3:44 A.M.

The ghostly hours.

That's what the Augur's grandmother had called it. That time of night between midnight and sunrise, when all of existence seemed to be in a heavy slumber. When the air was eerily quiet, heavy and tranquil like a peaceful ocean, the sky veiled in inky blackness, with only the most stubborn stars poking through as small pinpricks. Still and silent and empty.

Sobo, that's what everyone in the family had come to know his grandmother as. Some of the older cousins had started calling her that when they were really young, and eventually, everyone else called her that too. Aunts, uncles, cousins, inlaws. She was simply Sobo. And everyone avoided her.

Sobo was a petty, grumpy, snappy woman. It wasn't that the family disliked her; everyone loved her very much, but dealing with her was difficult, so most simply didn't. After all, she seemed to have something she disliked about everyone she met. Everyone, that was, except for little Shou.

The Augur didn't know why Sobo liked him. She loved all her grandchildren of course, but she absolutely adored him. Maybe it was because he was the youngest grandchild. But whatever the reason was, whenever she got the chance, Sobo would snatch him up for the day, picking him up after school or taking him to the temple on shrine days. So unlike all his other cousins, the Augur had clear memories of spending time on Sobo's lap or by her side, cooking or playing in her house or listening to her tell stories.

Oh, did she tell stories.

Of everyone in the family, Sobo was the most superstitious. Spirits, yokai, gods and goddesses. In an ever more atheistic nation, Sobo clung stubbornly to those old traditions, and much to the chagrin of the Augur's mother, she was quite happy to explain each and every one of them to a young Shou with no regard for how appropriate or scary they were.

Of course, whenever Sobo talked about the ghostly hours, she would tell him about the Hyakki Yagyō. The night parade of a hundred demons.

According to her, the reason that nothing stirred during the ghostly hours was because, every night, oni and yokai would awaken and parade through the streets of town. A hundred demons of all shapes and sizes, large and small, loud and quiet, but all of them dancing through the town, shepherding and encouraging all the malicious spirits. And any person that was unfortunate enough to come across the parade was likely to be torn limb from limb and dragged down to the realm of the oni.

The Augur wasn't superstitious like that, but after working in law enforcement as an investigator, he had come to understand that, in some ways, the Hyakki Yagyō was very real.

After all, nighttime in the city was when all of society's demons dared to do what they couldn't in the day. And being an investigator, he had come to learn each demon's name. Tonight, that demon… It was one he'd been tracking for nearly two years.

The car tires screeched like a dying cat as he skid into the parking lot, not bothering to decelerate as he turned into the hospital's front entrance. The only reason he was going at the speed limit was because this damn truck didn't have a siren he could turn on. Barreling into a parking spot, he half jumped, half rolled out of the car, snagging his briefcase and slamming the door even as he broke out into a jog towards the ER entrance of the Musutafu General hospital. The automatic doors opened smoothly, and he stumbled into the cold, sterile waiting room.

"Aug, over here!" Tsuruko halfheartedly waved him over from across the desolate waiting room, her voice tired but focused. The Augur quickly made his way to her, skirting around the cluster of a dozen chairs in the nearly abandoned waiting room. Aside from himself and Tsuruko, the only living soul to inhabit the space was the young man behind the welcome desk, watching the pair with concern. As soon as he reached her, the young woman shoved a styrofoam cup of cheap coffee into his hands. "Here."

"Thanks." He brought the hot, bitter drink to his lips, and-

Shit, that's hot!

He choked on the searing liquid, gulping it down and coughing, before raising the cup again, this time sipping slower.

Tsuruko snickered, more out of a lack of energy to laugh than out of any malice, but she moved to sip from her own cup. There was a moment of silence as the pair drank, and the Augur could feel the muscles up and down his back loosen slightly at the sensation. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and just enjoying the warmth radiating from the drink. Opening his eyes slowly, he gave Tsuruko a small, thankful smile. "God this coffee is awful."

The woman snorted, nodding her head and smiling like an idiot. "Oh yeah, it's shit! I was afraid to go anywhere in case you showed up, so I bought it from the convenience store here in the hospital."

"The doctors should go on strike until they make better coffee." His voice was dry and cynical, and his eyes were marred by tired, black bags, but his humorous grin was genuine. "And you look like trash."

"You think you look much better?"

"Certainly not."

It was true; the pair of them looked dreadful. The Augur hadn't shaved in several days, his salt-and-pepper stubble less 'silver fox' and more 'homeless man,' while Tsuruko's normally ruler-straight, carefully maintained hair was tied up into a messy bun. While both were in suits, neither were ironed, and the Augur could certainly see the strands of white fur on Tsuruko's suit from her cat. If he had been looking in from the outside, he would think the pair were destined for a court date, not a criminal investigation.

"How's the weapons smuggling investigation going?" Absently, the older investigator looked into the dark coffee, seeing his own tired expression.

Tsuruko took a sip. "I put in my report yesterday."

"I haven't gotten around to reading it," The Augur groaned, massaging his temples. "I was busy dealing with a service audit."

"A service audit?" Tsuruko sighed, an annoyed sound that she made any time the budget administration was brought up. The Augur couldn't blame her. They all knew what to expect from it. "Another budget cut incoming? Even after the cut last year?"

"I thought so at first too, it seems to be all that's happened for the past decade, but then I learned who commissioned it." One of the seats beckoned to the Augur's stiff legs, but he resisted the urge to sit down. They'd have to leave in a moment, this conversation was just a brief reprieve to let them drink and wake up a little.

"Who?"

"Harada Yuma."

Tsuruko nearly spit out her coffee. "Her!? Why on earth are the Equalists wanting to look at our budget? And how did she even get the vote through?"

The Augur shrugged. "I'm just as confused as you are. I mean, some of their members wanted to transfer more power to the police in order to make the hero system obsolete. Maybe she wanted to gather some ammo for debating a bill to increase funding."

"I don't know." She scowled, shaking her head. "Her members? Maybe. But Harada herself? You've seen some of her twitter posts. I heard she even wants to abolish prisons altogether. So why on earth would she want to help the national police force?"

