Chapter 6: Lost and Found
I couldn’t find my way home!
I remembered what it looked like, but I had always relied on blindly navigating there. Like I was going on autopilot. And for some reason that didn’t click on!
For hours, I was just wandering the streets to see if I recognized anything about where I currently was. I didn’t want to speak with anyone. Why? Not because I didn’t want to seem lost, but more so because my voice was far too strange for me to keep listening to. I could only imagine what others thought when… well, it was one thing to sound like a girl, but a mewling one was worse.
Looking this way and that, I took in the environment and got some idea of what I was looking at, but not where I was. I had been here before, but that was all I knew about where I was.
On one of my trips down the street, I passed by a bench. There was a bird cocking its head at me funny. For some reason, I scowled and bared my kitty fangs at it. Then it flew off.
Hunkering a little, I mumbled something about the bird being a peckerhead. The only reason I thought that was because I recalled a bad bird. Maybe not that one, but one like it had attacked me.
Searching through my memories, I decided there and then that I didn’t like birds.
Further on, I met a very stupidly fat cat wobbling on its legs towards me. It tried to rub against my leg, but I avoided its touch like the thing carried a plague. I didn’t want that thing near me, let alone to be touched by that fugly tomcat.
Okay… reflecting on that encounter, maybe I didn’t like animals?
“Maoh…” I moaned, thinking that there was a chance I had some kind of amnesia. Perhaps it would’ve been best to mention my current behavior abnormality to those doctors while I was still in their care?
It wasn’t too late to turn back, but I could feel like I was closer to home. Memories were connecting to the scenes I was seeing. No idea how much farther, but I believed it would come to me in time. I just had to keep walking and absorbing the familiar sights.
Then I came up to that shrine.
Its entrance was a wall of shrubs shaped in a great square wall. The natural growth lined around the whole open pavement around the shrine. From where I stood, I could barely make out the massive bell that was housed in the shrine. I’d have to enter the holy grounds to get a better look...
But at the entrance I saw the yellow “Do Not Cross” police tape barring my entry. I’d been attacked here, but I didn’t know that I had created a crime scene. No idea why there was one. I’d never mentioned Hideki or his fellows to anyone.
The police… I actually didn’t remember if they’d questioned me or not. Had they done that while I was still in shock from finding out I was a catgirl? Either way, I wouldn’t have snitched on Hideki.
He was someone I intended to pay back in my own fashion.
With him in my thoughts, I walked on in search of Home…
Since leaving the hospital -- and getting lost for awhile -- I hadn’t spoken at all.
What I did do was think about Hideki... and his gang of goons. I wondered if he had ordered one of his guys to stab me. Probably not, but he had to have known one of them carried a knife.
There was a phrase that had to be said, “Speak of the Devil.”
Before I saw them, the strange pair of cat ears, although admittedly cute, perked instantly up and parted the white hair on my head. They pivoted toward the sudden noises ahead and I stood completely still while I filtered out the rain and neighborhood background. These noises… they weren’t just any alarming sounds, but rather very familiar voices.
And there he was, standing by a building that looked very familiar.
The house was apparently my home. I supposed I was home? It didn’t feel like it, but that was how I recalled how my home should look like.
Now Hideki alone was trouble, but he wasn’t all that stood outside my house. It would’ve figured he had brought everyone with him when I didn’t end up dead like he wanted.
He had an unusual problem with me… that was how I remembered it. What else did I know?
Hideki and I were of the same age, and we went to the same school, but he was always mistaken for a grown man. Like me absolutely hating how everyone thought I was younger than I appeared, he hated how everyone treated him like he should be more responsible. We were the same damn age, but had opposite issues.
He wasn’t bad, not really, but there was an issue between me and him, and we had our temper tantrums because of it. Whenever we encountered each other, it would usually wind up with us butting heads.
One other thing I recalled: he prefered wearing the school’s uniform. So did the rest of his buddies, and every other student at our school. Except for me in my reds.
It was interesting to note that there were two different kinds of reds that were highlighted on my shirt now. One a brightly lit red and the other a dirty dark stain that was closer to a clay brown: the frayed red fabric torn from my shirt and the dried blood.
Having that in my thoughts, I wondered if I really wanted to tangle with these guys with only a single day of recovery under my belt. Especially if they were armed.
Did I really want to go straight back to the hospital? No… but this was my home and they were in the way.
