Chapter Three - Part One: Tying Up Loose Ends
Misaki stood in the back-storage room of Tythan Savings and Loan, sifting through a drawer of files inside one of the many filing cabinets housed there. It had already been five days since the last robbery attempt and she'd finally convinced the bank manager to let her come back to work. Just sitting at home by herself made her antsy, and while she appreciated that Hawks had offered to help her if she started feeling anxious again, she didn't want to become too dependent on his assistance. She felt a small smile tug at the corners of her lips. That didn't mean she wasn't appreciative of the short messages he'd send to her throughout the day, and the calls he made to check in on her every night.
Sighing to herself, she groaned under her breath and began sifting through the same section of loan files for the third time while her mind had been wandering. She'd gotten past dwelling on the bank robbers and her fallen comrades after the night she'd spent with Hawks. Now in place of that worry she seemed to have developed a sort of existential crisis. She thought getting back to work would help distract her from it, but now... Going through the same mundane motions she'd gotten used to over the years just made her feel like she was dragging her arms and legs through sand.
"Back to work, huh?"
Misaki gasped, nearly jumping out of her skin at the sound of a voice suddenly addressing her from her right. Closing her eyes and lifting a hand to her chest, she slowly let out the breath she'd sharply inhaled before turning her head to glare at Hawks, who was leaning nonchalantly against the filing cabinets next to her.
"Where do you always sneak in from?" She asked him a bit caustically.
He tilted his head in her direction and shot her a sidelong grin. "Trade secret. If I told you I'd have to kill you. I'm kinda attached to you at this point, so I'd rather not."
Rolling her eyes at his playful response, Misaki turned back to the open drawer of the filing cabinet and resumed her task. "Why are you here? It's too early for lunch."
He turned his body toward her, crossing his arms, and leaning his shoulder against the cabinet. He tilted his head to the side and cocked an impish grin before replying in a slightly suggestive tone, "Just wanted to see your pretty face."
She immediately slid her eyes to the side to glare at him through her bangs as she snapped, "Get out."
Her sharp comeback sent him into a peal of laughter, and he held up his hands in front of him in a sign of surrender. "Okay, okay! I'm following up on the robbery. Bank manager asked me to scout the security after the upgrades."
She finally found the file she had been looking for and swiftly pulled it out of the drawer before sliding it shut. Turning away from him, she began walking off toward the exit while replying over her shoulder, "Clearly they're not ungraded enough if you're still able to sneak in here undetected."
He followed after her, clasping his hands behind his head and matching her stride. "I'm a special case."
Shaking her head at his quippy response, she replied dryly, "Why do I get the feeling people have been telling you that for most of your life."
"Well, you would be right about that," he conceded after a moment, his expression one of thoughtful introspection.
"I'm shocked." Her dry tone was practically dripping with sarcasm.
He paced a few steps ahead, turning around to walk backwards in front of her while looking down at her as he glibly chimed, "One more thing to add to the list of things you know about me."
She continued walking, keeping her eyes stubbornly focused away from him as she shot back, "I'll file that under inconsequential details that I didn't really need to know."
"Ouch!" He grimaced, turning back around, and dropping his hands into his pockets as he fell back to match her stride. "You've got some extra bite today. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"
She suddenly stopped in her tracks and clutched the file she was holding up to her chest. She really hadn't meant to be so bitchy with him. It wasn't even close to her time of the month, so she couldn't blame her foul mood on that. She chalked it up as an extension of the restlessness she'd been feeling in concerns to her sudden existential crisis, one of the causes of which happened to be the hero standing in front of her.
She looked down for a moment before saying, "...It's your fault."
He turned to her and blinked, cocking his head to the side. "My fault? I wasn't even in your bed."
She glared back at him in exasperation. "That's not what I mean. You've been coming around here to pester me all this time about becoming a hero, and now... After the last robbery attempt... I've started wondering if maybe you're right."
She leaned back against the wall to her left and stared down at her shoes over the file she still held clutched to her chest. "Maybe I should be doing something more than writing up foreclosures and signing bank notes."