"Hope for the best." Sighing, the Augur turned and picked up his briefcase. Silently, he gestured Tsuruko forward. "We need to get going. Lead the way."

Tsuruko mumbled something about the equalists, which might have involved swears, before taking the lead down the hallway to the ICU.

Thank god.

If he was honest, the reason he ended that conversation was because he knew where it was headed. While the Augur had long since checked out from paying attention to politics, Tsuruko wasn't that sort.

The fact of the matter was that, whatever the MP's in the Diet bickered about, his job was the same anyways. The only time he paid attention was when the police budget was on the line, and if that nut job Harada decided to turn her attention away from coddling ghetto gangsters and the disabled and towards upping his budget, why should he complain? They didn't have any real power in the Diet. Despite the ruckus they made, the Equalists were not only a minority party, with only a few seats, but none of the major parties wanted to risk the public backlash of forming a coalition with them. The Constitutional Democratic Party had worked with them once or twice, but that was it. Even the Communists hated them, though the Augur couldn't figure out why. They were all radicals.

The pair quickly walked down the wide, clean hallway, their heels clicking loudly against the tiles. A pained moan trickled through one of the closed doors, the sort where the person wasn't quite lucid enough to be conscious, but was far too awake to ignore the terrible pain. The Augur scowled, the reality of the situation sinking in.

Every single datapoint thus far was a dead body. The victims were little more than cadavers, quite literally cut up and sucked dry. They were all only found after either a missing person's report or someone stumbling across the body within a few hours of the murder. Lacerations, minor bruising, several bite marks on various parts of the body, and only one or two injuries that would be considered fatal. But this time… This time the victim was alive.

His briefcase felt heavy with the weight of his tape recorder.

"So, what exactly is the situation with this victim?" The Augur watched a couple of nurses dash past the pair in the opposite direction, pushing a cart and rushing into one of the ICU rooms. He could faintly catch a whiff of antiseptics and burnt flesh. "And why is this one alive?"

"This one's weird, all in all." Tsuruko scowled, casting a look back at the Augur before beginning to keep track of points on her fingers. "Okay, demographically, he lines up with the slasher's pattern. Fifteen year old boy, discovered in a back alley bleeding out, covered in lacerations, and reported by the person who found him."

Pausing on her fourth finger, she pressed her lips into a tight line. "... But that's honestly where the similarities end. So, first of all, no fatal wounds. None of the major arteries were pierced. The doctors said that, despite significant damage, anything fatal was carefully avoided. There were no bite marks at all. Of course, there's the fact that he's alive." Turning a corner, she looked back to check that the Augur was still right behind her, before shaking her head and continuing. "But this is the strange part: he had his tendons cut."

The Augur raised his eyebrow questioningly. "His tendon?"

"Tendons. Plural." She spoke sharply, holding up a finger and correcting the detail with a precise intensity. "I talked to the doc that did his emergency surgery before you got here. His achilles tendons, flexor tendons, quadriceps tendons, his supraspinatus tendons, a few others too."

That was… strange. An assault like that seemed outside of Toga Himiko's gearhouse. If it was meant to disable the victim, it was likely more trouble than it was worth, so it would've had to have been an end in itself. The girl hadn't exhibited behavior like that before. And the total lack of bites? It wasn't adding up. "Which means..?"

"Well, hell if I know." The woman looked back, grimacing as she gave a gruff grunt. Despite it, the Augur could see the genuine, empathetic worry deep in her eyes. Just like him, she had learned to suppress those feelings during an investigation. Victims were points of data, and perpetrators were targets. Neither were people. As a young investigator, he learned that it made things easier to keep everyone at a distance, so he made the choice to keep things that way. When Tsuruko became an investigator in her own right, he was quick to pass that lesson down to her.

Every day, the Augur regretted that choice a little more.

The man sighed, but hid it with unconscious ease.

Tsuruko slowed her pace slightly, carefully reading the numbers beside each door to make sure they didn't pass the room. "Either way, the doc said that the kid won't even be able to stand up for a few months. They can't even bandage him up until he gets a skin graft. He can't move his ankles or knees, he can't rotate his shoulder at all, the kid can't even move his fingers. His muscles are physically trimmed from his bones, after all. It'll take at least a dozen painful surgeries for him to get full mobility back, and that's not even coming close to his physical state before the attack. And these weren't from some blunt force trauma. The suprasin-spin-" Somehow, of all the terrible, gruesome, and depressing things she had said, the name of the tendon was the thing that made her words stumble. She puffed in irritation, before pausing in front of one particular door, and turning to face the Augur. "The one in his shoulder. It's pretty deep. These were all very careful, very intentional cuts. The doctors seemed pretty shaken."

Stopping next to her, the lead investigator nodded, and brought his hand to his unshaved chin. "Okay, but this deviates a lot from the girl's previous pattern. This sounds like it was meant to harm. Her previous behavior was… crimes of passion." He hated that phrasing. Crime documentaries and murder novels loved to use the phrase, and it brought to mind lovers driven insane by grief or similar nonsense. Simply put, it made people expect this tragic, dramatic story behind the crime, as if it could somehow justify the heinous acts of violent brutality.

But… Well, in this case, the Augur couldn't say it wasn't true. An abused little girl running around sucking people dry in some? She had to be stopped, but it still clawed at his heart to imagine.

And for someone like that? Why would she commit a brutal assault like this? It didn't make sense. What if they were wrong? He gave Tsuruko a questioning look, his dark chocolate eyes heavy with worry. "Why do we think this is our person?"

The younger investigator hummed, acknowledging the concern, but gave an eager, predatory grin, like a cat that finally caught that one damn mouse. "Two things: First, the person who reported it. The nurse that took the call swore to me on her life that the person that called in sounded identical, not similar, identical, to the victim."

A voice similarity? That could mean any number of things, that's not-

Wait.

The boy obviously couldn't call in his own assault, but-

Identical.

And considering how many cuts there were on his body, if she stole a sip from even just one...

His eyes went wide in realization. "A transformation quirk?"

Tsuruko nodded, barely containing the sudden burst of energy she found telling him this. "Exactly!"

