Chapter 3

Life as a baby was downright monotonous.

Since I needed to sleep twenty hours a day, the months passed like a foggy dream in which I could not distinguish day from night.

Still, when I was awake, I did my best to listen to the conversations around me to learn the language. It was more difficult than I expected, but my malleable brain coupled with my adult mind gave me a frightening memorization capacity that bordered on eidetic memory: it took very little effort to remember the conversations around me and replay them in my head when I was alone, allowing me to deconstruct them at my leisure.

I focused only on that and had no interest in the toys or stuffed animals that Rei slipped to me, making her somewhat worried about me. I didn't care at all: my goal was to be recognized as a genius and to be much better than Endeavor expected me to be, so that I could be more free in the future.

I also had chakra to unlock.

I'll deal with that once when keeping my eyes open for more than three minutes won't put me in a coma-like state.

Speaking of the old fool, I saw him almost more often than Rei.

He seemed to make sure his war machine had everything it needed to optimize its development. It could have been cute if he wasn't rubbing his hands together like the second rate villain in a bad movie.

Rei always calmed him down when he acted out of line and, strangely enough, he listened to her. Maybe I was in the period when their marriage had not yet started to fall apart?

Now that I thought about it, when did their marriage became hell ?

I knew it was before Shoto's fifth birthday... my fifth birthday - when (and if) I would get my scar - and also after I was born. Maybe there was a trigger that I was forgetting about - or maybe it had just gotten worse over the years?

Anyway, I didn't care.

The only person I cared about in that family was Endeavor : he had the wallet and the connections. Money and power, really nothing better.

And based on his groupie behavior, I was pretty sure I'd have him wrapped around my finger by the time I was five.

Granted, I would have to struggle a bit and suffer a few setbacks, but I would get there because I had no alternative but success. I refused to be the whiny kid from canon who runs to tell his problems to the first person who shows a little interest in him (that is, the first person to say 'hello' to him without stuttering).

I was - and will be - better than the Shoto of canon. I had no reason to doubt it, because it was the one and only reality I allowed to exist.

As months passed, I became more and more aware of my surroundings : I even noticed my brothers and sister. Their existence should not have mattered to me under normal circumstances - they were just background characters and I was a top choice - but one piece of information in particular bothered me.

Wasn't the Shoto of the canon supposed to have only one brother and one sister?

The third child - the tallest one, the one with red hair - was a little weird.

He always kept his distance from the others and preferred to watch me from afar.

He looked shy, as if he never knew where to put himself when he set foot in my room.

I burped as Rei gently patted my back, rocking me back and forth against her chest.

"That's great baby, you're a big boy"

The little girl with the white pigtails hopped around Rei.

"Mom, can I take him ? Can I ? Can I ?

I immediately grabbed Rei's shirt, mentally preparing myself for the battle that would follow.

The girl was more like a rabbit on coke than a child.

She was always jumping around as if no one had ever taught her how to move other than leaping. She was also very clumsy and spent her time bumping into all the furniture and doors of the house. Rei and the children had only been in my room for ten minutes and the little girl had already fallen three times and had almost broken her glasses four times in the same span.

If Rei ever let her get close to me, I could only hope that the demons in the afterlife would take pity on me and give me a Karma discount on the wheels.

"Hmm, maybe next time, Fuyumi"

The little one stopped jumping and crossed her arms over her chest, looking upset. Her glasses slid to the tip of her nose but miraculously did not fall off.

So there exist a button to turn off this little fool.

"Okay", she mumbled reluctantly.

The white-haired boy who always followed her around watched her before he too crossed his arms over his chest, frowning exaggeratedly.

"Touya, what do you think about holding your brother?"

I straightened up almost as quickly as the boy leaning against the wall next to the door. His eyes lowered to me before returning to his mother.

"I'm not sure that-"

"You always held your siblings each time we came back from the hospital"

Touya looked at his mother imploringly, as if he didn't want to do it, but she didn't flinch.

"Come on, Touya, take him in your arms"

I didn't really have an opinion about him.

He was a quiet, withdrawn child, but he seemed way more reliable than the pig tailed threat.

I still had my suspicions about him - I remembered the vague theory that Dabi was supposed to be Shoto's second brother - but as long as he didn't do anything to me, I would treat him like any other child who crossed my path : with contempt and disdain.

His arms wrapped around my body as he cradled me awkwardly against him.

His hesitant eyes went back and forth between Rei and me. He looked as uncomfortable as I was in this baby body.

Someone slammed a door in the distance. There was a sound of footsteps as the hall floor creaked under the weight of the new individual.

Fuyumi's sulky face lit up.

"Daddy's home !"

She ran down the hallway, the boy following like a shadow.

Touya looked very relieved to have an excuse to leave.

He pushed me in Rei's arms and almost made me fall. Rei widened her eyes and caught me in time.

"Touya, be careful !"

"Sorry"

He didn't look sorry.

He ran down the hall to see his father.

The giant that was our father stepped through the door, nearly knocking his son over. The boy sat up as his father put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. Touya smiled at him, embarrassed, but Endeavor's attention was already elsewhere. His eyes fell on his wife and then on me.

My chubby fingers reached out in his direction. I babbled in the way only babies knew how to do to get attention.

The corner of his mouth turned up for a moment so short that I thought I had dreamed it. He sighed before striding across the distance between us.

Rei let him carry me willingly.

"Did you finish early ?"

I didn't know if it was a side effect of his Alter, but he gave off a pleasant warmth. I felt his gaze on me as I settled more comfortably into the crook of his elbow.

"The villains are quiet at the moment"

Fuyumi -who hated 'super-mega-annoting-adult-talk'-slipped between Rei and Endeavor, jumping happily.

"Dad, you don't know what Shoto did, do you? Huh you don't know ?"

"No Fuyumi, I don't know"

She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the play mat in the corner of the room.

There were stuffed animals bigger than me piled up against the wall and a plastic cart as colorful as a rainbow. Ugly, the rainbow.

At the request of the terrible child, Endeavor placed me on the carpet in front of a box with geometric shapes.

Endeavor sat right behind me, the ghost of his hand on my back, while Rei had taken Natsuo on her lap.

My chest puffed up with pride, ready to show my genius to all those mortals who looked at me (Fuyumi) with admiration (always Fuyumi).

"Come on Sho-sho, here, do it again"

I was a little annoyed by the nickname, but I took the plastic forms she handed me anyway: I had a reputation as a genius to create, and nothing was better than the present to get started.

I passed each of the shapes she handed me with ease through the corresponding holes. Fuyumi even turned the box upside down to show that I was thinking things through and not just doing a silly imitation of what she had shown me earlier.

"Did you see that ? Sho-sho is, like, super smart"

I looked up at Endeavor, whose head was just above mine. His blue eyes met mine. They had a strange glow to them.

He took the box, emptied it and turned it to a new position.

"Start over"

I gladly complied with his requests. He turned the box three more times to test me while, in the background, the girl clapped like a retard.

My eyes stumbled to the open door and I saw Touya's back as he slipped out without a word.

"Again"

My attention returned to the game at the urging of Endeavor.

*