NOTE: This story isn't intended for sensitive readers. Readers on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Singlehandedly a pass.

There was a buzzing underneath Izuku's skin. It had been there since he'd woken up and it wouldn't go away. This wasn't a—you're not eating enough food—physical response. If it were, Izuku would have had this problem years ago.

The buzzing was only growing stronger, more distracting, as he made his way that morning to the library, the streets were mostly empty, unsettlingly so. Izuku didn't notice though, he was running the facts he'd studied for most of the night through his mind. If he passed this test, he would be one step closer to graduation.

After pulling open one of the heavy wood doors of the public library, Akatani set up for his test at one of the monitors that had a camera on it. He had to be recorded while taking the test, which, wouldn't stop him from cheating if he wanted to, but Akatani didn't think the risk was worth it. He'd paid for these classes once; he couldn't afford to get kicked out of one and have to pay for it again.

The library was also unusually empty, there were never many people there—even on a busy day, but today Akatani and the lady at the counter were the only people there. The counter lady, whose name he didn't know, looked concerned. No that's not the right word. She looks upset, like devastated. A person's eyes shouldn't look as hopeless as hers did.

Some time ago, the counter lady tried to write down her name so Akatani would know it—he refused. It wasn't something he needed to know. If it were any other day, he'd go check on her and see what was bothering her. But he needed to take this test.

When Akatani was about halfway through the questions, an alert showed up on the screen. There was a villain attack nearby, which struck him as odd, this area of Musutafu hadn't had any major attack in years. This broke his focus and turned Akatani's attention to the buzzing again, it pulsed beneath his skin. A second alert popped up over the first, Kamui Woods was now on the scene, good, then there's no need to worry.

As Akatani tried pushing down the buzzing feeling, he could feel it protesting. Of course, Akatani realized that was insane, he was just hungry, nothing more. He hadn't eaten since…since recently? A few minutes of restless silence followed; he bounced his feet against the carpet. Akatani didn't feel energized, but restless. He tried to look at the screen, but he couldn't focus on the words, not until the buzzing decided to fade away on its own. Akatani got back to his test.

It took him longer than it normally would have to finish, I'm just having a bad day. Yesterday was awful, I'm still a little off. Akatani reasoned, the test grade should be posted by the time he checked tomorrow morning, his teacher should be able to grade the short answer and essay questions by then.

The buzzing was back now, that didn't change that there was still more work to be done, a Calculus assignment he had been too exhausted to finish the night before was waiting to be completed. Akatani signed out of the computer he was at and sat down at a nearby table and spread his things out there.

After the third attempt on one problem, Akatani aggressively erased his work, he couldn't focus. He could hardly hear himself think with the buzzing under every inch of skin on his body. Akatani felt the vibrations of a tap on the table. Akatani's head shot up. The lady from the desk. She pushed a notepad towards him: 'You need to leave. It's not safe.'

The words of his response were there, but like most times, they remained stuck in his throat. Akatani used the pencil he'd gotten out for his homework to scribble down on the notepad: 'What do you mean?'

The woman looked frustrated, writing: 'The news, you should know it's not safe.'

The conversation was progressing slowly and the lady from the desk was growing impatient, Akatani wrote back as fast as he could: 'I know, the villain attack nearby. The alert said Kamui Woods had it under control.'

"No." She said. Akatani could read her lips, "No…" She was saying something after that. Akatani tried but he could make it out, he couldn't focus. Was something else wrong?

Swallowing before trying to speak again, it was difficult, speaking without being able to hear yourself. Not to mention embarrassing, Akatani had no idea how his voice sounded, speaking wasn't a common thing, "Uh," he choked out.

One of the doors to the library flew open. A police officer? She must be strong to open the doors like that, or maybe I'm just weak. She's yelling. What's wrong? Akatani felt the ground tremble. Looking around, the whole building was shaking.

Someone grabbed his arm. Instinctively, he pushed them off, it was the lady from the counter. She was yelling something to him, but HE COULDN'T UNDERSTAND.

The police officer by the door was waving her hand. Motioning for them to leave. What? I can't leave without my things. Akatani was frozen in place, his mind buzzing and scattered. Trying to catch up and process the situation but was left only with static in his head for the effort.

The officer was in front of Akatani now, shaking his shoulders and shouting something that Akatani couldn't understand. He tried speaking, "I-I can't…" That was as much as he could stifle out. He pointed his finger at his ear and shook his head.

