Rule #25: Learn from the past, so you don't repeat it
The next time Toru found herself at the HBI was because of a rather serious matter. It was to be her first time actually heading out with the team whilst Shindo and Minho would be shadowing a couple of officers from the M19 whilst they were gone. Snipe had expressed explicit interest in her involvement in the case owing to her previous experience with Koro-Sensei and other such people. She was to act as a consultant regarding the rogue vigilante that they were more or less hunting.
"Prism! Over here!" Stitch waved her over, all business-like as Toru stepped into the bullpen fully dressed in her costume.
"Yessir!" Toru chirped stepping up next to the gathered Pros as they gathered their things for the journey out to the closed community.
"Prism's going to accompany us to Broadview" Snipe explained to the others as Toru shifted nervously in place under all the new stares.
"She is?" Stitch puzzled.
"As a consultant"
"On?"
"She has a, uh, unique perspective" Alpha replied vaguely much to the chagrin of the rag doll hero.
"They—they don't know?" Toru eyed the others as she turned to Snipe and Alpha with confusion swimming in her gaze.
Minho & Shindo—who had been hanging around the kitchenette before they headed down to the M19 precinct—were clearly listening in and they made no effort to hide this fact when they made their way over to the little group.
"Well, we weren't sure how you wanted to, um…" Alpha trailed off, leaving the unsaid question hanging in the air.
"…I didn't go to a Quirk-favoured junior high, so they had to bring someone in for those lessons" Toru breathed a put-upon sigh before ripping off the metaphorical bandaid. "That person was Koro-sensei"
"Koro-sensei?" Minho puzzled, in disbelief "As in the villain who blew up the moon?"
"Yeah, that's him"
"Took out 70% of the Earth's moon as a threat and then threatened to do the same with the Earth unless his demands were met" Rin listed off the facts as if he was reading them from a report or a textbook. "I think it was class 3-E that caught him in the end, isn't that right?"
"The military intervened too" Toru weakly defended as she watched the expressions around her morph into something a little less open and a little more guarded.
Shindo was warily eyeing her up like she was about to explode at any minute, whilst Minho blinked dumbfoundedly at her as if he couldn't believe that she had help to kill a creature that could easily outmanoeuvre the military and their weaponry.
"Based on her past experiences, we were hoping that Prism might recognise something inside the family dynamics that could be useful" Snipe interrupted, clearly sensing how uncomfortable the conversation had become for the girl.
"C'me on, the cars' waiting" Alpha shooed them off down the hall with Rin leading the way and Toru on his heels, shyly waving goodbye to her peers as she passed. Minho gave an absentminded wave with his own hand but he looked like he was still stuck on the whole villain-for-a-teacher thing. Shindo didn't even bother.
"Her junior high teacher was a top tier villain?" Kage questioned Snipe, their conversation easily floating across the office space and towards the retreating girl in question. Toru's shoulders seemed to creep closer and closer to her ears with each disbelieving word.
"That's definitely a different set of parameters" Stitch agreed.
"I don't want her presence to get us sidetracked" Snipe replied. "It's a long shot that's she going to see anything helpful. We work it like any other case"
"Okay"
The Broadview Community was about as cookie-cutter as they came with houses adorned in vanilla and picket fences painted ivory as they bordered what little patch of green stood out front of their yards. Toru knew going into this that she would be the insight into the killer's thought process; especially for one to hide within such a bland environment. It was the attitude just as much as the clothes that made the assassin, after all.
Pulling up to the security checkpoint—if you could call a flimsy boom gate, iron wrought gates and a one-person office security—Toru sat in the backseat behind Snipe as her hands clenched and unclenched around the tail of the gift that now hung from her belt. It was a thing of engineering genius, at least in Toru's eyes. When loose and free it handled like a whip and with a flick of the wrist, it stiffened out into a staff that easily towered over her.
Now a whip-weapon wasn't exactly new tech, but that's where the best part came in! Whomever had designed the weapon had made it out of a strong enough conductor that it allowed even her ultraviolet powers to easily flow through it, which meant that not only could she wield it like a wand, but manipulate it from across the room! Toru didn't care that it had been a second-hand gift scrounged from the agency's storage room, nor it's rather dubious origins; she was just glad that Kage had more or less declared that she should not go unarmed into battle before shoving the thing into her arms and then dragged her off to train with it.
