Chapter Nine

"We were unable to find (y/n) or Shooter at the listed locations." Naomasa clicked his pen, having rushed to the school due to All Might's frantic calls. "We still have units out searching for them both, as well as bolos posted, they won't get far."

"Right." Gray breathed, sitting back inside his hospital bed with Shiro leaning in the chair beside him with a room full of judging heroes watching their every move.

"So-" Naomasa looked up from his note pad. "-you two did not die in the Shie Hassaikai Compound?"

"Thought that was pretty obvious." Shiro flatly replied, the medical mask still resting over his face. He leaned back against his chair; arms crossed glaring at the group before him.

"Walk me through what happened." Naomasa kept the tense conversation from flatlining, "We uncovered a computer inside the compound, it showed graphic content of you three being tortured."

"We were." Shiro answered, "It was a bitch and a half."

"How are you alive then?" Midnight wondered, "We were told you three died due to the experiments."

"Who told you that?" Gray wondered, looking away from the window full of colors. It felt refreshing to view the world without the aid of a screen which only saw in black and white.

"We had a doctor-what was his name?" Midnight thought back, gazing at the floor as she chewed on her thumb nail.

"Dr. Druj." Aizawa boredly answered, staring at the two Bullets with an uneased feeling gnawing away at the back of his skull.

"Yes!" Midnight brightened up, feeling the memory click. "He looked like a dried-up carrot!"

"Oh, you mean Dr. Lie-a-lot?" Gray scoffed with a tired eye roll. "Did you actually see us die on any of those clips?"

"What do you-"

"The doctor worked for Shooter." Shiro cut to the point. "It seems he fed you false information to make you believe we all died inside that hellhole."

"Well-" Gray muttered, "-some of that statement is true."

"What does that mean?" All Might inquired, shifting in his chair, every nerve he held was on edge his brain running in circles, this room almost felt like it held no oxygen inside it as his chest tightened with worry over your unknown whereabouts.

"If you think we all got dragged down into that pit and came out the same, you're out of your fucking mind." Shiro bit, hastily sitting up. "Do they have to be in here?" He asked, his tone dipped in bitters, turning to Naomasa, still eyeing the U.A heroes.

"Why do you have an issue with them being in here?" Naomasa wondered.

"We just do." Gray sighed, adjusting the medical mask on his face.

"Why do you wish to wear that?" Naomasa pointed to his own face.

"We were conditioned to never remove our masks." Shiro answered, "You took my mask, and it feels wrong to me not to have my face covered, and you won't give it back to me so here we are."

"Why were you conditioned to not remove your masks?"

"It's simple math." Gray hummed, "Shooter went through great lengths to make you believe we were dead, clearly our face couldn't pop up on a screen, hence the masks."

"Why were you in Musutafu?" Naomasa flipped the page in his little note pad. "You're more known for staying around Naruhata, so why were you in town a couple weeks ago? No one was aware you'd be here."

"We were here for a pickup." Shiro answered, glaring towards Katsuki and All Might, disgust rolled around in his stomach. Why were they here?

"A pick up?"

"Yeah the kid."

"Kid?"

"Two."

"Two?" Naomasa frowned, "As in your deceased teammate?"

"Yeah."

"But...." Naomasa's brain couldn't understand the words coming from Shiro's mouth. "...he was sent here on an assignment or something?"

"No."

"Then what do you mean?" Naomasa asked,

"We picked him up." Shiro raised an eyebrow, "What part about that is hard for you?"

"All of it." Naomasa's tone inflexed, he cleared his throat trying to remain neutral. "How are you not showing more remorse, you lost a teammate not to long ago-"

"We knew the kid for like a couple days." Gray rolled his eyed, "Doesn't feel like much of a loss when you don't know the person."

"Wait-" Naomasa shook his head, "-what do you mean, you have been on a team for-?"

"The original Two you're thinking about-" Gray interrupted, "-who debuted with us when we first became known as a hero team died about a year ago."

"But we just saw-"

"You saw his replacement." Shiro's locked his jaw, refraining from saying anything more.

