Continuation Shota Aizawa x Akemi Yuriemoto (Aizawa)

Chapter 352: A tense parting for a lonely night

The Sly Fox was only open from 8:30 to 11:00pm. After the performances the women mingled with the audience, squeezing out Intel from the unsuspecting men like it was second nature. Akemi was with Shota who was making sure these men knew that she was his, by making up stories about how they met, and carrying on with conversations like it was no big deal that he was talking with mafia bosses. He even made a rather convincing persona for himself, about being a lesser known mafia boss from another province.

Akemi kept a keen eye on Hizashi and Kurenai. Hizashi was at the bar listening to the drunken idiots spilling their secrets while waiting impatiently for the clock to strike 11:00pm so he could leave. Kurenai was mingling through the audience shooting glares at the three women who merely smiled innocently at her.

She was faking smiles with the men as she chatted and forced out a laughs over their terrible jokes.

"Oh stop it! It's to funny hahahaha!" Hizashi frowned darkly over hearing a forced laugh parting from her lips. It just sounded sooooo wrong coming from her. He didn't realize the entire time Kurenai kept glancing at Hizashi.

She stood up from her seat and bid her departure from the men to grab Nemuri and pull her towards a secluded spot and whispered.

"How is he Kayama?"

"According to the other waitresses he's silently cursing Shota's name for restricting his Sake privileges. He's had at least fifteen shots of strong Sake. And he flicked Shota off after the Bartender restricted his Sake. So yeah he's going to be hungover tomorrow. He was always such a lightweight."

Kurenai's eyes widened as sorrow instantly took hold of her heart. "He—He hates me that much?"

"I wouldn't say he hates you. He's clearly shown signs of jealousy and don't forget how he blushed at you when he locked eyes with you after being caught staring. Aishi is right about one thing though, he mind has to stop going to war with his heart."

Kurenai sighed. "If only he'd hear what I have to say...I said some hurtful things to him Kayama and I just—if anything Kayama I just want to apologize to him, but he...he won't listen."

"Kurenai, I've never seen him so at war with himself over anything until now. He still loves you, it's clear to see. Ena, Aishi, Sakura, Akemi, and Shota all see it and wether he choices to accept it or not is his fault. It's his loss, because you clearly regret what happened between you both. You want to make amends. It's his fault that he's not man enough to admit that he wants the same thing as you do. Closure and reconciliation."

Kurenai sighed softly and smiled in gratitude. "Arigato Kayama."
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11:30pm

The Sly Fox was empty of people. The three women were smiling softly as they said their goodbyes to Akemi. Ena grinned. "Excellent performance Akemi!"

Aishi spoke with another poem likely forming within her mind. "I shall dedicate a poem to you tomorrow, and Shota I certainly hope you'll perform as well?"

Shota smirked as he helped Akemi into the van before heading to the drivers side of the car.

"You can count on it ladies."

Nemuri hugged Kurenai. "See you tomorrow night Kurenai."

"I'm looking forward to it Kayama."

"You still living at your apartment?"

"No, I actually live here. The second floor is my home. It's a part of the deal I made with the temple monks. This is a historical place and it requires a valid reason to maintain its protection, or else the mafia bosses would take this building for themselves and turn it into a drug smuggling safe-house. There's been foul play towards the monks recently. Food Poisonings when there shouldn't be, and unexplained injuries. I suspect the mafia bosses are to blame. This building is the ideal place for a safe-house...but to take control of a temple would be even more damaging."

"I see now, that's why you told us to listen closely for key words within conversations."

"Exactly. It's been hard for us to get the Intel we need without appearing suspicious, but Shota's integration into a role of a lower level mobster from another province convinced them to lower their guard. The interactions and conversations we gained from that gives a little more validation to my theory of foul play."

"Well it's late and a school night, so goodnight Kurenai."

As Nemuri walked by Hizashi she whispered. "Be a civil Hero and say goodnight to her or else we're going to have a little talk about proper formality Hizashi Yamada."

He glared at her as she got into the right passengers side of the van.

He sighed and spoke. "Kurenai."

Kurenai looked up and stared at Hizashi.

"Yes?"

"I certainly hope you scold those two for leaking private information about us to a bunch of mafia bosses. Also...I don't like your Bartender. Whelp goodnight." He spun around on his sandals with a lazy wave and headed towards the van.

"Hizashi—wait, please."

He stopped over hearing her sorrowful tone, but didn't turn around. Kurenai bowed her head and sniffled back the sudden rush of emotions.

"I—I'm sorry...for everything. I'm so sorry Hizashi."

Hizashi closed his eyes. His heart wanted him to say, *Yeah, I'm sorry too Kurenai.* but his mind said something else instead.

"Arigato Kitsune."

He entered the van and closed the door. Inside the car he spoke. "I'm not in the mood to talk about this right now. I'm tired and will have a monster hangover tomorrow morning. Let's just go to back to U.A."

Shota sighed heavily and drove away. Hizashi pretended like he wasn't watching as Kurenai was growing smaller and smaller in the rear-view mirror.

Kurenai stood there with a hand over her heart and her eyes closed as she sighed and turned to face the three women.

Sakura spoke softly. "Lady Kitsune..."

"Stop, I understand why you ladies felt like you had to do all that. I'm grateful for your care over my heart, but...I'm not in the mood to scold you properly." Her ears grew taller as two tails appeared and her hair turned white. "So consider Shizuki's task of writing down the Intel as your punishment. Expect for Shizuki to compile every piece of the conversations into packets separated by tables for you to comb through. I expect the detailed descriptions of the men involved and the proper usage of your code hunting training to be visible and the information to be precise, especially if you find out that they spoke in code. I expect it to be close enough to meet Shizuki's skill level with her quirk. You've all seen her work on code breaking and know what to look for. That's all. Goodnight ladies, I'll see you all tomorrow night."

She hugged the three women and waited until their cars were long out of sight before a sad sigh adorned her face as she headed to the hidden door in the wall near the entrance. The hidden door that lead to the stairs towards her apartment complex on the second floor.

She had locked the hidden door upon entering and sighed as she glanced out over the garden with a sad smile as she changed clothes for a night dance within the garden underneath the waning moon.