Shouta's only barely gotten the Problem Child to eat - too skinny, he really wasn't eating! - when he gets a call.
"Aizawa." he answers, and it's the principal who replies.
"I'm sure you've heard the news? I'm surprised you're not here, I hear Todoroki-kun didn't have a good response to hearing about it through an online article..."
Shit.
Shouta didn't forget about Todoroki-kun, and he'd very nearly texted Hizashi to check on him, but then he started reading the report and-
He can't leave the Problem Child alone in his house - despite the kid's state, Shouta knows Uchiha won't be there when he returns if he does.
"I know. I meant to text Hizashi, but there were some pressing matters I had to attend." he glances at the Problem Child, who's staring at him with an intensity that makes Shouta think he can hear both sides of the conversation.
Problem for later.
He takes a breath - this is a little sooner than he meant, but he knew he couldn't hide this from Nedzu to begin with.
"I'd like to enroll a student in UA, starting next quarter. On recommendation," he finishes with a second glance at his Problem Child, now scowling with a glare that feels like it should be shooting lightning.
As expected, the principal puts it together immediately. "You- of course, I had wondered if Steampunk's profile of the vigilante was a little off, though I hadn't quite got that far- it was hardly a case I needed to be involved in, until Endeavor-san. Tell me, do you happen to have a copy of that report? My sources say the ones delivered to the police stations suffered a terrible case of mis-management and can tragically no longer be sourced…"
The Problem Child's face contorts with a fury that suddenly makes him look very much like the killer Shouta knows he is.
That's a yes on the hearing, then.
"I have a full copy. I'd bring it by, but…"
"No, no, stay where you are. I'll come collect it. I'll have to get some waivers and contracts signed before I can register any new students regardless - there are rules, Aizawa-san, I can't allow an active criminal into my school. It won't be a problem, will it?"
Shouta meets the Problem Child's eyes, one stubborn black-eyed gaze to another.
To his smug satisfaction, the Problem Child looks away first.
"I think that can be arranged."
"Then I'll come by shortly. And I'll send Mic over to your students and tell them… hmm… you were the original Hero on this case yes? I'll just tell them that you were called into the investigation again. Try not to make a liar out of me, hm?"
"Ye-"
Shouta groans as the principal hangs up, as uncaring of human manners as ever.
How frustrating.
"Keep eating, Problem Child. The principal's a menace, and I won't accept fainting as an excuse to get away from him." Uchiha scowls up at him but does, thankfully resume eating.
He never once breaks eye contact though, and Shouta curses his dry-eye when he finally has to be the first to blink, reaching for his eyedrops in irritation.
Damn Problem Children.
Uchiha eats much more smugly after that though, and at least that means he's still eating.
Shouta does, in fact, go to the police station he was working with before, leaving the Problem Child to the tender mercies of the rat.
"Oh! Eraserhead, we were just about to call you!" Officer Utani exclaims, visibly relieved. "I know originally Steampunk wanted to draw up his own profile entirely and didn't take some of your reports when he took over the case, but with how big this has suddenly gotten… did you bring them?"
"I don't have them anymore," Shouta lies, "but I did leave a copy with Misa-san, to be filed independently - surely you can access those?"
Officer Utani shakes his head. "No, unfortunately that's where we filed the vigi- well, villain's report - the entire room's been destroyed by the fire, and most of it hadn't been digitally backed up yet…"
Right. Well, no less than Shouta expected.
He tries not to bristle at the Problem Child being labelled a villain.
"Even though I don't have the original reports, I can try to rebuild them - it may take some time however, since it's one of my students who's been most affected by this, and I really need to be getting to the school…"
"Yes, we actually have his siblings here - there's been a bit of a development on that end, the specialist should be coming out shortly if you'd like to stick around and offer some insight? At this point, any hero willing to help is welcome. Guess it's true what they say, about vigilante escalation…"
"Specialist?" Shouta redirects, following the officer.
"Right, yes, we think the brother, Todoroki Natuso? Was brainwashed by the villain before the attack. He's in with a mind-quirk specialist now, to figure out how deep it goes. They should be about done."
Shouta raises an eyebrow, curious, but the officer doesn't elaborate, simply leading him to a closed door with a white-haired girl sitting outside it, and then walking away.
Well.
That raises the odds of the Problem Child's quirk being a mental one, though where the lightning fits in Shouta has no idea.
At this point it nearly feels like fate is laughing at him, shoving brainwashing-quirked children in desperate need of good homes at him.
He'll have to be careful about how he introduces Shinso and Uchiha.
Could be fun, though.
He sits on the chair next to the girl.
"Todoroki Fuyumi?" he asks gently. "I'm Pro Hero Eraserhead, I was working the vigilante case before Steampunk took over. I also teach your brother's homeroom. Could you tell me what happened? The officer only said he thought your brother had been brainwashed."
Todoroki-chan sniffles. "Shouto… he was so- I've never heard him cry like- is he okay?"
