CHAPTER 10 – WHITE NOISE

Nishikawa stormed out of the office, and almost slammed into Kurosawa. Dazed, he stumbled a few steps but managed to right himself without dropping any of the impressive pile of work he was carrying. Nishikawa struggled to compose herself, as she suddenly became aware that the bullring was empty. She glanced around, taking in the numerous empty desks in the officer area, the handful of officers still left working away diligently. She frowned as she turned back to Kurosawa, relieving him of half his stack without asking.

"Where'd everyone go?"

"Hm? Oh, there was an incident down with a bag snatcher, so a couple of officers got called to that. And then there was an attempted robbery. Oh, and a domestic dispute called the rest of the officers that are out plus some of the detectives."

Nishikawa frowned. "That seems a little overkill for a domestic dispute."

"I guess. Dispatch said it was a bit of a scene. The detectives went because they thought it was connected to one of their cases."

Nishikawa nodded, leaning against the wall as Kurosawa opened the door to his office with one hand. They shuffled in and deposited their stacks on the desk. Earlier confrontation momentarily set aside, Nishikawa smiled as she took in the small office. Kurosawa had half a dozen small bobble-heads lined up on his bookshelf, bookending the books and old files he kept there. His desk, minus the paperwork, was bare. Two semi-comfortable looking chairs sat across from his desk, and a file cabinet stood in the corner. Noticing her gaze, Kurosawa gave a lopsided smile.

"Honestly, I'm surprised they gave me the office at all."

"All detectives get one."

"Yeah, and I'm still a junior detective."

Nishikawa rolled her eyes, turning to face him properly. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Just means they expect big things from you."

Kurosawa wrinkled his nose. "Really? I thought it was so they could drown me in paperwork without flooding the whole bullring."

Nishikawa snorted and rolled her eyes. "Only if you become too annoying."

Kurosawa shot her a mock glare, looking more like a puppy play fighting than a grown man. Nishikawa offered him the most innocent look she could muster in return. When he rolled his eyes, she smiled more sincerely. She motioned to the enormous pile of reports on his desk.

"In all seriousness, this is quite a bit of work…"

Kurosawa shrugged. "The chief has me fielding a lot of cases to redistribute among the detectives."

Nishikawa's eyebrows rose. "They're expecting big things indeed."

Another shrug. "I guess."

Nishikawa nudged him playfully. "Have a little faith, Kurosawa. One day you might even have an office with a couch!"

He laughed outright, and Nishikawa laughed along. Then, noticing the time, she excused herself quickly and walked briskly back to her office. She stopped in long enough to collect the missing girl's file from her desk before lopping back out and heading to Naomasa's office. The door was shut, and she could hear muffled voices through the door. She leaned against the wall beside the door, staring across the bullring at the clock mounted above the elevator and deciding resolutely to wait ten minutes before knocking. She let her mind wander, eyes drifting across the activity in the bullring without seeing as her mind wandered from one thought to another. Distracted, Nishikawa did not notice her own quirk slowly intensifying until she became acutely aware of everyone around her all at once.

The handful of officers sitting at their desks each radiating a similar sense of boredom, their individuality punctuated by small flashes of anxiety or humor. Kurosawa in his office, resolutely focused on a case as he sifted through gruesome details that sent spikes of discomfort and horror lancing through her skull. The chief in his office still seething and worrying over their meeting that morning and all his other responsibilities. And behind her, two presences; Naomasa and another person she recognized distinctly but could not place. Her mind sifted through the list of people she knew well enough to recognize by the sense of their mind alone and came up short. Baffled, she went over the list again in her mind but stopped short when the door swung open beside her.

Still semi-dazed from her quirk's unexpected take-over, Nishikawa stared dumbly for a moment as Naomasa stepped out of his office followed by his guest. The first thing that registered was the ridiculous hair, standing out like gaudy bunny ears. She blinked. The smile came into focus next, and then eyes so ridiculously blue she thought she was staring at a star. Something in her mind shifted at the thought and she frowned as another, similar pair of eyes flashed across her mind. She shook herself mentally, realizing Naomasa was talking to her.

"-could have just knocked."

She blinked hard once, trying to look like she had caught everything he said.

