Chapter 8: Friends in Low Places
Tenko gloomily watched as the door opened to his apartment. He had stopped thinking of it as a cell, since the place was just too accommodating and luxurious to consider it as such, even if he was being made to stay there against his will. No amount of angst could hide the fact that the people keeping him were really pampering him.
He wondered if everyone else in the building was being treated the same way. Which of course led him to wonder whom else was in the building...
His musings received an unexpected answer when someone other than one of his therapists or All-Might walked in. Shimura perked up, his eyes widening in surprise, "Shuichi?"
Noting Tenko where he sat upon the couch in the living space, the scaled youth dipped his head at his old acquaintance, "Uh... hi."
Toshinori walked in behind Iguchi, closing the door and giving Tenko a polite wave, "Due to good behavior on both of your parts, the board has allowed for you to socialize as long as you can promise to stay civil."
Shimura glared at Shuichi, as the other youth kept his eyes on the floor, kneading his clawed hands against each other nervously. After a moment Tenko tsked, "What... did you actually ask to see me, after having the balls to walk out on me because I was no longer in the cool club?"
All-Might handed a small box that he had carried in to Shuichi after the awkward silence that followed had stretched out for a minute, turning to head to the kitchen, "I'll get something together for lunch and leave you two to it."
After Toshinori left the living space, Iguchi took a tentative step forward, lifting the box a little as he spoke, "T-they let me play games on the T.V. in my living room. I-I was told you didn't have a gaming machine in your room yet, so I th-thought..."
Tenko scowled, watching as the nervous lizard boy choked up, rolling his eyes and letting out an annoyed sigh, "You have some nerve, but I guess I never really blamed you... you never wanted to be on my bandwagon from the start, did you?"
Shuichi nodded shyly, then finally made eye contact with the other youth, "For what it's worth, I didn't want things to go the way they did. I was trying to find a friendlier way to part ways before that happened. I mean, it wasn't like I didn't enjoy any of our time together..."
Nodding, Shimura relaxed back into his couch as he gestured at the television, "Yeah... you were the only one who likes the older JRPGs as much as I do. Go ahead and hook it up; it's been incredibly boring around here so I'm not about to turn you away, even if you are a rotten dirt-bag traitor."
Iguchi smiled, his sharp teeth on display as he quickly moved to the entertainment console to hook up the machines they had brought. He had been worried that Tenko would turn him away, almost certain of it, in fact, and only desperation to maintain one of the few connections he had ever made had motivated him to do something so likely to end in failure.
As he sat on the couch and handed Tenko a remote, though, he settled back into a familiar comradery that made him glad that he had risked rejection.
Behind them in the adjoining kitchen Toshinori stopped making bento boxes long enough to lean into the counter and watch them talk quietly about the game they were playing, both of them having a lot of intuitive input about their favorite subject. He smiled; this was definitely something Tenko needed.
While the two tapped the buttons of their controllers Shimura glanced sideways at Shuichi, changing the topic from the game they were playing to other matters, "I'm curious how you ended up here. With me, I got nabbed right away with no quirk and no back-up, but I didn't expect to see you taken in so soon... are the others also caught?"
Iguchi growled irritably, "Yeah, we all got busted because Dabi thought it would be a great idea to fight fire with fire when we all had our back to the wall. Maybe if Mr. Compress had still been with us, we might have made it out, but as things went, he basically iced himself and left us hanging in front of like five of the top pro heroes."
Laughing, Tenko put a hand to his face for a moment, and Shuichi continued griping, still obviously annoyed over the incident, "I mean, it's one thing if he simply failed to have an exit plan for when we got trapped like that, but I got the impression he never gave two shits if we got out, and I'm inclined to think that he only arranged a heist like that to get those heroes there to begin with..."
"So, he wasn't even trying to get you the cash you needed from the start? I knew that guy was untrustworthy... why did he want heroes to show up?" Tenko raised a puzzled eyebrow as his hands deftly performed a seventeen hit combo that left Shuichi cursing his loss.
