Chapter Text
Tsukauchi POV:
Tsukauchi has seen many cases land on his desk during his years as a detective, but none have been so agonizing as the one currently in front of him. At first, it had been a small file, just a simple report of vigilante activity in the areas of Musutafu, but then it got more and more frustrating.
Tsukauchi sighed before picking the file back up, deciding to reread it in case he had missed anything important. Interviews of individuals they saved are few and far between, but those they had managed to talk to hadn’t been able to provide much.
There were a few parts about his appearance, short, wearing a dark hoodie and a strange white mask. The mask is the one thing that every victim mentioned in detail. The information on each of his takedowns got more and more inconsistent each time a new one was added. The first person said he swooped down from the sky, taking their would-be rapist by surprise and allowing them precious time to escape, the next described how he patched up their knife wound before walking them to the hospital.
It was so frustratingly random. Tsukauchi had spent painstaking hours reading and then rereading each entry, but he still was at a loss when it came to his potential quirk. Tsukauchi sighed and closed the entry, placing it carefully back on the table. He carefully picks his coffee cup off the table and takes a long drink from it. It is cold, but he finishes it regardless. Sighing, he places the cup down before rubbing his temples to push back the incoming migraine.
Tsukachi gets up to refill his cup and starts walking around the stacks of case files before he hears a knock on his office door.
Tsukachi sighs, placing his cup down. “You may enter”.
His assistant, Yuna, opened the door, expertly avoiding one of the stacks that was likely so close to the door that it may be a fire hazard. Yuna walks up to him, speaking once she gets closer.
“This is the last report from the victims we interviewed, though I do hope you get some sleep before reading it. You look about ready to keel over any minute.” She scolds, before holding out the file for Tsukachi to take.
He gingerly takes the file before placing it next to the other on his desk. He forces his eyes to focus as he looks back towards Yuna. His migraine was coming in full force and likely wouldn't go away any time soon.
“I need to review the file and figure out which hero to assign to the case”. He sits down carefully on his chair, groaning slightly as his head pulses at the movement.
“Did you hear me at all?”
“Hm?”, Tsukachi looks up, his eyes unfocused.
Yuna sighs, “You know what, just… get some sleep. Ok?”
He sighs, Yuna has been worried about his health since she first got the job, he just wishes she wouldn't go after him about it at every opportunity.
He carefully opened the file, his head pulsing in displeasure as soon as he looked at the words. He closes it and sets it back down on the desk, covering his eyes with his palms. He silently curses to himself, displeased with his inability to do something so important. “Yuna, can you give me the rundown?”
Yuna looks at him in concern but eventually relents, “The victim, named Yuki Aikawa, was having a bad fight with her boyfriend when things got physical. The vigilante intervened right in time to stop him from harming her. The vigilante, which we need a name for, knocked him out after taking a couple of punches. However, the aggressor managed to get a nasty hit, which cracked his mask. The vigilante managed to overpower him, but-.”
He shot up from his seat, ignoring the urge to sit back down from the pain, and grabbed Yuna by the shoulders, “Did she see any details?! Did she- Ugh…” Tsukachi stumbles to catch himself as his sudden movement finally catches up to him. He sits down carefully, his head in his hands.
“Tsukachi, please! You can’t be overexerting yourself so much! Look, get some sleep, i'll go find you some pain medication.”
“Just go on with the story.” He grunts in reply, knowing he won’t be able to sleep until she finishes.
She groans in exasperation before continuing, “She said she didn’t get to see his face before he covered it up but she did get to hear his voice. He sounded like a teenager. He made sure to walk her home, leaving his calling card on the aggressor as usual.”
Tsukachi grimaces at the teenager comment. It wasn’t uncommon for teenagers to try their hand at vigilantism, but most don’t last longer than a week before either getting caught or killed. Luckily Tsukachi knew just the hero to take on the case, he would always be good with kids, no matter how much he tried to deny it.
“Now, I'm going to go get you some pain medication and water. You will Stay. Here. Is that understood sir?” Yuna has a scolding look on her face which almost makes Tsukachi guilty, but he has a job to do.
He carefully nods. “Thanks, Yuna.”
“Thank me later when you feel better, I mean really, you always overwork yourself.”
“I know Yuna.”
Yuna sighs and walks out the door, avoiding the stack that he needs to move eventually. Once he hears the click of his door, he takes out his phone and taps on one of the top contacts.
