Kinzo’s POV
   Kinzo has always hated Christmas. The reason for that is simple. He’s a friendless loner who has no girlfriend. He was never invited to a Christmas Party, and even if someone did, he will definitely refuse to join since he’ll be made fun of anyway. It has become especially bad ever since he got his ability. He’s so scared that he might accidentally trigger it, he has no longer spoken to a single girl other than Rei-san and Shisui.

   This year at least, he has Shisui the Nekomata with him, so it’s not that bad.

   “Say, myaster.”

   “Yes, Shisui?”

   “Where’s Rei?”

   “Rei-chan is working right now, so she can’t join us.” Kinzo explains.

   “Is that why you’re standing in front of the stove?”

   “Well, our dinners are not going to cook themselves. Now please stop distracting me.” Kinzo pleads as he flips over a piece of salmon steak gingerly with a spatula.

   “Can we just order takeout or something? We can get properly cooked food, and you don’t have to torture yourself like that.”

   “Come on, don’t say that. Home-cooked food are much better than unhealthy outside food.”

   “I think I’ll take the chance of dying slowly if the said home-cooked food is straight up inedible.” Shisui says.

   “Again, don’t say that. Have faith in me, will you?”

   In the end, the pan-seared salmon steaks with boiled broccoli and mashed potatoes cooked by Kinzo are best described as barely edible. He decides to leave it at that.

   “I wish Rei is here with us, nya. She’s the only one among us who knows how to cook proper food…” Shisui grumbles as she munches on her share of mostly charred salmon.

   “Stop complaining, Shisui. We can’t rely on Rei-chan all the time.” Kinzo chides.

   “Myaster, do you even understand the role of a maid?”

   “Of course I do. Still, she has her own personal life too, not to mention her work.”

   “Does that mean that she’ll come over once she’s done working?”

   Kinzo shakes his head.

   “She won’t.”

   “What? Why not, nya? Isn’t today Christmas Eve? I’ve heard that today is a special day for humans.”

   “Actually, the important one is Christmas Day itself, which is tomorrow. I guess that’s not important right now. The important thing is that since today is still a special day and all, I ordered Rei-chan to stay with her friends.”

   Just her friends, though. Kizo still remembered that one time when Rei-san mentioned that her relationship with her parents were bad.

   “What about us, nya? Most importantly, what about you, myaster? Aren’t you lonely?”

   Kinzo strokes her head gently.

   “Of course not. I have you.”

   “Myaster, I would have been the happiest cat in the world to hear you say that if you said it on any other day, but not this time. You’re just putting up a front, aren’t you nya?”

   Keizo laughs awkwardly at that.

   “I’m that obvious, huh?”

   “Cats are known to be observant after all, nya.” Shisui says playfully.

   Her playful expression got serious at once.

   “Myaster, you’re in love with Rei, aren’t you nya?”

   The question made Kinzo all flustered. He feels his face burning from embarrassment.

   “N-no I’m not…” he denies while averting his eyes.

   “You’re supposed to look at me when you talk, nya.”

   Kinzo lets out a sigh and looks at Shisui straight in the eyes.

   “Yes, Shisui. I’m in love with Rei-chan.” he confessed.

   “Is this what I think it is, nya?” Shisui asks with a bored expression. “You know, you fell in love with her looks?”

   “Actually, it’s a lot more than that.”

   She raises her eyebrow this time.

   “Really, nya? Do tell.”

   Kinzo puts out both his hands and waves them vigorously.

   “Oh, no. No way. It’s too embarrassing!”

   Shisui raises up both her hands until eye level and wiggles them aggressively.

   “I have ways of making you talk, myaster. We can do this the easy way, the hard way, or the REALLY hard way, nya.”

   Kinzo flinches. Whenever she’s wiggling her fingers like that, it’s a sign that she’s about to tickle him.

   “All right, fine! I’ll tell you!” he surrenders immediately.

   Shisui chuckles. “This always does the trick, nya.”

   Kinzo lets out an annoyed sigh. Ever since she discovered that he’s ticklish, she had no qualms about using it against him, particularly when she wants him to buy something for her.

