Mission 2: Cat Café Assault Order! p3
Urged on by Kohana, I waved the cat teaser in front of Moo’s face.
However, the old cat, buried in its fluffy fur, merely glanced at it and showed no interest. On the contrary, it let out a big yawn as if to mock me.
“Moo-san is an old lady, so she probably doesn’t play with toys anymore… In that case, Latte-chan over there would be good.”
Kohana pointed to a small cat nearby that was grooming itself. It was a light brown tabby cat, the color of milk tea. Following her recommendation, I moved the cat teaser in a position where the cat would notice it.
The next moment, another black cat jumped in from the side.
“Whoa—hey!”
I was taken aback by the unexpectedly swift surprise attack. Ignoring me, the jet-black cat hugged the cat teaser with both paws and started biting it with its teeth.
“Ahaha! Kiki-chan snatched it, didn’t she, Latte-chan?”
The black cat, called Kiki, was quite excited. It flipped onto its back and held the cat teaser not only with its front paws but also by kicking it with its hind legs. It was so strong that I almost had the cat teaser ripped from my grasp.
“Mmph, what a bite…!”
I pulled on the cat teaser, not wanting to lose to the cat’s strength, and the plastic rod bent significantly. It felt like I was fishing for something.
“Kuh… in that case!”
I relaxed my entire body and applied a powerful twist to my bent right arm. The movements of the joints from my shoulder to my elbow and wrist all linked in an instant, and my right arm spun rapidly like a drill. It was an application of the chánsījìn technique from Chinese martial arts.
The black cat clinging to the cat teaser was sent flying through the air by the spin.
“Nya-?!”
The one who let out a cat-like cry of surprise was the human, Kohana.
The black cat landed on the tatami with a thud, looking dazed and unable to grasp the situation. However, it quickly remembered its interest in the cat teaser and charged again. So fast…!
“I won’t let you!”
I dodged Kiki’s lightning-fast charge by quickly jumping sideways while still sitting.
But the enemy was no slouch, changing direction with a sharp, inhuman angle. It kicked off the ground (the tatami) and leaped. The bullet-like momentum towards me was faster than the strikes of any martial artist I had ever crossed fists with.
“Hah!”
With both knees on the tatami, I bent my back far backward. In an acrobatic emergency evasion that would have made Keanu Reeves in The Matrix proud, even the cat lost its target and flew over my head. The moment I felt the conviction of victory—
Incredibly, the black cat, while still in the air before landing, curled its body and captured the cat teaser with all four paws. With that momentum and the weight of the falling cat, the handle of the cat teaser was almost snatched from my hand.
“Impossible—da ladno?!”
Unbelievable…!
Overwhelming physical ability and reflexes, like a Japanese ninja from legend. And an abnormal obsession with a plaything, displaying it in an almost meaningless way.
This is a cat… my enemy?
“Kuh… so we’re back to a stalemate.”
As I was concentrating all my nerves on the fishing contest with the cat, I suddenly felt Akira’s gaze on the side of my face.
“What is it?”
“You’re so serious and give your all in everything, Anya-chan. You look like a perfect cool beauty, but your gestures are so innocent and adorable, it’s unfair.”
“Even if you say it’s unfair…”
The days I have lived so far have been a continuous series of moments where a single mistake in action meant death.
That’s why I have to concentrate on everything and be serious so as not to fail. That’s all there is to it.
“That earnest side of you, Anya-chan, reminds me a bit of a cat. Cats are always so earnest, whether they’re eating or playing.”
Akira said, smiling at me.
My strength slackened for a moment from the surprise, and Kiki snatched the cat teaser from me.
…To think that I, of all people, am similar to this troublesome, mysterious creature?
“Oh~! I think so too! Anya is definitely cat-like!”
“Wha—you too, Kohana?!”
I couldn’t contain my indignation at such a humiliation.
I am definitely not like this lazy, cold, and ungrateful creature that shows no appreciation for human kindness, whose state of matter is unclear, and is an unpredictable little monster.
“I see. So that’s why.”
“What is…”
I asked, suppressing my anger, and Kohana just looked back at me with sparkling eyes.
“The first time I saw you, Anya, I thought it would be nice to see you again. I just figured out why I thought that.”
And Kohana smiled, her eyes narrowing.
Like a small flower blooming, just as her name suggests.
“Because I’ve loved cats since I was a child. So, it’s only natural that I’d come to like you too, Anya, since you’re like a cat, right?”
Her words, saying she liked me, were completely without affectation. They had a clearly different ring to them than the general statement from before.
Her smile as she said such a thing struck me with the force of a bullet to the heart.
A pure white, innocent flower that blooms only in the sun. It was as if one had suddenly been offered to me.
Her smile carried nothing but the pure emotion of goodwill, like that flower. That fact was transmitted to me through something beyond logic.
Even though the threat of the killer virus was gone, my heartbeat was unnaturally fast. I had no way to control it.
I couldn’t find the emotional weapon within myself to deal with this unknown attack. On a battlefield, I would have been killed long ago, just standing there.
Therefore, I…
“Excuse me, but I’ve just remembered something urgent. I’ll be heading home for today.”
Faced with an unknown threat, I attempted a swift withdrawal from the combat zone.
To prevent my own self from being further eroded by these unclear emotions.
To maintain my internal humidity at a constant level.
Because at all times, Anna Grazkaya must be dry.
“Oh, I see. Well then, see you later, Anya-chan.”
“See you at school on Monday! Thanks for coming today.”
Turning my back on the waving Kohana, I left “Matsu-neko Tei” alone.
***
Кошка『How was your first visit to a cat café? The friendliness of the café cats is exceptional. It can be said to be the most suitable environment for learning about the ecology of cats up close, other than actually owning one.』
That night.
