Rule #3e: Always recheck the evidence, you don't want to miss anything
"Wait—is that…?" Midoriya swallowed, words catching in his throat at the sight of his mentor's supposedly deceased body. "The villain was…killed? But how? Why?"
"…Okay, All Might's still alive" Tsu reported as she tickled the blonde's nose with her hair and received muffled chuckles & coughs for her troubles. A collective sigh of relief ran throughout the store at that. "He's playing, but we're s'posed to think he's dead"
"Is it because of Bakugou's blast?" Ochako asked warily, joining them inside as the smoke dissipated.
"No way!" Bakugou denied, "It wasn't even that strong"
"And yet…" Toru hummed, eyeing up the smoking cutouts outside.
"Weren't you watching?" Bakugou snarled over top of the invisible girl, "You were s'posed to be our eyes!"
"Yeah, but I couldn't see anything because of all the smoke!" Ochako retorted hotly.
"Tch!"
"The murder weapon is a knife covered in blood" Todoroki hummed.
"It looks to be a hunting knife" Toru mused as she trotted over to inspect the weapon, eyeing up the bloody serrated edge with a calculating gaze as she did so. "You can get 'em just about anywhere"
"Which is no help!" Bakugou rolled his eyes, but not without looking slightly unnerved at the ease in which the invisible girl handled & identified the blade, before pocketing it in her boot.
"The building was surrounded by police" Midoriya continued to theorise aloud; for once his mumbled thoughts were actually of use to them all. "So we know no one went in or out"
"That means whomever killed the villain must still be inside!" Tsu ended. All eyes went to the hostages.
"Hold on! That may be, but it's too soon to know that for sure"
"You're right, we need to know how these events unfolded"
"Then let's check, shall we?" Toru nodded in agreement as she rose to her feet and made her way over to the storage/security room at the back of the store.
"Where're you going?" Ochako asked, peering around the greenette in confusion.
"Well, we've still got power" Toru gestured to the lights above them. Despite the earlier robbery/hold-up and Bakugou's explosion, the power had remained on. "So I'm gonna check the security tapes"
"Security tapes? Do they even have those?"
"Any business worth their salt with valuables like these, would have some kind of security measure in place. I mean besides an alarm" She shrugged as she disappeared into the back room, leaving the others behind her.
At least that was the plan. But as soon as she opened the door, a rather large cloud-shaped poodle came hurtling out of the back room so fast that they knocked the invisible girl off of her feet. A flash of silver glinting beneath neon lights caught the albino's attention as she hit the floor with a grunt, elbows connecting painfully with the carpet. Whilst the others—startled by the sudden appearance of the canine—suddenly found themselves occupied with trying to catch the beast as Toru wheezed at the breath she'd lost.
"Nice dog" Toru grunted as she pushed herself upright and took the amphibian hand offered to her as she returned to her feet. It seemed that Tsu had booked it as far from the irate dog as soon as it had appeared and did not appear too keen on being anywhere near it. "Poodle, right?"
"Winnie here" Midnight preened, one hand looped through the leash whilst painted nails running through thick curls. "Is a purebred show dog champion!"
"Purebred huh?" The invisible girl hummed in thought as she eyed up the glinting tags which hung from its collar. The bone-shaped tag held Hound Dog-sensei's name & info whilst the other looked like a military dog tag with the initials 'MSD' engraved on the front. "How long have you had 'im?"
"Well—"
"—WHAT'S WITH ALL THE QUESTIONS?!" Bakugou snapped, matching the same energy as the canine in front of him, "IT'S JUST A STUPID DOG!"
"Mmm" She hummed. It was odd for a dog—service or not—to be locked inside the storage room. Particularly if the villain had the time to tie up the three hostages, semi-rob the place and hold off the police; then why or when would the villain leave the dog unharmed? Unless of course, he knew it or the owner already. "D'you know that MSDs are required to wear identifying tags? Even in retirement?"
"MSDs?" Midoriya puzzled.
"Military Service Dogs"
"Put it's a poodle!" Ochako replied, confused.
"Perfect for infiltration, subterfuge and tracking" Toru hummed as Tsu continued to shield herself behind the invisible girl. "But y'see, trained dogs, they don't bark from anxiety, they bark from stress"
"Meaning?" Todoroki quirked a brow.
"He doesn't respect Midnight"
"HOW DARE YOU!" Midnight cried, incensed, hand on heart and tears peeling from her eyes. "I LOVE MY FLUFFY BOY! HE'S A CHAMPION SHOW DOG!"
