SonicMax: It's not that I like spoiling things for myself it's just more like I accidentally spoil it for myself. Like for example with what happened to Midnight, I didn't know what happened, didn't even see any headlines. I just went on the BNHA fan wiki one day and saw her have a certain label.
(Line Break)
A few days passed since Izuku was dropped off at the orphanage. The police declared Hisashi Midoriya missing, which made Izuku eligible for adoption. He didn't like the idea of being adopted by another family. He didn't like the possibility that some random people will replace his family, replace his mother. He remembered telling Kisho about his discomfort with the whole adoption possibility and Kisho told him something he will remember.
"It's kind of like adopting a dog. People would rather have a beagle puppy than an old rottweiler," Kisho said.
"What?"
"This is how I see it," Kisho stated, "If you have a strong, powerful, or flash quirk your chances of being adopted are high but, it's most likely out of the possibility of them becoming a hero and the parents getting compensated for it."
"If you have a weak quirk the probability of getting adopted isn't that high but, it's mostly out of love for the kid instead of the possible fame that could come from it."
Hearing his reasoning of adoption Izuku didn't know where he stood with his quirk. He knows it isn't the flashiest but it could be seen as powerful. He also knows that his quirk could also be seen as weak because he doesn't fully understand how it works. He didn't even come up with a name for it yet.
Then a thought struck him.
"What if someone was quirkless?" He asked.
"Well if someone was quirkless then the chances of being adopted are very low," Kisho said looking away.
After hearing that Izuku remembered something. 'I'm still registered as quirkless.' He remembered that no one knows that he has a quirk. 'As long as I don't tell anyone that I have a quirk I won't be adopted.'
So that's what he did. He never told any of the other kids, Miss Azumi, or any possible parents coming in for an adoption interview that he had a quirk. He just kept lying about his quirk status to keep the chances of him being adopted low.
After a few days of being out of school, it was time for him to go back. He had mixed emotions about it. Sure he wanted to get some normalcy back in his life after everything but there was one thing that worried him, Katsuki Bakugo.
He was scared of how he'll react to seeing him again and how he took the news of his mother's passing. He remembers that his mother and Kacchan's relationship was one like an aunt and nephew. He also remembers that Kacchan would hold back so he wouldn't worry his mom. But he'll worry about it later.
Izuku put on his uniform and went downstairs for breakfast.
(Line Break)
Naomasa looked over the evidence again. He still doesn't know the cause of the fire. "It could have been an accident because it started in a kid's room," he muttered to himself, "But why would someone go into a kid's room with a flammable object?"
"There is also the possibility that it could have been insurance fraud but, why start the fire in a kid's room instead of an outlet or an oven to make it look like an accident," Naomasa wondered out loud as he paced around the room.
He started going over other possibilities like maybe the inhabitant of the apartment did bring a flammable object into the kid's room without their knowledge, or maybe the kid had a toy magnifying glass and left it out in a way for the sun to shine through it to start the fire, or maybe it was caused by-
"A QUIRK!" Naomasa exclaimed, before racing to his phone to make some calls.
If he remembers correctly there was a villain attack the day of the fire and that villain had a fire-based quirk. He was going to have to call the penitentiary that held the villain to see if he can hold an interrogation with the fiend.
He was also going to call the morgue that held the bodies of the victims from the fire. There is one body that he needs to look at to back up his claim.
(Line Break)
Izuku's return to school was uneventful. It started with his teacher welcoming him back to school but after that, it returned to normal with everyone ignoring him. The teacher ignored him during class, the other students ignored him during lunch, even Kacchan ignored him during recess.
He was confused by the last one because every day during recess Kacchan would force him to play heroes vs villains with Kacchan always being the hero and him being the villain. Izuku couldn't complain though, he liked that he doesn't need to get his new uniform repaired or use burn ointment on any burn wounds.
Izuku was about to walk through the school gates when the world around him begin to slow down.
'Oh no, please not now.'
*BOOM*
"Where do you think you're going Deku?" Bakugo seethed.
