- Chapter 11: How about some old friends -
=| Tokyo police station |=
Two hours have passed since the incident at Kiyashi, and the Doctor was now awaiting to be questioned in the interrogation room. He was sitting on a foldable metal chair behind a metal table, with his hands cuffed to the table. The room's walls were dark blue in colour and were made of concrete, but to his left was a one-way mirror with two circular speakers at the top corners of the mirror and a camera above it, and to his right was a steel-reinforced door with a keycard reader lock on the left of the frame.
He could easily escape, unfortunately, the officers did their job thoroughly and took away his sonic screwdriver and sunglasses, psychic paper, and his TARDIS key.
However, that was not his immediate concern, he was more concerned about what direction all the signs in his investigation led toward, as well as the well-being of the students.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the mirror, three officers were monitoring their suspect. And one of them was the cat-faced Tamakawa Sansa, who was inspecting the Doctor's confiscated items on a table. After documenting the items, he inquired the other two officers, "What's the condition of our guest here?"
One of them responded, "Nothing at the moment, he's just sitting there while making himself comfortable."
It was then that the door to the monitoring room opened, and in came a six-foot-tall man with the head of a beagle who wore a black suit and pants with matching shoes. Tamakawa looked at the man and saluted, "Chief Tsuragamae."
The chief of the police force asked, "What are the findings on our suspect?"
"Name: John Disco, quirk: unknown, background: unknown. Proclaimed used to work at Scotland Yard in Great Britain, but no records of such as provided from there." The feline replied.
"There has to be something known about him, wan, he wouldn't just be all unknowns." The canine said.
Tamakawa then stated, "Well, there is one thing that I found peculiar about him."
"Explain," The chief ordered.
The cat led his superior to the table, "I've documented the items we've confiscated from our guest, and this one that I found peculiar." Tamakawa said as he handed the Doctor's sonic screwdriver to the chief.
Chief Tsuragamae held the device in his hands and took a good look at it, as well as giving it a sniff. "Wan, this device looks and smells weirdly familiar."
"That's what I thought as soon as I laid eyes upon it, and witnesses also mentioned that when he pointed it at a lamp post, he took it down when the tip glowed a blue light, that description reminded me of a similar device from a year and a half ago." The feline explained.
Tamakawa then took out a file regarding an incident that involved a device similar to this one, one that occurred eighteen months ago in Musutafu, involving two 14-year-olds, All Might, and a certain man. Within the file was a picture of a metallic cylindrical device with a creamy light grey handle and a round blue tip.
Noticing the similarities between the picture and the device in his hand, the canine then took out another photo and mutters, "Do you think he is...?"
The officer responded, "I'm not sure if it's possible, but...this might prove it."
Tamakawa then presented the chief the psychic paper, which shows a message that shocked the canid man.
Back in the interrogation room, the Doctor was still sitting in the chair, his fingers started tapping on the table as he felt bored, but his mind was on another matter, he thought, 'I hope they could find the right people, preferably..."
BEEP
The Doctor's thoughts were interrupted as the interrogation room door opened, and he looked at the man who entered, it was a normal officer in standard police uniform, followed by the canine chief who was holding a file.
"Thank you, you can go back to your duties," Tsuragamae said to the officer who gave a silent salute and walked out the room, closing the door.
The dog man walked and sat down on the other side of the table, laid down the file on his right and clasped his hands on the table, looking at the Doctor, curiously and eye-to-eye.
As a serious silence sets in the room, the canine asked, "Who are you, 'Mr. Disco', if that is your name."
The Doctor just chuckled and smirked, not saying anything.
"We could get this over with quickly if you cooperate."
The scot said, "It's not that I don't want to cooperate, it's just this is all irrelevant."
"You have been charged with trespassing, falsified identity and arson, wan, you could be deemed a villain, so I would hardly consider that, irrelevant, wan." The chief said, with a slight bit of irritation in his voice.
The Time Lord sighed, "You consider that relevant, try harder Chief, I've done worse."
"Like what?" Tsuragamae inquired, putting his head on his hands with curiosity in his eyes.
"You do not want to know." The Doctor replied with an emphasis on the 'do not', revealing a slight sense of guilt and shame.
