Part 1

Yen wakes up slowly. As the light flows into his now opened eyes he finds that he can’t move himself at all.He looks over at Laia’s face and sees an extremely content expression on her face. Though the expression is content it is borderline perverse.

Yen: [Uuu. I am trapped. Laia please wake up and correct your expression soon. It is creeping me out and I feel uncomfortable.] “Laiaaaaa~~ Nyaa~~~ Wake Up.”

Laia slowly stirs and hugs Yen to the point of suffocation then opens her eyes and looks over at Yen in her arms.

Laia: “Good morning Yen. Did you sleep well?”

Yen: “Yes *cough* I slept well. Is your mana replenyished?”

Laia: “Yes it is fully replenished. Usually one night’s good sleep is enough for most people though some people with less affinity for magic will take a while longer.”

Yen: “That is goodnya. So… what are we going to do today?”

Laia ponders for a few seconds and the claps her hands together cutely as she smiles at Yen.

Laia: “How about we go to the village? You haven’t been there before after all. In the meanwhile you can see what I do for a living in the village.”

Yen: “That sounds goodnya. I am curious as to what happens outside of this house too.”

Laia: “That settles it then. Now. What do you want for breakfast?”

Yen: “Anything is good. Everything that you have given me so far is delicious so I trust your judgement.”

Laia: “Okay then. How about some fish for the both of us along with some milk and eggs? That sound good?”

Yen: “Yes!”

Laia goes to the kitchen counter and starts preparing the breakfast while Yen sits on a wooden chair at the table. Yen stares at Laia in anticipation. Once Laia has finished the preparations she sets the table and sits down across from Yen. They both begin to dig in.

Yen: “What do you normally do in the village Laia?”

Laia: “Well I usually do odd jobs like healing minor injuries, killing wild beasts, or generally helping the village.”

Yen: “Hm hm. That seems interesting. I’ll look forward to seeing the town as well.

Yen and Laia finish up their breakfasts and prepare to leave for the town. Laia takes a straw hat with a blue ribbon wrapped around it. Yen looks up at Laia.

Yen: [Hmm that looks like it would be a nice place to sit…]

Laia: “Hm? Do you want to sit on my shoulder?”

Yen: “Yes please!”

Laia: “Alright! Up you go!”

Laia hoists Yen up to her shoulder and Yen perches upon it and looks down at the ground.

Yen: “This is quite enjoyable nya.”

Laia: “Make sure you massage my shoulders for me when we get home okay?”

Yen: [Seems like a good trade. I think that she would just hug me before I can finish the massage though.] “Okaaay.”

Laia: “Good now lets get going! Onwards!”

Yen: “Oooh!”

Yen and Laia burst out of the door and move down the dirt path leading to town. Yen is excited and Laia seems to be enjoying the hug toy on her shoulder.

Part 2

Yen sits on Laia’s shoulder enjoying the breeze as well as the view from up high. They have already arrived at the village. It is a small village. There is a shop that sells all base needs for the village. There are no specialized shops for weapons or armor but there are a few stalls selling food and little doodads sprinkled sporadically along the main street.

Yen: “This is quite a nyice village isn’t it?”

Laia: “Yes, the villagers have put a large amount of work into bettering the village.”

Yen: “So where nyare we going?”

Laia: “We are going to the doctor’s house to help out with some of his patients. There is always someone there as there are many monsters in the forest where the villagers hunt.”

Yen: “Heeh” [I didn’t encounter a single one on my way here though…]

Laia: “We have arrived at the doctor’s.”

Yen and Laia stop in front of a small brick house. It has a slanted roof and faint moans can be heard emanating from within.

Yen: “That is kind of creepy nya…”

Laia: “You get used to it eventually.”

Laia shrugs as she enters into the dimly lit insides. There are curtains covering the windows. Suddenly there is a shifting noise coming from a pile of papers and a man with dead fish eyes slowly rises.

Yen: “IT’S A ZOMBIE! HISSSSS”

Laia: “Oh shush you.”

