Naomasa hesitated as he saw Inko crying and cradling Izuku, gently shushing him and telling him that all would be ok, that she was there and that he was safe. He was on edge, afraid that the young teen might explode again. Naomasa took a long breath in and then breathed out. No, that wasn't likely, not now at least. His mother was there to comfort him so his level of stress had to be dropping; his tears lessened, his crying quieted and he had even started hugging his mother back, all seemed to be calming down.

The detective approach the cell, still slightly apprehensive, but was stopped by Inko who turned and spoke to him in a curt tone.

''Please, leave us alone... Izuku needs time to heal.''

''time to heal? What he needs is a do-''

Wait, no. That was right, Naomasa remembered reading a report on Izuku's transformation. It had been... violent, to say the least. According to eyewitnesses it was ''as if his body was tearing itself apart from the inside'', yet when he was delivered to them, it seemed as if he hadn't even suffered a scratch. Now, Izuku's body seemed to have done the same thing yet again, except the end result was that Izuku's body regressed into what it must've looked like before the incident, so Naomasa concluded that Izuku would be able to, as Inko posed it, heal himself.

''Right, his quirk heals his injuries, doesn't it?''

Inko nodded while wiping away some of her tears

''yes, it always has. Please, leave us, Izuku needs time alone.''

Naomasa gulped

''yes, I... uh... I should probably get going.''

Naomasa quickly left the cells and went back to his desk in the room next to the questioning room. He sat down on his office chair and took another cigarette out of the pack in his coat pocket, scoffing after remarking that his smoking might be becoming a problem. For now, however, there were bigger problems on his hands than unhealthy life habits. Naomasa thought back on Izuku, specifically his power, his monstrous side. The more he discovered, the more the teenager terrified him, one fateful, wandering gaze, and you'd most likely be dead. One look in the wrong direction and a violent monster would be released, one who'd be able to cleave through buildings like they weren't even there and who heroes would be hard-pressed to stop because of his healing capability. Naomasa wondered if whatever god was out there was pulling some sick joke when they assigned Izuku his quirk when he was born. He had heard of incidents where quirks had been activated unintentionally by innocent people resulting in the death of people around them, but Izuku's quirk just seemed so much more... volatile and violent. Naomasa shuddered, he feared to fathom exactly how far Izuku would go once his face was seen, what distance would he go? What lengths would he go to? Is there a line where he'd stop himself?

Naomasa sighed, no matter what happens, no matter what he finds out that he hasn't already, he would request or suggest that Izuku would be sent to some sort of institution. Maybe Inko was right and Izuku truly had no control over himself, but in some way that was even worse than the alternative, the way he is now, Izuku resembles more a ticking time bomb than a normal kid. Izuku is inherently dangerous and hazardous to those around him. He might not be a monster, but he has the powers and temperament of one, that's for certain. If fear was really what activated his quirk, then maybe a mental institution might be the best thing for him and everyone else in Musutafu.

Naomasa sat at his desk for a while, taking the time to finish his cigarette, before looking back to the notes of his interview with Izuku's mother.

All might and officer Takahashi.

They had interacted with Izuku before the disaster happened. They might be able to shed some light on how Izuku ended up at the scene of the hostage crisis. Naomasa got up off his chair and left the room, proceeding into the cells to see how Izuku was doing, it made no sense to bother the other two if Izuku was now able to talk and able to tell him what happened himself. The detective entered the room holding the cells, approached the one holding Izuku and Inko, and spoke to the mother.

''how's he holding up?''

Inko looked away from Izuku, who was still hugging his mom but was now sitting with her on a bench in the cell.

''he's doing better, he still won't talk to me longer than a few words, but he's calming down and his wounds have healed.''

''do you know when he might come back to his senses?''

Inko looked back to Izuku and continued stroking his hair.

''no, he's never been this stressed, as you might imagine, so I don't know when he'll come back to normal. Normally, he'd only take a few seconds to come out of his panic attack when I'm here to comfort him.''

Naomasa sighed quietly, disappointed that he'd be unable to save time on this investigation. He thanked Inko and then left the cells once again, going out to a nearby constable and asking them to fetch Officer Takahashi and contact All might so he could ask them a few questions he had about the case. The constable nodded his head with a ''yes, detective'' but added that he would have to call Officer Takahashi too since he'd requested a few days off to recover from what he'd witnessed.

Naomasa paused for a moment. That's right, Takahashi was a fresh recruit, it's a damn shame he had to see something so violent so early into his career, it's probably why they accepted to give him a few days to recover mentally. Takahashi was right in the middle of it when Izuku first began his rampage and although he wasn't one of the 2 officers who had their arms dislocated by Izuku running through them, he probably had an up close and personal shot of the greenette shoving his arm through Death Arms. Not the best thing to have to witness on your first week on the force, that's for sure.

