2 Cat Trip~

It was already the 26th of August, so when was Kakucho planning to inform me about Izana's birthday? I believed he had the perfect opportunity yesterday at the Pizza Party, yet he didn't mention anything about this topic. Was he afraid Izana would hear it since these two were barely leaving each other's sides? So it was safe to conclude he was planning a surprise party?

Or was the problem laying somewhere else, like the guest list? Like Shion for example, was Kakucho still iffy about his shameless behavior on the camping trip? However I was convinced he learned his lesson, we all knew he wouldn't dare to go against Izana, who said something weird conceivably for Shion to arrive at the bizarre conclusion that I was his girlfriend.

As Kakucho and his reason for not inviting me couldn't leave my mind, suddenly I received the message I was waiting for, kind of.

"Michi are you free on the 30th of August? Do you think you can spare some of your time and come over to our place on that day?" Yet he didn't mention the reason behind the visit, did I really have to take my own initiative to make it work? Or was he going around the circles to prevent me to spend enormous money on Izana's gift since I already bought him a brand new phone?

"What's happening that day? I have a shift then so..." I decided to use my work as an excuse so he could tell me why this day was so important.

"It's Izana's birthday, he wants you to come over." So it wasn't a surprise party after all. So what was the issue of telling me this so late? How was I supposed to find a good present if I get such a small timeframe? Then again this was better than whatever happened during Mikey's birthday. I sighed it wasn't like I would get an answer by thinking about it.

"And you're letting me know only now? I have barely time to think about what to purchase." He quickly apologized and gave me some advice, yet everything he suggested was just basic household items. However I wanted to buy something more extravagant, and I had to live my sugar mommy dreams. But pondering about this had to wait since I had a training pass with Wakasa.

"Michi don't overdo it!" I guess Kakucho could sense my train of thought of buying something lavish.

"If you want to provide as much as I do for your lovely Izana, you better start putting more time into your studies rather than going around fighting people." Then again maybe in the future one could make him into an Instagram influencer, he had the looks and a cool scar, I could see him as some fitness model. I didn't get any response, perhaps my joke made him angry?

Once at the gym I was throwing punches until Benkei mentioned it once again.

"I feel even more improvement, not much but it's something, have you done something different those past few days? Like additional training outside these sessions?" I shook my head not feeling like telling him any lies.

"Nope... however I did get beaten up by someone...so yeah I guess I found new determination which is revenge." Benkei stopped the training to inquire about who would dare to do something like this. Maybe they were seeing me as a little sister worth protecting?

"Oh don't worry about it, I'm already on the case of getting back at those two." They sure weren't happy to hear that there were two people out there trying to fight me not one, but soon Benkei changed the topic to have the conversation on a positive note.

"For the first month and a half there was no visible improvement, but suddenly you're getting stronger rapidly, maybe Senju was right about you after all." He was correct, any other normal person would probably already build up some stamina after 2 months of intense training, I was just a tad more special.

"And you two doubted my insight!" Senju yelled looking quite smug at the moment, her expression made me bust out laughing.

"Yes, Yes I was in the wrong," Wakasa admitted shocking us both, my initial shock came from the fact that previously it never looked like he would change his mind on that stance, that I would be useless in fights no matter how much time passed by.

"Michi! The focus we are not done yet!" I heard Benkei who kept on overseeing my today's session for today.

"Sorry, that was perplexing to hear," I admitted. As soon as the sessions ended I got a mission.

'Would you rather compliment Wakasa or say words of thanks to people here?" Wow, where did that come from? I soon cleared my throat and said.

"Thanks for everything." And then I put them all into a hug.

"What's the occasion?" Wakasa asked confused?

"Don't mind it," I said and left them all baffled, it was time to go home since Chifuyu decided he wanted to hang just with me, probably because we shared the same interest in romance manga and he wanted to read it together.

When I came back home he was already there, showing off his bag filled to the brim with Shoujo manga.

Once some time went by as I was reading the second series, I realized a peculiar pattern, each volume he had had some kind of confession scene going on, which made me wonder, so I asked.

