***
The next morning, Akira was sleeping peacefully in his bed.
Really peacefully.... Like reallyyyyy peacefully. To the point, it was too perfect.
So peacefully, in fact, that a small part of his subconscious began to suspect that something was wrong.
Or rather... something was about to go wrong.
Which, to his credit, was absolutely right.
Because a dangerous predator was lurking in the shadows of his bedroom.
It had entered through the door, which had luckily been left open.
The predator had slipped through the gap with the silence of a creature that had evolved specifically for stealth, its golden eyes tracking the rise and fall of its target's breathing, its body low to the ground, its muscles coiled.
It waited for the perfect moment.
And just as Akira turned to the other side, shifting his weight, exposing his face.
The predator's eyes shone brightly.
And it leaped.
"NYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
Nia landed on Akira's face with the precision of a guided missile and the weight of a small, furry cannonball. Her paws pressed against his cheeks. Her tail whipped across his forehead.
Unfortunately for her, she had done this way too many times for Akira to actually panic.
After all, this was his daily routine.
Akira slowly woke up and sighed.
He reached up, gently grabbed the crazy cat by the scruff of her onesie — the little blue one with the fish pattern that she wore to bed — and pulled her off his face.
"Good morning, Nia."
Nia, now dangling in his grip like a displeased ornament, puffed her cheeks.
"Daddy is no fun," she declared.
"It's not my fault that you can't come up with something new," Akira said, setting her down on the bed beside him. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, his red hair sticking in seventeen different directions. "You've been doing the same attack for months. The element of surprise only works if there's actually surprise involved."
Nia crossed her tiny paws over her chest. "But it's a PERFECT attack. The angle. The timing. The execution. It was all flawless."
"It was flawless the first time. Now it's just an alarm clock."
"An alarm clock you can't turn off!"
"Fair point."
"Midoriya would still get scared," Nia added, her golden eyes narrowing with the confidence of someone making an irrefutable argument.
"You know what?" Akira said. "Fair point."
"NYAHAHAHAHA!!!" Nia cackled, bouncing on the bed. "Of course I'm right!! After all, I am the greatest and the strongest CAT out there!!"
She struck a pose — standing on her hind legs, paws on her hips, chest puffed out, tail waving like a flag of conquest. The pose lasted approximately two seconds before she lost her balance and toppled sideways into a pillow.
Akira laughed at her silliness.
He looked at his watch on the nightstand. It was 7:00 AM.
Thirty minutes before, Momo would be ready. They had agreed to meet at 7:30 and head to Mirko's location together. That gave him enough time for his morning routine.
He sighed. "Guess it's time to get ready."
He swung his legs off the bed and stood. Nia immediately attached herself to his leg.
"Why can't Mommy and Daddy take me with you?" she asked, her voice muffled against his knee.
Akira looked down at the small cat clinging to his leg with the desperate tenacity of a creature who had been told "no" before and was hoping that asking again would produce a different result.
"I've told you, sweety," he said gently. "You can't come with us. At least not while we're operating in Japan under the trial period. Once Momo and I are fully enlisted members of the AHSA, then we can do almost anything. We'll have clearance, we'll have operational freedom, and we'll be able to bring you along."
He crouched down so he was at her eye level.
"Till then, please understand. We don't want to get into more trouble, right? We just finished a trial. Let's not start another one."
Nia's ears flattened. Her golden eyes dimmed. The sadness of a child who understood the logic but didn't like the conclusion.
"Okay," she said quietly.
Akira's chest tightened. He hated that look.
"How about this?" he said. "When Momo and I get back from the internship, we'll take you to your favourite sushi place. The one with the conveyor belt."
Nia's ears perked up. Slowly. Like flowers responding to sunlight.
"The one with the tuna belly?" she asked.
"The one with the tuna belly."
"And the salmon?"
"And the salmon."
"And the tamago?"
"And the tamago. And whatever else you want. My treat."
Her sad eyes started to shine again. The golden irises brightened. The ears straightened. The tail began to sway.
"Deal!" she said.
"Sweet." Akira ruffled her head. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready."
He stood. Nia released his leg and bounded off the bed toward the door, already yelling something about telling Grandmother that sushi had been promised and was now a legally binding agreement.
Akira watched her go. Then, he turned to face the morning.
He went through his normal routine.
A hot bath to wake up the muscles, brush teeth, and comb hair, which took the most time. Long hair is hard to maintain after all.
After that, he put on his hero suit, sheathed his blades, and added a new item to his gear.
The red scarf.
He wrapped it around his neck last.
That's a nice addition... He thought.
He nodded at his reflection and headed downstairs.
Breakfast was simple. Rice, miso soup, grilled fish, pickled vegetables. Honoka had it ready before he reached the kitchen.
