13

Chapter 13: Chapter #13 | A Light in the Dark

Chapter Text

When Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa sat down that night, there were a lot of things that he had expected. He had sent his partner home, since the feline needed his sleep. Naomasa, on the other hand, was far more used to no sleep than he was happy to admit, and there was plenty of paperwork to do. He had been procrastinating it worse lately. Working with Izuku was always enlightening, but it always, without exception, left him with a mountain of paperwork.

There were any number of things that Naomasa found strange about the young man, and there were plenty of inconsistencies with his behavior and his age. Besides that, the most startling thing about him was how much he knew. Anytime Naomasa came to him for help with something, Izuku already knew everything about the people in question or was able to get the information within the hour. Naomasa was incredibly glad that Izuku was on his side of the law because he honestly didn't know if anyone would be able to stop him if he weren't.

Naomasa set down his pen onto one of the million manila folders that were scattered across his desk. He leaned back, sighing, and closed his eyes. His left hand rubbed the slight bump in his right hand where the RFID chip for Moonlit Industries now rested. Why had he given him access to the facility? What had he seen coming that he might need it? And most concerning were the situations that he must have envisioned, knowing what he knows, if he had been driven to make his utterly illegal offer to a police detective.

Naomasa stood, stretching now, and stepped from his office. He needed coffee if he was going to stare at paperwork any longer tonight. He stepped to the sidebar that they kept in the bullpen and started to refill his mug when he looked up at the clock. Just past one in the morning. Should have enough time to finish a couple more files before I need to crash.

Naomasa rested his back against the counter to look out at the bullpen and the few officers that had gotten stuck with night duties. No one liked it, Naomasa included, but they all understood that what they did here was important. He was halfway back to his office with a second mug when he heard one of the officers' radios go off.

"One Charlie on the air, be advised you have a 110 call of shots fired at Moonlit Industries and the security alarms have been tripped. Any units available please respond." He didn't wait to hear if anyone was responding and was practically breaking down the door of the other detective that was in.

"Tanuma." The man was already standing. They had worked together for a long time, and he had been slated to be Tsukauchi's partner before Detective Tamakawa had passed his detective exam. If he knew anything about Tsukauchi, it was that he didn't get worked up like this easily. Something was very wrong. "How quickly can you get the SAT team out of bed and on the move?"

"If it's you calling for it? Give me ten minutes at most. What's going on?" Naomasa looked sick and was already turning to leave as he responded.

"Shots fired at Moonlit Industries. Tanuma, this is going to be bad." Tanuma knew Midoriya. He knew how smart the kid was because he had helped him before. He knew the kind of technology the kid and his partner were working on could change the world. He also knew that if there were reports of shots fired at their headquarters then, yes, Tsukauchi was right. It was going to be bad.

Naomasa rushed back to his office, pulling his sidearm from his desk drawer and slamming it into its holster. As he dragged on his coat, he pulled his phone and dialed the number of one of the few men he could trust with what would be an ugly situation. He started speaking the moment the line connected. "Eraser. We have a situation."

…

The night had been too calm. Aizawa had been thinking that something was coming. Practically every part of his training had told him it was the calm before the storm. When he got the call from Tsukauchi, just past halfway into his patrol at one in the morning, he knew that he had been correct.

He was able to arrive quickly from where he was in his patrol, and if one thing was clear, it was already going to be a media shit storm. He hadn't even gotten across the parking lot before he found three men on the ground. He tapped his communicator in his ear, linking him back to Tsukauchi.

"What was your ETA? Shit's already bad. We've got three men in the parking lot that I have found. All dressed in full tactical gear and all three DOA. Tsukauchi, all three of these men have no-" Eraser was cut off when more gunshots went off in the reception and another man came flying out of the building through the plate glass window.

He was already moving to the main lobby when he caught movement in his peripheral. He turned and just managed to push the barrel of the rifle to the side when the man pulled the trigger. The gunshot was deafening and left his ears ringing, but he'd had worse. He managed to disarm the man of his rifle and scuffled for a bit before the man drew his knife. This was more Eraser's wheelhouse, and he was quickly able to wrap the man's arm in his scarf, twisting it back and around his back. He was wrapping the rest of the man up and pinning him, getting ready to question him, when he heard the sound of boots scuffing the ground behind him.

Aizawa spun, ready to face the man who was pointing yet another gun at him, when the man suddenly jerked, went limp, and dropped onto his face. Behind him stood a very pissed Midoriya, staring down at the man's body coldly. Eraser barely had time to register the bloodied KaBar in Midoriya's hand before he heard the sharp tink of metal on marble beside him.

