Stray Cat Strut

part four

by Go-Go Spiders

Zenigata sat cross legged on the bed behind Lupin and his laptop, intently watching the words appear on the screen as Lupin slowly typed them out. Lupin attempted to explain what had happened to him as fast as he could while also trying to answer the questions Zenigata kept tossing at him.

' TRIED TO STEAL EYE OF BASTET, BUT EYE HAD JUST BEEN STOLEN BY OLD GUY. FOUND HIM IN GARDEN, TRIED TO TAKE THE EYE FROM HIM, BUT HE USED IT TO TURN ME INTO A CAT. '

"How the hell did he do that?" Zenigata said.

' MAGIC, I GUESS. HE PRESSED THE EYE TO MY HEAD WHILE CHANTING SOMETHING. JIGEN & GOEMON FOUND ME AFTER THAT, BUT DIDN'T REALIZE IT WAS ME. THEN YOU CAME IN. '

Zenigata was quiet for a moment. "That's why you tried to jump out the window! You were trying to follow them."

' YUP. ALTHOUGH THINKING ABOUT IT, TRYING TO JUMP FROM THAT HEIGHT PROBABLY WOULDN'T HAVE WORKED OUT TOO WELL FOR ME. I DON'T REALLY WANNA SEE FIRST-HAND IF IT'S TRUE THAT CATS ALWAYS LAND ON THEIR FEET. ' Lupin paused before typing out a question of his own for Zenigata. ' HOW DID YOU FIGURE OUT I WAS THE CAT ?'

Zenigata read Lupin's message and looked down at the comforter, the tips of his ears turning bright red. "Erm. No. It'll sound stupid if I say it out loud."

' C'MON, PLEEEEASE ? ' After he had finished typing, Lupin sat down in front of the inspector and tried to look his most adorable.

After reading Lupin's message, Zenigata rubbed at his temple lightly. "Okay," he finally agreed. "But the only reason I'm telling you this is because of the strange, strange circumstances, got it?"

Lupin meowed. 'Yup!'

"Good. So after being tricked by your disguises one too many times, I tried to think of a different way to handle it. It took me a while, but what I came up with was that whenever I'm on the scene of wherever it is you're planning to strike, I have to assume that anyone else there is either you or one of your gang in disguise, unless proven otherwise."

' THAT'S PRETTY PARANOID OF YOU, POPS, ' Lupin typed out.

"Maybe, but it's helped me sniff you and your gang out more time than I can count. Now quit distracting me and let me finish," said Zenigata. "Anyway, when I saw you – er, cat-you – there with your clothes, my first thought was that you'd somehow managed to disguise yourself as a cat. It was dumb, but..." Zenigata shrugged, still looking slightly embarrassed. "You seemed to understand what the other officers and I were saying, and you didn't really act like a normal cat. I mean, it sounded impossible, but a lot of the things you manage to pull off are impossible. And you look how I'd expect a cat version of Lupin the Third to look."

That was news to Lupin. ' I DO ? '

"Yeah. Do you wanna see?"

Lupin considered it for a moment, then nodded.

"All right," said Zenigata, picking him up again. He carried Lupin into the bathroom, which had a large, slightly discolored mirror over the chipped sink, and turned on the lights above the mirror.

Bracing himself, Lupin looked at the mirror. Zenigata was holding a very confused looking dark brown cat in his arms, the tail twitching slightly.

'Huh. So that's really what I look like?'

Studying his own reflection, Lupin could see a vague resemblance between the human and the cat Lupin, small bits and pieces that had apparently carried over when he'd been transformed. He was still thin and lanky, and his fur was the same color as his hair. The transformation had also left his eyes mostly alone – out of everything else, they were the most recognizably his.

When Lupin tried to smile, the cat's face in the mirror looked almost disturbingly like his human one. Zenigata snorted behind him. "Yeah, you're Lupin all right."

It was exactly the right thing to say to break the tension Lupin had been feeling ever since Zenigata had brought him back to the motel. He meowed at Zenigata, letting him know to bring him back to the bed.

' THANKS, POPS, ' Lupin typed out when he was placed in front of the computer.

"Welcome," said Zenigata, lying down on the bed with his hands behind his head. "So, does the great Lupin the Third have a plan to get back to normal yet? " he said, staring up at the peeling paint on the ceiling. "Although once you're human again, I'll have to cuff you."

' FIND THE ASSHOLE WHO DID THIS TO ME AND MAKE HIM UN-DO IT, PRONTO. OTHER THAN THAT, I GOT NOTHIN'. SORRY, POPS. GUESS ARRESTING ME'S GONNA HAVE TO WAIT. '

When Zenigata didn't reply, Lupin turned around. Zenigata's eyes were unfocused and half-shut. As Lupin watched, they jerked open, only to sag a moment later. Zenigata sighed, wiping at his eyes.

