Heroes in the Dark chapter 85.5: See no Evil, Hare No Evil
She knew him from somewhere. Of course she did.
You don't just show up to a big ol' fight without reason, especially not one with the top two heroes and Japan's biggest pyromaniac. She hopped onto the scene to beat some villain ass and make sure her fellow heroes didn't kick the bucket on her watch.
So why the hell had that birdy boy been there in the heat of it all?
And no, she wasn't talking about Hawks – but he wasn't out of the fire, either.
Mirko leapt from one rooftop to the next, several stories above the ground on her typical patrol route. She kept her senses on edge, but her thoughts were preoccupied with the odd events of what had started as a simple observation.
It'd taken a few days, but she'd figured it out eventually. Where she knew him from, that is.
Let's see… A bird-headed boy, dressed in black, trying to access a battle with a notorious member of the League of Villains, and probably wouldn't have been able to get so far in the nomu-infested city if not for the use of some decently strong quirk and combat training…
It'd only been for a moment. A brief, agonizing amount of time that ended all too quickly. That boy she'd seen was a hero student. Mirko didn't usually pay much attention to that sort of stuff, but even she knew about the famous U.A. fiasco that had abruptly ended All Might's career – and life. Not only that, though. It wasn't talked about as much – especially after almost half a year had passed – and yet there was still the little detail of that student who'd been captured by those villains.
Funny how there hadn't been a peep about that in a while, huh?
No missing posters or updates. No interviews from the grieving family in the months to follow. Not that Mirko could find – and she had looked. After he'd been spotted during that fight, anyway. What the hell was up with that?
Okay, so maybe it wasn't her business. But she could make it her business pretty damn easy. She didn't do interns. She wasn't adding to her workload by raising the next generation of heroes. But she knew when to go with her instincts, and something about this whole thing felt fundamentally off.
Because she'd heard him. Mirko had heard Fumikage Tokoyami calling out over the flames of battle.
For Hawks.
He was a prisoner of the villains… or something. A lot of reports presumed him dead in the aftermath of that big battle against All for One, she'd mused while slowly uncovering the hidden details of this whole thing. And when she started looking, there'd been a lot more to it than she'd realized.
Okay but like… I can't be the only one wondering what's going on with that kid, right? He should've been all over the news!
Everyone she'd asked had just… looked at her. As if she wasn't speaking their language. Wait, you saw that hero kid? No way – nobody else did. There was coverage all over that battle. The one with Endeavor? Yeah! Something like that would've been known. Were you seeing things in all that fire?
…Things like that.
No! No, I'm not making this up!
The Public Hero Safety Commission didn't have much to offer her. When she'd asked – nicely, even! – about the whole missing kid thing, they sure played dumb. Said the case was closed. Since he hadn't been seen for months, there wasn't anything they could do about it. They'd rather have a permanent scar on their reputation than open up that wound any further. All they had to say was what everyone else already knew: one student had been saved and the other was lost. That's it. Nothing else to note.
Luckily for Mirko, those record-keepers weren't as tight-lipped as they could be. And wouldn't you know it, but her ears were quite sharp! She'd made a few casual trips to the physical information database that the Commission kept in their headquarters. They'd always been relatively pleasant around her – even more so now that she was ranked higher in the top heroes, sitting comfily at number five. A confident smile and a simple request later and the desk manager had been all too happy to see what he could find. And… he'd come back empty-handed. Bear in mind, that wasn't like them at all. They had dirt on everyone and everything. She could see it in those shifty eyes and fidgety fingers.
What a load of crap. They were keeping things from her, and she didn't appreciate that much.
While she still had an audience, she'd pushed for intel one last time before giving up. All she'd gotten was a muddled excuse: "Sorry, there really isn't much on him past the yakuza – er, villain involvement…"
At what point were yakuza involved?!
Something about the way he'd stumbled over it didn't sound like a mere slip up the tongue. There was suddenly a lot more to this that she didn't know, and piecing together a better understanding of the case was a different kind of fight, the likes of which she wasn't prepared for.
So she'd gone back to whatever she could salvage from public domain articles. The fact that there wasn't more about this kid made her want to scream. Because this Tokoyami kid had been so damn out of place during that nomu fight and she just wanted to understand what the hell was going on.
