Learning to Trust


"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength."
-Corrie Ten Boom


Chapter 16: Worry

Tsukauchi didn't call Toshinori for two days. Apparently the Musutafu police force saw no reason to share information with an agent from a different district-even if that agent was a well-known detective who personally communicated with All Might. In fact, by the time Tsukauchi finally got enough information to feel like it was worth bothering him with a call, Toshinori probably could have gathered up enough strength to just contact them as All Might..

At least, Tsukauchi hoped so…

Toshi was supposed to have at least three or four hours daily in his hero form. Yes, that time had dwindled a bit since he'd first met the man, but honestly the only time Tsukauchi could remember that Toshi hadn't been able to transform at all was after he'd fallen ill with meningitis. He'd been hospitalized for nearly two weeks after he became septic. When he'd been released, he'd looked even frailer than usual, and Tsukauchi had been genuinely afraid. Especially when he'd discovered that Toshi had told the media that All Might was taking a trip out of country for a few weeks. It had seemed natural to the rest of the world, of course. Even world-famous heroes took vacations. But Tsukauchi had known it was meant to give Toshinori enough time to build up his strength again without drawing attention to All Might's absence. The way his friend had described it, Toshi technically could still transform, but he wouldn't have much time as All Might and the effort would likely send him into a relapse.

Tsukauchi sighed, running his hand through his short, black hair. He reached for his coffee, accidentally knocking over the picture that sat beside it on his too-cluttered desk. He put the mug to his lips and took a long drink. The coffee was cold. He drank it anyway, unsurprised. It had been sitting abandoned on his desk for the last two hours as he'd rushed to get his own work done early enough to work on Toshi's task. Any little thing he could do to lessen the burden on his friend was one fewer thing Toshinori would privately push himself to complete... Because God forbid he just tell me what's wrong. He might "worry" me...

He snorted, that thought process putting a sour expression on his face. Of course I'm worried when he doesn't answer the phone for a week... What's the point of putting me as an emergency contact if he doesn't contact me when there's an emergency? He sipped the coffee again, reaching over to fix the picture. An irrational flare of anger flickered inside of the normally easygoing detective as the source of his irritation smiled back up at him from the picture. So help me if he almost died again and no one told me, I'll kill him myself. He tried to force his frustration to the back of his mind, aware that he was less angry at the man himself and more frustrated at not being able to help with the real problem. He began organizing the information in his notes for Toshi, hoping that something in this mess would be useful. He wasn't even sure exactly what the man was looking for.. It had sounded like he had a lead, but hadn't been in a secure enough location to give many details. And they both knew better than to send critical details via text.

He pulled out his phone, shooting a quick message: Toshi, I have what you asked for. Are you someplace we can talk?

The detective sighed, letting his eyes wander to the picture on his desk again. He had mixed feelings about this whole UA teaching gig. First of all, Toshinori was no teacher. You don't hire a prodigy to teach. Second, UA wasn't terribly far, but it was far enough away that Tsukauchi couldn't just stop in and check up on him when he noticed the man running himself ragged or becoming distant.

An annoying little voice in the back of his mind chimed in, reminding him that at UA, Toshi would also finally be spending significant time with people more like him, and likely wouldn't need the harried detective to keep him alive and social anymore. Which is a good thing for him, he concluded firmly. He needs more friends. It isn't healthy that I'm the only person aside from his doctors that he talks to.

And, the big positive of working at UA—the main reason Tsukauchi had kept his opinions of this new job to himself—was that if All Might was teaching, he'd no longer have to be an active hero. Honestly, Toshi's health was getting worse, not that the hero ever mentioned it, but anyone who spent time with him could tell. He coughed more often now. There was more blood. He was winded far too easily. And most alarmingly, Toshi was suddenly putting forth some effort to follow his doctors' orders.

If that weren't enough to worry Tsukauchi, Toshi had recently taken to making enigmatic little comments that deeply worried the detective. For instance when Tsuakuchi had mentioned taking it easy, so he'd have enough strength to enjoy retirement, Toshi had just chuckled and stated that he'd be "crossing the finish line" before that even came into play. And then there was the sudden insistence that he was running out of time to find a successor. Naomasa's brow furrowed. Likely he'd just meant that his handle on the quirk was fading, and he needed to pass it on soon. But there was something about the way he'd said it that bothered Tsuakuchi.

As a detective, he loved a good mystery, but not when that mystery revolved around one of his friends. Toshi was a good man, even when he was just being an ordinary citizen. Helping people seemed to come as naturally to him as breathing, so much so that he didn't even seem to notice he was doing it. And of course, that was part of the problem. As Toshi's time as a Pro faded, Tsukauchi knew that Toshi felt more and more helpless, even though Yagi-san was more well-liked, if not as respected, at Might Tower than All Might, himself. A person like that should be surrounded by people who cared about him and supported him and kept him from doing idiotic things. But no. It seemed as though he had no one in his corner except an entire army of frustrated medical professionals and one socially distant detective who'd joined his inner circle on accident.