Just as I finished my bath, a message from Koshka arrived on my smartphone.
Indeed, my perception of cats had changed greatly. The culture shock I experienced today could be said to be quite significant.
The cats I had known until now were almost exclusively stray cats.
So my image of them was that they were highly wary of humans and would flee at the speed of light if a person approached… but the Matsukaze family’s cats, accustomed to guests, were the complete opposite.
They engaged with humans as a means to satisfy their boundless curiosity and boredom. That aspect of cats was unknown to me.
Кошка『Eventually, you will also need to own a cat yourself, Anya. Please use today’s experience as a rehearsal for that.』
“Wha…?”
I froze in stunned silence at the next message from Koshka.
Own a cat… she says?
Me?
“Impossible—N’vozmozhno!”
I shouted it immediately.
Never, not even when charging into the most impregnable enemy camp, have I been struck with such a feeling of “impossible.”
To deal with an “enemy” that operates on such an incomprehensible thought process, and even live with it—
For me, it was equivalent to being told to sign a friendship treaty with a mysterious intelligent species encountered at the edge of the universe.
I tapped the virtual keyboard on my smartphone, about to raise an objection to Koshka.
“——”
At that moment, a tingling, searing sensation struck the back of my head—the gaze of another directed at me.
Position, six o’clock. Behind me.
Beyond the glass of the sash window, the spring night spread out like spilled black ink, was a balcony. The source of the gaze was standing there.
This is the second floor of a five-story apartment building. Whether they climbed up from the ground or came down from the roof, the person on the balcony was an intruder who had entered from somewhere other than the front door.
An assassin—if I had to guess, a pursuer from the Domik.
They would extend their reach, not overlooking even the slightest possibility that I was still alive. Such terrifying persistence was very much like that ruthless organization.
Without turning around, I grasped the position of the gaze with my senses alone.
The intruder had a definite lock on my back. In one second at the latest, a fatal bullet should be fired.
I threw myself sideways without any preliminary motion. Making it look like I was falling, I placed a hand on the hardwood floor and sprang up with a cartwheel.
A counter-attack motion, completed within one second of initiation. Having swiftly escaped the line of sight, my figure should have instantly vanished from the opponent’s view.
And in the instant I condensed the springs of my entire body to charge at the enemy on the balcony.
“Wha—”
The sight of the “enemy” struck me with yet another surprise for the day.
Yes—the kind of new, shocking experience that always exceeds my expectations, given by that species.
Beyond the sash window, there was a single cat.
Walking on all fours on the terrifyingly narrow balcony railing, without a single misstep.
It had skillfully turned its head to the side and was watching me inside the room.
It wasn’t a particularly large cat.
Its fur was clearly divided into two colors. It was a two-toned pattern called hachiware, which I had also seen at Kohana’s cat café. However, the one I saw there was black and white, while this one was brown and white.
Most of its body was covered in a dark brown fur, like a freshly fried piroshki.
That color was parted at the center of its brow, and curved along the line above its nose to the back of its head. It looked like it was wearing a mask similar to Batman’s, revealing only its mouth.
The rest of its fur, from the bridge of its nose and around its mouth, down its throat and chest to its abdomen, and the tips of its four paws, were pure white.
This color reminded me of the fluffy bread dough inside a broken piroshki. The tips of its paws were particularly striking, as if it were wearing white socks.
Having inadvertently thought of food, I was reminded that I was hungry. My stomach growled.
It couldn’t have heard that through the glass, could it… but I saw the cat on the railing twitch its triangular ears. Its almond-shaped yellow eyes were still staring at me.
I thought that the gaze of a cat was surprisingly similar to that of a human. It was no wonder I had mistaken it for an enemy attack, with my sensitivity to presences.
“Are you… hungry too?”
Looking at its somehow human-like face, I couldn’t help but speak to it. Even though I knew it couldn’t possibly understand.
Naturally, there was no response from the cat beyond the window. I felt a little embarrassed, and my face grew hot.
“Ah…”
And then the cat looked away from me, faced forward again, and continued to walk along the balcony railing.
Its elegant steps were without hesitation, as if it had completely forgotten my existence.
An indescribable feeling of defeat crept into my heart. In the end, I had just been thrown around by the passage of a single cat.
“But, it passes through a place like this too…”
Even at the height of the second floor of an apartment building, they were nimble creatures.
I operated the smartphone I was still holding and sent a message to Koshka. For now, a report of what just happened.
Кошка『So, did you pet the cat? Did you give it any food?』
I answered that we had just looked at each other for a few seconds and then parted—and the expected reply came back.
Кошка『You have a long way to go, Anya. It would have been good if you could have just kept that cat.』
As I thought, Koshka seems determined to have me keep a cat.
When I refused again, an immediate reply was sent back.
Кошка『It goes without saying that at present, the only thing effective against the suicide virus is a cat-derived allergen. On top of that, as you saw today, the onset is always sudden. From a security standpoint, it would be ideal to have the antidote, a cat, on hand at all times. Do your best.』
As I looked at the text, which lined up plausible reasons, I was seized by a sudden suspicion.
After seeing that maid outfit this morning, it was only natural to think so.
Could it be that this “cat-pushing” is also just its hobby?
“Hmph… but I’ll agree with just one sentence.”
I let out a deep sigh and slid open the sash window.
When I stepped out onto the balcony, the cat from before was nowhere to be seen.
As if in its place, the moon floating in the flat black sky greeted me.
“Indeed, it seems I have a long way to go.”
A future where I own a cat—the most difficult future to imagine in this world.
At the distance of the road to make that a reality, I let out a second sigh into the moonlit night.
“Yuki…”
The coldness of the wind blowing in reminded me of an event from just a week ago.
The encounter with a single cat that changed my fate—and that of my friend, Yuki Petrisheva.
