Bathed in moonlight, Ur City at night had a beauty all its own—a pity so few people were around to appreciate it.
The adults, worn out from a full day, wanted nothing more than to rest at home, and the energetic children were kept indoors by those same adults.
A peaceful city like this is what most people long for.
But everything has its flaws, and Ur City was no exception.
In one sparsely populated district, a decidedly unharmonious scene was playing out.
A girl was running.
No—more than running, she was fleeing.
Beltie was a student at Meichuxi Academy, a Beastkin of the cat subtype, a blue cat.
Since her home was right there in Ur City, she’d chosen to be a day student.
Right now she deeply regretted it.
They say curiosity killed the cat; she used to scoff at humans for using cats in a metaphor like that, but today she was getting a firsthand demonstration of exactly how curiosity kills a cat.
Leaning on her racial advantage, she sprinted down the street, snatching moments to check whether the thing behind her had caught up.
And then she saw it: that knife-wielding unidentified object, keeping a steady twenty meters or so behind her, running toward her at an even pace.
Crap!
Was she really going to die here today?
No way—she hadn’t even tasted love yet; in her whole life she’d never had a boyfriend or a girlfriend!
If she could just make it to that place…
The moment Mir stepped out the academy gate, she saw a cat-girl running toward her—and behind her followed a black-silhouetted figure.
A…
Mr.
Criminal?
Holy crap!
Is that you, Mr.
Criminal?
In all her life Mir had never seen a real-life Mr.
Criminal, and this one was playing his role as the culprit faithfully indeed.
Huh?
You ask how she was so sure Mr.
Criminal was the culprit?
Isn’t that obvious?
In the dead of night, a knife-toting black silhouette with a sinister grin, chasing a young woman—there’s no way that looks like a game of tag.
Besides, statistically, ninety-nine percent of everyone who’s ever played the black-silhouetted criminal turned out to be the culprit—an insight Mir had distilled from watching over nine hundred episodes of Detective Conan.
Four options now lay before Mir:
Rescue the cat-eared girl and attack Mr.
Criminal.
Ignore them both and take a detour.
Call the police, then take a detour.
Ask Mr.
Criminal for an autograph.
After a fierce internal struggle, Mir decisively chose option four.
That tall wall she saw every single day looked so wonderfully welcome now.
Except there was a little girl standing under the gate.
Hm?
A little girl?
“Little girl! Run!” Beltie bellowed at the top of her lungs, then coughed a few times.
Seeing the little girl up ahead just stand there dazed, as if she hadn’t noticed a thing, Beltie panicked—so much that she forgot to watch where she was going.
And so this silly cat tripped over a rock at the roadside.
I’m done for!
That was her very first thought after going down.
Watching the sinister-grinning Mr.
Criminal close in on her, Beltie felt utterly hopeless.
She’d been so close.
That feeling of being handed hope only to have it mercilessly crushed was truly awful.
Beltie tried to get up, but her ankle seemed to be sprained, and she went down again.
She could only hope her death would buy some time for the little girl behind her—the child was so young…
Mr.
Criminal had already reached her—not by walking up, but by appearing all at once.
Beltie jumped at the criminal materializing right in front of her, her tail fluffing out in alarm.
What kind of trick is this?
Speed?
Spatial movement?
But why didn’t he use it while he was chasing me?
A humiliating sense of having been toyed with washed over Beltie.
This—the fact that he could have caught her from the very beginning, yet had deliberately handed her hope only to crush it—infuriated her.
She glared furiously at Mr.
Criminal, only to find him wearing an equally astonished expression.
And then she saw Mir, who had somehow gotten behind Mr.
Criminal.
Mir reached out one soft little paw and swatted it across Mr.
Criminal’s backside.
Smack!
A crisp sound echoed in their ears, leaving both Mr.
Criminal and Beltie utterly dumbfounded.
When did someone get behind me?
That was Mr.
Criminal’s one and only thought. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
He didn’t dare turn to see who had smacked him; he shot Beltie one last resentful glare and vanished.
Eh?
Why’d he disappear?
Did my move scare him off?
No—impossible.
I’m so cute; it must’ve been this dumb woman on the ground who made Mr.
Criminal disappear.
The more she thought about it, the more wronged Mir felt, and she bared her teeth at Beltie.
“?” What’s wrong with this kid?
That unidentified creature was gone?
Did that mean she was saved?
Beltie glanced around and found no trace of the thing from before.
Her body relaxed, and she reached back to smooth down her puffed-out tail.
She checked her sprained ankle—not too serious.
She tried standing and walking a little; she’d limp, but she could still move.
“What did you do to Mr. Criminal, you wicked woman?!” Mir put on a fierce interrogator’s face and grilled the cat-girl before her—though the utterly harmless pose only made her cuter.
Mr.
Criminal?
Was she talking about that unidentified thing from before?
Why was she being asked what she’d done to it?
She was the victim here, thank you very much!
“Be a good girl, little one—big sis will give you candy. That thing just now was a bad guy; big sis is the good one.” Beltie fished out a handful of candy to soothe Mir.
She’d figured out that the strange business earlier had probably been the doing of this little girl in front of her, so it was best to keep the little thing—currently making tiny “rawr rawr” gestures—calm.
Mir snatched the candy away without the slightest courtesy, her expression softening a notch.
“Obviously I know Mr. Criminal is a bad guy. I’m asking where you made him disappear to.” As in: your dodge-the-question routine of changing the subject doesn’t work on me, woman!
“…” Whose little brat is this?
It’d be fine to spank her till she cried, right?
“Little one, are you some teacher’s kid? Why are you out wandering this late at night?” Beltie asked with a strained smile.
“Cuz my tummy’s hungry, so I gotta find bba to make me yummies.” The girl finally remembered the point of her outing.
This so-called “bba” must be the child’s guardian.
What kind of irresponsible parent dumps their kid at the academy and goes home?
Beltie fumed inwardly.
She didn’t think the child’s parent lived on campus.
The child had obviously gotten so hungry she’d run out looking for her mother—or father.
“It’s dangerous out on the streets right now. Why don’t I take you to eat something tasty at the academy cafeteria, hm?” Just keep her calm for now; it really was too dangerous out here.
She’d escaped this time, but there was no telling whether that “Mr. Criminal” thing would show up again next time.
“The places to eat inside are all closed already. I checked on my way here.” The girl eyed this cat-girl of unclear intentions warily.
Beltie had actually anticipated this, so the moment those words left the girl’s mouth she was already racking her brain for some other way to coax the little thing back.
To think she hadn’t even landed a boyfriend (or girlfriend) yet, and here she was already babysitting.