It should have been a glorious day.
With the students out on work studies Shota Aizawa's planner was beautifully barren, save for coursework and other bothersome, mundane tasks. Still, these could be finished in the complete, blissful silence of his emptied classroom.
Or- better yet- Chiyo's.
News of the Hero Killer Stain's takedown had eluded the couple, too wrapped in each other to have bothered with the drone of a television in the background. Aizawa could already picture Chiyo's panic; the area of capture, along with a string of Nomu attacks, was the very district two of their students had work studies in. Even if they were in perfect health she would still worry like a fretful mother hen, clucking over ethics or demanding to see them for herself.
Hosu City was rather nice. There was a new exhibit at the aquarium there he could see her enjoying.
His bland wallpaper had been sneakily replaced with a close-up of Endo's face, pink nose practically against the camera, identifying only the time and date.
He'd had grown accustomed to the harebrained woman's texting manner, in which a string of responses funneled through, one right after another, rather than one concise message.
She hadn't texted him since she left yesterday evening.
Odd, but not completely out of the norm; they had spent nearly the entire weekend together, and while a quiet, absurd piece of him wanted her to stay, it made sense if she needed some space.
He'd given her Monday morning off after the amped training of Sunday afternoon but still he dragged into work tired all the same, hopeful to at least avoid Yamada and Kayama's chipper morning routine to cure his fatigue.
"Hey hey! There's our boy!"
Luck was a cruel-hearted mistress.
An arm slung around his slumped shoulders. He could practically feel the senseless cheer floating out of Mic's pores, like some idiotic human bubble machine created for children birthday parties to annoy grown adults. Aizawa sighed. This only enticed his blonde friend further.
"Some turn of events on Friday, huh?"
"I have no idea what you're referring to."
Mic was hardly listening, glasses reflecting the early morning sun as he peeped around. "Where's your girlfriend, huh? You drove separately?"
"I told you before, we don't live together," Aizawa shrugged Yamada off and quickened his pace. Where was she? Even if Chiyo only taught two classes today, her stickler abidance to rules made purposeful tardiness seem unlikely.
Pulling out his phone to send an inquiry text would only lead Mic to badger him throughout the building. As it were, the idiot was already tagging along like a duckling, yammering about someone who'd called in with a totally outdated song request, unbothered by his quiet friend's sinister face.
Her classes weren't until the late afternoon. He could ask Principal Nezu at lunch if she still hadn't shown up or called, he decided, easing into the teacher's lab to assess some files.
The hours melted away once he set aside the nagging worry and focused on the pointless curriculum justification outlines Nezu was so keen on everyone creating. Tension from hunching over too long popped his spine when he stretched, a yawn forming without consent.
Chiyo still hadn't messaged him.
The fur-footed principal often enjoyed tea in the lounge, enslaving any poor soul who bambled in with a tedious lecture about whatever topic he'd been pondering. The very idea was exhausting, but a risk Aizawa would have to take.
He considered waking Yamada, who was currently drooling across his keyboard and moment's away from electrocution, surely, in order to have a buffer for Nezu's sidetracking. Before he could even drop a book on the blonde swirl of hair someone abruptly entered, jolting Yamada awake.
"-and welcome back! That was the cool, hip beats of the underground band-" Present Mic dj'ed, voice performing as if they had just cut back from commercial. Aizawa dropped the book anyway, clonking Yamada into silence, before turning to view the gaunt face of All Might.
Even without context, Aizawa's stomach lurched at the blazing seriousness of his coworker's expression.
"Where is Chiyo?"
Yamada glanced between the two men. Aizawa, if possible, looked even more grim than usual.
"Either she's only showing up this afternoon for her classes, or she's absent today. Why?"
Toshinori's entire body seemed held by taut strings, marionetted by severe, unseen hands. Even in his weakened state his hair nearly grazed the doorway.
Whatever reason he was pursuing Chiyo caused him to hesitate.
"Have you been in contact with her recently?"
A rather probing question that raised heat to Aizawa's throat. "Last night. We were about to seek out Principal Nezu to see if he's heard from her," Aizawa glanced at Yamada who, insanely, was working on a Pumped-Up Cats playlist on a minimized screen behind his filing document. "...Though I think it would be more rational if you and I went instead."
The hallways were quiet during classes but seemed even more sullen with the many absent first years. A growing uneasiness snaking through his chest denied Aizawa the chance to appreciate the peace.
"Why were you looking for her, All Might?" He cut his eyes to the man. "What have you done?"
"I didn't lie when I said I trusted Chiyo, but I never promised to stop pursuing this case."
Case? The word struck several chords; none of them pleasant. "And?"
"And, I came across a report around the assumed time Chiyo Tsutomi was born. A domestic abuse case with no arrests, and all the information marked as classified."
"Classified due to underage protection?"
