Chapter 3:

Deepening Bonds

My Life Is Already Bad...I Don't Need A Cat-Girl Making It Worse!!


After a lot of explaining, they both got the gist of the situation…I think.

“Bob, pass me a beer.”

I don’t believe Nick owns any beers, but even if he did, I have to reason to respond to your commands.

From what I could tell, Vang was able to hit it off with Bob right away. Nisa, on the other hand, really didn’t seem too fond of having people around. She simply sat at the corner of my apartment tossing her toy mouse back and forth. Vang, Ritsue, and I sat across from her on the only couch in the living room.

I stood and walked over to the giant metal box still in the living room. At this point, there really was no use for it. I kind of felt bad for throwing it out but I didn’t know where I would put it either. In the end, I decided I’d figure it out later.

“So,” Ritsue started, “How exactly will you deal with this situation?”

“Don’t know,” I honestly responded as I headed towards the kitchen. Although the kitchen was out of view of the living room, Ritsue continued.

“So you’re just going to go by the seat of your pants.”

“Yep,” I said while picking up one of the apples I’d bought earlier. After a quick run down the water, I took a bite out of it.

“That doesn’t sound smart.”

“When was the last time you saw me as smart?”

She thought for a moment, then nodded, “I guess you’re right.”

I washed another apple then walked over to Nisa. She looked at me apprehensively at first, but her eyes lit up at the sight of the apple.

“Do you want an a—” Before I could finish, she swiped the apple from my hand and began biting it.

One would imagine, being part cat and all that, she’d like things with meat more than some fruit. But for whatever reason, she was digging into that apple like it was the tastiest thing in existence. Her small canines stabbed deep into the apple as she ripped it apart like an animal would its prey.

“Huh, she really likes that apple,” Vang commented.

Yes, that is actually one of her favorite foods,” Bob commented.

“Apples? Why apples?” I asked.

That’s because—actually…

“Let me guess, is it classified?”

Bob nodded with his small head.

“You know, you’re much more useless than I thought you’d be,” Vang said.

Those words mean nothing coming out of someone like you.

“What do you mean someone like me?” He challenged.

Oh, do you want me to explain?” Bob said as his eye blinked a few times. “Here, let’s see. Failing every course, has been caught inappropriately looking at girls, wastes all his money in eroge, has a large collection of po—

“Okay, okay, I get it!!” Vang grabbed onto Bob’s head to shut him up. “I’m sorry for calling you useless. You are the robot with the most use in this planet—neigh, the universe.”

I’m glad we have that cleared up.

Those two were definitely becoming good friends. As for everything Bob was mentioning, none of it was new information to us. No man should have as large of a collection of eroges as he does. The impressive part is how many of them he has completed…that being all of them.

I was not about to question how Bob had gotten all that information either. He’s a robot, that was probably explanation enough.

You really shouldn’t be writing all of this on Twitter,” Bob commented. “You have so much here that getting into all your other information was easy. Also, don’t use the same e-mail and password for your Twitter account and bank account. That’s not very safe.

Vang panicked as all of that was now out in the open. Again, not new information for us. How we got that information was a completely different story.

“Anyway,” I said as I watched Nisa lick the last bit of apple off her hands. “Nisa.” Her head quickly turned to me. Her tail moved side-to-side gleefully. That apple really seemed to put her in a good mood.

Her small facial features and innocent gaze really made me want to go up to her and hug her. Kind of like when you see a small puppy—or I guess in this case, a cat. But like a cat, that would probably end up with me scratched, so yeah, ain’t doing that.

“Do you want another apple?”

She nodded furiously.

“At least keeping her fed is pretty cheap,” Ritsue said while standing up.

“You gotta get her some other stuff too though.” Vang chipped in.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I replied while washing another apple.

I tossed it over to her and she caught it mid-air, well, it was more like she slapped it mid-air then picked it up from the ground before eating it.

“Anyway,” Ritsue started, “With that settled, we’ll be on our way.”

“We are?”

“Yes, we are.” She said while pulling Vang from the arm.

“Why?”

She didn’t answer his question. Instead, they both headed to the door.

“Also,” Ritsue said while pushing Vang out the door. “Your media paper is due tomorrow.” She said before immediately slamming the door behind her.

“…oh.”

Yeah…that wasn’t good.

I can’t say I was the best at school, I’ve spent my fair share of questioning why I enrolled in the first place. My grades were…passable, but this paper was pretty important. The fact that I hadn’t even started it was a problem in itself.

I looked over at the clock. It read: 6:23 PM.

“Alright,” I said to myself. “Bob, can you take care of Nisa for a while?”

