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The directions that Ella gave Ryne were quite clear, thankfully, so there was no time wasted in trying to find her house. As they approached it, however, the cat-human paused for a moment.

"Maybe you should stay behind here for now?" He told them, with some uncertainty in his voice.

"Is there any problem, Mr. Ryne?" asked Shekau, his naturally intense stare becoming even more so.

"The first time I talked to her in person, I didn't have the others with me," explained Ryne. "So I wasn't quite sure how she would react if I took you with me."

"I see. Humans do have a rather mixed opinion regarding cats."

"It's the same for cats regarding humans, though," said Nini. "Some cats like being affectionate, while some avoid them."

"That is true…" said Prauza, who looked a little wistful.

"You're reminded of something?" asked Nini.

"Oh, I'm just reminded of my human before," answered the fluffy tomcat.

"You were a pet?" asked Ryne in slight surprise. But then again, he had long noticed that Prauza was neutered and of a specific breed, although he still had his doubts as to why he would stray despite the alteration.

"Yes," answered Prauza. "I accompanied an elderly female human before. She liked talking to me. I imagined she was telling me countless stories, but I actually couldn't understand anything she was saying. I suppose it was because I was a quiet cat."

"I see…" said Ryne, about to give a signal to the traveler that he should move on to go to Ella's house, but he was too late.

"Hearing her voice daily gave me a good feeling, and it made me decide to adopt a habit of engaging in pretend conversation. Just like that, life was pleasant for the two of us. But alas, all things, bad or good, come to an end, and she passed away."

"Her, not our, home had no other humans to take care of it, so I figured I might as well move on and stave off the sudden feeling of loneliness I felt," Prauza continued.

Thankfully, he didn't continue for long. "Currently, I have made it my mission to travel the world and talk to whoever I meet. Even with the number of us cats and humans in the world, there are still those who feel like there's no one out there to share stories with."

By the time he had ended his story-answer, he had noticed that everyone was staring at him.

"I see," he noted. "I have talked too much, haven't I?"

"No, not at all," said Nini, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Oh. I'm glad, then!" Prauza said, not quite noticing her tone. "Anyway, I'm all right with staying here, if that's the decision."

The two other adults agreed as well, but the kitten had other plans.

"Oh hey, that human's coming here! Hello human!" Fonmi shouted as he went over to Ella, who was coming their way.

Ryne quickly turned around to catch him and saw the girl. "Ah, Ella, I was going to…"

"It's okay," Ella said as she moved to pick up Fonmi and carry him like a baby. "I was wondering why you stopped. Oh, this cat is so cute! Does he have a name?"

"Uh, he's called Fonmi," answered Ryne, figuring it was no use thinking up of a separate pet name for the kitten.

"Fon-fon!" Ella said as she rubbed Fonmi's belly. Her tone was that of a mother calling a baby by their name. "What about them? Do they have any names?"

At this point, Ryne couldn't help but feel like he's going to sweat. He became nervous, as he couldn't think of any excuse as to why he was being followed by strays. Except perhaps for Prauza, who could still pass for a pet.

"T-Their names? Uh, these are Nini, Prauza, and Shekau," he said as he pointed at each one of them. "Nini is Fonmi's mother."

"I see…" said Ella as she took a look at the others. Her expression then changed from delight to seriousness as she remembered the reason why she had called Ryne over. "Let's all get inside the house. We'll talk there."

They walked a bit until they got to the front of her house.

Then Ryne mentioned, "Oh, I remember that you mentioned that you have a dog… I hope that it doesn't-"

"That's what I was going to talk to you about," interrupted Ella. She then turned to Ryne, who was behind her, and added, "That cloaked person you mentioned last time, he killed Brownie. I saw him do it."

"You did?!"

When Ryne first heard that dogs have also been killed, he didn't quite expect that the same person killing the cats would do it. He was hoping it would be another case that they wouldn't need to consider. But there it was, evidence.

"Yeah, I'm not kidding. Here. I might as well show you before I finish burying her," said Ella, trying to be matter-of-fact, but her emotions were obviously leaking out.

They went to one of the trees in the yard, where a hole was dug out near the roots. Inside was a dead brown dog wrapped in big sheets of paper.