It clicked together in just a certain way. With her transformation quirk, it would make sense that Toga Himiko attempted to cover her tracks by mimicking his very voice. So, when she called in, there would be no trace of her being there. An amateurish tactic, and not one that would trick a pair of seasoned investigators, but clever. But… Why would she call the hospital in the first place?

… Unless she wanted him to survive.

That made the man's stomach drop.

Still, that was simply circumstantial. Toga Himiko was far from the only person in Japan with a transformation quirk, and he shouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. For some reason, a small part of him wished that this wasn't the work of the girl he'd been tracking all over Japan. He knew that his goal should be to find her no matter what, and that if this was her, it might very well be the nail in the coffin for tracking her down, but…

It was stupid.

After everything, it was so stupid.

She was a murderer.

She had ended over a dozen innocent lives.

She was undoubtedly going to be serving multiple life sentences when she was caught, and that was only due to the fact that unlike some countries, Japan repealed the death penalty three decades ago.

Toga Himiko, by all measures, would be considered a villain and a serial killer.

But part of him still wanted to believe she was simply a very broken, very lost, but fundamentally good person. But if this was her…

He shuddered.

Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he refocused. "And the second thing?"

"During his ambulance ride, apparently the kid was conscious but highly delirious. And apparently there were a few names he kept saying." Oblivious to the turmoil roiling in the Augur's mind, Tsuruko gave a small, victorious grin, the final piece falling into place. "Most were just insults. But two were very real names. Midoriya, and Toga."

… Well shit.

The Augur didn't recognize that first name, but it wouldn't be a difficult task to assume this 'Midoriya' was the masked boy that attacked Warp with Toga Himiko in the video. And the fact that the kid was saying their names meant that he had known them. This wasn't a random attack, it was a personal one.

Suddenly, the door to the room in front of them opened to reveal a nurse staggering out, followed by a loud, steady, and surprisingly diverse array of cuss words. The nurse was notably singed, with a few hairs still glowing orange, and she grit her teeth. Casting a quick up and down glance at the pair, she forced a very not-happy smile. "Investigators for the assault victim?"

Tsuruko looked at her in utter bafflement, unable to muster out any words, but giving a small nod.

"Good. He just woke up, so I'd normally say to keep your voice down and don't cause a ruckus for him, but…" She looked back towards the room, before her exhausted gaze travelled back to the investigators. "He's already doing that himself. There's a fire extinguisher in there, if you need it."

… What?

The Augur exchanged a look with Tsuruko, but looking into her dark eyes, she was just as confused as he was.

She coughed, jerking her head towards the door. "... Do you wanna take this?"

He rolled his eyes and stepped towards the door. "But you're listening in. I need you to take notes."

Laughing nervously, Tsuruko followed close behind him as they entered, laughing nervously. "That's fair, yeah."

The pair stepped into the hospital room.

The Augur had seen plenty of brutality in his life. Picking through the leftovers of violence was quite literally his job. Really, the only people that touched dead bodies more than him in his industry were the morticians themselves, and it was no coincidence that he was certified as one. After all, when Toshinori was just setting up his own agency, All Might wasn't going to be the one picking through stab wounds and bullet holes to give the lawyers their mortuary reports. No, that was his job. It wasn't until he transferred to the national police that he was made an investigator, and even then, he spent far more time in a cold room with a scalpel and tweezers than any of the other investigators. The official reason was that his quirk let him 'interview' the body. They were even so polite as to create a standardized document so he could submit the postmortem experiences to be evidence in court.

He, however, had the sneaking suspicion that the other investigators simply liked having an excuse to not have to dissect the bodies of people so thoroughly mutilated by villains that certain bones and organs came in a dozen separate pieces.

So, having handled more than his fair share of grotesque situations, the Augur felt comfortable in the assumption that seeing a young man covered in lacerations would be something he could easily tune out. After all, he'd pulled apart the same thing on the examination table before.

He was wrong.

The mangled bundle of flesh, sinew, and muscle that remained on the hospital bed was hardly whole enough to call a body. In the areas that were easier to look at, such as the figure's chest and legs, he was simply covered in dozens, no, hundreds of cuts, ranging in size from small slices to deep, stitched up lacerations; in other areas, like the poor creature's arms, the skin seemed to be rended from the layer of fat and muscle below it, carefully peeled as one might the skin of an apple. Near the joints, precise incisions had been frantically sewn and glued together, the cuts smooth and targeted like a chef carving poultry meat off the bone. A heart monitor was clamped onto one twitching finger, and an IV drip was stabbed into the shredded, fleshy arm. The only thing that marked the poor thing as anything more than a horrendously mutilated cadaver was the clean, untouched face, completely unblemished in contrast to the rest of the boy's body.

And the smell. That smell. Pungent, burning rubbing alcohol, stark antiseptic, metallic blood, burnt flesh, chemical cleaners and the sickly sweet smell of an air freshener that couldn't contain nearly this much, all combining into a stench so thick he could taste it.

Despite all of it, the thing in the bed still managed out unsteady, ragged breaths, one after another in a stumbling succession.

The Augur threw up in his mouth, acid and bile pooling in his throat, but he recovered easily, swallowing his disgust and giving the slightest bow to the boy. Tsuruko was far less graceful, not-so-quietly retching and excusing herself from the room.

Focus.

Focus.

Datapoints.

Nothing more.

Stealing a glance at the clipboard hanging on the end of the bed, the man pulled up a chair and sat down. "Mr. Bakugou Katsuki, I'm the Augur, an investigator from the Criminal Affairs Bureau. Over the past two years, I've been tracking a serial killer named Toga Himiko, and I believe it's likely that she is the same one who assaulted you toni-"

"Powderface, that piece of shit!" The boy yelled at him, cutting him off with a weak, angry voice that the Augur could only assume was raspy from screaming. "Get your own lane, I'm gonna kill her myself!"

Well, this interview was going to be fun.

The Augur grimaced.

Looking at whatever remained of the boy, the investigator believed his words. His eyes slowly trailed up the broken body, up to Bakugou Katsuki's face, where a pair of red eyes watched him with fury.

No, no, not just fury. Looking deeper into them, he could see droplets of other things. Fear. A lot of fear. Trauma, desperation, hot tears that had yet to bubble to the surface. They probably would over the next few months, but for now, denial and anger would have to suffice.

