Nikita woke to the smell of fresh baked muffins drifting through her open window. It had gotten hot in the middle of the night and she'd cracked it open in an attempt to cool down. She set the plush bear atop her headboard before rolling out of bed. According to her internal clock it was barely after 6 AM. After a quick shower, using the toiletries the tenants were nice enough to leave her as she had no idea where the box for all her bathroom stuff was, she realized she hadn't found a towel and switched to cheetah mode zooming around the living room until she'd dried off before changing into her school uniform. Her student id was already in her wallet in her small black cat purse.

Once she was finished getting ready she closed her bedroom window before exiting her apartment only to bump into a short elderly woman who looked like she'd been around when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. It took all she had not to yelp in surprise, she and the Crypt Keeper looked like they could be cousins.

"Good Morning, dearie. I'm Ms. Lee from apartment 6. I wanted to wish you luck on your first day of school." She extended a small wicker basket overflowing with fresh baked muffins that all smelled mouthwateringly delicious.

"Thank you and thank you for the card and helping with the gift basket as well." Nikita bowed politely.

"Such a sweet child." Ms. Lee smiled kindly before giving the teen's hand a gentle squeeze, "I'm terribly sorry for your loss, dearie. Don't hesitate to come to any of us for help, we're one big family here." She pressed the basket into the teen's hand before shuffling off.

Nikita's heart swelled at the old woman's kindness. She set the basket on the kitchen counter before swiping a blueberry muffin to munch on the way to school. After locking up she hurried on her way. The moment she took a bite of the muffin an involuntary shiver rolled through her body and her taste buds exploded. Perhaps Ms. Lee was short for Sara Lee, how old was Sara Lee? After the first bite she couldn't stop herself from shoving the rest of the muffin into her mouth. It tasted like it was made with love and warmed her to her very core, like a mother's hug.

Her ears and tail were in a jaguar pattern due to her nervousness. Jaguars were among the fiercest big cats. They excelled at hunting, being able to jump, climb and even swim to catch their prey, their eyes picked up on any and all movement, they were impossible to hide from and had the strongest bite of any large cat of prey able to pierce through armor. She usually defaulted to jaguar or tiger when she felt nervous, tigers were physically the strongest and also came with a special visual technique that could intimidate a weaker foe, the Tiger's stare could stop any creature in it's tracks and fill them with an overwhelming sense of dread.

Though Musutafu was a big city, it was still beautiful, it was close to the coast, there were many trees in bloom and everything seemed well taken care of. Nikita took in all the sights as she made her way toward school. She'd left early enough she could take her time walking to school and get familiar with the city. There was a small grocery store a block away from the apartment that looked to have decent prices. Four blocks from there, in city limits, the prices seemed to go up exponentially. She passed an elegant library that was at least three stories tall and made a mental note to check it out sometime after she'd gotten settled into her apartment.

Once she passed the hustle and bustle of the city she found herself approaching UA campus. It was huge! The road leading to the school was lined with blooming cherry blossom trees. A small smile wormed its way to her lips as she remembered a time just after she and her parents had moved away. They'd taken her to view the cherry blossoms at a park near their new home. She was sitting atop her dad's shoulders; her mom was trying to take a picture of them and kept taking steps back to fit them in frame as her father was a towering giant of a man and had ended up falling into a duck pond.

She paused at the front gate before retrieving her class schedule from her small black cat purse. Hero Class 1 A, homeroom instructor Shota Aizawa, hero persona: Eraser Head. The principal had called her shortly after the accident to tell her not to worry about missing the first day of classes, he'd told her to take as much time as she needed but she couldn't let her parents down.

It was still really early, there weren't many students on campus. Nikita spotted a boy she recognized from the exam. He'd been a little uptight on the day of the exam, he seemed like a model student and a real stickler for the rules. He was tall, with raven hair and wore glasses that had a silver frame over the top and sides leaving the bottom of his lenses unframed.

"Excuse me." Nikita approached him. "Sorry to bother you, I missed the first day, could you possibly point me in the right direction?"

"Oh? Are you Nikita Nida by chance? I noticed during yesterdays' role call there was an absence." He seemed pretty prim and proper and would make a good class rep if he wasn't already.

"That's me. And you are?"

"Tenya Iida." He extended a hand to her, a proper handshake.

She resisted the urge to laugh at his formality as she accepted his handshake. "It's nice to meet you."

Iida showed her around a little before class and helped her find her foot locker to store her shoes before showing her to her seat in their homeroom class. He informed her of the crazy first day she'd missed but didn't pry into her reasons for being absent for which she was grateful. Apparently, their homeroom teacher had deceived them all into thinking the person who ranked lowest on a set of skills he wanted them to demonstrate would be sent home.

