Episode 3: Catgirl Trouble Buster

“There are other mole people?”

I’d stopped by Nozomiya to grab some lunch with Satsuki and Iris today. And I was currently blankly staring at Tetra because of what she’d just said.

“You mean mole people from somewhere other than Jizu Village?”

“I’m not entirely certain, but...” Tetra clutched the tray in her hands to her chest as she knitted her brow in worry. “Some of my people have seen others with glowing eyes in the mountains. They called out, thinking they were other villagers, but whoever it was just ran away... Now they’re saying there might’ve been other mole people apart from us.”

“Hmm...”

Another group of mole people, huh? The path to Jizu Village where Tetra’s people lived was located in the mountains behind our school, Mitsuhashi High. If that was where they’d seen this other group of mole people, then they weren’t very far away at all.

“Are you sure it wasn’t a mistake? It doesn’t seem likely another group of mole people lives so close and we didn’t know about it.”

“I thought so, too, but people have definitely seen something.”

“Hmm...”

Tetra’s people weren’t ordinary mole people. They were the descendants of the people created to guard the seal on Bahamut, king of beasts. God himself had put them there. So... had God made other mole people, too? If so, what mission had he given them? Or did they have nothing to do with God at all? And where were they coming from all of a sudden...?

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s enough information to go off of.”

“You think so too?”

“Did they cause any harm or trouble?”

“No, nothing like that. Like I said before, they ran away immediately.”

“Well, let me know if you find anything else.”

“Okay.”

We ended the conversation there for now, and I returned to focusing on my food. Iris had long finished her meal, and Satsuki was almost done too.

“So, how come you guys are eating together here when it’s summer vacation? You’ve all got your school bags and everything.”

Just as I was about to start eating again, a bored-looking Tsumiki decided to interrupt. She was playing with a ladle in her hands.

“We’re going to study in the library after this.”

“Huh?! You’re going to study in the library?! With Satsuki and Iris?!”

Was it really that surprising I was going to be studying?

“I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I’ve hardly put a dent in my summer homework, so I asked the two of them to supervise my studying.”

“Wh-What...? Why wasn’t I invited?!”

“Huh? Aren’t you busy with work here at Nozomiya?”

Unless there was a holiday or a family outing or something, Tsumiki worked regular shifts at the restaurant during the summer. That’s why I’d assumed she wouldn’t be able to come and hadn’t bothered to invite her.

“That’s true... but...” Tsumiki replied in a faltering voice.

Did she really want to study that much? What a weirdo. Anyway, I finished up my lunch and left Nozomiya with Satsuki and Iris. Tsumiki looked like she wanted to say something the whole time I was eating, but never did.

▽

Later that evening...

“Man, I’m beat...”

All that studying had me exhausted. Thankfully, I managed to get plenty of work done... but there was still plenty left to do.

“Why are they grilling us like this when we’re not even close to university entrance exams?” I grumbled as Satsuki, Iris, and I walked home together.

“You know, Rekka, you say they’re far away, but you’re a high school student now. It’s about time you take studying more seriously. Things will sneak up on you before you know it.”

“What a pain...”

“I think so, too!” Iris exclaimed.

Ha! With her on my side, it was two against one. We won by virtue of majority.

“Pain or not, you’ve only got two years before university entrance exams.”

Urk, it was a hollow victory... Realizing Satsuki was right, my shoulders slumped.

“Hahh... Can’t they just abolish the entrance exam system in two years’ time?”

I grumbled even more as I adjusted the strap of my shoulder bag filled with heavy textbooks. From there, I continued to lament the homework I still had to do as we walked along. We even discussed what we were going to do at the summer festival over the weekend, and we eventually arrived at the intersection where Iris would have to take a different way to get home.

“Come to think of it, Lyun and Ellicia said they’d be coming to visit this weekend... Oh, this is where we part ways, isn’t it, Iris?”

“If you call me, I’ll come flying to you in my spaceship anytime! Or I could just walk you home if you want!”

“Please don’t abduct people too often, or you might cause a big panic. Wait, you’re still living on your spaceship?”

“It’s easier that way. Japanese houses are so tiny.”

“You have a point there...”

