To give an idea of everything that I was looking for, it only makes sense to start from the first request I'd received.

At around half past eight, a slightly rough sounding voice asked me a question from outside of my line of view.

"Hey, you're good at finding things, right?"

If I had to give an honest answer to that question the answer would be that I'm only slightly above average at best, and that there are many better than me out there. But in terms of finding something that's around here quickly, there were certainly worse options available.

To put it in other words, it was akin to asking a frog in a well whether it could swim somewhere. Within the well, the frog could swim anywhere it liked. But to ask it to swim somewhere within the sea, that would be an entirely different question. One the frog was likely to refuse.

Of course saying this all to someone that I didn't even know the identity of would be completely unnecessary, and more importantly embarrassing, so before saying even a single word I elected to turn around and find out the identity of the one asking.

The most succinct way to describe who I was looking at was to call her sharp. Not in the way that someone would describe a person, but in the way that one would describe a knife.

Air Shakur. Not someone I knew, but someone that I'd heard of.

Without any need for further analysis I worked out what the best answer would be. I had to say yes. Refusing would probably put me in danger. Replies that were longer than necessary would also probably increase my risk of getting hurt with each additional word.

"Yeah."

"Good. I need you to find her cat."

She pointed her right behind her, causing me to finally take notice of something that had slipped below my radar until my moment. If I described Shakur as sharp-looking, what stood behind her was more comparable to a blob.

In an upset sounding voice, I heard.

"Is there no salvation?"

Oh, that's… the salvation girl.

What was her name again? The girl who always seems to be there in Matikane Fukukitaru's fortune telling tent. I've been in there a few times myself, but I've never caught her name. The only two things I've ever heard her say before are "Is there salvation?" and "Is there no salvation?"

But in this case, I heard neither. She was too busy crying.

"So what happened to your cat?"

"Mehtoh… hhhhe was fine b ut then h-he- suddenly got so mad an then he ran off…. huuuuuu."

Seemingly noticing my confusion, Shakur translated her words into something I could understand.

"Cat's called Meto. Doto fed him so he hung around the dorm a lot, but recently he started acting weird, then he ran off. So we're asking you to find him. Looks like this."

She handed me a picture of a ginger tabby cat with white fur covering its underside.

"So when did he disappear?"

"Yesterday night. Last time we saw him he sprinted out of our dorm room."

"Oh, thanks."

"What are you thanking me for? We're the ones asking you a favour here."

"I don't usually get this much information to work with."

"Oh, makes sense."

"Is there salvation?"

"Mm. Salvation."

"Well, good luck. We'll be counting on you. I'll uh… get you back or something like that."

As she walked away, I felt that I should thank my good luck that I was still alive, but she seemed to be slightly nicer than I had heard. Well, maybe that shouldn't have been so surprising. There's a lot of things that people wouldn't be able to do without knives.


The second request of the day came several hours later.

"[Hey, Detective Girl]!"

I didn't understand what any of those words meant, but it was because I didn't understand any of them combined with the tone they were spoken in that I could quite easily guess who said them.

"Taiki."

As expected, Taiki Shuttle was there. What I had failed to expect was her expression.

"What's wrong?" I asked without needing to be prompted.

"Ah, it's [horrible]. I'll go from the start. I was preparing for a BBQ later after school."

"A barbeque?"

"No, a barbecue."

"That's what I just said. Isn't it kind of weird to have one of those in January?"

"[No, no!] In winter people must continue to BBQ. They have to do it in the summer too. And the spring and the fall as well. There's no wrong time for BBQ. It's always the right time. Place is irrelevant, in my ideal world, people would always be grilling no matter when and where!"

"That's kind of scary."

"Not at all. Now where was I? I was defrosting the chicken. I turned away just for a second, then when I turned around they were completely [gone]. It must've done a runner on me!"

"That seems rather unlikely."

"But I did catch something moving. But that's all there was to it. [Sorry]."

"...Just to confirm, you don't have any hopes about getting it back, right? I tend to be a bit lenient with the five second rule myself, but if it's been a few hours that's a bit much."

"Hm? You mean the five minute rule, don't you?"

"...Regardless of the length of time, both are long gone."

"I was talking about a few days ago just now. The same exact thing happened again today, even when I only looked away for half a second. If it can beat my reactions, then it must be [crazy fast]!"

"Then how am I meant to catch it?" Was not a question that I asked out loud. Sympathising with her plight and fearing for the safety of my own food in the future, what else could I say but "Sure, I'll see what I can do."


It was only shortly after that the third arrived. For a break from the format of me getting surprised by a sudden voice from behind, I was the one to make contact this time. Considering everything that I said in the chapter before this one it probably seemed foolish of me to take on a third job at once, and it was. But for some reason I couldn't ignore her.

It wasn't as though I picked out someone needing help. It would've been more accurate to say there was no way that I could've not seen her. Though my first thought wasn't that she was looking for anything, but that she probably needed some medical assistance. The reason for that being that she was walking around with her arm clutching where her right eye should've been.

