The week before the entrance exam for UA, the Water Hose team is brutally killed while apprehending a villain. Toph is whisked out of school and into a hospital, but there's nothing to do. Miyuki Izumi is dead on arrival, and Kano takes his last breaths before she arrives. Kouta is still at preschool, and Toph absently tells her social worker—Kaneko, a woman with knobbly zebra legs—that he shouldn't be allowed near the hospital at all.

"Your emergency contacts are listed here as Enji Todoroki and Shino Sosaki."

"Sosaki?" Toph repeats quizzically, not recognizing the name immediately.

"You may know her as Mandalay. She's Miyuki's first cousin, but she's about three hours away. I think Todoroki-san won't mind bringing both of you home for tonight, but I believe custody of Kouta-kun will be transferred to Sosaki-san," Kaneko admits frankly. She's never been one to pull her punches. "In your case, it depends on what you work out with either Todoroki-san or Sosaki-san. If that doesn't pan out, I'll take it from there."

Toph simply nods, letting Kaneko turn back to her phone to work. She has Toph consent to two different documents, one for Sosaki's fostership and one for the Todorokis, because Toph doesn't mind either option. They're in the lobby on the ICU level of the hospital, a totally different place than Cato, but it still chafes at Toph like a poison-ivy rash. At some point Kaneko tells her that Kouta is being taken to Todoroki's house, and that Natsuo will be here soon, but the words drip over her, a steady drizzle of rain with virtually no effect. There's a TV in the corner of the room, the volume set low and hardly audible over the buzz of lights and the murmur of people throughout the building.

It's playing news coverage over the Water Hose team, though, and Toph can't bring herself to block out the cold, infuriating sound of strangers picking apart the fight that killed them.

Of course, the newscaster praises them thoroughly too. Lays on the commendations like a syrupy blanket to mask the bullshit they're spewing along the way. ...Mistakenly chose to engage the enhancer-quirk villain instead of waiting for back-up… Clearly outmatched by the infamous strength of the perpetrator… Costly fight for a newly-renovated commercial area… Outstanding performance in order to prevent civilian casualties... Agency is scrambling to arrange a press conference to address the damages… Villain is in custody thanks to their last moments of bravery…

"I'm going to take a walk," Toph announces softly, and Kaneko gives her consent because it's a beautiful day. It's only one o'clock, and though it's autumn, the air is still warm and the skies are clear. The fact that Toph leaves with her school bag goes unnoticed.

She ends up passing Natsuo by the front desk, and tells him, in a spur of the moment choice, Kaneko-san needs a word before we go, I'll be waiting outside. Toph gestures to her bag, and he doesn't question it further. He knows better than to coddle her, anyway.

The air outside is crisp and pleasant from a recent rain. Toph scrubs a hand through her hair, letting more of her bangs out from her headband—and then removing it entirely, because she wears it every day. Face angled at the ground, Toph takes a brisk pace towards the nearest train station.

This isn't her running away. She just needs her walk to last a little longer than a standard stroll.

On the train, Toph slides her finger over the seams of her cell phone, popping the battery pack out. She steps out of the car at a random station and sits down long enough to peel off her socks and shoes. No one really cares about a kid going barefoot these days, though the Beifongs used to make it sound like a capital crime. Toph gets back onto a different train, and no one bothers her as she rides it all the way to its last stop in Ueno.

She chose Ueno for a reason. At the very edge of this part of the city, there's a large swath of empty wetland that has yet to be purchased and built upon. Basically an empty swamp, with only an abundance of flora and fauna as her witness. Touya clearly doesn't use it anymore. She trudges deep into the marshes, uncaring of the muck gathering over her calves or the grasses sticking to her skirt.

Toph places her school bag high up on a twisty branch, tips backwards into pool of muddy earth, and sobs her fucking useless eyes out for the Izumis. She screams. She punts rocks forty feet away and smashes her fists into unsuspecting tree trunks. Sloppily, she pushes her hair out of her face, smearing mud everywhere, and cries until her chest aches too much to keep going.

"They're dead," she says out loud, unwilling to say it in the presence of anyone else. Her voice is raw and shaky and weak, so Toph doesn't want anyone to hear it. She can't let anyone hear it. Endeavor dealt with enough shit from her when she was finally removed from the Beifongs' custody, Toph needs no repeat of their ruined courtyard.

