Noir!

Summer, 23:33;
Location: Victor’s House, Earth;

Victor closed the old laptop and looked at the clock on the wall. ‘Less than expected…’ he muttered. He then started his home theatre at a moderate volume, turned on the noise isolation to avoid disturbing the neighbour, and connected it to his phone’s playlist. He then went to the kitchen to cook some food for himself and his only roommate, his cat.

Yes, Victor had a cat, though he never actually adopted her. One day, while cleaning the front of his house, he found a pregnant and malnourished cat under the porch. He thought of something and found it pitiful to chase away, so he didn’t do anything and later gave it some food and improved its shelter with some clothes after carefully researching online.

Weeks later, she gave birth to seven kittens. Then, about four weeks after that, when he returned home from college, he noticed that the mother cat seemed to be preparing to move out, so he tied some dried food in a cloth and gently fastened it to the mother cat’s back as a last gesture of goodbye— a parting gift.

The next day, when he woke up, he heard a faint mewing sound coming from outside the door. He thought that the mother cat might say goodbye, so he immediately opened the door. Only the black kitten was there, and the mother cat seemed to have left with her other siblings.

After that, he took it in and gave it a nice bath, and named it “NOIR,” which means black after her fur color, which is pitch black, to which the kitten clearly showed her displeasure, but Victor ignored it, thinking it was content with it.

Like this, their relationship grew, and six months passed. Noir being different from other kittens was a blessing to Victor’s chaotic lifestyle, and after Victor’s parents took Noir to the vet and confirmed everything, including some legal procedures, everything was set.

The only problem with Noir was that she was an otaku and very clingy, which is great in winter but a headache in summer. Every night after Victor sleeps, she quietly goes and clings to him and sleeps.

~Honey, baby you, baby you I'm gonna fall in love with you~

“Noir, what do you want to eat, buddy?"

"Meow...", Noir pointed towards the fridge, and then again toward the deep freezer after the fridge was opened.

“Oh, you want to eat meat? Curry?” Victor took out the packet of chicken meat from the freezer.

“Mew”, Noir nodded in confirmation.

“Okay…”,

‘♪ Baby you, baby you I'm gonna fall in love with you… hmm… what the fuck?!

Did Noir just nod at me and reply to me when I asked what to eat?

Just when I was starting to relax… so when did this happen? How come this silly cat became intelligent? Does watching anime have such effects now? The hell…!

Don’t tell me that Noir will become a super cat too?!

Well… what will come, will come. I’ll deal with it when the time comes.’

Victor’s mental state was slowly breaking down as he continued to cook the food.

"Here you go..." he muttered, placing the food on the dining table while massaging his temples.

“Mee… mew”, Noir looked at Victor with a concerned expression.

Victor could see Noir’s concerned expression through her eyes. The man and cat stared at each other for nearly 20 seconds, and then Victor let go of his tension and decided to give the concerned cat a hug, which the cat accepted and tried to kiss her, only to get rejected.

“Okay, let’s eat… no need to be so worried, I am fine.” Victor smiled after giving a forceful kiss on the forehead.

Today's food was simple: rice and chicken curry, which looked good and was giving off a mouthwatering aroma.

Victor scooped some curry with his finger and held it out for Noir to taste. She gave Victor a serious look and tilted her head sideways to indicate something was off.

“Salt?”

“Mew”, Noir nodded to confirm.

Victor added some salt, tasted it, and nodded in approval. “Okay, let’s eat now.”

Both the cat and the human began to have their dinner, and they finished within 15 minutes.

While washing the dishes, Victor began to think about his cat, which had become more intelligent, which was concerning, considering the things that had been going on in his life.

Victor paused for a moment, "Noir, did you sleep beside me last night, too?"

"Meow?... Mew-awow." Noir nodded slowly.

Hmm, it seems she has also been affected by me. That’s concerning… considering how unpredictable things are, it would’ve been for the best if she hadn’t been involved. Tsk… I was careless.

"You are going with me tomorrow, and no refusal,” Victor said firmly after thinking for a few minutes.

Noir wanted to protest, but after seeing Victor's stern eyes, she relented and let out an exaggerated, defeated mew.

Victor was starting to get a serious headache with how out of control everything felt. He was not even able to control it… I should be prepared for more situations like these…

***
Summer, 23:30;
Location: Theo’s Apartment;

"It seems I slept through most of the day today and... now I can't sleep anymore… shit", Theo muttered as he wandered around his terrace like a ghost.

