Chapter 13: All Together Now

Yagi Toshinori smiled good-naturedly and a little nervously at the assembled throng of heroes. He knew that them all being together at the same time strained their personal schedules and complicated their obligations. He didn't want to make the meeting take any longer than necessary, but if he was going to enter the next phase of the program it was needed.

Each hero councilor had brought their charge, and the air was practically brimming with bad blood. Toga and Tenko were kept away from each other and him, but each glared daggers at Kai Chisaki and he repaid the animosity in kind with his own spiteful gaze. Shuichi looked nervous, and kept looking at Chisaki as well, but at least his gaze wasn't angry like the others.

Cementoss, Shuichi's designated hero guardian, sat next to the scaled young man with his arms crossed over himself, calmly making certain that the inmates did not yet interact, as it was too early for that to happen just yet.

Aizawa stood over Chisaki's shoulder, his stern countenance doing much to ensure that none of them acted up despite the clear disdain in their faces.

Vlad sat next to Toga, and surprisingly, his quietly whispered words to Toga seemed to mollify the blonde enough to get her to sit back and simply watch with interest rather than anger.

Toshinori let out a sigh of relief; he didn't know what Vlad said, but he was glad that she actually listened to him! Toga was a firecracker from what he had read of her report, and he'd worried about what she might try to do.

Just then, the door to the room they had all assembled in opened and Bubaigawara Jin and Midnight strode into the room. At only a glance, Toshinori groaned at the sight of them. Jin was wearing a mouthless latex mask that was clearly designed for BDSM use, and the manner that he kowtowed to her couldn't be proper.

Toshinori wasn't the only one that noticed the behavior and reacted negatively; Aizawa could be heard grunting in displeasure, and Vlad frowned at Kayama. The big man whispered at her as she sat next to him, "What in the world have you been doing with your inmate? You haven't been doing anything... inappropriate have you?"

Toga was giggling up a fit at the sight of him, Jin waving at her innocently as her laughing spell threatened to cause her to fall out of her seat. Chisaki only stared incredulously while Tenko and Shuichi also quietly laughed. All-Might watched their reactions and sighed again from where he stood at the front of the room.

At least they weren't focused on each other anymore. He waited as Midnight replied to Vlad, giving the big man a warm smile, "Why, are you jealous? We've been talking a lot, me and this sweet boy Jin, and having a mask on makes him feel more comfortable."

Toshinori could practically read Vlad's mind as the dark-haired man lifted an eyebrow in response to her reply. His face said, 'Did it have to be that kind of mask?' But clearly the pro hero had spent enough time around Nemuri to know better than bother asking such a question, so the big man simply sat back in his seat, shaking his head.

Deciding that was enough distraction, both wanted and not wanted, Toshinori cleared his throat and smiled nervously at those assembled again, "Welcome everyone and thank you for giving me some of your time today. I know we have a lot to do so I will get straight to the point of this meeting; each of you has been told that you will be attending school here."

While each of them knew they were going to start taking lessons at U.A., from their blinking stares Toshinori could tell immediately that they had never imagined taking those lessons together.

Chisaki raised an eyebrow, "Aren't Twice and Shigaraki too old for High School?"

Tenko raised a middle finger for Kai's benefit, "What... you think just because you look young, I don't know you're a middle-aged loser? What's your reason for going back to school, genius?"

Kai crossed his arms over his chest and gave Tenko a level glare, "I'm not actually attending for academic lessons."

This caused almost everyone in the room to balk, as only Toshinori and Aizawa had known that part before the meeting started.

His voice strained with outrage, Tenko leaned forward, "You mean you're training to be a fucking hero?!"

This was going to get further out of hand if something didn't happen to interrupt it, so Toshinori raised his voice, his blue eyes locked on first Tenko and then Chisaki before also passing over the other would-be entrants to U.A. His glare spoke of the powerful personality that he could still yet exude despite his diminished form.

With the sound of his admonishing tone and his gaze alone he silenced the room, only his own baritone voice filling the small meeting hall, "Let's stay in control of our emotions and remember that everyone here is equally confined to penitence under this social reform program! As to your question, young Shimura, he is going to be aiding the staff by working with Recovery Girl."

"His quirk is unique in its potential to revolutionize the medical industry, so Kai Chisaki is going to spend his time in community service advancing techniques that might aid us both in healing damage done by specific quirks and in understanding the biological effects of some of the less understood and rare powers out there."