Except this time, there's even less blame to push around. The Beifongs were criminals because they had an agenda that went against everything Toph was born to become. But this? Toph has no doubt this would've happened regardless of whether or not Toph was around. Muscular was attacking in their patrol route, the same city they've operated in for years. There was no way support could've reached them in time. The Izumis died in the line of duty, they got what they signed up for. It's entirely that villain's fault, Toph knows.

It's just fucking unfair.

None of it is fair, Todoroki-san's voice filters back into her mind as she lays in the mud. Toph breaths in the thick, earthy air around her. And this is probably pointless, she finishes the thought bitterly.

She emerges from the earth like a reanimated corpse, and decides she's going to be senseless for a little while longer anyway.

Shucking off the dirt as best she can, Toph trudges out of the swampland. Her bag slides off her shoulder as she walks, and she swaps her shapeless blazer for a faded navy zip-up hoodie. She unravels the already-loose tie from her neck, still damp, and stuffs that away too. She shuffles out of her school uniform's pleated skirt into the basketball shorts she uses for gym period. The muddy dress shirt is exchanged for a soft gray t-shirt.

Toph isn't quite trying to disguise herself, but at the same time, she doubts anyone looking for her will expect a clothing change. Her school bag is the same as everyone else's, so that won't give her away either.

She keeps going. Toph dives into her senses, each vibration unique and separate from each other to build her world. Her quirk gives her the ability to see through vibrations, but not just the tremors from her own feet. Everything vibrates, from the air around a bird's wings to the tremble of gravel beneath the tires of a car. Toph has learned to pick through sound and seismic motion, only feeling for what she needs to, but today she lets it all in.

That way, there's no room for her thoughts.

It's getting late now, past sundown. Moisture collects in the air, and Toph is minutely aware of it in every breath she takes, in every swish of fabric and in the beads of sweat that cling to her skin. She ducks into a small store just moments before the first drops of rain hit the pavement. She's surprised it's still open.

It's blessedly uncrowded, only one register open with a sleepy cashier scrolling on a phone and two customers ambling down the narrow aisles. The air is stale, but cool and dry compared to the growing rainstorm just meters away. She'll go back outside soon enough. When it pours like this, Toph can see a great deal.

For now, though, she has some petty cash left in her wallet. Toph doesn't feel particularly hungry after missing dinner, but maybe she could use a drink. Toph shambles over to the refrigerated section in the back of the store. The bottle shapes are familiar enough, and she's not picky about what she gets as long as it's liquid. Maybe a soft drink, or milk tea.

Her hand falls onto a glass jar, and she gives it a tap with her nails. Kimchi. Kano-san liked to get the really spicy kind to put in his rice, and the smell would linger throughout their house for hours. Miyuki hated it, but Kouta liked the spiciness. Unbidden, Toph's eyes are welling up with tears. Not now, she thinks in helpless frustration. Not in a grocery store over a jar of kimchi.

But oh god, she's never going to smell it again. Spicy kimchi spilling onto the just-cleaned table, the cut grass from the small backyard, Kano's minted breath, the baby sunscreen Miyuki insisted she and Kouta wear every day—that mixture of scents was just a memory, now and forever. Why did they have to die? Why would they leave her so quickly?

A light tap on her shoulder drags her back to the present. A gravelly voice, muffled by something. "...hear me, kid? I asked you to move over."

"Oh," Toph answers numbly, stepping to the left. "Sorry."

"S'all right," the man says shortly, leaning over to take a container and place it in his shopping basket. He lingers for a moment. Toph is stuck where she is, in the middle of sorting through several emotions and trying to make sense of his muffled voice. It's making her remember something. "...Uh. Are you okay?"

She quickly ducks her head to rub her eyes, and shakes her head. "Fine," she says, unable to come up with any other words. He's wearing a scarf, that's why his voice is muffled. Strange.

He's still standing there. Then he shifts his weight from his left foot to his right, and Toph realizes with a jolt that she does know him. "Kid, you sure you're—"

"I know you," She interrupts him softly, surprising both of them as she turns her face up to him. "Stendhal." They never even spoke to each other, actually, but she remembers the name. She can feel the heavy clink of metal, a short blade beneath his jacket, a few switchblades strapped against his ribcage. Idiot, she should've noticed that earlier. He's armed.

As expected, he goes still. That's confirmation enough for Toph. "What did you just call me?"

