Chapter 4 | Motivation

-4-

I was woken up from my dream by the sunlight, the dreamless sleep I had at least gave me another sigh of relief. Next to me was a doctor, brown hair, brown eyes, probably in his thirties, I just didn’t like him, and was purring.

 

“Hello little fella, I am doctor Adam, and I am going to do a little check-up on you alright?”

 

I hid under the bed sheets and kept staring at him, my instincts were telling me that he was bad news to me.

 

“Please try and cooperate with me, this is for your own good.”

 

I Looked at him with doubting eyes.

 

“I’m serious.”

 

I caved in and moved to sit at the edge of the bed.

 

He put on his stethoscope.

 

“Lift your shirt please.”

 

And I complied, my tail was subconsciously hugging me and my ears were twitchy, Adam bringed his stethoscope close to my chest, before placing it on my chest, the coldness of the stethoscope gave a a shiver, causing my tail to puff up and my claws To extend.

 

Eh? Since when did I have claws?

 

The doctor seeing my reaction to the stethoscope tensed up a bit.

 

“She’s just like a cat.”

 

Adam: “Breathe in.”

 

And I took a deep breath.

 

Adam: “Breathe out”

 

And I let the air out.

 

The doc- I mean Adam, removed that super cold device, and wrote down something on the note block he had placed on the table next to the bed.

Now taking this weird strap thing with a meter on it, he attached it around my left arm, then connected it to a tube, that is connected to a pumping thing? I didn’t know okay? He gave it a few squeezes, and then noted down whatever was on the meter.

 

After that the rest of the check-up became a blur, partly due to me not paying too much attention anymore, instead, my mind started wandering to the nightmare(s?) I had before I was in the hospital, I closed my eyes, and tried to remember the images as vividly as I could.

 

But I couldn’t come up with anything, it’s as if the memories of the nightmare disappeared.

 

“Hey, finger snap hey!”

 

“Eh?”

 

Adam: “Your back again, you blanked out for a moment.”

 

I tilted my head at him in a questioning manner.

 

“I did?”

 

“I swear, even her tail is forming a question mark, she is just so moe.”

 

Adam: “Yeah, you did, Moving on, it appears that you suffer from amnesia, and it’s likely caused by some sort of trauma, but you should recover in due time, now about your new cat-like appendages, your new tail is a extension on the tailbone, and consist of much of the same muscles that a regular cat’s tail would have, and for your cat ears, they have replaced your regular ears and now sit pretty far up on your head, which means that you have better hearing, which could induce some nauseous effects. Now, could you maybe tell me how it has been the past two days, in trying to adjust?”

 

“Ummm. Well… I don’t feel nauseous from hearing and my tail sometimes helps with balance… and my nose has gotten more sensitive too!”

 

Adam: “Very interesting. Well that’s all I’ve wanted to ask for today. I’ll see you around.”

 

-o-

 

After the check-up with Adam, he left me alone in the room, and the room went back to being silent again. He also mentioned how remarkable my transformation had been, but I felt as if he was keeping some things secret.

 

I was getting pretty tired at this point, I opted to take a nap on the bed, curling up into a ball.

 

Just a short nap alright.

 

“Zzz...”

 

-o-

 

Japanese embassy.

 

Two men are standing in an office room, discussing something.

 

“Are we really sure that she is one of our citizens?”

“You know that the system can’t be wrong, plus, the evidence points to that she was kidnapped and then shipped overseas.”

 

“Jeez, so when is the earliest we can bring her back home?”

 

“Tomorrow, I’ll get someone to inform the hospital and her.”

 

-o-

 

I ended up “napping” late into the evening, the sun was barely above the horizon. Hopping off the bed and stretching my body for a bit, I contemplated what to do next.

Something that I have found strange is that no people really called out on my new “changes”, I’m sure that there is some reason to that, that I don’t know of.

 

I decided to watch TV, using the remote controller that was just sitting there, doing nothing.

 

I browsed through a few channels, before settling on some sort of video game competition? I didn’t get it, but the public was getting really hyped up and the commentator was almost screaming gibberish, right before some text with some logo displayed, probably showing that one of the teams playing won.

 

I wonder if I would be able to do that?

 

Moving that thought aside, the door knocked. Do they have some sort of system to know when I wake up?

 

“Come in?”

 

Two men in business suits came in, they had a little pin on above the chest, on the right side, displaying some sort of flag, it consisted of a white background and a red dot. One of them looked to be in his forties, he had black hair and brown eyes, a rather small nose and thick eyebrows, the other man who entered had a brown suit instead of the black the other man had, and had a more brown-ish hair, also brown eyes and a bit bigger nose. 

These men gave off an aura of authority, I did a mad dash for the side of the bed facing away from the door, peeking at them. The man with black hair approached me, standing on the other side of the bed, seeing me being a bit uncomfortable with them being here.

 

“Hello, I am Kendo, and I come from the Japanese embassy, and I am supposed to take you back home.”

 

Home? What do they mean? I don’t remember having a home.

I eyed them cautiously, my ears focused on them and my tail drooped low.

 

“What home?”

