MHA: A Cat’s Way

Midorinya versus Uraraka. This should be interesting. I wonder if either of them will hold back? I doubt it, but given their personalities…

“Stop throwing my nets!”

“Then stop -ghrk- shooting them at me! I swear -ugh- that I’ll throw up on you! Hgrk- I’ll do it!”

I don’t know if I should be laughing at this match or not. Jiro’s was funny, but this is… just kind of awkward. Oh, it started out fine, with Midorinya trying to touch Uraraka with his electrified glove, and her doing everything she could to avoid it while attempting to touch him in turn and activate her quirk.

Then he showed everyone that the bulky gauntlet on his other hand is actually a net launcher. He managed to snag Uraraka’s arm and she let out a yelp as she got dragged down by the apparently heavy net. It got me curious about how strong he is now to carry several of them on a single arm, but then I was forced to wonder whether or not he really thought that plan through since… well, he’s fighting Uraraka.

She just touched the net to make it weightless, jumped back to avoid his latest attempt to shock her, then threw the net back before releasing its gravity. Midorinya had to dodge, and he ended up launching another net in retaliation.

Which is how we’ve ended up in what essentially amounts to a net catching competition. Seriously, how many nets are in that gauntlet!?

At least Uraraka is trying to use them as melee weapons now, trying to treat Midornya as a wild animal she’s trying to catch while he tries to electrify the net and shock her through proxy, though he’s been having better luck knocking them from her hands and sending them flying away.

Still, the stalemate can’t go on forever, and it ends at the same time the nets do. They’re both gasping for breath, with Uraraka’s face looking distinctly like Midorinya’s hair.

“All…out of…tricks…” Midoriya breathes out, sure of his victory.

Uraraka returns a smirk, her hands outstretched in front of her in case he tries anything. “You…underestimate…the power…of the dark side…”

And with her quote, she brings her fingertips together, calling out her habitual warning for the release of her quirk. Midorinya looks at her in confusion for a brief moment before his eyes widen in realization and his head shoots up. Following his gaze, it’s revealed that the nets weren’t just launched out of the arena, they were launched above it!

And they all come crashing down at the same time, their weight restored instantly. The crowd roars as small plumes of dust rise from the arena, evidently unworried about the possibility for injuries. When the dust clears, it's revealed that the entire arena is encapsulated under Midorinya’s nets, having tangled together while they were floating and when they were falling.

Uraraka gives Midorinya a grin, sure of her victory. Yes, she’s stuck under the nets too, but unlike Midorinya she can use her quirk to lift them off her and escape. At least, that was probably what she was planning.

Her smile is wiped clean off her face, shock replacing it immediately.

Literally.

Without a word, Midorinya brings his electrified glove into contact with the nets covering him, causing the current to flow through all of the nets. Including the one Uraraka is currently in contact with.

Since when did I start making puns?

Maybe I’m just trying to distract myself from my concern for my classmates? Nya, whatever.

It doesn’t take long for the current to stop, Midorinya clearly suffering from his own move. But it’s equally clear that had he not done so, Uraraka would have won the match. As it is…

“Winner: Izuku Midorinya!”

Midorinya gives Nyamuri a deadpan glare at the use of my nickname for him before pitching forward, clearly spent from being electrified. Med bots come to the field to take the unconscious Uraraka and exhausted Midorinya to Recovery Girl while Cementoss uses his quirk to move the nets inside the arena floor.

Seems kind of lazy, but ok.

It doesn’t really matter, I suppose, since none of the remaining contestants have a quirk that can take advantage of them being there. Unless Midorinya slipped some explosives inside them.

…

He better not have. I’ll have to fight him after I beat Todoroki! Speaking of-

I get up to head to my room and wait for Nyamuri to call the start, wondering what I can do to beat my opponent. But it’s not like his strategy is going to be any kind of surprise like Minya should have had. He’s just going to stick me in an iceberg…

As I think about it more, a smirk tugs at my lips, my tail twitching in amusement. Yeah. That’s going to be funya~.

Hearing Nyamuri call for me, I stroll leisurely through the tunnel, a swagger in my step. On the other side of the arena Todoroki’s eyes narrow and his right hand twitches, positively itching to prove his claim of being the strongest of our class.

