"Reports are flooding in as Cato Hospital, a privately owned medical facility in the Saitama prefecture, continues to be evacuated by local authorities. According to some sources, the private hospital was the center of a massive conspiracy, spanning years and several cultist organizations, the most prominent of which was thought to be expunged over five years ago—Amon's Vision, the fanatic-turned-terrorist-cell many still remember as being responsible for devastating attacks in Japan and many other mainland Asian nations….
"...We're receiving footage now of Endeavor, the Flame Hero, who lead the raid. Questions are already stirring as people wonder about the judgement to enter the hospital so brazenly, as it's unclear what methods were used in securing any civilians and patients that may have been caught in the crossfire. Still, this is what the Flame Hero had to say when our crew member on the scene questioned him:"
The screen flips to shakier footage, a blue-haired man holding a microphone up to reach Endeavor's face. The hero, carrying two small figures, scowls, and rears back so the camera can't see the victims clearly.
"Endeavor! Endeavor, were you the one to recommend a raid of this proportion on such short notice? How did you find out that AV was still active, despite its leader being put away years ago? What caused the explosion on the second floor that destabilized the whole building?"
"Get out of the way," Endeavor growls, shaking with exhaustion or anger. "For Kami's sake, I'm in the middle of a rescue here. The Hero's Association will hold a press conference later."
"Who are those children? Are these patients caught in the crossfire, or were they part of the cult—?"
Endeavor shuffles the kids so he can hold them with one hand, muttering a litany of censored curses. The footage is blurry, but the victims are clearly young children. With the other hand blazing, Endeavor reaches towards the camera and the footage cuts off with a fizzle.
Hitoshi flicks to the next channel, and then the next, but it's all the same for another hour until new information is dispensed—the list of villains captured and killed.
A part of him already knew it, though.
"Among the dead is one of the most infamous villains of the decade, Puppetmaster. Though known by many aliases, as her quirk allows her to manipulate the thoughts and memories of those around her, it was Endeavor that finally uncovered Puppetmaster's legal name: Umeko Shinsou. In the firefight that followed The Flame Hero's confrontation with AV, Puppetmaster and several other high-ranking members of AV were killed—"
He knew it the moment she died, because it was like a fog lifting in the distance. Hitoshi began to wonder when Mom would be home, like he's done a million times—but this time he wondered what she was doing, what kind of work she did, because he couldn't for the life of him remember what her job was.
The TV clicks off. He drops the remote aside, and a smoky gray paw immediately pounces on his free hand. Hitoshi looks down at the cat blankly, automatically going to pet her glossy fur. He isn't sure what's supposed to happen next.
"Hitoshi," his father calls. His voice is strained, but he crouches by Hitoshi to speak softly. "Come put on your coat, we need to go to the police station." The door's already open, and beyond it he can see two uniformed officers waiting.
Dad looks tired. More than usual. Besides that, he doesn't give anything away. Hitoshi swallows the lump in his throat long enough to ask in an uneasy whisper, "Did you know?"
He's greeted with a blank, silent stare. "Let's go, Hitoshi," Dad repeats more firmly. "Please."
It's in the early hours of the next day that Shouto finally hears the front door open, and someone shuffling into the house. He's awake though, having been abruptly startled by his own memory sometime that evening and unable to shake the feeling of dread all night. He has no idea why he's suddenly thinking about the time he was kidnapped, or the two kids that he met that day—but it's been two years since then, so why didn't he think of them sooner?
Something feels wrong about it, and when he tried explaining it to Fuyumi she just frowned in worry and told him to wait for Dad to come back.
So he waits. And waits. And waits. Shouto doesn't bother checking the news, because his old man is always in the news anyway, and the last time he checked it, it was a bunch of talk shows talking about the Number Three ranking. But maybe he should've been checking the news.
That way, he wouldn't have been so shocked when Endeavor finally did get home—him, and a very familiar girl.
"Toph?" Shouto examines the girl in confusion, standing up from the kitchen stool he's been waiting at. His father flicks on the lights, frowning at Shouto. Toph is limping, wearing grey and white sweats that swamp her figure and a black brace over one knee.
"What are you doing up?" Endeavor grumbles, but Shouto ignores him, getting a closer look at the girl.
"I remember you. Are you okay?" Shouto asks bluntly, because she looks stiff and uncomfortable and tired as Endeavor.
She opens her mouth, only to close it and bite her lip. "Shouto…" she sniffles, and there's a tear running down her face now.
