DAYBREAK ᵇⁿʰᵃ

³ NAPKIN

───CHAPTER 03───

"Please don't tell him I was here—" she starts moving back towards the door— "I'm sorry. . ."

The man reaches out to her. "Wait—"

She disappeared behind the door with glassy eyes, the sound of the door cutting him off from following after her. His hand falls back to his side, a groan passing his lips as he presses his finger to his temple. The headache that pushed his mind was stronger than most, the use of his quirk taking up more energy than he thought. Usually, that was enough to stop even the stubbornness of students at U.A.

The floor was littered with application forms for the Exchange Program, one catching Aizawa's since it was wrinkled. He picked it up, unfolding the creases as he sat on the sturdy wooden desk.

"What is this?" Something was distorting the paper.

The teacher glances back at the door, her face flashing back in his head. When he first used his quirk, it was more of a tactic of intimidation. All the students here were loud and a bit too much for him to handle, the things they said sounding a little too good to be true. However, behind all the half-faces and plastic grins, Rai was the first to hold hatred.

A phone rings inside his pocket, but his mind lingers on this room. He was still suspicious of her— Rai Dupont, a Business Department student who seems close to the Headmaster.

Her tear-stained face flashes past Aizawa's eyes again, a line forming between his brows. He looks back down at the professor's desk, an exam notebook still open. As he narrowed his eyes picking up the booklet, he began reading the words written in ink.

He had found her in a room used for the Technical Exam a few weeks ago. It would have been a Rosemont teacher who supervised the room of students, watching and taking in the papers for the Board to overlook. They might have forgotten this one exam, but Aizawa felt it was unlikely.

The U.A. teacher arches his brow, flipping through every page with a neat and articulate answer written along the lines. "This kid. . . who is she?"

───── ✦ ─────

It was dark by the time Aizawa looked away from his laptop, the city lights from the hotel room spilling across his room ceiling. The room was multiple feet in the air, so the engines of expensive cars and loud groups of party-goers blended in with the rest of the city's nightlife.

As his bones creak uncomfortably, hours in front of a screen finally taking a toll on the hero's body, Aizawa couldn't help but find himself staring out of the window. Skyscrapers and grey buildings stretched to the horizon, but every time he spotted a dark corner of the bright city, a foreboding feeling washed over him.