"I'm not sure," All Might stopped abruptly; Aizawa hadn't even realized Nezu's favorite lounge was already before them. Again All Might hesitated, face drawn like a half-starved phantom. "My mentor- Sorahiko Torino, known professionally as Gran Torino- was the reporting hero on site. I cannot recall a time in his career where he was stationed in Musutafu, let alone anywhere near the site where the incident took place."
Passing heroes stepped in and assisted all the time; that in itself wasn't peculiar. "He filed the reporting himself?"
All Might nodded.
Why would a pro hero be personally filing police reports?
"Have you contacted him?"
"No," Piercing eyes turned weary. "Izuku Midoriya was to train under him this week and I didn't want to interfere; however, with the altercation involving Stain, young Midoriya has been hospitalized. I intended to seek out Gran Torino today."
"And take Chiyo with you?" There was a shade of judgment in his voice.
The events of Friday night were vivid in both their minds, apparent from Aizawa's distancing behavior. Cool animosity blew from him like a gentle wind, permeating Toshinori's senses. He set his determined gaze on the aloof man beside him.
"There are many things I wish to discuss with Chiyo; to come clean about my identity, to start with, and apologize again for my abhorrent behavior last week. You're right, I should've been honest with her from the beginning." He took a breath. "I have no clear evidence this case relates to her, but if there's a chance, I want her to know. I've felt a creeping skepticism concerning Hannei Tsutomi for a while now. I don't trust her."
At last something they could agree on.
Aizawa's pale face gave a nod of agreement. If he wasn't so uneasy, Toshinori would've smiled.
"Eraser! All Might! What a lovely surprise!"
As expected the small, furry principal sat atop the couch with a steaming cup of tea, legs fully erect off the cushion like a little kid too small for adult furniture. "Come in for a cup of tea? Perhaps a lesson on the school's code of conduct? We've added a new paragraph in sub-chapter nine on interpersonal relationships-"
"Afraid not, Principal," All Might interrupted kindly. Nezu seemed unfazed.
"Very well, then how may I help you gentlemen?"
"Chiyo Tsutomi hasn't arrived at school yet. Have you heard from her?"
"Ah," Nezu set his teacup down. For a horrifying moment the two feared the principal was about to go on a rant. "Ms. Tsutomi called in sick last night. I'm afraid she's caught a stomach bug."
"Did you speak to her personally?" Aizawa pressed.
No one had ever asked how Nezu received the scar sliced across his eye- even if someone did, the long-winded, runaround answer wouldn't be worth the attempt. Aizawa tended to observe the scarred side of his face, as it always seemed to reveal more than the furrier, more pleasant half.
All Might, meanwhile, made it a habit to view the latter.
"No, I believe she felt too nauseous to attempt a phone call. A clear text sent before six AM will suffice, in case either of you ever need a call-off date, by the way." Nezu added cheerfully. His audience barely noted the comment.
"What time was the text sent?"
Aizawa fought the urge to rip the phone away from Nezu's unhurried paws. Impatience ticked his brow. Why hadn't he texted her as soon as he'd noticed her silence? Better yet- why hadn't he driven by her apartment, early enough to slip in for a peaceful snooze before work? Instead of waiting like a self-conscious idiot, not wanting to seem bothersome.
"By the timestamp of the text, Ms. Tsutomi sent her request at 8:45 PM."
"Was she-" Toshinori began, words landing in the empty space Aizawa had been standing in. The dark figure was already halfway to the door when he glanced back.
"She left my place around seven. Come on."
Toshinori didn't need to be told twice.
The door was unlocked.
No signs of forced entry- simply left unsecured, as if forgotten.
Chiyo always locked her door, leaving or otherwise.
"Watch out for-"
"Nasu, yeah."
Aizawa needed a different reason to watch out; the cat was infatuated. He'd read an article once, just after Cat had first appeared outside his door, trying to ascertain the perfect methods of winning the trust of a stray animal. Instead of gleaning helpful tips of approach he'd read about felines taking on the characteristics of their owners, from sleeping patterns to human preferences.
He hoped Nasu abided by this theory, reflecting his owner's own feelings rather than simply identifying with another cat fanatic, as he kneeled down and made the idiotic clicking noises he'd seen Chiyo do countless times.
There was no pattering of feet. A void of silence answered, rather than the piteous meows of the saggy-bellied cat.
"Don't touch anything if you can help it," Aizawa advised quietly. Frayed blonde hair nodded in his periphery.
Chiyo always seemed hesitant to invite him over. Not because of her cleanliness; while there was a single plate in the sink and a pile of haphazardly-organized lesson plans on an end table, the apartment was mostly tidy, smelling faintly of honey and her floral perfume.