Turning to Chisaki, Toshinori continued, "As to Bubaigawara and Shimura; they are both going to finish and refresh their general educations and then decide where to go from there. Please remember everyone that this program is designed to give you all a second chance at becoming lawful, respected members of the community, and there is no age cap on that."

Jin rocked in his seat a little bit, surprise evident in his muffled voice, "Wait... I'm going back to school?"

Midnight smiled at him, "It will be a grant chance to start over, dear."

The black masked man scratched at the latex on his face, "But I already graduated High School! Used to work as a mechanic back when I was doing things legit you know... I can't go back to school, school sucked! I could get another chance at Homecoming King!"

Toshinori's hand went to his face and Aizawa sighed. From her side Vlad asked her, "Did you really not talk to him about this when we agreed to do so last week?"

Cementoss shook his head, his rocky visage bearing an expression of exasperation that was plain even on his somewhat alien features.

Nemuri kept her smile, though, addressing Vlad before turning to regard Jin, "I thought I would let the plan be a pleasant surprise... you want to go to school, don't you, sweetness? It would make me very happy."

Jin practically melted when she set her hand on his shoulder, and it was clear to everyone by how he was fawning over her that he wasn't about to say no, "I'm my own man! Please allow me to gently kiss your boots again Mistress!"

Seeing that things were getting too out of hand again, Yoshinori cleared his throat loudly for the second time. Once the room was looking his way again, he started talking about their next steps, while hoping that Kayama would have more sense than to allow her charge do such a thing. Still... this was Nemuri he was thinking of.

"Now that we have all become aware that we'll sometimes be sharing the same room, I hope that we can avoid outbursts or unruly conduct in the future, as such can jeopardize each of your positions in the program. I am certain no one here wishes to lose out on this opportunity, so let's keep that in our minds moving forwards."

Himiko Toga peered at the door to the room and questioned quietly, a neutral expression on her face, "Where are Dabi and Mr. Compress? Since you have the rest of the League here, I thought maybe you'd go for the full set..."

Tenko snarled, "After that loser left you all hanging out to dry, you still want to see his extra-crispy mug?"

Shuichi spoke up, "I think he might actually be dead... I was still conscious after he tried that kamikaze attack, and the way that he was smoldering afterward didn't bode well for his chances of having survived it."

Trying to decide how much he should tell the inmates without leaving them so far in the dark that they became more agitated, but also not sharing too much, as the Principal and the police had warned him against giving too many details, Toshinori pursed his lips, "Mr. Compress is not a part of this program, and the man you know as Dabi will not be joining us."

They didn't have Atsuhiro Sako in custody, so of course he wasn't in the program, but they didn't need to know that their villain companion was still at large. The showman of the League had simply vanished by all accounts as far as the police were concerned. As far as 'Dabi' was concerned, Toshinori figured telling them more was fine.

After all, Kai Chisaki had personally been a witness to what he would say, so they would all be able to find out anyways since they would be spending time together as classmates. "The latter was healed in part by our own Recovery Girl and also greatly restored due to the efforts of Kai Chisaki here."

Tenko's faced screwed up on hearing about Chisaki's role in Dabi's recovery, "What...?! You actually healed that loser?" At first, he seemed only angry, but then mirth interspersed itself with his angst, "You know, that guy was laughing along with us when we took your arms, you twat! What do these stiffs have over you to make you help that guy?!"

Chisaki only glared at Tenko in response, and Toshinori could tell that the enmity between them was going to continue to be an issue.

Fortunately, he didn't have to say anything to break the tension, since Toga spoke up first, "Well... for what it's worth, I'm not unhappy that he lived through that..."

Shuichi nodded, agreeing with her, "Yeah. I mean, he was a jackass, but I'd prefer he was alive so I can ask him what the hell he was thinking burning us like that."

Clearly Tenko did not appreciate his comrade's defense of Dabi, but neither did he argue with them, simply crossing his arms with a pout on his face as he brooded.

Toshinori shared a look with Aizawa, Nemuri, Vlad and Cementoss, all of them exchanging the fact that they were aware of the problems their new task was going to encompass without need for words. Toshinori held his head high, though; despite the difficulties of the conflicting personalities in the room, he could imagine things being worse.

With a large smile meant to encourage confidence in the youths before him, Yagi pumped a fist in the air, "Well then, it looks like you are all ready to take the next step in your respective programs! Let's look forward to tomorrow, and build a brighter future together!"

