April 20XX
The school bazaar has finally arrived and we were really hyped about the plans of how to create the greatest bazaar ever. Our class decided to create a haunted house, but was met with utmost objection by our headmistress, along with other classes who had plans on creating game booths. She, of all people to become our headmistress, was born and raised in a Catholic family and taught in a Catholic school, was very conservative. She said something about game booths promoting gambling and haunted houses is bad for karma or something, like inviting 'unwanted guests'.
Needless to say, we were furious. We thought that her assumptions were crazy. What would a bazaar be without games and attractions? It's not all about selling food and drinks, you know. We were all out protesting, literally going out in front of the Headmistress's office and holding protest banners and all. I guess our teachers were so impressed by our passion to build our game booths and haunted house that they managed to persuade and convince their superiors that a little fun and game wouldn't hurt. All in all, the majority always wins. Our protest was a success and our plans were on the way.
We spent days to prepare for this. Everyone was assigned to a job in either being a ghost or a tour guide. Even friends from other classes who had nothing to do offered their help on creating our haunted house. We selected the old one-storey school building behind our new one as our haunted house destination. We were a little apprehensive about choosing that place because there were rumours saying that that old building itself is haunted due to neglect and misuse (it’s been standing there waiting to be demolished for goodness knows how long), but we were too enthusiastic about the bazaar to consider such petty nonsense. We got the dry grass and coconut leaves for the musty cemetery smell; cardboards and dark curtains from the science lab to darken the rooms and the tables and chairs propped up to make a maze out of it. We even designed posters and banners to be stuck all over school, drawn by yours truly, and made costumes for those playing the role of the ghosts. I had my own attire; I played the mad killer from 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' and all I need to wear was a windbreaker with a hood and fashion a hook out of a clothes hanger.
I can’t help it; I hate make-up.
Finally the day arrived. During the bazaar, our haunted house was a blast. There was a long line from the science lab all the way to our booth even before we had a chance to get started. My first shift was being the tour guide and as I led the petrified guests through the dark, eerie haunted house, I had to admit that I was rather scared myself. I kept warning that the tour guide is in front and not to scare the wrong person. I came across someone who was dressed in green with her wet-dog look and green slime all over her body and was rather impressed at how good the make-up she did on herself. She must've put a lot of effort to make it so realistic. I greeted her and continued my shift. When my shift came to be the ghost, I had my share of being yelled at, being slapped, bonked on the head, kicked, stepped on and goodness knows what sort of pain people can inflict on you when they're scared. Again, I saw the green girl occasionally appearing at the first and second room scaring the wits out of everyone. I waved and greeted her anytime I see her and wondered which class was she from, because she definitely wasn't one of my classmates or any other friend I know from other classes.
We had a great 2-day bazaar weekend. Our haunted house was a big hit. We were the best selling booth throughout the entire school and we really didn't want it to end. But all good things must come to an end somehow. On Monday, we started discussing excitedly about our best bazaar ever when one of my customers, who is also my friend, approached me and said, "Man, your haunted house was the bomb! You so gotta do this next year!"
"Thanks," I replied. "So, was I scary or what? You were screaming your head off when I approached you."
"Oh, I wasn't frightened by you. Your character was old school. I was scared by someone else behind you. You know, very tall and all black until I can't see the face. Oh, and who's the girl in green? Man, she's the hit of your haunted house! I must congratulate her in person!"
My skin crawled at the mention of something tall and dark behind my back. Everyone swore no one played the role of the girl in green. No one from other classes either played that role. They claimed to have seen her but no one knew who she really was. That's when we all realized how true our Headmistress said about inviting 'unwanted guests'. Turned out that by creating such a life-like haunted house, we actually created an atmosphere for the 'unwanted guests' to live in and wander around being seen. The reason we weren't harmed was because 'they' thought we were one of 'them'. Many have seen other out-worldly stuff from our haunted house before and after the bazaar. Even people living in hostels of our neighbouring school claimed to have seen something white floating around inside our haunted house during the two day bazaar and the last person who saw it caught an almost fatal fever a few hours later. We realized that the girl in green could probably be one of the ‘others’ residing inside the old school building.