There wasn't anything about him and yakuza, making her wonder if it truly had been a miscommunication. There was, however, some kinda drug bust a few months ago that, while not heavily reported on, seemed like a pretty big deal in the underground toss-up. Mirko had only found it because it'd been the event that had pushed certain heroes like Ryukyu higher up on the Hero Billboard Charts. It was a metaphorical rabbit hole, to say the least. Hospital reports had been filed for heroes like Rock Lock and Nighteye, though they were locked away from view… And the League of Villains was briefly mentioned as being on site, whatever that meant for them.
She hadn't meant to dedicate as much time as she had to answering one measly question. Mirko had thought it'd be simple. As it turned out, nothing ever truly was. Because somewhere along the way, another piece of information, hidden in all those big headlines, had come to light. Something that she probably should've realized sooner, but was instead lost amongst all the villain-centric reports flooding this missing students' name.
Tokoyami was Hawks' intern.
Had she never noticed…? Was this something that was supposed to be common knowledge? I mean, I get that they're both birds and all, but Hawks never really said anything about taking on an internship. Especially not one that had ended up like this.
Hawks talked with her from time to time. Heroic standing aside, they were on pretty good terms. Mirko could appreciate his cheeky personality, and she'd even offered to take him out for drinks after that whole incident in Fukuoka. He'd seemed pretty down, for as much as he tried to hide it. Nothing escaped her, though!
In the end, she'd raised a toast to herself for a good day of work, but it'd felt hollow and undeserved.
"Hawks! We need to—!"
Those words rang in her ears, seeped in urgency and desperation.
Need what? Wouldn't a kid caught in the clutches of villains need some damn saving? Hell, maybe if she'd seen him sooner she could've done something right there and then.
But he was gone from the scene all too quickly – him and that villain, Dabi.
Troubles ticking in her mind, Mirko stopped on a rooftop. Everything had been quiet today, without anything really out of the ordinary. Granted, she knew not to let her guard down in such tumultuous times, but it was all too tempting to take a little detour.
Mirko scoured the streets below, taking note of every person, street corner, and storefront she could see. Her ears swiveled every which way, picking up on the relatively standard city sounds that greeted her. Nope, nothing special. Everything seemed about as normal as a city like this could get. But what was she supposed to expect? It wasn't every day that some cataclysmic event rattled a city, never mind the foundation of hero society.
And yet tragedy seemed to follow a certain little bird.
"Everything looks good up here!" Mirko remarked out loud, reassuring only herself. "There's nothing wrong with taking a moment out of my day to visit a fellow hero, yeah? Yeah!" Mirko hopped down from the rooftop, onto the balcony of the building beneath her. Hawks' agency wasn't too far off the beaten path. It'd been a couple weeks since she'd backed him up in that fight, and she hadn't seen a whole lot of him since then. It'd be nice to barge in for a quick hello! And maybe I can get him to talk a little bit while I'm at it.
Mirko forged ahead, no invitation or further prompting needed. Despite being a hero, she had no qualms against acting for herself. It was no longer just that this "wasn't her business" or that such a peculiar ongoing mystery wasn't within her range to be investigating. Who knows – maybe if Hawks had been quietly struggling with the loss of his intern, then she could be of help! And that hero school would definitely want its student back safely. And… that poor family, too. If she could help any one of them by uncovering the mystery behind this kid and the villainous activity, then she would be satisfied.
Her unannounced presence at Hawks' agency caught his staff off guard, but she was quickly allowed in anyway. They knew better than to keep her out with the strictly professional relationship they had. She swept past the front desk operator with a cheery smile and raced up to his main office on the highest floor of the building, eager to reach him before the employees got the message of her sudden arrival through.
When she inevitably barged through the door, Hawks was standing with his back turned—looking out over the city from that perch of his, she imagined. The hero whipped around, feathers fluffed. "Oh! Mirko, I didn't know you were here!" he exclaimed, feigning surprise.
Sounds fake, but alright, Mirko mused to herself. She knew damn well what Hawks used those snoopy feathers for. Nobody could catch him off guard, and that was a fact. But she could excuse a little fib if it meant getting a word in with him.
Mirko let herself in, plopping down into the chair closest to him with a care-free grin. "Ah, well, I was in the neighborhood and figured I'd hop on over. It's been a while, you know?" she said, luring him into a false sense of security like this was some casual, everyday visit.
Hawks hummed. "I don't really have time for idle chit-chat, as fun as that sounds. A hero's work is never done and all that." His voice sounded just a bit strained… had she come at a bad time? "Shouldn't you be on duty right now?"
