“Ohayo! Anybody home?”
“Hai, come in! Door’s not locked.”
Chiriko toed off his shoes and walked into the double-storey terrace house. Carrying a big shopping bag with one arm and tailed behind by his bodyguard who carried most of the shopping bulk, they dropped everything they had in the living room and made their way towards the living room.
“Hai hai, Chiriko-jisan is here!”
“Just in time,” Tasuki replied. “We’ve just done feeding Maka and Maki. We need a little burping help here.”
Chiriko nodded and went towards Tasuki who is holding Maki. He passed her to him while he picked up Maka to be burped. Chichiri, in turn, took Kuro and Kura by the scruff of the neck and placed them near his exposed chest, letting the little kittens search their way to his nipples to suckle.
After the birth and after Illust-chan, Tokaki and Subaru whisked Tasuki and Chichiri away secretly to their hotel suite, as expected, everyone was screaming bloody murder when they saw the cameraman popped his head in to tell them the news instead of the supposed Tasuki who, like any other proud father, would have brought the kittens to share with each other and possibly passing out cigars. No one wanted to see the footage he caught, except his fellow reporters and paparazzi who said they’d offer a king’s ransom if that cameraman sold them his footage to be their headline news. The poor cameraman had to claw his way out of those over-ambitious and promotion-obsessed competition, not to mention Nuriko and the gang along with all the other Tasuki-Chichiri supporters, and had to beg for security’s help to get him out of the clinic building and back to his news studio where he worked before they maul him to bits for information on Tasuki and Chichiri’s whereabouts.
When everyone has finally found out where Tasuki and Chichiri were ‘hiding’ (probably due to the fact that Chiriko, the boy with all connections, knew where to get his information), they swamped the place almost to the brim just to visit them and to get a glimpse of the beautiful man-kittens Chichiri often held possessively in his arms for reasons only a ‘mother cat’ instincts would know. Even though he knew that Nuriko and the gang are old friends, he couldn’t help hissing and snapping at them with his sharp teeth whenever they attempted to reach over to hold the kittens, and despite Tasuki assuring him that none of them would ever harm their kittens, he refused to let them go, holding them close to his chest and never letting his guard down, not even to family friends. They’ll have to assume that Chichiri was in a maternal phase and would ease up after the kittens get older. In the meantime, so many people, especially the Tasuki-Chichiri fans and supporters and the animal rights activist group, who came to that hotel for their own agenda in mind, until the poor owner of the hotel had to insist that those fans who wishes to see Tasuki and Chichiri to at least rent a room for a day. He also had to issue a restriction order over the animal rights activist group to stay away from his building after one of their rallies and protests outside the hotel turned almost haywire when one of the activists members, after catching a glimpse of Tasuki leaning at the window carrying one of the kittens to be burped, got so disgusted at the sight that he threw brick at the window, barely missing Tasuki by a few inches and prompt the rest of the group to do so, resulting a major damage compensation from the group and that restriction order from the government court itself.
Naturally, they knew they couldn’t stay in the hotel or go back to their neighbourhood and live normal lives again because they had to accept the fact that not everyone, no matter how open-minded they are, can accept the fact that Tasuki and Chichiri are together, even though Chichiri, along with the Yakuza boss and the Yakuza hitwoman, went to the government officials to purchase a sort of citizenship immunity for the couple’s protection. They know those who dislike, loathe even, of Tasuki and Chichiri’s relationship would do everything in their power to find some sort of a loophole to breech the immunity contract and do them harm, so they have no choice but figure out an alternative way to fix their situation.
With their abundance of wealth, connections and sharp wit, the Yakuza boss and the Yakuza hitwoman (who, by the way, after the trial had finally hit it off together and decided to give their relationship a shot) joined forces with some of the biggest business conglomerates under their wing and Chiriko to look for a suitable location for Tasuki and Chichiri to stay. After a long search, they finally found an abandoned airport that had been left to rust ever since that airport has been boycotted and closed down for numerous security flaws. It was quite a drive away from town and most definitely a distance away from anyone who wishes to harm the couple, which was just right to build a small housing estate. Everyone got to work hiring the best contractors, architects, interior designers and the works to create the housing estate. After almost one year of bunking out at their old Rekka-Shin apartment, Tasuki and Chichiri were surprised with their gift of a new home in their new housing estate and was given the honour to name the housing estate anything he wishes. Tasuki, with Chichiri’s approval, named the estate ‘Ai no Yume’ (Dream of Love).
Now, after living there for almost half a year, the lonely housing estate began to bustle with life as more misunderstood people came over to move into the quiet quaint estate where no one could or would want to be bothered with them and let them live their own lives as long as they were not breaking any major laws. Most of them consisted of outcasts like ex-convicts or reformed drug addicts who couldn’t find their place in normal society, gay and lesbian couples, incest couples—usually youngsters—and couples who consist of a parent and his/her adopted child. The only people not welcomed in this estate are pedophiles, especially those who love little children for the sake of sexual fun and not true love, and also groups where the latter is way beyond legal age. As much as they accept outcast into their community, those are the ones they could not tolerate and are usually reported to the authorities as soon as they were found.
There, they began to slowly establish the estate into a small town of its own, where the members of the estate can start up their own businesses with proper funding by Chiriko, who had finally regained his wealth, home and property after the twins Suboshi and Amiboshi were arrested by the authorities after the child of the family they were hired to assassinate survived the attack and lived to identify and testify against them. Due to all the murders and corruption they have committed, they were given the death penalty, but before the day of the execution, the warden found Suboshi’s cell door broken open and found him lying beside his beloved twin in his cell, their whole body pummeled into a bloody mess. Autopsies and investigations as well as eye-witnesses’ accounts from the nearby inmates concluded that somehow they managed to smuggle their weapons into their prison without detection whatsoever, and instead of using them to escape, they’ve decided to end their lives together as the lovers they were rather than living a fugitive life. Using the mini flute hidden inside Amiboshi’s mouth, he managed to project the music to make Suboshi’s Ru Sei Suie come alive and break the cell door and crash through Amiboshi’s cell and, holding each other’s hands, Amiboshi played the music to make the Ru Sei Suie attack them and thus, beat them to death, leaving everything they had stolen from Chiriko back to its rightful owner.
Nuriko and the gang led their own lives as all happy couples and families should, and would occasionally visit Tasuki and Chichiri and ogle over the kittens, which by now have gone acquainted with their presence after finally being able to be out of the confines of their overprotective ‘mother’ as soon as they could hear and see perfectly, but no one visited them more often than Chiriko himself. In fact, after quitting the multimillion gaming business and gave away most of his wealth to charity, officially moved down to Ai no Yume to become the estate mayor and run the estate alongside with Tasuki the co-founder of the estate, going around collecting house rent from every family in the estate and help run the estate businesses like any mayor should. Tasuki finally got his job license back, thanks to the Yakuza boss’s influence, and he would continue getting house calls from eager customers who need a boost in their love lives, and Chichiri would go out to help them. At first, Tasuki wasn’t really too keen in having Chiriko around, possibly because of past grudges and Chiriko’s possible lingering obsession over Chichiri, but after a respectable agreement of truce, Chiriko had slowly become best friends with the couple, and soon officially became the kittens’ godfather and was given the liberty to name one of the kittens, in which Chiriko named him Kuro because of the black patch at the tip of his tiny ears. They were the darling of everyone in the estate and whenever Tasuki and Chichiri had to work, almost everyone is willing to baby-sit them.
“Thanks for helping us do the shopping, Chiriko,” Tasuki said as he put Maka into the crib. “After the job just now, we’re both beat.”
“No prob, Tasuki. How’s business so far?” Chiriko asked.
“Same old, same old,” Tasuki grinned. “Some salary guy from a small shoe company wanted to try and woo the boss’s daughter. I didn’t think they suit very well—way out of his league, if you ask me—but Chichiri thinks otherwise, so I trust his instincts and took the job.”
“I guess Chichiri really is born to spot who’s it and who’s not.”
Chichiri smiled back happily at him, licking Kuro and Kura occasionally to clean off whatever dirt and grime they have.
“I can’t believe it’s been one year and a half since all that hullabaloo had started,” Tasuki commented as he and Chiriko went to the kitchen to put away the groceries. “The kittens have already started to spout words, and Tokaki and Subaru said that they will grow physically just as fast as Chichiri. It won’t be long before they’ll need to be schooled.”
“Need any help on that?”
“Nah, we’ve got it covered. We’ve discussed last week in our committee meeting when you were away downtown to visit your parents that it would be a hassle to send their kids to school back and forth from town to the estate, so we’ve decided to build our own school. We’re now collecting funds amongst ourselves, but you could provide us with the rest if it’s not enough.”
“Consider it done, Tasuki. So what about the other kids? How are they gonna study in the meantime?”
“A few of our estate residents here are teachers and professors in various schools, so they can take their time teaching them during the afternoon and as soon as the new school is done, they will quit their job and work full-time there.”
“Cool. You work well as a member of the estate. You should be Deputy Mayor for me.”
“Nah, I don’t do politics and all that. I still prefer my current job.”
“Suit yourself,” Chiriko shrugged. “Anyways, how’s the others doing?”
“Nuriko and Hotohori are having a ball with their son Himawari. They just invited us to his 5th birthday party,” Tasuki replied as he went about preparing dinner for the night. “Tamahome and Miaka are getting along as couples usually do. I heard that Miaka has now started working part-time as a waitress in the restaurant to earn extra pocket money for her own expenditure. After all, she can’t depend on her parents all the time, what with them paying her university fees. Yui and Nakago had planned to do their Honours degree together down in Switzerland, most probably after they finish their semester here by next June. No surprise there, since both of them are like the geniuses of Japan. The others are alright, getting married, preparing for engagements, the works. We most probably be invited to tons of their parties.”
“That’s what you get when you are like their Stupid Cupid.”
“You got that right,” Tasuki grinned, then realized something amiss. “By the way, where’s Chiri-chan? Dinner’s almost ready and he’s been breastfeeding rather long.”
“I’ll go check on him,” Chiriko said as he went to the nursery room. “Chichiri-chan? Chichiri-chan?”
He wasn’t in the nursery room and Kuro and Kura had already done feeding and are put in their cribs to sleep. He wasn’t in the master bedroom, and neither was he downstairs at any of the rooms. Finally, after searching for some moments, he found him down at one corner of the cellar where Tasuki kept every memorabilia of their matchmaking services including video tapes, notes, papers, pictures of their clients and gifts by their satisfied customers, all of which have been given back by the court after confiscating them along with revoking his job license.
“Ne, Chichiri-chan? Dinner is ready,” Chiriko said as he held out his hand. “Time to go up and eat.”
Chichiri shook his head, a sound of a crinkling paper bag could be heard.
“What’s that you got there?”
Chichiri shook his head again, pretending not to hear anything.
“Chichiri-chan…” Chiriko gave him a warning tone.
Chichiri hesitated for a moment before showing what he had been hiding behind his back.
It was a bag of sour mints.
Chiriko looked knowingly for a moment before offering to give Chichiri a piggyback ride upstairs. By then, Tasuki had the dinner prepared on the table and was looking at the duo coming out of the cellar in relief.
“Ah, there you are, Chiri-chan. Come on, dinner’s ready. Everyone tuck in.”
“Chichiri-chan, you have something to say to Tasu-sama?”
Chichiri blushed and looked away, hiding his face onto Chiriko’s shoulder.
“Nani? Nani, Chiri-chan? Daijobu deska?”
“Come on, Chichiri-chan. You know the words. Tell him.”
Tasuki and Chiriko waited patiently as Chichiri got off Chiriko’s back and gathered the strength to utter these two words that would add another flavour into their future life.
“I’m…pregnant.”
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Puss, Puss-Chp20
It felt almost like forever before Illust-chan’s four wheel drive came to a halt. Illust-chan quickly removed the keys from the ignition and went to the back seat to carry Chichiri out of the car before making a mad dash out of the parking lot and towards a clinic just ahead.
With whatever strength he had left from holding the pain, Chichiri looked up and saw that it was the familiar old clinic where Tokaki and Subaru worked. As Illust-chan shouted for assistance and told everyone to make way for here, Chichiri silently wondered what relationship Illust-chan shared with Tokaki and Subaru.
“Illust-chan! Glad you got here!” Subaru exclaimed as she wheeled out the surgery table for Illust-chan to put Chichiri on.
“I got here as fast as I could. I think I’ve broken more speed limits than I should,” Illust-chan replied, wiping a sweat of her brow while struggling to breathe properly after looking like she just came from a marathon run.
“Let me help you worry about that later,” Tokaki said and laid a few blankets under Chichiri’s butt, took off the man-cat’s pants and placed another blanket over Chichiri’s naked lower half. “Have you called the lawyer guy yet?”
“Yes, anata,” Subaru replied. “They said they’re on their way now.”
“I saw a few people recognizing Chichiri-chan when I came in,” Illust-chan said a little worriedly. “I think they might end up calling the press or the cops or something. Should I do something about that, ji-san?”
“No, niece,” Tokaki stopped her. “Chichiri-chan is receiving enough bad publicity as it is. You just go outside and wait for Tasuki to come. Direct him straight to this room. Don’t bother about the others. You do know which one is Tasuki, right?”
“Hai, ji-san!” Illust-chan saluted and made a dash out the clinic entrance, guarding the door diligently and looked out for the person she had heard and read and seen so much in the news both on the papers and the TV. A few patients craned their necks to see what Illust-chan was doing and who she was waiting for, but she couldn’t bother. She couldn’t care less whatever people thought. Her priority right now is to reunited Tasuki and Chichiri and that’s what she set out to do.
“Breathe nice and slow, Chichiri-chan,” Subaru coached the man-cat as she helped him ride the contractions. “Thank goodness we had our dear little niece to infiltrate the AHS office and pose as a new worker there to monitor Chichiri-chan, anata. Without one of our own in there, I don’t think we would’ve been able to save Chichiri-chan and the kittens in time.”
“Hai,” Tokaki got himself cleaned and prepared for the big moment, “Demo, it’s not that we didn’t know that Tasuki was the father of the child in the first place. I mean, it’s no secret the way he reacted when we told him that Chichiri-chan was pregnant that he was the one who knocked him up. His face was so readable. But then again, we are in the new age. Anything is possible. I pity those people who see him otherwise.”
“That’s our old Tasuki, always the predictable one,” Subaru smiled a little as she stroke Chichiri’s head. She felt Chichiri up and said, “I can literally feel the head already. He’d better be here soon. Chichiri won’t hold on much longer.”
“Hayaku yo, Mitsukake-san! Can’t you drive any faster?!”
Mitsukake was on the road in his van, weaving in and out of the streets amidst the blaring cars and changing traffic lights and whatnot. In his van was Tasuki, Nuriko and Hotohori, Miaka and Tamahome, Yui and Nakago, Tatemo the lawyer and a few of the Rekka-Shin Apartment residents including Albert Kay and the boy genius Chiriko with his body guard, while the rest of the Rekka-Shin Apartment residents drove their own cars, trying as hard as they could to follow Mitsukake’s trail. Behind them trailed a long line of cars and vans from the press, who probably heard of Chichiri’s coming labour and decided to get the scoop of the story, and a few police cars which are probably either escorting them or chasing after them for violating speed limits. Either way, the road to Tokaki and Subaru’s clinic was a long and hectic one.
“I’m trying to drive as fast as I can with the weight in this van!” Mitsukake exclaimed as he swerved, almost hitting a nearby truck.
“Are you accusing us of being fat?!” Nuriko growled out loud before shrieking as a motorcycle flew past them, barely scraping the door.
“Oh, shut it, woman, and let the man drive before you get us all killed!” Albert Kay shouted and alerted Mitsukake to avoid a pedestrian. The others were hot on their trail and it was a matter of time before they saw Tokaki and Subaru’s vet in sight.
“Look! There’s a girl with a bell choker waving at us at the entrance!” Miaka noted, pointing at Illust-chan who was waving furiously at them in front of the clinic entrance to stop. Tasuki, regardless whether Mitsukake had hit the brakes or not, opened the sliding door of the van and jumped down the vehicle, jogging quickly towards Illust-chan’s direction.
“Tasuki-san?” Illust-chan asked, ignoring the orange prison jumpsuit he was wearing. It was evident that he had no time to change after the verdict has been made. He must’ve rushed out of the courtroom as soon as he heard the news of Chichiri and came here in a flash without even bothering whether anyone was going to think that he had just performed a jailbreak feat or something.
“Hai! Dare ka? Chiri-chan, is he…?”
“Come with me.”
Illust-chan took Tasuki by both hands and led him straight towards the room where Chichiri was, ignoring the surprised gasp of the people inside the clinic at upon seeing a tiny nurse leading a big grown convict. Illust-chan didn’t bother to knock. She just barged in, dragged Tasuki along with her and pushed him towards Chichiri, not that Tokaki and Subaru minded anyway.
“Ah, finally,” Tokaki replied good-naturedly. “We thought we might end up starting off without you.”
“Chiri-chan, Chiri-chan, oh god, I’m so sorry,” Tasuki peppered Chichiri with butterfly kisses as he reached out to hold his beloved’s hand. “God, I miss you so much. I’m so sorry I’m late.”
“Tasu-sama…” Chichiri whimpered as he held onto his hand and wrapped his other arm around his neck, savouring the familiar smell of his beloved. With him finally here by his side, his pain seemed to be bearable at most.
While Tasuki and Chichiri savoured the moment of having each other in their arms, Subaru and Illust-chan was busy shooing away people, friends and paparazzi and police alike. Tokaki only allowed one cameraman to enter the room as he believed that the public needed to know how the birth went and how successful a union between a human and a man-cat could be. The happy little cameraman practically bounced into the room, leaving his fellow colleagues and competition behind disappointed as the door was shut at their faces. Illust-chan soon joined the delivery team with the necessary delivery instruments, which included the warm water and towels to clean the kittens and the scissors to cut the cord.
“I think it’s time we get this show on the road, boys,” Tokaki said as he put on his surgical gloves. He motioned Tasuki to get behind Chichiri and let him lean on his chest for support while Subaru helped Chichiri to sit up. Tokaki spread Chichiri’s legs just wide enough before nodding to Chichiri, telling him to push.
Chichiri took a deep breath and bore down, gripping tightly at both Tasuki’s hands that held him for support. Tasuki whispered sweet nothings to his ears to give him encouragement and Subaru helped the birth a little by massaging and pressing lightly at Chichiri’s pregnant belly. The cameraman took everything on tape, watching in wonder at the real-life birth of the kittens everyone was raving about. Tokaki counted slowly from 10 to 1 as Chichiri tried to push the first kitten out. It didn’t really hurt to give birth, now that the pressure had decreased with his pushing, but the vaginal opening that stretched to accommodate the size of the kitten’s head was more than uncomfortable to bear with. Tears involuntarily flow from his eyes as he continued to bear down with all his might, all the while Tokaki, Subaru and Tasuki gave him soft encouragement and Illust-chan waiting diligently for them to pass her the kitten.
After about 15 minutes of pushing, Chichiri let out a small mewl of pain as the first kitten, with the tea plate-sized placenta still attached to it through the umbilical cord, slid out of him. There was no time to waste for cuddles and kisses of the kitten as Tokaki quickly passed the kitten to Subaru who in turn passed it to Illust-chan. Chichiri whined for Illust-chan to let him hold his kitten but Tokaki persuaded to keep going as the rest of the kittens in him won’t wait. The cameraman hurriedly went towards Illust-chan’s direction and focused his camera on Illust-chan as she helped the kitten to breathe.
While Subaru tried to massage Chichiri’s belly some more before he continued with his pushing, Tasuki stole a glance at Illust-chan doing her work. Illust-chan quickly wrapped the poor thing in a towel and rubbed its back furiously. It was no bigger than a normal real kitten he had seen surrounding Chichiri when they first met and it had a beautiful fiery mop of hair on top of its head. Its eyes were tightly shut like all newborn kittens do, and it was as fair as Chichiri. Its tiny ears and tail the colour of Chichiri’s ears and tail stuck out from either side of the towel. Illust-chan used a sort of pump to clean its mouth and remove the excess blood and placenta clotted around the air passageway, all the while continuing to rub its back vigorously. By the time Tokaki signaled Chichiri to start pushing again, a series of sharp mewls echoed throughout the room as it took in its first breath of air.
“It’s a beautiful girl,” Illust-chan smiled as she tied and cut the umbilical cord and proceeded to clean her up. Tasuki couldn’t control his tears of joy as he and Chichiri stopped for a moment to watch Illust-chan cleaning the kitten up with the luke-warm water ready in a tub.
“You can’t stop now, Chichiri-chan,” Tokaki reminded as he got ready to catch the next kitten. “You have three more to go.”
Everyone was waiting outside the room impatiently, worry written all across their faces. The reporters, cameramen and paparazzi were disappointed at first for not being able to get the exclusive footage, but it pales in comparison to that of the long wait to see the newborn man-kittens. Nuriko was the most restless of the group, pacing to and fro, muttering to herself like a lunatic. Eventually Hotohori groaned and pulled her down to sit on his lap.
“Na…Nandayo, anata??” Nuriko exclaimed, shocked at the sudden gesture.
“You’ve been pacing to and fro like that for almost half an hour. You’re gonna wear a hole on the floor for that, and you’re making us all dizzy.”
“But…But I can’t just sit here and do nothing! I’ll go crazy!”
“Who’s the one giving birth, me—if I could ever give birth—or Chichiri-chan?”
“De…Demo…Demo…!”
“Just be patient. Tasuki is in there with him. I’m sure everything will be fine. Chichiri-chan is in good hands.”
Chiriko glanced sideways at their antics and let out a silent sigh. If Hotohori hadn’t said, he would probably do the same thing Nuriko did.
Please be alright, Chichiri-chan, he whispered quietly in his heart.
“Keep pushing, Chichiri-chan. You’re doing very well.”
Chichiri gritted his teeth and pushed as hard as he could. He had gotten the other two kittens out—a boy and a girl—and is working on getting the last one out. His face looked rather pale with the loss of blood and Subaru had just took out blood from the blood bank readily prepared at the side should anything happen. Chichiri’s large shirt that bore a picture of yellow smiley—totally contradicting to the situation they were in now—was totally drenched with cold sweat on top and blood at the bottom as he struggled hard to push. After almost 15 minutes of pushing, the kitten was still crowning and nowhere near out.
“Tasu-sama…” Chichiri whined as he stopped pushing, trying to get a breather.
“Is something wrong? The last one is not out at all,” Tasuki asked, cuddling his beloved worriedly.
“The birth may have put too much strain on his vaginal opening and unable to stretch anymore even though the first three had paved the way. We’ll need to take necessary measures,” Tokaki said as he gave a knowing look at his wife. Subaru nodded, turned to Illust-chan with a hand outstretched and Illust-chan, without needing to be told, passed her the surgical scissors.
“Ta-Ta-Tasu-sama…?!” Chichiri widened his eyes in shock, looking at the scissors glinting under the light fearfully.
“What are you going to do?” Tasuki asked warily.
“This will make the kitten slide out easier and save the trouble of Chichiri-chan pushing out anymore blood than necessary,” Tokaki explained as he cradled Chichiri’s buttocks with one hand and took the scissors with the other. “Trust me. It’s better this way.”
“Ko…Ko…wai…” Chichiri whimpered, learning the word of fear.
“Would it hurt him terribly? Would it heal?” Tasuki asked.
“It would, but just a little while,” Subaru said. “After that, with proper care and adequate rest and dietary, it will heal up pretty quick.”
