"What do you make of all this?" Toshinori asked, when they were finally alone. They'd momentarily parked the kid in the hallway with a cup of tea while the hero had followed Tsukauchi in his office as he took care of the last bureaucratic dregs of the questioning.
"As I see it, there are two major possibilities we ought to consider." Tsukauchi said without taking his eyes off the monitor of his computer. "The first is that Midoriya's quirk is just a mutation, and he is in no way related to All For One. His father is likely a government official whose position grants him knowledge of enough confidential files to make him fear negative repercussions in case his son's quirk was publicly known, and has therefore enforced silence on the matter. We aren't looking at any outstanding crimes here, although this man isn't going to win any Parent of the Year awards any time soon."
Toshinori grimaced. Wouldn't that be nice? "And what are the odds of this being our case?"
"I wouldn't bet my next paycheck on it, for sure." Tsukauchi typed something on the keyboard, and checked his phone at the same time, before sighing and leaning back in his chair. "The other possibility is that Midoriya is indeed related to All For One, maybe even his son. He's been fostered to a trusted associate of his and kept in the dark about everything."
That option could be more statistically or genetically likely, but it still didn't sit right with Toshinori. "That doesn't sound like something All For One would do though. Why not raise him as a successor, or even just an underling? Surely another All For One wielder would have made for an important asset to his schemes."
"You forget that Midoriya's quirk manifested only two years ago. It is possible that All For One may have planned to do so, but lost interest when the child was deemed quirkless." Tsukauchi scratched his head pensively. "As for why he didn't keep the kid close since his birth… we can only assume it was out of caution. Fourteen years ago you had already put a significant dent in All For One's syndicate and influence. Maybe he was already taking precautions against his own downfall, and didn't want his potential successor to be involved in case things took a turn for the worse too quickly."
"... I guess that makes sense." Toshinori nodded. As per habit, he sent a quiet thanks to his lucky star for accidentally baring his secret to a damnably honest and capable member of the force such as Tsukauchi, God knew Toshinori himself wasn't exactly cut out for fine deductive work. "In this case, the boy's father…"
"...Is a former subordinate of All For One's currently employed by the government, yes. Not a pleasant scenario to work with." Tsukauchi waited for the printer to regurgitate a disproportionate stack of documents that made Toshinori instinctively recoil. The detective flipped through the paperwork quickly before sprinkling his signature on just about every odd sheet. "Regardless of which of the two hypotheses is true, I definitely want to look into this Hisashi Midoriya. He is by far the most suspicious aspect of the boy's account."
"Yeah. He doesn't visit his family for a decade and a half, he doesn't talk about his job, he doesn't follow basic legal procedures, and you can tell he had more of an active role in encouraging Midoriya to hide the quirk than the kid lets on... It doesn't exactly paint a reassuring picture." Toshinori sighed. "This isn't going to be easy for the boy…"
"It never is, when a family member is involved in criminal activities. But the fact that their relationship seems rather distant may make things a little less traumatic for him." Tsukauchi checked his watch as he tidied up some stationery and turned off his computer. "Well, I guess I'm not too unforgivably late for my other meeting since we don't have to question Mrs. Midoriya."
"...Sorry about that. And for springing this on you all of a sudden." Toshinori said with an apologetic grimace and his utmost sincerity. "You're a saint."
Tsukauchi's small smile implied that he was well aware of the fact. "I'll drive Midoriya home while I'm on my way to the city hall. Do you need a lift? Or do you want me to let you on the rooftop for a smoke?" That bit of code speak would never not be tragically ironic, Toshinori thought.
"No, I've already finished my shift for the day." All three, scant, scattered hours of it. Japan's finest, most dependable hero, ladies and gentlemen.
"Then thank you for your hard work." His friend gave him a quick look and a brief, firm squeeze to his shoulder before heading to the door. No pity, no unrequested sympathy, no disingenuous praise, just straightforward respect and understanding. He really was one of a kind.
Midoriya was exactly where they'd left him, busy fiddling with his phone. He perked up when he saw them return. "Uh, my mother just texted me back. She says she'll be home in about an hour. If you still want to talk to her."