Mourning his loss grumpily, the lizard-faced youth shrugged, "I didn't catch all of it, but looks like he just wanted to do some fucking grand-standing and brag on how he's actually Endeavor's kid, I think to get back at his old man. Sure left us on the ropes, though, especially because he basically kicked his own ass afterwards..."
Letting out another chuckle Tenko shook his head, "Well if he's Endeavor's kid then we know where he got the asshole gene from." A shadow passed over the gray-haired boy's eyes for a moment as he slouched into the couch, "Can't believe you guys quit me just to go and follow that prick."
Shuichi sighed, "Well... they say hind-sight is twenty-twenty. Honestly, I had misgivings about Dabi since the first time I met him, and that didn't change when we split up..." The reptilian youth dropped his hands, no longer as concerned with manipulating his controller to win their game, "...I guess I just didn't want to lose the only friends I had."
Tenko also went quiet, and silence reigned for a bit before he finally responded, "You know, I never would have let you down like that."
Iguchi nodded, too choked up to answer. He had made the wrong choice, and surely Shimura had felt the way he did when they had all turned their backs on him. If anything, Shuichi reasoned that he probably deserved to feel the way he did.
A wide smile crossed Tenko's face, "Stop being such a baby. I'm not that delicate; you're an asshole, but we're still friends. I've never tried to tell you lot what to do, and I'm not about to start now."
Shuichi looked up at him open-mouthed, and then smiled, turning his attention back to the game, "Yeah... you're good like that."
Some more silence passed between them, and Tenko couldn't help but ask, "So are the rest of the League here too then, or were they shipped off to Tartarus? I mean, your quirk is kind of weak and you aren't very dangerous without your sword, so..."
"H-hey!" Iguchi glanced over to glare at Shimura, but ended up blowing out an exasperated sigh in defeat; after all, it wasn't untrue. Of all of the members of the League, he had always felt himself to be the most useless, and had to work extra hard to make himself feel like he was actually a valuable or at least contributing member.
He shrugged as he thought on the question, "You know as much as I do; you're the only other person I've seen other than my councilors and All-Might, assuming we aren't counting the cops and such that delivered me here. I sure was surprised to find myself shipped to U.A. of all places, but I guess it makes sense with the crazy security they have here."
Tenko nodded, "Plus all of the heroes that act as trainers, not to mention a slew of up-and-coming hero wannabes. This place is crawling with layers of annoyance without even considering the walls and regular guards that our building boasts."
Leaning back on the couch to look over at the kitchen, Shimura shouted at Toshinori, whom still busied himself with lunch, but whom Tenko was fairly certain would be eavesdropping on his chat with Shuichi. "Are any more of us in this building old man? Himiko and Jin's quirks are pretty easy to contain, right? Will they get to visit too?"
As the retired hero brought their lunches to the living room and placed the boxes he had prepared on the coffee table in front of them, he ran a hand through his long blonde hair, "Well... I'm not sure actually how much I'm supposed to tell you concerning that, but I will tell you a few things that should be fine as common knowledge."
"Firstly, before anyone is inducted into this program they have to be selected to be here by our profilers, based on a lot of things from their criminal history to how likely our psych people think they are to actually turn over a new leaf. Secondly, they have to be assigned a hero to act as their mentor of sorts, likely someone whom can handle their quirk."
All-Might glanced at each of them as they paused their game and actually gave him their attention. His heart swelled to see how focused they were on what he was saying. It was obvious; they missed their friends. "Lastly, of course, even if hypothetically all of that had been arranged, you can only visit each other after proving yourselves capable of good behavior."
As an after-thought he waved a hand in annoyed remembrance of red tape, "Oh yeah and there is a bunch of bureaucracy in there, with the Principal, the school board, the city council and the police having to agree to the transfer. That alone is an enormous and completely unpredictable mess, to say the least."
Tenko gave him a flat look as he scooped up his box and starting eating it, rudely speaking while chewing his food, "Can't you just tell us if they are here? It's not like we're going to come together like Voltron and bust out of this place."
Shuichi snickered, wondering which part of the giant robot he would be.
Toshinori simply shook his head, "Nope, sorry." The former hero munched on his own box of food, which he kept on his lap as he ate.
