15

 15: Chapter #15 | Changelings Sanctuary

Chapter Text

It took mere minutes for Izuku to hit the main roads again on his bike. He had placed his black leather coat around the girl as the February chill in the air got biting at highway speeds without it. Little Hiromi had, at first, been terrified of riding on the bike. That wasn't terribly shocking, Izuku thought. Not many people in this day and age used motorbikes in Japan.

The turn of the twenty-first had seen traffic so congested that the government at the time had implemented a million and one traffic laws to thin the number of cars and car owners out. Nowadays, the vast majority of the laws were either defunct or obsolete. Many of the ones that were still valid were barely even observed. It worked still, only because society had shifted away from personal vehicles and towards bicycles and public transportation. It was seen as something unnecessary for individuals, and the only time it wasn't a luxury was if it was relevant for someone's job, or the vehicle was a company vehicle with a purpose.

All of this resulted in traffic being far less than one would expect from the population size of Japan and once Izuku had hit the expressway, he was able to get up to a speed that would see them back at Moonlit Industries in no time. Hiromi had left her fear behind, as children tended to when they realized they weren't in danger, and watched the world zip by them at their accelerated pace with large, fascinated gold eyes.

Japan, of course, wasn't the only country that went through these changes. Much of the original European Union went through the same changes over the last several hundred years. Meanwhile, several major countries had been incredibly slow on the uptake and still suffered from all kinds of logistical nightmares. When Izuku zipped down the off-ramp, he thought of how I-Island had just managed to avoid that fate with the Reunited States as the chief force behind the island's development. As he turned into the parking lot of home and made his way to his parking space next to the front door, Izuku was simply glad Japan had worked so hard on their infrastructure following the dawn of quirks, and the violence that followed.

"Well, Hiromi, your big sister is inside. Are you ready to go see her?" Izuku gave a smile as the girl nodded her head and gawked around at the complex they had. When Izuku walked into the lobby, he was surprised to find that not only was almost everyone surprisingly missing, but the two that awaited him were not who he expected to see. Mei stood just to the side of reception speaking with Kyoka, both of whom turned their heads when the doors opened. Izuku was glad to say that the situational training he had been doing with Kyoka was paying off, because while her face was perfectly pleasant, and she cooed and asked who Hiromi was, her eyes were serious and asking Izuku a million questions.

He made sure he was behind Hiromi when he nodded his head at Jiro. He would answer the questions, but not right now. They weren't the kind to be answered in front of the kid. It only took him a moment to find out that everyone had moved upstairs to the common room and Izuku nodded. "Kyoka, could take Hiromi up there, please? We'll be up in just a moment, and I'm sure she'd love to see her big sister. Isn't that right, Hiromi?"

Jiro laughed as the little girl jumped up and down, excited, chanting the word yes. She confirmed a couple details with Izuku, handed him back his jacket and, picking up the young girl, headed deeper into the facility. The smiles that had been on both Izuku's and Mei's faces until now dropped away, as if they hadn't ever been there in the first place. "Well, how'd it go?"

Izuku looked sideways at her, and in his eyes was an emotional turmoil she hadn't seen except in those brief moments after he jerked himself awake on the futon in their old garage workshop. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a packet of papers, handing them to her. She took a moment to glance through and wasn't even finished with the first page before her eyebrows quirked up. "Izuku, these are damn comprehensive. When and why did you have documents like this even drawn up? Not that I'm not glad she's out of the situation but…"

He nodded before leaning on the central desk there in reception. "Yeah, I know what you're asking. I had your mother draw them up about a half a year back for a commission that came in. It was one that I took on without any backup because of the delicate nature of it. The CEO of the company had passed away, and the woman that took his place had been good friends with him. When she found out that the old CEO's wife was getting abusive with their kids after his death… well, she asked me to get them out. She said she owed that much to her mentor, and that the kids didn't deserve that. I… convinced the mother to sign and that was that. I've always kept a copy of the documents just in case I came upon another situation like it. Didn't think I would need to use them myself, though."

Izuku sighed, now sliding down to sit on the ground. With his back against the desk, he ran his hands up his face and through his hair. Then he laughed, a stressed, sad sound, and with the pain in his eyes, it was enough to concern her. "If I hadn't taken Nao and Tamakawa with me? I would have killed them." His voice cracked, and he looked at Mei now. "How fucked up is that? If I hadn't had two police officers there and a little girl to keep in mind, I would have killed them for what they've done. I was so angry at seeing something like that again..."

