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5. What's a Day Off?

Rule 37: It's always worth trying.

Waking up had never been so terrifying. She hadn't woken up anywhere except her old bed in her old room for eight years and suddenly she was in the spare room of a place she didn't really know.

There was at least thirty seconds she completely spent panicking and honestly half wondering if she'd been kidnapped until yesterday flooded back full force.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.

That actually wasn't a dream. She was still here. She was going to UA and there was a school trip tomorrow with her class full of crazy people!

But that was for tomorrow. Today, she had work to do. Since she'd gone to bed early, she didn't sleep in, so she was up at her normal time of six-thirty. She got dressed and ready, thinking about her plan for today. Unless she had a burning desire to walk around the entirety of Musutafu (which she didn't) then she needed to narrow down the field.

She thought back on her memories of her old friend. TT had talked about those crossroads a lot, they'd been his favourite place to go as a child when he hadn't wanted to be home. He'd practically been a worker at the cat cafe on one of the corners, though without the regular shifts or pay. He'd told her he lived close to UA, a conscious choice his father had made, and he'd only had to walk to get to the crossroads, so they had to be around here somewhere.

Taking the back page of her autograph book (since it was the only paper she had) and a pencil, she made a crude sketch of it. Her old friend had drawn the most stunning picture of the place and Otsuka could almost remember each dash of his pen.

Right on the corner there was the cat cafe, Otsuka would start her research there since there couldn't be that many in the area, especially not many right on a street corner. Then on the other side, there was a shop for wedding dresses beside a Chinese restaurant. And finally, there was the lamppost, the one with his nickname graffitied on it. Unfortunately, there was no way to know if the crossroads had changed in the years since TT had been there, but there wasn't much she could do but hope.

She'd find it somehow.

She opened the bedroom door slowly, glad it didn't squeak. The apartment was deathly silent. The adults must've been asleep still. She wondered how long they'd sleep in as her stomach quietly grumbled. Feeling slightly awkward, she figured it would be alright if she had a look in the kitchen for something to eat; what she found after searching the cupboards and the fridge hardly enthused her. There was a hunk of stale bread, some cheese, gone-off milk and a load of things Otsuka didn't even really want to look at. The pasta and cereal looked good though, and the raw chicken looked fine so she wasn't going to starve.

Taking the stale bread (it wasn't rock hard but it wasn't soft either), she worked hard to cut a slice as quietly as she could and then dug around the fridge for some butter. She put some water on her bread slice so that it was a little damp before lathering it in butter and throwing it in the microwave for thirty seconds. She tasted some of the cheese and was glad when the flavour was neither clearly mouldy nor disgusting. Jumping almost a foot into the air, she rushed to shut up the screeching of the microwave and get her bread out. A moment later, she was sat at the dining table just like dinner with a plate of bread and cheese in almost complete silence.

It was weird, not listening to Matsui nattering about something or trying to pretend none of the kids were staring at her from the other side of the table. Even with all the control she had of her quirk, they could still get uncomfortable around her sometimes. Old habits died hard, she supposed.