It was raining. Again. And here I was, walking home from my part time job without an umbrella. For the first time in two months, my lucky streak appeared to be at an end.

“I thought you were supposed to be a lucky cat, Yuki,” I complained. “So why am I running for shelter in the rain?”

“I am a lucky cat!” My backpack mewled back. “I put nyan umbrella in your backpack this morning.”

“The one I had to take out to fit you since you always insist on coming to school with me?”

“I don’t wannya be lonelyyyyyy,” my spirit cat drawled.

“And I don’t wannya get soaked!” Ack- this damn nyaccent! I’d gotten better at controlling it, but it still reared its head during my emotional outbursts.

“Just run faster,” Yuki mewed, somehow conveying her smugness with her tone alone. Gee, thanks. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

“Brat. Better idea- Let’s hide under the old bridge again.”

“Nyeh? Worse idea! It’s too cold!”

Seriously? This cat… “You’ll live, little princess. Under the bridge we go.”

I followed through with my plan, vaulting over the stony railing and dropping down the slope, then hurriedly cleared a path through all the trash and cardboard boxes that had long been jamming this old waterway. Despite my work uniform being soaked through, I couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic as I took a seat on one of the old boxes. It was about two months ago now that I’d found Yuki here, small and cold and exposed to the elements. I brought her home, nursed her back to health, and she’d promptly returned the favor by magically changing my life forever. Like, I had friends now, I was in a much better place mentally, and I was content with my day-to-day life, all things considered. I mean, once I got over the trauma of being forcefully transitioned slightly against my will, but hey, I told that story already. And it all worked out fine! Minus everything that happened to Evan, and the fact that I was currently drenched and hiding under a bridge full of discarded moving boxes.

“Moving box!” my partner-in-crime said, poking her head out of my bag. Did she just read my mind?

“Huh? Yeah, I found you in a moving box around here.”

“Nyo! That box is moving,” she corrected, squeezing out of my bag and perching on top of my shoulder to steer me. Sure enough, there was indeed an overturned box being jostled back and forth by whatever was underneath.

…Man, what is with this bridge and strays? The last time I helped one of them, I got scolded by my mom and turned into a catgirl. Maybe this time it’ll be a dog; I’ll get scolded by my mom, Evan, and Evan’s dad, since we moved in with them. And then turn into a doggirl.

…Or maybe I’ll just find a rat. Which would really freak me out and suck for me, but I’m sure Yuki would have a ball. 

Huh. I can’t believe I’m more worried about finding a normal animal in a magic city than a magic animal.

Yuki ran over to the mystery box and began scratching at it, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Miyu! Help!”

Resigning to the inevitable adult chew-out, I stepped over and lifted up the box for her, and gasped softly as I revealed its contents. Underneath the box was not a shivering animal, magical or otherwise.

A small catgirl who couldn’t be older than 8 or 9 was curled up into a little ball, breathing shakily and shivering. She was wearing a pair of overalls over a short t-shirt and shorts combo, or at least, I think she was. It was hard to tell what was underneath all the layers of mud she had caked on her. Her hair was this mosaic of blonde, brown and orange, done up in pigtails. What was she doing out here like this? Was she lost? Oh man… her parents must be worried sick!

“H-Hey, are you alright?” I asked, shaking her lightly to get her attention. The girl stirred, looking up at me with big, golden brown eyes. Her face had these white patches of skin mixed into her tan skin tone. Vitiligo, I think it was called? Regardless, the girl continued staring blankly at me.

“Um… where’s your mom and dad?” I tried. Still no response. The girl reached out towards my pockets, trying to grab at them. Did she need my phone for something?

“Uh… can you tell me your name?” I asked, kneeling down to make eye contact with her. As I did, I shifted my phone from my pocket into my hands for safekeeping. My new little friend watched this movement, continuing to grab at my phone, which I was now holding well out of reach. She pouted, angrily looking me in the eyes while taking several deep breaths.

“KANNYA!” She suddenly yelled at a volume I didn’t know humans could reach. I recoiled in surprise, falling back on my butt and straight into the mud. The girl who had just loudly introduced herself as Kannya took the opportunity to snatch my phone from me, and she started spamming random buttons on the screen. Thankfully, my lock screen did its job to keep her out, and she flailed with the buttons for a bit until the phone locked her out for an hour. Wait- shit, I needed that!

“You just got scared by a child,” Yuki laughed.