“Good evening Aizawa, how do you feel about taking on a vigilante case?”
Aizawa Pov:
Aizawa sighed letting his head rest in his hand. He swears Tsukachi is going to put him in an early grave one of these days. He didn’t usually get assigned to vigilantes, but considering they were suspected to be in their early teens at the oldest, he can understand why the case was assigned to him.
Aizawa zips up his sleeping bag and rolls over. He wonders for a moment if he would be able to get back to his nap, but deems it a lost cause. He might as well get an early start on bringing him in.
Based on the information Tsukachi gave him, the vigilante shows up whenever there’s a minor crime. The issue with this, however, is that these types of crimes happen anywhere. He appears to patrol between 10 pm and 2 am, leaving a bright red notecard with a rabbit drawn in green glitter pen. Other than this, they had nothing. No idea what he looked like, what his quirk was, or even where exactly he lived. He had set patrols for each area in Musutafu, but his patrols randomly switched each time.
If Aizawa looked hard enough, he might just be able to find him, but it would require a deviation from his normal patrols and a lot more hours on his already strained schedule.
Aizawa sighed and checked his phone. It was his day off, but he could request a day off once this was all done with. He is glad, for a moment, that he expelled his entire class this year. He glances at the time; 11:30 pm, and wonders if he should wait until Hizashi returns from his overtime shift or not. He had been tacked onto a night raid against a villain with a weakness for sound and wouldn’t be returning until at least one in the morning, however.
If Aizawa wanted to have a chance to find the kid, he had to go out now. Would it be enough time to make it? Aizawa groans as he emerges from his sleeping bag and makes his way to the door. His three cats rub against his leg, begging for attention and food, but he needs to get moving before it is too late.
Slipping outside, he locks the door behind him and begins his walk. He lived a short distance from one of the kid’s routes, making it the best place for him to watch for the kid.
He thinks as he walks, wondering why he was assigned in the first place. Sure, he was a high school teacher, but that doesn't mean he would be the best choice. He was always realistic and hard on the students, but he didn’t want a repeat of what happened to Oboro. He wouldn’t allow another child to die because they weren’t prepared.
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An hour had passed and he had yet to see any sign of the kid. There were still a few civilians around. Most were returning home from a late shift or were stumbling about drunk after spending time at the nearby bar. Aizawa leaped from one building to the next, unoptimistic of his chances, but continued regardless. He wouldn't be a hero without a stubborn force of will and he didn't plan to quit anytime soon. As he lept to the next rooftop, a scream abruptly pulled him out of his thoughts.
Aizawa lept to the building closest to the source of the scream and he noticed figures in the alleyway to his right. Aizawa quickly starts to assess the situation, keeping a hand on his capture weapon in case he had to suddenly intervene. He could see a young man and what seemed to be his child were backed up against a wall. In front of them was a man with what looked to be knives growing from his fingertips. The young father was keeping his child behind him while covering what seemed to be a stab wound.
The young man released his grip on his wound, instead holding it up. A glimmering yellow forcefield encircled him and his child. Aizawa had seen enough and was about to intervene, but stopped when a dark figure fell from the sky, landing on the back of the villain. The figure, his vigilante, Aizawa figured, had knocked to the ground upon impact. His wings, since when did he have wings, spread out behind him. He quickly bent down, and struck a pressure point on the man’s neck, knocking him unconscious.
Aizawa had to give it to the kid, he was efficient in his takedowns. Most vigilantes were doing it to show off their quirks. He noticed the kid pulling a few zip ties out from one of his pockets before he used them to bind the limbs of the villain. The vigilante turned to the father and son, tilting his head a bit as he spoke.
“Are you both alright? I mean, not you since, you know, you're bleeding quite heavily, but do either of you have any other injuries?”
His voice was metallic, obviously influenced by his signature voice changer, but Aizawa could hear the slight youth seeping into his voice. Kami, how have we not noticed this sooner? The kid finishes propping the villain against the garbage can and walks closer to the pair.
Aizawa slips his hand into his pocket and pulls out his work phone. He quickly taps on Tsukachi’s profile before typing out a message. Found the kid, I'll send my location. He took down another villain.
Aizawa sighed and shared his location. Hopefully, this will give Tsukachi time to send someone to collect the villain and his victims for questioning and medical treatment.
Aizawa looks back into the alleyway just in time to see the kid place his calling card next to the villain and hop onto the fire escape.