"A-Ah! Kacchan!"
"Deku? What the Hell are you doing here?"
Izuku had been on his way to Ozpin's office when he had ended up running, quite unexpectedly, into Kacchan on the way to the elevator. Izuku'd see him get called off and, worried for his old childhood friend/bully/fellow Huntsman/this is a pretty weird relationship all things told, he ended up going to the office. Izuku suspected that Bakugo was being brought in regarding the rumors about it having been him who decided to vandalize the various men's restrooms across Beacon. Now, Bakugo was a lot of things but Izuku knew for a fact that he would never risk his position here at Beacon for something as simple and stupid as vandalism. So he wanted to go to Ozpin's office to provide a character witness.
"A-A-Ah... I thought that you might be in trouble and... well, you know, there's that rumor going about, so I thought I could tell Ozpin that-"
"Save it Deku, it's fine." Izuku blinked as Bakugo ground his teeth in annoyance. "The school faculty knows that it isn't me. Hell, they aren't fucking stupid Deku." Bakugo scoffed as he looked off to the side. "They just called me in to assure me that my position here at Beacon wasn't under any threat and to just bear through the fucking rumors until they die down and Ozpin can hire another janitor... not that I give a shit." Bakugo looked him right in the eye with a small scowl. "Anyone whose opinion even halfway matters already knows that I didn't do it, so I don't really give a shit if all the other losers in this school think I did it." His explosive bully just shoved his hands in his pockets as he started to walk off. "Now get the Hell out of my way Deku, the Runt and the others will want to know what's up."
Izuku stepped to the side, allowing Bakugo to push past Izuku as he muttered under his breath. While that should've been the end of it... Izuku admitted, he was feeling really curious. 'Bear through the rumors'... what?
xXxXxXxXxXx
"It means exactly what it sounds like Mr. Midoriya; Mr. Bakugo will have to bear through these rumors being on the mill here at Beacon until they pass by or we can get a janitor in who'll repair the damage... or until Glynda will concede to fixing it herself." Glynda sighed in annoyance as she turned to Ozpin.
"Whoever is actually doing this should be the ones to fix this themselves. If I do it now, then they'll just keep up their behavior because it shall have no consequence to them..."
"Are you sure it isn't just because you're annoyed?" Glynda frowned at Ozpin as the Headmaster just smiled behind his cup of coffee. After Izuku had ascended the elevator and informed Ozpin and Glynda as to why he had originally come, he had asked them what exactly Bakugo had meant by that. Surely Ozpin wasn't just going to sit by and let rumors of a student, especially ones as negative as vandalism, go on. It flummoxed him when he confirmed Katsuki story and, after a moment to recover, he frowned.
"What, why? I don't understand." Ozpin sighed as he took another drink.
"Understand Izuku that if we could immediately solve this little question that we would. Vandalism is a serious offense here at Beacon and the student or students perpetrating it should be the ones to deal with it... however, it seems our little criminals are quite clever in hiding their tracks." Ozpin waved his hand to a few pictures he saw on the table and, scooting up to look at them, Izuku saw the blown up restrooms. "The Dust used in the explosions are Ground, Base Grade Flame Dust, the kind of Dust that is used in the common ammunition Beacon provides students who are unable or unwilling to pony up the money to buy their own specialized Dust ammunition... as you can imagine, this all but eliminates any teams second year or above from the roster of suspects as all of them purchase their own Dust... and we'd notice if supplies of standard grade Dust were being moved into teams that otherwise have their own supplies. But beyond that, any student who had this ammo could crack open their shells, pour the Dust out and then use it for this crime."
"The fact that it's being done in the restrooms is further difficulty." Glynda added as she adjusted her glasses. "In accordance with... quite a few privacy laws, Beacon doesn't have cameras in its various restrooms or in student dorm rooms. The law suits this campus would face if we put cameras in either location would be quite... well, damaging for our reputation" She pulled up her Scroll and played a sped up video of varying cameras outside the various restrooms that had been blown up. "We've not seen anyone on camera who has carried in suspicious packaging into these restrooms before they blew up so they must have some means of sneaking it in that wouldn't look suspicious for a student to commonly carry... furthermore we have reasons to believe that whoever is doing this is using some kind of time-based fuse in order to put time in between them entering the restroom and the explosion."
"What makes you say that?" Izuku asked, curious, as Ozpin pointed to Glynda's Scroll.
"The students who went into the restroom preceding the explosions wouldn't have fit varying criteria. They either purchase their own, unique supply of Dust different from what we've gathered at the various crime scenes, they don't have skills in managing Dust and, even if we wanted to implicate an entire team of the effort, none of these youngsters were on the same team. So it gives us reason to believe that whoever is behind it is somehow delaying the explosions so that they don't occur soon after they've entered one of the restrooms. Also, no young women went into the restrooms before any of the explosions, so an obvious out of place suspect of that type is out." Izuku nodded his head at this and placed his finger to his chin.
"Well... don't you have suspects?"
"Of course we do Mr. Midoriya... but without proofwe can't just go around breaking down doors and interrogating students. You all have rights, after all. We'd need to have a reason to believe that the student, or students, in question are guilty before we could move forward with anything... and if they owned up to their crimes, all the better." Izuku nodded again as he scratched at his chin. Ozpin, seeing that, cracked a small smile that quickly disappeared before he shrugged. "At any rate, our last janitor quit before he had a chance to clean up the mess so the... crime scene, as it were, is still as it was after the explosion. It'll probably stay that way up until we hire a new janitor or until the suspect, or suspects, are caught and we can... administer an appropriate punishment." Ozpin took a small sip of his coffee as he nodded his head in understanding. "Good luck with the rest of your day, Mr. Midoriya." Izuku and Glynda both looked confused for a moment before he ended up leaving Ozpin's office.
xXxXxXxXxXx
"Honestly I still wouldn't put it past Bakugo to have done this."
Izuku frowned slightly at Weiss' declaration as she crossed her arms. He had gone back to his dorm room to discuss the turn of events with the rest of his Team and, while Nora and Pyrrha seemed to nod along intently, Weiss still seemed rather cross.
"Come on. Even Ozpin doesn't think he's done it and you heard Izuku; whoever is causing the explosions is doing so using the Dust used in the school's common ammunition. There's plenty of reason to think he hasn't done it... besides Izuku's own judge of his character." Pyrrha added as Izuku nodded appreciatively, causing Weiss to rolled her eyes.
"Izuku still insists on calling that thug 'Kacchan' after years of having been bullied by him. As much as I trust Izuku's intuition as a leader broadly, I don't trust his judgment on Bakugo in specific." Izuku winced slightly at Weiss's words, the girl swinging a hand around. "Besides, Bakugo could've just as easily nicked a supply of Dust from other students or, who knows, maybe his own team. Like I said, I wouldn't put it past him." Weiss shook her head as Nora frowned a bit.
"I dunno Weiss. Not even Ren uses common Dust now that he's on Ruby's Team and the rumors would be way worse if Bakugo was actually shaking down students for the stuff." Nora tilted her head at her partner. "You think maybe you're just being stubborn because you don't like the guy?" Weiss scoffed as she glared over at her partner.
