Life is Simple, Love is Not (Izuku x Miruko)

Chapter 36: Memories

"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." — Thomas Campbell

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As Izuku opened the door to Rumi's penthouse he could not keep a happy grin off his face.

"That carrot cake was so good!" Rumi sighed happily. "I swear, you are going to spoil me if you keep taking me to Romano's restaurant. Eating anything other than his or yours cooking is just not going to satisfy me."

Turning on the lights to the apartment, Izuku was about to suggest a more physical way of satisfying Rumi when his cell phone began to ring.

Answering the call, Izuku was surprised to hear Hawks' voice.

"Hey Midoriya." Hawks said in a friendly tone. "Sorry for calling your cell, but Miruko was not answering hers. You have a minute to talk?"

Izuku nodded as walked over to the couch. "Sure, do you want Miruko on the call as well?"

"If she is feeling well enough to do so." Hawks said considerately. "I heard how the doctors put her on mandatory sick leave so she could recover. You must have your hands full stopping her from getting into trouble."

Motioning for Rumi to join him on the couch, Izuku put his phone on speaker mode.

"Hawks wanted to talk to you about something." Izuku explained to his girlfriend as she took a seat next to him. "Alright Hawks, what do you have?"

"Okay, this happened while Miruko was in the hospital, but something about the whole thing just doesn't seem right." Hawks explained. "Did you guys hear about that big apartment building fire down on the other side of the city?"

Izuku felt a chill run down his spine as Rumi replied.

"Yeah I saw it on the news. Something about a gang dispute that got out of control." Rumi said. "Honestly I have no sympathy for those shitstains. They were doing us a favor fighting against each other."

Hawks sighed heavily before replying. "Miruko I was one of the first responders. You didn't see what I saw. It wasn't a fight at all, it was a massacre."

Feeling his heart rate begin to climb, Izuku mustered all his mental fortitude to not seem suspicious.

"The fire did a lot of damage to the bodies, but there was still enough left over to piece together what happened." Hawks said as he continued his story. "Everyone in that building was ripped to pieces, literally. If it had been a regular turf war there would have been more bullet wounds, but there were only a few bodies that had bullets in them. The thing that is really bugging me is that there was no trace of whoever...or whatever...killed all those people. Something about the whole situation stinks. The cops were no help either. They just chalked it up to gang violence and moved on. If there is something out there that could tear apart an entire building full of armed thugs the next victims could be innocent people."

Obviously intrigued, Rumi leaned a little closer to the phone in Izuku's hand.

"Okay that does sound weird." Rumi replied. "Do you have any leads at all?"

Again, the question was met with a heavy sigh.

"Not really." Hawks admitted. "One of the bodies was missing a head, and there was only one survivor. Other than that, I got squat."

Well that was definitely not good news.

Before Izuku could stop himself he reflexively blurted out his thoughts "You said there was a survivor?!"