Work Text:
Shouta doesn’t know how it got to this point.
Midoriya Izuku is seated across the table from him, his chin resting on his crossed arms. His green eyes are staring up at Shouta with just a bit too much . Shouta can’t quite describe what it is too much of, but it’s… off. Midoriya Izuku has been acting stranger and stranger these past few weeks, it’s true. But this… Shouta isn’t even sure how it got to this point.
How has it gotten to the point where Midoriya Izuku is sitting across from Shouta, his hands cuffed to the interrogation table as the pair wait for Detective Tsukauchi to enter the room?
0 0 0
Shouta ducks under Magne's steel baseball bat with a quiet grunt of pain and he barely manages to dodge Twice's round-house kick to the face. Shouta darts as far as he can reasonably get and takes a moment to breathe.
Shouta hadn't been prepared for this attack at all, although in hindsight it was obvious that he should have expected something considering the problem child was coming with him. Normally, more people would have come along than just Shouta and Midoriya on the grocery run, but there were only a few kids at the dorms over break, and they were all asleep when the pair left.
Compress comes at Shouta with an outstretched hand, and he barely avoids getting trapped in one of Compress's marbles. Shouta winces and tries to dodge to the right only for Shigaraki's hand to clamp over his face. Shouta activates his quirk once he can ignore the pain enough to do so, but the damage has been done; rivulets of blood stream down Shouta's forehead and obscure his vision.
Shouta uses a tendril of capture weapon to propel him towards the nearest streetlight, but he loses his concentration when he hears Midoriya scream. Who took Midoriya?
Shouta has to cut off a section of capture weapon to free himself, and when he can move again he find himself face to face with Twice. Shouta quickly notices that Dabi has disappeared- he must be the one who took Midoriya.
Twice throws a small object at Shouta, who dodges easily. He’s thankful he did because a moment later, the object explodes with a small kaboom . Shouta sees Magne ready her steel bat in the background, and he tenses.
As Shouta ducks under Magne's baseball bat, he sees Kurogiri appear out of the corner of his eye and he dodges to the side. Shigaraki intercepts him and punches Shouta in the face. The blood flow that had been slowing quickly restarts with a vengeance.
When Shouta wipes enough of the blood out of his eyes to see, the villains are gone. Shouta turns and races down the street, hoping against hope that the villains haven’t gotten Midoriya.
Shouta runs into three alleyways searching for Midoriya before he finally skids to a stop at the sight he finds.
Dabi is casually crouching near Midoriya’s limp body, and for a second, Shouta assumes the worst. Then, Midoriya starts trying to push himself up onto his elbows. Dabi reaches over and slams Midoriya's head into the ground without a second thought.
"Sorry, squirt," Dabi says flatly with a cocky glance up at Shouta.
Shouta finally snaps out of his trance, and he throws his capture weapon so that it winds tightly around Dabi. Dabi struggles enough that he falls over, and Shouta is pulled to the ground with him. Dabi's head hits the ground with a horrifying crack, and his form begins to melt.
Shouta is left crouching over Midoriya's body, sticky goo coating his legs where they touch the ground. Shouta props Midoriya up slightly so that he can check the boys pulse, and thats when the looming shadow appears. In his shock Shouta drops Midoriya, and the green haired boy sprawls over his lap.
"You may think you've won," Shigaraki hisses out, "But remember that we let you live, hero. You and your…student." Out of nowhere, a swirling black portal appears behind Shigaraki, and all Shouta can do is watch helplessly as Shugaraki steps backwards towards the portal.
"Since you're such a… cool hero, Eraserhead, I'll give you a hint," a dry, raspy voice hisses out. "Even the best players need an assist sometime."
What the fuck does that mean?
The next morning at the hospital, Shouta is relieved to learn that Midoriya survives with only a broken nose to show for the encounter. Shouta himself had no major injuries, but all of his doctors agree that he shouldn’t use his quirk for the next few weeks just in case; since it takes such a huge toll on his eyesight.
