Gravity Don't Mean Too Much to Me (I'm Who I've Got to Be)

"I'm shooting out of this room, because I sure don't like the company. Stop your preaching right there, 'cause I really don't care, and I'll do it again…"

('Bulletproof Hearts' by 'My Chemical Romance')

They sat under the gazebo, on a bench that faced the water.

It was foggy out thanks to the rain; it was only drizzling by that point, but the fog had rolled in very thick after the fact. The waves were not violent, but they were not calm either, and the water looked very gray. It was a thoroughly unpleasant day, all in all, though Izuku had to admit he wasn't nearly as sad by that point as he had been earlier in the morning.

The fact that she kind of made him feel better annoyed him more than he was willing to admit to out loud.

Ochako hadn't said anything for a while, and he halfway expected her to just be gone. Previously she had been sitting on the bench next to him with a bit of space between them, though he hadn't looked towards her recently, instead watching the waves and surveying the beach. It was still clean, at least, and he was grateful for that.

Izuku jumped, just a little bit, when she spoke again and broke his concentration.

"Dagobah Municipal Park Beach, huh?" Ochako said, sounding slightly amused that she startled him. "Someone told me this place was a literal dump, but it looks very nice today - as much as I can see of it, anyway."

He turned around a bit towards her and she gestured towards the foggy beach. It was true, insofar as the beach looked nice. Kind of ethereal, almost like out of a scary movie or a spooky painting with the fog, but there was no garbage in sight and it was oddly pretty. Back in high school, Izuku used to periodically come back to the beach and clean a bit before the local government finally started taking care of it again due to his insistent prodding as a graduated pro Hero.

Izuku turned his head all the way towards Ochako and nodded at her.

"It was a dump," he said simply, and she tilted her head curiously at him. She was infuriatingly, irritatingly cute, and Izuku cursed himself for the fact that he found her attractive at all. He decided to blame Shouto and his teasing for that, because that was the adult and responsible thing to do and not at all him not being good with other people.

"Sounds like there's a story behind that," Ochako said simply. She looked at him with her big brown eyes, and for a moment Izuku wasn't sure what to say. He cleared his throat awkwardly and slowly turned his gaze across the beach - and pointedly away from her. He also shrugged as he did so, hoping to maintain an appearance of being casual.

"I cleaned the entire beach. That was my workout before I went to UA," Izuku said absently. When he turned back to her, she looked like he had said something absolutely ridiculous. Ochako slowly settled into a light scowl, as if she believed he was making fun of her.

"That seems kind of pointless when you can pick up a refrigerator with one hand," she said. He just chuckled in response.

"My quirk came in late. When I cleaned this beach, I did it all with my own strength."

"Goddamn," Ochako breathed, not even hiding how impressed she was. Truthfully, Izuku couldn't really tell with her. Maybe she was just very good at acting - or maybe he was really bad at reading her, specifically. He decided it was a safer assumption to think he was bad at reading her, given that he was generally not very good with women as it was. If this was all a game as he presumed, she certainly had the advantage.

Ochako made a neutral humming noise after a brief pause between them.

"Y'know, I applied for UA. I took the entrance exam and everything. I would've been in the same year as you." She brought a hand up to scratch her temple with two fingers and he might've said she looked kind of embarrassed. He glanced at her in surprise.

"Really? Why didn't you go?" He asked. Ochako shrugged at him.

"I appreciate that you just assume I passed the test," she said slightly cautiously. Izuku nodded sincerely, not seeing any good reason why she couldn't. She had certainly demonstrated a degree of competence in fighting, and her quirk would have had utility as a rescue Hero; if his analysis from a distance held true, as it were. "Anyway, I did pass the test, technically. I got enough points to go into the General Education department, but not for the Hero course. So I decided to go to traditional high school instead."

Izuku frowned, feeling rather bemused at her choice.

"Ah. That's unfortunate. I was… a recommendation student. Sort of. Special case," he said after a moment's hesitation.

"I am entirely unsurprised by that," Ochako said, and she sounded more than a little bitter.

Izuku couldn't help but feel sheepish, putting two-and-two together regarding her previous statements about her parents. He never thought much about being a recommendation student before, but he supposed Shouto and Momo were the other two and they were both from rich, well-established families - and he was a special case on top of that. It was… probably not fair that he got in as such and she didn't, though One for All was an unusual case when it came to quirks and their place in society - and he wasn't from a rich, well-established family, either.

Izuku waited for longer than he would've cared to before replying. He decided to latch back onto his previous thought about how he found her choice strange, to steer the conversation back to somewhere productive.

