🥐Ingredients 🥐

🥐 It's time to see how everyone will work together to pull together a fashion show for Sakura. Will they be able to do it?

🥐...yea, I really don't have much to say since I introduced all the writers I'm using OCs of in the previous chapter. I just hope you all enjoy!!

🥐Behind the Seams 🥐

It's strange how time can stand still but fly by all at once. Something like that shouldn't have been possible, but that was how time felt as everyone scrambled to do their best to help pull this thing together. Suki, Ivana, Mori, and Rose helped get everyone's measurements while most everyone else helped gather the accessories from the backroom and to my main office. By the time the measurements were finished, I could guess which outfits would work best with which person. There were still some people missing, like Jinse and the other high schoolers Kimbi and Ryuji had called. Because of this, everything was just a guess to see how far we could go, so we could start with alterations.

Alterations were something Rose seemed particularly excited about, but when I told her she still had to wear a dress, she seemed less enthusiastic about it. At least she was still willing to help, even if she glared at me when I handed her a short dress to try. With how tall she was, she didn't have much of a choice. It was much harder to tailor certain outfits, so if there was an exact match with measurements, I had to take it.

We had gotten so much accomplished, yet only an hour passed by. Despite that, the high schoolers still hadn't arrived, and Jinse probably wasn't going to get here until a couple of hours from when the show actually started. It may seem we were ahead of schedule, but in reality, we weren't.

To make matters worse, pulling this thing together wasn't the only thing I had to worry about.

The moment everyone had their outfits, I snuck out of the room. I shouldn't have been worried about any of them handling this, but there were still high schoolers getting themselves involved. It didn't matter if they were hero students or not; I didn't want anyone getting hurt.

If that was the case, there was really only one thing I could do.

I pulled out the key from my back pocket and carefully opened the door hidden from plain sight. One would have to really look for it as it was hidden within multiple hallways and stairways and other rooms, but if this was my private office, then it needed to be that way. It was one of those things I appreciated learning from my old mentor. While hers was more to hide valuable outfits and designs she didn't dare want anyone to set eyes on, this place was more for actual investigating for me.

Flicking the lights on, I immediately grimaced. Papers scattered everywhere, with only a few being pinned up. It wasn't like I was working on any important cases at the moment, but I should have still had it all clean. The room was usually clean. Yet, for someone to come in here...

My eyes widened. Wait, was my room like this the last time I was here? There was only one other person who had the spare key, but he shouldn't have been in here unless it was an emergency. I bit my lip as I tried to see any sign of him being in here, but there was nothing. All of the papers that were scattered about were of old cases that had already been solved.

Solved cases that should have been neatly put away.

If he knew something was going on, he should have warned me, I thought to myself. Why the hell does he have to always go behind my back like this?

I grabbed a particular manilla folder, one that was worn and torn at the edges. It was the first case I had ever solved many years ago. Even though the results were less than desirable, I had kept it stored away old fashioned to make sure no one got their hands on it.

Could it be...

Rapid knocks tore me away from my thoughts. Before I could say anything, I quickly tossed the file onto my desk, hoping it'd blend in with the mess that laid there.

"Come in!" I called, knowing there could only be one person that would know where this room was. While there was only one person that would know where this room was, it couldn't have been the same man with the key. There was no way.

But instead of one person standing there, there were two. Neither of them being the tall male I had expected to see. One of them was a male with vibrant indigo colored hair, but he wasn't nearly as tall as the man I knew. Beside him stood a woman just slightly shorter than him. I wish I could say I was relieved to see both of them in their outfits, but I wasn't. How could I? Blake was still in the suit he was wearing when he walked into my building! At least Suki had the decency to pull the long mauve colored dress on, finishing it with all the accessories that was needed for it, which included a single black glove and a lighter colored sash that tied around the waist. There was still something missing to it as I inspected every part of the outfit, but I couldn't quite remember what I had paired with that dress. 

Then again, how could I when the man standing beside her had the audacity to show without the outfit he was supposed to try on in hand.

"Wow, seems like Rose was right when she noted you were stressed. This place is a mess!" Blake exclaimed, earning a quick glare from the dark haired woman beside him.

"Blake! That is not very polite to say whatsoever," Suki scolded, before looking back at me with a softened expression. "I apologize for Blake's actions. I assure you he is not always this blunt."

"Ah! Don't get so worked up, Miss Follow-the-Rules. Besides, I only said it cuz it's true. You know, I could always give you the number for my people to help clean this mess up," Blake suggested. "It'd be one less thing on your plate."

I quickly shook my head at his offer. "That won't be necessary, nor is it important," I explained, eyeing him from head to toe. "Where is your outfit? Did it not fit?"

