Chapter 3
Shouta could feel the headache blooming behind his eyes.
They had been interrogating the boy for almost 40 minutes and had almost nothing; they only knew that his name was Harry and that he was from England, but nothing more, the boy totally refused to answer Tsukauchi's other questions.
They weren't getting anywhere, there were hundreds of children with that name, and without a last name to narrow down the search it would take too long.
“We need something else: age, school, some concise reference so that we have the slightest chance of finding where the boy came from” Tsukauchi said exasperatedly.
“Like what?” Shouta was leaning against the wall, staring at the door to Harry's room.
Tsukauchi looked at Shouta for a moment, studying him; He took a slow breath and said “What about Mic?”
His eyes focused on the detective, and he thought for a bit. It was indeed not a bad idea, Hizashi was good with children, he is good with people in general, maybe he can make him let his guard down enough and become a little more susceptible.
He picked up his phone and quickly dialed the blonde's number, 3 rings rang before he answered.
“Sho?”
“I need you to help me with something, do you think you can come to the hospital?” He said, as neutrally as he could, he didn't want the other to think that something bad was going on. He was pretty paranoid.
“Is it about the boy you told me about this morning?” Shouta made a sound of affirmation “I'll be there in 10” he said before hanging up.
He really hopes this works.
Harry looked at the floor from the ledge of his bedroom window and thought this was not a good idea.
He wasn't on the first floor of his aunt and uncle's house, he's on the fourth floor of a hospital, and Ron wasn't here to rescue him in his flying car if he jumped.
Maybe he can try to hold on to the window below.
He sat down and passed one of his legs to the other side, but as he was on the second, he heard the door open.
SERIOUSLY?!
The person saw him and immediately ran, grabbed him by the shirt and pulled until he was back inside, the window closed and locked.
The blond was holding him in his lap, the detective was in the doorway, extremely still, and the hero (he still couldn't believe there was a hero job like in Dudley's comics) was in front of the window.
“It's all right, okay?” said the blond gently rubbing his arm “whatever has happened to you or is troubling you, we'll solve it”.
Harry frowned, stirred a little in the man's arms, and he let go, but no his hands, he held them gently and stroked the back with his thumbs; the aura of the room changed to a more delicate one and Harry noticed that the 3 men were taking maximum care of their every move.
“I know it can be overwhelming, I know you're tired, but this isn't the right way to solve things” the blonde's voice was too gentle “you don't have to take that path, I promise everything will be resolved, we'll help you”.
Do they think that he…?
“I wasn't going to jump” he said suddenly “well, I was going to jump, but not to kill myself”.
The 3 stared at him, the detective nodded to the other 2, and they visibly relaxed; Harry slowly pulled his hands away from the other man's and he gave him a small smile.
“That's good, I freaked out for a second” said the blond letting out a small laugh, why did he make his body feel so light?
“Harry, right?” he nodded quickly “my name is Hizashi Yamada” he introduced himself “now why don't we get you back to your bed and have a proper conversation?”
Yamada took his hand again and slowly guided him until he ended up sitting cross-legged, Harry was too focused on the man's soft touch that he didn't even object to being thrown back to bed.
“Sho and Tsukauchi told me you're from England” he nodded again “that's great, I studied there for a while when I was a kid and I also went a couple of times on vacation” he said happily, and his hands moved back and forth, as if he couldn't keep them still “Where are you from? It's possible I would have been there, maybe we've even crossed paths once”.
Hizashi seemed genuinely happy to be able to talk about his travels, that surprised him, and without even thinking about it, the place came out of his mouth before he could stop.
“Surrey” his eyes widened when he realized what he had said.
“Oh, that's… close to London, isn't it?” Harry just look at him “I think I've been there once, on vacation, it's a nice place”.
Harry took a deep breath, he must concentrate; If he succeeds in turning the tide on conservation, he may be able to think of some false answers.
“What are you doing in Japan? Exchange? Vacation?"
Of all the places he could end up, he had to go and get stuck in Japan, Harry's head was working at a thousand miles an hour: Why Japan? He has never been here, he doesn't know any place or anyone, why do they speak perfect English? No, wait… translator spell (the professors cast the spell on all students once they arrive at Hogwarts), now he knows where he is, but he doesn't think that will help make the apparition work…
“Harry” he heard Hizashi say softly “everything all right?”
