Disclaimer: Neko no Ongaeshi/ Mimi wo Sumaseba © Aoi Hiiragi/ Shuueisha/ Nibariki/ THNG/ Tokuma Shoten/ NTV/ Studio Ghibli. This work is not intended for commercial gain or to infringe on any of these copyrights.
Author's Note: Today is July 15, 2005. Ten years ago, on this very day, Shizuku Tsukishima, Seiji Amasawa and the rest of the cast of Whisper of the Heart were first given life on the silver screen by Studio Ghibli. Hence today is also when I release another part of this story, since they are one-half of it. Please note that I never planned to extend the vignette in the first place (having just finished a major Ghibli crossover), but I was swayed by the few reviews I got. I also found writing this necessary to the parent story all this is eventually going to merge with, and integrating Haru and Shizuku's realities (one has a 'real' Baron, the other has an 'imaginary' Baron—how do you reconcile this without upsetting each world too much?) piqued my interest. I hope Hiiragi-sensei will forgive me, if this crud ever comes to her attention.
Some notes before the whole thing starts rolling:
1) Since it was never explicitly stated when Mimi wo Sumaseba or Neko no Ongaeshi happened, I took the liberty of dating their characters according to the years of their movie release (not the manga). Thus Shizuku Tsukishima, who was fourteen years old in 1995, is now 24/25; and Haru Yoshioka, who was seventeen in 2002, is now 19/20. Baron... don't even ask. Since he existed pre-World War II he must be at least sixty-six years old by now.
2) I have freely blended elements of the Mimi manga and movie, slightly adjusting things to account for the passing of time and to accommodate Muta and Moon and Luna, all in the same world. I'm wondering at the wisdom of even trying to do that.
3) Alas, I haven't read Shiawase no Jikan, Mimi's manga sequel, so this is an AU continuation of Mimi until I find a copy and incorporate it too.
4) If anyone knows Machida's first name, could you tell me what it is? Otherwise I'll just have to make one up. And because I'm a guy, this will have more of a Cat Returns action-fantasy feel than Whisper of the Heart's delicate interplay of romance and discovery. I'm too clumsy to ever imitate Hiiragi-sensei's light touch.
THE CAT LEAVES
It was half past eleven o' clock in the evening when the Baron returned to the Cat Business Office. Waiting for him was Muta, his partner. Fat, large and currently somnolent due to the very recent intake of a massive amount of various foodstuffs, the cream-colored cat with the dark brown ear looked up from his newspaper as Baron flung the double doors of the Business Office open.
Muta raised an eyebrow and his sleepiness departed. "Something bothering you?"
The Cat removed his top hat and coat, deftly tossing one onto a prong of the nearby hat stand and hanging the other in the clothes cabinet before speaking.
"Yes. For Heaven's sake, Muta, I told you I shouldn't be the one to deliver the invitation. Seeing Haru again after all this time has–"
"Upset you," the fat cat completed for him.
"Well, yes, but not in the way you're thinking." The Baron turned around and looked out through the window at Toto the crow's stone pillar in the center of the cul-de-sac where their abode was located. The surrounding buildings' lamps and lights were also on, giving the impression that the place was an old-world European jewel hidden twinkling in the midst of some anonymous town in a nameless, timeless world. "Still no word?"
"Baron," Muta said dryly, "you left just a couple of hours ago. Of course there's been no word yet. Relax. Have some apfelstrudel. I saved you some, along with that Devonshire clotted cream you like."
With a sigh Baron turned and headed for the cupboard. "Muta, I swear no one else thinks about food as much as you do."
"Hey, I've got a big body to look after," Muta protested. "And since those humans are so stingy . . . ."
"I know." The Cat Baron reached into a drawer and brought out a saucer and fork. "That's why you have several households taking care of you."
Muta smiled. He was very proud of the fact. It was while traveling to one—Chikyuuya, the shop owned by Seiji Amasawa's grandfather Nishi—that he first met Shizuku Tsukishima. Oh, he didn't talk to the then-junior-high-schooler. In fact, he didn't talk at all. But she followed him to the shop, and so was introduced to the Baron. And the rest was history, as they say; romance bloomed under an August sun, and a hilltop and a sunrise bore mute witness to its declaration.
Baron, now holding a saucer with a piece of the thin-crusted pastry heaped high with a pinkish-golden cream, sat down on the couch beside him. "You should've seen her," he said.
"Seen who?"
"Haru. Less the girl, more the woman these days. Very pretty."
"I know that," Muta commented. "I see her more than you do. The way she carries on with that boyfriend of hers . . . ."
"Kei. Kei Machida."
"Whatever." Muta flapped the newspaper open and started to read again. "I hope she doesn't let it interfere too much with her studies."
"Oh? And since when did you take an interest in her welfare, Muta?"