Even though we were better off here than in the cramped city.

“Bye, Rekka! See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah... Oh, we’re studying more tomorrow, too?”

“You should try doing it at home too, Rekka. Otherwise, you might not make it to the summer festival, you know?”

“Ugh, okay...”

We all said our goodbyes to each other... And that’s when it happened.

“Hm?” Iris reacted to something.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I heard something. Someone’s voice, I think?”

With that, she fell quiet and tried to listen again. After a few moments of silence, she pointed to a streetlight a little further down the forked road.

“Rekka, over there!” she exclaimed.

She was pointing to a figure collapsed on the road. No one had to say anything after that. All three of us just looked at each other, nodded, and took off running. Based on the silhouette, it looked like a little girl. But she was wearing a hat, so I couldn’t make out her face very well.

“Are you all right?” Satsuki asked.

She gently tried to lift the girl up off the ground, but accidentally knocked her hat off in the process.

Pop!

“Huh...?”

“What on earth...?”

Seeing... those things... appear from under the hat made me and Satsuki both do a double take. Iris was the only one who had a slightly different reaction.

“Oh? Is this girl an alien, too?” she asked.

“What? An alien? But... huh?”

“It’s not all that uncommon to see them in the Greater Galactic Federation,” Iris explained, pointing to the things growing out of the girl’s head. “Aliens with cat ears, that is.”

▽

Putting aside the matter of whether the cat-eared girl was an alien or not, we decided to carry her to my house because she was hurt. Once we got her lying on the sofa, Satsuki and Harissa used their healing magics on her. After a few minutes, she slowly woke up...

“...Meow?!”

And her first reaction was to run. She jumped over the sofa with catlike agility and made a beeline for the window. Judging from her speed, she fully intended to smash right through it by force.

“Hey, wait!”

I reflexively tried to grab her, but I only caught air. She was way too fast for me. For a brief moment, I thought she would get away, but...

“Jeez, where do you think you’re going?”

“L-Let go, meow!”

Iris grabbed the cat-eared girl by the collar. She struggled and flailed in her grip, but there was hardly any challenging the strength of a Fineritan. Iris’s arm didn’t even budge.

“What should we do with her, Rekka?” Iris asked. “She’s kind of throwing a hissy fit.”

“Uh, yeah, about that...”

First we’d need to let her know we meant her no harm, but it didn’t seem like she was going to be very receptive to listening. Or so I thought, but all of a sudden...

“...Rekka?”

The cat-eared girl muttered my name and suddenly froze. Her cat ears twitched and turned my way as she looked at me.

“Rekka?”

She muttered my name once again. It almost sounded like a question. Wait, why... was I suddenly overcome with a sense of déjà vu?

“Huh? What gives? She got quiet all of a sudden.”

Realizing there was no longer a need to restrain her, Iris let the cat-eared girl go. This time, she didn’t try to run. Instead, she approached... and started sniffing me.

“Wh-What...?”

“...”

Rather than answering, she just stared up at me silently. This should have been our first time meeting, and yet... there was something familiar about the way her eyes and ears twitched. Suddenly, she tore her eyes away from me and started to do the same thing to Satsuki.

“...Satsuki?”

“Huh?”

Satsuki looked shocked when she heard the girl say her name, too. Wait. How did she know Satsuki’s name? Was there a connection between me, Satsuki, and this cat-eared girl? I’d never met a cat-eared girl before, but there was one time...

“Oh...”

That had to be it. It was the only memory I had involving me, Satsuki, and a cat of some kind. It was a memory from long ago, when we were still kids.

“Is that you, Ai?” I asked.

That was the name of the kitten we used to look after under the veranda of the local shrine. And when I said it, the cat-eared girl’s expression instantly brightened.

“Meow! It really is you, Rekka! Long time no see, meow!”

Then she proceeded to jump at my chest, her ears twitching happily.

▽

So, as it turned out, the catgirl we picked up was really the kitten Satsuki and I had taken care of when we were younger.

“Um... So you’re some kind of magical being? Like a yokai? Did I get that right?” I asked, a bit hesitant.

Ai’s cat ears covered in indigo fur twitched as she tilted her head.