Naomasa sighed and told the constable to then try to call him so he could come into the station as soon as he could. The constable nodded and then walked away to get into contact with the detective's possible leads. Naomasa returned to his desk and continued looking over info gathered on the case, even though the interviews he had lined up were specifically to tie up the timeline and find out how Izuku found himself at the site of the disaster, figuring out what happened to the bodies of those Izuku killed was his biggest priority. The interviews he had planned would definitively shed some light on the series of unfortunate events that led to the disaster, every tragedy has one, but the detective knew that the public was going to want to know what happened down in those sewers more than what events led to the incident taking place. Both the news outlets and he knew that the general public could be suckers of grim details, it's like seeing a car crash, you can't pull yourself away from it. Plus, the families of the deceased had been hounding the police department for an explanation as to why they hadn't recovered the bodies of their loved ones yet. So, Naomasa looked again at Katsuki's file, he was the only one who'd been able to see exactly Izuku's method of attack in his monstrous form, maybe he'd be able to help him in that department. The detective looked at the address of the hospital that they had sent the teen following his recovery by the rescue team, he decided that he'd stop wasting time and go to the hospital himself to see if he was able to answer his questions, hopefully after he'd get done with his interviews with All Might and Takahashi that day.

Naomasa continued scouring through all of the gathered information while waiting for the constable to get back to him on his leads, he was getting tired of re-reading, again and again, the same reports, but there had to be something that he had missed that would help him in uncovering what happened in the bowels of the sewers. Eventually, he finally fell upon something that could help him. The rescue team that had been sent down to the sewers was mainly a recon effort by the police department, they were supposed to go down there, save who they could, document the area, and then if they'd come upon a roadblock that they couldn't overcome, they'd call in heroes to solve the problem. To help in sending in the right hero, however, each member of the team was outfitted with a chest-mounted camera, so they'd be able to review the footage with good accuracy after the fact. Naomasa wondered why this fact wasn't more clearly documented, it could've helped him greatly in his investigation and would've saved a lot of time, but then he read further in the document and sighed in irritation once he happened upon the fact that almost every camera had been smashed to pieces in the attack, rendering all data stored on them useless. Naomasa closed his eyes and pondered that fact for a moment, almost all? That's right, he did remember that one camera had been sent to the evidence locker, one that was broken and busted, yes, but one that wasn't completely in pieces, he had thought that it was simply a camera recovered at the site of the start of Izuku's rampage, but it might've been a rescue team camera. Naomasa got up from his desk chair and deciding to confirm his theory, went to the evidence locker to recover the camera. Once there and fitted with gloves, the detective pulled the camera out of a plastic evidence bag and analyzed it. Just as he remembered, it was broken, but not completely useless. Naomasa messed around with the device, trying to find an opening where a memory card might be inserted, he eventually did find something that looked like it was able to be opened, but it seemed to need specific tools to do so. Groaning in annoyance, Naomasa put the camera back into its bag and exited the evidence locker with it in hand. He walked up to a nearby constable and asked them to send the camera to their forensics department to see if they'd be able to recover any data from the chip which just like the camera itself, was likely to be damaged as well. Hopefully, they could salvage something that could be of use to his investigation.

Naomasa turned his back, wanting to return to his pile of documents and laptop to perhaps uncover more things that could help him, but before he could get far, the constable he gave the camera to called out to him. Naomasa turned his head to listen to the constable and after a ''yes?'' from the detective, they informed Naomasa that All might had arrived to be interrogated. Good, All might had responded quickly. Naomasa internally snickered, he Isn't the number 1 hero for nothing, he reminded himself. The detective thanked the constable and told him that he'd go and see him but that before he could, he'd like to know if Officer Takahashi had been contacted as well. The constable nodded his head and told Naomasa that the officer had indeed been reached and that he had said that he'd come over in a few hours, enough time for him to mentally prepare himself and to drive himself to the station.

Naomasa patted the constable on the shoulder and thanked him, proceeding to the lobby of the station to greet All Might. Arriving at the lobby, Naomasa came upon nearly every officer working at the station crowding around All might, trying to get him to sign things for them. All might felt uncomfortable considering what he suspected he was there for, but he hid it well behind his smile, giving a chuckle and a joke to the police so that they wouldn't suspect him. Naomasa, getting tired of the show his colleagues were causing, walked up to the crowd and told everyone to disperse, that All might and he had business to attend to. After the hubbub had cleared, the detective approached the number 1 hero and they stared at each other for a moment before Naomasa spoke up.

''All might.''

All might nodded his head.

''Detective. This is about the ''Monster of Musutafu'', isn't it?''

''Yes. Yes, it is.''

All might sighed and both began walking, Naomasa guiding All might toward the interrogation room.

''I can't believe they've already given him a villain name, he's just a kid.''

Naomasa tilted his head slightly down while walking.

''A kid, yes, but also a kid who's killed multiple people, possibly a villain, and cost the government several thousand, possibly millions, in property damage.''

''Yes... we all know that by now. It's just, I can't see it in the kid to be able to do something like this.''

Naomasa stopped and looked back at All Might.

''You too?''

''...Me too?''

Naomasa hesitated, closed his eyes, and then gestured his hand about, trying to explain his point to the hero.