"Ah, that may be true" Toru nodded, "But only three people in the entire world know how to properly train these dogs. The funny thing? They only use Russian commands and since you have yet to control him, you clearly don't speak Russian"
"…брак!" Midnight tried, completely butchering and misinterpreting the word. She had obviously being trying to tell the dog to calm down, but instead just ended up telling it to get married. Hilarious, but still served a purpose as the dog grew even more irate, pulling at its lead with teeth gnashing threateningly.
"каблук! сидеть!" Toru barked, ordering the dog to heel and sit in quick succession. Winnie calmed instantly, growl disappearing into a doggy grin and cloud butt hitting the carpet with a small thump. "вниз…"
"…Hagakure" Midoriya blinked dumbly at the dog now happily sprawled out across the floor at their feet. "You know Russian?"
"Bits and pieces" Toru shrugged, "Mostly curses"
"How'd you do that?" Ochako added, impressed.
"I had a teacher who worked with 'em"
"What's the dog gotta do any of this?!" Bakugou snapped, hands on hips.
"I 'unno, could be a red herring, could be nothing" Toru shrugged, "Still odd that the dog was allowed in the store, though. Now, about those tapes!"
"The tapes are no good" Toru greeted as she returned, just barely catching the tail end of the interrogation. In her brief absence, the hostages had been released and asked about what they had experienced leading up to & during the robbery. "The explosion completely fried the cameras and the ones across the street can't see inside. Also, there's no back door and all the windows are sealed, so there's no way someone could've slipped in or out that way"
"Then the person at fault has to be one of these three" Ochako mused, turning to the stricken three (plus one dog).
"I didn't do it!" Midnight cried, quickly jumping to her own defence.
"I'm innocent!" Cementoss added.
"AH! I'M NOT GOING DOWN FOR THIS!" Present Mic wailed, "IT WASN'T ME, YO!"
"…Wouldn't it be best to call the police?" Tsu turned to her peers as they all regrouped. "So that the investigators can get to the bottom of this case?"
"That's probably a good idea" Toru nodded.
"This is so frustrating!" Ochako huffed, crossing her arms. "We know the culprit has to be one of these people!"
"It's simple!" Bakugou piped up, hands sparking in agitation. "WE'LL JUST FORCE THEM TO START TALKING!"
"Bakugou…!" Todoroki warned.
"That's torture, you idiot!" Toru scolded.
"If you torture them, then the police will arrest you too!" Tsu added bluntly.
"I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT TORTURE!" Bakugou snarled.
"Not in so many words"
"Tch! Hey! You damn nerd! You've got a new idea, haven't you?"
"Huh? Well, something's bothering me here" Midoriya jerked from his train of thought.
"What is it?" Todoroki asked.
"Why did the villain barricade himself inside the store, y'know? 'Cause if he wanted to, he could've just escaped with the goods earlier. So then, why did he stay?"
"Timing wise, the authorities arrived just as I was putting the jewellery into the bag for him" Cementoss piped up. "He had no opportunity to flee"
"Did you call the police?" Ochako asked.
"I never had the chance" He shook his head.
"Which means someone outside the store must've seen what was happening. They're the ones who called the police!"
"If that's the case, then it has to mean…" Here, Midoriya paused as he contemplated on whether or not what he had concluded was right. There were so many factors to consider, but as he turned to face the bespectacled woman, only one of those possibilities really stood out to him."Midnight, it was you!"
"Ah! What? Me?" Midnight gasped, wides comically wide.
"You were the only one who came into the jewellery store after the villain was already here"
"Don't you make us look like a bunch of idiots!" Bakugou growled, "Why would somebody who called the police, come inside to face the villain and allow themselves to be taken as a hostage?!"
"Hear me out!" Midoriya pleaded as he painted a picture, "I think she's the reason the villain barricaded himself in here to begin with. Midnight, you knew the man behind the mask before this incident, didn't you? And not just as an acquaintance; you knew he'd committed heinous crimes. You saw him & knew that he was going to strike again, so you called the police the moment he went inside so he would stop him. And then, before they could arrive, you decided to go in yourself; to stall him. He must've been shaken to see you, but he also understood your true intentions and why you were there. Even so, the villain continued the robbery and tied you up like the others. Whilst he was doing that, the police arrived and he was forced to barricade himself inside"
"NO!" Midnight dramatically cried, grasping to the front of her blouse as if it physically pained her to hear those accusations. "Why would I willingly put myself in danger like that?!"
"Because you wanted him to change his ways, didn't you? No matter how many times you tried to convince him to step away from crime, he wouldn't. So you made sure that this time, the choice would be out of his hands"
"Wait Deku!" Ochako interjected, "Even if things had happened that way, why would she kill the villain?"
"All she wanted to do was get him arrested" Todoroki added.
"Yeah, that's right!" Tsu nodded, "She has no motive to kill him!"
