A couple of quick notes: 1) This chapter does include descriptions of a crime scene that may be distressing to some readers. If that is something you don't want to read skip the section marked off with *** at the beginning and end. This is the only time I will describe what she saw in detail and whenever it comes up again I will be significantly more vague. I tried to avoid using to much detail, but use your best judgement. 2) Things will get better for Mizuki and everyone else in the near future, the story will get lighter soon. 3) Do what you need to do to take care of yourselves!

Aizawa had worked with Detective Iwata before, she was an older woman with sharp features and grey hair who took pride in her work as a police officer. She was incredibly good at her job, but she probably wasn't the best person to be working with what had to be a severely traumatized child given that her specialty was criminal interrogation. The pro-hero stopped outside the door to her office and went to knock when he heard the detective speak, sounding exacerbated, "Please stop crying. Please, please stop crying Mizuki-chan. I promise, you'll be out of here sooner if you stop crying. Just," he knocked quickly, cutting off whatever the woman was going to add knowing it would not be good for the poor kid.

"Aizawa-san! Come in!" The detective sounded relieved.

Detective Iwata sat behind her desk looking just as relived to see him as she had sounded when she'd called him in, while in front of her sat a tiny girl with black hair pulled back into two braids. She was holding a large orange and white cat that was wearing a red vest. While the cat was staring angrily at the woman the child was silently shaking.

"Mizuki-chan, your cousin Aizawa-san is here, he's your great-uncle Aizawa Shouhei's son! You remember your great-uncle, right?" The bespectacled girl didn't respond to the woman, but she turned to look at the black-haired man. Her glasses were wet with tears, as was the rest of her face, her eyes were bloodshot, and she looked as if she'd been crying for quite a while. But there was no mistaking it, this girl was the almost spitting image of pictures he had seen of his father as a kid. They had the same roundish faces, noses, black hair, brown eyes, pale skin, and smattering of freckles across their noses and cheeks. If you cut her hair and took off her glasses they would have passed for twins.

Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind the pro-hero moved to grab the box of tissues sitting on the detective's desk and handed them to the girl before sitting in the empty chair besides her.

"Thank you, sir," she mumbled shakily.

"Don't worry about it," he tried to send her a reassuring look, "do you want some water?"

"Yes please." Detective Iwata sighed deeply, as if annoyed, but grabbed a bottle of water from under her desk and handed it to the girl. She struggled for a few moments trying to get it open before handing it to the man sitting next to her. He opened it carefully and reminded her to drink it slowly.

The detective let her drink half of the bottle before speaking again, "I'm going to ask you some questions about what you saw when you got home from school now that he's here."

The seven-year-old audibly swallowed before shakily nodding. "Okay Momo-chan, can you," she choked on her words for a moment before taking a deep breath and continuing, "can you use your quirk now?" Aizawa looked at the pair and watched as the cat raised a paw and placed it on the girl's cheek. A faint purple light radiated from the paw and the girl abruptly stopped shaking and took another deep breath seeming much more composed than she had even a few seconds earlier.

Aizawa was shocked for a moment, and it took a lot of self-control to prevent himself from flinching. He knew these types of service animals, almost every pro-hero did. The "calming cats" were cats with a powerful quirk, not only were they smarter than the average cat, they could also release a chemical from their paws that helped temporarily calm down anyone whose skin they touched.

Despite an intensive effort to breed the cats only one or two from each litter would have the quirk, so, they were expensive and in high demand amongst heroes with PTSD. Heroes that often worked in rescue operations also loved them, as they were a great resource to help keep civilians from panicking. There was no way on Earth his cousin had made enough money to buy one, so someone must have given her this cat because of her experiences with her uncle. The officer earlier hadn't been kidding when he'd said that her life had been a shitshow.

The detective shook Aizawa from his thoughts by asking her first question. "What happened today Mizuki-chan?" the woman had a recording device on her desk and a note pad sitting in front of her.