After a long silence, Tasuki finally agreed, saying, “Do it. He’s too tired to push anyway.”
“Ta-Tasu-sama!” Chichiri whined and mewled in protest. Tasuki held him tight and put his hand into Chichiri’s mouth while Subaru held his legs down.
“I’m here, Chiri-chan. It’s OK. You can bite me if it’s too painful.”
The cameraman closed up the view on the process nervously as Tokaki inched the scissors on the vaginal opening, with Chichiri struggling and trying to kick everybody away from holding him captive. A snip was heard, making the cameraman cringe, and Chichiri let out a muffled scream of pain, biting down hard on Tasuki’s hand until it drew blood. The poor man-cat could feel the blessed relief as the kitten’s head began to ooze slowly out of its confines but he couldn’t help crying over the excruciating pain. Fresh tears poured out despite Tokaki and Subaru’s encouragement and when Tasuki proceeded to hush him and give him reassuring words, Chichiri growled and reached over to bite Tasuki’s neck.
“Itai, itai, itai!!” Tasuki shouted in pain, but stopped Illust-chan from pulling him away. He knew Chichiri was angry with him for allowing Tokaki to cut him and needed to vent out somehow. He was lucky that Chichiri’s fangs missed his vital jugular or he would’ve bled to death.
“I…tai…I…tai…” Chichiri mumbled, his oral grip on Tasuki’s neck held. His salty tears stung the wound sustained from the bite but Tasuki didn’t care about that anymore.
“Gomene, Chiri-chan. Gomene,” Tasuki rubbed Chichiri’s back, allowing Chichiri to bite deeper. He would do anything to ease Chichiri’s pain, even if he had to suffer a few.
“Just one last push, Chichiri-chan. Let go of Tasuki-san and push,” Tokaki coaxed.
Chichiri did not let go of Tasuki, but he pushed nonetheless. With both hands gripping tightly onto Tasuki’s arms that wrapped around him and his neck in his teeth’s mercy, Chichiri bore down as hard as he could, and finally, after a felt-like-forever 5 minutes, the kitten slid out of his womb and let out piercing mewls after Illust-chan rubbed and cleared its air passageway.
“Omedetou, Tasuki-san, Chichiri-chan,” Illust-chan announced as she presented the proud parents their thoroughly cleaned kittens wrapped in a clean big towel. “You have 2 boys and 2 girls.”
“Girls?” Tasuki was surprised. By now, Chichiri had released his oral hold on Tasuki’s neck and breathed heavily, trying to compose himself as Subaru quickly gave him the blood he needed. “I thought I was going to have like…well, like Chichiri, a hermaphrodite.”
“Not sure how does it work yet, but probably it’s your human genetics combining with Chichiri-chan’s double chromosome that determined the gender of the child,” Tokaki explained. “At any rate, they survived and are born healthy, with ten fingers and ten toes. Does the gender really matter?”
“Iya, I guess not,” Tasuki said as he looked adoringly at the four kittens in his arms. All of them were born with his hair and Chichiri’s fur for the ears and tail. Their eyes were sealed shut like a newborn kitten and Tasuki had to assume that it will be a while before they would reveal their eyes for him to see. He could tell as well that they are deaf like a newborn kitten by the non-reaction towards him saying ‘Hi’ to them, but flinch every time he touched them.
Once Illust-chan was done cleaning Chichiri, removing whatever placenta was left in his womb and dressed him in a fresh new set of clothes, Tasuki came close to Chichiri and showed him their kittens. All of them mewled as soon as Tasuki put them in his arms, as if they recognized their ‘mother’ and Chichiri’s tears of joy poured out as he licked them adoringly one by one.
“Ka…wa…ii…” Chichiri said as he nuzzled the four kittens lovingly. He saw Tasuki being bandaged of his hand and neck by Subaru and gave him an apologetic look. Looks like he had not learnt the word of apology yet.
“Daijobu desu, Chichiri-chan,” Tasuki said as he kissed Chichiri deeply. “As long as you’re alright.”
“We’ve got a car ready at the back door to take you to a nice quiet hotel suite to stay so that Chichiri-chan can rest up,” Subaru said as she wrapped Chichiri with a blanket. “We took the liberty to take some of you and Chichiri-chan’s belongings to the suite so that you can look after him.”
“But what about those waiting outside? They have the right to know how the birth went,” Tasuki said worriedly.
“I suppose it wouldn’t kill them to see the footage instead of the real thing,” the cameraman, who had been silently filming the whole thing, finally spoke. “You guys run along. I’ll handle the mad mob outside.”
“Arigatogozamas,” Tasuki said gratefully as he cradled Chichiri bridal-style and allowed Tokaki and Subaru to escort him out through the back door.
Needless to say, as Tokaki drove the couple off to their destination, there was a great uproar in the waiting room of the clinic.
With whatever strength he had left from holding the pain, Chichiri looked up and saw that it was the familiar old clinic where Tokaki and Subaru worked. As Illust-chan shouted for assistance and told everyone to make way for here, Chichiri silently wondered what relationship Illust-chan shared with Tokaki and Subaru.
“Illust-chan! Glad you got here!” Subaru exclaimed as she wheeled out the surgery table for Illust-chan to put Chichiri on.
“I got here as fast as I could. I think I’ve broken more speed limits than I should,” Illust-chan replied, wiping a sweat of her brow while struggling to breathe properly after looking like she just came from a marathon run.
“Let me help you worry about that later,” Tokaki said and laid a few blankets under Chichiri’s butt, took off the man-cat’s pants and placed another blanket over Chichiri’s naked lower half. “Have you called the lawyer guy yet?”
“Yes, anata,” Subaru replied. “They said they’re on their way now.”
“I saw a few people recognizing Chichiri-chan when I came in,” Illust-chan said a little worriedly. “I think they might end up calling the press or the cops or something. Should I do something about that, ji-san?”
“No, niece,” Tokaki stopped her. “Chichiri-chan is receiving enough bad publicity as it is. You just go outside and wait for Tasuki to come. Direct him straight to this room. Don’t bother about the others. You do know which one is Tasuki, right?”
“Hai, ji-san!” Illust-chan saluted and made a dash out the clinic entrance, guarding the door diligently and looked out for the person she had heard and read and seen so much in the news both on the papers and the TV. A few patients craned their necks to see what Illust-chan was doing and who she was waiting for, but she couldn’t bother. She couldn’t care less whatever people thought. Her priority right now is to reunited Tasuki and Chichiri and that’s what she set out to do.
“Breathe nice and slow, Chichiri-chan,” Subaru coached the man-cat as she helped him ride the contractions. “Thank goodness we had our dear little niece to infiltrate the AHS office and pose as a new worker there to monitor Chichiri-chan, anata. Without one of our own in there, I don’t think we would’ve been able to save Chichiri-chan and the kittens in time.”
“Hai,” Tokaki got himself cleaned and prepared for the big moment, “Demo, it’s not that we didn’t know that Tasuki was the father of the child in the first place. I mean, it’s no secret the way he reacted when we told him that Chichiri-chan was pregnant that he was the one who knocked him up. His face was so readable. But then again, we are in the new age. Anything is possible. I pity those people who see him otherwise.”
“That’s our old Tasuki, always the predictable one,” Subaru smiled a little as she stroke Chichiri’s head. She felt Chichiri up and said, “I can literally feel the head already. He’d better be here soon. Chichiri won’t hold on much longer.”
--:--
Mitsukake was on the road in his van, weaving in and out of the streets amidst the blaring cars and changing traffic lights and whatnot. In his van was Tasuki, Nuriko and Hotohori, Miaka and Tamahome, Yui and Nakago, Tatemo the lawyer and a few of the Rekka-Shin Apartment residents including Albert Kay and the boy genius Chiriko with his body guard, while the rest of the Rekka-Shin Apartment residents drove their own cars, trying as hard as they could to follow Mitsukake’s trail. Behind them trailed a long line of cars and vans from the press, who probably heard of Chichiri’s coming labour and decided to get the scoop of the story, and a few police cars which are probably either escorting them or chasing after them for violating speed limits. Either way, the road to Tokaki and Subaru’s clinic was a long and hectic one.
“I’m trying to drive as fast as I can with the weight in this van!” Mitsukake exclaimed as he swerved, almost hitting a nearby truck.
“Are you accusing us of being fat?!” Nuriko growled out loud before shrieking as a motorcycle flew past them, barely scraping the door.
“Oh, shut it, woman, and let the man drive before you get us all killed!” Albert Kay shouted and alerted Mitsukake to avoid a pedestrian. The others were hot on their trail and it was a matter of time before they saw Tokaki and Subaru’s vet in sight.
“Look! There’s a girl with a bell choker waving at us at the entrance!” Miaka noted, pointing at Illust-chan who was waving furiously at them in front of the clinic entrance to stop. Tasuki, regardless whether Mitsukake had hit the brakes or not, opened the sliding door of the van and jumped down the vehicle, jogging quickly towards Illust-chan’s direction.
“Tasuki-san?” Illust-chan asked, ignoring the orange prison jumpsuit he was wearing. It was evident that he had no time to change after the verdict has been made. He must’ve rushed out of the courtroom as soon as he heard the news of Chichiri and came here in a flash without even bothering whether anyone was going to think that he had just performed a jailbreak feat or something.
“Hai! Dare ka? Chiri-chan, is he…?”
“Come with me.”
Illust-chan took Tasuki by both hands and led him straight towards the room where Chichiri was, ignoring the surprised gasp of the people inside the clinic at upon seeing a tiny nurse leading a big grown convict. Illust-chan didn’t bother to knock. She just barged in, dragged Tasuki along with her and pushed him towards Chichiri, not that Tokaki and Subaru minded anyway.
“Ah, finally,” Tokaki replied good-naturedly. “We thought we might end up starting off without you.”
“Chiri-chan, Chiri-chan, oh god, I’m so sorry,” Tasuki peppered Chichiri with butterfly kisses as he reached out to hold his beloved’s hand. “God, I miss you so much. I’m so sorry I’m late.”
“Tasu-sama…” Chichiri whimpered as he held onto his hand and wrapped his other arm around his neck, savouring the familiar smell of his beloved. With him finally here by his side, his pain seemed to be bearable at most.
While Tasuki and Chichiri savoured the moment of having each other in their arms, Subaru and Illust-chan was busy shooing away people, friends and paparazzi and police alike. Tokaki only allowed one cameraman to enter the room as he believed that the public needed to know how the birth went and how successful a union between a human and a man-cat could be. The happy little cameraman practically bounced into the room, leaving his fellow colleagues and competition behind disappointed as the door was shut at their faces. Illust-chan soon joined the delivery team with the necessary delivery instruments, which included the warm water and towels to clean the kittens and the scissors to cut the cord.
“I think it’s time we get this show on the road, boys,” Tokaki said as he put on his surgical gloves. He motioned Tasuki to get behind Chichiri and let him lean on his chest for support while Subaru helped Chichiri to sit up. Tokaki spread Chichiri’s legs just wide enough before nodding to Chichiri, telling him to push.
Chichiri took a deep breath and bore down, gripping tightly at both Tasuki’s hands that held him for support. Tasuki whispered sweet nothings to his ears to give him encouragement and Subaru helped the birth a little by massaging and pressing lightly at Chichiri’s pregnant belly. The cameraman took everything on tape, watching in wonder at the real-life birth of the kittens everyone was raving about. Tokaki counted slowly from 10 to 1 as Chichiri tried to push the first kitten out. It didn’t really hurt to give birth, now that the pressure had decreased with his pushing, but the vaginal opening that stretched to accommodate the size of the kitten’s head was more than uncomfortable to bear with. Tears involuntarily flow from his eyes as he continued to bear down with all his might, all the while Tokaki, Subaru and Tasuki gave him soft encouragement and Illust-chan waiting diligently for them to pass her the kitten.
After about 15 minutes of pushing, Chichiri let out a small mewl of pain as the first kitten, with the tea plate-sized placenta still attached to it through the umbilical cord, slid out of him. There was no time to waste for cuddles and kisses of the kitten as Tokaki quickly passed the kitten to Subaru who in turn passed it to Illust-chan. Chichiri whined for Illust-chan to let him hold his kitten but Tokaki persuaded to keep going as the rest of the kittens in him won’t wait. The cameraman hurriedly went towards Illust-chan’s direction and focused his camera on Illust-chan as she helped the kitten to breathe.
While Subaru tried to massage Chichiri’s belly some more before he continued with his pushing, Tasuki stole a glance at Illust-chan doing her work. Illust-chan quickly wrapped the poor thing in a towel and rubbed its back furiously. It was no bigger than a normal real kitten he had seen surrounding Chichiri when they first met and it had a beautiful fiery mop of hair on top of its head. Its eyes were tightly shut like all newborn kittens do, and it was as fair as Chichiri. Its tiny ears and tail the colour of Chichiri’s ears and tail stuck out from either side of the towel. Illust-chan used a sort of pump to clean its mouth and remove the excess blood and placenta clotted around the air passageway, all the while continuing to rub its back vigorously. By the time Tokaki signaled Chichiri to start pushing again, a series of sharp mewls echoed throughout the room as it took in its first breath of air.
“It’s a beautiful girl,” Illust-chan smiled as she tied and cut the umbilical cord and proceeded to clean her up. Tasuki couldn’t control his tears of joy as he and Chichiri stopped for a moment to watch Illust-chan cleaning the kitten up with the luke-warm water ready in a tub.
“You can’t stop now, Chichiri-chan,” Tokaki reminded as he got ready to catch the next kitten. “You have three more to go.”
--:--
“Na…Nandayo, anata??” Nuriko exclaimed, shocked at the sudden gesture.
“You’ve been pacing to and fro like that for almost half an hour. You’re gonna wear a hole on the floor for that, and you’re making us all dizzy.”
“But…But I can’t just sit here and do nothing! I’ll go crazy!”
“Who’s the one giving birth, me—if I could ever give birth—or Chichiri-chan?”
“De…Demo…Demo…!”
“Just be patient. Tasuki is in there with him. I’m sure everything will be fine. Chichiri-chan is in good hands.”
Chiriko glanced sideways at their antics and let out a silent sigh. If Hotohori hadn’t said, he would probably do the same thing Nuriko did.
Please be alright, Chichiri-chan, he whispered quietly in his heart.
--:--
Chichiri gritted his teeth and pushed as hard as he could. He had gotten the other two kittens out—a boy and a girl—and is working on getting the last one out. His face looked rather pale with the loss of blood and Subaru had just took out blood from the blood bank readily prepared at the side should anything happen. Chichiri’s large shirt that bore a picture of yellow smiley—totally contradicting to the situation they were in now—was totally drenched with cold sweat on top and blood at the bottom as he struggled hard to push. After almost 15 minutes of pushing, the kitten was still crowning and nowhere near out.
“Tasu-sama…” Chichiri whined as he stopped pushing, trying to get a breather.
“Is something wrong? The last one is not out at all,” Tasuki asked, cuddling his beloved worriedly.
“The birth may have put too much strain on his vaginal opening and unable to stretch anymore even though the first three had paved the way. We’ll need to take necessary measures,” Tokaki said as he gave a knowing look at his wife. Subaru nodded, turned to Illust-chan with a hand outstretched and Illust-chan, without needing to be told, passed her the surgical scissors.
“Ta-Ta-Tasu-sama…?!” Chichiri widened his eyes in shock, looking at the scissors glinting under the light fearfully.
“What are you going to do?” Tasuki asked warily.
“This will make the kitten slide out easier and save the trouble of Chichiri-chan pushing out anymore blood than necessary,” Tokaki explained as he cradled Chichiri’s buttocks with one hand and took the scissors with the other. “Trust me. It’s better this way.”
“Ko…Ko…wai…” Chichiri whimpered, learning the word of fear.
“Would it hurt him terribly? Would it heal?” Tasuki asked.
“It would, but just a little while,” Subaru said. “After that, with proper care and adequate rest and dietary, it will heal up pretty quick.”
After a long silence, Tasuki finally agreed, saying, “Do it. He’s too tired to push anyway.”
“Ta-Tasu-sama!” Chichiri whined and mewled in protest. Tasuki held him tight and put his hand into Chichiri’s mouth while Subaru held his legs down.
“I’m here, Chiri-chan. It’s OK. You can bite me if it’s too painful.”
The cameraman closed up the view on the process nervously as Tokaki inched the scissors on the vaginal opening, with Chichiri struggling and trying to kick everybody away from holding him captive. A snip was heard, making the cameraman cringe, and Chichiri let out a muffled scream of pain, biting down hard on Tasuki’s hand until it drew blood. The poor man-cat could feel the blessed relief as the kitten’s head began to ooze slowly out of its confines but he couldn’t help crying over the excruciating pain. Fresh tears poured out despite Tokaki and Subaru’s encouragement and when Tasuki proceeded to hush him and give him reassuring words, Chichiri growled and reached over to bite Tasuki’s neck.
“Itai, itai, itai!!” Tasuki shouted in pain, but stopped Illust-chan from pulling him away. He knew Chichiri was angry with him for allowing Tokaki to cut him and needed to vent out somehow. He was lucky that Chichiri’s fangs missed his vital jugular or he would’ve bled to death.
“I…tai…I…tai…” Chichiri mumbled, his oral grip on Tasuki’s neck held. His salty tears stung the wound sustained from the bite but Tasuki didn’t care about that anymore.
“Gomene, Chiri-chan. Gomene,” Tasuki rubbed Chichiri’s back, allowing Chichiri to bite deeper. He would do anything to ease Chichiri’s pain, even if he had to suffer a few.
“Just one last push, Chichiri-chan. Let go of Tasuki-san and push,” Tokaki coaxed.
Chichiri did not let go of Tasuki, but he pushed nonetheless. With both hands gripping tightly onto Tasuki’s arms that wrapped around him and his neck in his teeth’s mercy, Chichiri bore down as hard as he could, and finally, after a felt-like-forever 5 minutes, the kitten slid out of his womb and let out piercing mewls after Illust-chan rubbed and cleared its air passageway.
“Omedetou, Tasuki-san, Chichiri-chan,” Illust-chan announced as she presented the proud parents their thoroughly cleaned kittens wrapped in a clean big towel. “You have 2 boys and 2 girls.”
“Girls?” Tasuki was surprised. By now, Chichiri had released his oral hold on Tasuki’s neck and breathed heavily, trying to compose himself as Subaru quickly gave him the blood he needed. “I thought I was going to have like…well, like Chichiri, a hermaphrodite.”
“Not sure how does it work yet, but probably it’s your human genetics combining with Chichiri-chan’s double chromosome that determined the gender of the child,” Tokaki explained. “At any rate, they survived and are born healthy, with ten fingers and ten toes. Does the gender really matter?”
“Iya, I guess not,” Tasuki said as he looked adoringly at the four kittens in his arms. All of them were born with his hair and Chichiri’s fur for the ears and tail. Their eyes were sealed shut like a newborn kitten and Tasuki had to assume that it will be a while before they would reveal their eyes for him to see. He could tell as well that they are deaf like a newborn kitten by the non-reaction towards him saying ‘Hi’ to them, but flinch every time he touched them.
Once Illust-chan was done cleaning Chichiri, removing whatever placenta was left in his womb and dressed him in a fresh new set of clothes, Tasuki came close to Chichiri and showed him their kittens. All of them mewled as soon as Tasuki put them in his arms, as if they recognized their ‘mother’ and Chichiri’s tears of joy poured out as he licked them adoringly one by one.
“Ka…wa…ii…” Chichiri said as he nuzzled the four kittens lovingly. He saw Tasuki being bandaged of his hand and neck by Subaru and gave him an apologetic look. Looks like he had not learnt the word of apology yet.
“Daijobu desu, Chichiri-chan,” Tasuki said as he kissed Chichiri deeply. “As long as you’re alright.”
“We’ve got a car ready at the back door to take you to a nice quiet hotel suite to stay so that Chichiri-chan can rest up,” Subaru said as she wrapped Chichiri with a blanket. “We took the liberty to take some of you and Chichiri-chan’s belongings to the suite so that you can look after him.”
“But what about those waiting outside? They have the right to know how the birth went,” Tasuki said worriedly.
“I suppose it wouldn’t kill them to see the footage instead of the real thing,” the cameraman, who had been silently filming the whole thing, finally spoke. “You guys run along. I’ll handle the mad mob outside.”
“Arigatogozamas,” Tasuki said gratefully as he cradled Chichiri bridal-style and allowed Tokaki and Subaru to escort him out through the back door.
Needless to say, as Tokaki drove the couple off to their destination, there was a great uproar in the waiting room of the clinic.
Puss, Puss-Chp19
Everyone in the court talked amongst themselves in hushed tones, giving the other side of the seating audience a dirty look. It was obvious as to seating of theirs which side they were choosing to support. To make it even more obvious, some of them were carrying banners and wearing printed T-shirt reading ‘Animals have rights’, ‘Free Tasuki/Chichiri’, ‘Bestiality Sucks!!’ and ‘True Love Conquers All: Hail Tasuki/Chichiri!’, stating out proudly whose they’re on.
As the retrial was set to commence, everyone began to speak hotly about the prospects of Tasuki’s case. TV forums and debates were made with experts discussing about the possibilities of a human and a man-cat living the normal life. Online forums and debaters crashed each other with their opinions on whether Tasuki and Chichiri should be together. Newspapers and magazines were swarming with topics, even went as far as digging through Tasuki’s past and trying to relate how his childhood could’ve affected his sexual orientation, and about how Chichiri came to be from being in a controlled secure lab where only the selected few would be put out in the market into a common pet shop who makes a meager annual income (which, of course, blew the cover of the poor vet who caused Chichiri’s half-blindness). Phone lines were off the hook and letters and emails were piled up to their noses as to giving their viewpoints whenever TV shows asked the audience to participate in the discussion or whenever the newspapers or radio stations asked the public to give their two-cents on this issue. Controlled rallies were all about the street as the animal rights supporters and the Tasuki/Chichiri supporters duel it out with their voices, slogans and banners, urging the public to hear their plea.
Now everyone, including news-hungry reporters and paparazzi, stayed vigilantly in the courthouse listening in on the news hoping to get a result out of this. A sudden long hush ensued as they watched Tasuki come into the courtroom and be led by the bailiff to the seat with Tatemo. He had changed quite a deal since his imprisonment, even though it had only been about 4 months (from the day Nuriko and the gang visited Tasuki till today, it was about one month of interviews, rallies and petition-writing); 8 more to go before he’s officially released. His hair has lost its vibrant fiery red and his skin was much paler. He looked a great deal lot thinner than the last time Nuriko and the gang saw him and it seemed as if the jumpsuit he was wearing was almost too big for him. His facial expression was that of a defeated man and couldn’t care less as to whatever happens to him or anything around him. He looked as if they could just blow up and die for all he cared; he just wanted to left alone to his thoughts. Nuriko’s heart ached to see her best friend that way.
After all formalities spoken at the beginning of trials and the entry of Judge Taiitsu-kun, the trial commenced with bringing in the previous witnesses to the stand. Chiriko stated that he realized the full consequences of producing false statements in court back then and was willing to accept any punishment incurred on him, and fully stressed that Tasuki and Chichiri’s arrest was entirely his doing out of jealousy and that Tasuki and Chichiri should be together. Tokaki and Subaru, after intricate research on their behalf, spoke that technically, in scientific and medical terms, Chichiri is 75 percent human and is supposed to be leaning towards the life of a human, not an animal who gets caged and fed and treated as a lower-life form. A person dominantly human—as stated by Tokaki—should be given just as much human rights as they would give a gay or lesbian couple, with only minor necessities of the animal kind. Subaru noted that though Chichiri’s pregnancy was a risky one, but with close monitoring and controlled medication and observation, they could not see why Chichiri should not be able to carry the child to term.
