Chapter 4: Contemplation

A/N: I didn't expect this fanfic to get so much support so fast. Already 15 reviews and so many followers and favorites. Thank you to everyone!

It was an unusually quiet morning at the Bakugou household. Normally, Mitsuki and her son would be shouting their heads off at each other while Masaru tried to calm them down so that they could have breakfast. However, today there was an eery silence.

Mitsuki had always been proud of her son and his quirk. She had always encouraged him to be the best and assumed his temper was something he inherited from her. Never did she think, that Katsuki might have let the power get to his head. While she tried to defend Katsuki at the station, she was quite angry at him and herself now. Tsukauchi had asked Katsuki several questions and Katsuki had offered horrifying answers without so much as a stutter. In fact, he was smiling while saying it and was acting with jeer as if there was nothing wrong. As Katsuki had kept talking, Mitsuki kept feeling like a failure. Even the other officers were scowling at them and gave them a murderous look as they left.

Once they had come home, Katsuki had gone straight to his room and come back for dinner as if nothing had happened. Then they had a fight. And Mitsuki was ashamed that she lost it. Katsuki had proven his points by showing her that she did the exact same thing with her friends and colleagues. Mitsuki had refuted it saying that her friends knew that she was kidding, but she realized that they were probably like Izuku, too afraid to speak out. Katsuki had smirked once he saw the realization on his face and kept yelling at her about how it was all her fault.

Finally, Masaru had intervened and had quite loudly ordered Katsuki to go to his room. Katsuki obeyed with a growl, rarely disobeying his calmer father. Masaru had given Mitsuki an angry and disappointed glare before retreating to the bedroom leaving Mitsuki alone. Mitsuki couldn't fault him, Masaru had warned her years ago that her parenting style was not great but Mitsuki, like the person she was had ignored him, leading up to this.

Mitsuki was brought back to the present when the doorbell rang. She quietly moved to get up but Masaru had stopped her, "Katsuki, go see who it is,"

"I'm eating breakfast!" he yelled back disrespectfully.

"Now, means NOW KATSUKI! DON'T MAKE ME TELL IT TWICE!" Masaru barked angrily. Katsuki was shocked that his normally calm and loving father was so angry. He tried to retort but all that left him was a fearful whimper as he got up to check the door.

"You didn't have to do that..." Mitsuki said.

"You think I did it for you!?" Masaru said menacingly, "I told you years back to change your parenting style. All you did was set him up for failure. It never bodes well to tell a child that they are meant for great things. Either they fail and get depressed or they become like Katsuki, all power-hungry, and a bully," Masaru growled. Mitsuki was also taken aback at Masaru's tone but didn't bother replying. She knew he was right.

Katsuki came with a bundle of paper in his hands and threw it on the table next to Masaru, still angry. Masaru narrowed his eyes and threw back the bundle of papers at his son's feet, "Pick it up and hand them to me," he ordered.

"What the hell do you think-"

"NOW BOY!" Masaru yelled. Katsuki shut himself up once more and quietly did as he was told before sitting down to finish his breakfast. He used the spoon too hard in his anger and kept clanging against the plate. Masaru slapped his son's hand and made him drop the spoon, "Show some proper attitude! If you want to be mad, go be mad. No need for food," he growled. Katsuki gulped and froze. He didn't know how to react since he had never been disciplined like now, "Your mother may have been complacent, but I'm going to fix all of that, got it!?"

Katsuki nodded fast, his instincts telling him any other answer would end him.

"Good, now for the mail," Masaru opened. Mitsuki moved closer. She saw her husband's face contort into anger at her movements but he didn't say anything, "You have been charged with attempted murder of a minor, illegal quirk usage, bullying, quirk-induced bullying, and torture of a minor," Masaru shoved the papers towards his son who sat quietly. Masaru shoved it under his eyes but Katsuki looked the other way, "Oh no, no. You thought you are all high and mighty. See the results now. Come on read it. Read it!" he yelled.

Katsuki hesitantly obliged, his body still tense, "Masaru..." Mitsuki said, "What?" Her husband asked. Mitsuki didn't reply and handed him the other papers. Masaru read quickly and put down the paper with a sigh, "Are you happy now!?" Mitsuki couldn't reply and simply cried. The papers stated Masaru and Mitsuki were being charged with child negligence.

