How to raise your robo cat [Yusaku, Open on Request]

How curious, or rather what in the world?! When she heard a boyish voice call out to her Elise turned around with the apple still in her hand, on the verge of taking a bite when she suddenly froze on the spot. She was not that unfamiliar with people who didn't look entirely human, in the end when she used her Quirk she turned into a slime girl of all possible things, but this? This was something she had not been prepared for. The student before her looked more like a feline that could walk on two paws rather than a human, and rather than a fur it was metallic, some type of robot? "..." Slowly feeling the apple slipping out of her hand, the delicious fruit started to descend slowly toward the ground when a sudden precise sweet of her other hand scooped it up in mid-fall and her expression of awe and disbelief turned into a gentle smile.

"Don't feel so nervous Yusaku-kun~ You're at the right place." Elise answered with her usual soft and cheerful tone as she took another bite from the apple, chewing on it as she regained her composure. "Sorry about the startled reaction just now, I had heard some stories about a robot girl transferring to General Studies, but I had to admit I didn't expect that there would be a robot cat boy among the new students also~" A little chuckle followed as she gently placed the apple on top of the black case on the table and approached the cat boy's direction.

"My name is Elise~ Elise von Eisenberg, the one who invited you. It's a pleasure to meet you Yusaku-kun~"

With a playful saluting wave of her hand the girl continued her explanation. "You're likely a bit curious about why I suddenly called you out like this? It's mostly just a friendly greeting~ You see, I was in your shoes recently, since I transferred into this class from General Studies, so I know how it is to be the new kid~" Even if she had Tetsuko and knew a few people, it still made her realize she didn't know that many people.

"That is why I invited you and a few others to come here~ Consider it a welcoming party~" A sheepish grin emerged on her lips as she gestured at the baskets. "Although I didn't really consider the fact that not everyone in our class eats regular snacks. I had Tetsu make some snacks earlier but... what do you actually eat?" The girl inquired with a slight tilt of her head to the side before continuing. "But..." As she stopped before the robocat and felt her cheeks flush up lightly, a hand hesitatingly reaching for his head as she tried to rub her fingertips lightly behind his ear. "You look so adorable! Remind me of my housecat~"

And it was on that day people learned something new about Elise von Eisenberg: As much as she feared dogs, she absolutely adored cats!

He really was beginning to like Elise...although...being treated like a cat was kinda weird for him. However, he didn't mind all the affection he was getting so he decided to let her do her thing. "R-right, i-if you say so." He said in response of Elise's description of his soon to be class. 

Then, it came the time of the many questions. It was by now a usual occurrence, seeing as how his own look presented itself to outsiders. Nodding once to Elise's first question, the robo cat raised is hand paw over his face and pointed at his mouth  guard, where a normal human's nose and mouth would be located. "My voice is entirely computer generated using audio samples of my old real voice. A predictive algorythm should technically change the pitch to match my "age". Right now, this is what I would have sounded like if I had 15 years."

He always liked to go into the nitty gritty of anything scienc-y or tech-y. He had picked up hacking as a hobby just because of that. Sure, with a robotic body it helped him do more stuff, but most if not all of his studies were curiosity driven. He liked the topic so much that for a few moments he even forgot he was supposed to be a really shy cat boy.

A worried look displayed on his face as Elise asked about his real, old body. "No no! It's fine, really. I...I d-don't mind."  He quickly reassured the girl. He gave out a long sigh, then began explaining what was probably the most complex and scientifically absurd part of his Quirk. "B-biologically I...well...biologically, I died eight years ago. Wiithout my consciousness inhabiting it, my old body was basically like a completely braindead corpse. No heartbeat, no response to pain. Legally, I was dead. So uuh...my parents opted to...well...take my old body to the crematory and bury the ashes somewhere. I don't really have a tomb cause I still kinda am alive. We just did not want to keep a corpse around, is all."

A quick pause, just to see if Elise had understood everything. Telling someone that you had cremated and buried yourself could be quite confusing. Then, he tapped his chest with his paw, and the interlocking metal plates clicked open, allowing Yusaku to literally pull his chest armor open to reveal a hollow inisde to Elise. He had said the truth, his inisde were padded with soft foam and there was enough space for a human to fit inside. Sure, it was going to be a somewhat tight fit, but the fact still remained: Yusaku could be worn as power armor by others.

