Chapter 7: Letting it out

 I tell her about the fight, without going into the gory details. Or about my own involvement. Instead, I tell her that I got caught in one of the villain’s attacks. Not a lie, but not the full truth.

After hearing what I saw she glomps onto me, squeezing my head between her oversized boobs. “You poor thing, seeing their deaths firsthand must have been rough on you. Maybe we can get the teachers to send you home for the day…”

My tail flicks in irritation at her treating me like I’m fragile, but I get it, considering how I act. Though this would be a good opportunity to drop most of the ‘pep’ for my public persona and act more myself. Not all at once of course, but gradually. But as for now…

“No, I already slept through the first half of the day, and I don’t want the school making this into a spectacle by explaining the reason I’d be going home early. Plus it would give the teachers another reason to dislike me.”

The majority of my teachers don’t really approve of me using my quirk for learning, but my results speak for themselves. The fact that my grades boost the curve so much (as well as a healthy bribe to the principal) gets my cats labeled as ‘learning supplements’. I’d estimate that around eighty-three percent of a person’s problems can be solved with money.

Most of what can’t requires either overwhelming power or simply can’t be done.

After a few more minutes of assuring her that I’m fine and don’t need to go home, we head to the cafeteria to eat lunch. There I also had to wave off the concerns of my suppli-er, friends. Of course I don’t tell them about Water Hose’s death, instead telling them that my abrupt awakening wasn’t something to be concerned about.

Soon enough it’s time for class to begin again and we return. The rest of the day passes by uneventfully, though everyone can tell my mood is despondent. Meruem offers to walk me home, but I decline. As I walk off with a downcast expression and a drooping tail, she watches me with a concerned expression until I’m out of sight.

I walk home in silence, letting the noises of the city fade into the background. Once I’m home, I tilt my ears, trying to see if anyone is home. But it’s empty. I take a seat on the couch in the living room and turn on the tv. What pops up is the last thing I want to see today. A picture of the villain that killed Water Hose takes up the screen as a newscaster talks about the fight. Apparently he’s known as Muscular.

But I don’t listen to what they’re saying. I can’t. Instead, rage builds inside me and I let out a scream filled with frustration as I stand and start beating the couch with my fists.

“Damnit! What kind of psychotic piece of fucking shit casually kills heroes like that!? A stupid fucking one thats who!” I rage for a good ten minutes, shouting profanities and cussing out Muscular while tearing apart one of the pillows when I tire of simply punching cushions.

I stand there breathing heavily while glaring at the tv which has since removed the picture of Muscular. Instead, it shows a body covered by a sheet. Talking about the heroic sacrifice of the hero. But wait, only one body…?

My confusion clears my head enough that I can finally hear what’s being said. “...luckily reinforcements were able to make it in time before the villain could kill the other half of Water Hose. As of now, Miss Izumi’s condition is stable. However, we have no information about her intentions towards the future.”

I stare in shock. The wife is alive? I was sure that he would have killed her before making his escape. It’s not like she could have put up a fight in her state. As I wonder about how she’s still alive, the reporter newscaster continues. “The only statement we managed to get from Miss Izumi was that something seemed to distract the villain when he approached her. To her, it appeared to be some kind of small animal. Unfortunately cameras were unable to capture footage of the event due to floating debris from the battle. We will be back with more information shortly.”

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I blink as it cuts to a commercial before falling onto the couch, ignoring the fluff from the destroyed pillow. A complicated feeling grows inside me. On one hand, she’s alive. I saved her.

On the other, she watched her husband be killed right in front of her. I’m proof of what that kind of thing does to a person. It might have been kinder for her to have been killed alongside him… The thought rises, unbidden, from the dark side of my mind. I shake it off though. So long as she’s alive, things can get better for her.

I close my eyes and take a deep, shaky breath and let it out slowly. I open my eyes and stare at the commercial playing. It’s for Mighty O’s, a cereal promoted by All Might. My expression immediately sours and I turn it off. Then I look at the mess I made and my frown deepens. “I’ll need to clean this up before they come home. Bleh. Work.”

I immediately get to it, grabbing big handfuls of fluff and stuffing them into the torn up pillow case. I know that I can’t fix it, but doing it like this makes it easier to clean up. Ater dumping the evidence in the trash and tossing the whole thing into the dumpster I take a shower.

After getting dressed I hear Pearl come home. “Oh Catia, could you come down here for a minute?”

Huh. I wonder what she wants. Usually he doesn’t call me down until dinner is ready. Generally speaking, Pearl likes to hear about my day while we’re eating dinner. Something about making meal times more intimate. Shrugging the question off, I make my way downstairs.

There I see the whale of a woman tapping her foot. “Care to explain why I got another complaint from your teacher about you sleeping in class?”

I can’t help but sigh. We’ve had this conversation literally dozens of times but for whatever reason she acts like she doesn’t know what’s going on.

“I was using one of my cats, so I didn’t miss anything in class. And since I retain more information when using my cats, the principal gave me permission to use them. Me sleeping is simply so I don’t have conflicting viewpoints for the same situation. It’s unsettling.”  Of course the part about retaining more information is complete bullshit. Though compared to when I’m sleeping, I do retain more information. So not technically a lie.

Pearl sighs, letting her irritation go. “I know, but as your mother I’m obligated to check with you just to make sure there’s no problems.” A thought seems to strike her. “Speaking of, do you know what happened to the pillow from the couch? It seems to be missing.”

“It’s a mystery.” I say with a completely straight face.

She snorts before waving me away. “I’ll call you when dinner’s ready. Then you can tell me about your day.”

I leave, Pearl none the wiser regarding the unfortunate fate of the pillow.

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