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Chapter Text

When he got out of bed that morning; Hitoshi had one of those feelings that something was going to go wrong. Yet he just blew it off like it was nothing and moved on with his day…

But if he knew then that it would have turned out like this, he wouldn't have left the UA campus; hell maybe he should have just stayed in bed. And on top of everything else; Eraser is going to be so upset with him.

For starters, Hitoshi had practically begged his mentor for 2 weeks straight to teach him some new moves with his capture weapon. And finally during his training session last weekend; Aizawa had agreed that today they would work on them.

But it wasn’t as easy as that; and it certainly didn’t come free. Eraser had made a bargain with him saying that he had to complete 10 extra sets of each drill that he had learned this far. And that was on top of his regular lesson.   

It may not seem that much, but it was a tall order to fill…

Normally he would do three or four different major drills per training session. And so far, Eraser has been rotating him though about two dozen main drills, and double that number of minor ones.  

So, he definitely had his work cut out for him. But Hitoshi had pushed himself through the pain and exhaustion to complete it all.

It had been nearly midnight when he finished; running almost two hours later than normal. He made it, knowing that it would be worth it all in the end.

But back to the present; thanks to this mess he has gotten himself into, he is going to be late.  

Ok fine; he’s not going to lie to himself, he was late to begin with. That’s why before this whole thing happened, he texted Aizawa that he was going to be a little late.

Aizawa said he understood and gave him 15 more minutes, but there was a catch.  For every minute after that time had passed, if he still was late then there would be triple that amount of time penalty training.

He has been though Eraserheads’ version of penalty training before and that training is like hell. It may be similar to what he did voluntary last week, but without the breaks in between.

So yea, he really doesn’t want to spend his free time doing penalty training. And in the back of his mind Hitoshi worries…  

Eraser told him if he failed his part of the bargain; that it would be another month or two before he would teach Hitoshi the new techniques with the capture weapon.

And yea, being super late to this training session never was discussed.

But there is a huge possibility that depending on how late he was; as a punishment he might lose his chance and have to wait another month, before he gets what he wants…       

Yet, no matter how much he worries about the what if’s, it won’t fix his problem. Putting that aside for now he thought it would be best to focus on the task at hand.

And that is getting off the ground. With that in mind, Hitoshi tried to sit up….

Too quick apparently, because he was hit with a dizzy spell and his head hit the ground causing him to moan in pain.

It hurt, but at least the ground is just dirt not concrete or pavement. And he doesn’t sense any immediate danger nearby.

So, change in plans now his plan is to just lay on ground until the dizziness passes.

Hitoshi was desperately trying to ignore the fact, that this shortcut he took was through a dark dirty back alley. 'Yet another thing Eraser would be upset at him for.'

He knows the dangers that often lurk in places like this; even during the daytime hours it wouldn’t be uncommon to run into trouble.

Yea, in hind sight; this ‘short cut’ was a really stupid idea on his part. Especially, if his encounter earlier was anything to go off of.

If Aizawa found out about this dumb move that he made, there will definitely be more than just a lector. And right now, Hitoshi wouldn’t blame him one bit.

The more he thinks about it, the more he believes this small mission of his was not worth all the dam trouble he keeps running into.

In his mind; this alley was just going to be the last short cut he would take. He had already been though at least half a dozen alleys today alone, with little to no trouble. But luck just didn’t seem to be on his side today. 

From a few feet away behind him; Hitoshi hears shifting of dirt and gravel from somebody moving, then-

“SHINSOU! Where are you?!!!” Midoriya yells frantically, jumping to his feet. 

At this point Hitoshi’s dizziness has passed, but he still was lying on the ground trying to blink the last of the blurriness out of his vision. “I'm Right here, quit yelling.”

Midoriya’s shouting hurt his ears more than normal, but Hitoshi just blames it on the headache that is still lingering. He hopes it will disappear soon, because it feels like all his senses are working on hyper drive because of it.

It’s not necessary a bad thing and he may be used to it, because headaches and migraines are common for him when he overuses his quirk. But that doesn’t make it any less annoying to deal with.    

He knew he shouldn’t have gone on this little side mission with Midoriya to begin with. As he would barely make it on time to his training session as it was.

Slowly Hitoshi pushes himself to a sitting position; this time he does it without falling. But he still felt really weird from passing out.

 And man does this alley stink worse than he original thought. The smell of rotten food among other stuff he’d rather not try to identify; was nearly overwhelming.

“Oh... so you’re a cat too.” Midoriya’s voice faded as he spoke. Hitoshi scrunched his nose in his confusion; did he hear Midoriya right? “What do you mean, I'm a cat too?”

Now that he can see clearly, he turns his head. And sees a black/dark green kitten with emerald eyes standing about 5 feet away from him. “Um... I think that girl's quirk had a time delay.”

“Of course, it does.” Hitoshi huffs putting his hands- ah paws on his face. That must be what she was trying to tell him when he ran after Midoriya.

At the time he thought the flash of light was going to be the end of it, but clearly his new striped fur and fluffy tail prove that wrong.

And now that he thinks about it where the heck did that dog go? It took them forever to catch it, and now it is nowhere to be seen. That just means they did all this for nothing.

 Hitoshi shakes his head to dismiss his thoughts, and spoke up. “Do you even know how long were going to be like this?”

“Not exactly; I have a few theories. But it would be best if we can find the girl before she leaves the area.” Midoriya said as he looked around.

“We have no idea how long we have been out for; it could have been a few minutes or hours…”

The fact that Midoriya is being vague right now worries him.

He knows he shouldn’t pressure Midoriya, but his friend’s hobby is basically quirk analysis and he can normally have the quirk figured out in detail, by the time it takes Hitoshi to barely get a basic understanding of the same quirk.   

Hitoshi’s anxiety was starting to rise, but it hadn’t reached his voice yet.

“So, you’re telling me that not only you don’t know how long we have been out for, but you also have no idea of how long we are going to be stuck like this?”

With the buildings blocking his view of all but a sliver of the sky; he can’t even tell by the location of the sun to see how much time has passed.

If it’s only been a few minutes that they have been unconscious that’s one thing, and they can still make this work. But if a few hours have passed… they’re screwed.

By this time Hitoshi finally managed to get all four feet to listen to him and stood up. His paws where very unsteady so he just focused on keeping his stance wide and all four paws in full contact with the ground, rather than trying to walk.

“Well, it really depends on the quirk. Most transformation type quirks like this; will wear off in a few hours, with some lasting a few weeks to a month,” Midoriya put his paw to his chin.

As Hitoshi’s widening eyes go unnoticed, He continues.

“But there is also the small chance that we might stay like this and the girl will have to active her quirk; which seems to touch based, so she might have to touch us again if that’s the case for it to work. But if -”  

“You've got to be Kidding me?!” Hitoshi snapped interrupting Midoriya’s quirk rant. “You’re saying we might be stuck like this without a way to go back to normal?!” 

He knows that yelling at Midoriya isn’t going to help anything, but he just reacted because he doesn’t know what to think.

Midoriya gave him an apologetic look “…that is just one possibly; but it would be best to find the girl, since I don’t know for sure. She should know how it works. And hopefully be able to help us.”

Hitoshi just nodded; he needed to calm down his anxiety before he yelled again.

“The dog wasn’t here when I woke u- OUFF!” Midoriya tried to walk closer to him but he face-planted it in the dirt. Hitoshi grimaces but, doesn’t comment on Midoriya’s fall.

“Yea, not a surprise he’s gone. But it’s better that way.” Hitoshi was still standing there, starting to take in the surroundings. He didn’t want to face the same fate and eat dirt like Midoriya just did. 

“How can it be better that he is gone?! We were supposed to bring him back to the girl. It’s the whole reason we stopped to help!” Midoriya’s frustration showing on his face as he pushed himself back up off the ground.

“Have you forgotten already?! We’re cats, and there is a high chance that if that dog was here, we would be done for!” Hitoshi spat.

“Forget about giving a helping hand, we did the best we could. Now we need to do what we can to get out this situation.”

This over-the-top hero sacrificing mentality that Midoriya has; drives Hitoshi crazy. He knows it comes with being a hero, but in his opinion Midoriya takes that part too far. He thinks Midoriya needs healthy dose of self-preservation, to balance things out.    

“…Yea your right, we can’t do anything to help as long as we’re like this.” Midoriya says guilt and sadness reflecting in his eyes.

And the fact that Midoriya looked like a kitten; or to be more accurate was one at the moment, was weird for Hitoshi’s brain to get used to.

But it also made him feel worse knowing it’s partly his fault for the look on Midoriya’s face. “Sorry for losing it on you.”

“It’s ok, I just got a little side tracked.” Midoriya smiles genuinely as he starts to walk closer. He still doesn’t understand how Midoriya’s moods can change so quickly.

Hitoshi nods as he studies where white fur on his paws meets the striped fur on his legs. He doesn’t know what else to say. And he knows they should probably get moving soon.

But he’s still having a hard time getting his new paws to do what he wants them to Hitoshi tests his luck anyway and takes a step forward; it feels weird but also not…

He didn’t expect anything like this to happen.

At times he had wondered what it would feel like to be a cat. But It’s not like he wanted it to really happen; let alone in this type of circumstance.

A scowl forms on Hitoshi’s face and his tail lashes as he thinks about it. Meanwhile Midoriya trips for the third time, as he tries to walk faster.

Hitoshi doesn't think he is going to make it to his training session anytime soon. That is if he didn’t already completely miss it all together.

The one thing that keeps running though his mind on repeat is Can this day get any worse?

