Nikita felt sick to her stomach and was happy she'd skipped lunch as she felt like she'd have thrown it up. She was alone in the waiting area, waiting for her match with Shoto. Midoriya and some of her other classmates had all wished her luck but they all seemed nervous for her too, sensing her apprehension. Though she didn't like the idea of fighting Shoto seriously, she couldn't let him down, he wanted her to do this, so he could prove himself. Her mind drifted to the first time she'd met Shoto, though at the time he had no idea it was her, she wondered if even now, he knew when their first meeting was.

Young Nikita cringed as her stomach began to ache. Her mother and father were away with Endeavor helping with some natural disaster. They left her with a kind neighbor who often watched her when they were away for extended periods. Nikita cried out as the pain in her stomach began to intensify. She crumpled to the floor as tears welled in her golden eyes. Something felt like it was moving beneath her skin, crawling through her veins, trying to claw its way out.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as the pain worsened. Her skin began to shift, it was agonizing it felt like it was being ripped open. Her eyes grew wide as she saw her hand beginning to change, growing smaller and furrier. She felt herself begin to shrink, her clothes soon drowning her. In a matter of minutes, the pain subsided and when she tried to examine herself she found every inch of her covered in fur. She ran to the mirror in the room she stayed in with her neighbor and felt her heart stutter in her chest as she found a small black panther cub with bright gold eyes staring back at her. Her quirk had awakened!

Desperately she tried to force herself to change back, no matter what she did, nothing happened. Was she going to be stuck as a cat for the rest of her life? She tried desperately to call out to the lady who was watching her but the only sound that came out was a soft meow. How was she supposed to communicate? She ran to the bedroom door but couldn't open it as she couldn't reach the handle and didn't have hands to grab it. Another meow escaped her as she tried to paw at the door.

The door swung open after a moment, "Nikita? AH!" The lady screamed as she spotted the black panther cub, "Shoo, get out! I'm allergic to cats." She scooped up the black panther cub and dropped it onto the fire escape before glancing around outside, "NIKITA?! Where did that child go?" She closed the window behind her with a sneeze.

Nikita panicked and began pawing at the window, but the lady had left. A loud booming roar of thunder sounded from overhead causing the tiny cub to jump and nearly fall from the fire escape. She desperately clung to the edge for dear life and struggled to pull herself up before making her way down to the ground. Her mom and dad talked about their friend Endeavor's family, his wife was very kind and she loved cats, maybe she could help.

She scampered in the direction of their home, trying to remember every time her parents had talked about where it was. The sky opened up above her and rain began to pelt her as another roar of thunder rumbled above her. Nikita let out a terrified cry as she ran on all fours. It didn't take long for her to find the giant Japanese style mansion her parents had talked about.

As she passed through the gate, she heard a loud vicious growl and turned to see a snarling Doberman. Nikita let out a panicked cry and ran as fast as she could toward the mansion. The Doberman was right behind her snarling, growling and trying to bite at her as she ran. She was going to die!

"Stop it!" A small voice yelled from the giant mansion and Nikita spotted a boy about her age with two toned hair, the right side a pale silvery white the left side a bright vibrant red. He ran toward them and just as the Doberman was about to tear into her, he picked her up and kicked at the dog. "Leave the kitty alone! Meanie!" The boy's mismatched eyes looked down at the small black cub trembling in his arms, it was bigger than a normal cat but still looked like a baby. "What are you doing out in this storm, kitty?"

Nikita thought back on the day with a smile. She'd been stuck as a panther for three days. Shoto had taken her in and begged his mom to take care of her. His mother had agreed to let him keep her until his father returned. When her parents returned with Endeavor her mother and father recognized her right away. Shoto asked them if the kitty belonged to them and they laughed and said it did but she could come visit whenever she wanted. And she did. She visited him often after that, but she wasn't sure if he'd ever realized she was the panther cub he had rescued.

Nikita nearly jumped out of her seat as she heard Present Mic call for the second match contestants. She slowly made her way onto the field as her stomach churned unpleasantly. Her bright golden eyes fell on the opposite tunnel where Shoto was coming from, he looked pissed. She spotted Endeavor's retreating form in the tunnel and groaned inwardly. Why did he have to make him angrier before their match? He already wasn't thinking with a clear mind, now he was just going to be running on pure rage and the need to win.

