Sorry for the delay again. I always hope the next chapter will be up in time, but it might be a bit later again. So I guess, for future chapters, expect them at Sunday, but don't be too surprised if they take till Tuesday ^^

New Interns

"Hello? Hello, is this…Is this Endeavor?"

Apparently, just about everybody had his phone number now. Who was this, calling his private mobile today? Enji didn't have time for this. He scowled at the clock. He was expecting the new interns any minute now.

"Yes, who is it?" he replied somewhat rudely. "And where did you get the number?"

"I'm sorry," the reply came at once. Despite Enji's rude tone, the other person sounded relieved. "this is Hairo Sai…" For a moment it seemed as if he would leave it at that, but then the man added: "Rhinocerus, you remember? You helped me—"

"I remember," Enji interrupted. It wasn't even a week ago that he had first met the mutant. "Did Nakamura give you my number?"

"Yes. Just in case."

Enji was irritated. People shouldn't be giving out his private number so carelessly. He easily understood Nakamura's logic: so Rhinocerus would have somebody to turn to just in case Nakamura wasn't available or the right person to ask for help. Enji had already proven that he was willing to help the other man – but still, he'd prefer it if Nakamura warned him next time before he handed his number over to virtual strangers. And villains, at that – if only reluctant ones.

"What is it?" Enji asked instead of interrogating Hairo further regarding the phone number. He wanted to get this over with.

The interns would arrive in ten minutes if they were on time – and he was incredibly nervous about having to deal with Shoto and his friends. It turned out, the only interns that had accepted were Shoto's classmates. Enji wasn't sure if it was so they could have an eye on him – making sure he wouldn't abuse Shoto further – or because Shoto had put in a good word for him. Not knowing made him crazy. The new office he had moved into was only half the size of his old one, which was still of a decent size, but he still felt claustrophobic in it.

"You promised my children that I'd be home in a few days," Hairo Sai said, decidedly not getting to the point.

"I did," Enji replied quickly. He didn't have such a bad memory that he needed the other man to repeat everything that had happened just under a week ago. "What of it?"

"I'm not home yet." There was a pause as if Hairo Sai bated his breath. Finally, he exhaled audibly. "I can't afford bail."

Disbelievingly, Enji stared at his phone. Was this stranger really asking him to pay bail for him? For a moment, he was almost angry. He'd done enough, he thought. But then, he remembered that he had promised his children – and of course, bail would be high. Hairo was accused of resisting arrest and injuring a hero. On paper, that sounded exactly like the kind of person that would flee as soon as possible.

"How much is it?" He asked with an eye on the clock on the wall.

"Two million yen."

Enji huffed. That was more than he got for capturing him. The agency couldn't afford that; he'd have to pay out of his own pocket… "How do I know you won't run away, if I pay?"

There was a long silence on the other end. Then: "I have two children. I spoke with your lawyer and it seems I might have a chance. Even if I lose the case, I'd rather go to jail than force my children to a life on the run with a villain for a father."

Enji could detect no falsehood in his voice. He considered his options for a moment.

"I will pay," he answered after a while. "But this time, I need something in return."

Hairo sounded confused. "Yes, of course. I'll do whatever I can, but…I told you, there's nothing I can do for you."

Enji dragged his eyes away from the clock. "You're a good father," he said. He had already realized that the first time they met. "I'm about to meet my son and some of his classmates. They're here for an internship – what should I do?"

Enji thought Hairo hadn't heard his question when he didn't say anything at first. Until: "How should I know?"

"You have kids around that age," Enji argued. "Your daughter is just a bit older than him."

Hairo huffed. "Endeavor, that's different."

Enji shook his head. "Because she's a girl?" he guessed, though he didn't think that was it.

Hairo chuckled. "No, but there are no blueprints for kids. They are all different. I don't know your son. I don't know what he wants or needs. How would I know?"

