Izuku barely had time to put aside his belongings before a call came in. What had seemed like a warm welcome quickly turned into a serious situation. The attitudes of the Pussycats turned faster than he was prepared for as he was told to change into his hero costume as fast as he could. A half second of dithering was met with Pixie-Bob telling him to get ready or they were leaving him behind.
With their light-hearted antics and attitudes, it was easy to forget they were people with a serious and important job with lives at stake. Maybe that was the point. Before long, the five of them were riding earth beasts to a set of coordinates Izuku didn't understand but all of the Pussycats clearly did.
"Alright Tinder, you remember what we told you?" Tiger asked.
"I remember. Only watch. Don't try to help." The words came out, but... "But what if—?"
"NO."
He wasn't here to be a hero. He wasn't here to jump in and save the day. He didn't have a license, he didn't have permission, he wasn't here to be a hero. He was here to observe and to learn. But Izuku couldn't help but be frustrated by all of that. People were in trouble, he wanted to help, he had the power to help, but they didn't want him to get involved at all, with no exceptions.
The instinct All Might praised him for. Recognised him for. The desire to help no matter what, without even thinking about it. And now he had to ignore it. Suppress it.
"Midoriya," he heard Mandalay's voice in his head. "Tiger sounds harsh, but you need to understand. This is our job, not yours. We know exactly what we're doing and we've done it thousands of times. One day you'll be licensed, but not now. Trust us to be heroes, while you learn what that really means. Can you do that?"
... Right. It wasn't just that he wanted to help. There was a little arrogance in assuming he had to, that they wouldn't be able to handle it. It might not be where he was coming from... No... That wasn't true. It was a little where he was coming from. He'd had to act before. Twice. Because the people who were supposed to be in control, weren't. With the slime villain and with the USJ, it had been necessary those times, but that it would always be that way was the wrong lesson to take from it. If he couldn't trust heroes to be heroes, what was he aspiring to do?
"I'm sorry. I understand. I'll stay back and watch."
Tiger nodded. "Good. We're almost there. See how the trail cuts off over there?" he asked, nodding at a long stretch of hiking trail on a steep hillside that disappeared into nothing. "There's the one who called it in."
Someone, a hiker kneeling on the trail, desperately digging at the earth. "Do we talk to them?" Izuku asked.
"No need!" Mandalay declared through telepathy. "Ragdoll?"
"I see nine people!" the unsettlingly intense member of the Pussycats answered out loud. "Two buried on the trail, the rest went over the side down the hill!"
"Injuries?"
"The most severe are at the bottom, but the ones at the top will suffocate if we leave them much longer."
"Then we help those first!" Mandalay declared, and it felt like it was for Izuku's benefit to him. The sort of thing they didn't need to say, the sort of thing they just knew. As Mandalay said, they had done this thousands of times. "Your nightmares are over and your dreams have come true! Say meow to these purrfectly cute girls! Make way for the Wild Wild Pussycats!"
Izuku wore a confused expression as the earth beasts slowed to a stop and Pixie-Bob leapt down to the trail. Tiger explained for him. "She's talking to everyone trapped. They're scared, the one thing they need most right now until we can get them out is reassurance that help has arrived. That they're going to make it through this."
"Because I am here!" the memory of All Might came to him at the unintentional prompt.
"Right... Because we're here."
Tiger grinned as he watched Pixie-Bob and Ragdoll get to work, the latter guiding the former to the trapped hikers' locations so she could unbury them. "Exactly!"
Confidence. It wasn't just... Something he needed for himself so he could do his best. It was something the people he was saving needed from him. They needed to believe he was their hero, and that meant they needed him to believe it too.
He watched as the Pussycats worked like a machine, precise, each knowing their roles in this. Mandalay acting as coordination and as the triage station, checking over the rescuees as she communicated with the medical service en route. Ragdoll coordinating continuing rescue efforts by guiding her comrades. Pixie-Bob as the earth mover to clear out what she could to help get to more victims. Then Tiger as the muscle who was also capable of getting into harder to reach places that Pixie-Bob couldn't just move without consideration. As had happened with a woman who had gotten trapped in a crevice with a broken leg.