 

He stopped to think for a second, before speaking out again.

 

Kendo: “You don’t remember anything right?”

 

I nodded. He paused as if to formulate himself.

 

Kendo: “Let’s see, Shimada Misaki, you were born in japan xx/xx/2008, had a mom, dad and sister, and was kidnapped three years ago, almost exactly. This is a very extraordinary case for not just us, but the entire world, and it is of great importance that I can safely return you back to Japan.”

 

“...”

 

Kendo: “Which means that, you will be taking the first plane to leave for japan tomorrow, you’ll be meeting some relatives who can shelter you for the time being.”

 

Wait, so I had a family? Hmmm. Trying to recollect the nightmare this time, I uncovered it, and I regret doing that.

I was only awake for a few moments during the nightmare, elapsing between unconscious and half-conscious, but did it at some important moments, such as when she was shouting and pleading for help, the next moment was that some people in black were doing something, I couldn’t see clearly, and gave them a weak “stop”, before falling into unconsciousness, and the last moment I could recall was me being dragged away while someone gave a cry of pain.

I teared up from watching the scene in my head, Kendo had walked over during the time I had blanked out and was crouching next to me, I was at my breaking point when Kendo came in and pulled me in a hug.

And I accepted it gratefully, and cried.

 

Kendo: “Let it all out, it’s gonna be alright.”

 

It must have been a good while since I cried like this, as I couldn’t stop sniffling or the occasional tear even after calming down.

 

“S-so when do I go home?”

 

Kendo: “Tomorrow in the morning. And I have already told the doctor about it.

 

“Sniff okay.”

 

He left the room, and Adam stepped in.

 

Adam: “Hey, you doing okay?”

 

I wiped of the lingering tears and gave him an sad and angry stare

 

“No.”

 

Adam: “So when will you be leaving?”

 

“He already told you.”

 

Adam: “Anything you needed before leaving?”

 

“A change of clothes I guess, A hoodie would probably suit me better.”

 

Hospital staff had made a pretty good effort in containing the news about me, but outside the hospital I was bound to generate attention, and I wanted to hide it as much as possible.

 

I told Adam to leave me alone for a few minutes.

 

At this point I wanted to be alone for a while, to take some time to process and think through what I have learnt. So my name is Misaki, Mi-sa-ki. I like it… While I don’t remember you, mom, dad and sister, I hope that you are safe, and are having a happy life.

But thinking about that, Kendo didn’t mention how my family was doing, I’ll ask him later if i meet him again.

 

A nurse came in later with breakfast, which I happily ate, being the first thing I did that wasn’t asking myself questions or thinking about negative thoughts.

 

-o-

 

I went out for a jog around the hospital in my hoodie and taking a good look, this hospital was considerably larger than what I thought, It consisted of three different buildings, one was a very modern looking 15 floor tall white building, the other one a bricked four story tall building behind the white building, and a garage? I couldn’t really tell but when I could see several ambulances parked right outside the garage doors, that were lined up along the entire wall, directly facing the access road that led to a highway. This entire hospital was located next to a hospital and a larger mall, I think the pathway I was jogging on was long, and if I were to guess, I had jogged 5 kilometers or so.

 

That aside, I had to research a little bit about Japan, or the country where I was from, I think. I was unsure if what Kendo said was real or not, but better than nothing.

Coming to the library again, I booted up one of the computers that were free.

A quick search and I found an article about japan.

 

So it’s an island country and consists of four central islands and several island chains. The country was home to several large companies… ...And their main language was Japanese.

 

Japanese. I don’t think I ever really paid attention to what others said, but looking back at it, Kendo had a different tone than Adam or Eliz, maybe I was bilingual or something, but I think I had spoken Japanese instead of English with Kendo.

 

After satisfying my interest in what Japan was, I headed back to my room. While on the way there I took the time to get a snack, I didn’t have any money with me but the  shopkeeper just told me to keep it, thanking me for something?

 

When I was back in my room I got the sudden urge to groom my tail. I sat on the bed and used my claws to straighten up my fur.

Just when I had reached halfway on my tail it hit me. What was I even doing? Grooming? Was I gonna become a cat now? I don’t want that to happen! I curled into a ball, this entire time my brain had been full up with either ignoring some thoughts or processing something, once I had some time to relax this had to come up?! I really didn’t know what to do, I truly am alone in this world aren’t I?... No, think of the people who have helped you, such as Eliz or Adam, even if you dislike him. Yeah, maybe I wasn’t all alone in this world. I smiled to myself, maybe I could get a refresh? I think I recall something called an Isekai? Usual plot is that the main protagonist dies and has a new life, kind of like me, except the “dies” part. Yeah, let’s try and have a new fulfilling life!

 

This inner dialogue meant alot to me, as I would find out in the future.

With that over, I went to sleep, giving a very cute yawn before closing my eyes.

 

End of chapter 4… ?

 

“So what do you think about her? Her parents died 2 years ago, and she has a condition, but I think you are the only ones who could do it.”

 

“What do you think honey? Should we?”

 

“... I think; that we are able to do it."

 

“Great!”

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