Chapter Text
It was only coincidence that had led him to be in Musutafu rather than Naruhata at the time. It was a Friday afternoon in early December, and he had been roped in to help with an incident at a shopping centre. He was expecting to hang around until the drunk and foolish came out to play, when he got a call from an unknown number.
“Eraser here.”
“This is Detective Tanuma at the Quirk Crimes Division. We need your help on an urgent case.” The old copper took a breath. “Urgent and sensitive. Are you in Musutafu right now?”
“Yep.”
“Good. Do you know where Endeavor lives?”
Shouta stiffened. “Villains? In Endeavor’s own home? Is his family safe?”
“No villains,” Tanuma replied, his voice flat. “We received an emergency call from his daughter saying that he’s lost control. Endeavor, that is. Lost control and is hurting her brothers. The old housekeeper may also be injured.”
“What about his wife?”
“She was sectioned a couple of weeks ago after pouring boiling water on the youngest kid.”
“Shit,” said Shouta. “What do you want me to do?”
“We’re going to need you to erase his quirk if we’re going to have any chance to disable him and extract the civilians.”
Civilians, thought Shouta. His own family. This looked very bad.
“I’m on my way.”
Fifteen minutes later he met up with Tanuma in front of the Todoroki mansion. There was already a significant police presence there, but, Shouta noted, a distinct lack of heroes.
“Thank you for coming, Aizawa-kun,” said Tanuma. They had met a couple of times before, and Shouta found the detective quite amiable. His demeanour was normally quite relaxed, but tonight he was skittish. He led Shouta a section away from the cars.
“Aren’t you going to need All Might if you’re to take down Endeavor?” Shouta asked.
“For the sake of the children we want to do this as discreetly as possible,” he explained.
Of course. All Might would mean publicity.
“You need a nobody,” Shouta conceded.
Tanuma didn’t reply. “Have you ever interacted directly with Endeavor?” asked instead instead.
“No.”
“Would he know who you are and what your quirk is?”
Shouta thought for a bit. He hadn’t exactly made a name for himself at UA.There had been a bit of press after Oboro died and he took down Garvey, but since they were minors at the time they hadn’t been mentioned by name.
“No, he would have no reason to know who I am,” he admitted.
“Good, good,” said Tanuma. Good grief, he thought to himself. This kid is on record as being 20 years old, but he sounds like he’s barely out of puberty. “Er, you’ll be partnering up with officer Netsumiru here,” he said, indicating a stern middle-aged woman who was staring intently at the house. “Her quirk is Thermovision, so can see where all the members of the family are based on their body temperature. Update?”
“He’s still in the dojo with the oldest kid,” she said. “Looks like the two kids with ice quirks are trying to drag the old lady to safety. The littlest one is on the floor by the door to the dojo. He hasn’t moved for some time. It’s concerning.”
“Time to move in, then,” said Tanuma.
It was pretty much a blur after that. Shouta really only came to again in the van after the children had been rescued. It had been hell. Thanks to Erasure they had managed to put enough tranquillisers in Endeavor to incapacitate him without anyone getting burnt. The children had been screaming and crying. He never wanted to experience something like that again. This guy was supposed to be a hero. If this was behaviour hero society deemed acceptable, he would have to re-assess his belief in it. The old housekeeper had been taken to hospital. Her condition was not life-threatening, but possibly crippling. Shouta had been sickened by hearing some of the officers saying that her injury would definitely mean prosecution for Endeavor. Because hurting a non-relative was apparently punished more severely than abusing family members. He wanted to scream “can’t you see their suffering?!” But he did not, for he was a nobody, and couldn’t afford to make a fuss. So he kept quiet, and pretended that his tears were from the eye strain.
The children were mostly physically unharmed. Now they were sat with Shouta in the back of a police van. There were too many of them to fit in the back seat of a police car, and they hadn’t wanted to separate them. Shouta already got the gist of their dynamics: Touya, the oldest, aggressive and lashing out; Fuyumi, the peacemaker; Natsuo, trying to be responsible beyond his years; and little Shouto, not even out of kindergarten and already traumatised to hell and back. As it turned out, he was not lying still on the floor because he had been injured. He was instinctively playing dead. As soon as Shouta had knelt down to check on him, the child had attached himself to the front of his jumpsuit and wouldn’t let go. So Shouto stayed in his lap, weeping quietly into his capture scarf, with Shouta gently stroking his hair and back. Maybe with this intervention the kids will have a chance of a normal life. No. Scratch that. An okay life. Abuse was not a normal feature of a child’s life. They had already been damaged.
