Hello there

there is a bit of a milestone to celebrate. Originally this story was meant to just be about 15 chapters long. Well, we are long past that point. Then, my second draft saw around 30 chapters. Now, we have reached that... I guess, it's a bit of a milestone... however, you could also see it as a negative I assume, - me not following my plans :D My current plan wants to finish this story within 50 chapters now, though I kind of feel, like that may not work out so well, either. Don't worry, it's not like I don't see the end to the story, it's just that while writing over time a lot more problems appeared than I had originally expected. The plot itself is not that much different, neither is the end I'm working towards, but in between it just got a lot more complicated. I still have my end in sight, and I do think we did in fact now get past the 50 % mark.

Another milestone I actually reached LAST chapter was my first 100.000 words in this story. It's not the first time I write so many words in one project, but it IS the first time, that I write 100.000+ words in an ongoing story without a significant time skip or jump in the story. In fact, this whole story so far took place within just over a month of in-story time.

There's another milestone I just remembered. Last week, marks me working on and uploading this story for a whole year!

Thank you all for going on this journey with me!
I want to give special thanks to my Beta reader Itsgettinghotinhere who took over after Chapter 15 and has been very reliable ever since! I couldn't be happier!

And secondly, I want to also give a special thank you to all my reviewers, who always motivate me to write a little more, and are the easiest way for me to get out of just about any writer's block I might suffer at the moment. At this point, I just want to give special mentions to fencer29 for his constant support pretty much since I updated Chapter 1!

Behind Closed Doors

As he seemed mostly fine, they had only sent a nurse to check his and his sidekick's vital signs and took a sample of their blood before they left them in a hero waiting room. While normally as a hero he could ask for preferential treatment, he was in no hurry to get back out again. His job for the day was over and he had no problem waiting until the patients with more severe injuries were treated.

It was already dark outside and late in the evening when a nurse asked him to follow her into another room. He sat on the uncomfortable cot with the leather cover for another fifteen minutes. Then finally a young woman with a white doctor's coat and a clipboard in one arm entered. She had a rather plain look about her, apart from the bright purple eyes.

His treatment didn't last longer than ten minutes.

"Okay, Endeavor-san," she ended, frowning down at her clipboard. "You have a minor smoke poisoning. We would like to keep you here over the night for further observation." She glanced outside the window, then her purple eyes wandered back to his face as if waiting for a reply.

"Sure," Endeavor shrugged. He didn't intend to go back out again, and while normally he might want to get out of hospitals as fast as humanly possible, it wasn't like there was anything waiting for him at home, anymore.

"Perfect!" She brightened up visibly, as if she had expected him to reject her offer. "Then I will tell the staff to prepare a room for you." She was out of the room again so fast, Endeavor hardly had a chance to ask anything else.

After another thirty minutes, a nurse came in to lead him to his room for the night. It was her he asked about his sidekicks. She didn't know the answer, but another hour later he got the information that they were fine. Avalanche had been released right away, and Shrinking Girl had a second degree burn on her hand that was taken care of. But she too was already released from hospital care.

He was about to settle in for the night, when his phone rang.

"What is it, Inari?" he asked mildly frustrated that the man wouldn't let him sleep.

"Good evening to you too, sir," the secretary greeted with fake cheer.

It took some banter, until Endeavor too wished his secretary a good evening and the man finally informed him what was the matter.

"We finally have all your financial records regarding the Agency together. With the details you and Nakamura already provided, we now have everything you asked for."

For a moment Endeavor was confused about what he was talking about. Then he remembered: The divorce. He didn't really look forward to dealing with that now, but what had to be done…

"You're still in the office?" he wondered, if only to minutely distract himself from the issue at hand.

"No, I went home at 6 pm as always. I-," there was a short break now as Inari's voice suddenly sounded distracted, then Endeavor could hear him talk with somebody on his end of the line. "Just a minute, darling… yeah I know…" He could hear a woman's voice but couldn't make out her words. "Anyway," Inari turned back to the conversation with Endeavor and his voice immediately cleared up as he spoke directly into the microphone. "I couldn't really call you when you were in that burning building, but I have all the records here, so…"

"Can you bring them over tomorrow morning? I must spend the night in the Musutafu Grand Hospital. I assume I'll be here for most of the morning tomorrow." It always took a while for the doctors to do the final examination and release him. He had quite a bit of experience with that now.

