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Shouta can't believe that it took him months to realise that something about this house was off. Off enough to warrant an entire raid because apparently it houses one of the leading gangs of this neighbourhood and Shouta has stopped on its roof more than once to catch a breath and survey the area and never did he suspect anything.
What a fucking hero he is.
It's made even worse because now that the raid is over and most of the Shinsou gang members have been apprehended, there's some nagging thought at the back of his head; something that tells him that this is not over yet and that's just fucking great.
Of course his instincts would kick in when everything is already said and done.
Shouta just checked out the second floor of the house, now stepping onto the first, when he almost feels something moving in one of the rooms.
There's still definitely something off here, he thinks, his hand going up to tangle in his capture weapon.
He told the police he'd do one last sweep through the house and they agreed to keep two officers at the site, so he hopes that when he doesn't come out or that when they hear some suspicious noises they'll come to investigate.
"Hello?" he calls out because for all that this is incredibly suspicious it doesn't feel dangerous and even though his instincts have kind of fucked him over with this house in general, he trusts them enough to go for a more open approach.
"Is somebody there?" he asks, slowly making his way over to the first room and there's that suspicious shuffling noise again. "I'm a Pro Hero. Eraserhead. I'm here to help," he tries next, because even though not many people know him it usually helps to mention that he's a hero and that he indeed has a codename.
There's a little whimpering sound from the second door and Shouta immediately turns towards it, but before he can take so much as a step the door flies open and a small shadow barrels towards him.
Shouta tenses, capture weapon at the ready, but as soon as the shadow appears he realises that it's a goddamn child and just a moment later the kid slams into him, holding on for dear life it seems.
"Hey, hey," Shouta tries and pats the child's head, frowning when his hand meets something cold and hard between all the wild hair. "Are you alright?"
The kid cranes his head up at him, huge, watery eyes staring at him and Shouta's stomach honest to god drops out when he sees the muzzle on the kid's face.
"Hey, are you—" Shouta tries but he falls silent when the kid moves away from him, his hands flying in front of his body and his hands shake so much Shouta has a hard time following along.
I know who you are, the kid excitedly signs out. Everyone here was scared of you for so long, said you'd find us eventually. And now you're here! Are you here to help me?
The boy looks so desperately hopeful, almost vibrating with his excitement that Shouta's eyes burn when he thinks too much about why that might be.
"Yeah, kid, I'm here to help you," he softly agrees and crouches down. "What's your name?"
Shinsou Hitoshi, the kid signs to him and for a brief moment Shouta is filled with absolute rage.
The boy is small and thin and muzzled, and when he signed just now Shouta spotted bruises all the way down his arms. And given all the context clues Shouta has, he has to assume that Hitoshi's family did this to him.
"Alright, Hitoshi, I'm Aizawa Shouta," he offers and Hitoshi's eyes sparkle, so Shouta gives him a small smile. "Much better than Eraserhead isn't it, because only you get to know that name now," he tells him and Hitoshi's face lights up before he nods his head viciously.
It draws attention to the muzzle on his face again and Shouta forces himself to focus on that.
"Listen, do you want me to take that off?" he asks, gesturing at the muzzle and he thought Hitoshi would be elated, would practically beg him to, but instead Hitoshi freezes up.
No? he eventually signs and Shouta doesn't understand where his confusion, where his hesitation comes from.
"Why not?"
's not good, not good, not allowed to talk, can't speak, mustn't, mustn't, MUSTN'T! Hitoshi's signs get more erratic the longer he goes on and eventually Shouta reaches out to take his hands into his.
"Okay, alright," he tries to calm him down. "You don't want to speak, that's alright, Hitoshi. But you can still sign even if I take the muzzle off. It must be uncomfortable, right?"
He doesn't mention that he already spotted the thin trail of blood down Hitoshi's chin and simply waits for Hitoshi's response.
Hurts he finally admits and Shouta nods.
"Let me take it off and you can continue to sign, okay? No one is going to force you to talk."
No one will make me? Hitoshi's eyes are swimming in tears and something isn't adding up here, Shouta is missing something, he's absolutely certain of it, but for now his focus has to be Hitoshi.
"Promise. No one will make you talk and I'll stick with you so I can translate. Does that sound good?"