Little did he know the daily struggles of a stray cat....

* ~~~~~~* Earlier that morning *~~~~~~*

Hitoshi was looking though the pantry in the kitchen; he knows there was 2 boxes of his favorite energy bars in here last night. So why can’t he find them now?

Even if every one of his classmates had a few there would be at least a lone bar or two left. He huffs and starts taking out boxes of food and putting them on the ground.

“Hey what are you looking for Shinsou? Maybe we can help.” Uraraka says and Tsuyu nods, as Hitoshi looks up from what he was doing.

“Yea, I’ll be able to find it quicker if I know what I'm looking for.” Ashido is standing there next to him with a load of boxes in her hands and some at her feet that she took out of the pantry.

Hitoshi looks at her; wondering how she unloaded all those boxes in the time it took him just to look away? Hitoshi shakes his head and moves on. “I'm looking for the chocolate protein bars that were in here yesterday.”

The three girls exchange a look with each other, then Tsuyu spoke up. “I guess nobody told you yet. ribbit.”  

“Told me what?” Hitoshi asks; he moved over to the 1A dorms about a month ago. So, he thought he has already been caught up to how things work here vs his old dorm.

“That sometimes Tokoyami sleepwalks; and when that happens Dark Shadow goes on a chocolate rampage.” Uraraka walked over to the freezer opening it.

“Yup, it looks like that is exactly what happened. The chocolate mochi isn’t here either.” Uraraka frowns. “But at least I still have the strawberry mochi left.”

“OCHAKO DON’T TELL ME, THAT THE CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM IS GONE TOO?!” Ashido yells as she stuffs the boxes back into the pantry.

“Ok, I won’t tell you.” Uraraka shrugged as she closed the freezer. Ashido squealed and ran over and flung open the freezer door. “NNOOO!!! The chocolate Ice cream is gone!”

“As you can see you’re not the only one affected by this. But don’t worry Tokoyami is really good about getting everything that Dark Shadow ate, on the next shopping trip, Ribbt.” Tsuyu turned to Hitoshi; as Ashido mourned her ice cream.

“Well at least; I won’t waste any more time looking for something not here.” Hitoshi sighs and puts the last box back in the pantry and closes it. He should have grabbed a few and taken it to his room last night.

Hitoshi’s not mad at Tokoyami or dark shadow, it’s just that the timing kinda sucks... but he is use to it by now.

This type of thing happened all the time over in the 1C dorms. One of his old classmates would sneak down to the kitchen in the middle of night and eat all the pickled cucumber and daikon radishes.

Nobody knew who the culprit was and it drove about half of his classmates crazy. But he didn’t really care; he never liked radishes and only ate pickled cucumbers sometimes.   

One night, Hitoshi was dealing with his normal insomnia and he went downstairs to grab a drink and caught one of his classmates in the act. He was kind of surprised seeing who it was.

Hitoshi would have never guessed that HE was culprit. A few other classmates that ate it like candy maybe, but not the person standing in front of him.

It was one of the rich kids that some fellow classmates had basically forced to eat  pickled radishes for the first time when they learned that he had never tried any before.

But even his reaction then was mild, saying nothing more than it’s not bad. And even later he would only eat the pickled food if somebody else was and offered him some.

The other teen freaked out seeing that he was caught red handed and he quickly offered Hitoshi a bribe of premium imported coffee, to keep quiet.

Hitoshi wasn’t going to tell anyone that he was the eating the pickled foods in the first place anyway, but he was never against free coffee.  

Long story short, the next morning there was a small box outside his dorm room, with 3 fancy bags of coffee beans. And every week after that a box would show up with expensive coffee in it, until he moved to 1A dorms.

He once looked up one of the brands to see about getting some himself; only to find out that the coffee cost like 16,568 yen (around $97) per pound. The huge different between himself and the rich kids was made all the clearer that day.

It’s way too much for him to afford; but at least he got some great coffee while it lasted. And to this day; it’s still a mystery to the rest of his classmates in 1C as to who is behind the disappearing pickled vegetables.   

“Um, if you want, I have some protein bars in my room you can have. There not chocolate but they are the same brand.” Uraraka offered, breaking Hitoshi out of thought. 

“Thanks for the offer, but I think if I leave now, I can make it to the store and back before my training session with Aizawa Sensei.” Hitoshi shook his head.

And with that the three girls wished him luck, as he left to find a teacher so he could get the permission to leave UA grounds.   

*~~~~~~*~~~~~~*~~~~~~*~~~~~~*~~~~~~*

Hitoshi huffs as he walks out of the third convenience store with a sour look on his face. He thought it would be quicker to find the protein bars at a convenience store rather than a grocery store.

At the first two stores; they were all out of the chocolate ones. Then at this last store there was one box left and when he grabbed it off the shelf; this old lady grabbed the other side of the box.

But instead of what any normal person would do; she glared at him and told him, ‘It was her box. And if he didn’t let go, she would make a scene.’

Hitoshi didn’t want any trouble, so he let go of the box. But what really irritated him was as she walked away; she had the nerve to tell him that ‘he needed to respect his elders.’

Her comment was totally uncalled for, because all he said was ‘Fine keep it.’ in a normal tone as he let her take the box.

Hitoshi didn’t think being ‘elderly’ gave you the right to be bitch a to those who are younger than you. He doesn’t care how old you are; those type of people don’t deserve that kind of respect.

But Hitoshi didn’t voice his thoughts and he left. It wasn’t worth the time and it’s not like saying it will chance anything anyway.   

He glances at the time on his phone; he has enough time to hit one more store before he needs to meet Eraser.

This time Hitoshi doesn’t want to risk it; so he headed to the closest actual grocery store. And if this place doesn’t have his protein bars he’ll just have to do without.

Once there Hitoshi doesn’t even bother getting a basket, but heads down the aisle with granola bars, protein bars, among other snacks.

“Yes!!” He smiles stopping in front of a fully stocked row of his favorite Chocolate protein bars. Hitoshi grabs three of the value size boxes and heads to the checkout.

He knows this many bars would probably last a week if that is all he ate; but he doesn’t want to have to do this again next weekend. And he can just keep the extras in his room.

Hitoshi freezes and turns around, walking in the opposite direction when he sees a certain someone in line. This is exactly why the grocery store as his last option.

He just wanted to get his stuff and leave.  But the other teen must have seen him; because he hears them call out his name. Hitoshi pretended he didn’t hear and turned the corner, but it was already too late.

When he heard fast footsteps coming his way, he knew his fate was sealed. Seconds later a green haired teen rounded the corner almost running into him.

The other teen immediately closed his eyes bowing and started apologizing without even taking a look at the person that he almost ran over.

There is no avoiding it now, so might as well have fun with it. Hitoshi smirks.

“It’s fine. But next time when you’re chasing somebody, watch where you’re going. It’s not very manly to run over bystanders.” Hitoshi mimicked Kirishima’s voice.

“Kirishima?!” The other teen’s eyes shot open and he looked up coming out of the bow.

“Not quite, problem child.” Hitoshi deadpanned, this time using his teachers’ voice. It was risky, if he was ever caught by Aizawa using it like this, his training session would be hell.

But it was definitely worth the look he got from Midoriya’s face, as he quickly glanced the aisle just in case their homeroom teacher was really there.    

“That scared me; for a second, I thought Aizawa-sensei was here too. But I should have known it was just you Shinsou.” Midoriya said facing Hitoshi.

“Yea, you fell for the same trick twice in a row.” Hitoshi snickered and Midoriya pouted. “Not fair.”

“How is it not fair? I did it right in front of you, if you had just looked you could have easily seen it was me.” Hitoshi raised an eyebrow.

“Ok, fine you got me there. Anyway what are you doing here?” Midoriya asked curiously.

“I’m Shopping.” Hitoshi deadpanned, lifting his boxes as to make his point clear. He didn’t mind talking to Midoriya, but right now he has places to be.

“Well, yea I guess this is a grocery store after all.” Midoriya nodded. “So, I just got done with my shopping when I saw you, and I wanted to ask you if you were busy after this?”

“Yea, I am. I actually have training with Eraser.” Hitoshi walked to the checkout line with Midoriya following him. “Oh, great then we can walk back to together.”

Hitoshi wasn’t against it, and as long as they don’t get side tracked then he should be able to make it back in time. So, without missing a beat Hitoshi answered “Sure, as long as you keep up because I’m not waiting.”

And with that Hitoshi went to a self-checkout that just opened up, as Midoriya grinned and heading to his own checkout.

Once Hitoshi had his stuff bagged and paid for, he headed out. Once on the street he glanced behind him to see Midoriya weaving between people to catch up to him.

“See I made it. And before you got out of sight this time too!” Midoriya stated it like it was an achievement. And Hitoshi just shrugged. “Whatever.”

Chapter Text

“Guess what I’m doing today?” Midoriya asked full of excitement.

Hitoshi grinned, keeping a steady pace as the pair walked down the sidewalk. He knows exactly what his friend is talking about.

Ever since getting his idea approved by the teachers last week, the green haired teen would tell anyone and everyone who would listen.

And despite not hearing it from Midoriya himself; pretty much everyone from class 1A has heard about it at least a few dozen times by now.

But Hitoshi being who he is; can’t pass up a golden opportunity like this. And rather than telling Midoriya he already knows; he decides to toy with Midoriya instead.   

“Mmm, let me think…” Hitoshi rubs his chin like he was deep in thought… In reality; he was just going to say whatever came to his mind at the moment.

“My guess is first you’re going to talk my ear off on our way back. Then you’re going to attract some kind of trouble that should have been avoidable. At some point today someone will make a comment that your cute and want to take you home. And --”   

“Whoa. That last part sounds ridicules!” Midoriya threw his hands in the air. The motion jostled the groceries in his bag.

Yea, Midoriya did make a valid point; it was kind of ridicules.

 “Well- I heard this old lady say the same thing to a kid just last week; so it’s possible…” Hitoshi rolled his eyes at the thought, but he still hadn’t made his point yet. “Anyway, don’t interrupt just let me finish before making comments.”

“Ok, fine. You can continue.” Midoriya nodded, content with his explanation. Hitoshi ran his hand though his hair. “Now, here was I?”

 “Oh yea… Then you will almost trip somebody. But more importantly, you won’t be able to eat any of those apples you just bought. But it will be ok; because you will get to see Eri at the picnic anyway.”

“See!!! You knew from the start! You could have just said that I was going on a picnic with Eri.” Midoriya pointed at Hitoshi.

“What’s the fun in that?” Hitoshi lazily shrugged; but he couldn’t hold back his grin of triumph.

Hitoshi heard something ahead of them; then stopped dead in his tracks when he saw what was at the mouth of the alley. The sudden stop caused Midoriya to bump into him.

“What is it?” Midoriya asked on high alert as he started scanning the alley.

Hitoshi walked closer as he reached into one of his many pockets pulling out a small bag and crouched down. Somewhere on the sidewalk behind him; Midoriya let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh. You could have just said you saw a cat Shinsou. For a second, I thought you saw a villain or something.”

“Nope.” Hitoshi shook his head; only halfway paying attention to what was said.  His eyes were focused on the pile of boxes next to the dumpster, that the cat had dashed behind.

He fished a few treats out of the treat bag, that he always had on him; and started clicking to the cat in hopes to call her over.

When a cat is involved all things that were on his mind, suddenly become unimportant. It’s like nothing else matters except the cat.

Yet strangely enough whenever he is out doing hero training with his classmates, or Eraserhead; even if he sees a cat he can easily move on without losing track of everything.

He doesn’t understand it, but hey at least it doesn’t get in the way of his work. But that aside now… He sees the calico cat peak her head out from behind a box to smell the air.

Hitoshi grinned continuing to call her over. But instead of her cautiously walking over, when she saw he was crouched down she ran over to him eagerly.

He set one treat on the ground in front of him. She ate it and looked up meowing wanting more. Hitoshi gave her some and she let him pet her long soft fur.

Judging by her behavior, she was clearly used to people feeding her. Hitoshi didn’t see a collar, but that didn’t necessary mean she is a stray. Not everyone puts collars on their cats.

The calico looked to be in great condition; and she smelled faintly of perfume. So, if for some strange reason she doesn’t have an owner, she probably is cared for and has regular meals from a nearby shop keeper.

To this day calico cats are still rumored to be the luckiest cat color; known for bringing happiness, prosperity and warding off darkness. And many people believe that if you feed calico cat, some of their good fortune will rub off on them.       

In his own option, Hitoshi doesn’t know whether to believe it or not…

Earlier this year he found a stray calico that he just couldn’t walk away from; both figuratively and literally.

The calico had followed him from an alley near the train station, to the UA campus. And she found him during lunch, then after classes were done for the day she followed him back to the station, and happily road in his backpack on the train.

She was so dedicated to him; Hitoshi just had to try to convince his mom to keep the cat.

But his mom said one cat is plenty and with him pursuing becoming a hero at UA, he wouldn’t have time for another. Even if said cat was lucky. Yes; he played every card he could think of to keep her.

But his mom said he was lucky enough without it.

Both knew that if the cat came inside even for just one night there would be no turning back, so sadly the cat stayed outside that night. It wasn’t all bad though, she somehow found his windowsill and slept there.

 Hitoshi was told he had to bring her back to the alley where he found her. ‘Because there is no way a cat that friendly could simply be a stray’ Hitoshi disagreed but he did as his mother said.

