We Should Stop Meeting Like This || Nick Cross

Sundown at Musutafu shopping district saw a lot of people for various reasons.  Some were mothers and wives grabbing food for dinner, others were single businessmen taking the long way home, there were students grabbing a newly released book or a new outfit on their way home from school...and every few people there was a U.A student, still in uniform, being whispered about by the common folk as they went about their own life for their own reasons.  Those heroes in training.  Those shining beacons of hope.  They commanded attention wherever they went.

Ugh.  Barf.

Susumu was among the crowd on this day, but not how she usually went with her laptop and camera and fabulous sense in fashion.  In fact she didn't look anything like she did normally.  Her short green hair was tucked away underneath a long blonde wig that was done with a bright, sparkly band and a perm to keep it wavy.  Her eyes had contacts to turn them a deep, ocean blue and decorated with thicker make-up than she would ever wear in public.  Her clothes were a nearby high school's uniform, though with the lack of ribbon and colorful stockings that were certainly not part of regulation, Susumu's entire look screamed "delinquent girl" more than it said anything like "respectable student".

She blew a pink bubble out between her lips, snapped it with her teeth, and kept walking with her eyes glued to her phone.  Nobody paid her any notice because, despite her gaudy appearance, she actually blended in just fine with a number of other teenagers around here.

Why was she disguised?  Because she had to track somebody.

Nicolas Cross.  That was a name she hadn't expected to see again.  He'd been the target of her darling Gil's ire a month or so back, but after following the kid around for long enough to discover his social life was that of gray paste, G had dropped the case.  Susumu had put him off in a folder of boring people and nearly forgotten about him...until this mess with Miku being stalked, yet again, brought him to the front of her mind.  He'd been under suspicion by G for something involving his little girl, and Susumu having chosen to protect the girl like her own, wanted to be sure that there weren't any lingering threads connecting the two.

Wouldn't you know it, though, this time she found something shiny.

While browsing his files she'd found a document hidden away that didn't even have a name.  Being the sort of woman who valued privacy she'd opened it in a heartbeat.  Its contents had been interesting.  The rantings of a high school boy about his incompetent classmates, the stress of heroism, blah blah blah, all that fun angsty shit.  But one line in particular had stood out to her.  He mentioned Miku--not vaguely, but by name specifically--and, in his own words:

"That girl needs to stop sticking her nose places it shouldn't be."

She couldn't have asked for a prettier clue than that.

What was Nick Cross talking about?  Had Miku noticed something about him that she shouldn't have?  He must have a juicy secret that he felt important enough to get angry at the thought of being revealed.  What was it, though?  Something familial?  Personal?  Scandalous?  It might have been your usual high school aged nothing that was being blown far out of proportion.  However, it could also be something bigger.

What kind of secrets did a potential hero have to hide?

So, donning her disguise, Susumu had tracked his school laptop's location to the bookstore she'd known him to frequent when he wasn't doing his boring routine of staring at U.A's grass grow.  She had to get his phone or tablet...something he wasn't using for school had to have more data, and maybe some more secrets.  The issue was getting close enough to get them, either digitally or physically, without being noticed.

She went into the little bookstore, tucked her phone in her pocket, and to browse the shelf while pretending not to look in his direction.

Time for a game of cat and mouse.