(Well… My first fanfic ever… Found it good? Found it bad? Just email me to
krielkanan@hotmail.com : That's the only way I'll be able to make the rest
better! I may do a second chapter, but nothing decided yet.
Copyright stuff : Story is all mine, characters are property of Capcom.
Enjoy!)
***************************CHAPTER 1***************************
Coursair. It had been a long time since she last stood before these tall city walls. She never expected to be back here. Neither did she expect to be forced to go on a 'vacation' from all her friends at Township... Katt paused a moment, cursing against the events that had forced her into a momentary exile...
****
After the defeat of DeathEvan, a new era of peace was formed. An era where fighting skills became unimportant. An era where seconds seemed to meld into hours... at least according to Katt's point of view.
Katt was of the Woren clan: half-tiger half human. According to common knowledge, she was in fact the last remaining one. Raised by the manager of Coursair arena, Katt's instructions were mostly limited to swirling a battle staff around. Her whole life consisted of fighting and pleasing fans battle after battle in the arena, quickly becoming the unchallenged queen of battle. An athletic body, with her lower portion cover in shiny fur, wearing no more than a weird jeweled belt and a bra-like shirt, her stunning appearance quickly made her the favorite fighter for many consecutive years. All that had changed when her adoptive father betrayed her. Joining with a man called Ryu, she took vengeance, and followed him on his journey, eventually leading to destroying the world evils and bringing peace to the land once again.
For Katt, this peace was the worse nightmare that could happen. Living in a boring city, stuck hundreds of feet in the air was a pain to her. She was stuck doing nothing, and worst of all, it seemed obvious that Ryu was more attracted to Princess Nina than to her. However, life went on tranquilly until Katt decided to do some actual work for the town...
Katt's Ultimate Training Dojo started out well, but quickly closed when her relations with her customers started souring. For reasons Katt couldn't understand, Ryu stopped coming when he got his arm broken for the second time; Nina left with an half-torn wing and Spar disappeared after he had half of his leaves slashed out…
Sitting on a stool at Township's only bar, Katt was talking to Rand about how her dojo had failed miserably when he commented, "Katt, you may be a fighting genius, but you sure aren't a genius at anything else!" Deeply insulted, Katt was about to tear him to pieces when he continued, "Maybe you should learn other skills than fighting, you know! How about becoming a farmer like me?" Still seething, Katt mumbled, "What for? I can beat you at everything, Rand! I'll try farming the day you beat me at something! At anything!" Rand pumped his massive biceps before stating his challenge…
---
The next morning, Katt was out in the farming field. She should have figured out beforehand that since Rand was about five times her size, winning a match of arm-wrestling was pretty much impossible… Anyway, she might as well try learning something different than fighting for once, and she may get so good at it that she'd impress Ryu into dumping Nina right there…
"Katt! Stop daydreaming and get over here!" Rand heavy voice resonated across the field. Sheepishly, Katt hurried to his side, crushing a few plants on the way. "So, where do I start?" asked Katt, glancing around in anticipation.
Rand pointed at the old field across a screen of trees. "Over there is an old field that has been left unkempt for a long time…since the town keeps getting bigger and bigger, we'll need the additional field next year. I want you to clean all the stumps, rocks and rubble that are there, so that we can use it. There is an axe already there that you can use to remove the stumps. Now get working!"
In good spirit, Katt sprinted to the nearby field across the trees. She hadn't expected the field to be in such a bad state. On nearly every inch there was something covering it… rocks, boulders, tree stumps, bushes. Un- phased, Katt grabbed the axe that Rand promised would be there, and stepped toward her first opponent…
The thwacking sound that Rand heard continuously over and over again in the few hours since Katt was at work pleased him. He had always liked Katt, and seeing her immensely bored day after day worried him. However, now it seemed that she enjoyed her new work. Even though it was obviously not the farmer job he had promised her, it was still necessary work. Whistling a tune for the first time since his mother's noble sacrifice, he went over the next field to tell Katt to take a break.
Rand whistling stopped as soon as he got to Katt's field. It looked the same, except much worse. Bits of boulders were lying all around now, with parts of stumps spread across the field. It looked more like the aftermath of a battlefield than a cultivation field. The reasons for this did not take very long to understand…his good axe lay broken in pieces, and Katt had long since switched to her battle staff. She was there, striking a large boulder with her staff until the rock broke down into two halves. She then looked around and jumped toward the nearest outcropping tree stump before thrusting the staff out in a wide arc. Part of the stump flew out in the distance, the other part buried underground, making it more difficult than ever to remove.
Rand looked in amazement at the scene. Katt had managed to do an incredible amount of work in a few short hours… The problem was that the only thing she had accomplished was making the field even worse and increased the amount of work required to clean the field, especially since one corner was now totally ruined. Rand let out a huge sigh, starting to despair to ever find a suitable job for Katt. His mood didn't improve as Katt turned toward him and said after wiping out a bit of sweat, "That was a great job, right Rand? I have to admit that the corner over there was a bit hard to do when a big boulder attacked me…" Not wanting to hurt her feelings, Rand simply mumbled, "Uh… yea Katt…"
He had to find her a new job, fast. Katt seemed still full of energy even after fighting boulders for a few hours. He had to find something that was really simple, so simple that even Katt could do…
"Great work Katt! I'll … uh… complete that job off myself later on! Are you ready for even more important work?" asked Rand, happy of the few tricks he learned from Bow.
"Last time Bow said that, I ended up doing the dishes for one week…" commented Katt, suddenly wary.
Rand's mind started racing, Katt was right about the dishes. Not a single plate remained unbroken at the end of the week.
"No, I mean a REALLY important job, not like what Bow would give you!"
"Last time Ryu said that, I had to sweep the carpets..."
