Chapter Text
There were few things more satisfying than being the first to report a story. And not even just reporting a story, but digging it out and proving it and actually breaking it.
Kuneda Michiko grinned as she stood over the printer, waiting for it to spit out the last piece of data she needed to prove the hunch she’d been chasing for years.
In spite of what TV or movies showed, most reporters didn’t really look into stories. There were staffers that worked on tips, writers’ rooms and teleprompters. Dozens of people’s combined man hours went into producing a story before it ever hit a reporter’s desk.
This one… This one she had found on her own through sheer, dogged determination.
The fact that it was a story about heroes… Well, her colleagues would most likely laugh initially.
Heroes were heroes.
Something like this seemed impossible.
After all, hero managers (especially for the top tier pros) never let out anything negative that could hurt their carefully cultivated franchises. They were more ruthless than villains half the time when it came to making sure that their heroes were protected, and most heroes were more than happy to cooperate with them due to the dollar signs or the prestige or whatever else drove them.
It basically left it nearly impossible to do anything but report how amazing, sweet and perfect most heroes were, no matter what people in the know knew. The internet made it harder, but there were plenty of technopaths willing to work with hero management agencies in a way that didn't technically break the law. As a result, stories that did get to make it into the light of day became an issue of who said what, and well, people would believe a hero over anyone else, she thought bitterly.
And one of the heroes involved, well, if you listened to the right whispers or had her experience, you knew he was the type that gave Stain the traction he’d gotten. Heck, she fully expected this particular hero to attack her. She swallowed a nervous laugh. If she had still been the way she’d been when she’d started out in this profession… Well, even she might have left it, but she wasn’t the same.
The world wasn’t.
Despite the initial lack of paper trails, she’d managed to come across enough other instances or stories that fell in line with hers that she…
Well…
The fact that she’d been able to push through the hero management shield and get evidence was just too amazing. Everything was ironclad enough that there was no chance of being accused or libel or slander or anything else.
All the facts were there.
Michiko grinned as she finished compiling the folder to show her editor and producer.
That she’d definitely get an anchor position from this on top of her revenge was just icing on the cake.
XxXxX
Midoriya Izuku would never get used to stares or whispers pointed in his direction. He wasn’t that interesting, not like his friends and fellow classmates. They were amazing people that deserved all the attention they got because of Class 1-As many brushes with villains and the fact that they would be truly incredible heroes.
He was just there.
Still, today felt weirder than normal. Izuku had needed to run back to the dorms to get a forgotten notebook, so he was rushing up the steps and through the atrium to the school alone rather than surrounded by his friends, but that wasn’t enough to garner the level of sheer notice he was receiving. Kids from the General Department, the Managerial Department, and Support Departments were all eyeballing him, glancing at their phones or tablets and back at him, whispering. A few were even pointing.
It reminded him -- they reminded him -- of Monoma Neito from 1-B and his constant mocking notice.
The sheer weight of the negative attention when it’d been so long since he’d received it directed solely at him was so heavy Izuku couldn’t help but falter and hunch in a little. This felt like the worst days in Jr. High all over again. Where everyone was looking down on him.
Judging.
Like he wasn’t good enough to breath the same air they were.
He couldn’t help but feel exactly like he had back before All Might changed his world.
“Midoriya!” Izuku jumped at the sudden loud call, and couldn’t help instinctively raising his hands defensively as he backed away. Thankfully it was only Shinsou, but at the same time, it was Shinsou and he was very good at reading people. His eyes narrowed a little at Izuku’s reaction, and Izuku just knew that the other boy would be cataloging this for later.
“Shinsou!” he managed to get out, rushing up to his friend, his hands waving as he tried to stop whatever horrible thoughts his own stupidity might be causing Shinsou. “I-I-I’m sorry! I wasn’t- I didn- I mean- you I wasn’t mm-”
Shinsou rolled his eyes and stepped forward and shoved a hand over Izuku’s mouth. “You’re fine. We’ve talked dozens of times, I don’t suddenly think you’re afraid of me or whatever stupidly self-deprecating paranoid thing is running through your brain. Nod if you understand.”
Izuku managed to nod after he finished half fainting from relief. Shinsou gave him a penetrating stare, his eyes half narrowed. “Okay, let’s try another easy one. Have you seen any news sites or been online at all today? Nod or shake your head.”
Izuku shook his head, reaching up and pulling his friend’s hand away from his mouth. “I haven’t… What’s wrong? What’s happened? Is it why everyone is, or am I just- I mean, I could-”
“You are not being paranoid, everyone is looking at you, and yes, it is because of a news story.” Izuku keened, scrambling for his phone in his bag but Shinsou caught his wrist. “I think we better find a room before you read it.”
