A/N: Images used are just found from google searches (unless otherwise stated as fan art given to me).. I don't art well

Enji: Age 35

Shiori: Age 21

~Enji's POV~

"A bunch of us were going to go out for drinks...did you want to join us, Sir?" One of my sidekicks asked. They asked every time, to be polite. For years I'd been saying no.

Now, at my lowest point, a drink didn't sound so bad. Toya was gone, Rei had a mental break and tarnished my masterpiece, the other children were frightened of me and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to surpass All Might. The world felt like it was crashing down around me and I could only respond with rage. I wasn't sure if I had responded or if I'd just followed them in an awkward silence. I was lost in my own self-inflicted torment and before I knew it, I was standing outside of a bar with a few of my sidekicks.

They looked a little uncomfortable. Seeing as I didn't remember the walk here, I had a feeling I'd been in a sorry state this entire time. I glanced down at a chalkboard sign sitting on the sidewalk in front of the tinted glass doors. It had a list of drink specials toward the bottom, but the top half of the board had big bold letters with little stars and embellishments around it and read live music.

"Great." I grumbled sarcastically as I scowled down at the sign.

"We can go somewhere else if you want, Sir." One of my sidekicks offered.

I was tempted to go home, though there was nothing there for me either, my children avoided me, Rei was in the hospital, Shoto was still recovering and unable to train and I always felt like the staff was judging me. It was selfish of me to stay and ruin my sidekicks' night of revelry. As I was about to tell them I was taking my leave, the tinted glass doors opened and music drifted onto the sidewalk. A sense of peace and calm, I'd never known, washed over me.

"It's fine." I replied as I caught the door that had whooshed open startling the young couple exiting the establishment.

"It's Endeavor." They gasped and shied away whispering hurriedly to one another. It was a typical reaction from civilians.

My sidekicks hesitated momentarily before ducking inside through the door I was holding open. The doors opened into a small hall littered with various posters for local businesses and bands. The walls beneath the various posters flyers and business cards appeared to be some kind of mural but it was impossible to make out with all the posters littering nearly every inch of it. The music was a little louder now and I was able to make out the words. It was strange how much the haunting voice drifting through the hall calmed me.

The hall opened up into a dimly lit lounge. There were various benches and sofas around small tables, high top tables near a large red bar with a plethora of bottles on shelves on the wall of mirrors behind the bar and booths lining the opposite wall. Each table had an electric tealight in a small red glass holder creating a faint glow. It was obvious from the size of the tables near all the seating that this was not an establishment that served actual meals. It was fairly crowded for five in the afternoon, all the high-top tables and the majority of the seats at the bar were taken.

There was a folding table just inside the door where we exited the hall. It had another small chalkboard sign with information about the performers. I took a quick glance at the board with the lineup of performers, it seemed the performer on now, who went by Shiori, would be playing for another hour. My sidekicks hesitated near the table and glanced down at the lineup.

"Are you sure this is okay, Sir?"

I nodded and we continued into the dimly lit room. The haunting voice came to a stop as the song ended and the patrons applauded. The calm I'd felt started to slowly ebb away. Curiously, I glanced in the direction of the stage, it was a small stage backed by bulky red velvet curtains with thick black ropes holding them open revealing a brick wall that had been painted black. A single spotlight shone down on the performer. There was a girl, who looked to be about twenty-one, sitting on a small black bench in front of an electric keyboard with a guitar case sitting open next to her. Her attire was slightly edgy, she was wearing a pair of tight black denim pants, some worn black boots with a few buckles on the sides, a tight-fitting teal tank top with a grey denim jacket over top. She had dark ashen brown hair that barely fell to her shoulders. Her warm caramel eyes nervously flicked across the applauding crowd. Her rose colored lips pulled into a meek smile, seeming in awe of the crowd's response before she started to play again.