He regarded her thoughtfully for a moment before asking, "When's your next day off?"
She looked up at him curiously. "Saturday, why?"
"Come to work with me," he offered in a light, but serious tone.
She blinked a couple of times while she processed his suggestion before asking incredulously, "With you?"
He grinned back at her confidently, planting his hands firmly on his hips and told her, "I'll show you what it's like to be a hero for a day."
Hawks landed back at his office after his visit to the bank. All in all, the security upgrades they'd made wouldn't necessarily prevent another robbery, but they would help keep the bank employees safe if it happened again. They'd moved the panic buttons from under the top of the counter onto the floor, making it easier for the teller to press it without being seen by the robbers. They'd begun constructing offices for the loan processors instead of having them all sitting out in the open in the lobby, complete with steel doors and bullet proof glass windows. They'd installed bullet proof glass partitions around the teller windows as well. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't a bad start.
The thing that had intrigued him the most during his inspection was the brief conversation he'd had with Misaki in the file room. He wasn't quite sure what had brought it about, but it seemed like she was finally starting to consider getting out of the banking business and pursuing something meaningful. Life changing experiences like the one she'd been through often made people take a good hard look at themselves and seriously consider what they really wanted to do with their lives.
He'd always suspected that Torimodo Misaki was meant for great things; and he was rarely wrong about his read on people. Offering to give her an up close and personal view of the hero business was his way of hopefully easing her into a back-office position at his agency. The administrative work didn't require a hero license, and considering her background, she'd probably be uncomfortable with the field work anyway, at least to start.
Attending a hero academy wasn't the only way to get certified as a pro hero, as he knew from personal experience. If she did end up wanting to go down that path, it wouldn't be that big of a deal for him to use some of his contacts at the Safety Commission to help her get her foot in the door. She already had most of the requisite qualities, all she really lacked at the moment was motivation; something he hoped she'd come to find after she'd gotten some first-hand experience with actual hero work.
"Hey! I've compiled that list of possible targets from the bank heist for you to look at," one of his sidekicks called out to him as he walked through the open balcony doors.
And the hits just kept on coming.
"Great! Pull it up," he said as he walked over to the couch, leaning over the back to look at the laptop screen.
The sidekick opened the file, clicking on the preview pane to open a spread of photos. Hawks looked over each one carefully, comparing them to his memories of the interviews he'd conducted with the owners of all of the safe deposit boxes over the last couple of days. Anyone who had stood out to him as a possible target, he'd flagged and sent back to the office for a background check.
Zeroing in on the photo in the bottom left, he pointed it out to his sidekick. "I remember this guy. Real cagey, didn't want to talk much about what was in his box."
The sidekick clicked on the photo and pulled up an info sheet, reading off the finer points aloud, "Foreigner, Russian, Yuri Ivanov. Box number twenty-three eleven."
Hawks narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and asked, "Where's that box in the vault?"
Pulling up a model schematic of the vault on the laptop, the sidekick pointed out the box's location. Hawks quickly matched that back to his memory of the area of the vault that the robber had been in when he'd apprehended him.
"That's it." He stood, clapping the sidekick on the shoulder. "Good work."
The sidekick gave him a thumbs up as he headed for the door. "Go get 'em!"
Hawks arrived at Yuri Ivanov's apartment just in time to find the Russian frantically packing up his belongings.
Well, if that didn't scream guilty, what did?
He sent a few feathers around to knock on the front door and distract the man while he climbed in through the open window leading to the fire escape. Yuri jumped at the unexpected sound, glancing up frantically at the door before gathering up his hastily packed bag and turning around to make his escape out the window. He recoiled sharply, nearly falling backward onto his behind when he found Hawks sitting there instead.
"Going somewhere, Yuri?" Hawks asked sarcastically.
The panicked Russian threw up a hand and shot a ray of plasma in Hawks's direction. He quickly dodged backward out the open window with a yelp. After tumbling through the air for a second, he quickly righted himself, clicking his tongue as he glared up at the fifth story window he'd nearly been blasted out of.
