Chapter Text
Todoroki Enji was never a man who wasted time. This rang true in every aspect of his life, from his hero duties to immediately starting his son’s training when his quirk manifested. This was true even at this moment in time, as he was walking home to resume the harsh regime he puts his youngest through. It was already pretty late because of a hostage situation that he had been called in for taking much longer than he expected. He wasn’t going to bother trying to get a car to pick him up at this busy hour of the night. He knew he could get home in under ten minutes if he made haste.
‘Every minute I’m not there, that boy is growing lazy and weak. Every second I’m not guiding him, he’s ruining the path that I created him to travel on.’
It was because he hated wasting time he was very, very tempted to walk past the police officer who grabbed his wrist to pester him.
“Endeavor! Thank God you’re here! This apartment complex was set ablaze by a fire quirk user named ‘Hisashi Midoryia’ we caught him trying to flee but there are some people still in there, specifically the man’s wife and son. The fire department is on the way but I don’t know if they will be able to get here in time. I know that you're not typically a rescue hero, but your quirk makes you fire-proof to shield yourself from your flames, right? Please Endeavor, we need you to get in there and save them!”
Because Endeavor was never one to waste his own time, he was very tempted to tell the panicking man that the fire department could deal with it, but he knew that doing that could seriously damage his reputation as number two hero; and so, because he hated wasting time, he immediately got to work.
Endeavor, as the officer so kindly put it, wasn’t a rescue type hero. And he wasn't a bleeding heart like a certain blonde haired thorn in his side who had to step in at any sign of distress. He was a combat hero, he made himself known for taking down villains, not petty search and rescue like this. He was reminded of why he chose this path every time he got someone out of the building. They would slow him down to try to thank him or hug him or swear to name their firstborn after him. He hated it. Finally he made it to the last apartment. The fire around this one seemed to be hotter and more intense than the other apartments.
‘This must be where the source of the fire is.’ he thought to himself and as he approached the door his suspicion was only confirmed by a partially melted black plastic plastic on the front door that he could barely make out to say [Midoriya] . He kicked down the door and what he saw had him thrown for a loop. In the center of the blaze was a small, green haired boy, no older looking than his own, crying, crouched over the crumpled form of a young woman with hair that was probably once equally as green but was blackened and charred by flames. She was covered in what Endeavor knew were burn wounds.
Given the circumstances this would not be so strange a sight. What made this scene so peculiar was how amongst the charred and flaming room and furniture, there was a 1 and a 1/2 meter circular area in which the two figures lay in which the fire looked like it had never touched. The light blue carpeting still had the appearance of it just being cleaned. The boy was located in the middle of the circle and had one hand clasped in his mother’s hand as if letting go would launch him into space and one hand stretched out towards the edge of the circle. If the fire started to close in, he took s deep breath and the offending flames were sucked into his mouth as if he were eating jello.
Endeavor snapped out of it as he remembered why he was here. He grabbed the boy and his mom and took them into the building’s parking lot where the fire department and ambulance were finally pulling in. He handed off the pair to a first responder who loaded the green haired young woman onto a stretcher and rushed her to an ambulance with the boy following close behind. Enji has seen enough burn wounds in his day to know that the woman’s chances of surviving were slimmer than a single hair on his head.
He approached the officer who stopped him earlier. “The boy, the son of the arsonist, what do you know about him.” He asked.
the officer rubbed the back of his had before sighing and saying sadly. “The boy’s name is Midoryia Izuku, four years old. He and my daughter go to the same school together. The kid is a good kid, it’s a shame that this had to happen to someone so young.” He looked off into the flames of the distant building as they were snuffed out by the firefighters and heroes who actually had quirks for this situation. Endeavor was getting impatient.
“Yes, but what about that boy’s quirk!”
The officer snapped his eyes over to the flaming hero’s in surprise. He gathered himself and said, “The kid has an amazing quirk. Like I said, little girl goes to the same kindergarten as him and I remember she would not stop talking about it when she got home from kindergarten when the kid had gotten his quirk over the weekend. Let's see.. she told me that he told the class that he got the ability to breathe fire from his father but inherited some aspects of his mother’s small object attraction. I'm pretty sure that means he would also get some fire manipulation on the side.” The smile that reached his face disappeared as he was brought back to the present. “It’s a shame, even if Inko survives all of this, she probably won't be in any state to raise the boy and I don’t know if Izuku has any relatives to go and live with while she would recover.”
Todoroki Enji was equal parts angered and shook. It had taken this a woman with a weak quirk and a villain one try to accomplish what it had taken him and his own wife 15 years to do. A child who had the best aspects of their parents quirks to make one ultimate quirk. He knew that woman would never survive and this golden egg of evolution would more than likely be thrown to the foster care system and would never see any future better than being a d-list sidekick who was only able to get into a low-class hero school. He then realized something
Todoroki Enji was someone who hated to waste time. But more than that,
Todoroki Enji was someone who hated to waste opportunities. And now the universe had dropped the biggest opportunity of this century into his lap and he was going to take it and mold it and turn it into hero.