章 33: Giran
Izuku ducked into an alley as he waited for his bullies to follow. He didn't have any big meetings for a few days, so he figured now was as good a time as any to let them leave a few bruises. Ito, or knock-off Kacchan as Izuku liked to think of him, charged into the alley with his fists raised and Izuku resisted the urge to roll his eyes. All of a sudden a taller man with a similar build to Ito followed him into the alley.
"Yo, Mom wanted you home early today, or did you forget?"
Ito scoffed at the man, who was apparently his brother, "I'm kinda in the middle of teaching some nerd a lesson, I'll be home soon."
The man glanced over at Izuku, then froze. Izuku could see the gears turning in his head and Izuku smiled slightly. He remembered hearing that Ito's older brother was a drug dealer for one of the local gangs, Izuku couldn't remember if he'd ever gotten around to working with them, but the brother had apparently heard of him, if his obvious fear was any indication.
"Dude." The brother grabbed Ito's shoulder and turned him away. "Don't mess with that one."
He glanced back at Izuku, who smirked and raised an eyebrow at him. Ito followed his brother's gaze and Izuku gave his best terrified teenager look, laughing internally at the intense confusion that crossed the brother's face.
"What the fuck are you talking about? This nerd's a good for nothing quirkless weakling!"
"Shut up!" The brother hissed, then turned to Izuku and bowed slightly. "I am so sorry about my brother's behavior, I'll take him home now."
He grabbed Ito by the arm and dragged him out of the alley as Izuku tried not to laugh. As he climbed the fire escape to take a shortcut to his base, he could still hear Ito yelling, "What was that? Why did you protect that damn nerd?"
Izuku shook his head. Looks like he might need to find a new bully.
"Ugh." Izuku groaned as he hung up the phone and Shouto started to rub circles onto his back.
"What is it? Are your clients being annoying again?"
Izuku shook his head, "No, it's just...Giran hasn't really been the same since he was abducted."
Shouto nodded, "Yeah, I mean they did torture him for no good reason, but he refused to talk, so I mean, he's still Giran, right?"
Izuku huffed, "You'd think so, but I think staying silent took the last bit of backbone he had left." He dragged a hand down his face. "I hate to say it, but...I think Giran's gone soft."
Shouto sighed, "That's annoying, he was one of the best brokers in the underground. It's a shame to lose someone like him."
Izuku looked at Shouto, "Have you been having any problems with him recently?"
Shouto shrugged, "I remember Shigaraki complaining about some of our shipments being sub-par, but then again, it's Shigaraki, so he's always complaining about something."
Izuku nodded absently, "I remember hearing he'd dropped a few clients too. I mean," Izuku thought for a minute, "I feel bad, because he really helped me get on my feet when I was just starting out, but I've been finding clients almost entirely on my reputation most of my career, so I don't really need him anymore, especially not if he keep going this way."
"So you're going to drop him?" Shouto asked.
Izuku frowned, "Yes, it's just…" he groaned. "I'm concerned that things are going to get worse. I've heard of what happens to villains who start going soft. First it's just sub-par work, then it's losing the conviction to do what needs to be done, then soon enough, they're turning to the heroes and asking for a plea deal."
Shouto's eyes widened, "You think that Giran's going to betray you?"
Izuku shrugged, "I don't know. What I do know is that he knows too much, and that he could destroy me if he really tried." He groaned. "What am I supposed to do, Shouto?"
"You could always take him out."
Izuku searched Shouto's face for any indication that he was joking, but couldn't find any, "You-you can't be serious. Why would I take him out?"
Shouto shrugged, "It seems to me that right now, Giran is more of a liability than an asset and it might only be a matter of time before he betrays you, but if you play your cards right and send a message, he could be worth more to you dead than alive."
Izuku frowned, but his brain started running through the possibilities. He didn't really need Giran anymore. He had enough of his own connections that it wouldn't hurt his business if Giran were to die suspiciously. He had La Brava's program to run his hostage situation, so he didn't even need Giran for that anymore. It had been a while since he set up his hostage situation, and he did need to make sure the police remembered he was the one calling the shots here. Izuku smiled slightly at his boyfriend.
It just might work.
"Detective Tuskauchi! We just received an anonymous tip about a broker who might know Mastermind's identity."
Tsukauchi looked up from his notes and stared at Officer Sansa in shock for a few moments, "What? How soon can we bring him in?"
Sansa smiled, "We already had a team go pick him up. He should be here in a few minutes."