We were scared for a while and were glad we weren't harmed by any of those 'unwanted guests', and we learnt a valuable lesson on tampering with the spirit world. Although I am curious as to what the real identity of the girl in green really is.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The Monthly Journal of Stephannie Kingston-Chp3
March 20XX
An exchange student came to our class this month. We found her sitting at the empty seat beside mine and she greeted everyone warmly with a very nice smile on her face. She was Japanese and her name was Kyoko, if I'm not mistaken. She could only speak Japanese and not a single word of English, so I guess I clicked with her really well, since I have been taking Japanese classes and am a big fan of anime. I had to be her translator whenever others wanted to talk to her, so that made me quite popular as well.
Her impression on me was a nice, quiet girl with a sort of dark, mysterious aura about her, like there's something going on in her mind that you really want to find out yet couldn't reach, no matter how you try. She was always the earliest to come to class and always the latest to leave. Many times I wanted to walk with her to her home, but she always shook her head and said that she had other things to do and told me not to wait for her. Most of the time, she just sat there quietly at her seat, listening to everything the teacher taught at the blackboard and would politely give me her sweet smile once in a while whenever she caught me staring at her. The teacher seemed to be at ease with her around and doesn’t really acknowledge her much, and treated the class just like any other class in school. I suppose it’s because her lack of English speech capacity that the teachers never called her to answer questions or read from the text, and no one else seemed to mind singling her out.
I still maintained as the closest friend—her only friend, in fact—and we find ourselves spending a lot of time together. We ate lunch together at my favourite spot under the tree when I was the one who always give her my share of the lunch (she never seem to eat anything), and be her translator whenever the situation requires it. She was not an active person in sports, but she was an avid supporter whenever we have PE as she sat beside to cheer us on. In other words, we were the best of friends.
One day before her exchange student program ended, she decided to have a camp party at school to thank us who had been nice to her and show us how school tradition was in her country. She came up with a theme called “Hyaku Monogatari” or “100th Ghost Story Camp Party” and invited the entire class to join in. She even encouraged us to bring relatives and friends along to the party so that our numbers add up to 100. We were required to bring a candle each and have our camp party in the school hall where it can accommodate everyone in it and warned us not to let the teachers know about it. Rebellious as we were, we promised to do everything she requested. That night, we were all there with our candles, sleeping bags and tidbits, anxious to start off the camp party. After having a tidbit feast and toasting to Kyoko’s safe journey back to Japan, we started with our theme.
Kyoko told us that in Japan, this was a taboo camp party where 100 people gather around in a dark room with only a candle each and tell each other their personal ghostly experience, and every time a person finishes his or her story, he or she must blow out their candle and this goes on until the last candle is blown. When we asked why was it taboo, Kyoko only gave us that mysterious smile and replied, "You'll see."
So we went along the game. I told about the story of my experience in the Borneo hotel and some told the tallest yet scariest tales I've ever heard. Some weren't even credible and some were just outrageously impossible and some weren't even sure that it was a real personal experience or not, but we didn't care. We had fun scaring each other silly and that counts for everything. The hall grew darker and darker as the candles continued to decrease. Finally, only one candle was left and we couldn't see each other's faces. The last person with the lit candle told a tale so scary and so horrifying that it would be better if I'm not reminded of it by telling you about it. Something to do about dismemberment and stuff.
After the person finished the tale and blew out the candle, one of us went to search for the hall lights. We were relieved when the hall was bright and less eerie again. We tried to find out who was the last person telling that horrifying tale but no one admitted telling it. That was when I realized Kyoko was gone. She wasn't around except her blown candle. I tried to look for her in vain, until something told me to go look out the window. I did just that, and soon saw Kyoko walking towards the school gate, but not before looking up towards me and waved goodbye. When she turned around, I thought I saw puncture wounds all over her back and blood all over her clothes! As I watched her step out of the school gate, one of my friends approached me and asked, "Hey, Steph. What are you looking at?"
"Kyoko," I replied. "She's right there, walking out of the school gate. She's leaving us."
"I don't see anyone."
I can tell you, the hairs at the back of my neck shot up like it was ten degrees below zero in that hall. The next day, our teacher came in the room and announced that the exchange student would not make it to our class because her car was being hijacked by a runaway robber and she was shot to death when she tried to escape and call for help on the day she was supposed to fly down here and report to our school. When my class monitor exclaimed that she was already here for almost half a month and had just left today, our teacher said that it was impossible because the day she was supposed to start her exchange student program was today.
"But, miss, did you not see her hanging with Kingston? Did you not see us talking to Kyoko? She was sitting at the seat just right beside her. You must've seen her!"