"Sho-chan?" She tried tentatively as they met in the center of the raised concrete platform, Cementoss, pro hero and one of UA's teachers with a cement quirk, had created for the final round.

"Sorry, Niko. I need to win this on my own. Don't you dare hold back." His voice was filled with tension. What did Endeavor say to infuriate him?

Nikita bowed her head as her tail and ears shifted to a snow leopard pattern. The moment the match began, Shoto shifted his right foot to the side. His anger fueled his quirk. A giant mountain of ice shot from the ground at his feet hurtling toward her. She struggled to stay atop of it, flipping and leaping from massive shard of ice to massive shard of ice as it continued to grow until it reached high over the stadium and nearly covered half the crowd. Nikita landed atop of it panting and gasping for breath. She'd never seen him so angry or out of control and it broke her heart.

"Nikita?!" Midnight called in a panic thinking the cat girl had gotten crushed in the mountain of ice.

Shoto had used up a lot of energy on a single attack, he wasn't thinking clearly. Nikita flipped from her perch, shifting to the saber tooth tiger beast as she fell. She let out a thunderous roar that resonated with the ice crystals causing them to shatter into billions of snowflakes. The entire stadium and everyone in the crowd was covered in snow. Her body shifted back as she approached the ground and her ears and tail shifted to that of the Jaguar to soften her landing.

She didn't give him a moment to react before launching herself at him. Keeping her claws in she forced him into close quarters combat delivering a rapid volley of strikes. Shoto struggled to avoid her attacks and try to find an opening to attack with his ice now that she was in her Jaguar form.

Thanks to the help of the Jaguar's visual prowess she noticed every subtle shift in his stance and could prepare for any of his attacks. She flawlessly transitioned from Jaguar to Snow Leopard able to move across the ice with ease whenever he could get a moment to launch any ice her way and shift back to the Jaguar to launch her own assault. He was struggling and it was making him angrier. Nikita could see Endeavor in the crowd, right in Shoto's line of sight, it was making him angrier.

He caught her by the wrist with his left hand in an attempt to block her attack. Her skin began to sizzle beneath his grip. He'd activated his left side! Nikita let out a yelp of pain as she felt the skin on her wrist begin to bubble. Shoto's eyes widened as he realized what he'd done.

"Niko!" He released his hold on her wrist and stared in horror at the mark that remained, there was a perfect handprint scorched into her wrist. It had instantly become a third-degree burn.

"I concede!" Nikita called to Midnight as she cradled her wrist with a hiss of pain. She was in her snow leopard form, they were far more sensitive to heat than any of the other cats in her arsenal.

"The winner is Shoto Todoroki." Midnight announced to the crowd.

Shoto looked shell-shocked he couldn't believe he'd used his left side, on her, of all people. "Niko, I'm s-."

He looked so broken in that moment, Nikita threw her arms around him ignoring the pain in her wrist. "It's okay." Her tail and ears shifted back to that of the black panther. "Sorry for withdrawing. I've put off my nap for far too long." She giggled trying to shake him from his dwindling mood.

"Let me take you to Recovery Girl." He disentangled himself from her and turned his back on her expecting her to jump on his back as she often did.

Nikita frowned slightly, he was going to feel even worse when he realized Recovery Girl wouldn't be able to fix it, her quirk helped speed up her patient's healing process. Due to the third-degree burns, the skin cells on her wrist, were dead. Dead things didn't heal. "Take me to a napping spot instead." She hopped onto his back but only hooked her good arm around his neck keeping her burned one out of his view.

"But what about your burn?"

"It just felt way worse than it was because I was in Snow Leopard form, they don't like hot things." She reassured him.

Shoto reluctantly carried her off the field. "I'm sorry, Niko."

"It's okay."

"You didn't even want to participate..."

"Sho-chan. It's fine. Really." Nikita poked her head onto his shoulder and smooshed her face against his. "Promise."

Video- "Run For It" By Woodes