#Because apparently I decided I needed an AU where Enji has a wife

[pitviperofdoom]

a mountain inn murder

So! I’d like to thank you all for your patience throughout this past month. I have promised fic and worry not, fic is on its way. I hope to get a chapter out either today or tomorrow, but for now, there’s a little something I’d like to share with you.

On Thursday I saw a movie that I’ve been very excited to see, and it inspired a BNHA fic idea that I’ve decided I’m  never going to write. But it’s still a rather delicious one, so I put together a detailed synopsis for your reading pleasure.

Warning: look full disclosure this is pretty goddamn depressing.

So to begin, it takes place in a slightly AU version of the BNHA world, so there are a few digressions from canon, such as Quirkless!GenEd!Midoriya who ends up working with heroes anyway as a strategist and consultant. But honestly that’s more background information than anything else, and the story itself doesn’t really focus much on him.

The story begins a year or two after what we know as Class 1-A would have graduated, so they’d all be around nineteen, maybe twenty. It takes place at a rather remote inn in the mountains during winter. Our main character is a Detective. I haven’t decided who that Detective might be, maybe an OC, I’m really not sure because I can’t think of a canon character that would fit super well in that role. The detective ends up at the inn while taking an impromptu vacation from work, hoping for a relaxing couple of days surrounded by pretty snow and scenery. There are others staying there for the holidays, specifically the new year, so their stay will be fairly brief but the detective doesn’t mind the company. Those at the inn are the following:

Makoto, the proprietress of the inn

Her coworker whose name the detective doesn’t catch, mainly because the man spends most of his time asleep or seemingly drunk.

The Iida brothers Tensei and Tenya, rather famous clientele for such a humble inn.

Yoarashi, a boisterous young man who gets along with very nearly everyone.

Momo, a pretty young woman who looks familiar but the detective can’t put their finger on why.

Chiyo, an elderly grandmotherly type.

Todoroki, a taciturn young man with rather prominent facial scarring—name rings a bell, though.

Inada, a large and forbidding man who treats everyone with the same level of unfriendly arrogance.

Akatani, a young man who works for Inada as a secretary. He’s a bit shy, but friendly and eager to please.

The detective settles in for their stay and gets to know the people around them. Ms. Makoto is friendly and seems to strike up a friendship with Momo and Chiyo, as ladies are wont to do. Her silent, sleepy coworker is surprisingly helpful in his own way, in spite of the drinking, the constant sleeping, and his need for a crutch. Yoarashi and the Iidas are cordial with everyone. For some reason, Todoroki seems determined to keep Inada from finding out he’s there, to the point where he wears a surgical mask, ostensibly to keep from catching cold. It’s difficult when they’re all so enclosed, but Inada’s secretary is very understanding and helps him avoid Inada’s notice.

At one point, on the second day of their stay, Inada pulls the detective aside and offers him a job. He’s a powerful man being hunted and followed, and is currently staying at this inn to take cover until the danger can be identified and properly dealt with. But the inn is more crowded than he thought it would be, so he would appreciate it if the detective could help him identify possible threats. He tries to subtly threaten the detective, but their instincts tell them it’s a bad idea, so they turn him down.

The next morning Inada is found murdered in his bed, and a blizzard in the mountains strands them at the inn until help can arrive.

Needless to say, the air about the inn is far more nervous and fearful the following day. Considering the blizzard, it is very likely that the killer is still among them, so the detective devotes themselves to solving the murder as quickly as possible. Poor Akatani is nearly in hysterics when he finds out about his employer’s death, and is utterly lost and on the verge of a panic attack until the detective helps him make himself useful. In spite of his agitation he still has a very efficient mind, and is quite useful in helping the detective organize their thoughts and run the investigation.

It’s a strange case from the start. Inada wasn’t just stabbed; he was stabbed nine times as if in a frenzy, and yet there is no sign of defensive wounds, on a big and strong-looking man who was fully aware that his life was in danger. (The answer to that comes when they find a cup, still wet with the dregs of drugged tea.) Beyond that, there is a flurry of evidence at the detective’s disposal, most of it confusing and contradictory. Chance encounters, noises they heard in the night, a watch stopped at the time of death. Objects at the scene of the crime that may or may not belong to several of the other guests. Evidence of several different quirk types.

The first person he interviews is Akatani himself, and the young man nervously reveals his employer’s true identity. “Inada” was none other than Todoroki Enji, the former Number One Hero Endeavor, who has been on sabbatical ever since the tragedy he suffered just last year. One of his children was murdered by villains, his ailing wife died of grief soon after, and his only daughter was in a fatal car accident. He’d been laying low lately because old enemies and villains were moving against him, trying to take advantage of his current leave to take revenge on him.

“Then you must have known,” the detective says. “The young Todoroki at this very inn…”

Akatani winces, and his jet-black hair falls further into his face. “Todoroki-kun and his father… don’t get along very well. They never have. Endeavor was… he was a highly successful hero. But that didn’t make him a good person.”

The detective interviews the rest one by one, and finds that they all have alibis for the supposed time of the murder. There is always someone who can vouch for someone else. Very frustrating.

And then they get to the inn’s second proprietor, the drunk with the limp, and they sigh. They ask him if he’s going to give up the farce. They can tell he isn’t really drunk, so why fake it? What is his real name, and what is his game?

The tired man sighs, sits a little straighter. His name is Aizawa Shouta, he says. Perhaps they’ve heard of him.

They have, vaguely. There was a news story about the underground hero Eraserhead. About his injury, and his forced retirement. Some villain got the better of him even without the use of their quirk, and forced him out of the game early. Ms. Makoto was a friend of a friend, kind enough to give him a job here until he got his head together again. It’s far away from people who might recognize him, as unlikely as that is. But apparently not far enough, he adds pointedly.

