"It's a warehouse."
Tsukauchi rubbed his forehead and nodded, even though the officer couldn't see it through his phone. "Thanks for checking, Officer Tancho," he told them before hanging up.
He made a mark on the tablet and shook his head. It was a bust. He scrolled through his contacts, and hit dial on the right one. He knew they'd be working for the same reason he was. To keep his mind off what was happening in the hospital.
Toshinori had been in and out of surgery several times already and there were more to come. The emergency surgery was still ongoing. It was only interrupted so that they could pump him full of drugs and liquid and so that the surgeons could take a break. Twenty-eight hours on and the situation was as grim as ever.
The phone connected. "What is it, Detective?"
"We can't find Izuku," he told the sidekick.
"I'm sorr-"
"No," Tsukauchi interrupted the apology. "You're not. If you had any interest in finding the kid, you would have let us go after him yesterday." He growled. He was so frustrated. They knew where Izuku was. He'd been at school. The school themselves confirmed it. He'd gone home as usual and this morning, he just hadn't shown up! There was no explanation for that.
They had given him Izuku's home address. The new one, and the one they had registered from his first enrollment. Both came up empty. The phone numbers were also not being answered.
"We could not risk All For One suspecting anything," Mirai retorted, sounding tired.
"We wouldn't have gone for him in the morning!" Naomasa growled back. The sidekick knew that. "We would have gone during your operation, or just after it. Then we would have Izuku!" The Police weren't about to interrupt the Number One Hero's mission but there were chances to get both missions completed.
"I understand your desire to solve this case but capturing All For One was more important." Sir Nighteye still had the gall to attempt to sound reasonable.
"You do not!" Tsukauchi snapped. The sidekick did not understand his desire. The sidekick thought nothing of Izuku and even less of Inko. He thought she was some stupid woman for getting involved with All For One. He knew it wasn't like that. She couldn't lie to him and every word she said told him just how much she'd been betrayed.
"The kid should be at home or returning to school. Pick him up from there," Sir Nighteye told him.
Tsukauchi forced himself to take a deep breath before replying. "The home addresses were fake," he told the sidekick through clenched teeth. "And he hasn't come to school today." He couldn't help the hiss that escaped with the statement. "What am I going to tell his Mother?" He asked the question.
"You tell her nothing," Sir Nighteye replied immediately. Naomasa could hear his disbelief that he had the gall to even suggest that they tell Inko Midoriya anything.
"She is involved in this case."
"Five years ago she was involved. Not anymore," Sir Nighteye was matter of fact when he made that announcement.
Tsukauchi stared at his phone for a few moments, not believing what he was hearing. "Izuku is her son," he said softly. How did the sidekick not believe that Inko was involved? No mother ever forgot her children.
"She is no longer involved," All Might's sidekick repeated.
Naomasa trembled slightly. He sighed heavily. "It's going down in my report that your obstruction caused us to miss getting the child back."
"We got All For One. One child, a villain's child is no price at all to pay for that."
Tsukauchi gritted his teeth. Sir Nighteye didn't care and it wasn't 'we' who got All For One, it was Toshinori. Sir Nighteye might have found the man's location but that was his job and when you broke it down, almost any sufficiently skilled analyst could have found him, if they had the details of the case. Naomasa knew why Yagi didn't want the details getting out but… It was Toshinori who had taken out All For One, and it was Toshinori who was in the hospital paying the direct price.
But people like Inko were paying the indirect price and their pain was not to be discounted. He took a deep, shuddering breath. "You'd better hope that you haven't created the next super villain," Tsukauchi told Sir Nighteye before he hung up.
Izuku was only nine but he had spent five years with his father, and if his current school was to be believed, he wasn't quirkless. They said they had seen Fire Breath several times. It didn't sound like such a dangerous quirk but Naomasa couldn't dismiss it. Izuku was All For One's son, who knew what other aspects of his quirk Fire Breath was hiding. After all, there had to be a reason All For One had taken his son.
He prayed they didn't find out the hard way.