"Why didn't you just go to UA for the General Education department? It's still a good school."

Ochako sighed and looked down at her hands, which she had clasped gently in her lap. Izuku again observed that she kept her thumbs raised and it reminded him idly of Shigaraki. Not in terms of evil or destructive potential but merely in the mechanism of her quirk, or what it appeared to be, relative to her fingers.

"I would've had to get my own apartment here and I didn't think it was worth it for my parents to pay for that if I wasn't going to be a Hero. The whole point was for me to make enough money to support them," she said. Izuku tilted his head in curiosity, trying to put together a picture in his mind.

"What did your parents do?"

Part of him was almost having a debate with her, and himself, that she could have done it, even though it was long in the past and not worth arguing about anymore. Still, he'd seen her work and he found it flatly unbelievable that she couldn't make it as a Hero.

"They ran a construction company. Times were tough, though, especially in the more rural area we lived. I ended up going to school close to home, and originally I thought about going into aerospace engineering. Turns out I'm not very good at advanced academic math," Ochako said, grimacing at that last part. Izuku chuckled and Ochako glared at him in response, though it didn't have much venom behind it.

"How'd you go from that to stealing stuff?" Izuku asked earnestly. At a certain point, he wasn't really concerned about her status as a villain anymore. He just… felt like he wanted to know more. Or perhaps that something was pushing him to learn more, though he didn't mind at all. Ochako looked to the ocean wistfully.

"There was this snotty rich girl in my class in high school, and she looked down on everyone else. Always flaunting her money, too. One day, I took her wallet from her purse when she wasn't looking." Ochako laughed ruefully at that. "She didn't notice for three days, but she sure was mad when she did. Never figured out it was me, though." Ochako turned and fixed him with a hard stare. "The money in that wallet was pocket change to her. But it meant my family got to eat well and keep the lights on for a month. I was so angry at that. It wasn't fair."

Izuku nodded, thinking he understood.

"That is not fair," he conceded. Then he realized something. "Didn't your parents ask where you got the money?"

"I told them I won a contest at school and got a scholarship. They were so happy for me they didn't dig any deeper," Ochako said with a sigh afterward.

Izuku pulled his lips into a pout and thought about the test to get into UA. She said she didn't get enough points to get into the Hero course, and he realized it was because of the way her quirk wasn't directly combat-oriented. Hitoshi had a similar problem back in the day before he finally made it into the Hero course later on, and Izuku started to realize just how… unfortunate the whole thing was.

"After that," Ochako continued, heedless of his internal conflict, "I started out small. I learned how to pickpocket from some of the shadier kids at school, and at night I started practicing with my quirk. I would ruin construction sites to get the contractor who was there pushed out, then push my parents to try and win the contract."

Izuku was torn between sympathy and irritation. The idea of deliberately sabotaging construction projects was kind of horrible to him, but the fact that she had enough consideration to do it at night when there would be no danger to other people was clever as well. He didn't… He wasn't sure if he could actually justify treating her property damage as being as bad as some of the real monsters he'd fought in his time. After confronting people like Shigaraki, Stain, or Overhaul, the idea of categorizing her as a villain was almost quaint to him, reminding him a bit of Gentle Criminal of all people.

"That's… kind of smart actually," Izuku admitted begrudgingly after more than a little consideration. Ochako just shrugged in response, not looking like she was either pleased or displeased with the compliment.

"I did what I felt was necessary. My quirk isn't really combat-focused, and so I had to learn to fend for myself. But I got good at what I did - both the stealing and the subterfuge." Ochako smiled genuinely as she spoke, and Izuku wasn't sure what to make of that. "Eventually, I got really good at it."

Izuku frowned at her.

"Are you proud of that?" Izuku asked in a slightly sour tone. Ochako shook her head, but not really in answer.

"Not so fast, Midoriya. I want to ask you stuff," she said. Izuku groaned, but then held up his hands placatingly.

"Fine, ask away." As soon as the words left his lips he knew he'd regret them, but he was committed by that point. Part of him kind of wanted to talk about himself… because part of him kind of wanted to see what she wanted to know about him.

"Where'd you get the fancy suit?" Ochako asked, and Izuku was taken aback - and more than a little disappointed.

"That's what you want to know?" Ochako nodded enthusiastically, and Izuku couldn't help but roll his eyes at her. "Fine, it was designed by Melissa Shield, iterating on designs made by Mei Hatsume in the UA Support Department. They work together now."