Akatani helps him take notes and comb through everything they know, and the evidence and witness accounts start pointing to a very frustrating possibility: that the killer is in fact not here at all. That they came in the night, committed the murder, and slipped away again. The blizzard doesn’t necessarily mean anything, because they have no idea what this hypothetical assassin’s quirk would have been. It’s the most convenient solution, to be sure. And yet…

Some of it doesn’t add up. There are too many inconsistencies. Too many coincidences. Too many connections. And those damned tragedies in Endeavor’s life keep coming up in them; Todoroki’s presence is just the start.

The proprietress Makoto, for example. Her full name, they discover, is Tsukauchi Makoto. Her older brother Tsukauchi Naomasa was a respected police officer until his career was ruined. He was said to have been investigating the death of Endeavor’s son. Aizawa Shouta? The battle that ended his career was with the very same villain guilty of the murder, after he tried and failed to prevent it. Yoarashi Inasa? Up and coming hero. His friend Keimi was killed in that same battle.

And most interesting are Iida Tenya and Yaoyorozu Momo, two more young heroes.

They had a friend and former classmate in common: Todoroki Shouto. Endeavor’s youngest son, a promising hero killed in the line of duty just a year ago.

The detective gathers them all together. He looks to Todoroki again, at the scarring on his face: burns over both eyes, lined with stitches. He takes off the surgical mask, and the burns continue down his lower jaw and neck. He’s Endeavor’s second son, a villain ex-convict released on parole, who went by the codename “Dabi”.

The former villain exchanges a look with Tsukauchi Makoto, and together they lay out the truth of Endeavor’s “tragedies”.

Shouto was always a rebel, but was forced into working at his father’s agency against his own wishes. Endeavor was always pushing him, testing him, forcing him to be better by any means necessary. And so, that day, when he was teamed up with the hero Eraserhead and Inasa’s friend Keimi, they ended up surrounded and horribly outnumbered. When all seemed hopeless, Shouto contacted his father to send reinforcements. But Endeavor misjudged the situation, wanted to punish and test his son for his rebelliousness, and did not. Shouto and Keimi were killed, and Aizawa was horribly wounded.

His mother did not die of grief; Dabi knows this. His younger brother had stubbornly taken him in during his parole, though the terms of said parole prevented him from visiting his mother. But he did anyway, and so he knows. When she heard the news that her youngest son was dead, she became frightened that her husband would return to her, to try to force another child out of her, so she got herself sterilized in secret. Endeavor did come for her, and flew into a rage when he found out what she had done.

In his defense, he did not mean to hit her so hard. But she was a fragile woman. Dabi was there to witness it but too slow to prevent it, and who would the courts believe? A renowned hero, or an ex-con breaking parole?

Fuyumi was never the same after this. The guilt was too much for her; Iida Tensei knows this, because he was the one she confided in. She languished, and her accident… well, who could say if it was an accident, or a suicide?

The guests are all quiet now.

There are two possible solutions to this crime. There’s the way the evidence points, to a villain assassin who crept in and escaped during the night. And there’s a second solution, one that follows all the connections between people.

Tsukauchi Makoto, the sister of the police officer who tried to get to the bottom of these deaths, whose career Endeavor purposely sabotaged to cover himself. The former “Dabi”, whose younger brother was killed because of their father’s negligence, who watched his mother die at his hand, who lost his sister before he had the chance to reconcile with her. Iida Tensei who had met Todoroki Fuyumi, who fell in love with her as he watched her suffer. Iida Tenya, who owed his life to his best friend Shouto. Yaoyorozu Momo who cared very deeply about Shouto, and was shocked when she found out about the abuse. Yoarashi Inasa, whose friend died as collateral damage to Endeavor’s cruelty. Shuuzenji Chiyo, who cared for Shouto as a school nurse, who was the very doctor that his mother went to for help. Aizawa Shouta, who watched his student die.

And as the detective finishes laying out these connections, they turn to Akatani. Helpful, eager, painfully earnest Akatani Mikumo, who fetched things, took thorough notes, offered insights, kept tempers cool throughout this ordeal. And now the young man won’t meet his eyes, but combs his black-dyed fringe out of his face and dries the tears from his face, wiping away the makeup that concealed his freckles and changed the shape and contouring of his face.

Midoriya Izuku, the up and coming strategist and consultant who has worked with almost every prominent hero from Eraserhead to Endeavor himself, who loved Todoroki Shouto with all his heart. 

Nine suspects. Nine stab wounds.

Midoriya opens his mouth to take the blame for the plot he created and implemented, by gathering the conspirators and organizing the details and playing the devoted secretary just long enough to set up Enji’s stay at the inn, but Dabi beats him to it. 

The only reason he’s here at all, he says, is because his little brother reached out to offer whatever help he could give. Tried to tell him that it wasn’t too late, that they didn’t have to let their father turn them into something they weren’t proud of. But he’s already made his choices. He’s already a villain, and the rest of these people—they aren’t villains. They aren’t even killers, not really. They’re just broken people who saw something terribly wrong and wanted to set it right.

The detective gives a thoughtful nod, and leaves the room.

When the police arrive, the detective delivers the evidence, and the witness statements, and the neat little first solution but not the second.

Half of them are heroes, after all, and the world needs its heroes, especially when men like Todoroki Enji exist in it. There is Law and there is Crime, but there is also Right and Wrong, and the two don’t always line up so neatly.

Sherlock Holmes is still my favorite detective but I frickin love Murder on the Orient Express and the critics can suck it because that movie was rad.