My gaze lingered on the stage as her delicate fingers danced across the keyboard pouring out a haunting melody. I couldn't tear my gaze away from the stage as I followed my sidekicks to a booth against the wall opposite the bar. As soon as the girl began to sing, I felt the calm wash over me again. The rage, self-loathing, and torment I'd been struggling with began to dwindle as her soft, beautiful, woeful voice filled the dimly lit room.

I glanced around to see if other patrons were as enraptured or affected by her voice, but I noticed people carrying on conversations and laughing, very few people seemed to be absorbed in her music. It didn't look like anyone else was feeling this sudden strange sense of peace and calm. I took a seat at the booth with my sidekicks. After a small awkward moment of silence, they started to warm up a little and began talking about the various crimes we'd stopped this week. They didn't seem to mind when I didn't join in their conversation, I didn't normally.

A server arrived after a few minutes with a bowl of peanuts and placed a single menu on the table that had various appetizers and specialty mixed drinks. As the server's gaze fell on me, she suddenly turned anxious and took a small step back ready to flee our table. We put in a drink order and the server scrambled away quickly.

"Everything okay, Sir?" The conversation came to a lull as my sidekicks must have realized my focus was drawn to the stage as I frustratingly tried to figure out why the girl's music seemed to have such an effect on me.

I tore my gaze away from the stage and looked to my wary sidekicks. I'd made their night of fun very tense and uncomfortable with my presence. I shouldn't have accepted the invitation but as the calming music enveloped me, I was grateful I had. "Yes, you all did great today with that subway collapse." The mention of the subway collapse got them back into their conversation as they congratulated one another on various highlights of the day.

As they all got caught up in their reminiscing, I was able to fade out of the conversation again and turn my attention back to the stage. The song came to an end. There was scattered applause. I caught myself about to join in and paused as I realized none of my sidekicks were applauding, they were too lost in their conversation. I put my hands back down. A few of them noticed the awkward blunder but made no mention of it.

The drinks arrived, more drinks and a few appetizers were ordered. I tried to force myself to be present and acknowledge their conversation from time to time. The girl switched to an acoustic guitar halfway through her set and took song requests to cover from the crowd.

"Sorry, Sir, this place doesn't usually do a lot of live music." One of my sidekicks tried to apologize as I fell quiet again, letting the girl's haunting voice calm me once more.

"It's alright, it's not so bad." I admitted quietly.

They seemed surprised by this but didn't say more.

After the girl's set was up. She thanked the audience politely took a bow and disappeared back stage with her guitar. A few staff members took the keyboard off stage before a new performer took the stage, a young man with wild hair. He started to play and it immediately grated on my nerves. I felt all the warring emotions that had been kept at bay while the girl had been performing come flying back.

Now that I was irritated again, I decided to call it a night. I put some money on the table to cover the drinks thus far and gave my sidekicks a polite nod, "I'm going to call it a night, thanks for the invitation." I grumbled somewhat awkwardly and took my leave from the table.

As I made my way toward the exit, I paused at the table with the chalkboard line up of the performers. Some of them had business cards or flyers for upcoming shows scattered on the table below. I looked to Shiori's listing on the board, she didn't have any social media accounts or anything to follow. She didn't have any flyers or cards or any way to find more about her music. Perhaps she'd just started her music career.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw her exit a door not too far from me between the bar and the restrooms. She had her guitar case slung over her shoulder and a small simple black purse in hand. The bartender walked over to her with a warm smile and offered her a friendly handshake. I could barely make out their conversation.

"That was a great set, I'd love to have you back sometime." The bartender yelled a little to be heard over the current performer's loud obnoxious voice.

Her reply was too soft for me to hear. I found myself moving a little closer to the restrooms to hear them better deciding if they looked in my direction I'd just casually walk into the men's room. I wasn't sure why I felt the need to listen to their conversation. A part of me just wanted to feel that sense of peace and calm again and was hoping to find out more about her schedule.

"I got some tips for you from the crowd." He stopped her as it seemed like she was about to take her leave. She waited as he went back behind the bar. A moment later he returned with an envelope and handed it to her.

She accepted it with a polite smile, "thanks."

