Some of Izuku's lucid dreams were more lucid than others. As he flipped through aerial photographs and maps, speaking quickly with Arch (Alexey) to finalize their plans, he was distinctly aware that this was an event that had happened so long ago that the nuances of their attack were of no importance. He did not try to hold the details in his mind.
Alexey yawned and stretched. "Don't you need to sleep?" the Russian asked him. "You've been up... how many hours now?"
"I have ways of cheating," Izuku replied, "but I'll make sure to rest before anyone heads out. I know, I know, tired commanders kill as many as the enemy," he repeated the mantra for the thousandth time.
"Indeed they do. The rest are out like lights, and I don't blame them, although they could have gone to bed rather than sleeping in their chairs," he gestured around the ovular table where most of the MLA high command had been engaged in an intense planning session... and where half of the MLA high command were now asleep. This was unusual, but not unheard of. They didn't care much about professionalism, not behind closed doors like this anyway.
There was Epona, her hair not yet streaked with silver. Influx was sleeping more on Epona's lap than in her own chair. Well, Izuku could ship that, even if he was conscious enough to recognize its inevitable, tragic end. There was Switcher, unconscious with a fluffy, wool hat pulled down over his eyes, and there was... Bit Weasel. Izuku wasn't quite coherent enough to understand why that was so upsetting but that was upsetting.
"Seriously," Alexey hummed, "go get some sleep. Chikara, you certainly need it. Or... maybe we should drag this whole lot off to bed first?"
"Their necks will be killing them in the morning if we let them sleep like that."
"One moment," Arch looked around the room--it was much like any conference room, drab wall
paper, filing cabinets, dull carpets--until he located a camera sitting on a low shelf. "I want a picture of those two," he pointed to Influx who was now drooling on Epona's thigh. "Excellent for blackmail... or perhaps counter blackmail, knowing how Influx is."
"It might make better bribery than blackmail," Izuku pointed out. Epona blinked her eyes open at the camera shutter and glowered at Alexey ferociously, nudging Influx awake, but there was no real heat in the general's gaze.
Izuku woke up and hissed a string of curses that would make Kacchan proud. "Both Bit Weasel and Switcher were right there, sleeping," he snarled, pulling out his coded notebook and beginning to fill in the information, practically stabbing the paper with his pen so that the page tore in a few places. "And I was Destro and that doesn't make any sense!"
He stared at the ceiling in despair. "I don't know... anything. I don't have any idea... if I were Bit Weasel all the time at least that might make some sense." Her quirk might have allowed her to share her memories and then those could have been passed on to Izuku somehow... Now what? He had memories from his body snatcher as well as memories from at least two other people, and if there were three peoples' lives mixed up in his head, how many more could there be?
Okay... it seemed likely that most of the memories he had really did belong to Bit Weasel, all of those relating to college days were practically guaranteed to be hers. Some could be Kuma's, Chris's or Switcher's, though, right? Or even Verwey's? The rest... with a few exceptions could belong to anyone . They were likely all recollections belonging to MLA generals, but he couldn't even be certain of that anymore.
He was back to square one, and sorely tempted for a moment to call up False Flag and tell her everything and hope to high heaven that she might have some idea of what was going on. What was the worst that could happen? She could determine that he was some sort of secret MLA project designed to be the second coming of Destro, reluctantly eliminate him for the good of the world, and dump his body in the harbor. When it was only Bit Weasel's memories floating around in his head, well... it was still bad but it wasn't, "I am Destro, leader of the MLA reborn," bad.
"Why does this keep happening to me?" he whimpered, face in his hands.
His face... right. Well, the universe had taken pity on him and his bone structure had returned to normal sometime during the night. He would not need to wear a bag to class two days in a row. None the less, he was not looking forward to school that day. He would have much rather stayed in bed for the rest of the week.
Izuku walked to the principal's office with his shoulders hunched up about his ears. What did they want with him now? Had someone read his mind? Had Nedzu been sneaking into his dorm room and reading his journal entries every day and now discovered one that simply could not be ignored? Was he about to be expelled? Arrested?
The greenette knocked and slunk into the office when summoned. Detective Tsukauchi and Sir Nighteye awaited as well as Nedzu himself. Aizawa was absent, however. "Good afternoon, Midoriya," the principal greeted him. "Congratulations are in order to you, as to everyone involved in the Hassaikai raid. The whole procedure went impressively well."
Izuku nodded. "Thank you, sir," he mumbled, but his nerves were still wound so tightly they might rupture at any moment.
Nighteye began after a moment. "This isn't actually about the raid." Izuku nodded; he already knew that. "I made inquiries with my contact at Isomorph, Signalman Australius, and I was able to confirm a few things. First off, Isomorph officially denies carrying out any operations in Japan whatsoever, but unofficially..."
Nighteye began to read from a report, although it wasn't always clear to Izuku what was related word for word and what was snarky commentary. "Isomorph did take possession of one hundred and thirty-four people--" Tsukauchi muttered something that might have been a curse "--at precisely three twenty-eight a.m. on the final morning of Midoriya's eight day absence. All individuals were imprisoned within suspended animation inducing glass resembling snow globes. There were also two-hundred and ninety-one animals imprisoned in these globes, some alongside humans and some alone. All the globes were transported to the carrier Allegheney in the Pacific. Several experts in the field were flown in from South Korea to assess the situation--I didn't know there was such a large group studying suspended animation in South Korea but apparently..." Nedzu nodded to himself. Clearly the principal had known this. "Anyway, following the experts' assessment, the prisoners were released in a controlled environment over the next four weeks. Eighteen humans and eighty-nine animals were found to be deceased upon their releases and could not be resuscitated. Isomorph medical examiners concluded that all of them were killed prior to their imprisonment, some... quite brutally." Nedzu's ears and whiskers flattened against his head. "Five of the imprisoned animals passed the Turing I Sentience Test. Three of the five passed the Turing II Sapience Test and of those two also passed the Turing III Sapience Test."
"I don't understand...?" Izuku had no idea what that last sentence meant.
"These tests, named for one of the early pioneers of artificial intelligence, are standard methods by which we attempt to impartially assess whether an entity is likely to be sentient or sapient," Tsukauchi told him. That much was fairly obvious.
Nedzu put in, "they are far from perfect but they are designed to give the benefit of the doubt. Entities who pass the very permissive first test are presumed to be able to consciously perceive the world. They are not necessarily capable of advanced thought and are not capable of committing a crime as it is not possible to prove that they understand the consequences of criminal actions. However, destroying a Turing I entity should be considered murder. Turing II entities are certainly conscious and likely capable of independent thought and appreciating the consequences of their actions. They may or may not be capable of committing a crime and not only would destroying a Turing II entity be murder, but refusing to allow a Turing II entity to make decisions about their future, health, and safety would be considered slavery by all... civilized people. A Turing III entity, such as yours truly, is a proven sapient creature with complex, original thoughts who is perfectly capable of committing crimes," that last part was declared with a bit too much cheer,
"and should be entitled to live an independent life with all the rights of any other sapient being. The Turing IV test attempts to determine whether the individual assessed is human or not... and it has many, many problems, right down to the fundamental definition. There are some people who can prove their humanity via genetic tests who cannot pass the Turing IV exam... for a variety of reasons, soulstripping principal among them..."
"Let's not get into that," Tsukauchi interrupted. "This conversation is already veering in strange directions."
Nedzu waved a paw and continued. "The very existence of Turing IV is quite controversial and very offensive to certain groups. Isomorph does not use it."
"What does Isomorph do with sentient animals?" Tsukauchi asked Nighteye, forcefully getting the discussion back on track. Nedzu opened his mouth as if to reply then shrugged. Clearly he knew (of course he did) but recognized that the question had been a ploy to get Nighteye talking again.
The hero continued, "I expect they provide much the same help to all sentient or sapient creatures that come into their care. Of the eighteen dead, sixteen have been identified and several have been returned to next of kin." Izuku couldn't help but wince. That would be a horrific end to several long-standing missing persons cases. "In happier news, of the living humans freed, ninety-seven were identified as Japanese citizens. Of these, eighty-two have been quietly repatriated already. The remainder are either... traumatized to the point of requiring inpatient psychiatric care, unwilling to return here and attempting to gain documentation to enter other countries, or choosing to join Isomorph in some capacity."
Nedzu nodded. "That's quite common. At least half of Isomorph's active roster were rescued by the organization at some point. I considered it briefly." Wait... what did Nedzu just imply? Were they not going to stop and talk about that? No, apparently not. It didn't make sense, anyway. If Nedzu had been an Isomorph rescue, he would probably have contacts at the organization and they wouldn't have had to go through Nighteye to get this information... probably? Perhaps Nedzu's contacts had left Isomorph some time ago... or maybe Tsukauchi just hadn't thought to ask him.
Nighteye continued, "of the nineteen not identified as Japanese citizens, eight have been identified as citizens or nationals of other countries and repatriated. The remaining eleven have either suffered severe memory damage or were extremely young at the time of their imprisonment and Isomorph is still working to identify them, although there is little hope at this point." It had been more than a year; if they hadn't found these peoples' identities by now, they weren't going to. "Some of them will likely join Isomorph... or in the case of the children be officially adopted by the Isomorph members who have been caring for them in the interim. All of the animals who passed Turing I through III have elected to remain with the organization in some way for the moment. Other animals have been sent to humane societies, wildlife preserves, and zoos as appropriate. Apparently dealing with the thirty meter trees suddenly expanding to full size was quite a trick..."
All of this was excellent news. Izuku's body snatcher had done something unequivocally good for all of these kidnapped people. Tsukauchi, meanwhile, sighed and rubbed his forehead and Nedzu looked equally grim. Why? "Where did he get his hands on all those sentient and sapient animals?" Nedzu whispered, actually gnashing his teeth in a supreme loss of decorum. Oh. That was a good question. "It is not as if we are a common breed... where did he find them?"
"I don't know," Tsukauchi said grimly, "although it... potentially implies a lot of bad things about a certain government organization." Did Tsukauchi really think the HPSC was running massive animal experimentation rings? And Hirano took some of the subjects? That might actually... that was by far the most likely explanation... and it was absolutely terrifying. The HPSC was... everything. If Izuku couldn't trust them to uphold the law, who could he trust to do anything right? As if he didn't have enough trust issues already...
"They could have been obtained decades ago," Nighteye pointed out. "I was able to get a bit of additional information, a few testimonies from some of the liberated individuals, and Hirano had
been doing this for at least twenty years, maybe as many as forty."
"Eighteen people dead," Tsukauchi shook his head. "A serial murderer as well as an insane kidnapper. And he got away with it for decades... but that wasn't even the point here. Who called it in, Nighteye? Who got Isomorph involved?"
Nighteye shook his head. "There is a reason I didn't lead with that, besides my desire to see if any of this would spark Midoriya's memory." Ah. That explained why he'd been given so much information that he wasn't really entitled to. "Unfortunately, it seems that Midoriya's kidnapper relayed the information. Signalman Australius was called by Dispatcher Black, who apparently got his assignment from The Green Controller who got his information from Station Master Saker..." railway titles... Izuku should know why Isomorph gave everyone railway titles... somehow it seemed like a controversial choice even if he couldn't place why. "That seems to be the end of the line with the Station Master simply citing a "tip by a trusted informant.""
"Station Masters run safe houses, correct?" Tsukauchi squinted.
"Yes," Nighteye nodded.
"So where is Master Saker's safe house?"
Nighteye sighed deeply. "Black Forest." Izuku managed not to face palm. Of course it was Black Forest. Of course it was. Everything always came back to Black Forest.
"So not just out of our jurisdiction, out of everyone's jurisdiction," Tsukauchi sighed. "I'm sorry, Midoriya. I thought we finally found a lead..."
"At least I know what happened to those people now," Izuku replied. "At least..." he cringed, "I know something good came of it." He couldn't get Hirano's face to leave him alone... It popped up from around corners, leered at him when he closed his eyes. The man had been confirmed as not just a kidnapper but a serial killer but still... he was still a man and Izuku was still a murderer. Or remembered being a murderer.
"You weren't surprised," Nedzu said abruptly.
"Huh?" Izuku asked.
The mammal cocked his head. "That Saker's station is in Black Forest. It didn't surprise you."
And Tuskauchi was in the room looking at the greenette very carefully. "No, it didn't surprise me," Izuku replied quietly.
"Why?" Nedzu asked.
"It just... everywhere I go, everything seems to revolve around Black Forest. I was just working with False Flag, you know." So many close calls with truth quirks... but he just felt so tired this time. Tired of hiding, tired of dancing around all these things no one wanted to say outright... tired of getting further and further from the answers as more information came to light. He just didn't have the strength to play the game yet again this afternoon, and no matter how well he laid out his cards, he wasn't going to get out of this conversation without admitting something he really didn't want to. Somehow that didn't bother him nearly as much as it should. Exhaustion had stalked in and pushed fear aside, taking the throne of chief emotion in his brain.
"You remember more than you're saying, don't you?" Nedzu asked, sounding perfectly friendly, but there was a promise of steel in his eyes.
"I remember some things I haven't told you about, some just disjointed pieces that don't make too much sense and maybe they're not memories at all but just nightmares," Izuku replied. He didn't usually have trouble telling the difference between dream and vision but sometimes he wasn't sure. "Beautiful things," Servii... "Terrible things," Utapa, "nonsensical things," all of it put together. "I don't know what it means," he continued, "and, honestly, I'm absolutely terrified to find out."
"What does that have to do with Black Forest, though?" Nedzu asked gently after a time. The violent glint in his eyes had faded away.
"Whoever possessed me, you already know they called themselves a Switchblade or some of you do? I can't remember who got told what or who told who after. Never mind. A Switchblade... but I don't think they were some sort of neo-MLA thug. I'm pretty sure," from all the associated memories that he was not going to mention here, "that they were a follower of the original MLA's ideals, so they're probably from Black Forest, or lived there for a while at the very least."
Tsukauchi hummed. "Why didn't you tell us this before, Midoriya?"
Why... why hadn't he said that much at least? Was he afraid that giving them such a puzzle piece might ruin him, unveil all his lies? Or had he just lost track of who knew what? "I... sort of t- thought it was obvious? And you must know?" Had they really not surmised this much? "But also, I'm... just scared. I'm not sure I want to know anymore, what happened to me or why," would that be a lie? No... no that was the truth. If these damn dreams and nightmares would stop accosting him, he would be happy to let sleeping dogs lie forever. Never knowing would be a million times better than the nightmare scenarios he'd imagined. "Hirano was bad enough," suddenly being Chris for a night was bad enough, "what else might I see? What else might I learn?"
Tsukauchi pinched the bridge of his nose and titled his head back. "Midoriya..." he seemed to have no words. Nedzu gave Izuku a calculating, not quite disappointed look and the student cringed. Nighteye cocked his head thoughtfully. "Do you know anything else that might help us with this investigation? Well, the investigation into your disappearance or the investigation into Hirano's crimes and... murder. Anything you've been holding back?" Tsukauchi asked. They were still treating him as a witness, not a suspect. There was time for that to change, though...
Random tidbits about MLA strategy meetings and Bit Weasel's college days would not be helpful. The fact that Izuku seemed to randomly see memories belonging to various MLA generals was so confusing it was practically useless... Izuku could get away without mentioning any of that. Today would not be the day for that reckoning... but there was something he knew that would, without a doubt be relevant... something he'd always meant to tell them. Kuma's quirk in Hirano's hands was the key link, almost certainly the thread that tied this whole, twisted tale together, but nobody knew what Kuma's quirk had been, nobody but Izuku. There was no risk in telling them the quirk Hirano used was stolen by All For One as they couldn't possibly tie it back to the fate of a missing, mysterious MLA general (and even if they did, so what?) This had somehow slipped his mind amidst the rest of the chaos jumbling his thoughts. "It wasn't Hirano's quirk, not originally," Izuku told them. All of them stared at him. "I forgot to tell you this. I meant to, when we talked about Hirano the first time, I just... it slipped my mind that you didn't know. Hirano got the quirk from All For One. My body snatcher knew this and was absolutely furious about it. They were chasing after All For One... but I think they only wanted to find All For One in order to learn what happened to this particular quirk. I told you before they wanted revenge for a quirk being stolen and I think this was it. I think its original owner must have a been a friend or an idol."