With that he promptly started dragging Izuku towards the massive library which had several smaller study rooms attached to it, presumably for privacy.
They’d barely made it halfway there when Kirishima ran into them, literally. The verbose redhead barreled right into them as he was running down a hallway that crossed the one they were using, sending them all sprawling onto the floor. “Ow…” Shinsou hissed as they all pushed up, “watch where you’re going!”
Izuku was just grateful that the other boy had released his wrist in the fall, and was shaking it out when- “MIDORIYA!” Kirishima shouted, promptly glomping onto him, sending him to the floor again.
“What?!” Izuku couldn’t help but let out, more than a little shocked.
“Don’t worry, we all know it’s all a horrible lie and will help you teach those morons a lesson on what being a man really means!”
“What?” Izuku screeched, now even more panicked, just wanting to find his phone and figure whatever this was out.
“He doesn’t k-” Shinsou started, only for Kirishima to interrupt him by yelling at the top of his lungs.
“GUYS! FOUND HIM! HALL B BY THE LIBRARY!!” Izuku cringed down a little as Kirishima hadn’t yet released him so the shout was right in his ear. Shinsou put one hand on Midoriya’s arm in a comforting gesture even as he lightly punched Kirishma on the shoulder with the other.
“Don’t yell! And I was trying to say Midoriya hasn’t read any of the articles yet or watched the videos, you idiot! He doesn’t know what you’re talking about!”
“What?” Izuku whined. Unfortunately, before he could get his phone, there was a veritable stampede down the hallway of practically every member of Class 1-A. The only people missing were Shouto, Momo, and Kacchan.
Uraraka promptly threw her arms around him, knocking Kirishima away into a wall, with Iida dropping down next to them. The taller boy was hovering and the look on his face was part worried, part mother hen, and part “I am going to pound someone’s face into the ground.”
Of course everyone started talking at once and Izuku couldn’t make any of it out. He vaguely caught hints of “didn’t believe it”, “stupid media,”, and “we’ll hunt them down for you, just give the word.”
Izuku didn’t even bother trying to get away from them before he shuffled his hand down to the side pocket on his bag and pulled out his phone. Whatever this was, he needed to know, now.
He swiped the lock, bringing it up so he could see the screen over Uraraka’s shoulder.
The screen came to life and Izuku blinked as he saw 14 missed calls and 67 text messages. He normally left his phone on silent while he did his morning run and grabbed breakfast, leaving it that way so he was sure his ringtone wouldn’t go off in class. He hesitated for a moment before swiping the notifications aside and bringing up his news feed. He didn’t need to even tap the search bar to enter his name when he spotted what everyone was talking about in the trending area. All the headlines were variations on the same theme.
His quirk was fake. (Kind of, given One for All.)
They mentioned his childhood Doctor confirming his Quirklessness? (Why would they-)
His Doctor’s ties to Villains!!! (Evidence! The kind that caused an immediate Hero raid!)
Evidence that Endeavor was involved? (Why would they...)
Oh, Izuku was Endeavor’s love child.
….
……..
…..………
Izuku blinked.
He re-read that headline.
Yup. It called him Endeavor’s illegitimate son.
He blinked again, and then his phone fell out of his lifeless fingers to clatter to the floor of the now silent hallway and his whole body twitched violently.
WHAT?
XxXxX
It wasn’t more than a minute after Izuku had read the headlines (and if he was still in a shocked daze, who could blame him?) that Aizawa-sensei descended on them like a dark demon from the pits of Tartarus, sending all of Class 1-A but Midoriya scurrying back to their homeroom in terror. They did manage to give a few more shouts of encouragement to Izuku as they left, though.
Most went over his stunned head.
Shinsou just rolled his eyes before following Aizawa-sensei’s pointed eyebrow back towards his own class.
The man silently pulled Izuku to his feet and guided him quickly and firmly towards the Principal’s office.
Luckily they made it through the door just before the situation caught up with Izuku, and he let out a scream of “WHHHATTTT?” that could probably be heard in the next prefecture and promptly hid in the corner as a shivering ball of uselessness. That was probably a bad reaction, but given that the only people in the room were Aizawa, All Might, Recovery Girl, the Principal, and oddly enough Detective Tsukauchi, well, they’d all seen him worse off.
They would just have to live with him muttering all the reasons it was impossible that Endeavor was his Father, along with several disparaging comments about the man.
“I guess that answers the question on what he knew about his parentage.”