The officer stopped shouting, calmer now, but her face still slightly panicked. She may have apologized at some point but Akatani barely took notice. The building shook again. Akatani and the officer braced themselves against the table. The shaking was so violent books fell off of shelves, a few tipped over entirely.

Looking around, the lady from the counter was nowhere in sight. She must have gotten out. Good. When did she leave? I don't remember. Why can't I remember? Akatani was crying now, there was too much going on. The buzzing had stopped pulsing, becoming an unbearable constant pressure trapped inside of him. Akatani pressed his fingers into his head, eyes shut tightly closed. Why won't it stop?

A steady hand on his shoulder managed, only barely to bring Akatani back above the surface. The female officer, stood there smiling, no longer panicked. Composed like her meticulously kept black hair in a tight bun, even as the building and Akatani trembled.

She handed him a small note written on a notebook: 'I'm Officer Chibana. I need you to turn off your quirk and come with me."

When did she? What? What quirk? I don't have a… Akatani was panicking again. All his senses were muted by the buzzing underneath his skin—it had grown painful now. It hurt, like it wanted to burst out of his skin.

Someone grabbed his hand, Akatani had forgotten who, hardly able to think of anything but the buzzing. He didn't shake them off though, he couldn't take his mind off the mounting pressure of the buzzing. He did recoil internally; he didn't like being touched. This person dragging him along while he subconsciously went along with it.

Akatani could still make out his surroundings, the tall white walls of the library were covered in spiderwebs of cracks—and they were spreading. A horrible shudder went through the building. Kamui Woods? Akatani saw the hero sprawled on the floor, a ways across the expansive room. The hero had been thrown through the wall.

There was another, tremor, like an earthquake. Akatani and his guide were sent crashing to the floor.

The buzzing was more subtle now, in the background. Maybe it realized it was going to get me killed if it didn't stop. Sunlight, a large beam of sun entering the building. Akatani could feel the rays on his skin. Half of the building had collapsed inward. Whatever had just happened, it helped snap him out of his panic.

Akatani slowly stood up, relying on his right leg, he'd twisted his left ankle in the fall. Kamui Woods was up now, at the edge of where the collapsed building met the street. Facing off against someone. This someone stomped their foot down, the ground shook. Akatani saw cracks grow on the library's remaining walls and ceiling.

Another stomp and Akatani was thrown back onto the floor. As he tried to get his bearings, he spotted a figure nearby. Though, a section of the ceiling blocked his view. Officer Chibana. Why isn't she moving? Did she hit her head when she fell?

After sitting up, Akatani could see why she wasn't moving. Her hair was loose, and her body was sprawled out on the floor, and she was lying in a pool of blood. The side of her head was caved in by a piece of metal that had fallen from the ceiling. Akatani gagged and he looked away. But he could still see the image of her head caved in. Brain, shattered bone, both exposed.

Maybe if there was anything in his stomach he would have thrown up. Akatani slumped back onto the floor in shock. He knew why she was dead. She would be fine if I had a grip on myself and left the first, probably even the second or third time she tried, we would have gotten out fast enough. No doubt about it, if it weren't for me she wouldn't be dead.

Akatani's trembling made it hard to stand up. The buzz ever-present under his skin—a reminder that it wasn't going away. He needed to get out. Risking a glance back to the fight, it had ended. The villain was suspended in the air, slumped over, unconscious in the mass of branches from Kamui Woods' quirk. It was impressive.

Turning his attention away, Akatani could see other police arriving at the scene. I need to grab my stuff, Akatani remembered and began tracing back his steps. Vaguely limping as fast as he could the whole way. The library wasn't small and so much of the building was collapsed that he could exit just about anywhere.

But if Akatani lost his stuff the building might as well collapse on him anyways. He wouldn't be coming back here anytime soon, and he still had a class to finish. Akatani began his search. Crouching down awkwardly, trying to avoid moving his ankle too much, Akatani hid from view as he moved around. Most of the library wasn't recognizable anymore. The dust from the collapse still hung in the air. The late morning sun reflecting off it.

Akatani reached the table his things had been set on. It had broken under the weight of a fallen section of the ceiling. His backpack was partially pinned under rubble as well, thankfully it was light enough for Akatani to push off. Bag in hand, Akatani snuck around finding and picking up his things.

