Artemis looked down, then looked up, hoping that the mysterious voice he was hearing wasn't just his imagination all this time.
"Pssst, over hear!" The voice whispered towards the roof. Artemis sighed in relief and hopped up towards the top of the house. On his way up, his paw slipped, and he would've fell far down to the concrete ground if it wasn't for a sudden hand that brought the terrified cat into safety and on to the roof.
"Dah- wh-who are you?" Artemis stuttered, still unnerved from his recent near-death experience. The figure appeared to be a guy in a black cape with a hood covering his face.
"That is for me to know, and for you..." He paused in the middle of his sentence, holding his finger up towards Artemis. "To never know."
"But... How do I know I can trust you if I don't even know your identity?" Artemis questioned, becoming more and more suspicious of the mysterious voice that apparently belonged to the annonomys man before him.
"That's not what you should be worried about." The man said. "I thought the entire reason you, the apparently smarter-than-average pet, longed to be a human was so you could comfort your precious owner."
Artemis frowned at his statement. "She's not my owner, and I'm not her pet." He seethed.
The man chuckled, amused at the anger the cat can hold. "Well...Pardon me. Would you mind clearing up your relationship status for me, then?" He scoffed.
Artemis looked down in deep thought.
"Well..." He started.
"'Well?'" The man repeated.
Confidently, Artemis turned to the stars. "She and I...We are a part of each other. We've been partners for who knows how long and have gone through thick in thin, the tough and rough, from happy and full of joy experiences to dark and near death. Although she might tease me and I might scold her, we're still the most inseparable pair. Without me there'd only be half of her, and without her there would only be half of me. We share the same mind. We're... Connected. Linked together. And nobody can ever change that. Nothing can ever come between us." Artemis passionately declared as he turned back to the mysterious man. "Is that good enough for you?"
The man bent down towards Artemis. "How...Beautiful." He whispered. Artemis blushed, looking away in slight embarrassment. "It's one amazing thing for a cat to be able to speak, but I didn't know you wrote poetry too!"
Artemis angrily frowned upon the man as he started chuckling. "Are you going to turn me into a human or not?!" Artemis fumed. The man chortled to himself again, continuing to be amused on how aggravated the cat can get.
"Alright, alright Mr. Touchy. No wonder that girl teases you so much, you're pretty easy to tick off!" Said the man, causing Artemis to roll his eyes.
The man rose his hands as a blue, shinning light shimmered from the tip of his fingers. Artemis, anxious and excited, closed his eyes and walked towards the man before hearing the power from his hands began to simmer down. "Oh, how can I forget?!" He exclaimed, tapping his head lightly. "We need to go over the rules and requirements!"
As Artemis heard those words, he felt as if smoke were spraying out of his ears in pure rage.
"Rule number one, you shall not reveal your true identity to your own- Excuse me, 'partner' or anybody else that knows you're a talking cat."
"But how will I-"
"Rule number two, you shall not excessively expose yourself to the public. Whether on a magazine or on the news, anything to get you out there is unallowed. It will bring too much attention to yourself, and who knows how many people would recognize you."
"But she's a-"
"And last but not least, the third and most important rule of all, you shall not fall in love with this girl. You're only allowed to comfort her, but falling in love with her as well as her returning romantic feelings for you will forever distort your destined future and result in your PERMANENT human state. Now, is that what you want?"
"But-"
"IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?!"
"No! No, of course not." Artemis sheepishly agreed. "I'm actually planning to start a small family once Usagi and Mamoru get crowned- I mean somewhere... In the future. But 'this girl' is my family too. How could I possibly comfort her the right way if she doesn't even know who I really am?"
The man walked closer and bent down, causing Artemis to slowly back away. "If there are going to be this many 'complications', don't you think its a little risky to do this after all?" He quietly inquired. Artemis rapidly shook his head in protest.
"Alright then." The man put his hands up in front of Artemis as the spinning blue ball of light flickered within his fingertips once again.
"You have exactly one month to spend as a human being. You will be provided with your own apartment and get the income of one hundred dollars every week to survive and live on your own. Please don't let this be a waste of your time and mine."
"W-w-wait, one month-" But before Artemis can even get another word out, his limbs grew longer, his face was changing, and his species was morphing from cat to human.