Chapter Text
Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa stared at the case file he had been studying for the better part of the past few days, he could feel his headache building as he set the documents down and rubbed at his brow.
This case was a massive fuck up from start to finish, and brought to life a bunch of criticism, the media was going to have a field day with, and worrying accusations from higher ups. He could already hear the media roasting them for ‘negligence’ and ‘quirkist attitudes’.
The file in question was one that belonged to one Midoriya Izuku, reported missing three years ago then declared deceased six months later. According to the initial filing, the mother contacted police when Midoriya never showed up home from school one afternoon. A unit was dispatched to her house to take her statement as well as begin casing the area, nothing was found in the initial search. Then a few days later someone called in some personal items that had been left by a bridge, when they investigated they found Midoriya’s backpack and shoes. After that, all that was in the rest of the file was the required paperwork to declare him deceased and the judge's stamp of approval. No follow up investigation, just straight to the paperwork to declare him deceased.
When he had tracked down the primary officer and asked why more work wasn’t done before beginning the paperwork for declaring Midoriya deceased, the officer had not even remembered the case. The case had taken place three years ago, so it was understandable he did not recall but still had left a bad taste in the detective's mouth.
After providing the case to read over the officer had merely shrugged and said, “we found his backpack and shoes by the bridge where around 60 people jump off a year. Besides you know the statistics as well as I do regarding quirkless kids. The case was cut and dry.” As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Naomasa had no way to respond to that comment, because he did know the statistics, and they were depressing. Honestly he wasn’t sure if he would have handled the case any differently had he been in charge, he would like to think he would put in a bit more effort but they always had so many cases… None of this would have been a problem normally, except that Midoriya had been found alive three years later.
He was not looking forward to the press conferences, he knew exactly how the reporters would spin the story. They would paint it in a light that implied the police had taken one look at Midoriya’s quirk status and simply wrote him off. He held no delusions that he would be having to deal with a press conference about this case, pictures of All Might carrying Midoriya into the hospital were already making their rounds. So the vultures were asking questions, and it was only a matter of time before he was dragged in front of them.
Still that Midoriya was found alive raised a worrying concern, how many others had they failed? He was going to have to order all cases involving the bridge to be reopened and examined. After all they had no way of knowing if a villain/criminal was simply using the bridge as a location to feed them a red herring. A truly terrifying prospect, especially when one considers the state they had found Midoriya in.
Worse of all, it had not been the police that found Midoriya, if they had they could attempt to put a positive spin on it. Instead, Midoriya was found by two ‘concerned citizens’, Toshinori Yagi and his successor. They had found Midoriya at Takoba Municipal Beach, well ‘beach’ was a bit of a stretch, it was more like an illegal dumping site. When they first found Midoriya they believed they had found a strangely dressed corpse, as they were covered in gaping wounds and copious amounts of blood. After freaking out and sending his successor to call the authorities to report the body, Yagi had finally noticed that the body was not in fact a corpse as it was still breathing.
So one All Might express ride to the hospital later, followed by a DNA test, they realized that a dead person had come back to life. Thus this headache of a case was unceremoniously dumped into his lap. Due to his close connection with All Might and Yagi’s personal interest in the case he had been elected lead detective. Thank you Yagi, I had been planning on having a nice week, maybe even take some vacation time…
He tucked the folder under his arm and steeled himself, Midoriya had woken up the other day and was finally cleared for visitors. He gave a knock on the door, waiting a brief moment before opening and entering. He blinked at the sight of Midoriya standing up and doing stretches, from the reports he had read their wounds should have them bound to the bed, unable to move for months. They should have needed a much longer time to recover. He furrowed his brow, either the initial reports were exaggerating or… or he didn't know what.
Still as he stared at the person before him, he was once again hit with the strangeness of this whole case. When Midoriya had gone missing they had been in their final year of middle school, short for his age, skinny, no visible scarring, and masculine. The Midoriya that stood in front of him now, watching him with dangerous eyes, was nothing like that. First thing to note was she looked very feminine, she had breasts for one, her long hair was pulled back into a ponytail, while he wouldn’t classify her as tall she had clearly grown, she had clear muscle definition, and the most worrying part she was covered in scars.
“Are you going to oggle me some more, or are you going to introduce yourself?” She asked with an annoyed look on her face.