"No! The job that I want to give you is … uh… is a job that is crucial to our survival. It is a job that will enable our fields to grow many times better than it would otherwise. It is a job that will enable us to live easily during next winter…"
After Katt's yawn, Rand finally said, running out of ideas, "It is a job that will earn you the respect and admiration of everyone in town, especially Ryu!" Katt's eyes lit up and Rand continued, "I want you to weed out our field… with your hands!" yelled Rand as Katt gripped her battle staff. "Weed out the field? That's easy, leave it to me!" Katt crouched down enthusiastically where she was and started pulling some weeds out. "Good girl! I'm going to go to the other field and start repairi-…finishing the job you have started." Rand left to the other field, wondering if weeding plants would be boring enough to calm her down. It was unnecessary work for such a big field, but if it at least kept Katt from making some mistakes…
The sunset signaled the end of Rand's hard day of work. Repairing Katt's mistakes would take him at least a couple more days, but at least it was manageable. With a sigh, he left his field to check on his newest pupil. "KATT!!! You weren't supposed to weed out the vegetables!!!"
Slightly annoyed, Katt pointed to the huge piles of vegetables that she had torn out, "Hey, you told me to weed the field out, so I'm weeding it out! What more do you want?"
Rand shook his head wildly, starting to panic: "You just destroyed half of what I planted this year! What are we going to eat this winter???"
Katt simply shrugged, "Well, we saved the world a few years ago, and still have a whole lot of money left from these monsters! Can't we just buy some food? Why do we even bother making fields, anyway?"
"Katt… remember that our city is stuck hundreds of feet in the air! How do you think they can send us food???"
"Oh, I'll just ask Bleu to warp us some!"
Rand watched Katt run to Bleu's house. It only took a few seconds before an explosion was heard.
---
The sweet aroma of cooking worms was filling Township's kitchen as a large plum frog-man busied himself at the pots. A horrendous chant rose from its voice, nearly covering the insistent knock on the door. Jean, prince of Simafort, turned his attention away from his work and answered with a simple "Oui?"
Jean's large eyes grew even wider as he saw who had come to visit him: Katt, wearing no more than an obviously never used cooking apron. Katt might not be Nimufu, but… words for an ode about the lovely Woren started building in his head. The large green hopeful eyes, the singed fur and hair…
Singed fur and hair? Jean looked at her again more seriously. She definitively had been burned… "Oh ma pauvre amie, qu'est-ce qui t'es arrivé?" After getting a blank look from Katt, he tried again, "What happened?"
With a shrug, Katt answered matter-of-factly, "Oh, I just asked Bleu to warp us up a few tons of food this fall… Lazy bum didn't like it though! She threw a fireball at me… seeing her throwing all sort of spells to stop her house from burning down was all worth it!" Jean's smile matched Katt's own. She didn't take Bleu's actions against her seriously, just like Jean would have. Unlike Katt however, his large frog mouth made him look even more weird when he smiled, "Je vois…" then he added after a moment, "Actually… I don't! I'm happy you came to visit me, but I can't do anything for the burns! Maybe you should ask Rand?" Katt quickly shook her head, "Uh… Rand is in a bad mood right now… My fur is going to be all nice again by tomorrow. Anyway, that's not why I'm here!"
Katt pulled a bit on her apron near her chest, to make it stick out more: it also had the side effect of showing even more skin than before. As Jean turned even more green than usual (the creeping clan version of blushing), Katt continued to explain, unaware of her companion's discomfort: "I want to become a cook! Like Rand says: Food is important! It gets people to respect you, like Ry...everyone! And Petape said you are the best cook ever! Wanna teach me?"
Jean wide jaw dropped in amazement. Someone finally recognized his culinary expertise! He puffed his chest in pride and a large grin appeared on his face. He was so surprised that he did not notice the sweet smell quickly turned into an odor of burn. Maybe she would even appreciate his exquisite paintings and poetry too? He stood there dumb-faced, daydreaming while Katt patiently waited for her answer, staring at the black smoke rising from the stone. Jean suddenly snapped back to the present and accepted hurriedly: "Bien sur Katt! I will teach you!"
"Great!" said Katt enthusiastically "Maybe you can explain me why there's smoke coming from there, then?"
"Oh non!" lamented Jean as he jumped toward the oven with agility Katt never thought he had. He peered inside, only to see a black and inedible mass lying at the bottom. "That was for Tata, his wife and me! They traveled all the way from Simafort! I can't let mes sujets royaux sans un festin! I don't have time to make a new feast by myself!" Seeing Katt tapping her foot impatiently suddenly gave him an idea: "Katt, tu veux m'aider a faire a feast in true Simafortian spirit?" He was a bit concerned since non-frog never seemed to enjoy his cooking for some undecipherable reasons, but Katt fortunately answered positively with an annoyed: "Whatever - Just teach me!"
The pair went about gathering the necessary components. Two large bowls found themselves sitting on the center stone table, alongside with the ingredients the Woren had gathered: Flour, brown sugar, eggs and baking powder. "All right, what now?" asked Katt her tail swaying back and forth in rising excitement. Jean was still busy looking in his own personal supplies that the others had forced him to keep far away from the 'normal' food. "Mon amie, you make the paste while I finish gathering the rest!" explained Jean with an unusual clarity of thought: "Use one bowl to put the solid ingredients, and the other for liquid..."
The instructions went on, and Katt followed them well. Put stuff in the right bowl, mix stuff, fetch some more...easy enough! "What's next?" asked Katt, her cute face white with flour. She was actually good at that!
Arms filled with jars, pots and kettles, Jean made his way back to the table. "Maintenant, we do the filling!" Jean went to the oven to prepare something while he continued to instruct Katt, his back turned to his apprentice.
- "Clean up one of the bowls and fill one fourth of it with water."
- "Done!"
- "Open up the blue jar and put two handful of worms in your bowl."
- "Check"
- Take a few flies, but remove their wings and legs first... We just want the tasty parts, right?"
- "Yeah..."
- "Once you have finished that, take the cockroaches and crush at least ten of them over the bowl to get their juices. Remember to keep their heads intact: We will need them later!"
- "...all right..."
- "Now, mix everything in the bowl with your hands to keep the taste intact and pure!"
- "..."
- "Katt?"
- "..."
The frogman turned toward his companion, concerned. Her face was now the same color as Jean's, her tail hanging down limply. Suddenly, she made a desperate dash at the door. She reached it, continued on her attempt to exit the building... The sound of retching quickly came to Jean's ears, quickly followed by an outraged: "Hey! Watch it! That's my carpet!" from Bow.
