Chapter twenty-one - Lay bare the Confidence.
Izuku's wrists were cuffed tightly to a cold, metal desk and his ankles were cuffed to the floor below him. He was in a small, white-walled room that he guessed was for questioning. There were guards outside the room and cameras positioned at each corner of the ceiling. Izuku was unfazed, though. He just stared blankly at the desk.
"I'm not sure what kind of fiasco they were expecting, binding me up like this.." Izuku thought. Izuku had been waiting in the room for about twenty minutes and he had his sword taken from him. He really disliked his belongings being touched or tampered with. Then the door clicked open, revealing a tall man with short black hair and a black suit and green tie.
"He took his sweet time." thought Izuku. He was very bored and tired and just wanted to disappear from the face of the earth. He wished to be like the birds in the sky, who flew wherever they wished. He wished to be an insect, insignificant and unbothered. He prayed that, for once, Bakugou would just storm in here and throw him off some tall building. Oh, how he wished to be just another stone in the path..
"Faceless, a villain and a member of the League of Villains. You joined a year ago and is suspected to be Izuku Midoriya. Am I correct or not?" said Naomasa. He had working on Izuku's documents, closed case, dossier and files. Naomasa wouldn't go through all the trouble for some random criminal. He saw sheds of light in the boy in front of him that refused to dim down, no matter how much darkness is surrounding it.
Izuku said nothing. He wasn't exactly surprised that they found out who he was. All it took was a smart person to connect the dots of the puzzle; nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. So, why was this Detective so eager to speak?
"He won't even reply to me, huh." thought Naomasa. With everyone else he worked with, the replies he received, though short and blunt, were replies nonetheless. But this kid that he was losing sleep over didn't even make a peep? That was a load of crap.
"It is my right, as a detective and member of the police, to see the person I'm interrogating, so, I will proceed to remove your mask." said Naomasa with a slight shake in his voice. He, and nobody else had seen what Izuku's face looked like, what was he going to expect? "Pardon me…"
"No...please don't.." thought Izuku in a worried way. Nowadays, he felt very peculiar about people seeing his face as it was always hidden by his featureless mask. He would feel guilty about not wearing the mask as that was the face that killed his parents. Almost as if taking off the mask would be a sign of 'letting the guilt and pain and responsibility go'. Izuku, however, had no real authentic emotion in him. That had been taken away from him. Like a punishment. Not like he wanted them back, though.
"Wonder what Faceless will look like, I'm suddenl-" Naomasa thoughts were cut off half way as he was removing Izuku's mask. When the mask was taken off, Naomasa saw a boy with an innocent, feminine face, that was was nicely shaped by his long black hair. His big eyes were like a dulled green lake that sat on his pale skin. His cheeks were slightly sunken and he had lilac eyebags. Izuku's face, as a whole, was a face of innocent disaster and misery. Izuku's eyes were blankly cast down at the cold, steel table below him and he sat there motionless.
"Shit. I was not expecting this." thought Naomasa. He truly did not expect to see such a bewildering face! What on earth had happened to the boy with frilly green hair and eyes gleaming with joy and youth? It was like that boy had been cast away and instead was replaced by..Faceless. Naomasa's mouth was slightly gawked but he quickly regained his composure.
"I-I'll start off with the basics. Is your name Midoriya Izuku?" Naomasa could see how empty and uncaring Izuku looked, so he tried his best to get an answer out of Izuku without using physical force or threats. But that didn't mean Izuku would get special treatment. Naomasa would do what he needed to do.
"Look, kid, considering how many murders you have committed and your connection to the League, I could easily get you thrown into Tartarus." said Naomasa in a demanding tone. This made Izuku scoff.
"Tartarus, huh. Wonder what it's like in there." casually thought Izuku. He didn't care whether he received the death penalty or received torture or being thrown into a prison. He just wanted to get the damn interview over with. He wasn't in the mood for talking but Izuku knew that the quicker he answered, the quicker it'd be over.
Naomasa was shocked at Izuku's uncompassionate.
"He's, what, 16? Doesn't he care whether or not he goes to Tartarus? Or killed? There must be some things I don't know about him.." thought Naomasa.
"I'll humour you. Ask away." said Izuku, in a deadpan tone. He had a slight smirk on his face that didn't go unnoticed. Upon hearing Izuku voice, Naomasa jumped a bit in his seat. He sounded so young and so damaged. Some would say Naomasa was disgusted and quite perturb at how utterly broken Izuku was. Surprise after surprise after surprise! Though, Naomasa was shocked over and over, he needed to remember that Izuku was dangerous and a member of the League that needed to be interviewed.
"Thank you for the cooperation. So, let's get this out of the way. Are you Midoriya Izuku?" asked Naomasa. He half hoped that Faceless was Midoriya. He wanted to ask so much, but trust builds over time.
"Yes." said Izuku bluntly. Naomasa nodded and was glad at Izuku's progress.
"What activities did you perform with the League?"
"Analysis and physical tasks." said Izuku vaguely. It wasn't like Izuku was lying; he just wasn't giving detail. He knew that Naomasa's quirk 'Lie Detector' was active and it was be an embarrassment to lie.
"That's pretty vague, Midoriya. Do you have any details?" asked Naomasa. He noticed how Izuku wasn't giving very specific answers. Was he covering for the League? That was possible, but that led to another question.
"Were you part of the League by your own will?" Naomasa gulped whilst he was asking that.
