Chapter Text
It was a rather quiet day at the mansion. It was almost dinner time, and the escorts had gotten back from a mission, and were all in the office giving their reports to Rokkaku. Kinoshita was just finishing his report when out of the blue-
"Cat."
All eyes turned to Tagami, who was staring at the window, "Come again?" Saeki asks, the other escort didn't even look over when replying, "Himes out in the garden...There's another cat, too."
"Is that so?" Rokkaku replies, glancing behind him to the window. "Cat!!!I wanna see it!!" Hirahara jumps with excitement, curious, they all gather around and look out the window.
Just as Tagami said, Hime was grooming herself outside. the small white kitten also seemed to have her eye on something by the tree, "I'm not seeing another cat." Kirishima says, looking over to the amber eyed escort, "Where is it??I wanna see the kitty!!" Hirahara pouted, "Look at the tree, idiot." Tanizaki replies, grabbing the other escorts head to direct him to it.
"It's a...Rather big cat, don't you think so?" Saeki comments, it definitely was much bigger than Hime, and was staring at her with dull blue eyes.
Overall, aside from it's unusual size, it looked like any other ordinary tabby. Simply watching Hime groom, perking it's ears up when the smaller feline decided to approach it. "Should we do something?" Kirishima ask, "Not yet, seems harmless enough at the moment." Rokkaku replies, keeping a close eye on Hime.
To the escorts surprise, after a quick sniff, Hime began to rub and groom the other cat. While it just watched in indifference. "They're getting along nicely." Kinoshita smiles "Think we have room for one more pet?" "Only if you clean up it's shit." Tanizaki replies with a quick glare, However, everyone went just a bit silent when they noticed the brown cat stand up to stretch.
"That's-" Saeki started, but was quickly cut off when Hirahara yelled "NEKOMATA!!" and quickly made a rush for the garden. Saeki and Kirishima chasing after him. The remaining three glanced over at Rokkaku, as if asking if they may leave too. "Go ahead," the captain said, "We can finish the reports later." with that Kinoshita did a quick jump of joy and strolled out of the room, Tagami and Tanizaki followed soon after.
When they reached the garden, it was a...Interesting sight. Kirishima was holding Hirahara by the back of his shirt to try and keep him away from the tree, and Saeki stood a few feet away with Hime in his arms. "But I wanted to plaaay!!" Hirahara complained, "It's injured, and if it gets any more mad it might try burning down the place!" Saeki replied with a frown. "Now, now, let's all calm down." Kinoshita smiled.
"Where did the youkai go?" Tanizaki asked. "It ran up the tree the moment Hirahara came outside. It's seems to be injured and isn't really happy with our presence."
"How troublesome" Tagami sighed, walked right up to the tree and started staring at the Nekomata, who simply hissed the moment he looked up. "It's going to burn your face off." Tanizaki glared, "Nah, from the looks of it it's too scared to do much of anything." the amber eyed escort pointed at it's fur, which was puffed up to the max, making it look almost twice as big. "The poor thing..." Kinoshita frowned, "Maybe we should wait till it calms down and come back?" "It wants nothing to do with us so I doubt that'll work." Kirishima replied, finally letting go of Hirahara. "Laaaaaameeee." the yellow-eyed escort whined, pouting at the youkai.
"Ah, so this is where you boys where~!" the escorts turn to see Kirika and Ayako approaching them, "Dinners ready, what are you all doing out here?" the taller women asks. Tanizaki begins to explain the situation, while Hirahara runs past them for the door, "Oh my, that's a problem." Kirika frowns, looking up to the tree.
"If it's so scared, perhaps we should leave it alone for now and come back later," Ayako chimes in, "It'll be less dangerous to deal with it then." the escorts agree, and with that all make their way inside for dinner.
"I want alcohol..." Kinoshita mumbled, sitting up from his bed. After dinner and finishing reports the escorts called it a night, and decided to wait till morning to deal with the Nekomata problem.
Kinoshita, however, couldn't seem to sleep.
"....Maybe a quick walk in the garden will help." he thought aloud, "I wonder how that cat is doing..." with that, he stood up and tip-toed his way downstairs to the garden, grabbing a quick snack and some sake on the way out.
The garden seemed mostly empty when he got there, but as he got closer to the tree where the Nekomata was hiding in earlier. He began to hear something-
Singing? the emerald-eyed escort thought, creeping closer to the tree to take a look. He could see a silhouette on one of the tree branches. It seemed to be the source of the voice, which stopped the moment he stepped on a twig. It hopped off the tree to face him, almost collapsing when it landed.
While Kinoshita couldn't tell it's exact height, but it was much shorter than him, and had a slim feminine physique. It's hair was messy, was a little above the shoulders, parted at the middle. It wore what looked to be a wore-out T-shirt and some dirted pajama shorts. However while it was glaring at him with tired, dull blue eyes, the main thing that stuck out to the escort…
...Was a pair of cat-like ears resting on its head, and two striped tails curled between its legs.
"Oh! You must be the Nekomata from earlier!" he exclaimed, "Sorry about Hirahara, he gets excited easily." the feline just stared at him with no response.
