[2 year time skip again]
(POV: Jack)
[5 days before the Incident]
Nothing noteworthy has happened over the past years, but I did notice some heroes and even cops sweeping around the part of the city where I met Mei during the failed kidnapping incident. It's not that noticeable, but since they've been doing it for more than seven years, it's not hard to spot the patterns. I've got a really bad feeling about it—they recently slowed down, like they found what they were looking for after all this time.
I shared my worries with Mei. She was skeptical at first and didn't really care, but when I showed her the notes I'd made over the years and pointed out the strange behavior of at least three local heroes, she started to think it was suspicious. I managed to convince her to at least have two of the Elite Scouts and a Commander on standby atop the nearest building so she and her family wouldn't be completely defenseless. I'd already made a similar arrangement for my apartment with my mom. Since I couldn't place the Scouts in a good position, I posted a squad made up of 1 Heavy unit, 2 normal Combat Engineers, and a Commander as well. I positioned them around the building, and they patrol less populated areas and check on general weak points.
[2 days before the Incident]
I became more and more paranoid, and there was a subtle change in the hero patrol routes. Also, my suspected dirty heroes just so happened to be positioned in areas near me or Mei. I couldn't talk to the police because they're most likely in on it. I had an idea, but I don't know if I can fully trust him. If he were in on it, this situation would have likely happened sooner. So, I planned to contact Eraserhead, just as he asked. I know this may make the villains suspect that I've noticed them, but I need someone's support.
I also upped the guard station, adding 3 more Combat Engineers and 1 normal Scout unit. I've also given Mei an additional Elite Scout and 2 Infiltrators so she could be closely monitored and protected. I told Mei about this plan, and while she was hesitant to trust anyone, she relented after I explained my reasoning. We made sure to alert our families but explicitly told them not to call the cops because this still could be a false alarm. Yes, we didn't tell them the whole truth because we can't risk getting found out.
[1 day before the Incident]
The next day, I went to the police station and tried to find someone who wasn't on our suspect list and knew Eraserhead. When I stepped inside, I noticed some officers tensing up when they saw me. As I suspected, many of them are on the suspect list. I made a mental note to add their faces to the "not to be trusted" list. I walked up to the receptionist, and when I saw her remain calm, I told her I wanted to meet someone. She didn't get it at first, but I handed her a note explaining that I thought I was being monitored even here and that I needed someone who could contact Eraserhead. She subtly looked around, and even she noticed the weird tense atmosphere coming from certain people. She nodded and led me to what seemed to be an interrogation room, most likely for privacy. I took a seat behind the desk and waited about fifteen minutes when someone dressed like a stereotypical detective walked in.
"My name is Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi. I heard you needed to contact our mutual friend. Why exactly him and not someone else? Better yet, how do you know him?" He seemed really serious, and I'm thankful that he at least took me seriously.
"Hello, I'm John Adams. I came here because I suspect someone is after me and my friend. This started about seven years ago now—my friend was almost kidnapped, and I helped her. I almost fought the three criminals so she could call for help, but Eraserhead quickly apprehended them by surprise, than he asked me some questions, and said that if I ever had any trouble, I shouldn't try to be a vigilante, but come here so someone could contact him in my stead." Tsukauchi relaxed a bit and nodded seriously.
"You seem to be telling the truth. My quirk, Lie Detector, assured me of that. Oh, and sorry I didn't tell you before, but I didn't want to risk you outplaying it somehow. But I still need to ask—do you have any real evidence?" I nodded.
"Yes, plenty. They're with me in this folder, but I need you to contact Eraserhead first. Even if you're a good cop, I can't trust you yet—not after everything I've found. Hell, I don't fully trust Eraserhead either, but if he was in on it, this would have happened years ago." The detective nodded and seemed to understand without any malice. He didn't do anything immediately, so I was about to ask if he was going to make the call or not when a voice suddenly spoke up from behind me:
"Good thinking, kid. That kind of mentality will help you stay alive in the real world."
When I turned around, I saw Eraserhead leaning against the wall in his full hero outfit. I could have sworn he wasn't in the room when I came in, and I didn't see anyone enter either.
"Now, let me see your evidence, and if I find it compelling, I'll help you." He sat down beside the detective. I pulled out the folder from under my hoodie and placed it in front of them on the table. They started looking through the heavy folder, their faces growing grimmer the further they read. They spent about 40 minutes going through everything and another 20 minutes double-checking the most important sections. When it was over, Tsukauchi excused himself to make a phone call. I was suspicious, but Eraserhead just shook his head, probably knowing what I was thinking.
Then he spoke to me with an even more serious face than before: "Kid, with this amount of evidence, it's almost certain you're right. Even if you had only a tenth of this, I'd still help you. But with this? I will need to call in reinforcements. Don't worry—I don't trust a lot of people either, but those I do are perfectly safe and trustworthy." He then left to make some calls as well.
They returned with good news that I didn't expect. They managed to set up an emergency meeting with Eraserhead's colleagues, with the help of UA's principal, Nezu. So, tomorrow I have to go to UA to explain everything in person to the faculty and set up an action plan. I was genuinely surprised they could do this on such short notice.
"Don't be so surprised, kid. We're heroes. This is our job." He smiled and handed me a piece of paper. "This is my personal phone number. If anything comes up, I'll try to respond as fast as I can. Oh, and my real name is Shota Aizawa. Just call me Mr. Aizawa—my hero name is a bit too long for normal everyday conversation."
I thanked them and left the station. Even though I'm really thankful for their help, I can't put blind faith in them. So I double-checked the two squads that are on the lookout and made preparations in case of an emergency. I ordered Wilhelm to keep my mom safe, and I made the Commanders do drills with their squads to stay ready. I may have gone overboard with the constant radio checks, but at least I know the translators work as intended. Mei and I built them when she got fed up with the fact that only I could understand the puppets' weird broken radio-like speech. So, we came up with a simple wrist-mounted text-to-speech device with large, built-in omnidirectional speakers so they could talk to regular people too. I thought it would be ineffective since it seemed like a slow process for an average human, but thanks to their superior brain capacity, they can use it pretty fast. Since they don't really have defining gender traits, Mei thought it would be funny to make them speak in an artificially mixed voice of me and her. I think it just sounds unsettling, but the puppets seemed to like it—when I asked if they wanted to change it, they refused.
I sent a goodnight message to Mei before I went to bed. I don't know why, but I have a really bad feeling about tomorrow. "Huh, it must be because I'm nervous about the meeting tomorrow," I murmured before I fell asleep.