''Sorry, his mother came here a few hours ago, she's been coming here every day since the kid's gotten here. She wanted to see her son, as usual. I didn't let her all the times before because I was still trying to interrogate the kid, except he still hadn't stopped crying from when he arrived and had barely responded to any questions at all, so I gave up trying to question him and chose instead to interrogate her in exchange for being able to see her son. During my interrogation, she said the same thing you just did, all be it a bit more... explosively? Anyway, it just surprised me that you'd say so when you barely know the kid.''

All might sighed and looked towards the door to the cells.

''you'd think so too if you'd really seen him before this all happened.''

Naomasa hummed shortly

''Maybe I would, but for now, I have an investigation to do, would you mind stepping into the interrogation room.''

''Of course, we'd better get thi-HACK!''

All Might put his weight on the door frame to support himself and coughed up blood.

''Damn, low on time.''

Naomasa looked around, luckily no one was looking at them at that moment, so he hurried All Might into the interrogation room and closed the door behind him. The detective looked back to All Might, only to be met with a cloud of smoke and All Might in his smaller form.

''Damnit, it's gonna be a pain when I have to leave.''

''Don't worry, we'll figure something out when we get there.''

All Might sat down in his chair while putting his palm on his chest, trying to regulate his breathing.

''I hope we will, so what do you want to know?''

''Well, Toshinori, I'm trying to figure out how Izuku ended up in the hostage situation and, more importantly, what the hell exactly happened in those sewers.''

Toshinori looked down and to the side, trying to recall important details.

''Well, I definitively think I can help with your first problem, but I fear I won't be able to help you with the latter.''

''Really? You were the first one down there after the rescue team and there's nothing you saw that could be of note? Anything, no matter how small, could help.''

''Well, I saw nothing that your guys in forensics couldn't see. I was blindfolded for the first part of the recovery in order to not startle young Midoriya, I only removed the blindfold once I was sure that I had put the mask and sunglasses on his face properly, I triple-checked to not take any chances.''

''What did you see when you took it off?''

''Well I saw young Midoriya first, if I messed up, I didn't want anybody above to be hurt, so I faced him when I took my blindfold off. I'm sure you know how he looked then; freakishly tall, there was blood and slime everywhere on him and splattered about on the ground, walls, and ceiling. I guess if I were to be specific, his hands and his jaw area were particularly bloody, I actually dirtied my hands when I put his medical mask on. His hands make sense, but why his mouth?''

Naomasa rapidly jotted down things in his notebook, not looking up at Toshinori.

''I don't know, he could've bit the rescue team during his attack.''

Naomasa stopped writing in his notebook, looked up for a moment and furrowed his eyebrows. He began pondering a disturbing thought that had struck him suddenly.

''could he have... no. no, it would've been apparent if he did that.''

Toshinori cocked an eyebrow.

''it would've been apparent if he did what?''

Naomasa was shaken out of his train of thought, he shook his head and dismissed the number 1 hero.

''it's nothing, just a theory that I have no proof for. I might explore it further when I go and question that Bakugou kid, but it's baseless for now, no need to worry about it.''

''Ok, if you say so.''

Naomasa focused once again on his notebook

''So, anything else of note?''

''No, you already know that no bodies were found, only torn pieces of clothing and broken cameras were what I saw was left of the rescuers.''

Naomasa sighed

''Well I'll admit this doesn't help me a whole lot, but thank you anyway. Now, onto how you first met the kid, tell me about it.''

Toshinori looked to the ground, seemingly in regret.

''Yes, I was chasing the villain with a sludge quirk when I happened upon him. If only I had handled the situation better, maybe none of this would have ever happened.''

Naomasa looked to Toshinori in slight pity

''There's nothing we can do about it now, we can't change what's happened, best we can do now is learn from this tragedy to make sure it doesn't happen again. Now, what happened?''

Toshinori looked back up to Naomasa

''Yeah, sorry. I don't know what the sludge villain did exactly, but he was there with young Midoriya when I emerged from the sewers, he tricked me into hesitating by thanking him for taking the fall for him before running away. It worked, it's obvious now that young Midoriya couldn't have been an accomplice... but hindsight is 20/20. Young Midoriya was already bloody and in a great amount of emotional distress when I found him, so he looked quite guilty, but I felt as if that wasn't enough. I've seen young victims of out-of-control quirks before, and they can become just as agitated as he was then, so I thought it possible that he might've just been through such an accident. I took a moment to look for something, a detail, that could tell me if he was a villain or not. Eventually, I recognized the pants he was wearing, I had seen them on students around the area before, so I reasonably concluded that he must've been a student. However, though I still don't know the name of the school, I knew that I remembered it being quite far away from where we were at that time and most school days had ended at the time I came upon him, I think it was around 3:15 o'clock, so it wouldn't have been possible for him to be at the underpass without some sort of speed quirk. That was enough to convince me that he must've been a late bloomer, used his speed quirk, and accidentally killed someone in the process, which is what I thought made him bloody and led him to where he was then. Anyways, I called the police and moved towards young Midoriya to hopefully calm him but before I could i... uh.''

Naomasa looked up from his notebook.

''but before you could you what?''

