A Grey Thin Line

12

      Naomasa sat at his couch, tapping his finger against his thigh as he checked his watch again. All that he could think was 'He's late' and silently worrying; was he caught up in another villain incident? He'd already gone through his daily limit, Naomasa was going lot kill that man, if his own stupidity didn't get to him first. He nearly shot up from his seat when the door knocked, opening it, the detective was greeted by the somewhat downtrodden face of his best friend.

      "You're late, what happened?" Naomasa asked, standing aside for the blond to step in and take a seat across from the couch with a grunt.

      "Staff meeting." Was all the hero replied with, taking a skeletal hand to his head to rub one of his temples. "A very bad staff meeting."

      Naomasa went back to his seat on the couch, leaning forward. "About what, if I may ask?"

      "This year, the first Quirkless student made it into Yuuei." Yagi started, his tone practically dripping with internal resentment. "Today, that student, Midoriya Izuku, came to Principal Nedzu and asked to not be moved into the heroics department if he qualified for it through his performance in the sports festival; he said it was so 'his classmates could have a better chance'."

      "And you think it's something else."

      "You know the slime incident last year?" Yagi asked, when his friend nodded, the hero continued. "Midoriya Izuku was a victim of the villain. I saved him, and after I did he asked me if it was possible for someone Quirkless, like him, to become a hero." His face twisted into a grimace of guilt, "I said it wasn't, and he'd be safer if he started thinking realistically."

      "So you shot down his dream, and now you think he doesn't want to be in the heroics department because of it." Naomasa simplified, sighing as his friend flinched at his bluntness. "Haven't you been looking for a successor for a while, Yagi?"

     "I thought about making him my successor," Yagi admitted, "but he nearly blew himself up trying to help another classmate that got captured. He's bullheaded when it comes to helping people, he'd be safer if he wasn't given One for All."

      "Reminds me of a certain person I know." The detective commented dryly. "Try and talk to him, see if it's that's the real reason for him denying the heroics department, you're leaping to conclusions." Naomasa got up to grab a file on the counter. "I actually invited you here to ask you something." He placed the file down and passed it to the hero, who opened it.

      "Kuroko?" Yagi asked, flipping through the almost painfully thin file, it only contained a list of incidents where the vigilante had appeared, the failed attempt to ambush him, and the incident at the USJ. "Besides the USJ, he seems to be trying to stay low profile, sticking to handling minor crime."

      "I talked with him a few days ago." Naomasa admitted, watching as his friend dropped the file on the table and shot him a look. "He had to leave for something, but he left a note asking for me to meet up with him tonight at the same spot."

      "And you want me to come with you." Yagi stated, pinching his nose.

      "That would be preferable, yes."

      "You do realize that this is illegal, correct? Your job is to capture him, and you're talking to him with no backup instead." The hero leaned back in his seat and sighed. "Say that I did go with you, he's not going to be happy that you didn't come alone."

      "But you're the one that knew the previous Kuroko the best," Naomasa explained, "you're the one that could tell if this Kuroko is really the last one's pupil."