"Oh, misère!" commented Jean at the loss of his apprentice and of Katt's last lunch. With a shrug, he went back to his cooking and his chants, the whole event already forgotten...
---
Tonight, the mess hall was empty. All the wooden tables were free, everyone having left long ago, back to their rooms. That is, everyone except for a pitiful Woren. She was slumped in her chair, her eyes starring into nothingness. "You look down!" called the old man Niro from his side of the bar, cleaning glasses. "Just gimme a big one..." mumbled Katt. Niro's old ears had to strain themselves to understand, but it was all pretty obvious.
"A whole one? You sure?"
"You deaf or what??"
"Be right there!"
The sound of bottles clanging immediately started, and a simple burn spell was cast, Niro's ultimate for reheating dishes. The old man made his way to Katt's table and placed a large tankar of milk and a platter of food next to her before sitting in the opposite chair. Like a drunkard, Katt reaches for the tankar and drained half of it in a single gulp. As quickly as the tankar rose, it now crashed down on the table, spilling some of its content on Niro. "What's that?" slurred Katt, pointing at the food. It looked like a breaded... something... but it seemed quite good.
"That?" asked Niro brushing some of the milk away. "I'm not sure, but it was made by Jean just for you!" Katt turned a bit green before pushing the plate away. "I'm not hungry..." After a long pause, she admitted: "You know... I suck!" Niro barely had time to nod in agreement before Katt's claw shot forward, clutching his neck: "HOW DARE YOU!!!"
Katt didn't notice the old man was changing color or that her long nails where biting in his flesh. "You dare tell me I suck??? Answer me!" A garbled noise was the only answer. "ANSWER ME! Oh..." apologized Katt.
"Ow..." simply commented Niro, rubbing his throat. "I meant... you were bad at what you tried... No, not bad! Let's say average...yeah, that's it... you were average at what you tried, but you can still be good at other things though!"
"Like what?" asked Katt, leaning her head on the bar depressively.
"Cooking?"
"Tried."
"Cleaning?"
"Ask Bow about his carpet."
"Painting?"
"Locker fired me when I did some retouch on his Ticasso."
"Sculpture?"
"Bashed Salvatore's head in when he asked me to pose nude for a statue..." with a grimace, Katt continued: "He's working on a nude Sana now..."
"Maccoti?"
"Hrm? Bum doesn't do anything..."
"True... Sumner?"
"He's just a musician..."
An idea suddenly clicked into Niro's head: "That's it! What did you do before?"
Humbly, Katt answered: "I was a demon-slaying, monster killing hero that saved the world, why?"
"Err... I mean before that!"
"Oh, I was a gladiator."
"And you were good at that?"
"The best!" Katt flexed her forearm in an attempt to show off her muscles: "Never lost a single fight!" she continued giving a quick glance around to make sure Ryu wasn't around. "Thing is though... there's no one around here who wants to fight me now and Coursair is a long way off!"
Shaking his head slightly, Niro explained: "I mean, you are a great entertainer! Maybe you could pair off with Sumner and do some dancing here! You have the perfect physique for it and it'll make this place much more lively!"
Katt's cat ears rose in interest. Dancing wasn't that different from fighting! She definitively was better at physical stuff, and she did have the perfect body to dance in a bar... perfect body to dance in a bar... "HEY!!!"
Niro waved his hands in front of him while screaming: "Noooooo! Not that kind of dancing!"
That was enough to make Katt's attack stop... at least temporary.
"I meant more along traditional dancing!" explained Niro quickly. Seeing his explanation didn't seem to convince the unpredictable Woren much, he changed tactics: "You are graceful beyond everything I have seen! You would be able to pull out moves no one else here can! You are... erm... like a beacon of purity! Everyone who would see the grace of your dance would forever remember you as the Dancing Lady for every moment of their lives!"
Niro slowly moved his hands away from his face, fearing that his desperate attempts would make the Woren even angrier. Instead, he saw a wide-eyed, slightly blushing Woren. She flicked her hair back and pumped her chest a little. "Really?" Niro vigorously nodded his head: "Kick ass! I'll get Nina to sew me a costume!" exclaimed Katt as she ran up the stairs.
"Katt, it's past midnight! Forget it... time for an old man to go to bed!"
---
Two short weeks after, Katt was ready. The whole of Township was gathered outside near the small stage, each silently hoping that Katt finally found her place. Sure, she was trying her best to help, but up to now she just ended up bothering everyone... badly.
All of her apprehensions melted as a transformed Katt climbed on the stage. Her normally unruly hair had been neatly arranged, hanging over one of her eyes, part of her hair tainted light blue. Her outfit was mainly a single, long band of alternating color, holding a few bright patches of tissues in a colorful and attractive mesh. It was warped everywhere: around her legs, arms, neck and torso, one big patch at every 'critical' location. Long light pink strands were tied to her ankles and wrists, flowing gently in the slight breeze. In another setting the whole outfit would match that of a clown (albeit a really attractive clown), it seemed to remain serious yet vivid on her, perfectly settling the mood for the dance.
Even Katt looked surprised at her appearance, she threw a telling look at Nina in the stands, who simply smiled and lifted a thumb in the hair. Katt nodded and motioned to Sumner.
A slow, mournful music rose from Sumner's instrument, matching Katt's first tentative steps. Her bands behind her flew, matching each note of the song. The pace soon grew livelier, and the dancer followed suit. She turned and spun in rhythm, each step an image of grace. The rythm increased in speed and so did Katt's movements. With inhuman grace, Katt turned and danced, pulling moves that were though to be impossible to link together, the flowing colored bands waving in harmony with her movement.
Katt did not miss a single beat, being one with the beautiful music. The music sped up again to astronomical speed, and yet Katt followed it, rendering her display more and more dazzling, more haunting. The music stopped suddenly, and Katt fell down to one knee, head bent down.
