Content warning
Chapter contains non-explicit descriptions of body mutilation, this fic was labeled mature for a reason
Naomasa watched with Toshinori as both Deku and Hado gently coaxed down Amajiki from where he had floated above, knowing how anxious the boy was from their meetings Naomasa felt bad for the boy and Toshinori's mentor Nana.
They had been told to expect one of the past wielder's quirks to pop up sometime soon with how Amajiki's quirk was speeding up their bodies' acclimation to One For All.
And Nana's quirk was probably the nicest of the quirks that could have popped up since it was the one that would be the most familiar to them and have the fewest consequences for them if it came to the surface.
Toshinori looked on sadly, his mouth opening to say something before closing it with a sigh and hand covering his face.
The expression on it was one that Naomasa could come to recognize as the past users saying something that Toshinori would refuse to tell him about later.
Naomasa gently pat Toshinori's shoulder "Don't take this so hard Nana, I'm sure once Amajiki gets used to Float, he'll love it." Naomasa said hoping it would help Nana a little.
Toshinori huffed a moment later and placed his hand over Naomasa's "Nana appreciates your words and will appreciate them even more later, but Nana is a bit busy trying to strangle Banjo at the moment." True Toshinori informed him slightly bemused.
Naomasa wondered what Banjo had said that time to cause that but shook his head, he was probably better off not knowing.
He was still wrapping his head around that when talking now he was not just speaking with Toshinori since his friend had made contact with the previous users, but he tried his best to keep it in his mind.
"Do you want to go and try to help get Amajiki down?" Naomasa asked, only to watch as Toshinori's eyes fell to the ground, and he hugged himself.
"I would not be the right person to try that, they are not that comfortable with me yet," True Toshinori softly explained before his eyes sadly went back to Amajiki and his hands tightened on his arms.
"Besides I... I still need to work on not running off to help every time, especially since I won't be a full-time hero anymore." True Toshinori painfully admitted.
Naomasa sighed and looked over to his friend with a heavy heart.
He knew that not being able to help was internally killing Toshinori, it always had to some degree.
However, there was a new and much darker reason for that need to help than Naomasa thought was behind it.
The exact psychology of it would probably escape him, but the deep urge to help to the point it becomes no longer a desire but a deeply seated need within themselves forcing them to act.
It was one that he knew and understood well.
Naomasa likely wasn't as plagued by that need as Toshinori, but he did get caught up in it to the point he felt like he was choked by it.
The lie about his quirk was one he told every day because of it.
He didn't know how it worked, it would probably take a bunch of medical tests to ever explain it, but as long as there was nicotine in his system he almost couldn't be lied to.
Both of his parents had been heavy smokers, and he had picked up the habit himself from them in his teenage years, unintentionally at first by chewing his parent's nicotine gum and eventually smoking himself in high school.
Because of those things he never even knew his quirk needed nicotine to work until he tried to quit in his twenties and was horrified when his ability to tell truth from lies seemed to disappear until he picked up another cigarette.
Naomasa knew that he should have updated his quirk's information, once he figured out that his quirk wasn't continuous... but he hadn't.
If he did then he wouldn't be able to use his quirk to help investigate and expose criminals.
He couldn't stop himself from shuddering at the thought of how many awful people that could be walking around free if he couldn't use his quirk to put them away.
So, Naomasa would never begrudge Toshinori for having that same need consuming him, even if it wasn't healthy with how much his friend overdid it.
Instead, he smiled towards Toshinori "Then you're off to a good start Toshinori," Naomasa told his friend "You were able to see that you might not be the best person for this and that's already a big step." he added.
Toshinori smiled, sadly but smiled nonetheless at him.
"Thank you, Tsukauchi." Toshinori replied before his eyes went back to Amajiki, the boy back on the ground and currently hugging a large rock. Hado and Midoriya comforting the boy.
The two of them sighed relieved.
"I think it would be okay for you to go over to them now," Naomasa pointed out "You figured out how to use Float pretty well and Amajiki would appreciate some help either from yourself or Nana." Naomasa elaborated.
Toshinori, uncharacteristically hesitated in going off to help and was about to say something but Naomasa spoke up first.
"Go on, Toshinori. You need to bond with them, and you can't do that from a distance." he told the man, elbowing him gently and then motioned for him to go over to them already.
Toshinori took a deep breath then began to walk forward, no doubt with the past users giving him a pep talk within his head.
Hopefully Toshinori wouldn't default to his 'interacting with fans' voice and just tried to be himself.
When he wasn't trying to be All Might he could be quite down to earth, and Amajiki would no doubt be more appreciative of that over the loud and near boastful version of Toshinori.
His phone vibrated and he took it out of his pocket, seeing that the person calling him was Tamakawa.
*Damn it.* he thought knowing that there would be only one reason for why his partner would be calling him at this moment.
Naomasa accepted the call "Tsukauchi speaking." he stated automatically.
"Sorry for calling you on your day off," True Tamakawa apologized and he knew that his partner really meant that quirk or no, since the last time he chose to take time off was years ago.
"But there's been another victim and the chief wants you over in Kumamoto as soon as possible." True Tamakawa explained to him, and Naomasa pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Tamakawa, I know this case is important, but my skills won't be of any more help-" Naomasa tried to protest, not wanting to leave Toshinori to deal with all of this on his own but Tamakawa interrupted him.
"The victim is still alive Tsukauchi."