   “I only found out about this pretty recently, but Rei-chan and I have already met way back in our first year of high school.” Kinzo begins reluctantly. “It took me so long because her image back then was very different from how she is now.”

   “How exactly is it different, nya?” Shisui asks curiously.

   “Hold on. I’ll show you a picture of her before she changed her image.”

   Kinzo went to one of his book shelves and grabbed a photo album of it. He flipped through the pages until he found a group photo featuring a whole class of students. He then points at a girl who is wearing a pair of glasses with round frames and did her hair into a pair of pigtails.

   Shisui blinks her eyes in disbelief a few times.

   “Hold on. Seriously, nya? She looks so plain here! Are you sure that they’re the same person, myaster?”

   “Pretty sure. I asked her about it, and she confirmed it.”

   Shisui blinked a few more times.

   “Wow, just wow. Talk about having a complete makeover, nya. More importantly though, what does this have to do with what we’re talking about?”

   “I’m getting to it.”

   Kinzo flips the page over and points at the photo of a younger version of himself.

   “See? That’s me.”

   Shisui looks closer and laughs out loud. She’s laughing so hard she could barely breathe.

   “You still look the same, myaster!” she guffaws.

   “I have a hard time figuring out the reason you find that funny, Shisui.”

   “I mean, Rei bothered to do, what do you humans call it, a college debut? And yet here you are, looking the same as ever!”

   Kinzo ignored that comment. He has, in fact, did a college debut. However, well, let’s just say things didn’t work out.

   “We’re getting off topic here. We hanged out quite a bit back then. Well, around three weeks in total to be exact since she just disappeared one day. I assume it was because she had to move to another prefecture or something.”

   “And you fell in love with her during the three week period?”

   “Sure did. I mean, no other girls would approach an ugly, disgusting anime nerd like me. She was the sole exception. Everyday after school, we would just sit down together at secluded spots around the school and talk about anime things until we really had to leave. It’s one of the only fond memories I had when I was a student.”

   “You said she just disappeared one day. Why didn’t you keep in touch with each other, nya?”

   “I would have loved to. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a phone. Said that her parents forbid her from having one since it’s too much of a distraction. Heck, we didn’t even bother to tell each other our names.”

   Shisui puts her right palm on her face.

   “Why in the name of Nekomata did you make things difficult for yourself, nya?” she asks with a really tired tone.

   “I can’t help it, okay? We met under rather peculiar circumstances. After that incident, I had difficulty in introducing myself, and I was sure as heck not confident enough to ask her name. To be honest, it was a real miracle that we even became friends.”

   “I’m not even going to ask you about the so-called peculiar incident.”

   “I would really appreciate it if you keep it that way. Anyway, that’s it. That’s the whole story. Are you happy now?”

   “No I’m not, nya! Now that you know that Rei is your old crush, why don’t you just tell her how you feel about her?”

   Kinzo lets out a sigh. He figured that this is as good a time as any to finally spill the beans to her.

   “Shisui, have you ever wondered why you want to become my maid in the first place?”

   One of the Nekomata's eyebrows shot up.

   “What’s this all of a sudden, nya?”

   “Just answer me.”

   “As a matter of fact, I did. Several times too nya.” she confesses. “I mean, myaster isn’t handsome, kind of overweight-”

   “Okay, Shisui. I get it. You can stop-”

   “Stingy, snores loudly whenever he sleeps-”

   “Wait, I snore? I didn’t know that-”

   “Always ogle at girls, watches anime meant for creeps-”

   “Right. Seriously, you can stop now. For real-”

   “Overall, myaster isn’t a bad person, but he sure isn’t an idle one, nya. So indeed nya, why would I want you as my myaster?” Shisui asks no one in particular while tilting her head to the right.

   Kinzo didn’t answer her immediately. The rapid dissing have gave him rather significant damage, and it took him a few seconds to recover.

   “The reason is simple. I, um, well, I’m controlling you with my ability.” he explains once he’s recovered.

