Cats are Angels chapter 2

- Excuse me; is there someone by the name of Asuka Aon around?
- It's my daughter.
- She took care of a very important cat that my family has a great respect for. I would like to thank her personally.
- She must be going back from school right now. If you wait here a bit longer… she will arrive soon. Ah, there she is.
- Kira-san? What can I do for you? Are your arms and leg still hurting?
- How do you…?
- One's bound to recognize her work you know… you should have hid that slight cut here… and you were after all absent from school for the time of recovery and since I found you. Did you come to recover those two stupid ones on the back?
- Two stupid ones?
- I found two of your friends watching my sister on her bath… so I had to give a lesson of good manners. Please be kind enough to follow me.

She showed them a back room where there was a table, a few cages with only those of their kind. She took two cage where there was two cats and put them on the table.

- So, are there the ones you came to take back?
- I'll take back this one.
- And since this one is from my clan, I just guess I have to take it back with me.
- If you prefer, there is a changing room in the back. I put some mixed clothes there as well, just in case.
- How come you know?
- You can say thanks to those two… because, there is unlikely any cat that would blush seeing a human naked girl. I didn't know how to deal with them, so I may have overdid it a little…
- You should have just killed them and ditched their body into a trashcan somewhere.
- You have five seconds to change back and make your excuses…
- You too, just go and get changed already!
- Aon-san, I just can't say how much I am embarrassed right now, said Finn. We happen to be the heads of our clan. Would our excuse ease your anger?
- You're not at fault, as long as they apologize, there isn't much of a problem left… but this kind of behavior will alert my father and I wouldn't be too much happy about that.
- That won't happen twice. We've got our pride…
- And should all have some very good common sense.
- By now, I'm most anxious about this one. How to say it… it looks like someone used the medics that were stolen here a few months earlier and gave a mix of them to him.
- How can you be sure?
- I sent the blood to a very close friend of my father… as I thought your blood when in cat form is cent percent a regular cat blood. The only problem I saw was the abnormal quantity of that specific drug…
- What does that drug do?
- It makes an animal able to receive human blood. The others are close to anesthetics.
- Why would one do something like this?
- It is just a guess and might seem idiotic… but maybe to force him back to human form?
- There's no benefit doing so, we're even stronger when we're in human form.
- But a scientist wouldn't mind it, just being able to transform you before the public would do.
- Don't think too much ahead, said Asuka. Whoever took the time to do something that terrible won't miss to come back for him so take that key.
- What's this key for?
- It's a pass that open all the doors of the clinic. I can heal those who are wounded but I can't possibly face those who committed this. I am only a yet-to-become veterinary.
- Just stay those so, thanks for this.
- Don't get caught in something too nasty. Would you mind answering a question for me?
- It's the least we can do.
- Why it is that such ancient families like yours don't have either a veterinary or a doctor in them?
- It is forbidden; we don't know either how far behind it comes back but as long as I remember, it was always forbidden for us to be medics.
- This place will become suspicious, said Asuka, if too much of your friends flow around, but I wouldn't mind dropping by any place safe where I could look after them. You can't be medics but maybe you can be helpers if you don't do anything too medical?
- That is sure something we should be allowed to do if it's a human who take care of the medicals parts… since we can bandage our kind, wash and such.
- Think about it. You should know where to find me. And if you don't just ask those two perverts behind you where my bedroom, the bathroom or even the laundry is.
- I can't believe you guys, said Kira. It will be settled at the main house… say you're sorry and let's get going before I lose my calm.
- You too, Hinder.
- We are very sorry for our poor attitude!
- Moonlight-sama, Jingo-sama… sees you at school.
- I don't mind you calling me Kira, you know. You did avoid a nasty bloodshed.
- Same here, just call me Finn. I don't thinks you know how many of our kin you saved the other day… so just thinks of it as thanks.
- I will remember that.

She took two other cages and gave them back to them saying it would look strange getting off a veterinary's place without any animal… and she happened to tell them they would get two animals back before her father so he would suspect something strange. The two guys she gave back to their clan had their eyes and ears all out so their leader threatened them to kill them if they didn't manage to get back to their normal self in the next second. As they went away from the clinic, Asuka looked at the poor guy she kept under her care. The cat in the next cage looked at him too.

- You take very good care of us here. Thanks a lot.
- In the end, even with all I learned, I think I won't be able to save him. But I couldn't tell this to his leader whoever he was.
- This guy is Mash Moonlight, my cousin.
-  Sorry… I can't tell you he'll be alright. I hate to admit it but whoever did this… maybe is the only one who could cure him.
- You should say so to Moonlight-sama.
- He would put his life in danger right away… I felt he is this kind of person.
- But…
- What good would do to have two people dying when I might be able to save this one?
- Have you something in mind?
- There is a saying in the fairy tale I read once about you… if on a clear full moon day a human gives you mana, then you guys heal to your fullest.
- I've lived for about two thousand years, it's about the first time I hear about this.
- However, I wonder, if I give him my mana… will he become a girl?
- Don't joke around, said Mash; I'd rather die than become a girl.
- Mash, you should be polite in front of this lady.
- Why the hell? She put us in cage, gives us medics for animals and treats us like pets!
- Well, sorry about this. But you see, animal are about the only beings I know how to care. Too bad for you my dad is a veterinary and not a doctor. Then again, sorry for the cage but how do you expect an animal's clinic to have human bed? It is very unlikely we would get the masters along with their animals so we don't have three stars rooms at your comfort.
- Hinjy should only get involved with Hinjy.
- But your kind can't be medics and sometimes you get yourself involved in things that will require a medic around. So go and complain all you want, I won't let a single one of you die if I can save you. Sorry that it DOES include you.
- I apologize for my cousin… he's always like this when sick.
- That must be his cat's blood speaking. I guess.

