The back of his head was resting on the cool surface of the wall. Endeavor was exhausted. His brow was relaxed, just a bit more… to steady his frantic heart. To recoup his bearings, that was all he was asking for.
"Sir! Endeavor, sir?! Hurry, get the doctors Endeavor is in need of immediate medical attention!" He heard the muffled voices around him cry as his eyes rapidly blinked open at the unwanted disturbance.
The harsh lights of the hospital ceiling blinded him for a moment. He raised a hand, blinking sight back into his eyes. Endeavor was sitting on the bench of the walkway, legs splayed out, his back was leaning against the wall. A gurney was at his side and one of his arms was propped over it, no doubt from the nurse that happened to wake him up.
His lips cracked open, "I'm fine, I was just resting my eyes."
"But sir, I tried to catch your attention, you were non-responsive. At the very least allow us to look you over, " the young nurse pleaded, motioning for a room further down the hall.
"I'm fine." Endeavor rose and picked up his discarded phone in his lap. The youngest paramedic who had called the others was next to him. The unnamed registered nurse opened his mouth in protest. But it died an ugly death when he gruffly repeated himself, now towering over the gathered doctors with a final resolute, "How many times must I repeat myself?"
He'd simply been resting his eyes. Endeavor was lacking sleep from the long flight, he rationalized. The flame hero nearly forgot the errand All Might's insufferable sidekick charged him with, remembering as he squeezed himself out of the protesting mob. It galled Enji, but he'd already given his word to check on the girl, he couldn't back out now. His heavy steps pushed him forward, Todoroki passed a hallway with its window panes hastily cut three ways at the edge of the hospital. A team had cordoned the side of it off with a temporary barrier so that it would be impossible for any passerby to slip out of the second floor and into the ground below. Two custodians were frantically mopping up the remains of a large puddle in front of the barrier on account of the earlier storm.
It had passed on by now, the sun was peeking out over the horizon, giving his surroundings a pink and golden hue. Endeavor's face was incredulous as he looked on at the scene.
What buffoon managed this?
But he shook his head as he continued his trek deeper into the hospital. Endeavor slowed to a stop as he studied the map along the end of the hallway and cursed under his breath when he noticed that he'd gone the wrong way. His nostrils flared and he'd look like a fool as he marched back, he ducked his head as he turned around.
A ping from his phone's speaker alerted Endeavor, and he peeked down as he pulled out the device from his belt pocket. It was a text from an unknown number, and his face grew visibly annoyed as he pieced together who it was after reading the message.
"We have made our way to Central Hospital. Burnin' and I are currently taking the elevator up to the second floor. Your intern has not been able to reach you in quite some time so I've been tasked with catching your attention in lieu of the silence. Perhaps you've been busy speaking to the girl?" The man on the other line asked.
Endeavor groaned at the pixels on his phone and at the notifications he missed, his response was a fat fingered text. "I'll meet you on the second floor near the elevator." He ended the message with a curt sentence. Enji retraced his steps, annoyed that he'd wasted his time. The elevator further ahead dinged and he saw the two individuals in question as they left it.
"Nighteye, Burnin'. The girl is in room 235." He informed the two heroes who met him halfway as he slowed to a stop.
"And what did you find? Was she responsive?" The reedy sidekick asked with a steady coolness. His intern skipped to the side away from the rush of people walking around the two tall men as the rest of the bystanders entered or left the elevators.
"I… was sidetracked," Endeavor responded with a short grunt as he turned at one of the earlier doctors he recognized with crossed arms. A few of the nurses looked at the hero with raised brows as they guided the rush of people. "We should be on our way."
Sir Nighteye shrugged, motioning that Endeavor lead the way. They reached the room after a brisk walk. Night Eye knocked on the door and opened it only after a small voice on the other end answered the sound.
There, sitting on the mattress of the room, wearing a hospital gown, was a lone girl. She glanced out the window into the visible destruction of the landscape outside. Her loose ginger hair whipped about her face as she turned to them with a scrutinizing frown.
Nighteye stepped up and he leaned down to her height in an inoffensive way. Endeavor crossed his arms as he leaned onto the backwall.
