Author's Note: It's July 19. You didn't think I'd let Neko no Ongaeshi's initial showing date in Japan slip by without commemorating it, did you?
Ellenlome and MistyStarlight, thank you for your kind words. However, I am sorry to say that in exchange for such compliments, I have to give you (and everyone else) some bad news: the rating has just gone up starting from this chapter, for safety's sake.
Today's bit of trivia: (thank you Team Ghiblink)
Q: Is there a model for Baron?
Yes. He was modeled after the cat statuette Ms. Hiiragi owns. She fell in love with it the moment she saw it, but she couldn't afford it then. Since she wanted it so badly, she later returned to the shop, only to find that it had already been sold. However, it turned out that it was her boyfriend who bought it (as her birthday present). And he is now her husband.
And, on that sweet note, off to the story:
THE NEKOBUS KITTY
The late afternoon sun found one statuette-like cat waiting patiently on the corner of two small streets on the borders of Tama New Town. Several people passed him by, noting his elegantly-dressed presence as a very curious oddity but nothing more. They had much more important things to think about, like cooking dinner once they got home, or schoolwork, or the latest crush or fad. One teenager, fascinated, tried to pick him up, but it took just one severe glance from the being to warn him away. Other than that hiccup in the flow of things, everything on that street corner was placid and peaceful.
Which suited Baron von Jikkingen just fine. It had taken him half an hour to hurry all the way here, but it seemed things were falling in his favor today. The 'bus was late.
He had been waiting twenty minutes already and was wondering what could possibly have happened to his ride when a large object burst through the foliage of a nearby tree on his right. Ah, he told himself. There it is.
The thing looked like a whimsical mixture of cat and bus. With eight legs, an open-windowed bus body, and a cat's head for a hood and mouse-shaped body lights, the Nekobus was a well-known mode of transportation for people such as Baron—and the rare human, usually a child, who could see it and was allowed to ride in it.
Baron observed that this 'bus wasn't the regular one that plied this route. Instead of being colored orange with black stripes, it had pale white fur and light blue stripes, along with a royal-blue belly. It also had fewer legs than the orange Nekobus. And, being in sync with the more practical times, it also had advertisements hanging on its sides. The one Baron could see was promoting the Museum and the movie "Howl's Moving Castle". From prior experience Baron knew this incarnation was a day model; the orange Nekobus usually operated around sunset to sunrise only (except for special trips, which only a few people could request of it).
The 'bus bounded towards the Cat. It was still light enough for the creature not to need its eye headlights. It clattered to a many-legged halt in front of him, and Baron read the small brass nameplate affixed near one of the windows. Nekobus Kitty. Do Not Delay.
To the Cat's surprise there was someone already in the vehicle. "Shoukichi! What in blazes are you doing here?"
"Baron!" gasped the nondescript salaryman sitting inside the Nekobus. "Thank God! I thought you'd grow tired of waiting for the 'bus and go to the Cat Kingdom some other way!"
One of the Nekobus' front windows enlarged into a door, and a set of furry steps appeared in the creature's side. Baron picked his carpetbag up and climbed aboard.
"Why on Earth are you here, Shoukichi?"
"Well, I, um, want to go with you on your trip." Shoukichi gestured to the bag that was lying on the seat beside him. "I was at home, so I got your letter quickly. I had it mailed and everything... then I packed..."
"Why?" The frosty tone in the Baron's voice said it all.
"Oh, please, Baron!" Shoukichi pleaded, changing into a tanuki out of distress and clasping his paws together. "I'm tired of living a human life! Just this once I want to go on adventures like you do! Please take me with you! I promise I won't be a burden!"
"Shoukichi," Baron said gently, sitting down beside him, "I'm going to a dangerous place. Your place is with your family, not here with me."
"They can look after themselves. If I don't change my scenery even for a little while, I feel as though I'm going to explode!" The tanuki made an expansive 'kaboom' gesture. "Please, Baron... you know I can be useful."
