Eli sat in a nice, quaint living room. She sat atop a yellow couch, a matching chair to her right with a nice brown wooden coffee table, a tea set out on top, and a white fluffy rug underneath. Plants covered the living room, some long vines falling from shelves on the walls.
Natsuo Todoroki sat on the chair.
The sun shined from a nice angle into the living room, highlight the cream-colored swirly wallpaper. There was a TV a bit in front of the coffee table, framed with the vines of the plants, and 2 large plants sitting on either side.
"Excuse me, I almost thought I was out of sugar cubes," said the women kindly.
Eli looked over to see Fuyumi Todoroki walking from her kitchen to sit on the other side of the couch.
"Oh, no need for any of that, it's fine," Eli told her with a nod.
Today marked the day the days off from the Sports Festival were over and the start back of school, and the first day of the term when she just wouldn't be there, well, not until she went to pick them up later today.
Himiko had accompanied them to school. Though she wanted to go with Eli, Eli had to do this one by herself.
"You're a TA at U.A, right? Is this about Shoto?" Fuyumi asked making Natsuo sit up straighter
"A-ah yes," Eli said nervously, wondering if Shoto had told her about her since she never told her about her being a TA.
"Oh, I saw you on TV during the Sports Festival," Fuyumi told her, making her oh, and nod with a small smile.
"Yes, this is about Shoto, but this isn't school-related," Eli said waving her hands up. Inwardly sighing, she thought back to the times she rehearsed this in her head.
I mean she wasn't exactly sure if either of them were completely aware, and if they were she hoped they didn't truly understand the gravity of the situation. And she didn't know how to explain to Shoto's sister and brother exactly how and why she and Shoto were like siblings.
"Listen, I'm going to be straight with you both, but I'm filing a lawsuit against your father, Endeavour, for child abuse and neglect over legal custody of Shoto," Eli told her straightly.
The woman stiffened as she looked at her, a look of pure terror in her eye.
"W-what?" she stuttered out. Looking over she saw Natsuo had frozen as well, now staring at the cup of tea in his hands with a hard look.
"I don't know if this is going to make sense, but I've known your younger brother a little over 8 years, and I was recently let on to what exactly was going on with him at home a little over a week ago. When I was told, um when I got to Shoto's house he was... covered in bruises. My siblings, uh his friends, and I got him out and he's been staying with us," she explained.
"But, I needed to talk to you two along with your mother first in order to proceed. You are his siblings, so consulting you is a must," Eli told them with a small bow of her head.
"I-I'm sorry, I think we just need a minute to process this," Natsuo spoke up, and Eli gave them an understanding, sad nod.
"I'm sorry for putting it so plainly. I-I wasn't sure how to go about this... maybe- maybe we can continue another day?" Eli offered kindly, even though she wanted this done now.
"N-no, no, it's fine. I-I just hadn't realized that it hadn't gotten so bad, I-I... I knew about his training, but I wasn't aware-" Fuyumi tried, but she was cut off by the choked-up sound from her throat.
"There is no need to explain yourself to me. From my point of view, you were children in a bad situation," she explained to the girl as she set her cup on the coffee table softly before turning to the girl with an empathetic look.
"C-can you start over, from the beginning, you knowing Shoto, everything," Natsuo asked, scooting up in his seat towards her. Swallowing her pain, she nodded.
"We met about 9 years ago, so I was about 15. I had went into shock so my Quirk activated and to protect myself and everything around me, I ended up knocking myself out and ending up in the hospital. That's where I met Shoto after he stumbled into my room by accident. He warmed up to me, so we talked and he stayed in my room to watch cartoons before he left saying his dad was coming. I'd given him my number, figuring I could set up a playdate or something with my own. He called me that day twice, but that was it for like 4 years. He called me suddenly like 5 years ago. I don't know what happened, and he didn't answer my questions so I just stopped. I took him out and stuff, sometimes we got soba, or went to coffee shops, Christmas shopping, things like that for years so we got pretty close," Eli started over.
