MHA

Chapter-3

I pulled up alongside the police vehicles parked near a warehouse and even from here, I could see that there were too many people around who seemed to be very excited. Not the kind of atmosphere, I expect to see at the scenes where I am called.

I put on the parking brake and said to Kaina, "For today just observe and I will ask you questions about your observations later. You will be introduced as my sidekick Lady Nagant. Don't refer to yourself or me with our real names, when a Pro is working, he is expected to only use their professional names."

I got out of the vehicle and moved towards the police tape with Kaina following along, the officer on duty seemed to have known me as he immediately allowed me to pass and commented, "Sleeper-San. It's good that you are here, I took a look inside and it's not pretty. Yamato and Tsukauchi are leading the investigation, they are right over there." He pointed at a corner away from all the hubbub.

I looked and noticed Yamato smoking which was already not a good sign, as he smoked at a crime scene when it was something particularly bad.

I nodded in thanks to the officer before walking towards them.

Naomasa noticed me first and lightly bowed in my direction," Sleeper-San, it's good you reached here quickly."

Yamato just lazily raised his hand, "Yo, Yasu. Nice to see you. It's a mess inside. I hope you haven't gone soft."

I raised my eyebrows at both Naomasa's respectful greeting unlike the previous time and Yamato's comment and nodded before introducing them to Kaina, "I am sure, I will be fine. This is Lady Nagant, she is learning under me as a sidekick. She will be helping us as well."

I then gestured towards the two detectives to Kaina, "These two are Detective Yamato and his understudy Detective Naomasa. Yamato usually handles cases involving quirks or villains in any way."

Kaina bowed in greeting which Naomasa reciprocated but Yamato just waved a hand and looked at me, "It's not pretty, Yasu. She is a bit too young. Why don't you ask her to wait here with Nao?"

I felt Kaina bristle next to me and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry, Yamato. She's tough and she will have to get used to it as my sidekick eventually. Not all Hero work is pretty." Which was honest opinion as a person slated for wet works, she will have to deal with many dirty and dark things in her career.

Yamato took a deep drag from his cigarette before nodding, "Your choice." He motioned for me to follow along and Naomasa walked with us leading us to the inside of the warehouse.

Yamato motioned for Nao to speak and he pulled out a notepad before speaking, "The police was called by some workers in the area. Heard noises coming from the warehouse even though it was supposed to be empty. The first ones on the scene reached here at 8pm and were not heard from again. The backup arrived within 30 minutes; we found the bodies of the 2 officers inside along with other victims. The villains have already left after destroying their equipment."

Naomasa took a deep breath, "We were able to view a few images and videos from the hard drive of one of the computers. "He grimaced in disgust and I could hear the hate in his voice, "The villains were conducting experiments on quirks in an absolutely inhumane manner."

We reached the warehouse and Yamato nodded at another officer who opened the door, I was hit with a smell of disinfectant and blood not a particularly pleasant smell.

As we walked in, I saw the police had set up lights to view things more easily and that just made the horror more easily visible. There were rows and rows of operating tables on which I could see lumps of flesh which were previously humans for sure. But, not even one looked to be whole anymore with their skins peeled, organs exposed, brains visible in some cases and one thing I was sure of was some of them were just children and those looked like somebody had placed a bomb in them and splattered them all over the table.

I glanced at the walls and saw some balls of flesh which I presume were subjects as well, the entire place other than the horrific victims was clean and professional, with all sorts of medical tools and computers.

I looked around and then noticed a sound of heaving behind me and turned around, Kaina looked like she was shattered and was a second away from puking as she continued to look around.

I immediately blocked her view by moving in front of her, I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Nagant, go out and take a breather with Nao. Once you are composed, you can come back in."

I looked at Naomasa who nodded and grabbed Kaina and headed out, she didn't even put up any sign of protest.

Yamato looked at me and shrugged, "Told you, it wasn't something she could handle."

I looked around while observing all the details, "It is necessary for her to see this now while I am here to guide her. She will manage, we all do."

Yamato shrugged again, "We do, but not so young. Those HPSC bastards would make even a toddler a hero if had a good enough quirk without giving a damn about consequences."

I ignored that comment while walking around the warehouse, I knew Yamato had issues with the Hero System and I agreed with him about many things but that had nothing to do with this scene.

