Chapter 5: Book 1: Thunder - Bitter Work
"I'm sorry, dear," is the first thing her father says to Toph that night, just after they've finished their last course of dinner. It's been a whole afternoon of utter silence between the three Beifongs.
Toph immediately straightens up, carefully monitoring her father's mood. It's always been hard to tell with him.
"...I'm sorry it took you being kidnapped for us to realize how… poorly we've handled your upbringing."
She doesn't know what he means. He doesn't sound worried or angry, just… tired. "It's okay, father. I don't blame you for all that's happened."
"But you should, dear," he shakes his head, setting down his chopsticks. "You're clearly acting out, and it's gone unchecked for too long."
The shift in his tone is sharp and biting. Toph stiffens. "What? I-I'm not—"
"Don't interrupt your father," he reminds her, and Toph's mouth clamps shut. "You've been using your quirk, in public and unsupervised," he accuses. "You were taken because of that quirk, Toph. You could've been killed because of it."
The words ring oddly in her head. That quirk. Like he blames the power itself. She frowns. "Isn't it—isn't it the villains' fault? They wanted elemental quirks, I told the officers everything about it, we were picked because—"
"This isn't about the villains, Toph! We don't discuss villainsat the dinner table, it's unbecoming," Lao derails her argument, sighing heavily. Toph purses her lips. "You snuck out. You disobeyed me when we've been telling you all along that your ability was dangerous. You went out to use your quirk, and now villains are after you."
What, like villains didn't exist before she was kidnapped? "Well—it's my quirk, what else am I supposed to do? Just—just not use it?"
"Not like this," Lao answers lowly. "You're too young to understand. That quirk—all it does is put you in danger. Do you know you sustained eighteen different micro-fractures in your hands? We're lucky you didn't damage any nerve endings. You are a Beifong. You are my heir. You will not do anything like this ever again—you will not go gallivanting off to become a hero like that despicable man, Endeavor."
Toph jolts her in her seat. "I—I never said I wanted to be a hero," she argues, but it's useless. They know. That's what this is about.
Her father is tense, and she can sense his hand moving sharply through the air as he speaks. "Toph, you will neverbe a hero if I have anything to say about it! That Yoarashi boy has been filling your head with lies, and I'm not going to let it continue. He's not good for you, Toph."
"You—you can't stop me," Toph exclaims, rising to her feet. "Twink—Inasa's never lied to me, he's seen what I can do and he thinks I can be a hero—!"
Lao's hands slam on the table. "He. Is. Lying."
"You're the liar!" Toph screams. "You think I can't tell when you're unhappy with me?! You think I don't know why you haven't enrolled me in school or let me outside the grounds? You don't care about what I want or need, you just wish your cripple daughter was gone! Problem solved! The Beifongs don't have a daughter!" She jerks away from the table, and her chair clatters to the floor loudly. She turns away.
"Don't you walk away from me, young lady!" Lao barks, and Toph freezes. "Get back here right now!"
She doesn't move.
Lao stays seated, but she can sense the tension in his body by the stiff movements of his arms, the strain in his voice. "If you cannot do as you're told, I have different ways of making you obey, daughter."
Endeavor stares at the files in his hand for a moment longer before they warp and crumble in his fist, and he tosses them aside. Nothing. There is nothing on the Beifongs. He can't get anyone to talk. Even the detectives he's supposedly working with aren't helping. It's so obvious, even if no one would dare utter the words.
The Beifongs are protected. By who, by what, he can't figure out. They still haven't filled out the quirk registration forms, and if they don't do it within the next two weeks at least Endeavor will have reason to formally request an inquiry into the family.
But until then, he's stuck with the one crumb of evidence that'll let him keep the Beifongs on his radar: Toph Beifong's police interview.
According to Toph Beifong, the Elementals mentioned working with Amon's Vision. She mentioned the phrase casually, and clearly had no idea what it was—a powerful cult that was broken up several years ago—but it meant the kidnapping case wasn't closed while he investigated her claim about the cult.
What it meant for the Beifongs though, is that Endeavor still had an incredibly valid reason for keeping tabs on their daughter. Because of her enhanced hearing, she's the only one that even heard the cult name. And even with that, he's getting a hell of a lot of pushback from the police force about his inquires into her family.
It's absurd how much pull those Beifongs have—no detective will touch the case. Saitama's chief of police has already visited him "just to check in" and blatantly advised against any further investigation.
There's no doubt in his mind that the Beifongs are corrupt. It's just a matter of how corrupt, and how that ties into their treatment of their daughter, if at all. Hell, their daughter's probably fine! She's strong. She's got a great quirk, and she seems resilient enough to withstand whatever nonsense her parents tossed her way. He should focus on the potential for corruption in Lao Beifong's businesses in Japan and China.
Either way, he's stuck. On his own he can't find anything on the Beifongs that even hints towards criminal activity, and using the resources at his disposal would require a formal request for information—something he's been denied twicealready.
A sinister, furious part of Enji bets that if All Might asked about the Beifongs, no one would even bat an eye.
For now, he'll just have to focus on the kidnapping. Even if the villains they detained on-site weren't talking and haven't confessed to any ties to Amon's Vision. Fucking hell.
"Give it a rest, Endeavor," one the detectives leans against the far side of his desk. She peers over the files in his hands slyly, and Endeavor has to stop himself from moving them out of her sight. "I know it still bugs you that they nabbed your son from right under your nose, but c'mon," she says lazily, "It's over. The kids are all safe."
Are they? All of them? The fact that Enji can't answer that is reason enough to keep digging.
"You've read the transcripts from the interrogations, haven't you?" Endeavor replies evenly, his eyes sliding over to the name stitched over her chest.
"Tch, yeah I have," the detective rolls her dark eyes. "Bunch of idiots, they're all still pissed they got caught so quick."
"You think any of those idiots are clever or powerful enough to pull off a mass kidnapping like this, Detective Ito?" he asks her plainly. "Because even if they were stopped early on, it still takes a lot of resources and coordination to move so quickly."
The woman frowns slightly, but just rolls her eyes again and scoffs. "I suppose that's why you're called Endeavor, eh?" She pushes off from the desk, sipping from a styrofoam cup of coffee. Enji is half-certain it's his coffee, actually, but he sure as hell doesn't want it back now. "You just have to keep going, don't you?" She shakes her head as she leaves, patting his shoulder consolingly.
Endeavor frowns at the files once more. Out of the three detectives he's in contact with, Detective Ito seems the least problematic, but she's certainly just as skeptical as the rest of them. He doesn't blame them. So far there hasn't been any further evidence of a link to that old cult. And as for the Beifong angle, none of the detectives spoke to the girl the way he had. They were only there to watch Lao Beifong say a few words to a doctor, make a phone call, and then turn his back on the Number Two Hero.
The crumpled files, a series of totally normal financial reports from one of Beifong's mining sites, feel heavy in his hands. There's no proof. There's just a blind little girl and her absolute scumbag of a father. Was this even about Toph anymore? Or was it a question of who's ego was bigger: his or Lao Beifong's?
He'll just have to keep working to find out.
Her mother's heart rate jumps, and Toph hears the swish of fabric as Poppy leans over to touch her husband's arm. Her voice is a balm, a satin ribbon twisting in the air. "Lao, please. She's only seven."
"Like what?" Toph demands of her father, lifting her chin in a blatant challenge. "I'd love to see you try to stop me."
"Toph, Lao, stop this," Poppy cries, rising to her feet as well. She clutches her husband's shoulder, heart fluttering. "My love, there is a better way," her voice lowers to a gentle, controlled whisper. "I have a better way. Let me handle this. Please sit down, Toph, I know we can work out an agreement."
