MHA

Chapter – 6

I was in the Hosu Police Station right now, looking at a board made by Naomasa and Yamato after several days of painstaking effort. It was a board which would have delighted any conspiracy theorist out there.

As it was a collection of seemingly unconnected cases which were pinned surrounding a photo of Kyudai Garaki and a mysterious silhouette, all linked together with red string.

As I nursed a cup of coffee given to me by Naomasa, I looked through the board. Some were cases, I had worked on or even knew about. Others were completely unrelated at first glance, but the information from All Might linked them to All for One as well. Honestly, it was quite shocking to see his grasp on the entire underground network of the country. I guess incredible strength backed by intelligence and a lot of time could do wonders for your kingdom building skills.

Yamato and Naomasa walked in with their coffees as well and took a seat near me,

Yamato gestured with his hands, "Impressive isn't. I can't believe we didn't know about him at all."

Naomasa nodded at that, "Both of you know only know about him through coincidence. Though I wonder how Gran Torino and All Might have so much information on him."

"That's not our concern right now. I am more interested in something else." I said as I glanced through the various different elements of his empire.

"Oh, what caught your eye?" Yamato asked me as he took a sip from his cup

"Motive." I said, "What is his motive? All crimes have a motive behind them, even if it can be as flimsy as they just enjoyed it."

"Didn't they say, he is interested in being the demon king like those mentioned in those old visual novels." Naomasa piped up from the side.

"Yes, that. If I wanted be the greatest evil, then what he has done is very minor compared to his goal." I said in response

Naomasa quirked his eyebrows, "This is not really small time, you know." He said as he gestured at their board

"No, no Yasu is right. All for One has all the time in the world with herculean strength added on top of that. If you are to be the demon king, how can you be satisfied with just one country." Yamato spoke up seeing my point.

"Exactly. But he is very subtle instead. More interested in his experiments and quirk research by the looks of it. So, there has to be something keeping him here in Japan."

"I don't know. It seems quite far fetched maybe he is just not interested in expanding anymore." Naomasa said but his expression showed he himself didn't believe what he said.

"I know some people who might know that information. Getting that information from them might be hard though." Yamato said sardonically looking at me and Naomasa.

I nodded and kept my silence thinking of his motives some more.

"Who? If somebody has that information, why don't we just go and question them." I heard Naomasa asking

I cut in at that point, "Because you can't just interrogate the number one hero in Japan. Not unless you want to be lynched."

Naomasa looked gobsmacked at that, "Why didn't All Might share the information when we met earlier? That seems like something absolutely crucial for our investigations."

Yamato placated Naomasa while saying, "It might be something personal to him. But it only makes sense, All Might said he is actively working to dismantle All for One's operations ever since he returned from the United States. That dedication is means its personal for him."

I nodded to show my agreement, "That's the problem. So, I am trying puzzle out the motives without stepping on All Might's toes. I don't want to be smashed."

Yamato chuckled while Naomasa looked troubled by what we told him. Yamato must have noticed something because he spoke up, "Calm down, Nao. This just shows All Might like the rest of us and has his goals and motivations. That doesn't mean he is not a great hero though. Look his record shows that less than 1% of his missions are related to All for One."

Naomasa lightened up at that, but I was getting frustrated as I couldn't see any connections between his crimes and any kind of motive.

I leaned back into my chair and groaned signalling my frustration, "I need a break. I can't puzzle this out."

Yamato patted my shoulder, "Calm down, Yasu. We won't catch him in a day. It's okay to relax."

I appreciated his help but this was still annoying for me.

"Instead tell me where your little shadow is today. How come she is not with you?"

I noticed the distraction but played along, "HPSC has sent her off for her debut. They wanted to make it impressive, so she is taking part in preventing a hostage situation from developing by infiltrating as a civilian and taking out the villains from the inside."

Yamato frowned, "That seems dangerous, she is just a rookie."

I shrugged at that, "She can handle it. Those villains are small time."

Naomasa moved near us showed us a video, I could see Kaina disabling the villains quickly and efficiently. One guy tried to run, but she shot him with a non-lethal bullet from her arm. It ended with her leading the hostages out.

I whistled, "Damn, that looked cool."

"It's quite impressive, honestly." Naomasa said, "But Sleeper, why didn't you go along with her? She is your side kick, isn't she?"

