Chapter Text
“I’ve been waiting for you all day, to train!” he said. No. He yelled.
With his bandaged arm and a band-aid on his cheek. With his whitening hair moving up as he stomps on the wooden floors. With his fists closed and his eyes burning with determination, Touya yells at him, demanding to be trained.
Touya wants to train, even though it hurts him, he wants to keep going. It’s uncomfortable to watch and, for a moment, he thinks of turning his back and leaving the room. He’ll forget about that foolish dream in no time, Enji tells himself. He’s a kid. In a couple of months, he’ll forget all about it, he’ll move on to the next thing that shines in front of him, like a moth to a lamp.
But then, he remembers. It was something he over head in the agency the other night, while he was preparing to come home and, since then, he can’t stop thinking about it. It’s like reading a book and… not being able to understand the message but knowing there is one.
So, he kneels down, instead and says:
“Alright, son. Let’s go,” and offers him his hand.
Touya takes it without hesitation. Without even flinching when the bandages rub against his wounds.
The car ride is silent. This time, Touya isn’t yelling. Instead, he’s looking at the road, curious. Children are always curious, he has found out, and Touya has a never-ending curiosity. He’s always asking question and demanding answers and, once he has them, he holds them as if they were an absolute truth. Like a dogma. Being a hero never prepared him to be looked up to the way Touya looks at him. It makes him nervous, sometimes, the way he accepts everything he says obediently, like a miniature soldier.
Or, at least, he used to be like that, until he told him he couldn’t train anymore. He had expected Touya to obey and desist the same way he had accepted his dream of surprising All Might, but he hadn’t. Instead, for the first time, Touya had rebelled and refused to obey.
He didn’t know what to do with him anymore. He had expected pain to be motivation enough to make him stop, but the bandages on his arm and the small scars on his back spoke differently.
Touya was more determinate than he ever was, Enji discovered.
“What are we doing here?” Touya finally asked when he stopped the car in front of the small clinic.
“This is part of your training,” Enji said, because he had no idea how to make Touya listen to him otherwise.
“Are you going to teach me your last technique here?” Touya asked. Enji sighed and shook his head.
“No, you are going to learn something way more important than that,” he said and that, apparently, was all he needed to say for Touya to nod and walk in with him.
He felt out of place here: kneeling among eleven other people in a room that made him feel like a giant. His complexion wasn’t made for small places like this, he was made for battle, to be out there, fighting. But this wasn’t about him, Enji reminded himself. This was about Touya and about those words he was trying to understand.
“The best way to deal with an open wound is to bandage it,” the instructor said as she made a demonstration on the dummy sitting in front of her. “If there’s a sharp object in the way, remember to never remove it. Always apply the bandage around it, while you wait for a paramedic.”
Enji looked down at Touya, but his eyes were fixed on the instructor, hungrily absorbing everything she said. Kids, some people said, were like sponges at this age. That was why it was so important to him to start Touya’s training as soon as possible. He never expected things to end up the way they did, but he still had hope. Rei was pregnant with their third child and maybe… maybe this time…
“I need to bandage your arm!” Touya said. He was standing next to him and yet, Enji was still taller than him. Kids were very small, he had discovered. He had been nervous when he carried Touya for the first time. Too afraid to hold him too tightly when he was born, he decided it was for the best if Rei carried him until he learnt how to walk properly.
Now, Touya was tall enough to reach his knees.
With a sigh, Enji offered him his arm and quietly watched Touya move around to bandage him properly.
“You need to leave one centimeter between each fold” he said, probably repeating the instructor’s words. “…or else it won’t work. It can’t be too tight, either.”
Enji nodded and, just to say something, he said:
“You are doing a good job,” and patted his head. It was still red, but it wouldn’t be that way for much longer, he thought. It was a real tragedy, really. Touya could’ve been such a prodigy, but he had been cursed with his mother’s weak constitution instead of her ice quirk. It’d be alright. It was a matter of trial and error. Wait and try again.
Touya looked up at him, almost as if he was surprised, before smiling at him. It had been a while since the last time his son had smiled like that, he thought. It was… good to see. This was better than see him screaming and crying over something they couldn’t change.