''uh, it's not really important. I... hesitated for a moment before I advanced toward young Midoriya, I was simply being a bit apprehensive considering the situation, that's all.''

Naomasa narrowed his eyes. Apprehensive? If you considered the fact that he didn't know the extent of Izuku's volatile nature, All Might had been in far more stressful situations, why would he be apprehensive there? Naomasa could tell Toshinori was lying, he didn't even need his quirk to know that, but why would he lie about this detail? Naomasa decided to let it go, for now. He didn't really have anything to accuse him with other than assumptions.''

''All right, what happened next?''

Toshinori coughed once nervously.

''ahem, yeah. I gave him a few words of comfort, said that everything was ok because ''I am here'', something to calm his nerves. I went after the villain after that, the only thing of note being that young Midoriya thanked me before I jumped off.''

''So you were unable to catch up to the villain?''

''No, I did catch him.''

Toshinori sighed in irritation.

''I just happened to run out of time after I had captured him. I had subdued him, fit him into a bottle of cola I had bought earlier, and fit him in my pocket, he must've fallen out of it when I ran out.''

''Which is how he ended up taking that Bakugou kid hostage, I gather.''

''Yes.''

Naomasa closed his notebook and leaned back into his chair, closing his eyes in thought. Izuku had blood on him before he even arrived at the scene? That particular detail wasn't noted anywhere. So, that would mean that there could be even more victims than he thought. Naomasa considered the time that Toshinori said he had happened upon Izuku, he was right that most school days would be over by then so Izuku was likely to have attacked someone at his school, he'd have to check up on what school he attended to see if any attacks were reported the day of the incident.

Finally, interrogating Toshinori hadn't tied up the timeline like Naomasa hoped it would and he still doesn't know what the hell happened in the sewers between the rescuers, Izuku and the villain, but at the very least the hero had pointed the detective in the right way to finally understanding the whole thing. The fact that Toshinori had lied still bugged Naomasa, however. What would be his reason for doing so? The detective knew that the number 1 hero wouldn't try to obstruct his investigation, so why? Finally, deeming the pursuit of the thought a fruitless endeavor, Naomasa got up from his chair.

''Well, I think that's about all that I had to ask, thank you for your cooperation, Toshinori. I'll see you to the door when you're ready to go.''

Toshinori, however, did not follow suit and stayed sitting down with his eyes on Naomasa while seemingly hesitating. Toshinori opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. The hero sighed with indecision after closing his eyes and then hung his head. Finally after contemplating if he should ask what he wanted to ask the detective, Toshinori spoke up hesitantly, his voice only a small bit louder than a whisper.

''When you first met young Midoriya, did you see, hear or... uh... feel anything?''

Naomasa looked at Toshinori quizzically and sat back down, pulling out his notebook once more.

''...Care to elaborate?''

Toshinori sighed and looked to Naomasa guiltily.

''I might've... chosen to omit something that happened when I first met young Midoriya.''

''Like?''

Toshinori looked to the side, clearly uncomfortable.

''It's hard to explain, I can't quite find a way to put it to you that won't make you question my sanity, I know I haven't stopped since it happened.''

''Toshinori.''

Toshinori looked back to Naomasa, his notebook now on the side of the table.

''You've already trusted me with your secret, if you can trust me with that, you can trust me with this.''

Naomasa's sudden steely gaze threw Toshinori off and after a few seconds of inner debating, Toshinori looked to the side.

''When I walked up to young Midoriya to try to calm him down, something... happened to me that I can't quite explain. It all began with fear suddenly taking hold of my body. I've learned how to suppress and hide my fear, yet it kept building and building inside of me without abandon, it left me no time to understand what was happening to me. I felt frozen, paralyzed, I couldn't move for what felt like an eternity, and then I started hearing things.''

Toshinori turned his head towards Naomasa, facing him so he'd be sure the detective didn't look like he thought he was crazy.

''I started hearing yells, Naomasa, screams of pain and anguish and something that sounded like a dying animal moaning in agony. All around me I heard them, hammering on my eardrums like the wailings of the damned. It was horrifying, the most horrifying thing I've ever experienced, yet just as fast as it came, it left. I shut my eyes, took a few breaths in, and then they were gone.''

Toshinori imitated an explosion with his hands.

''Poof, like it never happened!''

Toshinori put his arms on the table, interlaced his fingers, and then placed his chin on them, staring off into space while sighing. Eventually, the hero focused his attention to Naomasa once again.

''So, tell me. Am I crazy?''

Naomasa shifted uncomfortably in his chair

''Well... I certainly can't say that I saw what you saw when Midoriya first came to the station.''

Toshinori scoffed and his head sunk, dejected at the thought that he truly might have gone insane.

''However.''

Toshinori slightly raised his head, looking to the detective in interest.