"Then see you tomorrow."

Although he didn't particularly like hospitals and his throat still felt sore and scratchy, he slept surprisingly well that night. As it had still been considerably early when he had fallen asleep, he woke up early in the morning. Outside, he could hear some nurses and doctors who had the early shift rush over the floors every now and then — while he was still waiting for breakfast, his examination and hopefully his release.

The clock informed him that it was still only 5 in the morning. On a normal workday, he would probably already be on his way to the agency at that time, if not already there, but now he considered going back to sleep for another two hours. By now, he had stayed in hospitals often enough to know that his breakfast would probably not arrive before seven, and the doctors for his exam only after that.

In the end, he decided against sleeping some more, as he already felt thoroughly awake and he wasn't the type to sleep away his hours. However, since there was hardly anything else to do, he simply sat on his bed with a glass of water, turning on the TV.

He watched the last few minutes of a crime series, piecing together the case from what he could gather in those minutes as they already captured the killer, then he watched the first 20 minutes of the sappiest romantic comedy he had ever seen. He never watched these sorts of shows unless Fuyumi had them running on the TV when he entered the room. This one seemed truly bad, but he didn't know if that was just the nature of the genre or this one in particular. He assumed it was just this one, and that might be the reason they set it at such an early hour when nobody was watching anyway. He couldn't bear to watch for more than those first 20 minutes though. So, a few minutes before six o'clock hit, he switched through the channels to find a halfway serious news outlet.

The Japanese Prime Minister had left for his visit in South America, just arriving in Brazil the other day.

A big French industry for quirk-related security equipment had to declare bankruptcy leading to unforeseeable consequences to the Japanese sister-company.

In Hokkaido, the police had raided a villain hideout and confiscated over 100 dosages of Trigger — the quirk enhancing drug.

And the fire in Musutafu. The news showed live footage from the scene, where the fire apartment was still working and clean-up had just barely started. Enji wasn't surprised that they had to work through the whole night. He wouldn't even be surprised if they were still working at the scene by the end of the week. Never mind how long it would take to find out what exactly had happened to cause the catastrophe. Still, it was always a sobering scene to see the people who cleaned up after the heroes had long left the scene. He knew that in Fukuoka, where he had fought the Noumu over a month ago, teams were still trying to assess the damage and a big part of the city was still closed off because of the uncertain structural integrity of the buildings they had damaged during the fight.

"So far eight deaths could be confirmed, most of which were found on the third and fourth floors of the Uzushi Tower where the fire started," a voiceover explained while they still showed the footage from the clean-up work at the sight. "The authorities have not yet been able to confirm the cause of the fire, but it seems some sort of explosion at the east side of the building caused the fire to spread very fast."

"Is there any indication that the fire was deliberate?" asked the anchorman, who was not on the screen. The picture switched to a man standing in front of a fire truck. To the side, behind the truck, Enji could see just an edge of the burned building.

"At the moment," the man said, "neither the fire department nor the police have made any indication of that. But of course, so early in the investigation, they are not disregarding the possibility." It was the same voice of the voiceover just a few minutes earlier.

"So, I guess we have to wait for more information on that front."

The man on screen waited a second after the anchorman had already said his piece.

"Yes, it is perfectly normal for the investigators to need a few hours, if not days, before they can come up with their first theories. At the moment, they are still dealing with the last seeds of fire still hiding within the building, finding and recovering possible victims, and trying to assess the structural integrity of the building. For a long time, the biggest fear was that the building may collapse."

"Last we heard they seem to think the building is sound for now. Is that your knowledge, too?" the anchorman asked.

"At least they gave the all clear for the first investigators to enter the building," the man answered with a slight shrug, "so it seems, this at least is not their immediate concern."

"Good," the anchorman nodded a few times, shuffling some papers, humming a little as he did. "Mhm… hm, yes, let's talk a little about the rescue operation, shall we?" He finally straightened some of his papers out again.

"Of course," the other man answered. Below they showed his name as Ishiba Yoshihiko.

"Can you run us through the rescue operation of what we know so far?"

