31: Would You Like To Try?

Would You Like To Try?

"The HSPC told me to be kept the secret about your deeds, young man. I must say that even if you did pretty good if they weren't there to help, you would have been in trouble. Taking the law into your own hands is punishable. Same thing for you, Mt. Lady, that said, it's even worse for a heroine to act as a vigilante."

"Huh? What do you mean, Mr. Tsukauchi?" asked Mt. Lady with a hushed voice. "I did what has to be done!"

"What have to be done, right? So blackmailing Mr. Fortier has to be done, I see." sighed Tsukauchi. "In four days, we were able to investigate many things, including the reason why Mr. Fortier was involved in this whole mess. His civil papers state that he was a civilian, nothing more. That you hijacked a member of Japanese society for your own selfish purposes, all so that you wouldn't lose your position in the next Hero Billboard. For now, I blame it on you being young, if I see that again, be careful about your license. That said, happily for you, Mt. Lady, the HSPC has your back too; otherwise, you'd have a few odds and ends." the detective pestered calmly to the giant heroine. "Anyway, I understand that now Mr. Fortier isn't a mere civilian; he's probably part of the Black Ops, right?"

"Yes and no," responded Nighteye pushing his glasses up his nose. "Rappa and Felix don't showcase the same treatment. Rappa Kendo is a complex individual; I need to fight him every day and win. When I'm too tired, it's Mirko's turn to fight him. This is the only way for us to make him go along with what we want. At least, it trains me and her to be even stronger. Felix isn't a madman, he's just someone our superior think they need, so they're monopolizing him."

Detective Tsukauchi went to sit around the table where Felix, Nighteye, Bubble Girl, Lemillion, and Mt. Lady discussed, and then began to write down all the relevant data he heard so far. Felix was free of any legal liabilities; he had been cleared for what he had done and had even been thanked by the police. It wasn't over yet, but the heroes in charge of the rest had already been appointed two days ago.

Because of her shady involvement, Mt. Lady had been denied the position, much to her dismay.

Besides the confirmation that he was a trustworthy person and that he had been manipulated by a heroine, the HSPC was already showing more leniency; it's also true that the results of his actions were more convincing than those of Mirko, Mt. Lady, and Nighteye together, in addition to having made good "progress" with two heroines, the boost he had done to her slowly started to show.

He also received Mt. Lady's paycheck, plus the promised $5000 and a grant from the HPSC for what he accomplished. Felix initially declined the offer to avoid having anything to do with them, but the President just made sure to put the money in his checking account, raising it to over $25,000—so ~¥2,700,000.

He wasn't fooled by this because he knew that it was a way to make him believe that the HPSC put total trust in him and that, therefore, he didn't have to be suspicious anymore.

However, he had seen too much in prison to know that all the weaves of truth that these people knit were intertwined with threads of lies, sometimes even more complex than the truth itself.

Gladly, by playing the fool, he would soon be able to find a form of positive freedom. The only thing he had to do to get there was to finish his training, to become strong enough to counter possible assassins or wackos like this "Himiko Toga" Rumi talked about.

With that, he would have all the skills he needed to open his own pharmaceutical company, as the ex-con had wanted to do since he was a teenager, a way to get to his dream faster. By entering U.A., he would have access to everything he needed while enjoying professional, friendly, and romantic relationships. The trick to achieving all this was: to be honest about what matters, unlike the other bozos playing the masked vigilantes from their office while those who get their hands dirty suffer because of their bullshit.

The door of the interrogation room they were all in opened, unveiling a policeman with a cat's head accompanying Camie and Victoria. Both of them had finally been able to talk between mother and daughter about everything that had happened in the last few months. Their sad faces showed that they probably won't sleep tonight, knowing the results of such a condition.

They came to sit down, Camie next to Felix and her mother on her right, she put her hands on the table to de-stress, but it was Victoria who seemed the most troubled here. They discussed the implications and his investment in the reconstruction of the festival and especially the old Villain Factory, an old building used during the vigilante era to experiment on humans or animals to create villains that could fight the most powerful heroes, like All Might, etc.

Regrettably, this fact couldn't be alleviated, the Instant Villains and Bee☆Pop having done too much harm in the past. Moreover, Lady Bee, so more known by Bee☆Pop or Queen Bee was now suspected to be the one in charge of the MMA tournament, a bizarre thing when everyone believed that the formaldehyde jar that kept her in stasis was sealed and highly protected and mostly that she needed a host to survive, but who could she parasitize?

The evidence was piling up, and no one could locate her or even get a clue about her recent or old doings. It was just pure darkness on this part of the investigation.

"With all this against you, even having been a victim, your involvement is too substantial, Mrs. Utsushimi. You will have to follow your ex-husband to court so that a verdict may be given to you too," explained Tsukauchi. "Since my sister, Makoto Tsukauchi, has not long ago investigated as a 'Lady' in the same facility as you, and that you met her yesterday, I know you aren't lying, so you will still be able to see your daughter regardless of the verdict."