Even injuries as minor as Shouta's can turn out to be very serious if not taken care of properly.
None of the detectives Shouta speak to have any ideas of what Shigaraki could have meant when he called Midoriya an 'assist.' Shouta knows that Midoriya isn't helping the League of Villains, so it was probably in an inadvertent way. Shouta knows Midoriya well enough to know that the boy would never betray UA like that. Not even on the threat of death. (Shouta ignores the nagging voice in the back of his mind that whispers what if? )
0 0 0
Mezou has always liked Midoriya. It's difficult not to, in all honesty.
Midoriya has always been one of Mezou's quietest classmates, and with Mezou's extra ears he can appreciate that. Even when Midoriya mutters, he still isn't loud. His cadence is even, his tone is quiet, and Mezou likes that about Midoriya.
Mezou can also appreciate the care Midoriya puts into his words. Unlike some of his brasher classmates, Midoriya always thinks out what he's going to say, how it'll affect someone. Midoriya is just that kind.
But Mezou's favorite thing about Midoriya is the fact that he's never been afraid of Mezou; not truly. When Mezou met Class 1A, none of them were downright terrified of him, but several of them were wary. Not Midoriya, though; or at least not for his appearance. Towards the beginning of the school year, he'd been afraid of everyone. He hadn't singled out Mezou to fear, nor any of his other mutated classmates. Once he warmed up to the class, though, Midoriya's trust in Mezou had never once wavered.
So that's why Mezou considers Midoriya a friend even though the pair rarely talks.
It also explains why Mezou notices when Midoriya changes. The class is informed of the latest attack on Midoriya by the League of Villains, but even that doesn't explain why Midoriya looks at everyone with such distrust. Why Midoriya looks at Mezou like he's some dangerous creature about to run rampant.
Midoriya is the one who taught Mezou how to listen for their heartbeats, how to act as a lie detector, and Mezou knows that Midoriya is lying every other word. He's always lied to reassure people that he's fine, but he's never lied about important things.
When Midoriya and Mezou are teamed up for hero work, Mezou can't even begin to explain what happens.
Uraraka asks Midoriya if he's got a plan and he says no, even though his heartbeat is telling Mezou that's a lie . Mezou remains silent.
In the end, the exercise turns out okay. Nobody is majorly injured, at least. Mezou's team doesn't win, though.
That night, Mezou finds Midoriya in the common room late at night, a warm cup of coffee clasped in his hands. Mezou plops down on the couch, beside Midoriya.
Midoriya glances over at Mezou, then double-takes when he notices who he's sitting next to. Midoriya scoots away slightly, and Mezou tries not to feel hurt.
"What's up, Shouji?" Midoriya greets. There's a slight edge to his usually melodic voice.
"I just wanted to talk to you about training today," Mezou says. Midoriya nods shortly, and Mezou murmurs, "You threw the test on purpose today. Why?"
"What do you mean?" Midoriya asks nervously. Mezou just tilts his head slightly, and Midoriya shrinks back a little. Mezou winces slightly. "Fine, I did throw it," he admits. "But that's just because I wasn't sure if I could control mysel- my power output."
Mezou blinks in surprise and glances around the common room. I wasn't sure if I could control myself. What does that even mean? Mezou turns back to Midoriya to ask him, but he freezes at the sight he sees.
Midoriya's smile has grown an edge. It's not on edge, though. It's a smile that will slice you like a knife if you get too close. Mezou hasn't felt fear in a long time. He wonders if this is what it feels like.
"Now that I've answered your question, Shouji, would you mind leaving me to my thoughts?" Midoriya asks quietly. Dangerously .
Still, Mezou hesitates to leave. And Midoriya notices. And Midoriya stares. So Mezou bows out of the room, he takes his leave of absence. But he still watches Midoriya. And now more than ever, he knows that something is wrong.
