Chapter 1: Sour grapes

"Detective, he's here."

"Finally, bring him in." The detective replied as he brought a cigarette to his lips. From the corner of his eye he saw the younger officer usher in the plain faced green haired man that he called for, he snapped his fingers igniting the cigarette as he turned to the man. "About time you showed up Midoriya."

To which Midoriya gave a pained smile as he fanned the air in front of him. "I thought you were quitting."

"I am." He answered by letting out a puff of smoke. "Call it a relapse." He then motioned behind him, ushering Midoriya to follow. "Got a doozy for you."

He winced coughing as he followed the detective deeper into the apartment. "What is it?"

"Vic was found this morning at nine thirty, techs put the time of death around three in the morning." He then motioned towards the apartment living room, specifically the broken window in it. "Neighbors say they heard a couple of weird noises around that time." He said as he puffed out.

Midoriya eyed the room as they walked. "Did you already take all the camera footage from the complex?"

The detective shook his head. "According to the landlord the camera system's been down for a while, so no witnesses, no footage, just a body and what's in the apartment."

"You've solved cases with less, why call me?"

"Glad you asked." The older man said as he took out his cigarette and used it to point towards the kitchen. "Take a gander."

Midoriya raised an eyebrow and made his way towards the kitchen. It was decently sized for an apartment and connected to the open living room, with a small island counter that currently had a bottle of wine and an empty glass on it, all the standard appliances one would expect in an apartment and not much else. In fact if it weren't for all the officers swarming the area taking photos of the area it'd be as unassuming as they come. The officers stepped back muttering amongst themselves as Midoriya approached the island counter and as he finally saw the body his eyes widened slightly as he crouched down to get a better look. "Huh….so he really is that short." He muttered to himself.

Sprawled on the floor before him was the body of a diminutive man in his early twenties. His clothes, a simple purple button up shirt and jeans were crumpled and slashed with large stains of dried blood covering them, the same blood that surrounded the body all over the floor. The dark red slash along his neck contrasted against the man's pale skin, his face frozen in the ungodly terror of his final moments. Surrounding the body was a pool of dried blood and sparkling shards of broken glass. Midoriya tilted his head, as he took out a small notebook and pen from his coat pocket. "I assume you've already called the HPSC then."

The detective nodded letting out a puff of smoke, running a hand through his greying hair as the clicks and blinding lights of the CSI cameras filled the small ransacked apartment before answering. "That's why I called." He said with a smoking breath as he began reading from a notebook with the case details. "Minoru Mineta, age twenty two. Occupation pro hero, found around nine thirty by one Denki Kaminari, no murder weapon found and neighbors reported odd noises around three am." He took another drag of his cigarette before continuing. "HPSC wants to know if they need to be on the lookout for another hero killer copycat , figured if they want the answers fast ."

He couldn't blame them, after all, this wasn't a normal victim. While this normally would make a footnote in the 24 hour evening news in rare cases, there was one thing that made him special. Minoru was a hero, more importantly one of the UA legends: the last class personally trained by All Might himself before his death in Kamino. If the public caught wind of this there wind of this there would be a panic. . People would ask questions; would want answers that theyjust didn't have. After all, it's not like hero's didn't die, there's a reason why applicants to the hero programs across the country were so low. It's dangerous especially in this day and age. The League and Stains little legion of psychotic copycats loved hunting heroes. But that's the key difference wasn't it? Most hero deaths were public things, an epic clash of good vs evil:the reward for a life dedicated to protecting their fellow man. The key word however was public though. If the people even thought there was a hero killer that was killing heros in their homes or if the HPSC even looked unable to solve this, well there'd be panic everywhere.

Midoriya nodded before he paused for a moment taking out a pen from his coat pocket and used it to poke at one of the corpse's iconic purple haired balls, letting out a hum when it got stuck before beginning to mutter to himself. "Still adhesive after death, change in his keratin production maybe?." After attempting to pull his pen back a few times he gave up and turned to detective Nagakura. "Why did Mister Denki come over?"

Nagakura turned to the nearby officer and urged him to hand over a notebook, which once received. He opened it and began to read out the information. "According to him the two of them were supposed to have some kinda movie and beer day today"

Midoriya nodded as he took out another pen and began writing down what the detective said. "How did he enter the apartment then?"

"Grape Boy here had a key under the mat outside." He replied letting out a puff.

"I see." He then turned to Minoru's torn clothing. "Your men haven't looked at the body yet?"

"Just to get the time of death." He let out a disappointed click from his mouth as he tossed his now spent cigarette into a nearby cup. "I know you want your 'scenes' pristine."

Midoriya averted his eyes, focusing them on the body for a moment before turning to a nearby technician. "May I have a pair of gloves please? Nitrile eight millimeter preferably." The technician looked over at Nagakura who lazily nodded his approval, prompting the man to hand over the gloves to Midoriya. "Thank you." He put them on and took a deep breath closing his eyes and exhaled opening them again. His eyes raced over the body as he took out a voice recorder and turned it on, starting a new jumbled stream of muttered consciousness as he began inspecting the body.