"He's the same age as my siblings so I-I've always thought of him as one, so I just-" she cut herself off as she looked off, taking a small breath as she rubbed her exposed neck gingerly, making both siblings glance at the scar with slightly widened eyes.
"My brothers told me and my sister after the Sports Festival incident. So, after that, we just... went and got him. It took a screaming match with your father actually to get him out of there, but we did it. I've fought these types of cases before on behalf of others, and once for one of my brothers, but honestly never on a scale like this," she said, a tired sigh accidentally coming from her mouth as she brought up the tea to warm her dry throat.
Eli was stressed. Sure, she was happy that Shoto was now safe, but never in her life did she think she'd have to fight for custody with Endeavour of all people.
"Can we speak to Shoto about this?" Fuyumi asked, a sparkle of determination in her eyes as Natsuo nodded in agreement.
"Of course, of course," she told them with a nod.
"After this, I'm going to pick them up from school. Would you like to come with me and maybe have dinner with us?" she asked them, both of them nodding fiercely. She smiled a bit, hoping this ferocity turned to love.
"I can wait here as you guys get whatever you need and we can all fit in my car if you'd like," she said, thanking her constant tinkering to the amount of space in the car.
And with that they were gone, Fuyumi sitting in the passenger seat of the car, clutching her side bag nervously as she bit her lip. Eli eyed her in worry as she looked at the slightly younger woman.
"I-" she tried but she was cut off as her phone went off, echoing through the car through the Bluetooth radio. She looked over to see the name 'Izu' on the dashboard before looking at Fuyumi apologetically.
"May I?" she asked making Fuyumi flinch out of her contemplative state.
"Ah, yes yes of course," Fuyumi answered, Eli, nodding at the girl before she pressed a button on the steering wheel to answer the call.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Nee-chan, oh thank All Might, are you coming to school tomorrow?" he asked quickly through the radio.
"Um, I don't plan to, I have another meeting," she said with a confused look on her face as she drove down the road.
"Why?" she asked, sudden alertness in her tone. Her worry seemed to spike, making her eyes unintentionally redden as her mind raced towards the USJ incident, suddenly worried for her students. Shuffling was heard over the phone.
"Bell, everyone here is depressed because it's been a week since they've seen you and you missed their hero names," Katsuki said roughly.
"Kacchan-" Izu said timidly until shuffling was heard again.
"No, he's right. Very gloomy even though Midnight was there," Hitoshi sounded.
"You could stab the tension," Himiko giggled.
Eli breathed a sigh of relief. Even though she felt sorry for not being there, she felt better at knowing they were all safe. Maybe she'd move her meeting tomorrow to earlier so she could come by at lunch.
"Hitoshi, please put me on speaker," Eli asked with a breathy sigh.
"Uh, okay," he said before a small beep was heard through the phone.
"Guys we're having guests for dinner, so be polite huh?" she asked, knowing deep in her belly that there would probably be something like there always is of course.
"Cool, is it more kids, because it's obvious we could use more," Hitoshi said, his normally sarcastic tone covering up his dead serious statements. Shuffling was heard, followed by a grunt and an oof.
"I'm serious, we'll be unstoppable if we get the entire color wheel," Hitoshi said with a grunt.
"O-ok Nee-chan, don't worry! Shoto and I got this," Izuku said cheerfully.
"Wait, Izuku, what do I do?" Shoto said, an innocent curiosity sparking through his typical bland tone.
"We'll get there when we get there, anyway, bye Nee-chan, see you out front, love ya," Izu cheered before a beeping sound was heard.
"Ha, sorry about that, they're all a bit... eccentric," Eli said with a small, nervous chuckle, surprised when she looked over to see Fuyumi giggling to her right and small chuckling behind her.
"Ah, don't apologize. So, is Izuku... your brother?" Fuyumi asked.
