An obnoxious heart rate monitor's incessant noise dragged him up into the lucid sensation of the waking world.
Beep— Beep— Beep!
He almost choked on the lack of moisture in his throat.
Tōya strained as strength returned to his body, he felt something tight… constrain his limbs. That wasn't good. His ragged breaths rippled their way out of his throat. Faintly, sluggishly it took him a moment for his crusty eyelids to finally blink open. The rays of the sun streamed through to his left, blinding him. He heard a soft gasp as something clattered to the ground with a crash.
His head was killing him, but he couldn't stop because—
All For One!—
Tōya's torso was immediately sent into a blazing inferno, his fist was engulfed a second later and he was ready to drag himself up to continue the fight.
A deep growl left his winded lungs and his familiar scowl shot back up.
" —Tōya, oh dear!" The recognizable voice that yelped next to him forced his rapidly beating heart to slow down into an unrecognizable mix of emotion.
"...Wha—?"
His bleary eyes skipped from one corner of the small room to the next as he turned his head to the source of the sound. He… felt lightheaded, Tōya wasn't sure where he was.
Searching blue eyes met their match to a set of wide grey ones. It was a face he didn't think he would ever get to see again, his flames hadn't scarred her face yet like they had in the Gunga Mountain Villa. The short woman who looked smaller than he remembered, had a hand to her mouth. And his chapped lips continued to split open as they parted before he could stop himself.
"Oh… it's you," he whispered, wide-eyed.
Am I dreaming?…
Tōya Todoroki's growing stare took in the trembling form of his mother and the snowflakes that surrounded her. A short wet chuckle rumbled his stomach, shrewd, rough and weak. Her slow steps looked tepid and wary. She quickly drew closer with a gasp, still shaking as if he would disappear at any moment.
The wisps of the flames at his chest went out from the sharp drop in the temperature of the room.
A lingering question came to mind… but he dropped it, wholly focused on his mother in front of him. Was she real? He strained against the tight bandages, dragging the IV cord attached to his arm around. Tōya had to meet her halfway. Get up from this hospital bed, just to make sure… that it wasn't a trick of the light or a mirage. That All For One wasn't screwing with his head again, not again.
A malnourished hand supported his turning torso from below. He heard his mother loudly voice out the surprise as he involuntarily sent himself crashing to the ground in an attempt to roll over, above the railing of the hospital bed.
His shaky arm gave out under him before he could catch himself.
"Ah," his world was spinning, and Tōya's head was feeling woozy. The floor was rushing to his face faster than he could account for.
My head is killing me.
Instead his mother lunged to catch him before he fell face first into the hard floor. Rei clumsily clung to his malnourished head and shoulders. Tōya's eyes widened…
This was real, it had to be.
"...Mom— am I dead, is this?..."
Hell? Because he knew that if there was such a place then it would be that. Maybe the big man up there was screwing with him, with a sweet dream before the rug was pulled from under him.
The last thing he remembered was a shadowed blond man, with an all too reassuring smile. But he couldn't forget the wall of faces that would have no doubt crushed Tokyo with him in between.
"No —no you're not, and I'm more grateful than you can ever imagine, Tōya." Tōya was lifted back to his bed alongside that sentence. He was going insane; he was sure of it.
Because this was too good to be true.
Tōya stared at her with wide eyes, the thin sheet that covered his lower body was splayed out at the corner of his bedframe after his near fall. He turned his head at the large windows of the hospital room away from her. It looked like they were in downtown Tokyo, based on the fact that he could easily recognize the pristine image of Might Tower in the distance. It was a bit past noon based on the fact that the sun was starting to fall. His pounding mind was racing as he looked back at the patient woman who had brought the seat next to him closer, her hands clasped at her lap as she began to sit facing him.
But how? I thought you were still in the hospital? After…
"Your father pulled some strings to get me temporarily released." She answered, dabbing at a stray drop of moisture at the corner of her eye with a napkin. She slowly reached for his hand but second thoughts quickly ran through her as she aborted the action at the last minute.
"Did I say that out loud?" Tōya whispered, he looked at his hand and then at the scar tissue on his arm. The texture was smoother than when he first woke up. Not as much of a hack job as Garaki had left him with.
How much time had passed?
