Fuyumi didn’t have a lot of free time in her life. She had to attend events for her younger brother Shoto starting at age twelve since mama was away, and their papa Endeavor never had time for such things. He was a hero after all and had always been busy, trusting mama with their education. Natsuo had left for boarding school as soon as he could, leaving her alone with Shoto and rarely, their papa Endeavor.
She took self-defense lessons in Uni because she was determined not to be incapable of protecting Shoto.
Fuyumi really thought she wasn’t as bad as Natsuo claimed. While he didn’t block her like their maternal grandmother, he would hang up on her a lot or just decline her calls. They might look the most alike out of all of their parents’ children, but you couldn’t find two people with less in common.
Fuyumi just had never understood his vitriol towards papa…
Today had been earthshattering…
A detective honestly believed the worst things about papa, even going so far as to say that the only thing that would surprise him was if Endeavor had murdered someone.
It was awful enough that mama went crazy and hurt Shoto leaving a permanent scar. That had been just as awful in its own way as all the rumors when Tōya died.
Fuyumi groaned. Well, they thought he was dead. Papa said so and why wouldn’t they believe him?
Fuyumi found herself driving to her girlfriend’s apartment and letting herself in. She didn’t want to be alone and if papa was as bad as her brothers insisted, it might not be safe to go home if Endeavor found out about their interviews.
“So, how did it go?” Amane asked after Fuyumi joined her on the couch.
“It was humiliating, eye-opening and I don’t know what else,” Fuyumi mumbled.
“Start at the beginning,” Amane said, playing with her hair.
“I tried to get Shoto to agree that it was all a misunderstanding,” Fuyumi admitted shamefully.
“Fuyumi! You’re studying to be a teacher! There were pictures! Video! UA banned Endeavor permanently from campus! There is a medical report from the school nurse.” Amane shook her head, “I can’t believe you wouldn’t believe it.”
“It’s Endeavor. He’s our papa. I never saw him hurt Shoto. I just couldn’t believe it. Shoto didn’t say he did it. Didn’t say papa hurt him. Midoriya did.”
“I thought you liked Midoriya.” Amane frowned.
“I do… it’s just… it sucks.”
“Okay, so you irresponsibly tried to convince an abuse victim to recant. What else?”
“Natsuo was there, at the station and he was so happy to say all sorts of terrible things about papa.”
“I’ve heard what he said over the years, I can imagine.” Amane sighed.
“When the detective said that one of us could stand in for mama and papa since Shoto’s not an adult… Shoto picked Natsuo.”
Amane shook her head, “Well, can you blame him? The only thing that might have been worse was if you told him he deserved it when Endeavor hurt him.”
“You’re my girlfriend!” Fuyumi sputtered.
Amane poked her, “Yumi, you know I love you. But you have this blind spot the size of Jupiter when it comes to Endeavor. As a teacher, you’re going to be a mandatory reporter. You’re being in denial about this, it's not going to look good. You need to think long and hard about what is in Shoto’s best interest. Natsuo has his reasons to dislike and distrust, maybe even hate Endeavor. You’ve been complaining since we met about how Natsuo doesn’t believe you’re a family and how he found a way to legally run away. Maybe, you need to think about how to bring you all back together without Natsuo being the one to change.”
“Natsuo finally came to see mama,” Fuyumi said after a while.
“I’m sure she was glad to see him.” Amane smiled.
Fuyumi snorted, “He still has that ridiculous idea he’s going to be a doctor with his quirk.”
Amane frowned at her, “Stop right there. Why is it ridiculous that your brother is going to be a doctor? What does his quirk have to do with anything?”
“It’s just a pathetic little ice quirk, it’s nothing like papa’s Hellflame.” Fuyumi shrugged.
“Fuyumi! Why would you believe in quirk shaming?” Amane sputtered.
Fuyumi blinked, “What?”
“Why would being an ice quirk make it a weak, pathetic, or bad quirk? Shoto’s ice froze a third of the Sports Festival audience. I wouldn’t call that weak.” Amane scolded.
“No quirk is as powerful as papa’s.” Fuyumi found herself saying.
“Fuyumi, I love you, but Natsuo’s right. You’re gaslit.” Amane shook her head.
“I always thought that mama just got tired of us. That she wanted to run away after Tōya died. That she had her little breakdown and Shoto got hurt. But she didn’t want to take responsibility, that she refused to admit that she was in the wrong and she spent the last thirteen or so years sulking.” Fuyumi admitted quietly.