"So Chifuyu-chan~ It's there something going on between you and Senju?~" His flustered reaction gave away his feelings, I could tell something was going on in the background, but this couldn't be taken as an indication that they were already dating. So did my involvement create this unusual pairing? Was it because they met 3 years before Senju got to know Takemichi? Well of course I didn't mind they were both sweethearts.

Yet Chifuyu didn't enunciate anything on this matter, which caused me to smile mischievously while stating.

"Never mind you don't need to tell me anything." But my following words flustered the boy even further.

"But I totally support this." I gave him a thumb up. That's when a mission decided to pop up.

'Would you rather ask Chifuyu when's the wedding or tell him that you two should go on a double date with Keisuke Baji?" I clicked my tongue on the second option, confusing the sweet bean that was sitting in front of me.

Clicking on the first choice I suddenly spoke.

"So Chifuyu, when's the wedding?" He couldn't believe his ears.

"Michi! We're middle schoolers!" I got yelled at but shrugged my shoulders. Since I already lived as an adult, the matter of marriage didn't seem like such a faraway dream.

"What are you planning to date Baji-san till marriage?" I instinctively nodded my head, but before I voiced an agreement I stopped myself and blinked at Chifuyu that was sitting there smiling at me mischievously.

"Stop projecting your own crush onto me Chifuyu! Also, don't cheat on either Keisuke or Senju or I will personally kick your ass!" This somehow escalated into a pillow fight, where Chifuyu kept yelling about how I should just give Keisuke a chance to me telling him how he was like Kazutora in this aspect. Once I got tired we just laughed at our silliness and returned to the previous activity. Only for Chifuyu to ask much later.

"So what way do you think it's best to confess to someone?" Was he trying to find the best spot to confess his feelings for Senju thru friend suggestions?

"All I can tell you is my personal opinion, but it feels like face-to-face confession for someone would be the most flattering and heartwarming." I nodded my head when I saw Chifuyu note this down? What was that for?

"I'm a genius." he suddenly muttered to himself, was he gathering intel?

"Why?" he soon asked as I gave it some proper thought.

"Texting isn't it... letters could be nice, but don't usually people do it to not be found out? So wouldn't it be nice to be confessed under the starry night sky or when the fireworks are going off?" But his next questions threw me off a little.

"So you didn't mean school rooftops kinda deal?" I shook my head while admitting.

"Too mainstream." Mainstream in terms of what usually took place in Shoujo mangas and I already went thru my share of confessions at that specific place, because of Kisaki. Chifuyu kept on asking questions similar to this one, making me wonder if he truly was asking those questions for himself. But gotta help a buddy in the love department, since I wasn't sure whether either Keisuke or Kazutora would be of any help at all.

Although that's when a bizarre mission appeared making me chase away Chifuyu from my house.

'Would you rather confess your love for Chifuyu Matsuno or kiss him?' What the hell were those choices? Specifically, when I got aware of the fact he had a freaking crush on Senju? Was this some kind of sick joke from the system, or it just wanted me to spin the punishment wheel out of boredom? Could a system even feel bored?

"I think it's time for you to go," I said standing up and handing him his manga back.

"Are you busy with something?" Chifuyu asked, making me feel bad about chasing him away since once again all I could see was a golden retriever staring at me with sad pupils.

"Yep, busy with needing a nap, I'm exhausted after my training." thankfully he was understanding of my reasons and left, while I popped up the punishment wheel. That's when I realized something I didn't catch before.

"Why is there death on the wheel?" I decided to see if I could click on it to get more information about what this indicated.

"Punishment: Death, lasts for 12 hours, until then the host can't move their body and will experience an out-of-body experience for the remaining time." Wait, what? Great now I needed to explain to mom how that was a thing.

"Mom!" I decided to inform her about it before spinning the wheel.

"What is it dear?" She asked looking away from her soap opera, as I plopped on the sofa beside her.

"One of the punishments is death." she dropped a cup of coffee she was sipping at shattering the cup into pieces.

"What?" she asked as I quickly shook my head feeling bad for giving her such a shock.

"I just read one of the punishments is my body being in a death state for 12 hours... I won't die literally but I guess my soul will leave the body for the time being...so like if I ever collapse from nowhere, then you know what happened." She was shocked to hear that was an option.

"Now, I'm not so sure accepting being punishment is such a good idea." She voiced her worry, causing me to look at her sheepishly.

