Chapter 12 | Cafe visit

-12-

I woke up the next morning a bit groggy from yesterday, after having dinner it became a blur. The thing that surprised me most is the fact that I was in someone else's room, trying not to panic my eyes darted around seeing every detail. Looks like Kaoru’s room alright. 

 

I could feel and hear Kaoru breathing behind me, turning around my body I was now facing towards her. Her sleeping face is so beautiful. I blushed at the thought, quickly turning back to the other side. My ears were twitching madly.

 

I hugged the blanket, trying to calm myself down. Kaoru suddenly moved, as if perfectly on que and both her arms wrapped around me, and she moved closer to me. The relaxed sound of her breathing calmed my beating heart down just a little bit, I could definitely feel her chest on my back and something was making me want to snuggle with her. Must resist.

 

In the end I failed to resist it, I got closer to her and snuggled up before falling asleep again. What I didn’t know was the fact that Mom had been outside and had taken a photo of it. Too embarrassing to say the least.

 

“Too damn cute.”

 

-o-

 

This time when I woke up Kaoru was already up and changing clothes, I sat up on the bed and rubbed my eyes before opening them. My tail shot straight up and my face was painted in a red, quickly getting back down into the bedsheets I tried to hide myself as fast as possible.

 

“Pfft.”

 

“Uwaaah.”

 

I didn’t want to show my face, I don’t think I would normally be so embarrassed about something so normal such as changing clothes but I was.

 

Fortunately Kaoru finished dressing herself, before giving me a light tap on my head.

 

“Fueh?”

 

“I’m done changing, silly!”

 

I peeked out of the sheets, I had managed to calm down a lot by thinking of gaming. I got out of the bed myself and hastily got into my room. Changing to some more casual wear, I got the gray hoodie and jeans shorts instead of the skirt. 

 

I had decided to visit the cafe today, since I was getting bored at home, sure I had games to play but without headsets I was limited to less action and more calm games like music games or role-playing games. Not my jam really but I could manage. 

 

Eating breakfast at the table, Dad was conversing with Kaoru about yesterday and theorising over how I would react with other cats. He probably didn’t know that I could talk with cats, I was fairly certain that only Mom knew.

 

Breakfast was simple, morning noodles with eggs and soy sauce with a complimentary drink of my choice. After eating breakfast, me along with Dad and Kaoru walked to the cafe, it was located on a larger main street that led to a park, I think it’s the same park as the one in front of the Barber shop.

 

Ryu had given me a warning when I mentioned about the cafe, talking about how the second in charge, Usui isn’t really accepting of newcomers during this time of the year, and that she could be a bit aggressive towards me. With his words in mind, I entered the cafe along with Kaoru and Dad.

 

The setting of the cafe was very comforting, plenty of cats just lazing around or playing with something. One of the cats at the front near the entrance suddenly got up and hurriedly walked away, probably to tell Usui? I don’t know.

 

Dad set up the machines behind the counter and switched on the lights, the store was opening in 30 minutes. Kaoru was giving me a quick tour of the cafe, along with some quick history. After showing me the upstairs we went down again, where I was ganged up by a mob of cats in one of the corners of the cafe.

 

“Eeeeh?!”

 

I counted at least 21 cats, most of them were just looking at me when one calico patterned cat stepped forward, the other cats just went out of the way to allow her to step forward.

 

“Who are you and why are you here?” A distinctively female voice asked.

 

“Umm…” I was speechless, sure I knew that I probably wouldn’t be too kindly accepted at first but woah, isn’t this a bit too extreme? This was nothing like meeting Ryu for the first time. And the fact that cats considered me as another cat is kinda unsettling.

 

I was just standing there frozen when one of the cats that was cornering me jumped and went in to bite my tail. I tried to avoid it but failed, ending up with my tail chomped and something super weird happening.

 

What… Why is everything so big? What happened?

 

I tried to voice myself but only meows could be heard.

 

“Meow?!” (What?!)

 

I took a look at myself.