Enji felt a little stupid. Still, like an idiot, he blurted out: "He wants to be a hero." His mind ground to a halt then. Did Shoto want to be a hero? Or was that just Enji's own desire, that had been forced upon Shoto? But no! Shoto had declared his desire to be a hero. "He wants to save people," he added with more conviction.

"Then you're much better suited to know what he needs," Hairo answered in a good-natured tone. "I have no idea about any of that."

Unhappily, Enji scowled. "And his friends? What about them?"

"They want to be heroes too, don't they?" Hairo asked. "What, you think they took the internship to make life difficult for you? If they're serious about their career choices, they'll want to learn from you. So just teach them."

Just teach them….

He made it sound so easy. What was Enji supposed to teach them? He hardly knew anything about them apart from their hero names and whatever he remembered from last year's sports festival.

He wasn't satisfied with Hairo's lack of help, and he was about to tell him that when there was a knock on his door. "I have to go," he said. "I'll send the money as soon as I can."

"Thank y—" Enji finished the call just as the door banged open.

Spiky blond hair, fiery-red eyes, and standing in the full glory of his hero costume, Bakugou Katsuki burst through the door. He had just turned 17, Enju knew from Shoto. The young hero glared at Enji sitting in his office. Enji reciprocated the way the boy scowled at him. Then there was an irritated twitch in Bakugou's brows.

"Icy-Hot, he's here." he blurted over his shoulder.

Shoto came into the room after his classmate. "Of course he's here." His voice was calm. How he remained to stay so calm was beyond Enji, who had already half-decided on tossing Bakugou out the window.

"Kacchan!" Midoriya snuck in behind the other two much less confidently, half hiding behind his friends while throwing nervous glances at Enji. "You can't just barge in like that."

"What do you mean, Deku?" Bakugou sounded irritated. "The secretary said to come here."

As he said it, Taro came rushing through the door with a flushed face. She hurriedly bowed twice to Enji. "I'm so sorry. I told them to wait outside," she explained nervously, throwing a glare at Bakugou between bows.

There was laughter from outside as the last two interns came in. Chargebolt had one hand in his pocket. With the other hand, he hit Bakugou on the shoulder. "You can't just explode into the room like that, Kacchan," he admonished jokingly. He grinned as Bakugou bristled.

The girl entered last. She looked unimpressed by her friends, but when her eyes came to rest on Enji, she blushed and ducked shyly. One of her hands was playing with her elongated earlobes.

Enji stifled a sigh. Well, it was too late to retreat now, and this couldn't be avoided any longer. Time to get it over with. He stood up and came around the desk to stand in front of the UA second years.

"It's alright, Awase, now that they're here," he dismissed Taro. "I can take it from here."

"Awase?" Shoto asked curiously, looking after Taro's retreating back. "There's a boy called Awase in class 1B, I think."

"Yosetsu," Midoriya whispered back to him. "Maybe they're related?"

Enji was irritated by how easily they were distracted. "Your peer is her cousin. Now focus!" While Shoto looked at him with lazily slumped shoulders, Midoriya jumped and blushed ruefully.

"'M sorry," he mumbled.

"That's alright," Enji said, not wanting to linger on the subject. They were wasting time here and he could imagine doing better things than argue about Taro's family. "I see only one of you has their hero costume on?" His eyes quickly passed Bakugou, before they lingered on the other four. The explosion kid gave him a triumphant smirk.

The other four were still in their school uniforms. They carried the silver suitcases with them, in which UA students had their hero costumes. That wouldn't do of course. "You're not at school," he told them, a little annoyed, though he didn't allow the irritation into his voice. "Change and meet me in the gym. Shoto can show you the way."

He pushed away from the desk and marched past the students to the elevator doors, looking at his watch. He wanted to know exactly how long they needed to change. There was no emergency, and he hadn't told them to hurry either, but this would tell him how motivated they were. Part of him hoped Shoto wouldn't be last.

His son definitely wasn't first though, Enji thought, as he threw an irritated glance at Bakugou. The boy had followed right after him and was now stepping into the elevator with Enji.