Ochako bit her bottom lip at that and puffed out her cheeks, and it made her look like a cute marshmallow given human form.

"Do they work for money now?" She asked in a sly tone. Izuku chuckled at her and her silliness.

"Yeah, but they won't sell you anything under the table," he replied. She just smirked in response.

"Most people will do something if you offer them enough money," Ochako said matter-of-factly. Izuku shook his head insistently.

"Maybe the people you've been dealing with. But not them - or me, for that matter." Ochako raised an eyebrow at him when he said that, but Izuku looked at her with a flat conviction, and after a moment her eyebrow fell again and she smiled softly at him. She still did not look very convinced about Melissa and Mei, but thankfully she did not press the issue. Instead, Ochako leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, tilting her head smugly at him as she did so.

"So, what is your quirk? You never talk to the media about that one," she asked, trying very hard to be smooth. Izuku held up his right index finger and waggled it back and forth.

"Nope, that one is a no-go," he replied with his own smirk. Ochako narrowed her eyes at him.

"I bet I could find out," she said with real determination. Izuku laughed at her, genuinely amused.

"Honestly, as much as I believe you could do almost anything, that one is beyond you." That was true, too, insofar as if One for All was the kind of thing that could be stolen or easily exposed - like simple blackmail - she'd probably be the one who could manage it, or so Izuku believed.

"That just makes me want to find out more," Ochako said, and she pouted a bit at him in jest. Izuku shook his head in amusement but let the topic drop, hoping she would take the hint. He turned back to the ocean and sighed.

"I wish we could've met some other way," he said, not really thinking too much about it.

"Well, if you text that number and let me know when you're available, you might get a date yet," Ochako replied smugly from his side. Izuku spun around and glared at her.

"That isn't what I meant!" He exclaimed insistently, though a small part of him unhelpfully pointed out that he wouldn't mind that necessarily. Ochako was very pretty, and very easy to talk to, and in spite of himself, he was having a bit of fun. Izuku recognized that he was desperately alone in life and that this was ultimately probably just a game to her, but… that didn't make him feel any differently about it, to his minor irritation.

She just hummed at him mockingly and Izuku sighed in defeat. He turned back to the ocean and glared at the water.

"What do you need my help for, anyway? You have no trouble dealing with me."

"Perhaps," Ochako said neutrally. "But you're very strong and tactically-inclined, and when presented with, say, the dumb muscle of Yakuza bosses or corporate types, you clean house very well." She paused for a moment before adding more, "I find myself in need of someone who is smart and brave, unlikely to try to kill me for petty reasons, and who can punch other bad guys really hard for me."

Izuku rolled his eyes but declined to turn back to her to grace her with his irritated expression. There was another moment of silence, then she said more.

"Just think about it, okay? I'll tell you more if you give me a chance. I would really like your help, and… I kind of don't have anyone else to turn to on this one."

"Sure you don't," Izuku said sullenly, not particularly believing her.

He continued to look at the ocean, and noted that the fog was clearing up nicely. The rain had also stopped, and he hoped today might not be so dreary the whole day. He wouldn't be able to go back to the graves to visit more properly since everything was soaked, but maybe he could organize some of his notes when he got home that night. He felt a lot better, though, and he had half a mind to thank her even if the circumstances were utterly bizarre and borderline inappropriate.

"Alright, I think I'm going to…" Izuku started to say, but he trailed off as he turned and realized Ochako wasn't even there anymore.

I didn't even hear her leave, he thought incredulously. He stood up and looked around, but didn't find any sign of her. It was like she was never even there, and he was struck by how she was both very fast and very quiet.

Part of him started to question if maybe he was going just a bit mad - but then again, sanity was relative when it came to a man who could see ghosts with One for All.

It was just after noon when Izuku stepped into the workspace of Melissa Shield.

Her company, Shield Industries, wasn't really that far from the beach, located in Mustafa as it was. Shield Industries was something she started soon after Izuku's class graduated from UA in cooperation with Mei Hatsume. The two were… dynamic, was perhaps a nice way to put it, and they had made their marks already on the support gear world.

They weren't the largest company in the game. There were large competing companies from both the United States and China, as well as the re-launched Detnerat that had been reorganized after the defeat of the Meta Liberation Army. But Melissa and Mei were chugging along all the same, and they were helped immensely by Izuku serving as one of their public spokespersons and openly using their gear.

He didn't really mind that, considering that Melissa's advanced armor was what kept him from cracking like an egg on the pavement every time he went into a fight. He was still his old reckless self, but wearing state-of-the-art armor definitely helped matters. He could use all of One for All now without hurting himself just from the recoil, but that didn't change the fact that he had to connect with things at that output force, too.

