Catch me if you can - Yaoyorozu x Reader

Chapter 16

As usual Tsukauchi was up early for work, earlier than you it seemed as when he walked out into his kitchen he could still see your sleeping form on his couch.

You had grown up so much from the first time he'd met you; a fond if not frustrating memory of his.

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It wouldn't have been more than two years ago when Tsukauchi was been tasked with bringing in an unknown vigilante who had been running rampant in and around the fuun district. Originally Tsukauchi thought himself above it as he was a high profile detective and this was just another wannabe hero who thought they could take justice into their own hands.

For weeks he ran sting operations in a bid to catch the mystery perpetrator. But no matter how complex and cunning the ploy, said perpetrator managed to sneak away every time no matter how impossible escape seemed, without leaving so much as clue or hint as to who they were.

With no results and no decent leads Tsukauchi was starting to get desperate as the pressure began to mount on him. He was beginning to understand why he had been assigned the case. One day as he was stocking up on snacks for another stakeout later that night at a local convenience store, a voice rang out from behind the counter.

"You're that detective aren't you? The one that's supposed to apprehend that vigilante fellow right?"

Tsukauchi let out a contemptuous breath, expecting the voice to taunt him which many of the other locals had been doing, "Yes that'd be me. How can I help?" He asked, looking away from the shelves and towards the counter where a young looking boy stood.

"No help needed." The boy said, his lips pursed in what Tsukauchi thought looked like a pout. "Honestly it's weird having such a large police presence around here, you lot are a rare site usually." A hint of disdain present on his voice.

"So I've heard, it's unfortunate but ultimately out of my hands." Tsukauchi said approaching the counter with a shopping bag filled with snacks and other foods to help keep him awake during the stakeout.

"It always is." The cashier said with a bitter undertone as he started scanning the items through. There's a tense silence before he speaks up once again. "You won't catch him."

"He'll slip up some time I'm sure."

"You had him cornered in that alleyway just last night didn't you?" He said, nodding his head in the direction across the street. "You're banking in one big slip up if you couldn't even catch him then."

Tsukauchi paused, his head slowly tilting up to meet the boys eyes from under his hat, "And how do you know that?" He said curiously.

The boy was silent for a moment before a mischievous grin, almost like that of a Cheshire Cat, stretched across his face.

"Well now that's for you to find out detective."

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Maybe it was because you were but a child or because he had no leads at all after weeks of investigating but he went along with your little game. However nothing could have prepared him for what he would learn.

Before he met you Tsukauchi had a much more black and white outlook on crime.

Criminals were villains who needed to be punished and that was that.