Asuka tried her best to know about mana but couldn't get that much information. She spent the whole night worrying about it and when the next morning Kira and Finn came to pick her up for school, she had dark circle around her eyes and was goofing off while walking. Since they never went to school with a human, they just guessed she wasn't really a morning person and didn't say much respecting her slow awakening. Only when she almost got killed by a car and avoided it in the neck of time they realized she was very tired.

- Is there something we can help you with, Aon-dono? You seem a bit out of your minds today.
- I searched over the net whole night long and what I found is very confusing… there isn't much about how to give mana to a Hinjy so it is really hard to get ready for the next full moon.
- Would you mind fill us with a bit more details?
- To cure Mash Moonlight, it seems a human has to give him mana on a certain circle at full moon… I found the layout pattern for the circle but I don't know how to give mana to him. So I wonder where else than internet I can find a way to do it.
- You shouldn't extent yourself so much. You will get an accident.
- You barely avoided the previous one.
- About mana, we do use it to cast spells so maybe we could teach you how to focus it.
- You won't be able to use it for attack spells since elements doesn't listen to humans… but maybe there is a way that humans can give mana to us…
- Humans, said a voice behind them, have their own way to focus mana. It is nothing at all like us… for her to use her mana, she will only be able to cure because the moon will only listen to human females.
- And… you are?
- My name is Myu Starlight. I am also a grey Hinjy…
- So what did you came into this area for?
- Your head families didn't tell you?
- Our heads families? You mean the Trinity of Universe?
- Yes. They should have told you that the Starlight and Sunlight families are going to be there… and that the Jingo will get back their names as Spacelight.
- Starlight, Sunlight, Spacelight and Moonlight… that's quite lovely and peaceful names.
- I guess… that guy is going to arrive since you're here.
- That guy?
- Hi, lady, my name is Gin Sunlight. How nice of you to qualify our names with such adorable words.
- You're… just too pervert-looking. Don't come near or I shoot you with anesthetics…
- Do you carry some with you all the time?
- Ah, yes Finn-san, since after that incident with my sister, I think it's better to get prepared for anything worse.
- What happened?
- She caught a guy of each of our clan using his cat-form to peek on her sister in their bathroom.
- And yesterday late in the night I found a completely black one with copper rays in my sister's bed! Shouldn't you take better care of this matter?
- A black one you said?
- Yes.
- Are you sure?
- Of course. Something is the matter?
- You know, if you ever find another black one… avoid him with all your strength.
- Why?
- The fur of a Hinjy can be of many colors. Grey like us means neutrality… we won't hurt human unless we're in danger of facing a human we have to deal with… or human criminals… White means the Hinjy will side humans, try to save them at any cost… but well, this kind is more or less extinct now. Then come the black ones, they are usually deep blue but when they are eating the human's mana and soul, they turns black… it means that the one you saw on your sister's bed was indeed eating her away.
- It's not very nice to scare me you know…
- We're not joking around.
- Hey, yesterday I told him to go away or I would ask his friends in the infirmary to take care of his attitude… I must return to the clinic at once!

She was about to turn back and run toward her house but Kira punched her unconscious and took her into the school's infirmary while Finn led the other three towards the clinic. She was right to worry but she shouldn't be the one fighting back. When they arrived, her father was on the ground, a large wound bleeding and most likely endangering his life. Finn asked to Gin to take the man to a human hospital and come back since he had the more speed in human form out of all the three.

They found the black Hinjy trying to open the infirmary but repulsed by a very strange mana wall. Kira had just caught up when the black Hinjy said "That shitty girl, her feelings towards those fools are strong enough for the moon mana to answer her will to protect!"

- What the hell is this bastard speaking about?
- It appears, said Myu, that the room is full of the feelings of that girl toward the members of your clans. So those feelings have called upon the Moon and put a barrier… no one can enter here if his intentions are too devil.
- My clan has been updated about this place and that girl; we won't fail to erase them.
- That is, if you can beat the Four Universe clan.
- First the father, he is already taken care of.
- That man is alive, said Finn, I just came back from the hospital… they said his condition isn't as critical as it seems.
- That shitty girl again! Her feelings for this place bended my attack… Well, I'll crush her minds by crushing this shield.
- You have too much time to speak, said Kira. Die now.
Kira used fire mana to get rid of the Black Hinjy. Now they were worried about Asuka so they went at their full speed to her side. She was in the verge of being stabbed by another Black Hinjy but she put him to sleep with her anesthetic. Kira took the Hinjy and disposed of it while the other were making sure she was alright. They told her the truth about her father and she said she was sorry to have involved him into this situation.
- I think, said Kira, that we should ask him to be our official veterinary. Of course without telling him about the Hinjy part. He should move on to the clinic the Starlight family owns.
- Sounds fine by me, said Asuka, but what difference would it make?
- A big one, since this clinic is in the very middle of the Universe Council. There, he will be well served and well treated and of course guarded so nobody would be able to approach him or your sister if he had some dark intentions.
- Then, you should evacuate all the animals, including the regular ones and set fire to the old clinic… this way he won't be able to say no.
- Are you alright in your head?
- Did you really mean to make that offer to my family?
- Of course.
- Then do as I said, unless what he will tell you that he has his own clinic. And let me warn you, he might simply take care of every animal he will find or which the owner isn't rich enough to get his pet in another clinic.
- Which means, we only have to move it frontwards of the street so regular people can enter.
- Then it's decided, said Finn. It will be done in less than two hours.

