Ever since Miiko has started her club activity, she has got up earlier than me and left school much earlier. Being a sweet girl, she would cook my breakfast and lunch along with hers even if it means waking up even earlier than needed just to prepare the two meals. I would have none of it since I already wake up early just to train my Muay Thai. The two of us are always competing to who wakes up first.

   ‘Seriously, onii-chan. There’s no need for you to wake up this early. You would just eat your breakfast and go back to sleep anyway.’ Miiko would always tell me.

   I raise up my index finger at her. ‘Not true. Every once in a while, I would be glad that I woke up early since I have lots of animes, light novels and video games to catch up on.’

   ‘Oh, there’s just no talking to you.’

   ‘It took you this long to know that? Now go to your practice and leave me alone.’

   ‘Fine fine. I’ll be going.’

   ‘Be careful out there.’

   ‘I will.’

   After spending an hour or so playing a game about hunting huge monsters, I get prepared to go to school. The neighbourhood we live in are usually quiet. Under normal circumstances, I won’t be seeing anyone until I’m five minutes away from Jindai.

   ‘Nyaah~.’

   I turn my neck to look at where the sound came from. From a distance of around a few feet away from me, I see Amano squatting down in front of an orange cat. Her school bag is put down next to her.

   And no. The cat wasn’t the one who made that sound. It was Amano. From where I was standing, I could see that Amano is showing an expression of pure bliss. It’s hard to imagine that she’s usually a blank-faced, socially awkward girl. She’s not making any move to touch the cat. I guess she’s afraid that she might scare it away.

   ‘Aren’t you a complete cutie~? Who’s a cute kitty? You are~.’ Amano is telling the cat.

   I shrug. Nothing wrong with being a cat lover. I proceed to continue my journey to Jindai. A few seconds later, I hear some quick footsteps right behind me. Then, my collar is pulled backwards abruptly.

   ‘Huff…huff…Good morning, Bandou-senpai.’ Amano tells me while panting.

   ‘Good morning, Amano.’ I greet back without struggling.

   ‘Can you pretend that you didn’t saw what you saw just now?’ she requests while letting go of my collar.

   ‘I was going to anyway. Why do you think I didn’t talk to you?’

   ‘Please, please keep it a secret from anyone you know, particularly you-know-who.’ she continues to plead. ‘She would never let me hear the end of it if she ever finds out about this.’

   ‘Your secret is safe with me.’ I assure her.

   She looks at me suspiciously for a few seconds before finally relaxing.

   ‘Thank you.’

   I was going to leave her alone for real, but somehow we ended up going to school together.

   ‘How’s high school so far?’ I ask the obligatory question as we’re walking together.

   ‘Apart from Ozawa and her friends, everyone else is content with leaving me alone.’ she answers. ‘I really wish they would too.’

   ‘I know Miiko can be annoying, but please don’t hate her. She doesn’t have any ill will.’

   ‘I know that, senpai. It’s just that I value my personal space a lot more than your average person. I know I’m being a pain, but I can’t help it.’

   ‘Hey, no need to feel guilty about it. I’m an introvert too, so I know exactly how you feel. Sometimes you just want to be left alone.’

   She sighs in relief.

   ‘Finally, someone who understands me. A lot of people like my father and Ozawa could never understand this simple thing.’

   ‘Miiko aside, I’m sure that your father just wants you to be more sociable so that you have better connections. After all, you would definitely need it once you start working.’

   She got tongue-tied the moment I mentioned working.

   ‘Senpai, you know my father, don’t you?’ she asks after a few minutes of inner struggles.

   ‘Yeah, we’ve met once in the past.’ I tell her.

   ‘So you know of his profession.’

   ‘Absolutely.’

   ‘And yet you talk to me anyway?’

   I shrug. ‘Borrowing Miiko’s words, I don’t care what your father does for a living. As long as you’re a good person, I’ll treat you normally.’

   She shakes her head disgustedly.

   ‘Ozawa is one person whom I wish would stay away from me the moment she finds out about my family’s background. That’s what majority of our classmates did anyway.’

   ‘So your classmates know as well? How did they ever find out?’

   ‘I haven’t the slightest clue. All I know is that it helped me a lot since they tend to get overly familiar with me right before they know about my parents.’

   Man, she must really love her personal space for saying the last part out without a single hint of grieve.

   ‘I take it that Takaki recruited you to be the new treasurer after she heard about your background.’

   ‘Yes. I was always good in managing finance anyway. Also, I’ve heard that you could get a letter of recommendation to good universities if you have worked at the student council, which is why I accepted the position.’

   ‘How’s your grades, by the way?’

   ‘Not to brag, but they’re fairly excellent. Still, I don’t want to take any chances, which is why I need the letter.’

   ‘Fair enough.’

   I hear a muffled buzzing. When I look at Amano, she’s taking out her phone. She looks at it for a few seconds and sighs.

   ‘Is something wrong?’ I ask.

   ‘It’s your cousin.’

   ‘What did she wrote?’

