Chapter 58: Alibis and Unintended Consequences
Summary: So...who remembers chapter one, still? Also, of course certain people are suspicious...
Warning: Chapters 55-58 were all published back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!
Chapter 58: Alibis and Unintended Consequences
Izumi and Momo were utterly unsurprised to find themselves in Nedzu's office a bare three hours later. The scene at the Party, in the aftermath of the very public execution of the League of Villain's sponsor had, of course, been chaos. Confused chaos, as nobody knew what to make of it all. Every other member of the League had escaped, the rest of the students hadn't even known about the terrifying Super Villain possibly leading them, and even the staff had nothing more than suspicions about how he'd met his end. Or, for that matter, what it meant that they hadn't captured any of the other members in the raid. Many Nomu had been taken out, yes. But the way they had been used previously and the sheer number of them seen during this fight made absolutely everyone count them as disposable assets. As horrifying as that was, considering how powerful they were. Worse, they had no idea where the influx of Nomu at the bar had come from. It certainly hadn't been from the warehouse. Meaning that there was at least one more potential location out there with an unknown numbers of Nomu is use or storage.
The bare few people in the room that had known anything hadn't given away much, and the staff had broken the party up half an hour after the live news coverage of the raid. Momo and Izumi had been firmly told to stick around campus, to which they had shrugged and calmly set about going over business ledgers for Aegis, arranging for both Aegis Inc and the Yaoyorozu Group to send immediate aid to the relief camp already being built among the wrecked buildings of the Kamino Ward. Several buildings had been damaged badly enough in the fight, and even more in the fires that spread from those buildings. The result was thousands of displaced persons and damaged infrastructure, though a surprisingly low actual body count.
Then, of course, the instant that All Might had been able to return to UA, Izumi and Momo had been gathered up and taken to the dean's office. All Might, Gran Torino, Sir Nighteye and Nedzu were all there…as was detective Naomasa. That last was a tiny bit problematic, but not overly so. Momo, 2B and Izumi had known full well what they were doing, after all. Dean Nedzu was, unsurprisingly, the first to speak. His voice was jovial, though he didn't offer tea. Which was a bit telling in and of itself.
"Well! I'm sure the two of you will be glad to know that All for One has been confirmed dead this time, even if the rest of the League escaped. Curious how it happened though. Even the highest speed cameras that were watching from the news helicopter couldn't track what we assume must have been a pair of bullets. And those bullets, while they did quite a bit of impact damage to the ground behind All for One, seem to have vanished entirely! Why, it's almost like a pair of railgun rounds that could just vanish after being fired were what killed him!"
Gran Torino was the next to speak. His own voice gruffly satisfied.
"And good riddance to bad garbage. I don't give a damn who killed him. Whoever it was," shockingly he managed not to glance at the two teenagers in the room, "did us all a favor. This meeting is pointless."
Nedzu hummed, nodded…and proceeded to offer Izumi and Momo tea. They took the offer, as well as the offer of seats, internally relaxing just a little. Nedzu was annoyed, but not angry.
"Still, the police will wish to know. After all, it could have been a vigilante action. Even if it wasn't, the Hero in question will need to answer the usual questions regarding justified use of lethal force. Tell me, Miss Yaoyorozu, have any of your railguns gone missing?"
Momo shook her head, expression and voice level as she answered.
"No, Dean. I can understand why you would ask. But all of them are carefully accounted for. Indeed, I make a habit of reabsorbing them when possible, and place the occasional ones that can't be so reabsorbed in a highly secured vault. I will also point out that railguns are hardly new. Anyone with a sufficiently powerful electricity or magnetism Quirk could make one work. And the plans for how to build one can be found readily on the internet. It's only ever been the power requirements that have limited the casual construction, not difficulty or sophistication of build."
Nighteye snorted, but remained silent. Detective Naomasa, however, did not. He leveled his questions straight at the two of them.
"Did either of you, or 2B, fire the shot that killed All for One?"
Momo instantly answered no…but Naomasa blinked in surprise as Izumi followed suit. She even summoned up a child-form 2B who said the same thing. Nedzu looked inscrutable, even as Nighteye and Gran Torino looked suspicious of the answer. Internally, Izumi was grinning a bit darkly. She wasn't unaffected by what had happened. But she wasn't about to morn for or feel guilty over a mass murderer who had been a direct threat to her girlfriend. At least, that's what she was telling herself, and it was…mostly true. The dark amusement that bubbled up came from the realization that only Nedzu had both known and remembered that Eraserhead's Quirk didn't really work properly on her. Since she absorbs environmental QE to fuel herself, and does so at a far more efficient rate than anyone else on the planet…abilities that are nearly pure QE only get unraveled and absorbed when used against her.
Mental Quirks. Like, say, a Lie Detector Quirk, were about as close to pure QE as Quirks got.
Such a pity that Naomasa didn't know that, wasn't it? And the only one that obviously remembered and could have ratted them out was a rat-bear chimera that seemed singularly disinclined to do so at the moment. Of course, the detective tried a few more questions, getting careful answers from Momo and blunt ones from Izumi and 2B. The man looked…half-exasperated and half-relieved, honestly. He clearly didn't really want to out them as the culprits. But he'd expected to be able to do so. Instead, all he'd done was make their alibis more airtight. They had been right here at UA, under physical and digital observation by dozens of people, and they'd now outright stated to a known Lie Detector Quirk that they hadn't been behind it. Any attempt to pin it on them would fall apart laughably quickly.