Those guys definitely had their own pace to go so she decided to follow around as long as they would need her… her years of loneliness were over… in way she was the one who was saved by them. As she guessed, her father didn't give in their offer until he knew she was the one who accepted… since he always said that he would do anything she would ask him to get the right heritage she wished for, he did as he said he would.

The clinic was given to him as a gift with the only condition to take care freely of the four family's cats in there. The very large clinic had a very good and luxurious lodging upside so the entire family could be installed there. As the Hinjy took care of everything, only the things that could get brought easily were left to burn with the fire that didn't went too much on the main house.

The night after was a full moon and the four family head went to take Asuka and Mash. She went out of the house and they went by the gardens to get to the Starlight's main garden. There Asuka traced the circle on the ground, put Mash to the center and took place in the main circle to the north. Kira, Finn, Gin and Myu sat on the other circle and she put all her feelings toward the Hinjy into the circle… she saw the circle glow and Mash transformed into his human form. He took the cloths that were prepared for him and thanked her, saying he was sorry for his foul mood before.

The next night, Kira was beside Asuka's windows and waited for her to open her windows. She opened it and invited him to came in asking what was the matter and if she could do something for him. He asked for something to sleep because with all the events, he couldn't sleep very well. She went to the clinic, took some pills and gave him saying he had about half an hour to get to his bed. Soon after, Finn went by and said he had too much to worry and felt too anxious so she went down again, took some pills to relax him and tried to go to sleep. After those two, five other cats, including Myu went for something.

Her sister woke up to find a grey cat with golden rays in her bed. She took it with her since he was already there and asked her sister if he had gone missing from the infirmary. She took the cat and almost swallowed her pen saying he was indeed missing the infirmary. This is how a beaten-up Gin appeared with the four others. Since he didn't told them about why she would go violent on him she said he slept with her sister all the night. She even gave him a good slap behind the head with her paper fan so her words would mark his head.

- Next time you do something like this, I drop you alive in the crematorium.
- I'll help you, said Kira.
- Why are you so protective with your sister, asked Gin, could you be jealous that a man slept with her?
- This is not jealousy, it's fighting perverts! And shall I remember you that you had to trick her by being in your cat form to even approach her? To me, she didn't slept with a men this night but with a big coward that preferred tricking her than go with regular methods.
- She's quite harsh, said Gin. We might be Hinjy but we have also human feelings. And there isn't a single hot girl among Hinjy! So we might as well take humans.
- I see; to you my sister is a drop out that come after a Hinjy would because you finally have nothing else to get under your paw?
- It's not what I meant.
- But it is exactly what you said!
- Don't take that stupid guy too seriously, said Kira. And please don't mix other Hinjy with him.
- Seriously, I would feel offended, said Myu, to ever be put in the same bag as this one.
- Ignore him; said Finn, he only has his speed for him.
- But that speed saved my father, so for this only I will thank you. And as far as it goes for my sister, I dare you come to her in your human form. I would like to see how she would dump you straight!
- Human can't resist Hinjy! Said Gin. We're just too handsome and we're very attractive.
- Is that all you count on you? Asked him Asuka straight in the eyes. Well yes you're hot, all of you, every single one I see it is true you are among the most beautiful ones… But if it's all you have for you, then what good is an empty shell?
- We can use mana too and make powerful spell?
- Do you intend to roast your girlfriend? Or to freeze her? That again is only fighting… beauties fighting together; I hope you're more than this, Sunlight-san. Or you'll just get emptiness in return.
- What else shall a boy be? Asked Gin. Hot, nice and powerful enough to protect his girlfriend?

Turning suddenly, she slapped him once again with her fan. They all could felt a very powerful anger in her. She was like boiling because of Gin and they wondered what they could say in these circumstance. Given the conversation, Kira was both embarrassed to barge in and curious, he wished in fact that Gin would extract more of her in that subject.

- When you speak like that, you are really nothing else than a vulgar animal you know! But, said Asuka suddenly serious and mysterious, all other times you are yourselves. Neither animal that prey upon other, neither human full of themselves and foolish to the core. That is why I won't fail studying both how to being a good veterinary and a good doctor.
- Neither human, neither animal… it is true we aren't really any of this. Maybe this is why we are grey. Because we can't be either one or the other.
- For a jealous sister, you can say pretty worthy things. But don't you feel awkward saying humans are full of themselves and foolish?
- He's true you are a human after all.
- Isn't it foolish to step into something you don't know much about, that almost killed your family and will most like put it under further danger? And isn't it being full of them thinking that maybe I could be of use when the truth is you saved me from boredom and loneliness?
- That much, I can give you. I never saw a human going straight into our affairs without asking enough questions to take a year to answers. As for loneliness, if you want I'll switch beds and go to yours instead?
- Don't even bother cross my door or window if you want to stay alive.
- We'll be the ones dropping you dead if you even try to go near her.
- Why would you do that Finn?
- Because she saved my life twice.
- And you Kira?
- Because she cleared misunderstood between Finn and me, helping avoiding bloodshed.
- And you Myu?
- Isn't it obvious? Because I am against her thinking that Hinjy are all perverts like you.
- Hey, Asu-chan, would you be against having a Hinjy for a boyfriend?
- Of course not. If he is a being I can accept entirely, I wouldn't mind at all.
- Then, how about to date me?
- I can't accept you entirely, Sunlight-san, since you're already sleeping with my sister and you are a pervert that can't be cured even by the world's best psychologist.
- Too bad, because I wouldn't mind having you as a girlfriend.
- And to boot, get real, you're a family head right? How do you plan on making a mere commoner your girlfriend? People shouldn't be hungry to eat what's outside their reach. That is also why I don't want you to involve yourself too much with my sister… because in the end she would be the one hurt.
- You know, human ways of families aren't quite like ours, said Finn. True enough we can't take anyone as girlfriend. But that is meant to say "don't take someone that will reveal our secrets." Nobody would be against your sister in Gin's family, as long as she is aware of the situation and able to keep the secret.
- Refrain from saying your secret to my sister unless you're dead serious in your relation with her. My sister is fragile so if she doesn't have a strong love to cling to, she might collapse and betray you.
- And you? Asked Kira.
- Well, I'd rather bite my tongue than revealing it. Because I wouldn't bear to lose precious people that have gave me back a little warmth.
- Don't do that please, said Myu, we'd be saddened to lose our precious medic.