"We've met before," she explains half-heartedly. That was stupid, calling him that. He'll want more information… but it's such a strange fluke. She hasn't spoken to anyone from the Quirk Rumble since Touya, and it's been years since then.

"I don't recognize you," He says in a quiet, tense voice, hunched over slightly to (presumably) scrutinize her. It's late, and the grocery mart is practically empty as the last customer makes their purchase. The only employee is shuffling papers at the register, out of hearing range. "How do you know that name?"

She tucks her long bangs behind her ears, stalling to get her thoughts in order and figure out what she can say without risk. "That was your fighting name. I had one too."

Stendhal is silent for a long moment, but she can sense him relaxing out of his tense stance. "You're so young. I knew that tiger was bending the rules for you," he says ruefully, exhaling a long, harsh breath. "You're the Blind Bandit."

"I was," Toph admits curtly, not really up for discussing it further. It's in the past. She's moving forward. "Do you know where the Calpico is?" She asks, changing the subject rather conspicuously.

"I… sure." He straightens up and moves to the far side of the refrigerated section. Toph follows. "Right up there." He points, and does nothing else.

Toph furrows her brow critically. "C'mon dude," she says exasperatedly.

"Eh? Oh." He honest to god smacks his own forehead, and she almost, almost, cracks a smile. It's kind of nice when people forget her disability. "Shit. You're blind. Fuck, you're so much shorter in person, can you even reach up there?"

Toph rolls her eyes. She never fought the sword guy because they were in different weight classes, but if anything she's taller than she was at nine years old. "Just grab me the lychee one, please." Finally, he hands her a bottle. "Thanks."

"No problem..."

He doesn't sound particularly friendly or interested in speaking with her further. He's not leaving, though, and when Toph turns to walk away first he speaks up. "What are you doing here alone, Bandit?"

"Toph," she corrects him adamantly, clutching the bottle harder. "I don't do shit like that anymore. It's Toph Beifong." She isn't that worried about him tattling on her. There's a certain solidarity from the Rumble between fighters, between most people that frequented the underground ring. Plus, they've already been busted.

He makes a clicking noise with his tongue, annoyed. "Alright Toph Beifong, what're you doing here on your own?"

"Shopping," she says flatly. "S'raining outside, I'm waiting it out." Not really, but it's a divergence from what he's asking and Toph hopes he'll drop the conversation there.

He shifts his basket onto the other arm. "That doesn't explain much. You in trouble?"

Was she? Toph isn't sure there's anyone left to feel troubled by her absence, after all. Her phone is off and it's only been a few hours. Maybe she's missed a call from Kouta's aunt, or Todoroki, but what does it even matter? She'll go back eventually. Toph doesn't respond, but her mouth thins into a straight line and she shakes her head.

Carefully, Stendhal reaches over and places a large hand on her shoulder. "Follow me, Beifong," he says. It's an offer, not a demand, but Toph takes it and follows him closely as they go to the register. He elects for the automatic station, which Toph can't actually operate alone. When she turns to the cashier station, he plucks the soda bottle out of her hand without warning.

"What gives?" Toph shoots him an irritated look. "I have money."

He just gives a vague grunt in response, picking up a crinkly protein bar from the shelf as well and scanning everything into one purchase. He bags up the groceries in cloth bags, likely reusable ones like Miyuki-san uses. Used.

Toph swipes at her face again roughly. Was everything in this fucking grocery store going to remind her of the Izumis? She should've stayed in the swamp.

Stendhal makes for the exit without calling to her, but Toph trails after him. He still has the stupid lychee drink. She could always get another one, and just leave Stendhal to his own devices, but it felt like he intended to continue their conversation elsewhere, away from the grocery mart.

You're an idiot, she can hear Touya chastise her. Well, she'll avoid any alleyways if Stendhal tries to lead her there, but Toph's already dug herself a hole by introducing herself.

As they exit into the street she hears the click and whoosh of an umbrella unfolding, and rain plinking against the cloth above her. Then the umbrella's handle is shoved into her hand, and Stendhal begins walking away.

"Hey," Toph says in sharp annoyance, forced to follow. He's not even trying to avoid the rain, it's too windy for Toph to hold it high enough to shield them both, it'll get flipped inside out. "Where are we going?"

