A Catgirl And A Shut-in

I and what I thought was an imaginary cat girl seemed to be staring at me quite intensely and so did I. We had both talked over each other and must be waiting for the other to speak. It's Quite respectful when it's one person but when it's two I feel like it comes off as awkward.

Just because I learned this language doesn't mean I was perfect at the one I had before. I want to speak but I fear I may talk over her again and since she hasn't said anything she must think the same thing.

It's too bad i'm bad at talking to people in general.

What you have here is the most impossible situation to get out of.

This is it. This is where my story ends. Standing awkwardly. Forever…

…

…

Ya ok, I'm bored of this.

I reach into my pocket and toss a slime gem somewhere in her direction. As expected she looks puzzled at it. She followed its direction with her head all the way just until it hit the ground right below her.

Taking this moment I speak.

"Did you say something about magic?" I say without being interrupted.

Tch what a waste of time.

The cat girl looks at the gem on the floor and back at me a few times. Her face seems to be very confused.

"Um yes, I did…" Her reply is confused but answers my question. "I know it's quite uncommon but I do indeed have a capacity for mana or uhh magic."

"In that case do you think maybe you could teach it? Like to me?"

"Teach you mana- I mean magic? I mean I could but hold on a second first answer something for me. Did you just say appraisal just now?"

"I did. Now back to the important bit. When and where will you be able to teach me magic?"

"Well normal Marissa is the one to 'teach' people. I mean I've never really taught anyone anything but depending on your mana control it should be easy."

Hearing that is music to my ears let me tell you.

"As for the where and when that's also easy, there's a little place far outside town people don't go near. That's where we normally practice 'magic'. As for the when It's totally possible to start whenever. I don't really have any set schedules."

And perfect. Ok, that's a wrap folks my magic days are soon upon me.

"Ahh well in that case how about tomorrow," I say as I turn to my door. "I tend to be a nighttime person so somewhere around night is best but that doesn't seem to be a problem for you." I grab my door handle. "Don't worry I'll repay you if you want" I turn it. "Well, we can figure that out tomorrow." I push the door.

"Hold on a sec." I hear just before I'm able to open my door more than just a crack.

Nooo! I was so close!

I turn to look at her and I come to see that she is no longer sitting but standing inspecting the slime gem.

"I'm not too sure what this appraisal thing is but from what I can conclude it's somehow able to give you information. This monster gem also seems kinda interesting."

IM. TO. TIRED. FOR. THIS.

"I see. Maybe we can continue talking when I'm awake enough to answer them?" I respond, trying to be clever.

The cat girl, still inspecting the slime gem replies.

"Ya, that's cool."

Huh, I guess it was clever.

Without trying to make any more small talk I finally open my door and enter my room but not without hearing one more thing.

"The names Mara by the way"

"Mines Akari"

After sleepily responding I stand at my door for a moment waiting for something else but only get silence. As a result, I finally close my door and fall asleep. Another day of a normal daily routine is ahead of me.

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For about 8 days I've found I have something of a daily routine.

I wake up. The bed and the light from the window help me not laze around too much.

I get dressed in the raggedy brown pants and the thin hoodie. I remind myself once again that I might want to get something a bit heavier.

Once the sun is low enough to almost be around sundown I head out. I notice that there are books piled up near the entrance to the basement before I leave. Ren must be still working on her thing.

After a bit of walking, I enter the library and wait in the room in the back. I daydream for a bit and before I know it I've served a happy 7-ish people. It seems I'm getting more and more famous.

Once I'm back home I try to hide in my room but…

..?

Normally this is the bit where Ren or Merisia will interrupt my laziness. But…

…

Huh, guess they decided to forget about me. Heh took em long enough.

With little effort, I flop directly on my bed.

Finally some time to myself. Maybe I can investigate my stats a bit more or maybe even catch up on some sleep. It's too bad those two are breaking my daily routine but if it's something like this then I guess I don't really mind.

"Akari?" I faintly hear.

Welp, it was fun while it lasted I guess.

"Yes?" I answer as I slowly get out of my bed.

"Can you come out here for a sec"

Without replying I open the door but surprisingly don't see anyone to drag me out. Now that I think about it Ren normally just forces me out. Then where?

