Chapter 114 Eight Cats
Chijiang Nayue is now facing a very dangerous choice, which is how to decide where Shirley will go next.
Of course, staying with him is the best option. After all, the organization cannot do anything to Shirley without his knowledge, and Shirley does not need to worry about being discovered by the organization and implicated the people around her. But that does not mean this option has no disadvantages... probably.
The danger of this multiple-choice question lies in the fact that there are already four cats living in Akae Nazuki's home, two of which are undercover agents of the organization in the present and past. This means that if Akae Nazuki wants to help Shirley reduce the organization's attention, she cannot raise her openly for the time being.
Besides, he wasn't ready to be exposed so soon, whether it was his or his friends'. If they found out that Shirley was a human, wouldn't he be unable to continue playing around?
Well, ordinary people might have to think about this question for a long time, but Akajinazuki only spent three seconds thinking about the consequences and happily decided to compromise.
What it means is——
"My cats would probably react badly if they knew I had you." Akae Natsuki pretended to be sad as she squatted in front of the puppy and explained to her, "So until you recover and are willing to stay here, you will have to stay in my bedroom for the time being."
The silver fox opposite, whose fur had returned to its dry and fluffy state, immediately had a human-like expression of "Are you a pervert?" on his face.
She wasn't referring to her temporary residence, but the name that sounded very ominous. Who was this man? Why did he call her by her code name so naturally? Did they know each other?
"Hmm? I thought you would like this name." Chijiang Nayue did not misunderstand and said readily, "You can't work in a store in this state..."
like?
...Maybe she had liked it before. Although studying abroad was lonely and boring at times, Shirley knew that she enjoyed the feeling of gaining knowledge, so she had no ill feelings towards this code name that seemed to be closer to her parents' past.
However, all this ended after she learned that the organization was not what she imagined, but something darker and more terrifying.
Now whenever Shirley thinks of this code name, she will think of Gin, and then the death of her sister will come to her mind.
She is still...!
We must find Kudo Shinichi and ask him how his sister died!
A hand landed on Shirley's head, interrupting her increasingly chaotic thoughts. Shirley instinctively resisted and subconsciously tried to push the hand away.
Then, Shirley turned to stare at her own paws in disbelief.
She froze up, not even reacting when the person opposite her rubbed her chin with his other hand.
"nya——?!" Isn't this her claw? !
A startled cat-like sound came from the silver-white puppy's throat.
"After all, you are a puppy (now)," the cat cafe manager who also owns a cat added regretfully.
From an angle that the puppy couldn't see, Akae Nazuki's eyes were dead: [Sure enough, Shiho is actually a cat. ]
As for what changes the effect of APTX4869 would bring about in this world, Nayue Chijiang had made a guess. This guess was half confirmed after picking up the unconscious puppy Shirley, and the remaining half was confirmed by Shirley's behavior after she woke up.
I guess Shirley on the other side also understands it, right?
That's right, the dream drug that Karasuma Renya wanted to develop was neither for reversing time nor for killing all human beings in the world.
His wish is to turn all humans in the world into their "kind", and to turn all cats in the world into dogs.
Of course, it is not ruled out that Karasuma Renya wants to turn other animals into dogs as well. Akae Nazuki only targets cats because the world consciousness of this world itself is a cat.
And Karasuma Renya, who helped the world consciousness by making wishes with book pages, has now become the boss of the "villain organization" hated by the cat consciousness... From this perspective, it is not difficult to understand that Karasuma Renya's main target is cats, right?
Well, purely from a species perspective, it sounds much more normal for birds to dislike cats.
Ordinary birds might just stay away from cats, but is Karasuma Renya an ordinary bird? He is not, so why would such a Karasuma Renya want to change the world through Drug A——
Damn, it still makes me want to complain!
Putting aside other things, just the fact that all the cats in the world should be turned into dogs is something that Chi Jiang Na Yue cannot agree to - he is a cat person, and the animals he hates the most are sticky, trusting dogs that are always hard to get rid of (the same goes for dog-like people).
He regretted it now. Even if this was a resort world, he had to help Shinichi and the others destroy the organization's plan faster!
Akajangazuki could guess without even looking that Shirley was supposed to have taken drug A and become smaller so she could escape. In this world where the organization is not that bad, the effect of Shirley taking the drug, in addition to making her smaller, was probably to change her from a cat to a silver fox hound. This in a sense could have helped her evade the organization's search.
The result of species mutation is difficult for kittens to accept.
Akajangnanyue looked at the puppy whose head he was stroking with pity, and decided to help Shirley change back as soon as possible, so that he could attract a new kitten, what a double benefit!