After that, the cat still followed him to UA and back to the train. It went on for about a week; and the cat would track him down and find him in various places around UA.

So, even with him denying that the cat was not his; nobody believed him.

A few students that walked by would ask him if they could pet her, and he said he didn’t care; at this point he was not going to fight it anymore.

Then a 3^rd year gen’ ed student came by saying that if he doesn’t leave the cat at home, they would tell a teacher. Hitoshi said go ahead; it’s not like it’s his cat anyway…

The canned cat food he leaves for her in the alley is strictly to keep her from starving. He does it for other strays too, so it means nothing.

Then later that day his homeroom teacher Mic-sensei came to see him about the cat.

Hitoshi didn’t want to get in trouble, so he told his teacher the truth about the cat; even the fact that that his mom won’t let him keep it, and how he wasn’t responsible for the cat.

But the strangest thing happened; not only Hitoshi wasn’t scolded at all, but when Mic-sensei saw the Calico in question. He just got the biggest grin on his face and laughed to himself before saying everything was fine if the cat was at UA.

It wasn’t until later that day, during his training session in the gym with Eraser that everything made sense.

It was when Hitoshi went to take a water break. He saw the calico cat had somehow found her way into the building, and was curled up sleeping in his capture weapon.

At the time he had only been training with Eraser for a few weeks, so he was silently panicking trying to come up with excuses for why the cat was here.

But it was all in vain; because Eraser came up behind him to grab his own water and spotted the cat.

Then Eraser sighed. “Jelly why did you have to leave the house again?”

Upon hearing her master, the calico’s eyes opened, she jumped to her feet then literally threw herself at Aizawa. Hitoshi had dropped his water bottle and stood there stunned. Hitoshi could hardly believe it…

Not the fact that Eraserhead had a cat. And not that Aizawa had let the cat climb on his shoulder to hunker down in his capture weapon around his neck. It was the fact that he almost stole his mentor’s cat.

Hitoshi’s panic started to subside, because he realized Eraser didn’t know that Jelly was almost stolen. But then Hitoshi’s mind went to back to earlier with Mic-sensei.

Present Mic must have known that the calico was Jelly the second he saw the cat.  Hitoshi was mentally kicking himself for expanding everything to his teacher. And if Present Mic told Eraser about it…

“…Shinsou?” Aizawa asks, which broke Hitoshi out of his mental spiral. He scrambled to picked up his water bottle off the ground. “Uh… yea sorry.” 

Eraser then glanced to the cat then back at Hitoshi seemingly realized the problem. “My cat gets out and follows me to work sometimes and causes trouble. Just ignore her. After you get a drink, do 2 more laps around the gym.”

“Yes, Sen-sei.” Hitoshi unscrewed the lid to his water. He didn’t know if Aizawa didn’t hear about him and Jelly; which is unlikely but still possible. Or if his mentor chose to overlooked it so he can focus on his training.

Either way he was grateful that he didn’t have to explain why the cat had found her way into the gym or why he basically stole Erasers cat.

After that incident, Hitoshi stopped feeding her in the alley. Jelly had a home, so he knew she didn’t need the food.

But the truth was he was too embarrassed about the whole thing, and didn’t want to risk getting caught feeding her if he wasn’t supposed to.

And since Eraser didn’t bring up the cat again (even with her still tailing Hitoshi to training); there was no way Hitoshi was going to risk exposing his secret that may or may not already be known by his mentor.   

It took about another week for Jelly to quit coming to the alley by the train station expecting to be fed. But she would still visit Hitoshi at UA, and beg for treats from him.

He tried not to; but Hitoshi didn’t last long. It wasn’t fair to deprive the cat from everything.

Besides giving her treats was not the same as feeding her per say. So only when they were alone, he would sneak her some cat treats.

Over time he realized that Eraser didn’t care about it one way or the other. Or about the fact that Jelly had basically adopted him. She even went as far as jumping on his shoulder or backpack for ride so she didn’t have to follow him around.  

And when the UA dorms went in, Jelly could be found pawing at the door to his balcony at least twice a week so she can sleep in his room.

He still doesn’t know how she found his room on the fourth floor in the 1C dorms, but he wasn’t complaining having a warm cuddly cat in his bed.

And when he did finally move to 1A; Jelly showed up at his balcony’s doorstep the first night there too.

Looking back now, he still doesn’t know if it was bad luck that he found her that day causing all the trouble that it did. Or good luck, because it was thanks to Jelly that he realized that Eraser may have a strict way of teaching, but he does have a soft side to him too.

But back to the cat that is currently in front of him. This calico is very different than Jelly.

While Jelly is mostly white with large patches of orange and black and is short haired; this cat is long haired and looks almost tiger like in her markings.

She had thick orange and black stripes running from her tail along her back and down her legs, and up to her mostly orange face; which had an even lighter orange stripes on her head and face. Pure white on her checks, neck and belly. And dainty white front paws and a pair of snowy white stockings on her hind feet.

Some people may argue and say she doesn’t have enough white to be considered a calico, and that she is a tortoiseshell instead. But Hitoshi knows cats and even with the little amount of white; her orange and black are not overlay each other like how it would appear on a tortie.

After eating her fifth treat she stares at him with her olive-green eyes. She then head-butts his hand wanting a few more pets; which Hitoshi gladly gives her.

Then he stood up, as much as he would love to give this cat more attention, he couldn’t be late for his training. She was rubbing around his legs as he told her goodbye. And as if she understood; she sat down content and watched him walk away.

“You know, it seems if cats are involved you don’t mind stopping from your busy day to say hi.”

Midoriya was standing there with the biggest grin on his face, that Hitoshi had seen all day. He had been so absorbed in the cat he forgot he had a walking companion.

“Shut up.” Hitoshi said picking up his abandon bags off the ground and walked past Midoriya. He couldn’t come up with a better answer because it was true and they both knew it. 

Hitoshi didn’t bother slowing down his long strides. So Midoriya jogged to catch up then fell into step with him anyway and was eyeing Hitoshi’s bags curiously, happy to move on to the next subject.

“So Shinsou I’ve been meaning to ask you; Why do you have 3 boxes of the same thing?”

“Let me put it this way; hungry quirks, three other stores and one rude old lady. Trust me if you ran into the trouble I have; you would have wanted to stock up too.” Hitoshi shook his head, as he summed it all up.

“SO, based on what you said… I’m guessing first; dark shadow went on a chocolate binging rampage, then at two of the other stores -wait… judging from the distance and location I bet all 3 were probably convenient stores.” Midoriya had his hand on his chin as he thinks out loud.

 “Anyway, so two of the convenient stores where out of your chocolate protein bars and then at the third that ‘rude old lady’ took the last of the protein bars from you. And as a last-ditch effort you went to the closest actual grocery store, where luckily, they had just restocked.”

“Wow Sherlock, your right on the mark.” Hitoshi said in a mocking tone; as he grinned. “If being a hero ever falls though, you should really start a private detective agency.”

“Come on that won’t ever happen if I have anything to say about it.” Midoriya punched Hitoshi in the arm.

“Yea but still, whether it’s quirk analyses, or analyzing stuff in general; your skill is great. I for one wouldn’t want to have you as an enemy.” Hitoshi chuckles as he compliments his friend, making Midoriya’s ears turn red.  

“I may be good, but my skills are still far from great. It would take years to get to the level you’re talking about.” Midoriya jogged a bit in front so Hitoshi couldn’t point out his latest expression.

“Um hum.” Hitoshi acknowledges what was said but neither agrees nor disagrees. He personally thinks Midoriya’s current skill can overshadow some professionals by a long shot. But he doesn’t feel like arguing with Midoriya over it right now.

Midoriya moves on and starts talking about the latest hero fight he saw; as Hitoshi’s mind starts to drift.   

He remembers that not too long ago; Midoriya would outright refuse any praise related to any of his skills outside of his quirk. So, this is at least progress.  He’s glad that Midoriya is starting to accept it now.   

Which is definitely a far cry from himself… He has a hard time owning up to his own skills. And he still sometimes has his doubts about his own skills, and if he is really is good enough for this.

The skills that he’s concerned with are not quirk related. When it comes to his quirk that is one thing that Hitoshi has 100% confidence in.

But it’s the times before UA…

Whenever the bullies where brave enough and got the jump on him. The times he couldn’t use his quirk to get out of it, and he would come home in bruises, scrapes and sometimes bloodedly. Back then, what little fighting he knew didn’t amount to shit.

In the end it all worked out. And now he has EraserHead as his mentor and he has a place in the hero course. But somewhere in the back of his mind the ‘what if’ thoughts that try to haunt him are still there.

He had put everything he had into getting in; to be a hero. But had it not worked out… Where the hell would he had been left with?

Hitoshi shakes his head. The what ifs doesn’t matter; he had got in. So, there is no need to worry about that possibility. This may very will be one of those things that will always haunt him; if he lets it.

When both teen round the corner they stop in their tracks as they take in the sight before them.

“Fuck, we should have gone the other way.” Hitoshi facepalms and stares at the blocked off streets.

The sidewalks on both sides are packed full of people as a literal freaking parade was going down the street.

“OHH! It’s the 57^th annual Top 207 Hero Parade!” Midoriya’s reaction was very different from his own. He took in the sights, with a look of awe and excitement on his face.

 “Normally this Parade, features hero inspired floats and balloons with some of the less popular heroes making special appears. But I heard that this year a few heroes from the top 25 like Best Jeanist and Mt. Lady are going to be here too.”

Midoriya rambled on about the history behind the parade as he stood on his toes trying to get a better view.

“Hey, Midoriya I really don’t have time for this. If you’re going to stay; then I need to get going.” Hitoshi said as he pulls up a map’s app on his phone.

“OH, come on Shinsou. I waited for you to pet the cat, the lest you can do is give me a few minutes to watch.” Midoriya pleaded with puppy dog eyes.

“… Fine but only 2 minutes.” Hitoshi huffed and rolled his eyes at Midoriya’s antics. It was going to take him about that long to find a new route back to UA anyway.

Midoriya beamed and turned back to the parade.

When Hitoshi found the quickest route, he looked at the time and realizes; thanks to the parade he’s going to be 15- 20 minutes late to his meet up with Eraser. He huffs and starts typing:

Shinsou: 10:47 - Hey, so I’m going to be a little late. I was at the store and ran into a little detour on the way back.

Aizawa: 10:48 – What is it this time?

Hitoshi glanced at the screen; and he can just picture the look of Erasers ‘I’m so done with this’ face.  And he quickly types to avoid any misunderstandings.

Shinsou: 10:48 - It’s nothing like that, I just ran into a parade and I have to go around it so I’m going to be like 15-20 minutes late.

Aizawa: 10:49 - Ok. You have till 11:15. If you show up any later than that, you will have to do triple the amount of penalty training for the time your late.

He read the last text then sent an ok. It really would be cutting it close; but he thinks he can make it in time.

Hitoshi’s glad that today they were training in one of the UA gyms instead of one of the other training grounds. Because if it had been, then he knows for a fact he wouldn’t be able to make it in time after grabbing his capture weapon from his room.

He glanced at the map’s app one last time, to memorize the streets and alleys of the quickest route back. Then he called out to Midoriya who was still mumbling about the heroes and floats.

“Hey, time to go.” And Hitoshi started walking off without waiting for a response.

He’s hung out with Midoriya enough that he knows that the green haired teen will follow. 

Sure enough not even three strides and Midoriya has already fallen into step beside him. “I assume you have found a route back to UA that’s not blocked off?”

“Yep.” Hitoshi nods, as he glances at the street sign then making a right turn. Midoriya smiles like his normal, happy go lucky self. “Oh good.”

As Hitoshi leads the way weaving though the side streets and alleyways, he can sense that Midoriya gets nervous whenever they enter an alley way.

But he chooses to ignores it. He has no reason to point it out; when he has no intention of changing course or doing anything about it.  

They enter a fifth alley when Midoriya speaks up. “Ah, Shinsou. Maybe can we just not, go down anymore alleys? I know you need to get back soon but…”

“It’s fine Midoriya; nothing is going to happen. Besides there are just a few more; then it’s the main roads the rest of the way.” Hitoshi says confidently.

He really just wants to stick to the path he has mapped out in his head. And it’s not like he asked Midoriya to come with him anyway. 

“Yea, I get where you’re coming from but, I just don’t have the best track record when it comes to alleyways and I’d rather avoid causing extra trouble.” Midoriya’s meek sheepish side came out.

Normally Hitoshi would have just blown Midoriya or whoever else it was off; just sticking with what worked for himself best.

But despite being a fierce overpowered bone breaking opponent; its times like this that shows up every now and then, that reminds him that they may be heroes in training, but even someone like Midoriya has fears too.

But the main point here is; if he decided to just ditch Midoriya here, he would feel bad if something where to happen to Midoriya.

And if that happened then his lesson with Eraser would be cut short. With Aizawa being 1A’s homeroom teacher he would be the one who would need to take care of whatever aftermath there is.

“… Ok fine. We did better for time since we took most of my shortcuts; so we can stick to the main roads from here on out.” Hitoshi huffed, and turned back to the main sidewalk. Midoriya nods “Thanks, Shinsou.”

“Yea whatever.” He may have sounded irritated, but he doesn’t blame Midoriya. He may not know exactly why; but Midoriya must have his reasons.

