Chapter 1: Home

Home. For the longest time, ever since I left Earth all those years ago, I had lost all sense of what the word means. What is home, really? Is it just 4 walls and a ceiling, a place where a person lays their head at night? Or does it mean something more, engulfing a person's entire being with feelings of comfort, belonging, and maybe even love?

For some, home may indeed be nothing more than a roof over their heads, a place to keep themselves sheltered from things like the storm and rain. It certainly meant that way to most sentients, especially at their most animalistic stage of evolution.

Even still, to some others, home is a place they retreat to after a long day's work, seeking solace in the familiarity of their surroundings. A fortress and dedication to their own solitude.

But to go even further, for a good share of people in the galaxy, home transcends just the brick and mortar. It's a place where the soul feels a sense of belonging, a place where a person can be whoever they want, without fear of judgment.

To be loved unconditionally. To be loved without needing to give an arm and a leg in return.

Home is where the heart is, they say, and perhaps there's truth to that. It's the laughter that echoes through the halls, the warmth of a shared meal around the table, the comfort that comes with being surrounded by loved ones. It's the little things – the scent of your mother's cooking seeping from the kitchen, the sound of someone you love calling out your name, and the sight of a warming smile that reassures you that everything is going to be alright in the end, no matter the pain.

But what will happen when you return home after an extended period of time? What happens to a home that you abandoned so long ago, all for the foolish notions of power and heroism? Will those loving smiles remain loving? Will you be able to recognize the loving scent of your mother's cooking? Will there even be a home left to return to, after being a decade apart from it?

These were the thoughts that ran through my mind as I approached the old apartment that my mother and I used to live in.

Did I still have a home? Had mom and dad moved on, and when I finally knocked on my old apartment's door, would I find something empty or occupied by strangers? I wouldn't blame my parents if they had moved. When I had been given the offer by my former master to train in the ways of the Sith, I thought it was a one-of-a-kind opportunity to become a hero, a chance to show that even a quirkless person could do something special.

Oh, how much of a fool I was.

It was funny in a way. I was a Dark Lord of the Sith, a master of the Dark Side of the Force, with the ability to crush armies, and a kill count that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. I had plans to take over this world for my own purposes, with a small fleet of starships run by thousands of droids at my beck and call. I had become a man with control of powers that most would call evil, but yet, I was scared to ring a simple doorbell, all in the fear that my family wouldn't be waiting on the other side.

After a prolonged period of worrying, I thought to myself 'fuck it' and pressed the stupid bell.

…Naomasa Tsukauchi…

I could only sigh heavily as I navigated through the bustling streets of Musutafu. Today was supposed to be my day off—one of the rare chances I could get away from the demands of being a detective and enjoy some much-needed R . I had plans to stay at home, watch catch up on a few shows I haven't been able to watch, maybe even light some candles, play some music and have a nice bubble bath, but damn will fate throw a monkey wrench into my plans every chance it gets.

The purpose of the call from the precinct had caught me off guard as well. A missing person's case, one that I had been deeply involved in almost a decade ago, had resurfaced in the most unexpected way. Izuku Midoriya, the child who had vanished without a trace all those years ago, or someone claiming to be him, had appeared at his mother's doorstep in the middle of the day.

The situation was baffling, to say the least. Mrs. Midoriya insisted that the teenager was her son, despite the passage of time and the possibility that this might all be some kind of elaborate hoax. Unfortunately for her, in cases like these, the word of the parent never really meant much, simply due to the fact that they were too emotionally attached to the idea of their child returning, they often ignored potential warning signs that might indicate danger. We hadn't performed a blood test yet to confirm the teenager's identity, but the officers who responded to the scene insisted that the resemblance was uncanny as well, which did ultimately add to their suspect's truthfulness about their identity.

As the lead investigator of the original missing person's case, I knew I had to get involved. Countless questions swirled in my mind. If this was in fact Izuku Midoriya, where had he been all these years? Was this truly him, or was it some sort of cruel hoax? And if it was him, what had happened to him during his time away?

My steps quickened as I approached the precinct. I could only feel exhausted. With everything going on with All Might coming back to Musutafu to try and find a new successor, the sudden uptake in missing person's cases, and now the potentiality of answering the questions I had for 10 years ago over this missing person's case, I felt like I was being pulled apart at the seams. I was completely and utterly exhausted.

I really hope my next planned time off won't end up like this either.