Toph's heart is pounding, a sharp contrast to the gentle, fluttery nervousness of her mother. Toph doesn't want to work out an agreement. She wants to see Inasa and Shouto, she wants to fight and play and run without feeling like she's doing something wrong.
Yelling at her parents doesn't make Toph feel good. She just wants them to understand. And isn't that the point of an agreement? she thinks. Slowly, Toph returns to her seat, her lips pressed into a hard line. "...Okay, mother."
Poppy sits back down, her hand slipping off of Lao. "I think we need to start by explaining some things to you, dear." Lao grows tense at her side, and Poppy laces their fingers together once more. "I'm worried about how this whole event might be affecting you, Toph. And I know you don't want to tell us when you're afraid or scared."
Toph bites down hard on the urge to declare that she was never afraid during her kidnapping.
Her mother sighs. "That hero seemed concerned for you too. I think a good way to prove to us and to him that you're recuperating well is to hire a quirk therapist to update your records. Someone you can talk to freely about your quirk, a-and your experience." Poppy's heart is fluttering again in worry. "We just want you to be safe."
A therapist, not a quirk doctor? Toph isn't sure what the difference is. If she's updating her records, that's what Endeavor wanted her to do anyway, right? That's the part that's actually supposed to help her…
"You won't... make me stop using my quirk?" Toph asks to be sure.
"Goodness, I don't see how we could," Poppy replies easily, giving a short laugh. "But we want you to be more careful about it. I do agree with your father about that Yoarashi boy—"
"He's my friend," Toph snaps, clutching the edge of the table. "Don't tell me he's lying to me!"
Poppy is silent. Toph can feel the tension return to the air, and grimaces.
"I—I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled." Even though all she wants to do is scream.
Her mother takes a deep breath and continues. "I think he's made you unruly. But I also think you must be lonely without anyone your age here," Poppy says tenderly. "That's why we're moving to a new prefecture, somewhere safer—" Toph sucks in a sharp breath "—and you'll be enrolled in school next year."
The pang in her chest lessens, if only from bewilderment. "...School?"
That had never been an option before.
Her mother's earrings jingle as she nods, a familiar melody of thin golden hoops. "I told you, my lotus. We can compromise."
Toph exhales a long, slow breath. "But you won't let me say goodbye, will you?" She guesses, but the answer is obvious. It's why, just minutes before Toph knew her parents would enter the hospital ward, she hugged Twinkletoes so hard that neither of them could breath for a moment, and why she didn't have an answer for him when he teased her about wanting mushy hugs after all.
"He's not worth your time, my dear," her mother answers gently, in a voice so syrupy Toph wants to barf. "If anything, playing with that boy is what put you in danger in the first place."
"But we were—"
"—He's the reason you thought fighting villains was the right thing to do," her mother continues. "Wasn't he?"
"But mother, Inasa was just—"
"Toph!" She cries, her voice wavering delicately. "Please, my dear. You were the only two children to be hurt today, and the fault lies with that boy. I will not hear anymore about it. Is that clear, my love?"
"Toph, I can't wait till we're heroes!" Inasa cries, flopping onto the hard ground. "We're gonna be so cool together, we'll be unstoppable! The greatest heroes!"
"Together?" Toph wonders. "Like hero partners? Partners are rare, aren't they? And they don't last as long," she points out. She's been trying to learn more about heroes ever since meeting Twinkletoes.
"Well, yeah, but they're not us! I mean, you're crazy strong anyways, you could go solo too. And so could I. But…"
"But?"
"But aren't we stronger together? I think we are. Plus, you know if we're rivals in school, I'll know your moves as well as you'll know mine!"
Toph snorts. She'll always know his moves better than the other way around. But instead of telling him this, she reaches out and punches his shoulder.
"Ouch!" Inasa complains, still cheerful.
"I think we'll have to be keep being rivals before we're hero partners," Toph decides. "How else will I know if you're even worth partnering with? Ask me again once we're pros, eh?"
Inasa laughs. "Ugh! Fine! We'll keep bein' rivals for now! But—we're still friends, right?" He checks.
Toph doesn't care if it's a contradiction. "We're always gonna be friends, Inasa."
"Toph?" Her mother calls her name again. "You're not going to cause anymore trouble over this, are you? You will not speak of that boy. You will not speak of becoming a hero."
Her fingers slowly curl into tight fists beneath the table, out of her parents' sight.
We'll meet again, Twinkles, she vows.
"I won't," Toph replies resolutely.
When we're the greatest heroes.
Toph doesn't have to talk about heroes to become one. She just has to do it.
Inasa doesn't understand. After Toph stops showing up at their secret meeting place—well, it makes sense, this is where they got kidnapped—he doesn't know what to do. His parents don't know her parents. The Beifong family is super rich and impossible to contact. But he's friends with their daughter, so surely they won't mind if he visits her? Even just seeing her face would be enough, it's been weeks since the Elementals incident and Toph can't still be grounded. He just had to do more chores for a week and then he was off the hook.
But when he tracks down the Beifongs' address—really, just the biggest mansion in the prefecture—there's nothing. No one even answers the doorbell at the gate.
He waits a few more days before deciding he has to check it out himself—and maybe it's not very heroic to trespass, but if the Beifongs caught him, Toph would totally vouch for him anyway—so he flies up over the walls and catches himself on a windowsill late at night. He even waited until the full moon so he wouldn't have to bring a flashlight.
Inside the house, all the furniture is covered up with white sheets. He can't see any signs of Toph. It's just a cold, immaculate palace. Or a mausoleum.
Inasa has a sinking feeling in his gut.
"Why can't we hang out at each other's' houses?" Inasa asks her, splitting his bento with the tiny girl.
"My parents are very protective," Toph sighs, rolling her sightless eyes. I'm not supposed to play like this. If they knew about you, I'd never see you again."
Well jeez, he didn't think she was being serious back then. And she did give him a pretty passionate hug back at the hospital. But—it was okay. He would find her. After all, the Beifongs were super rich, and he was bound to hear about them sooner or later. His moms tended to give him a lot of freedom even though he only just turned seven, so he could probably ride the train to Toph's new house once the Beifongs made the news again.
Easy, right?
Chapter 6: Book 1: Thunder - The Secret
QUICK NOTE ABOUT AGES: I describe Shouto, Inasa and Toph as seven year olds, but apparently Shouto's birthday is in January—therefore he's actually only six throughout the whole kidnapping thing, and it's only been about nine months since he got the scar. Toph is actually older than both of the boys, with her birthday just after the start of the school year in April.
I like to keep track of these sort of things, but only after totally ignoring them in my own writing. Endeavor is 37 if anyone was wondering. Poppy is 35, Lao is 40.
A woman drums her fingers against the steering wheel of her car, adding to the percussion beat of rain against her sunroof. She twists the rearview mirror to get a better look at her hair as she takes out her hair ties. It's raining a lot today, and it's ruined the braided bun she usually puts her hair up with. It doesn't matter all the much, she's not that vain, but too much moisture in the air makes her feel gross. Damp, cold days are just inconvenient, you know?
She also forgot an umbrella, so there's that.
Her eyes fall to the picture balanced on her dash, and she smiles a little despite her irritation. She catches movement out the corner of her eye and instinctively she reaches for the picture as the passenger-side door opens abruptly. She leaves the picture face-down as a rain-drenched Endeavor shoves his way into her car, muttering viciously about one thing or another and completely ignoring her.
She raises an eyebrow as the car begins to steam up from his facial… fire-mask thing.
