With the winter solstice's date nearing, the days were becoming shorter and shorter, making the night reign triumphant even sooner than usual. However, with Christmas was right around the corner and while it wasn't such a big moment in Japan, any reason to throw up a party was as good as any.

But that wasn't what she had in mind.

Idle conversations, random topics, anything that could be used to not think much about the situation. She didn't have any problems socialising with others, but her mind kept reminding her of the feelings she had for him. Sometimes she could handle them, other times they went wild. Luckily today wasn't one of those days.

She answered once again one of Deku's questions. She couldn't help but wonder if he was nervous as well. She knew that he had been tangled up on one of Ashido's schemes to put them together. He seemed to be taking it rather well, if that was the case. Or that's what she thought.

After talking about how her arms were ready to give up on carrying the endless goods they had to buy, they spotted further away some students running near the dorms, with some other straggling behind. They didn't know what had happened but they looked oddly serious.

Whatever was happening, the dull pain of a headache suddenly made its presence. She hadn't used her quirk that much, and her stomach didn't feel bad at all. Whatever was happening to her stomach or whatever they were doing, she could ask later on.

The wave of warm air that crashed against her as she entered the building stopped her breath for half a second. The sudden change of temperature didn't help her newfound condition at all. Her legs trembled in protest, suddenly feeling weak.

A few moments later, she left her cargo on top of the lounge table and quickly dismissed any concerns some friends had about her drop in enthusiasm.

Her steps were quiet as she climbed up the staircase towards her room. That should have been the only noise she could be hearing, besides the chatter a few floors down and the racketting of the wind against the windows. But there was something else in the back of her head. Not a sound or a wave. It could only be compared to the uneasiness felt by the sound of nails scratching against slate.

Wrapping her arms around herself, she increased her pace until she reached her room a few moments later.

Her room was dark, with the only scarce light source being blocked by the curtain.

She leaned against her door and let her legs give up to her weight. Her headache was getting even worse. The heat was agonising. And her desire to sleep was even worse.

"Shouldn't I go to the nurse…?" That thought made sense. In fact it was the most sensible thing to do. The sudden queasiness and malaise wasn't exactly normal. But that reflection was replaced by the more unhealthy logic of sleeping it off.

Slowly regaining strength in her legs, she removed all her outerwear and put on some more comfortable inside clothing. Afterwards she dragged herself into her cold bed.

"I feel like I could sleep for a whole day. But I should wake up before dinner..." With that in mind, she put an alarm in her phone and felt her consciousness disappear for the day.

A handmade workbench was filled with technical drawings and shavings of the would-be puppet. Getting the right proportions for a puppet was a more troublesome job than it seemed, but he was able to finish it rather quickly. The old man had decided for a standard design, with the head of the puppet being around one fifth of the body. A fairly normal canon.

Before the sun was down, he had already started chiseling the main features of the head, and by midnight he had started to focus on smaller details, switching to a smaller chisel.

He almost had made a mistake with the nose. The mallet hit the wrong side of the chisel, and too much wood had been shaved. But it wasn't a mistake. He quickly realised that his hand had stopped short. Luckily, he thought.

"It's a good thing you fell asleep, it would be somewhat uncomfortable for you otherwise." The man mentioned while putting down his tools. "I must say, you've been doing good. Most people aren't that easy to carve. The first few moments are always odd, without any sight or hearing to help me create a solid base."

He removed some shavings from the head of the puppet, and admired his work. The head was properly done, with its most basic features in place. The outline of the eyes was there but nothing filling its features. There was no mouth and ears weren't finished, but he couldn't rush it.

"Tomorrow I'll finish your eyes. I want to see where you are. That reminds me… I never got your name, did I?" His voice was mellow, as if he was teaching a kid to tie their shoes. "I'll have to fix that soon, before the play begins."

"I'll call you Muse in the meantime. You helped me a lot, it wouldn't be fair to upset you… I can't rush you. Although my daughter wants you to be as perfect as possible. And so do I as well."

The man looked at the clock on the wall. 9 P.M.

"I should rest. I need my head clear for this." He muttered as he finally arranged his tools. The sketch of the girl had been barely touched since then, but he remembered perfectly. He couldn't forget.

Limping his way out, he passed through the staircase before noticing that he had left the door open. That would be troublesome, who broke his door in the first place? Did he do it? The pain that lingered in his leg made him realise that he did.

He slowly went down the stairs and grabbed a chair from the kitchen. He would need to block the door somehow, even on this peaceful neighbourhood. Unwanted visitors checking his work was troublesome.