As Ishiba started to explain they showed different footage. This one was back during the day. It showed the building in flames, with the fire trucks trying to get the inferno under control. He could see Mt. Lady standing next to the building. Avalanche stood on one of the firetrucks controlling his snow, although hardly any of that was visible on screen. At one time Enji could even see himself break through a window.

"The first emergency call came in at 11:21 AM. It's assumed that by then, the fire had already reached from the third to the fourth floor, although it seemed to be mostly on the east side of the building. The first hero on sight was Mt. Lady who called for support at 11:22. She and Death Arms, who arrived only shortly after her, began the evacuation as none of their quirks was suited to deal with the fire itself. It was only when Backdraft arrived at 11:27 that they started trying to get the flames under control. At that point, they had already spread to the fifth floor and all the way to the west side of the building."

"As you mentioned before, so far, we have eight confirmed deaths," the anchorman reminded the viewers, "despite three heroes on the scene only five minutes after the initial emergency call."

"Yes, of course," Ishiba said, before the anchorman could properly formulate his question. "So far, we can assume, that some of the victims were already injured or might even have died after the initial explosion that started the fire. We also have to keep in mind that of the three heroes on scene so early on, only one specialized in fire-fighting."

"Speaking of fire-fighting," the anchorman continued at once, "at half past 11 Endeavor arrived."

"Yes," Ishiba said. His voice sounded vary, as if he didn't like the direction the conversation was going. Enji himself didn't know what he had done wrong now, but he decided he didn't like the direction either.

"Endeavor famously has the strongest fire quirk of any active hero today. Taking this into consideration, his arrival on scene had surprisingly little influence." Enji frowned at the thinly concealed insult.

"As far as I know, Endeavor's quirk does not allow him to control all the fire around him," Ishiba correctly supplied.

Best Endeavor could do to fight a fire was backburning or trying to use his own flames to suffocate the others, but both were only possible when there were no people still in the building.

"In any case," Ishiba added, "Endeavor added a great service to the fire-fighting by enabling the emergency vehicles to arrive at the scene."

"Something he is already harshly criticized for," the anchorman quickly added.

Enji decided, he didn't like the man. Ishiba seemed like a reasonable person, though.

At that point, the footage shifted again, showing a young man with disheveled dirty blond hair. "Yes, he burned my hand," he said into a microphone. The logo on the mic belonged to a different channel, so they had borrowed footage from different places. "Endeavor, with his flames. He's mad!" He raised his hand to the camera where he had a thin red burn on the palm of his hand.

"He attacked us! Did you see that? Did you get it on video?" That was a girl a bit younger than the man before, the footage this time clearly came from some social media platform. The format of the video made it obvious that it was shot with a cellphone camera. "First he screamed at us! Threatening us he'd burn us, and then we hardly got away in time, before…" the girl was obviously excited with what she had just witnessed, be that Endeavor's rude behavior or the fire itself. She was breathing hard and adrenaline made her speak so fast she was hardly understandable. "He would have shot us through! I mean, we could have died there. Never mind that he comes to fight a fire and the first thing he does is shoot fire at the masses!"

The video changed again, showing another phone camera. Sirens were blaring in the background as the camera focused on the burning building, when suddenly it swirled around to show a tendril of Endeavor's fire shoot past the cameraman. "Woah, did you see that?" somebody, probably the cameraman asked, focusing the camera on the fire that was still hanging in the air in front of him. He bent forward over the flame and into the gap Endeavor had just created, to get a better view with his camera of Endeavor.

"That's Endeavor," somebody else said, but he was a bit further away from the phone, that it was almost drowned out by the sirens. "What the fuck is he doing?"

Somebody else cursed, barely audible.

"Ey careful, it's—", the second voice warned, as the cameraman suddenly scrambled back quickly.

"Ow shit!" the cameraman cursed, "it's coming closer! Hey, move!" As the flame split apart and broadened the gap, the cameraman was shoving backward. The video was shaky, as he pushed past the other onlookers. It wasn't so packed that he needed to use his fists and elbows to get away from the fire, but at some point, he stepped on somebody's toes.

The video ended when a fire truck slowly drove past the cameraman. Then the picture changed again, showing a split screen with Ishiba on the left and the anchorman on the right.