“I wasn’t before, meow, but I am now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was a normal cat in the beginning. But one day, I realized I’d become like this. Apparently I’m what they call a nekomata, meow.”

“A nekomata, huh?”

“Nekomatas have two tails, meow. See?”

Ai stuck her bottom out my way and slid her shorts down a little, revealing two hidden tails.

“Meow?!”

“I-I got it, okay?! Just hurry up and pull up your shorts!”

“M-Meow?”

She tilted her head in confusion.

“No, really! Please!”

I could see half of her backside with her shorts down like that, and the other three girls were glaring daggers at me. The latter of which was definitely the more pressing issue, mind you.

“It’s a little old-fashioned having an animal you once saved return as a pretty girl, but I’d expected nothing less from you, Rekka,” said the peanut gallery—R—as she rubbed her chin in the usual fashion.

At my behest, Ai finally pulled up her shorts and turned around to face me again.

“But Rekka and Satsuki sure got a lot bigger, meow. I didn’t recognize you guys at first.”

“I didn’t recognize you either, Ai.”

I mean, come on...

“I can still return to my old form, meow. That’s how we usually live. We only turn to people when we come into town, meow.”

“Huh? How come?”

“Cats with two tails stand out, meow. But when we turn into people, we can wear clothes to hide our tails and hats to hide our ears.”

“I see.”

Wearing clothes would be a little suspicious on a cat, yeah. I nodded, impressed with how much thought they’d put into it.

“So, why were you hurt, Ai?”

“Oh... That’s...”

Ai hesitated there. Whatever it was seemed serious, so I tried to approach the topic carefully.

“Did something happen? If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.”

“Mmmeow... I don’t mind telling Rekka and Satsuki...”

Ai glanced over at Iris and Harissa. Was she worried about them overhearing?

“What? What’s wrong with us?” Iris asked.

“We don’t really like involving humans in our affairs, meow. If you make a fuss, we’re the ones who have to suffer the consequences.”

Ai probably trusted me and Satsuki because of our past. I suppose it was normal she’d be a bit reserved around other people. Harissa fidgeted nervously, but Iris puffed out her cheeks indignantly.

“What? You worried people are gonna see your ears and tails? Then feast your eyes on this!”

I wondered what Iris was up to, but she slid her normally-hidden tail out from under her skirt and showed it to Ai.

“I’ve got a tail, too,” she declared.

“M-M-Meow?! Are you a yokai too, meow?!”

“I’m an alien,” Iris announced proudly, her hands on her hips.

“Um... Iris? Your skirt is riding up like that, so please put your tail away...”

This time it was just Satsuki and Harissa glowering at me.

“S-So, yeah, Ai. That’s how it is. The truth is...” From there, I explained the Namidare bloodline to her. “...So you can trust my friends, too. They’re pretty much all used to supernatural things, so they won’t cause any trouble for you or your kind.”

“O-Okay, meow...”

Perhaps I’d overloaded her with too much information at once. It looked like her head was spinning. But after a few moments, she collected herself and began telling us her story.

“Erm... So it all started when I came down from the mountain with everyone, meow.”

“When you say everyone, do you mean other nekomata?”

“That’s right, meow. We nekomata all live together.”

“I thought cats liked to be alone? Is it different because you’re nekomata?”

“Having two tails makes life pretty difficult, meow... But anyway,” Ai said, her tails flicking from right to left behind her. “Recently, lots of people have started to visit the mountain we lived on, meow. It would have been terrible if they discovered us, so we decided to go down the mountain. But then we ran into another group of yokai and some trouble... All the other nekomata were captured, meow.”

“What did you say?!”

I raised my voice without thinking. But if all of her friends had been kidnapped, this was a real emergency.

“Meow... I was the only one who managed to get away. But I had nowhere to go, so I was just wandering around. And then I collapsed, meow.”

Which I guess brought us up to speed, considering that’s how we found her.

“All right. Let’s go and save your friends, Ai.”

“...Are you sure, meow?”

“What do you mean? Of course I’m sure.”

“But this is risky business, meow. And you guys don’t have nine lives.”

“It’ll be fine.”