"Thank you… At least there is one good thing about all this…" She muttered, lowering her eyes to the table. "Did you know how much time Haruo will spend in prison…?"

"Well, I'm not a lawyer, but I did work with some of them. Even if we forget about public opinion, it doesn't change anything. Your ex-husband killed more than forty victims, his own patients, betraying their trust and those of their family. It was cold-blooded murder for the sake of money and reputation to later cheat on you with hostesses and high hierarchy women to further strengthen his tie with a still unidentified extremist group. All this money was also used to buy other victims from the underworld human market." Tsukauchi clarified, trying to be as sympathetic as he could but wanting to show the harsh reality to her and Camie, believing it will help them move on. "It's only if we put aside the disappearances in which he's involved but for which we have no 'real' proof. So, he may be given the death penalty."

Camie and Victoria's eyes widened for a moment, but despite the mother's complex expression, Felix was able to detect a slight hint of relief. As for Camie, she remained upright in her chair, tired, but above all, conflicted toward her parents. she didn't hate either of them, especially not her mother, but she knew that they deserved to be sent to prison for what they had done...

Her heroic spirit was still wounded, but finally understand why her father hated her so much, no matter what Camie could have done, nothing could have ever made him proud of her, and this, just because she was dreaming of being something he didn't like, something going against his egocentric goals.

A dream that since she was a child animated her, and since all this time, he thought that about her.

If she had become a villain, would he have accepted her? This was the question that bothered her; even if it disgusted her, a child would always seek his parents' approval or attention, even if he tries to stifle this feeling.

"Like you already know, we will try to find an adequate foster family for your daughter. We already have a few ideas, but opting for a somehow 'calm' one seems to be the best for her at this point; we will keep you in check about this."

"A foster family…?" asked Camie with a sigh. "Can you give me at least a name?"

"Of course. When the social aid posted the announcement, several families were delegated, the Midoriya family was the best choice at first, but it's only a single woman and a boy around the age of your daughter, as she is already alone with a child we hesitate. Even if the second family is a bit more agitated, it seems to be the best choice; if you ever decide to go to see them with social aid, here is the address. It's the Bakugou family."

"Bakugou…?" sighed Victoria with a sad tone. "Don't know about those people. When I looked at the paperwork, they seemed to be pretty troublesome."

"A lot less than you were before, though," Tsukauchi said tactlessly before realizing what he uttered. "Sorry, it's just that they have all things that a family needs."

"Should be good anyway," interrupted Felix. "Don't worry about her; like I already said, I will keep an eye on Camie, I know her now, she might need to talk to someone, if she ever wants that, the cop already said that it was okay for her to call me."

"How graceful of you." ironized Mt. Lady with a cynical smirk.

"Can you remember me what you did while all this was happening?" Felix waited for her to respond, but she just muttered something before giving him a cold gaze. "Stop being mad about someone being better than you; it happens all the time, after all."

"You ingrateful fucker."

"You're starting to be rude again, Yu-chan." he mocked her trying to be as serious as he could be.

"Don't call me like that!" she said before being blocked by Kaoruko. "Can't catch a fucking break since I met you."

"Are you aware that you're the one who blackmailed me?"

"Chill out; he's just calling you by your name." Kaoruko sighed, using her new martial skill to lock both of her arms. "Rumi-san would actually be very glad about that, you know…"

"Tsk! Like I care about someone who hurt civilians-"

"She did it unwillingly because you were too afraid to give us all the necessary information… and I'm sure you realized that she was really worried about Felix but you didn't care about her in the slightest. If you had been honest from the beginning, we would have known when and where to strike." Bubble girl continued with a slightly annoyed tone. "After all the risk I took to bring to you all the things I learned, you haven't done a single thing to help us. As a reminder, because of this, it was Kamui Wood, Nighteye, and I who had to redo the whole investigation. And the poor girl and her mother got her."

"No need to be annoyed about his," replied Tsukauchi as he filled out a document. "Even though Mt. Lady's cowardice on this case was egregious, it allowed us to discover clues that we otherwise wouldn't have obtained. The HPSC decided rather than condemn her for her blackmailing and withholding data to make her work part-time for Felix. I say 'part-time' because she will keep her agency and her hero status."

"What the fuck are you blabbering about?" asked Mt. Lady with a dazed look.

"Oh?" smirked Felix by straightening up in his chair.

"You heard me well, you two. Felix will be your superior from now on, not every time, but if he need help at some point, you will be here, whether you like it or not. Most of the paperwork needed to do this will be done in the week, so you still have time for yourself. Try to correct your misbehavior during this time."