"ID please" The security guard intoned as they pulled up next to the security checkpoint, effectively pulling Toru from her thoughts about the whip-staff in her hands. Violet eyes drifted from the cable-like material and over to the large slab of concrete that proudly decreed this patch of land to be 'Broadview Community'. There was also smaller picket signs scattered about the lawn expressing their desire for you to buy a home within their walls.
"Pro Hero: Snipe, HBI" Snipe handed over his Pro Hero license. Her hand absently traced the pocket in which her own license sat as if to reassure herself that, yes, it was still there and, yes, this was really happening. The butterflies in her stomach certainly agreed.
"Abe Ren: Chief of Security for the development" Abe replied, handing the license and proper paperwork back.
"Thank y'all"
"Detective Mori is in the model home" Abe gestured over his shoulder in the general direction for them to go. "Park on the right"
"Thanks very much"
A few moments later Toru hopped from the first car just in time to catch the tail end of Rin's enthusiastic rant over the nuances between which came first, pasta or noodles. A topic which Stitch was clearly over by the way he slouched, looking for all the world like a tired parent. Although, Toru suspected that he was likely used to this kind of thing from the young genius. "Detective Mori?" Snipe called as the balding blue man strode towards them.
"That's right" Mori replied, shaking Snipe's hand in greeting.
"I'm Snipe. This is Agent Kage, Doctor Rin and heroes Stitch, Alpha & Prism"
"Thanks for coming. As your tech requested, we moved everything from the station right here in the model home" He gestured to the flagged and signposted house behind him. It was the only building within the community that stood out like a sore thumb.
"Thank you"
"Agent Kage and I would love to take a look around" Stitch smoothly interjected, "Get a feel for the area"
"We'd like to see the latest crime scene too, if that's alright" Kage added. Toru couldn't believe how much of a 180 the woman had done in terms of her professionalism. From the woman she'd met who screamed at murderers down the phone to this calm and collected lady whose words carried both weight and maturity.
"Of course, lemme just get everything situated and I'll walk you over there" Agreed Mori.
"Oh, we can find it"
"You sure?"
"Yeah, it's no problem" Stitch ended as the two HBI officers headed off down the road in search of their latest murder scene.
Following Detective Mori inside the model home, Toru soon found herself overcome by the makeshift office that had been set up in the living room. Four sets of covered easels stood propped up in front of the fireplace, a map of the community had been laid out on the table and the local community police force had set up shop in the dining room. "These are the evidence boards" Mori explained as they gathered around the table to look through the files that had been presented to them. Blue fingers snatched the cloth from each of the covered boards to reveal the horrific images hidden beneath and Toru felt her breath catch when she saw the evidence boards. "As you can see, we're still in the process of moving in and I didn't think the whole neighbourhood needed to see the photos"
"No, yer right" Snipe replied absently as he shifted through the information in front of him. "That's alota work Detective, thanks"
"Colour-coded and annotated" Alpha noted, whiskers twitching as he flipped through one of the flies.
"Yeah, well, I'm not just the primary detective" Mori admitted as he joined them by the table. "I also live in the community"
"Really?" Snipe cocked an eyebrow at that whilst Toru shuffled nervously in place. Not only was she surrounded by professionals—and on her first day out too—but the notion that the primary detective was so closely linked to the case bothered her. Rule #10 and all that.
"Three blocks, right up on the left" He gestured towards the spot on the map. "My wife thought it'd be an excellent place to raise the kids. She's changed her mind the last couple o' months"
Toru let the detective's voice flow over her as her attention moved from the table to the evidence boards which now freely displayed the acts of this vigilante. Crime scene photos pictured broken bones and bruised flesh, there were unseeing eyes staring off into the distance with clothes that lay still entangled on the corpses and she was reminded of the more gruesome lessons that 3-E endured. In theory, learning to become an assassin sounded easy—fun even—but none of them really took into account what that actually meant. Sure, Koro-sensei was only truly affected by the rubber-like Anti-Sensei weapons, but that didn't mean that was the only weapons they had learnt to use.
