rat race [open]

Isamu’s sleep schedule was something of a chaotic beast. He hand long battled his natural inclinations to be active at night due to needing to be active during the day to function along with most of the rest of society. This meant making compromises, either sleeping in short naps through the day or going to bed early or late to give his psyche some nighttime activity to keep it happy.

This particular morning had been one where he got up early to do some training of his quirk. The cat-like student had risen and dressed in a plain midnight blue t-shirt and black shorts, taking off from U.A. into the city to skulk around. The city was large and crowded, full of a multitude of scents and aromas all crisscrossing each other in conflicting ways. If he was going to use his nose to track a fleeing felon or to track down a missing person or object, he’d have to be able to track it quickly and through messy, small-laden environments. Exposing himself to more scents and being mindful of what they were would also help broaden his knowledge, although he was still trying to work on the teachers to get access to some more… sensitive materials to learn on.

The student had spent a couple of hours taking a scent and following it as far as he could, until he either found the source or the trail went cold. It felt like a fruitful night, but it was getting time to head back and try to get at least a little bit of sleep before he started his day proper. He’d even found one or two things which he had not followed up on and instead reported to the police. Getting in the middle of unauthorized heroics was not a mistake he’d be making again anytime soon.

Still, as he passed by a certain building he couldn’t help but hear the wailing of a—he stopped, turning his head about and finally looking up, focusing in on the source of the sound. Female, but not a young girl. Older, maybe an adult. Why was she crying? Because she was stuck on the roof? She should know better than that. Then again… If she honestly was stuck… Isamu couldn’t get her down but he could probably get some help for her, if it came to that.

Signing, Isamu turned into the alleyway, sniffing at the air. The freshest scent trail went up and it was definitely an adult. He climbed up nimbly, jumping and perching from every small surface he could find until finally… what looked to be a talking cat wearing clothes peered over the edge of the roof, scanning for anything amiss aside from the grown woman bawling her eyes out. He had pitch black fur from head to tail, and in the dim morning light his normally golden eyes still had a bit of a bright green tint. “Miss? Are you stuck or something? Do you need help getting down?”

Isamu wouldn’t have necessarily called himself worried per se. Maybe concerned, or ‘wondering why the heck a grown woman was bawling her eyes out on a roof at 6:15 AM in the morning.’ “You came up here… because of a rat?” More rats. If there was one thing he definitely realized the smell of at this point, it was a rat, and it already wasn’t the best smell in the world to begin with. Though… how’d the rat get on the roof to begin with? He should probably let the owner of the building know he had a rat problem, potentially. In fact, if it was not visible on the roof anymore it had probably burrowed its way back into the building somewhere. In that case… this would be difficult.

While the pro supposedly hero contemplated her future of loneliness and rejection from the other hero agencies, Isamu was already finishing the climb onto the roof with just a short hop, dropping to all fours and starting to sniff around. Tears, crying woman, bird feathers, dirt, and… rat. Fresh. Barely degraded. He started to follow it, sniffing about on the roof to find the trail.

“I’ve been up since four, and I don’t live around here. Just… let me try and help you find your letter, or whatever it is, before you wake up the rest of the neighborhood.” A little harsh, but she had apologized for waking him first, so… Besides, this was almost literally what his quirk was designed for, so may as well put his skills to use while he could.

Isamu kept up on the trail, slowly meandering his way around the roof. He just about had it when—the crying woman decided to try and be responsible or parental towards him. “I’m not a child, I’m fifteen!” Okay, so still not an adult, but not a child either. The eternal annoyance of having reached your peak growth before ten years of age. Everyone always assumed you looked younger than you actually were. Hence why he tended to be so serious most of the time, to try and appear older. “It’s fine, I went to bed at 10 last night. More than enough sleep.” Especially with the naps he usually sneaks in throughout the day.

And now she was trying to play the pro hero card. Fantastic. The woman crying on the roof because she lost a letter was trying to lecture him on responsibility. Technically he was supposed to defer to heroes, but that was for criminal or disaster situations. Neither of which applied here. Unless the rat was an evil letter-stealing shapeshifter, he supposed.