"This body didn't originally look like this. It was going to be new cybernetically enhanced armor the policemen could wear to fight Quirkers. At least, this was a project before heroes happened. It just got modified to look like this after I got stuck in, mostly b-because my younger self liked cats and wanted to be like some colo robocat superhero. All the weapons and ammunition for them were taken out in favor for more battery space and autonomy. I didn't want it to be converted into a complete robot too. All these plates are heavy, and adding more would have slowed me down too much. Besides, this could possibly help with hero stuff. If someone is in danger, say, in a burning house...they could wear me an run through the flames without risk of being hurt!" He took that moment to push the plates back into place, sealing himself back up. "I-it also feels r-really really n-nice...to be worn." He admitted, once again fiddling with his hand paws while his gaze trailed off elsewere as he remembered the time when he allowed his best and only elementary school friend to wear him out of sheer curiosity.

Shaking his head back into focus, he turned to Elise once more. "The suit was designed with an onboard Neural Network enabled micro computer. Basically, a supercomputer that can elaborate data kinda like how a human brain does. No program had been installed, so when my brain waves got converted, they simply transferred inside here." He pointed at the top of his head, between his ears. "I can still feel things through haptic sensors, hear through microphones in my ears, see through the whole display here too. I just project the eyes so that people can have something to make eye contact with and see where I am looking or if I am awake. That's...pretty much the whole story." He concluded. 

He...never really opened up like that with others before, maybe it was because deep down he was enjoying Elise's manners and overall kindness. Still, being honest with his classmates would be kinda like his first hero deed. Heroes are supposed to be always honest with others, no?

When she asked about how he recharged himself, he turned to the side to show her his tail, as well as opening one of his paws wide to show her the paw pads on the inside of his palm and fingers. "Think of it like eating and drinking. Plugging my tail in a power outlet is way more efficient in charging me up. Just a couple of hours and I am completely topped of for a day or two. It feels like...drinking water through a large straw." He wiggled his tail to show he had control of its movements. "Draining energy with my paws is not as efficient as my tail, but it can work. I can't really plug into a battery, so I just...hold it in my paw as I consume it. Since the transfer is slower it actually gives me some sort of weird tingly feeling...and it feels like I'm tasting things. Alkaline batteries taste like...hmmm...think like an orange. A really sour/acid taste. Lthium batteries instead are spicy, like pepper or mexican sauce. MY favourite are LiPo batteries though. Something about the chemical mix in there makes em taste sweet. Like cotton candy or honey. Depends on the brand, really."

After that exhaustive explanation on how his weird anatomy worked, the little cat boy shifted closer to Elise as she pet him, frowning as she told him about her cat. "I...I am sorry for your cat. I hope she's happy now." He chimed as she stopped scratching his ear. She was offering him her drone's batteries to eat now?

"I-it's fine. I don't want to drain your drone d-"

THe feline robot was suddenly interrupted by a new arrival. A new, highly hyperactive and perky arrival. Startled, he immediately jumped up and scrambled behind Elise. He would try to hide behind the little girl even more so as he noticed the other girl's camera and paparazzi behaviour. He simply waved from behind Elise as she introduced herself as another one of his new classmates. Tachibana. Somehow that name sounded famous to him. Once Elise returned to her table and began explaining all the excer-wait...did she just melt into a blo-OH GOD THAT'S FAST.

Yusaku was somewhat amazed by Elise's quirk. He didn't have a jaw to drop, but his tail flopped to the ground instead. So, she could become amorphous and generally fast or flexible. That was some hell of a superpower, nevermind his weird cyber body. He was mesmerized by the way she flowed around rather effortlessly. Squatting down low, he would curiosly move a paw over to poke the slime girl's chest as she stopped between him and the other girl, Emi. He shook his head at Elise's new question.

"I don't think I can catch you if you're that fast...and I can't be nearly as flexible as you. A metallic body like this his rather heavy, while normal oil powered hydolics can't really flow as good as...what you're made of..."

