Chapter 111 Five Cats
"Humans can eat that too. It won't do any harm to me."
"It actually tastes pretty good. You can buy some more and put them on the first floor, so that customers can feed you with them. It's okay to try it occasionally."
"Okay, next time I won't eat it in front of you..."
If Miss Xiaozi had not left, she would have seen a strange scene on the second floor - her store manager was kneeling with his head down in front of four cats, talking to the cat employees in a seamless manner, with one person speaking human language and the other speaking cat language, and there was even a hint of grievance in his voice.
Hagiwara, who was originally giving the store manager a stern lecture, trying to make him understand that humans cannot eat anything casually, couldn't help but soften his heart when he saw this.
He turned around and looked at Zhu Fu, and the two cats simultaneously saw the words "forget it" in each other's eyes.
However, Matsuda had already rushed over with a sneer, trying to use his body weight to crush the ignorant store manager who was provoking Cat. The store manager secretly glanced at them, then let out a very exaggerated cry, and fell backwards while holding Matsuda, and lay on the wooden floor without moving.
Lapo, who weighed more than ten kilograms, stepped on his chest, stared down at the store manager, and said in a domineering voice: "You did it on purpose."
Fūya felt a little strange: Matsuda's performance was unexpectedly familiar with the store manager? This fierce-looking but actually very gentle appearance did not seem like the style of Officer Matsuda, who had become more and more mature in recent years. Instead, it was more like the way that guy had been fighting with him during the police academy.
Are the store manager and Matsuda so compatible?
On the floor, Akae Nayue tried hard to hold back the smile on her face and not be too arrogant. She took the opportunity when Matsuda relaxed his vigilance to quickly hold up Lapo's head and buried her face in the curly hair on Matsuda's neck, just like she did when she sucked Hagiwara in the afternoon.
"Hey~ I don't understand what you're saying." The store manager said confidently, his voice muffled by the interference of the curly hair, "I just heard those customers say that this brand of meat jerky cat food tastes good, so I want to try it."
Confirmed, it was intentional.
Being held by the powerful store manager, Matsuda's blue eyes could not help but reveal a sense of despair. He struggled again, and finally angrily punched the store manager on the shoulder with a cat punch: "Little bastard!"
How bizarre! The people responsible for scolding the 'little bastard' here are not humans, but a group of cats. The only human pretended not to hear anything as if it was normal, and skillfully stroked the swearing cat in his arms from beginning to end.
"The jerky cat food was recommended by a customer and the store manager a few days ago, but she recommended it to Xiao Zhenping." Hagiwara turned to explain to the bewildered Fūya, "The store manager bought a truckload of it the next day, and originally agreed to switch it to Xiao Zhenping today."
As a result, the guy happily took a big bite right in front of Matsuda.
"Is the store manager always like this?" The corner of Jōgō's mouth twitched.
"Hmm? Not really. The manager is usually very reliable." Hagiwara thought seriously for a moment, "But before, he said cat noodles were unpalatable, and I thought he had given up. It turns out he was planning to change his target to jerky cat food."
Fūya: “Wait?”
"I told you before that canned chicken doesn't taste good, but he ate it all. Maybe he didn't want to waste food." Zhu Fu took over the conversation, also worried, "But can humans eat that? The store manager doesn't look very healthy. I'm really worried about his gastrointestinal health."
Fūya: “Is it a habit?”
"Hey, Jinpei-chan, why are your hair tangled again? You should be more careful when playing with customers." The store manager's voice came, "The shelves are almost full of felt dolls. It's hard for me to comb your hair every day. Please be considerate of me."
"I told you I can take care of it myself," Matsuda muttered and patted the manager again.
"You can't even reach the hair on your back. Rather, can your paws really hold a comb?" the store manager laughed unabashedly.
The man and the cat started fighting on the floor again.
Fūya couldn't stand it any longer. He felt like he had revisited the relaxed and complaining mentality of the police academy days. He said with a headache: "I said, if the store manager has nothing to do with the organization, he is just an ordinary person. You can make friends with him as a human being! Why did you talk to him so naturally using the original prototype?"
The noisy background noise disappeared and the air was filled with silence.
"Besides, shouldn't we be shocked that humans repeatedly steal cats' food?" Furuya looked at his friends with dead eyes, "They are humans who can fight with Matsuda."
Morobushi and Hagiwara looked at each other, and the former said hesitantly, "Because he's the store manager, I'm not surprised at all...?"
"It's not the first or second time that Xiao Zhenping has fought with humans," Hagiwara agreed.
...I can't find any place to refute it!
Jōgō's eyes were dull and he suddenly felt a chill.
Is he going to become the one making fun of me here?
"That is to say, it was Jinpei-chan who started it, and I was just defending myself." The store manager had come closer to the three cats at some point, revealing a furry head. The rubber band that tied his long hair behind his back had gone somewhere, causing the hair to hang messily on his shoulders.