"No exactly," Blake explained as he pulled out his phone from his back pocket and quickly showed me the screen. On it was a dark teal, velvety suit that was held up by two golden buttons on the right shoulder. The sleeves were cut off at the elbows, while the suit jacket ran down to the knees. "I noticed no one was trying on this outfit, so I thought it'd probably be best if I tried it on, but your boyfriend wouldn't let me near it!"

"Blake, I thought we were going to—" Suki started to intervene, but Blake's hand quickly flew up to silence her, causing the woman's face to redden at the sight.

"We will, we will, but first, I want to know if I can't try it on? It's more of my style, and I know I can pull it off," Blake claimed.

I rolled my eyes. This was never a problem with professional models. They always took whatever outfit was handed to them and tried it on with no problem. Being that these people were just heroes with little to no modeling experience, I figured I would probably deal a bit of trouble. I just didn't expect this much drama coming from some guy I hardly knew.

"How tall are you?" I asked.

"Five seven," Blake answered.

"Mmm, see that's the thing. I have a model who's five foot four. That outfit needs to be worn on a shorter man, which is why I can't let you wear it. How about after this thing is done, as a thank you, I can make that outfit for you in whatever color you want," I bargained.

Not to brag, but it was a really good deal. I mean, I never did that for anyone. At least, not the whole choosing color thing. The moment I did that, people were guaranteed to choose a color that didn't fit them at all. This man should have been happy with that answer.

He wasn't.

"Can't you just add more material to it or something?" Blake insisted, tucking his phone in his back pocket. "It seems like it would be an easy fix to me."

"Oh really," I mused. "Tell me, how will you hide the hem of the new material? Answer: you can't. Trust me. You can take material away from an outfit, but you can never add to it. I know what I'm doing, and the outfit I assigned to you is one that would work. Now, if that's all you had, then I think you two should get going. I'm sort of busy at the moment."

Blake shrugged, not bothering to further the argument, but Suki sighed. The light caught a glimpse of something in her hand that I snapped my head to see a string of purple beads. Only then did I realize why her outfit seemed so plain. Around the sash was supposed to hold some dark beads that matched the dress. Being that they weren't there, I figured there had to have been some sort of problem.

Suki and Blake didn't say a word as I stepped out of my office, locking the door behind me. Once everything was locked up, I held out my hand to Suki. She seemed to have known exactly what I wanted and didn't hesitate to drop the beads in my hand. Nothing seemed wrong about them, making me wonder where the problem was.

That was when the dark haired girl let out a sigh. 

"Those pearls are giving me some trouble," she explained. "I know the picture stated for them to wrap alongside the sash, but they nearly broke."

While she said that, I noticed a part of the string that was, indeed, worn. Something that shouldn't have been the case as I made sure all of my designs were in tip top shape.

Could it be that this was just a mere coincidence, or did this relate to the person who attacked my models late last night? I wondered. Part of me hoped that it was a mere coincidence, but when I looked at Suki, I couldn't help but to notice her thin frame. There was no way that was the reason it nearly broke. Everyone was being quite careful with all the accessories as well.

So just what was going on?

"You know, I think I'm going to make a change to that," I explained, as I glanced up at her.

When she first came in, the woman wore a coat, so I never had the chance to see her arms until now. I had known Suki for a couple of years now, but I somehow managed to forget that the woman had multiple tattoos etched into her skin. It was all part of her Quirk. If she could draw something on her arm or had a tattoo of it, she could easily summon that object. Because of how the fashion industry was–and being in Japan in general–people wouldn't think highly of her tattoos. Unless we could get her into an outfit with long sleeves, we would need to cover them.

That was a later problem. Looking at her tattoos gave me an idea as to who to salvage everything.

"Give me your arm," I instructed.

Without hesitating, Suki handed me her hand. I snapped the loose thread before wrapping it around the arm with no glove. Once I had tied it together, I let go giving it some time to admire the new placement.

"Much better," I said. "How does it feel?"

"It is definitely much better. Thank you so much," Suki explained.

That was enough to get both Blake and Suki to walk away, but they still stood there, awkwardly glancing at each other. It wasn't the same kind of glances I would see my two friends, Tami and Raiden give back in high school when they were in there horrendously long talking phase, but rather, the same look Kaito and I would give each other when we didn't know if we should have confronted Tami and Raiden liking each other.

Seeing how the two were very different, I doubted them telling me about two people having a crush on each other was the case.

"Is that everything, or is there something bothering you?" I asked.

Suki shook her head. "Nothing is bothering us, but what about you? I know the two of us are not particularly close; however, with everything that happened last night—"

"What Miss Follow-the-Rules is trying to say is that our agencies will be more than happy to help out," Blake interrupted, causing the woman beside him to glare.

In response, Blake just shrugged.

"I am just concerned that something might happen," Suki explained. "I wanted to know if you had any precautions set in place for this event?"

