"I…. I think I died," the boy murmurs quietly, distraught. His voice barely above a whisper until his words begin to take on a more hysterical note, "I think he killed me."
"Wha–" Reo's brows furrow inward, confusion pulling at his features. "What are you talking about?"
"He killed me," the fifteen year old repeats, sucking in a sharp breath as he stares down at their overlapping hands.
Tsukauchi's grip tightens gently, a comforting squeeze, a grounding one. "Midoriya you're not dead."
"His quirk, it killed me."
Reo searches his friend's face, looking for something that he doesn't find. "Was it some sort of illusionary quirk? Did he show you your death? Or—"
"No, Tsukauchi.," Izuku whispers quietly. "I died." Midoriya finally looks up, gaze latching desperately onto Reo's. In the younger boy's eyes the seventeen year old can see where a void has formed, can see where the stars in his eyes had collapsed into black holes. Midoriya's pupils serve as their singularities, his irises their encompassing accretion disks, one a flaming crimson and the other a blazing jade.
The stars that had once resided within Izuku's viridescent eyes have come irrevocably undone. And Reo can see how just terribly gravity had crushed them, can see how mercilessly it had forced those stars to collapse. He watches as the black holes pull in all, sucking out the life and hope and joy that had once resided in its place.
Reo finds himself unable to move for a moment, struck by just how terribly haunted Midoriya's eyes look.
"Y-you're not hurt are you?"
"No."
But, Reo can see the way Izuku's limbs tremble and rouses himself into checking the other boy, worried that he might be in shock. He looks for signs of blood or bruises, but finds no more than the vigilante usually has. Tsukauchi looks back up, searching Midoriya's eyes. "Do you want to tell me what happened?" Reo shifts, sitting down on the floor and crossing his legs, Midoriya following his example.
Izuku takes a moment to decide before his mouth parts shakily. "I-I thought I was finally going to get her," he whispers. "I thought I'd finally be able to save her." More tears well in the teen's already red eyes. "But, I fucked it up again," the boy hisses, tears spilling over. "I got some intel about where the Eight Precepts were and I was following up on it."
Reo tenses at the mention of the group's name, watching as crystalline tears slip down Midoriya's flushed cheeks.
"I was just looking around the neighborhood they were supposed to be in and… I ran into one of the members," Izuku's voice shakes, fear bubbling up inside his chest like magma. "Tsukauchi, his quirk…. it-it took me apart. It killed me. I wasn't sure what had happened at first, my mind was all in pieces. But… he killed me. I know it." Midoriya's voice takes on a hysterical note, hands shaking uncontrollably now. "All he did was brush my fingers." A sob bubbles up through his lips. "And then, and then there was nothing."
Reo wakes up first, rising only a few hours later, the sky just a few shades lighter than it had been when he'd fallen asleep. He could've slept another hour or two before he would've actually needed to be up, but he rouses himself for Midoriya's sake. The boy had ended up staying over for the night, passing out on a futon Reo had pulled from the closet, the fifteen year old too emotionally unstable for the teen to let his friend leave in good conscience. Tsukauchi slowly pushes himself up, staring down at the younger boy through hazy eyes. He's still asleep, breathing quietly, peacefully, too tired to dream. Midoriya had curled into himself sometime during the night, rolling over to face Reo's bed. Tsukauchi's chest aches when he remembers just how distraught the boy had been just hours earlier, how terrified.
The boy's hair is ruffled and the dark circles strung beneath his eyes have never looked so saturated before. But, Reo would be willing to accept both as the new normal as long as the next time his friend's eyes fluttered open that those black holes he'd seen last night were gone.
Tsukauchi picks himself up quietly from his bed, its frame creaking from his shifting weight. The seventeen year old carefully steps over Midoriya's body, making his way to where he'd plugged the younger boy's phone in earlier. It's barely six, but Reo unlocks the phone and types out a new message to Inko.
Izuku:
I couldn't sleep well last night so
I'm out on a run!
I've got my uniform with me and
I already ate so I'll see you after
practice is out. Love you!
Reo lets out a sigh once it's delivered and there's no immediate response, praying that the woman doesn't question the lie. Tsukauchi's mouth stretches into a yawn before he slips out of the room to start some rice.
Mom:
That's fine sweetie! Just be safe!