The people who were in gratitude to Tasuki and Chichiri’s services, including those from Rekka-Shin Apartment, made it to the stand to give their testimony as to why Tasuki and Chichiri should be together. Tatemo played the interview footage and revealed all those that could not appear in court due to personal reasons about the good Tasuki and Chichiri had done. When Tasuki was called up to the stand to be given a chance to defend himself, this was what he said:
“I know that I have done something terribly wrong in the eyes of the public, and I know no matter how time passes, or whether we are caught or not, we will live the life of prejudice and people would never learn to accept our love as it is. I am grateful for those who have approved of our love and done so much for us, even suffered the wrath of the rest of the world for us, and I thank them on behalf of Chiri-chan and myself. Chiri-chan and I have been through a lot. He had chosen me to be his master, a man who lived a simple life and could barely even feed himself and pay the rent, let alone support a pet. Out of everyone, even Chiriko-san who would’ve done a better job as a master than me, he decided to follow me despite my reluctance. He took me out of a life of monotony and showed me my full potential in a job that I can actually put my heart and soul into.
“After Chiriko-san took away my Chiri-chan, I truly felt the meaning of being lonely and I had to admit, I have Chiriko-san to thank for awakening my true feelings for Chiri-chan. Without him, I am nothing. Without him, I wouldn’t have known such great friends and so many wonderful people who had stepped into my life whether I knew it or not. Without him, I would’ve still been in that apartment living out my bachelor days carefree, find a lover and get married and live the average Japanese life of a salary-man. That is not what I want. That is not what I desire. Chiri-chan helped me realized that, and I am not ashamed or regretful to say that we have loved each other deeper than any human being could ever love another, and I was very, very happy while it lasted.
“I wish I could say that I apologize for offending everyone in this room for doing what I did to Chiri-chan and I wish could say that I am sorry for all the things that I have done and what atrocity I have created towards the society’s eye, but I can’t. I have no desire to apologize for this sort of prejudice. I can only say sorry that you cannot understand our feelings and see through how we feel for each other and how it feels to be torn apart from the one you truly love, and that you fail to believe that true love transcends everything. I can only apologize for your narrow-mindedness and your insistence to break us up and kill my kittens.
“I just have two questions to ask: Regardless if you love a human or not, what if the same time as I’m going through happen to you? What would you do at my place?”
After Tasuki’s defense statement, both Tatemo and the prosecutor did their best to rival out each other with their lawyer expertise, and the juries’ faces seemed to be at wits’ end as to who to side on, although some of them seemed to be already choosing which side they wish to be on. Before they knew it, after all testimonials given and witnesses questioned, it had been almost 2 weeks since the retrial first started.
“This ends the retrial of Tasuki’s case of sexual bestiality conduct,” Judge Taiitsu-kun looked as if she heaved a sigh of relief that this case is almost over. “The juries will be given 48 hours to make their verdict. We will return to this court at 1.30pm sharp to read their verdict. The court is adjourned.”
Chichiri woke up feeling a little restless. There was something about him that felt rather wrong tonight. Well, actually he had been feeling a little under the weather for almost 2 days now, but this time, the uneasiness is hitting tenfolds. He looked up and saw that the clock opposite him was showing 1.25pm. Had he been sleeping that long?
He paced round and round in his cage trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Was it the cramps? Was it nausea? Was it that he needed to go pee? Was it all three? Was it that Illust-chan, the only person he trusted, betrayed him by feeding him with poison and it has now come to effect?
His questions were answered when he felt some sort of twang of pain in his round belly. It didn’t really hurt very badly, more like an intense pressure, but deep down inside, his instincts told him the worse. The feeling of needing to bear down confirmed it even more.
He was going into labour.
No! he thought. He couldn’t afford to go into labour! He can’t go into labour! He knew he was due anytime soon, but this was the last place he wanted to have his beloved’s kittens. Those workers would have his kittens terminated, and he would forever be separated from his Tasu-sama. No, he had to hold it in!
Easier said than done.
“Kuso…I know I left it somewhere here…”
Chichiri’s squinted eyes of pain shot open as he heard the familiar voice outside. Holding his pain, he peeked out to see Illust-chan looking worriedly everywhere. She must’ve lost her choker again. During his months in the shelter, he had noticed and studied a lot of interesting things on his caretaker while giving her the cold shoulder treatment. One thing was that she had just started working in the shelter the same time Chichiri was brought in, and the other thing was her choker that she religiously wore almost every single waking moment of her life. It was a beautiful dark red tied into a big butterfly-shaped bow and a cute little bell dangling just right under her throat. In one of her babblings, Chichiri remembered her telling him that it was a gift from her boyfriend who was currently working in Denmark, like a pre-wedding band before he returns to officially marry her. No matter how many times her colleagues told her that it was unprofessional to wear such accessories in an office, she would not budge. She refused to take it off and had threatened to leave work, only to be coaxed back because Chichiri would want no one but her to be treated. She was like a real life neko girl with that choker, minus the neko ears and tail, that is. She would take it off whenever she was involved in big scale operations and whatnot, but she would always put it back on afterwards, although she would occasionally forget and start looking for it frantically, just like what she was doing right now.
“Ah! Gotcha!”
He saw Illust-chan picking up her choker that was left somewhere near the medicine cabinet and gleefully tied it back around her neck, fixing it into that perfect big butterfly-shaped bow. He wanted to call out, but hesitated. What if Illust-chan was still untrustworthy as he suspected? What if what she said about helping him getting out of this hellish shelter house was a lie? What if she takes him straight away to the head vet and forces him to give birth before assisting the head vet to kill his kittens? What if…
Chichiri bit back a yelp as he felt the pressure getting even stronger to the point where it actually felt very painful. He could feel a lump starting to grow between his legs and his thighs were sticky with the water that has broken and began to leak out of his vaginal opening Tokaki had mentioned when his pregnancy was first diagnosed. He gripped the railings of his cage to support himself while clutching his belly with the other, trying to breathe to slow down the pain. Each time he breathe, the water began to leak even more and was flowing out like a faucet left running, staining the floor of the cage he was leaning on.
Illust-chan was totally oblivious of what’s going on. She briefly looked around—not really looking, actually—to see if everything was in order before making her way out of the door. She’s leaving! he thought. She’s going to leave and he will have to give birth in a stinking, rickety cold cage! No, this is not what he want his kittens to be in! This is not where he wants his kittens to have its first breath of air in! Screw whatever ‘what if-s’ he had in his head! He needed help now!
Illust-chan was now going to close the door and lock it.
No time for pride.
It’s now or never.
“I…Illus…sama…”
Illust-chan stopped at her tracks, looking around warily, wondering where the voice came from.
“I…llus…sama…” Chichiri struggled to call her louder, the pressure making him double over.
“Da…Dare? Dare ka? Jodan ja nai yo! I know karate and I’m not afraid to use it.”
Chichiri couldn’t hold on to the pain any longer. He crashed against the door of his cage and whimpered, clutching his round belly tightly. That caught Illust-chan’s attention as she quickly made a mad dash towards his cage. She gasped when she saw Chichiri’s condition.
“Oh my God, kitty cat! You’re in labour!”
She quickly opened the cage and carried Chichiri out and placed him onto the surgery table. Looking around to see if there was anyone looking, she quickly fished out her cell phone and dialed a number, all the while holding onto Chichiri’s hand tightly, using her gestures to give him moral support. In the midst of trying to hold the pain, Chichiri could catch bits and pieces of the conversation.
“Hai…Hai…He’s in labour now…Probably about fully dilated…Of all days, why must the hearing…Alright, I’ll see what I can do…Daijobu, ji-san, I got it covered…Hai…”
“What’s going on here? Closing hours and you’re still here?”
Illust-chan and Chichiri’s breath simultaneously hitched as they saw the head vet coming in, wiping his blood-stained hands, obviously just finished performing a surgery at the other room. Luckily Illust-chan had stashed her cell phone just in time before he was able to see or hear what she was doing. He didn’t need to look twice to be able to recognize what Chichiri’s predicament was.
“My, my, it’s time, isn’t it?” the head vet said in a rather cold yet anticipated tone. “Guess this must be our lucky day, eh, newbie?”
“Um, uh, you can’t! You can’t perform the delivery now!” Illust-chan suddenly blurted out without realizing what she just said.
“And why not, pray tell, newbie?” the head vet looked at her suspiciously.
“A…Anno…” Illust-chan stumbled to come up with an excuse, then lit up and said, “Ne, matte yo, shachou, you wouldn’t want to do this without an audience, do you?”
“An audience? What do you mean?” the head vet raised an eyebrow.
“Sa, anno…You do know that it’s not exactly a secret that no one in this facility likes this kitty cat, and they would love nothing but to see you perform the termination of its kittens. Besides, isn’t it a life long dream of yours to do a big favour for animal kind?”
Chichiri tensed at Illust-chan. What was she trying to do?
“Hmm…” the head vet rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“Besides, I heard that if you bring in the press to witness this auspicious moment every animal rights activists have been waiting for, you actually earn a 10 percent commission.”
The head vet thought for a while before grinning and said, “Very well, newbie. For once you’re doing something useful around here. Go and make the necessary arrangements, starting with the press.”
“Yada, yada, shachou. You do the honours. I’ll stay here and watch the kitty cat, just in case he tries to run away.”
“How could he be running away with a pain in his gut?”
“You don’t know him as much as I do, shachou. You did, after all, assign him to me.”
“Hmm, good point. Then keep an eye on him. I’ll go make the calls.”
Illust-chan held her breath and waited for the head vet to step out of the room completely before heaving a sigh of relief and quickly rummaged through the drawers. She took out a reasonably big blanket and wrapped it around Chichiri, covering him as much as possible, then cradled him in his arms, peeked out of the door to make sure the coast was clear before tip-toeing out of the room and heading out towards the back door as quietly as possible.
“That was close, kitty cat,” Illust-chan said as she quickly settled Chichiri into the back seat of her four-wheel drive and jumped onto the driver seat, starting the car while looking warily around to see that they were not busted yet.
Chichiri whimpered in pain, the pressure increasing the size of the lump between his legs. He couldn’t hold on much longer.
“Don’t worry, kitty cat. Hang in there. Illuscia Nester Himawari always keeps her promises.”
“We have, Your Honour.”
The moment of truth had finally arrived as everyone returned to the courtroom 2 days later to hear the juries make their final conviction as to Tasuki’s upcoming fate. Those who were outside the court building protesting and out-rallying each other in their groups were silent for once so as not to miss any bit of the announcement made in the courtroom through the connecting cable from the cameraman stationed inside the court room to capture everything live, which was then broadcasted through a portable TV connected to big speakers for everyone to hear. Everyone was at the edge of their seats and on the tip of their toes, with Tasuki sitting beside Tatemo looking resigned, calm and collected, ready to face anything thrown at him. Tokaki and Subaru, the husband and wife vet couldn’t come because they had to tend to their clinic, but the rest of Tasuki’s friends, including all residents and ex-residents of Rekka-Shin Apartment and Nuriko and the gang, were there having their fingers and probably their toes crossed.
“May the defendant please rise.”
Tasuki, with a little encouragement from Tatemo and Nuriko at the audience seat, stood up, his handcuffs clinked as he went.
“What is your verdict?” Judge Taiitsu-kun turned to the juries.
“For bestiality conduct, we find the defendant…”
Everyone held their breaths.
“Not guilty.”
Everyone gasped for a moment, not knowing how to react. Tasuki’s eyes widened, for the first time showing a glimmer of hope.
“For impregnating a house pet, we find the defendant…not guilty.”
This time everyone cheered and clapped (well, those who supported Tasuki, anyway) and Nuriko and the gang reached over to hug Tasuki like there was no tomorrow, while the animal activists either protested loudly against this verdict or just stomped out of the courtroom disappointed. Those outside the courtroom getting the broadcasted hearing also had almost the exact same reaction as those in the courtroom, with the Tasuki-Chichiri supporters cheering, clapping, whooping, jumping and hugging each other with joy and jeering at the animal activists group while the animal activists showed them the middle finger, protested loudly and booing at both the result read and at the Tasuki-Chichiri supporters. Tasuki was overwhelmed with relief and unspeakable emotions that he allowed himself to be manhandled while silent tears of joy trickled down his cheeks. He found it hard to believe that his nightmare was finally over and soon he would be reunited with his beloved. Only when the judge banged the platform with her hammer then the commotion died down a little.
“Order, everyone, order in the court!” Judge Taiitsu-kun warned. “The defendant Tasuki has been found not guilty of all charges. His sentence will be terminated and Chichiri will be returned to his possession. Mr. Tasuki, you and your man-cat are free to go.”
Tasuki finally smiled in bliss as he returned the hug of everyone who gave him, and for the first time, gratefully and happily shook hands with Chiriko for doing such a great deed for him. Chiriko accepted his thanks and from the others with a genuine smile and a warm fuzzy feeling in his gut that he had not had in years.
Just when they were celebrating their good fortune, Tatemo’s cell phone rang. He answered and his face immediately changed from happy to shock as he heard the news from the other line. He hurriedly hung up and alerted everyone.
“I got a call from Tokaki and Subaru. Chichiri is in labour. We have to go to their vet now.”
As the retrial was set to commence, everyone began to speak hotly about the prospects of Tasuki’s case. TV forums and debates were made with experts discussing about the possibilities of a human and a man-cat living the normal life. Online forums and debaters crashed each other with their opinions on whether Tasuki and Chichiri should be together. Newspapers and magazines were swarming with topics, even went as far as digging through Tasuki’s past and trying to relate how his childhood could’ve affected his sexual orientation, and about how Chichiri came to be from being in a controlled secure lab where only the selected few would be put out in the market into a common pet shop who makes a meager annual income (which, of course, blew the cover of the poor vet who caused Chichiri’s half-blindness). Phone lines were off the hook and letters and emails were piled up to their noses as to giving their viewpoints whenever TV shows asked the audience to participate in the discussion or whenever the newspapers or radio stations asked the public to give their two-cents on this issue. Controlled rallies were all about the street as the animal rights supporters and the Tasuki/Chichiri supporters duel it out with their voices, slogans and banners, urging the public to hear their plea.
Now everyone, including news-hungry reporters and paparazzi, stayed vigilantly in the courthouse listening in on the news hoping to get a result out of this. A sudden long hush ensued as they watched Tasuki come into the courtroom and be led by the bailiff to the seat with Tatemo. He had changed quite a deal since his imprisonment, even though it had only been about 4 months (from the day Nuriko and the gang visited Tasuki till today, it was about one month of interviews, rallies and petition-writing); 8 more to go before he’s officially released. His hair has lost its vibrant fiery red and his skin was much paler. He looked a great deal lot thinner than the last time Nuriko and the gang saw him and it seemed as if the jumpsuit he was wearing was almost too big for him. His facial expression was that of a defeated man and couldn’t care less as to whatever happens to him or anything around him. He looked as if they could just blow up and die for all he cared; he just wanted to left alone to his thoughts. Nuriko’s heart ached to see her best friend that way.
After all formalities spoken at the beginning of trials and the entry of Judge Taiitsu-kun, the trial commenced with bringing in the previous witnesses to the stand. Chiriko stated that he realized the full consequences of producing false statements in court back then and was willing to accept any punishment incurred on him, and fully stressed that Tasuki and Chichiri’s arrest was entirely his doing out of jealousy and that Tasuki and Chichiri should be together. Tokaki and Subaru, after intricate research on their behalf, spoke that technically, in scientific and medical terms, Chichiri is 75 percent human and is supposed to be leaning towards the life of a human, not an animal who gets caged and fed and treated as a lower-life form. A person dominantly human—as stated by Tokaki—should be given just as much human rights as they would give a gay or lesbian couple, with only minor necessities of the animal kind. Subaru noted that though Chichiri’s pregnancy was a risky one, but with close monitoring and controlled medication and observation, they could not see why Chichiri should not be able to carry the child to term.
The people who were in gratitude to Tasuki and Chichiri’s services, including those from Rekka-Shin Apartment, made it to the stand to give their testimony as to why Tasuki and Chichiri should be together. Tatemo played the interview footage and revealed all those that could not appear in court due to personal reasons about the good Tasuki and Chichiri had done. When Tasuki was called up to the stand to be given a chance to defend himself, this was what he said:
“I know that I have done something terribly wrong in the eyes of the public, and I know no matter how time passes, or whether we are caught or not, we will live the life of prejudice and people would never learn to accept our love as it is. I am grateful for those who have approved of our love and done so much for us, even suffered the wrath of the rest of the world for us, and I thank them on behalf of Chiri-chan and myself. Chiri-chan and I have been through a lot. He had chosen me to be his master, a man who lived a simple life and could barely even feed himself and pay the rent, let alone support a pet. Out of everyone, even Chiriko-san who would’ve done a better job as a master than me, he decided to follow me despite my reluctance. He took me out of a life of monotony and showed me my full potential in a job that I can actually put my heart and soul into.
“After Chiriko-san took away my Chiri-chan, I truly felt the meaning of being lonely and I had to admit, I have Chiriko-san to thank for awakening my true feelings for Chiri-chan. Without him, I am nothing. Without him, I wouldn’t have known such great friends and so many wonderful people who had stepped into my life whether I knew it or not. Without him, I would’ve still been in that apartment living out my bachelor days carefree, find a lover and get married and live the average Japanese life of a salary-man. That is not what I want. That is not what I desire. Chiri-chan helped me realized that, and I am not ashamed or regretful to say that we have loved each other deeper than any human being could ever love another, and I was very, very happy while it lasted.
“I wish I could say that I apologize for offending everyone in this room for doing what I did to Chiri-chan and I wish could say that I am sorry for all the things that I have done and what atrocity I have created towards the society’s eye, but I can’t. I have no desire to apologize for this sort of prejudice. I can only say sorry that you cannot understand our feelings and see through how we feel for each other and how it feels to be torn apart from the one you truly love, and that you fail to believe that true love transcends everything. I can only apologize for your narrow-mindedness and your insistence to break us up and kill my kittens.
“I just have two questions to ask: Regardless if you love a human or not, what if the same time as I’m going through happen to you? What would you do at my place?”
After Tasuki’s defense statement, both Tatemo and the prosecutor did their best to rival out each other with their lawyer expertise, and the juries’ faces seemed to be at wits’ end as to who to side on, although some of them seemed to be already choosing which side they wish to be on. Before they knew it, after all testimonials given and witnesses questioned, it had been almost 2 weeks since the retrial first started.
“This ends the retrial of Tasuki’s case of sexual bestiality conduct,” Judge Taiitsu-kun looked as if she heaved a sigh of relief that this case is almost over. “The juries will be given 48 hours to make their verdict. We will return to this court at 1.30pm sharp to read their verdict. The court is adjourned.”
--:--
He paced round and round in his cage trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Was it the cramps? Was it nausea? Was it that he needed to go pee? Was it all three? Was it that Illust-chan, the only person he trusted, betrayed him by feeding him with poison and it has now come to effect?
His questions were answered when he felt some sort of twang of pain in his round belly. It didn’t really hurt very badly, more like an intense pressure, but deep down inside, his instincts told him the worse. The feeling of needing to bear down confirmed it even more.
He was going into labour.
No! he thought. He couldn’t afford to go into labour! He can’t go into labour! He knew he was due anytime soon, but this was the last place he wanted to have his beloved’s kittens. Those workers would have his kittens terminated, and he would forever be separated from his Tasu-sama. No, he had to hold it in!
Easier said than done.
“Kuso…I know I left it somewhere here…”
Chichiri’s squinted eyes of pain shot open as he heard the familiar voice outside. Holding his pain, he peeked out to see Illust-chan looking worriedly everywhere. She must’ve lost her choker again. During his months in the shelter, he had noticed and studied a lot of interesting things on his caretaker while giving her the cold shoulder treatment. One thing was that she had just started working in the shelter the same time Chichiri was brought in, and the other thing was her choker that she religiously wore almost every single waking moment of her life. It was a beautiful dark red tied into a big butterfly-shaped bow and a cute little bell dangling just right under her throat. In one of her babblings, Chichiri remembered her telling him that it was a gift from her boyfriend who was currently working in Denmark, like a pre-wedding band before he returns to officially marry her. No matter how many times her colleagues told her that it was unprofessional to wear such accessories in an office, she would not budge. She refused to take it off and had threatened to leave work, only to be coaxed back because Chichiri would want no one but her to be treated. She was like a real life neko girl with that choker, minus the neko ears and tail, that is. She would take it off whenever she was involved in big scale operations and whatnot, but she would always put it back on afterwards, although she would occasionally forget and start looking for it frantically, just like what she was doing right now.
“Ah! Gotcha!”
He saw Illust-chan picking up her choker that was left somewhere near the medicine cabinet and gleefully tied it back around her neck, fixing it into that perfect big butterfly-shaped bow. He wanted to call out, but hesitated. What if Illust-chan was still untrustworthy as he suspected? What if what she said about helping him getting out of this hellish shelter house was a lie? What if she takes him straight away to the head vet and forces him to give birth before assisting the head vet to kill his kittens? What if…
Chichiri bit back a yelp as he felt the pressure getting even stronger to the point where it actually felt very painful. He could feel a lump starting to grow between his legs and his thighs were sticky with the water that has broken and began to leak out of his vaginal opening Tokaki had mentioned when his pregnancy was first diagnosed. He gripped the railings of his cage to support himself while clutching his belly with the other, trying to breathe to slow down the pain. Each time he breathe, the water began to leak even more and was flowing out like a faucet left running, staining the floor of the cage he was leaning on.
Illust-chan was totally oblivious of what’s going on. She briefly looked around—not really looking, actually—to see if everything was in order before making her way out of the door. She’s leaving! he thought. She’s going to leave and he will have to give birth in a stinking, rickety cold cage! No, this is not what he want his kittens to be in! This is not where he wants his kittens to have its first breath of air in! Screw whatever ‘what if-s’ he had in his head! He needed help now!
Illust-chan was now going to close the door and lock it.
No time for pride.
It’s now or never.
“I…Illus…sama…”
Illust-chan stopped at her tracks, looking around warily, wondering where the voice came from.
“I…llus…sama…” Chichiri struggled to call her louder, the pressure making him double over.
“Da…Dare? Dare ka? Jodan ja nai yo! I know karate and I’m not afraid to use it.”
Chichiri couldn’t hold on to the pain any longer. He crashed against the door of his cage and whimpered, clutching his round belly tightly. That caught Illust-chan’s attention as she quickly made a mad dash towards his cage. She gasped when she saw Chichiri’s condition.
“Oh my God, kitty cat! You’re in labour!”
She quickly opened the cage and carried Chichiri out and placed him onto the surgery table. Looking around to see if there was anyone looking, she quickly fished out her cell phone and dialed a number, all the while holding onto Chichiri’s hand tightly, using her gestures to give him moral support. In the midst of trying to hold the pain, Chichiri could catch bits and pieces of the conversation.
“Hai…Hai…He’s in labour now…Probably about fully dilated…Of all days, why must the hearing…Alright, I’ll see what I can do…Daijobu, ji-san, I got it covered…Hai…”
“What’s going on here? Closing hours and you’re still here?”
