Author's Too-Wordy Notes: Please take note: I've revised everything from the beginning. When I started the second chapter the timeline was still vague to me. As I went on I had difficulty chronologically locating the events happening to Shizuku in relation with the ones happening to Haru. Now that I've finally fixed it, I've settled on July 8 as the date in which this story begins. In the original story the vignette came from, the Prologue was originally supposed to occur in late March, but as I hashed this out I found I had to avoid putting a large gap between it and subsequent events, otherwise the plot would start unraveling because of the long time period between Seiji and Shizuku's disappearance and Haru's. And it being July, I had to revise the end of The Nekobus Kitty chapter the most.
I also had to get Haru back to her old homestead, and if she were in college the only reasonable thing I could think of to bring that about was to set it during summer vacation—I am assuming that like a majority of Japanese daigakusei she is unable to stay at home and rooms elsewhere during the school season, and because she's from a single-parent family she has to seek part-time work to help herself.
I underestimated how much work it would be trying to bring Shizuku and Haru's worlds together with only Baron and Muta as their common ground! I'd gladly list the things I had to do, but I'm afraid if I do that your head will explode too—mine's holding up quite nicely now, with all the masking tape and baling wire. I'm terribly sorry I had to change Haru's personality and the nature of Seiji and Shizuku's relationship. Mimi is such a sweet manga and movie, and now I've gone and turned its two main characters' relationship into something more mature. As for Haru, I didn't want to let her reprise her damsel-in-distress role in the movie. I hope in the end it will all prove worthwhile.
PS: Ellenlome, in reference to your first review: if I were to tell you that there was a bit of Baron/Haru romance involved, would you kill me?
HARU'S TRAVAILS
Haru Yoshioka was crying.
She was alone in her bedroom. Her nocturnal guest had just left a few minutes earlier, leaving her to sit at the side of her bed angry, dejected, sad, and confused all at the same time.
Dejected, because it had been so long since Machida visited her, and yet they just had to fight on the very occasion. Sad, because his precipitate departure increased her feelings of loneliness all the more. Angry and confused...
Because Kei wanted something from her she wasn't prepared to give. At least, not yet.
It had all started with a noise at the balcony at eleven in the evening. Forewarned through an SMS message, Haru was already waiting, already knew who it was. Opening the door of her balcony, she found him scaling an aluminum ladder, grinning sheepishly at her as he handed up to her a bouquet of red roses and cream-white gladioli. What were they for? she had asked after thanking him. Nothing much, he replied. They were there just because he had missed her.
"You could've come in through the front door," she had said dryly as she helped him over the rail.
"Yeah, well, you know my quirks," he replied, squeezing her hand and pulling her to him as his feet lighted on the deck.
They spent a few minutes in each other's arms, holding each other close, whispering questions and answers only the other was meant to hear. Then Machida leaned down and kissed her, and she answered back ardently. After such a long time the warmth of his lips, his scent, indeed, his very touch was a drug that Haru couldn't get enough of. The bouquet fell to the floor, forgotten, as they continued to press their lips together, unmindful of the fact that they were in view of the entire street. Then all of a sudden Kei pushed Haru into her room and kicked the door shut with his heel. Haru's old clumsiness returned, and her feet stepped on his just as they were shifting position, so that they fell and landed on her bed. Machida ended up lying on top of her; Haru looked into the intense gaze of his eyes, felt his body stir against her loins as they parted lips, and knew what he wanted.
All her passionate thoughts evaporated like rain on a hot tin roof, and that was when the spat began. She stopped him by shoving him away from her, and after she had apologized for the unexpected action, they once again they began taxing each other beyond the end of their patience, with arguments that they had had many times before, if not so acrimoniously: Machida, some months ago, had come to the conclusion that it was time to take their relationship to the next level; Haru wanted it to remain as it was. Neither was prepared to give in to the other. The meeting had ended with them slinging hurtful words around. Haru couldn't remember—didn't want to remember—everything that she had said to him, but she could recall everything he told her. She remembered how vulnerable she felt while trying to ask for his forbearance, knowing he wouldn't understand her and just get angry. But what really stuck in her craw, what made her so unwilling to forgive him, was his claim that she was leading him on, that she was a tease and nothing more.