Alarmed, Shouto looks to Endeavor, but he resembles an exhausted deer in headlights. Endeavor raises a hand and makes a quick gesture towards Toph, mouthing the words 'Do something'.
Really? That's all you can think of? Shouto gives his father a dark, disdainful look before stepping towards Toph and pulling her into a tentative hug. She returns it with full-force, squeezing the living daylights out of him, but her sobbing ends pretty quickly.
"I missed you," she says into his t-shirt. "Everyone forgot, didn't they?"
Oh. Well, things are beginning to make more sense now, at least. "I missed you too," Shouto responds obediently, but it's also the truth. "Even if I didn't remember, it felt like something was missing," he admits softly. She squeezes him harder, but it doesn't bother him. There's a question on the tip of his tongue, about the other missing piece, but Shouto finds himself scared of what the answer could be about Inasa Yoarashi.
He hears footsteps on the staircase, and Natsuo appears, yawning loudly and rocking some wild bed-head. "What's all the noise, huh? Oh." He blinks at the scene before him, and Dad sighs. "Um…?"
"Go back to bed, Natsuo. Shouto, you too. We can talk about this in the morning." Enji decides, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "This is Toph, she'll be staying with us until the paperwork goes through for her new guardians."
Shouto is still young, but he can tell that this is far different from the usual rescue work Endeavor does. There has never been cause for the pro hero to volunteer his own home to a victim, and even if there was, Endeavor wouldn't be the first choice for any guardianship role. Despite being in the Top Ten for most of his career, Shouto's family has never been a part of Endeavor's spotlight, before or after Mom was sent away.
But one look at the old man and Shouto understands. He's never seen Endeavor look so raw and unsettled before. Something went wrong during that kidnapping case two years ago, and Endeavor felt responsible for it. Shouto doesn't let go of Toph.
"Where's she going to sleep, then?" Natsuo cuts through the silence, and there's a laser-sharp focus to the gaze he settles on Endeavor.
For a moment, it looks like physical pain flashes across the hero's face, but it's gone even quicker than it came. He looks down, beginning to pull off his jacket and undo the highest button on his rumpled dress shirt. The only reason he'd have changed clothes in the middle of the night would have to be for a press conference, and Shouto makes note to find it online tomorrow. "We have an empty room, don't we?" Endeavor says finally.
That's true enough. Shout has to admit, he hasn't thought much of the room, nor the person that used to live with them. He left them, after all.
A variety of emotions flicker across Natsuo's face, before he settles on forced calm. "I don't think that's right," he replies tersely.
Enji blinks up at Natsuo, annoyance emerging in his eyes, but Shouto cuts in before they can start anything. "Let's put another futon in my room, then," he decides, leaving no room for discussion. That's how Fuyumi often cools down the room, though her track record of successfully doing so isn't the greatest.
Luckily for Shouto, it's three in the morning and his earthbending friend—and she is his friend, he knows it in his bones even if they only had a handful of hours to know each other—is still clinging to him like a baby koala bear. There's nothing left in any of them to argue further, not when everyone can feel the gravity of the situation in the air. Shouto doesn't even know what happened, but it feels wrong to snap at each other right now. Natsuo and Enji slump like puppets with their strings cut, and murmur their acquiescence.
"I'll get the futon," Natsuo volunteers.
"I'll get the sheets… Where the hell do we keep the sheets?" Enji grumbles. "Do we even have sheets…" he mumbles.
Natsuo rolls his eyes. "Go to bed, Number Three, I'll handle this shit."
Enji doesn't even try to snap at him. He just shuffles upstairs in silence.
If you're wondering, the answer is no.
Enji Todoroki has no idea what he's doing.
The next morning he wakes up and checks his phone for any updates on the Yoarashi boy or the Water Hose team, whom he's recommended for Toph's new guardianship, but there's nothing. When he reaches the kitchen, later than he normally would for breakfast, he comes across all the kids at once and it's really, really too early for this.
Fuyumi, the goddamn godsend, is making omelets. There's already coffee made—though it looks like Natsuo decided to take most of it, and since when is he even old enough to like that stuff?—and the earth girl and Shouto are arguing over… Enji doesn't know, rice versus rice noodles. Nonsense.
At least no one's crying their eyes out anymore, he knew that earth girl was made of tougher stuff. She had been so meek the night before while giving her account.
