A Blood Stained Path
Chapter 3: Capture
Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, also known as True Man, rubbed his forehead, sighing as yet another headache came on.
The source of his headaches was the same as it had been for a while, a particular homicide case which still had barely any leads and only a singular clue. He was in the process of refreshing his memory of what they knew before he delivered the briefing to the heroes on the other side of the door.
His watch informed him that it was time to enter and commence the briefing by vibrating on his wrist. "Nothing for it, I guess." He said before pushing open the double doors and walking up to the podium.
"I am Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, thank you for coming to this briefing. As you may be aware, this is about an ongoing homicide case that has arisen in the last 4 months." He pressed a button on his remote and images of the autopsy reports and injuries sustained by the victims flashed up on a screen behind him. "The first report was of two dead campers in the forest around Musutafu, these were Hayate Furukawa and Akari Abiko. Their injuries were almost identical, both having bite marks on their necks, though Furukawa had a punctured skull as well."
"How is this a homicide case? This just sounds like a wild animal attack!" A random hero yelled from the middle of the group.
Murmurs of agreement echoed through the crowd, until a scraggy, homeless looking man in the corner of the room held up his hand and spoke. "That is a highly irrational conclusion. The police wouldn't call it something as serious as homicide without solid evidence to support it. Now shut up and listen to the detective."
The crowd silenced, and the detective resumed his briefing.
"Thank you for silencing them, Eraser Head, I'll continue now. Yes, whilst it does seem like an animal attack at first…" The hero who spoke up looked smugly at the now named Eraser Head. "… After further analysis it was revealed that the bite wounds contained traces of human saliva, meaning a human killed these people." The hero bit his tongue and looked down defeatedly.
"After another one and a half months, 3 corpses with the same bite marks were found in an alleyway on the outskirts of Musutafu, though they had more extensive injuries including burns, punctured skulls and punctured hearts. Traces of the same person's saliva were found on these corpses as well, which indicates a highly dangerous suspect who may have multiple quirks." Shocked gasps resounded through the room and Eraser Head's eyes widened slightly.
"We have searched through the quirk records and only found a single suspect whose quirk matches these descriptions." A picture of a young boy with green hair and eyes, who was smiling at the camera. "Name: Izuku Midoriya. Age: Four. He has been reported missing for the last four months, which matches our timeframe, and his quirk: Vampire matches our cases perfectly. He can only live off a diet of blood, and gains a weakened version of his victims' quirks."
Tsukauchi paused to let the shock sink in, before resuming his explanation. "What's more is that the alleyway had a security camera that picked up footage of the latest incident." He stopped again, pressing another button which caused a recording to play on the screen. A thick mist filled the alley and screams could be heard as a brief flash of fire could be seen. "As you can see, he has amassed at least two highly versatile quirks, though the quirks we know he has are Mist Jump, Smoke, Combustion, Water Cutter, and Hydrokinesis. Due to the dangerous nature of these quirks, Eraser Head will cancel his quirk and apprehend him."
"You all have been told this so that you can report a sighting or incident to us or Eraser Head, enabling us to catch him as quickly as possible. We believe he will make another appearance within the next month, please be on high alert and try to get more patrols at night. Thank you for your time." Tsukauchi left and the heroes dispersed, mulling over the shock to their systems that had just been delivered.
3 weeks later
It happened again that night. My hunger became too great, causing my instincts to take hold once more. As much as I tried to resist, I wasn't in control anymore and I left the cave I had been living in for the last few weeks.
The scent of my prey filled the air and my body sprinted towards the source. I jumped into a tree and waited for the unfortunate souls to walk through the mist emanating from my body. As they did, I appeared behind them and sent a film of water over their mouths.
The two girls struggled and tried to wipe away the water but I had already grabbed their legs and set them aflame, causing them to fall to the ground and let out a muffled scream of pain. I bit into the first one and I could instantly feel a change in me. I began to drink in a less clumsy manner and more refined, sipping slowly as the sweet nectar filled my mouth.
I finished with the first and moved onto the second, my fangs slowly piercing her carotid artery and satisfaction filled me once more as I made sure not to spill a single drop of the liquid. I was about a quarter of the way done before I felt something wrap around me and yank my body aways from my meal. I could feel my consciousness come back as my instincts somehow lost their grasp on me before I hap returned to my den, and the mist thinned as I could no longer sense what was around me.
"Izuku Midoriya, you are under arrest for homicide and attempted murder. Do not resist." A gruff voice spoke from behind me, and I turned my head to see glowing red eyes piercing through the darkness, before a felt an impact to the back of my neck and I was forced into unconsciousness.
Eraser Head's Perspective
Eraser Head had just received a report from Tsukauchi that the hero Aftershock had seen a sphere of mist form from around a tree in the Musutafu Park Of Natural Beauty, and that two girls had walked in and not come out. He immediately rushed to the scene and saw the sphere of mist.
Seeing a small bit of fire on the ground, he sent his capture scarf towards it and felt as it wrapped around something that was attempting to move and was small. He swiftly yanked the scarf back and activated his quirk, watching as the mist faded to reveal a small child wearing ripped clothing and had blood around their mouth, their eyes slowly turned from blank to horrified as they seemed to become lucid.
"Izuku Midoriya, you are under arrest for homicide and attempted murder. Do not resist." He delivered a quick chop to the back of the child's neck and checked their victim's, before calling in to get an ambulance and to report another death.
He took Izuku to the police and quickly called Hizashi to inform him that he would be staying with the child.
He crawled into his yellow sleeping bag and slumped against the wall as he listened to Tsukauchi call Izuku's mother. After the detective sighed, he finally spoke up. "What happened?"
"Turns out the boy didn't go missing on his own, his mother abandoned him in the forest after they discovered his quirk. She doesn't want him back either." Tsukauchi sighed again and rubbed his temples. "Classic case of parents not wanting to look after a child with a 'villainous' quirk. Now I have to go through the hassle of trying to clear his name and finding a foster parent."
Aizawa thought about it for a second before reaching for his phone to call Hizashi again. The phone rang twice before being picked up.
"Hey Sho, is something up?" His husband's voice blasted through the line.
"Quiet down, you need to let Hitoshi get some sleep you know."
"Coming from one such as yourself, I find that quite insulting. Anyway, what's up? Aren't you watching the homicide kid?"
"Turns out the kid's mother dumped him in the forest and doesn't want him back, so he needs foster parents. I reckon we should take him so that he can learn to resist his instincts to bite innocent people."
"I'm okay with that, it would be best to keep him off the streets for now and for someone to teach him control properly. Plus, it would give Hitoshi some company to keep him from getting lonely."
"Good, I'll tell Tsukauchi. See you later." He hung up the phone and turned to the detective. "Me and Hizashi will take him."
"Are you sure? Aren't you already busy with Hitoshi?" Tsukauchi looked at him inquisitively.
"Yes, someone needs to teach him proper control. Plus, Hitoshi gets lonely." He gave the detective his usual neutral and sleepy stare.
"Ok, but I'll need both yours and Hizashi's signatures on the adoption forms. I'll call him in tomorrow after he takes your son to school. Oh, and you'll need to know his new quirks. The quirk he got from the survivor was Fire Immunity, though it now only works if he knows he's going to get burned, pretty self-explanatory. And the quirk he got from the deceased is called Femme. This makes it so that they are extremely feminine and can only see themselves as a girl, it helped us see that mutant quirks aren't weakened by Vampire. You should expect them to transition like the previous user, she was actually going to get Sex Reassignment Surgery next week."
"I understand, I'll make sure to tell Hizashi as well."