When I entered the precinct building, I was greeted by a dozen officers hustling and bustling, taking criminals to their holding cells left and right. Honestly, knowing that All Might was in town, you could only guess why this was the case.

A few officers nodded in acknowledgement as I passed by, their expressions probably as exhausted as I was, likely due to the sheer number of criminals coming in, compared to the times when All Might wasn't in town. While normally I would probably exchange a few pleasantries with them, asking about their day, the weather and that kind of stuff, it obviously wasn't those types of days, so we nodded and went along with our business.

"Hey, Detective Tsukauchi, heard you got called in on the Midoriya case," Detective Tanaka remarked standing in front of the interrogation room the potential missing teenager was in.

He was a rather large man, not All Might size of course, but 6 foot and 2 inches, not a height most would associate with a quirkless, full blood Japanese man. He was the lead investigator running the operation looking into the many missing person's cases that started to spring up all over the city.

While most would naively believe that, with the symbol of peace around, the job of a police would just be about putting criminals into jail after the arrest was made by the hero, but it was a false notion. Number 1 heroes like All Might were meant to deter overt crimes, like robbery, villain attacks and other large-scale issues, but the shadowy stuff like human trafficking and kidnappings? You'd call All Might in once we knew stuff like location and people involved, but the investigation and most of the leg work was a job left to the police to handle.

While Detective Tanaka was never involved with the Midoriya case, hell, this case was around long before he had even become a detective, but since he was the lead investigator into the recent ring of kidnappings all around the city, he likely came to see if our two cases were directly involved in each other or not.

"Yeah, seems like quite the development," I replied, offering a tight-lipped smile. "How are things on your end with those missing person's cases? You think it's involved with what's going on here?"

The large man took a moment and paused in thought. "To be honest, I really don't believe they are. But with things as dry as they are on my end, I'm crossing my fingers that the info from your interview with the kid will lead to something that might help us."

"Here's hoping the kid is actually who he says he is, or we'll both be wasting our time," I said, patting the man on the shoulder.

With a nod of agreement, Tanaka walked around to the two-way glasses overlooking the interrogation room. I continued on my way, my footsteps echoing against the tiled floor of the precinct.

As I entered the room, I found myself face to face with the teenager claiming to be Izuku Midoriya. At that moment, I could only agree with the report the officers sent to me stating that he was the spitting image of the missing child. He had the same freckles, the same green messy hair and the same eyes that the child had. The only difference was that, where the child in the photo had an innocent and childlike smile, the teenager across from me had an almost manic grin across his face, something that screamed fake and was only there for appearances.

"Hello detective!" He greeted me, his voice cheery in a playful tone that grated on my nerves a little.

"Good afternoon Midoriy-".

"No reason to be so formal! Izuku will do fine!"

I tried my best to hold a frown. "Good afternoon Izuku. I'm sorry for having you come down here all of a sudden. It's just that we need to ask you some questions about your reappearance, and to verify if you're who you say you are."

"Pssh, don't worry about it, I completely understand being ripped away from my mother's arms again, just to be forced into this dingy grey room with a single bright lightbulb being shined down on my face! It is an amazing pleasure for sure!"

I cringed at the placement of lightbulb, taking the stand and moving it away from the boy's face. "Sorry about that, most of our interview rooms are currently in use right now, and this interrogation room is the only one available right now."

"Oh, don't sweat it! I've been in worse rooms before. Why actually, there was this one time I was locked in the same room with 3 angry Wampas. They left me with nothing but a vibroblade and a jar of Bantha milk, and you don't want to know what I had to do with that jar of Bantha milk…"

"Umm, okay then," I said hesitantly.

Vivroblade?

Wampas??

Bantha milk???

This was not what I expected to see when coming into this interrogation. The officer that reported and spoke to Izuku initially had said he was a quiet and polite boy, which was compounded by the statement given by the mother. The person I was speaking to now though? He was too manic, too scatterbrained, and overall too nutters to be the same person in the report.

Perhaps whatever caused his absence also caused him to form a split personality that wasn't reported, maybe some delusions as well, if the obviously made up words were to be believed. But then again, there was the chance the teenager across from me was also playing games with me, something that I'd play along for now.

"So, Izuku," I began, trying to maintain a professional demeanour despite the unease gnawing at me, "before we begin, I need to let you know that my quirk allows me to see if you're either telling a truth or a lie, but if you are uncomfortable with that, we are always willing to let another police officer conduct this interview."