"Not far," he answers in a clipped tone, giving away nothing. But it's not like Toph has anywhere else she wants to go. She'll face consequences for her 'walk', but not yet. And he's not hostile. Somewhere far away, Touya is probably cursing her out. But it really isn't far; the destination is apparent when Stendhal steps into the public park around the block, heading for an empty, uh, Toph doesn't know what it's called, but it's circular and sheltered from the rain and it's used in soppy movies that Miyuki cries at.

Toph folds the umbrella back up while Stendhal sets the groceries down and sits on a bench. He gives little warning, but Toph catches the soft drink he tosses to her without issue. She doesn't always catch things that people—Shouto—throw at her, but she's gotten better at it. He gives a quiet, surprised little "huh" at the quick response, and Toph turns her head to scowl at him.

"What was that, a test?" She zips through the relative silence to target the stupid impressed huff he made.

"I was curious," he answers, unaffected. "That's a tricky quirk you got there."

The comment is probing, his tone grating enough to push her to spill more details, but Toph shoves aside the urge and narrows her eyes. "Wouldn't you like to know, Stendhal," she settles on, wrenching the bottle open.

He makes a growly sort of noise, one that Toph would've been wary of if he hadn't already bought her a soft drink and walked out to a gazebo—that's the word—to talk. "That name's not public information, kid. You know what I am." Something darker enters his tone.

"Huh?" Toph hesitates, the bottle just touching her lower lip. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Silence. Then, Stendhal groans, sliding further down the bench like he's suddenly been turned to jelly. "For Kami's sake. Don't tell me you don't know."

"Know what?" Toph says with some heat, lowering the drink without taking a sip. "You were in the Rumble, what else is there to know?" He's probably still doing something underground, armed the way he is, but Toph's not one to care. People that take that route rarely have any other option.

But she hears him smack his own forehead again, meaning she's got it wrong. Then he rifles through his bag and tears open the crinkly-wrapped bar. "I don' fight with those fools anymore," he reveals through a mouthful of protein bar. She can tell it's one of those health bars because it's dense and gummy, and smells like one. "My cause is more principled than senseless violence."

The language doesn't escape her notice. Cause? Principles?

This conversation is taking a turn that Toph did not expect. She'd be less surprised if cats began to fall from the sky in lieu of rain. Alarm bells go off in her head, but Toph keeps her face from showing it. "Why did you fight with them at all if you're so high and mighty, huh?" Toph hooks her claws into the one fact she's certain of.

"I had yet to find my path. Why did you fight, little girl?" He shoots right back, but Toph won't play this game. "You're strong, but too green to be involved in that shit."

"It was wrong and illegal," She concedes with a ruthless sort of efficiency, cutting through to the barebones she'd finally understood once she talked to Shinsou about it. "But it was the only thing I could control in my life. I have better ways now to train."

"Train?" he echoes, and his voice takes on an odd lilt. Amused. Disdained.

Maybe she shouldn't tell him this, not if Stendhal is what she thinks he is. If he has a cause, if he's principled. But a part of her needs to declare it to the world every day—especially today—and she can't be afraid to acknowledge what she wants. "I'm training to be a hero," she says frankly, taking a sip from her drink at last. "You got a problem with that?"

"I think you might have a problem with getting licensed," Stendhal replies, voice dripping with a new level of loathing. He makes no move towards her, but Toph remains tense. "You don't think anyone will ever give the police a tip about the little earthbender who used to fight for cash?"

"I never fought for cash," Toph denies earnestly. Stendhal makes a small noise of confusion in the back of his throat, taken aback. She arches an eyebrow in question. "Is that why I'm getting attitude? Loban didn't pay me a cent for those fights."

"What?" He says, staggered by her disclosure. "Why the hell would you fight then?"

"To fight," Toph says like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "To train, specifically. Like I just said."

"You could've died, the fuck is wrong with you?" He's a few decibels away from yelling now. Toph gets the distinct impression he's looking at her like one would regard a rabid animal. "What—what did you mean by 'the only thing you could control'?"

Toph chugs half the bottle of Calpico, annoyed. "Quid pro quo, Stendhal," she decides, putting heavy emphasis on the name she's not supposed to say. "Is that your vigilante name now?"

He tears through the rest of his protein bar, hunching over in an aggrieved slump. He sneers. "Gonna report me, little hero? I probably do more good for this society than half the heroes you know."

Toph's hand tightens over her plastic bottle, breath caught in her throat as she remembers why she's out here in the first place, arguing with an old 'co-worker' in a thunderstorm. She swallows down the thick, murky emotion rising to her tongue, begging to defend people that aren't here. It's hard not to rise to the bait—very freaking hard—but she's not an angry nine year old anymore. Now she's an angry fifteen year old, and she resists. Toph molds her fury into something dry and disgruntled.

