Endeavor hates working hostage situations. He hates working with local heroes, too. And most of all, he hates the fact that it's been six hours and they still haven't found his goddamn son.

Enji slams a hand down on the conference table. "There's been fourteen other cases of kidnapping in the past two days, and I'm only just hearing about this now?!"

"Well," an officer flounders, "They're all over the place, and it happened so suddenly. We just caught wind of a villain group gaining momentum. They call themselves the Elementals, and it's not clear what they want, but all the kids fit the same criteria as their group members—they all have primarily elemental quirks. It could be related to that Avatar religious organization. Your son is the only one with opposing elements as his quirk, I'd say they chose to take him because it's closer to what the Avatar could accomplish."

Enji scowls down at the files. The rest of the children taken were nobodies, no ties to heroes or villains or political figures. Except for the rich Beifong girl, whose quirk can hardly be called an elemental-type. Enji frowns at her records, which were vague and unhelpful. Quirk: Earth Sense. What the hell did that mean?

"Chief! Endeavor! We've got a lead!" Someone comes barreling into the room, waving a paper in his hand. "Endeavor—your son called! We have a location—"

"What?!" Enji gets to his feet and snatches the report out of the man's grasp. "Get your men ready. I'm going on ahead." He turns to the other pro heroes on the case with an expectant look.

The Water Hose duo are already on their feet, so at least they're taking this seriously. "We'll get your son back, Endeavor," the wife promises. Enji huffs and walks away.


What they find when they finally reach the location of the call—a warehouse at the far end of an abandoned shipping yard—is not what any of them expect.

A child screams, and the Water Hose duo sprint ahead, leaving Enji behind. He's not an idiot like them. The scream devolves into unrestrained laughter as the heroes approach a wide, earthen play-pen outside the warehouse, filled with the missing toddlers. They're screaming like banshees because they're playing. He's familiar enough with the way Fuyumi and Natsuo screech at each other.

An older kid with a buzzcut is the first to look their way, and he shoots into the air and screams,"EVERYONE, THE HEROES ARE HERE!" before floating back down to sit beside two other children. "HOLY CRAP, YOU NEVER SAID YOU DAD WAS ENDEAVOR!"

The Water Hose team deals with the younger kids as they climb off monkey bars and slides, made from a combination of earth and ice. There's even a pile of snow at the end of one looping slide that must be Shouto's work. A quick headcount tells him that all fifteen children reported missing are here, and none of them seem gravely injured.

What the hell happened?

Enji's eyes find Shouto easily enough. He's sitting between the wind-quirk boy, likely Inasa Yoarashi, and a tiny girl—Toph Beifong, the rich girl with an earth-type quirk.

"Father," he calls in greeting. Enji scans over his son, wondering why he hasn't bothered getting up. Then his eyes slide over to the girl. She has her hands flat against Shouto's icy right forearm, trying to alleviate a mess of cuts and inflamed skin.

"What happened here?" Enji demands, lifting his eyes to search the area for their captors.

"There were ten villains," Shouto explains easily, watching Enji like a hawk. "Most of them are still unconscious."

"Toph trapped them in one of those crates to be sure!" The wind boy, Inasa Yoarashi, pipes up, a huge grin on his face.

The girl nods, not looking up from the ground. Her foot taps on the ground erratically. "They're all in there, even their dunderhead of a boss," the girl's voice is high-pitched and a lot more impudent than he'd expect.

Enji looks past them, into the open entrance to the warehouse. There does seem to be a shipping container in sight, warped, coated in ice, and half-buried in the ground.

Again, what the hell happened here?

"Stay where you are," he calls to them, venturing towards the crate alone. The Water Hose team hover at the exit, on standby as he approaches. It doesn't take long to confirm the the kids' story, and Endeavor is walking back to the earth playground before he knows it, feeling distinctly underutilized. He flips on his communicator and explains the situation to the SWAT team.

