Puss, Puss-Chp3

Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months. Almost a year later, Chichiri grew from a tiny little bubbling midget to a tall and handsome young man, or in his case, cat. He had the look of a young man in his early 20s when really his age is only about 1 1/2 cat years. His hair has grown longer and so did his bangs. Tasuki had always made an effort to tie it up into a nice long ponytail and dress him up as cool as possible using his own clothes so that when everyone sees him, they would be impressed. It's hard to believe that this fair and handsome young man walking beside this feisty redhead would actually be a man-cat. Sometimes you would see Chichiri having piggy-back rides on Tasuki, but Tasuki didn't seem to mind and people would sometimes be amazed to see him able to tolerate Chichiri's weight, but in truth, despite the grown-up look he had, he weight no more than an average grown cat's weight (A/N: Amazing, huh?).

And ever since Chichiri grew up, ours truly Nuriko was getting even more and more attracted to Tasuki. He admired the fact that his 'Tasu-chan' could take care of the man-cat so well and keep him so healthy and in tip-top shape. He would come over to his house with the excuse that he wanted to see his little Chibi Chiri but both the redhead and the blue-haired man-cat knew that his intentions weren't just that simple.

One evening, after another day's hard work and another tiring visit from his transvestite landlord Nuriko, Tasuki went a little balistic. He ranted and raved and punched at his sofas angrily, cursing and swearing real bad. Even Chichiri, who loved to stick around with him, cowered away in fright.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Kuso! I really, really hate that Nuriko! Why can't he just leave me alone already! I've already told him before that I don't like him, but does he listen? NO! He had to come over and over again to see me and if I deny him, he'll throw me all the way to Hokkaido!"

Chichiri stared pitifully at his master and braved himself to inch closer towards Tasuki. As soon as he saw Tasuki trying to catch his breath and not trashing about like mad, he laid his hands on his thigh and purred. Tasuki took one look at Chichiri's smiley eyes and soon calmed down. He heaved a huge sigh and tickled Chichiri's throat and said, "Sorry if I scared you or anything. It's just so frustrating when someone you just don’t like constantly bugs you, you know. How would you feel if there's someone who you don't like, and is not a real woman for the fact, comes to your house everyday and bugs you like there's no tomorrow? You wouldn't like it now, would you?"

Chichiri purred and shook his head.

"See, even you wouldn't like it now, would you? I just wish that he could just find someone who he could glob all over and leave me alone..."

Chichiri stared at him for a while, purring. Tasuki seemed rather frustrated, maybe tired. He couldn't blame him. He had a hard day's work at the construction site and he had to endure Nuriko's obsessive attitude towards him. Chichiri reached up and laid Tasuki's head on the armrest of the sofa and purred, licking his cheek. He stayed there and watched as Tasuki slowly fall into a deep sleep before sneaking out of the window of his bedroom and climbed onto the balcony stairs. His body may have kind of outgrown the window gap but he was still a half-cat, and he can still squeeze into cramped places like one. He pawed around, checking out the neighbourhood like he always did every night.

He started with the ground floor. There are about 4 accommodations for every floor, and there are about 15 floors in this apartment. Nuriko definitely took really good consideration for safety issues because all windows of the bedroom windows were equipped with the fire escape stairs situated at the balcony. Chichiri knew almost all the names of the residents in this apartment since he stayed in Rekka-Shin Apartment and knew all their habits through his night spying. At ground floor there were the Matsumoto family who were right now having a nice family dinner together talking about their day's event—typical one big happy family—and the college dropout who's lounging on the couch in front of the TV doing God knows whatever he's doing.

Then there was this Miko lady and her boyfriend Tensuo in the first floor. They were both ballet dancer and he likes to see them practice every night. They were heading for the states champion and really worked hard for their goal. After that there was little boy Makura and his big brother Shou under the same first floor. They were both brothers born from different fathers. They were bastard children and through Chichiri's observation, Shou was dumped by his mother at his aunt's house and disappeared until he received news when he about 16 years old that his mother died of a viral infection, leaving him to take care of Makura. Their relationship still aren't too good but there's still time to patch things up. After all, they are half of their mother's.

