Beautiful...
The first spoken thought that crossed her mind all day. Nothing else mattered to her at that moment holding out her umbrella under the glistening rain shower of the dead night.
Standing on the opposite pavement across the street, her breathing steady, but at that moment her eyes met with his, it came to a cease. Her days in the past had been nothing short of depresing . Quirkless, Redundancy in the office, a typical cycle of life that left a bitter taste in her mouth. Lack of thrills, excitement, what's the word?Fun... she's pretty much closed in for most of her teenage and adult years.
Curiosity had never been one for her to reach out to. That was until now.
"What's a charming lady like you doing this late on the streets?" He purred when his Rainbow coloured eyes locken on her with kanji Uppermoon 2 glinting in the dim eyes... unlocked her curiosity. Why? She didn't know. There was something about him that felt off apart from his appearance in general. Her body kept rousing her to leave immediately, as if instinctively she took a step back.
"Come on, I don't bite." Said man took a step forward unbothered by the shower. His eyes never left hers for a moment, the outwardly friendly and cheery tone of his voice would have relieved her. That all crashed down when she blinked and he was next to her. She didn't waste time to think.
She should leave...now.
She took a step back, slowly to maintain some level of distance, began jogging then finally broke into a run. Glancing over her shoulder, she could barely make out his figure as it poured heavily, the wind didn't ease things in the slightest. Her breaths came in short as she stumbled on puddles, her shoes drenched but she didn't care. Safety, should be the utmost priority and right now she did not feel safe.
The streets were unfortunately empty, the weather report earlier today of the terrible weather must have prompted civilians to remain indoors for the rest of the evening. Stalls, Shops, resturants, workshops all ceased to work hoping to open the next day. The woman regrets accepting the mountain of paper work on her desk this morning. The wind picked up prompting her to abandon the umbrella and pick up the pace.
Prayers escaped from her lips hoping a cab would pass by despite how late it was. Any blinking light would supposedly be her savior. Drenched and soaked in the rain, it only encouraged her to push on. Her thoughts drifting back to her apartment. Warm bed and food, serene just as she has lived with her entire life, her domain to escape from reality. She doubled her efforts ignoring the drench or her screaming fatigued figure.
She drifted to a corner catching her breath, placing her back against the wall while clutching her bag as if her life depended on it.
"My, My... Quite the runner. I was hoping we could just have a little chat" A sing song voice calmly cuts through the rain, trotting towards her slowly in a carefree manner. "Young lady, you seemed to be mesmerized by me earlier. It Unusual for women to follow that up by sprinting away.."
Don't Stop.
Don't Stop.
Keep running.
Screaming in this situation would be pointless due to the rain. Quickly scanning her bag for her cellphone, Her last hope. Not like the rain made it any easier but it was better tha doing nothing. Her fingers typed furiously to unlock the screen lock.
Shoot.
"Oh what's this I've been seeing lately?" Douma curiously picked up the cell phone in one hand observing it like an intricate item. "For some reason, the others I came in contact with resorted to this as well... what do you humans here call it?"
Her heart raced glancing at the cell phone in Douma's hand. Her trembling hands slipped at the worst moment only for it to rebound after landing on the floor and giving him the chance to pick it up.
"Humans are so pitiful" Douma began in a callous tone aimlessly toying with the phone in hand "One moment , they are hopeful."_ He shattered it as he continued humming_ "The next, they're broken." For a moment, her breath hitched. The charismatic friendly grin on his face now replaced with something more menacing. She knew every part of her told her to run nd she did just that.
"Running again?" His multicoloured eyes narrows at her panting frame as an unsettling grin crept on his face "Oh to think you'd still try, desperately clinging to hope. No matter how futile it is, I'm almost impressed" Closing their distance almost immediately, He grabbed her by the head raising her up slightly as her feet dangled on free air. She began yelling for help while trying her best to defend herself from his carvenous assault...
Snap!
The broken tibia of her leg did the trick for her to writhe in pain while the upper moon continued his assault of devoring his prey. Her cries rung out loud although not enough to overcome the late night thundershower.
