Disclaimer: I don't own any part of The Cat Returns.
A/N: I would like to give my sincere thanks to my beta YarningChick and her patience. This story is a rewrite from the movie, so the first few chapters will parallel the movie, and then it will move off into its own unique story. Reviews are appreciated.
A NEW ADVENTURE
Chapter One
Tender hands cradled the precious seed for a moment, before gentle lips laid an equally gentle kiss on it. Then, with a light blow of breath, it sailed up and away, quickly disappearing into the bright blue sky.
Haru jerked awake from sleep to the sound of the placidly beeping alarm, blearily slapping the snooze button with her hand and rolling back over to cuddle in the blankets for a little while longer. And then, upon remembering just why she had set the alarm in the first place, she gasped. "Not again!" she cried as she nearly fell out of bed.
She threw on the uniform she had thankfully had enough foresight to lay out last night.
Her mother's yell of "Aren't you up yet!" didn't really help her confidence in her timeliness either.
"I'm up! I'm up!!" she answered, dropping her sleeping clothes on her bed, throwing the blankets over them to disguise the fact that she really wasn't that neat a person. It was a small thing to do, but somehow hiding the mess always made her feel a little bit better about her messiness.
Out of sight, out of mind as they say.
As she jumped over a large stuffed animal that she refused to retire to the closet, she dug in her pocket for the hairtie she habitually placed there and bound her hair up into a quick ponytail, paused in front of the mirror long enough to make sure her hair was passable and grabbed her bag before rushing out of her room. Only to rush back in to look at herself in the mirror again more closely.
She brushed some imaginary lint off of her school skirt and peered at herself again before running back out the door with a muttered, "Whatever."
She managed not to fall down the steep steps that joined the second floor to the first and dashed into the kitchen area, just as her mother sat down at the table and reached for the pepper-grinder, giving her the quick greeting of "Hi Mom!"
"Really dear," her mother said, grinding pepper onto her breakfast, "why do you bother setting an alarm clock?"
Haru was too busy making sure she had everything she needed for school in her bag to give a proper answer. Sure she hadn't forgotten any of her homework, she grabbed the prepared lunch off the end table and tucked it in her bag with a quick, "Gotta go!" and dashed towards the door.
"Too bad you don't have time to eat," was her mother's reply, picking up the toast with a lettuce and perfectly made egg and taking a bite, making Haru come back and hesitate at the table, looking longingly at the delicious breakfast she was missing.
Of course, her mother was not sympathetic in the least, going, "Mmmm, mmmm!" as she chewed, and giving a light laugh before saying, "It's delicious!"
With a quick turn, Haru ran out of the room, pausing only long enough to stick her head back in and complain, "That's just mean!" before dashing out of the house.
She heard her mother laugh one more time and call, "Have a nice day!"
She ran down the street and turned the corner, jumping the little hedge-like bushes to shave off a few seconds of her school-dash. It didn't quite work as her skirt managed to get snagged on some branches and she had to slap them away, effectively eliminating the time she had gained from the jump.
Determined not to be late, she continued to evenly run down the street,
She almost fell straight on her face when her shoe got stuck on a curb. She managed to recover before her face met the sidewalk, but in the seconds it took her to do so, a twin line of men were jogging between her and it, having just come down from the overhead walkway.
"Uh, excuse me," she tried, hoping the men would let her through to get her shoe. Unfortunately, they didn't and she muttered, "Oh, come on!" in exasperation.
They finally ran past and she slid on her rescued shoe as quickly as she could and continued her run down the street.
She turned deftly into the schoolyard and managed to somehow take off her shoes, throw them in her footlocker, grab her slippers, and slip them on all at a run. She actually wasn't quite sure how she'd managed that, but she didn't have the time to wonder.
She dashed up the flight of stairs and paused in front of her classroom.
The teacher was droning on about some poem involving kingdoms and mountains.
Softly, she slid open the door and tried to creep her way to her seat without being noticed.
She didn't manage it.
"Haru, we all can see you sneaking in so just get to your seat please," the teacher said in a thoroughly bored voice.
She straightened quickly and chirped, "Yes'sir!"
The class all started laughing as she walked to her seat.
Hiromi quietly sang, "Busted," as she passed.
Hopelessly, Haru glanced at a boy two rows away from her and saw him laughing with the rest of the class.
She dropped her head with a soft defeated groan.
