They were pulling us out of the classroom to talk to us one by one, but I barely noticed. I had taken one look at that monster and frozen. What was the purpose of all those years if I was just going to panic every time he showed his face? I was better than this wasn't I? How had I survived all those years if I was this big a coward? Was I even a real hero at this point?
"Mineta Minoru, would you come with me? It's your turn to give your testimony." Following him into the classroom across the hallway I sat down at the chair they had pulled up to the other side of the teacher's desk. The detective sat down opposite me and gave me a kind smile. "Let me introduce myself again, I am Detective Tsukauchi and for your knowledge, this conversation is being recorded. I have a quirk that will be active during the interview but I don't have the ability to turn it off. It will not affect you in any way. Is that acceptable to you?" I nodded tiredly, really just wanting to get these questions over with. "I'm sorry would you state your acceptance? we do not have video due to being away from the precinct."
"Yes, I accept being recorded and I understand you have an active quirk that doesn't affect me." Sometimes working with the police was such a drag, I understood they were needed, but they had always slowed things down before society had fallen apart.
"Alright, let's start with your account of events, and then ill ask you some basic questions and we will get you out of here okay?" At least he was trying to work with me.
"We arrived at the USJ, the villains arrived from a warp quirk into the center. I opened the door, All Might arrived, and then several of us were separated by the warp villain. I arrived in the shipwreck zone with Midoriya and Asui. Asui saved Midoriya and me and then we came up with a plan to defeat our villains. When we got to the center, we were quickly spotted and attacked but then All Might saved us. Then Snipe, Cementoss, and Recovery girl arrived with you guys and rescued us. The warp villain, the leader, and the big monster all vanished and then we came back here to receive care and give these testimonies." Okay basic question time.
"Thank you, that matches up with most of what we know, let me just get these out of the way and you can be about your day. Did you know any of the villains?"
I could never forget that monster. "No."
The Detective seemed to freeze for a moment, before quickly resuming. "Did you know this was going to occur?"
Unfortunately, I knew way too much. "No."
The detective shifted in his seat, leaning forward towards me, his smile somehow seemed unsettling instead of comforting now. "Did you do anything to assist the villains in any way?"
I didn't cancel the whole thing altogether. I should have. "No."
The detective stood up and shook my hand before pointing at the door. "Thank you very much for your cooperation, we may have some follow up questions for you at a later date." Getting up, I wondered what had shifted the tone of the interview. The Detectives behavior would have fooled many people, but my creepiness as a child at least assisted me here. I could tell when a smile was faked and I could tell when someone was uncomfortable. I quickly exited the room. What had I done to prompt that reaction? It was basic questions, I mean I hadn't been truthful, but I shouldn't have shown any tells right? They were tiny lies I hadn't been even remotely worried about. he definitely hadn't been worried till he had started asking me questions, but I had given simple responses. I was probably overthinking things, maybe he had thought of something while he was talking to me.
"Ah Mineta, please come join me in my office, we have much to discuss." Principal Nezu greeted me in the hallway, quickly ushering me to his office. There was tea waiting for us, but I did not partake. "I am afraid we have a problem that I am uncertain how to handle. But before that let us discuss what happened at the USJ." God, this was shaping up to be an exhausting afternoon. "I won't take up too much of your time, but there was something most troubling about the attack, did you notice it?"
"They were all wearing masks to counter Midnight, despite the fact that the staff change took place after our conversation, which meant it took place after the break-in. Therefore the villains shouldn't have known about it."
"Precisely right!" Nezu cheered as he raised a hand into there air. "There is no way they could have known before our conversation. I was in my office at the time of the attack, so they could not have bugged my room to listen in on any changes I made. I also swept it immediately after our conversation, so I know you didn't leave one. I also checked before and after each conversation, I had with the only four individuals other than myself I discussed this with. Each of those individuals has my complete trust and has years of dedicated heroic work to know better than to mention anything I had spoken about outside my office. While I will be double-checking and verifying my trust to be certain I'm afraid we come down to three possibilities. They anticipated my changes, which may be the most likely. It also means that you are either intentionally or unintentionally giving information to, or working for, the villains." I resented that accusation, even if it wasn't really an accusation I hated even the smallest implication I would ever help those assholes. "Second, that the villains have another source of information that allows them to glean information in a way we can prevent them from doing. This would put you at extreme risk." We never had found her, or figured out how she had known so much. Shigaraki had protected the information until long after we had been hunted to almost extinction. "Thirdly, that there is a second-time traveler, one who is working against you in purposes, and is aware that you are here. They may be attempting to use you to force us into a trap that cuts off any second chance in the future." Eri, no she needed to be saved as quickly as possible.
