Chapter Text
Izuku jerked awake at the vibrating of his phone under his pillow. He didn't see the sun so it couldn't be his alarm. He lifted the pillow and saw it was Tsukauchi calling him on FaceTime.
Izuku's heart warmed slightly that he remembered he didn't wear hearing aids at home, leaving them instead in the kitchen to charge. Izuku answered the video call to be met with a tired and disgruntled man.
Izuku signed, “Good morning, Truth, I think it's morning anyway.” Izuku had known Tsukauchi since he had come into his pottery shop looking for a gift for his fiancé, now husband. It was when he had learned about Tsukauchi’s quirk truth giving him his sign, a play off his quirk.
Tsukauchi was in his office at the station with a very tired look on his face.
“This isn't a friendly chat between friends, is it?” Izuku signed.
Tsukauchi sighed signing back. “Unfortunately, no, it isn't. It will be easiest if you come down to the station. I have a colleague that needs your help.”
“Okay. I will be there as soon as I can. See you soon, Truth.” Izuku ended the call and checked the time, 3:27am. All he could do now was worry what kind of case Tsukauchi was struggling with. Tsukauchi tried to never involve Izuku in any of his cases. He knew Izuku was an analyst but he was always determined to keep him safe.
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Twenty minutes later Izuku stepped from his car and strode into the precinct. He approached the front desk officer, and told her, his speech slightly slurred, that Tsukauchi was expecting him. Before she could even pick up the radio, Tsukauchi poked his head out of his office, waving Izuku over. He said something to the front desk officer, but with Truth’s head turned, Izuku couldn't read his lips.
As he entered the office Izuku noticed a dark figure looming in the corner. The man looked older and more run down than the younger man and as they made eye contact Izuku realized he was staring into the face of the underground hero Eraserhead.
Izuku reached into his pocket, noting the other hero didn't tense at all. Izuku filed that away. It was important to remember that Eraserhead must trust Tsukauchi. Izuku removed his cochlear's from his pocket, quickly putting them on so he could better communicate with the older hero.
“Tsukauchi, Eraserhead good morn-,” Izuku began.
A gruff voice cut in. “I should have known you would recognize me even though I keep my identity close. I’m sorry to call you so early but we have a new development in a kidnapping case we need your help with.” Eraser signed as he spoke.
Izuku looked slightly confused, “I rarely get called in, how is this case any different?”
“What Aizawa means is that a little girl was taken from her bed earlier tonight. Evidence was left to make us believe she was taken to be part of a quirk-trafficking ring.” Tsukauchi glared slightly at Aizawa then looked at izuku with a hopeful expression.
“Okay that changes a few things, give me her file,” Izuku said, understanding dawning on his face.
Tsukauchi handed him a file with a small smiley face on the front.
NAME: Suzuki Era DATE LAST SEEN: 10:19 pm 10-5-2283 AGE: 5 QUIRK: N/A
“I see why you wanted me in on this, cops don't like the quirkless this case would have fallen to the bottom of the stack.” Izuku trailed off into mumbles only to catch himself, looking to where Aizawa had previously been standing, only to realize that he had moved closer while Izuku was reading the report on Suzuki. Izuku may have jumped a little but that was just for him to know.
“You were mumbling. I couldn't make out what you wanted to say. Can you say that again for the rest of us to hear?” Aizawa stated, deadpan, arms crossed over his chest, muscles tense.
“I apologize. I do that sometimes. I can't hear myself and my meds have worn off so I'm a little more scatterbrained.” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. He knew how much people hated it when he rambled unconsciously.
Eraser shut those thoughts down without even knowing it. “It's illogical to apologize, let's just go on with the case.”
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After the three went over the evidence and connections, looking at other missing child cases especially of those with no quirk, they found very few but Izuku had a feeling that they needed to look deeper he looked into quirkless deaths with no body found. There were more than Izuku wished existed then looked at the locations of all of them, ruling out those that were far from Suzukis kidnapping. Izuku found it there were something like 20 missing children all in the same general area he then look at at all crimes committed in that border line, the main crimes were drug related almost all of them were from a larger case known as “Trigger” its as this because when in use the drug triggers the users quirk to go haywire with no draw backs. Tsukauchi’s face paled the more that Izuku found having it all laid out in front of them.
Aizawa looked pained, this was a large case he had been placed on just a month ago. They think there are compromising people in the police station, possibly even the government that are keeping the whole case under wraps.
Tsukauchi whispered, having to sign as well because it's so quiet. “We have never been able to find the head or even the right hand to this operation. Any people we start to look into always end up dead before we can get answers.”
Izuku, understanding their fear now, was unable to just let go. His chronic empathy forced him on ahead. “Oh come on Eraserhead. You have been investigating this for the past two years and you're still here. I'm sure you have enough information that with the two of us together we can figure it out.”
Aizawa dragged Tsukauchi into a different room; he was not going to let this slide without saying his piece.
“I will not lead a deaf pottery maker to his death by bringing him into this case. We may have already put him in danger just by dragging him here this morning!” Aizawa was fuming voice rising every second he spoke.
“Aizawa, I want to remind you that Midoriya Izuku is one of the best analysts of his time, and the only one that I trust to bring into this case.”
“I don't care, I will not drag him into this. Send him home, Tsukauchi.”
“Fine, Aizawa. But I can assure you he is in more danger if we send him home. He already knows too much and he won't stop digging until that little girl is brought home with or without help. Any time he isn’t selling his pottery, he will be investigating that little girl and all of the others missing or dead until he either has a body or is being put in a body bag himself.”
“Fine, Tsuka.” Aizawa huffed in defeat. “But someone needs to stay with him so he isn't defenseless when he's targeted, not to mention to stop him from doing something stupid.”
“Glad you’ll be keeping him company then Aizawa.” Tsukauchi was worried for his friend but he would feel better if Aizawa was there to keep him out of trouble.
Aizawa glared at Tsukauchi, but didn’t say anything. He had brought this on himself, and at least he would be spending his time keeping the cute potter and analyst safe and if he was lucky they would find a little girl uninjured along the way.