Flashfire

"I already know, Natsuo told me," Fuyumi said.

Natsuo…

Enji remained silent for a while. Absentmindedly, he massaged his shoulder. During the patrol, a villain had gotten him with a hard kick. The bruise was already building. He put the pack of ice back on the hurting joint.

"He told you?" What a useless question, but he couldn't help it. He felt disappointed. "When?"

"I met him yesterday, at Mom's." Her voice sounded oddly cold, he thought. He had hoped if enough time passed, she might forget her anger about him. It had been over a month since they had last been on good terms. He missed her. Gods, he missed her more than anything.

"You visited Rei?" he asked to keep the conversation going.

"Yes. Was that all?" It was obvious she wanted to end the call as soon as possible. There was a new bite in her tone. It was not all, of course. It was Monday, the third… Three days until her birthday.

Enji sighed. He couldn't guess why she was angry at him again, he had to ask. "What did I do, now?" he asked. He knew his voice took on a sarcastic, almost aggressive tone. He was tired of this.

"You told Mom," she said without missing a beat.

Oh…

"She needed to know!" He tried to convince her, but he knew it wouldn't help.

"She actually believes you," Fuyumi sounded tired, and now he felt sorry, even though he had just told the truth. "You made her believe her own son is alive and a murderer. How screwed up is that? I can't even tell her that it's a lie. That would break her heart."

"It's not…," he started, but then he just let it slide. Sooner or later, she had to get out of her denial, but not now. "Did you talk to Natsuo about it?" he asked.

"What's there to talk about?" she snapped. "We both know it's bullshit."

"Did he tell you that?"

"He doesn't need to," Fuyumi huffed in annoyance. "He hardly talks about the kidnapping anyway. Not to me at least. I think he talked to Mom, I don't know." He could hear the sadness in her voice and his heart ached for her. She still believed Natsuo had really been kidnapped. How hurt must she be to think Natsuo wouldn't trust her enough to share his troubles with her. He almost told her right there, but he didn't. What if she didn't believe him again.

Coward… Pathetic.

"I'm sorry," he said, not sure if he was apologizing or just expressing his sympathy.

"Dad, I really need to…"

"How do you feel about this? The divorce?" he asked, interrupting her second attempt to end the phone call. He was utterly terrified. Of her reaction, he was the most afraid. That's why he hadn't even tried to tell her in person. The coward that he was, he didn't want to see her face light up in glee over this news. Would she be happy about it? Of course he wouldn't know, but the mere idea that she could be…

All those years, Fuyumi had been the only one to hold on to the idea that they could ever be a proper family again. She had sacrificed so much for that. And then, when All Might had retired and Endeavor had taken up his position, Enji had finally realized his screw-ups — what he had done. If it hadn't been for Fuyumi back then, who knew if he would have had the strength to even try and turn himself around. But she had been there. The weeks that followed after All Might's retirement, she had been his guidance, whether she knew it or not. Of all his children, she had been the only one who actually wanted him there in the house, at the dinner table, with the rest of them. He knew that she probably wasn't the only one to wish for a real, happy and normal family. Natsuo and Shoto, they probably wanted that too. Maybe even Touya – who knew what Touya wanted? Maybe he just wanted a normal family for his siblings that he himself would not be a part of. But for all of them who craved for this normal family, he knew for a fact, that for the longest time, Fuyumi was the only one for whom he, Enji, was a part of that perfect family.

What if that had changed? To hear her joyous over the idea of a divorce… wouldn't that mean that she had given up, or at least finally thrown him out of this family that she wanted for so long?

Fuyumi sighed. He could hear her breathe on the other end. One, two, three times. The silence was almost agonizing.

"It's probably for the best," she said finally. "Goodbye, Dad." She ended the call with that, giving him no chance to stop her once more.

Enji had rarely heard a 'goodbye' sound so final. Numbly, he listened to the toot-toot of the dead line for a while. Then he finally put the phone down. He hadn't asked about her birthday, again.

He shifted the pack of ice again on his shoulder. One of the medics from his Agency had bandaged it up. He still sat shirtless on one of the cots on the medical floor. His eyes wandered up to the big round clock on the wall. It was getting late, but he didn't really read the time.