Seeing that he wasn't going to get an answer out of All-Might, Shimura sighed and rolled his eyes at Toshinori's unwillingness to tell him. He returned his gaze to the television in front of them and pondered as he tapped away at his controller, "What about Dabi? You said he kicked his own ass... where is that loser?"
.*.
Dabi blinked, a fuzzy feeling in his head as is eyes struggled to become less blurry. He gasped in pain and though he couldn't see her well at first, he knew the person whom sat next to him and reached out to tenderly squeeze his arm was his mother, even before his eyes finally brought things into focus. Deep aches and fiery stings assailed him immediately.
Rei looked worried as she looked him over, watching his face, "Toya is in pain."
Across the room Natsuo stood immediately, nodding as he did so, "I'll let the nurse know."
His younger brother pushed aside a curtain and then left the area that they were in, leaving Dabi alone with Todoroki Rei. She reached up and pushed a sweaty lock of hair away from his eyes, and Toya realized that he was covered in his own sweat, which was really bad, because most of the sweat glands in his body were damaged.
That meant that to be sweating so profusely he must be all kinds of feverish. Either that, or his quirk was getting out of hand and heating him up... a pang of fear shot through him that he hadn't felt in some time. It had been some while since Toya had lost control of his own powers up on that hill, his raging emotions setting his inner blaze out of control.
It had nearly killed him, scarring and disfiguring him for life as his own ability got out of hand and he learned exactly what his limits truly were. Since then, he had used his powers knowing exactly where the line was, and feeling that he was already practically ruined, he hadn't been too afraid of burning up again.
You had to care about your own life to be afraid to die, after all. This attitude had made certain he stayed calm, in an ironic twist. He suddenly had perfect control, and his inner fire only raged powerfully enough to destroy him when he chose for it to do so, during his final confrontation with Todoroki Enji. Or at least, it was supposed to be final...
Except he had survived his own attempt to go out in a blaze of glory, and now he lay dying on a hospital bed, suddenly afraid to die. Because this wasn't how it was supposed to happen. This was no glorious revenge or statement that needed to be made to his father and the world. This was him winking out like a fading ember while his mother cried over him.
Learning how much his family had come together and seeing how deeply they cared for him despite everything made him unable to accept such a meaningless, pathetic death. So, he was afraid, because of the pain of his failing organs and busted insides, because of the looks the doctors and nurses gave him, as well as the sympathy in the faces of his family.
Even if he survived what he had done to himself, he would always be an object worthy only of pity... panic was building in him, and he knew it was because the drugs had largely worn off. For the first time in days, he was mostly lucid, which meant he finally understood the gravity of his position. So, he feared what came next, and the fear itself was scary.
Because with fear, there was no control. Toya screamed with alarm as his body started to burn from within.
His eyes widened as his terror made itself manifest; he was going to erupt into an inferno again! Except this time, he was too weak to survive it, this time his quirk would blaze until it consumed him, ending the sad chapter that had been his miserable life! He would become a blackened husk on that hospital bed, and...
Toya blinked, watching as his panicked breaths coalesced into clouds of white vapor just in front of his face. At the same time, he felt a cool sensation spread through his body, and he glanced down to see frost gathering on his hospital gown and the bed as that balm settled over his ravaged form and soothed his wounds.
The building pyre without him was brought to a halt, and his other pains were also becoming mercifully numb, though his teeth started to chatter. Rei squeezed his arm a little, concern still plastered on her face as she gave him a small, worried smile of reassurance, "Don't worry; I'm here to keep your temperature in check..."
She brought a hand up to his forehead and gently placed her wrist there, likely to get an idea of what his body heat was like under the influence of her ice quirk. Toya stared at her in surprise; though he had known she had it, he had never seen his mother use her powers before in all the years he had known her.
"Is it too cold?" She asked, her brow knitting in worry, "I want to ease your pain, but it isn't safe to bring you down too far. This is an extreme measure, and the doctors are probably going to want to use drugs to get you stable instead..."