"Oh no, poor thing…" said Nini, who, to Ella, only sounded as if she was making random noises.

Prauza lowered his head to pay respects, Fonmi wished the deceased canine a good night, and Shekau simply took a long hard look at it.

"This is what I was going to show you earlier, but it seems that you have your own ways of knowing," said the latter to Ryne, also sounding to the human nearby as if he was just vocalizing something.

Ryne, however, couldn't answer him the way he wanted to. Fortunately, Shekau understood the situation and didn't demand any responses in cat-speak.

"Could you tell me what happened, Ella?" asked Ryne.

"I couldn't sleep last night, so I thought I would come and just spend some time until I felt sleepy. Then Brownie started barking, so I got myself a frying pan and took a look to see who or what was outside. She only really barked when there was danger, so I knew I had to be careful," recounted Ella.

"Then, I heard her cry out in pain, so I ran outside. I saw this person in this thick cloak. He was strangling her, so I tried to run towards him and fight him off, but…"

"But?" asked Ryne, urging her to continue.

"But then he looked at me, and I could barely see his eyes or much of his features, but it was scary. I felt scared, so I froze. And then he just twisted her neck, just like that," Ella continued, making gestures of what she saw happening the night before. "I wanted to go after him when he ran away, but he was too fast. And now…"

By this time, Ella was in tears, yet again.

"Sorry for making you recall that," said Ryne.

Ella shook her head and waved her right hand while her left wiped her tears. "No, it's okay. I had to. I am the one to say sorry. You had to hear all that and end up seeing me like this. I mean… I just invited you here for information."

"It's understandable considering the nature of the… information," said Ryne, hoping to make Ella feel better. However, he wasn't sure if it helped.

Ella took one last sniff from her sobbing and said, "Anyway, this just makes me want to find that killer. I don't understand why anyone would be so sick as to kill off innocent animals!"

She then turned to Ryne and asked, "Will you help me, Spencer? You've been trying to figure things out too, right?"

Ryne didn't know what to answer Ella. The cats had been making their own investigation, and they were making progress so far because of its unusual nature. However, he had to admit that there were things that he might not understand, considering that he was still essentially a cat. It's funny, as the thought somehow made him regret worrying about becoming trapped as a human back at the apartment.

But what would this lady think once she gets to know how exactly he and the other cats have been gathering information? Would she even accept it?

For now, Ryne decided to help her, but hide that he had been communicating with the cats until he was sure that this person could be trusted to accept them. However, he did outright agree to help bury Brownie in the yard. Being a supposedly human man, he couldn't just ignore a chance to assist someone in need.

"Thank you so much. This would've taken me forever to do," said Ella.

"You're welcome," said Ryne.

"Let's go inside. We'll need to talk about what we're going to do next."

"All right."

Ella went into the house, followed by Ryne and the cats. Instead of the living room, they decided to go to the dining table, as it had space for them to write things down if need be, and they would be closer to the kitchen as well.

Ella's stomach growled as soon as they have finished setting up. She asked Ryne, "Hey, have you had breakfast?"

"Uh, yes, we have," Ryne answered. Actually, they haven't eaten ever since their dinner the previous night. They have forgotten to have their meal at the inn, as they were in a hurry to get to Ella's. And Ryne's subsequent stomach growl was evidence of this.

Ella chuckled a bit. "You haven't, have you? I'll whip up something for us and the cats."

She rummaged through the refrigerator, looking for something to cook. She found some bacon, eggs, as well as some bread. She fried the bacon and eggs and toasted the bread. She also got four small bowls and put cat food in them.

Meanwhile, Ryne and the other cats observed her closely. The former was appreciative of Ella's gesture, but he was slightly worried about having to eat something fried and salted. He had read that while cats don't immediately suffer, they may encounter difficulties in the long run if they eat such for too long. But then, he was posing as a human, so he decided not to complain about it.

"So, this is what you call being a host?" asked Prauza, recalling his earlier conversation about it being customary for humans to treat visitors to food, at least.

"Yes, I guess," whispered Ryne, keeping in mind that he wasn't supposed to be talking with them. At least, not while Ella wasn't aware that he was actually a cat.

"Mr. Prauza, you're risking Mr. Ryne's exposure of his disguise," said Shekau.

"I almost-!"