As the police forces march out to the warehouse, Endeavor crouches beside the three seven-year-olds. It'll be some time before the ambulances make their way to this remote location, so the job falls to the heroes to look after the victims."Good. You've kept the swelling down enough to wrap up her hands, Shouto," he says approvingly, unzipping the small pouch on the back of his belt. "Do you have any other injuries, Ms. Beifong?"

The girl huffs, lifting her hands off of Shouto. "Nope." She holds out her hands expectantly and Enji gets out a roll of gauze to wrap the injuries. "Twinkletoes has a twisted ankle… and Himari-chan is about to freak out, though."

Enji frowns at Beifong, intrigued by her answer, when a piercing wail cuts through the air as a younger girl begins to cry hysterically. Enji turns back to look at the scene, and sees the husband Water Hose hero frantically putting out small fires caused by the girl's sparking quirk. Endeavor quickly decides the other heroes can handle that mess.

He looks at Beifong once more, suspicious. "Your quirk is listed as Earth Sense in your records. Is that really all it is?"

She looks surprised at the question. "That's only part of it. I call it Earthbending, actually, like in the folktales," she admits, "And I could only move rocks, but today I punched through steel." She seems incredibly satisfied with herself, even with her broken and bleeding knuckles. "So I'm thinkin' as long it comes from earth, I can sense it and I can fight with it."

Odd, Endeavor thinks, still peering at the tiny girl. He would never think a girl of her size would have much control over a quirk with so much destructive power. Enji had looked at her family history to get a better idea of what sort of quirks the villains were targeting; the Beifong girl's quirk seems like a version of her mother's crystal manipulation. He doesn't overlook her decision in naming the quirk either; if the Elementals were searching for the mythical 'benders' of the Avatar stories, of course they'd go after anyone with earthbending.

But even Earthbending doesn't explain how she punched through steel. Weird kid.

"That's how she hurt her hands," Shouto supplies quietly, his eyes fixed on the girl. "We were all locked in a shipping container. My fire and Inasa's wind wouldn't work without hurting everyone else too."

"So Toph just says, 'metal comes from earth' and started beating the hell outta the wall!" Yoarashi continues the story eagerly. "And then she punched us outta there, and she made a plan to beat the villains together, and then we got the kids out, and then we locked the villains in a crate!"

"And then Shouto and I made a playground and called you from one of the villain's phones," Beifong finished tersely. "Is it just you and the water people here?"

"Yes," Endeavor affirms. "The Water Hose team."

Beifong pouts all of a sudden, blowing on a strand of hair that hangs over her face. "Aw man. I'm never gonna meet Pixie-bob, am I?"

"Tooooopppphhh!" the wind boy whines. "We're meeting the Number Two Hero! You can't start talking about some mountain rescue hero now!"

Toph arches an eyebrow, facing Enji. "Just watch me," she deadpans. Yoarashi collapses dramatically. "Pixie-bob makes monsters out of rock and soil. She can cause landslides—or stop landslides—and basically make mountains if she wanted to."

Enji pauses to stare, surprised she has the audacity to actually start discussing this with him. But her hands are shaking, and he suspects that talking helps distract her from the pain. He sneaks a look at Shouto, who seems just as flabbergasted.

"...The cat-theme they have doesn't make any sense, but I'll let it slide. Ragdoll is weird but she can sense people, and I can sense people, so I like her too. Tiger can stay because he fights in a skirt, and I respect that…"

At this point the wind boy is laughing boisterously, and Beifong stops to grin. Shouto doesn't say anything, but he's clearly listening. Behind them on the playground, one of the boys trips and begins to bawl.

"Oh no!" Yoarashi exclaims sympathetically, hobbling to his feet. "Yuuto-chan, everything's fine! DON'T WORRY—" And then Yoarashi falls flat on his face.

Beifong's head turns to him sharply. "Quit running around, dummy." She slides her foot across the ground and the rock in front of Yoarashi disappears into the ground. Enji finishes wrapping one hand and moves onto the next, his frown deepening.

"You shouldn't be using your quirk right now, Ms. Beifong," Endeavor warns her. "You're already injured, and it's against the law. You three may have been able to fight off your captors, but what if they'd been stronger?"

