In this chapter:
The school must go on and Aizawa runs around a lot
3 – Problems with time
It was past three a.m. now. Aizawa had climbed up to a roof of a tall building and crouched on a top of a metallic silo. Scouting the night time city spreading around him, he went through in his head everything he knew about each direction: starting with infrastructure, ending with recent villain and hero activity. Open in front of him on his phone screen was a subway map of the area, and on another tab a map marked with all the reconstruction sites on his vicinity. Vicinity meaning about five kilometres to each directions. And on various tabs below those, countless of other things he could check if needed.
A few blocks away was the second hideout of the kidnappers, now under full police surveillance. Aizawa couldn't go there without announcing his presence to too many people for comfort and thus the results of other people's investigations would have to do. In either case, those investigations also made his job easier in more ways than one: he was focusing on checking things the police wasn't and trusting them to do cover the other options properly. That was the extent of teamwork he could offer in this situation.
The time limit is getting closer. The heroes, the police and the media are getting anxious. Most likely… Closing the screen and putting the phone away, he hopped down from the silo. Villains too. If his hunches were correct, within the radius he had predicted there were eight possible locations for hideouts. Eight was too many. He didn't have the time. Three. He had narrowed his guesses down to three most likely places.
If I'm right… he reminded to himself as a certain profile he had come across during his research flashed through his memory. If he was right, one of these three had what they were looking for. In a normal situation, this was the part he would have called for reinforcements. Not tonight. The police hadn't figured out how exactly their info was leaked. Thus having three whole places to check with the possibility of them all being misses, was simply too many. If all of them were wrong, Aizawa's investigations would no longer remain secret and it would add threat on the life and well-being of the kidnapped child.
First I have to be certain. The police and heroes have made some progress as well in their own investigations. We can't afford disrupting that process without a payback. Failure is not an option. 'If' is not an option.
He would check these three locations first, then move on to the remaining five on his list. If he found the kidnappers, he would inform Tsukauchi and Kamui and guard the place until reinforcements arrived to make sure the boy wouldn't be harmed or the location changed again. In the case he was wrong and found nothing from the first three, he would most likely have to contact the detective and heroes at some point anyway, because alone he wouldn't be able to search the rest of the locations. The time was running out.
As soon as he thought of time, Aizawa sighed a little, knowing all too well he had work in about four hours. Hooking his capture gear to the wires running above the street, he jumped off a telephone pole, swinging down and rolled into a landing on top a commuter train running by. In amidst of the urgency of this case, his nagging sense of responsibility as a teacher had him flip out his phone again. Crouching down on his other knee with his capture gear holding him place atop the moving train (and while making a note to himself to remember pay double the next time he would use a commuter rail), he started writing down messages, sending them to his own computer. In the case this mission would drag on longer than he expected, these timed messages would pop up and give his morning classes something to do.
Having satisfied the minimum of his teacher's responsibilities, Aizawa jumped off the train before it reached its next station and continued on his way by foot.
The first location on his list was four and half kilometres away from the second hideout. It checked out most requirements he had managed to think of when figuring out the villains' plans. The area didn't have many residences or joints open at night, but getting spotted on purpose was still possible. It also wasn't too far from the second hideout and between the two the subway lines ran above ground. Etcetera. The enterprises in the area also had connections to the company that had owned the first hideout building before it was shut down, which aligned with Aizawa's other suspicions.
He wasn't overly confident about being right. But he had enough basis to suspect, which was all he had time for.
.
.
"I wonder what we'll do for class today?" Kaminari wondered aloud, stretching his hands towards the ceiling on his seat.
Jirou sighed a little and tapped her desktop with a steady rhythm. "We know for the fact he was doing hero work until morning hours, so Aizawa-sensei will be either really grumpy for being tired or be too tired to be grumpy."
"In which case he'll probably give us something to do and go to sleep."
Midoriya smiled a little at his classmates' discussion before returning his eyes to the newest article related to the kidnapping incident the previous night. The police had confirmed that pro hero Eraserhead had been requested to help with the case behind the scenes. Moments before the child had been returned to his parents the hero agency in charge had also been contacted. Eraserhead had send them a back-up request and location information, but by the time the heroes had arrived, the fight had been over and Aizawa had left to bring the child back to the parents. Two villains had been captured at the scene.
