The rain in Musutafu was freezing, the kind of sleet that soaked through even the toughest hero gear. Aizawa was finishing his patrol, eyes stinging from the wind, when he heard it—a faint, rhythmic scratching coming from an alleyway tucked between two skyscrapers.

​He didn’t find a villain. Instead, he found a soggy cardboard box. Peering inside, he saw a pair of wide, trembling eyes and two velvet-furred cat ears flattened against a head of messy hair. She looked small, malnourished, and completely alone. Her quirk offered her no protection, no power—just the ears and a tail that gave her away as a "useless" stray.