Requiem of the Broken

Chapter 31: Dark Encounters

"Come in." said the calm voice of Nezu behind his office door.

Momo walked into the office and took a seat in one of the chairs.

"Ah, Ms. Yaoyorozu, to what do I owe the pleasure?" asked Nezu, putting down his pen, and clasping his paws together on his desk.

"Well sir, it's about Midoriya Izuku. Tsu, Mina, and I were wondering if you had any information on him." She said, coming straight to the point.

Nezu looked mildly surprised, but answered, "Well, I can't say I know much myself, apart from what my friend Sasakura has said about the child anyways. Is there a problem?" he asked in return, his keen senses picking up on Momo's faint sense of agitation.

"Mina is convinced she has seen him somewhere before, and the rest of us are concerned about his past. While not lying outright, he gave very general answers when we asked him about him. factor in his convenient appearance at the cemetery Ochako goes to, and Tsu is worried there may be ulterior motives, unlikely though they might be." She said.

"Hmmm..." mused Nezu, closing his eyes and thinking for a moment before opening them again.

"Well, I am sure he is no agent of villains or any other organization. From what Sasakura has said to me, he keeps his past to himself and prefers to not dwell on it if at all possible. Though I was informed that he went through the Mufustafu Police Academy before the Three Day War of Liberation. If you would like to know more than that, then I suggest asking Sasakura directly or talking to Detective Naomasa. He was his superior at the time, and if he is in the city, then he would be the ideal party to interview." Said Nezu.

"He was a police officer?" asked Momo, both surprised and interested at how Midoriya wound up in a private bar of all places.

"I believe so, yes. Is there anything else I can do for you?" Asked Nezu brightly.

"Yes, there was another question I wanted to ask you. Are there plans in place to safeguard Eri? If her quirk was able to make the quirk suppression and destruction drugs, then I imagine Zeus would want her back very badly." She asked.

Nezu smiled as he answered, "I am afraid you're a bit late to the punch on that front. Bakugo has already volunteered to go on night patrols of the hospital. I believe he also intends to have Todoroki and Kirishima rotate with him until we can create an appropriate safehouse and assign a permanent guard detail to the child."

Momo felt a bit of tension leave her at the news. If Bakugo and the other two were going to watching her, short of Zeus himself she doubted there was anyone who stood an actual chance. Especially since they would all be using their wargear until Zeus was apprehended.

"That's good to know, but I was also curious as to the child's condition as a whole. Has there been any progress?" She asked. 

Nezu gave a small sigh, "She is doing well all things considered. She has already gotten a transplant for one of her kidneys, and there appear to be no adverse effects from it. The biggest problem however lies in her mind. She has a spotty memory at best of her time as a captive, with no clear recollection of the kind of abuse she has likely suffered. Dr. Minoru will be seeing her in the next couple of days, and he will be able to give a much clearer picture of her mental state. Though, one of the pediatricians has brought up the possibility that she may be suffering from dissociative amnesia pertaining to everything in her past up till now." said Nezu sadly.

Momo felt her stomach turn over. Imagining what the girl had probably suffered made her furious. Both at the villains that subjected her to such horrors, but also a mix of anger and guilt towards herself and heroes in general. That they had not been there to save her before she had been abandoned by the villains, that she had to suffer with no one to save her made her want to scream. What made it worse was that it wasn't even a hero that saved her. The Hunter had appeared at the hospital with her, with grievous injuries and bleeding everywhere, he had still managed to save her. It simply made her angrier with herself, and she couldn't even imagine how that thought might infuriate Bakugo or the others.