Before leaving, he salvaged a couple of other things. A semi-intact monitor and computer. It's not stealing if they would just throw them out anyways. These aren't too broken; I can fix them. Akatani reasoned. Cramming the computer into his backpack, zipping it up as much as he could, and set off, carrying the monitor.

On his way out Akatani also grabbed several wi-fi hotspots from behind the ruined counter, he'd never had a phone or computer before, so he never needed one. This would be his only chance to get his hands on one (or several). They would function well enough while Akatani tried to get things back to normal.

This is what he focused on, trying to put the fact that Officer Chibana's corpse was close-by out of his thoughts. He could see her if he just moved his head in that direction. Not looking didn't make much of a difference, the image of her caved-in head and dull eyes was an image forever burned into his memory.

With these thoughts swimming through his head, the pressure from the buzzing increased again. Akatani did his best to push it back down as he left the crumbling library behind him. Slipping out of a small hole in the wall, putting him in an alleyway where the back of the library was. Walking away, he realized that he'd never see that library standing again.

The city wouldn't bother to rebuild it, the attendance had been low for years.

During Izuku's navigation of the streets, he noticed the absence of typical sights and smells of the weekday. Not simply reduced in number, but gone, the streets were desolate. With the exception of a few cars speeding down the roads and the flashing lights of police cruisers moving around the city. These couldn't replace what was missing. There was just a void of emptiness. It was scary, haunting—apocalyptic even.

Izuku was afraid at first that a car, or worse a police cruiser, would pull over and try and talk to him. He was visibly the youngest one of only a couple people walking on the streets after all. But no one did. Every police car he spotted was speeding somewhere else, that didn't stop Izuku from hiding from the police's line of sight just in case.

What could have this area of Musutafu almost completely shut down? There were fewer people around than there had been that the entire trip back to Dagobah Beach the buzzing at a constant level. Whenever Izuku focused on it and he could feel the energy shifting around his body, flowing from one limb to another, he hated it.

It took two trips to carry everything through one of the tunnels to get everything back home. Izuku's limbs felt heavy and his head felt light, it was nearly noon. Hunger pains constantly bit at his stomach. He couldn't go against his plan though, today's events, just like yesterday's wouldn't change anything. He'd go to work that night and have dinner afterward. So, to help quell the ache he grabbed one of his metal water bottles, this one he'd salvaged from the dump a while back and cleaned out, and took a few gulps of water.

I usually refill my water bottles at the library on Wednesdays…that's tomorrow…I guess I'll need to find somewhere new to do that too. Izuku began tying a splint to stabilize his ankle, he always treated his injuries seriously to minimize any further damage to himself. It could be a lot worse. I could be dead—like Officer Chibana who I got killed—or taken in for questioning by the police, or be seriously injured, or worst of all, taken to the hospital…

Until that evening when the sun went down, Izuku had a new project to do. I should get some more lights, lanterns maybe, so I can work outside on warm nights this summer. He grabbed a foldable table and chair from inside the bus and set them up in the clearing. Working to repair the damage that had been done to the monitor and the computer. The damage was so minimal that it only required a few replacement parts. He managed to find some from the box he kept of assorted pieces of tech that he'd acquired over time but hadn't discovered a use for. Izuku kept everything of potential worth he came across. All of it organized in boxes and drawers stored safely inside the bus. Often, the stuff would be useful somewhere down the line.

Izuku could have decided to work in the bus, but nothing could beat working under the sun on the beach. It's still a nice day, he reminded himself, can't let that go to waste. He had taken his shoes off so he could feel the warm sand under his feet. It was calming, drowning out the buzzing tension still bubbling inside of him.

Working like this distracted him from thinking about anything that happened over the last twenty-four hours. He'd just wait until everything returned to normal.

The sun was setting when he finished. Now inside the bus, his new desktop set up. The hotspots normally required signing in on whatever device is using the hotspot, so Izuku carefully took them apart before piecing them back together to bypass their security combine them to create a stronger signal. He guessed it would be about average, considering service didn't seem like it would be the greatest on Dagobah Beach. Though that was entirely his educated guess.

Pressing a button, Izuku felt the subtle vibrations of the computer as it and the monitor turned on. There had been a piece inside the computer that the library had installed, Izuku took it out so the desktop could be used normally.

And now what? Izuku thought. He had his own computer now and it was set up. That was exciting on its own. He stared at his reflection on the screen, at a loss of what to do next. There's still calculus to do. I didn't finish that assignment in the library. He would have liked to resume his work, but until the buzzing went away, he wouldn't be able to focus enough. The news. I should check the news. It'll explain why the city was so empty.

