Almost two weeks had passed since the incident in the rain.
After several days of forced inactivity, Reiji ended up officially requesting to return to the investigation. The excuse he gave was simple: he didn't want to lose his footing on the case. The real reason was that his ho no longer felt like a comfortable place.
Ever since that night with Himiko, the atmosphere between them had beco awkward in a way that was hard to ignore. They hadn't argued again, nor was there any open tension in front of their parents, but that was precisely what made everything worse.
Reiji wasn't helping much either.
He knew perfectly well that part of the problem was his fault. He had hidden too many things for too long, and yet he remained convinced that he couldn't tell her the whole truth. Not because he distrusted her, but because the less she knew, the less likely she was to get dragged right into all of that.
The real problem was that after what happened that night, pretending everything was normal had beco much harder for both of them.
That's why investigating gave him sothing concrete to think about.
The monster incident ended up having two major consequences in the days that followed. The first was the death of the man who had ingested the experintal compound.
According to the dical report leaked internally by the Commission to Reiji, the subject's body simply couldn't withstand the forced evolution of his Quirk factor. Cell expansion, uncontrolled bone growth, and accelerated muscle adaptation ended up destroying his nervous system just a few hours after the confrontation.
That completely changed the direction of the case.
Public attention shifted away from the alleged hooded vigilante who appeared during the incident and focused on sothing far more serious: the existence of an organization attempting to artificially alter and evolve Quirks. The discovery shook the police and professional heroes to their core, especially since the compound used bore no resemblance to any known drug on the black market.
Reiji, fortunately, was reduced to little more than a rumor within small internet forums and groups obsessed with urban vigilantes. To most people, he was just "another idiot with a hero complex" who was lucky enough to survive.
The second event was far more shocking:
Lady Nagant had been arrested.
The news exploded across all dia outlets just five days after the incident. Corruption, abuse of authority, tampering with evidence, illegal covert operations, and multiple homicides. The list of charges seed endless.
It didn't take long for the news to turn it into the biggest hero-related scandal in years. Images of the forr heroine being led away in handcuffs, surrounded by heavily ard police, were replayed constantly on television for days on end.
The public reacted exactly as expected: fear, distrust, and a widespread sense of insecurity.
Lady Nagant was a prominent figure. A woman known precisely for operating from the shadows, yet with a seemingly spotless record.
Public trust took a brutal blow.
Even within schools, it beca a constant topic of conversation. So argued that heroes were still necessary regardless of isolated cases of corruption. Others began to question just how rotten the hero system really was behind the scenes.
The monster incident practically disappeared from the news in less than twenty-four hours.
On the other hand, Reiji didn't sit idly by during that ti either. Beyond continuing to act like a relatively normal student—attending classes and slowly strengthening his relationship with Shinso almost without realizing it—he devoted most of his nights to piecing together as much information as possible about the case.
He reviewed the incident footage multiple tis, along with related events and locations where minor reports of strange Quirk alterations had surfaced over the past few months. Little by little, he managed to significantly narrow down the search area, establishing connections with various incidents of Quirk alterations.
He also tried to link those movents to the criminal network dismantled during the operation where he worked alongside Nagant. However, after several days of reviewing reports, nas, and financial trails, he ended up partially ruling it out.
It didn't fit.
The organization involved in arms trafficking and human trafficking operated under a very different logic. Much more rudintary. More focused on imdiate cash and the conventional black market.
In contrast, this was an investigation. Reiji knew too much about that to ignore it.
Precisely for that reason, he was now out and about looking for a lead on the dealer. After regaining access to the commission's information and resources, combined with the nurous sketches he'd made relying solely on his mory, he finally managed to find a na.
Kagero Okuta, alias Giran.
He was a petty criminal; he had three arrests, all three for illegal drug possession. A couple of community service assignnts, a few days in jail, and released with relative ease—his criminal record was so ager that he wasn't worth paying attention to in an organization of this kind.
Which fit perfectly with the profile Reiji was looking for. Clearly, this organization had only co to light because of the need to test their product on different people, and judging by Giran's reaction when the boy injected the liquid into him, that ant it wasn't part of the plan to reveal themselves that way.
That was exactly why he had gone out that night.
The cold winter wind swept through the silent street as Reiji walked slowly with his hands in his pockets. This ti, his appearance was different from the one he'd worn during the incident in the rain. His dark red-dyed hair fell ssily over his forehead, and light blue contact lenses completely changed the initial impression of his face.
It wasn't exactly inconspicuous, but in a society where heroes capable of transforming into dragons or people with animal heads existed, that sort of appearance barely drew attention.
In front of him, at the end of a quiet side street, the house registered under Giran's na finally ca into view.
An old house, sowhat small and quite neglected.
The exterior paint was weathered, and part of the front yard had been completely overrun by tall weeds. So windows were boarded up from the inside, and the rusty mailbox, its flap open, revealed a pile of letters.