"True" Midoriya agreed, "There's no motive; that's why the murderer isn't one of these three"
"What are you talking about, you damn nerd?!" Puzzled Bakugou, gritting his teeth in frustration. To him, the love story shtick didn't quite add up.
"Seriously, Deku, hold on!" Ochako cried, waving her hands about in the air.
"Could it have been…?" Todoroki murmured as he bowed his head, catching on.
"Suicide, right?" Tsu ended solemnly.
"Probably" Midoriya nodded. "Once he figured out what Midnight's intentions must've been, it's likely he still expected to escape as planned. But then we Pro Heroes showed up on the scene"
"So, he refused to be taken alive" Todoroki hummed.
"Not quite" Midoriya refuted.
"Huh?"
"I think he was worried about something else. If he was caught by the police, then his relationship with Midnight might've been exposed, putting her in all sorts of trouble. If that'd happened, a dark shadow would've fallen across the rest of her life. That's why this villain silenced himself with his own weapon" He continued to explain as Midnight's legs buckled & collapsed beneath her, sending her to the floor in a fit of wails. " Midnight didn't say anything because she realised what he was thinking when he took his own life, the sacrifice was made so that she could continue to live unencumbered. Out of respect, she couldn't say anything"
"You think…Midnight and the villain were that in love?" Ochako murmured.
"Mmhm" Midoriya nodded
"I'm not so sure…" Toru eyed up the woman wailing at their feet, her face hidden from view. Like Bakugou, the invisible girl didn't quite buy the whole lovesick-robbers/couple-thing that the greenette had proposed.
"What do you think it was then, No Show?" Bakugou turned to the girl, brow quirked in interest.
"No Show?" She mouthed to herself in confusion, before shaking off the odd nickname and continuing on with her own thoughts.
"Historically speaking" Toru rolled the words around in her mouth before spitting them out, as all eyes turned to face her. "There are only two reasons why people would hole up in a place like this. One: they want infamy, no matter how they get it. Or two: they're fanatics; likely opting for murder-suicide"
"Infamy? Fanatics? Murder-suicide?" Ochako audibly swallowed. The albino's musings were already a (disturbingly) far cry from Midoriya's. "Are you sure?"
"I'm not certain, but if you look there, you'll see what I mean" Toru gestured to the wound on All Might's chest. "Stabbing someone takes a certain amount of strength; you've gotta pierce through flesh, tissue, nerves and sometimes even bone. A clean cut like that? Taking into account, the height, depth and angle of the entry wound? I'd say the perpetrator was All—the villain himself. Which covers the whole 'suicide' part—like you said—of the whole 'murder-suicide' thing"
"So it's not some tragic love story?" Ochako seemed almost disappointed at that.
"Yes and no" Toru hummed as she turned to the greenette, "I do think you're right, Deku, about Midnight's connection with the villain"
"Huh?" Midoriya blinked.
"You remember when we first arrived? How Lover Boy over here had placed himself in the window, front and centre?"
"Yeah…?"
"He was in clean line of sight to both heroes and police alike, not because he was checking the area, but because he was giving us an opening to attack in order to go out in a blaze of glory…and maybe besmirch our reputations along the way, who knows"
"Where are you going with this?" Bakugou mused, brows furrowed in thought.
"If the villain had actually meant to survive this incident, he would've used one of the hostages as some sort of meat shield. It's a crude but effective tactic"
"But he didn't" Todoroki piped up.
"No, he didn't because he never meant to leave this situation alive. His connection with Midnight may have changed his mind on the method of his death, but in the end he was still going to die"
"But why would he do that?"
"Because given the option between giving up on crime but living to see Midnight and giving up on Midnight, but dying doing what he loved, to him it was obvious. He'd rather die than give up a life of crime"
"…Then why stab himself?" Tsu pondered, "If he was planning to die anyway, why not get blown up? Or gunned down? Why the hunting knife instead?"
"Because the knife meant he could die on his own terms" Toru explained, "A tragically romantic gesture for his beloved Midnight, that expressed his feelings towards both matters. A gesture, mind you, that seems to be unneeded because Midnight does not reciprocate those feelings" At this, the invisible girl turned to face the woman at their feet, finding her now sitting upright and staring back, looking equally as startled as the pair behind her. "Ever since we've been in here, you haven't even so much as glance down"
"There's a dead body on the floor!" Ochako defended her, as if that explained everything.
"While it's true that people react differently to trauma, human nature is quite strong and her curiosity should've overwhelmed her. Even the most disturbed people would've spared a glance or two in that direction; but she hasn't even looked down once. If Midnight truly loved him, as you claimed, she would've been bawling or at the very least upset, but she's not"
"But she's crying!"
