Several minutes before...
Ochako and Momo ran from the train station, taking a different route from the men to the jail.
"Ochako... We're doing this to fix things, right. But you shouldn't just forgive Izuku so quickly." Momo said.
"I don't know..." Ochako sighed. She thought about how she could forgive him, but kept dwelling on the fact that he didn't sympathize with her losing the ability to use her Quirk.
"We are going to interrogate that villain, before the boys do." The Zero-gravity user said.
"Sounds good to me." Momo shrugged. "I hate to see you two fight, but he needs time to see what he did wrong before you give him forgiveness."
"I...I'm sure he knows..." Ochako sighed.
"Let's just get to the jail and see for ourselves." The tall Creation Quirk user suggested.
The girls picked up their pace and made it to the jail.
Upon arriving inside, they spoke at the front desk.
"Excuse us, but we captured the villain who attacked the festival earlier today, and we wanted to be the ones to question him." Momo explained.
"Hero names?" The man at the front desk asked.
"Creati and Uravity." Momo answered.
"Ah that's right. Well we've had a detective try the villain but he didn't budge much. I wish you gals good luck. Just down the hall. Big room with a one-way window, can't miss it. He's inside handcuffed to the table." He explained.
"Will we recognize him?" Ochako asked.
"Oh yeah. He's still in costume, but we removed his mask. Prosthetic fingers guy, right? Yeah. You'll know 'em when you see 'em." The man pointed.
The heroines bowed in gratitude then walked down said hall. "I'm surprised we beat the boys here." Ochako said.
"Yeah, they would have told us if any other heroes were here questioning Inflictor." Momo concurred.
They saw the wide window and passed by to reach the door. Inside, the villain sat at the table with his hands cuffed and his mask and hat off.
"Ready?" Momo asked.
"It's not everyday I get to interrogate someone who took my Quirk away..." She sighed.
"Quirk or not, he knows we can take him." Momo said, giving her friend a "we can do it!" smile.
Ochako smiled back and nodded. "Okay, let's do this."
Momo opened the door and they walked inside.
Inflictor didn't look at them as they stepped in, only at where they were sitting down.
"Alright. You already didn't comply with the detective. That's not good for your record." Momo frowned.
"...He's not the one I wanted to see." He said softly. "So thank you for being the ones to come."
"You more comfortable with people you've met before? How cute." Momo glared.
"You could see me as more than my prosthetics." He explained.
"How do you think that?" Ochako asked.
"You two are nicer than most heroes I've encountered." Inflictor said.
Momo picked up a clipboard on their end of the table and skimmed it.
"Says your name is Akihisa Eto. Mercenary for hire..." Momo inspected further. "Your 'jobs' have consisted of eliminating a single target with diseases. So."
Inflictor gulped.
"What drove you to attack on a larger scale? You're obviously no terrorist expert." She scoffed, keeping her serious expression.
"Honestly... I would never do something like this, to this level. But I was approached by some men..." He explained.
Ochako wanted to bring up him attacking Izuku the other night. She wanted to know if that was a part of this. And it would disclose any bit of a secret her identity was to this villain.
"L-Let me see that file." She asked, reaching out to the clipboard.
Momo passed it to her and stepped closer to Inflictor. "We don't have all day."
Ochako read the paper. Akihisa Eto, former doctor at Nagoya Hospital. Fired for assault on patients. Lost his fingers to the Yakuza. Mercenary/assassin for hire. 30 confirmed targets, 28 confirmed kills vial lethal pathogen. He could tell his story, but it won't help the fact that he's murdered people for money.
"Who were those men?" Momo asked.
"I...I can't exactly tell you." He sighed.
"You don't really have a choice here, Inflictor. Would you rather we call you that, or Akihisa?" Momo stared down at him.
"Akihisa is fine." He sighed. "You'll believe one of them. Nucleon."
The girls looked at each other. Ochako grew worry in her face but quickly hid it.
"Yeah. Nucleon hired me to do this. Something about controlling the world by controlling Quirks." Akihisa said.
"Son of a bitch. He would do that." Momo sighed.
"Were you the one who broke him out of prison?" Ochako asked.
"Me? No... That was the other guy. The other one who hired me alongside Nucleon." Akihisa said.
"So you didn't break them out of prison." Momo repeated.
"I specialize in diseases, Creati. I'm not a master prison breaker." He said.
"What about your buddy. The one with the gas Quirk. I bet you two could've done some damage." Momo suggested.
"No. They assigned him to work with me in spreading the pathogen via the air. But I never bothered to warn him about why I wear a mask." Akihisa said. "He was just another one of their hired goons."
"How many do they have?" Ochako asked.
"It's hard to tell. I only saw whatever and whoever they let me see." Akihisa said. "But I like you girls. So I'll tell you about the big guy who did break Nucleon out."
"Please do." Momo said, growing rather impatient with his not taking the situation serious.
"He's the reason I took the job... Not the money. Not the attention. Him..." Akihisa sighed. "Years ago, I got a little too close to the Eight Precepts of Death dealing Quirk-related drugs."
"Sounds familiar." Ochako frowned.
"But I wasn't one of them. I was a doctor..." He lowered his head. "I was born with the ability to take someone's illness, whatever it was, and extract it from their body, and put it into mine. My immune system and bodily protections were higher than most other humans so I could handle them without dying, then deject them into vials to be tested and cured. That was my specialty."
"We don't have time for you life story." Momo reminded him.
"I've never told anyone this and it makes sense why I took the job, okay? You want answers, this is how I'll give them." He said.
"Or I could make you get to the point." Momo threatened. A long rod began to form and grow out of her arm.
"Let him finish, Creati." Ochako insisted.
Akihisa nodded toward Ochako and continued.
"I was working on a way to take someone's cancer and cure it through my body." He said. "The hospital wouldn't fund me, they thought this project was impossible for my limitations. The bank wouldn't give me a loan either. So I turned everywhere else I could before I found the Eight Precepts again... But they cheated me. They took my technology I worked with and... They took my fingers in an attempt to remove my Quirk..." He looked down at his handcuffed wrists, flexing his intimidating robotic finger replacements.
"Thankfully, my Quirk could still work in me through the palms of my hands, but I needed something for injections to work in place of fingers so I had these developed..." He lifted his hands on the table. "My patients stopped trusting in me. Many were even terrified of my scarred appearance. One day... I snapped. I tried to force a treatment on a patient...a little boy..."
Momo grimaced. Ochako gave a sad look.
"I lost everything that day. And I had nothing to blame but myself. But there was no way I could come back from that. So I turned to the only thing I could in using my Quirk. I started developing lethal diseases and selling them, and myself for assassin work." Akihisa then slammed his hands on the table.
"You think I like being a villain?! I was never meant to be this!" He sighed and lowered his head as his fit of rage abruptly ended.
He then chuckled. "So when Mr. Quirk God and Nucleon showed up, promising a better world, in which my services as a doctor could be restored, I couldn't take them seriously. Until I saw what he was capable of..."
Momo stepped back. "So you became one of Nucleon's cultists. Alright."
Akihisa frowned. "You think I'm another one of Nucleon's psychotic visionaries? They just hired me and I liked the idea but I'm no cultist."
"You told us your story, now I think it's time we hear another side to it."
A BOOM from outside shook the building.
"Looks like you're about to." Akihisa smirked.