Bakugo groaned as he walked into the station the next morning.
Note to self: Kazumi's booze is hella strong. Go easy on it next time.
His hangover did nothing to soften the blow of Kazumi cracking the case for them. She was a bartender, a bar owner in a rough part of town, not a detective. But she was a businesswoman, too. The Butcher and the human-trafficking gang were bad for her business, so it was in her best interest to get the case solved as quickly as possible. He only wished that she'd talk to him for any other reason.
But as he made his way into the office, the atmosphere was grim. As if things had gotten worse for the department overnight. Todoroki—an officer who seemed to be perpetually working on some personal missing persons' case—was the only one hard at work. His typically stoic expression remained unchanged compared to everyone else's more morose outlook. Even Izuku looked unnerved and depressed.
"What's going on?" he asked his 'partner'.
"Bakugo, I need to see you and Midoriya in my office," Tsukauchi called, poking his head out of the door.
Great. It's not even nine yet…
The two entered Tsukauchi's office and he sighed.
"Midoriya, you've already been debriefed on what happened last night after you left the station. But… Bakugo, I think we should let you know as well."
"What the hell happened?"
"Three more bodies were found last night, all murdered in the signature manner of the Butcher. One of them was an officer who used to work for this department. Do you remember Nejire Hado?"
"The airhead? I thought she transferred to Nagasaki."
"She was supposed to, but she went missing a few months ago. There was no sign of her until we found her body last night. We also found this on the body and we think it's from the human-trafficking ring you two believe to be involved with the case."
He held out an evidence bag that contained a typed note. Bakugo took it and began to read.
To whom it may concern,
We know how you work. We know what you found out. Do not attempt to interfere with our business or we will act on that.
Do not try to stop us. Leave us be and we will not kill you or your loved ones. Let us do what is needed. This is your first warning. The second will not be so lenient to those involved. If you continue to dig, we will be forced to ensure that our goals continue to be met by any means necessary.
Watch yourselves. Watch your actions.
And fear our hound dog, for he always gets his mark.
Civilization is a disease. We are the cure.
Eight Precepts of Death.
At the bottom of the page, right by the signature, there was a symbol of a peculiar-looking lotus. Obviously the logo of the Eight Precepts. Bakugo felt sick looking at it, knowing that it had been found on a fellow officer.
"We didn't find any prints on it."
"These guys are professionals. They wouldn't risk it."
"We, er… also found kerosene outside a nearby bar. Currently, we're trying to clean it up. It appears someone was trying to burn it down."
"Nearby bar?"
"A place called Tsunami's. How much do you know about the Eight Precepts?"
"I know that they're a group of human-traffickers that mostly prey on young women. Their leader's name is Kai Chisaki and the Butcher is involved with them. If I had to guess… I'd say the Butcher is the hound dog referred to in the note."
"We'll look into it."
"If it helps, Chisaki goes by the name Overhaul."
"You're back with your old informant, eh?"
"Temporarily."
"Well, get to work and figure out where we can find them."
The two detectives exited the office and Bakugo ran for his. Izuku quickly followed, closing the door behind him.
"What's wrong?"
"If somebody was planning to burn down Kazumi's bar, then it can't be a coincidence. I have to warn her to keep an eye out."
"What exactly happened between you two?"
"None of your goddamn business. That's between me and her." He logged onto his computer and began to type out an email. "Whoever was planning to burn it down must've seen us there last night. So they know that we're trying to track the killer down and they want to stop us."
Izuku sighed and sat down across from him.
"I'm not going to leave it alone, you know."
"You really should. To put it bluntly, she's the one who ended things and she's been refusing to speak to me for a year." Bakugo looked up at him with a glare. "You're going to be as obsessed with this as Todoroki is with his personal case."
"He's looking for his sister."
"Hmph."
"If you want to talk about it, I'm here"
"Look up the guy's address where the boss lives. We're taking him down."
"All right..." Izuku headed out and Bakugo hit send on the email.
About twenty minutes later, the number-one detective on the force came back with the results.
"No records of him at all. Well, if you don't count the ticket stub which gives a P.O. box registered to someone else entirely."
"He has an ID. I doubt that's possible."
"They're still looking—something about having to do a national search. I mean, this is the biggest break-through we've had in the entire case. Have you heard anything from your informant?"
"Not yet, but she's probably still asleep. Her bar's open at night, not during the day." He rubbed his head and groaned. "I need some medication. This fucking hangover…"
He dug into his desk drawer and tried to find the small bottle of hangover medication he kept in there—just in case he came into work after a night of drinking. As he did, though, he knocked a small box out of the drawer that tumbled to the ground, right at Izuku's feet.
Out of curiosity, he picked up the box and cracked it open slightly to find…
An engagement ring.
Wait… why would Kacchan have this? He's not with anyone… except…
Oh. Oh God.
Bakugo looked up from his searching to see Izuku with the box and his eyes widened with panic.