.*.

Despite how it had at first seemed, Toya didn't stay in a state of shock forever, no matter how many times his stunned mind had claimed that his reality must have fallen into some sort of surreal dream. Or, considering the fact that Enji was there, maybe a terrible nightmare, especially since his father wasn't acting anything like he remembered him.

As he sat in his room, Toya corrected his own thoughts. No, that wasn't entirely true. His father was just as brooding and quiet as he had been before, it was just that when he spoke, he took great pains not to sound harsh or condescending. It was clearly an effort for the large hero, since he had spent most of his life holding others mercilessly to his high standards.

Still, he did not fall back to aggression or annoyance nearly as much as Toya would have expected; clearly Endeavor had been working hard to change his ways for a while even before Toya had ended up back within the Todoroki home.

It wasn't just Enji that had changed, either. The last time Toya had gone to check on his mother at the clinic where she had been hospitalized, the doctors had told him that she was withdrawn, unresponsive, and no longer sought out human companionship. Now she was a bustling center of energy, constantly talking to the others and him at mealtimes.

During much of the day she would tend a garden that their father had set up, carefully making certain that the flowers there were well maintained and spending much of the rest of the time sitting peacefully amid them deep in thought. She was just as reflective and reserved in this way as he'd remembered her, but in the evening, she underwent a transformation.

While preparing dinner and enjoying a meal with her family all gathered, she spoke more with everyone than she ever had in the days when Toya had been a child. The doctors back at her hospital were clearly mistaken, or else something profound must have happened to make her suddenly begin reaching out the way she did.

He had never let her know he had visited back then. He didn't want her to see his scars, and he didn't know what to say if she did react to him. When he had stolen a peek at her through the door of her room, she had just been sitting quietly at the window gazing out, and seeing her expressionless face had made him certain she was just as far gone as he had been told.

Of course, in retrospect, he might have been afraid to see her. Whether she reacted to his presence or not, either way he wasn't ready to face her. Not after everything that had happened. He hadn't been able to decide if he hated her or not... but if she had simply ignored him, after the loneliness he had felt ever since the hill, he just couldn't bear the thought.

This stray thought led him to think about that haunting feeling of being so utterly alone. Even when he had been with the others in the League, he had felt so by himself, an outcast and loner. Only after his completely failed staged suicide did he remember what he had done and had the presence of mind to feel ashamed of it.

Before he had lost consciousness back in that bank, he had seen the look on Toga's face as his flames had burned her. It took him a while as he lay on that hospital bed thinking in a slurred, drugged fashion, but eventually he had come upon one of the reasons his own fires had not killed him. If he had truly burned his hottest as he had planned...

The cement of the floor would have melted and his body would have charred to nothingness, ash on the wind. Recovery Girl would not have been able to save him, except that at that last moment he had pulled back. He abandoned his grand scheme to make a martyr torch of himself at the last possible moment on reflex alone.

Because he was hurting his friends. Instinctually he knew what those people were to him even if his waking mind claimed them to be nothing more than acquaintances and disposable pawns in his game against his father. Unbidden he remembered a number of small moments he had spent with those people and he finally understood.

He hadn't been alone, regardless of how he might have felt about it. Not only had he been in the company of others, but those dark souls had many of the same issues that he did, with past experiences that should have helped him realize how close they really were. He had always been so focused on his own problems, though.

Selfish, that was what he had been. He would understand if Toga, Shuichi and Jin never forgave him. By now they must have realized his betrayal. Even if not, they would regard his as a failure and a fool at best. Then there was Shigaraki. That man had irritated him from the start, and been such a world class tool from the beginning.

But did that justify abandoning him the moment he no longer seemed useful? They might have gotten off to a rough start, but the angsty freak and he had actually just started getting along, and Toya could feel that some of the still waters below the surface in that man shared traits with his own. He had never bothered to find out, though.

Toya glanced around his room. It was rather bare. All of the old things that had populated his room when he was a child had been removed. His parents had thought that he was dead, after all, so keeping the posters on his wall and other small memorabilia would only have served as sad and painful reminders.

For memory's sake they had erected a shrine on one end of the home with his photo as was customary, and his mother told him that his father often visited it. It was still there, of course, which was a little weird and uncomfortable for Toya. Clearly, they had forgotten it for the time being, or perhaps taking it down didn't seem like an urgent matter.