I’d been through so many unbelievable situations at this point that there was no way I was going to turn my back on Ai now. Especially not if she needed my help.

“Th-Thank you, meow... B-But don’t push yourself too hard, meow.”

Ai emphasized her reminder for me to be careful again. She was right to do so. Though it might be on a smaller scale this time, trouble was still trouble. We had to hurry since we didn’t know what might happen to her captured friends, but we couldn’t just go charging in recklessly, either. Pondering how we should proceed, a certain someone came to mind.

“I know! At times like these, we should call an expert.”

▽

I contacted the certain person I had in mind, and found out they just so happened to be eating at Nozomiya right now, so we put a hat on Ai and made our way to the restaurant. Sliding the door open with a rattle, Tetra greeted us.

“Welcome!”

“Huh? If it isn’t Rekka. You here for dinner this time?” Tsumiki called, leaning over the kitchen counter. “Wow, there’s even more of you. I wonder if we have a big enough table open...”

Satsuki, Iris, Harissa, and Ai came in after me, and Tsumiki’s eyes wandered over the rest of the store when she saw them. She was checking if there were any tables available that could seat five people.

“No, we’re here for—”

“Hey, problem child.”

Before I could explain, my reason for coming spoke up on its own. I turned to see a girl in an eyepatch seated at a table, leaning on her elbows over an empty plate.

“President Momone, please don’t call me that in my own neighborhood.”

The thought of my neighbors hearing the student council president call me a problem child made me shudder.

“My bad. So, what did you want from me?” President Momone brushed off my protest and got straight to the topic.

When it came to expertise in ghosts and yokai in this country, people always thought of priests and shrine maidens first. And with President Momone’s background as a shrine maiden, I thought she’d be the perfect person to ask. We all went and gathered at her table—Tetra brought more chairs over for us —and I explained the situation to her in a hushed voice.

“Hmm... a quarrel between nekomata and other yokai, huh?” With a toothpick in her mouth, President Momone glanced at Ai. “Well, it’s a good thing your friends were weak, at least.”

“...What do you mean by that, meow?”

“Don’t take offense. I genuinely mean it’s a good thing. If your little spat had turned into a long and violent battle that brought harm to any humans, experts would have come in to intervene and exterminate the lot of you.”

Ai gasped.

“P-President Momone!”

I tried to get her to put a lid on it, but she just brushed me off like she would a fly.

“That’s why I’m saying you were lucky. My grandfather is personally informed of every yokai-related incident that happens in this area. The fact that I didn’t know about this one means there wasn’t any major damage. Think of it like wild bears—as long as they don’t come into town and bother anyone, they don’t get shot. At least, most of the time.”

“Um... does that mean you’ll help out?” I asked, a little sheepish and worried.

“Good question. I feel like mediating fights between yokai is slightly out of my jurisdiction, but...” President Momone leaned on her elbows like she was thinking and chewed on her toothpick absentmindedly. “When you said you came down from the mountain, which mountain were you talking about?”

“It’s a nearby mountain behind a human school, meow.”

“Hmm... That’s gotta be our school.”

In other words, Mitsuhashi High where we all went. For some reason, President Momone grinned when she heard that and tossed her toothpick into the ashtray.

“All right, let’s go. Lead the way, nekomata.”

There was no need to ask where. Based on our conversation just now, there was only one place she could mean: the place where her friends were captured. But there was one thing I didn’t understand. Why was President Momone motivated all of a sudden? It was like something had piqued her interest. When I asked her about it, she gave me an answer I should have expected.

“I told you before. I’m the student council president, and that school is mine. Any issues concerning it will involve me—which includes the surrounding mountains, if need be,” she said with a proud huff of laughter.

It was a rather roundabout way of saying it, but... I guess that meant she was going to help. Was she being so indirect because she was embarrassed? Or was that just her excuse for taking a job that was really outside of her purview? Well, it wasn’t like she would answer me if I asked anyway, so I took the liberty of assuming the latter. And that meant President Momone had gone out of her way to make up an excuse to help us out.

“Wait a minute, Rekka! If you’re going to use my place as a meetup location, you have to order something while you’re here!” Tsumiki complained just as we tried to leave.