"What's with you?" Enji muttered. He didn't mean it aggressively, but he realized it didn't come out right, when Bakugou's scowl deepened.

"What do you mean?" He stared at Enji challengingly. "I'm already in costume. Just because the losers are slacking, doesn't mean I need to miss out on stuff, right?"

It was to the boy's luck that the elevator was a small, closed-off metal box with no opening to throw a kid out of, as Enji once more felt the desire to remove Bakugou from his presence. Resigned – because there was no other way to get rid of Bakugou short of murder – he sighed.

"Ebony Fall said he thought I could help you with your quirk." Enji ended up saying. "What exactly are you here for?"

Bakugou grimaced at the mention of Best Jeanist's sidekick. Enji suspected the boy was hit hard by his mentor's disappearance, but Bakugou didn't elaborate.

"He said you could teach me, because of the fire nature of my quirk." He pushed his jaw forward as if in defiance.

"Teach you what?" Enji noted that Bakugou hadn't answered the question.

"I want to find out what I can't do," Bakugou said. "My Explosion is the strongest quirk. I just have this one quirk, but I can do everything that I put my mind to with it." Something about the phrasing was off to Enji. I just have this one quirk… "But a strong quirk's not enough to make me the strongest. So, to surpass the number one, I need to learn what I'm missing."

That…

Enji knew now, where his intense need to get rid of the boy came from. He reminded him of himself – only that he was miles ahead of Enji already. How many years had Enji needed to realize that a strong quirk was not what made a strong hero? It had been too late to save his family…or Touya, by the time he finally figured it out. And yet, Bakugou knew it already.

Enji felt like he had lost a race without even knowing he was competing. "Okay," he said curtly, as the elevator doors opened. He set a quick pace for the gym. Bakugou was running after him.

"Okay?" He repeated after a moment of silence. "Okay, what? How will you help me?"

Eager, Enji noted.

The two heroes entered the gym. The door banged against the wall, as Enji brushed past it. He quickly picked a towel from a shelf and set it on fire.

Baffled, Bakugou watched him. "What are you doing?" he asked, staring at the small pile of ash left.

"Fix it," Enji demanded.

The boy looked from Enji to the still-hot ash and back to Enji. "What do you mean, fix it?" he parroted Enji. "I can't fix it."

Enji nodded. "Then this is the first thing you can't do with your quirk." He peered at the boy. "That was what you wanted to learn about, wasn't it?"

Bakugou snorted. "Yeah, sure, I can't do that. That's not really what I meant." Enji raised an eyebrow at him. Frustrated, the boy glared back at him. "How am I supposed to fix it?"

"You can't," Enji deadpanned. "What, did you think finding your limitations was only for surpassing them?" He shook his head. "You have a fire-based quirk, like mine, alright." He moved to one of the benches and sat down to wait for the other interns. "Ebony Fall is right, there are still things you need to learn., Primarily among them, apparently, is the most important lesson for any fire-based pro hero."

Bakugou raised an eyebrow at him. "That would be? That I can't fix stuff that's already burned?" His voice was mocking.

Enji nodded. "In a way… Fire-based quirks like ours give us vast opportunities when it comes to battle. However, utilizing the quirk in rescue is much trickier." He huffed, remembering how he had struggled with it himself. "That wouldn't be an issue if you just wanted to be some ordinary hero focusing on battle." He gave a half-hearted shrug. "But to be number one, that's not enough. Instead, you'll have to deal with any situation, because there's nobody above you, and people – as well as your own colleagues will look up to you for guidance."

Enji marveled at his own words. He hadn't been the number one for long and had unceremoniously lost the position with his license in December. Yet, as he talked, he knew it was true. It was something he had maybe always known, but had only really understood when it was his time to take the position. Endeavor had been a poor number one, but maybe that – more than anything – was why he knew of the expectations that any future number ones would have to deal with.

