Chapter Text
I looked towards the two men sitting in front of me, one of them is obviously a policeman, he looks professional, now the second one, that one is a more recognizable face, this asshole is the one who captured me, today makes a week that the not so famous Eraserhead butted in on one of my missions and nearly broke all of my ribs, after that, the man gave me over to the cops and soon I was put in a cell with a cute new accessory, an electrical choker, just in case I tried to escape with my quirk, how thoughtful. But seriously, this guy looks like me at the end of a bad week, and I'm supposed to be a criminal for fuck's sake, apparently, underground heroes aren't that different from vigilantes and hitmen, they just, you know, follow the law and are paid by the government.
Now, I was expecting to be moved to a high-security prison or something, but for some unknown reason, they want to talk to me... again. Ugh, what do these guys want?
"So. Mortis Valentia, is that right?" The policeman finally started talking, and as an answer, I just nodded slightly. "The name doesn't appear anywhere on the database, so we assume it's fake. Care to tell us your real name?"
Eh, it's better if I put this out of the way right away, or else they won't move on, it's not like they are that interested, just getting some loose ends probably. "That's my name, I adopted the Mortis surname after my family kindly enough sold me off. They made it very clear that I wasn't part of the family, so why should I use their name? In fact, the idea of using it is repulsing."
The policeman nodded as if acknowledging something, Eraserhead, on the other hand, didn't seem so pleased. "Sold you off? If they did such a thing, wouldn't you want justice for that?"
"Eh, they got what they deserved alright." I shrugged. "Karma is a bitch you know? And if it interests you that much, the time they sold me wasn't the first time they were messing with the underground society, they had quite some enemies caused by debts, others for other reasons that I don't really know nor care. I don't think they are dead but believe me when I say that you don't want to be blacklisted by four mafias at the same time. The last time I saw them they both had dropped their original surname and were divorced. And in the end, I was... what 6, 7? Around that age when they sold me, it's not like I had time to consider them my parents."
Both men shifted in their seats, maybe uncomfortable by the information. Or maybe they are uncomfortable with whatever they came here to do? Only one way to find out I guess...
"Soooo... Am I going to jail?" I looked at both men trying to figure out their facial expressions. "Or do you guys plan on doing some kind of agreement?"
Eraserhead cleared his throat and the policeman took over himself to answer. "Don't those options scare you?"
"I mean, not really, not what I want but it is expected." I hesitated before continuing. "If you break the law you go under, simple. And my entire lifestyle screams criminal, and sincerely, after scaping The Board, prison doesn't sound that scary."
"The Board." Eraser looked over at me. "Is that what your parents sold you off to?"
I nodded. "Indeed."
"You ended up there when you were 6?"
"Something like that, can't really recall, memories are a fleeting thing. I remember the whole "fight or die" shit, but it was kinda hard to keep a notion of time in there, and I was a kid so it's not like I was trying that hard to count the time."
"How did you survive there?"
"What kind of question is that?" I let out a humorless laugh. "I fought."
The man rubbed his forehead and looked at me with a "too tired for your shit" look. "You know what I mean, how did a child survive against adult men, wild animals, and god knows what else. And how did you escape? Obviously, you aren't on the list of people who were rescued nor did you go to a police station or a hero for help after you escaped, So... What's the story?"
"Oh Gods, it's now, the long dialogue where I tell everyone my tragic backstory so people feel bad for poor me and my destiny." I rolled my eyes just to reinforce the sarcasm.
"You do acknowledge that the more you give us, the better we can help you, right Miss Mortis?"
I rolled my eyes at the policeman. "That's a loooong story, and actually, not that important. I survived by fighting, my quirk had just revealed itself so it was nearly impossible to control, you can probably imagine what happened, I learned by trial and error, each error was a near-death experience so I can say I learned pretty quickly. I escaped when I was 8, I and some other people made a plan, and in case you are wondering, yes, our escape made that ruckus that attracted the attention of the media and consequently the heroes. I didn't go to the police or the heroes for the simple reason that I didn't trust you guys at the time. And finally, if you want proof I was in The Board you should search for the files for "Phantasma", that was the title those guys gave me, or you can just seek for 00101, that's my serial number from back then."
Eraserhead looked over to the policeman just to receive a brief nod, that provoked a sigh from the hero, as if to give the hero some time the man took over the conversation. "Well miss, we already were introduced and I already made you some questions but today is different, first I must tell you I am quite impressed by the fact that you answered our questions without much resistance, also, you haven't lied in our interrogatories. Which is a good sign for you."