I rolled my eyes. “Nyot helping, Yuki…”

I stood and tried my best to get the mud off my pants while I watched to see what Kannya would do next.

“Nyeh,” She vocalized, tossing my phone away into another puddle of mud. Great. At least I had my phone back. I quickly retrieved it and wiped off the screen using my shirt, since it was bound for the washing machine anyways. Satisfied it wasn’t going to get mud on any of my other belongings, I tossed my phone into my backpack.

“What’re we gonnya do with the kid?” Yuki asked me. Right. Save phone from water damage later. First, help this girl. I can start by calling the police and- oh, dammit. Well… 

“Did… you want to come with me?” I asked her. Kannya tilted her head in response. “Back to my house? We can get you warm and clean, and then call your parents and get you home.” 

Kannya continued staring at me, and I swear I could see the little gears turn in her head. It dawned on me that going somewhere with a stranger is probably what got her lost in the first place. Did I look like a bad guy? Was I technically doing bad guy things? 

“Um- look,” I fumbled with my little paw print bracelet, revealing my cat ears and cat tail. I know I could rock it the same way Sachi and her family does, but I was way too self conscious to even consider attempting something that would get me that much attention. “I’m like you,” I said, smiling and kneeling back down to her eye level so I didn’t look like a threat. I mean, I was soaked and covered in at least half as much mud as she was at this point, so I hoped I didn’t look like an evil person to her. Finally, after Kannya had stared at me for a bit longer, she nodded.

“Myah,” Kannya made a noise and raised her arms in the air. Uppies? Her face seemed to be asking.

“Yeah, alright,” I complied, picking her up in a piggyback. “Otherwise you might run off without me.”

“Meh,” said my passenger. I don’t know if that was contentment or a complaint, but she wasn’t fussing.

Could this vaguely be considered kidnapping? Maybe. Should you invite random catgirls into your soon-to-be step-dad’s house without permission? Probably not. Was I planning on leaving a filthy girl in the streets? Absolutely not. Considering I had no hope of finding a police station without the GPS currently locked behind a one-hour anti-theft lock, home it was. I grabbed my backpack and slung it awkwardly around the front of my body.

“Alright… let’s go home, Yuki. Uh… you’re gonna have to walk.”

“Hey, nyo fair! I wannya piggyback ride too!”

---

 

I regret giving Evan my umbrella.

Now I was soaked and caked in mud, but at least I had gotten Kannya inside the house. Inside the very clean, not mud-stained house. I set her down to take my shoes off, and she bolted. Shit. Now there’s muddy shoeprints on the floor.

“Kannya- wait!” I called after her. “Let’s take a bath first!”

“Nyoba!” She shouted back. In retrospect, I probably should’ve figured that a little catgirl would be especially opposed to the idea of a bath.

Kannya started digging through our collection of video games, lining them up on the floor. Either she was looking for a specific one, or she was just enjoying the repetitive task of putting all the cases in a line. Wait- focus, Miyu! I’ve got a catgirl to clean. I took a step towards her, and she took a step back, adjusting the direction of her line to go with her.

“Can I wipe your hands and feet, at least?”

“Nyoba!” Kannya repeated before bolting again. Oh man…

What followed was possibly the worst game of cat and mouse (cat and cat?) that I’ve ever experienced. For being curled up under a box 15 minutes ago, she sure had a lot of energy to use to evade me. In my defense, I did get most of the mud off her face and appendages- just not onto the wet wipes I’d grabbed from the laundry room. Ever heard the phrase “herding cats?” I now have firsthand experience of how impossible that is. I finally got her to settle down by letting her play through the first level of Celeste, but that only lasted about 2 minutes before she committed to a full-on leaping dive into the TV, knocking it over. By the time I rescued it and confirmed it was still working, she was gone again. I chased her around for a few more minutes until I finally piqued her interest with my set of weighted pride balahaj prototypes. Kannya had just dragged the last one into the living room to play with when I heard my mom scream from the front door.

“Miyu, Yuki!” My mom exclaimed as she burst into the room. “I raised you better than this! Why in the world is there mud everywhere?”

Yuki wilted under mom’s glare. Ever since I told her that Yuki understood human speech, our lucky cat had been the target of many, many lectures about being a good daughter. At least I wasn’t getting chewed out alone anymore.

“Miyu did it,” Yuki meowed. Jokes on you, Mom doesn’t understand Nyanese.