"Hey, no flames inside my car, Mr. Hero," she warns him, already feeling sweaty despite the chilled air he's let in. "Come on, Endeavor, I'm serious."
"What, Ito?!" He barks, clearly not listening. He's too busy shoving the seat all the way back so his legs can fit in her sedan. "This car is awful."
"The flames," Detective Ito says again urgently. "Turn it off! You're not even in costume!" And he isn't, for once, instead wearing an overcoat and a regular business suit beneath it. She's never seen him out of his flaming pajamas before. Honestly, this whole case has been such a mind fuck for Ito.
He just scowls, the flames dissipating quickly.
Ito looks away when he's done bitching, pressing a button to crack the windows open. She fiddles with the settings of her windshield wipers too. "So, Endeavor—" She turns, noticing that he's already looking at her with an odd, not-angry expression "What?" She asks instead, and he quickly looks away, having been caught staring.
"Nothing," Endeavor mutters.
Well, she wouldn't be much of a detective if she didn't know when to push her luck. "What's with the face?" It seems important, he looked pensive. "Endeavor?"He has his arms crossed, so she prods his hand.
"It's not—" His gaze is still focused on the dusty glove box in front of him. "It's nothing. Your hair just looks a lot like my wife's right now." He bristles like an angry cat at his own words. "It's none of your damn business, Ito."
"Oh. Sorry I asked," she says slowly, bewildered by his train of thought. She did push, though, so this is what she gets. "You're a little uptight today, I was hoping you taking a day off meant you'd relax a little." she ventures carefully. After ten days of Endeavor bursting into the precinct to bitch about the Elementals, it was odd to get a phone call from his office telling them not to expect the Flame Hero. "Sure you don't need another sick day?"
"Just drive, Detective Ito," he replies coldly, only looking at her from the corner of his eye. "I'm not sick."
She hums, turning down the heat and holding out her phone to the hero. "Put the address in my phone, will ya?"
Thankfully he takes the phone without question, inputting the coordinates for the prison. "It's quite far. Are you sure you're up for the drive?"
"Well, I'm not letting you drive my car," she answers bluntly. In fact, she'd rather he take a damn taxi to their destination, but technically they need her badge and the approval forms and a few other forms of ID just to get through the front gate. Oh, the joys of bureaucracy. "Make it quick in there, alright? I have an appointment this afternoon," she warns him.
"Another one? You should just take a sick day," he sneers. It would be funny if he actually meant it as a joke, not an insult.
"If only I could afford it," she answers anyway, "I'm not exactly swimming in cash, if you couldn't tell."
"I'm aware," Endeavor sticks her phone back onto the little stand and the directions light up the screen as she pulls out of the parking lot of the precinct. "Your shitty car made that obvious enough."
Shitty car? Really? Ito glares at the road, but her voice stays sickly sweet as she replies, "You'd be much closer to becoming the Number One Hero if you weren't such a shitstain."
She regrets it as soon as the words leave her mouth. He doesn't answer. She's going to get demoted for this. Ito risks a glance his way—"Oh my god, you look awful, I'm actually a little sorry now."
He looks ready to strangle her, but he also looks incredibly stunned (and maybe a little hurt, ha!). "For Kami's sake," he growls, turning away. "If you're so against working with me, why'd you volunteer for this?"
She drums her fingers on the steering wheel again, more nervous than before. "It was either me or Kanto, we played rock-paper-scissors for it." She let Kanto win. She didn't like Endeavor much, but Kanto always sweats a lot around Endeavor and then stinks up the whole office.
"Of course you fucking did," Endeavor scowls, sinking heavily in his seat. "It's not like this is important or anything."
"It really isn't," Ito insists, like she has been for the past week and a half of working with this insufferable asshole. "Your source is wrong. Cults like Amon's Vision rely on a charismatic leader, and no one's better than Tarrlok. Taking him down brought down the whole thing, it's as simple as that."
"AV was all about replacing the Avatar, and so were the Elementals. There's a clear similarity in their thinking—"
"You know what Amon's actual vision was, in the legends?" She cuts him off impatiently. "He wanted to take away all bending abilities. It was a power only granted to the Avatar—so yes, technically speaking, Amon was trying to become as powerful as him. That's the part that AV's following focused on. But what Amon wanted most of all was equalitythrough the erasure of quirks. Balance between the weak and powerful. That was Tarrlok's ultimate goal. So why would he be interested frankenstein-ing an Avatar from those kids? He wouldn't grant that ability to anyone but himself."
Endeavor gives her a suspicious look. "Is there a reason you're bringing all this up right now? You didn't say a word about the Avatar myths while I was actively researching them."
Ito huffs. "Why give you all the answers, huh? You're dead-set on seeing this through either way."
"If you had any sense of duty, so would you," he snaps, making her flinch. "If you don't have any real questions about my work than you're free to stay quiet the rest of this trip."
She stares down the road, caught a little off-guard by the anger in his tone. Ito knew he had a quick temper, she expected his rage, but to be lectured? Chastised by the Number Two Hero? It's a strange feeling.
After a moment she composes herself. "Um. So, you got a game plan for interrogating our guy?"
"I did," Endeavor replies irritably, shifting in his seat. "But Tarrlok's a skilled waterbender, and with all this damn rain…"
"You don't think he'll try anything, do you?" She asks in alarm. "I mean, you're the Flame Hero. And he's got a dozen guns pointed at him at all times."
"He's serving a life sentence with no chance for parole," Endeavor grumbles. "He's got nothing to lose and nothing to gain from this, and the rain makes him stronger."
"Then why are we even going to meet him?" She complains, deflating a little. "And are you even going to meet him? You're soaking wet, he could… oh. Right." She realizes her mistake halfway through her thought when Endeavor gives her a disparaging look. "Hey. For half a second I was actually concerned for your safety," Ito says defensively.
"You can stay in the car, Detective," says Endeavor dryly. "I just needed you for the papers."
"Good to know I'm still useful," Ito remarks, unable to hold it in.
The Flame Hero just sighs, not rising to the taunt.
After a moment he takes out more files from the briefcase shoved between his feet. He begins reading, and Ito takes the hint, rude as it is, to let the conversation die away. For one of the most successful heroes in the country, Endeavor sure is unsociable. It makes her life so difficult.
Ito isn't unsociable. The silence is weird. She flicks on the radio to fill the void, picking some obnoxious boy band because, yeah, she's petty. Her car is fine. She can hear Endeavor swear under his breath.
Yep. Worth it.
It take a few weeks of hero-chasing before Inasa comes across a fight dangerous enough to warrant the Number Two Hero's help. After being unable to find the Beifongs again he did try camping outside of Endeavor's office, but the man had to have some kind of secret entrance or something, because Inasa never saw him enter or exit! This is why he needs Toph around, she would've figured it out way quicker than him.
Man, he misses Toph a lot. He still practices his quirk in the forest, and he's definitely improving, but nothing beats training with Toph. She's a great teacher on top of being a great fighter…
Anyway, that's why he's sprinting down the street, towards the huge plumes of smoke a few blocks away. He can't hear any more explosions so Endeavor probably beat that acid villain already, so he has to be quick. The closer he gets to the scene, the more people there are, crowding the streets either in a panic or as an audience.
Inasa shoves past elbows and flailing arms, grateful that he's big enough not to get pushed around too much. In his pocket he has a photo. After all the craziness with the Elementals, his parents finally decided it was time to get Inasa a phone. Before that, though, he only took a few blurry pictures with on with his mom's phone. It didn't help that Toph had zero interest in taking pictures… but nonetheless, he had ONE usable photo. So he printed it out for reference. A lot people had no idea that the Beifong family even had an heir, and Inasa wanted to make sure Endeavor knew who he was talking about.
