Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The Defectors
Hospitals. They were a place Aizawa Shouta knew all to well. Expect instead of this being the end of his day, it was the start of his day.
Aizawa felt his legs go into autopilot as he approached the private hospital ward ahead of him, two survivors were there being questioned. No, they weren’t survivors of a villain attack; they were survivors of North Korea, one of the most corrupt nations on earth.
“It’s not every day you get two North Korean defectors … especially Japanese ones …”
The underground hero thought this was weird of him to be called here. But considering how unusual the case was it was understandable.
As he approached the room, he opened the door to the see the room was transformed into an observation room/ hospital room. There was a thick piece of glass (most likely quirk proof) separating the two North Korea defectors, a woman and a teen boy.
Detective Tsukauchi , Officer Tamakawa and Recovery Girl were already inside, Tsukauchi was talking to the teen boy who already looked more social then the woman did.
“Ah, Aizawa! Thank you for coming in today!” Aizawa looked at the table in the room to see UA principle Nezu and All-Might (in his civilian form) sitting at table while watching the observation room.
‘This case is most unusual, we already got quite a bit of information on them, but this only the beginning. These files gathered from the first arrived a couple of days ago have already provided some insight,” Nezu explained as he closed the report book. Aizawa grabbed the reports while sitting down at the table as he scanned through them:
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Report: 2938578
Case: Defectors from North Korea
Detainee’s allegedly crossed into (via paid smugglers) China for an estimated two years and later South Korea from North Korea. Child detainee claims that his mother 's name is Midoriya Inko, making him Midoriya Izuku, claim is currently under investigation.
Both adult and child detainees were quarantined in South Korea for two weeks before being taken to Japan, both are to remain in hospital for treatment and observation.
Detainment information (child):
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Name: Jin Hyun (Biological name (Claim) never officially registered in DPRK): Midoriya Izuku)
Age: 15
Date of birth: July 15, XXXX
Reason for detainment: Defector from DPRK
Quirk: Unknown, possibly multiple quirks
Mother: Jin Hyo-sonn (Biological name(claim): Midoriya Inko
Father: (Claim, deceased) Midoriya Hisashi
Sibling(s): Twin Brother (Status Unknown): Jin Jun (Biological name(claim): Midoriya Mikumo
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“So, this kid and mom who crossed into China and later went into South Korea through smugglers?” Aizawa questioned as he kept his eyes on the mom and teen boy, both whom were currently being treated for multiple ailments and injuries in their hospital beds. Aizawa couldn’t help but notice the black gloves the boy was wearing, with only the thumbs and pointer fingers being uncovered.
“Yes, the boy claimed they were in China for two years, to which he was telling the truth, ‘Detective Tsukauchiinterrupted shutting the door behind him as he entered the room, leaving Officer Tamakawa in the room with Recovery Girl and the detainees.
‘The woman won’t give any answers that are not yes or no, and she keeps asking ‘where is he?’, but she won’t specify who,’ Tsukauchi noted giving Aizawa the transcript of the interview from when they first arrived to Japan, it was in Korean and Japanese. The pro-hero stared at the transcript not realizing how many pages of writing and photos there were.
“They came with nothing? No possessions or belongings?” All-Might asked as he went through the transcript. He had seen a lot of bizarre cases, but an international case like this was unheard of.
“These were in their possession,’ Tsukauchi took out two bags, they both had holes and dirt all over them, but all the items inside were interact and in their own individual plastic evidence bags.
The officer took out some clothing, old gauze with dried blood, fake passports, combs and some food packets but what caught All-Might off guard was-
“Is that a bottle of dirt?” He raised an eyebrow pointing to a soda bottle. Tsukauchi shook his head slowly turning the bottle to show solid white pieces inside.
Aizawa felt sick to his stomach.
“It’s ashes … but that’s not the only suspicious thing we found. We also found braid’s of black hair and this,’ The detective took out a well-aged drawing book,’ … which is why I have less reason to believe they are lying …”
Aizawa took the book from the officer slowly opening the book, only to feel his heart drop into his chest. His blood ran cold and he felt his body start to shake. Neither All-Might, Nezu nor Tsukauchi said a word as he looked through the book.
Illustrations of human atrocity filled the pages, Aizawa only saw two pages but they screamed the amount of suffering the boy and his mom suffered easily.
