“... ion-chan! Shion-chan! Where are you!? … Hirokichi-sama! We can’t find Shion-chan!” (Ayano)

 

Shion woke up to the sound of distorted shouting. Her heart was pounding as she recollected her situation. Two days ago, she had fallen asleep before being woken up by excruciating pain. Eventually the pain overwhelmed her, causing her to lose consciousness. Afterwards, she woke up again in a place she didn’t recognize, where she was suddenly told she was an omega female, adopted, and given a new name.

 

Shion retreated further back into the corner of the shelf. She shook slightly as she hugged herself, afraid of getting into trouble with Hirokichi after he had already been kind enough to grant her food, clothing, and a place to sleep.

 

—

 

Ayano had entered Shion’s room in the morning, wanting to open the curtains and wash up the omega girl so that she could have breakfast. But there was no one lying in the covers upon entering. It was slightly messy as if someone simply got out, but there were no other signs of where Shion might be that Ayano could see. She attracted Hirokichi’s attention with her frantic shouting, and brought him to the room.

 

“Hirokichi-sama, I checked the bathroom and closet, but I didn’t find Shion anywhere!” (Ayano)

 

“Are you sure you checked everywhere?” (Hirokichi)

 

“I-I’m pretty sure…”

 

Ayano looked a little shaken when she replied to Hirokichi. She was clearly panicked, and had tears at the corners of her eyes as she thought of all the terrible situations that such a precious omega girl would end up in.

 

—

 

With a bit of doubt in his mind, Hirokichi entered the room. The room was on the second floor, but he remembered Shion’s more feline characteristics, wondering if she could make the jump if she needed to. But he checked the window, and it showed no signs of being opened.

 

Walking into the bathroom, he checked all the cabinets and found nothing. She wasn’t hiding in the bathtub, shower, among the towels, or anywhere else. Ayano trailed Hirokichi nervously while doing her best to help.

 

Checking the closet next, he didn’t notice anything off at first glance. But after stepping in, he saw that there were a couple pieces of clothing on the shelves disturbed, as if something or someone had stepped on it. He cast his eyes up.

 

Hiding in a tiny shelf by the door near the ceiling was a girl hugging a pillow. She was clearly shivering with her tail tucked between her legs. She seemed to have contorted herself into the tiny place in a way that made Hirokichi’s body ache, but her eyes were clearly fearful as he slowly approached.

 

—

 

Shion held her eyes closed tightly as Hirokichi’s arms approached her. But Hirokichi surprised her once again by gently taking hold of her and carrying her down.

 

“SHIONNNNNN!!! YOU’RE SAFEEEEEE!!!” (Ayano)

 

Ayano was bawling as Hirokichi carried Shion down from the shelf. Shion slowly opened her eyes to the sight of a worried face, something that she wasn’t used to. Hirokichi had let out a sigh, and reminded Shion that she was currently being carried once again. She tried to brace herself again and let out a rush of words,

 

“I’msorry… the bed just didn’t feel safe so I wanted to sleep on the shelf where I was hidden and more protected”

 

“It’s okay, you’re safe here and none of us have the intent of harming you. I gave you a promise yesterday, and I will raise you as the daughter of the Kojou family, even if we have no blood relations.” (Hirokichi)

 

“As the daughter..?” (Shion)

 

“Yes, I already sent out the paperwork this morning. As of an hour ago, you are now legally my daughter. You don’t need to force yourself to call me anything, but at least in public, try to call me father please.” (Hirokichi)

 

“...Father?” (Shion)

 

“Yes, I am your father now. I’ll take care of your education and everything else you need until the day you decide to leave yourself, but while you’re here, I once again promise that you are safe. You can rely on us.” (Hirokichi)

 

Tears welled up in Shion’s eyes as she started to understand what Hirokichi said. She’s not just a dirty street orphan? She’s allowed to accept this and be safe? She buried her face into Hirokichi’s chest as she cried silently, but this time not from fear nor sadness. There were soft pats on her head as she finally let her doubts go.

 

—

 

Ayano wasn’t sure what to think when Hirokichi-sama had sent an order for the maids to prepare the room next to his for a young omega girl. He had sent a photo along the message, and told them to spend as much as they wished to in order to create a comfortable place for her to sleep. 

 

The maids gathered together as they saw her clear and vivid amethyst colored eyes, cute but thin face, and pure white hair. There was also a pair of white cat ears and a little tail they could see circled around her. The maids all squealed together at how cute she looked, and one omega maid even fainted as she covered her nose, blood leaking out.

 

They all saw the determination in each other’s eyes as they started a rock, paper, scissors tournament. Ayano cheered when she won, assigning herself as the girl’s primary caretaker. Afterwards, the head maid started ordering some maids to prepare clothing, others to clean the room, purchase curtains, bedding and the like. They managed to prepare the room in time for Hirokichi-sama to arrive at the estate, and gathered in excitement to see the omega girl for themselves.

 

Ayano could see that Shion was clearly traumatized; she had flinched at nearly every touch that Ayano gave her, but she did her best to hold her tears back and put on a bright facade so she wouldn’t distress Shion any further. She found it insanely cute that Shion was purring when she gave her a massage in the bath, but held herself back from any further touch.