"I assumed that you were just talking to Ms. Kingston. Honestly, that seat beside Ms. Kingston had been empty even before she came. And how did you know her name was Kyoko?"
Needless to say, the entire class started to scream and made a run for the door, much to the surprise of my teacher. I didn't do anything though. I just sat there and watched as the teacher tried to calm down this sudden mass hysteria. I somehow knew what was going on and was prepared for the worst. It still bugs me though as to how Kyoko's spirit managed to travel ahead of time to half a month before her supposed program date to be with us, and to leave us such a parting gift nonetheless.
An exchange student came to our class this month. We found her sitting at the empty seat beside mine and she greeted everyone warmly with a very nice smile on her face. She was Japanese and her name was Kyoko, if I'm not mistaken. She could only speak Japanese and not a single word of English, so I guess I clicked with her really well, since I have been taking Japanese classes and am a big fan of anime. I had to be her translator whenever others wanted to talk to her, so that made me quite popular as well.
Her impression on me was a nice, quiet girl with a sort of dark, mysterious aura about her, like there's something going on in her mind that you really want to find out yet couldn't reach, no matter how you try. She was always the earliest to come to class and always the latest to leave. Many times I wanted to walk with her to her home, but she always shook her head and said that she had other things to do and told me not to wait for her. Most of the time, she just sat there quietly at her seat, listening to everything the teacher taught at the blackboard and would politely give me her sweet smile once in a while whenever she caught me staring at her. The teacher seemed to be at ease with her around and doesn’t really acknowledge her much, and treated the class just like any other class in school. I suppose it’s because her lack of English speech capacity that the teachers never called her to answer questions or read from the text, and no one else seemed to mind singling her out.
I still maintained as the closest friend—her only friend, in fact—and we find ourselves spending a lot of time together. We ate lunch together at my favourite spot under the tree when I was the one who always give her my share of the lunch (she never seem to eat anything), and be her translator whenever the situation requires it. She was not an active person in sports, but she was an avid supporter whenever we have PE as she sat beside to cheer us on. In other words, we were the best of friends.
One day before her exchange student program ended, she decided to have a camp party at school to thank us who had been nice to her and show us how school tradition was in her country. She came up with a theme called “Hyaku Monogatari” or “100th Ghost Story Camp Party” and invited the entire class to join in. She even encouraged us to bring relatives and friends along to the party so that our numbers add up to 100. We were required to bring a candle each and have our camp party in the school hall where it can accommodate everyone in it and warned us not to let the teachers know about it. Rebellious as we were, we promised to do everything she requested. That night, we were all there with our candles, sleeping bags and tidbits, anxious to start off the camp party. After having a tidbit feast and toasting to Kyoko’s safe journey back to Japan, we started with our theme.
Kyoko told us that in Japan, this was a taboo camp party where 100 people gather around in a dark room with only a candle each and tell each other their personal ghostly experience, and every time a person finishes his or her story, he or she must blow out their candle and this goes on until the last candle is blown. When we asked why was it taboo, Kyoko only gave us that mysterious smile and replied, "You'll see."
So we went along the game. I told about the story of my experience in the Borneo hotel and some told the tallest yet scariest tales I've ever heard. Some weren't even credible and some were just outrageously impossible and some weren't even sure that it was a real personal experience or not, but we didn't care. We had fun scaring each other silly and that counts for everything. The hall grew darker and darker as the candles continued to decrease. Finally, only one candle was left and we couldn't see each other's faces. The last person with the lit candle told a tale so scary and so horrifying that it would be better if I'm not reminded of it by telling you about it. Something to do about dismemberment and stuff.
After the person finished the tale and blew out the candle, one of us went to search for the hall lights. We were relieved when the hall was bright and less eerie again. We tried to find out who was the last person telling that horrifying tale but no one admitted telling it. That was when I realized Kyoko was gone. She wasn't around except her blown candle. I tried to look for her in vain, until something told me to go look out the window. I did just that, and soon saw Kyoko walking towards the school gate, but not before looking up towards me and waved goodbye. When she turned around, I thought I saw puncture wounds all over her back and blood all over her clothes! As I watched her step out of the school gate, one of my friends approached me and asked, "Hey, Steph. What are you looking at?"
"Kyoko," I replied. "She's right there, walking out of the school gate. She's leaving us."
"I don't see anyone."