The headline told him enough:

"ALL MIGHT FOUND DEAD"

Izuku stopped breathing. Reading down the page as fast as he could, skimming an article from The Tokyo Times :

"Late last night, April 5th, the number one hero was found dead…

the information was leaked….

Cause of death—unknown…

Source of leak—unknown…

confirmed by the Hero Public Safety Commission…

The information…quickly circulated…

Starting in the early hours of this morning, April 6th…

an exponential increase in crime overnight…

Lockdown orders or stay-at-home advisories have been issued by prefecture..."

It began making sense, why the lady at the counter looked like her soul was crushed. Izuku had also seen for himself that most people had followed the advisory placed on their area.

Searching frantically for an explanation, he caught sight of a recent update:

"LEAKED ALL MIGHT AUTOPSY INFORMATION"

Izuku skimmed through this article too:

The exact cause of death is still unknown…

however, it was not natural…

minutes ago the Hero Public Safety Commission corroborated the leaks…

It's possible that the Symbol of Piece was murdered ."

The buzzing SURGED. The energy inside Izuku was boiling over; he fell out of his seat, his vision fading to black for a moment. All Might is dead. Someone killed All Might. And there's something seriously wro—ALL MIGHT IS DEAD. TOSHI WAS DEAD. If hell existed, it surely felt like this. The pain not only covered his body, but it reached inside into and throughout his bones and organs. Thoughts that weren't his own invaded his head, a cacophony of grieving voices.

On the floor, the pain left Izuku completely petrified. He couldn't move. He couldn't think. He couldn't even writhe in agony. There was nothing he could do about it and nobody around to notice. Nobody to help Izuku make it stop. All he wanted was to make it stop.

Let me die, please… That was all he could think. Tears flowed down his cheeks. Let me die. Izuku wished he could at least scream. But even if he could move, would any sound actually come out?

Please let me die. Let whatever this is kill me.

Izuku didn't know how much time had passed, but he could move now—if just barely. His body was covered in a layer of dried sweat. After registering his surroundings, Izuku eyed the green sparks dancing across the floor. The pain was still there, still all-encompassing, but he could move. Placing a hand on his desk and his other hand on the chair Izuku struggled to pull himself up. First pushing himself up onto the chair and using the desk and the wall to inch his way back to sitting.

From his reflection in the monitor Izuku saw lightning, green lightning danced across his body. Shooting sparks everywhere. Red marks of energy also covered his skin. The buzzing was fighting against him now, actively rebelling against Izuku's attempts to push it down. It wanted to go somewhere, but it was stuck in the confines of his body.

Like earlier, Izuku could feel it flowing inside his body. Trying to push it down again Izuku let out a choked gasp of pain—his body froze up—like before. No. I can't. I can't do that again. If pushing it down made the pain worse, maybe I can try and move it out. I can't do that again.

The buzzing was gone now, and only pure energy was left. It itched to escape, and it quickly became unbearable, not from pain anymore, but being unable to let it out. Izuku stood up, his physical fatigue was gone now, while mentally he struggled to follow this development. At first, he barely had the energy to pull himself into a chair, and now he was standing up—itching to get energy out.

His body was shaking as the level of the energy increased, Izuku drug his fingers down his face. Just when he thought the power couldn't grow anymore it doubled, tripled, and then doubled again. He was glowing brighter now.

Okay…okay. Izuku tried to come up with a solution. But it was hard to string together a coherent thought anymore. He wanted to bash his head into the wall, kick, hit something. Use this energy to do something. ANYTHING. To make it dissipate.

But the more Izuku searched the well of energy the more it became clear he couldn't and maybe would never find any end. This was no well of energy, but an ocean, stuck inside of him, and his body couldn't handle it. Not even close, how could you have control over seemingly infinite energy? The walls of the bus felt confining, constraining, like a vice around his lungs and throat and he couldn't get air in.

Izuku shoved the bus's doors open and stumbled out onto the sand. He could breathe again, and his mind was once again occupied with the itching energy inside of him. Wanting to claw itself out. Izuku had to avoid the urge to find something sharp and try…try and see if that would make it stop.

No. Not an option. Izuku tried moving the energy around, he found more success. It took a lot of concentration, but it could be done. That's not enough…it has to stop. I have to get rid of it—somehow.