0 0 0
Eijiro feels eyes on him. Now, that isn’t necessarily unusual, considering what school Eijiro goes to. He is going to U.A. He is training to be a hero. It makes sense that people would be watching him.
But Eijiro hasn’t been outside the school since the last break, and yet the sense of being watched grows ever stronger. Eijiro runs through the possibilities in his head.
After the first few months of school, students had stopped watching the hero course quite as closely, so it probably wasn’t one of them.
Eijiro doubts it was anyone from Class 1B; unless it is Monoma searching for a reason to mock Eijiro’s class again. Honestly? Eijiro isn’t going to put it past the guy. But most of the time the two hero courses train on opposite ends of UA, so that rules Monoma out.
That leaves someone from Class 1A. Unless the League is spying on them (which Eijiro wouldn’t discount. The League seems to have eyes everywhere), someone from his class was paying more attention to Eijiro than normal.
And usually, that wouldn’t bother Eijiro. But with the escalating villain attacks, watching eyes felt more dangerous than normal. The fact that it was two in the morning and Eijiro was standing on his balcony didn’t help.
Eijiro has been woken up time and time again by nightmares, but they still make his heart race. Eijiro steps out onto his balcony for a breath of fresh air, but only a few minutes pass peacefully. Then, Eijiro feels eyes on him. He turns from side to side, even looks towards the balcony below in case someone was just stargazing.
No one is out there.
Eijiro groans and runs a hand through his hair, hoping the feeling will dissipate. When it doesn’t, he turns and wanders down the hall to make a warm cup of tea. The eyes leave him for a few blissful moments as he steps inside, and Eijiro sighs in relief.
Once he steps into the common room, though? The feeling returns, stronger than ever, and Eijiro resists the urge to groan.
It’s too late in the morning to make much of a fuss though, so Eijiro just quietly makes his tea and walks back up to his room, ignoring the pair of watching eyes. Eijiro has a hard time falling asleep that night, but it’s fine because Katsuki makes him a cup of coffee the next morning with only minimal exploding.
Eijiro shares half with Midoriya, who seems to have gained eyebags as deep as Aizawa-sensei overnight. He doesn’t think anything of them. Why would he?
It’s not like Midoriya- sweet, kind, loyal Midoriya- would ever do anything to spy on his classmates; it’s not like he’d have any reason to, right?
0 0 0
Young Midoriya has been acting off these past few weeks. Toshinori knows that it’s perfectly normal for teenagers to act off , to start 'rebelling,' as they call it. But Midoriya isn't changing, exactly. He's just off.
Midoriya usually has kind words and a gentle smile for any situation. His words are not unkind, but they don't hold the same warmth they usually do. Midoriya's smile doesn't quite reach his eyes.
Toshinori doesn't know what causes these changes in his boy, but he wants to offer his support to Midoriya. It could be trouble with friends, trouble at home, anything really. (Even if Toshinori knows that Midoriya still hangs out with his friends near-constantly, knows that Midoriya-san is the sweetest woman you ever will meet.)
So when Toshinori peeks his head out from around the corner and calls out Midoriya's name, he expects the boy to turn to him immediately and join Toshinori for lunch. He normally does. But today, it’s as if he doesn't hear the sound of his own name. Midoriya's friends have to point out Toshinori, and after that Midoriya rushes over.
He looks as nervous as he did the first time Toshinori invited him to lunch. Of course, Toshinori was All Might then, not this skinny skeleton of a man he’s been reduced to. Idly, Toshinori wonders what could have caused his boy this much panic.
"Join me for lunch?" Toshinori asks. He uses the same schoolgirl pose and tone every time, and it has never failed to make Midoriya laugh before. It fails today. Midoriya just gets this strange gleam in his eyes, before he nods and gestures for Toshinori to lead the way. The two trod along in a comfortable silence.