"Oh my, I almost forgot—!" The chair she stood on clattered back as she rushed up in embarrassment. Rei turned back and Tōya now noticed the tray of cafeteria food that looked more like a clump of mushed up waste on the ground. "Where are the wipes, I don't want to inconvenience the staff." Her open worry threw Tōya for a loop.
It was like nothing had changed at all, like she hadn't been sent to an insane asylum.
Isn't this what I wished for? Now's my chance.
He opened his mouth to start, but the words died in his throat, his mom none the wiser as she turned her back to him.
…Am I so chickenshit that I can't even—
"Mom..."
Tōya's strained voice cut through her domestic worrying, he almost felt bad for ruining this rare chance at normalcy. But Tōya knew that if he didn't, then he'd never get the chance again to—to…
"Hmm?" Rei turned to him mid-wipe.
"I'm sorry… I— I didn't mean it. What I said about it also being your fault–" His voice trembled as he started, but rose as he continued. It was the last shitty thing he said before she poured boiling water onto his baby brother. He'd sent her off the deep end, he was certain of that.
Fuck… this was harder than I thought.
"I shouldn't have said what I did, I was being stupid. I–I…I didn't know what I was talking about and I blamed you for that. If I hadn't then—"
—A cold hand rested on his cheek, stopping him mid-speech. His downturned eyes rose up to her, shocked. Tōya hadn't noticed her before she was even a foot in front of him. The cafeteria food, easily forgotten. "Tōya, I forgive you, It was never your fault." Rei's grey eyes were crystal clear, the small room felt unbearably hot and it was getting hard to look at her. "I should have been there for you, It was too much for me to handle. And when I hurt Shoto… I left not only him." She closed her eyes and a slow raspy sigh escaped her lips before she continued, her eyes never leaving his scarred face.
"I left Fuyumi and Natsuo, and most of all you… when you needed me."
"My absence caused it all to spiral out of control… not that there was much to maintain to begin with." Her thumb traced the rough texture of the faint burns on his cheek. "Or maybe, I should have left before I added more heat to the flame. Perhaps I was never meant to—"
"Don't say that!" His frail hand was reinvigorated from righteous anger from deep within. And he clasped her hand before she could continue with the self depreciation. "It was Endeavor's fault! He— If it wasn't for him then none of this would have happened in the first place!"
In the frenzy, the face she gave him was equal parts amazed and afraid. As he clenched her hand with his closed fist to his heart, Tōya's chest was heaving. He towered over her as he rose from the bed. She looked so tiny as she stared up at him, his shadow looming over her.
And the rest of the words in his throat died then and there.
"Ah…"
His lips parted, this wasn't how he wanted their reunion to go. He ruined it with that man's name before the day could even end. Tōya dropped his mother's limp hand as if he was frostbitten. And fell back to the headrest of the hospital bed, like it was the only thing keeping him from hurting his own mother.
Was this how it was going to go? Flying off the handle when a sore point jabbed me in the ribs?
"...It wasn't your fault mom," he hugged his knees to his chest. Tōya didn't know what he would do with his hands if he didn't keep them occupied. The back of his head roughly hit the pillow and he closed his eyes as he let out a long suffering breath.
A cold palm gently rested on his raised knee, it was funny that he was so used to the sharp drop in temperature. Quirks were weird like that; his slitted eyes turned to his mother beside him. He was thankful that he hadn't scared her off with his outburst, that… or sent her spiralling into insanity.
…And it'd be wholly his fault this time.
"Where are Fuyumi, Natsuo and… Shoto?" He quietly whispered to the cool air around them.
"Oh! Your siblings are eating at the cafeteria with Nakamura-san right now." She answered as her head shot up at the unexpected sidetrack.
"How did you all know to come visit just as I've woken up?" Tōya lightly jostled the knee with her hand resting on it, but not enough for her to drop it. "Don't tell me you've been visiting everyday? I half expected some… nurse to get to me before my own family."
Least of all you.
"A friend of your father's handed him a note, detailing when you would wake up from your coma. I believe his name was Sir Nighteye." Oh, All Might's sidekick things were starting to add up. Now that he was more lucid, he half expected the lanky man to be storming into the room to interrogate him.
