Chapter 5: Kitty Sticky Paws
The cat girl from last night was in front of him, seated on the boulder as she fiddled with his phone. She was more human looking now, aside from the cat ears, yellow slitted eyes and the tail. She wore a worn out jacket over a top with fitted shorts. She was barefoot with a pendant necklace that hung around her neck.
She turned to him. "Morning."
"Morning," he responded. "How long have you been sitting there?"
She considered the question with the level of seriousness it deserved.
"A while," she said.
Her voice was clear, direct. Just the words and what they meant.
Most people would have introduced themselves but she was too casual with it. So he went for a direct approach.
"What’s your name?"
"Yumiko." Just that, no follow up.
The system flashed a popup.
[ Yumiko | Nekari ]
Julius glanced at it briefly before he spoke. "You were there last night. You led the bear to me."
"It wasn’t my intention," she replied.
"But it happened regardless," he said
"I watched you after."
"How does that make up for..." He planted a palm to his face. Either she was doing this deliberately or she genuinely didn’t see the problem. Julius wasn’t sure which was worse.
She was still holding on to his phone.
"Could I have that back?" He stretched his hand.
She processed his statement for a few moments before proceeding to hand the device over but while she was doing this, the alarm rang.
Startled, she tossed the phone to him.
Julius was caught off guard by the action and fumbled to catch the device. It fell, hard.
He picked it up and examined it for damages. A couple of cracks had developed on the screen. He wasn’t using a protector. There were other scratches on it but the touch feature worked. He silenced the alarm, taking a few breaths before looking at Yumiko.
She didn’t offer an apology.
He let it slide and looked around for the pouch. When he couldn’t find it, he asked Yumiko if she’d seen it.
"I found one on the ground," she replied.
Julius surmised it must have fallen off him when he tumbled down the slope. He almost smiled as he reached his hand, gesturing for Yumiko to hand it over.
However, that smile vanished as Yumiko declined to give it back claiming she found it on the floor and planned to keep it. Something about finders keepers.
He looked at her for a moment.
"That pouch fell out last night because of the bear you led to me," he protested.
"Mine," she countered.
Julius gave up. He didn’t have the energy to wrestle it from her, nor did he plan to especially since he didn’t know what she was capable of.
But this much was certain to him. She was a thief.
He looked around for his dagger and found it conveniently placed near where he rested earlier. Yumiko didn’t steal it or didn’t deem it valuable to steal. He took note of that.
He also recalled she mentioned watching him. He didn’t know if that was comforting or creepy but at the very least she didn’t kill him in his sleep.
Torn between thanking her and lashing out, he chose neither and started walking up the slope in the direction he had fallen from. If he could find the structure he built, he might find the remaining food the council had given him.
His pain had reduced slightly but his body ached from being used like a bowling ball.
The sound of another footstep echoed behind. Yumiko was following him. He found that strange and adjusted his path slightly off course to confirm.
She kept following.
Julius stopped walking. "What do you want?"
"Nothing."
"Why are you following me?"
"You smelled different. Wanted to see," she answered.
"Different? in what way?" Julius resisted the urge to take a whiff of himself. It was his second day in a new world and he hadn’t taken a shower.
"In a different way." No further explanation.
He wasn’t sure how to respond to that so he kept moving.
The walk uphill was quiet with the exception of the sounds of nature to fill the silence. The bear incident aside, it wasn’t a terrible place overall. Insects and various critters made noises as they moved about.
The rays of the morning sun formed golden beams through cracks in the trees which made everything seem more surreal. Julius was mostly familiar with scenes like these from fantasy movies.
He took out his phone again. The cracked screen caused a slight resistance as he tried to navigate the device. But he managed regardless. He was no stranger to inconvenience.
He opted to open his messages this time. Checking the recent ones which featured his brother, his team leader, his aunt, his ex-girlfriend and his friends group. That was all a man like him needed in life.
His ex-girlfriend and his brother had unread icons. He opened his brother’s first. There was a pepe meme with a text saying food was already made and he and their aunt had left early for his college.
He had forgotten it was his brother’s second year in college. Something he couldn’t relate to.
He hovered his finger on his ex, taking a moment before he clicked her chat. The text was from three days back. He had been unintentionally ignoring it but now in a strange world with nothing to do, he had to quell his boredom.
The content started with a casual greeting. One that always involved her shortening his name to Jul. It moved on to casual talk; what she had been up to and finally asking what he’d been up to.
They were together for several months before distance became a barrier and they called it off. They met a few times when she came back for the holidays.
One of those meetups led to her apartment.
He shook those memories off and closed the app. Something shifted at the edge of his peripheral vision. He turned.
Yumiko was at his shoulder, close enough that he should have heard her coming.
He hadn’t.
"What?" he asked.
"What is that thing?" She pointed to his phone.
That question confirmed that there was no technological advancement similar to his world. He hoped they had electricity at least. Right?
He hadn’t forgiven her for stealing but he explained the device to her as simply as he could, showing her some of the offline features like the camera, photo and voice recording apps while she listened with the attention and curiosity most teachers would kill for their students to have.
"So it is a magic cube?" she concluded.
"No. We don’t have magic where I’m from."
This only further confused her as the device was capable of doing many things that were only possible with magic. She wasn’t entirely sure how it all worked but that was a topic for some other time. For now, she wanted him to take a photo of her.
He declined.
"Why?" she asked.
"You stole from me."
"I found it," she said.
She was adamant to return it and Julius chose to keep walking. She followed, much to his dismay.
After a few mental calculations, he found the structure.
It was a wreck.
The bear must have taken its frustration out on it, and probably eaten the food too as it was nowhere to be found. He was hungry but had to keep moving and he didn’t know how long Yumiko planned to stick around.
He didn’t know if he wanted her to stick around but he thought it best to clarify where he was heading.
"I’m going to the Free Cities."
"I know," she said much to his surprise.
"You know?"
"The she-demon told you."
She had followed the council from the village to the hall where Julius was summoned out of curiosity. She had been close enough to hear the details and followed him since he left the summoning hall.
The only question Julius had on his mind was why she would do all that to follow a stranger. The excuse she gave about his smell didn’t hold up to him.
He resumed walking, guided by the direction the arrow pointer indicated.
He didn’t ask her to follow.
He also didn’t tell her not to come.
Her persistent footsteps confirmed her decision. The sound of the forest served as ASMR for him.
The system interface appeared.
[System Update: New features are available.]
[Iris’s note: When you have a moment.]
