NekoPara Volume 1

Chapter 1: Starting Anew

"Thank you very much! I'm heading out now!" the mover said as he walked to the door.

"Thank you so much for your help!" I called to him as he left.

"Phew, this should be most of the boxes then." I said as I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my arm as the moving truck disappeared from view.

Although it was April and only the beginning of Spring, today's weather was quite nice. It was even a bit hot.

"Well, it's a good day for a new start." I said to myself.

I turned my head to look at the empty bakery, which didn't even have any signage yet. The brand-new exterior wall had a western look with a predominantly white and brown motif. There was also a large window which let lots of sunlight in. And finally, there were the words that displayed the name of the bakery, "La Soleil". Instead of the proper French article, "Le", it was "La Soleil", meaning "The Sun". This was a nod towards the name of the shop of someone I admired.

"Now that I'm on my own, I'll have to do my best." I softly murmured to myself.

From here on out, no one would tell me what to do. I was going to start completely anew despite the stature of my family's name and everything at had happened up until now. I alone would decide my path and take responsibility for what I do. In exchange for that freedom, I can't blame anyone else for what happens. Still, although I was a bit worried, the thought of what lay ahead made me break into a smile.

"All right," I said, "in any case, I'd better get all these things cleaned up." I took a deep breath and got my spirits back up.

I stepped into the new-smelling bakery.

"Hmm? What's with this big box?" In front of me was a large bow I didn't recognize. In fact, there were two of them. "Fragile!", "Delicate!", "Absolutely this side up!", and "If thrown, your company will be in trouble!", read the labels on the boxes. The warnings were going overboard. They were getting annoying.

"Even if these are baking supplies, I don't remember buying anything quite like this." First off, they were boxes that looked like they came from my house. If these were for the bakery, there's no way I wouldn't remember buying them. There were no tags from the moving company, either. All there was were those warning labels.

"Well, I'll know for sure once I open the--"

"Achoo!" It sneezed, the box just sneezed. There was a long silence in the bakery. 

"M-Me-ow?"

"Oh, it's just a cat, huh? Just a troublesome cat. Geez."

"Phew... thank goodness. Looks like that fooled him," Whispered whatever was in the box. "That was close... Chocola'd better be careful, meow."

"Like that would fool me! What are you doing Chocola?!" I playfully yelled.

"Eheheh... uhm, l-long time no see... right, Master?" Chocola asked.

"We just saw each other at home yesterday, you know." I said back.

"Well, uhm... that is true, Chocola guesses... Ahaha..." she said, "Ah, more importantly than that, listen up! Those movers were really mean! So they were picking up Chocola, right? And they said 'this box is heavy,coo be careful with it'. Chocola wanted to hiss at them all of a sudden. Chocola really did. Chocola did her best to control her temper, but Chocola was fuming, you know! Absolutely fuming!"

"Well, compared to the rest of my things, you are heavy." She ignored what I said. Chocola puffed out her cheeks. You could say that she was always happy-go-lucky. Or rather she preoccupied herself with only what was in front of her. Well, I guess that's how you'd describe Chocola.

"While I was getting ready to move, I did wonder why I didn't see you."

"Achee!" Just then, something sneezed in the second box.

"Hmm?" I looked over at the second box.

"Long time no see, Master," said Vanilla, "my nose was itchy because the inside of the moving truck was dusty."

"Why is Vanilla here, too?" I asked.

"Wherever Chocola is, I am too," Vanilla said blankly, "besides, catgirls don't dislike tight spaces. Also, they said 'this box is heavy, so be careful with it' in regards to me, too. I was also mad. Just steaming!"

"Again, huh? In any case, Chocola, Vanilla, get out of there." I was at my wits' end with the large boxes that had suddenly shown up. Anyhow, Chocola and Vanilla got out of their boxes.