Reconnect

Chapter 3

Todoroki walked back into his home, kicking the door closed behind him. He didn't even take off his hero costume before he walked into his room where he kept his computer. Sliding his hand over the track pad, he woke it up and typed in his password. As he was doing this, one of his cats, a fat orange cat with green eyes named Gizmo, jumped up and settled on his lap.

Once his laptop was started up completely, he opened his internet browser and began his search. He looked up Sojiro Yoru first, trying to find any sort of other buzzwords that he could use to get more information. It was a lengthy search to say the least, but there wasn't much on him, especially criminally, until eighteen years ago.

He found out that his early life was relatively normal of a man with a non-combat able quirk. He married Fuyumi Sohma when he was 20 and they had a baby boy. Five years later they had a daughter. Fuyumi died during child birth. Four years after that his criminal record started. Todoroki didn't look much into the children of Sojiro Yoru, finding them to be rather irrelevant, though he considered the possibility of them being in league with him in his criminal syndicate.

Sojiro's criminal record started with small time domestic abuse reports of the women that Todoroki assumed were attempts at a replacement for Sojiro's deceased wife. After that Todoroki deduced that he had joined the yakuza. There were murder allegations, robberies that were never brought to trial, grand theft auto, the list went on.

Then he dug even deeper and noticed a huge development.

Sojiro and his gang, that he crawled up the ranks until he was at the top when the boss mysteriously died, were stockpiling weapons and illegal hero costumes based on the quirks of some of the proven members of the gang. He ran several clubs and in the backroom of those clubs it was alleged that Sojiro regularly met with arms dealers to gather more and more weapons. It was almost like he was trying to start a war.

But why did he need Yoru? What was Yoru to Sojiro? Why was she so scared at the idea of him coming after her?

Todoroki frowned as he was brought back to the last conversation he had with her and his mind started to dwell on his thoughts that he pushed aside after the fight with Vector. He sat back in his chair and absently ran his hand over Gizmo's fur. His cat started purring and Todoroki started thinking about high school again.

Yoru had been his best friend, closer to him then even Midoriya. Sure Midoriya was the first person to break through his walls and get him to open up more, but Yoru was right there after, talking to him, encouraging him, and acting as his partner during training on more than one occasion. The way they used their quirks together was an entirely new kind of harmony that Todoroki wasn't used to but definitely found pleasant. After Yoru had explained her quirk to him, he had assumed that she stuck near him because his fire was a perfect stopper for her quirk if it went out of control.

The two of them had told each other everything during that time, or at least Todoroki told Yoru everything. The more he thought about it the more he realized that there was a lot that she had never told him. He noticed that she never swam. She avoided it whenever possible. He assumed it was because she didn't like water or something like that and didn't question it. He had told her about his scar and the events that led up to him getting it, but he didn't know anything at all about her family. The only things he knew about her was what he saw in front of him every day when they were together.

And for some reason he found that to be enough...

Todoroki was never one to pry into another person's life, given that his past wasn't all sunshine and unicorns either. But he trusted her on a level that he didn't trust anyone else and he had started to wonder if she trusted him the same way.

He ran a hand through his hair. "No, that's stupid. Why are you doubting her now?"

Gizmo meowed in response and head butted Todoroki's hand.

Maybe it wasn't about trust and she was trying to run away from something? I do remember her telling me her reasoning to become a hero.

It was during their third year. The two of them were hanging out watching movies for no real reason and it was late at night. She was definitely over tired and a little out of her head. Hell, she was falling asleep on the couch and it was Todoroki that had to carry her to her room. But they had gotten to talking and she told him that she wanted to be a hero to prove everyone who said terrible things about her wrong. If she hadn't trusted him, would she have opened up to him about her goals?

He let out a sigh. He was just going to have to ask her about it when he saw her next. Looking at his computer screen he nodded at it before he printed out all of the information he had on Sojiro Yoru before putting it into a case file folder.

"I'll go tomorrow and show her all of this," he said with a nod.

* * *

Andi wasn't even sure what time it was when she got back to her house. All that she knew was that it was dark. She didn't go straight home after she had told Todoroki her father's name. She couldn't. She was afraid. Afraid that Sojiro was there or Todoroki ready to interrogate her for not telling him about her father sooner. She had never told anyone that she was related to a horrible man, not because she knew that he was a crime boss, but because he was the one thing that still struck fear in her heart.

Sojiro was her abuser, her tormenter. She saw him as this big hulking beast of a man that towered over her. She couldn't handle being blindfolded or having restricted movement because of the things he had done to her. It caused her to panic in the worst way. How was she supposed to admit that to anyone, much less her closest friend who treated her as an equal?

However, her worst fear wasn't that Sojiro was at her apartment waiting for her. Her worst fear was that Todoroki or any of her friends would find out about her father, about her past, and look at her differently. She was terrified of seeing looks of pity on her friends face, looking at her as if she was a weak little flower in need of protection.

She doubled over in pain, clutching at her stomach. Her skin burned and she felt like she was trying to crawl out of it. She managed to make it to her room where she shucked off her hero costume. Her mirror fixed onto her door reflected her half naked appearance back at her. Scars littered her body from her stomach, chest, shoulders and upper arms. There were cigarettes burns and cut scars. She could feel phantom pains of the places where her father would beat her with his belt.

And by god it hurt. She knew it was psychosomatic, that the pain wasn't actually there, but fuck there was nothing she could do to stop it. Knowledge might be power, but right now, the knowledge her pain wasn't real and the knowledge and memories of what her father had done, felt like a curse.

She closed her eyes and turned away from the mirror, crawling to her bed, pulling the covers over her. It took forever for her to fall asleep and when she did, she was plagued with nightmares. They were all some variation of the same dream she had ever since she was little. Her father finding her, coming to take her back and start attacking her again, letting out his frustrations on her.

She bolted up out of bed, a cold sweat covering her body, gasping and panting. The early morning sunlight filtered through the bottom of her blackout shades. She ran a hand through her hair and realized that it felt disgusting. Sighing, she stood up and grabbed her bathrobe and started walking into the bathroom. Before she got a chance to turn on the water, she heard a fierce pounding on her front door.

Growling, she made her way there. "I swear to god, whoever is out there this early in the morning is getting a face full of bats," she said.

Throwing the door open, she paused, seeing Todoroki standing there.