"You need to be able to fight, to lead to rescue, to evacuate, to protect, and to preserve," he explained. "The last part is difficult with a quirk that might be versatile but remains – at its core – destructive. That's why the most important thing for you to learn is not how to fly, or how to burn, or how to make things explode, but how to be considerate. You must be – at all times – aware, that once you set something on fire, once you explode something, there is no way to fix it."

Bakugou looked at him like a fish out of water.

"Do you understand?" Enji asked. He was already hearing the other kids talking in the corridor coming closer.

"I think so," Bakugou said, though he looked uncertain.

"It's not about how to do the biggest, baddest explosion you can do," Enji tried again, "but about when and where."

Before Bakugou could say anything else, the door opened. Shoto was the first to enter. Behind him, Chargebolt, Earphone Jack, and Deku. At least Enji had their names down. Bakugou, for whatever reason, didn't have a hero name yet – neither did Shoto, really – but that would have to do for now. Enji looked at his watch.

"Seven minutes," he said without further commenting, but taking in the kids' reactions.

Bakugou grinned gleefully. Shoto scowled a little, Deku and Earphone Jack seemed embarrassed, and Chargebolt seemed unbothered.

"Alright," he said, standing up from his bench. "I've already spoken to Bakugou, so now, to all of you…" he looked at Deku, Earphone Jack, and Chargebolt and hesitated for a moment before also including Shoto. "I don't need a lengthy introduction, just tell me what you need from me." His eyes settled on the only girl. "Earphone Jack, you start."

Her cheeks turned a bright pink. She grabbed at her earlobes nervously, twisting them around her fingers. They got longer as she pulled on them, and looked like headphone cables.

A curious quirk, Enji thought.

She was the only one he didn't know. She hadn't made it into the finals of her first and so far, only sports festival.

"I'm…uh…" she started in a quiet voice. "I'm Jiro Kyoka, uhm…" she glanced at Chargebolt as he bumped her in the side. "I mean, I'm Earphone Jack. My quirk is also called Earphone Jack." She noticed she still had one of her earlobes twirled around her finger, and quickly freed it to show Enji the headphone-cable-like shape of it. "It allows me to detect miniscule sounds and magnify my own heartbeat. It also allows me to…um… I mean, I work using vibration."

Enji scowled a little. "I've read about your quirk," Enji said because of course he had researched his future interns. She was the only one present he hadn't invited. Until a few days ago, he hadn't even known her. Apparently, she had interned with Shoto in Gang Orca's agency.

"Uh, right," she nodded as her face flushed red. "After Gang Orca couldn't continue mentoring us, Shoto said I could apply with him, so…" helplessly, she looked at her classmates. Enji noted that both Deku and Chargebolt were about to jump in to take over the conversation – probably to introduce themselves to save her the embarrassment.

Warningly, Enji raised his hand to stop them. "Look. I mean, what are you expecting from this internship? Or… rather, what kind of hero do you want to be? What do you want to learn?"

"Oh," she sounded relieved as she finally understood what she was supposed to say. "I've been training for a support role. To…uhm…because of my quirk, I'm good at information gathering. I'm…I'm actually not all that good in combat." She sounded as if she regretted saying it immediately. Of course, although his agency worked on all kinds of cases without prioritizing battle over rescue or evacuation commissions, Endeavor was known as a battle-focused hero. For somebody wanting to prioritize on recon and support, it wouldn't be the first address.

On the other side, it made perfect sense for her to intern for Gang Orca. After all, Gang Orca's hypersonic waves also worked with vibration and sound.

"I see," he turned to Chargebolt next. "You?"

"I'm Chargebolt," the boy grinned, poking his thumb to his chest. "My quirk's Electrification. You know what it does, I helped you with your security system problem." His face sobered up a little. Enji still remembered Eraserhead's call just days after Inari's death. "I'm pretty powerful, if I may say so myself, but I want to get rid of my quirk's weakness."

He didn't elaborate on the quirk's weakness, but Enji still remembered his bad showing during the sports festival. "The short-circuiting," he guessed. "You want to learn how not to fry your brain?"

