To Zing or Not To Zing

Chapter One: Only Compassion

A kind gesture can reach a wound only compassion can heal.

-Steve Maraboli

xxXxx

"Ah, what a night for a ride," Murray sighed happily while steering the hearse with one lazy hand.

Outside the car windows, lightning flashed and rain poured so heavily that he was planning on how to joke about how 'someone must have washed their car'. The windshield wipers were at their maximum speed, and yet his vision was still half-distorted thanks to all the rain.

That's why the mummy was taking the road at a slower, more relaxed pace than the official speed limit.

Frank was a little less relaxed, using his large hands to very delicately hold a set of binoculars to one eye at a time since his eyes were too wide apart to use both lenses at once. "I sure hope she isn't out there," he muttered under his breath as he carefully searched both the road and the dark forest beyond. "A human can get sick from almost anything, and this would definitely make the cut if she doesn't have shelter."

Murray nodded, taking the road nice and slow as he also tried to keep a lookout for both their target and the steep side of the mountain they were patrolling. "Hey, she was clever enough to escape those idiots. I'm sure she knows better than to be out in this."

"Unless she has no choice," Frank finished the thought, his tone turning low and mournful. "I remember nights much like this, and I couldn't find so much as a cave until the next week. That doctor made sure I can handle even a polar expedition, but she's just a girl."

The mummy laughed. "Forget to put your brain back in before we left? All this happened because she's not 'just a girl'." He then sighed, taking the road even slower so that he wouldn't wreck the car with his distracted thoughts. "Poor Baron."

"Poor both of them," Frank corrected, suddenly becoming intent on something he could see through the binocular. He even rolled down his window and stuck his head out with the binoculars to make sure of what he saw. "Murray! There's a hitchhiker two bends ahead of us!"

"On it," he answered without thinking, forcing himself to only speed up enough to catch up to the hitchhiker a little quicker.

As they drew close enough to see the hitchhiker step a little more off the road and closer to the woods to let them pass, they could tell she wasn't the one they were looking for.

She had long, dirty blonde hair that didn't look like it had been brushed in months, though she was wearing a flower headband in an effort to look a little nicer. A long floral shirt with denim shorts were clearly seen through the plastic raincoat the poor child was shivering under, and her worn boots were gushing with rainwater. Even the backpack she was wearing had a tarp crudely wrapped around it and tied shut with a bit of rope.

Murray slammed on the brakes anyway, making the hearse skid noisily as it slightly turned to the side thanks to the wet road.

Frank was already stepping out of the car to approach the hitchhiker, who had stopped dead in her tracks in order to stare. It was hard to read her expression through the large set of glasses covering her face, but the rose tint to them seemed to be a good omen.

"Hey, this is no weather to be outside," the reanimated corpse scolded the soaked girl, tearing off his own coat to wrap around her like a giant blanket. "Come with us until the storm blows over, there's plenty of room where we're going."

"H-Hotel Transylvania?" the girl stammered, but it was easy to see that it was the dropping temperature that was to blame. Especially since there was a note of hope in her voice, and she couldn't take her amazed eyes off of him.

"That's right," Frank coaxed, leading the girl to the hearse like a timid pet. "Drac has a policy for people that can't pay, but he's very reasonable. Come on, you're safe now."

The young girl stared up at him for a solid moment before she began to cry into her hands.

Frank started in worry, but since her tears still weren't of fear, he managed to load her and her large backpack into the back seat before resuming his place next to Murray.

"Hey, kid? Are you going to be ok?" the mummy asked before changing gears.

The flower child nodded, uncovering her mouth enough to showcase a wide smile of relief. "I finally think so. I feel so."

The two monsters relaxed as the car turned around to head back the way they came.

"So what was a nice girl like you doing out on a night like this?" Murray asked, adding just a touch of flirt to his tone to help preserve her smile. "You don't look like you came from one of the nearby towns."

"I know I don't act like them, either," she muttered under her breath, which was finally slowing to a normal rhythm as she rubbed at her tearing eyes without removing the rose-tinted glasses. "I was coming to the hotel to ask for a job and protection. Life's been going downhill this year, and I don't know where else I can turn right now. Thank you for giving me a lift, my feet are killing me."

