BNHA: I am Reiji Toga Chapter 26: suspect (3)

Eraser Head stood motionless at the far end of the basent, barely illuminated by the dim light of the flashlight he held in one hand. With his other hand, he casually held the bandages that bound him, as if they were an extension of his own body. His weary expression barely changed, but his eyes scanned every corner of the room.

He had co there following a minor lead related to illegal arms trafficking. Nothing particularly important at first. Just another old lead indirectly connected to suspicious activity in Musutafu. However, as soon as he stepped through the front door of the house, he realized the place was abandoned.

Fresh footprints in the dust and the slight movent of several objects indicated that soone had been there recently. Soone had been searching for sothing inside just a few minutes ago.

And they might still be there; he followed the footprints until he finally reached that basent where he now stood observing.

Aizawa slowly descended the steps without making any unnecessary noise. His footsteps barely stirred up small particles of dust as the flashlight swept the basent with short, precise movents. The place looked like a makeshift, abandoned operations room. Maps pinned to the walls, old docunts, open tal boxes, and multiple routes marked on different sectors of Musutafu.

His gaze sharpened slightly; beyond the evidence, his instinct told him he wasn't alone.

He heard no breathing. He heard no movent. But soone was there.

He knew it.

"Co out now." His voice sounded dry, completely calm. "I don't know who you are, but this is still private property."

Silence.

"You are trespassing on a scene possibly linked to criminal activity," he continued as he took another couple of steps forward. "I can arrest you right now. So cooperate and prevent this from becoming more of a hassle than necessary."

Silence again.

Under different circumstances, Aizawa might have waited longer. But there was sothing strange about the whole situation. The person hiding didn't seem desperate or terrified. Nor were they trying to escape. Whoever was hiding there remained completely still.

His scarf moved without warning.

The bandages shot toward one of the stacks of boxes with brutal precision, wrapping around them imdiately before flinging them aside. The boxes crashed into another nearby stack, and the crash echoed throughout the basent as several structures fell to the floor, kicking up dust.

Aizawa didn't stop. His eyes locked onto another possible hiding spot, and he aid again, repeating the process. If the villain or vandal didn't want to co out, then that ant he didn't want a fight, and that was good for the hero.

Reiji cursed under his breath as he backed up just a bit against the wall. The glare from the flashlight severely impaired his vision, and the confined space made it difficult to find a clear exit without exposing himself directly. Besides, physically confronting Eraser Head was exactly the kind of situation he wanted to avoid.

"Well…" Aizawa muttered as his bandages began to rise again. "I suppose you chose the hard option."

"Wait."

The voice finally erged from the darkness.

Reiji had partially covered his throat and mouth with a thin layer of hardened blood to alter the sound. The disguise wasn't perfect, but it would be enough to make identification difficult later.

Aizawa didn't respond imdiately.

His eyes simply fixed on the direction of the voice.

"Co out."

"I don't want to fight."

"That's for to decide."

Reiji slowly exhaled before finally stepping out from behind the boxes. His appearance remained completely altered: dark red hair, blue contact lenses, and loose-fitting clothes that hid much of his body. The high collar of his jacket partially covered his jaw as he kept both hands visible and away from his body.

Aizawa watched him for barely a second.

Young. Too young.

"Na."

"Red." Reiji said the na Himiko used to call his Quirk when he was a child.

"I want your real na."

Aizawa's bandages tightened slightly around his arms as he took another step forward.

Reiji raised just one hand.

"I'm not ard."

"That doesn't an much either."

And Aizawa was right. Most dangerous Quirks didn't even need weapons.

Aizawa kept his gaze fixed on Reiji for a few more seconds before finally activating his Quirk. His eyes turned red imdiately as his dark hair floated slightly due to the activation of his Quirk.

Reiji noticed the change in the hero's appearance instantly.

But nothing happened. Reiji's body didn't feel any different at all, and the block on his voice was still active.

Aizawa narrowed his eyes slightly, also noticing how strange the situation was.

Normally, he could feel small, imdiate changes when nullifying an active Quirk. Physical alterations, loss of transformations, or simple involuntary physical reactions.

But there was absolutely nothing there.

Reiji was exactly the sa.

And that was strange.

Very strange.

Because even partial mutants usually showed so minimal reaction.

Aizawa didn't let his guard down. In fact, he did exactly the opposite.

"I repeat… Who are you?"

"Red"

"Incorrect answer"

The hero's bandages shot out suddenly.

