Sorry for the delay and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Mom,

He'll be fine. Aizawa-sensei is granting me special permission to go home when Father is discharged in two days. According to Fuyumi-nee, the doctor said he'll make a perfect recovery, save for a deep scar on the left side of his face. Life is full of strange coincidences.

His eye was damaged during the fight, but he received emergency surgery rather quickly so he can still see out of it. That's… something.

I was also thinking about you. I wasn't sure whether you heard that or not and if I should be the one to tell you. That's one decision I don't have to make anymore.

If you want me to visit you, I might be able to arrange that by negotiating with Aizawa-sensei. Even if he wants to grant it, it might take some time to get permission from his higher-ups. I'll let you know.

Shouto

Dear Shouto,

Thank you for your concern. I should be okay… is what I want to say. It was probably for the best that I didn't have a chance to watch the scene live.

I only heard about it after it happened and immediately sent that letter to you. The news report afterward stated that he was in critical but stable condition. Your father has always been strong and resilient, so I knew he would make it through when they said that. Still, I'm glad to hear it directly from you. Thank you.

As I've said in my past letters, I do miss you dearly, but I'll still be fine waiting until you receive your license.

Love,

Mom

Rei adds the last sentence only to stop herself from getting her hopes up about seeing him, as it is something neither of them can control after Shouto asks them.

One week later, Rei reads Shouto's newest letter that just arrived today.

Mom,

Aizawa-sensei drove and dropped me off at the house earlier this week. Fuyumi-nee invited him to come inside and eat with us (Natsu-nii was also there), but he declined and chose to wait near the car. Father came in soon afterwards.

His scar is worse than I expected. It nearly covers the entire left side of his face. It won't be noticeable in public because of the flames that he wears on his face, but it'll be something that I have to get used to seeing.

Anyway, as soon as he appeared, Natsu-nii apologized and said he couldn't sit down. We promised Fuyumi-nee that we would be on our best behavior when Father returned, but I understood how he felt and couldn't bring myself to say anything to Father at first besides commenting about his scar.

Father stood still at the doorway so Natsu-nii had no way of avoiding him. And he didn't avoid anything; Natsu-nii called him the same man as before, the only difference being that he's getting more positive reception from the public. The one who abandoned his children and wife to follow his own selfish dreams. Fuyumi-nee seemed sad when Natsu-nii left after that, but I thought it was a good idea to air out his feelings and that that was the most honest I've seen him.

After Natsu-nii left, the news topic switched again to Father's battle and they showed several interviews with the public about how they viewed him now. "The flow of public opinion is shifting in his favor," or something like that is how one host put it. Natsuo-nii's words from earlier gave me a hint about how we can be a true family, like you and Fuyumi-nee dreamed about. Maybe I'm off the mark about this with my lack of experience, but his honesty seemed like an excellent starting point.

First, I praised the hero Endeavor because the hero really is someone that society will need to depend on now and in the future. As for the man, Todoroki Enji… I finally told him what I've told you, about how I'm not ready to forgive him, but I am ready to see what kind of father he'll become in the future. Father seemed to take something from my words, as he also left after apologizing to Fuyumi-nee.

On another note, I was granted permission to see you again. I'll see you soon.

Shouto

Rei grabs a tissue and nabs at the tears that unknowingly started falling sometime in the middle of reading. And then she notices the sound at her door that had been persisting for a short time.

Knock knock

Rei goes to open it. While Shouto may have said 'soon,' she was not expecting to see her son on the other side as soon as she finished reading.

"Hello, Mom. It's been a while."

"Shouto, what a welcome surprise!" She quickly invites him inside and embraces her son after closing the door.

"Hm, surprise? Did I forget to include in my letter that I was coming?"

"It's not that. I just finished reading your letter right before you got here. Forget about that for now, did you have a safe trip here?"

"Yeah. Aizawa-sensei seemed to know at least a little bit about our family situation. When I asked him for permission to visit you, I had an explanation ready for him about why it should be considered pertinent, but he didn't ask anything and just said he'll talk to his higher-ups."

"Give your teacher thanks from me."

"I will. He's waiting in the parking lot in his car, but he said I can take my time. If I didn't have an escort, I wouldn't have been allowed to come."

"Please, have a seat." Rei moves out of the way and sits herself on one of her wooden chairs. "As you might be able to tell, not much has changed here. How have you been?"

"Quite a lot happened to me, actually. Even after- well, you know."

"Yes, I know." Rei says, taking a quick glance at the letter she just read. "Do you want to talk more about it?" This time, she points so that Shouto can follow her thinking.

"I can't think of anything else that I left out from my letters about the incident specifically. But… I did ask Father some questions about his Flashfire Fist over the phone."

A wave of nostalgia washes over Rei from hearing the name of her husband's signature move again. "You said a lot happened. Is asking your father about this related to that?"

"Yeah. My class had a joint training with Class 1-B and I once again hit a wall with my abilities. I was forced into a situation where I could only use my fire, which proved inadequate. Maybe I could figure it out eventually, but I should use the resources that I have available if it will help me."

"Smart thinking."