Frank kept his upper half turned to the backseat to retain eye contact with their guest as Murray kept driving. His stitched mouth was twisting with concerned thought. "Why a monster hotel? If you need protection, shouldn't you go to the police?"

The girl gave a harsh, bitter laugh as she pulled down the hoodie of her clear rain poncho and tried to work her arms into the massive armholes of Frank's jacket. "If that was all it took, I wouldn't have been forced to run away from home. The police where I live were bribed not to interfere, so I had to take charge before things came to a head."

Frank cocked his head, reaching back with one large blue hand to gently rub her long hair that felt like straw in an attempt to comfort her. "What kind of trouble is so bad, that you'd ask protection from monsters?"

She gave a tired sigh and a thankful smile as she gripped his large thumb for sorely needed comfort. "It's a long story. But here's the much-abbreviated version; after a month of trying to tell my mom something she didn't want to hear, she flat out told me that she'd disown me if I gave her monster grandbabies since a bunch of werecats-"

Murray slammed into the brake again, almost sending the hearse over a sharp turn. He and Frank shared a long look of complete surprise before turning to look at the suddenly wary teenager who had quickly managed to brace herself against the back of their seats.

Frank gently removed the rose-tinted glasses to reveal a pair of warm brown eyes that were more than a little familiar.

"Haru Yoshioka? Is that you, girl?" Murray whispered, even though he already knew the answer.

Those brown eyes blinked once before a rueful smile emerged. "So. You heard about that mess, huh?"

Murray and Frank looked at each other again before the mummy turned back to the road and rolled his shoulders as if preparing to race. "Buckle up, buttercup. The sooner we get you to safety, the better."

He didn't see it because all of his attention was now on getting back to the hotel, but he could certainly feel the poor girl's grateful smile.

ooOoo

"DRAC!" Frank bellowed at the top of his lungs as he physically carried the human girl through the spinning hotel door. "We found Haru! She's here!"

There had been monsters casually walking through the main hall, and others indulged in their own conversations, but everyone, including the skeletal mariachi band turned dead silent as every eye turned to look at the soaking flower girl.

She managed a sheepish smile and tiny wave before a flood of purple mist raced from the top of one of the stairs and directly in front of Frank. The mist then quickly reorganized itself until the most famous vampire on the planet was standing nearly eye to eye with the girl.

But that was mostly because Frank was still holding her in his arms.

"Where have you been?!" he demanded, using one hand to check her temperature by the forehead. "You're colder than death itself, and we've been worried sick! Why didn't you call us?!"

Haru's mouth fell open in surprise. "…Uh-" was all she could get out before he was at it again.

"Frank, follow me to her room. She needs to get out of those wet clothes as soon as possible." Without much warning, the count took off running up one of the stairs like a normal person, and Frank was keeping pace maybe one of his footsteps behind the vampire.

Murray would have followed, but somebody had to park the car.

"… You knew I was coming?" Haru finally managed to blurt in surprise as the run jostled her with each step.

It was only then that Dracula was able to give her a relieved smile over one shoulder. "The head of the Werecat Society made some educated guesses while hunting down your tormentors. But wouldn't it have been simpler to have gone straight to the Transylvanian airport and call the hotel from there?"

Haru flinched as she gripped the front of Frankenstein's shirt as he ran in large bounds. "I was worried sick that those jerks had allies, and they would have been waiting for me if I went there. Anyone with a single brain cell would have known I was coming to see you if I had gone straight there."

"What about calling from Budapest?" he pressed with a stern expression that made it clear he had been just as fearful as angry about her actions.

Haru looked down at her lap while blushing a little. "I didn't think of it," she admitted. "I've tried to call the hotel when I was still in Japan, but Thiris intercepted the calls. I guess I was still thinking he'd do it."

He gave her a distressed look before continuing to run down a hallway and up a second flight of stairs. "I suppose I shouldn't be too harsh with you. I've been backed into corners a time or two myself."

"More than a time or two for me," Frank also assured her with a warm smile as his gigantic feet pounded after his friend at an impressive gallop. "A lot of my reputation with humans back in the day was because no one wanted to take responsibility for making me finally lash out."