I can tell you, the hairs at the back of my neck shot up like it was ten degrees below zero in that hall. The next day, our teacher came in the room and announced that the exchange student would not make it to our class because her car was being hijacked by a runaway robber and she was shot to death when she tried to escape and call for help on the day she was supposed to fly down here and report to our school. When my class monitor exclaimed that she was already here for almost half a month and had just left today, our teacher said that it was impossible because the day she was supposed to start her exchange student program was today.
"But, miss, did you not see her hanging with Kingston? Did you not see us talking to Kyoko? She was sitting at the seat just right beside her. You must've seen her!"
"I assumed that you were just talking to Ms. Kingston. Honestly, that seat beside Ms. Kingston had been empty even before she came. And how did you know her name was Kyoko?"
Needless to say, the entire class started to scream and made a run for the door, much to the surprise of my teacher. I didn't do anything though. I just sat there and watched as the teacher tried to calm down this sudden mass hysteria. I somehow knew what was going on and was prepared for the worst. It still bugs me though as to how Kyoko's spirit managed to travel ahead of time to half a month before her supposed program date to be with us, and to leave us such a parting gift nonetheless.
The Monthly Journal of Stephannie Kingston-Chp2
February 20XX
My parents had to go overseas on a business trip, and my brothers are out of town with their girlfriends doing goodness knows what (not that I wanna know), so they let me stay at my boyfriend’s place, since according to their standards, I was “too young” to have the house all to myself. During Valentine’s Day, he and his family planned to go on a holiday at one of Borneo’s most popular resort hotels called the Rasa Ria Hotel. Pretty good, if you ask me, with the usual facilities and special services, and I have to admit I did have a good time despite the fact that my boyfriend and I lack a little privacy due to the fact that his miser of a father wanted to save costs by cramming all of us in one room.
Later that night, when the adults decided to have their nightly happy hour at the karaoke lounge, we were left in the room to have our own fun. We, devoid of booze—no thanks to his mother—challenged each other to a coffee fest, seeing who could drink the most coffee at one sitting—black without sugar, in fact. Needless to say, my caffeine-induced brain refused to fall asleep, even when the adults have returned and were snoring quietly on their King-sized bed. I'm not really that immune to coffee and it came as a package deal: insomnia and a nasty headache.
I got up to see if I could get any ice to ease my headache but we ran out of it. Seeing that no one stirred from their sleep, I stole the card key from my boyfriend’s mother’s wallet, took the thermos bucket and crept silently out of the room. There was an ice-vending machine just two floors below ours and I was thinking maybe I could get some ice there and maybe even try to dunk my head into the machine to see if that'll cure my headache, which is, of course, an absurd thing to do. As I reached that floor, I was glad to see the machine just right down the corridor and still on and working. I put the thermos bucket there and waited for it to fill up. I even grabbed a handful and rubbed the cooling ice onto my throbbing head. Ah, bliss.
That was when something really eerie happened. From the right side of the corridor, I heard a distant sound. At first I thought it was probably one of the workers pushing their trolley or something, but it didn't sound like that. It was more of a dragging of something heavy, like the sound of someone moving on the floor with only his arms, dragging along his immobile lower half of the body. The sound was getting closer and closer until I could almost feel it coming towards me. The machine was still filling my thermos bucket and I was panicking. I urged inwardly for the machine to hurry up before I grabbed the bucket and made a dash towards the lift. I pressed frantically as the dragging sound came nearer and nearer. I tentatively looked towards the direction of the sound but there was no one there, yet the sound continued to grow louder and closer to me. I could almost feel it next to me and closing in even nearer.
I practically jumped into the lift when the door slid open. I pressed my floor and slammed the close button as hard as I could. The door started to close for a while, then stopped abruptly in the middle and opened wide again. It stayed open for about a full 5 minutes (which felt like an eternity to me) before closing back again. That really freaked me out because even though I still couldn't see anything, I knew something was in there with me. There was something unsettling in that lift as it sent me up to my floor, as if it was trying to suffocate me with its presence. I went into a verge of hyperventilating when I heard slightly audible sounds of dripping water and heavy breathing surrounded me inside the lift. What's worse, the heavy breathing was just right by both of my ears!
It felt like forever when the lift finally reached my floor. I dashed out of it as fast as I could and ran straight to my room without looking back. Needless to say, I woke everyone up when I slammed the door shut behind me and my headache was gone almost in an instant. My boyfriend saw my ashen face and asked in concern what just happened, but no matter how I try, I just couldn't get whatever I saw into words. I guess the shock took over my speech capacity and I was at loss of words. He thought I must've been harassed by some crazy pervert for the next day, he lodged a complaint to the manager. It was later that I found out when my friend experienced the same thing that there had been a fatal accident or some kind in the past at that particular floor when someone fell and broke both his legs and died due to loss of blood when he was trying to get help.