“Sorry, we don’t have time to eat.”

“Hmph...” Tsumiki narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously, but seemed to realize something when she spotted Ai behind me. “Then let’s make a deal.”

“A deal?”

“L-Let me join your study session tomorrow!” she demanded, angrily pointing the ladle in her hand at me.

Come to think of it, she’d seemed awfully hung up on the study session talk the other day, too...

“Don’t you need to work?” I asked.

“Th-The occasional break is fine!”

“I see. You’re more than welcome to join us if you can. The more the merrier, after all.”

“D-Deal! But now you’ve promised. No take-backs, got it?”

I had no intention of taking it back, but Tsumiki was rather insistent on that point.

“Let’s move, problem child.”

“Ah, okay. See you tomorrow, Tsumiki.”

“Yeah... see you.” Tsumiki nodded once, then waved her ladle as she saw us off.

I caught up to President Momone, who was already out the door. She seemed kind of exasperated.

“You’re a natural genius at making people around you jealous.”

“Excuse me?”

“What? Don’t you guys think so, too?” she asked, looking to the other girls.

“Wh-What are you saying, President?” Satsuki asked in return.

“I don’t get it either!” Iris announced.

“U-Um...” Harissa stuttered.

I didn’t understand a single one of their reactions.

▽

As I’ve mentioned before, the town we lived in was fairly rural. The further you strayed from the station and highways, the more farms and open fields you could see. Rosalind’s mansion was out in the countryside, too. Not too far from where she lived were a multitude of warehouses once used by a now-abandoned factory. Of course, with the factory closed down, the warehouses were defunct too. Ai led us to the yard there and pointed to one of the warehouses.

“That one, meow. They’re inside there.”

“You friends are being held there?”

“That’s right, meow.”

President Momone tapped the wooden sword she’d retrieved from home against her shoulder.

“I forgot to ask earlier, but what kind of other yokai are we talking about here?”

“Hmm...” Ai thought carefully about it for a moment. “They had lots, meow!”

“You sure are birdbrained for a cat,” President Momone said with a heavy sigh.

“Meow? But... how can a cat be...”

“I expected as much,” President Momone said, looking at me. “Let’s go.”

“We’re going in already?”

“A warehouse this size can’t hold much, especially not with hostages. From what I can see with my spirit sight, they’re not very powerful yokai, either. There’s no point in dawdling, and I want to go home and take a bath soon.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am...”

With Ai’s friends in possible danger, it was probably better to rescue them quickly anyway.

“Harissa, you wait outside the warehouse and make sure no one sneaks up behind us.”

“Okay.”

And so the rest of us followed President Momone towards the warehouse door.

“Nekomata, you wait here,” she said as we got close.

“Wh-Why, meow?!”

“Be quiet! Listen, if you charge in there with us, the captured nekomata might be used as hostages. But if you’re not there, the yokai will think we’re there to exterminate everyone. That’s why you need to come in after we’ve taken out the other yokai.”

“...M-Meow?”

“It’ll be fine, Ai. Just leave it to us. You can come in once it’s safe,” I said, trying to reassure her.

“Okay, meow!” she replied, nodding enthusiastically.

President Momone didn’t seem too impressed by her change in attitude, though.

“By the way, problem child, you owe me one for this.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll have you repay me eventually, so prepare yourself.”

That was... kind of terrifying. But President Momone opened the warehouse door before I could even object.

“Ah, wait!”

The rest of us followed after her in a hurry... and immediately found ourselves face-to-face with the monsters in the warehouse.

“H-Humans?!”

“Why are they here, gyao?!”

“Blub blub blub blub blub!”

“Galumph, galumph, galumph...”

It was almost like a yokai exhibition. It was basically “The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons,” just on a much smaller scale. Inside the warehouse was a talking tanuki, a fish-headed person, a flying head, a ball of fire, a scoop endlessly flowing with water, a human body with limbs but no face, an umbrella with legs, a girl in a bucket, and so on... Nearly every kind of yokai imaginable. Including a bunch of nekomatas bound with rope on the floor behind the others.

“Man...”