"Y'see, that's why I need to become a hero first," she replies casually, extending a tenuous truce between them. "No one would follow up if I reported you now. It's hard for people to trust the word of a little blind girl, no matter how right I am."

The response catching him unaware, she can tell by the hesitation in his posture before he hunches over again in a strange show of confidence. Of faith that she's no threat to him, and a measure of truce on his part. He still sneers at her though. "So you want to be heard. Want that authority. Power's a slippery slope, girl."

"Funny, I'd say the same thing about vigilantism, dick," Toph fires back. "I'm principled too, y'know. If you're still on the same shit when I'm licensed, I hope you're prepared to face me."

He barks an odd, gritty sort of laugh, and Toph grins back into the liminal space they occupy between friends, enemies, and strangers meeting for the first time. Having known of each other for so long, and yet knowing nothing now that they've met. It's funny that after all this time—six years, a lifetime of change for Toph—they're in each other's orbit far more personally than when they shared the Rumble.

I better not make a habit of this, though, Toph thinks cautiously.

"I'm not going to stop," the vigilante rasps, a firmness to his words like he needs to impress upon her this point. But Toph remembers his fights very well, having expected to eventually move up to his weight class and take him down a notch. Stendhal fights ferociously, cleverly, with dogged determination you can't help but respect even with the odds stacked against him. He's armed, and there aren't any no-kill rules in this arena. "Not until this society changes for the better."

"Society," Toph echoes hollowly. She thinks of the cheering crowd after Water Hose's final victory, as it's being called. The praise showered over silent graves. Criticism and pessimistic analysis talks over their fight patterns. The unrelenting questions Kouta will ask. If society changed, maybe it wouldn't be so suffocating to deal with all this. Maybe there would be fewer villains and fewer bodies in the morgue. Yeah, society does need to change, but probably not according to Stendhal's vision. "Lofty goal you got there," she replies, controlled and neutral. "A little radical, if you ask me."

"We have to aim high to get anything done," Stendhal says grimly, and Toph jerks her head around.

"'We'? You got a fanclub?" She probes, expecting some hint more about what the hell this vigilante thinks he's accomplishing.

Instead he just scoffs. "I mean you and me, kid. You're some brand of radical yourself, to hop into the ring before you've reached middle school." He fiddles with the wrapper in his hands, the noise crackling and loud enough to hear over the thousand plinking drops of rain overhead. His words solidify with shards of glass neatly cutting from within her. Maybe she is a little radical. "It remains to be seen whether your goal is worth reaching."

The implied insult of her career path is easy enough to grasp. And still, Toph refuses the bait. She knows she has a short fuse, but today… today she's too drained to let it control her. The swamp swept all the fight from her, and Toph is determined to leave it in the mud.

He's probably killed people. She doesn't know his quirk, but he fought with blades and always seemed, like many fighters, too savage for just the Rumble. Toph is in no position, no condition, to fight him or stop him here and now. Not with everything else going on. She isn't sure what his principles are, but she doesn't want to ask.

It's clear enough to her that they're on separate sides at this juncture.

Toph raises her soft drink in the caricature of a toast. "Not sure I'll ever see what you do, Stendhal." She sips her drink again, close to finishing it now. "You sure as hell can't see like me, and I don't mean because I'm blind."

He gives another grizzled sort of snort, shaking his head. "Maybe so," he concedes, rather ambivalently. He huffs. "This is the strangest conversation I've ever had."

"You're telling me," Toph sighs, but she's somehow thankful for it. "Why'd you buy me this?" She waves the bottle for unneeded emphasis. "I didn't even know what you were, just your name."

A low grumble vibrated from his throat, and he crosses his arms. Eventually, the words tumble out like unpleasant admission. "...Y'looked like you needed help."

And doesn't that just hit her like a truck? Toph turns away, not sure how to take that answer.

He continues with a muttered, "Was I right?"

"None of this has actually helped," she points out, stubborn till the end. "Nothing's changed."

"Well, that's not true," Stendhal rasps, suddenly rising to his feet. Toph tenses for the briefest moment, but Stendhal doesn't seem inclined to fight her. He just makes a vague gesture around with his hand, cutting through the moist air definitively. "Haven't you noticed? The rain stopped."