"Hello, my name is Sir Nighteye, I'm All Might's sidekick," The sidekick began.
The little ginger girl looked at the sidekick's eyes and then back down as she scrunched her face to think.
"...All Might's sidekick?... All Might's the one who was going to rescue my friends, he'd take us back to..." She finished off unsure.
Nighteye nodded to her with a rare smile, "Indeed, do you remember an individual under the moniker of 'Sensei'? Or a location called 'Sunnyside Haven House'?" he asked, the girl looked at him with confused burgundy eyes, as if the words didn't register. "Nothing? Perhaps your Sensei's face, do you recall any details?"
She shook her head with a wince.
"I just remember sharp ringing, it gets louder when I try to think… I—those words, I don't know." The girl slapped her hands into the bedsheets somewhat helplessly. "...You believe me, right? I'm not lying."
"Perhaps a boy named Tōya Todoroki, then. Do you remember him, blue eyes, white hair, and burn marks littering his face?"
At that the girl's eyes brightened with recognition.
"Oh, you mean Sleepyhead? Everyone talked about him, but he's always been asleep at the infirmary. I didn't really understand what the big deal was." She easily recalled as she nodded to herself. Endeavor uncrossed his arms as he zoned in on her with rapt attention.
"He woke up, but… I only remember blue fire, so… much smoke, and a window shattering. After that I remember feeling the wind on my face like I was f—flying and then a yellow and red tower. A deep voice was telling me something but I can't remember anything else."
She looked at Nighteye and then Endeavor in exhaustion. Enji's face was taut at her words as he pieced together the sparse details she continued to spout off. Nighteye coaxed out what little information with questions regarding sensations or colors but ended that line of questioning when she proved unable to give more details.
"And your name, Miss?" Nighteye instead changed trajectory.
"It's… Mi… Misaki. I don't think I have a last name, though," she muttered, looking downcast at the idea.
The girl almost seemed to struggle with the first syllable of her name as if unsure it was even truly her name. Endeavor tilted his head at that detail with a grunt. Nighteye scanned the rest of the room and then he put a hand to his heart.
"I see, then would you like to meet your friends again, Misaki?"
Friends? The other children. He'd almost forgotten.
"Yes, of course! They're my family!" the girl chirped with a closed eyed-smile. It was an eerie thing when compared to her lethargy from before. That energy seemed to bleed off at the idea of seeing the other children. Though the smile disappeared as quickly as it had come, and the lethargy returned.
Behind him, Burnin' muttered a low, startled curse at the sight.
"Then, here's my number for emergencies, call me if you need me and if not, you can just call the All Might agency. From this day forth, if it pleases you, I'll be your case worker because I've been charged with reuniting you all with your friends," Nighteye spoke as he stood up, facing the nodding ginger girl.
Endeavor doubted the man had been formally entrusted with that particular mission so soon, but he held his tongue.
Endeavor leaned back, brow raised at the weird series of events that just occurred before his eyes, but it wasn't his business. His intern was silent as she tilted her head, peeking from the side of the doorframe before she ducked back. Nighteye waved to the little girl and they closed the door behind his back.
"She's either a very good liar or she's genuinely forgotten her residence for the last four years. It's better to leave a deeper interrogation for later." Nighteye began, massaging a shoulder as he rotated his head to get the kinks out of his tensed muscles. "The Sunnyside Haven House was listed as a foster care center for the young and unfortunate. Four years is a long time within the system for her age, and from what I've dug up, she has an exceptional flight quirk, making her lack of adoption even more suspicious."
Burnin' hummed at the meta-ability in interest on account of her own ability to fly.
"The fact that the digital records I could find were scrubbed makes this harder considering their facility's been burned down to the ground. When I reached the children on the streets, they were all covered in soot due to the house fire. She wasn't a part of the initial group I got to before the large heteromorph captured my attention. All Might was the one who reached her."
Nighteye turned to Endeavor as they walked through the hospital.
"Or rather, she found him. I've been meaning to reach All Might but he's not picking up. Might Tower's surveillance footage was tampered with somehow. Albeit not completely successful on account of a technically gifted associate of All Might's."
"I'm struggling to see the relevance," Endeavor grunted.