Due to his canine quirk, the chief was able to sniff out his interrogatee's strong emotions, and thus deemed that subject too sensitive. "Alright, if you don't wish to talk about that, then let's get back to my original question, so I ask you one more time, wan, who are you?"
The Doctor looked to his left at the one-sided mirror, and said, "I'm sure you would inspect the items of your suspects before interrogation, yes?"
Tsuragamae nodded, "Yes we do."
The Scotsman leaned back and said, "Then I'm sure that when you saw some of my items, you would've guessed who I am."
The dog-faced man then reached into his pocket and took out the sonic screwdriver and psychic paper, putting it on the table in front of the Doctor, and demanded annoyingly, "We have our suspicions, but still, answer my question, wan."
The Time Lord then leaned forward, "You already know who I am, Chief, you're just wasting your time when there are more important things to deal with."
By this point, chief Tsuragamae's patience is basically used up, slamming both hands on the table and stood up, barking like a mad man getting fed up with his job, "BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK!"
Such animal calls are normally unintelligible to humans, but the Doctor could understand every last word due to being alien.
(Translation: I have been trying my best to keep my cool, you better cooperate now or I might very well just officially put you in jail just for not doing that.)
The Doctor just sat there, holding his head back to avoid the canine's spit as he barked. After the chief finished his rant and sat back down, the Doctor said with a rather disappointed expression, "Now that's just absurd, sure, I admit that me bringing down a lamp post and blowing up a gas line, endangering civilians, and I trespassing in an investigation with fake ID is my bad, but jail time just for being uncooperative? Now that's just worse than the last time I got arrested here, I risked my safety to save two boys, and then got slapped with the charge of vigilantism, and I am still very salty about it."
The canine then huffed and smirked, as he moved the file on his right to before him and opened it, revealing that it was of a case eighteen months ago, and the chief took out the photo that he muttered about earlier, in that photo was a young-looking man with big brown hair wearing a light-brown overcoat, a dark brown suit with blue pinstripes and similar pants, a deep blue shirt and a dark brown tie with alternating light and royal blue stripes, along with a pair of white trainers.
The Scotsman widened his eyes as he immediately recognized the man in the photo, Tsuragamae chuckled.
"Good," the police chief said, as he unlocked the Doctor's handcuffs. "You can relax, wan, we will be dropping all charges and let you go, but we do need your help, and also, the statement about jail time for uncooperation was a lie to get you talking, wan."
With his hands freed, the silver-haired man swiveled his hands to relieve any stress in his wrists, huffed and said, "Heh, that sure was a good lie, I'll give you that chief, but I am curious, what help do you need of me when you already have all the talents within the whole police force?"
"Tamakawa will fill you in on that," Tsuragamae stood up and walked to the door.
"And by the way, it's good to see you again, Doctor." He said before leaving as the cat officer walks in.
A few moments later...
The Doctor was following Tamakawa through the police station corridors, Tamakawa explained to the Time Lord, "Shortly after you were being transported here, one of our colleagues was found dead not too far from the battlefield in the shopping mall, there were no signs of any kind of assault and no perpetrators were found anywhere."
The Scotsman then asked, "And where is the body now?"
They then turned around a corner, and toward the autopsy room, the feline replied, "In here." And pushed the door open.
The autopsy room was dimly lit, with grey concrete walls, next to the door was a large metal sink with three water taps, on both sides of the room were refrigeration chambers for storing dead bodies, and in the middle were two metal tables, the left one was empty while the right one has a corpse covered with a white sheet, along with a physician, a pink-haired lady in her mid-20s dressed in white operation robes with drooped down fox ears and a pair of red glasses, standing next to the table.
The officer asked the physician, "Any new findings, doctor?"
"Unless I am allowed to do a dissection, there isn't anything fresh to talk about," said the lady, before noticing the silver-haired man next to Tamakawa, "And who might this be?"
Tamakawa introduced, "Doctor, this is our local physican, Yae Sakura, and doctor Yae, this is our...secret helper, known only as 'the Doctor'."
"Just that, 'the Doctor'?" the fox lady asked, raising an eyebrow unimpressedly.
"Yep," the Time Lord replied, "just that and nothing more."
Doctor Yae chuckled, "Huh, I thought you would be younger."