Couldn't he understand? She loved him, but wasn't ready to take the next step yet. Her pride and her anger had prevented her from saying such things just then. Instead she looked on as he got up, straightened his clothes, kissed her on the forehead, and walked briskly back out the balcony door. She followed and watched as he slid down the ladder. As he brought it down she saw the red streaks on his palms, where he had cut himself on the metal. She wanted to call out to him, tell him to stop; but she didn't, and after replacing the ladder at the back of Haru's house Kei walked away into the night without looking back.
That was when Haru shut her balcony door, sat down on her bed, and started to cry.
I don't understand, she thought. Is there something wrong with me? Is there something wrong with a girl who refuses to give in and have sex with her boyfriend because she isn't ready? Am I being too much of a prude? Or worse, Haru worried, am I frigid and just don't know it?
The knock on the door brought her out of her misery. She wiped her eyes as best she could and blew her nose; then, to conceal the fact that she had been crying, she brought one of her textbooks to her face, pretending to be engrossed in it as she opened the door.
"Yeah, Mom?"
Mrs. Yoshioka stood in the middle of the corridor. The eyes behind the oval glasses were full of motherly sympathy as she murmured, "Haru? Would you like to talk about it?" She gently but firmly pulled the book down, away from her daughter's face, and looked her in the eyes. "Stop trying to hide from me. I could hear you two from my room even with the doors closed. I think it's time you and I discussed some things, dear."
Haru dropped her book and her guard and put her arms around her mother. Mrs.Yoshioka stroked her daughter's back as she began to bawl.
------oOo------
"Hmm." Hiromi stabbed the bendy straw thrice into her mango shake, then sipped. "Cheer up, Haru. You two've had this sort of fight before, and you always made up afterwards. I'm sure Machida's going to call you soon and ask you to forgive him."
"I don't know, Hiromi. I'm worried we've both gone past the point of no return now."
It was ten in the morning of a sunny day, and the two friends were seated at an outdoor café near the Crossroads, where Haru, prior to being kidnapped and taken to the Cat Kingdom, had been told by a mysterious voice—Queen Yuki's, as it turned out—to look for a large white cat and ask for the Cat Business Office. That was the first time she met Muta. She and Hiromi had passed by the place, but her coarse-mannered feline friend was nowhere to be seen. There were other cats roaming around, though. Stealthily walking on the roofs, or nonchalantly sauntering along the sidewalks, minding their own business, in that self-possessed way cats do.
Haru looked up from her latté, which she'd been idly stirring around with a teaspoon. She looked around her.
"Hey, Yoshioka. What's up?"
"Nothing. Do you get the feeling we're being watched?"
"Why, sure!" Hiromi happily replied, adjusting her shades. "We're two attractive, smartly-dressed young ladies. Why shouldn't people be watching us?"
"Oh, Hiromi. That's not what I meant." Haru lifted her cup to her lips and took a small swallow. "It's probably just me, fantasizing that Kei was about to rush up and ask me to forgive him."
"Well, I can understand that. Come on, let's get something to eat, shall we?"
------oOo------
Five minutes later it happened again.
"Look," said an increasingly exasperated Hiromi, "there's no one spying on us, okay? Geez, you're more jumpy than Tsuge used to be before a regionals match."
No, this time she was wrong, thought Haru as she spied a jet-black feline head looking down at her from the second-floor ledge of a nearby building. Its bright golden eyes gave her the shivers. As she watched, it popped down, out of sight, and a black cat walked along the ledge, away from her, looking back at her every now and then. Before it reached the ledge corner the cat stared at her, held its tail up and curled it once, like a beckoning finger, as if to say, Follow me, if you can. Then, wonder of wonders, it stood up on its hind legs and promptly stepped out of sight!
Haru rapidly considered the benefits of following the cat. She was sure it had something to do with the Cat Business Office. After all, the Crossroads was where they waited for people who needed their help to contact them, wasn't it? If she could tail the mysterious bipedal-capable kitty, it might lead her to the magical town and Baron again!
"Darn!" she suddenly exclaimed, causing Hiromi to choke on her shake in surprise. "Uh, look, Hiromi. I forgot I was supposed to buy my mom something for lunch. I have to go, okay?"
"But–"
Haru stood up, placed her palms together and bowed. "Sorry! Let's go shopping some other time, please? Please?"
"Oh, fine," Hiromi groused good-naturedly. "But next time you're treating me."