Considering Zenigata had flown from Tokyo to New York City and then gone straight to the museum to foil his heist, Lupin was surprised Zenigata had managed to stay awake as long as he had. Jet lag and exhaustion weren't a pretty combination.

' YOU SHOULD GET SOME SLEEP, OLD MAN. '

Zenigata shook his head, glowering at Lupin. "Justice never sleeps," he said listlessly.

' OH YEAH? JUSTICE LOOKS LIKE IT'S GONNA PASS OUT SOON IF IT DOESN'T GET SOME SHUTEYE. '

"Hhmm," hummed Zenigata, his eyes drooping as he read the message. A moment later he was fast asleep on top of the bed's comforter, still dressed in his brown suit. His arms and legs were awkwardly splayed across the bed, and he hadn't even bothered to kick off his shoes.

'Well, that looks uncomfortable.'

Lupin lightly jumped up onto Zenigata's pillow, staring at Zenigata's face for a moment. He gently batted at Zenigata's nose with a paw. Zenigata briefly wrinkled his face, but that was it. He was out cold.

Lupin sat next to Zenigata's head, tail flicking slightly as he considered what to do next. He'd hoped to get a message out to Jigen, Goemon and Fujiko and at least let them know he wasn't bleeding out in a ditch somewhere, but at the moment he had no way of contacting them. There was no wireless internet in the motel for Zenigata's laptop to connect to, and if there had been a landline in the motel room at one point, it had gone missing long ago. Zenigata's cell was an absolutely ancient flip-phone that was decidedly not cat-friendly, even assuming he could lift the phone from the inner pocket of Zenigata's jacket and get it open.

He was too tired to try, anyway. It'd have to wait until morning.

'Sorry, guys. Hope you aren't too worried.'

Lupin sighed, stretching out on the bed. He unconsciously kneaded the comforter with his front paws before curling up next to Zenigata on the bed.

It wasn't exactly a secret that Zenigata wanted to toss Lupin into prison. Lupin had assumed that if Zenigata had even suspected that the brown cat at the crime scene was actually Lupin, he would've slapped him with a cat-sized pair of handcuffs on the spot while celebrating that he'd finally caught Lupin the Third, even if he'd happened to be a cat at the time.

But Zenigata hadn't done anything like that, even though he'd apparently realized that the cat he'd found at the museum was Lupin almost immediately.

Lupin rested his head down on his paws and closed his eyes. Something else he'd figure out tomorrow.

Lupin still hadn't returned to their hideout when Goemon and Fujiko had come back from the museum several hours later. Their hastily constructed cover story had been that the two of them were newlyweds, Margot and Sam, who lived nearby, and their cat Felix (the name had been Jigen's sole contribution to their cover) had slipped out of their house when they'd opened the front door after getting home from work.

"The place was still swarming with cops," said Fujiko crossly, storming into the warehouse. "They wouldn't let us inside until the museum opens at 10, but once we said we were just looking for our lost cat, they got a little bit more chatty." She was still wearing the long blonde wig she'd used to disguise herself, although she'd removed the tinted contacts.

"We did not find any trace of Lupin or the cat," said Goemon, who had already taken off his disguise inside the silver Porsche Fujiko had 'borrowed'. "I spoke with one of the officers there, and they said a cat had been at the scene but it was taken by one of the other officers, He advised that we should go down to the police station in the morning to speak with them."

Fujiko frowned, unpinning the wig from the thin wig cap she was wearing over her hair. "I take it you haven't heard anything from Lupin?" she said to Jigen.

"Not a peep." He'd had his cell phone set up to vibrate and ring as loud as it could if it'd received a call or message, and it hadn't gone off at all while they'd been out. He had turned the TV set off after Goemon and Fujiko had left. The local news channel ran on a loop this late, repeating the same few stories over and over. He didn't want to watch the same segment on the theft of the Eye of Bastet again. At this point, it felt like rubbing salt into an open wound.

Fujiko placed the wig back onto the wig stand, idly combing her fingers through the long blonde hair while Goemon sat down cross-legged on one of the sofas, resting his sword against his shoulder.

"Do you think Lupin's OK, wherever he is?" said Fujiko, taking the last empty sofa.

In one motion, Goemon removed Zantetsuken from its sheath. He squinted at the blade, looking at the light reflecting off the edge. "There is no shadow on my sword. I do not believe he is in mortal danger."

"Guess that'll have to be enough for now," said Jigen with a sigh, stubbing out his cigarette.