Midoriya Inko had made the news. Again.
And for what? Interfering with an active hero case. Putting herself in danger. Trying to win a minute in the spotlight.
It had worked, though. Her face was plastered on every news channel and all over the internet for weeks after that stunt in Naruhata. It had even made international news. Short clips of her crying and pleading to have her son returned. The now practically infamous photo someone had snapped of her standing nearly toe-to-toe with a flaming Endeavor, looking freakishly serene. Endeavor's own furious glare would probably be able to boil paint. A short video of her running alongside the stretcher with the wannabe villain-slash-popstar as she was carted to the ambulance that would whisk her away to get undeserved treatment after she'd bombed the city.
Tatsui rolls his eyes and wishes his boss would play something besides the news in the break room. Even a shitty soap opera would be less mind-numbing than the same played-out story over and over again. You'd think that with random villain attacks every other day there would be more to talk about, but nooooo, the talk shows and official hero broadcast channels just had to be fascinated with this stupid, brainless, dunce of a civilian woman. He scoffs and shoves another bite of his corner store sushi into his mouth, chewing a bit more aggressively than the soggy rice truly requires. He squints at Midoriya Inko's splotchy, teary-eyed features and wonders what the world sees in her. She's not even hot….
Though, the subsequent media frenzy has been enough to put her son and his apparent kidnapper back on the news. And therefore, back on Tatsui's radar. After having watched the video of Ingenium's (frankly pathetic) takedown at least a dozen times, Tatsui is pretty confident in his assessment that the Midoriya kid had definitely been in on the plan. It was so obvious that he'd seen Stendhal coming, yet he hadn't said a word to warn Ingenium and hadn't lifted a hand to help when the hero was on the ground, bleeding out.
He just needs to get an address from the store owner of that little plant shop. If circumstances were different, he could've probably just gotten a warrant for the employee records. The issue with that is that then he'd have to tell the head of the agency in order to get approval, and that glory-hungry son of a bitch would probably deny it anyway just so that he could launch his own investigation and claim he'd been the one to break the case. Bumpkin, the "Podunk Pumpkin Hero" What an asshole.
Tatsui sinks lower into his little plastic chair, glowering at his bottle of water and wishing he'd brought something a little stronger. He'd sworn off alcohol around the time his idiot father had wrapped the family car around a tree and killed his mom, but times like this made him rethink that choice. Maybe some juice would be nice. Too bad the vending machine here had been broken for months and the boss is too much of a cheapskate to get it fixed.
Pulling up his junk email on his phone, Tatsui scrolls through until he finds the BOLO that had come through the previous year. It doesn't say much about the kid, though that probably doesn't matter much anyway. If this Stendhal guy was using the little Midoriya kid as bait to catch heroes, it won't work anymore now that his face is plastered all over the news. There's a good chance he'd outlived his usefulness and was now long gone.
He frowns at the thought, but he's always been a glass-half-empty realist. Even if nobody wants to say it out loud, there are really only a couple of reasons a psycho like that would want to keep a kid around. The little dude is probably already dead, or wishing he was. The shopkeeper hadn't said anything about their janitor-slash-security-guard having a kid, so the hero-slasher probably hadn't mentioned anything either. It doesn't bode well. Even more of a reason to catch this guy, if that is the case.
Tatsui's eyes trail back to the TV, to a flash of Midoriya Inko's sad face and slumped shoulders, the camera zooming in to focus on the picture of Izuku that she's clutching to her chest. She's holding it gently, fingers wrapped carefully around its edges. Her perfectly manicured nails are painted a light, sparkly blue.
He scoffs and turns away, rolling his eyes. It's hard to believe that people are actually falling for her act when evidence of her vanity is on full display right in front of them. Just another fame hungry civilian taking advantage of their own kid's tragedy. Disgusting, but what the fuck ever. She's not the first and she definitely won't be the last to do it. He'll still shake her hand for the news cameras when he's getting interviewed about how he single handedly brought her son's kidnapper and/or killer to justice. Both of them will get their five minutes of fame, then.
