𝔄𝔫 ℑ𝔫𝔣𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔄𝔴𝔞𝔶 | Katsuki Bakugo x OC

Chapter 16 - Memories Preserved in Dry Paint

Hugging the wall parallel to the window was a black high table for two people, a chess board glued on the surface with a drawer that has both chess and checker pieces. The two chairs were gunmetal gray metal with orange cushions, green accents on the bars of the backrest. And a few feet away from the game table was the entrance where Hina stood.

She sighed, "Good job Hina," she muttered, patting her shoulder and walking to the cardboard box, "Now to the last item."

It was taped shut with 'Hag's shit' scribbled in black sharpie on the gray duct tape. Recognizing the handwriting as the hero's, Hina was left both confused and amused at the labeling of the mystery box.

She contemplated whether she should leave it untouched so this 'Hag' doesn't get mad that their 'shit' was touched. After a few minutes of debating the pros and cons of doing a thing she decided to open it anyway. Not like this 'Hag' was missing their stuff if it was tucked underneath dusty blankets in the alpha's spare room.

The sound of tape tearing echoed in the room. Then she opened the flaps revealing a noted atop brown packing paper.

Use this shit to relax once in a while.
It'll be good for your stressed out ass.

Love ya brat

Her eyes blinked a few times while processing the note. If she didn't notice the few extra flurries on the 'g' and the 'y' Hina would've assumed Bakugo wrote the note himself. She snickered after realizing that this was a gift to him that he hadn't bothered to open. Probably some family based on judging their language and similar handwriting.

She placed the note on the table and removed the paper, exposing a gold mine.

Well not a gold mine, but an artist's kit for both acrylic and oil painting.

Whoever this 'Hag' was, Hina was grateful for stuffing these brand new supplies in this box and gifting it to the hero.

Because now she found something to cure her case of severe boredom for months to come.

-----

At his agency, Bakugo was glaring at the large crazy wall. Half of it was a bulletin board with red and golden string tangled and twisted through the pins, connecting the pieces of evidence to one another. The other half was a white board, which would have pictures of things they'd already deemed set in stone hung by magnets, scribbles of notes written in black and blue ink all around. But that half was empty. Since, right now they were practically blind.

After the discovery of the warehouse Hina was kept at, the heroes had spread their resources all along the eastern coast. They'd told the police to monitor the surveillance footage of the coastal regions in hopes of discovering some clue about the NVA.

He eyed several pictures from the footage, all of them were people wandering to various warehouses in the night, blacks hoods always obscuring their identities. Then he eyed the reports of the successful raids of those select warehouses, noting that more experienced heroes were needed to be dispatched after every consecutive raid.

He glared at the five warehouse raid reports that had access to a hidden submarine dispatching lot, three of which had mugshots of people—villains—with NVA IDs pinned next to them.

One of the mugshots also had an expensive, NVA logo chiseled, golden pin inside a tiny Ziploc which was pinned beneath their ID, a red thread circling around the clear tack. This supposed villain wasn't known for any crimes, but the fact he'd chewed on a fake tooth with cyanide before they could interrogate him, said a lot about his undiscovered felonies.

On the sticky note beside the villain's profile said 'NVA hierarchy?' etched in red sharpie. The question mark was more daunting than the ash blond would like to admit. All the heroes could assume was that the ones with pins had more valuable information than the ones with only an ID, only revealing how more intricate the villain organization really was.