Mr and Mrs Yaoyorozu stared down at the sheets of paper in disbelief.
"This can't be right, can it?" Mr Yaoyorozu asked the tutor, re-reading the results over and over again as if it was going to change.
"I don't want to seem like I'm doubting Ren," said Mrs Yaoyorozu. "But are you sure he didn't…you know? I mean, he is a crafty one."
"The test was done and graded on a computer and we had cameras everywhere watching him take it," said Fuka, the tutor who used to teach Momo, now assigned to Ren. "There's no possible way he could've cheated. These results are genuine."
"157…that's almost the same IQ score as Momo when you were still tutoring her, isn't it?" said Mr Yaoyorozu.
"It's actually higher than Momo by two points," said Fuka. "But that's just the overall score. Ren scored higher than her in perceptual reasoning and processing speed while Momo has him beat in working memory and verbal comprehension."
"What about the mock SATs?"
Fuka pulled out the results of Ren's test from her briefcase and laid it out on the table.
"It's ridiculously high too considering his upbringing." She set down Momo's old test scores to compare them with Ren's. "Momo scored higher in the mock SAT overall, but Ren could still get into just about any school he wants with scores like these. He even did better than Momo in some subjects like English comprehension and classical literature of all things."
"Not to sound ungrateful, but how is this even possible?" Mrs Yaoyorozu asked. "Ren has never set foot in a school his entire life but he's just able to easily rival Momo in intelligence?"
"It's possible that he may be self-taught," said Fuka. "You did mention that he was resourceful, didn't you?"
"I did, but I didn't think it'd be to this extent," said Mr Yaoyorozu. "What are your recommendations for him going forward?"
"Honestly? With this kind of aptitude, I don't think he really needs me tutoring him in academics as long as he's diligent enough to study the material on his own. It might be better to focus on improving his health and physical training for the practical portion of the UA exam."
"We'll have to contact Kagami-sensei then," said Mrs Yaoyorozu. "If she could train Momo then she should have no trouble with Ren."
"I'd also recommend hiring a nutritionist to make sure Ren's body is healthy enough to start training with her," said Fuka. "Because holy shit that boy looks like he needs a sandwich."
Mrs Yaoyorozu let out a soft chuckle.
"Don't worry, we've been feeding him well in the week since he's got here," she assured the worried tutor. "But you're right. I don't mind him raiding our fridge, but we should make sure he's getting the right nutrients to put on some muscle."
"Agreed," said her husband. "We'll be sure to talk to Ren about this-and ask him how the heck he scored so high on all these tests."
Fuka-sensei went on her way while Mr Yaoyorozu had their butler Uchimaru contact Momo's old martial arts instructor to come train Ren at her earliest convenience.
The couple then went around their new Musutafu mansion looking for their adopted cat boy. They ran into Momo along the way, sitting in the dining room with an annoyed look on her face as she stuffed herself with chocolate bonbons.
"Are you alright dear?" Mrs Yaoyorozu asked upon seeing her daughter fueling her quirk so aggressively. "Did something happen?"
"I'm fine," said Momo as she shoved another luxury chocolate truffle into her mouth.
"Does it have to do with Ren?" Mr Yaoyorozu asked.
Momo winced at the truth.
"It's just…he's so infuriating!"
"How so?" Mr Yaoyorozu asked.
"Ever since he figured out my study schedule, he's been playing the saxophone while on a tree branch outside my room whenever I try to study just to annoy me!" Momo shoved four chocolate truffles into her mouth at once. "I don't even know where he got the saxophone!"
"Aw, that's actually kind of sweet," said Mrs Yaoyorozu. "He's giving you a nice soundtrack to study to!"
"Wait…" Mr Yaoyorozu grimaced. "Isn't your room on the fourth floor, Momo?"
"He probably teleported there with his quirk," said Momo through a mouthful of chocolate. "And he's definitely not trying to help. His saxophone playing sounds like the screams of a dying animal."
"Do you know where he is now?" Mrs Yaoyorozu asked.
"He's probably still napping in the tree," said Momo. "He likes to sleep in the strangest places."
"Thank you, Momo." Mrs Yaoyorozu put a gentle hand on her daughter's shoulder. "And do be patient with Ren if you can, dear. The boy's had a hard life. It's only natural for him to take a while to adjust."
"I guess," Momo mumbled. "What do you need to talk to him about?"
"We have to discuss his training for UA," said Mr Yaoyorozu. "We're going to have Kagami-sensei over again to train him."
Momo perked up at the mention of her old teacher.
"That's a lovely idea, father!" she said with a slightly smug smile on her face. "Maybe Kagami-sensei can finally teach that cat some proper discipline."
"We'll see things go," said Mrs Yaoyorozu. "And don't forget to take care of yourself too, Momo!"