Classes went as classes do, and the only other notable thing that happened at school was being beaned off the head with a volleyball during free period. Of course, Hiromi laughed at that too.
Getting ready to go home, she dropped her shoes on the ground and slid them on as she sighed to Hiromi, "It's not fair." She walked out of the school with her friend and continued, "First I have a bad morning, and then everyone laughs at me in class." She sighed again. "Even Machida was laughing, wasn't he?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
Hiromi giggled quietly as she said, "Yeah; pretty hard."
"Why me?" Haru asked, stopping walking and looking down. "Why are all these bad things happening to me?"
"Hmmm," Hiromi thought, stopping as well and shouldering her lacrosse stick. "Maybe it's some kind of weird omen, Haru. Like your life is gonna get a whole lot worse real soon."
Hiromi started walking again and Haru followed her, calling sarcastically, "Thanks, that helps a lot!"
"Why are you worried about what Machida thinks, anyway?" Hiromi asked gently.
"I just think he's so darn cool!" Haru replied, raising one hand and clenching it in emphasis.
"You should tell him that," her friend answered.
Haru dropped her hand and looked uneasily to the side. "What if he has a girlfriend?" she asked. "I'd look like a jerk."
"He does have a girlfriend. A freshman. Really cute!" Hiromi said teasingly.
"Then why're you telling me to flirt with him!" Haru said, playfully swinging her bag at Hiromi's head.
It was easily dodged and Hiromi answered impishly, "Cause I wanted to have a good laugh when he blows you off!" She counter-swung her lacrosse stick in defense.
"You are terrible!" Haru said, snatching the lacrosse stick and swinging that at Hiromi as well.
"Machida's not that cool anyway," Hiromi said, continuing walking, "My Tsuge is much cooler and…" she paused, looking down.
"Tsuge again?" Haru asked, following Hiromi's gaze and trailing off herself, "Can…"
A beautiful cat strode between them.
It was a dusty black color, with the strangest hint of grayish-blue to its fur. It had a thin gold collar around its neck and carried a little yellow box with a pretty red bow in its mouth.
They both watched as it continued down the sidewalk, its stride graceful and smooth, then both turned to the other in curiosity.
"What in the heck was that?" Hiromi asked.
"Cat burglar?" Haru replied straightfaced.
They looked back in time to see the cat turn and pause at the street, looking quickly in both directions.
"Where does he think he's going?" Hiromi wondered aloud before calling, "Hey! Dumb cat! You'll get killed!"
The cat apparently didn't hear her as it started walking across the road.
The light turned green above it and the previously stopped cars started rolling forward.
"Oh well, it's just a cat," Hiromi stated, starting to turn around to leave.
Haru's eyes were glued to the scene. "This doesn't look so good," she said softly.
A truck was quickly approaching the cat.
Haru hoped it would get out of the way in time, but then it dropped its' box. It landed bow-side down and the cat tried pushing it back over to pick it back up.
"Ah! What is he doing!" Hiromi cried, but Haru barely heard her.
She'd already dropped her bag and was dashing into the street, lacrosse stick held high.
The beat of her feet on the pavement echoed around her, a counterpoint to her pounding heart as she focused on the pulse of traffic as it approached.
Time seemed to slow.
She felt the wind as it graced over the truck, the hum of the engine as it approached, and knew that she could do it.
She dashed in front of the truck, not even blinking as her body fell into the rhythm she wanted it to.
Even step, graceful strength, easy swing.
She caught the cat in the netting of the lacrosse stick and scooped it up, little box and all.
The screech of the tires screamed behind her as she continued, her eyes glancing down to look at the rescued feline.
In that moment, the rhythm broke.
Her stick clumsily smashed against a road meter, sending the cat tumbling and herself towards an even less graceful landing onto the dirt between the flower bushes.
She sat panting, shoulders slumped, head dropped and momentarily utterly exhausted. It was always the same when she broke from her flow. Somehow, it always took something out of her.
For a moment, she could feel that it meant something, but like always, it quickly faded, leaving her with the ghost of an important feeling from the moment.
She forcefully brought her mind back to the reason she had run into the road. Slowly looking up, she said, "Whoa, cat. That was close!"
No sooner had she said it than she'd finished looking up, and all further words left her with a gasp.