It has. Rainwater drips down from trees onto the gazebo roof, but the air is quieter. There's nothing to muffle their words besides the scarf over Stendhal's face. She can feel the odd space they inhabited shrinking in on itself, filling the void back with reality. Stendhal picks up his groceries, and then his umbrella from the steps. He walks right past her and out the gazebo.

"Hey," she calls out, unwilling to let him have the last word. He pauses at her call, and Toph clenches her fingers around the plastic bottle in her hands. She doesn't want to thank him, and doubts he'd appreciate it anyway. "You're right. And I don't plan on stopping either. So when I'm licensed—"

"You'll try and stop me," he finishes the thought in a flat tone.

"No," she cuts him off stonily, voice unyielding as her element. "When I'm licensed… We'll see which one of us changes society."

There it is, the shift she's been anticipating since the start. She hadn't come out here wondering what sort of hero she wanted to be, but the uncertainty cropped up anyway, thrust upon her by Stendhal's presence and the dread surrounding Water Hose's end. Where there was once a question now laid a line in the sand. Until now she hasn't truly contested anything he's said, only clarified her own choices in the Rumble while his motives emerged, murky but solid.

"We'll see," he repeats in a murmur, a promise, and then he's plodding away, out of Toph's range in moments.

For a time, she sits in silence in the gazebo. Alone with her swirling thoughts, maybe for too long. Guiltily, Toph plugs the battery back into her phone. It buzzes like crazy for a moment, loading up messages and missed calls. Then the phone rings, and Toph answers.


"What the hell is wrong with you?" Enji Todoroki fumes like a cranky dragon, bursting out of the sleek car parked in front of her. He snatches her arm and tugs her into the back seat before she can get a word out, slamming the door just shy of her bare toes.

It's an abrupt shattering to the silence of one in the morning, but Toph clicks her jaw shut as he all but throws himself into the driver's seat. It is one in the morning, after all.

"Where the fuck have you been?" He growls out, gunning the engine as Toph pulls on her seatbelt.

"I went for a walk," she says half-heartedly. "Are we going to your house?"

"Of course we are!" He makes a rather aggressive turn. She's never actually been driven by Todoroki-san before, his family has two drivers. Now she knows why. "And don't change the subject, you took the battery out of your damn phone."

Toph resolves to keep her cool for as long as she can. She leans her head against the window, hoping they don't make any more sharp turns. "I didn't want to be bothered."

"You were missing for twelve fucking hours," he hurls back at her, resentful and unforgiving.

She winces at that. "I did tell Kaneko I was taking a walk," Toph points out futilely.

"And then you lied to my son's face and disappeared into thin air," Todoroki snarls like a beast. "What kind of idiocy is that, Beifong?" He demands frigidly. "I had to use my damn agency's resources to track you, and even then you fucked off and no one had a clue where you'd gone!"

Her face twitches in irritation, but Toph stubbornly keeps herself from becoming defensive. "Well, I'm here now," she says lamely.

And Todoroki-san lets out a bonafide scream of anger, slamming on the brakes hard enough to make the tires squeal. Toph is jerked forward with a gasp, wincing at the sound of rubber protesting against gravel. Suddenly the pro hero parks the vehicle, ripping off his seatbelt and throwing himself out of the sedan.

Okay. Maybe now Toph's a little affected. She braces for him to wrench open the side door and yell in her face. But no such intrusion occurs.

Instead she hears him stomp around on the sidewalk like an absolute madman.

"What is wrong with you kids? Fucking insane!" He howls. "You don't see how fucking—selfish—ignorant—! Stupid, bratty—fucking disgraceful—!" He kicks a lamp post, and yells some more curses into the night.

He's not really directing it at her, but Toph is properly frightened by his ranting. Worry begins to curl in her gut. Toph unbuckles herself and opens the car door, causing Todoroki to whip around and seethe in her direction.

"Beifong!" He bellows, loud enough to make her flinch. "Do you have any idea of how moronic this has been?!"

Toph grimaces, her hand tightening over the car door. "It wasn't that long."

"Wasn't that long," he repeats, dripping with sarcasm as he stalks toward her. "Wasn't that long. When you and Shouto went missing, you were only gone for a total of nineteen hours. Nineteen. That was long enough to sedate fifteen kids. Long enough to put you in cages. Organize transport to a secondary location, where your chances of surviving drop by half."