Bitch-sensei, Mr Brovski and hell, even Takaoka-sensei had impressed lessons into them that would otherwise turn the stomachs of lesser men. They had to be ready, they had to kill and that meant knowing what the outcomes would be & what they would look like. Not that Toru particularly enjoyed killing, God no! But the idea that she could use that HB pencil on the table or one of these little pushpins to do so was both empowering and frightening all at once. And so looking at the images of these dead women with glazed over eyes, Toru felt the reality of the situation finally hit her like a ton of bricks. This wasn't school anymore, this was real and there was no one to clean up their messes if things got too far out of hand. "You okay?" Rin asked as he circled around the table, likely watching her reaction to the evidence boards. God knows what he thought of her or her reaction.
"Er, y-yeah" Toru stammered, all but rushing back to the table and away from the boards in her haste and tried to ignore Rin's questioning gaze. "Uh, let's—let's get to work"
"…I hope you don't mind but I also worked up a cursory profile" Mori continued, plucking a small notepad from his blazer pocket that seemed to contain a little more than cursory notes.
"Yer did?" Snipe questioned.
"Yeah, I took an FBI seminar on serial crime in Kyoto. Twice"
"Let's hear what you've got so far"
"Right. He's organised, took everything at the scene and left nothing behind" Mori began, going over his notes. Toru wandered how he could even read the chicken scrawl. "Which means he lives with a spouse or some kind of long-term partner. Has a steady-skilled job, physically he presents himself as non-threatening, but he craves power and control, so he may have a job or activity that gives him that"
"…Not bad" Alpha acquiesced with a nod.
"Unfortunately, I just described 64 of the 71 men that live in the sub-division"
Sometime later when the HBI agents were finally able to shake off their escorts with flaky promises to keep in touch and be good little heroes, Toru found herself tucked away in a back corner of the room between the window and the fireplace as she and the others scoured through the files of Broadview's residents. "—Has anyone vetoed them?" Rin hissed as he retreated from the kitchen following a rather tense-looking conversation with Abe. Toru couldn't fathom why the chief of security was taking such an interest in the case. From what she could tell, he wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, anyway.
"Mio's doing a separate check of police and security staff" Alpha replied, taking the notes handed to him.
"Why?" Toru puzzled.
"Law enforcement and security are the kind of jobs that would attract this unsub"
"Ichida "Throat-Ripper" Gamo was a compliance officer in Kawasaki. Hamada Jin, one of the poisoners from The Garden, worked as a security guard in Hakone and Nara" Rin supplied, the facts robotically falling from his lips like he was reading from a textbook.
"Psychopaths love official jobs" Alpha continued, as if unbothered by Rin's interruption. "And uniforms" At that, all three pairs of eyes trailed over to the uniformed officers gathered at the other end of the house where they were showing Snipe the taped interrogations of the suspected residents.
"Prism—" Stitch wandered over to the trio with Kage in tow. The others joined not too soon after, as if called together by some unknown force. "—There's going to be a community meeting tonight. We're gonna all look for visual cues, but I want you specifically to concentrate on family interactions"
"Yessir" Toru nodded, her question about Rin's recall of facts dying on her tongue.
"Chief" Alpha called Abe over, "We need to have a place to call a town meeting"
"Well, there's a temple on the East side of the development" Abe shrugged.
"Will y'all have your men notify residents that there'll be a meeting there tonight?" Snipe continued. "Stress that it's important but not compulsory"
"We can do that"
"Thank y'all"
"Six pm!" Alpha called after the retreating man and received only a backhanded wave in response.
"Snipe" Mori called from where he was still stationed across the room, hunched over the crappy laptop.
"Sir?" Snipe chirped, striding back over without a second's thought.
"You should see this" He beckoned. "This girl's Asai Izumo"
["…I do? How do I know that?"] Mori's voice floated from the laptop. Even though Toru couldn't see the screen, she could hear the agitation in his tone.
["I run the damn babysitters club"] Asai's irritated reply bounced back.
["And that has you walking around at night…?"]
"Now the profile could include someone in the babysitters club, right?" Abe proposed.