On the second floor, there's university boy Kai who became mute because of an accident that ruined his voice box. He had a gal pal who loves to pop by and visit. If Chichiri weren't mistaken, her name was Reika. She was very pretty and it was obvious that Kai liked her. Kai saw Chichiri peeping in and smiled; he was used to his visits. He fed him some tidbits and continued writing in his diary. Chichiri stole a glimpse and could tell from Kai's face that something bad had happened between him and Reika. On the table was a frame ready to be wrapped and in it was a butterfly collection. Maybe it was for Reika. He heard her on one of her visits that she was going to have her birthday party 3 months later. Then Chichiri moved on to a place where the famous fashion designer Raichu. Her story was that she pretty much was dating the wrong kind of guy who didn't like her profession and had met someone new who appreciated her works, yet was younger than him, and was her boyfriend's college student. Now she was torn between choosing the student or her boyfriend. After that he moved over to another home and saw husband and wife Mr. & Mrs. Bunzaemon. Mrs. Bunzaemon cared for her husband more than her own career, which was why she quit her job and became a full-time housewife to look after her husband who had recently been diagnosed with bone cancer. Though she had no idea that her husband had hidden a will in his secret drawer that entitled every of his property to her. Chichiri was a good listener and only he Mr. Bunzaemon told him his secret. Finally there's Rinnie, an exchange student from Malaysia who's in a relationship with her classmate Jim Suzuki. Problem is Jim was a motorbike speed racer and she wasn't the kind that is up for speed. Things are getting a bit worse when Jim was obsessed with a black bike rider who often want to challenge him to speed but never got the chance because the guy always got away. Rinnie was now attempting to learn biking and pose as the black rider to satisfy his obsession. Chichiri wasn't sure whether it was the right idea or not. She might get herself killed doing this, but he had no part of this. He was just an observer.

On the third floor, there was Michitsu a.k.a. Daimonji, Kamatsu, Andou and Watanabe with her boyfriend Alias Tsukino (a half-American). Michitsu leads a double life—as one of the lead singers in a boy band called 'Secret X' and a student at Tankou University, the same as Kai. He's known as Daimonji in the group and he and his gang had been very famous, making their mark in the entertainment business and the hearts of millions in the world. Yet he still prioritised his education, so he continued to study under his real name Michitsu, using a disguise. He still hadn't had the guts to tell his childhood girlfriend Keiko the truth about his double life though, coz she was a great fan of 'Daimonji' in the Secret X boy band and didn't want to ruin her fantasies. Kamatsu has a problem with his speech (he stutters quite badly) but he’s very good in writing his words. He always wanted to perfect his writing to make up for his bad stutters. He recently is having a crush with a girl whom he never knew her name in the same tuition class. He had written many love letters—304 letter altogether to be exact—to try to express his love for her but never had the courage to give it to her, afraid that his stutter would make her reject him. Andou also has a crush on his old college mate Junko whom they met every fortnight since their graduation. But his way of handling his emotions was like Helga in Hey Arnold. He argues a lot with her and refuses to acknowledge anything good about her. And he always liked to act tough about it. Junko still continued to treat him just like any other good college mate would treat their friends, but Andou was still keeping all the feelings inside him. Watanabe was someone who survived a suicide attempt by Alias due to a failed relationship. And they both became best of friends because Alias helped Watanabe with her relationship. Somehow, the help kinda retaliated and they soon found that they're unable to forget each other. Soon their love became official and Watanabe moved in with Alias.

There were only 2 people living in the fourth floor. Maybe because the number 4 was an unlucky number for the Asians and they were the only ones not superstitious about it. Matsuo lived alone, a fresh graduate from university who just started working. He seemed bored of his repetitive life and all he wanted was a change. Chichiri thought that maybe he needed a girlfriend. Hotohori the businessman also lived there alone and was making his way up to a promotion. He was quite rich in a way, but he decided to save more, maybe enough from his promo job to move out and live in a condo or a bungalow. No one lived in the fifth floor due to a rumour that someone committed suicide at that floor. Nuriko waved away that rumour but placed some incantation papers just in case and gave offerings during the so-called rumoured date of death. So far, nothing scary happened, except the occasional sound of footsteps and whispered voice heard to those who dared to venture there. On the sixth floor, lived Tasuki (who is still sleeping on the sofa), Nuriko (tying his hair in braids) and another guy. He looked American and dressed American, but he spoke fluent Japanese. He was known as Albert Kay and not much people know about his background, but only Chichiri knew his secret: he was the youngest secret agent working for the CIA back in his country trying to look for the missing daughter of a very important ambassador from Ukraine. The peace negotiation between his country and Ukraine depends on the finding of the daughter and he had to find her before Ukraine starts pointing fingers at his country. He sometimes get into a bit of stress because of that but Chichiri was there to listen to his troubles because he knew he wouldn't snitch. That night he was fed tidbits again and was told that he's now getting warmer on the trail for the daughter. He even showed him a photo of her. Quite pretty.