Nighteye gave him a look. "What matters is that this establishment is linked to a grander conspiracy and I'll be working my way down the depths of it," Nighteye nodded to the flame hero. "Your help has been appreciated Endeavor. I can take it from here."
The sidekick turned to walk away, Endeavor's eyes widened. He only asked for the man to get to the point, not to end the conversation then and there. However the suited man froze before the flame hero had a chance to make his displeasure known. All Might's grating, digitized laugh rang out from his pocket, stopping Nighteye in his tracks.
Nighteye unclipped his gaudy phone from his belt phone pocket and loudly answered. "Yes… I'm up on the second floor. I'll meet you at the elevator then," he answered before putting the phone away.
"What about my…" Endeavor started.
" —Your son?" Nighteye interrupted, pointing a rudely raised finger to Enji. "I spoke with a hero named Ingenium by phone earlier before we got here. He explained to me that All Might has found a charred individual matching the description of Tōya Todoroki."
Burnin' unsuccessfully stifled her gasp at the name, wilting beneath Endeavor's glare.
"He should be done with the final stages of the surgery. I have a contact within the hospital running me through the updates as they occur."
Endeavor worked his mind to piece together the impossibility of what Sir Nighteye just said.
"Now?! That's preposterous, if that description matches what the silver clad hero said, then he should be stuck in the ICU for a year at the minimum. Even with the help from the meta-abilities that have been green light for medical use in Central Hospital… that's not—"
Nighteye shook his head as he looked at the speechless man with bright eyes, "I've no doubt that, under any other circumstances, that may be true. However, your son may not have come out of his coma and supposed death unchanged." The sidekick's steps marched on as he continued to his destination, Endeavor had no choice but to follow after him.
Sir Nighteye stopped at the foot of an elevator on the other side of the hall, forcing Endeavor to follow after him.
"My associate is on the way up. He's more a long time friend of All Might's than mine… and partly that of a once mentor." He trailed off.
The ring of the elevator echoed out within the hall as it opened up, who he saw was not what he expected. What stepped out was a small individual in a garish yellow suit that made his proportions look cartoonish. Endeavor held his tongue. An elderly hero in this industry was someone he had to respect. Burnin' peeked out from behind Endeavor's shoulder in interest. The short hero's face was grizzled and he sported an aged beard. The bearded old man turned to take in the three heroes around him with a calculated eye. Morbidly Enji thought that at this point they'd have every generation of hero in a single group.
"Nighteye, the lass? Did you question her or have I gotten out of bed for nothing? You know these old bones can't suffer the stress of a missed night's sleep!" The elder questioned as he waved his cane to the taller man immediately without an ounce of time spent for introductions.
Endeavor would have respected his brusqueness, however the short stranger was waving the end of the cane in his face and not Sir Nighteye's. The flame hero crossed his arms and looked at the sidekick with a raised brow. Silently asking if the ancient man needed to be instituted into an elderly care facility.
The sidekick ignored his un-asked question as he sidestepped the issue entirely. "This is Gran Torino. Gran Torino, this is Endeavor and his intern Burnin'. His supposed son was held… under that man's web. As for the little girl? It was a no go, our best bet is the boy if we can glean anything of substance." Mirai answered with a shake of his head.
"I see."
Endeavor wasn't sure if the old codger did because he was still staring at him instead of All Might's sidekick. Nighteye pulled out his phone at the sound of a notification.
"Endeavor, your son is in Room 372. They've isolated him in a dedicated burn unit and he won't be receiving more than a single visitor at a time."
"We should make our way on over then!" Gran Torino insisted as he waved his cane, walking in the opposite direction from where they should go. Endeavor massaged the incoming migraine out of his brow and addressed his intern.
"Burnin', Kido and the others should be in the area by now. I won't have you suffer the indignity any longer. At this point I'm sure that I've broken the law because you should have been relieved of your duties ages ago, even more so as a student." Enji said as he pinged the Flaming Sidekickers who were near their location.
"What— but why? I may as well see this through, Boss!" She waved her hands to accentuate her point.
"They'll drive you back home, and I'll be sure to notify principal Nedzu. I'm sure he's still up at this hour… and your parents." He palmed his face again. "I can't believe I forgot to let them know that you've arrived back in the country."
