Ch: 5 Tea and cases

The cafe was a small rustic affair with warm yellowish lighting, cream colored walls lined the area as she looked around. The dark brown countertop was manned by an older man and what she thought might be his wife who was currently making a strong smelling coffee. A group of teens laughed as they sat around an old coffee table as Izuku led them to a table near the back, as they approached he stepped forward and pulled out a chair for her which she took with a small smile and eye roll as he walked to the other chair removing his coat draping it on the back of it placing the Manila folder on the table.

"Want anything? They have an amazing marble cake here." He asked while rolling his sleeves up.

She looked over at the menu board and squinted a bit before looking back at Izuku while reaching for her coin purse. "Mango chai tea and the soufflé please." She opened her purse and took out a five thousand yen bill and handed it to him. "And your order is on me."

"You sure?"

She nodded her head before responding. "Yes well you're doing me and Jirou a favor so I might as well treat you to lunch."

He nodded and smiled back. "Alright one mango chai tea and soufflé coming up." And with that he walked over to the cafe counter leaving her alone. She watched him leave before turning to the folder that he left on the table and reaching out grabbing it. She paused as she grabbed it briefly and wondered if she should wait for Izuku to read it before shaking the thought out of her head and began to read.

It was fairly standard as far as she could tell, starting with a photograph of Jirou as well as her hero commission credentials, followed by the incident report which didn't tell much that Jirou hadn't already mentioned. Although they scanned copies of a few previous letters which at least painted a better picture of what izuku tried to keep from her earlier. It surprised her how well written the letter was, giving further proof that Izuku was at least right that the stalker was educated, the handwriting was neat and proper but otherwise unremarkable to her. As she read it came to her realization that this was a response to what the writer claimed was a well received letter. A delusion maybe? Izuku did say that they could take on any form, maybe the stalker imagined Jirou writing them a letter.

She continued to read the scanned letter trying to gather what information might be useful but felt lost, there wasn't a date written on either letter that was in the file. She blinked when she noticed a line, it was about a show Jirou performed where she debuted a new song. One she had gone to as well, approximately two months ago if her memory was correct.

"Anything interesting?"

Momo let out a startled gasp having failed to utterly notice Izuku's approach, she could even imagine mister Aizawa's disappointed head shake before reminding her of her lack of situational awareness. He placed the drinks and food down on the table with a concerned look on his face.

"I-I I'm sorry I didn't m-mean to scare you."

She shook her head. "No no it's ok I just didn't notice you coming back." She gave him a smile and reached out for her tea while taking a sip. "Thank you Izuku."

He nodded as he sat clearing his throat. "You're welcome. So read anything interesting?"

She nodded, sliding the file towards him, placing her tea down. "I think the stalker works at the music venues."

He raised an eyebrow at that as he began to scan the documents. "Explain."

At that she blinked, clearing her throat. "It's just…they mentioned a song that Jirou performed for the first time and I remembered the place so I thought maybe they might work there."

He nodded as she spoke before smiling. "Nicely done, tell me what else you think."

"I couldn't possibly, it was just a thought."

"Nonsense I'm curious to see what you come up with, come now there are no wrong theories."

She looked down on the table before taking a breath and nodding. "Well…Jirou mentioned that the stalking started after her first major performance in the Mustuafu music festival which makes me think that our stalker isn't interested in Jirou for her heroics."

His smile widened. "Why do you think that?"

"Well…they would have been stalking her for a lot longer if that was the case wouldn't they?"

He nodded while sipping his coffee. "I believe so as well, after all your class were made into provisional hero's during your first year of UA four years ago, a story that made national headlines, but it was only until the music festival six months ago that the stalking began. Now if you'd let me, I'd like to ask a question."

She nodded. "Of course go ahead."

"During the festival do you recall if perhaps Mrs.Kyouka performed a love song?"

She blinked before leaning back her mind trying to grasp the fleeting memories of that concert and the music played, before slowly nodding. "Yes, I…I think so."

"So what do you think that means?"

She was silent for a moment in thought before taking a sip of tea and slowly speaking. "Well… you said the stalker had a hard time making personal relationships and understanding social norms." He nodded while drinking his coffee motioning for her to continue with his hand. "So maybe…maybe they go to the concert and see Jirou then she sings a love song and…and they think it's for them, an obvious confession for them and they become obsessed."

He nodded, smiling widely. "My thoughts exactly, well done! Now our suspect is obsessed with her. What makes you think they work at a music venue?"

"Maybe they don't…maybe they just…they look up the schedule for her gigs?"

He nodded. "That would be a good idea but." He then pointed towards the letters. "Allow me to propose an alternative theory. Our stalker has an impressive poetic vocabulary and is extremely creative when writing. Perhaps it is more likely they are musicians themselves and use the excuse of playing a gig in the same spot as her to follow her and be closer to her."