On one page was drawings of people, some of the children.
Children. Children.
They and other adults were hauling skeleton bodies into a chart that were already full of decaying bodies. The dead were naked, they were a mix of men, women and children, they all had sores, bruises and paled skin. In the background uniformed men with guns with stone cold faces watched on, some had their guns aimed at random people while others had barking dogs by their side.
The other page was prisoners in multiple positions, some with their arms above their head, squatting just above the ground, or standing on one leg, all of them looked like they were in agonizing pain. Some were on the floor with large X’s where their eyes were supposed to be, clearly dead, while other had tears, blood or vomit running down their face’s. Just like the pervious picture guards had guns aimed at the prisoners, even at the dead bodies.
Aizawa felt every vein in his body go cold at the illustrations.
“That kid in there saw all this?”
‘When I asked for details and whose ashes these were the woman and young boy refused to speak, I noticed on the birth certificate for Midoriya Izuku provided by Hosu General Hospital that Midoriya-San had two sons. Fraternal twins … I tired asking more questions, but nothing …”
No much was known about their quirks, but considering they were from North Korea no one was taking any chances.
“And they have claims about being Japanese citizens?” Aizawa asked flatly, carefully putting the drawing book back in its plastic evidence bag, silently noting to look at it later.
“Yes, Aizawa-San,’ Nezu answered.
’This woman claims she is Midoriya Inko, a young a college graduate, major in nursing and medical biology who disappeared nearly eleven years ago. At first everyone thought she ran off, but according to her friends and family she had no reason to leave. She was married to her husband for only four years before she disappeared … a few days later he was found dead in the family’s apartment. But with no leads the police had no choice but to call off the search, despite evidence of foul play.”
“I see … how old is this kid anyways?”
“If he is Izuku then he is fifteen years old. He remembers his birthdate but not the year he was born … its July 15, the same birthdate as Midoriya Izuku,“ Tsukauchi explained.
‘Yamada, Ectoplasm and Cementos are still grading his test results, his physical and standard testing are the first steps stimulating him and the women into Japanese society. Even if they aren’t the Midoriya’s they clearly have ties to Japan.”
“Hmm,’ Aizawa couldn’t help but remember how scared yet excited the boy looked when he was speaking to Tsukauchi and Tamakawa, ‘I’m guessing by the kid’s excitement when he spoke to you and Tamakawa he can speak Japanese?”
Before the principle had a chance to answer the question a load voice filled the room, “He understand more than that!”
“Of course, he finished grading first …”
Aizawa turned his head to glare at his collage erasing his quirk, “Hizashi, can’t you come in speaking at a normal volume for once?”
The blonde man scratched his head laughing nervously, “S-Sorry. And its Present Mic! I didn’t have enough to time change into my hero costume, but that doesn’t mean I’m not at work! Anyways I just graded the language portion of the kids tests and I have some good news and bad news.’
Nezu nodded for the loud hero to continue on, ‘This kid is some type of linguist genius, he not only speaks, reads and writes perfect Korean, but the same applies to English. He understood material that even third years have difficulty with!”
Now Aizawa was impressed, but he was also suspicious. He watched as Recovery girl and Officer Tamakawa left the room, leaving the mother and son to talk with each other. Both looked at ease both were speaking in Korean, while looking around the room.
“They act like there is a gun to their heads constantly.” Aizawa observed as he watched the mother look around nonstop. Something about watching the woman looking ready to run made Aizawa feel both angry and curious.
“And the bad news?” Nezu interrupted. Hizashi took out a paper that was the Japanese portion of the language test. There were red marks all over the paper.
“The kid can understand Japanese just fine, but he can’t read any kanji past grade five … he will need lots of tutoring to catch up with other kids his age. He also speaks with a Korean accent and pronunciation, but he still easy to understand, though he didn’t understand any borrowed words or slang. It’s like his vocabulary was from 30 years ago …”
Nezu nodded, paying close attention to the boy and his mother. It wasn’t every day that a girl disappears and reappears in 11 years. Most Korean defectors died. And those with quirks either were heavily controlled or killed if they were seen as threat to the leadership.
“I hate to bring this up but …how can we be sure they aren’t spy’s?” All-Might asked quietly. Aizawa turned towards him glaring slightly.