"I wasn't waiting that long. And I didn't want to disturb in case it was important."

She turned to offer All Might a tight smile. "Good morning."

"Good morning. Are you feeling better?"

Nishikawa went to respond instinctively before something in his phrasing caught her attention. "Better?"

All Might fidgeted, suddenly looking horrified. Beside him, Naomasa's face went carefully blank. The hero cleared his throat awkwardly, stumbling over his response unintelligibly until he finally seemed to collect himself.

"I u-uh… I just meant, I saw you on my way in this morning. You seemed to be in a bad mood."

"Right…"

Naomasa cleared his throat abruptly. "Didn't you need to be going, All Might?"

Looking relieved, the hero nodded enthusiastically. He excused himself quickly. Naomasa waved toward his office with one hand, telling Nishikawa to get settled while he walked All Might out. She shrugged, still looking suspiciously between the two men before turning away to settle on her partner's couch. She completely missed the look Naomasa shot at his friend as she turned away. The two men did not speak until they were at the elevator.

"What was that?" Naomasa hissed.

"I'm sorry! She has been helping to train young Midoriya. It slipped my mind."

Naomasa shot him the most annoyed look he could muster. "Are you kidding me with this? If you're getting this familiar just tell her already."

The elevator doors slid open then and the hero took the moment to disguise his own guilty expression. He turned to face his friend as he jammed a thumb into the control panel. His face twisted with his internal conflict.

"You know why I cannot do that."

"No, I know why you think you can't do it. This is ridiculous-!"

He was cut off by the elevator doors sliding shut between them. He huffed annoyed, racking a hand through his hair as a headache began to pound behind his eyes. He pulled a deep breath in through his nose, fighting down frustration as he crossed the bullring back to his office.

Nishikawa barely looked up as he stepped into the office. She leafed through the report, stopping every few pages to read a section again. Naomasa dropped into his chair with a groan.

"Everything okay?"

Naomasa nodded, though he knew she would not see. "Yeah, don't worry about it."

"What was he here for anyway?"

"Oh, he was just concerned for a mutual friend of ours. Anyway, let's get to work."

"I'm not sure there's much work to do. Her credit card is still active and in the city, she's making frequent calls on her cell phone. There's even a statement from her roommate in here saying she met a guy." Nishikawa looked up at her partner. "Are we sure the mother isn't just overreacting."

"She threw a pretty serious tantrum yesterday. Besides, how hard can it be to find this girl with all that info? Let's just find her and put this woman's fears to rest."

"Alright, well it looks like she's staying pretty frequently at this high-class hotel down by the train station. Shall we go check it out then?"

. . . . . . .

All Might walked out of the police station purposefully. His mind buzzed with worry, replaying the moment outside of Naomasa's office on a loop. He had gone in that morning to check in with Naomasa, more than a little concerned about the conversation he had shared with the man's partner the night before. He had received little reassurance in return, only news of strange threatening messages that she refused to explain. So when they had crossed paths in the station, too caught up in speculation, he had completely forgotten that their conversation the day before had been under his true persona. Another wave of anxiety and, surprisingly, embarrassment washed through him. Desperate to side-track himself, he thought about Midoriya's training. Four months in and showing signs of overwork. Yagi shook his head, equal parts impressed and annoyed. He found it difficult to be concerned, or at least as concerned as he thought he should be, considering the progress the boy was making. Particularly with the help Nishikawa had offered in his combat training. Yagi groaned as his mind circled back to her and, subsequently, the incident less than five minutes prior.

His pace quickened, and he ducked into an abandoned alley, allowing his hero form to slip away. Yagi stumbled out of the other end of the alley, clutching his scar as the usual twinge rippled through him. He wheezed, doubling over just a little more than usual to try to alleviate the uncomfortable stretch on his scar. A man walking beside him shot him a concerned look but moved on without saying anything. When the pain eased, Yagi quickened his pace maneuvering deftly through the throng of people. His apartment building came into view at the end of the block.

