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His first big memory was Mama's cold fur under his little paw and against his small nose. Mama was a pretty cat. Her black fur soft and comforting, her ears all big and funny, her tail long and fluffy, he loved playfully pawing at it until it annoyed her and she menaced to nip him for it.
But now, no matter how much he pawed at her she never even hissed at him… Was Mama sleeping? Loudly he meowed to try and wake her up, nudged her with his little face, and pawed at her tummy, but she stayed still and… Cold. Sadly meowing he sat by her side, scared of leaving her, because kittens weren’t supposed to leave their mama. That's what Mama said all the time!
The leaves around them moved in a way that wasn't due to the wind, and he wondered if something was coming to attack them. Mama always fought back hard to protect him, he should fight too! But he was so small, too small, there was no way he could do anything. He crouched beside Mama, curled to look as small as possible, feeling his ears lower as the leaves moved even more. A big furless creature appeared between them, pushing them aside enough to look under them.
“What's all this ruckus here?” that weird thing said with its big wrinkled face. “Huh. A kitten. Is that your mom— Oh.” there was a long pause, and then that thing's weird long paw reached towards him. He felt his ears tilt back, felt his fur puff and rise, and a big loud hiss left him as the weird paw grabbed him even though he hissed even louder and tried to scratch it. “A kitten like you shouldn't stay there.”
No! Mama! Mama!!
“Come on, you'll feel better inside.” the thing said while holding him so, so high. If he fell from up there… Maybe he should stop trying to leave that creature's hold, but he couldn't let himself be taken away like that from Mama! So he tried and tried, scratching the air in front of him and hissing even as that furless thing grabbed him like Mama did from just under his head and away from his paws. “Stop acting like I'm the first human you're seeing.”
Human? Was that what this thing was?
“... Perhaps I am.”
That human took him inside its den, where everything felt warm and there was no wind, and placed him on something soft. It wasn't as soft as Mama, wasn't as comforting, but… He still liked it and curled up on it, suddenly feeling exhausted. It… It probably was as good as any other place to nap, right?
There was a long moment of silence, and then the weird paw gently touched his head. “Your fur color reminds me of my son's hair…” there was an odd rhythm to the human’s voice, it was slow and softer than before and sounded like it could break at any moment. How weird. “He was… Ah, he absolutely would have taken you in, and perhaps even introduced you as my first grandchild…”
So the human had a kitten too? That's what a son was, right? Someone's kitten! Softly he meowed, just a little chirp, and the human softly touched his head a little more.
“... Grandpa'll get you food soon. Take a nap.”
And Grandpa did get him food. Food and toys and nice places to sleep on, and a name too, and so the kitten stopped just being a kitten and became Yuuji. It was a nice name! Grandpa said that it was a name meaning courageous, or something like that. Human talk was hard to understand sometimes and Yuuji preferred to just meow in answer without thinking because that usually led to him getting snacks or head pats.. Those were the best parts of living with humans.
So Yuuji grew and grew until he wasn't really a kitten anymore, until he was strong enough to jump up on the fridge even if Grandpa told him not to, until he couldn't even get in his favorite hiding spot anymore.
Until Grandpa, like Mama, got cold too and never woke up.
🐱
Yuuji liked it when there were lots of flowers outside. They were fun to play with, roll in the petals, and shake them off his fur in the most random spaces ever, like one of his stray friends taught him some time ago. But he also liked it because people were nice with him. Well, they always were, but people liked to take a small break to play with him, and Yuuji never said no to playing! … Unless it involved getting head pats and back scratches instead.
That was why he immediately and happily meowed when he noticed two young humans walking together with a big white dog and sat all prettily waiting for them on a low wall.
One of them locked eyes with him and Yuuji knew he had them. The human tugged on the clothes of the other one, almost making it fall, and then tugged again probably just to annoy it. Yuuji knew that he always liked to do it with Mama and Grandpa, it was super fun!
“Fushiguro, look, a cat.” the straight-furred human said, and that was like it awoke the dog who immediately started tugging on its leash and jumping around.
The spiky-furred one sighed and shook its head. “You said the forbidden word…”
Yuuji meowed, they were taking way too much time to reach him and give him affection. He deserved it, he thought with a flick or five of his tail, he should be getting hugs for at least two full hours per day, but oh well. The first human finally moved towards him, paw already ready to pet him, Yuuji happily meowed as he finally got his scratches.
