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They were getting caught. They were so getting caught. When Shouto called him, saying he ‘needed help, come as fast as you can’, Hitoshi didn’t expect ‘help’ to involve hiding a body. Of course, as Shouto’s best friend, he’d do it, but when the body in question was the number two hero, and also conveniently Shouto’s dad… well, your honour, it wasn’t his fault.
“You said you needed help, Shouto. This is not ‘help’. Why is he in the hydrangeas?” Hitoshi stared down at the body lying haphazardly in the garden, several bushes looking rather squashed.
Honestly, Hitoshi was all for Endeavour’s death, what with the things he knew about him, and his shitty personality in general. The man had it coming, in his mind. If only Shouto had done it in a slightly… less explosive way.
“He said he wanted to be a better person,” Shouto deadpanned. “So I’m returning him to the earth.”
What.
Hitoshi shook his head, and took the arm Shouto had gestured to when he first arrived. They had almost finished, when the sound of sirens in the distance signalled their impending doom. There was no way they could hide the body and get away. The body was almost completely buried in the Todoroki manor’s flower beds. When the flowers in question were placed back over it, you wouldn’t be able to tell there was a body there at all.
“…why are the sirens so loud?”
“Shouto! That is not the problem right now!” Hitoshi hissed back.
“It’s a little bit the problem,” Shouto murmured.
And then the police arrived, having probably been called by a neighbour. The two were cuffed, and dumped into the back of the cruiser. Hitoshi sighed, at this point, their fate was sealed.
About half an hour later, they arrived at the station, finally being let out of the tense atmosphere of the car. They were led into the station and into an interrogation room, before being left alone to stare at the two-way mirror. Hitoshi just slumped, the pessimist in him far outweighing the optimist.
But when the door opened, Hitoshi felt a spark of hope. He knew that detective. And more importantly, he knew his quirk. Now, normally, that would have squashed down the optimist inside him even more, but normally, one of his best friends wasn’t an insanely smart quirk analysist, as well as the son of a police detective.
Hitoshi had only one thought, that could possibly be their saving grace.
“Whatever you say, say it with sarcasm.”
He prayed to every god he didn’t believe in that this would work.
~~~
Hitoshi wasn’t listening to Izuku’s rant, tuning it out like usual to instead focus on his homework, at least until he heard what quirk it was on. Izuku’s adoptive father, Tsukauchi Naomasa, had a lie detector quirk, and Hitoshi was of the impression that it was all-encompassing, not fooled by any lies, or vague wording. But apparently not. The thing that had caught his attention, was when Izuku mentioned sarcasm. How would the detective’s quirk react to sarcasm? Would it register the wording, or intent? Did it take tone into consideration?
Now Izuku was rubbing off on him… But he’d have to test that someday. It would be fun to know the answer to. Maybe it would even be useful, if he broke any laws. Highly likely, what with class A being, well, class A.
~~~
Naomasa didn’t know what to think when he was called in to interview the suspects for what could be the number two hero’s death, only to find two of his son’s best friends sitting in the interview room, waiting patiently behind the glass.
He blinked, before sighing, he could question them about it like the uncle he was after. Now was for professionalism.
Entering the room, Naomasa heard the tail end of whatever Shinsou was whispering to Todoroki, “-sarcasm.” The dual-coloured man just nodded seriously.
Confused as to what that could possibly mean, Naomasa sat down. “Right. I’m Detective Tsukauchi, and my quirk is called Lie Detector. I’m legally obliged to tell you that this is being recorded and may be used as evidence against you.” Both men nodded, and so he continued.
“Your names are Shinsou Hitoshi and Todoroki Shouto, correct?”
A moment of silence passed, before Todoroki quickly looked to Shinsou, before looking back again and saying… “No,” in a deadpan voice.
Shinsou turned to look at his friend, confused. “Shou- why would you-”
Todoroki replied in his trademark deadpan, “You said sarcasm.”
Understanding lit up the man’s eyes, and he turned back to Naomasa, watching him intently. In fact, both of them were.
But he wasn’t really paying attention, more focused on his quirk. It… didn’t register as a truth, which was to be expected, seeing as it quite obviously was Todoroki Shouto sitting there. The more confusing part was that it also didn’t register as false. He could feel his quirk activating though, but it felt wrong, and he could feel a migraine beginning. He’d never gotten that before.
Naomasa continued the interrogation, though. He could sort out the strange quirk problems later. “I’ll just get straight to the point, did you kill Endeavour?”
Shinsou opened his mouth, but Todoroki blazed right passed him. ‘Technically? Self-defence.”
Naomasa stared. Why on Earth was that not false? Shinsou raised his hand, and his gaze flicked to the lavender-haired insomniac. “He was already dead when I got there.”
True.
So it was only Todoroki who could break his quirk. He didn’t know whether to be relieved or concerned about that.
At this point, he just wanted to get this interview over and done with, and actually get somewhere with these questions. But before he could ask another one, Todoroki continued.
“If I wanted to kill him, then you wouldn’t’ve found the body.” He looked Naomasa dead in the eyes, his expression impenetrable.
???
“Todoroki… we haven’t found the body.”
“Oh.” A moment of silence. “I think the flowers look nicer now.”
“…Shouto. What the fuck.” Shinsou muttered quietly. “This isn’t helping our case.”
Alright, it was definitely them. He just had to prove it.
“If you didn’t outright kill him, then-” He pointedly ignored the slightly childish mumble of ‘I didn’t say that’ “-did you cause it?” At this point, he was just fishing for anything, really.
“Gravity played a significant role in that. That’s Uraraka’s quirk, not mine.”
Naomasa grasped for any remaining professionalism he could in this situation, desperately thinking what else he could possibly ask… Right, that could work. “Could you give us a rough timeline, please?”
Todoroki rested his chin on his hand, thinking. “Well, he was alive when I got there.”
Beside him, Shinsou looked about as good as Naomasa felt. “Shouto, that is not- THAT IS A TERRIBLE START!”
“And then he… was no longer alive? And I called Hitoshi for help. And then we did some gardening.”
“Gardening. At four am?” If he didn’t get any evidence or coffee in the next ten- no, five- minutes, then he would just let these two go, purely for the trouble they were causing him. It wasn’t like they could convict them without evidence, anyway.
“Yes, Hitoshi has insomnia.”
That’s it. Naomasa had had enough. He stood to leave, and as soon as he was out, ran for the break room to find the coffee machine. He was too old for this. And he was thirty-two.
~~~
Hitoshi quickly read and signed the paperwork the receptionist handed him, wanting to get out of the station as quickly as possible. Shouto followed him out, the two falling into step beside each other as they walked.
“I can’t believe that worked. That was amazing,” Hitoshi said, still processing.
“Me neither.” Shouto blinked. “I didn’t know if that would work.”
The two started laughing, only half comprehending their situation.
“We’ve gotta tell Izuku about this.”
~~~