Izuku trailed off, and Mei didn't really know how to respond to that. She hadn't been there, hadn't been the one to talk to the parents. She did know that if he'd had, then he would have deemed it necessary. And from what she had seen, if he did deem it necessary, it would have been for the best. So she sat there with him for a while, just holding onto his left side.

…

When Mei and Izuku stepped into the common room, they were immediately struck by the absolute chaos. The older of the Toga sisters was chasing her younger sister around the room with some of the foam cubes from the pit of them in one corner. The foam pit was exactly as it sounded, a pit of foam cubes with televisions above it. Was it the most necessary addition to the room? Both of them would admit that it wasn't, but they enjoyed the floating feeling of laying in them, so it was put in, anyway.

Dabi stood off to the side, slightly crouched, with two of his own cubes. His eyes darted between the two sisters, as if waiting on them to throw a cube at him, though he was grinning like a madman. Inko and Kyoka were sitting at the small bar in front of the room's kitchenette, watching with smiles as the sisters played together, though Kyoka's jacks were at the ready in case one of the cubes got lobbed their way.

Mei laughed as Izuku had to catch one of the grey pieces before it could hit him in the face. That was when the two Togas realized what had just happened, and as the older paled, getting ready to apologize, it was Izuku's turn to start laughing. He waved them off, telling them he didn't care. "I'm just glad you seem to be feeling better."

Izuku didn't just say this because she was moving around without stumbling and actually had energy, but because there was actually life in her eyes. Some of the color had come back to her skin, as well.

Himiko nodded her head and thanked him. "I haven't felt this good in years. I didn't realize that drinking something like that," her eyes darted over to her little sister, and it was clear that she didn't feel comfortable revealing that to her, "could do such things for me."

Izuku gave her a small nod, indicating he understood her intent. "Yes, well, we have several things we'll be doing to make you feel better from now on." Izuku turned his head to his mother and Kyoka now. "I'm sorry, mom, but could you watch Hiromi for a moment while I talk to Toga?" When he got his mother's affirmation, and she had started cooing over the small child, he signaled for Jiro to follow them out of the room, as well.

…

The small group of teens had barely stepped into the bio suite when Toga started jittering in place. "Why is Hiromi here? Not that I'm not glad to see her, but that would mean that you would have had to abduct her or see my parents. Why would you go see my parents? Oh god, you didn't abduct her, did you? What did you mean multiple things? Why do I feel so much better with-" Izuku laughed and threw his hands up, cutting Himiko off in the middle of her panicked babbling.

"First things first, Kyoka, I presume that my mother and Dabi have caught you up on what's happened thus far?" Jiro nodded her head, one hand twirling her right jack, and Izuku continued. "Good, then I'll address your last question and work back. First off, as I said before, some people have quirks that necessitate changes in their habits, diets, etcetera. In your case, you have a quirk that, while it isn't vampirism, has changed your physiology enough so that you can't get nutrients in full from normal food. For whatever reason, your body wants blood, and not just so your quirk can operate. Regardless, for the time being, you'll be on a specialized diet. The first reason for this is so that we can target your malnutrition. The second is so that you can get used to drinking blood, and no, there isn't any way out of that."

Toga sat down hard in one of the many desk chairs scattered around the suite and buried her head in her hands. Izuku frowned and sighed heavily. "Toga, there is nothing wrong with drinking blood to survive, contrary to what your father seems to have said. You aren't doing it because you want to. You're doing it because you have to. There is a very large difference there. Besides that, you aren't the first one to have something like this, and you will be far from the last."

"Really?" Her head was still in her hands and her voice was muffled, but even so, they could all hear the distress and desperation.

Izuku nodded his head, though she couldn't see it. "Really, plenty of people have drawbacks from their quirks that they can't help. You aren't even close to the only one that needs blood, either." When they had managed to coax Himiko's head out of her hands, Izuku smiled and continued. Though he did note to get in contact with Nedzu. If he could get the rat to send over Vlad King, then it would likely be a big help for Himiko to have someone that understood to talk to regarding the blood issues.

