So, Izuku meets Tsukauchi in this chapter, but I skimmed over the information. I don't know how interrogations or giving statements work in MHA or in real life, and probably won't know unless I become a detective or officer myself. In unrelated news: I need to stop procrastinating by playing Video Games. Smh it's been like a month/. Sorry.


Chapter 2: Returning to Normal… Hopefully

An old, beaten and battered phone rang atop the hospital as he stared at the sky above. There were no stars in sight. Good. The image of starbursts all over his boy's skin was still fresh in his mind.

Click

"My, for what reason could it be that you're calling this late, Hisashi? How is your family's recovery going?" the principal's voice was distorted over the static of the call,

"They're doing good, principal Nezu, sir. There's been a surprising trend in all of the victims of that Yakuza group but…" the effects on the victims, on his family, were far from his mind at the current moment. "That's not quite what I've called for… Sir, how would you feel about barring entrance from Aldera…'


As the door closed, a plain-looking (not that he could talk) man with black hair entered his hospital room. Despite having woken up a week ago, Izuku was still being kept in the hospital room to be monitored. If you asked him, you could tell he was getting sick of hospital rooms.

"Good evening, young man, I'm Naomasa Tsukauchi, I'm a detective working out of Musutafu, it's nice to meet you." the man bowed as the door closed behind him. "I know it's a little delayed, seeing as how a few days have passed by this point, but the police force needs to get your statement on what happened while you were in captivity."

"Right… the captivity… I'll tell you what I can remember at least… near the end of it, my memories cut out after punching someone in the face… Uhh wait manners, um… My name is Izuku Midoriya. Nice to meet you" he bowed as he greeted the detective.

"Before we begin, I am legally obligated to tell you that my quirk is Lie Detector. I can tell if you lie when you answer my ques-"

"That's so cool! Is it just yes or no questions? Can you also do more complex question? Does it work if someone only tells you part of the truth? Can you tell if someone's only telling you parts of something? Ah- S-sorry for cutting you off"

Tsukauchi snickered at this. "Toshinori did say you loved quirks, but I wasn't quite expecting this. Yes, my quirk works on more complex questions, but then if something is being left out, then it's harder to detect. I tend to work with specifically yes or no questions, because with those, it's easier to tell if there's more."

"Ahh~ that's really neat, it lets you get a lot of information from people too if you ask the right questions"

"Yes, well, shall we get started then, Midoriya?"

"Right, let's…. Let's do this"

Over the span of the next hour or so, Tsukauchi asked him a variety of questions starting from how he got kidnapped, and his time when missing, how all the captives were locked within one room, how they had to ration food, and how they could plan easier because everyone was together. To Izuku's utter embarrassment, the other victims had told Tsukauchi that it was him who came up with most of their escape plan.

The first step was to find the pattern in the guard's shifts, when they arrive, when they swap out with other guards and which guards were lazier than others. If Izuku had to be honest, this was why they were in captivity for so long. The captives had to work on this at the same time as confirming where they were.

Next came scouting. This task was arguably easier, since one of the victims had a radar quirk. We found out through him that we were one level underground, in a two story building. The stairway was close to the front entrance, and there was apparently a road in front of the building.

Then after scouting, we needed to wait, until there were as few guards as possible, and for when the lazier guards were on duty. So far, the later it became, the lazier the guards were. We thought that it was because they were drinking alcohol, mostly because some of the people with animal mutations kept muttering about some sort of smell.

Eventually, we managed to plan out a basic break out. The on-duty guards had been drinking for the past few nights, as pointed out by a girl with a wolf quirk. With a bit of effort, we had unhinged the door to our cell,someone even used it as a shield.

"Smart thinking, that was. When the building fell on top of you guys, that door must have taken most of the hit." The thought of what might have happened had the door not shielded them caused the detective to shudder. "Speaking of which, how exactly did the building's collapse happen?"

"Er… well… I'm not exactly sure either, but if I had to guess… I guess it was a bad quirk mix… We used one of the gas quirks to help plan out a path of escape, but one of the guards had some sort of stinging or zapping quirk. It looked as if he could turn his fingernails into whips, and whenever he had them wrapped around something it would feel like we were being zapped." he looked at his left arm. Spiraled flecks of paler skin wrapped around it.