For a moment, everything was silent. Katt's performance was forever written upon their memory, a moment of pure grace to be remembered. As one, the crowd stood up and applauded heartily. With a large grin, Katt rose and bowed before the crowd before pulling an impressive split to further show her prowess... unfortunately, the costume was not made for such move, and a faulty link made the band snap... Her whole costume fell down in a small pile at her feet. In slight panic and in an a total lack of modesty, Katt simply glared at the crowd, making no attempts to cover herself, not wanting to do like silly ladies and start screaming away. Some in the crowd simply starred blushing, some turned their eyes away... Katt silently congratulated herself to act like a mature woman instead of a scarred little girl. She did one last bow and picked up her costume before turning to leave... it is then that she saw Sten, drool falling from his gaping mouth, making a large pool at his feet. In normal conditions, Katt would have felt disgusted, annoyed and proud at the same time. That was no normal conditions however: it was STEN looking at her like that! That maniacal soldier that tried to force her in a date with him!
"Perverted monkey! I'll show you!" yelled Katt as she launched herself from the stage in a berserk rage, pushing and kicking Sten into oblivion until Rand managed to hold her down...
---
The whole of Township was in the large mess room of the main building, excluding Katt and a few others who did not come. Each citizen was sporting a grim face and the debate waging forth was one that none really wished to ever happen.
"We can't let it continue like that!" grumbled one of Township's citizens, Azuza. "We may owe her a lot, but we can't just stand here watching everything get destroyed by her!"
The Windian princess shook her head: "Katt is just trying to help us. We need to give her time!" Nina has always been Katt's closest friend and while they competed for the attention of the same man, they had always remained friends instead of bringing the other down. "We all owe her our lives! She may do some mistakes, but she is still our friend!"
Wrapped in bandages, Sten strongly disapproved: "Yeah, well... if it goes on like that, there's going to be a few corpses in the town! Look at me: I didn't do anything to her and she broke me a few ribs! The only thing she can do is fight! I say we kick her out until she learn something worthwhile or at least stop making trouble! What do you say, Ryu?"
"..." Ryu stayed silent like always, but the frown on his face showed his disapproval.
The debate went on, Bow claiming that his priceless rug has been lost because of her, that Bleu would have to use most of her energy and time transferring food during Fall...
Finally, Rand banged his large fist on the table and claimed: "She may be making our lives harder lately, but like Nina said: She is still our friend! It's not as if she caused wounds that we cannot heal or that she destroyed our town..."
---
"And then, I ran up to the beast and pulled Ryu away from its grasp before crushing its head with a single blow! It fell down near me, but there were more coming, and..."
Katt was sitting on the ground cross-legged, a needle and a thread in her hands. The town seemed deserted, and Katt didn't know where anyone was, except Yozo. The weird Windian had never said anything to anyone, even if Katt had talked to him at least fifty times before today. Still, telling someone about her previous adventures made her waiting for everyone to come back more pleasant.
"I waved Nina and Ryu back, and I posted myself in the middle of the tunnel, blocking the path of the lumbering barubary coming toward me... It was huge, larger than any other I have seen! Ow..." Katt had pricked herself again with the needle, fixing her dancing outfit but hitting her own fingers more often than not.
"Were was I? Oh yeah... It charged at me, I had no space to evade either left of right... I dove right over it, over the few inches that were left between its back and the ceiling. I gracefully landed on my feet, and spun around; the beast could not turn around because of the corridor, and I hammered away at his unprotected back. The beast tried to back off, but it was too late, I crushed one of its legs, rendering it helpless. That gave Nina and Ryu the time to prepare their assault on the front and finish the beast off..."
Katt stopped her storytelling and held her dancing costume before her eyes. "Perfect! I'm done!"
It was then that Yozo talked for the first time: "You have talked to me enough times, I shall now give you magical power!" Katt scratched her head for a moment, not really caring why she would receive it, "Oh yeah? Sweet! This means that I'll be able to finally cast spells?" Yozo nodded once, and placed his hand on Katt's forehead. A beam of light came from it, encompassing Katt in a pure white light. "There. You can now use one of your spells once per day, no more."
A wide smile pasted itself on Katt's face; Nina and Bleu had told her long ago that she had incredibly strong magical power within herself, and that she did not have the ability to use it... until now. Katt concentrated for a moment, placing her hands before herself, feeling power building within. "Fireball!" she yelled after a moment. Unlike Bleu's tiny fireball however, large dragons of fire arose from her stretched hands, flying across the town, consuming everything in their path.
"Oh crap!" Now she had done it: The whole town was burning down! She had powers to stop it now, though... She concentrated again, feeling for water; cold, very cold water... "You do not have the ability to use spells more than once!" commented Yozo, taking a step back as another spell was conjured by the Woren.
Large ice darts flew from her hands, striking the buildings, tearing huge holes in them and doing nothing to stop the spreading fire. Katt would have panicked if she didn't suddenly fell so tired... She laid on the ground, curled over herself, sleeping fitfully while everyone else came out of the burning house in panic....
---
When she awoke, she was laying on the ground, wearing her normal outfit. Not the ground of Township, laying hundreds of feet in the air... the ground of the earth. There was a small pack next to her, containing her dancing outfit, a small flute and the large sum of five thousands zenny. Her battle staff was planted in the ground, with a small piece of paper tied to it. With a shrug, she untied it, and read its content carefully:
"Dear Katt,
I had to warp you out of Township since some of the more anger-prone citizens wanted to get revenge on you... I brought you out so that nothing happened to you. Consider this as a vacation: When you come back, I am certain that everyone will be happy to see you back! Just enjoy your time away, Katt. Try to learn something that you can impress everyone with once you come back!
In case of need, I left you this flute: It will make Mina come to you if you need her. Use it when you want to return to us!
Looking forward to seeing you back,
Nina "
At the bottom, there were also the signatures of Ryu and Rand with an additional note of "Come back to us quick!"
With a sorrowful smile, Katt picked up her things, and set out wandering in the world, searching...
****
Katt shook her head, returning to the present. That was just the past, that was months ago. She would one day return to Township and show them she can do something else than fight. That in this peaceful new world, she still had her place. She looked at Coursair again. The first place she had called home.
She took a deep breath, and stepped inside Coursair's wide gates. She breathed the same air as she did in her tender youth, the same buildings she had played around joyously with other kids. She looked at the stone arena where she was seen as a queen, the arena where her adventures all began.
Katt Chuan had finally returned home... for a time. Still, she would only remain until she could return to Township, to where her friends waited for her. But until she learned more, until she felt herself useful...
