Chapter 4

The sound of rain echoed in the streets as it rattled against the ground and nearby surroundings. Underneath a tree, a little girl sat, one hand holding an umbrella as she waited for her guardian.

The day by now had nearly ended; the sun barely visible as it started to slowly descend into the horizon, tall buildings and dark clouds blocking the last slivers of light.

Eri absentmindedly kicked her feet in the air as she sat on the wooden bench, staring at the nearby store with glazed eyes as she waited; her hand gripping the umbrella hard as she was lost in her thoughts. In her head, she thought of one person that had not too long ago popped up in her life.

She was conflicted.

She didn't know what to think of Roman Torchwick; a young man that had saved her from her previous captors and was now her new 'guardian.'

On one hand, she disliked him.

The young man that was only a few years older than her was a villain; a villain who actively committed crimes and took glee out of it, not pretending to be a better person that he was.

She detested what he did, even if he did commit his crimes only upon other villains and criminals. He would rob, steal, and assault villains whenever he found them worth enough to fight and rob.

She felt ill whenever he had her involved in his schemes, making her partake in his crimes herself.

He was a hypocritical ass as well, spewing and going on tirades every now and then about life and lecturing her on life, saying what was good and what was bad.

She hated it.

But…

Eri gripped the handle of her umbrella tightly in her hand as her small face scrunched up in thought.

She couldn't bring herself to hate him as a person, like she did for Overhaul and the rest of his band of villains.

Overhaul was a villain that inspired fear among the ones that objected to him, easily killing and destroying his enemies with just a touch. His band of villains weren't any better either, though Eri had only met a few of them, they were all people who have committed a grave sin at one point.

Compared to them, Roman was like a saint. A man who didn't steal and take from the good, but rather stole from the evil and struck them down, even if it wasn't done with good intentions. A person who had eventually had their name spread in the streets of small neighbourhoods as someone who was somewhat of a protector, even if that was the wrong title to give him.

But no one ever knew what he was really like.

He wasn't a vigilante that took down criminals because it was the right thing to do.

He was a villain who took down criminals for his own personal gain, but never went after civilians because it would only hinder him.

And he never hid who he was. He would run and hide from heroes, but he would never hide when there were only regular people out on the streets. And the civilians didn't report him either for it. They saw him as a 'Hero,' albeit a bit misguided one.

Hero.

The very word the man himself despised with a passion.

But was he really a villain? Was he really a hero?

That thought remained in Eri's head as she thought back to how he saved her.

What makes a hero?

He didn't have to save her that day; he could have just as easily left her out on the cold dark streets in the rain without a care, but he didn't. He should have. He would have if he knew what she did. He would throw her out if he ever knew... right?

But... she had doubts.

He went out of his way to save her and even give her his coat to warm her, albeit reluctantly. Making sure she was healthy and okay, even giving her the last piece of food he had at the time as well.

He didn't even drop her off at a police station or to the heroes as well, even if it might have been better for him. It was to her own request.

It contradicted everything that she thought of the young man.

He was selfish.

Hypocritical.

Cynical of the world.

And overall, just a bad person in general.

Traits that didn't make up a hero.

He would always threaten her and others, constantly saying that he would never do such a thing for her again, and would leave her if she ever got on his nerves; yet he never did.

And... he was everything that Eri wasn't.

He was confident.

Strong.

Smart.

And willing to do anything to achieve his goals, even if they were wrong in the eyes of society.

She looked up to him that way. He had saved her when no one was there for her; he took care of her, making sure she never got in the way of danger and never left her even when he knew she would just be a burden upon himself.

And…

He reminded her how to smile again.

So even if he was a villain to everyone else, and even committed crimes that she hated deep in her heart.

He was still her hero, no matter how much he would deny it if she ever told him.

Eri gained a small bright smile on her face as she saw a familiar orange-haired teen come out of the store, a small bag of groceries in his hand, and an umbrella in the other. Eri stood up from the bench as she watched him walk over to her.

"Hey, kid. I got our dinner tonight, let's go," he called out to her lazily as he neared, before turning away to walk in a different direction.

"Mhm," Eri nodded in return and quickly followed behind him.

"Oi, and remember, kid. We're going to go out on another 'mission' again tonight, got it? You're going to be my eyes in the sky, or roof, doesn't really matter. Just remember to tell me what's happening around, okay?" Roman told her as he continued on, not even turning back towards her.

"Hn," Eri hummed softly, she didn't mind being a lookout again. It was better than some of the other things he made her do.

Eri shivered at the thought of looting bodies again; Roman didn't always let his targets get off easily sometimes.

Roman only grunted back as he had already suspected her to not answer with words.

The two continued to walk on forward, neither of them talking or making an attempt to start a conversation.