-ted-
Kurogiri had deposited them back in the kitchen. He'd also given Tomura a credit card and instructions to order them something more nutritious for dinner than cup noodles. The misty man hadn't said a thing beyond that about their dinner choice last night. Then he had left.
Izuku had looked at Tomura and Tomura had looked at him and for once, neither of them said anything. Izuku moved to sit at the table. He felt sick but he didn't want to be alone. His mind kept seeing his dad, floating in that liquid, with tubes and a mask obscuring his face but not hiding the fact that it wasn't there.
Tomura snarled. His red eyes seemed to glow. "Hero's did that," he spat.
The green haired boy nodded, swallowing hard. He didn't want to cry again.
"You love heroes!" Tomura continued.
There was something in his tone that warned Izuku and his green eyes flew to the teen.
"This is your fault!" Tomura screamed, his hand extended as he lunged.
Izuku dodged but the table wasn't so lucky. It disintegrated into dust before his eyes. The soy sauce bottle fell to the ground and rolled around. His chair fell over too. Something coalesced within him though with the movement. The worry, the fear, the grief, the sick feeling it all collapsed. "It's not my fault!" Izuku screamed back.
For an instant the white haired teen looked surprised but then red eyes narrowed again. "You love heroes!"
"No, I don't!" Not anymore he didn't. Not when he'd seen the type of people who became heroes. Not when he'd see that society wanted that. Not when he'd felt that with every injustice he'd experienced because he supposedly had no quirk, or a weak one. Not when he'd seen what those who had odd quirks went through.
Not when they'd hurt his dad.
"You do!" Tomura screeched, and lunged again, hands out, ready to grasp Izuku.
He was better prepared this time. The green haired boy leapt back, over his chair, and simultaneously pushed at Tomura with his quirk. His aim was a little off because he pushed the chair into Tomura's legs. The older boy fell, tumbling over the chair to hit the floor with both hands.
It began disintegrating immediately but even angry, Tomura realised that the kitchen floor was on the second storey. He needed that floor. He pulled his hands up immediately, except the disintegration spread. As Izuku watched, the tiles disappeared with small puffs of dust and the floorboards beneath were exposed.
There was a moment where it looked like decay wouldn't go further, and then the wood began curling back before disappearing into dust. Izuku activated his quirk, making himself lighter and hardening the air to support himself.
"Shit!" Tomura swore as he backed away.
Izuku saw he wasn't going to be fast enough and dived in. He grabbed the older boy under his arm pits and hauled him upwards. The weight was a strain but Izuku reminded himself he had picked up heavier things. He'd never tried to make them fly with him though.
The floor kept receding but Decay seemed to be slowing down. There were pipes under the boards and Izuku could see a concrete base.
"Get us out of here!" Tomura yelled.
Izuku hesitated.
"Move!" Tomura screamed.
"It's okay," the green haired boy told the teen, as he looked at the concrete. It was not decaying. He dropped Tomura as gently as he could. The white haired boy landed with a thump on to the concrete and experimentally tapped it with his foot. It held.
The wood continued to disintegrate and there was a groan. Izuku spun mid air, trying to find it but couldn't and his search was interrupted by a loud thud that actually shook the concrete slightly.
The source of that noise was easier to find. The fridge wobbled. Instinctively Izuku sent a plane of air towards it, holding it upright. That steadied it but exhausted him and he dropped to the concrete next to Tomura. Tentatively he released the hold on the fridge and was relieved when it remained upright.
They surveyed the damage. There was a gap between the cupboards and the concrete all around the kitchen now, and the door. The chairs were mostly fine but the table was dust along with the tiles and wooden floor and there were pipes running over the floor.
But everything was holding and that was good.
Izuku took a deep breath and turned back to Tomura. "I do not want to be a hero," he told the teen seriously.
"You used to!" Tomura retorted.
He couldn't deny that so he nodded. "Back when I thought Heroes were good and helped people," Izuku explained. "Not now."
Tomura took a deep breath and eventually nodded. "At least you learned that," he muttered.