Naomasa cleared his throat and gave a slight bow, “apologies, I am Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa.”
Midoriya's sharp gaze left him and she gave a soft hum, before she ignored him and went back to stretching, it was as if she had assessed him and found him lacking. He shifted his weight awkwardly before sighing and continuing on, best to get this over with. “I would like to talk to you about what happened to you and your whereabouts these past three years.”
Midoriya sighed and turned back to face him, that look of annoyance still plastered on her face, she didn’t say anything and just stared at him. He took a half step back and felt a chill work its way down his spine, it felt like she was staring directly into his soul. He suppressed his shiver and took a moment to just settle himself before he continued, “first things first, are you Midoriya Izuku?”
Midoriya sighed and sat on the hospital bed, “no.” He blinked in confusion, his brow furrowing, as his quirk did something quite bizarre, it registered that the statement was the truth. Yet the DNA test had said she was Midoriya… He noticed her narrow her eyes at him before she spoke again. “My name is Azalea,” once again his quirk registered that as a truth. “Though, I suppose since you most likely ran a DNA test while I was asleep, I can say that I was once called Midoriya Izuku.”
Ah, I suppose that makes more sense, if she has chosen a new name then to her she would no longer be Midoriya Izuku. People often thought that just because he had a lie-detecting quirk meant that he could always ferret out the truth, and that was false. IF someone didn’t know what they said was a lie, his quirk would not activate, if someone truly believed something it would not alert his quirk. In this instance Midoriya did not identify as Midoriya Izuku anymore therefore it would not trigger his quirk. He took out a notebook and made a note of her response.
“I see, and when did you stop identifying as Midoriya Izuku?” He was not prepared for her bone chilling smile, nor the dread that it filled him with.
“Around my fifth death or so figured if I was going to keep dying horribly I might as well be who I wanted to be. So I started my transition and became Azalea.” He felt the color drain from his face as confusion ran rampant as his quirk registered what she said as truth.
“Excuse me?” Before he could even begin to process, or ask a follow up question her gaze narrowed once more.
“ Interesting , say do you by chance have a quirk that relies on vocal answers in order to determine whether or not the subject has said the truth as they know it to be?” Her gaze tore into him and he couldn’t even think of lying.
“I…” He gulped eyes wide, “yes, my quirk is called Lie Detector, but how did you know?”
“Two reasons, one your reaction when I said I wasn’t my dead name, you clearly were expecting me to say yes and when I didn’t you were confused, probably because your quirk registered that as a truth. Two, your reaction to my last statement, your quirk told you I was telling the truth when I said I died five times. So you are struggling to comprehend what that means. In other words, your reactions gave you away.” She gave him another bone chilling smile, and once again he felt like a small insect being studied by a much bigger, more terrifying thing .
“Right…” Focus on the case one step at a time. He jotted down some more notes and cleared his throat. “And how is it that you survived dying?
He was not expecting Midoriya to throw back her head and laugh, “oh I didn’t.”
Truth…. what the fu…
Naomasa had to sit down. “You… didn't ?” This was insane, and he hadn’t even begun to ask the real questions, and here he was dealing with someone who was openly admitting to dying multiple times
“ Nope , dying sucks, I do not recommend it.” With how casually she said it, he was beginning to suspect that she perhaps had died more than five times. Naomasa was very glad he was sitting down.
“And how many times have you died?” He couldn’t stop himself from asking this morbid question because he simply had to know. Granted at this point he was beginning to suspect his quirk might be defective.
“Oh, I lost count.” Her voice was just so casual, and that was perhaps just as shocking as everything else.
“I see… and was it your quirk that caused you to come back to life?”
She gave him a terrifying grin before answering his question. “Nope.”
“Then clearly it was the quirk of whoever took you, or someone who worked for them.” He said to himself, after all there had to be a reasonable explanation…
“Nope.”
His brain stopped working for a moment, ok something was clearly wrong with his quirk, this couldn’t be possible.
“By the way, you look really good in a trench coat.” His quirk pinged, she had finally told a lie. “You do not look like the detective from every shitty movie ever.” Another ping of a lie, “you really do look like that classic hard boiled detective and not a mall flasher. It really suits you.” He felt his face go bright red as his quirk pinged another two lies. He looked at her in disbelief and for a moment didn’t say anything as he tried to collect himself, mouth hanging agape.
