NOVEL NEXT Back To Normal
“So what do mew want to do?” I ask Eri after class. I don’t really have anything to do other than avoiding talking to anyone about what Himiko said. Nearby is Aizawa, since he can’t be far from Eri in case her quirk acts up. She shoots him a brief look before gesturing for me to lean down. Amused, I smile as I do so, tilting my head so my ears are closer.
Which…turns out to have been a very good decision. She leans in and cups her hands around her mouth in that way kids who aren’t, try to be sneaky with their words. “Big Sis gave me a present to give to you! But she said not to tell anyone else because it's such a good present that they’ll want it too!”
Well. That’s concerning for a variety of reasons.
I don’t let my smile drop as I pat her on the head. “That’s a good kitten, Eri. How about we go out somewhere and mew can give it to me then, nya?”
She nods happily and I look over to Aizawa as I ask if we could get her frozen yogurt. For a moment it looks like he’s going to refuse, but her heartbreaking question of what frozen yogurt is -followed by a long explanation from Midorinya that delves into all the different versions of ice cream- has him agreeing. And of course, hearing that, some of our class can’t resist but coming along themselves.
So it is that a group consisting of Aizawa, Eri, Minya, Tormew, Midorinya, Momo, Kirishima, Tsu, and Purrny (who I picked up from her class on the way), and myself walk into a popular frozen yogurt place while still in our school uniforms. Not that we didn’t want to change out of them, but Aizawa said that he wouldn’t enable us ‘in time wasting endeavors’.
Which is why we’re getting stared at by a bunch of the other customers. Though, admittedly, most of their focus is on the litter-show of Kirishima doing his best to talk with Minya and her trying to think of any excuse possible to talk to anyone else.
“Hey Yaomomo, how many different versions of earplugs can you make?”
“Umm…” She looks between Minya and Kirishima uncertainly, deciding not to get involved and instead turning to talk with Midorinya about what she should learn about to make next.
“Mina… come on. I’ve been trying to apologize!”
“Hey Tsu, why tie your hair in a bow instead of just cutting it shorter? It can’t be easy to take care of like that.”
“Do you want me to change my hairstyle!? If that’s what it takes to make it up to you, I’ll do it!”
“It’s not as hard as you think. Mainly it just takes patience to make sure you brush it properly. As long as you do that everything else comes easy.”
“Tsu, can you please not just accept her ignoring me so casually? Well, the way you always keep your composure is super manly, but still!”
“<Look Kirishima and speaks soomthinks. Laugh please!>” Kirishima isn’t bad at English, exactly, but he does have to mentally prepare to properly understand it.
Normally Purrny isn’t the type to bully someone. But two factors contribute to her decision to play along. One: her, Minya, Tormew, and I are friends! Second: we told her about the situation and she completely agrees that he’s in the wrong.
She looks at him for a moment before looking back at Minya and laughing. “<I really like the toppings I got!>”
Minya starts laughing too, and I don’t know what Kirishima is thinking they said, but his face is starting to match his hair. I chuckle at their antics. Minya has admitted to me that she’s not that mad at him anymore, but enjoys seeing him beg for forgiveness. And I have to say, hearing that from her and seeing how easily she teases him causes a smug feeling to rise inside me. Before it can get to the point that I join in though, I look down and see Eri tugging at my sleeve as she points towards the restroom. Nodding my head, I get up and excuse ourselves, chuckling as Tormew manages to steal one of Aizawa’s chocolate toppings only to gag once she finds out it’s actually coffee flavored. Once we’re there, out of sight of the others, she hands me the ‘present’ Himiko gave her.
I open it, blinking in surprise at what I see. Alongside the contents of the small box is a single sticky note with two words and a squiggly line.
I lied~.
`~`
In the training grounds of UA, I duck under one of Purrny’s horns only to sidestep another as it comes at me from behind. Then, just to show off, I jump and flatten myself as I spin to dodge as one goes for my chest and hip at the same time. Landing in a crouch on one knee, I send Purrny a smirk where she’s dealing with her own training, which isn’t going as well as mine.
