"Meow—"
In the sparse woods, One-Eye threw back its head and yowled. Silence surrounded it.
It began sniffing furiously, following the smell it hated.
A cat's soft paw pads absorbed vibrations, allowing it to hunt as quietly as possible.
But every step One-Eye took crushed the dirt beneath its feet. It was more like trampling.
As the smell grew stronger, it found its source.
A hidden burrow.
One-Eye crawled inside without hesitation.
"Meow!"
"Yow!"
After a while, the commotion inside the burrow gradually died down.
Some time later, One-Eye emerged, dragging the mother cat's body.
A fox had been inside.
One-Eye had dispatched it with ease.
But the mother cat had been dead for some time, and there was no sign of her three kittens inside—or in the fox's stomach.
The fear that had been gone for so long, that helpless feeling, began to spread through One-Eye's heart again, driving it nearly mad. It could only roar at the mountains and woods.
Slowly, it seemed to hear kittens meowing.
It sprang upright, ears pricked.
It really had heard them, along with a jumble of other sounds. But what mattered most to it was the cries of those three kittens.
That way!
One-Eye raced off again.
Down below the mountain, in a town that wasn't particularly remote,
Misa Kobayashi carried the three kittens all the way to the park.
"A fox! A fox was fighting with the mother cat. I was afraid it would eat these kittens, so I brought them down here."
Misa Kobayashi gestured wildly as she told the other children playing in the park about the "major event" that had just happened.
"You took the kittens away. What if their mother comes back and can't find them?" another girl asked.
"I heard cats have a really good sense of smell. Maybe she'll be able to find them here," said a boy who looked knowledgeable.
"But what if their mother doesn't come back?" another boy asked timidly.
The kids formed a circle and stared blankly as the three unsteady kittens mewed.
Misa Kobayashi suddenly asked, "Can kittens drink cow's milk?"
"I don't know." The children all shook their heads. The question was too complicated for them.
But after a moment's hesitation, the knowledgeable boy added, "My uncle owns a pet shop. Maybe he'll know."
"Come on, let's go ask your uncle!"
The children were ready to go at once. Carrying the kittens, they headed for the pet shop.
"These kittens are so little—at most a month old. They're not weaned yet. This one might be an exception, though. By the way, does anyone's family actually let them keep a cat? Don't tell me you're planning to leave them here." At the pet shop in town, a young man in his twenties ruffled his nephew's hair vigorously. "Ha! Do you even have enough allowance? Do you know how much goat's milk and vaccines cost? Don't go stealing your dad's money to pay for it."
"I-I wasn't!" the boy protested, then turned to his friends, sounding a lot less sure. "I really don't have any allowance left, and my family won't let me keep a cat. I heard my uncle once—Ow, that hurt!"
"So you're badmouthing me right in front of me, huh?" The young man gave him another thump, then looked at the children with a headache. People were always treating his pet shop like a place to abandon their pets, or just leaving stray cats and dogs outside his door. He had a business to run! And he also had to send unwanted cats and dogs to be euthanized.
"Maybe...maybe my family would let me," Misa Kobayashi said uncertainly.
"Oh, the Kobayashis? Your family might agree, but you'll have to convince your mother." They all lived in the same town, so the young man knew a little about the Kobayashi family.
"Then can we feed the kittens first? They seem hungry." The children lifted the kittens up and gazed at the young man hopefully.
The young man helplessly patted his forehead. "All right, all right. Just one feeding. Any more and I'll have to charge you. And kittens this young need help going to the bathroom."
"Haha, Imai really can't resist kids and little animals, can he?" teased a customer watching the scene.
"..."
After a bit of work, the children took turns feeding the kittens with little bottles of goat's milk. Those waiting crouched on the floor, chins in their hands, watching and chatting with one another from time to time.
Then, for some inexplicable reason, the atmosphere in the pet shop seemed to drop in an instant. After a flurry of commotion, all the cats and dogs fell silent, and the shop grew completely quiet.
The young man looked up in confusion and saw a fierce-looking stray cat at the entrance. Somehow, it had made the husky closest to the door, tied up on its leash, try to shrink into a corner with all four legs, its expression clearly saying, "Don't come any closer!"
"Shoo, shoo! Don't come any closer!" The young man immediately grabbed a broom and called the children over, shielding them behind him.
He wasn't about to underestimate cats and dogs, especially a fierce-looking stray like this. Who knew what germs it might be carrying? Besides, even a lion had to give its all to catch a rabbit.
At the same time, the young man felt like he'd seen a cat like this somewhere before.
One-Eye ignored him and looked at its three kittens.
They were being held by the little two-legged creatures and fed something that smelled like milk.
It seemed to be able to tell kindness from malice now, so it didn't react too strongly.
"Meow."
At that soft meow, the kittens let go of the bottle nipples and began calling to One-Eye.
"Big brother, this is the father of these kittens," Misa Kobayashi hurriedly explained, since she knew what had happened.
"The father?! Male cats take care of kittens too? How come I've never heard of that?" The young man had no time to marvel. It was obvious what was happening: the father had come to collect his kittens. That made sense, except...
He took the kittens from the children and cautiously approached One-Eye, slowly crouching down.
He began explaining out of habit. "Two of the three kittens aren't weaned yet. If you take them away, they won't be able to eat. They're used to this now. All right, I'll set them down here. You can take them."
One-Eye looked over the three kittens. While the two-legged creature had been shouting, it seemed to have understood what he meant.
That made it hesitate.
At last, it fixed its single eye on the largest kitten. After hesitating several times, it nudged the other two toward the young man.
"What! You understood me?!" The young man was so shocked he nearly thought he'd run into a cat demon.
But before he could stand up, One-Eye picked up the largest kitten in its mouth, turned, and leaped several meters away. After a few more bounds, it disappeared over the roof of one of its relatives' houses.
The two kittens tried to chase after it, but they stumbled with every step. There was no way they could catch up.
The young man clicked his tongue in amazement and picked up the two little klutzes. Then he suddenly seemed to remember where he'd seen that cat before.