"I'll treat you now!" Haru dug around in her purse and handed some bills over to her. "I'm so sorry, I have to go, bye!"
Hiromi took the money and signaled for the waiter. She watched Haru walk quickly away from her, her hip-hugging blue midi-length skirt rhythmically moving to and fro as she kept looking up at something Hiromi couldn't see.
"Haru," she muttered to herself as her friend disappeared around a nearby street corner, "that's not the way to any food shop. And you told me your mom wouldn't be at home today. You liar."
------oOo------
Haru had almost forgotten the run across the rooftops when she was following Muta, the first and only time he led her to the Cat Business Office. Today, as she negotiated hazardous obstacle after hazardous obstacle, she promised herself she would never, ever forget it again.
She found the black cat sitting on top of a parking garage's galvanized-iron roof, as if waiting for her. The moment it saw her clambering up the chain-link fence surrounding the property it took off at a comfortable lope.
The cat led her a merry chase through a myriad collection of alleys and byways, so many Haru couldn't memorize them, as she had planned to. It wasn't as easy as before; the passageways were more difficult to traverse, and Haru's body had fleshed itself out since then, rendering her less limber and her maneuverings more awkward. By the time she began to recognize several landmarks from her previous visit to the Cat Business Office, her hair was mussed, there was a rust stain on her dark-blue bolero jacket, and the leather of her shoes was cut from walking on protruding nails.
Eventually she emerged facing the same stone-flagged passage she had previously come into after following Muta. Haru jumped down from the last roof and saw the black cat passing under the arch that led into the circular clearing with Toto's pillar at the center.
Yes! she exulted as she recognized the familiar stone structure. I made it! Take that, you mischievous cat!
With a whoop of joy she ran into the square, careful not to hit her head on the top of the arch, since everything in this place—where it was, she didn't know and didn't really care to find out—was about a quarter of the size of things in the real world. Just the right size for Baron, Toto, and Muta.
And, it seemed, all the other inhabitants of this town. Unlike last time, the place was occupied. Gentlefolk of all kinds shrieked and screamed and ran as she emerged into the square. There was a human in the town! Save us! Save us!
"Wait! Come back! I don't mean you any harm!" Haru tried to reassure them, but it was no use. The square cleared as if by magic, and she was left standing alone by Toto's pillar, which was also empty.
Haru's eyes rested upon the quaint and brightly-colored façade of the Cat Business Office just as its doors banged open, and a large white cat on two legs emerged from it. "What's all the ruckus?" it yelled angrily, looking around. "Are we being invaded by rats again? Are the pigeons... you!"
Haru stood and waved timidly at the irate fat cat. "Hi, Muta."
Muta spun around and marched back into the depths of the Office. "Luna!" he roared. "Did you bring this girl here?"
"She followed me home," Haru heard another, more cultured voice with a strange sort of lisp answer as she walked nearer to the Office. "Can I keep her?"
"Why didn't you lose her? You know we aren't supposed to–"
"I wanted to get back here before you ate all the chiffon cake," the voice said with an insouciant laziness. "Goodness knows how hungry I am."
"Uh, Muta," Haru ventured, stooping and speaking into the cool darkness of the Office. "If it's any consolation, I still don't know how I got here. Your friend got me all confused and lost."
"Muta's friend's name is Luna," said the black cat, emerging from the Office. "Come in, please, come in. Forgive Muta's lack of manners. He's always like that, but he's actually quite a nice guy."
Haru obligingly squeezed herself into the Office. It was a very tight fit, but she managed to enter the familiar place. "Just like Baron said," Haru reminisced, smiling.
Muta gave an ungentlemanly snort. He faced Haru from the kitchen area, made a comedic bow and doffed an imaginary hat. "Begging your pardon, Ladyship, but would you like some cake?"
"Better accept, Miss Haru," said Luna, "or he's liable to leave you only the crumbs."
"Not even that," amended the fat cat, handing Haru a fork and a large (for them) saucer with a slice of cake with a fluffy white frosting on it. "Oh, and here's yours, Luna."
"Why, thank you, Muta."
"Hmph, that's just so you can't accuse me of eating the whole thing by myself."
"Tea?" Luna asked Haru, gesturing for her to sit down. "We can't touch the Baron's supply, so I'm afraid you'll have to content yourself with regular barley tea."