… God, he hated this. He wanted to treat the boy as an insolent brat, but he was just a kid, a kid that was rightfully terrified of the experience he just went through and needed to work through it.

But the Augur didn't have the time or ability to help the victim with therapy. This investigation was very time sensitive.

"... I'll make a deal with you, Mr. Bakugou." Sighing softly, the Augur extended the olive branch. "I'll let you join my team. Head off the investigation of this. You can track them down yourself, and make them face justice at your own hand. If-!"

His promise was punctuated by a sharp condition. He held his hand up and tightened his fist, as if giving an example. "If you can squeeze your hand into a fist."

The boy looked him over with a suspicious gaze, as if feeling for a potential trap. There was no trap. Hell, the Augur would even hold to his word if the boy managed to do it.

But he wouldn't.

His tendons were cut. He couldn't even curl his finger if his life depended on it.

That didn't stop the boy though. Closing his eyes, he seemed to focus intently, and looking closely, the Augur could see his muscles twitch.

The fingers didn't move.

He grit his teeth, screaming through them as though the noise would give him the power to do it. His entire arm tensed, but not a thing moved.

"Finished?" The Augur watched coldly. He had a feeling the boy needed to do this before he cooperated, but he was still wasting precious time. Bakugou didn't respond, continuing to struggle. Restraining a shrug, the investigator nodded at the non-response, before opening his briefcase and sorting his materials. "Take your time."

Tape recorder...

Pens…

Notepad…

For some reason he doubted Tsuruko had brought her own, so hopefully these would prove useful. At the thought of her, the door clicked open, and the young woman slipped into the room. At the sight of the struggling victim, she gave him a questioning look, but he simply gestured for her to sit next to him, handing her the pen and notepa-

Bang!

An explosion rattled the room, shaking the windows in their frames.

What was that!?

His head whipped around to find sparks flying out of the boy's hands, some of them catching and popping in small explosions. His quirk? Was that what the nurse had been talking about? Shit!

He was about to reach for the fire extinguisher, but was caught by Tsuruko. Her look said to sit down and wait it out.

… He took a deep breath and sat back down, watching the unsettling lightshow.

It took a few more minutes of grunts, pops, and painful yelps, but the boy finally stopped, his chest heaving and exhaustion overtaking him.

Well, he would be lying if he didn't say he was relieved. The boy seemed like he could go on forever. Frowning, the Augur finally spoke up. "So, are you willing to tell me what happened?"

Panting, the boy gave them one more look over, before weakly snarling. "... Fine."

The Augur nodded, before clicking on his tape recorder and setting it on the side table between the two of them. "This is the Augur, Criminal Affairs Bureau, recording on Friday, March 17th. So, I believe that a serial killer named Toga Himiko was potentially the one who assaulted you tonight. Are you able to provide a description of your attacker?"

The victim growled. "It was her."

Okay, maybe that was clear to everyone in this room, but that didn't help in court. Scowling, the Augur reiterated the question. "... Can you please provide a description of your attacker?"

"Fine." The boy spat out the word, giving the investigators as much of a death glare as he could muster in his state. Cute. "Shorter than me, pale as a fucking ghost, messed up blonde hair, and-" He froze, a sudden terror coming over his face. All his anger and spunk melted away, revealing a very scared child. "... And yellow eyes. So yellow. That was the first thing I saw of her."

Despite himself, the Augur's eye's softened at the sight. "What do you mean?"

The boy suddenly seemed very nervous, as though talking about the girl might summon her. But swallowing his fear, he tried to coat himself in a layer of anger, squaring his jaw and furrowing his eyebrows. "W-when she jumped me, she didn't look like herself. She looked like Deku, this twerp from my school. I thought, well, Deku's a weakling. But when he - she - started attacking me, I started trying to blow her off me, but every time I scorched her skin black, it simply… slid off. Fat globs of gray slime."

That fit Toga Himiko to a 't,' even matching how her powers worked. The Augur wasn't sure which unnerved him more: the fact that, from this boy's description, this was almost certainly his target, or how thoroughly the girl had broken this boy. He was no psychologist, but he could tell the boy was twitchy, and that the feeling was clearly a new one for him. Even though he had known it consciously for a very long time, it was really beginning to sink in emotionally that this was no normal girl. He couldn't treat her as a scared child to be protected. She wasn't another Tsuruko.

But what this didn't answer was why. This attack was just so different from all of the others, and it didn't sit right with the Augur. But there was also a second person whose name kept coming up. A certain 'Midoriya.' Maybe this new person was the key.

Balancing his pen between his thumb and forefinger, the investigator pried further. "You say you recognized the person she was disguised as?"

"Y-yeah." The boy's voice wavered for a brief second, but he caught the tremor, scowling at himself. "Deku."

A childish insult. How quaint.

But that didn't help him.

"Who is..?" Tsuruko spoke up, voicing the Augur's thoughts.

The blond glared at the woman, as though just realizing she was there, but the Augur was starting to believe his glare was less to intimidate the investigators and more to intimidate himself into remaining strong. "Midoriya Izuku. He's this kid from my class, a quirkless wanna-be hero."

A quirkless middle school student? If they were in Kitakyushu or Fukuoka, or even Hokkaido, that might've not surprised him. But in Musutafu, in central Shizuoka? That was unusual. And even stranger, what was the connection between Midoriya Izuku and Toga Himiko? Unless they found another dead body soon, he doubted that the student was just another victim. "Why would she disguise as him?"

"Hell if I know!" An outburst of anger filled the boy, but the exhaustion of earlier quickly overwhelmed him, his head slouching back against the wall of pillows. He bit his lip for a moment, enduring an unseen pain, before speaking again, this time quieter. "... I think they're dating. The only time I don't see them together is when they're in class."

The Augur's pen hit the floor.

"Class!?"

This girl had been attending classes? For how long? And considering this boy knew her real name, it seemed she wasn't even registered under an alias! How had they not found this sooner!? They had been pouring over documents in the city for months! They had even checked registered bus cards!

The boy looked at him with bafflement, unsure what the development entailed. "They go to my school."

