NekoMentals!

Chapter Twenty-Five

 None of them said a word. They all looked to one another, trying to figure out what the noise was. The crash came from the living room; thankfully no one was in it. Hisa ushered Mrs. Fujimoto out of the house quickly and quietly; they used the sliding door at the back of the house, so that the rest of them could transform and see what made the noise.

"Everyone, transform and follow me," Yurika whispered once Mrs. Fujimoto and Hisa were in the backyard. "We can't risk anything."

As soon as they were transformed, Yurika led the way and stopped in the doorway of the living room. There, she could see dust clouding the vicinity. In the midst of it all: a giant, purple monster, roaring and destroying everything within its reach.

Damion and Aito unsheathed their katanas and Kurogane readied his shadows. Just as they were about to step through the door, the monster spotted them, recognition in its eyes. It roared louder and charged forward.

Kurogane used his shadows as ropes, and tied up the monster. It fell to the ground, causing the floor to crack and dust to fly around again. He tried to drag the monster to the couch to hold it there, but it was too strong for him alone.

"If we all drag this thing to the leg of the couch, we can restrain it until we need to kill it," Kurogane told the others.

Everyone else agreed, and soon they had the purple monster tied to the leg of the couch. It struggled and attempted to break free of the ropes, but the shadows would not budge. Eventually, Damion knocked it out by slamming the end cap of the katana into its face.

Sachiko sighed. "What do we do now? It's not like we can just kill it without remorse, but it probably doesn't speak English, either."

No one had a solution or an answer. So, the monster remained unconscious and tied up; the five of them took turns watching it throughout the rest of the day. Hisa had taken Mrs. Fujimoto to a hotel that was nearby, but not too close to the house. If the monster woke up, one of them would knock it out again, to make sure that it wouldn't even think of escaping.

Yurika focused on fixing the house's structure that was destroyed; the floor was cracked, dirt was everywhere, the east wall was smashed from where it entered. She used her earth powers to place the dirt, and Damion used his water abilities to make a mud-like paste. Until they could actually fix the damage with wood and concrete, their makeshift cement would have to work.

In the morning, Kurogane watched the monster while the rest made breakfast and prepared to leave. Sachiko made scrambled eggs with bacon, and Yurika made the biscuits. Damion and Aito packed the sleeping bags, took some extra clothes and food for the road, and sharpened the katanas with the knife sharpener. The five of them wanted to leave as soon as possible; they had to deal with the monster first.

"Breakfast is ready," Sachiko called to Damion and Aito. "I'll go give this to Kurogane." She walked to the living room, a plate full of steaming eggs and meat in her left hand, a glass of water in her right.

"Thank you," Kurogane said to Sachiko when she handed him his breakfast. "Do you know when we're leaving?"

Sachiko shook her head. "Sometime after Hisa gets back, I assume. My mom's probably at work already, so I'll just leave her a note for when she comes home."

After all five of them ate their breakfasts, and they were completely packed, they all regrouped in the living room to finally decide what to do with the monster. They couldn't leave it there, and they also couldn't let it go, to destroy everything else in the city.

"We should just kill it. It's not like anyone will miss it," Kurogane suggested. "I can do it if no one else wants to."

Yurika shook her head. "We need to ask why it's doing these things before we do anything else."