"It could" Snipe agreed, "But we'd have to know more about 'er activities"
"Exactly, I'll have her brought in"
"We're gonna try somethin' else. Can y'all get some officers to set up a sign-in table at the community meetin' tonight? One of the things we're gonna be examin' is body language in a group environment"
"Body language?"
"It's something the unsub won't be able to control" Kage replied, "Even if they were to try to"
"Right, right—I'll have some uniforms detail at the meeting"
"Will you also tell Abe that the unsub will display something that he can't control?"
"Okay"
"You think that they'll be able to keep that to themselves?" Alpha questioned as Mori left to fulfil that request.
"Let's hope not" Snipe purred.
Evening had fallen by the time everyone had gathered in the community temple across town with a line for the sign-up sheet trickling out of the door and around the street. "…We just came from the last victim's house" Stitch called in lieu of greeting as he and Kage trudged up the church steps to reach the others where they had gathered off to the side. "The unsub used the garage as access—maybe a remote door opener made to be universal"
"Police are saying it's random" Kage continued to report, "But how could you randomly find a woman so vulnerable? Mio's going over backgrounds again and trying to highlight anyone with tech experience"
"She's also doing a full work up on Abe and Mori" Snipe added, shifting in place as his eyes scanned the ever increasing crowd. "They had that kind of access. Has anyone seen Mori?"
"Saw 'im a while ago" Alpha admitted, although it didn't help much.
"He set up everyone filling out forms" Clarified Rin, "But I haven't seen him since"
"We need to ask for help in a different way" Snipe mused, hands shifting to rest at the holsters on his hips. "Tell people that we're lookin' for someone who might've seen somethin' rather than someone who did somethin' No one thinks that they're friends or neighbours are capable of this"
"Right" Stitch clapped his hands, "Let's get started!"
At that, they all scattered with Toru, Kage and Stitch heading over to a small alcove created by one of the pillars on the side of the room that mostly hid them from view. Both Kage and Stitch bookended Toru in between them like some kind of support system as the teen searched the gathered community for any hints as to who was playing the vigilante whilst Snipe stood at the front of the room and talked to them all. Across the room Rin and Alpha took up similar positions with the same objective in mind and in between sat the community's officers.
"We're hopin' that someone may have seen somethin' and not even realised it. Maybe you have a neighbour who takes their trash out late at night, works on their car in their garage, walking a dog—anything that might put someone outside at an odd hour and given them the opportunity to see something…"
"Is there anything we can help you look for?" Kage whispered as she leant in close to Toru's ear.
"It won't be overt" Toru shook her head. "The kids probably won't be afraid of them"
"They won't?" Stitch puzzled. "But these guys have explosive tempers, don't they?"
"Not always—anger wasn't normal in the classroom, usually when it happened—when he snapped—it was an anomaly, a surprise. If anything, Koro-sensei was overly perverse and when he snapped, it was a cold dark anger, something that struck like a snake and simmered like a bubbling pot" Violet eyes roved over the congregation of everyday people gathered at their feet, some sitting seiza whilst others (mostly kids) were just splayed about with limbs all akimbo.
"And if we wanted anything—sweets, toys, magazines—all we had to do was ask" Toru continued, not looking at the elder agents on either side of her although she could feel their stares. "Hell! He took us to the space station just because we asked. Broke in and everything, even with the massive bounty on his head and the law on his tail…"
"Prism?" Kage prodded gently.
"…He'd—he'd have these talks with us too" Toru shook herself from her thoughts, coughing only slightly to try and distract from the thickness in her voice. "Like he was terrified someone would take us away"
" 'Cause he knew what was out there"
"Yeah, men like him" Stitch agreed quietly.
"…Y'know maybe this unsub recently taught the kids something. Koro-sensei used to impress on us that education and knowledge was the most important—most powerful thing of all" Toru continued, eyes jumping to the back of the room as she kept her voice low.
"What kind of lessons?"
"Anything—everything, I told you noth—" She cut herself off as her eyes landed on a young child that sat at the back of the temple, her eyes dead and glazed over with boredom as she stared up at Snipe who was still talking."—That whole year, there was one lesson that he grilled into us above all else"
"Which was?"
"Anyone can kill"