"What school!?" The Augur half shouted, stumbling to pick up his pen and write down the answer.

"Musutafu Middle School."

Mu-su-ta-fu.

Got it.

Clicking off the tape recorder, he shoved the paper into Tsuruko's hand. "Tsuruko, we need to get in touch with the school now, and seize all the records they have for 'Midoriya Izuku' and 'Toga Himiko.' As soon as you do that, I need to get in touch with a judge, we need a warrant." He barked the order, a sudden energy filling his body. Despite whatever misgivings he might have, he could tell he was close to solving this case, and it put a fire under him to get it done.

Tsuruko nodded curtly, stepping out of the room to make the calls. "Knock or no-knock?"

He froze, then grit his teeth.

"Knock."

"What?" Tsuruko looked at him incredulously. "Aug, are we in the same room? Do you see what she did here?"

"She's a child. Maybe a dangerous one, but a child nonetheless. This case here is different from all the others, it's the exception. And everyone we've spoken to about her has told us she's not a malicious or combative person." The Augur refused to spill any more blood than was absolutely needed. "We can and will talk her down bloodlessly."

Tsuruko opened her mouth, an angry retort on her tongue, but she simply nodded and closed the door.

It would be at least a few hours until the school opened, but until then...

He slowly turned to the young man laying in bed. "Mr. Bakugou, thank you for this interview. For investigative purposes, I have one last thing I need to do. Are you comfortable with me touching you?"

Once again, the boy gave that suspicious glare, but with a grunt, he nodded. "... Do what you want."

That was likely the best he was going to get, and he'd take it. In order to get a better picture of what he was dealing with, he'd have to use his quirk. He wasn't looking forward to it. He could see the memories of the dead, and even inanimate objects, but they were dull, muddled. Those of the living tended to be more… well, lively.

Slipping his thin cloth glove off, he took a moment to steady himself. "Thank you. I know it might be difficult, but please focus on Toga Himiko, and the attack."

He took a deep breath, and gently laid his fingers on the boy's injured hand. He didn't even register the sensation of touching him before the vision struck.

Pain.

Indescribable, scorching, cutting, slicing, pain.

His skin was burning.

His insides were frigid.

The cement underneath him was cold, almost icy, but it was coated in hot, slick blood. The alley air was stiff and thick, rancid garbage and sticky oil clinging to his tongue. But all he could smell, all he could taste, was metallic blood. His blood. His heart pounded like a broken drum, the skin of its head stretched tight and beaten till it tore. He could hear it in his ears, thudding and pulsing and drowning out everything else. He tried to move, to lift himself up, to run-

Katsuki couldn't move.

Why couldn't he move?!

Oh god, why couldn't he move!?

His muscles flexed and his back tensed but nothing changed! No matter how much he pushed or twisted, his limbs laid lifelessly on the cement, a puppet snipped of its strings.

What had she done to him?

A scream built in his throat, but it couldn't escape, his lips taped together.

"Shhhhh, shshshsh." A voice, light and happy as birdsong, shushed him, followed by a light giggle. "Now don't struggle too much, Mr. Spikey. You'll make me have to be rougher, and I don't think you'd want that!"

Katsuki twisted his head, rage flaring up, but as soon as he saw the girl, that fire drained away, replaced by cold, dead dread.

A smile. A wide, cheerful smile. Filled with sharp, cannibalistic teeth.

Pale, porcelain skin. So light, so fragile, it might be shattered by a breath. Splattered with crimson.

And her eyes. Eyes that would haunt him for the rest of his life. So bright. So yellow. So... Poisonous.

Because if there was anything about her that scared him, it was those eyes.

He had seen them before, while walking around the school. Often, they were so wide and happy that the pupils almost seemed circular. But they weren't. Oh so slightly, they were too narrow. Everything about this girl was like that. Almost right.

But not quite.

He knew it the moment he met her. A weird girl for a weird boy. No one else liked Deku, no one but her. So there had to be something strange about her, under that poorly done makeup and cheery smile.

Now though, the mask had fallen away. The façade had lifted. And the smile was still there.

But those eyes. The pupils were narrow slits, nearly lines, so sharp, so inhuman. Did she even blink? In the time he had watched her, she hadn't blinked. Staring into those eyes, he could see it clearly.

No matter what she said, no matter what she did, no matter how she disguised herself, the thing in that girl's body wasn't human. It couldn't be. Because with unblinking eyes and a toothy smile, she began to peel his skin from his muscles, her knife curving and flicking with well practiced ease. It came off in a long strand, thin and even.

Katsuki still couldn't scream.

"You look tasty right now. I almost want to eat you up as you are. Bite you and swallow up your sweet blood, gulp by gulp. It's sad to see it all go to waste." She looked him up and down as she carved, admiring her handiwork with hungry glee. Suddenly though, her back went straight, and her eyes darkened, as if remembering something very important. "But I can't. Because I hate you. You aren't cute. No, you can't be cute, after everything you did to my Izu-kun. You always wanted to be the strongest, didn't you Mr. Spikey? That's why you did it. Why you always abused my Izu-kun. You thought it would make you stronger. You're an idiot."

Her smile disappeared, leaving the shadow of a scowl on her face. Somehow, her cold eyes became all the colder. But a small smile did return. A dark, angry, vengeful smile. The sort that carried nothing but malice.

"My Izu-kun is stronger than you. Far stronger. And someday soon, he'll do great things. He promised me that, you know? And he promised he'd always protect me. I'll be there, by his side, always, as he destroys people like you. He hasn't started yet, but I know he will soon. After all, he is my wolf."

With a simple flick of her wrist, her blade sliced the strand of skin from his forearm.

The Augur screamed.

Collapsing to the hospital floor, he felt beads of sweat trickle down the side of his face.

Hospital? Why was he in a hospital?

Toga.

Investigation.

Interview.

Right.

It was all coming back to him, his mind shaky and his vision unfocused. He rubbed his temples, forcing himself up from the cool tile floor.

He was… Bakugou Katsuki? No, no, Shou. Shimura Shou. The Augur. He looked at his hands, knuckles calloused from years of boxing.