"Well I'm about to do one right now." her eyes widened.

"Why? What were the choices?" After explaining to her what took place, she nodded her head realizing that maybe my course of action was for the best, we agreed that even kissing him or confessing my "feelings" as a joke would be seen as a stretch.

"Don't worry Michi, if it's something strange I will cover for you." Mom assured me as I did in fact spin the wheel and it ended up on something unanticipated.

"What did it land on?" Mom asked, I could still see the worry in her eyes.

"As of today, you have two cats," I said and clicked on the proceed button, and right before her eyes transformed into a cat. I was a fluff ball, now jumping onto mom's lap, feeling quite cozy, as my previous worn clothes were now lying in a pile on the couch.

"This is so bizarre... am I dreaming?" Mother asked as I shook my tiny cat head, but could only meow in response.

"To think my daughter would turn into a brown cat before my eyes." Then I heard some tumbling sounds coming from the direction of the stairs, Cupid came in sight, would he try to pick a fight with an unknown cat in his territory?

"Michi, Michi!" I could hear, but couldn't figure out who was speaking.

"Let's go to Keisuke's house!" Wait, was it Cupid that was speaking? And he could recognize me even? Mom just looked at the cat in wonder that jumped onto the couch and bounced around excitedly.

"Why would I?" Was my question, and how even. But then I noticed something I wasn't expecting my stats rose now when I was a cat, was it so I could move around more easily in this form?

"Come on!" Cupid insisted, didn't help that the system was helping his case.

'Would you rather go flirt with neighborhood cats or follow Cupid to Keisuke Baji's house?" Now, this stupid system wanted to pair me up with literal cats? I sighed in defeat and decided to follow this crazy cat that would stop at nothing to pair me up with Keisuke. I glanced at mom, but could tell she couldn't understand either of us. And since we two were communicating at a different frequency that apparently wasn't heard by human ears, I walked to the door and put my pawn on the door, indicating for her to let us out.

"I guess you will eat fish for dinner." That was all mother said before she opened the front door. I was shaken to find Cupid still knew his way around to Keisuke's domain, hence there was no need to use the GPS.

As we jumped up to the window I was surprised to find Chifuyu there, didn't he just recently leave my place? He went straight to Keisuke's house to complain about me kicking him out? But suddenly the mystery solved itself.

"So I asked Michi what kind of confession she would like, I wasn't expecting her to be such a romantic." He whipped out the notebook he was writing in before, question was did Keisuke send him, or did he do it on his own accord?

As I was contemplating about it, Cupid abruptly made our presence known, by jumping thru the window, I decided to follow him in, because of the task assigned by the system.

"Cupid? What are you doing here? Did you follow Chifuyu all the way here?" Keisuke asked as he picked him up but then he noticed my presence as well. He put Cupid down and picked me up instead.

"Oh... I think it's a female cat, is it your cat girlfriend?" Keisuke asked Cupid, but he just hissed at him while responding.

"You mean your girlfriend, not mine!" I hissed right back at him for spouting such cat nonsense.

"I get it... not your cat girlfriend." Keisuke voiced his mistake, but then whipped out a brush and started to take care of my fur, it felt nice but weird at the same time.

"Now you can understand why I like him so much?" I couldn't believe this mischievous cat.

When my spa treatment was finished Chifuyu picked me up instead while voicing.

"Doesn't this cat remind you of Michi?" Was it because I was a brown cat with golden orbs? Was that the only reason? Once Keisuke agreed he tried to kiss my nose, but I wouldn't have any of this. Yet a quest popped up unexpectedly.

'Would you rather let Keisuke Baji do as he pleases and lick his nose right after or bite his finger?" I chose violence!

However, I must have underestimated my cat strength since I bet his finger so much it started to bleed. I looked at the wound I caused in shock. Great now I was feeling bad. I realized licking it would be a bad idea, so I just brushed myself against his legs like cats usually did to voice my apology.

"Don't worry about it, it didn't hurt much," he assured me. I just meowed back at him, but I decided to leave after this fiasco. We two cats went back home, but I had to listen to another Keisuke simp on the way there, so maybe it was for the best that I wasn't aware of what this cat was thinking or saying at all times.