"Onto your second question, yes, I did go and see your parents." All at once, the relaxed posture that they had coaxed Toga into dropped away. Her back went ramrod straight, and her pupils blew out from terror. Her arms wrapped around herself, and she had started babbling about not going back, that she wouldn't when Izuku once again cut her off. He pulled the same papers he had shown Mei just a short time before and handed them to her.

"You won't be going back. As of two-thirty today, you have officially become a ward of Moonlit Industries. Mei and I are now the ones responsible for you. You'll be living on the residential floor with Mei, Dabi, and myself. You can choose either apartment one-o-four or one-o-five, both of which are open and identical. As for your sister, she is with us now because the two detectives who came by to question you earlier arrested your parents on a number of charges. They won't be getting away without consequences." His voice dipped down at that line, and although Toga didn't catch the danger in it, the other two shivered at the bloodlust that sat quietly in his tone.

Himiko slumped now, the tension fading away and being replaced with tears. It was finally over, she was finally safe from them. Jiro placed her hand on her shoulder, and she choked out several words that would haunt Kyoka and Mei. "You know, some part of me hoped that deep down they still cared. They were pieces of shit, but they were still my parents. Yet in the end, they signed me away like I was a piece of garbage." Izuku decided then to spare her the details of the conversation. She didn't need to know why they hadn't wanted to give her up. Her head snapped up, startling both the girls, and her gaze bored into Izuku's. "Wait, what do you mean arrested? What is Hiromi supposed to do? For how long?! She can't live at home without anyone!"

This was the part that Izuku wasn't happy to tell her about, and he rubbed his eyes while doing it. "I honestly don't know, Toga. In all likelihood, the prosecutor in a case like this, with all of the evidence that was and will be found? It won't be pretty. Regardless, if even just the child abuse charge sticks, that's one count with you, then they'll be looking at five years in prison. That's before the slew of other charges they'll be able to tack on, including child endangerment, neglect, and who knows what else they'll find. The point is that they won't be there for Hiromi which means that CPS will likely step in. Once they have, well, I honestly can't tell you what is going to happen."

"Then maybe we can help with that." Izuku looked over to the doorway and found three individuals. He had expected two people and was mildly surprised when Phoenix had told him that Naomasa was here with two others. Now his eyebrow winged up, because instead of Tamakawa being with Naomasa as he had expected, the detective was here with Ms. Miya and a stranger.

She was tall with bowl-cut brown hair. Her demeanor was soft but serious, and her clothing choice fit that image. The detective led the two ladies over and introduced the tall brunet to them. "This is Sakaguchi Tamiko. She's a caseworker with CPS. As you expected, it seems, she has been assigned young Hiromi's case."

Izuku took a moment to wave at Ms. Miya and told her that it was good to see her again. "You, as well, Mr. Midoriya, though I'm sure I wouldn't be quite as pleased to see you if the cases you kept bringing me weren't in the bag already. This case is no exception, and Himiko here won't have to worry about her parents any longer."

Toga looked at the lady and asked about her sister. Her little sister had always been kind to her. Even after her quirk manifested normally and her parents had decided that Hiromi was their real daughter. She didn't want her own safety to come at the price of her sister's happiness. That was the reason she hadn't run long before now.

"Generally the protocol in this situation would be to place the young girl in the care of relatives until the case could be brought before the court and what would be done could be decided. But in this case, because we can't find any living relatives of yours, she would normally be placed in a foster home until everything was finished with." The blood was seeping out of Toga's already pale face when the caseworker put her hands up in a defensive position. Evidently, while Toga had been paling, the other three's eyes had become sharp and threatening. "That would have been the case if, when we went to check on Hiromi before coming here, I hadn't nearly been turned into a tiki torch and or ripped apart by that grizzly you have for a mother, Mr. Midoriya. Seeing as she seemed comfortable with you all already, and frankly because I was afraid of the outcome of removing the girl by force, I offered for her to stay with Mrs. Midoriya, as she seemed to have raised a fine young man. She accepted."

Rather than Izuku respond, a question was asked quietly from Himiko. A croak of horror and sorrow. A question that left a bad taste in all of their mouths. "How do I tell her that her parents won't be coming back because they are monsters?"

…

By the time the detective and his associates were finally done with the plethora of things that had to straighten out with the Togas, it was getting late in the day. It was just past six, and the sun was already down when they finally left Moonlit Industries. At some point, Kyoka had excused herself to head back to the common room, as well as to make a phone call to her parents. She'd be staying the night with them, as she wanted to make sure things with the Togas progressed smoothly.

