Momo stood with her parents at the bedside of the burglar who saved her life only to sucker punch her immediately afterwards.
His tattered hoodie and old jeans had been replaced by a one-size-fits-all hospital gown that practically smothered his emaciated frame like a giant blanket. An IV drip connected his arm, which like all his limbs was covered in various sores and bruises from sleeping in hard places on cold nights.
The delicate features of his pale face could've been considered attractive or even downright handsome if not for how gaunt it was from years of malnutrition. Dark bags hung under his closed eyes as he breathed through the help of a respirator. His black cat's tail laid limply on his lap, unmoving.
"He's just a boy," said Momo's father, any trace of anger within him long melted away to be replaced by pity. "No older than you, Momo."
"Why…how could he have ended up like this?" Stifled tears choked the words inside Momo's mother's throat as she spoke. "Poor thing looks like he hasn't had a single proper meal in his life…"
Momo was silent. She still wasn't sure how to feel about the boy in the hospital bed.
On one hand, he is most definitely a thief. The bag he was carrying during his escape contained over twenty million yen of the Yaoyorozu's money. It was less than a drop in the ocean of their wealth, sure, but he did try to steal it from under their noses by breaking into their house.
And yet, he chose to stay and help a stranger when he could've easily gotten away with the biggest score in his short life.
The maid who'd been harassed by the man he beat up told Momo and her parents everything after the cat boy was arrested and hospitalised. If not for him stepping in when he did, the creep who'd dragged her out to the courtyard alone might've gotten away with far worse than a few unwanted touches.
Not to mention, when being chased by someone in far better shape than him, he made the conscious decision to literally throw away his haul to save her instead.
Those didn't seem like the actions of a heartless villain. They seemed like…
The door to the hospital room opened. Momo and her parents turned to see a little old lady in a lab coat with her grey hair held in a bun by a syringe-shaped pin.
"Sorry for the wait, dears," said the old lady with a smile. "I honestly thought it was a scam at first when I heard how much money you were offering."
"Thank you for coming, Recovery Girl," said Momo's father.
"Sorry to bother you on such short notice," said Momo's mother. "We know you must be busy."
"Well, your email seemed so urgent that I couldn't help but be curious." Recovery Girl looked at Momo. "Oh? This is your little daughter, right? The one who's coming to UA soon?"
"That's right," said Momo, glad for the chance to talk to a real life pro hero, albeit a semi-retired one working as a school nurse. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Recovery Girl. You'll probably be seeing much more of me once the school year starts."
"Not too often though, I hope," joked Recovery Girl before walking over to the boy's bedside. "Now, let's see the boy you want me to-"
She paused upon seeing the malnourished boy on the hospital bed.
His eyes were closed. His chest barely moved. The oversized hospital gown covering him only served to accentuate the skeletal frame underneath, all sharp bones and taught pale skin.
If not for his barely audible breaths aided by the respirator, he could've been easily mistaken for a starved corpse.
"Can you heal him?" asked Momo's father nervously.
"...Keep the money, Mr. Yaoyorozu," said Recovery Girl after seeing the state of the boy. "I don't know if I can heal him, but it's my duty as a hero and a nurse to do what I can for this poor soul."
Recovery Girl's lips shot out of her face and planted a single healing kiss on the boy's cheek.
Almost immediately, the wounds inside him began to heal. The machines reading his vitals showed them going up and his breathing became more audible and regular as opposed to the silent wheezing it had been. His black cat tail gave a small wag before laying back down across his lap.
And yet Ren's eyes remained shut as he lay on the hospital bed, still bone thin as ever.
Recovery Girl did a once over on Ren's body. sighed. She looked at Momo and her parents, shaking her head.
"I've done all I can for the boy," she said. "My quirk only speeds up the recovery time of injuries. I can't just fix years of serious malnutrition and constant exposure to the elements."
"Will he live?" Momo asked with hesitation in her voice.