In the end, she mainly avoided, even when Gin was pressuring her, to say what kind of guy she liked. They couldn't do much if she would fall in love with another human, and they trusted she wouldn't tell even her husband about them. Because she was human, the Universe Council doubted her so they used their powers as heads of the families to make them bend to their desire. But to them, just like she didn't saw either animals or humans in them, they couldn't see anything else in her that the bright girl who took care of them when any other would have let them die.

But they couldn't predict that her sudden change of clinic would make the one behind's Mash case being conscious that he hit the jackpot. In the middle of the day, she was called by the infirmary's doctor. As soon as she was alone with her, he attacked her then tied her and slapped her over and over asking where the cat that was drugged was. She constantly said that she never had such a cat at her father's clinic and he went on with the Hinjy tale.

- I clearly saw them, the golden eyes with a cat-like slit and the ears! And the race of those cats you care at the clinic are Hinjy, too much of a coincidence in my eyes!
- All you saw was a boy with contact lens and false cat ears! How can you be so unscientific?
- The cat ears' fur I got analyzed were made of real cat fur.
- Then it was made of a dead cat fur.
- Don't play dumb with me! You must know something!
- I don't know anything! Why would I say lies to you in such a situation!

Kira wondering why Asuka got called to infirmary went there to check on her. When he heard she never went here, he became to feel that something wasn't right. He immediately contacted Gin, Finn and Myu to know if they could check the school with him. None of the regular place a student would met the doctor was good. They couldn't find her no matter what they would do and she wouldn't answer her phone either. It was like she vanished after being seen in the corridor with the doctor… a quick call to the main house told them that no hospital called to warn about having Asuka so she couldn't be possibly injured very badly or something like this.

Their sixth sense became to tell them that Asuka was this time again into danger. Where could she possibly have been led? That was something they had to find out as fast as possible or it could get ugly. They wished Asuka wouldn't bite her tongue yet since they would make sure to find her. Kira caught a faint scent that tickled him… what was that scent somehow familiar? He asked about it to his friends and finally, it was Finn who remembered what it was: anesthetic.

The four of them looked at the ground… the scent was leading them somewhere. Asuka must have done this to tell them where she was. Clenching his fist, Kira asked why they didn't realize it sooner. As they approached the little wooden hangar, they could hear what was told between Asuka and the doctor.

- So you were really the one who did that to Mash?
- Mash?
- The cat you tried to kill was named Mash. He passed away and I sent him to the crematorium with my father.
- What have you done? The injection should only have changed him back to human form!
- There isn't such a cat that would change into a human!
- I told you, didn't I? The boy I saw had cat ears, golden and slit eyes!
- And I answered you that it was stuffed ears and contact lens!
- When I made the injection he grew a lot larger! I'm sure he was going to transform into a human! If only I had put more to get his minds down he wouldn't have resisted!
- You're only a tormentor that knows nothing. You're clinging to a fairy tales. Hinjy are cats and what you've done is only to torment a poor defenseless cat!
- Enough!

He asked her about how to find Hinjy but she wouldn't tell him anything so he punched her one more time. As her tears flew through her swollen face, she didn't say a word about the Hinjy. She kept saying they were cats and that the boy he saw was only faking being a cat. Kira kicked the door out of his joints so badly that it clashed to the opposite wall. Seeing Asuka blood made the four of them very angry. True enough she didn't tell a word about them and it was also true that killing that guy would have make her suffer for nothing, but their own blood was boiling their veins while running through it.

- You know, said Kira. You should be thankful to the lady here… because I won't kill you since she hold up until our arrival.
- Are you Hinjy?
- She told you right? Hinjy is a race of cats… but we so happen to be from a religion that worship this kind of cats since far away in history.
- You… sure… took… your… sweet… time!
- Asuka!
- Don't worry, she just fainted, said Myu. She injected herself the anesthetic she had left to kill the pain and probably be sure to say no more.
- I never really whished so badly to kill someone, said Gin. But hell yeah, it would be wasting her efforts.
- Since you say her efforts, is it to hide that you guys are Hinjy?
- No, her efforts to stay alive so we wouldn't kill you painfully.
- Would she be dead by now that you doctor would have regretted being even born.
- Why would the sons of the most ancient family around liking an ugly nobody like her if it wasn't for that secret?
- First of all, she's cute. Get your eyes checked… her face is swollen by you right now but she's cute and has a very kind smile. Then among all the girls that stick us up for power, money, or such, she's just a friend which is pretty rare. To us she is a precious being that wouldn't make us sad even taking upon her to have her feelings hurt.
- But since you happen to be Mash's tormentor, it also means you're the one who burned down her clinic, sent her father to hospital and stole goods at her ancient workplace… Too bad for you, isn't it?
- You will try to charge me of all that?
- Try? With our power we don't merely try, we do. You filthy man. You laid your hands on the wrong woman you know.

