Clouded thoughts (hxh~bnha)

Chapter 6

[Tsukauchi's pov]

I sat at my desk in the police station. There have been reports going around of multiple kidnappings, from children as young as 8 to teenagers as old as 16. I've been stuck on all these kidnapping cases for months. My desk is a mess from reports and documents regarding the case. Pro hero Present Mic reported he had witnessed a child around the age of 14 being kidnapped in an alleyway whilst he was on patrol.

He stated a group of low rank villains were abducting a kid with white hair and blue eyes at the time. The area was investigated and DNA was found, but nothing showed up in our database for the kid. A couple of villains were identified but not the boy.

Pro heros Eraser Head and Present Mic are out on patrol almost all the time. Eraser at night and Mic during the daylight. Yet this is the closest we have gotten to even making contact with whatever organization it is that is committing these kidnappings. Normally they are reported at night, this is the first one in broad daylight.

I was attempting to collect my thoughts, knowing I wouldn't get anywhere if so much was on my mind. But the door burst open, an officer out of breath standing there with widened eyes, but a small smile on their face.

"Sir! We found the kidnapped children!" They shouted, I immediately jumped up from my seat and ran to the door. The officer moved out of the way, following behind me as I made my way downstairs to the first floor. My eyes widened when they landed on a group of battered up kids standing and sitting in the waiting room, some looked at the coloring books set up whilst others seemed to be calming down the younger ones in the group.

This doesn't make sense, could this be a trick? Why would an organization capable of kidnapping so many kids just let them go? How did they escape? Its been months of trying to find them, none of this makes sense, it's too out of the blue! A tall child approached me, their hair was dark and they seemed to be the most injured out of all the children here. They had a large bruise on their face, and burns along their arms, fresh ones. The bruise on their face seemed more of like a scar, it had dried blood on it and it was across their eye.

"We need to talk, please." They had been holding what looked like the youngest child in their arms, seeming to be calming them down. I nodded, some of the officers had called an ambulance to bring the most injured ones to a hospital as soon as possible. As for the other, with only small bruises or cuts, they were brought to the infirmary in the station and were patched up quickly.

The kid from before had bandages along their arms and one on their face covering the damaged eye. We sat in my office, me behind my desk and them sitting down across from me. They had this serious look on their face as they waited for me to pull out my notes.

"So, can I start with your name and pronouns please?" I cleared my throat, taking out my pencil as I looked up at my files, then back to the child in front of me.

"My name is 136, I don't have pronouns." They said calmly, their voice was soft, a light hint of fear laced in it.

"Alright, is it alright if we just use they/them pronouns for the file then? And about your name, we will refer to you as whatever you like until we find your file, is that okay with you?" I asked kindly, trying not to push any buttons unneeded. They only nodded, shaking their hands a bit in the air for a moment, I recognized it as just a small stim.

"Thank you, now then. Can you tell me what happened before you arrived here?" I kept my voice soft and sweet, which I do when talking to most children, it calms their nerves and stops them from assuming they are in danger or in trouble. It doesn't always work but most of the time just being kind is helpful to them.

"An underground arena. That's where we are from, I've been there my entire life, I'm the oldest of the group." I nodded, taking down notes as they spoke "every day was the same for as long as I can remember, fight, get punished or get killed." I tensed slightly at the mention of the killing. Those poor children..