Of course she wanted him to live. She wouldn't wish death upon anyone. But part of her still wasn't sure whether or not she should be so concerned about the guy who broke into her house and sucker punched her in the mouth when she tried to chase him.
"He will," said Recovery Girl. "But I don't know when he will wake up."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" asked Momo's mother.
"Just paying for his hospital bill is already doing all you can. The boy needs to be kept on the IV so that his body can receive the nutrients he's been deprived of his entire life." Recovery Girl slowly turned to look at Ren. "I'll have to speak to his doctors to figure out what to-"
She paused when she saw the empty bed with an unhooked IV line sitting on it. Momo's and her parents' gaze followed hers before all their eyes collectively drifted to the left to see Ren at the open window holding a vase.
Momo and Ren made eye contact, her sharp dark greys staring into his wide copper oranges.
Ren blinked at her.
Momo blinked at him.
Recovery Girl and the parents had their mouths agape in quiet surprise.
"...Bye!" said Ren before tossing the vase out the window and disappearing in a puff of black mist.
"Wait, what?!" Momo shouted.
"We need to let the pro heroes know he escaped!" said Recovery Girl before taking out her phone. "I'll make a few calls!"
Meanwhile, Ren had just landed on a concrete rooftop besides the shattered remains of the tethered vase he'd teleported himself to. He did a forward roll to disperse the impact as best he could, but every spot he bruised on his body during his last fall still ached from his every movement.
Whatever the old lady's kiss quirk did to heal him must've had its limits. Ren guessed it was probably only a quirk that speeds up recovery time while not actually being able to repair any damage by itself. If that was the case then really should be recovering in bed right now, but he'd rather do that in a dumpster somewhere than in juvie or worse.
He leaped through a gap between buildings before jumping onto a nearby brick apartment which he proceeded to scale.
The police wouldn't be equipped for a chase through the rooftops. Something so over the top would be reserved for the pro heroes. And if he was lucky, a small case of an injured runaway like him wouldn't be important enough for any of them to get involved.
Then, as if the universe were reading his mind, Ren heard a voice call out from under him as he scaled the building.
"Stop right there young man!"
Ren turned around to see a pro hero with tree trunks for arms and a wooden head that he couldn't tell was a helmet or his actual face. He was standing on the sidewalk, but his wooden arms were stretching up high into the air straight towards Ren as he was clinging onto a windowsill.
"Oh, great," Ren muttered under his breath before backflipping off the apartment just as the pro hero's wooden hand hit the wall, causing its roots-like fingers to spread across the brick. "You better not be looking up at my hospital gown!"
Ren landed on the pro hero's wooden arm and immediately started running down it towards the hero himself, perfectly balanced while sprinting on all fours with feline grace.
The pro hero's eyes, right before they were forced shut by Ren's knee to his face, the force aided by his running start and sheer gravity.
The pro hero fell onto his back and Ren planted his feet hard on his chest before leaping off it into a used clothing store staffed by a single lazy clerk asleep at the desk.
"Time to get this stupid thing off me," Ren mumbled as he threw off his hospital gown and grabbed the first pieces of clothing he could get his hands on-a bright orange shirt with a giant yellow smiley face on it and a pair of pastel pink shorts with drawstrings that allowed them to fit around his scrawny waist.
Not the most dignified outfit, but they were still less conspicuous than wearing a hospital gown in public.
Ren left the store clutching a cloth hanger that he quickly twisted into a makeshift boomerang. It wouldn't be able to return to him once thrown, but he didn't need it to.
"There you are!" boomed a woman's voice from high above.
A huge shadow engulfed Ren, followed by an enormous hand that gently wrapped around his body below the shoulders and picked him up.
The giant hand belonged to a giant blond lady in a skin-tight bodysuit and horned purple mask. Another pro hero, and probably someone's fetish.
"You're a slippery one aren't you, boy?" the mountain of a lady teased, clearly thinking she's won.
