Chapter Text
It is morning on a Saturday, when Kaminari Denki wakes up first; it is morning on a Saturday when he skips up the silent stairs of the Heights Alliance dorms, and stops before setting foot in the common room kitchen. The glass cup of water he’d been carrying slides from his hand, crashing to the floor and shattering; the broken shards still cover the carpet, because it is morning on a Saturday, and Todoroki Shouto is dead.
It takes a not unreasonable amount of time for Kaminari to process seeing Todoroki’s bloody corpse, and an even shorter amount of time after that for him to scream at the top of his lungs and thus awaken the rest of 1A—as well as Monoma, who appeared to have crept his way into the dorm building the evening before—in order to cause pranks—before the dorm had been locked down for the night. He is now severely regretting doing so.
“It seems,” Aizawa says, about an hour later, “that Todoroki was poisoned before he was stabbed, and stabbed before the fatal effect of the poison managed to kick in.” Todoroki’s body had been sent to forensics on the wishes of a furious Endeavor, who stands like a pillar of rage in the hallways of UA. To Aizawa’s displeasure, the man refuses to leave until it is discovered who killed his son—and there are only twenty possible culprits, so how hard can discovering that even be? It had better not be hard, Eraserhead. My son was murdered.
Aizawa cannot begrudge Endeavor his anger; the grief of losing a child must be unimaginable, and even worse so, when you realized that for Endeavor this was the second time.
Todoroki’s two older siblings are noticeably absent from the premises. Aizawa chooses not to comment.
One of his students has been killed, and he wasn’t able to protect them. He didn’t even know. Todoroki was given fatal poison and then brutally stabbed through the heart, and Aizawa’d had no idea before Kaminari had sounded the alarm.
“I will not sugar-coat this. Todoroki was murdered, and there is no possible way it was anyone outside of this building who committed the deed. Not with UA’s security.” Aizawa says, facing his class—and Monoma.
“I think UA’s security sucks.” Kaminari says, loudly. There is a general murmur of agreement.
Midoriya has not stopped crying, not since this morning, not since a terrified scream awoke him from his sleep. There is still blood on the kitchen tiles.
“Each of you will be interviewed, one at a time; what were you doing last night? And who do you think could have killed Todoroki?”
Midoriya Izuku
Aizawa concludes that he should interview Midoriya first. He tells himself this is not out of sentimentality, but rather that Midoriya’s account will be clearer if he
determines he is not under suspicion. He may be right, and he may not be.
“I didn’t—I didn’t—I didn’t kill Todoroki!” Midoriya cries.
“Someone did.” Aizawa says, which is probably a mean thing to say, but in his defense, one of his students is dead. He believes he is allowed some meanness.
“What do you remember of last night?” Aizawa asks.
“If…if I’m honest, Todoroki was acting…weird.” Izuku starts, coughing hesitantly as his words become more comprehensible, tears still flow as he speaks. “I remember…we were working on our science project together, the thing about how acids react with each other that we all know Ashido’s going to get the best score on, whatever we do…I’d told him we should have studied that new cloning science stuff instead. He left my room twice, last night, before the final time. I was in my room all night, ever since we came back from class cause we went straight to it from working on our project, I swear…he left once to get something from Yaoyorozu, and once to talk privately to his sister on the phone.” Midoriya explains.
Interesting.
“I don’t know what he got from Yaoyorozu, or anything of what he said to Fuyumi. But…he was acting strangely all night. Like he wanted to say something, but was keeping himself from saying it. I asked him about it, and he said I’d learn later. But it’s later now, and he’s—he’s—“
Aizawa waits for Midoriya to stop crying.
“A few days ago, he said something about his mother.”
Todoroki’s mother: someone Aizawa knows less than nothing about.
“I’ve never heard much about his mother before, either. Apparently they…never got along with each other. He was worried about something she was going to do. Some great idea she’d gotten, something that involved Endeavor too, something that Todoroki would do anything to escape. Endeavor wasn’t all that enthusiastic about the idea either, and there’d been an…argument. I don’t know. I just…I’d never have thought he…I don’t think he wanted to go home this weekend.” Midoriya says.
“Are you implying that Todoroki knew someone was coming for him? Or that he was planning on…killing himself?” Aizawa asks. Midoriya blinks.
He bursts into tears again.
“I don’t—I don’t think he would—he’s Todoroki—but if he didn’t, then, then someone else did, and I…”
Midoriya doesn’t want to lose a second friend.
Yaoyorozu Momo
“Midoriya says that Todoroki came to get something from you.” Aizawa asks. Yaoyorozu is staring at the table, a look of blank horror on her face.
“Todoroki…how did he die?” she asks.