Mirko waved the question aside. "Hey, hey, I got my things going on and you have yours. That's great. That's no reason to be rude to a guest! So sit your tail-feathers down—I wanted to ask you about some stuff. You have time in your oh-so-busy schedule for that, yeah?"
Hawks set down a stack of papers and swallowed an irritated sigh. He slouched into the chair at the head of his desk, spreading his wings out to either side until they were comfortable. Even though this was Hawks' office, it never did feel like his natural environment whenever Mirko saw it. There was nothing here that made it personal or revealed anything about the kind of individual he was. As if it was… pre-established for a carefully curated position.
"The Commission has me on call, so don't be surprised if I have to leave at a moment's notice," he lamented, wearing an amused grin. "But ya got me for now. So what'd you wanna hear?"
Mirko rocked in her seat, wondering where to start. "Sooo, that fight with you and Endeavor, you still remember that, right?" Stupid question. Of course he did. But she didn't exactly have a better way to break the ice.
Hawks scoffed. "'Course I do. Can't forget. What about it? You were there too, ya know."
"Well, yeah. I'm just saying it must've been hard, considering who was caught up in that fight. We all did what we could, but doesn't it ever make you feel like you could've done more…?" Mirko pressed.
Hawks didn't seem all that interested in the conversation topic. "If that's part of being a hero, then yeah I guess. It was all I could do to help Endeavor back there. Honestly, I don't think there was much more I could've done in that situation if I'd tried," he sighed, flicking a crimson feather off his desk. "He's resilient, though. The Number One's doing just fine now."
Mirko nodded in sympathy and leaned forward over the armrest. "Yeah, sure, but that's not what I meant. I only meant that… well, it must've been so hard to see your intern get wrapped up in the fire, too."
Hawks face gave nothing away. He chuckled, giving her a weird look like she was spouting absurdities. "What're you on about now? This was a closed fight – I didn't have any of my sidekicks anywhere near that place. It all happened out of nowhere, remember? Even someone as fast as you didn't get to the scene until the main battle was over."
Mirko did, however, note the way his feathers stiffened defensively. She knew his quirks—literally, that is. Whatever was hidden behind that façade of his was just as easily contrasted by the more subtle signs. He couldn't hide everything from her, much as he tried.
Mirko still tried to play off the conversation lightly. "No, not that! C'mon, I know you. And if I realized he was there, then you did too, right? That old intern of yours! What was his name…? Tokoyami something or other? Yeah! You took him under his wing for a while, didn't you?"
Hawks folded his wings in and raised an eyebrow at her quizzically. "Hm, opening up old wounds, are you? You know what happened to him, right? Nobody's seen him in months." Suddenly the stack of papers beside him seemed a lot more interesting, and he diverted his attention there with a sigh. "It's really unfortunate how it all went down. I wish I could've been there… the night he was captured."
Mirko hesitated, waiting to see if he'd say anything else on the matter. "Y-yeah?" I refuse to believe that Hawks didn't realize that his long lost student was on the scene on that fight.
And continue Hawks did. Just not in the way she was hoping. "I thought Tokoyami had a lot of untapped potential. So even though I don't usually take the time to deal with interns, I figured there'd be some merit in bringing him into my ranks. It feels so short-lived now that he's been gone for so long."
He's doing this on purpose. I could kick him right now. "I'm not talking about that though," Mirko said, trying her damnedest not to let her ever-building frustration shine through. Why was this starting to feel like talking to a brick wall? "I mean, like, during the fight. When I had to come in to fend that Dabi guy off from you. While that was happening, Tokoyami was just outside that wall of fire. Hell, the reason I knew he was there is because I heard him call your name. But no matter where else I go, it was like he was never there at all."
Hawks went quiet. She couldn't tell what his face was, hidden as it now was behind a gloved hand propped on the desk. When he finally did answer, his voice was surprisingly level. "I think you're confusing yourself. Tokoyami – my old intern – is long gone. I never got the chance to get a good impression of him. He couldn't even keep up with me during the internship, so why would he be in the heat of that battle?"
"Nobody can keep up with you if you've got your head so high up in the clouds, dumbass!" Mirko snapped. And maybe it was a bit harsh considering she'd come to his place for what should've been an easy discussion, but she'd reached her wits end. "Did you ever see him at all?"