The grin on the boy's face only grew, it seemed, with that information. "Oh, I don't mind whatsoever! That actually makes things a lot easier for me when it comes to me telling you the truth. I've got nothing to hide!"

I sighed in relief at the reply since he was right. If he was who he claimed to be, me using my quirk was only going to make this easier for the both of us, which was also part of the reason for me being called down here on my day off.

"Can you please confirm to me that you are indeed Izuku Midoriya, the same boy that went missing at Takoba Municipal Beach Park 10 years ago?

Indeed, I am!" replied the newly confirmed Izuku Midoriya. "I'd be happy to get a blood test as well if you need it!"

"We can get to that later, but if you're comfortable, that does lead me to ask where you've been all these years?"

Izuku leaned back in his chair, his expression shifting from jovial to playfully contemplative as he tapped his bottom lip repeatedly. "Well, Detective Tsukauchi, that's rather a long story," he replied, his tone casual, yet tinged with a hint of playful mystery.

I raised an eyebrow, intrigued despite myself. "I've got time," I said, gesturing for him to continue.

He nodded, his smile never faltering once. "In a galaxy not so far from away," he began, his voice taking the tone of a boy telling a story at a campfire. "I was taken by a stranger who promised me power beyond comprehension. He styled himself a dark lord actually, and promised to train me in this power."

I could almost hear my heart skip a beat. That description sounded terribly familiar, but it couldn't be right, he was dead. Then again, anyone villain with a moderately strong quirk could style themselves a dark lord, but that didn't stop me from worrying, especially with Izuku's statement of this individual promising him 'power beyond comprehension'.

"As a boy who was recently reeling from the knowledge that he was quirkless, I felt like he was promising me everything I ever wanted, powers of my own to become a hero!"

The teen looked me directly in the eye, and for a second, I almost felt like they flashed with a tint of yellow and red. "He basically promised me everything, and the only thing he asked of me was that I had to leave for a short period to train, after which I could come back anytime."

Izuku's voice began to shift, from its jovial nature to one tinted with anger. "But he lied to me. When I left, he intended to take me forever to be his puppet, never to see my mom or dad again because they would cause me to become 'weak'. I was just another possession to him, one that would allow him to reach his idea of 'greatness'."

A guttural laugh echoed from the green haired teens throat. "No, worse than a possession, because sometimes people will actually care about those. No, I was nothing but a tool to him, so I decided to use him like a tool. I took everything he was willing to teach me, I made sure I milked him for every spec of knowledge he was willing to give me about the power he offered, and when he needed me most, I stabbed him in his back."

I paused for a moment. "Wait, do you mean that as a metaphor, or are you saying you actually stabbed him in the back?"

The mad teenager could only look me in the eye and give a sickening grin. "It was more like an explosion that killed him, but it was him or me."

"Are you stating you killed him in self-defense?"

"I suppose you could say that from a certain point of view."

"And when was this?" I quickly asked, perhaps too fast since Izuku seemed to take notice of it with a raised eyebrow. But damned did I not care. Perhaps I was being too paranoid, since I was actually there to confirm when All Might battle and killed HIM, but there was only one person I knew that could give a quirkless boy powers, and I needed to confirm that, even if it was for my peace of mind, that the person that took Izuku wasn't All for One.

"Oh, just a few months ago."

"Could you tell me the name of this person? Perhaps he's a known villain that we could identify."

"Well, if you insist. His real name was Lin Vane, but… well I suppose you could say his villain name was Darth Ravos."

"What did he look like?"

"He was a pale blonde male, 5 '11, and had a terrible scar around his throat. He mostly wore black robes, like he was cosplaying a dark wizard, and often had yellow eyes with a red outline to them. Man was likely in his 50s I believe. You think you know of him?"

The names and description didn't ring a bell, which only helped calm my mind. However, be that as it may, I could also not help but grow more conflicted. In one half, I was relieved that none of these descriptions fit All for One, but at the same time, I was also scared at the fact that someone might have been running around with a quirk like One for All.

Or worse, was somehow All for One's successor.

"Okay, but going back to what you said before, you said this person offered you, and quote, "power beyond comprehension'. What do you mean by that? Do you mean to say this person offered you a quirk, or is 'power' a metaphor for something else?"

For the first time, I saw a genuine smile reach the boy's eyes, like he reached a moment he was waiting for.

"Oh, he offered me power all right, but he never gave me a quirk."

"Could you please be clearer?" I sighed.

