The first day of the investigation was a lot of questions, also well Fatgum was dealing with other crimes that popped up during patrols. While on these patrols Fatgum, and Sun-Eater walked by the large Living-Well building, when they did so Fatgum started talking about Hinako, and the things he's learned of her. Sun-Eater hears that she was a nurse but now is a chef, also that she is timid and embarrassed about her quirk, not unlike he Tamaki used to be, Fatgum doesn't share the details of her quirk though.
Sun-Eater gladly listens, his mentor has always been informal, often taking him out to eat, messaging Tamaki about how his day went. His happy-go-lucky way is why he quickly makes friends, and puts people at ease. Though this has been the most Fatgum has talked about the things happening in his personal life.
The only solid lead that they got from their questioning is from the video from a camera in the foyer of the building. In the video a large muscular man with short buzzed black hair cargo pants and a hoodie, enters the building around midnight,heading down the hall that leads to Fatgum's apartment. There are no cameras in the hallways, though the guy is also caught leaving from the same way over 2 hours later, this time with his hoodie up to cover his face. After some questioning they find that no one in the other apartments received any guest at the times in question.
Sun-Eater took a couple days off school to help out, however, with the sports festival coming up he is training hard to be ready this year. Fatgum removes the police tape from his door as he goes to unlock it, he sees Sara, the high school girl that lives with her single mom. He and them have had a great relationship the mom even gives Fatgum a discount at her dry cleaning business for his costumes. Seeing him, she jogs down the hall towards him, seeming to have just gotten back from school.
"Mr. Fatgum!", cheery and bright she smiles up at him. "When my mom and I saw what happened... we were both so worried. It's not much but we would like to help!"
"That's very sweet, thanks for the offer but don't worry yourself.", he looks at the door of his apartment still smeared with the goo, Deadgum.
Sara breaths deep, she takes out a rag from her bag. It is covered in so many stains it looks nearly tye-dyed, she licks her finger touches the stain, which begins to move and compress, it covers the part of her finger that she licked. Then she rubs the stain covered finger on the rag, in only a moment the word that was sprawled across his door is completely gone.
"I can help! My mom and I have the same quirk, stain remover, we can move substances from one place to another, but they have to have had a liquid form first.", her voice is timid well talking about her quirk, as she continues there is a sadness in her voice. "It's no good for being a hero or anything, but it's the reason my mom has the best dry cleaners in the city... my quirk may not be able to do much, but I can do this."
'A quirk not suited for being a hero... Hinako must have felt the same way at some point...', He smiles warmly at the young high school girl he's known for a few years. "With a quirk like that, your bein' my hero right now! The inside is worse, you sure your up for it?". Her eyes widen a spark that wasn't there before ignites, she nods firmly.
'I wonder... was Hinako ever told how amazin' her quirk was... quirks that aren't flashy, or suited for bein a hero, there's little demand or trainin... ', opening his apartment door, he sees Sara shrink back a little. "It took me off guard too, it's a lot. It's okay if you can't."
Sara shakes her head and steps into the apartment. Taishiro gathers things up, and makes it as easy as possible for Sara to use her quirk, while he bags up the now broken stuff for the garbage. It takes them only a couple of hours but by the end of it the apartment is clean, though still shows sign of the physical damage.
Taishiro holds his hand up for a high five, Sara smiles brightly and high fives. Her hands stained red, a drawback of her quirk some of the stain remains on her hands for a period of time. "You were amazin'! I really owe you one. Your hands, you sure you'll be okay?"
The young girl nods as she slips on a pair of cute gloves, "I'll be fine, just catch the guy okay!". She waves as she leaves the apartment.
Taishiro, glances at his phone, a text from Hinako displays.
Hinako -Hey hope you had a good day, I'll be home soon, you still in for dinner tonight? Everything should be ready around 700-
Taishiro replies -looking forward to it!-
He turns to start getting ready for his first official date with Hinako. They usually met before on Monday's, but a few days ago when they hung out in her apartment they got close and came to realize each others feelings with only a brief kiss. Since then the two of them have been texting, he tells her about his day, she even asks about Tamaki and what he's been up too.
He changes into a button-up red shirt, but wears casual pants so he doesn't look to formal. Looking about his nearly empty common room, the damaged furniture piled in a corner with the broken tv, but dispite it he still smiles. Feeling some nerves come on as he checks himself a few extra times in the mirror, before heading up to her place.
