Third chapter! Um, yeah nothing important. Onwards!
Training is intense the past two months. He has ten months to work through, and he already feels like he's dying. Izuku sighs as he makes his way towards the Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, thinking about the murdered victim from the day he met All Might. He's lost a bit of his sleep from seeing the corpse in his dreams. The recent murders haven't been out to the public yet—maybe not to raise panic but he knows that they might release a small statement about being careful being alone and traveling at night. Because of this, Izuku's curiosity got ahold of him. See, he isn't a huge fan of breaking the law, but he asked an international friend hack into the police files and downloaded them onto a USB flash drive and has sent it to him. They made sure that it is unknown, everything they used to hack is now gone and they are sure no one knows about the hacking—yet. That was last week and now he has a somewhat up to date files of the case. He only does this when he finds the bodies of a serial killer's victims. This is only the third time. He keeps everything to himself, but sends in help to the police office when he notices something they skimmed over. Midoriya is always careful so he keeps the journal hidden and only takes it out in his room. His mom doesn't know, a good thing or else she'll have a heart attack at what her son is doing. So far, everything is doing okay and he's been able to update some of his theories on the Crimson Artist. He just needs his conscious cleared of the corpse that he sees at night. Once the killer is apprehended, he'll be at peace and at knowing no one will end up like that innocent person.
"Young Midoriya!" Jumping at the sudden noise, the said teenager stumbles and looks up at the source of the voice. He smiles widely at seeing Toshinori in his skeletal form, but it fades at seeing Tsukauchi. He didn't find out. He can't have found out, so why is he here? He tells himself not to freak out and goes over towards them. "Tsukauchi Naomasa here needs to speak with you."
Don't panic. "Ah, hello, sir," he greets with a small bow. Please, make this quick. I have to get back to training and not dying. Please, make it quick. "What brings you here?"
"I know you have files to this case." Shit! "I don't want to know how you were able to attain it and frankly, I'm not going to ask. I do need your opinion on something though." Izuku blinks but nods, ignoring the look of disbelief on Yagi's face upon hearing the statement. "First, how are you feeling? Seeing that corpse?"
"Fine. But it's difficult to sleep at times." He rubs his eyes when he says that. "Although, it's quite interesting that the killer uses the quotes from various of killers from a long time ago. The portrait is probably a piece of a bigger picture," he murmurs.
"That's what I wanted your opinion on. Every body the police finds, it makes no sense. We've been thinking it may be a puzzle that the killer has made and wants us to solve. If so, why go to so much trouble?" He snorts and pushes his hair back, sighing as he says, "Never try to understand the mind of killer, you'll drive yourself insane."
The two others stare at him, a silence falling onto them. "Sometimes it's a good thing to think like a killer," pipes up Midoriya, drawing looks of confusion from the two adults. Seeing this, the teenager presses on, his fingers twitching in nervousness, "Think about this. If you think like a writer, you may have an initial clue as to why they made such a piece. Stare long enough at the poem of a poet, reviewing different literary elements and putting yourself in their place, you may get an initial clue as to what was going through the poet's mind during the making of their poem." He presses his thumb onto his bottom lip, biting the side of the nail. "What I'm trying to say is to catch a killer, you'll have to think like a killer. Preferably one with an artistic view of death, and you may understand why the Crimson Artist is leaving portraits, maybe come up with a mental image of the big picture. They have artistic abilities, so they might be taking inspiration from old artists." He blinks once again, looking up at them and fixing his spectacles. "That's my thought process on the matter anyways. If it makes sense. I'm not well at verbally expressing my thoughts."
They gape at the kid, who nods and gets to work on training. As they're left alone again, they exchange facial expressions. "That's one heck of a kid. I still need to tell him not to hack into police files since that's against the law. I don't know how he even hacked it since he doesn't seem to be the type to know how to hack them."
Toshinori watches the teenager train, humming a tune under his breath as he works. The kid seems honest as hell, so he probably is right at the fact that he doesn't seem to be the type to hack or even break the law. He's smart and seeming to be a good analyst, so that'll be a good skill to work on once he gets into U.A. maybe he can get Nedzu to help work on it. "Do you think he may have had some help?"