He tapped the end of his pencil on his desk blotter nervously, his eyes back on the picture. It was nice to see his friend smiling. It happened less and less often lately.

His phone buzzed suddenly, startling him. Tsukauchi glanced down at the incoming text.

Toshinori: Still on campus. Be here awhile. Have to see nurse. Nothing serious. You have something?

Tsukauchi smiled at the short, clipped texts of his friend. Always in a hurry, aren't you, Toshi? He picked up the phone, responding, I don't have much, but if you need more than this, All Might himself is going to have to ask for it.

There was another shorter pause with an indication that Toshi was answering.

Toshinori: Call me in five. I'll get somewhere quieter.

Another pause. Then...

Toshinori: Thank you. I owe you. Just name it.

Tsukauchi chuckled at that, glancing at the time. Five minutes would be just about eleven. You always offer that. When are you going to learn I'm not going to take you up on it?

Although this time he was tempted to make just one request: Take care of yourself.


Toshinori slipped into the teacher's lounge, setting his briefcase on a coffee table in an unoccupied corner of the quiet room. Light dimly filtered through the blinds in the room giving it a peaceful feeling. Most of the teachers had class until around 11:30, so the room would likely stay clear long enough for a quick conversation.

Toshi smiled faintly as he eased himself into the overstuffed armchair and leaned forward to pop the worn leather case open, pulling out a pen and the legal pad where he'd been keeping his own mess of disorganized notes. He was honestly looking forward to chatting with Naomasa, even if it were only to talk work for a few minutes. That was another issue he had with coming to UA. He wouldn't be able to spend time with Naomasa. Sure, Toshi knew that theirs was really just a work friendship more than anything. Naomasa had his own friends. He didn't need to be catering to some dying hero's pathetic cries for attention. A little voice in the back of his mind added, He's probably relieved that you're coming here, so he can get back to having his own life. He certainly hadn't had much to say when Toshi had casually mentioned coming to UA.

He shook his head to clear those thoughts. It didn't matter. He was here now. And if he didn't stay-and it was really becoming obvious that he wasn't suited to this job-Toshi swore to himself he'd work harder at leaving poor Naomasa alone.

But not now. Right now Toshi needed him. I need his help, he quickly amended. On the case. He tugged his phone out of his pocket and shot a text to his friend: I'm ready.

Tsukauchi must have been waiting for the message, because almost immediately after the text was sent, Toshinori's phone began vibrating.

He answered after one ring. "Hey, Tsukauchi. Thanks for calling. I know you're busy."

"It's no problem, Toshi. How are you doing?"

Toshinori grinned at that. Their conversations were comfortable and predictable. It was a relief after all of the chaos here at UA. "Oh, I'm fine," he replied mildly. "Can't complain. Wouldn't do any good anyway." He chuckled softly.

There was a long pause on the other end of the line before Naomasa replied in a tight voice that surprised Toshinori. "I know what 'fine' means to you. That doesn't make me feel any better. Why didn't you answer your phone for a week? And why were you out of commission last time we talked?"

Toshi blinked in surprise. This was new. "It's nothing. Things got a little crazy here for a couple of days and I had to visit Recovery Girl. That's all."

"Not good enough. Try again," Naomasa said in a hushed voice. Toshi could hear someone talking loudly in the background. The voice passed before the detective continued. "I try not to pry. But I usually can see what shape you're in. With you 'a little crazy' could be anything from hay fever to an amputated limb. I'd like to know where you currently fall on that scale."

Toshinori blinked in surprise. This was very new. I'm pushing him too hard. I need to give him a break. No reason he should be stressing on my account… He forced a little more strength into his voice to put him more at ease. "In my defense, hay fever is probably worse for me than an amputated limb."

"Not funny."

Toshinori flopped back into the overly soft armchair and sighed, flustered and unsure what the right answer was. He finally gave up, shrugging. "I'm fine, Tsukauchi. Really. I was in the hospital ward because I was out walking when a storm hit. I got sick-pneumonia-but I was released the day I called you. No lasting damage." He hesitated, briefly considering explaining the backstory to pneumonia, but decided against it. Tsukauchi had enough to worry about. He really didn't need to add any more of Toshinori's poor decisions to his list.

Another long pause. Toshi almost thought Naomasa was going to start an official inquiry. Then the man finally sighed loudly. "All right. Just… be careful until you're healed up, Toshi. No chasing after this Floodgate by yourself. You are literally surrounded by other heroes who can help. Okay?"