The cat was standing on its hind legs, looking quite comfortable as it brushed some dirt from it's fur. It cleaned a particularly dirty paw for a moment before turning to her with a mismatched gaze of fire and ice.
It smiled. And then spoke.
"That was quite a brave act you performed on my account. I am extremely grateful. I hope that you have not injured yourself."
Stammering seemed appropriate at a time like this.
"Well, then. I don't mean to be rude, but I'm in quite a hurry. I'll return later to thank you properly," the cat said with a bow of respect.
It was enough to shock Haru out of her daze. She bowed back and managed to squeak out, "Uh, that's okay."
The cat went back down on its four feet, grabbed the little box with its teeth and slipped under the railing and around the flower bushes. She watched it ran to the corner, looked back at her and bowed its - his head at her before disappearing around the bend.
Haru had barely heard Hiromi come up with a call of her name; neither did she fully focus on what she was saying about the stick. She was still busy staring at where the cat had been.
At the word 'cat' however, she looked up to her friend and pointed with one finger. "It talked."
"What?" Hiromi asked, looking back at her.
"That cat spoke to me," she repeated, hearing her voice tremble a little.
Hiromi stared at her for a moment before saying with concern, "Hey, did you hit your head?"
Haru looked back to where she had last seen the cat, too busy thinking to really answer.
Hitting her head could definitely explain a talking cat.
The walk home was silent.
She was torn between thinking that maybe she had a concussion and had hallucinated it, and being absolutely certain that no, the cat really had spoken to her.
She walked wearily into her house with a gentle call of, "Mom, I'm home."
She slipped off her shoes and entered the living room area, jerking more fully awake when he mom called back, "Watch it! Quilt on the floor!"
She jumped back a little, looking down to see the quilt fabrics arranged in a haphazard half-finished design.
"Oh my, this pattern's a disaster," her mother sighed as Haru picked her way across the living room. "Could you make dinner tonight?"
Haru made it past the fabric-mine field and asked, "Hey, Mom? Do you think cats can talk?"
Her mother briefly glanced back at her from a few patches of fabric she was holding before turning back to her work.
"Sure. Why not?"
Haru walked over to the kitchen counter, leaned against it and groaned tiredly.
A moment passed. And then…
"What?" her mother asked in surprise.
"You've asked me that question before you know," her mother said later that night as she picked at her dinner.
"Yeah?" Haru asked.
"When you were just a little girl. You said, 'Mommy, did you know that I can talk to cats?'"
"I said that?" Haru replied in gentle surprise.
"Yes. You don't remember?" her mother questioned.
Haru tried to think back.
It was fuzzy, but she did remember a time some years ago when she had talked to a cat. Or kitten rather.
It had seemed to her then that the meows were more than just meows. There was a different pattern of inflection and modulation in the sounds, so that if you listened closely, you could hear more than what was easily obvious.
It had been hard at first, just a general kind of understanding of what the cat had meant, but it became much more distinct quite quickly.
She couldn't quite remember the whole conversation, but she did remember how dirty the little kitten had been, and how much it had liked the fish crackers she had given it.
"So I asked you," her mother said, bringing her attention back to the present, "what did the kitten say to you. And do you know what you said?" she asked, leaning forward slightly, "You said the kitten told you that life is tough." She smiled and started laughing gently, "I thought it was so adorable."
Dinner was finished in quiet contemplation.
She hadn't really had a lot of contact with cats, but when she really thought about it, she never really heard a lot of meowing. She knew there were a lot of stray cats around her neighborhood, but there wasn't any of those cat sounds that cats were known to make.
Although, there was a lot of quiet conversation about mice and fish. She had always just assumed it was other people.
She cleaned up the table in silence, did the dishes, and got ready for bed.
She sat down heavily on her bed with a sigh, still thinking about the strange lack of meows that she had never noticed before.
"So it looks like that actually happened," she said aloud. She leaned over and set her alarm clock.
She mentally shook herself.
"Let's forget about it, go to sleep, and get up in time for breakfast," she murmured to herself, laying down in bed and pulling the covers over herself.
She cuddled in, trying to think of anything else, when her mind suddenly caught on an odd fact.
It had been maybe seven or eight years since she had met that little kitten. So why was her hair the exact same length, when she had never had it cut?
It suddenly got louder outside.
Haru couldn't quite understand it, but it was several people complaining about something. There were also some strange chimes.