"Then I'd beat them," Beifong answers bluntly, lifting her head. "And if they were strong enough to defeat me, I would still beat them."

Somehow she manages to look Endeavor straight in the eye as she says this. The look on her face is chilling, her expression set in stone. He's never met someone so young with so much arrogance.

Except maybe himself. He can't decide if he likes this girl's attitude or if it's just irritating.

"Toph!" Yoarashi exclaims, rolling onto his back. "You're so awesome. You gotta marry me, we're gonna make such a cool hero partners—"

"I'm not marrying anyone that can't beat me in a fight," Beifong replies with a mean look, as if this is a common argument between them. Endeavor focuses on her hands, biting the inside of his cheek to stop from snorting out loud. "So that rules out you, Twinkletoes."

The boy is undeterred. "I'll be stronger when we're older! Then I'll beat you!" He declares it like a heartfelt confession of love.

Enji finishes wrapping her hands and turns to the wind boy reluctantly. "Does your ankle hurt?"

The boy gets the biggest smile on his face and sticks his right foot into the air. "Shouto iced it earlier so I can't feel it! I never knew Endeavor knew first aid! This is amazing!"

Shouto and Beifong both scoff at the wind boy's antics. "Every hero knows first aid," Enji growls out, testing out the boy's range of motion. "We're usually on the scene before any first responders, so it's necessary. Don't put weight on that foot." He doesn't care for this part of the job, but he'd much rather deal with three slightly-older children than the twelve toddlers in the Water Hoses' care.

"Roger that!" Yoarashi salutes him. Enji's eyes slide over to his son again.

"You're not hurt?"

"No." Shouto's eyes are fixed on the Beifong girl's hands.

"Good." Enji stands. "All of you come with me, there's a van coming to transport you to the hospital."

"Shouto too?" The earth girl inquires hopefully. She's moved to be on Shouto's fire-side, and now that they're all standing she looks even smaller between the two boys. He shoots his son a questioning look, but the boy doesn't meet his eye.

"Yes," Endeavor answers, "Shouto still needs an official check up like the rest of you, and you each will have individual accounts to tell the police."

"So it's over?" She asks softly, face turned up to Endeavor neutrally.

"It is," he promises.

Beifong sucks in a deep breath of air and sighs loudly. Then she turns to the wind boy and elbows him twice in the arm, quick as a cat. It's oddly graceful, and he wonders if she's being trained in martial arts.

"OW! TOPH!"

"That's for being an airhead all the time!" She shouts at him. "I promised to punch you but I can't wait that long! I'm glad we didn't die!" her voice sort of breaks at the end, but she doesn't cry.

"Aw, Toph, I love you too!" He shouts back.

The Water Hose woman coos. "They're adorable. I can't wait to have kids."

"Ah," her husband looks nervous, still smoking from where his suit caught fire from that Himari girl, "Maybe not too many, please?"

Endeavor supposes this is the best way a mass kidnapping could turn out, but he doesn't have to like it. He looks away to oversee the other children as they file into the van.

Toph whips around to confront Shouto, who goes stock-still at the expression on her face. She glares at him for a little longer before wrapping her arms around him in a wordless hug, favoring his fire-side.

"Thanks for warming us up and everything. And icing my hands." She mumbles. After a long silence, Shouto lets his arms settle around her in return.

"You're welcome," he replies.

Suddenly there's a shout from Inasa and they're all but attacked by the bigger boy, and he immediately uses his quirk to lift them up into a spinning, flying mess. "GROUP HUG! WE MAKE SUCH A GREAT TEAM!" He laughs joyously while Toph screams and Shouto silently hangs on for dear life. "WE'LL BE THE ELEMENTAL TRIO OF THE HERO WORLD! Isn't that an awesome group name?"

"It's LAME!" The girl shrieks. "Put me down! When I barf I'm gonna aim for you!"

"Hey!" Endeavor barks at the three of them. "I told you to stay off your leg, get down!"