Taishiro- On my way up! {He types out 'can't wait to see you' but chooses to delete it}
Taishiro steps into the elevator along side a delivery guy, who seems to recognize him. His friendly voice, "What floor?".
"Uh...", the delivery guy double takes, and checks the tag. "Third... Your Fatgum right?", the delivery man continues, saying how he's a big fan and he lives in the area, and has seen Fatgum fight a few times.
In his friendly manner he nods and kindly talks to the fan, they both start down the hallway. Taishiro double takes, as the delivery guy follows him. Together they both stand in front of Hinako's door. "Don't you have to deliver the food?". He says a bit meekly not wanting to be rude but doesn't need the fan to know where his personal life is.
"Oh I am! Apartment 315." The delivery guy seems just as surprised as Taishiro.
'I thought she was making the food... looks like it's soup... maybe a mix between home cooked and take out?', Taishiro knocks on the door to Hinako's apartment.
Her footsteps drag across the apartment before she cracks the door. She sniffles before she speaks, "Taishiro?" Her voice is confused and foggy.
Stunned by what he sees Taishiro steps back to let the delivery guy move in. She stands in her doorway in a kawaii unicorn onesie, tissues sticking out of the pockets. Her eyes dark, nose red, and her complexion pale, a large pair of glasses that are crooked. With equal confusion she receives the soup she ordered, and staring at Taishiro. Awkwardly the delivery guy leaves the two of them standing there befuddled.
"Taishiro... I..I'm flattered you came by to check on me, I feel realy bad for not being in contact after..ah...ah..ACHOO!", she barely gets a tissue up to catch the sneeze. "But I've been pretty sick a couple days now... Everything okay?".
Pure confusion still plays across both their faces. "Wait what was that... about not being in contact?"
"I dropped my phone it was damaged pretty bad, I haven't been out to replace it yet since I'm sick...", she moves to the side, as though to have him step in. "If you don't mind being around me, you can step in for a moment."
Stepping into the apartment, he sees the area in her living room she has been resting in for a couple days. A couple empty noodle cups, a steaming tea, the inscent burner that smells of oranges and lemon, to help clear sinuses. Still confused he turns to her, "When... did you drop your phone?".
"T..tuesday morning,", she ducks into her bathroom, he hears her blow her nose, "...on my way to work. Everything okay Taishiro, what's the matter?"
"Um...uh...sorry just...", he takes his phone out of his pocket, to check his messages. The screens says '1 new message.'
Hinako- I'll see you soon!
The simple message, seems so ominous now standing in her apartment, her being the way she is. "Hinako, when you're cellphone got smashed did you dump it? What did you do with it?", his question comes across firmer then he would have liked. But the messages between them were personal, meant for her, not some creep with her phone or who grabbed her sin card.
"What does it matter? please tell me what's wrong.", she hears the concern in his voice, which gives away that he's worked up about something. Placing the take out in the kitchen, she reads Taishiro's body language.
Taking out his cellphone he brings up the messages, "Sometime, Monday night someone vandalized my apartment... makin' threats against me... not all that unheard of for a hero...maybe some past villian I put away or somethin'.", his voice soft and sad.
He continues, "I texted you in the afternoon tellin' ya...but I guess it was never you who was textin back... Through text we set up a date. Now I'm thinkin this guy may have targeted your phone.", He doesn't look at her as he speaks ashamed, he doesn't want to see how scared he has made her.
"...I'm so sorry...", her voice trembles, she walks up to Taishiro who stands just barley inside her apartment. He sees her little hand reach out of the hoof of the unicorn onesie, gently she lays her hand on his chest. She moves into his view so that him looking down is at her.
"it's nothin', we already have leads on the guy who did it. It'll be over soon. I'm just hoping that who did that and whoever's been texting me are the same person.", she moves herself into him, she hugs him, and he can feel her hands trembling.
She shakes her head no, as it is pressed into him. She says something, but it muffled to much to hear as she says it with her face pressed into his belly. He wraps his arms around the sick scared unicorn, one hand around her body the other protectively cradling her head. She relaxes into him, and for a moment he feels her already weak knees buckle, and he supports her weight.
Picking her up with ease, he carries Hinako to her sickie nest in her livingroom. She looks dopey, her head cloudy from medication, not processing everything quite yet. He sets her down gently, "I'll grab your soup.", he heads to the kitchen pours out her soup in a bowl and brings it over to the nest area. Though not the date he was hoping for, Taishiro still manages a soft smile.
