“So why the secrecy on where we’re going?” I ask Nekomura. We’ve only known each other for a couple of years, ever since I rescued her from that fake hero, but we’ve gotten pretty close. Enough for first names according to Japan’s culture. But I don't really like calling people by their last names all the time. Especially when there are two people from the same family around!

Much easier just to use everyone’s first name like they do back home!

It’s not your home anymore…

I ignore that thought. Mean thoughts aren’t worth giving a second thought to! They aren’t even worth the first thought, but they somehow wormed their way in there!

“Well,” Nekomura starts with a cat-like grin. Hey! That’s my thing! “I figured that you could use a nice surprise with how hard you’ve been working to help people.”

I roll my eyes at that. “You’ve been helping people just as much as I have. More even, since you take care of helping them get home and stuff!”

After the ordeal with her manager and the fake hero, Nekomura quit her music business. A few days later her manager was found dead. No idea how, but Nekomura told me that he had blood leaking from his eyes, nose, and ears. Scary!

It’s a good thing she quit when she did, or else whoever got her manager might have gotten her too!

She waves my counter argument off. “That’s just minor stuff. While I’m taking people home, you keep running through the city dealing with bad guys! Saving more people! Making sure everything is even safer!” She shadow boxes a bit at each thing I do while she’s making sure the latest person we saved gets home ok.

Honestly, it feels like she has…what’s it called? Red-tinted glasses? Something like that. But it’s like she thinks we’re some kind of super spies protecting the world from devastation.

Really. There’s no way we wouldn’t have been caught if that nice lady hadn’t started helping us. Not with actually helping us to fight people, but by making sure the heroes or police don’t catch us!

Like the first time we ran into her, she hid us in a dumpster and told the hero chasing us that we went in another direction! Then after she pulled us out she explained that wearing costumes over regular clothes would mean we can look like completely different people to whoever’s chasing us! Not to mention how important masks are in making sure that they can’t find us just by looking at cameras and looking us up online!

I didn’t even know you could find someone online! Just famous people!

She even got us a place to use as a secret base where we sometimes sleep at! Whenever that happens we just tell the people taking care of us that we’re sleeping over at each others’ houses. Since none of them have each other’s phone numbers, it’s the purr-fect trick!

Nekomura’s cat puns have been rubbing off on me a bit. But I don’t make them very often. On one hand, they fit with me being a cat. On the other I feel like people might get annoyed if I make them too often. Oh well. I can always just stop making them if I get worried. It’s not like I need to make cat puns.

“So what’s the surprise?” I lean sideways while peering at her, my tail flickering excitedly behind me. I like surprises!

But instead of answering she just rolls her eyes. “If I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise!” She wags her finger at me with a superior look while I pout at her. I mean, she’s not wrong. But I want to know! I inherited the curiosity of a cat!

Which is why, when I hear shouting coming from down an alley,  I immediately run down it, quickly followed by Nekomura who shouts in surprise but doesn’t try to stop me.

We both remember how we met, after all.

We run through the alleys, my toe beans keeping my footsteps quiet, and Nekomura’s specially designed shoes muffling hers. The nice lady helped her get them when she asked. Something about ‘doing at least one thing she can be proud of’.

I didn’t really get it, but she’s nice and she helps us.

Eventually we get close enough for Nekomura to start hearing the people too. And then we’re close enough that their words are clear to us both.

“Find her! The price they’re offering is enough for each one of us to live the rest of our lives in luxury!”

“We’re trying! The brat’s sneaky though! It’s like she knows every move before we make it!”

“How the hell does someone with bright pink hair manage to hide like this!? She should stand out like All Might at a villain convention!”

The two of us exchange looks, and I feel my blood boil. We don’t come across situations like these often, but each time is enough to make me feel the same anger that I felt the first time.

From their words, it sounds like they’re trying to kidnap a kid for a ransom or something. The two of us might be kids, but we both had to grow up much, much sooner. Which is why I absolutely hate people who try to hurt kids.

“No mercy.” I whisper at Nekomura as I pop out my claws and summon two of the fighting cats, my limit.

“No repeats,” she whispers back, snapping her fingers and letting the sound absorb into the speakers on her hands.

