I'm exceedingly rarely chilling in JaxWolf4's (Author of Nah, I'd Adapt) Discord Server. It's a chaotic lobotomy mess. Not for the faint of heart.
Here's the link:
Disc: HrPrTeam
GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
-Story Start-
The waiting room before questioning.
Admittedly, it was a much more... tense and uncomfortable environment when everyone else sat in trepid, uneasy, and clearly traumatised silence.
Now, though?
With everyone but himself and Aoi left, it was finally a state of comfortable silence, with Jiro being the last one to be taken into questioning and likely sent home.
The only moment of respite he had gotten since that fight, besides the shower he was kindly allowed to have, with his clothes and face practically dripping blood, and having to apologise to the kind policemen whose cars he dyed red involuntarily.
Yuji leaned into his rather comfy and cushioned chair, his eyes listlessly looking up at the ceiling above him.
Sighing a sigh of relief, with fresh, albeit foreign clothing on his visage, he voiced an honest admission. "Can't blame them for being this uneasy. But I'm glad they didn't have to experience worse." His mind trailed off to the awkward ambience from earlier.
Aoi, who sat beside him with folded arms and with a shirt he was not so satisfied with, replied simply. "Do you regret your actions?"
Yuji, his gaze not drifting off the rather dirty ceiling, answered immediately.
"Nope. If I had to, I would've done it again."
"Then you should be satisfied, content. My friend, we have managed to protect them from the very horrors you wish no one experienced in our age, is that not enough?" Aoi mentioned with an air of wisdom.
Waving him off, Yuji replied, "I know, I know." He turned his head to meet Aoi's thin line with a small smile. "It's just, I'm not expecting gratitude, or a thank you, or anything like that-"
"But?" Aoi nodded.
Yuji pouted, a little confused, "But is destroying a Quirk really that big of a deal? I get why they're scared, I felt it... but it's not like I'd ever do that to them."
He could empathise.
He could understand, hell, he could feel their uncomfortable, shamed, awkward fear of him.
But he didn't understand the nature of that fear.
At first, he thought the fear directed at him was for 'killing' the tortured souls begging for release.
However, the actual core issue was far... simpler?
Quirk destruction? Really?
"Quirk destruction bothers them, but someone dying doesn't?"
Aoi gave his two cents, "In my correct opinion, it is nothing you should concern yourself with."
Yuji hummed, "I guess back in our old Japan, fear of Curses, Death, was the usual thing. But I don't think losing your Cursed Technique or energy or whatever is that scary? It's not like Cursed Energy was something important to the average guy back there-"
Blinking, Yuji's features slowly lit up in his own self-realisation, "Oh."
The average guy wasn't someone who was a sorcerer.
They were a minority, a small, superpowered minority.
Here, it was identity.
"Oh..." He repeated.
"Did you even listen to what the cowardly mutt barked back in the venue of our dance?" Aoi, once more, seemed to read his brother's mind and chastise with a genuine deadpan.
"Bakugo? Umm... I guess I was a bit too in my head to actually get what he was saying?" Yuji admitted with a moment's contemplation.
"I was just a little too pissed off to be hearing things clearly back there." He clarified with a slightly shamed nod his prior fury slowly returning at recalling the core issue.
Huffing, Aoi asserted a vital piece of information. "Do not let rage cloud your judgment next time, Yuji. Whatever manipulated and inserted the Quirk Factors is, it is not the Curse of Humanity reborn; recall there are no Curses in this world."
"I know, I know... but I can't imagine anyone but him both doing something that sick and being capable of it."
"You'd be surprised."
"You know who it is?"
"No idea." Aoi's expression was as blank as the wall behind them.
Yuji was clearly unconvinced, his eyes narrowing at the nonchalant and stoic-faced Aoi.
He was about to argue, almost demand an answer, but paused in contemplation.
Shaking his head, his lips curled up to an understanding and grateful smile.
While Aoi liked to admit he knew his brother well, Yuji would argue he knew his best friend turned adoptive brother just as well.
"You don't want me to hunt him down, do you?"