Finally he found himself able to speak again, “what?” Granted he wasn’t able to say anything elegant, but at least he wasn’t struck speechless. She shook her head with a small smirk on her face as she cleaned beneath her finger nails not even looking at him.
“You were clearly freaking out about what I was saying, and since I have not lied once in this conversation you were clearly beginning to wonder if your quirk was working or not.” She said with a shrug, continuing to examine her nails, a vindictive smile plastered on her face. Her whole demeanor screamed relaxed violence, because while she seemed casual and relaxed he felt like she was moments away from exploding into a flurry of violence. He couldn’t tell you why he felt that way, only that he trusted his gut. And his guts wanted to stay inside .
“Right, I… right.” He took a moment to look down at the notebook in his hands. He began to jot down notes while trying to compose himself, thankfully Azalea was kind enough not to say anything else that might shatter his reality at the moment.
“We will come back to this topic later, so for now next question,” he decided that thinking about the fact that she had died multiple times and somehow come back was not something he wanted to focus on right now. “Where have you been the past three years?”
“Disneyland.” His eye twitched at the lie and he glared at her, she simply smirked and once again something about her smirk made him feel small and insignificant. “I was in Yharnam.”
“I have not heard of Yharnam, where is it?” He felt a small amount of relief well within him, finally they were getting somewhere.
For the first time this conversation her cocky demeanor faltered. “Where… is complicated and as a matter of fact, I am not sure how to describe where it is.” She seemed hesitant to continue talking, clearly some sort of trauma? Maybe she was using sass as a way to deflect from what happened to her?
Still, what exactly did she mean she doesn’t know how to describe where? It wasn’t that hard of a question to answer.
“Is that because you don’t know where it is?”
“OH no, the location is seared into my brain I couldn’t forget if I wanted to, it is more of I can’t describe it in words you would understand.” He blinked in confusion, and once more had to wonder what was going on with his quirk. Still when she looked at him he felt his breath hitch, a sense of dread settled into him. Then she shook her head and sighed.
“I see.” He really didn’t, and instead made a note of what she said. Still he knew that she believed what she said to be the truth so maybe it had to do with PTSD? Her inability to explain, her cold demeanor and slightly unhinged smile. Yes she probably suffered quite a bit in the past.
As if to prove a point she gave a terrifying smile before speaking.
“You really don’t, nor do you want to.”
Truth…
Azalea had to admit she had quite enjoyed messing with the Detective, she was not prepared to find someone who would believe her story and had been ready to lie through her teeth. However this was much more fun, it was easy to understand why he had been so ready to believe her, it stemmed from his unwavering faith in his quirk. She supposed being able to tell that people are lying to you from the age of four would do that to a person.
She stretched and gave a soft smile, she was finally able to be released from the accursed hospital. She was dressed in a pair of scrubs she was ‘renting’ from the hospital, she did not want to go around in Hunter's garb it would draw too many questions. Her Hunter’s Attire was in a large bag the detective had provided to her, she could just give it to the messengers in the hospital room but that would raise more questions she wasn’t ready to answer. It was quite entertaining watching the messengers climb over the detective and him not notice, they were curious cute little creatures after all. Was she surprised they had followed her home? No Not in the slightest, they were hers now. Or at least she thought of them as hers.
She stifled another yawn, she wished she could just crash, and rest for a long time, but she couldn’t. After all there were repercussions of her actions she had taken within Yharnam, what she had done to escape,
what she had become
… She shook her head, no she had escaped, she was home, but was she really? Was she truly free? Or worse yet, had her escape opened the path for others to follow her? After all she had torn a way home after slaughtering the Moon Presence and the Orphan of Kos. She had met with the detective earlier today, and now it was time to check out, of course that didn’t mean her day was over. Far from it in fact, Tsukauchi had come back and right now they were headed down to the station. What followed was almost as bad as her time in Yharnam.
Azalea rubbed at her wrist and shot an annoyed glare at the detective, it turned out that coming back from the dead meant filling out a small mountain of paperwork. She would rather be fighting beasts again than dealing with this. Still it put things into perspective, and that meant struggling to believe she had actually done it. She had abandoned hope at one point believing that she would ever see Earth again let alone Japan. She just had focused on surviving. She tried not to think about the cost of her miraculous feat; flashes filled her mind, severed limbs, piles of corpses, mutilated organs, pickled eyeballs, flayed flesh, inhuman monstrosities, and literal rivers of blood.