No, the space was simply squashed, each room hardly large enough to fit the secondhand furniture she attempted to decorate with. With her slight frame maneuvering was probably simple; for two men over six foot, an absurd amount of care was spent simply avoiding bruised knees and tripping over crowded belongings.
"Does anything seem out of place to you?" Toshinori called from the kitchen. His voice only had to carry a few feet to reach Aizawa in the living room.
"Not that I can tell immediately."
Though, again, most of their time was spent at his apartment. Was the folded blanket on the couch normal, or usually a crumpled mess?
"Eraser."
He didn't need to feel unease by his hero name- the tone of All Might's voice said it all.
He stood just outside Chiyo's bedroom, as if afraid to infringe upon a sacred ground. Aizawa shouldered around him, following the man's gaze.
Chiyo's closet, normally bursting at the seams with obnoxiously bright dresses and death-trap heels, appeared as an empty mouth in the wall, barren of colorful teeth save a plain bag on the floor. A pencil Chiyo had used as a hairpin was lying nearby; Aizawa used the edge to ease open the bag and remove the contents.
Her UA security badge and a dark shirt were tucked inside- his shirt. The one she'd stolen Saturday night with a sheepish grin. As if he wouldn't have given it to her anyway.
"What is it?"
"Her UA badge and the shirt she slept in Saturday night," Why would it be here? "Check the drawers. Use your sleeve, if you can."
Panic, slow and venomous, was seeping into his veins, numbing his fingers, the tip of his nose.
"There's nothing here." Toshinori's body was beginning to steam. He turned, giving the room a sharp once-over. "There has to be something."
An idea lightened his blue eyes. Aizawa watched as he pulled out his phone.
The sound of an odious theme song muffled through the air, suffocated in its hiding spot. Toshinori lifted the mattress and the silver-age All Might theme song blared full force.
"That's gotta be a coincidence, right?"
His companion didn't deem a response.
Chiyo's phone required facial recognition. A passcode screen eventually appeared, demanding a four digit password.
Her birthdate? The phone vibrated, repelling the answer.
"Her UA pin?" Toshinori guessed, tapping the numbers. Again the phone shook, rejecting their attempt. "It will lock down if we're incorrect once more." He breathed out a long sigh, wracking his brain. "Are there any important dates she's mentioned? Maybe between the two of you?"
There were several events that came to mind, some more plausible than others. The USJ attack? It didn't seem like an event she would want to commemorate, though it did set them on a new course of intimacy. Their first kiss? Technically that transpired months ago. The panic ran a long claw down his spine; he was wasting time.
If he were to pick anything other than his lazy password of 1234, their first date would probably be the most memorable. Aizawa tentatively keyed in the date.
The phone accepted happily.
"Nice work," Toshinori had enough grace not to ask what date he'd chosen- that or he was either too embarrassed or supremely focused on the task at hand. He leaned in so close his pointed chin nearly sat on Aizawa's shoulder.
The text messages had been erased, save the last outgoing one to Principal Nezu claiming nausea. Aizawa swept quickly through the apps; all voicemails, phone history, emails, and photos- even the background image taken at the impromptu party class 1-A had thrown her- had been deleted. Oddly, her contacts were still in place. Why wouldn't she erase those? To do so would've been time consuming, he mused, opening the app.
Names he didn't recognize filled the log.
"Koneko N? Nezumi P? Do you recognize these names?" Toshinori took the phone, scrolled down the list. Aizawa leaned back on his heels in thought.
"Call her phone again."
Toshinori obliged and her phone glowed with the notification: Himawari T: Mobile
"What does that mean?" He wondered aloud.
Aizawa stood abruptly, catching his attention. Angry vessels had been gradually crawling forth and now shone stark against his widened eyes.
"She encrypted her contact information," His breath came quicker as he surveyed the room closely. "She knew this might happen. Deleting the contacts would've taken ages, and she probably knew her mother wasn't tech-savvy enough to know how to reboot the entire phone. Look- UA's contact information has been erased."
Hannei had picked through the contacts, weeding out those deemed dangerous, newfound. Aizawa continued to scroll through the contacts. "There has to be a reason."
Toshinori paced the room like a restless animal. "Even if we believed Chiyo left willingly, evidence points against it- her phone was erased and hidden, the front door was unlocked. Hannei Tsutomi was waiting for Chiyo when she returned."
Kaeru A. Supesu T. Okameinko H.
The phone ripped from his hands as a bony face gnashed its teeth. "We need to focus."
"There has to be a reason she changed the contact names. A clue, something she didn't want her mother to find," Aizawa reached for the phone again, only to have Toshinori pull farther out of his reach.
"Give me the phone," He spoke calmly. If Chiyo were here, where she should be, she would've jumped at his quickened heart, dealt him a swift kiss of submersion.
But she wasn't here.
She had been abducted beneath his very nose.
Worse yet, he was being hampered in investigating by the world's densest hero, glowering daggers into his body.
