Chapter 59

"Aoyama, I see"

Nezu has his full attention on the chess board on the table between us - his small ears twitching on his head as if in thought. I find him to be quite a fascinating creature and wonder what it's like to be such an intelligent creation. Would I be able to out best him with my ability, or would his intelligence be so great that he can even outsmart a person who can read his mind? I don't think I'm willing to test this query of mine, so it shall just remain a curious thought.

"What do you know of his situation?" Nezu asks, now looking me in the eye. "I'm sure you know everything already, or enough to paint a clear picture"

Well, I suppose you wouldn't need to be a super genius to assume such a simple thing. The information I have on the people around me makes me quite a menace, I'm sure. Now the issue here is; if I reveal what I know, All Might might get a heart attack and die. Now, it's not that I care if he dies or not, but he probably shouldn't keel over and die just yet. But if I do reveal everything, we get an edge of knowing what we're up against.

"Simply put, he either works for the villains or his parents are killed" that is actually the gist of his unfortunate circumstances. "You can understand the type of anxiety that responsibility instills"

Nezu nods in confirmation, seeming entirely unbothered.

"You know a great deal more than that"

I sigh, saying, "All Might fought some big bad some years ago and basically lost his organs. I'm sure everyone is familiar with that monumental occurrence"

All Might looks visibly shaken by the fact I know this, but he shouldn't be. I'm a mind reader, did he expect his secret to remain a secret.

"Well, the big bad he fought still lurks in the shadows and Aoyama's parents went and brokered a deal with this devil and now they are indebted to him, which circles back to our current situation. Nothing is ever done for free after all, especially not by a villain who almost killed All Might"

When All Might stands, I'm fully prepared to be on the receiving end of his crippling anxiety when it comes to All For One and everything revolving around that man and their abilities. He's a hulking man that blocks me from the light when he approaches, his face shadowed by concerns.

"You're talking about All For One," he says, needing confirmation.

"The taker and the giver," I say in response and watch him tense up.

"How does he relate to Aoyama?"

"Aoyama's quirk isn't suited for his body," I say and catch Kuma nodding

"Yes, and it is odd," she says. "After years of having his quirk, his body should fair a lot better than it does. But it's like he wasn't meant to have that quirk"

Wow, she hit the nail on the head.

"Yup, because he wasn't meant to have a quirk in the first place"

When I say this, I'm met with wide eyes. All Might in particular looks like he's about shit a brick.

"So, his parents followed a dubious rumor and brokered a deal with an even more suspicious fellow" I continue. "This big bad gave Aoayama a quirk. But nothing comes without a price, especially not from a super villain"

The look All Might gives me is one a person would have if they are staring their nightmare in the face. That man is so traumatized by what All For One stands for and his supposed duty as the current holder of One For All, that the mere mention of his name puts him in such a state.

"You got all of that in a few weeks?" Snipe whistles. "This kid is a goldmine"

Nezu hums in agreement.

"I shall deal with Aoyama," Nezu says. "Fox, you are to accompany Midnight and Kuma to the station. The officers can get no information out of our captured villains, but I'm sure you'll fair much better"

Wait, really?

"You don't have to worry about Aoyama. No harm will come to him" Nezu promises. "I must speak to him"

That's all good and well, but I did not expect to be sent to interrogate Shigaraki and Kurogiri. I feel like this is gonna put me in a very awkward position with Aizawa and Hizashi when it comes to revealing everything I know about these two, considering everything that went down during their high school years.

Before I can try to wiggle out of it, Kuma grabs me by the back of my collar and starts pulling me out of the room while talking about how much of a learning experience this will be for me.

"I don't think you can just order her to interrogate villains" I hear Midnight say, even as she starts following us. "She's a minor and you're sending her to deal with villains"

Exactly. I just wanna go take a nap or eat, I don't wanna go see chapped lips and portal butler.

Or maybe I do. I wonder what interesting things I can get out of them. Since Toga did not spiral down the villain route, it goes without saying that the League of Villains' lineup must be different without her.

I'm thankful for whatever motivated Toga to become a hero, because she was quite the devious villain and I absolutely loved her.

"Okay kid" Kuma drags me to stand next to her as we walk. "You get suit up in the school's assigned uniform and meet us at the gate"

"Yes ma'am"

"We'll make it quick" Midnight promises. "In and out. Maybe we'll stop for some food on our way back"

"There's this restaurant in the neighborhood that has some fantastic burgers" Kuma chips in. One would assume she's attempting to make me feel better about going to see villains, but I get an inkling that she's just looking forward to getting a burger. "I'm telling you now, you've never had a burger as good as theirs"

I highly doubt it. My mother is quite the skilled cook after all and even that burger restaurant that Mina likes to go to can't compare to my mother's food.

