'I shouldn't have even come here in the first place... What am I doing?... I don't know what he wants with me, so why did I show up?...' I kept asking myself these questions as I made my way to the building.
When I first found that note at work, the signature was the part that stood out to me the most. A simple H in the corner. The handwriting was very neat, straight to the point, and was addressed to me so there was no mistake about it. At first, I was confused, wondering why a hero would want to meet with me in such a place. After a week to think this through, I still ended up here to see what this was all about.
It was late at night, and the weather was a bit chilly, but here I stood in front of the correct address an hour after the note said to be there. The location itself was somewhat hidden, and it was easy to miss if you didn't know where you were going. Walking around for a bit, still keeping my distance for a little while longer, the property seemed to be completely abandoned.
Curiosity got the better of me in the end, so I chose not to turn back this late. Looking both ways before crossing the street, I made my way over to go inside of the place. Putting a hand on the door, it wouldn't budge. It was locked no matter how much I tried to pull on the handle. The lights were off, and it seemed as though nobody was inside.
"Hello? Is anybody in there?" I called out after knocking on the door a few times, earning no response.
Taking a look around, I noticed how the grass was overgrown, but there was a noticeable disturbance in it as if someone had been here and walked around before I had arrived. This wasn't surprising to me as I expected to see this, proof of that person having been here before me. Making my way over to follow the path of footprints, I was careful with the low lighting to avoid walking into anything. I ended up at the empty parking lot, but nobody was here. I set my stuff on the ground next to me. Without going any further, I stood in place, unsure of what I was expecting to happen.
'I'm hoping that me showing up late like this made him tired of waiting, and he's gone away already. But... Will he try and contact me again after tonight?'
My back was leaning on the wall of the old building as I watched and waited for any sign of even the slightest movement. I shivered slightly when a cold breeze suddenly passed by, the low temperature making me regret not wearing something warmer. Despite this, I continued waiting. Looking at the note one more time, I confirmed once more that I was right where I needed to be and put the little paper away in my pocket.
After a minute of nothing happening right away, I decided to leave.
"Maybe I should just go back to my apartment. I still have a lot of files to sort through and update anyways, it's cluttering my dinner table." I shrugged, picked up my bag, and turned around to start heading back where to the path where I came from.
A sudden rustling sound behind me made me turn around to see who was there. It was Hawks. He had just landed with his wings still outstretched on either side of him, making me immediately stop in my tracks. I've worked together with him on a few cases in the past, but this was the first time that he's wanted to meet with me somewhere privately. Seeing what he was wearing, it was also the first time that I had seen him out of his normal Hero outfit as I took a moment to wonder why he was in his civilian clothes when meeting up with me.
"I honestly didn't think that you'd still be here." I walked towards him after dropping my stuff down once more. "Now I can ask you directly. What exactly do you want with me?" I asked bluntly when he turned his body to face me.
"Right to the point, I see. Isn't it obvious?" He asked me, tucking in his wings behind him.
When he spoke to me, I immediately took notice that there was something wrong. There was no hint of his playful tone was used to hearing from him.
"Well, no. Not exactly." I said, not understanding what he was trying to say. "You contacted me first, and I couldn't figure out why you'd want anything from me. I'm no hero, just a rookie cop... If this is for some kind of mission, I'm not sure I'm the right person for it. Plenty of other people know their way around the city, talk to whoever that would be instead." I said, not wanting to get involved in whatever he had planned.
"There's a bit more to it than that. I called you out here to talk."
"Talk? Something that couldn't wait until tomorrow morning at the precinct, out here in the middle of nowhere..." Motioning the empty area surrounding us. "About what exactly?" I questioned.
"It's to ask you something. It really couldn't wait since I-" Before he could finish, his phone rang.
'To ask me what?'
Digging through his pocket, he looked at the name on the screen for a moment. He glanced back over to me before picking up the call to answer it.
"Yeah, I'm here." He said with a short nod.
Without being able to hear what the other person on the line was saying to him, I could only guess that it was a serious conversation by the way that he was behaving.