They put Asuka on a bed at the infirmary where the nurse got informed about sexual harassment by the doctor. She was very shocked but Asuka's state was some kind of proof to her so she filled in her report. She asked why Asuka had anesthetics on her and they said that her father was attacked a few days ago so she took some of those to protect her… since she couldn't break free from the doctor; she used it on her to halt the pain from the beating.

- You guys can go back to class; I'll take care of her.
- If you don't mind, we'll stay at her side. She happens to be the daughter of the veterinary of our family, so we care for her.
- I don't mind… how disgraceful for a doctor in a school to do such things!
- Will she regain consciousness soon?
- She should awake in ten minutes. I'll go to the director of the school since you stay with her.
- We won't move.

The nurse went off the office and they made sure she was too far to hear them to begin to speak. They were suspecting every single person of the school by now and wouldn't feel at ease before they got all of their clan to a private school in spite of this one. Of course, Asuka was included in the moving, they wouldn't go anywhere leaving her behind like this.

- She held on well… poor Asu-chan, she got so much trouble.
- Didn't I tell you? I would rather bite my own tongue than to speak. But only after making sure that you guys wouldn't be able to retrieve me from the person trying to make me speak.
- Why did you follow him since you knew it was a trap?
- I didn't know for sure it was a trap. I dropped the anesthetic just in case… He smelled like the Carriage, that drug he gave Mash, so I thought it would be easier for you to get him if you knew where we were. In my minds, you would recognize the smell immediately and come in time. I intended to drop in a normal conversation the indices for you to investigate further… but you showed much later than I thought you would.
- But you sure were suspicious since you had your anesthetic ready to be dropped discreetly.
- There isn't much doctor around that knew we had Carriage. That one and the other veterinarian of the district. So when I was called while I had nothing to do at the beginning with the doctor, I knew something was fishy. But in the same time, people would notice I had something wrong going on if I refused to meet the doctor.
- Gossips would have surely begun to run wild, illness or physical problems… you would have been suspicious.
- But it's dangerous, said Asuka; if we stay in this school… you might get exposed. I wonder who the one that got careless and have been seen is…
- Let us handle that much. We're sorry you got into trouble again because of our carelessness.
- First it was your father; now it's you… we can't possibly just apologize.
- Yes you can't. Because you don't have. If I would have minded my own business I wouldn't have been into trouble. But I barged in your world with no knowledge… that is a kick-back of my stupidity. One's bound to problems when acting before thinking.
- That's joking around. You never asked for your father to be hospitalized and you being beaten to that extent.
- If I didn't wished to know more about you, I wouldn't have gotten into trouble. I would have only ignored Kira that day when seeing his wounds were nothing near natural or took him, bandaged him and put him out of the clinic. Alike with Mash, if I didn't keep him I wouldn't have seen my father in that state. But I was just too curious to find the answer.
- To what?
- Why would that person say: "If you are a Hinjy then step down and fight!"? Why would Hinjy fight their life out? Getting closer to the answer, I think I begin to understand…
- What is the answer you found out?
- Isn't it because living so long, hiding half of yourself and being so beautiful you are bounds to finds more hardships than anyone along the way? Living so long, you will see any human you get attached to die before you do… Two thousand years, you can see at two generation of a family during that much time… I guessed so when I learned Mash's age. Hiding that you can be either a cat or a human, there's bound to be times when you need your other part but can't use it… so you will feel miserable, having that much power but being unable to use it when you need it… I would feel the worse. As for being beautiful, it's just worsening the need to hide your other form… Any "owner" would feel offended if his adorable cat would be a human too… and most of humans wouldn't feel like you can have feelings since you are also animals… That is the answer I came to thinks about… to make sure you are alive and to work your minds out, you would put yourself into risk to feel you can die too, you can use enough of your potential whatever your form is and you would be sure you're not an empty shell.
- It's so close to the truth in so few time among us that you are scary, Miss Aon-san, Said Myu.
- But I expected no less from an answer coming out of you.
- By the way, Kira were the floor and sugar effective yesterday?
- I couldn't fool you, eh?
- Guess mine were too?
- Of course. Only Myu who got real pain got real medicines.
- So you disagreed that I was in the bed of your sister but you didn't care about them lurking into your room?
- First of all, none of them barged in, I invited them. Secondary they never stepped outside the rectangular table I put aside my windows. I decided that this would be the landing zone of those who wants to meet me… a step outside uninvited and I just drop you by the windows.
- If you can catch us that is.
- Didn't you felt your pawns itching a little?
- Yes.
- That is the powder in the table. It would make sparks with the powder scattered in my bedroom… thus making you run slower. But the reality is that isn't aimed at you… I am only that scared of sleeping.
- You're scared of sleeping?
- Can't be helped okay?! My mother died in her sleep. Since then I can't sleep.
- That is why your sister kept shaking until I got near her?
- Can't be helped too. Every night to keep her from crying I went to warm her bed until she would sleep… so when I'm not around, she just shake endlessly. Ah, you made me say unnecessary things, you're just too much. Making me cry like that, people will thinks I'm some weak cry-baby… what a way to treat the daughter of an employee.
- You are nothing like this to us.
- Yeah but staring at my swollen face isn't making me forgetting I look pretty awful. You know, even yet-to-become medics likes to cover when they feel they looks awful. And don't you dare come to say my face don't by now please… I can see it in the mirror in your back.
- We'll stand outside through until the cold water cleanup that mess of your face.