I had been to another world full of Japanese monsters before with Hibiki, so while I was surprised, I was somehow able to reign in any discomposure. Iris had experience meeting all kinds of different species in space, so she was only mildly taken aback by their appearance. And President Momone, as our resident professional, didn’t even flinch. But...

“K-Kyaaaaah!”

“Wh-Whoa! S-Satsuki?!”

Even the assortment of yokai before us covered their ears—those with hands, at least—at Satsuki’s hysterical screaming. She leaped at me, wrapped her arms around my waist, and held on for all she was worth. Come to think of it, she’d reacted similarly when she mistook Tokiwa for a ghost that time in the old school building...

“S-Satsuki! Why did you follow us if you were afraid?!”

“It was a mistake! Ai wasn’t scary at all, so I completely let my guard down thinking other yokai would be the same way!” Satsuki opened her closed eyes a tiny bit and took another glance at the yokai. “Nooo! Kyah! Save me, Rekka!”

She squeezed her eyes shut and held on to me even tighter, refusing to budge an inch. I was starting to worry she might just break me in half...

“Urgh!”

“Hey, Satsuki! Get away from Rekka!” Iris shouted.

“Nooooooooo!”

“What did you lot even come here for?” President Momone asked in disbelief.

“I’m not sure what’s going on, but we can’t have you humans knowing that we live here! Everyone, attack!”

“Yeah!”

“Raaah!”

“Let’s get ‘em!”

At the leader tanuki’s command, all the other yokai charged at us. However...

“S-Satsuki! Let go of me!”

“Nooooo!”

“Rekka! Get away from Satsuki already!”

“Huh?! It’s my fault now?!”

With the exception of President Momone, we were completely unprepared. But she looked unconcerned. She simply took off her eyepatch and sighed once more.

“Problem child.”

“Y-Yes?”

“You owe me twice now.”

Before I could get in a word edgewise, the wooden sword in her hand was slashing through the air. In the blink of an eye, the front line of yokai rushing at us were mowed down.

“Amazing...”

President Momone was almost absurdly strong. The yokai dropped like flies every time she swung her sword. Upon closer inspection, the wooden sword in her hand was glowing faintly. Just like her right eye, it was constantly changing color.

“Gyao! W-We’re no match!”

“Wh-What do we do, Pon?!” The flying head asked the tanuki—Pon, apparently—who pointed at us still messing about.

“T-Take the weak-looking humans over there as hostages!”

The nekomata behind them would have worked just as well as hostages, but thanks to President Momone’s foresight, they had no idea. Instead, the yokai believed this was their only chance and attacked us with everything they had.

“Tch! They’re heading your way, problem child!”

The flying head slipped past President Momone and rushed at the rest of us.

“Nooooo! That’s the scariest one!” Satsuki screamed with tears in her eyes.

She was holding on to me so tightly that I couldn’t move. The head was just about to come down on us, but...

“Move it!”

“Bwuh?!”

Iris sent the head flying with a roundhouse kick.

“Hito!” several yokai voices called out to the head, which was rolling across the floor unconscious.

“Ooh, that was a nice kick.” President Momone praised Iris with a smile, then returned to teaching the yokai a lesson with her wooden sword.

▽

Ten minutes later, after defeating all the hostile yokai in the room, President Momone tapped the end of her sword on the floor like a cane.

“So, you’re the representative of this group?” she asked, looking down at the tanuki.

Pon nodded silently.

The battered and bruised yokai huddled together behind him (I think it was a him?), trembling in fear. Somehow, I was getting the impression that we were the bad guys here...

For the record, we’d released the nekomata already, and Harissa and Ai had joined up with us in the warehouse. Some of the other nekomata were a little scratched up, but they were mostly unharmed.

“I came here at the request of the human boy over there to mediate your dispute,” said President Momone. “I’m not here to exterminate you mercilessly, so there’s no need to worry.”

“...Really?” Pon asked.

President Momone nodded in response. “My grandfather’s the one actually in charge of supernatural events in this area, and it’s his policy not to hurt innocent yokai. As his granddaughter, I follow the same policy.”

“So, you’re the grandchild of Kibi Shrine’s Demon Slayer? No wonder you’re so strong...” Pon sighed in resignation.