"Uh, yea Izuku's the second youngest now since Shoto is the youngest. Then there's Hitoshi, Katsuki, then Himiko is the oldest," she said with a small laugh.
"They can be a lot, but they're all real sweethearts," she said with another small chuckle.
"O-oh wow," Fuyumi said, causing Eli to giggle.
"Yea, I get that a lot. I've taken care of Izuku my whole life, and we found Hitoshi when he was 4. Katsuki is their childhood friend that stays with us, and I found Himiko while I was out on patrol I think a little over a month ago. I guess you could say I have sort of a knack for this sort of thing," Eli said as she spotted the familiar array of her differently colored hair children in front of the school.
Eli parked the car, and quickly constructed a small email to send to her class, and saved it in her drafts before the kids opened the back door, surprised the see the 2 people that were already in the car.
Shoto especially.
"Nee-chan I know this is like your supercar, but I don't know how we're all fitting," Hitoshi spoke up.
"Unless somebody sits on the floor," Katsuki grumbled staring at Himiko and Izuku, who were the smallest.
Chuckling a bit, Eli opened the center console and pressed a button making a holographic screen pull up in front of her.
"Please, there's no need for that," she said as she typed away, changing the occupancy in the car to 8.
2 seats constructed themselves underneath the car, making some noise sound before the floor opened a bit to show the parts moving and 2 seats popping up in the middle of the 3rd row and 2nd. Eli nodded to herself before swiping the screen away making it disappear.
"Ah! That's so cool" Izuku beamed as she got in first, followed by Himiko and Shoto before Hitoshi and Katsuki sat in the 2nd row beside Natsuo.
"Wow, how much did this cost you?" Natsuo asked.
"Eh, a little over half a million yen for some of the parts, but other than that, it was just a normal car that some Support Company sent over to me because they wanted to see what I could do with it," Eli said with a shrug.
"Does that mean you're gonna sell it?" Hitoshi asked making her shake her head as she started the car again and drove off once she heard the 5 clicks.
"No, they're just going to go off my designs," she told them as she drove off.
"So, you work in the Support Department?" Fuyumi asked, and Eli nodded.
"Ah, guys these are Shoto's brother and sister, Fuyumi Todoroki, and Natsuo Todoroki. They are going to be joining us for dinner," Eli spoke up as she drove off.
As the kids introduced themselves, Shoto stilled a bit. Not only did he have something to tell Eli, which would have to wait a bit until they got back, but he had grown so used to interacting with the others as though they were his family that he'd almost forgotten he did have actual siblings.
Given that, he hadn't seen or even spoken to Fuyumi in a month, Natsuo even longer, and this frustrated him. He'd seen how Eli reacted the moment she found out, and he couldn't help but wonder why his siblings hadn't protected him further as he looked at Izuku, Himiko, Hitoshi, and Katsuki.
In opposition to his frustration, was Fuyumi's and Natsuo's guilt. Neither had been lying when they said they didn't know the extent of their fathers' abuse.
They knew he'd hit her mother before she was sent off to the hospital, remembered Endeavour's cold stare on them when they still lived in that home, remembered how much their older brother hated their father, and that they often didn't see their younger brother because of his 'training'.
After years of trying to pick up the forgotten shards of their family, Fuyumi had just stopped. She remembered begging and pleading with her father, trying to set up family dinners, and even attempted to persuade their father to just let their mother out, all to no avail.
Her entire life, she'd given and given to her family, useless Christman parties, dry New Years' get-togethers, canceled long weekend trips, and even attempting to train herself, but stopped when her father gave her a cold glare. One that still chilled her.
Natsuo was done before her. As kids he'd try to wrench his fathers' attention away from his brothers, trying with everything in him to get some type of attention away from him, but he'd only found that the only time when his father didn't pay attention to Shoto or Touya, at the time, was when they were with them, and that was only rarely. When Touya was gone, and when Shoto was burned, Natsuo shut down any inkling in his mind of his family being normal again, or even normal at all.
