Detective Midoriya

Chapter 40

It ended up being faster to get to the front doors of the station instead of the employee entrance, so the first person Izuku saw upon walking in was Saito chatting with a civilian. She glanced up, smiling wide when she saw him. "Little Midoriya! You made it through the first day without getting stabbed!"

The woman Saito had been assisting looked around, panicked. "Who got stabbed?"

"No one did!" Saito exclaimed. "It's worth a celebration!"

Glancing back, Izuku was glad to see the secretary walking to the desk. "Hey, Watanabe! Do you mind helping this woman finish filling out her report? Officer Saito is needed in the back."

"Oh, certainly Detective Midoriya. The others are waiting for you."

Hauling Saito behind him, Izuku hissed, "You can't just bring up getting stabbed in front of civilians, you'll freak them out."

"Well sue me for being glad you're alive," she said, pouting.

"Eyy, it's Little Midoriya, and he's not even bleeding," someone else called over the back room.

Several people shouted their congratulations, and above them, he heard a panicked Takane asking someone, "Is he usually bleeding? Why would he be bleeding?"

"It's an inside joke, don't worry about it," Izuku said hastily. "Why don't you join me in Detective Tsukauchi's office?"

He looked terrified, even more than usual now that he was in plain clothes, but he followed Izuku into the detective's office without a word.

"Good to see you both made it back safely," Naomasa said. "Sit down, let's hear what you've found."

Takane still looked stressed out just to be there, so Izuku started debriefing the two on any important information he'd discovered, hoping the other officer would relax, at least marginally.

"One of the groups had been planning a raid on Dead Eyes in a couple of days. I've warned them off of it, but there's no guarantee that they're actually going to listen to me. It's definitely going to kickstart some sort of conflict with Dead Eyes if it does happen, so I'm going to monitor the situation as closely as possible. As soon as anything happens, I will let both of you know," Izuku said in closing.

"We'll distribute this information accordingly, Midoriya, thank you. If a conflict does arise, do you have any preference on how it should be handled?" Tsukauchi asked.

"This may change based on what Takane says, but we want primarily police personnel – keep the number of heroes involved minimal, and make sure that they work well together." Izuku steepled his fingers, thinking intently. "We have to work cohesively. Individually these people aren't terribly dangerous, but you will be facing the as a whole. If you guys aren't unified during this operation, someone will get hurt."

"Thank you, detective. Takane, what do you have for us today?"

"I don't have much, and I'm sorry for that. I did successfully infiltrate Dead Eyes, but there is no trust established yet," the officer said, scratching the back of his head. "I'm afraid I won't know anything is in the works until we're actually in the middle of it."

"Things rarely go as planned, especially with criminal organizations like this," Izuku promised. "We didn't expect you to become the gang leader overnight, you're doing great. When something is happening, all you have to do is let us know."

"Both of you are expected to put your lives above the mission. Now get out of here." Tsukauchi said, shooing them out. He met Izuku's eyes, and he after all these years, Izuku could tell exactly what he was trying to communicate: try to calm Takane.