It had taken a week before an appointment was scheduled.

Even then, the Heroic Commission delegate arrived late.

"Mr. and Mrs. Todoroki, my apologies for my tardiness"

As he bowed, his low ponytail slipped over his shoulder. He stood and offered a beaming smile to the gathering.

Except for the lawyer, who nodded politely, the Todoroki parents remained unmoved.

They had expected it, of course.

That was why they had sent the silver-tongued one.

"May I ?"

He pointed to the empty sofa across from the Todoroki's.

Mrs. Todoroki had the decency to nod her chin slightly. Number 2 was still looking at him with that strange mixture of pronounced indifference and cold anger.

The white-haired man sat down and pretended not to notice all the tension around him. He was stiff as a pole, his back not even grazing the seat. He couldn't afford to be comfortable. Not when his performance would determine the recruitment of such an important asset as Number 2's son.

His gray eyes, full of calculated glee, swept over everyone in the large marble and gold living room.

The lawyer, the angry parents, the promised child. He stopped there.

"Hello Touya"

The boy sat in the small chair to his right, between his parents and the important man.

He answered with a shy smile.

"Hello"

The man smiled back - to reassure him - then turned to the parents.

"I'm Ryota Nishimura, Director of Human Resources for the Heroic Commission. Pleased to meet you" He raised his hand for a handshake. Number 2, arms crossed, looked at his hand with disinterest, then back into his eyes. Ryota's hand turned to the woman. She pretended not to see it.

Forcing a laugh in such a situation would only make things worse. So Ryota chose the least likely option to ruin everything: he continued to smile and brought his hand close to him, acting like a scatterbrain too happy to understand what was going on.

The lawyer, sitting in the chair next to the parents, glanced at them before clearing his throat.

"We'd like to see the original copy of the contract you coerced young Touya into signing.

Ryota's smile brightened.

"Of course, what was I thinking ?"

He opened the leather briefcase he had placed on the sofa and took out one of the only two documents there.

He handed the stapled handout to the parents.

"If I may ?"

The lawyer pulled it over to his side and glanced at it for a moment.

The living room was deathly silent, interrupted only by the sound of turning pages.

Ryota exchanged a smile with the boy, who seemed to be at the height of embarrassment. Looking back at the Todoroki, he could have sworn that number 2's mood worsened.

"Forgive my familiarity, but Todoroki is not a very Japanese name. Spanish, perhaps ?"

The woman finally deigned to admit his existence by answering:

"Italian"

He smiled and didn't push his luck.

"Interesting"

The lawyer finally put the contract back on the coffee table.

"This is the original"

For the first time since the beginning of the interview, Enji Todoroki opened his mouth:

"Touya"

The boy leaned forward and picked up the document. He tore it in half and shredded it into confetti. Once that was done, the boy pulled out a paper shredder from behind his chair. He shredded what was left.

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The machine hummed and shredded the pieces, turning them into white strips. The boy turned off the machine, opened it and set the remains on fire. Ryota raised his eyebrows.

No one had ever done that before.

"Isn't it a bit extreme ?"

He looked at the Todoroki. They looked as cold as ice.

It was the lawyer, one hand in his Hermès attaché case, who replied

"No more extreme than making a minor sign a contract after illegally breaking into his domicile"

Ryota pursed his lips.

The truth was that his agents had botched the job by not deleting the surveillance footage, but that wasn't such a big deal. Given the boy's background, his parents wouldn't have agreed to a trial anyway, so the recordings weren't a real threat to the Commission.

Ryota pulled the second document out of his pocket, along with a pen.

"I brought the new contract"

He placed it on the table and handed it to the parents.

"With your permission"

The lawyer took a contract out of his pocket. He handed it to Ryota.

Ryota raised an eyebrow and read it diagonally. Reading it first for the sake of form, Ryota became more and more fascinated and then surprised by the content. Except for a few clauses that had been changed or deleted altogether, this contract was a carbon copy of the one the boy had just destroyed.

The Commission Héroïque didn't leave its little business lying around: that the Todoroki had been able to recover one of their precious contracts, have their lawyer modify it and present it in proper form, and all that in just one short week…

The lawyer folded his hands in his lap.

