Musutafu never fully slept.
Even on its fringes, when the city appeared to be at rest, there were places where the shadows organized themselves with more discipline than the light.
One of them was the Kōtetsu district. An industrial zone, dilapidated businesses, half-used warehouses. Right where the Commission had assigned him his next assignment.
Reiji stood atop a rusty structure, hooded, his appearance carefully changing, his gaze fixed on a concrete building with dim lights. There was no sign. No name. Just the irregular movement of people coming and going, almost all in ordinary clothes, but with a mechanical attitude.
"The same guy came in three times in less than an hour," he muttered to himself, activating the micro-recorder. "Either he's delivering drugs or waiting for someone."
It was Saturday, an ideal day to be able to do his homework without having to worry about his academic facade. He had been watching the place for almost forty minutes. There were no obvious signs of illegality, but that was what worried him most. It was too clean. Too calculated. As if someone was making sure he looked harmless.
This place had been linked to the underground he'd explored a few days ago, where he'd seen Shigaraki. The idea that he might see him here again was too tempting, even if he had to make his way through somehow. He knew he wanted him dead...
He jumped from the roof to the adjacent building with a clean landing. He checked his new belt and the gloves Mei had reinforced for him. They worked perfectly for this kind of work.
He slipped through a skylight, descending to an intermediate floor where there were no lights, only the distant echo of music and footsteps. He crouched, close to the wall. At the far end, a door stood half-open. Voices.
He stopped to listen.
"...the shipment arrives this week, but only if the new fighters pass the test."
"This time we have no leeway. If we fail, the higher-ups will turn off the tap."
"And the distribution?"
"The boss wants us to use the same method as in S4. It proved effective."
S4.
The name stung his ear like an insect. Before he saved Bakugo, his last mission had involved that place. The lack of a lead and its explosive exposure made him irrevocably put it aside.
"When you least expect it, you find it," the boy thought, his eyes narrowed.
Reiji pressed himself closer to the wall, holding his breath. One of the men came down the hallway, and he moved silently, letting him pass.
He couldn't remain a mere spectator. If people were being used as experiments, he had to intervene at all costs.
He looked for another route. At the back of the building was a double door with an electronic lock. Too modern for a suburban facility. The scanner on his visor showed a faint magnetic field: an external signal blocker. The place was sealed off from the outside. Access was only granted from the inside.
He looked around and spotted a young man going out to smoke in the side area. A sleeveless shirt, gloves stained with dried blood, his face battered.
Reiji descended like a shadow.
"Do you have a light?" he asked, using a disturbed, deep voice.
The guy looked at him without interest.
"I don't smoke, man. Who are you?"
"Someone who came to look and doesn't want to wait in line," Reiji replied with a crooked smile. "Although it might not be possible, at least not without help."
The guy frowned, but seeing his relaxed but ready posture, he understood that he was no ordinary guy.
"They're recruiting downstairs. If you want to fight, go down to the left and knock three times. But if you don't have permission, don't even try. They'll break your teeth."
"Calm down. I didn't come looking for trouble," Reiji said, and before the boy could respond, he was gone.
'That was... Too easy. Either it's a trap, or they're overconfident in their safety.'
Reiji moved through the shadows, pressed against the damp walls of the side alley. From where he stood, he could see the metal door through which the fighters entered. His body begged for action, but his mind was analyzing.
'If I go in now... What's the plan? I have no backup escape route, no guarantees of what I'll find... And I'm almost certain Shigaraki isn't here. This place... It's useless to me...'
He heard the rap of knuckles against metal. Three times. A whirring noise, a hatch opened, and another aspirant was swallowed by the building's bowels.
His jaw clenched.
'But... It's directly linked to the experiments I found in that other area. I can't just let it go. What if he's experimenting on children? What if there's an 'Ethan' there?'
He clenched his fists in annoyance; he couldn't help but feel his weakness in moments like this. He couldn't act impulsively; he had a facade to maintain and a mission to accomplish, and even with all his might, he might not be able to escape a fully organized network of fighters with his Quirks.
Bullets weren't a problem, Quirks were. And from what he'd seen, these guys trusted their own too much to not be armed in plain sight.
He took a half step back. He felt sweat trickle down his neck, but it wasn't from fear. It was frustration. Suppressed anger.
'So much training... so much effort... And I still can't be the hero I've been asking for for so long?'
He was about to make the decision to leave, to report him and walk away, when a voice emerged from the darkness, without warning.
"You shouldn't be here."