On the seventh floor, lived the Hayai family with husband Kaito, wife Aneki and son Anduki. They were having a family dinner like the Matsumoto-s and from what Chichiri heard in the past during Kaito's story-telling to his son, Kaito was a son of an underground mafia and a walking target for all other rival mafias, and Aneki was his personal bodyguard. He didn't like it at first because she was a girl, but after much time together, Kaito realized Aneki's potential and had fallen in love with her. She had rejected him before but after Kaito saved her from being killed when being attacked by a neighbouring mafia group, she quit her job and lived in seclusion with him in this apartment and finally got married. Then there were four men Ichigo, Dakaru, Wakou and Barasui, and a boy Chiihara living under the same home at the same floor. The men worked under the same confectionery store called Kaoru's Cake House and all of them were committed except Wakou—Ichigo with a girl called Lalaru who going under rehab for an eating disorder; Dakaru with Juyuke who used to hate him because he looked like her ex-boyfriend Benny when she was studying overseas, but finally gotten over the heartbreak; and Barasui with his childhood friend Aimo who came back to look for him after long years of separation. Barasui was ugly once, but after a car accident that required facial reconstruction, he became quite good-looking and Aimo almost didn't recognized him until she heard him play the violin. Wakou adopted Chiihara when he found him hurt and abandoned at a nearby street. He soon heard that his mother had died during the birth and his father refused to acknowledge him when he found him. He beat him so bad that Wakou had to take him to the hospital and took care of him ever since. After all officials gone through, Wakou officially became Chiihara's father. Rumour has it he could be gay, which is why he never had a girlfriend.

Sakura, Wakou's sister, lived with her midget boyfriend Anta (A/N: Not Anta from Slam Dunk, OK?) on the eighth floor. Anta was born a midget and when they first met, he was about 20cm apart from her height and more girly than he should be, coz he was born and raised in a house with a mother and full of sisters (he's now 10cm apart). Sakura was the tom between them and had studied bakery in Italy and came back to look for him and confess her love to him. Anta had always had a crush on her and when she asked if he would like to stay with her while she earn her keep in her brother's cake house before getting a cuisine job at any prestigious hotels, he readily agreed. Seemed like only Wakou didn't approve their relationship though. Next to them was Shizuka who had a very special boyfriend—Jing who had a split personality disorder. He's very nice and very sweet to her but whenever it rains, he becomes a different Jing: the Jing who's bad-tempered and always having issues. Wasn't easy to have a weird boyfriend but she loved both Jing-s all the same. Next to her was Cherry and Mike, both migrated from Florida to live in Japan to forget the sad tragedy of Mike's brother Gary committing suicide after getting an incurable brain cancer. He came home to say goodbye to them, then jumped off from their 10-floored apartment.

On the ninth floor, Poke is currently having a relationship with basketball player Meioh in Chiba High, a typical government high school just a couple of blocks away from Shohoku High (A/N: Now this is from Slam Dunk:p). Nothing special about their story, Chichiri assumed. Just some typical "come up to you and confess" kind of style. Then there's Ran and Sukito at the next door. Chichiri had differentiating them at first because Sukito looks more like a girl and Ran looks more like a guy than they should be, when Ran was supposed to be the girlfriend and Sukito was supposed to be the boyfriend. Makes life interesting, though. Next to them was Joey Guritsa who was a famous writer. Chichiri had popped by to listen to his woes and found out that in his teenage years he once fell in love with a vampire named Isabelle, but she decided to turn her back against her nature and not suck blood, just so he wouldn't die and become a vampire like her. In the end, she just disappeared in thin air. His loss gave him the gift of writing and soon his works became the best seller in the literary field, yet he continued to believe that one day Isabelle would return to him. Kyouko lived next to him and she had a secret bodyguard—a ninja—protecting her sent by her father because of his line of work. Chichiri never found out about her father's work, but it sure spelled something big and important. He had to look hard to spot the ninja Shouji who was good at hiding behind the shadows. He looked like someone from Naruto though. Chichiri thought it best not to be too curious about this ninja.