"Melissa?" Izuku called out as he stepped into the workspace room. "Mei…?"

It wasn't usually a good sign when they weren't readily visible from the doorway. As if on cue there was a small explosion, and both women came tumbling out of a door on the other side of the room. They were lightly blackened with soot and Melissa landed on top of Mei, slightly squishing the shorter woman. The room they came out of was slightly smoking, and Izuku blinked a few times in bemusement at the situation.

"Ow… Dang it, Mei, you said this one wasn't volatile!" Melissa said with a groan as she picked herself up and brushed herself off.

Mei popped up like a spring, her pink hair bouncing with the motion, and looked entirely too pleased with herself. Then she turned and saw Izuku over at the entrance of the room. Izuku still had his right hand up on the door jam and he had an expression on his face that was halfway between disbelief and amusement. This was not the first time this had happened, though usually they did the explosive testing in the morning.

"Jade Rabbit!" Mei said enthusiastically, and Izuku smiled sheepishly and waved with his left, free hand. Mei knew his name now - or well, Izuku assumed anyway, it was hard to tell with her - but she liked to greet him with his Hero name. She had helpfully informed him in the past that she might forget it otherwise, to his minor confusion. Mei threw her hands up into the air as she continued, "You just missed our robot test. I gave it jet boosters!"

Melissa gave up on trying to clean herself off and looked up first to Mei with only a little annoyance, then to Izuku with a bright, pleased expression. Both of the women were wearing work overalls, though Mei never wore hers properly, opting instead to tie it around her waist instead and go in a dark, thick tank top. Mei ran over and gestured for him to hold his arm out.

"C'mon silly, I wanna look at it! How is it holding up?!"

Izuku sighed, but he couldn't hide his mirth or small smile as he held out his left arm and pulled his sleeve back. Then he pressed a little button on the off-white ring he had on his wrist and it unfolded in a bright white glow to cover his hand in a red gauntlet. The off-white strip was still visible at the wrist, and it had some new buttons on it from the most recent changes Melissa made, as well as shock detectors so it could automatically activate if the ring was struck too hard.

"Mel, you did wonderful work on this baby!" Mei said with glee, and Izuku looked over and behind her to see Melissa turn slightly pink. He smiled at her and she turned pinker at that, with an expression that told him she felt like he'd caught her doing something funny.

Izuku knew Melissa had a thing for Mei, but he wasn't the kind of person to tease her for it in front of Mei. That was more so Mina's job. Melissa had become his surrogate sister, looking after him as much as Shouto did after All Might and later, his mom, passed away, while Mei… Mei was Mei, which meant Mei was weird. That was a whole can of worms that Izuku didn't want to touch, but if Melissa did then more power to her, he decided.

"Alright, now go clean up the robot you just blew up," Melissa said, though her tone was more so teasing than stern. Mei half-turned so that half of her face was visible to Izuku and half was visible to Melissa and Izuku found her expression unreadable. On anyone else it might have been… perturbed, though she had a slightly maniacal grin. Whatever it was supposed to be, Melissa went from pink to red, and Mei released Izuku's arm and skipped towards her.

"Are we still on for tonight?" Mei said in an unusually… low voice, and Melissa made an incoherent squeaking noise and nodded like a dork. Izuku blinked in confusion and tilted his head as Mei reached out and bopped Melissa's nose with her right index finger, leaving a comical little soot mark there, then she strode with purpose back into the room that they appeared to have detonated.

"Did you have plans for later?" Izuku asked casually once Mei was gone, and Melissa walked over with a hilarious pout on her face as she tried to get the soot off her nose.

"Shush," she said firmly, and Izuku just smiled impishly at her. Melissa was very kind, and was there when he needed someone. If nothing else, Izuku was immensely grateful for her, and more grateful still if she was finding happiness.

Even if Mei was a little bit crazy.

"Now, let's see here…" Melissa said idly, and she gently gripped Izuku's arm where the gauntlet was. "Have you hit anything recently at maximum output?" She asked as she examined the gauntlet. Izuku tilted his head up to look at the ceiling and thought about it carefully.

"Not really," he admitted after some consideration. "They've held up pretty well, all things considered," he added thoughtfully, and tilted his head back down to look at her. He was just a bit taller than her these days - about 175cm to her 170cm or so - and she smiled and closed her eyes to adjust her glasses on her face.