They went outside where a few girls gathered… some were already gossiping around, spreading stories from how she got attacked because she played to seduce the doctor… They were just so much annoyed that they asked to girls why she would do something like this. The girl said that since she had her way close to them who never mixed among the other, they couldn't be helped that she would use means that nobody would ever do.

- She sure used something you wouldn't. She used honesty… she told us straight to our face that we were just empty beautiful shell. So we accepted her as a friend… because pointing to our weakness and ugly part, she can still evolve around us… that is something you girls won't do because you are afraid of being disliked.
- That's why you would only gossip behind her back. You don't have half her modesty.
- But sorry for you girls, we've got already plenty of hypocrites at home licking our shoes to get more powers.
- So we don't need more of them.
- You shouldn't speak like that to ladies, said Asuka, you'll be the one disliked in the end.
- We don't particularly mind.
- I don't need matching scars you know. Yours are already pretty big anyway.

Kira took a look sideway, she was right on her feet but she was clearly making it hard on her. She stood just by her pride to not get into bed too long. She asked to Kira when they were to transfer school and he said they didn't had to stay for the day, preparation would be over the next day. She smiled and asked if they could head straight home. Since it was obvious she tried to save face until her very last limit, they went back.

She said hi to her father while walking straight into her room and didn't stop like usually by her sister's room. She cried once she got in her bed but tried to do it the most silently she could. However, silently sat on the tree next her window, the guys could heard her clear and sound… her heart was releasing her true feelings.

- Yeah, she's dead right, humans are foolish… They cling to their pride so much they would die for it.
- But somehow, her pride gives a feeling of comfort. She's not keeping her head on for herself but for others… isn't she?
- Yup.
- Makes me wonder if she isn't just too nice for our world.
- Come on, she's plenty proven she's worth some effort…
- And in the end, weren't we the ones who betrayed her absolute trust?
- I won't forget to catch anything the next time, said Gin.
- Like we should even let a second time arrive.
- I think it's going to happens, said Kira, and because she's just too strong minded. Once decided on something she'll go straight to the point… it's just like this "Come with me, I won't slow down my pace, just keep up with me."
- Like some brat, a girl to boot, would be a challenge.
- So you say…
- Yes so I say but I am the most aware, said Myu, that I wasn't able to keep up the pace today. She knew before me she was trapped, she knew that it was a trap. She went to the trouble to let us hints and even slowed down the enemy… but in the end we did nothing but failures. Number one, not to notice the doctor was strange…
- Number two, searching everywhere and outside school… trusting the doctor wasn't at fault.
- Number three not even catching a scent human were already complaining about.
- She's got us good.
- How long it's been since we last got to be together in the same town?
- I would a little less than two thousand years.
- Wasn't it a thousand and two hundred?
- I feel something strange about this time…
- So you do. It's as if the great will is making things go in a weird sense…
- We may be Hinjy but we're not at the same time, the regular type of Hinjy… so maybe it's why we can feel it.

The next day, Asuka woke up somehow feeling she had a very good night for the first time in so long. When she opened her eyes, she saw the three cats lying around her in her bed… she looked at her room and saw that not a single trace of powder was left. Those… guys really did take care of every single bit of her powders… she was about to take them by the tail and let them die falling by the windows but Kira opened his eyes just before she did it to Myu.

- May I ask something Asuka-san?
- You! How dare you?!
- Where do you thinks this area is back when he's in human form?
- Where… well… Kyaaaa!
- Hey… she almost broke the wall with Myu.
- I think he blasted the wall to make his landing less hurtful.
- Kira what were you thinking?
- Gross! You're Gross! Get out of my room, Myu!
- Guess, it's back to the two of us now…
- Did you plan this?
- What are you doing you two? Get out too! And don't you dare coming back!

As she was throwing anything that would be near her, they went out of her room to join Myu who had a very difficult awakening but somehow were a bit strange this morning. Finn sighted and looked very annoyed towards Kira:

- Guess… you put us all out of this…
- How could I imagine she would react like this?
- You sure got used to the woman around your house, didn't you?
- What do you mean?
- You're just like us, said Myu; both me and Gin. You forgot how a true pure girl would react… and with a heart like hers too…
- Any girl we know would have only blushed out of thinking further about that part of a guy… but she must be a virgin so it's the forbidden zone to her.
- Interesting, said Kira, but thanks to Myu, she was totally defenseless so I could ease it… She should be able to sleep in peace by now.
- You erased the memories of her mother?
- I couldn't erase them, even using all my powers. Her memories, she won't let go of them even painful or horrible… but I unlocked a memory she didn't remembered well enough… her mother was suffering of some illness, so dying while sleeping, she left this world with a smile… in her sleep, she was released of her pain and happy.
- To resist to your spells, she's got quite a strong will, this girl.
- Like we didn't know about that.
- True enough… but our job around her is done and somehow, I don't want a second awakening like this.

Looking toward her windows, they saw her jumping by and almost got a heart attack. She safely landed on the branch and went down to the ground. She headed to place where the external wall wasn't too much guarded and used her Moon mana to climb. She was really getting used to it, that mana she didn't know what to do with at the start. But, why was she getting out of the mansion so secretly? Was she that angry at them? They decided to follow her.

All along the town, she avoided mixing with people and got to the other side of the town without being noticed by the Hinjy that now all knew her name and face. She finally reached the place she was willing to go. It was a large and dangerous place where "danger" was written everywhere. She entered it without even paying attention to the signs. A large and deep breach was in the center and she searched where to jump in.

