Neko-Hiro

Chapter Twenty-Five: Runaway

Out in the hallway, once they were a distance from Miyagi's office. The Dean stopped Nowaki. "Shinobu-chan, why don't you go on ahead to my office? I'll catch up with you there in a minute." The kitten scowled at him but slouched off. "Make sure you go straight there! And don't get into any trouble along the way!" The man called out after the disappearing neko.

The Dean turned back to face Nowaki, and so missed the petulant kit-teen look back and stick his sandpaper tongue out at him.

Nowaki saw it though and had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing.

"He's here because he got kicked out of school again," the Dean sighed. "He was fighting with some human boys." The administrator looked at Nowaki. "Some nekos have a harder time than others accepting their position in life."

The way that he said this, lead Nowaki to believe that the Dean was not just talking about Shinobu. "Excuse me, Takatsuki-san," Nowaki asked, "but are you trying to say something about Hiro-san?"

Nowaki had always been one to speak simply, but the Dean was slightly taken aback by the man's directness. "Well," the Dean said, his face turning red. "Kusama-san, when it comes to the University's hybrids, particularly those who have worked hard enough to achieve faculty status, I generally try to stay out of issues of ownership as much as possible. I suppose that is a fault of mine, something that I clearly should be paying closer attention to.

"You see, when I gave Kamijou-kun his promotion last week, I assumed it would be no problem. Usami-sensei has always been supportive, if somewhat removed from his neko's professional life. Well, you can imagine my shock when Kamijou-kun told me that he had a new owner. I mean, the neko had been with Lord Usami for almost ten years."

"Ten years?" Nowaki gasped. A big pit opened up in the middle of his stomach.

"Kamijou-kun didn't tell you? I was afraid of that." The Dean sighed.

"Well, I knew that he'd belonged to Usami, but I'd had no idea that it was for so long," Nowaki quickly interjected. Despite how this news made him feel, Nowaki did not wish to cause any problems for Hiro-san. He knew how much literature and teaching mean to the catman. Besides, it wasn't exactly a lie. He had known, only it was Miyagi, not Hiro-san who had "let the cat out of the bag," so to speak.

"It seems that Usami-sensei bought the Kamijou cat when he was about the same age as Shinobu, but he didn't take possession of Kamijou-kun until he was of legal age, so technically I guess, he had only been with Usami-sensei for eight years. You know that was part of why we hired him. It was quite a distinction to have a pet of such prestigious ownership here. Though, I will say, once we employed him, he certainly proved his own merit.

"Anyway, it wasn't until he had a new owner, that I even ever looked at Kamijou-kun's papers." Takatsuki looked quite chagrined as he said this. "Then I saw that his new master, Tsumori-san, had submitted shelter auction adoption documents, marking Kamijou-kun as stray/feral.

"Well, I called Usami-sensei and he confirmed that his neko had run away and had been gone for several months. When I asked him why he hadn't notified the University, he said it was because he didn't want the professor to be disgraced."

Hiro-san ran away? Nowaki did not ask this out loud, but the news of this shocked him. He found himself overwhelmed with a multitude of conflicting emotions.

The rather dense Dean seemed not to notice Nowaki's dismay. "Damned irresponsible of the man, if you ask me. To think the University had been harboring a runaway for that long, though Kamijou-kun is a very fine instructor. Anyway, Usami-sensei asked me to please not cause problems for the professor, so I agreed.

"But you have to understand my grave concern when I come in today and find that Kamijou-kun has changed hands again, within just a few months…It makes me very nervous, this transience."

"Oh, well, Takatsuki-san, please let me assure you that Hiro-san… I mean Kamijou-sensei, I am sure, will not let these changes affect his ability to do his work. I know that he is very dedicated." Nowaki said, though he was still reeling from what the Dean had just told him.

"I appreciate your vote of confidence in the professor, Kusama-san. Though I must tell you, the fact that he ran away… well, that's a very undignified behavior, not to mention illegal. Still, I am allowing his promotion to stand at Usami-sensei's request.

"I did want to let you know, as his new owner, this tendency for flight, in case you weren't aware of it. You might want to get a tracking device for his collar or at least get him micro-chipped. If Lord Usami had done this, they would have returned his neko to him when they picked Kamijou-kun up, despite the fact that he'd lost ownership rights by that time."

"What do you mean?" Nowaki asked.

"I'm surprised you don't know, Kusama-san. As the owner of a neko, I suggest you make yourself familiar with neko law. Usami-sensei reported it to neko welfare when his Kamijou cat first disappeared. If a neko is reported and not returned or if it is returned and its return not recorded, unless the hybrid is chipped, after a month the owner loses legal rights.

"I suppose it was because of this Usami-sensei told me he did not contest his rights with Tsumori-san."

"You mean Usami-san knew Tsumori-san had Hiro… Kamijou-sansei?"

"Yes, he said he'd tried to buy the cat from the man, but Tsumori-san told him the neko didn't want to go back to him, so he decided to leave the professor where he thought he would be happiest. Though I can't say if Kamijou-kun has switched owners again so soon that it could have been all that happy."

The Dean scrutinized Nowaki again. "Kusama-san, as Kamijou-kun's new owner, I feel it's only right to warn you that given all of this, the professor is on the strictest probation. If there is another incident, or if all these changes affect his ability to teach, at the end of the semester, not only will Kamijou-kun lose his promotion, he will also lose his job."

"I understand, Takatsuki-san, and I appreciate you giving Hiro-san, I mean Kamijou-sensei this chance. I am sure he won't let you down," Nowaki said gravely. "He is a most amazing hybrid."

"I hope for his sake you are right, Kusama-san," the Dean sighed, happy to be done with this unpleasant conversation. Then he looked at his watch. "Oh, my," he breathed. "I'd better get back to my office, "heavens only know what mischief Shinobu has gotten himself into by this time. Thank you for talking with me, Kusama-san."

"No, Dean Takatsuki, thank you for letting me know all this information, I very much appreciate it."

This said, Nowaki watched the Dean hurry off to his office. Nowaki found himself heading to the exit of Languages and Literature building, feeling lost and weighted down among all this new information and his own troubled thoughts.

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