"I'll say. You'll probably have to drop them off for a full diagnostic soon, but they're good for now based on the data readouts I've been seeing." Melissa let his arm go and he turned off the gauntlet and rolled down his sleeve. "You look kinda happy today, mister. Something good happen?" Melissa added in a tone that was a bit too conspiratorial for his liking.

"Er… Do I need a reason to be happy?" Izuku said cautiously as she opened her eyes and gave him a knowing, amused look.

"No, of course not. I'm just glad you look more content than normal." Melissa turned away from him and rummaged around in her little pile of things. "I never got those rocket boots to work for you, sadly," she added, speaking more so to herself than to him.

"That's alright, I don't think I need them," Izuku said with only a little teasing in his tone. The tests for the rocket boots had gone… poorly. Melissa turned and gave him a light faux glare, and Izuku chuckled nervously. "So, are you and Mei…?" Izuku asked cautiously, and Melissa turned a bit pink again.

"We're gonna try things out," she said softly, and Izuku beamed at her.

"That's awesome, Melissa! I'm excited for you both!" He bounced a bit on his feet as he spoke. He'd hoped that Melissa and Mei would get together ever since Melissa admitted she had a crush on the pink-haired girl to Izuku about a year and a half previously. He was moderately concerned they might 'date' by building poorly-disguised bombs together, but Melissa was generally a more responsible and grounded inventor than Mei.

Mostly.

"What about you, Izuku? The last time you told me about a date it was in relation to Katsuki and Eijiro's wedding and the bachelor party you went to for them," Melissa teased. Izuku cringed and looked away awkwardly to scratch the back of his neck.

"Uh, ah, yeah, haha… That was the last time, honestly," he admitted sheepishly. Melissa just rolled her eyes at him.

"You're the most eligible bachelor in Japan and you're telling me you haven't had a date with anybody in a year?"

"It uh… It wasn't even a date, honestly," Izuku said, and Melissa scoffed at him.

"You know what, you do you. Date, one-night stands, whatever, as long as you're being safe." Melissa gave him a pointed glare at that last part. "But Izuku, please, you can't just rely on Shouto and I forever. Go and make some friends at least!"

"I have friends!" Izuku said defensively, and Melissa looked at him with amused disbelief through half-lidded eyes.

"Name all the friends you have that are not Heroes, and which you see out of team-up missions." Izuku sputtered for a moment, then slumped in defeat. "Uh huh," Melissa said in triumph, "that's what I thought." She looked entirely too pleased with herself, so Izuku reached out and poked her gently in the side, eliciting a squeak from her as she dashed away. "Quit that, or I'll release robots on you!"

"Oh no, they'll explode at me," Izuku said in an overly dramatic tone.

"Hey!" Melissa's tone was quite indignant, though he knew she was faking it. Izuku giggled at her, and she giggled too after a moment.

It was true, really. Shield Industries designed a lot of high-quality support gear, and they were doing well in that department. But robots… Well, suffice to say, they wouldn't be winning any contracts with the JSDF anytime soon when it came to robots. Izuku wasn't precisely sure what the problem was, but he suspected that Mei's love of rocketry had to do with it.

"Alright, mister, I've got to clean up this room and… fix the door, I guess, before I get ready for this afternoon with Mei. So shoo - go make some friends or find a date, I believe in you!" Melissa made a vague waving motion with her hand at him, indicating he should go and leave. Izuku huffed air at her, not really put off but pretending to be, and smiled.

"I'll just hop on over to the 'friend store' and buy some, I'm sure," he said as he turned around.

"Consider a dating app," Melissa replied sardonically as he walked around the corner, and Izuku shook his head as he walked. He gave a little wave behind him, and she waved back.

Shield Industries was in a fairly small building, and there were other offices with some other staff. He waved to them, too, as he passed by - they all knew who he was, and he wasn't exactly subtle with his green hair and freckles anyway, no matter what he wore - and continued on down the hall.

Melissa wasn't wrong, though. He didn't really get out or go anywhere. It was moderately concerning that the first decent outing he'd had in months at least was with a villain - a villain he found more than a little attractive, no less.

It's just a game, he thought to himself with more than a little sadness. He kind of wanted it to be more than that - or at least, the idea of it meaning something was appealing. He wanted it to mean something with someone, at least.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by his cell phone ringing in his pocket as he walked out the front door of Shield Industries. His ring tone was the All Might jingle from his mentor's old television shows and he felt a little melancholy as he took out his phone and answered it. He didn't hear it often since frankly most people didn't bother to call him these days.

"Hello?" Izuku said as he began to walk down the sidewalk.