"Oh what, and you do?" Nora snorted.
"Nope, he's 'really' really angry and can be a real jerk.. but Fearless Leader hasn't pulled us in the wrong direction before, Ren says he's absolutely certain it wasn't Katsuki and so far everything we've heard says that Katsuki isn't behind this." Weiss frowned at that and looked to Pyrrha, hoping for some kind of support from the former tournament fighter... only to see the girl shake her head.
"I agree with Izuku and Nora. As off putting as Bakugo can be, I don't think he's behind it." Weiss sighed as she shook her head, turning to look back at them all with an annoyed look... accepting, but annoyed.
"Well alright. If that's the case... well, then what? If what Ozpin and Glynda say is true then they don't have a path to proving who's behind it or not. It sounds like a cold case if I've ever heard one." Izuku bit his lip slightly as he brought a hand up to his chin.
"Well... that's not 'exactly' what they said." He looked up. "They just said they had no recourse without putting Beacon in an odd space with the law. So long as someone worked on this without being officially involved with Beacon's staff..."
"... Then they could, in theory, have a little more leeway." Pyrrha picked up on his train of thought, causing Izuku to nod.
"And of course, if 'they' got caught then they'd be in big trouble." Weiss said with a frown as she looked at them all. "I mean, who cares? You heard Bakugo Izuku; it's just his reputation and even he doesn't give a crap about it. If we just let it sit then the only bad thing that'll happen is the school will think he's actually a thug instead of just acting like one." At that Nora grinned.
"Oh, so you like having the guys in our restrooms then Weiss? How progressive of you!" At that Izuku saw Weiss visibly pale as she shook her head.
"Gods... so many puddles, how do you all make such a mess..." Weiss frowned as she crossed her arms. "... I suppose that there could be something to gain from putting... whoever might be doing this in Ozpin's hands..."
"It's probably Cardin."
"Yeah my money's on Cardin too."
Izuku and Weiss blinked in surprise as Nora and Pyrrha quickly put forward Cardin's name as a suspect, which caused the heiress to huff a bit.
"So what, I put forward Bakugo's name as the prime suspect and I'm just biased but you putting up Cardin's name as the likely suspect and you're doing this on solid reasoning?" Nora shrugged.
"I mean, the guy does pretty much hate Katsuki's guts. He's the only person who'd actually have a motive to do something like this in such a way that it'd set up Katsuki as the likely fall guy for doing all this." Nora explained as Pyrrha nodded.
"Plus he hasn't been shy about agreeing with the rumors. Out of everyone in the school, he is the only person I can think of with a motive."
"It could be someone random that we have no idea about who doesn't have a proper motive, like that old cartoon that used to air with the talking dog." Izuku put forward as everyone considered that point a bit.
"Yeah but that wouldn't make much sense..." Even Weiss seemed to agree, even as she shook her head.
"Even so, even if it is Team CRDL, you heard Ozpin; he needs solid proof. So if something were to be done about this, we'd need to significantly link Team CRDL to the crime... and that could mean doing something 'very' against school rules if we wanted 'actual' evidence..." They all shuddered slightly at Weiss' point. Eventually, everyone turned toward Izuku.
"Well Izuku... you're team leader and you did bring this up. What do you think?" Izuku paused for a moment to think it over…
"Well," he began to lay out his thought process, "I think we are going to need some help. We are more of a combat focused squad, so this sort of reconnaissance and espionage really isn't our thing," he did his best to keep his mumbling under control, all while he continued, "So...that would probably mean we need someone who has a long history in tracking and investigation. They also need to be able to be...discrete, so in case we need to investigate our suspects more personally."
"Ooh! Ooh!" Nora waved her hand in the air, "I know who!"
xXxXxXxXxXx
"I'm honestly surprised you were so ready to come Ren. After all, you know Bakugo personally, I figured it wouldn't exactly engender a lot of... positive feelings to know him personally." Weiss' comment was met with a furrowed brow as Ren just shrugged his shoulders.
"It's actually more like because I've been around Bakugo so long that I feel inclined to join you. The entire team doesn't think Bakugo's been behind this... it doesn't really match with his drive to be the best here at Beacon and not to risk that. In addition, I'd like for this matter to be resolved as soon as possible; while Bakugo's reassurances that he doesn't care about his reputation outside the staff and the team, it's still disconcerting to have a member of our team be in everyone's eye as a thug. It upsets Ruby that someone would frame her partner like that... and it's frustrating that doing so ends up tarring Team RSBR all together... plus I really couldn't say no with Nora so excited."
"WE'RE GONNA BE ACE DETECTIVES!" Nora cried out in her usual energetic way, the girl practically buzzing with energy as she glanced around. The four, well, five of them after MNVW procured Ren after a short detour, were well on their way to the scene of the most recent crime. Ren's close proximity to both the victim in question, Bakugo and the fact that Nora really was insistent in asking her best friend to join up with them all, left it pretty much a beyond simple task to convince the magenta eyed young man to join the investigation. There were risks involved to be certain but given Izuku's own willingness to see it through, Ren's strong belief in Bakugo's innocence and Izuku's team's loyalty, the investigation was a go.
"Fair enough..." Weiss' assertion was more curiosity than dead set belief at that point. While it was clear that the Schnee Heiress still didn't have any confidence in Bakugo, and wasn't necessarily swayed by Izuku's judgment of his character, the fact that Pyrrha, Ren and Nora were on board seemed to draw her into the investigation fully. "Let's just see what there is to find then. The janitor didn't bother cleaning it up at all and, judging by what Izuku described of his talk with Ozpin and Glynda, a fine tooth comb hasn't been used yet. We might be able to find something other than the obvious." They all nodded in agreement as, finally, they arrived at the restroom in question, a stretch of yellow tape placed in front of the door.
Izuku had to admit, there was a bit of hesitation to just barge right on in when the official yellow tape was right in front of him. Pyrrha and Weiss seemed to share in that hesitation as well as even his partner seemed slightly uncertain when faced with what, for most of their life, has been a direct symbol of 'don't trespass'...
"Let's go Ren, we've got a toilet to investigate!" Nora cried out in excitement as she quickly ducked under the yellow tape as if it were nothing. Ren just nodded in agreement as he, too, lackadaisically ducked under the yellow tape. With the taboo broken, Izuku and his remaining teammates ducked under the yellow tape and made their way into the boy's bathroom...
"Gods, it reeks in here..." Weiss complained as she looked around.
"Makes sense, a toilet was blown up in here..." Ren responded casually as they quickly spotted the toilet in question; it wasn't that hard to guess as a lot of water still remained on the floor around the stall in question.
"I'm feeling pretty certain that this place would reek even without that..." Weiss said with some disdain as she carefully stepped around, she and Pyrrha careful with their steps as they made sure their high heels avoided any suspect stains that had been left on the ground. Finally, Nora cracked open the door in question and they all just stared at the... well, at the crime scene.
