Little Miss Aizawa | Dadzawa [BOOK 2]

Chapter 3 - Forever Homeward Bound

"So, what do you plan on doing with this?" Midoriya asked as he poured himself and Neito a cup of coffee each. He motioned towards the book on telecommunications the blond had rented from the school library.

"Not sure, yet." He said, sounding rather defeated. "I wouldn't know where to start."

Midoriya shrugged. "Maybe talk to Hizashi. He might have a few-"

"No."

Midoriya paused what he was doing and looked at Neito. "What? Why?"

"Pa has enough to worry about." Neito rested his head on his hands. "He doesn't need to worry about his kids running after a Villain on top of everything else."

"But... surely he wants to know just as much as us." Midoriya placed the two steaming cups down on the bar and slid into the stool beside Neito. "We're a family, we need to be open about things."

Neito scoffed. "Tell that to jackass."

Midoriya batted his shoulder. "Hanta just needs some space. The... It's almost been a year, I'm sure it's just weighing on him."

"And what about the rest of us?" Neito bit back. "We're all hurting just as much. He doesn't get lash out when we're all feeling the same shit."

"I just..." Midoriya wrapped his hands around the mug and pulled it towards his chest. "Something's going on with him."

"Of course there is. He's being a di-"

"No, not that." Midoriya sighed. "Something deeper. More personal. I don't know what it is. I've actually, erm, I've noticed him going out at night."

Neito's eyes widened slightly. "Does Pa know?"

Midoriya slowly shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Good. Keep it that way."

"Y'know, I don't think you be sheltering him like this-"

"Do you think he could handle much more?" Neito's voice dropped dangerously low. "He lost his husband and son, but while we got to mourn and hurt and hide, he had to face the world. He took care of us through every shit thing that happened." His eyes met Midoriya's, and the latter held his breath. "This is me taking care of him."

Midoriya knew there was no convincing him otherwise. There was a fire burning in his eyes that no amount of persuasion could extinguish. He cleared his throat and changed the subject. "The book?"

Neito relented and turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "Again, I don't know what I'm going... to do... with... it." His voice faded and his brows furrowed. He snapped out of his daze and looked to Midoriya. "Bakugo."

Midoriya almost spat his coffee out. "What?!"

"He was in the in-crowd, wasn't he? He would know, right?"

"That's not an option." Midoriya shook his head firmly. "He's under the highest level of security and refuses to talk. It would be an unnecessary risk to try and ask, never mind it being illegal. Besides, we don't even know where he is."

Neito pouted at his shot-down idea. It was the best he had. All in all though, he understood how much of a longshot it would be to try to find anything that the Pros hadn't uncovered already. What they needed was new and fresh evidence, clues, or ideas, but with Blue Crossed being gone for so long, the trail was growing cold.

Letting out a disappointed groan, his head fell to the counter's surface with a dull thump.

"I just... I feel like with every passing day we don't do something, they're getting further away from us." Neito quietly admitted.