The paperwork that he was going to have to look over would no doubt drown him at this point. Though it could have been worse. Years ago Endeavor would have personally combed through each document.
"Who are these kids again?" The short man openly questioned his taller companion at his side, a blind smile lit up his aged face.
"You can cut out the senile act, sir" Sasaki Mirai drably cut in, his hands clasped together as he stood still.
"Bah, you're no fun."
Endeavor pushed his intern into the elevator as she protested, Gran Torino helpfully clicked on the buttons from the inside to send her down. Although Enji looked at the man in concern because, "you didn't need to swipe them all at once." He commented with a thin veneer of worry as he spoke above the man's short frame.
The elder's face changed as he turned to face them, Endeavor could hear Burnin' behind the closing doors. His intern's muffled cry faded as she descended and the air likewise altered with Gran Torino's shift in attitude.
"Does the rising Number Two know the reality of the situation Sir Nighteye?" Gran Torino's smile became more menacing as he finally faced All Might's sidekick. Nighteye's shadowed face revealed nothing as he shook his head in the negative.
"No… not right now. However, what my quirk discloses will dictate exactly what he'll know going forward." Nighteye turned the phone in his hand to show the current time. The hand of the digital clock ticked down and the day had already changed to the next… It was Monday morning, if only barely.
"What are you two spouting?" Endeavor asked, contrite but he was ignored.
Gran Torino frowned. "Are there any prying eyes, Mirai?"
"I checked the cameras weeks ago. The rest of the listening devices, the HPSC have been utilizing are shut off thanks to Mr. Shield's scrambler." Nighteye muttered as he presented the small device to them from the top of the suit pocket. They legged the rest of the way to their destination. Endeavor's frowned over their short conversation. He didn't even know where to start, and his questions only grew in number from there.
"The text I received wasn't entirely wrong, however circumstances can be changed. You did want to see your son with your own eyes, correct? I ask because we can always confirm the validity of the boy's claim with a simple DNA test later." Nighteye shifted his gaze to Endeavor, the flame hero suddenly felt unsure, but he buried that emotion deep into the recesses of his mind and nodded.
Before he knew they had reached the burn ward, they were in front of the signage indicating section B. The harsh lightning grew painfully blinding. His breaths were short all of sudden, each drag of air just sigh of the requisite amount to keep him calm. He'd been putting this off. Only now when he had no other choice, he was alone to—
"He's in there?"
Nighteye nodded.
Enji wasn't ready. He knew his son was alive… He'd been searching for so long even after his wife's mind shattered from the news. Enji insisted against everything and everyone that pointed him to the accidental death that somewhere out there his son was lost. But this wasn't what he expected, he wasn't prepared.
Enji Todoroki's foot squeaked under the clean flooring as he turned away. He needed to run, he was feeling lightheaded, he couldn't breathe.
—A gloved hand at his side clasped his sweaty palm before he could rush out of the hospital altogether.
"Relax lad," Gran Torino said soothingly.
The doctor in green scrubs next to them spoke out loud. Endeavor hadn't noticed him until now.
"I can't believe you talked me into this, Sir Nighteye. You know that I shouldn't even be letting guests into this ward. Especially with what's going on out there. The fact that Recovery Girl greenlit this is the only reason that I haven't second-guessed myself."
The unnamed doctor's tired brown eyes turned to the tall sidekick in reproach.
"I appreciate your help, Doctor Shimano. I wouldn't have asked if the situation didn't call for such a quick investigation," Nighteye replied.
"Well I'm going to need the three of you to change into these scrubs after a clean shower." The doctor crossed the foot of the door and stretched his arms to block their way.
"Bah, I showered before I hit the hay! That's all I'll need, so…"
The short man made grabby motions at the doctor, his short stature made him look like a toddler from Endeavor's point of view.
Did this man have no shame?
"...Sir Nighteye. This is who I'm breaking the rules for?" Doctor Shimano muttered, crossing his arms.
The only thing the sidekick could offer was an apologetic shrug. The tired doctor sighed and pointed to their left, leading them to the showers the staff used.