"And you're a confident one, aren't you, lady?" said Ren before tossing his cloth hanger boomerang at her.
It curved in the air before getting hooked on the giant lady's hair. Ren sucked in a breath and teleported to the cloth hanger in a puff of black mist. Surprised, the giant lady tried to grab him, but he simply disappeared into her silky blond hair which smelled of pricy shampoo and conditioner.
"Hey! Get out of there!" she cried as he scaled a lock of her hair until he reached her head.
Ren grabbed a lock of her hair and tugged it hard, aided by his feet planted hard against her scalp.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"
The giant lady's hand stretched out to grab at where she felt her hair get pulled. Perfect.
Ren grabbed as many strands of hair as he could. Then, when the giant lady's hand tapped her own scalp trying to find him, he leapt onto the back of her hand and started tying it up with tiny locks of her own hair by leaping and swinging around under and over her wrist while holding locks of her hair.
"What are you-ow!" the giant lady tried to pull her hand out only to feel her pulling her own hair.
While she was busy fidgeting about trying to untie her hair from her hand, Ren used another lock of her hair to swing to the rooftop of a nearby apartment.
Once there, he rushed down the fire escape and ran off into the crowd of a busy market where he tried his best to blend in. Just as he was starting to feel safe, a deep male voice called out to him from the crowd.
"You there! Cat boy!"
Ren turned to the direction of the voice to see a large pro hero with long, muscular arms and hazard strips around his wrist and forehead.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Ren whispered under his breath before picking up an apple from a fruit stall and throwing it at the pro hero, who easily batted it several metres away.
"I don't want to hurt you, kid," said the pro hero. "Just come quietly."
"Ha! Just try to catch me, speed bump!" shouted Ren before turning tail and running.
The pro hero gave chase until they were both out of the crowded market. After a long few minutes of chasing in a relatively empty street, Ren's exhaustion and injuries finally caught up to him. A stray piece of garbage littered there by another piece of garbage made him trip and fall on his face, giving the pro hero just enough time to pick him by the collar of his stolen shirt with one of his enormous hands.
"Got you!" said the pro hero in between pants. "Now, are you going to come quietly or are you going to keep throwing your life away."
Though exhausted, Ren managed a small grin.
"Ha…didn't you know?" He held up one hand to flip the pro hero off. "Cats have nine lives."
Before the pro hero could ask him what the hell he was talking about, Ren vanished from his grip in a puff of black mist, leaving him alone in the empty street.
"Wait, what?!" the pro hero shouted, looking left and right trying to see where Ren might've gone to no avail.
Back in the crowded marketplace, in a quiet alleyway, Ren reappeared in another puff of black mist beside the apple he'd tethered and thrown at the pro hero. Now that the pro hero was out of the marketplace, it'd be difficult for him to get back in to look for him due to the rush hour crowd-assuming he's smart enough to figure out he'd teleported to the apple he threw.
"Ugh."
Ren winced and clutched at the left side of his chest. Blood seeped through the fabric of his stolen orange shirt. The surgery scars from the operation that fixed his punctured lungs must've reopened.
"Shit," he muttered under his breath.
Ren pushed his way out of the marketplace, helped both by his skeletal body allowing him to easily slip past the gaps between people and the fact that most people avoided him due to rightly assuming he was homeless.
Once out, he walked into a stationary store where a gaggle of school girls were drawing everyone's attention by fangirling over some stupid mascot being on a pencil case. With them as a distraction, Ren shoplifted a stapler with no one the wiser before leaving for the back of a bar that was closed during the day.
A half-drunk bottle of whiskey laid on the ground-probably left there by some drunk the night before.
Ren grabbed it and poured half of what little whiskey remained on the stapler and the other half on his wound.
He grit his teeth as he stapled the opened wound on the side of his chest shut. It hurt like hell and was far from a permanent solution, but it should keep him going for a while longer.
This city wasn't safe anymore. The heroes knew his face, which had probably been broadcasted on the local news by now.