"Shush, Prauza," said Nini.

The cats stayed silent after that, and soon Ella was done cooking the food. She gave the cat food to the felines and a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast to Ryne. The cats gathered around Ella as she put down theirs on the floor, along with some water. They scrambled a bit at first, but they soon stuck to one food bowl each.

"They sure are well-behaved cats. It's almost as if they were trained!" said Ella as she observed the cats eating.

"Really?" asked Ryne, who was starting to eat the toast.

"Well, how else do you explain that? And the way they follow you around without needing any leashes."

Ryne was thankful at this point that Ella quickly assumed that the others were pets because of their behavior. He wasn't very comfortable with the thought of him "training" them, though. Now that he thought about it, was everyone this organized before? Or is this another one of the effects of his presence?

"That's what the people at the inn noticed, too. Is it that unusual?" he asked. Now he wasn't sure which was "normal" or not for cats. He had only known how they usually acted around him, but not quite when it came to actual humans.

"Compared to what people see cats usually do, yes," answered Ella. "What? You think it's normal?"

"I see. Well, not really."

The two "humans" focused on eating for now. This wasn't the first time that Ryne had eaten fried bacon and eggs, but it had been a while since he had done so. He found it tasty, so he tried to savor every bite.

"I'm glad I finally have something to give that cat food to," said Ella in the middle of their meal.

"Oh, that was… Percy's, wasn't it?" asked Ryne, almost forgetting the name of the housemate's pet.

"Yeah… He'd usually come running into the kitchen once he heard even a few bits drop onto the bowl. I wonder where he is…?"

Ryne looked down, suddenly thinking about all the cats that have disappeared so far. As a result of his investigation with the others, he had a good idea of what actually happened to everyone, but he wouldn't dare tell it to Ella or her friend until, perhaps, he found the feline's body.

He didn't want to keep it a secret, but he'd be deemed suspicious unless he admitted to his methods of knowing. And then, he'd likely be thought of as insane.

"You think he might be… killed?" asked Ella. So it seems that she came to this possible conclusion as well.

"It's possible. We haven't seen the missing cats turn up again, have we?"

"No… Not that I've heard of."

An awkward silence fell over the two again. This time, Ryne chose to break it.

"I'm sorry for your loss. They must have been dear to you, even though the cat isn't exactly yours."

"Yeah, they are. Especially Brownie, cause she's been there for me when Grandpa died."

"Oh… I'm very sorry about that. What… happened to him?"

"Oh, that…" Ella's expression darkened somewhat.

Reading her face, Ryne suddenly took back the question. "No, you don't have to force yourself. I was just curious."

However, Ella shook her head. "Nah, it's okay. I haven't really talked about it myself since everybody was talking about it then."

"Everybody?"

"Yeah, everybody. That's because my Grandpa was the previous Mayor of this city. He died in that big fire in the old Mayor's Office years back. It was famous, you know."

Big fire…? Ryne now wondered if it was related to that incident…

"It was so sudden. We didn't know how it happened, exactly. There's even a rumor that the 'accident' thing was just a cover-up, or simply, a way for the police to get it over with," continued Ella. "After that, the then-Vice-Mayor Frank Gibson stepped up to the vacant position and rebuilt the office. To be honest, though, I don't really trust him."

"What makes you say that?"

"He has this vibe, like, there's something off about him, and I don't know what it is. Also, he has a lot of things to gain from the incident, including his position. Actually, I don't even know what's going on in that guy's head, why he would even want to be in government, considering he's already a successful businessman, anyway."

Ryne has heard of how humans want this thing called power, but possibly because he's a cat, he didn't really understand why. Was it really worth gaining, especially when something else that's precious is sacrificed for it?

"Anyway, back to Grandpa… He was a really good man. And I miss him so much…" Ella started to tear up at the thought. "Well, at least now he has Brownie with him."

"I'm sure they will keep each other company…"

It has been a while, but Ryne had noticed Brownie's spirit looking at them, or rather, at Ella, who was now crying. He couldn't talk to the dog, but he could at least give her a look that said, "She'll be all right. I promise."

With that, the spirit faded away.

"Yeah, I bet they will," said Ella. "But I still want to catch that cloaked guy. I can't let him run loose and kill more innocent animals. We need a plan."