Toya & Tira- 7 Years Old
Fuyumi- 6 Years Old
Natsuo- 3 Years Old
Enji woke the next morning before the sun had made its ascent above the horizon. He looked around his large empty room with a sigh. It had the bare minimum of furniture, and some tasteful traditional art lining the walls but it lacked warmth. The room always felt cold, devoid of any love or personality. Mr. and Mrs. Todoroki had separate living quarters within the giant mansion, he only shared her bed when he felt she had a purpose to serve.
Sighing he rolled over onto his stomach and reached for the drawer of the nightstand next to his bed. He pulled it open. Inside were handmade cards and drawings from Tira and Toya, before their quirks had developed and he'd started to train them. Deep down, his heart hurt as he looked at the drawings his children had once made for him. Did he ever seem appreciative of them when the kids gave them to him? He couldn't remember. He'd always been busy with work and found it difficult to make time for them until they'd begun to show potential.
He pulled himself out of bed, tucked away the childish drawings and prepared for the day before heading to the training hall. By the time he reached the training hall, he heard a voice from within, Toya and Tira had already arrived. He paused to listen.
"Tira, are you sure you're okay? You don't look so good." Toya's voice was laced with concern.
"Mhm." Came Tira's soft sweet voice. Her voice gave him pause, it sounded unsteady.
"I know when you lie." Toya retorted.
"It's okay. I can ignore it." Tira tried to reassure her twin.
Enji frowned as he stepped into the training hall. The twins jumped at his sudden arrival. His gaze fell on Tira. There was a sickly pallor to her skin and a faint blue hue to her lips. He nearly sent her away but convinced himself she was his child, that made her strong, she could take it and continued on with their training. Despite her sickly appearance, Tira managed to keep up with the training for the first few hours.
As Enji was thinking it was about time to tell them to take a break for a late breakfast/early lunch, he ran through one more sparring exercise with Tira. Her movements were slow and sluggish and she'd left herself completely open. He landed a hit to her side and watched as she crumpled to the floor. Toya let out a cry of pain and clutched at his ribs with tears welling in his turquoise eyes. Enji paused not sure which child was in need of help as Tira wasn't making a sound though she'd been struck and Toya was crying.
"What are you crying for?" He asked Toya with a sigh as he noticed Tira trying to stand and assumed she was fine.
Toya looked beyond him, his eyes growing wide in horror and Enji turned as he heard something splash to the floor. Tira was on all fours, struggling to breathe and coughing up an alarming amount of blood.
"TIRA!" Toya cried.
Tira nearly choked on the blood pooling into her throat and expelled more of it onto the floor. She tried to wipe it away and get back on her feet. The moment she sat upright; more blood spilled from her lips. Short ragged gasping breaths escaped her but it didn't seem like she was able to get any air.
Enji swore under his breath and swept her into his arms. Toya tried to run after him but he snapped at him and told him to stay put before yelling for the driver to bring the car around. The sound of Toya's screams echoed in the back of his mind haunting him as he raced toward the car cradling Tira's delicate form in his arms.
"Hospital! Now!" Was all he managed to snarl at the driver before he slid into the back seat.
Enji kept Tira's head upright in an attempt to keep her from drowning on the blood pooling in the back of her throat. Her ghostly pale skin took on an almost blue hue as she gasped for air but didn't seem to be able to get any oxygen to her lungs. Each gasping breath seemed to cause her a great deal of agony. The tears she so often held back in training finally began to spill from her steel grey eyes as she realized she wasn't breathing and panic gripped her heart. She couldn't leave Toya!
More tears streamed down her cheeks as she felt blood beginning to fill her esophagus. She choked and tried to expel it as it reached her mouth but no matter how much she coughed and sputtered more blood followed until she didn't have the strength to cough anymore. Her small bloody fingers clutched at her father's shirt.
"Tira?" Enji breathed her name praying to every deity he'd ever heard of to save her. "We'll be at the hospital soon, please, keep fighting." Tears welled in his eyes as he cradled her trembling form in his arms.
Her body convulsed, unable to get any oxygen as her airway was filled with blood. She was drowning in it. Darkness consumed her and her frail body fell limp in her father's arms.
"Tira?" Enji shook her as the car came to a stop outside the hospital. He bolted from the car. "I need a doctor! Now!" He roared as he nearly blasted the hospital doors down in his attempt to get inside as fast as possible.
The hospital staff jumped into action, Tira's lifeless body was ripped from his arms and rushed off. Enji tried to follow but was stopped by a few nurses who handed him some paperwork to fill out and took him to a private waiting room.
