Counting Down

Notebook (old)

Zero found himself shifting his weight awkwardly between his feet as anxiety pooled in his stomach. He knew he needed to ring the doorbell ASAP to hand the detective the notebooks before the man went to bed, but for some reason Izuku was nervous.

He felt like a coward in that moment, but if there was something Izuku was, he was not a coward.

He took a couple deep breaths before stealing himself and knocking on the door. Immediately he shifted into his Zero persona and stopped fidgeting. His posture straightened and a smirk was plastered on his concealed face. His eyes hardened, his years of hardships shining through his gaze. A gaze a child should never be subjected to wearing.

Nonetheless, Zero's business persona flicked on in an instant.

And moments later, he knocked on the door once more in an attempt to hurry up the presumably tired detective.

His efforts were not in vain as the detective staggered to open the door seconds later. He was exhausted from a long day's work, especially with the cases of Yuuri and Stain. Then when he had went home, he had decided to be an overachiever and research more into Zero.

Aizawa had texted him that he had yet to see the vigilante that night, which was odd considering he always ran into at least one hero or leaves a note once he finishes his job.

It was abnormal and quite honestly worrying.

But his research was going fine until aggressive knocking on his front door scared him enough to where he almost screamed.

His quick flash of fear was nothing compared to his massive confusion when he found none other than the main purpose of his research in front of his door.

"Ah, Tsukauchi! Miss me?" Came the offhanded, slightly awkward yet confident humor of the vigilante.

Tsukauchi blinked once.

Twice.

And finally a third time before everything slowly registered.

"Zero." He greeted, eyes narrowed as he gave the vigilante a once over. It was at this time a battle of wits began to play out. Tsukauchi had degrees in Psychology, Neurology, and Criminal Profiling, so he was more than likely to catch onto small details that even normal detectives might not find. Especially when he comes face to face with suspects.

But Zero is not easily outdone. An anomaly of a child, he grew up without support or a stable childhood, limiting people's ability to read himself as he had learned to easily switch between personalities and body languages as he takes on different events. He's an ever fluid person who could not be pinned down.

Tsukauchi noticed off the bat that nothing seemed wrong with the vigilante, no notable injuries or familiar body language he could pinpoint. If anything, he had no valuable information to collect off the vigilante in front of him.

Not even the suit had tags, prominent stitching techniques he could pinpoint, or even a distinguishable feature.

The vigilante seemed average...

"I got you a surprise." Came the monotone vigilante, dropping his attempt at a playful greeting. He held out a gloved hand, which was holding two relatively thick notebooks.

Tsukauchi glanced up at the masked vigilante, before slowly taking the notebooks. He was slightly off put, getting whiplash from too many yet too little personality shifts during this visit. "Uhh...thank you?" He questions, turning his gaze to quickly analyze the normal looking booklets.

Zero scoffs almost inaudibly before entering an explanation. "Those are filled with all the details I could gather on Jo Yunato and the local Child Trafficking Ring. Information should be sufficient enough to start a rescue operation and seek justice for Jo. If not, post a blue note outside the station and I'll look more into the cases." He mumbled slightly, going on a minute tangent.

Tsukauchi stood there, mouth agape. His quirk was going off in his brain, saying Zero was being genuine and telling the truth. Nonetheless, he was still incredibly flabbergasted at this unexpected turn of events.

Zero nodded at the wordless, shocked, and exhausted detective before turning around and beginning to walk off.

Just as he was off the porch, Tsukauchi snapped out of his stupor. "Wait!" He blurted out, professionalism going out the door as his body gave into his body's fatigue.

Besides, he wasn't in the station on work hours, so professionalism wasn't necessarily required anyways.

Zero froze, shoulders stiffening and spine straightening. Tsukauchi zeroed his focus on the vigilante's right shoulder that tensed in an odd way. One more than the other.

Maybe Zero actually was injured the other day?

Hiding any possible weaknesses?

"Why do you need, detective?" He asked softly, voice changer glitching ever so slightly as he spoke. He turned his head over his shoulder to look at Tsukauchi, showing the man that the vigilante was listening.

"Thank you," Tsukauchi breathed, feeling the smallest amount of stress lift off his shoulders. There were too many active cases. The detective hardly had any help on them, but now someone was.

He smiled softly, eyes far away. But slowly the tips of his lips fell as he focused on the vigilante again.

"No problem. If you need anything else, leave a note outside the station." He retorted evenly, then began walking out of sight before Tsukauchi could utter another word.

The cold air whipped at Tsukauchi's face, the notebooks crinkled softly as his grip tightened ever so slightly. He felt like he had been talking to the vigilante under a daze but now it was as if a bucket of ice water was dumped on him.

The whole meeting seemed...like a hallucination. Slowly, the detective found himself walking back inside, closing the door and entering his study.

He sat at his desk, staring at the wall before him. Then he took in a deep breath and opened up the first notebook.