A Tarnished Hero

Izuku stared out of the car window, the trees outside zooming past them as the sirens wailed along the road. His eyes closed, the memory of the chaotic end of the day filtered through his mind.

The medics and policemen swarmed the scene, tending to the wounded and handcuffing the villains. Despite the frog girl's insistence that he wasn't one of the villains, the officers' pointed glances and firm grip on his arm told him that they weren't convinced.

And even with the somewhat rough treatment, Izuku couldn't blame them. Protocol was protocol, after all. At least they didn't push him to the ground and pressed their knee against his windpipe to the point of suffocation.

Shoved into the back seat of the police car, Izuku's head drooped as his body cooled down from the action. The roaring engine of the speeding car was a harsh tune that rattled his ears. Each time his eyes fluttered shut, the officer in the passenger seat would twist around, a flashlight beam piercing through the dark. His jaw tightened while his eyebrows twitched at the action, fingers drumming his knees in an attempt to not give the officer a piece of his mind.

A normal person would've already passed out, but Izuku was far from normal. His senses were honed through trials and tribulations, and every time he could sense someone or something staring at him, his instincts would kick in.

Thus, why he was staring out of the window. He couldn't sleep so he might as well pass the time by gazing out into the open world. His fingers twitched at the thought his items being confiscated by the policemen, much more so with the bottomless box.

His gaze flickered to the bottomless box kept out of reach, sitting in the hands of the officer in the passenger seat. His fists clenched, eyes narrowing ever so slightly at the sight. The thought of the officers poking through his belongings made his skin prickle.

At least the only one that could access it was him. He could just get it back later, through force if necessary. As for his armor, they tried. They really did, but Izuku would not budge.

Tensions were high until the rat principal, Nezu if he remembered correctly, assuaged their concerns about the heavily armored man that looked like he could rip a man in half. And wasn't that statement true…

He wondered what would happen if they found the bisected remains of the villains he accidentally killed in the conflagration zone… Actually, would there even be remains left at all? The fire there was still going strong, artificially produced he surmised, even after everything was all said and done.

After a bit of thinking, he concluded that yes, there would be remains. Flesh might burn and turn to ash, but bones would remain, bleached but whole. The fire there wasn't strong enough to incinerate a skeleton, and knowing how advanced technology was in Japan, their forensics team would no doubt find out that they were killed by not the flames, but a blade.

Said blade being safeguarded by another police officer in another car in their convoy.

Izuku sighed, hopefully, everything that happens later would resolve peacefully, otherwise, he'd hate what he had to do to get back to the Lands Between. He was protective of his runes, okay!? It was going to be such a waste to dump all of these runes just to return to the last Grace site he'd rested on.

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Izuku's fingers tapped rhythmically on the metal table, the soft impacts sounding like thunder in the enclosed room. Arms still cuffed and lately linked to the table, he squirmed about in his seat for a bit, trying to find a good spot where his ass wouldn't feel like it was pressed against a rock and a hard place.

He's been in this room for about half an hour now, the ticking clock just hung up on the wall letting him know the time of the day. Beside the clock, an opaque window cut through the wall and a metal door stood just right next to it.

Sighing once more, Izuku's fingers continued to tap against the table as he waited. He knew some people were watching through the one-way window, but could it trouble them to just get this over with already?

Time spent here was time spent doing nothing when he could already be at his mother's home talking and spending time with her.

The tapping continued, the table vibrating each time the impact landed. It started slow, matching the tempo of the ticking clock, but as the seconds passed, its speed increased. Gradually, the tempo was heightened, again and again, until the sound the echoed through the chambers was the rapid impact of metal against metal.

A few minutes later and the tapping stopped. Izuku's eyes narrowed at the door that clicked and swung open, revealing a figure heading inside. He had a sand-colored trench coat hiding the white dress shirt and dark blue tie underneath.

His steps echoed through the room, and the door behind him was brought to a close by another officer waiting behind it.

"Good afternoon, Midoriya Izuku?" The detective ended the greeting with a question, to which Izuku nodded. "Alright then. So, first off, let's start of simple."

The detective took a seat opposite of Izuku, his eyes never leaving the greenette's piercing green orbs.

"Are you part of the invasion force that assaulted the USJ?" A simple question left the detective's lips and Izuku didn't hesitate.

"No." The detective didn't show any kind of hint that he was surprised, to which Izuku applauded mentally.

"Next question, during the invasion, what were you doing?" Izuku's heart remained steadfast, the question already foreseen.

"Saved some of the students and killed the Nomu that sent a teacher to the ER." At that, the detective showed a slight twitch just on his upper brow. He should've. The state the Nomu's corpse was in left little to the imagination on how its last moments must've been.

"I see…" Tsukauchi frowned, his gloved finger tapping on the table. "Are you aware that you may be charged with vigilantism and first-degree murder because of what you have done?"