“Um, hero-senpai?” asked Fuyumi.
Shouta’s head jerked up.
“What’s going to happen to us now?”
“I don’t know,” Shouta admitted. “But I know that he won’t hurt you again. The Hero Safety Commission won’t stand for it.”
“They’ve stood for it until now,” grumbled Touya. He bit his lip. “I was supposed to go up to Sekoto peak this Saturday. And dad was going to come watch me, and he was finally going to see how strong I’ve become. And...and…” He choked, then stiffened. And then he retched up a stomachful of watery bile.
Shouta deposited little Shouto in his sister’s lap and dived towards the teenager.
“You’re okay, you’re okay,” Shouta reassured him, wiping the puke off the kid’s chin with a tissue. “You’re coming down from the adrenaline high. You’re going to be okay.”
The boy’s breathing was beginning to even out.
“I should have...done more to...fight back…” he sobbed,
“Maybe if I helped out more at home, he wouldn’t have…” said Fuyumi.
“NO.”
The kids tensed up. That had came out a bit harsher than Shouta had intended.
“No,” he repeated, softer this time. “You are children. It’s not your responsibility to appease your parents. It’s supposed to be unconditional, right. Your parents are supposed to love you unconditionally,” said Shouta, the memories welling up inside. “What you’ve been through...It’s all wrong.” He had to work hard to not let his voice break. “It’s all been f...messed up, what he did to you. Think of it as waking up, alright? You’re waking up right now to a reality that doesn’t allow that kind of thing to go on behind closed doors. You’re safe now, okay? Safe from him and everyone like him.”
And that opened the floodgates the two older boys had been holding back until now. Touya, eyes wild with rage and fear, and Natsuo, the stiff mask of his face falling at last.
“Oh…” said Fuyumi, Shouto beginning to get agitated on her lap.
“What is it?” said Shouta, returning to his seat. “Did he pee on you?”
“No, it’s, um...the...girl thing…” the child stammered. “It’s not the right time.”
“Oh,” said Shouta. “Okay. They’ll sort you out at the hospital. In fact…” He lifted Shouto off her lap and the kid reattached his death-grip of Shouta’s capture scarf. “I’ll get a friend to meet us there.”
Shouta:
Can you come to Central Hospital?
Nemuri:
What have you done this time???
Shouta:
Not me. Domestic abuse case. 12yo girl got her period from the shock. Not first time but quite stirred up.
Nemuri:
You’ve got a heart of gold, Eraser. OMW. Which department?
Shouta:
Children’s mental health.
“Why do we need to go to the hospital, hero-senpai?” said Natsuo, who seemed to have cried himself out now. “None of us are really hurt.”
Shouta didn’t know what to say to that. How to explain to abused children that even though their bodies were unharmed, their minds and their souls were damaged and needed to be looked after. Mercifully, the children’s mental health building came into view at that moment. Despite the brutalist aesthetic, it was a sight as comforting now as it was then. Shouta ignored the stabs of déjà vu, and carried Shouto through entrance.
“The girl needs a pad,” he told the admittance nurse. “And the oldest boy could use a new shirt without puke on it.”
“Oldest?” she replied.
Shouta understood her confusion. Thirteen-year-old Touya was about the same size as eight-year-old Natsuo. There was probably a story there that he was not privy to, but that could wait.
“We have been briefed of the situation,” the nurse went on. “Is there anything else we should know?”
“They’ll need to be checked for physical injuries eventually,” said Shouta, and hefted little Shouto more safely up on his hip. “For now emergency mental health care takes priority. Oh, and separating them is a bad idea.”
“Of course,” she said, and led the children towards their room.
It was a four-bed room. The three oldest Todorokis obediently took a bed each and co-operated with the nurses triaging them. Shouto, on the other hand, was still attacked to Shouta’s costume with a death-grip. No amount of cajoling would make him let go. Shouta was about to accept that this was his life now, when he unexpectedly let go of his own volition. Instead, the child raised his arms towards Shouta’s head. A hug. He was asking for a hug. Shouta obliged. This was different from the grip he’d had of Shouta before. That was gripping and carrying. This was the act of asking for tenderness from someone he evidently trusted. And the kid truly deserved to trust people. He cradled the back of that two-toned head gently.