I love you too!
Midoriya wakes up slowly, his gaze hazy and unfocused. He feels numb.
He can hear the quiet murmur of life seeping through Tsukauchi's cracked bedroom door. The fifteen year old gently pushes himself up into a seated position. He looks around blearily, glancing out the window to watch light slant down the alley walls ouside as the sun finally breaks over the tops of the surrounding buildings.
Reo slips into the room from behind him, his hair damp and school pants already on. He makes a few quiet shuffling noises to alert the younger boy to his presence before he speaks. "I made some rice and heated up some miso soup for breakfast. You might not be hungry, but I'd suggest eating something."
Worry stains Tsukauchi's amber eyes as Midoriya pulls one of their hero blankets over his shoulders, merely nodding his head along in response.
Reo sighes, slipping back out the door to grab the younger boy some food, bringing back two small bowls. He hands one directly to his friend and sets the other aside for later. "Do you think you'll go to school today?"
Izuku quietly lifts a bite of rice into his mouth before gently shaking his head no.
"You'll be fine if you don't go right?"
Midoriya stares silently at the wall as he bobs his head. "My teachers won't call home," he murmurs quietly. It's the first words he's spoken since last night and Reo can't help but feel a little relieved after hearing the boy's voice. "I'll have to go to the dojo though. I don't usually miss training so Chee Sensei would ask Mom where I am."
Tsukauchi turns towards his closet, keeping the fifteen year old in his peripheral as he continues to slowly eat through the small portions Reo had handed him. "I handled everything with your mom by the way." Midoriya takes a sluggish sip of miso as the older boy pulls a plain button up out and slips it over the t-shirt he's already wearing. "I text her saying that you left early."
Midoriya makes a noise of confirmation before he returns to the bowl of rice as the amber eyed boy finishes buttoning up his shirt. "My mom is at a conference for the next week, so you're safe to stay here until you have to leave if you want." Tsukauchi shoves his school blazer into his backpack for later before slinging the bag over his shoulder. "You've still got an extra pair of clothes in my closet that you left here the other week too, but you're free to wear something of mine if you want." Reo looks down at his friend as the younger boy lets out a quiet breath, setting aside the only half empty bowl of rice with the finished bowl of miso. He rewraps the hero blanket tightly around his shoulder like a lifeline. "Thanks."
The seventeen year old lets out a quiet sigh, setting his backpack back down as he approaches the younger boy. He quietly kneels and places a gentle hand on Izuku's shoulder. Midoriya doesn't flinch or shrug it off, so Reo wraps him into an awkward hug.
Izuku stills in his arms for only a moment before he relaxes beneath his friend's embrace, his body convulses with a barely restrained sob, the teen's face twisting into an ugly mask of grief. His teeth are bared and his brows are pulled almost painfully inward as more unrestrainable tears spill from his already bloodshot eyes. He buries his face into his friends shoulder blade, wetting his shirt with tears and snot and saliva as his hands grab at the back of it, balling the fabric between his fists.
"I just wanted to save her!" He sobs.
Maybe Tsukauchi Reo shows up to class thirty minutes late. Maybe he wishes he hadn't had to leave in the first place.
After the seventeen year old leaves, Midoriya finds himself alone in the Tsukauchi household. Reo had switched on the television in the living room before he'd reluctantly left for school, and Izuku can hear the early afternoon cartoons droning at the edge of his consciousness. He'd curled back into the futon Tsukauchi had rolled out for him, staring at the empty space beneath Reo's somewhat organized work desks.
I died, he thinks. He killed me.
The thoughts wrap around his mind, coiling around the fleshy organ like a boa who'd found its prey. With the boy still trying to rebuild what little mental defenses he'd had before his death, his mind has found itself at its weakest. And, like any other virus the voice in his head makes its ugly existence known, taking advantage of his vulnerability.
He'd become used to the voice, had become used to drowning it out or ignoring it. But, he's weak right now, weaker than ever before, and for the first time he can see it.
His heart clenches violently in his chest and Reo's parting words of, "call me if you need to talk" evaporate beneath the radiant heat of his fear.
In the darkness of his mind, it appears even darker, darker than the scorch marks blasted across his belongings, darker than the void that'd formed in his eyes. Its face is the faces of many, pasted on like paper thin party masks all worn at once, shifting and sliding to suit its needs. Nothing about it is human, but it holds onto a humanoid form, flaunting it like one would costume jewelry.