Izuku pooled the energy, every ounce he could, into his right arm. He tried to push the energy out as he did, but it stayed trapped. Izuku continued moving the energy from every part of his body, taking the endless ocean and pushing it into his arm too. As he did this with every ounce of energy, he felt a touch of relief. It there just as a glimpse before quickly vanishing. Relief was on the horizon; it could be over soon.

His arm was burning with red energy and lightning bounced around it. His skin was tearing itself apart and his bones vibrating, but it stayed only in his arm, he could handle it. Not for long though. Izuku tensed his body, lifted his arm. He was aiming for the sand, the ground.

And when Izuku swung he piled more energy into his arm, there still didn't seem to be any end to the energy so he pushed, he pushed what he could into his arm as he brought it to the ground. When it connected, the energy left, thank goodness it left. It was gone. It stopped torturing his body.

The impact of his fist on the sand shot Izuku away, his back slammed into the bus. Thrown backward in an instant, one moment kneeling the next thrown away like a doll. When he fell onto the sand Izuku landed on his feet and dropped down to his knees.

He felt something warm on his lower leg. Not the sand. This warmth was wet and thick, and it was dripping. It was running down his right side too. He brought up his left hand to feel the wet liquid on his face. Slowly realizing it was also in his hair and across his body. Izuku, dazed, looked up at where he'd struck the ground. He couldn't exactly see it, but there was a stain of sorts was in the sand, it was too dark to make it out.

Then Izuku turned his head, looking at his right arm…

Or rather, he didn't.

Because there was nothing there to look at. Oh my go... Oh...what do I? What should I? What did I do!? His right shoulder, his arm, his hand. They were gone. They hadn't just been blown off. They had exploded. Blood poured from the wound.

And Izuku tried, but he couldn't scream. Nobody would have heard anyway.

-o-o-o-

One man's death. That's what it took to plunge a country into hell.

Officer Sansa was delivering a refilled cup of coffee to Detective Tsukauchi when the detective picked up the phone to take a call. Tsukauchi swayed a bit on his feet while speaking, he wasn't looking very well, apparently, a hero friend of his had run off earlier and he hadn't been able to contact them since. That man had enough problems to deal with as it was.

Sansa lingered in the office during the phone call, his ears moving to better listen in. If he wasn't supposed to be there, the detective would have waved him out, so he stood there, listening with his ears focused in the direction of the conversation. One benefit of having a cat mutation as a quirk.

Whoever was on the other end of the phone said they'd found a body, Sansa thinks it was Officer Chibana speaking, she said it looked like a murder victim, some man whose ID read Toshinori Yagi.

Sansa liked to brag that his quirk also gave him 'cat-like reflexes' but those weren't enough to react in time when the Detective staggered for a few moments. Tsukauchi's hand fell to his side and dropped the phone on the floor right as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. His body collapsing to the floor.

Sansa was just fast enough to stop Tsukauchi's head from slamming into the ground. Catching it in the pads of one of his paws. He reached out to pick up the phone with the other, "Detective Tsukauchi isn't available right now, he…uh…just passed out. This is Officer Sansa speaking. Officer Mayumi Chibana, that's you right?"

"You were listening in on us, weren't you?"

"No comment." Sansa chuckled, quickly getting back on topic, "Anyways please repeat what you just said to Tsukauchi?"

"I've come across a potential murder case. The man's wallet with his ID inside was open on the ground, it reads Toshinori Yagi…I haven't touched it obviously…and I figured that since the detective has been so swamped lately, I'd let him know before calling it in. Seems like it was a simple mugging gone south…" She sounded slightly anxious, "I just called so he could brace himself for another thing to deal with."

"Well, I think that made him pass out. I couldn't tell you why though. Maybe this was just the tipping point after a long day. I'll leave you to take care of calling that in and so on. I'll get back to you once I get poor Tsukauchi checked out."

Sansa pressed the end-call button on Tsukauchi's phone, letting out a sigh, "What are we going to do with you man? You can't run yourself ragged like that." Detective Tsukauchi had locked himself in the office, for a couple of hours already, and by the time Sansa came into the station, Tsukauchi had been in there for several hours. Looking for this pro-hero friend and looking into the Sludge Villain incident from earlier that day.

Sansa and Tsukauchi had worked together more in Tokyo's Naruhata Ward, since their sudden transfer to Musutafu, Sansa was put on night shifts. During the hour their shifts overlapped, Sansa made the effort to deliver the detective some coffee when he arrived at the police headquarters. But, considering how much overtime Tsukauchi did, he might as well be on night shifts too.