But there was a hint of relief in there, too. It seemed he believed everything President Momone was saying.

“Hey, catgirl. Come over here.”

“M-Meow!”

At President Momone’s prompting, Ai left the other cats and came over.

“I’ll hear your side of the story first. Why did you come down from the mountain?”

“That’s because... so many humans have been coming and going from the mountains recently, we couldn’t live there anymore. So we left in search of a new place to live, meow.”

“I see.” Next, President Momone looked at Pon. “There’s plenty of free space around here, so why couldn’t you accept these guys?”

“It’s a harsh world for yokai to live in these days. Especially for us yokai that can’t blend in with humans... We struggle to even find places to sleep. The number of places that are safe from human eyes both day and night is limited.”

Pon turned around and looked at his group of friends. It was true that they were all yokai who had no chance of blending in with society.

“There’s also the issue of food. The areas with plentiful food have long been claimed by other yokai, so we’re restricted to a very limited amount of space. That’s why I look after this lot...”

Pon paused for a moment and placed a leaf on his head. Then, with an energetic shout, he transformed into a middle-aged man.

“...By turning into a person like this, then getting whatever’s necessary from town.”

Once he was done talking, he returned to his tanuki form. So, that’s why he was the leader of this group, despite not seeming particularly strong...

“But the amount of resources I can obtain on my own is limited. I can’t look after any more than this.”

“Then why don’t you get the nekomata to help you? It’s easy for them to blend in among people.”

President Momone had a good suggestion, but Pon shook his head.

“No. If we did that, we’d end up reliant on the nekomata. It might work at first, but they’d betray us eventually.”

“So you’re worried you’d end up as glorified slaves?”

“We wouldn’t do that, meow!” Ai chimed in.

“Who knows?” replied Pon. “Cats are known to be highly protective over their territory. And highly fickle.”

It didn’t seem like Pon was going to back down here, despite Ai’s pleading. And with that, we had ourselves a stalemate.

“Satsuki, what do you think?” I asked.

“It’s not that I doubt Ai, but I can understand why the tanuki is worried. Anyone would be uneasy if they had to rely on someone else like that.”

“But they’re doing the same thing right now, right? It’s just Pon gathering food for everyone, rather than the nekomata. So why shouldn’t they let Ai do it?”

“That’s where the difference in trust comes in. Having the nekomata gather more resources for them is all well and good, but what if they stopped doing it? Things would get tough for the other yokai.”

After living without a worry, it would be hard to go back to struggling to make ends meet. That would basically mean they were dependent on the nekomata to maintain their lifestyle, so they’d have to make sure they were nice to them all the time... I see, so that’s what President Momone meant by “glorified slaves.”

Ai continued to argue against that vehemently, but Pon still wasn’t listening. It seemed like it’d be a huge hurdle to get them to accept the nekomata living here... Wait, come to think of it...

“Ai.”

“Meow? What is it, meow?”

“How come people started to frequent your mountain more?” I looked over at President Momone. “President Momone, has anything changed in the mountains by the school recently?”

“Now that you mention it... I can’t think of any reason people would be there more often. We haven’t held any kind of event there, and there are no plans for development in the area, either.”

“Right?”

I’d been to the mountains myself several times over the last few months, and I hadn’t seen any signs of other people there.

“What’s the meaning of this? I won’t hold back if you’ve been lying, nekomata.”

“I-I’m not lying, meow! There have been lots of people on the mountain! They come and go nearly every day, meow!” Ai frantically waved her hands in the air as she spoke.

“Every day... Which means they must have some kind of goal, right?” I asked.

“And if there’s a lot of them, they all probably share the same goal. They must have something in common...” mused President Momone.

“Ai, did you notice anything similar about the people who’ve been in the mountains recently?”

“Y-Yes, meow!” she exclaimed, her ears standing up straight. “All the humans who came into the mountain had glowing eyes!”

“Glowing eyes?”

Satsuki, Iris, Harissa, and I all exchanged looks. We were all thinking about a certain friend of ours we’d just seen at Nozomiya.

“What’s wrong, Rekka Namidare?” President Momone asked suspiciously.