“There are no assignments and any work for now… the server requires help from Sa-Victor too… shit, I need more practice, almost spelled his real name”, Theo mused while rubbing his chin.

“Hmm… what can I do now… ah, right… let’s meditate and see if my guess of eight hours is true or not.” Clearing his jumbled-up thoughts, he headed back to his room and began to prepare for a long meditation session.

***
Summer, 23:35
Location: Leo’s House;

“Let’s sleep early and wake up fast… I don’t want to hear those bastards mocking me tomorrow morning for getting late...”

Leo sprang up from his desk, tidied his work as fast as he could, and began to prepare for tomorrow.

***
Summer, 9:30
Location: Victor’s House;

“It’s a little cold today, huh… yawn.” Victor yawned as he stretched a little.

“MEOW… GRrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.” Noir growled as he slapped Victor once more.

“Yes, yes, I am waking up!” Victor woke up early due to Noir’s nagging, which works as a natural alarm clock.

“So cold… huh… cold…but this is summer, what cold?” Victor was jolted awake in confusion. His whole body is unusually cold, which is concerning, considering humans are warm-blooded creatures; heck, even his walls are hotter than his body in this heat.

“Did I catch a cold or what?" Victor was in shock as he checked the thermometer.

‘Are these symptoms of dying...Am I going to die a virgin?’ Victor's inner world is in chaos for a few minutes.

Eventually, he calmed down and went to freshen up. “Let’s first have breakfast, and I will think later, it might not be something serious…”

Noir already has some light snacks from her automatic food dispenser, but she still prefers cooked food over cat food, so she mainly uses the food from the food dispenser as an emergency ration or light snacks.

Victor ordered a light breakfast for both of them and rushed to freshen up as he noticed the time. ‘I can’t let Leo be faster than me.’

"Noir, remember? You have to go too,” Victor said as he came from the washroom.

"Mew,” Noir nodded, then quickly looked away.

Hmm… sus cat…

It seems she agreed, not that Victor cared.

He went to the door, grabbed the drone-delivered package from the doorstep, and the two of them sat down to eat breakfast before he started getting ready to leave.

He glanced at himself in the mirror and, after thinking for some time, he threw on a white hoodie, deep brown cargo pants, and took a side bag for some necessary items.

“Noir!”

While checking his phone, he called Noir and spotted a message from Theo, which told them to wear a mask.

“Mew”, Noir leapt from the table and curled around Victor’s shoulders like a fluffy black scarf, covering most of his face, but he still wore a black mask.

“Nice!”

Buzz Buzz... You are my Special~

His phone rang. Victor took a glance at the clock, which showed 10:30.

‘On my way!’ he replied to the message and sent a thumbs-up emoji.

Victor left the house and went to the nearby station to catch a train; Theo's place was almost 25 km away from Victor's, but it may only take 5 minutes, and this was only possible with the lev-train, which runs at almost 300 km/h.

***
Summer, 10:00
Location: Leo’s House;

"Shit, I am going to be late again", Leo said while lazily scrolling through his phone in his bed. He had woken up a few minutes ago.

“Meh… who cares, but still… sigh.” After a few more minutes of internal debate, he still got up from his bed with a sigh and began to stretch himself as he felt a little bit sore.

Ugh…crack…crack…er

“Today might be the hottest day of this week… I am sweating buckets… sigh”

Today is so hot that I am a bit red too…hmm…red… shit…

Leo dashed to the bathroom without any delay as he was getting redder by the second, which only calmed down after a few minutes of soaking in the bath did the redness receded.

“What just happened?”

“Let’s get going first… 'll see what happens later.”

After calming down, he first decided to wear something that felt comfy and low-profile and finally decided on a black sleeveless hoodie, black joggers, and a black mask.

“Hmm… there is a train, but to travel with so many people in this terrible condition… let's go with a cab…”.

While waiting for the cab to come, he carefully closed all the doors and windows and checked everything, and went to the nearest shop for some breakfast.

“Still 5 minutes…huh…”, while eating and scrolling on his phone, he suddenly felt a sharp gaze on him. He glanced at the corner, where he felt the gaze was from, but noticed no one, but that eerie feeling lingered.

Things are getting complicated… hopefully it’s just my imagination.

***
Summer, 11:00
Location: Theo's Apartment;

Ring... Ring…

"Coming. ..." A teenage voice called out from inside the house.

Victor and Leo came at almost the same time, but Victor managed to ring the bell first, so Leo lost this unspoken race.

"Yo! Bastard, you look different today… just looking at you is making me feel hotter in this heat. And what’s with that black scarf?” Leo mused as he looked at Victor with amusement.

