Shizuko was thrilled and superexcited. For once there was something new to other than the usual delivery or gardening to help out with, one that she actually looked forward to! There was a pet collector who had passed by the village and all of his animals had broken free. The collecter had approached the village saying a bunch of the animals had escaped into the village, although he had said it was mostly dogs and smaller cats who had run that way. But even if it was mostly domesticated animals on the loose, Shizuko was looking forward to it a lot. She loved animals, and the chance to meet and pet many different kinds certainly appealed to her.
The weather wasn't very good. In a way that was good for the request since that meant the animals would most likely stay in places where they were sheltered from any rain or hail that'd be coming their way. Before Shizuko left to join the other kids in looking for the pets, she made sure to dress properly. Luckily she hadn't grown much recently so an old raincoat she had gotten from a girl who grew out of it still fit her. It was green and it reached down to her ankles which was nice since it covered her quite well. Along with her only pair of long-legged pants she was set for her day on the rainy streets of Stone Village.
All kids were supposed to go around look for the animals in groups of two or three, as ordered by the ones who issues the request. Amongst the kids were both academy students and non-academy students and the adults seemed to want at least one academy student in each group. However, as it turned out, there was only enough actual students for fives groups available, and those groups filled up fast. As usual Shizuko was left for last and ended up without a group or any of the student kids to go with her. She didn't care though, she knew she could handle it even if the adults didn't trust her. While the organizers looked away, Shizuko took her chance to sneak off on her own and quickly slid into a smaller alleyway that was barely used and began her little adventure of the day.
Hours passed. They had started to look for the animals early in the morning, but it was getting close to lunch and Shizuko had yet to sight a single pet. Sure, she had seen some of the groups of kids come along with some dog or cat in a leash or in their arms, but not a single one had she seen herself. It didn't even dawn on her that there had been no one telling them how many animals were loose, or even what they looked like so as a result she was just walking around hoping to stumble upon some random animal that might be there. Getting tired in her small legs she sat down. For hours she had just been skulking around all the backalleys, looking in dumpsters, under buildings, in buildings, behind fences, in bushes and every other place a domesticated pet might want to hide from the rain in.
Her stomach growled making her tightly hug her stomach and grown loudly to herself. She was low on cash... again. There had been nothing at home for her to bring on a full-day thing like that when it came to eating. Tired and hungry she sulked while sitting up against a dumpster. She sat there for probably half an hour at least before she sighed deeply and got up on her feet again. The reward per pet was enough to give her ramen for a week or perhaps something else nice should she get dinner elsewhere. The point was that the money was really important to her, so she began stomping down the alley again. That's when she heard it. A faint sound it was. Reminded her of a kitty's mewling, but it still sounded somewhat different. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked around. The sound lured her, as if she was a fish and the sound was the tastiest worm ever. As she looked around her, she even caught herself sniffing as if that would help to locate whatever it was hiding close to her.
She moved towards a fence between two buildings; the sound got closer. She bent down towards the ground; even more closer. As she pushed a rather small bush aside, the treasure was revealed. It looked like a very big kitten. With dots! Or circles really. She tilted her head; she had never seen a cat with pattern like that. It was probably some exotic species, since it was out of the question that there was a jaguar loose in the village. After all, they had just said it was domesticated dogs and cats, nothing else! The poor little thing had gotten stuck in a hole in the fence, and as Shizuko got her hands close, it hissed and snapped at her. She pulled her hand back hastily, but she knew she had to help the poor thing so she reached out again while cooing softly with her voice, constantly reassuring the feline that it would be okay. Apparently it helped for it to calm down enough for her to help it out of the small crack in the fence and hold it up close to her body. It was definitely a kitten, that was for sure. It didn't have any adult features what-so-ever, not to mention it had a lot of excessive skin especially around its neck. But kitten or not, it was the size of a larger puppy. It was already bigger than a normal, fully-grown cat. It was quite heavy too! Shizuko didn't mind though as she sat down next to the fence with the cute little creature in her arms, petting and kissing it all over. It actually started to warm up to her, rubbing it's face and body against her on its own, even purring whenever she petted it.
Shizuko forgot the time. She just sat there for a long time, petting and snuggling the furry little thing. They seemed to get along great. And everytime she was about to get up and take it to the owner, she bit her lip and felt seriously sad about having to part with it. For two years had she been completely alone, and before that had she spent seven years not having a single friend or family memeber to appreciate her like that little thing did. Just thinking about it made her almost cry and sit back down for a while to pet it and snuggle. Eventually it came to a point where she knew that she had to turn it back for the cat's sake if anything, not to mention she needed the reward to survive for a while. Having a lot of tears run down her cheeks she stood up, keeping a firm yet gentle hold on the feline, then began walking back towards the meeting point for the lost animals.