They were going out to steal from criminals again, and no matter how much she hated it, she kept it to herself. She wanted to help him as well, to repay him for everything he did for her, even if she for now had to help him with his crimes.

It was the least she could do for him.

o – o – o – o – o

The sound of papers shuffling echoed throughout the mostly empty room, where many more folders and documents were stacked around.

In the middle of the room sat a wooden desk, on it were many folders and documents of recent villain attacks and a few investigations. Beside the many folders was a computer that showed security footage from a few storefront cameras, though they were all blurry from the recent rain in the past few days.

And sat behind the desk was a man with short black hair, neatly organizing the papers and folders on his desk as he shifted through them, occasionally writing something down every now and then onto them.

He was Tsukauchi Naomasa, the head detective of the police department.

Tsukauchi brought a hand to his mouth as he yawned, leaning back onto his chair as he stretched a bit.

He has been very stressed out for the last few days due to the recent complications of the nearby Yakuza.

Four weeks ago, a few members of the Shie Hassaikai group were attacked in the middle of the street in the dead of night by an unknown attacker. What made this case so stressed-inducing though, was that the group wasn't attacked by any known villains or vigilantes, making the attacker a complete mystery and his workload very large.

As for the Shie Hassaikai, even if they were a known villain group, they got off scot-free due to not committing any actual crimes they could be charged or accounted for.

As for the attacker, the Shie Hassaikai answered that they weren't able to see them that well in the rain, only responding with that the attacker was a male with a white coat and cane.

Tsukauchi groaned; this wasn't much information to work with at all. He had picked up this case only a few week ago and other than the explosive residue on the ground and destruction of the street, they knew nothing else of the attacker's quirk or identity.

He'll need to present this to the chief sooner or later. And for now, this was the best he was going to get.

Knock-knock.

Tsukauchi looked up from his papers as his door opened, and came in a familiar dog-headed chief, Tsuragamae Kenji.

Speak of the devil. He cursed to himself.

"Hey, chief, anything I could do for you?" Tsukauchi asked.

"Ah, yes. I'm here to ask if the reports on the Shie Hassaikai incident have been completed woof," Tsuragamae responded.

"Yeeeeepp… got it all finished. It really isn't much at all though," Tsukauchi yawned, slowly getting up from his chair and picking up one of the larger folders.

"Thank you very much, sorry for hounding you for this over the last few days woof," Tsuragamae apologetically smiled, or what can come close to one with his canine face.

"No, it's no problem, really. And I understand, anything that has to do with the Yakuza groups is usually a whole lot of work," Tsukauchi returned with his own understanding smile, whilst he handed over the folder.

Since Tsukauchi was the head detective, he had to deal with a lot of the more important cases instead of his other coworkers.

"I see," the chief responded, opening up the folder and looking over it for a bit.

The dog-headed chief suddenly hummed in surprise, gaining a bemused look from Tsukauchi.

"Hm? Anything wrong?" He asked.

"It seems that this case might be related to one of our other cases it seems," the man responded, quickly shifting through more and more of the documents inside.

Tsukauchi blinked, his tiredness slowly fading away as he listened.

"W-wait, what do you mean this is related to one of our other cases?" Tsukauchi quickly asked; one of the major problems with the case was that it barely had any information. If the case was connected to another case, than it would really help finding out more about what happened.

"It would seem our attacker, is one of the new vigilantes that has started to pop up recently woof," Tsuragamae responded, while tapping the document in his hand with his finger.

"Wait, a new vigilante?" Tsukauchi dumbly asked. He didn't hear about any new vigilantes though, meaning that they were either very new or he just didn't hear about it during his stressed-filled weeks.

"Ah yes, the new vigilantes matches up quite well with our would-be attacker woof. Even the time frame of their appearance and the attack matches up as well." Tsuragamae commented whilst scratching his chin.

"W-wait," Tsukauchi hurriedly stuttered, surprised by the sudden news, "hold on, and back up a minute. Who are they? And why haven't I heard of them yet?" Tsukauchi asked the questions that popped in his head.

He should have heard if there were some new vigilantes running around town? Not to mention if there were more than one of them, it seemed.

"You don't remember woof? You worked on this case before, remember?" The chief looked at him quizzically.

"I… did?" He answered back, a bemused expression on his face. Did he? He would remember if there were some new vigilantes running around town if he did.

"Ah!" Tsuragamae shook his head as if he realized something. "At the time, one of them was classified as a villain and the other was unknown, so that's why you probably wouldn't know of them or how they apparently became partners recently woof."

"A villain?" Tsukauchi asked, his face scrunched up a bit as he once again racked his brain. The chief would have to be more specific than that.

There have been many arrests and villain sightings over the last month, so specifying which one would be difficult.

