Perhaps one of the things Hina liked least about her job was creating lesson plans. Teaching the students the material was a highlight of her career, and she definitely enjoyed answering questions and helping to educate them with things they'd need to know later in life. Preparing the youth for their lives as adults was rewarding in of itself. It was one of the reasons she had agreed to be a teacher at UA when Nezu had requested she work for them. But planning and organizing the lessons for the upcoming months were painstaking and often times headache-inducing.
It was mid-month, meaning she had plenty of time to actually come up with the majority of the content for next month's plan, but she hated putting it off until the last minute like some teachers did. She had sworn off Midnight and Present Mic's 'procrastination parties' as Hina had so lovingly dubbed them, after last year they'd stayed up until 3 in the morning to finish up all of the paperwork. Going to work that day had been tedious and soul-sucking, to say the least.
Class wouldn't start for another hour-she'd gotten up extremely early without any success of going back to sleep-and most of the staff were not in the office this early. Cementoss was notorious for getting to work much earlier than necessary, so she expected him to be somewhere on the grounds. It wouldn't surprise her if he was meditating in the gardens.
Her pen scratched across her lesson journal, and the tick of the clock overhead accompanied the strokes at precise moments. The air felt stale and still, chilled from the air conditioning system throughout the school building. Finishing her latest sentence, she read over what she'd written down so far, making sure it made sense after the fact.
Keeping the material smoothly flowing throughout the month really helped the student retain the information. Bouncing around subjects that had nothing to do with each other could cause confusion, and Hina did her best to prevent that whenever possible. Not only that, but it lessened her own confusion when grading or compiling her files.
Her eyes glanced up at the empty seats of her classroom, and she stared off into space for a few minutes. Tired and lacking stimulus. In her trance, she didn't notice the sound of footsteps in the hallway outside her classroom.
"Hina, my dear!" Nemuri exclaimed, slamming open the door with a snap.
"AHH!" The redhead yelled, startled painfully in her seat. Her body felt a sudden jolt of panic as her friend entered the room in a flourish, and her heart began pounding hard against her ribcage. Once the moment passed, she slumped in her chair and dragged her hands down her face. "God dammit, Nemuri..."
The art teacher smiled proudly, closing the door behind her gently. Her hips swayed as she sauntered over to her coworker's desk, and she leaned down to face the poor startled woman. "You've managed to avoid me this long, but now you've got no excuse. Out with it. What's between you and Aizawa?"
Hina's head shook instinctively. "Are you really doing this now? There's not-"
"Ah ah ah!" Nemuri's finger shot out and pressed against Hina's mouth, shutting her up. "No lying. Spill the tea, give me the juicy bits, start talking. I know you're hiding something and as your friend I'm obligated to force the info out of you."
Hina blinked up at her friend blandly. She pushed her hand out of her face, shaking her head. "I'm telling you, there is nothing between us."
"Come on now..." Nemuri pouted, obviously unconvinced. "You tell me that you're making it your mission to get close to him. You start acting weird about it after the night at the bar, and now he's training you after hours. What do you expect me to think?"
"How do you know about the training?" She asked, trying and failing to make her voice sound unconcerned. She didn't want it getting around that she needed additional training because she was weak.
Nemuri shrugged. "Mic saw you guys on the P.E. Grounds yesterday. And the day before that."
Hina's cheeks tinted red, slightly embarrassed that her training with Aizawa wasn't as private as she'd been hoping to keep it. It wasn't Aizawa that made her embarrassed, but her own need for the training itself. Her insecurity wasn't something she wanted to be a universally known fact among the staff. She looked away, and Nemuri must have sensed that that line of discussion was making her uncomfortable.
"Hey, I'm not mocking you for the extra training. I doubt anyone here even thinks twice about it." Nemuri said gently with a genuine smile. "I'm just telling you how I know. Besides, I'm your friend, you can tell me anything. Especially about any post-training 'recreation' that might occur afterwards."