“So, I rescued someone from under that old bridge again,” I explained.

Evan’s dad walked in, only slightly calmer than my mom. I hope this mess didn’t qualify as one of those pre-proposal red flags- mom really liked this guy. “You’d better have a good explanation, young lady.”

I gestured to the little catgirl, who was hyperfocused on lining up my collection of rainbow blahajs. “This is Kannya. I think her name’s Kannya, anyways. I found her in a box under the old bridge. And- well, she doesn’t say much, but I was trying to get her cleaned up before we went to the police station.”

My mom let out an exasperated sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Aiyah… Miyu, hun, you can’t just bring home a child!”

“She was just trying to help the poor kid,” Evan’s dad placated. “We should get her to the police station. Her parents are probably worried sick.”

Evan swung open the front door, taking a glance around the house before joining the conversation. “What the fuck?” 

“Tactful as ever,” Yuki mewed.

“Evan, language. There’s a child present,” his dad scolded.

“So you’re not involved this time?” My mom accused. Man, she was mad.

“What? No, I was at Stewart’s place. I- Nevermind, not important.”

Speak for yourself, Evan. That group of boys is toxic and you and I both know it. I’d have to grill him about it later.

For now though, it was his turn to ask questions. “Why is there a kid? Is it someone we know? Is magic involved?"

“We don’t know,” his dad explained. “Miyu was just telling us that she found her under the bridge where she found Yuki. She tried to bring her home to get her cleaned up before looking for her parents.”

“You go get cleaned up, Miyu,” My mom made a shooing gesture in my general direction. “We’ll drive to the police station afterwards.”

“Me?” I took another look at myself. My Cafe Pride T-shirt and jeans were now caked in dried mud, courtesy of piggybacking Kannya home in the rain. I was definitely giving off ‘stray that had just been rescued from under a bridge’ vibes. “Ah. Yeah. Give me a minute.”

---

 

One change of clothes and a car ride later, we pulled into the police station parking lot. Good news, Kannya was much calmer now that she had a weighted blahaj to carry everywhere, and she even let me hold her hand as we walked in. Small victory: my prototype plushie has the intended calming effect.

I saw one of Evan’s friends talking to the officer on duty, holding a bloodied tissue to his lip. Graham, I think?

“I’m telling you, dad! One of the girls punched my tooth out, then started making out with me! It was… kinda hot actually.”

Ew. I know for a fact that Evan hung out with them today, so it wasn’t too hard to guess what might’ve happened with him being part vampire. Guess I won’t be seeing much of Gronk- Groose- whatever- anymore. Guess I’d have to save my chew-out lecture for someone else. Ah well. Good riddance.

The cop on duty shushed his son as he turned to us. ”Good evening. How can I help you?”

“My daughter found an unaccompanied child out in the rain.” My mom explained, gesturing to Kannya. “She doesn’t speak that much… so we were wondering if anyone had reported a missing child?”

The cop gave us a scrutinizing look, almost like he thought we were stupid. And I don’t know if it was a trick of the light or me being tired, but I swear I saw his eyes fade a little as he regarded us with an almost far-off look, his tone suddenly turning uncharacteristically harsh. “Ma’am, we’re not a daycare, nor do we have time to deal with every lost child that comes our way. Why not just ask the kid yourself?”

“Nyeh…!” Kannya hissed at the man, winding up a swing with her plushie. Oh shit! I quickly scooped up Kannya, pulling her away to calm her down before she could get into any trouble.

Evan’s dad stepped in front of my mom, clearly annoyed. “I’m sorry, but did you not understand what she just said? Kannya has limited speech, so we would appreciate-”

The police officer cut him off. “We cannot help you with this matter, end of story. Please leave the premises, or we will escort you out.”

We all stood there in shock. To his credit, even G-boy looked concerned by the fact that his dad had decided to become a dick all of a sudden.

“Come on, girls, let’s go home,” Evan’s dad said. “We’ll just have to solve this ourselves.”

Mom looked pissed. I think this is the angriest I’ve seen her- and I stained half the house with mud today. “I suppose so… since this asshole woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Come on, Miyu.”

The ride home was quiet, save for Kannya and her nonsensical babbling. As we pulled into the driveway, Evan’s dad pressed his head on the wheel. “Well, that's just great. Where are we going to find an expert on supernatural catgirls?”

Huh. I could think of a couple…