Hitoshi stares at him for a moment longer before he finally, so hesitantly nods, and Shouta lets out a breath of relief.
"I gotta take a photo first, for the police, so they know what's been done to you," he explains as he gets his phone out and Hitoshi simply nods again, allowing Shouta to snap a few quick pics before he stores his phone again and motions at Hitoshi to turn around.
"Let me see that lock, kid," he mutters and moves Hitoshi's wild, purple hair out of the way.
The lock is a rudimentary one and Shouta has it cracked open in no time at all, carefully taking the muzzle off Hitoshi's face.
There's the clear outline of it on his face, where the muzzle bit into his flesh, thin trails of blood running down his face and Shouta grinds his teeth together.
"How old are you, Hitoshi?" he softly asks as he puts the muzzle down on the floor where the police officers downstairs will surely find it and then gets out a wipe to clean the worst of Hitoshi's cuts.
Eight.
Fuck, that's so young. Too young to have something like this happen to him, that's for sure.
"Are you hurt anywhere else?" Shouta wants to know instead of giving in to his anger and Hitoshi immediately curls his arms close to himself, as if he wants to hide, or worse, protect himself.
Shouta waits him out and lets out a sigh when Hitoshi eventually shakes his head. It's not the truth, Shouta is certain of that, but he's not going to call Hitoshi out on it, at least not yet.
For now it's more important that he gets the boy out of here and away from his family.
"Hitoshi, I'm going to take you with me now. Is there anything here you'd want to take?" Shouta asks, looking over at the room he came out and Hitoshi follows his gaze but eventually just shrugs.
Not really he informs Shouta and if that isn't the most fundamentally wrong thing he has heard all day.
There should at least be one thing in there that Hitoshi wants to keep, wants to take with him and to think that he has nothing is almost unbearable.
"Alright, then we'll go," Shouta says, forces his voice to be even and he gets back up, holding his hand out to Hitoshi until he takes it and then he leads him down the stairs and out of the house.
The two police officers still waiting for him are staring with wide eyes at him and Hitoshi and Shouta nods towards the house.
"You'll need to go check out the first floor, some stuff still has to go to forensics," he tells them with a pointed look at Hitoshi and his injured face.
One of the officers catches on much more quickly than the other because he nods.
"Sure thing, Eraserhead, we'll make sure it's all properly processed. You'll take him to the station?"
"Yeah," Shouta agrees and then leans down to pic Hitoshi up and settle him on his hip. "It's not far, kid, but I don't want you to tire yourself out, okay?" he asks and frowns at the weight in his arms.
Hitoshi is small for the age he told Shouta but he's also light; too light, in Shouta's opinion and he hopes the members of his family are not treated well right now.
kay, Hitoshi signs out and then promptly puts his head onto Shouta's shoulder, his tiny arms around his neck and Shouta's heart feels full for a moment, before he remembers himself and gets going.
The station is really not that far off, it would have been more of a hassle to get a cab than walk the distance and soon enough Shouta steps into the bustling place. With the recent bust everyone is busy, and the noise inside the station is actually atrocious, but it seems as if Hitoshi hasn't noticed.
He's more than half asleep in Shouta's arms and Shouta doesn't hesitate to make his way over to the leading detective of this case.
"Yamamoto, we have a bit of an issue here," Shouta says as he steps into his office and Yamamoto looks at him and the kid in his arms before he lets out a deep sigh.
"What the fuck, Eraser?"
"Language," he absentmindedly says as he smoothes his hand through Hitoshi's silky soft hair and then he sits down, arranging Hitoshi in his lap so he can sleep more comfortably. "I found him in the house. He was muzzled and has obviously been hurt."
"You think he's a victim," Yamamoto says and something in his voice is setting Shouta on edge almost immediately.
"What else would I think?"
"Well, I've had to deal with all these thugs here today and something about their stories is just not adding up. What's the kid's quirk?"
"Why is that relevant?" Shouta demands to know and he feels how Hitoshi tenses in his arms, even though he keeps his eyes closed.
Definitely awake then, and Shouta should probably end this conversation here and now and get Hitoshi checked out but the accusation in Yamamoto's voice is keeping him rooted to the chair.