"Have you found her yet? We have to get her to safety as soon as possible." Nezu grimaced before placing a tablet in front of me. On the screen was a picture of what was most likely Eri when she was a little girl with her hand being held by a man in a plague mask. They looked to be entering into a residential area.
"I'm afraid that's not possible. We have no proof of wrongdoing at this time, we simply can not arrest him without proof. It's possible his crimes have not even begun. There is simply nothing I can do." No. I refuse that. If you won't do anything, I will.
"I see... May I send a copy of this to myself?" Nezu nodded and a few moments later it was done. "It has been a long day, I think I'm going to go home and get an early night. Thank you for your assistance Principal Nezu." The rodent smiled at me as if he hadn't advocated for leaving a child to be tortured.
"Of course, I will see you when school resumes again Mineta, best of luck to you." I finally knew what had to be done.
The picture had everything I needed to find Eri. Almost no one ever shut off the GPS coordinates embedded in digital photos, but especially not Heroes or Police officers, it was to great a tool to ignore and I had used this to solve many cases, unfortunately usually after the damage was done. I hoped that many victims had been able to find comfort in the arrests and punishments of their attackers. Now it was time to go. "Sport, a word please." Whatever it was, it couldn't have been as important as this... But it would only take a few minutes, and I needed the cover of darkness anyway. I entered the kitchen to see my father seated at the table, a bottle of rum in from of him already a fourth of the way gone. It had two shot glasses in front of it. "Please, I know where we are going, and rest assured we will go shortly. I just have a few things I want to talk about first." My Uncle looked... Resigned. He was still dressed in his hero uniform. I sat down across from him as he poured rum into both shot glasses.
He pushed the second one in front of me."I know alcohol can have really bad effects on growing children, but you are a grown man and I'd like to have a drink with you tonight. It'll be just this once, it will be our secret." This had never happened before the first time.
"What's the occasion Uncle? Is something wrong?" What was going on?
"I wanted to explain some things that I don't think I ever got the chance to tell you. Give some advice you might need in the future. And lastly, Say some things that I think needed to be said." He drained his drink and I followed suit, the burning not really agreeing with me, but I had been through worse. Why anyone did this too themselves was beyond me, however. "I wasn't always the womanizer you have had the misfortune to know. When I first started hero work struggling to break into the business, I went to this club one night. I met this girl who took a liking to me... Or so I thought. She used me as a hero for her own gains. Even as a practically unknown hero, there is a huge market for peaks into our private lives and she exploited every bit of that night for money and fame. Of course, the scandal actually worked in my favor, I went from unknown to top 100 in a blink of an eye, and soon everyone wanted a piece of me. At first, the attention was nice, being wanted was nice, and I just went with it and allowed myself to become this image overnight. Women wanted to be with me and men wanted to be me. It became part of how I did my job, save lives during the day, make stories during the night, repeat. I even cracked the top fifty and now I hold the 29th spot. Not bad for a man whos quirk only tells him where he needs to be."
He refilled our shot glasses and once again we were downing them. "Advice time. Do not follow my path sport. It's lonely, I never got what your parents had, and while I've enjoyed my time, I have more regrets than any man should have. Find yourself a nice girl who will be your hero, and you hers." He refilled the shot glasses again.
"Last one and then we are heading out. There was a young woman who ran into me on the streets just before I went to the hospital the day your parents died. She told me I had to remember what she was about to say, that it was the most important thing I would ever do in my life. One day my nephew would come home just when my quirk would reach the most urgent it has ever been. I would need to tell him that one day he's going to meet her and that no matter what he thinks, he's going to have to trust her and that you'll know when you meet her. It was so strange it just sat in my mind even with everything else that happened that day. I didn't believe her until one of the other things she mentioned came true. She told me two other things that have all since come true, and one that hasn't yet. Now, let's go be big damn heroes." He drank the shot and jumped up, grabbing a box from the counter I hadn't noticed before.
"Uncle... what on earth is going on?" He just gestured for me to follow him as he exited the front door. I saw a taxi waiting on the other side for us.
"Come along now sport, we have that little girl to save and there isn't much time now. We will not speak of it in the cab, you'll be getting dressed." He pulled open the door to the cab before hopping in while I followed closely after. "Give him the address sport, and please drop us off about three blocks to the south." Questions spun around my head as I did so. My Uncle shoved the box onto my lap. "Go-on sport, not a lot of time I'm afraid, it's closer than you think." I ripped open the box to find a version of my future heroic costume. I quickly started getting dressed more questions routing around my brain as to how he could have possibly have known. It fit perfectly.
By the time I was dressed we arrived, three blocks south as he had said. We went into a back alley where my uncle quickly opened up a sewer grate. "We have to be silent from this point onward or this doesn't work sport. Follow me." Into the darkness, he vanished. There really wasn't a choice was there? I quickly followed.