She nodded. "That could work, Jirou always told me that the local music scene was really small and it's common for bands to sometimes perform together."

"So now comes the question of how they found her address both times."

At that she blinked before her eyes widened, standing up her hands slamming on the table. "They walk her home!" For a moment things were silent as she looked around noticing that most eyes were on her giving confused stares as she sank down into her seat, face turning crimson and Izuku began to laugh a bit. "I can't believe I just did that."

With a few dying chuckles he wiped a tear from his eye and replied. "I-I wouldn't worry too much about it. I get excited too when an idea comes to me. And I think you might be right, perhaps they feel comfortable enough to walk Mrs.Kyouka to her home or perhaps at one point she invited them to her home giving our suspect the knowledge needed to leave the letters in her home, most likely after they were rejected by her music agency."

"So she knows them?"

"Most likely. Perhaps not all that well but enough to recognize them."

"My god…and she has no idea."

"I wouldn't say that." He replied, taking another sip.

"What do you mean?"

"Well once we present her with some of our findings it might bring a few people into focus as suspects." He started swirling his cup before tilting his head to the side. "Hmm…possible noise or sound related quirk."

"What?"

"I was thinking of the stalker's latest act. Tell me Mrs.Kyouka's quirk enhances her hearing, correct?"

"Yes?"

"I assume that she is a light sleeper because of it?"

"Yes, it made dorm life quite interesting."

He chuckled a bit before continuing. "So how was it that someone was able to sneak in without her notice?"

She blinked and looked down in thought. It had completely slipped her mind, hell Jirou barely slept during the training camp because of the class keeping her awake yet somehow this stalker broke in completely silently? Impossible unless…

"Sound manipulation."

He nodded, taking another sip. "Sound manipulation, or at least a sound related quirk."

"That's…." She said, taking a sip of tea.

"A solid theory."

"One way to put it."

"It'll help us narrow down our potential suspects, and if we get a fingerprint match then we're golden."

"So this is your job? Look at facts and come up with theories to fit it all?"

He nodded. "Indeed, and from what I've just seen you would make a great investigator as well if you wanted."

She chuckled a bit. "High praise."

"More a statement of fact." He replied with a smile while drinking his coffee.

They sat in comfortable silence for a bit as he continued to read over the file taking notes on his notebook as she ate, as the moment grew a question came to the front of Momo's mind to which she cleared her throat and spoke. "Izuku, what did you mean by a personal project when we spoke to the Lieutenant?"

"Ah you remembered that." He replied, eyes never leaving the file. "It's quite simple. After our encoun with press I was left with a few nagging questions and I sought to answer them."

"Yes but…well…what would you want to know? The League was defeated and the Nomu are gone for the most part; they're too busy fighting to be a threat anymore."

He paused a second, before closing the file and looking into her eyes. "Then let me ask you a few questions."

She nodded, taken aback at his tone of voice and stare.

"In the USJ incident if I recall it was your class that was attacked wasn't it?" She nodded. "That was also the first reported sighting of the League of Villains and the first recorded Nomu, correct?"

"Yes."

"It's leader at the time was Shigaraki Tomura, who as of now has been unconscious for the last four years after the Kamino incident, his first Lieutenant was one Kurugiri if recollection serves me correctly."

She nodded once more.

"From all accounts the villains involved were simply hired guns; however, this tells me that the League at the time was extremely wealthy as they were able to buy their services for the attack." He took another sip. "More importantly they were wealthy enough to undergo the research into Nomu creation."

"Yes but that's all common knowledge, so I don't see what else there is to find out?"

"Shigaraki Tomura by all accounts at the time had the mental maturity of a teenager, yet somehow he was the head of an extremely wealthy criminal organization."

"Well…he was a dangerous individual."

"So? His quirk is powerful, sure but that's no guarantee that he'd have risen to power; look at Muscular or Moonfish, both known associates of the League, both delegated to strike team leader at best and loose cannons at worst."

She nodded at that. "You're not wrong, but you still haven't told me why you're looking into them."

"It's quite simple. I believe that Shigaraki was not the actual leader of the League."

"That's impossible, he was the one that always led the attacks on us."

"And yet does he seem the type to actually be able to plan and organize a large-scale operation like the League? More importantly would he have been able with his mental state to amass the funds needed to simply begin the Nomu project? The materials needed alone would be worth billions yet in Kamino the Commission found dozens of incubation chambers. He also never showed the tactical skill needed to effectively use the Nomu he had. No, the facts don't suit the theory that he was the true leader."

"But after his coma the League practically fell apart. How do you explain that?"

"That the actual leader of the League was killed, at best or went into hiding at worst." He took another sip of his coffee. "All Might died that day fighting the ultimate Nomu yet besides those two bodies no one else was ever found."

"So you think that there's a puppet master behind the scenes biding their time?"

"Yes. And I intend to discover who they are."

Notes: thank you lizard for beta reading this week. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter