𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐙𝐀𝐖𝐀

19

The next few days were rather uneventful, but now that they had narrowed down the part of town their suspect was presumably living in, there was much more police presence on the streets and Y/N just knew that her days of owning a cat that was actually a human were numbered.

She could just feel that they were getting closer to actually finding the villain and then Shouta would get turned back into a human and things would go back to normal and she'd end up being on her own again and it would be pretty sad, but that was the way things were and she'd just have to live with it, apparently. She hated the fact that things were that way, but what could she do? She couldn't really lock Shouta up in his cat form and pretend that he ran away or something like that.

First of all, he'd hate that. Secondly, she'd definitely get caught or wouldn't get paid anymore if she just lost Eraserhead and thirdly, Shouta was way too smart for her and would definitely manage to escape and then she was fucked. Then she was completely fucked and her life would be over and things would be bad and worst of all, Shouta would hate her. Even worse, human Shouta would hate her and that was a scary prospect.

Because the thing was... his personality hadn't really changed, but she felt like they had become friends. And once he was human again... well, maybe they could be a little more than friends. Y/N figured that she would really like that. She thought that he looked pretty hot when she met him again when he was still fully human and now she was starting to get to know him and get used to living with him, so... she was kind of hoping that maybe they could at least stay in touch after all this.

But she was aware that those things were more or less wishful thinking, because why would her old high school teacher want to hang out with her. This was a pretty dumb thing to assume, if she was being honest. But still - she could dream, couldn't she? At least a little bit, before they were shattered and... why the hell was Shouta getting all weird right now? He kept meowing.

Y/N snapped back to reality and looked around her. There were some police officers that seemed to be following someone. Y/N narrowed her eyes and then she finally saw him - the villain that had turned Shouta into a cat. He was walking quickly in her direction, but he didn't seem to have noticed her yet. Well, this was it. She had to go and get him and then Shouta would turn back into a human. She had kind of hoped to have a little extra time with him, but it didn't seem like it was meant to be.

"Alright, Shouta, let's go then..." she muttered under her breath as she walked up slowly to the man. She knew where he was, so she tried to keep her head down as much as possible to avoid him spotting her. So far it was looking pretty good for her. She could see him coming closer and closer and she wasn't quite sure when the right time to go after him would be, but she knew she'd better wait until the last possible moment, so he wouldn't get much of a chance to run away.

She looked up again and looked directly into his eyes. She saw that he could recognize her quickly and his eyes widened momentarily in shock at seeing her. Y/N heard how Shouta was getting away from her, probably to block his way at least for a little while. Just as Y/N was about to open her mouth to speak, the villain was starting to turn around and to run off. Again. But this time Y/N would be quicker, she had sworn that much to herself after she had failed spectacularly.

She quickly ran after him, pushing and shoving people out of the way. She didn't even care anymore, all she wanted was to get this guy out of the picture already. She knew it would be sad not to have Shouta around anymore, but what was even worse was this whole hanging between two states all the time, not knowing how much time she'd still have left. It was annoying her. So she was probably much better off just getting all of this over with. Then at least she could start getting over him.

"Just stop running already! You're not in any trouble!" Y/N yelled, as she was getting closer to the villain. She wasn't really sure whether he really wasn't in any trouble, but if it helped her cause then maybe this was worth it. He glanced back at her and in the next moment he stumbled, barely catching himself and that's when Y/N finally caught up with him and could hold him down. Next to the villain down on the ground was Shouta who was hissing furiously at him. It looked like he was the cause for the guy's stumbling. Poor Shouta. That must've hurt.

"What the hell do you want? I paid the fee and everything! Just leave me alone, okay? I'm just trying to get by somehow!" the guy protested, as Y/N caught her breath, while still holding him down. She looked down on him and felt almost sorry for him. He seemed like a young man that just had been dealt a bad hand in life. He didn't seem like some genuine villain, just someone that had made some bad decisions. Still... he would have to turn Shouta back.

"Just relax, alright? You're not in big trouble or anything. But... you used your Quirk on someone in that robbery a few weeks back and... well, you need to turn him back. That's why we've been trying to chase you down." Y/N explained. The man stopped struggling and turned his head to look at Shouta, as if he was only now realizing what was going on. He seemed honestly shocked.

"My... my Quirk? So I... that's not just some random cat? I didn't think I hit that hero back then with my Quirk... oh God, this is a mess..." he muttered. At that moment there were several police officers that came running through the crowd to take him away. Shouta just gave him a disdainful look.

"Alright, Miss L/N, we'll be taking over from here. We're going to take him to the station, but I don't think we'll be starting to interrogate him until tomorrow. It's already late. You and Eraserhead should head home and rest, we don't really know how strenuous the reversal of that Quirk might be." one of the officers said to her, as they took over for her, basically arresting the poor guy once more. Y/N just nodded, as she got up and brushed some imaginary dirt off her clothes.

"Sure thing. I suppose he can manage another night as a cat, after such a long time. Do you think he'll even be able to reverse it?" she wanted to know. She was surprised she hadn't thought of that sooner, but what if that guy's Quirk wasn't even reversible? Would Shouta be stuck as a cat for the rest of his life? No matter how much Y/N wanted to keep him as a cat, that thought was pretty horrifying for her. She definitely wouldn't like to be stuck in a body that wasn't hers.

"Well, we'll see about that I'd say. Either way, don't say any of that to these people." the police officer replied as he nodded behind Y/N. She turned around and was immediately blinded by what felt like a million bright flashes. Fuck. The press. How had they made it here so quickly? She heard Shouta hissing beside her and for once she agreed with him. These people were absolutely awful. Why had that officer just thrown her into this without as much as a warning? Not even a little one?

The next thing she felt was Shouta jumping up onto her shoulder and just balancing on it. Y/N was afraid to move, as it would either lead to him falling off or (which was the more likely option) him digging his claws into her shoulder and causing her a lot of unnecessary pain. So she just stood still, as there was another avalanche of camera flashes, before she heard them all asking different questions at the same time. It was awful. She couldn't see, because she was blinded by the flashes and she couldn't even understand any of the questions that were being asked, because everyone was talking at the same time. But somehow she had to maneuver through this crowd now. Great.