“You want to know?” Aizawa asks. She nods, but doesn’t say anything.
“Do you want the details?”
“Yes, please. All of them.”
“The coroner’s report says that Todoroki ingested a fatal poison; had an hour passed after he’d taken it, he would have died quickly and painlessly. Before then, though, he was stabbed in the chest and multiple vital arteries with what we can determine was a large, thick, blade. That is what killed him.” Aizawa says.
“He said he needed the poison for the science project. But…he was holding a bowl of soba.”
Aizawa stares as Yaoyorozu takes a paper from her pocket, white and dirty and crinkled; written on it is the chemical formula to the very poison that had been discovered in Todoroki’s body.
“He said it could create just the right reactions, with the chemical base he and Midoriya had chosen, and he only needed a small amount. He’d even looked up the formula for it. For me. I made it for him, and cautioned him not to let it even touch his skin. He smiled.”
Yaoyorozu’s hair isn’t up in a ponytail, today. Aizawa has no need to wonder why; grief hangs on her shoulders, in her eyes, like a mountain.
“He smiled.”
Sato Rikido
“I saw him in the kitchen.”
Aizawa raises an eyebrow.
“Not—not this morning. Er. Yes this morning, but not, I mean—I saw him in the kitchen last night. He was making soba.”
This was, Aizawa knew, not an uncommon activity for Todoroki.
“I was trying to figure out a kind of French pastry for Aoyama. A mille-feuille. They’re…difficult to cook. Todoroki helped me regulate the oven’s temperature, while he waited for the kettle.”
The mille-feuilles are still cooling on the counter. No one has touched them.
“I never knew Todoroki that well, but…he seemed sad. He said he was going to have some cold soba before it happened, because it was his favorite, and he might as well.”
“It?”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry. He wouldn’t say.”
Todoroki wouldn’t say anything ever again.
Aoyama Yuuga
“I have committed many sins. That, I cannot deny. But killing Todoroki—that, that is not one of them. If…if anyone was to be killed, in this class, I would wish it was myself above anyone else.”
“Did you see Todoroki last night?” Aizawa asks. There is a strange curve to Aoyama’s shoulders, and an even stranger curve inside his eyes.
“I think it was around ten p.m. when I heard the kettle whistle…I saw Midoriya and Hagakure go by a little while earlier than that, she was asking him a lot of questions, but they weren’t around when I encountered Todoroki.”
Another thing that was not uncommon for Todoroki, was for him to eat alone in darkness. He said he was used to it. Concerningly.
“I asked him if he was all right. He said he was. But he also said he might not be, in a while.”
Aoyama visibly hesitates, and Aizawa hears the sound of him tapping his belt; the one that helps him use his quirk. He is nervous.
“He said he would be all right, though. He said he a plan, and he’d figure it out. And then he said that he—he knew. And that he could fix it.”
“He knew—he could fix what?”
Aoyama starts crying.
Tokoyami Fumikage
“Dark Shadow always said there was something odd about Todoroki. That he was not himself.”
“He wasn’t acting like himself last night?” Aizawa asks, and Fumikage shakes his head.
“No. Todoroki has never been himself. He…is not in the right body, Dark Shadow says. But there is no right one. There is no one he can be, who is not himself, and he is not himself.”
“Tokoyami.” Aizawa says. This is serious; but Tokoyami understands that, Aizawa thinks, looking at the solemn darkness in his eyes. Tokoyami is saying all he can. But what is he saying?
“Who is he, then?”
“I asked him. His father, he says sometimes. His mother, he says otherwise. He is both and neither, and now he is gone.” Tokoyami says.
“Or is he?” Dark Shadow asks.
They both tell her to shut up.
Uraraka Ochaco
“I stole his wallet once.” Uraraka says. She is not crying fountains like Midoriya, but rivers of tears all the same.
“I gave it back after, I didn’t take anything from it, but I wanted to.”
Uraraka seems to be under the impression she should confess every single one of her sins. Not that she has committed many.
“He had two identity cards. One of them, the picture of him didn’t have a scar. I asked him about it. He said he was planning something.”
But what kind of plans led to murder?
“He wanted away from his parents. He hasn’t said much about them, I remember when we were all talking about our parents AND I talkedaboutmineandIidasaidhiswerekindofdistantbuthelovedthemanywayandMidoriyasaidhewasadoptedbuthismomwasthebestintheworld AND Todoroki said that didn’t want to be anything like either of them. His father’s Endeavor, and his mother is some kind of scientist. He said…he said he was a half-and-half mix of each, and he couldn’t change that. Unless he could.”
“What was he planning to do?”
Uraraka shrugs, shoulders shaking.
“He said he’d found a way to start over. To stay who he was, and yet be neither of them.”