I guess he didn't know he had already died and continued to ask for our help in vain.
My parents had to go overseas on a business trip, and my brothers are out of town with their girlfriends doing goodness knows what (not that I wanna know), so they let me stay at my boyfriend’s place, since according to their standards, I was “too young” to have the house all to myself. During Valentine’s Day, he and his family planned to go on a holiday at one of Borneo’s most popular resort hotels called the Rasa Ria Hotel. Pretty good, if you ask me, with the usual facilities and special services, and I have to admit I did have a good time despite the fact that my boyfriend and I lack a little privacy due to the fact that his miser of a father wanted to save costs by cramming all of us in one room.
Later that night, when the adults decided to have their nightly happy hour at the karaoke lounge, we were left in the room to have our own fun. We, devoid of booze—no thanks to his mother—challenged each other to a coffee fest, seeing who could drink the most coffee at one sitting—black without sugar, in fact. Needless to say, my caffeine-induced brain refused to fall asleep, even when the adults have returned and were snoring quietly on their King-sized bed. I'm not really that immune to coffee and it came as a package deal: insomnia and a nasty headache.
I got up to see if I could get any ice to ease my headache but we ran out of it. Seeing that no one stirred from their sleep, I stole the card key from my boyfriend’s mother’s wallet, took the thermos bucket and crept silently out of the room. There was an ice-vending machine just two floors below ours and I was thinking maybe I could get some ice there and maybe even try to dunk my head into the machine to see if that'll cure my headache, which is, of course, an absurd thing to do. As I reached that floor, I was glad to see the machine just right down the corridor and still on and working. I put the thermos bucket there and waited for it to fill up. I even grabbed a handful and rubbed the cooling ice onto my throbbing head. Ah, bliss.
That was when something really eerie happened. From the right side of the corridor, I heard a distant sound. At first I thought it was probably one of the workers pushing their trolley or something, but it didn't sound like that. It was more of a dragging of something heavy, like the sound of someone moving on the floor with only his arms, dragging along his immobile lower half of the body. The sound was getting closer and closer until I could almost feel it coming towards me. The machine was still filling my thermos bucket and I was panicking. I urged inwardly for the machine to hurry up before I grabbed the bucket and made a dash towards the lift. I pressed frantically as the dragging sound came nearer and nearer. I tentatively looked towards the direction of the sound but there was no one there, yet the sound continued to grow louder and closer to me. I could almost feel it next to me and closing in even nearer.
I practically jumped into the lift when the door slid open. I pressed my floor and slammed the close button as hard as I could. The door started to close for a while, then stopped abruptly in the middle and opened wide again. It stayed open for about a full 5 minutes (which felt like an eternity to me) before closing back again. That really freaked me out because even though I still couldn't see anything, I knew something was in there with me. There was something unsettling in that lift as it sent me up to my floor, as if it was trying to suffocate me with its presence. I went into a verge of hyperventilating when I heard slightly audible sounds of dripping water and heavy breathing surrounded me inside the lift. What's worse, the heavy breathing was just right by both of my ears!
It felt like forever when the lift finally reached my floor. I dashed out of it as fast as I could and ran straight to my room without looking back. Needless to say, I woke everyone up when I slammed the door shut behind me and my headache was gone almost in an instant. My boyfriend saw my ashen face and asked in concern what just happened, but no matter how I try, I just couldn't get whatever I saw into words. I guess the shock took over my speech capacity and I was at loss of words. He thought I must've been harassed by some crazy pervert for the next day, he lodged a complaint to the manager. It was later that I found out when my friend experienced the same thing that there had been a fatal accident or some kind in the past at that particular floor when someone fell and broke both his legs and died due to loss of blood when he was trying to get help.
I guess he didn't know he had already died and continued to ask for our help in vain.
The Monthly Journal of Stephannie Kingston-Chp1
Started: 09-26-07 Completed: 09-30-07
THE MONTHLY JOURNAL OF STEPHANNIE KINGSTON
People say I have problems. My parents say I got problems. My brothers say I got problems. My boyfriend says I got problems. My shrink says I got problems. Even my dog thinks I got problems.