''However, I can relate to what you say you felt. I still remember the first time I laid eyes on Midoriya when he was... monstrous. It all felt so... unnatural. It felt as if my very soul was trying to pull me away from him, as if it was yelling at me to turn tail and run as far away as I could from the monster in front of me. It wasn't the kind of fear you feel after reflecting on a dangerous situation, nor was it the kind you feel when something suddenly jumps out at you, it was guttural, instinctual, it felt embedded into my very bones. It was like the fear you felt about the dark as a child or about whatever could be hiding under your bed at night. Obviously now I know there's good reason to be afraid of Midoriya, but even then that fear just felt odd to me, it was too...''

Naomasa tried to find his words.

''Immediate. I knew nothing of him at this point and he was presented to me in a pitiful state. He was a pale, frail, sobbing mess, yet I was still scared of him .''

An uncomfortable silence reigned in the room for a long time until Toshinori spoke up.

''Do you think it's a part of his quirk?''

''It's unlikely, there are no records of his family possessing this type of quirk and even if this was a case of quirk mutation, we already know what his quirk can do, namely, an enhance in strength and regenerative properties, being able to instill fear within people doesn't seem to line up with the things we already know he can do, these things need to have some sort of association with each other.''

''So, what is it?''

Naomasa sighed

''I don't know.''

The silence returned, sending the two men into an eerie sense of stillness.

''I don't understand it and I don't know why you hallucinated something while I didn't, but I saw Midoriya's mother hesitate too once I brought her to her son, so I think she felt that fear just as we did. Therefore, you're not crazy and neither am I, there's something about Midoriya that causes this, I just don't know what.''

Toshinori stood up

''Well, at least I know that I'm not going crazy, I think I can live with that.''

Taking a long breath in, Toshinori buffed himself up into his All Might form.

''I'm ready, let's go.''

Naomasa nodded his head and got up, opening the door for All Might and guiding him toward the station's entrance. Once near the reception, the detective noticed the receptionist talking to someone, eventually seeing that the person they were talking to was Officer Takahashi in civilian clothing. Naomasa was glad that the young officer had been able to come in for questioning so fast, maybe he'd be able to help him since All Might wasn't an immense help. The two looked at and gave each other a courteous nod of the head as Naomasa walked by and toward the door accompanied by All Might. After shaking All Might's hand and saying goodbye, Naomasa turned around, harshly told the people who had come to gawk at All Might to get back to work, and then approached Takahashi.

''Officer Takahashi, good to see you could make it so quickly, are you doing better?''

Takahashi went to speak, but hesitated, clearly made uncomfortable by Naomasa's question. Finally, while nervously fidgeting and looking away from Naomasa, the police officer answered his question.

''No, sir, I'm not. To be honest, I don't want to be here at all, but I know how important it is to resolve this investigation, those affected by the tragedy deserve that at least. So, I got over myself and came here right away.''

Takahashi paused and looked past the reception desk and towards the door to the cells.

''Just... don't take me anywhere near him, please. If you can.''

Naomasa looked to Takahashi in worry, he could now see in the officer's stormy eyes just how much he had been affected by the disaster. The detective took a confident step forward and placed his hand on the officer's shoulder.

''It won't come to that, Takahashi. You have my word.''

Takahashi closed his eyes, sighed in relief, and then looked to the detective in gratitude.

''Good... that's good.''

Naomasa gestured towards the interrogation room.

''Shall we?''

''Yes, lead the way, sir.''

The two men proceeded towards the interrogation room, Takahashi giving one last tentative look towards the cells as they passed by them while barely being able to hear the quiet sobbing of Izuku and his mother softly humming a lullaby to him. Takahashi and Naomasa finally entered the interrogation room and taking the same places as when All Might was questioned, the interrogation began.

''So, officer, you had met Izuku Midoriya before the incident, correct?''

''Yes, sir, I did.''

''how?''

''I was the officer sent in response to All Might's call, he hadn't specified what kind of help the child he was talking about needed, so I was sent in to assess what was needed to help him.''

Shifting his attention off of his notebook and unto Takahashi, the detective raised an eyebrow at the officer's answer.

''You were? So, I assume that the cruiser that Midoriya broke out of was in fact yours?''

''yes, sir, it was.''

''From my previous interrogation with All Might, I know that Midoriya already had blood on him before the incident, I'd think you'd take someone like that to the hospital and not to an active hostage situation, no?''

Takahashi looked at the detective, both in confusion and offense.

''what are you trying to insinuate?''

Naomasa paused before shaking his head.

''No, I'm not trying to insinuate anything, I'm just confused as to why you didn't request for an ambulance to be sent over to take care of Midoriya.''

''Oh... well, my apologies for jumping to conclusions.''

''not a problem. Now, why didn't you call for an ambulance?''

Takahashi paused and shifted uncomfortably in his chair before answering Naomasa.

''Well, my answer to that is a bit complex...''

''That's fine, I've got the time.''

Takahashi took a breath in and exhaled.

