Ch. 2: I'm Nohbody
BOOM! BANG! CRASH!
"My first memory… I remember waking one night to what sounded like an all-out war. Like someone was dropping bombs all over the place. The room I was in looked like kinda like a hospital room or maybe a morgue? I was lying on a metal cart or something that had been pressed up against the wall with a sheet laid over me. I was only wearing a black jumpsuit and some black boots. I sat up quickly after another explosion rocked the building I was in, causing me to get another shower of dust and my whole body to ache with just the worst pain I've ever been able to remember."
"Did you remember anything before waking up?"
"Not a thing. I didn't even have much time to question what was happening as my body just started to move as if to get away from whatever was going on. Though I ended up falling flat on my face trying to get off the cart."
"Oof!" The boy groaned as he hit the ground hard. He tried to command his body to stand up but even if his progress was slow, it was still progress. He looked down at his hands as he pushed himself up and noticed something shiny around his wrist. It was a bracelet with something written on it: S. Nomu (SN1113). He thought for a second if that was what his name before his head started to hurt. Nomu… something about that word was… horrible. Brief flashes appeared in his head but were so foggy he couldn't make anything out.
Another bang reminded him that now wasn't a good time to lay around. He eventually found his footing before making his way to the only door leading out of the room. "Nomu" reached for the handle and pulled the door open by ripping it clean off the hinges, nearly smacking himself with it. The surprised boy threw the door away and hobbled out into the pitch-black hallway leading in two directions, his eyes shutting with frustration. He opened his eyes to find the hallway was now lit up but was gray everywhere over every inch of the hallway, allowing him to see the stairs leading upwards.
Filing the questions away for later, "Nomu" climbed the steps, broke another door opening it, and ran out of a hole in the wall leading into the street. The shockwaves of a huge battle that "Nomu" couldn't see were still ringing though the night but now outside, he could now properly get the hell away from it. "Nomu" found which direction the fight was coming from and ran as fast as his aching body would allow him to in the exact opposite direction, only stopping when the sounds did. "Nomu" found his way to a park and just collapsed on the grass, passing out from the pain and exhaustion soon after.
Naomasa listened to the story carefully as he poured a glass of water for himself and Noh. "S. Nomu"? Was that to change his identity in some way or was there something else there? But that was minor compared to the other big detail. He had his suspicions about where this was going but he had to be sure. "So how long ago was this fight that you remember hearing?"
"April 4th, I think, 5 and a half years ago," Noh said after taking a sip of water, not at all aware of how significant that statement was. So, he was nearby for Toshinori's big fight that night. He was also surprised that no one seemed to find him after he passed out. He had to wonder how Toshinori was taking this from the next room.
"So, after that, I imagine that you were taken in by someone?" Noh cocked his head slightly at Naomasa's deduction, a smirk appearing on his face.
"How'd you figure that out? You sure the police didn't just miss me while I was taking a nap in a park?"
"While that is possible, the event you were mentioning, while not a publicly well-known one, was a very busy night for us so we naturally had searched everywhere we could over a large radius for any villains. I'd like to think we're not so incompetent that we would miss a sleeping nine-year-old lying in a park," Naomasa said with a smile of his own.
"Fair enough," Noh conceded, "You were right though. I was found by my dad,"
"Your dad?"
"Not the one you're probably thinking of but he was so kind to me that he might as well have been. He taught me pretty much everything I know, even if he probably wouldn't be proud of how I've used it."
"What was his name?"
"Nomu" awoke again to the feeling of sunlight hitting his eyes though a nearby window, his body filled with warmth from the soft bed and heavy blankets. His body still ached but it was much more bearable compared to before. "Nomu" forced his body to sit up despite the pain before a hand pushed him backed down. Fear filled his mind at the new presence as "Nomu's" fear-stricken face turned to the hand's owner. A middle-aged man with slightly graying black hair and piercing hazel eyes.
"Calm down, I'm not going to harm you," The man explained in a gentle, calming voice as he removed his hand and stepped back to the other side of the room, "I'm simply here to help you and to do that, you need to stay in bed and rest."