Her brown eyes are teary as she watches him, not having the engery to stop him for waiting on her, in her own home. "Taishiro...can I ask one small thing...".
"Name it.", he smiles gently at her.
"I fear I may have put you at risk, so if it will help I want you to have it. I'm not good with technology but... if it means you catch him, maybe...", she hands him her tablet.
He seems stunned, not understanding why she would think this would help, "Thanks for the offer but..."
She shakes her head, some tears forming, "I log everything on there, a habit I still have from being a nurse."
"I don't understand...", he moves around to be seated beside her, now holding a tablet in a baby pink case.
"When I left Tokyo, I also left him... he was controlling, thought of me as property, didn't ever want to let me even leave to house. He... liked the fact that I had a...", she looks away from Taishiro wiping her eyes. "...he was able to hit me as much as he wanted... because I could just heal myself... and no one would know...", Taishiro's face darkens as he realizes what she is sharing with him.
She continues, "Eventually it wasn't enough, and he would start cutting me, and he would take pictures...Polaroids... I got pictures of those on there..." she winces as tears roll down her face, "I left in secret. He couldn't deal with it, and has been hiring people to find me, get my information, and been trying to threatening me into coming back. He is still in Tokyo.", her arms wrapped around her knees pressing them to her chest in a defensive manner.
Stunned Taishiro nods letting her speak, he sees her hands trembling and it doesn't seem to be part of her illness. His mind racing with the new information, 'That's awful... Guys who do that sorta thin' makes my blood boil!', Taishiro looks at her empathetically, he hesitates a moment, but wraps his arm around her opposite shoulder. He lets it hover for a moment, to see if she is comfortable before, letting his hand rest on her shoulder.
She leans into him when he rests his arm around her, pressing herself into his soft body. She murmurs something nearly inaudible to Taishiro, repeating it again and again, allowing him to parse together what she is saying, "It's my fault...I'm sorry..." Over and over.
Taishiro holds her close to him, "it ain't your fault... it never was... your here, I'm here, we're gonna be safe...", she trembles against him, he can feel tensions and stress flowing out of her, as she perhaps finally, gets to vent her troubled mind.
After a time she settles enough to reorient herself, she takes off to her bathroom to wipe her face of the tears. Well she does so, Taishiro warms up her soup and brings it back to her spot.
When she comes back out, her eyes puffy, nose red from the cold, she is about to speak when Taishiro interrupts, "I'm gonna order from the samurai's grill, hope you don't mind if I get it delivered here?", she smiles meekly, and nods as she weakly makes it back over to her spot.
They relax together, Taishiro grabbing her tea, and keeping her warm. They watch some shows but Hinako quickly falls asleep pressed into him. Around 11 long after she has fallen asleep and Taishiro watches a movie, his phone alerts. -1 new message-
(Fake) Hinako- Have a good night <3
Taishiro sneers at the phone, 'Wouldn't they know that I know by now? Creepy...I'm no good with these cybercrimes, luckily I know some people who are..'.
~~Two Days Later~~
Hinako sits on a small chair in Fatgum's office, it has been a couple days since he spent the night again. Two nights he has slept at her place, her heart races just thinking about it. Ashamed of herself, and embarrassed by how things went, she looks about the office impatiently, holding the boxed lunches in her lap.
Only the waiting area doors to the office are open so that anyone is able to walk in, there is a sign up that says -Out of office on Patrol-. Fatgum texted her new phone, letting her know that him and a friend were headed back to the office. He needs to make her statement official, so that they are able to act on her information and use it in an arrest.
A high pitched voice speaks to Fatgum as the doors open, "...backlog in our system." she turns to see the two enter, she hears the rest of the conversation, "It's Sir Nighteye that will have final say if we are able to help."
Fatgum speaks with respect to the tall centipede headed man that he walks in with, "I am sure of it. Besides we don't want targetin heroes to become a trend among villians.". Fatgum motions for Hinako to follow them, she nods getting up to follow them into the next part of the office.
"Hinako Suzuki? I am Centipeder, a sidekick with Sir Nighteye's Agency. We hope to be able to help out with this investigation.", he bows like a gentleman to her as she stands to enter the office.
Politely she bows back, "t..thank you, I just hope... I can be of some help.". The three enter the main part of Fatgum's office.
