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It wasn't the first time Naomasa had been captured by some two-bit criminal outfit. It was usually those at the bottom of the food chain who were the most shrewd, who figured out that his quirk had something to do with getting the right information out of people.
“What did you do to our boys?” a low threatening growl, punctuated by the gun smacking into Naomasa's already bleeding head wound. The man laughed when Naomasa flinched, “not so scary now, are ya?”
For some reason, even with all the superpowers in the world, these guys never thought his quirk was a lie detection quirk. They always thought it was some torturous means to force the truth out. Maybe it was because a frog in a well can only see other frogs in the well.
The butt of the gun smacked into his head again, harder this time.
Naomasa looked up at the guy; skinny, unshaven, and angry. Wearing an ill-fitting suit in the efforts of mimicking the men higher up in his organization. He had seen many of this type. They never had very strong quirks, and almost always used some kind of weapon to compensate for where they lacked. They never got much further than lackey #2 or #3, though, and usually died before they even got there.
“What the fuck are you looking at me for?” the man sneered, “if you don't start talking, you better get ready to lose all your teeth.”
He bared his teeth to enunciate the threat, but Naomasa heard the ping of a lie. He had probably never done this before. An idea popped into his head.
“Did your boss authorize you to do this?”
Naomasa didn't need his quirk to see the fear in the man's eyes. It wasn't hard to recognize a man caught doing something he shouldn't.
The man reared back, and the gun struck Naomasa's mouth. Reflexive tears began to well in his eyes as the pain radiated through his teeth and nose.
How did he always forget that fear so quickly led to violence with this type of man?
“Of course he did, detective,” was squeezed out through gritted teeth, dripping with hatred., “Now tell me, what did you do to our boys? Those guys wouldn't just talk.”
“Maybe I could help,” Naomasa clenched his jaw with pain and tried to swallow the blood that had welled in his gums, “maybe I could help if you told me which boys you're so worked up about,” seeing the man begin to rear back again, he hastily added, “I can't tell you anything if I don't have teeth.”
The man's lips curled unhappily, but the hand holding the gun fell and he took a step back, reluctantly acquiescing.
“Haga and Shimizu. You and the fuckers in blue took em away together, so you should remember.”
He did. Not well, but he remembered. They were of the same class as the guy in front of them, probably they were his friends. Explained why he was so pissed off. They weren't very good liars, Naomasa didn't even really need to be called in.
“Yeah, I-”
And then the door opened. Both people in the room looked over, expecting to see someone not unlike the man standing over Naomasa.
It was hard to see clearly in the dim warehouse lighting, but the figure illuminated in the doorway couldn't have been above fourteen.
The kid grinned, swept in, and threw his arm around the gangster's shoulder before either reacted. A smooth operation really, but Naomasa was sure it was about to go South.
“Hey buddy, how ya doing? It's been a while since we last talked but I've really been lookin’ forward to seein’ ya! Love your new haircut, looks great!”
Naomasa watched in real time as the man's face shifted from anger to confusion to the genuine joy of seeing a long lost friend. He felt a shiver down his spine as his gaze turned towards the boy, fluffy green hair, big eyes, freckles. A harmless looking little thing.
“Hey man, you're right, it has been a while! How'd you even get in here?” Even in this manipulated state, there was clearly still some sense of self.
The kid waved the question off, “Aw, you know me, I find my way anywhere, and besides, I don't mean no harm,” he glanced around the room, locked eyes with Naomasa for a split second. Naomasa expected a calculating gleam, a cold undercurrent, but the boy's gaze was genuinely friendly, disarming even.
Naomasa steeled himself. It wasn't right, even though his instincts were screaming that it was.
“Well, what'd you come all this way for?” The man was completely distracted, so Naomasa began wriggling his wrists out of the ties behind the chair. One thing he had trained since he started getting kidnapped was the flexibility of his wrist joints.
“I think a friend of mine is somewhere around here, maybe you've seen him,” the boy's smile never seemed to fade, and yet never seemed fake, “he's a little taller than me, orange eyes, he's got the spikiest hair you've ever seen, and a big attitude. Temper issues and all that.”
The kid locked eyes with the man, who was already a bad liar, even without whatever influence the kid had put him under.
“Have you seen him?”
“Yeah, saw him a while ago, dunno if he's still here though. Nitta said he was an annoying brat, that they'd rough him up a bit and let him off. He's probably gone already.”
“Rough him up?” The words were physical, sharp, the smile pulling into a sharp sneer, but he immediately caught himself, softening again, “Sorry about that, I overreacted a little. You know how it is, when a buddy of yours gets hurt. It's hard to hear.”
The man's smile wavered. He was clearly shaken up by the sudden change in atmosphere. This subject was suspiciously relevant.
“Of course I know, s'like being cut open. Anything I can do to help.”
“Well, do you know what room he was in? I can just go get him and then I'll be out of your hair!”
The guy squinted, rustily dragging back the memories of a few hours ago.
“I think it was the room with the green door? Couple'a doors down.”
The boy patted his shoulder, hard enough to make him flinch, “perfect, thank you so much. I really appreciate it! See you later,” he then turned to Naomasa, “good luck!”
And then he was out the door, shutting it behind him for good measure, like a small green tornado.
At least he had given Naomasa time to slip his hands out of the ropes. It almost didn't matter, though. After maybe ten seconds of the man staring fondly at the door, mumbling things like “such a nice guy, what a good friend” and so on, his expression began to crumble.
From happiness, to a foggy confusion, to fear.
“Friend? I- who was that?” he gripped at his hair, the gun fell to the ground, clattering loudly and yet fully ignored, “who was that? I've never even seen him before.”
The man turned his gaze to Naomasa, “do you- do you remember what he looked like?”
Well, green hair, big eyes, freckles, and…
?
The boy had looked him directly in the eyes. How could Naomasa not remember what color they were?
He heard the ripping of hair as the man's grip strengthened, fear and horror haunting his eyes.
In his terrible condition, it wasn't much work for Naomasa to knock him out and tie him up, steal his gun, and sneak out the building. He barely even put up a fight.
It was that haunted look in the man's eyes, the complete loss of self-confidence, that he remembered the moment he met Toshinori's protege.
His eyes were green.