He needed to escape to a new city. Maybe hide himself in the trunk of a taxi and hope that it'll take somewhere far away.
The exhaustion took hold and Ren slipped on a piece of trash, crashing onto the dirty floor of the alleyway. He coughed into his hand and examined his own saliva, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw that there was no blood.
"Alright, so lungs are still intact," he muttered to himself, taking a deep breath to confirm his assumption.
He could take full breaths again, though not without some effort. The doctors must've stitched up his punctured lung with the old lady's quirk accelerating his recovery, but he was still far from being back to normal.
Those last few teleports he escaped already strained his weakened lungs. It was probably best to refrain from doing any more lest he reopened the wounds.
Ren pushed himself off the ground with his elbows only to feel a heavy net fall on his back, forcing him flat against the ground.
"There you are!" shouted a familiar girl's voice.
Ren groaned.
"Oh, come on, you again?!" He struggled to move his head to the side to see Momo Goddamn Yaoyorozu standing on the rooftop of the bar.
She opened her button-up shirt and a whole miniature rescue cushion shot out of her stomach. It landed on the floor of the alleyway in front of Ren and she jumped on top of it for a safe landing.
Apparently she didn't even need to be saved from falling that night, and the realisation that he'd thrown away the biggest score of his life for nothing pissed Ren off beyond belief.
"You're a slippery one," said Momo with a look of stern disapproval on her otherwise beautiful face. "You managed to evade all those pro heroes. Clearly, you have at least some talent and ability."
"Gee, thanks," said Ren dryly as she struggled to get up from the heavy net Momo casted on him. "Coming from you, that really means…nothing at all, really."
Momo clenched her teeth and furrowed her brow at him as she approached where he laid on the ground.
"You're a waste of potential," she said, nearly spitting out the words. "All that talent and promise, yet you decide to be nothing more than a common villain. People like you are the reason heroes exist."
The black fur on Ren's cat tail bristled. The vertical pupils of his coppery orange eyes shrunk into slits focused on Momo's face as she looked down on him.
"Lady, you don't know a damn thing about me!"
In a split second, Ren tethered himself to the stapler in his hand before teleporting two feet away from it-right in front of Momo.
Momo was in tip top shape, athletic and almost certainly trained in some sort of martial art. Ren was starving, injured, and learned all he knew about fighting from getting beat up in alleyways just like these.
But where Ren lacked in strength and skill, he more than made up for it in underhandedness. Knowing his own lack of strength, he elected to even things out by targeting Momo's weakness-chivalry be damned.
Before Momo could react, Ren shot his right foot up into the air and straight into her crotch.
Her eyes widened. Her mouth puckered before popping open and sending bits of spit and spittle flying into Ren's face.
Capitalising on the opening, Ren socked her in her hanging jaw with all the strength in his body. Which is to say not much at all, but it was still enough to distract her for a little bit.
Ren turned around to make a run for it only to feel Momo's hands gripping his shoulders hard to keep him in place for her shin to shoot straight up into his own crotch.
Ren's mouth puckered. His eyes watered. He really couldn't be mad. It was only fair for her to be allowed a cheap shot after he did the same to her. Still, that didn't mean had to like it-or stop doing what he was doing.
He donkey-kicked Momo without turning around. He had no idea where he hit her, but it must've been something with lots of nerves in it judging by how loudly she grunted.
Ren followed it up with a roundhouse kick that turned him back around to face her. The girl was stubborn if nothing else. It'll probably take knocking her out to make him stop chasing him, and that's exactly what he'll do.
The roundhouse kick landed squarely against Momo's neck. She fell to the ground and promptly low kicked his left foot while his right was still in the air, toppling him onto the ground shoulder-first.
"Thieving underhanded scoundrel!" Momo shouted as she pounced on Ren and put him into a rear naked chokehold.
"Self-righteous privileged snob!" Ren wheezed back through the chokehold before elbowing Momo hard in her floating ribs twice.