“I need to do your head now, lean down!” Touya said once his arm was done. It was warm and itchy, but he didn’t complain. Touya was a kid and he never complained about his own bandages and those were probably more uncomfortable, Enji thought as he bowed low enough for Touya to reach his head.
His fingers were small and gentle against his head. He wasn’t sure why he had expected Touya to take advantage of this situation and pull his hair now that he had an excuse, but he didn’t. Instead, he covered one of his eyes with the same dedication of a nurse. Once given a task, Touya put his head into doing it perfectly, he reminded himself. That was why he was such a tragic loss. He could’ve been such a great hero…
“How are you two doing?” asked the instructor as she walked towards them and looked at Enji’s bandages. “Good job!” she said, looking at Touya. “Have you ever thought about becoming a paramedic? Or even a doctor?” she asked.
Touya shook his head, then and smiled at her.
“I’m going to be a hero! Like my dad!” he said, proudly.
“Of course, of course!” the instructor said, probably used of hearing that kind of thing from little kids. “Well, it’s good to know there’ll be a hero out there with some medical training! Half of them don’t know what to do with the victims, you know?” she said, cheerfully.
Enji wanted to sigh again, but he tried to control himself.
Since that night, Touya would spend his free time bandaging his little sister. The poor girl looked like a mummy most days, but at least it was enough of a distraction to keep him from using his quirk. Every night, Touya still waited for him to come back but, instead of demanding his final technique, he asked to go to the clinic again.
Considering the alternative, Enji decided it was for the best, even if it meant to drive for twenty minutes and sit down for forty while the boy used him as his personal doll to cover in bandages or practice his tourniquets.
As long as he didn’t try any of this with Fuyumi it’d be okay.
Touya’s excitement for his first aid training lasted for two weeks before he started to ask for his regular training again.
“Now I know how to bandage myself if I get hurt, so can we please continue our training?” he had asked one night, after they got home. Honestly, he should’ve expected it. Touya was stubborn, he should’ve known he’d keep trying to master his quirk. So, perhaps, he just needed some other distraction.
Teaching him martial arts seemed like a logical thing to do. He had picked first aid classes the first time because he had seen a pamphlet but putting Touya in self-defense classes was his idea.
It made sense. It was like his usual training except he didn’t need to use his quirk. Now, Enji didn’t know how to fight without his own quirk. Well… that’s not true. He was well trained in combat, of course, but through the years, he had developed his own technique, his own style and now, all his movements, even his own costume, revolved around his Hellfire. He was proud of his flames, and he knew Touya was, as well. So, it was strange to translate his training into something more Touya-friendly.
Picking a professional was the obvious next step. Unfortunately, he needed to stay around and, with Rei taking care of Fuyumi, so that left him as the designated parent to drive Touya and stay around while he practiced. Once he turned nine, he’d be able to stay alone in the dojo, but until then, he had to sit next to the other parents.
The dojo was larger than the clinic, at least and the seats were comfortable.
“…Akido’s primary goal is to overcome oneself, that’s the true and final victory” the instructor was saying. Enji had missed half the introduction, but Touya was kneeling with the others, paying attention. “It’s a peaceful practice that does not seek to cultivate violence or aggressiveness. It’s used for self-defense while also protecting the attackers from injury” he said.
Enji rolled his eyes. This was not what he had expected when he picked this dojo. It had been convenient, since it was close to home and it had a good reputation, but Enji had hoped for kendo or maybe even judo, but this worked just as well, he supposed. It wasn’t like Touya was going to be using this with villains or anything. This was just something to keep his mind busy, to keep him from burning himself alive
“But how can we use it to destroy villains, then?” asked a boy, with his little hand up in the air. Enji didn’t need to look up to know it was Touya’s.
“Heroes are not meant to destroy villains. Perhaps you are a little young to see this, but villains are as much human beings as you and me. The difference is that they lived through circumstances that changed them. Villains are not born but made by their environment. And it’s a true hero’s job to help them recover and rehabilitate themselves rather than brutalize them”.
Enji couldn’t see Touya’s expression from here, but he could guess he was either frowning or rolling his eyes. One couldn’t defeat a villain with pacifism… but then again, that wouldn’t be Touya’s case.