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In all shapes and forms, it was a perfectly ordinary apartment building, in a perfectly ordinary section of residential Tokyo.
So…
Why then…
Did this apartment building, on a block of other apartment buildings that were different in only the most superficial ways…
Why did this one feel so… Viscous…?
Yes, that was the right word for it. The others were plain and simple, straightforward. This one; hazy, murky. Everything about it was too normal in an age where even apartment buildings tried to stand out. Right next to it, a building garishly adorned with All Might’s signature colors, and on the other side, one which was pitch black, likely for those with light-sensitive quirks.
Against expectations, perfect normality had always stood out far more than a little bit of oddness. It's almost always a sign that what lies beneath is not at all normal. When it comes to people, too. There are always small oddities and particularities, even to the most ordinary person in the world.
This apartment building was so normal that it seemed to almost disappear into its surroundings and that, Naomasa thought, was not normal at all.
In his career, he had become very aware of his own instincts. Although this building was not related to any of his current cases…
Well, it wouldn't hurt to take a look, right?
The floor was concrete, with metal beams that ran up along the walls and ceilings, and everything was very well lit, with no shadowy corners. The corridors were quite wide, although that wasn't uncommon with all the quirks people might have.
It was quiet, though. Not a dead silence, he could hear through the cracks of the metal security doors murmurs of laughter, knives thunking into chopping boards, music. Just very good soundproofing, the kind that would usually be found in luxury apartments.
One oddity found.
The soundproofing must've only been inside the apartments, though, because he could hear his own footsteps loud and clear as they bounced off of the concrete and metal of the corridor.
At the end of the first floor corridor were stairs and an elevator. As always, Naomasa chose the stairs. He was in good shape, and elevators could be tampered with in any number of ways.
Same as the corridor, the stairs made any sound of movement feel especially loud, but without any real echo. With the sound of one's own footsteps ringing so loudly, it would be difficult to keep an ear out for anyone else.
Bad for stealth. Everything here would mitigate a stealthy approach, actually.
As Naomasa had thought, an overly normal surface always hides something. Another thing he would expect to see in a place like this…
He narrowed his eyes, carefully observing the corners of the stairwell. No obvious surveillance, but that didn't mean there was anything at all. In fact, he was quite sure that he was being observed at that very moment. By who, he wasn't sure.
It was a feeling he had grown accustomed to when he was around Toshinori. Any companion of All Might was bound to be observed and surveilled with the greatest scrutiny by both his enemies and his allies.
For now,the surveillance didn't feel particularly hostile, and nothing had felt dangerous, just… Off. He felt like he hadn't yet encountered the source of it.
Seven floors the building had, and he was on the fourth, the very middle of the building, almost exactly the same as the three before, except for one thing.
One of the doors was open against the wall, with someone leaning against it. The first person he had seen since entering the building fifteen minutes ago.
From the side, fluffy gray hair, all black clothes. Judging by his build, he was probably in good shape. A shame that he had the posture of a gargoyle, hunched over what looked like some kind of game console. Typical teenager.
Of course,Naomasa was noticed. How could he not be, with how loud every goddamn footstep was? The moment he opened the door, the boy turned to glance at him, sneered, and then yelled into the apartment, "Izuku, can quit playing around and hurry the fuck up? I already beat the boss, and you're still at it?"
He had a rough voice, like someone had taken sandpaper to his vocal chords.
Izuku? The way he was saying it sounded familiar, probably a brother or a close friend. Maybe he-
Naomasa paused, realizing the boy he was staring at was now returning his gaze.
Yeah, this was what being observed with hostility was like. Bright red eyes, staring through him like he wished he could kill him right then and there.
Well, at least open hostility was straightforward.
Now that Naomasa was caught staring, he might as well snoop.
"Hi, I'm looking into maybe renting an apartment here. Do you live here by chance?"
"You?" The boy looked him up and down, still sneering, "You're looking for an apartment here? Don't fucking lie to me-"
"Be nice, Tomura." A very young voice cut him off from within the apartment. 'Izuku', probably.
The teenager muttered something angrily and turned back to Naomasa, warily eyeing him, "Okay, let's pretend you are looking for an apartment, why didn't you just look it up online? Why are you here, on the fourth floor, talking to us?"
Suspiciously defensive from the beginning. People like that, criminals or not, were usually people with enemies. Gran Torino was like that, though, so he couldn't make any judgments based on the behavior alone.