Looking properly chastised, Yoarashi lets them all float lazily to the ground, apologizing over and over. Beifong takes over for Enji in berating the wind boy.

Enji just stares at Shouto. He shouldn't allow his boy to fraternize so much. There'll be no need for hero team-ups for the future Number One. By the look on Shouto's face he's well aware of that, so Enji says nothing. They'll be going over new self-defense tactics once this case is properly closed.

Beifong makes to lunge at the wind boy but Shouto deftly catches her before she can throw a punch with her injured hands. "I didn't say you could hug me!" She howls at Yoarashi.

"BUT YOU HUGGED SHOUTO!"

"SHOUTO DOESN'T FLY."

The wind boy settles down, having flown up again to hide from Beifong. "So can I get a hug too if I don't spin or make us fly?"

Beifong scowls, stepping away from Shouto and Yoarashi to cross her arms. "No. I've had enough of this mushy stuff. Hey you brats! Get moving, we gotta go!"

The boys trail after her, helping corral the last few kids. They've been reluctant to leave the jungle gym, but Toph's shout and seeing the older boys follow suit seems to be enough to convince them.

Endeavor shuts the door to the van while the three children are bickering.


Since none of the kids were severely injured, they choose to make the trip to a farther hospital, one in the center of the prefecture and closest to the precinct that was in charge of the case. When the van finally arrives at the hospital, swamped by reports and cameras, all fifteen kids are fast asleep.

The Water Hose duo exchange a look with Endeavor. "I think we should let them rest. It's been a stressful day for them all." With that, they begin to carry the smaller children inside in, two at a time given how they've seemed to pair up on their own.

Endeavor carries the oldest trio in together, turning off the flames on the majority of his costume. The Beifong girl is the only one to stir, though he expected her to be the most exhausted of them all.

As they pass through the children's ward she becomes more lucid, suddenly tilting her head so her ear rests firmly against his chest. Enji blinks down at the girl. He can't recall the last time any of his offspring had tried to do anything like this with him, not even Fuyumi, but the Beifong girl looks comfortable. Did she even know who was carrying her?

"Endeavor," she draws his attention. "We're at the hospital?" she asks, though she sounds rather certain of herself. He wonders again how her quirk works.

He grunts in acknowledgement. She then turns to press her face against Yoarashi's shirt and mutters quietly, almost too muffled for him to hear, "I don't want to go home."

Odd.

But, he assumes she's disappointed that their brief spot in the limelight is over. She seems very proud of her efforts to save the other children, and no amount of scolding could change that. So Enji brushes off her comment as petulant and child-like. She comes from a rich family, and she probably thinks of it as a boring life compared to today's excitement. A child like her couldn't understand just how fortunate this situation turned out.

Doubt still stirs in his gut.

"What are you talking about?" Endeavor asks slowly, immediately knowing he's going to regret it. He should be walking faster so he can get rid of her. But then again, he was walking so slowly so he didn't have to deal with the toddlers.

Beifong blinks a few times, realizing she had been overheard. "My parents don't understand," she says finally, lowering her eyes. "Nevermind. They can't stop me anyway."

"Stop you from what?" He doesn't like how this is all sounding. Beifong is vague, but it's clear she's upset about something.

"Doesn't matter what," she decides, and turns her head away angrily.

That seems to be the end of it for now. He'll make a note of it in his report, but there wasn't much to go off of. Toph Beifong doesn't seem scared of going home, just… unwilling. But then again, Enji highly doubts that this girl has a healthy sense of fear if she chose to confront ten villains rather than wait for help. And there was another issue of the girl's quirk not being properly registered by her parents or doctor. Is that what Beifong meant when she said they 'don't understand' her? It's a huge oversight to mis-identify a quirk so powerful, but given that she's blind and looks like a doll, she must be underestimated often.

Parents weren't all-seeing and all-knowing. Her records have a mistake, that's all.

Endeavor is still thinking about it as he deposits each child on their own cot, leaving Toph for last since Shouto's still fast asleep. Enji frowns at the angry look on the seven-year-old girl's face, but as he sits down between her and Shouto her anger melts into confusion.