''Well, I think it'd be wise to start with my objective line of thought at the time. First of all, I had looked for any wound or injury that required immediate first aid before doing anything else, calling for an ambulance wouldn't really matter if Midoriya would have died before they could get where we were. When I finished my inspection, however, I didn't find any obvious injuries. I couldn't find a place anywhere on his body where he could be bleeding from, let alone that'd cause his entire person to be covered in blood. He was also standing fine by himself and didn't have any broken bones or anything of the kind. He was still in great emotional distress, however, and wasn't responding to any of my attempts at communication, so he still needed to be sent to the hospital, despite his lack of ailments, so he could have somewhere to calm down and be able to call for a psychiatrist should he need it. Therefore, because he didn't seem to be in need of immediate medical attention, I found it wise once I reported back to my dispatcher to suggest not calling an ambulance and letting me drive him to the hospital for a psychiatric checkup. I didn't think it was a good idea to waste an ambulance when it wasn't absolutely necessary.''

Naomasa finished scribbling down in his note book and looked back to Takahashi, seemingly content at the answer provided by the officer.

''I can see the sense in that. You said that this was your objective line of thinking, what other line of thinking did you have?''

''Well, sir, it isn't a train of thought I was aware I was having at the time but upon reflection these past few days, I know it's something that affected my decision.''

''Well, what was it?''

Takahashi took a long shaky breath in, gulped, and then shakily breathed out.

''Let me begin by saying that I think I know where the blood that was on Izuku came from, sir.''

Naomasa perked up

''You do?''

''Yes, sir, I believe so''

The detective paused for a moment, excited that he might be able to get the exact lead he was looking for.

''Alright, where did it come from, then?''

''On the day of the incident and not long before I was sent to check on Midoriya, a call came in that two students at Aldera Junior High were injured and in need of emergency medical care, apparently they were quite viciously mutilated. I believe that the blood present on Midoriya came from those two victims.''

''And what made you come to that conclusion? Besides the fact that both events happened a short amount of time between each other, that is.''

''My son goes to Aldera, sir, and I recognized the pants that Izuku was wearing. Aldera employs a black Gakuran-type uniform for boys, I remember buying the exact pants he was wearing at the time for my son, so I knew that Midoriya must've been a student there. The school day had ended a little while before I got to the scene, so he must've been there not long before All Might happened to find him. To me, this all pointed toward the fact that Midoriya was the one who attacked those two students, which is what resulted in him being covered in blood.''

Naomasa hummed.

''It's a plausible timeline, one I think I might look into, but how does this relay back to your other train of thought?''

''Well, like I said, sir, my son goes to Aldera, he could've easily been one of the students Midoriya attacked. I remember hearing a bit of what injuries those two suffered and it was sickening. Once I figured that out, it disturbed me, I think I subconsciously became afraid of him. That's why I think I suggested being the one to drive Midoriya, because I was afraid he'd attack someone again. If I drove him, at least it would be limited to me and I could defend myself better.''

Takahashi sniffled and teared up a bit

''Now I wish I would've never taken him into my cruiser, this whole thing would've never happened.''

Takahashi put both of his hands behind his head and faced the table, his tears now freely falling on the flat piece of furniture.

''because of me, people died. I could've died! I could've left my son without a father and made my wife a widow just because of some stupid mistake!''

Takahashi chuckled sadly.

''And I thought I'd be able to protect others from him, what a joke. He put a damn hole through a hero I've seen punch through industrial-grade steel.''

Takahashi crisped his fingers, becoming more and more agitated and starting to speak faster and with urgency.

''I saw all of it, I was lucky I wasn't one of the officers who tried to stand in his way. He shoved his arm into Death Arms' gut like it was wet paper and then punched him into a building like he was some type of rag doll! If I had been at the wrong place at the wrong time, I would be dead now!''

Takahashi began shaking and then slammed his fist on the table in frustration.

''DAMNIT!''

Naomasa, having begun to get concerned for the officer's mental state, threw his notebook on the table while rising up quickly from his chair and went around the table. Once near Takahashi, the detective spun his chair so they were facing each other, and then grabbed his shoulders and shook him slightly.

''Takahashi. Takahashi! Snap out of it, there's no way you could've known, there's no way anyone of us could've known what Midoriya was truly capable of.''

Takahashi, who had been hyperventilating, started to slowly go down to panting. Naomasa snapped his fingers in front of Takahashi's face twice, trying to bring him back to reality.

''listen to me, listen! You aren't at fault for Midoriya's rampage, nobody can be directly responsible for this! This, like all tragedies, was a cumulation of an immense number of variables that just happened to result in the worst result possible, you can't blame yourself for that.''

Takahashi slowly settled and Naomasa backed away from him and sighed, looking at him in pity.

''I think that'll be all of the questions I'm going to ask today...''

Takahashi continued panting, his hand now over his rapidly beating heart.

''I-I'm sorry sir... I don't know wha-''

Naomasa raised his hand to stop Takahashi.

''you don't need to explain yourself to me, Chikao. Go home, recover. If you need any more time than you've already been allowed, I'll make sure that you get it.''

Takahashi finally took a long breath in, breathed out one final time, and then looked towards Naomasa in gratitude.

''thank you, sir.''

Without saying another word to each other, Takahashi left the room and left the detective to himself. Sitting down in the chair he previously sat on and sighing, Naomasa pulled out his pack of cigarettes, took one out, and then lit it. Breathing in the smoke and letting it enter his lungs, the detective laid back in his chair.