"A low level villain going by Raibu, his quirk is called Taze. When the rescue team found you, his quirk was wrapped around your arm- What happened near the end? The security camera footage we managed to dig up showed you running towards the villain before the feed cut out" he wrote something in his notepad before he shifted his gaze back to Izuku.

"R-right… I… uh… I punched him in the face… really hard." he could still feel and hear the cracking of the thug's face when his fist crashed into it.

"So that's why his nose was broken…" the detective wrote a few more lines within the notepad before he flipped it closed. "Well, thank you for today, Midoriya, this has been rather informative, compared to what the other patients have told me. You have a good head on your shoulders. Keep that strategic mind of yours honed and U.A. high will be a breeze" The chair dragged across the floor behind him as the detective made his way towards the door.

Izuku thought for a moment before he too stood from his seat. "Wait! How do you know about that? The only one i told about that is Al- Toshinori" He almost let it slip then, he had gotten so used to calling the man All Might when he was training under his guidance

Tsukauchi stopped at the door handle, then chuckled. "Why don't you ask All Might yourself?" He turned back and smiled at the young man before he took his leave.

Izuku stared at the closed hospital door bewildered as the detectives' words rang in his head.


They had kept Izuku a little bit longer at the hospital for the final tests. The last day was spent almost entirely on the stamina test, as he had no issues running for almost a dozen hours, even if he had been pushing his limits at around the tenth hour. Much to the young man's relief, he and his mother were released later that evening, and though the journey back was uneventful, small difficulties arose when they returned to their apartment.

"Mom- Careful! Watch out for the shelf-"

THUD

She stumbled into the shelf, and took a moment to stabilize her balance. It had been a while since she had been this tall.

"I'm okay, Izuku, just… managing. I'm still trying to get used to being tall again." It was true, the last time she had been that tall was when she had given birth to Izuku.

"Are you two alright over there?" Hisashi's voice rang from the kitchen over the roaring stove.

"Getting there, Dad!"

"We're okay Honey!"

"Well I wouldn't exactly say we're okay… It's not everyday that people get growth spurt, you became a whole head taller, Mom! I only grew ten centimeters taller I think,"

As he glanced at one of the nearby framed pictures, he saw his faint reflection in the glass. His hair had been cut short after the ordeal, to remove the singed strands. Izuku hadn't cut his hair in a long time, and was unused to seeing it as short as Dad's.

"Dinner's almost ready! Tonight's main dish is Spicy Beef Udon."

"Okay!"

Somehow, as Inko sat down, Izuku found himself staring at the calendar, and at the date circled in red on it. February 26th . He had barely over a week until the exam, and Izuku had lost 3 due to the incident.

"Dinners ready"

As if not hearing him, Izuku stood by the calendar, deep in thought. He didn't know if he could finish cleaning up the beach in time for the exam, or what would happen if he took One for All into his body with the serum still in place. Dr. Yanagi had said that his body had found a "new equilibrium" with the serum's effects after all.

"Izuku, dinners ready!" this time it was Inko who called

"Izuku?" Hisashi patted him on the shoulder and snapped him out of his thoughts, "something on your mind kiddo?"

"Oh- well uhm, It's the UA entrance exam… I've been training for almost ten months now, but… well, you've seen what happened in the last three weeks. I don't know if I've trained enough for it…" Izuku didn't know how to answer his father, in regards to Training with All Might and One for All.

Hisashi had a pensive look on his face, as if racking his mind for an answer. "Tell you what, why don't we give those trainers of yours a call and sort it out with them after dinner? And you three sort out whatever secret it is that you're hiding"

"Wh-what?! We're not hiding anything!" *Izuku frantically denied his father's claims.

"Well, anyways, you should still talk to those two after we finish dinner, now come on, lets eat before the food gets cold"

"R-right…"

In the end, dinner took slightly longer than intended, with both Izuku and Inko eating larger portions than what Hisashi had remembered. The Midoriya patriarch was glad that his tendency to overcook came in handy.


"Gran, how long are you going to be staying here?" Toshinori watched as his teacher devoured taiyaki at his table. Gran Torino had been living with him in the expansive yet empty apartment for the past three weeks.

Finishing his current mouthful, Sorahiko responded. "Until you pass that quirk of yours along, something tells me that the boy's father is gonna cause a few problems"

"Young Midoriya's father? What makes you say that?" He wasn't expecting the sudden shift of topic.