“Yes” he said at last “I—I'm here on vacation” Out of the corner of his eye he could see Tsukauchi shake his head at Shouta and his eyes hardened “with my parents” another denial.
“Child” Shouta said as he walked to the other side of the bed and bent down to catch up with him “we need you to tell us the truth so we can help you”.
“And I said you can't” The room fell silent until Tsukauchi spoke.
“It's true” he looks into Harry's eyes “at least you think so” Harry frowned, squeezing the sheets “my quirk basically works like a lie detector, I can tell if you're telling the truth or not, or what you think is true” he finally explained.
Quirk… He had been asked what his was before, but he didn't understand what they meant, he assumed it was a Muggle term he hadn't heard of yet, but now he was completely lost in the meaning of the word.
“What's that?" he asked, the adults looked at him in shock “you know, that quirk, what is it supposed to be?”
The 3 men were speechless, they looked at each other uncomfortably not knowing what to do, what was so weird about asking that?
Harry just looked at them, waiting for an answer
Shouta was stunned, it was not possible for the boy not to know what a quirk is, unless he was living under a stone all his life; He never thought he'd have to explain to someone what it is, thankfully, it wasn't.
“A quirk is” Hizashi began, thinking of the best way to explain it “like a quality that we all have, well, 80% of the world's population” the boy's eyebrows came together even more “something like a talent, an improvement of evolution if you will”.
“Qualities like what? Being a walking lie detector?" he said exasperatedly.
“That's one” the blond said with a languid smile “each person has a different one, mine allows me to increase the volume of my voice exponentially and Sho can erase the quirks, the hospital staff has them too, mostly curative, that's why you're practically as good as new”.
Harry looked even more confused than before.
“Not all quirks are created equal” Shouta said “some people can't use them or aren't able to control them, so they need support to do so” he waited until Harry gave him the go-ahead to continue “your… Stick” he saw the boy grimace, “I guess that's a support element for you. You were using it as a flashlight in the alley, and Security told me that you threw a bolt of lightning through it, so I guess your quirk has something to do with energy.”
He could practically see the gears turning in the boy's head, a cascade of emotions running down his face as if he didn't know how to feel; He feared he had overwhelmed him.
“Did you say 80%?” he finally asked.
“That's right” Hizashi said.
“Am I not weird?” That question was like a knife to Shouta's heart, and from the expressions of the others, it was also like a that for them.
“Oh, dear” Hizashi's voice sounded watery, as if he was going to cry at any moment, and he tried to hug Harry, but he pulled away.
“No” he said quickly “I mean, what I'm doing is… normal here? Illuminating things, throwing lightning bolts, making objects float… all of that".
“Not in that specific order, but yes” Tsukauchi said, “quirks make it possible for people to do different specific things or change their appearance with a mutation: more eyes, lots of hair, different arms, things like that” Harry still looked confused, but at least he was relaxing more, the more they explained the world of quirks, the calmer he seemed.
“Do you…” Harry said softly, “do you know what a Muggle is?”
What the hell was a Muggle?
They had never heard that word before, their faces must have shown their confusion because the boy nodded slowly before his shoulders fell in defeat.
“I'm not going to lie to you” Hizashi said, “I haven't heard that word in my life, do you think you can explain?”
“If you don't know what it is, that means I can't tell you” his eyes were staring at the sheet as if it were the most interesting thing in the world, “you may have qualities like us, but we are not the same” his knuckles were white, “I'm already in a lot of trouble because of the alley and the guard, the only thing they will do if you try to help me is to get me into Azkaban”.
“Why can't you? Why are you in trouble? What is Azkaban?” asked Tsukauchi, now also at the side of the boy.
Harry just lay on the bed and covered himself up to his head.
The interrogation officially ended, they didn't want to pressure him, if he didn't want to talk anymore, they weren't going to force him.
He seriously hoped that Tsukauchi could accomplish something with the little information they have.
Someone had to stay with him now so he wouldn't try to run away again.
When he saw Harry last night, he knew it would be a difficult situation, but now he's sure it's something much bigger than he thought at first and no matter what it takes, Harry will be safe.
How could he have been so stupid as to get his hopes up? It was obvious that this was all ridiculous, a trick of his mind to give him a hard time.
Either he was being tortured by Voldemort in the mansion or he was still unconscious in that alley and all this was the way his mind formed false hopes.
He will try to get some sleep and hope that when he wakes up, all of this will be over.