The Yaoyorozu couple made their way outside towards the giant cherry blossom tree growing in their garden.
Sure enough, just as Momo said, their adopted cat boy was curled up asleep on a branch four storeys up in the air. Though he was no longer quite as gaunt as he was when they first took him in, he was still so dreadfully thin that the thin silk pyjamas he didn't bother changing out of that morning looked like an oversized blanket wrapped around him.
His black cat tail hung off the branch lazily swinging side to side in a steady rhythm while his scrawny arms were wrapped around some sort of large golden object.
"He really is like a cat," Mr Yaoyorozu muttered under his breath.
"Um, Ren dear!" Mrs Yaoyorozu shouted towards the treetop. "Can you hear me from up there?"
There was no response at first. Then, Ren's black cat tail stopped swinging to rest atop the branch.
He stirred awake shortly afterwards to look down at the Yaoyorozus, still half asleep. The slit pupils of his copper orange eyes expanded ever so slightly when he saw his adopted parents at the base of the tree looking up at him.
Ren let out a long yawn before stretching and dropping whatever he was holding off the branch.
Startled, Mr and Mrs Yaoyorozu jumped backwards as the object plummeted down only to be caught by Ren, who'd teleported to it in a puff of black mist just as it was about to hit the ground.
"Heyo," said Ren, holding the object that turned out to be a whole saxophone while his cat tail flicked side to side behind him. "Anything I can do for you two?"
"Oh, we just wanted to see how you were doing, dear," said Mrs Yaoyorozu.
"Where'd you get that saxophone?" Mr Yaoyorozu asked.
"Found it in your music room." Ren played a single toot on the saxophone that sounded like a trumpeting baby elephant with asthma. "It was being left to collect dust so I decided to make use of it."
"Why the saxophone in particular though?" Mrs Yaoyorozu asked. "We have lots of instruments to choose from, you know?"
"Well, you know how my quirk is linked to my breathing?" Ren asked, causing his adoptive parents to nod. "Well, I figured that I could train myself to control my breathing and increase my lung capacity by blowing on the sax regularly."
"Why all the way up on a tree though?" Mr Yaoyorozu asked.
"Because cat," said Ren sarcastically. "And also I wanted to train my balance at the same time. Whenever I play I'd usually do it while walking up and down the branches."
"Huh." Mr Yaoyorozu's face beamed with approval. "So all this time you were already putting in effort to train on your own. And here I thought you were only doing this to annoy Momo."
"Oh, yeah, that's a big bonus," said Ren with zero hesitation and a smile. "She can consider it training for her too. A hero's gotta learn to keep their cool even while distracted, right?"
"You know, Momo plays piano too," said Mrs Yaoyorozu. "We could give you some proper saxophone lessons so you can jam out with her in the music room sometimes."
"I'll gladly take the saxophone lesson. Not sure about the jam sesh though." Ren paused for a moment. "Oh, that reminds me. You know that Claude Monet you have hanging for decoration in the music room?"
"Yes?" said Mr Yaoyorozu, surprised that he even bothered to recognise the painting. "Why?"
"It's a fake," said Ren casually. "The brush work's far too modern and it uses paint in hues that hadn't even been invented yet in Monet's time. If I tried to sell that to a fence they'd laugh me out of the black market with just a few hundred bucks."
Mr and Mrs Yaoyorozu looked at each other for a moment.
"Um, there's something else we were meaning to ask you," said Mrs Yaoyorozu gently. "Please don't take this the wrong way or anything, but, we just got to know: How exactly are you so smart?"
"You told us you never finished middle school," added Mr Yaoyorozu. "But your scores on the tests we gave you were better than most honour students. So…how?"
Ren shrugged. "Annoyance, mostly."
The Yaoyorozus raised their eyebrows in unison.
"Annoyance?" Mrs Yaoyorozu asked with incredulity.
"Annoyance," Ren repeated. "When I come across something I don't know, I get annoyed at myself for not knowing about it. So, I try to learn it. I stayed in internet cafes a lot so I'd look up stuff I'm curious about online. It's how I learned what causes the weather, how babies were made, a bit of quantum physics, and a whole lot of other things. If a subject interested me in particular, I'd also sneak into a library to help myself to the books on it."
"Is that how you learned English too?" Mr Yaoyorozu asked with no small sense of awe in his voice. "Your scores were as high as a native speaker."
"Kind of," said Ren in perfect English with, oddly enough, a thick British accent. "I found an English copy of Pride and Prejudice while dumpster diving one day. It seemed like a waste to not make use of it, so I started watching old British shows online to learn English and read it."
"You…really are something, else, huh?" Mr Yaoyorozu said with surprise and awe mixing in his voice.