“Now you think differently?” Amane frowned.
Fuyumi felt sick just remembering, much less repeating the awful truth, “When Tōya comes back from the dead and tells you that your papa was seventeen when he tricked your thirteen-year-old mama into marriage. He got her pregnant and then shamed her for it before she graduated junior high school.”
“I knew your family had weird skeletons in their closet.” Amane gasped, “That was not what I expected. Wait, your brother who burned to death when you were nine?”
“He clearly was burned pretty badly; he calls himself a Frankenstein reject,” Fuyumi mumbled. “Natsuo never doubted who he was, he actually thought papa was the one who burned him almost to death. I can’t believe he really would believe something so awful.”
“Yumi, I’ve overheard Natsuo recount the moment Endeavor told you that Tōya was dead more than once. I never had the impression that Endeavor felt grief or anything that sounded like he cared about Tōya the way you and Natsuo clearly do.” Amane said quietly.
“Tōya is disappointed in me, Natsuo made it clear that as long as I’m in denial, he wants nothing to do with me and today was the first day that Shoto didn’t want me,” Fuyumi whispered painfully.
“Yumi, you need to think hard. Endeavor is guilty of hurting Shoto. Whether it was the first time or not, what he did was not right. Shoto has done the right thing by refusing to come home. With your mother still in the psychiatric ward and having her assault on Shoto as a child herself, she’ll never be given custody of Shoto. It won’t matter if what she did was an accident, a first-time offence, or the result of a mental breakdown because of domestic abuse. It’s on her record.
Amane sighed, “Natsuo is almost five years older than Shoto, and we both know that they’ve never had a relationship prior to this. It would be difficult for him to be awarded custody, they could argue he had depraved indifference if he suspected abuse before and didn’t do anything. Tōya is legally dead, if he looks as bad as you say, people will be prejudiced against him and won’t trust him either. Fuyumi, there is only one person who should be Shoto’s guardian, who has a history of putting Shoto first. Your only mistake, and it is a big one, is not believing Shoto about Endeavor’s abuse. That’s not exactly a legal argument, but it is a shadow on your relationship with your brothers. If you want to be a family again, like you’ve always said; then you need to adjust your way of thinking. You need to listen to what your brothers and mother are saying. Understand why you missed it.”
Fuyumi knew Amane was right, whether she meant to or not, she’d failed her brothers. Natsuo hadn’t thought much of her in years. Tōya was just disappointed, and it hurt. While Shoto had pulled away from her today, Fuyumi never thought he would do that.
XoooooooX
Fuyumi was getting ready for school when her grandmother called, mama’s mother, Fujiwara Kaina, whom Natsuo blocked when he was fifteen.
Absently accepting the call and instantly regretting it.
“Fuyumi! I am disappointed in you! How could you let this unpleasantness get any worse!”
“Obaasama, I’m getting ready for work. This really isn’t a good time.” Fuyumi sighed.
“Work! You want to talk about work when you’re allowing some nobody to manipulate your brother into destroying your father’s reputation?”
“Obaasama, Midoriya isn’t lying. There were pictures and video as well as a report from a healer who is a licensed hero.” Fuyumi said with quiet firmness.
“Your father is a good man; he was probably just disciplining Shoto.”
“Obaasama, he throttled Shoto. In what universe is choking your child appropriate for any supposed offense? Witnessing this incident made Midoriya afraid of him.”
“For which he misused his quirk to attack a hero and he’s not getting punished? I heard that U.A. banned your father from campus. He has a son who is a student there and he is one of U.A’s finest alumnus.”
“Okaasama, I don’t want to argue this. I’m going to have to agree with Natsuo. If you’re not going to take Shoto’s safety seriously, then I don’t recommend you call me.” Fuyumi forced herself to say.
Amane walked in to check on her so they could leave together and she just smiled at her.
“Why I never! I can’t believe you have such little family feeling, Todoroki Fuyumi.”
“Obaasama, the things you’re turned blind eyes to in the past are awful enough. But if you call Shoto and talk to him like this,” Fuyumi found herself saying.
“Are you threatening me, Fuyumi?”
“I would never do that. As cruel as you think I am being, I have to put Shoto first. I am going to request that you do not contact either of us as long as you insist on defending Endeavor.”