Chargebolt pouted a little, but he didn't seem overly troubled by Enji's statement. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

Deku was next. He looked at Enji nervously and started speaking frantically. "I recently…um…" he stuttered. He was on a tangent; he had just introduced himself and was now trying to explain what he wanted to learn. "My quirk evolved, and it…ugh…it gave me a new skill? So anyway, now I need to learn how to use that new skill…." Hm. All Enji remembered was that Midoriya's quirk was similar to All Might's…

Oh dear, he cursed as he realized what that meant. Now that he knew more about All Might's quirk – a quirk that was not inheritable by blood, but could be passed on to other people by choice… Now it seemed so obvious… This kid…

Of course, that made Enji's position more difficult. Should he just train him like a normal student? Or did he need special care?

"I was initially mentored by Gran Torino, and then later with Sir Nighteye –" All Might's old teacher and sidekick, Enji noted – "but after him…" Pausing, he looked at the ground. "Sir's old agency couldn't take me in anymore, and apparently, I have…I tend to injure myself with my quirk – maybe you remember – so it discourages agencies from wanting to work with me." He looked sad, though Enji wasn't sure if it was the lingering grief over Sir Nighteye or the fact that he wasn't too popular with other agencies.

"I've been training at school, mostly," Deku continued. "With All Might and my classmates. They're helping me learn about my—uhm, my secondary powers. I've recently found a method to control my primary power even at max performance, without hurting myself, but with the secondary power, I can't—"

He was rambling, and Enji had enough of it. "Show me!"

"Oh," he looked surprised but then he nodded determinedly. "So, I can float," Deku said, gracefully leaping into the air, though it was much less graceful as he hung there. In fact, he was obviously struggling with keeping his balance in the air. "That's Float," he said, and then struggled back to the ground. He seemed relieved as soon as he had solid ground under his feet. "And this is Black Whip."

A string of black rope shot out of Deku's gloves. Enji raised his hands to catch it, and with an uncomfortable snap, it curled around his wrist. He couldn't place the material.

Enji didn't know what to say to this. Both quirks were completely different to what he had seen during the sports festival, and All Might too – he was certain – had never shown such powers. He shook his head, trying to sort through his thoughts. "So, when you say max performance, what does that mean for this ability?"

The moment he asked the question, Deku jumped into a lengthy explanation of his quirk. Enji hadn't intended for these short introductions to take so long, but he listened quietly. In the end, the boy only talked for a few minutes, and yet it all came down to one simple idea: "You're hoping to make the balancing act for your power second nature…" It made sense, Enji decided. If the kid hadn't had the quirk for long, even with a powerful quirk like All Might's – maybe especially so with All Might's – he'd need years to finally make it his very own to a point where he could use it like any other muscle in his body.

He turned to Shoto at last.

"You know why I'm here," Shoto said. "I want to learn Flashfire. I'm ready, Endeavor. I've finally found out what I want to do. I want to be a hero who can save people – and for that, I need to be the strongest I can possibly be." It came easily over his lips. Nothing else to say. Enji noticed that Shoto hadn't called him Father or Dad. At home, though, he was doing it more and more. Enji nodded.

"Alright."

He felt tired now that the introductions were over.

"I have to be honest. Five interns are a bit much for me alone. So, I'll make use of you outside of training and patrol. This gym will be open to you at any time, and I'll send you schedules where you can see when I will be in the gym. If you need advice or training, just be there. Other than that, your focus should be on getting as much practical experience as possible. Since I can't take care of you all at the same time, I will take Deku and Earphone Jack to patrols on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after school, and the other three on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school, and on Saturday morning."

This made the most sense to him, as Deku would need the most attention, even if Enji would personally prefer spending all day with Shoto. Meanwhile, Earphone Jack had a very unique and different quirk, and the other three were all elemental emitter types. He hoped he could use similar teaching methods for all three.

