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Ranpo sighed, viridian colored eyes staring at the wall in boredom as he sat on the desk.
Tsukauchi didn’t respond.
He sighed even harder.
“What?” The other detective questioned, exasperated.
“I’m bored.”
“Then why don’t you direct that attention to your cases? I know you have them, because I was there when you were assigned them.”
The greatest youngest detective pouted. “They’re so boring! I didn’t even have to go to the crime scene to know who was at fault!”
That was admittedly Ranpo’s specialty. He was incredibly smart, and it wasn’t a quirk or whatnot.
After his parents had died, all he had was the police academy they wanted him to go to. Of course, his smarts were noticed and he was taken in to be trained to become a detective instead. Thus, he was taught that, what he’d like to summarize as, ‘everyone was dumb’.
People didn’t notice as much as he did, and so no, adults were not monsters that did weird things, and not pretending that, say, this one guy wasn’t totally abusing his wife. Safe to say, he held the record of solving the most cold cases.
Tsukauchi only stared at him, before groaning. “ Fine , come here, take a look at this,” and held up a folder.
Ranpo gingerly snatched it, opening it wide and reading about a paragraph in, before frowning. “Why’s it so lengthy?”
“Big corporations, you know the kind. A whole lot of it feels like filler, but kami forbid they make it short and concise for the detectives who pull all-nighters over it.”
“The USJ incident? Seems pretty blunt to me.”
Tsukauchi shook his head. “It’s less about that , but more the League. According to certain informants, they’ve been recruiting for a while with a big reward. It’s likely that they have a benefactor, or the actual leader is powerful, and has connections. I have some ideas but..”
“You think it’s the boogeyman of the underground, don’t you?” Ranpo’s observant eyes followed his frame, watching as the slightest twitch gave the detective away. “I know a lot. It’s likely. I’d say it’s already confirmed. They did test the Nomu’s DNA, I know you saw that.”
He continued when Tsukauchi didn’t respond. “But you’re hesitant to say so because if he did, we’re absolutely screwed. You’re also hesitant because of All Might, who seemed so sure, and unsure how to break it to him. So!”
Ranpo clapped his hands together. “Inform the underground heroes, and have the information-gathering agencies keep an eye out for things like the Nomu, or the other guys who were there at the USJ. If you can pull a few strings and favors to get someone on the inside, do it. I believe Nighteye might be aware of him , but he’s too much of a wild card to be of much use. I have an idea of why he and All Might might’ve split, so I’m reluctant to include him into the equation anyway. Keep this away from All Might until you have definitive proof. Or maybe don’t..? Hm. He has a successor by the looks of things, but if anything, I doubt All Might would have informed the poor kid about its origins if he believed that he was gone. He might not believe you without more proof, but it might be better for the kid to know, but it also is burdensome. Hm. It’s not that important right now, though, and the Sports Festival is coming soon. It’s better to have All Might inform him afterwards so he can be able to have fun without worry first.”
Tsukauchi just nodded, having been used to this for a while now. “When you’re actually working, this feels less like I’m just watching over you, and more like you’re a colleague of mine.”
The black-haired boy tilted his head, and shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m just a colleague after all.”
“..Yet you’ve already been mentally adopted by everyone at the station, and you go home with me, are addicted to sweets, and have tantrums?”
Ranpo looked away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
He knew Tsukauchi was smiling fondly, shaking his head. At this rate, he could read almost anyone here like a book.
“ Right. Well then, there’s been a noticeable increase in action in Kamino lately, and crime rates around the area have started to dip while there it’s started to slowly increase.”
Ranpo frowned, leaning his head onto his hand. “That’s in Yokohama, right?” ..He couldn’t explain it, but he had felt an odd sort of pull towards Yokohama once upon a time. The police academy he used to go to wasn’t too far from there though… Was there someone he was supposed to encounter for the first time there?
Tsukauchi nodded, watching him curiously, and Ranpo shook himself out of it.
“Well I think it’s safe to say that the base might be there. We know they must’ve been through some sort of recruitment period before the USJ because a lot of them were low-ranked thugs and the like.”
“Still, Kamino is a big area, and if they catch wind that there’s more people patrolling, then they’ll pack up and leave.”
“True. We’ll just have to bide our time until something shows up, or someone gets in. I know some underground heroes specialize in disguises and infiltration, or is that too risky?”
“If I can, I’d prefer not to end up sending someone into the lion’s den. Especially if there isn’t that much we know currently.”