"This was footage from Endeavor using his quirk to get the public to build a passage for the emergency vehicles." The anchorman informed even the last of his viewers that maybe hadn't understood that yet. "Already he is highly criticized for his usage of his quirk against innocent citizens."

Enji was half of a mind to call the channel to inform their incompetent newsanchor, that blocking emergency vehicle was actually an offense which allowed him to use his quirk at his own consideration. Instead, he hoped Ishida – who seemed like a reasonable man – would set things right.

"When Endeavor arrived at the scene, the emergency services en route had not yet made it on the scene because they were blocked by the huge group of onlookers. Especially the fire trucks were needed to combat the fire, and it could even be argued that some deaths, but certainly many injuries could have been prevented, if they had been able to arrive at the scene just a few minutes earlier. Getting them a passageway to reach the Uzushi Tower was of the highest priority. In that sense, Endeavor's judgement can only be recommended." Ishiba sighed silently but visible on screen. "His handling of the situation may have been a bit… rough, but in my eyes — and both the captain of the fire department and Backdraft expressed their concurring opinion on the matter — it was the most important decision he made after his arrival."

"But you yourself called it 'rough' just now," the anchorman argued, "especially considering Endeavor's current standing, should he not have found a different way to handle the situation? Many people seem to think that — while they express their shock at the blockage of the street through onlookers, — Endeavor should have handled the situation differently rather than blasting a group of civilians with his fire."

Ishiba seemed to think about the question for a moment, but then he shook his head. "I'm not inclined to give Endeavor any more leeway than you are, believe me, but his handling of the situation now has little to do with his current standing in society. At the moment, he has to answer to the public for a lot of reasons, but so far it seems like he is going to keep his hero license, and as long as that is the case, as a hero doing his work, he cannot get distracted because he fears something he does may show him in a bad light. I called it 'rough' because that's what it was; it certainly won't help with the reputation he already has, but that doesn't mean he was wrong."

"So, you would commend him for his actions?" The anchorman smiled nicely as he asked the question, but even Enji could see the trap. Thankfully, Ishiba was apparently a smart guy.

"I would commend him for choosing to prioritize the emergency vehicles over storming in and trying to do everything by himself. Especially considering it is Endeavor, the older ones among us may still be able remember a time when that could not be taken for granted. I did mention that I find his handling of the situation a bit rough. My initial assessment is that it is a justified force, but should complaints come forward against him, I fear it is a matter for the experts to decide."

"Thank you for your assessment so far," the news anchor ended the interview swiftly. "Before we let you go, when do you think we might get some concrete information regarding the cause of the fire?"

"At the moment, new information is still trickling in every few minutes. I assume we will have the first idea at around noon, but it can take a while until we have all the details."

"Thank you, Ishiba Yoshihiko for us right from the Uzushi Tower in Musutafu City."

Enji was still annoyed with the man while he read the news in other things such as finances and the weather. He muted the TV when a commercial break started and didn't bother to turn the sound back on when it ended.

Breakfast came and was eaten all too quickly. Hospital portions were ample enough for an ordinary adult, but as soon as the nurse informed him that the doctor wouldn't come see him before eight, he made his way down to the hospital cafeteria to buy two extra sandwiches. He was no ordinary adult, after all. He burned three times as many calories by just lying around.

Inari arrived shortly before his examination to leave him a newspaper and his financial records. Then the doctor gave the all clear, and at around ten, he was finally ready to leave this place again. He wanted to go to Rei before going to work, but then an emergency call came in, so he had to leave at once, taking the financial records with him.

It was only in the early afternoon when he finally made it back to the hospital for one last check-up. This time, he went straight to the psychiatric ward as soon as he was done.

He was still in thought and frustrated with the guy from the news and the public overall for again finding some reason to complain about him, when he suddenly stopped short. There was laughter drifting over to him.

Of course, hearing somebody laugh wasn't entirely unexpected. Even in a psychiatric ward, in a hospital, people could be happy. But… he knew this particular laughter. Fuyumi…

It was only now that he realized: It was Thursday, December 6th and his daughter's 23rd birthday. And he stood here outside his wife's home for the last decade in the psychiatric ward of a hospital. His wife was behind this door, and his daughter too. He stopped short to listen for a moment.

