Cats.
Those are among my favorites.
Thus it comes as no surprise that one Koneko Toujou is Taiyo Hikari's favorite person in the entire world. I mean, for Satan's sake her name literally has 'cat' on it! And she behaves like a feline at times! Which makes sense considering what she is...
But I digress.
Right now, Koneko and I are seated on the couch of the ORC building, with no one else around, if you didn't count Gigimon who's asleep on the table. We stared right into each other's gaze. Slowly, we inched our bodies closer to the other. We stopped when our bodies were mere inches away.
"Neko-chan, are you sure about this? We can always do this another time, ya know." I asked nervously.
Koneko simply nodded with a blush on her face. I gulped as she showed me it. I slowly reached my trembling hands towards my target.
"Woah..." I muttered in awe as I marveled at how soft it is.
"Nya~" Koneko mewled at the feeling of my touch.
I began rubbing my hand even more against it. I gently caressed it with my fingers.
"So soft..." Once again, I was in bliss at the feeling in my hands.
*twitch* *twitch*
"Nya~!" Koneko demanded.
"Even faster? Okay." I somehow understood what she said.
I complied with her demand and stroked it even faster, earning meows of pleasure from the cat girl in front of me. She climbed onto my lap and buried her head to my chest.
"Nya! Nya nya nya! Nyaaaaaaaaa!!!" Okay, she was getting a bit crazy.
I kept pleasuring my Koneko. And it's clear, she's in bliss.
"What the hell is going on?!" The door to the ORC was forcibly kicked open. There stood Rias, looking excited and annoyed at the same time. "If you're going to do it, then do it- what are you doing?"
I turned my attention to the newly arrived Rias. I looked at her confused. In my hands are Koneko's twitching cat ears. Speaking of which, the white cat on my lap is half asleep at this point. Soon after, she retracted her cat ears.
"Oh..." She sounded relieved and disappointed at the same time. Dammit, woman, make up your damn mind!
"Sorry, I just thought that... two people alone in a dimly lit room. I thought you two were... er..." She continued.
"We were what?" I asked, genuinely confused.
"Er..." She trailed off. Her eyes wandered all over the room, as if looking for means to escape.
"Buchou?" Issei suddenly appeared behind Rias. "What are you doing just standing there?" He asked.
A figurative lightbulb appeared above Rias' head. "Oh, Ise. Good timing!" She quickly said confusing him. "Nice weather today, isn't it?" She quickly changed the subject.
"...It's cloudy today." He responded. Sure enough, one look at outside and it was clear to anyone with a brain with more than two cells on it that this is not the ideal weather to bask in sunlight. Mission failed, we'll get 'em next time.
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...
"Author, timeskip!" Oh- Goddammit, Rias! Now I need to fix the fucking wall! *sigh* I'll bring the Flex Tape. But, before that...
~ Timeskip ~
After that whole debacle, everyone is now present at the ORC clubroom.
"Speaking of which, senpai. Good job surviving the initiation. I'm proud of you." I mused.
"You asshole! I thought I was going to die!" Issei immediately stood up with a tick mark on his head.
"Hey, hey, look at the bright side..." I tried to calm him down.
"What bright side?" He asked with a slight edge in his voice.
"At least you're immune to all kinds of poison now." I said, making him shut up.
"I'll get you back for this..." He grumbled.
"You won't."
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...
So yeah, everyone's having fun. Unfortunately, my fun has to be delayed for a bit because someone decided to call me. My phone rang and I picked it up.
"Hello, Hikari speaking." I said to whoever's behind the phone. Yes, I didn't check who called. I'm a rebel, sue me. "Kyoko-san? Did you need something?" I said, gaining the attention of others. "Hm... hm... I see... Okay, I'll be there in a flash... huh? Don't be surprised? What does that mean?" I raised an eyebrow. "...Fine. Hanging up, now." So I did.
"...A case?" Rias asked.
"Yep." I answered. "I'll be going now."
"How are you going to deal with that though?" Kiba asked.
He was referring to the sleeping white cat on my lap. I shook her a bit and she stirred before slowly opening her eyes.
"Nya~?" She asked groggily, too sleepy to even form words.
"Would you mind getting off me, I have a job to do." I explained.
"Nya..."
"Oh come on... This sounds important." I tried to persuade her.
"Nyaa..." She pleaded with a... puppy-dog? Kitty-cat? Yeah, kitty-cat eyes.
"I'll give you chocolate later if you let me go." It was hard, but I persevered against her pleading eyes.
"Nya." She negotiated.
"...Fine. I'll get two." I complied.
She reluctantly let me get off our seat. I walked away before she could trap me or before I let my will crumble against her cuteness. In a flash, I teleported myself to Kuremi Detective Agency.
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"Ara ara~" Akeno mused as she saw Koneko's pouting face.
Meanwhile, Issei was confused.
"I- I'm sorry, can he actually speak cat, or is he just messing with us?"
