Continuation Shota Aizawa x Akemi Yuriemoto (Aizawa)

Chapter 264: "I came to take you home."

Hitoshi was chewing on his pencil in suspense as his eyes were rapidly reading the frantic shaking script on the pages of the memoir.

Clearly this was difficult for Erasure to write about and for a very good reason.
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Hayato tried all of Miyu's favorite spots in the city. He remembered her telling him about these places during their date but no matter where he went he didn't find her. He was frantic now. Hayato took to the rooftops on the way back, a frustrated last resort to scout the streets from above.

By the time he got back to his district he had a battery dead phone and it was already dark out. He had called in to the police that he wasn't able to do patrol and someone had filled in for him. Maybe he would do patrols after all, but only to look for the little thief that had stolen his heart. His beautiful Black Dahlia was somewhere out there lost and afraid. And so was his little Muffin...she wasn't an outdoor cat...plus it was raining she'd be a grumpy little kitten once he found her.

He decided to check his apartment to see if Muffin or Miyu had made their way home by themselves. But he was exhausted, as the adrenaline wore off as the grim reality kicked in. He had no leads and Miyu was likely too scared of Mizuki, or too angry with him to go back to the place she said had felt like home.

He decided to stop by his favorite café for about three shots of coffee and maybe a strong beer to help him make it through the night. The place catered to university students as well as artists and writers, and a Pro Hero undertaking the night shifts. So it was open to obscenely late hours (to Hayato being up that late was normal).

Even though, they had stopped serving food after around 3:00pm he was mainly here for the coffee.

He walked the rest of the way, soaked to the bone and yet he didn't feel the cold. All he felt was this numbing pain in his chest. He had a drained posture and a broken frown as he tiredly opened the door with a little bell chime. He sighed heavily and wiped his combat boots on the floor-mat for a solid fifteen seconds attempting to dry off the soles.

Yet his steps still made that annoying squeaking sound when he walked into the café.

Even though Hayato consistently looked like he was dead to the world most days, quite the opposite was true at night. His quirk and fighting styled relied on observation and quick reflexes. So, before he even got in line for his three cups of energy boost coffee and a drink to block out his depression, he noticed something odd. There was only one person in the entire café that didn't have a laptop, book, or stack of papers in front of them. The patron was a young woman with black hair.

She sat facing into the wall. Her black hair and those clothes looked awfully familiar...then he saw a very familiar fuzzy cat tail peeking out from her lap and moving back and forth softly.

Tears of relief filled his eyes as he smiled with a soft tired laugh. *Oh Miyu...Muffin...Oh God Thank You.*

Miyu heard footsteps walking towards the table, and hoped it wasn't the barista coming to kick her out. She had been consistently ordering drinks for this sole purpose, but had been at the café for quite a while. She had lost track of time. It meant nothing, yet was everything all at the same time. Every minute that passed was one that she spent obsessively reflecting over the last week or so of her life.

Every little detail of her relationship with Hayato was analyzed and then Mizuki's crushing words.

What would she do if Hayato came for her? Would he even come find her? Was all that threatening to hunt her down just a way to scare her from leaving. Was she ever in any danger to begin with? What could she even say to Hayato if he found her? Would he even care about her feelings or decide he's had enough fun entertaining her and drag her to the police?