"… new and upcoming Hero, Flame, who has recently entered the top 10 and has announced on social media his will to buy what is formerly known as Endeavor Tower. Sir Flame, why such a choice considering the heavy history behind this tower ?"
The Hero smiled, his fire hair flowing like water, as if they had a life of their own.
The full fire-suit was too energy-consuming, so he settled for a new trademark, something that would remind people of greatness and yet set him apart.
"Well, it's because of this history that I want to buy the tower. More than who previously owned it, it's the legacy it represents that interests me. Despite what some may say, Endeavor died a Hero : he tried to kill the most dangerous man Japan had seen in decades. I want to uphold his leg-"
The TV was turned off.
Shoto blinked.
He'd leaned forward without meaning to, his vision too crisp and clean.
He deactivated his sharingan as Teka smoothly sat on the ottoman facing him.
"Glad to see you're not as apathetic as I've heard"
Shoto looked at her blankly.
She was used to it now, and she wasn't stupid enough to mistake anything he was going through for indifference.
Grief and anger billowed in his eyes, a brewing storm that needed an outlet.
"Have you eaten today ?"
"Yes"
She nodded.
At least she wouldn't have to shove food down his throat like she was forced to during the last couple of days. Though most of the time the boy wouldn't let himself be caught thus she had to bully his clones until the original one appeared.
The conversation stalled.
Teka and Shoto – every Todoroki, really - had never been great speakers, and this was worse now that Enji wasn't there.
At least when Enji was there there'd been an easy dynamic they could fall back on : Enji and Teka would bicker, and Shoto would make fun of them. Or, when they were alone, Shoto would get his grandma to answer some of his queries. Shoto had always sought Teka, not the other way around.
And now that Enji...
She didn't know what she should say to a boy who had lost his father.
She hadn't known either, thirty years ago, when Enji, barely older than Shoto, had lost his.
From then on, their barely functional relationship crumbled until they were strangers united by their care for Shoto.
Teka was suddenly acutely aware of her shortcomings.
She didn't want the same thing to happen with her grandson.
They both were the only person the other one had left.
"I heard what you did yesterday. You're careless. You should care better about your allies"
But because she was only herself, she couldn't help but fall back in her own ways.
Shoto's dull eyes met hers. Neither guilt nor regret.
At least he looked her in the eyes, acknowledged that people existed beyond himself.
It was better than nothing.
"I needed… I was supposed to be useful. I should've been able to bring him back"
Teka pursed her lips.
He'd burned his room to the ground and nearly half of the building too : he'd only stopped when he'd realized that if it went on, he'd incinerate his father's study, which was above his.
She should've scolded him, but she found she couldn't.
"No one can bring the dead back to life"
She knew because she'd tried a lot of times during her life.
She knew how heart-wrenching it was to scour the world to find someone with the right Quirk, following leads for years that led to nothing.
Enji had always thought she'd buried herself in work to avoid talking about his father's death, and she couldn't bring herself to explain to him what she was attempting.
Resentment was better than seeing her as the foolish, weak-hearted woman she was.
"I've got a way to… I could bring back Dad"
Teka's brows shot up.
"I beg your pardon ?"
She carefully maintained a neutral expression.
"The book says it's impossible, but I thought-" he licked his dry lips, crazed eyes locking with Teka's "The ninja world has its own set of rules; you understand ? They have their own After Life, cut from any other. The Edo Tensei only works for them because there is no After. For us, it's different because when we die, we reincarnate"
Teka took everything in with admirable calm.
Was he mad ? She refused this possibility.
They couldn't afford for the Todoroki heir to be.
Yet his gaze unsettled her. If there was anyone in the world who could talk about bringing people back to life and who wouldn't be spewing nonsense, wouldn't it be her grandson ?
"You think I'm lying"
Teka coughed, her chest rumbling. Shoto handed her a cup of tea that she appreciatively drank.
"I trust your judgment" she said carefully. "I merely do not know half of the things you're talking about"
He was wary of her, now, and Teka felt, as emotionally unstable as he was, she could lose him if she said the wrong thing.
"I could bring back Dad to life"
It seemed impossible, the words of a madman, the epitome of insanity.
"Then why don't you ?"
Shoto let out a frustrated sound.
"That's the fucking problem. I could, if we'd been in another world – in this one I know he's already left. He's probably already forgotten about-"
His voice broke.
His eyes shone but they hardened as quickly.
Teka reached to him instinctively, awkwardly, to offer comfort, yet she didn't know how one should comfort somebody else.
Nobody had comforted her when her father, cousins, husband, and son had died.
She settled for neutral grounds, something that would take her mind off her thundering emotions.
"How do you know about that sort of thing ?", she asked, appearing unnaturally calm. "Reincarnation and this book you mentioned..."
He smiled wryly.
"Don't tell me you don't understand what I mean"
She did, but the possibility of such a thing was so astonishing that she had trouble accepting it.
"I see"
She'd always thought him unnaturally wise even for Todoroki's standards of bright children.
"There's another way", he said. "I can bring him back"
He was so desperate looking at him hurt.
Usually, Teka would've looked away and let him do as he pleased ; but she'd already walked down that path and she knew it only led to anger and resentment.