Izuku came back to the common room after they had left with both Toga and Mei trailing limply behind him. Himiko rubbed at her hand, muttering, while Mei complained loudly to him. "How the hell do you do meetings constantly, Izuku? Just one and I feel like the dead." Izuku just snorted the word practice back at her before turning to ask where Dabi had gone.

Jiro was the one to answer him while his mother continued to watch the television with Hiromi. "He left a little while ago. Said he needed to think about some things. If you ask me, Izuku, he's been acting weird since Himiko got here." Izuku knew why. He knew that this hit a little too close to home for the man. Instead of answering the unspoken question in Kyoka's voice, he turned to his new little sister. It wasn't his story to tell.

"Well, Hiromi, looks like you'll be seeing a lot more of us around here."

"Does that mean I get to see big sis without the shackles more?" The tension in the air could have drowned someone, and the fury in his mother's eyes said everything that he wanted but couldn't show right now. Instead, he laughed a big, booming laugh and forced a smile onto his face.

"Yes, yes I do think it does."

…

Izuku was sitting on the edge of the foam pit, looking at the sleeping forms of his partner and his close friend in the middle. They had all decided to watch a movie since it was getting late and they didn't want to do anything else for the day. It had evidently been a long one, as the only people still awake were himself and his mother sitting on the couch.

He couldn't help but smile because, at her feet, the two Togas were curled up and entangled. For the first time since he had met her that morning, Himiko looked peaceful. A small smile graced her features as she held Hiromi to her chest. He glanced at the clock on the wall, noting it to be just passed nine at night. His mother would be taking Hiromi to her new home soon, but he was also certain she was going to let them sleep a little longer. They deserved it after everything.

Izuku turned back now to the two teens being consumed by a sea of gray foam and smiled. They were family now, all of them. Even Dabi, despite how prickly he was at times. He hadn't thought he'd have this again, but perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing to have people to rely on.

As if thinking about him summoned him, Izuku's communicator gave the soft beep of a line connecting. Dabi wanted to talk, and Izuku stretched. Looks like the day isn't over yet.

…

It only took moments after Izuku knocked for Dabi's door to open for him. Silently, he sat down in one of the plush seats and waited for Dabi to talk to him from the couch. He had been the one asked to come after all. While he had a pretty good idea of what this was about, it wasn't his place to start the conversation, and Dabi was thankful for the time to collect his thoughts. Finally, he started, and he did so somewhere Izuku hadn't expected.

"My father is a fucking asshole. We both know it. I won't excuse his behavior. Some things can't be excused." Whether Dabi knew it or not, he touched his arms where they had been burnt before. Izuku filed that away. He had suspected for some time that the Todoroki home life wasn't great. "But even he had his lines, his ethics, his morals. Even when he made me train until I wanted to throw up, in his own twisted way, I think that he thought he was helping me. He sincerely wanted to make me stronger so that I could follow in his footsteps. In some part of his mind, he thought he was creating the next generation of defenders. So when my brothers and sister were born, he pushed all of us until he discarded us. He abused us, berated us, and nearly broke us. He did break our mother. As I said, I won't excuse his behavior. Most certainly not while he is no doubt still putting Shoto through hell to train him. But my point is, in his own sick twisted way, he cared about us."

Izuku listened intently. Dabi never spoke of his time as Toya, and Izuku didn't push him on it. Everyone had things they didn't like to talk about, and he would be a hypocrite if he tried to force Dabi's past out of him. Dabi looked away from his own hands now and into Izuku's eyes. He could see the same fury that he saw earlier, but now it was tempered by sorrow and horror.

"What we saw today, Midoriya? I thought we had it bad. I had my mother's body but was still forced to push my fire until I could barely move. My brother and sister were put through training that was light compared to mine but was still hellish for a kid. Natsuo had his flames pushed to the limit and was found lacking. Same with Fuyumi's ice. All three of us weren't good enough, but Shoto was born with both of their quirks."

Dabi struggled for a moment before continuing, seemingly making his decision. "The people who did that to Toga? They were monsters. There is no other word for them. Even my father didn't starve us or beat us just for existing. I'm worried about my siblings, Midoriya. I know I don't have the right. Hell, I faked my own death to escape the family. I put them through that, and yet I still can't help but feel worried."