He sighed, tipping himself back and laying down onto the desk. “What if I go? I’m not that well known, considering I’m a minor. I’m not that older than Shouta-san’s class actually.. But I doubt they discriminate against age. If they’re biased about quirks though, you’d be surprised how much people say around quirkless people, because what could a quirkless person possibly do?” Ranpo’s gaze darkened and he laughed bitterly. Maybe he had it the best he could when his parents were alive, but with the police academy and their dorms.. He hated talking about it.
Tsukauchi faltered. “..Ranpo. You should care about your life more. What if you get found out, and hurt?”
Ranpo hummed. “But I won’t! You’re always there to clean up my messes.”
“And what if I’m not, one day?”
“Then Shouta-san can help. They won’t touch a single hair of mine under his watch!” (A part of him almost wanted to say ‘Fukuzawa-san’, but he realized he had no clue who that was. Was that who he was supposed to meet? He had the faintest idea that it might’ve been some bodyguard guy at the theater that one time, but they hadn’t ever met.)
“You shouldn’t put so much trust in us. We could be late, and next thing you know you’re a corpse on the ground.”
“But you won’t be-?”
“I know that your intelligence makes you have some sort of faux foresight in a sense, but that’s just it. Faux. It could be wrong one day, so be careful, okay kiddo? The last thing I want to do is watch people scrape your guts off the floor because you provoked your kidnapper while they had an actual gun pointing at your skull.” ..Okay, but it wasn’t like they were meant to expect that someone was gonna pose as a cop, kidnap him, and claim that they’re some organization trying to wipe quirks out of existence, despite having a quirk themselves. ..Well, actually he knew and went anyway, but he was curious!
“..Okay.”
“And for the record, I’m not letting you infiltrate the League.”
“Stain wasn’t working with the League. In the videos with his speech, he states that the only one allowed to kill him is the true hero, All Might. And some other stuff, yada yada. But he’s been yapping about false heroes, and those are the ones who he's been targeting, so logically that means that he’s a huge All Might worshiper. But, what’s the League’s goal? To kill All Might. It was stated during the USJ that that was their goal. I can’t believe you guys didn’t notice that?” Ranpo bluntly pointed out and shot down whatever theory they had before.
The Hosu police department gaped at him, and Tsukauchi just sighed in the background, shaking his head.
“Jeez, why do people think everything is related to the League? They’re technically still new in the crime business but they’re being treated like some bigshot S-rank thing! Actually I don’t even remember the ranks.. But still! Not everyone’s working together in some elaborate scheme, ya know.”
(Meanwhile, in a bar in Kamino, a blue-haired man was yelling and having a tantrum about everyone being focused on Stain rather than him.)
…..Ranpo was kidnapped. Okay he might have ended up being able to pinpoint a more precise-ish area of where the villains might end up.. And went there?
Whoopsie.
He stared blankly at the gun barrel pointed directly at him. The metal felt cold against his skin.
Not again!
“I don’t suppose I can talk myself out of this?”
The man snorted. “What, and let you rat us out to the police? Congrats, you’re way too close to finding out something you shouldn’t.”
“Rude.”
The door slammed open and the man faltered, instinctually pointing the gun at the intruder, but Ranpo slammed his elbow into his stomach as hard as he could the second the gun was off him, and he crumbled over in pain.
“How many?”
“6.”
Ranpo grimaced as Tsukauchi stared at him, unblinking, before facepalming. “Really?”
“I mean..”
…
“Just stop before you give me some gray hairs, okay kid?” Tsukauchi ruffled his hair fondly, and Ranpo lit up.
“If I continue, do I keep getting ruffles?”
Tsukauchi stared at him in a deadpan, before lifting his hand. “No.”
His breath hitched, and Tsukauchi (that stupid..!), knowing all his tells, had immediately gotten tense and acted as a body shield by twisting Ranpo out of the way, taking a bullet. Fuck!
Distantly, he heard an officer swear.
That was his fault. He numbly realized. On the bright side, they now knew there was definitely something there, even if it might’ve likely been some other organization or whatever (or just stopped him before he got too close), but Tsukauchi was hospitalized. It didn’t hit anything vital, thank Kami, but it meant that Ranpo had ended up giving himself a target.
Considering that Tsukauchi is just a detective, without a combat-oriented quirk..
Okay, so his custody was moved to a trusted pro hero, Eraserhead. Or Shouta! Because it’s so much harder to track people by their first name..