Hitoshi himself was nervous of back alleys for the longest time too.

Mostly because alleys were the most common places that his previous classmates could openly bully him without the interference from the teachers. (not that the teachers would do much anyway; but at lease when they were around, it didn’t turn physical).

Going home after being beat up in an alley, and having to face his worried parents wasn’t fun. So, yea Hitoshi was not fond of alleys, and he would avoid them anytime he could.

But that was in the past; things have changed since then.

And it was all thanks to his mentor Eraserhead. The alleys that Hitoshi once feared; have now become his playground full of possibilities.

The perks to having a pro hero training him personally, at times it’s a grueling painful hell to work though. But the on the other hand there where things he could do that many of the other hero student don’t get the chance to until way later in their training.

Hitoshi for one has been on so many patrols with Eraser that he paratactically knows all of Erasers patrol routes like they were his own.

Now he would never say it out loud, because he knows he would get scolded. But there are days, many days actually; that when Hitoshi is out shopping, he will stick to the alleys just so he doesn’t have to deal with all the other people.

He has never run into trouble before…

Well, if he doesn’t count that one time. Hitoshi had broken up a few middle schoolers from beating up another kid.

It really wasn’t a big deal, he just yelled and they saw that they were caught and ran away. They had only gotten a hit or two on the kid before he showed up, so in the end it all worked out alright.

All that aside, Hitoshi may not be worried about trouble in the alleys this time of day; but deep down he doesn’t want to force his friend do something he doesn’t want to.

With that the teens stay on the sidewalk next to the main road. No more alleyways from here on out…

…

Or so they though; because Life doesn’t always go the way you want it too.

Chapter Text

Not even 5 minutes has passed when they run into trouble. But if he wants to be more accurate; that was when trouble came to them in the form of a Shiba Inus.

They were almost to the street corner when they heard a commotion behind them, and both teens turned around to see.

“Hachiko STOP! COME BACK HERE HACHIKO!!!” It was a 13- or 14-year-old girl with a collar and a leash in her hand, running down the sidewalk dodging people while chasing after her loose dog.

At this point the dog was running right toward them and both hero students tried to stop the runaway dog. But with the grocery bags in their hands, combined with how fast the dog was running he was able evaded them.

Once the dog had gotten passed them, instead of turning the corner; which was wide open and clear of people. The dog instead continued to run straight, right into the incoming traffic.

“SHIT!” Hitoshi yelled; his eyes going wide realizing what was about to happen. And he quicky grabbed Midoriya by the shoulder stopping him before he ran into the road too.

Neither teen said a word as they stood there watching; and hoping the dog wouldn’t get hit as he zigzags through the cars flying by. It kind of surprised Hitoshi at how well the dog was navigating the traffic. Maybe Hachiko would be able to make it to the other side after all.

 But his luck didn’t seem to last long enough. When the dog was about halfway to the other side; everything went to hell.

It was the same moment when Hachiko’s owner had finally made it to the corner near the curb, still huffing from her run. And all three saw the dog run right into the path of an express bus.

“HACHIKO!” The girl screamed in horror, and a flash of light emanated from her as she jumped forward into the gutter in an attempt to stop the dog.

The hero students were quick to act and each grabbed one of her arms pulling her back on that sidewalk, as a car speed by seconds later.  

“Getting hit by a car yourself, isn’t going to save your dog.” Hitoshi said trying to calm the girl down; but he realized his fault as soon as the words left his mouth. He failed so badly, Midoriya cringed at the bluntness and choice of words.

Tears were running down the girl’s face as she whimpered; fighting the urge to break down. Hitoshi tried to come up with something to say, yet the words just didn’t come. But like always Midoriya had his back. “I’m sorry we couldn’t save your dog…”

“Yea.” Hitoshi nodded awkwardly, as they took a few steps away from the edge of the sidewalk. Hitoshi then looked back to the road, to see how bad the damage was. But luck must have been on their side, because there was no other way to explain it.

As the bus continued down the street out of sight; Midoriya pointed and yelled above the sound of the traffic. “LOOK! He’s fine! The dog made it to the other side.”

Hitoshi looked where Midoriya had pointed and sure enough the dog was on the other side of the street running down the sidewalk, as if he didn’t just have a near run in with death.

“I’ll get the dog, and you stay with the girl Shinsou.” Midoriya left no room for arguing, and let go of the girl. At that point the lights had changed, so he had no problem crossing the street.

‘Damn, I would have rather gone after the dog.’

At this point with no other choice, Hitoshi turned his attention to the girl who was wiping her tears way with her free hand. “It’s ok, my friend will get your dog. But in the meantime, let’s get you away from the street.”

She nods and Hitoshi guilds her away from road over to the corner of the building. He lets go of her arm and she uses the building as a support.

She was still breathing hard and trying to catch her breath from running earlier on top of everything else that had just happened. Not know what else to say Hitoshi, says the first thing that comes to mind. “So, what’s your name?”

Then he immediately curses at himself mentally; he always screws up when it comes to talking to civilians. He either forgets to say something or says it out of order.

He is supposed to introduce himself first, especially since he is not in his hero gear. Because why should someone tell a random person they just met their name?

Hero work aside he would never give someone his name unless it’s for a good reason; but even then, if he can avoid it he will.  

Talking to his classmates, or somebody he is trying to intimidate and even provoking dangerous villains comes easy. The same cannot be said for the people he is trying to help. But before he can spiral anymore from his mistake, she answers him.

“My name’s Suzuki. And I had Hachiko tied up outside a shop while I was getting drinks when he slipped his collar off. It’s not the first time he has done it, but he has never run this far before.”

“Yea. Well, it’s fine my friend will catch your dog, in no time.” Rather than worry about how the proper way to handle this situation is; Hitoshi just goes with it the best he can. Which is almost a repeat of what he said to her earlier.

“Since this isn’t the first time your dog has gotten loose like that; you might want to get a harness for him, that way he wouldn’t be able to escape like he did today.” Hitoshi says, eyes drifting across the street to the alley that Midoriya had followed the dog out of sight.

And that is when he noticed that Midoriya had left his bag of groceries on the sidewalk and a few apples had rolled out, and were near the curb.

“I never thought about that; it’s a good idea. I’ll do that today as soon as Hachiko is back.” Suzuki says from behind him.

Hitoshi nods and starts to walk over to pick up the bag before the foot traffic increased and someone stepped on it.

But then he sees a guy in a black hoodie and jeans, turn into the same alley that Midoriya just went down. Something about it feels off and just doesn’t seem right. 

“Stay here, I’ll be right back.” Hitoshi called over his shoulder and started jogging across the street before the light changed again.

“Hey WAIT!!! I forgot my quirk accidently went off.” 

Hitoshi hears her call, but he doesn’t stop. He can’t let that guy sneak up on Midoriya, when all his focus was on catching the dog. He can worry about Suzuki’s quirk later.

Hitoshi slowed to a fast walk right before he turned the corner into the alley. He adjusted the bags that he still had in his hands, and he started to walk more casual. He is simply just a teen taking a short cut on his way home from the store.

If he is wrong about the guy then that is all it will be, nothing more nothing less. But if he is right, he doesn’t want to go in there guns a blazing, and tip the bad guy off.

Eraser had taught him that if possible, get as close to your target as you can before he puts his guard up. And in this case being a teen looking for a shortcut home; will not be deemed as much as a threat, as a hero student clearly on a mission would be. 

Once Hitoshi entered the alley, he saw the hoodie guy at the other end looking around the corner. He didn’t see Midoriya, but his guess is the dog turned that way and ran down the other street with his friend following right on his tail.

Hitoshi just kept walking forward, even if Midoriya wasn’t in trouble at the moment he wanted to find him. He has already come this far, so he can at least make sure they can take a different route on the way back to the girl.

If they were here on patrol for hero training, his strategy and goal for this would be very different.

But as long as nobody gets hurt or anyone’s life in danger, Hitoshi just wants to give the girl back her dog. And get himself and Midoriya back to UA in one piece without making it on the 12 o’clock news.

He was about halfway through the alley when the man turned around, his eyes zeroing in on Hitoshi. And what Hitoshi saw conformed his thoughts.

From the way the man walked, to the prison tattoos on his neck that can be seen with his hoodie only zipped halfway up. And the last thing that pointed to the man being bad news, was his right hand in his coat gripping something.

It was most likely a gun, but at this distances Hitoshi couldn’t be sure. The man then hollered. “What are you doing down here kid?”

“What?” Hitoshi had a confused look on his face, as he pulled out one of his earbuds; that he put in his ears right before he entered the ally. He did lace his quirk into his question, just in case. 

“I asked you what you’re doing here.” The man said gruffly narrowing his eyes.

“Oh, I’m just heading home, after picking up some groceries.” Hitoshi lifted the bags to emphasize his point, as he continues to walk. He was about 15 feet away now.

“Well, from now on keep to the main streets. Back alleys are dangerous.” The man looks Hitoshi over one last time, and he pulls his hand out of his jacket, and zips it back up.

Yea, like he’s one that can talk. He definitely is one of the dangers that lurk in the back alleys. But Hitoshi didn’t say what he was thinking, nodding as he walked past the man. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good, because this is no place for kids.” Then man then took out a cigarette lighting it up, and leaned against the building casually.

Hitoshi made it to the end of the alley and turned left. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the man was still surveying the alley, it was almost like he was guarding something.

What it was Hitoshi had no clue. Yes, he was curious to what that something is. But he knows now isn’t the time for that. Right now, he has to find Midoriya before he runs into more trouble.

Once he was out of sight of the alley, he lets the hold on his quirk drop and starts jogging. He was looking and listening for any sign of Midoriya or the dog.

About two minutes later he went around a long line of people that where poured out of a café onto the sidewalk, when he saw a head of curly green hair heading his direction. And overflowing in Midoriya’s arms was the orange and white escape artist; Hachiko.

Hitoshi met Midoriya halfway, when his friend asked. “What are you doing here Shinsou? Did something happen?”

“Not exactly… I came to find you. And make sure, you were fine.” Hitoshi didn’t realize until after he got here, that it was kind of stupid to be worried about Midoriya.

Especially after his how his encounter with the guy in the hoodie went, he knows Midoriya would have been able to talk his way out if the guy did stop him.

 But it was too late now Hitoshi had already left the girl he was supposed to stay with and watch until Midoriya got back. He had one simple job to do, and he had abandoned it.

Not only that but what if she didn’t listen and follow him into that alley? He knows he has shrewd up big time.

And all because he thought Midoriya might get in trouble. The same one who in reality has way more real-life training and experience than himself.

“It took longer than I thought it would to catch the dog, but I’m fine.” Midoriya said breaking Hitoshi out of his thoughts. And his gaze told Hitoshi that he was trying to figure out why he came here.

“I- the first alley you went down, I saw a guy in a hoodie follow you.” Hitoshi tried to explain, because there is no point in hiding the truth. “But he didn’t leave the alley, so maybe he wasn’t following you?”

At this point Hitoshi had started to second guess everything, because as he tries to remember, he remembers seeing the logo that was on the guy’s hoodie was the same logo as on one of the buildings.

Hitoshi never did see if it was a gun hidden in his coat. Was the guy out there avoiding work or just to grab a smoke? Did he really read the situation completely wrong?

“I didn’t even notice; I was only paying attention to catching the dog. But we can take the long way around to get back, just in case.” Midoriya nodded.

“Actually, can we take this next alley as a short cut. I’m running short on time as it is.” Hitoshi pointed to the nearest alley. He just wants to be done with this.

And he didn’t dare look at the time. Because he knows that even if he ran back to UA right now, he was in for Aizawa’s hell training. And it would probably take up at least half his lesson today. So, yea he doesn’t to see how bad he is doing timewise.

“Yes, it’s was my fault we are taking so long to get back anyway.” Midoriya said with apologetic look in his eyes, as they enter the alley.

“No, I don’t blame you. We both missed the dog, and he almost got killed running across the road. It’s not like we could just leave the girl to deal with it.” Hitoshi shakes his head.

He doesn’t want to think about what would have happened if they weren’t there.

“Yea, Hero or not, helping catch Hachiko was the right thing to do.” Midoriya says as he starts to fall behind, and readjusts his grip on the dog.

The dog whines, and Hitoshi hears a thud behind him. He attempts to turn around to see what happened but he is hit by a sudden dizzy spell.

As Hitoshi fights the dizziness trying to keep himself steady; he can only wonder if this day can really get any worse?

Then Hitoshi’s vison blacks out and his legs give out, consciousness fading as he falls to the ground.

*~~~~~~*~~~*Present time~~~*~~~~~~*

Once Midoriya reached Hitoshi side; he points out something that Hitoshi had missed as his mind being in other places. “Unfortunately, it looks like along with our clothes, all our stuff in our pockets has transformed with us or something…”

