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A more optimistic man would think this would be the last time. A more realistic man would know that she didn’t get herself in this without some trump card to get herself out. Eraserhead looked through the one way mirror to see the woman of the hour, the infamous Kafka of the Stellaron Hunters, their leader cuffed to the interrogation room table sporting her signature unbothered smirk.
“We found her in a clothes store early this morning, buying coats,” Officer Sansa explained, leading Eraserhead to Detective Tsukauchi, “she didn’t make an attempt to resist arrest.“
Eraserhead sighed. This was the worst type of capture, she didn’t even pretend to be caught with her pants down, this would most likely go down the same way the others did with her saying her piece and then immediately being broken out by another Hunter.
Blade was usually the one that broke her out, but he was captured yesterday so that didn’t leave any favorable options. Sam was notoriously violent with his breakouts, turning anyone who got in his way into a burnt corpse. And who knew what the elusive Silver Wolf could do, the hacker might just steal all our confidential files while they’re at it.
“So I take it Tsukauchi’s waiting for me before he starts the investigation”, Eraserhead presumed. It made sense, with a quirk like hers with an unknown trigger, having someone who can take her quirk out of the equation was vital to any interrogation.
“You would be partially right.”, Tsukauchi stated, ”We’re also waiting for Blade to be shipped over to Tartarus so Sam can’t break him out.”
“I don’t have all day and you know how she is, let’s get this started”, Eraserhead said, preemptively putting in a couple eyedrops. He knew this interrogation would always take longer than expected.
They made their way into the interrogation room and sat down across from Kafka. Eraserhead knew not to waste his time on trying intimidation tactics since if they ever worked, her expressions never gave it away.
“Ah Aizawa, long time no see. How’s Stelle been.”, Kafka drawled
Eraserhead flared his quirk in response.
“Leading with mistrust? I have to say, I thought we were past this point”, Kafka continued, feigning offense.
“This is Detective Tsukauchi on the December 2277 capture of Kafka, leader of the Stellaron Hunters.”, Tsukauchi said, starting the recording. The first couple times Kafka allowed herself to be captured he used to say ‘most recent’, but after the realization that she would keep breaking out he started having to date the captures.
Eraserhead knew the detective hated how he was always saddled with her capture and subsequent interrogation, since when she would inevitably breakout it would make his precinct look incompetent. It didn’t matter that it was one unequipped precinct against an unkillable beast like Blade or the living supernova that was Sam, the public heard about another breakout and put his neck on the chopping block.
“For the record, I-“
“Have a lie detecting quirk and Eraserhead is here to make sure I don’t use my quirk during this interrogation”, Kafka so helpfully finished “We’ve done this before”
“Right”, Tsukauchi seethed “So let’s get started, following your capture we searched your phone and found a text file named Script.txt.”
Eraserhead knew this, it was discussed at length in the debriefing. A text file describing events that were yet to happen, with timestamps down to the second of when they would happen. This one its own wouldn’t be worrying, it could’ve just been plans for the Hunters, but it also involved events that the Hunters had no control over, like when Tsukauchi would go out for coffee and spot Kafka. The detective’s choice to go out for coffee was a spur of the moment decision, he usually uses the precinct’s coffee machine. So for Kafka, and by extension, the Hunters, to know this would be cause for the Hunters to be placed at a higher villain ranking.
“What we want to know is who wrote this ‘script’ and how they did it”, Tsukauchi asked calmly.
“And here I thought you’d ask a better question.” Kafka sighed, “I wrote that script, next question”
Eraserhead saw Tsukauchi nodding out of the corner of his eye, marking what she said as true. That didn’t make sense though because the Hunters had to have someone else working with them as none of the quirks of their known members could predict events down to the second. Kafka’s brainwashing quirk could extend to speeding up or halting a person’s physical healing but there’s no way for it to seemingly predict the future. Unless-
“How many members do the Stellaron Hunters have”, Tsukauchi asked more pointedly.
Kafka’s grin grew wider and she gave a mirthless laugh “There we go detective, we have 5 members.”, she replied.
Both men felt their hearts plummet. There was a fifth member that wasn’t even on their radar? With how powerful each member was, it didn’t make sense. Well, unless this mystery member was more like Silver Wolf and dangerous in the sense that no digital security system was safe from them.
