Chapter Text
Shouta didn’t get back to the hospital until nearly two in the morning. He’d met with Nezu after checking on the rest of his class, and they’d gone back and forth with a representative from the Hero Public Safety Commission. He was sure news would get back to Endeavor before daybreak, so he’d gotten Naomasa to rush through an extended protection order for Todoroki.
The kid was staring at him now. His face seemed as impassive as ever, but the last few days had gotten Shouta proficient in reading Todoroki. He was worried.
“Unless your father agrees to a transfer of custody, we’d have to go through the legal system,” he explained. “That would be a long process. There’d be a police investigation. Even if we tried to keep it all private, news would get out. Endeavor could lose everything—which he deserves—but there’s also a chance he’d win. It’d be hard to find a lawyer willing to oppose Endeavor and the Hero Commission.”
Todoroki nodded. “He doesn’t like to lose.”
“Which brings us to our second option.” Shouta hesitated. There was far too much that could go wrong with this plan, especially since they weren’t technically removing Todoroki from his father’s custody.
Yagi stepped in to explain. “Your father is in a delicate position now, as the number one hero. The commission hasn’t fully instated him to the number one spot, so he’s under more scrutiny than ever. This incident has put him under heavy fire publicly, and many people are questioning how a man who can’t protect his own son is supposed to protect Japan.
“I think—and Nezu agrees—that we might be able to get him to agree to granting us stewardship of you. It would be a transfer of custody in everything but name, and he would still retain his rights as your father. But you wouldn’t go home to him, and your safety and wellbeing would be the responsibility of someone at the school.”
“Yagi says this has happened before,” Shouta cut in.
The man nodded gravely. “I’m not privy to all the details as the records are sealed, but there has been at least one other hero to give up their parental rights for their child’s safety.”
The kid wasn’t looking at any of them. He was looking down at his hands, and he flexed his left hand a few times before tightening it into a fist. “I don’t understand,” he finally admitted.
“Basically, we convince your father that this is the right thing to do,” Shouta explained. “He gets good publicity out of it, gets to show the world that he’s a good father by entrusting your safety to UA so he be the hero the rest of society needs. We get you out of his hands. You’re safe, he’s happy, and no one gets hurt.”
“Can he take it back?”
Shouta sighed. That was the worst part of this plan. Endeavor could technically cancel the stewardship at any time, but they were hoping the threat of a legal case would stop him. But if that wasn’t enough, they ended up right back where they started. Worse, even. “Yeah. I don’t think he would, but yeah. It’s possible.”
Todoroki nodded. His face was a blank mask, like he’d locked away some essential part of himself. Then he blinked and a tear rolled down and froze on his right cheek.
Shouta was already leaning in to pull him into his arms when the kid’s façade broke. Todoroki clung to him—not quite sobbing, but his shoulders were trembling and his breathing was ragged. He closed his eyes and focused on holding the shaking teenager in his arms.
“He won’t let me go,” Todoroki gasped. “He’ll never…never let me go.”
He cursed inwardly. Stewardship was the fastest option, but it was also the riskiest. Endeavor could agree to save face now, then turn around and revoke it as soon as his status was secured. The kid was suffering too much to try such a risky shortcut.
“We’ll figure it out,” he murmured, resting a hand on the back of Todoroki’s head. “We’re not out of options yet. We’ll find a way.”
The door to the hospital room slammed open, and Shouta threw himself forward to cover Todoroki’s body.
“What the hell!” Hizashi screeched at the intruder. “Learn to knock, you meathead!”
Shouta twisted to glance over his shoulder, only to find his vision blocked by the back of Yagi’s sweater. The former hero had stepped in between Shouta and the door to fend off whoever was coming in. And beyond him, shoulders slumped now, a sheepish look on his face, was the class 1-B homeroom teacher.
“Kan?” Shouta released Todoroki and turned to stare at the other teacher. “What are you doing here?”
Sekijiro Kan grinned at him, his fangs glinting dangerously in the soft light of the hospital room. “We’ve got him.”
…
The next few minutes were a bustle of activity as several nurses and a member of hospital security investigated the commotion. While the security officer took Kan to the side to scold him for his dramatic entrance, one of the nurses took the chance to check Todoroki’s vitals. She didn’t say anything about the tear tracks on his cheeks or the teddy bear tucked in beside him, but she did cheerfully announce that his temperature had been stable for twelve hours now, and Dr. Wei would be quite happy to hear that.
“Now, explain yourself,” Shouta demanded once the five of them were alone. The hospital room was starting to get crowded, so he was sitting on the edge of Todoroki’s bed while Yagi and Hizashi took the chairs.
Kan nodded grimly. “Endeavor’s filing a complaint against UA,” he said with a note of triumph in his voice.
Shouta raised his eyebrows. “This is good news?”
“He’s saying that he should have been informed his son had missed curfew on Sunday, and that it’s through our negligence that Todoroki’s life was endangered.”
Hizashi spluttered a protest as Shouta crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Kan. “And?”
“Nezu pressed for details. Enji Todoroki claims his youngest son enjoys hiking and camping. That it’s a common occurrence to drop him off a few kilometers from home and let him make his own way back.”
A few kilometers? “How many?”
Kan grinned. “According to Endeavor, on Friday night he left Todoroki within twelve kilometers of UA campus. With the promise that if he returned to campus early, he could spend the rest of the weekend in the dorms.”
Shouta glanced at Todoroki, who shook his head. “Where did I find him?” he asked, looking at Hizashi.
“I don’t have the map, but it was close to that,” Hizashi replied. “I’d say we started the search about fifteen kilometers from the school.”
“That’s right,” Kan answered. “But we finally decrypted the data on the tracking device your father planted in your shoe. He said twelve kilometers, but it was at least three times that. Closer to forty-five or fifty.”
Yagi gasped, and Shouta instinctively wrapped an arm around Todoroki’s shoulders. Forty-five kilometers? All alone, with no phone and no supplies? Just his father watching from afar through a GPS tracker?
They’d treated Todoroki for exposure when he’d been brought in. He’d spent at least one night without shelter after the landslide, nursing a broken bone he’d splinted with his own ice.
He could have died out there.
And Endeavor had known where he was the entire time.
“That’s endangerment,” Yagi spoke up, breaking the shocked silence. Shouta turned to meet his gaze, and the other man offered him a grim smile. “Endangerment and neglect, I believe. It’s enough.”
“I have the search maps,” Hizashi offered. “We can compare them to the data Kan decrypted, prove that Endeavor was sending us off in the wrong direction.”
He’d been treated for exhaustion, dehydration, malnutrition, and exposure. His medical charts would prove that.
“We’ve got him,” Kan repeated, looking at Shouta.
“It’s enough,” Shouta agreed. He grinned at Todoroki, pulling him in close. “We’re gonna roast your old man alive, kid.”