   He told her everything: how he got a vial of serum from a suspicious person, how he injected himself with it, how Rei appeared at his door the next day, how he accidentally activated his ability on Shisui.

   “...So that’s why. That’s how I kept you around.” Kinzo ends.

   His head was lowered by the time he was talking about how he used his ability to mind-control Shisui. Mostly, he was overridden by guilt. The Nekomata was silent the entire time, which made things works.

   “Say, myaster.” he eventually heard her say.

   Her extremely calm tone made Kinzo flinch.

   “Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Yes Shisui? No, um, Shisui-sama?” he asks without having the courage to look up.

   “I’m mad. Like, really mad nya. For some reason, though, I don’t even feel like killing you. It’s probably your ability protecting you, wouldn’t you say?”

   “You, um, you are most probably right.”

   “Just kidding, nya. Even I wouldn’t be so ungrateful to kill someone who had been taking good care of me all this while.”

   She sure didn’t sound like she was joking. Then again, her anger is completely justifiable.

   “Since you bothered to tell me the truth, does that mean you’re telling Rei too, nya?” she asks.

   That question placed Keizo between a rock and a hard place.

   “Honestly, I don’t know whether I have the courage to do that.” he confessed. “Then again, I should man up and tell her anyway, huh?”

   “You definitely should.” Shisui agrees.

   Talking to Shisui like this for the umpteenth time made Kinzo realize something for the very first time.

   “Um, Shisui-sama?”

   “What is it, nya? And you can stop it with the sama.”

   “Well, Shisui then. You actually have your own will, don’t you?”

   “Of course I do. What’s this all of a sudden, nya?”

   “Um the thing is…”

   Kinzo explained to Shisui about how Rei has to be given orders every once in a while, and that she won’t be doing anything if Kinzo’s order is absent.

   “So, Rei is like a puppet that only moves if you’re controlling her.” Shisui concludes once he was done.

   Kinzo winces. That sounded a lot harsher when someone mentioned it out loud.

   “That’s right.”

   “Huh. No wonder Rei always looked so stiff, like she’s constantly waiting for something to happen.”

   “And that’s how it is. Even if I tell her the truth, she won’t even react.”

   Shisui rolls her eyes.

   “Myaster, you’re a lot stupider than you look.”

   Another mental damage given to Kinzo.

   “Even if you can’t control that power of yours, you can still explain things to her and ask her what she thinks.”

   …Ah, so there was that method. Shisui’s right. He’s really an idiot.

   “Now that you understand, off you go nya.” Shisui says while shooing him away.

   All of a sudden, Kinzo’s mouth feels very dry, and his legs are trembling. Shisui noticed his nervousness at once.

   “Stop acting like a coward!” she chides. “If you’re my myaster, the least you could do is be brave!”

   “Easy for you to say. I-”

   “Get going before I become mad for real!”

   “Eek!”

   And so, Kinzo was chased out of his own apartment. He left without even putting on thick clothes to protect himself from the cold weather. Sure, he can use Spells to warm himself up, but he’s getting weird looks from pedestrians. Ah well. It’s not like he cares about how people see him. More importantly, Shisui is right. Kinzo needs to tell Rei-san the truth. Whether she even understands what’s going on is another matter. Once he made up his mind, he took out his phone and called the maid.

   It took Rei-san a few seconds to pick up her phone.

   “How may I assist you, master?” comes her formal voice from the other side of the phone.

   “Hi there, Rei-chan. Do you think we could meet up right now?” Kinzo begins by asking.

   “Yes, we can. As a matter of fact, I am just about to return to you and Shisui.”

   “That’s great. Let’s meet at the park near my apartment.”

   “Understood.”

   Kinzo was the first one to arrive at the park. He waited patiently until Rei-san was here as well. Eventually, she finally arrives. She was probably done with her shift, which is why she’s wearing casual clothes.

   “You have my deepest apologies for making you wait, dear master.” she apologizes the first chance she got.

   “No, don’t be. I was the one who called you out here, after all. More importantly, I have something to tell you, Rei-chan.”

   Rei-san gives him a curious look.

   “What is it, master?” she asks.