She sighed and rubbed at her wrist, outwardly she showed no sign of her internal battle against the memories and sensations that plagued her. She had survived Yharnam, and if she was being honest with herself she had actually thrived in the nightmare city.
“That is the last piece of the paperwork, I apologize but we have not been able to get ahold of Midoriya Inko or Midoriya Hisashi. It seems that Miss Midoriya moved to America last year and we have no way of reaching out to her.”
“Don’t worry about it, I am not sure I would be ready to deal with that can of worms anyways.” She got up and stretched, Tsukauchi gave a hesitant nod. Truthfully she didn’t want to deal with her mom or dad, she wasn’t sure she could handle it.
“Very well, this has certainly been an experience.” Azalea snorted and smirked at the man causing him to grimace. “However, hopefully we can use this information going forward to help others.” She gave him a flat look and didn’t voice her opinion but she sincerely doubted anything she told him would be of help, the only real way out of Yharnam was to survive… Though in theory she could go back and try to save someone from there after all she knew the way, she knew how, she had the insight. However, that was assuming by the time she got there, the person was not a mindless beast, or a blood drunk hunter. Or that she could even yank them out, she would probably try though, if for no other reason than to know if she could.
Still the detective did not know the true horror of Yharnam. She wouldn't subject him to that truth. She will not open his eyes and grant him a gift unwanted. She would not do that to anyone unless truly necessary. There were some things that were better left hidden in nightmares.
Besides, even with his unwavering faith in his quirk she doubted he would believe her. Unless you experienced Yharnam you couldn’t truly understand, you didn’t have enough eyes to see after all.
“Well, is there anything else I need to sign? Am I legally alive again?” She was not reassured by his frown and awkward shuffling.
“No, that was the last document to sign.” The man hesitated again looking nervous, great something was up. “Uh you aren’t alive yet either, legally speaking. Now all this paperwork gets filed and the case goes to court, and it will require a judge to sign off on it and that can take a while. If we can’t get ahold of your mother or father it might cause the Judge to reject it, as just a DNA test sometimes isn’t enough evidence for bringing someone back from the dead. Thus we might have to go for an appeal and until then you will not have a legal identity.”
Azalea sighed, “peachy.” Of course it wasn’t that simple. She gave a shrug, “oh well such is life.”
The man hesitated for a moment before speaking up, “what do you plan to do now?”
“Why do you want to know?” She asked head cocked to the side, her eyes narrowing.
“Well, I could offer you a place to stay,” she blinked, furrowing her brow in confusion. Why would he do that? She knew she made him uncomfortable, she even knew why she made him uncomfortable; it wasn’t hard for her to figure out. It was the same reason she had been uncomfortable at first in Yharnam: what you did not understand, what you could not comprehend, what was beyond you always unnerved you. It was a very simple fact.
“Why?” She asked, wondering how he would answer.
“Because you need a place, and if not me I might know a hero or two that would be able to house you until we either contact your parents or get the courts signed off.” It clicked, he was curious, he was asking because she was a puzzle that he wanted to solve. He probably thought he could really help either others trapped there or her. Part of her wanted to burst out laughing, he was going to end up searching for Yharnam.
After everything he had heard, after what she had told him he was curious. What a fool, still she couldn’t entirely fault him, she too had let her curiosity get the better of her sometimes in Yharnam and it had cost her, bits of her flesh, blood, pain, agony, innocence, sanity . She shook her head and smiled at him, letting just a hint of her true nature shine through enjoying the way he squirmed.
“Appreciated, but I will have to decline Detective… Also I know you will not listen, but I feel obligated to say this anyways. Do not go searching for Yharnam, the worst thing you could do is succeed.” Tsukauchi frowned and tried to argue but she held up her hand, halting him.
“No offense detective but I do not want to simply be a puzzle for you to solve.” With that she turned and left a very confused detective in her wake. “One last thing, should you find what you seek, remember. Fear the Old Blood.”