Izuku felt a little shame for thinking he would have to jump in to save the day like he had before. These were heroes. Real heroes. So he did what he could. He had a little first responder medical training as part of the hero course, but only a little. So he did what he could under Mandalay's supervision. Once the victims were all rescued, the entire team worked to keep them calm, as comfortable as possible, and out of further danger from their injuries.
"Tinder." Ragdoll, her job mostly done, elbowed him in the gut. "You look worried!"
She said it with her typical smile, her typical wild and even manic stare. All while the people they were helping, they were groaning in pain, or unconscious, or weeping and giving delirious apologies and thanks with the same breath. But even so, "Sorry, you all know what you're doing. I shouldn't—"
"No." The green-haired catgirl pulled him away to not be overheard. "You aren't listening. Be as worried as you want. You're young and it's stressful. You're not used to this kind of thing. But you can't show them that. This." She pushed the corners of his mouth down to exaggerate his worried frown. Then tapped the outside of his eyes, creased with concern. "They're already scared. They're already having the worst day of their lives. You looking like that, it's an expression, it tells them there's a reason to be scared. We need to show them everything is going to be okay. We have to say it with everything. Get it?"
It was easy to say. It was easy to understand. It was just like what Tiger was saying before. That they had to reassure people that everything would be okay as long as they were there. But faced with people in real trouble... Izuku had always worn his heart on his sleeve. What he felt, he showed. What he thought, still came out of his mouth whether he wanted it to or not.
And even right then, Ragdoll could see that. See his thoughts and feelings like he was saying them out loud. "Here, put your helmet on properly."
It was a solution for the moment. One that would suffice until they transported the victims to their station where emergency vehicles would pick them up.
That incident was quickly followed by another. An animal attack. As much as Nagano was known as a place with rich, natural beauty to be seen and admired, it also happened to be bear season. And so it was another quick excursion to help some tourists and shoo away some curious black bears without too much fuss or fighting. For the first few hours of his internship, it was surprisingly active.
Not surprising to just Izuku either. "Sorry it got so hectic all of a sudden," said Mandalay. "We didn't even have time to give you a proper welcome!"
"But for a hero agency, there's no better welcome than saving the day!" Pixie-Bob countered, even if she flumped into a couch, not seeming to care she was wearing a skirt with her legs wide open, one of them hanging over the arm of the couch. "Man, I'm beat."
"We did have you working pretty hard all afternoon," Mandalay offered apologetically. "You want an iced coffee?"
"Yessssss..."
"S-So is this not normal?" Izuku asked, trying to act natural despite just how easily he could look up Pixie-Bob's skirt. "Being this busy?"
"Nah, the landslide was a big one!" Ragdoll answered, performing a cartwheel for no reason, turning Izuku's face cherry red as she showed him her own panties while giving him no choice in the matter. "It happens sometimes, but most of the time there's no people caught up in 'em. We help keep them in tip top shape so it doesn't happen as much! Prevention is worth more than cure after all!"
"Well, not financially," Mandalay added as she fetched a pack of cans from the fridge. "If we left them alone we would get paid more for more frequent rescues, but obviously we'd never do that. We do well enough, and our job is to make sure people are safe, even if it isn't as flashy most of the time."
"Yes!" Tiger agreed fiercely. "Many heroes prefer to work in the cities so they can be seen, but people need help everywhere! The disparity is so large we look after around half of the prefecture ourselves!"
"I think that's part of why we rate so highly on the Hero Billboard chart," the red in their catlike sentai team suggested as she emerged from the fridge. "Sometimes there are incidents like the one today. And if we weren't here... No one else would've been. Being there when no one else will. That's what a hero does." She blinked as she saw their intern with his eyes on the ceiling, his face a brilliant red. "Midoriya, are you listening?"
"Yep! Be there when no one else will! Yep!"
Mandalay frowned, looked to the others and saw the problem. "Ryuko, close your legs!"
"Dun' wanna..."
"Midoriya looks like he's about to burst a blood vessel!"
"Hahhh...?" The blonde Pussycat sat up, made no effort to close her legs or cover up. "Something wrong, Midoriya?"
"N-No, ma'am!"
"See, Shino? He doesn't mind!"
Done with her friend's provocations, Mandalay took the ice cold coffee can and placed it against a very delicate part of Pixie-Bob's body.
"AIEEEEE!"
"Look at that," Mandalay said, deadpan. "Your legs are closed."
