Chapter 8: Invisible to the World but...

And so Deku, Urakaka, Iida, and Toru all bonded with Futari over the next two weeks. Futari was even invited to the dorms to hangout with the Class 1A during their free time. Futari slowly began looking forward to going to UA. It was like getting all the social benefits of school, but without having the need to learn. It was a young man's ideal of school.

It was a Tuesday and Toru had been called out yesterday by her family. Deku and Futari had begun sparring in their free time since Deku wanted to learn a proper fighting style focused on kicks. Futari suggested Taekwondo and Deku has been practicing ever since. This morning Aizawa wanted the students to continue learning hand to hand combat and he allowed Deku to train with Futari.

"St. Louis Smash!!" Deku yelled as he flee through the air and did a roundhouse kick. Futari quickly lifted his hand in front of the left side of his face, planting his right foot. Deku's kick connected with Futari's arm, pushing Futari across the grounds. Futari remained standing for a few yards before finally tumbling over across the training area. Futari flew about 25 yards. That was 20% smash and Futari was still fast enough to lift his hand to block it and almost strong enough not fall over. He's really strong! Definitely stronger than Gentle. Deku thought to himself trembling with excitement. As Futari slid he thought to himself. Damn, if Deku gets any stronger I'll have to fully use my quirk to fight him. He's immensely strong. My left arm has a bruise on it.As Futari slide he heard Ectoplasm lecturing someone.

"Toru! I can't even see you and I can still predict your moves! You are usually pretty damn good at this. What is going on?! You are slow as hell today!" Ectoplasm's clone yelled.

Toru was panting and laboring. "Yeah I'm sorry. I guess I'm just off today…" Toru saw out of the corner of her eye Futari sliding across the floor. His quirk was activated. She began to panic. No. I can't let him get near me with his quirk on right now!

Ectoplasm punched her just hard enough to knock her over. "Are you seriously not paying attention Toru?!" I need to move. He is coming...my body is not hurt. Why won't it move? I just need to get up and strafe to my left a few feet so he can't smell me. Why? Why? Won't I move?Toru interrogated herself. She did not move because deep down she didn't want to. Futari slowly stopped sliding and ended up about 1 foot away from Toru. He smelled the air as he breathed. Toru's perfume and shampoo she loves so much...old blood and healing scar tissue again?!! Why the hell do I smell this on her?! Futari quickly sat up eyes wide open. He thought to the last time this happened and began to piece things together, but there was one more thing he had to confirm. Toru turned and saw the side of Futari's face and began to cry. He knows. She thought. Ectoplasm notices Toru was not getting up. He sighed. "Alright, Toru. Let's pack it in today. It's fine to have an off day," Ectoplasm said reassuringly.

Futari quickly got up and ran to Deku. "Sorry, Deku. I need to go take of something." Futari turned and starting running towards the UA building. "That kick had great form though!" Futari said to Deku as he got further away. What's going? Deku thought to himself.

Aizawa saw Futari running towards the building and asked him, "Oi! Where are you going?!"

"Uh I want to get Eri early today!" Futari answered. Aizawa knew he was lying and so did Toru. Futari didn't even noticed his quirk was still activated so he went flying through the hallways up the stairs. He swung in to Recovery Girl's office scaring the old woman and Eri. He was panting.

"Futari!" Recovery Girl yelled. She began calming down a bit. "You scared us. You aren't supposed to be here for another 20 minutes. What's going-?"

"Has Toru come in here to heal unexplained injuries in the past month?" Futari said cutting Recovery Girl off.

"Huh?"

"Has Toru come in here to heal unexplained injuries in the past month?"

"No. She has not." answered Recovery Girl. It all clicked in Futari's head. Of course, she hasn't. She is called out by her family every 2 weeks or so. Then, she shows up the next day with a bunch of injuries. She doesn't get these injuries healed because Recovery Girl will ask questions. No one notices these injuries because she's invisible and if the injuries are discovered, she lies about it. She's being abused. Someone is hurting her at home. Futari was able to calm himself down pushing back his anger and thought about what he needed to do. I need to talk to Toru about this and then I need to tell dad and Aizawa about this. Futari went about the rest of his day normally noticing that Toru was actively avoiding him. She knows I know but that doesn't matter. Futari thought to himself. At the end of the day, Aizawa told Futari that he and Present Mic will be joining Futari and his father at dinner later that night. Futari agreed and quickly left to go to the dorms. He texted Toru "Please, come outside. It'll be quick." Futari doubted that Toru would come down to see him considering how she avoided him throughout the day. However, after about 20 minutes, she walked outside much to his surprised. They walked to the forests on the UA campus.

There was a long awkward silence as they walked. Futari could tell her arms were folded across her body as if she was cold. "Okay. This should be far enough." Futari stopped walking and turned to face her. "I'll be as brief as possible. You are invisible to the world, but you aren't invisible to me. I can see right through your lies." He pauses. Tears begin to stream down both their faces. "Look... you have friends here, friends who really care about your wellbeing, not to mention teachers too. I know that as an invisible person you are probably forgotten about a lot and easily ignored, but the people at UA genuinely care about you...including myself." The tears increased from her eyes. "It takes strength to shoulder everything upon yourself and to put on a mask so that no one knows your pain but… you are a hero. The strength you are using is a double edged sword that will chip away at your mental health and damage your career. A hero that can't protect themselves can't hope to protect others. That's why in this situation, the best way you can protect yourself is by using a different kind of strength and asking others for help...because sometimes, heroes need saving too."