“Um... There’s a slight chance I might know how to solve this one,” I said with a nervous laugh.

▽

Three days later.

I was finishing up the rest of my summer homework in my room, when...

Knock, knock!

Someone was suddenly rapping at my window. Wait a minute, my room’s on the second floor! I looked outside the window dubiously to find Ai in a hat.

“What’s wrong, Ai? This is the second floor, you know.”

“I’m a cat, meow! Scaling a roof is nothing to me.”

Evidently, Ai had climbed up to the roof of the first floor to reach my window.

“How did you know this was my room?”

“It was the only one with a light on.”

So, a lucky guess, then. Well, Harissa was probably asleep right now, so it was for the best.

“Can I come in, meow?”

“Sure. Take off your shoes, though.”

Ai obediently removed her shoes before diving in through the window.

“Ooh! It’s a bed, meow! It’s so soft! Can I sleep in it, meow?”

“Did you come here just to sleep?!”

“Cats can sleep anywhere, meow.”

Ai laughed happily as she rolled on my bed. But instead of closing her eyes, she looked at me.

“Rekka...”

“Hm?”

“Pet my head, meow.”

“Why?”

“Pet me like you used to, just like old times.”

“...”

Old times... back when Satsuki and I were looking after her at the shrine, huh? I guess I couldn’t really say no to that. I walked over to the bed and sat down, reaching to pet Ai’s cat ears as she laid down. Petting her ears was different than just patting her head, but as I did it, she gradually started to yawn. She tilted her head, leaning in like she was asking me to get the other side of her ears, too. I obliged.

And then... I heard something I wasn’t expecting. Was she purring? I guess she still really was a cat. Would she turn back into one if I asked her to? As a certified cat fanatic, it’d be great to get in some good scritches or something. And all that fluff...

As I was seriously contemplating how to go about asking for that, Ai opened her eyes and looked at me.

“Rekka, thank you, meow.”

“Huh? A couple of pets is nothing.”

“That’s not it, meow. Um... what did you call them again? Ah, the mole people. Thank you for talking to the people with glowing eyes for us.”

Ah, that. Several days ago, Ai and the other nekomata left their home in the mountains and had a quarrel with some local yokai when they got into town. But once we got involved and realized why the nekomata had left their home in the first place, we rushed back to Nozomiya just before it closed.

You see, this all had to do with the “other mole people” Tetra was telling me about. Nekomata and the mole people had a very distinct feature in common: glowing eyes. And once we brought Tetra—the representative of the mole people—and the nekomata together, they were able to talk things out.

As it turned out, what the villagers from Jizu were really seeing on the mountain were the nekomata. They’d just assumed they were mole people because of their eyes at night. The nekomata had mistaken the mole people for other nekomata the same way, but would always panic and run once they realized they didn’t have ears and tails. For the most part, the mole people looked completely human. And the entrance to Jizu Village was on the mountain, which was why the nekomata had seen an increase in traffic in the area lately. Many of the mole people were working part-time jobs like Tetra, and traveled to and from the mountain every day.

After the mole people and the nekomata got all that straightened out, they were easily able to come to an agreement to help each other protect their secrets from outsiders. It was mutually beneficial. For example, the mole people would help secure resources for the nekomata, while the nekomata would help guard the entrance to Jizu Village to make sure it wasn’t discovered by ordinary humans.

As for the yokai that got in a fight with the nekomata, President Momone was going to lend them a helping hand. She’d said she was going to work them to the bone in exchange, which worried me a bit. But other than that, everything was neatly wrapped up.

“You always come to save me, Rekka,” Ai said.

“It was just a coincidence this time.”

“I’ll have to give you a thank-you present, meow.”

“Present?”

“If there’s anything I can do, just let me know, okay?” she said, looking up at me with expectant eyes.

Anything she could do...? Did she really mean that? I glanced over her human body one more time, and after thinking it over carefully, decided to ask her for what I really wanted.

“Ai...”

“Meow?”

“Can you turn into a cat for me, just once?”

Ai rolled off the bed with a loud crash.

R, who had been watching the whole thing, let out a heavy sigh.

“Good grief,” she muttered.

—Fin—