He grins and turns back to his lunch, stuffing his cheeks with the final three pieces at once and wincing at the burn in his sinuses as he accidentally inhales a glob of wasabi with them. Break is almost over and he has patrols to get to. The sooner he's out of here, the better. At least out on the streets, his supervisor won't be on his ass, watching his every move and giving his unwanted commentary, and he can do what he wants. He'll be able to conduct his own investigation. There's a psycho to find right here in their own shitty little town, and he intends to be the one to end his reign of terror.
.
The shopkeeper has been puttering about, wasting time and muttering vague and probably unflattering things under his breath as he makes a show of searching his employee files. Considering the only person on the payroll who isn't directly related to him is the man that Tatsui is here about, Tatsui isn't really sure why it's apparently so hard to find.
"Well, I just don't understand why you need it, is all," the man mutters, mostly to himself but just loud enough to be heard. Tatsui rolls his eyes while the man's back is turned. His daughter, some pimple-faced teenager he thinks he's probably seen staring at him from around town at some point, is watching him with a pinched expression from her position behind the register.
"I believe he may have witnessed a crime," Tatsui answers, purposefully vague. "I just need him to answer a few questions. It's all just a routine procedure so I can wrap the casefile up."
"Mhm, sure, sure," the shopkeeper mumbles, but it seems to do the trick, and the paperwork he's looking for finally materializes. He hands it over with a frown. Tatsui notes that it's all filled out by hand, kanji lines sharp, the pen pressing down on the paper with enough force to almost tear through it in a few places. He frowns down at it.
"He applied in person, not online?"
"Well, yeah, of course. We don't have any official listings for jobs, but the poor guy had just relocated here due to a villain attack that destroyed his home! When he came in looking for work, there was no way I could've said no to a sad story like that."
And the pittance he was willing to be paid had nothing to do with it, Tatsui was sure. He kept that thought to himself, though, as he read over the paperwork and noted the address and the name down in his phone. Yamada Taro, living in an apartment complex on the east side of town. As he searched it on his GPS, he realized that he recognized the area, having lived in his own shitty apartment there when he first left home. It had been cheap enough for a 16 year old working part time after school to afford back then, and the cost probably hasn't gone up too much if this guy can afford to live there with his salary.
"Mhm…. And have you noticed any change in his mood recently?"
"Well, he's always been a real moody type of guy, so it's hard to say for sure."
Tatsui does his best to hide the way he wants to slap this infuriating mess of a man. The smile he pastes on instead is hollow and stretched too wide, but if it's noticeable neither the man nor his daughter say anything.
"Okay. When is he scheduled to be back?"
"He'll be coming in tonight if he wants to keep his job!" the shopkeeper exclaims with a burst of laughter. Tatsui catches the daughter rolling her eyes and can't help but feel a little sorry for her, stuck with this idiot as her father. He thinks briefly of turning his interrogation towards her, instead. Before he can, though, the shop bell jingles and both workers turn to greet their potential customers. Tatsui doesn't bother masking his irritated sigh this time. He slides a business card across the counter, within reach of the daughter. She glances down at it, but doesn't pick it up.
"If you notice anything off, just call me."
The shopkeeper waves him off without sparing him a glance, distracted by trying to make a sale. Tatsui takes the opportunity to lean over the counter and take a peek at the schedule, noting what time his target is supposed to be in that evening and what time his shift ends, and ignoring the dirty look the daughter gives him. He doesn't bother hiding his annoyed look as he turns and leaves, resigning himself to finding a reason to hang around the area until he can confirm that the guy he's after will show his ugly mug at work tonight.
.
It isn't hard to follow Yamada back to his apartment after he leaves the shop in the grey predawn hours. He drives carefully despite the lack of any other traffic, following all the laws, and even staying slightly under the speed limit. Tatsui follows a ways back, keeping his headlights off to avoid notice. He isn't sure why, but the way this dude drives really gets under his skin. The careful maneuvering and slow speed are annoying in the same way having to listen to someone you hate chewing their food is: inconsequential, but it still makes you want to leap across the table and strangle them.