Ah, right back to typical Nemuri. She sighed, staring at her in annoyance. It was plain to see that she wouldn't let this go, no matter how strongly Hina denied it. It would probably save her several headaches later on if she just gossiped with her now. "If I tell you what happened at the bar, will you stop pestering me? And swear not to mention the training to anyone?"
The art teacher reached crouched down and placed her head in her hands, watching Hina expectantly with a satisfied smile that was transparent how she knew she'd won. "Let's hear it!" There wasn't exactly a promise anywhere in there, but Hina would have to take what she could get.
The redhead debated withholding the most embarrassing of the information, but Nemuri was like a bloodhound, able to sniff out lies or a lack or detail in most of her stories. There was no point. "There really isn't much to say...I talked to Aizawa about getting to know him better, since we aren't as close as we could be. I told him I just wanted to be his friend, and he said that he'd always thought we were friends anyway."
"Aww..." Nemuri cooed, and Hina narrowed her eyes, not appreciating her commentary.
"Don't make fun of this."
"I'm not!" She defended, spreading her hands. "Aizawa and friendship have just never really gone together well, so I'm glad he thinks of you as a friend. He could use more people that bring out the best in him in his life."
Deciding to ignoring the implications of what she meant behind that, she continued. "I had a few too many shots, and you know how I get when I drink too much-"
"Did you accidentally project?" She guessed, eyebrow raising in amusement. Hina's nod made her smile widen. "What did you say? Was it erotic?"
"No, it was not!" Was her quick defense.
"I saw how you were looking at him." Nemuri's eyes rolled. "If you looked up the definition of 'interest' in the dictionary, the exact expression you had would show up. You had to be thinking of something along those lines."
Hina covered her face with her hands, sighing slowly. This was getting to be more embarrassing then she'd expected. "I...wondered if he had any tattoos under his hero costume..."
"Oh!" Nemuri cried out in surprise, giggling with excitement. "What did he say to that? Did he offer to show you?"
"What? No!" Hina uncovered her face, which held a pained expression. "I realized what I did and apologized...It was shameful, I shouldn't have ever thought of it in the first place!"
"Pff. That's not shameful..."
Hina stared at her. "He's my coworker."
"So what? And don't be ridiculous, I'm sure half of whatever female fan base he has out there probably wonders the same thing." Nemuri waved it off. "If you find him attractive, then it's only natural you would want to know something like that."
Hina was quiet, and the art teacher looked at her pointedly. "You do find him attractive, don't you?"
It took a second, but she eventually nodded silently. When Nemuri just kept staring, she realized that the quiet acknowledgement was, apparently, not enough for her. "Yes, I do..."
"Great! Then there should be no problem with you two getting together." The art teacher concluded, straightening and placing her hands confidently on her hips. "So stop lying to yourself about the whole 'platonic friendship' thing," she said, using air quotes, "and just tell him how you feel."
"I-" Hina stopped short, unsure what exactly she wanted to say. It was pointless to deny what she felt, as the redhead had already come to terms with it herself. She did like him. She did want to pursue something more with him. But feelings were a complicated business. Unreciprocated ones were even more complex.
Nemuri's eyebrows were raised expectantly, gesturing for her to spit out whatever it was she wanted to say. Hina finally shook her head slowly.
"I just...I..." She stared down at her hands. "This is very new to me. And I don't want to end up ruining the good relationship we do have just because I dive headlong into something I'm not convinced he feels the same way about."
"You're just afraid of rejection, Hina." Nemuri stated. "Everyone is. But one of you has to take the first step if you want anything out of it."
"I know that, but the situation we're in makes it more difficult. I don't know how Aizawa would react to knowing how I feel about him, or if we'd even be able to speak to each other after that. And in a working environment, that's just not practical." She shrugged sadly, having thought about all of this extensively when she was alone at home. "Maybe I'll do something about it eventually, but until I know exactly what he feels, I don't want to cause distance between us."
"You could always just read his mind and know for sure." She suggested, but the serious glare that Hina sent her way stopped the thought. She of all people knew best just how little Hina tolerated people joking about the use of her quirk in a invasive or villainous way. It touched too close to home and reminded her that her quirk, indisputably, could be used in nefarious ways. The art teacher back tracked the conversation.