"Coming in today, or later on?" That was Detective Tsukauchi, and Izuku couldn't help the small sigh that escaped him.

"I'll come in before the end of the night," Izuku said quietly.

"Whatever works for you, Midoriya," Tsukauchi said in an even tone. Izuku knew he could put off going in for quite a while if he wanted to. But going in and debriefing was necessary, and he didn't really want to put it off.

He knew Tsukauchi would mock him more the longer that he did, anyway.

The sun was setting by the time he sat down in Detective Tsukauchi's office. The detective was nice enough to offer him coffee (four creams and sugar, as usual), at least.

Izuku groaned a little as he sat down into the seat; he was in great shape, but he also spent pretty much all day walking or standing on his feet and trying not to slip on the still-slick ground from the rain. As such, his feet hurt and he planned to rip his shoes off the moment he got home.

"You didn't have to come today," Tsukauchi pointed out as he handed Izuku the drink, once Izuku was as comfortable as he was going to get into the chair. Izuku accepted his coffee and contemplated the brown surface of the drink. Intrusively it reminded him of Ochako's eyes, and he blinked a few times to shoo that thought away. Izuku then smiled and shrugged at the detective.

"I know, but I don't want to have to come tomorrow, so it's better to do it now," Izuku replied. That was true at least, in the most literal sense. Tsukauchi had worked with Toshinori for a long time back in the day, and Izuku now worked with him in much the same way. Izuku never quite felt like he lived up to that, but Tsukauchi was generally nice about it and happy to work with Izuku… even if he wasn't above mocking Izuku a little bit when he messed up.

Tsukauchi made his way back around his desk and sat down with a modicum of grace, at least in comparison to Izuku. His office was well-organized, as usual. A stack of finished paperwork was to his right and the intake tray for new paperwork was empty. He also had today's newspaper on his desk. Tsukauchi still had some nice photos framed, too - a couple of Tsukauchi and Toshinori when they were much younger and some new ones of Tsukauchi and Izuku, along with a group shot with Class A from their third year of school.

"You know that I could've handled the bureaucratic end of things for you," Tsukauchi said matter-of-factly after a moment. He had a slightly amused expression on his face, though he hid it well enough. Izuku could only tell from working with the older man for so long.

Tsukauchi had some more lines on his face than he used to and he let his black hair grow a tad longer than he once did, but he mostly looked as he did when Izuku met him and Izuku respected that. Being a detective was a hard job, doubly so for someone like Tsukauchi who took his job very seriously, and that he hadn't gone gray yet from stress early into his forties was probably some kind of achievement.

Izuku shook his head at Tsukauchi, realizing he was taking too long to respond.

"That isn't fair, I have to do the same work as everyone else, 'Symbol of Hope' or not," Izuku said. He didn't quite feel the conviction he should when he said that, but it was true. He might have hated paperwork and other administrative tasks, but he did what was required of him because it needed to be done. Tsukauchi gave him a small smile in return, looking more visibly amused now as he responded.

"All Might never did his paperwork, remember. Too busy saving people for that," he observed. Izuku couldn't help but roll his eyes at that, knowing altogether too well how true that was. Toshinori had admitted that to him after the incident at the USJ and at the time Izuku was suitably horrified. As an adult though… he totally understood. Izuku frowned even still.

"I'm not All Might," Izuku said. Realistically, he didn't think he'd ever be that good. He had the right kind of trajectory in terms of case completion rate relative to how long he'd been a pro Hero, but… he knew that statistics didn't tell the whole story. Tsukauchi also frowned in response to that, but let the comment pass.

"So, tell me what happened last night. I take it she got the better of you, again?" Tsukauchi asked. Izuku groaned and leaned back in his seat so he could sip his coffee. Drinking coffee this close to bedtime was probably a mistake, but neither he nor the detective had healthy sleep patterns as it was.

"I chased her into the industrial district. She went into an empty warehouse. Against my better judgement, I followed her in alone," Izuku replied. Tsukauchi blinked at him a few times, looking unnecessarily smug. He casually adjusted the rolled-up sleeves of his dress shirt as he responded.

"Did she taze you again?" He said, perfectly seriously. Izuku grumbled incoherently for a moment at that.

"No!" Izuku paused, before adding, "…she dropped an I-beam on me."

The detective looked him up and down and sipped his own coffee (black).

"Doesn't look like it did much," he noted dryly after he finished his sip. Izuku chuckled mirthlessly in response.

"No, I caught it. But she used the distraction to cuff me with quirk suppressors," Izuku grumbled. Tsukauchi laughed - actually laughed - at Izuku at that before replying.

