There was nothing to be done, but to expect that Meiko would have to pair up with Hawks for a lot longer than she liked.

In her star form, she became starlight itself, floating through the daylight sky over Fukuoka and keeping an eye on the city below. It was a wonderful city and she loved it. There was no place better to have set up her Hero Agency. Fukuoka Tower was coming again and on a distant glance, Meiko could see Hawks already waiting there.

Ugh. He was fast. But she wasn't late either.

She landed on the metallic net-like structure, her physical body slowly taking its shape. Hawks didn't even seem surprised to see that.

"You're late," He told her with a lazy grin.

"I'm on time," Meiko sent him a slight glare. "You're early."

"And faster than you. Don't forget that," He was far too casual for the morning. She had the strongest urge to roll her eyes, but she pushed it away.

"Whatever," Meiko pretended to stretch her arms, even though she didn't really need to. It was just for show. "Let's go."

"Race you?" Hawks asked, smirking as he pulled down his goggles to cover his eyes.

"What's in it for me?"

"I'll buy you dinner from a place you want for three days."

"Make it a week and I'm in. Fair warning, I have expensive taste," Meiko said. If Hawks was going to spend his money, you'd best believe she was going to make him spend a lot.

"Done. And if I win," Hawks started to speak, tapping his chin as though he was deciding something very important. Then he looked at her. "I think I'll decide later."

"Yeah yeah, let's go now."

"No need to hurry, love."

"Says the hero who is always in a rush."

But in a blaze of starlight and scarlet colored wings, both heroes took off towards their destination.

Kataoka Corporation was located in a typical office building. It also looked like a typical corporate office. Usually, you'd find people in the lobby, especially near the start of the day, but since it was around 10:30 in the morning when they had arrived, the workers of the company would still be busy. So, the lobby was empty and for that Meiko was utterly grateful.

For some reason, the company felt oddly familiar to her. Not because they made children's toys and games or anything. It almost felt like she had heard of the name much before the case, from someone else. She couldn't figure out what it was about this company that was just not striking her mind at the moment.

As Hawks chatted up (flirted) with the receptionist in the empty lobby, Meiko looked around. Once again, it was a typical office lobby. Sleek white and grey walls, bright green plants around every corner, a stand with the latest newspapers and magazines, empty chairs and a couple of sleek benches and pictures of the company's products. It felt oddly soulless and Meiko wondered how this could be the office of a toy and game company.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to face Hawks.

"The receptionist said the head of the legal team would be meeting us. He's about to be here," Hawks told her. There was a mild look of impatience on his face.

"You good?" Meiko asked.

"I want to be done with this quickly," Hawks answered. The smile on his face didn't fade, but the brightness of his eyes dimmed just a little. "The quicker we are, the quicker we catch this guy and put him away before he hurts people."

"You're right about that," She said. "That's our end goal."

"Yeah," Hawks nodded. They were quiet, more serious now, knowing that the case was important. Catching this guy was important. Talking with each other could come later. He stood right next to her, eyes scanning everything like she had done.

A door opened, right behind the reception. The receptionist turned, greeting the person who stepped out. The person was holding a file.

Meiko had wondered why this place had felt familiar. She had heard of it before. She had heard of it nearly three years ago, the last time she had spoken to her parents. The head of the legal team was a middle-aged man, silver-streaked through his blond hair. A light beard also covered his face. His eyes were a dark brown and just as cold as Meiko remembered. His facial structure was what she saw when she looked in the mirror. Except for her blue eyes and sharp nose, those were from her mother.

The head of the legal team was Akio Tanaka, her...her father.

*

Hawks had immediately noticed the way Astra's whole body had gone rigid when the head of the legal team walked towards them. He glanced at her through the corner of his eyes and saw her hands at her sides, clenched into fists. Huh. Odd. She looked straight ahead at the man with a very determined expression, but Hawks could clearly see the internal conflict going through her.

'What's their connection? Does she know this guy?'

The man came to a stop in front of them, eyes flickering to Astra for a moment before landing on Hawks. His face looked oddly familiar, but Hawks was sure he had not met him before. "Hawks, Astra, I'm Akio Tanaka. I head the legal team here at Kataoka."

"Pleasure to meet you, Tanaka-san," Hawks took over. He didn't like Astra's quietness, but there must be a connection between her and the man standing before them. "I'm afraid Astra and I cannot stay for long so we'll just get right to it. What can you tell us about this Haruto Suzuki?"

"Right," Akio nodded, his gaze flickering to Astra once more. The look on her face only morphed into something that could only be described as turbulent. "Suzuki had been working with us for the past two years, but we soon discovered that he was embezzling money from our franchise store set up accounts. Since he worked in our financial department, he had pretty close access. This file has all the information you will need."

"How was he as a person, Tanaka-san?" Astra spoke. There was a sharp edge to the way she had said his name.

Akio looked at her, his expression slightly stormy. "He was quiet. Kept to himself mostly and was a diligent worker, except for the under-the-table dealings he was doing."

"Has Suzuki shown up here since he was discovered?" Hawks decided to ask. Something was definitely going on here, but that could come later.

"No, he hasn't. He's pretty much been in hiding. The police investigation also didn't amount to anything because he hid so well with the help of whoever he was working with."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that now," Astra spoke, shoulders straight, her posture rigid. "Hawks and I know exactly who he was working with and have already caught them. The last thing remaining is to catch Suzuki and the few remaining members of the gang that were working with him in smuggling the guns and the drugs."