Nemuri sighed, crossing her arms. "Alright, alright...Seriously, you need to learn to take a risk. How am I supposed to get more juicy gossip if no one ever takes a leap of faith?" Finally, she released her arms and smiled a little. "I don't quite understand you, but ok. Just know I'm trying to get you to do something that I think would make you very happy."
Hina didn't say anything, but glanced at the clock pointedly. "I need to finish my lesson plans. And this better be enough for you to quit bothering me about the night at the bar."
Nemuri gave a wink and a thumbs up, heading towards the doorway of her classroom. "I'll let you get back to work then."
She gave Hina a twiddle of her fingers, and she stepped through the doorway. She closed it with a quiet snap behind her, but something further down the hallway caught her eye. A momentary glance of the ends of ribbons disappearing behind the corner.
Nemuri grinned, heading the opposite direction to go to her own classroom.
"...it was all like this when I got here this morning." The storage facility manager gestured helplessly to the destruction in the hallway behind him, shaking his head. He was obviously overwhelmed with the situation at hand, not having anticipated this development when he'd gotten into work this morning.
"Relax, sir. Ryukyu is looking into it right now. We just need to get your statement for the record." The detective reassured, glancing past the younger man at the interior of the storage facility.
For as far as the eye could see, the doors of the storage units were ripped apart and destroyed. Contents from the units were scattered about the hallway's floor. All four of the floors were in the exact same state, the contents of the containers scattered and strewn about without care. Policemen had tried to section off each unit's contents with crime scene tape, but the mess was making it difficult.
No alarms had gone off to indicate an intruder, and the security cameras were all destroyed beyond repair. It was confusing to say the least.
Ryukyu rounded the far corner of the facility and began making her way back towards the detective overseeing the case. Just behind her were two other policemen, documenting everything they saw along the way. The detective finished his interview with the terrified facility manager and turned to the pro hero when she approached.
"Were you able to find anything?" He asked, and she shook her head, obviously disappointed.
"No. There were no obvious signs of a quirk or perpetrator." Her eyes narrowed in thought. "This is the second facility to have been hit in the past three days, and we're still no closer to finding out who's responsible. It's maddening..."
"What's even more confusing is the motive, though simple theft makes the most sense, considering the location." The detective mused aloud, writing that down in his notepad. However, Ryukyu focused back on him.
"I don't think that's the case, actually." She gestured to the dozens upon dozens of damaged units. "I think it's clear that whoever did this was looking for something specific."
"How can you be sure?"
The dragon hero stepped closer to the nearest unit, gesturing for him to do the same. He followed close behind, and she entered inside the small storage area. Briefly looking around at the strewn-about contents, she pointed to what had been a box of jewelry. The box's hinges had been broken, and most of the valuables were scattered on the ground in the corner.
"If theft had been the main motive, then why leave expensive jewelry behind? Logically, this would have been the first unit to be searched, as it's the first one within sight of the only entrance."
She stepped back out of the unit and pointed down the hallway. "Instead, the perpetrator decides to bypass the valuables and target every single other unit in the building. I saw the same thing in all of the others. Jewelry was ignored. Money wasn't taken. Even electronics and high-value antiques are left behind."
The detective was quiet, taking in all of the information she said, eventually agreeing that it didn't make much sense. "Then, if we take into account the first location's same MO, the criminal is searching for something they think is in a storage unit."
Ryukyu nodded. "I agree. If we could figure out what they were looking for, we could probably find out who is doing this."
"Well, whoever they are," the detective sighed, bringing Ryukyu back over to the entrance and showing her the indents in the knob in the shape of fingers, "they're extremely strong."
She stared at the damage, noticing that the entire door was dented inwards, as if it had been the bearer of a particularly strong punch at it's middle. "We should run a list of wanted criminals with a strength quirk, and narrow it down. This sort of damage is unlike what the average person could do."
The detective nodded, watching as the hero left the building with a deep frown, wondering who on earth could have caused this and why.
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