Tsukauchi nodded and stood, straightening his tie and making sure he had everything he needed for the interrogation. The Mastermind case had outgrown its case file and had been transferred to a box, so Tsukauchi gathered only the most important pieces of evidence before heading to the interrogation room. When he got there, the broker was already sitting, handcuffed to the table. Tsukauchi's eyes widened when they fell on the mechanical fingers of his right hand and he was willing to bet this was the guy whose fingers they'd found placed around the city last month. Had Mastermind been responsible for that?
"Hello, my name is Detective Tsukauchi. My quirk…"
"Yeah, I know who you are Detective Lie Detector." The broker twitched nervously. "That still doesn't explain why I'm here or how you found me."
Tsukauchi sighed, "Since you know my quirk, I should let you know that it is always active and I will be using it during the course of this interview, which is being recorded. Can you state your name for the record."
"Giran." Tsukauchi's eyes widened. He'd heard of Giran, he was one of the most successful brokers in the underground, but from what he'd heard Giran was always smirking and was unconcerned with everything. That just didn't match with the man in front of him, unless...Tsukauchi's eyes flicked to the mechanical hand that was on full display on the table between them. An experience like that...probably left more mental scars than physical.
"Alright, Giran. Are you going to give me a real name?"
Giran scoffed and Tsukauchi rolled his eyes, "Ok then, what can you tell me about Mastermind?"
"I can tell you that only an idiot would turn on him." Giran gave a strained smile. "And I'm not an idiot."
Tsukauchi sighed, "Any information you give us will be invaluable, Giran. I'm sure we'd be able to negotiate time off your sentence. Your blackmarket dealings come with quite the penalty. We'll even protect you from Mastermind."
Giran looked at him skeptically, "Like you protected Wash?"
Tsukauchi's blood ran cold at the reminder. Even though it'd been months, he still hadn't completely gotten over watching the hero he was supposed to protect die in front of him while he couldn't even move. He took a deep breath to clear his head and Giran laughed humorlessly.
"Look, I've known the kid since the beginning, and in all the time I've met him, I've never seen him fail at something that was important to him. You don't mess with someone like that, Detective, not if you want to stay alive."
Tsukauchi schooled his expression as he realized Nedzu had been right about Mastermind being a teenager. Giran hadn't seemed to notice he'd let Mastermind's age slip, so if Tsukauchi played his cards right, he might be able to get him to slip up again.
Izuku quietly slipped out of the ventilation shaft and made his way toward the security room at the police station. At this time of day, there should just be one officer assigned to watch the monitors, so the first order of business was to make sure he couldn't raise the alarm. The door opened silently and Izuku kept his footsteps light as he slid his favorite knife from it's sheaf and slit the officer's throat before noting which interrogation room they'd put Giran in. He cleaned the knife and put it away, adjusting his gloves and medical mask before heading back out into the hall. He was dressed as an intern today, with simple grey slacks and a dark blue button up, and he'd put charcoal powder in his hair so it looked more black than green. All in all, it was a meager disguise, but Izuku was plain-looking enough that it wouldn't matter.
He made sure to act confident as he made his way to the coffee machine, but not so confident as to draw attention to himself. He grabbed one of the paper cups from the stand on the table before taking a black sharpie from his pocket and writing something on the bottom of the inside and filling it with coffee. Finally, he took a small packet that looked enough like sugar to not cause alarm and stirred in the contents with a fork, then hunched his shoulders slightly and made his way to the interrogation room.
"O-officer Sansa, s-sir?"
Sansa looked at him in surprise, "Hello. Who are you?"
"M-mikumo A-akatani, sir. I j-just started my internship in the records department. I, um, I thought the suspect m-might be thirsty, sir." He bowed slightly as he held out the coffee.
Sansa nodded, "Good work Akatani. He has been in there a while, and maybe this will help him be a bit more talkative. In the future, though, it's probably best to wait for the detective to make the call." Sansa panicked slightly as Izuku's eyes watered with fake tears. "Not that you did anything wrong! It's just sometimes the detectives are particular about their interrogation styles. You know what, I'll just take this in. I'm sure the suspect will enjoy it."
Izuku bowed, "Thank you so much!"
Sansa smiled, "Yeah, sure. Have a good day Akatani, say hi to the records department for me."
Izuku smirked and nodded, then walked out the front door as Sansa took the coffee to Giran. As much as he'd enjoy watching the show, his plan was reckless enough as it was.
"Detective?" Sansa poked his head through the door and Tsukauchi broke away from the staring contest he'd been having with Giran.
"What is it Sansa?"
"One of the interns made the suspect some coffee." Sansa said, setting the cup down in front of Giran.