Naomasa smiled as guilelessly as possible, "I've been looking for a place for a while, but there are just so many scams on the internet, you know? Whenever I see a nice-looking apartment building, I gotta go inside and see what it's actually like, so… I wanted to see if any residents could maybe show me around, or just tell me about the building ?" He scratched the back of his neck, "If you don't want to, that's fine, it's just that you're the first person I've even seen since I came into the building, so…" He shrugged helplessly.
The teen rolled his eyes, "fuckin figures…"
"Tomura!" The voice inside scolded.
"It's a nice building. Good-sized apartments at a decent price. I don't think any are available right now, sir."
Naomasa didn't think he'd ever had someone call him sir so disrespectfully.
"That's not true. One will open up pretty soon,” the voice was a little distant, but he could hear it getting closer.
"What, we're moving again?" The teenager whined, scratching at his neck.
As Naomasa approached the door, he was finally able to see the cozy apartment inside, as well as the boy who was walking over. Young, as expected, with dark green hair and a friendly, sun-like sort of energy. The boy sighed with exasperation as he neared them.
"Tomura, what'd I tell you about scratching like that? You're only gonna hurt yourself," he shrugged his backpack off and rifled through the contents, pulling out a small tube, "here, put some aquaphor on it."
"You keep that with you?"
"Who's the reason I need to?" The kid squeezed the goop out of the tube and spread it on the red area of Tomura's neck, "honestly… If you don't take care of it, you're gonna end up bleeding again."
The bratty teenager pulled away, "I'll rub it in myself. Weren't you busy? If you're done now, let's fucking leave."
Izuku shook his head and smiled, "Not quite yet," and before the teenager could groan, continued with, "Could you text dad and let him know our location was leaked again? It's at least partially his fault, so he should be taking care of it."
Then, he walked off into another room, "Come on, if you come out, you'll be in no danger; I just want to talk. Few people who have their homes broken into would be so polite…" His voice grew more muffled as he walked farther away.
The teenager rolled his eyes again and jerked his thumb in the direction the boy left, "y'see that? Theatrics. He already knows exactly where they are."
"They?"
"Happens practically every month. Someone'll break into our home and try to kill my brother. They haven't succeeded yet, but repeated failure hasn't stopped them."
Attempted murder? Multiple counts of attempted murder? On a couple of children? Not heroes, almost certainly. Any heroes active and long lived enough to have so many and such vicious enemies, he would recognize.
Villains, then? Or perhaps sons of heroes or sons of villains? An easy way to confirm….
"Haven't you reported this to the police? The help of a hero would be a lot better than dealing with it yourselves-"
Two things happened then.
One: the teenager in front of him stepped forward, hands outreached, red eyes glowing with rage.
Two: there was a screech, then a muffled thud from within the apartment, followed by a cheery, "found you~!"
__________________
Of course they were in his bedroom. They were always in his bedroom, waiting for him to be asleep. For him to be vulnerable. His room even offered plenty of excellent hiding places; the corners between bookshelves, the nook in the closet, the piles of hero merch.
This one chose none of those options, though. They crouched in the corner of the room near the ceiling, just above the window.
An invisibility quirk. He wondered what conditions this one had. Did they also have a mutant quirk that allowed them to remain so high on the walls? Really, the perfect set of traits to be an assassin. Were they ever given the opportunity to be anything else?
And there was no question of them being anything else currently; Izuku had never provoked anyone with a quirk like this. Not even anyone with a friend or family member with a quirk like this, or else they’d be on his ‘Official List Of People Who Might Try To Kill Me, In Order From Most To Least Likely’.
Anyway, he'd give them a chance to try and attack him when he was awake, while he had his back turned. Even stabbing someone in the back in active combat is less pathetic than killing someone in their sleep.
He went to look in the closet, "anyone here? I don't want to fight if I can avoid it."
No movement.
He checked under the bed, "Please? I would really prefer to talk this out."
No movement.
Izuku sighed and stood up, patting the dust from his knees.
Violence was always a last resort. He couldn't bring himself to enjoy hurting people.
He stared directly at the assassin, "If you come out, I can help you."
At this, the assassin twitched. Just slightly, but he'd struck a chord.
Izuku smiled, "found you~."
The assassin tried to attack him, but…. Judging by the behavior of waiting for him to be completely off his guard to attack…
It wasn't hard to predict that the actual face-to-face combat skills weren't up to par. He was weaker than some of the hero trainees Izuku had seen. Katsuki, for instance, would take him out in one swing. Probably wouldn’t even need to use his quirk.