Reiji reacted just in ti, moving to the side as one of the strips slamd into the wall behind him. Another bandage tried to wrap around his arm imdiately afterward, forcing him to step back again.

The boy's eyes drifted toward the exit, thinking of a way to move the hero without a direct confrontation. Although now, for so reason, he could use his Quirk right in front of him, he preferred to avoid a direct confrontation.

Aizawa launched the bandages again, this ti intending to restrict his range of motion. Reiji reacted quickly and grabbed the bandage with one hand; with the other, he wrapped a thin layer of blood around it, turning it into a sharp blade, and cut the bandage.

Aizawa watched the move cautiously and slowly released the offensive tension from his bandages.

"...I see."

Reiji remained motionless.

His body was still ready to move if necessary, but the initial pressure had shifted slightly.

Aizawa watched him for several more seconds before speaking again.

"I won't ask you about your identity again, but I see you truly don't want to fight in any way."

It was a conclusion.

Reiji didn't respond imdiately either. Because he knew that lying outright to soone like Aizawa was pointless; perhaps it would have worked with another hero, but few were as intelligent as Eraser.

"I'm looking for the owner of this house."

"Why?"

The reply ca curtly, but no longer as aggressive as before.

"He's the distributor who caused the accident at the Musutafu shopping mall two weeks ago."

Aizawa finally turned off the effect of his Quirk, though he didn't completely let his guard down. The information Reiji had just revealed was completely new to Aizawa.

"Were you the civilian who faced off against the creature?" the hero murmured as he looked Reiji over from head to toe again; clearly, his appearance was different.

Reiji relaxed his shoulders slightly.

"..."

"If you don't cooperate, I'll be forced to arrest you."

"If I was, I've been looking for Giran because he was the one who gave the young man the material that triggered his evolution—the one who destroyed everything."

That elicited barely a flicker of reaction on Aizawa's weary face. Not a smile. But sothing akin to recognition.

The hero looked back at the criminal map pinned to the wall.

Hunter.

The na was still clearly marked among multiple conflict zones.

"I suppose you found sothing before I did."

Reiji hesitated for just a few seconds.

And finally nodded.

The atmosphere remained tense.

But both understood exactly the sa thing at the sa ti.

Fighting down there wouldn't benefit either of them.

Aizawa's flashlight continued to illuminate fragnts of the room as the hero studied the maps pinned to the walls, the scattered notes, and the docunts piled on the tal tables.

Reiji stood still near one of the basent's side columns, keeping enough distance to react if necessary. He didn't let his guard down completely for a single second. Neither did Aizawa.

"Not too much…" Reiji finally murmured, breaking the silence as he turned his gaze toward one of the main maps. "Just this criminal map. Hunter is the leader of the organization they dismantled a few months ago. The one involved in arms trafficking and human trafficking."

Aizawa barely glanced at him.

"The raid shut down the entire operation."

"Yes, but not the leader," Reiji corrected imdiately.

The hero didn't respond right away. He simply looked back at the na marked on the wall as he processed the information and, above all, Reiji.

Reiji watched out of the corner of his eye as Aizawa continued to scan the basent with his gaze. He understood perfectly what was happening. The hero was still analyzing him more than the place itself.

And honestly, Reiji couldn't bla Aizawa for that.

From Aizawa's perspective, Reiji was an unknown teenager who had illegally infiltrated a property linked to criminal organizations, using a strange Quirk that the Quirk-erasing hero himself could apparently block.

He was suspicious from every conceivable angle.

Reiji, for his part, didn't want to confront Eraser Head.

Much less kill him.

But if Aizawa decided to officially classify him as a dangerous vigilante or a potential criminal collaborator, then his entire situation in Musutafu would beco much more complicated. The police would start looking for patterns, caras, movents, and possible identities. That would an acting with extre caution from now on.

And he couldn't afford that right now. That was exactly why Reiji had chosen to cooperate and not run at the first opportunity.

"I think Giran acts more as a middleman," he explained, pointing to so of the markers on the map. "He doesn't seem like anyone important within the organization. He just distributes products and connects buyers."

Aizawa watched him in silence for a few more seconds.

"And what organization are you from?"

Reiji's gaze tightened slightly.

The hero continued speaking without changing his tone.

"An ordinary civilian doesn't connect criminal routes, reconstruct psychological profiles, and find clandestine hideouts by chance." The flashlight's beam swept once more over several of the notes pinned to the wall. "And a normal civilian definitely doesn't infiltrate places like this alone; the way I see it, you're either a fool… or you've got so serious backing."

Reiji didn't respond.