Reiji observed the place in silence for several seconds before slowly stepping through the outer gate.
'I'm not going to find much here…'
The property had been registered under the na of Kagero Okuta for over thirty years. According to the records, the house originally belonged to his mother before passing to Giran by inheritance when he was barely fifteen. Since then, it had never officially changed hands.
That was precisely why it was worth checking out.
The main lock gave way relatively easily using a small tal tool Reiji kept in his pocket. The interior greeted him with the sll of dampness, dust, and aged wood. It didn't look like a criminal hideout. It looked like the ho of soone who had simply stopped living there too long ago.
The floor creaked under his footsteps as he slowly made his way through the main room. There was old furniture partially covered with sheets, boxes piled up against so walls, and shelves full of old magazines. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. Nothing out of place.
Reiji searched room by room with ticulous patience. Kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, small closets, and scattered docunts. He found overdue bills, old newspapers, receipts, and a few old photographs of little significance.
He ended up entering the last bedroom in the house while reviewing possible blind spots within the structure once more. The room was practically empty except for an old single bed, a dust-covered desk, and several boxes piled up in a corner.
Reiji absentmindedly opened one of them.
Inside he found old newspapers carefully folded.
He picked one at random.
"ALL MIGHT ERGES VICTORIOUS IN AN INTENSE BATTLE THAT DESTROYED THE ENTIRE TAIDAKI FOREST"
His eyes quickly scanned the article as his mind replayed what had happened that day. All Might had faced off against a villain with a dangerous Quirk, and that was why the entire forest had been destroyed. And that was why he had disappeared for a while, as if he were recovering from what had happened.
The truth was that All Might suddenly disappeared for a relatively long period after an extrely violent battle against All For One. Officially, not many details were ever revealed to the public, but in his previous life, Reiji knew perfectly well the consequences of that battle.
All Might's Permanent Injuries
But if All Might was still active now, then that ant that fight had indeed happened exactly as it did in the original tiline.
All For One should also be alive, sowhere.
Reiji slowly set the newspaper down on the desk and walked a little further into the room, looking for any other interesting material.
Then one of his feet felt a hollow space between the boards.
His gaze slowly dropped to the floor just beneath the old desk. He crouched slightly and tapped the wood gently again.
Empty.
He slowly moved the desk to one side and revealed a small, almost invisible rectangular hatch beneath the accumulated dust. He opened it carefully.
A basent.
Reiji slowly descended the stairs while turning on the small flashlight on his phone. The place was much larger than he had expected. Several tal tables took up part of the space, and the walls were covered with maps, notes, and photographs pinned up with thumbtacks and adhesive tape.
A makeshift operations center.
Now it really looked more like a dealer's room; there was less dust here than on the surface, but it was also clear that no one had set foot in this place in quite so ti.
Reiji moved forward slowly, studying all the information scattered across the walls. Various conflict zones in Musutafu were marked with red circles. Criminal zones. Distribution routes. Police checkpoints. So nas appeared repeated multiple tis around the main map.
And one of them imdiately caught his attention.
"Hunter"
The na was written over one of the city's abandoned industrial sectors, accompanied by several dates from months ago and symbols that Reiji still didn't fully understand.
His brow furrowed slightly. Apparently, he was connected after all. He took photos of the entire place; clearly, he couldn't stay here searching until he found what he was looking for. He grabbed anything remotely useful and stowed it in his backpack; he would analyze and monitor all of that personally on his own.
'And to think I had no faith…'
Then he heard a noise. The front door of the house opening upstairs.
Reiji imdiately turned off his phone's light as his body tensed completely. Seeing the abandoned house and the area, he'd assud no one would bother him during his break-in.
Serious mistake.
Footsteps could be heard from the upper floor; the basent was built in such a way that any sound from above would echo like a drum down below. Even though the person was walking slowly and cautiously, Reiji could identify them completely.
Clearly, these weren't the hoowner's footsteps—a person doesn't walk like that in their own house. It was soone else who was investigating, just like him… Or simply stealing, which was a much more realistic option.
In any case, Reiji stayed still.
The footsteps slowly traversed the first floor before stopping right above the basent entrance. Since Reiji had moved the desk, it was clear there was sothing else in the room.
It didn't take long before the door opened again; Reiji moved instantly, hiding among so furniture and boxes in the basent, avoiding the flashlight's beam.
When the light shifted to other spots, Reiji's eyes sharpened instantly, and he watched the basent entrance.
Eraser Head.
Aizawa Shota stood at the basent entrance, his gaze completely fixed on the darkness in front of him. His pronounced dark circles and usual tired expression couldn't hide the fact that he was ready to attack imdiately if anything moved wrong down there.
'Shit...'
The difference between them was clear; a direct confrontation without any use of his Quirk would be catastrophic for Reiji. He was strong, but much of that ca from his blood Quirk; without it, Eraser's superior martial arts skills would completely overwhelm him.
He would have to proceed with caution.
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