"I w-was j-j-just about t-t-to go h-home Kacchan," Izuku stuttered
"What home, the one that burned down or the one that houses extras with no parents."
"Please I-I-I just want to l-l-leave," Izuku begged with tears in his eyes.
Bakugo didn't listen as he grabbed Izuku by his shirt and dragged him towards the playground. He lifted Izuku to his eye level and pushed him against the slide.
"I'm gonna teach you a lesson," Bakugo said raising his hand forming an explosion.
Time slowed down for Izuku. He saw Bakugo move his hand slowly with little sparks starting to form.
*KABOOM*
Bakugo started to berate him after every blast.
"YOU"
*BOOM*
"WORTHLESS"
*BOOM*
"QUIRKLESS"
*KABOOM*
"PIECE OF SHIT"
Every time Bakugo launched an explosion at Izuku time would always slow down, giving him time to dodge. But couldn't because Bakugo held him in a position where he couldn't move. So he took it, leaving him with burns and his uniform tattered and destroyed.
Bakugo dropped Izuku and turned to leave, telling Izuku one last thing.
"It should have been you that died in that fire, not auntie."
Izuku just lied on the ground staring up at the sky with tears streaming down his face.
(Line Break)
Naomasa was at the morgue currently looking over the corpse of one of the victims. This person was known as Inko Midoriya, the wife of Hisashi Midoriya and mother to Izuku Midoriya. He was looking over her body and noticed one big difference on the corpse.
"The upper half of her body is charred," he said out loud.
And he was right, all that remained on the upper half of Inko's corpse was burnt black skin, a black skull with a little bit of burnt skin on it, some teeth, and a few strands of hair. If it weren't for the teeth and hair it would have taken longer for them to identify her.
"This doesn't seem like the fire was an accident caused by any household appliances, no this was caused by a quirk," Naomasa stated, as he continued to look over the body.
Now that he knew the cause of the fire, now he is looking for any evidence of who started it. He asked a pathologist to help him. They looked at her arms, stomach, back, and under her fingernails for any skin molecules or hair fibers.
They were searching for minutes and couldn't find anything. So Naomasa decided that the pathologist would keep searching for any form of DNA. The detective had an interrogation to hold.
(Line Break)
The journey back to the orphanage was a long and painful one for Izuku. Every step he took was pure agony. It was worse because the orphanage is further away from his school than his old house was. He saw the roof of the orphanage in the distance and was filled with pure bliss. He could finally put burn ointment on his wounds and crawl into his bed and just sleep the rest of the day away.
Izuku opened the front door and made the trek to the upstairs bathroom. He made it about halfway up the stairs when Miss Azumi saw him. "Oh My Gosh Izuku, what happened?" Miss Azumi exclaimed, rushing towards Izuku.
"I-I-It's nothing," Izuku mumbled.
But Miss Azumi didn't seem to listen as she checked over Izuku. "You're covered in burn marks and your new uniform is destroyed." She grabbed Izuku by the hand and lead him to the bathroom. She sat him down on the toilet seat and started digging through the medicine cabinet for ointment.
"I swear it's nothing," Izuku protested but still Miss Azumi didn't bother to listen to him. She found the ointment and bandages and started applying them to his injuries. It was a silent couple of minutes until Miss Azumi said something.
"Is this the first time something like this happened?" She asked sternly.
"It's noth-"
"Don't say it's nothing, because it's something." Miss Azumi said with a little anger in her voice.
Tears started to form in Izuku's. "I'm sorry," he said, looking away in shame.
Seeing that she's scaring Izuku she calmed down a little and pulled him into a hug. "It's okay, it's not your fault," she said in a low calming voice. They stayed in that position for a couple of minutes.
Miss Azumi pulled away from the embrace and looked Izuku in the eyes.
"Listen, whatever happened or what's been happening is not your fault okay. You need to know you're the victim in this."
Izuku started to cry after hearing her words. He never believed he was the victim, he always believed that he deserved the abuse that he went through. He believed that all the things that Kacchan said to him, all of the things Kacchan did to him, he always felt like he deserved it.