He would be shadowing Aizawa at his job, though, and living with him. He wondered how their son Shinsou would act around him.
(Meanwhile, Shigaraki was out at a mall, crashing a shopping trip for a certain class of students.)
“Ranpo, this is my son, Hitoshi.” Aizawa introduced them.
Ranpo stared at him. “Why haven’t you used your mind reading?”
Shinsou recoils, a very confused look on his face. “What??”
“Ranpo, you know that people won’t understand you if you’re too blunt.”
Blink. Blink. “Oh. Hey, Shinsou, did you know that logically you should be able to mind read someone while you’re brainwashing them- well actually, it’s more like you’re putting them to sleep, but in a state of sleepwalking, y’know? So their mind is still kinda active and registering things that they’re seeing in dreams, and you can interact with them that way and their mind would be much easier to see and read because you’re kind of.. In their brain?”
Pause. “...I CAN DO WHAT NOW???”
Aizawa sighed. “Ranpo is a bit of an.. Eccentric person, as you can see.”
Ranpo tilted his head. “I’ll be around Yuuei, shadowing your dad.”
Shinsou stumbled. “H-He’s not my dad!”
Ranpo closed his eyes (not that he needed them to know where everything was) , nomming on a lollipop as Aizawa-sensei introduced him.
“This is Edogawa Ranpo. He’s technically your senpai, and will be around as an honorary member of 2-A. He’s a detective-in-training ( Seeming to ignore Ranpo’s cry of, “But I already graduated! I’m a full-blown detective!”), so he’s been shadowing me around due to circumstances. He also doesn’t have a friend his age.”
Summer training camp was a go.
The young detective cursed under his breath, frantically running through the forest. Shit! He should’ve expected this! He knew that something was wrong, like the calm before the storm!
“Hello!?” He yelled out, feeling almost blind due to the fact that there were too many unknowns. What was he supposed to do, automatically assume every criminal on the run is working for the League?
His eyes were as wide as ever, breathing frantically as he found the students (well a group of them, he’s pretty sure most of them are problem children according to Shouta) . “What’s the situation?”
“Edogawa-senpai!” Midoriya called, and he couldn’t find it in himself to act disgusted at the overly-formal name.
“..Edogawa? I wondered when you’d show up. You’ve been causing a lot of problems for us, you know.” A heavily scarred man appeared, shooting out blue flames with the swipe of a hand, and with that cover, grabbed what he assumed to be another villain that they had been dealing with prior.
“What’s your goal?” All Might isn’t here went unsaid, or are you with the league , too.
“Recruitment, I guess. Don’t you think Bakugo’s quite villainous?”
“The only villainous person I see here is you.”
“Right, right. Anyway.. I suppose they wouldn’t mind so much if I got you too, huh?” Dabi gracefully jumped away from any incoming attacks from the other students. That situational awareness..
“So how about it!? Let’s make a deal, Edogawa! Yuuei will face the fallout anyways. How can they expect to be trustworthy if they can’t even protect a civilian?! Heh. So come on, let's exchange hostages. I give Bakugou back, and you come with me. We’ll call off the fight too!”
“Senpai!” Various variations were called, and his eyes narrowed.
“Fine. it wasn’t like I wasn’t gonna end up there anyway.”
“ Perfect.”
And then everything went black.
Ranpo struggled to breathe, keeping his eyes closed despite how the villain’s presence demanded attention.
He didn’t answer, no matter how the other had talked and commented about things. All For One. What is your game plan here?
The building shook, and he turned his head, giving a small peek with his real eyes. There were too many variables. “I see. I would’ve wished that we would’ve had more time, but I suppose this is fine too.”
Ranpo snorted. They were almost there. They’ll save him, he knows it. “Yeah, and I’m a potato. You look older than a grandpa, Shigaraki-jiji. I bet if you sneeze you’ll instantly die because it’s too much for your body to handle.”
The roof cracked, and bits and pieces fell. “Hold on.” All For One.. stood!? What!? He could stand? Then why had he been sitting down that whole time!?
(He didn't get to process the fact that All For One directly proved his intuition wrong. That for once, he found someone unpredictable to his own eyes.)
He winced as the man held onto his wrist tight , and the roof collapsed around them. There must’ve been some sort of shield quirk that he had. “You realize that your better decision would’ve been to let me get hurt, right?”
All For One merely chuckled. “Some things are worse than death.”
Not painting a very pretty picture.