"Morning, Dad," his daughter greets him with a small, wary smile. Her eyes keep darting over to Toph and Shouto, but he assumes someone filled her in before he got up. "Your omelet is next—or do you want omurice? I can do that too—"
He quickly waves off her incoming rambling. "Turn off the stove, sit down. I said I'd talk about the situation, but I'm only doing it once."
When Fuyumi's settled between her brothers, Enji crosses his arms. The three Todorokis look up at him expectantly with a series of gray and blue eyes, while Toph pushes rice around on her plate, starkly different with jet black hair and wearing a paisley shirt from Fuyumi. He can tell by the solemn look on his youngest son's face that he already knows most of the story, but Enji ought to get them all on the same page. No point in dragging this out.
"When Toph and Shouto were kidnapped, the case was wrongfully closed. The villain group responsible kept to the shadows with the help of a mind-control quirk. That was the woman you saw in the photo," He nods to his daughter, who looks startled at being addressed. "They were experimenting with elemental quirk users, mainly by drawing blood and testing drugs without the user's knowledge in order to give and take quirks from them."
"Except for Inasa," Toph interrupts him flatly, reaching for a glass of water.
"Yes," Enji continues. "In some cases, victims were kept for weeks at a time for testing, still without anyone noticing any issues. The whole hospital was part of the conspiracy, though not everyone inside knew it. Toph's parents were involved with the organization, and they were especially persistent in keeping her from using her quirk or speaking of the kidnapping. But that's over now. The victims we found have been monitored for any drugs in their system, and are being released to their families as we speak. I haven't heard any updates on your friend yet," he adds, seeing the girl's mouth open to ask.
But that's not enough to sate her, and she glares into empty space. "Inasa's gotta be fine by now, the doctors said he just overused his quirk. There's no reason to keep him there any longer."
Well, at least she's back to arguing with him. For a while it seemed like she would never speak again. "We're not sure what they did to him. We know that he demolished the second floor of the hospital, but he has no recollection of how, and we have no live witnesses to—"
"I was there, you ignorant dumpster fire!" Toph retorts, turning to face him properly (and making Enji retract all previous concerns for her). "There wasn't anything unusual or unnatural about it! He lashed out with his air quirk, he was scared and hurt and he doesn't deserve to be treated like a science experiment because you dunderheads can't take my word seriously!"
"Be quiet," Enji barks, already feeling a headache forming. "The boy will be monitored for a while longer, and then his parents can take him home. Stop jumping to conclusions, girl."
"Don't call me girl," she says shrilly. She snaps a finger out towards him, pointing right between his eyes. "I have a name, and you better not fucking forget it again!" Ah fuck, her eyes are all watery again. "Toph Beifong! Inasa Yoarashi! What the hell have you been doing all this time, you flaming cheeto?!"
He bats her hand out of his face, nostrils flaring. "Stop interrupting me, you're being childish," he snaps, inwardly wondering how long she's been building up the fire insults for.
"I am a child!" She shrieks, pushing herself to her feet. "So why was I the one to find Twinkletoes? Why was I the one that had to deal with that heartless bitch, Shinsou, ripping away anything that still mattered to me, while you and the heroes wandered around like headless chickens for two years?!"
For once, Enji is speechless. He searches her livid face for some sort of answer, and finds none. While she has every right to be angry, Enji can't fathom why it'd be directed solely at him when she knows he was brainwashed too. They were all caught off-guard, and there hadn't been a way to get her the help she needed while Puppetmaster and the other leaders of AV were pulling strings alongside her own parents.
Ah. The Beifongs.
Enji looks at Toph with new eyes. She had been resisting for two years just for the right to use her quirk, and her parents were to blame for it. All that anger, anger that Enji is intimately familiar with, and he was standing in front of her, recounting the whole mess to her face. It's not like she'll have the opportunity to confront her folks any time soon, after all.
He always thought her temperament resembled his own. And there's only one outlet for himself that works. Enji takes a deep breath, putting his hands on his hips. "That doesn't matter now. You still have your quirk, don't you?"
The turn in conversation throws her, but she's no less enraged when she spits back, "You bet your flame-beard I do!"
"Follow me," he says curtly, and without waiting for an answer, makes his way to the spacious courtyard at the center of the house. He strides over to the far side of the complex, and the girl comes to a stop at the other end, already understanding what he's offering. "Show me, Toph."
"Dad," Natsuo hisses to him, as if no one else will hear it, "What the hell are you doing? She's nine!"