Bakugou Katsuki
“What’s on the video cameras?” Bakugou asks.
“I am asking the questions.” Aizawa says. Bakugou’s eyes are narrowed in an anger that glows deeper than a scar.
“What’s on the video cameras?” he asks, again.
Aizawa answers him.
“Nothing? They got shorted out? Wow. What about DNA evidence on the scene?”
Nothing conclusive, as Todoroki had interacted with multiple classmates before the murder, and even more had gone through the kitchen. There was also the fact that the local precinct’s analysis machine had glitched and was saying Todoroki’s DNA was his father’s and his mother’s instead, which was kind of ridiculous. Especially considering that was all anyone’s DNA was, anyway; Aizawa didn’t understand it.
“Once you bastards figure out who killed Icyhot, I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them. You hear me? Because I’m Lord God Explosion. Because whoever did this, they won’t get away from me.”
Aizawa doesn’t comment on the fact that Bakugou’s dropped the Murder from his potential hero name.
“Villains are always trying nasty stuff…back at Kamino, they tried to convince me that Deku was on their side already…fricking idiots. Whatever that was, it looked just like Deku, but I wasn’t fool enough to believe it was him.”
Kirishima Ejirou
“Todoroki…bro…he was so manly, I…who could possibly have killed him? Who would?” Kirishima asks, absolutely distraught.
“I remember when we went to Kamino…Todoroki, Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, Iida and I. He was so terrified—do you remember when that fake evil Midoriya showed up? What kind of quirk could make that…Todoroki wanted to turn back, right then. So did I. But he didn’t, and we didn’t.”
Aizawa decides he shouldn’t mention that the thick blade that had driven through Todoroki’s chest was, quite possibly, something similar to Kirishima’s hardened arm.
“I was up late in the common room last night, because I was watching a horror movie with Shoji and Jirou. One from the pre-quirk era, called Parasite. I remember Hagakure and Midoriya came in about halfway through, they asked a bunch of questions, Hagakure seemed to be in a real question mood…honestly, they were both acting…I don’t know. Different. I don’t think that either of them killed Todoroki, not at all! But they’ve probably seen something while they were wandering around.”
Shoji Mezo
Shoji’s face is halfway hidden by the mask that perpetually covers it. This does not, however, hide the sadness in his eyes.
“I am loath to accuse any of my classmates, but...” he sighs. Six hands rest on the table, all in various stages of motion.
“I do not believe it was Hagakure, that I spoke to last night.”
Aizawa knows of Toga Himiko’s existence. He asks Shoji to elaborate.
“It did not…sound like her. The footsteps, the weight on the feet, it was all wrong. Her voice, too. I would have said something then, but I thought my quirk was malfunctioning.”
Shoji’s quirk was all about hearing.
“Because Midoriya didn’t sound like Midoriya, either.”
Hagakure Toru
“Wait, Jirou watched a horror movie? Without me? I didn’t know that!”
Jirou Kyoka
“What? Yeah, I knew that was Monoma, do you think I can’t hear? He was trying to get personal information to torment us all with, or whatever. I gave him all the wrong answers.”
Monoma Neito
“I’m sorry, okay! I just wanted to know what the favorite songs of everyone in 1A were, so that I could put them in a giant horrible song mash up and blast it at them on full volume…so I copied Hagakure’s quirk, and pretended to be her. I had no idea, oh my God, the fact that Todoroki was killed is horrible…I’m really sorry. I chose the worst night possible to try my idea.” Monoma says, waving his hands frantically. Aizawa decides to try something, and offers him some discovered information.
“Wait, you think a League villain is impersonating Midoriya? Oh, no, not at all.”
What?
“See, Midoriya was in his room all of last night—I know this because he was saying it, like, fifty-two times, plus Ojiro said he could corrobate—so whoever that I thought was Midoriya last night, that I was asking questions, well, they’ve got to be impersonating someone else right about now, since the real Midoriya is here. As you’ve cleared out the entire building and got the whole class collected…wait, if someone else is being impersonated, what happened to them?”
Ojiro Mashirao
“My room’s next to Midoriya’s…I saw him and Todoroki go in, and Todoroki go in and out twice, and then out once more.”
Ojiro’s tail lashes from side to side, hitting the floor with jarring thumps.
“I saw this because my door was partly open. I like the breeze from the hallway, sometimes. The second time Todoroki left Midoriya’s room, he stood in the hallway, and called his sister. I didn’t hear most of the conversation; eavesdropping isn’t right. I heard some of it, though.”
Ojiro bows his head, as though he has committed some great wrong. His tail, too, falls still.
“He said he was finally able to leave his mother and father behind. Said he was finally able to be himself. But, also…”
The tail moves again, a sudden shudder.