Fuyumi… What was he supposed to do, to make her see the truth?

Angrily, he threw the ice pack into the small sink.

If only he were a little better with people. Maybe he could make her believe him, talk her out of her denial. Maybe he would be better at seeing and hearing the warning signs and not put his foot in his mouth every time he talked to her. Of course, if he were better with people and specifically his children, he wouldn't have to deal with most of his problems.

He pushed himself off his cot, put his shirt back on and moved out of the room in a few strides. "I'm going home early today," he told the first person he met, but instead of driving down to the exit, he drove up into his room to put on ordinary clothes. A pair of dark jeans, a light blue shirt, and a cotton sweatshirt. Along with a brown leather belt and neutral brown street shoes. He had one more conversation to deal with.

Half an hour later, Matsuura drove him up to UA. He talked to the teachers first. For twenty minutes, he was made to wait in the common room of his son's dormitory with Eraserhead sitting on the other couch scrutinizing him up and down. Despite the comfortable cushion he sat on, Enji felt uncomfortable. His eyes kept wandering out of the huge window front to some of the students of Cclass 1-B who were training outside. It wasn't just Eraserhead's scrutiny that made him uncomfortable. More than that, it was the other children.

After Nezu had told him which dormitory to go to, Eraserhead had let him into the common room. It was a long room with a giant window front. Endeavor didn't really care about interior design, but it actually looked quite nice and welcoming, he had thought at first. One half of the room was taken up by a dining area with tables and chairs. On the other side were a TV, a fluffy carpet, and the couches he and Eraserhead sat upon now.

It would have been inviting, at least, Enji assumed, if not for the glaring teenaged eyes toward his back. When he had arrived, the room had been empty, apart from that electricity kid, who had reached the sports festival finals only to lose in the most embarrassing way. Eraserhead had sent the kid to bring down Shoto, but apparently on his way searching for Shoto he had sent down all the other brats he happened upon.

Every now and then, Enji looked back to see if Shoto had arrived by now, but instead, six other kids now sat there glaring at him. There was a boy with spikey red hair – one of the kids that had helped save Bakugou as he had seen in the hundreds of showings of the video feed from the Kamino Ward incident. That kid also had been in the sports festival finals this year, and not even done too badly if he remembered correctly. Then there was the girl with pink skin and hair, and horns. She had also reached the finals back then, he remembered. She had ultimately lost against the boy with the bird-head, he remembered. That kid was also here. Tsukuyomi… Hawks' Intern. And that was all the kids he knew. There were three others. A tall and muscular teenager with darker skin, a violet-haired girl who had stormed in with big eyes and her guitar still in hand, and a blond boy with a tail. They all sat there staring at him. He was sure by now they had multiplied again, but he didn't really want to look.

He was not good with kids. Especially not kids that surely blamed him for abusing their friend and of course, they were right. At first, they had muttered a little among themselves.

"We won't let him hurt Shoto again," one of them – he thought maybe the red-head – had said with conviction, the second he had entered the room. That had been the only sentence he had been able to make out completely. Now, it was mostly quiet, but they still glared at him.

"Why are you here, Todoroki-san," asked Eraserhead.

For a moment Enji regretted not having come in costume. He knew that was the only reason Eraserhead referred to him by his real name. It was probably also the reason Enji guessed, why Eraserheads voice now sounded about three degrees cooler compared to two days ago when they had met in costume. Now they weren't colleagues, but just a screw-up father and the disapproving teacher of his youngest son.

However, even Enji knew that this wasn't a business visit and coming in costume would have been inappropriate. Being a hero did not mean that you could do all your daily business in costume, profiting from special hero treatment. He had even killed off his beard completely, which made him feel even more vulnerable now.

"I just need to talk to him," Enji said. He smiled sourly, not willing to tell Eraserhead before he would tell Shoto. "It shouldn't take more than twenty minutes." Two, if Shoto was as impatient with him as Fuyumi, he thought.