She sets the lunches she made on top of Fatgum's office fridge, before sitting down in the chair opposite the two tall heroes. She reiterates her information to Fatgum and Centipeder who listen quietly, giving her time to get through some of the difficult parts. Centipeder has some directed questions about her phone, she admits that she didn't drop it, but took it apart to get rid of it. Since he had gotten a hold of her number and began to berate her with massages. Though she took it apart, they find out she didn't know to damage the pieces before throwing them away.
"Anyone could have picked up the pieces and even put it back together, or slip the sd or sin card into their phone, getting all the same information...", it's hard to tell, but Centipeder looks frustrated, as though his job was just made harder not easier. "These pictures... your healing quirk... just how powerful is it?"
Fatgum's honest nature makes it difficult for him to keep the anger he feels off of his face, "These...what this jerk did was unforgivable! Why aren't we just goin' over there n takin' this monster down right now!"
Centipeder sighs in frustration again, "These situations are difficult... most likely he knows you have these prints and that they could be used as evidence... unintentionally or not, this may be why you were able to get away from him as cleanly as you did."
"I had help from a group that aides women in my situation... they suggested it...", she answers meekly, trying to avoid the question asked about her quirk.
The pictures that they have laid out are prints of pictures taken of Polaroids, they show the brutal nature of what was inflicted on her. In the first few she is terribly beaten trying to cover her face as a harsh flash goes off, bruises all over her arms and her wrist hanging loosely twisted in an unnatural manner. But the ones dated only days before she says she left him, she is splayed on the floor as though posed like a dead body, there's blood all over the walls and deep stab wounds in her body, mythological put in non lethal parts.
Centipeder, picks up one of the later photos, "You left only a week after this?", he knows that she tried to avoid his question, "Your healing quirk must be impressive...".
Hinako nods hesitantly, "I don't like using it, but I am able to obsorb food in to my skin, my body heats it up and converts it into a healing liquid... that I... can secrete through my glands...", she crosses her arms around her chest defensively.
Both men stand there quiet for moment, as they come to the realization of what it means. "W..wait that ain't how it worked... when I...uh.." Fatgum red in the face, as he glances at Centipeder embarrassed.
Hinako nods, and in a sterile tone "I am able to disrupt the process which gives the food heat and a weaker restorative quality... I had it tested when I worked as a nurse... We found that...in the fluid it has universal or stem cells that are able to change into and repair any sort of damage, it can greatly weaken the body, as it consumes a lot of energy to heal quickly...", her overly sterile tone sounds practiced from when she worked as a nurse. She avoids looking at Fatgum as she speaks so that she is able to get through it without becoming an embarrassed blubbering mess.
"Do you know the limits of it?", Much more then Fatgum, Centipeder, is able to keep an even tone, if still high pitched.
"It's best for fresh injuries, it can help relieve long term pains, but it isn't a miracle cure at most it can regrow less then 5mm of damaged, or missing organs, bone, or even muscle tissue... though other than myself there hasn't been a recurring patient.", that sterile tone continues, and she has to work now to avoid looking at Fatgum.
"An impressive ability...Fatgum I'll write up a report, and let you know what Sir Nighteye agrees to help out with.", he politely bows to Hinako, as he leaves the office.
Fatgum and Hinako watch him go, leaving them alone. 'At least I understand why she doesn't like her quirk now... I should stop thinkin' about it."
"I...made you and Sun-Eater box lunches... I'm a chef and I still haven't made you anything. Kind of embarrassed about it.", The sterile tone from before completely gone, and the sweet voice that Fatgum has been used to has returned.
He laughes shaking away dirty thoughts as he does so, "Thanks so much, I had to admit you had me wondering!", he picks up the boxes, "Though Sun-Eater isn't goin' to be coming in again until after the U.A Sports Festival... Soooooo?"
She giggles, "Well then I hope you find a way for it not to go to waste.". An awkward moment hangs in the air as both of them try not to address the nature of what she talked about and everything she revealed. "Taishiro... I..."
"I gotta be at the sports festival in a few days, best way to scout up comin' talent... But I was also hoping... you'd come with me?", he opens up the lunch box, its beautifully packed with traditional Japanese food, with large portions, and a homemade sweet-bun. "Aw yeah, it looks amazing! You've been through a lot putting it together, but I'll take it from here.", he speaks to her without addressing it all upfront, letting her know that she is okay to lean on him.
Once more his kind words put an ease to her that she seems unfamiliar with, "I'd love too go with you."