Tar black blood drips from its grinning maw as it pulls apart. Its voice reverberates through his skull. "The dangers of hero work without a quirk," it hisses, sly grin growing, "Are simply too high." The multitude of masks shift. "How did you fool yourself into thinking that you could save anyone when you can't even save yourself?"
Midoriya's eyes snap closed as he curls further into himself. He presses his hands tightly against his ears. But, it does nothing to drown out its multitude of voices.
Ji-Woo unenthusiastically watches the dead-on-his-feet fifteen enter the dojo. He looks closer to a cadaver than a living person and there's a moment where she wonders if his being here is the work of some sort of necromancy quirk. He greets her tiredly as he slips off his shoes at the door, leaving them in one of the cubbies.
"Midoriya you look awful."
She expects some excuse about studying late or not being able to sleep or some extra snarky comeback that would give the woman some semblance of normalcy. But, the only response she gets from him is a breathily exhaled, "Hai", that sets her on edge.
He makes to brush past her, but the woman quickly steps in front of him. "Midoriya," she says again, "Go home."
Admittedly the weren't many times where she'd send the boy home early, and there were even fewer occasions where she'd send him home outright. Usually he'd fight the command, claiming that he was fine, that he was okay, that he just stayed up just a little too late, or had pushed himself just a little too hard.
He blinks up at her and for once Ji-woo imagines that his eyes look more void like than her own.
He murmurs a quiet, "Hai, Sensei." Before turning around and slipping his shoes back on.
He walks out without another word and that is perhaps the most disturbing thing she'd seen from him in all their years of having known each other. The other students that had already arrived offer each other wary glances. They too shocked by the boy's actions.
Ji-woo anxiously taps her foot against the floor before she finally turns away and pulls out her phone, pulling up Midoriya Inko's contact info. She bypasses her other students, slipping into her office for more privacy as she presses call.
The other woman doesn't let the phone ring long before she's hurriedly answering the call. "Chee-san?" The mother's voice sounds worried, "Is everything alright? Is Izuku okay?"
Ji-woo sighes at the anxiety in Inko's voice. "He's not injured Midoriya-san. But, he seems very out of it, completely unlike himself. I sent him home. I don't know what's wrong with him, but it'd probably be for the best to keep him out of the dojo until he's feeling better."
On the other end of the phone Inko worries nervously at her lower lip. "I-I haven't seen him today, he left early this morning. I'll be sure to talk to him. Thank you for telling me."
Ji-woo pinches at the bridge of her nose. "Please take care of him Midoriya-san."
Midoriya Inko comes home to find someone so unlike her starry eyed son that it scares her.
She doesn't know what happened to the sun that had resided in his chest. But, it looks as if it had taken be drowned in an ocean three hundred times its size. He's curled up on the couch when she arrives, staring absentmindedly at the at the t.v. that's before him.
"Sweetie?" Inko ventures quietly, gently drawing his attention.
Izuku startles at the new voice, throwing himself up. He looks wildly around the room before his eyes land on his mother and relaxes. "Mom, welcome home."
Inko sets down her purse as she slowly walks towards the boy, taking his hands in her own. "Chee-san said she sent you home early, Izuku."
He nods slowly. " Right… She did that."
"Sweetheart." The woman looks desperately into the boy's eyes. "What's going on?"
The fifteen year old looks at her with blank confusion. "I was just watching TV."
"Izuku," her grip on his hands tighten, "The TV isn't even on."
Reo comes home to an apartment devoid of people. He'd been expecting it, but he still feels his chest clinch just the slightest. Tsukauchi slips his shoes off at the door as he lets out a tired sigh, "I'm home."
Part of him wishes that Midoriya would've been here when he came back, if only so he could make sure his friend was doing okay.
The seventeen year old falls into bed, staring at the ceiling. He was emotionally exhausted from the last twenty-four hours, barely able to pull himself through all of his class. Tsukauchi rolls over, facing his worktables. He makes to close his eyes, just to take a nap before he gets around to finishing one of his projects for school, but his gaze catches on something alarming.