After getting some help to carry the Detective they had him lying down in the unofficial 'Tsukauchi' station room. That's what everyone called it behind the detective's back because he slept at the station more than he did at his apartment, which was not much more than a place to stay on a day off—one of the rare times when he wouldn't be called in.

As the first person to see him unconscious, Sansa was in charge of babysitting until he woke up. It took a few minutes, but Tsukauchi shot up, still sitting on the bed, breathing shallow breaths as he met Sansa's eyes to say, "The Commission, you have to tell the Hero Commission about Officer Chibana's call. Just tell them the victim's name and that you're informing them in my place, they'll listen."

"In your place? What are you—" Sansa interjected, but Tsukauchi collapsed again, thankfully, he fell back onto the bed.

That was eighteen hours ago, and Officer Sansa was still awake in the mid-afternoon of the next day. It had taken a while, but the detective was back on his feet too. Under normal circumstances, he'd have been sent home to rest, but the current emergency demanded his presence. So, from what Sansa's been told, Tsukauchi has been on and off the phone with the Hero Commission and others for hours now. He was one of the few that knew of All Might's civilian identity.

Meanwhile, all the precinct's officers had been running ragged around the city dealing with the surge in villain attacks. There weren't enough heroes to cover it all, so the police were left to pick up the slack while also trying to deter more criminals from taking advantage of the chaos.

Sansa was at the station for an hour break. He considered himself lucky because he'd been clocked in for over eighteen hours, which was higher than anyone else.

"Hello, am I speaking with Dr. Ujiko?" Tsukauchi was straining to sound patient, "Hello doctor…"

Sansa was outside Tsukauchi's office, there was news he had to deliver in-person before he could go take a nap. So, Sansa eavesdropped on this conversation while waiting, there was no reason to miss the opportunity. But he could only make out Tsukauchi's muffled words through the wall, the man was pacing around his office.

"Yes, it's also a pleasure but I need you to explain to me how under your supervision, the confidential information on the autopsy you performed on All Might leaked?

"…That doesn't answer my question, nor does it explain how two photos of your report were leaked as well.

"You what?" Tsukauchi yelled, "The body's been… Where?" He listened for a moment and the phone call ended, "Damn idiot." That was all he said while sitting back in his seat, glaring down at the phone.

I'd better hold off on the news for now. No need to add to his grief now. Sansa slipped into the office, "Hello detective."

Tsukauchi jolted, "You're supposed to knock Sansa. You move too quietly for any of us to notice. That's why you're supposed to wear a bell with your uniform,"

"It's not a part of the official police uniform though…" He pouted.

"We've been over this so many times Sansa, just let it go. Besides, I think Chief Tsuragame is going to continue letting it slip under his radar. Especially after you scared him half to death last month. You're part cat, he's part dog, better just keep your head down."

Sansa stood up a little straighter, adjusting the collar of his shirt, "There's no need to go that far…I'll remember to knock."

"And?"

"AND wear the bell, I just took it off for my break…it's more embarrassing than you think!"

Tsukauchi lifted a hand to cover his mouth, but the corner of his smirk was visible, "Not sure if you noticed, but there's no shortage of things to do around here." He shifted the subject, "Why are you wasting your time here?"

"Do you know who did it?"

"Nothing that can be confirmed. Only suspicions." Tsukauchi quickly changed the subject, "You didn't answer my question."

"We just got orders to begin a break rotation, the higher-ups don't want us collapsing like you did. It's worse than they make it out to be. An organization that's typically discreet now moves in daylight with confidence, all of them are. But I was just ordered to make sure you weren't dying."

Tsukauchi's left eye twitched, a tell from his quirk that told him someone was lying, "You're not just here for that, that was a lie. Why else are you here?"

Shit. Sansa thought, he always manages to catch it even when I'm not trying. He'd wanted to hold off on the news, but he'd slipped up. He tried to keep himself composed, "Officer Chibana… Mayumi…she got caught in a collapsing building. Took a hit to the head," He took a deep breath, shaking his head as he whispered, "she won't be getting back up."

Tsukauchi closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, they were watering, "Do you know exactly how?"