“Heh, I know I am hot, no need to fall for me, dude…” Victor smirked.

“Grr… bastard…”

Clack... Clacked...

“Mah… Mah, no need to get upset,” Theo said, stepping out. “Wait… don’t tell me you’re actually… Tsk tsk—you’re red all over.” Theo wore a mask, a cyan Hawaiian shirt over a white collarless tee, gray chinos, and Crocs.

"A’right, guys... let’s go", Theo said as he went down the stairs.

"What the... where are we going?" Leo was confused as he looked at Theo sprinting down the stairs.

"Yeah, you didn't tell us anything," Victor said, running after Theo.

" Well, plans can’t keep up with the changes… I changed my mind at the last moment... I figured it was safer this way." Theo said as he flashed his keys. “And since I decided it at the last moment, I didn’t bother to inform anyone... Come on.”

“Huh… you brought Noir too?” Theo asked, noticing the scarf on Victor.

Leo was startled, “Where? Ah, the Black scarf.”

“Meow,” Noir gave a small mew as she noticed everyone had already recognized her.

“Why?” Theo was confused, but he didn’t wait for the answer. “Let’s discuss that later…”

By the time the trio went down, the car was already waiting for them.

"This is why I sometimes love self-driving Cars,” Leo sighed with emotion.

"Yeah," both Victor and Theo nodded.

"So where?" Victor asked as he opened the door.

"My second house ... The one in the rural area,” Theo answered as he ran some checks on the car.

"Uh... your apocalypse center?" Leo raised a brow, hearing about his second house.

“Dude... seriously... that thing doesn’t even have proper guns or defensive capabilities. It can’t be compared to a real thing, and isn’t even qualified,” Theo argued.

"Now you want guns too?!"

Victor and Leo were dumbfounded once again.

As they chatted, the car finished all the small checks, and it automatically started driving.

“Wow, I didn’t know this old model had so many advanced features and… what is this… some of the features are something I haven’t heard of…” Leo said in amazement as he looked at the interior of the car, while Victor was looking at everything with a deadpan expression.

"Well, let's rev it up...”, Leo said as he held the steering wheel and gear handle.

“Oh! god…”

***
Summer, 12:07;
Location: Theo’s Villa;

"So here we are after an hour-long journey." Victor yawned a little as he came out of the car.

"As expected, it has been remodeled again." Leo sighed as he looked at the villa.

"And the surroundings have become more spacious..." Victor nodded and looked at the surrounding forest. "So spacious...huh? Where are the other houses?"

“What houses?” Theo asked with confusion.

“I mean neighbors…”

“There are almost none, and don’t you know about the mass immigration?” Theo answered as he opened the garage.

“Huh, I know, but didn’t expect it to be this bad.” Victor immediately had a realization.

“The last time we came, it wasn’t this empty,” Leo spoke as he closed the garage shutter. ‘Wasn’t this shutter automatic?’

“Everybody… even the elderly… had moved to cities, and rural areas like these are now free. If you guys look at the east side, it’s far… but you can see a villa, he is the only neighbor left.” Theo pointed at the distance. A rough silhouette of a villa can be made out on careful observation.

“Wow,” Leo was a little amazed.

"Haha... Let’s go..." With an aura that expresses extravagance, Theo introduced all the new facilities in the villa, including the improved server room.

"I think this server room is enough for us..." Victor spoke as he looked at the big server room, which could rival a small company.

"I also used to think that, but it's not the case." Theo shook his head. “From now on, I am going to collect all our data so that we can be prepared for anything that may come next! So this server is not enough… we need to scale it up to a big company at least…”

"Okay, let's go to the gym first... I like the gym at this place, although all the things are collected from the second-hand market and junkyard… but it’s almost as advanced as those 8-star gyms." Leo was not too interested in their technical talks.

“Well, it's created by Victor and me, of course, it’s superior to those gyms… and you will see why even those 10-star ones can’t come close to this one…” Theo proudly boasted.

“Let’s go! As far as health is concerned, we must go to the gym first!” Leo said, hiding his excitement.

“Okay then!” Theo nodded and, along with Victor, went towards the gym.

Leo raised a brow, “Huh… you guys aren't going to retort?... that’s unexpected.”

“Nope, gym was our main destination from the start.... we have to check each of our stats carefully… and the body check-up can be done there only… let’s see what truly happened!" Theo smiled.

“My thoughts exactly... who knows, we may uncover something unexpected.”

“Okay, let’s go!"