I do not own The Cat Returns.
Hiromi sighed with sadness as she sat alone on the park bench. She just recently broke up with Tsuge as soon as she saw him hugging another girl, she didn't confront him about it, she just ran away as she felt her heart break into tiny pieces. Even though she lost Tsuge to another girl, she should look on the bright side of things, Haru was going to come back from her trip in England today. Hiromi smiled a bit as she thought about her best friend, whenever Hiromi will feel heartbreak, Haru will always be there to cheer her up. Hiromi got up and started to walk over to Haru's house until she heard slight whimpering from a slight distance.
"Huh? What was that?"
Normally Hiromi would just shrug off things, but curiousity got the better of her today. She followed the whimpering sounds until she found a fox, laying on the ground with a thorn in its paw. It whimpered in pain as it licked its paw. Hiromi blinked in awe as she watched the wounded fox, it was a beautiful silverish grey fox, with pure golden eyes and it has a white tip on its tail. Hiromi shook her head out of the trance of the fox's enchanting beauty. Normally she doesn't like animals, but this fox was so beautiful she couldn't stop staring at it. She gulped then took out a piece of blue cloth, then she carefully tip-toed near the fox. The fox sensed her coming and gave her a hiss of distrust, which scared Hiromi.....a little.....
"Easy there, I'm not gonna hurt you...." Hiromi said soothingly.
"Yeah, like its going to listen to you." Her concious said sarcastingly.
"Shut up!" Hiromi scolded her concious.
Hiromi slowly approached the fox and gently took it's paw, which was a surprise to her that the fox hasn't bit her at all. The fox continued to growl at her, but only softly.
"Easy, I just want to help."
Carefully, Hiromi removed the thorn from the fox's paw, giving it a little relief, then she tied the cloth to its paw to stop the bleeding. Hiromi smiled with success as the fox sat right up.
"See? Your all better now, but you do need to be more careful about where your walking." Hiromi advised.
Then Hiromi stood up and was going to walk away until she heard a deep suave masculine voice. "I shall take your advice personally, madame."
"Huh?"
Hiromi turned around and saw what she couldn't believe she saw. The fox was standing on its own hind legs! Hiromi's face turned ghostly white as she stared at the fox with amazement and fear. Knowing that the question was going to be stupid, she asked anyway.
"D-Did you say something?" Hiromi stuttered.
The silverish grey fox smiled at her. "Yes, I did. I thank you for helping me with my problem, fair lady. Its not everyday that you get to see a human helping creatures like me."
Hiromi's eyes bulged out anime style when she saw the fox's lips move. She doesn't know if she could either A) Run and scream like a little girl from witnessing a talking fox or B) Faint. But she didn't do either of those, for her body wouldn't move. The fox moved closer to her, took her hand and kissed it.
"I must repay you for the noble deed that you caused. I know! Why don't you come with me to my kingdom? We shall have a feast in your honor! It will be......a delightful celebration!" The fox suggested.
Hiromi blushed at the fox's comment, but again snapped out of the trance. "Hold up! I'm sorry, but who ARE you?"
The silverish grey fox gasped at Hiromi's question. "Where are my manners? My name is Prince Silver and I am honored to meet a lady like yourself! And may I ask your name, madame?"
"M-My name is Hiromi....."
Silver smiled a charming smile. "Hiromi, huh? What a pretty name! Come! We must go to my palace at once! All the foxes MUST know about your heroic act!"
Silver took off into the woods, leaving Hiromi confused.
"All I did was remove a thorn from his paw......." She thought to herself and sighed.
Since the fox prince was so insistant to have Hiromi over at his "palace" for a feast, Hiromi figured it would be rude to refuse, so she followed Silver. As she found Silver, he was standing next to a bulky tree with a hole on the bottom of the trunk.
"Is this your kingdom?" Hiromi asked.
Silver chuckled. "No my dear, this is but the entrance. All you have to do is crawl through this hole, please follow me."
Silver crawled through the hole, leaving Hiromi to ponder for a few moments. Somehow something about this seemed fishy.......but then again, she gets to have a feast in her honor........and who knows they might even have seafood there! Hiromi licked her lips in delight.
"Heh. Maybe this isn't so bad....." Hiromi said as she smiled to herself and crawled in after Silver.
Little did both Hiromi and Prince Silver know was that a big fat cat with a couple of brown spots was following them and was watching them.
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Wow! Hiromi helped a fox prince out! Will she enjoy the feast? Or is there something more to the celebration? And what about Haru? Will she even know about her best friend's disappearance?