I'm glad to report that I've never seen anyone lose an eye or who has just lost one recently enough that it still hurts, and I do fully intend on keeping it that way to the best of my ability in the future, so my guess didn't come from any past experience but simply instinct. Somehow, even without knowing, I got the feeling that someone should only make a pose like that when they've lost an eye, or there's something else critically wrong with it.

"Are you okay?"

A question like that can really only have a handful of answers. Yes, no, maybe. Perhaps even "I don't know." People may word things differently, but at their core all answers are derived from those options. But instead of any of that, all that she answered with was a

"Heheh. It's dangerous to get so close to me right now."

"Is it something infectious?"

"No. Explosive."

"Huh?"

"Without the seal to keep it in check, it's going to run wild."

"A seal?"

"In your words, I suppose it would be an eyepatch."

Ah. My brain whirred slightly in response to the new information. There was only one horse girl in here who wears an eyepatch to the extent of my knowledge, so this must be Tanino Gimlet. What I'm hearing here would match everything that I've heard before now.

"So did you lose it somewhere?"

"No. it was stolen from me."

"...How? Did someone rip it off your face?"

"No. It was taken from my drawer in my room."

"So you don't wear it when you're in your room?"

"...That doesn't count."

"I see."

"I caught a glimpse of the beast that stole it and have been chasing it since. But the beast is elusive in nature."

"I see. Alright, I'll add it to the list."

"...What list?"

"I'm looking for some missing things already, so it's just more to the list. Y'know, it's kind of a thing. People come to me to find things, I find them. That's what's going on here, right?"

"I have no idea who you are. You're the one who approached me."

That's the kind of response that I really should have anticipated. It's a bit embarrassing now to have played my hand like that only for it to blow up in my face. For some reason my brain felt the need to draw comparisons between my own plight and the story of Icarus, though I wasn't sure why it popped up considering that my knowledge of Greek mythology was below even that of a trivial level.

"Er, point is that I'll try to find it. After hearing about your situation, I might as well keep an eye out."

"Good luck. If the culprit was too quick for someone like me, I don't think there's many who could catch it."

Maybe she had a point there. It was quite a rude thing to say, if I'd had any pride to potentially be wounded then I'm sure it would be a deep cut. But since pride would need a foundation to be built on, I simply continued with my questioning.

"Any idea of what it looks like?"

"It's as though I was chasing the night itself. That's all I'll say, or maybe that's all I'm willing to say, or perhaps that's that's all I can say about it."


With those three requests in mind, I now found myself wandering aimlessly. After all, there wasn't a place to start.

The most solid idea I had was the first.

Going up to someone and asking something like "Have you seen someone or something running around with a chicken leg?" or "Have you seen something or someone running around carrying an eyepatch?" was an insane question.

Before asking someone a question, I think it might be helpful to put yourself in the shoes of the listener and think about whether they would understand it or not. In the case of those two questions I just brought up, I doubt that anyone who hadn't heard those three stories would understand what I was going on about.

But to simply ask someone whether or not they had seen a cat of a certain description, that was a far more simple question. Even simpler when I had a picture to show.

Even without any context, it was easy to understand. One does not have to be an expert on cats to understand that they are cats. Therefore they would understand that cats do whatever they want to, whenever they please, however they fancy, wherever they feel like and with whoever they choose to.

The concerns of people are generally ignored, which may lead to some fiction between the cats and those who concern themselves with them.

The only potential point of confusion is why I was looking for a cat that I didn't personally know, but when asking a question as simple as whether someone had seen a cat or not, that was almost certainly going to be completely irrelevant.

In essence, it was the perfect question to ask strangers about.

Besides, I quite happen to like cats myself. I wouldn't consider myself an expert or anything like that, but my affinity for cats is definitely somewhere above average. Just to be clear, I'm not saying that I'm by any means a cat whisperer. If I was, we'd have to change the name of this story. But I do like cats, and a lot of the time I like to think that cats like me in return.

It was impossible to tell which of the three requests would be the most difficult to fulfil. I wouldn't know until they were all complete. But before starting anything else, I knew that finding Meto was what I wanted to do the most.

There was a nagging part of my brain that reminded me that the other two requests were probably more urgent than finding Meto, but I decided to push that back for now.

Isn't it fine to look for cats before anything else sometimes?

After about an hour or so, I was surprisingly successful.

People had seen multiple cats around the academy. But only one matched the description of the well-renowned and much beloved Mister Meto.

After being pointed in the right direction enough times, I stumbled upon him. All in all, a lovely looking cat. I stepped forwards.

Of course, I know that it's bad to approach a cat that doesn't know you.

But if you don't move closer, then nothing will begin. If you don't step forwards then there's no chance of failure, but there's no chance of success.

I think Ikuno told me once that you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take. While I couldn't call myself this creed's greatest follower, I could at least say that I followed it when it came to cats. So, I took another step.

It's all about finding the ideal distance between you and the creature. Too far away and the cat won't notice you, too close and it'll run away. Since I am always the same person no matter what I do, I've found that the ideal distance is entirely dependant on the cat itself. Not just its personality, but where it is right now.