Izuku’s head shot up. “I don- MY DAD WORKS OVERSEAS! My Mom told me! She wouldn’t lie! She WOULDN’T!”
The adults all exchanged the type of look Izuku had often seen in his childhood after adults who knew about his Quirklessness heard him say he wanted to be a hero. Seeing it on these people, who he actually really respected, caused a fresh wave of tears to break out.
“I’m sure there is an explanation,” All Might murmured comfortingly, and Izuku felt horrible as his hero sank to his knees in front of him. While nothing but caring sympathy appeared on his face, Izuku knew that getting up and down from kneeling positions was particularly painful for the man given the way his injuries tightened his core.
This was… This was so stupid.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, burying his disgusting tear dripping face in his arms. All Might pulled him into a hug that Izuku couldn’t help but lean into, though he kept his head and arms back to not ruin the man’s suit.
“Still,” Aizawa hissed, “for this to be published in anything but a tabloid, and disseminated the way it was, they needed some type of proof. They wouldn’t risk the libel lawsuits or retaliation unless they had something ironclad.”
Recovery made a slight “hmm” noise, her hand on her chin as she looked him over. “We know the “engineered quirk” is incorrect,” Aizawa looked at her, and it took a moment to remember that while his homeroom teacher knew about All Might’s time limit, he didn’t know about One for All. “I know that it’s tough, but what can you tell us about the other points raised?”
Izuku shook his head. “I di- I mean- I haven’t - I didn’t read any of the a-a-a-articles yet.” In the greatest force of will he remembered ever having to use, Izuku pushed back from All Might to reach for his phone, only to realize that it wasn’t in his pocket. “M-m-my phone! I dro- I left it in the h-hallway!”
“Use mine, I’ll go look for it,” Aizawa-sensei told him, handing it down after swiping the lock code. Re-nestled under All Might’s comforting arm, Izuku carefully started thumbing through the first article that popped up on Aizawa’s feed.
While he read the adults started discussing something about lawyers and the reporter that broke the story, but Izuku very quickly lost the thread of the conversation as he picked through the articles.
Basically, Izuku read reports about how Endeavor, AKA Todoroki Enji, had had a series of affairs with several women, including Shinoda Inko, currently Midoriya Inko (there was even a picture of a younger them in a bar that might have been Photoshopped, but he wasn’t sure) and that there were several illegitimate children floating around, one of which was Midoriya Izuku. There were a few others mentioned, but they received far less focus.
There was also information on Izuku being quirkless, including a copy of his x-rayed foot, and several other tests that had been completed. It also then went on to point out all the sudden differences in Izuku, that if one didn’t know about One for All and the training he’d done for it, really didn’t make sense.
The most damning thing though, was that they somehow even claimed that the reporters involved had been able to obtain a DNA test proving that Izuku was Todoroki Shouto’s half-brother, most likely on the paternal side.
“Shouto!” Izuku’s head flew up, “where i-”
“Young Todoroki is currently up on the roof with your class vice-representative,” All Might said. “I believe he wanted some privacy.” Izuku nodded slowly, feeling… He wasn’t sure what he felt. Shouto must hate him. Things with his Father were bad enough and then this… He must be pissed that Izuku just forced all that extra attention on him.
“Ugh…” Izuku would have thrown his head back to hit the wall if All Might’s arm hadn’t tightened around him. He really wasn’t sure what to think about all of this, but he did know that he really, really didn’t want to lose Shouto’s friendship over this stupidity.
Eventually Aizawa slipped back in with Izuku’s cell phone and calmly traded it for his own. He unlocked it again, and, gritting his teeth, tapped on his Messages icon. The majority of the messages were from his Mother, with the latest just saying that she was on her way to the school.
He wordlessly showed the message to All Might who quietly said something to Aizawa who nodded, and Izuku stopped paying attention to them after that, shakily going back to the articles.
They were almost all rehashes of the same, and each one felt more outlandish than the last.
This was-
There was a sharp triple-knock on the door, and next to him All Might took the warning to shift to his larger size.
The door opened again as the Secretary let in Shouto, who had a terrifyingly icy look on his face.
Izuku swallowed.
It figured.
Shouto was amazing.
And he… He needed to do what was right for him.
Maybe, when this mess had cleared up, he’d be willing to talk to Izuku again?
When Izuku wasn’t a useless mess that was now just a reminder of how horrible his Father was, even if there was no way this could be true.
And even if it were true Shouto deserved better than him as a brother.
XxXxX
Shouto stared at Midoriya where he was curled up against All Might across Principal Nedzu’s office.