"Nomu" surveyed the room, content now that the man had moved away but still ready to try and bail at any second. It was a small bedroom with only the bed and a nightstand to fill it. The window was right next to the bed, shut but unlocked. The man, dressed in a white Gi with a black belt around the waist was between him and the door so if he needed to escape, the window was his best shot at the moment.
"Who are you? Where am I? What happened?" "Nomu" asked as he tried and failed to hide the panic in his voice. He ran his hand through his shoulder-length green hair to keep it out of his eyes.
"Tai Saichirou, call me Tai if you want, my apartment above the dojo I run, and hell if I know, kid but you've been out cold all night and it's three in the afternoon," Tai answered in quick succession. "What about you? You got a name?
"Nomu" thought for a second. Did he? The bracelet he was wearing before was on the nightstand next to him. S. Nomu (SN1113). It was about the closest he had to a name but he didn't know what the S stood for.
"I don't know my name…" "Nomu" replied.
"You don't? So, what's on the bracelet then?" Tai asked incredulously, as if "Nomu" had the balls to lie to his face.
"I don't know but I honestly don't remember my name…" the boy looked away from Tai, unable to face him, "Or much of anything really. I remember waking up in some sort of weird room on a metal… cart thing to what sounded like explosions but before that… nothing…"
Tai looked the boy in front of him over as a silence filled the room. His face was filled with pain, confusion, and fear. As it stood, the boy wasn't sure of anything at the moment. So…
"Seigo," Tai spoke, breaking the silence. The boy looked up, confused. "Your name. Gotta call you something, don't I? If your name is not on that bracelet and you don't know what it is, we'll just make a new one for now. How does that sound?" Tai finished with a warm smile.
Seigo. It was better than nothing he supposed. At the very least, it gave him a better feeling than "Nomu". The boy nodded, accepting the name. He was now Seigo. Before he could ask anything though, Seigo's stomach growled.
"Well, now that we have that straightened out, I'll bring you some food. That stomach of yours knows what's best after sleeping for so long," Tai joked as he left the room, leaving Seigo with his thoughts. What was going to happen next…?
"Tai Saichirou, huh?" Naomasa asked after he took another drink of water. "And he called you Seigo?"
"He later claimed he called me that because it started with an S like on the bracelet. Like it would somehow jump-start my memory or something."
"So how long before you were adopted," Seigo's left eyebrow quirked upwards. "You were the one that called him 'dad'," Naomasa put up his hands in mock defense.
"Well, if you let me tell the story, three weeks later," Seigo answered, a bit of sass hanging through his words. "I told him I didn't remember having any parents and he apparently couldn't find out anything about me."
"Did you know why he couldn't?"
"A little at the time but…."
"A criminal record?" Seigo parroted what Tai had just said, nearly choking on his own breakfast.
"Yes, as hard as it is to believe, the man whose been giving you shelter for the past few weeks is a "convicted felon"," Tai explained, air quotes showing his hatred for it. "I'm innocent of the crime for what it's worth but I suppose that's hard to believe. I don't trust the police because of that but if you do, you're free to go to them at any time. I won't stop you."
"But, if you were innocent, why were you sent to prison?"
"My sentence was shortened to only one year because I pleaded guilty. It would have been much longer with the trial as well as my sentence being its original length. Besides, the conviction rate in this country has been over 95% for over two hundred years. My chances of freedom were so slim, it was better to just say I was guilty and get my time in prison over with."
Despite how relaxed Tai had spoken, it was clear to anyone with ears that he hated the people that put him away. Seigo could feel it too as he felt a tightness in his heart at the injustice done to the man in front of him.
"Hey, don't go crying on my account," Tai spoke, causing Seigo to realize that he let some tears out. "It was a long time ago and almost no one even knows I've got a record. It's not like there's a big neon sign outside my dojo stating: Aikido! Taught by Convicted Felon Tai Saichirou!" Tai exclaiming like he was a salesman trying to get people to buy a bad idea, getting a laugh out of Seigo.
