Frigid Flame

Chapter 2

Months had passed since Shimo walked out of the Todoroki household. Now the family was down three members and only four members remaining. The silence in the home had become deafening since all his remaining children refused to speak to or acknowledge him. Natsuo openly hated him, and Fuyumi stopped talking to him. All of this coupled itself with Shoto rebelling against him, especially since Shimo was the only sibling he had ever gotten close to.

Matters grew worse when, he found himself unable to locate said daughter. Her records at U.A. had been purged. The rodent headmaster refused to tell him why or how, only having on of the faculty return her belongings to the household. That led him to believe she had been scouted, unfortunately The Commission refused to speak on the matter. His influence did nothing to sway them, only to terrify the male clerk on thee phone.

Endeavor sat in his office, pinching the bridge of his nose and groaning in frustration. He started to recall the day she disappeared. How angry he was when her boss called the home asking why she was late to her shift for her job he didn't know about. That anger had piled on to her last words to him when she walked out making him livid, waiting for when she returned home to give her some discipline.

He remembered that he grew angrier the longer he had to wait till it was late in the evening. When it had hit midnight, he had ceased being angry, he was more worried than anything else. Yes, he knew their relationship was worse than rocky, but she was still his daughter. It bothered him that his daughter was out there and she may have needed his help. Her couldn't deny the sharp pain in his chest at the thought of her losing her life like her brother had.

Now, months later, he stopped being angry at her, every word she threw at him had mostly been true. All he wanted now was the knowledge of knowing if she was all right. The odds of her coming home were null, he came to terms with that when her room's butsudan was empty and Toya's picture gone.

Pulling himself out of thoughts of his home life, he went back to distracting himself with his hero work.

———

Shimo looked over to Keigo, who had been sitting next to her on the couch in the shared lounge. His sharp eyes were closed and a few minutes ago he started snoring lightly. Today had been their shared rest day and neither of them had anything to do. Looking over him, much like she did when they first met, she thought about the last few months.

Like her father, the months for Shimo had been rough. They constantly drilled interpersonal skills into her and Keigo. Then after that the two were separated into separate lessons for what the commission wanted of them.

She had no idea what they wanted of Keigo, but for her they had her undergo extreme RTI training. This training would happen for days or weeks at a time. However, no matter ho much time had passed, her new friend would always be there waiting for her to return. He would welcome her back warmly, not caring if she had been tortured within an inch of her life or sanity. Once she had undergone the training for a month and received aa large hug when returning.

It was strange at first for her. When he first greeted her warmly and she asked why all the response she had been given was, "Who wouldn't want someone to welcome them home?" His answer made her pause, the only time she could ever recall someone doing something similar was her mother. Though, her mother was shaking like a leaf in front her ogre of a husband. His behaviour was the complete opposite of her mother, Keigo was warm like her brother.

She found herself letting him in bit by bit, the first person since Toya. There were times some of the things he had said had made her crack a smile sometimes. Other times she shocked him with a genuine compliment, and most recently he managed to get her to giggle.