Did I have anything prepared in case an attack happened? No. There was nothing. Before I could make any sort of precautions, I needed to know what kind of person we were dealing with. I didn't want to make the same mistake my mentor did back in high school where everything was miscalculated.

There was no way I could tell that to the woman standing in front of me, not when her gray eyes carefully strayed away to look at the mess laying behind me. No amount of protests would make them believe that the mess wasn't there. Suki might have seen it as a sign of how unprepared I really was about everything.

As much as I hated to, I had no choice but to tell them the truth and nothing but the truth.

"Sort of. That's what I'm trying to figure out right now. If someone attacked my models, they might attack again, but until I can figure out who's behind this, I can't really do much," I explained.

"Like hell that's true!" Blake argued. "I could have my agency come over and guard the place—"

"No!" I screamed, causing both Suki and Blake to take a step back. Their eyes widened in surprise. My head dropped to my hand as my fingers pinched the bridge of my nose. "No, that won't be necessary, not when these things can be more complicated than that."

"Then why not ask Prismatic or Chrysalis?" Suki suggested. My eyes shot open at the mention of those names before they lifted to see the woman offering a soft smile. "They might know something that could help, or maybe their agency could. Not that it is in my place to volunteer them; however, it is their specialty to look into cases like this."

Prismatic or Chrysalis...if memory serves me right, those would be the two twins that Koto had brought with her. Again, like Blake, I didn't really know either of them well, but I did know Suki. If she was willing to put their names out there, then maybe it was time to get to know those two a bit better.

🥐 ☕️ 🥐 ☕️ 🥐

Nothing came up missing after I had cleaned and organized my office. It was horrifying knowing that someone went through my stuff. The man with the key, he would have at least told me if he was...borrowing...something from there, even if it was for a mere five minutes.

So, why would someone break into my office to mess it up?

I tried not to think about it as I glanced over a few cases, but none of them seemed logical. Being that I was getting nowhere meant only one thing: I needed to get help. There was no reason to get him involved, not when...not when I promised Mori that I'd stop. It wasn't like my other missions where I could somehow work around it where he couldn't see.

With him out of the question, I was left with only one option.

Drawing in a deep breath, I pushed through the doors of my office, seeing everyone standing in their outfits, talking to one another. If the outfits seemed to fit just right, then Ivana and Rose would help stitch up any last bit. In the corner, I could see Blake had finally made it into the suit he was assigned, listening in on what Suki had to say to a blond haired man and woman who stood alongside them. The deep blues and purple fabrics were enough to make me smile.

It wasn't just their outfits either. Everyone was dressed in cool colors that made me want to smile and jump around for joy, but I was no longer a teenager. There was no way I'd lose my cool and act out like that. Not in front of so many people that was.

That smile that had crept on my face faded when my eyes landed on the two twins I needed to talk to. This time, it wasn't the man who was giving me troubles; it was the woman. I could eye the light colored dress that draped over her arm. The lavender material would've paired so nicely with her hair that looked like the amethyst crystals that were trapped inside geodes. Why she wasn't wearing it was beyond me.

However, the moment her eyes caught me, she stopped whatever conversation she was having with her brother and started to march towards me. He quickly grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. It didn't matter as I needed to talk to them anyway.

Before I could even reach a few steps away from them, the woman quickly opened her mouth.

"Please tell me there's something else I can wear!" she whined, causing me to stop dead in my tracks. "This thing doesn't have sleeves!"

I blinked, glancing over at her brother, who just shook his head in his hand. Only, his response wasn't at all like the one Suki gave me when Blake complained about his outfit.

"Nami, she's not going to listen to you if you whine," the man complained before looking up at me. "Could you please let her wear something with longer sleeves, or if that doesn't work, maybe use the jacket I'm wearing for her to wear with it?"

Tanami didn't like her arms to be shown? I thought to myself. It didn't take long for me to know that was a red flag, especially if her brother was trying to hide it. I didn't really take note of it when they walked in, but glancing at the girl now, she was wearing a sweater that reached the middle of her hand. At first, I thought she was like Tami and just preferred to be in long sleeves, but now, seeing how defensive her brother got over this, I wasn't so sure.

No, I was positive something was going on. While I never had a sibling, I was almost positive it was impossible to be this close to one that they'd be glued together naturally.

There was only one way to make sure.

"Mind if you come with me to the ladies room?" I asked Tanami.

As I had suspected, the twins exchanged looks, almost as if she was waiting to see what her brother would say. I really hoped I wasn't right about all this, but I couldn't stand to let anything else happen to her if that was the case.

Not wanting to waste another second, I grabbed the woman's wrist and yanked her behind me. As we slid across the room, I noticed that her hair would catch some of the light and reflect it back into people's eyes. The good news about it was that people would look away, but the downside was that they knew I was pulling Tanami out for some reason.