Rei said something, but her voice was always so quiet, it was difficult to understand through the closed door. Then voices began to sing a 'Happy Birthday' song for Fuyumi. It wasn't just Rei. There was Natsuo too. He could hear his voice clearly, a somewhat askew baritone overpowering Rei's voice entirely. Shoto was there too, Enji thought, though it was difficult to place his voice that was a lot quieter than Natsuo's.

"That really wasn't necessary!" Fuyumi said in that squeaky tone, that told everybody that she very much appreciated having her brothers and mother sing to her. "And Mom, you really didn't need to get me… how did you even get this?"

Rei had gotten her a present. That was a surprise to Enji too, since Rei couldn't really leave the hospital for long shopping tours.

"I ordered it off Amazon," Rei answered, giggling a little.

"You have Amazon, mom?"Natsuo wondered, impressed.

"Sure do!" She sounded very proud. There was a short pause and movement behind the door. "Look, I even got my own iPad now."

"That's so great, Mom!" Fuyumi squealed. She sounded even happier for her mother's progress than she had sounded before for the gift. Enji thought he could hear Shoto mutter his consent.

"See, now I can look up the sports festival and watch Shoto."

It sounded as if she was showing the kids a segment from the Festival. Maybe his fight with that Deku-kid, Enji thought. It wasn't the fight with Deku, it turned out.

"Ah, I love watching this Cavalry Battle," she sighed happily. "It's so nice, seeing you with your friends."

"I behaved like a dick back then," Shoto said in a flustered tone. "Really, it's embarrassing."

"No, you were great," Rei insisted.

"Yeah, he got second place," Fuyumi announced proudly. "Just for a second, I thought he might win, but then this other kid showed this crazy move…," she remembered, "I was really shocked when I watched it on TV!"

"Show me!" Natsuo demanded.

"What, you didn't—"

"No, I haven't seen it yet! Come on, I want to see it."

"That's really not necessary," Shoto mumbled.

"Oh, don't be such a kill-sport," Natsuo laughed. There was a low thud, then Fuyumi and Natsuo laughed out loud and Enji could even hear Rei's quiet giggle.

He just stood frozen in the moment. His hand was already on the doorknob, but then he couldn't move it. Couldn't move at all. There was something precious right in front of him and he couldn't turn away from it. He wanted… He wanted so much to be a part of it, but he knew, as soon as he entered the room, this precious thing… it would shatter in a million pieces.

So, he was glued to this spot, petrified in his current state, frozen in time. And then…

"Todoroki-san?"

He whirled around in shock as a female voice brought him out of his trance. The people inside Rei's room were still laughing. They didn't hear her. Only he heard her… because he stood outside that room, he was not a part of… whatever precious thing this was.

"Yes?" he whispered, terrified that just his voice carrying into the other room could break the peace.

"What are you doing here?" It was Tanaka, Rei's psychologist. She stood right in front of him, looking him up and down, then turning her eyes at the door. There was understanding there and Enji was embarrassingly relieved that he didn't have to explain to her what just happened. Finally, she turned to her office.

"If you would follow me…?"

He immediately let go of the doorknob to hurry after her, almost relieved he had found a reason not to enter that sanctuary that was so taboo for him.

"So, what was your reason for coming here today?" she asked as she entered the office.

Enji didn't know what he was doing here. He didn't want to speak to this woman. This wasn't why he had come. And still he followed her quietly and even sat when she offered him a seat. Only when she offered a cup of coffee or tea or just water, he realized what he was doing.

"No, ah… thank you, but I need to get back to work soon. I just came to drop these off." For a moment she seemed almost disappointed, then she looked down at the stack of papers Enji held up. "They are for Rei, but…" He didn't really want to admit that he was too much of a coward to bother her right now.

"If you want, I can give them to her later," she offered without hesitation.

"Oh, that would be great. They are confidential, though, so I trust…"

"I will not look at them," she promised before he had even finished his sentence, looking insulted that he might even imply that she may read the documents or even sell their contents off.

Truth be told, Enji hardly even cared at the moment, so he just took her at her word without second guessing himself, putting the papers on her desk and jumping from his seat as if he couldn't wait to be rid of this place.

