MHA: A Cat's Way (Ch 94) (Patreon)

Nighteye sips tea across from Nezu, showing no hints of his impatience. Leaning against the wall to his left is Eraserhead, his mouth covered by his scarf. The outsider to the school puts his cup down with a sigh, the delicate dishes making a slight click as they meet. He looks up and meets the principal’s eyes as he folds one leg above his other knee and holds it with both hands.

“Let us not play around the main topic: how is the girl’s training coming along?”

Nezu’s face doesn’t change, his inhumane features giving nothing away. “You would have to narrow down your question, I fear. UA does in fact train a number of female students who wish to obtain a hero license.”

Nighteye huffs in annoyance, holding back a roll of his eyes. “You should not play coy, Nezu. It doesn’t fit your intelligence.”

Eraserhead tenses, a glare being sent Nighteye’s way before Nezu waves both men off. “I find that whatever emotions I choose to feel, or how I decide to act, fits my intelligence quite well, thank you.” He puts his tea down more gently than Nighteye did, not making a sound from the action before he folds his paws over each other. “I am me, after all. So all my actions fit with my intelligence, as they are also a part of me.”

Nighteye’s eyes narrow before he sighs. He truly dislikes dealing with the chimera, he can never just accept the fact that the bottom line is sometimes more important than the connecting line. “The girl rescued from the raid on the Shie Hassaikai compound. Has her training shown results?”

Nezu glances at Eraserhead, who lets out a small groan of annoyance. “We are progressing towards the point where she has control over whether or not it activates.”

Nighteye raises an eyebrow as he looks at the Underground hero. “While that is a good thing, can she at least control how much time she rewinds on a person?”

The teacher glowers at the man, his voice taking on a hard edge. “As I said, we’ve been helping her to gain control on activating her very dangerous quirk. And no, we have not had her attempt to control the amount of time she rewinds on a person. You know, given the fact that if she messes up she could erase them from existence!”

The two glare at each other for a few minutes before Nighteye abruptly gets to his feet, adjusting his suit. “Well, that is rather disappointing. I was hoping that she would be far enough to complete the task required of her.”

“And what task would that be, Sir Nighteye?” Nezu asks with a blank look and his voice monotone.

“Restoring All Might to his prime, of course!” Nighteye rolls his eyes like it should be obvious before stepping towards the door. “I do hope that she makes better progress while your students attend their internships. It would be a shame if the HPSC came to the conclusion that UA couldn’t provide a proper teacher. It would mean that they would need to have their own trainers ensure she has enough of a basic competency to not be a danger to others.”

He opens the door and steps out, throwing one last set of words over his shoulder as the door closes with a click. “I hope to hear better news the next time I visit.”

Nezu takes another sip of tea as the two remain silent, waiting for the pro to start making his way out of the building. After checking the sensors to ensure he’s at least out of the hallway, Nezu activates a device that checks for bugs. He sighs when it pings one on the desk and one on the door, Aizawa swiftly destroying them and throwing them down the incinerator chute.

Why does the principal of a high school have an incinerator chute in his office? Many reasons. At this moment it is because it ensures that what he wants destroyed gets destroyed.

“The HPSC won’t be making any movements to obtain custody of Eri,” Nezu is quick to reassure his subordinate, noting the tension that doesn’t leave his shoulders. He whirls on his boss.

“But Nighteye is going to do his damnedest to try.” Aizawa growls out, all the respect the Twilight hero earned during the raid having been well and truly destroyed. “He doesn’t care about her, all he cares about is All Might!”

“I would not go that far,” Nezu gently says, though he doesn’t think Aizawa cares about how he says it at the moment. “I doubt that he has any idea how the HPSC trains those under their ‘care’. It did take quite a bit of digging to obtain the files on the Legacy Feeder Program, after all.”

Aizawa shivers at the reminder of that ‘training program’. In reality, it’s more that the HPSC finds children with powerful or versatile quirks and essentially grooms them to be heroes loyal to the organization above all else. Hawks is one of the more successful subjects, but hardly the only one. The currently incarcerated Lady Nagant is another, but she managed to come to the realization of how terrible the Commission is, and killed the current Chairman.

Hawks isn’t as blindingly loyal as she was before she turned, but they do seem to have some form of control over him to do their bidding. Mental or physical, they aren’t sure. What they do know, is that they will not allow them to lay their hands on Eri.

“Whether he knows or not, the HPSC so far don’t know what her quirk is. Just that she’s in UA’s care due to it being volatile and I can shut it down. If he tells them…”

“Then we have our own information that we can tell.” Nezu retorts, folding his paws across his chest as he spins his chair to look at the series of monitors his back wall slides down to reveal. “Tell me, do you think he would follow through on his threat if it would mean that the Symbol of Peace were to make an official announcement that he will be retiring? Or even worse, if his depowered form were to be revealed?”

Aizawa looks at his boss in surprise, one eye on the screens showing various spots on campus. One of which shows said number one hero practicing poses in an empty classroom before coughing up blood and depowering. “You’d go that far?”

“Of course!” Nezu says, sounding almost offended. “Children are society’s future. And while I do not care for how society is at the moment, I believe that they can change it for the better. That is why I decided to become a principal, you know.”

Aizawa raises an eyebrow at that, silently wondering if that’s all there is to his motives. He knows it’s not, but he can honestly say that he trusts the rat more than the HPSC. Looking back at the screen, he sees All Might shaking in his skinny form while making a phone call, bowing repeatedly as if the person on the other end could see him.

“You know what will happen if the public learns how fragile the Symbol of Peace really is.”

“Indeed.” Nezu nods. “But as I said previously: society needs to better itself. Even if it needs to be razed to the ground to enact that change, it must occur. If not, they will engineer their own destruction. And it will be far less pleasant.” He claps his paws. “Thankfully, we do have other cards to play before we get to that point!”

Aizawa can’t help the skeptical look on his face. “And what card exactly do we have that can stop Nighteye from ruining Eri’s life just as she’s finally getting to live it?”

Nezu just gives him a playful smile.

`~`

I sneeze, shaking my head  and rubbing my nose with the back of my hand as I look around. But the only people I see are Tormew and Minya, who are alternating between petting different cats at the cafe and my head, comparing which is softer. I win every time, of course. I take self-care very seriously!

Nyamuri is at one of the tables, chatting with one of the servers who looks kind of familiar for some reason. He’s our age and has a rock-like head. He’s also pretty quiet, though he’s clearly making an effort to speak. When his nerves fail, he switches to sign language, which Nyamuri apparently knows.

I shrug it off, turning back to the low table holding our food and drinks. But my eyes widen at what I see. There’s a white cat with orange spots, one of which covers one side of its head, standing on it. And it’s eating my sandwich!

“Bad tom! Mya sandwich!” I lunge forward to snatch it away, but the chubby beast dodges and jumps on the floor, finishing it off! I glower at him while he gives me an unamused look, unphased by my puffed out cheeks.

Off to the side, I’m aware of my two friends laughing at the interaction, but I ignore them. Because I know that if I give them the affronted look I want, they'd either laugh harder, or make a big deal out of giving me pets to make me feel better. Actually, pets would feel nice right about now…

I give them my best sad look and they’re immediately on me, scratching behind my ears and stroking my tail. I let out a sigh of contentment, happy with how we’re spending our last day before we leave for our internships. It’s just a shame that Eri couldn’t come.

Nighteye does care about Eri's well being, but he's currently blinded by All Might being able to remain the Symbol of Peace for (presumably) decades more.

PS: Getting artwork done for the 'Bloody Sunset' scene at the end!