Eraserhead opened his mouth, but then they heard the door open again, the hero's eyes flickered up and past Endeavor to the door and instead of saying what he wanted, he stood in a swift movement. "You can talk here or in the gardens," he informed Enji, and Enji already knew which he would prefer.

As he turned around to look at the door too, he finally caught sight of Shoto. His son still stood in the doorway, his hair a bit out of place, wearing more comfortable clothes than Enji had ever seen him in. Were those sweatpants? He decided not to linger on it, as he stood from his place on the couch.

His eyes fell on the boy behind Shoto, barely visible behind his son's back, but he still remembered that green-haired nuisance from the sports festival, from Hosu and from Kamino Ward. It seemed every time there was action, the boy was right in the thick of it. The thought almost made him snort – typical All Might-Wannabe – before he realized, his own son had been at all those incidents too.

"Shoto," he greeted as he walked up to him.

The boy eyed him a little. He had his arms crossed, but he didn't look defensive or hateful the way Enji could still remember from the sports festival, or that one time when he had watched the provisional license training. Instead, he seemed carefully wary. That was an improvement at least.

"What do you want, old man?" Shoto asked. Enji's eyes flickered to the other kids sitting on the table next to them and to the Midoriya-brat who stood next to Shoto now. The way his son disrespected him in front of others… But he felt he hardly cared apart from the minor discomfort.

"Can we talk in private?" he asked. "We could go outside a bit." He would take Eraserhead up on his offer.

Shoto looked outside through the windows, then he shrugged. "Sure." That was all he said, as he opened the glass door and led Enji out on the patio. He could see the boy glance at his friends shortly before the closed the door again and turned to Endeavor. He led the way a few dozen steps away from the window and the close-by students of 1-B who were still running circles around the dormitories, until they found a sole park bench.

Enji immediately sat down, and Shoto hesitated only shortly before he sat next to him. "So, what is it?" the younger Todoroki asked again.

Enji watched a couple of pigeons waddle over the schoolyard for a few seconds before he spoke up. "I went to visit your mother," he started.

Almost immediately, Shoto snapped upright, as if called to attention. He whirled toward Enji, staring at him wide-eyed. "I thought she wasn't supposed to see you!" He blurted a bit accusatory. "The doctors say it's not good for her."

Enji nodded. "It's not, but it couldn't be helped. Somebody had to tell her about Touya."

He didn't mean it as an accusation, but that was obviously how Shoto took it. He turned back, staring at his knees. "I couldn't do it…," he admitted. "I was so afraid I might lose her again if she reacted badly to it. And I hardly see her anyway. I thought Natsuo would tell her."

Enji nodded in acknowledgment. He had already guessed as much.

"How did she take it?" Worry was obvious in his voice. "Both about Touya and seeing you?"

Endeavor grunted. "Surprisingly well," he glanced back at Shoto. "Saturday, I asked Natsuo to visit and answer all her open questions. So she should be up to speed now." As much as anybody could be up to speed in this mess. A month had passed, and he still felt like he was plunged head-first into ice-cold water, and he still hadn't found which way was up. "However, after I told her, she asked me for a divorce."

Shoto almost jumped up from the bench in shock. He stared at his father in utter disbelief. Enji stared back almost equally surprised. He hadn't expected such a reaction. Actually, he had thought that Shoto would be happy with the revelation. Of all his children Endeavor had expected Shoto to be happiest about those news; he had thought Shoto would beam with joy. He had always loved his mother, he had always – more than anybody – thought Enji was bad for Rei, and more than once had he hissed at him as a child, to stay away from his mother. The boy had adored Rei and had never wanted Enji to even so much as to be in the same room as her. To Shoto, more than to anybody else, the marriage of his parents had always seemed like a sham — just there to torture his mother. Enji knew that now.

He had expected Shoto to be happy or relieved, or even to just think it would be for the best. Instead, the boy stared at him in almost despair, shaking his head.

"I didn't think you would be so upset," Enji admitted, a bit flustered.

"Upset?!" Shoto bellowed. "If you're going to divorce, what's going to happen to me?" His cheeks reddened from the stress so obvious on his face. "Fuyumi and Natsuo are adults, so sure, they will be fine. But I'm fifteen. I know, you're not going to give custody over to her!" There was deep hurt, rage, and insecurity in his voice.