Laia looks over at the dead eyes man.

Laia: “You should really stop sleeping like that Dr. Seine”

Yen: [This guy’s a doctor? He looks like he’s one of the patients…]

Dr. Seine: “Oh is that you Laia? There isn’t really a patient today but please make yourself comfortable. I see you have a new friend there.”

Laia: “Yes this is my new plu- *cough* familiar, Yen.”

Yen: [You definitely almost said plushee…]

Dr. Seine: “I see I see. Do you want something to drink?”

Laia politely declines with a slightly stiff smile.

Dr. Seine: “Hmm your loss.”

Dr. Seine takes out a mug filled with a strange purple substance and starts sipping on it.

Yen: [Pretty sure something is still alive in there…]

Dr. Seine: “So… do you want to… go out for dinner later or something?”

Laia: “No… thank you for the offer but I don’t think so.”

Dr. Seine: “…okay…”

Yen: “History?”

Laia nods to Yen.

Laia: “I still have some business to talk about with Dr. Seine. If you want to go explore on your own that would be okay.”

Dr. Seine starts shivering.

Yen: [Is he cold?] “Okay. I’ll take my leave for now then.”

Yen takes a slight bow and exits the dreary house, leaving Laia and the Doctor to their conversation. Small explosions can be heard from within the house.

Part 3

Yen walks down the main street that runs through the town and views the various people that walk by him. He sees a fried fish vendor and walks towards it.

Yen: “Meowa” “One fish please”

Yen paws some copper out of a pouch that is usually around his neck but is on the ground at the moment and places them onto the vendor’s table using his amazing neck strength. The vendor looks at Yen dubiously.

Fish Vendor: “Do ya want a fish? Yer Laia’s cat that she was walking around with huh.”

Yen nods a few times and looks up at the vendor.

Fish Vendor: “Well heres a fish fer ya.”

The vendor holds out a fish and yen holds it in his mouth and walks away.

Fish Vendor: “What a strange cat…”

Yen continues to explore the small town and happens to go down a slightly shady alley.

Yen: [What do I do now… I don’t quite know where I am… ahh who cares I’ll just wander back while following my scent.]

Yen keeps walking down the alley and stumbles on two creepy men holding a moving bag.

Sketchy 1: “Hehehe we gon mek bik bucs today hehehe.”

Sketchy 2: “Ye ye hehehe.”

Yen: [Wonder what they are doing holding that bag. Is there an animal inside?]

Baggy: “Mpff ff muff mf mm!”

Sketchy 1: “Oi! quet don in ther.”

Sketchy 2: “Ye ye we gon sell ya so wes can’t injur ya tu much.”

The men give the bag a few punches and it stops moving.

Yen: [Hmm that doesn’t seem like its just an animal. Should I do something about this? But what?]

Yen thinks for a few moments and then he smiles as if he thought of something fun.

Yen: “Nya.” “Hide.”

Yen absorbs a black puff of mana and his silhouette begins to disappear.

Yen: [Seems like it worked out well. I probably shouldn’t talk or do anything to give myself away though.]

Yen stealthily follows the two sketchy men and thinks about what he should do to save the person in the bag.

Yen: [Ahh screw it!] “Mya Mya!” “Lightning shock!”

Yen’s hide spell wears off and he absorbs two fizzy puffs of mana. This mana is expelled as two strands of electricity that quickly hit the necks of the two sketchy men. The two men immediately fall face down on the ground and start having seizures. Eventually the eyes of the two men roll up though they are still breathing.

Yen quickly approaches the bag and undoes the knot at the mouth of it.

Yen: [Quickly Quickly.]

Yen peers into the bag only to see two eyes looking back at him. Those two eyes turn out to belong to a little girl with two cat ears and a tail.

Girl: “Kitty!”

The girl crawls out of the bag and picks Yen up.

Yen: “Mya Mya!” “We need to go!”

Girl: “Hm? We have to go? Where should we go Mr. Kitty?”

Yen: “You can understand me?”

Girl: “Yep.”