“Considering they are both terrified and beaten up, I would say even if they are spies they have no choice in the matter, plus the boys Japanese speaking is native level, so I would hold that off for a while if I were you,” Hizashi interrupted. Aizawa noticed he looked angry at the accusation, which was something he rarely showed. If ever showed.
“ … Now I feel like I could sleep for a week straight after all this …”
Recovery girl made her way into the room, accompanied by officer Tamakawa, with two folders, both thick with paper’s full of test results. The whole room went silent as she sat down at the table.
“Do we have any other information? Can we confirm that this woman is in fact Midoriya Inko?” Nezu broke the silence as recovery girl sat down across from the three men.
Without speaking the old woman took out two sheets of paper, “This one to the left identifies that two are in face mother and son. This one,’ The heroine pointed at the right, ‘This will confirm if she is Midoriya Inko, we are still waiting on DNA samples to arrive from her last medical visit and we are reaching out for relatives and friends to see if they believe this woman is who she claims to be.”
“I also have the report from the police this morning, detective Tsukauchi first questioned her and her son, the both were telling the truth. Though neither of them is willing to talk about their experiences in North Korean, nor do they want to share what happened during their two-year defection in China or their two-week quarantine in South Korea,’ She finished explaining looking both sad and disturbed at remembering her findings.
Being involved in the hero business All-Might, Hizashi, Aizawa, and Nezu had seen many horrible instances of cruelty, but knowing what happens in North Korea, or what can be determined happens, it was too horrible to imagine.
“Should we enroll him in a school or- “
“Are you sure he is a teenager?” Recovery Girl interrupted raising an eyebrow.
Hizashi scratched the back of his head confused, “Cause if she was in South Korea for eleven years that means her son is atleast fifteen if he was four when he was taken…
“Then explain these,’ She took out additional notes, pointing to specific part of the page, “He suffers from muscle atrophy and premature arthritis. His dental records prove he still has some of his baby teeth, and I found no indication of wisdom teeth. This could be due to malnutrition or simply his genetics. He may be stunted because of malnutrition, but his body says he is twelve at most. But I’m just estimating his age based off my findings not Midoriya Izuku’s records.’
‘I should note that her son was not willing to consent to a quirk assessment, he said something about it being a ‘monstrous’ quirk. I think he also called himself a thief? He also seems obsessed with the bottle of ashes and the braids of hair, so I will be analyzing it myself. I don’t need someone destroying the very possessions the poor boy has.”
Tsukauchi nodded his head handing the bottle and the braids of hair to Recovery Girl where carefully place them inside an evidence box.
Aizawa looked sadly at the defectors, they both looked scared yet happy. It gave the normally emotionless hero a punch in the guy type of feeling.
“Perhaps we should force him- “before Tsukauchi could change his mind, Recovery Girl gave him a glare that kill on site.
“Absolutely not! If you force that kid to use his quirk, he will see you in the same light as he did with North Korean officials!’ All the men in the room quieted down listening to the woman.
‘I may work at UA for the most part, but I will tell you this, I have worked with other Korean defectors both in South Korean and in Japan. These people are brainwashed constantly. They are told the outside world is scary and depending on their quirks they are forced to do unspeakable things against their will, be under constant surveillance or they and three generations of their family get sent to concentration camps were their deaths are pretty insured, ‘The woman packed away her supplies getting ready to walk out of the room.
‘If you want my advice it’s this, look at his files. It may give you a clue to what his quirk is. And Remember this: I will not allow any of you to use me to force them to do something against their will if it’s not medical reasons. Have a good night,” Without waiting for a response the sound of the door slamming filled the room.
All the men in the room looked at each in silence trying to take in the situation. It was so quiet a pen dropping would be loud.
Aizawa leaned against his chair watching as the woman and teen began to fall asleep in their hospital beds, “So what the hell do we do now?”
The teenage defector fell asleep in his hospital bed, while his mother watched him smiling. She looked exhausted, but she refused to let herself sleep.
“This is probably the first time in a long time that can she fall asleep knowing that nothing harmful will happen to her son. Even if she isn’t Midoriya Inko, they still deserve to be here.”
Everyone in the room watched in surprise as the principle walked towards the observing glass with his arms behind his back, “Isn’t it obvious?’
He turned back around smiling, ‘We let them recover at the hospital and then we will provide them a new home. Then we enroll the boy at UA!”