She took a few more steps on the paved streets with a sad smile. Until then, she was back home.
Copyright stuff : Story is all mine, characters are property of Capcom.
Enjoy!)
***************************CHAPTER 1***************************
Coursair. It had been a long time since she last stood before these tall city walls. She never expected to be back here. Neither did she expect to be forced to go on a 'vacation' from all her friends at Township... Katt paused a moment, cursing against the events that had forced her into a momentary exile...
****
After the defeat of DeathEvan, a new era of peace was formed. An era where fighting skills became unimportant. An era where seconds seemed to meld into hours... at least according to Katt's point of view.
Katt was of the Woren clan: half-tiger half human. According to common knowledge, she was in fact the last remaining one. Raised by the manager of Coursair arena, Katt's instructions were mostly limited to swirling a battle staff around. Her whole life consisted of fighting and pleasing fans battle after battle in the arena, quickly becoming the unchallenged queen of battle. An athletic body, with her lower portion cover in shiny fur, wearing no more than a weird jeweled belt and a bra-like shirt, her stunning appearance quickly made her the favorite fighter for many consecutive years. All that had changed when her adoptive father betrayed her. Joining with a man called Ryu, she took vengeance, and followed him on his journey, eventually leading to destroying the world evils and bringing peace to the land once again.
For Katt, this peace was the worse nightmare that could happen. Living in a boring city, stuck hundreds of feet in the air was a pain to her. She was stuck doing nothing, and worst of all, it seemed obvious that Ryu was more attracted to Princess Nina than to her. However, life went on tranquilly until Katt decided to do some actual work for the town...
Katt's Ultimate Training Dojo started out well, but quickly closed when her relations with her customers started souring. For reasons Katt couldn't understand, Ryu stopped coming when he got his arm broken for the second time; Nina left with an half-torn wing and Spar disappeared after he had half of his leaves slashed out…
Sitting on a stool at Township's only bar, Katt was talking to Rand about how her dojo had failed miserably when he commented, "Katt, you may be a fighting genius, but you sure aren't a genius at anything else!" Deeply insulted, Katt was about to tear him to pieces when he continued, "Maybe you should learn other skills than fighting, you know! How about becoming a farmer like me?" Still seething, Katt mumbled, "What for? I can beat you at everything, Rand! I'll try farming the day you beat me at something! At anything!" Rand pumped his massive biceps before stating his challenge…
---
The next morning, Katt was out in the farming field. She should have figured out beforehand that since Rand was about five times her size, winning a match of arm-wrestling was pretty much impossible… Anyway, she might as well try learning something different than fighting for once, and she may get so good at it that she'd impress Ryu into dumping Nina right there…
"Katt! Stop daydreaming and get over here!" Rand heavy voice resonated across the field. Sheepishly, Katt hurried to his side, crushing a few plants on the way. "So, where do I start?" asked Katt, glancing around in anticipation.
Rand pointed at the old field across a screen of trees. "Over there is an old field that has been left unkempt for a long time…since the town keeps getting bigger and bigger, we'll need the additional field next year. I want you to clean all the stumps, rocks and rubble that are there, so that we can use it. There is an axe already there that you can use to remove the stumps. Now get working!"
In good spirit, Katt sprinted to the nearby field across the trees. She hadn't expected the field to be in such a bad state. On nearly every inch there was something covering it… rocks, boulders, tree stumps, bushes. Un- phased, Katt grabbed the axe that Rand promised would be there, and stepped toward her first opponent…
The thwacking sound that Rand heard continuously over and over again in the few hours since Katt was at work pleased him. He had always liked Katt, and seeing her immensely bored day after day worried him. However, now it seemed that she enjoyed her new work. Even though it was obviously not the farmer job he had promised her, it was still necessary work. Whistling a tune for the first time since his mother's noble sacrifice, he went over the next field to tell Katt to take a break.
Rand whistling stopped as soon as he got to Katt's field. It looked the same, except much worse. Bits of boulders were lying all around now, with parts of stumps spread across the field. It looked more like the aftermath of a battlefield than a cultivation field. The reasons for this did not take very long to understand…his good axe lay broken in pieces, and Katt had long since switched to her battle staff. She was there, striking a large boulder with her staff until the rock broke down into two halves. She then looked around and jumped toward the nearest outcropping tree stump before thrusting the staff out in a wide arc. Part of the stump flew out in the distance, the other part buried underground, making it more difficult than ever to remove.
Rand looked in amazement at the scene. Katt had managed to do an incredible amount of work in a few short hours… The problem was that the only thing she had accomplished was making the field even worse and increased the amount of work required to clean the field, especially since one corner was now totally ruined. Rand let out a huge sigh, starting to despair to ever find a suitable job for Katt. His mood didn't improve as Katt turned toward him and said after wiping out a bit of sweat, "That was a great job, right Rand? I have to admit that the corner over there was a bit hard to do when a big boulder attacked me…" Not wanting to hurt her feelings, Rand simply mumbled, "Uh… yea Katt…"
He had to find her a new job, fast. Katt seemed still full of energy even after fighting boulders for a few hours. He had to find something that was really simple, so simple that even Katt could do…
"Great work Katt! I'll … uh… complete that job off myself later on! Are you ready for even more important work?" asked Rand, happy of the few tricks he learned from Bow.
"Last time Bow said that, I ended up doing the dishes for one week…" commented Katt, suddenly wary.
Rand's mind started racing, Katt was right about the dishes. Not a single plate remained unbroken at the end of the week.
"No, I mean a REALLY important job, not like what Bow would give you!"
"Last time Ryu said that, I had to sweep the carpets..."
"No! The job that I want to give you is … uh… is a job that is crucial to our survival. It is a job that will enable our fields to grow many times better than it would otherwise. It is a job that will enable us to live easily during next winter…"
After Katt's yawn, Rand finally said, running out of ideas, "It is a job that will earn you the respect and admiration of everyone in town, especially Ryu!" Katt's eyes lit up and Rand continued, "I want you to weed out our field… with your hands!" yelled Rand as Katt gripped her battle staff. "Weed out the field? That's easy, leave it to me!" Katt crouched down enthusiastically where she was and started pulling some weeds out. "Good girl! I'm going to go to the other field and start repairi-…finishing the job you have started." Rand left to the other field, wondering if weeding plants would be boring enough to calm her down. It was unnecessary work for such a big field, but if it at least kept Katt from making some mistakes…
The sunset signaled the end of Rand's hard day of work. Repairing Katt's mistakes would take him at least a couple more days, but at least it was manageable. With a sigh, he left his field to check on his newest pupil. "KATT!!! You weren't supposed to weed out the vegetables!!!"
