N City Police Station.
Inside the interrogation room, a middle-aged police officer with graying temples slowly crushed out the cigarette in his hand and flicked the butt into the nearby trash can.
Only then did he lift his head and direct a sharp, assessing gaze through the bulletproof glass at the blue-haired boy seated on the other side.
He stared hard, as if he were determined to stare something out of that calm, handsome young face.
Unfortunately for him, human faces did not bloom, so disappointment was inevitable.
"…Tenko Shimura. Quirk… Decay."
Unable to read anything from the boy's expression, the officer finally picked up the file his colleagues had compiled and began reading aloud in as steady a tone as he could manage.
But as he went on, a trace of bitterness crept into his face.
"To be honest," he said, lowering the papers slightly, "even now, I still find it hard to believe that a kid like you managed to subdue that kind of violent criminal."
His tired eyes narrowed slightly.
"Are children these days really that terrifying?"
Across from him, Shigaraki blinked once.
He didn't answer immediately.
At first glance, it looked as though he were thinking.
But if one looked closer, one would notice the faint moisture gathering at the corners of his eyes.
Not from fear.
Not from stress.
From sleepiness.
He was so tired his eyes were watering.
At this point, all Shigaraki really wanted to do was lie down and sleep.
As for where—
in a bed, in a cell, on a bench, in the police station—
he genuinely didn't care.
When he chose to act earlier, he had already considered the possibility that he might end up "coming in for tea" at the station afterward.
So now that it had actually happened, he wasn't especially flustered.
After all—
he had already prepared a way out.
Naturally, that tiny emotional shift didn't escape the notice of the veteran officer who had undergone years of professional training.
Nor did it escape the other person in the room—
the Pro Hero leaning against the interrogation room door.
He wore a dark blue bodysuit and a wooden mask over his face.
It was none other than Kamui Woods.
And both men arrived at the same conclusion.
This boy was completely uninterested.
Realizing that, the middle-aged officer let out a small sigh and rubbed at his wrinkled, exhausted face with visible resignation.
"If the reports I received are accurate," he said, his voice growing heavier, "that Villain was extremely strong. Strong enough that nearly everyone at the scene was powerless against him."
He tapped the file lightly.
"And yet, you defeated him."
A brief pause.
"And not only that—you injured him so badly he's still in the hospital."
His eyes sharpened again.
"So we want to know why you stepped in."
"And more importantly…"
"What exactly did you do to that man?"
At those words, Kamui Woods—still standing by the door—quietly turned his gaze more fully toward Shigaraki.
Because that was the question he wanted answered too.
As a Pro Hero, he also wanted to know how an obviously underage boy had managed to defeat a powerful Villain who was rampaging through an entire district.
Under the scrutiny of both men, Shigaraki's expression didn't change in the slightest.
Instead, he lazily raised a hand to cover his mouth—
and yawned.
Then, in a slow, unhurried voice, he said:
"He was blocking the path."
The officer frowned.
"Yes, I know that."
Of course he knew.
The Villain had been enormous, standing in the middle of the road like a moving building.
Naturally he would have blocked the path.
But what did that have to do with the actual question?
The officer strongly suspected that this kid was trying to derail the conversation.
Still, after glancing at Kamui Woods and seeing that the hero had no intention of interrupting, he took a deep breath and forced himself to remain patient.
Shigaraki continued.
"And I happened to be standing in the middle of the road."
The officer's eyelid twitched.
"So?"
That one word was practically squeezed out through clenched teeth.
Honestly, he was already getting annoyed by the boy's deeply uncooperative attitude.
But years of police work kept him from showing it too openly.
Shigaraki looked at him with complete calm.
"That street was one-way only."
The room fell silent.
The officer's expression twitched slightly.
He understood now.
And understanding only made him angrier.
The location where the shark-headed Villain had attacked civilians was a pedestrian street.
Normally, it had an enormous amount of foot traffic. People were constantly bumping into each other there, and minor friction easily turned into arguments. Arguments, in turn, easily escalated.
That particular street had a long history of incidents for exactly that reason.
So later, in order to reduce congestion and avoid more chaos, the pedestrian path had been divided into two lanes—
left and right.
Each marked as a one-way flow.
And what Shigaraki meant was simple.
At the time, he had been standing in one of those one-way lanes.
A one-way lane, by definition, only allowed movement in one direction.
The shark-headed Villain had blocked the entire path.
Shigaraki didn't want to go the wrong way.
So he attacked the man standing in his way.
And then the Villain went down.
That, according to Shigaraki, was the whole story.
The image flashed across the officer's mind.
The shark-headed Villain collapsed on the ground, coughing blood.
The blue-haired boy standing there unharmed.
That was the bizarre scene Kamui Woods had found when he finally arrived at the scene.
That was also the main reason Shigaraki had been "invited" to the station for questioning.
The Villain had been beaten so badly that "excessive force" barely began to cover it.
He was severely injured, still undergoing treatment in the hospital even now.
As for Himiko Toga—
the girl who had hidden nearby after following Shigaraki's instructions—
she had tried to explain things.
Tried to speak up for him.
Tried to persuade Kamui Woods to let him go.
Unfortunately, Kamui Woods was still a Pro Hero.
And whether in public duty or private conscience, there was no way he could simply overlook an unlicensed civilian openly using his Quirk in public.
Even if, in his heart, he didn't believe Shigaraki had been wrong.
At most, the boy had gone a little too far.
So in the end, with no better option, Toga had come to the police station with him to give her statement as well.
Because whatever else happened—
there was no way she was going to let Tenko be taken here alone.
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