A quiet police precinct is a bad omen. The lack of commotion is reminiscent of the calm before a monstrous storm. It feels like the start of a new saga. Naomasa closes the door to his office, hoping that it'll be enough for him to bunker down when the predicted chaos hits.
The detective's tan overcoat and hat hang from a wooden stand, matching the man's demeanor once he plops into his seat. Even though Tamakawa ordered him a new chair to replace the damaged one, he can't get quite as comfortable as he'd like. A gooseneck lamp gives him a dim light to read over reports that still need filing.
But he first has to resolve the case that came before those. He uses the landline phone provided by the precinct, dialing Eraserhead's number. After a few rings, the underground hero picks up. Naomasa forces back a sigh of relief, expecting to have gotten Aizawa's answering machine instead.
"I don't have time for courtesy calls..", Aizawa's voice grumbles from the other end of the line. He sounds tired, per usual. Like he had just been woken up by the phone ringing. Knowing the underground hero, that's likely the case.
Naomasa closes his eyes, already frustrated with the man before they can even begin their conversation. Aizawa has a knack for giving him a headache. "That's not exactly what I'd like to call these.. 'Checkups'.. But they're mandatory.", the detective chooses his words carefully as he broaches the reason for reaching out.
"You're calling about the kid.", Aizawa says matter of factly. There's an audible sigh through the phone before the underground hero grunts out, "I haven't heard from him."
Naomasa sits up in his seat, rectangular eyes opening wide. "You haven't?", his grip tightens on the phone, "Don't you find that the least bit concerning?" Memories of the Tokyo Ghoul case when it first started slowly creep their way into his thoughts. The excessive amount of violence. The devouring. When Naomasa doesn't even hear the underground hero's breathing anymore, he presses the phone closer to his ear and asks again, "Aizawa?"
Aizawa takes longer than Naomasa would have liked to answer, "This unorthodox approach was my idea. I'll take responsibility if he steps out of line.", and his tone sounds much too reserved for such a serious matter.
Naomasa shakes his head, glad that the underground hero can't see it. It's evident that Aizawa developed some sort of emotional attachment to the boy. It's going to be difficult discussing the topic. The detective struggles to help the underground hero think logically as he too attempts to think straight, "He's not one of your students. He's.. He's a–"
"Don't finish that sentence.", Aizawa's harsh tone cuts the detective short. The line goes silent after that. Naomasa himself isn't sure what he was going to say about Akatani Mikumo, but he knows that it would have been regretted had he said it.
Though grateful Eraserhead kept him from classifying a young boy as something more extreme, Naomasa still stays staid. He swallows before saying, "Just don't forget the things that he's done."
Though unable to see Aizawa's expression, the detective is sure that the underground hero will keep that in mind. Even so, Eraserhead doesn't assure him verbally, "Worry about catching real killers. Like Stain."
The mention of another unresolved case gets the detective riled up, "Stain is–"
But Aizawa is ruthless, "In Hosu. You know where he's located and you aren't acting."
"A good number of heroes are assembling there to make up for our numbers, including Endeavor.", Naomasa grits his teeth and caresses his forehead in an attempt to relieve some tension, "You've never pushed this hard about Stain before.. Did something happen?"
"Ingenium.", the underground hero's one word response catches the detective by surprise.
"Stain's latest victim?", Naomasa recalls the incident report and even has half a mind to dig it up. He instead settles on asking more directly, "A tragedy, but what about him?"
He shouldn't have expected the relation to be to the underground hero himself. Of course Aizawa's answer would pertain to his kids, "He's the older brother of one of my students."
"Oh..", Naomasa sinks back into his chair with a hefty sigh.
"I think he's going to do something stupid. He accepted an internship in Hosu.", Aizawa's tone suddenly has a hint of urgency that sets the detective's nerves on fire.
Understanding what kind of intentions those actions imply, Naomasa is back to sitting up straight in no time, "And you're going to let him take it?!"
"It'd do more harm than good to put that kind of pressure on him. He'd likely just go after Stain anyways. At least this way I can keep tabs on him.", Naomasa had almost forgotten how logical the underground hero can be sometimes. With how dramatic Aizawa had been between his emotions high and his conspiracy theories, he'd have never guessed there could be any validation behind his decisions.
The detective slaps a hand against his face as he tries to resist moaning in pain, "So we've got two problematic kids and the hero killer." Whether the pain is mentally or physically, he couldn't say.