"As you can see, the clause stating that the person affected by the contract, in this case young Touya, becomes a ward of the nation and is placed under the Heroic Commission's guardianship was removed"

Ryota didn't show it, but he clenched his jaw.

They had also changed the addressees of the contract to Enji and Rei Todoroki and stipulated visitation rights, detailed discussions regarding the education of their son, the fact that the boarding school would only be half board and that he would expressly return every weekend and holiday.

Beyond its function as a training center, the Heroic Commission had no rights over Touya Todoroki.

The parents reserved the right to withdraw Touya from the training at their own discretion.

What's more, once Touya reached the age of majority, he had the right to decide whether he wanted to continue his 'partnership' with the Heroic Commission or not.

Ryota almost bit his fingernail. He pretended to leaf through the first few pages again to give himself time to think.

The whole point of the Heroic Commission was to practically own the future heroes who were trained there. By creating it, the government was able to influence a sphere far more important than politics.

The boy was the son of the Number Two, in addition to having a high-potential Quirk. Hiring him and making him more or less happy with his condition would put them in Endeavor's good graces.

And Endeavor was an ally of choice. The young man in his thirties was a wealthy man before he was even a hero: thanks to his unsympathetic personality, the public had grown accustomed to him handling his affairs in a more muscular manner than the usual heroes.

He was powerful, influential, and known. If the Commission could get him on its side…

"I don't see a problem with that"

Ryota smiled at everyone, his eyes crinkling into a crescent.

He took a pen from his inner jacket and initialed each page before signing and dating the last one.

Then the lawyer took the contract, checked that everything was in order and handed it to the Todoroki.

They signed it in turn. With their own pen.

"Great !"

The woman stood up.

"Since we're done here, let us escort you back to the entrance"

"Oh no, that won't be necessary, one of your-"

The woman's smile turned cold.

"I insist"

Ryota graciously accepted, and the entire family - except for the lawyer - escorted him back to the courtyard.

He was surprised to see his car already hitched up and his driver holding the door with one hand. The Todoroki really didn't want him in their house.

"Well..."

Ryota smiled and waited for one of them to finish. A few seconds went by.

"It was a pleasure to meet you. You have a charming home, Mr. and Mrs. Todoroki"

The compliment went over their heads.

The woman smiled politely.

"We wish you a safe journey home"

Ryota's smile seemed less sincere this time. He made no attempt at a handshake.

There was a thud, as if two bodies had collided violently.

Ryota instinctively turned his head towards the sound.

One of the many gardens was partially visible from the veranda. On a bare patch of land between the forest and the fishpond adjacent to the mansion, a man and a boy with distinctive red and white hair were fighting.

Touya followed Ryota's gaze to Shoto. He didn't miss Ryota's curious look and bit the inside of his cheek until it bled.

The child bent his legs and ran towards the adult. He dodged the man's punch by ducking, but didn't lose his momentum. In one leap, the child jumped onto the adult's thigh and used it as a springboard to propel himself beside his head.

The boy threw his wooden knife in the air, then kicked the adult. The man shielded his face with his crossed forearms. He pushed the boy back and threw him backward.

The kid grabbed the sleeve of the man's shirt and pulled on it to get closer to the man. With his right hand, he grabbed the flying knife in an inverted grip and struck the adult in the head with it.

Ryota scrutinized at the child, suddenly interested.

"And this boy is...?"

Endeavor blocked his view.

He was close enough to Ryota that the latter, surprised by the turn of events, had to crane his neck to look him in the eye.

If the Number Two was naturally intimidating, the way he looked at Ryota this time was downright hostile.

"No one you might be interested in"

Ryota took a small step back to regain some personal space. Endeavor looked him down from a height of two meters.

Ryota had never felt so small and insignificant before.

He smiled.

"Of course"

He turned around and bowed slightly to the other two Todoroki.

"Thank you again for having me in your home"

He turned to the child and for a second, he couldn't remember his name.

Ryota smiled while his memory filled in the blanks. The boy smiled back.

"I look forward to working with you, Touya"

"Me too"

Ryota went over to his Mercedes.

He placed a hand on the inside handle, then stood still. His eyes instinctively returned to the two-toned child.

He studied him for a few moments as he exchanged a volley of punches with the adult.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ryota thought he saw Endeavor stir

He got into his car and it started.