The Nekobus' door shrunk into a window again and it began to move. Baron looked outside, and was silent for so long the tanuki thought he was going to order him off at the next stop.
"Alright," said the cat gentleman. "But you do realize your presence complicates things for me."
"How so?"
"I'm going to have to look after you as well as myself," von Jikkingen replied.
"I'm sorry..."
"Oh, that's okay." Baron chuckled. "I've been running around with Toto and Muta so long I just wanted to be by myself for a change." He extended a gloved hand to Shoukichi. "Welcome aboard."
Shoukichi took the hand and pumped it once, bowing as he did so. "Thank you! Oh, thank you!"
The Nekobus gained speed as it ran down the lane, passing by people who paid it no mind. Both the Cat and and tanuki knew they were invisible, and that the humans would only feel a rush of wind going by them, stirring up debris, overturning flowerpots, and flipping skirts as it did so.
As soon as it had acquired the needed velocity the Nekobus galloped into the sky. After a few more stops around Tokyo, it would open a portal and head into the Country of Cats.
------oOo------
"And... go!"
Haru Yoshioka stutter-stepped, then shifted her balance and reached out with her epée, trapping her opponent's sword against her own, narrowly avoiding being touched by its tip. While maneuvering to keep it so entangled, she twisted, lunged at her opponent and, with an upward thrust of her blade against his lower belly, scored her fifth point. This was indicated by the sudden ignition of the red light on the scoring machine positioned some feet away to one side of the combatants. Her foe sucked in his breath in disappointment, but kept his mien as they held the pose for a split-second more, like dancers caught in a strobe light.
"Game set! Yoshioka wins!" boomed the referee.
Both masked and armor-clad parties, now separated, raised, then lowered their blades in the traditional fencer's salute, then added a perfunctory bow. Haru spent a moment unhooking her sword from the sensor mechanism before handing the cable over to a second. Then she stepped off the piste, the strip that marked the battleground, and after talking a bit with her opponent and one of the old men—'old' being a relative thing to someone twenty summers young—who directed the fencing club, headed for the ladies' locker room.
Never again, she had promised herself long ago, shortly after her adventure in the Cat Kingdom. Never again would she sit helplessly waiting for someone to rescue her, as she did when she was being abducted by that horde of cats then-Assistant Secretary Natoru had led to the Cat Business Office. Baron couldn't always be around to help her, and she hated the pitiful way her heart had leapt at the sight of him and Muta winging their way to her rescue. True, she had feelings for the handsome cat at the time and didn't mind his coming to her aid at all, so dazzled had she been by the whole adventure's sheer novelty. But later on, when he had almost stopped visiting her, she pondered on things and decided that, for her peace of mind and personal dignity, helping herself was the best solution. She would learn one unarmed and one armed fighting skill, she decided way back then. Not to become expert in them, just enough to defend herself if necessary.
During the latter half of her second senior year in high school she had cajoled her darling Kei, then one of the Karate Club's sub-captains, into introducing her to the world of the empty hand, and afterwards she also decided to take up fencing. She didn't really know why she had chosen it; perhaps it was a subconscious reaction to having seen Baron skillfully fending off their pursuers with his cane. In any case, she didn't want to take up kendo or kyuudo, like the other few girls she knew were interested in armed sports did. She wanted to be different, and fencing was as different—and unusual, and dignified, at least in foil and epée—as an armed discipline she could find and still be somewhat practical. She also had to admit to herself that it was her way of linking herself to the Continental ways of Baron and the incredible adventure she had undergone, as the days ran away and she saw him less and less.