The actual bowl of the toilet was almost completely fine, the water drained out sure but without much damage to it. The further back it went the more cracks there were in it. Then at the back of the tank, however, it rapidly became clear just where the damage was done. The tank was pretty much wrecked, blown right apart and with some ceramic still scattered about the floor, bits of the metal piping still standing for it.
"Alright guys... we're here. Let's do this: time to investigate!"
The five of them started looking about the crime scene, trying to pick up whatever pieces of evidence might be helpful to them putting a fuller picture of the puzzle together. As they all looked about, Nora seemed to be the first one to take an interest in the crime scene, dipping her head toward the tank as she frowned at some of the scorch marks.
"So, I've never really done stuff like this before but... I dunno, aren't you supposed to put the bomb in the bowl or something? I mean, that's how the prank normally goes right? Why put it in the back thing?" Izuku tilted his head to the side as he considered Nora's point, a slight frown on his face as he tried to think up a few ideas as to why.
He tapped his chin as he considered the tank and, after a few moments, he snapped his fingers. "I think it's pretty clear what they were going for. Like Nora said, usually in a prank like this a person would just drop the bomb in the actual bowl. It's be a lot more damage to the toilet and it'd make a lot more of a mess. Furthermore, there would've been no equal guarantee that the bomb would've gone off any better in the tank... after all, it's often got a lot of water running in it too." Everyone nodded with his findings as Ren himself brought a finger up to scratch at his cheek.
"So this tells us that the reason why he put the bomb in the tank would be to keep it from being found." Izuku nodded at his assessment as he looked at everyone else.
"We know that the suspect, whoever they are, was using some kind of time delay in order to make sure that the explosion didn't occur right after they left the restroom. It'd make sense that they'd want to keep the bomb hidden from sight from other people who might wander into the stall and, by hiding it in the tank the sounds of the toilet's various functions could've helped to hide the sound of whatever mechanism may have been attached to the bomb." They all nodded in agreement as he looked down at where the tank would've been. "It's our most likely option, I think.
As they all continued to scan eyes about, Ren and Pyrrha ended up noticing something around the same time. A frown actually formed on Ren's otherwise stoic face as he bent down to take a closer look at the water, while Pyrrha tapped her chin from afar.
"You two find something?" Weiss asked, curiously, as she tilted her head over to look at them. Ren nodded his head somewhat hesitantly as he quickly dipped a finger down into one of the grooves between the tiles of the restroom floor, much to Weiss' immediate disgust. It's to her surprise then that as Ren pulled his finger back, a slight film left on the tip of his finger, the young Mistrali boy's eyes narrowing as he brought it up and rubbed it against his finger.
"It's Dust."
"Well of course it's dust, the janitor... oh! You mean capital D Dust, Renny!" Nora said with a nod as Weiss' light blue eyes went slightly wide.
"What? Give me... urgh... jeez... the things I do because my teammates ask me too... give me it..." Ren nodded and dusted his fingers off into the palm of Weiss' hands, causing the girl's face to turn up into a slight scowl as she brought the material up to her eyes. She looked it over real quick and, with a slight gag, gave it a quick smell...
"Gods..." Weiss frowned as she brought out Myrtenaster and quickly drew a Pull Rune into the air. With a few applications of Gravity Dust here and there they all watch in some astonishment as a lot of Red Dust flew up from the floor and onto the face of the Glyph, Dust even separating from the drained out water of the toilet to reach up for the Glyph. "It's Fire Dust. All of it..." By the time all the Dust on the floor was gone, a good solid layer of the stuff had covered the face of Weiss' Glyph.
"Well I mean it's not too odd right? I mean, they had to bring it here in a container... if it was a Dust Container, then they probably just fumbled the lid."Izuku said somewhat plainly, as that was the possibility that first came to mind. Weiss emphatically shook her head as she reached for one of Myrtenaster's containers, disconnecting it from her weapon and bringing it forward.
"Well obviously that was a possibility that all Dust Company's considered when designing containers. After all, Dust is... very fine when ground down and could slip out easily if you let it and, even in its ground form, extremely dangerous to just let lay loose. That's why the containers you usually see for Dust are designed to interact with other machines... why do you think I have to tap our own Dust supplies into the dispensers rather than just having it free filled out of a bag or something? Dust is too dangerous to leave just out in the open or to allow for the possibility of a spill. No, wherever this Ground Dust came from, it wasn't a standard Container." Weiss clarified before snapping said container back into place in Myrtenaster. They all nodded with this new information as he take a moment to consider it.
"If Weiss is right that an ordinary Dust Container would be out of the picture because of how they normally function, needing a proper mechanism to get the Dust out, then we need to move on to other possibilities." Everyone nodded in agreement as Nora smiled slightly.
"Oh! What if he just brought a bunch of Dust Rounds into the room with him? I mean, no one would sneeze if he was bringing them in inconspicuously, after all, most First Years have Fire Dust Rounds! Then he could just crack them open here! It'd even explain why there's so much Dust scattered around; you'd probably need a lot of force to crack those things open!" Izuku looked down at the pile of Dust Weiss had collected and frown. There was a certain about that which makes sense, true... but...
"I'm pretty sure that if someone spent enough time in the bathroom to crack open a handful of Dust Shells in order to dump the Ground Dust out, that someone would notice though, right? I mean, sure, if you have something really pointy and a lot of force you can puncture it, but it'd still probably look weird on a camera for someone to go in for that long."
"Let's not forget the fact that Ozpin didn't directly bring up that they found Dust Shells or the remains of them in or around prior crime scenes." Pyrrha stated as she looked down around the toilet. "You'd think that would be a significant clue in trying to round up a potential suspect."
"It could be that they took the remains with them. It wouldn't discount the idea completely." Weiss brought up as she waved a finger in the air, Ren nodding in agreement.
"True, but if our suspect really was doing that you might figure they'd leave at least a scrape of it behind. You'd have to be 'very' careful in order to ensure that you didn't even leave behind one shred of a Dust Shell." Izuku nodded in agreement as he brought his finger up to draw attention.
"Plus I can't imagine it'd be an awfully quiet activity either. If someone walked up to the restroom while someone was busting open Dust Shells, they'd probably hear it... and they probably wouldn't mistake it for much else. I doubt that busting open metal shells sounds much like any other bathroom activity. I do think it sounds more likely that he's just using a container that wouldn't ordinarily hold Ground Dust in it." They all nodded in agreement, though Weiss seemed hesitant.
"Still, wouldn't that suggest there's a trail of the Dust being left behind? If the container's spilling it, you'd think they'd be finding Dust piles leading up to the bathroom too." They frowned as Izuku consider this point, tilting his head.
"It could be that it only really becomes a problem while the container in question is open and that it doesn't spill out or become hard to manage when it's shut. I don't know, there's a lot of possibilities... still, it's something to look out for in the future." Izuku all nodded in agreement as he let this clue settle for now, "All right, let's keep looking."