"We have a short window of time before I'm forced to kick you all out so make your showers quick," the doctor said, glaring daggers at Gran Torino specifically. "And don't forget to use soap!"
Endeavor's mind was racing the entire time, even as he marched back to the entrance of the burn ward dressed in the new apparel. The doctor leaned outside of the entrance of the locker room.
"Normally, we wouldn't need the shower but the destruction outside complicates things," he said to Enji. "All of the nasty chemicals from the destroyed buildings—let's just say, I'd suggest seeing a pulmonologist on account of the smoke. A dermatologist too. With all the grime the both of you were caked in, you never know."
Endeavor only nodded to the man's words, not really listening.
Nighteye was already dressed in the scrubs, his feet and his head were covered in netting. They stood in silence while they waited for Gran Torino. Endeavor turned to the sidekick to ask him a question but thought better of it, scrutinizing the flooring of the hall instead.
Gran Torino entered the room with a boisterous laugh.
"Haha! Now that's a shower. The water in my apartment pales in comparison. Now, how much did you say it would run me if I ordered the same model?" Gran Torino questioned the stressed out doctor in front of him.
"I didn't…" the brown-haired man muttered. "Should I be worried about this guy, Nighteye?" Doctor Shimano looked back at them and Endeavor stepped away. He was not associating himself with this… goblin. "He's not going to cause problems is he? I'm stressed enough as it is."
"Just ignore him," Nighteye said with a sigh. "He gets a kick out of the senile act." Mirai deflected as he put on a facemask.
"All right, fine… Keep your masks over your faces. The nameless kid's room is the one closest to the entrance after the nurse's desk on the left. "Once Nighteye gets what he needs, we'll move back to the staff room so you can have your… meeting?"
He received a nod from Nighteye.
"You did wash your hands right? Skin isn't sterile but I'd rather not take any more risks than I need." Dr. Shimano questioned as All Might's sidekick continued the nod, they stepped past the receptionist desk. "Okay, let's go. I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first, Sir. The kid started immediately regenerating after I used my Cell Activation quirk. From the blood work we did, his blood type was a match for my quirk. And wasn't that fortunate because Recovery Girl couldn't use her own meta-ability because of his depleted stamina… I thought you told me earlier that he had a pyrokinetic meta-ability?"
Doctor Shimano turned over his shoulder as his steps echoed over the quiet lobby room.
"He does." Nighteye's clipped tone was eerie. Gran Torino hummed at the startling detail. Endeavor would have openly questioned the doctor then and there, had he not added in a new bit of astonishing information.
"Well… the dosage of Trigger in his system might have caused tumors to grow at an exponential rate as he healed if we didn't catch the symptoms before we operated. His body would have started deteriorating from the sheer volume. The wonders of my assistant's gift, that stasis quirk he has slowed it down as we administered the… for lack of better words and time 'antigen.'"
Endeavor slowed down. They had finally made it to Room 372.
"We needed to make sure that things healed correctly or he'd be stuck with badly set bones and full body scarring." Shimano shrugged. "He should be right as rain in a month and you should count your stars. It was a miracle because he was touch and go for a moment after Ingenium got to us. His regeneration quirk worked on overdrive, and because of it, the Trigger has bled off to a steady pace. It should help to alleviate the resources that we have on standby. The drain was rather exorbitant and his quirk would have eaten him out from the inside."
Dr. Shimano informed them as they filed through the creaking door, then closed it shut behind them. The first rays of morning sunlight lit up their surroundings. A… small unrecognizable figure lay within the bed. Every inch of exposed skin was covered in red, mesh-like wounds. They were raw and angry and fully dressed in bandages. Not even his face was spared from the damage. Endeavor could hear shallow breaths, raspy and rough thanks to the tube forced down the teenager's throat.
Enji was rooted to the ground by the steady beep of the heart rate monitor. The boy didn't look as healed as the doctor had made it out to be. He took a step back as if he were struck. He couldn't recognize the still figure. Seeing him face-to-face… he thought recognition would well up within him, but all he could feel was doubt. Nighteye stepped forth with more surety than Endeavor could currently manage, circling the bed and resting a hand on the boy with his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, the sclera of the sidekick's eyes were pitch black and his iris had taken a purple, clock-like shape. The hands of the clocked ticked down on those pupils. Not a single word left Sir Nighteye's lips but his face changed after his quirk shut off. A heavy expression rose up in Mirai's eyes.
