Puss, Puss-Chp Finale

“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.”