As Izuku chanced a glance around the actual zone of the blast itself, the tank, his eyes caught something. It was incredibly well hidden, just behind some of the pipe work and somewhat obscured by mostly lining up with the pattern of the floor, mostly. Dipping down into a squat he hesitantly reached down and after being sure he wasn't picking up something gross he lifted it up. He frowned somewhat as he tried to piece together what exactly it was he picked up. Whatever it is, it's completely charred black and grey like ash, burned straight through to its center. That face is easy to pick out because, as he messed with it, it crumpled pretty easily after having been wet for a while, almost like it had the consistency of paper... albeit burnt paper. As he glanced around he noticed a lot more chunks like the one he was holding in his hand scattered about, as if this was pretty close to the blast at the time it went off.
Izuku frowned as he brought the burnt thing to his face and took a quick sniff... there's something weirdly familiar about it.
He... he couldn't place it. No matter how tantalizingly close he was, he just couldn't quite place the smell. It's... kind of chemically and smoky... right on the tip of his tongue...
"Got something Izuku?" He glanced up at Weiss as he nodded, presenting the thing to her, before she can freak out he quickly assuaged her concerns.
"It's not what you think it is. I think it might have something to do with the bomb. The stuff... it's been burnt whatever it is and it's got this weird chemical scent that I can't place..." Weiss frowned as he said this and, bending forward, chanced a quick smell of it herself.
"Well whatever you're smelling, I can say one thing for certain; it isn't Fire Dust. This has a different odor to it that I can't quite place..." Weiss frowned as she placed her hand on her chin as he brought the burnt chunk back down to his face. Burnt paper consistency and a familiar, smoky chemical smell... what was it?
"Wait... could this be the fuse?" Izuku asked aloud as he turned over the little burnt clump in his hand. Weiss frowned slightly as she crossed her arms.
"How could that be possible? Fuses don't exactly leave a trace once they burn out, right? They... oxidize, I think it's called? Whatever this is, it wouldn't be the remains of a fuse." Nora nodded in agreement with this, though Ren seemed to be tapping his chin.
"... Unless it isn't a proper fuse." Ren muttered as they all turned to him, the magenta eyed young man pointing at Izuku. "I think Izuku might be onto something. If this was the container for the bomb that wouldn't make much sense for it to have a chemical smell to it. I can't really think of a lot of explosive containers that are required to be chemically treated before housing Dust in them... I've been around Nora enough to know that for certain." Nora nodded her head as she pounded her fist.
"Oh yeah, Ren's right! My grenades are just basically metal cans to hold all the bits and pieces and Dust together!" Pyrrha picked up soon after that as she pointed at the remained of whatever is in his hand.
"Weiss is right that this couldn't be a normal fuse. Firework fuses oxidize and I assume that'd be true of most of them... 'but' if you wanted to make a fuse from scratch..."
"You'd need to chemically treat it somehow." Weiss finally picked up as she brought out her Scroll, typing in 'homemade fuses'. Sure enough Weiss' screen displayed a number of potential amateur fused made from various common ingredients. All held the same; they needed to be chemically treated somehow and, even then, some of the fuses, especially those made out of a more paper-like material, would leave behind chunks not too dissimilar to the ones they all had found.
"Alright, so we know it's possible but... I still can't quite place the smell. It's on the tip of my tongue... gah, I'm going to feel like such an idiot if we ever find this out." Izuku sighed as he scratched the side of his head. It wasn't quite a common enough smell for him that he was near it every single day, goodness knows that'd make it easy, but... it wasn't something overly special either, something so distinct that he'd never mistake it. It was...
Gah, this was going to bug him for the rest of the day.
"Okay, so it's pretty simple to make these by the looks of it..." Weiss admitted as she looked over some of it and the rest of you nodded; even without a lot of experience, you all think you could pretty easily follow the instructions laid out to make some of these. "Still... why bother with a fuse like this? Why not spring for something more professionally made? It'd be less risky and it's not like these fuses look like they last as long as actual fuses. At most a good sized fuse using these methods might only be made to last... what, five, seven minutes? Ten if you really stretched it?" They all pondered for a moment as Izuku considered the possibilities.
"Probably to keep things inconspicuous," Izuku finally arrived at, "Just a bunch of commons stuff, so they could hide they had it?"
Ren rubbed his chin, and then nodded. He then gave the bathroom one last glance before announcing to his companions.
"I think that's probably everything we could find from here," Izuku nodded, "Now, we just need to find out who possibly could have had the time to do it."
xXxXxXxXxXx
"Run this by me again, Mr. Midoriya?"
Izuku couldn't help but swallow nervously as he scratched at the back of his head. It was a bit of an odd request to make, to be certain. Students asking to see camera feeds of the various crime scenes before they blew up wasn't exactly a... common occurrence. Nor was it a request that could be taken lightly; the videos were school property taken for security reasons. It wasn't exactly something that was given out without thought or reason, especially as if students did get their hands on these sorts of feeds there could be the potential for abuse. After all, if someone was able to become familiar with someone's schedule and their habits, well, the potential for messing with them or causing them some distress would be quite large. Izuku'd hate to imagine what would happen if someone like Cardin got a hand on something like that.
To say nothing of the fact that this was a massive breach in student privacy that he was asking Glynda to be complicit in.
But he steeled himself as he looked up at the professor who, aside from Toshinori, he was probably most familiar with. "You see, Professor Goodwitch... I really agree with yours and Headmaster Ozpin's sentiment that Kacchan isn't behind all of this. It also seems to me like he's being set up. My team and I have looked into this already and... well, we have some pretty solid evidence that there is something to that idea." Glynda stroked her chin as he quickly went over his findings, her eyes narrowing in thought as he spoke. Still, she didn't snap at him or start stringing him up, so he considered this a good sign. "Because of all this it seems really likely that, whoever's behind this, they're doing it to try to cause problems with Kacchan. We have some ideas as to some suspects but we'd feel a lot better going into this if we could form an actual pool of suspects. To that end, we'd really appreciate it if we could... you know... see the tapes of who was going into the restroom, when and with what in each case?" He cautiously asked as Glynda stared down at him.
"... You are aware that the bathroom was warded off for a reason, Mr. Midoriya?" He nodded submissively, the woman tapping her fingers against her arms as she looked down at him.
"Mrs. Goodwitch, if I may?" Glynda turned to look over at Weiss, the heiress keeping her composure as she looked up at the older woman. "We have found evidence that, according to both yourself and Ozpin, you didn't have when making considerations. In addition, we as students are faced with less severe punishments if we're found looking into other students than you as faculty are. Detention, marks on our records and time spent working off our punishment would be bothersome, sure, but these are small potatoes compared to the potential landmines the staff of Beacon would face if you all did what was necessary to figure this out and failed. In addition, if we're right about Katsuki Bakugo being innocent, then not only is a student who has nothing to do with this being unjustly looked down upon by his peers but persons who're vandalizing school property in order to create this environment will run free to continue to do so if we do not bring them in. It's unorthodox, certainly, but I think with the evidence we've brought to bear that we've proven that we 'can' help with this problem, if you'll allow us."