Shen and Pinna lived on the tenth floor. They had been through a lot of trials and errors because Shen was actually 2 years younger than Pinna, and her family and friends from her circle had certain discrimination about having younger boyfriends, but they finally pulled through and are ready to get engaged. Dr. Chiba and Lupa lived next to them. Lupa was an accident-prone and often visited his clinic to get bandaged and band-aided because of fights. Dr. Chiba had a girlfriend before, but got dumped when she found out that he was actually in love with Lupa, and the feeling was mutual. Kyoto lived alone on the eleventh floor. It seemed like he was the only one on that floor and seemed to have issues with couples. Chichiri lent him an ear and found out that he was grieving for his girlfriend who committed suicide 6 years ago. They broke up due to the fact that his girlfriend hadn't fully torn away from her ex and she did the unthinkable. Kyoto had been beating himself up ever since. Mother and daughter Yume and Yumi lived on the twelfth floor. Yume divorced her husband over an affair and Yumi hated her for tearing the family apart. They weren't in speaking terms and things didn't seem too good between them. Situations worsen off especially when Yume is a teacher in the same school Yumi was studying. Chichiri had heard both sides of their story and noticed that both wanted to patch up, only they're too stubborn to talk about it face to face. Yukito lived next to them and seemed to have a crush on Kyoto on eleventh floor. She knew about his past but she couldn't figure out how to get him out of his grieving mind and into reality, and also relieve him of his pain.

No one else lived on the thirteenth floor (coz it's an unlucky number too) and the fifteenth floor (coz it's too high), but on the fourteenth floor, lived a group of teenagers under one roof and a married couple next to them. Another doctor lived next to them and another well-to-do family lived beside him. The group of teenagers was namely Hiroshi, Kyoko, Makoto, Katsuya and Miki. All of them studied under the same private high school across town and lived under the same roof to save cost. Hiroshi and Kyoko were a couple and are going steady, planning to get married after college. Katsuya has a crush on Miki and became a willing slave for her, and Miki refused to admit that she, too, had the hicks for Katsuya, treating him like a servant, a dog, a useless fool to hide it. Another Helga-like character. Makoto, on the other hand, has a crush on the well-to-do family's daughter Ai-chan, but wasn't sure if she liked him back because he wasn't as rich as her and he was a born midget, like Anta. If only Chichiri could tell them that Ai felt the exact same way for him too. The man of married couple next door was their high school teacher named Nueno Meizuke a.k.a. Nube because of his thick eyebrows. His wife Yukime works in a ice-skating rink centre. Her body contracted some sort of a genetic disorder that she cannot be exposed to heat and sunlight for too long or she will get very, very bad rashes. The doctor next door was Tamamo Kyozuke, a cousin 4 times removed from Nube's father's side who works across town in a respectable hospital. He's a little cold and distant (more like half of Severus Snape from Harry Potter) and he's gay. He secretly has a small crush on Nube and was a little jealous when he married Yukime, which is why he moved into the apartment to keep an eye on him.

After doing his usual rounds and getting stuffed with tasty tidbits from all the occupants of Rekka-Shin Apartment, he went back down on the way to Tasuki's bedroom. Tasuki was already awake and watching TV. Chichiri had to pass by Nuriko's home to get to his home and he saw him with Hotohori. Hotohori was there to pay the rent and were standing there chitchatting about simple stuff. Chichiri suddenly noticed something in Hotohori's eyes that seemed like those he saw in TV. It seemed rather familiar, like some sort of feeling Tasuki taught him about. He just couldn't put his mind to it.

Suddenly, Chichiri had an idea. He ran quickly all the way to Tasuki's room through the window gap and rummaged through the books that were under Tasuki's bed. Soon he found it: a photo album of the days in Rekka-Shin Apartment. Tasuki has a habit of taking pictures of everyday life whenever he lived in a new place (so occasionally you would see him with a camera round his neck), and he had an album for every place. Chichiri brought the album to Tasuki and purred.

"Hey, Chichiri. Been out spying at people again?" Tasuki smiled as he stroked Chichiri's blue hair. Then he noticed the album in his mouth. "What's this? Hey, it's the album when I'm living here!"
He opened the album and looked through all the pictures. Chichiri joined in and Tasuki explained to him one by one.

"Ah, this is when I first moved in, and this is where I had my house-warming party with all the residents. This is that darn sicko Nuriko and this is when Nuriko sponsored the entire Rekka-Shin Apartment residents to a barbecue at the beach after winning a lottery. That bugger held me so tight my arm almost broke. Hey, that's the rich businessman Hotohori beside him. He was the one to introduce me to work under construction. Why did you want to see this picture album anyways? It's not entirely done yet."

Unknown to his master, Chichiri had a plan ahead.