They arrived in no time, all piling out of her car to go inside the house that Eli was thankful she cleaned up a bit before she went to go meet with the other Todoroki siblings.
"Shoto," Fuyumi called as they entered the house, making the boy slowly turn to her after a small attempt to head upstairs like the others who went to change or wash up.
"Yes?" he asked.
The siblings' guilt built up even more as they walked towards the boy.
"W-we... we need to talk to you," Fuyumi said, clutching onto her side bag tightly, unintentionally digging her nails into her palms.
Looking over at Eli who only smiled at him apologetically before giving him a nod he looked back over and nodded before she showed them to her workroom where they could talk in private.
"What did you want to talk about?" he asked, setting his bag on the table as he stared at them.
"Eli... told us everything," Natsuo started.
"Okay..." Shoto trailed off.
"Shoto, we are more than happy to back you up on this, the trial included, that's not what this is about. I just have a few questions," Fuyumi said twiddling her thumbs as she took a step forward.
"Are you happy, here?" she asked looking around the workroom.
There was some kind of mouthpiece on the table that'd been taken apart a bit, along with a belt on the other side in the same condition. Tools and designs lined the walls and containers of who knows what was on the ground.
It wasn't like in the short time they'd spoken to the girl they hadn't come to the understanding that she seemed to be more than capable of taking care of Shoto. Even with 4 other teenagers running around and 17 more kids to handle at U.A as a TA and mentor, not to mention whatever her position was in the Support Department (which they figured was pretty high up considering the supercar they were just in).
But they still didn't know the girl too well, and due to her attire, they'd seen some of the scarring covering her body, along with the tattoos on her hands and shoulders that they could see.
Shoto looked around himself, spotting a suit that Eli had been working on, his.
He smiled a bit as he nodded softly.
"I'm... sorry for never mentioning her early, she... was my only way to the outside world for a long time. When you guys left I was alone for the most part, but she was there, she always has been..." he told them softly, his hand fiddling softly with the fabric sleeve a bit.
"She... cares. About everything I have to say, even when it's nothing," he said softly turning back to them, a soft look in his eye as he stared off a bit.
"They all care, even Baku-, Katsuki," he said, correcting the name as he said it.
"...Well, I guess that's that," Natsuo said with a sigh, throwing a smile Shoto's way before he walked over and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"She protected you when we didn't, that's all I care about. And I-I'm sorry, I should've-" Natsuo tried but Shoto cut him off.
"You don't have to apologize over something you and I both had no control over... i-it's okay now," Shoto said, looking away from him when he did.
He knew what he said was right, but he still was a bit frustrated.
"No, no it's not. Shoto we're you're older siblings, we should've protected you, if not then, then now. I-I'm the oldest, I should've gotten you out of there when I did, but I didn't," Fuyumi said placing both hands on Shoto's taller shoulders, making him look at her.
"Y-you were tired. We all were, and mom can't get out so..." Shoto trailed off, grunting in surprise as she threw herself into a hug with him.
He couldn't really remember the last time she'd hugged him, and he was still getting used to the large amount of affection that circled around the entire house. So, he hugged her back, a small smile coming to his face hoping that it could be like this for a while. Natsuo joined in with a hearty chuckle.
He'd hoped they come to see him more, and that they came over for things like this.
Shoto's frustrations, although still present, shrunk a bit at that moment.
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So, the 8 of them ate dinner, it was chicken yakitori with an assortment of different vegetables and rice. They converse normally, Fuyumi and Natsuo chatting with Eli about their jobs and making jokes that made it feel more like a family dinner than a meeting.
Eli could only kindly smile at them, happy to see them also interacting with Shoto without the nervous aura she'd felt off of both of them in the time that they were here. She hadn't checked her phone in the last couple of hours since the drive and dinner, so she missed the hundreds of texts and emails she got that night.