Tsukauchi hesitated. "It's a little too late for me, I'm afraid. I'm expected somewhere else, but…"
"I can wait." Toshinori immediately volunteered. "It won't be as thorough or official as if you interviewed her yourself, but if it can lighten your workload just a little…"
"...Well, I don't see why not. Hop in the car with us then."
The return trip was silent. Toshinori glanced at Midoriya a couple of times from the rearview mirror, and he always caught him in an ill-concealed state of unrest. Fidgeting with his phone, picking at the seatbelt, gazing nervously out of both car windows. Toshinori didn't like that. Why all that agitation, now that the worst of the ordeal was supposedly over?
The boy eventually locked eyes with him. "...Oh. Uhm."
"Something on your mind?" Toshinori asked.
"Uh, well, I was wondering…" His gaze dropped to his knees. "Are you going to tell my mother about my quirk?"
"I'm afraid so. She is bound to find out anyway, eventually. The police will issue an update on your quirk registration, as per the norm in such cases."
"...Ah." Oh boy, now he looked like a kicked puppy. That was just depressing.
"I don't necessarily have to be the one to break the news to her though. If it makes you feel any better, you can tell her about the incident in your own words." Toshinori offered, hoping to soften the blow.
"I… I think I would prefer that. Thank you." The boy quietly acquiesced.
Tsukauchi shot Toshinori a pointed look. All right, maybe that wasn't the most proper way to go about it, maybe standard procedure demanded the officer in charge to keep mother and son separate during the questioning and explain things personally in the most objective possible terms. But Toshinori wasn't an officer, he was a washed-up alter-ego of the Symbol of Peace acting in semi-official consulting capacity, and he'd be damned if he didn't try to make things a little less humiliating for the forlorn child in the back. He condensed that whole argument into a meaningful glance of his own, that Tsukauchi couldn't hold for more than two seconds lest he drove them all straight into the back of a truck. Toshinori took that as unspoken permission to proceed as he saw fit.
"I'll be leaving this in your capable hands then." Tsukauchi said as the two stepped out of the car. The man had a veritable talent for conveying irony while maintaining the straightest of faces and the driest of tones.
"Your trust is deeply appreciated. Drive safely!" Toshinori shut the door of the car decisively and waved him off with a dazzling smile.
"Uhm. Okay." Midoriya said, his eyes darting between the hero and the speeding car with obvious perplexity. "Mom won't be here for at least another forty minutes. I can fetch that photo you wanted in the meantime. I think I know where it is… probably..."
"I'll take you up on that, thank you." Toshinori followed him across the parking lot and up the stairs of the apartment complex. The boy's eagerness to please was a sight for sore eyes in this cold, self-serving world. "You really did something commendable today, you know? Not many people would be so ready to relieve the pain of those who hurt them. That villain owes you more than he'll ever know."
"Oh…" The boy fiddled with his keys as a light redness tinged his cheeks. "It's nothing, really. It isn't my place to judge anyone... let alone steal from them. I just hope he'll get better soon."
"I'll keep you up to date on his condition, if you want."
"Oh, you don't need to! It's fine!" Midoriya's instinctual politeness clashed against Toshinori's no-nonsense availability. It was a fierce battle, but one didn't become the number one hero without developing a certain skill in staring people into reasonableness. Midoriya surrendered with a small smile. "...I-It would put my mind at ease though."
"Then I shall." Toshinori claimed with finality. "Honestly, I wish I could have done more today for you and Tsukauchi. You two took care of all the heavy lifting and data collecting while I just stood around doing nothing the whole time."
"You did, didn't you…?" Toshinori's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Well, he hadn't been expecting that candid a confirmation of his uselessness. Midoriya flinched and started flailing about in obvious distress as soon as he realized he'd voiced that thought aloud. "N-No! I mean- I don't mean that you were- What I'm saying is that you didn't really need to come. But you did anyway! F-For my sake, I get that. Because you promised you'd help me out, even if you surely have better things to do with your time, and… I truly appreciate it. Really."
