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The rain was pouring down in buckets, but it wasn't enough to dampen Emu’s bottomless pit of energy. With a heavy grocery bag in one hand and Nene’s arm in the other, she was practically teleporting forward with every skip.
"Nene-chan! We should make a Wonder-yummy soup with the vegetables we bought today! WANDAHOII!"
Nene let out a heavy sigh, feeling her fingers go numb from the weight of the bags. "Emu, if you don't stop jumping, we’ll be eating mud off the floor. maybe try to be... a little calm?" Even though she looked tired and bored, there was a slight smile at the corner of her mouth.
Right then, a faint, tiny "Mew" rose from behind a dumpster.
Emu stopped instantly. She stopped so fast that Nene nearly performed an accidental somersault to avoid crashing into her. There, shivering under the rain, was a tiny, soaking wet ball of fluff. It was a Van cat; one eye amber, the other as blue as the sky.
"NENE-CHAN! LOOK! A TINY CLOUD FELL TO THE GROUND!"
"Emu, that’s not a cloud, that’s a cat and it's drenched— NO. Emu, I know that look. Absolutely not."
"But Nene-chaaan! If we leave him here, he’ll melt into a puyu-puyu puddle! Please, please, please!"
Ten minutes later, Nene was opening the front door with a grocery bag in one hand and a tiny cat wrapped in her jacket—only its pink nose visible—in the other.
As they stepped inside, a bizarre scene greeted them in the living room. Rui was perched on the coffee table, trying to calibrate a massive robotic arm, while Tsukasa was brandishing a brush, attempting to hang a "Future Star" themed poster on the wrong side of the wall.
"We’re home," Nene said, her voice dripping with the sound of someone who had already accepted defeat.
"Welcome back!" Tsukasa swung the brush like a sword as he turned around. "Saki called, she wished us luck for tonight, though I have no idea what for— WHAT IS THAT IN YOUR HANDS?"
Emu snatched the cat from Nene’s arms and thrust it toward Tsukasa’s face. "TSUKASA-KUN! Meet our new roommate!"
Tsukasa stumbled back a step, squinting his eyes. He stared at the cat’s snow-white fur and its mismatched eyes. After a theatrical silence, he shouted at the top of his lungs:
"MY GOD! THIS CAT... THIS CAT IS A CONSTELLATION THAT HAS DESCENDED TO EARTH! LOOK AT THOSE EYES! ONE IS THE SUN, THE OTHER GLITTERS LIKE SIRIUS! THE WORLD IS NOT READY FOR SUCH STELLAR RADIANCE!"
lifted his head from the table, shifting his gaze from the cat to Tsukasa, then back to the cat. The kitten looked at Rui, stuck its tongue out, and scratched its ear with a paw.
That famous, slightly dangerous yet impressed smirk spread across Rui’s face. "A cat? Intriguing. People do say I share a certain... physiological resemblance to them." He stood up and scratched the kitten under its chin. "Also, if we hook its purr frequency up to a loudspeaker, we could get a natural bass effect for our shows, don't you think, Nene?"
Nene sighed heavily. "Rui, I am not letting you turn the cat into a cyborg. Just help it get warm."
A few hours passed, and the living room was strangely peaceful... even Tsukasa, who screamed every minute, was somewhat at peace thanks to the new guest; it was an opportunity to use the cat litter he had previously bought, mistaking it for "stardust."
Rui had the kitten curled up on his chest; both of them were napping on the sofa at the exact same tilted angle. They really did look alike.
Emu was talking with Saki and Shiho on phone (and some classmates) Sometimes she Was showing Tsukasa her phone and point out "funny" pictures.
Nene smiled as she prepared hot chocolate in the kitchen. "At least," she whispered, "Rui will talk to something living instead of just his robots."