Ooooh, those were some nice scratches, the human had long claws on its paw… “Your dog wants to eat the cat.”
Wait what.
“No, he doesn’t, he just wants to play too.” the second human said while staying far away, probably just to make sure that the dog wouldn’t come close to Yuuji, and damn it he wanted extra petting today!!
The straight-furred one did that weird thing where air wooshed out of its nose loudly. “Look at the size of that cat. Now look at the size of your dog. There won’t be any cat left if Shiro plays with it.”
“That’s why I’m staying away…”
“Awwhh, no kitty cuddle time for you today, then.” the human’s paw moved, and Yuuji got some nice scratches on the cheek, then under the head, and before he knew it he was a purring mess melting into the human's touch. “Too bad, this cat's really cute.”
“I'm sure that's true, but Maki won't be happy if we arrive even later than we already are.”
“She'll understand if we tell her!”
“She's already calling me.” the spiky human said while lifting that weird glowing rectangle thing, and just like that the other human stopped petting him and moved away.
“Damn it, run Fushiguro! Bye, cute cat!”
Bye-bye, nice human, Yuuji meowed.
Bye kitty, barked the dog.
Well. Off he was to find someone else to pet him.
🐱
So. There were those things that Grandpa called stores, right? Yuuji followed Grandpa to one a few times when he managed to sneak out of their house, and then always got lost inside because he kept getting distracted by all the smells. It was fine, surely the same happened to all the other kitties. Anyway, Yuuji eventually learned a thing or two and decided that the best thing to do was to wait outside until someone paid attention to him.
Before, that someone was Grandpa.
This time instead was a young human with long fur the color of the sky, the front piece cut in a weird way, who immediately froze and cooed in his direction after seeing him. Yeah, that was a pretty normal reaction, Yuuji was a really cute kitty after all!! The human slowly walked towards him, making that weird noise that humans liked to do, a cooing noise while Yuuji patiently waited to see where this was going.
Ah. The human was leaking water from the eyes, that wasn't good. “Oh my goooood,” it said all high-pitched. “The cat distribution system chose me. On my birthday. When I can't take any cat in, nooo!!”
Well. That human was weird but Yuuji was getting some very nice and gentle pets on the whole length of his back, so in the end, all was fine for him. People were extra nice to him lately huh, probably because he was such a cute kitty, yeah!!
“Want some kitty yogurt? I just bought some for my friend, she'll be fine if it's missing one, right?” Ooh!!! A snack!! Yuuji never said no to a snack!!! Meowing, he nicely bumped his head against the human's knee, making it laugh. “That's a yes? One second, - got it. Can't open it. Nooo.”
Purring, Yuuji rubbed his cheeks against the nice human. He didn't understand all that was going on, sure, but he didn't care as long as he got his promised snack.
“Scissors, scissors… Ah, all I have is nail scissors…… I'm sure you won't mind!”
Why would he mind when it means getting handed something? Yuuji's easy to please just like that, Grandpa always said he was easy to live with! And oh this yogurt thingy smelled so good, Yuuji couldn't stop himself from purring the whole time he ate it, his little paws kneading the human's knees the whole time.
“Best. Birthday. Ever.” the human said while a weird clicky sound came from its glowing rectangle. Well, once again Yuuji didn't understand it all, but as long as he was fed and the human was happy and nice, then he was happy too!
🐱
Walking around at night was fun, Yuuji always saw weird things and found mice to play with much more easily. But they always got tired, and then Yuuji had no choice but to eat them because that's what Mama told him to do once he was as big as her. Truthfully he preferred the food humans gave him but, oh, well…
That was how he ended up where he was now, following a mouse for what felt like (and probably was) hours until they both reached a place where there were fewer humans and instead those weird big houses with those big super weird metal things inside. Yuuji didn't like those. They made lots of noises and you couldn't comfortably nap on them. But he did like the mouse he was chasing! It was big, a nice grey, and full of life and Yuuji was sure that he'd get it! It just ran into one of those big houses but that was fine, Yuuji could still get it.
Happily and silently he moved towards that big door, the tip of his tail slowly swishing behind him. He was gonna get it, no way he wasn't!
“I wouldn't go there if I were you.” suddenly said a voice in the shadows.