"Excuse me?" the Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I mean that I thought you would look younger compared to what I saw of you in last year April, when I followed my aunt to show you some support at the Musutafu police station."
"Oh, well, I aged quite a lot since then, considering that my quirk allows me to travel through time," the Doctor made up a lie about him having a quirk.
"Interesting," the pink vulpine said, holding her chin, "guess that's how my aunt met you 40 years ago."
The Doctor furrowed and asked out of curiosity, "And who might your aunt be?"
"Yae Miko, rings a bell right?" the fox lady said, crossing her arms across her chest, "pink hair, similiar ears to mine, priestess of the Fushimi Inari Grand Shrine?"
The whole scene got quiet for almost a minute, as the Time Lord tried to remember who she was talking about, and then he simply said, "Nope, not a clue."
The physician scoffed, "Wow, aunty Miko was right, you're actually worse than her when it comes to people."
The Doctor retaliated saying, "I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt."
"Doctors, both of you, let's not let this conversation get out of hand now, alright?" Tamakawa interrupted, holding up both hands and sweatdropping a bit, "How about let's get back to our task at hand."
"Yeah, I'd love to," both doctors said at the same time.
And the three went back to the table with the body under a sheet.
"So what do we know about the victim," the Time Lord inquired.
"Katsuragi Hidemori, frontline officer, 32 years old, joined the department 7 years ago, no previous health issues," the feline officer answered.
Yae added, "Inital observation would suggest asphyxiation or poisoning, but further tests indicate sudden heart failure."
The Doctor lifted up the sheet and pressed two fingers on the dead person's carotid artery in the neck.
The pinkette continued, "It really baffles me though, how come a healthy man at the prime of his life and no health problems just suddenly die."
"Well, Doctor what is your analysis?" Tamakawa asked.
"When you found the body, did you find anything on him?" the Scotsman asked.
The cat officer said, "No one reported anything on him except for his uniform and equipment, is that important?"
The white-haired man hold his chin, muttered, "It's murder then."
"How could you tell?" Yae asked.
The Time Lord explained, "First off, his health is fine, his heart gave out, so he died of fright; two, no second of all, I know this officer, he was responsible for taking care of a bag of evidence; c, or three, we can rule out thieves or robbers, they wouldn't dare attack an on-duty officer; and with a low four, or D, or that little iv in brackets in footnotes, the bag of evidemce, it was beads of a bracelet that was used by the villain in the battle, so if we think smartly, then we can deduce..."
"Either the villain went back to retrieve the evidence and killed Katsuragi-san to remove all witnesses, or it was an associate that did it," the vulpine physician deduced.
The Doctor smiled, "Not bad, you are smart like your aunt."
"Oh," Yae said, raising her ears a little bit.
The scotsman didn't say anything else and looked away, not wanting the scene to get awkward.
Tamakawa then concluded, "So, we now know that the battle and this murder are connected, and that there are more than one villains involved."
"Pretty much, but we wouldn't be able to progress further at the moment, not with the only evidence gone or no further activity from our adversaries," the Doctor said.
The vulpine physician asked further, "Then what can we do now?"
"We wait and do nothing, or we wait and do something, like sending condolences to Katsuragi's family, and on that topic, who does he have for family?"
Tamakawa looked into his tablet and looked up the deceased officer's file, and replied, "He has an elderly mother and 2 older siblings, he's also married for almost 5 years and is expecting their first child in 4 months."
"Poor people, and even more so for his wife and child, to have lost their father before they are even born," Yae said with a heavy heart.
"They can make it through, his wife and child may have a harder time, but humans are strong no matter what loss they face. Many of my friends were able to do so, and so did your aunt when she lost her mentor and guidance," said the Doctor.
The fox lady exclaimed, "So you do remember my aunt!?"
The room went silent as the Time Lord struggled to think of a reply.
A few moments passed, and he answered, "Yes, I do remember her. When I first saw you and heard your name I already knew."
"Then why didn't you say anything earlier?" Yae inquired.
"Just didn't want to get us too distracted, so how is she lately, still working at the Grand Shrine in Kyoto?"
"She became the guuji, or head priestess, just a few months ago, and she still tells her stories of you to my little cousins."
"Good," the Doctor sighed, "really liked her lovely yet killer personality, always knows how to make people laugh and punish the naughty, why did you choose to be a police physician and not a shrine maiden, like she did?"