Tsukauchi was the fastest to recover from the realization. “What role does this person play and what is their quirk”, he asked.
Kafka slowly straightened and shifted her piercing gaze from the detective to Eraserhead. “We were made promises. Promises only this person could keep if we joined and stuck to the script.” Kafka replied.
‘If we joined’ implies this person is the true leader of the Hunters. How good would be promises have to be to unite 4 seemingly unconnected villains, each wielding country decimating threat in one form or another. A tentative glance at Tsukauchi tells Eraserhead that he’s thinking the same thing. The thought is chilling, that they’ve been trying to apprehend a shadow all this time.
“…And their quirk?”, Tsukauchi asks, trying and failing to keep his composure.
Kafka wags her finger and tuts “In due time detective, in due time. First, I need to have a little chat with Aizawa and only then will I answer your question. How’s that sound”, she proposes, gaze still fixed firmly on Eraserhead.
He quickly blinks before returning her gaze, her smile somehow widens even more, taking is as consent.
“Actually-“, Tsukauchi tries to interject.
“Blade’s promise involves you Aizawa,” Kafka interrupts. She pauses for a bit, most likely waiting for a reaction, one that Eraserhead won’t give. He knows Blade has taken an interest in him, focusing on taking him down as he’s the only one able to stop Blade’s regeneration. Her smile fades before she continues.“You see, he wants someone to kill him.”
Eraserhead’s eyes slightly widen at that. He’s seen the man before and nothing about him gives off that impression, he looks crazy when he fights and expressionless when he’s not. Tsukauchi nods in the corner of his eye.
“Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.” Kafka says, slightly leaning forward in her chair. “Three people in the same class are the closest of friends. There’s the heart of the group that brings the best out of everyone, the loner that was forcibly adopted into the friend group and the life of the friend group that brings enough energy for all the above.”
Eraserhead steels himself. If this is the story he thinks it is, then he already knows how it ends.
“One day during an internship, the heart of the group dies and the loner doesn’t take this well. There are two versions of this story” Kafka says, “One where the loner drowns himself in more hero work to make himself forget the sting of his loss, but his living friend is able to bring him out of it. That’s your story by the way. And one where the loner’s mental state worsens and he tries repeatedly to kill himself, despite knowing full well that his quirk won’t let him die. This loner pushes away all friends and rots away until a mech and a lady recruit him, with the promise of death.”
“All of that was true”, Tsukauchi confirms.
“And you’re telling me because?”, Eraserhead asks, filing the information away for later.
“Because you’ll be the one to kill him. He won’t let anyone else do it.” Kafka casually states like it’s the most obvious thing she’s said all day.
It’s not out of the ordinary for a hero to have to take a life. Every hero has to kill someone at least once in their career, underground heroes more often have to than their limelight counterparts. So it’s not that revelation that phases him, it’s the way it recontextualizes every interaction he’s had with the man that phases him and the way he looked like Christmas came early every time he fought Eraserhead.
“Does it say so in this script of yours?”, Tsukauchi asks.
Kafka smirks. “Yes. You see, the script said he would die today if he was in the Blade transport vehicle.”
Tsukauchi hums, signaling for Kafka to continue.
“If I’m not mistaken, Sam should be attacking the vehicle right about now. And we all know the survival rate of his attacks. My capture always brings in Eraserhead and I take priority.”
The station’s alarm system suddenly started blaring, with officers freaking out and fleeing the station.
“That’s my cue”, Kafka said calmly, unaffected by the panic around her. The cuffs around her wrist glitched out and fell off.
She calmly stood up and walked to the wall behind her that started glitching out as soon as she got near it. Eraserhead flung his capture weapon at her, trying to tie her up but as soon as it got close it went into a glitchy portal behind Kafka.
The wall opened up to the inside of a warehouse where a holographic image of a young looking gamer girl was standing, presumably Silver Wolf.
“Nice talk you two, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing each other very soon”, Kafka said without turning around. After she walked away, the wall closed and the alarm system stopped blaring, leaving the two men with one answered question and several unanswered one’s taking its place.