“So… you went to check out an evil vampire coven spot, and you ended up at a… gaming cafe?” I tilted my head in confusion. After my failed attempt to process the fact that one of my best friends might be flirting with me, kid in a candy store-esque Evan at home was so not on my bingo card.

Evan, on his part, nodded excitedly. “Yeah, with PCs and consoles and everything, it was amazing, Miyu! And I met these three girls there who were actually really cool, and we talked about all our gaming interests over a bunch of rounds of Mario Party and shit like that, it was so fun!”

Okay… I- where do I even start with this? 

“For the record, going there alone was dangerous and stupid… but I’m glad you came home safely, and even had a good time?” I tried. “Did you like… learn anything else about the coven, other than those three vampires?”

“Not really. We just kinda talked vampire stuff lightly cause we didn’t, like, wanna freak out the normies nearby,” Evan replied.

Uh. Huh. That was… a little stereotypically girly.

Unbothered, Evan continued. “Oh! But they do serve some supernatural stuff there, which kinda makes sense if they’re in the know about vampires. Oh, and I met the owner, I think. A really nice guy named Aaron. He’s equal parts intimidating and hot? It’s kinda weird, but like, good to know even ripped dudes like him can be gaming nerds.”

Yuki made a gagging sound from behind the couch, and I kinda had to agree. Did Evan just call a guy hot? Was he okay?

Evan must have noticed me staring at him as if he were crazy. “What?” He asked.

“Well, I mean, I’m happy for you,” I started. “This is the happiest I’ve seen you in a while. But like, I’m also concerned cause you just called a guy hot, and you don’t really give off bi vibes?”

Evan’s face flushed. “Uh, well, I mean, no, I just, uh, he’s a good-looking dude, you know? Game respect game?”

Could you be any less suspicious, Evan? Something’s up… now how do I get you to tell me?

“You’re blushing,” I accused, trying to act smug.

Evan started gesticulating wildly. “Miyu, stop, no! I mean, really, I’m not into guys at all! He just… has this aura about him or something!”

Hah! Gotcha. That’s something I can ask Ada about. Hopefully, this doesn’t mean Evan is cheating on her, though. If he is, though, he’ll deserve whatever punishment he gets from pissing off the OP magic family. 

“Oh, relax,” I said, playing off my little victory.”Consider this revenge for teaching Kannya ‘skill issue.’ So, are you hanging out with those girls again?”

Evan frowned as he was forced to accept defeat. “Maybe, there’s this…”

“There’s a what?” I pushed.

“This… gaming tournament tomorrow night. At the cafe. They wanted me to join their team, and I said I would.”

Bullshit. Total and utter bullshit. But also the kind of bullshit that is probably dangerous, something I can’t talk him out of, and way over my head. Another piece of intel to get to Sachi and Ada. Who’s the superspy now, Evan?

I gave my best ‘whatever’ face. “Well, uh, have fun, I guess?”

“Thanks, I will.” He replied. Wow. He totally bought it.

“Tell your dad this time, though? He wasn’t happy when I told him you went off on your own to check out a potential evil vampire hideout.”

“Uh, yeah, will do. Thanks, Miyu.”

I’d grill him more, but it was about time to leave for work, and I’m pretty sure I could hear Kannya spamming “skill issue” at my mom from upstairs. I take it that means she hasn’t gotten the kid dressed yet.

I stood up and pspsps’d to Yuki, who jumped up on my shoulder, and left to do damage control on the other kid I was responsible for.

I pushed open the door to my room and was immediately knocked down by a runaway kid. Yuki made the wise decision to use me as a springboard before she ended up crumpled underneath us. Traitor.

“Miyu!” Kannya shouted happily. Aw, she learned my name! She was almost dressed- her fish T-shirt was on backwards, and her overalls weren’t buttoned up yet, but her socks and shoes were on, as was at least one arm of a puffy jacket. Her other arm grabbed my hands, where she dropped some sort of necklace in my hands.

“Uh, thanks, Kannya,” I said, sitting up and repositioning her on my lap so that I could fix her clothes. “Where did you get this?” Looking a little closer, it looked like a large fang of some sort. It was at least twice as big as a shark-tooth necklace, and it was covered in all sorts of dings and scratches. Actually, those looked purposeful, almost like… runes? The cord it was on was also similarly runed. Damn- whoever made this was a seriously skilled artificer. I’ll have to show it to Sachi, I guess.