"You are not a Jujutsu Sorcerer any longer, Yuji Itadori. Nor is the perpetrator the one who conforms to the oath you had sworn against the Curse of Humanity."
"Right..." He had almost forgotten his still-forming goal in this society.
Rescue Hero, nothing big, nothing small. Just... doing his part.
Aoi understood so, Yuji understood so as well.
He almost managed to convince himself to become a Hero strictly to hunt down the perpetrator behind the cruel manipulation of multiple human souls.
Yet, once he had completed said goal, what then?
If the perpetrator is to be brought down, by his hand no less, it must be within the constraints of something he decided to do for himself... at least, that's what his older brothers wish for him.
"We wish for your happiness, Yuji." Aoi nodded sagely, his face breaking into a broad smile.
"Yeah... thanks, but focus on yourselves as well."
Aoi chuckled lightly, "As a matter of fact, I am. I have only tolerated the Police's sluggish procedures for this long because Takada-chan had cancelled today's evening stream."
A tear, as per usual, trickled down his right cheek as he whispered with genuine gratitude. "She must've sensed the mere possibility of my tardiness and cancelled. As expected of Takada-chan, omniscient wisdom and endless kindness!"
"I'm sure." Yuji rolled with it this time, chuckling lightly, himself alleviating the heavy air around them even more.
"It seems I owe her another 10,000 yen donation!" Aoi's statement seemed perfectly innocent.
Yet, the implications were anything but innocent.
Yuji blinked for a moment as he processed the usual Takada-chan spiel, designating it not much of his already limited brain-power.
But this?!
His head turned slowly, mechanically, looking at the proud, touched and innocent Aoi who was still tearing up at Takada-chan's totally not coincidental cancellation.
"10,000 Yen? Another?" Yuji repeated, his eyes dilated and frighteningly dangerous.
"Naturally, brother. How else would I stay at the top of the donation leaderboard?" Aoi bragged without a hint of shame as he withdrew his phone and, unsurprisingly, Takada-chan's channel was already open.
Showcasing an older stream, he saw the ranking wide and clear:
[#1 SubscribeToTakada-ChanNow! - 2,500,000 Yen.]
[#2 TallgirlBigButtEnjoyer - 1,500,000 Yen.]
[#3 Todo Aoi - 500,000 Yen.]
Yuji's heart stopped, and his skin paled almost immediately.
A deep sense of anxiety crawled up his spine as he seemed to be far more fearful of the implications of what he was witnessing, rather than that fight in the USJ or the coming interrogation.
"F-Five hundred thousand?" Yuji repeated with an aghast expression.
Blinking, Aoi turned to address Yuji with an offended look. "What? No. I articulated that I'm at the top of the leaderboard."
"?!"
"Rudimentary, brother. The top three donors are myself on different accounts."
The ear-rupturing screech of glass shattering reverberated in the waiting room.
Correction, it wasn't glass-shattering.
It was Yuji's psyche.
The actual sound that reverberated was him falling off his chair and onto his knees, whimpering a loud apology to someone not with them physically.
But always with them in spirit... or when he was cooking pancakes and not overworking.
"CHOSO... YOUR HARDWORK!!!" Yuji wept in the name of all the overtime and 20-plus-hour workdays that his brother had committed himself to, painstakingly supporting the Three Brothers' Household.
Aoi justified himself without a moment's hesitation:
"Selective poverty. Do you not think it is within both my and Choso's capabilities to obtain higher living standards for all of us? As Seneca stated, 'It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.'"
Yuji's expression was as dead as a deadpan could get:
"...You made that quote up just to justify the injustice."
"Certainly not, Seneca of Corduba was a real man."
"Pinocchio turned into one too, don't bullshit me, dude, this is serious!"
"I am serious?" Aoi pointed a finger innocently at his confounded face, his stoic features twisted in perplexity.
"Does Choso know about this?!"
"Yes, and he approves."
"HE DOES?!"