Illust-chan and Chichiri’s breath simultaneously hitched as they saw the head vet coming in, wiping his blood-stained hands, obviously just finished performing a surgery at the other room. Luckily Illust-chan had stashed her cell phone just in time before he was able to see or hear what she was doing. He didn’t need to look twice to be able to recognize what Chichiri’s predicament was.
“My, my, it’s time, isn’t it?” the head vet said in a rather cold yet anticipated tone. “Guess this must be our lucky day, eh, newbie?”
“Um, uh, you can’t! You can’t perform the delivery now!” Illust-chan suddenly blurted out without realizing what she just said.
“And why not, pray tell, newbie?” the head vet looked at her suspiciously.
“A…Anno…” Illust-chan stumbled to come up with an excuse, then lit up and said, “Ne, matte yo, shachou, you wouldn’t want to do this without an audience, do you?”
“An audience? What do you mean?” the head vet raised an eyebrow.
“Sa, anno…You do know that it’s not exactly a secret that no one in this facility likes this kitty cat, and they would love nothing but to see you perform the termination of its kittens. Besides, isn’t it a life long dream of yours to do a big favour for animal kind?”
Chichiri tensed at Illust-chan. What was she trying to do?
“Hmm…” the head vet rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“Besides, I heard that if you bring in the press to witness this auspicious moment every animal rights activists have been waiting for, you actually earn a 10 percent commission.”
The head vet thought for a while before grinning and said, “Very well, newbie. For once you’re doing something useful around here. Go and make the necessary arrangements, starting with the press.”
“Yada, yada, shachou. You do the honours. I’ll stay here and watch the kitty cat, just in case he tries to run away.”
“How could he be running away with a pain in his gut?”
“You don’t know him as much as I do, shachou. You did, after all, assign him to me.”
“Hmm, good point. Then keep an eye on him. I’ll go make the calls.”
Illust-chan held her breath and waited for the head vet to step out of the room completely before heaving a sigh of relief and quickly rummaged through the drawers. She took out a reasonably big blanket and wrapped it around Chichiri, covering him as much as possible, then cradled him in his arms, peeked out of the door to make sure the coast was clear before tip-toeing out of the room and heading out towards the back door as quietly as possible.
“That was close, kitty cat,” Illust-chan said as she quickly settled Chichiri into the back seat of her four-wheel drive and jumped onto the driver seat, starting the car while looking warily around to see that they were not busted yet.
Chichiri whimpered in pain, the pressure increasing the size of the lump between his legs. He couldn’t hold on much longer.
“Don’t worry, kitty cat. Hang in there. Illuscia Nester Himawari always keeps her promises.”
--:--
“Have you reached the verdict?”“We have, Your Honour.”
The moment of truth had finally arrived as everyone returned to the courtroom 2 days later to hear the juries make their final conviction as to Tasuki’s upcoming fate. Those who were outside the court building protesting and out-rallying each other in their groups were silent for once so as not to miss any bit of the announcement made in the courtroom through the connecting cable from the cameraman stationed inside the court room to capture everything live, which was then broadcasted through a portable TV connected to big speakers for everyone to hear. Everyone was at the edge of their seats and on the tip of their toes, with Tasuki sitting beside Tatemo looking resigned, calm and collected, ready to face anything thrown at him. Tokaki and Subaru, the husband and wife vet couldn’t come because they had to tend to their clinic, but the rest of Tasuki’s friends, including all residents and ex-residents of Rekka-Shin Apartment and Nuriko and the gang, were there having their fingers and probably their toes crossed.
“May the defendant please rise.”
Tasuki, with a little encouragement from Tatemo and Nuriko at the audience seat, stood up, his handcuffs clinked as he went.
“What is your verdict?” Judge Taiitsu-kun turned to the juries.
“For bestiality conduct, we find the defendant…”
Everyone held their breaths.
“Not guilty.”
Everyone gasped for a moment, not knowing how to react. Tasuki’s eyes widened, for the first time showing a glimmer of hope.
“For impregnating a house pet, we find the defendant…not guilty.”
This time everyone cheered and clapped (well, those who supported Tasuki, anyway) and Nuriko and the gang reached over to hug Tasuki like there was no tomorrow, while the animal activists either protested loudly against this verdict or just stomped out of the courtroom disappointed. Those outside the courtroom getting the broadcasted hearing also had almost the exact same reaction as those in the courtroom, with the Tasuki-Chichiri supporters cheering, clapping, whooping, jumping and hugging each other with joy and jeering at the animal activists group while the animal activists showed them the middle finger, protested loudly and booing at both the result read and at the Tasuki-Chichiri supporters. Tasuki was overwhelmed with relief and unspeakable emotions that he allowed himself to be manhandled while silent tears of joy trickled down his cheeks. He found it hard to believe that his nightmare was finally over and soon he would be reunited with his beloved. Only when the judge banged the platform with her hammer then the commotion died down a little.
“Order, everyone, order in the court!” Judge Taiitsu-kun warned. “The defendant Tasuki has been found not guilty of all charges. His sentence will be terminated and Chichiri will be returned to his possession. Mr. Tasuki, you and your man-cat are free to go.”
Tasuki finally smiled in bliss as he returned the hug of everyone who gave him, and for the first time, gratefully and happily shook hands with Chiriko for doing such a great deed for him. Chiriko accepted his thanks and from the others with a genuine smile and a warm fuzzy feeling in his gut that he had not had in years.
Just when they were celebrating their good fortune, Tatemo’s cell phone rang. He answered and his face immediately changed from happy to shock as he heard the news from the other line. He hurriedly hung up and alerted everyone.
“I got a call from Tokaki and Subaru. Chichiri is in labour. We have to go to their vet now.”
Puss, Puss-Chp18
The Rekka-Shin apartment was totally crowded at the lounge area with all the apartment residents gathered there with the landlady Nuriko and her husband Hotohori. All of them were looking skeptically at the boy genius Chiriko as he prepared himself and a large group of people bringing their own pets to be interviewed by a pair of journalists who were with them in the lounge area waiting patiently for their questions to be answered. Neither of them truly trusted him, but they knew in order to save their best friends, they were left with no option but his.
Chiriko, being the boy with many connections, managed to contact every source he could find in order to create this special interview. He collected whatever loyal followers in the company that he had and left the company he had worked so hard to build, giving up his ownership to his cousins Suboshi and Amiboshi and let them take the reign while he quietly signed over everything else he had own—including all the riches his parents had forsaken to him for their outrageously high assassination prices—to them, estate and all. The only thing left were the clothes behind his back and his own personal items like his wallet of money (which was not much), a bunch of credit cards he probably won’t be able to use, his identity card, his passport and his driving license. Those who pledged their loyalty to Chiriko and hated the twins’ guts, which included his personal driver, swore that they would follow their little master to the end as they left the company and trailed behind Chiriko’s wake.
With his followers and his still standing connections, he discovered that there have been others just like Tasuki and Chichiri’s situation. He convinced them to come out of the light and reveal their secret lives in order to show their support to Tasuki, and then made a few calls to tabloids and journalists, even a few budding writers of this genre to come do a special interview on the justifications of Tasuki and Chichiri’s relationship. He then made the call to Nuriko to ask her to prepare a space fit for everyone to conduct this special interview, and she chose Rekka-Shin apartment as she gather her tenants into play.
“Are we all set, Chiriko-san?” one of the journalists asked as he spotted Chiriko coming out in the best clothes he could muster in a shop with what money he had in hand.
“Hai, we can start now,” Chiriko replied, gesturing his band of people to come forth with him.
As the interview began, one by one, Chiriko’s people gave their testimonials and their proclamation of love for their man-cats. Everyone was surprised at how much the minority of people having illicit affairs with their man-cats were, especially those who had a bit of neko-boy fetish that led them to buy the man-cat in the first place, and was even more surprised when Chiriko, the multi-millionaire boy genius came forth to confess his own personal love interest with Chichiri and openly admitted that he was behind all that had happened to Tasuki, including his involvement with the twins to assassinate him to kidnap Chichiri and his tipping off the press and media about Tasuki and Chichiri’s relationship. By the time he was done, everyone from Rekka-Shin apartment had a somewhat newfound respect for the boy.
Soon the rest of the tenant came in and gave their testimonials of how Chichiri and Tasuki helped them with their lives. Miaka and Tamahome, Nuriko and Hotohori and Yuki and Nakago spoke highly of them, emphasizing that if it weren’t for them, they wouldn’t have found true love and have found each other. The ex-college dropout who now works at Hotohori’s company at a respectable salary-man’s wage praised Chichiri for helping him get out of his slum of a life with no qualifications and getting him back into the beat after his numerous dropouts from different schools in his years of higher learning. Shou and Makura begged whoever was holding Tasuki and Chichiri to let them go and be together for it was already a tough life living as estranged bastard siblings, let alone as separated lovers.
Kai, with Reika translating his sign languages, spoke of Chichiri being their relationship saviour and thought of it unfair for Tasuki and Chichiri to be separated when they were only loving each other and hurting no one else. Raichu and her boyfriend spoke enthusiastically about how Chichiri and Tasuki had helped spared her and releasing her from being confined into a love life she didn’t want, and Mrs. Bunzaemon said that if it weren’t for Chichiri, she would’ve never found the will her husband had hid so carefully from her and had not known that her husband loved her so much even in death. Jim Suzuki and Rinnie spoke passionately about someone who would risk his own life to jump in front of a moving motorcycle and get hit just to prevent a bigger tragedy would never be a bad person and Tasuki would never be wrong to fall in love with such a selfless being, and that normal human beings would never do such a thing, and for someone half of a human gene, it was a very valiant thing to do.
Michitsu commended on Chichiri being the only person who ever broke through his secretive double life and secure his relationship with his girlfriend Keiko, while Kamatsu, who now spoke fluently without stuttering, praised Chichiri and Tasuki, saying that despite Chichiri getting him involved with the road accident, it was because of the existence of Tasuki’s matchmaking services was he able to finally get with Minami and cure his stuttering problem, due to the fact that Minami’s parents were both a psychiatrist and articulation teacher and were more than willing to help him with his speech impediment. Andou and Junko also agreed that it was Tasuki and Chichiri’s help that made their newly wed life now possible, and Matsuo and Maya said that if it weren’t for Chichiri, they wouldn’t have met and been together for these blissful 2 years.
Albert Kay, who had watched the news about Tasuki and Chichiri’s case, flew all the way to Japan and had just joined the special interview minutes before the show started and spoke very highly of Tasuki and Chichiri, commending on how the duo risked their own lives to locate the underground pornography society and save the Ukraine ambassador’s daughter. He even added that if it weren’t for Tasuki’s quick action when he and some reinforcements went down to apprehend the society, he would’ve gotten a bullet through his head and died there and then, instead of it hitting Tasuki’s shoulder. Furthermore, he gave full support of Tasuki’s love affair with Chichiri because he believed that no normal human being would as nice and kind as to go all out in following him back to Ukraine and stayed by the traumatized ambassador’s daughter’s side until she had fully recovered and functioned properly in society and have regained some form of normal sanity after her harrowing trauma as Chichiri would. He believed that Chichiri was more than just half human and that normal humans should be ashamed of themselves for condemning someone who behaved so much more humane than their own. He even produced papers from his government researches and recommendation reports stating that Chichiri is technically 75 percent human and should be treated as one, which includes being given human rights like every other citizen, even to love whomever they wish.
Cherry and Mike were grateful of Chichiri’s companionship when they hired him to give them some comfort. They were so used to having three people in the house that the loss of Gary was too great to endure the emptiness and lacking of someone in their lives. They said that if it weren’t for Chichiri and his unorthodox way of bringing them new friend and housemate, they would’ve done the same thing Gary did when he was diagnosed with the brain cancer. Kyoto and Yukito were exceptionally thankful for Chichiri’s efforts to bring them together and prevent a tragedy happening, and had cured Kyoto of his mourning heartbreak, and Yume and Yumi owed their strengthened mother-daughter relationship thanks to Chichiri’s intervention. Even the young teenage couple Katsuya and Miki and Makoto and Ai were happy to have had Chichiri and Tasuki being their means of getting together and increasing their love for each other.
Those who were saved in every way possible by Tasuki and Chichiri’s services were shocked as those who had never used their services approached the interview with much compassion towards Tasuki and Chichiri’s plight, speaking of all the good things Tasuki and Chichiri had done for them. Apparently, behind everyone’s back, Chichiri and Tasuki actually took the liberty to help with their own personal problems as well, free of charge and out of free will. Tasuki and Chichiri were the only ones to know that despite the one-big-happy-family they portray, the Matsumoto family of ground floor was having a silent family crisis: Mr. Matsumoto was having an affair and Mrs. Matsumoto, knowing her husband’s infidelity but kept the marriage for the sake of their children, became a drunk and would occasionally beat the crap out of her children. Chichiri recorded everything she had done to her children in her drunken state while her husband was away with another woman, and while Chichiri helped protect the children by luring them to escape to his house whenever Mrs. Matsumoto started drinking, Tasuki approached Mr. Matsumoto and revealed the video to him, shocking him out of his senses. He quickly broke off with all his lovers, came home and apologized to his wife and made her go to detox rehab. Mrs. Matsumoto was sober of almost a year now and Mr. Matsumoto never strayed away again, and their family was truly a one-big-happy-family.
Riku and his newly wed wife Sora (A/N: Nothing to do with the KH characters, mind you…OK, maybe a little) who were currently living in the supposedly haunted fifth floor spoke in the interview that they had their eternal gratitude towards Tasuki and Chichiri for helping to exorcise the spirit residing at that floor. Apparently the rumours of a suicide case were true as the suicide victim was a young lady who killed herself by slitting her wrists in a full bathtub after a failed relationship. Riku did not believe in the haunting stories at first, and for the first time, became the resident of the isolated fifth floor, but when he and his wife was constantly haunted by cries of agony, dripping sounds and occasional overflowing bathtubs, they realized that they need help. Chichiri was wandering around in his usual night escapades around the apartment when he saw Riku and Sora talking to a helpless spirit medium, and had Tasuki come a look at the situation—even though it was out of his services jurisdiction—and with Chichiri’s eyes to see the spirit (based on some beliefs, animals can see the dead), helped the spirit to talk her out of haunting the place and move on, and had the person who caused her so much pain to beg for forgiveness. And it was also thanks to Tasuki and Chichiri that now the fifth floor was no longer as lonely as before and Riku and Sora got to bring in other of their friends to live there to entirely liven up the air around it.
The Hayai family of seventh floor spoke of Tasuki giving them the tip-off that their life of seclusion had been compromised because Chichiri spotted strangers lingering outside the apartment at a nightly basis, trying to figure out how to enter and assassinate them without causing any ruckus or link any connections towards their organization. Aneki took care of them quietly and decided to move back into Kaito’s clan where they would have better protection. Roommates Ichigo, Dakaru, Wakou and Barasui, and Wakou’s adopted son Chiihara of seventh floor also had their say in this special interview. Sakura, Wakou’s sister who lived one floor above them were not in speaking terms with Wakou because of Wakou’s resistance towards Sakura and Anta’s relationship due to the fact that Anta was a midget and not exactly the ‘man of the house’ in this relationship. He had preferred his sister to search for someone worthy, someone manlier than Anta to look after his sister, but Sakura was adamant to be with Anta. It was Chichiri who helped him see the light when a bunch of hooligans tried to bully and rape Sakura because of their distaste of her being the woman yet better cook than they were and Anta, despite his small stature, stood up against them and almost earned him a number of near-fatal injuries.
Lalaru, Ichigo’s eating disorder girlfriend, was still struggling with her problem and couldn’t get it out of her system that she was way beyond the thin level to be dieting like a supermodel. There were a couple times where she actually attempted to escape from rehab so that she could go back to not eating or drinking for days at end and looking at herself regretfully in the mirror, never satisfied and constantly thinking that she was too fat. Tasuki, after hearing from Chichiri Ichigo’s woes about how to go about curing Lalaru of her eating disorder, arranged with a friend of his without Ichigo’s knowledge to borrow his private villa where he took Lalaru from the rehab centre on the pretense that she was being relocated and locked her in the cellar where she was forced to eat proper meals three times a day while getting a regular sunbath in between under his scrutiny. He paid the rehab people to keep quiet about Lalaru’s true whereabouts and had to pretend he didn’t know anything when Ichigo presented him a missing person’s flyer of her. After long weeks of personal rehab, delicious food, shock therapy of how she would turn out if she had continued her crazy dieting ways and a bit of love and tender care of a friend in between, Lalaru had finally gain considerable weight and finally learnt the importance of moderation before she was returned to a very happy, very grateful Ichigo, but not without suffering a little scolding for keeping him in the dark like that.
Wakou had to endure a rather long battle of child custody when suddenly the father of the child claimed that he had turned over a new leaf and wished to take Chiihara back. Chiihara was torn between choosing Wakou and his real father because at one side, he was glad that his father was ready to love and accept him, but on the other side, he owed it to Wakou for taking care of him for so long. Being the head of a single bakery shop didn’t really secure him enough money to fight a legal battle with Chiihara’s real father, who was a rather powerful manager of a big car dealer company, and Wakou knew he was fighting a losing battle. If it weren’t for Chichiri’s sixth sense that smelled a rat behind Chiihara’s real father intention and Tasuki’s sleuthing, they would not have found out that in secret, Chiihara’s real father was facing bankruptcy as his cars were not selling well and had heard that Chiihara’s mother was actually an heir to a family of business conglomerates (she was kicked out of the house because of her illegitimate pregnancy) and had entrusted her will stating that all her secret savings that she had saved up during her younger years behind her family’s back would go to Chiihara at the event of her death. Chiihara’s father had went to check out her place where she lived after being disowned by her family when the landlord found him to be her ex-boyfriend and called him to clear away her stuff for the new tenants to live in and found the will hidden somewhere in her home, and wasted no time in locating Chiihara’s whereabouts and demanded his son back from Wakou. After Tasuki and Chichiri’s intervention after discovering the truth, the social services immediately revoked all his father’s rights to custody and announced that Wakou could keep Chiihara as his son forever.
As the interview ended, many soon found out, including the reporters, that Tasuki and Chichiri were not as bad as everyone thought and the prosecutor Miboshi portrayed him to be. As Chiriko led the reporters to interview others who had received their dating and matchmaking services, they found out that one way or another, Tasuki and Chichiri’s intervention into their lives have made a drastic change for the better. Many of them spoke fairly high of them, always saying that if it weren’t for them they would’ve either committed suicide, committed a crime, never met that special someone or overall make the biggest mistake of their lives. Soon other anonymous people who never used Tasuki and Chichiri’s services came forth through phone calls that a lot of Tasuki and Chichiri’s selfless acts had led them to better lives, whether they knew it or not.
A man said that it was thanks to Chichiri’s accidental bump when he slipped from Tasuki’s piggy back ride and fell onto him that he managed to kiss his girl (although by accident) when previously he dare not do it, thus strengthening their relationship and moved them up to the next level. A husband and wife who owned a bento shop had the duo to thank for highly recommending their shop to a very wealthy businessman—they weren’t doing very well back then—after Tasuki had bought two bento-s from his shop and just so happened to come across the businessman who was looking for a respectable place to cater food for his almost 1,000 and counting employees. A couple said if it weren’t for Tasuki’s random question, the boyfriend would not have the guts to propose to the girlfriend. A man who was having marriage jeopardy would’ve chose to divorce his wife for her irrational and abnormal behaviour if Tasuki and Chichiri had not met him in the bar and pointed out the possibility of his wife being upset about her infertility based on the clues of his wife’s behaviour he disclosed. A woman whom Tasuki and Chichiri met when they went on a long-awaited trip to Bali with their earnings had them to thank for when Chichiri felt rather odd for the woman to use Tasuki as a rebound after she broke off with her boyfriend in suspicion of cheating, but found out in the end that he was being all skulk and secretive because he was trying to surprise her with a wedding proposal. But the most memorable of all anonymous phone calls they got was when a young boy told the press that he owed Chichiri a great favour for stopping him from committing suicide when he found Chichiri who was separated from Tasuki in the middle of a shopping mall when he was on the way to go to the top floor to kill himself, and when he picked him up and looked after him, staying by his side at the lost and found counter until Tasuki came to get him, and the grateful happy look Tasuki gave him when he thanked the boy for taking care of his man-cat made him realized that life was still worth living for after all.
There were many other anonymous calls coming in to speak very well of Tasuki and Chichiri, and soon the press became a hotline for all callers to testify for the duo. Regardless if those testimonials are real or not, they entertained them all, as long as they get as much testimonials as they can to make Tasuki and Chichiri popular and on the good side. After a few editing here and there, the press aired the interview on TV as a special bulletin and even made an exclusive documentary based on all the people interviewed and caught on camera (with their permission, of course), which sent the TV ratings off the roof. Slowly but steadily, people began to change their mindsets and came out of the closet, showing their support for Tasuki and Chichiri and devoted their lives to the cause of releasing and reunited the duo together.
Through recommendation from Chiriko, Nuriko and Hotohori started a petition rally where they would open their doors of Rekka-Shin Apartment to those who support Tasuki and Chichiri to sign their names on their petition so that they can forward this to the judge to appeal for a retrial, along with the copy of the special interview tapes that the press had made. Many came forth to show their support by offering their signatures and sending out more petitions for others to sign in their own neighbourhood. After they have gathered more than enough, they were about to send them to Judge Taiitsu-kun personally to ask for the plea for retrial—well, technically more like ignoring the secretary and barging into her office unannounced—when they were stumped with a surprise bigger than anyone has ever imagined.
There, sitting in front of the poor old judge was the Yakuza client who was previously Tasuki’s last client before Tasuki was arrested and Chichiri taken away from him, and the lady Yakuza whom he was courting. Apparently, he had been away on a business trip for a while and had not heard about the news of Tasuki’s arrest until he came back to Japan to call up on Tasuki to check on him. When Tasuki had not replied his calls and messages, he braved himself to call his intended to find out if Chichiri has already given birth and if Tasuki had continued his services, and that’s when the news about Tasuki and Chichiri was made known to him by his intended. Though cold and unmoving, the lady Yakuza hitwoman had to admit that she had felt something was amiss when she did not see Chichiri crawling through her window or peeking out of the air-vent like he used to and she rather missed the way she had to contemplate methods on how to keep Chichiri and always stumped whenever Chichiri manages to bypass every barrier she made to keep him out of sight and all those icky mushy lovie-dovie gifts the Yakuza boss hired him to give to her.
For once, the Yakuza boss and the Yakuza hitwoman actually made a truce, sat down together and discussed about the matter and how to go about getting Tasuki out of his mess. After discussing thoroughly, they decided that excising their power as the Yakuza would do just the trick to convince Judge Taiitsu-kun to at least give the case another shot. The Yakuza hitwoman’s fearful aura and murderous reputation was already enough to make the poor old judge balk. Now, coupled with Nuriko’s group of justice seekers and the ever influential Chiriko leading the group with the petition, plus the Tasu-Chiri supporters outside the law building shouting slogans and protest against Tasuki’s arrest, it seemed that there is nowhere to get around this predicament.
Guess it’s true when they say the free government is not entirely by its citizens, but by the underground society.
So, after much consideration, Judge Taiitsu-kun agreed for a retrial, and this time she was going for a different prosecutor after she learnt from Chiriko that he had been bribing Miboshi to lean towards his side. The retrial made it into the news in no time and soon you could see two sides of rallies—those supporting Tasuki and Chichiri’s love and ‘tree-huggers’ who fight for animal rights—protesting against each other outside the law building shouting each other to get a life and standing their ground on whose side they were supporting.