Toshinori laughed softly. Yes, 'truly appreciative' was indeed the boy's default mood whenever he was graced with the barest amount of consideration, as far as the hero had witnessed in their short acquaintance. He didn't think it was some sort of hero-worship-related response either, the kid just seemed that sensitive to it. "Don't worry about it. It's part of the job."
"Is it?" Midoriya finally opened the door and they stepped inside. He let out a small chuckle of his own as they removed their shoes. "I guess I have new insight to add to the online speculation about All Might's decreasing workload. I guess it is to be expected if yo- if he's taken to follow up on all his cases so thoroughly."
Toshinori had to fight back a traitorous cough. "W-well, there is really no need for me to overexert myself nowadays as I used to do in the past." He started, automatically supplying his PR-certified response to any inquiry on the topic. Goodness, people really did notice, didn't they? It was hardly a new concern, but still… "The crime rate has been decreasing steadily, and the industry is so saturated with heroes that there's someone ready to intervene almost at any place and at any given time. And those heroes could use the money and exposure way more than me…" Toshinori trailed off as they made their way to the living room. The boy was regarding him with unnerving attention, as if memorizing his speech word for word. "There are other reasons too, of course…"
Midoriya cocked his head to the side curiously, expecting further elaboration. Then it clicked, and he fleetingly glanced at the hero from head to toe with open contrition. "O-Oh! Of course! Your… Sorry, I forgot."
That simple sentence confused Toshinori so much that he couldn't help but gape back. The silence grew very awkward very quickly. "...Uhm. So, that photo of yours?"
"R-Right! I'll go look for it! Make yourself comfortable! Be right back!" The boy bolted fast enough to leave metaphorical dust clouds behind him.
Toshinori wandered to the nearest chair with small steps. He forgot. That was quite the feat, while literally standing in front of the sad, wrecked husk that Toshinori had become. Or maybe the kid hadn't realized that his appearance was a relatively recent development. That seemed more likely. Perhaps he had interpreted his vague answer about his quirk to mean that the number one hero had always been just that, a sickly, overachieving twig in a bodysuit keeping his own skeleton in the closet for nearly forty years.
Toshinori let out a sigh. Quite the uplifting impression he was leaving with this young one.
His circling thoughts were interrupted by a yelp, and the thundering noise of some heavy objects crashing just outside the living room.
"Midoriya?" Toshinori called, jumping to his feet. The second unanswered call had him by the source of the noise in a moment.
"I'm here! I'm fine!" Midoriya's voice finally answered, from behind a half-closed door conspicuously marked as 'Izuku' by a familiar blond-banged nameplate.
"What was that?"
"Just… some stuff that fell down..." Toshinori approached it and peeked inside. Even from his limited perspective, he could see the boy sitting on the floor and rubbing his forehead, next to a tipped-over chair.
"And did that stuff happen to include you?" Toshinori deadpanned, inviting himself in... and pausing on the threshold. Taking in the interior of the boy's bedroom. Which wasn't the priority right now. He willed himself to ignore the star-spangled elephant in the room assaulting his senses and knelt down beside Midoriya, gently peeling his hand away from the sore spot. "Are you hurt?"
"No, no, it's just a bump."
"You should put some ice on it." There were no cuts or outer signs or damage, which was a good start. Toshinori's eyes fell on the bottom half of the toppled piece of furniture beside them. "...Did you seriously try to climb on a rolling chair?"
"I do that all the time. It's steadier than it looks!" There was no appropriate reply to such a claim, but Toshinori's judgemental glare was enough to make the boy squirm. "I'm fine, really-"
"Ice." He pointed sternly at the corridor. Maybe there was still a minimal chance of preventing an oversized lump on Midoriya's forehead from outing to Tsukauchi and other responsible adults the fact the boy had nearly cracked his skull within five minutes of being left in Toshinori's charge.
"All right. Just a second." Toshinori kept an eye on the kid, making sure he wasn't struggling to keep his balance, as he made his way out of the room. Room that Toshinori was now free to observe in all its embarrassing magnificence.
A soft All Might carpet. All Might-themed bedding. Walls plastered with All Might posters. All Might-patterned curtains. Shelves and shelves and shelves of All Might action figures and books.