"Well, while you were talking with your successor, I was talking with him. Hisashi Midoriya is a pro hero, one who excels in infiltration missions, so if there was anything the boy was trying to hide, he would have picked up on it by now." he paused to eat another piece of taiyaki, and to take a moment to think. "What are you going to do about the boy's father, Toshinori?"

"Um, well…" the Symbol of Peace wracked his brain to try and find a solution, but none could come to him. He didn't know the Midoriya patriarch well enough, nor was he good at telling lies.

"Don't 'um well' me Toshinori, spit it out, what did you have in mind?"

"To be honest… I don't know what I could tell him."

"You're kidding." Sorahiko stared at his student for a moment, his thoughts trailed to what else Toshinori could have done, or what he could have missed. "Next you're going to tell me that all the two of you did was cleaning up that blasted beach. Right?"

"No! Of course not! I've been teaching him boxing on rest days! Young Midoriya already knew some of the bare essentials, so I gave him a direction to work towards! I've even seen him practicing while he was waiting for me to get there!"

In all honesty, Toshinori had been pleasantly surprised to know that his ward knew the basics of how to fight. He had only seen the boy punching and kicking, but those hits looked solid. Seeing that the fundamentals were already in place, he decided to help his student by giving him boxing lessons.

"Hmff, at least you have some brains in that thick head of yours. Anyways, if you can't think of anything, we might as well call that rat Nezu and see what he thinks." The older man sighed at his student's antics. Yes, the blond was learning how to be a teacher, but in Sorahiko's opinion, it shouldn't have been that difficult. At least he got one thing right with giving the child boxing lessons.

He handed Toshinori his phone, then picked up the plate of taiyaki. Much to Sorahiko's chagrin, the wondrous pastry had gone cold with their conversation.


"Hello Toshinori, it's surprising to hear from you again so soon, after all the administrative work for your upcoming position as a teacher at my school! To what do I owe the honor?"

Nezu, the dog… bear… mouse? Was sipping tea in his office despite the hour, working away on one or another of his projects. He had just recently added Aldera to the list of schools barred from exams, and was keeping an eye on the paperwork of students transferring out of the school. Several students, such as-

"Good evening, Nezu sir, I was wondering, what could I tell Hisashi Midoriya about what's going to happen to his son?"

"Ah, you mean how you plan to give the boy your quirk, yes?"

"Right. What should I say"

"Well, what about the truth?"

"How much can- Wait What?!"

Wet splatting sounds were heard through the static of the phone. It seemed that Toshinori's outburst caused a coughing fit.

"I *COUGH* I'm sorry, could you say that again? I don't think i heard you right"

"Why don't you tell Hisashi Midoriya about your quirk?"

"Are you sure sir? Even with All for One dead, some of his followers might still be around. How can you be sure that he's not one of them?"

"It's quite simple really." Nezu took a sip of his tea. It was still delightfully hot. "It's because he's one of my best agents!"

Through the phone, all Nezu heard was Toshinori's stunned silence for a moment before the blond responded. "Okay. I'll try to talk to him about it. Have a nice evening, sir."

The room fell silent momentarily as the call disconnected, only to be filled with borderline crazed laughter.

"Oh my, It seems that one of my students is going to uncover yet another state secret. I wonder how you'll manage with this one, my little flame breather."


Gods that took longer than expected. Nearly 3 months, damn. Too much procrastinating on my part. Sorry~

I'm ever so slightly tempted to post this on Ao3, mostly because the search system on this website is absolutely trash compared to it. Can't have nearly as many tags as on the other site either, though I guess I will continue posting here for now. If I do end up posting this mess on Ao3 then the ANs would probably be slightly different. Slightly tempted to start using Honorifics for the next chapter, but if I did, I'd have to go back through and edit the previous 2 chapters for them.


Hello, this is Aka_Is_My_Bitch, the friend that Aka here keeps ranting to, I helped write this and i'll try to make sure next chapter come out soon…no promises though, see y'all and happy reading


My friend needs to change that username….

Anyways, if you have any feedback, that would be very much appreciated, since this is Kinda the first fic that i'm writing and committing to. I guess I could put "No Beta we die like Nighteye" as a tag huh.