Fathers
Masaru stared up at the ceiling. Mitsuki wasn't beside him. His child wasn't in his room. And the poor child who had replaced him was… damaged. He never would have thought to use the word to describe a child before, but the boy was so angry, so full of hate. He was lashing out at them at every opportunity, physically, verbally or even with his quirk. He was the main target, but only because Mitsuki wasn't there. She was there physically, but was so far, far away. The spark inside her had guttered out; leaving her in a malaise, waiting for a call that he desperately hoped would come.
Saying he was much better would have been a lie, but someone needed to function, even if it was for a child who openly despised the very air they breathed. The settlement from the hospital, a ludicrous sum that matched the one Endeavor had extricated from them, at least took care of their finances. Everything else though, was a struggle. Cooking and cleaning came naturally to him, just another one of the things his son took umbrage with. He took the boy to school and picked him up, and found another school when the first one said they could no longer handle him. He would likely have to look again soon. The guidance counselor was already recommending medications, not that he believed he would ever be able to get the boy to take them.
The only thing that seemed to calm the boy was news about his father. Not Masaru obviously, but the hero Endeavor. The boy devoured anything and everything about the man who had cast him aside. Masaru was not a drinker, but he was at least familiar with the concept of counter drinking. It was just drinking poison to delay the effects of poison. It made everything worse, but he couldn't think of anything else to do.
What sort of man could Endeavor be if this was the son he raised?
Endeavor stewed, unable to sleep. All the child knew was how to cry. After all the effort he had expended, all the time he had spent, the arrangements made, the resources he had expended, he had finally achieved his goal. He had created his successor, his masterpiece. He had created something that would one day be the number one hero. And then because of utter incompetence it had all been pissed away.
The civilians who had raised the boy until now had ruined him, leaving him as weak like his mother. It would take years to undo the damage they had inflicted upon his creation, years that would have been better spent training him to become the number one hero. He would have to wear down their influence, burn away the imperfections they had instilled in him. The boy would have to forget them; he would leave no residue to reinfect him.
The look the boy gave him during training sickened him. He had flinched when Endeavor lit up his flames. He refused to release either fire or ice, stammering out that he wasn't supposed to, not inside. He needed to learn his place, he was not to speak back to his father, he was to do what he was told. And yet still he tried to defy him by stammering out that his 'mother', a woman who was nothing of the sort, had told him not to. His slap had sent the boy sprawling, and the look of terror on his face when he got to his knees made Endeavor's blood boil.
He would hear no more of the child's former family. He forbade the boy from speaking of them. His 'mom' and 'dad' were nothing now. They were not his parents and he would never hear from them again. He seized the boy when he began to cry and begged to go 'home'. That night he taught the boy the cost of defiance.
He would force the boy to forget them.
Author's note: Counter drinking is the Japanese term for drinking to cure a hangover (hair of the dog is the term I'd use). I tried to make it obvious, but just in case, now you know. I should mention that Masaru may have come across as… uncaring in chapter two, but that's not quite the case. He saw the writing on the wall and has tried to be there for Mitsuki and his son, and the 'son' that replaced his son. He still cares about the son he raised quite deeply. Todoroki Enji is just as bad, if not significantly worse, than he came across to the other characters. Funny how that works out.