"Whatever's blocking your rationality, you should just hurry up and say. I don't have time for this."
"My rationality?" Toshinori's voice was caught somewhere between resentment and All Might's timbre, seething from the sides of his mouth. Aizawa's cool gaze didn't turn away. "My rationality? I insisted this was a bad idea, that precautions needed to be taken-"
"So this is about you being right, then? Congratulations."
"This is about Chiyo Tsutomi being in the hands of a woman with a mind-erasing quirk taken under your watch."
Violence raged against his bones, tensed his muscles. Aizawa swallowed their voices and snatched at the phone again; there were more important things at stake than his pride. Deft fingers caught one side, the other held in a vice grip.
"Give me the phone, Toshinori."
"You didn't think it was odd when she didn't show up this morning? You didn't think to call her-"
"Why don't you push through the fat surrounding your brain and focus on something other than Chiyo rejecting you for me."
It was volatile, unnecessary. The words escaped through the blind rage built on pillars of guilt and fear that coursed through him. Before he could apologize Toshinori transformed, releasing the phone in a whirl of unintentional wind. Aizawa watched the glass splinter as it slapped against a wall and fell behind her bedside table.
They watched each other, waiting for the other predator's move.
This would get them nowhere.
"Chiyo was determined to confront her mother; nothing either of us could have said would have stopped her," He wouldn't be the boxed-in wolf, violent and ignorant in his last moments. "What matters now is finding Chiyo. I apologize for what I said."
Toshinori- All Might- looked ridiculously large in Chiyo's pocket-sized room, bloated with muscles and hair scraping the ceiling. His shoulders at last slumped.
"I apologize for my actions as well."
Both apologies lacked clarity in what they truly meant, but it was enough to bridge the impasse for now. Aizawa nodded once before moving towards the flung phone, praying it wasn't beyond repair as he fell on all fours and reached into the dark crevice. Pain seared through his hand; he'd run a finger over the splintered glass.
It was not a phone, however, that he pulled from under the table.
A fractured picture frame holding an image of Chiyo and Hannei Tsutomi, arm in arm and grinning like they'd won the lottery, smiled up at him.
Rather than the glass having shattered from a fall, a sickly greyish tint bogged the bottom left corner, drained the color from Hannei's legs and distorted the frame and picture altogether.
The clawed hand of before spread its fingers across Aizawa's spine, ripped the flesh between his ribs.
"Call the police."
Toshinori drew closer. Aizawa handed over the picture to retrieve the still-hidden phone, noting the disintegrated corner of the frame crumble off at the movement.
The screen flickered but allowed his resumed searching. Toshinori's urgent voice rang from the other room, describing the crime scene of an abduction and the potential involvement of the villainous crime syndicate.
There was no blood, no signs of force.
He had to believe Hannei Tsutomi reached her first; it was the only way his lungs would allow oxygen to continue filtering in.
The alternative, of defiant, timid, impossibly undertrained Chiyo in the hands of Tomura Shigaraki, withered his bones like deadened branches on an uprooted tree.
"Tsukauchi is bringing a task force; they will have questions for us both," He returned to the room, still in his emblazoned form but holding a face full of Toshinori's features, reflecting every emotion residing in Aizawa's chest.
A name- a word Chiyo had mentioned before- was listed under a contact bearing an incorrect character, subjugating the name to the bottom contact.
Zitsune M
"Zitsune?" He muttered to himself. Toshinori's hearing proved as impeccable as his meddling; he shook his head, moving closer to examine the screen.
"Real root? What does that mean?"
There wasn't a phone number listed- just the name. Aggravation nibbled at Aizawa's brain- a brain he needed at full attention. "What words are similar in characters?"
"Nitsune- look like? That's not a noun, though. Iitsune, or i tsune would mean good, but doesn't make a lot of sense-"
"Kitsune," What had she been talking about? After the USJ attack, when she was muttering in her sleep. The nightmare that jolted her awake like a physical slap, when she started piecing together her fragmented past. "Fox."
Toshinori waited, watched the pieces fall into place in his friend's eyes.
"Manami Seto is the root. She's the clue Chiyo left for us."
Author's Note: Fun tidbit- Something Principal Nezu says is a little tease at Aizawa. It's almost as if someone's already told Nezu about their relationship to make sure she wasn't breaking any rules...Hmmm.
Koneko roughly translates to kitten and Nezumi just means rat (I laughed at that one; does that mean Nezu really is a rat? I've always wondered). Himawari means sunflower, Kaeru translates to frog, supesu means space, and okameinko means cockatiel. Who could these contacts be?!
No need to tell me Japanese doesn't work like this- Zitsune, nitsune, and kitsune probably don't have similar-looking characters, but they do in English, and it worked perfectly to get real root looks like fox.