Like before, I took a deep breath and considered my options. Grabbing a policeman wasn’t my ideal choice. I wanted to get my revenge my way, and putting Hideki behind bars would make that nearly impossible.
What else did I have? Fighting wasn’t really an option. I couldn’t win against these odds.
Maybe… just maybe they wouldn’t recognize me? Could I slip by?
Taking a shot at it, I resumed walking down the street once more and targeted my home. The closer I got, the more details of Hideki and his small friends came into view.
...Correction: Hideki’s friends were small in comparison to him, but not to me.
Hideki was tall and broad -- being as big as he was -- and yet he had a lean build. He was like a dense metal rod that could both take a shocking hit anywhere on his sturdy frame and swing a solid strike hard enough to guarantee it would leave a mark.
I wasn’t close enough to see them yet, but I remembered taking note of the marks he’d collected over the years. He was covered in faded little scars on his hands and face -- I could only imagine what injuries might’ve riddled his body.
How had he gotten those scars? If I recalled correctly, at least a good number of those scars came by crashing through our school’s window. He, and everyone else, claimed it was an accident, but it certainly wasn’t. And I believed the faculty thought the same. Funny thing was, he’d paid for the damages, but never suffered the consequences for his disorderly conduct in a classroom.
Why was that? I knew this… oh, yeah, the war. Our district had a school war going on.
Our school grounds had been “invaded” by a nosy student from another school, looking around. He apparently had been searching for his girl there. Needless to say, the boyfriend wasn’t welcomed and Hideki showed the lovesick boy the way out by a simple toss from the broken window.
That might be why he’d picked a fight with me. He had pride in our school and I was showing disrespect by what I wore. That was something I could understand and would tolerate a fight about it. At least I would’ve shown him I was a fellow student unafraid of his size or the numbers he brought with him.
If he’d recognized that much, I had hoped he’d eventually back off and let me be myself. Or maybe he’d acknowledge me… at least as much as his friends were being treated. I could’ve been happy with just that much acknowledgement from him.
But being stabbed and left for dead?
Clenching my jaw, I snuffed and huffed at the idea that he’d have some way to justify that incident. A fire was flaring up hotly in me as I looked at Hideki, and I believed it was anger, because the longer I looked, the more I burned up.
...I couldn’t take it any longer.
Blowing my cover, I nearly yowled out in rage. He and his friends turned toward me and, funnily enough, were startled as I yelled out the name, “Hideki!”
His eyes squinted at me, strained in the drizzle to see, and I could tell there had to be confusion there. No words were said, not yet. He approached me, waving off the rest of his gang, and we met halfway. Both of us stared at one another. Removing my hands from my pockets, I lifted the side of my shirt to show him the stitches he’d given me.
Now his confusion was gone, and in its place was a spike of disbelieving recognition.
“Fuma?” Dropping the shirt, I glared up at him after giving a single nod to confirm the name. He shook his head, still in disbelief. He looked me over from head to toe with a growing glare of hostility -- but I could tell he was in shock. There were little hints he was, but I knew because who wouldn’t be after seeing me return as I was?
Being careful with my words, I stated: “You and I. We finish this here.” Once I had established that, he broke out of his faux-glare and stood straight as an arrow. With one shake of his head, he refused me.
“No. You look like him, but Fuma Hitoshi isn’t a chick.” After pointing that out, he followed up his execution by tapping the top of his head. “And he’s more serious about how he dresses, Miss Kitty.”
Reaching up, I felt my cat-ears standing on high alert! I hissed at both him and my predicament. “I am Fu--” Instantly, I shut my trap before the ’meow’ could escape. No way was I going to mewl at him!
“You do share similarities with him. Even here...” He patted his own side to make an indicated he was talking about my wound. “Hitoshi? No… what was her name? Hitomi? Was that her name?”
My sister was named Hitomi. Was that who he was talking about… was he mistaking me for her?
“Hitomeow.” Within the split second after improperly pronouncing her name, I bit my bottom lip and tucked it in between my sharp-fanged teeth in rage.
“Hitomio? That’s a cute name. I like it better than your idiot brother’s.” He wasn’t laughing, and that wasn’t even witty, just him goading me into doing something foolish. Hideki wasn’t enjoying this. The shock and disbelief that was still there, hidden now, but readable, told me how much displeasure he felt at our encounter.
Despite how I appeared, he knew who I was. Maybe he was attempting to rationalize what he was seeing?
Still, I wanted payback and I was about to do the foolish thing by reacting to his taunt...