But it seems that if he goes to look for Shinichi tomorrow, he will only be able to find Conan who has been transformed from a cat into a dog... Ah, if he usually acts in human form, it shouldn't have any big impact. In any case, he won't be as unlucky as Shirley who couldn't turn back into a human in front of him, an 'uninformed person'.
"You feel uneasy, don't you? It feels like wandering alone." Before Shirley could calm down from the collapse of her dog that she suddenly hated, she heard the store manager gently rubbing her head with his palm, "It's okay, if you don't mind, you can stay here for a while. I opened a cafe, and if you are willing, maybe you can come and become my new employee."
Do you want to stay? Shirley was silent, and such confusion and hesitation appeared in her mind. You know, her original plan was to go straight to Kudo Shin's family and avoid all ordinary people who might be involved. She should refuse without hesitation and leave quickly.
Should she stay? She might bring disaster to him. This was just a person who was so kind that he would pick up a puppy soaked by the rain on the roadside and take care of it. He wanted her to stay. If she dragged him into the vortex of the organization, she would definitely regret it.
What Shirley didn't say was that she actually felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity when she saw the black-haired young man for the first time, as if they should have known each other for a long time. The way he looked at her was like he was looking at a beloved child, not a abandoned dog picked up from the street.
What she knew was that she had always been an independent person. She had never been good at dealing with people like the one who barely saved her by chance, so she would just want to leave as soon as possible instead of having any hesitation like she was doing now.
You know, they had only been together for less than ten minutes and had barely exchanged a few words.
"Why do you want me to stay? You obviously don't like dogs." Shirley knew that this person probably couldn't understand her, but she still said it in as cold a tone as possible, "And don't call me by that disgusting name--"
The store manager seemed to understand. He simply sat cross-legged on the floor and took the stiff-limbed puppy into his arms. Then, while stroking its fur, he replied, "Because Shirley means 'Spanish sunshine in a bottle'. Isn't that a very gentle name that suits you?"
Someone seemed to have said this to her before. Who was it? She couldn't remember for a moment. This scene had never appeared in her memory.
Shirley didn't even think about why the manager looked like he understood. Her calm and steady brain froze at that moment.
Do you want to stay? Even though the store manager might just be showing his love for the stray animals.
Stay.
As long as she pretended to be a puppy, she could stay here temporarily and get a short-term sense of security. So what reason did she have to refuse? She just had to find a way to leave and get closer to Kudo later.
Shirley pretended that she had not thought of the idea that she could turn into a human child and continue to commit fraud at Kudo's house after leaving, and nodded her head as if possessed by a ghost.
This store manager was very suspicious, especially because she felt like she had seen him before, but she was sure she had never seen him before. There was also the "non-existent memory" to which that sentence belonged, as well as an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Until we find Kudo, let's temporarily hide from the organization's search here with the store manager.
Shirley regained her composure and thought calmly.
—
"Something is wrong. It's really wrong."
Hagiwara said solemnly.
"What?" Jyouya asked without raising his head.
"Didn't the manager put us in airline boxes when we left in the morning?" Hagiwara said confidently, "But those airline boxes haven't been used in the past two months! And I saw something strange in the manager's search history!"
"It's strange enough that you went to look at the store manager's search history." Matsuda, who was standing next to him, stepped on his foot and complained, "I just occasionally use an unused airline box. What's your reaction, Hagi?"
Hagiwara's expression was blank. "But the store manager's search history is all about 'how to raise a puppy' and 'how to pet a dog to make it happy'."
Silence, still silence.
A few minutes later, the four cats put their heads together and began to discuss the topic seriously.
"The store manager wants to get a dog?" Zhu Fu hesitated, "But I remember the store manager said before that he hates dogs."
"When have we ever been able to trust what humans say?" Matsuda asked bluntly.
"If the search history is from today, then it means that the idea came to him suddenly? But we have been with the store manager since yesterday, and he has not had any contact with dogs." The new employee Furuya Neko calmly judged, "So he deliberately avoided us?"
Since their prototypes were cats, the four of them all more or less didn't like being around ordinary dogs in this state, so they fell into a suspicious silence again.
Even Kōtani, who in human form actually likes to pet dogs to relieve stress, is no exception.
While they were discussing, the door between the store managers opened, and the store manager with a black backpack came out and touched the heads of the four employees one by one.
"I have to go out for something, so I'll leave the store to you and Miss Xiaozi in the afternoon." The store manager said with a smile.
Gazing at the store manager's leaving back, the four cats narrowed their eyes simultaneously.
The manager hasn't left the store during the day for two months, so something is going on!