He was nearly at the door when something caught his attention. From the small space between his apartment building and the condemned building beside it voices rose in semi-hushed conversation. Yagi's hero instincts kicked in. He slowed his pace, glancing around carefully for anyone on watch, before stopping entirely just shy of the opening. He peered around the corner carefully. The space, too small to realistically be called an alley, was cluttered with soggy half-melted cardboard boxes and trash bags. At the end, half-hidden beneath the crumbling fire escape of an adjacent building, to figures stood huddling in conversation. One stood with his back to the alley's mouth, an indistinguishable shape wrapped in an oversized trench coat that made them appear short and squat. The other stood facing the street, at an angle so the shadows cast strange patterns across his form and worked like camouflage on their dark hair and clothes. Clearly, both were upset, and their voices rose and fell with the cadence of an argument making no headway. He thought they sounded male; one older and gravely with age, the other smooth and charismatic even at a distance. Yagi strained for snatches of conversation.

"-to risky… never leaves the-"

"-not the point-"

"-get caught-"

"-already destabilized-"

"-knew something was wrong-"

There was a lull where their voices dipped into harsh whispers and Yagi could make nothing out. Then as though the argument had never happened, the dark man clapped his companion on the shoulder. He retreated, taking a step back into the recesses of the alley and seeming to disappear into a wall of pure shadow. Yagi blinked. Once. Twice. The man was gone. He craned his neck to get a better view of the alley. Remembering the other man just in time, Yagi ducked back out of view as the man turned and made his way back toward the street. Not wanting to get caught Yagi hurried to merge back with the crowd, he shuffled the last few feet to the apartment building's door. He stopped at the door, taking his time with it to casually glance back at the alley's mouth.

The man emerged a moment later, pulling his coat tight around him. He was middle-aged, not quite as old as Yagi had assumed from his voice, but just as squat as his silhouette had hinted. His hair was a thining, starchy color kept combed back from his face. He looked like an old businessman. Vaguely, Yagi recognized him from the elevator, the night Nishikawa had all but fled her apartment. The man glanced around him as he emerged from the alley. He had a mean, look to him that Yagi found altogether startling, until a moment later it vanished so smoothly he thought he had imagined it.

Their eyes met briefly, and Yagi cringed, hurrying into the building like a hunted creature. The security guard at the desk waved vaguely, while a couple stood at the elevator waiting. He ducked into the mailbox alcove, keeping an eye on the door. For a long moment, nothing happened. The security guard coughed, and the elevator doors slid open to welcome the couple who stepped in without pause. Just as the doors began to slide closed, the man marched into the building. His eyes swept the room, taking in first the security guard then the elevator doors sliding shut with a gentle swish. The man made a vaguely frustrated noise, marching toward the stairs and wrenching the fire door open with force. He stormed out of sight and Yagi sighed. He crept back out carefully, nearly jumping out of his skin when the security guard chuckled.

"What'd you do to him?"

"Wh-u-uh… Nothing."

The security guard made a vaguely unimpressed face. He pointed at the staircase and slightly up, as though he could pinpoint exactly where the man was in the stairwell.

"Guy's been livin' here for almost four years. He's never come in in such a huff. Leastwise not like that."

"I had nothing to do with his mood. I just ran into him outside."

"Mhm… Listen, I don't really care. Dude gives me the heebie-jeebies anyway. Always comin' and goin' at odd hours, always looking so… beige."

Yagi faltered. "Beige?"

"Ye, like the kind of guy you'd never notice or pay attention to."

"But you pay attention?"

"Like I said, dude creeps me out. There's somethin' just not right about him. He's too-"

"Beige?" Yagi offered.

The guard snorted. "Exactly."

Yagi nodded slowly like he thought the guard might go completely unhinged at any moment. "…Right."

The guard shrugged. "Either way, you'd best get goin'. He's comin' back down the stairs like somethin' bit him."

Yagi made a surprised face. The guard winked. "Heat signature. Off you go now."

With a curt nod, Yagi hurried back out the door. He crossed the street quickly, cursing his height for the first time in a long time as he maneuvered through the crowds of people. He turned the corner in no time, but only stopped to check behind him several blocks later. When he found no signs of pursuit, he allowed himself to relax. He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to Naomasa.

SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENING AT THE APARTMENT. KEEP NISHIKAWA AWAY. -Yagi

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