A slight nod of affirmation was made by Elise when Yusaku seemed to believe her words, or at least he seemed to be taking them into consideration. However, when her questions first arose Elise couldn't help but find herself bewildered at the explanation of the robot cat. "That's pretty impressive, to think that technology could do such stuff already. And I'm seventeen myself, turning eighteen soon, so I guess I'm your senpai then in terms of age~" the burgundy-haired lass answered him with a playful smile. However, her smile faded away as she averted her gaze awkwardly. "It makes sense, I mean your physical body might have died, but in a way your soul is able to live on inside this new vessel, right?" The girl tried to answer reassuringly as if hoping to cheer him up but when he suddenly tapped his chest and the metal plates clicked open she almost let out a soft cry of disbelief, her hands covering her eyes as she warned him with a clear hint of nervousness in her voice. "Next time at least tell me. I might be a medical student, but even I am not prepared for the day someone just goes and open their torso going 'Welcome! Welcome! Have a peek inside, don't worry no guts, blood or organs to clean up afterward!'"

A weak chuckle followed as the girl finally shook her head trying to vanquish the eerie thought. Still, with Yusaku commenting that the body originally didn't look like that, but was modified to resemble his childhood interests Elise nodded her head attentively. "It certainly would be an excellent means of carrying a civilian or an injured partner to safety." the burgundy-haired lass answered with an attentive nod of agreement, still she couldn't help but hear the last comment. "First time I ever heard a boy saying he liked having something inside him..." the lass muttered under her breath, almost suppressing a chuckle.

However, she soon focused back on the conversation where Yusaku clarified further on the nature of the suit, the fact it had a special component which allowed his brain waves to convert, seemingly giving him certain senses similar to what a regular person would obtain. "That's pretty fascinating, I didn't imagine technology could replicate the human senses in a way like this. That actually could provide to be quite a boon in the medical field also." Elise mused softly as she felt her researcher side triggering at the conversation.

Of course, as the conversation continued on terms of recharging the girl couldn't help but tilt her head in curiosity. "Remind me to get you some LiPo batteries next time I go shopping~" Elise answered him with a smile, clearly curious about seeing what type of reaction absorbing and feeding upon said energy would cause within the cat boy.

Nonetheless, in the wake of her introduction and idea of a little minigame of sorts Elise couldn't help but sight at the overall reactions the idea had received. It seemed Yusaku had meekly decided that he would never be able to catch up with her, while Emi seemingly looked offended, the accusation almost reminding her of a certain past event. "Would you throw in the towel when facing a villain simply because you're outmatched?" Her tone might have sounded harsh but as she took a humanoid form she continued speaking, her gaze sharpening a little. "In fact, until two weeks ago I was still a student in the Support Studies branch, never even participated in a proper combat training exercise before. And before then? Till a few months ago you could still find me seated in a lecture hall at Tokyo Medical."

She shook her head lightly, a hand tapped lightly onto her hip as she continued. "What I'm trying to say here is that: If you want to be able to graduate, you're going to need to want to improve yourself, and that can only be done by pushing yourself to your limits and working to improve upon them." She turned toward Yusaku and smiled briefly at him as she continued. "Yusaku-kun, it might be true that you lack the means to catch up with me when I'm moving at my fastest, but by chasing me, won't you be able to learn to calculate trajectories to follow in order to reduce the time it takes to get to me? Afterwards it's just a matter of strengthening that body of yours, in this case through upgrades which I'm sure people in Support Studies like Yojin-kun could assist with."

She turned her gaze back at Emi, as she gestured at the basket full of snacks on the table. "Simply said: the reason behind this game was simply a means to provide you with an opportunity to try to test your current capacities and work on figuring out where to improve in terms of mobility before proper lectures would resume. Besides, would you rather end up having your first experience be during the new combat instructor his lessons? Do you think he would go 'Yeah, sure you're all newly trained students so I'm going to go easy on you? That... simply won't happen, in a way this school is like the prologue toward entering hero society someday and the world outside? It doesn't care if you're newly trained or unprepared. Believe me, I know that from experience"

She took a deep breath, letting out a long sigh as she noticed the paw that Yusaku had raised toward her, the light poke at her chest making her chuckle softly as she extended a hand to lightly shake his paw after her body made a light jiggle upon making contact with his paw.

"Either way, this idea wasn't meant to be an intimidation attempt or a chance at bragging, consider it more as a chance to exercise a little and prepare yourselves for the more rigorous lessons that the school will surely provide. If you still are of the same opinion, then feel free to just indulge on some of the snacks in the baskets Emi-chan, else the baskets underneath the table might help with the issue of shoewear, although they are merely the type of gym shoes provided by the school."