Well, that was until she heard hard knocking on the door.
She shot up, the knocking making them all look up at the door.
Eli eyed her door with a hard look, her Quirk activating as she stood up and walked over.
"Nee-chan who is that?" Izu asked.
"I don't know," she said calmly, rolling her shoulders as tried to figure out who would be at her house this late.
Suddenly the door opened, revealing a tired Shouta next to a worried Hizashi, and Toshinori in his smaller form.
"Guys, what are you doing here, what's going on?" she asked, her Quirk disappearing as she walked closer to them.
"Have you not been getting our texts, calls, or our emails?!" Hizashi asked loudly as he took her shoulders in his hands and shook them.
"N-no, we had company over for dinner so we've been pretty busy," she told them simply.
"Oh my god, Eli you have to turn on the news," Toshinori said, Shouta already wandering into the living room quickly and taking a hold of the remote on the coffee table, flipping it on as he did, trying to find the news station.
"What's going on?" Fuyumi asked, walking over making them all turn to see the group of teenagers and the 2 adults now standing from the dinner table and coming towards them.
Hizashi finding the news station is what answered their question.
"It has now been reported that the Flaming Hero: Endeavour is being sued for custody over his son Shoto Todoroki, by the Strength Hero: Kinetic. The Hero Commission has not come out with any statements yet, but Endeavour claims that what Kinetic is doing is kidnapping although there have not been any official charges. We await here, for more information, back to you Akari-san," said the woman on the screen.
Crossing her arms, Eli smirked, an expression none of them had expected her to exhibit as she stared at the message. Well, except select few in the room. Shoto stumbled over to her, placing a soft hand on her shoulder from behind, but she didn't look at him, only putting her own atop of his.
"You don't need to worry Shoto, I was expecting this," she said calmly patting his hand before she turned to them all with an unexpected grin.
"Don't worry," she said rubbing his cheek with her hand before turning to Shouta who smirked a bit.
"We'll be right back, finish eating huh? And turn on something more entertaining while you're at it," Eli told them with a chuckle before she looked over Natsuo and Fuyumi who nodded with worried eyes before they followed behind the 4 Pro-Heroes quietly back to her workshop.
"We already know that you gave him the option of a quiet trial, now we know that he won't be going through with any of that," Shouta said, as she closed the door.
"Fuyumi and Natsuo have already agreed to testify," Eli told him making him sigh a bit in relief before he nodded towards the 2.
"Wait, you knew this would happen!?" Natsuo asked.
"Of course! I had to do extensive research on Endeavour before taking him to trial, so I had to know how he thinks," Eli said with a nod.
"How he thinks?" Toshinori asked, finally speaking up.
"I knew he wouldn't just let Shoto go, not with that mindset. Plus, he has a goal, to defeat All Might! All Might is not just the no. 1 Hero, but the no. 1 everything! He's not stupid because he knows he can't defeat the case without public and Hero Commission support, but he's missing key factors that he doesn't know we have," Eli explained.
"You guys. Judges don't like to split up families when it comes to these child custody battles, so getting you guys to testify on behalf of both Shoto and Eli is already a major blow to the backing the Hero Commission may or may not be giving," Shouta said, leaning against a table.
"We have a lot, he doesn't know about because the Hero Commission basically buried all his misconducts with the dinosaurs, but... fortunately locks are rudimentary when you know where the back door is. Endeavour is a proud man, that much I know now, so even without the Hero Commission he's going down in the public eye," Eli explained again.
"What else do you have?" Fuyumi asked, her hands clasped together nervously.
"Video proof of alleged abuse that shows Shoto's injuries and an attempt from Endeavour to hurt him, that along with proof of prior abuse in the same video, along with some photographs of the injuries we saw that day. Legal documents of prier and present misuse of conduct when it comes to villains, heroes, and civilians. Kinfolk support, and..." she paused, a little proud of all her hard work in the past week.
"And, a way to get your mother out,"
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