“You’re good with kids,” said the nurse who was trying to triage Shouto.
“Well, I…” Shouta began. He was barely out of adolescence himself. Oboro used to say that he was good with kids. He was attentive and safety-conscious. The official diagnosis would be hypervigilant. Not surprising, considering… Maybe all that had made him a safe person, someone who could be trusted by kids with that kind of experience. All he knew now was that the kids were safe. Here they could recover. In this place, where the staff had looked after him when he was unable to look after himself. When it had eventually come to that… Rock bottom. The place where you can start to recover.
His phone beeped.
Nemuri: im here. where are you???
Shouta: room 028
This was followed instantly by the unmistakable sound of Nemuri pelting down the corridor in heels.
“Excuse me, I’m…” He tried to get up but little Shouto grabbed onto his hand like his life depended on it. He crouched down to be eye-level with the kid.
“I’m just going to step outside the room to talk to my friend. Here -” He handed the kid the end of his capture scarf and started unwinding enough to make it reach into the corridor. This was apparently acceptable to Shouto.
“What a clever idea,” said the nurse, who by now was having more luck triaging the kid.
He unravelled himself into the corridor and was suddenly eye-height with Nemuri’s tits.
“Oh,” he said.
“Oh!” she replied. What’s with the...”
“I’ll explain everything in time.,” he said, and frowned. “Why are you so dolled up?”
She was. Nemuri had sprung into action wearing heels, a mini-shirt, a rather revealing blouse, and the full works of hair, jewellery, and make-up.
“I was heading out to dinner,” she said, and then made a dramatic pause. “Well? Aren’t you going to ask me who with?”
“That’s none of my business,” Shouta professed.
“But you’d love to know so you can pass judgment like you always do.”
Damn. He’d been known.
“Do you know pro-hero Ingenium? He’s about our age.”
“Yeah, he’s boring,” he huffed. “And a bit too straight-laced for you, probably.”
“Of course he is, but he’s rich and he’s paying,” said Nemuri. “Now what can you tell me about the kids?”
Ah, yes. He had been temporarily distracted from the ongoing horrors. He moved closer to her.
“It’s Endeavor’s kids,” he said quietly, and put his hand over her mouth while she mumbled one million follow-up questions. Once she fell silent he released her, and went on. “No, not a villain attack. No, not hostages. They were abused. By Endeavor himself.”
“What the fuck?” she replied.
“He’s been taken into custody,” he continued. “Apparently it’d been going on for years. It would have stayed hidden if the girl hadn’t phoned the police.” He sighed. “Endeavor lost it after the oldest kid stood up to him about over-training the youngest one.” He fluttered his capture scarf. “He’s five years old. Oh, and he beat his wife too. Until she snapped and injured the youngest one, so Endeavor had her sectioned.”
“My god, Shouta!” She took a moment to gather herself, and dabbed her watering eyes with her sleeve. “So you called me. I’m glad you did.”
“You were the logical choice since the situation required sensitive handling,” he said, folding his arms.
“Instead of…” She mimed Mic’s hair crest. “He worries about you, you know. We all do.”
“Nem, not this again,” he snapped. “Not now.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Nemuri cleared her throat. “Poor girl,” she said. “Starting puberty with no mother around to guide her.”
“They had an elderly housekeeper-slash-childminder,” said Shouta. “But Endeavor’s put her in the hospital as well.”
Nemuri’s bottom lip wobbled. “I’ll give her a good girl-talk,” she declared.
“There’s a nice view from the atrium,” Shouta informed her.
“Got it,” she replied, and stepped into the room.
“Hello everyone, I am Shouta’s friend Nemuri. It’s nice to meet you all,” she said and bowed politely to the kids. “Oh, those are some really cute glasses!” she said to Fuyumi, and rushed over the compare the girl’s spectacles to her own, off-duty ones.
Ice, broken. That was one good thing about these chatty types. Shouta breathed a sign of relief, and suddenly found himself being reeled in. Shouto had finished his mental health assessment and was now being examined for physical injuries. Now that the child’s face was no longer pressed against his chest, Shouta noticed that his facial wound had been bleeding and needed to be cleaned and wrapped. He was starting to sniffle and get red in the eyes, so Shouta sat down and pulled the child into his lap. The nurse smiled. Her name badge read Kaoru.