"Hawks?" I asked, not knowing what else to say.
'A phone call? Should I leave now that I see he's occupied? This has nothing to do with me...'
"Yeah, she's here in front of me right now." He answered the person on the phone.
This made me stop in my tracks immediately.
"Wait, what are you saying? Who is that on the phone right now?" I asked when I turned back to face him, feeling as though something more significant was going on.
"I understand." Hawks continued to ignore me as he continued his own conversation with the unknown person but kept his eyes focused on me.
"Is something going on? Is it why a Hero called me out here like this? I haven't done anything bad." I tried to explain which he didn't react to at all, making fear bubble up inside of me.
"I know, I know. I'll take care of everything tonight." He added in before hanging up and returning his full attention back at me.
"Hey! What is all this really about?" I demanded of him.
"Look, I just need to ask you a few questions, and you'll have to answer them. Honestly. That's all." He said, no smile on his face or hint of friendliness.
Not saying anything to this, I waited for him to continue first. He took a step towards me, which made me take a few steps away from him. My back reached the cold brick wall behind me, which made me gasp in surprise. I had nowhere else to go. He was slowly blocking any means of escape. I didn't like the change in his personality that I've gotten used to so far into this stranger in front of me.
"Answer me this... A simple yes or no would be enough." He began with, leaning in his face inches from my own.
"O- Okay?" I asked, my voice shaky as I coughed to clear it.
"Are you or are you not connected to the League of Villains?"
Hearing something so outrageous, I was at a loss for words.
"To the... What?!" I asked in shock, being the last thing that I expected to hear. "Are you accusing me of something?"
Suddenly, he opened up his red wings outwards. That simple movement alone caused a short yet strong gust of air to expand outwards. The sudden burst of wind shook off some of the leaves from the nearby trees, along with causing a few loose branches to fall on the ground. He forced me to realize just how powerful his quirk was when it was used right in front of me and that I wouldn't have an easy time if I had attempted to leave.
"I don't like to repeat myself." He said in a warning tone, his expression not changing once.
"How dare you even say- Ah!"
Hawks slammed his hand on the wall next to my head with an audible thud against the brick that made me wince slightly with a quiet whimper. This made me shut my mouth in an instant and stop my protest.
"Answer me." His tone was serious and commanding.
"That's just..." With a sharp intake of breath, I regained my composure somewhat. "Is this some kind of a sick joke?!" I didn't hold back in my outrage when I raised my voice at him.
"Do you see me laughing?" Hawks asked, still sounding dangerously calm and narrowing his eyes at me.
Regardless of how grave the situation was, defiance was my first reaction. I quickly mustered up the courage to shove him away from me and used as much force as I could in order to create some distance between the two of us. With such a claim, my earlier fear became anger, and I raised my voice at him.
"I would NEVER be associated with such cowards! I don't approve of the way that they do things, and if you don't want to believe me, then you could take me on... Right here, right now!" I yelled at him in my fury, grabbing on to the front of his shirt collar to lower him at my eye level.
'Should I try to use it on him?' I gasped in horror when I realized I was thinking, and my grip loosened in that moment of panic.
Upon seeing my reaction, his stern face finally broke out into a smile, and he began to laugh. This only further enraged me.
"What's so funny?!" I asked, pushing him away from me once more when he couldn't hold back his laughter.
"Hahaha! That's golden! I just didn't expect to hear that! I'm sorry, forgive me." Hawks said as he wiped the tears from his eyes and looked back at me. "I guess I can tell you what all of this is really about, Mako."
Hearing him use that name, something I haven't heard in a few years, it shook me to the core.
"No... Where did you hear that name from? I never said..." I was at a loss for words, no longer filled with anger but with a strange feeling of several intense emotions at once.
"Simply put, as a hero, I have certain connections so I can find out about the things that I want. One of them being who you really were." He stated in a matter of fact voice. "On my investigation, "Mako" had popped up just once, but that was enough to trace it back to you currently using a fake name where you work with the police. It wasn't that hard to find out once other things missing from your past fell into place, really. In other words, someone owed me a favor, so I was able to get quick results."