Finally, the detective shook his head and bowed out of the discussion, saying he needed to report back to his superiors. No one else moved. Izumi calmly sipped at her tea, forcing down a slight tremor, wondering what they would say and who would say it. All Might looked like he was wrestling with something. Likely with the fact that he had done his dead-level-best to kill All for One, which meant he could hardly lecture someone else for doing the same. Gran Torino was blatantly unbothered, the same grimly pleased smile on his face as had been there from the start. Nighteye was far more judgmental looking…but it was once again Nedzu who spoke.
"Obviously, you know we suspect your involvement despite your passing Naomasa's Quirk. That said…nothing can be proven. Whoever killed All for One did the world a favor. And I'm disinclined to mount a crusade trying to find out who it was. Indeed, the man made so many enemies in his long life, I'm quite certain it would be impossible to determine which one of them might have done this."
Sir Nighteye made a choked off, disapproving noise…and stalked out of the room a moment later. Gran Torino snorted at that.
"Little idiot never did like accepting the necessary unless it was part of his predictions. You'd think that them finally being proven wrong for good would have gotten the stick out of his ass, at least."
All Might winced, though at which part of the comment, it was hard to say. He sighed, deflated, and let his eyes rest on his students.
"I wish it had been unnecessary for any of you to dirty your hands. But I will not lecture you. I would have killed him myself, if I could have gotten away with it with the media out in force. Be aware that at least some people in the government are likely to suspect you, despite such iron-clad alibis. You might have made some issues for yourselves down the line."
Momo shrugged, speaking as the best of the trio to answer that sort of politically loaded statement.
"Unlikely. Not with the government as spooked as they have been after the attack on their fleet units. Given our fight against the Kaiju-Nomu, I don't think they had any doubts about our power levels. So, even if they think we did it, it's unlikely to worry them any more than what we've already shown. Both there and at the Provisional Exams. Particularly when what they might suspect of us is the elimination of a serious threat, against which nearly any level of force would have been authorized anyway."
All Might nodded at that, though he looked less certain than Momo sounded. Which was fair. Momo was likely less certain than Momo sounded, too. Izumi certainly was. But they'd made their choices and they didn't regret them. Thankfully, they were saved any further discussion by Nedzu breaking in again.
"You two will stay here tonight, in a guest room in the professors' quarters. With the Leagues' whereabouts unknown, and the city unnaturally quiet from the shock, it would be unwise to move about tonight. You can return to your own residences after classes tomorrow."
Izumi and Momo nodded acceptance, not about to fight such a minor thing when they were literally getting away with…well, vigilante justice. Neither of them could really consider it murder, and 2B was even less bothered than they. Izumi in particular was likely to have a few rough nights from dealing with the fact that she'd been right there, helping 2B make the perfect shot. Even if 2B had been the one to technically pull the trigger, Izumi would need to deal with her cold-blooded and thoroughly pre-meditated part in events. After a few more short exchanges, one of the other professors arrived to show them to the guest quarters, and they left. Hopefully, between their drained emotions and holding each other as they slept, any nightmares would stay away for at least this one night…
... ...
In the deep shadows of a ruined warehouse, barely three meters from where a centuries old Super Villain had died, something stirred. It began as a pinprick of light, so dim it was only visible in comparison to the shadows it formed in. Over the course of several minutes, that light expanded, becoming a jagged rip in space that would have discomforted any living thing that saw it.
Which, sadly, was no one.
The entire area had been cordoned off as a crime scene, the immediate investigators already come and gone, and the heroes that might have had access were all busy with disaster relief efforts. There was no one to see the rip in space. No one to see, either, the malformed hand that reached through that rip in space. It groped around, first in thin air, then around the edges of the rip, seemingly trying to push them to widen. For a moment, the effort worked, the rip growing a few centimeters. Then, with far more abruptness than it had formed, the rip snapped shut. The arm, neatly severed at the elbow, flopped to the ground…but strangely didn't bleed. For perhaps three heartbeats, it just lay there, but then it began to slowly turn white and dissolve. By the time anyone noticed it, it would be nothing but a pile of salt, causing confusion for just a few moments before the investigator who finally found it would dismiss the small oddity as unimportant amid the greater chaos…
... ... ...
(A/N 1): Mwhahaha. I hope no one forgot about the little warning 2B got waaaaaayyy back in the very first chapter, as she was offered a chance in the void? Yeah. The start of the clusterfuck that made a friendly(ish) power try to give the world a chance is finally being hinted at, with the tiny little scene at the end of this chapter.
(A/N 2): This is the one-per-release that I mention this and my other works have a Page. Currently, chapters 59-63 (roughly 14,000 additional words) are already up in early access! Not to mention there are early access chapters of my other stories amounting to roughly another 30-40k words at any given time. If you're enjoying this story, please consider tossing a bit of support my way?