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Later that evening, or perhaps still afternoon, Feral returned to her mission. Class had been dull and dry and stiff all day, just chairs and chair and chairs and talking, and she may have nodded off a few times in each course, but she had been able to jot down the required homework.... which she would do later. There wasn’t a lot of it, anyway, mostly reading (less terrible than writing, especially since it wasn’t kanji-heavy reading), and all that time in class had given her an Idea.

Before leaving campus again, she stopped into her dorm to check in on her now entirely lazy pack. Quick found the energy to stretch and stroll into the hallway while Feral reclaimed the broken glass thing from the bathroom, where she had washed it and left it to dry, and tucked it into her school backpack. She kept a wallet in the backpack too, but that was mostly because it was soaked in peppermint and salty chip grease and even her nose could follow it if someone tried to steal it. Her actual Important Plastic Cards (identification, bank card, and Lunar Agency contact information) lived much more securely on her person.

Still barefoot, still in black leggings, but now in a UA t-shirt over her usual black tank, and now ready to go! Feral wove her way off campus with Quick close to her heels, and the pair meandered through city streets for a few dozen minutes before reaching a more commercial neighbourhood, one much less wealthy than those closer to the prestigious and well-defended campus. It wasn’t grungy enough for the average citizen to consider it sketchy, but the stores were perhaps more closely watched by their staff.

The store she went for sold a little bit of everything; that was why she sought it ought. It was also right beside a pet store. Quick’s ears tipped forward as they approached, her step brightening and trending right toward lively. With a little grin, Feral pushed the pet store’s door open and let the leashless white dog trot inside.

A little bell chimed above the door, and some general rummaging noises answered from the back of the store, followed by a pause, a thumb, and a muffled string of strangely mild curses. Feral raised an eyebrow but turned her attention back to Quick, who had needed very little prompting to start patrolling the aisle, nose irreverently shoved into this bin, that box, and that other mound of toys. A rubber chicken in a tuxedo screamed, wheezily. Student and dog both tilted their heads to the left as it reinflated.

Put it back, Feral told Quick wordlessly. The dog sniffed the toy chicken, bumped it with her nose, and then pawed at it. She bounced back as it wheezed again. And then barked at it, and then looked back at Feral.

”Really?” Feral sighed. Of course one of the rare times that Quick, of everyone in the pack, wanted something new, it was on a day that Feral was planning on spending money on something else....... and it screamed like someone was desperately trying to die. ”That’s what you want. You’re sure.”

Yes! Oh, Quick was very sure, and immediately scooped the toy up by its face, with her teeth, and trotted down the aisle as she shook it from side to side, eliciting smaller, squeakier noises as she went.

Her ears swivelled in interest as Feral tugged open the hole-ridden white garbage bag. Kitchen garbage, mostly, bits of plastic and meat scraps that apparently weren’t supposed to go in the compost, but strangely heavy at the bottom. That wasn’t what had caught her attention, though.

No, her eye had snagged on a flash of glossy red through one of the holes, in one of the scraps of light from the nearest streetlight, and as she widened the hole she found herself looking at a glass sphere, bigger than Crow’s head, with deep shadows swirling across one half. The other half was almost clear. It rolled out of the bag with surprising weight. Probably heavy enough to cave in a skull, if she wanted. One side was flatter, and opposite that was a different sort of smooth. A chip, or maybe something broken off? Either way, the edge was pretty sharp, so she’d have to be careful carrying it back. Oh! It would be easy to carry in a sling, rather than barehanded. And what if she found other things, or wanted to climb anything? She should have her hands free.

She gave the glass ball a wipe on the side of a nearby dry garbage bag and held it up to the light. Hard to see colour as well until her eyes shifted back, but it was probably very pretty. Someone would probably like it. Ooh, there was another, smaller one in the bag too! Or two? No, they were stuck together, and there was a chip at the bottom of the bigger one. Did it... it did! It fit together with the first one she’d found. So it was three stuck together, but it had broken apart so someone threw it out.

Whatever. It was still pretty. The smaller top pieces were more swirly than the bottom one, and looked to be the same colours. Okay. She really needed to set up a sling now. She set the prizes on top of a garbage bag and rummaged around some more. There had been a sturdier garbage bag in here somewhere... there it was. It wasn’t tough enough to resist her tearing skills, and she dumped out the contents. All dry stuff, nasty and dusty but it all came out of the bag without resistance. She hopped up and hung over the edge of the dumpster for a minute to let the air clear and clear out her face, and then returned to nest the glass balls in the emptied bag. She tied the ends together securely and slung it from one shoulder to the opposite hip. Not bad, not bad. Now, what else could she find?

