"Wonderful. Well, your injuries are fixed up, you two kids run along now. Your classmates will be here soon, and I'm sure you'll all have a lot to talk about. We'll need All Might's help to proceed with the investigation."
I took a breath and looked directly at him. "Actually, sir, it's fortunate you're here. I was planning to come find you after this."
"Oh?" Nezu's ears perked up with interest. "About what?"
"About my missing ten years," I said seriously. "I remember what happened during that time period now ..." I paused. "Or ... Most of it ... Anyway."
I had to say.
Nezu was just like my impression of him in the anime. With the suit clothing and cheerful voice, he gave off the feel of an intellectual gentleman and a trustworthy principal. His Quirk only reinforced that.
Boasting one of ... If not the best mind in the franchise, he was the person you would go to for a solution to your problems. Basically Batman with no need for prep time.
Is where I would rate him in terms of intellect.
Hence, why I needed to proceed with what I was about to say with extreme caution.
"I remember a lot that happened before it, and some things happening during that timeframe."
"Huh? You remember?"
Midoriya spoke first, eyes widening in surprise. "That's great news."
However, no one else in the room seemed to share his excitement. Toshinori's brows furrowed from my words. While detective Tsukauchi and principal Nezu's faces didn't change at all. "Oh, I see. From your tone, it must be important." Nezu replied me in the same cheerful voice, before turning to Midoriya.
"Why don't you go on ahead. Mr. Takumi will join you and your classmates soon."
Deku was stunned at first before nodding.
"... Oh, ... Um, yes sir." He opened the door and closed it behind him. With Midoriya gone, now all eyes were on me. "Alright, go ahead. Feel free to say tell us what you wish."
He said, face carrying a smile. Eyes gleaming with nothing but rapt attention.
"Well, .. It's a bit hard to explain." I rubbed my head and turned to All Might "Though if I had to start .. I guess it would be with .. That I actually found out your secret yesterday, All Might."
"Huh?" All Might's black eyes grew wide.
"You mean?"
"Mhmm. When we met at ground beta." I nodded. The man's brows furrowed in doubt. "I see. May I ask how? I wasn't near my time limit when we met. And I'm pretty sure I didn't revert between forms when I was out of the office." I could see what he was concerned about. "Now calm down All Might. I sure he'll tell us if you let him continue."
".. That. Well, .."
I showed what I considered to be the right amount of hesitation before taking off my mask. My glowing red eyes revealed for everyone to see.
"That's?..."
"My Quirk. Part of it anyway." I explained "I awakened it a few months ago on my first day of middle school. My mom has a quirk just like it."
My gaze shifted.
"Meta eye, as I like to call it, gives me the power to scan biological functions with a single look. I wanted to see just how strong you were for myself yesterday, so I took the liberty of scanning you upon your departure and .... Your condition was a blaring alarm once I took a peek. I apologize"
"I see." All Might replied after a moment of silence. Recovery girl snorted. "Told you that fake muscle form wouldn't fool everyone forever."
"My my, how interesting." Nezu said.
"Indeed. I didn't think you'd have another power young Takumi. Your Quirk skill set is already extensive as it is. Though you knowing my condition explains your quirk response earlier today. There's no need to apologize."
"Thank you. Though that's not as important as what I found after. I scanned myself afterwards to make a comparison of just how far away I was from the symbol of peace. What I found however, was something in my brain that shouldn't have been there."
The room went dead silent.
"There was a brainwashing adjacent. Foreign mental implants embedded in my neural patterns made to control my behavior." I touched my temples. "Someone wanted to control me. Well, they already were."
"My my, what a plot twist." That came from recovery girl, to my surprise.
Detective Tsukauchi's eyes narrowed as did All Might's.
"How exactly?"
"Subtle stuff. Making me avoid authority figures and teachers in the scenario I remembered or realized something was wrong. There was this .... Compulsion, to handle everything alone. To never ask for help." I paused.
"Which is how I ended up in the support course workshop earlier today instead of coming to you when I realized something was wrong."
"The support course? Why would you go there?" Nezu's ears twitched with interest.
"Well, after thinking for the entire night, I decided I needed someone to build a neural scrambler to block the signals. I guess the compulsion wasn't aimed at making me unable to try and help mysef, so I headed to the support course this morning and ended up meeting a student named Mei Hatsume who built what I wanted. The problem was it ... Didn't work and kinda blew up .."
I said with embarrassment. "... The device released waves that sent the residues of radio wave energy into a riot. It fried parts of my brain in the process and I fell unconscious ... Thankfully my body regenerated the damaged parts which also happened to be the ones with the implants, removing the .. ... OW!"
BANG! I held my head, turning to recovery girl who just whacked me with an umbrella.
"What was that for?"
"Idiot boy," Recovery Girl scowled. "You make it sound like scrambling your own brain was a clever idea."
"I didn't say clever," I muttered, rubbing the sore spot. "Just… effective. In my defense, it wasn't on purpose."
"Effective or not, you're lucky your body has that ridiculous regeneration. If you were anyone else, you'd be drooling into a pillow right now."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"Don't."
Her sharp tone cut the room, but it also grounded the mood. For a moment, it almost felt like any other scolding. Almost.
Detective Tsukauchi broke the silence, his notepad already half-filled. "So what you're telling us is… someone embedded foreign suggestions directly into your brain and it was all fried out by a single accident?" Great, they got the gist of it.
"Yep. Feels like something that happens to the main character of a novel right? Can't say I wasn't surprised either. Don't tell Mei by the way. .." I added. "She thinks she nearly killed me. Don't need her knowing she actually helped and try this on someone else there."