"There are more ancient powers in the world than just quirks detective," Izuku said, his voice dripping with condensation. "Forces that would make you quiver in fear, and make the strongest of quirks look like a firecracker compared to a fusion bomb."

He was talking in circles right now, answering with cryptic responses that registered truthfully, and this line of questioning was getting me nowhere. I needed to go a different route with the questions then.

"Then could you demonstrate these 'ancient' powers then?"

"Absolutely! Your wish is to be my command officer."

With a wave of his hand, I saw my hat raise from my head and move onto his own.

Telekinesis then. "That's a quirk."

"No, it's a power offered by the Force, a mystical and invisible power that binds the entire galaxy together. By accessing its Dark Side, bending it to your will, I have heard stories that one can drain entire planets of life, and create storms that could cripple entire fleets of starships with a wave of a hand."

"...I'm sorry, are you being fictitious with these examples, or are you suggesting that these powers have actually defeated 'starships' and drained planets in the past?"

"Most myths and legends have a certain degree of truth to them, but the force's potential is limitless. Hell, I once pulled down a heavy frigate while it was in-atmosphere. It was no easy feat though, I'll tell you that much."

The Force?

Dark Side?

Heavy frigate from in-atmosphere?

What kind of sci-fi nonsense was this?

None of it made sense, and he still hadn't lied to me once. The more we talked, the more this boy began to appear to be suffering from some form of delusion. It's sadly happened before, where people who had gone through serious trauma had caused their minds to shrink back and feed into wild delusions that protect their minds from the terrible reality of their situation. Situations like these have made it past my quirk before, since the victims believed in every false statement they put out to me. It would explain his change of demeanor from the initial police report, and the story he was spinning at me.

They were all a coping mechanism from a teenager who's gone through something truly terrible.

There must have been some truth to it though. He was likely diagnosed quirkless prematurely, and inherited his mother's telekinetic quick, which caught the interest of some religious and villainous nut who offered to train him in said quirk. After years of being trained as a villain, the boy likely tried to leave and was forced to kill his captor. Your typical kidnapping story, coupled with a long period of isolation that made him go a little crazy, but perhaps our child therapist could help him out?

Now if only he could stop waving his hand in my face and at the two-way mirror like a nut.

Izuku sighed, running a hand through his messy green hair. "I was held captive by that bastard for years," he explained, his words carefully chosen. "For years, I have been through hell, and once he was gone, all I wanted to do most of all was to go home."

"But why come back now? You said he was gone for months?" I asked, unable to suppress my curiosity. "After all this time, why didn't you just go to your closest authorities, report what happened and have them send you back home? Why just make your way on your own and show up out of the blue?"

Izuku's eyes softened for the first time throughout our entire interview, a glimmer of emotion flickering behind them. "The travel space from where I was and here was too great, and there's likely no police department on Earth that could have helped make my trip any faster. I just wanted to come back and see my mom and dad," he replied, his voice tinged with sadness. "And despite everything I've become, even the coldest of souls still long for the warmth of home."

Despite the skepticism lingering in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for the teenager sitting before me. I began to feel bad about the way I was grilling him about his obviously traumatic past, but I needed to make sure All for One was still no longer around, even if the odds were minimal.

The rest of the interrogation continued uneventfully as I listened intently to Izuku's story, piecing together his fragmented and fictitious story of starships and magic space wizards in an attempt to uncover the truth that my quirk couldn't. Whether his tale was genuine or some delusion created by a kidnapped child to make the world seem more mystical, one thing was certain—this was a kid I needed to let go, and go home as soon as possible.

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let him go home as soon as possible.'

'Let me go home.'

…oOo…

"The lesson of today is influencing the mind of others, my apprentice. Sure, even a simpleton can change the will of the weak minded, but the mind of one with a strong enough will is not easily broken. That is why a master doesn't force those minds to bend to their will, they simply influence their mind to think in a certain direction."

"Attachment is for the weak, and will only go on to drag you down."

"You still dream of becoming a hero? Continue this line of thinking, and you will doom the Sith the ruin. We are the rightful rulers of this galaxy! You are still too soft."

"One day you will have to choose between your attachments and your ambition. Perhaps I will have to make the decision for you, and go back to your primitive homeworld and rid you of those attachments myself?"

"Your goals and wants are those of a child. You are a Sith Lord, start acting as such! I'd strike you now if I weren't so weighed down by disappointment."

"You will never be loved."

"Please, I want to go home."

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