And—there he is! "Endeavor!" Inasa shouts, leaping ahead of the crowds. "ENDEAVOR! WAIT!"
He sprints forward, buoyed by a gust of accidental wind, and the hero stops—the wind made his flames kind of flare up, whoops—
"What the hell are you doing?" Endeavor snaps, quickly pulling the flames down.
"Sorry!" Inasa exclaims, tugging the photo out. "But I needed—" The paper is knocked out of his hand so abruptly that Inasa stumbles back in alarm. "Hey!"
"Get out of my way, kid. I don't have time for autographs." Endeavor eyes him disapprovingly. Suddenly it seems to click, and his eyes narrow. "Yoarashi, isn't it?"
Inasa nods vigorously. "It's me again! I don't need an autograph—"
"This is an active crime scene, get out of here—"
"—Do you remember Toph?" Inasa steamrolls on desperately, "I haven't seen her lately, have you?"
The hero goes rigid, and then his expression goes from disapproving to downright cold, "I said get out of my way."
There's nothing but frigid rage in his eyes, and for once in his life, Inasa is honestly scared. He steps back, tripping over rubble. He pulls his eyes away, scrambling to his feet and retreating from the scene in a haze.
He doesn't realize that his picture's gone until that night at home. But when he goes up to his mom to ask for another one, she gives him an apologetic look and tell him she must've deleted the picture when making room on her smartphone.
"I'm sorry baby, but why don't you just take another one? Who was this girl again?"
"Toph," Inasa explains, for what feels like the hundredth time. His mother only gives him a mildly interested look. "She has an earth quirk? She was with me during the kidnapping, mom."
"Oh, that must've been awful," his mom says sympathetically. "I'm so glad you came home safe, you know that?"
"Yeah," Inasa frowns, because the kidnapping wasn't awful because Toph saved them. Why was that always the part Mom forgot? "But I haven't seen Toph since then. I don't know what happened to her, and Endeavor doesn't care either!"
"You met Endeavor again?" She asks in surprise. "Oh my, did you get an autograph? I know he's one of your favorite heroes."
Inasa throws up his hands in frustration. "I'm going to bed!" He declares angrily, stomping up the stairs.
"Inasa? Inasa, it's six o'clock, we haven't had dinner yet!"
Without a word, Inasa pulls hard on the air around himself, whipping the bedroom door closed with a SLAM. Then he falls face-first onto his bed and screams into his pillow until tears trickle down his face.
Toph is gone. Endeavor doesn't care at all about them. And it seems like his parents don't care either, with the way they just brush off his concerns all the time! Inasa isn't being unreasonable! What if something bad happened to Toph?
Or, thinks the cynical part of his mind, What if she just doesn't want to be friends with me anymore? She used to sneak out all the time to find me, she's so skilled, if she wanted to keep hanging out she would've done it.
But her parents are overprotective. So there's also a good chance that she's just being super sheltered by them now. The Beifongs are so rich, they could probably afford a cloaking device to hide away from the world. No wonder Inasa couldn't find them, he's not as smart or as strong as a pro hero or anything. Thanks a lot, Endeavor.
Inasa bites down on his pillow viciously. Either way, Toph is gone. And there's only one thing for him to do.
Become a hero. There's only one path in life for someone as hot-blooded and good-hearted as Toph Beifong. If they're both still reaching for the same goal, they're bound to meet again.
And if you're not there when I become a hero, Inasa promises, then at least I'll be good enough to save you.
Toph isn't too crazy about school. Her parents enroll her in an elite elementary school that is so well-protected, many famous politicians, businessmen, and heroes send their children there. So there's a lot interesting people all around her, and while she's a little unpopular because of her blindness, the school is accommodating and no one's going to bother a Beifong.
She goes through an entire year of school with no problems.
She talks to classmates, she does assignments, she even asks questions once in a while. Her therapist asks if she's making any friends, and Toph shrugs, honestly uninterested in becoming close friends with any of the girls she talks to in class. If her parents think it's a problem, they haven't mentioned it. They're back to basically ignoring her existence now that she's "settled down."
The girls in her class are kind of petty. Really, who cares if Best Jeanist has the most luxurious hair ever? What's the point in knowing whether or not Miho-chan has a crush on Nishiya? Still, Toph endures their gossip. It's nothing to her.
Her classmates begin to shuffle to their feet, indicating the end of the lunch period. Toph follows suit, giving a smile to the girl on her left offering to straighten her jacket out.
After classes end, Toph is driven home. Her father's been working in Singapore for the last month, and her mother is visiting a factory in Hokkaido, but she still has a therapy session with Ms. Aiko, and the woman arrives at the Beifong home at four o'clock sharp.
Ms. Aiko is a short woman with a sturdy frame and a generous figure. She wears soft sweaters that make no noise and matches them with clunky combat boots for some reason. Directly after the Elementals debacle, Toph had to meet with Aiko twice a week and explain all about her quirk, her friend Twinkletoes, and what happened during the kidnapping. After about a month they switched to weekly, and then every-other-week sessions.
"Hello, Toph," she says kindly.
"Hello Ms. Aiko," Toph replies plainly, flopping onto a leather couch. They use one of the many sitting rooms in the Beifong home for their talks.
"So, how do you feel now that your first year of school is ending?" Aiko leans her chin into one hand, slouching a little in the armchair next to Toph.
"I'll be a little bored without classes," Toph answers.
"Oh really?" Aiko says, not too convinced by her tone. "You don't have anything to fill up all that free time?"
Toph smiles sweetly. "Well, Mother thinks I ought to learn how to play the tsungi horn. I like music, but I'm not sure I want to carry a huge tube of brass around me. I'll look like a balloon."
"Toph," Aiko giggles at the thought, tapping her hand to chide her. "Be honest with me. You're not still training to be a hero, right?"
"Nope."
"And you're not going to associate with any students looking to become heroes?"
"No," Toph says again. Aiko's hand on her wrist feels cool and smooth. "All the kids of heroes in my school are pretty lame anyway, y'know. They think they're better than everyone because they have strong quirks."
"You have a pretty strong quirk too," Aiko murmurs. "But you're not going to do anything dangerous with it, right?"
"No, I—" Toph catches herself. "My quirk isn't strong. I can't do anything that could hurt me."
"Good," Aiko says in relief, letting her hand slip away. "You're doing so well, Toph. I'm not sure how much longer we need these sessions, to be honest."
Toph smiles sweetly at Ms. Aiko, the same smile she presents every day.
When Endeavor finally returns to the car, all the paperwork in his hands from the prison's records, his mind is racing.
Tarrlok is dead according all the reports, his body cremated just a year ago. But the man in the last recorded images of him doesn't look anything like the man they captured. He slams the car door shut and tosses the papers on the dash. "Drive," he tells Detective Ito, who's tapping away on her smartphone. "I need to get back to my offices."
"Back to your offices?" Ito puts the car in reverse to pull out of the parking lot. "You're looking pretty fired up, don't go smoking up my car again," Ito warns him. "It's stuffy enough as it is."
Oh. He has the flames on. Enji quickly shuts them off. "Tarrlok was supposedly killed a year ago," explains, carefully placing the files into a leather briefcase.
"So all that crap about AV's involvement really is just crap?" Ito surmises easily, her eyes fixed on the road. She makes a noise of annoyance and cranks up her windshield wipers as the rain really begins to come down.