Yen: “Ahhh whatever let’s go that way!”

The girl grins at Yen and starts to run away from the two sketchy men. Yen is pointing out where to go despite still being confused as to why she can understand him. The two eventually make it out onto the main street where people can see them again.

Part 4

The cat-eared girl is looking around the street gleefully despite having sprinted down an alley for a few minutes.

Girl: “Mr. Kitty! Mr. Kitty! Where are we going to go now?”

The two suddenly hear a low growl. Yen looks up at the girl. The girl looks at her stomach and looks at Yen pleadingly.

Yen: “Hmm why don’t we go over there then? You look like you might be hungry.”

Yen points toward the fish vendor that he had previously visited.

Girl: “Okay!”

The two walk to the fish vendor and the vendor looks at Yen then he looks at the girl in surprise.

Fish Vendor: “Hey hey hey. Where did you find this cat girl?”

The fish vendor asks Yen with slight panic. Yen simply looks up at the vendor and places enough copper for three fried fish on the table.

Fish Vendor: *Sigh* “Fine fine. Here’s three fish fer ya two. Take it.”

The girl takes two of the fish skewers and Yen takes another. The two start walking where Yen finds Laia’s scent. The girl has already finished 1 of the fishes and is started on the second.

Yen: [Oi how hungry can you be?] “Let’s go see my master then.”

The girl looks at Yen with her head tilted to the side for a moment.

Girl: “Okay!”

The two continue walking until they reach the house where strange sound come out of. The girl looks at the house inquisitively.

Girl: “Hey Mr. Cat is this place a ghost house?”

Yen: “I don’t really know either but my master should still be inside of it.”

Girl: “Muu? Okay?”

The two enter the house.

Yen: “Laaaiaaaaaa!”

Yen waits for a response from Laia and sits down in the middle of the hall.

Girl: “Hey Mr. Cat what is that shadow in the cieling?”

Yen: [Don’t look Don’t look Don’t look] “Probably nothing just ignore it.”

Yen feels cold sweat despite the fact that cats cannot really sweat. This is when footsteps come from down the hall.

Yen: [It is probably Laia it is probably Laia.]

Laia walks out from the shadows and looks at Yen.

Yen: [Phew]

Laia: “Did you have fun Yen? Who is this that you brought with you?”

Yen: “I found her getting dragged around by two sketchy people.”

Yen explains what happened while out in the city.

Laia: “Hmm okay. We’ll keep her!”

Yen: [Probably because she looks like a cat…]

Suddenly Yen realizes something.

Yen: “Hey Laia where is the doctor?”

Laia: “Oh him? He overworked himself a bit too much and needs some rest.”

Yen: [There were no customers though] “O-oh okay.” [Just go with it Yen just ignore the break in logic]

While they are having this conversation the girl is playing with some strange censored red mass in the corner of the room there seems to be some white mixed in.

Laia: “Hmm girl you shouldn’t play with that thing. If you do you might catch the Do- its disease.

Yen: [Ignore it Yen] “Hey what is your name? I’m Yen and this is my master Laia.”

Girl: “I don’t have a name Mr. Ca- Yen.”

Laia: “She understands you?”

Yen: “Hm? Yeah it was pretty surprising.”

Laia: “Hmm that is interesting. Well we can investigate that later. How about we call her… Plush-”

Yen: [Oh no you don’t!] “Ailith. Let’s name her Ailith.”

Laia looks at Yen angrily and pouts. The girl, now Ailith, looks at Yen happily.

Ailith: “Okay Mr. Yen!”

Laia: *Sigh* “Well now that it’s decided lets go back to the cabin as I have finished all I needed to do today.”

Yen: “Okay. Come along now Ailith.”

Ailith: “Call me Ai.”

Ailith looks at Yen and pouts.

Yen: “Okay Ai. Come we are going home now.”

Ai: “Okay!”

Ai picks up Yen in her arms and the three exit the dark home, leaving the mass of red and white in the corner. They walk away despite the small call for help that can be faintly heard from the red mass.