"Knowing him, it may very well be both?" Rias said with a sigh. "We may never know until the author decided to tell us."
"...Since when do you break the fourth wall?" Issei dreadedly asked.
"Since I stopped caring."
"Oh, my... Author, you might want to transition to the next scene before Rias decided to erase the fourth wall altogether." Akeno said with a smile.
Oh, for the love of-
"In fact, let me do you one better. I'll do it myself." She continued.
Wait, wh-
~ Kuremi Detective Agency ~
-at?... Oh Goddammit, do I have no control over this story anymore?! *grumble* *grumble* Give me one moment to regain my sanity, please.
...
...The sound of a head banging against a wall can be heard in the distance.
...
Ah... there we go, much better. Now, where were we? Oh, right... let me hand the camera back to Taiyo.
"Thank you, author!" I said as I took the metaphorical camera in front of Kyoko's office. "Now, let's see why she called me here." I said while slowly opening the door. "I'm here, in a flash like I said." I greeted Kyoko while the door was still half open.
"Ah, yes, welcome my dear Watson." Kyoko greeted me back. "Please, come in and take a seat."
I obliged. "Okay. So, what is so dire that you need to- Oh..." I said as I finally saw the client once I fully opened the door. "Well then..." She was certainly a unique client, no doubt about it.
"'Well then', indeed..." Kyoko said with amusement in her voice.
"Hello, dear brother-in-law." The client said with a teasing tone. Of course, the implication wasn't lost on me, so I blushed.
The woman in front of me is someone with black hair wearing a kimono. She's wearing a black kimono that is a bit too revealing for my healthy mind. But by far the most important feature of her looks is the two cat ears on top of her head.
"...Kuroka." I called her name.
That's right, people. This is Kuroka, Koneko's, or as she calls her, Shirone's sister. Now, I'm sure you're wondering how I met her and why she called me brother-in-law. Well, wonder no more! Because I'm about to give you a...
~ Flashback ~
It was a rainy day. Water is dripping from leaves. Temperature is slowly getting lower. The sky is dark from all the clouds. And I was walking alone under an umbrella.
"They really left me like that..." I grumbled as waters dropped on top of my umbrella. "They could've just woken me up..."
Now, you might be wondering what happened. Well, it's nothing much. I just fell asleep in the ORC clubroom and literally no one bothered to wake me up when it was time to go home, and Gigimon didn't come because he has a stomachache from eating too much bread.
"Hm?" I stopped my walk when I saw something in the distance. A cat, specifically, a black cat, taking shelter under a bus stop. I approached it and started playing with it.
"There... there..." I rubbed it's neck and it purred. "Do you not have an owner?" Probably not, I didn't see any nametag on it, nor do I believe that anyone would just leave it in the rain, unless they're abandoning it. Not a pleasant thought.
I smiled and picked it up. "Well, let's take you home with me. I'm sure nobody would mind." I continued my walk with the cat resting on my arm.
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...
"I'm home!" I shouted to inform Gigimon of my return.
"Welcome back, Taiyo-mon." The only one in the house right now responded.
I walked to the living room and placed the cat on my couch. "I'm going to take a bath. Watch it for a bit, would you?" I pointed to the cat.
"Okay!" Gigimon complied. "Hm..." Gigimon slowly inched closer towards the cat.
In response, the cat backed away a bit. But it was futile as Gigimon just inched even closer. The closer to the edge the cat got, the more nervous it got. Gigimon for some reason kept sniffing the cat.
"You smell funny... and familiar." Gigimon claimed.
Now the cat was getting really nervous. If it was a human it would be sweating bullets right now.
"Hmm..." Gigimon continued sniffing it before he... "Nom." promptly bit it.
"Nyaa!!!" The cat meowed in surprise at the sudden act. It was so surprising that she exploded in a puff of smokes.
"Aw... what happened?" Gigimon said while coughing.
Gigimon blinked in total confusion at where the cat was supposed to be. Instead of a black cat like it was supposed to be, there stood a woman with black hair and cat ears, wearing a black kimono.
"Who are you?" Gigimon asked before he started to sniff her again. "You don't smell like a bad person... and you smell familiar too."
"Uh..." Before Kuroka could answer, the door to the living room burst open.
"What happened?! What was that noise?!" I said in alarm. "Oh..." I said as I saw Kuroka.
"Uh... Hello?" Kuroka greeted nervously.
"Stray devil Kuroka... I should've known it was you." I said. "What are you doing here?"
"...Would you believe me if I was just worried about little Shirone ~nya?" She asked.
"...No." I simply said. For those of you uninformed, Shirone is Koneko's original name before she was recruited into Rias' peerage.
To give you a bit of history lesson, the woman in front of me ALLEGEDLY went mad from too much power and killed his own master, therefore branding him a stray devil. Some dumbass thought that because of this one event, the entire race was too dangerous to be kept alive, thus beginning the Nekomata massacre.