"Not at all," Endeavor shakes his head. "I saw the footage of the riot that killed him. The man in the video wasn't the man we captured—"
"What?!"
"—He's been out of prison for over a year and nobody's said a thing!" Of course the prison claimed to have sent the proper reports out and it must've 'gotten lost in transit'. It was bullshit. This whole case was a shit show.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ito exclaims, the car swerving a little in alarm. "Out of prison?!"
"For fuck's sake woman, don't you know how to drive?" Enji growls, clutching one of the handles attaches to the car's roof.
"Fuck you," she answers promptly. "You just dropped a bomb on me! What do you mean, Tarrlok's been out for a year? How do you know it isn't him in the video?"
"He's too short," Enji says impatiently. "His build is all wrong. He has the hair and the coloring, but that's all. If anyone in that prison cared at all, they would've noticed the swap straight away." He scowls. "I can't trust any of those officers. That's why I need to get back to my offices, alert the Hero Association, see who else I can put on this case."
"Okay, so now you're accusing the prison of corruption too?" Ito asks annoyedly, shooting him a cold look. The car swerves a little again.
"Pull over," Enji demands. The rain's gotten worse. "Pull over, Ito, before you crash your damn car." Even if it would be an improvement for the vehicle...
The detective lets out a noise of frustration, but does as she's told, and the car jerks to a stop.
She eyes him angrily, but doesn't even comment about having to pull over. "First it's the Beifongs, then it's my precinct, and now it's a prison twenty miles away? At some point you're gonna have to trust someone other than yourself and the two and half sidekicks you deem tolerable," she sneers.
Endeavor rolls his eyes. Ito's a decent officer, and out of the whole precinct, she's been the least reluctant to help him. "I tolerate you, don't I? Even though you've been nothing but a drag on this investigation, Detective."
Ito pauses, blinking at him in surprise. "So you do trust me?" she asks haltingly, brow furrowed.
He nods impatiently. "Isn't that obvious? Why else would I be telling you all this?"
"Oh." She hums in consideration. "I—I appreciate that, you know." Endeavor's eyes slide over to look through the blurry windshield of the car, waiting for the emotional detective to calm down and start driving again. He feels something brush against the side of his hand and suddenly his vision goes foggy, like the whole world is as hazy as the rain-washed windows. There is a voice, molten hot in his mind. "... I'm not sure that you should."
Be still, the voice says. He can't move. He can barely think. Thoughts move sluggishly through his head, no matter what he tries. It's the physical contact he knows it already. He could break this fog if he could move his hand away from hers.
Enji focuses everything on the limb. Move, he wills it desperately, seeing her pale blue hair out of the corner of his eye, ignite, ignite, fire—his finger twitches—bURN, BURN HER, BURN HER, MOVE—
But then her free hand reaches for his chin, and the second point of contact makes his muscles go slack once more. Enji sinks further into a fog.
"You almost had me there, hot shot," she teases, her tone light and breathy. So benign, so demure like Rei used to be. Why did he tell her about Rei, anyway?
Ito turns his head towards her face until he's forced to look directly into her violet eyes, and her voice drips like honey as her quirk activates again. "There's a few things we need to discuss, Endeavor. First of all, the Beifongs don't have a daughter."
Chapter 7: Book 2: Lightning - The Blind Bandit
PRESENT DAY
School is boring. Toph starts third grade with half as much enthusiasm as the year before it. She's been moved into Class 3-A at her elementary school, and it's full of even more nerds and snobby rich kids than last year's class.
"Beifong-san!" An eager boy zips up to her desk, practically vibrating with enthusiasm. He's tall, and his footsteps are heavy but swift. "Sensei said one of us should look after you, and I volunteered!"
Toph continues what she's doing, methodically setting up her braille reader and notes.
"Um," he continues hesitantly, "It's nice to meet you, by the way, I know you weren't in this class last year, so maybe I could—"
Toph knows where this is heading, and scowls. "I don't need help," she replies shortly, folding her arms.
"Oh? But Saito-sensei said—!"
"Well, Saito didn't ask me, did she?" Toph frowns, drumming her fingers impatiently. "If I needed help, I'd ask. I got by last year and I'll do it again now."
The boy is quiet, shifting from foot to foot and still, sort of, vibrating. "Are you certain, Beifong-san? I think Saito-sensei was quite clear when she said…"
Jeez, what a stick in the mud. He can't even drop the honorific. Toph rolls her eyes. "I'm fine. Go help someone else. I don't need a babysitter."
He jerks back a little at her tone, intimidated, and Toph feels rather satisfied. "But…" he goes to argue further, but something about the expression on Toph's face seems to give him pause. "Okay. If you insist." After another moment of hovering by her desk he slinks off, clomping away with heavy steps that somehow, impossibly, remind her of Twinkletoes. Maybe it's the enthusiasm.
And maybe if Toph wasn't being pampered and babied and controlled by her parents every moment, she would have let him help. She could tell by the way he acted that he wasn't that snobby or anything, and was probably only trying to make a friend. Like Twinkletoes and his nosy questions...
But Toph is not in school to make friends. School is just another thing her parents are making her endure, and Toph can't afford to give into what they want. She'll sit quietly, she'll do her homework, and that is it.
The bell rings, and class starts just as the tall boy with vibrating feet (what kind of quirk made someone feel like that, anyway?) sits at his desk in the back. Slowly, Toph sinks into her own seat, only now realizing how tense she'd been talking to that Iida kid. But she won't be friends with someone from a hero family. She won't be friends with anyone here.
Toph pulls herself away from the dull thoughts, knowing it's no good. She touches her wrist, reading the time to herself. Only five more hours until she's out. Her parents are both home for now, but it's been nearly two years since the Incident and Toph doesn't have any more therapy sessions, so she's basically free once she gets through class.
And best of all, it's a Tuesday.
PAST
"Mom! Mom! Are you still home?!" A young voice cries out. Umeko hears the pitter-patter of tiny feet and smiles as she finishes changing into her office clothes, discreetly tugging the detective badge of 'Ito' out of sight.
"Yes?" she greets her son in the hallway outside the bedroom, and raises her eyebrows at the sight before her. "Oh, sweetheart…"
Her son regards her with wide, hopeful eyes. He's holding a calico cat against his chest. "Dad says I need your permission before we can keep her. So…?"
Umeko sighs, crouching in front of him. He's gotten taller,she thinks fondly. "Where did you find her?"
At this point his eyes go even wider. "She was left out in the rain, Mom! I've been visiting her all week, but her box was falling apart with her in it! Please? She needs a home."
She sighs again, unable to resist her son's pleading indigo eyes. "Alright. I have to get to work, but when I get back tonight we need to go over some house rules and figure out what to buy for her."
"Dad can tell me," he says eagerly. Then his expression falters. "I mean—I'm just not sure how late you'll get back, yesterday you didn't come home until after dinner, and now you have to work on the weekends—"
"It's just for this week, the case I'm on," Umeko explains quickly, brow furrowing. She picks at the edge of her jacket, where the pale blue fabric is pilling. "I'm sorry, baby, I know I'm not around enough. It's just that—"
"Your job is important, and you have to work so much so you can support us," he finishes glumly. He fidgets with the shivering cat in his arms. "Maybe she should go to the shelter instead. If it's gonna cost more to take care of her—"
"No," Umeko says firmly, holding his shoulders. "No, we're keeping her. She needs a home, right? I won't always be this busy, it's just this case that's getting to me." Umeko rubs her temple as she speaks. She could really do with a nap right now.
Her son doesn't look convinced. "You look as tired as Dad," he notes with a frown.