It was always… humbling to be reminded of how much passion and care people from so many different walks of life could put in something as trivial as collecting hero merchandise - his hero merchandise, more often than not. Popularity and revenue were Toshinori's very last priorities when it came to his job, but, despite merchandising being exactly about those, he wasn't opposed to the practice in principle. It did help cement the reassuring image of the Symbol of Peace in the collective mind, which was definitely one of his lifetime goals. It brought a sizable influx of wealth to the agency's treasury, which he largely redirected to charity and assorted emergency relief funds. It did seem to spark genuine joy and entertainment in both children and adults. And, when none of these arguments were enough to wash away the vague sense of guilt that came with profiting off the love and admiration of Japan's fine citizens, Toshinori reminded himself that there were much worse, self-destructive indulgences people could waste their savings on. Alcohol. Tobacco. Drugs. Troll 2 DVDs. The like.
Midoriya reappeared nursing an ice pack against his temple. "Sorry about that. The photo should be in one of those boxes." He gestured towards the wardrobe that sported a brown cardboard box on the top, and then towards the floor, where its twin lay sideways after a presumably rough landing. They cut through the tape of the latter and, after Midoriya emphatically assured him that he didn't mind him browsing through his personal belongings in the slightest, Toshinori joined the kid on the carpet in their quest for the photographic Holy Grail.
"I probably slipped it inside one of these…" The boy said, pulling out small piles of notebooks and publications. Toshinori confined his perusal to dated magazines, comics and books that didn't seem likely to invade Midoriya's privacy. The first box yielded no result.
"Maybe it's in that one. Let me get another chair- oh." Toshinori only needed to raise his arms and strain slightly on his toes to comfortably reach the top of the wardrobe and retrieve the second- crap, that was heavy . How the kid planned to pull it down himself while standing on wheels was beyond him. "Thank you."
Toshinori was sitting cross-legged and flipping through an old gossip magazine lavishing pages and pages of speculation on the meager information they had managed to scrape together on his association with Dave - ah, those were the days… - when Midoriya finally let out a triumphant Aha!
"Found it!" He regarded his prize with joy, but his expression quickly morphed into concentration and then confusion. Toshinori held out his hand expectantly, and the boy deposited the photo into it while indicating a specific spot. "It's, uh… my father's this one."
Toshinori looked at the man in question.
And froze.
"He doesn't…" He heard the boy say distantly, as if from kilometres away. "He looks… a bit different from the picture in the police file…"
Toshinori coughed. He was different, all right. Subtly, cunningly so. Both men had short, snow-white hair, both had relatively plain features and pale complexion, both had faintly-colored eyes that could pass as blue under the right light. They were similar enough that they could be mistaken for one another, when described verbally. But the man in Tsukauchi's file was a stranger to Toshinori. The man in this photo wasn't.
"This-" The hero managed, between small bursts of coughs that he couldn't restrain. "This is the man that- told you to keep quiet about your quirk-"
"Y-Yes." Midoriya was gawking at him with obvious concern, and it only got worse when the hero's words sank in. "I-I mean, he didn't- he just- we sort of agreed that-"
"And the-" Toshinori covered his mouth with his hand, already tasting iron on his tongue as he patted his trousers to find some tissues. "The last time you spoke to him was…?"
"A little less than a month ago."
Something inside Toshinori just gave up on trying to hold it together. He erupted into a brutal fit, vicious enough to shake his whole body and squeeze his eyes shut. He heard the boy asking something in alarm, and he felt warm blood trickling down his chin before he finally got ahold of a handkerchief to press against his lips. He hacked and spluttered for an interminable minute, his throat and chest tight and sore from the effort. Eventually it died down, and he found himself hunched over and bracing himself against the floor, wheezing and struggling for breath as something shuffled beside him. He turned to check on the noise, and saw Midoriya tapping on his phone.
"Don't." Toshinori rasped, swallowing down the remaining blood coating his mouth and reaching out to gesture at him dismissively with his clean hand. "I'm fine."
