Chapter Two

The dust was finally settling to the ground, like a dark fog. Near the top of the tower, on a ledge, a brown cat wearing a human schoolgirl's uniform was lying on her back, her caramel eyes wide and unseeing. She wasn't even breathing, and her left arm was bent at a funny angle.

Naoko gasped.

"Haru!" She tried to get off the couch, but Jonathan held her down by the shoulder, his expression grim.

Far underneath the cat, a disheveled-looking longhair wearing gold and a jewel rushed toward the tower with several guards and attendants, a gleeful smile taking over his face.

"Quick! Quick! Get her…hey wait. Where'd Haru go?" He looked around confused. Far above him, the brown cat pulled an angry face and took a shaky breath. She sat up, staring at a spot close to the top of the tower, her left arm limp at her side. She sniffed the air disbelievingly.

"Car fumes?" She whispered, barely even mouthing the words. Haru struggled to get to her knees as the screen split to show a gray cat wearing a white soldier's uniform as he came out of an underground network near the base of the tower. His widening red and blue eyes matched that of the longhair.

"What in the world has Father done now? Father!" He ran for the tower, red uniformed militia following him. Haru looked down at the gray cat and panicked. She hurried back to her feet and headed inside the tower to start dragging herself up the stairs. The disheveled cat looked up and saw her as his son approached.

"There's Haru! Get her guys-"

"No, leave her be." The gray cat stood up straight and looked his father in the eye. "What have you done to the girl?" The father suddenly looked bashful, and started playing with his paws as Haru continued to climb upwards.

"I just wanted to repay the girl that rescued you. I thought that you would be happy to have a good-looking girl like Haru for a bride."

Naoko gasped. Haru had saved a cat, and was brought to the Cat Kingdom for it? She was definitely her father's daughter.

The gray cat shook his head, his eyes slitted and angry.

"I have already chosen my bride. It's Yuki over here." He gestured to a stunning white cat that had been following his red soldiers, and she gasped with surprise. He walked over to her and held her paws in his own. "I was hoping for a different way to express this, but will you marry me, Yuki?" She stared at him, and then smiled lovingly.

"Yes, Lune." They embraced each other fiercely as Haru finally came to the opening at the top. She reached upward with one arm and started trying to pull herself into the hole. But she was so weak from what she had already gone through…

"You should have said so earlier!" The cat wearing gold looked upwards toward the brown cat as sunlight pierced the sky. His huge eyes, including the purple gem narrowed in concentration. "Hmm."

Haru had finally pulled herself through the opening, using her good arm for balance as the wind played harshly with her hair, still long around the ears like a human. She looked expectedly at her paws as they slowly morphed back into hands, excitement beginning to grow as her body shifted around to resemble a human girl's. But the change stopped there. Her hands were stuck between a human hand and a cat paw, and her shod feet prevented an accurate analysis of them. She waited for a few more seconds, willing the change to be completed. As the seconds turned into minutes, the realization hit her that this was the closest she was going to get to becoming a human again. Her eyes overflowed, and she buried her face into her skirt-covered knees to start weeping.

"You're kidding. After everything…everything I had gone through…it still wasn't enough?" She cried harder, her skirt slowly becoming warm and moist. "I'm so sorry Mom. Looks like I can't come home after all." She continued to weep as the screen expanded to show that she was several thousand feet in the air above Tokyo, but she didn't notice as clouds flew past her head.

Naoko bit back a sob as she reached for her girl again, Jonathan's firm grip holding her back. She turned to tell him off, but was stopped when she saw tears in his eyes as well. He stared angrily at the gold wearing cat as the screen faded for now.

"Now you know. Mother was taken to the Cat Kingdom to marry the cat prince she saved the day before she disappeared from your world. She tried her hardest to get back to her world, but it still wasn't quite enough." Naoko shook her head angrily.

"But if she wanted to return so badly, then why didn't she take the offer?!" Jonathan smiled sadly, taking a handkerchief from his breast pocket and offering it to her. She took it and started wiping away the tears with a vengeance.

"Please understand. Mother hadn't eaten or slept well for nearly twenty-four hours leading up to that moment, and her emotions were out of control. The Haru you heard turn down the offer has had six years to calm down and adjust to her new body. And she had Father to consider." The screen flickered to life again.

Haru was inside a large gym, wearing tight-fitting sweats and practicing a high kick on a large punching bag. Someone had taken a marker to it until it resembled the cat wearing gold. Her arm was usable again.

Naoko turned back to Jonathan, her confusion clear.

"That cat was the king responsible for Mother's predicament. After Uncle Lune and Aunt Yuki brought Mother down the tower again, Lune's father suggested that she marry him instead, since she didn't have anywhere else to go." She turned back to the screen, her eyes glittering icily.

"Kick it harder, Haru! Use your back muscles; you have them for a reason." She laughed at herself, surprised that she remembered that much from her own rebellious stage. Jonathan chuckled too.

"She can't hear you. I'd show you her response to his offer, but I had nightmares for a month after my first viewing. Don't worry; she tore him apart until he was so scared of her that he abdicated the throne to Uncle Lune." Naoko smiled proudly.

"That's my girl." Jonathan smiled, and then turned her attention back to the screen.

The white cat from before came through the red curtain that substituted for a door, a white envelope in her hand. She stared at Haru a little, obviously scared to interrupt the half-cat while she was training herself.

"Haru, this came for you." The brown cat gave the punching bag a final swipe before turning to the cat.

"Thanks, Yuki. How are you feeling?" The white cat laughed as she rubbed at her belly, a slight bump evident.

"Still feeling good. The training going okay?" Haru nodded as she opened the letter to start reading.

"I know Lune doesn't appreciate using his father's image to help me train harder, but hey, it helps." Her eyes scanned the letter as the white cat laughed.

"I'm surprised that you haven't started using Artemis's image instead. He should have known better than to send you mice." Haru nodded, her eyes becoming sad as she closed the letter, her head hanging slightly. Yuki noticed the mood change. "Did your mother ask you to come home again?" The brown cat sighed.

"Yes. But I've already mentioned that she hates cats, and if she sees me like this…I don't want her to kick me out of her life for growing whiskers and a tail."

Naoko shuddered, since that's what she had done to her husband. And what her daughter now thought she had done to her. She turned to Jonathan.

"I don't hate cats, but I was scared that Renny-" she cut off; shocked that she still called him that. But when they had met, 'Renaldo' just seemed so formal, something he definitely wasn't. Jonathan gazed at her sadly.

"You were scared that he would tell your daughter what he turned into, and you were embarrassed to be married to a feline?" Naoko nodded, feeling ashamed of herself. "Not telling Mother that Grandfather had turned into a cat I can understand. But why not tell her about him in general? Why cut everything that reminded you of him out of your life and Mother's?"