Izuku sat within the small interrogation room at the police station, his mother seated next to him clutching at her purse as they waited for the detective to enter. While he was confused about what was going on, Izuku did his best to remain calm for his mother's sake so that she wouldn't worry. Though he had to wonder: what was going on?
After waiting several long minutes with the only sounds in the room being the nervous squeaks of his mother and the ticking of the clock, the door opened revealing the detective who had brought them in.
"Sorry about the wait," said the detective as he closed the door gently before moving to sit on the opposite side of the desk separating them. Smiling politely, the man removed his hat which he set down off to the side of the table. He then reached into his jacket, pulling out a notebook which he then laid out in front of him.
"My name is Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi," he said pleasantly while pulling out a pen from another pocket in his jacket. "I believe you know why you are here?"
"N-No," admitted Izuku.
Detective Tsukauchi, who had been lowering his pen to the paper to write something down after asking his first question, paused for a moment as he looked at Izuku. He looked at the shield user like how one would look at someone who suddenly grew a second head that began to sing opera. What the green-haired boy didn't know was that the detective before him had a quirk that allowed him to know when people were telling him the truth or lying. What surprised the man so much was that, according to his quirk, Izuku Midoriya was telling the truth.
"D-Detective, please. What is this about?" begged Inko.
This seemed to snap the man out of his daze. Without missing a beat, the detective cleared his throat as his pen finally made contact with the paper.
"Your son is being accused of illegal quirk use and attempting to assault Miss Malty Melromarc," stated Tsukauchi in a more official tone.
As both Midoriya's eyes widened in shock, the detective moved his fingers to the bottom of the notebook and began flipping through the pages until he came to the one he was looking for. He gave the page a quick glance, then turned to the next blank page before looking back up at the green-haired duo.
"According to Miss Melromarc," continued Tsukauchi. "The two of you got into an argument in the park near U.A. She was doing her best to defuse the situation, but you refused to listen. Eventually, you, Mr. Izuku Midoriya, fully lost your temper as you began lashing out at her physically and even using your quirk. Miss Melromarc managed to avoid this, screaming for her life as she backed away. At this point, you ran off either finally realizing what you had done or out of fear that someone would hear her scream. Is any of this ringing any bells?"
"No!" Izuku practically yelled in pure confusion. "I would never do something like that!"
Once more, the detective's quirk told him that the boy was telling the truth. His hand shook slightly from surprise along with his own confusion but quickly settled himself.
"Alright then," said Tsukauchi as he eyed the young teenager across from him. "Would you mind giving me your side of the story?"
Izuku nodded before recalling the events of yesterday, doing his best to remember everything he could. As the green-haired teen spoke, the detective took notes. At the start, their stories matched almost perfectly with some minor differences like how long it took them to reach the park and such. But when they got to the park, that was when the story began to differ. According to what Miss Melromarc had told him, Izuku had exploded in anger right after she had admitted to telling her boyfriend about a rumor. But, according to Izuku, he hadn't really given what she had said much thought. Truth. He had asked her why she was telling him this. Truth. He told the detective about her fears that her boyfriend would lose his offers to join high-ranking agencies if what happened at the USJ was ever revealed. Truth. That he had forgiven her and then ran to the train station. Truth!
Once Izuku had finished with his story, Inko spoke up.
"Detective, what's going to happen to my son now?" asked the mother nervously.
"Right now, nothing," said Tsukauchi who then gave the woman a smile which he hoped would calm her nerves as he closed his notebook. "For now, we just wanted to get your son's side of the story. Standard procedure and all. If anything else comes up, we might need to ask you to come back down to the station. But, ah, I would like to request some DNA from Izuku. You have the right to refuse, of course. I'm just asking."
"Well, I don't see any problem with that," replied Izuku as he saw no reason to object.
With that, Izuku's mouth was swabbed before the two left to return home.
-x-
Later that day, when the school day had ended, Tsukauchi stood in front of Nezu's desk where the small animal-like creature was calmly sipping his tea. Two teachers stood on either side of the principal. On his right was Midnight, standing in for Aizawa for the purposes of this meeting as well as someone ready to defend Midoriya. On the left was Present Mic. Both of the teachers had grim looks on their faces as they stared at the detective who had his notebook out.
Finally, Nezu set down his teacup.
"So tell me, detective, what has your investigation on two of my students uncovered?" asked the principal.