"Today was the last day of school before summer vacation. My mom was supposed to pick me up after the judo-club meeting Izuku and I had after school and we were going to get ice cream to celebrate the fact that I was the top student this semester."

"Who is Izuku?"

"Midoriya Izuku is my best friend, and my next-door neighbor. We train together so we can be heroes someday." Aizawa made a mental note to ask her what type of training they were doing so he could make sure they weren't hurting themselves accidentally. Seven going on eight was incredibly young to be doing any sort of intensive training.

"Okay, continue please."

"While I was changing out of my school cloths and into my judo gear, I got a text from my mom," the girl stopped to pull out her phone, a small model with limited capabilities that was popular with parents that wanted their kid to have something in case of a villain attack or emergency, "It says: 'Mizu-chan I have to work later than I thought altering this dress, please come home when you're done'. I don't think she sent it; Mom never calls me Mizu-chan."

The detective nodded and the girl continued, "I changed back into my school uniform after the club meeting finished, and then I ran home with Momo-chan. When we got to our apartment complex Momo-chan seemed nervous, which… which made me really nervous because Momo-chan is almost always calm. So, I picked her up, because carrying her always makes me feel better, and walked up the stairs to our apartment. The door was unlocked when I got there, which made me even more nervous. Mom never leaves the door unlocked."

The girl was turning white as she remembered what happened next so Aizawa moved one of his hands so that it was face up and within her reach. The girl grabbed it with her much smaller hand and squeezed the three fingers she managed to get her hand around (significantly harder than Aizawa had expected her to honestly). "I opened the door," Mizuki stuttering became much more pronounced at this point, ***"I opened the door and saw Mom's head looking at me from the table, with her torso on the floor in front of it. I didn't see her arms or legs.*** I ran out of the apartment as quickly as I could, I wasn't sure if the person who killed her was still there or not. I think I closed the door behind me? I'm not sure. I ran." The purple light was glowing brighter and she took another deep breath while loosening her grip on his fingers. "I threw up in the bushes outside the apartment before I called 110. I'm really really sorry for the mess. I didn't mean to cause any trouble." The little girl looked embarrassed as she bit her lower lip.

"Hey, look at me for a second Mizuki-chan," Aizawa waited for the girl to look at him before continuing "that isn't a problem, I promise, and it isn't something you need to be embarrassed about. You saw something no one should ever have to see and throwing up is a natural reaction to that. Okay?" The girl looked relieved and nodded.

"Was the corpse wearing any cloths when you saw it?" the detective cut in. Aizawa glared at her for a moment trying to silently tell the detective to back off for a few moments while the seven-year-old collected herself, but he was ignored.

"No," the voice was a whisper and any relief she had a few moments earlier was gone. Her face was pale, the light was even brighter, and she looked like she might throw up again. The pro-hero found himself increasingly worried about the fact that she was being exposed to higher doses of the calming chemical. And he was worried about the fact that the chemical was becoming less effective as she was getting more distressed by the questions being asked of her.

The detective, oblivious, continued pressing, "Where exactly were they in the apartment, I want to make sure no one moved anything between when you left and when we got there."

Mizuki stared blankly at the cat for a little while before speaking, unable to move or say anything. She gave the detective the answer she was looking for, but she looked exhausted from the effort afterwards.

"Is there anyone you can think of who might have done this Mizuki-chan?"

The girl bit her lip again, almost drawing blood, and Aizawa was about to ask Detective Iwata to postpone her questioning until tomorrow morning when she responded "I um… I don't, I don't know Detective Iwata. Um… I know my mom used to be into some bad things, when I was little, so maybe someone from back then? Or maybe one of my uncle's old associates? If any of them aren't in prison maybe them. But two years, is, is, is… it seems like a long time for them to wait to do something. But uh… Mom's been kinda weird lately so it might be related to that?"