"And Endeavor couldn't make it himself… how expected." He muttered under his breath, too low for his own mother to hear. The last thing he needed was to get into another argument. Just as he was getting comfortable, a soft knock at the door ripped him out of the lull. His mother rose up as the door opened.
A stranger was beginning to enter the room at a sedated pace, from the other end. An elderly woman from what he could tell, but he didn't recognize her. She wore similar attire to the last caretaker that they were introduced to before he died.
But her existence wasn't important because the top of the three familiar kids behind the women, kept him from saying anything.
"Ah! Nakamura-san, could you help me find some more napkins, I seem to have made a mess in my son's room." Rei stood in front of the woman before the woman could fully enter the room. She was unintentionally covering him with her body but the rest of the room was visible from their position. Rei's face was a tad closer to the stranger's ear as she whispered something Tōya couldn't hear from the distance.
"Oh! of course Todoroki-san, I'll inform one of the nurses." The kindly woman said, albeit her tone was tinged with surprise.
"That would be splendid, I can look after the children if you don't mind." Rei thanked the woman as they closed the door behind them. At the mention of a nurse who was now visible among the group, his mother looked back at him with a quick smile. Now leaving him alone in the hospital room. Tōya could faintly hear the three children speaking from behind the door. And his mother's voice was louder as she spoke over them.
"I guess she's telling them the good news." Tōya mumbled to himself, he looked back at the untouched cityscape. What was more concerning to him now was what happened after he used Prominence Burn. He should have been dead, if not by Trigger than from the damage he piled on.
Was All For One still out there?
He hoped not, because he wasn't feeling up for a round two.
Flexing his hand he found it easier to maneuver his hand without the delay that came with Garaki's botched job. The scar tissue looked healthy enough to blend in with his skin if he gave it time to heal.
Perhaps it was morbid curiosity or stupidity but he couldn't help but engulf his hand with his flames. The glow of his quirk fanned out within the small room, it was intense and it radiated blue.
He knew immediately that it was a mistake when the pain flared up.
"What the fuck—!" Tōya's eyes widened as he whipped the appendage to kill the flame, his back was pressed to the wall as he took quick breaths to slow his racing heart. Tōya was staring at his own reddening palm, that wasn't supposed to happen. His nerves were shot, at least they should have been. He stared back at the closed door before his eyes returned to his injured hand.
How did the quacks here replace my nerves?
That was impossible, it should have been. But with quirks he wouldn't be surprised that someone found a way to unknowingly ruin one of the few positive things that came out of that damn forest.
His racing thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening and he hid his hand as it opened fully. Three curious figures in front of his mother were lined up, he couldn't mistake them for anyone else. A teenage Fuyumi was holding a small Shoto by the shoulders while a taller Natsuo stood by her side looking a bit awkward. Tōya's eyes were wide, the three of them were smaller and taller than he remembered and he couldn't help but chuckle at that.
Their faces were a mixed range of emotions and he couldn't fault them for that.
Perhaps his crazed laugh opened the flood gates because his two younger siblings and even Shoto raced after his hospital bed. Fuyumi was the first one to raise her hand to reach out to him, but she was getting choked up as she looked at him and she drew into herself. Shoto stared at him like a little brother who wasn't exactly sure how to react, the fact that he followed after his siblings made Tōya grateful that he hadn't ruined their relationship with his prior fuck ups.
But It was Natsuo that surprised him when he spoke first.
"You idiot! I'd hit you right now if I could." His younger brother said between short breaths, the anger was not what he expected. And the unintelligent noise he made only spurred Natsu on. "Do you know what kinda crap we were stuck with after you were! …gone, Tōya."
His mother began to open her mouth behind Natsuo, but he looked at her and shook his head. It was almost exactly how an older Natsuo had started their first private conversation back when he was stuck in that iron cage.
"Do you know how long I've been waiting to say that to you?"
He could remember his younger brother's weathered face, and Tōya clenched his teeth as he looked at his lap in frustration. Fuyumi was scolding Natsuo for starting their first conversation in a long time like that.
"You can't say that Natsu! He just woke up. Tōya's still fragile and you might cause him to pass out or worse!" His sister yelled, waving a hand in his direction.
Natsuo dug his fingers into his jeans even as he looked at his older sister with a mix of emotions, but he didn't back down. "I can, because— If I'd been more observant. Then Tōya wouldn't have gone up there alone."
