After getting his food, Kyle quickly drove back to his restaurant and shut himself in his office.
Then he began pacing around the room, his finger stroking his chin.
'What is even going on right now?'
First, a new group that had never been mentioned appeared, and now, the supposed leader of the group was dead.
'Could it be the League of Villains?'
Kyle shook his head.
Although there was a chance the League had gotten involved, the chances of them killing Nighttale were low.
Nighttale was the hunter; he was the one going around murdering League members. It was hard to believe that he would be so easily killed in his own base.
He had to have had a way of monitoring the League, and he even had a team backing him…
"Hmmm…"
Kyle tapped his foot on the floor, his eyes narrowed as he stared blankly into space.
Whatever was going on was troubling; his plan had been going smoothly so far, and there was no place for anomalies in his roadmap.
"Cyno…"
The dark corner of the room rippled, sparks of purple electricity fizzling into space as the air seemed to fracture.
And then Cyno appeared, his eyes gleaming with quiet menace just before the energy died down.
He gave the room one glance and frowned. "Don't you think the business world has enough bloodsuckers already?"
Kyle gave him a deadpan look, then breathed out tiredly, choosing to completely ignore his terrible joke.
"I need you to do something for—"
"How was the joke?" Cyno stared at him like a child expecting praise from his father.
Kyle spoke through gritted teeth. "Someone was recently killed…"
Cyno's eyes narrowed. "Was it too straight to the point? Was the hook not good enough?"
"Security is going to be tight; we need to find a way to sneak into the building…"
Cyno stroked his chin. "Maybe I should have used leech instead—?"
"It was good, okay? It was good!" Kyle breathed out, then placed his hand on his face.
'To think he would actually make a good joke… something is terribly wrong with the world…'
A small smile appeared on Cyno's lips, and he proudly folded his arms across his chest.
"Want to hear another one?" (¬‿¬)
"No." (¬_¬)
•••
After his meeting with Cyno, Kyle sent him away to find the crime scene, and then he left his office to see how the shop was doing.
He was at the counter, idly chatting with Akiko about sales when three students walked into the room.
Kyle was used to having students visit his café, so he barely gave them a glance before continuing his work.
But a second later, he paused.
'Wait, what??'
Kyle immediately turned back to look at them. His face was perfectly composed, but his mind was racing.
Light purple hair and a bubbly personality, coupled with a face and body most men would die for.
Muscular, confident, and with a million-dollar smile that shone like pearls.
And then the weird one… Saauke, if he was ever a fem boy.
"Isn't that the big three?"
Mirio, who went by the hero name Lemillion; the very shy Tamaki, or Sun Eater; and Nejire Hado, whose hero name was…
Nejire Chan.
'She's very creative…'
'What are they doing here?'
Nejire had a smile on her face as she stared at the café, her eyes taking everything in, then she skipped up to the counter, her eyes widening as she stared at the snacks.
"Wowwww, come take a look at this, Tamaki! They have everything here!"
Tamaki glanced at the glass case, then nervously looked away, as though the doughnuts would jump at him.
Mirio, on the other hand, mirrored her excitement. "This place is actually pretty nice; it's probably the best place among the cafés we've visited!"
"Umm… excuse me?"
Nejire raised her head to meet Kyle's gaze, then smiled. "Oh, hii! I'm Nejiri Chan; this is Miro."
Mirio flashed a friendly smile.
"And the gloomy guy back there is Tamaki. Don't worry, he's actually very nice."
Tamaki pulled his hood over his head, partially obscuring his face with it.
'I know who you are…' Kyle thought. 'What are you doing here?'
U.A. rarely allowed students out of the school, so seeing the big three roaming the city was more than enough to make him curious.
Were they using them to secretly investigate the midnight vigilante? It wouldn't be strange, since they had been used in the past to assist heroes.
Although they were not very experienced, the big three were already more powerful than many pro heroes, and so sometimes the school would rely on them for lesser tasks.
Kyle bowed slightly in greeting. "I'm Kyle; I run this place…"
Nejire's brows shot up, her eyes widening as a surprised smile graced her face. "Wait, really? But you're about our age!"
Mirio walked up to the counter, holding a notepad like a food critic who had spent too many years in the gym. "You must really work hard to be in charge of a place like this."
Kyle shrugged. 'Yes, the ability to extort money from your rich sister is indeed a talent…'
He waved his hand dismissively. "I just do my best."
Mirio raised his notepad and began scribbling something down. Kyle stole a glance at him but acted as though he had not seen anything.
"Are you always in your café? Or do you go out often?" Miro asked, smiling as though he had not just asked a weird question.
'Are they actually investigating?'
Not answering them would make him seem suspicious, so Kyle rubbed his chin as though he were actually thinking about it.
"I'm a very busy person, but I come to the café every day to supervise things."
Mirio nodded and scribbled on the notepad again.
"Is your café open at night? Or do you only work during the day?"
Kyle smiled and pointed at the sign on their desk.
~ Open 8AM — 7:30PM
"We can't stay out too long, you know? It's not very safe at night."
"I see, that makes sense…"
Kyle stepped a little closer to the counter and rested on it, staring right at Miro. "Is there a problem? You seem to have a lot of questions."
Nejire slowly shook her head, her eyes locked on the display case.
"We actually came here to discuss something serious…"
Then her expression shifted, becoming colder as she stared up at him.
"But it looks like we have a problem."
Kyle raised a brow. His eyes were on her, but he was watching Mirio from the corner of his vision.
The chances that the big three were onto him were incredibly low, but Nejire's sudden shift in demeanor was concerning.
The wind around him was already condensing just in case, but he put up his most friendly smile as he addressed her.
"And what might the problem be?"
Nejire pouted. "You only have one cream puff left; I always eat two!"
"Heh?"
On the other side of the café, Sakura walked up to Tamaki and smiled at him. She had noticed him standing throughout, so she came to offer him a seat.
"Good evening. We have some free seats. Would you like to sit down?"
Tamaki shivered visibly, then turned away. He walked to the other side of the room just before placing his head against the wall.
Sakura blinked. "Hmm?"