"Of course your quirk is a power type," he grumbled.
Not wasting any time, he doubled back through an open window on the third floor. Sensing heavy footfalls running down the stairwell, he sent his feathers to intercept, dragging the Russian out a closed window on the second floor. He let him fall for a second before catching him with his nose a few centimeters away from the pavement. The broken glass from the window fell all around him, bouncing on the concrete and leaving small scratches on his neck and arms.
Hawks calmly walked out the open front door on the main level with his hands on his hips and addressed the Russian sardonically, "Now why'd you make me have to chase you, Yuri? I thought we could have a nice conversation like civilized people. Now I have to take you down to the police station."
"I'll talk!" Yuri immediately yelled, nervous sweat dripping down his nose onto the pavement.
Hawks tilted his head to the side. "I'm listening."
"Give me a break here, huh?" Yuri's frantic eyes motioned to the feathers holding him upside down in midair.
Hawks gave a nonchalant shrug before sending the feathers holding Yuri straight up in the air, high enough to go above the roof of the apartment building, before dropping him again. Yuri let out a high-pitched scream as he tumbled in a free fall out of the sky. Granted, such a display was likely a gross abuse of his authority in this situation, but guys like him usually only gave up the whole story when they were truly afraid for their lives. Hawks's feathers caught the Russian right before his face could splatter against the glass shard covered pavement.
"Okay! Okay!" Yuri cried out brokenly.
Hawks crossed his arms and blinked down at him, asking dryly, "You were saying?"
A few hours later, Hawks sat across the desk from the Fukuoka police Chief, musing that the surface seemed to be free for once of the usual piles of paperwork that adorned it on a regular basis. Well, mostly.
The Chief looked over the info in the file in his hand in shock before looking back up at Hawks, his mouth hanging open as he asked, "How'd you get this?"
Hawks grinned. "The owner of the deposit box was kind enough to offer up its contents after some... Gentle persuasion. The item is being returned to its original owner by the Russian consulate, courtesy of one Yuri Ivanov."
The Chief could only shake his head in disbelief, motioning down at the open file on his desk. "Are these really—?"
"Stolen Russian Crown Jewels," Hawks confirmed in a low tone.
The Chief ran his hands over his balding head and leaned back heavily in his chair. "What in the world were these doing in a safe deposit box in Fukuoka?"
Hawks interlocked his fingers in front of him, resting his elbows on the arms of his chair as he explained, "Turns out my friend Yuri was a member of an armored car robbery crew in Russia. He and his buddies hijacked a convoy carrying what they thought was just some American's rare jewelry collection. Turned out one of those rare pieces was the missing necklace from the Russian Diamond Fund. As soon as he figured out what they'd stolen, he knocked off his crew and hightailed it here to lay low with this guy."
He tossed a photo of one of the bank robbers onto the desk. The Chief leaned forward in his chair, recognition lighting up his expressive face as he stared at the picture. "The leader of our second bank heist crew."
Hawks continued, "Apparently Yuri got drunk one night and started bragging about his big score. He had no idea they were going after the jewels themselves until I asked him about his deposit box. He wasn't exactly forthcoming, as you can imagine. Caught him packing up his stuff when I stopped by to follow up on a lead about his box being a probable target."
The Chief huffed out an ironic laugh. "No wonder none'a the crew members'd give up the payload. Why'd this Yuri guy hide the jewels in the bank?"
Hawks shrugged. "Couldn't find anyone around here to fence 'em. And he didn't trust his buddies back in Russia not to figure out where he was and come after him. He figured they'd be safe there until the heat died down and he could find a way to move 'em under the radar. Banks don't keep detailed records about what exactly their customers store in their boxes."
Confusion passed over the Chief's face for a second and he reached over to pull a file from one of the piles of boxes next to his desk, flipping to the list the bank had provided of the deposit box's contents.
Huh, Hawks mused, so that's where all the paperwork went.