Before the conversation could escalate into more pressing matters of being financially responsible, knowledge he had been granted by his teacher in the ways of poverty, who was also scared of him, the door into their room creaked open with a slow, rather unnerving creak.
Tsukauchi's gaze roamed the spacious, almost lonely room, settling on the brothers and nodding in recognition and donning a weary smile. "You kids doing okay?"
The two brothers nodded casually.
Another nod, as Tsukauchi's gaze turned to Yuji alone, "Itadori-san, follow me-"
"I'm afraid there is an issue with that order." Aoi interrupted immediately.
"Which is?" Tsukauchi's professionalism overpowered his own masked exhaustion, as his tone seemed as unreadable as always.
Aoi pointed his thumb at Yuji, whose facial features tried their best to make a blank, poker face.
Admittedly, he wasn't doing half-bad.
But what was truly terrible was Aoi's following claim:
"He cannot be questioned alone. I must be at his side."
"Why?"
"He gets nervous when forced into a position of questioning by an authority." Aoi elaborated.
Yuji agreed, "Yeah. Last time that happened, my worldview turned upside down."
Tsukauchi shelved Yuji's seemingly odd mutter on the back burner for now, as he turned to reason with a more forced smile, "Getting nervous is normal. Don't worry, you aren't in any trouble. Just bear with it, answer honestly, and we'll be done quickly. Trust me, I want out of here just as much as you do."
"Therein lay the conundrum, officer."
Tsukauchi's eye twitched impatiently for but an instant, almost imperceptibly quickly, as he smiled indulgently, "And what may that be?"
"Nerves impede my brother's speech. Hence, the necessity of my presence. Furthermore, if I am also present, it cuts the time necessary for our questioning. I expect your logic to be consistent, Detective."
The twitch happened again, "Impede... how?"
Sighing audibly with a shake of his head, Aoi surrendered, "Be my guest," he shrugged, rather suspiciously and swiftly resigning to the clearly inferior will of the detective.
-------------------------------
For a damn good reason, it seemed.
Yuji found himself surrounded on all sides, with both a random blonde skelly-man questioning him, Principal Nezu, the Detective and even the actual Chief of the Police!
But, no need to panic.
Aoi had declared Notebook B.
Admittedly, Yuji only knew of Notebook B & A. The other ones were a bit above his level.
Nevertheless, knowing how inadequate a liar Yuji was...
He just had to not lie.
How?
Like so:
Toshinori appeared exasperated and absolutely out of his element.
Nezu was contradicting his species and cackling like a hyena.
The dog-headed chief was red in the face and was moments from imploding.
The Detective was at his wits' end:
He stammered, his composure visibly cracking, "I-Itadori-san, please, cooperate with us and be serious... from the start, why had you engaged in combat and disobeyed your teacher?"
Yuji blinked, nodding and uttering:
"Bonito flakes."
...
That was what broke the camel's back, as the dog-headed Kenji roared with genuine fury and slammed his fist on the table in front. "DO YOU FIND THIS FUNNY, KID?! DO YOU NOT REALIZE HOW SERIOUS THIS IS?! A CORPSE WAS DEFILED, MOVING-"
"KENJI-SAN! CALM DOWN!" Toshinori grabbed the dog-headed chief, trying to calm him down.
The chief pressed on, ranting, "BREATHING, WITH MULTIPLE QUIRKS, AND YOU STOPPED IT! AND TO PROCEED AND FIND THE PERPETRATORS WE NEED YOUR COOPERATION, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
...
Yuji's features hardened, and a slight semblance of guilt crossed his features.
Even so...
"Salmon roe."
...
Taking a deep inhale of air through his sharp nose, Kenji murmured with a disturbing, yet resigned calm. "Bring in the other brat."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" Nezu's cackling never ceased, all the while.
To Be Continued!
-Author Note Start-
It's looking like three chapters instead of two with how short this chapter was.
But, well, I think it'd be too much tonal whiplash to extend this one lol.
Don't worry, next chapter is imminent - as in 24 hours or 48 hours or smth idk.
Hope it was short and sweet, and enjoyable.
Love ya! Bu Bye.