I could see Yamato stepping up to stop Naomasa from speaking but I spoke up, "Because my quirk is not suited for things like that. My quirk allows me to sleep for only 2 hours a day, that's it. Not something useful for hero work. That's why I work in investigation instead."

Naomasa seemed abashed at asking me that question and tried to apologise,

I waved him off, "No need to be sorry. You didn't know and honestly, I don't care."

Yamato cut in that point, "Well, if you can't think here, how about we head out to clear our heads?"

I nodded at that and stood up gesturing for him to lead us out.

The three od us were leisurely strolling in a park near the police station, it was a pleasant day, sunny with a cool breeze but I couldn't really appreciate any of that as I was still thinking about All for One.

Yamato stretched his hands out above his head, "This is the best. I can't remember the last time; I was out for a walk like this."

"It is quite nice, senpai. We have been doing cases back-to-back recently. My sister was quite upset with me when I missed her start of the year ceremony." Naomasa said from the side

"Oh, your sister just entered high school, didn't she Nao?"

"Yes, she did. She got into a top school as well. Though, my parents were quite worried about her moving to a different city. But they were assuaged when it turned out, I was working in Hosu too."

"Good for her. So, is she living with you?"

"Yes, she is. Though I hardly see her due to work."

Yamato smiled wryly at that, "Sorry about that. I will try to send you home early, Nao."

I spoke up at that point, "Teach her some self-defence or give her a pepper spray or something. All Might is planning on making Tokyo his permanent base."

"Oh, have you heard something?" Yamato asked from the side

"He is taking over an entire tower in Minato. I think it will be the base for his agency in the future."

"Interesting, it looks like All Might will stop his crime busting tour of Japan."

Naomasa spoke up, "Will it cause issues for us? I saw the statistics released by the Police Force. His presence itself causes a massive drop in crime rates."

I spoke up from the side, "It won't be too bad. We can manage, there are more and more heroes being churned out by the schools, they pick up the slack. Depending on All Might was never feasible in the long term, he is just one man after all."

Naomasa moved to reply before we heard a loud scream coming from somewhere else in the park.

We glanced at each other and immediately ran off towards the sound. As we neared, we saw it was a group of children who were screaming looking at what seemed like a mass of worms roiling about on the ground.

All three of us neared them and pushed through some bystanders gathering around, the parents of the children were already pulling them away with one man looking at the worms distraught.

Yamato flashed his badge at them, "Police, please keep a safe distance from here."

Naomasa and I moved to corral the crowd and keep them away while Yamato headed over to the man still standing there.

I pushed back the crowd to give us space and when I was nobody was trying to push through again, I made my way back.

"- collapsed into a pile of worms suddenly. I don't what to do" I heard the man say to Yamato.

He nodded and asked, "Her name?"

"Ryoko. Please you have to help her." The man was practically pleading Yamato at this point.

I was able to figure out everything from that, looks like it was an untimely quirk awakening. The pile of worms was actually the man's daughter.

Yamato headed near the worms and I saw them pull away from him slightly, "Ryoko-chan, there is no need to scared of me. My name is Yamato and I can help you."

The pile of worms stopped moving away at least, "Good. Ryoko-chan, now I want you to pay attention to my voice and try to do as I say. Now, can you try to push all the worms back together tightly."

I saw the writhing continue for a while before the worms slowly started forming a ball.

Yamato smiled at that, "Now, the next step will be easy for you. Remember, your body Ryoko-chan, how it used to look and try to go back to be like that. It should be easy for you, it's your quirk after all."

I saw the worms slowly rising and forming a vaguely humanoid shape before magically, I could see the worms start to form skin with a face and hair.

'Bullshit quirks' was the first comment running through my mind.

In an instant, the man had run towards her and picked up his daughter and hugging her, "Thank you, thank you so much."

Yamato just smiled at him, "You're welcome. It's was not that hard, Ryoko was able to control her quirk quite easily."

The man smiled and kissed his daughter's forehead and the girl smiled at Yamato which looked like it was from a horror movie because the girls face would randomly expose the inside and we could see the squirming worms which made up her body now.

I saw the people around were starting to take pictures and videos of us.

I spoke up to them when Naomasa joined us, "Let's go somewhere else. We are attracting too much attention right now. We can have a chat someplace more private."

All five of us were sitting in a private room in a restaurant close to the park and police station while sipping on some tea.