・・・・・
Dropping the files on his desk with a heavy sigh, Tsukauchi grimaces rubbing his temples. Just when things hasn't gone south in a long while, From the case issued this morning of a supposedly missing woman that hadn't returned from work a week ago to her apartment. The information gotten from her worried landlady who came to check on her once in a while had gone to her apartment on Wednesday lastweek. There was no sign of her tenant, Inquiring from her co- workers who stated she left the office immediately after finishing her duties and logged out of the building at an ungodly night hour.
Oh, He didn't want to jump to conclusions. Though with the recent happenings, his hunch can't be far off.
He felt a short buzz followed by a brief ringtone in his jean pocket. As he retrieved his phone, he thought of the number of phone calls he had gotten this past few weeks. Tsukauchi glanced at the number, both eyebrows raised recognizing soon enough swiping to accept it.
'Hello Dr. Inari , This is Detective Naomasa speaking. You called?' He started waiting for a response.
'Ah, Good Morning Detective. I have some news. The patient is awake" The smooth bass voice responded from the other line. "You can come see him at 1pm. Your meeting will be sheduled then. Is that alright for you?'
Said Detective released a sigh of relief. That's progress.
'Yes. That would be okay. Thank you doctor' Dr. Inari responded similarly as Tsukauchi ended the call as he chanted a silent 'yes!'. He pulled out a few things from his drawer, his personal favorite document record of what he had so far on Lucas. Oh right! He must tell All Might about this update.
'Hello All Might. Yes its me. He's awake.'
'You mean Lucas?'
'That's right. I just got off the phone from Dr. Inari few moments ago. He scheduled our meeting to be 13:00pm in the afternoon.' Tsukauchi heard a breath of relief from the receiver's end.
'That's good news. I'll inform Young Kamado and the others as well as Principal Nezu.' The former number one spoke grateful, his usual enthusiastic remark bringing a small smile to Tsukauchi's expression.
'Just doing my job. Right, All Might... I might need to request a favour from you.'
'Go on ,Please.'
'I got a case this morning about a missing lady who hadn't returned back to her apartment from work since last week. According to her coworkers from the office, she logged out of the building pretty late. Investigations are still ongoing, so far my colleagues found her shattered cell. You do know where am going with this?'
'Yeah. Possibly a villain or...' All Might's voice trailed off.
'That's right. A demon.'
'It's been quite a long time since we got reports of their appearance or rampant work in the city. For it to happen now... what is this favour?'
'The demon slayers. Specifically of you could get it through to the Hashiras of the recent happenings, I sure word of her disappearance will be out on the news soon enough. Patrolling is a start to ensure safety and well being.'
'You can count on me. I'll talk to you later'
'Same, I'll catch you up on anything I got.' With that, the call came to an end. The small drift back of his chair echoed across the room as Tsukauchi stood up gathering his work materials as he left.
"Time to get to work."
・・・・・
Meanwhile at U.A, the students of Class 1-A were getting ready for their next lesson after homeroom
"Work-Studies? What's that?" Kanao asked no one in particular at the end of homeroom. However, Momo packing her books for the next lesson overheard and answers.
"Well, The Hero Work-Studies is a program designed for students to be employed by Hero offices and agencies that usually last throughout the school year" Kanao nods fully understanding her explanation.
"It's been on hold for a while due to the recent development of agencies. Fortunately, such barriers been lifted and now we can resume." She continued setting her books down.
"So, you been on this before already?"
"Yeah. But we don't always have work studies everyday. We plan with our mentors on when we meet during our school days."
"So what agency do you work with?"
"Oh me, I'm doing my Work-Studies with pro hero, Majestic and his agency. I am the only one from our class there but there is also Tokage from Class 1-B."
"You guys chatting about the Work-Studies resuming?" Kaminari chirped in sitting opposite on his chair. "Man, its been forever since we last did Work-Studies. Looks like we're back."
"Wow. All of you participate in this work study?" Tanjirou eagerly asks approaching the three.
"Not everyone is scouted man. So not all of us are in the program. Hey you two are curious about this? Guess its typical when you are from another world...Literally!" Kaminari grins teasingly.
"Different Worlds..." Kanao hummed with a small smile.
"But we still have so much in common." Tanjirou glances at the three with a bright smile.