"I wasn't abducted," Toph scowls. "I'm fine."

"And how was I supposed to know that?! How was I supposed to know if AV had gotten to you first and shut off your phone? How would I have known if the Beifongs had sent someone after you?" He pauses for a beat, and continues with even more fury. "You're fifteen, female, you fit perfectly in the target group for sex trafficking too."

She glares, refusing to be cowed. "Now you're just trying to scare me," she accuses, folding her arms and stepping out of the car entirely.

"Am I?" Todoroki asks scornfully, blazing like his quirk without using it at all. "Alright then—How was I supposed to know you hadn't run away to join another fucking fight club?"

This time, Toph rears back like she's been slapped in the face, and the blood drains from her cheeks. "I-I would never—"

"The hell you wouldn't. Don't you lie," he rumbles, hovering over Toph. "I had to learn that from fucking Shinsou's kid of all people, because no one else knows a thing about that little detail." A part of her is pained and crumbling and furious at the breach of trust, but a much larger part of Toph just plunges into shame.

"I was never going to do that," she insists, feeling like she's shackled to an anchor and being dragged under the surface. "It was years ago."

"The Elementals was years ago too," Todoroki seethes, kneeling to plant heavy hands on her arms. "Doesn't change the fact that we had no leads, Beifong. No contact. Just some surveillance footage of you leaving a train." He squeezes her. "You could have died, or worse. You've been fucking blessed to escape those situations before, and you still ran off like an ignorant little girl."

That slices through Toph like a knife. It burns. She bites the inside of her cheek and breathes through her nose. She's already cried so much, she's exhausted from it. But he's right, he's completely right, and Toph doesn't know what to do.

"I—I'm sorry," she says, having never felt so small before in her life. Todoroki-san has never yelled at her like this, and Toph trembles under the weight of it. "I'm so sorry, Endeavor, I was just upset and I wasn't thinking."

"Damn right you weren't," he admonishes. "Damn right you should be sorry. Do you have any idea what you just put us through?"

"I do now," Toph admits bitterly, hands fisted tight enough to whiten her knuckles. "Please forgive me."

"Tch, I'm not the one you should be begging," he scoffs, and then continues with dreadful significance, "Kouta-kun."

Toph exhales something halfway to a sob, her heart wrenching. No, she wasn't thinking about Kouta much at all.

Todoroki presses on. "He's just lost his parents, and then his sister disappears too. Mandalay's already taken him home, there wasn't a point in waiting around to see if you popped back up."

"What do you mean?" Toph feels cold. She doesn't even register the tears anymore, but grips back against Todoroki's arms securely. "He's already gone? When can I—"

"You'll see him at the funeral if he goes to it," Todoroki answers flatly. "That's in two days. Other than that, you're grounded."

Bewildered by the sudden statement, Toph frowns. "Grounded? You can't—"

"Well, seeing as I already signed all the papers while you were moping, I can," Todoroki remarks evenly, releasing one of her arms to pinch the bridge of his nose. "You're grounded. You can go to the funeral. You can study for the written exam. That's it."

She listens in a daze. "So. You're fostering me, not Mandalay," Toph surmises, somewhat unconvinced after listening to Todoroki scream at her for so long.

"No," he answers frostily, but the severity begins to leak out of his tone. "This isn't some glorified sleepover. You piss me off, Beifong. You worried all my children, freaked them the fuck out. I'm adopting you, you absolute menace."

The Izumis had adopted her after a year of her living with them, but she hadn't expected... Kaneko never even mentioned it...

"Oh." Her breath hitches. "I'm s-sorry for causing y-you trouble," Toph barely gets the words out before she's weeping again, her stomach twisting in sorrow even as a huge burden is lifted from her shoulders. Todoroki-san gives a long-suffering sigh, and then pulls her into an awkward hug. Toph doesn't care if it's awkward, she presses her face beneath his chin and loops her arms over his neck.

Toph can't imagine he'd do anything like this nine years ago, when she was first rescued by Endeavor, even if he'd known her as well as he does now. A lot has changed since then. Even five years ago, when the Beifongs were finally caught, Todoroki-san had never really comforted her. She's never seen him hug Shouto or Natsuo.

"I'm sorry for you loss, Beifong," he says quietly, patting her back. "They didn't deserve this. You don't either."

"None of it's fair," Toph echoes sadly, but there's a measure of acceptance in the statement now.