Shouto continues talking about the training, this time being more specific about the rules. "All teams were drawn randomly from lots. There was another student from the general course, Shinso, who joined one team from Class 1-A and one from Class 1-B. The battles were four versus four, with the exception being if Shinso was on one of the teams. The goal was to put four people from the opposing team in the designated cage, which also mitigates the uneven numbers if he is in one of the teams. He was in the first and last matches.

"He wasn't particularly relevant to me because he wasn't on my team or on the team that I was facing, but I'll have to keep an eye on him in the future. He has a brainwashing quirk that activates when someone responds to him, which is much more dangerous with his newly acquired voice-changing equipment.

"Each class had five groups and we ended up going third. My team only ended up with a tie."

"You sound disappointed. A tie isn't so bad, is it?"

"...You're right, the result isn't so bad. But, we had multiple chances to win especially if I were even a little more proficient with my fire. My teammates all performed well. The one that was lacking was me. That's the part that hurts the most.

"My team was myself, Iida, Ojiro, and Shoji against Tetsutetsu, Honenuki, Kaibara, and Tsunotori. My very first move was a wrong one; Shoji found their location and I blasted my long-range ice attack in their direction. Because I started with ice, Honenuki could soften it into nothing. Even he said that if I started with fire, there would be nothing they could do.

"After that, I got stuck into a one-on-one match with Tetsutetsu. His quirk is similar to Kirishima's, the only difference being that he hardens into metal. That made him very resistant to my ice. When I finally switched to fire, it still wasn't enough. He didn't take damage until I raised the temperature past my previous limits, up to Father's levels.

"I learned later that Iida and Ojiro teamed up to take down Kaibara while I was stalemated with Tetsutetsu, and then Ojiro and Shoji were about to do the same to Tsunotori but got interrupted by Honenuki. Next, Honenuki then arrived in my area. I was focused on Tetsutetsu and also suffered damage from using fire at a temperature that I'm not used to, so I had no way of reacting to Honenuki and was knocked out cold.

"It's only thanks to Iida's quick thinking that I wasn't captured and we were saved from a loss. Ojiro was dragged to the prison by Tsunotori and she flew up with the rest of her teammates, out of Shoji's range, resulting in a tie."

"...You've been through a lot. It sounds so evenly-matched that one small change in any direction would have completely changed the outcome."

"You're exactly right about that."

"All I can say is don't feel too beat up over the result. So long as you try to learn from it, this experience will prove invaluable in the future."

"Yaoyorozu said the same thing."

"How did her match go?"

"She had the match before me and… lost all of her members without taking a single one. It's a shame; her match might have been even closer than mine.

"Her team was herself, Tokoyami, Aoyama, and Hagakure against 1-B's Kendo, Komori, Kuroiro, and Fukidashi. I scouted with Shoji in my match because I saw Yaoyorozu send out Tokoyami's Dark Shadow in this match. Even Kendo said it was a low-risk, high reward move. They were just unfortunate that they didn't know much about Kuroiro's quirk and that he could take control of anything black.

"Yaoyorozu lost the upper hand and switched to plan B; using Aoyama's laser to light up everything and draw Kuroiro out. Kendo predicted it well and used Komori to counter. The light from Aoyama had the side-effect of revealing their location and let Komori unleash her mushrooms all over that area. It didn't look dangerous yet, but it did mitigate their movements

"Fukidashi has a comic quirk that can brings onomatopeia to life. First, he made a humidifier to strengthen the effects of the mushroom. After finding Yaoyorozu's location, he isolated her with more walls where Kendo attacked her in close combat."

"Were they targeting her from the beginning?" Rei asks.

"Yeah, but I think they also went about it the wrong way. All four of them should have crushed her before she could do anything. While Kendo would win the individual matchup at that range, Yaoyorozu was thinking about her team and made a cannon, night vision goggles, and anti-fungal spray. She fired the cannon to send them supplies that let them see in the dark and temporarily rid them of mushrooms. She even restricted Kendo's movements by wrapping her together with the cannon, knowing that her role was finished at that point.

"Aoyama was caught at that point before the supplies could reach the rest of the team. Tokoyami managed to grab the supplies, gave some to Hagakure, and defeated Kuroiro and Komori. But since Komori was still conscious, she used her 'last resort' and used mushrooms to attack Tokoyami's lungs."

'Isn't this a bit extreme for just training?'

"Hagakure was also about to defeat Fukidashi, but Kendo finally caught up and defeated her while being worn out by Yaoyorozu."

'I wonder if he knows he's being just as- if not more- descriptive about her match as his own?'

"I hope she didn't take it too hard."

"If she doesn't look like she took it well, feel free to help cheer her up. I'm sure she'll appreciate it."

"Cheer her up, how?"

"Do you know what kind of places she likes?"

"I don't know." Shouto scratches his head. "She likes school?"

"...Outside of school."

"Oh. I think she likes places like tea shops, shopping, and theatres?"

"All of those are good places to take her to."

"Okay. Thanks, Mom." Shouto glances at his phone. "Huh, it's already five."

Rei looks up at her own clock and sees that it really is late. "I know Aizawa-sensei said you could take your time, but maybe we should call it a day here? We don't want you or him getting in trouble for being off the premises for too long."

"You're probably right. See you later, Mom."