"N-no, you aren't." The kid looked on the verge of fainting himself. Toshinori followed his horrified gaze, only to notice he'd sprayed plenty of little crimson stains on both the photo and the carpet, not to mention his own clothes. Damn, that was a mess even by his standards. "B-But- it's okay, I'll call an-"
Toshinori unceremoniously plucked the phone from Midoriya's grasp, made sure that he hadn't dialed any number, and tossed it on his bed. No need to make the situation even more headache-inducing than it already was. "I mean it. It happens. Don't worry."
Toshinori cleared his throat as he contemplated the ruined piece of evidence anew. At least he hadn't marred the spot containing 'Hisashi Midoriya'. Despite the less than optimal angle, there could really be no doubt. There was no mistaking that face for anyone else's, it had been seared in Toshinori's mind by more than three decades of pain and regret.
...Shit.
Shit.
Toshinori collected the picture from the floor and stood up to drop it on the kid's desk, where it sat innocently surrounded by dozens of pieces of licensed All Might memorabilia.
"...So this is your father, and he's alive and well." He stated it aloud and with scorn, because he felt it was important for the universe to hear that its sense of humor didn't fly with everyone.
"Ehr. Yes. Do you-"
"All right. Okay. Fine." Toshinori turned on his heels and headed for the door. "Excuse me, I have to make a phone call."
"...To your doctor?" Midoriya asked apprehensively, visibly starting to doubt the hero's mental as well as physical well-being.
"No." He almost stamped a huge, bloody handprint on his slacks before remembering that he still looked like he'd just slaughtered a pig and devoured it raw. "Can I use the bathroom?"
"Second door on the left." The boy muttered, too stunned by now to object to any of Toshinori's tangents.
Toshinori washed his face, neck and hands, and rinsed his mouth. He decided he couldn't bother to do anything about the state of his clothes. He took care of scrubbing the sink too once he was done, making sure he didn't accidentally leave any red smears on it. He dried his hands and fetched his phone.
"Tsukauchi? Sorry, can you make it back to Midoriya's house? Yes, as soon as you can. ...No, but we found that photo. You need to see it, it's… it's him."
He closed the call and stared at his reflection on the mirror. His brain didn't produce a single coherent thought. He walked back to the kid's room.
Midoriya was peering at the picture intently, even though he hadn't moved it from where Toshinori had left it. The man's eyes fell on the scattered blots on the carpet. In his experience, there wasn't much hope of removing them completely, but it seemed rude not to try, at least. "Got any cleaning supplies?"
Midoriya blinked at him owlishly. "In the bathroom. Under the sink."
One short trip later, Toshinori was back with paper towels and rubbing alcohol. He waved the boy off when he made to kneel down beside him to help. He handed him the ice pack that lay forgotten on the floor, and the kid pressed it back on his forehead mechanically as he sat on his bed. Toshinori could benefit from only a couple of minutes of silence before Midoriya spoke.
"You know him."
"...Yes."
"You're upset."
Toshinori wondered if it showed on his face, or if it was just an educated guess based on the half-baked spontaneous hemorrhage he'd just displayed. He didn't reply, his attention ostensibly focused on dabbing lightly at each smudge.
"Why…" The boy's voice faltered. "W-Why is there a photo of another man in the police records?"
Toshinori couldn't hold back a deep exhale. He wasn't sure he was the most qualified person to have this conversation with the boy. He surely wasn't the most eager to.
"All Might." He felt compelled to raise his gaze. Midoriya was pale, his eyes wide and shiny with unshed tears. His expression was heartbreakingly imploring. "Please."
He was going to find out anyway, at least the bare bones of it. Kindness was one thing, cowardice was another. Denying him an answer at this point felt more like the latter.
"I know him because he is known to the police. He's a villain."
"...A villain…?" The information bounced right against Midoriya's shock. Toshinori gave him a curt nod. "No… no, that's… not…"
Toshinori could track the gradual, painstaking process of acceptance the poor kid was going through from the aborted expressions quickly blurring into each other. Horror, fear, confusion, disbelief. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle a sob.
"A-Are you sure?"
Toshinori hesitated. Was there any other possibility they weren't considering? "Are you absolutely certain that that's the person you've been talking to?"
"I… I've never met him in person. B-But mom has, and she's been talking to him too. She said it's him."
