[TOKYO CENTRAL GENERAL HOSPITAL – WARD 304 – 14:10 PM]
The door hissed shut behind Shoto, cutting off the low sound of Fuyumi and Natsuo in the hall.
The room was dim, the only light coming from the glow of the monitors.
The equipment beside the bed made its steady quiet sounds and the window showed a rectangle of pale afternoon sky.
Looking out of it, was the awake Enji Todoroki. He was propped up slightly by the mechanical bed, his massive frame wrapped in bandages in numerous areas.
Todoroki paused at the sight of him. The injuries had been treated — the shoulder, the burns along his neck and jaw, the damage from impact. And yet ... 'This ..' Despite looking the same, the difference was clear in an instant. 'His state is worse than I thought.' In all his years, never had he seen him like this before. Listless was the only word for it. The space where his "beard" of fire usually burned was empty. His skin was scarred and pale.
Worse was his entire demeanor. 'It's like there's no life left in him.' Shoto thought.
From the moment he stepped in, Endeavor hadn't so much as shifted his eyes to look in the direction of the door. Rather, his gaze moved from the window to his hands, clenching them from time to time.
Almost as if he expected them to ignite at any second.
Todoroki walked to the chair beside the bed and sat down. He didn't look at Endeavor, not was he in a hurry to say anything.
Neither of them said anything. The equipment beeped its steady rhythm. Outside in the corridor, muffled footsteps passed and faded. After a while, Endeavor's jaw moved. His voice came out rough and hoarse. "You shouldn't be here." It sounded nothing like he remembered.
"Probably not," Todoroki said.
Endeavor's eyes stayed on the ceiling. "There's nothing to see."
"I know."
The silence stretched out again, heavy and suffocating. For years, their relationship had been one akin to a battle—a cold war of defiance and resentment. Now ... Neither knew what to make of it.
"The doctor said you're stable," Todoroki said, his voice flat, devoid of the edge it used to have in their past conversations. "They're moving you to a private facility in two days for long-term recovery."
Endeavor's fingers curled into his palms again, the knuckles white. "Recovery," he repeated, the word sounding like an insult. "Recovery to what? A life of watching the news from the sidelines?"
Todoroki was quiet for a moment. "At least you're alive to recover. That's more than some of the others from last night can say."
The hands uncurled. Curled again.
"Is that why you came," Endeavor said. Not looking at him. "To confirm I'm alive. Not to mock and gloat?"
There was another round of silence. Todoroki kept his head lowered, face neutral.
"Honestly, I'm not sure myself. Perhaps because Fuyumi was worried about whether you'd have anyone come in. She didn't want to be the only one."
Endeavor made a sound that sounded like a laugh but wasn't quite one either. "Always Fuyumi."
The monitors continued their steady rhythm.
For a time, there was simply nothing to say. Endeavor had dedicated his life to surpassing All Might, then passed that burden on to his son when he failed.
On the other side, Todoroki had spent his life trying to reject his legacy. He hated the fire, hated the strength, and hated everything that had to do with Endeavor. Because it all came from him. But seeing him like this now ... In what should have been a victory on his part ... Felt like he had won nothing. "Does it hurt?"
Endeavor looked at him for the first time. There was yet another long note of silence. Then, "Yes," he said.
Todoroki nodded. He looked back at the window.
They sat in silence for another few minutes.
"Go away, Shoto," Endeavor said eventually. His voice had dropped further, worn down to something barely above a murmur. He turned his face back toward the ceiling. "There is nothing left for you to see here."
Todoroki looked at him for a long moment.
Then he stood and walked out.
In the corridor, Fuyumi looked up immediately. Her eyes moved across his face, searching for a sign of a breakthrough. Natsuo was still looking at the floor.
"Shoto," Fuyumi uttered. "How was—"
"Nothing." He cut her off. "He's exactly who he always was," Todoroki said, pulling his jacket straight as he walked past them toward the elevator. "Just quieter." He pressed the call button.
Behind him, neither of them said anything.
The elevator doors opened. He stepped in. The doors closed. Meanwhile.
SAITAMA PREFECTURE - OKUAMA FOREST ...
'This ...' The darkness slowly receded. With it was an unprecedented heaviness. 'I'm ...? ...' Upon gaining consciousness, the first thing Kurogiri felt was the weight. His physical body ... the core usually protected by his misty shroud, felt heavy.
Ten seconds later, he realized why. His entire body was clamped with reinforced stone bands from his neck down to his chest, limbs, to his very feet.
His gaseous form was so tightly compressed that not a single wisp could escape. Moving was a luxury, much less opening a warpgate. Noticing this, Kurogiri stopped struggling and turned to examine his surroundings.
It was a circular room with earthern walls with four dog heads around it. There were no light fixtures, no vents, and no seams in the masonry—just the cold, damp scent of deep earth and the oppressive weight of the silence. The only light source came from Kurogiri's eyes themselves.
