My Hero Academia: Next Gen

Chapter 48: Midnight's Proposition

Eri was eating lunch with her friends the next day when Midnight waved her out of the cafeteria. Ever since her talk with Kota, she had been in a much better mood and found herself feeling almost like herself again. She was thankful for her friends, as they confirmed Kota's notion that no one in the class even really cared about what happened and had all but forgotten about it.

That lunch, Matsumoto was joking around with Yoru, teasing him about his "addiction to sushi" as she put it. Torredo was rolling her eyes as she quietly ate her ramen. Eri smiled softly as she looked at her friends in such a domestic situation. She couldn't believe she was lucky enough to have met people like them.

Himei nudged Eri out of her thoughts and pointed to the edge of the room with his chopsticks. "Um, I think she wants to talk to you."

She swivelled her head to see Midnight standing by the cafeteria doors staring directly at her. Her face was hard and tense, her hand making a quick "come here" gesture before walking out into the hallway.

"Oh. Uh, I'll be right back," Eri said, excusing herself. She quickly walked out of the room, avoiding the eyes that followed her. When she got out in to the hallway, she found Midnight pacing around a corner. "Um, did you want to see me?"

Midnight nodded, her expression devoid of any of her usual glee. "Your father discovered something about that hero agency that you wanted to look into. He's in one of the meeting rooms and wanted you to be part of the conversation."

She frowned. "O-okay." She followed Midnight through the mostly empty hallways until they reached one of the conference rooms on an upper level. Inside the room was Aizawa, Mr. Kaminari, Present Mic, Principal Nezu, and now Midnight and herself. The room had a long oval table surrounded by large lush chairs. At the front of the room was a blank screen.

Aizawa gestured for Eri to take the seat next to him, which she hesitantly did. "Is everything okay?" she asked.

He sighed. "We fear it might not be. You remember how you asked me to look into the Ojokori Hero Agency?"

Her heart was starting to beat uncomfortably fast. "Yes?"

"Well, I did, and all we found was stunning reviews." Aizawa clicked a button on a remote and an email popped up on the large screen. It was from several different hero agencies, all with documents containing records of working with the Ojokori Agency. "While many of the records are from the past few years, several of these were dated to fairly recently. The problem was, when I called these agencies to ask about Aki Rina, none of them had any recollection of knowing who she was, much less working with her."

Eri's quick-beating heart almost stopped. "What?"

Principal Nezu leaned forward and clasped his paws together. "Ms. Eri, we are faced with two different explanations here. The first is that this is a misunderstanding and they simply forgot. The second explanation, is that the villain who has attempted to abduct you and captured Hitoshi Shinsou has made another plot to take you."

Memories of the woman on the beach came to mind, and a searing pain tore through the back of her head. It came on so hard and fast that she let out a hiss of pain, gripping the back of her head with her hands. It was that woman, she realized. Whenever she remembered that woman, it hurt so badly. This time, though, was more painful than the times before.

"Eri?" Aizawa rushed over to her, gently holding her head and shoulder. "Eri, what's wrong?"

"Agh, i-it hurts," she whimpered.

Midnight stood up from her seat. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Aizawa ran his hand over the top of her head, trying his best to ease the pain. "She's never done this before."