Izuku was pulled into another hug, but this one felt different. It felt like he was safe and at peace. It was like his mother was hugging him again. "Wh-What's happening?" Izuku was confused, he didn't know how Miss Azumi was mimicking his mother's hugs.
"I'm using my quirk, it's called loving embrace. It makes whoever I embrace feel safe, secured, and loved," Miss Azumi said in a soothing voice.
Pulling away from the hug Miss Azumi looked Izuku in the eyes. "Now, I'm gonna ask again, is this the first time this happened?"
Izuku looked down with shame, "N-No"
"When did this start?"
"A-A-After I was d-diagnosed as qu-qu-quirkless."
"Do the teachers or any faculty member know about this?"
"Y-yes, but I'm used to it."
"That's not good!" Miss Azumi was in shock. How could any school ignore a student because of something they had no control over. "This isn't something you should be used to. Whatever has been happening to you is borderline insane!"
"I-It's fine, you d-don't need t-to worry about it."
"I'm not worried. I'm furious that you had to go through this for years and no one did anything!" Miss Azumi got up to leave. "I'm going to make a few calls, you go and get some rest."
"You don't need to do that, everything is fine," Izuku cried out.
"Go and get some rest Izuku," She told him.
Seeing that his words are falling on deaf ears, he decided to do as he was told. He slowly made his way to the boy's bedroom not wanting to mess up his bandages. He crawled into his bed and waited for the day's stress and exhaustion to lull him to sleep.
(Line Break)
Naomasa was in a dull empty room with only a table, two chairs, and a door that leads in and out of the room. He was currently waiting for prison guards to bring in a certain pumpkin-headed pyro villain. He needed to know if the villain was in that building around the time the fire started.
The doors opened and entered two prison guards with a floating Jack-o-Lanturn in between them. The detective gestured for the guards to sit the villain down in the chair in front of him. It was silent for a few minutes. The detective was studying the pumpkin in front of him; looking to see if there was anything on its face to give him any information on the fire. He knew with this certain villain questioning it will be difficult.
"Pyro Jack, I'm here to ask you some questions," Naomasa said.
"NYEH" was the response that he got.
And that was the reason this interrogation will be tough. Pyro Jack can't say any words other than an 'NYEH'. And with his quirk relying on people saying actual words for him to know if they're lying or not. But being a detective for so many years he always found a way around this problem.
"So, let's start simple," clearing his throat Naomasa pulled out a couple of files. "It says here that your first crime was vandalism, is that true?" Looking closely at the villain's face for any expression that could give him away.
"NYEH"
Nothing didn't even flinch, which makes sense because it was the truth. So if he wants a reaction out of the pumpkin he needed to come up with something fake. He shuffled his files to one he knows that could get a reaction.
"Did you ever set any animals on fire?"
"NYEH'"
There was something but it was too subtle for Naomasa to notice right away. 'It was there but, I want to do a few more tests to make sure.'
"You burned down your middle school before Golden Week, right?"
"'NYEH"
'There it is again, but this time it's a little more obvious' and after that Naomasa continued with his questions. Some of the questions were true but a majority of them were fake. He finally got a better understanding of how Pyro Jack lies. Whenever it's a lie his 'NYEH's' has a faint stutter. It's only noticeable if the listener pays close attention or if Jack doesn't want certain labels or be associated with something he didn't commit.
"About a week ago an apartment building burned down, killing four people. You were seen by multiple witnesses that you were around the building at that time before Marigold fought you," Naomasa said with a stern look. "Were you the one to cause the fire?"
"NY'EH"
And with that 'NYEH' Naomasa had his answer. He started packing away his files before getting up to leave. "Oh, and before I go, I just have to ask. Are you happy being a villain?"
"N'YEH"
The two prison guards took away Pyro Jack, leaving Naomasa alone. He took out his phone and called his partner in this case.
"Atsushi, it's me," Naomasa said into his phone. "I figured out why we can't find Hisashi Midoriya."