"Well, after listening to Miss Melromarc's story, I had a team check out the surrounding area," stated Tsukauchi as he read from his notes. "Security cameras caught Midoriya running down the street in what appeared to be a hurry. Like he was running away from the scene of the crime. We also checked the park which, thankfully, not a lot of people tend to visit. There we managed to find some footprints that matched both Midoriya's and Melromarc's shoes as well as a few strands of hair. After we obtained DNA samples from both students we were able to discover that some of them were a match. So we can confirm that they were both there."
"You can't possibly think that Midoriya of all people would ever attack someone!" stated a somewhat furious Midnight.
"I happen to agree that an idea like that would sink to the bottom of the charts," added Present Mic, wagging a finger in the air as he spoke. "Can't really picture the mop-top exploding like that."
"And taking the word of such a naughty girl," finished Midnight, who looked like she had swallowed some truly rancid.
With a rather cheerful expression on his face, Nezu raised a paw to silence the pair.
"And after you spoke with our young Midoriya?" questioned Nezu.
"According to my quirk, the young man was telling me the truth," replied Tsukauchi. "So I went back and took a closer look at the evidence. A more thorough investigation of the scene revealed no signs of an altercation or a struggle. I even had the ground checked to see if a quirk had been used to alter the ground to hide any evidence. The results came back negative. As for the footage, a closer inspection showed that his uniform didn't even have a scuff on it. That, along with the fact that Miss Melromarc doesn't even have a scratch on her, has me believing in the boy's side of the story."
"Well then," said Nezu as he brought his paws together. "I believe that this solves the-" The principal, however, suddenly as Tsukauchi held up a hand, a very serious expression on his face.
"I wish it were that easy," said the detective. "But the problem is I used my quirk when I questioned both of them. The reason why I readily believed Miss Melromarc was because, according to my quirk, she never once lied to me. Nothing she said was embellished or exaggerated. She was also telling the truth."
That got the teacher's attention. Nezu reached for his teacup but missed, nearly knocking it over. Present Mic's sunglasses fell to the ground, the man's jaw hanging open as he stared at the detective. As for Midnight, she placed her hands on the desk to steady herself.
"A-Are you sure about that?" asked Midnight, her mind racing as she tried her best to comprehend what she was hearing. When Tsukauchi nodded, the woman's mind just continued to whirl. "Is it possible someone used their quirk on her? Something that would give her false memories?"
"In my experience, most quirks of that nature are weak at best," responded the detective as he shook his head. "After a couple of minutes, the quirk begins to fail due to clashing with existing memories. Even faster when the person under the effects of those quirks begins questioning them. There are a few people in the world who possess the type of quirk that could do what you're suggesting. However, only one of them lives in Japan and lives too far away from the scene of the incident. So it seems doubtful for either of them to be under the influence of such a quirk. It would be more likely that a glamor quirk was used, though the evidence we currently have cannot support that theory."
Nezu said nothing for a moment as he looked down at his desk, his mind focusing on the Melromarc girl. The daughter of a pro-hero and member on the board of the Hero's Safety Commission, Miss Malty had originally been a part of the U.A. Business Course when she entered the school. Unfortunately, her rather overly ambitious nature as well as a complete lack of ethics had been the girl's undoing early on. Normally, Nezu would have expelled the girl had it not been for the intervention of her father. Well, that as well as a lingering primal itch in the back of the principal's mind that told him that he should keep a close eye on this one. So, instead, she was sent to General Studies where she has remained to this day.
The teacher she had been caught with had not been so lucky.
Since that day, Melromarc seemed to stay on that razor's edge of his radar. She did not completely clean up her act but changed just enough so that she would be allowed to remain in the school. The worst she had done in that time was lying about why her homework hadn't been completed as well as being caught in the act of spreading some particularly nasty rumors.
"So, like, what will happen now?" asked Present Mic.
"Honestly, I would prefer to just drop this case seeing as it's a 'he said, she said' situation," said the detective, letting out a sigh as he closed his notebook. "However, Mr. Melromarc is pulling every string he can to make sure that Midoriya stands trial. Before I left the station, I overheard the chief talking to him. For the moment, the case won't be dropped but it will have to be put on hold. In order to give the case the most extensive investigation he wants, we'll need more manpower. Something that we currently lack seeing as nearly every officer is either focused on the League of Villains or on the lookout for the Hero Killer. If we make any significant headway on either of those cases, I'll see if I can't at least put someone else on the job."
At that, Nezu's cheerful attitude returned as he raised his teacup.
"Very well then," he said while saluting the detective. "As always, we shall assist you by any means possible. And if we should hear something on our end, you will be the first person we contact!"