"I wanted to make a difference, like how aunty Miko would punish us when we misbehave, I wished to help in fighting crimes, but my quirk couldn't really help in being a hero nor am I strong, so," the fox lady shrugged, "might as well make do with my intellect."
The Scotsman smiled, "That's a good thing, no, it's a great thing, using your intellect instead of brute force for the cause of justice, there really should be more people like you in the world. Your aunt was like that when she was younger, looks like you got that from her."
Suddenly, there was a knock on the room's metallic door. Tamakawa said, "Come in."
The door opened and a younger officer walked in, he said, "Sir, sorry to bother you, but someone's here to pick him up." Pointing at the Doctor.
"It's alright, we're done here, but who is it?" the feline inquired curiously.
"It's Midnight, sir."
"Huh," the silver-haired man huffed, "Midnight to the rescue again, it seems."
Tamakawa turned to the Doctor, "Looks like it, thanks for all the help today Doctor, better not take more of your time."
"You're very welcome, Tamakawa, it's nice to see you lot again," the Doctor walked towards the door, but turned back one more time, "Also, Yae."
The fox lady raised her ears and turned to the Scotsman, "Yes?"
"Say hello to your aunt for me when you see her again."
Five minutes later
At the entrance of the police station, sitting at the chairs waiting was a 31-year-old, black-haired woman who was wearing a rather revealing skin-tight hero costume, waiting with her legs crossed, and her arms crossing her voluptuous chest.
It was Midnight, and she's waiting a bit impatiently. "Why are you taking so long, Doctor?" she muttered.
"Haven't seen you in almost a year, and the first thing you did after coming back was to send a bunch of students to me to get you out of the police, and it is not the first time nonetheless," the r-rated hero said under her breath.
'I wonder do you still look as tasty as back then, mmm,' she thought with a slight blush and licking her lips.
The door next to the reception table opened, Midnight stood up with much anticipation, but the person that came out was a tall, old stranger, much to her disappointment as it was not the person she was waiting for.
Or so she thought.
The old man waved and said with great joy, "Ah! Midnight, thanks for picking me up."
The black-haired lady looked confusedly, "Sorry, but I'm waiting for someone else, someone much younger."
"You wouldn't need to wait any longer, for he is standing right here," the Doctor held his hand together, "the Doctor."
Midnight shook her head slightly, trying to make sense out of all this, "But my Doctor," she then pointed her finger to his chest with hostility, "tell me what happened to him, whoever you are."
The Time Lord raised both hands and leaned back a bit, said, "It's a bit complicated, but all you need to know is that, he's me and I'm him, same person but different face, different body."
" No way you are-" she said but was interrupted by the old man in front of her, "Kayama Nemuri, 14 years ago, your 3rd year in U.A, you were on your internship at the Purple Revolution Agency alongside Eraserhead and Loud Cloud, and when Oboro died during your fight against the titanic amphibian villain, you comforted both Shota and Hizashi and told them to cover themselves from the heavy rain, despite crying and being more vulnerable to the rain yourself."
What the man said brought back that sad memory, as she still remembered it so clearly like it was yesterday, causing tears to well up in her eyes, and this man, being able to recall what happened back then with such detail, basically confirmed what he claimed, as the r-rated hero also recalled that the Doctor, who was one of her teachers back then, was there at the end of that incident.
"Doctor, so it really is you," Midnight said with gladness alongside sadness, as she wiped away her tears with a handkerchief.
Her old teacher put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly, "Yes, I have returned, sorry to bring back that incident," he said with a sad smile.
"It's alright," she said as she recomposed herself, "now, let's not waste any more time, we should get you back to U.A and the students."
"Lead the way, please."
The both of them left the police station, and got into the heroine's dark blue car, which was parked right in front of the station.
Midnight turned the car to drive, heading back to U.A high school. Several minutes into the hour-long journey, the heroine decided to catch-up with her old mentor, and asked the Doctor, "So, how come you look like this now?"
The old man confused by the question, asked, "What do you mean?"
"It's only been about a year since I last saw you, how come you look so much different and so much older?"
"Oh that, *cough* well, a year may have past for you, Nemuri, but to me, it was over a thousand years ago."