"Ah…," it made Enji sad that it was this that made Shoto react so badly. Maybe it was just a reflexive fear, that Enji might take his mother away for good now, something ingrained in him, after so many years. Maybe it was nothing he thought would actually happen, but just an old fear returning now that it could technically become reality. Or maybe that was really what Shoto thought of him, even now. Enji's chest tightened uncomfortably as he looked away, forcing himself not to think about it.

"'Ah', what?" Shoto asked.

"Technically," he informed Shoto, "your mother didn't have custody over you, since—"

"Screw you!" Shoto interrupted him, screaming.

"Shoto!" Enji's voice was loud and demanding of his son's attention. The boy immediately shut up, if only from shock, but Enji knew, if he didn't speak immediately, Shoto would catch himself and start shouting again, so he quickly moved on: "Nothing will change, okay? I promise. You live in UA now for most of the year until your 18. During the breaks, if there is no program in UA, you'll live in my house, as always. If Rei gets better, as soon as she gets better, we can talk about this again, okay? You're almost sixteen years old, I couldn't stop you from seeing your mother, even if I wanted to."

Shoto stared at him, then he snapped his mouth shut and nodded. "Good," he only said looking suddenly ashamed of his outbreak.

"Your siblings already know," he continued more quietly. "I don't really know how long this process will take, but…" What did he want to say? That Shoto should prepare himself? He had just promised him nothing – or at least nothing important concerning Shoto – would change. "Maybe you should ask your teachers if you could visit her soon. She'll probably want to talk to you about it herself. Never mind she'll want to know how you're doing with Touya. And you can…"

He snapped his mouth shut, as he realized he had started scrambling. He fumbled with his hands in his lap. Sometimes he thought he should start smoking too, like Nakamura, just so he always had something to hold in his hands and keep himself busy with during these types of talks. He was just not good at them. At talking to his kids in general.

"Fuyumi's birthday is on Thursday." He just blurted it out. With Natsuo, there had never been the right moment to bring it up. With Fuyumi herself, she hadn't even given him enough time to mention it. But now, with Shoto, Enji was just sitting there and fumbling for words…

Shoto didn't answer at first. He just looked over at his father with raised eyebrows, waiting for an explanation, why Enji had brought the topic up. Finally, he shrugged. "I know. What of it?"

Enji glanced over at him. "Do you know if she… Is something planned? A party or something?"

Shoto blinked a few times, then he nodded. "I've been invited for Friday," he answered glancing back at the dormitories. "Eraserhead gave me permission to go, so I'll probably be there."

Enji nodded. "I see." He muttered. "I probably shouldn't come." He said it more to himself than to Shoto, but Shoto answered regardless:

"Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea."

So now, at least he knew. A few weeks ago, he found out where Fuyumi lived now. Some letters had arrived at his house that were meant for her, and it had been the perfect excuse to write her and ask for her new address, so he could send the letters to her new home. So he knew where she lived: a small apartment in one of the Musutafu suburbs. A part of the city where many people with lower income, young people, and students lived. It wasn't a bad part of the town, but if her new flat was just like the average flat in her new neighborhood, she had apparently exchanged the sprawling Todoroki estates for a three-room apartment with no garden or balcony. It wasn't bad for her, he thought, Fuyumi was 23 and didn't need much. But still, he was looking for every reason he could get, about why she should move back home. He knew at his house, there would be a lot more space for parties.

He also knew that he wasn't invited. Yes, she had given him the address, but she had never asked him to come by and visit. If she threw a party, he wouldn't crash it. Maybe he could drive by her place in the morning, give her a present and leave before it could get awkward.

"Any idea what she might need?" Enji asked Shoto.

Shoto just stared and shook his head. "I'll give her a Vietnamese style cookbook." That didn't really help Enji, so they lapsed back into silence.

"Congratulations on the license," he finally said, remembering the message earlier today. "I'm very proud of you." He had said that already once, and Shoto had not reacted well to it, he remembered. The boy had pushed his hand away and glared up at him in resentment.