 

… I was a cat. Dark brown soft fur covered my body, I could feel how my legs were different and trying to stand up was next to impossible. Usui scooped me up and lifted me by the scruff, I went completely limp and was taken somewhere. I was panicking the whole time, although I didn’t show it due to the fact that I was held up by the scruff. It didn’t hurt, but it made me unable to move. And I felt really small even compared to the smaller cats in the group, Usui was at least a good half a head larger than me.

 

I was carried into a backroom, which I remembered as the cat room from Kaoru’s tour. This room was made for cats, when they for example don’t want to be outside in the main area or when they are tired and want to sleep in peace. Usui put me down in the middle of the room, sat in front of me and asked again.

 

“Well, are you gonna answer or not?”

 

There wasn’t anything that I could do, so I answered.

 

“M-Misaki, I’m Kaoru’s sister, I think.” To be honest I didn’t know whether Kaoru was older or younger than me. 

 

“Alright, that wasn’t so hard right? So why did you come here? I don’t remember any cats with brown fur and golden eyes passing by before.”

 

“W-well, It’s not like I knew I could turn into a cat before.”

 

“Shesh, no need to cry, I’m just asking, it’s not like I’m gonna kill you or anything.”

 

With the tone she was speaking in she might as well be able to nonchalantly kill someone.

 

“Anyways, you said that you’re Kaoru’s sister? I’m fairly certain that she doesn’t have one.”

 

She got me there, might as well tell the truth.

 

“The truth is that. I’m. Adopted.”

 

I couldn’t say it with a straight face, I looked down towards the ground to hide my face. Usui sensing the sadness closed in before cuddling me, giving me a lick to the face.

 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to bring bad memories.”

 

I kept quiet, embracing her body while sniffling. I dozed off at some point since when I had woken up I was surrounded by several cats that had slept with me.

 

I yawned, showing my fangs before rubbing my eyes. My ears were filled with the sound of sleeping cats and my body was back to usual.

 

Walking out of the door I was hugged by Kaoru.

 

“Misaki! Where have you been?!”

 

Of course I really didn’t want to tell her the truth, but I did it anyway for the sake of my sanity.

 

“... And that's how I ended up there.” I said while pointing at the door that led to the cats.

 

Kaoru was giving a face of jealousy.

 

“No fair! You can turn into a cat and talk with them!”

 

Of course she would say that. She’s a cat lover after all. Dad also commented about it.

 

“Usui treating strays harshly is nothing unusual, but what interests me is that she considers you a cat?”

 

“Don’t look at me like that, it’s not like I know why other cats treat me as a cat.”

 

We were sitting at a table in the backrooms, where only employee’s were allowed. Someone rang the bell on the counter, indicating to Dad that they wanted to be served.

 

“Be right back girls.”

 

And he left, leaving me and Kaoru.

 

“So princess Kitty, do you want to try out working at the cafe?” She asked with a grin.

 

“I don’t know…”

 

Sure I was cute and all that, but as far as I was aware my social and serving skills were at best abysmal, I am fairly certain that I would make a lot of mistakes if I were to try.

 

“Pretty please?”

 

Kaoru was giving me puppy eyes, begging for me to at least try it out. With a disgruntled expression I answered.

 

“Fine… But no one is allowed to pet me or touch my tail!” That was an important detail, since I turned into a cat when something happened to my tail.

 

The rest of the day would become a blurr, I was carefully observing Kaoru doing her chores in the cafe. The cafe wasn’t really too busy today, since most people were working. After getting home I wanted to try and experiment a little with my “cat” form, the experiments concluded with me being able to do most things that cat does, like landing on my legs when I fall or involuntarily playing with cat toys. Kaoru was messing with me on the latter experiment, earning her a pawing on the nose.

 

The transformation could be triggered a few ways, such as a chomp on my tail, and when I did transform a “pop” sound could be heard and some smoke would appear out of nothing, and the next thing I would know is that I would be a cat. Transforming back was really the same deal, except I could control when I wanted to do it, a pop sound and smoke, and I was back again.

 

My clothes would mysteriously vanish with the smoke and reappear on me when I did a transformation though, prompting Mom to help me experiment and document all of it. Kaoru suggested that I should wear a choker or a collar for when I transformed, and because I would look cute and adorable in it. I objected, of course but in the end with Mom and Kaoru voting in favor and Dad in neutral they won.

 

End of chapter 12

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