He's glad when the shitty little Mitsubishi pulls into the parking lot of an even shittier apartment building and parks. As Yamada takes his sweet time getting out of the car and lingers at the door for several long minutes digging worriedly through his pockets for the apartment keys. Tatsui in turn takes the opportunity to watch his prey in its natural habitat.
He's…not impressed. The person on the television had been fast, graceful, and brutal. He had been a beast disguised in human skin; something that had taken a speed focused hero down before he'd had a chance to react. If he were a more poetic man, or had a darker sense of humor, Tatsui might have agreed with all the people online who had said the villain was beautiful in his savagery.
This man is not like that. At all. He's just…human. A completely unimpressive one, at that. His clothes are stained with potting soil instead of blood, his eyes are glassy with exhaustion instead of glowing with malice, and he's already dropped his keys twice while trying to unlock his apartment door. It's pathetic enough to make Tatsui briefly consider breaking his cover just to go over there and offer to help him unlock the door.
Still, as he watches Yamada finally manage to get his door open and then trek back out to the car to grab the lunch box he'd left behind, he can't help but feel like the whole thing feels a little too pathetic. Staged. Like the guy knows he's being watched and decided to put on a show. It makes a little prickle tingle across his skin, and he sinks even lower in his seat until his chin bumps into the bottom of the steering wheel.
The guy's act feels so natural, enough so that it would've been enough to convince anyone else, but Tatsui has done his research. This bumbling, clumsy mess of a man didn't fit what his employer has had to say about him. They wouldn't have hired someone who can't even unlock their own front door as a janitor, much less a security guard. It doesn't line up, and that's enough to convince Tatsui that he's onto something.
He watches the apartment for an extra hour after Yamada disappears inside, hoping to catch him doing…well, something incriminating. He doesn't reappear, though, and eventually, Tatsui gets bored enough to give up and go. He has work in a couple of hours, and his time is better spent getting a nap in before his shift starts.
He knows where Yamada lives now. From what the shopkeeper had said, he probably also has another place outside the town where he spends his days off. All Tatsui has to do is wait for him to leave, then search his apartment for evidence that he's the piece of shit Tatsui knows in his heart he is. And, well, if nothing turns up at the apartment, then he'll just have to find the other place and search there, too. He's not going to give up; he has a big city hero agency to impress! After all, if he catches the villain that managed to get the jump on Ingenium, then wouldn't it stand to reason that Ingenium's agency will be just begging him to join them?
He's grinning as he starts his car and drives away from Yamada's apartment, fingers tapping a merry little rhythm against the steering wheel. He doesn't see the way the curtain shifts as the person watching him from their apartment window steps away, deeper into the darkness of the room.
First of all, shoutout to the ever fabulous and incredible Shaegal for being the best and most amazing beta a writer could ever ask for.
Next, TGIM was put up on YouTube with no permission and no credit, being read by an AI on a channel that looks like it's stolen tons of other creators' works. (Thank you so much to the wonderful person who let me know about it. I won't name them here as I don't know if they'd want to be, but please know that I owe you for bringing it to my attention.) The video has thankfully been taken down now, but it took a bit of time and the person who posted it ignored my (and others') repeated attempts to contact them about it and didn't remove it of their own volition. It felt awful.
All that said, Shae and I were kicking around the idea of making a podfic or reading of TGIM ourselves. (A little out of spite but mostly because we realized that it might be fun to do.) Would there be any interest in that?
Tatsui was so much fun to write, but stress kept me from wanting to work on this fic for a while. Thanks so much for your patience while I got this new chapter written, and know that chapter 40 is also about halfway complete as well! Hopefully you'll get to see it soon. If you feel so inclined, I'd love to know your thoughts on the story! Love you all, and I'll see you next time!