Toshinori invites Midoriya to lunch to help him relax, so as they walk to the private meeting room they normally chat in, Toshinori falls into step beside Midoriya. This allows him to notice that Midoriya's gait is off. It’s just a bit too light compared to the way Midoriya usually walks. Toshinori wonders if something has set Midoriya on edge.
It would make sense; the boy keeps glancing around nervously as if expecting villains of some sort to pop up out of nowhere.
Eventually, the pair reaches the meeting room, and Toshinori gestures for Midoriya to enter. Midoriya sits at his normal couch, and Toshinori sits on his.
"So… All Might," Midoriya starts nervously. Toshinori raises a hand, and Midoriya immediately quiets.
"My boy I've told you to call me Toshinori," he sighs fondly. Midoriya sits up straighter at that. Oblivious, Toshinori continues, "Or at least call me Yagi if my first name is too familiar for you."
"Yagi Toshinori," Midoriya repeats. There is a strange light in his eyes, as if he's a kid trying every candy in the shop and he's just found his new favorite.
"Yes, my boy. I’ve told you this before," Tosinor reminds him. It doesn’t strike him as odd though; Midoriya always slips into his hero name first by hero worship, and then force of habit.
"Oh, of course, All Mi-" Midoriya cuts himself off with a sheepish glance at Toshinori. He corrects himself, "Yagi. But I didn't want to be presumptuous."
Toshinori waves a hand and reassures, "It's fine, my boy! Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about-" Toshinori is cut off by the alarm that blares overhead.
Toshinori stares at the speaker as it announces, "Intruders have entered UA! This is a security breach level five! Please exit the building swiftly and safely! Intruders have…"
The alarm blares on and repeats itself, and Toshinori turns back to Midoriya, whether he plans to encourage the boy to evacuate or help as best he can while staying safe, Toshinori doesn't know. But as it turns out, Toshinori doesn't have to make that choice.
Midoriya is gone.
And all that's left is the kicked up dust settling in his wake.
0 0 0
Katsuki ignores the shitty extras hopelessly chasing after him as he blasts down the hall. He's out of the cafeteria and down the hall before the first intruder alert warning is through. The sound plays on repeat as Katsuki races down the hall to find some villains.
Katsuki's about to round another corner when Kirishima pops up out of nowhere and lets Katsuki barrel into him. Katsuki would just blast out of Kirishima's grip, but the bastard has been training more recently, and it shows. Katsuki writhes and growls in Kirishima's hold to no avail.
"Dude, you can't just run off like that, Katsubro," Kirishima scolds. He starts dragging Katsuki down the wrong hall- the one that leads to a big red exit door. "There are rules!"
"Fuck the rules!" Katsuki yells. A well aimed explosion to Kirishima's wrist makes the redhead let go of Katsuki with a wince. Katsuki turns around and prepares to blast himself down the hall again, but Kirishima grasps his wrist. Katsuki roughly shakes him off and mutters, "I'm going no matter what."
"I know," Kirishima sighs. One of his shoulders hitch up in a half-shrug as he hopefully suggests, "At least let me come with you?"
Katsuki hesitates for a second. "… Fine. But you've gotta keep up with me, got it?" Kirishima nods, and with that the boys are racing down the halls. They skid around corners and leap above overturned tables.
Finally, the two boys reach what they're looking for: a villain fight. Katsuki wishes it was any other villain, but it's a villain nonetheless.
There are two Midoriya Izuku's staring each other down. Both identical down to their hideous red shoes. The only difference is in their poses; the farther Deku is cowering on the floor while the standing one has a manic sort of grin. Katsuki falls into his half-crouched fighting stance and prepares himself to fight. He doesn't rush in quite yet though.
Loathe as he is to admit it, Katsuki knows he can't tell which Deku is which yet; he doesn't want to risk attacking the wrong one.
Luckily, Aizawa -no, Eraserhead - comes running down the hall right as Katsuki is about to say fuck it and attack the standing one -even though Deku does look like a fucking maniac in battle, he doesn’t ever look quite that deranged.
