Chapter 68: Unexpected Offer I

Sighing, Peter looked at the still form of Aizawa as he laid on the floor. The boy notices the obviously fake blood pooling underneath him.

Man, who would've thought this is the exercise they get when they come back to school?

Beside him, Nejire along with Amajiki and Mirio crouched down to his level as the four of them looked at the man.

"So, what do we got?" Mirio asked seriously, getting an eye roll from both Amajiki and Nejire while Peter cupped his chin.

"Well, it is quite simple…" Peter responded dramatically, getting a snort from Nejire while Amajiki rolled his eyes again. "Why, Lemillion, there appears to have been a murder!"

"Can you guys stop roleplaying this? We're gonna wake Aizawa up!" Nejire elbowed him on the arm, Peter rolling his eyes behind the mask.

"Man, don't ruin the fun! Have you seriously never wanted to solve a crime like this? It's like in Criminal Minds or something! Besides, how can I take it seriously when Aizawa is literally snoring."

Right on queue, the bearded man snored and shifted in his sleep. Peter could've sworn he muttered something about clouds.

Alright, this scene probably needs a lot more context than Peter had given.

Today was their first day back at UA after the sports festival, along with the first time Peter has felt actually well-rested when coming to school.

Which was… nice.

But as to why Aizawa was currently on the floor while his class stood over him in hero costumes? Well, it's because today was also their first crime scene investigation training!

Because apparently that was a thing that UA taught people how to do! Either way, it was cool.

The second they stepped into homeroom, Present Mic had run into the room yelling about a murder and telling them to put on their costumes.

And now, here they were!

In some the back alley of one of UA's fake cities that Peter didn't remember the name of. Pretty sure it had Beta in the name or something.

Might as well have some fun with this exercise, right?

Abruptly, Peter stood up and began to walk around Aizawa, his lenses narrowing in fake seriousness.

"Lemillion, what do we know of the victim? Perhaps a cause of death?" Peter asked, cupping his chin and looking around the alley.

Graffiti littered the dirty brick walls around them, a few trash cans laying on the ground with some of their contents having spilled out.

Seriously, Peter didn't understand why UA went to such an effort for these cities they had.

"Adult male in late twenties, maybe early thirties, looks like some sort of stab-related injury led to death due to blood loss," Mirio replied with a fake frown, making Peter smile that his friend was playing along.

Next to the blonde, Amajiki gave a defeated sigh before standing up and walking over to the supply kit to the side that Present Mic had given them.

Who also happens to be standing at the mouth of the alleyway, supervising them.

"Way to get into character, kids! Reminds me of how Shouta acted when we did this in our first year!" The man laughed, Aizawa mumbled something about microphones and turned in his sleep.

Wait, that made him wonder… Did Aizawa even know he was part of this exercise right now? Part of him felt like they just moved into the alley in his sleep and went with the flow.

Either way, Peter was having fun.

Rolling her eyes and standing up, Nejire chuckled a bit before seeming to decide to join in on the fun.

"Hmm, could be some sort of mugging gone wrong or maybe he just saw something he wasn't supposed to see… We must search for clues!" Nejire said, sounding like a puppy trying to act serious before she snapped her fingers, making Peter and Mirio laugh.

Oh, and about that crush thing that Peter had figured out a few days ago? He… didn't know how to deal with it, honestly!

The only time he had a crush was with a girl named Gwen Stacy back in Midtown middle school, and you can guess how moving to Japan along with him dealing with his spider powers didn't let him understand his feelings.

But now? Peter actually had a small sense of stability to try and figure out his feelings for Nejire! No moving countries or vigilantism or radioactive bug bites to get in his way.

Hopefully.

All he knew was that being with her feels… right, you know? Made him feel warm and all. So, his current plan was to spend some time with her and see where it goes! He was gonna act like he always did with her and hope for the best.

Kinda sucks he just figured the crush out right before they went off on internships for two weeks, huh? Just his luck.

Jogging up to the group, Amajiki placed down the kit in his hands and opened it, revealing a series of tools for police investigation.

"I-I can't believe you guys are roleplaying this…" The boy muttered, drawing a chuckle from Mirio before the blonde put his arm around him.

"Come on, Suneater! Have some fun! Hey, wanna help me put up police tape?" Mirio smiled down at the boy, grabbing a roll of police tape from the kit and dragging Amajiki to the mouth of the alley.