His words struck her heart in a way that no one else could do. He was the only one who understood what was happening to her. She was struggling to hold it all in, but she couldn't let it all out either. She couldn't break her composure. In her mind, she was saving everyone by stopping them from knowing about her and helping her. "...My father… my father is a famous politician. Anyone who comes after him will have their careers destroyed by his power. Please... You can't help me Futari. You, and anyone who helps you, will lose everything they ever aspired to be." Toru said depressingly. That's why, I'll be strong. You are right, Futari, I need to protect myself. The way I will do that is by separating from my father all on my own. That way no one will have their lives destroyed and I'll be free. He'll hurt me and hurt me and hurt me...but he won't kill me because he has a twisted love for me.. Once he's done beating me, I'll leave him for good and live somewhere else so I can be a good hero without him destroying my personal life. Toru rationalized to herself. "Thank you, Fu for helping me find my solution." Toru started walking away.

Futari's eyes were wide open. His fist and teeth were clenched. He stared at the ground, his body trembling in rage. "So that's what he told you huh?" Toru stopped walking. "That anyone who helps you will have their lives destroyed? Then it makes sense that you would isolate yourself...but if him trying to destroy my life is a consequence of saving yours then I'll gladly do it...and I'm sure everyone friend you have in UA will say the same."

Toru was trying so hard to not have a nervous breakdown. Tears were flowing down her face. Her fists clenched. "Futari, please...don't try to help me."

"I refuse. Everything about you screams 'help me!'" Futari said this with the straightest face imaginable. His eyes were focused and his tears were gone. Toru started to walk away again feeling both sad and angry.

She wanted Futari to be safe, but she knew he would not leave her alone and that thought made her angry at herself and him. "If you won't listen to me then we were never really friends to begin with. Stay away from me." She said while walking away; her voiced quivered as she lied to herself.

It was clear as day that Toru was just saying things out of fear, rage, and some emotions in between, but those words still hurt Futari. He pretended not be stung by that comment. "Whether we are friends or not changes nothing" Futari said with fake confidence. Toru did not answer continuing to walk back to the dorms. Futari was left alone standing there for what felt like an eternity. Futari received a message from his dad telling him to come back to Aizawa's office so he headed back and then went home for dinner. Present Mic, Shukuchi, Aizawa and Futari were all there at the dinner table.

Shukuchi began speaking. "Alright so let me discuss my findings on-"

"Sorry to be rude, dad, but I need to speak." Futari said while standing up.

Shukuchi stared at his son. He has seen this scary look on his son before. "You've been looking like you needed to say something since we got into the car. Go ahead. It seems important."

Futari slammed his hands on the table, his arms trembling with rage. "Toru Hakagure is being abused by her father." All three of the adults' faces shifted into shock. "Both times that I have been at UA the day after her absence, she came to school with bruises and recently opened wounds. I know this because, within my quirk, I can smell the blood and scar tissue on her body and it smells about15 hours old each time. She refuses to go to Recovery Girl to get herself healed because Recovery Girl would realize something wrong is happening." Futari paused panting a bit.

Present Mic could not believed what he just heard. "WHA-!!" He shouted accidentally activating his quirk. Aizawa quickly erased the quirk before Present Mic destroyed everyone in the house and in the neighberhood's eardrums.

Aizawa was angry at Present Mic. "Are you trying to make us all deaf?!"

"I'm sorry Aizawa, you cannot expect me to not be shocked after hearing all that!" Present Mic said defending himself.

Futari's rage was starting to boil over. "We need to help her! We need to go to their house and-"

Aizawa puts his hand on Futari's shoulder. "Oi. Calm down a bit. Hakagure is powerful politician. Going to his house to arrest him would be troublesome even if Toru and her mom themselves testified. Then he'd ruin our lives immediately after the failed trial. We need undeniable evidence to convict him."

"Undeniable evidence? You want to wait until she's getting abused to act on this situation?!" Futari angrily retorted.

"Futari." Shukuchi sternly, but calmly said at the other end of the table. Futari turned and looked his father in the eyes. "Remember where you were 5 weeks ago? Calm down before you earn yourself a ticket back to prison." Futari breathed deeply and calmly until he began to relaxed.

Aizawa started to speak as Futari was calming himself. "The best and most reliable plan is to wait till she is absent again and catch Mr. Hakagure in the act, and get video of it. Shukuchi, help me talk to the police to get a surveillance unit that can act on a moment's notice. Present Mic, when this does happen I need you to take over my class. I'll be going down there myself since Toru is my student and I've failed her by not catching on to this abuse. Futari, you'll be coming with me too."

Shukuchi sat with his arms folded. "Well this certainly helps because Toru was one of my suspects for being the traitor, but this situation explains quite a bit. If my son is going with you, I'm going too Aizawa to make sure I stop him from making a mistake. We will have a meeting tomorrow to talking about this traitor stuff. I need to focus on getting this surveillance unit"

Aizawa shrugs. "That's fine."

Futari finally calmed himself and contained his rage. "Thank you, Aizawa."

"No, thank you. You just took the steps for me to save one of my prized students." Aizawa answered. That night Shukuchi used his connection in the police force to develop a on the fly surveillance that could observe invisible people. The next day came around and Futari arrived in homeroom as soon as school began. Futari walked into the room and Aizawa turned to him looking extremely serious.

"Futari. Toru...is absent today." Aizawa said putting down his attendance sheet.

Futari's blood boiled at the fact that so soon Toru was already taken back for another abuse session. His blackish green veins began to appear. "Let's go, then." Futari said in a calm, almost psychotic way.