"Hey, that's pretty good. Maybe I'll ask them to incorporate that into basic training." He set his coffee down and looked thoroughly amused at Izuku's expense.

"I already got it bad enough from Frostfire," Izuku noted with more than a little irritation. Other than Shouto, Tsukauchi was the person he had the closest professional relationship with as a full-time Hero, and Tsukauchi knew how much shit Shouto liked to give Izuku. Izuku was mindful of not letting the two of them both try to chat him up at professional events because he'd never hear the end of it if he did.

"That's true enough," Tsukauchi deadpanned in response, and Izuku groaned again.

"Don't make puns, I did not sleep long enough for puns today."

"Sorry, couldn't resist." Tsukauchi did not look very sorry at all, and Izuku pouted at him, just a little bit. "Anyways, is that all that happened?" Tsukauchi added absently, and he had a neutral expression as he waited for Izuku to reply. Izuku opened and closed his mouth and considered for a moment.

"Er… Mostly, yeah," Izuku said, trying his luck. Tsukauchi's expression changed immediately, and Izuku couldn't help but rest his chin in his hand and know that things were going to suck from that point on.

"Midoriya, we've been working together for eight years. You know better than that," Tsukauchi scolded. Izuku did know better than that, but he also didn't want to deal with it that day. He might have felt better than he did that morning, but it was still the anniversary of his mother's death, and he wanted to go home and collapse for a week. He wouldn't, and couldn't, but it's what he wanted to do. He sighed heavily and looked at Tsukauchi with a weary expression.

"She left me a business card, said she wanted me to work with her on a job. It has a phone number on it, probably a burner phone," Izuku said quietly. Tsukauchi's eyes went wide as he replied a bit too enthusiastically.

"Are you going to contact her?" He said. Izuku cleared his throat awkwardly at that.

"I already did, technically. I ran into her this morning, at the cemetery." Tsukauchi gave him a disbelieving, slightly blank look. "Her parents are buried in the same cemetery as All Might, on purpose," Izuku provided by way of explanation. "Anyway, she told me that I'm the only one who could help her on this… and I think we can use this to get to her employers!"

Izuku was trying to sound professional and like he had actually properly planned things out. Tsukauchi just gave him a knowing look that Izuku did not like, but spared him from any teasing.

"You know that you can step back and let the cops handle this at any time, right? She's not really a traditional villain, after all," Tsukauchi said. He set his coffee down and pointed to the newspaper on his desk, folded neatly. The headline was talking about some up and coming playboy-type with a strength-enhancing shark mutation quirk, who was suspected of consolidating power in organized crime.

"Hey, I've been taking down big villains too!" Izuku said defensively. "I put that big elephant guy in Tartarus last month."

Tsukauchi hummed neutrally at him.

"Yeah, but you also dislocated your shoulder and sprained both ankles doing it." He smirked at Izuku. "As I recall, Frostfire made you take vacation time after that."

Izuku groaned indignantly. He remembered Shouto giving him what Izuku derisively thought of as his 'dad impression' - he would never admit thinking that to Shouto's face - as he ordered him to take it easy for a week after that.

"Yeah, he did," Izuku admitted begrudgingly.

"You're working way too hard, Midoriya," Tsukauchi said simply, as if it was the easiest problem in the world to fix. Realistically Izuku was aware of that, the problem was just that if he wasn't working he was trying to sleep and he was not having an easy time recently on that front. Izuku rolled his eyes at the detective.

"Yeah, well, I kind of have to. What, do you want to send Ground Zero and Frostfire out together on capture missions and have to explain to the police commissioner why half of Japan is in ruins?" Izuku smirked after he said that, already well aware of how bad an idea his suggestion was. Accordingly and appropriately, Tsukauchi blanched at him.

"Er… No, I do not. But there are other Heroes!" Then he continued under his breath but loud enough for Izuku to hear, "Besides, I know better to partner those two anymore, after the incident last year."

Izuku nodded with a faux grim expression.

"I'd hope so. Kacchan wouldn't shut up about 'that half-and-half bastard trying to take all my glory' for a month, even when he was in the hospital for a broken leg and two broken arms." Izuku made what he hoped was a look of pure Kacchan fury with his face and shook his fist mockingly as he spoke. Tsukauchi chuckled at him.

"Your Ground Zero impression is pretty good," Tsukauchi said, and Izuku grimaced in response.

"I had a lot of practice." Izuku looked over to the pictures on the wall again, sighing. "When do you need my report by?" He added, without shifting his gaze. In the corner of his eye, he saw Tsukauchi shake his head.