Nyamuri calls for the match to start, and Todoroki instantly launches a wave of ice at me the same way he did against Purrny, clearly relying on the same strategy as last time. As I expected.

I don’t lose my smirk as I give a little hop, keeping my upper body free while letting everything from my stomach down get engulfed. He has a look of satisfaction on his face, but the look on my face keeps him on guard. At least until Nyamuri tries to call the match.

“Catia Akihiro is unable to contin-”

“Mew shouldn’t be so quick, Nyamuri. Nyobody enjoys having their fun cut short~.”

She’s taken aback by me using her own innuendos against her, enough that she doesn’t finish declaring Todoroki the winner. Which is good, because she’d have to repeal that real quick.

I nya seven mage cats around me, three brawlers and four defenders ahead of me, the mages immediately launching a barrage of hairballs at Todoroki while the brawlers and defenders charge.

He brings up a wall of ice to block the hairballs, clearly wary of them from our first fight against each other at the start of the year. But he needn’t have bothered, the first wave of hairballs have no power behind them, the mages not having had any time to focus their catergy enough to give them proper form. They dissipate before they even reach the barrier. But that’s fine, their attacks weren’t meant to hit him.

They were meant to distract him.

My melee cats reach his ice wall unimpeded, splitting up three to the left and four to the right to make sure he doesn’t cartoon them by running circles around the ice while they chase him. Meanwhile three of my mages launch actual hairballs at his ice wall, chipping away at it while preventing him from trying to go out the front. Beset on all sides, he only has one real option on where to go unless he backs himself to the edge of the arena. And that’s-

He rises above his wall crouched on a pillar of ice, matching his eyes in coldness. I meet his attempt at gaining the high ground with a wide smile and a yowled command, enjoying the way realization sets in.

“Nyaow!”

The remaining four mage cats launch their hairballs at the point of the pillar just visible above the wall while the other three change targets to the air around him, cutting off all avenues for escape. It doesn’t take long for the pillar to lose enough integrity that a crack reverberates across the arena. It starts to crumble, the pillar collapsing to the side. But he’s not near the top of the class for nothing.

He leaps off of it, creating a slab of ice in front of him to take the hairballs for him before crashing to the ground. Honestly, I’m not sure what would have hurt more, the hairballs or landing on that big chunk of ice from the height he was at.

Regardless of the damage though, he quickly gets to his feet, making a thinner slab that he carries in front of himself as he charges at me. My melee started making their return when Todoroki jumped, but he has a good bit of distance on them, and my mages’ hairballs don’t have enough kinetic force to delay him, only destroy parts of the ice as he gets closer. But I can tell he’ll reach me before they reach him.

Having no other choice, I have my mages gather around me, swinging my arms wide and brushing against them as I recall the catergy I put into their nyaing and focusing it all to a single area, changing its form, altering it to fit what I need. It rampages in my mouth, clearly wild, wanting to be free.

Without the need to be cautious of hairballs, Todoroki speeds up, evidently not thinking of why, exactly, they stopped. He’s practically on top of me when I open my mouth, claws digging into the ice in front of me as I let the catergy burst out in a wave as opposed to its usual ball form, my yowl echoing through the stadium.

“MMMRRRRROOOOWWWW!!!”

The waves hits Todoroki like a sledgehammer, maybe stronger. His ice shatters to pieces, crumbling into little shards that buffet him as a prelude to the actual wave. When it hits not even a second later, he shoots off the half-sized glacier he engulfed me in, his shoes lacking any sort of traction that could have slowed him down. He flies above his ice wall, not slowing down as he flies out of the arena, and above the wall of the inner portion of the stadium, slamming into a quickly evacuated portion of the seating area with a crash that tries its best to compete with my yowl in noise.

When we can finally see through the cloud of dust and debris, it reveals Todoroki buried in the cement of the stadium, passed out with blood dripping from his mouth and head. The crowd who had to flee their seats crowd around him, throwing stunned looks between the two of us.

Seeing him like that gives me a good deal of satisfaction. Not only did I win, but I also got revenge for Purrny! Well, the satisfaction lasts until I vomit out blood myself, slumping forward as I’m hit by a sudden wave of pain and exhaustion.

I groan as darkness encroaches on my vision, a severe case of deja vu overcoming me.

“Nyat again…”