"That's just the thing," Sansa spoke up again, "Kamui Woods pursued the villain Tremor literally into a library in uptown Musutafu. It ended up as collateral damage and completely collapsed several minutes after the fight ended. They managed to get her body out before the structure completely gave away. We know she was in there evacuating those inside, what makes no sense is why she didn't get out in time. No other bodies have been found yet. Kamui Woods couldn't provide any useful information either, he was too preoccupied with the villain…Now that I think about it though, there had to have been a librarian working today. That's a public-sector job. We have access to those records! We'll be able to find out who was. And…and contact them right now!"

"Slow down man." Tsukauchi advised, "You're losing time every second you waste in here. If you don't take a break, you won't be able to help anyone effectively, I'm the bad example you're supposed to learn from, while you rest, I'll look into it. Now scat."

"Ok, thanks, and…good luck." Officer Sansa breathed, and just as silently as before, he slipped out of the room to go take a cat nap.

Everything that never should have been able to go wrong somehow did. All of it in rapid succession.

At the center of it all was All Might—Toshinori—somehow murdered. His close friend that he'd helped over the last few years, but Tsukauchi failed him when it truly mattered, he should have placed more faith in Nighteye's foresight and forced Toshinori to be more careful. There was so much he should have done and now it was too late.

And because it was too late Tsukauchi didn't think about his dead friend, he thought of this as another case, involving the murder of the number one hero, but still a case. So he made sure never to think of these things, it would be far better to just work. Detective Tsukauchi knew he was very good at that.

There was speculation on potential candidates, he had his guesses, but the killer remained a mystery. And he could do absolutely nothing. The Hero Commission barred him any direct involvement, so he incessantly pestered them for information while looking into what he could and getting information from anyone he could, focusing on yesterday's incident with the sludge villain. A situation he was still allowed to investigate.

There's some information about All Might's last few hours alive that the commission hadn't been able to snatch yet only because he had exclusive knowledge of it. And Tsukauchi won't let them get a hold of it because somehow, the classified information that All Might had died, was leaked to villains an estimated hour after Officer Chibana's discovery.

That rose the question of traitors…but that wasn't important for now. Prioritizing was critical, the knowledge that All Might was murdered hadn't been completely leaked yet. Though from his brief time looking through the media, it seemed everyone had come to their own conclusions based on the leaked preliminary autopsy.

Considering what Officer Sansa had just revealed, there was another question to look into. There had been no tip, no call to send an officer out to investigate, but Officer Chibana found Toshinori's body…and then everything went to hell so quickly. There hadn't been time to ask… and now they never could.

There was a sheet of paper on his desk, notes scribbled down on it. The one mystery that Tsukauchi still had exclusive knowledge of, Akatani Mikumo. The mystery boy with green hair and green eyes. Several people reported seeing and yet there was not a single frame of video or a picture to use to identify him. All Might went out searching for this person and died.

The paper was mostly blank and Tsukauchi held a pen to it, tapping. There was nothing to write, no connections to draw. Next to this paper was another, with just a few paragraphs written, only getting as far as All Might's pursuit of the villain through the sewers, making it seriously incomplete recollection of events. Giving them no more leads to follow than they already had, he hadn't spoken to the paramedics that were assaulted by the kid yesterday, they were very busy, but it was likely it wouldn't come up with anything useful.

He's read that report himself, the boy escaped, and no one knew a lick of information about him. Tsukauchi aggressively clicked the pen, everyone is useless, but I'm the most useless out of anyone... The signs that something was wrong with Toshinori were there, signs that it was more serious than a bad One for All day. Something only I could have known and identified—and I still didn't. Aren't I such a great friend? Tsukauchi set the pen down and rested his head on his desk. And Officer Chibana is just one of the first people to pay for my mistake.

His phone chimed down on his desk, the first time someone had called him all day. Tsukauchi lifted his head just enough to see the caller ID, oh wonderful the Regional Center for Hard to Contain Quirks (RCHCQ). For their sake, I hope they have an answer. Tsukauchi pulled his head up from the desk and picked up the phone. While listening Tsukauchi opened up his email and started typing.

"Sorry it took so long to get back to you Detective, the day's been…long. I have that update on the Sludge Villain's condition: He's no longer unconscious."

Yeah, I the update I asked for over SIX hours ago. Tsukauchi almost growled into the phone, instead, he said, "Then when can I come in to question him?"