"Izuku, give that back!" He lunged for the box, which Izuku willingly dropped in his hand. Bakugo checked it to make sure the ring was okay, then snapped the box shut and shoved it into the back of his drawer.
"Your fight… it was about you proposing to her wasn't it? But why does she still hate you after a year? That makes no sense!"
"There was a lot more shit going on besides that. We exchanged words and things got heated and long story short, she hates me and we're separated."
"So why keep the ring?"
"None of your fucking business. Get the hell out."
Izuku swallowed nervously and obeyed, closing the door behind him.
"Hey, you guys make any progress?" Kirishima asked, approaching the green-haired man.
"A little, but not much. We at least know the name of the human-trafficking ring thanks to that note, and the name of the leader thanks to the info we got from Kazumi."
"What's next?"
"Now we have to wait for the national search to finish up. Once that's done, we can find an address for Chisaki and track him down and hopefully arrest him." Kirishima glanced back at Bakugo's office, looking concerned.
"He's gonna help."
"Yeah. He's just… working through some stuff. But he'll be done pretty quickly."
As if to prove his point, Bakugo came out of the office with his jacket and jabbed a finger at Izuku.
"Let's get going, nerd. I just got word on Chisaki's address from the database."
"We're gonna need a lot more backup. For all we know their entire base is under the house."
"Monoma's team is sitting around doing nothing. We can ask them to be ready to respond to our call for backup. And Todoroki isn't busy. He can ride with us."
"Okay. Let's go."
The drive to Chisaki's house proved to be very awkward, mostly because Izuku had so many burning questions about Kazumi. Not once in the twenty-five years they'd known each other had Bakugo ever mentioned her. She even called him Kacchan—a name that Bakugo despised and only allowed his oldest acquaintances to call him. Something Izuku treasured. Thankfully, Chisaki's house was only five minutes away from the station, so it wasn't awkward for long.
Unfortunately, nobody was home and they didn't have a warrant to enter the premises, leaving them stuck watching the outside of the house. Izuku swallowed nervously, wanting to broach the subject of the fight again but not knowing how to do it. Bakugo's focus was on the house itself. Todoroki was reading through some reports that he'd brought along.
"Do you do anything but read case reports?" Izuku asked his fellow officer.
"I'm looking for someone. So far, I haven't had any luck finding her."
"A girlfriend?"
"My sister. She was disowned by our father when she ran away from home several years ago and I haven't had contact with her since. For all I know, she's dead."
"Yeah, well, we don't have fucking time for this." Bakugo opened the door and got out, grabbing his gun and walking towards the house. The others scrambled to follow him, Izuku rushing up beside him.
"Kacchan, maybe we should get a warrant—"
"It takes a fucking week to get a warrant, Deku. I'm not waiting a week for answers. Let's get in there and bust some shit up."
They reached the door and Bakugo pulled a couple Bobby pins out and proceeded to unlock the door. He entered first, expecting a somewhat normal house—not literally nothing like they found waiting inside.
"It's abandoned. The guy duped us. Check if he left anything behind."
From there, they began to check every area of the house they could, starting upstairs and working their way down. But there was literally nothing except plywood. It was completely and totally empty. Bakugo let out a frustrated growl.
"Let's go. Obviously we're not going to find this Chisaki guy here. Damn bastard…"
Izuku heard something as he walked by a door, though. Like muffled screaming. He went back to the door, ripping it open and rushing down the stairs. Faintly, he heard something snap but he wasn't concerned about that. When he reached the bottom, there was a little girl tied to an exposed pipe on the far wall. Upon seeing him, she looked relieved and started crying. There was a note pinned to her shirt, which Bakugo snatched and began to read.
To whom it may concern,
You now see how we are willing to put children through horrors untold. Now everything you care about will go up in smoke. I hear alcohol burns very well.
Civilization is a disease. We are the cure.
The Eight Precepts of Death.
The same lotus logo from the note found the night before was stamped next to the signature.
Bakugo felt his heart stop for a moment at the words 'up in smoke' and 'alcohol burns well'. His immediate reaction was to drop the note and run for the stairs. Todoroki followed him upon reading the note and wanted to ensure his companion didn't do anything stupid. This, however, meant Izuku was alone with the girl attempting to comfort her as he took out his pocket-knife to saw through the ropes binding her to the pipe.
"It's gonna be okay," he assured her, the ropes breaking. They were already slightly frayed from the girl struggling and broke far more easily than he'd expected.
Clearly, she'd been put here on purpose.
"Are you okay?" he asked, picking her up. She nodded.
"Thank you," she whispered hoarsely before passing out.
As he carried her out of the house, all he could think about was why they would do such a thing. This girl couldn't have been older than six, hardly in line with the typical victims the Eight Precepts seemed to go after.
Then a horrible thought occurred to him.
They did it because of me. They knew I loved kids, which means they've been watching us.
Wait, if they've been watching us…
The note from before was lying on the ground where the car had been. Izuku shifted the girl so he could pick it up and read the contents. His eyes widened and his heart started pounding.
Kazumi.