MHA: A Cat’s Way

(LOV Bar)

A young man with light blue hair glares between the fingers of the dismembered hand hiding his face. The teenage girl standing in front of him simply maintains her smile. Irritated, the young man scratches the side of his neck.

“Why the hell should I bring you people along? You said that you won’t listen to me, so there’s not really a reason for me to take you. Actually, that means I should just kill you now. Make sure the rest of the mobs know to fall in line.”

She chuckles, an odd chuckle to those who don’t know her. “Nyahaha. Mew could certainly try. But mew wouldn’t want to get injured before your big debut, now would mew?”

He starts scratching harder as his glare intensifies. She waves her hands in front of her. “Now, now. There’s no need to be so angry. We’ll still work with mew to achieve your goal. We’ll just be doing it our way.”

There’s a growl in his voice as he replies. “Oh? And how exactly would that work?” He jabs his thumb over his shoulder towards a bipedal bird monster with its brain exposed. “Do you have something that can kill All Might?”

Her smile doesn’t waver. “As long as he cares about his students, or at least tries not to hurt them, then I’d say we have a pretty good chance.”

“Oh?” He smirks at her confidence. Sensei did tell me that an interesting NPC would be visiting, but I didn’t think he meant it. Usually the ‘interesting’ people his Sensei talks about are merely ‘important’ to his goals. But they’re hardly ever interesting. But this one…

“Enlighten me.” It’s not a request, but the girl’s infuriating smile stays. She motions forward one of the people who came with her, a boy with a pointy head and lacking any hair or lips.

“This boy’s quirk allows him to command animals. Though their instincts sometimes subvert control, they’ll still work to follow his orders.”

The man snorts. “And? We’re attacking a school, not a zoo.”

She simply says one thing. “Animal mutation quirks.”

It takes a moment, but a look of understanding lights up his face, and a dark smile spreads his cracked lips. “So if any of the students have animal-based mutations, he can control them?”

She nods. “There are three, from what we know. A frog girl. A bird boy. And the one we’re after. A cat girl.”

“Hmm.” He sips from his tea in thought before placing back down with a click. “And why are you interested in this girl?”

Her smile widens. “We simply follow the will of the Goddess.”

There’s silence for a moment as the boy next to her fidgets with his fingers.

“Ok, you can join the party.” He holds out his hand, one finger pulled away. She grabs it and shakes it once, but tightens her grip instead of letting go as her eyes flash.

“Glad to be working with mew. But make sure mew get all of us out when the time comes, or else you’ll be dealing with our Goddess’ wrath.”

(Back to Catia)

Apparently today we’re doing rescue training. Honestly, Rescue Heroes are some of my favorite kinds. They tend to be less well known than typical pros- unless they have some kind of flashy gimmick or quirk-, but I admire how they dedicate themselves to saving people specifically, rather than fighting villains. Though it’s true that they do get paid more in recompense. So it’s still kind of debatable on whether or not they’d be ‘true heroes’ as a guy I know would say.

“Ok, every-nyan. Just hop aboard, and no clawing for better seats.” I can see Iida twitch at the lack of proper direction, but too bad for him~. I don’t care what they do as long as they don’t cause problems.

But while everyone is piling on the bus in our hero costumes, I feel my phone vibrate. Pulling it out, I see that I have an alert for a video, making my ears perk up. “Saving mew to watch later.”

While I download it, I feel a poke in my side. Looking over, I see Mina inches from my face. I pull back in surprise and see the smirk that crosses her lips. “What you happy about, Catia? Text from a special someone~?”

Blinking, I tilt my head. “Nya? I’m not seeing anyone.”

Her smirk widens. “Oh~? Is that so~...”

I take a seat, and on my other side Toru sits down. “If that’s the case, then what were you smiling about?”

I make sure to focus on her face, but I can’t resist a quick glance down as I reply. We really need to get her an actual costume. “Mew video from a small-time vigilante. They’ll do something ‘criminal’,” I use my fingers to show them how I think of his ‘crimes’,” to draw attention to an issue.”

At their confused looks I explain. “He snyatched all the powder make-up at a beauty boutique once, and it revealed that they’d been making them with harmful ingredients.” I shrug. “Basically stuff like that, nya.”

“Why not just tell someone about it? Doing crimes to get people to notice the problem isn’t very manly.”