"Your 'investigation'? Why would you be looking into someone like me? How did you get my real name? I thought I buried that part of me a very long time ago." I balled my hands into a tight fist in an attempt to stop myself from trembling, to not show just shaken up I had become knowing he found out. Not just any hero discovered this secret, but the current number two in the world.
"Oh, just by using your employee profile in the *HPSC's system, I was able to match your image to a database and compare it to a female reported missing a few years ago." He explained, holding his chin up as he talked.
"...Okay, you got me there." I broke eye contact and let out a long sigh.
'This is bad. I hadn't expected everything to lead up to this. All of my effort to erase who I used to be. It was all in vain... I knew something like this was going to happen sooner or later. There's no way out of this one.'
"I admit your case has become rather... Interesting the more I looked into things. Still, I have to ask, the missing person known as Mako. You admit to being her?" He asked curiously and took a step back from me and waited to see what I would say next.
Breaking eye contact with him, I sighed and shook my head when I realized I unfortunately had no other choice left.
"...Yes. There's no use in denying it. I can't lie, knowing that you already got that much about me figured out. Still... Why is that important? It shouldn't matter who I was before." I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
"That's a hard thing to accept so easily. After years of trying so hard, so nobody found out that you were really somebody else. Honestly, I expected some form of resistance at least." He shook his head and sighed.
"I'm not the first person who needed to change things up in my life to make a fresh start, and I definitely won't be the last..." I tried to convince him.
'Just how much has he learned about me? This is dangerous...'
He took a moment to respond, as if he was holding something back on purpose.
"Ah, you do have a point there." Hawks said with a short nod.
"But that doesn't explain anything about why you assume I'm associated with those horrible villains..." I began with, getting right back to the main point. "It's completely uncalled for! You have absolutely no evidence."
"That's where you're wrong." He said without hesitation, catching me off guard.
"W- What?! How?"
"Someone can simply move into a new city and live there, new job and all of that. That's normal. What makes it a bit more, well, complicated is when someone changes their whole name, their birthday, their history... All to fit this new life of theirs. That's when a hero like me can't turn a blind eye."
"You're trying to connect the dots to a conspiracy that isn't there. You're wasting your time." I tried to persuade him otherwise, knowing that I wasn't making a strong argument.
"Think about it. Do you really think I'd accuse you of something as serious as what I did without any evidence? Actually... As of right now, I have enough reason to take you to jail. You wouldn't be as lucky as this next time, at having such a friendly chat with a pro hero later on, and you know it."
'There's evidence? Of me working with the villains?... That's not possible! No way!'
"You seem to not be taking this well at all. Are you possibly considering a lawyer?" The tone of his voice changed, as if he was teasing to get a reaction out of me.
"A lawyer? What are you...?"
"I know a few good ones, but I doubt it will do you much good considering your extensive history and unyielding support of the villains throughout these years... All your crimes seem to have caught up to you, but isn't that how justice works?" Hawks maintained his joking-like manner, which only infuriated me further.
"Stop it! No! You're wrong! I'd rather be killed by a villain than ever let a hero believe that I was working with one!" I yelled, which made him take a step back from me in surprise. "It goes against EVERYTHING I am to turn into one of those people!"
He didn't say anything to my angry outburst, making me lower my voice when I asked what I needed to know moving forward.
"...What's going to happen to me now?" I asked, trying to figure out my next move should be.
"You see, that earlier reaction right there is why I say you're interesting." He said, repeating his earlier words to me.
"You're not making any sense." I said, confused at what he was talking about all of a sudden. "I have no idea what's going through your mind, so tell me, and be completely honest about it. What's really going on?... You haven't arrested me yet because, well, there's more to this, isn't there?"
"Bingo!" He said, wearing the wide grin that I was used to seeing on his face. "You're interesting... Enough for someone to frame you." Hawks revealed to me, which made me gasp in pure shock.
"Wait... So someone... Someone is what? Framing me?" I questioned, trying to wrap my head around this new piece of information, holding up a hand to my mouth in disbelief.
