PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XIV Part II

Mitt took a moment to kneel closer to the floor and let Ginger's legs rest on the cold tiles as they held the bloodhound's head upright. Ginger was able to keep her eye open, but barely. Her face was contorted into anguish and frustration, while her body could only twitch before its motions fell silent.

The world came to a still as medical professionals rushed into the room, preparing a stretcher. She just needed a few moments to take things in and to apologize to the dog in her arms.

"Ginger... I'm going to do it; I'm going to get him. I'm going to make him hurt for what he did to you." Mitt's eyes narrowed in anger. "I'll kill him. Then I'll fix you." Ginger's paw twitched, and she winced in pain. Mitt looked down to it, scooping it up with their own paw and holding it rigid. "Nobody does this to our family," they said, like spitting poison from their maw.

"No..." Ginger whined. "Don't... make my mistake," she said, groaning with each word, panting as blood seeped from between the flaps of skin on her back. "Not... Him. Them, p-protect them." She tried to lift her left paw, Mitt could see the strain on her face and the barest hint of quivering from the appendage. Tears welled in her eyes. "Don't..." she took a deep breath, trying to push past the intangible weights hooked onto her vocal cords that made it nearly impossible to speak, "don't let h... him hurt t-them."

Mitt's heart sank at the pitiful voice of their relative. They felt a paw on their shoulder that urged the cat to take a step back from Ginger. Mitt automatically complied, standing up as the dog was slid onto a stretcher, raised, then carried off deeper into the building, out of sight.

Mitt stood there, lingering on the last few things they had heard Ginger say. People came to the cat's side for questions or to ask if they were okay, but it was all white noise compared to the singular sound of pride and conviction cracking. Mitt turned away before any of the people there could interject, allowing them to leave without much resistance. Once they were outside, they looked down at her Kemono Woods High uniform; splatters of blood stained their purple wrist cuff and trailed down to the elbow while also marking the left side of the uniform's chest and stomach.

They pocketed Whisk's wand and brought their head up. They started to walk south, out of the commercial district and towards Hachiko High, with eyes glancing their way as Mitt went about covered in blood. The words "protect them" rang through their head over and over; they weighed the sentence, understanding it but unsure if it was what they should truly do. Ginger had left on her own to continue to look for Patches, even after she had been stabbed. It was no doubt a mistake for her to put herself in such a dangerous position, but the dog was so powerful even with the injury. She was the only one capable of quickly responding to a threat, considering Mitt and Coco both lived so far away.

They could hear the sirens in the distance as they walked, closing in towards them, no doubt due to a terrified dog seeing a cat covered in blood and assuming the worst. Mitt let the worried glances plink off of them like so much rain hitting canvas. They aligned their and worries with doing what none of the adults around them had bothered to do; protect the people who needed it. Instead, the adults of Kemonotown seemed to be going about their days unconcerned with what would be the 'wild fantasies of today's youth' as their father put it.

It didn't matter. Mitt would honour Ginger and protect the dogs of Hachiko, and in doing so, they would let the monster come to them. If all went well, Mitt would capture him, kill him, and with the power of a god, they would ensure nothing like this would ever happen again. 


--- Author's Note:

Okay so the OG chapter was a bit longer, but I decided to cut that because it was super, super dumb and included cops coming to try and arrest Mitt. I cringed myself into the void after reading it. Just one of the many examples of first drafts that had to have thousands of words stripped because good lord it's awful.

Thanks for reading.