"Shouto's sparred with me plenty of times," Enji addresses all of them at once. Fuyumi is immensely uncomfortable, and Shouto looks vaguely concerned, but Toph is still standing with a menacing scowl on her face. He wouldn't do this out in the open yard with Shouto, but it's no different than how he trains his son. "She'll be fine."
Thanks to what Shinsou did to him, he isn't concerned for Toph, and neither should any of them.
"That's not an excuse either!" Natsuo exclaims, glaring between the two of them. "This is not the way to—"
Before he can even finish the sentence, Toph punches a solid brick larger than her head straight for Enji, and he breaks cleanly through it with a burst of flames. The force of it, however, makes him stumble back farther than he expected. He'll have to put more power into his moves.
He looks back at Toph, who's already shifted into a fighting stance. "Rules?" She prompts him bleakly.
"Keep it contained. It ends when you give up." Enji expects the next attack, leaping aside from the earthen pillars jutting up around him. He takes a stride closer and a wall erupts right in front of his feet, but he's already rearing back to pummel through it.
The wall crumbles easily, and as he draws a fist back he can see Toph shifting again, but there's no new attack—save for the squeeze of gravel over his arm, all remnants of the thin wall, snuffing out his flames. Containment. A good move against an emitter like himself. Enji grunts, dragging his free hand over the stone to release himself, and a burst of dust explodes around him, blocking his view. Two more stones sail towards him, and he dodges one and deflects the other—and gets walloped in the back when she pulls back on the first rock he dodged.
He foregoes his arm to clear the air forcefully, driving Toph to protect herself with another stone wall against the expanding fire, and takes a moment to ask, "Have you fought against fire before?"
"Don't jump to conclusions!" She sneers right back. Sheaths of rock jet towards him from her shield, and Enji knocks each one aside, striding even closer. The rocks bleed away from his hand as his flames reignite, and he punches through the last of her defense while she's still behind it, throwing her off her feet and flat on her back.
"Get up. You can handle this," he goads.
With a snarl, she shoves herself back up and makes a sweeping arc with her arms, throwing all the rubble straight towards Enji from all angles. "I can handle anything, no thanks to you!"
It's like the rubble is magnetized to him, and a particularly large rock smacks his ear before he centers himself and expels them all with another forceful burst of fire. "I never suggested otherwise." He catches another huge brick coming for his chest, exploding it to bits with both hands.
This would end a lot quicker if he actually attacked her indiscriminately, but that wouldn't solve anything. She's panting now, every move sloppier and more powerful than the last, but she's not trying very hard to subdue him. Enji's pretty certain, for once in his life, that he can read this kid like a book. This is a tantrum.
"Shinsou is dead, Toph, she can't hurt anyone anymore." He tells her out of the blue.
"Wha—I know that!" Another volley of rocks. Well, he's gotten tired of looking at the same old courtyard anyway. He vaporizes the rocks without a second thought, marching closer.
"Inasa will be fine, he's not going to disappear," Enji adds.
"I know!" She lifts a hand again but Enji reaches her first, twisting the arm behind her back and pinning her to the ground in one smooth motion.
"Your parents can't hurt anyone either," Enji continues resolutely, crouched beside her. She struggles, and it doesn't take much more pressure for her to realize it's entirely futile against someone his size.
He's close enough to see tears glimmering underneath her long bangs. "You can't promise that," she mutters, jutting her chin upward—and sending a series of pillars into his side to knock him away.
The pillars aren't strong enough to push him, though. It only makes Enji buckle. He places his free hand against her head to prevent another attack. Her leg is still injured, so she won't be trying to move it as much. "I can promise it because they're facing charges now. They will see justice. You don't have to see them ever again if you don't want to."
"That's even shittier," she gripes, letting her head press against the stone. "They're my parents! Why did they try so hard to change me?! They're not supposed to get taken away! They're—they're supposed to do better than that!"
"Having an answer won't change what happened, kid." Though in all likelihood the Beifongs won't face much prison time, if any at all, and it would be Toph that gets taken away from them for negligence. "No point crying a river over them."
"I'm not crying!" But it's pretty obvious she is doing just that, and Toph grows silent, breathing heavily as more tears track down her cheeks. Then she squirms. "Get off me," she demands.
Enji shakes his head. "I told you the rules. Give up."
"I don't give up!" She declares angrily.
"That's a good mindset for a hero," He answers evenly. "But you need to give up for now." Give up on your parents is what he really wants to say, but Enji is hyper-aware of his own kids watching this debacle, and he's done enough bullshit already to drive one out of their home. "I'm not the one you're mad at anyway."