"So, what was the crime?"
"Hmm… maybe when you're older, we can talk about it," Tai dodged, sending Seigo the signal to drop it as he finished eating. "For now, we should look more into finding your parents."
"Ah, so he didn't trust the police then?" Naomasa had to suppress a sigh. He wasn't the first convict to be distrustful of the police and he sure as hell wouldn't be the last.
"Would you trust a system that places innocent people in an unwinnable situation? Would you trust a system that looks at the innocent and guilty and says there's no difference if they were brought to trial? He probably believed that if he took me to the police, they'd think he was the kidnapper despite him pretty much saving my life," Seigo struck back, venom in his voice.
"Every police officer is different and I know for a fact that not all of them are on the level so I won't refute your claims that we wouldn't look at him as a possible suspect in your kidnapping," Naomasa conceded. He knew for every good cop out there, there had to be at least one dirty cop that only cares about how many arrests they make and wouldn't think twice about placing the blame on a felon just to get the case over and done with. It was a sad reality but reality nonetheless. "It probably wouldn't have done him much good anyway. You had been missing for five years by that point and while we do keep records on people who go missing, we tend to file them as cold cases by that point. For all we knew, you were long dead," Naomasa bluntly retorted, not even trying to defend the procedures of the police department but it wasn't something he could change at the moment. "And most cops, unfortunately, are not willing to listen to convicted felons and it's a shame because there's a lot of good they can do if they're helped onto the right track." Seigo smirked at that last line.
"You sound like you're trying to reform me or something,"
"According to our records, you turned fifteen last July, four months ago, and as far as our reports go, your only targets up to this point have been criminals themselves. The crimes you've been charged with is vigilantism, theft, illegal quirk use, and resisting arrest. I think it's a bit too early to think you're beyond help," Seigo tried to hide the quiet gasp of shock, but Naomasa caught it all the same. "Let's return to the story. Now I've been patient with this but I think at this point we've got to address the elephant in the room. Your quirk… or should we file it under quirks?
"Definitely plural." Seigo responded a knowing look. They both knew it was unnatural but how bad it really was escaped Seigo.
"How plural are we talking here?"
"Six or seven, I think." Seigo said with all the emotion of selecting a drink at a restaurant, completely undercutting just how important that statement was. Six or seven quirks inside one person? Completely unheard of… outside of one case.
"You don't know exactly?"
"I have my suspicions that I might have another quirk that just some sort of enhancer of… brain power, I guess? It just feels like I... think faster sometimes."
"Impressive but not exactly unprecedented." Naomasa replied, a bit irked by Seigo's disrespect but it wasn't worth the time trying to fix here. "Child prodigies without brain quirks are rare but not implausible."
"That's why I'm not sure but given everything else about me, I wouldn't write it off."
"What are the quirks you know for sure? We have our suspicions but I'd rather we heard it from the horse's mouth," Naomasa noticed after he finished talking but he saw Seigo smile again. Only it wasn't the cheeky smirk he displayed a few times now.
This one was more sincere.
"I'll explain them as we go but I've already talked about two of them. The first one was the one that ripped doors off the hinges when I made my escape and the second was the night vision. The first was a full body enhancer I call Body Burst which as far as we could tell just improved all of my physical abilities by about two times." Naomasa could see a spark of something in Seigo's eyes. Like he was really interested in quirks and seeing what they can do.
"Lift a hundred pounds and then lift two hundred just as easily, right?"
"Yeah, basically, but I could also run faster, jump higher, react faster, everything that my body could do, it could do it better with Body Burst. The other is what I call Full-Spectrum. I can actually see across the light spectrum from ultraviolet to infrared but only one part at a time. I can't have infrared vision and ultraviolet at the same time and my infrared is split between night vision and thermal." Something was fishy there...