"Agh! My eyes.." The blonde dramatically covers his eyes as he continues "Personality wise, I agree with you. Honestly that's one of the most obvious similarities" He looks at Inosuke formerly challenging the class now taped up to the wall by Sero as Mineta and Zenitsu threw paper planes at him while the victim kept cursing.
Momo stepping back to intervene not before asking the two " Do you two wish to participate in the program? "
Tanjirou nods " It would help very much, we are students here, right? Plus that way maybe we can get more information about demon's lurking while patrolling without needing to conceal ourselves."
"Hey that's not a bad idea!" Kaminari nods in approval.
"True..." Momo places a hand on her chin thinking. "But without any convincing explanation to why you joined us late in addition to you being new hero students. That's going to be impossible" she stated as a matter of fact helping Inosuke down although still taped all over.
Listening all this while Zenitsu comments "eh?! But what about the solid back story about us from earlier. Its convincing_" The 20 deadpanned gazes directed at him persuaded him to shut his mouth.
"You really think we bought that?" The class chanted simultaneously.
Shit!Theydidn'tbuyit.Sothatmeanstheysuspectedusthiswholetime.Genya facepalmed.
Youreallythoughttheyboughtthat.Kanao deadpanned at Genya.
"B_But it was solid right?" Zenitsu stuttered in embarrassment as he sweats.
"Like hell it was. Even short stack over there could figure it out," Bakugo snorts with a smirk playing on his lips referring to Mineta.
Mineta didn't know how to feel. "I dont know if I should feel good that Bakugo complimented me or irritated he called out my height". Sero shrugged.
"Why not both?"
"Returning back to the topic, maybe this time we can make a convincing story" Tanjirou reinstates dragging the word 'convincing' much to Zenitsu's breakdown.
"That might work, but you don't have a provisional license either." Momo adds.
"Awn..."
"But hey if that doesn't work out either, the rest of us could share any info we got during our Work-Studies" Uraraka suggests much to Tanjirou's delight.
Tokoyami seated on his desk hums " That should work. However, we will have to be subtle about it." He points at the slayers "not pro knows about you being here or the demons in our world either."
"That's a fair point..." Tanjirou trailed off and soon straightened up " Really, thanks everyone. We appreciate all the help we will get"
Kaminari slapping his back with a grin "No biggie bud, this is class 1-A. You guys were officially members of our class since you joined."
"We support each other no matter how hard it is. That's our family for you." Kirishima grins as well patting Nezuko's shoulder who seemed to understand.
"We...we are family... aren't we guys?" Nezuko smiles slowly getting the hang of speaking.
"That's like it!" Hagakure pulled the girl to a side hug. The rest of the class softens slightly, the relief exuding across the classroom till the bell ring for the next period.
Iida straightens his glasses "Alright everyone, settle down. We have English with Present Mic sensei next." With that, the class settles in their seats following up with Present Mic bursting in.
"Alright! Little listeners! Lets start the day with English!"
Wehavesomuchsupportfromeveryonehere.Wearereallyblesssed.The smile lingers on Tanjirou's face a little longer.
#Taishosecret
*Sero forgot to mention Inosuke still being wrapped up till the 3rd period.
*Did you know? Kaminari's idea of 'teaching' Mario Kart mostly involved losing to Nezuko while pretending he let her win. Spoiler: He didn't.
*After the beef incident, Aizawa apparently banned the students from telling Inosuke what food is being prepared and from beef as well.
#Preview
"What do they mean it wasn't convincing!?,"Zenitsu ranted still breaking down.
"Don't crashout..."
."Ah! Nezuko-chan! You scared me for a moment. Seeing you in this school uniform..."
"Don't crashout..."she pats his shoulder tenderly.
"She said it again?!It's probably Kaminari and Sero's doing"He thought outloud enjoying her pats. "SayNezuko," He pleads with a sniff but a smile adorning his lips.
"You really thought they bought that?"Nezuko deadpans and once again he starts breaking down even worse than before.
"Ah Inosuke!"
Yep,Zenitsu crashed out.
"Should we intervene?"Todoroki blinks from where he stood watching the entire scene unfold.
"Nah, those types are the ones I don't wanna mess with. C'mon Icy-hot we got training, better not hold back."Bakugo remarks ignoring the full blown scream from the blonde."Next, Chapter31:The Hashiras meet Pros. Lucas' Dilenma ."