Toph is silent again, forehead pushed against the ground and eyes squeezed shut.
"None of it is fair, Toph. But this is pointless."
And she caves. "...I yield."
He releases her immediately, and she pushes herself onto hands and knees. Finally, his kids enter the ruined courtyard, wide-eyed. Fuyumi crouches at Toph's side, rubbing her shoulder silently. Natsuo walks away, and that stings more than the boulder Toph threw at his back.
Shouto steps up to Enji, mismatched eyes boring into him. "I'm sorry," Enji says belatedly, eyes darting between Fuyumi and Shouto. "I know you liked the courtyard how it was," he adds, though that isn't what he feels sorry about at all. He glances around the destruction, frowning at the damaged flower beds. He's certain there had been a type of flower grown here that Fuyumi and Rei liked.
"Hey," Natsuo calls from the edge of the yard, settling Enji with an even, indifferent look. "Are we gonna finish breakfast or what?"
It wasn't much in the end, the manipulation Shinsou used on Enji. Besides altering the case history for AV, all she had to do was make him relive Touya's last training lesson over and over again, unable to dismiss the memory as anything other than his own fault. She might be gone, but he won't shake the vile thought for a very long time. It changed him. But Enji doesn't want to think that anything good came from Shinsou's crimes, and he'll never acknowledge her influence at all.
Hell, he even dropped a rank because of her. And somehow, he feels stronger than ever.
When Toph finally gets to see him at the hospital, Inasa grins hard enough for Toph to hear it in his voice. "You're back! I missed you so much, you look different now!"
She arches an eyebrow, skeptical. "C'mon Airhead, I don't look that different."
"You're smiling now," he points out cheerfully, swinging his legs over the edge of his cot. "And you did get a little taller, I swear!"
She is smiling, she hadn't even realized it. Toph punches his shoulder lightly. "Ouch!" Inasa exclaims, undeterred. "See? Y'got stronger too!"
"So have you," She replies, leaning on the bed. He's pretty much ready to leave the hospital, with no more monitors or needles poking him. "Quit growing, would ya? You're stupid tall as is."
He laughs, though it doesn't have the same ring as before. "I can't help it! Mom says I could get as big as Endeavor if I keep eating the way I do!"
Toph hums, shaking her head. "Endeavor says I'm going to be living with the Water Hose team now," she says suddenly.
Inasa pauses in surprise. "Well that's awesome, Toph! You're part of a hero family now!"
She picks at her fingernails. "But I don't want another family."
He's quiet, digesting her words thoughtfully. "I don't think they'll mind that."
"But I mind it," Toph huffs, crossing her arms. "Why'd it have to be them, huh? Why'd I have to be born to a family of evil jerks?"
He leans against her side. "There isn't a reason. You didn't choose this, neither did I. I mean—" he sucks in a wavering breath, "I didn't ask for it, but they did something to my quirk."
Outside, Toph can hear the murmur of the Yoarashis talking to Endeavor and a physician. She lowers her voice to ask, "Did they really do it? Make you into the…"
He exhales a huge gust a wind, enough to rustle the blinds and tangle up Toph's bangs. "There's no such thing. You can't just make one." He skirts around using the word. "Nobody knows what's changed. And I'm not about to test out any earthbending, that's for sure." He shakes his head briskly. "But that's not the point. Point is—is—okay, um. We don't have a lot of choices," he throws up his hands. "Family, crazy villains, yada yada. But we're friends. We chose that part. So that's the part I care about. That's the—that's what still counts. I could still remember you, even when I didn't think I did."
Of course, Toph already knew they were friends. Knew they'd always be friends. But finally being next to him, hearing him say—it's a lot more relieving than she expected. It felt good when Shouto told her too. "You remember what we promised each other, right?"
He wraps an arm around her, giving a quick squeeze. "We're gonna be the greatest heroes together. See? That's our choice too. Nothing else matters as much as that."
"Okay," Toph agrees, leaning into his hug for a second longer. Then she pushes him away with a huff. "Alright, enough mushy stuff!" Inasa chuckles. "C'mon Twinkletoes, let's get out of this stuffy hospital."
"No arguments here!" Inasa agrees, hopping off the bed.
His feet hit the ground with more force than usual, firm and solidly against the tiles. Toph knows he just claimed that he doesn't know what the experiments actually did to his quirk, but to her it feels like...
Well. They can talk about it another day. They have time, now.