Hitoshi looks around; Midoriya’s right. Other than two plastic grocery bags that are just lying there, he doesn’t see anything of his or Midoriya’s stuff laying around.

“No phones and no other way to contact anyone. So, we are basically on our own.” Hitoshi states the obvious, as his tail lashes responding to his irritation of the situation.

“Yea.” Midoriya muttered, looking around as he sniffed the air.

If they had access to even one phone, he knows they could have easily figured this out. But they don’t, because of course it can’t be that easy.

At this point Hitoshi was no longer worried about tripping and falling as he walks over to one of the bags on the ground. He didn’t trip even once and he didn’t know if it was that of pure determination or what, but whatever the reason was it doesn’t matter.

He peers into the bag, hoping but knowing he won’t find anything useful. And sure enough, he is right.

All he sees two boxes of chocolate energy bars he bought earlier. Hitoshi knows that his other bag contains the same thing so he won’t even bother looking in that one.

It’s at that moment that Hitoshi remembers that he had abandoned the side mission of retrieving Midoriya’s forgotten bags, to chase after Midoriya.

It would have been so easy to just scoop the bags up as he ran past, but he didn’t. Hitoshi shakes his head dismissing the thought; it probably wouldn’t make a different anyway.

The anxiety that he had when he first woke up has been replaced by frustration and anger. If he wasn’t so bent on getting the energy bars he wouldn’t be here.

He won’t blame this on anyone else, but himself. His mother raised him better than to go blaming his problems on everyone else.

Hitoshi glares at his grocery bag like it personally offended him. He tries to punch the box though the bag in an attempt to dispel his anger, but it didn’t work the way it should have.

Not only did he barely hit it, as his paw didn’t give him the force behind it that he wanted. But his claws extended at the last second as he pulled away and got caught the plastic bag.

“LET GO STUPID BAG!” Hitoshi jumped back hissing and shaking his paw like crazy trying to get loose. But instead of it coming off; his claws sunk deeper in the bag. And he was pulling it backwards with him as he tried to get away from it.

The more desperate Hitoshi was t to lose it, the worse the situation got. Not only where the boxes on the inside shifting from him running backward and throw off his balance.

But as he tried to steady it so it didn’t crush him; Hitoshi got the claws from his other front paw stuck in the bag too.

Hitoshi was jumping backwards and about to lose it and start panicking when Midoriya’s voice came though. “SHINSOU STOP AND CALM DOWN!”

It made Hitoshi freezes and take a shaky breath. As he tries to gather his bearings, he realizes that he must have been at least slightly panicked to get to this point.

“Ok, good. Now instead of just pulling, try relaxing your claws before pulling out.” Midoriya instructed as he walked closer.

Hitoshi then put all his effort into trying to relax; which took a bit longer than he would like to admit. But he was able to get one paw to relax enough to pull the claws back in, and then the other.

Once he was freed and had put some distance between himself and the bag. He huffed “That was dumb and a complete waste of time.”

Hitoshi has seen his cat get stuck to a bag before; multiple time actually. He always thought it was funny to watch and half the time he would have to stop what he was doing to help her get unstuck.

But now having experience it firsthand he realizes it’s no laughing matter. Why did that thought not come to him? He just needed to relax his claws. Hitoshi KNOWS cats, and hell he has told his cat the same thing many times before… 

“Don’t be too hard on yourself Shinsou… until I- you nearly ran me over, I was – aah- tiring to figure out- why my tail is so short…” Midoriya said in an embarrassment tone.

That caught Hitoshi’s attention, and he took a closer look at the black /deep forest green kitten. And sure enough, Midoriya was lacking in the tail area.

Being a cat nerd as some of his friends call him; Hitoshi knows the reason right of the top of his head.  “That’s probably because you’re a Japanese bobtail.”

“But I have long hai- ah fur, all the bobtails that I’ve seen have short hair…” Midoriya scrunched his nose making his whiskers move. “Unless… somehow the length of our hair is taken in account as the quirk turned us into cats. It’s high possibility especially considering your fluffier than I am. And-”

“Hate to break it to you Midoriya; but Japanese bobtails do have a long-haired variety too. And to be more accurate your fur is medium length… I get your excited about how the quirk works, but we have already gotten side tracked.” Hitoshi interrupts.

He knows he is partially to blame for straying from their mission to find the girl; between the bag incident, and then him ‘almost’ nerding out over cat facts. It’s not like he is pinning the blame on Midoriya; but if he didn’t stop Midoriya now he could go on for hours about it.

 “Yea. Let’s go see if the girl is still there.” Midoriya turned the direction, that they had originally been going in. And Hitoshi followed behind. “Ok”

Since waking up as a kitten; he had noticed how walking on the gravel on his pawed feet didn’t quite hurt but it felt really awkward. But now as he tests out a jog/trot he has already gotten used to the new terrain.

It may not be much, but Hitoshi will take every little victory he can.

“We need to go to the left… right Shinsou?” Midoriya askes as they get close to the corner. Ignoring his impulse to tease Midoriya and make fun of the wording, Hitoshi just answers with a simple ‘yes’.    

When the pair reaches corner; Hitoshi pauses to look up at the sky so he can gage how much time has passed. He failed to notice Midoriya walk into the middle of the sidewalk without him.

Hitoshi breathes a sigh of relief upon seeing the sun; it looks like only about 15-20 minutes had passed since he left to chase Midoriya and the dog.

But his relief is short lived as he hears Midoriya yell and disappear from sight. A pair of black high heels and long grey slacks near were the Midoriya was a moment ago.

Hitoshi looks up to see a woman in her 20s that’s dressed in an expensive looking ruffled blue top, and in her manicured hands is the black kitten that is yelling and trying to get her to understand him.

“Hey! Please put me down! I may look like a kitten but I’m not. I have to find the girl that accidently made me like this with her quirk.”

It wasn’t until now that Hitoshi realized that while he understood what Midoriya was saying, he wasn’t speaking Japanese. And if he listened closely, he could make out squeaky meows as Midoriya talked…

“OH! I get it; you must be starving Little Cutie Pie. I wonder how long you have been out here all alone on the streets?” The woman says with worried look on her face as she completely misunderstands Midoriya. “I have 3 other kitty cats at home but none are as cute as you are.”

“I really shouldn’t, but what do you think about coming home with me cutie pie? You will go from living a hard life on the street to a life of luxury with plenty of food. But don’t worry I won’t tell the other cats that I think you’re the cutest one. That will be our little secret. Ok?” She talks to Midoriya in a baby voice.

Hitoshi just stands there dumbfound as he watches from the sidelines; not know what to do. He was never trained, nor taught of what to do in this type of situation. If it was a lost kid, robbery, a hostage situation, hell even if it was a normal kidnapping; he would know how to handle it.

But a catnapping when the kitten in question is actually his classmate/friend turned into a cat, Hitoshi had no clue of what to do. But if he doesn’t do something fast; she is going to walk away with Midoriya.

And if that happens not only, will it be harder to find the girl on his own and get the whole quirk thing figured out. But he knows Eraser will be very upset that he lost the Problem child or uh problem kitten in this case, without doing a single thing about it.

 “NO, NO! I’m NOT a stray I don’t want to go home with you! NO! STOP! YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!” Midoriya yelled and fought using all four paws to his advantage as she tried to put him in her large black purse.

“It’s is ok cutie pie; I’m not going to hurt you. I just can’t let you be seen until after we get to the penthouse.” She tries to calm him down.

Fuck it; there was no other way, and no time to come up with a plan. Hitoshi ran as fast as he could and dodged feet of another person walking by and did the first thing that came to mind. And that was tackle the women’s feet, and refused to let go.

That caused the women to stop what she was doing and scream; while holding Midoriya close to protect him from the unknown threat at her feet.

 “PUT MIDORIYA DOWN!”  Hitoshi spoke with a yowl but with his kitten voice it didn’t quite come out as intimidating as he wanted it to. The woman relaxed as soon as she realized it was just another kitten at her feet.

And Midoriya was still in her hands, just tiring to get his bearings together from the probable whiplash he had, one second fighting to stay out of her bag

“So, that’s why you didn’t want to go with me. You didn’t want to leave your sibling behind.” She smiles coming to a conclusion and bend down to a crouch.

“What a good wittle kitty.” She pets Midoriya; then moves to hold him with one hand. And tries to get Hitoshi off her ankles. “Come here buddy, I won’t hurt you.”

“No! Stay away! Just put Midoriya down. And I’ll let you go on your way.” Hitoshi hisses and glances at her while still holding onto her ankle moving just out of reach.

 But it doesn’t do much good as she gently grabs the scruff of his neck from behind, making his body go limp.

“See you may be a little feisty now, but my cat Momo was just like you when I first got her. Now she’s the biggest cuddle bug ever, and she never wants to leave my side. I’m sure with time you will warm up to people too.”

She lifts him and she stands up now with a kitten in each hand. Hitoshi just stares at her with a low growl in his throat. Any other day he would be happy to see someone treat a stray cat with this sort of gentle kindness, but why him and why now?!

“There now you can see each other.” The woman then pulls the kittens in close and pins them to her chest, to get a better hold on them.

 Her action makes this whole thing more embarrassed. Especially since his kitten body wants to lean in closer, and he is really fighting the urge to purr. Hitoshi steals a glance at Midoriya and he appears to be in the same predicament.

Of course, she has no clue that they are actually hero students and not mere stray kittens, but that doesn’t make it any easier for the speechless kittens. 

It looks like Hitoshi fears may be true. Not only do they look like cats, it seems like cat behavior has been programed into their furry bodies too. He suspected that maybe the case after the bag incident. But….

Yea, he isn’t going to go there; Cuz if he does, he might just lose the what little sanity he has left.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Hitoshi realizes that the woman had started walking as she talked to them. “….so sadly because of that. I can’t take any more cats in. If it was just one of you, I could have made it slide. But with two I know that wouldn’t happen.”   

 “And separating you wittle kitties wouldn’t be fair. So instead of taking you home myself I’ll bring you to my friend; she works with a high-end animal rescue. And she can find you guys the nice home that you deserve and can take both of you in.”

She continued telling the UA kittens her plans; like it was a perfectly normal thing to do… Then again who is he to question whether or not it’s normal. Because when he, himself is alone with a cat, he basically does the same thing. But that is beside the point.

It's not like Hitoshi didn’t mind her telling them what she was doing; it actually helped to know her plans. And now he knows they need to get out of her hands ASAP.

But he already knew that… Now he just has to come up with a plan to get her to put both him and Midoriya down.

Chapter Text

Why?! Just why couldn’t he have been turned into a full sized or a mostly grown kittens instead of a tiny little fluff ball that could practically do nothing?

Hitoshi could scream at this point.

Even Midoriya commented that logically they should have been turned into cats that were at least 9 months old; not 2-month-old kittens. Then he went on saying how it could possibly be a de-ageing effect working alongside the transforming part.

Midoriya had a few more theories but after hearing the first one Hitoshi quit listening, he would rather not know. If it wasn’t for their current predicament Hitoshi would have probably lost it; jumping to conclusions and other places his mind shouldn’t go to…

But that is a worry for later. He needs to escape this woman’s grasp with Midoriya before they get to their unwanted destination. Which was harder than he had hoped; their current size not giving them any advantages.

Since being picked up Hitoshi has tried shrugging, growling, hissing, glaring, and to Midoriya’s dismay even threating her. But the most that happened was she would try to calm him with soothing words, and gently petting him with her thumb.

They had already passed by the intersection where Hitoshi had left Suzuki, and kept going west. But the girl was nowhere in sight when they passed by.

Despite their original plan going to shit; both he and Midoriya agreed it would be best not to wind up in an animal shelter, they can figure out what their next move after they are free.

Hitoshi knows that they are running out of time. He's considering making good on his threats, maybe by biting or starching her so she will put him down for a moment, even if it’s just to readjust her grip.

But he really doesn’t want to cause her pain. And for one he isn’t a real cat, but a hero student and it's not very heroic to hurt someone like this. It isn’t really a life and death kind of situation, if it was then that would be different.

She’s just doing her best to help them, and he doesn’t want to do anything that would discourage someone from helping a few stray cats in the future.    

As Hitoshi debates on whether to act or not, he notices Midoriya stare at him with calculating eyes as if he can read his thoughts. Then right as Midoriya opens his mouth to say something, a phone rings making both kittens jolt at the sudden sound.     

“Sorry, my phone scared you kitties, but I got to get this.” The woman stops walking and transfers Midoriya right next to Hitoshi and pinning him with her arm as she reaches into her bag for her phone. “Hello, Daddy?”

“Midoriya now’s your chance; her hold on you shouldn’t be very strong so you can easily break free.”

Hitoshi urges, but Midoriya gets a worried look on his face. “Normally I’d be fine with that, but it’s a long way to the ground and I don’t know if this kitten form can handle a drop like that.”

 “Look, you either take this chance now; best case being you don’t get hurt we escape. And at worst you might break something, but what else is new? This lady would just take you to get looked at by the vet.”