"Did you like it, though?" Mrs Yaoyorozu asked excitedly. "Pride and Prejudice, I mean."
"It was interesting, but I can only be so invested in the lives of rich wankers while living in abject poverty-no offence."
"None taken!" said Mrs Yaoyorozu with a bright smile. "Oh, I'm so glad you decided to let us take you in!"
Unable to resist her parental instincts any longer, Mrs Yaoyorozu patted Ren on the head. His hair was still just as messy as it had been when he was a stray, but now that he had regular access to an actual shower and quality shampoo it'd gotten almost unbelievably fluffy and soft to the touch.
Ren, for his part, stood there and took the headpats with the same look of stoic indifference most cats in ancient Egypt probably had as high priests worshipped at their feet. The only sign of his true feelings was in his black tail, which was pointed straight up and waving slowly side to side in content.
Mr Yaoyorozu cleared his throat, trying to resist the call of Ren's very fluffy and pettable kitty cat head himself.
"Well, we were actually hoping to discuss your education, Ren," he said calmly. "If we gave you the textbooks to study for the UA entrance exams, do you think you could study by yourself for it?"
"I've already been doing that." Ren slipped out of Mrs Yaoyorozu's ceaseless petting to grab a backpack which had been resting against the trunk of the tree he'd been napping on. "You two have a very extensive library, so I helped myself to it. Hope you don't mind."
Upon being handed the backpack by Ren, Mr Yaoyorozu saw it filled with several heavy textbooks that were entirely way too advanced for high school.
"We don't mind at all," said Mrs Yaoyorozu. "Why did you have these books here though?"
"I've been reading these books while hanging upside down from a tree branch to improve my focus and flexibility while studying," said Ren plainly as if everything he said was completely normal. "They're also heavy enough that I'm training arm strength at the same time too."
"Oh." Mrs Yaoyorozu wasn't sure if she should be impressed or concerned. "Guess we don't have to worry about you passing the written exam, huh?"
"Then that means we'll just have to focus on the practical portion of the exam," said Mr Yaoyorozu. "We've already called the martial artist who trained Momo. We'd like you to start training with her too for the UA exam."
"I can already kick plenty of arse by myself," said Ren. "But I suppose getting a fancy black belt wouldn't hurt."
"We're also considering getting you a nutritionist," added Mrs Yaoyorozu. "So you can put some proper muscle on your bones. It might mean you can't just eat whatever you want from now on though."
"That's fine," said Ren. "I've gone days without food and broke the fast literal rats before. As long as it's edible you won't hear me complaining."
"You…ate rats?" Mrs Yaoyorozu asked with disgust and pity mixing on her face.
"Hey, when you're starving you'll get your protein where you can get it," he said casually. "Rats, pigeons, fish from public parks, the odd snake here and there. I'll eat it if I can catch it, though I draw the line at cats and dogs."
"Well hopefully the nutritionist won't put any of those things on your menu," said Mr Yaoyorozu. "If all goes well, your training can start next week."
"Can't wait," said Ren dryly before stretching his arms and letting out a yawn. "I think I'll continue my cat nap now if that's alright."
"As long as you keep up your training," said Mr Yaoyorozu. "You seem to be doing well for yourself so far even without our help."
"Awesome." Ren gave his adoptive parents a thumbs up before starting to four-point climb his way back up the tree with a heavy saxophone slung over his back.
"We did give you a bed, right?" Mrs Yaoyorozu asked as she watched her new son making his way up the tree with rather impressive speed. "Is there something wrong with it? We can get you a new one if you'd like."
"Oh, the bed's fine," said Ren. "I just like the breeze up here, that's all."
Mrs Yaoyorozu could tell there was a little more to it than that but decided not to press him. She left with her husband back into the mansion to discuss future plans for Ren's future.
The cat boy could open himself up to her at his own pace, if at all. What's important now was that he knew he was no longer a stray, but a member of a family.
It was just a shame he didn't get along with all of them.
About half an hour later, Momo returned to her bedroom after cooling herself off at the indoor gym.
Ren was still on the branch outside her window, curled up hugging a saxophone which he was mercifully too asleep to play at the moment. The tip of his black cat tail lay close to his face, wiggling every now and then to flick off nosy insects.
Momo very, very carefully crept to her desk and opened a textbook to continue studying in peace. Sure, she could've probably just studied in the library instead, but she didn't want to give the damn cat the satisfaction of knowing he made her move.
Still, as much as she disliked him, it was gratifying to see him so much healthier than when they first met.
He had just a tiny hint of muscle under his skin now where before there was only bone. His gaunt face, which was once covered in dirt and grime and God knows what else, was now always clean with a bit more meat in his very pinchable-looking cheeks. Aside from his cat tail, his fluffy black hair also had prominent vent-like intakes sticking from the top that almost reassembled cat ears.
