MHA: A Cat's Way (Ch 81) (Patreon)

(Midorinya)

“Tokoyami, Dark Shadow can’t be permanently killed, right!?” The sudden panic in my voice seems to startle him, and he rapidly nods. “Good, have him stretch as far as he can to search for the exit. The rest of you, don’t stop running no matter what.” There’s a moment of stillness where nobody reacts. “NOW!”

My shout spurs them into motion, and Dark Shadow rushes down the path, shooting around the corner by the time we’ve taken our third step. The race is on, and now it’s only a question of whether we find the exit, or Catia finds us.

I really hope Catia doesn’t find us.

It doesn’t take long for Nezu to announce the first elimination, someone from class B. It’s an even shorter wait for us to hear that their two teammates are eliminated as well, the whole team being wiped out within a minute of the event starting.

“What the hell?” Shinso gasps without stopping. I’ve never been so happy that I made someone do physical exercise until they’ve dropped from exhaustion. It’s the only time I’ve done it, but in this case it was the right call. When I first got him training he dropped after two minutes, now he can go to ten, maybe more.

We’re going to need it.

“Midnight, what did you do!?” I glare at the person I’m positive is at least half responsible for our precarious situation. I’m sure that the other person responsible is Present Mic.

“It was a prank!” She yells, eyes constantly searching for danger. “It wasn’t even aimed at him! The school year hadn’t even started yet!”

“And you think that meant you were safe!? Nezu has made it very clear in our lessons that he knows how to hold a grudge!” A quarter of our lessons so far have been on how to legally get revenge on people! “What did you do!?”

“Catia was the first student in the dorms, and Mic suggested giving her catnip as a housewarming present! Nezu showed up to introduce himself and she ended up chasing him all over the school!”

I curse to myself, ignoring the huffed laughter of my classmate and friend. This is just the type of thing Nezu would do to get revenge! And now we’re the ones suffering for it!

“Dark Shadow back-tracked.” Tokoyami says in-between breaths. “It seems-”

“Yosetsu Awase, eliminated. Kosei Tsuburaba eliminated. Sen Kaibara, eliminated.”

Tokoyami swallows. “It seems she was engaged with another team.”

“Did she see Dark Shadow?” I ask sharply. If she did, we might have to use them as a distraction and run in another direction. But Tokoyami shakes his head.

“I cannot communicate with Dark Shadow unless they are with me. We lack a telepathic connection.”

I file the information away to analyze later. Sure, there’s even odds on us dying here, but I’m pretty sure that Nezu won’t allow that. But that does lead to the question of how those eliminated are being taken out of the maze. But if Catia finds us…

“Call Dark Shadow back,” I order. “They have another objective.”

`~`

(Mina)

“Togaru Kamakiri, Shihai Kuroiru, and Juzo Honenuki, eliminated.”

“Wow. Catia’s going wild, huh?” Seriously, it hasn’t even been ten minutes and she’s already eliminated three teams! Though that last one sounds like she got Ectoplasm’s clone instead of getting them out individually.

“Yeah, you don’t think she got catnip, did you? She and Mirodiya did tell us how she gets when she eats that stuff.”

I shrug. “Maybe? But I don’t think the principal would be reckless enough to put us in any real danger, so it’s probably fine.”

I can’t see Toru, but we’ve been friends long enough that I know she probably nodded. Meanwhile our third member is giving us a curious look. “Catnip affect her?”

Pony’s simple question earns her a confused look from me and probably Toru. “Yeah? Or at least that’s what she’s said.” I look up as we round a corner, tapping my chin in thought. “I don’t think any of us have actually seen her on catnip though, so she might have been exaggerating.”

A loud sound of screeching metal suddenly rings out, forcing us to cover our ears. But as suddenly as it appeared, it stops, replaced by the sound of an announcement. “Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, eliminated.”

We exchange looks before being surprised again, this time by the sound of screaming that’s quickly overshadowed by another announcement. “Randa Musetara, eliminated.” Once the announcement ends, we can hear the screaming better. And it sounds like it’s getting closer.

At an intersection ahead of us, we see one of the 1-B students running out of the right-side path while carrying an Ectoplasm clone. His terrified expression eases into one of relief upon seeing us, only for him to vanish as a blue blur drags him into the left-side path. His screams are abruptly cut short, the silence broken by an announcement.

“Hiryu Ren, eliminated.”

“““...”””