-x-
The next day, Izuku walked into the courtyard of U.A. along with the rest of the students with his hands tightly gripping the handles of his backpack. He walked alone, as Raphtalia had texted him not too long ago, asking him to inform Midnight that she would be a little late today due to a villain attack blocking the street. While he understood and wished her luck that the situation would be handled sooner rather than later, the green-haired teen now felt more vulnerable than he had since getting his shield. Like there was a target on his back and that, at any moment, someone would attack him.
"Hey! Midoriya!" Nearly jumping, Izuku turned to see his friend Kirishima running towards him with a big toothy smile. "You won't believe this! Yesterday, my egg hatched! And guess who happens to be the newest owner of a dragon mount?"
As Kirishima said this, Izuku noticed sudden movement within the crowd behind the red-headed teen. It was a girl with green hair that went down to her shoulders. This girl seemed to freeze for a moment, causing several other students behind her to collide with her back. Yet this did nothing to this particular student as she kept her eyes focused on Kirichima's back before suddenly opening her mouth to reveal sharp teeth similar to that of class 1-A's manliest man.
"WHAT?!" cried out the green-haired girl a moment before dashing over to Kirishima. Before either of the 1-A boys could do anything, this girl had grabbed Kirishima by the shoulders before turning him around so that they were face to face. "What did you say about a dragon mount? Please, please don't tell me that it hatched!"
"Ah," began Kirishima, looking bewildered at the girl as well as uncertain as to how to proceed. "Yes?"
Upon hearing that, the green-haired girl just stared at Kirishima as a look of comprehension crossed her features. Then, in the blink of an eye, it looked like her soul was ready to leave her body before her legs seemed to give way. This strange girl just sank to her knees before her head hit the ground. Literally. Her head literally fell off her shoulders making both boys cry out in fear as if they had suddenly stumbled into a horror movie. Thankfully, that wasn't the case as moaning noises were coming from the head. Still creepy…but at least she wasn't dead!
"E-Excuse me," began Izuku as he moved closer to the head. The eyes, which had been closed as she seemed to bite her lower lip, opened while turning up to look at him. "But who are you?
"Oh right. I'm Setsuna Tokage from class 1-B," said the girl in a disheartened tone, her body's shoulders slumping as she spoke. Slowly her hands reached out to pick her head off the ground before placing it back where it belonged. "And I'm the idiot who bought out the rest of those eggs from the raffle that Yaoyorozu brought over, stupidly thinking I could beat the odds. I'm also the idiot who will soon have ten filolals running around her apartment with no plan on what to do with them. Ha ha. Guess I should have told my parents." With that, the girl staggered away from both boys nearly toppling to the side as she seemed to say with each step.
With a slightly forced smile, Izuku looked over at his proud classmate.
"Well, she seems… interesting," said Izuku before turning to look at his red-haired friend with a slightly forced smile. "But, hey, congratulations. M-My egg still hasn't hatched y-yet."
Izuku didn't know what it was. It could have been that Kirishima had seen through his smile or that he noticed something was off with the tone of his voice. But whatever it was, it caused the hardening quirk user's bewildered expression to turn to concern.
"Hey man, is everything alright?" asked Kirishima as the two began to walk towards the entrance. "You weren't in class yesterday. I asked Raphtalia if something was wrong and not even she knew why."
Upon hearing her name, Izuku tensed. He had wanted to tell Raphtalia everything when she had texted him during lunch, asking if he was feeling well. To write down everything that had happened with Malty and what she had then told the police. Maybe even asking her what she thought was going on because he certainly didn't! But this just felt far too important and too long to write down in a text. Or even just over the phone. So he had planned on talking to her on their way to class, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. Maybe later during some of their free time…
"It's a little complicated," said Izuku after a moment, head slightly downcast.
"Oh wow," exclaimed Kirishima, the concern in his voice increasing. "Dude, it must be something if it's got you looking all down. Look, if you need to talk or anything just-"
"MIDORIYA!" The war cry issued by Motoyasu suddenly interrupted whatever Kirishima was about to say. Acting on instinct, Izuku turned around in the direction of the voice while raising his shield above his head just in time for it to connect with the end of the blonde's spear. Sparks erupted as the metals clashed with Izuku managing to look past them so that he could gaze into the furry-fueled eyes of the one who had aimed the attack at his head. As Izuku gritted his teeth, he began to hear students around them as they cried out before backing away.
"HOW DARE YOU!? HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MALTY!" demanded Motoyasu, spit flying from his mouth as he continued to press the attack.