Probably doesn't feel safe talking yet... he thought, "You seem pretty hungry, and standing out here in the cold can't be good for you, or your leg. So why don't we head inside to eat?" he offered, "Everyone else is asleep, so you don't have to worry about anyone coming to bother us."
It furrowed it's brows, as if to decline his invitation, but the loud growl that came from it's stomach said otherwise. Kinoshita couldn't help but let out a quick chuckle at the reaction, "Or we could eat out here! I did bring a few things," he then opened the bag he was holding to reveal two onigiris. The Nekomata's eyes widened at the sight of them, and cautiously limped over to grab one. "It's fine, you can have both," the escort smiled, "I mostly wanted sake, and grabbed the food in case I wasn't the only one out here."
After saying that, the youkai shoved both rice balls into it's mouth. Almost choking in the process, "Not too fast!" Kinoshita laughed, "You'll get sick if you eat it all at once like that." How long has it been since you've eaten? he looked up and down at the other, then noticed there was a large gash on it's leg.
"Alright," he started with a sigh, "I know you aren't gonna like this, but we're gonna have to go inside to get your leg patched up." the Nekomata's ears immediately flattened. Before it could have any other reaction, a light from inside the mansion flickered on and the two heard a voice call out-
"Kinoshita-chan!" the voice was Kirika's, who began approaching the two with what looked to be a first-aid kit in hand, "I came out here to look for the Nekomata. I wasn't expecting to find you looking for her as well." "Couldn't sleep." the escort replied.
Once the woman was about 3 feet away, the Nekomata dashed behind Kinoshita, clinging to his arm. "Oh my, I see you've already found her!" Kirika smiled, "Shes offly cute." the feline said nothing and simply stared at the kit the other woman was holding.
"No worries dear, I'm here to patch your leg up!" the older woman exclaimed, "Or, at least clean it up and cover it so it doesn't get infected before we take you to the hospital in the morning, that wound looks rather deep." the youkai stared for a minute before slowly coming out from behind Kinoshita till she was right next to him. "We'll have to head inside, though." the escort points out "Not really any way we could clean it out here."
Patching up the wound was no problem, figuring out where the Nekomata could sleep was another thing. "It'll be easier for the wound to be checked out if she stays like this," Kirika stated "So she can't just share the cat bed with Hime-chan." "She could stay in my room for the time being." Kinoshita offered, "She seems to trust me the most, after all." the youkai simply clinged to his arm as they walked towards the stairs, staring at the floor.
"Your room probably reeks of alcohol, if it needs somewhere to sleep it can stay in my room."
the three turn around to discover Tagami standing outside the door to the kitchen. Holding a unconscious Hirahara over his shoulder by the shirt. "And how long have you two been awake?" Kirika asked, raising a brow.
"Idiot over here woke me up cause he wanted to see the cat again," the escort replied, "Hurt my hand knocking him out when I noticed you three outside." with that he dropped the other to the floor. "He's heavy, so one of you two can carry him back to his room." "Now, hold on," Kinoshita began, "What makes you think our little guest is willing to stay with you?" the 'guest' in question had been hiding behind Kinoshita since noticing the other two, but peeked her head out and started staring at the shorter escort when he dropped Hirahara.
"I didn't say she had to like me, I said if you guys wanted her to sleep somewhere my rooms probably the best bet." Tagami stated, approaching the others. "Well, it would be quiet in there," Kirika replied, "What do you think, dear?" she looked over to the Nekomata, "Tagami-chan isn't too bad, and he'll probably fall asleep before you, so you won't have to worry about much." the youkai had come out from hiding once Tagami came closer. After a good minute of staring, she twitched a ear, and rushed over to cling to his arm, catching the amber-eyed escort off guard.
"I think that's a yes!" Kirika smiled, "Well then, you three go get your rest, I'll take Hirahara-chan back to his room."
"...And you can sleep wherever, I guess." Tagami finished, gesturing around the room with his arm, "Just don't break anything."
the Nekomata glanced around the room for a bit, and sat herself next to the window. The escort already started getting in the futon to sleep in the meantime.
"...So what exactly are you guys?" the youkai spoke, causing Tagami to turn his head around to make sure he wasn't just hearing things.
"So you can talk." he replied "Of course I can. I just didn't want to unless I was gonna be forced to stay here." she frowned, her ears twitching "Now, you didn't answer my question."
The amber-eyed escort just stared for a moment, before rolling onto his back, "We're underworld escorts, nothing too special." he replied. "Now I got a question for you before I sleep," he glanced over at her and raised a brow, "How did you even get in the garden?"
"I climbed of course." the youkai replied, "I didn't want to just wait out in the open for my leg to heal, so I ran till i found this place and worked my way up the walls till I was suddenly in the garden." she suddenly let out a small shiver, but shook it off quickly, "Then I came across the other cat, she's really nice, by the way."
"You're freezing." Tagami pointed out "I'm fine." the Nekomata replied, the escort simply furrowed his brow and rolled away till his back was facing the other.
"Alright then, but don't complain to me in the morning about being cold." "I won't!" she stuck her tongue out, with that their conversation ended and the youkai spent the rest of the night staring out the window until sleep finally overtook her.