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Nedzu looked through the notebook with growing concern. “These are… incredibly thorough. He knows all his classmates’ weaknesses and how to exploit them. In the hands of a villain, this would be a horrific weapon.”
“So you agree with me, then?” Aizawa asked. “That he could be the one we’re looking for?”
Just a few minutes ago, Aizawa had burst into Nedzu’s office with an intense look in his eyes. After class had let out he had found one of Midoriya’s notebooks lying on the ground. He went to retrieve it and found detailed descriptions and analyses of the Quirks, personalities, gear, et cetera, for everyone in Class 1-A, and even a few of the students in 1-B.
After reading through it, Aizawa had come to the conclusion that Midoriya is a prime suspect for the League’s mole within UA, and he was more than ready to act on it.
But Nedzu didn’t get where he was by jumping to conclusions.
“I admit it’s a possibility,” Nedzu said, closing the notebook. “But it’s circumstantial evidence at best.”
“Circumstantial evidence?!” Aizawa said incredulously. “They’re step-by-step instructions on how to kill his own classmates!”
“Immediately followed by possible ways to rectify those weaknesses.”
Aizawa opened his mouth to retort, but paused, looking back in the notebook. He felt like slamming his head on the desk for not noticing that. The second he saw those entries, his confirmation bias took over, laser-focusing on the other damning takedown strategies and ignoring everything else. But he wasn’t done. Far from it.
“Fair enough. But that alone doesn’t exonerate him.”
“You have more evidence?” Nedzu asked politely.
“Well, for starters, there’s the fact that every one of his classmates has an entry in this journal, with their Quirk picked apart in painstaking detail… except for his own.”
Nedzu simply nodded, knowing the real reason for that but asked Aizawa to continue regardless.
“Once the possibility of Midoriya being the traitor occured to me, I went into his file and found something… interesting. Apparently, his Quirk wasn’t registered until the Entrance Exam. Before that he was registered as Quirkless. For them to register him as such, they would have had to have done tests to determine if he was unable to develop one, so the possibility of him being a late bloomer is out. The only possibility left is that he received it via other means, and you and I both know there’s only one person capable of giving or taking Quirks.”
Nedzu frowned, but for a different reason than Aizawa suspected. Nedzu did, in fact, know that statement was untrue. He was in on the secret of One for All, and he was well aware of how Midoriya had come across his Quirk. But it wasn’t his place to spill that secret right here, right now, so Nedzu kept quiet.
“Well, Principal?”
Nedzu sighed. “I will admit the possibility is there,” he said.
“So what do you recommend we do? This is a delicate situation. All Might will no doubt try to protect him, but he won’t be off campus for another two weeks. We can’t let the class be put in more danger during that time, but we also can’t risk letting the traitor know we’re on to them.”
“Actually, I don’t think we need to wait at all,” Nedzu said, smiling.
“What do you mean?”
“In case you’ve forgotten, we have a secret weapon,” Nedzu explained. “And if I remember right, he should be only a half-hour drive away at the moment.”
Midoriya Izuku had turned his entire room upside down looking for his notebook. Hero Analysis for the Future #15 was nowhere to be found. His mind raced with possibilities for what could’ve happened to it.
Okay, try to think through this logically… you were last writing in it when you were waiting for class to start… Did I leave it there in the classroom?
He began pacing, scratching his hair frantically.
Do I dare sneak out at this hour to look for it? No, of course not! It’s not worth the risk, it’s just a notebook! If I did leave it there, would it still be there? Or would someone have taken it to the lost and found? Or would they steal it? No, of course not, you idiot, it’s not even worth stealing, it’s just my brain vomiting on the paper.
As he continued to run through possibilities and worst-case scenarios, there was a knock on the door.
He collected himself, expecting it to be Iida making his rounds, and was surprised to see Aizawa standing there. And even more surprised to see Detective Tsukauchi next to him. And even more surprised to see that the detective was holding…
“My notebook!” Izuku gasped. “Where was it?”
“In my classroom,” Aizawa said. “Can we come in?”
“Oh, of-of course!” Midoriya stepped aside and let them in.