"Nothing's changed," Haru groaned as Dracula finally opened one door wide and gave her a surprising bow.

"This will be your room as long as you need one. One of the maids put a spell on the bathwater to keep it hot for you when the storm started. Just in case we found you."

Haru smiled in complete bliss as Frank set her down just outside the open door. But before she stepped in to see it, she gave the vampire a look that didn't really need confirmation. "Things exploded after I left, didn't they?"

Dracula nodded, but braced one of his long-fingered hands against her back to ease her into the room. "We can talk about it after your bath and change into dry clothes."

But the slight girl didn't give up, turning enough to clasp his hand. "If this place has an internet connection, I should make a public statement," she insisted. "I know there's idiots that were just waiting for something bad to happen to me, and they deserve to have their footing cut out from underneath them before they hurt anyone else."

Drac blinked but nodded his agreement without much hesitation. "I'll make sure everything's set up for you. Now go soak for at least ten minutes, young lady!" he ordered while imperiously pointing a long finger into her new quarters.

"Yes, sir," Haru couldn't resist laughing with a relieved smile as she finally complied and shut the door after her.

Not wanting to waste a single second, Drac gestured with his head for Frank to follow him some distance from her door. "How much does she know?" he whispered.

"You told her more than we did," Frank answered in as low a tone as his throat could manage. His small black eyes welled up in sympathy. "All we told her was that she was safe now."

Drac sighed with relief while sneaking a glance at the poor girl's door. "That's probably all she can handle right now, anyway."

ooOoo

It was only half an hour before one of the maids was escorting Haru into the library. She looked a lot more relaxed than before and had thankfully ditched the 'flower child' attire for a simple purple shirt and long white skirt.

Murray did a double take as he adjusted a small camera at a comfortable couch. "I thought you had brown hair, girlie."

Haru offered him a nervous smile while touching her shortened locks with one hand. "I had to dye it red to look like my mom. She was the one with the passport, and I didn't want them to figure out what I was up to."

"You certainly did that," Dracula muttered under his breath, coming forward to escort her to that couch before throwing a few thick blankets over her lap for good measure. "You were already in the air before anyone connected the dots, and long out of the Budapest airport before any of my people got there."

Haru nodded, partially in satisfaction and partially in guilt as she wrapped herself a bit more snugly into the blankets until she looked like she was in a cocoon. "Sorry about that. Did you mean to give me that nice of a room? It's going to take me a while to save up what I owe Mom, never mind a room here."

"Never mind that," he ordered, uncovering a large copper mug from a nearby tray before handing it to her. "There will be time to exchange information after your little speech. Drink this."

Haru inhaled the fumes emanating from the cup for a long happy moment before taking the first sip. Her lips turned up in an uncontrollable smile. "You know, I was hoping mice tasted better cooked," she said conversationally before taking another drink.

"Night and day," the vampire agreed before looking up at the laptop connected to the camera. "How close are you, Griffon?"

The pair of glasses that seemed suspended in the air shook slightly as a nervous laugh was heard. "I think I accidentally turned it on already. … Yep, I'm ninety-eight percent sure the internet heard what she said about mouse soup. Hey, I thought humans hated mice," he realized, directing his glasses to look at the teenager in surprise.

Haru huffed darkly after taking in another long sip. "I had to get a lot less selective about what I eat on the way here. I had a lot of trouble with-" she cut herself off while shaking her head. "Sorry, getting ahead of myself."

Dracula retreated a bit while Murray focused the camera more fully on her.

Underneath the blankets and still holding the mug of soup, the slim girl sat up tall and proud as she looked squarely at the camera. "Hey, everybody! This is Haru Yoshioka, live from Hotel Transylvania. I hope to high heavens that this is the final word against all the people that tried to insist on my behalf that I hate monsters. I don't care if they claim they heard it from my own lips. They weren't listening to me at all, so feel free to pelt them with whatever you have handy. That warning I gave the monsters about going into hiding should have been a big enough clue about my feelings on them."

All the monsters in the room breathed a heavy sigh of relief at her sweet words.