"He'll have to know, Gran Torino. He's involved now."
Nighteye's shoulders dropped as he looked over the horizon in contemplation.
The old hero beside Endeavor seemed to age another decade. "...I see. I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but no matter." Gran Torino tapped his cane lightly afterwards in frustration, but he nodded.
"Know? Know what?"
A new surge of energy rose up as he looked at both men. He'd been dragged through the hospital like a puppet. It was time for some answers, and he would get them one way or another. Nighteye held up a hand and silently motioned for the door. As if on cue, Doctor Shimano knocked on the door to let them know that their time was up. How Nighteye knew? Endeavor had no idea, but by the blatant clock symbolism, Enji clued into the sidekick's quirk's abilities.
It explained some of the man's intricacies.
"We'll speak in the staff room. That way we won't have any unwanted ears listening in," Nighteye suggested instead.
Enji's smoldering eyes cooled at the statement. They pressed on out of the ward in silence. Doctor Shimano bid them a farewell and hung up a sign on the staff room so they wouldn't be disturbed. While other medical personnel filed back into the burn ward. Nighteye scrutinized them but let it go as the three of them entered the staff room,
Gran Torino pulled out a chair and plopped down, facing Endeavor. "I would offer to explain the situation to you lad, but Nighteye has a better grasp of it."
Endeavor nodded and turned to face Sir Nighteye, who was sat behind the table at the center of the room.
"What would you do if you could steal a quirk, Endeavor? How would you fare with that power?" He started off the conversation with a hypothetical.
"There's never been a reported case of such a thing, mimicry and reduced equivalents with high restrictions. That's all that's been reported within the quirk registry from what little I could access. It's a fallacy, like the ability to travel through time."
Todoroki quizzically offered from his seated position on the other end of the coffee table. Endeavor had always been curious on the subject of quirks of those around him as a teenager. That's how he had gotten as far as he had. The manipulation of his pyrokinetic meta-ability was versatile on account of his ceaseless training. Thus, Endeavor answered in good faith… or rather he attempted to. Because he believed that the sidekick wouldn't be asking him such a thing without good reason.
"...I—I don't know what I would do." Enji hung his head, lying through his teeth. He knew exactly what he'd do. Endeavor would acquire an ice quirk, it didn't matter how and finally… finally, beat All Might.
"Well such a quirk exists. Nearly a hundred and thirty years ago during the age of the Luminescent Baby, another boy was born who possessed this very meta-ability. The documentation has been lost to time so I was never able to verify that statement regarding the exact timeframe for who was born first."
Enji's head shot up in alarm.
"There was a man… or rather is a man. His name is All For One, a long living despot. Content to manipulate the events around him to his liking, he dwells within the shadows and has stolen hundreds of quirks over the decades." Nighteye started walking to the coffee machine behind Endeavor. "That was the villain Eraserhead and Endeavor faced off against before All Might sent him back to the Pacific Ocean."
The sidekick flipped on the switch for the machine and Gran Torino was startled at the sentence. Enji turned in his seat to face Sir Nighteye.
"Endeavor was following the trail that his supposed son had created. In the wake of the investigation, he was joined by a straggler. Burnin' summarized your short journey with an eyewitness report, while Ingenium filled me in with the rest. That's how All For One's all out attack was stopped short, correct?"
Enji nodded dumbly to confirm the statement.
"But I'm getting ahead of myself, All For One had a younger brother, his name was Yoichi. It was a struggle to even dig that bit of information out. Back in those dark ages when vigilantes roamed the streets of Japan, All For One grew in power and became a king."
Nighteye pulled out a cup of coffee to his lips as he ran the machine for the other two, his mouth parched.
"To the older brother, his younger sibling was rebellious, and his defiance angered him. In reproach, All For One forcibly handed him a quirk that would stockpile power. You see, the younger man was weak and frail. All For One figured that if Yoichi grew to like the corruption of unmitigated power like him, he would finally join him within that twisted empire."