"The one that beat Eraserhead, remember?" Tsuragamae said, trying to remind the detective.

"W-what!" Tsukauchi nearly jumped in shock, now remembering who the vigilante could possibly be.

It wasn't easy to forget such a case. Suddenly finding out that a pro hero like Eraserhead was defeated by a young man that didn't even seem to use his quirk, just pure skill and a tricky weapon. Not to mention the viciousness Eraserhead had described the teen to have.

Then there was the other vigilante, whom he knew nothing about.

"W-wait… and this other vigilante… is his partner?" Tsukauchi hesitantly asked, still shocked about the earlier revelation.

Tsuragamae, thankfully, had ignored his sudden outburst and answered with a straight face.

"Yes, and it is a little girl, probably six to eight years old woof. Though, for all we know she could be much older than she looks," He answered, shrugging his shoulders as he mentioned her possible age.

Tsukauchi only stared at the man with an odd gaze. He knew his boss wasn't joking because of his passive quirk, lie detection, but still – this only brought up more questions.

Tsukauchi just shook his head and pinched his nose-bridge. Maybe this was just all an odd dream and all the stress was getting to him.

"So, that villain is a vigilante now? As well as the little girl?" He tiredly asked.

"Well…" Tsuragamae scratched his head in thought. "They do stop crime, but they also rob the villains. So they are still technically villains, just ones that go after other villains woof."

"That doesn't make it better, chief." Tsukauchi plainly responded.

In his mind, vigilantes were no better than villains, and the fact they still committed crimes like robbery cemented that.

"I know woof, but the surrounding public does seem to think they are vigilantes," Tsuragamae said, his canine face contorting in what he could only tell to be an awkward smile.

"Wait, people know about them?" Tsukauchi asked quizzically, raising his brow in confusion. The general public didn't know too much of vigilantes. That was just due to the general way most vigilantes acted; in secret.

"Yes… they aren't exactly hiding who and where they are woof…" the chief slowly said, as if he was thinking of something.

Tsukauchi just stared at him in a questioning gaze, to which Tsuragamae just sighed.

"They walk on the streets in broad daylight, as well as using their actual names," he relented.

Tsukauchi blinked once, then twice…

What? Tsukauchi thought to himself.

Were they stupid or just that confident?

What type of villain, or even vigilante would use their real name while walking around in public? Tsukauchi just shook his head and sighed; the more he thought of this, the more confusing it became. He already felt a headache coming in.

"Well, how much do we know about them then?" He asked.

"Well, we have hospital records that show what the young boy looks like; as well as his health, and their possible age, from estimating it woof," Tsuragamae said, though he added the last part quickly to clarify.

"But other than that, we have nothing else on the boy. It is a complete mystery as to who they actually are woof," the dog-headed man shrugged his shoulders.

"And the girl?" Tsukauchi asked, whilst nodding his head. He agreed there really wasn't much information on the boy; he hoped there would at least be more information on the girl then-

"Unknown; even more so than the boy," Tsuragamae simply answered.

Tsukauchi sighed and pinched his nose-bridge. This was going to be a lot more stressful than he first thought. No, it was just as stressful as he thought, but way worse.

There was almost literally nothing on them they could work with other than appearance and name.

"Neither of them are in the government records?" Tsukauchi asked. If they were, it should have been easy to find out who they were.

"No, almost as if they popped up out of nowhere woof," Tsuragamae said, clarifying Tsukauchi's guess.

Knew it wouldn't be that easy.

"Sigh… okay, got it," Tsukauchi gave up in asking anymore questions, as it was just leading to nowhere.

With the lack of any important information they had for now, this case would probably lead to nowhere. The only good thing that came out of this was that they at least knew they weren't going to be a problem on the general populace.

At least not yet.

Even if vigilantes were treated the same as villains, one was still obviously better than the other, and can be risked being left alone for now. As for the vigilantes being kids, he could only hope they didn't get into any danger that could risk their lives.

"Anyways, what are their names?" Tsukauchi asked, he didn't even know the names of these two new vigilantes yet.

"The girl's name is Eri. Unknown if it's her family name or her given name, though it's most likely the latter," Tsuragamae said, to which Tsukauchi only nodded at.

"The boy's?" Tsukauchi asked.

"As for the young man's name…" The dog-headed chief scratched his head as he tried to remember, "If I'm correct, it was… Ro…Roman... Torchwick?"

Tsukauchi blinked at that, it certainly was an odd name to have in Japan. But, if what he knew the young boy looked like to be true, as well as having no records in Japan, it certainly made sense that the boy was possibly a foreigner. Hell, the girl may also be a foreigner as well, but that was just speculation.

Tsukauchi sighed; it looks like his days of stress weren't going to end so soon.