Detective Tsukauchi looked up from his notepad. "This student—Mei Hatsume—she'd need to be questioned about the device she built."
"She doesn't know anything relevant," I said quickly. "I told her I needed something to block radio interference for concentration issues. She built what I asked for based on completely false information."
"Still, protocol—"
"Detective," Nezu interrupted gently. "I think we can handle that internally. No need to traumatize a support course student over an accident."
Good guy. Protecting students from outside influences, Nezu's job as principal was well earned.
Of course I had to wonder how much of that was genuine and how much was just to make me feel comfortable enough to say more.
I might be overthinking though. Transmigrator Paranoia does that to you.
The butterfly effects so far had already messed up Canon. Trying to ascertain Nezu's actions solely based on what I remembered would be a grave mistake. The man—or rodent—was capable of making thousands of calculations in a tenth of a second, maybe more. And I wasn't sure how he would react to me revealing everything I knew.
For someone like me who had secrets that should best not see the light of day, he was just a tad under the Quirk Hoarding maniac hiding in the dark in terms of threat level to my peaceful existence.
Too bad, I didn't have a choice. Why?
Well... blame Shigaraki.
Shigaraki's failed mind control stunt was seen by both All Might and Todoroki. There was no doubt that both would report everything that occurred today to the authorities. I could play dumb, and life would go on. But I would become the center of Nezu's attention one way or the other—just worse. With Shigaraki's death, All For One would definitely hole up in the dark for a long time, cooking up some grand scheme which would get me in trouble.
The best option would be to come clean early and take control of the situation before that could happen.
"I'm glad you came to report this. From your explanation, I am assuming you have checked yourself with your Quirk to ensure you are no longer under risk of being compelled?"
"I have. It's all clear."
"Good. Though that's not changing the fact that you're waiting after this is all over for a brain scan." Recovery girl cut in. "No matter how strong your regeneration is, we need to check to make sure you haven't left behind any complications that could risk permanent damage."
I shrunk back a bit. She looked awfully menacing with that stick.
"That is correct. This is a serious matter that needs our utmost attention." The principal agreed. His intelligent eyes studied me. "Please go on. We need to properly understand everything so we can be of help to find the one responsible."
"Indeed. Don't leave any detail out." Detective Tsukauchi added.
"Well, that would bring us to the part where I awakened my memories." I uttered, letting it sink in. "The brain damage knocked my unconscious. It was in that state that I ... Remembered. A mental block of some sort was removed ...."
"So your missing memories returned." All Might finished for me.
"In essence, yes. I remembered everything up to the moment Ten years ago, when I was kidnapped at age seven," I said quietly. "I was walking home from school, upset about bullies. Someone grabbed me near the river, drugged me. When I woke up, I was in some kind of facility."
Detective Tsukauchi's pen was moving rapidly now. "What kind of facility?"
"Underground. Concrete walls, metal doors, the smell of damp walls, rotten wood and... other things." I closed my eyes, pretending to recall painful memories—which wasn't entirely acting.
"There were others there. Kids and adults. All quirkless, according to what I overheard."
"Quirkless?" Nezu repeated, his voice losing some of its cheer.
"Yes. We were all being sold." I revealed.
Everyone fell silent.
"They were experimenting on us. Trying to... I don't know exactly what they were trying to do. Force quirk development? Or test how much trauma a human body could handle maybe? The memories are still fragmented. I can't remember every scene clearly, and a lot of it is still fog, but I remember the pain. The medical equipment. The man in the white coat who spoke about us like we were lab rats."
Recovery Girl's expression had grown darker with each word. "Those animals..."
"But there are two others I remember very clearly. The ones who seemed to be running transportation."
"Transportation?" Detective Tsukauchi prompted.
"One looked normal enough—messy hair, long coat, always carrying a clipboard. He'd coordinate the... transfers. The slave dealer I guess ...But the other one ..." I let my voice trail off slightly. "... He was the one who transported us to wherever we were taken to afterwards. Purple mist. No real face, just fog with glowing yellow eyes floating inside. .. "
I described.
"That's. ..."
Nezu's eyes widened. Same with All Might's.
"They called him Kurogiri. And he ... Was one of the villain leaders that attacked Ground Beta ..." There was silence for a few moments. Then ... "I see."
All Might uttered, head lowered, eyes narrowed. "That actually explains a lot."
"Huh? What do you mean All Might?" Tsukauchi asked. "Well ... When the villains attacked earlier, there were only three that were truly dangerous. A young man who looked to be in his twenties or thirties. A guy comprised entirely of dark mist floating around him who could open portals .." Toshinori clenched his fists. "And the bird beaked muscle who fought with me. Shigaraki, Kurogiri and NOMU, if I remember their names right."
"During the attack, the ringleader said some words that didn't make sense at the time. When whatever he planned didn't work, he looked visibly upset and pointed at Ken directly. Now that I think about it, those were probably hidden commands meant to turn young Takumi against us."
"I see. Like a hidden soldier meant to deal the most damage." Nezu replied thoughtfully. "Exactly." All Might replied, grim.
The implications were resounding. If the mental conditioning hadn't been removed by seer luck beforehand, then in all likelihood, the symbol of peace would be dead by now, killed by his own student.
___
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters by joining my Patreon!
💧 WATER TIER (5$) – Read 3 chapters ahead of public releases
🌍 EARTH TIER ($7) – Read 5 chapters ahead, with bonus lore, author notes, and behind-the-scenes content
🔥 FIRE TIER ($10) – Read 8 chapters ahead, get full access to all extras, and vote in exclusive polls for bonus content
📎 Patreon.com/Future805
Even a small pledge makes a huge difference — thank you for reading