"You got any other gigs set up this week? I'd love to hear more." He asked her, stopping her again as she was about to turn and leave.

"Yeah, let me double check," she pulled out her phone and flipped through her calendar. "Tomorrow night I'll be at The Sunset Lounge, it's a few blocks away." She replied, her voice was soft. She bowed her head politely and turned to walk away.

The bartender called to her again as she turned around. "Ah, hey want to stay for a few drinks? They're on the house."

"No thank you, I don't drink." She adjusted the strap of her guitar case, "have a good night." She waved politely and took her leave. Her caramel gaze swept over me and I felt a strange tightening in my chest before hurriedly ducking into the men's restroom, startling the inebriated man at the urinal enough that he ended up missing and pissing on himself.

I rolled my eyes, waited an appropriate amount of time and took my leave. As I exited the bar, I spotted her getting into the back of a cab. The thought of going back home, where I knew I wasn't wanted, was not appealing, it was the last thing I wanted to do at this moment. For some asinine reason, I decided to follow the girl.

My driver followed the cab without question. It came to a stop outside a children's hospital. She paid the cab driver and gathered up her guitar. I saw a sign out front of the door, it looked like the hospital was having a hero day. I vaguely remembered my assistant asking me if I wanted to donate some time and attend an event at a local hospital but I'd snapped at her for wasting my time with such trivial matters.

Curiosity got the better of me, I told my driver to wait and decided to go inside. My driver said nothing and went to wait for me in the nearby parking garage. I had no idea why I felt the need to follow the girl or why her music had such an effect on me.

I stepped through the doors and spotted her standing at the front desk. She handed the envelope with her tips from the bar to the receptionist. "You never saw me."

The receptionist accepted the money with a somber smile, "all the kids are in the cafeteria for hero day, enjoy your visit, Shiori."

"Thank you." She nervously adjusted the strap of her guitar case and turned to head in the direction of the cafeteria.

Their exchange seemed very odd to me, I had cause to intervene to due to the shady hand off but decided I wanted to learn more instead. I approached the desk. The receptionist stared wide eyed before recovering with a friendly smile.

"Endeavor! What a surprise, I didn't think you were going to make it." At the mention of my name, Shiori turned and cast a curious glance in my direction. "I'll show you the way to the cafeteria." The receptionist nervously got to her feet.

"It's alright, I can manage on my own." I offered her a polite nod of my head.

"Oh...alright..." She sat back down, relieved.

I followed after Shiori, who'd hesitated a moment. Perhaps she was nervous I'd heard their very shady exchange before. She offered me a polite smile but said nothing. We walked in silence to the cafeteria. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into or why I was still keeping up with the charade. Children didn't like me anyway; this was a terrible idea.

As we got to the cafeteria doors, Shiori reached first to open them. I reached over her and pulled it open for her, startling her in the process. She jumped slightly, surprised by my actions before bowing her head politely and uttering a soft, "thanks."

As she stepped into the cafeteria, I heard the voice of a young boy cry out in joy, "Mommy!" I watched as a sickly-looking bald boy who looked to be about Shoto's age ran forward.

Shiori caught the boy in her arms and hugged him close, "hey Munchkin." The boy had an unhealthy pallor to his skin, there were dark circles beneath his warm caramel eyes but a bright smile lit up his face.

"Can we play music?" The boy asked her excitedly as he stuck an All Might sticker to her guitar case causing her to crack a smile.

"Don't you want to finish hero day?" She pondered.

The child looked around the room before grimacing, "it's boring."

I couldn't help but smirk at this. It did look horribly boring and I now had to sit through it for at least an hour since I'd showed up.

Shiori laughed, "alright, let's go play music instead." She carried the boy out of the cafeteria. The staff members who took notice didn't seem alarmed. A few offered her friendly smiles or polite nods of greeting.

I was intercepted by an overly cheerful activities coordinator who immediately sat me at a table with a bunch of snot nosed children and gave me a book to read to them. My mind wandered to the curious musician. She was a mystery I wanted to crack.