"One second, Todoroki-san," she stopped him before he could bolt out of the room with the same sudden energy. Enji paused, mildly irritated at that. Tanaka was rummaging around in her desk, then she held out a tiny little card to him.

He took it more out of surprise rather than because he really wanted her business card. He looked at it, confused.

"If you ever need somebody to talk," she started, "I think you could benefit—"

"Thanks," he cut her off gruffly, feeling irritated rather than thankful. Still he shoved the business card into his pants pocket instead of giving it right back to her. That would just make her argue even more, and he didn't really feel up to that conversation. He would just dump the card in the trash later.

Because, why would he need a psychiatrist? It's not like she could help him get a better relationship with his family… Well, this particular psychiatrist could maybe do just that, but she'd have to step out of her job description for that.

He was the number one hero for gods' sake. He might be a pathetic excuse for a number one hero at the moment, but that was still what he was! Did All Might need a Psychiatrist? That fool with his stupid smiles and motivational speeches and holier than thou attitude and complete self-assuredness that everything would turn out alright just because 'he was there'?

Never mind when would he even find time for it?

So, what did you think? I hope you liked it and I have to admit, this scene was inspired by the Manga. You will also see in the next chapter, that I will (partly at least) use another event from the manga, that I haven't brought up so far.

I also want to talk a bit about chapter length: I actually always aim to reach around 3000 words per chapter. Sometimes it doesn't quite work out. Currently, quite a few chapters completely obliterated the 3000 words-mark, and had more like 5000 or even 6000+ words. So I just wanted to warn you, to not get used to it. The next two chapters will be much shorter, and then I hope to get back to my 3000 words aim. But, I'd like to know, if you have a preferred chapter length. Like I know with more than 3000 words I myself - when I read - may get a bit frustrated.

Anyway, there is a third ... and actually a fourth issue to discuss.(And since there is so much to say here already, I fear we're not going to get the character description for Brazen today, that I had promised last week. (There will be a Brazen focused chapter in a few weeks, I might write his characterization with that chapter.))

So, I don't know if you realized it, but I think I messed up the timeline a little. I think I put the Endeavor vs. High End Nomu fight too early in the year. Like I put it around late October, early November, but I feel like in Canon it may have happened shortly after that. I'm not entirely sure to be honest, as Horikoshi never gives us clear dates in the Manga, but... Why is this important? Well, I've mentioned earlier that I will move away from the Manga and that I will not let things that happen in the manga now influence the story overall... However, there were some aspects of the Manga that I did want to bring in. An example would be the Joint Training Arc which did happen in the background of this story (while Enji was in the hospital) as well as Bakugou and Shoto getting their licenses a few chapters ago. So, Shoto and Bakugou got their licenses the same way they did in the Manga. However, since I believe I botched up the timeline a little, don't be confused when things that (in the manga) should happen like... right after the High-End-Fight, now happen a little later. So there is a bit of a gap between the High-End fight and much of the stuff that I want to include from the manga that happens later on. Even if maybe in the Manga they seem to happen at around the same time or shortly after one another.

Another thing I messed up was apparently Geography. Because Horikoshi is just as vague with his places as he is with his timeline. Many events in the manga we don't actually know where they are, many hero agencies we don't really know where they are... and so on and so forth. When I started writing this story, I read that Musutafu was a fictional city somewhere close to Tokyo... So I initially put it next Yokohama. Now, with Endeavor going back to his job, I find that it is much more difficult to be vague in my geography than I had hoped. So... I now essentially just randomly decided where certain places and agencies in the manga are, how Musutafu looks, that for example, Aldera is a part of the city in the northwest et cetera et cetera... Part of my new reconstruction of the geography of MHA, is that I found out, that Musutafu is apparently not near Tokyo but near Shizuoka, so about 100 km further north, then I first thought. So, maybe, if I hadn't said it here, you wouldn't have realized that I just moved the City of Musutafu quite a bit away from Yokohama... but I thought that in case you still remembered the wild goose chase after Natsuo's kidnapping, where I put Musutafu between Yokohama and Tokyo, I'm just going to be upfront with you... So yeah... maybe when I'm all finished with this story, I will try to amend these mistakes.

As for now, next week as I mentioned it will be a short chapter, but I intend to explain to you the new geography of where Musutafu is, how it looks and where the other heroes are at.