"The heck we can't," said Muta, yanking a particular cabinet open. "Don't be such a worrywart, Luna, he'll forgive us." He brought out a metal canister and, over the black cat's protestations, began mixing a fresh pot.
"Muta, I never knew you could be so domestic," Haru said, her doe eyes twinkling in delight as she watched the fat cat making tea. She gathered her skirt under her and carefully sat down on a corner cushion. Being in this place, she thought, made her feel like she was inside a giant dollhouse, similar to the British Queen Mary's.
"Domesticity has nothing to do with it," Muta countered. "You eat as much as I do, you learn your way around a kitchen, or starve to death."
"He might not look it, but Muta's actually something of a Renaissance cat when it comes to food," came another voice, strong and definitely male. A black cat identical to Luna entered the Office's open doors. "A corpulent Renaissance cat."
"Hey!" Muta rumbled as both cats laughed. "I resent that! I may be fat, but I'm not corpulent!"
"I was just kidding, old boy," said the newly-arrived feline, shutting the entrance. "You're more of an Asashoryu than anything else."
Muta, pleased with the comparison, fell to making muscleman poses while the new cat looked up at Haru. "Hi. I'm Luna's twin. My name is Moon."
"Moon?" Haru said even as she nodded in greeting to him. "But I thought–"
"Muta's name is Renaldo Moon. I'm just plain Moon. The others don't call him 'Moon' when I'm around. It tends to confuse everybody." The cat and looked Haru up and down. "So you're that client Baron and Muta saved from the Cat King. I'm pleased to meet you." Moon bowed and took a seat on the sofa in the middle of the room.
"Pleased to meet you too. Yes, that 'client,' as you say, is me. And if you don't mind my asking, where is he? Baron, I mean. And Toto?" Haru marked the glances Muta gave Moon and Luna. "I was sort of hoping he'd still be here."
Muta shook his head, handed her a cup of tea and Moon a piece of cake. "Sorry, Haru. He's already gone to look for Louise. He left three days ago."
"Without you? How about Toto?"
"He's off looking for another person dear to Baron," said Luna, taking a bite from her piece of cake.
Haru spent a moment digesting the information, then spoke what was in her heart. "How come you guys stopped visiting me, Muta? Even when I saw you at the Crossroads you always ignored me. You wouldn't even speak to me!"
"Well..." The fat cat looked uneasy. "We've been very busy, Haru. And those times when you met me at the Crossroads, I couldn't talk to you. Oh, you explain it to her, Luna. I'm not good with words."
"The truth is, Miss Haru," said Luna, "whenever we finish a case, we try to end relations with our clients as gracefully as possible. It wouldn't help if someone like you got too attached to us, for example. It's been known to happen. We exist in different worlds, and you must live in your own."
"I have been living in my own world. What's so wrong about wanting to keep in touch with you guys?"
"This!" said Muta suddenly, jerking his paw, pointing at the floor. "Unannounced visits, possible interference with Office affairs, the secret of this place leaking out..."
"Muta!" Haru exclaimed in dismay. "Do you really believe I'd do that?"
"Of course not! Still, rules are rules." Muta sighed. "If you want a better explanation, you'd better ask Baron when he comes back."
"When is he coming back? He told me he'd be away for about a month."
"We don't really know," answered Moon. "You can't afford to be too precise with dates when on a job. Isn't that right, Luna?"
The other black cat nodded.
"Are you guys also invited to the Christmas party?" asked Haru.
"Everyone is," answered Muta. "Didn't Baron tell you that?"
"Huh. He acted like it was a special thing."
"Oh, it is," Moon concurred. "Believe me, it is."
------oOo------
Haru spent half an hour more chit-chatting with the trio, then was escorted back to the Crossroads by Moon, who said that it was his turn to stand vigil there. When Haru asked him why the Office didn't resort to more modern means of communication, such as telephones and the like, Moon answered, "Who'd put them up and integrate them with your networks? No one would be able to maintain them: your linemen would always be removing whatever we put up. Don't let the incident with the Cat Country fool you, Haru. There aren't very many of us who, ah, interface with your world."
"I see." Privately, Haru thought she didn't, but decided to keep her peace.
Just before they parted ways Moon complimented her on her athleticism.