Teka gestured to one of her henchmen to come forward. He held a box between his hands.
He put it on the coffee table.
"That's for you", she said. "From your father"
His fingers, which had been grazing the lock, stilled.
He carefully opened the box, as though it would break if he didn't show utmost care.
On a crimson velvet pillow was a cream letter adressed to 'Shoto'.
He could not tear his gaze from it, his eyes tracing again and again the letters.
It smelt like him.
"You knew, didn't you"
It wasn't a question, not even an accusation, but it was laced with disappointment.
Teka braced herself for a shouting match, ready to hold her ground.
Shoto merely rose, leaving the letter in its box.
He was numb to the world, numb to himself, yet the letter was a painful, painful stab to his heart, and he couldn't bear looking at it any longer.
Teka helplessly watched him leave, unable to think of a way to make him stay.
She chose sincerity, exposing her wounds and pains, as she should've done with Enji's when he'd needed her most.
"You know", she said quietly, voice laced with emotions "He was my son, too"
Shoto stilled on the threshold of the room.
For a moment, she thought he'd come back to her.
He clenched his fists and left.
*
"How is Shoto doing ?"
Teka didn't answer.
"… I do not wish to take more of your time than necessary, so I'll be brief : I have exchanged with a lot of important people and it had been agreed upon that if Shoto kills All for One, he'll be absolved"
Teka stilled.
"Absoluted ?"
She'd been commanding the Todoroki estate with the might of an emperor, her men trickling from Italy day after day until she had a small, extremely powerful army at her beck and call.
She'd been ready to wage war to keep her grandson free once the Japanese military finally decided to break into their estate.
"Indeed. I have the Prime Minister's approval right here. I could send it to you if you need any proof"
"Do so"
"We know that he'll do it, absolution or not", drawled her interlocutor. "I just thought securing a deal with the government ensuring them that All for One threat would be eradicated wasn't an opportunity to pass on"
Teka's fingers clinked against her desk.
"Pray tell me why you're going to such lengths to help him ?"
"… let's say your grandson helped me with an important project and he still hasn't claimed his price"
Teka hummed, knowing she wouldn't get any answer from him nor said grandson.
"Remind me what was your name ?"
"Nezu"
*
At first, she'd screamed, but he'd shut her with a slap.
He'd grabbed her in the middle of the night, snatched her from her room with his hard, cold, gloved hands.
They'd appeared in a forest, tall, slender trees like bony fingers pointing towards the sky.
She'd fallen on her knees, threw up.
He didn't leave her the time to wipe her mouth : he grabbed her by her hair and dragged her.
She'd cried in pain, her scalp burning as she tried to make him let go, tears and rivulets of blood streaming down her face.
He hadn't moved an inch, indifferent to the child's suffering.
The woods were terrifying, shadows stretching ominously, a crowd watching this man drag her for what felt like miles.
Soon, her pajamas were torn by the friction with the rocky ground. Her skin was grated bloody.
Pellets painfully embedded themselves in her exposed thighs.
She tried to stand and walk, stumbling, yet the man kept walking and she couldn't find her footing.
There was a dull violence to him, one that is aware of what it's doing but doesn't care.
The hardened ground was replaced by flowers, sprouts of yellow and purple of early spring.
He fisted her hair harder than he did before and she screamed.
He forced her on her legs and then violently pushed her down.
She fell, her arm hitting a hard surface at a weird angle. A jolt of pain lit up from her elbow to her shoulder.
He crouched behind her, at surface level, grabbing her by the back of her neck, pushing her head down until she smelt rotten among the sweetness of flowers.
"Heal him"
She held her tears in, trying to see what he was-
Something stirred and squished beneath her hand.
Maggots. There were a bunch of maggots stirring in a bag of bones.
She screamed and backed away, the wet, whitish, sticky things crawling up her wrist.
Her back hit a wall.
She tried to get out, but the man forcefully pushed her back down.
There, right above the swirling of maggots, was a thin, spine-like bone. Her terrified eyes roamed further and she saw a jaw, lips half gone, showing bone and teeth between which crawled beetles.
A grave. She was in a grave.
Fluids were seeping out from what was left of the skin, dripping down in the coffin. One of the body's eye was bulging as though it wanted to pop out of the socket.
A mop of scarlet hair rested on it.
The man grabbed her neck and pushed her head down until her face was millimeters from the decaying corpse's.
"Heal him"
He unkindly let her go.
She shrank on herself, shivers running up and down her spine. Her arms were shaking.
"I- I can't"
It wasn't how her Quirk worked ; she couldn't rewind the dead to life.
Shoto grabbed her by her neck, eyes blazing red, and pushed her head down and down until she could've tasted rotten flesh had she dared to open her mouth.
"Heal him !"
She cried harder, shaking, terrified.
"I'm sorry", she repeated. "I'm sorry"
Shoto screamed and hit a rock nearby.
It was obliterated, not even dust lingering behind.
He punched a tree, uprooted it, and destroyed the forest with the might of a wrathful god, fire and lightning flickering across his face.
Eri cried harder and harder, shrinking on herself, beetles and maggots crawling on her skin, yet she was more afraid of the animal behind her.
And then, as suddenly as he'd appeared in her room, he'd disappeared, leaving her alone in the grave of a dead man.