With a Strum of My Heart Strings

I'm Way Too Young to Lie Here Forever

"My dads are going to join us as well," he said as he glanced up from his phone. Jirou seemed pleased by that, as did Kirishima. Bakugou just grunted in affirmation, but that was enough for the others.

Mina and Sero arrived not too long after, both nearly frantic as they were let in. Kirishima coaxed them to calm down, saying that their distress wouldn't be able to help them. They were reluctant to calm down, but by the time they had managed to, Aizawa and Yamada had also arrived.

"That's everyone, right?" Mina asked after they had all managed to gather in Shinsou's living room that was probably too small to hold all of them. Jirou held up a finger as if to say something, but was cut off before she could by one last knock on the door.

"Who--" Aizawa started to say but Shinsou ignored him as he reached to open the door to his apartment.

"Todoroki?" he asked, actually surprised to see the man at his door. He looked to Jirou, who's expression told him exactly what he suspected: she'd invited him, as well. "And..." He struggled to remember the name of the green-haired man he'd only now noticed standing next to Shouto.

"Midoriya," he told him. Shinsou nodded as he moved out of the way to let them in. Everyone was just barely able to fit into his living room with the two extra people.

"Okay, that's everyone, right?" Kirishima asked. Both Jirou and Shinsou nodded.

"Now that everyone is here," Kyoka started, clasping her hands together, "We need to organize this search party. I was thinking we split up and search the town. Maybe even outside of it." She turned to Shinsou's parents. "You guys drove, I'm guessing?"

Hizashi nodded. "We didn't want to take any longer than we had to!" he exclaimed, volume loud as ever. No one even paid any mind to it, though, too focused on the situation at hand.

Jirou then looked at Katsuki and Eijirou. "You guys did as well, right?" They nodded. "Okay. Then Yamada, Bakugou, Kirishima, and Aizawa can all search outside of town." That was probably a good idea. They'd be able to cover more ground that way. It was no use having everyone search the city if Kaminari might not even be in it.

"We could search downtown," Midoriya suggested, raising up a hand. "We drove as well, so it might be easier if we checked there. It's too far for you guys to walk to, so it'd make sense if we looked. Though, I suppose if you guys walked, you could also search on the way there. Even if--" God, Kaminari had said something about Midoriya rambling before, but this was worse than hed expected. He didn't know how his former bandmate was able to deal with it on a daily basis.

"Okay, you check downtown," Hitoshi agreed quickly to save them time and from the shorter man's rambling. "Jirou and I can take the housing units, then. There's a bunch of people around here in the neighborhood. Maybe we could try to spot anyone acting suspicious or see if there is someone else Denki could be staying with." The others agreed with him.

"Good idea," Mina chimed from her seat on the armrest of his couch. "We could search the other side of town, then, near the cafe."

"That sounds good," Jirou said, fidgeting with her fingers. Shinsou knew that was something she always did when she was nervous. She definitely wasn't the only one.

"Okay," Shinsou said, wrapping up this conversation, "Meet back here in two hours. If you find anything, text either Jirou or myself." With that, everyone hastily dispersed, going their own separate ways.

Once everyone had left the apartment, Shinsou locked the door behind him and Jirou as they started searching. They checked everywhere they could, knocking on neighbor's doors, visiting different apartment complexes, all the while dialing the numbers of everyone they knew that knew Denki, desperately trying to get them to join the search party, though all of them were either unavailable or busy.

After nearly an hour of endless searching, Jirou urged them to take a quick break. They sat at a nearby bench, messaging each person helping them to see how they were all doing. Kirishima and Bakugou hadn't gone very far from town in fear of going too far but still hadn't found anyone or anything. Mina and Sero said that they had seen a blond man that had startled them, thinking it was Denki, but it was just some random guy, apparently. Hizashi and Shouta didn't find anything either, just some cows outside the city area. Todoroki hadn't texted Jirou back, though both of them knew he only texted when he needed to, and that he'd let them know if it was something important.

So, basically, no luck so far.

Shinsou sighed, his hands resting in his hair. He felt useless. Like they were trying so hard to find Kaminari, but no matter what he did, it just wasn't enough.

Jirou placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to tell him that it was going to be alright when he suddenly jolted from his cell phone dinging with a message.

"Wondering where Denki went, huh?"

Shit.

Why did his stalker choose the worst times to text him?

Hitoshi was about to write the person a reply when it showed that they were typing again. But this time, they sent a photo, and Shinsou's heart nearly stopped.

"Jirou," he said weakly, gripping her arm. She looked over at him, her gaze following to where he was staring at his phone before she let out a shriek.

"Is that Denki?" she asked, exchanging a worried glance with him. He just nodded. "Oh, my God. Who sent you that?" Shinsou shook his head, his heart quickening and beating rapidly.

"This person has been messaging me ever since I met Denki, threatening me and telling me to stay away from him. I'd finally had it with them and went off on them the other night, and..." He trailed off. He didn't know what to do. He stared at the picture again, the picture of Denki, gag around his mouth and hands tied behind his back. His nose was bleeding, and Shinsou felt a small piece of him die every time he looked at it, but he couldn't peel his eyes away from the photo. Though his eyes kept drifting back to the backgrounded. Something about it felt familiar, and not in a good way.

Then a realization hit.

"Wait a second!" he cried, springing up from his seat on the bench. "I know where that is!" He almost immediately darted off, forgetting about Jirou calling for him to slow down as she sprinted to keep up.

He dashed left and right, around corners, never slowing. His only thought was to save Denki. He knew where he was. He had to find him. He only sped up, not once keeping his eyes or focus off of his target.

Out of breath, he arrived at his destination. He slammed his fist against the door, ignoring his arching lungs and heart hammering in his ribcage. The door creaked open, gray eyes peering at him through it. Those eyes widened as they recognized who was in front of them, attempting to close the door in his face. Shinsou stuck out his hand, using all of his force to hold it open. He heard grunting from the other side but was able to overpower the person and fully open the door.

He burst inside the house, barely even casting a glance at Monoma who was still trying to shove him out. He just pushed past him and upstairs, opening the first door he saw. It was locked. He knew that must be it, then.

Bracing himself, Hitoshi rammed his body into the door. A sharp pain shot up his shoulder, causing him to yelp, but he just kept attempting to break down the door until he somehow did, with much more effort than he thought it'd take. It was not as easy to do as it seemed in movies.

The door had significantly slowed him down, now, and Monoma was on his tail, but he didn't care as he took in the sight before him. The person before him.

"Denki!"