“”And no survivors,”” the two of us snark together as we charge around the corner, taking the three men by surprise.

Two of them have mutations, one being blue with what looks like fins stretching out from his arms. The other is the one who has my immediate attention, and the one I go after first.

A man who looks like a dog.

I don’t know what kind, but he’s short, skinny, and has a large head. All the better to work as a target as I leap forward, ordering my two cats to go after the third guy I didn’t get a good look at.

The dog man jerks his head back and my claws pass right in front of him, but he makes the mistake of jerking it back forward as he tries to take a bite out of my arm. He’s not fast enough as my other hand uppercuts his jaw, my claws lodging in the bottom of his mouth.

His whimpers of pain are overpowered by Nekomura’s quirk blasting out the sound of her earlier snapping and sends the fin guy into the wall with a loud crack, sliding down to lie limply against it and revealing a smear of blood going down.

As I drag my claws down and against the dog man’s throat I jump back, looking towards the third man. I see him down already, one of my cats having been broken and the other trailing light from a lot of cracks.

With the three of them taken care of I start looking around, calling for whoever they were looking for. “It’s ok, you can come out now. It’s safe.” I keep my voice calm as I speak loudly, making sure I don’t yell. That’s not a good way to get someone to come to you.

Usually it takes a while for someone to come out, but to my surprise a little girl pops out of an oversized peanut bag leaning against the wall, revealing that the peanuts are long gone and only she remains. She looks at me for a moment before scrambling out of the bag and running towards me with tears in her eyes.

I catch her as she wraps her arms around me and cries, sobbing nearly incoherently. The only words I can really make out are ‘mama’ and ‘papa’ repeating a few times. I look at Nekomura with a worried gaze that she matches.

“We should take her to our secret base. Nice Lady should be able to help.”

I nod and we leave the scene of our rescue, the villains left where they fell.

`~`

The small girl is really light, and I have to wonder how old she is to be this light. But as the door closes behind us the lights of our secret base suddenly turn on, momentarily blinding me. I hiss as I back up, bumping against the closed door and holding the girl tighter against me. I would have thought she would be scared, but she seems more relaxed than before?

“Sorry, sorry. The settings are messed up. Stupid smart lights.” I hear something small hitting another thing, and the lights dim to reasonable levels. What’s revealed is Lady wearing a Santa hat with a raised eyebrow.

“I was going to say merry Christmas, but I didn’t expect you to bring another kid as a present.” Said kid giggles a bit as she slowly unwraps herself from around me and stands on the floor. She turns around to face Lady, and for the first time I can properly see her outfit. Just a plain brown robe with fancy gold trimmings. She also has two matching cones on her head.

She stares at Lady for a few seconds before her eyes light up. “So cool! Could you help me find Mama and Papa?”

Lady blinks at her for a second before shrugging. “Sure, kid. Who are they?” She takes a sip from a can of something nearby, only to spit it out when the girl speaks.

“Papa is a super spy who can disguise himself as anyone! Mama is a super assassin who kills all the bad people! Bad men used portals to separate us, but I know they’re ok! I just…don’t know…where they are…” She was excited when she started talking, but the more she explains the more sad she gets.

Deciding to think about who her parents are some other time, I focus on the here and now. Specifically that this little girl is someone who needs a hug! So I hug her, nuzzling my head against her cheek.

“It’s ok, I’m sure Lady will find them for you! Until then, wanna stay at our secret base? It’s super duper secret and the bad men won’t find you!”

She looks at me with an unamused look in her eyes. “I know you’re being patronizing. My quirk lets me read minds.”

“Huh!?” I awkwardly scratch my cheek. “I guess you’re more mature than I thought, huh…” That makes me sad, but it doesn’t change the fact that the offer still stands. If her parents are really who she said they are, then I’m sure they’ll come back together someday! It will just take time!

“Yeah, you can stay here! If you want I can stay here with you! Plus we were going to have a Christmas party today!” Nekomura chimes in, the second part causing me to gasp.

“Christmas party!? Yay!”

The girl chuckles, and since she can read minds she definitely knows that we’ll stick with her as long as it takes to get her family back together.

“Thank you.” She says before finally introducing herself. “I’m Anya Forger, nice to meet mew!”