"Because I think the child may be the missing piece to make this entire case make sense," Yamamoto says and leans back in his chair as if he just said the most profound thing in the entire world.
"Explain," Shouta demands and glares at Yamamoto.
He's not his favourite Detective to work with but so far he never thought him unreasonable so this is catching him off guard.
"None of the people out there are bright enough to pull all the stunts we had to deal with in the last few months. Most of the people working for the Shinsou family tell us they don't even know why they were working with them or giving them what they wanted; everyone claims some sort of memory blank."
"So?"
"So I think the child might have something to do with that. He might be the accomplice we were looking for."
"He's a child," Shouta reiterates because he fears Yamamoto did not understand that part, despite having Hitoshi right in front of him. "He's eight."
"He's a Shinsou. With a quirk that apparently lends itself to villainy. He is probably our prime suspect."
"He's a victim," Shouta hisses out because what the actual fuck.
"We'll have to interrogate him."
"No, you don't," Shouta says, suddenly calm and cold because he knows exactly what to do. "I'm enacting the Pro Emergency Foster Protocol and that places Shinsou Hitoshi solely in my care."
Yamamoto's eyes blaze with anger.
"He's a witness we need!"
"Then you'll agree that he'll be best protected in my care," Shouta coldly gives back. "As long as he's with me, no one will be able to hurt him."
It's a threat as much as it is a promise, because he will not let Yamamoto somehow twist this around to make Hitoshi look like a bad guy, like a villain, when he's just a child, who was abused at the hands of his own family.
"Eraser—"
"If you'll excuse me now, I have to get my charge checked out at the hospital," Shouta says, his voice like steel, and he's gone from the office before Yamamoto can say anything else completely absurd and test Shouta's patience even more.
No hospital, please Hitoshi shakily signs out when they are outside and his eyes are swimming with tears when he looks at Shouta. Scary place, always hurts he goes on and Shouta forces himself to take a deep breath because what in all the hell has this child been through?
"Okay, Hitoshi listen to me," he says and waits until Hitoshi nods to go on. "I need you to answer me honestly. Are there any bleeding wounds?"
Hitoshi shakes his head.
"Any bones that feel funny or hurt a lot?"
Another headshake.
"Do you have trouble breathing?"
Hitoshi takes a deep breath to show that clearly that is not the case and Shouta knows it's not smart, he knows that Hitoshi will have to be checked out by a medical professional sooner rather than later but if he just has some bruises and the cuts on his face, then for now Shouta and Hizashi can deal with it, until they figure out what else to do.
"Then no hospital, at least for now," Shouta amends and promptly gets the breath knocked out of him when Hitoshi flings himself forward, arms going tightly around Shouta's neck. "Yeah, you're welcome," Shouta mutters and pats Hitoshi's back before he gets going.
The way home is much longer than to the station, but Shouta still doesn't bother with a cab, because he might enjoy holding the kid close and Hitoshi takes the time to sleep some more.
It might be for the best, too, because Hizashi will freak out and have questions and Shouta really needs to find out why Hitoshi was muzzled and hurt by his family and what his quirk might be but that can still wait a while.
For now, Shouta listens to Hitoshi breathe as he holds him close.
(The Shinsou group did use Hitoshi to do all the work for them; his quirk works every time he speaks and because no one bothered to teach him, he can't control it. They forced him to work for them and when he wasn't compliant—which was most of the time—he got hurt for it.
Yamamoto pissed Shouta off so bad he loses his job over it because how dare he imply that Hitoshi might be complicit in any crimes and this is how Shouta gains his reputation of an absolute hardass in all areas.
Hizashi and Hitoshi bond like crazy over having dangerous voice-based quirks that require a lot of control but before six months are over, Hitoshi has enough control to speak freely. He often doesn't want to, not yet, still too scared of everything, but they are getting there because Shouta and Hizashi are unfailingly patient and trust him so much, even when he accidentally brainwashes them, that gradually, Hitoshi loses that fear.
CPS tries to take Hitoshi exactly once and then never dares again because Shouta might be a hardass but Hizashi is the devil incarnate when it comes to his boy and the official adoption papers arrive before the one that names them Hitoshi's permanent foster family.)