"Hey, I don't want all my pains rescuing her in the Cat Kingdom wasted. It's a good thing that daft Cat King is gone, and that Lune is King now." He flipped the newspaper page with more violence than seemed necessary. "Might make the place more tolerable to visit next time," he muttered.
"Ah, well. To be young and in love . . . since when did a victim of Cupid's arrows ever think logically?" Baron asked, scooping up a forkful of pastry and nibbling at it.
"Baron?" said Muta from behind the gray newsprint.
"Yes?"
"We are still talking about Haru, aren't we?"
"Eh?"
There was a pause. "It's been a lifetime since Nishi-san brought you to Chikyuuya. I don't want to burst your bubble, but the rumor that Toto brought back was probably just that. A rumor."
Baron considered. "No. I'd know if the Baroness was . . . gone. And as long as there's a chance that she's still out there, still in the clutches of that evil Doctor . . . I'll travel to the ends of the earth to rescue her." Nishi-san had told Shizuku Baron was a reminder of his past, and that the figurine paired with him—the Baroness Louise—went out for repairs and never came back, like the woman Nishi had arranged to meet after the war but never did. In Shizuku's brief idyll with Baron he had told her that Louise had been kidnapped by an enigmatic cat riding a mechanical beetle. Little did she know that that had happened after she had been sent out for repairs, which explained why she never came back. The intercession of war was Nishi-san's explanation for Louise's loss, but the Cat knew better; how could the old man know what had really happened, anyway?
Baron looked for her as much as he could. In the dead of night he made his way out of the shop and searched far and wide, learning a few things along the way. But he came close to Louise and her captor only once. The momentary glimpse of her face he had had then, pleading and full of despair, haunted his dreams ever afterward, and he never stopped trying to find her. It seemed for a long time, however, that the Baroness had fallen off the face of the earth, and von Jikkingen never had news of her.
One balmy April evening, however, just after the cherry blossoms had started to bloom in Tokyo, Toto came back with a rumor. The crow who also turned into a statue hopped into the open upper window of the Office and reported, "Baron, you're not going to believe what I heard." Then he proceeded to give him some information that suddenly complicated his life, by orders of magnitude.
Louise had been found. Or at least someone had admitted knowing where she was.
On receiving that information the Cat had changed. He was still as suave and debonair as ever, yet Muta now sensed a soupçon of tension and urgency underlining his actions.
Muta cleared his throat to break the uncomfortable silence that had descended between him and the Cat. "So, did you tell her about Louise?"
"Yes." Baron smiled ruefully. "She has a very strong woman's intuition," he admitted, "and actually wormed it out of me."
"Hah! Another point in her favor," Muta chuckled. "What did she say when she learned about the Baroness?"
"Oh, nothing much." He wasn't about to tell Muta that Haru had said, with a perfectly straight face but with a hint of her old crush on him still in her eyes, "Oh, that's very understandable. What woman wouldn't fall in love with you, Humbert von Jikkingen? You're kind, courteous, handsome . . . ."
It had been the Baron's turn to blush then. He told Haru he had never been a playboy, and never aspired to be one. Each woman he met, he declared, bore some trace of the Baroness in them: even Haru did that evening, he claimed, despite her unruly brown hair, oversized sleepwear, and loose anklet tabi socks; for she had a winsome smile, and her eyes were alight with love. And, so reminded of Louise each time, she was never far from Baron's heart, or his memory. The conversation had dried up then at his solemn pronouncement, and Baron excused himself and told her that he had to go. So saying, he did something that surprised Haru: he pressed his index finger to his lips and gently touched it against her own, quietly thanking her for the compliment. Then he promptly jumped off the balcony, landed on the lawn and bowed to her, running off and vanishing into the silent spaces of the night like an apparition, leaving the second-year college student's heart filled with a turbulent mixture of wonder and sadness at his words.
Baron finished the last of his meal and washed up. As the darkness deepened, and as shadowy figures walked to and fro in the square outside, he busied himself filling a carpetbag with needful things. If his avian friend could obtain the right kind of information, he was going to leave right away.
------oOo------
Toto arrived early in the wee hours of the morning, a noiseless black shadow borne on the wings of the night. The Norse god Odin's ravens Hugin and Munin, Thought and Memory, served their master by flying around and gathering news, then coming back and whispering it into his ears; nowadays Toto and his friends served much the same purpose for the Cat Business Office. Over the years they had learned that humans tended to dismiss a bird hopping around their vicinity more easily than they did a stray cat. And also in their favor was the fact that Corvidae were less vulnerable to dangers such as boys with slingshots, dogs, vehicles on the road, and similar city hazards than cats were.
Muta woke the Baron up. He had been sleeping in the window display again, in his statue form.
"What've you got, Toto?" he asked instantly, stretching his limbs and resisting the urge to rub the cobwebs out of his eyes.