"How did Hirano get this quirk from All For One? Why? Was he a member of the League?" Tsukauchi asked sharply.
How would Izuku know that? He shook his head. "I have no idea. I presume he must have cut a deal of some kind but... Nothing more than that."
Nedzu's whiskers twitched; he had closed his eyes. "And now we need to investigate the death and crimes of a serial killer and kidnapper who apparently bartered with All For One to give him a devastatingly insidious quirk... while he worked for the HPSC. Well... this is almost more chaos than even I can handle in one day. Thank you, Midoriya. You may return to your dorm or go to see Hound Dog if you prefer. He should be in his office and it seems to me you may need to speak with him." The principal's tone implied it was not a suggestion.
Izuku nodded. "Yes, sir. I'm... sorry. I really didn't mean--I just forget what's been said--" He got too caught up in his own head.
"It's alright, Midoriya," Sir Nighteye told him. The greenette blinked in surprise. "As someone whose profession involves squeezing information out of confusing and... sometimes frightening visions, I understand some of these challenges. I, too, have been afraid of what I might see." Really? "I would second Nedzu's recommendation that you go to speak with a therapist rather than returning to your dormitory, however."
Izuku nodded and, obediently, scurried away to see the school counselor. He didn't feel any of the relief he expected at having dodged yet another conversational bullet. All he felt was more creeping exhaustion.
When Izuku finally made his way back to the common room, he found the majority of his class crowded around the television, expressions of shock and horror... or elation in some cases. Todoroki just looked sad and confused, like a bald eagle staring directly at a camera rather than photographed in profile.
"Uh... what did I miss?" the greenette asked cautiously.
"Endeavour and Hawks just destroyed like, twenty buildings," Kaminari said. What?
"It was one building. One building, Kaminari. One. Not twenty," Jirou groused, although it wasn't clear whether she was angry or frightened.
"But it was a really big building," Sero defended Kaminari.
"And there was one of those nomu things, I think," Yaoyorozu said quietly. "I think that's what it was... but it was..."
"The most terrifying piece of... whatever I've ever seen," Kaminari broke in, waving his hands wildly.
"They killed it," Kirishima said, "put it down, but looked like it was a near thing. Scary."
Izuku was going to have to watch a compilation of this fight. Another nomu? Did that mean that... Izuku had kind of assumed that All For One's defeat would put an end to that particular nightmare. Clearly someone who escaped with the League still had that technology... or this was a totally new player. All For One really needed to be tried and executed... before one of these factions got lucky
and managed to break the fiend out of Tartarus, sending them all back to square one.
Except... if the HPSC had been working with All For One, exchanging favors off the books then... maybe they were--no. No, the HPSC didn't even have that kind of influence over the judicial system. Or they shouldn't, and it would be unbelievably, red-flag-waving suspicious if they interfered with the case.
"They used to be people, you know," Iida said quietly.
Despite the class president's soft voice, the room fell silent. "What?" asked Kaminari.
"The nomu. They were people. Several people, sometimes. The League of villains takes them apart... and puts them back together wrong." Their classmate stared into the distance, eyes haunted, then shook his head and strode rapidly from the room.
"Uh, Iida?" Kaminari called.
"I'll go talk to him, kero," said Tsu, voice taught with concern, and given her aptitude for calming people she might be the best choice. Izuku had been about to offer; he understood what this was about, after all. Iida could well have been that nomu, or a... piece of it if the Kamino raid hadn't happened when and how it did. "Put down" like a dog... whoever that nomu had been, they couldn't possibly deserve that.
"Is... what did I say?" Kirishima asked, bewildered.
"Not your business, spiky hair," Katsuki replied. Izuku hadn't noticed him. He'd been unusually quiet thus far.
"You must be pretty proud of your dad, huh, uh, Zuko?" said Uraraka, clearly trying to change and maybe lighten the subject. "I'm glad he's alright."