"They did heed my warning, didn't they?" she asked worriedly, making Murray nod.

"We know how to go underground, and you gave the ones in Japan a lot more warning than they usually get, so they were fine. It's how the Head of the Werecat Society knew he needed to get there pronto."

She gave them a collective warm grin before turning her attention back to the camera. "More than one person with that bossy attitude is a major percentage in my decision to run here for help, since anyone that 'tried' to help me before I left Japan had a larger price tag than I want to be responsible for. Even the hints I've been getting about the Head of the Werecat Society is making me extremely grateful that I hated those creeps for being unrepentant stalkers that used my life for a litterbox than the incidental fact that they were all overgrown kittens with no self-control."

"Oh, I'm keeping that insult!" Griffon guffawed, scooting away from the laptop so that he wouldn't bump any keys in his mirth.

"I've got more," she purred before getting back to the subject. "I would also like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the monsters that have been suffering thanks to my situation in other countries. I know full well that the news was blowing things out of proportion. I swear to high heavens I really did try to diffuse that bomb, but despite my best efforts, it came down to whether or not I got caught in the explosion. I wanted to have a bigger choice on the matter, but that was all I could take control on. To the idiots harming monsters and using me as the excuse, knock it off, you blockheads!" She breathed a sigh through her nose before continuing.

"Now to the basic questions; yes, I really am fine. No, I'm not being mind-controlled by Dracula or anyone else, and I'll prove it repeatedly before I'm done. Yes, I'm completely aware that how I left Japan was selfish, cruel, illegal, dangerous, the entire package. You don't just come up with a plan like that without knowing there would be no going back if you do it." She sat back into the couch and took another drink of mouse soup with a miserable expression.

"But here's the thing; everyone else was being selfish about my life. People who had absolutely no hold on me were marching up to my house, calling us every hour of the day, and harassing my mother and I if we dared to go to a grocery store. It didn't matter what side of the argument they were supporting, I was apparently wrong no matter what I did or chose to say. Not that anyone was interested in hearing my opinion since they were too busy shoving their own down my throat. One anti-monster group in particular wanted to force me into speaking at their rallies, and it hurt me more than I could say when my mother started agreeing with them. Even she didn't have the right to fully advise me because she never let me tell her the real reason those idiots started targeting me."

Dracula in particular flinched, but Haru was too busy talking to notice as she finished her soup.

"So, Mom. Because you refused to let me tell you the truth in private when you would have handled it better and had time to adjust before I told anyone else, you get to find out just like everyone else about what happened to me earlier this year." She looked up at the vampire and offered him a warm smile while giving back the empty mug. "I was ecstatic when monsters came out of hiding, because once people wrapped their minds around all of you being real, I had a much lesser chance of getting shipped off to a funny farm if I ever told anyone about the Cat Kingdom."

"Does that mean you're going to tell us what you were doing there in the first place?" Frank asked hopefully from his place next to a large window, which was still showcasing a violent storm. He had since gotten his jacket back from the cleaners, since it rarely took a witch over a minute to wash a load of laundry.

Haru nodded while burrowing deeply into the blankets until only her head was exposed. "On May twentieth of this year, at precisely 4:45 pm, I rescued a cat from getting hit by a truck. Hiromi Hashima will likely not remember the date or time, but she will be able to confirm the incident since I broke her lacrosse stick doing it. She will also remember that the next morning, the walkway in front of her apartment was completely littered with brand new lacrosse sticks. My mother will remember the day after as the time when we woke up and found that our lawn had mysteriously grown cattails overnight. I don't remember all who saw it, but there will definitely be students of Jirashi High that remember the day I got chased to school by a bunch of cats and found a freaking bunch of packaged live mice stuffed into my locker." She groaned and briefly pressed her face into the top blanket.

"I never should have complained. All that was mild."

Dracula gave her a confused look before gently resting his hand on her shoulder in comfort. "I take it the cat was a high-ranking nobleman in the Cat Kingdom?"

