Toshinori
"You can see him now" said the nurse who came to us in the waiting room. Aizawa and I got to our feet and followed her to young Bakugo's room. She stopped by the door and nodded for us to enter. He had been awake for a while now. First speaking to the police, then his parents and now finally us.
"Bakugo" greeted Aizawa as we entered and I nodded greetings to him too as he faced us. He was sitting up in his hospital bed. I had heard that he had a bad injury on his side but was covered by robes. The only visible sign of injuries that I could see were some bandages around his head.
"Did you find him?" asked Bakugo in a low growl. He looked at us both with fierce eyes as we sat down on some seats beside his bed.
"Midoriya?" asked Aizawa and Bakugo nodded stiffly, "no" replied Aizawa and Bakugo slammed a fist down on his bed.
"That damn nerd," he growled through clenched teeth, his eyes threatening to tear up. I was shocked by the strength of his emotion, "he must still be with her, or shes done something to him"
"Who?" I asked.
"Massiah! That damn bitch" he barked at me.
"The girl who abducted him?" asked Aizawa calmly and Bakugo nodded again, "What were you boys doing at a casino?" Bakugo gave a big sigh and relaxed more.
"We went looking for her" he answered without looking at us.
"What? Why?" I jumped in shocked. I remember Deku thinking she would make a good hero, but to go looking for her was foolish.
"He wanted to talk to her about her quirk," replied Bakugo calmly, "I reckon he thought it would help him use it better or something. I don't know"
"And you went looking for her with him?" asked Aizawa sternly, "without telling anyone about it, even though you both knew how dangerous she is"
"What, and you think I should have let that weakling go by himself!?" snapped back Bakugo fiercely. Aizawa was visibly not pleased by the boys' actions and Bakugo's behaviour, his hair beginning to rise, so I intervened.
"What happened?" I asked calmly. Bakugo brought his attention back to me and calmed down again. He lowered his gaze to his hands.
"We found her, in the rooms behind the casino. She didn't seem too hostile when we did find her. She seemed to know we were coming. Said something about feeling it or whatever" he waved a hand dismissing it, "but before we could do anything there were these loud sounds and the roof caved in. That how I got injured" he gestured to his side, "Deku stopped the bleeding. Next thing I know I'm waking up here"
"So you don't remember anything else or where Midoriya went?" asked Aizawa again. Bakugo clenched his jaw and shook his head. With that there wasn't much else we could have asked about it.
It was clear to me that young Bakugo knew he had done the wrong thing going after that girl, but deep down I was pleased that he and young Midoriya had looked after each other. I was proud to see their friendship strengthening. I only hoped that Bakugo would not blame himself for Midoriya going missing again.
We talked some more, wished him well and left him to rest. He would be back too school in a day or two.
Back in the waiting room I saw Tsukauchi waving to me and he came over to us.
"I figured I'd find you here" he stated and nodded a greeting to Aizawa beside me who returned the nod.
"I heard Midoriya is missing again" his expression was grim.
"He may still come back" put in Aizawa with his hands in his pockets, he suddenly looked more tired and let his shoulders sag.
"We still don't know if he was taken or went willingly. Apparently he only went to talk"
"The question is, if he was taken, by who?" I looked at Tsukauchi curiously. "The police have made some headway understanding what happened at the Casino earlier this evening" he continued, "after hearing your other accounts as well it seems there was some dispute between the original group that abducted Midoriya and another, with the innocent casino patrons getting caught up in the middle of it" he turned and walked toward one of the hospital hallways, waving for us to follow as he went on, moving away from anyone who could overhear us.
"The other group of criminals there were more organised and were seen arriving outside the front of the casino in unmarked black vans by several witnesses. They threw grenades to break through the back wall and into the section behind. That seems to be where your students were at the time" he stopped in a quiet corner and puled out his phone.
"The criminals wore full face masks to cover their identities, but we found cameras in them, watching everything they did"
"They could trace them back to a source, Midoriya could be there!" I said excitedly, but Tsukauchi shook his head sadly.
"These people well military level organised. They live streamed everything they saw to a source, but the moment the police arrived they ere cut off. Police did manage to track them to a source. A hotel room a block away, but whoever was there was gone already and didn't leave a trace. Even the hotel staff weren't aware that someone was in the room"
"So we are no closer to finding Midoriya?" I asked, trying to hold onto hope. Tsukauchi unlocked his phone and handed it to me. On it were a series of images, blurred from movement, but I could see the green hair of Midoriya in them. I lowered the phone a little so Aizawa could look at them too. As we swiped through them I saw Midoriya, bent over Bakugo to help him, another of his hands up over his head as he had guns pointed at him. Stills of him trying to fight his was past the men. Finally the last image was from further away and showed a bloodied Midoriya leaving with the silver haired girl.
"Obviously I couldn't bring a copy of the video footage with me," stated Tsukauchi as we handed him his phone back, "taking photos of parts of the video was the best I could manage. Even then, I shouldn't be sharing it with you, but I know how important your students are to you both"
"We appreciate it" added Aizawa and I nodded in agreement.
"So he is with Massiah" I finished
"Sadly we don't know that for certain," replied Tsukauchi flatly, "It's likely, but there's always a chance there were more men that we didn't know of that could have escaped. It's just as possible that they got to them before they got out"
"Who are these armed men?" asked Aizawa, his brows creased with annoyance. If those man hadn't showed up his students may have been home and unharmed by now. I could understand his irritation towards this armed group.
"All we know is that this criminal group have been seen before. Each time they come and go within a few minutes and aren't afraid to harm anyone who gets in their way. The only thing that each account has in common is that someone is stolen, usually a child. This has been the first time any departments have seen activity from them in many years though"
Professional kidnappers? And ones that would go to so much effort too. What were so special about these children.
"I'm going to look into these criminals and see what their previous victims had in common" stated Tsukauchi, "maybe that will give us a better idea of their motives. I'll keep you in the loop if anything catches my eye" he nodded to me and I couldn't help but to smile a little at my good friend.
"Thank you friend" I said and patted him on the shoulder.