"Experimenting with quirks." I said, "Is something becoming more and more common these days?" looking at Yamato

He nodded, "Yes, we noticed as well. The Villain Factory is just one of many groups running experiments."

I nodded and continued, "They have a backer. Someone wealthy, they are using a lot of top line machines for the experiments." I paused before continuing "What's the end goal though?"

"Hell, if I know what these psychos think, I put my bet-on living weapon though," Yamato said with scorn

I touched a somewhat whole body with my gloves and then touched one of the balls of flesh, "These are still warm."

Yamato looked at me with obvious shock, "You can't mean…."

I looked him in the eye and said, "Yes, all of them were still alive when your officers first reached this place. The examiner didn't touch the body."

Yamato looked at the bodies and said, "Even he lost his composure. I told him to take a break and return. You reached quite quickly."

I nodded, "Get him in here. We need more information."

He nodded before calling someone on his phone, as I moved around, I was sure that this involved All for One, that man was the HPSC's top target and he was the one involved in quirk research even before I was born. I assume that the HPSC would put me to work on this case even if I hadn't been called by the police directly.

I noticed Yamato was finished and asked him my one doubt, "Why were the officers so excited? It's not something, I expect with a crime scene like this."

Yamato grimaced, "The chief called. All Might and Nighteye are coming here." I looked at him in shock, "All Might was personally interested in this case according to him. He pushed for taking over the case completely and shutting the police and HPSC but I informed the chief that All for One might be involved. The chief was able to put his foot down, Nezu was still able to make All Might, the lead but the two of us will be assisting as well."

I processed that and looked at Yamato, "All for One" is all I said and Yamato nodded.

"How did he know so quickly though?" I asked "Even we don't have all the facts yet."

He looked at me from the sides of his eyes, "I assume it was the rat." And I couldn't help but agree Nezu was an absolute nightmare to stop, his intelligence was off the roof and had a network which would put even the most influential people in the world to shame. The HPSC hated him with a passion for his blocking of their interference in UA and I had been warned about him multiple times. It seems like I would be meeting the monster first hand.

"Let's go, there's nothing else to see. It looks like the two officers were killed by super strength of one form or another. I want to wait for the report on the bodies and computers before making any conjectures." I said to Yamato who nodded and we headed out.

As we walked out, we moved towards the same corner where Naomasa and Yamato were waiting before, Kaina was leaning against the wall while Naomasa seemed to be comforting her.

We stopped near them while Yamato looked to me and handed me a cigarette which I took and lit with his lighter.

As I took a drag in, Naomasa and Kaina had noticed us and walked towards us.

I looked to Kaina, "How you feeling? "An inane question because she felt like shit, I already knew but it was the expected question and I got the expected answer of "I'm fine."

I let out the smoke before saying, "It was not something rookies like the two of you are expected to see so soon. But you will have to get used to it. It's a toll of the job."

I could see Naomasa and Kaina wanted to say something but Yamato cut in, "Don't worry, we will catch the bastards responsible for this."

That seemed to have put some determination in their eyes and I couldn't help but chuckle

"Of course. The price of traumatizing our cute kouhai is not something anybody can handle." I nudged Yamato with my shoulder at that statement.

He laughed at the joke and said, "Obviously, those fools must pay the price of their sins against our kouhai."

I laughed as well while Naomasa and Kaina looked embarrassed by the stupid jokes we were making.

Kaina looked to me and asked, "Is this something you see often? For the past 4 years."

I looked at her and shook my head, "Nothing so macabre. This is quite a shocker even for me."

She nodded before maintaining her silence and looked around.

Naomasa was still stoic as he looked into the distance when suddenly we heard a loud sound coming from the edge of the Police Barriers, "Fear Not. For, I AM HERE!"

Along with a gaggle of excited sounds and exclamations from the gathered police officers.

I took a drag of my cigarette again as I saw Naomasa and Kaina suddenly regain their energy and looking towards All Might excitedly.

We waited while All Might and his crazy fanboy, Nighteye were escorted towards us. Naomasa and Kaina looked ready to faint right there while Yamato and I just continued to smoke while looking at them.

All Might reached near us and immediately posed, "Young Yamato, I am here to provide assistance."

