Chapter 16 - Trap

Something fishy was going on.

I knew it because for the first time in months, Rei and Enji were talking without animosity.

I knew it because Enji took a day off on a Saturday - one of the days when the villains hit hardest.

I knew it because they had decided to take us to the fair to top it off, a crowded public place that checked all the boxes of places Enji refused to let us go to for our 'safety'.

Enji gave me a sideway glance.

"Stop looking at me like that"

I continued to spy on him, trying to figure him out.

Fuyumi had jumped up and down when she was told that she would finally be able to do something that all her friends were talking about. Natsuo had asked if he could do rifle shooting. Rei herself had said yes.

Rei never let her children do anything dangerous. Never.

"Your ice cream, Shoto"

I grabbed the vanilla cone and licked it without looking away from Enji. He looked more and more annoyed with every second.

"Rifle fire! Rifle fire!"

Rei wiped Natsuo's chocolate covered mouth. He had eaten his waffle in two bites.

Fuyumi, a box of French fries in her hands, replied:

"We said stuffed animals first !"

Natsuo stuck his tongue out at her.

Rei rebuked him:

"Natsu stay polite. We're in a public place"

In a public place where everyone looked at us with curiosity.

Enji didn't even need his costume or his fiery beard to be recognized: a giant with hair of fire and eyes of ice, there were no two like him.

But thanks to his reputation as the most 'evil' of heroes and his perpetual grumpiness, no one dared to approach him.

The crowd stayed at a good distance, opening up like the sea in front of us as soon as we moved forward. Another advantage was that the queues magically disappeared as soon as Enji was around.

When some people tried to take pictures of us and Rei, all Enji had to do was look them straight in the eye and they would obediently put their cell phones in their pockets.

I was not stupid enough to believe that none of them would reach the net, but there would be very few.

Rei, seeing that her children had eaten well, finally turned to Enji.

"Enji, would you like something to eat ?"

She asked him reluctantly, but she was good enough to make it sound like she was asking him willingly.

He shook his head.

"Does everyone have everything they want ? Don't you want anything else ?"

Fuyumi shyly pointed to her empty can of Coke.

"Mom, can I have another one ?"

Rei stifled a sigh.

"Nothing else besides Fuyumi ?"

When no one else added anything, she bought a last can and paid the vendor.

I licked my ice cream carefully and watched as Rei handed the girl another can. Usually, she was only allowed half a glass a day. What was different today?

Something is really going on.

The Todoroki formation was in place again: Rei stood between Fuyumi and Natsuo, holding their hands tightly to prevent either of them from escaping as soon as her back was turned.

Enji picked me up with one hand and held me against his chest. Apparently, I was 'too small' and they were 'afraid I would get lost in the crowd'.

I think they were just afraid that someone would kidnap me or one of the two idiots - and since I was the 'easiest' prey, I had to stay with the big bad wolf all afternoon.

The view from so high up was something. The people looked like fish with their eyes bulging and their mouths open.

One of them, looking at us, swallowed a fly and coughed. His girlfriend, worried, stopped and slapped him on the back. He turned purple.

"The unicorn! It's here! It's here !"

Fuyumi jumped with excitement. She pulled Rei towards the colorful booth.

The booth was made of wood and the sign 'FETICHE PLUSH' hung above the counter.

There were at least a hundred stuffed animals hanging on wires in front of the sign and in the back of the booth.

"Maori told me that it was the best booth and that she got it right the first time !"

A shady looking showman wita cigarette on his lips looked at us with raised eyebrows. He stubbed it out in an ashtray, wiped his hands on a dirty cloth and came to us.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what can I do for you ?"

Fuyumi pointed at the unicorn.

"I want that one !"

The showman laughs in good humor.

"If you want my great friend Mindy, you have to play and win her"

Fuyumi turned her puppy dog eyes to Rei. She had already pulled out her credit card.

"Just one game", said the little girl quickly.