"Crocodile tears; easy enough to fake" Toru waved off, "This act may have been a gesture of the villain's love, but it was unrequited. She dobbed him in, sure, but she doesn't care if he lives or dies. In fact, she's shown that dog far more concern…which is probably why he was out the back, now that I think about it"
"What do you mean, ribbit?" Tsu asked.
"Out of sight, out of mind and if something untoward had had happened to him? Well, then there's no skin off of the villain's back" Toru grinned lecherously at the wide-eyed & stricken faces of her peers. "It's all very Shakespearian, don'tcha think?"
"But—but that can't be right!" Ochako spluttered, visibly upset.
"It's more common than you think" Toru refuted, "People are deplorable, that way"
A beat of silence passed through the room so thick that it was almost tangible. With two very possible theories now laid out before them—each revolving around Midnight—they now had a rather hard choice to make. At least, they would have had Aizawa not sauntered inside as he ended the exercise. "Okay, that's enough" Aizawa appeared, hands in his pockets as he picked his way over the broken glass littered across the floor.
"HA!" Midnight cheered as she jumped to her feet with a grin, "That was so fun!"
What a 180! Toru blinked dumbly.
"Thanks, you three" Aizawa drawled to the teachers, "You're all done here. Save your energy for the next group"
"What'd you think of my acting?" Mic grinned as they flounced off.
"I'd reel it in a bit" Cementoss replied dryly, making Present Mic pout as Midnight led the way out with the poodle right on her heels.
"Midoriya" Aizawa turned to the greenette first.
"Sir?" Midoriya stood to attention.
"Your deductions were exactly what we had scripted for this scenario. The villain did stab himself with his own knife and it was smart work getting to that conclusion by asking a logical series of questions"
"Wow! Praise from Aizawa-sensei!" Ochako beamed, leaning over to congratulate her friend. "Good for you!"
"And Hagakure"
"Yessir?" Toru stood up straight.
"Your deductions also pieced together another plausible story, though not the one we were going for. Be careful not to get too carried away"
"Yessir"
"But you weren't perfect" Aizawa continued, interrupting their little moment, "You six overlooked one major thing"
"Huh?" The six of them bore various expressions of confusion.
"Therefore, you earned zero points"
"HUH?!"
"YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING!" Bakugou exploded.
"Observe" Aizawa nodded over to the space where All Might's corpse had once lay. Now there was nothing but a drying pool of blood.
"What?" Midoriya blinked. "The villain's body is gone?!"
"HE'S ALIVE?!" Bakugou cried, incensed.
"I'M FLEEING THE SCENE" All Might bellowed as he ran, calling their attention to the street as they watched him disappear over the horizon "AND RUNNING TOWARDS FREEDOM! AHAHAHAHA!"
"You were all under the assumption that the villain was a corpse" Aizawa joined them on the steps, "So you didn't tie him up and that's why you all fail"
"Is that even allowed?" Bakugou muttered, dumbstruck.
"Didn't you realise that All Might gave you a hint about the truth? He tried to help you when Asui tickled his nose"
"Ribbit?" Tsu puzzled, tilting her head in confusion.
"He reacted, didn't he? You though it was a mistake, but he was alive" Aizawa turned on his, dismissing them over his shoulder as he went to greet the next group of students. "That's it for your special class, you're dismissed"
"Aw man!" Midoriya whined as they were reminded of their teachers penchant of last minute plot twists. "That's a dirty trick!"
"Wait a second—! If the villain is alive, then he pretended to kill himself for a chance to escape this whole time?!" Toru exclaimed as it hit her. "He didn't stay there for Midnight!"
"And we misunderstood the whole thing!" Tsu added "We thought he loved her!"
"But their love story—!" Ochako despaired.
"It was—" Midoriya added.
"—Never real" Todoroki ended.
"I HATE THIS TEST!" Bakugou finally burst out, causing the nearby glass to crack and break "AND THIS LOVE STUFF!"
"Ah! The window! Look out!" Ochako called, quickly diving out of the way as glass fell down upon them like rain.
"BAKUGOU…!"
3-E GROUP CHAT!
FOREVER FLAT HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT
FOREVER FLAT: Hey Nagisa, whatcha doing over the summer?
Wanna come with me to I-Island for the I-Expo?
I've got an extra ticket!
GENDER HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT
GENDER: Sorry Kayano, I've already got plans!
I'm gonna be a camp councillor out in the boonies!
I'm really looking forward to it!
FOREVER FLAT: Hey Toru, what about you?
Wanna come with me to I-Island?
FLASHLIGHT HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT
FLASHLIGHT: Sure! I'll pack my hero costume!