"He snuck out, and things only got worse from there…" Fuyumi looked stricken from Natsu's words and she took a step back without anything to say.
"I should have been more— If… then none of this… And mom wouldn't have." Natsuo looked away without finishing his sentence, he was hyperventilating and his mother took his shoulders as she hugged Natsuo from behind. Even as tears threatened to leak from his closed eyes, he furiously wiped at them. Rei had no such issues as she silently sobbed.
Fuck… I'd ruined everything.
"It wasn't your fault Natsu, I made sure you weren't aware when I snuck out to Sekoto Peak."
Tōya said that with strained sincerity, he meant it because he hadn't known that Natsuo was keeping this to himself. Even after all this time, the older Natsuo never disclosed the guilt he had felt for what happened to him. "We've slept in the same room for years, I knew exactly when you actually went to sleep, or when you were a tad too stuck in your own world."
"You weren't going to stop me Natsu, I wanted to go up there and nothing you could do would have been enough. What matters is that I'm here now… It's not like I'm planning on doing something stupid like that again." Tōya stared into those conflicted gray eyes to reassure him. The expression Natsuo wore was torn as if he wanted to argue again. But he couldn't, or decided not to and his younger brother slowly nodded at his words, silent.
Instead a new voice piped up from Natsuo's left, "I should have asked this earlier, but Tōya, is–is it really you?"
Fuyumi questioned as she placed a hand to the railing at the side of the hospital bed. It would have been a really stupid question if he didn't know what she was really getting at. Was he all in there? Tōya looked at her hand and then he placed his own right next to hers. His mother noticed the new burn immediately, but kept it to herself. "H-how much do you remember? It's been three years… How— why?" She continued, almost afraid.
Why didn't you come home?
"Yeah it's me, I remember— everything, I remember it all… 'Umi-chan." It was a stupid nickname, more of a shorthand that didn't really work for shortening things in the first place. They'd given up on using that name pretty quickly.
But her shaky face was enough for him to be certain that she knew it was her older brother.
Tōya struggled to hold her gaze and instead he was looking at a nervous older woman that no longer existed. He was back in that dim cage again, looking at an aged sister. Even as she compelled herself to move forward into some kind of delusion of a happy family by talking to her incarcerated brother as if that were normal. Back when he was terminal, she forced herself to stick to topics that mainly focused on his life outside of the League of Villains out on the streets when he first woke up from his coma. The one time that they strayed onto that villainous topic was when she asked if he had made a connection, perhaps a friend that he could share his troubles with. The only thing he could give her was a pitiful no.
"That's so lonely…"
That's what that older Fuyumi said with the perpetually sad eyes, and it made him want to dig a hole for himself to crawl under.
"What happened, how did you get out?" Natsuo repeated for Fuyumi, the lingering question in the room. "The fire I mean."
"I… didn't. I was engulfed in my own flames. I wasn't aware of it, up until just before mother was admitted to the hospital. My flames responded to my own emotions… they got stronger as I got more worked up. The day I snuck out to Sekoto Peak I planned to show Endeavor just what I was capable of with my new blue flames. But he was a no-show, so I ended up crying alone in the little corner where dad and I used to train." Tōya reminisced with a self depreciating look, but he shook his head as he continued.
"My quirk activated mid-sob, I was too far from the river. I wasn't expecting it, and by the time I reached the riverbank to put it out. I was sure I was dead as I crumpled to the ground with my own flames." He was unwilling to look at his siblings as he spoke and especially at his mother. Tōya was sure that the look she was wearing would no doubt stop his explanation from the sheer guilt.
"The next thing I knew, I woke up in an infirmary bed." Tōya debated on not telling them what happened afterwards at all, but he killed that thought. He could sanitize it for Shoto's ears, the kid was already enraptured by what he was saying anyway.
"It was a daycare… or a foster home." His mother's eyebrow rose at that statement. "Weird right? Why wasn't I being taken to a hospital or placed there in the first place? When I went out to the hall to find someone, anyone. I found that I was alone, there should have been a nurse or someone, but no. Nearly all the rooms were empty save for one, filled with a bunch of kids. They were coloring in a classroom during the middle of the night…"
—Wait, the kids! Where are the others!
"Where are the other kids?!" Tōya asked as he swivelled around the room.