"...Then I'm afraid there can be no mistake." It felt like dropping a boulder on the child's chest, and the way Midoriya crumpled onto himself, cradling his head in both his hands, reinforced that gut-churning impression. Toshinori made no effort to conceal the sympathy in his whisper. "I'm sorry, kid."
"H-He said…" The rest of that thought was swallowed into distraught silence.
"He told you he worked for the government?"
Midoriya took his time to answer, and he did so with a half-choked snort. "He… he never did, actually. I thought… He said things that… made me think…"
Toshinori grit his teeth. Figures. That silver-tongued demon wouldn't spare even a child from his precious little mind games. "I can imagine."
The silence that followed was only broken by the boy's quiet sniffles, and it was so long that Toshinori believed the kid to have exhausted his reserve of bravery for further questions. He'd resumed his ill-concealed procrastination via blood-cleaning when the next inquiry dropped.
"What did he do?"
Oh, man. What didn't he do? "He's been involved in a variety of criminal activities, both directly and indirectly. He's… quite the nasty customer."
"Since when? How long for?" Midoriya gripped his head even more tightly, his fingers digging deep among his curls.
Toshinori had the distinct feeling that his well-meaning honesty was now trespassing into inadvertent cruelty. "We should wait for your mother before discussing this any-"
" Please." Midoriya's head snapped up, and the weight and emotion of those emerald eyes pierced through him like a blade. "Please, just tell me."
Fourteen years of lies. Toshinori couldn't bear to add even one more to the heap. "...Since long before you were born."
Midoriya's head dropped anew. Toshinori got back on his feet, unsure whether a kind word or a pat on the head could possibly ease that burden even slightly-
The ring of the doorbell made them both flinch, bursting that odd bubble of private desolation that had enveloped the boy's room. They made their way out of the room, Midoriya quietly trailing behind the hero as the man opened the front door.
Tsukauchi opened his mouth to greet them, and froze. His eyes immediately homed in on the blood liberally splattered on Toshinori's clothes, and on the melted ice pack Midoriya was still absently pressing to his temple.
"...What happened?"
Inko Midoriya had the same dark green hair as her son, styled in a way that made something inside Toshinori's chest ache with nostalgia and familiarity. She had the countenance of a demure, quiet, respectable housewife that valued stability and her loved ones' well-being above all, and would never even conceive of starting a family with anyone any less sensible than she was.
That was why Toshinori was thrown for a loop when, upon being informed that her absentee husband was a criminal, she simply closed her eyes and bowed her head with a sigh and a resigned "...Yes, I am aware."
Toshinori let Tsukauchi lead the questioning, as usual. Inko had met 'Hisashi Midoriya' (under a different alias, at the time) when she was twenty-six, working as a secretary at the main branch of Detnerat. The man had been introduced to her as a representative from another support item company doing some preliminary checks on Detnerat for a potential merger.
This was unusual, but not exceedingly so. In the nearly thirty years he'd spent meticulously dismantling All For One's organization, Toshinori had gathered evidence of him personally handling certain aspects of his schemes with surprising regularity, even relatively minor tasks or dirty deeds that could easily and safely be entrusted to his subordinates. He hardly ever found any specific reasons for All For One's direct involvement. Toshinori strongly suspected that the bastard simply didn't enjoy the lifestyle of the cooped-up, invisible puppeteer, and sometimes just felt like wrecking some havoc with his own diabolical hands.
Inko had been charged with supplying him with quite a sizable amount of rather sensitive data, but since the CEO in person had given the authorization, she had performed her task diligently and unsuspectingly.
Now, Toshinori had been expecting the worst to emerge while questioning the circumstances that had led Inko Midoriya to her current marital status. Without exaggerating, the very worst. Any sort of revolting account of manipulation, coercion, even human experimentation, there was no low All For One wouldn't stoop to. They had confined the boy to his room before starting for that exact reason.
But apparently the universe wasn't done throwing curve balls at Toshinori that day, and what they'd gotten instead was the succinct description of what seemed to be, by all accounts, a perfectly ordinary and unassuming workplace romance. One instigated mainly by Inko herself, no less. Toshinori's strained mind didn't quite know what to make of that baffling information, so it promptly repressed it.