 

The last straw was when she opened Shion’s door the next morning, noticing that she was missing. She started panicking, and couldn’t help but let a few tears out as she frantically searched. But eventually Hirokichi managed to find her, and staring at the cute omega cat girl hugging Hirokichi’s chest, she resolved to do her absolute best to make her happy.

 

—

 

Shion sat at the dining table once more, nibbling on a piece of toast as she stared at Hirokichi. He was typing something on what appeared to be some sort of metal book that had one side on the table. She heard the quiet noise of something whirring, but once again didn’t notice the presence of any magic. Suddenly Hirokichi looked up at her.

 

“Can you tell me everything you remember?” (Hirokichi)

 

Shion gave a pensive nod as she pondered, thinking that she might’ve finally found someone she could trust. And if he betrayed her in the end, she didn’t mind giving up her life for the small bit of kindness she experienced over the past day. She thought back as she slowly detailed what she could remember, giving a short summary of her time spent on the streets. After she finished, she looked up and noticed a lot of maids surrounding her with tears in their eyes for some reason.

 

“So… What is the magitech that you kept on mentioning?” (Hirokichi)

 

“It’s magic based technology… if you’ve never heard of it, maybe I came from a different place in this world?” (Shion)

 

“No, I haven’t heard of anything resembling this anywhere in this world. Magitech simply doesn’t exist.” (Hirokichi)

 

“Doesn’t exist…? That thing you’re using isn’t adopted from magitech? I can’t feel the presence of magic from it though…” (Shion)

 

Hirokichi lifted up the metal book as he answered Shion.

 

“This?” (Hirokichi)

 

Shion gave a small nod.

 

“This is what we call a laptop, it runs off of electricity – you might know it as lightning power – and lets me access something called the internet. I can access information, chat to other people, and do a lot of things with this.” (Hirokichi)

 

“Oh! That sounds like the MagTer that I’ve seen some others use.” (Shion)

 

“MagTer?” (Hirokichi)

 

“Magic Terminal.” (Shion)

 

Hirokichi gave a small hum as he searched up the term. Seeing nothing noteworthy show up in the search, he prepared himself to tell Shion something.

 

“Shion… I don’t think you’re in your original world anymore. From what you’ve told us, nothing matches up, none of the people who you’ve told us about exist, and you are the only one with feline characteristics in the entirety of this planet.” (Hirokichi)

 

Shion was shocked. She thought that she didn’t recognize most of the things here, but she didn’t think of the possibility that she might’ve been in an entirely different world. She cast her gaze down on her smooth, scar-free hands and slightly bulging chest. It would sort of explain the weird changes she had gone through… 

 

Shion recollected herself as she realized that there was nothing she missed or wanted from the previous world anyways. Magic was something she had heard of and could sense every once in a while, but she never imagined herself using it. And she had previously spent every day of her life just struggling to survive.

 

“...You don’t mind taking care of someone who doesn’t know a single thing about this world? You’re not afraid I might hurt you or anything?” (Shion)

 

“Well, adopting an abandoned kitten would get my parents off my back, so they finally stop pestering me to get married. And I don’t know if you’ve looked at yourself, but I don’t think you could hurt me even if you tried”, Hirokichi gave a little chuckle.

 

“...Okay”

 

“You can have some time to yourself today and get used to living here. Ayano will call you when it’s mealtime, so don’t worry about missing anything. I’m going to go back to my company for now, so I can arrange some matters” (Hirokichi)

 

“...Will you be back for dinner?” (Shion)

 

Hirokichi looked thoughtful.

 

“...Sure”

 

“You promise?”

 

“Yes”

 

Hirokichi got up and put his laptop aside as he prepared to go to the company. He spoke up again,

 

“If you can read Japanese, feel free to look through the library we have. Ayano can lead you to it and help you find anything you’re curious about.”

 

Shion nodded again before speaking in a small voice,

 

“Have a good day at work… Father”

 

The last word she spoke was nearly more quiet than a pin drop. But Hirokichi’s hands froze as he picked up his briefcase. He gave a small cough – he knew that he was the one who told her to say it but this wasn’t something he was used to,

 

“Then I’m off”

 

—

 

The maids watching the scene had their eyes bulging in shock. In the XX number of years they had worked at the estate, they had never seen Hirokichi be more expressive than a block of ice. But after he had picked up the omega girl from the hospital, he had changed so much that the maids could hardly believe that it was the same person. But he looked the same and had the same pheromones. The only difference was that his cold aura was no longer present.

 

Ayano couldn’t even remember the last time Hirokichi-sama had dinner at the estate. Usually he came back extremely late, having eaten at the company, before going to sleep immediately. He might have a bite or two of breakfast before immediately heading off to work again. But today for the first time ever it felt, he ate a full breakfast and promised to eat dinner with Shion.

 

The head maid had a small smile on her face as she reminisced on Hirokichi’s actions, having taken care of him since he was young. When his grandfather had passed away, he buried the previously bright and cheerful childhood emotions and threw himself into work, taking over the work his grandfather had left behind. His parents were too carefree to help; he still loved and appreciated them, but they were not appropriate for the company.

 

But Hirokichi had changed again. Perhaps Shion could finally melt his ice-like exterior and turn him back into a human being again. The head maid noticed some of the other maids staring at her before she quickly barked out orders for them to return to their duties. It felt like spring had returned to the estate.