Quirks not required
OC
MHA

VII: Dark Secrets

Aizawa let out a low whistle. Nemuri's partner certainly knew how to pick his supervisors. Ujiko Daruma; was an internationally acclaimed genius in his fields of medical biology and human anatomy, he was also a leading authority on the development of the Quirk-factor; one of the many names for people with extraordinary gifts. Other Doctors such as Lensherr and Xavier dubbed the Quirk-Factor, the X-Gene and it was said to be a recessive-dominant gene combination to enable the transference of the X-Gene; they'd theorised that within three decades the entirety of the human population would have the capacity for a potential X-gene. On a similar topic they had theorised that X-genes or Quirk-Factors could be manipulated to run in families.

Ujiko Daruma, unfortunately for Aizawa, the man's likeliness had appeared further back in history; under the name of Kyudai Garaki and Shiga Maruta and with his ability to access secret files both known and unknown to the HSPC, even Aizawa's throat tightened at the information he'd dug up. Kyudai had been around for at least a hundred and twenty years, but, potentially longer; Aizawa was almost banking on him being nearer two centuries of life. Kyudai, was suspected of being a war-criminal and an officer with a reputation that was second-to-none; the reason Aizawa suspected Kyudai Garaki had been left alone was because of the man's reputation and ability for sleight-of-hand-magic. Whenever someone got too close to something they shouldn't have, Aizawa found that Garaki had released a new drug on the market. Not all of it was even malevolent in design; some of the products were pills designed to aid future generations who'd be affected by Hiroshima and Nagasaki both directly and indirectly for future generations.

But for every good thing Kyudai Garaki had done, it left more questions unanswered and then the man had died, aged 90 from a heart-attack…apparently. Ujiko Daruma, on the other hand whilst on the surface seemed a stand-up person but Aizawa had quickly found that Daruma had merely left off what Garaki had started. If Daruma was to exist; he'd be late sixties early seventies.

Aizawa shook his head. He needed proof; lots of it. He could probably prove that Kyudai Garaki and Ujiko Daruma were almost certainly the same person or closely related. That left one factor; Shiga Maruta, that positively screamed alias, even today no sane person would ever bring up human-experimentation; although Aizawa was pretty sure that if quirk-experimentation via quirk-marriages were still around plenty of people would be using them as human-experimentation proof even some of the more zealous members of society would say that quirks were the cause of human-experimentation. No-body had gotten to the bottom of where quirks originally started from!

Aizawa's phone buzzed, it was Mrs. Joke "Mrs. Joke…"

"Eraserhead, what'd you call spaghetti from the bad side of town? Spaghetto!"

Aizawa's mouth turned up in a faint smile. That…wasn't bad in regards to Mrs. Jokes normal ones "It's…an improvement. Now what is it? I'm pretty certain you didn't ring me up for critique on your jokes."

"You love it! Like you love me." Came the overly-cheery voice.

"Like my migraines and dry-eye." Came the dead-pan response. On the contrary to what people thought Fukukado Emi and Aizawa Shota were in a relationship; whilst Aizawa Shota and Yamada Hizashi shared an apartment.

Joke cleared her throat "Shota, there was body found near Ketsubutsu High School…the staff inspected the body, it was dead. We commenced with standard operating procedure and the name on the body was Motoyuki Daigo."

Aizawa gulped, he quickly headed from his computer to the coffee table "I picked up that report; Motoyuki Daigo, worked at a retail store specialising in computer-parts. Not the friendliest member of staff but had good customer reviews. Married, has a kid; wife works from home. However, his quirk is said to be called Molten Core."

"Didn't know that much. We just got his name are we able to meet? Is your housemate home?"

Aizawa snorted "No he's not. He's at his childhood home, tending to the animals and doing concerts for mental health. Putting his Masters to work."

"I'll get the take-away, you…get the information we need. Shota, this doesn't feel right."

"I know that feeling; Nemuri's other is wrapped up in this."

"Kayama Nemuri, +18 R-rated Hero: Midnight has a partner…That's a good 'un…your serious…fuck, alright. What do we have on this other?"

"Daiten Kato."

"Ah…Still, I need to wrap this up and wrap it up in a way that can't in anyway shape or form splash back onto Nemuri."

"He's quirkless, Emi…Quirkless, Smart, Exceptionally Intelligent and has very much an axe to grind with Heroes. Not all of us, but enough of us for the HSPC to dispatch whomever and whoever it needs to bring him down." Aizawa retorted.