He sat at the table with his mother, Nia, and his grandmother. Chiyo occupied her usual chair at the head of the table, her small frame barely visible above the tabletop, her cane leaning against the wall beside her.
"You look good in that suit," his grandmother said, studying him over her miso bowl.
"Thanks, Grandma."
"The scarf is a nice touch. Red on red. Very dramatic."
"It was a gift."
"I know." She took a sip. "Try not to die today."
"I'll do my best."
"That's what you said last time."
"...Fair point."
Honoka smiled and set a plate in front of him. "Eat. You'll need energy if Mirko is training you. That woman doesn't know what 'take it easy' means."
"She kicked down the doors of the Supreme Court," Akira said. "I don't think 'take it easy' is in her vocabulary."
"Or 'inside voice,'" Nia added.
"Or 'table manners,'" Honoka added.
They laughed together.... soon the breakfast was done, and Akira stood up, ready to leave.
"I'm heading out."
Honoka walked him to the door. She straightened his scarf.
"Be careful," she said.
"I will."
"I mean it."
"I know."
She kissed his forehead.
"Bye, Mom. Bye, Grandma. Bye, Nia."
"BYE, DADDY!! REMEMBER!! SUSHI!! LEGALLY BINDING!!"
He walked out the door.
***
Momo was waiting at the agreed spot. She was standing under a tree, her hero suit on, her hair pulled back in her signature ponytail.
And she had a bag.
A small backpack, slung over one shoulder, clearly packed with items that Akira was already suspicious of.
He looked at it.
"Why the bag?"
"To take notes," Momo said, as if this were the most obvious answer in the world.
Akira stared at her. "Do you really think she's going to tell us something worth noting down?"
Momo rolled her eyes. "You never know. Look at Nezu. The way he acts, like a maniac, can anyone tell that he's one of the smartest beings on the planet just by looking at him?"
Akira opened his mouth. Closed it. Thought about it.
"That... kind of does make sense."
"Of course it does," Momo said.
"Got it, got it.... Now, let's get going."
He reached out and grabbed Momo's hand. She took it. Then he pulled her close, his other arm wrapping around her waist. Red wings erupted from his back, and they lifted off.
Momo held on, her arms around his neck, her bag pressed between them. The wind pulled at her ponytail. The morning light caught the lenses of her suit's visor.
"You know," she said over the wind, "you could just use a car."
"Cars don't have this view."
She looked down at the city below them. At the world laid out like a map, beautiful and small.
"Fair point," she said.
Ten minutes later, they landed.
The address on the paper led to a clearing in a dense jungle-like forest outside the city.
The clearing was empty. Just grass, trees, and silence.
Momo looked around, then at Akira. "You sure this is the right place?"
Akira pulled out the paper and checked the coordinates. "Yeah, th--"
He never finished the sentence.
The kick came from nowhere.
So fast he could not move... One moment, Akira was standing in a clearing holding a piece of paper. The next moment, something hit him in the face with enough force to launch him backward through the air like a toy.
He flew. Through the clearing. Past two trees. Into a third, which cracked on impact and toppled sideways.
"AKIRA!!!" Momo yelled.
Her body moved before her brain could process. Training took over. Her suit shifted into battle mode. Armour plates locked. Sensors activated. The HUD inside her visor blazed to life, overlaying the clearing with thermal imaging, motion tracking, and threat assessment.
She scanned. The clearing was empty. No visible threat. No heat signature in the immediate vicinity.
Then she saw it. A fast-moving object on thermal. Red-hot against the cool green of the forest. Moving at a speed that her sensors could barely track, circling the clearing in a wide arc, closing distance with every revolution.
She activated the guns on her suit — the compact turrets built into the shoulder mounts, loaded with rubber rounds for non-lethal suppression. The targeting system locked onto the thermal signature.
Then it vanished.
The heat signature disappeared from her sensors. Gone. As if the object had stopped existing. No movement. No trace. N-
BOOOOM!
The kick hit her in the side.
She didn't see it. She didn't feel the warning. She just felt the impact — a concentrated force against her ribs that lifted her off her feet and sent her flying in the same direction Akira had gone, tumbling through the air, her bag separating from her shoulder and landing somewhere in the grass.
***
In the centre of the clearing, where two students had been standing a moment ago and were now conspicuously absent, a figure appeared.
Mirko stood in the empty space with her hands on her hips, her rabbit ears straight up, and her classic grin on her face.
She looked toward the treeline where Akira was pulling himself out of a cracked trunk. She looked toward the grass where Momo was pushing herself to her knees, her suit's sensors recalibrating, her visor flickering from the impact.
"And the lesson begins," she said.
With that, she vanished again.
++++++
And so the internship has started!!!!!!
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