Just as he moved, Izuku inconspicuously wrapped one of his tentacles around his ankle, and his leap was aborted as he slammed to the ground, more tentacles wrapping around him. Incapacitate, but do not harm. Restrain his movements without cutting off blood flow. Flexibility over strength. Still, Izuku was viscerally aware that depriving a person of their autonomy, for however short a time, was also harmful.
“Izuku?” Tomura called from the hallway.
“Just a sec,” Izuku shouted.
Still, that kind of delicate manipulation was difficult, Izuku lamented as the man managed to get an arm out to knock a lamp off the bed stand. A shame, Izuku had liked the way it projected All Might' silhouette. That was super limited edition merch! He’d had to practically fight Nighteye tooth and nail to get his hands on it!
He sighed, and released more tentacles, not leaving the assassin an inch of exposed skin except on his face. It would be cruel to deprive him of his senses like that, far more than deserved. His father would call him softhearted, but his father couldn't keep a loyal employee for more than a decade, so he could really stand to keep his smug mouth shut.
“There we go,” he crowed, finally able to relax a bit. He made his way towards the door, “sorry for the wait!”
As he walked out of the room, focus still on the assassin, he finally remembered there was someone else outside the door.
…
oh?
_____________
The teenager froze, his hands falling to his sides, and then glared at him again, "heroes? We would be goddamn lucky if they didn't make more of a mess of it than it already is," he turned towards the apartment, "Izuku?"
"Just a sec-" another crash, this time like a vase, or a base of a lamp, "there we go," he called back out, "Sorry for the wait!"
As he walked out, he finally paid attention to Naomasa for the first time.
"If it isn't Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa, from the Tokyo Security Bureau! A bit of an inconvenient time to meet, if I'm being honest," he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck, smiling.
Even with thick black tentacles that extended from his neck, his arms, even his clothes, wrapped around a struggling lizard man who rapidly cycled between being visible and disappearing, as if blinking in and out of existence.
"Are you not afraid of breaking public quirk abuse laws?" Was the first thing out of Naomasa's mouth because, frankly, how the fuck else was he supposed to respond to that?
"Public? We're not in public. I'm," he eyed the threshold, "right inside my own home, on my own property."
"Just because you rent doesn't mean it's yours, the owner-"
"I am the owner. Not just of the apartment, but of the building. I can take the deed out if you'd like to see it," despite smiling gently and standing there politely, it felt as if he was towering over Naomasa, "and also, let's talk about the quirk abuse. Would you really call gently restraining an attempted murdered with my quirk 'abuse'? Seems a bit of a misnomer. Does he look hurt to you?"
He didn't. There was nothing Naomasa could say to that. Technically, every statement he'd said was truthful, but the leading questions couldn't be evaluated.
"... No. Still, at this point, wouldn't you call the police?"
"Why would I need to call the police? You're standing right here, aren't you?" He paused, tapped the side of his chin, and stepped back, "I just realized we've been rather rude. Would you like to come in?"
He didn't think he could drag them to a police station, so… "Sure."
As he walked in, he passed Tomura, who snorted and muttered, "Just looking for an apartment, huh?" Oddly, a friendlier attitude than before. And, if Naomasa didn't mistake, a touch of pity…? The door slammed shut behind them as Tomura followed him in.
There was a steaming hot porcelain teapot on the simple wooden coffee table, along with a set of miscellaneous souvenir teacups. God knew where it all came from because Naomasa had been standing here for the past five minutes and neither of the residents of the apartment had so much as approached the kitchen by the entrance.
The sky-blue couch Naomasa had somehow ended up sitting on was crazy comfortable, like a cloud. It must have cost a pretty penny. Overall, the decoration of the apartment itself was… Extremely comfortable. It was cozy: wood furniture, lots of plants, and what looked like a gold mine's worth of hero merch in one of the bedrooms.
"Why don't you at least release him so I can handcuff him? Surely that would be less effort." Naomasa just couldn’t bear looking at the squirming black tentacles, and how they streamed from Izuku’s body as if all of him was secretly tentacles.
I found him in the corner of my room," He pointed to a corner near the ceiling, about ten feet up, "so on top of being invisible, I think he's got a lot of little skills. I wouldn't be confident that contortionism isn't among them," He turned to look at the assassin, squinting slightly, "you must be pretty expensive to hire."
Naomasa had seen many glares in his life. It was part-and-parcel with the whole career in law enforcement. There was the everyday 'hatred of authority' glare. The 'I'll kill you at the next available chance' glare, a little less common. Then there was the 'you killed my father, prepare to die' glare. Most commonly received by villains, from very reckless civilians.