This is going to be a long week ahead.
Chiriko, being the boy with many connections, managed to contact every source he could find in order to create this special interview. He collected whatever loyal followers in the company that he had and left the company he had worked so hard to build, giving up his ownership to his cousins Suboshi and Amiboshi and let them take the reign while he quietly signed over everything else he had own—including all the riches his parents had forsaken to him for their outrageously high assassination prices—to them, estate and all. The only thing left were the clothes behind his back and his own personal items like his wallet of money (which was not much), a bunch of credit cards he probably won’t be able to use, his identity card, his passport and his driving license. Those who pledged their loyalty to Chiriko and hated the twins’ guts, which included his personal driver, swore that they would follow their little master to the end as they left the company and trailed behind Chiriko’s wake.
With his followers and his still standing connections, he discovered that there have been others just like Tasuki and Chichiri’s situation. He convinced them to come out of the light and reveal their secret lives in order to show their support to Tasuki, and then made a few calls to tabloids and journalists, even a few budding writers of this genre to come do a special interview on the justifications of Tasuki and Chichiri’s relationship. He then made the call to Nuriko to ask her to prepare a space fit for everyone to conduct this special interview, and she chose Rekka-Shin apartment as she gather her tenants into play.
“Are we all set, Chiriko-san?” one of the journalists asked as he spotted Chiriko coming out in the best clothes he could muster in a shop with what money he had in hand.
“Hai, we can start now,” Chiriko replied, gesturing his band of people to come forth with him.
As the interview began, one by one, Chiriko’s people gave their testimonials and their proclamation of love for their man-cats. Everyone was surprised at how much the minority of people having illicit affairs with their man-cats were, especially those who had a bit of neko-boy fetish that led them to buy the man-cat in the first place, and was even more surprised when Chiriko, the multi-millionaire boy genius came forth to confess his own personal love interest with Chichiri and openly admitted that he was behind all that had happened to Tasuki, including his involvement with the twins to assassinate him to kidnap Chichiri and his tipping off the press and media about Tasuki and Chichiri’s relationship. By the time he was done, everyone from Rekka-Shin apartment had a somewhat newfound respect for the boy.
Soon the rest of the tenant came in and gave their testimonials of how Chichiri and Tasuki helped them with their lives. Miaka and Tamahome, Nuriko and Hotohori and Yuki and Nakago spoke highly of them, emphasizing that if it weren’t for them, they wouldn’t have found true love and have found each other. The ex-college dropout who now works at Hotohori’s company at a respectable salary-man’s wage praised Chichiri for helping him get out of his slum of a life with no qualifications and getting him back into the beat after his numerous dropouts from different schools in his years of higher learning. Shou and Makura begged whoever was holding Tasuki and Chichiri to let them go and be together for it was already a tough life living as estranged bastard siblings, let alone as separated lovers.
Kai, with Reika translating his sign languages, spoke of Chichiri being their relationship saviour and thought of it unfair for Tasuki and Chichiri to be separated when they were only loving each other and hurting no one else. Raichu and her boyfriend spoke enthusiastically about how Chichiri and Tasuki had helped spared her and releasing her from being confined into a love life she didn’t want, and Mrs. Bunzaemon said that if it weren’t for Chichiri, she would’ve never found the will her husband had hid so carefully from her and had not known that her husband loved her so much even in death. Jim Suzuki and Rinnie spoke passionately about someone who would risk his own life to jump in front of a moving motorcycle and get hit just to prevent a bigger tragedy would never be a bad person and Tasuki would never be wrong to fall in love with such a selfless being, and that normal human beings would never do such a thing, and for someone half of a human gene, it was a very valiant thing to do.
Michitsu commended on Chichiri being the only person who ever broke through his secretive double life and secure his relationship with his girlfriend Keiko, while Kamatsu, who now spoke fluently without stuttering, praised Chichiri and Tasuki, saying that despite Chichiri getting him involved with the road accident, it was because of the existence of Tasuki’s matchmaking services was he able to finally get with Minami and cure his stuttering problem, due to the fact that Minami’s parents were both a psychiatrist and articulation teacher and were more than willing to help him with his speech impediment. Andou and Junko also agreed that it was Tasuki and Chichiri’s help that made their newly wed life now possible, and Matsuo and Maya said that if it weren’t for Chichiri, they wouldn’t have met and been together for these blissful 2 years.
Albert Kay, who had watched the news about Tasuki and Chichiri’s case, flew all the way to Japan and had just joined the special interview minutes before the show started and spoke very highly of Tasuki and Chichiri, commending on how the duo risked their own lives to locate the underground pornography society and save the Ukraine ambassador’s daughter. He even added that if it weren’t for Tasuki’s quick action when he and some reinforcements went down to apprehend the society, he would’ve gotten a bullet through his head and died there and then, instead of it hitting Tasuki’s shoulder. Furthermore, he gave full support of Tasuki’s love affair with Chichiri because he believed that no normal human being would as nice and kind as to go all out in following him back to Ukraine and stayed by the traumatized ambassador’s daughter’s side until she had fully recovered and functioned properly in society and have regained some form of normal sanity after her harrowing trauma as Chichiri would. He believed that Chichiri was more than just half human and that normal humans should be ashamed of themselves for condemning someone who behaved so much more humane than their own. He even produced papers from his government researches and recommendation reports stating that Chichiri is technically 75 percent human and should be treated as one, which includes being given human rights like every other citizen, even to love whomever they wish.
Cherry and Mike were grateful of Chichiri’s companionship when they hired him to give them some comfort. They were so used to having three people in the house that the loss of Gary was too great to endure the emptiness and lacking of someone in their lives. They said that if it weren’t for Chichiri and his unorthodox way of bringing them new friend and housemate, they would’ve done the same thing Gary did when he was diagnosed with the brain cancer. Kyoto and Yukito were exceptionally thankful for Chichiri’s efforts to bring them together and prevent a tragedy happening, and had cured Kyoto of his mourning heartbreak, and Yume and Yumi owed their strengthened mother-daughter relationship thanks to Chichiri’s intervention. Even the young teenage couple Katsuya and Miki and Makoto and Ai were happy to have had Chichiri and Tasuki being their means of getting together and increasing their love for each other.
Those who were saved in every way possible by Tasuki and Chichiri’s services were shocked as those who had never used their services approached the interview with much compassion towards Tasuki and Chichiri’s plight, speaking of all the good things Tasuki and Chichiri had done for them. Apparently, behind everyone’s back, Chichiri and Tasuki actually took the liberty to help with their own personal problems as well, free of charge and out of free will. Tasuki and Chichiri were the only ones to know that despite the one-big-happy-family they portray, the Matsumoto family of ground floor was having a silent family crisis: Mr. Matsumoto was having an affair and Mrs. Matsumoto, knowing her husband’s infidelity but kept the marriage for the sake of their children, became a drunk and would occasionally beat the crap out of her children. Chichiri recorded everything she had done to her children in her drunken state while her husband was away with another woman, and while Chichiri helped protect the children by luring them to escape to his house whenever Mrs. Matsumoto started drinking, Tasuki approached Mr. Matsumoto and revealed the video to him, shocking him out of his senses. He quickly broke off with all his lovers, came home and apologized to his wife and made her go to detox rehab. Mrs. Matsumoto was sober of almost a year now and Mr. Matsumoto never strayed away again, and their family was truly a one-big-happy-family.
Riku and his newly wed wife Sora (A/N: Nothing to do with the KH characters, mind you…OK, maybe a little) who were currently living in the supposedly haunted fifth floor spoke in the interview that they had their eternal gratitude towards Tasuki and Chichiri for helping to exorcise the spirit residing at that floor. Apparently the rumours of a suicide case were true as the suicide victim was a young lady who killed herself by slitting her wrists in a full bathtub after a failed relationship. Riku did not believe in the haunting stories at first, and for the first time, became the resident of the isolated fifth floor, but when he and his wife was constantly haunted by cries of agony, dripping sounds and occasional overflowing bathtubs, they realized that they need help. Chichiri was wandering around in his usual night escapades around the apartment when he saw Riku and Sora talking to a helpless spirit medium, and had Tasuki come a look at the situation—even though it was out of his services jurisdiction—and with Chichiri’s eyes to see the spirit (based on some beliefs, animals can see the dead), helped the spirit to talk her out of haunting the place and move on, and had the person who caused her so much pain to beg for forgiveness. And it was also thanks to Tasuki and Chichiri that now the fifth floor was no longer as lonely as before and Riku and Sora got to bring in other of their friends to live there to entirely liven up the air around it.
The Hayai family of seventh floor spoke of Tasuki giving them the tip-off that their life of seclusion had been compromised because Chichiri spotted strangers lingering outside the apartment at a nightly basis, trying to figure out how to enter and assassinate them without causing any ruckus or link any connections towards their organization. Aneki took care of them quietly and decided to move back into Kaito’s clan where they would have better protection. Roommates Ichigo, Dakaru, Wakou and Barasui, and Wakou’s adopted son Chiihara of seventh floor also had their say in this special interview. Sakura, Wakou’s sister who lived one floor above them were not in speaking terms with Wakou because of Wakou’s resistance towards Sakura and Anta’s relationship due to the fact that Anta was a midget and not exactly the ‘man of the house’ in this relationship. He had preferred his sister to search for someone worthy, someone manlier than Anta to look after his sister, but Sakura was adamant to be with Anta. It was Chichiri who helped him see the light when a bunch of hooligans tried to bully and rape Sakura because of their distaste of her being the woman yet better cook than they were and Anta, despite his small stature, stood up against them and almost earned him a number of near-fatal injuries.
Lalaru, Ichigo’s eating disorder girlfriend, was still struggling with her problem and couldn’t get it out of her system that she was way beyond the thin level to be dieting like a supermodel. There were a couple times where she actually attempted to escape from rehab so that she could go back to not eating or drinking for days at end and looking at herself regretfully in the mirror, never satisfied and constantly thinking that she was too fat. Tasuki, after hearing from Chichiri Ichigo’s woes about how to go about curing Lalaru of her eating disorder, arranged with a friend of his without Ichigo’s knowledge to borrow his private villa where he took Lalaru from the rehab centre on the pretense that she was being relocated and locked her in the cellar where she was forced to eat proper meals three times a day while getting a regular sunbath in between under his scrutiny. He paid the rehab people to keep quiet about Lalaru’s true whereabouts and had to pretend he didn’t know anything when Ichigo presented him a missing person’s flyer of her. After long weeks of personal rehab, delicious food, shock therapy of how she would turn out if she had continued her crazy dieting ways and a bit of love and tender care of a friend in between, Lalaru had finally gain considerable weight and finally learnt the importance of moderation before she was returned to a very happy, very grateful Ichigo, but not without suffering a little scolding for keeping him in the dark like that.
Wakou had to endure a rather long battle of child custody when suddenly the father of the child claimed that he had turned over a new leaf and wished to take Chiihara back. Chiihara was torn between choosing Wakou and his real father because at one side, he was glad that his father was ready to love and accept him, but on the other side, he owed it to Wakou for taking care of him for so long. Being the head of a single bakery shop didn’t really secure him enough money to fight a legal battle with Chiihara’s real father, who was a rather powerful manager of a big car dealer company, and Wakou knew he was fighting a losing battle. If it weren’t for Chichiri’s sixth sense that smelled a rat behind Chiihara’s real father intention and Tasuki’s sleuthing, they would not have found out that in secret, Chiihara’s real father was facing bankruptcy as his cars were not selling well and had heard that Chiihara’s mother was actually an heir to a family of business conglomerates (she was kicked out of the house because of her illegitimate pregnancy) and had entrusted her will stating that all her secret savings that she had saved up during her younger years behind her family’s back would go to Chiihara at the event of her death. Chiihara’s father had went to check out her place where she lived after being disowned by her family when the landlord found him to be her ex-boyfriend and called him to clear away her stuff for the new tenants to live in and found the will hidden somewhere in her home, and wasted no time in locating Chiihara’s whereabouts and demanded his son back from Wakou. After Tasuki and Chichiri’s intervention after discovering the truth, the social services immediately revoked all his father’s rights to custody and announced that Wakou could keep Chiihara as his son forever.
As the interview ended, many soon found out, including the reporters, that Tasuki and Chichiri were not as bad as everyone thought and the prosecutor Miboshi portrayed him to be. As Chiriko led the reporters to interview others who had received their dating and matchmaking services, they found out that one way or another, Tasuki and Chichiri’s intervention into their lives have made a drastic change for the better. Many of them spoke fairly high of them, always saying that if it weren’t for them they would’ve either committed suicide, committed a crime, never met that special someone or overall make the biggest mistake of their lives. Soon other anonymous people who never used Tasuki and Chichiri’s services came forth through phone calls that a lot of Tasuki and Chichiri’s selfless acts had led them to better lives, whether they knew it or not.
A man said that it was thanks to Chichiri’s accidental bump when he slipped from Tasuki’s piggy back ride and fell onto him that he managed to kiss his girl (although by accident) when previously he dare not do it, thus strengthening their relationship and moved them up to the next level. A husband and wife who owned a bento shop had the duo to thank for highly recommending their shop to a very wealthy businessman—they weren’t doing very well back then—after Tasuki had bought two bento-s from his shop and just so happened to come across the businessman who was looking for a respectable place to cater food for his almost 1,000 and counting employees. A couple said if it weren’t for Tasuki’s random question, the boyfriend would not have the guts to propose to the girlfriend. A man who was having marriage jeopardy would’ve chose to divorce his wife for her irrational and abnormal behaviour if Tasuki and Chichiri had not met him in the bar and pointed out the possibility of his wife being upset about her infertility based on the clues of his wife’s behaviour he disclosed. A woman whom Tasuki and Chichiri met when they went on a long-awaited trip to Bali with their earnings had them to thank for when Chichiri felt rather odd for the woman to use Tasuki as a rebound after she broke off with her boyfriend in suspicion of cheating, but found out in the end that he was being all skulk and secretive because he was trying to surprise her with a wedding proposal. But the most memorable of all anonymous phone calls they got was when a young boy told the press that he owed Chichiri a great favour for stopping him from committing suicide when he found Chichiri who was separated from Tasuki in the middle of a shopping mall when he was on the way to go to the top floor to kill himself, and when he picked him up and looked after him, staying by his side at the lost and found counter until Tasuki came to get him, and the grateful happy look Tasuki gave him when he thanked the boy for taking care of his man-cat made him realized that life was still worth living for after all.
There were many other anonymous calls coming in to speak very well of Tasuki and Chichiri, and soon the press became a hotline for all callers to testify for the duo. Regardless if those testimonials are real or not, they entertained them all, as long as they get as much testimonials as they can to make Tasuki and Chichiri popular and on the good side. After a few editing here and there, the press aired the interview on TV as a special bulletin and even made an exclusive documentary based on all the people interviewed and caught on camera (with their permission, of course), which sent the TV ratings off the roof. Slowly but steadily, people began to change their mindsets and came out of the closet, showing their support for Tasuki and Chichiri and devoted their lives to the cause of releasing and reunited the duo together.
Through recommendation from Chiriko, Nuriko and Hotohori started a petition rally where they would open their doors of Rekka-Shin Apartment to those who support Tasuki and Chichiri to sign their names on their petition so that they can forward this to the judge to appeal for a retrial, along with the copy of the special interview tapes that the press had made. Many came forth to show their support by offering their signatures and sending out more petitions for others to sign in their own neighbourhood. After they have gathered more than enough, they were about to send them to Judge Taiitsu-kun personally to ask for the plea for retrial—well, technically more like ignoring the secretary and barging into her office unannounced—when they were stumped with a surprise bigger than anyone has ever imagined.
There, sitting in front of the poor old judge was the Yakuza client who was previously Tasuki’s last client before Tasuki was arrested and Chichiri taken away from him, and the lady Yakuza whom he was courting. Apparently, he had been away on a business trip for a while and had not heard about the news of Tasuki’s arrest until he came back to Japan to call up on Tasuki to check on him. When Tasuki had not replied his calls and messages, he braved himself to call his intended to find out if Chichiri has already given birth and if Tasuki had continued his services, and that’s when the news about Tasuki and Chichiri was made known to him by his intended. Though cold and unmoving, the lady Yakuza hitwoman had to admit that she had felt something was amiss when she did not see Chichiri crawling through her window or peeking out of the air-vent like he used to and she rather missed the way she had to contemplate methods on how to keep Chichiri and always stumped whenever Chichiri manages to bypass every barrier she made to keep him out of sight and all those icky mushy lovie-dovie gifts the Yakuza boss hired him to give to her.
For once, the Yakuza boss and the Yakuza hitwoman actually made a truce, sat down together and discussed about the matter and how to go about getting Tasuki out of his mess. After discussing thoroughly, they decided that excising their power as the Yakuza would do just the trick to convince Judge Taiitsu-kun to at least give the case another shot. The Yakuza hitwoman’s fearful aura and murderous reputation was already enough to make the poor old judge balk. Now, coupled with Nuriko’s group of justice seekers and the ever influential Chiriko leading the group with the petition, plus the Tasu-Chiri supporters outside the law building shouting slogans and protest against Tasuki’s arrest, it seemed that there is nowhere to get around this predicament.
Guess it’s true when they say the free government is not entirely by its citizens, but by the underground society.
So, after much consideration, Judge Taiitsu-kun agreed for a retrial, and this time she was going for a different prosecutor after she learnt from Chiriko that he had been bribing Miboshi to lean towards his side. The retrial made it into the news in no time and soon you could see two sides of rallies—those supporting Tasuki and Chichiri’s love and ‘tree-huggers’ who fight for animal rights—protesting against each other outside the law building shouting each other to get a life and standing their ground on whose side they were supporting.
This is going to be a long week ahead.
Puss, Puss-Chp17
“Dinner time, kitty cat.”
Chichiri looked up to see the volunteer worker opening the lock of his cage and put in his bowl of cat food and water. He turned around until his back was facing the young volunteer and ignored her, the food and water untouched.
“Come on, kitty cat, you gotta eat something. You left out so much of lunch today.”
Chichiri gave her the silent treatment. There was no way he was going to eat that. For all he knew, they might try to poison him with a slow-moving drug that could kill both him and his kittens. He’d rather starve.
“You’re not doing you or your kittens any good going on a hunger strike like this. You can’t keep up like this. I don’t want to let the doctor force-feed you. It’s not a pretty sight, trust me.”
Chichiri turned around slightly to give the girl a grudging look. She was no older than Tasuki, and had nice curly and thick dark-brown hair and a pair of hauntingly beautiful blood-red eyes. Skin as pale and smooth as ivory and slim built, he remembered that she was called Illust-chan around the AHS shelter house he was thrown in after he was separated from his beloved Tasu-sama. She had this weird smiley face that always made her look happy and high, like she was on crack 24/7, but in truth, she just had a very jovial, happy-go-lucky nature. So far, in his stay in the shelter house, she was the only one who had been decently nice to him.
Days in the shelter house were sad and lonely. It’s been so long since he last seen Tasuki after that crazy incident outside their home, what with the involvement of the paparazzi and all. When the people of AHS put him into the cat cage, he cried and snarled and hissed and rattled his cage, begging to be out. He wouldn’t give up without a fight, not even when one of them injected him with sedatives. With whatever strength he had left before the sedatives fully kicked in, he grabbed hold on the lock of the cage tightly and shook it as hard as he could, hoping the movement would break it and he would go free. All that vigor was in vain as he woke up with a bad headache and grilled door greeted him, accompanied by other sounds like people talking, dogs barking, cats meowing and things moving about, and of course, the first person he met when it was time for meals was Illust-chan.
Not a day went by without him thinking what happened to his beloved koibito and master Tasu-sama. He could tell from the crowd that gathered around outside their little humble abode that their long kept secret had been discovered and he worried everyday about what the policemen would and all that mad crowd would do to him knowing that he was having an illicit affair with a pet and having him pregnant. He wondered who ratted them out. Surely it wasn’t Nuriko. The first thing Nuriko did when the policemen arrested him was reaching for the phone to call someone for help, so Nuriko was definitely out of the list of suspects. Hotohori? Impossible. He had treated his Tasu-sama and him like family, and was one of the kindest humans he had ever met. He would never do such a thing. It could definitely not be any of their friends from Rekka-Shin or any of their clients. Besides, Nuriko and Hotohori were the only ones alive to know about their secret affair and he trusted them with his life. But if it weren’t them, who could it be?
“Personally, I think it’s not fair they keep you here,” Illust-chan sat down in front of his cage as usual whenever she brought him his meals. “I mean technically speaking, you are 75 percent human, and there’s no say in the law that you cannot fall in love and have babies with you as long as you’re dominantly human, but you know how all those Green Peace people and Animal Rights Activists, thinking you’re an animal and all. Now who’s being the inconsiderate one, eh?”
Regardless if he was paying attention or not, Illust-chan would talk and talk and talk to him like he was an old friend and just pour out everything she had in mind, until she had to be nagged by her colleague or superior to get the hell up and get back to work. Basically Chichiri was her not-so-willing listening ear, and since she didn’t pester him to listen to her or look at her while she’s talking but just talk on and on about her life that has got nothing to do with him, it wouldn’t hurt to just let her blab for a while.
“Actually, to tell the truth, we should just leave animals be, you know?” Illust-chan blabbered as she reached in to stroke Chichiri on the back of the ear. Another thing was that Chichiri would never allow anyone to touch him except Illust-chan (and that was after biting and scratching at her a number of times, yet she never seemed to quit), thus her personally handling him. “Animals have been around this land for centuries and the wild animals in the outback are all doing hunky-dory fine before without having us humans involved, so who are we exactly to question their wellbeing and decide what’s best for them? We’ve made plenty of mistakes trying to play Kami-sama over the animals and look where we’ve ended up? More losing than saving, that’s what it is right now.
“You know what I think?” Illust-chan lowered her voice to a whisper, as if telling Chichiri a secret, “I think you and your master should’ve just eloped when you had the chance. Isn’t that romantic? Him whisking you off into some paradise island where you live your days without care in the world. That would be so great! No one will ever question your love. Hell, they can’t even question your whereabouts!”
Chichiri smiled inwardly. He felt rather intrigued about that idea. Maybe they should’ve done that in the first place. But of course, he wouldn’t admit that to Illust-chan. He still has his doubts about her.
“Let me give you another secret,” Illust-chan lowered her voice to almost inaudible, but only just enough to let Chichiri’s sharp ears catch it. “I think I got a way to get you outta here somehow, so be patient.”
“Illust-chan!” someone called her from afar, probably a colleague or her superior. “I swear you’re going to be sent to the nut house if you keep sitting there blabbering to animals like you’re George of the Jungle or something! Get your ass here to work!”
“Hai, hai, chotto matte bayo!” Illust-chan shouted back with her smiley face and gave Chichiri one last stroke before saying, “Be a good kitty and eat your dinner, OK? For lil’ ol’ me? Onegai shimasu?”
Chichiri stared after Illust-chan who rushed off humming a cheerful tone while ignoring her colleague’s bashing about her slacking off the job.
What exactly did she mean by that statement?
