XIII

The first thing she did was rush to hover over Toya's chest and check to see if he was alive. The slow fall and rise was barely enough to reassure her. She ran out of the room and went to Enji's bedroom. Once there, she stripped her brother's sheets off the gargantuan mattress and hurriedly wetted them in the shower. In her haste, she got herself wet. Though she could normally act calm under pressure, she trembled where she stood. Not yet. By sheer will, she held herself together. Once the blanket was wet, she rushed back to Toya's side and rang out the excess water onto the bloody footprint. "Toya," she spoke urgently. "Toya. Stay with me." Her hands shook as she wrapped his body in the protective cover.

Public transportation was out, so she'd need to use her quirk. Teiko carried Toya down the stairs and to the lawn. She used her terrakinesis to peel up a chunk of sod and use it as a sort of flying carpet. They traveled full speed to a hospital, with no need to slow for traffic or stop at traffic lights. Teiko moved quickly enough to avoid any hero interceptions. She rushed into the emergency room with Toya's faintly living body cradled in her arms. "I have a burn victim," she called. "At least thirty percent of his flesh is gone." She felt genuine fear for her nephew. At the moment, she didn't care about Enji's health, or the fact that she'd abandoned him at the house.

Staff removed the boy from her arms. She watched the staff cart her nephew away for treatment. It could have been seconds or hours later that her phone rang. She numbly answered without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"

The nanny, May, spoke. "Miss Teiko," she sounded hysterical. "I don't know where you are, but I think he's finally done it. I think Mister Enji killed one of his children. Please, hurry home!"

I can see how she thinks that… "I'm with Toya," she said gently to the older woman. "Don't let the kids go home. Take them to a hotel and tell them I have a surprise waiting. My wallet's in my room."

May sobbed some more. "T-Toya, thank goodness. Is he okay?"

Teiko settled for the truth the woman wanted to hear. "He's not dead yet," she said in a positive tone, while inwardly she cringed. "Toya's tough. Call me again when you have everyone at a hotel and let me know where to go." May agreed and hung up.

Hours later, Teiko was told that the bought she'd brought was going to need to stay in the hospital for a month for reconstruction and observation. She told them that she was his mother, and that his name was Dabi. In return, they told her that her son was lucky to be alive.

She was allowed to visit his bubble. Toya was quarantined to keep infection from hitting his open wounds. His pain tolerance would never be the same. Teiko privately thought it was good that he was an elemental user, as he'd never be adept at hand to hand combat after the accident. Through it all, she managed not to shed a single tear. When she saw her nephew, he lay with an oxygen mask over his face. His eyes were closed, but wrinkled with pain.

May called. "I'll be there in a few hours," Teiko promised. She warred over the possibility of lying to them. They were still kids. They've already seen hell. Is this really unexpected? She fought with rage of her own as she went back to her carpet of sod and rode it back to the house. She dropped in through the blast hole with a loud thump.

By some miracle, Enji was still out. May must not have checked the room, but jumped to conclusions because of the smell of ash and Toya's blatant disregard for school attendance. "Get up," Teiko growled. She nudged Enji with her foot, her brother groaned. "Get up!" Her voice rose louder.

His eyes slowly opened. He raised his hand to his head and rubbed where the projectile had hit him. "You bitch," he growled lowly. "You turned my own son against me."

There really wasn't anything more idiotic that he could've said. Teiko drew her leg back and smashed her toes into his gut. "Are you fucking kidding me?" Her voice was a harsh whisper. Enji doubled over and clutched his abdomen. "You pushed him over the brink, Enji! Not only did you drag him through Hell, but you just shoved him over the abyss!" She took a step back.

Enji took the sudden space as a sign that she was done. He shoved his way to his knees. Before he could even find his feet, Teiko punched him in the face. She was beyond the Todoroki Family Rules. In her own way, she'd snapped, too. Enji's neck flew to the left. "You destroyed my best friend." She covered her knuckles with stone and punched him again, this time in the chest. "You beat my nephews, and you get paid to beat people just because your society calls them villains." In that moment, she hated everything about him. He had to struggle to catch his breath.

Yet she couldn't stop seeing him as her brother. The hits she delivered had been the most severe in decades. "If you weren't my sister," he panted, "I'd fucking kill you." He glared at her with rage in his eyes.

"If you weren't my brother, they'd never find your body." She replied coldly. "May and I are with the kids. Clean up your mess, Hero." She said the term as a mockery. Thanks to the heat of Toya's flames, there was almost no rubble to the wreckage.

As soon as Fuyumi saw her aunt, she knew something was wrong. Normally, Teiko wore her long hair in a ponytail at the nape of her neck, not loose and windswept. Her aunt had contagious, calm eyes and an easy smile, not a haunted and pained expression. Her clothes were supposed to be neat and clean, but today they smelled like ash, had singes and scorch marks in abundance, and a plethora of stains in the most random places.

Teiko gathered them in the hotel room and had them sit on a bed. She had several days' worth of clothes packed for everyone. "Thanks, May," she told the nanny, "you can go."

Natsuo and Shoto noticed the changes. "A-aunt Teiko?" The former said the name like a question, as if he wasn't sure who he was looking at.

Teiko lifted her deadened gaze to regard the child. "One sec. I've got to work up to it."

There was a pause. Fuyumi felt terror churn in her belly. "Is it Dad?" Their father was a pro hero. She was worried for him every day of her life. Eventually, her father's luck could run out and he could never make it home for dinner. It was something she made herself live with.

Teiko released a slow breath from her nose. She had to calm herself, or else she'd snap again. "No. Just…quiet, please." Their normally collected guardian sounded stiff. Fuyumi took the warning to heart and kept her mouth shut.

It took two more minutes of agonizing silence before Teiko trusted herself to speak. "Your dad finally pushed Toya over the edge. Your brother is in intensive care, but may not survive."

For a bare moment, Fuyumi was glad it wasn't her father. She felt guilt, then devastation to hear of her eldest sibling's fate. "Oh…oh no, Toya." Tears leaked from her eyes. Natsuo and Shoto began to cry almost at once. They expected the worst. "How's Dad?"

If Teiko hadn't been in control of herself, she may have berated the girl for asking. He's her father. She can't help but care, just like I can't help but care that he's my brother. "He's alive. The house was damaged, so he'll be arranging for a crew to fix everything." It wouldn't take long. Many construction companies would throw in competitive bids to work on a pro-hero's house.