"You look as tired as Dad," Umeko teases back, pinching his cheek quickly. "Does your cat have a name yet?"
He shakes his head. "I haven't decided. What do you think?"
Umeko shrugs, quickly glancing at her watch. "We'll think of something good," she promises, kissing his forehead quickly. "I have to go, but think of a few names while I'm gone, okay?" She calls over her shoulder as she steps into the mudroom, pulling on her trusty boots. The ground was still soft from the morning rain, but maybe the skies will have cleared up by now.
"Don't you need an umbrella?" The boy calls to her, but Umeko waves him off.
"Nah, I'll be fine. I'm sure it won't rain that much."
In the visitor's lot of Shizuoka Max Prison, Umeko drums her fingers on the steering wheel of her car. Every few minutes her eyes dart over to her phone, still set in a case against her dashboard for when she used the GPS for directions.
Endeavor's going to be come back to the car in a few minutes, with evidence and reports that, if put into public record, would create all sorts of chaos. Her task is to keep the peace. She's done it a thousand times, but this… this is different. She's never had to wipe a hero before. And never someone so strong.
It dawns on Umeko with a sickening twist in her gut that she doesn't want to do this. And she doesn't have a choice.
Her phone lights up with a text message. Her appointment for this evening at the Beifongs' mansion. She doesn't know how those rich assholes are involved with all this, but they're supposedly on her side and she has to help them. Too bad they're rich assholes demanding her to move her appointment from 4 o'clock to 6. Great, she's going to miss dinner again…
Endeavor's exiting the building now, she can see his large form past the three chain-link fences between the car and the front doors. It's a long walk, and with the angle of his umbrella against the rain, he can't see her at all.
Umeko takes a deep breath, and then reaches for her purse for a small black container, roughly the size of a pencil case, but with a three-digit code on the side. She'd never want her kid to get into this.
She puts in the combination and opens it, pulling out a syringe and an ampoule of dark liquid. She measures out the dosage and rolls her sleeve. She doesn't do this sort of thing, certainly not Trigger, and yet here she is. The version she's been given is supposed to be diluted, and Umeko's no addict, but the thought of having to put this shit in her body, to overuse her quirk like this… God, and if it doesn't work…
Taking a deep breath, Umeko reminds herself why she's doing it all. That there's a damn good reason for it, and it goes beyond herself and the few people around her. She doesn't have a choice right now, but she gave away that willingly. For the cause.
As Umeko pushes the needle past her skin and depresses the plunger, she knows that something good will come from this.
PRESENT
At lunch, Toph lets the cafeteria staff pick out a lunch for her. She usually has a bento from home, but her mother is still looking for a new maid. "You're too skinny, my goodness!" One of the ladies tuts.
Toph offers a confused smile. "I always eat everything, I swear," she tells her.
"I believe it, sweetie, you must have a fast metabolism!" The woman sighs, patting her own belly. "If only I could eat as much as I want without burstin' out of my dress, maybe I'd get a second date! But enough about me, do you want the udon or the soba?"
"Soba, please," Toph bites her lip, wondering if it'd be odd to reassure the lunch lady about her weight. She's not actually fat or anything, but her mutation quirk gives her thicker muscles to account for her reptilian legs and tail. "Do people really care that much about the way you look?"
The woman pauses, and then continues to carefully pour out the noodles. "Oh, but you don't have anything to worry about, ne?" She says dismissively, "You're just like a doll, and sweet as anything! Before you know it you'll have all the boys trying to confess to you."
Toph raises a skeptical eyebrow, having never thought of herself as sweet, and the lady just laughs. "Trust me, dear! Oh, I'm giving you extra rice balls. You wanna be thin, but not that thin!"
"Thanks," Toph replies, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. She passes by a group of older boys and sits down at a table that's far away from anyone in her class. The group of boys are whispering in excitement, and Toph can't really stop herself from eavesdropping on their conversation.
"Have you heard about the new lightweight champ? Isn't it crazy?" One of the boys asks, voice tinged with excitement that piques Toph's interest.
"C'mon, it's fake. There's no way it isn't fake," another boy replies, shoveling food into his face as he speaks. "Scariest fight I've seen in awhile, but it's fake." He sounds convinced of this. But the way the student's voice tremors slightly and the fact that he misses his mouth when he goes to take a bite from his dish tells them all a different story.
"Heh, yeah, don't you know all those fights are rigged, Nishiya?" a third boy snorts. "It was a good fight, it was a crazy fight, but it wasn't a real fight. You should go watch a hero fight instead."
"But think about it! Why would someone call themself the Blind Bandit if they weren't really blind?"
"You're outta your mind, Nishi," his friend pats his shoulder in consolation. "No way a little blind girl could win Quirk Rumble 82 all on her own."
"Well, it's Tuesday, isn't it?" Nishiya reminds them pointedly. "She's fighting again tonight. Let's go and find out."
Toph slurps up the last of her noodles, carefully wiping her mouth to hide her wide grin.
PAST
"I can't make her forget everything, Mrs. Beifong. It doesn't work like that."
"Surely you just need a push? You've done work like this before, we can supply you with—"
"I'm not going on that stuff again. Endeavor is a full grown man with forty years of memory to compensate for a few changes. Your daughter is seven. These memories are ingrained, they're essential to her development as a person. I can pick apart certain things, but you say she's willful. I can only reinforce what you want over time."
"You've never needed more than a week to do what is necessary. Aiko, do not take advantage of my generosity. If you think you think you'll get paid more for drawing this out—"
"God, no, this isn't about the fucking cash, do you want me to leave your daughter brain-dead, Poppy? I've done it before, I'll do it again if that's what's necessary."
"No, no. We'll… we'll just have more sessions. How will I know it's working?"
"You won't be able to tell," Aiko answers tiredly. "You can't sense her mind the way I can. I'll know if she truly accepts the alterations or not. And it's fragile, Poppy. My control can be undone. I won't make this a permanent fix."
"That's fine. We don't need a permanent fix. For now, I just need to keep her in line. Get her to stop thinking about that boy and becoming a hero. Can you do that, Aiko?"
"Yes, Mrs. Beifong. She'll obey you."
Toph slides to the floor of her bedroom, two stories above the conversation between Dr. Aiko and her mother, her heart pounding and her head a mess. Endeavor was supposed to follow up with her police report and quirk registration, but she's heard nothing about it since she came back from the hospital. He's already been changed—and if the Number Two Hero was already under her control, there's a good chance everyone else involved has been mind-wiped as well. There's a good chance a lot of people have forgotten a lot of stuff, and that there isn't even a hero out there trying to stop it.
Toph is alone.
She lets out a few gasping breaths filled with utter terror, and then digs her fingers into the cool marble flooring with a wild, desperate sense of resolve like nothing she's ever felt before.
There is a lot going on that Toph doesn't know about. There's a lot that Toph won't know once Aiko is done with her, because Toph is seven and alone and doesn't know a thing about mind-control quirks.
But she knows this: she will never obey.
Whatever it takes, Toph will not obey.
PRESENT
Names are hard to come up with. Toph realized very quickly that she's only good at insults and nicknames. So at her first night at the Rumble, she tied a black scarf over the top half of her face and, quite cleverly, called herself the Blind Bandit.
It stuck.
"I think it's legit, the host doesn't let phony fights slide. She's just that good! There's probably more to her quirk than just rocks, you know they have to keep it secret to keep the fights good. She could be using a magnetism quirk, she cut that bo staff clean in two!"
A small grin creeps onto Toph's face again. Her last fight in the winter championship was wild. Her challenger almost deafened her with banshee screams. Her head was ringing all day afterwards.