It has been almost 3 months since Tasuki was jailed. Their lawyer Tatemo had tried to make an appeal, but so far, there had been no green light as to whether they would want to allow a retrial. After that sensational news, those who were close to or knew Tasuki or who were known to have been Tasuki’s clients were quickly shunned and ignored, being pointed and whispered about behind their backs, even though they claimed it again and again that they had no part or nothing to do with Tasuki’s bestial affair and had no clue of what Tasuki had been doing behind closed doors. No one would want to listen to them. Even when they knew they spoke the truth, they wanted to have nothing to do with them. They were treated rather discriminately in places and were not allowed visitations to see Chichiri for fear of foul play, since they knew them and Chichiri were close. Tasuki’s guess were as good as theirs as to how Chichiri’s condition was and how he was doing in the shelter home.
Nuriko gestured Tasuki to pick up the phone on his side and waited for Tasuki to do so before talking through the phone on her side, “Ohayo, Tasu-chan.”
“Hai…” Tasuki replied weakly, his mood not really into the conversation.
“How you’re holding up, Tasu-chan?” Nuriko asked worriedly. She traced around Tasuki’s face outline on the glass and muttered, “You’ve lost weight…”
“No biggie,” Tasuki replied. “I’m getting used to having cabbage soup, mash potatoes, bread and soybean milk everyday anyway.”
“Don’t worry,” Tamahome spoke at the mouthpiece of the phone Nuriko was holding. “Once we get you outta here, I’m going to cook up a storm. You’ll be eating like a king in no time.”
“You hold on there, Tasuki,” Hotohori spoke through the mouthpiece of the phone next. “We’re almost close to a breakthrough. Tatemo’s appeal is getting fresh, so…”
“Arigato, Hotohori-san, Nuriko-chan, minna-san,” Tasuki spoke in barely a whisper. “Demo…you’ve done enough. Leave me be.”
“Tasuki-kun, you can’t think that!” Miaka grabbed Nuriko’s phone and spoke frantically, “You can’t give up! We can convince them that this is all a mistake! We can make them see that there is nothing wrong with your relationship with Chichiri-chan! Don’t give up now, please!”
“Yeah!” Tamahome spoke close to the mouthpiece, “Where’s that feisty spirit you take pride in having? Where’s that love you carry around like a torch in your heart for Chichiri-chan? I thought you’d do anything for him! Where’s that Tasuki gone!”
Tasuki silently listened as each and every one of them took the phone to spill out encouragement to him. He knew they meant well. He knew they cared for him. But this…
“They’re gonna keep us away no matter what,” Tasuki finally spoke after 10 seconds of staring quietly at all his frantic friends, his lips creased in a wry, weak smile. “You heard them. Chiri-chan is officially government’s property now. They’ll do whatever it takes to tear us apart. We will never see each other ever again…”
“Then we’ll do whatever it takes to beat the system!” Yui spoke angrily. “If someone doesn’t do something about this, no one will ever win but them! It’s not fair to separate lovers like this! It’s not! No matter what people are supposed to be free to love as long as there is no harm done to others or the partner!”
“Then can you bring my kittens back? Can you bring them back to life after they kill them?”
“Nani…?” everyone was surprised at Tasuki’s question.
“Chiri-chan is almost due,” Tasuki said as he finally allowed his welled-up tears to flow out of his eyes. “He will have my kittens soon, and when he does, I won’t be there for him. You won’t be there for him either. They will make him suffer the pain of birth and then kill them in front of his eyes. Knowing Chiri-chan, he’d rather die than not having my kittens anymore. Can you bring them back by the time we beat the system, if we beat the system?”
Everyone was at a loss of words. No one knew what to respond to that.
“You have done enough, minna-san. Arigatogozaimasu, minna-san. I won’t trouble you all any longer.”
With that, he hung up, bowed at them and left without turning back, ignoring the frantic calls of his friends on the other side and not even so much as glance at them being reprimanded and escorted out by the guards.
Nuriko was still grumbling on the way back as she and her husband drove the couples Yui-Nakago and Miaka-Tamahome home before they go to the nursery home to pick up their Himawari. Judging on everyone’s look on their faces, they had the same sentiments exactly, but not as fevered as Nuriko’s.
“I guess the judge and juries’ verdict must’ve hit him hard,” Nakago commented. “It’s not easy to cope with knowing that your lover is going to be apart from you for the rest of your life and your child would die before they could even have the chance to experience first breath.”
“That’s just so sad,” Miaka shook her head in dismay. “Just because they are the high-ups doesn’t mean they do whatever they want.”
“Well, they are the high-ups after all,” Tamahome sighed. “I mean, look what they did to Tasuki. I’m scared of what they might do to Chichiri-chan.”
“That doesn’t mean he should just lost faith!” Nuriko grumbled. “We’re his friends, for Kami’s sake! He should at least trust us a little!”
“Anata, don’t be that—Abunai!”
Nuriko hit the brakes and swerved at Hotohori’s exclaim, barely missing the dark limo that suddenly appeared from a blind spot and blocked their way by a few inches. Everyone looked like they just either had a heart attack or had just seen Sadako crawling out of the well and out of the TV as their mind blanked out for a moment, shutting down due to shock. As their train of thought slowly returned back to normal, they saw the owner of the car coming out and moved towards the backseat and opened the door to reveal no other the young multimillionaire boy genius Chiriko.
“T…Teme!” Nuriko growled as she got off the car and stomped towards the boy genius. Before the driver could react, she had already grabbed Chiriko by the collar and shook him like a rag doll. She could see that the little boy genius was covered with plasters, bandages and gauze, and was a little bit curious, but her anger was much stronger than her curiosity, and all she wanted right now was to beat the hell out of the boy that caused all these problems on her two beloved best friends. Chiriko held his hand up to stop his driver from helping him as he allowed Nuriko to do as he pleased.
“What the fuck are you doing here!” Nuriko demanded. “After what you have done to Tasu-chan and Chichiri-chan, you dare show your fucking face in front of us again! Haven’t you done enough damage already!”
“I know how you feel…” Chiriko began but was outsmarted when Tamahome lunged forward to punch him.
“Save your bullshit, bozu!” Tamahome growled. “You know shit about how we feel! You know crap about how Tasuki-san and Chichiri-chan feel! You were the one who got them into all this mess! You were the one who threw Tasuki-san into jail and sent both Chichiri-chan and their kittens to their death! What else do you want now!”
“How about me trying to get them out of it?”
Everyone stopped at their tracks, looking at the boy skeptically. Nuriko gruffly let go of Chiriko and regarded him from head to toe.
“What happened to you, anyway?”
“Let’s say I had a little family disagreement,” Chiriko said as he hastily brushed off the blood from the corner of his lips due to the blow given by Tamahome. “Now do you want my help or not?”
“Why should we trust you after all that you’ve done?” Yui asked challengingly, with Miaka nodding in agreement.
“Well, as much as I resent the defeat of losing the love of my life to Tasuki and enjoy the fact that he would be rotting in jail and be an outcast of society for the rest of his life,” Chiriko replied, the last statement making Tamahome look like he wanted to sucker-punch him again, “I still love Chichiri-chan, and the last thing I want is of anything happening to him. I’ve been with him well long enough to know that if those people in the shelter home ever do kill those kittens, he would want nothing more than to be dead, and I can’t have that. I cannot allow my Chichiri-chan to die in such vain.”
The group was not convinced, seeing that Chiriko is behaving like the possessive little childish boy he had always been.
“Besides, I know people. I practically almost own this country. I know you guys are at your wits’ end trying to rescue that Tasuki of yours without as much as yielding a single favourable result. You want to go through them, you’ll have to go through the proper channels. That’s where I come in.”
The group looked at each other questioningly. As much as they hated to admit it, for once this kid was right. They could barely even get to apply for an appeal without facing countless rejections before they even started, let alone trying to convince the judge to get a retrial. Everyone whom they thought were their friends turned their backs to them and refused to help them any further or to associate themselves with this issue any longer. Everything they’ve tried so far has failed. What else have they got to lose, except their best friends?
“So? Are we still on the same wave length here?”
Sighing inwardly, they turned to the millionaire boy genius grudgingly.
“What do you have in mind?”
Chichiri looked up to see the volunteer worker opening the lock of his cage and put in his bowl of cat food and water. He turned around until his back was facing the young volunteer and ignored her, the food and water untouched.
“Come on, kitty cat, you gotta eat something. You left out so much of lunch today.”
Chichiri gave her the silent treatment. There was no way he was going to eat that. For all he knew, they might try to poison him with a slow-moving drug that could kill both him and his kittens. He’d rather starve.
“You’re not doing you or your kittens any good going on a hunger strike like this. You can’t keep up like this. I don’t want to let the doctor force-feed you. It’s not a pretty sight, trust me.”
Chichiri turned around slightly to give the girl a grudging look. She was no older than Tasuki, and had nice curly and thick dark-brown hair and a pair of hauntingly beautiful blood-red eyes. Skin as pale and smooth as ivory and slim built, he remembered that she was called Illust-chan around the AHS shelter house he was thrown in after he was separated from his beloved Tasu-sama. She had this weird smiley face that always made her look happy and high, like she was on crack 24/7, but in truth, she just had a very jovial, happy-go-lucky nature. So far, in his stay in the shelter house, she was the only one who had been decently nice to him.
Days in the shelter house were sad and lonely. It’s been so long since he last seen Tasuki after that crazy incident outside their home, what with the involvement of the paparazzi and all. When the people of AHS put him into the cat cage, he cried and snarled and hissed and rattled his cage, begging to be out. He wouldn’t give up without a fight, not even when one of them injected him with sedatives. With whatever strength he had left before the sedatives fully kicked in, he grabbed hold on the lock of the cage tightly and shook it as hard as he could, hoping the movement would break it and he would go free. All that vigor was in vain as he woke up with a bad headache and grilled door greeted him, accompanied by other sounds like people talking, dogs barking, cats meowing and things moving about, and of course, the first person he met when it was time for meals was Illust-chan.
Not a day went by without him thinking what happened to his beloved koibito and master Tasu-sama. He could tell from the crowd that gathered around outside their little humble abode that their long kept secret had been discovered and he worried everyday about what the policemen would and all that mad crowd would do to him knowing that he was having an illicit affair with a pet and having him pregnant. He wondered who ratted them out. Surely it wasn’t Nuriko. The first thing Nuriko did when the policemen arrested him was reaching for the phone to call someone for help, so Nuriko was definitely out of the list of suspects. Hotohori? Impossible. He had treated his Tasu-sama and him like family, and was one of the kindest humans he had ever met. He would never do such a thing. It could definitely not be any of their friends from Rekka-Shin or any of their clients. Besides, Nuriko and Hotohori were the only ones alive to know about their secret affair and he trusted them with his life. But if it weren’t them, who could it be?
“Personally, I think it’s not fair they keep you here,” Illust-chan sat down in front of his cage as usual whenever she brought him his meals. “I mean technically speaking, you are 75 percent human, and there’s no say in the law that you cannot fall in love and have babies with you as long as you’re dominantly human, but you know how all those Green Peace people and Animal Rights Activists, thinking you’re an animal and all. Now who’s being the inconsiderate one, eh?”
Regardless if he was paying attention or not, Illust-chan would talk and talk and talk to him like he was an old friend and just pour out everything she had in mind, until she had to be nagged by her colleague or superior to get the hell up and get back to work. Basically Chichiri was her not-so-willing listening ear, and since she didn’t pester him to listen to her or look at her while she’s talking but just talk on and on about her life that has got nothing to do with him, it wouldn’t hurt to just let her blab for a while.
“Actually, to tell the truth, we should just leave animals be, you know?” Illust-chan blabbered as she reached in to stroke Chichiri on the back of the ear. Another thing was that Chichiri would never allow anyone to touch him except Illust-chan (and that was after biting and scratching at her a number of times, yet she never seemed to quit), thus her personally handling him. “Animals have been around this land for centuries and the wild animals in the outback are all doing hunky-dory fine before without having us humans involved, so who are we exactly to question their wellbeing and decide what’s best for them? We’ve made plenty of mistakes trying to play Kami-sama over the animals and look where we’ve ended up? More losing than saving, that’s what it is right now.
“You know what I think?” Illust-chan lowered her voice to a whisper, as if telling Chichiri a secret, “I think you and your master should’ve just eloped when you had the chance. Isn’t that romantic? Him whisking you off into some paradise island where you live your days without care in the world. That would be so great! No one will ever question your love. Hell, they can’t even question your whereabouts!”
Chichiri smiled inwardly. He felt rather intrigued about that idea. Maybe they should’ve done that in the first place. But of course, he wouldn’t admit that to Illust-chan. He still has his doubts about her.
“Let me give you another secret,” Illust-chan lowered her voice to almost inaudible, but only just enough to let Chichiri’s sharp ears catch it. “I think I got a way to get you outta here somehow, so be patient.”
“Illust-chan!” someone called her from afar, probably a colleague or her superior. “I swear you’re going to be sent to the nut house if you keep sitting there blabbering to animals like you’re George of the Jungle or something! Get your ass here to work!”
“Hai, hai, chotto matte bayo!” Illust-chan shouted back with her smiley face and gave Chichiri one last stroke before saying, “Be a good kitty and eat your dinner, OK? For lil’ ol’ me? Onegai shimasu?”
Chichiri stared after Illust-chan who rushed off humming a cheerful tone while ignoring her colleague’s bashing about her slacking off the job.
What exactly did she mean by that statement?
--:--
Nuriko, Hotohori and the first two couples Tasuki and Chichiri helped match-made were in the visiting room along with other people who went there to visit their loved ones being locked up in prison. The only thing separated them was a counter and a glass wall between them and a telephone as their only means of talking to each other.It has been almost 3 months since Tasuki was jailed. Their lawyer Tatemo had tried to make an appeal, but so far, there had been no green light as to whether they would want to allow a retrial. After that sensational news, those who were close to or knew Tasuki or who were known to have been Tasuki’s clients were quickly shunned and ignored, being pointed and whispered about behind their backs, even though they claimed it again and again that they had no part or nothing to do with Tasuki’s bestial affair and had no clue of what Tasuki had been doing behind closed doors. No one would want to listen to them. Even when they knew they spoke the truth, they wanted to have nothing to do with them. They were treated rather discriminately in places and were not allowed visitations to see Chichiri for fear of foul play, since they knew them and Chichiri were close. Tasuki’s guess were as good as theirs as to how Chichiri’s condition was and how he was doing in the shelter home.
Nuriko gestured Tasuki to pick up the phone on his side and waited for Tasuki to do so before talking through the phone on her side, “Ohayo, Tasu-chan.”
“Hai…” Tasuki replied weakly, his mood not really into the conversation.
“How you’re holding up, Tasu-chan?” Nuriko asked worriedly. She traced around Tasuki’s face outline on the glass and muttered, “You’ve lost weight…”
“No biggie,” Tasuki replied. “I’m getting used to having cabbage soup, mash potatoes, bread and soybean milk everyday anyway.”
“Don’t worry,” Tamahome spoke at the mouthpiece of the phone Nuriko was holding. “Once we get you outta here, I’m going to cook up a storm. You’ll be eating like a king in no time.”
“You hold on there, Tasuki,” Hotohori spoke through the mouthpiece of the phone next. “We’re almost close to a breakthrough. Tatemo’s appeal is getting fresh, so…”
“Arigato, Hotohori-san, Nuriko-chan, minna-san,” Tasuki spoke in barely a whisper. “Demo…you’ve done enough. Leave me be.”
“Tasuki-kun, you can’t think that!” Miaka grabbed Nuriko’s phone and spoke frantically, “You can’t give up! We can convince them that this is all a mistake! We can make them see that there is nothing wrong with your relationship with Chichiri-chan! Don’t give up now, please!”
“Yeah!” Tamahome spoke close to the mouthpiece, “Where’s that feisty spirit you take pride in having? Where’s that love you carry around like a torch in your heart for Chichiri-chan? I thought you’d do anything for him! Where’s that Tasuki gone!”
Tasuki silently listened as each and every one of them took the phone to spill out encouragement to him. He knew they meant well. He knew they cared for him. But this…
“They’re gonna keep us away no matter what,” Tasuki finally spoke after 10 seconds of staring quietly at all his frantic friends, his lips creased in a wry, weak smile. “You heard them. Chiri-chan is officially government’s property now. They’ll do whatever it takes to tear us apart. We will never see each other ever again…”
“Then we’ll do whatever it takes to beat the system!” Yui spoke angrily. “If someone doesn’t do something about this, no one will ever win but them! It’s not fair to separate lovers like this! It’s not! No matter what people are supposed to be free to love as long as there is no harm done to others or the partner!”
“Then can you bring my kittens back? Can you bring them back to life after they kill them?”
“Nani…?” everyone was surprised at Tasuki’s question.
“Chiri-chan is almost due,” Tasuki said as he finally allowed his welled-up tears to flow out of his eyes. “He will have my kittens soon, and when he does, I won’t be there for him. You won’t be there for him either. They will make him suffer the pain of birth and then kill them in front of his eyes. Knowing Chiri-chan, he’d rather die than not having my kittens anymore. Can you bring them back by the time we beat the system, if we beat the system?”
Everyone was at a loss of words. No one knew what to respond to that.
“You have done enough, minna-san. Arigatogozaimasu, minna-san. I won’t trouble you all any longer.”
With that, he hung up, bowed at them and left without turning back, ignoring the frantic calls of his friends on the other side and not even so much as glance at them being reprimanded and escorted out by the guards.
--:--
“I can’t believe he’d just shrug us off like that! Baka! Baka Tasu-chan!”Nuriko was still grumbling on the way back as she and her husband drove the couples Yui-Nakago and Miaka-Tamahome home before they go to the nursery home to pick up their Himawari. Judging on everyone’s look on their faces, they had the same sentiments exactly, but not as fevered as Nuriko’s.
“I guess the judge and juries’ verdict must’ve hit him hard,” Nakago commented. “It’s not easy to cope with knowing that your lover is going to be apart from you for the rest of your life and your child would die before they could even have the chance to experience first breath.”
“That’s just so sad,” Miaka shook her head in dismay. “Just because they are the high-ups doesn’t mean they do whatever they want.”
“Well, they are the high-ups after all,” Tamahome sighed. “I mean, look what they did to Tasuki. I’m scared of what they might do to Chichiri-chan.”
“That doesn’t mean he should just lost faith!” Nuriko grumbled. “We’re his friends, for Kami’s sake! He should at least trust us a little!”
“Anata, don’t be that—Abunai!”
Nuriko hit the brakes and swerved at Hotohori’s exclaim, barely missing the dark limo that suddenly appeared from a blind spot and blocked their way by a few inches. Everyone looked like they just either had a heart attack or had just seen Sadako crawling out of the well and out of the TV as their mind blanked out for a moment, shutting down due to shock. As their train of thought slowly returned back to normal, they saw the owner of the car coming out and moved towards the backseat and opened the door to reveal no other the young multimillionaire boy genius Chiriko.
“T…Teme!” Nuriko growled as she got off the car and stomped towards the boy genius. Before the driver could react, she had already grabbed Chiriko by the collar and shook him like a rag doll. She could see that the little boy genius was covered with plasters, bandages and gauze, and was a little bit curious, but her anger was much stronger than her curiosity, and all she wanted right now was to beat the hell out of the boy that caused all these problems on her two beloved best friends. Chiriko held his hand up to stop his driver from helping him as he allowed Nuriko to do as he pleased.
“What the fuck are you doing here!” Nuriko demanded. “After what you have done to Tasu-chan and Chichiri-chan, you dare show your fucking face in front of us again! Haven’t you done enough damage already!”
“I know how you feel…” Chiriko began but was outsmarted when Tamahome lunged forward to punch him.
“Save your bullshit, bozu!” Tamahome growled. “You know shit about how we feel! You know crap about how Tasuki-san and Chichiri-chan feel! You were the one who got them into all this mess! You were the one who threw Tasuki-san into jail and sent both Chichiri-chan and their kittens to their death! What else do you want now!”
“How about me trying to get them out of it?”
Everyone stopped at their tracks, looking at the boy skeptically. Nuriko gruffly let go of Chiriko and regarded him from head to toe.
“What happened to you, anyway?”
“Let’s say I had a little family disagreement,” Chiriko said as he hastily brushed off the blood from the corner of his lips due to the blow given by Tamahome. “Now do you want my help or not?”
“Why should we trust you after all that you’ve done?” Yui asked challengingly, with Miaka nodding in agreement.
“Well, as much as I resent the defeat of losing the love of my life to Tasuki and enjoy the fact that he would be rotting in jail and be an outcast of society for the rest of his life,” Chiriko replied, the last statement making Tamahome look like he wanted to sucker-punch him again, “I still love Chichiri-chan, and the last thing I want is of anything happening to him. I’ve been with him well long enough to know that if those people in the shelter home ever do kill those kittens, he would want nothing more than to be dead, and I can’t have that. I cannot allow my Chichiri-chan to die in such vain.”
The group was not convinced, seeing that Chiriko is behaving like the possessive little childish boy he had always been.
“Besides, I know people. I practically almost own this country. I know you guys are at your wits’ end trying to rescue that Tasuki of yours without as much as yielding a single favourable result. You want to go through them, you’ll have to go through the proper channels. That’s where I come in.”
The group looked at each other questioningly. As much as they hated to admit it, for once this kid was right. They could barely even get to apply for an appeal without facing countless rejections before they even started, let alone trying to convince the judge to get a retrial. Everyone whom they thought were their friends turned their backs to them and refused to help them any further or to associate themselves with this issue any longer. Everything they’ve tried so far has failed. What else have they got to lose, except their best friends?
“So? Are we still on the same wave length here?”
Sighing inwardly, they turned to the millionaire boy genius grudgingly.
“What do you have in mind?”
Puss, Puss-Chp16
“Order, order! This court will be in order!”
The crowd in the courtroom quiet down by the sound of the judge hammering on a small round platform with the famous court wood hammer. The entire courtroom was packed with people young and old—actually most of them young—and were discussing hotly with each other, making the courtroom as noisy as a busy day in the market even when the bailiff announced the judge’s arrival. Their topic of discussion? Tasuki, who was sitting at the right table of the front part of the courtroom with his lawyer.
Word of Tasuki’s affair with Chichiri spread like wildfire, what with the sudden paparazzi and press invasion and the arrival of police officers and the AHS team members. Everyone in Japan heard about it through newspapers, tabloid magazines, radio, TV and the internet, and it was known almost worldwide. It was the news of the century. Bestiality may not be uncommon as it appeared once in a while in small columns of the newspaper and in news magazines, but to impregnate your pet was something that never, ever happened in the history of bestiality, and it wasn’t something you can just dismiss and take lightly like any other bestiality cases. As procedure goes, Tasuki was arrested and held behind bars until trial, and Chichiri was put in a high security confinement until further notice.
“This court recognizes the honourable Judge Taiitsu-kun in judging the case of the people verses Mr. Tasuki on the case of sexual bestial conduct. The court is now in session,” the bailiff announced before moving aside. The courtroom quieted down a little, but traces of whispering, pointing and muttering could be seen and heard.
“Arigatogozaimas, bailiff,” Judge Taiistu-kun said as she hammering a few more times to warn the audience about trying to make a fish market out of the courtroom. “May the defendant please rise.”
Tasuki obliged along with his lawyer. After the incident with the paparazzi and press invasion, Nuriko, with the help of her and her husband’s connection, managed to hire a reliable lawyer who just so happens to be Nuriko’s best friend back in high school, and made arrangements with the adoption agency to postpone the flight date to Russia. Although Tasuki kept insisting that Nuriko and Hotohori should go to Russia to collect their adopted son and leave things to him, they refused to listen to him, with an excuse that nothing is more important than helping a friend in need. The agent who helped them with the adoption arrangements understood their plight and decided to personally fly in to Japan with their promised son and came to their doorsteps to hand their little Himawari Nester and celebrated their parenthood earlier. Nester was the little boy’s real name, but Nuriko decided that it should be his middle name and name him Himawari despite him being a boy because he truly reminded her of blooming sunflowers.
