Endeavor ended up deciding to keep the funeral private. Only people who personally knew Touya. Surprisingly, and not at all surprisingly, that wasn't very many.

There was the entire Todoroki family, of course (minus Rei, which was both concerning and angering, despite not knowing who to blame). And Keigo and Rumi, Touya's first friends, and their families. Hitoshi came too, if only to support Shoto. There were a few other people that were probably relatives or something too.

And of course, the entire Midoriya family was there.

Izuku was basically glued to Shoto's side, which meant on the ground, just to the right of the picture of Touya on a stand, pretty much the entire time. Shoto didn't move, not even Endeavor could make him, so Izuku didn't move either. Hitoshi walked around a little more, but never strayed far and always had an eye on his friend.

They were both obviously concerned for Shoto, who had hardly looked up from the ground since they'd arrived, much less said a word to either of them. The usually loud and playful trio had never been so silent and dull. Hitoshi and Izuku offered silent comfort in their presence, but who knew if Shoto even noticed.

Hisashi and Inko were playing parent better then Endeavor was. Which of course they were. Inko somehow managed to cry and smile the most, appearing both a stable comfort and a heartbroken mother. But she barely interacted with anyone else. Hisashi, on the other hand, spent half his time comforting her and the other half comforting the kids. All the kids.

Keigo and Rumi stuck close, walking around together the entire time. They wandered the building aimlessly, quietly talking about who knows what. They seemed to be avoiding talking to anyone else, but not wanting to sit in a corner and do nothing. Every once in a while they'd stop and seem to try and decide whether or not to comfort someone, but either they didn't want to or didn't know how, cause they never did.

Though to be fair, they'd only actually done that when they passed by Tenko.

Tenko was sitting in a chair at the very back of the room, staring blankly down at his phone screen that had been yelling 'YOU LOSE!' at him for the last ten minutes at least. He hadn't built himself up to hitting the 'Next Game' button quite yet.

The last round he played he had chosen a villain character, which he usually did, and had been put up against the hero Endeavor, of all heroes.

He'd been blinded by anger towards the hero, and had pulled out all the stops with the intention of destroying his opponent. He'd been determined, desperate, to watch the man fall, even if only on a screen. He clicked furiously, used every point, every attack, every thing his character had. But he'd been irrational and furious and distressed, and in the end had lost to the hero Endeavor, and had used up everything he had for it.

The irony of that almost had him laughing after.

But he didn't. He felt like absolutely everything drained out of him. Everything. And he hadn't looked up from the screen since.

He didn't want to be here, he wanted to go home. He wanted to- no, he wanted to go back to that weekend. He wanted to go back and fix it all. And see Touya again. He wanted to make this right.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

He was supposed to help him. Tenko and Hisashi were supposed to find a solution, they were supposed to save Touya and his siblings. They were supposed to fix things.

But they didn't, and now it was too late.

They couldn't save Touya.

Heroes 1, Villains 0.

This felt like the nightmare that Tenko had never dreamed of come true. This felt like he'd lost the battle he didn't know he was fighting. He'd never thought it would be like this.

It's wasn't supposed to end like this.

"But it hasn't ended."

Tenko looked up from the screen for the first time to see Hisashi in the seat next to him. He must've said that last thought out loud without realizing.

Hisashi was watching the phone screen closely, observing losing banner and the dancing Endeavor in the corner that Tenko had tried oh so hard to keep his eyes from. Then the bright red eyes trailed up to his, and Hisashi gave him a small, sad smile.

"I know it probably feels like it is," Hisashi mutters, quiet enough that only Tenko can hear it. "Like you can't move on from this. But that's just not true."

Hisashi's eyes trailed to the side and towards the front of the room. Tenko followed his gaze to where Shoto was sitting, still right next to the picture, still right next to Izuku. And on the other side of the picture, Fuyumi was talking to Inko while Natsuo paced off to the side.

Fuyumi's movements and smile looked forced. Natsuo seemed antsy and impatient to get out of there, away from all of this. And Shoto? Shoto just looked empty. It was painful to watch all three of them.

"There are still people who need help," Hisashi continued quietly. "Help that we both know this world's heroes can't deliver. There still are, and will always be, kids like them. Kids who fall through the cracks. Kids like Fuyumi and Natsuo. Like Shoto." There was a long pause, and Tenko sucked in a breath, guessing where his next words would go.

"Kids like Touya."

Tenko let the breath out shakily, and looked back down to his phone, which had finally shut off. The black screen reflected himself back, and he stared into his own eyes.

His own, broken, eyes.

"We might not talk about it much, but I know you never gave up."

Tenko looked back up at Hisashi, who was watching him in turn. "I know you still want to be a villain."

Tenko blinked at him. He realized, then, that it had never been said out loud so matter-of-factly before, at least not like that. The word villain had only ever been used in his head.

Hisashi smiled, a little bit more real, and a little bit more terrifying. "You're very determined." His face fell a bit, and he suddenly looked more solemn. "You're a lot like your grandmother in that way."

Tenko cocked his head. "You knew her?" Inko said she'd died when she was only ten, killed in a battle with a villain.

Hisashi looked away, looking guilty. Why was he guilty? "You could say that."

After a second of silence, Hisashi clears his throat and looks straight ahead. "If you want to be a villain, I guess I'll have to start teaching you, won't I?"

Tenko's eyes went wide. Wait, was this really happening? Was Hisashi finally letting him?

Hisashi turned back to him with a smile and held up one finger. "Lesson number one; You can't let trials stop you. Not even loss."

He had Tenko's full attention now.

"Loss is hard, especially death. You're allowed to mourn your losses, it's only human to feel what you feel after losing something precious to you. But you always have to remember that the only goal of those inflicting those losses, is to make you stop. And you can't let them win.

"Let your mistakes, your loss, your hardships, help you grow. Learn from them. And keep going. Maybe you couldn't save Touya, but let that be your drive."

Hisashi scoots closer to Tenko and puts his arm around him, pulling him close. "This isn't the end, unless you decide it is."

Tenko stared at Hisashi with wide eyes.

How does he do that? How does he know exactly what to say? Maybe it had something to do with being almost 200 years old.

"Ok," Tenko said. Because that's all he could really think to say.

Hisashi was right. He couldn't let this get the best of him. He'd keep going, if anything, for Touya. He'd get the revenge on Endeavor Touya deserved. And he'd help those who still needed what the heroes couldn't give.

He'd do this. He'd keep going. This wasn't over.

—-

He wasn't gone just yet.

He'll be back, just wait.

This wasn't the end.