As Weiss calmly explained the situation Izuku saw Glynda's gaze soften a bit as she nodded her head slightly. As Weiss finished his watch as Glynda sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "I'm surprised that you, of all people, are pushing for a breach in the rules like this Miss Schnee. For someone that you care very little for at that." Weiss frowned slightly as she huffed.
"Regardless of whether I think Katsuki Bakugo is a good person, this is a matter of right and wrong Professor Goodwitch. As a Huntress presented with evidence that this is going on, I would prefer to see that what's right be done... and I'd 'very' much like it if the boys would stop being forced to use our restrooms..." Weiss muttered under her breath as Glynda shook her head, the older woman clearly annoyed, though not as much, as she looked at them all.
"... I swear the three of you are going to be the death of me..." Before anyone can respond Glynda nodded her head behind her. "Come quickly now before anyone sees... if you tell anyone about this, rest assured your detention will go on for quite some time." They all nod nervously as they followed in behind Glynda. It was a winding path that eventually lead him to the security hub of Beacon Academy and, as the doors open, Izuku almost winced as the flare of multiple screens ended up filling his vision. As he blinked away the spots in his vision from the sudden shine, his eyes were met with several dozen screens attended to by multiple security guards, all of whom turn to look at who had suddenly entered the room.
"At ease gentlemen, they're here with my permission." The various security guards nodded in understanding as they turned back to their business, each of them looking across the various screens as they all are pulled back to a corner of the room. A series of screens sat here with a connection to various boxes and monitors and, with a swipe of her own Scroll, the system came to life. "I'd like to make this quick so that the chances of you all being seen near here by other students isn't quite as high. I'll play the videos for you, I'll stop whenever someone goes in, you make your notes and then you're gone, is that clear?" They all nodded in appreciation as Glynda tapped at her Scroll and, soon, the various security feeds of the various crime scenes were being played.
"If our suspicions are right Professor Goodwitch, the culprit in question will have only arrived at the restroom between one and ten minutes of the actual explosion. If you just play the preceding ten minutes before the explosions go off, we'll be able to form our suspect pool." Glynda nodded her head in understanding as she did just that.
They all looked over the tapes one or two times as they tried to take a quick count of everyone who went into the restroom and what they were carrying. While there were some oddities here and there, and Izuku had to admit that he felt a bit of a sweat come down as his teammates and Ren tried to wrap their minds around who the person they and Glynda knew as Toshinori was and what he was doing here, things eventually circled down onto two suspects, or, one singular suspect and a potential group of suspects.
"Tenya was there on all three days but... I dunno, he's not carrying anything suspicious and I really don't think we can count him as having a motive." Izuku frowned slightly as he spoke, though Nora comically whispers 'maybe that's just what he wants us to think' before she leaned back and took a look at his other notes.
"Then there's Team KOBA. Various members were at all three crime scenes so they had the opportunity to lay a bomb... plus Owari is a rather skilled inventor, I doubt a simple bomb would be of much difficulty for someone like him to fashion up." Everyone nodded in agreement with Weiss' thought but the Schnee Heiress frowned. "But... opportunity is about all we have for them. As far as means go we can't really give that a plus because I doubt that crossbow that one of the suspects is slinging around would be able to carry around the Dust necessary to pull this little venture off. Add onto that the fact that if those books were hollowed out that they'd be spilling Burn Dust 'everywhere', then I think it's safe to say that they didn't exactly have the means."
"To say nothing of the fact that they really don't have much of a clear motive if they were the ones behind this." Ren remarked dryly as he stroked his chin. "Our team hasn't really had much interaction with them. Honestly, the most anyone in our group has had with these guys would be your spars with them Izuku... and I doubt that those would translate into them trying to ruin Bakugo's reputation."
"Even if it was meant to be a proxy hit against Izuku it wouldn't make much sense; what, hit the guy who you beat in a spar and then who beat your teammate in a spar by framing his lifelong bully for something he didn't commit? That's... I guess feasible, but-"
"Occam's Razor, yeah. If they wanted back at me or thought I was against them, they'd do something to me, not Kacchan." Izuku agreed with Pyrrha's assessment as they all sped through the videos one last time. "Which leaves us with a pretty simple suspect: Cardin Winchester."
"Guy has motive; Katsuki beat his entire team into the ground by himself. As much as he's been trying to mess with others, he hasn't bothered to target Ruby, myself or Shoto after Katsuki manhandled him. Cardin doesn't exactly come off as the kind of person who takes that kind of embarrassment well... but he doesn't exactly come off as the kind of person who'd directly attack someone he knew was stronger than him either." Ren remarked as Nora nodded in ready agreement.
"Yeah, guy hasn't bothered Yang, Tsu, The Leadership Council or that rabbit girl ever since he got his butt handed to him on all those occasions." Pyrrha nodded in agreement as she piggybacked off of Nora's sentiment.
"Doing something that doesn't involve him getting into a direct fight with someone who's already proven more than his match does seem like motive."
"Not to mention he 'might' have means. I'd have to take a closer look at that Mace before I could say for certain but I could imagines situations and designs where this would fit our idea of the container used to smuggle in the Ground Dust. That the guy's brought it into the bathroom with him every single time in one of these videos also establishes a pattern."
"Cardin doesn't fit some of Ozpin's profile of the person as not having the resources and needing to use School provided Ground Dust Rounds... but his teammates do use Ground Dust Rounds provided by the school. From there... well, like we saw, information on how to do something like this is just a search away on the CCT." As he rubbed his chin to consider this thought, he looked at the others. "Means, Motive and Opportunity right? Seems like he'd be a good avenue to look at going forward." Glynda nodded her head slowly.
"Admittedly, Cardin Winchester was among the top of our list of suspects when we were considering this but the janitor who worked with the school previously hadn't brought to our attention the additional information you all found. In addition, we have no way of directly proving this without potentially overstepping our boundaries as educators and you all as students. Suspecting Mr. Winchester and breaking into his room simply because he has an... attitude problem and that he happened to be at the place around the time wouldn't hold up if we were wrong and it turned out he was innocent."
"Well... how about now?"
"You're right that he has motive and opportunity... but without direct proof that the mace is, indeed, smuggling the material in then you can only 'suspect' that he has means. Suspicion doesn't exactly hold if the school makes a serious misstep in carrying out justice." The group nodded in understanding as Glynda quickly moved to usher his out of the security room.
"And... what's gonna happen to us?" Weiss asked, cautiously, as Glynda just looked down at the group of you. There's a moment where she just stares at you before sighing.
"You shouldn't have gone into the restrooms to check this out yourselves... but if we're teaching you that it's your future duty to jump into situations that don't involve you for the sake of others, that we can't expect you to turn off those instincts... especially when they involve a member of your peer group." Glynda adjusted her glasses. "That you all made some honest to goodness headway in putting more pieces of this together would also suggest that you're taking this seriously."