"What about my self-defense?" Izuku's frown grew. The thought of him being charged because he saved a bunch of kids in danger was ridiculous. "Or how about me saving those that would've died if I wasn't there? The teacher in the ER looked like he wouldn't be breathing if I hadn't patched him up after getting beaten to near death by the Nomu."

"And I am eternally grateful for your actions." Tsukauchi showed a smile and Izuku knew that he was being genuine. It then morphed into a frown as the detective let out a long exhale. "That said, nobody is above the law, and you, Midoriya, have been found to have committed murder against three villains because a key witness had divulged what had happened in the conflagration zone."

Ah, yes. The part where he inadvertently bisected two villains because they were flimsy as a wet noodle. He thought that they would've found out about it by analyzing the remains of the bodies, but the villain that escaped spilled the beans first.

"Does it even matter? They are villains that had intentions to murder literal children during their field trip." Not that he wasn't underage as well. He just looked old because of the runes that strengthened him, pushing his body to the point where his muscles and bones could endure the output of his strength.

"I'm afraid it isn't that simple." Tsukauchi shook his head. "Even heroes are bound by this no-killing rule. Unless judged by a majority of the HPSC executives that a certain villain must be dealt with lethally, a villain mustn't be killed by a hero. No matter how justified it would be."

"Now I remember why I didn't like the hero system." Izuku muttered underneath his breath. During his travels in the Lands Between, he tried going about it by upholding the hero system that was in place in Japan.

That got him killed numerous times until he dropped the holier-than-thou act and got to brutalizing the hostile entities that dared provoke him. Of course, he gave them a chance first to stop and turn away, but they were dogged in their pursuit to rid him of his life.

"What if I said that the villains killed in the conflagration zone was a mistake." When Izuku's words left his lips, he noticed the detective's eyebrow raise a few centimeters upward.

"Excuse me?" Tsukauchi looked a bit shocked. Not like Izuku could blame him. It was pretty hard to swallow the fact that two people were dead because they were sliced cleanly in half.

"They were soft like tissue. I didn't expect my blade to go through them like tofu. The foes I face are much hardier than that." And now the detective was going pale. Was it the nonchalance, or the fact that he was used to more challenging enemies.

The room was bathed in a brief silence before the detective cleared his throat a few seconds later.

"… Be that as it may, you will still be charged with third degree manslaughter for the two bisected villains." Izuku hummed. It was weird, how the detective just took his word at face value. Does he have some kind of mind-reading quirk? That would explain why he changed the charges. "As for the Nomu, I'm afraid it will remain as first-degree murder."

Well, legal-wise, it wasn't wrong. Izuku could understand why he was charged so. It didn't mean he had to like it.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure that you get off as light as possible." Tsukauchi then bowed his head towards Izuku. "Please, accept my wholehearted thanks for saving those kids and Eraserhead."

Oh, so that was the name of the teacher/hero. Eraserhead… He was sure he knew that name from somewhere, but he couldn't find it by trudging through his already muddled mind.

The deaths he endured did a number on some of his memories, it seems.

"Can I make a request." The detective raised his head when he heard Izuku speak. Tsukauchi nodded and listened attentively. "Can I please see my mother. Her name is Midoriya Inko."

The detective paled.

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Outside of the room, All Might, currently in his deflated form, paled rapidly as he heard the name of the mother of the armored man sitting in the interrogation booth. Sitting on his shoulder, Nezu tilted his head at the blond, beady eyes twinkling as the animal stared at his rapidly paling complexion.

"Toshinori? Whatever is the matter?" Nezu frowned when he got no response from the gaunt blond, so he did what any animal would do to get attention from the humans.

Smack the side of his face with his paws.

"Ack! Principal Nezu!" Nezu grinned. He's lucky that he didn't extend his claws, or the man would have another injury for Recovery Girl to look at.

"Finally got your attention, haven't I?" Nezu patted the blond on the head. "You've been silent the whole while Detective Tsukauchi was questioning this Midoriya Izuku. Something on your mind, perhaps?"

All Might remained silent for a good moment, before he sighed and let out a low exhale.

"It doesn't make any sense." Now that wasn't something Nezu predicted he would hear. He assumed that it would've been something along the lines of a person he saved but failed him later on with his family. "The last time I saw the teen was months ago, he was a scrawny kid with little to no muscles."

Now that brought up question marks. Looking at the handcuffed man… MAN… Nezu just couldn't comprehend that the man was in fact a teen. Was it a quirk, perhaps? Something that made him age rapidly? But if so, then wouldn't he be looking like thirty, maybe forty right about now if he got his quirk at the tender age of four?

But something wasn't right. All Might wasn't telling the entire truth, and a pointed glare towards the symbol of peace solved it.

"He was also dead, bisected in half by the Slime Villain."

All Might say what now?

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