Todoroki glared at the screen. "Honestly, I'm mostly annoyed with him for making me worry about him. I'm trying to spite him and now he went and nearly got killed on live television..." the chaotic teen scowled. Izuku read, "I shouldn't have to feel guilty about hating him," from Todoroki's expression.
"I get it," Sero shrugged awkwardly. "Parents are always complicated. I fight with my old man a lot--"
"No," Todoroki said sharply. "You had better not get it, or someone in your family needs to be turned into a human iceberg and left to drift around Antarctica for all of eternity." Their chaotic classmate turned on his heel, raked fingers through his hair in consternation, and vanished.
Silence. The television began replaying highlights from the battle. Izuku watched past Endeavour slice and dice a collapsing office building like a chef mincing onions. "So, who should go after him?" Uraraka asked at last.
Everyone was looking at Izuku. "Why are you looking at me?" the greenette protested. "I don't... it's none of my business!"
"Well, we're meddling with Iida," Kirishima pointed out.
"Iida is different!" Izuku replied, flapping his hands. "Iida is... predictable!" It was the best word he could come up with to explain why trying to talk to Todoroki about that bizarre outburst was a worse idea than trying to talk to Iida about his problems. "And why me anyway?"
"Because he idolizes you, nerd," Katsuki pushed Izuku after Todoroki. "Every time you show up to class as a walking nuclear fashion disaster, he says "oh, look at that art" and next thing you know, the two of you are twins. Now go."
"Okay! Okay!" This wasn't going to end well. He was too tired for this.
Izuku knocked on Todoroki's door. "Uh, Zuko? They wanted me to come check that you were alright," he said nervously.
"Come in, Midoriya." The door wasn't locked.
Todoroki stood at the window, staring out into the cloudy night. "He broke my ribs once, you know," the teenager said. "That really was an accident. I was six. The hospital staff didn't even ask what happened, just fixed it. Accident or not, it still hurt. I was too young to understand the pain; I thought I was dying. He liked to yell at me, demand I stop being weak when I was too tired to get off the floor. He made it clear that I was his property and I would stop training when he said so, never before. My mother went insane. I think my older brother killed himself." Izuku balked. "You know what the worst part is?" Zuko continued, eyes smoldering as he glanced at Izuku over his shoulder. "He didn't even mean it. I honestly believe... I really think he thought he was being kind. That he was helping me because what I want must be exactly what he wants... That I, too, must be obsessed with surpassing All Might, no matter the cost... I started thinking recently," he clenched his left hand, "that I should start using fire in combat. After seeing all the creative ways I can drive him mad with just my appearance, I'm sure I can find some way to drive him mad with flames. Perhaps you'll give me some inspiration."
Zuko had turned to face him by that point. "That sounds wonderful," Izuku pulled on an expression that hopefully passed for a genuine smile. The repeated verbal hammer blows his classmate had just landed made it difficult to do anything but scowl.
"But I've found I can't, use fire I mean," Zuko continued softly, staring at his left hand with a sort of betrayed confusion. "After so long hating him... I am disgusted by my own body to the point I just can't do it. I'm not sure whether he's ruined me or whether I ruined myself... with my hatred for him."
The greenette waited for more words. They didn't come. Should he try again to convince his classmate to talk to someone more qualified? He really didn't seem keen on that, but clearly he needed to talk to someone or he wouldn't have spilled all these dirty secrets the moment a friendly ear presented itself. What else could he...? Izuku wasn't magic . He was weird but that didn't mean he could solve anyone's problems unless that problem was related to someone's hair being too good and in need of ruining. What could he even suggest that wasn't "talk to Hound Dog or Aizawa or a cop?" Well, he could think of one thing... "Have you tried... becoming obsessed with some other fire hero?"
Zuko blinked. "What?"
"Endeavour's probably the only flame wielding hero you ever think about but there are a lot of others. Maybe if you became a fan of one of them it would help you stop thinking of fire as your father's power?" The placebo effect could be a very powerful thing, in any case.
The chaotic teenage blinked thoughtfully. "Can you tell me about some of them?"
Exhausted as he was, the greenette still found the energy for (or, rather, was reenergized by) geeking out about obscure (and not so obscure) fire-wielding heroes for a solid hour while Zuko took notes and occasionally "hmmed."