"The others? I don't remember seeing any of them in the videos, Natsu showed me?" Fuyumi asked, a finger to her chin.
"The one staff member I really interacted with at the foster home acted like a… pre-school teacher. It was so childish I could die from sugar overdose. The teacher there who spoke to me informed me that I woke up three years later from a coma after the fire. He explained that they had a doctor who fixed me up. The issue was when I suggested that I wanted to leave, to go home. They told me that it wouldn't be possible." His mother's face became a tad more threatening above Natsuo's head.
"I escaped with the other kids as soon as I could, by starting a fire to get away that same night." Tōya said as he looked away from her. "We planned on getting to Might Tower because it was the closest hero agency that we knew."
"From there, a series of villains… I'm not sure if they were after us or not." He continued to not look at his mother, he'd killed so many people in such a short stretch of time. "But I… we defended ourselves when they started attacking and a hero, Sir Nighteye, came to our rescue…"
"But it spiralled from there when the authorities came…" It was the best way he could describe everything that happened afterwards. Tōya's face was guilty as he finally looked at her, but she reached out to hold his arm with a short squeeze. Her eyes lacked any of the judgement that he expected.
"The owner of the establishment wanted to take those kids back and I… I didn't want to run away without them, while he was kidnapping them." His burned hand twitched, "From there, I told a handful of heroes that they needed to keep them away from him. And I ended up here…"
Natsuo quickly pulled out his phone as Tōya tapered off his sentence, struggling to fill in the gaps while censoring anything that would traumatize his family.
"Oh! We saw! This guy right? In the suit? You can't believe how many shots were taken."
"Natsuo please, not here." His mother tried to stop him, no doubt thinking Tōya traumatized or capable of having a panic attack.
Natsu pushed on regardless as he jabbed the screen to his face. "Check this out!" The quick reel showcased the point in which he had activated Phosphor. "I've been stitching them together… but err. It's not the greatest, some other channels on the net have been re-circulating some of the bodycam footage from the police officers that leaked." He scratched at the back of his head as he flipped the video forward with his thumb. Rei chastised him for digging up such mature material.
It was grainy footage from just before he got skewered by All For One. But Natsuo hastily closed the application before any of the others could witness when the bone spear actually went through his chest. "A-anyway, those moves… Endeavor never taught you them. Your training ended when you were five or six? Right mom?" Natsuo turned his head, looking at her as she nodded. Although it did look like his mother was going to talk to Natsuo after this, with the short expression she was currently wearing.
Tōya easily agreed, "You're not wrong, he didn't train me much at all… I've just been memorizing his moves on the TV, every chance I got." He looked at the palm of his hand as it rested on his lap. "Can't say those moves didn't come in handy."
"And Sekoto Peak when you would run away to train? Despite my protests." His mother reminded him, this time he heard the lecture in her voice.
"...A-and Sekoto Peak." He looked from under his eyelashes at her. "Don't worry I'm not going back there if I can help it."
Shoto was next to him on the other side of the bed, peeking up at him from the side of the railing, silent as ever. Certainly not as confident as the young man he had once wanted to kill. He felt so pathetic as he repeated that thought in his head.
"Hey… Shoto."
It was such a lame way to start a conversation especially when he had basically risen from the dead. The kid ducked his head behind the mattress, his curious eyes peeked out, trailing the scars on Tōya's face, at least he didn't scamper away. There was an awkward silence, what could a little kid who never really interacted with his estranged older brother have to say?
And so Tōya had to fill that silence with whatever little morsel of fore-knowledge he had.
"Do—do you wanna get Soba when we get out of here?" Tōya asked almost timidly. "It's, huh, my favorite. I haven't really had anything to eat since I've woken up." He added as he looked to his mother.
At that, the kid seemed to have been more welcoming to the idea than any other thing Tōya had said before.
"Can we, mom?" Little Shoto quickly asked her, innocently eager, as if his own mother hadn't poured boiling water over his face. She looked like she was barely holding herself together even as she clung onto Natsuo.
But she let out a weak "Yes, dear, of course. I may have to call one of your father's attendants so we can have some brought in instead." Rei squeezed Natsuo's shoulders after fanning her face before letting go. "Would you like to eat with your older brother, Tōya?" The small nod from the kid caused Rei to cover her lower face to choke back a sob.