“Looks like he feels safe with you,” she said, starting to gently dab the area around his eye with antiseptic. There was an additional fragrance in the air which he noticed came from Kaoru: a scent-based quirk. The smell itself was hard to describe but it seemed to have a mildly relaxing effect on Shouto, who was jittery and shaking but didn’t cry. He had probably learnt since getting this wound that crying made the pain worse. This close up it looked awful. There was a lot of deep tissue damage. It would leave a permanent scar. Such a terrible thing.
“There,” said the nurse. “You’re all wrapped up.”
Shouto whined a little and leaned the other side of his face against Shouta’s chest.
“You’ve been very brave today,” said Shouta and stroked his hair. “Braver than anyone should have to be at your age. But you’re safe now, okay? No one’s going to hurt you again. Do you understand?”
“M-hm,” said Shouto, nodding ever so slightly.
“How about we get you a tasty snack?” said the nurse when she had finished cleaning up.
“Mmmm!” said Shouto.
Poor thing, thought Shouta. It was now about 9pm and he had probably not eaten since lunchtime. So the staff served them a quick meal, and soon little Shouto had noodle-tentacles spilling down his chin and onto his shirt from stuffing his face too quickly. Shouta patiently slowed him down and wiped the spillage away. Nemuri and Fuyumi returned with an ample supply of chocolate for the girl, and the meal was beginning to calm feelings down. Only Touya was sat holding his noodle bowl apathetically with a thousand-yard stare. No kid should have a thousand-yard stare, thought Shouta. He couldn’t imagine what this kid had seen.
“We could ask the staff to get you a heating pad to help with the pain,” Nemuri suggested to Fuyumi.
The girl thought for a bit. “Touya put his hands on my tummy before when I had…” she drifted off. “It helped, but he said it was icky ‘cause I’m a girl.”
“Touya, that’s not very mature of you,” Nemuri jokingly admonished him.
And then Touya uttered something between a sob and a cough, and broke. He dropped the bowl and started ugly crying. Snot and tears streamed down his face, and he was sobbing so hard he gagged. In between heaving, shaking breaths he was muttering “should have done more” and “my fault”. While Touya was in the best possible place to have a breakdown, Shouta had frozen in place. The boy he was looking at was him. He was twelve years old and had just made it out of that house. He was sixteen years old and his best friend had just died. And just like then, the same saviour came bursting in through the door: Kengo-san.
Kengo-san was a large and gentle soul who had the demeanour of a wolf since he, in fact, had wolf-heteromorph ancestry. It was diluted enough to not give him any non-human facial features, but he had grey-black beard, bushy eyebrows, and hair – well, head-fur – that continued down his neck and back. Of course he would be on duty on a Friday night. At the sight of him Shouta managed to resume breathing. He was not the victim here. Return to the present. He did the ‘five things’ grounding exercise Kengo-san had taught him during his first stay here. Five things I can see: Kengo-san, crying child, window, beds....uhhhh….spilled bowl of noodles. Four things I can feel: my breath in my nose, the weight of the child I’m holding, capture scarf against my chin, tissue in my hand….He realised that he was clutching of the tissue he had been cleaning up Shouto with. For dear life Three things I can hear….Oh no….Touya crying. Though crying was probably an understatement. Kengo-san’s voice. Yes, he could hear the calming voice comforting Touya, but couldn’t make out any words. Uhhh….What else? Oh. Alarm. Kaoru must have activated the alarm to alert more staff. That’s why Kengo-san came. He closed his eyes since they were starting to feel damp. It was too much. All the misery he had seen today courtesy of Endeavor came crashing down on him. He swallowed thickly. Two things I can smell: noodles, disinfectant. The source of both smells was sitting perfectly still in his lap. Shouto had abandoned his noodles and was now looking at him expectantly. Oh. His little hand was gripping the capture scarf gently. Of course the kid was well tuned in other people’s emotions. That’s how you survive in an abusive home. So now Shouta let the tears fall and gave Shouto a genuine smile while patting his head. One thing that I love about myself. Shouta always had a problem with this one, but now the answer came to him right away: I love that I am a safe person who people can rely on. I am not perfect – nobody is – but I will do all I can to keep people safe from harm. And then he realised why this felt so heavy: it was a huge burden he had helped to shift from these kids’ lives. He had changed their world, was changing their world.