"Wait, I-"

Yu stopped dead in her tracks as she noticed that Tsukauchi was no longer listening to her; he had turned to Camie and Victoria and was giving them documents to fill out for the coming months. A necessary thing if they both wanted to get out of this situation.

Plus, following the turmoil around Camie's family that the media had relayed, as expected by Felix at the time, the girl had been kicked out of her high school who didn't want to have its reputation dirtied if anyone knew about it. The rest of her family simply didn't want to house someone who was once close to Haruo Utsushimi, leaving her alone as soon as her mother would be prosecuted.

Upon inspection, Nighteye analyzed with other heroes and HPSC members that Camie's quirk was an extremely rare mutation that her father intended to exploit in the future. Where most powers are inherited, hers had nothing to do with her mother's x-ray vision and her father's stasis, making her "glamour" quirk an asset to anyone manipulating her or having her around. Her power wasn't strong enough yet to do anything mighty, but Felix already knew how to use it in the medical field.

After the mother and daughter had finished what they had to do, they left with the cat-headed policeman hoping not to run into gluttonous reporters looking for the best shot or juicy scoop. The police, already knowing that, protected Camie so that her name and face wouldn't be shown on every T.V. station… although the police had to provide information on why she had been so absent during the last few weeks at her high school, and you know how that turned out.

Inspector Tsukauchi went to sit down again, now alone between heroes and policemen. He sighed and took out a cigarette and lit it before taking a puff.

"Seems like we're done now." he sighed. "That said, you got an actual real good plan; thanks to this, we might put an end to this kind of issue in the future. We don't want organ and human traffic to bloom once more. Who's plan what this?"

"Mine," uttered Mt. Lady with a slight smile.

"Whh-!" Felix choked on his tea before simultaneously laughing and talking as Tsuhauchi smiled, getting ready to listen to their stupid conversations. "Why are you always lying?"

"The main idea was from me, stop acting all mighty. Asshole."

"From you, huh? If the police weren't here, I would have swept you off your feet. Lucky you, you even will enjoy my presence even more in a week. What a fucking bliss."

"...I should have crushed you with my foot the day I met you-"

"Well, the day we first met, it was a pretty humid one down the road, if you know what I mean. On top of that, you told me that 'it wasn't that bad.' Stop being contradictory."

Mt. Lady stood up, on edge, pupils contracted, ready to try to silence Felix somehow, but as she took a determined step, several bubbles burst in front of her face. The smell of it was so strong that her vision became blurry, and she fell to the ground, asleep.

"Geez, you two are such kids when you're together. Can't believe it. Even when we're in a police station, you can't behave." groaned Kaoruko by taking the sleeping heroine by the shoulder to put her against a wall.

"Hahaha! That was pretty fun to watch, to be honest," admitted Lemillion, still sitting with the same smile as before. "Oh, that's true. I never explained why I was here. I'm Nighteye trainee, Mirio."

"Yeah, Bubble Girl talked about you a few times, I remember. Nice quirk, by the way."

"Thanks… It's also cuz of this quirk that people wanted me to participate during this raid. Glad to have helped you, but don't mind me too much; I'm only here to learn the trade."

"You're on the right track then, Nighteye likes you, so I guess you have the potential to reach great heights." sighed Felix with a smile. "You're from U.A., right?"2

"Yep, you sure know more stuff about me than I know a thing about you," Mirio admitted. "That said, Nighteye told me about you as a 'student' similar to me in terms of potential. The first time he told me that. So I guess we're on the same power scale you and I. Hope we can train together sometimes, so I can show you the other two members of the Big 3, might be interesting to train with the 3 of us."

"Mirio, stop talking about 'secret' things," Nighteye grumbled before removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "For U.A. to accept this kind of training, you need their approbation and mine. It's not that easy." He paused again and looked at Mt. Lady. "Kaoruko, Mirio, can you please accompany Mt. Lady to another room and watched over her to prevent any problems, please?"

"Aight."

The three men remaining in the room looked at Bubble Girl and Lemillion carrying the sleeping heroine to a room where she could lie down without hurting her back. There was silence as Tsukauchi, Nighteye, and Felix turned to the center of the table. The detective left to lock the door, removed his earpiece, and put it in a small box; he then sat down on the same chair as before and stretched.

"Mr. Fortier, forgive me for the silly question I'm about to ask, but what would you do if you ever received a power surpassing your imagination?"

"I would pursue the truth, the one that it's nor good nor evil, but only made of facts. I mean it scientifically. This way, this power source would have a use other than to benefit one person while opening a new path of possibilities toward human evolution."

"Like we thought, haha!" sighed Tsukauchi. "The scientist's soul will always be there despite everything. It's better that way."

"What do you mean?"

"Nighteye already told you about meeting All Might, right?"

"Indeed. I agreed to meet him."

"You will meet him in a few days, then. Nighteye and I are close friends with him. But we wanted to know something, would you like to try to copy his quirk?"

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