"That doesn't make any sense though. Just because you can see in infrared doesn't mean you'd be able to see in a pitch-black room without infrared light itself,"
"My eyes actually are what create the light, like they're flashlights or something. So, I have to be careful using it if someone had night vision goggles or something as they'd pick out the two beams of light coming out of my head in an instant and I'd be really screwed then."
"That explains that," a very impressive quirk indeed, Naomasa thought as Seigo gushed about his quirk. "So does UV turn everything purple to you?"
"Actually, yeah it does," Seigo replied, his sincere smile still not fading from his face. The enthusiasm for quirks was a little infectious.
"I've got to ask, do you like talking about quirks in general or do you like showing off?" The question seemed to catch Seigo off guard for a second but he rebounded quickly, smile in tow.
"I've always wanted to know more about quirks and all the different ways people have used them. It's actually the reason I've been able to give you guys the slip for so long. If I didn't know what Eraserhead could and couldn't do, he would have caught me years ago."
"So, knowledge was power, right?"
"Well yes, but it wasn't just that," Seigo continued. "You have people like Death Arms who has a strength enhancing quirk powered by electricity, and then you have someone like Best Jeanist who controls the fibers of people's clothes to restrain and control villains and civilians alike. The variety of quirks and their non-stop potential is… insane is probably too weak a word for it. I guess it was more I was so hungry to learn more in a way."
Naomasa began to feel a bit uneasy. Most villains, by the grace of God, didn't do much research on Pro Hero quirks which made them less threatening. But if they did, it was a pain to stop any of them except with, ironically, pros that literally just started out since they were complete unknowns to the public and by extension, villains.
And here's the Criminal Thief, Noh, talking about quirks like he's doing an oral report at school. No wonder it took them four years to catch this kid.
"I thought that maybe," Naomasa was ripped from his thoughts as Seigo resumed, "That if I could learn more about quirks and how they affect us, it would help me discover why I had so many of them to begin with," Seigo looked at his cuffed hand with sadness. Naomasa could tell that having so many quirks would definitely make him a very rare breed of human. Which more often than not, leads to only more pain. That feeling of no one truly knowing what you're going though can lead people down a dark path.
"Well, I might already be able to answer 'why'?" Seigo's smile fade in a flash and shifted to anger. Though he didn't overreact. He still knew what situation he was in but it was clear he had to know what Naomasa knew.
"Why? Why do I have so many quirks?"
"I'm not one hundred percent sure but if you keep telling the truth, I'll share my theory. Sound fair?" By the look on Seigo's face, no, it certainly did not.
"I've told you a lot already!" Seigo shouted, clearly anxious to know. "I had everything ripped from me by the people who did to me and you're just not going to tell me?! Dangle that carrot in front of me just to toy with me?!"
"Call it what you will but remember that you are in no position to bargain," Naomasa countered calmly, trying to defuse the situation carefully. "As long as you do what we ask, we'll answer any questions you have when this is over. And if it's the man I'm thinking of, he isn't even alive for what's it's worth."
Seigo calmed down almost instantly at that, anger giving way to shock. Naomasa could tell now why Seigo has done what he's done now. He wanted answers. He wanted vengeance.
And he wasn't getting either. Why was he given quirks? Who could say? There was no one left to ask as far as anyone knew. The secret died with him.
Naomasa looked at his watch. It was almost five in the morning. He should wrap this up soon.
"How are you feeling? Up for more or do you want to call it here for today?" Naomasa asked, earning a look of mild surprise from Seigo before his smirk reappeared.
"Past your bedtime?" he asked playfully.
"I prefer being in bed by three at the latest," Naomasa snarked, earning a small laugh from Seigo.
"Well, I'm pretty used to all-nighters anyway so I'm still good for now,"
"In that case, how about we speed through this a little. What was it like living with Mr. Tai Saichirou? You mentioned he taught you everything you know. Such as?"