"You're right. I wasn't just worried about her. I also wanted to make sure the one who got so close to Koneko doesn't hurt her." She answered.
This time I looked at Gigimon. He understood what I was going for and promptly sniffed Kuroka again. "All green, Taiyo-mon."
Unsurprisingly, this confused Kuroka. "What just happened?"
"Don't ask how he learned this, but Gigimon can sniff out lies, literally." I said with a sigh. "So, from what I'm seeing, you're not insane. What's your story?"
"...You're taking this quite well. Are you not suspicious of me? I am a stray devil, you know." She said.
"I always take stories told by those greedy old men with a grain of salt. 'Sides, if Gigimon says you're not a bad person, then I trust him." I said. "You know, 'believe in me who believes in you', that sort of thing."
"I see..." Kuroka said, visibly more relaxed now. "So, you want to know my story ~nya?"
"That... is what I said, yes."
"Long story short, my master was a crazy old bastard who wanted to create a super devil. He experimented on a bunch of people for that purpose. He was planning on experimenting on Shirone and there was no way I would let him, so I offed him before he could ~nya." She explained.
"Ah... yes, that would make more sense. I would probably do the same thing if someone wanted to do that to Koneko." I agreed.
The rest of the day became small talk between a nekomata and a tamer devil. They discussed a lot of things from daily lives to plans on what to do about her stray devil status. At one point, she even teased me about Koneko. Huh... now that I think about it, doesn't this sound like a marriage interview?
"Well, it's been fun ~nya, but I have to go before anyone catches me here." Kuroka said.
"Don't worry. We'll find some way to prove your innocence and then you can walk and see your sister freely." I assured her.
"Hm..." Kuroka smiled. "I approve." She said as she walked towards the windows.
"Hm?" I was confused on what she meant.
"You can call me your sister now ~nya." She said.
"What?" I was still confused.
"I'll see you soon, brother-in-law ~nya." She said before turning back into a cat and leaping out of the window.
It took me a moment to process what she said and when it did, I was blushing up a storm.
"Someone's in love with a white cat~~" Gigimon said in a sing-song voice.
"Shut up!" I yelled while hiding my face behind my hands. Gah! Why the hell am I acting like a lovestruck highschool girl all of a sudden?! Damn you, my heart!
~ Back to the present ~
"So, is it time already?" I asked.
"Yes ~nya, I can't wait." Kuroka said excitedly.
"Hmhmhm... I must admit I'm somewhat curious what this guy was planning on making." Kyoko mused. "We'll be counting on you, my dear Watson."
"Leave this to me!" I said with resolution.
Our plan is simple. Kuroka will lead me to where her master's old lair was. After that, I will go ahead and look for any incriminating evidence that will prove Kuroka's innocence. Then, I'll give the data to Kyoko so that she can analyze it and burn it into a disc.
Speaking of which, that old master of hers was a crafty little bugger. He created a failsafe in case he got his computer, which contains all the experiments he does, discovered. He had hidden it in a physically inaccessible place of the computer. Which makes me wonder, how did he access it, was it a Digimon?
"Here it is?" Kuroka said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
We're standing inside an obviously evil lair. A barrier was erected so that there was no interruption. In front of us was a huge computer monitor. Like, big enough to be a movie theater. Out of curiosity, and maybe a bit of jealousy, I took a look at what's inside his computer. And what the heck?! This stuff could rival NASA! Man, this guy doesn't cut corners, huh?
"Truly, this man is a man of culture." Kyoko said from my phone.
"It stinks..." Guilmon said while covering up his snout. Kuroka was blatantly staring at him. "What?" He asked.
"Nothing... just not used to a Digimon, I think." Kuroka said.
"Well, get used to it. The moment you're acquainted with me is the moment you should throw away your common sense, even for a devil." I said.
"All I wanted was to reunite with my sister." She said with a sigh. "Where did I go wrong?"
"Your fate is sealed the moment you met me and Gigimon." I explained with a chuckle.
"Can I get a refund?" She responded jokingly.
"Sorry, no take backs." I smirked.
Alright, let's get back to business. So I turned on the computer and...
"Wow... Windows XP. Shows how ancient this thing actually is." I muttered. "Anyway, do you have it?" I asked Kuroka.
"Of course ~nya." She held up her hand, which was wearing a bracelet with a pixelated D in the middle. "Are you sure this'll work ~nya?"
"Of course, have faith in me." Kyoko said.
"Well, there you have it." I said. "Come on. We're wasting daylights here."
Kuroka decided to take a leap of faith and placed her bracelet-wearing hand on my back.
"Ready?" Before Kuroka could answer I interrupted her. "Good. Connect Jump!"
On command, my body, along with Kuroka's started getting absorbed into the computer.
Meanwhile...
"Hm..." Kyoko wondered. "Maybe I should've told her that if the bracelet failed she would've turned into garbage data, lost forever in a digital sea..."
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"...Nah, they'll be fine." Kyoko reassured herself.