Yamato spoke up, "Well, it might be too late for this but let me introduce myself. I am Detective Yamato Ryutaro and these two are Tsukauchi Naomasa and Pro Hero Sleeper."

The man was surprised at the introduction, "A hero" His smile turned sheepish, "I am sorry, I have never heard of you."

I waved his apology off, "I just got my Hero licence. You wouldn't have heard of me because I haven't done anything yet." A lie but it was not necessary to lay out everything to some random civilian.

He nodded, "Thank you for your help. All three of you, I didn't even know what to do when Ryoko suddenly awakened her quirk. My name is Kishida Toshiro and this is my daughter Kishida Ryoko."

Naomasa nodded while Yamato put a hand on the girl's head who was currently busy demolishing the bow of ice cream placed in front of her.

"No problem. Though, it would be a good idea to take her to a quirk counsellor. They will be able to help Ryoko here understand and control her quirk better."

I piped up from the side, "Pay for a good one though. Don't go to the ones funded by the government if you want some good help." I pulled out a card from my jacket, "Try him out. He is very professional and has helped a lot of people I know personally."

He took the card from me and bowed his head in thanks.

Naomasa spoke up from the side, "Aren't you going to call your wife? Your daughter awakened her quirk surely you want to share the good news."

The man grimaced at that while slowly looking away from us and staring at his daughter.

"I am divorced. My left me and Ryoko when she was just 1 year old."

Yamato just patted his shoulder while Naomasa tried to apologise, I put a hand on his shoulder to stop him as well.

"That's sad to hear. She is a lovely girl; it must be hard for you to raise her as a single parent." I said making the usual perfunctory remark.

Toshiro shook his head, "I have help from my brother and sister-in-law. So, it works out alright for me."

He sipped the tea again and continued, "I lied to my wife, so you could say the divorce was inevitable."

I quirked my eyebrows, wondering why he was sharing this information with random strangers but didn't interrupt.

"I am actually quirkless, that's one of the reasons, I panicked when Ryoko awakened her quirk. I have heard stories but never actually seen a quirk awakening myself." He said with a sad smile

Naomasa nodded, "Yes, it can be quite an experience for the people involved."

Toshiro nodded, "I can see that. I honestly thought Ryoko would be disabled like me, but it's good that she has a quirk."

I noted his choice of words, as expected the man in front of me faced discrimination for being quirkless. I wanted to say that quirks are not everything but stopped myself because in the current society quirks are everything.

Yamato though did not have qualms, "You are not disabled for not having a quirk. Quirks are just one part of us, you look like you have a decent job and a wonderful daughter. See, you are doing well even without a quirk."

Toshiro smiled deprecatingly, "I told I lied to my wife. Did you know what the lie was?" We looked at him waiting for him to answer, "I told her I had a quirk, when we had a daughter and everything was going smoothly. I decided to stop lying and tell her the truth. I thought, we loved each other and had started a family, so there was no need to continue lying to the one who I would live my life with. But all my expectations were shattered. She called me useless and even hated Ryoko who she loved before telling me my uselessness would be passed on to Ryoko as well and she left us."

All three of us didn't know what to say, we just looked at him and his daughter

He smiled at us, "All of three of you must have quirks, right?"

We nodded while Yamato just activated his quirk, a beam of light was released from his index finger.

"My quirk flash light. "He said as he deactivated his quirk.

Toshiro just gave me an as expected look, "You don't understand what it is like to be quirkless. I am actually lucky compared to most. My parents and my brother never treated me badly even after the doctor gave me my diagnosis. I was able to study well and passed out of Tokyo U as well."

He paused and took a breath, "I had been told by my parents to never mention my quirklessness and I followed those words. If anybody asked for a quirk, I just said something they couldn't verify easily like an intelligence quirk. My grades sold my cover quite well."

"But, when I was looking for a job, I had to mention my quirks in my resume. That's when I realised what a sin it was to be born quirkless in our world. I was rejected from every place; I had applied to they gave me many reasons but I knew I saw others with much fewer qualifications get the jobs even stating I would take a lesser pay didn't help at all." He laughed bitterly

"My father helped me out again. I don't know how he did it but he got me on the quirk registry with a fake quirk. I immediately applied to a different company and got a high paying job instantly."

He stopped and took a sip of his tea, "This is the reality of being quirkless. Quirks are everything that's why I am happy for Ryoko. She didn't get any of uselessness."

I just looked at him and couldn't help but feel pity, I had it rough when I was a kid but this was a different kind of hardship from what I experienced.