I found the pose to be cheesy and completely unnecessary but All Might was nothing if not effective, so I couldn't begrudge him his idiosyncrasies.

Yamato nodded, "Great to have you here, All Might. Want to take a look at the scene?"

All Might was about to say something before Nighteye interrupted, "I don't mind heading there but what is Sleeper doing here?"

I knew the crazy All Might fanatic couldn't keep his mouth shut, so I shot back, "My job unlike certain altar worshipping fools."

Nighteye immediately puffed out his chest and flared his nostrils like some useless boar and was about to give some useless reply before Yamato cut in, "Sleeper was called here on the request of the Police before you two muscled your way in. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you leave, Nighteye because he is going to stay on this investigation."

I appreciated the save from Yamato but I didn't want him to antagonize All Might for me and was about to defuse the situation before All Might cut in,

"Pardon my sidekick. Young Yamato and Young Sleeper, my sidekick will be completely professional in his conduct. You have my word." I saw him give a look to Nighteye who looked chastised enough

Yamato nodded and led us to the warehouse again, he warned, "It's not pretty All Might, Nighteye."

All Might nodded his head while Nighteye rolled his eyes, 'Arrogant prick that he was'

While they headed in, I looked to Kaina and Naomasa, "You two follow me. The examiner must have seen the bodies. Let's go ask him some questions."

They nodded at me and seemed to steel themselves before the 3 of us heading in, I saw Yamato giving the details to All Might who was finally without his perpetual smile and Nighteye who looked like he was about to puke, 'Puke your heart out, you wimp.'

I ignored them and made my way to 2 men who were standing over a body and examining it carefully,

I headed to them and spoke up, "Any thing interesting you can share?"

The two men looked to me and then Naomasa before saying, "All of the bodies were alive until just an hour back. The villain must have killed them before making their escape."

I nodded as I already knew that.

Naomasa didn't however, "They will still alive in this state?"

Kaina looked pale once again and I ignored them while looking at the two men, "Alive because of someone with medical training. The bodies have cuts and sutures which can only be made by a professional. We are not certain about the nature of the surgeries performed but we speculate it had to do with special organs created by quirks and transplanting them."

I made a grunt of agreement and said, "Quirk experimentation, wanted to see if it was possible to transfer quirks by transplanting the special features produced by quirks."

The 2 men nodded, "We came to the same conclusion. But as you can see, the experiments were failures. If quirk transfers were so easy then somebody would have figured it long ago."

I nodded in agreement and asked, "Anything else?"

They shook their head, "Only after taking them to the lab. Identification will also take time. We should have the reports within 2-3 days."

I nodded and thanked them before moving towards All Might, "Nagant, Naomasa don't let it affect you too much. Focus on the job for now. We will talk later"

I didn't bother waiting for their reply and kept walking towards the group of three,

They seemed to have finished the discussion and were busy looking around,

"I was right, Yamato. The time of death was confirmed and it seems the people involved were professionals."

Yamato grimaced at that while Nighteye snorted disdainfully as though I was beneath him, All Might looked to me, "It's good to have your expertise in this case, Young Sleeper. Investigations like these are not my forte and I would need to depend on yours and Young Yamato's help."

I nodded at that, "Happy to help.", I purposely caught Nighteye's gazeand smirked at him. I couldn't help but be satisfied at the sight of him gritting his teeth to stop himself from saying anything in All Might's presence.

Yamato gave me a look and I shrugged in response.

"Yamato, Kaina and I will be heading back to chase some leads. Send the reports of the coroner and forensics after they are done."

Yamato nodded and I bade my farewells to everybody present there while taking Kaina along with me back to my car.

After seating ourselves, we drove silently for a while before I decided to break the silence,

"Kaina, talk to me."

Kaina stayed silent even after my prompting, and I didn't push her to say anything, "It's not what I expected when I was told I would become a Hero. Nobody ever mentioned about things like this."

I mulled over what to say in response to that, I glanced at her and saw she wasn't paying much attention to me, most likely still seeing the bodies in the warehouse.

"You are right yet wrong, Kaina. Most heroes are exactly as what you imagine, bravely fighting villains and dashingly rescuing civilians. But there is a darker side to the job than what is shown in the media, after all the society cannot have innocent children being scared and shaken from the realities of the Hero career." I paused as I saw her paying attention to me, "Since you work for the HPSC, you will be forced to see things like this in the future and maybe take some actions which are not really considered heroic by people."

