While asleep, kai heard a bang, felt a pressure on her chest, and a tiny annoying fluffy paw jab at her face. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Maomao sitting on her chest, mid poke, with a shitty expression on his feline features. He seemed to have purposely knocked over the ornament on the table to wake Kai up.

“Wake up human, you slept enough! I’m hungry” he graaahed out, feeling justified in figuring out the best way to wake Kai up in the fastest and annoying way possible.

Kai reached in and picked up the heavy Maomao, gingerly placing him on the floor as she repositioned and sat on the couch in an upright manner. Her limbs felt heavy and sluggish like if she pulled a day trip to the gym and worked out nonstop.

She wasn’t that out of shape, on the contrary, her form was supple and strong as she was able to keep up in the busy kitchens for an extended period. Her job wasn’t at anywhere fancy, just a local eatery down the street a few blocks away. It was busy due to it being one of the more reputable affordable restaurants that people order from with a large dining hall. This place had a huge turn around for both take out and dine ins. Thinking of her job, she felt another typical rumble from her stomach. Her appetite was back and thoughts of different dishes offered in the restaurant started flashing before her eyes. She too agreed with Maomao; they were both hungry.

She got off her ass and quickly went into the kitchen and got a fresh can off the shelf.

“No not that one, human. I want the liver and beef one today.” Maomao said, sitting on his feeding perch by the window that was built just for him to sit almost eye level with Kai. He lifted up his paw and jokingly asked “Can’t we just skip the typical paw cat-tax grace and get into the grub? Its embarrassing to a mighty being such as myself plus I’m starving!”

Kai just shrugged and just agreed with his demands. She did neglect his quarter can dinner last night, which was still located in the pack, along with the other items brought in. It was only fair since she can now communicate with Maomao properly. She immediately produced the cat-plate that she uses just for him and plopped half the can onto the plate, making sure to thoroughly chop it up, knowing that he would inhale the whole brick.

{You eat THAT trash?} Kapt’n asked, stunned at the strange mush that appeared in front of his charge.

“MMmhm” Maomao purred, mouth full of the canned food. He had kibble as well, but he preferred to eat canned food instead. “Its really delicious once you get past the texture,” Maomao agreed, unfazed by the attitude of the spirit.

{Well, in Aria, we eat the flesh of the hunted. It brings us great strength and nourishes our bodies for the next battle.} Kapt’n said matter of fatly, getting front row seats to the meal every time Maomao leaned in to take further mouthfuls of the food.

Kai just sighed, hearing their conversation and left the room, entering the bathroom instead. She immediately started to run the water and jumped in after stripping off the rest of her clothes she slept in the night before. Hot water ran down her face and she sighed, feeling like it was washing off the additional feelings of apprehension and anxiety of what was next to come.

She knew she had to deal with the immediate stuff, like accepting the mission, since the pendant would refuse to leave and would nag her until she succumbed to its wishes. She also had the future in this world to think about too. I forgot to ask if I can come back here, she thought, knowing that the answer could change the whole outlook to how she handled things on earth.

She wanted a place to come back to, a job, her family’s wellbeing, and mental stability in knowing that she could pick up where she left off.

First things first, she needed to make sure to put enough rent down in advanced to keep the place. She also needed to call into her family and inform them that she’s going to go on a trip, but to where? How? She wracked her brains in trying to think of some excuse to not allow her family to worry about her and the cat.

“Ah Hah!” she said, eyes opened to the water, an epiphany with trumpets and angels sang in her ears. “I’ll just say that I was able to attend chef school with a scholarship and bring my cat with me! That way, no one would need to bother checking in on me and after all that, I could say I failed since I have no paperwork to prove I actually went.” Kai exclaimed out loud in English and smiled, pleased with her new excuse and thoughts on how to move forward for the future. The rest of the duration of the shower consisted of upbeat pop songs that she heard on the radio at work.

After Kai got out of her shower, wrapped in towels, she headed for the living room, only to see Maomao sitting on the couch watching T.V., with his paw resting on the remote and changing channels. She never really saw this behavior before, but it did explain moments when she would come home from work and see the TV on for no apparent reason to what was tuned into most likely a national geographic show. In this case, the two cats seem to be conversing telepathically, as the cat turned the channels in a haphazard way.

Kai chuckled and made her way to the bedroom and immediately started to change into her comfort outfit; an oversized sweater with a printed grumpy kitty face on top of sports bra and baggy sweatpants with kitty slippers.

She then made her way to the kitchen and sat on the island where her laptop was placed just the night before. She then remembered her phone, which was in her pants pocket the night before and rushed over to fish it out. In doing so, her battery flashed on low, and black outed a moment later. Kai popped her phone into her charger which was tethered to the computer and it took a second to flash on. Immediately, the pictures she took on her android phone displayed the few new ones she captured the night before.

“Uhh Kapt’n, I have a few questions for you,” She loudly asked in Maomao’s direction, “Those prints you left on the wall, was that you?”

{Yes, it was. I wrote I’m sorry in my language}, he replied back, still glued to the TV, now watching the bloodhound gang’s iconic music video.

“Okay, also, can we come back here if we go to Aria?” Kai asked again, unsure of the answer she was desperately trying to avoid.

{Yes, but only when it is a special moon or sun phase. You see, it didn’t work before but only when there was a change in the sky, only then did it work and sent me here.}

Kai was at a loss for words. She would have to brush up on the study of the calendar in Aria’s timeframe and deduct when a lunar or solar eclipse or other phenomena would occur. It was possible. She held onto that thought and continued with her plan. With the flick of her wrist, she connected to her landlord and immediately got through. She requested to set up the down payment in electronic transfers, which was accepted. She didn’t do it before due to her bank provider was slow on the technological changes compared to other banks and did not offer that feature until recently. Kai set up the steady pay dates and poured her income from her savings for school back into the withdrawing account for rent. She then thought that she did not have to pay for hydro or gas and could minimize her phone plan to basic. She also did not need cable as there would be no one to watch. Then another thought occurred to her: temporarily rent out her furnished apartment in the meantime! Pack up her personal belongings and let someone else use the space while paying for her to be in another world. The grin formed and she started to get busy, hatching a plan.