MHA: A Cat's Way (Ch 41) (Patreon)

Clicking my tongue I cross my arms, not letting off on my glare. “What are mew doing here, Nekomura?”

She smiles at me. “Why, we’re here to help you, my Goddess!”

I snort. “Purrty sure that attacking the number one hero school isn’t helping.”

Her smile doesn’t waver. “We know you very well. Even if mew don’t know we’re helping mew, we always are.”

“HOLD ON A MINUTE!” Mineta’s shout draws my attention to the fact that a few of the other cultists have been attacking him while Nekomura and I have been talking. After sticking another one to the floor, he points at us.

“Can someone explain what the heck is going on here!?”

I sigh, gesturing at her. “Nekomura is the head of a cult that worships cats and cuteness.” I flip my hair with a gesture. “Since nya am both, they worship me.”

“THAT EXPLAINS NOTHING!!!”

I snort, summoning four brawlers that launch themselves at the cultists encircling us. “They prowl around stalking me and do their best to ‘see my will done’. Even if they end up getting in nya way.”

Nekomura’s eyes widen and she raises a hand to her chest. “Mew wound me, Goddess. We know your desires and simply seek to help! I apologize if that upsets mew, but ensuring your long-term happiness is our priority.”

She smirks as she takes a step back and gestures to the boy standing beside her. “Which is why our newest member shall take the stage.”

His head whips towards her and his eyes widen. Apparently he wasn’t expecting to have the attention put on him. Shuffling awkwardly, he fidgets before opening his mouth. Only for Mineta’s yelling to interrupt him.

“STOP IGNORING ME, DAMMIT! If these people are supposed to worship your body, tell them to stop attacking me!” He does a flip over a lion girl as she dives for him with claws outstretched. Landing on her head, he drives it down with a stomp while sticking two balls on her forehead and sticking it to the ground.

I blink at him in surprise. Wait. Is Mineta… actually good at fighting? Unfortunately, the inattention plaguing me all day leaves an opening. An opening the boy takes advantage of.

He dashes towards me, a determined expression on his face. My head whips back towards him as my eyes widen. He’s fast! A nearby brawler cat uses a cultist as a springboard to launch towards him, only for him to whirl around on one foot and cut through its throat with a knife that fell from his sleeve.

Seeing the ease of the movement, my eyes narrow and I set myself. Briefly, I consider using my special move, but quickly dismiss it. Nekomura said that he’s new, which means he hasn’t gotten much combat experience. Judging by his appearance, I’d guess that he has some kind of reinforcement quirk. My claws extend. But as long as it’s not as hard as Kirishima’s, I shouldn’t have too hard of a time taking them down.

But as I swipe at him, he easily flows around my arm and extends his own, grabbing my shoulder and trapping it. My eyes widen. “That’s-”

They whisper something in my ear and I freeze. Slowly, they let me go and take a step back, keeping an eye on my movements. But I just cross my arms and glare at them. Nodding in satisfaction, they turn to Nekomura and give her a thumbs up.

She claps, hopping in place. “Good job, Koda! With this, we’ll see the Goddess’ wish fulfilled without any problem!”

“What the hell! Catia, do something!” But Mineta’s cries fall on deaf ears as my puffed up tail simply sways side-to-side. Nekomura giggles, covering her mouth with one of the speakers.

“Don’t worry about the Goddess. We would never hurt her!” Her smile turns twisted. “But for someone like mew, who has the privilege of being in her class yet decides to defile her ears with your vulgar words.”

She aims her speakers at him, and it’s only now that he realizes that the cat speakers have moved. Now in the center of the triangular formation, his body tenses.

Which will make the following pain all the worse.

“My canorous beats will ensure that mew won’t soil the Goddess’ presence any longer.”

In the moments before all four speakers start blasting at him, he looks around desperately for help. His gaze passes over Kaminari, who’s tied up and unconscious, and lands on me. He meets my eyes. “Catia! Help me!”

I don’t answer. I just look at him with crossed arms, not averting my eyes as Nekomura activates her quirk.