This one leaned towards murderous, slightly into the 'you killed my father' range, but not enough to be personal. More like how heroes glared at particularly heinous villains.
Naomasa had not previously seen it directed towards a teenager, though.
Izuku tilted his head, bemused, still smiling, and then turned towards Naomasa, completely ignoring the hitman's hatred of him.
"I'm just realizing; we never properly introduced ourselves. We've really been so rude to you, I don't know how you can stand it. My name is Izuku. This is my older brother Tomura. He's got a dirty mouth, but he's not malicious."
Naomasa was sure there were plenty of people who would beg to disagree with that claim. Apparently satisfied with his self-asserted politeness, Izuku turned back to the would-be assassin.
"I get that hitmen kill people, but they don't usually bear their targets such hostility, no? You don't feel even an ounce of pity that someone was willing to pay you to see me dead?"
The hitman's glare sharpened, the scales shifting slightly on his face.
"Apparently not. It's not as if I'm gagging you, so why don't you say anything? Give us a name at the very least," Izuku sighed helplessly, then continued, "it doesn't even have to be real, I just don't want to keep saying 'hitman this, assassin that'". He tilted his head, staring at the assassin.
The assassin hesitated for a few moments before finally spitting out, "Tokage".
The corners of Izuku's mouth twitched, but he managed to restrain himself. His brother, however, was not so polite. He burst into almost maniacal giggles.
"Tokage? Tokage? You have a mutant lizard quirk and you couldn't think of anything better to call yourself than Lizard?"
One chuckle slipped out of Izuku's throat before he settled a hand on Tomura's shoulder, "let's settle down, Tomura," he turned back to Tokage, "Did you call yourself that on your own, or was it given to you?"
Tokage sneered, "What's it to you, you bastard?"
Izuku, still smiling, said "I think you must've come up with it by yourself, judging by the consistent lack of creativity."
The smile slowly faded, and the air in the room seemed to grow heavier. Was it just because he wasn't smiling, or was it the use of a quirk? Certainly, he was already using his quirk, right?
"Do you even know who hired you?"
"Of course I know-"
"Do you," Izuku started, the smile not gone, but only faintly present, somehow more menacing than if he was frowning, "I don't think you are lying, but I do think you are incorrect."
Tokage's mouth twitched into a sneer and fell back down. Apparently, assassin training did not take hiding one's emotions into account. Perhaps he was self trained. Naomasa had never quite understood how people got into the assassin business of their own volition. Was it like posting a Craigslist ad on the dark web?
"How would you-"
"People lie, often. People lie especially to those who they want to do something for them, and especially to pawns that they consider expendable."
"I'm not-"
"You're not expendable? You are not the first to attempt something like this against me. You are not the most powerful, nor the most skilled, nor the most resolute. Anyone aiming to kill me would be able to find that out with minimal research, but they didn't bother?” His admonishment was rapidfire and cold, but then he slowed down, warmth creeping back into his tone, “What do you think is more realistic, that they didn't know how strong I am, or that they sent you anyway, to test the waters, knowing that you would most likely fail?" He drawled, just a bit, each of his words unfailingly polite. His lips curled up into a sweet smile, "What do you think, Tokage?"
If Tokage were not a lizard, Naomasa was sure he would be sweating.
"What if… I was all they could afford…? Their last resort?"
"If you were the best assassin they could afford, why would they hire an assassin at all? Why not come up with another plan? Can you really say hiring a hitman is any normal person's desperate last resort? Can you look inside yourself and say that finding a cost-effective hitman, giving a guarantee, and presenting a target are the actions of a person in the throes of panic and desperation?"
Tokage looked down.
"No, right? And doesn't that throw everything else about them under suspicion as well? Why did they say they wanted me dead? I'm sure they gave you a reason or else you wouldn't hold such hostility."
Izuku continued to stare into Tokage's eyes. His smile was exactly the same as before, to the millimeter.
When was the last time he had blinked?
"-venge…." He muttered lowly.
"Sorry?"
"Revenge! He wanted to avenge his sister!"
Izuku paused, his eyebrows slightly furrowed.
"And you believed him? Aren't you a professional?" He sighed, "look, just give me a name. Surely you can tell by now I'm not the type to just mow down my opponents. I also don't recall doing anything to someone's sister that would justify an attempt on my life, honestly."
Tokage hesitated for a while, wriggling in the mass of tentacles.