“You see, I’ve been quite interested in your smarts, great detective,” why did it sound so condescending? “But it’s become quite clear that you have no interest in working for me.”
Ranpo shivered, and watched as heroes started to appear, yet hesitant. Of course. He has a hostage, after all!
(In another world, they’d be confused on who that was. In this one, they’ve been sufficiently warned, and cautious about their next actions.)
He perked up when he saw a white moving scarf- Shouta!
“Your colleagues are too late, detective. You weren’t scared off a single bit before, but why don’t I show you why it’s such a bad idea to rely on them to get you out of your messes all the time? You see, I’ve found an interesting quirk…”
“What are you t-”
All For One spoke one word, yet it seemingly echoed.
“Shatter.”
Ranpo shattered.
Shouta barely kept himself from flashing his quirk and alerting the villain that he was there when the man had touched Ranpo’s forehead, as if interacting with his mind, and seeming to speak something.
Ranpo had gone blank, and if he squinted, his eyes had looked different. What..?
The villain let him go after that, and Ranpo didn’t move.
“Something happened to Ranpo. I think he used his quirk..” He noted in the comms. There were so many unknowns! We had no clue what quirk that guy had, or if it’d be too dangerous to come closer. He just wanted his kid.
The atmosphere was suffocating, and only became more so when All Might finally appeared, and he was mad .
He took a deep breath.
Ranpo was falling.
Or at least, he felt like it.
Metaphorically, it felt like his mind had fractured, and he couldn’t think .
He was nothing. Just another quirkless boy. Nothing special.
He was useless.
Worthless.
He needed to rely on other people to even take care of him.
He was childish too, and reckless.
He felt so tired.
What happened, again?
Naomasa’s heart ached, and he stared at the unresponsive boy. He kept thinking that Ranpo might just snap back any second now, questioning why the detective was acting so glum, but he didn’t.
He just had this blank look on his face, and everything else seemed fine , but his brain activity was.. There wasn’t much.
His eyes’ pupils looked shattered, like glass. People tended to say that eyes were the window to the soul, but All For One had shattered that window.
And to even rub it in their face, some people were still acting discriminatory towards Ranpo, as if he wasn’t the greatest detective. Some even refused him treatment! That was so fucking– He felt like screaming and crying.
It was a few days after Kamino.
Hitoshi had been asked to try his quirk on Ranpo- Especially after they (well he, more accurately) had found out that he could read minds and interact with them..
Who knew that the thing Ranpo had helped him with would be the thing that could potentially save Ranpo?
He’d been given several outs if he didn’t want to, but he stayed firm in his decision.
His heart raced at the sight of his senpai, and subconsciously had that feeling that told him this was wrong. ( He’d been to his grandpa’s funeral before, but the casket was open. He’d frozen at the sight of him, as if he was going to twitch and wake up. This didn’t feel any different.)
Warm arms wrapped around him, and suddenly he felt so cold. He whimpered, confused.
[“Ranpo..”]
[“Wake up! You are Edogawa Ranpo. You’re the youngest and greatest detective in the world. You’re quirkless, and despite that, you can come up with calculations in a second. You helped me, Shinsou Hitoshi with my quirk, and so now here I am, helping you back! Please.”]
..what..?
[“Everyone’s worried about you! Please come back! You’re my senpai, almost like an older brother to me! I know Tsukauchi and Aizawa see you as their kid. They need you! We all do! You’ve helped so many, so let us help you!”]
But he wasn’t..
[“You saved Bakugou! You let yourself get taken instead! You’re so kind and selfless Ranpo, but please, be selfish just this once. I know this place might seem so.. empty, and almost like sleep. I know that’s what we share in common, that we like that, but this is different. Don’t you want to feel it again? To eat cake, and nom on candy. To annoy Tsukauchi, and retort at bad guys? You won’t feel that here. You’ll rot away and die. Isn’t that annoying? Don’t you hate death?”]
..he..
[“Wake up!”]
..Wake.. up..?
Wake..
Wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup
Ranpo woke up.
Immediately, he winced, clutching his head from a massive headache. “What..?”
He blinked, lost at the sight of everyone staring at him like a ghost.
“..What.. happened?”
Everythingfeltsowrong,thisiswrong,wasn’thesupposedto[]whathappened?
He frowned, rubbing at his eyes. “You all look like blobs. I guess I need glasses huh?”
..he felt.. Heavy, almost.
All For One laughed in Tartarus.