"You're quite sure of yourself, little one"

Fuyumi smiled and stepped in front of the counter. She closed her eyes and pulled a thread at random.

"Oh", she mumbled.

There was nothing at the end of the thread.

"Let's play a few more games", Rei said as she paid again.

Fuyumi regained her composure and pulled a thread. Then another. And another.

At the end of the fifth try, Rei handed over her card again. On the tenth try, Natsuo set himself the goal of helping Fuyumi draw the winning strip.

They won a green striped fish that reminded me of the cheap version of a cartoon we had seen once.

"It's not even the real Nemo", said Natsuo

Fuyumi didn't deny.

"Once again !"

The showman scratched his head with his fingertip and lifted his khaki cap slightly.

"I'd like to play with you again, but you've been here for a while and there are many other girls who would like to play as well..."

A crowd had indeed formed next to the booth. However, there were as many adults as children.

"Oh, well, okay..."

Her eyes filled with tears. Rei put her hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay Fuyumi, we'll try to come back at the end so you can play again, alright?"

Fuyumi's lips quivered and she clenched her skirt between her fists, head bowed. Natsuo came closer.

"I've taken a good look at the stand and I'm sure we'll make it next time, Fu"

Fuyumi nodded with difficulty.

Enji looked at her for a few seconds before pulling his wallet out of his pocket.

"How much ?"

The showman straightened up. He put his hand over his heart, exaggerating his surprise.

"I'm afraid it's not for sale, Mr. Endeavor-"

"How much ?"

"150 000"

Enji took a wad of bills out of his wallet and placed it on the counter. The showman smiled. He was missing a tooth.

He unhooked the unicorn and brought it to Fuyumi. She hugged it and leapt for joy, drying her tears on the artificial fur.

"I look forward to seeing you again, Mr. Endeavor"

*

"Why aren't you eating your cone ?"

Because in a fight break out, I could use the tip to stab someone's eye out.

"Don't want"

Natsuo shrugged and went back to duck hunting with Fuyumi.

I pushed the unicorn horn away from my cheek, irritated. Fuyumi had asked dad to carry it for her and since then the stuffed animal had been competing with me for my personal space.

Rei crossed out the rides on her map.

"We did the stuffed animals, the ghost train, the duck fishing, the racetrack, the bumper cars"

Enji had glared at everyone and no one had dared to run at us. It was a one-sided massacre.

"- then duck fishing again, and we're left with... the shooting booth"

Rei looked at Enji worriedly.

"And then we're done"

I scanned Enji's face, waiting for something, anything, that would give him away, but to no avail.

The guy had an incredible poker face.

"Let's eat here afterwards. It will be easier to digest"

'Digest', huh? The big reveal is coming soon.

Rei immediately went back to her map.

"There is a food stand not far away..."

Fuyumi had caught enough ducks to win a butterfly make-up palette and a pair of too small heels she had to walk in.

Rei let her do as she pleased, which was not exactly in her habit.

To Natsuo's delight, we finally reached the shooting booth.

There were a lot of men trying to show off to their girlfriends, elbowing each other and talking loudly to assert their dominance over others.

They looked like roosters in a barnyard.

A corner of the stall was cleared. The vendor waved us over.

Natsuo was given a stool so that his head would stick out from the counter and he could hold the rifle properly.

He wedged it against his elbow and closed one eye so he could aim.

"Watch out for the recoil", Enji said.

Natsuo shot without hesitation. He didn't even wait to aim and just fired into the pile, hoping to hit something. It looked like he was trying to imitate a machine gun.

The showman gave him the consolation prize - a penguin keychain - but Natsuo didn't look disappointed.

"Shooting is so cool"

Rei had already put her head back into her map. She crossed the booth off her list.

"And what about you Shoto ? Is there anything you want to do ?"

"Yeah, we only did things that I or Natsu wanted to do"

"We could go back to the stuffed animal stand and get you something"

Natsuo slapped his biceps with his hand.