Katsuki watches as Floor-Deku easily rolls out of Eraserheads way. Katsuki winces when Eraserhead activates his quirk; Class 1-A had been told that he wasn't supposed to use his quirk, and there'd been an implied plea for good behavior there somewhere.
Eraserheads ill-advised quirk use turned out to be not entirely bad, since it confirms what Katsuki already knew; Standing-Deku is really Toga Himiko from the League of Villains.
Katsuki lets out a hoarse yell and charges at the asshole, but before he can get close Kirishima lunges forward and holds Katsuki back.
"The fuck are you doing?" Katsuki snarls.
"Sensei's got it handled," Kirishima whispers fiercely. "You running in there will only distract him!"
Katsuki growls at Kirishima and shoves him off, but he doesn't make another move to run forward.
Eraserhead and Toga are dancing and dodging around each other, each only landing glancing hits. Katsuki glances over to Real-Deku and finds him still crouched on the floor, eyes just barely peeking up over his knees.
Katsuki stomps over there and scoffs, "What's wrong with you? Get up already."
Deu remains seated for a few seconds before he pushes himself to his feet with a small groan. He smiles at Katsuki and hums, "Aah, sorry Kacchan! Watching Sensei and Toga fight is just so… interesting." Deku's tone is a little dreamy at the end of the sentence. Katsuki smacks him.
"C'mon asshole, you’ve gotta go." Katsuki grabs Izuku by his shoulders and whirls him around to shove him down the hall.
"Woah!" Kirishima races over. He glances surreptitiously between Katsuki and Deku before asking, "What are you two doing?"
Katsuki opens his mouth to retort but before he can utter any words he hears a faint swirling sound. He whirls around to see Mist Bastard appear behind Crazy Blood Girl and absorb her like some sort of cartoon portal. Katsuki stomps his foot on the ground and screams.
In the aftermath of the attack, it gets announced over and over again: due to UA's security negligence, three students died. Another 20 ended up with minor injuries. And everyone was blaming UA.
UA holds a live press conference to address the issues, but the staff is being weirdly vague. It sets Katsuki on edge.
0 0 0
Deku is Ochako's best friend, and she likes to think that she's his. Or one of them, at least. Deku has a lot of friends, after all.
So Ochako notices when Deku starts acting down. When he flinches away from touch like he did at the beginning of the school year. When his smile begins to be just a little off. So naturally, Ochako tries to cheer him up. She jokes around more in class despite how offended Tenya gets, and she makes sure to keep Bakugou and Deku as far away from each other as possible. Even after the villain attack, she still tries to keep morale high. Nothing she does seems to work though, so Ochako knows that it's time to bring out the big guns.
Ochako hums happily to herself as she waits for the hot water to boil. Both her and Deku's parents used to make them hot chocolate when they were sad, so it seemed only natural for Deku and Ochako to take up the habit themselves. At first, they'd made the hot chocolate together, but eventually, they'd started making it on their own and bringing it up to each other's room.
Ochako had been the one to start that tradition; Deku is too much of a goody-too-shoes to break the rules like that, so more often than not, Ochako is the one making drinks.
When they were still making the hot chocolate together, Deku had found a way to make it about quirk experiments- as he usually did. They'd quickly figured out that the green lightning that Deku's quirk made dissipated before it could have any sort of effect. Ochako's quirk, on the other hand, was full of possibilities.
If Ochako makes the mug weightless while the cocoa is already in there, then everything will become weightless. If Ochako makes the cup weightless, then adds the cocoa, the cup stays weightless but the drink itself doesn't.
Today though, Ochako has something new to try out. Deku somehow always manages to figure out which cup is fully weightless and which cup isn't, so Ochako's been looking for a way to spice up their little routine, and she's finally found it.
Ochako is relieved that floating the coffee pot had indeed made all of its contents weightless- Sensei would kill her if she broke the coffee pot. Once the coffee pot is weightless, Ochako pours the weightless contents into a cup with its gravity fully intact. she ignores the way her hands shake as a result of the villain attack the other day. She makes the other cup fully weightless and carries them both up the stairs.