But fencing equipment didn't come cheap, so she had taken up several part-time jobs in order to buy what she needed. She couldn't in good conscience ask her mom for them; things were hard enough as they were, her being a single parent and all. Even so, her mom gave her a little over three-fourths of the money she needed, and she earned the rest over the months succeeding her graduation. Once she had bought her armor, blade and helmet, she signed up with a local club and proceeded to learn what she could. Her favored class had always been the epée; the foil was too light for her taste and the saber was filled with men who outweighed her and could shove her around during a match. Besides, to use it one needed strength and aggression, and Haru's forte had never been either. Her advantage was in her speed and agility, which, according to one of her instructors (and Machida, who learned of it while earning a black eye the hard way, through sparring unprotected with her during her early karate days), was exceptional for someone of her willowy frame and relatively long limbs.
After finishing her shower Haru dressed, packed her gear, slung her equipment bag over her shoulder, and walked out of the changing room. Her body ached from the unaccustomed exertion. She had been forced to lay her sports aside for some months now, as college work had been particularly vicious lately. But it was the start of summer vacation, and she was looking forward to a nice set of weeks wherein she could pretty much do as she wanted.
"Haru!"
The call pulled her out of the sanctuary of her thoughts. Waving at her was a girl of her own age, wearing a bright pink pullover, faded jeans and purple canvas-top running shoes, with short chestnut-brown hair curled smartly at one side of her face and a large bag slung over one shoulder.
"Hiromi! Hi!"
Haru's old high-school classmate strode up to her. "Aww," she said, eyeing her friend's bag, moist hair and fresh clothes. "I was going to ask if you wanted to play lacrosse with me. Can I see your sword for a moment?"
"Sure." Haru brought the weapon out of the long, thin sack she had tailored specially for it. She knew why Hiromi wanted to look at it. "Here."
Hiromi took it and looked at once at the basket hilt. "Hey, you've finished it! How cute!"
Haru smiled. "Yeah, it is, isn't it?"
They were both talking about the little medallion-like design Haru had worked and fastened onto the hilt's steel bell guard. She had originally wanted just a little sketch in acrylic, but then changed her mind and went ahead and began shaping what now was decorating the hilt: a raised silhouette of a cat standing on two legs and holding a cane, on a pointillist background consisting of a top hat and a stylized rose, the entire thing on a lozenge-shaped piece of alloy. She had started working on it even before she got her blade, practicing with an awl on scrap pieces of metal she had scrounged from around the house and her high-school crafts department, to determine what could and could not be done; she did the preliminary sketching and outlining, then let a craftsman take over on the detailing. But the golden hue now coloring its raised parts hadn't been done by either of them; instead Haru had sent the whole thing to a metalworker whose specialty had been re-gilding wind instruments and the like.
She had paid dearly for such a little thing, but it was all worth it: now, whenever she held her sword, she looked at the design and felt the old rush she had felt when she was with the Baron, Muta and Toto. Her heart would soar and she would pretend that she was once again by the Cat's side, swashbuckling beside him, instead of just sitting there waiting to be rescued. Sometimes she'd let her imagination roam further, and in her mind's eye the Baron would sweep her off her feet once again and say to her, "Haru, that was excellent bladework!" Then his head would descend upon hers, and his big yellow eyes with their peculiar shine would encompass her vision as he, overcome with admiration, kissed her...
That was the secret of her success in fencing, the one she never told anyone about, the reason why she was already middle-classed after such a short time; her inspiration was real and undying, and it was just out there, helping other people in need...
"I still can't understand why you're so obsessed with cats, though," she heard Hiromi saying. "I mean, if you liked 'em any more, you'd probably start looking like a cat yourself."
Haru was startled for a second. If her best friend only knew... if only she could tell her... She shaped a hand into a claw and mock-scratched Hiromi's bemused face.
"Niao," she hissed. "Watch what you say, cute little mousie, or I'm going to eat you up."
"Haha," said Hiromi, handing her the epée back. "Speaking of which, you haven't seen Tsuge hereabouts, have you?"
Haru shook her head. "No. Why should I? Didn't he come back with you from school?" The pair had been lucky enough to have been accepted to the same university, whereas Haru and Machida, who went to different schools, had to make the best of odd days and weekends.