Momo slowly opened the window to not startle him. She was planning to slip that damn saxophone off him when the sound of him apparently purring in his sleep made her heart melt.
Despite herself, Momo had to admit that the asshole was pretty damn cute.
She looked behind her to make sure her door was locked. Then, she looked down to make sure none of the staff or God forbid her parents were around to see what she was about to do.
Once she made sure the coast was clear, she carefully crept out the window and onto the thick branch Ren was sleeping on. Instead of reaching for the saxophone, she succumbed to her intrusive thoughts and placed a tentative hand on the sleeping cat boy's fluffy head.
His hair felt soft to the touch. Like candy floss minus the stickiness. She was so busy delighting herself in petting him that she didn't realise he'd stopped purring.
"Meow," said Ren dryly, his wide-open coppery orange eyes giving Momo a blank stare as she patted his head.
"Ah!" Momo leaned back so quickly she nearly fell off the tree branch.
"Whoa there!" Ren caught Momo by the wrist before she could plummeted to the ground like Newton's apple. "Can't have you dying too soon. It'd make me look suspicious."
Ren gently pulled Momo back onto the branch and didn't let go until she steadied herself.
"Ugh." Momo brushed herself off, her face red from embarrassment. "Thanks, Ren."
Ren raised an eyebrow at her.
"I think that might be the first time you've called me by my actual name."
"Well we should be calling each other by our first names if we're going to be siblings now," said Momo, eager to move the conversation away from her attempt to pet her new adoptive brother.
Ren shrugged.
"Whatever you say, Princess." He crossed his legs and gave his saxophone an ear-screeching toot, seemingly just to annoy her.
Momo cringed and pressed her palms against her ears until he ran out of breath, which was way longer than it had any right to be. That probably means his lungs recovered at least.
"You suck at that, you know?" said Momo as Ren caught his breath.
"The point is to train my lungs, not sound good." Ren wiped the spit off his saxophone. "Besides, I'll get better. Your mum and dad just offered to get me some real lessons."
"I pity the tutor they hire," said Momo dryly.
Ren's left eye twitched. "The hell's that supposed to mean?"
"It means there's a higher chance for you to beat All Might in a fistfight than have the discipline required to learn a musical instrument."
It was not normally in Momo's nature to act so snooty, but in Ren's case, she was willing to make an exception.
Ren narrowed his eyes.
"...Game on, bitch," he said with a completely straight face. "Give me a year and I'll fucking school your arse in the music room."
"Oh really?" Momo crossed her arms and looked down at Ren.
"Yes, really." Ren met her gaze and straightened himself as much as possible to make up the height difference. "You. Me. A year from now. Me on the sax and you on the piano."
"You're on," said Momo before pausing. "Wait, how'd you know I played the piano?"
"Your mum mentioned it when she and your dad were telling me about getting a martial arts trainer and a nutritionist."
"Oh yeah!" A smug grin came across Momo's face. "You're going to get humbled so badly, you have no idea."
"I can handle it." Ren puffed up his chest in pride. "I was already pretty tough before, but my body's been doing stellar ever since I stopped eating from garbage cans."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, really," said Ren. "Teleport quirk aside, I can feel my cat bits getting stronger now that I'm getting actual goddamn nourishment. Check this shit out."
Ren held up his right hand and bent fingers into jagged curves, causing five sharp claws to protrude from them.
"Whoa." Momo took a moment to look at Ren's claws. "Are those…your nails? They can grow at will now?"
"Nah, they're more like a second set of sharper nails under my regular fingernails." Ren flexed his fingers over and over, causing the claws to retract and extend each time. "I would've kicked your posh arse if I had these bad boys when we first fought."
Momo rolled her eyes. "Please, I would've blasted you to bits with a beanbag canon if I weren't holding back."
"Ha!" Ren flicked a finger down against Momo's nose, much to her annoyance. "As if you could keep up with my speed and finesse. We cats are nature's ninjas."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, really."
Momo was about to retort with something snarky when a knock at her bedroom door startled her.
"Momo dear!" came Mrs Yaoyorozu's voice outside the bedroom door. "Dinner's ready! Come down to eat!"
Momo carefully crawled back to her bedroom window and stuck her head inside.
"I'll be there in a minute, mother!" she called out.
"We're having salmon today!" said Mrs Yaoyorozu cheerfully. "Have you seen Ren? He definitely wouldn't want to miss today's dinner!"
"Yeah, he's right-" Momo turned around to look at Ren only to see empty air where he once was. "-Here…"
Momo grit her teeth and looked down, around, and everywhere else for a trace of the catboy only to be awarded with absolutely nothing.
"Nature's ninja, huh?" Momo scoffed, but smiled to herself when she was sure Ren was gone. "Show-off…"