Because Reiji didn't have a useful answer to give him.

Aizawa let out a small, weary sigh as he brought a hand to his neck.

"You're too young for this."

That made Reiji barely lift his gaze.

There was no mockery in Aizawa's voice.

Nor superiority.

"Do you think all of them are directly connected to the drug?" the hero finally asked, returning to the main topic.

"No," Reiji replied quickly. "It doesn't work that way. Giran makes a living distributing illegal goods in general. Weapons, counterfeit dicines, minor drugs, information..." He paused briefly before continuing. "But if you find Giran or his major buyers, you eventually find the creator of the compound."

It was a simple relationship.

And Aizawa understood it imdiately.

Smart organizations rarely exposed their key players directly. Everything moved through disposable interdiaries. Layer upon layer of small-ti criminals to make the real trail harder to follow.

That made it all the more worrying that a teenager was following exactly the right path.

"That drug…," Aizawa murmured as he looked at one of the old docunts on the table. "Do you know what it does?"

"No… As for that, I think you have more information than I do."

Aizawa slowly turned his gaze toward him. Making a final decision.

"Listen to carefully." Aizawa's voice sounded firm again as he slowly tucked the flashlight back into his waistband. "I don't know who you are or how you ended up involved in this. But I do know how to recognize when soone is getting too deep into sothing they don't understand."

Reiji let out a small nasal sigh.

"I understand more than you think."

"That's precisely what's worrying."

Aizawa took just one more step toward him.

"You're not a hero," he continued. "You have no legal protection or real experience working on large-scale investigations." His tired eyes remained completely fixed on him. "And the organizations that play with this kind of thing don't hesitate to make people disappear."

Reiji remained silent.

Because he knew perfectly well that was true.

Much better than Aizawa could imagine.

"Forget it," the hero finally said. "Hand over all the information you have and stay away from the case."

The reply ca after barely a few seconds.

"I can't."

Aizawa frowned slightly.

"Why?"

Reiji remained silent for a few seconds as he shifted his gaze to the map on the wall. His mind briefly ran through too many mories he'd rather not touch.

Laboratories.

Stretchers.

Children.

Pain.

And adults calling it "necessary."

"Because I can't stand the idea of them experinting on people," he finally murmured. "The hero society works fine as long as the right people are protected. But those left behind…" His gaze hardened slightly. "They're the ones who end up being used."

Aizawa remained completely still.

Reiji continued speaking slowly.

"Children with rare Quirks. Vulnerable people. People no one pays attention to. The boy who died was part of that." His voice remained calm, but now there was sothing much colder beneath it. "Those kinds of organizations exist precisely because the system allows certain people to disappear without it mattering too much."

The basent fell completely silent after that.

Aizawa didn't interrupt.

Because the way that boy spoke didn't seem like teenage ideology.

It seed like pure, hard-won experience, as if he himself had been part of an experint or forgotten by society.

And that was far worse.

"Stop that drug?" Reiji continued after a few seconds; he was improvising his speech on the fly, but it wasn't really foreign to him; he truly thought and hoped that no one would suffer as he had. "It's probably the only way to prevent more people from ending up as experints"

Aizawa watched him for quite a while.

Analyzing every word.

Every reaction.

Every silence.

And the more he did so, the more uncomfortable the feeling inside his head beca.

Because that boy thought too much like an adult.

Too weary.

Too aware of the rotten side of the world.

Finally, Aizawa spoke again.

"How old are you?"

Silence.

Reiji didn't answer.

But that very silence ended up serving as a sufficient answer.

Aizawa closed his eyes for just a mont before letting out a weary sigh.

"...Great."

He ran a hand through her hair, ruffling it slightly as she walked away from the basent's main entrance.

"I'm not going to arrest you today."

Reiji barely looked up.

"But don't mistake this for trust." Aizawa's voice imdiately regained all its usual firmness. "You're still a civilian ddling in dangerous investigations. And, honestly, I still haven't ruled out that you might be a bigger problem than you appear to be."

Reiji nodded slightly.

It was fair.

"So listen carefully," the hero continued as he slowly made his way back toward the stairs. "If I ever find you mixed up in sothing like this again…" His red eyes locked directly onto Reiji one last ti. "I won't hesitate to arrest you."

Reiji understood he ant it.

Aizawa cleared the way to the stairs, using his own body to signal that it was ti to leave. As for the hero, he still had to gather all the evidence of the chaos.

Reiji, with no other choice, began walking toward the stairs.

"...And leave this to ; I don't want this to get out either, much less sacrifice anyone."