"You're not going to like the first bit," the crow hedged, looking sideways at him from the upper floor of the Office.
"Never mind about that, just give it to me."
"Yeah, chicken wings, just give it to him," Muta said, suppressing a yawn. "Keeping me awake like this . . . ."
"Shizuku is missing."
"What? What do you mean by that?"
"Shizuku Amasawa is not at her New Tama Hills address. I already knew this but waited to see if I could discover her whereabouts before telling you. Alas, I could not."
"Then what about Chikyuuya?"
"Sold to a different owner, who has no idea where Seiji and Shizuku are currently." The crow shrugged his wings. "They're on vacation. Besides, you know how newlyweds are." Toto cleared his throat and looked embarrassed. "I'd have poked around some more, but I had to mediate a dispute between a flock of pigeons and a couple of crows."
The Baron cursed silently. "Now how am I supposed to get the invitation to her?" he wondered. To fail his commission would be no small stain on his honor.
"Hey, how'd you get that information?" Muta challenged the crow.
Toto gave the large cat a look he normally reserved for the especially feeble-minded. "Are you referring to the proprietor? I talked to him, of course."
"You what?" The shout almost shattered the windows of the Cat Business Office.
"I asked him politely if he knew where the previous owner had gone to," the crow replied. "Of course, if he tells anyone he met a talking crow he'll just get laughed at."
"Darn," Muta grumbled. "Now I have to find another sucker who'll take me in and feed me."
"Don't," Toto countered. "The diet will do you good."
"Who asked you, black-face?"
"I'm telling you this for your own good, belly-brain."
"Says you."
"Says I indeed!"
Muta's eyes narrowed. "How about I eat you instead?"
"Ah-ah-ah. Stone isn't particularly digestible, you know."
"Who cares? My stomach needs some gastroliths anyway."
"Well, then, catch me if you can, you great big dumb cat."
"Why you–" Muta shot off the couch with the ponderous grace of an offended leviathan and prepared to spring at Toto.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen!" Baron exclaimed placatingly, waving a hand. "You can beat each other silly later." He looked up at Toto. "What else have you found out?"
"I've traced the source of the news about the Baroness to the castle of the renegade King of the Lonely Isles."
"The Lonely Isles?" Muta said. "Huh. Baron, that's no place for you to go." Everybody knew the foggy islands some miles off the coast of the Cat Kingdom were the haven of a bunch of pirates, smugglers and thieves, not to mention full of unmapped shoals, sandbars and rock outcroppings that made navigation thereabouts dangerous.
"Indeed." Von Jikkingen gave it some thought. "The Cat Kingdom nominally owns the Lonely Isles and keeps a garrison there. I must consult with King Lune. Maybe he can help me."
"Aw, do we really have to go there?" groused Muta.
"What's the matter, fatso?" Toto jeered. "Scared?"
"No, it's just that I hate dog food. King Lune keeps a fine table, but they say the Pirate King Phaecis' eats are to die for—literally."
"You won't have to worry about that, Muta," said Baron, "because you're not coming with me."
"What?"
"You heard me right. You're not coming with me. I need someone to mind the store while I'm away, and Toto simply can't handle everything by himself."
Muta looked askance at his friend. "Geez, Baron, are you sure? I was looking forward to knocking some dogs' heads together."
"Yes, I'm sure. Don't worry, I'll be fine. Thank you, Toto. I'll need you to take me to the bus station first thing tomorrow."
"The bus station? Where are you going, Baron? You don't get into the Cat Kingdom by bus."
"I'm not going there directly. My first stop is Chikyuuya, then Shizuku and Seiji's old homes. But I want you to keep investigating," he added.
"Understood," affirmed the crow, hopping around until he faced the open window. "I'm going to catch some shut-eye. And Muta, if I catch you painting my pedestal with grease again . . . ."
The fat cat adopted an innocent look. "Who? Little harmless ol' me?"
The crow turned a disdainful look in Muta's direction. "Heh. Wrong on both counts. 'Little' you're not, and you're just about as harmless as a cow with BSE, Buta." Then, before the large feline could give a rejoinder, Toto was out the window in a flash, flying the short distance to his post and settling in for the night.
Baron imagined the steam rising off Muta's head. His partner's shoulders were shaking as he rumbled, "Call me a pig, will you? I'll get even with you next time, you garbage-can raider." Then he turned for the cupboard. "Next time I'm painting your pedestal with glue, not grease." He opened a cabinet. "Hey Baron, can I help myself to some of your tea?"