"I mean, I was but I wasn't. Doesn't matter now, though. I'll probably be thrown in some cell later." thought Izuku. What difference does using force make if the outcome would be the same either way? Izuku has killed people before. Whether or not he was forced would be irrelevant. At the end of the day, dead men tell no tales.
"No comment." was all Izuku said before quietly sighing.
"Wait a fucking second. That wasn't a no. That means he could have potentially been forced to work with the League. That would lighten up his sentence for sure." optimistically thought Naomasa. He was happy that he thought Izuku wouldn't be jailed for long but what use would the League have for a quirkless, teenage boy? It's like carrying dead weight around.
"Have you-" Naomasa was going to ask another question, but Izuku yawned instead. Small tears were blinked away when he yawned and his eyes were fluttering in weary.
"Of course, he's tired. He was with the League a few hours ago, who knows what the kid's sleeping patterns were? Not mention, he is still just a kid." thought Naomasa. He gave a pleasant smile to Izuku for a few seconds before undoing his cuffs.
"You'll be escorted to a cell. You look really tired, it's probably for the best." chuckled Naomasa as he was taking off Izuku's ankle cuffs.
"Escorted, huh. Fancy word you said there." said Izuku rubbing his wrists. "Then, pardon the intrusion." Izuku was then held firmly by the arms by a chunky looking guard and taken to a cell. Once Izuku was out of sight, Naomasa sat down and gulped own a glass of water in one go.
"I just spoke to Faceless. Too damn surreal." thought Naomasa shaking his head in a light-hearted manner. He rubbed his temples. Then he got quite concerned. "What were those bandages on his forearms for, though?"
"Thank you for answering the questions, Bakugou. You were a huge help." said an interviewer.
"Whatever." said Bakugou before stomping off somewhere else with his hands in his pockets. He still hadn't gotten over how similar Faceless and Deku were. The contrast was so great but they looked so very similar! Like night from day, yin from yang and good from bad. But Bakugou did not like thinking about Deku and how similar he was to the villain that defeated him. Deku was probably lost in some ditch somewhere. Good riddance, right? The thought of the useless boy angered him. It irked him. He unintentionally set off his quirk and burnt the pockets of his trousers. He cursed under his breath and walked into his classroom with a pissed off look.
Immediately, the class looked at Bakugou and a number of them gave looks of happiness because they saw that he was okay. The rest of them that didn't look happy just nodded their heads.
Kirishima ran towards Bakugou in euphoria.
"Bakubro! Dude, you were so brave against the villains! I bet they were scared as stiff!" shouted Kirishima, putting his arm around Bakugou's shoulders and grinning. Kirishima's voice sounded so genuinely happy that not even Bakugou himself could say anything but growl under his breath.
"Bakugou, of course, you were strong as usual, but why did the villains take you? They could have taken anybody else." commented Sero. He didn't mean it in an insulting way, he was just confused.
"Hah?! Wanna die, Flat-face?" said Bakugou in a hoarse tone. "Of course they chose me because of my strength and quirk. I'm the strongest in this damn class!"
"Uh..Bakugou..I don't know if that's something to be proud of..!" said Kaminari in a nervous chuckle and rubbing the back of his neck.
"Whatever! I finally got a hit on that Faceless bastard! Next time, I'll kill him." said Bakugou in a more serious but angry tone. He did not like being beaten in anything. It made him feel weak, and just the thought of weakness nagging in his body made him cringe in vexation.
Uraraka and Iida froze in their places at the sound of 'Faceless'. They both exchanged looks and listened in on what Bakugou was going to say. They needed all the information they could get.
"Bakugou met Faceless? Well, he is with the League..but that's too coincidental." thought Uraraka.
"Faceless? Do you mean-" Kirishima was cut off.
"'Samurai bastard!'" finished off Mina, mimicking Bakugou. Bakugou unintentionally started to ramble on and on about how Izuku looked, Izuku's villain name and his strength. Of course, he explained all of this with his normal brutal remarks and insults. People from across his classroom were listening accordingly to what Bakugou was ranting about, as he usually never spoke about anyone for such an extended amount of time. Many people from around the room slowly started to realise the person that Bakugou was describing, was the guy that put Bakugou in the infirmary after the U.S.J.
Iida's eyes widened.
"If he was able to do that..then Faceless wasn't at his full extent of power at Hosu! How strong is this guy..?" he thought.
"How powerful is this 'Faceless' villain that he swiftly beat up Bakugou and dusted off his explosions like nothing? It's kind of intriguing, but I don't have time to wonder about villains. I'm already dealing with one that happens to be my father.." thought Todoroki.
Aizawa walked into the classroom, looking around at the class and heard talk of Faceless. He then switched his glare to Iida and Uraraka, suspecting that they spoke of Hosu out loud. He then shook his head.
"They wouldn't. But Bakugou probably did, knowing him. How irritating." thought Aizawa.
"Class. Settle down and get into your seats." said Aizawa in a deep, tired tone. The class ended their conversations and sat back down immediately, to begin their class. He hoped new information of Faceless would be brought to his ears, but that was for another time. Right now, he needed to teach.
Izuku, still in his villain costume, layed down on his back on the cold surface of the stiff slab that some called a 'mattress'. He lazily put his hands behind his head and moved his feet at the end of his bed in small movements, singing a little tune to himself. A happy little tune in a dead as a corpse tone and a vacant expression plastered on his face.
"You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear,
Voices singing let's be jolly..
Deck the halls with boughs of Holly.."
How ironic.