Something Hidden Beneath...

“Oh, it happened, already?”

The man held his phone to his ear with a gloved hand. His excited grin would probably be seen by most as creepy, but he was genuinely ecstatic at the news he’d received.

“Guess I have to pay Nick another visit already,” The man said as he stuffed his phone back into his suit’s pocket.

He ran his fingers through his combed-back hair and fixed his suit to look presentable. Pulling the sleeves of the suit up, he exited the office he was in and headed straight for Nick’s apartment.

— — —

You know, I’m not someone known for dealing with problems, so when something like this happens, I freeze trying to figure out what to do.

The smart choice would be to wait for the officers and explain the situation, but what exactly was I supposed to say? The dumb choice, and the one my body was more leaning to, was to just run away. We would probably be found eventually, but at least we could get out of trouble for now.

“What are you standing around there for?” Ritsue asked, “Get her!”

Oh, right.

I quickly reached for Nisa and pulled her closer to me.

“I didn’t…” that was all that creaked out of her throat.

Her eyes were wide and she wore an expression filled with panic. Her lip quivered and her hands shook like she was freezing. Her breathing was heavy and she continued to shake her head as she repeated the same words over and over again.

I hugged her small frame, burying her face into my chest. I was certain she could feel my heart racing.

I held her there as I watched the officers quickly approach. The crowd of people made a path for them to pass and one of them headed straight for us.

“Go straight to your apartment,” he whispered.

“What?” I accidentally let out.

“Go,” he said in a more commanding tone.

Not letting this opportunity escape me, I signed Ritsue to follow me, and we headed out the mall. I quickly told Ritsue what the guy had said, and we headed as fast as we could back to my apartment.

“Hey, hey! I bet you weren’t expecting me to be here!”

“Oh, it’s just you.”

“Why do you sound disappointed?”

“I thought it would be someone important,” I snickered.

Honestly, I was pretty relieved to see him there. I’d only seen him once, but something told me he had an explanation for this whole mess.

“Is this that Hitoshi guy you were talking about before?”

“Indeed I am, miss Ritsue!” he interjected before I could answer.

“How do you know my name?”

“Well, I know about everyone close to Nick.”

“That sounds creepy.”

And with that, he eventually got to explain what was going on—or at least that’s what I had hoped.

“Anyway, I just stopped by to say that you shouldn’t worry about that little scene from earlier, I’ve taken care of everything beforehand,” he smiled proudly at himself. “I wouldn’t recommend bringing her close to situations like those again, but if unavoidable, you can use something like a cat toy to distract her.”

“What?” I asked.

“Or really anything as long as you distract her from the situation,” he continued talking, “Something like a high pitch alarm-or really any old alarm.”

“Wait, wait, wait, are you not going to explain why that happened in the first place?”

He dismissively waved his gloved hand, “Oh you’ll figure that out eventually. For now, I’ll let you slowly figure things out.”

“I’m pretty sure just telling me upright would be much easier.”

“Well, yeah, but where’s the fun in that?”

“I don’t need it to be fun,” I said as I looked at Nisa who was looking at the ground dejectedly.

I was worried that the earlier moment had traumatized her. Her expression filled with terror was still ingrained into my mind. The urge to hug her washed over me, and I didn’t stop myself from doing so.

“I see you two have gotten pretty attached to each other,” he smiled, “I was worried you wouldn’t get along.”

As he mentioned this, the fact that I hadn’t seen Bob yet suddenly sprung to mind. Like Nisa, I’d only just met that robot, but I still felt an odd feeling now that I wasn’t seeing him.

“Bob?” I asked out loud.

“Yes, Nick?” I heard come from the kitchen.

I let out a quiet sigh of relief upon hearing that metallic voice.

“He’s baking some apple pie if you’re curious. He just started so it won’t be done for a while.”

“Do not underestimate my baking skills. I have downloaded data from all the top bakers in the world!”

“Also, don’t worry about the cost to make it, take it as a sorry gift for what happened earlier. And the clothes were for the surprise of suddenly having to take care of Nisa. Anything after this will have to come out of your pocket.” Hitoshi said as he walked towards us.

He cut between me and Ritsue as he left through the front door. “I do recommend investing in something to distract her. You wouldn’t want something like that to happen again,” he said in a serious tone.

The fact that he put emphasis on the “you” part sounded odd, but he shut the door behind me before I could ask any questions.

“That guy is weird.”

“Yes, yes he is.”

I pulled Nisa along to the couch nearby. I sat down the girl and then sat next to her. “Are you okay?” I asked as I held her hand.

Her pale skin felt gentle, and her thin fingers felt like pencils that could snap at any moment. The nails at the end of those fingers were short now. It seemed that, like a cat, they were retractable. But the peculiar silver coloring still shined brightly under the light of the room.

She didn’t answer, but the wrinkles around her eyes told me she was on the brink of tears.

Once again, I brought her head closer to me and softly embraced it. Her small cat ears brushed against my face, making me feel the silky fur that covered them.

She burrowed her head into my chest while she hugged her arms.

“What do you think he meant by you will figure things out eventually?”

I took in a deep breath before exhaling slowly, “I have no idea.”

Everything about that man was a mystery to me. I quickly accepted who he was, or what I believed he was, since I would do nothing but drive myself mad trying to figure things out. Just the fact that the police did nothing to us was a huge question by itself, but as he said, I would probably have to figure out the answers by myself.

I sat there comforting Nisa for a while. Bob even finished baking the pie before she moved a muscle.

“Here,” Ritsue handed me a plate of apple pie.

I used my free hand to cut a piece of the slice with a spoon. The top layer of bread lightly ripped apart, followed by the soft sliced apples underneath. I slowly picked it up and offered it to Nisa.

“Do you want to eat?”

She slowly turned her head to the spoon and after a few seconds nodded. I brought the spoon closer until she could wrap her mouth around it.

“Is it good?”

Her tail moved side-to-side as she lightly nodded.

“I’m glad you enjoy it!” Bob said as he rolled towards us.

A heavy silence filled my apartment. Nisa’s mood seemed to have seeped into all of us, even the robot Bob.

I fed her another spoonful of pie.

“Hey, Ritsue.”

“What?”

“Do you have any games in your apartment you can bring over?”

“Games?”

“Yeah, like video games or board games.”

Seeing as I was barely able to afford food, having something like video games, or games of any kind would’ve been a waste. Now that Nisa was living here though, I thought I should’ve had something to entertain her.

“I have a console I can bring over. I'm not really a video game person, so you can borrow it if you want.”

“That would be helpful, thanks.”

Now that Ritsue had left to get the console and Bob went back to the kitchen, I was finally able to have some alone time with Nisa.

“Hey, are you feeling better?” I asked as I rubbed her back.

I couldn’t see her expression, but at least her tail was moving normally again. Her ears were visibly less flattened too.

“Mh-hm,” she nodded.

I gave her another spoonful of pie before saying, “Good, I was getting worried there.” I patted her head as she chewed on the pie. I could feel her lightly pushing into my hand as I did.

She really is like a cat.

That’s when I finally got an idea. I placed the plate of apple pie on my lap and pulled out my phone with my now free hand. I quickly opened the messaging app and sent a message to my sister who was the only one who would be available at this time.

“Alright,” I said out loud as I got a reply.

Nisa looked at me questioningly. Her large blue eyes looked at my face then at my phone.

“I’ll have a few more things for you coming tomorrow,” I patted her head again.