“I found it in the wash with her clothes,” My mom said. “She grabbed it from me when you walked in… aiyah, why does she sit so still for you?”

“Skill issue,” Kannya entered on her device as I pulled her arm through the jacket. Pfft.

“Kannya, that’s not very nice,” I chided. “But it is funny.”

“I’m sorry. Joke funny.”

“What a sassy kitten,” My mom sighed. “I should be glad you didn’t have any older brothers to teach you these things when you were little, Miyu.”

“Of all the things Evan could have taught her, this is pretty tame,” I reminded her. 

“I suppose you’re right,” my mom replied. “Any luck on finding out where home is for her?”

“Not yet, but being able to understand Kannya is going to help us a lot. Sachi’s bringing her computer today so we can check MagiNet for any missing catgirl reports.”

My mom squinted at me. “Just when I was beginning to understand the tick tocks and the instant grams. We’ll leave the investigating to you kids, just let us know what we can help with, hun.”

“Miyuuuuuu,” Kannya whined, tapping the filled sentence strip on her device. “Go play shop now.”

I pat Kannya’s head to placate her. “Thanks, Mom. I’d better get going before Kannya pulls me there.”

“Have a good day, Miyu.”

Now, I wish I could say that one short bus ride later, I was waist-high in MagiNet posts with Kannya’s mom on the phone, but alas, fate had other plans in store for us today. Despite our desperate need to investigate, Sachi, Ada, and I spent the majority of our shift actually working. Cafe Pride was bustling with holiday spirit today, mostly thanks to our drag queen, Ms. Mercury, doing a meet-and-greet as Mrs. Claus. Despite all of his grumbling and complaining about not being a woman, Mark sure did a bang-up job of acting the part, and the kids loved him. And after the families had gotten all their pictures with Mrs. Claus, they would trade in their ticket stubs at the counter for a drink as part of the donation drive. These are the kinds of events I was proud to be a part of, even if all I was doing was wearing an Elf hat and mixing drinks. Though, as I watched Mark- sorry, Ms. Mercury- interact with the kids, I became increasingly more sure he was actually using his messenger god magic to send all the kids’ requests somewhere. I wonder if…

“And what do you want for Christmas, little catgirl?” Our Mrs. Claus asked Kannya. Huh. When had she gotten in line?

“I’ll be right back,” I told my elf coworkers. “Gonna grab some videos and pictures for Kannya’s family.”

“Make it quick, please!” Ada called after me. “There’s a family of ten coming up soon, and we’re already behind!”

I gave her a thumbs-up and ducked out of the back, phone camera at the ready. Kannya was still in the midst of replying, thankfully.

“All I want for Christmas is.” The device chirped.  “Nyu!” she told Mrs. Claus, a wide smile on her face.

“Er… pardon, dearie. These old ears aren’t what they used to be. One more time?”

Kannya looked like she was in deep thought as she searched through her device. “I want to. Christmas. With. Mom. Dad. Sisters. Miyu. Sachi. Ada. Evan.”

Oh my gods. This kid is so precious, my heart is literally going to explode.

“What a lovely wish, dearie.” Mrs. Claus picked up her writing quill and parchment, writing down a few words while Kannya watched eagerly. When she finished, she folded the paper neatly in half and magicked it away with a flick of her wrist. “I’ll see to it my… husband makes your wish come true.”

“Thank you girl Santa Claus,” Kannya beamed, hopping off and following the line to the cafe. I stopped the recording on my phone as she did. I’m glad I got that moment on tape for her family. I was so proud of her. I mean- her parents were gonna be so proud of her!

Oh no. I’m becoming maternally attached to this kid. Hm. This is a problem for future Miyu.

“I want ten cat girl cups,” Kannya requested.

Sachi laughed, trying to gently turn her down. “Kannya, your ticket is only good for one drink, alright? You won’t be able to finish ten of those, anyway!”

“Five,” Kannya counterbid.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Ugh, you are lucky you’re so cute. Fine, two. You can have Miyu’s.”

“Hey!” I objected. “I was drinking that!”

Sachi giggled. “Don’t worry, I’ll make a replacement for you just the way you like, Miyu.”