"You all are 'still' students and the rules and laws of Beacon are here for a reason, as is detention... but if you're doing right and doing so responsibly, then I can't exactly fault your work as Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-Training. However, causing injury, legal or physical, is not to be overlooked no matter what intentions you have. Think carefully and be 'certain' about your next course of action." With that they all were guided out of the office and left to they own devices, Glynda having decided that escorting them all away from the security office might look odd to anyone who might catch sight of them all.
With that, they all begin to consider the next phase in the investigation.
"Going forward, I think our best bet is to mark Cardin as our main suspect. We know he has the motive and now we've seen that he's had the opportunity. If we can find out for certain that he has means then we might just have the culprit on our hands." Everyone else in the group nodded in agreement. "I don't want to do anything drastic. Like Glynda said, we're already skirting on the edge of school rules as it and we could get into trouble if we do anything too far out there. For now, I think our best bet is to just tail him and see what he gets up to. With any luck, we'll be able to see some suspicious behavior or find some more clues."
"Sounds perfectly fine to me." Weiss' opinion seemed to be that of the rest of the group, everyone ready and, in Nora's case, somewhat eager to get on this.
"STAKE OUT! WE'RE TOTALLY GOING TO BUST CARDIN, AND-"
"Nora." Ren remarked, coughing slightly into his fist to get her attention. "Maybe 'I' should tail Cardin? Not for nothing but... well, you aren't exactly the stealthiest person I've ever met." Nora blinked slightly and, looking at the rest of them, saw that everyone was in agreement.
"Not for nothing but we don't have much training in sneaking around... at least, I know I don't and I suspect Izuku and Weiss haven't." Izuku nodded to confirm Pyrrha's suspicions and Weiss just nodded in a slight huff as well. Nora frowned for a moment, her cheeks puffing out at having her opportunity to play secret agent tailing the bad guy shot down, before she turned to face Ren.
"Be careful alright? I might be able to break Cardin's legs but-"
"I don't intend to get caught. Even if I do, my Semblance should be able to buy me the space I'd need in order to get away." Ren remarked dryly as Nora's spirits lifted up a bit. At that, Ren turned toward the rest of them and pulled out his Scroll. "I'll silence my Scroll so that any communication we might have won't get his attention. I'll send you guys a message if he does anything interesting that you might want to look into while I'm tailing him. If something really big happens I'll call you guys in for support."
"Good luck Ren and thanks for the help." Izuku said gratefully though Ren just chuckled.
"I should be thanking you for going ahead and getting involved. It isn't your team's business... but you've been a big help nonetheless. So thank you, Izuku." Izuku beamed a bit at Ren's appreciation and, soon after, the Mistrali teen was quick to run off and find his quarry. From there, it was a waiting game to see if Ren happens upon anything interesting as Team MNVW waits for any communication from Ren.
The first hour was nothing special as Izuku and his teammates all sat around and waited for Ren's messages. They came in, usually, at a pretty slow trickle and mostly said much the same thing. 'Cardin's tormenting some kid, apparently because he scuffed his armor after bumping into him in the hall'. The next several messages were some variation on 'he's still doing it' and not much beyond that. It was a bit frustrating to just be sitting by and waiting rather than doing something about this but, well, if anyone moved in to try to stop Cardin now, the jig would be up and then there'd be no chance of actually catching onto something more significant. So, hoping that forgoing helping that person would pay off later, they all just continued to wait for Ren's updates.
The next hour, though, started a bit nervous. 'He may have spotted me, stand by' started things off tense. When Ren didn't send an update for several minutes, Nora was about ready to storm off to help her best friend. Thankfully, an update, 'he didn't spot me, but he's acting suspicious' came through, easing worries and raising hopes.
Those hopes turned into a nervous swallowing of throats as the next message popped up. 'He's grabbed his Mace from his dorm room'. The next few messages followed that trend, Ren's updates coming more and more frequent. 'He's passed the arena', 'he isn't heading directly to a class', 'we're on the second floor'.
Five minutes would go by before the next message would pop up.
xXxXxXxXxXx
Lie Ren was many things. Best friend to Nora Valkyrie, Last Survivor of Kuroyuri, Huntsman-in-training and member of Team RSBR.
And he'd just watched Cardin Winchester walk into the, for now, co-ed bathroom on the second floor. Cardin didn't notice as he slowly tailed him in and, though he did want to dip in closer to the bathroom to try and get a better picture of what the Mace-wielding Huntsman was up to he didn't 'fully' enter the restroom. Even as quiet as he could be, there isn't a lot of room to hide without his feet showing. So he stuck behind the wall leading into the restroom and just waited, listening out for what Cardin's doing. He couldn't say for certain just what he's up to yet, but-
*CR-SNAP!*
If the sound of metal giving out is any indication, it's not much good. As soon as Ren heard the metal sound give it's followed up by the echo of one of the toilet's emptying out, the draining sound continuing on for a moment. Eventually it eventually quieted down until just the sound of a toilet running hummed lightly in the room. As quickly as the sound dissipated Cardin opened one of the stalls back up, the creak of the metal frame alerting you to this fact. Ren cracked an eye cautiously around the corner, watching as Cardin just casually swung some kind of plastic plug on the end of a metal chain around in his hand. He quickly stuffed it down into the bottom of a mostly filled trash bin before heading back into the stall he just exited. It's not hard to notice him fiddling with the Crystal at the head of his Mace before he enters the stall again, out of sight all but for his feet.
Ren sat back and wait, bringing out his Scroll and switching it over to its recording function as he took a careful amount of time to make sure that Cardin's feet were very much visible in shot before stepping back and finding a new hiding place. With any luck, Cardin will depart before long and he'd have video proof of not only him in the stall but also of him leaving. If he left the recording on at that, then he'd definitely have video proof that none of this was cut together from various shots. Just a seamless stream of video to connect Cardin, and whatever he's doing in here, to him and him alone.
xXxXxXxXxXx
'Come here now.'
It was a very short message from Ren and straight to the point. In addition, it was one that was very much contradictory to the nature of the mission they all agreed on when Izuku sent him on his way to tail Cardin. Nora was the first one to start sprinting for the location that Ren texts but, before long, all of them were running. For Ren to send that kind of a message then it had to be something important. Footsteps echoed through the halls as they all sprinted for the second floor co-ed restroom and, given their speeds, it wasn't long before they all arrived and ran inside.
"REN, WHERE ARE YOU, HAS CARDIN HURT YOU, DO I NEED TO BREAK HIS EVERYTHING?!" Nora's roar was probably audible from the other side of the school but, at the moment, they were all a bit high strung from the fact that Ren sent such a message in the first place. He could very well have gotten caught or hurt by Cardin. 'This is my fault, I'm the on-'
Before Izuku could trail down that line of thought, of blaming himself for Ren possibly getting hurt, Lie Ren walked out of a nearby stall, his magenta eyes open and his eyebrows quirked as he pulled his Scroll back, carefully positioned as if recording a video... which he realized was exactly what he's up to. He turned to look at them all, turning the camera of his Scroll with him so that they were all within shot.
"Oh, hello Nora, everyone."