"Weird how?"

The tiny girl looked slightly more comfortable with this line of questioning, "Mom lets me practice my quirk at home, which means I usually have a clone or two studying at home while I'm at school or doing hero training with Izuku. Mom has always made me take a day or two off each week though, she says I need to 'give my brain a rest'. Lately, she's been a lot more insis-insis-insistent on which days those are. She even forcefully dispelled one of my clones last week, even though she didn't tell me it was a rest day."

Aizawa was pissed when he heard that, remembering what her file had said about how her clones were dispelled and that the real girl would feel the pain they experienced. But he was a professional and kept any hint of his anger off of his face so as to avoid scaring the girl holding his hand.

"On my rest days now when I come back to the apartment it smells like," she paused and then tried again "it smells like… it smells like," her voice drops to a whisper and she looks down at the cat "it smells like sex," her nose wrinkles in disgust. The pro-hero had never hated anyone more than he hated his cousins in that moment, a seven-year-old should not be able to identify that smell. A seven-year-old shouldn't know what sex is yet!

"I don't know if she has a boyfriend she brings around the house and doesn't want me to know about, or if she's gone back to her old job part time, or if something else is going on though…" She pauses for a moment while the adults process what she said before starting again, "she also stole the all the money I've been saving back at the beginning of June claiming I owed her rent for letting me live with her."

Aizawa tried to say something to the girl about how none of that was alright but the detective spoke quickly, "Have you noticed anything else strange lately?" Detective Iwata pressed.

The girl looked lost in thought for a few moments before responding, "well, I'm not sure if it's important but last year around this time there were a whole bunch of wedding dresses, this year there aren't nearly as many. I don't think business has been going well recently, but I don't know why."

"Thank you so much for your help Mizuki-chan, we will do everything in our power to make sure whoever did this can never hurt anyone else ever again okay?"

"Alright," the purple light was fading quickly, and the girl's grip tightened a little again. "What happens to me now?" She looked between the detective and the pro-hero while using her free hand to rub a spot right behind the cat's ears, as Momo had settled back into her lap once it had finished using its quirk.

Aizawa looked at the detective and silently prayed that she had actually thought that far ahead, but somehow knew that wouldn't be the case. He knew there was a reason this particular detective rarely worked on cases where children were involved. She sucked with children. She sucked at dealing with people trying to deal with trauma and damn if he wasn't going to do everything in his power to make sure she didn't question another kid unless she got some extensive training. Honestly, the woman had no sense and had pushed the girl too quickly. Aizawa was positive that the only reason Mizuki hadn't had a break down was because of the cat.

Detective Iwata glanced between him and the girl before sighing. "Well… Aizawa-san is your closest relative, and he's a pro-hero, so he'd be the first choice to take you in. After all he can keep you safe! But if he can't take you, we will find a nice family for you!" the voice was full of false cheer and the girl looked at her unimpressed.

"You have no idea what happens to me next do you Detective?" the voice was tired, more tired than any kid should sound, and Aizawa found himself reaching into his pocket for his phone. He knew somewhere in his gut that tonight would end with this girl sleeping in their guest bedroom, but he wasn't going to make that kind of decision without talking to his husband even if he knew what his husband would say. Also, in all honestly the pro-hero needed a minute to collect himself, he was angry- honestly, he had blown past angry quite some time ago, but an angry Aizawa was not what this kid needed.

"I need to make a quick phone call Mizuki-chan," he tried his best to sound reassuring, "I'll be back soon and then we can talk about what happens next."

"Okay Aizawa-san," she let go of his hand and held the incredibly patient cat in a loose hug, looking lost, afraid, vaguely ill, and exhausted all at the same time. When he looked back at her as he closed the door, he could almost swear that he could hear her thinking that he wasn't going to come back.

Author's note: I made some small edits on 2/24/2020. These changes were to help make things easier to read and follow- nothing has changed plot wise.