Then again, I must be incredibly biased.

Kuma and Midnight walk me back to the dorm building and urge me to be quick with it. Kuma makes a beeline for the kitchen when I tell her there's food while Midnight says something about supervising her.

Apparently, if we're not careful, Kuma will eat everything.

That's something learned.

"Gotta make this quick"

And so I do. Using the elevator to get up to my floor takes me one minute and I'm shouldering into my room in seconds. Kurama makes a mad dash for me the second the door is shut behind me and Kirishima offers me a wave from his place on my floor.Nitsu's here too and seems to be in a very intense wrestling match with Kirishima. I note, once again, that they are playing another of my new games. At this point, I don't purchase the games for myself.

"Did you get in trouble?" Kirishima asks.

"I would expect expulsion if summoned by Nezu," Nitsu says quite bluntly. "Are you expelled?"

"No"

Nitsu's response to that is, "disappointing"

This boy can say anything and I would need to wonder if he's serious or not. I can't imagine how others deal with his odd humor.

Sighing, I decide to let him be and locate my uniform in the closet. I haven't had the chance to wear this thing since I've got it, so I'm curious as to how much it compares to my costume.

When I step into the bathroom to change, I walk straight into a salon or something, because girls are doing their nails and hair in here.

What is it with everyone gathering in my room?

"Toga why are you here?" does she not have things to do as a second-year and Kuma's understudy? "I thought you left"

"And then I returned," she says with the toothy smile I'm starting to get used to.

Mina is doing her hair while Toga carefully applies pink nail polish to the ever blushing Uraraka, who only seems to get redder with her sheepishness.

"I kinda invited her" she admits. "Mina offered to do my hair and I saw Toga come back so I told her and now here we are"

Why my room?

"Since you're here you can get your hair and nails done too" Mina suggests happily, always willing to find some excuse to paint my nails.

She never succeeds.

"Uhuh" I look around the somewhat spacious bathroom and realize I'll just have to change in front of them.

Really though, why my room?

"So you're not in trouble?" Mina wonders when she notices the school-assigned uniform, costume, or whatever anyone wants to call the fit. "Or maybe you are"

"Gotta go with Midnight and Kuma" I'm already half-naked, much to Mina's pleasure, I'm sure. "Apparently the captured villains know how to keep their mouths shut"

"So they just send in the mind reader" Toga concludes, inspecting Uraraka's painted nails all the while. "Understandable"

I feel as if the assigned costumes can be considered combat wear as it resembles the military-style tactical coveralls, only it is colored a deeper blue than the school P.E uniforms. There are many differences between this suit and my custom-made costume, that's for sure. There's no full-body undersuit, as I've noted many times, it looks much like military combat wear. I do realize that the material is much the same as my undersuit, as well as near indestructible to withstand my elemental quirk. At first glance, it appeared quite heavy, but now I'm wearing it, it's deceptively light on my body.

"Are they allowed to let students interrogate literal villains?" Mina asks when I'm fully dressed and inspecting the dark half-mask meant to be worn with the uniform.

"They're not sending her to fight, and she is being accompanied by two professionals," Toga says, offering her insight. "Sometimes first years are allowed to shadow heroes as long as they are not placed in any danger. If things were to go south, Kitsune would not be expected to fight and is more likely to be sent away than allowed to interfere. And knowing Midnight, you won't be given a chance to interfere, so don't try it"

"How do you get to shadow a teacher?" Uraraka asks, suddenly interested in the topic.

"It's very simple, rosy" Toga says with a smile. "You just ask and if you're lucky, they'll agree. Kuma-sensei has never turned anyone down, and Midnight agrees most of the time. Aizawa agrees very seldom, but he did let me come with him one night and that was a different experience"

"Oh wow, he actually let you come with him"

"Oh yeah, I'm most suited for stealth missions and am not opposed to working at night, so it was a good experience" Toga further explains, appearing quite fond of the memory. "I didn't get to beat up a bad guy, but I got to watch Aizawa beat up a bad guy. When it comes to facing Aizawa, you're basically dead unless you're an incredibly skilled fighter"

I could imagine.

I would enjoy hearing more about Toga's tag-along stories, but I do have to go.