"Noblecat," Haru corrected without thinking, forcing herself to shake off the depression. "His full name was Prince Lune Felinus, sole heir to the throne, but none of that mess was his fault. His father, King Phoebus, is a certified entitled idiot that would have fit in comfortably with my later stalkers. He decided that since I saved his son's life, I'd make the perfect princess. The cattails in my yard, the catnip in my pockets, lacrosse sticks for the one I broke and a packaged feast for my lunch at school were his idea of engagement presents. He'd left a list when he and his cronies visited me the night after the truck incident, but since I couldn't read cat, I thought they were a bunch of sadistic pranks until one of the king's advisors came to see if I was accepting the proposal or not."

She slipped one hand from under the blankets to rub at her head. "Why, why did that idiot pick Natoru for the job instead of Natori? Natori would have listened to me and found a gentle way to tell his majesty I wasn't interested, but no! He sends the moron that decides I've accepted because I dared to muse out loud that-"

That same hand quickly slapped against her mouth. Taking in a deep breath, she removed it to try again. "Sorry, didn't want to jinx myself twice. Anyway, now I was stuck with the Cat Kingdom thinking that I wanted to marry their prince and knowing that the only way anyone from this world would believe me is when the cats came to fetch me that night. But by then, it would have been too little, too late. I was very literally on my own."

It was only then that she was able to give a wicked little smirk. "But since cats don't like to look too deeply into things, I had a little ace up my sleeve. I know I don't look like it, but I'm a budding chemist. Since I have to do my experiments on a budget, I know how to make all sorts of bombs with common items that pretty much any household will have on hand. I didn't consider it lucky for a long time, but it was only that day when I realized it was actually a good thing that I was having such trouble finding somewhere to safely test my experiments." She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Most people seem to think that being a girl means I don't know how to handle a test tube, let alone be trusted with specializing in non-lethal explosives. But, because of all those close-minded jerks that refused me on grounds of gender, I had more than enough ammunition to talk the Cat King into seeing things my way."

Haru started wiggling around in her blankets, as if trying to find something in her pocket. "Mom, if you double-check with Hiromi, you'll find out that I never spent the night at her house in May. I left a note inside my pillowcase explaining things in case I didn't manage to escape the Cat Kingdom's clutches, but this probably explains why I told you that 'flashlight tag' marathon took a lot out of me. Also, you would have lost me a lot quicker and without an explanation if Dad hadn't tried to prank me with that chemistry set when I was a kid."

Lighting up happily, she pulled out a Ziplock bag containing another Ziplock with a flash drive in it to protect it from water. "Could someone play a small clip? There's a sound file that says 'CK conclusions' that will help prove I'm not lying."

Drac waved his hand to make the bags float over to Griffin, who was more than happy to open them and plug the contents into the laptop.

Haru adjusted her blankets to make herself comfortable again. "Since I'm a scientist, and I did have a lot of untested bombs, I started off being very methodical after I was kidnapped and brought to the kingdom. It wasn't until after I started changing into a cat and one of the palace servants managed to tell me that I could keep my humanity if I got back to the Human World before sunrise that I stopped taking vocal notes after setting each one off."

"Okay, here we go," Griffon reported, playing the file.

No matter how or when Haru talked, it wasn't enough to drown out the agonized screams and yowls of cats in the background.

"Bomb #382: Success! Blew right through the wall of the king's castle!"

"Bomb # 485: Not as effective, but the cats are coughing and distracted. Use catnip next time."

"Bombs #532 and 681: Accidentally set off both at once, and they became a bubble gum trap of doom. Those poor guards are going to have to shave their hair to get out! Remember to put a gold star next to those formulas!

"Bomb #32: Okay, so a Nair bomb wasn't a stupid idea…"

Haru was cackling evilly, though she pouted when Griffon forced himself to pause the file.

"Can we listen to the rest of this later?" he begged through his laughter. "I want to know what made you go berserk."

The pale teenager flinched shamefully, cutting off her own mirth. "You know about that?"

"It was about all we knew about you until we found out about what the idiots were up to," Murray told her with a wide grin, sliding onto a long table and propping his head up with one hand. "So what happened? It sounds like you had things under control."