“Whatever you are planning, Todoroki Fuyumi, I hope you are prepared to live with the consequences.”
“I have to live with myself, Obaasama. I’m going to be a teacher; I can’t just pretend what Endeavor did didn’t happen. I can’t ignore it, I can’t tell Shoto to lie to the police, I have to do what is best for Shoto. Talking to you and worrying about Endeavor’s reputation isn’t it. Now, I have to go.” For the first time in her life, Fuyumi abruptly ended the call.
Amane kissed her, “If we didn’t have to go to work… I would show you just how proud you just made me.”
“Raincheck?” Fuyumi sputtered.
“Absolutely. Now, I’m going to meet you in the car. Do you know what would make me even prouder?” Amane asked.
“If I called Detective Tsukauchi and asked for the name of a lawyer to sue for custody of Shoto?” Fuyumi said quietly.
Amane kissed her, “I knew you would do the right thing!”
XoooooooX
Fuyumi found herself at the hospital for another family counselling session, and while Natsuo couldn’t be present in person, they had scheduled it so that he could video call.
“With Tōya’s support…” mama began, “I’ve decided to file for divorce. He found me a lawyer who believes I have a chance.”
“How are you going to pay for it?” Natsuo frowned, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it. I just thought you didn’t have the money before.”
“I didn’t have the courage or the money. My lawyer assured me that a kind benefactor took care of the initial expenses and that when he wins, Endeavor will pay the rest. I didn’t think I had grounds before…” Mama said quietly.
“I’m very proud of you,” Tōya said, squeezing Mama’s hand.
“I might not have understood why you felt you needed to stay here…” Fuyumi swallowed, “but I did want you to be happy. I do want you to be happy. I thought I should say that… my girlfriend helped me see things clearer. That the best thing I could do as a member of this family wasn’t to support pa… Endeavor. That what I needed to do… was to ensure that Shoto would stay safe. So, I retained a lawyer that Detective Tsukauchi recommended, I’m filing for emergency custody of Shoto.”
Her family blinked at her.
Shoto frowned, “I thought you didn’t believe me… that you wanted me to tell them it was all a mistake.”
Tōya was sputtering angrily after hearing that.
Fuyumi sighed, “I was concerned about the wrong person’s reputation and safety. I thought that Endeavor couldn’t have done such a terrible thing. Which was of course, illogical, UA would not have essentially gone to war against Endeavor and upset the Hero Commission unless they had iron-clad proof. I want to be a teacher, what sort of a teacher who is supposed to be a mandatory reporter of abuse would I be if I shielded someone because they happened to be my father? The person I was supposed to protect was Shoto. I don’t know why I was willingly blind,”
Natsuo coughed, “Gaslit!”
“I would never be trusted as a teacher if I continued to deny the truth. I’m not just doing this to protect my job. I’m doing this because Shoto needs to know he has a guardian who has always done their best to keep him safe. Someone who actually cares about his education. Someone who intends to fight Endeavor for him.” Fuyumi said quietly.
“So, you do believe me?” Shoto asked.
Fuyumi sighed, “I think I was afraid to believe you because it meant that everything I thought I knew about our family dynamic was a lie. Tōya coming back and admitting the terrible things that Endeavor did to him and mama… it was just too hard to pretend anymore. Just so you know… I told mama’s mother that until she decided to stop supporting Endeavor that she wasn’t to contact either of us.”
Natsuo chortled, “You told that old hag off? Finally! She’s pure poison.”
Mama blinked, “You told okaasan not to call you or Shoto? Dr. Rainbow was the one who ban her first from contacting me after she put me in tears.”
“I never liked either set of grandparents.” Tōya scoffed, “They both seemed to fawn over Endeavor as if he were almost a god. No wonder the man’s ego is so big.”
“So, Rei-san is divorcing Endeavor and Fuyumi is filing for custody. Here is hoping that you both have an excellent lawyer.” Dr. Rainbow recounted.
“He came highly recommended, he is very knowledgeable about the law. I was worried given his connection with Best Jeanist,” Fuyumi began.
“Is the lawyer you engaged Ayukawa Hironori?” Tōya interjected.
Fuyumi blinked, “How did you know?”
Tōya smirked, “Oh, this is going to be epic.”
Natsuo scowled, “I don’t get it.”