"I gotta admit, Mako, I didn't know how much longer I could play that whole "bad cop" act with you if I was going to tell you the truth about your situation anyway." He said with a sigh and shook his head.
"You big jerk! Why didn't you just lead with that?!" I exclaimed. "You knew?" I paused for a moment when I realized what he mentioned earlier. "So... Is knowing the truth why you've been investigating me? To find out more?"
"Yes. Something like that." He began to explain. "I got a tip, and like I always do, I go check it out. On the first night we met, before our first official mission together the next day, I originally had the intention to arrest you on the spot once I realized who the clues led up to. But..." He trailed off.
"But what?" I asked, wanting to know what stopped him as I recalled the events of that night in my memory.
"But then I decided to take an extra second and stand down. You weren't armed, you weren't meeting up with anyone suspicions, you weren't acting like a villain would... And then I saw the way that you took care of those lost children." He said, the tone of his voice becoming softer.
"So since then you knew that I wasn't one of them, one of the villains?"
"I've dealt with real criminals, for years, and for someone to have that kind of look in their eyes like you did, well, they're not evil. That's the truth. You were the reason I had stopped myself that night. I was on patrol, knowing you were in the area, and I left without arresting you after watching you for a bit. Ayaka was really frustrated with me for that one."
"Ayaka? Who's that?" I wondered.
"She was the one I was talking to on the phone earlier and knows that I came here to talk with you. In fact, she's one of the few who believed me when I insisted that you were innocent. Despite the significant amount of evidence against you that tells me you're guilty of working with the League of Villains, she believed me in the end."
"So, all of this was why I started to see you around more often in the city even when I was assigned to work with other hero agencies?"
"You're pretty sharp to notice that much." He confirmed with a nod.
He moved to lean against the wall next to me and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I did find a strong connection between you and the group, but like I said, watching you personally when you had no idea that anyone was around, that alone made me doubt that lead. Nothing from the initial report made sense the longer I worked this case on you. Eventually, I realized that you were being set up, a scapegoat, for the real suspect to get away with it all. It wasn't just working with you. It was seeing you let your guard down from afar, too."
"After disregarding what was on paper right in front of you, it's your intuition from that rainy night where I helped those kids... That's what eventually led you to confront me in person here? But, just how did you manage to keep the others part of this investigation from going forward with bringing me into this?" I questioned.
"Lucky for you, because of my reputation I have to add, that I was able to stall this case long enough to prevent the real suspect from catching wind of my two separate investigations of you. I convinced the other heroes to let me take over everything. I was determined, telling them that arresting you would ruin my only chance to find out what's really going on here and who's actually pulling the strings."
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of this..." I admit to him.
"On what specifically?" He asked, wondering what I would say.
"It doesn't make any sense, so at least tell me this much... Why would a hero go out of his way to do all of that? To go through all of this trouble for me? You don't owe me anything." I started to pace, hand holding my chin in deep thought as I continued. "I mean, if things were really as you said it was, and I had a big amount of evidence stacked against me... You could've just avoided confronting me, taking down me the big "mastermind," and then having the credit of arresting me. Hawks, you added in a whole lot of extra work just to prove them all wrong about me?"
"Do you really believe heroes to only be out for fame and money? I hate to admit that some pro-heroes definitely are, but not all of us. Some of us really do want to get to the bottom of a good mystery and protect the innocent. I'm on the side of the second half." He answered with a shrug.
Hearing that from him made me stop in place, and I lowered my voice.
"I used to believe in heroes without a doubt in my heart, but that was the old me. That false hope wasn't enough to protect my family back then, now was it? I respect heroes because of people like All Might, but I still don't put my complete faith in them either. I will never fight against them as a villain, but neither will I be blindly supporting each and every single one of them."
"Is this because you're quirkless yourself and maybe wanted some kind of power to have protected them all back then?" He asked this with a certain look in his eyes that I couldn't really understand.
Hearing this from him, I had to stop myself from reacting and to raise any suspicions.