“Touya will be okay,” he said to Shouto. “Sometimes you just need to cry and scream to let all the hurt out.”
“Yes,” said Shouto sagely, and gave him a hug. Was the kid comforting him now?
Meanwhile, Kengo-san had managed to help Touya get control of his breathing at least. He was beyond any kind of grounding exercise so Kengo-san was focussing on getting him to stop hyperventilating so he wouldn’t pass out. Touya had thrown up again, was sweating profusely, and might possibly have wet himself. But that was okay. Better to let it out right away than letting it fester.
“You’re safe, kid,” said Kengo-san, and held Touya gently in his strong arms. “And none of it was your fault. The fact that you feel responsible means that you’re a good person. You hear that? You’re a good kid, Todoroki Touya.”
By now Touya was just plain crying, meaning that the emergency was over for now. Kaoru silenced the alarm, and made sure the other kids were doing okay. Fuyumi was being comforted by Nemuri, but Natsuo was alone and unattended.
“Come here, Natsuo-kun,” said Shouta. The boy approached tentatively. He was so tall for his age it was easy to forget that he was closer in age to Shouto than Touya.
“Your big brother got so terribly upset because he feels responsible for his siblings,” said Shouta. “But what you have all been through is the responsibility of your parents and none of yours. Do you understand?”
Natsuo nodded uncertainly. Of course he wouldn’t quite know how to react right now. Touya was upset but Shouto looked quite calm.
“Are we homeless now?” he asked Shouta.
“You will be cared for,” said Shouta. “A hero society cannot and will not abandon abused kids. What the practical arrangement will be I don’t know. You may be in foster care or a children’s home for a while until a more permanent solution is found. Maybe your mother will eventually recover enough to be able to care for you all again. We’ll make sure you stay together, in any case.”
“So...We’re not going to live with dad anymore?”
“No, Natsuo-kun,” said Shouta patiently. “You aren’t safe with him. You understand that, right?”
“But…” Natsuo began, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Last time he got some men in suits to protect him. Nothing changed.”
Last time. So this was not the first time outsiders got wind of what was going on in the Todoroki family.
“Who were they?” asked Shouta.
“The Hero Safety Commission,” Touya replied. He sniffed, and wiped his face on the washcloth Kengo-san handed him. “They’ve known for years. And that’s alright by them I guess, as long as it doesn’t come out.”
The world-weariness of his voice was painful to hear. Even if Endeavor was rich and powerful, surely he couldn’t get away with this?
“We might get taken away,” Touya continued. “But he’ll twist it into something that’ll make him look good.” Touya spat as if to punctuate his opinion of his father. The bedding would need to be changed anyway. “I want to shower,” he added to Kengo-san.
“Good idea. Can you manage on your own? We’ll get you some clean clothes.”
While Touya occupied the bathroom, Kaoru and her colleagues got on with changing the bedding and getting the kids pyjamas and toothbrushes.
“Should we shower too?” asked Fuyumi, who could barely keep her eyes open.
“I think it can wait til tomorrow,” said Nemuri.
“Uh, Touya-nii is supposed to put on this special cream after he’s washed,” said Natsuo.
“Yes, it’s for the burns from his Quirk,” added Fuyumi. “His skin’s all messed up.”
Kaoru nodded. “I’ll go and find some of that.”
Shouta exhaled. It seemed that the drama was over for now, so they got the kids ready for bed. Natsuo crawled into Touya’s bed, while Nemuri stayed with Fuyumi. Well, there was nothing for it. Little Shouto wasn’t going to let go of him during the night. The kid even made a point of telling pro hero Eraserhead that he should also brush his teeth before bed. And who was he to disagree? So pro hero Eraserhead – Aizawa Shouta, aged 20 (just about) – did as he was told by the young Mr Todoroki, and then bedded down next to the kindergartener.
“Good to see you again, Shouta-kun,” said Kengo-san, once he was finished with Touya. “You’ve grown up well.”
“Thank you for being here for the kids, Kengo-san,” said Shouta.
“A pro hero, eh,” said Kengo-san, and ruffled Shouta’s hair with his giant paw. “I’m very proud of you.”
At least someone is, Shouta didn’t say. You were my hero, back then, when I had nothing, and no one.