Now Shoto looked at him for a while, shoving his hands in his pocket, not saying anything.

"You know, that I am proud of you, right?" he said again if only to get a reaction. But Shoto remained silent. He just looked away, as if Enji hadn't said anything. "I guess, I…," Enji started to stand up from the bench ready to go. He had said what he had come here to say.

"Teach me flashfire," he suddenly heard his son mutter.

He turned back to him. "Flashfire?" he asked as if he hadn't heard right. He had stopped trying to teach Shoto that when he had been around… what, nine? Or maybe ten. It just hadn't worked, and Shoto had blocked every attempt to learn it.

He'd been too young!

Back then, he had decided to just teach it a few years later, but shortly after Shoto's 'rebellious years' had started, he had all but given up on ever teaching this technique to him.

"Hn!" Shoto nodded. "A few days ago, in training, I reached my limit," he admitted, "that way the other students are passing me by. I need to get hotter flames, so there is nothing I can't melt if necessary."

Enji stared at him. A wide smile crept over his face. Oh, he had waited so long for this. For Shoto to ask him to train him. And maybe, this time, he could do it right. They'd have to spend time together. He was about to agree happily, as he suddenly stopped. Wasn't that what he wanted? He could finally get to know his son for real, now that he actually paid attention to him. In time, Shoto might even grow to like him.

It was such a grand opportunity. And yet…

"I can't," he said so quietly, it was almost a whisper.

"What?" Shoto asked, disbeliefve in his voice, as if he was sure he had misheard.

"I can't," Enji said ashamed.

Shoto stared at him, teeth grit, eyes narrowed in disbelieving anger. "What do you mean you can't?"

"I just can't," he repeated raising his voice in frustration. He opened his hand to produce a small flame. "I have been having problems with my quirk, recently." He hadn't reached the temperature needed for flashfire since Touya had held that gun to his face. He hadn't even come close to being able to use flashfire in his training. How could he teach Shoto something he wasn't able to do himself? He could tell him the basic idea, sure, but Enji knew the basic idea and still he couldn't use it anymore. It was wrong! He couldn't teach Shoto the wrong way. That would be worse than not teaching it at all. If Shoto just gave it time and trained in his own time, he might just find the right way himself. "I've been keeping it a secret," he said, "but I can't use flashfire currently."

"You're joking right?" Shoto asked suspiciously, then his eyes widened. "Gods, you're serious." He looked furious now, but instead of screaming, he suddenly smiled and started laughing as if the boy had turned mad right in front of Enji's eyes. The laughter was so loud it made the 1-B class that was still running around the dorms stop and look back at them from a hundred meters away. It wasn't happy laughter, though. Instead, it sounded ugly and humorless, like nothing he had heard before. It was grating. "Just perfect!" Shoto finally shouted at him. "All my life you forced me to train until I was vomiting on the floor, all the time you beat me bruised and bloody so I could learn your stupid technique!" His voice got gradually louder. "And now when I ask you to train me for the first time when I need your help, you SUDDENLY CAN'T?" He screamed the last words right in his face making Enji's ears ring. "I don't believe it! That's the biggest joke I've heard in a while!"

He laughed again. Enji just stared at him. He felt ashamed. "Sorry," he mumbled, although he didn't really know which part of that ugly joke he was apologizing for.

The students from 1-B were looking over at them in concern. A boy with silver hair and a girl with orange hair already were walking towards the father and son at the bench. They stopped, however, when they saw the Midoriya-kid rushing at them from the dormitory of class 1-A.

"Todoroki-kun," Midoriay called worriedly from afar, "what's going on? Are you alright?" He looked at Enji shortly, as he ran toward them, coming to a stumbling halt next to Enji's son, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Todoroki-kun, what's going on?" He threw Enji another suspicious glance, but other than that ignored the elder Todoroki. Even as Enji stood up, neither he nor Shoto reacted to his movement.

"I'm fine," Shoto muttered, "I'm just perfect. My life is a joke and…" Enji didn't really care to listen to their conversation, as he made his way back to the dormitory, to give his quick goodbyes to Eraserhead and the other students. They hardly even looked at him with their attention fixed on Shoto who had at least finally stopped laughing after the other boy had arrived.