"Yes," he agrees, ruefully and subdued.

He releases her and corrals her back into the sedan. Before he closes the door behind her this time, Todoroki rubs a huge hand through her hair roughly, completely out of the blue.

"Stop it," Toph swats his hand away. "What the hell was that?"

"Why are you so dusty?" Todoroki exclaims, mystified. He looks down at himself, and then begins to brush the excess dirt off his casual clothes with a dissenting grumble. "Did you roll around a construction site?"

"It was a swamp," Toph admits, scratching at a spot of dirt on her neck.

Todoroki groans, going back around to the driver's seat. He starts the car back up, and is only a slightly more cautious driver than before. Toph buckles up quickly. "At least it wasn't my house again," he grumbles. "Is that all you did?"

She hesitates too long. "...Well."

"Beifong."

He's finally not yelling anymore. This is just going to make things worse. He's a hero, she probably has a mark on her record already about the Quirk Rumble. "It's not a huge deal."

"If you don't tell me I'll ground you for longer."

"I don't even know how long I'm grounded for," Toph reminds him, chewing on her lip.

"Spill. Now."

She sinks lower into the plush leather seats. Crosses her arms. Braces for his bad driving. "Is there a vigilante called Stendhal active in Ueno right now?"

"Is ther—? VIGILANTE?! You—what did you do?!" Todoroki splutters, but keeps driving. "Toph! What do you know?"

"I think I met him. In a grocery store. He used the same name to fight in the… fight club," Toph explains flimsily, clutching her seatbelt. "It was actually a total coincidence."

"How is that a coincidence? You talked to him, alone? Why are you like this?"

"We talked about the Rumble, mostly. I can't really identify him, and there wasn't anyone around to report to anyway. I can give a statement if that'll help." She's not sure how that'll work without incriminating herself over the Rumble, but Toph's making an effort here. Todoroki-san yelling at her feels like shit.

"First of all," he mutters, "You can give an anonymous tip about that Stendhal bastard, I'll work it out," Todoroki says begrudgingly. "Second of all, you're grounded until high school. No sparring. No hanging out with friends."

Toph's jaw drops. That's nearly six months. "What about Shouto?" He can't separate her from his own son, it's not fair to him.

Todoroki gnashes his teeth. "He's pissed too, Beifong. That boy knows how to hold a grudge."

Toph pales. "Does… does he know about…?"

"Your delinquent years? No, only Shinsou and I know. Sweet Kami, I can't believe you're so dumb. I can't let people know I adopted an idiot."

"So," Toph says haltingly, choosing to firmly put aside all the insults for now. She called him much worse after Cato anyway. And he still adopted her. "So, no one knows what I did? It's not on my record?"

"Your record's a shitshow already, Beifong, ever since Lao mis-registered your quirk. That ring was busted years ago. No need to drag it out, you'd just reopen the case for Loban's lawyer." Todoroki-san sighs. He sounds tired. "It's almost 2 AM, please tell me that's all you did."

Toph curls up on the seat. "That's all," she promises.

"Thank fuck," Todoroki-san exhales noisily, the final note before silence takes over the car.

Toph shuts her eyes, feeling the last dredges of her energy drain away. When she wakes up again, it's because the car door is being opened for her, and Todoroki-san is shaking her. She hums in protest, but stumbles out of the car obediently. She passes through the mudroom in a haze, barely registering Endeavor's aggrieved noise when he realizes she hasn't been wearing shoes the whole night.

"Sorry," Toph mutters blearily, suddenly finding herself sinking into a futon. "Don't like shoes."

Todoroki-san is at the threshold of the room, grumbling. "Yeah, yeah. Welcome home."


A/N: This brings an end to the interlude, Seasonals. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Four seasons and a world of change. Four seasons, and four kinds of love. The Todorokis, Inasa, Shinsou, and the Izumis. They're all kind of mixed together throughout the chapters, but they were important moments for me to write. I hope you've enjoyed them.

And I know this is pretty out of character for Endeavor, but hopefully you've understood the trajectory he's on in this story by now. Maybe it's not realistic, but I'm going with what seems right to me from my own knowledge. In the end this is all fictional, though.

If you recognized the Water Hose team, then you knew this would eventually come up. I'm sorry, but this was one of the events I planned from the start.

On a lighter note, the next chapter we will finally, FINALLY, move onto UA. Specifically the entrance exam. Godspeed, Aizawa.