She beat him by drawing up the concrete floor of the arena into armor and then snapped the steel bo-staff he used to defend himself. It had been a poorly-made weapon, she had felt the fault lines forming in the metal from just a few hits against the ground. It caused her hands to ache afterwards, but it was worth the win.
"It was amazing! It's like she could read his mind with the way she moved! I've never seen an earth-type quirk used like that, she's brilliant!"
"Sounds like you have a crush, Nishiya," someone teases. "You know she's probably some kid, right?"
"Hey, you don't know that, you're supposed to be eighteen to enter the Rumble. Some people just look young even if they aren't!"
"Oh please, like Loban cares if she's underage. Just look at the ratings! The place is packed whenever Bandit has a fight… Oh, and did you see that porcupine dude in the middleweight tournament? He was scary... "
She was lucky that Loban, the manager of the Quirk Rumble, liked her so much. It took a while to convince him to let her compete, but in the end, the benefits outweighed the risks—after just a few weeks, Toph was one of the most infamous fighter in the Rumble. She can put on a show and beat losers into the ground in the same move.
It's not the same as fighting villains, but it's a hell of a rush. And Toph is still improving.
PAST
"You have a pretty strong quirk too," Aiko murmurs in a familiar, probing tone. She says this at every session, checking every facet of her thoughts for the past year. "But you're not going to do anything dangerous with it, right?"
"No, I—" Toph catches herself, choosing her words with care. "My quirk isn't strong." The words are grating, like a mouthful of glass shards, but still true. Her quirk isn'tenough. Not yet. "I wouldn't do anything that would hurt me." She never acts with the intention of getting injured, after all. She's not in any danger when she fights, not in Toph's definition of danger.
"Good," Aiko says in relief, letting her hand slip away. "You're doing so well, Toph. I'm not sure how much longer we need these sessions, to be honest."
Toph smiles sweetly at Ms. Aiko, the same smile she presents every day to her parents. Her head aches a little, but she'll never let it show.
After Aiko leaves, Toph sags into the couch like a puppet with all the strings cut loose. She takes a moment to reiterate what she knows and what she's missing, something she's been doing all year since the sessions.
Twinkletoes.
She can't remember his real name. Her parents never wanted her to talk about him, and at some point, Aiko must've pulled that away from her memories to stop her from thinking of him.
Toph doesn't mention her nicknaming habits to anyone, though, so she still remembers Twinkletoes: a loud boy, light on his feet, I'll find you, I'll find you, I promise.
Shouto Todoroki. She remembers him. Stay away. He has peppermint hair. He's quiet. He can't control fire very well. Stay away, stay away, stay away.
Toph can't really figure out why she has to stay away. Every time she tries to think about it a great sense of fear creeps over her and her head starts to throb painfully at the thought of fire.
Endeavor. There was an incident. The one she can't talk about. He's rude to parents, Toph likes that. He's dangerous, stay away. Well she's not going near any hero fights. She's no good against fire anyway.
Toph Beifong. Quirk?
...Earth Sense.
No. Earthbending.
She just wants to punch some people. She's going to see Twinkletoes again and show off what she's learned. Eventually. When they're heroes—
Toph winces at the pain that shoots through her temples. Right, she can't do heroes. Twinkletoes. Twinkletoes. He's light on his feet, and he told her—he told her they would be partners, and Toph believes it.
She trains because her quirk is weak. This thought has always been the hardest to fit into place, but it has to be true. It is true. She fights, underground and unknown, because she needs to fight. That is undeniable. It's why she started eavesdropping on delinquents and sneaking out at night to find the fights.
Toph's head throbs in protest, but the thoughts are wedged into place, immovable in her head.
She sighs, rubbing her temples. "Take that, Aiko."
PRESENT
It's Tuesday. Quirk Rumble 83 starts with a round-robin for the lightweight fighters and a short, two-day tournament for the heavyweights.
Toph loses her match, but with minimal injury. They have a medic for registered contenders, and Toph gets off with an ice-pack for her shoulder and an energy drink. Toph isn't too mad about the loss, though she could hear Nishiya and his friends groaning about it from the nosebleeds. She was up against some lady with a jumping quirk Toph had a hell of a time trying to pin down. Apparently the lady was pretty hot, because even though a lot of people had lost bets on the Blind Bandit there were even more people simply distracted by how much skin her opponent, 'Bunny Babe,' was showing.
Okay, so maybe that was a weird fight. Toph is nine years old and it's kinda hard for her to fully accept all the leering that goes on around her. That was the only sucky difference between underground fighting and hero-fighting. Underground fights were subject to a lot more pervs, and sometimes the fights turned into more of a show than a real challenge.
Can't believe I lost to someone named Bunny Babe, though, Toph thinks ruefully, sipping on her drink from the sidelines. They're onto day two of the heavyweight tournament now, which always gets the most attention. They have to be held in even bigger stadiums than what Toph fights in, and tickets are really hard to come by, so that usually filters out the gross people from the crowd.
"Hey little lady!" A thin man plops into the seat beside her. 'Quick Slice'. He's another lightweight contender, and a regular at the Quirk Rumble. Some of the contenders can be real dickbags, but others, like Slice, are kinda silly.
"Can't believe the Babe bested the Blind Bandit! What an upset! And what a show!" He nudges her with his elbow. "It's a shame you can't see. You're gonna miss out on a lot on those R-rated fights!"
Toph stops drinking to reach a hand towards her shoulder. Then, concentrating on the thin coating of dust over her clothes, she flicks out a dense pebble of earth that hits him squarely on the nose. She figured out how to do that against the Muddler two months ago, made it way easier to clean off her clothes.
Slice yelps in surprise. "I'm joking, you brat!"
"Shush," Toph says, tilting her head. "I wanna hear all the smack talk. This knucklehead is way funnier than you."
The man lifts his head in delight. "Who, big arms? Ooh, what do you think of the mask guy?"
Toph would give him a deadpan look, but she's still wearing the scarf to cover the upper half of her face. "Mask? You mean the dude with swords?"
"Uh, who else would I… Oh. Sorry B, I still forget. Sword-guy's wearing a full-face spooky mask. Kinda mysterious."
Toph rolls her eyes. It's not mysterious when you can hear sword man cursing under his breath and getting riled up by Iron Arms's taunts. "He's just another hothead. He's not even checking where he is in the ring."
"Huh?" Slice leans closer just as the smaller fighter is punched cleanly in the solar plexus, sliding uncontrollably towards the edge of the arena. At the last minute he's able to stab a dagger into the ground and halt his movement, but the knife sinks so deeply he has to abandon it. "Aw, no fair! The ground's all muddy from the last match!"
"It was already muddy," Toph argues. Despite being called an underground ring, this stadium is outdoors. Toph helped construct it in the middle of a swamp, so she has to stay to help break it down once it's over. Part of her deal with Loban is working as part of his staff.
"Still! No fair!"
"Quit your yapping," Toph punches him in the arm, just as sword guy twists out of the way of a punch and pulls himself to his feet. Huh, looks like he's not out of the game just yet.
"Look at him go," Slice comments anyway. "Like a little gnat. Can't believe he convinced Loban to let him compete. He doesn't belong in the heavyweight ring with those moves."
Toph wishes she could compete in the heavyweight tournament. It's pretty dumb to stick to a weight-class system when quirks threw such huge variables into the mix, but without any system it'd be total chaos trying to organize a tournament with all the fighters Loban manages. The weight system simply helps estimate the scale of destruction caused by the fights, though in this case it's mostly Iron Arms doing the work.