Along the way, Mirio turned his head and gave Peter a thumbs-up and a wink, Peter giving a thumbs-up back as one of his lenses winked.

Oddly enough, once Mirio looked ahead, Amajiki did the same thing as him with a blush and a thumbs-up to Nejire.

"Who do you think is gonna confess first?" Peter asked, Nejire giggling and digging into the supply kit.

"I bet you 2000 yen it's Tamaki!"

Alright, he was gonna ignore the fact that he wasn't entirely sure how much 2000 yen was and move on.

Webbing a pair of pliers and a small UV light from the box and into his hands, Peter began walking to the trash can.

"Hey, can you check over the victim and look for clues? I'll check around the alleyway." Peter asked Nejire, chuckling at the mock salute she gave.

Now that he actually understood he had a crush on her, he was starting to notice how cute she tended to be.

Wait, he couldn't focus on that! He had a crime to solve!

Carefully walking over to the knocked-over trash cans, Peter began to scan over the piles of trash lying about on the ground.

Oddly enough, it didn't even smell like trash! Which was something that made him wonder if UA created fake trash in this fake alley in this fake city.

Behind one of the black bags, Peter's lenses landed on some sort of small, bright yellow object.

Reaching over, Peter pulled out what looked to be… a yellow sneaker? It looked to be the size of someone really small, maybe like a child.

Wait, why did he feel like he's seen someone wear sneakers like this before?

Peter frowned under the mask, holding up the UV light in his other hand and shining it on the shoe as his lenses widened.

Now bathed in purple light, Peter could easily see the hidden stains that covered the shoe, but that wasn't the thing that caught his attention…

On the shoe was what Peter guessed was a paw print from some sort of animal, probably a dog considering how the print had four fingers.

Peter narrowed his eyes at the shoe.

Guess the plot thickens…

Man, who knew investigating a fake crime scene was so cool? He felt like a total Spider-Cop right now!

"Hey, look! I found a thingy!" Nejire called from over where Aizawa was, the man muttering something that Peter didn't catch.

As Peter walked over to his friend, Amajiki and Mirio had returned from putting up police tape. In Nejire's hand was a pair of silver pliers holding a small piece of white fur.

White fur?

"Where do you find that, Surge?" Mirio asked, putting on that fake-serious look from before and making Amajiki sigh.

"It was on his shirt! Maybe the killer had some sort of mutation quirk that gave them white fur…" Nejire answered while narrowing her eyes at the piece of fur, Peter finally remembering the shoe in his hand.

"Oh, I also found this behind some trash." Peter held up the shoe, his friends looking at it in curiosity. Shining the UV light on it again, his friends widened their eyes at the stains and paw print on the shoe.

And at that moment, Peter's lenses widened as an idea came to mind.

Handing the shoe over to Amajiki, Peter shone the UV light down onto Aizawa's shirt and saw how it was covered in that same paw print.

"Oh, man," Mirio muttered, cupping his chin and frowning. "Looks like our guy got mixed up with some bad apples."

"Yeah, but who would do this? Like, did he get attacked by a white-furred cryptid thingy that wore sneakers?"

Once he heard Nejire's comment, his lenses widened in realization.

A white-furred cryptid thingy that wore sneakers! They knew someone like that!

"Nezu!" Peter exclaimed while slamming his fist into his palm, watching as his friends also came to the same conclusion. "He did this! He killed Aizawa and accidentally left his shoe, fur, and paw prints behind at the scene of the crime!"

Yeah! Mystery solved! Oddly enough, it didn't really surprise him that Nezu was the one to do it.

After a few high fives on an investigation well done, Amajiki spoke up.

"Uh, n-now what?" He asked, nobody really having an answer for him.

And then, Peter felt that familiar soft buzzing at the back of his skull.

"Congratulations on solving the murder, heroes! But I'm afraid that's not all!" An excited voice spoke, making the four teens turn around to face the source of the sound.

At the other end of the alleyway was Nezu, sitting on a small scooter that was hovering off of the ground.

What… the hell? He got UA was weird… but he didn't know it was this weird.

"Why, I believe you must capture the culprit, no? Be warned, I will not make this chase easy!" Nezu laughed, quickly flying away on his hovering scooter and leaving the confused students behind.

Guess this was his life now, huh?

Nejire grabbed Amajiki before flying in the direction Nezu went, Peter grabbing Mirio and swinging after them.

Yeah, this was his life.

...

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