Slightly annoyed, Katt pointed to the huge piles of vegetables that she had torn out, "Hey, you told me to weed the field out, so I'm weeding it out! What more do you want?"
Rand shook his head wildly, starting to panic: "You just destroyed half of what I planted this year! What are we going to eat this winter???"
Katt simply shrugged, "Well, we saved the world a few years ago, and still have a whole lot of money left from these monsters! Can't we just buy some food? Why do we even bother making fields, anyway?"
"Katt… remember that our city is stuck hundreds of feet in the air! How do you think they can send us food???"
"Oh, I'll just ask Bleu to warp us some!"
Rand watched Katt run to Bleu's house. It only took a few seconds before an explosion was heard.
---
The sweet aroma of cooking worms was filling Township's kitchen as a large plum frog-man busied himself at the pots. A horrendous chant rose from its voice, nearly covering the insistent knock on the door. Jean, prince of Simafort, turned his attention away from his work and answered with a simple "Oui?"
Jean's large eyes grew even wider as he saw who had come to visit him: Katt, wearing no more than an obviously never used cooking apron. Katt might not be Nimufu, but… words for an ode about the lovely Woren started building in his head. The large green hopeful eyes, the singed fur and hair…
Singed fur and hair? Jean looked at her again more seriously. She definitively had been burned… "Oh ma pauvre amie, qu'est-ce qui t'es arrivé?" After getting a blank look from Katt, he tried again, "What happened?"
With a shrug, Katt answered matter-of-factly, "Oh, I just asked Bleu to warp us up a few tons of food this fall… Lazy bum didn't like it though! She threw a fireball at me… seeing her throwing all sort of spells to stop her house from burning down was all worth it!" Jean's smile matched Katt's own. She didn't take Bleu's actions against her seriously, just like Jean would have. Unlike Katt however, his large frog mouth made him look even more weird when he smiled, "Je vois…" then he added after a moment, "Actually… I don't! I'm happy you came to visit me, but I can't do anything for the burns! Maybe you should ask Rand?" Katt quickly shook her head, "Uh… Rand is in a bad mood right now… My fur is going to be all nice again by tomorrow. Anyway, that's not why I'm here!"
Katt pulled a bit on her apron near her chest, to make it stick out more: it also had the side effect of showing even more skin than before. As Jean turned even more green than usual (the creeping clan version of blushing), Katt continued to explain, unaware of her companion's discomfort: "I want to become a cook! Like Rand says: Food is important! It gets people to respect you, like Ry...everyone! And Petape said you are the best cook ever! Wanna teach me?"
Jean wide jaw dropped in amazement. Someone finally recognized his culinary expertise! He puffed his chest in pride and a large grin appeared on his face. He was so surprised that he did not notice the sweet smell quickly turned into an odor of burn. Maybe she would even appreciate his exquisite paintings and poetry too? He stood there dumb-faced, daydreaming while Katt patiently waited for her answer, staring at the black smoke rising from the stone. Jean suddenly snapped back to the present and accepted hurriedly: "Bien sur Katt! I will teach you!"
"Great!" said Katt enthusiastically "Maybe you can explain me why there's smoke coming from there, then?"
"Oh non!" lamented Jean as he jumped toward the oven with agility Katt never thought he had. He peered inside, only to see a black and inedible mass lying at the bottom. "That was for Tata, his wife and me! They traveled all the way from Simafort! I can't let mes sujets royaux sans un festin! I don't have time to make a new feast by myself!" Seeing Katt tapping her foot impatiently suddenly gave him an idea: "Katt, tu veux m'aider a faire a feast in true Simafortian spirit?" He was a bit concerned since non-frog never seemed to enjoy his cooking for some undecipherable reasons, but Katt fortunately answered positively with an annoyed: "Whatever - Just teach me!"
The pair went about gathering the necessary components. Two large bowls found themselves sitting on the center stone table, alongside with the ingredients the Woren had gathered: Flour, brown sugar, eggs and baking powder. "All right, what now?" asked Katt her tail swaying back and forth in rising excitement. Jean was still busy looking in his own personal supplies that the others had forced him to keep far away from the 'normal' food. "Mon amie, you make the paste while I finish gathering the rest!" explained Jean with an unusual clarity of thought: "Use one bowl to put the solid ingredients, and the other for liquid..."
The instructions went on, and Katt followed them well. Put stuff in the right bowl, mix stuff, fetch some more...easy enough! "What's next?" asked Katt, her cute face white with flour. She was actually good at that!
Arms filled with jars, pots and kettles, Jean made his way back to the table. "Maintenant, we do the filling!" Jean went to the oven to prepare something while he continued to instruct Katt, his back turned to his apprentice.
- "Clean up one of the bowls and fill one fourth of it with water."
- "Done!"
- "Open up the blue jar and put two handful of worms in your bowl."
- "Check"
- Take a few flies, but remove their wings and legs first... We just want the tasty parts, right?"
- "Yeah..."
- "Once you have finished that, take the cockroaches and crush at least ten of them over the bowl to get their juices. Remember to keep their heads intact: We will need them later!"
- "...all right..."
- "Now, mix everything in the bowl with your hands to keep the taste intact and pure!"
- "..."
- "Katt?"
- "..."
The frogman turned toward his companion, concerned. Her face was now the same color as Jean's, her tail hanging down limply. Suddenly, she made a desperate dash at the door. She reached it, continued on her attempt to exit the building... The sound of retching quickly came to Jean's ears, quickly followed by an outraged: "Hey! Watch it! That's my carpet!" from Bow.
"Oh, misère!" commented Jean at the loss of his apprentice and of Katt's last lunch. With a shrug, he went back to his cooking and his chants, the whole event already forgotten...
