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Okay, so the cat has a quirk. Nemuri reminds herself that isn’t too weird. Yeah most animals can’t talk, but then once Nezu is part of the equation she can’t call it impossible .
And yet Sushi still shocks her, staring at her from his place on her bed. She just barely rushed him home from UA, only to have him greet her in an unconventional (for a cat) manner.
“You’re a magical girl, Nemuri!” Sushi purrs, batting his paws in the air with comedic enthusiasm. “If you take this locket you can transform into a sailor scout and fight crime!”
So much could be said here, but Nemuri settles on the easiest excuse. “I’m training to be a pro hero; I can already fight crime. With my quirk. What’s the point of being a magical girl, too?”
“You don’t have to be so resistant,” Sushi huffs, sticking his cat nose up into the air. “You’ll have even more power with your transformation, and nobody will recognize you.”
“That sounds less useful, actually,” Nemuri argues back, pointing a finger at the cat. “Can’t someone else be this magical girl?”
“It’s only you , Nemuri,” Sushi explains again. “You’re the one destined for this power.”
Nemuri’s eyes lower, and Sushi sighs, realizing he has to go with his backup plan. “Take the power or I’ll give it to a villain.”
“You’re a little shit,” Nemuri agrees, taking the locket and beginning her life as a magical girl.
~*~
With Sushi’s help, it doesn’t take long for Nemuri to find a balance between her two crime-fighting lives. She works as the R-Rated Hero: Midnight, just as she always wanted to, but on days off she’ll patrol the city in secret as Sailor V, donning a red mask that’s only slightly different than her hero costume. Sushi claims it’s part of the ‘magical girl effect’ that nobody recognizes her, but Nemuri wonders if it’s all just a joke- that one day someone will tell her they know she’s been Sailor V all this time.
“So, why aren’t there any other magical girls?” she asks Sushi one night from their perch on a high rooftop.
“There’s a few others,” he admits, “but they haven’t awakened their power yet.”
“What does that even mean?”
Sushi doesn’t bother to answer her question, to Nemuri’s continued frustration, but she’s used to this by now. Whatever Sushi bothers to tell her only leaves her with more questions than answers.
Most of their nights patrolling the city in secret are very uneventful, thanks to the heroes who take care of most villain work. But there are a few times the heroes struggle, and Sushi explains that who they’re fighting is a magical enemy- someone with powers beyond a normal quirk.
Tonight it seems to be Nemuri’s friend, Shouta, struggling with one such magical enemy. Nemuri has never seen Shouta get into so much trouble with a villain, at least not since their days as an intern. With practiced grace she jumps off of the roof, landing perfectly in her heels in front of the man. Magic had some benefits, Nemuri found.
“Need some help there, Eraserhead?” she winks at him from behind her mask, turning to the villain. She barely dodges a magical attack, confirming her suspicions that it wasn’t a normal villain.
Shouta gives some lecture on vigilante heroes, but Nemuri doesn’t bother listening as she quickly takes care of the villain, allowing Shouta to contain him in his capture scarf.
“Consider yourself welcome,” she tells him as she turns away.
“I didn’t say thank you. Get back here for when the cops arrive.”
“I’ll consider that your thank you,” she winks again, before disappearing into the night.
~*~
She knew she wasn’t being particularly sneaky with her double life, but anyone who did catch on managed to earn themselves the title of ‘conspiracy theorists’ and was quickly dismissed. It felt wrong to let those poor guys get ridiculed when they’re actually right, but if anyone did know…
Actually, Nemuri wasn’t sure what would happen if anyone found out. It would be severely embarrassing, for sure, but technically since she was a hero it wasn’t illegal to fight crime. And her magical powers weren’t quirks, meaning she didn’t need to register them. But Nemuri would rather not have to explain this to the commission.
“Why are you so embarrassed about it?” Sushi asks, looking over the magazine article Nemuri brought home. It was a compilation of the ‘craziest hero theories’ and at number two was Nemuri’s secret as a magical girl. Number one was that All Might was faking all of his muscles.
“Because being a ‘magical girl’ is super embarrassing,” Nemuri offers in a way of a non-answer. “I’d rather be a villain.”
“You’re really dramatic,” Sushi yawns, looking over the magazine article. “Do you really think Present Mic uses a voice double for his radio show?”
“There’s no way,” Nemuri grins. “Hizashi likes to talk too much to let anyone else do it.”
Sushi grabs a bottle of nail polish from Nemuri’s desk, dropping the closed bottle on the bed for the woman. “You’re acting stressed out.”
Nemuri picks up the polish- her favorite shade of dark red, and sighs. “It’s surprising to see you care about something besides your magical girl stuff, you know.”