"That long!?" Midnight was surprised by the amount of time that had passed for her mentor, who just nodded, "Yep."
"Ok, I get why you look old, but that doesn't explain why you look like a different person."
"It's much more complicated, would you like to hear the short story or the long story?"
"Short," Midnight replied.
"A thing happened," the Doctor replied, "just like that."
The heroine took a deadpanned glance at her old mentor, then turned back to driving, "Then what's the long story?"
"Alright, as you may know, I am not human," the Time Lord began, and she nodded, "Yes, I know that."
"And this is something I never told you about, I, as well as my people, has this ability to regenerate as we are about to die, sort of like cheating death on his door, like Puss in Boots.'"
"The movie?"
The Doctor scoffed, "No, the fairy tale, of course the movie!"
Midnight chuckled at the Doctor's joke, but then realised, "So let me get this straight, you died but came back to life after you left?"
"Correct, but the reason was that I soaked up quite a load of radiation in order to protect a friend of mine when my people were going to do something so destructive that I had to stop them, and might I add that, that amount of radiation was enough to kill anything."
"Oh, so that's how you regenerated into this form."
"Well, not exactly, for you see that time I regenerated, I chose another face, a much younger face compared to this one."
"Then, what happened?"
"After travelling with a few more companions, I was lured to fight in a battle to prevent a war from igniting, it was a long battle, lasted for about 900 years."
'900 YEARS?!" that shocked Midnight so much that she nearly crashed the car, and the Doctor tuckled in for safety.
But luckily, there wasn't much car on the highway and she was able to regain control of the car, "900 years, that sounds less of a battle, more like a siege."
"Well, that's what most people called it, the Siege of Trenzalore, or as I used to call it my final battle."
"But still 900 years, that must've been unbearable."
The Doctor looked at his former student and raised his eyebrows, said with a sense of rage and dread, "You call that unbearable, just wait until I tell you the Last Great Time War which lasted for an eternity with billions dying every day."
Midnight was taken aback by what he said, and decided not to pursue that topic, she straightened herself and asked, "Then what happened at the end of that siege?"
"I was on my last legs, and I was no longer able to regenerate anymore, but my last and oldest enemies, the Daleks, there were many and I wasn't able to carry on any longer, but after some workings by my friend, Clara, I was able to gain a boost, and I ended the siege by destroying the Dalek command ship."
"And that boost, it allowed you to regenerate again?"
"More than that, it granted me a whole new regeneration cycle, meaning I get to have twelve more lives, including this current one of course."
"That means you can last for quite a while, that's great news," she then said with a rather disappointed tone, "although, I would much prefer if you stayed young."
"Come on Nemuri, don't be like that, you know it's impossible to stay young looking, time will always catch up eventually," the Doctor said, jokingly
"Right, sorry Doctor," Midnight apologized
"Now then, enough about me, now your turn, I thought you were still a Pro Hero the last time I saw you."
"Actually a few months before I met you again last year, I actually received a request from Principal Nezu to become a teacher at U.A, of course, I was still hesitant back then so I didn't mention it to you."
"Oh, I see, also tell me how did you find out that I needed help?"
"Well let's see," Midnight recalled, "It was over an hour ago..."
=| 1 hour ago |=
Midnight was walking through the corridors of the U.A main campus, searching for the other teachers, as earlier when she went back to the teachers' office, she wasn't able to find any of her co-workers, Eraserhead, Present Mic, Cementoss, All Might, heck even Vlad King, Hound Dog, Ectoplasm and Snipe were missing, and it was even more worrying that Eraserhead and All Might have not been seen for most of the day
As she was looking, she thought, 'Where is everyone? Are they actively avoiding me or what, I don't recall doing anything heinous recently or that they have other activities, so just what's going on?'
Suddenly behind her, she heard someone called, "Midnight-sensei!"
The teacher looked back and saw Ashido, Kirishima, Sato, along with 2 other girls she wasn't familiar with running towards her, one has green eyes and orange hair that were tied into two low pigtails and the other has light purple eyes and short brown hair.
The five students stopped in front of her and panted to catch a breath, she said, "Calm down, what's wrong, did something happen, and who are these two?"