Neither items weigh much, so Ochako doesn't count it as quirk training, but Deku always insists that every bit of training helps. He isn't wrong.
Ochako gently pushes one mug up the stairs as she makes her way up, and she holds the other mug loosely in her hands. She tried to bring the weightless mugs into the elevator once, and that turned out to be a huge mistake. Now, Ochako knows to never take weightless drinks into the elevator.
Finally, Ochako reaches Deku's room and knocks on his door with scarred fingers, coffee mugs in hand. He opens the door up a crack and sticks his head out.
Finally, his gaze finds Ochako, and he grins up at her and sings out, "Ochako-chan!" After their last break, he'd asked to call her that, and she told him yes.
She ignored the fact that the way he sang her name made her remember the villains from the training camp.
Ochako can't even name which one though, so she doesn't say anything. How would she even tell Deku that? 'Hey the way you say my name makes you sound like a villain, so please don't?' That'd be rude.
Deku perks up as he notices the hot chocolate in her hands, and he reaches out for the All Might one with eager hands. Ochako pompously shakes her head then exclaims, "C'mon, Deku! You know we don't drink hot chocolate in the hallways!"
"But you're not allowed in my room!" Deku whispers, looking panicked. A bit more panicked than usual, if Ochako thinks about it. She shrugs it off; if anything this proves that Deku needs a hot cocoa night.
"Oh, hush, Deku," Ochako playfully scolds as she pushes Deku out of the way and waltzes into his room, glancing at Deku over her shoulder as she does. "It's not like I haven't been in your room before-"
The mugs fall out of Ochako's hands when she turns to face Deku's room; only one clatters to the floor.
Now, Ochako's seen Deku's notebooks before. At first, the 'weakness' section had scared her, but she'd taken one glance at the 'strength' section and was immediately reassured.
Plus, Deku had tons of helpful tips on how to enhance her training regimen, and her weight limit had increased exponentially since Deku had started giving her training tips. So Ochako knows Deku's notebook like the tips of her fingers.
And she's never seen anything like what she sees in Deku's room now.
Scattered over his desk and bed are drawings of Ochako and her classmates. Her teachers. Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal; Deku draws them all the time. But these aren't normal drawings. These are drawings of Ochako and her classmates mutilated. Drawings of them with bodies contorted unnaturally. After the recent villain attack, these drawings… Ochako twists her sore hands together at the phantom ache that comes with remembering.
Ochako backs up a step and her back hits the balcony door with a thump. The muffled noise is like a scream in this stifling silence.
"Ochako, I-"
"What is going on, Deku?" Ochako interrupts. Deku withdraws a step, and she almost feels bad. Then her eyes catch the drawings on Deku's desk again, and her resolve hardens. Ochako takes another step, forwards this time. "You've been acting weird for a while, and now this?" Ochako gestures at the mutilated drawings. "What even is this?"
"Ochako, these are just for my notebook," Deu insists.
"Bullshit," Ochako calls out. "None of your drawings have ever been this bloody. Or focused on fighting at all, really."
Deku freezes for a second, then relaxes slightly as he responds, "I just… couldn't get the thoughts out of my head," Deku breathes out. He continues, "So I drew them out. I'm going to throw the drawings out after."
Deku looks down for a second, then pleadingly glances back up at Ochako. He falls into a small bow as he pleads, "Please believe me!"
Ochako doesn't know what she says; all she knows is that one minute Deku is pleading for her understanding and the next moment she's out in the hallway, her Thirteen mug left behind in Deku's bloody room. Her hands won't stop shaking.
0 0 0
“You really think Midoriya’s the traitor?” Naomasa asks tiredly. “Him? He’s one of the most heroic kids I know.” He turns his gaze to Toshinori and says, “I’d have expected you, at least, to have stood up for the kid.”