“Come on,” Sushi bumps his head against Nemuri’s fist, “you know I care about you.”
“You care that the evil creatures from the moon are defeated,” she grins, and Sushi jumps onto Nemuri’s pillow to watch her paint her nails.
“I can care about both, you know.”
~*~
When Nemuri takes the position as a teacher, her life finally starts to settle down a little. She still does occasional patrols as a hero, but most of her crime fighting is limited to her activities as Sailor V. She never expected to consider teaching high schoolers ‘settling down’, but thanks to Sushi and the moon villains, teaching Modern Hero Art History class was her version of ‘relaxing’.
It helps when Hizashi and Shouta agree to teach, too. While they’re still out and at risk of the moon villains attacking, there’s a relief in being able to keep a closer eye on her two favorite heroes.
Life gets mostly easier, but after a long night of patrolling the streets as Sailor V, Nemuri doesn’t realize which mask she’s putting on in the morning. At least, she doesn’t realize it until Shouta’s choking on his coffee in the teacher’s lounge.
“Where did you get that mask?” Hizashi asks, gesturing to Nemuri’s face. “It looks like that vigilante’s.”
Nemuri pulls the mask off and chides herself internally for not paying more attention. But to her friends, she offers a flirtatious smile. “I just thought I’d show my fans some support.”
“Why do you think she’s your fan?” Shouta asks, quirking an eyebrow with taunting judgement.
“Because she copied my mask,” Nemuri shrugs, settling into her desk. “Just because nobody cares about Eraserhead doesn’t mean all of us get ignored.”
“People care about Eraserhead,” Shouta argues, only to get a sympathetic shoulder pat from Hizashi.
“They’d have to know about Eraserhead, first.”
“Well, be that as it may,” he huffs, “you still can’t be wearing her mask. She’s a vigilante, we’re not here to support illegal quirk use.”
“You’re just jealous because nobody would dress in a miniskirt for you, Shouta,” she laughs again, sliding the wrong mask off of her face. “But you win. I’ll switch to one of my normal masks, just for you.”
“What are you getting up to, Nem?” Shouta stands and crosses the room to get closer to her desk. “You don’t do anything ‘just for me’.”
“Consider it my way of saying thank you,” she winks at him, putting on one of her spare Midnight masks and going about her day.
~*~
Shouta’s newest class is going to give Nemuri grey hairs already, and she’s only thirty-one. They aren’t even her homeroom class and still there’s something about them that just promises trouble.
The number one pro hero All Might joining the UA roster of teachers doesn’t help, either. The amount of attention UA gets is almost too much, even for someone so comfortable in the limelight as Nemuri.
The league of villains doesn’t bring any threat of moon villains, thankfully, but becoming suddenly busier as Midnight limits her time to be Sailor V.
“Nobody’s ever seen Sailor V and Midnight in the same room,” a television host says. His hair is a mess, clearly gripped in frantic rants and pulled in all different directions. “And now that all of the UA staff is so busy with this new ‘league of villains’, we haven’t heard much from our masked vigilante!”
“Why are you even watching this garbage?” Nemuri asks, settling next to Toshinori on the couch of the new teacher’s dorms. “Nobody believes anything he says.”
“I think he has a lot of fascinating opinions, Kayama,” Toshinori tells her, pointing to the man on the television again. “He was right about my muscle form.”
Nemuri scoffs, hating that she has to mentally agree that the man wasn’t always wrong. Not only was he right about All Might’s false muscle form and Nemuri being Sailor V, but she learned later that Present Mic did sometimes use a voice double. It made her question all of the other ‘hero conspiracies’ she’s read before.
“Just because he’s right on something doesn’t mean he’s not crazy,” she says, rather than explain her own internal crisis to Toshinori.
“Is he right about you, Kayama?”
She can’t tell if Toshinori is asking genuinely or if he’s making fun of her, but Nemuri isn’t going to give him any real answer. Instead, she focuses on brushing Sushi’s dense fur- something the brat insists on or he’ll cough a hairball on her bed again . He’s surprisingly cat-like for someone who claims to not really be a cat.
“I’m surprised they let you bring Sushi here,” Shouta says when he enters the room, but it’s clear from his voice that he isn’t disappointed. “Why are you watching this garbage?”
“I already asked that,” Nemuri shrugs, handing the boy to her friend. “Here, he needs to be brushed and I could use a break.”
Shouta doesn’t even argue, just taking Sushi and running the brush through his fur. Nemuri loves seeing the cat relax and fall asleep in Shouta’s arms, even if the two are constantly arguing with each other. Over the years she’s managed to grow to care for Sushi as an actual friend.
An annoying friend, but a friend, nonetheless.
~*~
Nemuri should be dead.