Masashi Saga just continued speaking, "That sounds good, and I know you've received only bad news today but there's only more." Why? Tsukauchi thought, what is it now? "It's part of the reason it's taken unusually long to get you that update and—"

Tsukauchi managed to finish writing the email and sent it while Saga was speaking, now his patience was up, "Get to the point Saga-san." The long-winded Masashi Saga worked for Musutafu's RCHCQ (Regional Center for Hard to Contain Quirks). But the rambling was slightly convenient this time, after speaking with Dr. Ujiko he had needed to send that email to Mirai as fast as possible.

"My apologies, late this morning Hedoro Viran, dubbed the 'Sludge Villain' suddenly died in his containment cell this morning—and—we don't know why." Sasa paused as if waiting for Tsukauchi to react, he didn't, "Test results have been pending for hours, however, testing the sludge itself is proving highly difficult. We're still trying but it's increasingly likely that we don't have the right technology, we might need to send it to I-Island."

"Then why haven't you? It's directly related to the All Might case, you could probably have results back before the end of the day."

"I wish it were that simple, believe me when I say we're trying our very best but there are delays and there's really nothing we can do about it, but I thought you might want to know at least this much. Oh! Our labs were able to test the eyes and mouth, but no abnormalities appeared there. Sorry, but that's all I have. The best of luck to you Tsukauchi-san."

The phone call ended before Tsukauchi could respond. Just add it to the list of things that should have never gone wrong, going wrong, and the list of people they'd never be able to question. On top of that, they had no idea why the villain died. Another highly unusual series of events, and another massive roadblock in the investigation.

Tsukauchi made a few new notes on his paper, thinking, at least it supports my theory about the importance of yesterday's Sludge Villain incident. He tightly pressed his pen to the paper, at this rate, what leads will be left? I'm still waiting on security camera footage from surrounding stores. The situation wasn't completely hopeless yet.

He turned his attention to his desktop computer. Tsukauchi already had a response from Nighteye Agency in his inbox, written by Mirai Sasaki, Sir Nighteye himself. Outraged over the leaks, they decided to circumvent the Hero Commission in favor of going straight to the Japanese Government to get permission to take Toshinori's body. However, they hadn't expected his agency to conduct the transfer so quickly. As the second they had permission, sidekicks from his agency moved into 'transfer' the body. They're going to have one of their people complete the autopsy.

It's like some insane heist. Now Tsukauchi had no idea how Mirai managed to pull that off, but at least he could rest assured that there wouldn't be any more leaks—at least regarding the autopsy. Other information remained questionably secure despite reassurances from higher-ups.

As an added benefit, Tsukauchi had a reliable source of information in Mirai; he drafted and sent another email. Asking about current theories on the murderer, at the last moment he added a question about how he'd managed to convince the government to agree with him. After sending that he immediately switched tasks to work on accessing public records. Looking for who was currently employed by the upper Musutafu Public Library.

Actual leads to follow. Good. It wasn't too long later that Tsukauchi was gifted with another incoming call. This time from his personal phone. He answered.

"Have you found anything on that Akatani?" Eraserhead asked.

Tsukauchi hadn't expected that, just how did Eraser know? I checked that no one was around for my conversation, and I looked at the cameras in the report room…and Aizawa would have found a blind spot. Of course, unforeseen events were becoming the norm. He answered, "If you already know, how fast can you make it to the station?"

"I'm on active duty. Everyone is."

"Just get here, fast."

"Why?"

"Because I need people I can trust. So just get here when you can, and please connect me to Nedzu."

"Getting there when I can doesn't mean a thing, I have a job to do. And of all the times, what reason is there to talk to the rat?"

"You called me, mentioned something I'm trying to keep a secret, and I'm taking this opportunity to stop a major lead of mine from being leaked. I don't know how it could be leaked. But before today I didn't think it was possible to leak the results of a preliminary autopsy in the most high-profile case of the century either. Just do it please."

"Fine," There was a click as the call ended.

Noise picked back up seconds later, some cheery waiting music, it wasn't until nearly half an hour later that the rat answered, "Hello detective! Aizawa told me it was urgent, of course, what isn't? HA! What do you need from me on this exciting day?"

"The call I had with Aizawa and this one too, they both need to be scrubbed from existence."

"Do I have the privilege of knowing why?"

"Sure, ask Aizawa in person. I'll also be speaking with him in person, so wait until I do, and I'll owe you another favor."

"Naturally. It's a pleasure doing business as always Tsukauchi."

The call ended. The feeling is hardly mutual. Tsukauchi felt a little emptier, another piece of his soul just sold away. He has a headache now.

Thanks for the review thor94 and yes, this universe hates Izuku.

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