'I understand now. He hasn't made the complete connection between me and my true past yet. That's all I needed to know. I might still have some time before he finds out about that incident after all.'
"How did you..." I trailed off, trying to get some more information out of him.
"You forget who you're talking to? But yes, I looked back at that initial incident about your family in the past as well. Of course, that's one of the reasons that I knew the first reports about you was wrong when I began to investigate you."
"If you knew I'm not connected to the League of Villains, then why would that be -"
"Yet, I have to look at this from another perspective." He cut me off. "The fact that you don't have a quirk when everyone around you does, not looking up to heroes so openly, and not having a family due to a reckless hero making a mistake... It makes it pretty easy for anyone to think you have nothing left to lose. It fits as quite a convincing villain origin story, wouldn't you agree?"
"Well..." I began to consider his point of view and see what he meant. "Yes. You're right. If they don't know me that well, then I understand why someone legitimately might think I'm on the path of becoming a villain." I answered, admitting he was right about that one.
"I guess since the beginning, I kind of had a hunch that something was up when I began to notice small details that didn't add up, and then seeing you that rainy night proved me right." Hawks said.
"When you put it that way, just how far back have you been investigating me? It seems like you're holding out on me." I wondered.
"Ah, I can't answer that for certain reasons. You understand, right?" He raised an eyebrow at me and gave me a short apologetic kind of smile with those words.
"Yeah, I do." I answered with a disappointed sigh.
"Mako." He said make me look up at him when he picked up the tone of my voice. "No matter what, I refuse to let anyone who's innocent to get their lives ruined. Okay? Trust me."
The way he looked at me, he seemed genuine, and something inside of me did exactly that. His words seemed so honest, and I couldn't say anything else but to agree.
"...I trust you, Hawks." I said, hesitating for a moment, but there was something about the way his voice sounded that I couldn't say no to him.
"That's all I ask for. Just give me more time, and I'll figure something out." He turned away from me. "It's late. It's best to go straight home from here. I'll keep an eye on you from the skies above so you don't have to worry about a thing." He added in with a nod, a finger pointed towards the cloudless sky above us.
"You don't have to go through all that trouble. I'll be okay." I tried to tell him, but he simply shook his head.
His red wings opened up completely, and seeing how openly he was able to control it even when not in battle made me feel a kind of respect for him even more than before when we worked together.
"I promise you'll be safe with me around. That's a hero's promise, so you know I mean it." He said, making me realize he was preparing to leave.
"Hawks." I called out to him suddenly, making him turn his head to let me know I got his attention. "Can I ask you something?"
"Depends on what you wanna know."
"My real name..." I started off with but paused as soon as I realized what I was asking of him, not knowing if I had a right to request this of him. I closed my eyes and held my hands together.
"What about it?" He wondered.
"I wanted to know, if it was possible, that you kept that between us for now. I mean, like you said, nobody in this city knows who I am. I wish to keep it that way. I promise to work with you, but that's the one thing I want to keep a secret from everyone I work with. So, please..." I slowly opened my eyes to see what he'd say next.
Without answering me right away, he looked at me as if he had something on his mind. After a short pause, with a small grin on his face, he gave me a nod.
"Everybody has their secrets. It's only fair." He finally said. "I give you my word."
With that, he took off to the skies.
'Will he really?...' I wondered as I saw his figure become smaller and smaller in the dark sky until it disappeared.
Looking around the area, it was quiet once more. I decided to make my way to my apartment after gathering my things first. He was right, I'd catch sight of him in fly in between the gentle twinkling of the stars in the sky. I knew that I'd get back home safe while he watches over me.
After walking down the familiar streets, I didn't take any detours and made it back to my place.
"I wonder how the sky looks like from all the way up there." I commented to myself as I began to search for my key in front of the door and pulled it out from my bag before I slung back over my shoulder again.
'He said I was quirkless...' I began replaying the conversation I had with him in my head.
