Quirks not Required

OC/Nemuri Kayama

VIII: Premature Strikes...

Aizawa struck first. He was waiting for Kato, at a local pub, in order to try and get some information out of the man. Aizawa sighed, this was truly the most irrational way to do such a thing. Aizawa hadn't found anything significant to pin Kato with; but that was the thing staying his hand. 'Shota, this is a surprise. I was half expecting the Spanish Inquisition.' Kato commented as he shuffled himself out of the cab.

Aizawa grinned and wheeled the younger man to the pub. He'd swapped shifts in order to have this sit-down. 'You've come up in an investigation Kato. It's in reference to a multiple missing persons case, with the possibility of murder. I'm approaching you now, because the Police are not going to let this go. I'm involved in a different investigation; mine has its own links to said case. Normally I wouldn't approach you directly, but for the sake of Nemuri; please no bullshit, no tricks.'

Daiten Kato looked at the haunted man in front of him. "Think this through...who knows, you could potentially pull this off. Taking out All For One and your Own Sensei; they know you're sharp, but you're going to have to outplay them. Don't, just talk and let Aizawa deal with it. Nemuri…Is it worth it, spill."

Aizawa watched as Kato contemplated his situation and nursed his pint. "What do you want to know?"

Aizawa smiled toothily "Everything."

Kato looked at him "I, Daiten Kato, swear to tell the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth or so help me. I don't want to speak here, I…don't feel safe."

Aizawa nodded "My Agency; the only Officer who knows of it is the detective who accompanied me earlier."

Kato tensed and sucked air through his teeth "I will not deal with him. This isn't anything personal; I don't trust the authorities. Not ever since my appointment."

Aizawa snorted "But you trust me?"

"Relatively. I trust you because you give everyone the same level of shit regardless of who we are. Anyway, I'll tell you that I do know about your bug. Clever, extremely clever, Nemuri more than likely informed you and then you placed it when I was at work."

"I did. It's this intellect that scares me."

Kato grinned "Following logical processes does tend to do that. Now let's be off."

Aizawa nodded and the pair piled into Aizawa's old car. Only to find the detective waiting, innocently, near by "Dato-san."

"Detective...Forgive me if I say it's a displeasure to see you again." Tsukauchi, grimaced as his quirk activated.

"For once you don't actually mean that. I've had a look at your files; I'm willing to…"

Kato turned to Aizawa "Do I REALLY need to talk to All Might's bed-buddy? Don't look so shocked Detective, I've seen enough of All Might's interviews and clocked you in the background. Honestly, I'm happy for you." Aizawa managed to restrict his grin to a twitching of his lips. Tsukauchi sighed, Kato was telling the truth.

"I'm not here as a Detective. I'm merely here to record the minutes of your talk with Eraserhead; I understand your guarded stance against me and well everyone in general. But, Daiten-San, the only reason we're not doing this down at the Station is because of Kayama Nemuri."

Kato looked at the pair of them "Let's go." With that Kato got into the car, the rode in silence. Kato deep in his thoughts, wondering how to get out of this situation, then a plan began to develop.

"You're doing a brave thing. Your own relationships with the missing and presumed dead alone would have had you down the station."

Kato nodded "True. Innocent until proven guilty; although with me quirkless more automatically guilty…" He trailed off, he was beginning to crack. He couldn't yet, he hadn't finished his task.

"I have some requests, some outlandish and some reasonable." Kato countered.

Aizawa snorted "You'll have your chance. Here we are." They'd arrived at a small patisserie, then heading down a side-alley they entered the building, then a ride through the creaky elevator to the second floor; where at the end was an office with a black-cat on the front-door.

Aizawa let the duo in, then he shut the door behind him. He locked it and they entered his office. Tskauchi shuffled into the corner, took out a note pad and waited. Aizawa sat behind his desk and pulled out a variety of folders "I need to know what you know about this man."

This man was none other than Ujiko Daruma "That's Ujiko Daruma-Sensei…" The game was up, "...what has he got to do with anything?"

"Quite a lot, apparently." With that Aizawa placed a very thick folder down "You would not believe how many people I needed to pull over a barrel to get copies of this; these are records from Unite 713." Kato paled.

"He's in those files?"

"Same man, different name, only he calls himself Garaki Kyudai. He has a quirk of somesort."

"He hasn't deigned to inform me of his quirk if he had one." Tsukauchi's eyes widened as his quirk activated, it activated with such force, it looked like he'd been punched in the gut by Nomu.

Aizawa raised an eyebrow "You're going to let the Detective's quirk, impact him so badly?"

"You honestly think I care? I'd be more sympathetic if he extracted himself from the dick of the HSPC. HSPC allow heroes to get away with murder."

Tskauchi's gut didn't react. "Anyway, no I didn't know about that." Tskauchi made notes but his gut didn't react.

Aizawa nodded "Moving on, Kyudai, I suspect he had something to do with the abduction of your six friends."

"That's pretty hefty. Very hefty. But again you have no proper proof."

"True, there's something your hiding from me, from us."

"Half-truths, suspicions and something unbelievably frightening."

Aizawa snorted "I doubt that."

Kato shrugged "I start my new job with Recovery Girl, soon. You'll be able to stalk me then, Eraserhead. There I've answered your questions. Now if you'll excuse me I actually have a job to do, repairing my legs." With that he turned to roll away.

"Kato, wait…if I were to go out on a limb and say I believe you; not because of any relationship you might have with Nemuri...You've got a good head on your shoulders. What do you want?"