For example, a cat currently wandering around may be more likely to take off than a cat relaxing. A cool and collected cat would obviously be more reluctant to move than a nervous one. Though that isn't to say that a relaxed cat isn't always easier to win over. A cat that's moving is more likely to come to you, while you may have no choice but to approach a relaxed cat.

There were more variables than could be counted, and since I wasn't the type that counted them anyway all that could be relied upon was my gut feeling.

Meto was sitting there on a wall. I had no desire to sneak up on him, so I made sure that he could see me before I advanced.

Carefully, with a steady pace. But not so steady to give the impression that I was hunting him down.

A plot twist appeared as I closed in. Meto stood up. I froze, waiting for his move.

He hopped down from the wall and started to approach me. I remained frozen, watching him trot over.

Unmistakably, he was approaching me. But that still didn't mean that I could relax.

With the rigidity of iron, I waited for that cat to close the distance between us. Finally, the chance arrived.

I slowly lowered myself to the ground, making sure that my right hand was within Meto's line of sight at all times.

With both of us drawing closer, we were destined to clash eventually. Meto came to a stop just in front of me, while my hand steadily

Oh. What a wonderful feeling. What a wonderful cat. As I pet him, all that I could feel was an unquantifiable amount of joy that I had been born into the same world as felines.

After a few minutes passed, Meto suddenly scampered off without a sound.

It reached my eyes before I felt anything. A large red line on the palm of my hand.

Then as I took that in, the pain overwhelmed my head. It wasn't so much as to incite me to make a sound, but enough that I had to clutch my arm for a while because of it. While I was busy with that, Meto quickly disappeared from my view.

Of course, a cat had claws. Should I have been paying more attention to those? He seemed completely calm, so I had just assumed that it was fine. Perhaps I was a fool to have applied the behaviours of a person to a cat.

Maybe I was lucky to have gotten off with something so minor, all things considered.

The shock made me think clearly, unblinded by my desire to pet a cat. My objective wasn't just to find Meto, was it? Sure, that was what I had been told to do. But the problem was his sudden aggression towards Doto. Finding the cat was easy, getting him to return was more difficult.

To put it more simply, finding something was far easier than finding out why it was missing.

Not only was it more difficult, but I also had absolutely nowhere to start with. The only option that I could see was to return to Doto and ask her for anything odd that she'd noticed leading up to it, or any other question that might give me some kind of idea of what had happened.

"Would I even get anything useful out of that? She was already so upset I couldn't understand her. I feel like telling her that there's nothing more I can do would only make that problem worse."

While mulling over my options I started to wander around. It was only then that something caught in the corner of my mind. As I began to wander away, I caught sight of something moving.

Was that him again? Chasing after the cat that just scratched me was probably foolish. I knew that much. But if it would help me find out the truth here, then I guess there was no choice.

"Why am I even going as far as to get injured for something that I'm not getting anything out of? Am I stupid? Probably."

And so, I followed after what I saw moving.

As I turned the corner what I saw wasn't Meto, but an entirely different cat. It was far smaller than he was and had black fur.

"Sorry for the disturbance."

That was all that I could think to say in that situation. From the look in its eyes, I could clearly see that it was disturbed by me, so it only made sense to apologise. I felt that I had this cat described to me more than a few times while I was going around asking for Meto, it must be another regular of the academy.

Even if I hadn't been scratched as recently as a minute ago, I still wouldn't have tried to pet this one. I could tell just from a glance that it was the type that I couldn't get close to.

The cat ran away after a few more seconds of watching me.

That should have been the end of it. It was nothing more than a completely normal interaction to have. But something was bugging me. I couldn't explain what it was

Something bugged me. I couldn't describe it or put it to a feeling, but something was telling me to give chase.

My opponent was a cat, perhaps one of the most elusive creatures out there. But I didn't put all of this time into running for absolutely nothing, so I was able to keep up with it. After all, horse girls are known for being fast.

There wasn't anything particularly interesting or dramatic about the chase to see what I was following after, so I'll just get to the end.

Hm? What's up? You think that a story about horse girls should put at least a bit of effort into the running scenes? I guess you've got a point there, that does make sense.

Well anyway.

I lost the cat. Horse girls are known for being fast, like I said. Even if I don't pretend to be any better than average, that average speed is still pretty fast. But cats have the advantage in agility, so after realising that it couldn't get away by running it climbed up higher than I could reach.

"I guess I shouldn't have expected anything else. Chasing after a cat is a fool's errand."

Really, shouldn't I have considered the cat's feelings? It looked pretty young, it was probably terrified. If something several times my size started chasing after me I would be too.
I've done a practice race with Hishi Akebono once in the past so I'm speaking from experience here.

So that left me to wonder. Just what was the vague feeling in my stomach that I still wasn't done here. If there was no apparent point, then why did it feel like I had to keep going?

I tried connecting any dot I could find in my mind to bring together what I knew. After a while of silently reflecting on that, what I was left with wasn't any dramatic explanation of the whole case but a sort of vague idea of what the case might be.

"Ah. This is kind of a wild guess at this point but… maybe it makes sense. If I just look a little more into this cat, then maybe it'll all connect?"