Another shrug, this time directed at Kirishima. “Don’t nyow. I just appreciate that he doesn’t claws any collateral. Civilian or environmental.”

“”Huh?”” At the sound of mass confusion, I realize that everyone is listening to my conversation, but I don’t really care about that. I continue speaking, getting excited.

“The only time he fights is when heroes show up and he can’t flee. He doesn’t show how he fights in his videos, but he does show the aftermath, nya. There’s minimal damage to his surroundings, and never any injuries to those uninvolved!”

Suddenly I feel an intense look directed at me, and following the direction I see Midoriya looking at me with shining eyes. I’m confused, at least until he says one word. Then I’m blushing. “Fangirl!”

“Q-quiet! I just feel that more heroes could think of what’s around them when they fight, nya! They aren’t careful!”

“Hmm.” Tsu puts a finger to her cheek. “You know, Catia, it doesn’t seem like you think well of most heroes, Kero.”

I freeze before sighing. Shit. “Well… don’t you think that there’s a lot of collarteral damage when most heroes fight? Just look at Mt Lady’s debut, nya! I just think that, purrhaps heroes should keep a better eye on their environment more often.”

A few of them make sounds of agreement, while others aren’t convinced. “I disagree.” Iida adjusts his glasses while chopping his arm. “I am aware of the event in question, and reports stated that she was apprehending a villain with a quirk that increased his size and power. In cases where two growth quirks are pitted against each other collateral damage is practically unavoidable.”

“Um, actually,” Midorinya raises his hand. “I was there, and Kamui Woods was actually about to apprehend the villain with his special move. But then Mt Lady came out of nowhere and kicked the villain through a wall. It took a few days for them to rebuild that section of the train rails.”

Sensing the mood plummeting, Kirishima interrupts. “Speaking of quirks, Catia’s is pretty impressive, right?”

Everyone looks at me, causing me to nod in satisfaction. “Of course it is, nya! A quirk fit for a queen!”

“Aren’t all female cats referred to as queens? So aren’t you saying your quirk is fit for regular cats too?”

I give Tsu a confused look. “Yeah, nya? A queen’s a queen.”

She nods. “Just clarifying, kero.” She sits back with a pleased expression.

Ignoring the byplay, Kirishima continues. “You, Bakugou, and Todoroki all have really flashy quirks. Honestly it makes me jealous since mine doesn’t make me stand out at all.” He holds up his arm and hardens it to demonstrate.

Of course, Midorinya being Midorinya, he ends up using the rest of the ride explaining to Kirishima about how amazing his quirk is, and how he’d be able to outlast most heroes in a fight. I don’t pay much attention to it though, instead relaxing as Mina and Toru scratch lightly behind my ears. I’m only pulled away from the sensation when Mr. Aizawa tells us that we’ve arrived.

Exiting, we see one of the other teachers who are teaching us today, a rescue hero called Thirteen. Since they’re alway wearing their astronaut suit, rumors say that they don’t really have a body. That they’re just a sentient black hole in a suit. But they like to be referred to as female, so it doesn’t really matter.

She greets us all as she leads us inside. “Hello everyone, and welcome to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint! Or as I like to call it, the USJ!”

“Just like Universal Studios Japan, nya.”

“For legal reasons, we weren’t allowed to add anything from that USJ to this USJ. But one of the zones does have a waterslide!” I tilt my head in confusion before realizing that I said that out loud, causing me to blush again.

What is with me today? I’m usually more alert than this.

Trying to disregard the weird feeling, I’m distracted by the sight inside of the USJ. A shipwreck, a landslide, a fire, and a windstorm. Those are just a few of the disasters we can see imitated in different sections of the building.While I can’t help but wonder yet again where UA gets all this money from, I notice Thirteen showing Mr. Aizawa three fingers.

I wonder what that’s about… come to think of it, isn’t Ass Might supposed to be here today as well? But before I can follow that train of thought, my focus gets taken up by Thirteen’s speech.

I listen along with everyone else as Thirteen explains her quirk and its capabilities for good. As well as evil. But everything she’s saying is kind of obvious? I mean, obviously any quirk could be used for good or evil. It’s the person that makes the choice, not the quirk.

But before they can tell us what we’re exactly doing, the lights start to flicker, and the water in the fountain at the center plaza starts coming out in spurts. Finally, a large swirling darkness expands in front of it.

Thank you Hedgeboar and Andre McFarlane for the support!