Reiji spun around, his body tense, ready to attack.
But he didn't have to. Just seeing the thin silhouette and the messily tied-up dark hair, he immediately recognized the man in front of him.
"Eraser Head"
"Acting on your own again?" the hero asked, not moving a muscle more than necessary. He'd recognized Reiji from a distance, even though he looked completely different and hadn't used his Quirk either.
Reiji took a deep breath.
"It's not what it seems."
"Oh, no?" Aizawa took a step forward, his eyes boring into the half-covered bandages. "Because what I see is a student from my class, snooping around in dangerous territory. It's not grounds for expulsion, but I don't need solid proof to decide that..."
Reiji remained silent. He had no valid excuses. But he did have a reason.
"They're conducting experiments on humans, I don't know the motives, and I don't know exactly where. But I'm certain of that..." Reiji stated firmly, making Aizawa frown. If it had been another of his students who had told him that, he wouldn't have taken it too seriously. But Reiji was different... For too many reasons, starting with his identity as a vigilante.
"How sure are you of that?"
"Too much. I have no proof, but I'm certain... However, I can't infiltrate there and get away with it, neither of us can." Aizawa looked around the place, noticing some important details. It was too "empty" to be what Reiji claimed, but he'd noticed it since he'd arrived... This place wasn't as simple as it seemed.
"You can't do anything. Stay out of it, this isn't your territory anymore." Still, Aizawa stood firm in his stance.
Reiji gritted his teeth, holding back his rage. Not at Aizawa, but at his helplessness. He knew he was right, but he hated having to wait when something inside him screamed to act. Every time he thought of the screams, the tubes, the scalpels... his other self... something boiled inside.
Aizawa noticed. That suppressed look wasn't childish anger. It was ancient pain.
"Leaving without looking back is also part of a covert mission," the hero added, his tone not softening, but his expression softening. "And this is coming from someone who learned that through real injuries."
Reiji nodded slightly, not wanting to accept, but understanding.
Aizawa turned around, as if he were about to leave.
Reiji took a deep breath, relieved for a few seconds. But the hero stopped, just before turning the corner.
"You're not going to let this go, are you?"
Reiji didn't respond. But the silence was enough.
Aizawa slowly turned his head.
"If you were any other student, I'd already be calling the principal... or your parents. But you're not 'any other student'... are you?"
"I try to be," Reiji replied, without sarcasm, with an almost painful honesty. "But there are things that won't let me. I try to make sure everyone lives in peace." He wasn't lying, he really tried... Even though when he said it, no one understood his true meaning.
Aizawa watched him for a long time. His expression didn't change, but his eyes hardened.
"If you cross that line alone, you'll die. If you drag someone else in, you'll destroy them too."
"I know."
Another silence.
"Do you have anything concrete?"
"No. But I saw connections to the previous case. Similar facilities. And this area... it's very 'clean.' Too clean for a slum."
Aizawa sighed. He moved closer until he was about two feet away from him.
"If you want me to take care of it, I need proof. If you want to take care of it yourself... then I don't want to hear anything."
Reiji looked up. That wasn't permission. It was a warning.
"Understood."
Aizawa nodded, finally turned, and started walking away. But before disappearing into the shadows, he let out one last sentence:
"Five more minutes here and I'll consider it a serious infraction."
Reiji barely smiled. Not mockingly, but respectfully.
When his silhouette vanished, Reiji turned to leave... but that's when he saw it.
A half-painted symbol, almost imperceptible on the rusty base of the wall. An incomplete circle with a vertical line through it. Old, but recognizable.
Shie Hassaikai.
Reiji felt his heart in his throat. This wasn't random, a territorial mark almost extinct in these parts.
'Yakuza...'
And then he understood. The experiments... They were all related to the Yakuza, the same one that must be currently researching how to eliminate Quirks at the expense of a little girl.
Eri... Reiji never forgot her; it's just that, due to his own weakness, he never dared to investigate thoroughly to save her from that mess. Besides, he had no idea where the area where Eri was imprisoned was originally located.
Reiji lowered his head, controlling his breathing. Still, he still couldn't do anything else.
Five minutes. He didn't need more. Just to remember the place, capture every corner, engrave it in his memory. And then, send it.
Not to act. Not today.
But he would return. He would definitely do it. He would use the Commission's resources to act. It was time to turn the tables. Aizawa was leaving him, Hawks would support him without hesitation, and he had the obligatory backing of the commission. He was no longer alone in helping her.
'All in good time...'
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