"In a matter of speaking," she muttered under her breath, adjusting herself on the couch before continuing the story. "The king turned out to have a bomb of his own, and he used it to blow up the tower that would have taken me back to the Human World-"

"So that wasn't you?" Drac asked in surprise.

Haru shook her head. "I can understand that's probably how it looked, but I didn't have the right materials for a bomb that big. In any case, I was theoretically trapped in his realm. Just as I was preparing myself for the last stand, Prince Lune showed up, thank heaven." She breathed a deep sigh of relief at just the memory of the cat. "Turns out I had a bit of personal history with the palace servant that told me how to get home, and the one responsible for bringing Lune home early from his 'official business' in order to stop his father from needlessly ruining my life. I saved Yuki's life by feeding her my favorite fish cookies as a child."

She gave a very whimsical smile at the memory. "I initially didn't remember the incident or being able to talk to cats, but Mom remembered me saying that the kitten told me that life is tough. When the prince decided he wanted her for his princess, he ran to the Human World to pick up some of those same cookies for his engagement gift, which is how he met me. I was a little too stunned by a cat standing on his hind legs and thanking me to worry about the familiar box he was carrying at the time."

Haru wiggled both of her arms out of the blankets to hold them in a position of innocence. "I swear to high heavens I couldn't make this up. But in any case, Lune proposed to Yuki, she accepted without even thinking it over, happily ever after, right?"

"Bum, bum, bum…" Frank helpfully added with a dark expression.

"Thanks, that was perfect." Her own expression was even darker. "Please keep in mind that at this point in time, it's nearly dawn. Thanks to the Cat King waking me up the night before to start his reign of terror, I didn't get the normal amount of sleep before staying up for nearly twenty-four hours to get control of my own life back. Plus I was dodging his guards and chucking bombs all night while running through his maze and then up a tower before he blew it up right beneath my feet and almost killed me. He just couldn't fathom that I really did want to leave. I was tired, hungry, thought for a few precious seconds that I wasn't going to get forced into something I knew would make me miserable for the rest of my life, and at the tattered ends of my patience when the king made the worst mistake of his life."

"Let me guess: Lune had a cousin?" Griffon tried, the angle of his glasses saying that he was resting his head on one hand over the table with the laptop.

"Worse," Haru rejected in a deadpan voice.

"The king wanted to marry you himself?" Murray tried with a grin that said he was expecting to be shot down as well.

"Ding, ding, we have a winner," Haru groaned, now rubbing her head to combat a headache, making the mummy gape and shake his head sadly. "That overgrown fur ball was even okay with changing me back into a human if I agreed to be his wife. So, yeah. I literally lost my marbles everywhere to show him how little I was interested in becoming his queen."

Dracula only thought it over for a second before nodding. "I take back what I thought of you the night we saw you ripping up the Cat Kingdom. That was more than justified."

"In hindsight, I kind of regret giving his guards all those broken bones and acid burns," Haru admitted a little shamefully, but there was still a naughty grin on her lips. "I don't, however, regret hitting the king with a Nair and glue bomb before kicking him in the face. He totally earned it." Then she blinked and asked the monsters in general. "How was my game face?"

Dracula winced. "If Baron hadn't talked me out of using clips of it for the presentation just before my daughter's latest birthday, I think it would have kept us in hiding for another century or two. He kept insisting that you were probably just having a rough day." He breathed heavily while shaking his head. "I will have to thank him again for making me listen."

Haru beamed at him. "Dang, my game face must have been better than I thought. Who's Baron?"

"The top cat in the werecat circle," Murray informed her with a wide grin. "The one hunting down those idiots and skinning them alive for you."

"Is he using lemon juice?" she asked eagerly, but the mummy shrugged without a clue.

"He might now that you mentioned it. He was the first one we told about finding you and your plan to speak up, so he's probably watching."

Haru didn't waste a second turning back to the camera with a wide grateful smile. "Baron, I don't approve of killing, but I won't complain if you offered some chastisement on my behalf. I tried to take care of it myself, but I obviously wasn't doing it well enough. Thank you for actually helping and being clever enough to tip off Dracula that I was coming to see him. It's more than I got out of way more people than I want to bother naming."