The store manager looked very confident and self-assured, and he had no idea that anything was wrong.
Rather...
"The biggest mistake is that the store manager joined the cat's conversation so naturally. How can humans understand what we say?"
A confused expression appeared on the black-haired young man's face. He looked around and then pointed at himself and waved his hand: "Huh? I don't understand. I can only guess what you want to say."
No, you understand the tone, right?
This answer was something that Jōtani did not believe at all, but after this interruption, his temporarily evaporated rationality returned.
Therefore, Furuya noticed something.
He is not a person with blurred social boundaries. On the contrary, whether in the past or now, it is not so easy for Furuya to classify the people he knows into the range of relatives and friends that can make him relax, not to mention that the store manager is still a big suspect in his eyes. He stayed to explore the store manager's secrets.
Even though he was sure they had never met before, Furuya felt inexplicably familiar with the store manager and started to complain about him without any precautions.
Was he influenced by the store manager? Or was he unable to help but slack off after being with his friends for so long? Either answer was not good.
Fūya was in a brain storm and looked up after a while. He found that the store manager had already shifted his attention and was happily opening cans of food for his cat employees.
…
Jianggu sighed.
Never mind, the store manager really looks like what Hiro said, a child with poor concentration.
We can look into other things later. Anyway, he has decided to stay for the time being, so there is no need to rush.
—
When Akae Nayue brought the four cats home, it was almost dark. He looked at the time, arranged a cat bed for the new cat, Fūya, then yawned, said good night to the cats, and returned to his room alone.
"That Zero suspected that I was also a member of the organization." Akae Nayue said to [Shu] in the bedroom where she was the only one left. "As expected, he came to me for this reason."
Of course, Akae Nazuki was aware that there were many more members of the organization in Beika Town, and Fūya's investigation actually went in the right direction by accident.
After all, those extra members of the organization were originally sent by Karasuma Renya to be with Akae Nazuki.
Thinking of this, both the person and the book got goosebumps.
Who knew that Karasuma Renya in this world would be set up like that!
When testing the other party's bottom line, Akae Nazuki proposed to leave the organization to expand his experience outside. Karasuma Renya hesitated for a moment and agreed, but then sent those people to follow him.
At first, Akae Nazuki was wary and thought that they were sent by Karasuma Renya to monitor him. Later, those people would always show up in his shop openly, and he had to confirm a fact that made him and [Shu] feel terrified.
It seems that Karasuma Renya, probably, was worried about the newly awakened Kalua living alone, so he sent members of the organization to secretly protect him.
Wake up, old man! You really don't fit in the role of a loving grandfather!
Chijiang Nayue felt nauseous again.
Because he left in a hurry, he had only seen one acquaintance, Karasuma Renya. He had not met Vermouth and Gin yet. So far, he had only seen that Karasuma Renya's animal form was the familiar crow, and he was still guessing about the other two.
However, if I go to find Shinichi-kun in the future, I will eventually meet them, and Akae Nayue is not in a hurry at all.
Well, he is definitely not secretly collecting negative history about everyone's cats, absolutely not.
[Is today the same as before?] The question of [Book] echoed in my mind.
Chijiang Nayue, who was checking the cat bedroom surveillance on her phone, responded casually, "There's only a little left to explore, and I'm not sleepy at all now."
It seemed that the cats in his house were all sleeping soundly... Chijiang Nayue knew that this was just an illusion. After he 'fell asleep', the cats would quietly disappear from his house and turn back into humans to move around outside.
As for why he knew?
After the light bang, the person who was originally sitting beside the bed in the bedroom disappeared, as if the black-haired young man had evaporated from the spot.
It was not until a pair of water-red eyes suddenly opened on the black quilt that people realized it was a black cat curled up and blended perfectly into the background.
The cat jumped down from the bed noiselessly, and its figure was illuminated by the moonlight from the window.
The graceful and smooth muscle lines, the seductively shiny pure black fur, and the hunter-like expression when the cat unconsciously narrows its eyes when staring into the void make it look less like a cat and more like a little black panther.
——Of course, this is Chijiang Nayue.
As the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Since everyone can transform into animals, how could Chi Jiang Na Yue miss this opportunity to play! In the past two months, he would transform into a cat and go for a stroll on the street at night when the cats were away.
It's called Night Patrol, but it's actually to adapt to this situation and collect more intelligence from this world.
In order to have time to relax and play during the day, he even deliberately avoided information related to Shinichi. However, he would go to find Shinichi tomorrow anyway, so he didn't need to be so deliberate today.
It is precisely because of the activities outside at night that Chijiang Nayue's rest time is moved to the afternoon.
Otherwise, how could he go outside to play without telling the cats at home?
"After getting used to it, the cat form is quite interesting." The little black panther spoke, and his voice automatically transformed into human language to [Shu], "Then let's go to the 'Night Patrol' together today. Please, [Shu]."