In another world, perhaps she is, but in this world she barely manages to survive, thanks to her magical girl abilities. The doctors, unaware of the mystical properties to her healing, can’t offer any valid reason as to why Nemuri didn’t die, but they chalk it up to an unexplained miracle.
“Nem,” Shouta sounds like he’s on the edge of tears, and Nemuri doesn’t blame him. If the roles were reversed, she would be completely bawling. “Nem, you should have-”
“You’re the one missing an eye and a leg,” she argues with him, sitting up weakly in the hospital bed. “Don’t go telling me that I should be dead.”
Shouta barely huffs out a laugh, but a small grin manages to cross his face. He still has his friend, unlikely as the situation may be. “Do you know what happened? It’s completely illogical.”
“Illogical, perhaps,” Nemuri sinks into the bed to gain what little comfort she can find. “But maybe it’s just a little bit of magic.”
~*~
Recovery is swift with the help of medical quirks and Nemuri’s own magical abilities. The second war is long and difficult, but ultimately the heroes make it through, even if it felt unlikely at some times.
Nemuri wishes she could say a lot changed after two major wars, but within a year the world settled back to a normal that was as if nothing really ever happened. There were still heroes, still villains, and still the vigilante magical girl Sailor V.
Sushi promised her that she would meet other magical girls soon, but after almost fifteen years of being a lone magical girl Nemuri still had yet to see another one cursed with such powers. The magical moon villains seemed to be less rampant, at least, so she guessed
there was just no reason for the other magical girls to ‘awaken’.
“Tell me,” Nemuri asks one night, taking her perch on her favorite rooftop, already dressed as Sailor V. “What decides if someone’s a ‘magical girl’ or not?”
“It’s taken you a while to ask,” Sushi comments, looking up from where he’s been scanning the streets. “The simple answer is reincarnation.”
“Simple answer?” Nemuri quirks a brow as her eyes start to track a mysterious hooded figure. “So, it’s more complicated than that, then, isn’t it?”
“Quite complicated. See people don’t get reincarnated, but a magical girl’s magical energy can be. And you happen to hold the magical energy of Sailor Venus, one of the guardians of the moon.”
“Sailor Venus… is that where you got the name ‘Sailor V’ from? Doesn’t seem very creative.”
“Maybe not, but the last several magical girls to have her energy have used that name, so it was fitting that you did, too.”
The hooded figure down below ducks into a shadow, looking around to make sure that nobody is following him. Nemuri keeps her watch, prepared to leap down if it comes to that. In the distance she sees Shouta patrolling this area.
“So, does this magical energy get reincarnated all the time?”
“Only if the world needs it,” Sushi follows Nemuri’s gaze to the hooded figure, watching with anticipation. “Sailor Venus’s energy has always been the most active, so if there aren’t too many enemies for the sailor scouts to fight, then the others may never wake up.”
“I see,” Nemuri sees Shouta preparing to take on the villain, but she doesn’t relax any more. It’s clearly a magical moon creature, but if she shows up too soon then Shouta will try to detain her, as well. “And when do I lose this energy?”
“When you die,” Sushi answers, licking his paw and waiting for Nemuri’s next move. “I’m surprised you still have it, honestly. Using that much magic to heal yourself shouldn’t be possible.”
“Well, you can join Shouta in the ‘I should have died’ camp, then. But who would feed you breakfast?”
“I didn’t say I was disappointed,” Sushi teases her, just before the moon creature gets the upper hand in battle, and Nemuri drops down from the rooftop to save her friend.
The sound of her heels clicking against the concrete is what captures the attention of both Shouta and the moon creature, even before she delivers one of her signature lines. “Good to see you again, Eraserhead. Seems like you have a habit of meddling in my fights, don’t you?”
Shouta can’t answer, due to being painfully restrained by the creature, but that’s no matter. Nemuri deals with the creature quickly, allowing Shouta his freedom. “You really should consider being more careful on these streets, Eraserhead. Some villains don’t have quirks, you know.”
“Explains why I can’t erase them,” Shouta grumbles, dusting himself off quickly. “Are you going to let me capture you this time? It would make my job a lot easier.”
“As much as I’d love to have you tie me up with the scarf one day, I’m going to have to pass for tonight.” Nemuri winks and blows him a kiss, before dashing off to go find other villains to fight.
~*~
“I just don’t get it.”
Nemuri hears Shouta as soon as she walks into the teacher’s lounge, taking a seat near him and Hizashi to join the conversation.
“Well, most vigilantes don’t want to cause any harm to heroes,” Hizashi says by way of explanation. “Maybe she’s just a fan of yours.”
“A fan?” Nemuri grins. “Shouta, don’t tell me someone actually has fallen for you.”