Tatemo (the lawyer) went through the details with Tasuki, Nuriko and Hotohori and promised that he would try his best to help Tasuki out on the case, although truthfully it was a rather tricky one for this focused on bestiality and impregnating an pet. He honestly laid out the cards that chances of winning would be rather slim, but any positive light over the situation is better than none. They realized that Chiriko had employed a rather powerful prosecutor who had been in the prosecution business for more than 30 years and barely lost a case in his life. Miboshi, as everyone known his name to be called, may look like a teenager from the outside due to a genetic disorder he had that stumps aging, his experience was no joke as almost all the cases he taken, the accused was successfully prosecuted and served a good amount of jail time. If they were to win this case, they would have to go through this tough cookie.
“This court acknowledges the case reference number 000718 on the issue of sexual bestial conduct, Tasuki versus the people,” Judge Taiistu-kun repeated what was said by the bailiff as a confirmation. “How does your client plea?”
“My client pleas not guilty, Your Honour,” Tatemo announced, earning boos and whispers of disapproval from those present.
“Order, order in the court!” Judge Taiitsu-kun banged the platform again to quiet everyone down before continuing, “Very well, Mr. Tatemo and Mr. Miboshi, you will begin your opening speech before calling in any of your witnesses to the stand.”
With that the court was soon in session and Tatemo and Miboshi began their court war to fight for their stand. It was a rather tough battle as Tatemo and Miboshi tried to outwit each other to win the juries’ heart. Many witnesses were called in that were involved in this case and most of them were either taking Miboshi’s side or totally manipulated in the questioning to make it look like they were in the wrong. Chiriko and the twins Amiboshi and Suboshi were good at lying, of course, saying that they were horrified at Tasuki’s act of bestiality and turned the story around to make it look like that they were the victims of being robbed of Chichiri by Tasuki. Chiriko even fanned the flame of deception by putting up the “genuinely upset” façade and said he would want nothing more than to have his precious little man-cat pet back and would do everything in his power to take good care of him and that man-kitten he was carrying, even willing to forgive Tasuki for committing such atrocities to his beloved pet. It took all of Tasuki’s willpower not to just jump and yell bloody murder at them.
Nuriko, Hotohori and Tasuki’s first few clients Yui and Nakago and Miaka and Tamahome were accused of being accomplices with Tasuki over this bestiality act for not reporting them to the proper authorities and allowing Tasuki and Chichiri to continue with such atrocities. Pet shop owner Mistukake was grilled for not allowing Chiriko to buy Chichiri in the first place and thus caused all this mess. The ones who were spared from Miboshi’s manipulative questioning were husband and wife vet Tokaki and Subaru and Tasuki’s other clients because they were not aware of it happening right under their noses. However, Tokaki and Subaru did give their medical concerns about the possibility of abnormalities on the kittens Chichiri are carrying because of the crossbreeding and spoke of their fear of birth complications and health problem, maybe possible death to Chichiri because of the chemical imbalance between a breeding of a human and cat, in which of course Miboshi further emphasized on the cruelty and carelessness of Tasuki’s irresponsible and immoral act.
Tatemo tried his best to oust Miboshi from constantly bombarding his witnesses, but the case seemed biased as his objections were repeatedly overruled and Judge Taiitsu-kun seemed to allow Miboshi to ruthlessly ask his questions without so much as banging on the platform once to say that he was out of line. Instead, he was often the object of objection, whether is speculation or intimidation to the witness and Judge Taiitsu-kun often sustained his objections even though Tatemo tried to justify his arguments. Even the theory of man-cats being 75 percent human and 25 percent cat and that Tasuki’s behaviour was because he was in love with a human, not an animal could not hold up in court because the zoology terms have registered and deemed Chichiri to be a cat, not a human in both zoology law and papers of black and white. The animal experts have categorized Chichiri’s kind as a minority branch of the feline species and cannot be contended against Miboshi, who insist that anything displaying genuine animalistic behaviour is technically deemed an animal.
All in all, because of Miboshi’s sharp tongue and the circumstances of Tasuki’s case where it’s still morally unlawful, the situation was grim and Tatemo and Tasuki could tell they were fighting a losing battle. From the look of the juries’ faces, they can tell they had no winning case as most of them seemed like they were agreeing to Miboshi’s argument. It probably was no surprise when the juries finally made the verdict and gave the results to Judge Taiitsu-kun to read, although Tasuki still kept his fingers crossed just in case Lady Luck was on his side.
“May the defendant please rise,” Judge Taiitsu-kun announced and waited for Tasuki to stand before continuing, “In regards of sexual bestial conduct, the court has found you guilty of committing bestiality and impregnating a pet animal and place you under the charge of animal cruelty and abuse. The court hereby sentences you to 1 year imprisonment, a revoke of your business license and a fine of 500,000 yen, starting from now. The man-cat will become property of the state and will have the kittens terminated as soon as they are born to prevent them from polluting the sanctity of the zoology species chronologies. The court is adjourned.”
Tasuki broke down and fell onto his knees at upon hearing the news and had to pick carried by two policemen and dragged out of the courtroom amidst the clapping and jeering audience. He had expected the verdict and was prepared to accept whatever charges they threw at him, but to hear that he would never see Chichiri ever again and have his kittens put down was something he had not expected. It did him in and he was in a daze as to how to cope with this reality. As he was escorted out of the building and into the police car where he would be taken to custody and undergo his jail sentence, the crowd outside were ecstatic as to hear the verdict being made. News reporters clambered around, asking questions that were practically irrelevant and incoherent to him and the crowd who had been outside protesting against bestiality threw all forms of rubbish at him and shouting and scolding at him outside the car, condemning him and cursing him to death.
Tasuki couldn’t be bothered now.
He would never see Chichiri again.
He would never see his kittens ever.
Tears fell freely down his tan cheeks as the police car drove off to his accursed destination.
Chiriko was in the office room banging at the table, facing the two nonchalant twin brothers Amiboshi and Suboshi as they lazily ate their cheesecake and blueberry cake each and drank their earl grey tea. Chiriko was fuming mad and had not touched his tea and cake that was served by one of his many maids in the house.
“Are you fucking listening to me?!” Chiriko banged the table again, losing his cool. The twins looked up in boredom.
“Oh, come, come now, cousin,” Amiboshi replied. “No need to be so uptight.”
“Uptight? Uptight?! You said you guys have everything under control! You told me that if I express my desire to look after Chichiri-chan in court, Chichiri-chan will come back to me! You told me if I were to pour my heart out and portray that loving face, Chichiri-chan will be given to me! You promised he will be returned to me! You said that yourself!”
“Of course we did,” Suboshi replied nonchalantly, “but that doesn’t mean we’re Kami. We were only expressing our positive opinions of this method, but we don’t control the outcome. It’s not our fault the government decided that you’re not fit to be a master either.”
“Why you…!” Chiriko growled and stomped towards where the twins were enjoying their tea and cakes. He grabbed their tea cups and poured the tea contents over their heads.
“Itai, itai, itai!” the twins hollered as the hot tea ran down their cheeks. “Atsui ne, Chiri! What’s your problem?!”
“I should’ve known that it would end up like this,” Chiriko said, glaring at them venomously. “I should’ve known better than to trust the likes of you. Get out of my house and don’t come back. Ever!”
“Maa, maa, let’s not be brash about this…” Amiboshi took Chiriko’s wrist but he jerked it away.
“Don’t touch me! Leave and never come back! I don’t want to see either of you!”
“Come on, Chiri. You don’t mean that,” Suboshi took his other wrist and held on tight. “After all, we’re family…”
“I am no longer associated with spawns of a family’s disappointment! Otosan was right about you and your family! You are nothing but trouble! Black sheep of the family are nothing messed up lunatics, people like you are no family of mine! I don’t even know why I acknowledge bastards like you lot as my cousins in the first place! Now take your hands off me and…Ah!!!”
Chiriko’s rants were stopped by a sharp scratch against his cheek, drawing blood. He turned sharply and held his breath when he saw Suboshi with an evil grin on his face and the dancing balls floating about right behind him.
“Now, that is something you should never have said to family in the first place, and definitely not to my beloved ottota.”
“The…The Ru Sei Suie!” Chiriko widened his eyes in horror as he recognized the Chinese ancestral weapons Amiboshi was using when they brought Chichiri to him after ‘taking care’ of Tasuki. “How did you…? I thought Amiboshi controls those things?! And…and there’s no music! How could it…?”
“Move?” Amiboshi completed his question and revealed something like a small mouthpiece of a flute between his teeth. “Until now, our dear old cousin is still as clueless as the day he was born. It’s a wonder he could still maintain his reputation as Japan’s Golden Boy Genius.”
“It can’t be!” Chiriko exclaimed as he struggled to get out of Suboshi’s grasp. “I thought Suboshi plays the flute! Not the other way round!”
“Shall we tell him, oni-chan?” Amiboshi asked as a naughty gleam flickered past his eyes.
“I don’t see why not, ottota,” Suboshi shrugged nonchalantly. “You see, dear Chiri, we are twins. And when it comes to twins, we always share our toys, even these things. I can play fairly well with the flute and Amiboshi’s getting better at the Ru Sei Suie, and we developed a reputation of Amiboshi the Ru Sei Suie expert and Suboshi the talented flute player for distraction purposes.
“When it comes to the real deal, we are killer experts in our own game. Amiboshi got so well in flute playing that he doesn’t need a real flute carrying around in a briefcase like normal flute players do. He only needs that miniature flute mouthpiece and can manipulate it to play the notes he wants by ministering and altering the way he moves his tongue, and can make it as silent as a dog whistle that only the Ru can react to. I, on the other hand, have mastered the art of Ru Sei Suie that I can manipulate them into a chi form so that it cannot be detected by the naked eye, and can will them into materialization as I see fit. So you see, dear Chiri, we’ve been carrying our weapons all along, even into the courtroom during the trial.
“As my dear oni-chan mentioned just now,” Amiboshi continued, blowing a silent tune that caused the balls to wind their ropes round and round Chiriko’s limbs and lift him high up in the air, “We use each other’s weapons for distraction purposes. We couldn’t have the feds find out what my darling oni-chan and I truly do for a living, could we? They’d have to separate us, and we wouldn’t want that now, would we? You see, being a martial art and a flute performer is just one of the many side jobs we do. What we really do, you’ve pretty much guessed it when you first employed us to retrieve Chichiri from Tasuki’s grasp: We assassinate people for a living.”
“Remember the deaths of some of our Chiri’s otosan’s toughest competition?” Suboshi asked as he came up to Chiriko while talking to Amiboshi in his embrace. Again, they began to refer Chiriko to the third person as they spoke. “We did a really good job at making it look like accidents, didn’t we?”
“Oh, I remember them perfectly, oni-chan,” Amiboshi giggled. “Who would’ve thought Chiri’s otosan who looked to us as the spawns of the family’s disgrace would’ve personally came up to our home and asked our otosan’s permission to employ our assassination expertise. Otosan definitely made him go on his knees and begging for us to help him out because of the drastic competition that’s driving his deals off the edge. We practically gloated at the way he lowered himself all the way to the ground and beg, and made him wait for almost a week before we brought him his first competition’s head. Our okasan definitely has trained us well when she said we needed to follow her ancestral warrior traits. We’re going to have to do something extra this coming Mother’s Day.”
“We definitely should. Oh, ottota, I’m so proud of you for last week’s assassination. You could’ve gotten yourself killed when the manager of Hyuganadai Ltd. kidnapped you in attempts to separate us from being able to do our job. They thought they had you when he tied you down and confiscated the Ru, but they didn’t think you’d be hiding that flute mouthpiece on the roof of your mouth all along. I still feel so sorry for not getting to you sooner.”
“I can take care of myself, as I have for the Masawa and Yume missions don’t worry,” Amiboshi smiled as he kissed his twin’s cheek. “At least I pulverized them good. And as long as I have you, nothing else matters.”
“Ottota…” Suboshi breathed as he inched closer to his younger twin, their lips brushing each other.
“L…Let go of me, you bastards!” Chiriko screamed, bringing them back from their lovie-dovie world. “I don’t care what you do for a living! I don’t care if you’re gonna shag each other blind! Let go of me!”
“Sorry, Chiri,” Suboshi said as he signaled Amiboshi to hold him higher. “We haven’t even had enough fun with you yet. That ‘payment’ last time wasn’t even halfway satisfying.”
“Besides, we’ve always wanted a threesome, with a little BDSM in between,” Amiboshi said, blowing a tune to make the Ru bring Chiriko closer to them. “Sex has been a little…bland these days. We need a little excitement.”
With that, Amiboshi got started on blowing his tune. The Ru came alive and coiled up menacingly in front of Chiriko’s face like a King cobra would when it was about to strike. Another tune and the Ru began to slam themselves against Chiriko’s skin, attacking him at every crevice of his body, splattering the blood everywhere. Some got onto the twins’ cheeks and they took turns licking each other clean as they watch with lust and menace at the fast-moving balls did their thing, tearing Chiriko’s skin and pratically shredding him like a shredder would to paper. Chiriko screamed in pain until he could scream no more as the Ru cut, bruised, scraped, slashed, punched and broke every part of the body the balls got in contact with. The little boy genius wondered why no one heard his screams and why no one came in to save him, but in the midst of being pummeled into a pulp, he remembered that his room was built to be soundproof as to avoid any disturbance from both inside and outside, and the only way anyone could hear him was through the intercom that connected his phone and the device outside the door whenever anyone needed to see him, and unfortunately his intercom was turned off and he had given strict instructions to his subordinates that he would not be bothered unless he made the call to do so.
“Why…? Why are…you doing…this…?” Chiriko asked hoarsely as he got another blow to his temple.
“Why? For fun, that’s why,” Suboshi shrugged, speaking as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world.
“Besides, you and your family have been ridiculing us for too long. It’s about time you get your just desserts,” Amiboshi sneered as he licked a drop of blood that was trickling down Chiriko’s chin. “And what better way to do it than to have our way with your body? We can exact our revenge and get to enjoy mind-blowing sex in the process.”
“The sins of the father have to be paid by the blood of the son, dear Chiri,” Suboshi said as he pulled at the rope to bring him even closer so that he could lick off the blood from his forehead. “Ready, ottota dearest?”
“As always, oni-chan love,” Amiboshi giggled in an almost childish tone and reached over to plant a deep, passionate kiss. They let out a passionate lustful sigh as Amiboshi made the Ru carry Chiriko on top of their heads and let his blood drip onto their skin like rain. Again, they took turns licking each other, tearing off each other’s upper body clothing and smearing each other’s fair skin with the metallic smell and liquid of crimson through their wet tongues and their fingers. Watching the twins kiss and lick each other with such fervent vigor of lust and passion as they grind their manhood against each other with only their pants as their barrier was involuntarily arousing Chiriko physically, though his mind was finding it rather offensive as he tried to contradict himself by screwing up his face in disgust.
“Aww, oni-chan,” Amiboshi pouted in a fake cute disappointed tone, “Chiri doesn’t seem to find our brotherly love appealing anymore.”
“Well, we’ll just have to rekindle the flame then, shouldn’t we?” Suboshi said as he gave his twin a knowing smirk.
Amiboshi took that as a cue to bring the Ru that held Chiriko captive down. They settled him on the couch and Amiboshi blew a tune to make the Ru wind their ropes tightly onto the couch legs, holding the poor boy genius down onto the velvet seat, his blood beginning to seep through the covers. Suboshi swayed his hips seductively as he walked up towards the bound Chiriko and started peeling off what was left of Chiriko’s torn and tattered clothing, baring his naked, bloody body for all the world to see.
“I’ll…I’ll have you…locked up for this…” Chiriko breathed as the last piece of clothing was removed.
“Go ahead and try,” Suboshi said in a challenging tone. “Go ahead and see whose side are they on. What makes you think we can’t just do you in right here, right now before you could even think of ratting us out?”
“Why…don’t you…?”
“Now that would take out all the fun of it, wouldn’t it?” Amiboshi replied as he straddled the boy. “I mean, what joy can we derive from if we kill you without having the chance to see you suffer and whine as your rich and pathetic life as you know it crumble before your very eyes?”
“Chiri does know that we know own about 90 percent of the shares of every business his own and also almost half of whatever earnings his parents are making right now goes right into our pockets as fees for our services, doesn’t he, ottota, including the rights to every property Chiri owns in every state of Japan?” Suboshi asked in the usual third person way.
“I don’t believe he does, what with him being so obsessed over his darling little Chichiri-chan of his,” Amiboshi said as Suboshi licked his lips, preparing himself to give Chiriko head. “And we pretty much have both his parents at our mercy and almost all of his followers are slowly converting their loyalty towards us. Most of the earnings dear Chiri makes go directly into our pockets without even him knowing it. Who knows the miracle of secret bank accounts and online banking can do? He’s literally working for us as we speak! Isn’t that fun, oni-chan?”
“It sure is, ottota dearest. We’ve come a long way from being the disgrace of the family. Otosan and okasan sure is going to be proud when we present this news on their wedding anniversary next month.”
“Why…? What have…I done…to deserve this…?” Chiriko gasped as he felt a wet and warm sensation engulfing his little cock.
“Why? Why, you say?” Amiboshi gave Chiriko such a glare that if looks could kill, he would’ve died a thousand deaths. He then turned to Suboshi who was giving Chiriko head and put on a mock devastated face. “Oni-chan love, he doesn’t remember what he had done to deserve his punishment. That’s so mean of him!”
“Refresh his memory then,” Suboshi replied before going back to blowing Chiriko.
“With pleasure,” Amiboshi smirked and blew a tune. The balls of the Ru activated immediately and landed blows after blows onto Chiriko’s head while Amiboshi bombarded him with questions in a venomous tone, “Do you remember the day you tore and hid the limbs of my action figure? Do you remember you grabbed my oni-chan’s hair and burnt every tip of it until my oni-chan had to cut it bald and wait for it to grow out while our friends teased him ‘Baldy’ for three months? Do you remember crushing our cake during our 5th birthday? Do you remember you and your group of geeks ganged up on us and you sat there and watched while they molested us? They may not have robbed us of our virginity but it still hurts to let someone other than my beloved oni-chan touch me, and watch as someone else touches my oni-chan other than me! All those things you have done to us and yet you ask what have you done to deserve this?! How dare you forget about all the dastardly deeds you’ve done to us, just because we’re our otosan’s children?! How dare you?!”
So saying, he reached down and pinched hard at one of Chiriko’s nipples while biting down hard on the other with a vengeance, earning a loud scream of agony from the young boy genius. Suboshi had done blowing him and teased the tip with his fingers.
“Look at you, you slut,” Suboshi grinned. “You’re getting hard by this. You really are dirty and scandalous underneath all that genius business-like façade, aren’t you?”
“No…! That’s…That’s not true…!” Chiriko whined as Amiboshi bit the nipple he just pinched and pinched the nipple he just bit, making it a double assault of pain.
“Liar,” Suboshi said, flicking at the erection. “Look at you, you’re dripping with already. I bet if I do something more you’re gonna cum all over yourself, but we’re not going to let you off easy. We’re not satisfied yet.”
The twins soon removed the rest of their own clothing and began to kiss each other with gusto. They kneaded each other’s ass like it was the most touchable thing in the world as they rubbed their manhood against each other, while occasionally either twin would pump Chiriko’s erection or finger-fucked Chiriko’s ass without bothering to prepare him one finger at a time. Chiriko couldn’t stop the unintentional moans and groans from escaping his mouth as he was forced to watch their erotic display and being stimulated at the same time. The Ru dug deeper into his limbs to stop him from struggling, the pain amplifying the pleasure he did not want coming all the way down south to his nether regions, and that sight enticed the twins to making out some more.
“Oni-chan, I can’t take it anymore…” Amiboshi begged, his eyes glazed with lust.
“Well, go ahead, ottota,” Suboshi released his hold from his twin. “He’s all yours.”
The younger twin happily went towards Chiriko and blew a tune to make the Ru loosen its grip on the boy’s ankles. It did, but in a way that it was still linked with the ankles and Amiboshi lifted Chiriko’s legs so that his puckered ass was facing his manhood. He then lined himself onto his opening and with great force, he slammed himself into Chiriko all the way to the hilt, earning a strangled scream from the young boy.
“Oh no, Chiri,” Suboshi said as he turned Chiriko’s face sideways to face his own erection. “You don’t get the pleasure of just lying there getting fucked. You gotta do your part. Suck me well while I fuck your mouth, you little slut.”
A bit of the Ru rope pulled itself into Chiriko’s mouth to gag him so that he couldn’t bite down and, without warning, Suboshi entered himself into Chiriko’s mouth, pounding relentlessly into him. Soon Chiriko found himself both fucked through the ass and the mouth as the twins have their way with him, ramming him again and again. Chiriko almost gagged out of the sheer force of Suboshi’s thrusts and his ass getting sore from Amiboshi slamming him in like a rag doll.
“Oh Kami, oni-chan…he’s so tight…” Amiboshi groaned as he slammed even deeper, barely hitting Chiriko’s sweet spot. Not that he wanted to give him the pleasure of that anyway. “Who would’ve thought…after asking for our payment that day…he’d still be this tight…”
“Yeah, ottota,” Suboshi agreed. “And his mouth…is just so…fuckable…It’s hard to believe…he’s not experienced in this…You should try it…”
“I just might…Oh, shit…he’s really sucking me in…I’m going to cum…!”
Amiboshi let out a groan as he spilled his seed into Chiriko. Suboshi gave a few thrusts and came into Chiriko’s mouth, making the poor boy genius swallow every drop of his juice before pulling out for him to choke and cough. His own erection was throbbed painfully against his stomach, the pre-cum leaking out and staining it. The twins shared a menacing grin and Amiboshi blew a tune to let what’s left of the free Ru rope to coil itself around tight at the hilt of Chiriko’s cock. Chiriko let out a muffled scream of protest and would’ve said something if the ropes weren’t still in his mouth gagging him.
“Come, come now, Chiri,” Amiboshi said. “You can’t be done so quickly. We’ve only just started.”
“Trust me, Chiri,” Suboshi said, “This is only the beginning of our game. Bear with it. You just might end up enjoying it.”
The crowd in the courtroom quiet down by the sound of the judge hammering on a small round platform with the famous court wood hammer. The entire courtroom was packed with people young and old—actually most of them young—and were discussing hotly with each other, making the courtroom as noisy as a busy day in the market even when the bailiff announced the judge’s arrival. Their topic of discussion? Tasuki, who was sitting at the right table of the front part of the courtroom with his lawyer.
Word of Tasuki’s affair with Chichiri spread like wildfire, what with the sudden paparazzi and press invasion and the arrival of police officers and the AHS team members. Everyone in Japan heard about it through newspapers, tabloid magazines, radio, TV and the internet, and it was known almost worldwide. It was the news of the century. Bestiality may not be uncommon as it appeared once in a while in small columns of the newspaper and in news magazines, but to impregnate your pet was something that never, ever happened in the history of bestiality, and it wasn’t something you can just dismiss and take lightly like any other bestiality cases. As procedure goes, Tasuki was arrested and held behind bars until trial, and Chichiri was put in a high security confinement until further notice.