"His name was Kurazaka Ichiro."
A couple seconds of silence passed before the corners of Izuku's lips tilted up again.
"Kurazaka Ichiro," the name spilled from his mouth like honey, "And you're sure that was his real name?"
"I'm not a complete amateur."
"Ha," a soft, quiet chuckle, "hahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
The laughter only grew louder and more unhinged until his brother, who Naomasa had forgotten was there, clapped him on the back.
"Calm down, Izuku."
"haha… Ha…" For a few moments, he just breathed, before finally murmuring, "Kurazaka Ichiro…" He pulled his phone out and messed around on it for a minute or so until he finally pulled up a picture, showing it to Tokage, "this Kurazaka Ichiro?"
Tokage scanned the picture, before nodding hesitantly, "Yes, that's him. How did you-"
"He works at a firm called Brand New Prospects. A real estate company that makes use of high-tech smarthouses to sell to wealthy buyers. Do you know who that company is owned by?"
"I-"
"Kogane Sousuke. He's the brother in law of a major shareholder of CKG Industries."
Tokage's eyes widened.
"I'm sure you know what kind of fraught legal relationship we have with CKG industries, yes?" The smile felt a little more like a shark's, pulled farther back than could possibly be misread as friendly, "oh, and if you were curious, Ichiro-san only started having a sister about 2 months ago, half a month after her death."
"But he-"
"Was vengeful and angry and sad? It doesn't take a death in the family to do that. If your strongest value in life is money, and your cash cow was at risk of crumbling to the ground, who wouldn't dream of killing the one responsible?"
Naomasa finally decided to cut in, as Izuku had all but drawn a confession from Tokage's lips and also tore his morale to the ground.
"This conversation is all well and good, but I'll have to take Tokage to the station now. Surely, you want him to face consequences for this?"
"Hmm?"
The tentacles didn't move an inch.
"I didn't say I wanted him to be charged for murder, though?" His eyebrows furrowed, as if that was the very last thing he’d thought about.
Huh?
"Excuse me?"
"Here we go again," Tomura groaned.
"The victim should have a say, right? I don't want him to be charged for murder, and I don't want him to go to jail."
"If this were a regular crime, yes, it would be your choice whether to charge him or not, but attempted murder is a felony. You even have a detective as a witness to it."
"Do I? As I recall, the only thing you witnessed was me carrying him out. He hasn't tried to murder me during this very pleasant conversation, that's for sure. You have no proof at all."
"You were the one who said-"
"Yes," he leaned forward, smiling, elbows on his thighs, his hands bridged in front of his face, "I did say that, didn't I. I said that."
Dread started to build in the pit of Naomasa's stomach. Izuku spoke in a way that made his quirk nearly irrelevant. Abstractions, leading questions, even plain statements were almost useless.
"But what if I was wrong? What if I read into it too much? What if he just wanted to beat me up, or steal something important from me?"
How-
"You're telling me… You'll take him away with no proof that he attempted to murder me, even after I admit that I was wrong about him? Even after I ask you not to charge him?" Naomasa was so tired of seeing this boy smile, "that's… Well, I suppose I'm not entitled to an opinion about this in front of a police. Detective. Right?"
For the first time, Naomasa discovered that Izuku's hostility towards the police was no less than his brother's, considering that his voice fairly dripped with malice.
He sighed.
"If I were to arrest him and charge him, what would you do?"
"Hire him the best lawyer, and I imagine the police station would face some rather unpleasant PR about similar unjust cases? Why?"
Was it worth it?
Tokage was staring at Izuku with fear and awe, not struggling anymore.
"You… You don't want me to go to prison?"
That con artist smiled, "Why would I want that when I could hire you instead?"
That was it. Naomasa was fucking giving up.
"Hire me?"
"I'm in danger, aren't I? I could use someone who can hang around without anyone noticing," Izuku turned to Naomasa, "Not for anything illegal, of course, detective."
"Of course." Naomasa patted his knee and stood up, "I'll be taking my leave now, if you don't mind? It's been a pleasure meeting you."
"The pleasure's all mine. Tomura, would you please show him to the door?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'll make sure he doesn't snoop around."
Naomasa didn't want to find out what would happen if he didn't follow Tomura, but that didn’t stop him from noting the computer in the dining room that he just barely caught a glimpse of security footage on as he was hurried towards the door.
"Have a great day," Tomura drawled with no sincerity whatsoever, "and goodbye," and the door was slammed shut in Naomasa's face.