That was… intense. Far more intense than usual. With the dead or objects, even the fiercest sensations were a mere shadow of their real self, the final, smallest ripples in a pond. But that… That was more. Every ragged breath, every pinprick of discomfort, every foggy, terrified thought, it was as if his soul had been ripped out of him and placed into his body. No, Katsuki's body. This was his body. There wasn't a single cut on it.

Standing on uncertain legs, he gave a slight bow to the confused and unnerved boy. "Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a speedy recovery."

Katsuki didn't respond, simply scowling.

Slipping back on his glove, the… investigator, yes, an investigator... He picked up his materials and repacked his briefcase, stepping out of the room. The room still didn't agree with his feet though, occasionally moving and shifting beneath them.

The door shut behind him, and Tsuruko bumped his shoulder, worry in her eyes. "How are you feeling?"

Taking a deep breath, the Augur looked at his hands. They shook ever so slightly. "... About as expected. There's a reason I don't often do this with the living."

Tsuruko hummed, nodding. "Father's name?"

"Shimura Hideyoshi?"

"First job?"

"Mortician, Koto Police Department."

"Favorite color?"

"You know damn well I don't have one."

"Yep, you're good." She chuckled, satisfied with his answers. But her worry quickly turned to a scowl, and she sighed, leaning against the wall. "... You made a mistake."

The Augur raised an eyebrow, joining her against the wall. "On..?"

She looked at her feet, and then at the Augur, words heavy on her tongue. "This suspect is dangerous. We can't afford to knock on her door and play nice."

The Augur sighed. Of course it was this. He knew she wasn't going to agree with his decision, but he couldn't stand to make any more choices he'd regret for the rest of his life. He had already caused so much harm, so much more than was necessary, and in the end it did little more than box people up in prisons and permanently injure others. He had made the call before for no-knock raids that left people dead or catatonic. It had been a hard call every time, but he couldn't help but feel that he had chosen wrong every time.

Clamping his jaw, he looked down at the ground. He couldn't bring himself to look at her as he spoke. "... Tsuruko, what we can't afford to do is keep doing what we've been doing."

"What?" Tsuruko's head popped up, confusion in her eyes.

"For years, I've seen suspects as dangerous criminals, not people." He hated saying it, but the Augur couldn't help but admit to himself that confiding in his daughter was cathartic. "I've used maximum force and maximum cruelty for maximum efficiency."

The young woman looked back at him, flabbergasted. "Yeah, because that's how it's supposed to be done."

"That's what I taught you. Hell, it's what the system taught us both." Nodding slowly, he felt the regret weigh on his heart. As a younger man, he found it best to distance himself from his emotions, and focus on the most practical, efficient solution. His job as an investigator was one of cold calculus, where some lives had more value than others and acceptable losses were to be predicted beforehand. He hated it. "I can't allow that anymore. As I've gotten older, I've seen how awful that mentality is. All it does is hurt people, not only suspects, but innocents and even us. This case with Toga Himiko, it was just the breaking point. Yes, she's dangerous. But she's a fragile and confused person, not a criminal mastermind! Look at all of her victims! These were emotional choices, not malicious ones! She can be brought in peacefully, and without hurting anyone else!"

He knew his voice was rising, but he couldn't help it. For nearly thirty years, over half of his life, he had been quashing his emotions, refusing to let himself feel for the sake of 'the greater good,' whatever that was! But the thing was, what he did was bad! Sure, maybe he was stopping 'villains,' but how do you build a greater good from little evils? Every day, it was a little more, and every day, it chipped a bit more of his soul!

"Aug, she's a criminal! A serial killer! We can't risk this! We need a full squad of military police and a no-knock warrant!" Tsuruko shouted back, but the pair were quickly shushed by a nurse. Tsuruko half growled, before continuing, her voice low and tense. "And really? 'Not malicious?' Did you even see this guy?"

"Yes! And I'm seeing clearly!" The Augur hissed back, unconsciously ducking his head along with lowering his voice. "This isn't Toga's work. I think she was a pawn. This Midoriya, whoever he is, is clearly manipulating her. He's taking advantage of her fragile mental state and violent inclinations to do what he wants. This has a lot more in common with the Warp attack than with Toga's trend!"

Tsuruko shook her head, baffled. "You're seeing what you want to see! And you're wrong!"

"I can't bear to hurt anyone else!" He spat the words out, desperation and anger in his voice. He couldn't do it anymore! He just couldn't!

Tsuruko paused, unsure what to say. A dozen thoughts crossed her eyes, though the Augur couldn't quite pick out any particular one, before she clenched her fists. "... Dad, you taught me everything I know. When you found me, I was in a bad place, but you made me into a strong, skilled, and respected investigator. And I know full well that, everything I am, I got it from you. But right now, you're going against everything you taught me. You're being impulsive and emotional."

"... I just miss being allowed to actually feel." She was right. Deep down, he knew she was right. On a purely tactical level, a no-knock police raid was the smart choice. But he was done with all this calculating, greater good bullshit. He wanted to do the right thing in this one situation, for this one kid, this one twisted, abused, confused, manipulated kid. And that right thing was to knock on the door, talk her down, and help her to a better place. At least prison had therapists.

"We're investigators. We gave up that privilege to protect something larger than ourselves." Tsuruko spoke firmly, with a conviction that the Augur had been sure to instill in her. In any other situation, he would've been proud. "Our job is to hurt people, in order to protect even more, whether you like it or not. It's not pleasant, and it's certainly not the sort that leaves us feeling warm and happy and showered in praise at the end of the day. We're not heroes. But we chose to protect our society, and we can't do that if we question the morality of every single arrest."

He had taught her this way. Every single thing she was saying, he would've said too, two decades ago. But he had to learn the hard way, over years of mistakes and regret, that these practical choices would add up, becoming an unbearable weight on his heart after decades.

No more.

No more, he wouldn't do it.

Even if he had to overrule his daughter.

Grimacing, he steeled his heart, and spoke quietly, but hard as a blade. "... Investigator Shimura Tsuruko, I will acknowledge your concern. We will post a squad of military police outside the site. But I am your superior, and I have decided that we're going to use a standard warrant. If you fail to cooperate, you will be held in contempt of your duty."