Izuku nodded seriously again and then a puff of dust caused him to sneeze. And that broke the tension but it let the sick fear he had been feeling back in. He slid down, sitting on the concrete, despite the dust. "Daddy has always said he needs both of us," the freckled boy whispered, looking down as he fought tears.
Tomura nodded this time.
Izuku bit one lip gently. It gave him something else to focus on. "Then I think we should help each other," he said softly.
The teen considered it. Izuku wasn't looking at him but he could feel Tomura turning the words over in his head, trying to find the catch, trying to find out any hidden meaning. There was none. Dad was gravely injured, and while Dad wasn't Tomura's father, Izuku knew the teen thought more than fondly of him. For Dad, they shouldn't fight each other.
"Okay," Tomura agreed. "But if you go back to liking heroes-" he added with a growl. There was no need to specify any consequence.
"I won't," Izuku said firmly, rising. He looked up at met Tomura's red eyes. "I won't," he repeated belligerently. He meant it. His dad was … He didn't want to think about it. There was no way he was going to like heroes ever again. He held out his hand. He'd seen Dad do this when he went to work with him. It was a way of sealing deals.
Tomura looked at him for a moment before he gave one sharp nod and then turned to one of the draws. Izuku felt a stab of disappointment before he saw Tomura pull out one of his gloves. He didn't know Kurogiri kept a pair there. Tomura slipped it on and took Izuku's hand.
They shook once and Izuku felt that something between them had fundamentally changed. He gave a wobbly smile.
"I didn't know your quirk could do that," he commented as they parted.
"Do what?" Tomura asked, looking around. They were both at a bit of a loss as to what to do now.
Izuku frowned. He wasn't sure how to explain. "When you disintegrated stuff in the past, you've only ever dusted that object," he said. "Like my t-shirts," he added. He had more than enough experience there.
Tomura gave him a wicked grin but nodded. He had the same memories… or almost the same.
"This time you touched the floor and the tiles got dusted, but so did the wood."
It was enough of an observation for Tomura to realise what he was talking about. "Huh?" He said, as he brought up one of his hands to stare at it like it was something new. "I didn't know I could do that," Izuku heard him say.
He grinned but the expression immediately faltered. "Did you change focus? Did you want to get rid of the floor? Did you think about it? Or did you just push decay out?" He asked the questions.
Red eyes gave him a disbelieving look. "I was trying to get you," he pointed out.
"Oh yeah," Izuku muttered. He let it drop and for a few moments just breathed. He knew what he should suggest. They should clean up the dust from the tiles and floor boards but that was such a regular reaction that he couldn't focus on it. "I want to help Daddy," he whispered.
"You heard the Doctor," Tomura reminded him. "Kurogiri is bringing in healers," he added.
Izuku nodded and sighed. "But healing quirks are rare," he replied, remembering what Doctor Garaki had told them. "And… are they really that good?" He asked. Most of the RPG games Tomura played had someone with a healing quirk in them but there always seemed to be a price and it wasn't always money.
The teen didn't answer and Izuku looked at him. Tomura looked like he'd swallowed a lemon. One he really didn't like. "The really good ones are but tch!"
"But what?"
"They're controlled by the fucking heroes," Tomura finished.
Izuku felt his stomach drop again. That didn't seem fair. His dad needed them. He needed something that would make his injuries heal but more than that. He needed something to regenerate what he had lost. He bit his lip as he thought. There was something…
"What is it?" Tomura demanded.
"Something in one of your games," Izuku told the teen. "One of the older games about a character you really hated to fight."
Tomura rolled his eyes. The description was too vague.
"It was one of the re-releases," Izuku remembered more. "Not RPG but PVP. It had old characters in it. Fictional ones but they had quirks."
The teen frowned as he thought through the games he had played. Something finally clicked. "You mean the little shit who had regeneration?" He asked.
Izuku nodded. "What about those quirks? How rare are they?" He remembered Setsuna's quirk allowed her to regenerate parts of herself but that wasn't quite what they were after.
"No idea," Tomura admitted. He then grinned. "But we can find out."
If it would help his dad, they would find out! Izuku smiled. He still felt worried. He still felt sick but maybe… just maybe there was a way he could help.
He held on to that.