Emi sighed "We need to talk face-to-face."

The lovers met half-an-hour later; Emi clad in jeans and a blouse with her gloves and takeaway. Aizawa ushered her in and after a hug and a kiss, the pair unpacked the food and began to eat and talk.

"Molten Core, Sinkhole, Bone Control, Strength Flight, Diamond Bones…no bones with the toughness of diamonds and Pyrokinesis…One lives alone, one's barely getting by, two have families with kids, one's a lawyer and another is paramedic…they all have two things in common, each other and Daiten Kato."

"Five of them are MIA, with Molten Core turning up with alcohol levels that'd make Fat go 'Whoa'." Emi commented. Aizawa let out a snort about the Toyomitsu Taishiro, the guy had been a former cop before becoming a Pro-Hero.

"You want to bring him in?" Emi asked.

Aizawa chuckled "I might do. I mean we have very little other choices other than getting on the phone to Section Fifty-One."

Emi paled at that "Section Fifty-One are cray-cray zay-zay…Although Necro is recovering; his psiorsis is receding. He can now shuffle to the toilet, have a shit and clean himself up. His words. Oh, and Eldritch punched out Kamui Woods, a few hours ago."

Aizawa laughed at that "Eldritch is Eldritch. He doesn't play well with others."

"He doesn't play with others full-stop. Death Arms HAD to get Jeanist in order to prize Edgelord off Endeavour." Aizawa was nearly bending double at the thought of the 5'3 skinny as a rake twenty-nine-year-old mauling the 6'2 Outhouse of Endeavour. "When was that?"

"Day before last…I only found today from Lady Steel, Brigette." Aizawa cocked his head slightly."

"Lady Steel? Brigette?"

Emi giggled "Old European Peacekeeping Hero Guild, by the name of Overwatch. They officially disbanded due to sub-sect black-ops group operations were leaked, colluding with some of the Shadow Collective. Anyway, the last of the German Hero Vanguard Unit: Reinhardt, codename Noble Steel was goddaughter to Lady Steel; when the Shadow Collective resurfaced eighty or so years back briefly Noble Steel died in the line of duty. Lady Steel, dragged Lord Steel in his armour back to Headquarters; they prized him out of his armour and tried to save him. Brigette swears that her Godfather gestured for her to take his armour and use it. Lady Steel retired but her reputation and accolades have made her an honouree hero. She teaches/trains Kutsubetsu's metal-aligned quirks and metallurgy students. She told me that she likes Eldritch, because she remembers Overwatch and sees a few of her old colleagues in him."

"Where were Eldritchs'…posse? Sidekicks? Spawns? The other misfits and maniacs that like old horror movies too much?" Eldritch never moved alone, if Eldritch had been seen; then his sidekicks were in the area setting up triage, emergency services and other services. Genuinely getting crowd compliance or improving other agencies sidekicks…enthusiastically.

"Restraining the Flameshitters or Flame-kickers…Endeavour's motley crew of sidekicks…that situation got heated enough that Smoke…"

Aizawa nodded. Smoke was a specialist hero who worked two jobs; he was a firefighter moonlighting as a hero or a hero moonlighting as a firefighter, had worked for Endeavour and ended up moving into a fire station. "Smoke had to sort it out?"

Emi nodded "Smoke reminds Brigette of Reaper…an old villain of Overwatch. He turned up rasped something to both sets of sidekicks and told Endeavour's lot to pack their shit in and do their jobs. How'd we go down this route of thought?"

"Additional Heroes advice." Aizawa retorted.

"Daiten Kato is linked to a mass missing persons case. One of whom has turned up dead, unfortunately we can't act without informing the police…so we need to keep this off the books."

Emi nodded "Let's have a look at this information."

(Kato)

Kato sat in his office. Yes he had an office, he was analysing the data from further experiments into the project that started this entire thing. He placed the report on his desk and pulled out a pad of paper, a pen and a box.

He opened the pad of paper; his eyes widened when he realised that these were the Nomu pictures. What he'd done to Subject Molten Core…no…Motoyuki…it didn't matter; the person who had been on slab, but yet he did feel sad about it. He opened the pad and in English began to write 'My name is Daiten Kato, and I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, or so help me. Everything I have done and will do in the future is because of one event; the loss of my legs…' Kato stopped and placed the pad back into the drawer. He closed the drawer as there was a knocking on the door. It was Yaoyorozu.