"Maybe, it's likely that he did. Ask him for me. I'm sure he won't lie to you. I should get to the office and relay the message. Hopefully, we can stop the killer before the picture is complete. It's good seeing you again, Toshinori. I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other more than usual this year." Naomasa shakes hands with the pro-hero and waves farewell to Izuku who's picking up metal and putting it in a truck. "That kid will be going places, will see things not many people see in their lifetime," he mutters as he gets into his car.
The days turn into weeks which turn into months. With all this time, Izuku is working harder than ever before. He makes changes to the schedule set by All Might, and he knows he shouldn't have but he did. He has to work harder or else he will be too far behind the other students. If he doesn't work hard, then why is he working at all? He has to put in his all, pushing past his limits, pushing past his aching muscles. Taking Tae Kwan Do, training, researching, studying—Izuku found them to be a good way to keep his mind off the corpses that hang at the edge of his vision, to keep his mind off of the piling corpses from the murders. All the while, he goes around the city in boredom and finding people that he can help if he's told to not train on a certain day by his mom. He eats better than before, trying to keep his health up, but is unknowingly letting it drop by the overexertion that he's putting on himself.
During this time, Katsuki Bakugou seems to have made it his goal to make Izuku's life a living hell before he goes off to "become the number one hero and leaves this rundown school"—to which holds extras and he's the protagonist (more like the antagonist, he thought when Bakugou had announced that). His bullying is getting worse and of course, the teachers do nothing. Midoriya doesn't expect anything for he's lost all trust in teachers, and because of that, he has trouble trusting adults in general. The only few he does trust is Toshinori, Tsukauchi, and his mom. Most adults never done much for him. Some of the adults that knew of the bullying, did nothing and make up excuses on for Bakugou. He tries his best not to be a victim but it's difficult, especially when no matter how much confidence he can gather up, Katsuki finds a way to rip it down. That was before he just started ignoring Bakugou entirely.
He remembers a time when he would let himself get hurt by the bullies of the school. Now, he just ignores them. He rolls his eyes at their idiotic comments, their idiotic insults—basically their ignorance and idiocy. They believe him to be a psychopath? Fine, let them. He stopped trying to say anything different. So what if he's a freak? It's better than being normal anyway. He ignores them, blasting old Western rock music, sometimes old Japanese rock like Cløwd and DatuRA. That's basically what his music player is full of: old anime openings—some of them newer—Jrock, and mostly old Western rock. He's surprised that he hasn't messed up his hearing because of that. Mostly ignoring them doesn't always work, and if they try to lay a finger on him (he'd break it if he could), he pushes it off and quickly makes his way out of the place, sometimes scurrying to a more public place that if anyone is to recognize them, their future reputation as a hero will plummet. His life is okay now, but the slight trauma is still there. Either way, he isn't letting anyone lay hand on him. He's through with being a victim, and he will prove it once he gets into U.A.
If anyone were to ask, Izuku Midoriya is not breaking into an apartment. Izuku Midoriya does not know how to pick a lock. Of course, that's what it looks like but that's not it. Nope. He has no clue what people are talking about if they're to ask, but who would ever ask? The idiot basically lost his key and now has to break in. It's not really a break in if it's his home, is it? No, because he lives there. He'll have to tell his mom about the lost key and get a new one made. He sighs making his way over to the kitchen. He grabs a small snack and immediately heads for his room, throwing his backpack down onto the bed. He's almost there. So close. Will this be enough? It should be. He's so tired. It won't kill him to sleep for a while, after all he's worked so hard now. Resting will do him good anyways, he's had a stressful few months.
It's been ten months since the second corpse has been found. Ten months since the whole investigation started. After the first five months, ten people were reported missing and were found killed. Three months ago, the released a statement on the murders and another six people were reported missing and killed. Two months ago, the trail went cold. Two months ago, no more murders have happened. It was as if the killer went into hiding, for a while. Because of this, Izuku had asked them to search for unsolved cases that dealt with the same thing—no leads. The case went cold and everything returned to somewhat normal.
The day was long and with Tsukauchi's visit, it put him on edge. "The case went cold. The trail stopped and no one has been reported missing and we haven't found any recent murders fitting the profile." Dark eyes hold an emotion, maybe more and it's difficult to read. He stares at the lapping waves, his lips set to a firm line. "We have no reason to believe that the Unsub just stopped for no reason. They might have almost gotten caught, what with the news releasing the murders, and the patrols, I'm guessing they're laying low for now."