Feral lay on the ground a little longer. Quick eventually settled down alongside her, lean and legging body tucking in against Feral’s ribs and hip. The bruised hip, unfortunately. Assuming that the other one wasn’t also bruised at this point. Everything felt bruised, and she hadn’t even over-used her Quirk.

She sighed. That stung.

She sighed again anyway. She had made the window, at least? And... most... of the last bit had been successful. She just hadn’t jumped high enough the second time. Third time? She hadn’t really been counting.

This time, it was a black muzzle shoved in her face. Food? he asked, briefly looking up at the wet sky before quickly dropping his head down again and shaking, adding to the water already soaking her clothing. Now she had rain water and dog water. That was hardly new, though. ”You don’t need food,” she muttered up at the big dog, halfheartedly pushing his face aside with her less-bruised hand. A few of her fingertips stung, revealing a few splits in the skin when she tried to use them.

Ugh. That was her writing hand.

Kai nudged the side of her neck with his cold nose. Dry food? He wagged his tail hopefully. He didn’t usually ask for kibble, although he rarely hesitated to scarf it down alongside everyone else’s, given have a chance of inattention.

”Fine,” she muttered, and hooked her already-raised hand inside his collar even though it made her fingertips hurt even more. ”Dry food, snack only.”. And then she would shower. Maybe stick on a few bandaids. Good things, bandaids. Kept things clean so they could heal properly. ”Pull me up.”

Once Kai had her on her feet, and a moment of lightheadedness passed, Feral eased each limb through a little stretch to make sure she hadn’t actually badly hurt anything, but it all seemed to be skin-deep. So not a complete failure, today. That shower would be wonderful... even if it stung all her scrapes. But pain was part of life, just like getting rained on and covered in dog hair.

[END]

This time, Feral jumped too hard, jarring every joint in its socket when she collided with the wall well above the window. She got her feet against it, though, and threw herself away from it with all the force she could gather in her most agile heartbeat. She soared back across the alley, twisting midair to bring her hands back to bear against the original surface.

She stuck this landing, below the window now and substantially farther down than where she’d last flung herself. Her body sang and beckoned her onward. This wasn’t enough. She’d hit the window once now; that was plenty. What else? Where else? Oh! The window had only been the first part of it.

The original issue was that everyone else had surged past without hesitation. How had they come through? From there, and then up over the roof there, and beyond that building. Feral hopped off the pipes like skipping the last step on a flight of stairs and tore off down the alley, feet absolutely sure on the dusty concrete and its little damp patches. More wind, at her back for the moment but soon to be in her face. She’d have to work harder. That was okay. She could do this. She would do this. She would catch up to them.

She would beat them. That would show all the people who thought she shouldn’t be here, that an animal like her didn’t belong in a school with uniforms and ties and people who wore glasses.

She lithely twisted her halt, just around the corner from the alley entrance, near where she remembered first entering it in class. She’d been running. Everyone had been running. She crouched, tensed, then bolted forward, trusting the fluid flexibility humming in her body to find the right grip, the right stride, the right tiny shifts in balance and angle and height and pressure.

Feral tore into the alley like a hellhound after a racetrack lure, already looking ahead to the pipe, the window, the roof. Don’t stop at the window. Use it to keep going. Jump hard, don’t climb the pipe. Fling forward with wild abandon, trusting nerve and muscle to align everything as needed. Don’t slow down, just touch down with feather-light toes and spring onwards, a half-step at full sprint to keep the momentum. The metal roof filled her vision, for all that it wasn’t very wide.

This time, Feral swarmed up the opposite side of the alley. It was ridiculously easy to climb - she could probably do it in her sleep - and she hadn’t completely caught her breath from the first fall by the time she was a good distance above the window. It taunted her now, teasing and beckoning from across the alley. A bit of wind tugged at her hair where it disappeared under her shirt, then faded.

She was higher up now than she had been before. If she didn’t make it to the other wall...

It would be what it would be. It would be easier if she could take a running leap at it from this angle, but she’d have to do that from a full story above. An unprotected jump three stories above concrete.

How about not. She flexed her spin, already turned so that her back was to the pipe work. She had good handholds on both sides, and her feet were secure on a horizontal pipe. She pushed herself outward, pulling against her hand grips to see how far she could extend her legs like this. She’d have to push off hard.