There was a bright flash and a crack that Eraser recognized as a flash grenade. He hated them because they interfered with his ability to use his quirk. When his vision cleared enough that he could see, Midoriya wasn't where he had been before. Instead, he was halfway across the room, snarling, with a man held up by his throat. Midoriya dropped the man and kicked him hard enough to send him flying into the wall opposite them. The man didn't sit back up after he hit.

Aizawa was frozen because Midoriya's demeanor was different now. Where it had been cold before, now it was white-hot fury. The bloodlust that radiated off him made Aizawa's blood run like ice in his veins, and at that moment, he could have sworn Midoriya's eyes were glowing in the dark reception. Midoriya huffed.

"I fucking hate explosions. If you're here, Eraser, I take it that the police are on the way?" Eraser nodded and responded that Tsukauchi was the one that had called him. Midoriya sighed and relaxed marginally. If, of course, you could call it that. He still looked ready to take on a small army. "Good. We're going to need his connections to the SIT if we're going to make it out of this clusterfuck without an international incident." He kicked one of the dead men's bodies and tapped his ear. "Dabi. Report."

Aizawa decided that he must have a communicator with this Dabi person and took the moment to study Midoriya. The boy looked haggard, though he tried to look relaxed. He hid it well, Aizawa would admit. But the tension of combat was still in his lithe frame, and his eyes were darting around, looking for any threat. Midoriya grunted and nodded his head. "Alright. Hold position and keep an eye out until the police get here. There won't be any more of them tonight, but it doesn't hurt to be careful."

…

It only took another three minutes for Tsukauchi to arrive, and only another two after that for the grounds of the headquarters to be swarming with SAT members in full gear. Within twenty of that, the media were behind the barricades clamoring for statements. Naomasa found Midoriya and Eraser in the reception with one man practically bound and gagged at their feet. Before he could even ask for it, Midoriya stood at attention and began reporting.

"At about zero fifty this morning, I was alerted by the security system that twelve unknown contacts were moving towards the facility. Taking the time into account, we made the assumption that they were hostile and moved accordingly. The facility went into lockdown and the alarm was tripped. All security systems were engaged, though went unused as they never made it deeper into the building." Izuku shifted on his feet now. Naomasa signaled him to relax and he dropped out of his rigid posture.

"I covered the front while our head of security went to cover the rear loading bays, as those are the only other entrances beside the front reception. I will have Dabi make a full report to you, as well, Detective, but for now, let the record show that five of the contacts moved towards the rear while seven moved towards the front of the building. After a brief firefight, three of the now affirmed hostiles were eliminated. There was a struggle inside of reception where I eliminated another. At this point, Eraser showed up and restrained this one." Izuku gestured to the still restrained, still gagged, and very pissy man tied up at their feet. "I severed the spinal cord of another that was about to fire on Eraser when the final tossed a flashbang."

Naomasa tensed, knowing that flash weapons were one of Eraser's worst enemies due to his quirk. But at that moment, he was more concerned with what Izuku did following that. He knew that the kid had an issue with explosions. He'd seen the look in the kid's eyes before when he'd been in the field with them and other things like it had gone off. "What happened to him after that?" Naomasa asked the question quietly, and Izuku rubbed his face, gesturing to the bloody stain of a man against the wall.

He shook his head. He was dead the moment he threw that flash grenade. He commented that the man would have to be taken in for questioning and Midoriya shot him a hard look that Naomasa didn't like. "There's more to this, isn't there?"

Midoriya nodded slowly and reached back behind the desk, pulling a disk from one of the cubicles there before handing it to Naomasa. "That contains all of the security footage from tonight, as well as their comm chatter. I hacked into the comms when they arrived." Izuku fidgeted now with the strap on the holster of his sidearm. "Nao, they were speaking Russian. The way they moved? The fact they didn't use their quirks? I'm guessing FSB." The man at their feet stilled, practically confirming his suspicions.

It took only one look at the detective's face for Eraser to understand just how bad this was. It was when the detective suddenly said the word fuck that Eraser realized it was far worse than he had thought. "Are you sure?" Naomasa was tense and practically praying that Izuku would say he was joking. He'd want to kill him for it, but it would be the preferable scenario here.

"I'm certain. Everything about it screamed operation." Naomasa cursed again and turned, stating that he was going to call his contacts in the SIT. Eraser looked at his back for another moment before turning to Izuku.

"What's going on here?" Izuku looked at him for a moment, weighing whether or not to fill him in on the full situation before deciding that if Naomasa had trusted him enough to call him into this, then he could trust him with the truth.

"They moved too well and their equipment was too good to be your average criminals. No gang or your average underground organization has the training these guys had. That was the first clue. The second was their number and their speaking Russian. Operational detachments are generally twelve members. But the most damning is that they didn't use their quirks. The fifth addendum protocol added to the Geneva Convention, after the advent of quirks, effectively made quirk usage a war crime in combat. This didn't explicitly outlaw the usage of quirks during non-wartime operations, but most countries didn't want to tempt fate so they continued their training of operatives as if quirks never appeared." Izuku shook his head. It was idiotic not to train a tool special to each person.