“Wait,” She halted, impressed he had managed to suppress his fear so soon. “You have no ID, no funds, you have no place to stay, and until the courts fix your status you have no way to procure these things. You don’t want to be a puzzle that is fine, then like I said I have friends who would be willing to help, Heroes who would give you space and a place to stay until this gets resolved. We failed you once, I don’t want to be responsible for us failing you again.”
She hesitated, he brought up many valid points. Besides, not having to worry about food and a place to stay sounded good for now. Besides, it gave her time to figure out what she was going to do now that she had returned.
“Very well let us meet your friends then.”
It took a while before Detective Tsukauchi was able to take her to meet up with his friend, first he had to finish up paperwork, then he had to get a hold of the person to schedule a meetup. So to say Azalea, who had been up since very early, was exhausted was a bit of an understatement. Between recovering from her wounds, and the paperwork which she still believed to be the worst of the two, she was just done with today.
Her healing had been helped along by a blood vial she had used when the nurses weren’t looking, no way in hell was she going to spend over a month in the hospital. While she wasn’t fully healed now, she was at least functional; she was also hesitant to use another in case she now had a limited supply. Besides it wasn’t the worst wounds she had dealt with without blood vials.
Still she figured she might sleep for a full day by the time she got to close her eyes. She cracked her neck and let out a content sigh, Detective Tsukauchi gave her a concerned look. “So who is this friend of yours?”
“Pro Hero Eraserhead, and his 'roommate' Pro Hero Present Mic.” His gaze didn’t waver from the road.
She gave a soft hum, and thought back to what she remembered of Japan, those names nibbled at the back of her mind. “The voice hero, and the underground hero, right?”
She drew a surprised look from him, “I am surprised you have heard of Eraserhead, especially since you have been out of the loop for the past three years.
“Honestly, I am more surprised I actually managed to remember either of them, but what can I say? I was a bit of a Hero Otaku. I loved to analyze and watch hero fights.” A ghost of a smile tugged at her lips as she thought about her past obsession.
“Oh, were you planning to go into support?” She rolled her eyes, he was analyzing her again, trying to figure her out. She almost didn’t answer but it seemed like he might genuinely be interested besides she wanted to see how she would react to this next part.
“Oh no, I wanted to be a hero.” She waited for his shock, and for him to tell her that it was impossible, everyone who knew her quirk status always did.
“Do you still plan to do so?” He asked it so casually, it took Azalea a moment to process what he had actually said.
… What?
She blinked in disbelief and turned to stare at the man. “What, nothing about how a quirkless person can’t be a hero?” She knew she sounded bitter, but all her life all she wanted was for someone to support her, for someone to say she could be a hero.
“I do not think a quirk has anything to do with being a hero. Being a hero is a mentality, it is about helping others, you don’t need a quirk to do that.” He continued to stare out at the road, his attention on traffic, it was almost as if he was getting revenge for her blowing his mind earlier.
She had nothing to say to that, she couldn’t respond, or at least she had no idea how to respond to that. She had to wonder how different her life would have been if she had someone like him believing in her when she was younger. She shook her head and sighed, “I see, well to answer your original question, I… had not really thought about it?” She went silent for a moment and the detective seemed content to let her figure it out.
Could she be a hero? No. Did she deserve to be a hero, that was the real question.
She knew that physically she could, she may not have a ‘quirk’ but she did have power and a ton of combat experience. If anything she was probably over prepared for combat.
She could use the controlled environment to get used to… that too.
No, it was the fact that her hands were drenched in blood that gave her pause: Father Gascoin, Gerhman, Logarius, Micolash, Vicar Amilia, Ludwig, Lady Maria, and so many others all died by her hands. All for the sake of survival and ending the Nightmares. She hadn’t been able to save anyone within that hell hole, but… what if she could now? Could she make up for all that she had done?
Did she still want to be a hero? To her surprise the answer was simple. Yes, yes she did.
“I think I might try, though that is assuming the courts decide to bring me back from the dead legally.” She tried for some levity but her tone and delivery fell flat.
"Well I promise to make sure we bring ya back so you can try… I might call in a few favors."
She gave a non committal hum, and the two of them fell into silence. She frowned as she thought about all she still had to do.