“This court recognizes the honourable Judge Taiitsu-kun in judging the case of the people verses Mr. Tasuki on the case of sexual bestial conduct. The court is now in session,” the bailiff announced before moving aside. The courtroom quieted down a little, but traces of whispering, pointing and muttering could be seen and heard.
“Arigatogozaimas, bailiff,” Judge Taiistu-kun said as she hammering a few more times to warn the audience about trying to make a fish market out of the courtroom. “May the defendant please rise.”
Tasuki obliged along with his lawyer. After the incident with the paparazzi and press invasion, Nuriko, with the help of her and her husband’s connection, managed to hire a reliable lawyer who just so happens to be Nuriko’s best friend back in high school, and made arrangements with the adoption agency to postpone the flight date to Russia. Although Tasuki kept insisting that Nuriko and Hotohori should go to Russia to collect their adopted son and leave things to him, they refused to listen to him, with an excuse that nothing is more important than helping a friend in need. The agent who helped them with the adoption arrangements understood their plight and decided to personally fly in to Japan with their promised son and came to their doorsteps to hand their little Himawari Nester and celebrated their parenthood earlier. Nester was the little boy’s real name, but Nuriko decided that it should be his middle name and name him Himawari despite him being a boy because he truly reminded her of blooming sunflowers.
Tatemo (the lawyer) went through the details with Tasuki, Nuriko and Hotohori and promised that he would try his best to help Tasuki out on the case, although truthfully it was a rather tricky one for this focused on bestiality and impregnating an pet. He honestly laid out the cards that chances of winning would be rather slim, but any positive light over the situation is better than none. They realized that Chiriko had employed a rather powerful prosecutor who had been in the prosecution business for more than 30 years and barely lost a case in his life. Miboshi, as everyone known his name to be called, may look like a teenager from the outside due to a genetic disorder he had that stumps aging, his experience was no joke as almost all the cases he taken, the accused was successfully prosecuted and served a good amount of jail time. If they were to win this case, they would have to go through this tough cookie.
“This court acknowledges the case reference number 000718 on the issue of sexual bestial conduct, Tasuki versus the people,” Judge Taiistu-kun repeated what was said by the bailiff as a confirmation. “How does your client plea?”
“My client pleas not guilty, Your Honour,” Tatemo announced, earning boos and whispers of disapproval from those present.
“Order, order in the court!” Judge Taiitsu-kun banged the platform again to quiet everyone down before continuing, “Very well, Mr. Tatemo and Mr. Miboshi, you will begin your opening speech before calling in any of your witnesses to the stand.”
With that the court was soon in session and Tatemo and Miboshi began their court war to fight for their stand. It was a rather tough battle as Tatemo and Miboshi tried to outwit each other to win the juries’ heart. Many witnesses were called in that were involved in this case and most of them were either taking Miboshi’s side or totally manipulated in the questioning to make it look like they were in the wrong. Chiriko and the twins Amiboshi and Suboshi were good at lying, of course, saying that they were horrified at Tasuki’s act of bestiality and turned the story around to make it look like that they were the victims of being robbed of Chichiri by Tasuki. Chiriko even fanned the flame of deception by putting up the “genuinely upset” façade and said he would want nothing more than to have his precious little man-cat pet back and would do everything in his power to take good care of him and that man-kitten he was carrying, even willing to forgive Tasuki for committing such atrocities to his beloved pet. It took all of Tasuki’s willpower not to just jump and yell bloody murder at them.
Nuriko, Hotohori and Tasuki’s first few clients Yui and Nakago and Miaka and Tamahome were accused of being accomplices with Tasuki over this bestiality act for not reporting them to the proper authorities and allowing Tasuki and Chichiri to continue with such atrocities. Pet shop owner Mistukake was grilled for not allowing Chiriko to buy Chichiri in the first place and thus caused all this mess. The ones who were spared from Miboshi’s manipulative questioning were husband and wife vet Tokaki and Subaru and Tasuki’s other clients because they were not aware of it happening right under their noses. However, Tokaki and Subaru did give their medical concerns about the possibility of abnormalities on the kittens Chichiri are carrying because of the crossbreeding and spoke of their fear of birth complications and health problem, maybe possible death to Chichiri because of the chemical imbalance between a breeding of a human and cat, in which of course Miboshi further emphasized on the cruelty and carelessness of Tasuki’s irresponsible and immoral act.
Tatemo tried his best to oust Miboshi from constantly bombarding his witnesses, but the case seemed biased as his objections were repeatedly overruled and Judge Taiitsu-kun seemed to allow Miboshi to ruthlessly ask his questions without so much as banging on the platform once to say that he was out of line. Instead, he was often the object of objection, whether is speculation or intimidation to the witness and Judge Taiitsu-kun often sustained his objections even though Tatemo tried to justify his arguments. Even the theory of man-cats being 75 percent human and 25 percent cat and that Tasuki’s behaviour was because he was in love with a human, not an animal could not hold up in court because the zoology terms have registered and deemed Chichiri to be a cat, not a human in both zoology law and papers of black and white. The animal experts have categorized Chichiri’s kind as a minority branch of the feline species and cannot be contended against Miboshi, who insist that anything displaying genuine animalistic behaviour is technically deemed an animal.
All in all, because of Miboshi’s sharp tongue and the circumstances of Tasuki’s case where it’s still morally unlawful, the situation was grim and Tatemo and Tasuki could tell they were fighting a losing battle. From the look of the juries’ faces, they can tell they had no winning case as most of them seemed like they were agreeing to Miboshi’s argument. It probably was no surprise when the juries finally made the verdict and gave the results to Judge Taiitsu-kun to read, although Tasuki still kept his fingers crossed just in case Lady Luck was on his side.
“May the defendant please rise,” Judge Taiitsu-kun announced and waited for Tasuki to stand before continuing, “In regards of sexual bestial conduct, the court has found you guilty of committing bestiality and impregnating a pet animal and place you under the charge of animal cruelty and abuse. The court hereby sentences you to 1 year imprisonment, a revoke of your business license and a fine of 500,000 yen, starting from now. The man-cat will become property of the state and will have the kittens terminated as soon as they are born to prevent them from polluting the sanctity of the zoology species chronologies. The court is adjourned.”
Tasuki broke down and fell onto his knees at upon hearing the news and had to pick carried by two policemen and dragged out of the courtroom amidst the clapping and jeering audience. He had expected the verdict and was prepared to accept whatever charges they threw at him, but to hear that he would never see Chichiri ever again and have his kittens put down was something he had not expected. It did him in and he was in a daze as to how to cope with this reality. As he was escorted out of the building and into the police car where he would be taken to custody and undergo his jail sentence, the crowd outside were ecstatic as to hear the verdict being made. News reporters clambered around, asking questions that were practically irrelevant and incoherent to him and the crowd who had been outside protesting against bestiality threw all forms of rubbish at him and shouting and scolding at him outside the car, condemning him and cursing him to death.
Tasuki couldn’t be bothered now.
He would never see Chichiri again.
He would never see his kittens ever.
Tears fell freely down his tan cheeks as the police car drove off to his accursed destination.
--:--
“This is not what we have planned!”Chiriko was in the office room banging at the table, facing the two nonchalant twin brothers Amiboshi and Suboshi as they lazily ate their cheesecake and blueberry cake each and drank their earl grey tea. Chiriko was fuming mad and had not touched his tea and cake that was served by one of his many maids in the house.
“Are you fucking listening to me?!” Chiriko banged the table again, losing his cool. The twins looked up in boredom.
“Oh, come, come now, cousin,” Amiboshi replied. “No need to be so uptight.”
“Uptight? Uptight?! You said you guys have everything under control! You told me that if I express my desire to look after Chichiri-chan in court, Chichiri-chan will come back to me! You told me if I were to pour my heart out and portray that loving face, Chichiri-chan will be given to me! You promised he will be returned to me! You said that yourself!”
“Of course we did,” Suboshi replied nonchalantly, “but that doesn’t mean we’re Kami. We were only expressing our positive opinions of this method, but we don’t control the outcome. It’s not our fault the government decided that you’re not fit to be a master either.”
“Why you…!” Chiriko growled and stomped towards where the twins were enjoying their tea and cakes. He grabbed their tea cups and poured the tea contents over their heads.
“Itai, itai, itai!” the twins hollered as the hot tea ran down their cheeks. “Atsui ne, Chiri! What’s your problem?!”
“I should’ve known that it would end up like this,” Chiriko said, glaring at them venomously. “I should’ve known better than to trust the likes of you. Get out of my house and don’t come back. Ever!”
“Maa, maa, let’s not be brash about this…” Amiboshi took Chiriko’s wrist but he jerked it away.
“Don’t touch me! Leave and never come back! I don’t want to see either of you!”
“Come on, Chiri. You don’t mean that,” Suboshi took his other wrist and held on tight. “After all, we’re family…”
“I am no longer associated with spawns of a family’s disappointment! Otosan was right about you and your family! You are nothing but trouble! Black sheep of the family are nothing messed up lunatics, people like you are no family of mine! I don’t even know why I acknowledge bastards like you lot as my cousins in the first place! Now take your hands off me and…Ah!!!”
Chiriko’s rants were stopped by a sharp scratch against his cheek, drawing blood. He turned sharply and held his breath when he saw Suboshi with an evil grin on his face and the dancing balls floating about right behind him.
“Now, that is something you should never have said to family in the first place, and definitely not to my beloved ottota.”
“The…The Ru Sei Suie!” Chiriko widened his eyes in horror as he recognized the Chinese ancestral weapons Amiboshi was using when they brought Chichiri to him after ‘taking care’ of Tasuki. “How did you…? I thought Amiboshi controls those things?! And…and there’s no music! How could it…?”
“Move?” Amiboshi completed his question and revealed something like a small mouthpiece of a flute between his teeth. “Until now, our dear old cousin is still as clueless as the day he was born. It’s a wonder he could still maintain his reputation as Japan’s Golden Boy Genius.”
“It can’t be!” Chiriko exclaimed as he struggled to get out of Suboshi’s grasp. “I thought Suboshi plays the flute! Not the other way round!”
“Shall we tell him, oni-chan?” Amiboshi asked as a naughty gleam flickered past his eyes.
“I don’t see why not, ottota,” Suboshi shrugged nonchalantly. “You see, dear Chiri, we are twins. And when it comes to twins, we always share our toys, even these things. I can play fairly well with the flute and Amiboshi’s getting better at the Ru Sei Suie, and we developed a reputation of Amiboshi the Ru Sei Suie expert and Suboshi the talented flute player for distraction purposes.
“When it comes to the real deal, we are killer experts in our own game. Amiboshi got so well in flute playing that he doesn’t need a real flute carrying around in a briefcase like normal flute players do. He only needs that miniature flute mouthpiece and can manipulate it to play the notes he wants by ministering and altering the way he moves his tongue, and can make it as silent as a dog whistle that only the Ru can react to. I, on the other hand, have mastered the art of Ru Sei Suie that I can manipulate them into a chi form so that it cannot be detected by the naked eye, and can will them into materialization as I see fit. So you see, dear Chiri, we’ve been carrying our weapons all along, even into the courtroom during the trial.
“As my dear oni-chan mentioned just now,” Amiboshi continued, blowing a silent tune that caused the balls to wind their ropes round and round Chiriko’s limbs and lift him high up in the air, “We use each other’s weapons for distraction purposes. We couldn’t have the feds find out what my darling oni-chan and I truly do for a living, could we? They’d have to separate us, and we wouldn’t want that now, would we? You see, being a martial art and a flute performer is just one of the many side jobs we do. What we really do, you’ve pretty much guessed it when you first employed us to retrieve Chichiri from Tasuki’s grasp: We assassinate people for a living.”
“Remember the deaths of some of our Chiri’s otosan’s toughest competition?” Suboshi asked as he came up to Chiriko while talking to Amiboshi in his embrace. Again, they began to refer Chiriko to the third person as they spoke. “We did a really good job at making it look like accidents, didn’t we?”
“Oh, I remember them perfectly, oni-chan,” Amiboshi giggled. “Who would’ve thought Chiri’s otosan who looked to us as the spawns of the family’s disgrace would’ve personally came up to our home and asked our otosan’s permission to employ our assassination expertise. Otosan definitely made him go on his knees and begging for us to help him out because of the drastic competition that’s driving his deals off the edge. We practically gloated at the way he lowered himself all the way to the ground and beg, and made him wait for almost a week before we brought him his first competition’s head. Our okasan definitely has trained us well when she said we needed to follow her ancestral warrior traits. We’re going to have to do something extra this coming Mother’s Day.”
“We definitely should. Oh, ottota, I’m so proud of you for last week’s assassination. You could’ve gotten yourself killed when the manager of Hyuganadai Ltd. kidnapped you in attempts to separate us from being able to do our job. They thought they had you when he tied you down and confiscated the Ru, but they didn’t think you’d be hiding that flute mouthpiece on the roof of your mouth all along. I still feel so sorry for not getting to you sooner.”
“I can take care of myself, as I have for the Masawa and Yume missions don’t worry,” Amiboshi smiled as he kissed his twin’s cheek. “At least I pulverized them good. And as long as I have you, nothing else matters.”
“Ottota…” Suboshi breathed as he inched closer to his younger twin, their lips brushing each other.
“L…Let go of me, you bastards!” Chiriko screamed, bringing them back from their lovie-dovie world. “I don’t care what you do for a living! I don’t care if you’re gonna shag each other blind! Let go of me!”
“Sorry, Chiri,” Suboshi said as he signaled Amiboshi to hold him higher. “We haven’t even had enough fun with you yet. That ‘payment’ last time wasn’t even halfway satisfying.”
“Besides, we’ve always wanted a threesome, with a little BDSM in between,” Amiboshi said, blowing a tune to make the Ru bring Chiriko closer to them. “Sex has been a little…bland these days. We need a little excitement.”
With that, Amiboshi got started on blowing his tune. The Ru came alive and coiled up menacingly in front of Chiriko’s face like a King cobra would when it was about to strike. Another tune and the Ru began to slam themselves against Chiriko’s skin, attacking him at every crevice of his body, splattering the blood everywhere. Some got onto the twins’ cheeks and they took turns licking each other clean as they watch with lust and menace at the fast-moving balls did their thing, tearing Chiriko’s skin and pratically shredding him like a shredder would to paper. Chiriko screamed in pain until he could scream no more as the Ru cut, bruised, scraped, slashed, punched and broke every part of the body the balls got in contact with. The little boy genius wondered why no one heard his screams and why no one came in to save him, but in the midst of being pummeled into a pulp, he remembered that his room was built to be soundproof as to avoid any disturbance from both inside and outside, and the only way anyone could hear him was through the intercom that connected his phone and the device outside the door whenever anyone needed to see him, and unfortunately his intercom was turned off and he had given strict instructions to his subordinates that he would not be bothered unless he made the call to do so.
“Why…? Why are…you doing…this…?” Chiriko asked hoarsely as he got another blow to his temple.
“Why? For fun, that’s why,” Suboshi shrugged, speaking as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world.
“Besides, you and your family have been ridiculing us for too long. It’s about time you get your just desserts,” Amiboshi sneered as he licked a drop of blood that was trickling down Chiriko’s chin. “And what better way to do it than to have our way with your body? We can exact our revenge and get to enjoy mind-blowing sex in the process.”
“The sins of the father have to be paid by the blood of the son, dear Chiri,” Suboshi said as he pulled at the rope to bring him even closer so that he could lick off the blood from his forehead. “Ready, ottota dearest?”
“As always, oni-chan love,” Amiboshi giggled in an almost childish tone and reached over to plant a deep, passionate kiss. They let out a passionate lustful sigh as Amiboshi made the Ru carry Chiriko on top of their heads and let his blood drip onto their skin like rain. Again, they took turns licking each other, tearing off each other’s upper body clothing and smearing each other’s fair skin with the metallic smell and liquid of crimson through their wet tongues and their fingers. Watching the twins kiss and lick each other with such fervent vigor of lust and passion as they grind their manhood against each other with only their pants as their barrier was involuntarily arousing Chiriko physically, though his mind was finding it rather offensive as he tried to contradict himself by screwing up his face in disgust.
“Aww, oni-chan,” Amiboshi pouted in a fake cute disappointed tone, “Chiri doesn’t seem to find our brotherly love appealing anymore.”
“Well, we’ll just have to rekindle the flame then, shouldn’t we?” Suboshi said as he gave his twin a knowing smirk.
Amiboshi took that as a cue to bring the Ru that held Chiriko captive down. They settled him on the couch and Amiboshi blew a tune to make the Ru wind their ropes tightly onto the couch legs, holding the poor boy genius down onto the velvet seat, his blood beginning to seep through the covers. Suboshi swayed his hips seductively as he walked up towards the bound Chiriko and started peeling off what was left of Chiriko’s torn and tattered clothing, baring his naked, bloody body for all the world to see.
“I’ll…I’ll have you…locked up for this…” Chiriko breathed as the last piece of clothing was removed.
“Go ahead and try,” Suboshi said in a challenging tone. “Go ahead and see whose side are they on. What makes you think we can’t just do you in right here, right now before you could even think of ratting us out?”
“Why…don’t you…?”
“Now that would take out all the fun of it, wouldn’t it?” Amiboshi replied as he straddled the boy. “I mean, what joy can we derive from if we kill you without having the chance to see you suffer and whine as your rich and pathetic life as you know it crumble before your very eyes?”
“Chiri does know that we know own about 90 percent of the shares of every business his own and also almost half of whatever earnings his parents are making right now goes right into our pockets as fees for our services, doesn’t he, ottota, including the rights to every property Chiri owns in every state of Japan?” Suboshi asked in the usual third person way.
“I don’t believe he does, what with him being so obsessed over his darling little Chichiri-chan of his,” Amiboshi said as Suboshi licked his lips, preparing himself to give Chiriko head. “And we pretty much have both his parents at our mercy and almost all of his followers are slowly converting their loyalty towards us. Most of the earnings dear Chiri makes go directly into our pockets without even him knowing it. Who knows the miracle of secret bank accounts and online banking can do? He’s literally working for us as we speak! Isn’t that fun, oni-chan?”
“It sure is, ottota dearest. We’ve come a long way from being the disgrace of the family. Otosan and okasan sure is going to be proud when we present this news on their wedding anniversary next month.”
“Why…? What have…I done…to deserve this…?” Chiriko gasped as he felt a wet and warm sensation engulfing his little cock.
“Why? Why, you say?” Amiboshi gave Chiriko such a glare that if looks could kill, he would’ve died a thousand deaths. He then turned to Suboshi who was giving Chiriko head and put on a mock devastated face. “Oni-chan love, he doesn’t remember what he had done to deserve his punishment. That’s so mean of him!”
“Refresh his memory then,” Suboshi replied before going back to blowing Chiriko.
“With pleasure,” Amiboshi smirked and blew a tune. The balls of the Ru activated immediately and landed blows after blows onto Chiriko’s head while Amiboshi bombarded him with questions in a venomous tone, “Do you remember the day you tore and hid the limbs of my action figure? Do you remember you grabbed my oni-chan’s hair and burnt every tip of it until my oni-chan had to cut it bald and wait for it to grow out while our friends teased him ‘Baldy’ for three months? Do you remember crushing our cake during our 5th birthday? Do you remember you and your group of geeks ganged up on us and you sat there and watched while they molested us? They may not have robbed us of our virginity but it still hurts to let someone other than my beloved oni-chan touch me, and watch as someone else touches my oni-chan other than me! All those things you have done to us and yet you ask what have you done to deserve this?! How dare you forget about all the dastardly deeds you’ve done to us, just because we’re our otosan’s children?! How dare you?!”
So saying, he reached down and pinched hard at one of Chiriko’s nipples while biting down hard on the other with a vengeance, earning a loud scream of agony from the young boy genius. Suboshi had done blowing him and teased the tip with his fingers.
“Look at you, you slut,” Suboshi grinned. “You’re getting hard by this. You really are dirty and scandalous underneath all that genius business-like façade, aren’t you?”
“No…! That’s…That’s not true…!” Chiriko whined as Amiboshi bit the nipple he just pinched and pinched the nipple he just bit, making it a double assault of pain.
“Liar,” Suboshi said, flicking at the erection. “Look at you, you’re dripping with already. I bet if I do something more you’re gonna cum all over yourself, but we’re not going to let you off easy. We’re not satisfied yet.”
The twins soon removed the rest of their own clothing and began to kiss each other with gusto. They kneaded each other’s ass like it was the most touchable thing in the world as they rubbed their manhood against each other, while occasionally either twin would pump Chiriko’s erection or finger-fucked Chiriko’s ass without bothering to prepare him one finger at a time. Chiriko couldn’t stop the unintentional moans and groans from escaping his mouth as he was forced to watch their erotic display and being stimulated at the same time. The Ru dug deeper into his limbs to stop him from struggling, the pain amplifying the pleasure he did not want coming all the way down south to his nether regions, and that sight enticed the twins to making out some more.
“Oni-chan, I can’t take it anymore…” Amiboshi begged, his eyes glazed with lust.
“Well, go ahead, ottota,” Suboshi released his hold from his twin. “He’s all yours.”
The younger twin happily went towards Chiriko and blew a tune to make the Ru loosen its grip on the boy’s ankles. It did, but in a way that it was still linked with the ankles and Amiboshi lifted Chiriko’s legs so that his puckered ass was facing his manhood. He then lined himself onto his opening and with great force, he slammed himself into Chiriko all the way to the hilt, earning a strangled scream from the young boy.
“Oh no, Chiri,” Suboshi said as he turned Chiriko’s face sideways to face his own erection. “You don’t get the pleasure of just lying there getting fucked. You gotta do your part. Suck me well while I fuck your mouth, you little slut.”
A bit of the Ru rope pulled itself into Chiriko’s mouth to gag him so that he couldn’t bite down and, without warning, Suboshi entered himself into Chiriko’s mouth, pounding relentlessly into him. Soon Chiriko found himself both fucked through the ass and the mouth as the twins have their way with him, ramming him again and again. Chiriko almost gagged out of the sheer force of Suboshi’s thrusts and his ass getting sore from Amiboshi slamming him in like a rag doll.
“Oh Kami, oni-chan…he’s so tight…” Amiboshi groaned as he slammed even deeper, barely hitting Chiriko’s sweet spot. Not that he wanted to give him the pleasure of that anyway. “Who would’ve thought…after asking for our payment that day…he’d still be this tight…”
“Yeah, ottota,” Suboshi agreed. “And his mouth…is just so…fuckable…It’s hard to believe…he’s not experienced in this…You should try it…”
“I just might…Oh, shit…he’s really sucking me in…I’m going to cum…!”
Amiboshi let out a groan as he spilled his seed into Chiriko. Suboshi gave a few thrusts and came into Chiriko’s mouth, making the poor boy genius swallow every drop of his juice before pulling out for him to choke and cough. His own erection was throbbed painfully against his stomach, the pre-cum leaking out and staining it. The twins shared a menacing grin and Amiboshi blew a tune to let what’s left of the free Ru rope to coil itself around tight at the hilt of Chiriko’s cock. Chiriko let out a muffled scream of protest and would’ve said something if the ropes weren’t still in his mouth gagging him.
“Come, come now, Chiri,” Amiboshi said. “You can’t be done so quickly. We’ve only just started.”
“Trust me, Chiri,” Suboshi said, “This is only the beginning of our game. Bear with it. You just might end up enjoying it.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)