Era

30

Suzuki's address didn't exist.

Shouta was never one to shy away from a challenge, but this was getting to be a little much. When he'd agreed to scout out her house for any unusual activity, raised voices, anything strange or concerning enough to take action, he'd thought it would be an acceptable breach of his own responsibilities if it could stop Hizashi from worrying himself into a fit. Especially considering that he was already taking a break from his normal patrol route under Shuzenji's orders. He was supposed to be taking it easy, supposed to have plenty of time to check out this one, simple case and then be on with his night.

Kneeling on the rooftop across from the post office, Shouta couldn't help but come to the conclusion that this was not, in fact, taking it easy.

Great. Okay. So she was a liar. What else was new. He'd just have to... find Sparrow. If he found Sparrow, stayed hidden, followed her home, then he could track down where she actually lived instead of this P.O. box address that he was frankly concerned she had even thought to give them.

Shouta pulled out his phone and shot Hizashi a quick text. This is gonna take longer than I thought. Don't wait up. He stuffed it back in his pocket to avoid the no doubt blinding string of emojis that was sure to follow.

All he had to do was track down Sparrow. That... shouldn't be too hard, right? He'd managed it before, though admittedly there was an element of blind luck involved.

Shouta sighed, using his capture scarf to swing over to the next building and wincing slightly when it pulled at a few of his injuries. He really wasn't in any shape to be chasing that girl down; she was a challenge to catch even when he was at full health. Still, he had a pretty good grasp of her hunting grounds. If he looked for crimes in the area, he might be able to find her, and he might be able to track her back to her home without her noticing.

It seemed that luck was on his side, or maybe Suzuki had just gotten overconfident now that he hadn't been patrolling this area as often. A few hours of running across rooftops, and a sharp crack of gunfire ripping through the air had him frozen, kneeling at the corner of a fire escape, and listening intently. The faint sounds of a scuffle drifted towards him, of bared knuckles and fierce blows. He made his way towards it carefully, with a stealth and stillness that only a trained underground hero could match.

A streak of movement. There was one disadvantage to free running across the city; it was very easy to make you out against the night sky and the harsh lamplight. Shouta had the benefit of not being in any particular hurry, so he could stay low to the ground and keep his silhouette obscured. Sparrow, on the other hand, was fully visible from several blocks away as she leapt across alleyways and clambered up walls. She was difficult to find, yes, but once he caught sight of her there was little chance of her accidentally slipping from view.

Shouta hoped this was an unusually productive night for her, but for some reason he doubted it. The girl stopped two more muggings, four drunken disagreement turned ugly, a few burglaries, and what appeared to be an attempted sexual assault. At this last, Shouta watched as she consoled the would-be victim with a kindness that would put most of his students and even some of his fellow heroes to shame, even removing her own cloak and hood to place it gently around the other woman's shoulder as the spoke in hushed, soothing tones. Shouta didn't think he'd ever seen Sparrow without the cape—not counting that incident with the casino, but she hadn't been in full costume then anyway—and he wondered if this was a common enough occurrence that she had spares. Or, perhaps, if the cloak really did mean something to her, enough for her to hold onto it, to wear it every single time even as it grew old and tattered. Enough to trust it with the comfort of someone else.

He also noted the particularly nasty kick she gave the assailant, even after he was well and truly subdued. Not all kindness and soft edges, although he already knew that.