So Aizawa-sensei really did beat the villains on his own? Two of them? Izuku thought to himself while mumbling his way through the article on his phone the third time. "I shouldn't be surprised, I know the pro in the title isn't for show. But no one seems to know what actually happened. How did he find them? And why did sensei go about it on his own like that? It's him we're talking about so it's not like he wanted the fame for it…"
"Hey, Deku!" Bakugo snapped him out of his thoughts. "Shut up already, that's annoying!"
"Ah, sorry!" Izuku startled and gave Bakugo an apologetic look, scratching the back of his head. "I was talking aloud again, wasn't I?"
"YOU ALWAYS DO, YOU LITTLE-!"
"Hey, Bakugo," Kirishima interrupted, patting Bakugo's shoulder. "Could you help me out a bit with math before we have the next lesson? I'm sort of really stuck with the one problem we got."
"HAAH?!"
"Midoriya-chan," Asui approached Izuku while Kirishima was distracting Bakugo. "Are you interested in the incident?"
"Well of course!" Izuku replied and laughed a bit, nervously. "Moreover, I guess this is an old habit that's hard to shake." He looked down at his phone and slowly ran his thumb up and down the touch screen. A profile picture of their teacher was at the top beside the headline. "Asui-san −"
"It's Tsuyu-chan, remember?"
"Ah… right, so… T-Tsuyu-chan, do you think Aizawa-sensei will show up?" Izuku asked and shut his phone screen, putting it away for now. It was time for class to be starting soon.
Asui tilted her head. "You think something is wrong?"
"Ah, no, not necessarily," Izuku hurried to correct. "Just thinking that this all got solved in early morning hours, right. So I'd imagine he has reports and statements to make and all that, even without the media involved. Will he make it to class?"
"Hmm. I guess you're right," Asui replied and as if in queue, their attentions were brought to the screen in front of the class as it turned on its own. "Ribbit?"
The screen was bright for a moment before opening to what seemed like a mailbox with one message open for them to see. On top read their class name and time, below a couple of lines of instructions, on the bottom their teacher's name.
"Well," Asui said, hopping to her seat just as the clock stroke to mark the beginning of class. "Guess that means he isn't coming."
"Tch!" Bakugo huffed between his teeth. "Pathetic."
Todoroki closed his eyes. "If he's stuck dealing with the aftermath bureaucracy it probably can't be helped." He stood up. "It says to start working on our informatics presentations so let's get started. If we don't get things done here he'll get mad no doubt."
"Yes!" Iida exclaimed, standing up as well and walked briskly to the front of the class. "We must be understanding about Aizawa-sensei being busy! If there was meant to be important school announcements today, other teachers will surely come inform us. For this class, I, as your class representative, shall see to it that sensei's instructions will be followed! Now! Does everyone remember their partner from the lottery we did last time?!"
"Jeez, that was yesterday, Iida," Ashido replied, already sitting down on Shoji's desk and making herself comfortable.
"Right, even I'm not that stupid," Kaminari said as well, while helping Uraraka to take out the necessary equipment for making notes and getting started.
"Hagakure, I have some ideas concerning our theme," Todoroki started, placing his chair beside his classmate's desk.
"Yup, okay! Let's hear it." Hagakure bounced a bit on her seat cheerfully. "Let's make this good!"
"Maaan, I wish we didn't have all this boring school stuff so much," Kirishima moaned and ruffled his hair. "I'm bad at hero informatics to begin with and now I'm stuck doing this with you."
"Whatever do you mean by that?" Aoyama asked.
"Hey, class rep," Jirou said to Iida who was frustrated and still fidgeting at the front of the class as everyone ignored him and started doing their assignments. "Why don't you give up and get over here so we can get started too?"
From the crack of the door, All Might secretly followed the students as they some lazily and some eagerly started planning their presentations. So you were prepared to be late today, Aizawa-kun? I guess I'm not needed here immediately then. His thoughts drifted off and he frowned. He leant away from the door and rested his back against the wall. After hesitating for a second he pulled out his phone and searched through it for a moment before finding the right number and putting it up to his ear. The chatter of the students from the classroom drifted into his other ear while he was listening the phone ring. Apparently, Bakugo and Mineta were already having trouble in regards of teamwork (not that it was surprising).