"Ah!" Frank exclaimed, both to distract the girl and because he remembered something else from the incident. "Then it was the prince that opened up the portal for you to get back home as the sun was rising, right?"

Haru nodded with disgust. "Turns out his father could have sent me home at anytime. That is, before my kick knocked loose the gem that served him for a crown and I specifically used one of my more destructive bombs to break it." Then she blinked again and started giving a suspicious look from one monster to the next. "So how did all of you know about my temper tantrum there?"

They all flinched, but Dracula was the one who forced himself to answer. "The night you were in the Cat Kingdom, the Werecat Society was having a conference in my hotel. Werecats and normal ones don't get along at all, but one of them had a few contacts with someone in the Cat Kingdom, and he had a way to hack into the security footage for the castle. The first thing any of them saw was you throwing that green cat hard enough to knock down three more."

Haru gaped at him before taking a half-scoot closer to the vampire. "So the very first thing those idiots knew about me is that I go berserk if I'm pushed hard enough?"

Even the corners of his cape went down with his mood. "Even before this, I never would have accused them of prudence."

Haru growled before turning to look at the camera again. "You heard it right here, folks! Those idiots knew from the beginning that targeting me was going to be painful and humiliating, so if anyone else tries to whine that I was being too harsh with my rejections, or that Baron is being too harsh, take it up with someone who still cares!"

She took in a deep sigh and leaned back into the couch. "Lune soon followed me to the normal world and apologized for what had happened to me as I was shifting back into a human. Although he has his own foolish moments, he's a lot more sensible than his father, so we mutually agreed that since we had both benefited and lost something through this ordeal, it would be a good idea if we just let it go at that."

Frank balked at that. "How's all that an even trade?"

"I saved his life but wrecked his kingdom. His father almost cost me everything I held dear, but he himself made sure that I got back home all right," Haru explained before smirking. "Lune was pretty certain that his father's ratings would go down enough to force him into retirement as a bonus, so I was willing to just part ways and be friends from a distance." She shook her head sadly. "I kind of wish that I had insisted on a way of getting in touch with him again, because even though I shifted back into a human, it only took a few days to notice that I wasn't the same."

Murray blinked at that. "You should have been. You got out at sunrise, didn't you?"

"But I should have gotten out before sunrise," Haru emphasized with a rueful smile. "At first I was able to blame my queasy stomach on changing species repeatedly, and my heightened senses on the fear that the Cat King wasn't done with me yet, so I needed to be on high alert. I already liked fish and chicken beforehand, so that wasn't much of a hint when that was almost all I wanted to eat anymore. But since most of my other favorite foods were making me sick from the mere smell, I forced myself to look up cat allergies."

She looked down at her lap, even though she couldn't see it through the blankets. "Everything matched up. Since I usually do the cooking after school, it was easy to keep Mom in the dark. As long as her food tasted the same, she never bothered to check mine."

"But wouldn't she have gotten suspicious about the two of you eating different things?" Griffon couldn't resist asking.

"No, we ate the same thing," Haru clarified. "But before adding the stuff that makes me sick, I'd set a plate for myself aside and wear a little mask that loops over my ears or a scarf so she wouldn't notice if she looked up from her work. I think that mouse soup is the first decent hot meal I've had since the Cat Kingdom." She shook off her mood to give a somewhat forced grin to the camera. "Sure, I can't have things like chocolate milkshakes or cheesy garlic bread anymore-"

Dracula shuddered.

"-but I've definitely noticed that there are some perks to my situation. I'm nowhere near as clumsy as I used to be. I swear to high heaven that I've gotten faster and stronger too, although I had a bit of a time keeping it under wraps after the idiots started getting aggressive. My healing is a lot faster, which is a huge boon for someone that wants to spend the rest of her life setting off explosions. And then, five days before monsters came out of hiding, I found out that I could do this."

Narrowing her eyes slightly in concentration, red and brown fur began sprouting on her face, which also began changing shape. For once, the monsters around her were struck speechless as her ears trailed up the sides of her head to become large and pointed. Haru intentionally did an odd not-quite standing up from the couch, but only enough so that she could adjust her sitting, as if growing a tail within seconds underneath her skirt and blankets.