Feral slid her hands a bit lower, tightening her flex, and leaned on her Quirk. It lurked, a tension in her fingertips and joints. She didn’t need claws; they wouldn’t help her. They were a lot of work anyway. She needed to be able to spring and snap and launch herself outwards. As the aching burn spread, like sinking into a hot bath but only on the inside, she flexed her body a little bit further and then kicked off into the open air, back arching to lend her entire spine’s power to her legs.

So far so good. The pipe’s braces weren’t evenly spaced but she could reach them well enough to climb quickly, even though she was smaller than most of her classmates and had less reach as a result. Maybe not Hanako. Hanako didn’t make her feel short, though Feral was much leaner. Scrawny, really. The scrawniness of a lifetime on sporadic food and near-constant movement.

Feral hauled herself over a bigger brace, forced to lean out over the ground a dozen feet below, twisting sideways to get a foot onto it. A little bit further and she would be level with the windowsill. Crow had vacated it while she climbed, and after a moment’s visual search she spotted him watching her from a corner where stray leaves from years past had collected, dry beneath an overhang. The odd raindrop streaked across her shoulders but it still wasn’t raining, and the metal under her hands and feet wasn’t slippery.

Up a few more feet. Her muscles were more warmed up now, and she could still feel her Quirk wondering if it ought to step in. Should she let it? Push it to? Would it help?

If she fell, it might help her land without injury. But it wouldn’t help her jump from standing, if one were to try to call ‘clinging to a pipe’ standing. Besides, it would tire her out faster. No, she would be fine. She could believe in herself. If she doubted herself, that would be when she failed.

She exhaled slowly. Or so Blue Weaver said. And it generally seemed to hold true. As long as she wasn’t completely dumb like a newborn kitten. Cats learned their overconfidence as they earned it. She could do this.

She did let the little niggling bit of doubt guide her one brace higher, where she could look down at the ledge. Less than six inches deep, against the closed glass pane. Closer to three where the ledge ran past the frame. Maybe three feet wide in total. The ledge angled down a little, probably to let the rain run off it and not toward the building. That could be risky. But it was wide enough.

Feral shifted on the pipe, eyes fixed on her target. Her tail hung loose and limber behind her, tip waving slightly with focus. She was flexed and strong and agile and ready.

She jumped.

The wall stretched up above her, two stories of bare brushed concrete before the lowest window ledge. It was a bit unusual for this place, given that there was more than ten feet of open wall without protruding pipes or wires or ledges or other.... industrial-y stuff sticking out or tacked on haphazardly. It faced an alley of sorts, in which she now stood, looking up at this wall she had found. She had passed it by chance at first, when her class had been set loose to careen around the training grounds. Some of her classmates had been able to spring right up, not even slowing down when there was nothing to grip or leap from.

Feral had not done as well, and had barely twisted herself around in time to keep from cracking her skull open. The others had been far enough ahead that they didn’t notice, but that didn’t fix the problem. Feral was behind her class. Not just academically, even if Blue Weaver and her tutor both insisted that she was closing the gap fast, but physically. She was quick enough to seem like she was keeping up, but for a physical Quirk she couldn’t compare herself. Not if she wanted to feel like anything other than an out-of-place failure.

She worked hard to get her academic skills up to the expected level, and she was supposedly making progress. She hadn’t been working as hard on her physical skills. If anything, she had been less active since arriving at UA, and that was the complete wrong direction.

Running was easy, and she could do that whenever. It would keep her in shape, at least, and help her stamina, but it wouldn’t make her stronger. It wouldn’t make her more able to keep up with her classmates in situations like this. It wouldn’t let her keep up with villains in situations like this.

Feral was supposed to have the entire day off from studies. Something about a holiday, and a gap between major assignments. She didn’t even have anything new from her tutor. So she had brought her pack to the frustrating bit of open wall to get their opinions. Crowdsource a strategy. So far, Feral and the pack (mostly Crow, as he was the aerial specialist of the group) were focusing on how to get her to that window. There was a vertical pipe to the left, two metres beside the window and braced with metal rings every few feet. To the right, the wall jutted out half a foot, with a little sheet metal roof at a steep angle with no gutter below. Rain had flecked her bare arms on her way here, but so far the sky was keeping to sullen overcast rather than breaking into a downpour.

The alley was a little less than ten feet wide, and the opposite side was a mess of intertwining pipes, full of spaces Crow had to squish into. Footholds, certainly, but nowhere to stand until she climbed all three stories to the roof. Would it be easier to jump sideways, from the pipe, or across the alley and hope she didn’t fall short?

Either way, she was prepared to lose some skin today.