I’ll do that!

“And try not to make her mad, please.”

…I’ll try…

“No, there’s no ‘try’. Do it.”

Bob didn’t look too stoked, but he wasn’t saying no, so that was all I had to count on.

Before heading to my room, I made myself a cup of ramen. Even though I had just bought an entire bag full, there were almost none left.

“Damn it.”

After making a cup I told Nisa I’d be in my room for a while, then got to work.


Three hours later and I was a third way done with the paper. The fact I had gotten so much done wasn’t because I was smart, but the opposite. This was more half-assed than all the work I’d turned in during high school combined. At this point, I might as well not turn it in, but I decided that something was better than nothing and continued.

I should probably check on Nisa, I thought.

Deciding that it was probably time for a break anyway, I got out of my desk chair and when to the living room.

“!!”

There I was surprised to find Nisa laying on top of the metal container, curled up in a ball and sleeping soundly.

“That looks really uncomfortable.”

She’s dealt with worse. The metallic voice said from the couch.

“What does that mean? Actually, don’t answer that if the answer is that it’s classified.”

Bob stayed silent.

Might as well not bring it up if it’s classified, I said to him in my mind.

“She’s probably really tired. Coming into a completely unknown place and meeting a bunch of random people really can make you tired.” I said as I grabbed the cloth the man had given her. I was planning on putting it on her, but that thing felt more like a rag than anything else.

I went to my room and picked up the only blanket I owned. I was probably going to stay up all night anyway, so I could let her borrow this for tonight. Tomorrow I’d try to get her one after class.

I placed the blanket on top of her small body. Me brushing against her pale skin caused her to shiver, but she didn’t wake up. With that taken care of, I nodded then headed back to my room.

Hey Nick,

“Yes?”

How are you able to accept all of this so easily?

I sighed as I thought about how to answer, “I don’t know.” I said. After a few seconds of thinking, I continued, “I just think that going with the flow is easier than trying to figure out why or how things are happening. Especially if it’s out of my control…or if it’s too much of a pain in the ass to fix.”

That sounds like an odd, and kind of irresponsible, way to live.

“Yeah, I guess it is. Most of my life has been odd, so I would imagine some of that stuck to me. And don’t get me started on being irresponsible.”

Bob stayed silent. I couldn’t imagine what was going on in that robot brain of his (If he even had one). Either way, I decided leaving him alone would be for the best. With that, I went back to my room to finish my paper.


---

Maybe I can…

Even if time isn’t on my side, I could try to enjoy it…

Live longer or live better, I never knew I had a choice.

Well, since I’m here, I might as well.

---


Before I knew it, I was waking up to the feeling of something warm covering my body. As I pried my eyes open, I noticed I had fallen asleep on my desk.

I sat up and felt something slip off me. I reached for the object and saw it was the blanket I had covered Nisa with.

Did she?

I quickly got up and went to the living room. There I found Bob holding a fishing rod-like object with a fuzzy ball at the end. He swung the ball back and forth near Nisa who was trying to slap it out of the air, but Bob was able to move it much quicker than she could catch it.

“G-Good morning, Bob, Nisa.”

They both turned to look at me.

Good morning, Nick!” Bob answered, looking even more chipper than yesterday.

Nisa nodded and quietly answered, “Morning”

She didn’t talk much, but when she did, it didn’t fail to bring a smile to my face.

“You two seem to be getting along pretty well right now.”

Well, when you don’t need sleep, you get a lot of time to think.

“What does that have to do with you two getting along? And what were you even thinking about?”

“That’s…classified.” He answered with a smile.

“Of course it is.” I smiled. “Oh right, Nisa,”

She turned her head in confusion. Her ears flopped a little.

“Were you the one who cover me at night?” I showed her the blanket.

She nodded.

I guess that answers that.

“Thanks.” I tossed the blanket back onto my bed.

Nisa’s tail happily swung side-to-side.

“Alright then,” I said while clapping my hands together. “When I come back from class we will go shopping for some stuff.”

How are you going to afford that exactly?

“I’ll…figure it out later.”

Of course you will.” Bob rolled side to side.

And with that, I headed to my media class.


“Nick Shiga, who is this that you’ve brought with you?” My media professor asked.

The entire class turned to look at me. About twenty-five students, all of which I’d never talked to.

“Um…well,” I looked over to the girl walking beside me. She had pale skin, white hair, two cat ears on top of her head, and a long tail waving behind her.

How exactly was I supposed to explain this?

Nellien
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Senkosenpai
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Ochroleucous
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Momentie
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