It ruffled him to no end to hear that his father spent so much time sitting in front of his likeness, offering quiet apology when the man had never once spoken a word of such to his face before the incident. It was just like Todoroki Enji to do such a thing without words. Toya huffed; as usual with him, way too little way too late...

Even this irritation didn't last. Thinking of his father made him think on how his old man looked every time Toya saw him recently. Enji's face had... softened. He still remained quiet and reserved, but the big man's thick brow was no longer hardened into a glare when he looked at his son, his square jaw no longer set into a permanent frown.

His face was still a little hard to read, but the stoic demeanor that Todoroki Enji gave off was suddenly more compassionate lately, more like the look that his mother had always given him. Ever since he had returned to the family, Toya no longer saw the man he had once known as Endeavor, his hard-ass father whom had pushed him so very far.

It was like that man had died, and wasn't there for him to hate anymore.

Toya sighed and stood up from the simple office chair that served as the one seat in his room, looking to the door and knowing that he couldn't just sit around in his room avoiding his life forever. At some point he was going to have to start living again, even if he was still clueless about what exactly he was going to do with himself.

His family had imploded and bad things had happened, and he had spent his entire life centered on that pain and needing to correct it, even if vengeance and more pain wasn't actually going to fix anything. But now it was as if all of that had been erased as if it had never been. His family was whole and oddly functional.

Even his disfiguring scars were gone. Hell, he might even manage to get laid, now... It was as if someone had suddenly hit a restart button, or gone back to an old save file and made better choices to get to a more workable present in the video game that was his life.

His quirk still represented something of a threat, but there were always at least two ice quirk wielders nearby in case he suddenly lost control, so despite his initial fears concerning that bit of trauma, he was all but assured that wouldn't be an issue anymore, which of course did much to ensure that it didn't since he was now calm about it.

Rei checked on him rather often, so much so that he would be annoyed if it wasn't for the fact that he secretly ate up her attention. He had resented his mother once, and thought her weak. What a fool he had been, still working under the erroneous presumptions of what strength was. His father had been partly at fault for that, of course.

She was strong where it mattered, and if they had realized how hard she had been working for them all earlier, if even one of them beyond Fuyumi had helped her in being the quiet pillar of compassion that the family needed, she probably wouldn't have snapped under the weight of the load she had borne.

He stood in front of his door, wondering if he was going to hesitate there long enough to end up encountering her when she next came to visit. He wasn't sure where to go, after all. With a world so suddenly full of choices, he was consternated what direction to take. Of course, there were limitations that would narrow his selection considerably.

For instance, he couldn't leave the house as far as he knew, though he hadn't actually asked about it he was fairly certain that 'house arrest' meant he couldn't go out. Then there was the conversation early on when his parents had spelled something out that they had been dwelling on for many years.

Back when he was young, they had not approached the matter well at all, but this time around they kindly but firmly told him that he was never again allowed to use his powers. He was even told that he could not become a hero... as if he still wanted to do that! It was funny, though... when they told him that, he had felt strangely sad.

As could be expected, his door suddenly opened, Todoroki Rei giving a surprised little noise as she suddenly found that Toya was already standing right in front of the door to his room. Her expression quickly shifted to a small smile and she nodded to him, "I see you are already ready to get out and get some fresh air!"

She moved in and took him by the arm, her gentle hands wrapping his arm as she gave him a mild tug towards the hallway beyond his room, "I was just coming to suggest that you come to the courtyard garden with me for a little while and feel the wind on your face. It is a little cold this time of year, but the sun shines brightly today, and it feels nice."

He went along with her as she pulled him after her, as he always did lately, though with less absent-minded remoteness than usual as to what was happening this time. This time he was far more in the moment, finally coming to terms with his new reality, and as he watched his mother's beaming smile as she saw he was present, finally starting to embrace it.

Toya might never be able to fully acclimate to all of these changes, but if he was really getting a chance to redo everything... well, the only reason it had all hurt so much was because this was all he ever wanted, right?

He had been unable to decide what to do with himself, frozen in a sort of decision paralysis back in his room, but when his mother bade him to sit next to her and watch the small coy pond and the plants that gently swayed in the afternoon breeze, he realized that he didn't have to decide alone anymore. Mastering his nervous heart, he finally bade himself to speak.

"Mother... what am I going to do now?"