Toshinori winces and says, “As much as I hate to admit it, he has been acting a bit odd recently.”
Aizawa interject:, “We’re pretty sure that if Midoriya is the traitor, he’s being forced. That’s why we called you here instead of just having any random police officer come. If he really is being forced, I’m sure that you could help us take care of the situation with the delicacy it requires.”
“That makes sense,” Tsukauchi agree:. Hesitantly, he adds, “I don’t think this is the case at all , but what if the kid is the traitor and he isn’t being forced?”
“Then we’ll follow the protocol,” Aizawa snaps. Naomasa turns to him sympathetically, but Aizawa brusquely walks past him and proceeds. “Besides, Midoriya isn’t the only one we have to question. Next on our list is…”
0 0 0
“Hello, who is this?”
“Mrs. Midoriya?”
“Yes, that's me. Who are you?”
“I’m Detective Tsukauchi, and I’m here to call about your son.”
“Izuku? Oh my god, is he okay?”
“Mrs. Midoriya, your son is physically fine. We have noticed him acting a bit odd lately, though, and with the villain attack that recently took place on UA’s campus, we’re interviewing possible instigators.”
“Possible instigators? Are you saying that you think my son, my Izuku, is working with villains?”
“Mrs. Midoriya, please calm down. We don’t think the possibility is very likely, but moving forward we’re attempting to head off this issue before it starts, and that means interviewing students as well. It’s not just Midoriya we’re interrogating, and only the teachers involved will be aware, so this won’t have any social repercussions on your son either.”
“...Okay. But you have to promise to treat my Izuku well, you hear? If Izuku comes home crying and bloody, I can’t guarantee that he’ll remain at UA.”
“I understand, ma’am. We’ll take care of your boy.”
0 0 0
“It’s good to see you again, Midoriya, though I wish it wasn’t under these circumstances,” Tsukauchi greets as he took a seat next to Aizawa. Yagi is seated behind the two-way glass with an earpiece connecting him to both Aizawa’s and Tsukauchi’s audio. Yagi had wanted to be present of course, to support his boy even when under suspicion, but it had been decided that he should remain behind the mirror.
“It’s nice to see you too, Detective…?” Midoriya trails off awkwardly, leaving Tsukauchi to fill the kid in on his name. It isn’t so distracting that the other two men miss Tsukauchi’s flinch at the lie in Midoriya’s words; Midoriya is not pleased to see the Detective.
“Tsukauchi. Detective Tsukauchi. I’ll be conducting your interview today,” Tsukauchi greets. His tone is icier than normal perhaps, but that’s to be expected when you were interrogating your best friend's kid because they are suspected to be a traitor and they don’t even look happy to see you. It almost reminds Tsukauchi of some of the villains he’s interviewed, as much as he hates to paint Midoriya a villain.
The look in his eyes is unsettling.
“...Okay. I hope it won’t take long; Kaccahan’s making Katsudon tonight! What’s this interview for, anyways?” Midoriya tilts his head curiously, and he looks so innocent when he does that. It almost makes Aizawa reconsider his notion that the kid may be a traitor, but he forces himself to shrug it off.
He is still holding out hope that the kid isn’t the traitor, or that if he is selling out UA he’s at least being forced to do so. Aizawa doesn’t know what he’ll do if the kid has willingly sold them all out.
“That will probably become clear in a few moments,” Tsukauchi answers vaguely, “but before we get started, there are a few routine questions that I need to go over with you.”
“Okay,” Midoriya hesitantly agrees.
“I just need you to confirm your name, age, and quirk for the record,” Tsukauchi says, stacking his papers up into a neat little pile as he did.
“Don’t you already have that information though?” Midoriya asks in confusion. Aizawa doesn’t know what Midoriya finds so difficult; even if he’s confused on the reason why something needs to be done, normally Midoriya would wait until after the interview to ask questions like that.