“Thank you,” Aizawa said. “Tsukauchi was just on campus, discussing a case he was on that he might need me to part in, when we stumbled across your notebook. I must say, your analyses are incredibly thorough.”
“Oh, uh… thank you.”
“However, it was incredibly irresponsible of you to not take better care of it. All that information wasn’t even written in code, anyone could read it. What if you lost it off-campus? What if it was stolen?”
“What do you mean? It isn’t worth stealing, is it? I mean, anyone could do what I do,” Izuku stammered.
Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow as his Quirk registered that as truth. At the very least he fully believed what he was saying.
“I don’t think so. Your notebook contained detailed descriptions of your classmates’ weaknesses and how to use them to defeat them. What if a villain found it? They’d have detailed step-by-step instructions on how to kill each and every single one of them.”
Except you, Aizawa wanted to add, but Tsukauchi advised him against tipping their hand too early.
“R-really?” Izuku said, shocked. “I- I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that. I just wrote those so I could help them get stronger and cover those weaknesses, I don’t want anyone to get hurt with those!”
Truth, Tsukauchi’s Quirk supplied.
“What about your other notebooks?” Tsukauchi chimed in. “This one has #15 on the cover. Am I to assume you have 14 more?”
“I do.”
“And who have you shown them to?”
“Mostly, just my mom,” Izuku replied quickly, now terrified with the notion that a villain might have found his notebook if he had dropped it anywhere else. “In the past I showed them to a couple of my classmates. But they’d always make fun of me and… try to damage them.”
That’s deeply concerning, Aizawa thought as Tsukauchi registered that as the truth as well.
“Once I finish this one I’m going to show it to the rest of the class what I wrote, but other than that I’m just going to put it with the others.”
“And where exactly are the others?” Aizawa asked.
“In my room back at my mom’s house. But I don’t start doing really serious analysis until, I don’t know… number 8.”
“And other than those former classmates of yours,” Aizawa pressed, “No one’s seen any of them aside from you and your mother? I know you don’t think your analyses are worth much, but take it from an experienced pro- they are. I have to be absolutely sure no villains have seen any of these.”
“Well… let me think…” Izuku said, his mind racing. “Oh! All Might saw one of them. Signed it even.”
Of course he did.
“But other than that, no one else.”
The detective then turned back to Izuku and smiled gently, handing the notebook back to its rightful owner. Aizawa watched with an unnoticeable sigh of relief. They had agreed that Tsukauchi would hold onto the notebook during this interrogation visit, and if Izuku wasn’t the traitor, and answered every question truthfully, Tsukauchi would return it and that would signal to Aizawa that he was innocent. Otherwise Izuku would remain a suspect. “That’s all we wanted to know. Here’s your notebook back, though in the future, I’d consider writing them in code, just in case you drop one again.”
“I’ll do that. I’m sorry, it didn’t occur to me that villains would want these, I almost put everyone in danger, I’m so sorry, it won’t happen again! I’ll be more careful,” Izuku said breathlessly.
All truths , Tsukauchi’s Quirk picked up.
“Don’t worry, we’re not mad. Just be careful in the future, all right, Problem Child?”
Izuku nodded furiously.
“All right. Take care, kid,” Tsukauchi said, waving goodbye.
“Good night, Midoriya,” Aizawa said.
The two left the dorm as Midoriya frantically got to work coming up with a code.
Aizawa and Tsukauchi stood outside the door silently before the Underground Hero turned to the detective. “I guess it was a false alarm after all,” he said softly. “Thank you for your help, detective.”
“Anytime,” Tsukauchi said. “I was happy to help.”
“Let’s get back to Nedzu and tell him how it went.”
The two began their walk back to Nedzu’s office, Aizawa doing some thinking. “Really, it’s a good thing we called you from the start. If I had waited for the chance to do this by the book, it might have severely affected the class environment.”
“Could you imagine what could have happened if the class or faculty had caught wind of this? Not only would the real traitor know we were on to them, but Midoriya would start getting mistreated for no reason.”
“Agreed. It wouldn’t be rational in the slightest.”