Normally Midoriya’s sheer personality made up for how short he was, but bunched up in a ball immediately next to the Number One Hero, his best friend looked positively tiny.
Was he his brother?
He’d run up to the roof, hoping the air there would help him. It hadn't and he’d only spent 10 minutes trying to breath -- trying to really think about the possibility through the bursting, hopeful joy that had exploded in his chest.
It... It made little sense on some level.
For all Endeavor’s faults, betraying his vows to Shouto’s Mother had never been one that he’d been aware of. A large part of that was due to the pre-nup that had been signed when his Mother had been forced into the marriage.
The fact that this possible betrayal could have resulted in him having more family than he was aware of was something nearly mind blowing.
Could he have family that…
That was bright and smiling and caring and everything he had been missing in his life until Midoriya had shattered his shell at Sport’s Festival?
It really did seem impossible that the monster that was Endeavor could have produced someone like Midoriya Izuku.
If you looked at his siblings…
Fuyumi was the closest to kind out of his siblings, and even then she was barely there and wouldn’t really stand against their Father. She just…
Warned Shouto not to upset Endeavor when he was in a mood. Made sure the household was geared towards making him as happy as possible to lessen his temper as much as she could while rarely being at the house herself even though she lived there. Advised Shouto to be more careful when she walked in on him patching himself up after training. Would do little things like sign permission slips, or make him bentos, or leave him her study guides from school for subjects he was taking as if that made up for the rest.
But it was still better than his brothers…
Natsuo, who never came home from college now that he’d left. Who, even when he was around, never did anything but look the other way and try to avoid drawing Endeavor’s attention to himself.
And Touya…. Well, no one had seen him since he’d disappeared when he was younger. Shouto didn’t even think that bastard Endeavor had looked for him, so wrapped up in beating Shouto into the perfect tool.
If this was true, they were a waste of a family for his best friend…
Midoriya didn’t deserve the mess that was the Todorokis. He deserved a Father as kind and as loving as his equally adorable Mother. And if he had siblings, he should have a couple of younger siblings that would somehow unimaginably manage to outdo his cuteness factor. That would trail after him like little ducklings or bunnies in All Might hoodies that Midoriya would have picked out. They’d fuss just like their Mother over every bruise and scrape that Midoriya got and cover him like a mummy in All Might Bandages for each one.
They’d rightfully adore him and love him as much as he deserved.
They wouldn’t be like Shouto’s siblings that would ignore burns, cries, screams, and begging.
They would love him.
Care about him.
Be there for him when Midoriya needed them.
The thought that Midoriya would need someone spurred him to rush past Yaoyorozu, who had been hovering near the stairs, acknowledging her quick directions to the Principal’s office with a nod and a smile.
Now though... now he couldn’t help but stand there as he looked at Midoriya who seemed tiny and small and scared even next to the bolstering force that was All Might.
Then Midoriya started shaking a bit and muttering, and Shouto heard something about Midoriya thinking he was a useless mess and how he, Shouto of all people, deserved better than Midoriya and that was so wrong! Without realizing it until it happened, Shouto practically flew across the room to drop down by him, barely registering as All Might moved away to give them some privacy.
Midoriya whimpered a little, and Shouto wasn’t quite sure how to make it better.
The only things that came to mind were the hugs his Mother had given him back before the horror that was Endeavor finally became too much, and he hesitantly reached out a hand to try and offer what comfort he could.
Midoriya raised his own hand and grasped Shouto’s like it was a lifeline. It took a few minutes but the other boy finally let out a tentative, teary smile that managed to make Shouto feel a bit better.
Still, he couldn’t help the sadness at the thought of the disaster that Midoriya had found himself in. “I am so sorry,” he finally managed to get out to his best friend (and possible brother).
Midoriya’s watery eyes widened. “Why are you sorry? I’m sorry! It’s my fault this is al-” Shouto couldn’t help but throw his arms around Izuku in the way he had always wished someone would do for him. Midoriya curled into him, and after a few hiccupping sobs, practically burst into tears. “I- I’m so glad you don’t hate me! You’re amazing and one of my best friends and I’m so sorry this happened! I’m sorry! Sorry sorry sorrysorrysorrysorry-”
Shouto’s hug tightened as he made the same comforting shushing noises he remembered his mother making to stop the endless litany of apologies, the feeling of hope in his chest exploding to suffuse his entire being.
No matter if they were really siblings or not, Midoriya trusted him. Cared about him.
Shouto would burn the world to ashes and then freeze it over again if it meant protecting Midoriya’s smile from Endeavor.