"Well, I've always been into sports, ever since I was in junior high. It was my way of blowing steam off at how the world seemed to visit misfortune on me," Haru explained. She fell silent, and the expression on her face lent weight to Moon's conjecturing.
"You're angry, aren't you? Have I done something to give offense?"
"Yes and no. Yes, I'm angry, and no, you haven't. How'd you know I was angry?"
"I can smell it coming off your body. Are you sure I didn't do anything?"
Haru nodded. "It's the Office. I don't like the way you imply that I'm a burden, something to be avoided."
"I'm sorry, Miss Haru. We aren't being personal. It's just that–"
Haru raised a hand, and several passers-by watched, amazed and bewildered, as she addressed the black cat. "No explanations needed. I understand. Thanks for bringing me back here." She abruptly walked off. Moon could understand how she felt, as he had been treated much the same way before the Amasawas took him and Luna in and made them a part of their family. When Baron got stolen and Nishi-san died he and Luna decided to finally fulfill their dream and leave Chikyuuya. They returned to the Cat Business Office, got back on active status, and took part in some wild adventures themselves. At the time of Haru's kidnapping they were in Belgrade, helping to end the persecution of some dogs and other pets that had been abandoned by their owners, so she never saw them.
A strident honking made Moon jump. He looked behind him and saw a teenager with a pageboy haircut and straight bangs—dressed in some strange old-fashioned blue-and-white ceremonial garb, sitting on a scooter—eyeing him, waiting for him to get off the street.
A considerate fellow, he thought, meowing his apology as he ambled to the curb. Not many humans would stop for a cat in the middle of a road. They'd just as soon run him over.
The young man turned to him. "Pardon me, but it's been ages since I've visited this world," he said. "Is this the way to the Green Day Magic Shop?"
"A-are you talking to me?" Moon stammered, shocked.
The teenager lifted an eyebrow. "Who else?" He repeated his question.
"Go down the street and turn left at the third intersection, then go down a block. It's the shop with the neon shikigami logo hanging out front."
"Thanks." Just before the lad pulled away Moon thought he heard him mumble, "Come on, Haku, get it together, or you'll spoil the ingredients and—" the teenager said a name Moon couldn't quite comprehend, but it seemed to start with a 'ze' "—will never forgive you."
------oOo------
Men! railed an infuriated Haru as she threw her purse onto her bed. Men of all species are... are... At a loss for words to describe her disgust, she flopped onto the soft mattress. First Machida and now this. She wondered what Baron would have said, if he saw her this angry about it.
Her gaze wandered to the epée hanging on her wall. She sat up and took it, idly twirling the guard round in her hand as she tried to cool herself down. She supposed it was only right that the members of the Cat Business Office acted like that. Couldn't have a hapless human hanging round the Office and mucking things up, could they? If their other cases were anything like hers, they dealt with life and death frequently, and that was excuse enough for them not to want her around or need her attention. Still, it hurt. Poor Haru Yoshioka, she thought. Living in one world but still fascinated by the other.
As for Machida... she was already regretting the accusation she had hurled at him, patently untrue, that he was unreasonable and all he wanted from her was her body. Early in their relationship she had told him she hated men who were like that, and he had done much to prove he wasn't looking for just a quick roll in the hay with her. She sighed. At least what had happened between them proved that she was desirable in one guy's eyes. Not that it was much consolation.
I'll run you through, Kei-chan! she thought wildly, waving the sword in the air, giggling at herself. Why'd you give me gladioli? Don't you know another name for them is 'sword-lily'? Hahah! With them and the thorns of the roses you cut my heart open and watch me bleed. She was about to lay the epée down and strip her soiled jacket off when she noticed the Cat medallion on the bell guard glowing.
What's this? she wondered. She was shifting the sword, thinking it was a trick of the afternoon sunlight, when she suddenly felt herself being pulled into the glow. She had just enough time to shout a strangled "Mom!" before she disappeared into the light, like a swimmer being sucked into a whirlpool. Her mother wouldn't have heard her anyway, no matter how loudly she shouted; Mrs. Yoshioka was still at work.
------oOo------
Downstairs, a few minutes after Haru's disappearance, the phone began to emit its shrill electronic tones, demanding that someone pick it up. After eight times of going unheard in the empty house they stopped. It was Machida. He wasn't going to be able to talk to Haru that day. Or the day after that. Or the next...