Yamato spoke up from the side, "You should have not told us that. We are part of the police; you know and can arrest you for fraud."

He smiled at us, "I have become quite good at judging people and I don't think you will do that. If not for me, you will not do it because of Ryoko."

Yamato just laughed at that, "You got us. We didn't hear anything about fake quirk registry entries at all. We just had a conversation with a father and daughter who we helped out."

Naomasa looked thoughtful not paying attention to any of us.

So, I decided to help out the man, giving him some advice.

I cleared my throat before speaking, "You will still face some troubles. Ryoko over here." I gestured towards the girl, "has a quirk which frankly speaking is not pretty to look at."

The girl looked at us as I mentioned her name and we could all see her eyeball disappear and become a ball of worms. To be frank, it was disgusting as hell but I just smiled at her which she returned.

Toshiro just looked troubled; I was honestly surprised at his complete disregard towards the disgusting quirk his daughter awakened. Which in hindsight made sense, he must have wished for a quirk at all costs for his entire life. It doesn't matter what kind of quirk it is; a quirk is better than not having one at all.

I looked at him and comforted, "It's not all bad. Once she has better control, she won't face any issues in passing herself off as a normal person. But she might face bullying for having a supposedly villainous quirk."

Toshiro just looked even more troubled by my words, "But why? That doesn't make any sense. She has a quirk but that doesn't mean she will become a villain. She is still the same Ryoko as before."

I nodded and looked at him helplessly, "You know that and we know that. But others aren't so kind towards other. They will see her quirk and immediately assign her as a villain based on her appearance, they won't bother to know her or understand her. For them, she is just a villain, a target for the children with heroic quirks." I finished with a sneer.

Toshiro looked at Yamato like he was asking him to rebut my statement but Yamato just gave a tired smile.

Toshiro looked at Ryoko with complicated eyes, "Does that mean, she will have to lie and hide from everybody just like me even though she has a quirk."

He looked at us and I didn't bother responding. Toshiro was a smart man at least at first glance, he should have figured out all that needed to be said from my advice.

Yamato spoke up, "All's not lost. She has you just like you had your family. She will get through it and grow into a wonderful person."

Toshiro smiled at that but it was a weak one,

"She has a career which would be easy for her. It would not allow her to be a target for bullies and it pays well." I said to give him some hope. "She can become a Pro Hero."

Toshiro looked gobsmacked at that and Yamato looked annoyed, "Hey, hey Yasu. She is just a kid."

I looked him in the eyes and said, "It's just advice not something she has to do."

Toshiro looked at me, "Can she, do it? Become a Hero."

I smiled, "Her quirk from what I have seen is useful as long as she can be creative with it. You should know her better than me."

I just smiled and looked at the girl who was ravenously devouring the ice cream looks like feeding a swarm of thousands of worms requires a lot of food.

"Hey, Ryoko-chan. What do you feel about becoming a hero?"

She finally stopped her binging and looked at me with stars in her eyes, "I can become a Hero, really?"

I was tempted to grimace at that, seeing the result of the idealisation of Heroes always put me in a bad mood but I smiled anyway, "Of course, you can. Your quirk is amazing and you will be surely become a great hero. Your father over here, keeps saying he is useless for some reason, so don't you want to help a useless man like him."

The girls smile became wider, "Yes, Dad keeps saying he is useless even though he is the best. I will become a Hero and help him and everybody else."

I chuckled and ruffled her hair and looked to Toshiro who was smiling fondly looking at his daughter.

"Well, you will have to work hard, but I look forward to see you as a Hero someday."

Yamato looked to the side at Naomasa who was very quiet ever since they had separated from Toshiro and his daughter. Yasu had decided to head home as well, so I decided to see what was on his mind.

"Hey Nao. You feeling alright. You have been quiet for a while now."

Nao just looked at me, "Senpai, what did you think about all the things Kishida-san and Yasu-senpai were saying."

I smiled wryly; it was as I expected Nao was smart but he still had a slightly rosy view of the world.

"As I much as I wish it wasn't true. This is not the first time; I have heard stories about quirk-based discrimination. As for Yasu, he is perhaps a little bit too pessimistic, but that makes sense you don't survive on the streets by being optimistic after all."

Nao looked at the direction where the father and daughter had left, "I hope that the both them can live a happy life."

I smiled at that sentiment, "They will for sure."