"Necklace..." The Chief huffed after a moment. "No kiddin'. Damn good work, Hawks," the Chief commended him as he slapped the file closed on top of his desk.
The Wing Hero reached his arms above him in an exaggerated stretch, closing his eyes and grinning broadly. "I'm just glad we can all rest easy now that that mystery is solved!"
Misaki walked out of her bathroom with a towel slung over her shoulders, gently folding it around the ends of her wet tresses and pressing tightly to wring some of the water out. She usually let her hair air dry as much as possible before hitting it with the low setting on her hair dryer right before she went to bed. Walking into her bedroom, she reached out for the remote on her nightstand and turned on the television above her dresser, switching it to the local news channel. Setting the remote back down, she walked over to her vanity and slung her towel over the back of the chair before sitting down and picking up her hairbrush. She began to gently brush through her long, wet hair as she listened to the broadcast in the background.
"Unbeknownst to them, a local bank in downtown Fukuoka had been housing an item of great renown."
Misaki halted the hairbrush mid-stroke and turned her wide-eyed gaze to the television when the news anchor suddenly said the name of her workplace.
"Tythan Savings and Loan had been the scene of an attempted robbery twice in the last three months, with the most recent incident occurring just five days ago. After a careful investigation of the case, Billboard Chart topping hero, Hawks, was able to uncover what exactly the villains had been attempting to rob from the bank."
A picture of an extravagant looking diamond necklace filled the screen.
"This necklace is one of several belonging to the missing set of Russian Crown Jewels known as the Russian Diamond Fund."
She gasped sharply at the revelation. How had they not known something like that was in their vault? The bank required written verification of the ownership of any jewelry valued over one million yen that was kept in the safe deposit storage, mostly for insurance purposes in the event of a robbery. The necklace on the television screen was definitely worth more than one million yen.
"The police are still investigating how the necklace found its way inside the bank's safe deposit storage, but we are told that the necklace has been safely recovered and is on its way back home, thanks to the diligence and hard work of Hawks, and the Fukuoka Police Department."
Misaki turned down the volume on the television and let out a big sigh of relief. The worst part about being robbed twice in three months was knowing that they hadn't gotten what they wanted, and not knowing if or when another crew was going to come after it again. Sure, all of the new security measures the bank had enacted to protect their employees were great, but not having to face the possibility of being robbed every other month was much better.
Her phone began vibrating from its place on the charging stand sitting on her nightstand. She turned her head to look at it before standing up and walking over to pick it up. Glancing down at the name displayed on the caller ID, a small smile tugged at her lips as she pressed the button on the screen to pick up the call.
"Hi," she answered softly as she turned to walk back over to her vanity table.
"Hey, how are you doing?" Hawks's mellow toned voice greeted her.
"I'm okay," she said as she sat back down, putting the phone on speaker and setting it down on top of the table before picking her hairbrush back up. "How's work? I don't usually hear from you this early?"
"It's been kinda slow today. I had some down time, so I figured I'd check in on ya," he replied in a nonchalant tone, the one she knew he used when he meant the complete opposite.
She didn't know why he always tried to downplay how busy he was. It was like he was afraid he would be burdening her or something if he complained about anything to her. She kind of wished he would burden her a little bit if it would help take some of that stress off of him. He hid it pretty well, but she had a feeling that days like the one he'd had while she'd been staying at his apartment were more the norm than the exception. She wouldn't nag him about it though. If he wanted to keep up his nonchalant tough-guy act, that was his prerogative. Maybe one day he'd be comfortable enough with her to show her a bit of his vulnerable side, but until then, she'd let him be.
"I just saw the news about the Russian jewels. Was that what those villains were after all this time?" She asked as she began running the brush back through her damp tresses.
She heard him sigh before answering. "Ah, yeah. The guy who hid the necklace is being extradited back to Russia, and the bank employee whom he apparently bribed to set up the deposit box under the radar has been arrested as well."
"Thank you..." She trailed off, glancing down at the phone reverently as if he could somehow see her expression through the device.
"Just doing my job, Misa-chan," he placidly replied a moment later.