I knew this was not comforting to hear at all but I believed being blunt and honest would serve me better in this case. She was still soft and had an idealized view of society which was put forward by the bureaucrats of the HPSC, I had to bring her down to reality and quicker I do so the better for her and me as well.

Kaina nodded her head and stayed silent.

As I neared the HPSC office, she asked me one question, "Will we catch the one who did this, Senpai?"

I looked at her and the comforting lie was on the tip of my tongue about how the villains would be arrested and justice would be done but I couldn't say it out loud.

I chose to be honest, "I will try my best."

Kaina had nothing to say in response to that.

Nezu, the Principal of UA was working with several sheets of paper in front of him and screens showing him various different kinds of information. He usually was very efficient in finishing up on his work but he had become busier ever since the case which was recently uncovered in Hosu.

He knew the culprit behind the case but the problem was apprehending the culprit which was a herculean task which even All Might's predecessors couldn't complete. So, now he was putting his immense intelligence and huge network of people to gather as much information as he could to track down All for One.

He idly wondered as he worked, why he even bothered to help humans after their actions against him. He knew if he put his mind to it, he could become a villain even greater than All for One even if others would call him arrogant. He himself had an honest opinion of his abilities but he helped the humans instead and maintained a strict moral code which he followed rigorously. Perhaps, it was just to show, he was better than the humans but it certainly didn't stop him toying with humans, nothing brought him more joy than playing around with humans.

His musing was interrupted by a knock on the door and he was greeted by the sight of All Might and his sidekick Nighteye entering his office. He turned off all his screens and cleared his table while speaking, "Oh, you are back very quickly. I assume that you weren't able to acquire much information."

All Might for once not answering with his usual exuberance, "That's right. We knew it was All for One behind the operation but there was nothing there pointing towards the culprit. They easily escaped."

Nezu nodded as that was as he expected, 'All for One was not a fool and even though he had a habit of role playing as a villain or demon lord that did not mean, he was incompetent.'

"So, the police will be handling the investigations, I assume?"

Nighteye, the loyal sidekick of All Might made a face at that statement which Nezu caught onto, "Oh, it seems like Sleeper is also taking part in the investigation."

Nighteye looked shocked at that remark but before he could say anything, All Might spoke up, "Yes, Young Sleeper was called in by the police for help. I hope that his knowledge and skills can help us in uncovering All for One's criminal network."

Nezu gained a pensive look at that, he knew about Sleeper, a hero working directly for the HPSC, he had a good track record of solving cases and dealing with cunning villains who took actions in a more clandestine manner, it seems like he too was investigating All for One independently on the behest of the HPSC. Perhaps, Nezu should manipulate certain events to ensure Sleeper could be more effective.

"That's good news. Sleeper is very competent and an outstanding hero even with his limitations. Perhaps we should provide him with some information, we have collected ourselves. It will certainly help him in his investigation."

Nighteye immediately spoke up, "I don't think that's necessary, Principal Nezu. All for One is a dangerous villain and we don't need to share the information about him with Sleeper. It's an unnecessary risk. Actually, it would be better if he doesn't involve himself with this at all, it could be dangerous for him."

Nezu smiled inwardly, human's pettiness never ceased to amaze him. Nighteye who was usually methodical, professional and an exemplary person would behave like a petulant child just because he didn't like someone would have been unthinkable for anybody who knew Mirai Sasaki personally. But Nezu was not so naïve, humans were a deplorable and despicable race and no stories of their depravity would ever shock him.

"On the contrary, not sharing this information would be more harmful to Sleeper. He has been following up on cases of quirk experimentation and artificial villain creation already. He is already at risk from All for One and as fellow heroes, we should support each other especially against such a formidable foe."

Nighteye looked like he wanted to protest but couldn't find any rebuttal at all and glared towards the side.

All Might looked more enthused about the topic, "I see, no issues with it at all. Young Sleeper is a promising young man. Any help, he can provide to bring down All for One is welcome."

Nezu smiled at the expected response and made plans to contact the HPSC to ensure their cooperation. Something which he never enjoyed doing but such was the price of finding competent help.