Back at the Todoroki estate, Toya felt his twin's life slip away. Something inside of him snapped. Blue flames sparked to life atop his head and around his hands as he let out a heart wrenching cry of rage and agony. He couldn't feel Tira anymore, it was as if their link had been severed, like her light had been snuffed out. In his rage he destroyed the training hall, he didn't stop tearing things apart and burning everything in sight until Rei heard his screams and came running to see what had happened.
"Toya!" She cried and used her ice quirk to get the fire under control before he burnt the whole house down. Her gaze fell on an alarmingly large puddle of blood on the floor as she ran to hug her son, "where's Tira?"
Toya's turquoise eyes flooded with tears as he looked up at his mother's bruised face, "I don't know!"
"Sh, it's alright, honey." Rei wrapped her arms around her son trying not to reveal the worry she felt on her face. She had to stay calm and keep Toya calm.
After nearly two hours of his panicked screaming and crying, Toya felt a faint distant blip. He calmed as he somehow sensed Tira's life force again. Rei looked down at the distraught child in her arms warily as he suddenly fell silent.
"Toya?"
"I think she's going to be okay..." Toya whispered quietly, his voice distant and scratchy.
Rei rocked her son in her arms. The connection between the twins seemed supernatural and at times eerie but she was grateful for it as she felt herself starting to relax. She'd tried to call the hospital but they couldn't hear her on the phone over Toya's panicked screaming and crying. Her husband made no effort to contact her. The driver had returned thirty minutes into Toya's fit and informed her that Enji had taken Tira to the hospital but he didn't have any news other than their location.
Once Toya was calm, Rei picked up the phone to call the hospital. She was transferred to several different departments and by the time she was transferred to the nurse's station at the ICU they informed her they couldn't give out patient information over the phone. When she tried to argue and tell them that she was the mother they apologized and said her husband forbade it.
Rei asked the driver to take her and the children to the hospital and hurried to get Natsuo and Fuyumi ready to leave. As she was helping Fuyumi out of her pajamas and into a dress, the phone rang. She ran to answer it praying it was the hospital and they'd give her an update on Tira's condition.
"Hello?" Her voice remained surprisingly calm.
"I want you and the children to stay at the house." The cool voice of her husband made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
"What?! No. Tira needs me-." Rei protested as tears welled in her eyes.
"It'll just be too much of a distraction and hinder her recovery." He was unmoved by her argument.
"I'm her mother!" Rei snapped not caring if she'd pay for it later.
"When has that mattered?" Enji retorted, "I won't repeat myself again, stay home." He growled.
"You can't keep her and Toya apart." Rei tried a different approach.
"Enough." He hissed angrily and Rei cursed at herself as she flinched at his tone.
Defeated, Rei nearly collapsed to the floor, "at least tell me how she's doing." She choked on a sob.
"She'll be fine." Enji hung up the phone.
"Mommy?" Fuyumi stood in the doorway holding a crying Natsuo in her arms.
Rei wiped away her tears and smiled at her youngest daughter, "sorry, sweetie, I guess we're just going to have to wait here for Tira."
"O-okay." Fuyumi accepted the news with a nod and tried to calm Natsuo.
In the Intensive Care Unit, Enji sunk into the chair at Tira's bedside and dropped his head into his hands. The doctor informed him, Tira had broken a few ribs, the breaks had been so severe the bones snapped off and sharp shards of bone had pierced her lungs which had created the massive bleed as every time she'd tried to take a breath the shards would get buried deeper into her lungs spilling more blood. Clinically she'd been dead upon their arrival but the doctors managed to resuscitate her. She'd spent hours in surgery to get the bone fragments out of her lungs and repair the breaks.
The doctors seemed worried about how her psyche would handle the trauma of dying and being resuscitated. Enji's mind wandered as he waited for Tira to regain consciousness. In an effort to numb the pain at his failure he managed to convince himself that both Toya and Tira had been defective all along. None of his children had the right blend of his and Rei's quirk. He'd have to try again to get the perfect masterpiece.
The heart monitor attached to Tira's small finger began to race sporadically as she came to consciousness and found her body wracked with agony. She wheezed weakly as she tried to suck in a breath but the pain in her chest was too great.
"Tira?"
Her steel grey eyes fluttered open and grew wide in terror. The heart monitor sounded like it was going to explode her heart was racing with such intensity. Enji reached out in an attempt to be comforting but drew back as Tira let out an ear-piercing scream and folded into herself.
"Tira, enough, it's me-." He attempted to calm her down but winced as her screams grew louder and more terror filled.
His heart clenched in his chest as he got to his feet and she flinched. He clenched his fists at his sides as he was riddled with guilt and moved away from her bed. As soon as he left the room her screaming ceased. He could faintly hear her crying from within the room and hung his head in defeat. He'd done it...he'd pushed her too far...and now she was broken.