“<Cheater! I have to control my horns! Your cats are just fire and forget!” She yells at me in English as she dodges between my mage cats’ blasts, launching her horns at the ones she can’t to cancel them out.
“<Glory in the supurriority of feline power!>” I laugh, only to yelp as she takes a hit on the leg to launch a pair of fresh horns at me while controlling the two she’s able to try and trip me. I manage to step over one of them though, turning myself sideways enough that when the other hooks my foot I fall in such a way that they only manage to skim across my chest.
I get to my feet quickly, fully aware of just how much control Purrny has of her horns, only to trip as the one around my ankle impales itself in the floor, stopping me from moving. I glower at her from where I lay as she takes another hit, but she has a look of victory as she manipulates another set of horns to finish pinning me. But I’m not going down that easily!
I twist and turn, contorting myself every which way as she steadily buries her horns around me. By the time I hear a yelp and a thud, the horns finally stopping, I’ve basically become the center of a horn-angel. Breathing a sigh of relief, I carefully rise to my feet so I can see what happened and can’t help but chuckle.
Apparently one of my mage cats got irritated with how long it was taking to take her down, so they decided to charge in and tackle her. Obviously she was surprised since my mage cats aren’t really suited for close-quarter combat. But not suited does not mean incapable. Anyways, since that one actually managed to knock her down, the others decided to follow its lead. The result?
“<Catia! Stop laughing and get them off!>” Purrny yells at me from under the pile of mage cats smothering her.
It’s always interesting when they show random instances of autonomy.
Once I manage to get my laughter under control I dismiss them, taking stock of how many cats I have left. Hmm. Only three left. Leaving aside my emergency Aizawa cat, that leaves me with only one left to summon.
Huffing as she stands and dusts herself off, I explain that I’m done training for the day. “<Sorry, Purrny. But I’m just about ready for a cat nap.>”
She frowns. “<But shouldn’ you still have three cats left? If you want to stop that’s fine, but could you at least leave some of the brawlers so I can get some close range training?>”
I tilt my head as my ears flick. “One of those I knead to keep to distract my teacher. So I suppose I can nya one brawler for you.”
She pauses for a moment as she parses my sudden shift to Japanese. It’s one of the ways I’m helping her get a hold of the language since she still has a bit of trouble. But at least I’m better than whoever was teaching her before. Apparently he would switch around praise and insults on a whim so he could laugh when she accidentally insults someone. Purrety rude.
I mean, after she told me that, I was tempted to do the same because it would be funny, but still.
Her frown deepens. “But what about last cat?”
“The last cat, nya.” I correct before tilting my head the other way. “And what do mew mean? I have three cats, and one is fur Aizawa, so I can only summon one. I don’t- wait, nya.” I blink as I scratch my ear with a frown. “Nya. I…guess I can nya two. I wonder why I thought I could only nya one?”
“Hmm.” Purrny hums in thought before tapping her palm with a fist, switching back to English for the moment. “<Why don’t we test it! There’s probably a reason, but if you don’t know it we should see why!>”
“<I don’t knyow…>” I’m not sure why, but it feels like a bad idea. Which is weird because I feel like I should know, but I can’t remember why. Actually, I can’t remember ever actually emptying my cat reserves. There must be a reason, but if I can’t remember…
Eventually I shrug. “<Sure, why nyat.>”
`~`
The next day, I wake up curled on top of Purrny with no memory of how I got there. I panic for a moment before sniffing the air and relaxing when I realize we didn’t do anything. But then, what happened to my clothes?
My own shifting causes Purrny to wake up, who immediately gets a red face and looks away. I try to get her to tell me what happened, but she refuses to say anything other than I should never empty my reserves.
On the bright side, my limit got pushed up from eighteen cats to twenty, and my combat cats now have a limit of three hours.