"We didn't keep seeing each other after he stopped coming to the company, but I did reach out to him when I found out I was pregnant. That was when I became aware that there was much I didn't know about him."
"How so?"
"He told me." Inko replied simply. "He was... forward about it, in a way. He said that he couldn't settle down in any given place, nor spare the time for being part of a family. He offered to let me join him in his activities, but… the way he worded it made it clear that he wasn't talking of any sort of legal business."
"Did he mention any details about what his 'business' entailed, in general or in that specific time frame?"
"No, not at all. But considering how we met, I assume he must be involved in industrial espionage." Grief, brief but intense, shadowed on the woman's features for a moment. "I… I resigned from Detnerat as soon as I found out. He had been asking rather sensitive questions about the inner workings of the company, and… even though I never technically shared confidential information, I felt like I had exposed it to too great a danger because of my irresponsible conduct. And, honestly… I was afraid of what could emerge if I kept working there in my condition."
Toshinori rubbed his hands in his lap uncomfortably. No job, a son on the way, a presumably disreputable partner to deal with… What a wretched situation to find oneself in.
"You said he offered you to join him? In what way, exactly?" Tsukauchi asked from above the pages and pages of notes filling his notepad.
"...I am not sure. I didn't ask, I had no intention of getting caught in that sort of environment. Nor did I want Izuku to grow up embroiled in dubious activities from an early age." Inko's brows furrowed, and her fist clenched slightly. "...I didn't want him to feel abandoned either though. I didn't want him to grow thinking his father had deserted him. I asked Hisashi to grant us that, at least. Financial support and the decency to call, once in a while."
Toshinori couldn't hold back a sharp cough at that. Inko regarded him with a mix of concern and suspicion.
He couldn't blame her for it. He had accidentally caused her a fair share of grief when, her son having forgotten to warn her to expect guests upon her return, she'd opened the front door and found a freakishly tall, gaunt, haunted-looking, bloodied stranger looming in her hallway. Toshinori had waited in a conveniently secluded corner of the living room, trying to make himself look as small and non-threatening as possible, while Tsukauchi delivered the proper introductions and deflected the few concerned neighbors her terrified scream had attracted. Not exactly brilliant, as first impressions went.
"And he agreed to that?" Toshinori croaked.
"Yes. I was expecting some resistance, but… he agreed almost immediately."
Toshinori gaped at the remissive-looking, soft-spoken woman who had once been capable of browbeating All For One into exercising a modicum of fatherly commitment. This whole Midoriya case was getting more and more unbelievable by the hour.
Tsukauchi cleared his throat pointedly. Toshinori scraped back together what little dignity he had left and tried to soldier on.
"Please continue, Mrs. Midoriya." The detective encouraged.
"There isn't much else to say, I think. I didn't hear from him for months after that. I contacted him a few days after Izuku was born, and we've kept in touch ever since."
Tsukauchi tapped his chin with his pen for a few moments, his expression deeply focussed. Then he looked Inko straight in the eye.
"You are being… unexpectedly forthcoming about all this, if I may."
Inko let out a deep sigh. "I was never under the impression that we could escape the consequences of Hisashi's actions forever. As soon as Izuku was born, I decided that I would never subject myself or my son to undue duresses just to keep my husband's secrets. I told Hisashi as much as well."
Toshinori had to stifle another wet cough with his handkerchief. How on earth was this woman still alive?
"And he had no qualms about this declaration?"
"No. It rather amused him, actually. He said that any mother worth her salt would put her offspring's safety above that of their parents. And… something about natural selection and survival of the fittest…" Inko's eyes flickered upwards briefly, like those of a very normal wife exasperated by the very normal idiosyncrasies of her very normal husband. "He does go off on such tangents."
"So you aren't concerned about any possible retaliations on your husband's part because of your cooperation with us?"
"Oh!" Her eyes went wide, almost shocked by the mere suggestion. "Oh no, I really don't think he'd be capable of something like that."
Oh, how very wrong she was. Toshinori frowned, admittedly perturbed by the level of trust All For One had managed to establish within the family without ever even deigning to step in their household. Precautions would have to be taken to protect the Midoriyas from the tragic fate that usually befell all those who were deemed traitors by the Symbol of Fear.