"Don't bother. No time for that. I want you to contact her and go through with it," Tsukauchi replied. Izuku whipped his head around and groaned.

"Oh, come on, I'm the worst person to send for this! I only ran into her by accident this morning," Izuku moaned. Tsukauchi just smirked at him.

"You're the one she asked for. She's expecting you to be incompetent at interrogation. So, don't be incompetent at interrogation." He raised his right index finger to point at Izuku. "This is our chance to figure out who's the one at the top, after all."

Then he dropped his hand and looked entirely too self-satisfied. Izuku blinked in confusion and focused on the middle bit.

"Do you think I'm incompetent at interrogation?!" He said indignantly. Tsukauchi just shook his head in amusement with precisely zero remorse.

"I think you're very good at analysis and understanding quirks, more so than other police work skills."

"I don't need a lie detecting quirk to know when you're full of shit," Izuku said with more than a little annoyance. Tsukauchi laughed but did not bother to correct Izuku, much to his chagrin. Izuku then finished his coffee, now lukewarm, in one last big gulp. After that, he set the cup down on the desk and threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. "Fine, I'll go talk to the damn thief." Then Izuku narrowed his eyes at Tsukauchi. "If she tazes me again, I'm going to taze you, with your own taser."

Tsukauchi did not skip a beat with his reply.

"I don't carry a taser," he deadpanned. Izuku scowled at him.

"Then I'll go find Chargebolt and use him as a taser," he declared. Tsukauchi guffawed at him, but did not rise to the barb. They sat there for a moment in a semi-comfortable silence, until Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow at him.

"Something else on your mind?"

Izuku opened and closed his mouth a few times and blinked in confusion. He was considering bringing up that he felt like he might be getting too invested in things, and probably not thinking clearly regarding the case. He contemplated telling Tsukauchi that he should send someone else, because Izuku was really, genuinely not suited to this.

What he said instead, not quite of his own accord, was:

"Tsukauchi, did you ever meet Nana Shimura?"

The detective blinked a few times at him and looked rather confused.

"Not personally, no. I heard a lot about her from All Might, though. Why?" He replied. Izuku held Tsukauchi's gaze for a few moments and floundered in the deep end. He didn't mean to ask that, so he wasn't sure how to follow up. He settled for clearing his throat awkwardly once more.

"Do you have nightmares, Tsukauchi?" Izuku asked, his voice lower and sadder now. Tsukauchi did not precisely look pleased at Izuku's question, though he didn't seem irritated at Izuku himself either.

"Everyone in this line of work has nightmares, Midoriya. It comes with the territory." He tilted his head at Izuku and his face shifted into a rather stern expression. "You never went and saw a therapist like I recommended, did you?"

Izuku quickly shook his head.

"No time. Besides, what am I supposed to tell them? 'Oh, by the way, my quirk is borrowed from All Might himself and I've been having ghostly nightmares from the previous Bearers.'" Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow at him, knowing that Izuku was in no way lying. "It's complicated," Izuku finished lamely, then he looked away.

"I take it Nana has been bothering you, then?" The detective's tone was more so curious than anything.

"You could say that. She keeps showing me… memories, things from my past. It started a bit before I took this case."

"Do you think they're related?" Tsukauchi said, trying to follow Izuku's thread of logic.

"I have no idea," Izuku responded sincerely. "Nana is not precisely forthright. All Might always said that he didn't have a good connection to the vestiges, and he died before he could tell me much more than that."

Izuku glanced back to the detective with a pensive expression on his face.

"Well… have you tried just asking her?" Tsukauchi asked, grasping for straws a little bit. Izuku started to say that was a preposterous idea but… he had not actually tried just asking. He was too busy sleeping half as long as he should have been to try that.

"I'll take that under advisement," he said as he stood up.

"Don't work yourself to death, Midoriya. The country needs you," Tsukauchi said, though Izuku just scoffed at him.

"No, you need me, because who else is going to solve all the awful cases that nobody else wants to take?" Izuku stretched his arms as Tsukauchi smirked shamelessly at him.

"You help the country by helping me, I don't see how that's a bad thing."

"Yeah, well call me back when you find somebody that can hold up a building that's collapsing, I'll wait," Izuku said as he walked towards the door.

"I don't know, first I'll focus on finding someone who won't destroy the building in the process."

Izuku turned to give the detective his best death glare, and it was distinctly ineffective. He could still hear Tsukauchi's laughter at his expense when he left the room and walked down the hall.