"Regardless, only a few of them started using their quirks, and only when they got desperate. Their training was so ingrained into them they didn't even think to use their quirks. Effectively, what this all sums up to, Eraser, is that these guys are here in what I'm guessing is likely a sanctioned operation by their government. Like I said to Naomasa, I'm guessing FSB. If this isn't handled very carefully, then we're looking at an international incident of untold proportions. I don't have to tell you how bad it would be if the world found out that Russian special forces led an assault on Japanese citizens on Japanese soil."

Aizawa suddenly understood the cursing. He also had an entirely new appreciation for how scary this kid was. If he was correct, then he had taken on four special forces operatives before he had arrived and another two after he had gotten there. All without taking more than a couple scratches.

…

It had taken less than an hour after Naomasa made his call for the commissioner general to arrive on-site with a slew of black suits Izuku immediately pegged as the government. After the detective had gotten back and informed them that the commissioner-general was on his way, Izuku had excused himself to change and deal with his and his partner's mothers, who were practically trying to strangle the police on the barricade.

As such, when it came time to meet with the man, Izuku was already in one of the slim-cut black business suits that he reserved for formal events and meetings. He'd always liked suits. It was easy to conceal any number of weapons in them. And his shoulder holster worked much better when he could conceal it. Hatsume wasn't quite wearing something as formal, but then again, she didn't care nearly as much as he did for appearances. He couldn't blame her, either. He'd had to learn how to blend in; she hadn't. Izuku sat behind his desk now. Across from him sat a middle-aged man wearing a similar black business suit. His hair was a dark grey, giving a color gradient against his suit. His stern eyes stared into Izuku's just as his own did back.

When he had arrived, he had stepped into his office and insisted that they speak alone. As Hatsume, Tsukauchi, and Eraserhead had been in his office with him at the time, he had informed him that anything he had to say could be said in front of them, as well as his business partner. He had resisted for a moment but sat instead of continuing an argument.

"Let me be the first to offer my condolences regarding this assault by such a vicious group of fanatics. We aren't sure what they wanted yet, but we're certain that whatever they were after, it is a good thing that they didn't get into the facility to get it. While we aren't certain what group they come from, we have a list of suspects and are expecting the Quirkless Resistance to claim credit for the attack. They likely wanted the weapons your company is developing. If anyone asks, that is as much as any of you know." Midoriya narrowed his eyes and the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. Naomasa felt a shiver run down his spine, and he wasn't even the one Midoriya's gaze was pointed at. The commissioner had just made a massive mistake with his choice of a scapegoat.

"So that is what you're going with for the official story, eh?" Midoriya reached into his desk drawer and opened a manila folder, glancing down at what was in it. "Let me make something very clear, Commissioner. Don't try to bullshit me. That line may work with the others who ask questions, but it won't work with those of us that were involved in this clusterfuck." He slapped the folder down onto the desk and spun it around for the man to see. "The man we have out there tied up is one Malik Kurbanov. As I suspected, he's FSB. I also have, and have read through, the unredacted files for the other eleven members of his unit." Midoriya snapped the folder shut and tossed it to the other side of his desk for the commissioner to peruse.

"I was the one that wanted you contacted so this didn't escalate. I was the one who identified the men as what they were, and it was also me that was willing to go along with whatever bullshit excuse you all cooked up when I went to give an interview to the media later." The commissioner tried to put his hand up and cut off Midoriya.

"Shut up, Commissioner. I had been willing to go along with the politics and cover-up because I know full well the absolute disaster this could turn into if it is found out that twelve Russian agents tried to kill and or kidnap Japanese citizens on Japanese soil, all for the technology in their heads. But in no way am I going to let you make the lives of the quirkless any more miserable than they already are." The commissioner had gone rigid in his seat at the command and underlying fury in Midoriya's voice.

"So here is what is going to happen. I am going to give my statement later that a group of fanatical nationalists tried to break into the facility with their weapons and quirks. They were repelled and the government is on the case. If for some reason you don't like this statement? Deal with it. You pissed on my good graces when you chose to blame the quirkless." Izuku pulled the other eleven files, still in a tied bundle, and set them in front of the man. The commissioner was openly glaring at Izuku.

"Young man, you should show more respect to your elders. We do not take orders from children. Even if you are a bit smart. What? You want to protect some poor group of people who are already despised?" Naomasa could see the twitch starting under Izuku's right eye. A clear sign that he was starting to get annoyed. The commissioner could be both rude and cynical, but he had never, until this moment, thought of the man as stupid. He hadn't been in the field for too long, clearly, if he couldn't see the value of the information Izuku had just placed in front of him, or see that, if he had been able to get that within the hour it took for him to get here, then it was not a kid in front of him.

