"What is your name?" asked the caped plague doctor Deku figured was the Nemoto person Overhaul mentioned over the phone. He felt a pressure on his mind as his interrogator's quirk pushed him to answer truthfully.
"Deku." he replied. While he couldn't outright lie, quirk or no, he was more than capable of twisting the truth and omitting facts. The masked man wanted a name? He considered his hero alias as a name in its own right, so he gave that.
"No family name?" he inquired, and the pressure resumed.
"Hazure-chi." It was true, in a sense; the Outliers were a hero group and family, and he was the newest member, but that didn't matter.
"What does your quirk do?" the man in the mask inquired.
"Stockpiling physical enhancement." the hero didn't think it was relevant that he gained it from someone else, or to mention chi. He only asked what his quirk did, and even then he didn't ask what it stockpiled from.
"Why did you think it was a wise idea to have Eri escape while you took her place?" Nemoto asked, taking the answer at face value; probably because his quirk acted as a truth serum. The thing he didn't seem to understand was that, in the hero community, there wasn't only one truth.
"I didn't, but it was a better option than letting her stay with you; I recognized the marks of abuse." the only double meaning behind that statement was that he recognized the mental scars as well. Shoto had the same feeling of pain, if coated by hate and anger.
"Do you understand how my quirk functions?" that was a hard one, but the pieces were lining up for the hero in green. He let the pressure build in his mind as he thought about his word choice.
"You can force someone to answer your questions in what they feel are true and relevant." it was dicey, but he refused to say that it forced him to say a truth instead of the truth, as then he could pick up what he was doing. So far, he had managed to rephrase his answers until he gave no information they could use.
"An odd way to phrase it, but true. My quirk is called Confession, and so far you can't seem to resist it. It's been done before, but not often. You don't seem to be able to though." the masked interrogator explained, and Deku's theory was confirmed.
'criminals love to monologue and explain their plans to those who will listen. This is true from thugs that can't rub enough brain cells together to keep from getting a head cold to the mastermind megalomaniacs; everyone wants to be on top, and that's how most get caught.' Anima's words couldn't be truer in this instance. So Deku decided to ask his own questions.
"Why do that to her though? From the scars, there were skin grafts removed and blood drawn by needle enough times that she had track marks on her arms. I can't think you did that just to torment her." Nemoto's head tilted as if he didn't think he was going to be questioned himself while Deku was wearing a quirk-suppressing collar and firmly tied to his chair. "Hey, give and take. I can at least know why, can't I?"
"Overhaul was right; you do have guts." the caped man responded. "Her quirk is vital to our plan. She can rewind someone to a previous state, and we will use that to bring the world back to the time before quirks and heroes; back when the Yakuza were feared more than petty thugs with powers."
And there it was. Deku was trying to understand why they would do this, and it was the most shallow reason many criminals had; a want of power and control. It was one of the most common reasons people had for the greatest atrocities in history, right alongside, if not combined with nationalism and racism. Nationalism and power-hunger made the first and second world wars require the Geneva convention, add racism and the civil war in the USA almost created a third one a hundred and twenty-five years later. The Yakuza wanted to be in power again by knocking everyone else down instead of changing practices and adapting.
"You seem to have taken quite a bit from my answer." Nemoto spoke, breaking the hero's train of thought. "What is your opinion on our plan?"
"It's stupid." was the first thing that flew out of Deku's mouth, but he didn't mind; this should at least make them pause. "It plays to the fact that people wouldn't stand up because they don't have powers, but there's a fucking monument, several in fact, of heroes that had no power whatsoever doing that to far larger organizations than yours. You know what they were called? Soldiers, police, zeroes, the titles go on. If there's an idea, there's someone who will fight for it to the death. I met one from my elementary school; he was a veteran who taught history, and he lost his left leg and right heel on a landmine, but when an intruder came in, he grabbed a baseball bat to fight them. Not because he was powerful, but because he thought it was better to die protecting his students than live on the sideline and watch them die instead. Powers don't change things; people do."
There was a pause as Nemoto took Deku's words into consideration. It wasn't smart, it wasn't logical, but the idea that removing quirks from the equation would remove heroes was stupid; he was a direct contrast to that idea before All Might passed his quirk to him.
"True, but the amount of opposition would drastically decrease just because people wouldn't have the guarantee of victory. Thank you for your insight though Hazure-chi. We will take your idea into consideration. Rappa, take him to her room." the interrogator called.
"You got it." was the simple response before Deku's chair was lifted with him attached to it. It looks like this was all the questions for today. He just had to wait for Lemillion to bring backup, but he could wait until then. Hell, he could stay as long as needed until his partner could come back; until then, he had to try and make their job easier when he does.
Lemillion stepped up to the porch of the massive house that Jesse had given him the address of. Before he could knock through, the door opened to reveal a tall woman of foreign descent wearing a simple violet dress. Her eyes were a sunset orange while her hair was raven black. Overall she was a stunning example of beauty.
"You must be Lemillion and Eri." she noted with a silky voice before stepping further into her home. "Come on in; I'm making food, and you two look like you need it."