Shouta's never been great with crying people in general. "He'll be fine. Considering everything, I'm sure he just needs time."
Todoroki-chan wipes at her eyes. "I guess… It's just- so sudden! And he was getting better you know, I swear he was, he was actually trying a-and now-"
Shouta fights very hard not to say something caustic to a crying girl.
It'll only make the situation worse.
"I'm sorry for your loss," he offers in the end, as sincerely as he can manage.
"T-thank you… oh!" She shakes herself a little. "I'm sorry, you're trying t-to help with the investigation, uh. What did you want to know, E-eraserhead-san?"
Back to business then. Thank everything.
"Your brother, could you explain to me what happened?"
"Y-yeah. Natsu called me last night, h-he wanted me to sleep over - I still live at- at home, so…"
"So your brother asked you to spend the night, and that's suspicious?" Shouta asks, and Todoroki-chan laughs wetly.
"I guess. He was just- so excited, he had a bunch of plans, even- even talked about watching my soap operas with me, and Natsu hates my soap operas so- so I thought it was a little strange. And when I got there h-he wasn't… as excited as he'd been on the phone? He even seemed a little confused, but we still had my favorite take out, and we watched all the soap operas, and his roommate was gone all night… I thought maybe he'd just really missed me, until his roommate barged in the next morning asking if he'd seen the news… the first few reports listed me as missing, since the house was b-burned down, and I hadn't told anyone other than Father that I was spending the night at Natsu's…"
"So when you called the police to inform them you were alive, I suppose they asked you why you weren't home?"
Fuyumi nods. "Th-they were practically accusing me, l-like I'd burned down the house while Father was asleep and run away- I didn't even- I'd barely learned-! And Natsuo got angry and started snapping back at them and it just-"
"I'm sorry. They should have handled it better than that."
"Yeah, you'd think." Fuyumi scoffs drily, before hastily apologizing.
Shouta cuts her off. "It's fine. Your father's been murdered, you're allowed to be having a bad day. And they really should have handled it better. I'm glad to know that the brainwashing doesn't seem to have been anything severe. I was a bit worried when I first heard about it."
"You might be relaxing too soon, Hero-san." Shouta looks up at the new voice, meeting the gaze of a severe-looking older woman.
"The specialist, I presume?"
"Takata Himari, my quirk, Alteration, allows me to see when things have been changed from their original state by human interference. It's a skill I've learned to adapt to mental states for cases like these. And while it's a bit hard to tell with Todoroki-kun, I believe he was brainwashed twice within the span of a few days. The quirk is like nothing I've ever seen before, but if you've got some time, I can give you my full report now and write up a copy for the police after I'm back at my office."
Shouta nods, standing. "That would be appreciated, Takata-san."
Dabi clutches the papers with a grip just shy of smouldering. He doesn't regret stealing them from that pathetic police building, they'd have disappeared just like all the others eventually - he's lucky this one lasted so long, honestly.
He wants to burn it.
He wants to frame it.
The tiny part of him that's still Touya, that never quite left no matter how much he tried to burn it out, can't help but think someone finally noticed! Someone finally helped!
The rest of him wants to kill the little bastard who stole his kill-!
He's been building up to this. For so long.
He's had it all planned out, a big fight and a grand reveal once the cameras were close enough, the entire truth blown out on live news where they couldn't bury it if they tried-!
Now he's got a dead old man and a report that's already been disappeared everywhere it was delivered.
His fingers heat, and Dabi drops the papers with curse, backing off before he ignites them. They're still proof, even if it's not the proof he wanted, and he won't help the fucking heroes bury their skeletons.
He turns, taking a few more steps away from the report, to look at the other papers he snatched.
He practically stumbled on them while looking for Endeavor's file (and oh, the thrill of those words, Endeavor's file, like Dabi has a file, like a criminal has a file- even if it never would have lasted, they gave him a file which means at least one other person recognized the trash he was-), and it was more Eraserhead's name that made him grab them.
Handsy has a weird sort of fetish for that hero or something, Dabi's hardly cared to learn the details, but they were right there, and it's only after he got back to one of the league's little safe houses that he realized what he grabbed.
Eraserhead's reports on a vigilante killer who targeted child abusers.
Whether he burns the kill-stealing piece of shit to ash or not, Dabi hasn't quite decided, but at the very least he's gonna meet the guy.
And if handsy's to be believed, Eraserhead's nothing if not good at his job.
So he must have left something for Dabi to go off of.
And at the very least, Dabi wants a blow-by-blow account of exactly how his fucker of an old man died, since he's already lost the satisfaction of killing him himself.
Maybe he can steal the body, get the good doctor to build a shitty Noumu, just so Dabi can kill it again?
Hmm...
Something to consider, he decides, as he spreads out Eraserhead's reports and gets to work.
Endeavor's file lays sprawled across the ground, cast aside but not forgotten.
If anyone bothered to ask Dabi, he'd call it pretty fucking ironic.
No less than the fucker deserves, for certain.