Endless

13. Shadows in the Firelight

Sosaki Shino loves UA's summer camps. It's not every year that the Pussycats (that's the hero group Sosaki's a part of) get to host the little kittens, but it's always an incredible experience.

Even rarer than getting to host a camp, is hosting it for first years. The runts of the litter. First years can be a lot to handle, they're young and don't always take things as seriously as they should, but the Pussycats are more than prepared. Such lively spirits, first years, she wonders how long that will last with the hellish training camp they've got ahead of them. Poor kits.

The coach with Eraserhead's students pull up and Sosaki smiles. It's been too long since she last got to talk with Aizawa. The Pussycats have worked with him a fair amount over the years, not regularly, but enough to call him a good friend. It helps that he's a cat lover, just like every member of the Pussycats. Whenever they meet up, they do so at a cat cafe, and everyone loves it. Aizawa always looks so adorable with a kitten curled up in his capture scarf.

The kittens stumble out of the coach one by one, legs stiff from being sat down for a few hours now. They've been promised a bathroom break, but that isn't what they're going to get. If they need the toilet, they're going to have to hold it.

Finally, with all the kids off and distracted by Tsuchikawa (one of Sosaki's teammates, the hero known as Pixie-Bob), Aizawa Shouta steps off the bus, followed by a few young women Sosaki doesn't recognise. It's odd, because the camp had been moved here from its original plans in order to protect the students. The bare minimum of people knew the kittens were here.

That thought completely and entirely takes a backseat when Sosaki notices the small child in Aizawa's arms.

"Who's the little kit?" Sosaki feels something unsettling in her gut as the girl looks over at her, like a cat who's fur is puffing up. There's a pitch black mark across the girl's face, so dark it seems to make the world darker. It curls up around her eye before shrinking back into her hairline. Sosaki knows she's dangerous.

The little girl smiles, eyes bright despite the endless abyss of her irises undifferentiated from her pupils, and waves. Dangerous, Sosaki knows without a doubt, but also very sweet.

"This is Nu," Aizawa says, "she's under UA's protection." Small as the little girl is, Sosaki somehow doubts she needs protecting.

"Hey there, Nu, nice to meet you," Sosaki says. The girl blinks blankly at her before settling her head on Aizawa's shoulder, much more interested in the teenage girl making funny faces behind Aizawa's back.

"She has some trouble communicating," Aizawa excuses.

Sosaki nods, more than understanding. She wonders why it is this sweet little thing is in enough trouble to warrant UA's protection. "I'm Mandalay," she introduces, leaning around Aizawa to the three stood behind him.

"Kalila," a woman introduces, her hair barely long enough to reach her chin, and bleached until it's almost white in places, but still blonde in others.

The teenage girl (now no longer making faces at Nu) looks up at the remaining woman before grinning. "Famine."

"Plague," the final woman adds, leaning heavily on Famine. "Kalila, would you mind getting my chair out?"

Kalila blinks at the pair of them, looking simultaneously stunned and disappointed. She frowns, nodding as she moves away towards the coach's cargo hold.

"Heroes?" Sosaki asks. She's never heard of heroes with those unusual names, but she doesn't know what else those names could be. It's not like these two women who came here with the students could be villains.

"Horsemen," Famine says like it's a correction.

Sosaki's seen a lot of weird in her life. Being a hero makes weird rather unavoidable. This still seems like more weird than her usual. "I thought we were keeping the number of people who knew about this to a minimum." Sosaki aims the comment at Aizawa, hoping for an answer to the unspoken question.