---
Tonight, the mess hall was empty. All the wooden tables were free, everyone having left long ago, back to their rooms. That is, everyone except for a pitiful Woren. She was slumped in her chair, her eyes starring into nothingness. "You look down!" called the old man Niro from his side of the bar, cleaning glasses. "Just gimme a big one..." mumbled Katt. Niro's old ears had to strain themselves to understand, but it was all pretty obvious.
"A whole one? You sure?"
"You deaf or what??"
"Be right there!"
The sound of bottles clanging immediately started, and a simple burn spell was cast, Niro's ultimate for reheating dishes. The old man made his way to Katt's table and placed a large tankar of milk and a platter of food next to her before sitting in the opposite chair. Like a drunkard, Katt reaches for the tankar and drained half of it in a single gulp. As quickly as the tankar rose, it now crashed down on the table, spilling some of its content on Niro. "What's that?" slurred Katt, pointing at the food. It looked like a breaded... something... but it seemed quite good.
"That?" asked Niro brushing some of the milk away. "I'm not sure, but it was made by Jean just for you!" Katt turned a bit green before pushing the plate away. "I'm not hungry..." After a long pause, she admitted: "You know... I suck!" Niro barely had time to nod in agreement before Katt's claw shot forward, clutching his neck: "HOW DARE YOU!!!"
Katt didn't notice the old man was changing color or that her long nails where biting in his flesh. "You dare tell me I suck??? Answer me!" A garbled noise was the only answer. "ANSWER ME! Oh..." apologized Katt.
"Ow..." simply commented Niro, rubbing his throat. "I meant... you were bad at what you tried... No, not bad! Let's say average...yeah, that's it... you were average at what you tried, but you can still be good at other things though!"
"Like what?" asked Katt, leaning her head on the bar depressively.
"Cooking?"
"Tried."
"Cleaning?"
"Ask Bow about his carpet."
"Painting?"
"Locker fired me when I did some retouch on his Ticasso."
"Sculpture?"
"Bashed Salvatore's head in when he asked me to pose nude for a statue..." with a grimace, Katt continued: "He's working on a nude Sana now..."
"Maccoti?"
"Hrm? Bum doesn't do anything..."
"True... Sumner?"
"He's just a musician..."
An idea suddenly clicked into Niro's head: "That's it! What did you do before?"
Humbly, Katt answered: "I was a demon-slaying, monster killing hero that saved the world, why?"
"Err... I mean before that!"
"Oh, I was a gladiator."
"And you were good at that?"
"The best!" Katt flexed her forearm in an attempt to show off her muscles: "Never lost a single fight!" she continued giving a quick glance around to make sure Ryu wasn't around. "Thing is though... there's no one around here who wants to fight me now and Coursair is a long way off!"
Shaking his head slightly, Niro explained: "I mean, you are a great entertainer! Maybe you could pair off with Sumner and do some dancing here! You have the perfect physique for it and it'll make this place much more lively!"
Katt's cat ears rose in interest. Dancing wasn't that different from fighting! She definitively was better at physical stuff, and she did have the perfect body to dance in a bar... perfect body to dance in a bar... "HEY!!!"
Niro waved his hands in front of him while screaming: "Noooooo! Not that kind of dancing!"
That was enough to make Katt's attack stop... at least temporary.
"I meant more along traditional dancing!" explained Niro quickly. Seeing his explanation didn't seem to convince the unpredictable Woren much, he changed tactics: "You are graceful beyond everything I have seen! You would be able to pull out moves no one else here can! You are... erm... like a beacon of purity! Everyone who would see the grace of your dance would forever remember you as the Dancing Lady for every moment of their lives!"
Niro slowly moved his hands away from his face, fearing that his desperate attempts would make the Woren even angrier. Instead, he saw a wide-eyed, slightly blushing Woren. She flicked her hair back and pumped her chest a little. "Really?" Niro vigorously nodded his head: "Kick ass! I'll get Nina to sew me a costume!" exclaimed Katt as she ran up the stairs.
"Katt, it's past midnight! Forget it... time for an old man to go to bed!"
---
Two short weeks after, Katt was ready. The whole of Township was gathered outside near the small stage, each silently hoping that Katt finally found her place. Sure, she was trying her best to help, but up to now she just ended up bothering everyone... badly.
All of her apprehensions melted as a transformed Katt climbed on the stage. Her normally unruly hair had been neatly arranged, hanging over one of her eyes, part of her hair tainted light blue. Her outfit was mainly a single, long band of alternating color, holding a few bright patches of tissues in a colorful and attractive mesh. It was warped everywhere: around her legs, arms, neck and torso, one big patch at every 'critical' location. Long light pink strands were tied to her ankles and wrists, flowing gently in the slight breeze. In another setting the whole outfit would match that of a clown (albeit a really attractive clown), it seemed to remain serious yet vivid on her, perfectly settling the mood for the dance.
Even Katt looked surprised at her appearance, she threw a telling look at Nina in the stands, who simply smiled and lifted a thumb in the hair. Katt nodded and motioned to Sumner.
A slow, mournful music rose from Sumner's instrument, matching Katt's first tentative steps. Her bands behind her flew, matching each note of the song. The pace soon grew livelier, and the dancer followed suit. She turned and spun in rhythm, each step an image of grace. The rythm increased in speed and so did Katt's movements. With inhuman grace, Katt turned and danced, pulling moves that were though to be impossible to link together, the flowing colored bands waving in harmony with her movement.
Katt did not miss a single beat, being one with the beautiful music. The music sped up again to astronomical speed, and yet Katt followed it, rendering her display more and more dazzling, more haunting. The music stopped suddenly, and Katt fell down to one knee, head bent down.