It would be worth it just knowing that she was safe.

She never once pulled out of my grip, not even when I yanked her into the bathroom. There was one stall that was closed, so I assumed someone was still changing. As much as I didn't want anyone else knowing, I couldn't let whatever was going on with her continue much longer. That was why the moment the door shut behind us, I pulled up her sleeve to see these thin cracks etched into her skin like a porcelain doll that had broken and then repaired.

My eyes only caught a glimpse of it for a second as the woman yanked back. Her periwinkle eyes widened as she did.

"What are you doing?!" she squealed.

"Look, I can help," I assured. "You tell me who's doing this to you, and I'll shut him down for good! Even if—"

Tanami shook her head as she let out what sounded like a mix between a sigh and a laugh. "You thought—no! It's just what happens when I overuse my Quirk. Akihiko gets them too. It's why we both need to wear long sleeves," she explained.

Everything froze at that moment. Both of the Mochizuki twins dealt with this? Wouldn't her twin have complained about—

No. No, her twin came in wearing a fancy jacket and was now wearing a thick sweater underneath a cloak that just draped over his shoulders. It was no wonder why he complained. If he was short like Jinse and was given the velvet jacket that stopped at the elbows, he might've complained for his own sake too. He didn't have to worry about that. His sister, on the other hand, did.

I threw my head back when I started to realize how much of a fool I was being. Never have I ever brushed over the important details like that, and yet, there I was, ignoring all of the facts laying in front of me.

"Ugh, and here I thought your brother was...I should've never assumed," I apologized.

"It's fine! Honestly, if someone were to do that, Akihiko would go after them, so trust me, it's fine. You're just under a lot of stress right now," Tanami defended.

I dropped my head to look back at her. "Is it that obvious? Damn, I promise you, I'm never this unprofessional, it's just—"

"You heard that Rove is back," she finished, stopping me dead in my tracks.

Rove was back? No. No! That name alone was all it took for everything to stop. There was no way. There was no—

The file with Rove's information laid out amongst all the rest. I recalled. It was one of the few that didn't ever break the light of day. If anyone knew what was in that file—

But what if that was Rove's way of warning me that chaos was going to start once again? What if—

Someone grabbed my arm, pulling me out of my thoughts. My head snapped to see a curly redhead standing right there. Her blue eyes widened as they looked at me. I glanced over at the gemmed haired woman on the other side of me. With her eyes widened, I could see her diamond shaped irises much clearer than before, but they weren't something I really wanted to see, not with that expression etched onto her face.

"Breathe," Koto's voice filled the air, despite knowing that her lips didn't move. She was mute and never spoke one word, not even when we were in high school. It was luck that she had the Quirk that she did; otherwise, talking to her would've been impossible.

I nodded my head as I ripped my arm out of her grasp and tucked some strands of hairs behind my ears. As I did, I drew in a deep breath and let it out.

"You sure it's Rove?" I asked, trying to keep my voice level. It was strange. Give me any villain, give me any other type of stress there was, and I could deal with it, but Rove? There was no way I could fight that battle twice. There was no way. "Are you sure Rove is back?"

Tanami shook her head. "I thought you overheard the rumor going around that Rove is back. Since you fought that villain, I—"

"One time," I admitted. "But I'd rather not talk about it. I...lost something important that day."

I lost something so important that no matter how hard I tried, I knew I could never be the same person I was back in high school.

The hand that had snapped me out of my thoughts brushed my back, slowly moving in circles for comfort. I glanced over at the redhead who nodded her head.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it," she illused. "Whatever happened, that's between you and Rove."

"Koto's right. I'm sorry to bring it up. I figured that was what was happening," Tanami explained. "I thought you should know."

"Thought?" I asked. "So there's a chance it's not Rove? Can you have your agency fact check that?"

Tanami nodded her head. "Get me a dress with sleeves, and I'll be more than happy to nag Junpei about it."

Before I could say anything, Koto quickly suggested that the two switched dresses, being that she wore a long sleeved one anyways. The two quickly slipped into the stalls, hoping that the dresses would fit, but I didn't care. It was the last thing on my mind.

No, what worried me was if Rove was truly still out there, plotting the next steps of revenge. That thought alone made me retreat into one of the stalls, only it wasn't for the same reason Koto and Tanami were there. No. I just couldn't handle the twisted feeling clawing at my stomach.

First, my fashion show. Now this? This show was going to end up a disaster, I could already tell.

🥐 End of Part 3 🥐

🥐Character Spotlight: Suki🥐
Book: A Delicate Art
Likes: Croissant

🥐Character Spotlight: Tanami🥐
Book: A Vivid Decadence
Likes: Chocolate frappe

Both pictures drawn by the talented Juni_Penguin_