“Look, it’s fine, my body wants to keep a noctournal schedule, and besides, I’m a student at—” The rat scurrying along caught his attention and he paused mid-step, earns turning to focus on the sound followed by his head. He’d go for his school ID but that might startle the rat into moving before he could make a plan.

“Don’t move,” he hissed under his breath, trying to keep eye contact on the rat. “What’s your quirk?” With any luck it would be something useful like ‘telekinesis’ or ‘manifesting energy ratcatching nets’ or even ‘the ability to melodically control members of the family rodentia.’ Then again, if it was that last one she wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with.

Isamu was, unfortunately for Chihiro, very used to being forceful about his own rights and his own ability to do things in the face of everything people could and had supposed about his age and ability from his appearance.

He had told the hero not to move so as to avoid unnecessarily startling the rat while they tried to coordinate an offensive, but if her quirk was only healing then… Well, hopefully it wouldn’t be needed, but it wasn’t exactly an offensive ability either. Really it would just be easier if he took care of things before the rat got on the fire escape or, heaven forbid, dropped the damn letter. “I got this!” he hissed, before exploding into a flurry of motion.

The motions all felt smooth and familiar. In fact, he almost made the whole affair look effortless. He took off at a dead run, followed by an astounding leap that cleared half of the remaining distance, paws outstretched and claws unsheathed. Down came the paws on the squirming, squeaking mass, pinning the poor creature in place before those needle sharp teeth followed, one swift bite puncturing the rat’s spine and rendering it an ex-rat.

Isamu spit to the side as he raised his head, before gently working the rat’s jaws apart and freeing the torn and slightly soggy letter. “Well, here’s… part of it,” he said, gingerly offering it to the pro hero. “Give me a moment, and I’ll see if I can find the rest…” He started with the rat’s last known position and started to track it backwards hoping to find the other piece of the letter along the way. “As I was saying, I’m a student at U.A. Suzuki Isamu.” If she was familiar with the Osaka hero scene at all, she might recognize the family name as belonging to a husband and wife hero duo, the Lion-quirked Beast King and the Tiger-quirked Tiger Lily. If she was very familiar with the Osaka heroes, she might also recognize Beastmaster, the eldest son of the two pro heroes, and a rookie.

Isamu tilted his head sideways towards Chihiro in a sort of nod as she thanked him for retrieving the letter. “You’re welcome. I hope that letter does… whatever you need it to do for you.” And that it was worth all of this.

He paused mid-stride as Chihiro correctly identified not just his parents but his older brother too. That brought up… a lot of very, very complicated feelings for him. He loved his parents, of course, but it was still hard for him to resist comparing himself as a future hero to them and feeling like he’d come up short. “Eh heh… Well, you know. I just call them Mom and Dad.” An old ‘joke’ of sorts meant to deflect some of his mixed feelings away whenever his parents were brought up. Sometimes it even worked. “And that’s my older brother. I keep telling him he needs a better name but he never listens to me.”

He hastily stood up to return the bow to the elder hero, adopting as formal a posture as he could given his casual attire at the moment. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Takenaka-san.” His ears twitched just a little before he forced them still as the hero complimented him on his ‘heroic streak’, whatever that meant. “You’re too kind, really.” He didn’t really blush, but a cat’s body language could be very visible if he didn’t consciously clamp down on it. “Heartstrings, Heartstrings… Oh, I think I remember you now. I’m sorry, but I didn’t recognize you out of your costume.”

When the hero went to read her letter Isamu dropped back to all fours and continued tracking the rat’s scent, finding most of the rest of the letter caught on a roof vent. He carefully reached over and extracted it, bringing it back to Chihiro and presenting it to her. He looked at how the heronine’s posture had changed, figuring it was bad news. Or at least unwanted news. Still, it was none of his business unless she wanted to share, so he let the matter go unremarked. “You’re welcome, Takenaka-san. Think nothing of it. I’m just glad I was able to help.” Having a pro hero owe you a favor could be pretty useful, though… “If you ever need to find a lost or missing item, let me know.”

And tracking that scent backwards had been an interesting challenge. His natural instinct had been to go for the fresher scent, of course, but presumably finding where a trail started could also yield helpful information, depending on the circumstances. He'd have to add that to his training list.