"Oh thank goodness, I'm parched!" Giran grabbed the coffee as best he could still handcuffed to the table and drank half of it in one swallow before grimacing. "Ugh. I've had better coffee from gas stations. This may as well just be bitter water."
Tsukauchi rolled his eyes and waved Sansa back out of the room. Despite his protests about the quality, Giran was still happily sipping the coffee.
"Alright. How about you tell me how you met Mastermind?"
Giran raised his eyebrows, "You don't just meet Mastermind . You only find him if you're looking for him, and even then you won't realize it's him the first three times you see him."
Tsukauchi nodded as Giran took another drink, "So you sought him out. Was this before or after he started having face to face meet-ups with clients?"
"What's it matter?" Giran dissolved into a coughing fit and frowned when he caught his breath again. "It's not like that changes who he is."
Tsukauchi sighed, "It matters for you. Say, if you forced him to escalate, it might be worse for you than if you'd met him afterwards."
Giran rolled his eyes and coughed again, "If I encouraged him to meet face to face with clients, I'd be proud, not scared. Besides, Mastermind scares me more than you do." He downed the coffee and did a double take as he took in the empty cup.
"I can have Sansa get you more coffee if you'll be agreeable." Tsukauchi said.
Giran's eyes widened and he threw the cup down on the table like it'd burned him as he stared at it with something akin to betrayal, "Who gave you the coffee?"
Tsukauchi looked at him with confusion, "What?"
"The coffee! Who gave you the damn coffee?" Giran was becoming manic and Tsukauchi grabbed his shoulders as he tried to calm him down.
"I don't know, just an intern, why does it matter?"
"I didn't say anything." Giran muttered. "I didn't say anything. Why? Why would he...? I wasn't going to say anything."
Tsukauchi glanced at him, then grabbed the cup to see what had freaked Giran out so badly. His stomach dropped as he saw Mastermind's signature M sprawled across the bottom in black sharpie.
"Sansa! Get a doctor in here now!"
Sansa threw open the door and took in the scene before running off as Tsukauchi knelt beside the frantically muttering Giran.
"Giran, Giran, listen, he obviously doesn't care about you. I don't know how much time you have left, but tell me about him. It isn't going to make any difference at this point. Tell me."
Giran was starting to breathe harder and cough, but Tsukauchi didn't know if that was from a panic attack or poison, "H-his name...His name is Mid…"
Giran went limp and Tsukauchi cursed as he checked his pulse, then frantically unlocked his handcuffs so he could move him to the floor and start chest compressions.
"Don't you dare die on me, Giran." He muttered, knowing that it was probably useless to do chest compressions on a poison victim. "Don't you dare die."
The medical examiner, the closest thing they had to a doctor in the station, burst through the door, "What happened?"
"He's been poisoned." Tsukauchi yelled.
"Do you know what he was poisoned with?"
Tsukauchi shook his head and the medical examiner pushed him gently to the side as he grabbed an epipen from his bag and shoved it into Giran's thigh. They waited with bated breath as the examiner got out a stethoscope and checked him for a pulse for a solid minute before looking up at them and shaking his head.
Tsukauchi crumpled.
Everyone at the station was thirsty, but there was no way anyone was drinking anything until the investigation was finished. They'd sent both the cup and the coffee machine down to forensics, who had identified the poison as a fast acting poison completely soluble in water. It had been found in the cup, but not the rest of the coffee, which matched what they had found on the security tapes. Sansa had checked with the records department and they had confirmed that there was no Mikumo Akatani interning there and in fact, all their interns had started months ago. The only fingerprints on the poisoned cup had belonged to Sansa and Giran, since the mystery intern had worn gloves. They had also found traces of charcoal powder on the cup, which Tsukauchi thought had probably been used to color the intern's hair.
Tsukauchi walked out the doors and sat on the front steps of the police station in an attempt to get some fresh air. The media was already swarming, but officers were keeping them away for now. Nedzu had arrived shortly after Giran's death and he came to sit beside Tsukauchi.
"The intern was the same height and build as Mastermind." Tsukauchi said numbly. "The same age as well, since Giran basically confirmed we're looking for a teenager."
Nedzu nodded, "I suspected as much."
"I just," Tsukauchi groaned, "he was right here! He was in the police station and we still couldn't recognize him!"
Nedzu put his paw on Tsukauchi's shoulder, "I know, but we're getting closer. We know his age, and we caught him on camera. We know his hair isn't black, otherwise he'd have used charcoal powder. And you and Hawks have both obtained some letters from his name. We have all the pieces to the puzzle, we just need to find out how they go together."
Tsukauchi took a deep breath and nodded, "You're right." He gave a weak smile. "Let's catch the guy."
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