“He said he was going to do it—whatever it is—before someone found him. Someone who was looking for him.”
Who?
“Not Midoriya.”
What?
“That’s exactly what he said. Not Midoriya.”
Asui Tsuyu
“I got up at around midnight. To use the restroom.”
Asui has one finger on her face; she seems contemplative, of whatever she’s about to say.
“I ran into Midoriya and Sero, on the way. They were talking…Midoriya was trying to open the locked window, and was convincing Sero to give him some tape, so he could use it as a rope to climb down. I told them they were both idiots, and asked Midoriya why he was climbing out.”
Aizawa is rather sure that whoever Asui encountered, it wasn’t Midoriya.
“He said he was sneaking out to meet Todoroki for something private. Sero said that by private, Midoriya meant kissing.”
Wait, Todoroki and Midoriya were…
“Oh, no. Midoriya is dating Shinsou, from Gen Ed. I believe Sero was making an ill-informed misjudgment.”
Sero Hanta
“I was joking.”
Sero’s eyes are wide with an emotion that Aizawa can’t quite place.
“I’d gotten up because I had heard some mighty weird noises coming from the laundry room, and ran into Midoriya trying to open a window on the way. But—I don’t think that that was Midoriya.”
Aizawa asks him to elaborate.
“I joked that he was gonna go kiss Todoroki. He didn’t—he didn’t deny it. And he’s dating Shinsou.”
A pause.
“Only Ashido knows, but—I’m dating Todoroki.”
A longer pause.
“I…I was.”
Ashido Mina
“You know how Tokoyami has a sword? I borrowed it a few days ago.”
Ashido’s painted nails are tapping the table at a speed that Aizawa can barely comprehend.
“It’s missing. I asked Kouda to help me find it yesterday, if any of his animals could sniff it out. The rats stopped at the laundry room—they wouldn’t go into the laundry room.”
The tapping grows faster, the bright colors of her nails a mismatched blur.
“Sero…Sero loved Todoroki, so, so much. He’s trying to hide it, but I know he’s devastated. He’s my best friend. He told me, he told me Todoroki was making plans to do something, something big. That it would take a day or so. But he said it was going to be all right.”
The tapping stops.
Kouda Koji
“There’s something in the laundry room.”
Kouda is holding one of his pet rats in two hands, softly patting its head.
“It’s something wrong. At least, that’s what Jinro says.”
Aizawa assumes that Jinro is the rat.
“She says it smells like Todoroki. But! It’s not him!”
Who is it, then?
“It smells like Todoroki, in a…weird way. Like they have the same…type…of smell, but it isn’t him. If it is anyone in the class, though, she says that it’s Midoriya.”
Iida Tenya
“Something’s happened to my engine mufflers.”
Aizawa looks down at Iida’s legs.
“Not—not the ones in me. The ones I pulled out. I kept them, and last night, I noticed they weren’t where I had left them.”
It’s kind of a surprise, to see that the sheer anger that had been in Bakugou’s glare is replicated tenfold in Iida’s.
“They’re sharp, on the end that was in my body. Sharp enough to—“
Iida’s eyes are halfway hidden by his glasses. Aizawa doesn’t try to see what they’re hiding.
“The only people who know that I kept those are Midoriya, and—and Todoroki. Todoroki…he asked me, about a week ago, if he could have one. He said something about the properties of biologically quirk-generated metal.”
Todoroki asked, not Midoriya?
“Yes. He said it was proven to be an excellent conductor of electricity.”
Kaminari Denki
“Todoroki asked me to zap the generator in the laundry room. There’s a reason I woke up early, and it’s cause I used enough of my quirk, that I fell asleep from it.”
Kaminari is bouncing his leg up and down, up and down, up and down.
“I wish I hadn’t woken up early.”
His eyes are red. He’s been crying for a while.
“Todoroki had a few weird metal tubes. They were spiky. He stabbed them in the generator, said the whole thing was going to make a great conduit for transference. Then Midoriya showed up.”
Kaminari has turned pale with fear.
“I zapped the generator, with Todoroki holding the pipes on it, the same moment as Midoriya walked in the laundry room, and I zapped myself out by doing it. I don’t remember anything else.”
***
Midoriya’s dead body is in the laundry room.
Beside it is Tokoyami’s sword—covered in blood, and quite obviously what killed Todoroki. Also in the laundry room, beside the mangled generator, is an empty poison bottle.
Midoriya is waiting with everyone else, upstairs, for the results of the interrogation. His dead body is also in the laundry room.
Aizawa can safely say that at this point, he has no idea what to do next; it is afternoon on a Saturday, and Todoroki Shouto is dead.