Toph moves in with Miyuki and Kano Izumi, otherwise known as the Water Hose duo, three days later. They're a young and cheerful couple, and Toph is fine with living with them under the circumstances that she gets to stay in contact with Inasa's and Shouto's families.
"We'll make sure they get plenty of playdates!" Mrs. Water Hose exclaims, beaming at Enji and Shouto. "It might take time before Toph makes any new friends, so it's good to know she can still rely on the Todorokis!"
Man, Miyuki can be so sugary-sweet sometimes that it makes Toph wanna barf. She drags a hand over her face, embarrassed for herself and for the Todorokis.
"Right," Endeavor agrees with palpable sarcasm. "Playdates." She thinks he might be flaring his nostrils too, like a crotchety dragon.
"I still wanna hang out," Toph puts in her stubborn two cents as they say their goodbyes. "Shouto's my friend. And Natsuo, he's funny."
"Hey, what about me?" Fuyumi complains, twirling a finger around a strip of red hair. "I thought we were getting along fine!"
Toph pouts. "You keep lecturing me. I don't need another preppy professor-type bossin' me around!"
"We'll try to keep in touch," Endeavor compromises, ignoring her.
"You'd better!" Miyuki laughs. "You've got loads more practice than us at this!"
They part ways, and it doesn't feel nearly as awful as it used to. Natsuo voiced his doubts earlier about Endeavor actually allowing Shouto to quit training long enough to play with friends, but Fuyumi insisted she'd make it happen. And the Izumis seemed eager to let her see Shouto whenever they had the time for it.
Besides, Toph knows where the Todorokis live now. Endeavor might not know it yet, but he definitely can't stop her.
SIX MONTHS LATER
Hitoshi is half-asleep on the train, already exhausted at the thought of facing more stares and whispers about his name at his new school, when things go to shit. By shit, he means that the train screeches to an abrupt stop, and he yelps "Shit!" when his forehead smacks painfully into the metal pole he was holding for support and everyone in the train is jerked forward.
There's a gasp of surprise to his left, and Hitoshi reacts instinctually to stop the girl next to him from toppling to the ground. She grabs his arm back, steadying herself against the metal pole, and her head whips around in bewilderment.
I think she's blind, Hitoshi notes absently, rubbing his head. She doesn't have a cane or anything, but her eyes are pale green and unfocused. "You alright?" He grumbles.
"Yeah," she says over the growing murmur of the crowded train car. People are beginning to panic. "How's your head?"
"I'm awake now," Hitoshi answers sourly, not bothering to ask how she knew when the sound his head made against the metal pole was quite clear. She responds with a brief grin. He takes a moment to look at the uniform she's in, beneath the woolen coat she's wearing. "Do you go to Okubo?" He asks suddenly.
"Yeah?" She says blankly. "Why?"
"I... go there too," Hitoshi explains haltingly. "You're wearing the same uniform as me."
She looks surprised for a moment, and then she gives a sly grin and teases, "Is that so? Y'mean you're wearing a dumb skirt too?"
He snorts. So she is blind, then. "Of course I am. Stockings and all."
She snickers, a wide smile crossing her face. "Do you think we'll…" but her question trails off, and her head cocks to the side. Then her eyes widen, and he's yanked down by the shoulder.
"What—?"
There's an awful, rumbling, screeching, tearing noise above them. The windows shatter. There's a light breeze through the train car that wasn't there before. When Hitoshi opens his eyes, the ceiling's gone. In the distance, there's a seventy-story monster flinging the metal roof of the train at a building. He blinks slowly at the sight. "Am I still sleeping?"
There's a tug at his arm. The girl's eyes are still unfocused, but there's urgency in her expression. "We have to move, Snoozles!"
He stumbles after her as she pushes towards the exit. "Snoozles?" He repeats, affronted, but she doesn't respond.
Someone's already gotten the door opened but people are swarming to get out. Hitoshi shifts his arm so he's holding the girl's hand more securely, and after a few suffocating, freaking-out-just-a-little moments, they're free from sweaty businessmen and breathing fresh air. Hitoshi takes the time to savor the lack of human stench and vow to take his bike out more often to appreciate how clean the air can be.
He glances at the blind girl, still holding his hand. Her face is tilted towards the battle, quietly focused on the distance roars. "I think the whole city's being shut down for this," Hitoshi catches her attention, eyeing the traffic jams and police barricades ahead. They walk away from the tracks, onto the grass through a side exit along with the other passengers. There's a few policemen ordering some people into evacuation points, but they're far enough from the fight that things aren't too hectic.
