The New Usual Business

ROAAAR

A thundering blast. Seldom cut grass bends, dormant trees struggle to keep their leafless branches intact. Worse are the heavy steps that slowly trudge behind, seeing to that its warning does not go unexecuted. Such a possibility may as well be forgotten as the lumbering figure is more than capable of catching its prey.

Squeak

Feeling its last skipped heartbeat drawing near, the small animal pushes its back legs into the leafy soil.

A rabbit.

Soft white fur covers a tiny frame with flopping ears. However, that is not the only colour flashing beneath the loose strands of moonlight. Unusual to say the least, but it matters not. Regardless of its darting about, the beast is only growing closer.

Squeak

A dead end. Walls of stone have the rabbit's movement constrained, along with its remaining breath. The prey can only turn around and watch a towering shadow consume it completely.

"HEY! WHAT IS THIS!?"

"DON'T EAT ME!"

The two animals scream simultaneously.

A bloodbath ensued, a one-sided consumption of prey by predator. At least, that is what should have happened.

"I'M REALLY THINKING ABOUT IT!"

"NOOOO!"

This scene is not that of a dark forest, it's the inside of a studio apartment with only the bare necessities. Towering trees turn into furniture pieces: chairs, a table, and a couch. Thick foliage is nothing more than strewn about grocery bags, textbooks, and clothes. There is no furry beast with terrible teeth and razor-sharp claws, just the shape of an average human being. There are no streaks of blood on the rims of his lips, at least not yet.

"AHHH!"

One detail that remains consistent is the small creature that has finally reached the end of her ropes. Two large rocks, or more precisely a bed and a desk, have her trapped in a corner. It's easy to mistake the girl for a human, but terrified squeaks betray her true nature.

I thrust the item in my hands towards the cowering animal.

"LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO THIS!"

In my hands is what was once a sheet of paper. Much of its contents were immortalised in ink with plenty of space for the next entry in history to be inscribed. However, half of the precious parchment has been lost to time. The text that remains has been diluted by a mysterious liquid of a known source. At the top of the page is the name 'Mira Forrester'.

The owner of that name leaves her eyes to dart around the room.

"That was…uhm…"

"How are you supposed to turn it in like this!?"

There is one classic excuse of an irresponsible student, specifically one with terrible deception skills.

'My dog ate my homework.'

Putting aside the likelihood of such a claim aside, our situation deviates ever so slightly. It wasn't a dog that ate the homework, it was a rabbit. It wasn't even that someone else was responsible for an invalid submission, the student was the one who did the eating. In a sense, blaming a dog would be more far realistic than claiming to have consumed the pages yourself.

"But, Noa! The words make my head hurt!"

"That's the point of homework!"

Mira curls into a ball as my flaming frustration fills her with terror. Fortunately for her, the embers are soon stomped out from within and only a white smoke remains.

"My goodness…"

I can't bring myself to stay angry as I watch the girl in a pure white sundress in such a pitiful state. Her strange blue hair faces me as she whimpers to the plain wall. Were this any normal person, I would have likely continued lecturing her. But Mira isn't normal, nor is she a person. She still has a long way to go before earning that title.

"Haaah…"

I crouch down beside the rabbit and lower my voice. It probably sounds like normal volume with her hearing abilities, but at least I'm not yelling.

"Sorry for scaring you. You don't have to hide."

Mira's body stops trembling and her long hair finally sways away. Now I can see those large eyes shining a brilliant blue in the lighting of convenience store light bulbs.

"Noa isn't mad?"

"I'm not mad."

After a few moments and a little under one hundred beats of her racing heart, Mira rolls over. She sits on her knees with legs spread out behind her.

"What am I to do with you…"

I take a long look at that round face. Her face is flushed with adrenaline and her soft hair is a mess, but that doesn't keep the world from seeing her unique features. There is the white streak of hair above her right eye as well as the tufts of hair over her ears that droop down the sides of her head. Around her neck is a choker with a purple ribbon that reminds of the day we first met.

"It's already been a month, huh…"

"Hm?"

I guess I'm the only one feeling sentimental, but my life just hasn't been the same since this once bundle of fur hopped right in. What should have been a leisurely experience taking care of a pet rabbit turned into an ordeal of assimilating this girl into human society.

"How was I supposed to know that I would wake up to find a small rabbit turned into a person…"

In just one week, I had to get everything she needed to stay here. From clothes to bare necessities like a name, we were all over the place. Just when we thought that we could rest, school began and a whole other set of issues showed up. One such problem being the surviving half of a handout still in my hands.

"Alright!"

I leap to my feet and extend a hand to the rabbit still on the carpet.

"Eating the homework won't get you anywhere, so I'll help! We can at least do the questions that are still legible."

"Grrrr…fine…"

She doesn't look pleased in the slightest, but that doesn't keep Mira from gifting my palm with the warmth of her small hand.

"You two sure are noisy…"

As I pull Mira up, my attention is drawn to shuffling at the couch. In my rage, I had completely forgotten that the two of us weren't alone.

The last person present sits up after having been dozing off on the cushions. My bland apartment has its greys, whites, and browns invaded by a flash of orange, one that takes up the entire space between us and the television screen.

It's a wall of wool.

"How am I supposed to get any sleep with all your yelling…"

Behind it is obviously a girl's voice, but the rest of her doesn't become visible until she turns to look at us with a groggy expression. Now you can see her face and the white streak of hair running between her brown eyes.

"What time is it?"