She climbed over to the window and looked out, seeing that it wasn't people that were complaining, but cats, and the chiming music was coming from a kind of feline precession that was coming down the street.
She sighed as she got out of bed. It was always better to face stuff head on when it came to you. It was obvious that they weren't going to let her just slip away from this situation, and unless she wanted the cats to get her mother's attention, she had better go out there to talk to them. She got out of bed and snuck down the stairs and out the front door.
The procession was coming closer and Haru was struck with a flash of doubt. Was this really the best option?
The black and white cats seemed a little violent.
Haru hid partway behind the gate post as the procession pulled up to her.
The main cat of the line seemed to be a very fluffy gray longhair that was sitting on a kind of rickshaw that was being pushed by two large cats. It was surrounded by four of the black and white cats that looked an awful lot like bodyguards.
She guessed some things were universal.
Besides them, there was a gray tabby that was holding a rather gaudy umbrella.
Like that was really needed at this time of night.
Finally, there were two cats that looked like officials. One was a short haired variegated gray cat wearing a purple robe and sunglasses, and was holding a thin stone tablet. He looked rather stern.
The other official looked goofy.
He had a tan body and with brown around his ears. He also had pink cheeks, like he was smiling too much.
The smile was pretty goofy too.
The long haired gray cat's rickshaw came to a stop in front of her, allowing her a better look at it.
He -she assumed it was a guy as only a guy could manage that much of a slob slouch so effortlessly- was sitting on a chair that was draped with a cloth embroidered with fish. There was also a kind of collar and armbands decorating him.
The cat holding the umbrella unfolded it and carefully positioned it over the seated cat.
That was just stupid.
The stern-looking cat carefully cleared his throat. Haru could tell it was a he because it was clearly not a 'she' kind of voice. "Uh-" he trailed off.
Haru glanced around the post in a quick peek.
"Uh, come over here?" he asked. His voice seemed kinder than his original expression.
Haru peeked again and pointed a finger at herself; wanting to be sure he was talking to her before she risked those security cats.
"Mmm-hmm. A bit closer," he urged.
Maybe this wouldn't be that bad.
Haru cast one more cautious look at the two closest security cats and came forward. She kept partially bent down so as to minimize the height difference between the cats and herself. She might be bigger, but if she somehow offended them, she wouldn't be able to fend them all off.
"Please allow me to present, our wise and incredibly magnificent ruler, King of Cat Kingdom, the Cat King!"
The robed cat didn't so much as say the introduction as announce it, as if Haru were in the presence of a royal court. Of course, since this was the Cat King, it was probably a fair assessment.
The Cat King directed slow lazy look at her, then looked away, as if she weren't entirely worthy of his notice. "That's me, babe," he said in an oddly rough but smooth voice.
"Let it be known that the cat whose life you saved today was the king's only son, Prince Lune. Given the magnitude of the matter, the King would like to express his gratitude to you in his own words," the robed cat said, again in that very formal manner.
Obviously, he was the king's steward.
"Oh."
Not the smartest sounding thing to say, but she couldn't take it back. Instead, she turned her attention back to the king.
The king seemed to let out a soft groan, as if he wasn't used to having to express gratitude to anyone.
"Thanks a lot, babe."
Haru couldn't help it. She started giggling. This seemed like an interesting kind of king.
Her eyes had closed when she began laughing, so when she heard a crinkling sound just inches in front of her face, she jerked back, but it was only the happy-faced cat holding out the scroll it had been carrying. For a moment she'd been frightened that the king had taken offense at her laughter.
"A list of what you shall receive," the robed cat said regally.
Haru reached out softly and took the scroll.
"Starting tomorrow, that perfectly marvelous array of gifts will be showered upon you," the happy-faced cat said enthusiastically, revealing himself to be male.
Haru turned back to the king, knowing that this was probably a big gesture on his part. "Thank you," she answered with a gentle smile.
The king "Hmmm"ed at her, and Haru got the sense that he was considering her in some way. "Ciao babe," he replied before turning his head away and closing his eyes.
The entire procession tightened back into formation and the musicians started playing again. Haru watched with interest as the cats paraded past with quiet dignity.
A/N: Reviews are appreciated, but please be constructive with any criticism you have. Don't just say that this or that is bad. Please say why it's bad. Only when I know why something isn't good am I able to fix it.
I'm not a naturally fast writer, but I am fueled by reviews!
