Under the Falling Snow

The teachers’ lounge was filled with its usual afternoon bustle, as it always was during lunch break.

Pens clicked, paper rustled, and the scent of coffee hung in the air.

Hale sat at his desk, grading an English test, when a purring burst of laughter drifted over from the neighboring table.

Three Neko colleagues were swishing their tails back and forth in amusement.

One of them, a broad-shouldered Maine Coon with sand-colored fur, turned toward Hale with a grin.

“Hey, Amiteji-san! Have you heard this one, nya? What’s the best way to keep a human occupied for minutes on end?”

A second one chimed in immediately, his grin even wider.

“Simple, just turn off the lights in the room, nya!”

Loud laughter erupted.

“Get it, nya? Because you can’t see in the dark!”

Hale forced a polite smile.

“Heh… yeah, really funny…”

He cleared his throat.

“Excuse me. I need to prepare something for class.”

A few muttered a casual “Good luck, nya,” but most had already returned to their own conversations as Hale left the teachers’ lounge.

He turned toward the copyroom next to the stairwell, his thoughts already half on worksheets and vocabulary lists, when something caught his eye.

A movement.

Just a shadow.

A silhouette gliding up the stairs.

He stopped and caught a familiar smell lingering in the air.

“…Cigarette smoke?”

Smoking was strictly forbidden on school grounds.

Were those students?

Hale frowned and followed the trail.

With every step upward, the air grew colder, the brick-lined stairwell seeming to narrow around him.

The smell lingered, like an invisible thread.

Eventually, he stood in front of the door leading to the rooftop.

It was blocked off with black-and-yellow caution tape, a sign posted in front:

NO ENTRY.

“Right… because of the tournament…”

He hesitated for a moment.

Then he pressed the handle down.

Cold air slammed into him.

Snow covered the concrete like a smooth, even sheet while fine flakes drifted silently down from the gray sky.

Hale stepped out a few paces and let his gaze wander.

The snow around him was untouched, no footprints, just a freshly fallen, pristine carpet.

He squinted against the wind.

“Hm… I could’ve sworn…”

The door slammed shut behind him.

He spun around.

A figure was leaning against it.

A coat collar pulled high.

A cigarette resting at the corner of her mouth.

Gray, bushy ears.

Yellow eyes behind fogged glasses.

Tadamori Purimura.

Damn it.

She took a slow drag from her cigarette, as if she had all the time in the world, and deliberately exhaled the smoke into the clear, cold air.

“Well then,” she hissed. “Now we can talk without being disturbed, Ice Knight.”

She pushed herself off the door, the snow making no sound beneath her paws as she walked toward him.

She lured me up here. What is she planning?!

The wind whipped through Hale’s hair as snowflakes danced across the rooftop.

“You put on quite a show in your last match,” she purred. “Trouble in paradise?” Her pupils narrowed playfully. “Or do I still have a chance with you after all, nyaah?”

Hale clenched his teeth.

She’s trying to get under my skin again.

“Drop the remarks and tell me what you want from us!”

Purimura raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? Straight to the point? Very well.”

She gestured at him with one paw. “Humans who can use magic are an anomaly, Amiteji-san. And such anomalies are… undesirable in Neko-Nippon, nya.”

Hale balled his fists, a wave of disappointment washing over him.

So she really does just want to eliminate us.

Purimura continued, her voice light, almost bored.

“You’re probably wondering why I haven’t hauled you in already, aren’t you? Believe me, under normal circumstances I wouldn’t bother with a conversation like this,” she went on.

“A report, a few signatures, and you’d be finished.”

Her gaze slid over him, evaluating.

“But you made me curious.”

“Curious?”

“It’s obvious why you snuck into the tournament.”

A crooked smile.

“You’re trying to get close to Nekogami…”

So she’s already figured that much out.

She stepped closer.

“The only question is… why? What do you hope to gain from it? Do you seriously believe that once you reach her, we Nekos will simply disappear again?”

What does she mean by that?

“Nekogami is the reason you’re here in the first place, isn’t she?! Then she can undo it all again!” Hale blurted out.

A guttural laugh escaped Purimura.

“So you want to force us back into the miserable existence we had before our liberation by Nekogami, nya? As pets and mouse catchers?” She snorted derisively. “Quite hypocritical, considering all that talk about equality and protecting the weak you humans love to preach!”

Hale flinched.

He thought of Kuroha Nyarin, of how he had stepped in front of her when human students had cornered her.

Would she… disappear too… together with her hopes and dreams?

Doubt suddenly flooded him.

Thoughts he had never considered before.

“I… I just want to undo what I-I...” Hale cut himself off.

Purimura’s eyes widened.

“Hm? What are you talking about, nya? What do you mean by that?”

She doesn’t know.

She doesn’t know that I was the one who freed Nekogami.

Does anyone know, besides her herself?

Hale pressed his lips together and shook his head.

Purimura studied him for a moment, as if trying to make sense of his words.

“So you’re not going to tell me, hm? Very well. It doesn’t matter anyway. At the moment, you probably couldn’t even defeat a Mumei, let alone one of the Archfelines. Your little partner, on the other hand…”

Her gaze darkened, serious, almost regretful.

“She could become a real threat.”

Hale’s heart skipped.

“Koori…?”

“Her power is far greater than yours.” Purimura looked past him, already thinking ahead. “I had hoped you might be more interesting. But it seems I was mistaken…”

She turned away, slipping a paw into her coat as if preparing to leave.

“Then I’ll just proceed with my assignment. 'Neutralize the girl and transfer her to the research facility'. The experts can deal with her there. After that, it won’t be my problem anymore…”

Hale froze.

What is she talking about?

Koori… neutralize her? A research facility?

Everything inside him tightened as his thoughts spiraled.

White coats. Machines. Syringes.

Koori, lying on an examination table, fear in her eyes.

Hale’s expression darkened as Purimura reached for the door.

“No…”

A blinding flash of frost shot from his hand.

Purimura didn’t even raise an eyebrow, she merely flicked her tail casually, and the attack dissipated into a cloud of ice that burst apart behind her as if on its own.

Slowly, she turned back toward him.

“Nyahh?” Her grin sharpened. “And what do you think you’re doing, hm?”

Hale breathed heavily.

“I… I can’t allow that…”

Hiro was right.

I have to take her out of the equation before she can cause amy damage.

His fingers began to glow, the air around them crystallizing.

Purimura removed the cigarette from her mouth, tossed it into the snow, and crushed it beneath her paw.

Her paws slid toward her belt.

An icy gust swept across the rooftop.

Her voice was barely a whisper:

“Oh, nyah? Well then. Show me what you can do, human…”

Hale’s mark burned blue.

Purimura’s eyes shone the same color.

And the snow between them began to rise.