"Oh, why were you all so panicked, wouldn't I rationally be the one eliminated since I'd have gotten an automatic zero?" She giggled, causing him to pause and ponder this.

"I didn't even think of that." He seemed somewhat let down by this, he was hard on himself.

Before she could try to cheer him up, more students began filing into the room. Iida helped introduce her to the newcomers. After more than half the class had shown up she found herself swarmed by her classmates. They all seemed like a rowdy yet fun bunch. A familiar somewhat nostalgic scent wafted through the door as it opened and she felt her heart stutter in her chest as she spotted a familiar head of two toned hair, Shoto!

Her stomach churned unpleasantly as she noticed a large circular burn scar over the left side of his face covering his single bright aqua eye, his right eye was a steely grey. When did that happen?! He responded to the greetings of his classmates with a polite nod but didn't make eye contact with anyone, it seemed like something was on his mind. He didn't even notice her. She tuned out of what the others were saying to her as her gaze followed Shoto as he took his seat in the second to last row in the last seat.

"Are you okay?" A kind girl with shoulder length chestnut hair that framed her face and big round brown eyes, Ochaco Uraraka, asked her looking concerned as the cat like girl had appeared to freeze.

Nikita smiled, "Yeah, it's nothing, I'm just trying to keep everyone's names straight."

Once their homeroom teacher showed up, bundled in a bright yellow sleeping bag, which no one else seemed concerned with, so Nikita chalked it up to 'normal' behavior, he started with role call. As soon as he said her name she noticed the slightest muscle twitch in Shoto's hand thanks to the visual prowess of the Jaguar.

"Here."

This time it was a jerk instead of a muscle twitch, barely noticeable to the naked eye. So, he did remember her. She felt his gaze drift in her direction, she was two rows over, nearest the door at the back of the room just behind Uraraka

After homeroom they had boring regular high school core classes, followed by lunch, then their hero basic training, which was apparently being taught by the number one hero, All Might. He was a tall brawny man with golden hair that was slicked back save for two long shimmery golden pieces that stuck up almost like horns, or bunny ears atop his head, though she thought they kind of resembled the god of mischief, Loki's horns in Nordic depictions of him. He was wearing a red white and blue uniform with a long blue cape. Nikita never understood the need some heroes had to wear capes, it seemed like they'd just cause problems, get caught in things, give enemies an extra opening to grapple you, it seemed flashy and inefficient.

They were distributed uniforms based on designs they'd submitted before the start of school. Her mother begged to design it and wouldn't let her see. Perhaps it would be embarrassing, she almost smiled at this thought. No matter how embarrassing, she'd treasure it. Everyone went to suit up then to meet All might at the training grounds.

Before she had a chance to talk to Shoto, Uraraka and the girls were steering her away to the girls changing rooms to change into their uniforms. She held her breath as she set her shiny silver case atop a small shelf in the shower stall she'd gone into to change. The other girls were all raving about their awesome uniforms they'd designed as Nikita slowly opened the case.

Her heart stuttered in her chest as she spotted a note atop the uniform in her mother's beautiful scrawling script. A single tear slipped from her hold.

'My darling little kitten, Daddy and I are so proud of you. I know, I know, I'm embarrassing, but I just want you to know how much we both love you, we're cheering for you baby girl! I hope you like the design, I made sure there wasn't a cape, I know how much you hate them. The fabric is durable and will mold with you when you take on a Beast Mode transformation so you won't have any wardrobe malfunctions or look like a giant cat wearing a bra and underwear!'

There was a cutesy little laughing face drawn next to this line. Nikita fought back tears as she read on.

'You're already a hero in our book and we know the world will soon know it too. We raised such a beautiful daughter with the biggest heart. Love you sweetie, we can't wait to see what the future holds for you. Love, Mom'

Nikita clutched the note to her chest and held back a sob as tears streamed down her cheeks. She cried silently hugging her mother's note.

"Nida? You alright in there, you're taking a while?" The girl who'd introduced herself as Momo Yaoyorozu, a pretty girl with long black hair, who'd gotten in based on recommendation and didn't have to take the entrance exam, asked her from outside the curtain.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Sorry, you guys go on ahead, I'll catch up." She kept her voice even and bright not wanting to cause any of them to worry.

The girls reluctantly left her alone. After taking a moment to catch her breath and dry her tears, she turned her attention to the costume her mother had designed. Knowing Nikita hated being restricted there wasn't much material, it was a little more provocative than she was expecting, but her mother had always been a little on the edgy side and had always told her if anyone had a problem with her attire, they were the problem not her.