"I want mine and Nemuri's child to know the truth, Nemuri and the child to be supported by whatever money I make. I also want either immunity or a written defence that whatever I'm doing I did of my own violition to be a hero. Knowing the choices I've made, I'm going down."

"Going down?"

"In History, Eraserhead, Detective...What I'm doing because of the choices I've made are going to label a Hero or a Villain."

"And which side of the Narrative do you want?" Tsukauchi asked.

"Honestly Detective, I couldn't give a shit. I just want my account out in public domain; Heroes cannot judge me, I refuse to allow Heroes to judge me. Villains, an incredibly subjective term as is the term Heroes. Are we done?"

Aizawa nodded, but he couldn't help but think he let Kato out of his grasp early on. The guy was hiding something, but he didn't know what; the only thing he did know was Daiten Kato was up to his neck in it. When his phone beeped and on it was a text saying 'Alexandre Dumas'.

"Anything?"

"Just a name, Alexandre Dumas."

Tsukauchi paused "That name is going to rattle a friend of mine; more than what he's already doing. Eraserhead, I'll see you later."

(Nemuri Kayama)

Nemuri was resting on the sofa; when Kato rolled in. His face one of utter fury "Something wrong?"

"I just got pulled over by Aizawa and a bloody Detective."

Nemuri's eyes widened "I'm...sorry, I asked Aizawa to talk to you; I don't know about the Detective."

Kato spun on his wheelchair "It was less talk, more interrogation…" He stopped, the interrogation had left him with his hackles up; and the last thing he wanted to do was lose everything.

Nemuri watched him like a hawk "You're rattled, extremely on edge. Please, Kato, let me help. What's going on?"

"I have found myself shackled to monsters. One of whom you've met; Ujiko-sensei or as I know him, Garaki-sensei. He's over 120 Years Old, served in World War II and was part of Unit 713. None of this, I knew, I had suspicions...but suspicions get you nowhere. He accepted me, he saw past the 'axe-against-Endeavour, quirkless paraplegic and gave him a chance. In my haste, I skimmed the terms and conditions...we're; my team and I are operating at a level of science that takes two-three years to get towards and its our starting point! Something is immediately off. Then my aggressors disappeared, the Detective showed up and within fifteen minutes of us all meeting was throwing around insults and accusations like he's got all the facts. They backed off, then Aizawa must have come to you whilst you're at UA, my computer gets bugged...now this meeting. Both of these meetings."

Nemuri's eyes widened, she knew her lover was sharp; but this...this was something else "Are you sure, you don't have a quirk? Because that was some very fast paced and frighteningly accurate information deduction."

Kato grinned thinly "I'm sleeping with a Hero, I'm in love with a Heroine. I need to hone my intellectual capabilities if I'm to help you complete your cases, so you have more time with me."

"You're a flatterer. But in all honesty, Kato; you're in deep, deep shit. By your own admission of personal grudges."

Kato stilled "Is it worth it? Can I spill my guts? Should I let everything down and tell her what I know, what I suspect? I'm either dead in jail or dead like gang-style killing or like Nomu?" "If I'm going down because the judges deem my report I filed when I was fifteen a signed and sealed in blood contract then I'll accept the punishment."

Nemuri snorted "No-one will send you down on something you wrote nearly over a decade ago; even the most bureaucratic HSPC agent knows that's a bad idea. Besides, if they target you, I'll get involved and as you well know Kato, I'm independently well-off."

Kato, shifted himself onto the sofa; Nemuri curled up next to him "We'll be able to find out soon if its a boy or a girl. Besides, I need to pick your brain about something and you're the best quirk-analyser that I know of whose of legal age."

"Go on."

"We've got a teen who pureed his arms and legs during the entrance exam. His quirk backfired on him, breaking him like glass. What do you know about this? How can we help? All Might is assisting him."

"This sounds like an Abnormal Quirk; a stockpiling physical quirk potentially and realistically. Although I'm not throwing out the idea that Quirks can be transferred; this kid requires help that goes beyond All Might. From what I've found about All Might, he took to his quirk naturally...Who isn't a fan of All Might. Since RG wants me to help, Sensei is allowing me to step back from my team. I'll be working 2and a half days at UA and 2 and a half with my team."

Nemuri grinned "Enough with business and work. What do you think of our current 40 Applicants for the Hero Course."

This in itself was a test of Nemuri's. If the results weren't to her liking she would ultimately take Kato's life into her own hands; even if it meant she had to retire from heroics. "I'll help him, he might listen to me."

Nemuri grinned, as grouchy and shirty, Kato could be; he still had a good heart. He'd gone through so much, the fact he hadn't gone completely off the rails was cause for a celebration.

(Shigaraki and Garaki)

"He's in position. Daiten Kato, has intentions on splitting his time between here and UA. Perhaps it's time for him to meet Tomura."

Garaki merely grunted in confirmation as he looked over 'Project Molten'. The first of Daiten's Nomu "I think it should be best, if that conversation happens naturally. Although, I suspect my apprentice has drawn a lot of flack from Heroes associated with his lover. Shigaraki, let him out, give him time to lose the suspicions."

There was a deep chuckle from the Faceless All-For-One "My dear friend, I was going to do such a thing anyway; I have to admit Molten, is a work of art. He could put you to shame."

Garaki grinned "His legal project is gaining traction; where I was hindering it under 'bureaucracy', I see no reason as to allow them to speed up and begin testing on willing subjects. Although, a few of my suppliers have been hit hard...someone's been acquiring anaesthetic components, amino acids, amongst other things...Nothing that should draw attention in their acquisitions as they're perfectly legal to possess but it is the quantities that are astounding."

"Problems for your protege. Problems for your protege."