"Yes, exactly. Astra summed up it pretty well," Hawks side-glanced at Astra, her bright blue unnaturally dull in the moment. Then he glanced back at Akio Tanaka. In a blazing flash of realization, he knew why Akio felt so familiar. The expression he had was exactly the same as Astra's. Their faces were practically the same, except for a few differences. "Thanks to her work, the big villain behind all this is already in jail, so it will not take us much time to find this person. It will all be done quietly since that's why the Commission specifically requested us to work on this case."

"Thank you, heroes," Akio answered. "Kataoka Corporation will owe you a debt."

"No worries at all," Hawks smirked at Astra, who looked at him with a storm brewing in those blue eyes. "We'll be on our way now. Thanks for the file."

Stiffly, Astra added, "We will let you know when we have caught Suzuki."

It had been a cowardly thing to do, but Meiko had run the second after they had stepped out. She'd left the file with Hawks; she could just take it later tonight. Seeing her father had thrown off her system. Three years and he looked the same. Whenever his gaze fell on her, it was still full of the sharp judgement that had been thrown on her throughout her life.

How could she have forgotten this is where he worked??

Meiko could care less about what Hawks thought but knew that he would still be suspicious. In starlight form, she flew to the nearest rooftop she could find. Standing at the edge, she wrote him a quick text.

Sorry about leaving. Just remembered I had some important paperwork to do at my agency. Keep the file with you. Will take it later. See you tonight.

It was the quickest lie she could think of. Now, Meiko really had to get back to her agency. To Ryu, Kagura and Ichika, all of whom knew about her parents. She didn't know how they did it, but they always managed to calm her down.

She was starlight once again, just a beam speeding through the sky as fast as it could. There was a rush of memories in her head, memories from her childhood. Memories where her parents constantly judged her and put her through the wringer when it came to studies at U.A. and their expectations. It felt like something that would completely drown her.

She was still starlight as she landed right outside the front door of her Agency building. Once in her physical form, she pushed it open and entered. When she stepped inside, she closed the door a little too hard. Kagura, quietly working in their own mini-little reception area, jolted immediately.

"Meiko-san, what are-?" Kagura immediately asked, voice full of worry.

"I know Ryu and Ichika are working, but get them to my office right now. It's important," Meiko spoke in a rushed manner. She didn't wait to hear Kagura's reply as she sped past the girl, getting to the stairs that would lead to her office.

'Stupid father. Stupid fucking father,' She angrily yelled in her mind as she stormed up the stairs. She reached her office and due to sheer anger, slammed the door a little too hard. Meiko rushed to her desk and immediately sat down on her chair, elbows propped up on the table as another wave of memories passed through her mind.

"I won't be like you! I'll never be like you! Don't you understand? I am a hero. This is what I wanted."

"Fine. Then, as of this moment, you are not our daughter anymore."

The door to her office was opened again. Kagura rushed inside, followed by Ryu and Ichika. Good. Her sidekicks had been present close by.

"You good? You got Kagura all freaked out," Ryu said, voice full of worry. "What's going on?"

"Meiko, what happened?" Ichika asked, eyes softened with concern.

"I saw my father today," Meiko scoffed. "I was supposed to be working on this stupid case for the Commission and I saw my father and now my whole body feels like it's been thrown off."

"Oh, fuck no," Ichika spoke. Then she was at Meiko's side, arm around her, trying to squeeze her shoulder through the thick layer of her golden armour. Ichika knew exactly what Meiko's parents had done. She knew it far too well and remembered that time as the only one when she had seen her cry. "That sucks."

"Shit dude," Ryu ran a hand through his hair. "That's terrible. How even-"

"I don't know!" Meiko slammed her hands onto her. "I thought that place was familiar and I knew I had heard of it but god, I didn't think it was because of him."

"What exactly did you do?" Kagura questioned softly, speaking in a careful tone.

"Nothing. We just pretended not to know each other and...I don't know...it just made me feel horrible"

Hawks. Hawks had been suspicious.

"Fuck," Meiko groaned, pressing her head against the table. He would want to know things. He'd want answers and from what she knew of him, he wouldn't be satisfied with flimsy lies. She couldn't come up with good lies either.

"Ryu, Ichika," Meiko abruptly stood up. She absolutely could not wallow in the emotional storm brewing inside her body. "The best distraction right now would be going for a patrol. So, let's go."

"Ah, catching bad guys," Ryu said, half-joking and half-not. "My favorite way to relieve stress."

"You're not wrong about that."

Meiko thought long and hard. Things in her life were never going to be peaceful, now that she was a hero. Situations like this couldn't affect her too much. It would be best to take what Ryu said seriously.

Meiko could worry about dealing with Hawks later.

I have had this chapter written for a while; I have just been lazy publishing it. And now that I am in Australia for my masters, life has just been a little bit chaotic. I am slowly trying to update the fics that I have not touched in a while and this is one of them. I have chapter 6 almost finished and when I have half of chapter seven written, that is when I will post chapter 6. I am trying to do some prewriting for all my fics so that updates can be semi-consistent at least.

BUT...Meiko's family secrets are finally coming out. There'll be a longer explanation coming in the next few chapters.

I have also been dabbling with the idea of a pro hero AU for Todoroki so there's that hehe. More to come on that. But till then I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know your thoughts in the comments <33