"Or you could tell me what game you want to win here and I'll win it for you !"

Fuyumi laughed at him.

"You almost killed the man in the booth and you say you can win for Sho-sho ?"

Natsuo turned red.

"At least I didn't cry for a unicorn !"

The two fought again and Rei had to break it up.

I ran my eyes over the prices at the booth, trying to find something that wasn't too horrible, so that Rei wouldn't force me to play duck fishing with the other two oddballs.

There were only consoles and water pistols, not much to-

I stopped at a glass box on top of a pile of other prizes.

Inside was a set of eight shiny kunais in perfect condition.

They looked real.

"I want those"

The showman followed my gaze before shaking his head.

"Oh boy, this is our special prize for perfect scores. Come back when you're older, maybe you'll win it"

Enji set me down on the counter. He handed the showman some cash.

"One game"

There was some hissing in the macho crowd. A crowd formed on the left side of the booth. Men with crossed arms speculated in low voices and elbowed each other.

None of them had the guts to say out loud that he couldn't do it, but you could see it in their faces with their superior looks.

Enji took the rifle in his hands, weighing its weight and observing its design.

He wedged it firmly between his shoulder and his biceps. He held it with his right hand and supported it with his left.

His right elbow was lowered toward his hip and he stood slightly backward.

The salesman had stopped smiling. He looked at Enji with an appreciative look.

Enji stood still for a few seconds.

And then he shot.

Clack clack clack.

I was stunned.

Enji stood up, the barrel of the gun smoking. He had gotten all five balloons in one shot.

The salesman applauded.

"If I expected that Mr. Hero..."

Enji gave him the gun back and pointed to the glass box. The onlookers applauded in turn.

Someone called out to him:

"Hey Endeavor, you weren't in the army by any chance ? Because my cousin Junho also got a perfect score in the Tokyo booth last time-"

Enji held me to his chest and took the box with his other hand.

"Thank you"

He met my eyes and I saw the shadow of a smile on his lips.

The crowd split in two to let us through. The group of macho men had turned the applause into a competition to be the loudest.

"Wow Dad, it was awesome the way you held the gun and then you went phew, phew, phew"

Natsuo started to imitate his shot while Fuyumi acted as the target he was shooting at.

Rei frowned.

"Don't play like that. It's morbid"

Fuyumi stopped playing dead and stood up.

"What does it means morbid ?"

Natsuo pulled Enji's sleeve.

"Where did you learn to shoot like that ?"

"I wasn't always a hero, you know"

If he keeps saying that I'll start thinking he had a career as a villain.

Natsuo clenched his hands in supplication.

"Could you teach me ? I swear I'll be super wise and stop fighting with Fuyu"

"If your mother agrees, perhaps"

Enji Todoroki or the art of absolving oneself in a second.

*

Natsuo had forgotten all his questions the second he sat in front of a hamburger.

Fuyumi had used her unicorn as a seat and ate in silence, savoring the greasy food.

I eyed my burger dripping with cheese and fried onion with suspicion, turning here and there to peer through the half-open door of the mobile stall.

Am I dreaming, or did the old man just pick his butt?

And he had his hands in the pizza dough again.

This is exactly why I don't eat food cooked by poor people.

"Aren't you eating Shoto ?"

"I am"

Rei grabbed some fries here and there and made sure that everyone had enough to eat.

Enji himself had a hamburger bigger than my head and was eating it with gusto.

I opened my sandwich to inspect the inside. No flying roaches or dead flies.

Could the steak be horse ?

It sure smelled like the ponies at school.

I put the burger down and ate the fries in silence - if Rei hadn't watched me like an owl, I wouldn't even have dared to drink the water.

I pushed my burger over to Enji.

I liked him, but I needed a sacrifice to avoid eating the slimy thing – and of the two of us, he was the only one with a stomach strong enough to survive diarrhea.