Reo slowly pushes himself back up, eyes locked on the dark burgundy of a foreign object that has invaded the empty space on his work desks. The boy stands, worriedly approaching it.
He flicks on his desk lamp, studying the object. "Piper's belt?" All of the smoke grenades and escrima sticks are still attached. "Did he forget it? Or maybe something broke?" Reo looks around the desk for a note that might explain it's sudden appearance, but finds nothing. "Did he leave it here for later?"
But, the belt resting on the corner of the desk, and the pipe sitting on the fire escape, and the boots in the back of the closet, and the clothes wadded beneath the bed, all of it, every last piece of Midoriya's vigilante gear stays there overnight with no sign of their owner. And they wait there the next night as well, and the next, and the next, until the seventeen year old is forced to rehome Piper's infamous staff somewhere inside because of the threat of rain. And the clothes under his bed are rehidden inside a box of spare parts, and the belt and it's gear in a case of unfinished projects.
The sun rises and sets and every new cycle becomes another day without the vigilante Pied Piper.
Naomasa's chair creaks as he leans back in his seat, worry scoring deep lines into the man's face. "So there haven't been any reports or sightings of Piper recently?"
Sansa shakes his head, the bell at his throat jingling quietly. "Not within the last several days. He's gone completely ia."
The detective stares up nervously at the ceiling, chewing on his lower lip. "It's not the first time that he's taken a break. But, five days definitely takes the record. It's usually only ever a day or two max that he disappears for." Tsukauchi pulls his head up again, staring at the spread of reports and files beginning to clutter his desk. "I'm worried that he's gotten seriously injured this time."
The man runs a hand through his hair, pulling at it gently in an effort to alleviate the headache he can feel coming on. We know that he has contact with some sort of medic, so checking hospitals would be a useless endeavor. "What about the last time he was seen? Do we have a report on it?" He could already be dead. The man shakes his head, burying the thought. Now's not the time to be thinking like that.
Sansa lets out a defeated sigh. "It's nothing that would help us I'm afraid. The last report we have is on some low level drug dealer."
Naomasa pinches at the bridge of his nose, all at once exhausted and drained and ready to sleep for the next twelve hours. Where did you go? And then, suddenly the detective freezes, memories rising to answer his silent question,his tiredness burning away like early morning fog. "The girl."
Tamakawa looks up in confusion, golden eyes searching Tsukauchi's face for answers. "The girl?"
"Of course its the girl," Naomasa murmurs, completely ignoring the other officer in his fervor as he scrambles to pick up his phone. His quickly scrolls through his contact list before finally landing on the one he needs.
He taps his foot impatiently as the phone rings before someone finally picks up. "This is the Nighteye Agency, how may I help you?"
Naomasa recognizes the voice. "Bubble Girl, I need to talk to Sir Nighteye immediately."
"Detective Tsukauchi? I'll patch you through, please give me a moment!"
It's only a few more seconds before Sir's voice bleeds through the speaker and Naomasa starts speaking before the hero even has time to finish his greeting. "I need to know if that yakuza group you've been watching has done anything as of late."
On the other end of the phone Nighteye releases a tired sigh. "Not to my knowledge. We've managed to track them back to two more locations since your first call, and Centipeder believes that he is getting closer to discovering the location of the main base." The hero readjusts his glasses, pushing them further up his nose. "They have a few small side bases scattered around, of the ones that we found, none have shown any extraordinarily suspicious activity as of late."
Naomasa breathes a curse through his teeth, standing to pace the area near his desk. Tamakawa's eyes shift to follow his motion. "Piper, the one that tipped us off to the Eight Precepts involvement with that white-haired girl, seems to have gone missing over the last few days."
"And you're worried?" Nighteye asks.
The detective makes a noise of agreement. "He's just a kid himself, no older than your intern."
The hero turns in his seat, studying the poster on the wall behind him. "That is troublesome then. This group is proving themselves to be a powerful one, if he managed to get himself labeled as a potential threat then there's a strong possibility that they would act against him given the chance."
Naomasa sends a hand up to tug gently at his hair, wrapping his fingers around the dark strands in a useless attempt to relieve his worry.
"I'll ask Centipeder and Bubble Girl about him, see if they might've seen or heard anything while doing their reconnaissance. I'll do what I can to find out any information. But, try not to hope too strongly for anything Detective."