She walked slowly. Super slow. To her there wasn't enough distance between her and the mission turn-in. The kitty was playing around with her raincoats sleeve, mewling and having fun in her arms. It really killed her just to think about giving it away. But the time had to come eventually as she heard the commotion from the meeting point getting louder and louder for each step she took. To a girl like her, it was close to torture. Eventually she came into view of the people waiting for the kids. Almost right away the owner spotted her and came up to her, being utterly ecstatic. ''Oh my... You found her! You found my little Jaguar cub! I didn't even know it was missing! Little girl, you're amazing!'' he said and gently took the little thing from Shizuko, who was struggling to wipe her face clean of tears as to not give away that she had been crying. She only nodded, not wanting to say anything. She knew if she opened her mouth she'd burst into a real crying fit again and she wanted to avoid that at all costs. The man, with the feline tightly in one arm, grabbed Shizuko with his free hand and pulled her over to the station where they handed out rewards. He began counting a bunch of bills and eventually handed Shizuko a stack of money of a size that she hadn't really expected. Being confused she slowly took the money and counted it. They had said one animal was worth 1500 yen. She had gotten 2250 yen instead. As she looked up at him with very confused eyes, he just smiled widely at her. ''Young lady, you really deserve this! She is very rare and she is hard to handle! How you got her to be so friendly with you is beyond me, I tell you! You deserve a bonus!'' the man explained. Shizuko nodded and took a deep breath. ''T-thank you sir...'' she said politely almost choking on the lump that had built up in her throat, then she nodded and turned around wanting to get as far away as fast as possible.
She turned her back on the man and the feline. She barely took a step before she heard a complaining little mewl. It was with great effort that she didn't turn around to look at it; she just couldn't handle that. She took a few more steps, and this time the mewl sounded a lot more desperate, almost sad. At this point Shizuko couldn't hold back her tears anymore so she just bit her lower lip in order to keep herself quiet and kept moving faster. But the sound the little creature made after that made Shizuko turn around and look over at it. Her face was completely wet and she was visibly shivering. ''I'll miss you, little one! You... You're the best friend I ever had but... I... I can't...'' she called out, but her voice was cut short. She couldn't possibly finish that sentence. Instead she fell on her knees and dug her face into her palms just openly crying, not caring whoever it was that saw her.
Meanwhile the pet collecter had been talking to one of the adults in charge, asking about Shizuko. After they had told him about her background, he was also tearing up. He understood, at least on some level, how she must feel. He felt so sorry for the girl he didn't know what to do. He looked to the thing in his arms, then over to the crying girl in the middle of the street. His eyes went back and forth between the two. All he knew was that as a collector, he didn't have such a strong emotional bond to any of his pets. It was actually quite amazing in his eyes, what a bond the girl and the cat had created in such a little time. It was even more amazing considering what a troublemaker that little feline had been to him. He closed his eyes, sighed and shook his head. To him, there was no way around it. With quick determined steps, he walked over to Shizuko and leaned down to place a hand on her shoulder. He put the little kitty down between them so it could get into view of the haunching girl, but it did so much more. It walked up to her and rubbed against her, feeling how sad she was. It was right there for her, comforting her in the only way it knew how to.
Shizuko looked up at the touch of her shoulder. She looked at the man with confused eyes for a few seconds until she felt something against her body. She looked down and her her sad expression changed in an instant. It might not have looked super happy since she had just been sad, but it looked as happy as it could. The redheaded girl reach down and grabbed the cat, and held it close to her.
''I want you to have her. She's yours. Oh, and you can keep the money too, you did a good job!'' he told her, then without another word, and without giving Shizuko a chance to reply, he stood up and walked back over to the station. He shrugged when the adults questioned his decision and asked them to help him pack things up. Then he looked over to Shizuko, blinked and gave her a huge smile before he got on with his day.
Shizuko just sat there. She wasn't sure what had just happened, all she knew was she had never been happier. Literally. That was the happiest moment in her entire life, not that there was much of a contest. She held the kitty close, smiled back to the man and quickly got distracted by how her kitty nibbled on the sleeve again. ''I'm gonna call you Nala!'' she told the cat, who in its own way seemed to agree by licking Shizukos nose. Happy as a clam, she walked home with a friend and money for food for both her and Nala.
Mission accomplished.
[MFT; WC: 2218]