The week had gone by peacefully.
There had been no sign of intruders, nothing on the security cameras (besides an annoying Aho snooping around our apartment), and no damaged door knobs. Everything was fine. Fine. That's right. I had no need to be worried. I didn't need to worry about the flaky, familiar dust that was left behind when the previous door knob had evaporated into thin air. I didn't need to worry about how I had received several frantic texts from Tenko the night the apartment had been broken into, because everything was fine.
My bare feet creaked on the apartment floors as I let out a loud yawn, walking towards the kitchen. My stomach growled. I was hungry. Hana had already left for work and Aho had left after the agreed upon two nights, surprisingly without a single protest, so I was alone, only the sound of sizzling eggs to comfort me as I made breakfast.
I ran a hand through my frizzy hair, blinking sleep out of my eyes as I continued to cook. Oil popped from the pan, birds sang outside, a knock sounded at the front door. I turned off the stove, wondering who it could be this early in the morning. Ugh, and I wasn't even ready yet. I had no makeup on and was still in my pajamas. Plus, my hair felt all greasy.
"I'm coming!" I called as I hurried towards the door. Oh well. Whoever it was couldn't be that important. It could just be a salesperson or the landlord or some—
"Aida-chan?!" I gasped in surprise, my face horror stricken. She looked drop dead gorgeous. As she stood outside my front door, the sunlight shimmered along her red waves. Her hair had grown longer, reaching the top of her thighs. Not to mention, she was in her hero suit! She had become a pro hero since the last time I saw her. Her hero name was 'Arachnie' and she really took to the arachnid theme. Her suit fit her body tightly and it was black, with several ruby red spiders and spider webs scattered across it. She had a killer body. Her eyes flicked over to me when she realized I had answered the door. She smiled revealing her pearly whites.
"Jikan-chan! You're here. How nice to see you," she said. Her voice had matured. It was so much deeper and seductive now. I was horrified.
She had to come now, when I hadn't even washed my face or brushed my hair?! Aida-chan looked like a model and I looked like a rat covered in motor oil. My face turned bright red with embarrassment. "A-Aida-chan! What are you doing here? Hosu city isn't even in your jurisdiction...," I rambled, running my hands through my hair, desperately trying to look a little presentable.
"I came to visit you, of course." Her eyes flicked down the length of me. She had to be judging me. "You look... well."
I sighed, feeling defeated before I stepped out of the doorway, allowing her entry. "Pl-Please, come in."
Her hips swung slightly as she walked in, looking around the place. She glanced at the eggs on the stove and then apologetically looked back at me. "Ah, was I interrupting your breakfast? I apologize," she said.
Aida-chan was still just as judgmental as when she was in high school, but she wasn't as vocal about it. "No, you're alright," I quickly replied, waving my hands frantically.
She turned towards me, her hair flipping with her in glittering waves. "I've been trying to work on my manners. People have been telling me I'm a little too 'bratty' in interviews, whatever that means. They say it's not 'fitting for a pro hero'," she mumbled, rolling her eyes.
I held back a laugh, smiling at her. "Who in the world told you that?" I asked. I couldn't imagine anyone having the courage to say something like that to Aida-chan. She was just so intimidating and imposing it was hard not to intuitively kneel and kiss her feet in adoration. She oozed authority.
She paused, glancing away before answering. "Tenko-kun is one of them."
My smile dropped. "Ah..."
Tenko had become quite the popular hero. He was surprisingly charismatic. He had grown to be a handsome hero that many of the girls were in love with. Then again, when I thought back to our short time in middle school, the girls had grown attached to him rather quickly.
But still, Tenko had never been one for attention. Ever since he returned from being kidnapped by All for One, he seemed more at ease in the spotlight. He always seemed like a ruler, waiting to snap, but now he seemed... fine. He was fine without me, and that was all that mattered.
Aida-chan sighed. "Actually, I've come here to talk about... him," she said hesitantly. Suddenly her expression seemed serious.
Now that I thought about it, the city Aida-chan worked in was really far from here. She hadn't traveled all this way just to see me, she came here because there was something important she had to discuss.
"Alright," I replied with a nod, guiding her over to the couch. I thought about brushing my teeth first, but I couldn't find the right time to excuse myself so I just sat down with her. My bad breath would have to wait. "What is it? Is something wrong?"
She looked unsure of herself which was unusual. Her long fingernails, painted a sharp black, tapped her knee. She bit her lower lip hesitantly. "Mm... Well, I'm not sure if anything is wrong. Yet. It's just suspicion. But it has to do with you," she said.
My eyebrows furrowed.
"Recently, the villains have been acting weird. And I'm not talking about the little city thugs that run around robbing ATM machines, I'm talking about the big ones. More specifically, All for One."
I remembered when Tenko first came back from being kidnapped by him. He had explained in an interview that All for One might not really be all that bad, and people should trust him a little more. Aida-chan had been one to believe him. I looked up at her, waiting for her to say more.
"All for One hasn't caused any trouble since Tenko-kun's kidnapping. But, neither have a lot of villains. They've been... disappearing from the villain scene."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it isn't as if we haven't lost track of them completely. Many hero agencies have been monitoring all of them and their movements. They just haven't been committing any crimes. All of the big time villains are just slowly sinking back into the shadows.
"All for One was the start of it, and now everyone else followed. At first, we all thought it was a good thing. Villains quitting their career! I mean, there was less work to do and things started to get boring but still. The whole point of being a hero is to protect people isn't it?
"That's when we realized all the 'retired' villains were meeting up, gathering in certain places. All for One being one of them," Aida-chan then said. I worked my jaw,my heart beating a little faster. It was then I remembered when my father had visited me before the U.A. sports festival several years ago. He had told me All for One was planning something big, that I should stop meddling.
I more or less had stopped meddling. I avoided Tenko and tried to distance myself from him. Of course, it wasn't because I was worried about my father's threat. They felt like empty words back then. Now, he might have been serious.
Aida-chan continued. "And, well, the reason I came to visit you is... They've been gathering in Hosu. Of course, their movements are sporadic, but we've found the most common place they meet is here."
"What...?" Why in Hosu? Hosu had been known as a dangerous city, but it was mostly petty criminals, with a few serious ones here and there, such as Dabi. But even when I thought about Dabi, he too had kind of been on the down low. I haven't seen him around that much either. He only visited me a few times and far in between.
She then cleared her throat, nervously glancing away. "That's not all. Maybe I'm wrong and just paranoid but... Tenko-kun has been meeting with them."
————
GUYS! It's the TSR one year anniversary!
Last year on Dec 28th I released the first few chapters of TSR and now I've released the 58th chapter. It has been a really fun journey and I've enjoyed writing the adventures of Jikan and Tenko. We're now entering the last few arcs of the story.
I actually thought about splitting the next part into a whole new book, starting from Jikan's twentieth birthday, but then I thought it'd just get too confusing. The next book you would have been able to read on it's own, without the context of Jikan and Tenko growing up. Although the first TSR would have made the story much more dynamic, I initially thought it would be easier for some if they just wanted to start with Jikan being grown up and when the real romance between Jikan and Tenko begins ;)
Anyways, thank you for reading TSR and happy one year anniversary!
~littlesharpsword
YOU ARE READING
Tomura Shigaraki Rewritten (Fanfiction)
Fanfiction"See? You're scared of me." It was then I only felt four out of his five fingers on my neck. He needed all five of his fingers to be touching something for his quirk to work. The moment he put his fifth index finger down, I would disintegrate. "You...