The blonde pouted as she sat up, taking hold of the can. "That was mean."
"So is teasing our new intern." Turning from her, Mandalay smiled at him in a much more gentle way than her teammate. "Here you go, Midoriya. And feel free to take a load off," she suggested as she handed him a can of coffee.
"Oh, thank you ma'am. Uh..." The hero student looked around the lounge of their home and agency, saw a large chair was taken up by Tiger, Mandalay quickly took another, and Ragdoll flipped and sat upside down on the opposite end of the couch to Pixie-Bob. Leaving him with... The space in the middle.
It wasn't just the ears of his costume making him feel like a cornered rabbit as he sat between the two teasing women. A wrong glance at Ragdoll would give him an eyeful of panties, or the crease under her breasts— He was already seeing it! His face reddened again, and then an arm was thrown over his shoulder from the other side, a blonde woman leaning against him, pressing her breasts against his side. "So Midoriya, why'd you pick us?"
"H-Huh?" It wasn't like he didn't understand the question. Or expect it. It was more that he wasn't entirely processing questions, or words, or thoughts all that well.
"Well you won the sports festival. That gets the big names calling every time, especially for first year students." She leaned in close, speaking directly into his ear. "Did you just want to spend your internship surrounded by cute kittens? It's okay, you can tell us..."
"Pixie-Bob," Tiger complained. "Can you restrain yourself just a little?"
"With a cutie like this? No way! So how about it, Tinder? Were you hoping things might get a little heated?"
"U-Um..." Her breath on his ear. Her body pressed against him. The sound of her voice. The tease of her words. "I-I need confidence!" he exclaimed, blurted, in a rush.
"Confidence?" Mandalay asked.
"W-Well, I had a hard time growing up, people put me down a lot. People tell me I can be a hero, that I can do this, but I... I can't get away from feeling like I'm not ready for this, that I lucked into it or something. I even beat the guy who used to make me feel worthless but it didn't matter. I... I need to have the confidence of a hero! I need people to see my smile and know that everything is going to be okay because I'm here! And you're all so sh-confident all the time, you're who I wanted to learn from!"
Pixie-Bob squealed, hugging him tighter. "He's so precious, so earnest, ooh I just wanna eat him up!"
"You're kind of a weenie, huh?" asked Ragdoll.
"Ragdoll!" Tiger chided her. "Midoriya has opened up about his shortcomings and sought us out specifically for guidance!" The beastly catman stood and flexed so powerfully Izuku could feel an aura of power coming from him. "Do not fear, Midoriya! By the time I'm done with you, you will have a will of steel! A presence that bellows the power of your soul! We will make you a man among men!"
"Yeah," Pixie-Bob agreed, tracing a finger up Izuku's arm. "When we're done with you, you'll be a real man."
Was his swallow audible? It felt very audible. And Pixie-Bob was practically licking her lips.
Kyoka's words floated into his mind, turning his thoughts even more traitorous. Turning his body traitorous.
"You're gonna bang one of the Pussycats."
He was going to say something unnecessary! He knew himself well enough to say that! So he threw himself up onto his feet. "T-Then I'd like to get started as soon as possible!"
"Ooh, really? Then let's take a bath together first..."
His eyes widened. "Uh! I meant, with, with training! Or, whatever we'd do!"
"GOOD! With that kind of passion this won't take long at all!"
-(-)-
"This was your training plan?!"
"The only way to gain confidence is to overcome!" Tiger declared as they stood at the top of a very steep hill. Almost a cliff, but with just enough of an incline that anyone who fell would hit something long before rock bottom. And likely many thing after that as they found themselves tumbling down the outcrops. "So overcome!" With a stiff shove, Izuku went over the cliff.
"This doesn't make seeeeeeense!" he complained, fear in his eyes as he tumbled downwards, only to see the earth taking shape below him. With a desperate kick, he pushed himself away from one outcrop, slowed his descent a little as he moved toward another. Meanwhile the shapes took the form of more earth beasts that took swings at him as he approached. With gritted teeth, Izuku swung his arm, meeting one fist to fist that threw him away in an unplanned direction, against the steep cliffside that he soon found himself skidding down until it abruptly ended, leaving him to punch into it and hang, planning his next move.