"Dabi, I would be concerned if today didn't have an effect on you. You're right, Endeavour's actions can't be excused. Especially when he is supposed to be one of the moral pillars of our society as the number two. But being worried about your family? Isn't that the point of it? To have people that you care for, that will have your back? Family is an instinct, Dabi. When push comes to shove, it's those that you know you can turn to, that you care for."

Dabi sighed and rubbed at his face before taking a deep breath. "Thanks, Midoriya, I needed to hear that. Now I'm going to ask something that I know might be tough…"

"You want me to bring in your family, yes?" Dabi's head snapped up before he shook it and laughed.

"I really can't get anything past you, can I?" Dabi gave him a small smile. "For now, could you just get Natsuo to come in somehow? We were close, and I want to start there."

Izuku nodded slowly. He could understand wanting to take things slow. "You actually did a commission for the president of the college that your brother is studying at. I can call it in and have his professor send him over here for a project of ours. He won't know it's to meet you until he gets here. That sound good?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry to ask this of you-" Izuku cut him off with a look and a finger pointed at him. When Dabi stopped talking Izuku sighed and lowered his hand.

"I just told you, Dabi, what family was. You're part of ours now, as well, whether you like it or not, and you have your family's backs. This is nothing."

…

Izuku had known better than to sleep that night, but he was tired from the day. A lot had happened, and he was going to crash eventually, regardless, so he figured he might as well get it over with. Even knowing what was coming hadn't been enough to prepare Izuku to relive their assault on the Phurian re-education camp.

They had been planning the operation for weeks since they had gotten the intel about a large number of Osmian citizens being held in the camp. When they finally went in, the operation went so smoothly that it was practically textbook. The jungle hid them like panthers as they eliminated the perimeter's guards before moving in from the two sides of the camp. Izuku had been leading half of the Black Cats while Roselyn had been leading the other half from the other side. The blueprints had detailed where the guards' section was and where the prisoners' section was. Before they went to free the prisoners, the plan had called for the complete elimination of all Phurian forces stationed at the camp.

From the time when they moved on to the perimeter, it was less than half an hour before they had executed every guard awake, asleep, and even using the toilet. That was routine by this point, and all of them were used to the gurgling screams of a man trying to pull his last breath. It was when they joined back up to free the prisoners that they all saw something they would never forget. Piles of dead bodies were everywhere. Mass graves for the ones deemed unable to be rededicated and the smell of decay and rot hung thick in the air. Izuku remembered the horror of his men when they saw the ones still living. Their limbs looked like broomsticks covered with flesh, and they stumbled toward them like the living dead, begging for food. They were covered in dirt, mud, blood, and even their own excrement.

Their operations sergeant Fletcher Garcia had always been a man too kind for his own good and handed one of them some of his rations. That had gone wrong quickly with the man practically inhaling the food and clutching at their esophagus in agony. Midoriya and both of their medical sergeants realized what was happening then and started yelling, "No solid food, damn it!" They hadn't been prepared for this. For the absolute brutality and inhuman conditions these people were living in. The bunkhouses, as they were called on the blueprints, were little more than dilapidated shacks with a millions holes, and the bunks were little more than varying levels of wooden planks to lay on. Open, festering sores covered many of them. Lice started coming out of those sores in droves, giving the soldiers the perfect example of what happened when insects started nesting inside of a person.

"Izuku, wake up. Wake Up." He snapped awake, rolling from his bed and landing in a crouch. He was breathing hard, hitching in places. His eyes darted around the room, and he could feel tears burning his eyes as they slid down his cheeks. He choked back a sob, oh god what had they done.

"I'm sorry to wake you, sir, but you have a visitor that is asking to speak with you." Izuku looked around, still trying to catch his breath, desperately trying to lock away the memories that continued to haunt him in his dreams. His eyes caught the clock that he kept on his nightstand. Who the hell is coming to visit at two in the morning and why? Preempting the question, Phoenix continued to speak. "I've identified them as Aizawa Shota, also known as Eraserhead in your files."

That explains the two in the morning part. It doesn't explain why he is visiting. Izuku sighed, grabbing a fresh shirt and a washcloth so that he could at least look semi-presentable to the Hero. "I'll be down in just a moment. Thanks for waking me up, Phoenix. Go ahead and let him into the lobby. No need to keep him waiting in sub-thirty-degree weather.