Bittersweet Cafe

Chapter 7 - Hostage

Dabi looked up as the door slammed open, and Eri raced into the cafe, gasping for breath.

"Eri? Are you okay? Where's Izuku?" Dabi looked up, and Kota blearily looked up from his cup of milk, snapping to attention immediately as he registered Dabi's statement. The older man quickly poured her a cup of water, and she gulped it down.

"Zu-nii... purple portal... We need... to go to UA." She panted, "Let's go, now."

"Wait, what?" Dabi questioned, "UA? Why?"

"I dunno." Kota stated, "Zu-nii said that if something happens, we should go to UA and ask the heroes for help. He also said that we should bring out IDs with us."

He ran upstairs to grab his and Eri's bags, before slamming the door shut. He jumped down the stairs, two at a time, landing on the ground, and passed Eri her bag.

Dabi didn't know how going to UA would help when they couldn't even get into the school building due to the gates, but he still grabbed his wallet, and pulled out the key to the cafe that Midoriya had entrusted to him while he had gone out. At least, it made sense to go ask the heroes closest in proximity for help. Someone had broken a part of the gate the previous day, but given how efficient the UA staff were, the gate was probably fixed and completely brand new.

Dabi grabbed the door, and opened it.

"Well, what are you all waiting for? Let's go."

------------------

"Well... we're here." Dabi looked up in awe at the massive gates of UA. There was once a time where he had hoped that he could go to UA to study, and even though he wasn't there for that purpose, he honestly didn't imagine that there would be a time where he would standing here.

"Let's go." Kota nodded, and they moved in to cross the barrier.

"Wait, hold up." Dabi pulled them back, "The UA barrier comes up if you're not a student or have special permission to enter. We can't get in without the barrier coming up to stop us."

Kota yanked his arm away from Dabi, "Zu-nii said that it doesn't matter. Just come on already."

Before Dabi could stop him, Kota had already run under the UA. Much to his surprise, the barrier wasn't activated, and Kota stopped, turning around to face Eri and Dabi, "Look, it's fine."

Dabi gaped, before he let Eri go, hesitantly passing under the UA gate.

"Huh. I didn't think that'd happen." Dabi mused, when suddenly, the loudspeaker blared to life, "Hello, children. Welcome to UA. I will be giving you directions to the principal's office!"

------------------

Aizawa yawned, and made his way to get his regular coffee, only to find that the lights weren't on and the door was locked.

"Huh, that's weired. The cafe is usually open by now." Aizawa muttered.

"Maybe Izuku decided to take an off day." Yamada suggested, but Aizawa shook his head, "If he did do that, he would usually put up a notice days in advance and text us about it."

"Well, maybe he overslept today. He does wake up pretty early every day." Yamada replied.

"Yeah, let's just hope it's just that." Aizawa scowled. He had a bad feeling about this. He just really hoped that it was something trivial and it wasn't anything too serious. Midoriya may be smart, but he was just a teenager that owned a cafe. Just because he was able to analyse information and figure out how to win didn't mean that he had the power to do so.