He gets where Midoriya’s coming from but it’s not likely that they will get another chance. “Or we will have to make more drastic measures that you won’t like later.”

Hitoshi side eyed Midoriya as he goes through all the possibilities in his head. “Well, if it makes you feel better, I can just bite her. Being distracted she’ll probably drop us both.”

 “No… I’ll do it. Just be ready when you get a chance to run.” Midoriya said, no long second guessing himself. Even being a kitten, Hitoshi could see the determination in his green eyes.

“-going to be a little late… No. I’m not shopping,” The women huffs. “I’m just going to meet Sakara, I found a few stray kittens. And- Ahh!”

 Midoriya wiggled, sliding out of her grip and hit the ground feet first. Then he took off as fast as he his little feet would take him.

Hitoshi took advantage of her loosening grip, as she argued on the phone trying to end her call, chasing Midoriya. He fought and squirmed and dropping to the ground, just narrowly missing being stepped on by her high heels.

“This way! Follow me Shinsou!” Midoriya yelled out behind him turning into an alley. Hitoshi had no plans himself so he trusted Midoriya and just stared running, passing the women as she struggled to catch up.

Both kittens where breathing hard trying to catch their breath, as they hid under a dumpster. Hitoshi can see the woman’s black pants legs pooling low on her heels, the expensive fabric nearly touching the ground as she crouches there calling to them.

“Now what do we do?” Hitoshi turns back to Midoriya, as he finally starts to breath normally.

“Easy. We wait here until she gives up.” Midoriya looks at him calmly, as Hitoshi scrunches his nose. “But what if she tries get us, this dumpster is high enough off the ground she can reach us.”

“Shinsou, that’s not likely to happen. You’re like the only person, who would get down on your hands and knees in a dirty alley to crawl under a dumpster just to get a cat.”

Midoriya says yawning, then he curled up in a ball up against the wall. “We should rest while we can. After the woman leaves, we can decide what to do from there.”      

Hitoshi huffs; he can’t be the only person out there to go to those lengths to help a cat. It’s not any worse than getting a little dirty and you can just wash it off later. Besides people save cats from trees or ponds all the time; it’s really not that different…

Fine. Midoriya did have a point. So far, the woman hadn’t done anything but crouch there calling to them using the weird names she gave them. But she hadn’t even leaned down to see if they were even still there.

So, yea it’s not really a threat like he thought it was.

At this point Hitoshi’s eyes start to feel heavy and he starts swaying on his feet. Then he let out a little squeak of a yawn; one that he’s definitely not proud up. He tries to fight it, because now is not the time to fall asleep.

And thought comes to his mind. What if falling asleep is a trigger to transform?

They had lost conscious when the quirk took effect, so logically it might be the same to reverse it. And that would be very bad if they were still under the dumpster if that happened.

Even if that’s not the case, they can’t both let their guard down at the same time. Hitoshi hears purring and sees Midoriya had already fallen asleep.

The black kitten looks so comfortable, and something about it just makes him want to curl up next to the other kitten, and let his worries drift away. Hitoshi shakes his head, hissing a curse at himself. He will not lose his mind and become a cat any further.

Then a spike of fear shot though him; what if falling asleep means they lose what little bit of themselves that remain human? Instead of turning them back?

“Midoriya. Midoriya wake UP! We can’t sleep! We are under a quirk effect so anything can happen,” Hitoshi shouted, but his words weren’t making much sense. “Sleeping that last thing we should ever do!’”

But the only reaction he got was a twitch of an ear from the black kitten. Hitoshi didn’t know what to do, not even the mention of a quirk helped.

Dammit! Why do cats have to sleep so much?!

His mind continued to get slower and foggier until he couldn’t even think straight.  Hitoshi’s eye lids drifted shut without his permission, and despite being under a dumpster in an alley that smelled vaguely like dirty clothes and half rotten seafood, he fell into a peaceful sleep.  

*~~~~~~*~~~~~~*~~~~~~*

“Hey, get up Shinsou. The woman is gone; we should get going.” Midoriya was shaking Hitoshi.  

He just wanted to sleep a little longer, and he was planning on doing just that, but Hitoshi managed was to crack his eyes open a little bit, and saw a black kitten.

Where did this kitten come from? The kitten seemed familiar, but with as sleepy as he was Hitoshi just couldn’t pin point why he should know. Because he doesn’t have any kittens, and last he checked nobody he knew had a black kitten either.

He had a feeling like he had something important that he needs to do, but he can’t remember what that is.  

Hitoshi let out a little yawn, trying to put the pieces together.

Then the memories of the morning flooded his mind; and he suddenly jumped up hitting his head on the bottom of the dumpster. Hitoshi yelped, and rubbed his head with his paw. “Ouch!”

“I didn’t mean, we had to jump in to action right this second. You can take a moment to wake up first.”  Midoriya grimaced.

 “No, I…. I just remembered what brought us here… So, there’s no reason to wait around.”  Hitoshi started to crawl forward; his face grew hot with embarrassment upon remembering his delirious panic.

 It’s actually a good thing Midoriya was asleep at the time, at least that means there were no witnesses. The bag incident earlier was bad enough; he doesn’t want to end up in any more stupid situations.

Hitoshi stayed close to the wall and poked his head out from under the dumpster, ready to retreat if needed. But Midoriya was right and nobody was in the alley, so he stepped out.

“After we see where exactly where we are, our best bet will probably be finding our way to UA.”   

“Yea, and since we don’t know much time has passed; trying to go back and find the girl at this point would be useless. The teachers might be able to help and if not; Kouda should be able to translate for us.” Midoriya poked his head out from behind Hitoshi.

“Just make sure to stay close to the wall this time so you don’t get snatched up again.” Hitoshi said, walking along the gross stained wall. He was careful not to touch it, but stayed as close as he dared.

It was weird; instead of feeling cornered with the towering wall next to him, he actually felt safer and less exposed. He has seen dozens of cats walk near walls rather than out in the open, but be never put any thought as to why.

Hitoshi thought he understood cat behavior, pretty good… well, at least better than most people. And yet he hasn’t been a cat that long and he’s beginning to understand them on a whole new level.

“I won’t let that happen again! -” Midoriya squeaked from behind Hitoshi breaking him out of his thoughts. “-besides she picked you up too…”

“Yea, but-” Hitoshi wanted to make his point, but arguing isn’t going to get them anywhere. “…Whatever, it doesn’t matter anyway. Let’s just focus on getting back.”

Midoriya nodded in agreement as they had reached the end of the alley. The building next to them and the other one next to it turned out to be some old brick, but not too terribly rundown apartments buildings.

And the strip of stores across the street that they could see constituted of a ramen shop, a second-hand clothing store, and a convenience store with a huge chibi boba tea mascot cut-out sigh that sagged on the sidewalk.

After seeing this Hitoshi knew exactly where they were, but Midoriya excitedly spoke up before he could. “Shinsou! I know where we are!”

“The park’s about a block and a half away from here! It’s the same one that I was going to meet Eri and the Big Three at!” Midoriya had a huge grin on his face and his little stub tail stood up.

“And if we’re lucky they might still be there.” Midoriya looked to the sky. Hitoshi followed suit and looked up, yet at this point he has no idea of how much time has passed.

The sun was still high in the sky, but with paws instead of hands; he couldn’t gage how much time had passed. It could have been 10 minutes or an hour, and he always had a hard time when it came to figuring out the time around the noon to one or two o’clock hour anyway, but that is beside the point.

“But if you didn’t show up ye,t then won’t they be waiting for you at UA? And not be out at the park unless you where there too?” Hitoshi raised his brow questioningly.   

Midoriya just nodded, a bit to ecstatically. “Normally yes; but since I had to go to the store for ingredients, I knew I might be late and told them to head out when we planned. And I would catch up to later, if I ran late. But don’t you see this is our chance!”

Kitten Midoriya was literally buzzing with excitement. But the only thing on Hitoshi’s mind was, as much as he hoped it would be that easy, it rarely was.

He may not know the exact time, but now Aizawa would know that something was up, since he still hadn’t showed up for training.

So, it’s only a matter of time before Midoriya is put on the missing 1A student list too. If that’s the case, the teachers will put a stop to outings planned or otherwise, until the situation is handled or resolved. 

But Hitoshi didn’t share any of his thoughts with Midoriya and instead starts walking on the sideway close to the buildings. “Ok, let’s go.”

Midoriya happily trotted next to him as they did their best to avoid people and not call attention to themselves.

He didn’t really believe that Midoriya’s picnic group was going to be there, but they did have to pass the park on their way back to UA anyway.  

Also, Hitoshi didn’t want to see a pitiful looking Midoriya kitten if he said something to squash the hope the green kitten was feeding off of. He would find out soon enough, without Hitoshi pointing it out.

And frankly seeing Midoriya like this, makes Hitoshi feel like it’s going to be ok. He’ll take anything to keep the fear at bay. He just needs to keep tell himself that turning into a cat is only temporary, it can’t be permanent… right?

*~~~~~~*~~~~~~*~~~~~~*

The trek to the park was easier than Hitoshi had expected. Most people either didn’t bother looking down at all or just ignored the pair of kittens running along the ground near the foot of the buildings.

And other than the one guy who stumbled to avoid stepping on Midoriya as they ran past a wide double doorway leading into a department store, they didn’t run into trouble.

At this point Hitoshi had gotten used to all his new senses and how his kitten body worked; it felt normal, almost natural to be a cat. That in of itself, scared the hell out of him.

But as long as he doesn’t think about it, it’s all good. He just needs to focus on making it back to UA in one piece, along with Midoriya.

Before they even saw the park; Hitoshi could smell the sweet scent of freshly cut grass, the woody? bark smell of trees, and so many different kinds of flowers, weeds, with smells that just kind of meshed together.

Midoriya lead the way through the park, as he knew where the picnic was supposed to be. That was fine with Hitoshi, he was distracted taking in his surroundings anyway.

The dirt here smelled different too; it wasn’t the stained, spoiled dirt with bits of trash mixed in it, like that from the alleys. No, this dirt was way cleaner than that. It was earthy, and slightly damp but not muddy. 

Laughter from kids playing nearby reached his ears as they trotted past a white fountain, the concrete it was made out of, was damp and smelled wet; but it almost had powdery smell to it too.

Has everything always had such different and distinct smells to it? Or was it just his heighted kitten senses that allow him to pick it up?

Some of his private lessons with his mentor they would train without the use of sight, and relying on his other sharpeden senses instead. But he never realized that something as simple as dirt could smell so different depending on where it came from or how wet it was.

And now that he thinks about it, it’s kinda funny just how many of those sightless training sessions Eraser has done with him, especially with the fact that the pros’ heroes quirk is relays on sight.

In a weird way it does make sense, being able to still fight effectively without the use of sight could very well save his life one day. But that lesson won’t help him here.

Actually, right now Hitoshi knows that currently all of the physical training is practically useless in kitten form. If turning into a cat was his quirk then he is sure that there would be some kind of training that he could do to make this form useful somehow too, but this is only temporary.

He’s having a hard enough time trying to ignored the growing hunger in his stomach; it started once he woke up from the unwilling nap this body forced on him.

The best option he has now is to focus on making sure his mental state doesn’t take a dive. Which Eraser has insisted was more important than most make it out to be, yet so many overlook.

Midoriya suddenly stopped causing Hitoshi to bump into him, and before he could say anything; the black kitten shouted pointing with his paw. “LOOK SHINSOU! WERE NOT TOO LATE!!!”

Hitoshi’s eyes widen at the sight; he could hardly believe it. Near the middle of the park, Togata sat on the edge of a large blue picnic blanket. He looked relaxed in a simple red polo shirt and jeans with his iconic grin plastered to his face.

And he wasn’t alone.

Hato was doing some kind of elaborate hairstyle that involved braids in Eri’s hair. And she was wearing a striped periwinkle coat that was identical to the one Eri was wearing over a cute pink dress. Eri was constraining on sitting very still so not to mess up Hato.

Hitoshi spotted Present Mic leaning against the tree that shaded half the blanket; and he was glancing around the park every now and then.

Mic wasn’t in hero gear but his civilian look instead, that consisted of normal rectangle glasses, hair pulled back into a half bun, a brown bomber jacket, and a pair of blue jeans.

And on the other side of the picnic blanket sitting by the trunk of the maple tree, was another UA student in a dark blue hoodie. Judging by the way he sat with his head bowed, and hood pulled down as far as it could go; it was probably Amajiki.

It wasn’t uncommon for Togata and Hato to drag the shy, anxiety ridden teen around with them, whether he likes it or not. It just goes to show that it doesn’t matter if you’re a first year or a third year; if your friends deem it important that you need to leave your comfortable spot in the corner to go out into the center of things, your never safe.

“Come on, Shinsou!” Midoriya shouted, not waiting for a reply before he sprinted forward. Hitoshi wanted him to wait, but once Midoriya sets his mind to something there’s nothing stopping him.

Giving up on getting a plan together first, Hitoshi ran down the small hill after the bobtail kitten.

“OH!” Togata exclaimed. He spotted them and was on his feet before they even reached the blanket. Midoriya didn’t put up a fight when he was grabbed, but to Hitoshi’s displeasure Togata didn’t take the hint and scooped him up mid hiss.  