"Natsuo and Fuyumi, do you have any requests?" She asked after she composed herself.
"Sashimi!" was the easy reply from Nastuo.
"Fish? Well If he's getting that then I could go for some Namerō." Fuyumi piped up.
The warm tone of the room was making him lightheaded.
I shouldn't have gone to that dojo, I could have gone to Natsuo or Fuyumi but I was too blind for that road.
Tōya's face was sullen, the same hand he'd earlier burned was clenched into a tight fist.
I fucked up.
Fuyumi pulled him out of his funk before he could dig deeper into his morbid thoughts, "can I touch you —eh, hug you! I mean,Tōya? I won't crush you, mom said that you're still recovering. If it's weird you can say no!" She backtracked all in one quick succession.
He turned his head to her in surprise, where did that come from?
"It's just— just to make sure. Ah— it's dumb, forget I even asked!" Fuyumi deflected as she awkwardly rubbed at the back of her head.
She quickly looked down to her anxious twiddling fingers.
"'Course you can." Tōya answered easily enough. It's not like he was in much pain, it was mainly soreness that he was currently suffering from.
—The rush of limbs from his sister covered his vision faster than he expected.
"Oof!"
"Careful Fuyumi." His mother called out.
From over Fuyumi's shoulder he could make out his mother and Natsu standing to the side, he turned from them and then to Shoto. He had a freehand and it'd be awkward to be the only one being hugged. After thinking it over, he decided then and there to beckon them over.
"Come on, this hug's feeling pretty cold right now. I might need more warm bodies." His lame joke caused Natsuo to shake his head with a wry if small smile, while his mother closed in with Shoto at her side.
And with that he was pulled into probably the only family hug he'd experience in a long time.
Was it that easy?
A nurse and a doctor had come in soon after, and he completed their checkups. After being cleared to eat solid food albeit at a reduced portion due to the three year coma. His family finished their meal in the comfort of the small room. He was left waving at their figures as they crossed out of the doorframe and out of the hospital. Visiting hours were over and they promised to visit the next day.
From a distance Fuyumi and Shoto were eagerly waving at him as he stared down at them from the hospital window. They entered the family car and he could no longer see them as they drove away.
Tōya turned away back to the empty hospital room. Now alone with his thoughts, and his back hit the pillow with nothing to do. He inspected the stuffed rabbit on the small table to his right, there were also flowers with a get well card that had some sort of beach motif? And a red toy ball? The nurse had kindly given him a replacement for the hospital gown he had burned when he woke up, Tōya pulled at the collar.
He looked at the table with more questions running through his mind than he could take. Natsuo had snuck his phone to him, telling Tōya that he'd be bored without any of the games that Natsuo had installed. But Tōya was sure that it was more likely that their mother would have confiscated the phone to delete the files that he'd been stitching together. Now that he was thinking it over, he could access them right now, couldn't he? And not only that, but the wi-fi in the hospital…
Tōya could have left it for later but…
—No, he needed to get up to speed. He didn't have a choice, not with All For One out there.
After a few short hours digging through the internet with not much to show for it, he dropped the phone back to his nightstand to charge. Tōya was too exhausted to really focus on it at the moment, so he'd shelve it for later.
But a soft knock at the door ripped Tōya out from his stupor.
Who could it have been?
"Come in." He called out, his bandaged hand was flexed, visiting hours had ended. Was it one of the nurses? Wasn't it too soon for them to bring in his evening meal? Maybe they had to change out the bandages from the new burn?
"...Tōya." A familiar coarse voice echoed out into the small room before he entered.
Instead the large red and navy figure that lumbered out of the doorframe set his heart rate spiking. Tōya''s pupils dilated, his breaths grew heavy, and it took all he had to not jump out of his bed to throttle the man.
Enji Todoroki was standing in front of him as he closed the door behind him. His costume was snug due to his impressive physique and yet the flames on his face were snuffed out. Clean shaven and bare. If his flame mask was alight, then Endeavor would look just as Tōya imagined in his dreams, as he took his sweet revenge. Enji's blue eyes traced Tōya's scarred face and the new bandage on his hand.
…That larger than life figure, oh so different from the little man in the wheelchair he had looked down on in that dingy cage.
Tōya's ears were ringing.