For a moment, everything was silent. Katt's performance was forever written upon their memory, a moment of pure grace to be remembered. As one, the crowd stood up and applauded heartily. With a large grin, Katt rose and bowed before the crowd before pulling an impressive split to further show her prowess... unfortunately, the costume was not made for such move, and a faulty link made the band snap... Her whole costume fell down in a small pile at her feet. In slight panic and in an a total lack of modesty, Katt simply glared at the crowd, making no attempts to cover herself, not wanting to do like silly ladies and start screaming away. Some in the crowd simply starred blushing, some turned their eyes away... Katt silently congratulated herself to act like a mature woman instead of a scarred little girl. She did one last bow and picked up her costume before turning to leave... it is then that she saw Sten, drool falling from his gaping mouth, making a large pool at his feet. In normal conditions, Katt would have felt disgusted, annoyed and proud at the same time. That was no normal conditions however: it was STEN looking at her like that! That maniacal soldier that tried to force her in a date with him!
"Perverted monkey! I'll show you!" yelled Katt as she launched herself from the stage in a berserk rage, pushing and kicking Sten into oblivion until Rand managed to hold her down...
---
The whole of Township was in the large mess room of the main building, excluding Katt and a few others who did not come. Each citizen was sporting a grim face and the debate waging forth was one that none really wished to ever happen.
"We can't let it continue like that!" grumbled one of Township's citizens, Azuza. "We may owe her a lot, but we can't just stand here watching everything get destroyed by her!"
The Windian princess shook her head: "Katt is just trying to help us. We need to give her time!" Nina has always been Katt's closest friend and while they competed for the attention of the same man, they had always remained friends instead of bringing the other down. "We all owe her our lives! She may do some mistakes, but she is still our friend!"
Wrapped in bandages, Sten strongly disapproved: "Yeah, well... if it goes on like that, there's going to be a few corpses in the town! Look at me: I didn't do anything to her and she broke me a few ribs! The only thing she can do is fight! I say we kick her out until she learn something worthwhile or at least stop making trouble! What do you say, Ryu?"
"..." Ryu stayed silent like always, but the frown on his face showed his disapproval.
The debate went on, Bow claiming that his priceless rug has been lost because of her, that Bleu would have to use most of her energy and time transferring food during Fall...
Finally, Rand banged his large fist on the table and claimed: "She may be making our lives harder lately, but like Nina said: She is still our friend! It's not as if she caused wounds that we cannot heal or that she destroyed our town..."
---
"And then, I ran up to the beast and pulled Ryu away from its grasp before crushing its head with a single blow! It fell down near me, but there were more coming, and..."
Katt was sitting on the ground cross-legged, a needle and a thread in her hands. The town seemed deserted, and Katt didn't know where anyone was, except Yozo. The weird Windian had never said anything to anyone, even if Katt had talked to him at least fifty times before today. Still, telling someone about her previous adventures made her waiting for everyone to come back more pleasant.
"I waved Nina and Ryu back, and I posted myself in the middle of the tunnel, blocking the path of the lumbering barubary coming toward me... It was huge, larger than any other I have seen! Ow..." Katt had pricked herself again with the needle, fixing her dancing outfit but hitting her own fingers more often than not.
"Were was I? Oh yeah... It charged at me, I had no space to evade either left of right... I dove right over it, over the few inches that were left between its back and the ceiling. I gracefully landed on my feet, and spun around; the beast could not turn around because of the corridor, and I hammered away at his unprotected back. The beast tried to back off, but it was too late, I crushed one of its legs, rendering it helpless. That gave Nina and Ryu the time to prepare their assault on the front and finish the beast off..."
Katt stopped her storytelling and held her dancing costume before her eyes. "Perfect! I'm done!"
It was then that Yozo talked for the first time: "You have talked to me enough times, I shall now give you magical power!" Katt scratched her head for a moment, not really caring why she would receive it, "Oh yeah? Sweet! This means that I'll be able to finally cast spells?" Yozo nodded once, and placed his hand on Katt's forehead. A beam of light came from it, encompassing Katt in a pure white light. "There. You can now use one of your spells once per day, no more."
A wide smile pasted itself on Katt's face; Nina and Bleu had told her long ago that she had incredibly strong magical power within herself, and that she did not have the ability to use it... until now. Katt concentrated for a moment, placing her hands before herself, feeling power building within. "Fireball!" she yelled after a moment. Unlike Bleu's tiny fireball however, large dragons of fire arose from her stretched hands, flying across the town, consuming everything in their path.
"Oh crap!" Now she had done it: The whole town was burning down! She had powers to stop it now, though... She concentrated again, feeling for water; cold, very cold water... "You do not have the ability to use spells more than once!" commented Yozo, taking a step back as another spell was conjured by the Woren.
Large ice darts flew from her hands, striking the buildings, tearing huge holes in them and doing nothing to stop the spreading fire. Katt would have panicked if she didn't suddenly fell so tired... She laid on the ground, curled over herself, sleeping fitfully while everyone else came out of the burning house in panic....
---
When she awoke, she was laying on the ground, wearing her normal outfit. Not the ground of Township, laying hundreds of feet in the air... the ground of the earth. There was a small pack next to her, containing her dancing outfit, a small flute and the large sum of five thousands zenny. Her battle staff was planted in the ground, with a small piece of paper tied to it. With a shrug, she untied it, and read its content carefully:
"Dear Katt,
I had to warp you out of Township since some of the more anger-prone citizens wanted to get revenge on you... I brought you out so that nothing happened to you. Consider this as a vacation: When you come back, I am certain that everyone will be happy to see you back! Just enjoy your time away, Katt. Try to learn something that you can impress everyone with once you come back!
In case of need, I left you this flute: It will make Mina come to you if you need her. Use it when you want to return to us!
Looking forward to seeing you back,
Nina "
At the bottom, there were also the signatures of Ryu and Rand with an additional note of "Come back to us quick!"
With a sorrowful smile, Katt picked up her things, and set out wandering in the world, searching...
****
Katt shook her head, returning to the present. That was just the past, that was months ago. She would one day return to Township and show them she can do something else than fight. That in this peaceful new world, she still had her place. She looked at Coursair again. The first place she had called home.
She took a deep breath, and stepped inside Coursair's wide gates. She breathed the same air as she did in her tender youth, the same buildings she had played around joyously with other kids. She looked at the stone arena where she was seen as a queen, the arena where her adventures all began.
Katt Chuan had finally returned home... for a time. Still, she would only remain until she could return to Township, to where her friends waited for her. But until she learned more, until she felt herself useful...
She took a few more steps on the paved streets with a sad smile. Until then, she was back home.