"Over here!"

Surprised, the sound of the voice wasn't coming out from my door but. Outside the window?

Sure enough, once I reach my window I see a person standing there waiting for me. Is that? A cat girl?

"Cat girl?"

"Huh? Whos that? My name's Mara, remember?"

Oh right, Mara, the person I met last night. Huh, so it was real, neat. I had almost forgotten about it too. I'm not sure how but I did.

"So do you need anything or…"

"Hmm? I thought it would be a good idea if we finish more of what we talked about."

"Oh right!" I make sure I get a good grip on the window and jump out it landing near right beside Mara. "Let's go."

Mara looks at me with some type of surprised face. I'm not sure why. I guess she wasn't expecting me to just jump out my window or something.

"So Akari just so we're clear you were the guy that yelled appraisal at me in the middle of the night?"

I remember it a bit differently but she's kind of right.

"Yup."

In the alleyways, I see a poster that somewhat describes my face so quickly take it down.

"Oh ok just wanted that cleared up first and this gem-looking thing, where'd you get this?" She asks raising the slime gem that had been in her pocket at me.

Gem-looking thing? I guess she's never heard of the beast's heart. It feels weird just calling it a gem now.

"From slimes. It's actually really easy. I don't know why people don't just do it themselves." I look over at Mara to see she's looking at me confused. "Uh you do what slimes are, right?"

"Well of course I do but how did you manage to kill one?"

We enter the main road of the town so I decided to make sure my hood is on. She's basically leading the way at this point.

"A punch, kick, stab doesn't really matter. They tend to like it more when it's a full moon tho."

"Akari" she grabs my arm. "I'm asking how you managed to get out to kill one?"

Huh? Didn't I first meet her at night?

"I just left?"

She lets go of my arm and then shakes her head.

"Whatever, let's talk about this outside of town."

Speaking of which we had just reached the main gates to the town. Two guards stood there one checking something from the people leaving and the other checking something for the people entering. Most likely a residence pass or something.

Sure enough, once we walk through Mara quickly shows the guard something and we pass through.

"Come on it's this way."

Now that I think about it I don't actually know where she's bringing me. But in the weird direction, we had been heading, I do feel like I should ask. We had taken a hard right front the main road into a little dirt path that crossed the river.

"We're almost at our hideout, we use it for training and stuff."

"I see."

She looks back at me after I respond but then quickly looks back forward. Why does simply everything I do confuse this girl???

We continue going in a direction that I haven't even thought about going in. Normally I stick near the front of the town seeing as that's where the slime field is. And since the forest with goblins is left of that I've never gone across the river.

Across the river is a forest not too different from the goblin one. it's way thinner though. There aren't as many trees but way harder to travel across. Especially since we're not using any type of road.

Ya, that little dirt road that we had been following. Well, we stopped following it so for me we were just randomly walking in the forest.

I was about ready to sike myself up to ask when suddenly we left the forest and came to an open area surrounded by trees. This circular hideout was more just an open clearing in the middle of the forest.

It did have some wooden structures and a few chairs and other training materials laying around. So I guess it could meet the calcifications for a hideout.

"Woh"

"Ya magic is kinda not liked in that town so we had to make this little area to even use magic."

Really? So like they don't even let people that have magic use it in that town well that sucks. Why would they even do that? I knew that town was odd but come on.

My thoughts must have been noticeable since Mara continues talking.

"If you want proof then here it is," she says as she takes out what I had thought was a resident certification.

I'm not sure why she's showing me it. All it proves is that she lives there. What does that have to do with it being oppressive?

"I guess just showing you this won't mean much but the gist of it is that this little thing proves a few things. One I live here, two my name and age, and finally that I have the capacity for mana. Without this, I wouldn't be able to live in that town but I guess you or Ren don't have to worry about that."

"Rent-free," I barely say.

"Huh?"

"Nothing…"

Mara seemingly shrugging off my comment stands atop a small wooden stump and crosses her arms.

"Well, Akari, let's do what we came here for. First, I'll teach you magic and then you'll teach me what you know." She points at me as she says that…