"I only knew him for a week," he said in what might've finally been a first expression of guilt.
Mirko gave one last push. "Hawks, you know what I mean. Did you see him?"
"…No. I didn't have any spare feathers keeping track of my surroundings. If he was truly there during that fight, then I didn't hear him and I didn't see him."
Mirko's heart sank. You liar.
She could excuse his first little lie, but not an evasion of the truth so blatant. Hawks had made his decision the moment this conversation was dumped onto the table. She'd be getting no answers from him.
Mirko stood up from her seat in one swift movement. "Well guess what? I know what I saw, and your little intern is still out there! I thought you'd care more about that, or was I wrong? So why don't you pay more attention if you ever get the chance again? Because if you see that kid again, then I think you owe it to be there for him. From the sounds of it, he should've been rescued a long-ass time ago."
She hated this. It wasn't everyday she left something behind on bad terms, but it didn't appear as though Hawks had anything left to say. It felt as though she'd already overstayed her welcome, and she wasn't about to push her luck anymore. If she'd learned anything else at all from this whole thing, it'd be a damn miracle. Because everywhere else was a dead end and she didn't know anybody who could have another lead as obvious as the one sitting in front of her.
She began heading to the door. If there was nothing left, then she was just wasting time here. If she hurried now, she could still finish her patrol route in decent time.
From behind, she heard Hawks lift his head from the desk. She paused in front of the door and turned her ear to listen to the quiet voice that rose to meet her. "If I tried… do you think I could save him?"
Mirko looked back over her shoulder, baffled and admittedly a bit concerned. "Um, yeah? Doesn't matter where he's at now – that kid shouldn't be an exception. Aren't you always pushing yourself to save as many people as possible anyway?"
Hawks sank lower onto the desk, as if burdened by a weight much greater than his wings. "That's the problem," he mumbled under his breath, barely more than a whisper. Mirko heard him all the same, and Hawks knew that. If he'd really wanted to keep those words from her, then they wouldn't have been spoken at all.
Had she any free time, she might've considered consoling him – obviously there was something wrong that he was adamantly not talking about. Behind the wall of secrets was a vulnerability that couldn't be accessed, despite her being somebody she liked to think was a good friend in this society of titles and heroic hierarchy.
Before she could move an inch, duty called from out of the blue.
Hawks' phone lit up with a buzz. In a split moment of decisiveness, Hawks gave more attention to the notification than he could've ever spared her during this abruptly concluded conversation. And so she watched with acute attentiveness as the color drained from his face in a rare express of genuine horror.
Hawks stood from his seat with the urgency of somebody who'd had a flame lit beneath him. He finished reading whatever message had so thoroughly ruffled his feathers and pocketed his phone. "I don't have the time for this," he announced, shoving the large windows of his office wide open. "Somebody can escort you out, but neither of us can stay here."
Mirko wasted no time, running up to the window from behind to try and match his pace. "Hey, hold on there! If something's wrong, then you should ask for help! You know, before things go from bad to worse. Heroes should rely on each other, don't you think? Hawks!" But she was pleading to empty air. He was gone, soaring over skyscrapers and to an undisclosed location before she could do anything to reign him in. Not that some damn common sense would've done the bird-brain any good, but it still left her feeling disappointed.
Maybe her timing had been bad after all.
It felt like the only truth he'd provided was the promise of kicking her out of his office. Without needing to wait too long, one of his sidekicks directed her away from the office and bid her good-bye from the steps of the building.
Mirko would only learn later what had caused Hawks so much alarm.
In the span of a few hours, the great expanse of Deika City had been all but leveled to the ground by an organized rebellion against hero society.
Hundreds of civilians had been either killed or injured. Heroes, too. All while she'd been going about her day, oblivious to the kind of soul crushing destruction that could happen anytime and anywhere in this unpredictable world of quirks. It was framed as both a catastrophe on par with the events leading to All for One's imprisonment and a developing mystery, with scattered details being uncovered slowly over time. No matter what she learned about the fiasco, every report that reached her didn't sit right for some reason.
Where Hawks was during all this was up in the air. Mirko was only left to wonder how this could've happened while having the constant threat of devastation hanging over her head. It was supposed to be her job to help in whatever way she could. But if nobody told her anything, then it felt more like she was being blindly guided along.
Where this ever-looming darkness lead, she had no idea. But at least if she couldn't see what was happening before her very eyes, then maybe she could still listen a little harder.