"Why are you still here?"

Enji rolls his eyes. "You and Yoarashi were injured. Your parents were worried, and I'll be expected to reassure them as the lead-hero on this mission." He doesn't bother hiding the disdain in his tone. He hates talking to parents, they always ask prying questions about his family like they have any right to know the details of his life.

Beifong snorts. "Good luck avoiding a lawsuit."

He frowns questioningly at her before remembering she's blind and rolling his eyes. "What do you mean?" he bites out the question. "There were no issues with how we handled this operation. You're all safe."

She raises her hands pointedly. "You did that to yourself," Enji argues irritably, "I wasn't even there."

(And damn it does that make him frustrated. While the children are all safe, Endeavor doesn't believe this case is over. It was too simple. How could the group that simultaneously abducted fifteen children lose a fight to said children? The captured villains were in for a long night of questioning.)

"I'm not the one blaming you," Beifong replies lightly, though there's a small frown on her face. "There's no way my parents are gonna believe it's not your fault. 'Our little flower, punching through steel? That's absurd. How could you let this happen?'" Her voice takes on a mocking, high-pitched tone to imitate her mother. "They're not gonna believe I did this on my own." She seems... disappointed, somehow.

"Why not? The evidence is all there." Endeavor asks annoyedly. He really hopes her parents aren't as insufferable as she claims.

Beifong lets her hands drop back onto her stomach. "Yeah, well," she prevaricates again, shutting her eyes. "You'd be surprised how blind people with working eyeballs can be."

For the first time Endeavor finds himself agreeing with the sour little girl. He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms with a scoff. He figures now is as good a time as any to bring it up... "Is that why your quirk isn't properly documented?"

She exhales slowly. He can't read even a hint of emotion on her face. "I'm tired," Beifong deflects the topic neatly. "Thanks for saving us or whatever."

So much for brushing this off as a child's petulance. Now he's certain that something's wrong. "You saved yourself, Toph," Enji admits gruffly, getting up from his chair. "That cannot be overlooked."


He gives his report after meeting the Beifong family. They're not quite that horrible, and they don't threaten to sue him, but they do brush off every comment about their daughter's quirk up until Enji informs them that her quirk registration will be updated by a physician. He watches the smile freeze on Mrs. Beifong's face, the stony look Mr. Beifong casts his way.

"That's not necessary, Mr. Todoroki," Lao Beifong says at last. Enji bristles at the use of his civilian name. He's in costume for god's sake. "We'd feel more comfortable arranging an appointment with our family physician at this time. Toph is so young, she wouldn't feel at ease with some no-name doctor at this public facility."

"It's already been arranged, I'm afraid," Enji replies flatly. "Her registration doesn't match up with what we witnessed at the warehouse in the slightest, and unless you want to call into question the validity of over twenty eyewitness reports, I would allow the quirk doctors here to re-evaluate her abilities."

"I'll still have to decline," Lao's jaw is set, and for once, Enji can see the resemblance between the man before him and his stubborn daughter. "For the sake of my daughter's comfort, you see. She's just been through an awful situation, same as your youngest son." Enji stares. Just what is this asshole insinuating about Shouto? "If you or your people take issue with my decision, please contact my lawyer. We'll be taking our daughter home now to recuperate in peace."

There's already a sleek black car idling by the entrance to the hospital. The girl passes by Enji, a curtain of loose hair shielding her face. Her mother holds her hand, and Enji never would've thought he'd see that arrogant brat look so cowed. It's infuriating in far more ways than he expected. He can't catch the mother's eye; she looks straight ahead to avoid him, statuesque and austere.

Sweet Kami, he's never been outclassed so blatantly. Who were these Beifongs anyway? Enji watches them with steel in his eyes. There is something wrong with this picture, and he won't rest until he finds out what.

"This isn't over," Enji says to Lao Beifong as a doctor he's never seen before signs off on the girl's release forms.

He's met by cold sea-green eyes and a frigid smile. "Yes, it is," Lao replies, turning his back on the hero.