   “Well, um…”

   And he’s starting to be nervous again. This is not good. If Shisui was here, she would threaten to tickle him again. Or do something even worse.

   “Please do not be nervous and take your time, master.” Rei-san encourages.

   Kinzo takes a few deep breaths so that he could calm himself. And then, he told Rei the same thing he told Shisui. This time, though, it’s much more nerve-wrecking since, well, it’s Rei-san.

   By the time Kinzo was done, he’s groveling at the ground with his forehead touching it.

   “...I, well, I know no amount of apologies will compensate for the horrible things I did to you. Still, I felt that I needed to apologize. I’m so so sorry.” he ends.

   As he says the last part, he knocks his head continuously on the ground. It kind of hurts, but the pain is exactly what he deserves.

   He waited for a while for Rei-san to say something. Until he remembered that she needs to be given instructions to speak-

   “Please raise your head, master.”

   Keizo couldn’t believe his ears. He looked up so that he could stare at her.

   “Um, Rei-chan, did you just speak?”

   “I was always granted the ability to speak, master.”

   “No, that’s not what I’m asking! You spoke without receiving an order from me! That never happened!”

   “There is a first time for everything, master.” she says.

   “...Did you just let out a smirk, Rei-chan?”

   “You are imagining it, dear master.”

   Kinzo is pretty sure that he didn’t.

   “Back to the topic we were talking about.” Rei-san says. “Based on what you told me, you have little to no control over that power of yours, correct?”

   “Well, that’s true. Still, I should have known better than accepting that serum in the first place. I’m sorry, Rei-chan. I really am.”

   Kinzo hears Rei-san lets out a soft sigh.

   “Your apologetic side is the same as ever…” he hears her mumble really softly.

   …Wait, what did she just say?

   “Um, Rei-chan?”

   “Yes, master?”

   “Do you perhaps remember that the two of us met during our high school years?”

   Rei-san looks away.

   “I do not remember being friends with someone who ordered me to dance the embarrassing Dojou Sukui.” she says in a slightly cold tone.

   Kinzo flinches at that. Looks like she actually bared a grudge against that.

   “Um, I’m sorry?”

   “You are apologizing again, master.”

   “Eek!”

   “Now please get up before you ended up embarrassing yourself in front of random pedestrians. Speaking of which, why are you not wearing thick clothing? Is it not cold?”

   “Well, I got chased out by Shisui, so I left in a hurry.” Kinzo explained sheepishly as he gets up from grovelling.

   “I can more or less guess what has happened.” Rei-san says drily.

   Once the two of them are back at Kinzo’s apartment, Shisui rushes over and gives Rei-san a hug.

   “You’re here, Rei! Looks like I could finally eat a decent meal, nya!” the cat demon purrs happily.

   “Finally, you say?”

   Rei-san looks towards the messy kitchen and sink.

   “What on earth happened here?” she asks no one in particular.

   Kinzo looks down in shame.

   “I tried my hands in cooking,” he confesses.

   “Do you even fathom the meaning of having a maid in the first place, master?” Rei-san asks.

   “That’s exactly what I asked him, nya.”

   “Well, please give me some time to cook more food. After I cleaned up the mess, that is.”

   “Yay! I love you, Rei!”

   “Thank you so much, Rei-chan.”

   Rei-san cleaned up the mess made by Kinzo in a flash, and she began cooking at once. However, she only made enough food for two people, and she served them only to herself and Shisui.

   “Um, Rei-chan?” Kinzo asks.

   “Yes, master?”

   “Where’s my portion of the food?”

   “Hmm, where indeed?”

   She looks at Shisui.

   “Tell me, Shisui. Does our master here deserve any food after all the terrible things he did to us?”

   “Of course not, nya!”

   “And there you have it, master.”

   “You can’t be serious…”

   Then again, he’s not really hungry, even though what he ate was next to garbage. He was content with just watching his two maids enjoy their meal until both of them pointed their food-filled spoons at him. He smiles at them.

   “Thanks, girls.”

   Maybe Christmas Eve isn’t that bad, after all.