenobleman, fencer29 and (Thomas the Tank Engine) BlackDragon829.
I also want to thank my Beta The Kindly One for putting all that work in. You're faster with correcting than I am with writing!
