Chapter 53: Hypothesis
"Do you remember your name?" "..."
"Where is your home?" "..."
"Who is your superior?" "..."
"As expected, he's completely unresponsive..." All Might stood in the room next to the detention center's interrogation room, watching the scene through a one-way mirror.
The purple-skinned giant with a bird's beak and an exposed brain sat dumbly on a stool, his hands and feet bound in heavy chains, meekly accepting the questioning from two police officers.
"He was found in the forest not far from the USJ cleanup site yesterday. At the time, he had no external injuries, offered no resistance, and didn't respond no matter what we said..."
Officer Sansa flipped open his notebook and read the information.
"Sansa-kun," All Might interrupted him. "I'd like to go in and see him. Is that possible?"
"Well..." Sansa looked troubled. "That's against regulations. Even for you..."
All Might was very understanding. Seeing his predicament, he smiled and said, "It's alright. If it's not possible, then let's forget it. Pro Heroes have rules too."
"Wait!" Just as All Might was about to walk out of the room, Sansa suddenly called out to him, gritting his teeth. He stamped his foot. "I'll arrange it right away!"
Yoshikage Kira, who was beside All Might, watched him flash a "just as planned" smile with a half-lidded gaze and sighed helplessly.
Should I be saying, "All Might, was this also part of your plan?!" right about now?
Soon, at Officer Sansa's request, the two officers in the interrogation room came out. They exchanged nods with All Might and then left.
As Officer Sansa opened the door to the interrogation room for All Might, he said resentfully, "I told them that the inspector was the one who invited you to the interrogation. If they ask the inspector about it, I'm a dead man..."
Is he taking advantage of his fan...? All Might laughed awkwardly and gestured for Kira to follow him in.
"I'll be waiting outside. Knock on the door when you're finished, and I'll open it," Sansa said from outside before closing the door. "Oh, right. There's no one in the monitoring room next door, and there are no cameras. This interrogation room is soundproof, and he'll recover from any injuries... but don't do anything that could be considered torturing a criminal, okay?"
After saying this, he laughed self-deprecatingly at the door. "But it's All Might. Not only is he an old acquaintance of the inspector, but with his character, he would never torture a prisoner."
Interrogation Room.
"Do you remember me?" All Might bent down and waved his hand in front of him. "I'm the All Might you wanted to kill."
At these words, Nomu's eyes flickered for a rare moment, then returned to their calm, dazed state.
"He doesn't talk, he doesn't resist, he's just in a daze, like he's lost his soul. This is going to be difficult..." All Might said, rubbing the two tufts of hair on his head with a headache. "Young Kira, do you have any ideas?"
"No soul...?" Kira walked up to Nomu and looked down at him. The creature didn't react.
Suddenly, Kira punched Nomu in the face, sending his head sideways to face the one-way mirror.
Kira saw Nomu start to move and took a step or two back, in case he suddenly went berserk. But Nomu just slowly turned its head back to face the table and then stopped moving again.
"Young Kira!" All Might said, feigning anger. "How could you do that?!"
"All Might, it's just the two of us here. Can we stop pretending, please?" Kira sighed and turned to him. "Officer Sansa already hinted to us. The police have already used physical pressure on him. It doesn't matter if we do it too, right?"
"Eh." All Might was taken aback for a moment, then flashed an awkward but polite smile. "I was just trying to maintain my teacherly demeanor..."
Then, he looked at Nomu with a serious expression and said softly, "But I'm not the kind of softie who would stop myself from hurting a criminal after seeing my friends get hurt..."
"And, Young Kira..." All Might took off his suit jacket, wrapped it around his right arm, and swung it hard at Nomu's face. "Your punch is too weak!"
Although he knew that with Nomu's insane regenerative abilities, even his full-power attacks would be quickly healed, All Might was still cautious. What if its regenerative abilities suddenly disappeared?
A heavy punch landed on Nomu's face, instantly twisting the corner of its mouth. Then, All Might hit it with an elbow to the chin, sending its face upward and its whole body airborne—
"Young Kira, your attack is really too gentle. You have to be as ruthless as the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves when you deal with an enemy!"
All Might clas-ped his hands together in a spiking motion and slammed them down on Nomu's stomach, instantly smashing it to the ground.
All Might wiped away some sweat, turned, and said with a smile, "See, Kira-kun? This is the art of combat!"
Seeing Kira's stunned expression, he thought he had scared him with his sudden outburst of violence and hurriedly waved his hands. "This is just a hero's combat mode! In our daily lives, we must treat our friends with the warmth of the spring breeze!"
"It's not that, All Might..." Kira stared blankly at the slowly recovering Nomu as it got back to its feet. "I think I know its movement pattern."
"Really?! Young Kira!" All Might had just been venting his frustration and hadn't really intended to uncover Nomu's secrets. Hearing this, he was instantly energized. "You already know the enemy's secret?!"
"It's just a rough guess," Kira said, walking up to Nomu and touching its body. Seeing that Nomu only turned its gaze to him and didn't make any other moves, he began to mutter.
"It can have a simple following reaction to the outside world, but it doesn't have an aggressive reaction to stimuli. When its posture is changed by an external force, it will subconsciously make a move to maintain its balance, but it won't resist... A punching bag. That's right, a punching bag!"
Kira suddenly turned his head, his eyes filled with a fanatical light. "All Might, do you remember how Shigaraki introduced Nomu? He said Nomu was a punching bag made to withstand 100% of you! Let's think about it from another angle. Is it possible that Nomu can't act on its own and can only passively receive commands, just like a punching bag that won't move unless someone touches it?"
"Young Kira, are you saying that Nomu is being controlled, and once it can't receive commands, it won't move?!" All Might quickly understood and looked at Nomu with a grave expression. "That's a very bold hypothesis..."
"If we want to prove whether this hypothesis is true or not, we'll have to test it ourselves..."
Kira reached his hand up—