At the mention of Floodgate's name, Toshi stiffened, sitting up. "Wait, is the guy they fought not in custody?"

Naomasa lowered his voice again. "No. The Musutafu police were very close-lipped about this guy. They didn't want to tell me anything. I had to call in favors just to get the basics. Something is really off about the whole thing."

"Tell me."

"You're not going to like this."

"Tell me."

"All Right. Apparently your Floodgate controls the weather—primarily precipitation—within a limited radius. He doesn't normally fight head-on unless forced to, but it was almost as though this time he was trying to get people near him."

Toshi nodded. It was about as he'd expected. "Of course. Shifter needs to touch his victims with his hands to use his quirk, so if it was him, it would make sense that he would try to get people in range."

"That's what I thought, too… but this is where things get… strange." Naomasa cleared his throat, and Toshi could hear the shuffle of papers faintly over the phone. "Shifter can generally only shift elements from one person at a time. But based on what I pieced together from a couple different sources and some reports, it sounds like your Floodgate copycat shifted the quirks of two police officers and a hero without losing Floodgate's form or strength."

Toshinori's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure it was just him at work?"

"There could have been an accomplice, but the officer I spoke with said that each time it was simultaneous with Floodgate touching the person."

"His power must have been somehow amplified, then," Toshi murmured.

"And then a purple haze appeared and one officer just… vanished."

"What?" Toshinori stiffened, coughing hard. His lungs, weakened by the pneumonia struggled with the painful coughs and it was a full minute before he had them to a manageable levels. "I'm sorry," he wheezed quietly, yanking out his handkerchief and cleaning up. "He vanished?"

"That cough sounds bad, Toshi. Even for you."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it," he replied absently, focusing on this new information. "It sounds like some sort of warp quirk was activated. He must have had accomplices. One creating some sort of amplification of his power and the other causing the warp."

"Maybe…" Naomasa didn't sound convinced.

"What else could it have been?"

"You of all people know exactly what it could have been."

"No," Toshinori replied firmly, running his hand roughly through his hair, and coughing again. "It's not him. He's dead. I made sure of that."

"You said yourself that they didn't find the body," his friend replied gently.

"No."

Naomasa hesitated a moment before replying, "You're probably right. You would know better than I would. I just wanted to make sure you knew. Just in case." He did a poor job hiding the worry in his voice, but Toshinori was too distracted to pick up on it. Shifter's never worked with anyone before...

"It has to be some sort of quirk amplification that's allowing him to shift multiple quirks," Toshi murmured more to himself than anything. "Didn't you say you'd dealt with some street drug that amplified quirks?"

"Yeah. Trigger."

"Any way we could figure out if he was on that drug?"

"Toshi, I'm not on that case anymore…" He paused before adding thoughtfully, "You could ask Eraserhead about it though. He teaches at your school now, right? He worked on that case in Naruhata, too."

"I'd rather not," Toshinori replied quietly. "He isn't a particular fan of All Might. I don't think he'll be very open to me."

"Then talk to him as Toshinori. You're much less annoying as Toshinori."

Toshi made a face. "Thanks," he replied dryly. "Could you just get me in touch with your old contact?"

Naomasa sighed. "Toshi, Eraserhead was my contact. He's the one I went to when I needed information on the Naruhata underworld. Just ask him."

Toshi's brow furrowed, and he absently ran his finger along the coarse fabric of the old armchair he sat on. "Eraserhead's … difficult to talk to. We're polar opposites. I don't think he's going to appreciate—"

"He's like that with everyone. Once you get to know him, he's more like you than you think. Anyway, the more people working on this case, the quicker it gets solved. I'll put some pressure on the Musutafu force for more details about the missing officer. You work through the hero channels and see what Eraser can find out through his underworld contacts, okay?"

"You don't take no for an answer do you?" Toshinori grumbled good naturedly. "Why do I put up with you again?"

"Because I know too much."

For the first time in that whole conversation Naomasa sounded like his usual self, and Toshinori burst out laughing, relaxing a bit. "True enough. All right. I'll see what I can find out from Aizawa. I make no promises that he'll talk to me, though."

"Do your best, Toshi. I'll be in contact as soon as I know anything more." He paused a moment before adding, "And Toshi?"

"Yeah?"

"Take care of yourself, okay?"

Toshinori smiled. "Yeah. Sure. You, too."


Author's Note: As usual, thanks so much to lolo popoki for betaing this work (and for helping me pick a good chapter title!) Thanks to all of you for reading the story. If you enjoyed it (or feel it could use some work and want to offer some constructive criticism), please drop a review! I hope you had fun reading!

Sincerely,
Sirius:)