"How to use my quirks…"
"Okay, so let's see how good you've gotten with your quirks. I've got five pictures hidden in the apartment and you need to find them after I've turned the lights off," Tai explained as he walked over to the circuit breaker. "I'll give you a five second head start before I come chasing after you," Tai tapped the night vision goggles in his hand as a warning. "Ready, set, go!" Darkness flooded the apartment Tai flipped the master switch. A problem for most people but for Seigo, it was easy enough as he flipped on his infrared. He walked five steps into the kitchen before his shadow sprung into a fully formed Seigo, only different by the pitch blackness of everything but it's emerald eyes. His shadow took off, running further into the house as Seigo felt the sensation of falling into the floor, becoming one with the shadow of a nearby chair.
Tai rounded the corner, goggles on his head as examined the kitchen. The L-shaped island counter had three chairs on one side, two on the other, perfect spots for Seigo to hide but he could still hear sounds coming from around the house. Tai quickly moved to the living room but still saw nothing out of the ordinary. Seigo had gotten much better at being hard to find in the dark. Just then a sound came from further in, the sound of glass breaking. Tai couldn't help but smile, the boy was still pretty clumsy. He ran his bedroom where the sound had come from to find a black mass holding one of the pictures that he had just dropped. The black Seigo looked towards Tai but was too slow as Tai bonked him on the head, causing the shadow to disappear.
"Shadow Double. Clever but not good enough," Tai remarked as he sneaked towards the living room, finding Seigo picking up a picture. Tai just shook his head as he snuck up behind his son.
"Found you." Seigo jumped into the air but was too slow as Tai wrapped his arms around him, son flailing to escape the bear grip. "You lose." Seigo stopped flailing as he was let go. "Shadow Double to lead a person away from your Shadow Merge. A good trick but maybe don't try it in a small place like this," Seigo sat down on the couch and crossed his arms.
"It only failed because you know my quirks as well as I do," Seigo pouted, clearly mad. "It also doesn't help when you go all out on me.
"I held back a little. I knew you merged with a chair's shadow from minute one but I followed your double regardless to give you a chance," Tai admitted with a smirk. The smirk didn't make Seigo feel any better. "You've definitely have gotten much better though so how about I make katsudon for dinner?" Seigo's pout turned to joy at the mention of his favorite food being on the menu.
"All right!"
"But first, let's get the lights back on. Can't cook well in the dark," Tai said as he left the living room, an eager Seigo in tow. However, when Tai turned the corner to enter the kitchen, he found Seigo crash into him. Crash into the front of him, looking just as confused as he was as he fell on his butt. Tai turned around to see that Seigo had indeed vanished from behind him in the living room to directly in front of him in the kitchen in less than a second. And for some reason... was also naked.
"Son… how did you do that?" Tai got down onto his knee as he looked at Seigo with concern.
"I… I don't really know. I remember following after you and then I closed my eyes and then I ran into you," Tai took a breath. Great. Another one. Seigo looked down to see that he was now naked and quickly covered his privates, "Where'd my clothes go?!
"Looks like we found another quirk for you to use,"
"Really?! Awesome!" Seigo exclaimed as he found his clothes and quickly put them back on. Tai turned the lights back on and then walked into the kitchen and then saw something that nearly made his jaw drop that he didn't notice it. While the lights were out, Seigo had been leaving a trail of black Xs all over the floor wherever he stepped. It must have been connected. it also filled him with dread as he looked at the familiar Xs but he quickly buried it.
"Seigo, walk over to the window," Seigo nodded, walking over to the window at the edge of the kitchen, Xs left in his wake. "Now I want you to come back to me with the new quirk." Seigo focused on getting back but nothing happened. "Okay, try focusing on this specific X right here," Tai motioned with his foot, "and think, 'I need to get there now!' and see if that works. Oh and try and bring your clothes with you this time," Seigo closed his eyes before focusing on the X again. This time it worked. Seigo disappeared instantly with a pop as if he never existed to begin with and reappeared next to Tai just as quickly... in only his underwear but it was a start. Great, a warp quirk to add to the collection. They'd need to figure out the specifics later but for right now… they needed to stop him from covering the house in black marks.