"It smells wonderful." the blonde teen commented as he led his temporary charge by the hand into the woman's abode. "But do you mind looking after her while I report to my mentor?"
"Of course not." the she-wolf said, taking Eri from the hero. "I'll get her settled while you do that." Lemillion thanked her before stepping to the side and calling Nighteye.
"Lemillion, where are you? You and Midoriya should have met up with us by now." the calm voice eased some of the tension in the teen's body, but he didn't think that calm would last.
"We ran into Overhaul, Sir, and a young girl running from him. Deku had managed to calm her, but apparently, he is her guardian. After confirming signs of physical abuse, he managed to get her away from Overhaul. I am currently at the house of one of his contact, who claims to be the wife of a hero." he explained, trying not to think about the Obayun gripping his neck or Eri's terrified expression until he absolutely had to.
"I'll need to talk to him about this then. Hand the phone over to Midoriya." the seer sighed and Lemillion flinched, knowing that he had to tell him now. The sight of him at the mercy of someone with a quirk as strong as his was terrifying, but that burning determination in his eyes gave him hope he was still alive.
That hope just made his stomach twist further.
"I… I can't. Deku covered my retreat with Eri, and the last I saw him was when he was caught by Overhaul. I don't know where he is at the moment, or… or if he's even…" he choked out. He hated it, the inability to help, the feeling of uselessness, the rage and worry he felt for his partner, everything.
"Give me the address and stay there; I'll call the other agencies, and we'll mount a rescue, but right now I need to talk with you face to face." Nighteye responded with ice in his voice. The phaser wanted to do anything but that. He wanted to rush back in and save his kouhai, both then and now, but he knew he had to listen. He despised the fact he couldn't do anything to help but sit still and wait, but he gave the address and decided to stay put.
"Please hurry?" It wasn't a request, it was a plea. The desperate beg of a teen trying his best to save lives, but finding it wasn't enough when it mattered most, when someone was right there in front of him.
"Of course." Sir Nighteye said softly.
Jesse hummed a soft tune for the scared little girl she held in her arms as the child slept. She could project her chi around her, but after hearing about how she felt in Izuku's arms when Eri ran into him, the she-wolf decided to do one better. Izuku had spent enough time at the house that there was a guest room for him, but even if it was sparse, it had some things of his that held his aura.
Like the green shirt with his name spelled as endurance he often wore during his chi training. It was saturated in his chi often, and so it felt like him. Eri had used it to change out of her dirty white dress and she calmed almost instantly.
Jesse doubted she would take it off anytime soon, but that was fine.
Jesse felt sorry for the girl, and even the young hero who escorted her here. Peoples emotions were easy to identify by smell, and the two kids couldn't hide the fear they held. Lemillion's was more acute, from losing his partner on the first day in a stressful situation. Eri though… fear was almost all she could sense, but the switch from tense enough for running to calm enough to sleep just with wearing one of Izuku's shirt told her how much of an impact her student had on the little one.
Lemillion was done talking on the phone with Nighteye while she was stirring the pot and took some time to collect himself. Jesse still overheard the conversation, hard not to with the thin walls and heightened senses, but let him explain who was coming over. The she-wolf understood and figured that she would just make Anima's lunch for the next day out of something other than leftovers.
Then she smelled and heard two people outside. Overhearing their talk, she figured it was the blonde teen's mentor and the man's partner. Jesse got the tableware and asked the blonde hero to set the table for the five of them as she put the stew on the brass trivet in the middle before going to the door to invite the guests inside.
Nighteye could feel the magic flowing around the house Mirio had told him about, and if he were honest, it was a little intimidating. Either the owner of the house was a moderately powerful mage, or had something in the house that was powerful enough he could feel it from the entrance. Given this was a contact of Izuku's, he was betting the later.
"Damn, Midoriya knows people in high places if they live here." Kaoruko said in awe of the massive size. Nighteye had to agree; the house was on at least three-quarters of an acre of property and three stories tall. It must have cost a fortune to buy the land alone, never mind the house.
"Come on Awata, let's see how much we have to work with." the seer told his partner before walking up to the front door. Before he rang the doorbell, A woman carrying a sleeping young girl answered. Although Kaoruko couldn't tell, Nighteye started re-evaluating his newest intern.
"Come on in; I've made venison stew for everyone." The woman of the house said sweetly before ushering the heroes inside.
How the hell did he miss the Moon Huntress and Battlewolf living in Japan for the past decade!?
That's enough for this chapter, and I'm glad it was easier to write than the last one. Anyway, I wanted to give some more character to Jesse's perspective, since it's been a while since we've heard from her. Also, no, Nighteye didn't know that Jesse and Anima were in his country. Anima has been working mainly away from the spotlight, as he doesn't care if he gets good pr or not, and his fight with Archibald was overshadowed by All Might and Deku fighting All for one (and blowing up Kamino Ward). Jesse's Picture wasn't shown on TV, and he didn't know her real name. Anyway, thank you all for reading so far, and I gleefully await any comments you may give me. Till next time!