Perfectly in sync, we slowly back away, hiding around the corner we just left as we cautiously peak around it. There’s some disturbing chewing sounds coming from the path the blur went down before silence engulfs us once again.

“That was Catia, right?”

I nod. “Absolutely.”

“<We should definitely run, right?>” Pony asks in English.

We all nod as we quickly but quietly retreat back the way we came, quickening our pace as a chorus of screams ring out behind us.

`~`

(Momo)

“Yuga Aoyama, eliminated. Denki Kaminari, eliminated. Rikido Sato, eliminated. Mashiro Ojiro, eliminated. Kiniko Komori, withdrawn. Manga Fukidashi, eliminated.”

“Damn, looks like our class is finally getting hit. And two teams at the same time?” Jiro shakes her head. “Whatever the principal sent out must be strong.”

I nod, making sure the armor I made is covering the meat I was given. I offered it to the others as well, but only Jiro accepted it. Our math teacher’s clone simply said that the choice was mine, so I erred on the side of caution and made its armor as thick as I could without impacting its speed.

As for our third member…

“Come on, let's go find it! I can show off how amazing my babies are by taking it down!”

I’d originally thought that the strangely exuberant support student would be a powerful ally, given she placed above the halfway mark for the first event. She had seemed rather downcast when those who placed highest refused her companionship, but with my quirk and her skills in constructing devices, I felt it would be worthwhile to ask her to join us. I did place in the top ten myself, after all.

I did not expect the girl -whose name is Mei Hatsume- to completely reverse her personality like it had.

“That would be…unwise. How would you be able to show off your, erm, ‘babies’ to their full potential in such a confined space? Additionally, there is also the chance of us being in a blind spot for the cameras, meaning they might not be shown off at all.”

She gasps at the thought before frantically nodding. “You’re right! Better save them for the main event!”

I breathe a sigh of relief, hiding a smile at the subtle thumbs up Jiro sends me. It’s so nice to have friends, especially those who are genuine in their desires of friendship rather than it being because it’s expected of them.

“Hey…is that Bakugou?” I follow the direction Jiro is pointing and confirm that it is indeed our…noisy…classmate. Flying above the maze.

I blink. “Is that allowed?”

Mei waves her hand in dismissal as she starts adjusting some support equipment attached to her back. “No one’s saying anything so it obviously is! Which means that my jet pack baby can-”

The support student is cut off by the sound of a large explosion and looks up, but the only thing she sees is the huge cloud of smoke slowly dissipating in the wind. Jiro and I, though, clearly saw what happened. A figure encased in blue launched themselves at Bakugou from the ground, and he returned the action with a rather sizable attack.

We wait a moment for the smoke to clear, but it doesn’t take that long for us to discover the result. The blue form shoots out from the side of the cloud, smoke trailing behind them as they arc gracefully through the air. They’re out of sight before I know it, which is when the second figure exits the smoke. Though…perhaps that is not the most accurate way to describe it.

Bakugou falls from the cloud using explosions from his left hand to slow his fall, and as I squint I notice that his right arm is hanging limp. It also seems to reflect some light but I can’t identify why before he too vanishes.

Hatsume sighs, doing something to her equipment, grumbling about how she can’t show off her inventions. “I guess flying is out of the question. This sucks!”

“...Was that Catia?” Jiro asks for clarification, and I nod, confirming that I saw her too.

“I suppose it makes sense for the one who obtained first place to be in the most challenging position.” I frown. I had been expecting something like the robots from the first event, but I suppose everyone in the second event had already shown their competence against them. The human element adds to the unpredictability of this event.

Suddenly I hear a loud caw come from behind me. Startled, I whirl around, my bo staff raised to combat whatever made the sound. I see Dark Shadow, who gives me a thumbs up before speaking. “Stay here for a minute, my team needs to talk to you about something.”

They quickly retreat, not waiting for me to respond. I exchange looks with my team, silently asking them what they think. After all, I do not recall Nezu informing any of us about whether or not we are allowed to try and eliminate the competition. Come to think of it, he never clarified how we would pass other than escaping. Is that truly the only way to continue in the Sports Festival?

While we discuss the merits of waiting versus continuing to search, another announcement is made, immediately followed by a more surprising one.

“Randoku Persina, eliminated. Setsuna Tokage and Kojiro Bondo, escaped. Fourteen spots, remaining.”

It seems that we are on a timer. And it just got shorter.