Chapter Text
Aizawa Shouta lands on the rooftop, resisting his increasing urge to sigh and tucking his capture weapon back over his shoulder.
Shockingly few of his students this year had had even a drop of potential, so living up to his reputation he had sent them packing with a notice of expulsion, with a few transfers to gen ed for some of the kids with less grievous infractions. As a result his workload as a teacher had decreased significantly- having only 8 remaining students meant much more free time during the day. For a few days he had simply enjoyed the peace and indulged in a few extra naps, but after a while he felt the familar itch of inaction digging under his skin and after trying his best to keep to his relaxing (to lessen Hizashi's dissaproving looks and lectures to take of himself if not for his own sake) he relented and called Tsukauchi, asking for any cases he could look over during the day.
He was coming to regret that decision now, perched on the edge of a rooftop looking over the unassuming warehouse ahead. When he'd initially asked after a case to occupy his time he'd been expecting some run of the mill robberies or assaults that Tsukauchi would be all too happy to pawn off on him. Unfortunately for him, he'd just so happened to time his call right as Tsukauchi was putting together a team for a high-stakes raid with too many unknowns to go in under-prepared or overconfident, so he'd basically volunteered himself.
Now don't get him wrong, most days Shouta likes his job. He likes helping people, likes that he's the one keeping them safe at night even if it means he has to deal with the darker crimes that limelighters usually won't encounter. That being said, he wouldn't be human if it didn’t get to him sometimes, the back alley rapes, kidnappings, human trafficking rings, all the sickness and cruelty of mankind shoved in his face every night, and this case in particular has his hackles raised more than most.
From the reports he'd been given to get him up to speed over the last week or so, he knows it had seemed typical enough for their line of work in the beginning. A sudden uptick in missing persons, subtle enough to not be noticed immediately. It had been difficult to spot at first, the victims were seemingly random, ages ranging from teenagers to adults in their 30's, women, men and others taken with no regard to gender, and no notable similarities in appearance, profession or financial status. It was their quirks where things got interesting. All of the victims had quirks with high potential to be useful but with signifant drawbacks or limitations. One being a young girl with the ability to see into other locations (given she was familiar with the area) and transfer the image to paper instantly, but left her blinded and unable to move for hours afterwards. Another a young homeless man with a strong fire quirk but who's body had no resistance to fire- according to the volunteer at a local shelter who had filed the initial report.
From what Shouta had heard from Tsuakauchi, it had irritated him to no end. They had found the connection, but couldn't get any further with the information, couldn't garner why this specific group would be targeted. The man had been near enough tearing his hair out trying to figure it out.
And then they'd found the girl.
Miya Ayaka had been taken into custody during a relatively simple bust of a local gangs hide out. The girl had been silent during the whole ordeal, and it wasnt until an officer on the missing persons task force had passed by and recognised her that she was identified. Clearly the girl had been through some kind of hell during her captivity, aside from her new unwillingness to speak she had several scars that she hadn't been taken with according to her mother, and her face flickered between an expression of pure panic and a frankly terryfying blankness with startling speed. Most intriguing though, was that both pros and officers on the scene recounted that she had been using her quirk immediatelly before her arrest, several images scattered around her and her hands clutching a fresh peice of paper as an image formed on it, and afterwards had had no problems with her vision and was capable of walking with no assistance. Given that she'd been missing for only 3 weeks it was impossible for her quirk to have improved so drastically, and with her not currently speaking to explain, the question of what the hell had happened in those three weeks remained unanswered.
Shouta himself hadn't been involved yet at that point but he could imagine the frustration in the department. Of course having a kidnapped child returned relatively unharmed was always a win, but the gang who the girl had been with was basically useless, possessing neither the skill nor the resources to pull off such a clean abduction or to alter her quirk as it had been, and refusing to provide any clue as to how they had the girl in their base. With Ayaka unable to speak there wasnt a clear trail to follow.
They had continued investigating, but no knew information came of it and in that time there had been two more dissapearances.
And then once again, when they had been losing hope and running out of leads to follow, there was Miya Ayaka, or rather her father, striding into the precinct, hands full of images with attached sticky note labels detailing each room Ayaka had been in during her capture along with one larger than the others showing an industrial estate, complete with a large red circle around one warehouse in particular.
So after a few days of locating and monitering, securing warrants and organising teams, here was Shouta, staring down a warehouse waiting for the signal to engage, with unease stirring in his gut and his eyes already stinging in anticipation of the fight.
God he needed a coffee.
Maybe with a few shots of whiskey to go with it.