Hitoshi didn’t care that Togata was his upperclassman or that he was probably the ticket out of this mess.

No, he refuses to treated like this; he’s not some animal. This is why he didn’t want to running into this without any kind of plan. Midoriya didn’t seem bothered by the situation, but Hitoshi glared at the blonde, his tail lashed wildly as he demand with a growl to be put down.

But Togata paid him no mind as he lifted both hands, one kitten in each into the air. He had a huge grin on his face as he spoke, not even realizing that they were clinging on for dear life. “Look guys, we can play with these kittens to pass the time until Midoriya shows up!”

Both Eri and Hato squealed with excitement, but it was surprisingly the teen in the hoodie who had straighten up at the sight and spoke the voice of reason. “Mirio, you’re scaring the poor kittens, put them down.”

“Oops, sorry kitties.” A sheepish grin appeared on Togata’s face as he set them down in the middle of the blanket and he sat near the edge of the blanket.

The girls cooed at how cute and fluffy they were, but that and anything else that happening was lost to Hitoshi. Because as soon as his feet hit the ground; instinct took over and Hitoshi hissed, hair standing on end as he slowly backed away from the blonde.

Midoriya on the other hand had just sat down in the place he was set, blinking as he regained his bearings.

Hitoshi had kept backing up until he hit something. He stopped and saw that ‘something’ turned out to be the hooded teens’ knee, and heard the darkhaired boy speak softly. “I know buddy, you probably just want to go home. I feel the same way too.”

“But Mirio didn’t mean any harm,” A hand slowly reached down in front of him and Hitoshi’s urge to smell it over took him. He could detect a faint yet familiar smell of laundry detergent from the cuff of his coat, the same brand that UA provides the 1A, and 1C dorms.

“See I won’t hurt you, and neither will the others.” Like Hitoshi had guessed; it was indeed Amajiki.

He looked up at Amajiki’s face and blinked slowly. He would never say it out loud, but it does feel comforting to be here with people he knows. If not for his hunger and urgent mission he would be happy to curl up and take a nap.

“If your nervous or scared, you can stay with me until I go back.” Amajiki gently pets Hitoshi’s head between his ears. It felt so good and Hitoshi couldn’t help but lean his head into the touch and start purring.

Everything else didn’t matter, he can’t even remember what he came here to do, he just needed to enjoy this moment…

But then a shout of a meow from Midoriya broke him out of the trans. “Togata it’s me Midoriya! I’m the person you guys are waiting for! Please listen to me. Shinsou and I need help! We were hit with a quirk and are stuck as kittens!” 

Hitoshi looks over and sees Midoriya’s black paws are on Togata’s knee as he stares intently at the blonde’s face trying to get his point across.

 “If you want attention kitty I can give it to you. You don’t have to yell to get it.” Togata just smiles and pets Midoriya’s head. Midoriya huffs and Hitoshi can partially see the black bobtail trying to come up with another idea of getting  the message across.  

“Nejire-Chan can I please pet a kitten too?” Eri says in a soft yet eager voice. Hato looks to Yamada-sensei but before she even ask, he replies. “Go for it, little listeners! Just be careful and go slow like Amajiki said.”

“Don’t get me involved, I didn’t sign up for this. I just want to go home.” Amajiki mutters from above Hitoshi, as he strokes Hitoshi from his head all the way down his back.

Eri has small grin on her face as she crawls on hands and knees over to Togata. She sits next to him and shyly reaches to pet Midoriya on the head.

“Eri, it’s me Deku. I look like a kitten but I’m the one you’re waiting for.” Midoriya pleaded. But Eri didn’t get the message either.

Clearly this might take a while, but Hitoshi’s glad that they where he like Midoriya said they should be, yet the fact that they are concerns him.

Usually if a student goes missing, the teachers at least have students check in, if not come back to the UA grounds. But here they are still waiting for Midoriya to show up any minute, in a relaxed state at that. So, it tells him they don’t know that the green haired teen is missing.

But what about him? Hitoshi knows that he told Eraser that he would be a late, but it’s been a few hours at least. Do they not even know that he is missing yet?

If it was just classmates hanging out waiting for Midoriya to get here he wouldn’t think twice about them not knowing. But Yamada-sensei is here with Eri, so there is no way they would keep Eri out here if a student went missing. They just won’t risk her safety.

If they knew, they would bring her back to UA right away. So why would Aizawa wait so long to alert anyone he was MIA?  Hitoshi huffs, he’s confused and feels a little hurt.

Maybe his mentor just fell asleep waiting for him and slept for too long?  

No. It just doesn’t make sense. Yet, he can’t think of a single reason why. All he knows is somethings just not lining up; unless….

Maybe, it has something to do with the quirk that hit them?

Hitoshi shakes his head. No, he’s just getting paranoid. Whatever the reason is it doesn’t matter. Him or Midoriya just need to figure out a way to tell Yamada- sensi or one of the others; who they are so can get out of this mess.

Just finding someone from UA is huge step in the right direction, so after this little hurtle, they’ll be on the homestretch in no time. But it’s actually turning out better than he thought it would.

Amajiki didn’t stop Hitoshi as he walked over to where Midoriya was.

Trying to tell them through meowing doesn’t seem to be working. But Hitoshi has an idea that just might work, he just needs to get Midoriya on board to try it out. It should be easy from here on out.

….

Or so he thought… little did he know his troubles had just barely scratched the surface.

If only he had tapped in to his ‘fake’ psychic ability for a little longer. Then it wouldn’t have come as surprise.    

Chapter Text

“Midoriya, I got an idea,” Hitoshi meows as he walks across the checkered picnic blanket. “If you activate your quirk, it should bring enough attention to you, that maybe the green lightning will tip them off of who you are.”

 “I thought of that already and it’s a good idea but it’s a bit flawed. First, I don’t know if our quirks even work; not all transformation quirks allow the people to use their own quirks, most cancel it out or overwrites it in a way.” Midoriya jumps off Togata’s knee meets him halfway frowning.

“And besides even if it did work -with my…” Midoriya hung his head. “I-I mean it could be dangerous for me with the nature of my quirk, and I j-just don’t want to risk it.”

Hitoshi didn’t know exactly what would happen as Midoriya has been vague about it in the past. Hitoshi knew it had something to do with breaking bones, paralyzed limbs, or possibly losing limbs all together?

He’s not sure about the last one since that was information, he has gathered from some of Midoriya’s muttering episodes, and those aren’t always accurate.

Yeah, it would be bad if something happened to Midoriya and it not transfer well when they were turned back to human.

“I could try my quirk…” Hitoshi said, not sure why he didn’t think of it earlier. Maybe his mind was too busy thinking; something visual like green lighting would be the only way to get the them noticed.

But the thought of the possible limitations this cat quirk has over them is making his confidence waver.

“Yes! Try it! It will be good to know whether we can use quirks or not.” Midoriya smiles, having quickly bounced back to his normal optimistic self.

Hitoshi shakes his head to clear his mind, then he looks around the picnic blanket at people here.

His first thought was to try his quirk on Yamada-sensei, but decided it would be better to try it on someone else; as his old homeroom teacher would be able to recognize his quirk easier than the others.

He won’t use it on Eri for two reasons; the first was because he didn’t want to cause worry for the people watching her. And more importantly; with another quirk in play, he doesn’t want to risk anything if it backfires or something goes terribly wrong.

Hitoshi has used his quirk on Eri a few times under the watchful eyes of his mentor. Plus, one other case to calm her down after she woke up from a nightmare when he was left in charge of her during an emergency UA staff meeting.

No, he will not put the cute little 5 year old in possible danger; even if it was his last option. That is just not happening, he would rather be stuck as a fluff ball kitten than put Eri in danger, end of story.  

So that leaves the one of the Big Three. He can try it on any of them, but right now Togata is the closest. He wouldn’t feel that bad for holding the older teen under his quirk long enough for the others to find out who he is.

No, it doesn’t have anything to do with being whipped into the air earlier. He is not petty; this is just convenient…  Or so Hitoshi tells himself walking a little closer to the blonde.

Hitoshi taps into his quirk focusing on the treads of conversation, and frowns.

Rather than the string like threads that are tightly stretched, it felt more like unspun wool; fibers barely holding its self together. The kind that will easily pull apart at the slightest tug.

Hitoshi was hit by a dizzy spell and digs his claws into the blanket to ground himself and to keep from falling over.

“Shinsou, Are you ok?” Midoriya asks, now standing right next to him. Hitoshi lets go if his heightened quirk senses as he scrambled for words. “Yea, I’m fine. I just-”  

 “-I tried to connect non verbally and it didn’t work. But it’s ok, I can just ask a question and it will work fine.” Hitoshi lied. He didn’t even get passed the first step it takes to do that, before becoming overwhelmed.  

But that's only the more advanced side of his quirk, so going back to basics shouldn’t pose as much an issue as that.

“Ok…” Midoriya pauses. “But if you feel any weird interferences or pain; stop and don’t risk hurting yourself. We can always figure out another way, if we need too.”

“Yea, I’ll pull back if I need.” Hitoshi put his front paws on Togata’s leg. He may have said it, but he has no intention of stopping before he even really started.

“It’s me Shinsou. Is it true you don’t recognize your kouhai?” Hitoshi pushes himself past the fuzziness that is clouding his mind and goes all out; focusing his quirk into the question.

“Look, can’t you see that the green kitten is Midoriya? How can you miss the person you are waiting for when he’s sitting right there?”

“Of course, how could I have miss it.” Togata’s eyes widen with realization, and hits his forehead with his hand; looking at Hitoshi then at Midoriya.

Hitoshi tries to pull his quirk, but the fibers of the thread fall apart the moment he locks on. But it’s ok, because somehow he had gotten through to Togata and he understood what Hitoshi said. Or so he thought…

“You Kitties must be hungry! That’s why you’re meowing so loud.” Togata grins like he had just solved a difficult puzzle. Hitoshi’s jaw falls open and his tail droops in disbelief.

Togata says something to the others in the group, but whatever it was, it doesn’t register to Hitoshi.

“No…No! you have it Wrong! I- I just want you to see who we are… We aren’t cats, we are your kouhai’s…” Hitoshi takes a few steps back. What started out yelling his frustration, end in nothing more than a mournful whine.

But his head feels too foggy right now to even care how his voice sounds. He doesn’t even notice that he has laid down, or the Midoriya had come over. “Shinsou, are you ok? What happened?”

 “I’m Fine. My quirk didn’t work right, that’s all that fucking happened.” Hitoshi snaps. What irritates him even more is Togata wasn’t wrong about them being hungry. 

Then he catches a glimpse of Midoriya’s worried face.

 “Sorry.” Hitoshi huffs, and covers his face with his paws. It’s not Midoriya’s fault; it’s not either of their fault. It’s just this stupid cat quirk.

“Don’t worry we’ll think of something.” Midoriya tries to reassure him. But Hitoshi just feels utterly useless as he stretches out lying on his side; his hunger pains from earlier growing worse.

“Please hurry Tamaki-kun, we have to feed the kittens before they starve.” Eri whined.

 “I’m going as fast as I can.” Amajiki said patiently. As Yamada-sensei crouched down to calm the little girl. “They’ll be fine little listener; the striped kitten is just resting. We won’t let them starve on our watch.”

“Really?” Eri askes, and Yamada answers with a grin and ruffles her hair. “Yep, really. We’ll have their food done in a jiffy.”

Hitoshi feels even more guilty than before. Not only did his great plan fail, but now he has unintentionally convinced Eri that he was dying. Can this day really get any worse?

“Here Eri, take this over to them.” Amajiki hands Eri a pair of mini paper plates. As she gets closer; the inviting aroma he was aware of but tried to ignore, comes closer too.

Hitoshi uncovers his face and sits up as he smells the fish on the air. And he sees the Midoriya is also in a trance, thanks to the promise of food.

“Eat it all up kitties.” Eri sets one plate down in front of Midoriya and one in front of Hitoshi before backing away slowly. Each plate had six small pieces of raw tuna.

Hitoshi’s cat instinct takes over, and he takes a bite of the red fish without a second thought. It tastes so good, especially on empty stomach and he goes in for another bite.

He glances over to Midoriya and sees that the bobtail kitten was eating too. And for some reason the sight of it makes him want to eat faster so the other kitten wouldn’t steal his food.

He is about half way though when Eri comes back over and puts a few more piece of fish on their plates.

It’s at that point when he looks up and sees where they are getting the fish from; and Hitoshi would never have believed it of he hadn’t seen it.

They were basically destroying their lunch, just to feed a pair of hungry kittens.

Amajiki, Hato, and Togata were sitting around the picnic basket, with a tray of what once was sushi plater, and they were taking all the tuna off and just leaving the rice and the other filling behind.

Hitoshi shakes his head and takes another bite of tuna. Well, if that’s what they wanted to do, he’s not going to turn down the meal that they are giving him.  

And he could use the time to think about his next move anyway.

Once he was finished eating Hitoshi walked a few steps away and gave into the urge and started grooming his fur clean.

And it appeared that Midoriya was being affected the same way he was; sometimes being normal or sane and other times cat quirk instincts taking over.

He was nearly done grooming, when he noticed Midoriya had stopped his own grooming. “So, with quirks out of the question, I think our next best option is to get them to notice us by out features.”

“But…” Hitoshi tilted his head, and was intruded by Midoriya. “Yea, I know with your striped coat it will be hard to tell but it still has the lavender/purple color like your hair but your eyes still look the same. And mine are probably the same so-”