More and more questions followed. With his habitual thoroughness, Tsukauchi pursued a multitude of topics and leads that hadn't even occurred to Toshinori, at least not so readily. Timing and means of communications, occasional postal deliveries to and from the family, details about the sums of money regularly deposited in the family's account, and so forth. Toshinori was rather out of his depth here, but he tried his best to help Tsukauchi sort through the reams of documents, receipts, records, and diverse paperwork Inko produced at the detective's request. By the time Tsukauchi declared to be satisfied with his preliminary inquiries, he had earned himself two plastic bags bursting with evidence, and Toshinori had developed a burgeoning migraine.
As they finally made their way to the entrance, Toshinori glanced at the door to Midoriya's bedroom. Amidst that cascade of new revelations, they'd barely touched upon the topic of the villain attack and of Midoriya's quirk with his mother. Toshinori felt genuinely sorry for the difficult conversations that were sure to follow between those two.
He hadn't realized how late it'd gotten until he stepped outside the Midoriyas' apartment. Sunset had come and gone, and the lampposts and the bright squares of the neighbors' windows were the only sources of light in the moonless night of that unassuming residential area. As the door closed behind his back, squeezing into nothingness the rectangular glow framing him and Tsukauchi, Toshinori felt the darkness weigh on his shoulders and seep in his bones almost physically.
He felt, suddenly, extremely tired.
"I'll drive you home." Tsukauchi's wasn't an offer, so Toshinori didn't refuse.
"Thank you."
They walked to the car as his friend made a couple of quick calls to instruct some agents to watch the house until the next morning. The fresh night air would have felt like a small bliss to Toshinori on any other day, but in that moment it only rattled whatever unpleasant manifestation of his unease had lodged itself in his lung earlier that afternoon and hadn't left since. He coughed a few times in his fist, then a few more on purpose to make sure he got most of the discomfort in his throat out of his system before he settled in the passenger's seat.
The drive was quiet. Toshinori gazed absently out of the window, letting the new awareness sink in his mind like a stone in a pond. All For One was alive. All For One was still alive, somehow. Toshinori couldn't fathom how. They had never retrieved the body, that was true, but there was precious little they had managed to retrieve from the location of their fight back then. It was nothing short of a miracle they'd found Toshinori himself quickly enough to lend medical assistance. The only reason why they'd been able to keep the public from learning of the accident was because it hadn't happened on the mainland, and the tiny, uninhabited island that hosted it had all but been wiped from the maps. That his foe may have survived that disaster, considering the damage he'd sustained, was almost inconceivable. Toshinori was pretty sure he'd actually caught a glimpse of the man's exposed brain after landing the last-
"Are you all right?" Tsukauchi asked quietly.
The corner of Toshinori's mouth twitched upwards. "I'm never going to defy New Year's fortunes again. Moving away from Tokyo was a terrible idea."
"This is a good thing. If you hadn't, All For One would still be out there, and we'd be none the wiser."
Hell. Five years. For five years they'd been none the wiser. How much strength had All For One regained in five years, while Toshinori's own slowly went down the drain? How much of his criminal network had he managed to rebuild? How many unnoticed, unreported atrocities had he been plotting and executing, unbeknownst to all? The mere notion made Toshinori's skin crawl.
But Tsukauchi had the right idea, there was no point in brooding over the current situation. Things could have turned out a lot worse. If Toshinori had already chosen a successor and exhausted One For All's embers, by now he'd be powerless and useless, and the burden of facing his revived nemesis would have fallen entirely on the new, inexperienced wielder. That truly would have been a worst-case scenario. But as things stood, he could still rely on his quirk for a decent amount of time. He could still tie this dreadful loose end himself before passing the torch, and he'd spare no effort in the endeavor. He'd pursue the monster to the ends of the Earth if he had to, even if it meant wearing himself down to nothing for the rest of his life.
Or meeting his gruesome, bitter end in the process.
Toshinori shivered.
"So," he heard himself say, "where do we go from here?"
Tsukauchi gave him a stern, silent scrutiny, then he told him.