Soon Toshinori sighed and put the phone down as the call registered as unanswered. "Good grief."
.
.
It had rained earlier that day. Not a lot, but enough to leave the night air humid despite the sky having slightly cleared toward the evening and night. It was colder this way, but Aizawa would take a foggy and still night over a dry or windy one any day. It was infinitely better for his eyes if he didn't have to worry about gusts or puffs of dusts flying through the air. As for the lack of light, he was used to it. Night missions and patrol had for ages belonged to the stronger side of his repertoire. He knew himself well enough to ascertain that as a fact.
He was past the point in his career he even gave such things a proper thought during a mission. Whether it was the cool air that almost soothingly brushed against his face and helped him to keep away any traces of tiredness, or the fact how his senses accurately calculated a safe and steady enough foothold for him despite the darkness, it was a normality for him. He had no need nor time to start congratulating or correcting himself over such things as he continued running over the rooftops. Knowing clearly what he himself could and couldn't do. That was what he tried to slowly beat into his students to see in themselves as well. Knowing your limits and abilities was the only solid start to knowing when and how to push past them.
Right now, Aizawa was pushing himself past his limits of speed. His first guess had given him no results. He had two guesses left. Hooking his capture gear to the top of a rooftop fence and jumping over it, Aizawa flung himself down to the lower level. Softening his over ten metre fall with a light pull on the cloth before it detached from the fence above, he rolled straight back to his feet from his landing. Returning the weapon to himself, he ran across the new rooftop. On the edge other side he finally stopped, slightly out of breath but nothing a dozen of seconds wouldn't fix.
His next target was in front of him now. A large storage building for some nearby companies, its old red brick walls recently renewed to uphold current standards, while it still managed to look old enough to fall apart. A cement fence with barbed wires and a metal gate separated the building from the city but it was nothing impassable. Besides if Aizawa's assumptions about the villains moving underground were right, a fence hardly mattered.
The second guess.
Aizawa was about to move when something by the gate of the joint caught his attention. He saw two heroes, sidekicks most likely, as another just exited the building Aizawa was about to investigate and ran to his partner by the gate. They spoke with each other for a while, the other talking to his cell phone at the same time.
The heroes suspected this place as well? he thought, shrinking back away from the edge of the roof into better cover. The two heroes didn't seem to notice him and he watched as they ran away to continue their search elsewhere. Then I guess I can cross this option off the list.
He turned and took a course towards the third hideout option on his list. It was too bad neither he or the investigating heroes had been right about the storage building but at least not having to check it himself saved him time. About two hours remained until the time would be up.
Time? Aizawa slowed down his run and after a few more steps stopped completely, a new realisation nagging at the back of his head, trying to form a coherent theory. That's… He took out his phone and flipped through all the pages and files he had saved, hoping to see something that would help him connect the dots. Why was there such a strict time limit? Ransoms often had one, but compared to how calculated their other actions seemed, what was the hurry these villains had with obtaining their demands? And why threaten their victim's safety after only a few hours of captivity? Had the heroes just become too close to finding them or were they running out of places to hide? Or was there something else?
Depending on the person and personality of course, many reasons could exist. It could simply be to add pressure on the rescuers, a way to make sure they wouldn't be caught or simply a more hasty part of an unhinged mind. But something didn't fit into all of this. Looking down at the profiles again, he stopped at the profile of the CEO of the company that had owned the office building that had become the first hideout. Aizawa could feel his brain learning new ways of locking pieces of the puzzle into place. Could it be… Before he could even finish his thought, he found himself running again, abandoning his idea of checking the third place on his list in the favour of a new idea. If he was wrong he would lose all the time he had. He would take responsibility for that mistake if that time came. Right now…
Aizawa landed from a jump to stone fence and continued to run on the top of it as it turned into a railing that guided him down a set of stone stairs to a lower street. It was so simple. So simple the police immediately thought of it. They investigated the man, the company and the motive as soon as the first hideout was found. They got nothing. I saw the reports and didn't even think about it the other way. If he was right, there was more to this than it seemed.
Hooking his capture gear to electric wires, Aizawa flung himself up to the top of a telephone pole. If he was right, this crime hadn't started with a kidnapping.
In the next chapter:
Aizawa encounters new trouble and Nedzu comes to a decision
Thanks for the comments! I appreciate all of them.