She scoffed at his sudden modesty. "Right. Recovering a foreign national treasure is all in a day's work for you?"
He let out a small laugh. "Some days are more exciting than others. But if I had to pick, I'd take helping old ladies cross the street and saving cats from trees over an armed robbery any day of the week."
Remembering back to the little barb she'd thrown at him during the first week he'd been investigating her, she couldn't help but smile as she shook her head. "So humble."
"Some people would call that peaceful," he replied jokingly, though his tone was somewhat resigned.
"So, about Saturday…" Misaki trailed off, setting her brush back down on the surface of the vanity table and picking up the phone. She pressed the button to take it off the speaker setting and held it back up to her ear as she moved over to sit on top of her bed.
"What's up? You having second thoughts?" Hawks asked, his voice sounding half teasing and half concerned.
"No, I was just wondering what you had planned, is all," she replied with genuine curiosity. All he'd really told her was that he wanted her to come to work with him, nothing about what exactly that work was going to entail.
"Don't worry, I won't let you handle anything dangerous. Just some routine calls," he told her, the nonchalance in his tone more genuine than before.
Misaki bit her thumbnail and asked apprehensively, "Are you sure this is okay? You won't get in trouble for bringing a civilian to work with you for the day?"
His voice chuckled in her ear just before he responded, "As long as you don't turn anymore bank robbers into babies, it shouldn't be a problem."
She closed her eyes and shook her head, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips in response to his light teasing.
"No promises," she jokingly replied.
Hawks was silent on the other end of the line for a second before he suddenly asked in a rarely serious tone, "Are you sure you wanna do this? I kinda sprung it on you at the bank earlier, but I don't wanna pressure you into doing anything you're not comfortable with. If it's too soon, we can wait."
She looked down for a moment as she considered his query before replying resolutely a moment later, "No, it's okay. I trust you."
If it had been anyone else who had offered to introduce her to the hero business, she would have turned them down flat. He made her feel safe, not just from what might seek to harm her, but from her own fears as well. She really did trust him not to put her in any kind of situation that she couldn't handle.
"Thanks, Misa-chan," his soft voice said through the speaker a moment later, his warm tone tinged with appreciation. She heard the voice of one of his sidekicks call out to him just before he spoke again to say, "Sorry, I gotta go. I'll call you tomorrow."
"Goodnight, Keigo," she said with a small smile.
He offered her a short goodbye before hanging up. She dropped her phone from her ear, clicking the button on the side to put it to sleep before placing it back on the charger. The date and time displayed on the screen briefly before the charging symbol overtook it. Two more days until her introduction to the daily life of a professional hero. She made a conscious effort not to let her nerves get the better of her as she collapsed back against the pillows with a heavy sigh. Hopefully by the end of it she'd have a better idea about what to do regarding her sudden existential crisis.
Preview for the next chapter -
"I'll let you grab the brainless fur ball. Never been good with cats," he said under his breath with a slight shiver.
"You know, cats are actually supposed to be pretty smart," Misaki informed him ironically.
He scoffed under his breath. "Smart enough to get itself stuck in a tree."
She smiled and conceded playfully, "I'll take the cat, you take the old lady."
He flew down to hover next to a branch a little way away from the one the terrified cat was clinging to. He let her legs down and she stepped out onto the branch, testing her weight before releasing her hold on him. He steadied her a bit with his hands on her hips until she got her footing, moving back when he was sure she was secure.
He glanced over his shoulder at the elderly woman on the sidewalk below. "Kinda reminds me of that old doc from UA. Maybe I'll even get a kiss for my efforts."
She slid him an exasperated glare as she slowly made her way toward the softly growling feline. "I think you mean my efforts."
He looked over at the cat and cringed.
"Good luck, Misa-chan. Let me know when you want me to bring you down..."
Now that all the bank robbery business has been settled, it's time to solve the problem of Misaki's existential crisis!
She'll be getting a little taste of the hero life for a day in the next installment of this chapter.
As always, thank you so much for reading :)
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