My cousin thought it’d be good if I wrote whatever is bothering me in a monthly journal. Just jot down everything that had happened to me throughout the entire month. I thought I’d give it a try.
You see, I have a tendency to have supernatural encounters. Supernatural stuff often happen around me since I was a kid, but no one ever believes my stories, and that’s where all that “Steph, you got problems” came in. Just this month alone, we started a trend on playing Ouija and our class trend setter Abigail was of no exception. She introduced us to a Japanese Ouija called the Coin Spirit which is said to be harmless fun.
All you have to do is hand around a quiet place, write the alphabets A-Z and numbers 0-9 on a piece of paper in a way that they shape like a heart and the YES and NO in the middle of the heart, and all we need is a simple coin as the bridge between us and the spirit world.
So we did just that. We chose to play it after school behind the toilet and we used Abigail's 20 cent coin. She chanted a few words that sounded funny and began summoning the spirit to come. I didn't know if it was my imagination or not, but I suddenly felt a cold draft blowing at my ear. Next thing we know the coin began to move inside the heart. Abigail told us not to panic and ask questions in turns. I saw Abigail grinned silently at the scared look on my other friends Emmy and Caroline and suspected foul play, but I didn't want to spoil her fun, so I kept quiet.
We started asking the spirit's name. It was a long one and seemed foreign, but I recall it started with an 'E'. We asked many girly silly questions like who's our future husband or what will we be when we finish college, stuff like that. We were so engrossed that we didn't realize it was getting late. By the time the bell rang noting the end of the class, we then knew we were playing the Coin Spirit for the whole day. Hastily, Abigail chanted some verses to send the spirit 'home' and again, I felt the cold draft. As Abigail and I walked home together, she completed the 'sending home' ritual by tearing the paper to 48 pieces, dumping them into an unused well beside the toilet and spending the money on an ice-cream. She claimed that doing this, she made sure that the spirit won't be able to return through the bridge again. I remembered the draft and hoped that she would be alright.
A few weeks later, just like fashion statement, Ouija wasn't in season anymore. I just so happen to go to the loo one day when suddenly I saw a crowd standing around the first cubicle of the toilet. I asked what was going on and one of them told me someone got locked in and couldn't get out.
It was Abigail. Apparently the lock suddenly got stuck and she was trapped. She was crying and raving like a lost girl and wanted out. We tried to calm her down as one of them went to call the Discipline Teacher. She calmed down for a while when suddenly she started screaming again. This time, it wasn't just fear. It was total panic and terror. We heard her pounding at the door frantically and screaming at the top of her lungs. We began to panic as we wondered what was it that made her suddenly react so violently.
Then there was silence. We heard a slight gurgling sound and the pounding and screaming stopped abruptly. I called Abigail over and over again but there was no reply. When the Discipline Teacher finally came and banged the door open, he stopped us from coming any closer, took off his coat and covered Abigail, carrying her quickly out of the cubicle before anyone got to see what happened to her. The teacher drove her to the hospital himself.
It was from word of mouth that I found out that when the Discipline Teacher opened the door, he saw Abigail on the floor, staring at space with her throat slashed, struggling to breathe. The doctors couldn't figure out what kind of object that could leave such fine cut that almost led her close to death. She suffered a massive trauma that sent her mind somewhere else altogether. I heard that she's admitted to the mental hospital and is there till today.
Even before the throat incident, her family had said about her complaining that a 20 cent coin kept returning to her. She remembered spending it on ice-cream and could've sworn she had no more money, but her mother found the exact 20 cent in her pocket when she washed her pinafore. She tried to spend it on calling her friend, but when she hung up it fell out into the money slot even though she had got through the line! She tried other ways like buying sweets, paying the bus fare, donating it to charity, playing video games in the arcade but the coin kept reappearing in her pocket.
It was the same coin that we used to play the Ouija game.
She never dared to tell us as she was afraid she might get us into hot soup for playing Ouija. And because she was slashed so badly that her vocal chord was damaged, she couldn't tell her poor family what happened and what she saw in the cubicle.
No one ever knew the truth. The school kept the issue very hush-hush and convinced us that the cubicle will be sealed due to a faulty lock and that her tragedy was due traumatic hysteria. But I knew better. I bet my other friends involved in the game knew that too.
So far, you’re the only one I’ve ever told about my tales, and I have a feeling I’m gonna be telling you more. Glad I got this off my chest.
I guess you can say this is the beginning of a very beautiful secret friendship.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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.”
“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.”
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.”
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