''...what a mess.''

Naomasa let the smoke escape his lungs in a long sigh.

Continuing to smoke his cigarette, the detective picked up the notebook he had thrown on the table and looked at what he had gathered during the interview. No progress on the location of the bodies had been made, obviously, but he was intrigued by the troubled officer's theory. The day of the disaster was a school day, Izuku was indeed a student at Aldera, and All Might had discovered him near the time that most classes would've ended for that day, about the same time the station received the call about the two injured students. At face value, it all connected pretty handily; Izuku, while at school, would've somehow reached a level of stress that caused him to attack the two victims, he would've run away, and then eventually he would've ended up at the overpass where everything connected into the ''ground zero'' of the disaster.

Naomasa's gut told him that despite the circumstantial evidence and the lack of anything concrete, there was something to be found at the end of the lead he had gained. But, of course, a gut feeling doesn't really count for anything without any evidence, so after going to the observation room and snuffing out his cigarette in an ashtray, Naomasa sat down at his desk and turned his laptop on to look for the recording of the call that alerted the station of the two injured students in the first place. Accessing the police station's call logs, the detective first went to a folder that contained all of the logs on the day of the incident. Then, scrolling through a great number of recorded calls, Naomasa arrived at the section in the folder that contained all of the calls received in the late afternoon of the day of the disaster, right around the time when Izuku might've attacked the students officer Takahashi mentioned. Listening to all the irrelevant phone calls prior to the disaster was a small bit grim, an incident report always accompanied the recorded phone call which allowed Naomasa to know from where the call came from and Naomasa knew that some of the people who called likely died as a result of the disaster, those were the ones who had called right in the line of Izuku's rampage. The innocence of the calls was sometimes almost laughable; someone complaining about their neighbor making too much noise, some old woman fed up with the smell of a local restaurant, Naomasa desperately wanted to warn them somehow, tell them to leave and to stop worrying about pointless things so they could save their lives.

But, all had already happened, there was no saving them, only hoping that they might have survived the ordeal. Eventually, after listening to a great number of phone calls, the detective finally found the one he was looking for. The caller had dialed 119, the emergency number for the fire department, and the phone operator had responded as to protocol, starting by asking what emergency service the caller needed. The caller didn't respond right away and only breathed in and out rapidly for a moment, eventually sputtering out while stuttering that he needed an ambulance. Naomasa paused the recording once he heard the voice of the caller, was it who he thought it was? Rewinding the recording and letting it play again, Naomasa listened intently and then paused it once again... it was indeed Izuku. Naomasa sat straighter in his chair and got closer to the screen, now paying more attention than he had to the other irrelevant calls. Unpausing the recording, the operator next asked for Izuku's location and Izuku responded with ''Aldera junior high''. There was a moment of silence, presumably caused by the operator alerting an ambulance to be sent to Aldera, and then it was interrupted by the operator asking what the medical emergency was exactly, Izuku responding by saying that two students were grievously injured. The rest of the call proceeded normally, Izuku stuttering, hesitating and just generally having trouble properly answering the operator's questions all throughout. When the recording ended, Naomasa pulled up the incident report and looked at what was written about the two students.

Naomasa winced as he read the list of injuries. As Takahashi had said, they were gruesome to say the least, and the list itself was quite lengthy. The emergency personnel sent to the scene reported that after being directed to the room containing the two victims by the janitor, who heard screaming coming from the classroom, there was no sign of the caller at all, that the room was in chaos, and that there was blood everywhere. Naomasa took the information in, so Izuku was actually the one who called the ambulance to the scene. Not only that but he seemingly ran away after finishing his call, which confirmed what the detective presumed was how he ended up at the overpass that the sludge villain ended up appearing at. Naomasa now finally had a beginning, an end and a connection between the two, a complete timeline.

This alone was enough proof for the investigation, enough to form a concrete and acceptable timeline for the public and the courts, but something in Naomasa didn't let him stop there. Naomasa knew it'd be hurtful to ask, but the first victims of Izuku might be able to shed some more light on the triggering mechanism of Izuku's quirk. Sure, Naomasa could speculate all he wanted, but those two were the only ones to be able to give first-person accounts as to what exactly might send Izuku into his violent state, it would help confirm or disprove his stress trigger theory and it would help the courts in deciding if Izuku should be committed to an asylum. Therefore, Naomasa decided that he'd have to visit them to ask them about the details of the attack they suffered. Checking the incident report again, Naomasa was pleased to notice that the hospital that the students were sent to the day of the incident was the very same one that Katsuki Bakugou was sent to when he was recovered, the detective could go to the hospital, and kill two birds with one stone.

The detective got up from his chair, stretched, and then dusted himself off. He'd been cooped up inside for too long, the drive to the hospital would definitively do him a great deal of good. After exiting the observation room and making his way towards the entry of the police station, Naomasa felt his work phone buzz in one of his coat pockets around halfway until he would reach the exit. Stopping and pulling out his phone, the detective opened it up and accessed his emails. He opened his most recent received message and read the sender's email address... it was the forensics department. Naomasa had almost forgotten about them. Scrolling down, Naomasa saw an attached video file and a written message along with it.