The bottoms were a pair of tight black spandex like shorts with a hole for her tail, the material was breathable, stretchy and also durable as her claws couldn't pierce through it. There was a cute little logo on the front right leg it was a simplistic cat face just the nose mouth and whiskers in white. The top was essentially nothing more than a black bra that would keep everything in place and had the same cute white logo over her left breast. There was a pair of fingerless black gloves with thick cuffs.

Her face flushed scarlet as soon as she shimmied into the tight revealing outfit before her gaze fell on a piece of black cloth at the bottom of the case, a simple black cloak with another, much smaller note attached.

'I know, I know, I said no capes, but it's not a cape, it's a cloak and I know how modest you are so thought you'd use it to cover yourself with until your ready to jump into action. Love mom.'

Nikita laughed at this as two more tears slipped from her hold. "Thanks mom. You're the best."

She wrapped the cloak around herself before tucking her school uniform into the case and stashing it in a locker. Her feet were bare, as she preferred to keep them. If she needed to, she could make paw pads appear to protect her feet and hands from any harsh terrain. As she passed by the mirror she chanced a glance over and smiled as she realized the hood of her cloak had little cat ears molded into them to fit over her ears comfortably. Pulling the hood up she checked her reflection once more, her eyes were a little red from crying but it wasn't too noticeable.

She joined the others as All Might was explaining what they were doing. They were to work in pairs. One pair would act as the villains the other pair would play the part of the hero. The villains were to hide a 'nuclear missile' in their hideout and the heroes had to either capture the villains or recover the weapon. Teams were chosen by drawing lots. Though with Nikita not taking additional time off for bereavement the total number of students was at 21 so there would be an odd man out and one team would have to go twice. As Nikita was last there wasn't any lots for her to draw, All Might offered the option for her to pick anyone as a partner.

"If it's alright I'd like to go it alone since I missed all the skill exercises yesterday so I can prove my worth." Nikita replied with a smile.

All Might agreed and allowed her to go first acting as the hero. Her opponents were two big guys, she strained to remember their names, Koji Koda a large muscular boy who despite his somewhat intimidating appearance was shy and timid, and Rikido Sato who was taller and all muscle with dark brown hair and fat lips. She waited outside the building for the allotted time to give her opponents the time to hide their 'missile'

As it was getting close for time to start, she took off her cloak and hung it over a railing outside of the building as her ears and tail shifted to a cheetah pattern. It was a little uncharacteristic for her to show off, but she felt she had to prove herself since she'd missed their first day and she wanted Shoto to know she'd improved since he'd last seen her. She'd learned all about her quirk over the years, pushed herself to the limits, she wanted to be worthy to be close to him. Though she'd always wanted to be a hero to save people she also wanted to support her friend, to help him accomplish his goal. Because of how strong Shoto's quirk was he relied on it heavily which meant he lacked physical combat techniques, she'd picked up on it even when they were children. At a young age she'd decided, what he lacked, she'd make up for, so she could support him she'd trained with her father in hand to hand combat and trained with her mother who could transform herself into any animal in how to use her quirk to help her in combat and rescue missions.

All Might's voice rang through the building's intercom. "Alright team's, G-."

Nikita took off in a flash using her heightened hearing to find her targets, they were standing guard in front of the 'missile'. She appeared next to the missile as All Might finished the last syllable and placed her hand on it. Her opponents hadn't even realized what had happened they stood with their backs to her waiting for her arrival. To the students watching in the monitoring room it looked as if the girl had just teleported.

"Sorry, I didn't really give you guys a chance." She purred causing the two boys to jump and turn to her. Their jaws dropped.

Due to the instant crippling defeat, All Might let her opponents be the team that got to go twice for a chance to redeem themselves since they didn't get to make a single move. Nikita retrieved her cloak and retreated to the monitoring room while the next two teams prepared for the next go around. Before, if she transformed more than three times in an hour she'd be exhausted, but after years of training with her quirk she was able to do multiple transformations in rapid succession utilizing several of her arsenal of big cat abilities in combat settings. It still wore her out, especially if she tried what her mother used to call 'beast mode' transformations. After exerting any amount of effort, she always wanted to retire for a nap in the sunlight.

She caught Shoto's mismatched gaze as she stepped into the monitoring room, but before she could approach him she was swarmed by her peers and soon after they were supposed to watch the second set of teams. Once again, she missed her chance to speak to him. 

Video- "First Light" By Lindsey Stirling