"I don't know when I'll be back, but I'm bringing food" I announce as I leave the bathroom, taking note of the many requests that quickly follow.

"I would like some coconut cookies," Nitsu says without looking my way. "Is that alright?".

"Yeah, it's perfectly fine" I reassure him, because he always needs such reassurances. "What about you Eiji?"

"Pasta," He says a bit too enthusiastically.

"Manly pasta it is" I promise and step over Kurama when he comes for my feet. "Do me a favor and take Kurama out before he takes his frustration out on my innocent room"

"Will do" Eijiro salutes. "Should I feed Orochi?"

"No, she's fine. You can let her out though"

"And give Mina a heart attack?"

I grin.

"On second thought, put her in my closet"

~~~~~~~~

"How are we doing this?" I have to ask once we're on the road.

Kuma decided to drive us there and I must say, she has a very nice car. The seats are warm and leather, there's a moonroof and she has told me I'm allowed to stick my head through it while Midnight immediately told me not to. These two seem to constantly have different opinions on things, but get along just fine.

Midnight sits in the passenger seat, a cup of ice coffee in hand as she leans back enough to be almost in a laying position. Kuma's the driver and has no problem eating a whole sandwich as she operates the car. The atmosphere in the car is quite relaxed, very much unlike what one would expect on a trip to interrogate a bunch of villains.

"We have a detective who works very closely with our school" Midnight starts to explain. "He'll attempt to get information out of them again, and well be behind the glass, so you should have no problem probing their minds"

Oh yeah, that is quite simple.

Speaking of the detective, I'm sure they're talking about that one man. I constantly forget his name. But one thing that constantly amused me is that dog mutant officer that shows up once or twice. I can't recall when I first saw him, but the sight of him and the fact he's an officer made me laugh a bit too much. I'm sure he can sniff out a good case.

Could he sniff out drugs? Did he train for that? Am I allowed to ask that?

Bah, why would I need to ask?

"And after a job well done we'll get some food," Kuma says, full of cheer.

She really likes food.

Midnight nods in agreement, blue eyes gazing at me through the rare view mirror.

"Coffee?" She asks, holding up her cup of iced coffee.

"No thanks, I can't have coffee"

For one, I don't like it and secondly, it makes me incredibly jittery. I can't have anything with too much caffeine as the extra energy never agrees with me. It's an odd feeling that always results in sickness for me. Either that or I empty my stomach on some poor unfortunate soul.

"Hmm, you're like Kuma" Midnight says absently, finishing the last of her beverage and forcing her seat back upright to better see the road. "Coffee does horrible things to her"

To that Kuma can only laugh, "Yeah, and you had to find out the hard way"

"No one can be so cheerful at six in the morning without a cup of coffee"

"Tea works wonders" Kuma replies and I nod. I fully support having tea instead of coffee. It's a really good start to an otherwise horrible morning.

Midnight laughs as if Kuma's words were some joke, only for that laughter to die in her throat once we take a right turn down the street. From where I'm sitting I don't get the best view over the road in front of us, so for a second, I'm confused by the sudden shift I feel.

"Ah, shit" I hear Kuma curse just as I lean between the two front seats to get a glimpse of what could be so terrible.

Oh, shit is right, because right in front of us some distance away is the one and only Gigantomachia looming over a crumbled building I'm sure had to be the police station where Shigaraki and Kurogiri were being held.

I had an inkling they may escape at some point, but I did not think they would make the escape so grand and send in Gigantomachia of all creatures.

Suddenly I'm thrown back in the car, my ears burning with the sound of screeching tires as Kuma smashes down on the gas to get to the scene.

Oh crap.

Before I can fully sit up, Midnight is climbing out of the moonroof and I am suddenly concerned thinking about her attempting to face this monster when I know what happened when she did such a thing.

There's really no time for me to express my concern because she's gone in the next instance and I have to struggle to strap myself to the seats lest I'm sent flying once more.

"There's been a horrible change of plans" Kuma mumbles, operating the car like someone straight out of Fast and Furious.

There are multiple heroes already on the scene, coming in from every direction. I spot the familiar red and black of Morgan's costume out the corner of my eye before multiple dark chains of what I'm sure to be iron shoot up around Gigantomachia, sure to hold him down long enough for someone to attempt something more lasting.

Well, that may have been the plan.

I spot purple mist and by the time the others are aware of it, it has engulfed Gigantomachia entirely, sucking in anything that was close enough and folding in on itself, taking everything with it.

And just like that, Shigaraki and Kurogiri have escaped.