   ‘An essay which is probably about more than 100 words of telling me to wake up and get to school already, even though I’m almost there.’

   ‘You’ve probably realized it already, but it would take a lot more than your family background to keep Miiko away from you.’

   She sighs mournfully. ‘Yes, I know that senpai. She’s so persistent it’s scary.’

   ‘You could snap at her. Even she won’t remain persistent if you got angry.’ I suggest.

   She shakes her head. ‘She doesn’t deserved to be yelled at just because I want to be left alone. That’s a horrible thing to do.’

   ‘She might bawls her eyes out if she hears what you just said.’

   ‘Please don’t tell her. She would get even more annoying if she ever finds out.’

   ‘Like I said, you secret is safe with me.’

   Man, why do I always ended up finding out secrets of girls (and older woman) without meaning to?

   ‘You’re a good person, senpai.’ she tells me.

   ‘You’re talking as if you heard lots of negative rumors about me, and that you just found out those rumors are false.’

   ‘As a matter of fact, I did.’

   ‘What kind of rumors are we talking about?’

   ‘That you beat up a group of high school delinquents when you were still in middle school. And you’re so strong and scary even Motozawa is your underling.’

   ‘Whoa what? Motozawa isn’t my underling at all. He’s just my junior. I guess we’re also sort of friends.’

   ‘What about the part where you beat up a group of delinquents?’

   ‘That? That part’s true.’

   ‘I see.’

   ‘Are you starting to think that it might be a bad idea to be near me?’

   ‘Not at all. Even though we barely know each other, I could already tell that you’re not someone who incite violence for no apparent reason.’

   As we’re passing a crossroad, we see another cat sitting on the ground. This one is just a kitten. It’s black, green-eyed and have a long and fluffy tail. I look at Amano. She’s trying her best to hold herself back from charging towards the cat and pets it.

   ‘It’s too bad that our apartment doesn’t allow pets, huh?’ I note.

   ‘To be honest, it’s better that way. If I have a cat inside my room, I could never get anything done.’ she says while averting her gaze from the cat.

   ‘Don’t you have one back at your parents’ house?’

   ‘No. My parents aren’t really fond of pets, especially cats.’

   ‘A shame.’

   ‘Besides, there was that time when-’

   ‘When what?’ I ask after she refused to continue.

   ‘...It’s nothing. Please forget about it.’

   She has the “I don’t want to talk about it” aura around her, so I decide to drop the subject.

   Since we’re almost reaching the school, I see more and more students coming from all sorts of directions. Pretty much all of them are surprised to see the two of us walking with each other, but we just ignored those gazes.

   ‘Well, it was fun chatting with you, Amano. See ya.’ I tell her after we entered the school premise.

   ‘See you, senpai.’ she says while bowing politely at me.

   After school, we have the usual consultation session. Our client today is a Hirashima Daisuke, a first year. Apparently, his girlfriend cheated on him with his best friend. After he found out, he was furious. But he’s also clueless on what to do next.

   ‘Should I break up with her?’ he asks us after he’s done with his story.

   ‘Yes you should.’ I tell him bluntly. ‘While you’re at it, break off friendship with that so-called best friend of yours.’

   ‘He’s right. A lot of things can be forgiven. Disloyalty isn’t one of them.’ Futaki agrees.

   Even Nagano agrees with me this time.

   ‘If you ever forgive a cheater, you’ll just be encouraging her. Don’t ever let her control you.’ she tells him.

   After getting our words of encouragement, Hirashima made up his mind to tel those cheaters off. He left with a resolved expression.

   ‘Well that was fast. Do we have any more clients today?’ I ask Nagano.

   She checks her phone. ‘As a matter of fact, we do. In fact, we have two more.’

   ‘Well, let’s get this over with.’

   Ever since Futaki has joined us, we could do more consultation than we used to since unlike me, she doesn’t have a part-time job. She’s also quite an expert when it comes to giving advise, so there’s one more person to give out opinions.

   In the end, we solved all three consultations in the matter of hours. I’m so glad that the consultations today ended early. In the game I was playing before I went to school, I was almost done with crafting a weapon that I spent almost an eternity to make, I intend to complete it today.

   However, I’ve forgotten all about it the moment I saw a trail of blood at one side of the road.

   The bloodstains aren’t very big, but it’s still a cause for concern. I follow it for a few minutes before I finally reach the source. It’s from the black kitten Amano and I saw earlier this morning, and Amano is carrying it on her arms.

   Amano herself is crying and sobbing uncontrollably. Her entire body is also trembling.

   ‘Is that kitten hurt, Amano?’ I call out to her.

   She raises her head to look at me.

   ‘Yes, Bandou-senpai! The poor thing probably got attacked by a dog or something!’ she sobs.

   I quickly go to them and squat down so that I could take a better look at the kitten. Yup. It got attacked, alright. Its left foreleg, the place where the bleeding is from, has a nasty bite mark on it.

