How Did I End Up On A Hunt For Cats?!

"Don't mess up this time," Jake reminds as he leads her into a dark alley sandwiches between two shop buildings. The only reason she can see much of anything is because the sun is out, else it's almost too dark to make anything out. Mizuki searches around for cats, shuddering when she hears an ominous purr from the darkness.

"Where are the cats?"

"You have to attract them, duh," Jake points out.

"Okay, how exactly?" Mizuki stifles a squeak as she hears rustling.

"Choose the right cat toy and lay it out," Jake explains. Mizuki lifts the notebook paper up to her face, squinting as she tries to decipher the words. According to the sheet, the alley cats like canned tuna and chew toys. She repeats this to Garden who happily obliges and pulls out a cat's chew toy from her pouch. Mizuki lays it out, waiting patiently for something to happen. Jake doesn't seem to show any negative reaction to this, which Mizuki assumes is good. Surely enough, with a couple seconds of waiting, a cat jumps up from the roof of a building, circling the toy.

Mizuki jumps, her soul almost leaving her skin at the sight of the cat. It stares up at her with luminescent yellow eyes. Do all the cats have yellow eyes around here? It sits on the ground, taking the toy in its paws as it rolls onto its back, contentedly playing with the toy. As someone who hasn't been around animals much of her life, Mizuki wonders why it looks like it's tearing apart the rubber toy. "You're happy," Jake breaks the silence, squatting as he stretches an arm out towards the cat.

She watches as he mumbles for a couple of seconds, somehow managing to keep the cat's attention on him. It meows, rolling back onto its feet as it approaches Jake. It brushes against him affectionately. Jake cracks a smile, caressing it gently. "He said Oreo should be near the Palace grounds. It's the last place," Jake states.

Mizuki blinks. "What?"

"Did you not hear me earlier?" Jake stands, the stray cat still gently bumping against his feet as it rubs against him affectionately. Mizuki swears her heart skips a beat at the thought of having to return to the castle.

"Are you sure we need to go there?" Mizuki smiles awkwardly. Jake raises an eyebrow in suspicion, ultimately ignoring her statement and meandering forward and past her in the direction of the castle.

Mizuki grimaces, praying that she won't rope herself into unwanted trouble. Garden notices her fidgeting with her clothes as she walks. With a guilty look plastered on her face, she apologises, "I didn't mean to drag you into this if it's making you uncomfortable. Jake's difficult to get along with but he's not that bad."

"It's not just that…" Mizuki speaks up. "Eh, I'm kind of getting used to him, I don't know," Mizuki shrugs, watching as Olive tries to interact with Jake. It's a funny sight, watching an older boy make fervent attempts at a fussy younger one.

"Jake has a tough relationship with his parents. He's not used to love," Garden starts, catching Mizuki's attention. She furrows her brows at Garden, questioning the sudden revelation. She re-averts her gaze to Jake, who isn't much different, only whacking Olive roughly away with his palm. "His parents are so busy with work, they would leave him at home on his own. It's only after they hired us that he got any company on working days."

Mizuki shrugs, "Doesn't explain why he's so rude to everyone around him."

"He's not used to communicating with people in the first place. We've seen his parents drop him off at Garden Olive and leave him to eat whatever they give him without a choice. I feel bad for him," Garden pities. "I don't think he has even tried Fish and Chips in months."

"Maybe it's unintentional," Mizuki mumbles, though knowing she shouldn't be trying to justify his parents' actions. She should know best how shallow it is to try to defend adults for neglecting their kids, hurting them, because they can't strike a balance between work and home. Garden pouts, disappointed at her failed attempt at getting through to Mizuki. Mizuki observes Jake. "Do you really think he's not that bad?"

Garden shakes her head. "He's young. I don't think he could be as horrible as you think."

"Hope so," Mizuki purses her lips. "I'll trust you." She scampers up to Jake, waving once at Olive who shows her a disappointed frown upon having the cat toys taken from his hand. Jake, on the other hand, takes the opportunity to make a snarky comment about her being as old as an elderly woman with how slow she is. Mizuki clicks her tongue, jostling him aside as Jake pushes her back. At their pace, they only reach the castle grounds at twice the time they would've normally taken without arguing along the way.

The only good thing that comes out of it is Mizuki forgetting that she's literally walking herself right into hot water. Jake starts scouring the bushes for any sign of cats and Mizuki starts to notice the volume of guards around the area. She shudders. "We can't hang around here for too long, the soldiers are going to get suspicious of us," Mizuki whispers. As Jake turns his head to look up, he pauses. Mizuki turns, finding a guard only a little taller than herself, staring at her with a stern expression.

[Not Cut Out for Babysitting Blunders: Convince the guard]

"What is your business in this area? Locals aren't allowed near the palace," the guard tightens his grip around his polearm, narrowing his eyes to Mizuki.

"I'm here with my kid," Mizuki drags Jake towards her, lightly patting his shoulder, hoping that he'll read through her intentions and follow through with it. The guard looks down at Jake, who presumably looks nothing like Mizuki. "He wanted to look for the cats around the area, we won't be much trouble," she adds to support her story.

"It isn't allowed. You'll need to show yourself out of here before we do," the guard speaks, tone a little stricter this time. Wary, Mizuki tightens her grip around Jake.

"We won't be long," Mizuki reinforces.

"Due to recent occurrences on palace grounds, we aren't allowed to have unidentified strangers around the area. Please leave, ma'am," he stares at her intently.