A/N So a little bit of Shoto back in the story, though it's not much. I hope you'll like it anyway.

Other than that... Meet Endeavor's Sidekicks...
Or at least two of the four I'm working with at the moment. As I mentioned before, I decided against bringing in Burnin, because I already had the concepts for the sidekicks before I read about her in the Manga...

To be honest, the sidekicks were the main reason why I added this little segment to the story. I want to get a little into detail with their look, powers, and costume so you can imagine the team whenever Endeavor is on patrol in the future. Even though I tried to describe them whenever I had the chance, I felt like it was really insufficient.

Actually I thought about drawing them, but I failed pathetically so ... if I have a reader here who likes to draw and wants to rise to the challenge :D That would make me very happy!

So, let's start with:

Yasui Wataru, heroname: Avalanche
Quirk: Avalanche - Wataru can create snow by using the moisture in the air or vicinity. He's very good with his quirk so he can even pull down a cloud if there is not enough water around him. However, he has trouble controlling the snow when it gets too much. He could theoretically control real snow (for example during a snow storm) but the limit of how much he can control won't change even if he doesn't have the added stress of having to create it first.
Wataru is a 31-year-old man with light grey eyes and mostly short blonde hair. He has a rather average build, which makes him look rather lithe next to the more muscular heroes like Endeavor or Death Arms. The most prominent part of his costume is a short light blue (almost grey) fur jacket with dark grey fur on the inside. He carries it open wearing a white wool sweater and dark wool trousers underneath. He has a white headband to keep his ears warm. He also wears white boots that are thickly layered with grey furs and cloth. This is at least what you can see at first glance. His costume is designed to keep him warm while it is also multilayered. Since he works together with Endeavor the temperature he has to work in is always fluctuating, so he's just shedding layers of his clothes onion-style.
He has an emergency heating system sowed into his inner layers. Apart from that, he doesn't use support items aside from communication devices.

Wataru is a perfectionist, which is the reason he always takes a bit longer to do a task than strictly necessary. He graduated from Ketsubutsu Academy and he was one of their best. Endeavor's Agency pretty much poached him right after his graduation. Although he always thinks about going independent, he did enjoy a certain degree of prestige working for one of the most sought out Agencies in the country. After all, he is Endeavor's most senior sidekicks who gets to lead the business in Endeavor's absence. This is also the reason Endeavor's loss of popularity really bugs Wataru.

Uchida Akemi, heroname: Silent Tracker
Quirk: Animutation - Her quirk allows her to turn into animals that she cuddled beforehand. She actually has to 'cuddle' them or touch them for a lengthy amount of time, for it to work, which makes this very easy for domestic animals or even some not-so-shy insects, but much more difficult for wild animals. After 'cuddling' she can only turn into the animal once (to do it again, she'd have to touch the animal again), but she can stay in her form as long as she likes. Since partial mutations are impossible, this is really tricky to use in combat but super-useful for espionage.

Akemi is a 25-year-old female with really curly dark brown locks. Her hair is rather short, so it curls all around her head but doesn't fall to her shoulders. She also has brown eyes, is about 5'5'' and has a very pointy little nose.
Silent Tracker's hero costume is... depressingly dark. She wears a black hood, that covers most of her upper body, leather gloves with plating for better punching, and thick dark green trousers with a lot of pockets. Her boots are very robust similar to Deku's and she has a belt with various support items. Below her hood, she wears kevlar-like protection. Because she often fights with her bare fists instead of using her quirk in combat too often, and since she is not the physically strongest person, she relies on a lot of support items (she has tranquilizer darts, ultra-thin vire for capture and support, smoke bombs etc.). Despite how much stuff she carries around, her gear is ultra-light, to make her faster.

Akemi is probably the most loyal to Endeavor among all his sidekicks. The reason for that is a scandal in the past, where Endeavor helped er out and stood by her. She is a UA graduate. Akemi is often rather quiet and doesn't want more attention than necessary, at the same time, however, she tends to be brutally honest.