Once the whiskers were out, the change was done.

A half-feline smiled a bit nervously for the camera while taking back her seat. "I'm sure the red fur looks ridiculous when it's just messily on the human hairline on my head, but the easiest way for me to get Mom's hair without anyone catching onto my plan was to use the recipe for one of my dye bombs using hair samples from her favorite brush to get the color just right."

The monsters were now looking at Drac, as if expecting him to know what to do with the revelation. He was trying to think, but clearly not coming up with anything.

Haru sighed again. "So, yeah, Mom. This is why I tried to get you to take back what you said about 'grandkittens'. I highly doubt I'm going to bother with dating after all this-"

She was too focused to see the monsters flinch again.

"-but even if someone worth the trouble manages to sweep me off my feet, any resulting kids would more than likely inherit at least some inhuman traits from me, regardless of the father's background. That's why you were the last straw. Once I knew you would reject me if you found out I'm technically a monster now, there wasn't really a reason for me to stay in Japan and get caught in the explosion I kept trying to tell you was coming. I kept track of how much I borrowed from you without permission, and I will repay every bit as soon as I can." She closed her eyes as a tear escaped her control.

"I still love you more than anything, but I don't want to hear you disown me. Just… no. I got the idea. You hate cats, so you'll hate me as soon as you see me like this." Then in an obvious attempt to shake off her depression, she then glared at the camera. "To the self-righteous people that think they had a right to tell me what to do, don't bother asking why I didn't go public before. One, I wanted my mom to know first, and two, this wouldn't have simplified a thing. All it would have done is alienate more people and made the ones still willing to talk to me go 'so you should be dating one of the werecats!' No, I should save my dates for someone that respects me and I can trust."

That made the monsters try to hide their collective sigh of relief.

"There isn't a single one of those idiots that managed to convince me that he liked me as a person. They got me expelled from school, made my so-called 'friends' vanish when I really needed some support even if they couldn't help, and hardened my mother's heart to the point that I literally had to go running to Count Dracula for actual help." She gave the vampire in question a grateful smile before leaning forward slightly, as if to tell another juicy secret.

"Just between us, he and his friends didn't exactly let me ask for help before giving it, even before they saw through my disguise. This is my final word on the subject. I don't hate monsters. I hate jerks, and there's a lot more ordinary humans on that list right now than anything else."

She took in a long blissful sigh before sitting back on the couch again. "All right, I'm done. You can shut it off now."

"What? But you didn't finish the story," Griffon complained.

"Sure I did," she responded, looking a little confused. "Between the Cat Kingdom and coming out as a monster, I'm pretty sure that everyone who harassed me in Japan is feeling pretty stupid about now." There was a certain malicious edge to her tone and her new smirk.

"Well, what about Japan?" Frank asked, taking only two steps forward to be close enough to sit on the couch with her.

Haru had no problem with scooting over to make room for him, even if sitting next to the huge monster made her look like she was a tiny child. "I just said that-"

"But that was directed at the control freaks that were making things worse," Murray was quick to interject, accidentally knocking over a bust in his effort to suddenly look calm and relaxed again.

Not that it was working.

The mummy kept talking with a smile that seemed a little forced. "Besides, I bet Baron would like to know how badly he needs to mangle those idiots for you."

"He could make them swim for an hour in lemon juice, salt, and razor blades," Haru snarled darkly, making the vampire standing next to her shudder before reaching a long-fingered hand to touch her shoulder.

"What we are trying to say is that… well, I really did think you were going too far in the Cat Kingdom before you explained everything that led up to your 'temper tantrum'. You even admit that what you did to leave Japan was illegal, but I think that authorities and general opinion might lean towards you if you explain your interactions with the werecats."

Haru breathed a deep sigh before almost craning her head hard enough to look behind her in order to lock eyes with Dracula. The action didn't look as painful as it would have if she still looked like a human. "Do you really think it will help?"

"It will make recruitment for the haters harder," Murray pointed out.

The tired teenager gave a slow, vicious smile that showed off her fangs as she turned back to the camera. "Just in case anyone in Japan was paying attention this time… that's how to get me to cooperate."