Locking the door behind me, I reached for the curtains and made sure they were fully covering each window. Passing by a reflection of myself on the mirror of my bathroom, I stopped to look at myself from behind the slightly opened door. Without thinking too much about it, I reached for the handle to push the door open completely as I approached the large mirror.
"Mako..." I said in a quiet voice, letting that heavy name be spoken in my very own voice for the first time after several years had already passed.
'He called me that name... Mako... It's been so long since I've heard someone call me by that... The way it sounded... Have I really forgotten who I was back then? Or...' I tilted my head to the side and my heart began to race when I realized what was happening to me, I had activated my quirk for the first time after it's been dormant for so long.
My eyes began to glow with a hidden power I've kept secret for years after I left my original city and that old life behind.
"If he hadn't told me the truth when I pulled on his shirt at that time, I really would have fought against him." My hand reached up to slightly touch the side of my face as I continued staring at the bright glow caused from my quirk. "I made direct eye contact... But I hesitated?... In the end, this was the best possible outcome after all..." I sighed when thinking back to that scene and shook my head.
Pausing for a moment to see that side of me for a minute longer when I looked back up, I blinked a few times to force them back to normal. I couldn't allow my power to get out of control. Not again. It was too much of a risk after bottling it up for such a long period of time.
A lot of painful memories instantly flooded my mind when I felt that old power surge through me, the screams of those villains who witnessed it's power were faint in my head but still present. More from that night flashed across my mind... The faces of the villains who caused that devastating attack and took my family away from me, and the selfish pro-hero who willingly turned their back on everyone severely hurt when we needed him to protect us all for a boost of fame, and the surge of terrifying power that released from within me in that moment that caused a lot of collateral damage. I had to admit this quirk was still a part of me, but one that needed to be tucked away once more into the deepest part of my being before I caused such a frightening scene to happen again.
"Quirkless... Huh... Telling me that confirms that he hasn't found out about it then..." I sighed. "I still have some time, so... I'm sorry. Everybody, in fact, does have their secrets. You know that better than anyone else, Keigo Takami."
Walking further into my apartment towards my dimly lit kitchen, I glanced over at the pile of documents on my desk. It was cluttered with several thick files I've been collecting of information on the pro-heroes to keep an eye on.
An open folder beside Keigo's file had a separate set of papers opened up from the last time I was organizing them. On the first page, it had the name Toshinori Yagi. Next to it, with my very own small handwritten comment beside his name, it stated "One For All confirmed to be passed on to Izuku Midoriya" along with a picture of a kind looking boy. He had green hair, wearing his brand new UA uniform proudly, and his face had a huge smile on it.
That kind of innocence, without any idea he that he was being followed that day, made me feel rather protective of the student, as he had no idea yet what was coming to him in the future because of his new power. Just like what happened to me all those years ago when my quirk made itself known to the world before I willingly disappeared from that now distant city.
"I'll never be a villain, but neither will I fight against the pro-heroes. As long as I don't have to blur those lines... "Mako" will not have to be forced to make an appearance ever again like that day." I walked over and shut the folder closed. Removing that small handwritten note from my pocket that led me to the back of that building earlier tonight, I recalled the way he looked at me when he asked me to trust him.
Pulling over the nearest chair from the kitchen table to sit in, I held my hands over my head and let out a sigh.
"I never asked for this, for any of it. But..." I leaned back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling above as I wondered if he was still flying in they sky. I imagined him watching out for the civilians out there as he continued his duty of protecting them. Having been caught of guard to how soon I was discovered as being Mako in the past, I considered what this meant for me in the future.
'Hawks...' Memories of working with him and knowing how many people he's saved over his years active as a pro-hero, I felt myself relax.
"Maybe someone like him finding out won't be so bad after all. Of all the heroes, I trust you the most because of your sense of justice. You proved it to me. Now, let's see just how long it takes you to find out the rest of my tragic story." I closed my eyes and didn't hide my smile when I began to think of the next time we meet up in either our work as rookie cop and hero... Or even just discuss everything without holding back in another late night rendezvous.
February 29th, 2024
*HPSC: Hero Public Safety Commission
Thank you so much for reading this story!~