"So, no school then?" She quips lightly, releasing his hand.
"Probably not," Hitoshi muses. However, as much as he was dreading school, he doesn't want to trek back home to an empty apartment either. He scuffs his shoe on the ground idly, debating the best course of action.
A phone buzzes next to him, and he watches the blind girl answer it. "Hey Izumi-san. No, the trains were stopped before I could get there. I'm with another student. Uh…" she pauses for a moment, "We're near Kouta's daycare, I can walk from—no I'm not staying at the daycare, that's so lame. I'll go home. Good luck." She ends the call and nudges Hitoshi. "Y'got somewhere to be? Let's get food."
Surprised by the offer, Hitoshi blinks down at the girl. She seems about the same age as him, though quite short in comparison and apparently old enough to carry a cellphone. Her hair is jet black and combed into a sleek bun, held back with a green headband with tiny pom-poms on either side. Her face is dainty and porcelain white, and there's a tentative smile on her face. She's… delicate. She's the last person he'd expect to be so calm in a huge villain attack, and yet there she is, waiting patiently for an answer while he can hear a full grown man sobbing hysterically under one of those emergency blankets.
"Don't you need to get home?" He hedges. Is it that easy for her to trust him, because he told her they go to the same school?
She shrugs. "Yeah, but no one's gonna be home till this evening. What about you?"
"My dad's working all day," he admits, scratching the back of his head. Man, he couldn't get a comb through his hair this morning, but at least this girl won't notice that. "I don't have much money on me, though."
"I can pay for you," she offers hopefully. "And if you wanna pay me back, well, I could always hunt you down at school." Her smile turns a little vicious at that.
Hitoshi raises an eyebrow at her. "Jeez, you sound like a gangster," he mocks her, but the offer is tempting. What else is he supposed to do all day, wait around in a safe zone? Plus, what's he gonna do when she asks for his name, and then recognizes the surname of a recently-killed villain? What if she just gets spooked and runs away? What if she goes back to class tomorrow and spreads more rumors about the villain kid with a brainwashing quirk?
"Ugh, you're taking too long, Slowpoke," the girl exclaims, hooking her arm around his and jerking him forward. He almost loses his footing, she's so forceful. "I can't bum around all day, let's go!"
Hitoshi doesn't argue.
It takes a week before Toph realizes who Snoozles is. He's quiet around her, doesn't acknowledge her at school—they're in different classes, and Toph is busy enough trying to do well for once in class. They hang out after class, by the park or just sitting next to each other on the train ride home, because they're some of the few younger students that travel on their own. It just never came up, asking more about each other. Snoozles is snarkier than her, and there's a billion other things they can talk about beside themselves.
It's the whispers that give it away. First, it's the mention of 'Shinsou' around the classroom, the villain's kid. Which made Toph feel weird, but she wouldn't go out of her way to find him. Endeavor kept her and Twinkletoes out of the news coverage, so no one knew she had any involvement with the Cato Hospital raid. The Beifong family was known among the elite students of Soumei, but Okubo Elementary was a public school. No one paid her more attention than she wanted, and she was grateful to the Izumi family for choosing the place.
Then she overhears a few people goading Snoozles into using his power, asking him to do random shit. "Careful, don't answer him! You never know when he might brainwash ya!"
Her stomach churns unpleasantly. Someone in her class asks if she's alright because her face goes pale. It's been months since she moved in with the Izumis, and they're quite kind. If she asked to switch schools it wouldn't be a big deal to them. But that's stupid. It's just a stupid coincidence that she met Snoozles to begin with.
Still, she doesn't make an effort to find him on the train that day. But after two stops she can hear him shuffle over to stand near the same exit as her. "There you are," he says lightly, elbowing her. "You're so short, it took me ages to find you."
"Ha, ha," she rolls her eyes, but then she doesn't know what else to say. She just chews on her lip. Snoozles isn't anything to be scared of. He's a doofus. He likes cats. He's never doubted her abilities because she's blind. He's never said a thing about her blindness, and that means a lot to Toph.
He shifts beside her. "You found out," he says flatly, but he's rigid as a board, giving away how apprehensive he must feel.
"Is it that obvious?" Toph mumbles, picking at the hem of her jacket. "Yeah, I overheard some people at school."