"I-" But that was all Izuku could say before something caught his attention. Using all of his might, Izuku pushed the spear back before spinning around to his side. Just in time as several arrows of light were moments away from connecting his chest, only for most of them to collide with his shield. All save one that sliced through his uniform sleeve. Breathing heavily, Izuku saw Itsuki standing a good distance away. The bow user's eyes were heavy with disgust as he seemed ready to launch another attack.
"I can't believe you Midoriya!" continued Motoyasu, swiping his spear to the side with one hand while the other was balled up in a fist. "Malty told us everything! Are you proud of yourself? Attacking a helpless General Studies student? Well? Answer me damn it!"
"Picking on the weak with your training," said Itsuki, his voice cold as it carried over the crowd. "How disgraceful. A villain like you should have known better never to show his face around here again!"
As the two weapon users spoke, Izuku kept his shield at the ready. At the same time, however, he began to hear the other students around them whispering to each other. Looking around without turning his head, Izuku felt his heart stop as he saw that some of them were giving him disapproving looks with a few others looking on with disgust and anger. They…They were taking Motoyasu's side? Just like that? After he had just attacked Izuku in public like this? Was it because they saw how worked up the guy was?
Then, much to his surprise and relief, Kirishima walked in front of Izuku with his hands raised in a calming manner.
"Hey now," said the red-head, loud enough for everyone to hear him. "Let's calm down now. There's no need to be calling my buddy a villain."
"Butt out of this first year," spat Motoyasu. "Or else I'll take you down with that piece of filth." Motoyasu then swung his spear around his head several times, before finally pointing it at Midoriya. When he spoke next, there was a low yet dangerous edge to his voice that made both the first-year students tense up. "You know something. I honestly thought that you were all right after you helped out at the USJ. That maybe, just maybe, we had been a little too hard on you. Now I feel like throwing up for ever having thought that."
"Come on man," yelled Kirishima, still trying to calm down the upperclassman. "Think about it! If Midoriya here had done anything to anyone, the police would have done something."
"They did!" roared Motoyasu, spear once more held in both hands as he looked ready to launch himself forward. "I even heard they had a guy with a lie-detector quirk talk to him! And somehow, that bastard used his shield to get out of trouble!"
Izuku blinked. The detective had that type of quirk? He never knew that, so how did Motoyasu? And what did he mean by 'using his shield to get out of trouble'? His shield couldn't do that!
"Listen to yourself!" urged Kirishima, though he was looking a bit worried. The reason for this was that Motoyasu seemed ready to just push past the one person between himself and his target. Meanwhile, Itsuki was pulling back on the string of his bow while another arrow of light was formed. "Just take a moment and-"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" The loud voice of the hero Present Mic boomed over the crowd, the force of which knocked several of the weaker students down to the ground. At the same time, the cement on the ground began to rise before wrapping itself around Motoyasu like a cocoon that left only his head visible. As the blond spear user struggled within his bonds, Snipe appeared behind Itsuki and placed a hand on the teen's shoulder.
Shaking his head, Present Mic approached the captured teen with his sunglasses hanging down just enough for Izuku to see the man's eyes. Angry eyes that, if Motoyasu's anger was raging fire, his would be the hellscape that was the surface of the sun! Then, when the man spoke, it was clear that he was doing everything to keep that fury under check.
"Attacking your fellow schoolmates out in the open," breathed Present Mic, causing Motoyasu to stop his struggles. "Not cool Kitamura. Not cool. The same goes for you, Kawasumi. I think you should both have a nice long chat with Principal Nezu about this."
"What?!" Motoyusa yelled. The pro-heroes' words seemed to reignite the rage within him as he began to struggle in his bonds. Then, when Motoyasu spoke again, he did so with his eyes remaining fixed on Izuku. "You're yelling at me when this villain gets to walk into school like nothing happened? Does Malty mean so little to you because she's not a hero?! Well?!"
"Midoriya is not the one breaking a dozen school rules out in the open!" bellowed Present Mic, sounding dangerously close to using his quirk. "Nor has he been charged with a crime! I don't know what Melromarc told you but-"
"She told me everything I need to know," interrupted Motoyasu. "If you think we're going to let you sweep this under the rug then you have another thing coming! We won't let this scumbag get away with it. You'll see! By the end of the day, everyone will know what that fake hero did!"
As Cementoss began to remove Motoyasu, Izuku couldn't help but feel a deep sense of dread washing over him. Telling him that things were going to get a lot worse.