I snorted. "And how would you know if I lied to you or not? Are you some kind of lie detector or something like that?"
"As a matter of fact, I am, my quirk permits me to know when someone is lying."
As he said that I stopped mocking and looked at him. "Well, shit dude, color me impressed."
The man accepted the compliment with a nod and a small smile, I totally should remember his name, because that's a badass quirk, too bad I was still pissed off for being caught when he introduced himself, now I will never know unless someone calls him, because I sure ain't asking, after 4 interrogations it would be kinda embarrassing, "oh yeah, I know you have been interrogating me all this time but I didn't really care to learn your name, mind to repeat it?", yup, not happening.
"Anyway." Eraserhead interrupted with his low and raspy voice, at least it lost the flatness that he used in the first interrogations. "I have another question, how did you end up as a hitman?"
"That's a funny story, or not so funny, it really depends on how you look at it. And I also wouldn't say I'm a hitman, I'm more like a..." I hesitated while looking for the right word. "...a jack of all trades? I guess? Like, I don't just kill, actually, I only accept offerings to murder people if they meet certain requirements. Usually, people ask me to act as a guard to certain people, places, or objects, sometimes I'm requested to steal certain things, other times I'm just bored and go around capturing criminals too dumb to be discreet. After I capture them I count the time it takes for someone to notice the unconscious bad guy sitting next to the police station. It may seem I am a horrible person, and that's true, don't get me wrong, I'm no saint, but I still have standards."
"Which are?"
"Well, like, if someone I'm working for, normally this happens with the mafia, is involved with human or animal trafficking I tend to break the contract and release all hell in their backyards, like, some of their best men disappear, suddenly the police and the heroes know too much about them, you know, that kinda thing, I might be a bad person, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I ignored that type of thing. I was a case of human trafficking, so if someone knows how bad it is, that person is me." Ignoring both men in the room I continued. "From time to time I receive requests from psychos who want to destroy the lives of people that don't have anything to do with the underground, I'm talking about those creepy stalkers, CEOs that think they can get away with everything because they have money and people like that, those I tend to get rid off as soon as I meet them. I don't do torture or kidnapping by payment, those are only for when my judgment deems necessary, in some cases I just show the problem to the police or the heroes, but since you guys are so incompetent I tend to do things on my own."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. In the beginning, I tried to give you guys a heads up in every single case, ninety percent of the time my help was ignored, when a woman died because the heroes decided that a guy's reputation was more important than the life of a person he was abusing I gave up, after that, I would just do it from time to time because apparently, heroes are there for appearance." I hesitated. "Except for some of you, All Might is cool, and underground heroes tend to have more of the spirit than those flashy bastards that the media loves."
The tired man let out a sigh. "And how did you end up doing all that?"
"As I said, kinda funny, kinda luck, it was after I escaped The Board, I was in the streets surviving on the basis of pickpocketing when I ran into a strange man, he was scary as fuck, but his quirk was something about knowing parts of the past of people he touched. When I was pickpocketing him, he saw my abilities and instead of killing me, he offered me a job. If I took out the leader of a gang that was annoying some people he was close to, he would pay me. I did it, not really believing that it would work, after all, my payment for killing while I was on The Board was some biscuits, a bottle of water, and the possibility to breathe. It was a shock when he gave me a handbag full of money as payment. That man was Pappy, you know, the mafia leader that was killed three years ago. That was how I started. I never joined a gang or a mafia, it was more like, a contract-to-contract kinda thing, after the first job I started to hide my face and that's how the Gray Ghost gained fame around here."
"I see... A mystery both to the police and the villains, a vigilante? a hitman? No one ever knew which side you were on, it seems like we have an answer."
After that, silence took over the room and it wasn't a nice one, it was the type of silence you want to rip apart before it chokes you, the air pregnant with doubt and unsaid words, and to me, that was too much.
"Soooo, as I asked before... What now?"
"Now we wait."
I raised an eyebrow "For what?"
Eraserhead pointed to the mirror in the wall behind me, I turned around the best I could with the handcuffs stuck to the table and huffed. "Was there someone watching the whole time?"
"Yes."
Cue to another roll of eyes. "Sincerely, I'm handcuffed and this choker gives me a shock that puts me to sleep every time I try to use my quirk, is it really necessary to hide all the way over there?"
Before Eraserhead or the policeman could answer someone knocked on the door, the polygraph man stood up to open it, I expected a lot of things, but a bear/rat-like creature in a suit and All Might in person wasn’t on the list.
"What the f..."
"Language."
"Oh! Now you talk about my cursing!"