That little four word greeting was all that transpired before Nora Valkyrie immediately leapt forward and tackled Ren, shaking her best friend about like a rag doll as she looked up at him.
"YOU'RE OKAY, WAIT, YOU'RE OKAY?! WE THOUGHT YOU WEREN'T OKAY BECAUSE OF YOUR MESSAGE! YOU COULD'VE TOLD US YOU WERE OKAY REN BEFORE SENDING THAT! I THOUGHT CARDIN FOUND YOU! I THOUGHT MY BEST FRIEND WAS GETTING BEATEN UP! I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO BREAK SOMEONE IN HALF!"
"Nora! I'm alright, except, I might not, be if you, don't put me, down!" Ren's words were chopped up by Nora's energetic shaking, the bubbly bomber realizing just what she must've been putting her friend through as she violently shook him about. After a moment Nora dropped Ren back on the ground, the Mistrali young man taking a deep breath to help steady himself as Nora just frowned.
"Sorry Ren..."
"It's okay... I could've been more specific..." Ren said as he cracked his back, wincing slightly as Nora just apologized again.
"Well we're glad you're alright Ren but... well, what happened then? Why did we need to come so soon?" Ren turned his attention back your way, the Mistrali teen just nodding slightly as he waved his hand to the stall.
"I do believe that you might have your case wrapped up Izuku. I've taken the liberty of making sure nothing will happen but... well, I left the pieces intact for you to take a good look at." There was a collective buzz of energy that moves between the team as they all took Ren's words in. Could it really be true? Did they all have what he needed? Ren drew Weiss and Pyrrha's attention back to the trash can as Izuku and Nora walked over to the toilet in question, the cistern laying open and its cover laid off to the side as they all took a peak in.
He hadn't seen many cisterns himself but immediately he could tell that something was missing and, whatever that was, it was causing the water to constantly drain out. Not a lot of it now but just enough to keep a slightly wet atmosphere in the cistern. It'd explain where the water came from in the explosion. What really caught his attention was... well, three plastic bags, sealed mostly back up, filled to the brim with Burn Dust arranged in one of the corners of the cistern. One of the bags in question was cracked open at the edge and, though it's allowed a small amount of water to seep in, it wasn't much. From that opening, however, was something that immediately drew his interest; a thin rope of... something, deeply colored red that stretches out and around the cistern, stiff and somewhat long. The end was burnt and smoking and crumples of what he recognized to be the remnants of what Izuku thought to be the fuse on the bottom of the cistern. Cautiously he reached in and pluck the little red rope out and his grip immediately alerted him to the fact that it felt like some kind of paper, though it was hard to tell exactly what kind it was because of the odd texture of whatever the red stuff was that covered it...
The smell was filling his nostrils, fresher and more abundant than before with the end of it still smoking quite heavily.
"Darn it... I still can't place it. It's right on the tip of my tongue but I just can't..."
"Cheer up Fearless Leader, it's fine... it's... it's..." Nora take a few quick sniffs herself of the end of the makeshift fuse, the normally peppy girl's brow furrowing as she narrowed her gaze. "... Really familiar... like... really familiar..." Eventually a smile grew on Nora's face as she pointed to it. "OH DUH! I didn't recognize it before because it was so faint but I know what this smells like Izuku! It smells like a match!"
"A match?" Before he'd even finished asking the question, a memory slammed him in the head like a brick; days celebrating Color Week Festivals spent with his mom as people set off fireworks around Mountain Glenn, Izuku himself being allowed to hold onto a box of matches as Inko Midoriya allowed him to set some off...
Said fireworks almost immediately going off in his face and giving him a fright.
Well, that's one repressed memory that's come back to the surface.
"I can't believe that I couldn't place it!" He slapped his forehead, honestly befuddled as he looked over at Nora. "Nora, how did you place it?" Nora just scratches her cheek, the normally energetic girl glancing off to the side.
"I... set a lot of fires with them way back when I was a kid... it was a good way of setting a little quick one... you know... just to stay by." Izuku blinked for a moment, an amused chuckle escaping his lips.
"I didn't take you for a pyromaniac Nora." Nora just laughed a bit distantly, old memories playing across her eyes as she just shrugged.
"Yeah, that's me alright. Anyway, I wonder why Weiss didn't recognize it. I know she's rich but-"
"Rich and daughter of the world's largest Dust Magnate. My father and anyone in his social circle only ever used Burn Dust Lighters." Weiss called over her shoulder as she, Pyrrha and Ren fished out the part from the toilet; sure enough between the chain and the plug it looked like it belonged with the broken bit of the cistern. If Izuku were a betting man, he'd guess that if he went back to the most recent crime scene and inspected its trash cans you'd find something very similar stuffed down in there, there only because the most recent incident made the janitor quit.
"I see. Well, I guess that... might explain what's going on with this? It smells like a match... so..."
"Uh... so... hmmm..." Izuku stroked his chin as he tried to think, Weiss frowning as she shrugged.
"I'm not exactly an expert but if the heads of matches can go off and sustain a fire, then maybe Cardin and Team CRDL just took a bunch of match heads and coated some homemade fuse in whatever coats a match?" Ren checked through his Scroll for a moment, eyes scanning through results before he nodded.
"It does seem like if you shear them and then boil the remains in hot water that you can coat homemade fuses in the substance to make them last longer." With that, Ren quickly played back the video he'd recorded up to that point, a rather continuous stream showing Cardin's feet, to waiting outside for him to leave, to him leaving, to Ren going back in and investigating the toilet, to waiting for the team to show up.
"So... I mean, I don't want to jinx this but... I'd say between all of this we have a fairly substantial bit of evidence on our hands Izuku." Pyrrha said, somewhat cautiously optimistic, as the others nodded.
Choosing what to do after everything was said and done turned out to be a surprisingly simple affair. Confronting Cardin could lead to trouble and really, going straight to Ozpin when they had the case all but settled and figured out and with ample evidence ready to try to convince him that he could act... well, why not just go straight to the man in charge? It'd also kept them from stepping over their bounds... well, more than they already had, Izuku supposed.
So it was with a somewhat heavy atmosphere that they all entered Ozpin's office, Headmaster Ozpin and Professors Goodwitch and Aizawa present... he wasn't exactly sure why Aizawa was here but it didn't make much difference... okay so maybe it made Izuku a bit more nervous but hey, he was going to be nervous going over all this anyway, right?
"Now then Mr. Midoriya, your call said that you had information for us on who exactly it was behind the various explosions in the bathroom." Izuku nodded somewhat stiffly, not quite trusting his vocal chords to not squeak or crack under the strain of his nerves. "Well then Mr. Midoriya, would you care to share with us? Anything you might've gathered would be a help." He took a quick look back at his Team and Ren, the four of them giving him a nod of encouragement before they all turned back to face Ozpin. He took a deep breath to steel his nerves as he returned his gaze to the three adults in the room, a calm slowly settling over him as he organized the case and the clues he'd gathered in his mind.