A gulp of the dark liquid ended his sentence. Gran Torino was startled at the sentence that he heard from Nighteye. He began to open his mouth to interrupt but he cooled down as he parsed the details in his head.
"...But he was wrong. It only drove them further apart. And during that time, there were rebellious vigilantes who traced back the corruption within society to its primary source, which is where they met Yoichi. A short lived friendship bloomed between the leader of that rebellion and All For One's brother, but it wouldn't last."
He pushed a cup of coffee towards Endeavor, but he ignored the offering and listened intently.
"Because Yoichi died… months later." Sasaki mused, a frown creased his lips.
"All For One killed Yoichi, no doubt in cold blood. But there was something that All For One didn't know. Yoichi passed on his quirk before his death, to the next generation, one after the other. These holders of the stockpile quirk grew in power as All For One hunted them down… until All Might of course. He is that successor to this shadow war on the opposite end of the spectrum."
Sir Nighteye finally ended that statement as Gran Torino took a heavy gulp from the liquid gold. The older man grimaced as he stared into the mug. Endeavor stood up, he rested the palm of his hands on the table as he glared at Sir Nighteye.
"How can you prove that this man isn't just some maniac with a powerful quirk? Or a villain who managed to run under the radar of the quirk registry with a hybridized quirk or a copy meta-ability?"
"I have video evidence, albeit grainy on account of the interference. But I can do you one better, if you can't trust All Might's word. Then we can track down one of All For One's victims," Nighteye said as he looked at Gran Torino who had nodded his head. "However, let me finish… this will take longer to get you up to speed."
The conversation that was spoken under the flickering light of the staff room rattled Enji Todoroki. An ageless villain skulking in the shadows while Endeavor fought his way to the number one spot on the Hero Billboards. His unending pursuit felt contrived in comparison. A shadow war between the past holders of a quirk that was imparted to a rebellious younger brother long ago… All Might was that destined hero. It made Enji feel small again, like he was that schoolboy standing still in front of the burned husk of a building amongst the bystanders as he walked back home on that fateful day.
Nighteye's next words pulled Endeavor out of his stupor.
"If his claims are true, your supposed son was no doubt recovered for his exceptional quirk like the other children. Perhaps he escaped from the forest fire and All For One captured him before anyone else could."
Gran Torino turned to the window facing the destruction outside, no doubt imagining the fight that was happening at this very moment between All Might and All For One.
…Meanwhile, Endeavor's face twisted in anger.
A knock at the door interrupted them.
It wasn't Dr. Shimano but a random nurse, Sir Nighteye opened the door with suspicion lacing his gaze. Until the unnamed medical personnel handed him a folder. All Might's sidekick thanked the woman as he gingerly closed the door. The taller man flipped through the manila folder before passing it to Endeavor. And he turned around with eyes unseen, covered by the shine in his glasses.
"Congratulations. You're a 99.99% match to the boy." The documents were splayed on the coffee table in that small room. Endeavor's ears rang as he sat at the table, he was lightheaded. "Perhaps it might not prove the validity of his claims to a totality, but it's a start."
The secretive conversation that continued in that staff room left Enji Todoroki numb. It forced him to scrutinize petty crimes that he would have left unturned. And seeing shadows at every corner.
Japan's second ranked hero on the billboards left with quiet steps too soft for a man his size. The sun was dipping down towards the horizon by the time he left, with his chauffeur Untenmaru Kurumada waiting and ready in front of the hospital, standing by the open door of his limousine. There was still a crowd of civilians outside that didn't seem like it would ever disperse despite nightfall looming over them.
Endeavor turned his head back to the large hospital, contemplative.
"Will we be making our way towards your residence, sir?" Kurumada asked as he started the engine.
"No… I have too much paperwork and there are some important calls I need to make." Endeavor fell against the cushions in the back.
"...Sir?"
He closed his eyes with furrowed brows and then he looked up at his chauffeur and one of the few people he could call a friend in this life with steel in his eyes.
"...Please, Kurumada. This day won't end until I start fixing my mistakes."
"Of course sir," Untenmaru re-positioned his rear view mirror, giving him an unreadable look while he worked.
They drove to Endeavor's agency in silence, rumbling through the damaged city as sunset waxed on.