The Augur watched the emotions cross his daughter's face.

Shock.

Then confusion.

Next was hurt, deep and sour.

And finally, she blinked, and all that was left in her eyes was stern duty.

"Yes sir."

As the woman turned and left, one thing weighed heavier than anything else on the Augur's mind than anything else.

Midoriya Izuku, who was he?

And how did he plan to use Toga Himiko?

)ooOoo(

"I still don't believe you."

The bus home from school rumbled along its usual route, mostly empty. Izuku had learned early on in middle school that, if he waited half an hour after school ended, the after-school rush would pass, but the after-work rush had yet to begin. Originally, it was perfect because he preferred avoiding large crowds of people, and he had nothing to lose waiting thirty minutes for an empty bus. Now, it was perfect because it allowed him and Himiko to sit down and have conversations he'd rather not have all his classmates hearing. Like this one.

"Izu-kuuuun, you're so mean!" Himiko gave her favorite pout, the mopey, whiney type that Izuku had spent months trying to figure out if it was genuine, or just some ploy to tease him. It was the second. He thought. He was pretty certain.

He felt a blush rising, and fought the urge to look away.

Remain strong!

Don't relent!

"What were you doing last night?" Biting his lip, he crossed his arms, trying his absolute hardest to seem stern and serious. He wasn't even fooling himself.

Himiko took one measured look at Izuku's attempt at a stern expression, and simply giggled. "I went to pick up some groceries Mrs. Midoriya wanted!"

The girl smiled widely, snuggling against him like a pampered cat. She rubbed her face into his neck, her two hands wrapped around his own as she played with his fingers.

A deep breath filled his chest, before Izuku released it with a heavy sigh. The awkward tension in his expression drained, leaving plain, naked worry.

The girl was an enigma. Izuku learned that the day he met her, and despite a year of seeing her nearly every day, talking with her, learning her past, her tics, her expressions and hopes and fears, there was just so much he didn't know still. Just to think, up until a few days ago, he didn't even know her mother was Blood Match. He had done some cursory research on the pro hero when Himiko wasn't around, and it all seemed to match up. The hero had a daughter, that was common knowledge to anyone who knew about the court case, and looking into the hero's quirk, it had a certain… resonance with Himiko's. The woman hadn't been known as the Vampire of Osaka for no reason.

But that wasn't what worried Izuku. No, what worried him was that Himiko was so blatantly lying to him… and that she was hurt.

Burying his face in her blond locks, he spoke softly. "Groceries don't take two hours, and they certainly don't leave you bruised like that."

Himiko didn't respond, and he couldn't see her face, but she did tense up slightly. Did she think she wouldn't be caught? Or did something else make her nervous?

… He supposed it didn't matter, he wasn't expecting an answer. He had somewhat gotten used to that strange dynamic they had, trust without honesty. Himiko would tell him what she wanted, when she wanted, and he would accept that. She would tell him eventually.

But maybe he should push harder this time. He glanced down, catching sight of a light purple spot on her upper thigh, half covered by her skirt. Large, but certainly not the largest. His cheeks tinted red.

He wasn't a creep! But… Well, when she was changing this morning, he got a brief glimpse of her belly. It happens! He wasn't staring or anything!

E-either way, it had been covered in bruises, dark, angry marks that spread across her midriff and filled in the spaces between the cuts he left her. His first response had been panic, but when he asked about it, she simply dismissed the worry with her typical smile. That had been enough to make him acquiesce.

Unconsciously, his hand tightly squeezed hers. Bruises like that didn't come from falling down the stairs. Someone did that to her, and he wanted to know who it was. He hated that he simply let her avoid the question like that. A smaller part of him hated the jealousy that grew in his heart at the thought of someone else bruising her.

Himiko shuffled, snaking her head out from under him and giving him a smile that was nervous in the distinctly intentional and cute way. "Okaaaaay, fiiiine, I might've taken care of some other shopping!"

Other shopping? What did that-

Oh.

He knew what that meant.

The black market. Right.

Making a sound halfway between a laugh and a sigh, he shook his head. "What'd you get?"

At the question, Himiko's eyes lit up like new years' fireworks, and she snatched up her backpack, eagerly unclipping it and searching for her quarry. Izuku only lended half a thought to the fact that this meant she brought a black market weapon to school. Somehow, he couldn't even force himself to be unnerved at something so normal for her.

She only had to dig through it for a moment before extracting her prize: a tapered, fixed-blade knife, the length of Izuku's hand and the color of volcanic glass. Her smile shined with pride.

A small, weak smile graced his lips as he looked at the blade, then her. It was a pretty knife, he couldn't deny that, and while they'd never have a practical use for… well, any knives, really, the thought of using it in other ways did make his heart beat a bit faster. And seeing her smile like this, that in itself made him happy. But...

"Himiko, you really need to stop doing this. What if you got caught?" Resting his hand on hers, he guided her to put the blade back in the bag. His stomach tied into knots at the thought of her just disappearing one day. "... I don't want to lose you because you got caught doing something like this."

They had played some very dangerous games. The fact that he hadn't been caught after the Warp incident in itself was insane or insanely lucky, he didn't know which. They just… He wanted them to stop tempting fate. They'd been fortunate, and hopefully, none of it would catch up to them. He smiled softly, lovingly, at his partner.

It was so strange, such a somber thought for a ninth, almost tenth grader, but they had a future to worry about. They had played with fire, both of them, and he was still afraid it would still somehow come back to bite them. He didn't know where they'd end up, but he just hoped whatever future they made was a happy one. That's really all that mattered to him.

"Don't worry, Izu-kun, you won't." Himiko's smile changed, shrinking away from her excitement and becoming quieter, more intimate. Playfully, she booped her nose against his. "Because we'll always be together, no matter what."

Izuku laughed, a small, gentle thing, and wrapped his arms around the girl. "That's what we promised."

At his loving touch, Himiko beamed, basking in happy warmth. Despite how stiff and uncomfortable it was to hug in the tough plastic bus seats, she somehow managed to twist around and wrap her arms around his neck. It wasn't comfortable. No, it was downright awkward. But Izuku certainly didn't mind, leaning into her embrace. Himiko grinned at him, the heartfelt expression from moments before quickly giving way to cheery energy. "So, so, whatcha wanna do this weekend?"