"He went home ahead of me, and I... well, I sorta told him he was gaining a few pounds." A guilty look settled on Hiromi's face. "The first thing he said was that he'd start working out when he got home, and since this gym is near his parents' house..."
"Ah, bad Hiromi!" Haru exclaimed, widening her eyes in disapproval. "You've punctured his male ego! Oh, you know how guys like Tsuge feel about that!" She parodied a scowling Tsuge, exaggerating the contortion of her eyebrows to remind Hiromi of his thick ones.
"I know, I know. Give me a break, will you? I wasn't meaning to insult him anyway."
Haru chuckled a little. "Look, I'm starving," she said. She carefully strapped her sword back to the side of her equipment bag: the blunt-tipped blade was going to break one of these days, but until then, she would use it and be reminded of Baron. "Why don't we go grab a bite somewhere, and while we're at it, trade truths about how vain men can be?"
"It's a deal," Hiromi agreed, grinning. She led the way out of the gym.
------oOo------
Seiji Amasawa stared out the window at the reddish sunset sky. What was supposed to be a fun jaunt with a friend to his remote mountain homestead had quickly turned into a nightmare. The phones were down, the roads were socked in, there had been no electricity for the past week...
"Hey, boy, you okay?"
Seiji turned his head. The woman who owned the house, Mrs. Camini, mother of his fellow violin-making apprentice Charles, was standing behind him, offering him a mug of something steaming.
"Yes, ma'am. I'm fine." Fortunately Seiji had learned the Italian language well over the years, in no small part thanks to the absent Charles. He accepted the mug with a nod of the head. "How is she?"
"Fair enough," replied Mrs. Camini. "The antibiotics that doctor recommended to us over the phone seem to have kept her condition stable." The radio in the municipal hall had proved invaluable; now they were waiting for rescue, as the only road leading to the village had been blocked by landslides in several places.
Not one to mince words, though, the matron with the curly salt-and-pepper locks added in a quiet voice, "But she's not getting better."
Seiji silently stood up from the windowside chair he had been sitting on. His dark eyes looked into Mrs. Camini's blue ones as he said, "I'll watch over her now. Thank you."
"Seiji," Mrs. Camini said as he started for the guest bedroom.
"Yes?"
"You haven't slept yet. I'd be glad to watch over your wife some more."
"No, ma'am. I'll do it, I've rested enough."
Seiji made his way to the bedroom where Shizuku lay, uneasily sleeping under piles of blankets. The sight tore at his heart; never strong in body to begin with, she was now struggling with a bout of pneumonia that had begun with a simple cough some days ago. Maybe if he hadn't let himself succumb so easily to her blandishments and slowed their headlong rush through Italy... if he had been more strict with her wearing warm clothing before her cough turned into something worse...
He noted the sheen of sweat on her forehead as he went to her side and quickly set his mug down on the bedside table. He picked up the washcloth resting in the basin of warm water on the same table and wrung it, then wiped her forehead.
At his touch she stirred. She murmured, "Seiji? Seiji? I remember."
"Remember what?" he asked, his voice low, worried that she was delirious.
"Thank you for painting me, Seiji..."
------oOo------
"Now Seiji, I still haven't forgotten the fact that you haven't gotten me that 'extra-special' wedding gift you promised."
"Shizuku-chan, I... to tell you the truth, I can't think of something to give you, except maybe..." The young husband laid a hand on his new wife's shoulder, and his lips planted a ghost of a kiss on the juncture where shoulder swept up to throat.
"Ah," Shizuku Amasawa, Tsukishima until a few hours ago that evening, giggled as a frisson of excitement ran up her spine. "Seiji hentai! Hentai-hentai-hentai, taihen-taihen-taihen... Don't be so impatient."
"Sorry. That's not the reason why I haven't gotten you it yet. The truth is..." Seiji's grip tightened ever so slightly. "Every gift I can think of seems so paltry, when I compare it to you."