True
Naomasa froze.
"They survived?" Naomasa asked in disbelief, he remembered the other bodies well and the idea of someone surviving that, even a hero was...
"They were found last night, the damage wasn't as bad as the three victims before, so the victim wasn't connected at first but they're awake now and the person they described attacking them matches up with our witness's sketch of the killer." True Tamakawa elaborated for him.
"And the chief wants me to interview them, right? Alright I'll be there as soon as I can. Which hospital were they taken to?" he asked, walking towards the gates.
This could be the break in the case they needed, out of the five kills before now this would be the first person to have actually survived and would have information that they didn't have before now.
"Yamaguchi hospital, I've already booked a hotel nearby for us and I'll meet you there." True Tamakawa answered before Naomasa hung up.
He'd apologize for that later; he was sure that Tamakawa would understand.
But he should at least tell the others that he was leaving too, so he shot a quick text to Toshinori and Nezu about being called in.
He had let Toshinori drive him today so Naomasa was quick to get himself a ride and used his phone to find the best way to Yamaguchi as fast as he could.
He would not be able to make it before the sunset but that would be fine, he would be able to speak with Tamakawa about the newest victim's case.
A young and popular heroine had been the most recent victim, the Starfall heroine: Nebulosa had been found in an alley by one of her fans after they had recognized the background of her unexpected live stream.
Indeed, as Tamakawa had been right about her injuries not being as bad as the heroes killed before now.
The damage was still bad enough that the young woman would undoubtedly be forced to retire from heroics though.
There had been a lot of damage done to the woman's back, her face had similarly been mutilated with the former likely leaving the nerves on her spine severed and the removal of one of her eyes due to the latter, and that was before taking into account what had been done to her right leg.
From just above her knee the leg had been fully separated from her body, and if Nebulosa hadn't used her quirk to cauterize her leg and back there was a good chance that she would have bled out long before someone would have found her.
After reading the files Naomasa settled to get a couple hours of sleep before heading to the hospital first thing in the morning with a fresh nicotine patch and a cup of coffee.
The exact details of the mutilation had not been fully disclosed in the file Tamakawa got so Naomasa felt rather justified in wincing once he saw Nebulosa.
The woman was laying on her belly instead of her back and on the side of her face he could see it was clear one of her eyes had been removed if the large amount of gaze on her face was anything to go by, though her mouth was free of the same dressing heavy bruising was there too.
And her back, half of her was covered by one of the blankets the hospital provided but the rest was a large burn that made him a touch queasy to look at, it covered most of her back and the red, white and black patch of skin had a distinctly... glossy look that made Naomasa glad to be on the other side of the glass from her.
"Nebulosa," he said while pressing the intercom, and Nebulosa's singular yellow-orange eye went over to stare at him as she turned her head around to look at him.
"I am Detective Tsukauchi, and I have been asked to interview you about what happened to you recently." Naomasa introduced himself
Nebulosa flinched and looked down and away from him.
"What else do you need to know?" she hoarsely questioned him, her chin resting on a pillow.
Naomasa hated this part of the job, forcing someone to relive trauma was always awful no matter how necessary it was at times.
"I would like to hear a full account of what happened to you that night once you started pa-" Naomasa tried to explain.
"Do you really need some shitty report right now?!" Nebulosa shouted back at him using her arms to push herself slightly upright, whipping her head around fully to glare at him with her one good eye, tears building up in the corners of it.
"I'm still trying to get over the fact I only have one eye now! I-I knew they weren't going to be able to save my leg, I had to burn the stump just so I wouldn't bleed out! But then I wake up here and one of my eyes are just fucking gone!" True She continued to shout, pointing towards her missing eye with her bandaged hand.
Then with the same hand she pointed towards her legs that were under her blanket.
"A- And I can't even so much as feel either of my legs! I've been trying and goddamn trying but not even a fucking twitch! Then I had to see my... my back-" True Nebulosa broke into sobs before burying her face in her pillow, and weeping loudly with body shaking from it.
"I'm sorry I did-" Naomasa tried to say but Nebulosa just threw one of the small stuffed toys on her bedside table at the glass.
"Just leave me alone you asshole!" she choked out between sobs.
The noise obviously attracted the attention of one of the burn ward's nurses and the man was quick to escort him away from Nebulosa's room.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset your patient." Naomasa's words felt like ash on his tongue, even with the incomplete report of the damage he should have known how broken up the young woman would be and that he should have pushed back more on getting a victim's report so soon.
"Normally I would probably chew your ass out for that shit," True the goat horned man told him.
"But considering she's been like that with everyone since she woke up, I can't really put her meltdown on you." True the nurse confessed running a hand through his hair.
"You should have heard her an hour ago, she was cursing out one of the interns for offering her water." True the man recounted.
Naomasa merely nodded, he had heard that Nebulosa had a temper through the grapevine of hero scandals and Naomasa guessed there was more truth to it than he knew.
Still, this was a fairly horrible thing that happened to her, and Naomasa couldn't imagine being in Nebulosa's place that he'd be all too polite to someone asking him questions about the worst night of his life so soon.
"I think it would be better for me to come back another day to speak with her." Naomasa told the man, who just nodded.
"Just try and arrange it with her doctor first." The man said before leaving Naomasa on his own and going back to wherever he was doing before now.
Naomasa watched him go then sighed deeply and began his walk to the nurse's desk to try and get Nebulosa's doctor's name and contact details.