His desperation hitting its peak, he tears the balls from his head in a frenzy and launches them at the speaker cats as blood starts dripping off of his skull. They manage to dodge most of them, but the one to Nekomura’s left gets two of them stuck on the speaker.

When she activates her quirk and turns the sound of the speakers to full blast, the rubber balls absorb the vibrations and start vibrating themselves. Not designed to handle such frequencies, something in the bot malfunctions and the music coming from it stops.

Due to one part of the soundwaves suddenly coming to a stop, Mineta is launched from his formerly stuck position. He goes flying outwards, blood flowing from both his head and his ears. One from the overuse of his quirk, the other from Nekomura’s quirk vibrating his body to obscene levels.

He crashes to the ground, far outside the encirclement of cultists. But the pain he’s in stops him from properly appreciating it. Trembling, he manages to turn his head just enough that he’s not staring at the floor. And what he sees takes him by surprise, which he’s frankly had more than enough of today.

He sees a tall man in an armored tank top and a skull mask tied up and sitting on the ground. Electricity arcs off of the tied up hands in front of him. He looks surprised at his sudden visitor.

“The hell?” He shakes his head. “Forget it. Hey, kid! If you can move, untie me and I’ll help you get away from these crazy cat people!”

The pain filling his mind leaves no room to ponder on why one of the villains is already tied up. Instead, he puts his effort in trying to push himself towards his only hope for getting away from those people. But the muscles in his limbs are unresponsive. A mocking voice coming from above his last hopes for getting away.

“Nya-a-a! You aren’t allowed to go anywhere, Mister Jammer. If you got yourself knocked out by one of the students, the whole school would be alerted!”

A *thump* sound signals to Mineta that she jumped down from wherever she was. As her footsteps bring her closer, his fear starts to overpower his pain.

Shit! Shit, shit, shit! I don’t want to die! Dammit Catia! Stupid cat and her stupid cult! If I die here my ghost is totally going to spy on you changing!

The footsteps stop, and he breaths a mental sigh of relief. Only for something heavy to fall on his back, causing him to cry out in pain.

“Disgusting.” The word drips from his unseen assailant’s mouth filled with the loathing she has for the student in front of her. “You know, sometimes I really hate my quirk.” The footsteps start approaching him again, their cadence counting down to his final moments.

“But then,” she continues. “I run into someone like you, who blasphemes against the Goddess. And I thank her for the fact that I have it.” They stop, and his vision is filled with black shoes with a gold trim.Vaguely, he feels his limbs start twitching, finally getting feeling back. But it’s far too late for that.

“Mind reading is both a blessing, and a curse.” He feels her grab his shoulder, and he’s rolled over onto his back. His final surprise is that his assailant is a girl younger than him, maybe not even a middle schooler. Her pink hair is decorated with two cones on the side. But what fills his vision as she raises a large metal ball is the smirk on her face.

“It’s only thanks to the Goddess that I can even be aware of that. So getting rid of the filth surrounding her, like you, is pretty nice.” She breathes out a self-deprecating laugh as she lets the ball fall. “It’s like I’m her own little spy. Protecting her from the danger of society.”

Her last words are a whisper, but they’re the last thing he hears. “Just like you, Mama and Papa.”

`~`

Nekomura clicks her tongue at the boy’s escape, but knows he won’t get far. Instead, she turns to her Goddess, who’s glaring at her with her tail and hair puffed up. She swallows, knowing that seeing both is a bad sign. But she’s thankful that the ‘new member’ is present to stop her from attacking them. Though it’s also their fault that they’re even here in the first place.

She takes a deep breath. “Ok. We only have one shot at this.” She looks at the rock-headed person casually standing next to the Goddess and they nod, leaning close to her and whispering into her ear.

“I think it’s time for Cat-aclysm to come out and play.”

And the Goddess is enveloped in her quirk, the blue glow raising her off of the ground, causing Nekomura to smile.

The Goddess’ wish will be fulfilled. No matter what.