"Victim Minoru Mineta, currently showing symptoms of autolysis, rigor mortis and livor mortis have set in." He then paused his muttering storm and furious scribbling as he moved to get a closer look at Minoru's neck. "Slash on the neck, according to the level of penetration, appears to have come in from the bottom left." Using his finger he tilted Minoru's head back a bit, exposing more of the injury as he took out his phone using it as a flashlight. "The slash at its deepest appears to be roughly three inches, becoming shallower as it makes its way up. Absences of a murder weapon suggest potential quirk application, but without solid evidence, cause of death remains inconclusive at this time ." He then looked at Minoru's head noticing the apparent lack of injury to it and began to turn Minoru's head slowly, stopping once the back of his head was exposed and began to check for possible injuries. "Apparent lack of head injury, possibly due to his unique hair quirk cushioning his head when it fell on the floor." His eyes ran over the corpse once more, seeing all the cuts along the torso and looked back towards the detective again. "Detective, I need to look at the body. If that's alright?" To which the detective just waved him off as he lit another cigarette with a snap of his fingers, causing Midoriya to nod as he turned his recorder back on and continued his investigation.

"Victim is currently wearing a long sleeve button up and jeans, indent on left wrist indicates a possible missing watch as well. Of note are the various tears across the torso which appear to be the results of various stab wounds across the body, majority of which are on the upper body. Initial look indicates…." He paused as he counted before he continued. "Twenty five individual stab marks." He stopped placing the recorder back in his pocket, and then began to unbutton the shirt, exposing the deathly pale and purple torso to the world. Upon finishing opening the shirt he noticed a slight bruising on the left shoulder and around Minoru's hips "Bruising on the left shoulder seems reminiscent of a handprint, however of note is the bruising of Minoru's hips…it appears the perpetrator grabbed onto the victim and either pushed him down or attempted to keep him standing. The bruising on the hips indicates the killer mounted Minoru pinning him as they continued the attack." He looked down and towards the various stabs to the chest and abdomen before reaching into his coat pocket, pulling out a foldable multi ruler. Gently inserting it into each stab wound as he recorded the depth of each one before muttering again. "Average depth of the stabs appears to be roughly around three inches with a vast majority along the chest and rib area. Blood stains indicate that the chest wounds happened after the slash and abdominal stabs however."

He turned his head towards Minoru's right hand, noticing the blood stain near it. With his gloved hand he reached for the cold appendage and began to inspect it. It was covered in dried blood as if during the struggle it had been bathed in it, which proved to be accurate as Midoriya flipped the hand over and saw large amounts of glass shards deeply embedded into the dead flesh, as if forced or ground into it. A large bruise was also seen on the wrist as if it had been grabbed and restrained for a moment during the murder. "Tried to fight back but then restrained perhaps? No…he tried to crawl away which embedded the broken glass into his hand, when that failed he tried defending himself leading to being restrained."

Turning towards the kitchen island counter, which still had the bottle of wine on it and most curiously another empty glass next to it which he gently lifted and inspected before putting back down. "He was attacked while serving." he furrowed his brow looking back into the living room. "This wasn't a break in, this was planned." His eyes squinted and brow furrowed as he looked around once more. His eyes focusing on the broken living room window that led to the fire escape, a distraction? No….no an attack like this would've left evidence on the attacker, blood scratches: things people would notice. He made his way to the window being followed by the detective. Stopping at the window he looked into the alleyway scanning the area, Nagakura doing the same.

"What're we looking for Midoriya?"

Midoriya paused before pointing towards a dumpster in the alley. "The killer escaped via the fire escape, changed their clothes to avoid suspicion ."

Nagakura nodded and looked back at two officers snapping at them. "You two go down there and search the area, I want every last goddamned inch of that alley scrubbed." The officers nodded, heading down at which point Nagakura looked back at Midoriya. "If you're right , then this was premeditated."

"Sadly." Midoriya responded as he began to inspect the living room area.

"Another Hero Killer?"

Seemingly satisfied with the living room Midoriya turned towards the bedroom. "If they killed a hero wouldn't they already be a Hero Killer?" He asked as he entered thebedroom.

"Smartass, you know what Imean by that."

Midoriya then shook his head as he walked around the bedroom, his eyes lingering on what looked like a simple computer desk before he ran his finger along the top of it. "Just pointing out the absurdity of the question. And no I don't think so, this seemed more personal." He turned back towards the night stand next to an unmade king sized bed and made his way towards it.

"Why?"

For a moment Midoriya just looked at the night stand before turning towards the detective. "It was too brutal to be anything other than personal. There was a robbery."

"What?"

Midoriya motioned towards the computer desk and nightstand, his fingers tracing over the faint groves on its surface. "Isn't it odd how a successful hero like Grape Juice doesn't have a phone or computer in his apartment?"

The detective's eyes widened; hell, there was even a film of dust where a computer should have been.

"Detective Nagakura! They found something you might want to see!" Came the yell from the living room from one of the officers as the two men perked up and made their way back towards the window. Down in the alley by the dumpster we're the two officers that went down holding up a bloodstained blue dress.

"Personal huh?" There came a chime from the detective's coat pocket, causing him to pull out his phone and answering the call. "Nagakura. Uh huh. What? Why the fu-? Fine got it chief." He then turned to Midoriya. "You're gonna want to head out, chief is coming with some HPSC agents apparently they want to take over the investigation." He said with a sigh causing Midoriya to nod as he turned towards the exit. "Usual fee right?" Midoriya then looked back and nodded, from the door. "Alright, I'll put you into the report." He then motioned with his head for Midoriya to leave. "Get out of here before chief bitches us both out."

He couldn't argue with that.

Notes: Special thanks to my buddy Toasty Kit for all his help, couldn't have done this without ya. Hope you guys liked this, I'd love to hear your thoughts.