It was Friday, wasn't it? Izuku had hardly been paying attention, the whole week had passed in a flurry of work, study, and physical affection. But honestly, the weekend would be nice, if for no other reason than to have two days away from school. Two days without a morning commute, without the final pointless hours of class before graduation, without a gloating and victorious Bakugou.

… Who had actually been missing today.

Izuku furrowed his eyebrows at the realization.

His tormentor had actually been completely absent the whole day. It wasn't really worrying, he could be doing any number of things, and Izuku was far from his keeper. Really, the fact he wasn't there was a relief. It was just… Strange.

He shook his head, tossing the thought aside. It really wasn't any of his business. They weren't friends. If he wanted to skip class or something, high on getting accepted to U.A., Izuku wasn't going to try and stop him.

Izuku simply shrugged, casually stroking Himiko's hair. "... I dunno, but I was thinking about… well, you remember that essay contest? In the Equalist magazine, Black Flag?"

"Mm-hm!" Himiko nodded with the same enthusiasm she always had.

"Well, I was thinking I could start doing some research on that." Casting a glance out the window, Izuku took a mental note. Next stop, they get off. "Just because I'm going to a special needs school next semester doesn't mean I can't start making progress in other ways!"

Himiko nodded again, apparently quite pleased with Izuku's redirected efforts. "What topic were you thinking about?"

"Well, uh, I'm not sure yet, since I'll be writing such a short article it'll have to be pretty specific. I was thinking something on commonly used loopholes in hero law, but I'm not sure an essay that's so… well, so predictable will cut it. So, I was looking around online, and I was thinking of interviewing some people on the topic..." He continued to talk, going into various details, from prosecuting attorneys that specialize in hero law to watershed cases in the topic, and Himiko listened dutifully, occasionally prodding with a poignant question or asking for clarification on some detail he skimmed over. The conversation continued casually as the pair got off the bus, walking hand in hand, and even all the way to their apartment building. It was only when they reached the apartment complex that the conversation petered out.

It was a brisk walk up the stairs, Himiko always two steps ahead of him up the three flights, and and just a few steps more to the apartment. He quietly opened the door.

"Mom, we're ho-"

Three sets of eyes turned, landing on the pair.

"Midoriya Izuku, I presume?" A tall, scowling man with a mop of untrimmed black hair and a spattering of long, gray stubble spoke up, taking a step towards Izuku and Himiko. His baggy suit looked heavy on his shoulders, and his dark, spiteful eyes were weighed down by purple bags. "I was just speaking to your mother."

The third person, a woman just slightly taller than the man with long, straight hair and focused, cutting eyes, notably stepped behind the pair, closing the door.

Blocking their escape.

For a moment, Izuku's brain didn't compute. Who were these people? Why were they in his house? And-

And why was his mom looking at him like that? There was… fear. Fear in her green eyes. Why was there so much fear? What was going on-

Oh no.

Izuku gasped, taking an instinctive step back from the man. "Y-you're the police!"

"Federal investigators, actually." The woman grinned, but it was a crude and predatory thing, without a drop of humor. "And you two have led us on quite the goose chase."

Oh no, oh no, nonononononono. If the federal police were here, that could only mean they were either investigating or arresting someone. And if they knew him by name-

"I'm the Augur, and this is Investigator Shimura. We're both here from the Criminal Affairs Bureau." The man spoke up, cutting off Izuku's strained thoughts with calm but firm words. He gestured towards the sofa that had served as Himiko's bed for the past few months. "Would you like to take a seat?"

Izuku didn't move. He felt Himiko's hand snake down, clasping his own.

"I assumed as much. Well, no reason to beat around the bush." The investigator sighed, and nodded curtly. "Toga Himiko, you're under arrest for nineteen counts of second degree murder and one count of first degree murder. Midoriya Izuku, you're under arrest for attempted second degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder. Any questions?"

A/N

Good evening, all.

I'm writing this at 11:43 PM, August 6th, 2021. The reason that this is important is because, for the next 17 minutes, it is canonically still Toga Himiko's birthday! *noisemaker spins while creepy happy birthday song plays* Technically my schedule says to post tomorrow at noon, but I decided that the birthday celebration merited posting a bit early! Sadly, the only gift I have for her is emotional trauma.

With only the worst of intentions,

Imp the Nefarious

Monsterhat: Why is everyone wanting Himiko to cut off his hands!? You guys scare me sometimes, both psychologically, and practically. After all, do you know how difficult it would be to remove someone's hands in a back alley with nothing but a pocket knife? AND NOT LET THEM BLEED TO DEATH? Not a fun experience. Hopefully, the tactically employed cruelty that our girl put out was enough to sate your bloodlust, though. I hope this new arc will interest you!

ShadowBladeSabre: Thank you so much for calling out that mistake I made, and giving me advice on how to avoid similar mistakes! I find it really easy to accidentally mess up the name order for characters I'm not familiar with (hell, until someone caught it in the beta phase, I accidentally used 'himiko' as the family name in the earliest chapters), so having a reliable method to check is extremely useful. You'd think, with two years of learning Japanese, I'd be able to catch such a basic mistake, but apparently not! Also, did this chapter fulfill your definition of Himiko "screwing up?" Because, uh… I think we all know this is only gonna go downhill.

LurkerWithComputer: Good eye for detail, catching the disappearing act! I actually have a working document of skills each character has that I add to and, in the case of Bakugou this time, subtract from. I LOVE foreshadowing, so keep your eyes peeled, I leave little pinches of it everywhere, even chapters early. You mentioned anticipation of the attack, and it makes me think of the Alfred Hitchcock example with the bomb: If you are watching a bunch of people and suddenly a bomb goes off, you're shocked for a minute. If you're watching a group of people and know there's a bomb on a ten minute timer, you have ten minutes of tense anticipation. Also, a small part of me is tempted to look into making a T-shirt that just says 'knife virgin' or something, maybe commission some art to make it a graphic T, and selling them on my discord. What're your thoughts?