“Yes, but we still need you to say it on record,” Tsukauchi sighs.
“Okay… My quirk is called Superpower,” Tsukauchi flinches but doesn’t stiffen; he expected this. After all, he’s in the know about One for All. Aizawa isn’t though, so he and Yagi will surely have to field those questions later. Tsukauchi gestures for Midoriya to continue, and he doesn’t “and I’m fifteen years old.” Lie. Tsukauchi stops dead. Why was that a lie?
Tsukauchi inhaled sharply but motions for Midoriya to go on. “And your name?”
“Oh, right. My name is Midoriya Izuku!” Tsukauchi flinches.
“Don’t do something stupid, Aizawa,” Yagi’s cracking voice warns in Aizawa’s ear; of course, he wouldn’t have missed the flinch either. Aizawa didn’t want to alert this imposter that they were onto them, whoever they were, so he couldn’t risk responding to Yagi. They needed to know who had invaded their school, though, and Aizawa’s quirk was the best way to do that..
Subtly, Tsukauchi reaches under the table and squeezes Shouta’s knee. After years of closing cases together, that’s their signal for Aizawa to wait before he flips his shit and tips their hand. Aizawa doesn’t want to wait, but if Tsukauchi has a plan, then he needs to trust the detective.
“Okay, now we can move onto the interview portion,” Tsukauchi says evenly.
“Sounds great, Detective!” The imposter chirps, their tone falsely bright. Before, Shouta has been chalking up the falseness in Midoriya’s tone to how nervous he’d been acting these past few weeks- wait. If ‘Midoriya’ has been acting weirdly for weeks, who's to say the imposter hadn’t been infiltrating for weeks by now? Fuck .
“Oh, screw this. That clearly isn’t Midoriya,” Aizawa mutters as he activates his quirk on the imposter despite Yagi’s concern towards his health.
As the imposter’s disguise drips off of their body like water, they drop their head down onto the interrogation table and laugh. As the laugh grows more and more feminine, everyone’s horror grows.
The imposter is none other than Toga Himiko, lieutenant of the League of Villains.
“It didn’t take you long to find me out, Aizawa-sensei,” Toga says in a sing-song voice. Aizawa’s hand twitches, but he doesn’t move. She’s still handcuffed to the table; he can’t do anything to jeopardize that. Toga is still wearing Midoriya’s clothes, thankfully, and she’s glaring up at Aizawa with baleful yellow eyes. She pouts, “What’s wrong? Don’t want to talk?”
“When did you switch out with Midoriya?” Aizawa demands. “How?”
“Oh, I don’t think you want to know,” Toga replied teasingly.
“I’m sure that we do,” Tsukauchi cuts in, a note of steel in his voice. How dare she impersonate Toshi’s boy?
“Well, it took you less than two months to find me out, so well done!” Toga takes a seated bow and grins as if waiting for applause.
“Two months..?” Yagi mutters to himself from behind the two way glass. He pushes the button that lets him talk to Aizawa and Tsukauchi and says urgently, “She hadn’t attacked Midoriya before yesterday, right? Right?”
Aizawa freezes and takes a step closer to Toga. Dangerously, he asks, “Were you there?”
“Was I where?” Toga blinks back. Aizawa glowers, but she just continues smiling. She wrings her hands together in the cuffs and eventually concedes, “Yeah, I was hiding in that alleyway with Dabi. It was really easy to sneak in!”
Aizawa stops dead. He inhales, then exhales sharply. Then he demands, “Where is Midoriya?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, Aizawa-sensei?” Toga teases. Out of nowhere she whips her hands out of the cuffs and pushes off of the table. Aizawa whips out his capture weapon, but he’s too late.
As the chair falls backwards, she warns, “You better hope you find Midori-chan before something unsavory happens.”
A swirling purple portal pops into existence on the floor, and Toga dives inside with a wave. Aizawa is left there, clutching his capture weapon and staring at the empty chair left behind.
How did we miss this?