Ch 3: The game's afoot
He knew it was a mistake to look at his phone this morning, yet the constant alerts left little choice in the matter.
The Grape was dead, slaughtered in his own shitty apartment. It was front page news even, hell driving here he saw dozens of mourners wearing little purple wristbands. More than the pervert ever deserved he thought but it wasn't his place to say.
Meet with an investigator and help him investigate the murder, and arrest the villain responsible by any means.
He sighed, rubbing the space between his eyes before looking down when the door to the interrogation room opened as a green haired man in a crumpled coat and messy tie came into view. The green eyes of the newcomer racked over Shinso as if analyzing every inch, before returning to his face. At which point the newcomer smiled and extended a hand. "Ah you must be Mister Hitoshi, I'm Izuku Midoriya. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Hitoshi looked at the outstretched hand for a moment trying to read Midoriya for any signs of hostile intent before taking it and shaking. "Right, I'm guessing we'll be working together on the case."
"That's right!" Midoriya said happily as he let go and began to turn. "Now since we're gonna be working together for a bit I hope you don't mind if I ask, but what type of investigative experience do you have?" He asked, prompting Hitoshi to follow idly listening. "I know that Eraserhead was more known for his drug busting and stopping gun runners but those are a bit different from murders after all."
Wait. What? Hitoshi thought as he blinked, pausing. "Eraserhead? What're you talking about?"
To which Midoriya paused and turned with an eyebrow raised. "Really?" He asked as he ran his eyes over him again. " We have a murder to solve and it'd help if I knew your experience." He asked as he continued walking, causing Hitoshi to rush to catch up.
"No it's just, not many make that connection."
Midoriya let out a slightly amused hum as they made their way across the station office. "Thankfully I'm good at that, so have you ever worked on one of these before?"
"No, can't say I have."
"Lovely."
"So how'd you know?" He asked.
"Hm?"
"About Eraserhead?"
"Ah, well it's quite simple really. Your scarf and his look to be made of a similar Kevlar weave giving its distinctive slightly off white color, how it's wrapped loosely around your neck indicates to me it's meant for quick removal with the right edge having a small if I'd have to guess ceramic weight to enable it to wrap around your targets more easily."
He stared amazed as they walked before asking. "You figured all that out just by looking at my scarf?"
"Well there's other things of course, but that's the most glaring similarity." Midoriya said as they stopped in front of the lock up and knocked on the door. "I also remember you from the sports festival a few years ago, the one before they were canceled. It would be too much of a coincidence for a student of UA to have the same weapon as a known teacher at the establishment."
"I…I guess so." He said as the evidence custodian opened the half door to the lock up. The officer's snake eyes looked between the two as Midoriya reached for his coat and took out a badge.
"Good afternoon officer Hachurui!" He started placing the badge between the two. "Detective Nagakura requested that the Minoru case be turned over to me, if you'd be so kind as to bring it to the morgue I'll take it from there."
The snake eyes officer took the badge rolling his eyes. "Give me a few minutes." He hissed before slamming the top half of the door. At which point Hitoshi turned to Midoriya eyebrows raised.
"The morgue?" He asked.
"Why of course." Midoriya replied, turning around. "By now I'd imagine the good Doctor has already completed his examination." He finished as they began making their way.
"Ah, wouldn't that be in the report?"
"I'd like to verify."
"Fair enough. So I'm guessing you're not a cop then."
Midoriya nodded. "That's correct."
"So a PI then?"
"That's right." He said as they approached a metallic door with an intercom next to it. "Oh before I forget, how are you with dead bodies?"
"I'm not squeamish."
"Perfect." And with that he buzzed on the intercom. "Doctor Ine? It's Midoriya Izuku, detective Nagakura requested I take over on the Minoru case. I'm hoping to talk with you over your findings sir." It took a moment after releasing the button but soon enough an electronic elderly voice came from the intercom.
"Of course Midoriya, come in. There's much to discuss." A buzz was then heard as Midoriya opened the door with a small hiss as a puff of condensation escaped the room.
The morgue was cold and clinical, with sterile metallic body storage units along the left wall and various X-ray scans directly across from them. In the center of the room was a surgical table with a hanging scale and what could only be a diminutive body on it covered in a sheet. A short bald man with a large bushy white mustache sat in front of them staring at them with his heavily fogged and thick almost goggle-like glasses. Doctor Ine stood from his computer desk and made his way over. "Ahh it's good to see you again mister Midoriya." The older man said, stretching out his hand to Midoriya before turning to Hitoshi and squinting a bit. "I wasn't aware you're taking interns."
Midoriya let out a laugh at that and shook his head as he took the doctor's hand. "No no, Mister Hitoshi is just accompanying me to help me with your most recent guest."
The doctor nodded, letting go of Midoriya's hand as he shook Hitoshi's. "A pleasure then. Well I suppose you'll want to get started then." He said before turning to the body and removing the sheet.
There was never any love between Shinso and the pervert, all throughout their time in 1A the grape would always bring up how Shinso was wasting his quirk by not using it against 'babes', or how much of a borderline villain he was because of his quirk. Of course the feeling was mutual with the fact that the only reason the grape was in the class was his hair quirk being useful and the pr nightmare it'd be to remove another of All Might's students due to deviancy. But even he could admit to being unsettled by the sight of a former classmate's pale blue skin, his chest eerily still. If it wasn't for the autopsy incisions and the deep crimson stab wounds covering his body he could picture him jumping up at the sight of ladies even now.
"Are you alright Hitoshi?"
He shook his head before clearing his throat. "I'm fine, …let's start." Midoriya took a moment to look at his face before turning to the doctor and nodding.
"Your initial assessment was mostly right." The Doctor began while pointing to the slash across the neck. "Your killer started the attack by slashing the neck then went on to stabbing the body." He said while turning to a nearby rolling tray and grabbed a file off its top. "Wasn't blood loss that got him though."
"What do you mean?" Asked Hitoshi.
"Your victim drowned from the blood going into his neck." The Doctor said, handing the file to Midoriya who began to flip through it. "Whatever weapon the killer used was a terrible one if they wanted a clean kill, it mostly nicked the vital organs at best."
"Box cutter." Midoriya said, still skimming through the file.
"About right. Long enough to cut and hurt, too short to do any real damage." He then paused and turned to the body and shrugged. "Assuming you don't count slitting a throat real damage I suppose."
"Have you run any blood tests?" Asked Shinso.
"Nothing unusual except for a bit of alcohol in his blood." The Doctor answered before turning towards the computer and made his way over. "Under black light I saw what looked like a stamp on his right hand. It might be useful to you." He said, at which point Midoriya finished skimming through the file and began to examine the body once more.
"Any other signs of trauma Doctor?" He asked.
"None that you haven't already pointed out." He replied as Midoriya turned to look up again at Hitoshi.
"What do you think?"
Shinso tilted his head in confusion. "Aren't you the investigator here?"
"Just thought it'd be nice to hear another opinion, but since it's only fair to tell you, I believe mister Minoru was specifically targeted by a woman. most likely one with a grudge with how violent this was, at least gives us a bit of a lead."
"How?"
"We just have to figure out who hated him enough to want to make him suffer, I'd wager we'd get some more information from around his apartment." The door to the morgue opened once more revealing a snake eyed officer Hachurui carrying a large box of case files. "Ah perfect timing!" Midoriya then turned to the doctor and bowed, "thank you Doctor it was a pleasure as always." Turning to Shinso he then continued. "Just grab that box from officer Hachurui and we'll be off mister Hitoshi."