A special drink from Sachi? She’s got good taste in tea, that’s for sure. This is like… a friendly thing to do, right? Not a flirty thing? Uuuu…

“I- that’s- not fair.”

“Issue skill.”

“Kannya! Ugh- Fine, w-whatever.”

After another hour of maybe(?) being flirted with, Sachi and I finally had a moment to do some investigating with our mystery kid, who was polishing off the remainder of my drink.

“So, what exactly is MagiNet?” I asked as Sachi booted her laptop.

“It’s basically just the internet, but with a different domain,” Sachi explained. “All the sites you normally access have a hidden magic side built in. By linking with MagiNet, you can like, order magic reagents from online stores, or watch a video guide for casting your first fireball. In our case, we can start by checking out videos of other magical towns and seeing if Kannya recognizes any.”

“Find home,” The catgirl in question stated, determined.

“How many magic towns are there?” I asked.

“Uh…”

So we spent an hour watching videos such as ‘Top 10 Magical Resorts You MUST go to!’, ‘The 10 BEST Places for Beastfolk to Live!’ and ‘SSO IRL!? The Best Town to Live Out your Fantasy Life.’ And despite now having an extensive travel list of magic places to visit, Kannya hadn’t recognized a single one.

As we scrolled to find another video to check out, I pulled out the fang Kannya had given me that morning. “By the way, do you know what this is?” I asked Sachi. “Kannya gave it to me this morning, and I couldn’t read any of the runes.”

She glanced up from her screen and took a closer look at the broken necklace. “Something powerful… Even I can barely read these.” Sachi squinted, bringing the fang closer to her face. “Power…  mindless… energy…?”

“That sounds… not good?”

“Agreed. It looks like it only affects the holder, and only if they’re a vampire. So don’t give it to Evan or Ada, and it should be fine. Why did Kannya have this?”

We glanced over at the catgirl, who was half asleep in her chair. I guess questioning her would have to wait.

“We can ask her tomorrow. How about this one?” I said, pointing to a video titled ‘The Hallows: The LARP Town that Became a Reality.’

“You think Kannya is from a LARP?” Sachi asked.

“Well- okay, no, but I’m curious, and I want to end the night on something interesting. Not like, listening to a Treant rate soil quality in a bunch of towns across the U.S.”

Sachi glanced at the dozing catgirl again. “Yeah, alright. I’ve never heard of this place, either.”

Our curiosity was immediately cut short by a college recruitment ad blasting music at least double the volume of what most videos play at. “Ugh, why does MagiNet still have ads?” Sachi complained. “I already applied here, too!”

“Come join us at Rivenwood Academy,” a cheery feminine voice shilled. “As one of the leading research colleges in magitech, alchemy, and healing sciences, you-”

“NYAAAAAA!” Kannya screamed, scaring the shit out of me and probably everyone else still in the cafe.

“Homehomehomehomehomehomehome!” She exclaimed. It took me a moment to process, but then-

“We found it!” I exclaimed, giving Kannya a big hug. We were gonna get her home before Christmas!

Sachi looked confused, but happy. “But Rivenwood is in California- that’s practically the other side of the country… How’d she end up here?” Sachi clicked the ad as she pondered the logistics of losing a catgirl on the opposite coast. “Let’s see… about us… staff directory. With pictures! Kannya, point to someone you recognize!”

Kannya stared intensely at the laptop as names and pictures scrolled by, her tail swishing back and forth until she finally bapped a picture of a tired-looking demon man. “Nya!”

“This one?” Sachi clicked on the picture, bringing up the man’s information. “Strife NoLastName - his last name is NoLastName? Weird. Incubus professor specializing in transmutation magic.”

“Daddy!” Kannya trilled.

I scanned the page for a number and quickly dialed it on my phone, putting it on speaker for my companions to hear. I was disappointed when the call went to voicemail.

“Hi, you’ve reached Professor Strife. I can't come to the phone right now because I'm searching for my lost daughter. If you have any information about her disappearance, or, more ill-advisedly, are calling to make a ransom demand, please leave your name, number, address, and a convenient time to drop by.”

The phone beeped, signaling the start of a voicemail.

“Daddy!” Kannya repeated into my phone.

“Um, hi, Mr…. uh, NoLastName,” I began. “This is Miyu Aoki… I found your daughter underneath a bridge in Nyew- New Haven.”