The Emperor's Dragon II

Let Me Explain

Tsukauchi didn't like questioning Doctor Garaki. The man was... Generally, with his quirk, Naomasa could tell if someone was lying to him, and that applied with the Doctor but... he also got the impression that the Doctor was oily. It wasn't a real feeling. It was all in his head, but it made him feel uncomfortable.

Even before they had definitively linked the man with All For One... For the first few days, after Doctor Kyudai Garaki had been brought in, he'd professed his innocence. His prints were in the warehouse because he went to that district to ensure supplies for the Hospital were in order. No, he didn't remember going to that warehouse specifically, because he didn't really notice which warehouse had the supplies.

The reasons were all very... reasonable.

But they had felt wrong. They had been skirting the truth and from what Tsukauchi knew the Doctor had been telling them the truth, but he'd been leaving out things. And then that... Well, he wasn't sure what to call it, had been found. The laboratory was filled with... things.

The heroes had killed those that had been loose. They'd had no choice. The things, small though they were, had attacked. The rest of them, those in varying sized tubes, had been left where they were. Except for the body. That had been taken to the station as evidence. The rest would be eventually dealt with.

When presented with the evidence the Doctor had known he was not getting out of charges, and he'd clammed up. He'd stopped answering questions. Not that his answers had been that useful, but the silence was disturbing.

Perhaps that would change today. Tsukauchi had a specific question to ask. And it was the only question that was going to be asked today. At least until they got a completely truthful answer. And if needs be, other officers would be brought in to assist.

Overnight one piece of evidence had disappeared from the laboratory. The evidence was guarded but the security cameras showed the evidence had been taken by the warp gate Kurogiri. Further examination of the cameras had shown that Officer Ito Senu had done something to the evidence earlier in the day. The evidence taken was one of the smaller tubes with...

No one was too sure what had been growing in it. Unlike the other tubes the thing inside hadn't been obviously human. With the others, you could tell that what was inside had once been human, and with the body... that of Tomura Shigaraki, they'd known exactly who that was. They were still trying to determine who the others were. The contents of that tube was... well it was flesh coloured but more of an amorphous blob.

But it had been the only piece of evidence the warp gate had taken. Which meant, it was important. Vitally important for Izuku to have risked taking it.

Except no one had any idea what it was, and no one had seen Ito Senu since.

Tsukauchi hoped the Sergeant was okay but knew, given the circumstances, the man was either a traitor, or dead.

The prisoner was brought in. Despite his age, the man was manacled securely with his hands and feet chained together, with a loop around his waist. The brown jumpsuit of those being held in remand did nothing for the man but fashion was the furthest thing from anyone's mind. Tsukauchi waited for the other officers to secure the Doctor and noted the man looking at the table.

There was a single tablet there, face down. It had one photo loaded and already displayed on the screen. There was one video loaded as well. A short snip from the security tapes showing the warp gate taking the tube. Tsukauchi would get instructions if he had to show Kyudai that.

Once the officers had left, the room fell into silence. Garaki showed no signs of boredom, or of offering random chit chat, but they hadn't started questioning this way before, so Tsukauchi knew he'd be curious about the change. For his part, the Detective allowed himself to examine the man. Kyudai was an elder man, over 150 years old if his records were correct, and they seemed to be. He had a quirk that appeared to slow down aging. And he had a long history of published papers. He was bald but maintained a bushy moustache and the medics who'd looked him over were surprised to find he had all his teeth. He was slightly portly but spry enough.