Snoozles seems to sink in on himself. She can hear his heart rate pick up too. "I—I figured this would happen. You don't have to worry about my quirk, I would never use it on you or anyone for fun—"
"I don't care about your quirk," Toph interjects, her brow furrowed in thought. She really doesn't. Even if he has a brainwashing quirk, he's never done anything to make her think he'd use it now. "It's just…"
"Just what?" He asks tersely. "Just that I might use it? Just that my family's already got a shitty record, so you can't be too cautious around me?"
"No, shut up," Toph snaps, turning to him. "I mean…" No, she can't tell him she was one of Puppetmaster's victims. She hasn't told anyone since switching to Okubo. Toph huffs, annoyed at herself. The train slows, and the exits slide open to Snoozles's stop.
"Forget it," he mutters, moving to leave. "I won't bother you."
Toph's mouth is open, but no words come out. She snaps her jaw shut with a frustrated growl, and marches off the train just behind him. "Hey!" she barks, catching him by the sleeve. "That's not what I meant."
He snatches his arm back. "Whatever. I get it."
"No you don't," she argues right back. "Stop jumping to conclusions."
"What, y'need me to brainwash someone for you? I don't do that either—"
She punches him in the arm, hard. "No!"
"Ow, what the heck was that for?!"
"Stop being dramatic, I said I didn't care about your quirk!" Toph shouts. She can feel the travelers around them pause and murmur at the sight of them. "Would you just—come on, let's go to the bike trail," Toph decides, gripping him firmly by the sleeve of his jacket.
"Why?" Shinsou demands suspiciously. "Maybe I don't want to!"
"Cry me a river, you big baby!" She retaliates, tugging harder. "We're going!"
He sighs, and follows.
By the time they reach the trail, Shinsou's heart has slowed considerably, but he's still tense and quiet. Toph isn't dragging him anymore, and crosses her arms when she faces him.
"So."
"So," he repeats dryly, crossing his arms as well.
"I think—I think we should actually tell each other who we are, now." Toph starts slowly.
He scoffs, kicking a few rocks off the path and leaning against the trunk of a large tree. "Sure thing. I'm Hitoshi Shinsou, son of Umeko Shinsou the freaking Puppetmaster. I can brainwash people."
Toph nods, centering herself. She can't buckle now. If anyone deserves to know more, isn't it Shinsou's son? "I'm Toph Beifong. I'm an earthbender. A few years ago, my parents hired your mom to brainwash me, so now I live with the Water Hose hero team."
He stops what he's doing to look at her. "What?"
She nods again resolutely. "I was at Cato Hospital when they raided it," she whispers. "I haven't told anyone about it besides the heroes in the case."
"They kept all the victims' names out of the press," Shinsou muses.
"My parents were able to keep their name out of it too," Toph adds bitterly. "Endeavor's still caught up in the defamation case they filed against him. But they were complicit in all those crimes." Shinsou lets himself slide down, until he's sitting in the grass against the tree. "So I don't blame you for not telling me your name. And calling you a villain because of your mom would be hypocritical."
"Oh," Shinsou answer eloquently.
"Yeah," Toph agrees, huffing to herself.
They're both quiet and unsure for far too long.
"It sucks talking about this." Shinsou hums in vague accord, still hunched over with his arms wrapped over his legs. Toph holds out a hand to him. "Can we race or something? I've had it with the dramatic backstory stuff."
"Please," Shinsou agrees, letting her pull him to his feet. He dusts off his pants, and takes a deep breath.
"First one to that maple tree?" he asks, and then he just starts running.
Toph shrieks, trying to catch up. Stupid long legs. "I don't know which one is the maple, you jerk!"
"Cry me a river!" He shoots back at her.
A/N: Here it is, some much-needed resolution. I can't make my hero kids suffer any longer. There might be one more chapter of 'Book Two' before we move on to the really fun stuff—UA! I miss the rest of the hero kids! I want Iida back, I couldn't fit him into this chapter! I NEED TOPH TO DRAG BAKUGOU!
Tell me your thoughts on this chapter, I hope it's a satisfying resolution! Was Endeavor's attempt to Dad good enough? Are y'all ok with Inasa Might-be-the-Avatar Yoarashi? Was it too contrived for Toph to meet Shinsou? It felt contrived but I wrote it anyway.
NOTE: I should make it clear that Endeavor basically goading Toph into a fight is NOT a constructive way to parent, it's just his attempt. In the long run, Toph can't deal with problems this way, but she's nine. She really be out here having a tantrum.