"Headmaster Ozpin." He took a step forward as he spoke, an odd sort of confidence filling him as he looked him in the eye. "It is the belief of my Team and of Lie Ren of Team RSBR that the culprit behind the bathroom bombings was none other than Cardin Winchester of Team CRDL!"
And so it began.
"Cardin hmmm? I can't say I'm surprise by this assertion, he was on our own list of suspects as well, but assertions and suspicions aren't things we can go off of Mr. Midoriya." Ozpin stated calmly as Izuku just nodded in understanding.
"I'm aware sir, but here and now we believe we have the evidence necessary for you to make your case." Ozpin merely nodded as he allowed Izuku to continue. "First and foremost, you had a large profile of our mystery bomber already established and, needless to say, Cardin fit all pre-requisites, likely the reason that you put him on your list. What you didn't have was the means by which the suspect ended up destroying the various toilets. You could suspect, but no one could be certain until now." With that Ren quickly produced his Scroll while his team assembled the various components of the improvised bomb that Cardin had left behind. "The means by which Cardin would have committed these acts are an improvised explosion powered by Fire Dust! At the most recent crime scene, the lack of proper cleaning allowed us to recover plenty of spilled Fire Dust from the ground... and if you were to go to the restroom we recovered Cardin's most recent attempt, I'm sure you'll find the same."
As the three professors go over the video evidence, you continue. "As for how he smuggled this in the first place? Well, the plastic bags and the fuse would've been easy enough to hide in his pockets, but the Fire Dust? Hidden in plain sight in his Mace! In fact, if you were to go retrieve Mr. Winchester's weapon at this very moment, you'd likely find evidence of improperly stored Fire Dust inside of it, if I had to wager." The three teachers nodded as Izuku went on, though Ozpin did whisper over to Aizawa. "In addition, the security evidence that gave you your own ID on the suspect also gave us ample proof that Cardin Winchester was at each crime scene at least ten minutes before the explosion went off... and that the mechanism used to delay the explosion of these make-shift bombs perfectly explains several aspects of these delays!
"A makeshift fuse, made from a tightly twisted together paper substance and coated in the chemical compound that makes up match heads! Now, being such a ramshackle fuse, it's natural that it'd be fickle and lead to chaotic and unpredictable times of explosions from when Cardin would set it off, explaining the differences in times between Cardin's various arrivals in the security feeds." Izuku hadn't even noticed that Aizawa was gone as he went through the evidence, too caught up in the moment of explaining the case as he continued on. "In addition, Lie Ren's video feed of the most recent attempt by Mr. Winchester not even a half hour ago shows conclusively that Cardin was the only person in that stall at the time of the explosive being set up, who actively vandalized the cistern by removing that piece you see there and here, in order to drain out the cistern. Why? So that it wouldn't be full of water to smother his explosive!"
Ren just nodded as he gave a short explanation of the uncut video that Ozpin and Glynda had finished fast forwarding through both of the teachers nodding at his own account before Izuku continued. "So that's means and opportunity... and motive is quite simple. Cardin Winchester, along with the rest of Team CRDL, had attempted to ambush Kacchan some time ago in the halls... only to fail spectacularly. Beaten and bruised, their reputations injured by their fight with Kacchan, it'd be natural for someone like Cardin Winchester, a known bully, to want revenge. However, the only way he could do so against someone who wouldn't take his bullying would be to sully their reputation!
"No matter how you slice this evidence or the situation, Headmaster, One Truth Prevails! Cardin Winchester is your culprit!"
There was a bit of silence in the room as he finished and, for a moment, he fearing that maybe his evidence and his case wasn't as nearly rock solid as he thought it was. Then Ozpin just gave a small chuckle and raised both his hands up, giving him a small round of applause.
"I must say Mr. Midoriya, well done. I wasn't quite expecting this-" Izuku saw Glynda roll her eyes as Ozpin said this, the Headmaster just sending a small wink her way before he turned back forward, "-but I'll accept it nonetheless. This is fairly conclusive evidence and, even if it turned out that Mr. Winchester was innocent, no one would be able to blame us for... investigating this further. I suspect that Mr. Aizawa will find his search to be fruitful." Izuku couldn't help but smile, along with the rest of his team and Ren. Though he allowed a frown to peak out as he stepped forward.
"Sir... Professor Goodwitch has made it clear that we did overstep our bounds in doing this... I just want you to know that this was all my idea. I roped everyone else into doing it as their team leader... or most of them, anyway. I'll take full responsibility for any punishments we're owed."
"Izuku!"
"Fearless Leader!"
"Hey!"
There seemed to be a general revolt among his friends as he lined himself up to take all of any punishment that might be coming forth. Before anyone else can step forward and insist that it was totally of their own doing as well, Ozpin just chuckled as he waved his hand.
"Mr. Midoriya. If you'd like to take credit for thwarting a fourth bathroom explosion and finding the culprit, well, I won't stop you but it seems a little bit selfish in light of the help you said your team and Mr. Ren here gave you." Izuku blushed slightly as everyone stared kind of witlessly at Ozpin. "I hope you've come to understand by now that here at Beacon, well, we do have some expectations that you students are capable of handling yourselves. Emergencies... well, emergencies are 'very' serious business to Huntsmen and Huntresses who might otherwise be needed elsewhere. So for... smaller problems, it's good for you all to learn to be able to support each other and pull each other through. It's true, we have rules... but given that you've just settled a school issue for us, all to keep the reputation of an innocent student clean... I think we can overlook a few... 'strained' rules." Izuku couldn't help but smile at that, along with the rest of his team. "Especially since you took such care in not doing anything too harmful." Ozpin fixed up some papers on his desk as he waved them all off. "We'll handle this from here... rest assured, if you're all right, then justice will be seen to. We do need a... replacement janitor up until we can hire a new one, after all."
And with that, all of them departed Ozpin's office. It wouldn't take long for them to hear about Aizawa's little haunt to Team CRDL's dorm room. Indeed, Cardin's Mace had been found to have trace amounts of Ground Dust left in various crevices it hadn't belonged in. Not to mention an... unusual amount of matches without their match heads left in trash bags, likely to be dumped later when no one would notice. When confronted with the overwhelming evidence, Cardin Winchester insisted that it had been a team effort, and that the other members of his team had assisted him in gathering what he needed. With the three other members agreeing to said version of events, the Team was collectively punished; all four members were made to be replacement janitors during their off hours, working on the various messes made and fixing their own destruction until they made up for the costs of the repairs they made necessary. In addition, a close eye would be kept on Team CRDL in the future.
Team RSBR couldn't have been happier at how it was all wrapped up... or at least Izuku thought so. Ruby was really happy at any rate, Shoto and Ren had small smiles on their face and Bakugo... well, Bakugo reaffirmed that he hadn't needed his help and that anyone who mattered already knew the truth.
Not a surprise but he didn't spend time berating Izuku afterward either, so that was a change of pace. Not only that but, every now and then, he'd hear whispers about how people saw his team going around as a group and, it seemed like, trying to solve this case. It seemed like he had really made an impact here which, above all else, really was what made him happy, along with the rest of his team.
A busy day, but a good one, all things told.