Of course, Emi seemed to be quite confident of herself and her reasoning, and although Elise felt a tiny sliver of annoyance, it didn't seem to show on her expression, for her smile remained sympathetic and gentle. "And that is your first mistake Emi-chan: Villains won't care about what you think or feel, and more often than not they are the ones setting the terms, it's up to the heroes to turn the tables into their favor. Do you think Darkshine-san was the one setting the terms of her conflict against the villain Thunder Shock?" She shook her head lightly as she resumed her explanation. "She was forced to fight on his terms, and figure out a way to turn things around. More often than not it is exactly because of their nature, that villains fight on their terms. In the end, unlike us the things they need to worry about are much less in amount."

Always be ready for a challenge, always be striving to overcome said challenges, she still didn't know what it truly meant to be a hero, but after the recent events, she started to slowly get a grasp of what in her eyes was the definition of a hero. Of course, her reasoning made Elise almost sigh disappointedly. "Really? Then tell me Emi-chan, how do people learn to run faster?" She waited for a moment until the realization would likely settle in. "Indeed, by exercising."

However, it was at that time that shit hit the fan, or at the very least it seemed that Emi's words and overall attitude provoked an impulsive outburst with the robot cat, making her blink momentarily. Phew, seems there was quite a feral little tiger hiding inside Yusaku. For a moment she couldn't help but feel herself having a flashback of a certain event, one where she had tried to hold a little meet and greet and things went down south there because of a misunderstanding. What was it with her attracting confrontations?

"Yusaku-kun..." Her voice softened a little as she turned toward him. "There is no need to get so hostile. Although I will be honest and say I can somewhat understand that you're displeased with her attitude, letting your emotions get the better of you isn't exactly that 'heroic' either, isn't it?" Although it might had sounded like she was scolding him, she pondered the best course of action. "Who needs villains when situations like this unfold, if I were a civilian I would get worried about heroes bickering in front of me."

She glanced at Emi's direction as she had heard the softer words, barely but at least they made her smile again. "Likewise, there is no reason to assume that Yusaku-kun would do any slacking Emi-chan, not exactly the most solid of first impressions when you start to act like this." She shook her head lightly, stretching her body lightly with a soft popping sound as she hummed softly. "You might want to put the camera on the table, unless you're confident enough to record and run at the same time?"

The slime girl inquired with a smile as she turned toward Yusaku and was just in time to catch his question. "Pinning me down might be a bit hard due to the nature of my body, but-" She gestured toward the raincoat as she slipped her hands through the sleeves and it started to stick to her body. "Just pull the coat off me, don't worry I minmailized the adhesive nature of my slime so that a simple tug from either of you should get it loose~"

Watching the robot cat seemingly prepare some sort of system call Elise tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Less than two hundred? I'd feel mildly offended, at least go 'She's over eight thousand!' when you get the chance to use a catch phrase like that." Indeed, even despite being given a headstart Elise still seemed to be jesting only a few steps away from the robot cat as she looked from Yusaku to Emi.

"I guess I should start running, should I? Or wait, in this case bounce~" The girl hummed in amusement as she waited for either one to approach her. Whether it would be Yusaku dashing at her, or Emi finally taking action, either one of them would quickly notice that Elise's confidence wasn't misplaced because as if she had steadied her footing, a sudden bounce upwards would have made her bounce at least three meters over the first one to approach her before she landed a few steps away behind their back, her lips curved up into a smile.

"Word of advice: You two might want to try to work together, I know easier said than done, but in the words of one of our teachers: You sometimes don't get to decide who you're forced to work together with." The girl hummed softly as she bounced a few times on the spot, having made a few meters of distance between herself and the two of them. "I'll provide some trivia for the two of you~ I can bounce up to three meters high without a start, although I never really clocked my speed, I think Darren might be a bit faster than me when he uses his quirk." The girl mused softly while eying the duo. "Let's see how things go~ At least you two have the element of surprise since I got no idea what Emi-chan's quirk is like."

A few more bounces followed as she hopped on the spot similar to an athlete preparing themselves for an exercise. "So Yusaku-kun~ Emi-chan~ Why did the two of you enroll into U.A?" Of course, she assumed Yusaku would have a bit of a traditional answer that she expected to hear: I want to become a hero! But she genuinely wondered what made someone like Emi decide to enroll. But for now she was waiting to see the first attempts of the duo to catch her!