Yuuji stopped with one paw still in the air, his ears moving to catch more sounds before slowly, slowly turning his head toward the shadows. Ah right there was a tall human with its head fur pushed backward and one of those bad-smelling sticks in the mouth. Yuuji's nose wiggled, and he noticed some weird metallic smell coming from both the human and the house. Weird, it smelled like blood, but Yuuji had never smelled it as strongly as he did now… Geez, just how much was there around here?!
Okay, sure, there was blood around. But there was also his mouse! The mouse was more important, damn it!! Yuuji meowed at the human and then turned back toward the house, ready to go back on his chase. The mouse would end up escaping if he waited more, and then Yuuji would probably go to sleep hungry, and he hated sleeping hungry. Sure, some human had given him a small fish from where there were many many fishes earlier that day, but it was when the sun was still high in the sky, so it was an eternity ago! Yuuji crouched a bit, lowering himself to the ground a little because it was obviously the best way to hunt something, and wiggled his butt in excitement. Oooh this was gonna be such a good hunt, he could feel it in his whiskers!
The human made that weird amused noise that Grandpa called ‘laughing’, and Yuuji heard steps coming towards him as he slowly continued walking towards the big house, one little paw in front of the other. That big human was making way too much noise, but Yuuji didn't care cause he wasn't making any noise, and surely that was what was the most important for the mouse to-be-meal. Yeah! Humans walked around all the time, it wouldn't scare away his little friend, nuh-uh. But uh-oh, there suddenly was a big human paw grabbing him by the tummy and lifting him up from the ground, and Yuuji screamed the whole time.
Bad human!!! Yuuji was so close to his little mouse! Hissing, screaming, and spitting, Yuuji tried his hardest to fight back against the human, whacking its other paw away from him as much as possible. “Stop fighting, you feisty thing,” the human said while pinching him behind the head, just like Mama did, and Yuuji immediately slumped in answer. “I told you not to go there. You'll get your little paws covered in blood and oh, believe me, you don't want this guy's blood anywhere on you…”
What a weirdo, Yuuji meowed.
“That felt like an insult.” the human hummed.
It was, Yuuji meowed once more. That man was a weirdo that was keeping his mouse away from him, damn it.
The human laughed again, and then the other paw moved to touch the collar Grandpa had given him. “What are you doing here so far away from your home, huh? Dumb little cat,” there was a long silent moment as it looked at the medal Grandpa got him. “... ‘My owner is dead, please adopt me’... ?”
… That meant the cold sleep, right…? Grandpa had given him that medal not so long before falling asleep… Ah, he missed Grandpa so much. He missed the way Grandpa’s weird bony paws felt when they scratched him behind the ears. And between the ears. And under the head. And on his back, too.
The tall, scary human stayed silent for a longer moment, calmly pawing at his medal with… what were they called again? Fingers? Grandpa always told him not to bite his fingers when he munched on his paw, so that probably was it, yeah. “Your owner was dumb for putting that on a medal of all things. Sounds like something my dumb older brother would have done.” Oh! Yuuji was jealous, he didn’t have any siblings, he was Mama’s only kitten! He would have liked having another kitten to play with, but Mama said she already had full paws with just him…
The human hummed, then started to walk with Yuuji still held against it, and Yuuji sadly meowed back towards the big house. Nooo, his mouse… His dinner didn’t even have to escape, Yuuji was catnapped away from it, damn it! He had worked so hard to catch it, chasing it for what felt like hours… Life was hard when you were a tiny cute little cat!! Yuuji deserved to have all the food he wanted and like four hours of cuddles a day, and a warm spot to nap on but nooooo, he had to hunt for mice instead. Not fair! It wasn’t fair at all!!
A second human just popped up next to the one currently holding Yuuji, its body bending forward for some reason before returning to a human’s normal standing position. “Master Sukuna, do you want me to dispose of this cat?”
And the scary human paused mid-walk, humming while it thought (and Yuuji knew that wasn’t always easy), big paw idly palpating his scruff. “No. I think I’ll keep it–” the human blinked, then tilted Yuuji back to look between his very dignified hind paws, completely ignoring and indifferent to his yowl of protestation. “Him.”
It was only after Yuuji was dragged into one of those weird metal not-animals always moving around and kept on the human’s lap after a good meal that it spoke again. “Now that I think about it, he had mentioned getting a cat before his death… What would be the chances that it was this one… ? Eh. No way.”