He shook his head, "It's... it's fine. Is this why...?" Glancing around the room, he saw that Fuyumi had left, but he knew that Natsuo was still present, having seen his brother when he'd first awoken.
Seeming to understand what he was thinking without hearing the rest of his question, Rei nodded, "Me, Fuyumi, Natsuo and Shoto are going to be around a lot in the coming days, to make sure that you always have someone with an ice quirk to help you."
Gritting his teeth, Toya hissed, "To suppress me, you mean... wouldn't want me using my flames to escape, right?"
Shaking her head, Rei gave him a stern look, "I'm far more concerned with you using your powers to harm yourself; you have a very poor track record of handling that quirk safely, Toya."
He flinched, looking away from her steady grey eyes as she continued to stare. How much different would things have been if she had been present when he'd lost control all of those years ago?
As he lay upon his bed considering this, a nurse hurried in with Natsuo on her heels. She checked the machines attached to him and read the chart at the foot of his bed, then adjusted the I.V. that was stationed at his right arm. A cool, numbing sensation spread through his body that was even deeper and more impactful than his mother's ice powers.
The nurse nodded to him, "That should help you stay comfortable." She glanced over to Natsuo and Rei, "Let me know if he starts to feel pain again; the machines will automatically ease up on his dosage when he is sleeping to allow his body to rest naturally and to avoid having him build up too much of a resistance to the medication."
They in turn nodded to the nurse and she went on her way, Toya feeling suddenly tired again and realizing that it was probably the morphine coursing through his veins once more. He shook his head, not yet ready to fall back asleep. He focused, wanting to speak to them before his head could become too clouded to talk.
"How long do you plan to keep this up? Has the doctor told you if my injuries are even going to heal at this rate?" He chuckled morosely, "You are keeping a vigil over a man whom is practically already dead. What's the point? I betrayed all of you."
His mother kept her hand upon him and Natsuo was the one to respond, giving Toya a hard look, "Until recently I was convinced that hating father was appropriate after all that he did to us..." The white-haired youth sat heavily in a nearby chair with a sigh, "But if I was to follow that philosophy, I would have to hate you, too, and that's where I saw my problem."
"I know for a fact that you did what you did out of pain, and because we failed you. It made me realize that while what you did isn't necessarily excusable, I can at least understand you. With that done, it is no longer possible to hate you, especially since I could have helped you back then. Since I could have done something to aid in avoiding this."
Todoroki Rei leaned forward and brushed the unruly mop of hair from Toya's face again, her smile still as warm as it had been before, "We aren't about to give up on you, Toya. Right now, your father is researching the best physicians in the world in search of someone that can help you recover from your injuries."
Toya hissed, "I don't want his help!" He wanted to push her hand away, but his wrists were bound to the bed, so he turned his head away from her as his only act of rebellion, huffing, "I could feel how deeply I am burned this time; I was trying to die... why can't you all have just let me die! Why are you still trying to save me?!"
His voice cracked and the room was filled with silence again. Despite his rampant emotion, the effects of the powerful drug running through his system was overwhelming Toya with a sense of exhaustion that was likely aided by the damage his body was still attempting to heal. His eyes drooped, and despite himself he couldn't get them to open again.
Natsuo watched him quietly as his mother continued to affectionately brush at his hair and apply her tender touch to his face in a calming fashion. They didn't answer him in words, but his brother's face and his mother's touch told him the answer to his question, though he had already known it even before asking.
Because they were family. He had assumed at some point in his youth that his father would lose all love for him if he failed to carry on the Todoroki name as a powerful hero like Enji himself, that Endeavor would ignore his very existence just like he had the others if he failed to measure up. That Todoroki Shoto would replace him in his father's eyes.
Rei had no reason to lie to him. If she said that Endeavor was working on his behalf then that meant his father had not only remembered him, but worked to keep him. A single bloody tear slipped from Toya's eye as he closed it. After all that he had done, he had thought that with his father's disposition, that Enji would kill him if properly provoked.
It appeared that he did not know his family at all. None of them were acting the way he had imagined they would, and now he had to wonder exactly how much of what he had imagined was reality as he drifted off to dreamless slumber.