"Shadow Merge, Shadow Double, and now a warp quirk too? Now I see how you pulled off all those getaways. We never had a chance," Naomasa conceded, reminded of the nightmare in front of him. If the cuffs he was wearing weren't suppressing his quirks, he could have broken out whenever the hell he felt like it. "If we didn't have Eraserhead and All Might, we'd never have caught you."
"Pretty much," Seigo agreed, well aware of how difficult it was to catch him. "So, you want the rundown on those too?"
"If you could," Seigo's eyes lit up. It was quirk talk time!
"In brief, Shadow Merge turns me into a shadow and I follow that shadow wherever it may go. If I merged with the shadow of a car, I go as fast as that car would go. Shadow Double just makes another me except it's all pitch black, can't talk and can use any of my quirks. Finally, my favorite quirk of mine, Targeted Warp. I can mark a location and warp to it. I can mark objects and warp them to me. Though I can only move so much at once," Seigo explained with the widest of grins. Being in an interrogation room talking about quirks might as well have been heaven for the boy. "Satisfied?"
"More or less," Naomasa felt tired all of a sudden and not because it was half past five in the morning. That makes five confirmed quirks. "By my count that leaves one more, correct?" Naomasa smiled as he looked at Seigo whose own friendly smile hadn't changed as he nodded.
"It's not as impressive as the others but I actually have one called Bio Scanner. I can detect all living things in fifty meters of me, even through walls. And if I've seen them with my own eyes, I can even differentiate them from others. I can also tell how likely a person is to be a threat to me,"
Naomasa could feel his heart reach his stomach as his smile faded and he was sure Toshinori on the other side of the glass wall behind him was faring any better. The kid was a second away from finding out the biggest secret of the number 1 hero in the country and the only thing stopping him was a pair of handcuffs.
"What's wrong?" Seigo, in a rare display of concern, asked the officer if he said something weird or a lie or something.
"It's nothing. You didn't say a lie or anything," Seigo seemed to relax a bit. Did he somehow trick him into thinking he was lying about something he should know better than anyone? "It's just with everything I learn about you, I start to realize just how difficult you were to catch," Naomasa recovered his smile as well as Seigo as the atmosphere lightened again. "So that's all the quirks?" Seigo nods to this but Naomasa feels uneasy about it. "Then what was that thing All Might told him about? He's not lying but still...' "I must say, your skillset is almost perfect for infiltration and escape. No wonder you were able to steal from an entire criminal organization with almost laughable ease," Naomasa stated aloud, almost praising him for his abilities.
"I wish it was as easy as I made it look," Seigo replied with a small chuckle, seeming almost bashful at the praise.
"Anything else you were taught by Saichirou?"
"He taught me the basics of Aikido,"
"How far did you get on that?"
"With him, I got to 4th kyu so not all that far. But I kept training by myself using books to help so I'd say I might be at maybe 2nd Kyu."
"Quite modest all things considered. My sister is a 1st dan in aikido and you could probably give her a run for her money,"
"Who knows," Seigo said with a shrug. "Kinda wished he had something like Krav Maga or something more offensive but the basic training I got from him has saved my life a few times."
"Was there anything else about your life with Saichirou that would be important?"
"Not really, no. Other than that, the days were pretty basic. Wake up, eat breakfast, practice aikido, practice quirks, eat lunch, shower, and I'd have the rest of the day to do… whatever." For the most part, there seemed to be nothing of interest in the day to day livelihood of these two… but for them to become as close as a father and son in one year was bizarre and had to have more to it. But it wouldn't help this investigation much anyway.
"So, do you know exactly what happened to him? We received word that he 'disappeared' but never found him. All we know is that he left specific instructions in case he ever went missing," Seigo looked down at the table as Naomasa spoke, green hair obscuring his eyes.
"Y-Yeah… he d-died after us living together for 14 months or so," Naomasa could hear the pain and sadness in his shaky voice.
"Do you know how he died?" Naomasa braced himself. He was now going to learn about what drives the thief Noh. Seigo looked up with tears and rage in his eyes
"He was turned to ash… by a villain!"