“It’s that Sailor V girl- the vigilante that nobody’s been able to catch for decades. It’s impressive, really, that she can still be so elusive when she’s got to be, what, fifty?” Hizashi shrugs.
“I’m sure she’s not fifty,” Nemuri grumbles out through gritted teeth, the temptation to kill her friend stronger than ever.
“She’s been active for over fifteen years,” Shouta notes, looking up from where he has a folder of newspaper clippings of Sailor V. “So, unless she was in high school when she started, she can’t be that young.”
“She’s young enough,” Nemuri argues, looking over the papers that Shouta has- currently opened to a section focused on her mask. “Why are you so obsessed with her mask? It’s just a copy of mine, you know.”
“I really don’t think that’s the case,” Shouta says, studying it in greater detail. “I don’t think anyone adores you that much to use your mask for this long. Not to mention she would have been starting out the same time as you. Unless you know her personally, I see that as illogical.”
‘Personally’ was certainly one way to describe it, but Nemuri doesn’t give him that info. “Good luck, Shouta. Maybe one day you’ll catch your girlfriend.”
~*~
Nemuri shouldn’t have been so confident. But spending a decade and a half fighting moon villains so easily led her to think she may truly be invincible.
But tied in the moon creature’s trap, Nemuri thinks this is finally the end. Sushi even tried to rescue her, only to be knocked out across the alleyway as soon as he landed down. She wonders what she would do differently if she were to live her life again- maybe never taking that damn cat that Oboro brought to the rooftop one day.
No, Nemuri knows she’d do it again- finding Sushi was somehow her destiny. A destiny that led to death, it seemed.
Just as she’s about to succumb to the inevitable, she feels the villain release her, dropping her unceremoniously to the cold concrete. It’s the middle of winter, and she still fights crime in an unfairly short mini skirt.
“Thought you could use a hand.” Shouta stands nearby, folding his scarf around his neck once more.
“You’re cute when you think you’re winning,” Nemuri grins, before quickly defeating the moon villain and sending him to dust. “You know you could have taken care of me right there, don’t you?”
Shouta just shrugs. “If these creatures are really quirkless like you said, then I wouldn’t stand much of a chance without your help.”
“Well, in the name of the moon, consider this a thank you.”
“You’re cliché. I could still capture you now.”
“I don’t think you will,” Nemuri shrugs. “Because I think you’ve figured it out by now, haven’t you? Shouta.”
“Why bother keeping it a secret? You could fight crime legally, you know.”
Nemuri shrugs, leaning against the chilly brick wall. It’s fine, she’ll be home by the fire soon. Shouta picks up Sushi, petting the cat gently through his sleep.
“He’ll be fine,” Nemuri reassures Shouta. “He’s knocked out, but he’s magical, too. A little bump won’t hurt him.”
“That’s good,” Shouta says, wrapping Sushi up in his jacket. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Come to my dorm tonight, I’ll explain everything,” Nemuri promises, taking Sushi from him. “I may have magical powers, but keeping warm isn’t one of them.”
~*~
Shouta is fair enough to give Nemuri time to take a warm shower and dress in her favorite pajamas before he bothers her with more questions.
“After I took Sushi home that day,” Nemuri says, recounting the story of meeting the cat, “he told me I was a magical girl. And that’s when it all started.”
“So, the cat’s magical. I bet Oboro would be jealous.”
Nemuri laughs, but she agrees with Shouta. Oboro would have wanted a magical cat. “Think he can hear you, Sushi?”
Sushi opens one eye, offers a half-hearted shrug, and goes back to sleep.
“He doesn’t like losing,” Nemuri explains with a wink, laughing when Sushi turns his back to her. “As for why I keep it a secret, well, there isn’t a better option. I can’t just tell the commission I suddenly have magical powers that let me fight crime. They’re still asking to do tests on me after not dying a couple of years ago.”
“I see why you said no now,” Shouta nods. “You couldn’t just say it’s a quirk development?”
“A quirk development that turned my one quirk into hundreds. No, I don’t think they’ll accept that answer, Shouta.”
“Logical enough,” he takes a mug of coffee, handing one to her and settling on her bed as he sips from his own.
“What finally made you realize it was me?” she asks, looking at the man.
“You seemed too defensive about her age,” Shouta answers simply. “The rest was easy to put together from there.”
Nemuri decides not to tell him how she’s been dropping hints for years .
“Then what do you say, Shouta? Want to team up with Sailor V and become a crime fighting duo?”
“I’d rather die,” he grins at her cheekily, and Nemuri just laughs.
“What if I team up with a villain, instead?” She offers, only to get a sigh from the other man.
“You’re a little shit,” he accuses her, but Nemuri is fine with that. Because she knows from experience, that means ‘yes’.