Before he could do that, however, he noticed somebody entering his front yard. He quickly stepped out to intercept them. The old man saw a young policeman, no older than 30, being slightly surprised at his sudden appearance. Behind him, in the front gate, there was a more extravagant dressed man who was probably a pro-hero.

"Oh, Arata?" The elderly man said, noticing who it was. "What a surprise, how are you doing?"

He leaned in for a handshake that the officer promptly took.

"Going well, Tanaka. You know, just trying to get some money into the household. Oh, before I forget! My dad wishes you a happy holiday."

"Same to him. I heard he was hospitalised, did he receive my gift?"

"Oh yeah, it wasn't anything too serious. But yeah, you know he loves your craftwork. Reminds him of the old times and… Sorry, I'm on duty, let's just get this over with."

The old man glanced at the pro hero behind the officer, only noticeable by the streetlamps outside his property. "To what do I owe your visit?"

"Not much, standard procedure after some recent events." The officer pointed at the hero before whispering. "They're very paranoid after what happened at Kamino."

"I see. So that's what this about... Well, I'm not going out of retirement if that's what you're after. My hero days are over."

"No, no. Although a return of someone like you would raise morale, we just want to make some questions. Don't worry, it won't take long." The officer pulled a notebook as he adopted an upright posture and started to ask questions. "Mr. Tanaka, it seems you came home rather agitated a few hours ago. Does the state of your front door have anything to do with it?"

Tanaka's eyes wandered off before answering. "I lost my keys and I couldn't think of any other way of opening it."

"No back-up keys?"

"None whatsoever. Nowadays I'm a carpenter, like you know, so even if I broke the door I can fix it rather quickly."

"Very well." He wrote down some notes. "We got some calls from your neighbours, so we wanted to make sure. What was the urgency to run back to your home?"

The officer's accurate information made the old man even more uncomfortable. As far as he knew the only neighbours here weren't the kind to call the was something else at play here.

"...I forgot my daughter's medicine, I have to take care of her at all times. My memory isn't what it used to be."

"Your daughter.. Ah, her illness was what forced you into retirement, if I'm correct?"

"That would be true."

"I see. Hopefully she's doing alright." The officer glanced back at the pro-hero. "My friend here also has some questions for you, but he doesn't have the jurisdiction to ask. Tell me, did you interact with anybody before your rush home?"

Tanaka stopped his right hand from acting on its own and tried to control his breathing. The tentative glance of the hero meant trouble. This was the reason they came here.

"I did. A young lass helped me gather some papers that flew off." He looked at the hero in the back before continuing. "She reminded me of my girl. I spaced out since she made me realise my oversight, which led me to drop those papers. I must have lost my keys there too, I'm not sure."

The officer looked back at the hero for confirmation, and he replied with a nod.

"What have you been doing since then?"

"Continuing my hobby, taking care of my family… Nothing much to be honest, I'm retired after all." Tanaka's voice almost choked on those last words.

"I see, I understand… That's all we wanted." The policeman closed his notebook and relaxed his posture. "Sorry for the formalities but a job is a job."

"I'm not thrilled about it but I get it. What's all this about anyways? I simply interacted with a young lass, it's not like I tried to abduct her."

The policeman stood silently for a moment, thinking of his next step. Before the silence became awkward, he explained it.

"I'll tell you, but only because you've helped my family a lot as a hero. You that you stumbled across somebody you shouldn't have and acted suspiciously, or that's how it's been described. However I see no ill intent here. Especially from someone such as yourself." The hero in the back coughed in response, as if the policeman had said too much. "I'm more surprised you didn't recognise her, but you were never a sports guy, were you?"

The old man did his best to not react at his words. Her build did look very healthy for her age, perhaps she did do some kind of sport like his friend here was saying.

Was she a celebrity of some kind? Did she act to keep up appearances or out of heart? Perhaps that friend of hers was also part of it? Questions about her personality suddenly popped into his mind.

But he couldn't ask that without raising suspicion. Even if he knew the officer, asking questions about someone who was the reason for the police and heroes to come to question him was just searching for trouble. He would have to wait it out or find the information somewhere else.

"I wasn't and I'm not. Anyways, if that's all you need…?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. Have a nice day. And your daughter too." The policeman turned around and started talking to the hero as they walked away.

Tanaka stood around silently for a moment before rushing back to his workshop.

He wasn't satisfied with just the head.

He wasn't satisfied with knowing what was on her mind.

He had to finish the eyes and find out where she was at.