"Shooter replaces you?"

"Yep." Gray nodded, "He had to find people with similar builds and quirks so no one would notice."

"But-"

"Six died in plain sight-" Gray went on, "-so Shooter couldn't replace him, or people would know. One was in the works of being replaced, but her quirk was hard to come by. You saw Two and Four die and now it's just us three left."

"I..." Naomasa turned to All Might, not knowing what to say, should he offer comforting words or just roll over the fact these kids have been used as replaceable tools for most of their life's?

"We were Shooter's best front-" Gray shrugged it off, "-no way was he going to let us just die."

"How did you end up in Shooter's agency?" Naomasa moved on to the next question. Shiro adjusted himself in his chair. His body ached from his recent fight, feeling anxiety eating away at his bones. He was used to the feeling of a microscope being shoved up his ass, but this felt different. He could feel the heroes judging them, their faces were locked but their eyes told their story. He could see how they viewed himself and Gray as nothing more than petty thugs.

"I'll answer that-" Shiro nodded, "-if they leave the room."

"Why do you-"

"She told you-" All Might realize. "-(y/n) told you what she overheard." All eyes fell onto Shiro whose remained motionless appearing to be made of stone.

"Yeah."

"What did-"

"Shooter threatened us-" Gray cut in, wishing for this diluted interrogation to be over, he could feel his body was running on nothing but fumes, "-he threatened Shiro's brother and my girlfriend who...by now would have had our kid, it must be four by now-" Gray weakly smiled, his tired brain drifted off. "-I don't even know if I have a daughter or a son."

"What about (y/n)?" Naomasa tried keeping Gray on track.

"Shooter used us." Shiro retorts, seeing Gray had checked out into his fantasies of having his girlfriend and child back in his life. "Threatened us to get (y/n)."

"Why did she do what she did?" Katsuki stepped forward, tired of these pointless questions. This all could wait until they tracked you down!

"What?" Shiro furrowed his brows showing his confusion.

"Why did she attack me and help that villain escape!" Katsuki bit, taking a warning step closer. He has been drowning in questions for years, now the shore where all his answers rested was right before him, he would be damned before he let them get away.

"How are we going to find (y/n)?" Mina sighed; arms crossed over her chest as she leaned back in her chair completely uninterested in the conversation around her.

"If she doesn't want to be found she won't be." Gray replied, allowing the technician to fiddle with the collar around his neck as he continued to gaze outside, staring at the taboo colors of the world.

"How does that help!?"

"It wasn't meant too-!" Gray jumped, getting zapped from the collar.

"Sorry." The technician muttered a half-baked apology before getting back to work.

"You know what-!?" Mina slapped her hands on the arm rest of her chair as she straightened herself out, "-what is your problem!?"

"We don't have a problem." Shiro yawned.

"Yeah, I think you do. You two seem to have a chip on your shoulder about us."

"We don't." Gray shrugged, "We just don't like you."

"How?!" Mina's gushed from her mouth as she stood from her chair, "You don't even know me!"

"We don't need to know you!" Shiro hopped to his feet, causing Midoriya who remained silent while studying the two Bullets, and Aizawa to stand, ready to defend Mina in an instant if needed. "I know all I need to!"

"From whom!?"

"From (y/n)'s mouth!"

"What...What does that mean-?" Mina breathed, brows pulling together as she shook her head, her confidence shrinking.

"(y/n) is attacking the school!" Vlad King comes running into the room, pulling everyone's eyes onto him while simultaneously breaking the tension brewing.

"Wha-?" Gray dumbfoundly turned his head as the collar snapped undone, the technician smiled victorious.

"Please-" Shiro scoffed, "-if she really wanted to attack this place, none of us would know about it until it was to late."

"She already took down three guards-!" Vlad tried to criminalize your name.

"Did you ever think your people started-!?"

"She attacked Ms. Joke and Cementous-!" Vlad dryly replied, "-we barely pulled them away from the fight before she killed them-!" Before anyone could register his brassy words, loud explosions echoed through the cracked open window, rocking the glass.