"Okay, I'm sure you know anout our new student Shiota Nagisa, right?" the red head asked, to which her teacher replied, "Yes, I've seen him in classes."
"These two are two of his classmates," the pinkette introduced, "Hayami-san, Okano-san, this is Midnight-sensei, our Modern Hero Art History teacher, and she is also a Pro Hero, so she could help us."
The gymnast introduced herself first, "Hello Midnight-sensei, I am Okano Hinata." And then the sniper followed suit with her default stoic face, "And my name is Hayami Rinka, it's a pleasure."
"Hello to you two as well, so you two are classmates with Nagisa," she then asked the class 1-A students, "So does that mean that you have found his other classmates?"
Sato replied, "Well it's more like they found us, but we got a bigger problem in our hands."
"Tell me what exactly happened," Midnight ordered.
"When we were shopping at the Kiyashi Mall, we got attacked by a villain and Nagisa was kidnapped," Kirishima began, "but Tokoyami was able to rescue Nagisa and we were able to beat back the villain, though she escaped at the end."
"Okay, I get you all managed to save your friend and fight off a villain, that deserves commendation, but I don't see a bigger problem."
Hayami then said, "The bigger problem is what happened later," Okano continued, "We have a helper who got arrested when he went to the site of their battle to investigate, and we would to ask for your help."
Midnight felt a bit skeptical, as this 'helper' probably was not a good person as to get arrested, but seeing this 'helper' was someone important to these two students, and her own students were willing to help them, she also felt a sense of duty, she said, "Alright, then can you tell me more about this 'helper'?"
The five students looked at each other, not knowing how to explain, Sato scratched the back of his head, "I'm not sure how we should say this, but he told us to tell you teachers that he has returned, like he knows all of you or something."
That piqued the r-rated hero's interest, "Someone we know? Then can you tell me who this person is?"
Hayami replied, "Well he never revealed to us what his name is, but he only told us to call him, 'the Doctor'."
Midnight became still, with her eyes widened at the mention of a name she had not heard in a long time. She further inquired, "What else did he say?"
Ashido said, "Not much else, but that if anyone asked who he is, say 'I came back the long way around', the heck does that mean?"
With that phrase, the Pro Hero knew exactly who they were talking about, and said without hesitation, "Alright, just leave this to me."
She then rushed to get her car, without even thinking about filling in a Campus Departure Permission Form, and drove as fast as she could to Tokyo.
=| Back to Present |=
"So they did follow my instructions," the Doctor muttered and nodded, then looked at his former student, "but rushing to help me and not following school protocol, that was a bit reckless, wouldn't you say Nemuri?"
"I know, it's going to be a mess once I get back, but you were quite reckless back then if I remember, stepping in to help, despite not being a hero yourself."
The Time Lord tried to rebute, but as he thought back to his previous time in this universe, he failed to do so, "Fair point."
The heroine laughed at her mentor's response, "Finally, I get to win in an argument against you."
The Doctor sulked, "You're just lucky."
At this moment, they have made it to Shizuoka Prefecture, so they continued to chat for the last few minutes of the journey.
But at the same time, unknown to both, in the skies above the car, they were being shadowed.
A/N:
Welcome back everyone, sorry for not updating in a while, I originally planned to upload this chapter at Christmas, but due to some circumstances I was force to abandon that plan, and in January, I had my exams and needed to study, so I planned to upload at Valentine's day, but suddenly, I received news of a family tragedy on 6th February, that I had to put my writing on hold. However, here we are, the 11th Chapter, I hope you all like it.
So to recap, in the prequel, I had planned to put the Doctor as a former teacher of U.A during Aizawa's time, so be prepared for some rather interesting interactions between the faculty and our Time Lord, oh and the character, Yae Sakura, is an OC I created as a connection, for Yae Miko, would be a big part in the prequel.
Sidenote: Yes, this Yae Miko is basically the same as the playable character in Genshin Impact, I play the game since November for inspiration as you can see. And speaking of Genshin Impact, I am also planning to write a Xover of it with something else, but I won't spoil the other source, you will find out eventually, if you're interested that is.
So stay tuned!
Remember to favourite, follow and review.
Written in memory of my Grandmama (27/12/1945 - 6/2/2023)
Update: After some research, I found out that Yae Sakura is a character from Honkai Impact, so there's that.