Izuku smiled now as he leaned into the commissioner's face. It was a cold, biting smile that took the breath from everyone in the room and made Aizawa instinctively reach for his scarf. "You don't have to like me, sir. But you are going to damn well respect me. I am not giving you an order. I am simply telling you that if you do not want two conflicting accounts bringing suspicion upon you, then you'll rethink your scapegoat. Now get the fuck out of my office." Only after the man had rigidly stood and practically stomped out of the room did Izuku sit back down and sigh heavily. Mei chimed in with a muttered, "well that could have gone better."

"Sorry, Nao. I just made your life a whole lot harder, didn't I?" He gestured to the twelve folders still resting on the desk. "You may as well take those. I already went through the trouble of getting them." The detective set his hand on the files and briefly considered his words.

"You did, but frankly I think he deserved that one. He was out of line. Just because something is easy doesn't mean it should be done. Besides, I'll consider these to be repayment. Having these files is going to save a lot of work."

…

The interview had been going well. He had agreed last night to come into the station and give a full interview regarding the events, because generally new companies aren't assaulted by teams of armed assailants. Frankly, it was also a good chance to spread their name. Never let it be said that Izuku was one to pass up free advertising. Initially, it had gone well, all questions he had expected, and to the shock of the reporter, he fielded them like a professional.

It had started to slide sideways, though, when the reporter kept bringing the topic back to what the evil quirks of the villains had been. Either the reporter had been looking for him to say that they hadn't used any, or she had been looking for a reason to bump her ratings with talk of villains and evil quirks. So either the commissioner hadn't let it go as he should have, or society was far more focused on the villain and quirk part of the crime than the crime itself. When he stopped and thought about it, he decided it was the latter. Finally, after the third time the reporter brought the topic back to their quirks, Izuku sighed.

"With all due respect, Ma'am? It doesn't matter. You're looking for something that, in the end, is irrelevant. It doesn't change what happened, how it happened, or why it happened. You are mistaking quirks for superpowers and making these men out to be villains. They aren't. They are people, the same as you or me, and they are dead. That should be lamented as much as the attack. A quirk isn't a superpower. It is a tool. There are no good, bad, or villainous quirks. It is a tool, and it is how we decide to use it that matters."

Izuku pulled his sidearm from inside his suit jacket and set it down on the table between the reporter and himself. "I have set down a gun in between us. Is it going to get up and shoot you?"

"Well, of course not, but that isn't-" Izuku shook his head and cut her off, waving his hand.

"But isn't that exactly it? It isn't going to harm you, because it is a tool. If a gun shoots someone, we hold the person responsible for pulling the trigger. So why are you acting like the assailants' quirks had anything to do with the assault on Moonlit Industries early this morning? Their quirks were nothing more than tools they utilized during the attack. The attack is the story. Focus on that, please.

…

Elsewhere, curled up in a corner, attempting to make herself as small as possible, sat a girl watching the news station. She hadn't meant to bite her sister. She had just smelled so good, but her parents didn't see it that way. They had beat her and called her evil. The little spawn of the devil.

So there she sat, her body hurting all over from the blows, and watched what they had left on because she was too afraid to get up and change it. Too afraid that doing so may bring the blows back down onto her again. That was when the boy on the screen said something that made her want to cry. "There are no good, bad, or villainous quirks."

That's a lie. I'm nothing more than the spawn of the devil. I'm a villain and always will be because of this damned quirk I was born with. But still, she watched. She couldn't take her eyes off the screen because this boy that couldn't be any older than she was, was on the screen. Was saying what she had wanted to hear someone tell her for so long. Then he pulled a gun from his jacket and it shocked her. Why would he carry something like that?

"I have set down a gun in between us. Is it going to get up and shoot you?" She instinctively shook her head and the reporter did the same. Before the reporter could respond, though, the boy continued speaking.

"But isn't that exactly it? It isn't going to harm you, because it is a tool. If a gun shoots someone, we hold the person responsible for pulling the trigger. So why are you acting like the assailants' quirks had anything to do with the assault on Moonlit Industries early this morning? Their quirks were nothing more than tools they utilized during the attack. The attack is the story. Focus on that, please. "

"Midoriya Izuku… Moonlit Industries…" She muttered the names under her breath as she read them from the bottom of the television. She didn't want to live like this anymore. She didn't want to be evil. She wanted what she could do to be a tool. Wanted to think of it as a tool. Not some devil's ability. For the first time in years, she felt a fire she hadn't known she could still feel, and when her family got home that night? She was nowhere to be found.