"Outside patrols, I will assign you to the care of one of my sidekicks. We'll look to see how it works for the first two weeks and then – if necessary – shuffle things around." He thought about which students to assign to which sidekicks for a moment. "Shoto and Bakugou, I want you to work with Avalanche when I'm not around. He has an emitter quirk the same as you, though he can create snow. More importantly, Shoto, he's one of the best heroes I know specializing in rescue, so if you want to learn how to save people with a quirk that isn't necessarily suited for it, he'll be able to help." Enji didn't need to tell Bakugou that the same also applied to him. He hoped Bakugou hadn't forgotten their earlier conversation already.

"Earphone Jack, you'll work with Silent Tracker. She's a recon and tracking specialist. As for Chargebolt and Deku… Brazen is one of my young sidekicks, but due to his quirk, he had to learn how to maintain balance and preserve energy in his fighting. Maybe you can use his help to solve your own problems."

Enji had to congratulate himself on the decision to put Brazen in charge of the two. Brazen's quirk, Quickening, was a stockpile quirk that allowed him to preserve energy throughout daily life and then utilize the reserved energy to achieve superhuman feats. For Brazen, it was a constant balancing act – for example, figuring out how much energy he could use for an attack that would have the intended effect, without draining him of all his energy.

Enji hoped Brazen could teach Deku his balancing methods. And maybe Chargebolt could learn how to use differently powered bursts of electricity as needed, instead of going from zero to a hundred and frying his brain after just one attack.

"Since you all live on UA campus, you will remain there. However, during the holidays there are apartments in the agency as needed."

He was about to dismiss them when he thought of something else.

"And before I forget it, if the media gets into contact with you, ignore them or refer them to the PR department. Any further questions?"

He was already halfway out the door, when the unison, "No, Endeavor," rang out. Well, that went better than expected.

I really love Enji's relationship with his interns. Sadly I can't focus much on it in this fic. This is very much family- and character-centered. But I still had to bring them in...I need them all for the finale. That's maybe the reason that I pushed writing this chapter off for a long time. Because I really wanted to do a lot with these characters, but couldn't so I had to focus it all into one chapter, which made this very difficult. Never mind that Bakugou, Jirou and Kaminari are new characters for me to write. At the same time I wanted this just to be the introduction, but I also really like the way that part is done within the Manga...Ultimately I decided that Horikoshi's words are the best to describe Deku'S own problems, so I took a big chunk from the Manga dialogue in that case. However, as this story and Enji's character is a bit different to canon, I tweaked it here and there.

Most importantly, as it all takes place a bit later, Deku is already well into learning about Float and Black Whip, but his process - without Endeavor as a teacher is much slower during these months when he trained alone. He pretty much didn't have an internship for a long time. I think he might have worked with Gran Torino and Sir Nighteye's old agency for some odd jobs here or there, but he doesn't have an internship. So he really gladly took Endeavor's offer. Bakugou is in a similar position that he was in Best Jeanist's internship, but without Best Jeanist there he made some progress, but not as much as he could have. Jirou - just like in canon - was in Gang Orca's agency - so both her and Shoto had to look for a new Agency anyway. Lastly, Kaminari is the only one who actually left his old agency to work with Endeavor. He was with Edgeshot's Team Lurkers. He was also around during the history museum attack...maybe that's the main reason why he decided to take Endeavor up on his offer. He also technically had the offer for an internship with Endevor's agency from the start, because Endeavor offered an invitation back in December and never really retracted it. So he had a lot of time to think about it and by the time he accepted, Enji might have already forgotten about it.

They are all second years now, btw.

As for Enji, he knows about OFA and can guess that Deku now has it. Funnily enough, I think he's actually more nervous about teaching than he was in the manga...cause he's more afraid of screwing up. But he does a bit better than in the manga, actually, for example, he actually asks Shoto about his plans and doesn't just assume that he knows. And Shoto is nicer to him too. Shoto's dialogue is probably the one I had to change the most, because they're at an entirely different stage in their relationship...