He ate the burger without asking any questions, and Rei finally turned her attention to the other pair of awful children.

At the end of the meal, they offered us drinks. Then desserts.

Even the glutton Natsuo had to refuse. Fuyumi had one hand over her bloated belly and was lying on the bench in fetal position. She was foaming at the mouth.

Apparently, drinking four cans of coke in a row could put you in a coma-like state.

Rei exchanged a glance with Enji. She looked nervous.

"Did you eat well ?"

They nodded slowly.

"Nobody wants anything else ? Not even a last game ?"

I straightened up.

I would finally find out why they had tried bribing us all day.

Fuyumi sighed and closed her eyes.

"Can we go home ?"

"Of course Fuyumi. But first we'd like to ask your brother a question"

Natsuo shook his hand.

"Sorry mom, I'm not able to tell you how I made the hole in my mattress"

"What hole?"

"What ?"

"What ?"

Natsuo pretended to fall asleep face first on the table.

Rei and Enji both turned to me.

I frowned, not liking the way things were going.

"If you agree, Shoto..."

Rei clasped her hands.

She was a little pale and wrinkles were visible on her forehead.

"We would like to pay Touya a visit"

*

Author's note :

In case some of you didn't realised, a bunch of time went by since the first incident - when Shoto was nearly killed on a bridge - and also since Touya tried to drown him. If I remember correctly my timeline (yeah, the only downside at writing so much in advance) he should be around five in this chapter and the next ones.

The next jump in time we will have will be clearly announced at the beginning of the chapter, so don't worry about it.

Also I realised from your comments that some of you thought Rei was mean/a b*tch, and I'm really surprised by how you interpreted her. After I wrote Shoto's drowning, I got to read parents stories about what it felt like to have kids who were a bit on the weird side (would be murderers and things like that), or even kids stories (now older, who wrote about it) about how threatening their siblings were, and the main thing that (nearly) always reoccured was how much the parents were passive. 

Either they didn't realize what was going on, or they thought it was just kids playing a bit roughly, or they voluntarily a blind eye to the situation because they didn't want to realize that one of their kids was a threat to others people in general, and wanted to hurt them.

I read some stories about kids whose both parents choosed to act blind, thinking it was just kids being kids. I thought it would be a bit farefetched to write about both parents acting like that, so I tried with only Rei.

And let's get this straight : she's not mean, or a bitch, or anything like that. She's just a mom who prefer denial than to accept that one of her kids tried to kill the other. It would make her feel like she fucked up somewhere, maybe that she's a horrible mom, and sometimes people prefer to ignore shit rather than deal with it.

Yeah, that sucks, but that's how we humans are.

It doesn't mean that she doesn't love Shoto - she does, she's his mom. And Enji stated it clearly chapter 12, shards, when he said 'Do you think he won't remember anything because he's young ? Do you think he's already forgotten everything that has happened ?'. She thinks Shoto won't remember shit, that's why she's being a bit 'neglectful' towards him and 'care' more about the one who 'needs it'.

Enji and Rei both have good and bad points here. 

Rei turned a blind eye to the reality, but she got to realize that everything stem from the fact that Touya is abnormally jealous of Shoto, and that he needs attention and care.

On the contrary, Enji see the situation for what it is, but he can't bring himself to try to understand his oldest son and to care for him because he feels that it would encourage him, and Touya needs to be punished for what he did.

So yeah, no good or bad here, just people reacting to a situation differently because they have been raised/don't have the same values as the other one.

But yeah, I guess I wasn't clear enough, I always try to go the subtle way when writing character interactions so people who pay close attention can really get the whole meaning of the things.

I won't keep you here any longer, but just say the same thing I always say :

80 power stones : Bonus chapter sunday (and we can totally make it)

100 power stones : Double release next saturday 

P@treon : Nar_cisseENG up to 30 chapters ahead

Give me some reviews (I crave them), and some comments too.

And until the next update, good day everyone !