- Is she going to make suicide right in front of our eyes?
- Kira, didn't you tease her a bit too much?
- Give me a break already! All I did was to be slightly lecherous. Nothing to take her own life for!
- Anyways, let's get her before she does!
- Asuka, you stupid! Don't go suicide just for what happened!
- Why are you here? And what are you talking about?
- We followed you all the way here…
- You're not a cat, you shouldn't jump out your windows like this, and you almost got us doing a heart attack!
- Ah that, it's only because the guard wouldn't have let me go there.
- Sorry about this morning, please don't take your life for that!
- Taking my life? What do you thinks of me Kira? Do I seem someone who would take her own life?
- No; but right now… weren't you searching for a place to jump in that hole?
- Because I want to get safely to the bottom to search for it.
- What do you want to search? We'll get it for you.
- A few ago, someone dropped a baby Hinjy there… it's faint but I can still sense him fighting for his live… so I figured I would try to pick him up. Before he's moved anywhere, I must make sure he is in condition to be moved. So I have to go myself. That is why I avoided the guards.
- You felt him, from this distance? That quite unbelievable.
- Ah, there, I can get to the bottom safely here.

She jumped in but Kira jumped right after and gripping her, he made it to the bottom in two jumps. As she was blushing he said that it was faster this way… she couldn't see much in the darkness but she kneeled and search the ground like this. As they were fine in the dark, they begun to search for the baby. Kira finally found it; he was in cat form which is how he survived the fall. Asuka was right, he was hanging to his life, trying to survive and calling for help.

She quickly went on and examined him. He had several bone fracture but fortunately his spine and brain weren't damaged, at least he could be moved to the clinic quickly. Kira took Asuka in his back since she discovered that she couldn't go up anymore. Finn took the newborn and they all climbed back like this. Since they had to go fast, they used their mana to become invisible and jumped from house to house right back to the clinic.

Her father took the baby in charge immediately… at first his fur was pitch black so Asuka was worried about what would her friends do. Since she didn't know any other way to communicate she went straight to them who were waiting in the garden and asked them about how they were intended to "deal" with the situation. Kira was the first one surprised that she would go that straight to such a matter, she was asking them if they were going to kill a newborn.

- Let me tell you something, true enough I don't know much about your world… but there is something I must show you before you do anything.
- What is it? Even if I don't thinks it can change anything to the situation…
- Follow me.
- Well, said Kira, it won't hurt us to go and see… I guess we have sometimes to trust woman when it comes to baby.
- That is not a question of being a baby or a woman… I have something you should witness by yourself since nobody seems to have you shown something like that.

She went with them inside the clinic. She took the baby and put it on the arms of Kira asking him to look straight in the eyes of the baby and asked him what he could saw. There was something in the eyes of the baby that made him loose total confidence about the baby's need to be taken care of… The same happened to the four of them… why did this baby gave them the feeling he could be changed to grey or even white when his fur was so pitch black?

