Winds of Destiny: Rising ~ {Hawks x OC}

Chapter Ten: Fate or Karma

Misaki cringed at his reaction and nervously replied, "I think this kid might be Kurogiri. At least in part."

"Are you sure?" The detective's grave voice asked a long moment later.

She knew it would be a touchy subject. The kid had been in his second year at UA and had been killed during his work study assignment. She'd read through a few testimonials in his obituary from his teachers and classmates who had all expressed what a great loss his death had been. If it was true that part of this kid's body had been taken and used in a Nomu experiment, it would be the first instance of a hero's DNA showing up inside any of the recovered Nomu.

"I really hope not, but..." She trailed off dejectedly.

"Why do you think this kid is Kurogiri?" He asked.

She wasn't sure how much he knew about her involvement with the Kamino investigation, so she vaguely answered, "When I looked up the description of his quirk, it reminded me of Kurogiri's Warp quirk. It's not an exact match, but if it was combined with others... I don't know. I could be way off base here. I just thought it might warrant some deeper investigation."

"We'll look into it. Thanks for the heads up, Torimodo-san," the detective told her in a heavy sounding voice.

"Let me know if you find anything?" She asked, hoping that it was just a coincidence, and they'd end up proving her wrong.

"Will do," the detective's curt reply sounded in her ear before he ended the call.

"Thanks..." She trailed off, setting her phone down on her desk before dropping her head into her hands.

She'd been working on digging up info on Kurogiri and the Nomu for almost two weeks now and she was still no closer to figuring out where they were being manufactured or who was making them than she had been at the beginning of the assignment. Her frustration level had almost reached the point where she was ready to start pulling her hair out. At least the nightly bath ritual she'd finally returned to consisted of her overthinking about work now instead of dwelling on her breakup with Hawks.

She still thought about him every so often. When she'd make herself pancakes for breakfast on Sunday mornings, or sometimes when she used the pen that he'd given her for Christmas. She'd stopped having the dreams as often, but she'd wake up every now and then with a sense of nostalgia clinging to her from the memory she'd been running through in her head while she slept. She still wore the necklace he'd given her when she wasn't at work. It wasn't with the intention of pining after him, she wore it more as a reminder of their time together and the feelings they'd shared. He'd told her when he'd given it to her that it was meant to be a memento, and she wanted to treasure it as such.

She liked to think that she was moving past her grief, but considering her behavior during the Christmas party, she had a feeling she was still a way's off from that yet. Her life had finally begun to get back to some semblance of normal, but she still felt the loss like a hole in her soul, and she was starting to seriously consider that feeling might never go away. So, when she started feeling the melancholy set in, like she was now courtesy of her wandering train of thought, she distracted herself with work instead. Sitting back up in her chair, Misaki gave her head a small shake and returned to her task of running down any information she could find on Kurogiri and the Nomu.

~*~

Misaki waved across the lawn at Eri who was building a snowman with her third-year aids in the yard across from the teacher's dorm. It was the first time she'd had an opportunity to visit since Christmas and she wouldn't be able to stay for very long. The visit itself had been somewhat impromptu, after she'd decided to take a much-needed break from her Nomu research. Eri had been excited to see her, but Misaki had urged her not to cancel her snowman building plans on her account. She was happy just to watch them from the porch of the dorm.