When that failed to get her off him, he jumped backwards with her on his back, causing her to crash into the alleyway wall. That finally got her to loosen her grip, and he managed to slip past it to deliver a push kick to her stomach which put her on her knees.
Ren tried to run away again only to feel Momo yank him back by his tail. A loud, cat-like yowl escaped his mouth.
"Oy!" He turned around to uppercut Momo in the stomach. "Crotch shots are one thing but watch the damn tail!"
Momo coughed out another mouthful of spit.
"Noted," she croaked before kicking Ren in the crotch again.
Ren dropped to his knees. His left hand clutched his bruised nuts while his right clenched into a fist and returned Momo's favour by uppercutting her back in the crotch.
Momo fell onto her knees in front of him.
For a good few seconds, Ren and Momo both knelt in front of each other with only soft groans exchanged between them as they cradled their privates.
"I hate you so much," Momo squeaked through the pain with tears in her eyes.
"The feeling's mutual," Ren squeaked back, his voice several octaves higher than Momo's.
Once he had adequately recovered, he sent a right hook flying into Momo's face.
Momo did the same and both their jaws were mutually rocked by each other's punches.
Ren scrambled to his feet before Momo could and tried to knee her in the face only for Momo to catch it with her hands before headbutting him in the stomach.
Momo got back up while Ren stumbled backwards. Seizing the advantage, she threw a series of punches at his face and body.
Ren tried his best to dodge or block but a stray punch landing on his reopened wound almost made it unbearable. A cat-like hiss shot through his sharp clenched teeth as he tried to push back.
His chances of winning or running away was dwindling by the second, but he wasn't about to go down half-assed.
One of Ren's wild haymakers managed to hit Momo in the throat. It made her stop punching for a split moment which Ren used to kick her hard in the ribs.
When he did, Momo caught his foot and threw it upwards.
Ren fell hard on his back. Every breath was forced out of his lungs from the impact.
Momo then straddled him and started pummelling his face with a flurry of punches all aimed at his face.
"Will you stop trying to run away already?!" she yelled in exasperation.
"Will you stop trying to catch me already?!" he shouted back before grabbing Momo by the shoulders. "You rich fucks had plenty of money left!"
Ren slammed his head into Momo's in a headbutt that carried with it all his pent up frustration. He'd aimed for her nose hoping to break the soft and sensitive cartilage inside to possibly knock her out, but a slight miscalculation in trajectory made him headbutt in the forehead instead.
The impact rocked both their brains inside their skulls. For a moment there was silence. Then, their eyes rolled to the back of their heads and Ren and Momo each fell to one side with the mothers of all headaches.
There they stayed, unconscious by each other's sides while police and pro heroes alike searched for Ren.
In the end, it was Momo's parents and Recovery Girl who found them lying next to each other covered in bruises.
"Ah, there they are!" said Recovery Girl cheerfully. She paused upon seeing the banged up shape they were both in. "Oh, my. Looks like there was quite a fight."
Momo's mother knelt beside her and placed her daughter's head on her lap.
"Oh, Momo," she said softly as she brushed Momo's hair from her unconscious face. "I'm so lucky to have such a strong and kind daughter."
Momo's father crouched down to check the pulse of the cat boy beside her.
"She must've really been determined to help this young man, even if he didn't want to be helped," he said quietly.
Recovery Girl planted a kiss on the cat boy's cheek before doing the same to Momo. The cuts and bruises on their bodies healed in an instant, though both remained unconscious.
"Momo should be fine after a good day's rest," she said as she looked over her injuries. "The catboy's probably going to take longer, but he's clearly tougher than he looks."
"It's a good thing the boy's hospital room has a spare bed then," said Momo's mother. "Momo can stay there."
"I just hope they can get along," said Momo's father as he dialled his chauffeur's number on his phone to get them a ride back to the hospital. "They'll be living together after all."