''Was a bit of work to extract this. Didn't watch much, only the beginning, but it was quite buggy, some of the data was irreparably damaged. I was able to recover a great deal, however. You tell me if I did a good job on the rest of it, you're welcome.''

Naomasa looked at the size of the file, it was considerably large, it'd take his phone a long time to download, and it'd be easier to download on his computer. The detective looked up from his phone and to the door leading outside, he could see the rays of afternoon sunlight pouring into the station. He really wanted to have some fresh air. Then, Naomasa had an idea; he could save a great deal of time by having a constable analyze the video while he went off and held his interview. That way, he could get what he needs out of the two sources and gather it all when he comes back from his short trip to the hospital. Looking around for a constable, the detective called out to one who didn't seem to be too busy. Lifting his head up from what he was doing, the constable answered Naomasa.

''yes, sir?''

''I need to go out and interview some witnesses at the hospital. While I'm away, look at the contents of the video sent to my computer just now, it's in the observation room. The one I need you to look at should be the first message at the top of the list after you open my email.''

''oh, I can do that, sir. But, I'm going to need the password to your computer so I can access it.''

''ah, yeah. You're right.''

Pulling out his notebook and pen, Naomasa scribbled a series of numbers and letters on a page, ripped it, and then gave it to the constable.

''here it is, just shred it once you're done with it.''

''yes, sir.''

With that, the constable turned around and started walking towards the observation room to begin his task, but before he could get far, Naomasa stopped him.

''Before you start, I just want to warn you that the content of the video could be disturbing, it's footage of the attack on the rescue personnel during the disaster a few days ago. I want you to find out what happened to the bodies of the victims.''

''ah, you mean the Monster of Musutafu incident?''

Naomasa sighed

''Yes, that one. But, I'd ask you to not call it that.''

''oh, sorry, sir.''

The constable bowed

''thank you for the warning, I'll get right on it.''

Naomasa nodded and then turned away, leaving the police station and driving away toward the hospital. While Naomasa drove away, the constable had already entered the observation room . sat down. Typing in the computer password, the constable accessed the detective's emails and clicked on the one containing the sewer attack footage. As Naomasa had expected, the video did in fact only take around a minute to download, so the constable was able to quickly start watching it and as detailed in the message attached to the email, it was rather buggy. The video and audio would sporadically cut out, visual glitches like pixels dying or changing colors were common, etc. Most of the video was watchable, however, and the constable pressed on, constantly taking notes on a document so the detective could have a detailed account once he came back.

Eventually, the constable arrived at the moment before the attack occurred. He could hear the sound of Izuku's sobbing echoing throughout the sewers and the voices of the rescue personnel conversing about how ''the kid that attacked the villain'' was probably right around the corner. Finally, the person who the camera was attached to turned the corner and captured Izuku's warped figure crouched down on the ground as well as the blood and slime splattered everywhere on video. Turning the other way, the video then showcased the massive tunnel that Izuku had dug to arrive at where he was, the rescue personnel exclaiming a ''...Fuck.'' at the sight of the destruction. Turning back toward Izuku, the video then showcased the team approaching him and calling out to him, saying how they were there to help him out of there.

As all of them moved passed Izuku and stood in front of him, however, the mood changed. Izuku had covered his face with his huge bloody hands and had started yelping, babbling, and screaming incoherently, the video had not captured his face yet since the rescuers were not facing Izuku as they were passing by him. Two rescuers approached him and gently grabbed onto his arms to try and calm him while one, the one whose point of view the video was in, stayed back slightly shocked by Izuku's sudden and explosive change in mood. After 1 or 2 minutes, the constable was then shocked to witness Izuku killing the two rescuers closest to him. He stared in horror as Izuku's jaw unhinged wide and as he ripped one of his arms out of one of the rescuers' grasp to then grab the other rescuer's head and rip it clean off of his body. The other rescuer barely had time to scream in horror as Izuku dropped the head he had viciously separated from the first rescuer's body and pounced at him, plunging his arm into his chest and then ripping the rescuer clean in half. The constable nearly threw up at the sight but carried on as the last remaining rescuer tried to run away from Izuku. After only a few seconds, however, the footage showed the rescuer being thrown to the ground by Izuku jumping on him, the camera somehow separating itself from the rescuer's chest because of the fall and being thrown to the side at an angle that allowed the viewer a clear shot of Izuku's face and of him ripping at his body and devouring him.

After a few seconds, the footage abruptly stopped, the shock from the fall presumably having finally broken the camera. The constable had stopped writing in his report since the attack started and now only sat in his chair in a cold sweat. The constable finally backed away, uttering a swear in shock at what he had just witnessed, and then covered his eyes in disbelief, they were holding this... monster in their cells?

The constable didn't have much more time to think, however, because after a few seconds, he perked up and started noticing sounds of yelling and screaming. Sounds of crying and babbling that were eerily similar to the ones he had just heard coming from the cells.