MHA: A Cat's Way (Ch 90) (Patreon)

Nezu claps his paws together in the early hours of the morning, the sun not even cresting the horizon yet. He gives the assembled and half-asleep staff of UA a cheery grin, his beady eyes glinting from some sort of knowledge that only he knows. “Good morning, everyone. I have great news! Not only does Catia Akihiro have anger issues, but she is also the murderous vigilante known as Cat-aclysm!”

Half a dozen arms slip, and half a dozen heads slam into the table. Aizawa chokes on his coffee, hitting his chest after it goes down the wrong tube. Meanwhile, the probationary teachers: formerly the villains known as Gentle Criminal and La Brava, exchange bemused glances.

“Anger issues? That’s rather surprising, isn’t it dear?”

La Brava nods. “Yeah, you’d never think it if you only saw her outside of fights!”

Glares get scent their way, not least of all from the girl’s homeroom teacher. “You two knew about this?” He holds up a hand after setting down his coffee, letting out a breath of frustration as he pinches the bridge of his nose. “No, first things first.”

He turns his glare towards the principal, a cheerful expression still on his face. “Normally I’d ask if you’re sure, but these two idiots-”

“How rude!”

“I can send your search history to all the other teachers.”

“-basically just confirmed it.” He raises an eyebrow at La Brava, responding to her threat before turning back to the important business. “Go ahead, I have nothing to hide. I’m not Nemuri.”

“Shame is for the weak, embrace the kink.” The R18 hero raises her nose in the air, her justification clear in her hero designation. The familiar byplay works to calm the room, letting the heroes process the news.

Aizawa continues. “How do you know that, and why weren’t we notified immediately?”

“Simple.” Nezu states, folding his paws on the table. “I know because when I brought Ms. La Brava into the school, I had her design a program to identify our students’ faces, and then scan for their location across the public surveillance system. Simply for circumstances where they go missing and must be found, of course.”

A collective of hands hit faces, the relative newcomers sending the rest bemused looks. “Of course. They haven’t spent enough time here to know not to give you overly useful things without putting safeguards in place.” Aizawa groans.

Nezu nods happily. “Quite. But back to the point: after Miss Catia left the Festival after her ‘outburst’-”

“Breaking another kid’s legs, you mean.”Shuzenji interjects, frowning as she tries to think of any signs she might have noticed related to Catia’s illegal activities. Goodness knows the hero students are in her office often enough that she would have noticed any scars, given how long Cat-aclysm has been active.

“Indeed. After losing her temper and injuring Hitoshi Shinso, I activated the program so that I could track her. Just in case, of course.”

“Of course,” Yamada drawls. “Because who wouldn’t want to stalk an angry girl across a country?”

Nezu ignores the man as he continues. “She met with the teenager who had infiltrated the Shie Hassaikai and killed Overhaul, Himiko Toga. Then the two made their way to the closest harbor.”

“But we aren’t anywhere close to an ocean?” Khan half says, half asks.

Majima looks at him like he’s an idiot. “Well Khan, there are these things called vehicles that make traveling much faster and convenient than walking…”

The blood hero flips the support hero off, both men instinctively shivering when Nezu idly thinks about activating the ejector seats. “After arriving at their destination, the two girls eliminated a duo of criminal organizations that were making a deal. Though the footage of the harbor itself was sabotaged, so there is no factual evidence of either girl’s presence. Just footage outside of it that they were in the area around the same time.”

“Shouldn't that be enough for us to at least bring Catia in?” Aizawa asks, a bad feeling building in his gut.

“It is,” Nezu agrees easily before holding up a finger, eliciting groans from most of the room. “However, what we have here is an opportunity. One that is rather rare, but has recently come to the public’s attention.”

“Can we skip to the part where you just tell us what your plan is instead of having us guess?” Kayama asks, feeling odd that the adorable student has a higher body count than her. Though in different departments, obviously.

Nezu thinks about it for a moment, his paw raised ominously over the ejector button for her seat. “Very well. All of you must prepare yourselves to act as normal, after all. If she discovers that we are aware of her activities, then she will likely bolt, and the rehabilitation program will be shown as a failure!”

“Hold on there, we aren’t arresting her, and are even letting her stay in the school?” Snipe asks in surprise.

“Of course not.” Nezu waves the very idea off as ridiculous. “I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect example to give the HPSC that not all villains choose to become villains, or wish to remain as villains. So long as they are not made aware of her alter-ego before she becomes officially licensed, then any objections they have to the program will be untenable in the eyes of the public!”

He’s practically bouncing in his seat at the thought. He’s been pushing for the program for years, but keeping ‘villains’ as villains is one of the pillars that they use to maintain their power and positions. Take that away and the corrupt organization becomes one step closer to falling.

He suddenly sighs, causing the staff to tense. “It is rather disappointing that I have been unable to pinpoint the exact reason as to why she chose such a path, but I suppose the broad strokes will suit our needs.”

“You know why she became a vigilante?” Aizawa asks, the surprise on his face mirrored by his friends.

“Only in a broad sense, and it is only a suspicion.” Nezu corrects before elaborating. “Regretfully, the HPSC has hidden much of her information from when she came to Japan. Suspiciously, it is secured by their most powerful firewalls, and my informants have been unable to locate any physical copies.”

“I’m pretty sure we heard something concerning just now-” Midnight points out, being steamrolled into silence as Nezu ignores her.

“Thankfully she is a rather vocal person, and the heroes she has hunted during her time as a vigilante revealed a pattern. One that I managed to follow back to her very first encounter with All Might, as a child.”

“Hold on, now All Might’s connected!?” Yamada shouts, Aizawa instinctually erasing his quirk to save everyone’s eardrums. “Please don’t tell me you’re getting us involved in some kind of government conspiracy!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Yamada relaxes only to tense again as Nezu finishes his sentence, “you’re already involved. You are her English teacher. It is far too late to be uninvolved, and we can only hope that we come out on top.”

“So…” Aizawa trails off leadingly, the others admiring once again for his blithe attitude towards Rat Satan.

“When on a visit to Japan with her birth mother, there was a villain attack.” Nezu begins the story, and the teachers can already tell where it’s going to go. “All Might apprehended them, but her mother died.”

“““...”””

“...Is that all?” Kayama asks. It wasn’t much, so they aren’t really clear on how things escalated.

“Why wasn’t she sent back to her home country?” Aizawa frowns, and the others elect to stay silent and let him deal with the rest. “It makes no sense for her to have stayed in someplace entirely new, and I’m sure the American government had more than a few things to say about it.”

“Oh, they did.” Nezu nods. “But money makes peace all across the world. There is more to the incident, but as I said: the HPSC is hiding it. It would be up to Catia to inform us to learn the full truth, I have no doubt. But given she has elected to take a more violent response, we can only monitor her and try to keep her on the right path.”

Aizawa frowns, trying to think back on what he knows of the heroes Cat-aclysm has killed. “She didn’t target all heroes… or kill all the ones who’ve fought her. And given she’s at a hero school, she doesn’t blame all heroes for her mother’s death…” He raises an eyebrow at the principal. “She hates incompetence? Wants to use outside and inside influence to change how heroes work?”

“Perhaps.” Nezu acknowledges, though he has no doubt that there is more. There always is, when the HPSC is involved. They must simply keep their minds open, and their reflexes sharp in an effort to corral any damages Catia might cause. Because despite her presence at UA signaling her desire to leave her vigilante lifestyle behind, she clearly wants more.

And there is another thing that seems to have slipped past his staffs’ notice.

“But given she has the resources of the Cult of Nya at her disposal, as their unofficial leader, whatever her final goal is: Japan will know.”