Shizuku blushed and put her hand on his. Maybe it was all the liquor she had consumed that evening, both at the wedding and the reception; she felt spaced out, and everything somehow seemed unreal and happening too fast.
"Flatterer," she said. "I still can't believe I married that rude jerk who used to be my classmate in high school."
"And I can't believe I married that little waif of a bookworm whose idea of a good time was curling up with books. Fantasy ones, at that."
"Hey, you read them too!"
"I was just joking."
Shizuku turned and faced the large windows of their Ginza hotel suite. Their stay there was a joint surprise from both their families. "Seiji."
"Yeah?"
"About that gift... well, I don't really need it, but if you still plan on giving me one, could I make a suggestion?"
"And what would that be?"
Shizuku pushed him away, then turned her back to him. Seiji watched as she slowly loosened her velvety pink bathrobe until the reverse décolletage showed off an appreciable amount of the pale skin of her shoulders and the back of her neck. A slender lower leg emerged tantalizingly from the slit at the side of her garment. Ah, the gentle curve of her calf, the shining daintiness of her lacquered toenails...
Shizuku turned until she was half-facing her new husband. "I-I want you to paint my picture," she said, daring and shyness mingled in her voice, her large, expressive eyes hooded. "Not just my portrait. The whole of me."
Seiji raised his eyebrows. "Oh, uh, okay, but I didn't bring my stuff..."
"Clueless man of mine," Shizuku chuckled. "Not tonight. Later, after our honeymoon."
"Sure, sure, whatever you say," Seiji replied, warming to her idea. Why hadn't he thought of it? he cursed himself. "You want me to paint you like that?"
The slightly-built young woman looked away from him, out into the Tokyo night. "No!" she exclaimed, her voice husky with nervousness. "Not like this." The bathrobe dropped to the floor; Seiji's jaw dropped just as far, as Shizuku turned around.
"Like this!"
------oOo------
The violin-maker couldn't help smiling at the memory, almost a year old now. It had all been just a bit too much at that moment. The fact that normally quiet and reserved Shizuku was coming on to him, coupled with the sight of her gorgeous nakedness, had resulted in him losing control... and getting a nosebleed. After the initial flurry of "I'm sorry... No, no, it's okay, I'll get you some tissues," they enjoyed a good laugh at themselves and spent the rest of the evening in a quiet fashion, basking in the happiness of each other's company and undivided attention. They never got any further until the gray of dawn came creeping into the suite, and they, lying side-by-side on the king-size bed, somehow opened their eyes and found themselves looking at each other...
"Yes, that was the best work I've ever done, dearest... did you like my music?"
"Yes, yes... very nice..." Seiji had tried to play something for her a while ago, while the sun was still in the sky. On a violin he had borrowed from Charlie's room he tried to perform 'Country Road' to raise her spirits and his own. But his fingers, frozen with both fear and cold, wouldn't cooperate, and the violin was like a block of ice. It sounded more like a metal grinder to his ears than something meant to play music.
"I'm glad you liked it."
Shizuku moaned and coughed. "Yes, you make me happy, Seiji... all my thoughts... happy ones... must remember them..."
"Shhh. Go back to sleep. I'll be here if you need me..." Seiji returned the washcloth to the basin and began to massage her left arm. When he moved to her hand and began to press the tips of her fingers she cried out, as if in pain.
"No! Stop! The Baron..."
"Shizuku? What're you talking about?" Seiji shook her, to separate her from any nightmare she might be having. "Hang on, darling, help is bound to arrive very soon."
Shizuku opened her eyes, and for a moment Seiji was dumbstruck. A faint radiance, interspersed within with strings of darkness, colored her pupils a deep honey-yellow-and-black mixture, banded like a cat's-eye topaz. He knew what the phenomenon was; his grandfather had shown it to him long ago, in a certain statuette's eyes.
"What the—Engel's Zimmer?"
The glow filled the room, and Seiji suddenly lost consciousness.