The Midoriya household was also uncomfortably silent. Hisashi had left early in the morning to attend to some business as he had said, leaving Inko and Izuku alone. They had not talked to each other since Izuku's secret was out. Izuku was mainly talking with Hisashi, the father trying to cheer up his son. Izuku was also excited at having his dad back. Hisashi was still disappointed with Inko but he seemed to understand that she wasn't entirely at fault and tried to make some conversation about one topic or the other.

However, with Hisashi back, Izuku and Inko had not talked. Inko was happy that Izuku was so happy with Hisashi but it did hurt inside that she couldn't make Izuku happy like that. All she had gotten was an act while Hisashi had talked to him for less than an hour and had gotten their son's trust and admiration, something that Inko thought she had but had lost.

"Why did you lie?" Inko asked.

Izuku looked up from his plate. His mother's tone was not condescending or demanding. It was just warm, questioning, and almost as if she was disappointed in herself. Izuku wanted to pass off a 'What do you mean?' but after everything that happened yesterday, it didn't seem like a good answer, "Well you were always worrying about dad and that I might be treated badly. I didn't want to make you worry more by confirming it,"

"Izuku, it is my job to worry,"

"But you and Aunt Mitsuki were friends, and if I told you about what was happening, then you and she would-"

"That doesn't matter Izuku. If she wanted to destroy her friendship after learning what happened, we weren't real friends in the first place. I always thought you are happy. You always came home with a smile. If I didn't see your real smile yesterday with your dad, I would have kept on being fooled,"

Izuku looked down with shame, "I'm sorry mom,"

"No, you shouldn't be sorry, It was my job to look past your cover-ups and take care of you but I failed... I lost your trust," Inko said quietly.

Izuku stood awkwardly. He wanted to comfort his mother by saying that she didn't lose his trust but that would be lying. She had lost his trust, all the signs were always there. She never bothered to look, so wasn't that her fault?

"I always thought that Katsuki was protecting you," Inko sobbed, "You always talked so happily about him. And whenever we met, he acted so politely. It makes me sick that he was acting all that time when he was almost killing you!" Izuku tensed at that, "That was only because his parents would find out..."

"See Izuku, that's the thing. You never told me. I get why you tried to hide it from me but I never thought that you would lie day after day to me," Inko replied. She moved closer to her crying son and embraced him, "From now on, keep no secrets from me, ok? I'll always help you, no matter what,"

Izuku started crying harder but nodded.

Hisashi had left Nedzu's office a while back. He knew that Kenji would not let him anywhere near the raid but his friend did promise to call him as soon as the raid ended so that he could interrogate the culprits. As much as Hisashi would enjoy that, he was currently focused on something else. Sure, police evidence would get all of the criminals sent away and Nedzu would probably find some way to strip Aldera off all of its land. But generally, all the teachers shouldn't be villainous. There had to be one or two exceptions but from what Izuku had told, even the new teachers were evil right off the bat.

That meant that Aldera knew the teachers from before in order to know if they were a good fit or not. If there was even a single good teacher, they would have blown the whistle as soon as they left. That meant that Aldera had ties, a lot of ties. Were they strong ties? Probably. But was their power higher them? Did they have stronger ties than him? Hell no!

Hisashi had enough power to overrule anyone who tried to pull strings on the case and have them arrested too. He hated powerful figures who tried to use their power for evil purposes, something that he and Nedzu had bonded over. However, the fact remained that he would have to check what ties they had. Nedzu was already scouring the hero ranks and the commission and the prime minister had offered to search the background of his government officials.

All that remained was villain ties, so, Hisashi was here, in this dark alley to meet his informant. As an undercover cop, he's able to get information from anywhere but this informant was the only one who knew he was a cop. If he could, Hisashi would try to put him through the redemption program, but the informant had always refused or ran away at the subject.

"So, you're back,"

Hisashi smirked and turned to meet his informant, "After 10 years, miss me?"

A snort was heard, "No way, I thought you died,"

"Oh no, he was really worried about you,"

"I was not. Why would I care about a police officer?"

"He's a police officer!? Run!"

A/N: Probably botched the informant's dialogue but can you guess who it is?