Todoroki Enji found himself swamped with paperwork in his office.
Stress was piling up almost as much as the heap of administrative garbage he couldn't easily delegate. The dull pain lingering in certain parts of his body didn't help either.
Recently reinstated to active duty, the Flame Hero had faced difficult days filled with complications of various kinds.
As the Number 2 in the rankings, his disastrous participation in the battle of Yokohama had caused his popularity to plummet almost as much as his mood.
Endeavor lost. No, he didn't just lose a confrontation against that monster in human skin; he received the beating of a lifetime, and his own Quirk was the trigger for many accidents.
The man's pride was trampled, his reputation dropped several levels due to the disaster of the rain of fire, and his bruised body still hadn't recovered from the beating.
To make matters worse, Enji was unconscious for a couple of days, and when he woke up, he was met with the news that All Might—the damn Symbol of damn Peace—was retiring.
That left him as the only viable candidate to take the Number 1 spot.
Endeavor could not accept that fact. He could not accept that All Might, that insurmountable mountain, would simply leave and leave the position to him—that it would be handed to him instead of being earned through merit.
Where did that leave him? He would be the laughingstock of all Japan. The Number 1 Hero who was thrashed on the same day his predecessor threw in the towel.
That wasn't a victory. It wasn't the way to receive that long-awaited promotion, that goal he had chased for years. Not like this.
The people didn't appreciate him. Enji was aware. Some Heroes mocked him behind his back. Enji imagined it. His own subordinates cast pitiful glances his way. Enji noticed them.
No one took him seriously these days. And that made his chest burn.
—Boss!— Burnin slammed the door open without any decorum, entering with her flaming hair dimmed by constant activity in the streets and a stack of documents in her arms.
Enji grit his teeth and nodded stiffly, pointing to a secondary desk where the mountain of papers waited to be moved to his personal desk.
—Heavens! This is madness, Boss. Are you sure you don't need help with anything else?— the woman asked, her jagged smile, which could easily be mistaken for mockery, reflecting the office light.
Enji knew her well, and that was the only reason he didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary. Of all his Flaming Sidekicks, Burnin was the only one whose behavior hadn't changed in his presence.
That didn't make her more tolerable, of course.
—Get out— Endeavor said in a flat tone, straightening his posture to look more dignified and imposing than he actually felt.
Burnin pouted at the blunt treatment but left the office anyway.
Endeavor was left alone, accompanied by the ton of paperwork, the reason for which the man himself didn't know and frankly didn't want to know. He picked up the next sheet and took a quick glance.
Statistics, graphs. He read nothing more than a few scattered words that didn't sound promising, like lower index, reduction, loss. He stamped his seal on whatever they were asking for and moved on to the next.
The work became mechanical, boring, and unbearable. Stress rose, and with it, the temperature around his body.
—Why the hell is this on paper? Don't we have advanced machines!?— he thought with desperation.
Enji remembered the supposed fight against that villain and the humiliation he had been subjected to. He remembered waking up with a numb body, a tingling that wouldn't go away, eating at him from beneath his skin.
The first things he saw were simple, white walls—an empty room. The first things he heard were the hisses of machines whose cables snaked through the place and bit into his flesh.
But in some corner of his mind, or perhaps his heart, what he expected to see upon waking was his son, Shoto.
Surrounded by the mountain of work and completely alone, Todoroki Enji felt just as empty as he did when he heard the news of All Might's retirement, or when he woke up in that hospital with no one there to greet him.
—But... I am Number 1... Right?— he whispered to nothingness, to no one.
***************************************
—Our prospects are promising— Hawks commented as his eyes scanned the profiles the Chairwoman had handed him.
—I would have preferred to have both of them, but the boy is being obtuse and defiant— the older woman replied in a flat tone, though the glint in her eyes betrayed her annoyance.
Hawks smiled slightly, remembering how blunt the Terumi Siblings had been when rejecting the HPSC's offer. It didn't surprise him, however, when the sister asked to meet once more.
—Their track record speaks for itself. They are built for the HPSC, not for the cameras or the masses— the winged Hero nodded. —But at the end of the day, it's still their decision. Right?
The Chairwoman remained silent, her sharp gaze visualizing something more that Hawks couldn't see. The man felt uncomfortable.
—Yes— the woman confirmed, her tone indicating her total disagreement.
Hawks nodded awkwardly, taking the documents and leaving the office with nothing more to add to the conversation. The Chairwoman tended to be heavy-handed at times.
From the Hero's perspective, such additions to the HPSC staff certainly would have been a blessing, but things were what they were.
Terumi Mei would probably have many confrontations with the Chairwoman, as the girl clearly had no intention of sharing any of her secrets or abilities. He genuinely hoped that he wouldn't get caught in the middle of that clash.
—That would be asking for too much— he thought with a sigh.
Back in the Chairwoman's office, the woman herself stared out the window, letting the previous tension dissipate.
She was aware of how bad her words made her look in the eyes of her subordinate, but this job was not carried out with positive feelings and naive thoughts. Hawks knew that very well.
For Kageyama Akari, her main problem did not lie in the Terumi girl's childish behavior, but in the true state of Japan at this moment.
Thanks to the impact of All Might's retirement, the masses overlooked the fact that many of their Top 10 Professionals were totally useless in the battle against All For One. The Chairwoman could not afford such a luxury.
Due to the media scandals caused by the League of Villains when they murdered the UA children, the media focused much less on the losses the Hero System suffered on the streets.
Very few questioned the fact that the saturation of useless Heroes caused more insecurity than safety. But that wouldn't last forever either.
The big headlines would soon be replaced, and those failures that were currently hidden in plain sight would become more widely known.
The position of the next Number 1 is going to falter, and that will further motivate the criminal rats who are waiting and watching. The League remains at large, and they still don't know how the hell they create the Nomu, or where they do it.
Kageyama Akari would not have tolerated the Terumi girl's attitude if she didn't desperately need her strength.
The woman let out a faint, almost imperceptible sigh. Times were changing, and it was she who would have to deal with the fallout.
At that moment, an alert lit up her phone, and the Chairwoman returned to her stoic and calm, cold and analytical demeanor. She picked up the phone and checked the notification.
Without a second thought, she called Detective Tsukauchi and passed the information along personally. The League of Villains had appeared again.