Once she was ‘alive’ again, she would need to get a GED; if she planned to attend a hero school, she was still surprised at her own desire to protect others. She would also need to update her quirk status, she was still unsure of what to call what she intended to pass off as her ‘quirk’. She was quirkless, but she knew that if anyone saw what she could do they would not believe that. So she would need to change her status, she hadn’t brought this up with the detective because that would mean triggering his quirk. After all she knew she was quirkless, to claim she needed to update her quirk status would cause him to ask questions, then he would hear her lie and ask even more questions, she was not about to explain the source of her powers.
Powers that included the kin tranformation were she to wield the Kos Parasite and Milkweed Rune, or the more bestial transformtion when using the Beast Claws and Beast’s Embrace Rune. That wasn’t even taking into account her healing with Blood Vials, the other runes she could equip to augment herself, quicksilver bullets, hunters tools, her arcane arts, wide arsenal of trick-weapons, wide array of guns, gems to augment said weapons, her ability to store things with the messengers and retrieve them… And the lanterns.
She shivered as she remembered washing up on the junkyard beach and seeing one of the lanterns before she passed out. What did it mean that she had seen a lantern? Were they always here? Or had they followed her to earth? Did it mean she was still trapped in the dream?
Had she not escaped that infinite hell?
She was going to need to make her way back to the beach and activate the lantern. She needed to know if it would take her back to the hunter's dream, or perhaps even back to Yharnam. What would even be left of the dream if it took her there? Would the doll exist? Surely the messenger bath would exist, but what about the chalice dungeons? Or the gravestones that took her to Yharnam?
Was she still trapped? Was this just another facet of the dream? Had she finally gone truly mad?
So many questions that would have to wait for answers.
Nezu paused mid sentence, his humans looking at one another with mild worry, however he did not register any of their words. No his eyes instead locked onto what had just risen from the ground. He was in quite a state of disbelief, he had not seen messengers in person before, and if he was correct; ones attached to lanterns were rarer than normal messengers. In fact he did not believe that they were native to Earth at all! He peered at them, and they peered back, he tried to recall what he knew of messengers.
If he remembered they were from a plane called Yharnam, a place that was known to be… unhinged. Most 'sensible' Great Ones avoided the place like the plague, after all a place that was known for experimentation on one’s young, was a truly despicable place. Still the little group of creatures that had just shown up were not one of the hostile forces of Yharnam no, if he was recalling their lore correctly they assisted Hunters and were benign. The fact they were crawling around a lantern that had popped up on his campus was a curious thing indeed.
Did that mean a hunter was coming to UA? Would they be hunting him, or was this something else?
He had caught the attention of the messengers who looked at him and then made their way over, he reached out giving the adorable things a pat.
"Aren't you just adorable? But who are you here for? Who do you serve?" He ignored the questioning glances and confused noise being made by his humans. They did not have the eyes to see, he might need to change that should this prove to be a security threat or a sign of things coming to change.
To his surprise the little ones answered his question, in a sense, an image floated into his mind. The picture was of a woman dressed in Hunter's attire; he actually felt himself gaining insight just from witnessing her, how curious. As he studied the picture he realized the little ones were sending feelings with it as well; warmth, love, respect, adoration, and family. The little ones associated her as their mother or she was their mother. He was not sure.
Nezu blinked and looked at the little ones with a smile on his face. "Your mother is coming here?” He could feel the messenger's joy and their smile was truly adorable. “Is she now?" He thought back to her picture, of course he had instantly recognized her. After all her picture was circulating the internet, well a short video of All Might bursting into a hospital carrying her form was at least, and her attire truly did stand out. He finally turned his attention finally back to his humans, who were looking at him as if he was insane. Oh well nothing new.
"Oh this shall be exciting… Aizawa, I believe you said you were going to have a house guest soon, correct?" He smirked; enjoying the way the man tensed, he didn't wait for him to respond before continuing. "The one that All Might found on Takoba Beach, well I would like to meet them. Arrange that for me if you will."
He ignored the confusion and questioning of his sanity. He gave the messengers a final pet before moving on, he was excited to meet this new baby Great One. If she was from Yharnam that meant she had survived the city and possibly, most likely, ascended there. She might not know about her kind, other than how to kill them, and Nezu was nothing if not an educator.
He got his humans back on task, talking about the upcoming final exams. All the while he couldn't help but feel excited; a new Great One was always to be celebrated.