------oOo------
It was the middle of the day, but the small street in front of the Earth Shop was devoid of people. Baron stood a while looking over his old homestead, noting the place in the window where he used to stand unmoving, day after day, till Nishi-san lost him. Yes, lost him, because of a break-in and robbery. Baron had been sold by the thieves to an establishment which also specialized in antiques like him—it was a rich, luxuriant affair occupied by a childless, mercenary, and unhappy couple whose sole purpose for obtaining the figurine had been to resell him at a higher price—but he never liked it there, so after a week or two he conveniently got himself chipped and torn (it was just his jacket and cane, one ripped in three places, the other broken in two, both items easily replaced) and thrown out with the rest of the garbage. From there it was a straightforward process to find Muta again, and thence a quick hop, skip and jump to the Cat Business Office, where he lived presently.
Baron never got around to visiting Chikyuuya until now. He disliked the thought of seeing Nishi-san, who so obviously cherished him and Louise both, old and sick. And mortal. And the little girl who had been his and Seiji's visitor and Baron's story-writer, who had purchased the spectacles out of embarrassment... well, she grew up and forgot about him, as humans are wont to do with their childhood fantasies and dreams. At least she was still, he knew, working on becoming a good writer.
He spied someone walking around inside. Looking closer, he realized it was Kouji, Seiji's older brother. Was he the new owner of Chikyuuya? If so, why didn't he know where the couple had gone? Bracing himself to deal with the usual human hysteria that usually greeted the appearance of a talking cat, Baron adjusted the bow tie on his tan Morning Coat, took a deep breath, and knocked thrice firmly on the door with his cane.
------oOo------
"I really have no idea where they are now," said fair-haired, eyeglass-wearing Kouji Amasawa. "When my younger brother married he wanted to sell the shop so he and Shizuku could set up house—not that they really needed the money, but he didn't like hanging around here ever since our grandfather passed away. Too many memories, he said. But I wanted to keep ojii-san's legacy within our family, so I bought it from him, telling him to go use the money to treat Shizuku to a vacation. Goodness knows she needed one after being so busy with her children's books." He shifted in his seat. "Seiji said he was going to take her to tour Italy. That was the last I heard of them."
"I see." Baron jumped off the table he had been standing on and landed on the age-worn floor. "Well, thank you for your time, Amasawa-san."
"No problem, Baron. To tell you the truth I've been worrying about them ever since they left three weeks ago." Kouji stood up from his rickety old seat and bowed. "Thanks. Do drop by whenever you have the time. Ah, but I won't be here. An old lady, Mrs. Yamaguchi, will be here in my place once I get this shop up and running again."
"I will," promised Baron. "And I'd appreciate it if you kept me and my friend the crow a secret."
"As long as you're a friend of Shizuku's, my lips are sealed. Besides," said Kouji with a shake of his head, "who'd believe me?" He pursed his lips. "But if you should happen to know a few others like you who'd be willing to stay here and liven up the place, put in a good word for me, would you?"
------oOo------
Same thing happened when Baron went to Shizuku's parents' house: her mother and father weren't there, but her older sister Shiho was. And the last she had heard from her imouto-chan was an email Shizuku sent, saying that Cremona was beautiful and the people Seiji introduced her to were very friendly and funny. After that, nothing.
Baron afterwards spent some of the afternoon in a nearby park, pondering over what to do. As he sat there concealed in a copse of trees, writing down his findings in a small notebook he had carried along with him in the carpetbag, a raccoon dog passed by. Baron watched it scurrying around looking for food for a while, then hailed it and begged a favor. It turned out to be one of the non-shapechanging cousins of Shoukichi the tanuki, whom Baron had crossed paths with before while on a case; could he, perchance, give this to the shape-changer, to mail back to the Cat Business Office? He himself had neither the time nor patience to do so. The raccoon dog was hesitant, but the addition of a free three-layer cucumber-and-cold-cut-turkey sandwich sealed the deal. Baron finished his epistle while the tanuki scarfed down his windfall of a lunch; then the Cat tore out the pages, wrapped them in another piece of paper and scribbled the address of the Cat Business Office, along with a few words for Shoukichi, on the outside. The tanuki then took the missive and scampered off into the park, heading for a nearby golf course in the general direction of Tama New Town.
Baron watched the brown-furred animal go. I hope it's able to deliver my letter. The information would help Toto a great deal. He fervently wished the canid wouldn't get run over by a car or the like, as Shoukichi and his kin had more than their fair share of problems to deal with. Like being endangered, for example.
When the animal was completely out of Baron's sight he dug out his watch fob and looked at the time. Goodness! He had to hurry to get to a 'bus station, otherwise, with Toto busy hunting down Shizuku's whereabouts, he'd miss the only other easily accessible way into the Cat Kingdom. He gathered up his things and ran out of the copse, caring little about the danger of anyone seeing him. People were usually too busy and blinded by their humdrum everyday world to take much notice of him anyway. If they did see him, they would chalk his presence up to some incredible special effects, or a local store's advertising gimmick, or that last jigger of sake that they had, or the noonday heat. He sometimes couldn't believe how dense humans were.