Aizawa sounds as equally strained but almost assuring to some extent, "Let me deal with the problem child and Iida. You just make sure neither has the chance to run into Stain."
Unfortunately, it's much too late to prevent such an encounter, and any assurement otherwise would be misplaced. Akatani's absence from Aizawa has sent him spiraling. Straight into the night, the ghoul's limbs spin with his twisting body. The appendages latch onto sides of buildings and pull him from ledge to ledge. The ghoul is present among gargoyles, stalking the night itself.
And right there with him, is another predator. The kind that hunts heroes. A self proclaimed vigilante that utilizes a katana leaps rooftop to rooftop. He's just as starved for action as the ghoul is. He thirsts for the taste of blood on the tip of his tongue all the same.
So when the two clash over the same prey that they had been stalking, it's to be expected. A low level hero who had used his status to coerce a young woman into an alley where he could have his way with her. Both hunters deemed him worthy of their aggressive nature. He's now caught in the middle of their quarrel.
The low level hero cowers in the corner of a new alley, arms barely shielding his sight of the violent battle. Stain parries two strikes from the ghoul's limbs like venomous vipers he must fend off before moving with unnatural speed to avoid being impaled by a third. When he brings his blade down to go on the attack, it shatters under the pressure of a fourth limb.
Stain stumbles before unsheathing a pair of daggers, ducking low under a high swipe of the ghoul's tentacles. He closes the distance between himself and his fellow predator, almost losing an eye but instead being cost an ear. His opponent is fast too, avoiding an upward slash.
But not dodging the second blade that knicks his shoulder. The ghoul reels back with a reflexive flick of its tails, one slamming into the hero killer's chest. Stain is sent into a brick wall, rattling whatever parts of his ribcage that aren't broken. He hits the floor just as hard, but doesn't allow himself to lose consciousness.
Whoever moves quicker than the other is who will win the match. What determines the turnout is whether Stain will be able to use his quirk before the ghoul can reach him or not. The hero killer runs his tongue along the bloodied end of the dagger in his hand as the ghoul pounces. Without an inch of coiling around the hero killer, the ghoul stops.
The bloodcurdling effect of Stain's quirk grabs hold of the frenzied creature, holding it in a place of suspended animation. The hold that the hero killer has over the ghoul is a form of paralyzation. Such incapacitation became the hero hunter's natural instinct in his way of fighting. The same way a Komodo Dragon bites its prey and then waits. The patient are deadly.
Stain snarls at the grotesque features of the ghoul's leather mask, deeming it unsightly as much as its quirk. "You dare to intervene?", he searches for a reason or a shred of conviction within the chasm that is the ghoul's eye. Finding nothing in the void, the hero killer rips the ghoul's mask off to see what kind of face hides beneath.
Only to be shocked by what lies underneath. A face much too young to witness or partake in bloodshed stares back. "You're just a boy..", the hero killer falters momentarily. But quickly recovers, shaking off the initial surprise. "Explain yourself.", his growl doesn't expose any sort of inner turmoil. Nor does the blade that presses against Akatani's neck to usher a response.
Whether it's due to the difficulty talking thanks to Stain's quirk or an act of rebellion, Akatani doesn't reply. The ghoul instead bares its fangs, the boy gritting his teeth together as he struggles to break free of the hero killer's quirk. "For what reason? Foolish youth? Thrill Seeking?", Stain doubts the interference of his hunt was anything noble. One look at the boy exposes his animalistic nature, an override of any proper sense or judgment.
Through clenched teeth, the boy seethes. "Can't help it..", his lips don't move but his words formulate just enough for Stain's hearing to catch, "Move on my own.."
The hero killer's eyes go from laser focused narrowed slits to broad and baffled. He rarely misjudges people and their intentions, but the boy's reason touches him in a way he didn't expect. The few true pure hearted heroes tell stories of how their bodies moved on their own to save lives. Stain begins wondering if the boy truly falls under that same category, fighting ferociously to save even a fake hero's life. Stain reconsiders, that perhaps, the boy is worth sparing.
Little does he know that he completely misunderstood Akatani's angered answer. The boy's body hadn't moved to save the hero. It had moved to kill. To eat. The ghoul's starvation had reached a point so extreme that he could no longer hold himself back.
When Stain leaves Akatani frozen in place, the boy considers himself anything but heroic. As a matter of fact, he starts worrying that he may be more villainous than the hero killer.