He tried to expand his mist to find a gap in the restraints. Nothing worked. "Struggling is a waste of energy," a voice echoed from the shadows. Kurogiri's head jerked as far as the neck brace allowed. It was all shrouded in darkness.
"Who .." His words stopped as sparks of electricity emerged, illuminating the area around someone's fingertips. Kurogiri's eyes narrowed instantly. Standing near the single, heavy stone door was the man with silver hair. "Nice to see you up with the living." The man said through his mask.
"After all, it would be a shame if you died just yet." A face he was all too familiar with.
"The... White Fang, Mr. Hatake." Kurogiri rasped, now remembering what had happened. "To think we laying in wait for an ambush would be ambushed ourselves. How ironic."
The masked man took several steps forward. "Are you surprised?"
"I am." Kurogiri replied. "After all, there is only so few to stand in the way of the league of villains. Plus you haven't made another appearance since we last saw each other in Hosu. I would assume you predicted we would make a move."
He subsequently turned his attention to the vicinity. "Now if I may ask, where are we? This does not resemble any prison that I know of."
"Honestly ..." The masked man raised his head and replied in a flat tone. "I don't know either."
"Huh?" Kurogiri was stunned. "What do you mean by that?"
"It's just as I said. If you need a general location, then I have no idea what this place is called." He paused. "If you want a more specific answer, then all I can tell you is that you're currently somewhere deep underground where no map exists. I created it for you of course so you can thank me later." He said, his voice echoing through the walls. Kurogiri went silent.
"As for why ... Well, the deep earth has a funny way of muzzling people. No GPS signals reach this far down, and even if you could warp, you'd find there's nothing but several hundred tons of bedrock in every direction." Kurogiri's yellow eyes flickered. "A tomb, then? Why go to these lengths? If you wanted to stop the League, you could have handed me to the Police. Or killed me on that highway. Why this... theatricality?"
The man didn't respond. The seconds passed without a single word. Then ... "Well, let's just say I haven't decided what to do with you yet. But yes, I do plan to imprison you here."
"Why?" Kurogiri asked, his voice returning to its measured, polite cadence. "After all, you are not a hero but a vigilante in the eyes of the law. You have no moral obligation to be against us. If you were, you would simply become a hero. So what do you gain from this? Certainly not some misplaced sense of heroism?" There was no response. Kurogiri's eyes returned to normal.
"It doesn't matter what you think you know," the man said. "What matters is reality. You're going to stay in this hole. I'll be back every few days with enough to keep your core from dissipating, but not enough to give you the strength to fight those bands." Kurogiri's must form frayed slightly. "You'll be hungry. You'll be thirsty. And you'll have plenty of time to think about all the 'disappearing acts' you've performed. There are air vents to make sure you don't suffocate to death. You can spend this time alone, with yourself, by yourself, for as long as I deem fit."
The warpgate had his eyes widened, realising what I was going to do to him at last.
"You intend... to leave me here?" Kurogiri's voice lost its polite edge, replaced by a hollow, vibrating tremor.
"Yes." The man affirmed. Kurogiri fell silent.
"I see. This isn't a matter of ideology. Rather it is personal. From your earlier tone, I summise that you despise me. Why? I have no memory of you prior to Hosu. However this would be your second appearance intercepting us. What did the League do to earn your undivided attention?"
"Took you long enough to figure that out." The masked man replied indifferently.
Kurogiri was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice had returned to its normal tone.
"Personal," he said. "Then I ask again. What did the League do to earn this specifically."
The masked man didn't answer immediately.
"Do I need a reason to despise someone who could warp away seven hundred plus people on a train to their deaths?"
The yellow eyes held on him. "Tomura Shigaraki gave the order," Kurogiri said. "I executed it."
"I know."
"Then you understand there is a distinction."
"I understand what you're saying," the masked man replied. "I don't particularly care about the distinction."
".."
"Everyone has ideals they follow. Mine just so happen to despise yours."
Kurogiri fell silent. "You intend to come back," he said.
"Yes." He replied. "Like I said, as much as I want to kill you, it would be letting you off easy."
"And in the meantime, I am to sit here. Conscious. Aware. With nothing."
"Yes."
The yellow eyes came back down. "I have served All For One since the day of my inception. I have been the architect of operations that changed the shape of this country. I have stood in rooms with individuals who could level cities and been the calmest presence in them." He paused. "I am telling you this not to impress you. I am telling you because you should understand that what you are attempting — the isolation, the deprivation, the waiting — will not produce whatever you imagine it will produce."
"I don't imagine it'll produce anything," the masked man said. "I'm not trying to break you and I have no intentions to rehabilitate you."
He said, extinguishing the electricity sparks. "I'll see you in a few days. Try not to lose your mind. It's the only thing you have left that I can't take."
Then ... His chakra ran out, exploding nto a cloud of smoke.
The sound was deeply unsettling. In the absolute blackness, the only thing Kurogiri could see were the faint, dying sparks of his own yellow eyes, reflected in the unblinking stone gaze of the dog heads.
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