More earth beasts chased him down, denying him the chance to think, to plan. And so he acted on instinct and quick thinking. Pulled himself into a leap using his handhold to meet the earth beasts, kick off one and land on the back of another as it fell. Then leapt back to the wall far further down to hop down to solid ground.
"These people are crazy!" Izuku gasped, feeling the charge of One for All running through his whole body.
"OHNOOOOO!" came a shout from the top of the cliff. "IT SEEMS I AM LOSING MY FOOTING!"
"Mandalay?!" Izuku asked, looking up at the Pussycats.
"AHHH WHAT TERRIBLE FATE!"
One of the three slender figures tipped over the edge.
Mandalay... Could she handle...? That didn't matter!
His body agreed. It had already reversed course. Used the same meagre footholds he had used to make his way down to make his way back up, drawing on his power to climb, to meet her, to save her! Like a red and green streak he shot up the hillside in an ideal path, even as a foothold gave way it barely hindered him. With a desperate grab, he caught the auburn haired catgirl out of the air in a princess carry. One half of the rescue complete, he focused on the next part. Making his way back down. More earth beasts formed, but this time they were easier to use as footholds as they were so slow to form, making for ideal stepping stones to bring himself down the hill again.
"My hero!" Mandalay said as she leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. "Mm?!"
"Ah!" He felt her trying to pull her lips away. "Sorry, I have this problem with—!"
"Nice work!" Tiger congratulated him as the rest of the Pussycats made their way down on a dirt elevator courtesy of Pixie-Bob's quirk. "You—Mandalay!"
"Mm—Ah!" Her lips finally managed to escape his cheek as Izuku hurriedly put her down.
"Sorry! I, my quirk, you see, if something is hot, and, I want it to, I mean I—!"
"Oh my!" Mandalay said, laying a hand on her own cheek as she blushed slightly. Even in his stumbling, implications were getting through well enough.
"It's not like I...!" He was only making this worse. "I'm sorry! It's something I'm working on! I was surprised!"
"Mandalay, is a dark horse in the race trying to take the lead?" Pixie-Bob teased.
"Let your head do the thinking, please!" the team's coordinator requested, still with a little pink in her cheeks. "But yes, well done, Midoriya!"
"Now, what were you thinking on your way down the first time?" Tiger asked.
"That you're all crazy?"
"I take offense to that!" Ragdoll announced, jumping onto his back to get a piggyback ride.
"What else?"
"I don't know. Just, how to get down without getting hurt."
"And when you saw me fall?" Mandalay asked with a smile.
"That I had to save you... Even though... I don't know if you would've been able to handle that situation on your own. I mean you're a pro hero so you have to have some sort of contingency for if you get into a dangerous situation, plus I have to assume Pixie-Bob would've made sure you didn't really get hurt, or me for that matter—"
"Midoriya," Mandalay pushed gently. "What you were thinking then, not now."
"Right, sorry. I... That was it. Just, I had to save you, and working out how."
"That's right!" Ragdoll agreed as she put a phone in front of his face. "And it was written all over you!" On the screen was a picture, a photo of him as he was leaping up to catch Mandalay. An expression of determination on his face. "That's the difference! That's more like what a hero looks like!"
"Exactly! That's the kind of look you should wear," Mandalay confirmed as she took the phone from him, holding it up so he could focus on it and her at the same time.. "If that's what someone sees when they're in your arms," she finished as she turned it toward herself, "it'll make them feel safe and sexy."
There was a moment's pause.
"Mandalay?" Tiger asked, somewhere between a sigh and a genuine question.
"What?"
"Coming up on the outside the forty to one Mandalay is gaining on the lead..." Pixie-Bob muttered to herself.
"What?!" Mandalay demanded. "What did I say?!"
"You said it made you feel sexy," Ragdoll supplied, happy to stir things up further, as her mount remained stiff as a board in body and expression.
"I did not!" the woman in her thirties protested with the petulance of a much younger woman. "I... Did I? I said it made me feel—! No, it makes people feel—! I didn't say that!"
"Time to get something to eat and get some rest!" Tiger declared, swiftly and abruptly changing the subject. "We have another big day tomorrow!"
-(-)-
A/N: This chapter seen very very early on THE GREAT FORBIDDEN P! FEAR THE P! LOVE THE P!