Oh, so that is a problem. Great. Midoriya sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Has there been any other cases like this one? Where they'll kill for a while and then just stop after a moment? There's no reason to believe that they won't do this again. Some murderers have a need to kill. This one just likes torturing people—they love the thrill they get for hurting them. This is a type where they need to hurt someone just because. It won't last long. Once the news stops covering the murder, a killing frenzy will ensue—don't you think?"
Tsukauchi hums as he glances at the teen with a smile. He can see where Toshinori likes him. Yes, he might've done well with choosing him. "You'd make a find Detective. You know, you can be a crime investigator and a hero at the same time. You should take criminology classes during summer breaks. Maybe do some online courses during the school year, but it'll probably be better to do the classes during the summer. It'll be nice to have someone as smart as you to be on our team."
"Are you sure that's possible? Me taking college courses? Won't it be costly?"
"I'll handle that. Just speak to your mom about it and I can help you with it the rest. Just don't let it interfere with training."
A smile comes across his face. "Thank you, but I don't want you to spend money on me for classes. I'll find a way to pay for them."
Toshinori is staring at the boy who is screaming at the top of his lungs from pent up emotions. He isn't sure what type of emotions, for all he knows it's probably a mixture of them. He sees him sway and stumble in at the top and quickly moves to catch him when he falls. The kid is still wearing sunglasses. Seriously? Has he really not taken them off, even once? He understands that he has light sensitivity, but he's sure that they would've fallen off by now. He doesn't ask and just gives him a speech. "You can now receive my power." He looks down at the blinding smile that he's grown so used to that he'll never want to see it disappear. He holds out the hair for him and sees the smile fade into confusion. "Eat this."
"Uh, what?" His voice squeaks. It squeaked! Yagi wants to laugh but he doesn't, explaining why he needs to in the first place. "Wait! Wait!" That's all he gets out by the time he's forcing Izuku to take the hair. Once everything is settled down, All Might gives him a piece of advice.
Unaware to them, Death is watching the two of them. The Reaper is amused at seeing her Champion and his predecessor acting like a bunch of dorks. She knows of his want to be a hero, she knows where he's going and she needs to speak with him, needs to give him something. Something other than the first gift, maybe this time he won't have much fear for this new gift. "May—be, Cham—no, I—zu—ku, will . . . like this." Death makes her way towards the boy and grabs his arm, pulling him into the next alleyway. She removes the glasses and presses the gift to him. "Use it. Can . . . hide it. Call for . . . it."
Izuku stares at her with uncertainty. He looks at the gift and notices it to be a scythe. "I can't. I don't know how to use it." He takes a step back when she moves forward, but doesn't move any more than that. She places a skeletal finger on his forehead, forcing himself to ignore the stench radiating off her. His eyelids flutter close and something flashes across his vision. He shudders when the smell gets too much, when the images overwhelm him. Soon the scythe is gone and he's left alone. "She needs to stop doing things like this," he whispers, rushing out and heading to the train to get to the academy. But it can be useful, his mind argues. One can't rely on their quirk for long—you can't anyway. You barely even know how to use something that isn't even yours. This is not yours and you have yet to use it.
Shut up!
I'm right. You know that. You can't face reality yet, but soon you will. You're the Champion of Death, not the Savior of Lives. You see monsters, you see when someone will die but can't save them, you see Death itself. You're a freak, one who shouldn't be alive. Your eyes are cursed and you can't get rid of them. You've already tried.
He ignores that, having already made it to the platform. He quickly heads to the academy, ready to start his hero life. That comes crashing down when he trips. Or I can just die, he thinks, but he never hits the ground since he feels somewhat weightless.
"We wouldn't want you tripping. That'll be a sign of bad luck." Standing there is a brunette with rosy cheeks. She's smiling at him as she releases him from her quirk. "Sorry about using my quirk on you."
"Oh! It's fine," he says quickly with a nervous smile. She nods and walks away with a bright farewell. I actually spoke to someone! And they were nice to me! He stops at the thought. Okay, I may have problems if I think like that.
"Death won't in-ter-fere. No. Free chance."