In the lightweight tournament she has to keep the damage to a minimum. Which is fine and all for practicing her aim and the minute details of bending, but it gets a little boring. But this? Iron Arms smashing up the ground trying to squash a small-fry opponent?
She loves this.
"Ooohh!" The crowd winces in sympathy as sword guy is finally whacked out of bounds, ending the fight. He's only a few feet from Toph and Slice when he finally rolls to a stop, groaning in pain.
Toph shakes her head. "C'mon Stabby. Even I saw that right hook coming."
Sword guy clutches at his side. He's probably got a few cracked ribs. "Aren't you—too young for this sorta place?" He pants as a few guys step up to escort him to the medical area.
Toph lifts her head to call back, "Aren't you too inexperienced for this sorta place?" She hears a faint "fuck you" in return, and cackles to herself.
PAST
"The Beifongs don't have a daughter," Umeko says into Endeavor's mind, letting her words seep into his thoughts. She can feel it twisting like a corkscrew, blocking off memories and emotions along the way. With the artificial high amplifying her quirk, Umeko can practically see the spider-web force of her words tying up knots and stitching together events and cutting off channels and worming into every crevice—and this is with just one sentence, holy shit—
Umeko blinks, refocusing her gaze on Endeavor's paralyzed face. The victims to her quirk can maintain some level of awareness while she works. Endeavor looks furious. Umeko feels vaguely sick beneath the high.
She ignores him, moving on with the instructions left on her phone. There's a few more people and words that need to be pulled from Endeavor's mind, plus all the evidence he's collected, but someone else is in charge of all physical traces.
Umeko repeats the last few statements, but keeps her eyes shut so she doesn't have to see the tangled web of thought she's weaving through his headspace. Her quirk usually allows her to follow along someone's general train of thought as she adds to it, but this is much more complicated. Mental blocks are usually enough to erase certain events or ideas from a mind, but with the gravitas of what she's changing, it's… dizzying to look at.
"You're putting a lot of time into this case, hero," Umeko mutters to herself, sinking back into her seat. She has both her hands wrapped around Endeavor's fist. It's a good thing he wasn't wearing his costume today, otherwise Umeko would've had to grab him by the ear or something to catch him. "Take a break, you flame freak. I sure as hell would want one after this investigation.." She wants to go home. God, she just wants this to be over so she can be with her son and figure out cat names, she deserves a vacation…
Umeko pauses, opening her eyes to look at Endeavor. "You've been obsessed with this case from the start…. So why did you take that sick day?" she asks, prompting his mind to turn towards the memory. Umeko frowns, and dives deeper into the memory. A hospital. His wife? Oh, Rei does kinda look like Umeko with her hair down. His sons, however, take after him…
It occurs to Umeko that she doesn't really know anything about Endeavor. He has some children, his wife is ill. There's a lot of emotions that are hard for her to parse through. "What happened to them?" Umeko whispers, "What happened to your sons?"
She presses into his mind again, and all she can see is fire.
PRESENT
Someone tall and lanky slinks into the seat directly beside Slice, silent as a shadow. Toph lifts her head in acknowledgement, and Slice pauses in his cheering.
"B? What're you...AH!" He whips around and jolts back in surprise at the stranger beside him. "Whoa, uh, hi, who the fuck are you?!"
"You two were in the lightweight fights tonight, weren't you," the stranger states. He leans back in his seat lazily, and Slice's heart rate skyrockets. Wow, Toph wishes she could be that intimidating without actually lifting a finger. "Quick Slice and the Blind Bandit."
"Yeah?" Slice answers quickly, matching the stranger's bored tone. "What's it to you, kid?"
"I'm not a kid. I want to join the Rumble." Now that, at least, catches Toph's interest.
Slice barks out a laugh that seems far more confident than Toph knows he is. "Oh, you're definitely a kid. Whaddya think, B? Student-aged for sure, and we don't do that here!"
Toph rolls her eyes, flashing an amused grin. The stranger does sound young, with a quick heartbeat that belies youth rather than nervousness, much like her own. "A delinquentstudent no less," she notes, taking a long sip from her bottle. "You can't even view the fights if you're under eighteen, buddy."
"But there's no way you're old enough to—ugh!" Just as Toph expected, the teenager's pulse jumps in surprise for a moment at her guess, even though it's painfully obvious that a lot of students watch the fights and not all the contenders are legitimate ones. "Quit beating around the bush. I want to enter. Where do I sign up?" He snaps.
Toph purses her lips. Loban made an exception for her, and she doesn't think the manager will appreciate her introducing more risky fighters to his tournament. "You can't sign up unless you check all the boxes, hotshot," she explains tersely, setting her drink aside to fold her arms. "And since I don't know how you fight… Tell me the truth, Slice—does he look like a contender?"
Slice is silent for a moment, humming and scratching his cheek in consideration. The teenager's pulse creeps up again as he tenses in place, but he doesn't say a word. Then Slice leans towards Toph. "He's about as scary as you are cute, Bandit. Could be fun to throw down with this dunderhead."
The stranger exhales an angry breath of air through his teeth, foot tapping on the ground.
"I'll see what I can do, eh?" Slice decides, hopping to his feet. "Keep an eye on the kid while I'm gone, BB!"
"Thanks," the teenager grunts out, curling his hands into even tighter fists.
Toph snorts. "You got a fighting name yet, or should I just call you Hotshot?"
The teenager freezes in place for a moment, his foot pausing mid-tap. "I actually need a fighting name for this shit?"
She grins. "Did you think my given name was Blind Bandit?"
"Shut up," he huffs, scratching his head in rough, sharp movements. "That slice guy just uses the name of his quirk, so I thought I'd do that."
Toph blows a raspberry at him.
"What?" He snaps angrily.
Toph though her reaction was pretty self-explanatory, but whatever. "Loban won't accept just any name. It's gotta fit with your theme."
"My what-now?"
"Oh my god," Toph sighs. "You're not a hotshot, you're a hot mess. Did you put any thought into this before you waltzed over here and asked to sign up?"
"Fuck off, kid, you're half my size. If you can do it, why can't—"
"And at this point, buddy, you better stop before you go from hot mess to just a mess on the floor," Toph interrupts him loudly, rising to her feet. The hotshot goes silent, if not in fear then at least in surprise. "I'm only trying to help, asshole. If you can't handle common decency you can leave right now."
She can practically hear how tightly he's clenching his jaw. His hand is twitching too, and Toph zeroes in on the movement, waiting for him to make a decision. She doesn't know a thing about this chucklehead's quirk, but if he's a hothead, there's a chance he'll lash out like an idiot.
If the ground beneath his feet tremble slightly, it's too faint for him to feel it.
"Maybe I should just go with Hotshot," he mutters, shoulders lowering. In one sentence, the tension building between them melts into thin air. Toph's glad. She doesn't need Loban yelling at her for wiping the floor with an audience member.
Maybe she's overconfident, but Toph doesn't go down easy. It doesn't matter how strong this dude might be, with a temper like that he can't be much of a challenge.
"You think?" Toph says neutrally, taking a step back.
He grunts in response, bringing up a hand to rub his chin. "You really are blind, right?"
Toph cocks her head to the side. "Yeah. It's no gimmick."
"Then how'd you guess it?"
She has no idea what he's talking about. "Guess what?"
"Hotshot," he repeats, like that's an answer. Toph's lack of reaction says otherwise.
He gives a soft huff of exasperation and folds his arms again, fidgeting like he's itching for a fight he can't get. "Nevermind. You'll find out if I get in."
Toph shrugs. "Guess I will. Good luck with that, Hotshot."