“Slow down a second…” Hitoshi was trying to catch up and understand what Midoriya said; even in kitten form Midoriya still speaks without barely taking a breath in between.

He has just about processed what was Midoriya was talking about, when a sudden noise made both kittens jump.

“Oops, Sorry kitties!” Hato quickly muted the shutter sound on her phone camera, but continued to take pictures.

Hitoshi realized she wasn’t the only one; Togata was helping Eri take some pictures on his phone. And he even spotted Amajiki who was trying to be discrete about the pictures he took, now that he had returned to his original spot in the shade.

Hitoshi huffed; he is beyond the point of embarrassment of his current state, and while he would like to stop them and delete all photo evidence that they have, he knows it’s useless and a waste of time.

Time that he doesn’t have. And well, once he is back to normal, he could always just steal their phones and get rid of it, if asking nicely doesn’t work.

“So um, I think our best bet would to get them to take a closer look at our eyes since that is the thing that hasn’t really changed,” Midoriya started right where they left off.

“Oh, but wait you haven’t been around the big three that much so they might not even recognize it’s you Shinsou…”

Hitoshi already knew that but he wasn’t concerned.

“Well, there’s a small chance that Present Mic will remember what I look like. Not only is he my current English teacher, but he was my homeroom teacher for a bit. So, since he should know me on a normal day, there is a 50 percent chance that he might recognize me in kitten form.” Hitoshi deadpans.

Despite the situation he still couldn’t resist making fun of Midoriya’s seriousness.

“Great idea Shinsou! I forgot Present Mic was here.” Midoriya turned his head and looked to where Mic was. “Then I will try to get one of the big three’s attention and you try to get Mic-sensei’s.”

“Yeah, let’s do th-” Hitoshi was intruded by Eri’s excited yelled. “DEKU!”

Did she somehow figure out that the green kitten was the teen they were waiting on?

If that’s the case, then Hitoshi can finally relax a little since the teachers will help figure out what to do about their current predicament.  

Now they won’t have to track Kouda down. The teachers will likely just ask him the translate for them. It will be so much easier than he had plan for.

Maybe all it will take is, Eraser to flash a quirk-erasing glare at them and they will be turned back to their normal human selves.

He doesn’t even mind a long lecture at this point as long as it means being back to normal.

But Hitoshi’s hope was dashed when his eyes fell on Eri and he actually saw she wasn’t even facing them. Eri had turned around, with a grin on her face looking to the main path of the park at the sound of someone running.  

But once her eyes met the source; a teenage boy with silver colored hair running to catch up with his friends, Eri’s grin had faded with a soft quiet ‘oh’.

Hato and Togata did their best to reassure the little girl; that ‘Midoriya will be here any minute’. Hitoshi just sighed and turned to see Midoriya was just as disappointed as him.

Hitoshi met Midoriya gaze, no words were said between them as he walked past the black kitten. They already had a plan and they just need to get it done, it’s not necessary to discuss it any further.

He trots over to Present Mic, and Midoriya walks across the picnic blanket to Eri and Togata. They have to get through to someone somehow.

As Hitoshi walked off the blanket, the grass under his paws felt both soft and a little prickly at the same time. He put his front paws on Mic’s blue jeans and let out a long meow. “Yamada-sensei… I know you probably don’t understand me, but it’s me Shinsou.”

 “Ah, now that your fed and happy you want some attention?” Mic smiles and picks Hitoshi up and holds him petting his fur. Hitoshi fights the urge to fall into a trance. “It’s me Shinsou,”

 “Look at my eyes, no ordinary cat has eyes like mine.” He pushed Mic’s glasses up with a paw trying to emphasize the point.

“Hey! Don’t do that fluffy listener!” Luckly Mic was able to control his volume, as he pulled Hitoshi away and fixed his glasses.

Hitoshi huffed and gave Mic a blank look. Clearly that didn’t work the way he wanted it to.

Mic chuckled then pulled Hitoshi closer again, but out of reach from his glasses. “Your little pout is just so cute! It’s too bad Shouta isn’t here to see it too.” 

“I am NOT pouting or cute.” Hitoshi hisses and glares, and gets another laugh from Mic. “Your almost like the cat version of Shouta… well except for your color.”

“Yes!” Hitoshi meowed; they were heading in the right direction. “Look at my Lavender stripes; they match my hair.” 

Mic tilted his head as he took a closer look at Hitoshi fur. Mic opened his mouth to say something when his phone started to ring from his pocket. “Speak of the devil.”

Mic nodded to Togata and walked a few paces away with Hitoshi still in one hand as he answered the phone by tapping the side of his ear piece.

“Yo, if you’ve been sneezing or your eyes have been twitching Shouta, it’s Cuz I’ve been talking about ya. Which one it is really depends on the culture you’re from but in my book, I count both. Guess what, the craziest thing just happen; these two kittens c-”

Mic would have spoken at least three more sentences had Aizawa not cut him off.

“Hizashi.” Aizawa’s single word response caused Mic’s easy-going stance to straighten out and he became more alert. “What’s wrong?”

From the position he was held in Hitoshi could hear Aizawa. So, he stayed still in hopes that Mic wouldn’t put him down; he even managed to keep the flick of his tail to the bare minimum.      

“Shinsou is missing. He left UA to get something from the store, and he never made it back for his training with me. The last contact I had with him was about 2 hours ago.”

“SHIT, Shouta. I take it you need all hands-on deck to find him? But what’s the deal with the time delay; didn’t you have him meeting you at 11? You are the last person I’d think would wait that long to act…well unless you fell asleep.” Mic started pacing back and forth as he spoke.

“I did not fall asleep. There was a misunderstanding with another staff member, when I first went to look into it. That caused the delay.” Aizawa huffed. “The point is, bring Eri and the rest of the students back to UA.”

“Oh, and ask problem child if he has heard from Shinsou. A few of the other students mentioned, he texted a picture of Shinsou and a cat to their group chat. But nobody could tell me if the picture was from today or if it was taken at an earlier date.”

“We were just waiting on Midoriya to join us,” Mic glanced over to the group at the picnic blanket. Hitoshi could feel anxiety from Mic as he pet Hitoshi fur faster.  “I texted him a few minutes ago but I haven’t heard anything back…”

“Dammit, not him too… Just get back, I’ll fill you in when you get here.” Aizawa shifted on the other side of the phone.

“Yeah, be there in 10 minutes tops.” Mic said ending the call and jogged back to the blanket, jostling Hitoshi; who was trying to process the information he just got.

“Listen up guys, we need to pack up right quick and get back to UA.” Mic announced to the group. Togata jumped to his feet in alarm. “What happened Mic-sensei? Does it have to do with Midoriya being late?”

“Yeah, it appears we got a few missing students. One for sure, but Midoriya might be missing too.” Mic leaned down to place Hitoshi in the grass; but Hitoshi starts to panic, and grip on tighter.

“Take us with you!” Hitoshi yowled, he can’t let this opportunely to get back to UA to slip away.

“Sorry, Kitty Cat but you can’t come.” Mic frowned but managed to loosen Hitoshi’s grip setting him on the ground next to where one of the others put Midoriya.

With the kitten dislodged, Mic pointing finger guns toward the teens who were quickly packing up. “Once we get back to UA you three will be in charge of watching Eri; so I can make sure the search goes off without a hitch.”

“This isn’t good, at this rate their going to leave us behind.” Midoriya muttered worriedly. But Hitoshi was determined not to let it end here. “Follow me, and do what I do.”

The third-year UA students asked Mic a few questions as they folded up the picnic blanket, but Hitoshi too focused to pay it any mind.

Mic was reassuring Eri that they will find the missing teens, when Hitoshi ran up to them, digging his claws into one of the legs of Mic’s jeans and climbing up.

And Midoriya followed suit; doing the same one Mic’s other leg. Once he reached waist level with no more jeans to climb Hitoshi sunk all his needle like claws with all four paws into the thick fabric.

He knows from experience when a kitten does this it’s really hard to get them loose; not that he was ever the kitten in the situation before, but it still counts.

“Present MIC! You don’t have to look anywhere, because your missing students are right Here!” Hitoshi yells at the top of his kitten lungs.

“Yeah! We are kittens but it’s me Midoriya and Shinsou!” Midoriya meows, as he digs his claws in. “Just take us with you and Kouda can help sort it all out.”

“Yo Kitties, I know you don’t want to see me go, and I don’t want to break your little kitten hearts, but you can’t just jump on for a ride.” Mic tries to pry Hitoshi off, but fails. So, he moves to Midoriya.

“No matter what HANG ON MIDORIYA!” Hitoshi yelled, as Eri just watched everything unfold, quietly with bright eyes.

“THAT’S WHAT I’M TRYING TO DO!” Midoriya yowled, as another paw came lose.

“I’ve had quite a few wild over the top fans try to stick to me before, but this is a whole new level,” Mic got two of Midoriya’s paws unstuck, and was working on the third, as Midoriya reattached his claws back in the fabric.

“Come on kitty I just don’t have time for this now. Please, just pretty please let go…” Mic begged.

It was at that time Amajiki had come over and saw the problem, and he walked up to help. “Here I’ll get the tabby kitten off.”

“It’s ok, I’ll be done in a minute.” Amajiki whispered ignoring Hitoshi’s protesting yowls.

He skillfully placed just enough pressure on Hitoshi’s paw preventing him from retracting or extending his any further, making it rather easy for the dark-haired teen to pull tiny nails from the jeans.

Hitoshi tried to fight it, but his attempt to stay attached was futile. Amajiki pried one paw off the jeans at a time, and held Hitoshi angled in a way that made it impossible to sink his claws back in.

Mic saw how Amajiki did it then he used the same technique. A bit slower, but just as effective on the black bobtail kitten.

“Here, if you can hold them for a minute before you set them down and give us a head start that would be great.”  Mic handed a squirming Midoriya to Amajiki. “Don’t want to get held up or trip on the kittens on our way out. Ya Dig?”

“Y-Yeah, I think I can…”  Amajiki nodded and looking down, causing his hood to fall lower on his face.  The other two 3^rd year students cheer in encouragement, Mic smiles and he picks Eri up and holds her up on his arm. “Great, I’ll leave it to you!”

“Bye-bye kitties, make sure to get home safe.” Eri waves to the kittens, whose home (at least part of the year) is basically the same place, give or take a few buildings. 

“Huh…you didn’t have to make it a big deal.” Amajiki mutters under his breath as he watches them leave. But he was completely oblivious to Hitoshi and Midoriya’s words in the desperate pleading meows.

“DON’T LEAVE US BEHIND!” The black bobtail kitten yelled.

“Sorry, but we can’t take you with us…” Amajiki frowns. “If it wasn’t an emergency then I would made sure that you got home or to a place to get a home. But the world just isn’t fair.”

“Midoriya! Grab on to his hoodie cuffs with your claws!” This tactic change might be the only thing left that they could do; that and Hitoshi had no other ideas.

Hitoshi twisted to sink his own claws into the hoodie, but it was to late.

Amajiki leaned down and dropped both kitten a few inches off the ground; and was jogging away before the kittens regained their footing.

“THIS ISN’T HOW IT WAS SUPPOST TO GO, YOU CHEATED!” Hitoshi yelled running as fast as he could after the older teen. But he ended up tripping, rolled and face-planting it a patch of dirt.

He barely managed to lift his head back up in time to see Amajiki disappear out of sight. His face is covered in dirt and his last ticket to get back to UA was gone.

It would have been better if they found nobody at the park; at lease then he wouldn’t have gotten his hope up...

Hitoshi wanted to yell, or scream, and part of him wanted to sob. His emotions were scattered all over the place, in way that has never happened to him before.

This quirk really must be messing with his head, and all Hitoshi can do is laugh at the irony of it all as he shakes his head.

“Shinsou! are you ok?” Midoriya ran up next to him with a look of concern on his face.

On one hand it’s really annoying how this is like the hundredth time Midoriya has asked him that same question today. But on the other hand, it puts Hitoshi a bit at ease, knowing he isn’t at this whole thing alone.    

“Mentally? Maybe not, I know I have had better days.” Hitoshi huffs and pushes himself to his feet. “Physically, I’m not much worse than I was 10 minutes ago, just a bit dusty.”

He shakes, but does little to get rid of the dirt in his fur. As small smile spreads Midoriya’s face and he giggles. “It looks like your fur is a dirt magnet. It will take you forever to get it off.”

“Back to the topic at hand I think we shou-OUFF!” Hitoshi tackled Midoriya mid-sentenced, and they were both wrestling in the dirt.

Only after Midoriya meows for Hitoshi to stop, does he realize what he did, and he pauses for a second.

“Ha, now I’m not the only one who’s dirty.” Hitoshi climbs off the black kitten and walks a few steps away.

Hitoshi felt a bit ashamed, but he can’t admit that he got the urge to tackle Midoriya for no reason at all. It’s better that he believes Hitoshi did it on purpose.    

“Not fair.” Midoriya mumbles from behind, as he tries to shake the dirt from his fur. The dirt mixed into his black fur more and kind of gave it a dusty grey tone, but Hitoshi was not going to point that out.

“I could always just push you into the fountain, you’ll get a little wet but the dirt will disappear.” Hitoshi was only half-way serious, but it got a smile out of Midoriya. “As nice as it sounds, taking a bath in the middle of the park is not on my list of things to try.”

“Besides we need to quit wasting time and get to UA.” Midoriya starts walking down the path that led out of the park.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Hitoshi caught up and the pair broke out into a trot. He doesn’t know how Midoriya does it; always bouncing back with ease, and dragging those around him into a similar state.

It doesn’t really matter, whether they came across Midoriya’s UA picnic group and got picked up and brought back that way. Or if they have to run there on their own two-ur- four paws.

Hell, if the only option was to learn to fly and fly back to UA, they would somehow figure that out too.

So, what if it takes ten minutes or two hours? The how or when they get back to UA is not what’s important; in the end as long as they get back, then that will be good enough for him.

…

….

….

Too bad they end up back at square one, in the unforeseen future…