I Can't Deal With These Girls! [HoloID]

Chapter 3: Squirrel? Cat?

I could feel my mind blanking out from this unreasonable situation. Somehow, a girl with squirrel features was standing right next to me. Not only that, she was also busy munching on the fish scraps that I was still holding. Even stranger was the fact that Kaela appeared undisturbed by this sight.

There were so many strange things going on that I couldn't focus on one of them. Wishing for any kind of explanation, I ended up asking Kaela, "Kaela? Do you know this girl?"

"Yeah," she answered without offering any explanation.

'That doesn't answer anything!! Why is she talking about this squirrel girl like it's normal?! People don't usually grow animal features out of their bodies!' I couldn't help but feel like I'm going crazy from how nonchalantly everyone was acting. Could this kind of thing actually be considered normal around here?

Left without any other ideas, I finally asked the mysterious girl, "Excuse me, but what are you doing right now?"

"Eating?" The girl answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, no shit! I'm asking you why you're eating my food!" I ended up flipping out at her.

"Hm? I just heard that you weren't going to use this food, so I just decided to help out with your problem," she answered nonchalantly. "I felt the calling to not let any food go to waste. A food's job is to be eaten, and it's my job to make sure that its job is fulfilled!"

"Risu-senpai, there's some fish stuck to your lips." Kaela commented from the side.

"..."

Without sparing any moment, she immediately licked her lips and acted as if she didn't make a blunder after saying all that nonsense. Her confidence in saying those words without a hint of shame was worthy of applause, at the very least.

Finding myself defeated in a battle of nonsense, I finally decided to give up on pursuing the matter any further. "Right, whatever you say. Do you mind introducing her to me, Kaela?"

Kaela's eyes slightly lit up, realizing that she was supposed to do that. "Ah, right. Detective, this is my senpai from my other workplace, Risu. Risu-senpai, this is the detective that I hired to look for my cat."

'Is she her co-worker? What kind of place would hire this girl, a comedian agency?' For some reason, it felt like it would be better for my sanity if I didn't find out what kind of place they worked at.

Risu asked Kaela after her introduction, "Your cat? ...Oh, I see. Did you have a fight with her or something?"

"Yeah, something like that," Kaela answered simply.

"Hope you guys can find her soon. I'm a bit worried about leaving her alone since she can be a bit airheaded sometimes," Risu commented. The way they talked about the cat felt a bit odd to me, but I guess they just cared a lot about the cat. However, there was something that I needed to know more about the cat at this point in time.

"Um, sorry if this is offensive or something, but is that a squirrel's tail on you?" I finally asked the stupid question that had been bothering me.

"Of course it is, duh," she answered as if I was the weird one for asking that kind of question in the first place.

"...Is that normal?" I ended up asking an even stupider question in response.

Risu raised an eyebrow at my question, "Isn't it normal for a squirrel girl to have a squirrel tail? If I don't have one, would I even be a squirrel girl?"

'...Am I the stupid one? Why do I feel like a weirdo for asking these perfectly normal questions?'

With every single answer, my understanding of the world that I've held for thirty-five years of my life began to crumble. As a detective, I need to keep a flexible mindset in order to comprehend anything that I face in the field. With this ridiculous situation in front of me, a certain quote popped into my mind.