- Do you know what a baby is?
- We know full well how a baby is born, yes.
- You had many babies in the past, didn't you?
- No. We can't have child because being the head of a clan, your divine powers will make you unable to have babies.
- Then this is why you just don't know what exactly a baby is. What you see right in front of your eyes… is absolute trust. A baby can't survive without adults to look after him… this is why they born with absolute trust in adults… not forcibly for his parents. But for the one that would look after him. The very moment this baby was dropped into that pit… he had to trust someone that would save him and he clung to his live trusting someone would care for him. That very trust is what you must never, absolutely never break. If you give back love in exchange for this trust, then I feel that this baby's fur doesn't have any meaning at all.
- There was case, said Kira, where a baby would change color… from white to black, from black to grey… if I remember well, it was a little hundred years ago that one of our clan became white while he was growing.
- In my clan, a baby turned black after being mistreated.
- It was bound to happened, said Asuka… how would you feel betrayed by the person you would have put your entire person, soul included, into his hand?
- I would hate him, said Kira, from the very bottom of my heart. I would go to the depth of hell to kill him. My thirst of revenge would never end before he would be dead.
- Being that trustful, said Asuka, a baby is like a double-edged sword. I don't know how many time a baby Hinjy take to become a child you can communicate with but if you mistreat him then he will grow thinking that trust isn't needed in this world and will become bitter… yet it wouldn't be weird for him to hate the whole world and turn black.
- How do you know all that? I mean, you've got merely sixteen years behind you…
- The same way you just did. I looked into his eyes and saw that trust… I can't help but feeling he's going to make it through life without being black his whole life.
- There is a woman, said Kira, in my clan that was a black long ago. She turned grey a two hundred years ago. I thinks she should be the most suited to care for this child.
It didn't take Kira an hour to get the woman there and Asuka took the baby and presented it to her. She looked very closely at the look the woman had in the eyes… she wasn't going to give the baby to her if her look wasn't really going to take care properly of him.
- You… said Asuka… have the look that suits the situation.
- What do you mean? Asked Myu.
- I wasn't going to give this baby to her and keep him at the clinic if she had eyes that I couldn't trust.
- Why?
- Because, being a black before; said Asuka; there was a chance she would only see her own self from before in this baby. But that is not how it is going to be, isn't it Yayoi-san?
- I would lie if I denied that this fur didn't remember my own… but that baby trusts me as a mother, doesn't he?
- Wouldn't he look at all adults the same? Asked Gin.
- Of course, said Asuka, but only an adult giving the vibe of willing to give back that trust would be able to feel like parents.
- What do you mean? We can't possibly count as this…
- Do you really think so? Asked Yayoi. When you took me who had no clan, wasn't really a grey by this time and wasn't either really a black… didn't you gave me that very vibe only a family can give?
- Well, anyone of my clan is like a family. That goes without saying? I am to lead every single of you. You gave me the power over your life, said you would follow the clan's decision which are mainly decided by me, so of course I gave you the trust I felt you lacked to be more confident in that place.
- Because you trusted me, the other began slowly to trust me too. So that way, I finally got my grey fur… even though I fell from silver ray to copper ones. That is exactly what a baby need, back in exchange for his trust and for putting his hands on your hands, you have to give him love, show that you care for him and of course, give him the limits he need to feel safe.
- Adults, said Asuka, have already lost the possibly to trust that much someone… this is an ability only a baby can have. That is why, when we lose this ability, we gain the ability of being loyal… well, even Gin should have that deep down somewhere, truly buried in the depth of his consciousness.
- It's hitting me hard, said Gin, of course I can be loyal.
- Love, said Asuka, should only be given to someone that you can be loyal to. Because you have to put with everything of that person, don't you? Then when he's really upsetting you, there is only loyalty that will prevent you to drown in the default of the others?
- Even blacks, said Yayoi, rely on loyalty because it is an ability we can't break… any broken loyalty is sure to destroy the breaker and the broken, because it need means that are worse than slyest poisons to dissolve such a bond.
- Of course; said Asuka; that is only the whim of a mere human. Living as long as you do, there's bound to be times when even loyalty falters…
She looked at the five persons in the room, then to the baby and closed her eyes, making her kind and gentle smile again, like when she was taking care of her patients… then she said to the silent room, just to brighten the mood:
- But such faltering must surely give something like friendship or respect. Or so I hope, because when I die I want to be friends with the people I know when I was living and face them with at least that much respect or friendship!
- You're quite good, said Yayoi. There aren't many humans that would think of the day they will die with a smile. After all, facing risky situation, where death is next door or thinking that ahead of you there is nothing but deaths… don't you feels anxious?
- I want to trust… I want to trust that I live so I will have fulfilled my entire wish and won't have regrets to say "I could have done more if only..." so I will go on living trusting the ones who apparently will go with me trough life. My wish after all, isn't really hard to realize since I only want to die after being happy. Knowing that my true wish isn't that hard to obtain, I can say that if I don't have to be anxious about what I couldn't get.
- Don't you want things like fame, money, belongings, immortality and such?
- Does it make one really happy? I mean once you have those, can you still trust other?
- There is no way, said Gin; those could be the root of happiness. Just look at us… we've got everything a human would die for. Fame… we're number ones among the girl's clan, every single Hinjy in this world know that we are not regular Hinjy and they either fear us or look forward us. I can sleep with a woman each day, well just to find that the day they find love what I have won't be enough to get her to stay.
- Money? We have enough to buy every single country of this world and still have money left. We did have two hundred years of savings after all. But we can't trust people because they will try to get that money and even getting enough for their life content, they will only wish for more and more.
- As for belongings, once you've brought everything you want, there's just an empty feeling of having nothing left to wish for.
- Moreover, as for an immortality… maybe she's too close to us to want it.
- True enough, living to see my sister and my dad then the child of my sister die… I don't feel like it.
- You're a weird human, to have no needs.
- How rude. I do have needs of course but when you need something, you are bound to work hard to get it. And I trust some people already take care of most of them from behind my back. Because I trust from the bottom of my heart that this people who know me a bit too well will always fills the gaps in my hearts and give me what I need, then I can thinks I will die happy.
- But since you're struck with Hinjy, said Yayoi, you won't be able to have child.
- Is that really so? Don't Kira and the others have found another way to have child? Then so I do…
- How so?
- Right now in your arms, on the operation table and in all those cages… those I attend here are all like my child already.
- Even the regular animals?
- Let's say those are the ones I would like as my child the most. Because, in the end, they are the most defenseless around here.
- What if, you found one that was mistreated?
- Isn't that obvious? I wouldn't give it back to the owner… and found a suitable owner… well of course, there is always the case where the animal loves his owner even if the owner is cruel with him. But in those cases, I guess you have to educate and look after the owner so he won't do it again. Worse scenario case, maybe I can entrust my feelings to the animal so he will realize that he must leave his owner.
- That sounds reasonable, said Kira. You would do so with your moon mana?
- I don't thinks that the mana is as powerful as feelings gave to someone. But here you went again making me sprout nonsense around… well Yayoi-san, take great care of that child… if he can't grow to trust, to love or to feel comfortable. Then be sure to be the one to put an end to his suffering. One shouldn't live on with feelings that are like needles in the body.
- Sure, being a black is like suffering hell all eternity long. It's when I realized this that I begun to grow grey.
- This is why I felt like by being accepted you were feeling better and getting closer to being grey.
- Yes that is.

Asuka got a phone call so she went to her bedroom. While Kira put his mark on the baby, he said to Yayoi that from now on, she was entrusted the life of Sheer, which he recognized as his daughter. He went on spying a little to Asuka wondering what the call she just received was and a little astonished that she would have kept friends from her previous life.

As she cried, he decides to ask her who it was. Her figure was very pale and she looked frail, like she was about to collapse. Her eyes met Kira's one and for a split second, they became grey and slit… She answered him with a smile that it was a friend from long ago and that she had to go met her. He didn't say anything, under the chock of seeing her eyes like that even for such a short moment.