"You seem troubled?"

"You could say I am, just some of the choices I have made…"

Yaoyorozu chuckled "You feel like they've all been vain and selfish? They're not. Is it about this morning's news about Motoyuki-san?"

Kato's eyes widened "Motoyuki?" There couldn't be that many, it just meant one thread had been cut.

"He possessed a quirk called Molten Core."

Kato let out a breath "I know him. He was a friend of mine; Motoyuki Daigo. Then he quickly became my bully…most of my friends became my bullies. However; I made them think I had an intelligence quirk based around science; so…I'm now here and he's…well dead. I'm not going to miss him, nor will I dance that he's dead. I'll ring them later."

"In and out. Remain breathing, keep calm. This is all part of the plan…Fuck. Shota…this was going to be rough."

"I'll be alright. I need to make a call."

"To whom?"

"The Police, there are marks in his and our records. So he shows up dead, there's going to be an investigation and that's either going to remain in the police at best or to the Hero's."

Just then there were voices at the end of the hall as four figures appeared. One was Garaki-sensei, two were heroes; Eraserhead and one he didn't know and a police officer. "Daiten Kato?" Asked the Officer.

"Officer? Sensei? Eraserhead, Hero-san…"

"Mr. Brave, Daiten." The newly named Hero stated.

"I'm, Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa…" Tsukauchi stated.

"You all need to ask me some questions…very well; please in here."

Soon enough Kato was sitting behind his desk and the three officials were sitting across from him "I'd do all of the formalities such as 'please have a seat' but you know lack of working legs." That got some chuckles from the group.

"You should know that we've come to inform you that Motoyuki Daigo, was found dead yesterday after disappearing for three days."

Kato's eyes widened "Okay, just why is that relevant?"

"On your file you initiated reports that Motoyuki and his acquaintances quite frankly beat you black and blue because of your quirklessness."

"Of course, Officer. Exactly what I've expected from Japan's finest; immediate dismissal and discrimination against the remaining 20%." Daiten replied finally letting the stress get to him.

"Daiten-san…you need to…" Brave began as he began to activate his quirk; but it was Eraserhead who intervened "Detective, Brave…stand down, Daiten Kato is a good friend of mine. Quirkless or not, disabilities or not, he is still human and thus deserves the respect, courtesies and civil participation of laws that we all adhere to."

Kato watched and he itched to tap his fingers on the desk. Eventually Detective Tsukauchi spoke "My sincerest apologies Daiten-san, not my intentions."

Kato nodded "I know Detective. I know of you and how well you've worked with All Might; I will not inform your superiors over this quite simply inadequate questioning beginning. Yes, the late Motoyuki Daigo and his friends were my friends for a short while; yes they beat me black and blue and people did nothing but I remember giving it back and as good as I could. Honestly, I do not remember which self-defence it was but I do remember having my interview instead of with random members of UA Staff; but rather Nezu and two of Nezu's choosing. So yes, I knew Motoyuki Daigo. I know he's dead, it's a fucking shame. I didn't like the man, but with everything going on in his life with a wife and child, I didn't want him dead. I'm not a perfect human being Detective, I made and make my mistakes and I'll pay for them in due course."

Tsukauchi winced as his gut began to twinge and throb. The problem with his quirk of lie-detection was if someone truly believed what they were saying was truthful then his quirk wouldn't be reacting. Unfortunately for him, the twinge he got was during the speech about 'I didn't like the man and I didn't want him dead'.

The rest of the interview went soundly, there were a few twinges which Tsukauchi made a note about but eventually the questions were answered the heroes and detective left. "We'll be in touch in case we need answers, should the others turn up we'll let you know."

Kato nodded "I'll see you all soon."

Aizawa let out a breath, they'd caught him off guard but his presence allowed for Kato to subtly play the trio off against one another. "Detective, we're going to need to try a different tactic; we have no evidence he even killed Motoyuki or even had a hand in the disappearance of the others. There's going to be no point in going after him for the others, Kato is sharp enough to know that he's the prime suspect."

Tsukauchi nodded "We'll get the people responsible."

Aizawa nodded "But at what cost? For some reason Daiten Kato is at the crux of what is to come…but is he truly involved? Or has he nailed himself as a sacrifice for some ulterior motive…He only wants his legs back…That might be it; Nemuri, if I can get him to talk, I might be able to save him."