“Mama’s lawyer and Fuyumi’s lawyer are the same person. He’s going to enjoy going after Endeavor.” Tōya snickered. “Kei is going to laugh so hard; he might have trouble… driving straight.”
“Mama’s divorce lawyer is my custody lawyer?” Fuyumi frowned, “How is that possible?”
“Simple, most of the law he’s using is based on abuse of minors law,” Tōya said smugly.
“But mama’s an adult.” Fuyumi sputtered.
“She is now, but she certainly wasn’t when she was tricked into marriage and then was isolated as well as victimized by Endeavor.” Tōya snorted.
“Do you think he’ll present it as one case?” Natsuo frowned.
“Who knows? I’m sure that Mama and Fuyumi will keep us informed. Hopefully, your statements can be admitted into evidence and Shoto won’t have to testify. I am unsure if mama would be called.” Tōya shrugged.
“I don’t mind,” Fuyumi said with a small smile, “I think that Natsuo would enjoy coming for the trial.”
Natsuo’s smile was vicious, “It’s a show I wouldn’t miss. Especially, if Endeavor has the audacity to testify.”
“If he doesn’t plan to on his own behalf, I suspect our lawyer will call him to the stand.” Tōya’s smirk also took an icy edge.
“What if I don’t want to be a Todoroki?” Shoto blurted out.
Tōya blinked, “Well, after my experiences with Endeavor, I wasn’t all that keen to be legally alive or to reclaim his name.”
“I’d love to spit on his name!” Natsuo grinned, “Count me in! It would be really easy to get them to change my name. I actually looked into it; I was considering taking Amaya’s name if she’d have me.”
“After how my parents have been so supportive of Enji…” Mama said softly, “I don’t really want to go back to their family name either.”
“I really doubt they would let us join their family registry.” Natsuo snorted.
“So, we’re in agreement, that we all want to change our name? I wonder if our lawyer would take that into consideration and include it in his lawsuit?” Tōya wondered.
Natsuo’s voice had a vicious edge, “I know what would piss him off the most.”
Tōya’s smirk grew, “Do tell.”
“He has such a low opinion of ice, we should totally pick a surname that has ice, snow or winter in it.” Natsuo chortled.
Tōya nodded, “I can just see the headline. Endeavor dealt a triple blow. Estranged wife who accused Endeavor of domestic abuse successfully divorces him, and youngest son is placed in the custody of his sister for protection after the court finds him guilty of child abuse. Finally, ex-wife and his living children change their name.”
“Yep, he’ll fall out of the top rankings after that. He must be a bad person in his personal life if his entire family disowns him.” Natsuo grinned.
“So, we’re agreed… we’re all dumping the surname Todoroki?” Tōya said smugly.
Each family member verbally agreed.
“Why don’t I look into some options?” Fuyumi offered.
Natsuo frowned, “Really?”
“I don’t have the reasons the rest of you do to dislike Endeavor, but it’s the right choice. Someone once said that there comes a time when you have to decide between what is easy and what is right. I think that for us, easy isn’t an option anymore. We have to do what is right for us and what is necessary for both mama's and Shoto’s safety. That is that we don’t associate with Endeavor. We may have to include a no-contact ban in our case.” Fuyumi sighed.
“What about our phones?” Natsuo frowned.
Fuyumi shrugged, “Well, he did give me manager status on the account. I’ll just approve moving us to a separate account. We can decide if we need to change our numbers depending on how the rest of the family reacts.”
“You’re willing to block the rest of the family?” Natsuo was surprised.
“Let’s just say, that I finally realized why you and mama don’t speak to her mother and if the rest of the family react the same way.” Fuyumi groaned.
“Well, I’m glad we’re going to make Endeavor suffer humiliations galore. It’s about time he got knocked off his pedestal.” An alarm went off, “Sorry, that’s my timer. I’ve got to go.” Natsuo said apologetically.
“Thanks for making time, Natsuo. It was nice seeing you.” Mama said sincerely.
“I promise to visit in the summer if someone’s got the space. Can’t say how long I can stay though.” Natsuo frowned.
“We’ll talk later,” Fuyumi assured him.
Natsuo hung up the video call.
Rei hugged them all and the session ended.
Fuyumi offered to drive Tōya back to Kei’s place and he accepted.
Fuyumi hoped that her choice to sue for custody would help win back Shoto and Tōya’s trust.