   ‘We need to do something about the blood first.’ I tell her as calmly as I could. ‘Do you have a handkerchief or something similar that we can use?’

   ‘I, um, I have one.’

   She hands me the kitten before reaching inside her pocket. The poor kitten is mewing pitifully. It really break my heart to see it like this.

   With still-trembling fingers, Amano pulls out a small handkerchief.

   ‘Tie the handkerchief at its wound.’ I instruct her. ‘And try to be gentle. Most importantly, don’t do it too rough or you might end up hurting it even more.’

   ‘Yes senpai.’

   After calming herself down by taking a few deep breaths, Amano proceeds to do as I say. It took her quite some time as she made sure to be as gentle as possible.

   I get up slowly with the kitten still on my arms. ‘Okay, let’s head to the vet so that it can be treated. Can you take our bags?’

   ‘Yes.’

   Thankfully, the nearest vet is only a few minutes journey from where we were. The veterinarian clinic is half-full of patrons who were here to have their pets treated. All of them were nice enough to give away their turn so that the kitten can be treated. The vet started to treat its wound immediately. Amano looked so worried I dragged her outside before she starts to freak out and distract the vet.

   ‘Don’t worry. The kitten will be fine.’ I assure her. ‘Just calm down and wait for the treatment to be over, okay?’

   All she did was nodding dumbly like she can’t hear what I said clearly. I guess it’s best to leave her alone for now. While waiting, I went to the toilet to wash my hands since they’re covered with some of the kitten’s blood.

   Ten minutes later, the vet is finally done. He came out to tell us the good news.

   ‘Fortunately, the wound wasn’t severe, so the leg didn’t have to be amputated. All it required were some disinfection and bandaging. Give the kitten a few days, and he’ll be fine.’ he says to us.

   ‘Is it okay if we see him?’ Amano asks him.

   ‘Of course you can.’

   The kitten was lying down on the operating table. It gets up and give us some welcoming mews when he saw us enter. Amano goes to the kitten and reaches out her hand tentatively. He sniffs it a few times, then mews some more. After making sure that he’s not going to scratch her, she goes ahead and scratch his chin. He’s clearing enjoying the scratch as he’s closing his eyes and purring happily.

   ‘Well, you can bring him back now.’ the vet tells us. ‘Just remember to give him a collar or he might be mistaken for a stray.’

   ‘Um, that’s the thing. He is a stray.’ Amano tells him. ‘We don’t own him.’

   ‘You can start now.’

   ‘We can’t. Our apartment doesn’t allow pets.’ Amano says with a sad expression.

   ‘Well that’s a shame. Anyone could tell that he’s already fond of you.’

   To further reinforce that statement, the kitten rolls over and show her his belly. Amano gasps in surprise.

   ‘What did I tell ya? Are you sure you don’t want to keep him?’

   ‘I would love to. I really do. But I can’t. Rules are rules.’

   ‘In that case, I’ll put him out for adoption. Hopefully, someone kind can take him in.’

   ‘Thank you. And thank you for treating him.’

   ‘Just doing my job.’

   Amano pets the kitten some more before leaving the vet’s office reluctantly. After we got out, Amano goes to the toilet so that she could wash her hands. She then paid for the kitten’s medical fees.

   ‘Have you finally calmed down now that the kitten is fine?’ I ask her after we have left the clinic.

   ‘Yes. I’m really sorry for panicking back there.’

   ‘No need for apologies. It’s normal to panic when you’re in a situation like that.’

   We walk in silence for a while before Amano continues the conversation.

   ‘Actually, this wasn’t the first time I was in a situation like this.’ she says slowly.

   ‘Oh?’

   ‘I was minding my own business at the park near my house. A cat then appeared out of nowhere. I was always fond of cats, so I played with it for a while. While we were having fun, a boy suddenly pushed me away. I didn’t even notice him before, but there he was. Before I could get up, he started to, well, abuse the cat. In a very nasty way. I tried to stop him, but he was too strong for me. Eventually, I had to leave the park so that I could get help. I managed to find a policeman who was patrolling the area, but it was already too late. By the time we reached the park, the cat was already dead. I was five at the time.’

   ‘Ouch.’

   ‘I was so traumatized I had to go see a therapist. The therapy took three whole years. Even then, I haven’t really get over that incident. Every once in a while, I would get nightmares of that incident. How that cold-blooded boy torturing the life out of that poor cat just to be amused. Worse I could never get his maniacal laugh out of my head.’

   I wanted to tell her that it’s not her fault, but that would be the worst words of comfort ever.

   ‘Have you ever found the boy?’ I ask instead.

   Her eyes suddenly become very cold.

   ‘He’d better pray that I can’t. If I ever do, he would suffer a much worse fate than the cat.’

   ‘Don’t do it, Amano. It’s not worth ruining your life for a scumbag like that.’ I warn her.

   ‘Of course I know that, senpai. It was just a figure of speech.’

   She’s telling me that, but her expression is telling me otherwise. I just hope someone’s there to stop her when the two of them ever meet.